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| Tertullian: On Repentance |
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Posted by: Stone - 02-23-2022, 08:26 AM - Forum: Articles by Catholic authors
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Chapter 1. Of Heathen Repentance
Repentance, men understand, so far as nature is able, to be an emotion of the mind arising from disgust at some previously cherished worse sentiment: that kind of men I mean which even we ourselves were in days gone by — blind, without the Lord's light. From the reason of repentance, however, they are just as far as they are from the Author of reason Himself. Reason, in fact, is a thing of God, inasmuch as there is nothing which God the Maker of all has not provided, disposed, ordained by reason— nothing which He has not willed should be handled and understood by reason. All, therefore, who are ignorant of God, must necessarily be ignorant also of a thing which is His, because no treasure-house at all is accessible to strangers. And thus, voyaging all the universal course of life without the rudder of reason, they know not how to shun the hurricane which is impending over the world. Moreover, how irrationally they behave in the practice of repentance, it will be enough briefly to show just by this one fact, that they exercise it even in the case of their good deeds. They repent of good faith, of love, of simple-heartedness, of patience, of mercy, just in proportion as any deed prompted by these feelings has fallen on thankless soil. They execrate their own selves for having done good; and that species chiefly of repentance which is applied to the best works they fix in their heart, making it their care to remember never again to do a good turn. On repentance for evil deeds, on the contrary, they lay lighter stress. In short, they make this same (virtue) a means of sinning more readily than a means of right-doing.
Chapter 2. True Repentance a Thing Divine, Originated by God, and Subject to His Laws
But if they acted as men who had any part in God, and thereby in reason also, they would first weigh well the importance of repentance, and would never apply it in such a way as to make it a ground for convicting themselves of perverse self-amendment. In short, they would regulate the limit of their repentance, because they would reach (a limit) in sinning too — by fearing God, I mean. But where there is no fear, in like manner there is no amendment; where there is no amendment, repentance is of necessity vain, for it lacks the fruit for which God sowed it; that is, man's salvation. For God — after so many and so great sins of human temerity, begun by the first of the race, Adam, after the condemnation of man, together with the dowry of the world after his ejection from paradise and subjection to death — when He had hasted back to His own mercy, did from that time onward inaugurate repentance in His own self, by rescinding the sentence of His first wrath, engaging to grant pardon to His own work and image. And so He gathered together a people for Himself, and fostered them with many liberal distributions of His bounty, and, after so often finding them most ungrateful, ever exhorted them to repentance and sent out the voices of the universal company of the prophets to prophesy. By and by, promising freely the grace which in the last times He was intending to pour as a flood of light on the universal world through His Spirit, He bade the baptism of repentance lead the way, with the view of first preparing, by means of the sign and seal of repentance, them whom He was calling, through grace, to (inherit) the promise surely made to Abraham. John holds not his peace, saying, Enter upon repentance, for now shall salvation approach the nations — the Lord, that is, bringing salvation according to God's promise. To Him John, as His harbinger, directed the repentance (which he preached), whose province was the purging of men's minds, that whatever defilement inveterate error had imparted, whatever contamination in the heart of man ignorance had engendered, that repentance should sweep and scrape away, and cast out of doors, and thus prepare the home of the heart, by making it clean, for the Holy Spirit, who was about to supervene, that He might with pleasure introduce Himself there-into, together with His celestial blessings. Of these blessings the title is briefly one — the salvation of man — the abolition of former sins being the preliminary step. This is the (final) cause of repentance, this her work, in taking in hand the business of divine mercy. What is profitable to man does service to God. The rule of repentance, however, which we learn when we know the Lord, retains a definite form, — viz., that no violent hands so to speak, be ever laid on good deeds or thoughts. For God, never giving His sanction to the reprobation of good deeds, inasmuch as they are His own (of which, being the author, He must necessarily be the defender too), is in like manner the acceptor of them, and if the acceptor, likewise the rewarder. Let, then, the ingratitude of men see to it, if it attaches repentance even to good works; let their gratitude see to it too, if the desire of earning it be the incentive to well-doing: earthly and mortal are they each. For how small is your gain if you do good to a grateful man! Or your loss if to an ungrateful! A good deed has God as its debtor, just as an evil has too; for a judge is rewarder of every cause. Well, since, God as Judge presides over the exacting and maintaining of justice, which to Him is most dear; and since it is with an eye to justice that He appoints all the sum of His discipline, is there room for doubting that, just as in all our acts universally, so also in the case of repentance, justice must be rendered to God? — which duty can indeed only be fulfilled on the condition that repentance be brought to bear only on sins. Further, no deed but an evil one deserves to be called sin, nor does any one err by well-doing. But if he does not err, why does he invade (the province of) repentance, the private ground of such as do err? Why does he impose on his goodness a duty proper to wickedness? Thus it comes to pass that, when a thing is called into play where it ought not, there, where it ought, it is neglected.
Chapter 3. Sins May Be Divided into Corporeal and Spiritual. Both Equally Subject, If Not to Human, Yet to Divine Investigation and Punishment.
What things, then, they be for which repentance seems just and due — that is, what things are to be set down under the head of sin— the occasion indeed demands that I should note down; but (to do so) may seem to be unnecessary. For when the Lord is known, our spirit, having been looked back upon Luke 22:61 by its own Author, emerges unbidden into the knowledge of the truth; and being admitted to (an acquaintance with) the divine precepts, is by them immediately instructed that that from which God bids us abstain is to be accounted sin: inasmuch as, since it is generally agreed that God is some great essence of good, of course nothing but evil would be displeasing to good; in that, between things mutually contrary, friendship there is none. Still it will not be irksome briefly to touch upon the fact that, of sins, some are carnal, that is, corporeal; some spiritual. For since man is composed of this combination of a two-fold substance, the sources of his sins are no other than the sources of his composition. But it is not the fact that body and spirit are two things that constitute the sins mutually different — otherwise they are on this account rather equal, because the two make up one— lest any make the distinction between their sins proportionate to the difference between their substances, so as to esteem the one lighter, or else heavier, than the other: if it be true, (as it is,) that both flesh and spirit are creatures of God; one wrought by His hand, one consummated by His afflatus. Since, then, they equally pertain to the Lord, whichever of them sins equally offends the Lord. Is it for you to distinguish the acts of the flesh and the spirit, whose communion and conjunction in life, in death, and in resurrection, are so intimate, that at that time they are equally raised up either for life or else for judgment; because, to wit, they have equally either sinned or lived innocently? This we would (once for all) premise, in order that we may understand that no less necessity for repentance is incumbent on either part of man, if in anything it have sinned, than on both. The guilt of both is common; common, too, is the Judge— God to wit; common, therefore, is withal the healing medicine of repentance. The source whence sins are named spiritual and corporeal is the fact that every sin is matter either of act or else of thought: so that what is in deed is corporeal, because a deed, like a body, is capable of being seen and touched; what is in the mind is spiritual, because spirit is neither seen nor handled: by which consideration is shown that sins not of deed only, but of will too, are to be shunned, and by repentance purged. For if human finitude judges only sins of deed, because it is not equal to (piercing) the lurking-places of the will, let us not on that account make light of crimes of the will in God's sight. God is all-sufficient. Nothing from whence any sin whatsoever proceeds is remote from His sight; because He is neither ignorant, nor does He omit to decree it to judgment. He is no dissembler of, nor double-dealer with, His own clear-sightedness. What (shall we say of the fact) that will is the origin of deed? For if any sins are imputed to chance, or to necessity, or to ignorance, let them see to themselves: if these be excepted, there is no sinning save by will. Since, then, will is the origin of deed, is it not so much the rather amenable to penalty as it is first in guilt? Nor, if some difficulty interferes with its full accomplishment, is it even in that case exonerated; for it is itself imputed to itself: nor; having done the work which lay in its own power, will it be excusable by reason of that miscarriage of its accomplishment. In fact, how does the Lord demonstrate Himself as adding a superstructure to the Law, except by interdicting sins of the will as well (as other sins); while He defines not only the man who had actually invaded another's wedlock to be an adulterer, but likewise him who had contaminated (a woman) by the concupiscence of his gaze? Accordingly it is dangerous enough for the mind to set before itself what it is forbidden to perform, and rashly through the will to perfect its execution. And since the power of this will is such that, even without fully sating its self-gratification, it stands for a deed; as a deed, therefore, it shall be punished. It is utterly vain to say, I willed, but yet I did not. Rather you ought to carry the thing through, because you will; or else not to will, because you do not carry it through. But, by the confession of your consciousness, you pronounce your own condemnation. For if you eagerly desired a good thing, you would have been anxious to carry it through; in like manner, as you do not carry an evil thing through, you ought not to have eagerly desired it. Wherever you take your stand, you are fast bound by guilt; because you have either willed evil, or else have not fulfilled good.
Chapter 4. Repentance Applicable to All the Kinds of Sin. To Be Practised Not Only, Nor Chiefly, for the Good It Brings, But Because God Commands
It.
To all sins, then, committed whether by flesh or spirit, whether by deed or will, the same God who has destined penalty by means of judgment, has withal engaged to grant pardon by means of repentance, saying to the people, Repent you, and I will save you; and again, I live, says the Lord, and I will (have) repentance rather than death. Repentance, then, is life, since it is preferred to death. That repentance, O sinner, like myself (nay, rather, less than myself, for pre-eminence in sins I acknowledge to be mine ), do you so hasten to, so embrace, as a shipwrecked man the protection of some plank. This will draw you forth when sunk in the waves of sins, and will bear you forward into the port of the divine clemency. Seize the opportunity of unexpected felicity: that you, who sometime were in God's sight nothing but a drop of a bucket, Isaiah 40:15 and dust of the threshing-floor, and a potter's vessel, may thenceforward become that tree which is sown beside the waters, is perennial in leaves, bears fruit at its own time, and shall not see fire, nor axe. Matthew 3:10 Having found the truth, John 14:6 repent of errors; repent of having loved what God loves not: even we ourselves do not permit our slave-lads not to hate the things which are offensive to us; for the principle of voluntary obedience consists in similarity of minds.
To reckon up the good, of repentance, the subject-matter is copious, and therefore should be committed to great eloquence. Let us, however, in proportion to our narrow abilities, inculcate one point — that what God enjoins is good and best. I hold it audacity to dispute about the good of a divine precept; for, indeed, it is not the fact that it is good which binds us to obey, but the fact that God has enjoined it. To exact the rendering of obedience the majesty of divine power has the prior right; the authority of Him who commands is prior to the utility of him who serves. Is it good to repent, or no? Why do you ponder? God enjoins; nay, He not merely enjoins, but likewise exhorts. He invites by (offering) reward — salvation, to wit; even by an oath, saying I live, He desires that credence may be given Him. Oh blessed we, for whose sake God swears! Oh most miserable, if we believe not the Lord even when He swears! What, therefore, God so highly commends, what He even (after human fashion) attests on oath, we are bound of course to approach, and to guard with the utmost seriousness; that, abiding permanently in (the faith of) the solemn pledge of divine grace, we may be able also to persevere in like manner in its fruit and its benefit.
Chapter 5. Sin Never to Be Returned to After Repentance.
For what I say is this, that the repentance which, being shown us and commanded us through God's grace, recalls us to grace with the Lord, when once learned and undertaken by us ought never afterward to be cancelled by repetition of sin. No pretext of ignorance now remains to plead on your behalf; in that, after acknowledging the Lord, and accepting His precepts — in short, after engaging in repentance of (past) sins— you again betake yourself to sins. Thus, in as far as you are removed from ignorance, in so far are you cemented to contumacy. For if the ground on which you had repented of having sinned was that you had begun to fear the Lord, why have you preferred to rescind what you did for fear's sake, except because you have ceased to fear? For there is no other thing but contumacy which subverts fear. Since there is no exception which defends from liability to penalty even such as are ignorant of the Lord — because ignorance of God, openly as He is set before men, and comprehensible as He is even on the score of His heavenly benefits, is not possible — how perilous is it for Him to be despised when known? Now, that man does despise Him, who, after attaining by His help to an understanding of things good and evil, often an affront to his own understanding — that is, to God's gift — by resuming what he understands ought to be shunned, and what he has already shunned: he rejects the Giver in abandoning the gift; he denies the Benefactor in not honouring the benefit. How can he be pleasing to Him, whose gift is displeasing to himself? Thus he is shown to be not only contumacious toward the Lord, but likewise ungrateful. Besides, that man commits no light sin against the Lord, who, after he had by repentance renounced His rival the devil, and had under this appellation subjected him to the Lord, again upraises him by his own return (to the enemy), and makes himself a ground of exultation to him; so that the Evil One, with his prey recovered, rejoices anew against the Lord. Does he not — what is perilous even to say, but must be put forward with a view to edification — place the devil before the Lord? For he seems to have made the comparison who has known each; and to have judicially pronounced him to be the better whose (servant) he has preferred again to be. Thus he who, through repentance for sins, had begun to make satisfaction to the Lord, will, through another repentance of his repentance, make satisfaction to the devil, and will be the more hateful to God in proportion as he will be the more acceptable to His rival. But some say that God is satisfied if He be looked up to with the heart and the mind, even if this be not done in outward act, and that thus they sin without damage to their fear and their faith: that is, that they violate wedlock without damage to their chastity; they mingle poison for their parent without damage to their filial duty! Thus, then, they will themselves withal be thrust down into hell without damage to their pardon, while they sin without damage to their fear! Here is a primary example of perversity: they sin, because they fear! I suppose, if they feared not, they would not sin! Let him, therefore, who would not have God offended not revere Him at all, if fear is the plea for offending. But these dispositions have been wont to sprout from the seed of hypocrites, whose friendship with the devil is indivisible, whose repentance never faithful.
Chapter 6. Baptism Not to Be Presumptously Received. It Requires Preceding Repentance, Manifested by Amendment of Life
Whatever, then, our poor ability has attempted to suggest with reference to laying hold of repentance once for all, and perpetually retaining it, does indeed bear upon all who are given up to the Lord, as being all competitors for salvation in earning the favour of God; but is chiefly urgent in the case of those young novices who are only just beginning to bedew Deuteronomy 32:2 their ears with divine discourses, and who, as whelps in yet early infancy, and with eyes not yet perfect, creep about uncertainly, and say indeed that they renounce their former deed, and assume (the profession of) repentance, but neglect to complete it. For the very end of desiring importunes them to desire somewhat of their former deeds; just as fruits, when they are already beginning to turn into the sourness or bitterness of age, do yet still in some part flatter their own loveliness. Moreover, a presumptuous confidence in baptism introduces all kind of vicious delay and tergiversation with regard to repentance; for, feeling sure of undoubted pardon of their sins, men meanwhile steal the intervening time, and make it for themselves into a holiday-time for sinning, rather than a time for learning not to sin. Further, how inconsistent is it to expect pardon of sins (to be granted) to a repentance which they have not fulfilled! This is to hold out your hand for merchandise, but not produce the price. For repentance is the price at which the Lord has determined to award pardon: He proposes the redemption of release from penalty at this compensating exchange of repentance. If, then, sellers first examine the coin with which they make their bargains, to see whether it be cut, or scraped, or adulterated, we believe likewise that the Lord, when about to make us the grant of so costly merchandise, even of eternal life, first institutes a probation of our repentance. But meanwhile let us defer the reality of our repentance: it will then, I suppose, be clear that we are amended when we are absolved. By no means; (but our amendment should be manifested) while, pardon being in abeyance, there is still a prospect of penalty; while the penitent does not yet merit — so far as merit we can — his liberation; while God is threatening, not while He is forgiving. For what slave, after his position has been changed by reception of freedom, charges himself with his (past) thefts and desertions? What soldier, after his discharge, makes satisfaction for his (former) brands? A sinner is bound to bemoan himself before receiving pardon, because the time of repentance is coincident with that of peril and of fear. Not that I deny that the divine benefit — the putting away of sins, I mean — is in every way sure to such as are on the point of entering the (baptismal) water; but what we have to labour for is, that it may be granted us to attain that blessing. For who will grant to you, a man of so faithless repentance, one single sprinkling of any water whatever? To approach it by stealth, indeed, and to get the minister appointed over this business misled by your asseverations, is easy; but God takes foresight for His own treasure, and suffers not the unworthy to steal a march upon it. What, in fact, does He say? Nothing hid which shall not be revealed. Luke 8:17 Draw whatever (veil of) darkness you please over your deeds, God is light. 1 John 1:5 But some think as if God were under a necessity of bestowing even on the unworthy, what He has engaged (to give); and they turn His liberality into slavery. But if it is of necessity that God grants us the symbol of death, then He does so unwillingly. But who permits a gift to be permanently retained which he has granted unwillingly? For do not many afterward fall out of (grace)? Is not this gift taken away from many? These, no doubt, are they who do steal a march upon (the treasure), who, after approaching to the faith of repentance, set up on the sands a house doomed to ruin. Let no one, then, flatter himself on the ground of being assigned to the recruit-classes of learners, as if on that account he have a licence even now to sin. As soon as you know the Lord, you should fear Him; as soon as you have gazed on Him, you should reverence Him. But what difference does your knowing Him make, while you rest in the same practises as in days bygone, when you knew Him not? What, moreover, is it which distinguishes you from a perfected servant of God? Is there one Christ for the baptized, another for the learners? Have they some different hope or reward? Some different dread of judgment? Some different necessity for repentance? That baptismal washing is a sealing of faith, which faith is begun and is commended by the faith of repentance. We are not washed in order that we may cease sinning, but because we have ceased, since in heart we have been bathed already. For the first baptism of a learner is this, a perfect fear; thenceforward, in so far as you have understanding of the Lord faith is sound, the conscience having once for all embraced repentance. Otherwise, if it is (only) after the baptismal waters that we cease sinning, it is of necessity, not of free-will, that we put on innocence. Who, then, is pre-eminent in goodness? He who is not allowed, or he whom it displeases, to be evil? He who is bidden, or he whose pleasure it is, to be free from crime? Let us, then, neither keep our hands from theft unless the hardness of bars withstand us, nor refrain our eyes from the concupiscence of fornication unless we be withdrawn by guardians of our persons, if no one who has surrendered himself to the Lord is to cease sinning unless he be bound thereto by baptism. But if any entertain this sentiment, I know not whether he, after baptism, do not feel more sadness to think that he has ceased from sinning, than gladness that he has escaped from it. And so it is becoming that learners desire baptism, but do not hastily receive it: for he who desires it, honours it; he who hastily receives it, disdains it: in the one appears modesty, in the other arrogance; the former satisfies, the latter neglects it; the former covets to merit it, but the latter promises it to himself as a due return; the former takes, the latter usurps it. Whom would you judge worthier, except one who is more amended? Whom more amended, except one who is more timid, and on that account has fulfilled the duty of true repentance? For he has feared to continue still in sin, lest he should not merit the reception of baptism. But the hasty receiver, inasmuch as he promised it himself (as his due), being forsooth secure (of obtaining it), could not fear: thus he fulfilled not repentance either, because he lacked the instrumental agent of repentance, that is, fear. Hasty reception is the portion of irreverence; it inflates the seeker, it despises the Giver. And thus it sometimes deceives, for it promises to itself the gift before it be due; whereby He who is to furnish the gift is ever offended.
Chapter 7. Of Repentance, in the Case of Such as Have Lapsed After Baptism
So long, Lord Christ, may the blessing of learning or hearing concerning the discipline of repentance be granted to Your servants, as is likewise behooves them, while learners, not to sin; in other words, may they thereafter know nothing of repentance, and require nothing of it. It is irksome to append mention of a second— nay, in that case, the last— hope; lest, by treating of a remedial repenting yet in reserve, we seem to be pointing to a yet further space for sinning. Far be it that any one so interpret our meaning, as if, because there is an opening for repenting, there were even now, on that account, an opening for sinning; and as if the redundance of celestial clemency constituted a licence for human temerity. Let no one be less good because God is more so, by repeating his sin as often as he is forgiven. Otherwise be sure he will find an end of escaping, when he shall not find one of sinning. We have escaped once: thus far and no farther let us commit ourselves to perils, even if we seem likely to escape a second time. Men in general, after escaping shipwreck, thenceforward declare divorce with ship and sea; and by cherishing the memory of the danger, honour the benefit conferred by God — their deliverance, namely. I praise their fear, I love their reverence; they are unwilling a second time to be a burden to the divine mercy; they fear to seem to trample on the benefit which they have attained; they shun, with a solicitude which at all events is good, to make trial a second time of that which they have once learned to fear. Thus the limit of their temerity is the evidence of their fear.
Moreover, man's fear is an honour to God. But however, that most stubborn foe (of ours) never gives his malice leisure; indeed, he is then most savage when he fully feels that a man is freed from his clutches; he then flames fiercest while he is fast becoming extinguished. Grieve and groan he must of necessity over the fact that, by the grant of pardon, so many works of death in man have been overthrown, so many marks of the condemnation which formerly was his own erased. He grieves that that sinner, (now) Christ's servant, is destined to judge him and his angels. 1 Corinthians 6:3 And so he observes, assaults, besieges him, in the hope that he may be able in some way either to strike his eyes with carnal concupiscence, or else to entangle his mind with worldly enticements, or else to subvert his faith by fear of earthly power, or else to wrest him from the sure way by perverse traditions: he is never deficient in stumbling-blocks nor in temptations. These poisons of his, therefore, God foreseeing, although the gate of forgiveness has been shut and fastened up with the bar of baptism, has permitted it still to stand somewhat open. In the vestibule He has stationed the second repentance for opening to such as knock: but now once for all, because now for the second time; but never more because the last time it had been in vain. For is not even this once enough? You have what you now deserved not, for you had lost what you had received. If the Lord's indulgence grants you the means of restoring what you had lost, be thankful for the benefit renewed, not to say amplified; for restoring is a greater thing than giving, inasmuch as having lost is more miserable than never having received at all. However, if any do incur the debt of a second repentance, his spirit is not to be immediately cut down and undermined by despair. Let it by all means be irksome to sin again, but let not to repent again be irksome: irksome to imperil one's self again, but not to be again set free. Let none be ashamed. Repeated sickness must have repeated medicine. You will show your gratitude to the Lord by not refusing what the Lord offers you. You have offended, but can still be reconciled. You have One whom you may satisfy, and Him willing.
Chapter 8. Examples from Scripture to Prove the Lord's Willingness to Pardon
This if you doubt, unravel the meaning of what the Spirit says to the churches. He imputes to the Ephesians forsaken love; Revelation 2:4 reproaches the Thyatirenes with fornication, and eating of things sacrificed to idols; Revelation 2:20 accuses the Sardians of works not full; Revelation 3:2 censures the Pergamenes for teaching perverse things; Revelation 2:14-15 upbraids the Laodiceans for trusting to their riches; Revelation 3:17 and yet gives them all general monitions to repentance — under comminations, it is true; but He would not utter comminations to one unrepentant if He did not forgive the repentant. The matter were doubtful if He had not withal elsewhere demonstrated this profusion of His clemency. Says He not, He who has fallen shall rise again, and he who has been averted shall be converted? He it is, indeed, who would have mercy rather than sacrifices. The heavens, and the angels who are there, are glad at a man's repentance. Luke 15:7, 10 Ho! You sinner, be of good cheer! You see where it is that there is joy at your return. What meaning for us have those themes of the Lord's parables? Is not the fact that a woman has lost a drachma, and seeks it and finds it, and invites her female friends to share her joy, an example of a restored sinner? Luke 15:8-10 There strays, withal, one little ewe of the shepherd's; but the flock was not more dear than the one: that one is earnestly sought; the one is longed for instead of all; and at length she is found, and is borne back on the shoulders of the shepherd himself; for much had she toiled in straying. Luke 15:3-7 That most gentle father, likewise, I will not pass over in silence, who calls his prodigal son home, and willingly receives him repentant after his indigence, slays his best fatted calf, and graces his joy with a banquet. Luke 15:11-32 Why not? He had found the son whom he had lost; he had felt him to be all the dearer of whom he had made a gain. Who is that father to be understood by us to be? God, surely: no one is so truly a Father; no one so rich in paternal love. He, then, will receive you, His own son, back, even if you have squandered what you had received from Him, even if you return naked — just because you have returned; and will joy more over your return than over the sobriety of the other; but only if you heartily repent — if you compare your own hunger with the plenty of your Father's hired servants — if you leave behind you the swine, that unclean herd — if you again seek your Father, offended though He be, saying, I have sinned, nor am worthy any longer to be called Yours. Confession of sins lightens, as much as dissimulation aggravates them; for confession is counselled by (a desire to make) satisfaction, dissimulation by contumacy.
Chapter 9. Concerning the Outward Manifestations by Which This Second Repentance is to Be Accompanied
The narrower, then, the sphere of action of this second and only (remaining) repentance, the more laborious is its probation; in order that it may not be exhibited in the conscience alone, but may likewise be carried out in some (external) act. This act, which is more usually expressed and commonly spoken of under a Greek name, is ἐξομολόγησις, whereby we confess our sins to the Lord, not indeed as if He were ignorant of them, but inasmuch as by confession satisfaction is settled, of confession repentance is born; by repentance God is appeased. And thus exomologesis is a discipline for man's prostration and humiliation, enjoining a demeanor calculated to move mercy. With regard also to the very dress and food, it commands (the penitent) to lie in sackcloth and ashes, to cover his body in mourning, to lay his spirit low in sorrows, to exchange for severe treatment the sins which he has committed; moreover, to know no food and drink but such as is plain — not for the stomach's sake, to wit, but the soul's; for the most part, however, to feed prayers on fastings, to groan, to weep and make outcries unto the Lord your God; to bow before the feet of the presbyters, and kneel to God's dear ones; to enjoin on all the brethren to be ambassadors to bear his deprecatory supplication (before God). All this exomologesis (does), that it may enhance repentance; may honour God by its fear of the (incurred) danger; may, by itself pronouncing against the sinner, stand in the stead of God's indignation, and by temporal mortification (I will not say frustrate, but) expunge eternal punishments. Therefore, while it abases the man, it raises him; while it covers him with squalor, it renders him more clean; while it accuses, it excuses; while it condemns, it absolves. The less quarter you give yourself, the more (believe me) will God give you.
Chapter 10. Of Men's Shrinking from This Second Repentance and Exomologesis, and of the Unreasonableness of Such Shrinking
Yet most men either shun this work, as being a public exposure of themselves, or else defer it from day to day. I presume (as being) more mindful of modesty than of salvation; just like men who, having contracted some malady in the more private parts of the body, avoid the privity of physicians, and so perish with their own bashfulness. It is intolerable, forsooth, to modesty to make satisfaction to the offended Lord! To be restored to its forfeited salvation! Truly you are honourable in your modesty; bearing an open forehead for sinning, but an abashed one for deprecating! I give no place to bashfulness when I am a gainer by its loss; when itself in some son exhorts the man, saying, Respect not me; it is better that I perish through you, i.e. than you through me. At all events, the time when (if ever) its danger is serious, is when it is a butt for jeering speech in the presence of insulters, where one man raises himself on his neighbour's ruin, where there is upward clambering over the prostrate. But among brethren and fellow-servants, where there is common hope, fear, joy, grief, suffering, because there is a common Spirit from a common Lord and Father, why do you think these brothers to be anything other than yourself? Why flee from the partners of your own mischances, as from such as will derisively cheer them? The body cannot feel gladness at the trouble of any one member, 1 Corinthians 12:26 it must necessarily join with one consent in the grief, and in labouring for the remedy. In a company of two is the church; but the church is Christ. When, then, you cast yourself at the brethren's knees, you are handling Christ, you are entreating Christ. In like manner, when they shed tears over you, it is Christ who suffers, Christ who prays the Father for mercy. What a son asks is ever easily obtained. Grand indeed is the reward of modesty, which the concealment of our fault promises us! To wit, if we do hide somewhat from the knowledge of man, shall we equally conceal it from God? Are the judgment of men and the knowledge of God so put upon a par? Is it better to be damned in secret than absolved in public? But you say, It is a miserable thing thus to come to exomologesis: yes, for evil does bring to misery; but where repentance is to be made, the misery ceases, because it is turned into something salutary. Miserable it is to be cut, and cauterized, and racked with the pungency of some (medicinal) powder: still, the things which heal by unpleasant means do, by the benefit of the cure, excuse their own offensiveness, and make present injury bearable for the sake of the advantage to supervene.
Chapter 11. Further Strictures on the Same Subject
What if, besides the shame which they make the most account of, men dread likewise the bodily inconveniences; in that, unwashen, sordidly attired, estranged from gladness, they must spend their time in the roughness of sackcloth, and the horridness of ashes, and the sunkenness of face caused by fasting? Is it then becoming for us to supplicate for our sins in scarlet and purple? Hasten hither with the pin for panning the hair, and the powder for polishing the teeth, and some forked implement of steel or brass for cleaning the nails. Whatever of false brilliance, whatever of feigned redness, is to be had, let him diligently apply it to his lips or cheeks. Let him furthermore seek out baths of more genial temperature in some gardened or seaside retreat; let him enlarge his expenses; let him carefully seek the rarest delicacy of fatted fowls; let him refine his old wine: and when any shall ask him, On whom are you lavishing all this? let him say, I have sinned against God, and am in peril of eternally perishing: and so now I am drooping, and wasting and torturing myself, that I may reconcile God to myself, whom by sinning I have offended. Why, they who go about canvassing for the obtaining of civil office, feel it neither degrading nor irksome to struggle, in behalf of such their desires, with annoyances to soul and body; and not annoyances merely, but likewise contumelies of all kinds. What meannesses of dress do they not affect? What houses do they not beset with early and late visits?— bowing whenever they meet any high personage, frequenting no banquets, associating in no entertainments, but voluntarily exiled from the felicity of freedom and festivity: and all that for the sake of the fleeting joy of a single year! Do we hesitate, when eternity is at stake, to endure what the competitor for consulship or prætorship puts up with? and shall we be tardy in offering to the offended Lord a self-chastisement in food and raiment, which Gentiles lay upon themselves when they have offended no one at all? Such are they of whom Scripture makes mention: Woe to them who bind their own sins as it were with a long rope.
Chapter 12. Final Considerations to Induce to Exomologesis
If you shrink back from exomologesis, consider in your heart the hell, which exomologesis will extinguish for you; and imagine first the magnitude of the penalty, that you may not hesitate about the adoption of the remedy. What do we esteem that treasure-house of eternal fire to be, when small vent-holes of it rouse such blasts of flames that neighbouring cities either are already no more, or are in daily expectation of the same fate? The haughtiest mountains start asunder in the birth-throes of their inwardly-gendered fire; and — which proves to us the perpetuity of the judgment — though they start asunder, though they be devoured, yet come they never to an end. Who will not account these occasional punishments inflicted on the mountains as examples of the judgment which menaces the impenitent? Who will not agree that such sparks are but some few missiles and sportive darts of some inestimably vast centre of fire? Therefore, since you know that after the first bulwarks of the Lord's baptism there still remains for you, in exomologesis a second reserve of aid against hell, why do you desert your own salvation? Why are you tardy to approach what you know heals you? Even dumb irrational animals recognise in their time of need the medicines which have been divinely assigned them. The stag, transfixed by the arrow, knows that, to force out the steel, and its inextricable lingerings, he must heal himself with dittany. The swallow, if she blinds her young, knows how to give them eyes again by means of her own swallow-wort. Shall the sinner, knowing that exomologesis has been instituted by the Lord for his restoration, pass that by which restored the Babylonian king to his realms? Long time had he offered to the Lord his repentance, working out his exomologesis by a seven years' squalor, with his nails wildly growing after the eagle's fashion, and his unkempt hair wearing the shagginess of a lion. Hard handling! Him whom men were shuddering at, God was receiving back. But, on the other hand, the Egyptian emperor — who, after pursuing the once afflicted people of God, long denied to their Lord, rushed into the battle — did, after so many warning plagues, perish in the parted sea, (which was permitted to be passable to the People alone,) by the backward roll of the waves: Exodus 14:15-31 for repentance and her handmaid exomologesis he had cast away.
Why should I add more touching these two planks (as it were) of human salvation, caring more for the business of the pen than the duty of my conscience? For, sinner as I am of every dye, and born for nothing save repentance, I cannot easily be silent about that concerning which also the very head and fount of the human race, and of human offense, Adam, restored by exomologesis to his own paradise, is not silent.
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| Canada’s House of Commons votes in favor of Trudeau’s Emergencies Act |
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Posted by: Stone - 02-22-2022, 11:08 AM - Forum: Global News
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BREAKING: Canada’s House of Commons votes in favor of Trudeau’s Emergencies Act
The Prime Minister did not show up in person to vote for the act but voted remotely.
OTTAWA (LifeSiteNews) — Canada’s House of Commons has voted in favor of a motion to confirm and maintain the Emergencies Act invoked by Justin Trudeau last week.
Trudeau won the vote Monday night with a majority of 185 votes in favor of the Emergencies Act and 151 against.
The motion will be presented to the Senate chamber this afternoon, and the debates will take place from Tuesday to Thursday next week. The Senators will then vote.
As expected, the New Democrats bolstered the minority Liberal government by voting in favor of the Act, whereas the Conservatives and Bloc Quebecois opposed it.
According to a Tweet by Anthony Furey, a national columnist for Canada’s Sun newspapers, the Prime Minister himself did not show up in person for vote at the House of Commons but voted remotely.
“Trudeau didn’t even have the decency to show up in person to vote for it in the House of Commons himself,” tweeted Furey.
The vote occurred a week after the unprecedented and controversial invocation of Canada’s Emergencies Act by Trudeau, which gave the federal government enormous powers, including the ability to shut down crowdfunding and freeze the bank accounts of freedom convoy supporters without a court order.
Trudeau justified his decision by claiming that the peaceful freedom convoy protests that had taken place in Ottawa for weeks were “hurting Canadians” and “need to stop.”
Though the majority of the peaceful protesters gathered on Parliament Hill in Ottawa cleared the area after at least one elderly lady was violently trampled by police, Trudeau defended the prolongation of the Emergencies Act ahead of the vote, claiming that “there continues to be real concerns about the coming days.”
2022-02-22T00:00:00.000Z
“This state of Emergency is not over,” Trudeau told reporters on Monday morning. “But we will continue to evaluate every single day whether or not it is time, and we are able to lift this state of emergency.”
The endorsement of the Emergencies Act by the House can be viewed as a vote of confidence in Trudeau’s government. Had it failed to pass, it could have triggered a new federal election.
In reaction to the pressures on the Liberal MPs to vote for the motion, Abby Deshman of the Canadian Civil Liberties Association offered this statement:
Quote:We are deeply disappointed the government chose to make tonight’s vote a matter of confidence. This morning, we asked the government to hold revoke the emergency declaration and barring that, to at minimum commit to a free vote in Parliament.
Instead the government made it a confidence matter and we have seen numerous government MPs express both publicly and in confidence to us that they would vote against the emergency declaration if given a chance.
Let’s be clear: there is no legal justification for using the emergencies act. The broad powers the government has granted to police curtail Charter rights across the country. This risk of abuse is high. The emergency declaration should be immediately revoked.
The Freedom Convoy to Ottawa has sparked similar demonstrations by truckers and others opposed to COVID-19 vaccine mandates around the world.
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| St. Ephraim the Syrian: Homily on Admonition and Repentance |
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Posted by: Stone - 02-22-2022, 08:54 AM - Forum: Fathers of the Church
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1. Not of compulsion is the doctrine; of free-will is the word of life. Whoever is willing to hear the doctrine, let him cleanse the field of his will that the good seed fall not among the thorns of vain enquirings. If you would heed the word of life, cut yourself off from evil things; the hearing of the word profits nothing to the man that is busied with sins. If you will to be good, love not dissolute customs. First of all, trust in God, and then hearken to His law.
2. You can not hear His words, while you do not know yourself; and if you keep His judgments while your understanding is aloof from Him, who will give you your reward? Who will keep for you your recompense? You were Holy Spirit, three Names and Persons, these three shall be a wall to you, against divisions and wranglings. Doubt not of the truth, lest you perish through the truth. You were good and gracious.
3. If you are angry against your neighbour, you are angry against God; and if you bear anger in your heart, against your Lord is your boldness uplifted. If in envy you rebuke, wicked is all your reproof. But if charity dwell in you, you have on earth no enemy. And if you are a true son of peace, you will stir up wrath in no man. If you are just and upright, you will not do wrong to your fellow. And if you love to be angry, be angry with the wicked and it will become you; if to wage war you seek, lo! Satan is your adversary; if you desire to revile, against the demons display your curses. If you should insult the King's image, you shall pay the penalty of murder; and if you revile a man, you revile the image of God. Do honour to your neighbour, and lo! You have honoured God. But if you would dishonour Him, in wrath assail your neighbour!
4. This is the first Commandment — You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and your soul, and with your might according as you are able. The sign that you love God, is this, that you love your fellow; and if you hate your fellow, your hatred is towards God. For it is blasphemy if you pray before God while you are angry. For your heart also convicts you, that in vain you multiply words: your conscience rightly judges that in your prayers you profit nought. Christ as He hung on the height of the tree, interceded for His murderers; and you (who art) dust, son of the clay, rage fills you at its will. You keep anger against your brother; and do you yet dare to pray? Even he that stands on your side, though he be not neighbour to your sins, the taint of iniquity reaches unto him, and his petition is not heard. Leave off rage and then pray; and unless you would further provoke, restrain anger and so shall you supplicate. And if he (the other) is not to encounter you in fury, banish rage from that body, because it is holden with lusts.
5. You have a spiritual nature; the soul is the image of the Creator; honour the image of God, by being in agreement with all men. Remember death, and be not angry, that your peace be not of constraint. As long as your life remains to you, cleanse your soul from wrath; for if it should go to Sheol with you, your road will be straight to Gehenna. Keep not anger in your heart; hold not fury in your soul; you have not power over your soul, save to do that which is good. You are bought with the blood of God; you are redeemed by the passion of Christ; for your sake He suffered death, that you might die to your sins. His face endured spitting, that you might not shrink from scorn. Vinegar and gall did He drink, that you might be set apart from wrath. He received stripes on His body, that you might not fear suffering. If you are in truth His servant, fear your holy Lord; if you are His true disciple, walk in your Master's footsteps. Endure scorn from your brother, that you may be the companion of Christ. Display not anger against man, that you be not set apart from your Redeemer.
6. You are a man, the dust of the earth, clay, kinsman of the clod; you are the son of the race of beasts. If you know not your honour; separate your soul from animals, by works and not by words. If you love derision, you are altogether as Satan; and if you mock at your fellow, you are the mouth of the Devil; if against defects and flaws, in (injurious) names you delight, Satan is not in creation but his place you have seized by force. Get you far, O man, from this; for it is altogether hurtful; and if you desire to live well, sit not with the scorner, lest you become the partner of his sin and of his punishment. Hate mockery which is altogether (the cause of weeping), and mirth which is (the cause of) cleansing. And if you should hear a mocker by chance, when you are not desiring it, sign yourself with the cross of light, and hasten from thence like an antelope. Where Satan lodges, Christ will in nowise dwell; a spacious dwelling for Satan is the man that mocks at his neighbour; a palace of the Enemy is the heart of the mocker. Satan does not desire to add any other evil to it. Mockery is sufficient for him to supply the place of all. Neither his belly nor yet his purse can (the sinner) fill with that sin of his. By his laughter is the wretch despoiled, and he knows not nor does he perceive it. For his wound, there is no cure; for his sickness, there is no healing; his pain, admits no remedy; and his sore, endures no medicine. I desire not with such a one to put forth my tongue to reprove him: enough for him is his own shame; sufficient for him is his boldness. Blessed is he that has not heard him; and blessed is he that has not known him. Be it far from you, O Church, that he should enter you, that evil leaven of Satan!
7. Narrow is the way of life, and broad the way of torment; prayer is able to bring a man to the house of the kingdom. This is the perfect work; prayer that is pure from iniquity. The righteousness of man is as nothing accounted. The work of men, what is it? His labour is altogether vanity. Of You, O Lord, of Your grace it is that in our nature we should become good. Of You is righteousness, that we from men should become righteous. Of You is the mercy and favour, that we from the dust should become Your image. Give power to our will, that we be not sunk in sin! Pour into our heart memory, that at every hour we may know Your honour! Plant truth in our minds, that we perish not among doubts! Occupy our understanding with Your law, that it wander not in vain thoughts! Order the motions of our members, that they bring no hurt upon us! Draw near to God, that Satan may flee from you. Cast out passions from your heart, and lo! You have put to flight the enemy. Hate sins and wickedness, and Satan at once will have fled. Whatsoever sins you serve, you are worshipping secret idols. Whatsoever transgressions you love, you are serving demons in your soul. Whenever you strive with your brother, Satan abides in peace. Whenever you envy your fellow, you give rest to Devils. Whenever you tell the shortcoming of others who are not present, your tongue has made a harp for the music of the devil. Whenever hatred is in your soul, great is the peace of the Deceiver. Whenever you love incantations, your labour is altogether of the left hand. If you love unseemly discourse, you prepare a feast for demons. For this is the worship of idols, the working of the lusts (of the flesh).
8. If so be you give a gift in pride, this is not of God. If you are lifted up by reason of your knowledge, you have denied the grace of God. If you are poor and proud, lo! Your end is in your torment. If you are haughty and needy, lo! Your need is toward your destruction. If you are sick and cry out, lo! Your trouble is full of harm. If you are in need of food, yet your mind longs for riches; your distress is with the poor, but your torment with the rich. If you shall look unchastely, and shall desire your neighbour's wife, lo! Your portion shall be with the adulterers, and your hell with the fornicators. Let your own fountain be for yourself, and drink waters from your well. Let your fountains be for yourself alone, and let not another drink with you. Require purity of your body as you require of your yoke-fellow. You would not have her commit lewdness, the wife of your youth, with another man; commit not lewdness with another woman, the wife of a different husband. Let the defilement of her be hateful in your eyes; keep aloof from it altogether. Chastity beseems the wife; purity is as her adornment; law becomes the husband; justice is the crown for his head. Desire not the bed of your neighbour lest another desire your bed. Preserve purity in your marriage, that your marriage may be holy. His conscience reproves the man, who corrupts the wife of his neighbour. He fears, and deceives through terror, whoever has engaged in fornication. Darkness is dearer to him than light, whose manner of life is not pure. Every hour he stands in dread, who commits adultery secretly. The adulterer is also a thief who breaks into houses in darkness. The very place reproves him, where he does the evil and wickedness. He enters the chamber and sins; in the darkness he does his will. The time will come when it shall be disclosed, when his secret deeds shall be manifested. With what eyes do you look towards God in prayer? What hands do you raise when you ask pardon? Be ashamed and dismayed for yourself, that you are void of understanding. If when your neighbour see you, you are ashamed and dismayed, how much more should you be ashamed before God Who sees all? You are like the sow, your companion, that wallows altogether in mire. Even in seeing, you may sin, if your mind is not watchful; and in hearing you may transgress, if you do not guard your hearing. The fornicator's heart waxes wanton through speech that is full of uncleanness. The passion hidden in the mind, sight and hearing awaken it.
9. He puts on garments of shame who desires to commit fornication, that from the lust of raiment, lewdness may enter and dwell in his heart. Make not snares of your garments for that which is openly wanton. Speak not a word in craftiness, nor dig your neighbour's well. Look not after the harlot; be not snared by the beauty of her face. She is even as the dog that is mad, yea, much more bold than it. Modesty is removed from her face, she knows not what shame is. With spitting accept her person; with reviling meet herself; with a rod pursue her like a dog, for she is like one, and to be compared with such. Reject the sweetness of her words lest you fall into her net. She empties purses and wallets, and her gains are without number. Flee from her, for she is the daughter of vipers, that she tear not in pieces your whole body.
10. You shall not slander any man, lest they call you Satan. If you hate the name, go not near to the act; but if you love the act, be not angry at the name. Count yourself rebuked first of all by the beasts and birds, how that every kind cleaves to its kind; and so agree with your yokefellow. Rejoice not in men's dishonour, that you become not a Satan yourself. If evil should happen to him that hates you, see that you rejoice not, lest you sin. If your adversary should fall, be in pain and mourning. Keep your heart with all diligence, that it sin not in secret; for there is to be a laying bare of thoughts and of actions. Employ your hands in labour, and let your heart meditate in prayer. Love not vain discourse, for discourse that shall be profitable alike to the soul and the body lightens the burden of your labour.
11. Does the poor man cry at your door? Arise and open for him gladly: refresh him when he is wearied; sustain his heart, for it is sad. You know by experience the affliction of poverty: receive not others in your house, and drive not out the beggar. Have you also a law, a comely law for your household. Establish an order that is wise, that the abjects laugh not at you. Be careful in all your doings, that you be not a sport for fools; be upright and prudent, and both simple and wise. Let your body be quiet and cheerful, your greeting seemly and simple; your discourse without fault, your speech brief and savoury; your words few and sound, full of savour and understanding. Speak not overmuch, not even words that are wise; for all things that are over many, though they be wise are wearisome.— To them of your household be as a father. Amongst your brethren esteem yourself least, and inferior among your fellows, and of little account with all men. With your friend keep a secret; to those that love you be true. See that there be no wrangling; the secrets of your friends reveal not, lest all that hear you hate you and esteem you a mischiefmaker. With those that hate you wrangle not, neither face to face nor yet in your heart. No enemy shall you have but Satan his very self. Give counsel to the wife you have wedded; give heed to her doings; as stronger you are answerable that you should sustain her weakness. For weak is womankind, and very ready to fall. Be as a hawk, when kindled (to anger), but when wrath departs from you, be gladsome and also firm, in the blending of diverse qualities. Keep silence among the aged; to the elders give due honour. Honour the priests with diligence, as good stewards of the household. Give due honour to their degree, and search not out their doings. In his degree the priest is an angel, but in his doings a man. By mercy he is made a mediator, between God and mankind.
12. Search not out the faults of men; reveal not the sin of your fellow; the shortcomings of your neighbours, in speech of the mouth repeat not. You are not judge in creation, you have not dominion over the earth. If you love righteousness, reprove your soul and yourself. Be judge unto your own sins, and chastener of your own transgressions. Make not inquiry maliciously, into the misdeeds of men. For if you do this, injuries will not be lacking to you. Trust not the hearing of the ear, for many are the deceivers. Vain reports believe not, for false rumours are not few.
13. Regard not spells and divinations, for that is communion with Satan. Love not idle prating, not even in behalf of righteousness. Discourse concerning yourself begin not, even on behalf of what is becoming. Flee and hide yourself from wrangling, as from a violent robber. See that you be not a surety in a loan, lest you sin. According as you have, assist him, (even) the man that is poorer than you. Mock not the foolish man; pray that you be not even as he. Him that sins blame not, lest you also be put to confusion. To him that repents of his sins be a helper and counsellor, and encourage him that is able to rise. Let him hold fast hope in God, and his sin shall be burned as stubble. Visit the sick and be not wearied, that you may be beloved of men. Be familiar with the house of mourning, but a stranger to the house of feasting. Be not constant in drinking wine, lest your shortcomings multiply. Cast a wall round your lips, and set a guard upon your mouth; endure suffering with your neighbour and share also in his tribulation. A good friend in tribulation is made known to him that loves him. In charity follow the deceased, with sorrow and with offerings, and pray that he may have rest in the hidden place whither he is going.
14. When you stand in prayer, cry in your soul: Have mercy on me, I am a sinner and weak; be gracious, O God, to my weakness, and grant strength to me to pray a prayer that shall be pleasing to Your Will. Punish not mine enemies, take not vengeance on them that hate me; but grant them in Your grace that they may become doers of Your Will. At the time of prayer and petition, continue in contemplations such as these continue. Bow your head before the Mighty One.
15. Do not resist evil, for he is evil from the Evil One, whoever resists evil. Keep not back anything from any man, that if he perishes you may not be blamed. Change not your respect for a man's person, according to goods and possessions. Make all things as though they were not and God alone were in being. If you shall ask of your neighbour and he shall not give you according to your wish, see that you say not in anger a word that is full of bitterness. Oppose not [fit] seasons, for many are the changes. Put sorrow far from your flesh, and sadness from your thoughts; save only that for your sins you should be constant in sadness. Cease not from labour, not even though you be rich, for the slothful man gains manifold guilt by his idleness.
16. Be a lover of poverty, and be desirous of neediness. If you have them both for your portion, you are an inheritor on high. Despise not the voice of the poor and give him not cause to curse you. For if he curse whose palate is bitter, the Lord will hear his petition. If his garments are foul, wash them in water, which freely is bought. Has a poor man entered into your house? God has entered into your house; God dwells within your abode. He, whom you have refreshed from his troubles, from troubles will deliver you. Have you washed the feet of the stranger? You have washed away the filth of your sins. Have you prepared a table before him? Behold God eating [at it], and Christ likewise drinking [at it], and the Holy Spirit resting [on it]: Is the poor satisfied at your table and refreshed? You have satisfied Christ your Lord. He is ready to be your rewarder; in presence of angels and men He will confess you have fed His hunger; He will give thanks unto you that you gave Him drink, and quenched His thirst.
17. O how gracious is the Lord! O how measureless are His mercies! Happy the race of mortals when God confesses it! Woe to the soul which He denies! Fire is stored up for its punishment. Be of good cheer, my son, in hope; sow good [seed] and faint not. The husbandman sows in hope, and the merchant journeys in hope, you also love good [seed]; in the hope look for the reward. Do nothing at all without the beginning of prayer. With the sign of the living cross, seal all your doings, my son. Go not forth from the door of your house till you have signed the cross. Whether in eating or in drinking, whether in sleeping or in waking, whether in your house or on the road, or again in the season of leisure, neglect not this sign; for there is no guardian like it. It shall be unto you as a wall, in the forefront of all your doings. And teach this to your children, that heedfully they be conformed to it.
18. Yoke yourself under the law, that you may be a freeman in very truth. Work not the desire of your soul apart from the law of God. How many commandments must I write, and how many laws must I engrave; which, if you desire your freedom, you can learn all from yourself? And if you love purity, you will teach it to others also. Let nature be your book, and all creation your tables; and learn from them the laws, and meditate things unwritten. The sun in his course teaches you that you rest from labour. The night in her silence cries to you that a limit is set to your works. The earth and the fruit of the tree cry that there is a season for all things. The seed you sow in the winter, in the summer you gather its harvest. Thus in the world sow seeds of righteousness, and in the Resurrection gather them in. The bird in its daily gleaning reproves the covetous and his greed, and rebukes the extortion that grasps the store of others. Death, the limit of all things, is itself the reprover of all things.
19. Take refuge in God Who passes not away nor is changed. Restrain laughter by suffering, and mirthfulness by sorrow. Console suffering by hope, and sadness by expectation. Believe and trust, you that are wise, for God is He Who guides you; and if His care leaves you not, there is nothing that can harm you. If one man by another man, the lowly by the great, can be saved, how much more shall the refuge of God preserve the man that believes? Fear not because of adversaries who with violence come upon you. He will watchfully guard your soul, and hurtful things become profitable. No one shall lead you by compulsion, save only where there is freedom. No one falls into temptation, that passes the measure of his strength. There is no evil in chastisement, if so be that freedom is willing. The doings are not perverse of freedom, its will is perverted.
20. To men that are just and upright, temptations become helps. Job, a man of discernment, was victorious in temptations. Sickness came upon him, and he complained not; disease afflicted him and he murmured not; his body failed and his strength departed, but his will was not weakened. He proved perfect in all by sufferings, for as much as temptations crushed him not. Abraham was a stranger, from his place, his race [and his kindred]. But by this he was not harmed; nay rather he triumphed greatly. So Joseph from the house of bondage was made to rule as king of Egypt. They of the company of Ananias and Daniel delivered others from bondage. See then, O you that are wise, the power that freedom possesses; that nothing can injure it unless the will is weakened. Israel with sumptuous living waxed fat, and kicked, and forgot his covenant. He worshipped vain gods, and forgot the nature of his creation. The bondage that was in Egypt he forgat in the repose of the desert. As often as he was afflicted, he acknowledged the Lord alone; but when he was dwelling in repose, he forgot God his Redeemer. Seek not here repose, for this is a world of toil. And if you can wisely discern, change not time for time; that which abides for that which abides not; that which ceases not for that which ceases; nor truth for lying; nor body for shadow; nor watching for slumber; nor that which is in season for that which is out of season; nor the Time for the times. Collect your mind, let it not wander among varieties which profit not.
21. No one in creation is rich but he that fears God; no one is truly poor but he that lacks the truth. How needy is he, and not rich, whose need witnesses against him that even from the abject and the beggars he needs to receive a gift. He is truly a bondman, and many are his masters: he renders service to money, to riches, and possessions. His lords are void of mercy, for they grant him no repose. Flee, and live in poverty; (as) a mother she pities her beloved. Seek refuge in indigence, who nourishes her children with choice things; her yoke is light and pleasant, and sweet to the palate her memory. The sick in conscience alone abhors the draught of poverty; the fainthearted dreads the yoke of indigence that is honourable. Who has granted to You, Son of man, in the world to find repose? Who has granted to you, thing of dust, to be rich amidst poverty? Be not through desires needy and looking to others. Sufficient for you is your daily bread, that comes of the sweat of your face. Let this be (the measure of your need, that which the day gives you; and if you find for yourself a feast, take of it that which you need. You shall not take in a day (the provision) of days, for the belly keeps no treasure. Praise and give thanks when you are satisfied, that therein you provoke not the Giver to anger. In purity strengthen yourself, that you may gain from it profit. In everything give thanks and praise unto God as the Redeemer, that He may grant you by His grace, that we may hear and do His Will.
You to whom I have given the counsel of life, be not negligent in it. From that which is other men's (doctrine) have I written to you; see that you despise not their words. And if I depart before you, in your prayer make mention of me. In every season pray and beseech that our love may continue true. But as for us, on behalf of these things let us offer up praise and honour to Father, to Son, and to Holy Spirit, now and forever. Amen.
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| Report: CDC Has Withheld COVID Data From Americans To ‘Prevent Vaccine Hesitency’ |
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Posted by: Stone - 02-22-2022, 08:32 AM - Forum: Pandemic 2020 [Secular]
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Report: CDC Has Withheld COVID Data From Americans To ‘Prevent Vaccine Hesitency’
The data are “not yet ready for prime time.”
Summit News | 21 February, 2022
The New York Times reported this past weekend that the CDC has chosen not to publish huge amounts of COVID data, instead keeping it secret, because it fears that the information would cause ‘vaccine hesitancy’ among the American public.
The report notes that the withheld data includes information on boosters, hospitalizations, wastewater analyses, as well as critical information on COVID infections and deaths broken down by age, race, and vaccination status.
The justification for holding the information back? Fears that the data would be “misinterpreted” and lead to “vaccine hesitancy,” according to the report.
In other words, it didn’t fit into the narrative that everyone must get vaccinated and boosted no matter who they are and what their situation is.
The report notes:
Quote:“Kristen Nordlund, a spokeswoman for the C.D.C., said the agency has been slow to release the different streams of data “because basically, at the end of the day, it’s not yet ready for prime time.” She said the agency’s “priority when gathering any data is to ensure that it’s accurate and actionable.”
Ahhh, the plebs are not ready to know the truth.
Quote:Another reason is fear that the information might be misinterpreted, Ms. Nordlund said.”
The data has been withheld for more than a year, the report notes:
Quote:…the C.D.C. has been routinely collecting information since the Covid vaccines were first rolled out last year, according to a federal official familiar with the effort. The agency has been reluctant to make those figures public, the official said, because they might be misinterpreted as the vaccines being ineffective.
As we have previously reported, CDC director Rochelle Walensky admits that the agency’s guidance on COVID has been based on what the government perceived people would accept.
“It really had a lot to do with what we thought people would be able to tolerate,” Walensky starkly admitted during an interview in December.
Walensky also acknowledged for only the first time last month that over 75% of COVID deaths were people “who had at least four comorbidities” and were “unwell to begin with.”
The comments were later edited by the media to make it seem like there have been fewer deaths related to comorbidities.
The CDC also for more than two years based its guidance on PCR tests, which it recently admitted are producing massive amounts of false positives.
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| Opinion: Infiltration of World Governments by WEF |
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Posted by: Stone - 02-22-2022, 08:20 AM - Forum: Great Reset
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Guest stuns Joe Rogan with details on how World Economic Forum infiltrates world governments
Maajid Nawaz told Rogan the World Economic Forum has openly put its members in leadership roles to steer world governments toward ‘more and more authoritarianism.’
![[Image: Maajid-Nawaz-2-810x500.jpg]](https://www.lifesitenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Maajid-Nawaz-2-810x500.jpg)
Maajid Nawaz on the Joe Rogan Experience
Mon Feb 21, 2022
(LifeSiteNews [emphasis mine]) — British activist and radio presenter Maajid Nawaz appeared to stun mega-star podcaster Joe Rogan in a Saturday interview when he explained how Klaus Schwab’s World Economic Forum (WEF) is infiltrating world governments to achieve a global “checkpoint society.”
In a three-hour interview released Saturday, Nawaz, the founding chairman of Quilliam, a think tank designed to confront Islamist extremism, told Rogan that the WEF has installed its members in national leadership roles around the world to further the organization’s sprawling authoritarian agenda.
Explaining that government leaders worldwide have begun lifting COVID-19 mandates and restrictions while leaving in place an apparatus of digital tracking and identification that forms the embryonic stages of a digital social credit score, Nawaz said the WEF under Schwab has worked on “embedding people in government who are subscribed to” the Great Reset agenda.
“That’s what they say themselves,” Nawaz said, pointing out that the so-called Great Reset, whose advocates have famously asserted that by 2030 people will “own nothing and be happy,” is explained in detail on the WEF’s website.
In a 2020 book entitled “Covid-19: The Great Reset,” Schwab openly argued that the COVID-19 response should be used to “revamp all aspects of our societies and economies, from education to social contracts and working conditions.”
Nawaz went on to point out that in 2017 Schwab said the WEF’s “young global leaders” would “penetrate” the cabinets of world leaders.
Members of the WEF’s Forum of Young Global Leaders have included Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, French President Emmanuel Macron, former U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair, Microsoft founder Bill Gates, and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, among many others.
Nawaz pointed out that Blair tried to implement an ID system during the Iraq war, and is now openly moving to implement digital IDs in the post-COVID era.
The WEF has clearly articulated its interest in pursuing a global digital ID system.
“So this is going to be this never-ending process to slowly move the goal posts,” Rogan surmised.
“Towards more and more authoritarianism,” Nawaz added. “Checkpoint society. It’s all there. They’ve told us this.”
“People have to realize this, right?” Rogan responded. “This is important.”
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| Canada Moves To Make Asset Freezing Under Emergencies Act Permanent |
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Posted by: Stone - 02-21-2022, 10:59 AM - Forum: Socialism & Communism
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Canada Moves To Make Asset Freezing Under Emergencies Act Permanent
ZH | FEB 21, 2022 - 08:26 AM
Authored by Paul Joseph Watson via Summit News,
Canada has moved to make the asset freezing part of its Emergencies Act, which was used to target supporters of the Freedom Convoy protests, a permanent fixture.
Wow, who saw that one coming?
In order to stop what the Trudeau regime referred to as “illegal blockades,” the government threatened to freeze the bank accounts of demonstrators and anyone who donated money to them.
Under the Emergencies Act, bank are required to freeze accounts without a court order, while all crowdfunding platforms and payment providers are mandated to provide information to FINTRAC (Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada).
Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland announced that many of the measures imposed ‘temporarily’ to deal with the protesters (after they had been suitably demonized as violent extremists) will now become permanent.
“We used all the tools that we had prior to the invocation of the Emergencies Act and we determined we needed some additional tools,” Freeland announced.
“Some of those tools we will be putting forward measures to put those tools permanently in place. The authorities of FINTRAC, I believe, do need to be expanded to cover crowdsourcing platforms and payment platforms,” she added.
Ronald Reagan has been proven right again.
“Nothing lasts longer than a temporary government program.”
Meanwhile, as we previously highlighted, such measures are likely to exclude protected classes (basically anyone who isn’t a native Canadian or white), with groups such as immigrants and refugees enjoying an exemption.
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| Ignatian Retreats 2022 |
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Posted by: Stone - 02-21-2022, 10:06 AM - Forum: Event Schedule
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IGNATIAN RETREATS 2022
Fr. Hewko is planning again to hold Ignatian Retreats (a week for the men and a week for the women) this year. The dates are as follows:
- Women’s Retreat will be Monday, June 27th (beginning at 12:30 PM) through Saturday, July 2nd (ending after lunch).
- Men’s Retreat will be Monday, July 4th (beginning at 12:30 PM) through Saturday, July 9th (ending after lunch).
*Please see the brochure below for more details.* May many graces flow from these powerful retreats!
Please contact Mr. Tim Cline at sspxmariancorps@gmail.com or 770-820-6476 with any questions.
*Fr. Hewko is also asking for generous souls to assist with the cooking for any portion of time during those two weeks!
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| The Next Step For The World Economic Forum |
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Posted by: Stone - 02-21-2022, 08:28 AM - Forum: Great Reset
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The Next Step For The World Economic Forum
The Brownstone Institute [Emphasis mine.] | FEB 21, 2022
It has been obvious since early 2020 that there has been an organized cult outreach that has permeated the world as a whole. It’s possible that this formed out of a gigantic error, rooted in a sudden ignorance of cell biology and long experience of public health. It is also possible that a seasonal respiratory virus was deployed by some people as an opportunity to seize power for some other purpose.
Follow the money and influence trails and the latter conclusion is hard to dismiss.
The clues were there early. Even before the WHO declared a pandemic in March 2020 (at least several months behind the actual fact of a pandemic) and before any lockdowns, there were media blitzes talking about the “New Normal” and talk of the “Great Reset” (which was rebranded as “Build Back Better”).
Pharmaceutical companies such as Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson, Moderna, and Astra-Zeneca were actively lobbying governments to buy their vaccines as early as February 2020, supposedly less than a month after the genetic sequence (or partial sequence) was made available by China.
As a person who spent his whole professional career in pharmaceutical and vaccine development, I found the whole concept of going from scratch to a ready-to-use vaccine in a few months simply preposterous.
Something did not add up.
I knew of the names with which everyone has become familiar. Bill Gates, Neil Ferguson, Jeremy Farrar, Anthony Fauci, and others had either been lobbying for or pursuing the lockdown strategies for many years. But still, the scope of the actions seemed too large to even be explained by those names alone.
So, the fundamental questions that I have been asking myself have been why and who? The “Why” seems to always come back to issues besides public health. Of course the “Who” had the obvious players such as the WHO, China, CDC, NIH/NIAID, and various governments but there seemed to be more behind it than that. These players have been connected to the “public health” aspect but that seemed to be only scratching the surface.
I am not an investigative journalist and I would never claim that role, but even I can do some simple internet searches and start to see patterns evolve. The searches that I have done have yielded some very interesting “coincidences.”
If I give you the names of the following people – Biden, Trudeau, Ardern, Merkel, Macron, Draghi, Morrison, Xi Jinping – what do you think that they have in common? Yes, they are all pampered and stumble over themselves, but that is also not the connection.
One can see very quickly that these names certainly connect to lockdown countries and individuals who have ignored their own laws and/or tried in some way to usurp them. But, there is more to it than that and I will give a hint by providing a link with each name.
Joseph Biden, President, United States
Boris Johnson, PM of United Kingdom
Jacinda Ardern, PM of New Zealand
Angela Merkel, Former PM of Germany
Emmanuel Macron, President of France
Justin Trudeau, PM of Canada
Xi Jinping, CCP Leader, China
Mario Draghi, PM of Italy
Scott Morrison, PM of Australia
They are all associated with the World Economic Forum (WEF), a “nonprofit” private organization started (in 1971) and headed by Klaus “You will own nothing and be happy” Schwab and his family. This is a private organization that has no official bearing with any world governance body, despite the implication of the name. It could just as well have been called the “Church of Schwabies.” The WEF was the origin of the “Great Reset” and I would guess that it was the origin of “Build Back Better” (since most of the above names have used that term recently).
If you think that the WEF membership ends with just leaders of countries, here are a few more names:
Gavin Newsom, Governor of California
Jay Inslee, Governor of Washington State
Anthony Fauci, Director NIAID
Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House
Allow me to introduce more of the WEF by giving a list of names for the Board of Trustees.
Al Gore, Former WP of the US
Mark Caney, UN Special Envoy for Climate Action
T. Shanmugaratnam, Seminar Minister Singapore
Christine Lagarde, President, European Central Bank
Ngozi Okonja-Iweala, Director General, WTO
Kristalian Georggieva, Managing Director, IMF
Chrystia Freeland, Deputy Minister of Canada
Laurence Fink, CEO, BlackRock
You can see a cross section of political and economic leaders on the board. The leader of the organization, that is the leader of the Board, is still Klaus Schwab. He has built an impressive array of followers.
If you want to really see the extent of influence, go to the website and pick out the corporate name of your choice; there are many to choose from: Abbott Laboratories, Astra-Zeneca, Biogen, Johnson & Johnson, Moderna, Merck, Novartis, Pfizer, Serum Institute of India, BASF, Mayo Clinic, Kaiser Permanente, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Wellcome Trust, Blackrock, CISCO, Dell, Google, Huawei, IBM, Intel, Microsoft, Zoom, Yahoo, Amazon, Airbus, Boeing, Honda, Rakuten, Walmart, UPS, Coca-Cola, UBER, Bank of China. Bank of America. Deutsche Bank, State Bank of India, Royal Bank of Canada, Lloyds Banking, JP Morgan-Chase, Equifax, Goldman-Sachs, Hong Kong Exchanges, Bloomberg, VISA, New York Times, Ontario (Canada) Teacher’s Pension Plan
The extent of reach is huge even beyond the worldwide leader network. For example, we all know what Bill Gates has been doing with his wealth via the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF). But, the Wellcome Trust is equal to the task. Who is the Director of the Wellcome Trust? One named Jeremy Farrar, of the United Kingdom SAGE and lockdown fame – arguably the architect of the US-UK lockdowns in 2020 – is closely associated with WEF.
Concerning the reach that can occur, let me give some examples from the BMGF alone, and it comes from the time that I spent in 2020 reading their extensive funding list.
A few years ago, the BMGF awarded the Institute for Health Metric Evaluation (IHME) a ten-year, almost $280 million award. IHME (associated with the University of Washington in Seattle) was at the forefront of the computer modeling that was driving the lockdowns and the nonpharmaceutical Interventions during 2020. People have seen their name often in print or on MSNBC or CNN.
In 2019, IHME awarded the Editor of the Lancet (Dr. Richard Horton) a $100,000 award and described him as an “activist editor.” The Lancet, once considered one of the best medical journals, has been at the forefront of censoring opposing scientific viewpoints since 2020 and publishing “papers” that were not fit to be published. I never could understand what it meant to be an “activist” editor in a respected scientific/medical journal because, stupid me, I always thought that the first job of the editor was to be impartial. I guess I learned in 2020 how wrong I was.
Of course, the Lancet is also heavily funded from pharmaceutical companies such as Pfizer (also a member of the WEF).
But, the BMGF reach goes far beyond just IHME and these connections have been quite recognizable. Here are some examples of the organizations and moneys received during 2020 alone broken down by areas.
Bill Gates has also invested heavily in Moderna and his investments have paid out nicely for him. The BMGF has also given close to $100 million to the Clinton Health Access Initiative.
The questions now have to be asked:
- Is this some beginning of a controlled authoritarian society intertwined via the WEF?
- Has the Covid panic been staged to set the stage? Please note, I am not a “Covid Denier” since the virus is real. But, has a normal seasonal respiratory virus been used as an excuse to activate the web?
The next questions, for those of us who at least pretend to live in “Democratic” societies, have to be:
- Is this what you expected and/or want from the people you elect?
- How many people knew of the “Associations” of the people that they voted for? (I certainly did not know of the associations until I did the searches but maybe I am just out of touch)
- Can we anticipate their next moves? There may be some hints.
The Next Move
Jeremy Farrar of The Wellcome Trust recently wrote an article for the WEF with the CEO of Novo Nordisk Foundation, Mads Krogsgaard Thomsen. It is a summary of a larger piece written for and published by the Boston Consulting Group.
In this article, they propose that the way to “fix” the problem of antibiotic resistant bacteria is via a subscription service. That is, you pay a fee and when you need an antibiotic, presumably an effective one will be available for you.
My guess is that they have the same philosophy for vaccines and that certainly seems to be the approach with Coronavirus. Keep paying for and taking boosters.
In view of this philosophy, the vaccine mandates make sense. Get society “addicted” to an intervention, effective or not, and then keep feeding them. This becomes especially effective if you can keep the fear going.
This approach is so shortsighted, from a scientific viewpoint, it astounds me. But, like much of recent history, I think science has little to do with it. The goal is not scientifically founded but control founded.
After the discovery of penicillin almost one century ago, there were scientists who warned that antibiotic usage should be considered very carefully in practice because evolutionary pressures would lead to antibiotic resistant species of bacteria. At that time, they were considered to be rogue scientists; after all, didn’t we suddenly have a miracle cure for many deadly problems?
From the time of discovery, it took over a decade before fermentation methods were developed to produce sufficient quantities of antibiotics to be practical. These methods allowed for the use of penicillin on the battlefield towards the end of WWII and undoubtedly saved many lives then and later in subsequent wars (Korea and Vietnam) by preventing serious infections resulting from wounds sustained during battle.
However, it did not take long before the medical establishment was handing out antibiotics like candy. I experienced this myself when I was a child in the 1960s. It seemed like every time we went to the doctor, no matter what the problem, I was given a series (not just one) of injections of penicillin. There were never any attempts to determine if I had a virus, bacteria, or even an allergy. The answer was: in with the needle. I cannot count how many times I was “jabbed” as a child.
It didn’t take long before resistance species started to appear. The result was that more and more money was pumped into R&D for antibiotics. When I was in graduate school during the 1980s, one sure way to get some NIH funding was to tie the research into the “antibiotic” search. Antibiotics became big business.
We now have several classes of antibiotics that are used for specific cases. We have Aminoglycosides (Streptomycin, Neomycin, etc.), Beta-Lactams Cephalosporins (four generations including Cefadroxil-G1, Cefaclor-G2, Cefotaxime-G3, Cefepime-G4 , Beta-Lactams Penicillins (including Ampicillin, Amoxicillin, and Penicillin), Other Beta-Lactams (Meropenem), Fluoroquinolones (Levofloxacin, Gemifloxicin, etc.), Macrolides (Azithromycin, Clarithromycin, etc.), Sulfonamides (Sulfisoxazole, etc.), Tetracyclines, and others such as Clindamycin and Vancomycin (typically reserved for resistant bacteria). All in all, physicians have over 50 different choices for antibiotics.
The most common place to encounter antibiotic resistant bacteria is in a hospital. Most people who get some sort of infection in the normal routine of life, like a sinus infection or skin infection, will not likely encounter an antibiotic resistant species.
Except there has been another source of the problem and that has been in the food supply. Antibiotics have become very popular with large scale meat production facilities of all types including beef, poultry, swine, and even fish. These include actual farms where the animals are raised as well as in the processing of the meat. The overuse of antibiotics in these industries has also produced resistant forms of bacteria.
For example, in attempts to limit the bacteria e. coli, common to mammalians, antibiotics have been used and this has resulted in some antibiotic resistant forms of e. coli. An infection via e. coli (antibiotic resistant or not) can be avoided by proper cooking and handling of meats. However, sometimes that does not happen and there are e. coli outbreaks (also from improperly washed vegetables that may use contaminated irrigation water).
For most healthy people, experiencing e. coli (either resistant or not) is only a passing discomfort that includes intestinal cramps, diarrhea, and other GI complaints. Depending on the amount of contamination, a person may suffer for a day or two or for several days.
But, with some people, it can be serious or deadly (such as in elderly people in poor health and young children). If that occurs, then the presence of an antibiotic resistant form can be a serious matter. Presence of a non-resistant form can be treated more readily.
A few years ago I had pneumonia; a relatively mild case. I was given a choice of in-patient treatment or out-patient and it was a no-brainer. If I wanted to make sure that my pneumonia could be handled by the normal course of antibiotics (I was given a quinolone), staying at home and away from the hospital was important. I knew that hospital-acquired pneumonia could be a much more serious situation. So, I stayed at home and easily recovered. That did not mean I was guaranteed getting a more serious resistant form in the hospital but I understood that the risk was much greater.
Producing more antibiotics and giving them on subscription to the users is not the answer. That will only lead to more resistant forms and there will be this continuing loop of antibiotic use. But, if the actual goal is societal addiction to antibiotics out of fear, just like addiction to universal Covid vaccines out of fear, then it makes sense.
Finding a few universal antibiotics that deal with the resistant forms is important and it is also important to use those sparingly and only as a last resort. In addition, better management of antibiotic use in our society would go a long way to attenuating the problem.
There is nothing particularly controversial about that observation. It was accepted by nearly every responsible health professional only two years ago. But we live now in different times of extreme experimentation, such as the deployment of world-wide lockdowns for a virus that had a highly focused impact, with catastrophic results for the world.
It was the WEF on March 21, 2020 that assured us “lockdowns can halt the spread of Covid-19.” Today that article, never pulled much less repudiated, stands as probably the most ridiculous and destructive suggestion and prediction of the 21st century. And yet, the WEF is still at it, suggesting that same year that at least lockdowns reduced carbon emissions.
We can easily predict that the WEF’s call for a universal and mandated subscription plan for antibiotics – pushed with the overt intention of shoring up financial capitalization of major drug manufacturers – will meet the same fate: poor health outcomes, more power to entrenched elites, and ever less liberty for the people.
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| Pope says Latin Mass restrictions don’t apply to FSSP |
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Posted by: Stone - 02-21-2022, 08:10 AM - Forum: Pope Francis
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From the very liberal outlet, Aleteia:
Pope says Latin Mass restrictions don’t apply to FSSP
![[Image: hgcwdupiig8d75wzvsz6enetap1wr4cg04mwbiu....ormat=webp]](https://assistant.gloria.tv/FxK6pqhk7ZiS1AZwTDoBU6KMY/hgcwdupiig8d75wzvsz6enetap1wr4cg04mwbiu.webp?format=webp)
[Picture from gloria.tv's similar article.]
Aleteia [slightly adapted, emphasis mine][ | 02/21/22
The fraternity was founded specifically for the use of ancient liturgical books but intent on maintaining loyalty to Rome.
Pope Francis signed a decree on February 11, 2022, exempting priests of the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter (FSSP) from the provisions of the Motu Proprio Traditionis Custodes, which restricts the possibilities of celebrating the Tridentine Mass.
This was reported by a FSSP press release issued on February 21. The weekly Famille Chrétienne said the exemption could be extended to other traditionalist institutes that remain loyal to Rome.
The uncertainty that had hovered for several months was resolved after a private audience of nearly an hour granted by Pope Francis on February 4 to Abbot Benedict Paul-Joseph, superior of the FSSP’s District of France, and Vincent Ribeton, rector of St. Peter’s Seminary in Wigratzbad, Germany, where 90 seminarians are in formation. This meeting was not on the Pontiff’s public agenda.
Interviewed by Famille chrétienne, Father Paul-Joseph explains that the Pope was attentive and reassuring about the future of the community. “During this very paternal conversation, the Holy Father (…) affirmed to us that the Motu Proprio Traditionis Custodes was not intended for us, since we are members of a community founded specifically for the use of ancient liturgical books, and that we were therefore preserving the right that had been given to us,” says the superior of the FSSP’s French district.
In recalling the birth of the Fraternity in 1988, the statement said, “the Pope said he was very impressed by the approach of its founders, their desire to remain faithful to the Roman Pontiff and their trust in the Church. He assured that this gesture should be ‘preserved, protected and encouraged.'”
A decree signed by Pope Francis a week later then confirmed the provisions that had been granted to the priests of the FSSP at its founding in 1988. Thus, they retain the possibility “to celebrate the sacrifice of the Mass, the ritual of the sacraments and other sacred rites, as well as the recitation of the Divine Office according to the typical editions of the liturgical books in force in 1962, namely the Missal, the Ritual, the Pontifical and the Roman Breviary.”
In his personal dialogue with the two leaders of the FSSP, the Pope assured that ordinations in the Tridentine Rite could continue. The Pope also asked the Fraternity of St. Peter to reflect, “as far as possible,” on the provisions of the Motu proprio Traditionis custodes.
An extension to other institutes?
Famille Chrétienne also reports that a decree is being prepared for the month of March to specify the exemptions from which other traditionalist but not schismatic communities could benefit.
These communities are the result of the Motu Proprio Ecclesia Dei, signed by John Paul II on July 2, 1988, which aimed to encourage the return under the authority of the pope of clerics and faithful tempted to follow Archbishop Lefebvre, founder of the Society of St. Pius X, in his rejection of the Second Vatican Council.
These communities may follow the Tridentine rite in their own churches and oratories, and may be called by some bishops to assume liturgical and pastoral tasks in other churches, provided they are in communion with the diocese. In some cases, participation in the Chrism Mass is a stumbling block, given the reluctance of some priests to concelebrate in the post-conciliar rite.
The choice of loyalty to Rome
The Fraternity of St. Peter was founded on July 18, 1988, at the Abbey of Hauterive, Switzerland, by 12 priests who had renounced following Archbishop Lefebvre after the "schism" provoked by the ordination, on June 30, of four bishops without a papal mandate.
For more than three decades, the Fraternity, which currently has about 330 priests, has been growing particularly in Europe and the United States. It is present in France in some 40 dioceses.
In a statement issued on July 20, 2021, four days after the release of Traditionis Custodes, the Fraternity of St. Peter expressed surprise at the restrictions, while leaving the door open to an agreement.
“In the present context, we wish to reaffirm our unwavering fidelity to the Successor of Peter, and our desire to remain faithful to our Constitutions and our charism, continuing to serve the faithful as we have done since our foundation,” the FFSP said at the time.
Pope Francis’ message of encouragement in 2013
At the beginning of his pontificate, Pope Francis expressed his esteem for the work of the FSSP. In a message addressed to Father Vincent Ribeton, then superior of the District of France, on October 29, 2013, he sent his apostolic blessing to the members of the Fraternity on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of its founding.
The Bishop of Rome praised the “great spirit of obedience and hope” of the founders, who had “turned with confidence to the Successor of Peter in order to offer the faithful attached to the 1962 Missal the possibility of living their faith in the full communion of the Church.”
He also invited the community to “take an active part in the mission of the Church in today’s world, through the witness of a holy life, a firm faith and an inventive and generous charity.”
Recognizing the “proper charism” of the Fraternity of St. Peter, he praised its contribution “to a better understanding and implementation of the Second Vatican Council” by linking the celebration of “the sacred mysteries according to the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite” with “fidelity to the living tradition of the Church.”
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| Feast of Jacinta and Franciso Marto |
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Posted by: Stone - 02-20-2022, 09:59 AM - Forum: The Saints
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Taken from the Our Lady of Fatima Chapel Bulletin:
Saints Jacinta and Francisco Marto
Feast Day Today - February 20th
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Jacinta de Jesus Marto and Francisco de Jesus Marto were siblings from Aljustrel, a small hamlet near Fátima, Portugal, who with their cousin Lúcia dos Santos witnessed three apparitions of the Angel of Peace during 1916 and several apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary at the Cova da Iria during 1917.
It is most appropriate that today’s feast so often falls either on the verge, or in the early days of the Holy Season of Lent. There's also little doubt that these saintly children would take great consolation that their feasts should be celebrated in a traditional penitential spirit. For, when it comes to the practice of mortification and sacrifice, what inspiring lessons are given to us in the brief lives of Jacinta and Francisco Marto.
Today, let us confidently invoke these highly favored children of the Immaculata, and beseech their powerful intercession for the special graces of courage and strength that are so necessary amidst the many crosses, toils and disappointments of this life. May the imitation of their heroic spirit of reparation and sacrifice be our steady guide through this diabolical Crisis of Faith and Tradition in Holy Mother Church.
The death of both children within two to three years of the Blessed Virgin's visitations fulfilled her June, 1917 prophecy: “I will take Jacinta and Francisco soon.” The remarkable and heroic holiness of both seers reminds all Catholics that sanctity is possible - even for children. They were canonized on May 13, 2017 and are interred in Our Lady of the Rosary Basilica at the Cova di Ira in Fátima.
In honor of today’s feast, we provide this link to the beautiful essay presented at the '06 Fatima Conference by Mrs. Cornelia Ferreira; her talk highlights the wonderful transformation of God's grace in the children's souls through the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Also, here is another link to the heroic story of Jacinta's last days that will both edify and inspire its readers.
Jacinta was born in Aljustrel on March 11, 1910. Sr. Lucia always said that Jacinta was the most highly favored of the three children. During and after the visitations of Our Lady, Jacinta showed a maturity beyond her years. Her great desire was to offer her suffering for the conversion of sinners. After a long and painful illness, she died alone in a Lisbon hospital on February 20, 1920. When her body was exhumed in 1935 and again in 1951, she was found incorrupt.
Francisco was born on June 11, 1908 in Aljustrel as well. During and after Our Lady’s visitations to Fatima, his particular spirituality was to “console Our Lord” and directed his prayer and penances to that end. He constantly prayed before the Blessed Sacrament to console the "hidden Jesus" for all the sacrilege, outrage and indifference that so offends Him. He died a saintly death at home on April 4, 1919.
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| Franz Hunolt [1889]: The Evil Scourge of War |
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Posted by: Stone - 02-20-2022, 09:11 AM - Forum: Articles by Catholic authors
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And so it is, my dear brethren; the most terrible of all public calamities is war. Pestilence and contagious diseases are a severe punishment, and so is famine and hunger; but if war once breaks out in a country, you have all those other plagues with it; for, as experience teaches, they follow in its train, as matters of necessity. All trials and contradictions, no matter what their name may be, are, indeed, punishments, but they are salutary punishments, which serve to bring men to a sense of the wickedness of their ways, and to lead them to God; but, as the old song has it, "there is no good in war;" instead of amending abuses, it only increases them; instead of hindering, it only encourages injustice, theft, rapine, adultery and all kinds of impurity, murder, despair, and other vices. Alas, that we should have such bitter experience of the truth of this! And consequently war is not merely a temporal punishment, as far as our mortal bodies are concerned, but it also brings with it, as a general rule, the perversion and damnation of our immortal souls. Well didst thou choose, O holy David, when God left it free to thee to select war, famine, or pestilence as a punishment! That wise king did not take long to consider, my dear brethren. If I and my people have to be chastised, he said, it is better for me to fall into the hands of God, and to choose pestilence, than to fall into the hands of men by bringing the evils of war on the land. And therefore, when the Catholic Church prays in the Litanies to be delivered from temporal evils, she mentions war last of all, as the summary of every calamity; "from pestilence, famine, and war, deliver us O Lord."
Renounce what is displeasing to Him! And if your hearts are captivated by the attachment to some sin, which has hitherto kept you from doing penance, ah! then, let the lamentable destruction of so many, who have lost either their lives or their property in war, influence you to give it up for God's sake what has been the obstacle to your making peace with Him. We beseech you for the sake of the whole Christian world, "be reconciled to God!" Make peace with Him! Without this peace, that other, for which we long and sigh, cannot be obtained; for who is it that sends us the scourge of reconciled war? Is it not the all-ruling God, without whose decree nothing can happen in the world? And why does He afflict us in that with way? Is it not on account of the sins and vices of the people which arouse His anger and compel Him to take the sword of vengeance in His hand? There Christians, is the only reason why we are now scourged by war; and as long as we are at enmity with God there is no hope of peace, or of being relieved from the burden that oppresses us. Therefore, if you wish to be at peace with men, first be reconciled to God by true penance.
What arms are we to use, besides prayer, in order to obtain this much desired peace? The very same arms that we must use to preserve our souls in peace with God and to keep them from sin ; for it is a well-known axiom of the holy Fathers, that public calamities are never inflicted by God on a country, unless on account of the sins of the people; so that, if sin is taken away, all other evils disappear with it; if we are safe from sin, we can be sure that we shall be able to keep our possessions in peace. Fasting and abstinence, are the chief, the most suitable, and the most convenient arms for this purpose, for all classes of men, as St. Bernard, with many others, teaches us. "Fasting," he says, "not only blots out past sins, but also preserves us from future sins."
With child-like confidence, O Lord and Author of peace, we address to Thee the prayer of the Church: grant us the help of Thy grace, that, attending as we ought to fasting and prayer, we may be freed from our enemies of soul and body; through the intercession of Thy Mother Mary and of the angels of peace. Amen.
From pestilence, famine, and war, deliver us O Lord.
Practical Considerations on St. Leo the Great
by Fr. Fracis Xavier Weninger, 1877
St. Leo informs the Romans, without hesitation, that the pillage of the city was caused by nothing else than their ingratitude, the licentiousness of their conduct, and their contempt for the word of. God. The same may justly be said of every calamity that comes over a city or country--such as famine, war, pestilence or other plagues. Men only owe it to themselves. God punishes their sins by such means. "It is certain," says St. Jerome, "that to our sin we owe famine, war, pestilence and whatever else we suffer." Holy writ presents so many examples of this that no one can possibly doubt its truth. Whenever God menaced His chosen people, the Jews, with a general calamity, He invariably made known to them that the visitation would come'upon them on account of their sins. They themselves recognized it, and many times freely acknowledged it. "For we have not obeyed Thy commandments," says the pious Tobias, "and therefore are we delivered to spoil and to captivity and death, and are made a fable and a reproach to all nations amongst which Thou hast scattered us" (Tobias iii.)
The surest means to prevent such punishments and avert them from the land, is to do true penance; because true penance reconciles God to His offending creatures, as we are taught by numerous examples in Holy Writ. It may be noticed specially of the Jews, that as often as they returned with their whole heart to God, did penance, prayed and fasted, so often did He remit the threatened punishment; or if they were already bowed down under its infliction, He turned it from them. "Let us be penitent," said the pious Judith to the people of Bethulia, "and with many tears let us beg pardon " (Judith viii.). Should we at any time be visited by unexpected sorrow or adversity, it will be well that we examine ourselves and see whether sin or impenitence is not perhaps the cause of it.
The only care of St. Leo, when he entered the papal functions, was faithfully to fulfil the onerous duties its proper administration imposed upon him. All his time, all his knowledge, all his faculties were given to it; he thought of no recreation but only of discharging his duty. In whatever station of life you may be, you have some peculiar duties and obligations. Strive to comply with them. Woe to you if you spend more time in idleness or empty enjoyments than in the work which your station requires, and which you, by reason of your position, are bound to perform. How will you stand when it is said to you, "Give an account of thy stewardship?" (St. Luke xvi.). This means, as interpreted by Cornelius a Lapide, "Give an account of thy life, thy station, the work entrusted to thee, thy time, thy abilities and other gifts which God gave thee, that thou mightst use them to His honor, and to thine own and other men's salvation."
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| Opinion: Canada’s Emergencies Act underscores the dangers of a cashless society |
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Posted by: Stone - 02-20-2022, 08:50 AM - Forum: Global News
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Opinion - emphasis mine...
Canada’s Emergencies Act underscores the dangers of a cashless society
What we are witnessing is the next move in a worldwide battle over the future of money and who gets to control it.
![[Image: shutterstock_1854011137-810x500-810x500.jpg]](https://www.lifesitenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/shutterstock_1854011137-810x500-810x500.jpg)
Thu Feb 17, 2022
OTTAWA (LifeSiteNews) — The extraordinarily aggressive financial measures by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and finance minister Chrystia Freeland have underlined the dangers of a cashless society. They have demonstrated that any form of digital money can be abused by tyrannical overlords. The best way to get funds to the truckers without being attacked by authorities remains the old-fashioned one: physical notes.
What Freeland has outlined is an unprecedented incursion into financial activity that is designed to lock the people whom the government deems to be undesirable out of the system entirely. The measures “cover all forms of transactions, including digital assets such as cryptocurrencies,” the minister stated. The government, she said, is “following the money,” which includes freezing corporate accounts and suspending insurance on vehicles. Personal financial accounts are to be included in the order.
It confirms what many have been warning about for some time: that one of the core elements of the so-called Great Reset is to enslave populations by surveilling and controlling their transactions. China has already implemented its version of digital tyranny with its Social Credit System, which it will combine with its Central Bank Digital Currency [CBDC]. Now Trudeau and Freeland have drawn back the curtain in Canada to reveal their version of digital despotism.
There have been previous hints that this is part of the Great Reset end game. The general manager of the Bank for International Settlements, Augustin Carstens, said last year: “We don’t know who’s using a $100 bill today, and we don’t know who’s using a 1,000 peso bill today. The key difference with the CBDC is the central bank will have absolute control on the rules and regulations that will determine the use of that expression of central bank liability, and also we will have the technology to enforce that.”
What we are witnessing is the next move in a worldwide battle over the future of money and who gets to control it. The debt-based money system – most of the money in Western democracies is created by bank loans with an interest rate – is close to collapse. Global debt is at unsustainable levels; hence the low interest rates to stave off a crisis. Central banks are looking at ways of printing interest free money, known as Quantitative Easing, and also creating Central Bank Digital Currencies. But these are only palliative measures; they do not address the structural problems.
Meanwhile, there has been heavy investment in cryptocurrencies as a means of escaping what is called the corrupt “fiat” system: money determined by government dictate. While the underlying analysis of governmental failing is reasonable, there are some obvious flaws in the argument. For one thing, Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are valued in dollars, which is fiat currency. In that sense, it is not an escape at all.
Secondly, they are not currencies; they are digital assets. Large financial institutions are now investing in them to diversify their allocations. In a currency the value of each unit should stay roughly the same; cryptocurrencies are extremely volatile. They also cannot handle the volume of daily transactions.
Freeland’s move has revealed another vulnerability with cryptocurrencies. They are digital, which means they can be monitored and their use attacked. Already 42 countries, including China, have banned or impeded the use of digital currencies by putting restrictions on the ability of banks to deal with them. The Canadian government has gone a step further by threatening to freeze bank accounts if there is even a suspicion that cryptocurrency is being used to support the truckers.
This leaves cash as the only way to escape the bad actors in government. Financial analyst Catherine Austin Fitts, who urges people to use only cash every Friday, argues persuasively that humanity is at a “tipping point between freedom and fascism”. But for authorities to gain full control over the digital monetary system, the circulation of paper currency has to end.
At the moment, fortunately, the use of cash is going in the opposite direction. There were some ridiculous attempts during the pandemic to claim it should be banned because it was allegedly more likely to carry the virus, but in the end cash use in many countries and regions went up – including in Canada. That trend needs to continue.
We live in an era of hyper-transactionalism whereby far more of our daily activities than ever before are subject to monetary exchanges. Most of us are now bound to the globalised monetary system. How it evolves is not just a technical matter; it is about how ultimate power will be exerted.
To stop control being exclusively in the hands of political and bureaucratic overlords, the best way out is to use cash. If the Canadian truckers get support in the form of paper currency, the despots can do nothing about it.
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| Sorrowful Heart of Mary Newsletter - February/March 2022 |
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Posted by: Stone - 02-20-2022, 08:15 AM - Forum: Sorrowful Heart of Mary
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![[Image: 71a5496a-0a84-4405-af9a-30e005bf998e.jpg]](https://files.constantcontact.com/189ca5c9701/71a5496a-0a84-4405-af9a-30e005bf998e.jpg)
Sorrowful Heart of Mary SSPX-MC
View as Webpage
[Download PDF here.]
✠
February / March 2022
Dear Faithful, Soldiers of the Church Militant,
The Holy Ghost warns us not to be deceived by vain words but to stand firm in the profession and practice of the Holy Catholic Faith!
The Masonic Revolution, both in politics and the Conciliar Church, loves to swim in ambiguous terms and seemingly harmless-sounding phrases that tickle the ears and deceive many souls. A handful of examples are:
“Pro-choice” which means the cruel slaughtering of millions of babies, backed by the Supreme Court laws since 1973 in the USA.
“Comfort Care” which means injecting patients with numbing drugs that often hastens their death.
“Brain Death” which is a deliberately misleading term. The signs of death are the following: no breathing, no blood circulation and no reaction to pain or to light shined in the pupils. “Brain Death” was a term invented to justify the murder of patients who are still breathing, still have blood circulation and react to light and pain, but are often unconscious or in a coma. Under these conditions, the highly paid murderers extract the patients’ vital organs while they are still living... What? While still alive?... Yes! because as Dr. Paul Burns said, “No one can receive dead organs as an ‘organ donation’.”
“Family Planning” or “Responsible Parenting” are more deceitful phrases to justify the use of birth control, contraception, NFP and denying Almighty God the number of children that He wants and has grand plans for!
“End Terrorism” or “Safety First” are often slogans used to imperceptibly pass the gun control laws and abolish the Second Amendment.
“Liberty of Education” which really means the horrors of scandalizing the innocent by teaching explicit immorality, Evolution, Atheism, validity of other “faiths,” transgenderism, no absolute truths, etc., etc.
“Economic Prosperity” a term used by Joseph Stalin and the Pulitzer Prize Winner, Walter Duranty, who wrote in 1932 for the New York Times. Duranty hailed as “Economic Prosperity” the thousands of Gulag internment camps and the mass starvation of over fourteen million people in Ukraine and Russia. Over thirty million people were starved and executed under Mao Tse-Tung in China, all in the name of “Economic Prosperity!”
“Full Communion” is another buzzword marking those trying to reconcile Christ with Belial and Truth with Error, by accepting the Second Vatican Council, the Modernist Magisterium, the New Mass and sacraments as “legitimately promulgated” (cf. Doctrinal Declaration, April 2012). In other words, betraying Our Lord Jesus Christ and simultaneously being swallowed by the Conciliar Church!
“Recognition” or “Justice For Tradition” are phrases which the Conciliar-SSPX leaders have coined to rally support for the Agreement with Modernist Rome before Rome converts to Tradition, contrary to the warnings of Abp. Lefebvre!
“Establish a Climate of Trust, Mutual Respect and Dialogue” means not first to convert Modernist Rome back to the Catholic Faith, but rather, dilute the Truth in order to be acceptable into the New Pluralistic Conciliar Church! This “dialogue-fever” has succeeded to seduce “many Traditional groups to abandon their rigid positions” (Pope Benedict XVI) and accept compromise by shaking hands with Modernists! This is why Pope Francis could say, about Bishop Fellay: “Now that’s a man we can dialogue with!”
(No wonder Abp. Lefebvre insisted: “They are betraying us - betraying us! They are shaking hands with the Church’s destroyers! They are shaking hands with people holding Modernist and Liberal ideas condemned by the Church! So they are doing the devil’s work! They are now saying: ‘As long as they grant us the Old Mass, we can shake hands with Rome, no problem.’ But we see how it works out! They are in an impossible situation! Impossible! One cannot both shake hands with Modernists and keep following Tradition! Not possible! Not possible!” (Abp. Lefebvre, Address To His Priests, Écône, September 6, 1990 - just six months before his death).
Words are the new tools for Revolution. Words are meant to express Truth, but the Father of Lies uses them to trip-up and deceive souls. Let us examine briefly some of the words recently being used by the SSPX to make the agreement with Modernist Rome look more favorable. Firstly, the word “Agreement” which comes from “con-cordia” meaning a “harmony of hearts.” It means to have the same opinion, same view or the same intention while sharing the same common cause and walking united, as one person, in concord of thought or action. In an agreement each side makes accommodations for a perceived outcome. In the case of the Conciliar-SSPX with Modernist Rome, the concessions for the agreement (or rather, the thirty pieces of silver) were made in the Doctrinal Declaration of 2012, the “Six Conditions For An Agreement With Rome” and the “new attitude towards Rome” called for by Bp. Fellay among the members of the SSPX.
Since the Second Vatican Council, there has been a widening divergence between those faithful to Tradition and those adhering to the Council. Abp. Lefebvre saw that an agreement with Modernist Rome was absolutely impossible until Rome re-crowns Christ the King and returns to Catholic Tradition. Until that doctrinal conversion happens, it is clear that Rome is determined to destroy Tradition. Therefore, no agreement is possible!
Secondly, the dangerous phrase “canonical recognition”, which is the conferring of a canonical structure by the ecclesiastical authority to an entity without it. This is now hailed by the Society leaders as the solution to our “abnormal situation.” In other words, “canonical recognition” means the Pope recognizes the legal existence of communities which already existed. This means the Holy See considered the SSPX as unlawful and illegal before, and now, after granting the “lifting” of the excommunications (which didn’t exist), the granting of jurisdiction for confessions, marriages, extreme unction and holy orders, it is now “canonically recognized,” even if partially.
The danger of this “canonical recognition” is that, implicitly, it is to disclaim the state of necessity which had justified our resistance to Modernist Rome and the auto-demolition of the Church. The focus is now shifted from the real state of emergency and the survival of the Catholic Faith to getting canonical recognition. It’s putting the cart before the horse. A victory for the Devil!
The consequence of this new “canonical recognition” for the Conciliar-SSPX is the inevitable cooperation and submission to the local Modernist bishops, which Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre warned was the greatest danger to the faithful! It necessitates canonical dependency on the Modernist bishops for the priestly apostolate, since the bishop is responsible for all the faithful of his territory. Already, it is a fact that the Society priests have to submit all marriages to them.
From this flows the Personal Prelature which Bp. Fellay had introduced to the faithful in 2011 and 2012. The idea of a Personal Prelature first appeared with the document Ad Gentes, in the Second Vatican Council. Personal Prelatures are defined as “jurisdictional entities established by the Holy See, as instruments of the pastoral hierarchy of the Church, for the realization of particular or missionary activities.” Now, the snare hidden in all this is that the Personal Prelatures have to agree with the Episcopal Conferences before their erection and coordinate all their apostolates with the bishop’s approval (cf. New Code of Canon Law #294).
Since the Personal Prelature must have the prior consent of the local bishops to exercise their apostolate, it therefore becomes a mere “assistant” to the diocesan clergy and under the auspices of the Modernist bishops! Even if Bp. Fellay and the leaders of the SSPX try to defend it as having “freedom for apostolate,” nevertheless, it cannot be completely independent, since the Personal Prelature given to him is still subject to the diocesan bishops, who have canonical jurisdiction over their territories. In sum, the Personal Prelature of Bishop Fellay or the Superior General, will still be subject to the local bishops, who in turn, are subject to the Roman Congregation for the Bishops!
How well Abp. Lefebvre spotted this trap and sounded the alarm!
“We would have to re-enter this Conciliar Church in order, supposedly, to make it Catholic? That is a complete illusion! It is not the subjects that make the superiors, but the superiors who make the subjects...Amongst the whole Roman Curia, amongst all the world’s bishops - who are progressives - I would have been completely swamped! I would have been able to do nothing! [As for the Pope appointing ‘conservative’ bishops] ...I don’t think it is a true return to Tradition. Just as in a fight, when the troops are going a little too far ahead, one holds them back - so they are slightly putting the brakes on the impulse of Vatican II, because the supporters of the Council are going too far…The supposedly ‘conservative bishops’ are wholly supportive of the Council and of the post-Conciliar Reforms… No! All of that is tactics, which you have to use in any fight! You have to avoid excesses… [When asked about ‘signs of benevolence to Tradition’, he replies] There are plenty of signs showing us that what you are talking about is simply exceptional and temporary … So I do not think it is opportune to try contacting Rome. I think we must still wait. Wait, unfortunately, for the situation to get still worse on their side. But, up till now, they do not want to recognize the fact … That is why what can look like a concession is, in reality, merely a maneuver to separate us from the largest number of faithful possible. This is the perspective in which they seem to be always giving a little more and even going very far. We must absolutely convince our faithful that it is no more than a maneuver, that it is dangerous to put oneself into the hands of Conciliar bishops and Modernist Rome! It is the greatest danger threatening our people! If we have struggled for twenty years [ now, in 2022, fifty-three years!] to avoid the Conciliar errors, it was not in order to, now, put ourselves in the hands of those professing those errors!” (Abp. Lefebvre, Interview, Fideliter, July-August 1989).
So again, the Revolution always succeeds by avoiding clear expressions. The Conciliar Church abandoned clarity of words, definitions and language. This was one of the accusations made by Abp. Lefebvre at the Council. So we must not be deceived when the leadership of the Conciliar-SSPX speaks of “canonical recognition”, when it really means an Agreement with Modernists!
In 2003, when Bishop Rifan of Campos signed the agreement with Rome, he confused the faithful with vague words and led them to believe it was a victory for Tradition when in fact, it was the opposite. He led the whole Traditional movement in Campos, Brazil into compromise with the Conciliar Church, who, ever since, accepts Vatican II and the New Mass! When signing the agreement, Bp. Rifan tried to camouflage his betrayal by saying “It’s not an agreement, it’s a recognition.” He tried to imply that Rome at last recognized the importance of Tradition, when it is obvious Rome has been trying to crush Tradition!
We must not be deceived by the novelty of words and vagueness of language. Call it what it is, both for Bp. Rifan and Bp. Fellay, this betrayal by “canonical recognition in gradual steps” or “proceeding slowly” is already the agreement with Modernist Rome!
Bp. Fellay recently boasted (in a Spanish Interview) of his frequent meetings with Pope Francis who promised him he would not condemn the New-SSPX and to “take it slowly towards Rome.” Who could possibly doubt the Pope’s good will? His epithets for the Traditional Catholics show his true colors: “nostalgics,” “imbalanced,” “moralistic debaters,” “Christians like bats who prefer darkness to the presence of the Lord!” etc., etc.
How is it that Abp. Lefebvre warnings seem to have fallen on deaf ears?
Persevere, little flock of the Lord! Our Lady has the victory!!
In Christ the King,
Fr. David Hewko
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| Fr. Gabriele Amorth on Padre Pio and the Third Secret of Fatima |
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Posted by: Stone - 02-19-2022, 07:23 AM - Forum: Vatican II and the Fruits of Modernism
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Excerpt
"Due to the rampant injustice and abuse of power, we have reached a compromise [Vatican-Moscow Agreement] with atheistic materialism [Communism], a denial of the rights of God. This is the punishment foretold at Fatima ... All the priests who support the possibility of a dialogue with the negators of God and with the Luciferian powers of the world [Freemasonry] are mad, have lost their faith, no longer believe in the Gospel! In so doing they betray the word of God, because Christ came to bring on earth perpetual covenant only to men of heart [good will], but did not join with the men thirsty for power and dominion over the brothers ... The flock is dispersed when the shepherds ally with the enemies of the Truth of Christ. All the forms of power made deaf to the will of the authority of the heart of God are rapacious wolves that renew the passion of Christ and make the Madonna shed tears ..." [1]
In 2011 Fr. Gabriel Amorth was interviewed by José María Zavala. Fr. Amorth, the famous Roman exorcist, personally knew Saint Padre Pio for 26 years, and it is from this towering figure of 20th century Catholic sanctity that he claims to have learned the contents of the Third Secret of Fatima. The interview as follows…
Zavala - “Forgive me for insisting on the Third Secret of Fatima: Did Padre Pio relate it, then, to the loss of faith within the Church?”
(Fr. Gabriele furrows his brow and sticks out his chin. He seems very affected.)
Amorth - “Indeed,” “One day Padre Pio said to me very sorrowfully: ‘You know, Gabriele? It is Satan who has been introduced into the bosom of the Church and within a very short time will come to rule a false Church.’”
Zavala - “Oh my God! Some kind of Antichrist! When did he prophesy this to you?”
Amorth - “It must have been about 1960, since I was already a priest then.”
Zavala - “Was that why John XXIII had such a panic about publishing the Third Secret of Fatima, so that the people wouldn’t think that he was the anti-pope or whatever it was …?”
(A slight but knowing smile curls the lips of Father Amorth.)
Zavala - “Did Padre Pio say anything else to you about future catastrophes: earthquakes, floods, wars, epidemics, hunger …? Did he allude to the same plagues prophesied in the Holy Scriptures?”
Amorth - “Nothing of the sort mattered to him, however terrifying they proved to be, except for the great apostasy within the Church. This was the issue that really tormented him and for which he prayed and offered a great part of his suffering, crucified out of love.”
Zavala - “The Third Secret of Fatima?”
Amorth - “Exactly.”
Zavala - “Is there any way to avoid something so terrible, Fr. Gabriele?”
Amorth - “There is hope, but it’s useless if it’s not accompanied by works. Let us begin by consecrating Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, let us recite the Holy Rosary, let us all do prayer and penance…” [2]
Footnotes:
[1] Padre Pio in 1963 during a public admonition to his spiritual sons amidst the Second Vatican Council, published in "Avvenire" 19 August 1978; Antonio Socci, The Fourth Secret of Fatima, 2006, footnote #350 wordpress.com/…6/causa-lingiustizia-dilagante-e-labuso-di-potere/ +++ Parole profetiche di San Pio da petrelcina
[2] Chief Exorcist Father Amorth: Padre Pio Knew The Third Secret - OnePeterFive
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