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| August 9th - Vigil of St. Lawrence |
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Posted by: Stone - 08-09-2021, 06:10 AM - Forum: August
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August 9 – Vigil of St Laurence, Martyr; Comm. of St Romanus, Martyr
“Fear not, my servant, for I am with thee, saith the Lord. If thou pass through fire, the flame shall not hurt thee, and the odor of fire shall not be in thee. I will deliver thee out of the hand of the wicked, and I will redeem thee out of the hand of the mighty.” It was the hour of combat; and Wisdom, more powerful than flame, was calling upon Laurence to win the laurels of victory presaged by his very name. The three days since the death of Sixtus had passed at length, and the deacon’s exile was about to close: he was soon to stand beside his Pontiff at the altar in heaven, and never more to be separated from him. But before going to perform his office as deacon in the eternal sacrifice, he must on this earth, where the seeds of eternity are sown, give proof of the brave faithfulness which becomes a Levite of the Law of Love. Laurence was ready. He had said to Sixtus: “Try the fidelity of the minister to whom thou didst intrust the dispensation of the Blood of our Lord.” He had now, according to the Pontiff’s wish, distributed to the poor the treasures of the Church; as the chants of the Liturgy tell us on this very morning. But he knew that if a man should give all the substance of his house for love, he shall despise it as nothing; and he longed to give himself as well. Overflowing with joy in his generosity he hailed the holocaust, whose sweet perfume he seemed already to perceive rising up to heaven. And well might he have sung the offertory on this Vigil’s Mass: “My prayer is pure, and therefore I ask that a place be given to my voice in heaven: for my judge is there, and he that knoweth my conscience is on high: let my prayer ascend to the Lord.”
Sublime prayer of the just man which pierces the clouds! Even now we can say with the Church: His seed shall be mighty upon earth, the seed of new Christians sprung from the blood of martyrdom; for today we greet the first fruits thereof in the person of Romanus, the neophyte whom his first torments won to Christ, and who preceded him to heaven. Let us, with the Church, unite the soldier and the deacon in our prayers:
Prayer
Adesto, Domine, supplicationibus nostris: et, intercessione beati Laurentii, Martyris tui, cujus prævenimus festivitatem, perpetuam nobis misericordiam benignus impende. Per Dominum.
Attend, O Lord, to our supplications, and by the intercession of blessed Laurence, thy martyr, whose festival we anticipate, graciously extend to us perpetual mercy. Through our Lord, &c.
Prayer
Præsta, quæsumus omnipotens Deus: ut, intercedente beato Romano, Martyre tuo, et a cunctis adversitatibus liberemur in corpore, e ta pravis cogitationibus mundemur in mente. Per Dominum.
Grant, we beseech thee, O Almighty God, that by the intercession of blessed Romanus, thy martyr, we may both be delivered from all adversities in body, and be purified from all evil thoughts in mind. Through our Lord, &c.
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| August 8th - St. Jean Marie Vianney |
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Posted by: Stone - 08-09-2021, 05:56 AM - Forum: August
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Blessed John Baptist Vianney
The Blessed John Baptist Vianney, parish priest of Ars, is certainly one of the noblest figures among the saints of the nineteenth century. If one would know holiness in all its charms, in its ineffable gentleness and amiability, let him read the life of this illustrious ornament of the French clergy. The supernatural power revealed in him is so grand and so clearly manifest that only the ill-disposed can deny it.
John Baptist Vianney, born May 8, 1786, in the village of Dardilly, near Lyons, was the son of simple peasants. Grace attracted him heavenward from the beginning. Reason had hardly dawned in him when it turned toward God. The boy of three or four years was often found praying in some secluded corner of the house. When, at the age of seven, he was sent to tend the cows, he was able to spend almost the entire day in the sweetness of prayer. Even then he gave promise of his future calling. He used to gather the shepherd boys of the neighborhood around him from time to time and give them a little exhortation on the duty of avoiding evil and of persevering in good. He had always before his eyes the best example in his parents, who were models of piety and were most careful to preserve their children from every taint of evil.
Then came the French Revolution, closing the churches and expelling the priests. Blessed John received his first Holy Communion in a barn during the darkness of night. Finally, in 1803 a priest, the zealous Charles Bailey, was appointed to Ecully, about three miles from Dardilly. His attention was soon attracted to the virtuous John Vianney. He offered to help John to become a priest. The young man gladly agreed, lodged with relations at Ecully and began to learn Latin. He was then seventeen years old, but had had scarcely any schooling. Study, therefore, proved very difficult for him, for his natural talent appeared to be rather poor. But his tutor, convinced that this upright and innocent youth would serve the Church well by his holiness, if not by his learning, did not lose patience. Vianney sought help from God and vowed a pilgrimage to the tomb of St. John Francis Regis at Lalouvesc. While he advanced steadily but slowly in his studies, it brought him many humiliations. In the little seminary of Verrieres he had to suffer much from his fellow-students and he failed in his examination for entrance into the great seminary of Lyons. It was only through the intercession of his tutor Bailey that he was granted a second examination and admission to the seminary. On August 9, 1815, the end was at last attained. Vianney was a priest. His former teacher, Father Bailey, asked to have him for an assistant. Ecully rejoiced, for it already knew the profound piety and modesty of the newly-ordained priest. Vianney's good sense in the direction of souls soon showed itself. His zeal was prodigious but not indiscreet or excessive, and he began at once to achieve noble triumphs.
At the beginning of February, 1818, Vianney was appointed parish priest of Ars. The vicar-general said to him: "My friend, you are pastor of Ars. It is a small parish where there is little love for God. Bring it to them." Ars was in bad repute and not without reason. Even among the good attendance at divine service and the reception of the sacraments were limited to what was just necessary. The rest sometimes attended, but only exteriorly. Dissolute pleasure seeking allowed religion only scant existence.
Still all admired the edifying example of the new pastor in the church and in his humble and modest manner of life. If the sheep did not come to the shepherd the shepherd sought out the sheep. Vianney went from house to house, showed interest in their welfare and their troubles and spoke kinds words of encouragement and consolation. In this way the ice was broken. Sunday after Sunday more came to church, They ventured even to approach the sacraments outside the great feasts. Those who had once experienced in confession what gentleness flowed from the heart of the priest and how refreshing were his words, soon came again. With his heart glowing with love and speaking as only saints can speak he preached on God, death, heaven, hell, and on the Blessed Sacrament so movingly that from eyes which on like occasions had never wept there welled up fountains of tears. In the whole village only one voice was heard: "Our pastor is a saint." In the course of time no one could escape the influence of his personality. It was indeed a long struggle and many years passed before all hearts were conquered, for the love of pleasure made a most stubborn resistance.
The news of this change in Ars and of the holiness of its pastor soon spread throughout the neighboring country round about, penetrating at length to the limits of France and thence abroad. Every day the roads that led to Ars brought greater pilgrimages. Monnin says of them: "These pilgrimages, which went on for more than thirty years with extraordinarily great crowds and under exceptional circumstances, will fill a large page in Christian annals. They give the monograph we now publish a color so living and original, a framing so splendid, that it seems to be poetry as well as history. We find here on a large scale all those wonders with which our ancient hagiographers loved to adorn their narratives. But we have no mythical antiquity before us and no one can find excuse for our belief that our history of this man who is still a contemporary will show any trace of fanciful or exaggerated elaboration.
It is a history of our own time which can bring forward witnesses to its truth by thousands and hundreds of thousands, yet we find in it all that we marvel at in the legends of the past--all that in our own day we may regard as extraordinary heroism, perfect mortification, wonderful self-denial, incomparable humility, boundless love of God and our neighbor, and a dominion over souls--a power to draw them from afar, to move them, to convert and to gain them for heaven; and further, as if in proof of this spiritual dominion, a miraculous power over nature, the power to change the ordinary course of things, to heal bodily diseases, to read the depths of conscience as an open book, to foretell the future--in a word, he possessed the miraculous gift of knowledge and of power. This does not constitute, it is true, what is most sublime in the lives of the saints, but it is most convincing with the people--one of them told us: 'Before I came to Ars and saw the good Father [so the pilgrims used to call our saint], I found it hard to believe all that is related in the lives of the saints. Much in them seemed to me impossible. But now I believe it all, for I have seen all those things with my own eyes and even more.'"
In fact, Ars proved to be a constant miracle. Men could not say precisely what it was that attracted these vast crowds from near and far. They saw only a poor little church and a poorly-clad priest. Yet they stood there close-thronged and waited patiently two or three days to confess to him and to listen to his simple catechism, which powerfully stirred their consciences. Many came out of mere curiosity, but on these, too, fell the rays of grace. They could not resist going in and confessing their sins to the holy priest. To these wonders of grace were added the most astonishing cures of the sick, which he effected through the intercession of St. Philomena, and his wise admonitions, which were certainly inspired by divine enlightenment.
These labors demanded of him the heaviest personal sacrifices. He could hardly allow himself one or two hours of rest at night. A little after midnight he hurried to the confessional, there to remain the whole day except during the times of Mass, of the brief instruction, and of his very scanty meal. One can not understand whence he derived the physical strength for such uninterrupted exertions. Still, not satisfied with all this, he afflicted his body with the severest penances, and it pleased God to send him the most grievous interior trials. His combats with the evil one, which are verified by the best authorities, remind us of what St. Athanasius relates of the hermit Anthony. All that is related of the gifts of grace and the fulness of virtue possessed by the holy Cure of Ars and of the wonderful cures and conversions wrought by him, is full of consolation. What faith teaches of the power, the beauty, and the grandeur of the soul of the just man was embodied in him. Vianney was to be set against the unbelieving spirit of the age as a visible proof of the truth of Christian teaching.
On July 29, 1859, the Cure, then seventy-three years of age, had been, as usual, for sixteen or seventeen hours in the confessional, and there his strength suddenly gave way. On the morning of the fourth of August his soul took its flight to heaven while Abbe Monnin was reciting the prayer of the dying: "Veniant illi obviam sancti angeli Dei et perducant eum in civitatem caelestem Jerusalem;" "May the holy angels of God meet him and guide him into the city of the heavenly Jerusalem." But his influence was not ended with his death. All Christendom rejoiced when Pius X, on January 8, 1905, numbered this ideal pastor of souls among the beatified.
✠ ✠ ✠
The sufferings He Inflicted on Himself
It is from the period of the foundation of the Providence that M. Monnin dates the commencement of the heroic life of the Cur of Ars. "Those," says he, "who did not approach him till the later years of his life, when the habit of sanctity had become a second nature to him; when the practice of the most heroic virtues had become so familiar as no longer to cost him an effort; when, united with, and transformed into, Him, who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, he had become one with Him, loving what He loves, hating what He hates, never changing tone or look, whatever might befall him; following every movement of that Divine Master, with Whose Heart and will his own were inseparably united; those who knew him in those days admired a work finished and perfected. But they would have much mistaken had they imagined that the Cure of Ars had become a saint without the toil and effort by which alone saints are made.
"'Who are these,' says one of the ancients in the Apocalypse, 'who are around the Throne before the face of the Lamb, clothed in white robes, and having palms in their hands? Who are they, and whence come they?' And he is answered, 'These are they who are come out of great tribulation.' This is the law of sanctity; and it was not given to our saint to escape it, or to unite himself by any other means to Him who is the Saint of saints.
"Through how many tribulations, conflicts, and trials did he pass before he reached the lofty summit on which we have seen him so tranquilly reposing! So true are the words of St. Catherine, that never from the beginning to the end of the world has our Lord willed, or shall He will, that anything great should be accomplished but through much suffering. "Sanctity is the fruit of sacrifice. It is a death, and a new birth; the death of the old man, the birth of the new. There is no death without its suffering, no childbirth without its pangs."
Of the sufferings of our holy cure, some were inflicted by himself, some by the devil, some by good and some by evil men; some, and those the most intense of all, by the hand of God Himself. And first of those which were self-imposed. There are few, even among the saints, whose lives bear the marks of a more systematic and unflinching crucifixion of the whole man, a more uniform practice both of exterior and interior mortification, than we find in the portrait traced of him by those familiar with the details of his daily life.
Claudine Renard, the pious widow who had the charge of washing his linen, and rendering him such other little services as he could not refuse to receive at her hands, could rarely obtain admittance into the presbytery. On the few occasions when she contrived to effect an entrance, after doing her best to put the poor furniture in order, she sometimes proceeded to make the good Cur's bed. She thus discovered that, one by one, he had cast aside all the bedding he had brought with him from Ecully, till nothing remained but the straw palliasse; and that finding even this too luxurious, he had put a board on the top of it.
"And besides," said Catherine, when relating these particulars, "there is hardly any straw left now in that poor bed. He takes it out by degrees, till at last there will be nothing left but the wood. Then he will be satisfied. We have tried sometimes secretly to put in a few handfuls, but it only made him take out more; for if he felt his bed a little less hard, he would pull out the straw, and throw it into the fire. We discovered this by finding the ashes in the fireplace."
It was accidentally found out afterwards, that, to satisfy his increasing thirst for suffering, M. Vianney was in the habit of discarding his bed altogether, and sleeping on the bare floor of the granary with a stone for his pillow.
His favorite food consisted of some pieces of the coarsest black bread bought out of the basket of some poor man. The Abbe Renard, in a memoir drawn up by him of the early days of the holy Cur's ministry, tell us that he had often witnessed the joy with which he ate this most distasteful food. If he perceived the disgust which his companion felt at the sight of it, he would laugh and invite him to share his dinner, saying, "It is a blessing, dear friend, to be permitted to eat the bread of the poor; they are the friends of Jesus Christ. I feel as if I were sitting at His table."
When these delicacies were not to be procured, his ordinary meal consisted of potatoes, which he boiled himself once a week. Sometimes, when his own stock of potatoes had come to an end, he has been seen, with his basket in his hand, begging his week's provision from door to door. He took our Lord at His word, and left the whole care of his life, and all that belonged to it, to the pledged care of His Providence. He never withheld an alms because it would leave him without provision for the morrow, or even for the day.
A neighbor one day brought him a loaf of fine flour, which she had made on purpose for him. She went back to fetch some milk; and believing that he had been long fasting, she wished him to eat the bread and milk in her presence. No persuasions could induce him to consent. At last an idea struck her, which would account for his pertinacious refusal.
"I see, M. le Cure," said she, "you have no bread left." True, indeed; a beggar had passed while she was gone, and the whole loaf of bread had been deposited in his wallet. M. Vianney seemed determined, in those days, to try how long human nature could be supported without food. He sometimes reduced himself to such a state of weakness, as to be obliged to lean against the forms or walls of the church for support. When, after long days of fasting, he could hold out no longer, he would take a handful of flour, and, moistening it with a little water, make a few matafaims (A thin cake so called in the Dombes), which served him for his single meal.
Catherine tells us that she had often heard him say: "Oh! how happy I was in those days! I had not the whole world on my hands; I was all alone. When I wanted my dinner, I did not lose much time over it. Three matefaims did the business. I ate the first while I was baking the second; and while I was eating the second, I baked the third. As I finished my dinner, I arranged my fire and my stove, drank a little water, and that was enough for two or three days."
It has, in fact, been ascertained that the Cure of Ars often passed several days together without taking any nourishment whatever, when he desired to obtain some special grace for himself or his parishioners, to make reparation for some scandal which had wrung his heart, or to do penance for some grievous sinner, whom he judged too weak in courage, or in contrition, to perform it for himself. When asked how a confessor was to act in order to exact due reparation for sin, and at the same time show necessary consideration for the weakness of sinners, he said, "I will tell you my recipe. I give them a light penance, and do the rest in their place."
He had great confidence in the efficacy of fasting as a means of appeasing Divine justice, and a weapon against the evil one.
''The devil," said he, "laughs at disciplines and other instruments of penance; or, at least, if he does not laugh at them, he cares little for them; but what puts him effectually to flight is the privation of food and sleep. There is nothing which the devil dreads so much, and nothing which is more pleasing to God. I experienced this during the five or six years when I was alone, and could follow my attrait without being remarked. Oh, what graces did the Lord vouchsafe to me at that time! I obtained everything. I wanted from Him." His assistant priest once said to him: "M. le Cur, it is said that at one time you could easily pass a whole week without eating."
"Oh, no, my friend," replied he; "that is an exaggeration. The utmost I ever did was to go through a week upon three meals."
He has acknowledged on other occasions having abstained from all nourishment for whole days together, and sometimes for forty-eight hours. The habitual rigid abstinence which he practiced appears from a remark which escaped him one day, when a batch of baking at the Providence had been very successful: "Well, for once I must be greedy, and eat as much as I want." It is positively affirmed by Catherine that he has passed a whole Lent without consuming two pounds of bread. He even tried to live without bread altogether. Claudine Renard caught him one day eating a handful of grass.
"What, M. le Cur," said she in amazement, "are you eating grass?"
"Yes, my good mother Renard," answered he with a smile; "it is an experiment which I am trying; but it does not answer."
"It is very plain," said he, long afterwards, in a moment of affectionate familiarity, to his assistant priest, "that we are differently formed from the beasts. I once tried to live like them, upon grass; but I lost all my strength. It seems that bread is necessary to man."
Bishop Devie once asked him: "Did you ever try to live upon roots and grass, like your predecessors, the fathers of the desert?"
"Monseigneur," replied he, "I did try it once for a week; but I could not go on. I am not a saint like them."
"One day," says Catherine, "I tried to persuade M. le Cure to take a little more nourishment. I said, 'You will never hold out, if you go on living in this way.' 'Oh, yes,' replied he gaily. 'What says our Lord? I have another food to eat; which is, to do the will of My Father, who hath sent Me.' Then he added, 'I have a good carcass. I am tough. As soon as I have eaten something, no matter what, or slept a couple of hours, I can begin again. When you have given something to a good horse, he sets off upon the trot again, as if nothing ailed him; and a horse hardly ever lies down.'"
The best horse, however, may be overridden, and M. Vianney was sometimes forced to acknowledge that he could do no more.
"There are days when I can really hardly speak; especially about seven in the morning, and seven in the evening; but I always find strength to speak of the good God."
At evening prayers his voice was sometimes scarcely audible. He was asked once, why he spoke so loud when he preached, and so low when he prayed.
"Because, when I am preaching," said he, "I have to deal with those who are deaf or sleeping; but when I pray, I have to deal with the good God, and He is not deaf."
In fact, he always went to the very limit of his powers. "My good cure," said M. d'Ars, "do take a little more care of yourself, if you would not give me continual distractions. When I hear you recite the Rosary in that feeble, worn-out tone, I find myself saying, instead of Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us,' 'My God, have pity on him, and give him grace to go on to the end.'"
Sometimes the good lady got fairly angry with him, and threatened to complain of him to the Archbishop; and, indeed, M. Courbon, the Vicar-General, who looked upon him as in some sort a child of his own, remonstrated with him, though without effect.
The only occasions on which M. Vianney relaxed, in any degree, the habitual austerity of his life, were when he was called upon to exercise hospitality to a brother priest. On these rare occasions, he would send to Mdlle. d'Ars; or, if there was not time to reach the castle, Mdlle. Pignaut, or Claudine Renard, would provide a dinner, simple indeed, but very different from his ordinary fare, which he would make a show of sharing with his guests, while, in the words of one who enjoyed his hospitality on one of these occasions, "he ceased not to discourse of heavenly things, like a man absorbed in God." It is an instance of what has been before observed, of the strength and tenderness of his home affections, that he showed the same consideration for any of his relatives who came to see him. When his nephew and niece from Dardilly paid him a visit, some little addition was always made. He sat down to dinner with them, whereas he always took his solitary meals standing; carved for them, and courteously did all the honors of the table, encouraging them to eat, and eating with them of whatever was before them. But as these good people said, "When we were at Ars, we felt neither hunger nor thirst; it was always like the day of our first Communion."
Then M. Vianney would ask kindly after all his old friends at Dardilly, and dwell upon his childish reminiscences, asking particularly after the old apple-tree, under the shadows of which the reapers had been accustomed to dine and sleep.
We are told of a very characteristic banquet, to which the good cure invited Mdlle. Pignaut and the widow Renard, who, to satisfy a little womanly curiosity, often teased him to give them an entertainment in return for the many repasts they had provided for his guests. He could do no less, they said, than invite them in return.
"One evening, then," says Catherine, "when M. le Cure had laid in a fresh stock of his favorite black bread, he went to visit his neighbor.
"'Claudine,' said he, in a livelier tone than usual, 'you are to come to my house at once, with your daughter and Mdlle. Pignaut. I want you all three.'
"Exceedingly pleased, and above all exceedingly curious to know what M. le Cure wanted with them, the three women arrived at the presbytery.
"'What do I want with you?' said he, as soon as they came in; 'I want you to sup with me. Are you not pleased? Take chairs, and sit down. What a feast we are going to have! We will eat the bread of the poor--the friends of Jesus Christ--and we will drink the good water of the good God. So much for the body. And then we will-read out of the lives of those holy Saints who were so penitent and so mortified. So much for the soul. And so now let us set to work.'"
The good Cure had arranged his table, and spread his feast: in the middle was a basket filled with the bread of the poor; on the right, a large folio volume of the Lives of the Saints; on the left, a pitcher of water, with a wooden cup.
At the sight of this grand preparation, Claudine Renard,who was in the secret, exchanged a look with M. le Cur, and smiled; the other two were a little disconcerted. Without seeming to notice their confusion, M. Vianney blessed the table, and offered a piece of bread to each.
"I dared not refuse," said Anne Renard, when she related the story. "I got to the end of my piece of bread, and so did my mother; but poor Mdlle. Pignaut, do what she would, could not manage to swallow hers. She was on thorns the whole time the visit lasted, having never been invited to such a feast before. She never tried to get another invitation."
M. Vianney would certainly have wanted the necessaries of life but for the watchful care of Divine Providence in commissioning one pious hand after another to supply his wants. On the death of the good widow Renard, her place was 'filled by a pious woman, who went by the name of Soeur Lacon. She carried on a perpetual warfare with the holy cure to induce him to mitigate in some degree the inflexible austerity of his life. She would slip unawares into the presbytery, and leave with-inside the provisions which M. Vianney had refused to receive from her. Great was her self-gratulation on such occasions, until, on the following morning, she would recognize her gift in the wallet of the first beggar who came to ask alms at her door.
Catherine's journal contains an amusing account of one of these skirmishes between Soeur Lacon and her incorrigible pastor:
"She had made a beautiful pie for M. le Cure, which, when baked to perfection, she took out of the oven, and hid in an old cupboard in the presbytery kitchen, thinking it would be sure to be safe in that deserted corner of the house. She impatiently awaited M. Vianney's return in the evening; and as soon as she heard him come in, she said to him, in the most insinuating tone in the world, 'M. le Cure, will you have a little piece of pie?'
"'Certainly,' replied he, immediately; 'I should like it very much!
"Delighted with so unusual an acquiescence, she flew to her hiding-place, when, alas, no pie was to be found! What could have become of it? Had M. le Cure found it out, and given it to some poor man? This was really too much. She went up stairs in great indignation.
"'M. le Cure, this is too bad. My pie was my own; I did not give it to you.'
"'Why did you put it in the presbytery, then?' replied he, very quietly. 'I conclude that what I find in my house is my own, and that I have a right to dispose of it.'"
Poor Mdlle. Lacon, as Catherine tells us, had taken a great deal of trouble to give M. Vianney this surprise; and was the more to be pitied, as she was upwards of seventy, had one leg shorter than the other, and had great difficulty in moving about, on account of her rheumatism.
"M. le Cure, however," adds she, "only did it to try her; for he knew that she was a good soul, and that the more sacrifices he led her to make, the more would she advance in the ways of God."
That she was a good soul, free from malice and guile, appears from her proposing, a few days afterwards, to M. Vianney to make him some matefaims. He consented with a readiness which might have led her to suspect mischief. But in the innocence of her heart she set to work to mix her flour; and, being doubtful of her own skill, called in Mdlle. Pignaut to counsel. M. Vianney watched all these preparations with a malicious eye. When they were finished, the dish was solemnly placed before him. He joined his hands, and raised his eyes to heaven, as if about to say the Benedicite; and then, while all around were devoutly making the sign of the Cross, he took up the dish, ran down stairs with it, and distributed the contents to the poor.
M. Vianney was often to be met hurrying along with something concealed under his cassock. He would go about, knocking at one door after another, till he found some one to receive his alms, which it was his great object to bestow with the greatest possible secrecy, and unknown, if possible, even to the objects of his bounty. An old blind woman, who lived near the church, was on this account a special favorite. He would enter her cottage softly, and deposit his gift in her apron without speaking a word. She would feel with her hand what he had given her, and, supposing she owed it to the kindness of some of her poor neighbors, would answer, " Many thanks, good woman; many thanks;" to the great delight of M. le Curl, who would go away laughing heartily.
M. Vianney, after some of his long fasts, often came home from the church so utterly exhausted, that he was unable to stand. On these occasions he would laugh merrily, and seem as much delighted with himself as a schoolboy who has succeeded in some mischievous frolic.
One day, as Catherine tells us, he felt so faint in the confessional, that he said to himself, "You had better come out while you can, or they will be obliged to carry you." So he dragged himself, as best he could, to the Providence, when he arrived panting for breath, and as pale as a corpse. He asked for a little eau de Cologne.
"Well, Monsieur," said Catherine, as she brought it to him, "you must be quite happy this time; you have carried things far enough to-day." And indeed, said she, "under his pale and sunken features we could perceive the radiance of an exceeding interior joy." It was the joy of victory over a vanquished enemy; and that enemy whom he thus triumphed over and laughed to scorn was himself. He would take nothing but a little eau de Cologne; and as soon as he could stand, hastened into the next room to catechize the children.
"When the catechizing is over," says Catherine, "he finds his little earthen pipkin by the fire containing some milk just colored with chocolate. He generally takes his meal, if meal it can be called, standing by the chimney corner, and often drinks his milk without putting any bread into it at all; the whole is concluded in the course of five minutes. When he is in a hurry, he returns to the presbytery with his pipkin in his hand; so that any one who met him going through the streets would take him for a beggar who had just received an alms. He is never better pleased, nor in a merrier mood, than on these occasions."
It was thus that he contrived to add humiliation to mortification. An ecclesiastic, who had come to Ars on purpose to see him, met him thus eating his dinner as he went along. "Are you the Cur of Ars, of whom every one speaks " said he, in great astonishment and disgust.
"Yes, my good friend; I am indeed the poor Cur of Ars."
"This is a little too much," said the priest; "I had expected to see something dignified and striking. This little Cure has no presence or dignity, and eats in the street like a beggar. It is a mystery altogether."
The words were repeated to M. Vianney, who delighted to tell the story. "The poor good gentleman," said he, "was fairly caught; he came to Ars to see something, and found nothing."
A second interview, however, brought this contemptuous visitor under the power of the singular fascination which the little Cure exercised over all who came within its sphere. He made a good retreat under his direction, and no longer wondered what men came out into the wilderness to see.
The dress of M. Vianney corresponded with his fare. Though a great lover of order and cleanliness, he never allowed himself more than one cassock at a time. It was washed and mended till it would no longer hold together, and not till then would he consent to replace it by a new one. It was the same with his hat, which was worn till it was perfectly shapeless; and with his shoes, which were never approached by brush or blacking. Thus arrayed, he would present himself at the ecclesiastical conferences or other meetings of the clergy, which he made a point of attending, meeting all the raillery of his brethren by the invariable reply, "It is quite good enough for the Cure of Ars. Who do you think would take scandal at it? When you have said, It is the Cure of Ars, you have said all there is to say."
"Thus was it," says M. Monnin, "that he became a Saint,--by sparing himself in nothing, little or great; by applying fire and steel to the most sensitive parts of his being. Such, at the period of his history at which we have arrived, was the Cure of Ars. Having overcome the slavery of self, he was free to follow every impulse of the Holy Ghost. He had removed all the hindrances, and broken all the bonds, which could attach his heart to anything below the Supreme Good. His will soared above this world, in union with the will of God. His views, his desires, his affections, were, so to speak, deified; his expanded heart included all creatures in its wide and fraternal embrace. He had but one wish,--that God's name should be hallowed : His kingdom come; His will be done on earth, as it is in heaven." With him, as with St. Paul, to live was Christ; and it was manifest to all who saw him, that Christ lived in him.
Quote:Prayer to Our Lady by St. John Mary Vianney
O thou most holy virgin Mary, who dost evermore stand before the most holy Trinity, and to whom it is granted at all times to pray for us to thy most beloved Son; pray for me in all my necessities; help me, combat for me, and obtain for me the pardon of all my sins. Help me especially at my last hour; and when I can no longer give any sign of the use of reason, then do thou encourage me, make the sign of the cross for me, and fight for me against the enemy. Make in my name a profession of faith; favor me with a testimony of my salvation, and never let me despair of the mercy of God. Help me to overthrow the wicked enemy. When I can no longer say:
"Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, I place my soul in your hands," do thou say it for me; when I can no longer hear human words of consolation, do thou comfort me. Leave me not before I have been judged; and if I have to expiate my sins in purgatory, Oh! pray for me earnestly; and admonish my friends to procure for me a speedy enjoyment of the blessed sight of God. Lessen my sufferings, deliver me speedily, and lead my soul into heaven with thee: that, united with all the elect, I may there bless and praise my God and thee for all eternity. Amen.
Hymn: Iste Confessor
This the Confessor of the Lord, whose triumph
Now all the faithful celebrate, with gladness
Erst on this feast-day merited to enter
Into his glory.
Saintly and prudent, modest in behavior,
Peaceful and sober, chaste was he, and lowly,
While that life's vigor, coursing through his members,
Quickened his being.
Sick ones of old time, to his tomb resorting,
Sorely by ailments manifold afflicted,
Oft-times have welcomed health and strength returning,
At his petition.
Whence we in chorus gladly do him honor,
Chanting his praises with devout affection,
That in his merits we may have a portion,
Now and forever.
His be the glory, power and salvation,
Who over all things reigneth in the highest,
Earth's mighty fabric ruling and directing,
Onely and Trinal. Amen
A Prayer for Priests
Keep them, I pray Thee, dearest Lord,
Keep them, for they are Thine
Thy priests whose lives burn out before Thy consecrated shrine.
Keep them, and comfort them in hours of loneliness and pain,
When all their life of sacrifice for souls seems but in vain.
Keep them, and O remember, Lord, They have no one but Thee,
Yet they have only human hearts with human frailty.
Keep them as spotless as the host that daily, they caress.
Their ever thought and word and deed
Deign, dearest Lord, to bless.
August
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| August 8th – Sts Cyriacus, Largus, and Smaragdus, Martyrs |
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Posted by: Stone - 08-08-2021, 06:33 AM - Forum: August
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August 8 – Sts Cyriacus, Largus, and Smaragdus, Martyrs
Taken from The Liturgical Year by Dom Prosper Guéranger (1841-1875)
St Cyriacus Ordained by Pope MarcellusSt Cyriacus ordained by Pope Marcellus
Today a precursor of Laurence appears on the cycle, the deacon Cyriacus, whose power over the demon made hell tremble, and entitles him to a place among the Saints called helpers. He and his companions in martyrdom form one of the noblest groups of Christ’s army in that last and decisive battle, wherein the eagerness of the faithful to show that they knew how to die, won victory for the Cross. Rome, baptized in the blood she had shed, found herself Christian in spite of herself; all her honors were now to be lavished upon the very men whom in the time of her folly she had put to the sword. Such are thy triumphs, O Wisdom of God!
Mention of the three martyrs celebrated today is to be found in the most authentic calendars of the Church that have come down to us from the fourth century. If, then, Baronius acknowledged, there is some reason for calling into question certain details of the legend, their cultus is nonetheless immemorial upon earth; and the unwavering devotion of which they are the objects, especially in the sanctuaries enriched with their holy relics, proves that they have great power before the throne of the Lamb.
Quote:Cyriacus, a deacon, underwent, a long imprisonment together with Largus, Sisinius and Smaragdus, and worked many miracles. Amongst others, by his prayers, he freed Arthemia, a daughter of Diocletian, from the possession of the devil. He was sent to Sapor, king of Persia, and delivered his daughter, Jobia, in like manner from the devil. He baptized the king, her father, and four hundred and thirty others, and then returned to Rome. There he was seized by command of the Emperor Maximian, and dragged in chains before his chariot. Four days afterwards he was taken out of prison, boiling pitch was poured over him, he was stretched on the rack, and at length he was put to death by the axe, with Largus, Smaragdus, and twenty others at Sallust’s Gardens on the Salarian Way. A priest named John buried their bodies on that same way, on the 17th of the Calends of April, but on the 6th of the Ides of August, Pope Marcellus and the noble lady Lucina wrapt them in linen with precious spices, and translated them to Lucina’s estate on the Ostian Way, seven miles from Rome.
The Church today recites this prayer in their honor:
Prayer
Deus, qui nos annua sanctorum Martyrum tuorum Cyriaci, Largi et Smaragdi solemnitate lætificas: concede propitius; ut quorum natalitia colimus, virtutem quoque passionis imitemur. Per Dominum.
O God, who dost rejoice us by the annual solemnity of thy holy martyrs, Cyriacus, Largus and Smaragdus, mercifully grant that we may imitate the virtue with which they suffered, whose festival we celebrate. Through, &c.
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| Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost |
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Posted by: Stone - 08-08-2021, 06:02 AM - Forum: Pentecost
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INSTRUCTION ON THE ELEVENTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST.
From Fr. Leonard Goffine's Explanations of the Epistles and Gospels for the Sundays, Holydays, and Festivals throughout the Ecclesiastical Year 36th edition, 1880
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AT the Introit pray with the priest for brotherly love and for protection against our enemies within and without: God in his holy place; God, who maketh men of one mind to dwell in a house: he shall give power and strenghth to his people. Let God arise, and let his enemies be scattered; and let them that hate him flee from before His face. (Ps. lxvii.) Glory, &c.
PRAYER OF THE CHURCH. Almighty, everlasting God, who, in the abundance of Thy loving kindness, dost exceed both the merits and desires of Thy suppliants; pour down upon us Thy mercy, that thou mayest forgive those things of which our conscience is afraid, and grant us those things which our prayer ventures not to ask. Thro.
EPISTLE. (i Cor. xv. i — 10.) Brethren, I make known unto you the gospel which I preached to you, which also you have received, and wherein you stand: by which also you are saved: if you hold fast after what manner I preached unto you, unless you have believed in vain. For I delivered unto you first of all, which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures: and that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures: and that he was seen by Cephas, and after that by the eleven. Then was he seen by more than five hundred brethren at once, of whom many remain until this present, and some are fallen asleep. After that he was seen by James, then by all the apostles. And last of all, he was seen also by me, as by one born out of due time. For I am the least of the apostles, who am not worthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the Church of God; but by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace in me hath not been void.
Quote:INSTRUCTION.
I. St. Paul warns the Corinthians against those who denied the Resurrection of Christ and exhorts them to persevere in the faith which they have received, and to live in accordance with the same. Learn from this to persevere firmly in the one, only saving Catholic faith, which is the same that Paul preached.
II. In this epistle to the Corinthians St. Paul gives us a beautiful example of humility. Because of the sins he had committed before his conversion, he calls himself one born out of due time, the least of the apostles, and not worthy of being called an apostle, although he had labored much in the service of Christ. He ascribes it to God's grace that he was what he was. Thus speaks the truly humble man : he sees in himself nothing but weakness, sin, and evil, and therefore despises himself and is therefore willing to be despised by others. The good which he professes or practices, he ascribes to God, to whom he refers all the honor. Endeavor, too, O Christian soul, to attain such humility. You have far more reason to do so than had St. Paul, because of the sins which you have committed since your baptism, the graces which you have abused, and the inactive, useless life you have led.
ASPIRATION. Banish from me, O most loving Saviour, the spirit of pride, and grant me the necessary grace of humility. Let me realize that of myself I can do nothing, and that all my power to effect any good, comes from Thee alone who alone workest in us to will and to accomplish.
GOSPEL. (Mark vii. 31 — 37.) At that time, Jesus going out of the coast of Tyre, came by Sidon to the sea of Galilee, through the midst of the coast of Decapolis. And they bring to him one deaf and dumb, and they besought him that he would lay his hand upon him. And taking him from the multitude apart, he put his fingers into his ears, and spitting, he touched his tongue: and looking up to heaven, he groaned, and said to him, Ephpheta, which is. Be thou opened: and immediately his ears were opened, and the string of his tongue was loosed, and he spoke right. And he charged them that they should tell no man; but the more he charged them, so much the more a great deal did they publish it, and so much the more did they wonder, saying: He hath done all things well: he hath made both the deaf to hear, and the dumb to speak.
Whom may we understand by the deaf and dumb man?
Those who desire neither to hear nor to speak of things concerning salvation.
Why did Christ take the deaf and dumb man aside?
To teach us that he who wishes to live piously and be comforted, must avoid the noisy world, and dangerous society, and love solitude, for there God speaks to the heart. (Osee ii. 14.)
Why did Christ forbid them to mention this miracle?
That we might learn to fly from the praise of vain and fickle men.
What do we learn from those who brought the deaf and dumb man to Jesus, and notwithstanding tin- prohibition, made known the miracle?
That in want and sickness we should kindly assist our neighbor, and not neglect to announce and praise the works of (rod, for God works His miracles, that His goodness and omnipotence may be known and honored.
SUPPLICATION. O Lord Jesus, who during Thy life on earth didst cure the sick and the infirm, open
my ears that they may listen to Thy will, and loosen my tongue that I may honor and announce Thy works. Take away from me, O most beautiful Jesus, the desire for human praise, that I may not be led to reveal my good works, and thus lose the reward of my Heavenly Father. (Matt. vi. 1.)
✠ ✠ ✠
ON RELIGIOUS CEREMONIES.
What are ceremonies?
RELIGIOUS Ceremonies are certain forms and usages, prescribed for divine service, for the increase of devotion, and the edification of our fellow-men; they represent externally and visibly the interior feelings of man.
Why do we make use of ceremonies in our service?
That we may serve God not only inwardly with the soul, but outwardly with the body by external devotion; that we may keep our attention fixed, increase our devotion, and edify others; that by these external things we may be raised to the contemplation of divine, inward things. (Trid. Sess. 22.)
Are ceremonies founded on Scripture?
They are; for besides those which Christ used, as related in this day's gospel, in regard to the deaf and dumb man, He has also made use of other different ceremonies: as, when He blessed bread and fishes; (Matt. xv. 36.) when He spread clay upon the eyes of a blind man; (John ix. 6.) when He prayed on bended knees; (Luke xxii. 41.) when He fell upon His face to pray; (Matt. xxvi. 39.) when He breathed upon His disciples, imparting to them the Holy Ghost; (John xx. 22.) and finally when He blessed them with uplifted hands before ascending into heaven. (Luke xxiv. 50.) Likewise in the Old Law various ceremonies were prescribed for the Jews, of which indeed in the New Law the greater number have been abolished ; others, however, have been retained, and new ones added.
If, therefore, the enemies of the Church contend that ceremonies are superfluous, since Christ Himself reproached the Jews for their ceremonial observances, and said: God must be adored inspirit and in truth, we may, without mentioning that Christ Himself made use of certain ceremonies, answer, that He did not find fault with their use, but only with the intention of the Jews. They observed every ceremony most scrupulously, without at the same time entertaining pious sentiments in the heart, and whilst they dared not under any circumstances omit even the least ceremony, they scrupled not to oppress and defraud their neighbor. Therefore Christ says: God must be adored in spirit and in truth, that is, in the innermost heart, and not only in external appearances. — Do not, therefore, let the objections, nor the scoffs and sneers of the enemies of our Church confound you, but seek to know the spirit and meaning of each ceremony, and impress them on your heart, and then make use of them to inflame your piety, to glorify God, and to edify your neighbor.
✠ ✠ ✠
INSTRUCTION CONCERNING THE ABUSE OF THE TONGUE.
THERE is no member of the body more dangerous and pernicious than the tongue. The tongue, says the Apostle St. James, is indeed a little member, and boasteth great things. Behold how small afire what a great wood it kindleth? And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. The tongue is placed among our members, which defileth the whole body, and inflameth the wheel of our nativity, being set on fire by hell. (James iii. 5. 6.) The tongue no man can tame: an unquiet evil, full of deadly poison. By it we bless God and the Father; and by it we curse men, who are made after the likeness of God. Out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing, (ibid. iii. 8—10.) There is no country, no city, scarcely a house in which evil tongues do not cause quarrel and strife, discord and enmity, jealousy and slander , seduction and debauchery. An impious tongue reviles God and His saints, corrupts the divine word, causes heresy and chism, makes one intemperate, unchaste, envious, and malevolent; in a word, it is according to the apostle a fire, a world of iniquity. The tongue of the serpent seduced our first parents, and brought misery and death into the world. (Gen. iii.) The tongue of Judas betrayed Jesus. (Matt. xxvi. 49.)
And what is the chief cause of war among princes, revolts among nations, if it is not the tongue of ambitious, restless men, who seek their fortune in war and revolution? How many, in fine, have plunged themselves into the greatest misery by means of their unguarded tongue? How can we secure ourselves against this dangerous, domestic enemy? Only by being slow to speak according to the advice of St. James, (i. 19.) to speak very few, sensible, and well considered word. In this way we will not offend, but will become perfect. (James iii. 2.) As this cannot happen without a special grace of God, we must according to the advice of St. Augustine beg divine assistance, in the following or
similar words:
ASPIRATION. O Lord, set a watch before my mouth, and a door round about my lips, that I may not fall and my tongue destroy me. (Ps. cxl. 3.)
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| Archbishop Viganò on what priests should do in light of Traditionis Custodes |
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Posted by: Stone - 08-07-2021, 08:17 PM - Forum: Archbishop Viganò
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Archbishop Viganò on what priests should do in light of Traditionis Custodes
'Allow me to say first of all that in continuing to celebrate the Mass of Pope Saint Pius V no priest performs any act of disobedience,
but on the contrary he exercises his right sanctioned by God, which not even the Pope can revoke.'
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Aug 5, 2021 (LifeSiteNews) – In a new response to a question from LifeSite (see full text below), Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò insists that priests have a right to celebrate the Tridentine Mass, adding that at times they might have to continue to do so in hidden ways. But the way of the saints, he adds, would be to go into open disagreement and even “disobedience” should their local bishop forbid them to continue to celebrate the Traditional Latin Mass. With this response, Archbishop Viganò acts as a pastor who tries to help priests and faithful in a very difficult situation.
On August 2, Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò published a video and statement with his response to Pope Francis’s July 16 motu proprio Traditionis Custodes which aims at banning the Tridentine Mass, or Traditional Latin Mass, as it has been celebrated for centuries. In his response, the Italian prelate pointed out that this Pope shows himself to be a “anti-Catholic Pope” aiming at the undermining the Faith, rather than fostering it.
“Just when Bergoglio recognizes the Bishops as guardians of the Tradition, he asks them to obstruct its highest and most sacred expression of prayer,” Viganò writes.
He makes it clear that the Tridentine Mass is a superior rite in comparison to the Novus Ordo Mass and says that these two rites represent two different churches, thus negating the idea that there is a continuity between the Church before and after the Second Vatican Council. “Francis has once again disavowed the pious illusion of the hermeneutic of continuity, stating that the coexistence of the Vetus and Novus Ordo is impossible because they are expressions of two irreconcilable doctrinal and ecclesiological approaches,” the Italian prelate states.
Pointing out the differences between these two rites, he adds: “on the one hand there is the Apostolic Mass, the voice of the Church of Christ; on the other there is the Montinian ‘Eucharistic celebration,’ the voice of the conciliar church.”
In light of the importance of continuing to celebrate this beautiful traditional rite of the Mass, LifeSite reached out to Archbishop Viganò and asked him what he thinks priests should now concretely do, should their bishop deny them the right to celebrate this Mass.
“Allow me to say first of all,” the prelate answers, “that in continuing to celebrate the Mass of Pope Saint Pius V no priest performs any act of disobedience, but on the contrary he exercises his right sanctioned by God, which not even the Pope can revoke.”
He invites priests to reach out to their bishops and to make their hearts known to them and even to invite them to celebrate the ancient rite of the Mass, which possibly could then work a “miracle” in their own episcopal hearts.
Archbishop Viganò says that a priest has to make a decision as to how to proceed in light of where his own bishop stands with regard to the Mass of Ages. Some bishops might try to help these priests. In some cases, it might be better to continue the traditional Mass in hiding, but in other cases, a priest might have to resist his bishop, and the latter solution might very well be the response of the saints. The archbishop thus states:
Quote:The priest must therefore consider whether his action will be more effective with a fair and direct confrontation, or by acting with discretion and in hiding. In my opinion, the first option is the most linear and transparent, and the one that responds most to the behavior of the Saints, to which we must comply.
This answer might be important to some priests in the world, especially in light of what several Vatican sources have recently told LifeSite. As an upcoming report shows, several observers and experts are expecting that Pope Francis will soon make use of a “spy system” or “spy network” and especially of Cardinal João Braz de Aziz, the head of the Congregation for Religious, in order to pressure the bishops worldwide to comply with his new motu proprio. In light of this possible development, priests and faithful might do well to consider what they would do in this very case.
Below is Archbishop Viganò’s full statement:
August 5, 2021
In Dedicatione B.M.V. ad Nives
Dear Maike,
Regarding your request for clarification, I am sending you some considerations that I hope will make my thoughts more explicit. This is the reference sentence: “It will be our duty, whether as Ministers of God or as simple faithful, to show firmness and serene resistance to such abuse, walking along the way of our own little Calvary with a supernatural spirit, while the new high priests and scribes of the people mock us and label us as fanatics. It will be our humility, the silent offering of injustices toward us, and the example of a life consistent with the Creed that we profess that will merit the triumph of the Catholic Mass and the conversion of many souls”.
You ask me: “What shall priests and faithful do when the bishop clamps down on them? Shall they go into clandestinity, or shall they cut publicly off, in public disobedience?” Allow me to say first of all that in continuing to celebrate the Mass of Pope Saint Pius V no priest performs any act of disobedience, but on the contrary he exercises his right sanctioned by God, which not even the Pope can revoke. Whoever has the power to offer the Holy Sacrifice has the right to celebrate it in the ancient rite, as it was solemnly proclaimed by Saint Pius V in the Apostolic Constitution Quo Primum, promulgating the Tridentine Liturgy. This has been reiterated by the Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificum as an indisputable fact. Anyone who contravenes these provisions should know that he will incur the wrath of Almighty God and of the Blessed Apostles Peter and Paul (Quo Primum).
The response to any limitation or prohibition of the celebration of the traditional Mass must obviously take into account both the objective elements and the different situations: if a priest has as an Ordinary a sworn enemy of the ancient rite who has no qualms about suspending him a divinis if he were to celebrate the Tridentine Mass, public disobedience could be a way to make the abuse of the Ordinary clear, especially if the news is spread by the media: the Prelates are very afraid of media coverage about their actions, and sometimes they prefer to refrain from canonical measures just to avoid ending up in the newspapers. The priest must therefore consider whether his action will be more effective with a fair and direct confrontation, or by acting with discretion and in hiding. In my opinion, the first option is the most linear and transparent, and the one that responds most to the behavior of the Saints, to which we must comply.
Obviously there may be the case of a comprehensive Ordinary, who leaves his priest free to celebrate the Tridentine rite; speaking with an open heart to one’s Bishop is certainly important, if one knows that he can find in him a father and not an official. Unfortunately, we know well that most of the time it is a question of tolerance, and almost never of encouragement on the path of Tradition. In some cases, however, inviting one’s Ordinary to celebrate the Mass of St. Pius V himself can be a way to make him understand, by touching the deepest chords of his heart and his priestly soul, which are the treasures reserved for the Ministers of God who have the opportunity to offer the Holy Sacrifice in the apostolic rite. When this “miracle” happens, the Bishop becomes an ally of his priest, because in addition to the intellectual and rational aspect that makes the traditional Mass preferable, he experiences firsthand its spiritual and supernatural dimension, and how it affects the life of Grace of those who celebrate it.
I hope that my words will clarify the points that I had not developed in my previous speech.
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| Pope Francis will use ‘spy system,’ left-wing cardinal to suppress Traditional Latin Mass? |
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Posted by: Stone - 08-07-2021, 08:12 PM - Forum: Pope Francis
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Vatican sources: Pope Francis will use ‘spy system,’ left-wing cardinal to suppress Traditional Latin Mass
Two sources told LifeSite that the Pope will use a 'spy system' or 'spy network.'
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Aug 5, 2021 (LifeSiteNews) – In conversations with different sources – all of them Vatican experts or members of the Vatican who wished to remain anonymous – LifeSite has learned that there is an expectation that Pope Francis intends to implement his motu proprio essentially suppressing the Traditional Latin Mass with the help of a spy system and especially of the head of the Congregation of Religious, Cardinal João Braz de Aviz. Braz de Aviz has a record of harshly persecuting tradition-oriented religious communities, most prominently the Franciscans of the Immaculate. In his July 16 motu proprio (art. 7), the Pope gave the Congregation for Religious, as well as the Congregation for Divine Worship under Archbishop Arthur Roche, the duty to supervise the implementation of his instructions.
Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, in his new response to the July 16 motu proprio Traditionis Custodes also speaks of the persecution of faithful communities that has been taking place both under Braz de Aviz and Pope Francis. He refers here to the fact that Pope Francis has now placed the communities dedicated to the Traditional Latin Mass under the direct authority of Braz de Aviz, “as a sad prelude to a destiny that has already been sealed.”
“Let us not forget,” Viganò continues, “the fate that befell the flourishing religious Orders, guilty of being blessed with numerous vocations born and nurtured precisely thanks to the hated traditional Liturgy and the faithful observance of the Rule.”
Two sources told LifeSite that the Pope will use a “spy system” or “spy network.” As one Vatican source wrote: “They will use the spy system. There are everywhere overly zealous ones who will report to Rome that somewhere the Ancient Rite is being celebrated, or they will accuse those bishops who do not intervene.” The information gained by these “spies,” the source continued, will be used against those bishops who are anyway already being regarded as unpleasant.
“The greatest damage will be done by Cardinal Braz de Aviz and his secretary,” the source continued. They will accuse people of “being against the Second Vatican Council or against the Pope.”
As one well-experienced Vatican observer who asked to remain unnamed puts it: “I think the pope will punish in every way possible any bishop who defies him directly. He has used his spy networks to good effect during his entire career, and he has never ceased.” This source thinks that the Pope might even use accusations of cover-up of sexual abuse as a tool to silence the resistant bishops.
This source fears that the bishops of our day have already a weakened disposition to start with, and that they therefore might very well easily fall. “We have a mental illness in the Church right now that makes weak minded people want to prove their loyalty by committing ritual suicide.”
As an example, this source points to religious communities who have already eagerly implemented papal directives, even though they led to the destruction of their communities, thereby becoming “their own enemy in order to prove their obedience.” This source points out that it is not only Braz de Aviz, but also his secretary, who are behind many harsh measures taken against good communities.
As our friend and colleague, Marco Tosatti wrote in a 2017 First Things article about these two clergymen:
Quote:It seems that Rome keeps a particularly piercing eye on religious orders that revere tradition, and that happen to enjoy many priestly vocations. The eye belongs to two persons: João Cardinal Braz de Aviz, a Brazilian sympathizer of Liberation Theology; and Archbishop José Rodríguez Carballo, a Spanish Franciscan. The former is the prefect for the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life; the latter is its secretary.
Tosatti went on to describe the different cases in which Braz de Aviz and his secretary have destroyed good traditional communities. He mentioned the Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate (FFI), the Family of the Incarnate Word, and the Heralds of the Gospel.
About the Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate, the Italian journalist wrote that they are a “relatively new order, rich in vocations both in Europe and in Africa, the FFI was inspired by St. Maximilian Kolbe and approved by John Paul II.” In 2013, the FFI was placed under the authority of a Vatican commissioner, and its founder, Father Stefano Manelli, has been segregated from his order, “in order to limit his influence,” as Tosatti wrote.
Adds the journalist: “The only known accusation against him and his followers is that of ‘Lefebvrist drift.’ One of the problems seems to be FFI’s love for Church tradition, and for the old form of the Mass. Vocations of both sexes to FFI dropped after this intervention by the Vatican.”
As one member of the FFI, Father Paolo M. Siano, said in 2018: “over these past six years I have witnessed the objective devastation of my Religious Family (Friars, Nuns, Laity) the persecution (still going on) of our Founding Father and our authentic FI [Franciscans of the Immaculate] charism approved by Pope St. John Paul II.”
About the Family of the Incarnate Word, Marco Tosatti reported in 2017:
Quote:There is the similar case of the Family of the Incarnate Word. This religious order, begun in Argentina in the 1980s, has more than one thousand members in twenty-six countries on five continents, including in regions where nobody else is willing to go. The Family has roughly 800 seminarians. Jorge Mario Bergoglio, then archbishop of Buenos Aires and president of the Argentine bishops’ conference, did not care for the Family. He made reference to it, while addressing the bishops: “In Latin America we happen to find in small groups, and in some of the new religious orders, an exaggerated drift to doctrinal or disciplinary security.” At one time, he blocked the ordination of the Family’s priests for three years. The founder, again, is more or less segregated from his order.
In 2017, there was also an impending apostolic visitation of the Heralds of the Gospel. Here, Tosatti tells us that “the Heralds are an association of pontifical right, begun in Brazil in the last years of the twentieth century, from a highly traditionalist order known as Tradition, Family, and Property. The Heralds have many priests, many seminarians, and great vitality. The reasons for the apostolic visitation are far from clear.”
As the Vatican Insider had it, the Heralds were believed to have some “occult doctrine” and therefore, their visitation was not part of a “witch hunt against those more traditional and conservative associations.” Comments Tosatti: “It seems likely that the Vatican anticipated criticism of this investigation and sought to silence it.” (See also Hilary White’s later 2019 analysis of the situation of the Heralds of the Gospel – who received special attention from Pope Benedict XVI – which gives more background information.)
Next to these cases mentioned by Tosatti, the Spanish website Infovaticana reports that Braz de Aviz is also responsible for the destruction of the Familia Christi, a small Italian priestly fraternity community which had been founded in 2014 by Ferrara Archbishop Luigi Negri whom Francis quickly removed once he reached his retirement age.
Next to these cases, Braz de Aviz is known for the following troubling facts:
1. During the Amazon Synod, he expressed support for the idea of ordaining married men to the priesthood.
2. In 2006, he participated, together with the founder of Liberation Theology, Leonardo Boff, in an interreligious event that was co-hosted by Freemasons.
3. Already in May of this year, Braz de Aviz made it public that the Pope is concerned that some young priests “go a bit far from the Second Vatican Council” and take “traditionalist positions.”
4. In 2019, when talking about the “transformation of the formation” of religious communities, the Brazilian stated: “Many things of tradition, many things that are from the past culture, are no longer useful.”
In light of these facts, let us listen here to more voices concerning the future of traditional communities. One Vatican observer told LifeSite that for now, during the summer, “nothing will happen,” and that it will be difficult to say what will happen. But it is clear that “the Vatican is a regime, and it is obvious that Bergoglio wants to eliminate the traditional Latin Mass.” This pope, the source went on, “has a deeply rooted ideological hatred” against this Mass, and he is an “aggressively autocratic man of power who does not accept opposition.”
“Therefore,” this Vatican expert continued, “I can well imagine that we have to prepare ourselves.”
The shocking news that Cardinal Wilton Gregory decided to cancel a Traditional Latin Mass at the National Shrine of the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C., that would have been celebrated by the recently retired nuncio of Switzerland, Archbishop Thomas Gullickson, might give us an idea what might soon come to many of us.
To prepare ourselves for the worst case – Rome’s clamping down on every bishop in the world who tries to preserve the traditional liturgy – we might listen to the British journalist and Catholic commentator Damian Thompson. He stated on Twitter on someone’s estimation that some bishops will maintain the status quo with regard to the traditional Mass: “Let’s hope so. But the head of the CDW [Congregation for Divine Worship, which was also appointed by the pope to supervise the implementation of his motu proprio] is Arthur Roche, a veteran enemy of the TLM who, despite his affable roly-poly appearance (he is an unlikely former champion ice-skater), is one of nature’s witch-hunters. There are few more unpleasant bishops in the entire Church.”
Abbé Claude Barthe, one of the organizers of the yearly Summorum Pontificum pilgrimage that drew thousands of Catholics to Rome, also has issued some warnings. He said in a new interview that this new motu proprio Traditionis Custodes “is of course very painful. It will hinder the diffusion of the traditional Mass. It will start new persecutions.”
Barthe declared that religious communities formerly under the protection of the Ecclesia Dei commission will be “affected.”
“They are also in the crosshairs … The document says it clearly, the Pope’s letter indicates it in a cynical way. It is a question of destroying the traditional celebration of the Mass by ensuring there will be no more priests to celebrate it.”
The French liturgy expert goes on to describe what will happen under the new leadership of Braz de Aviz:
Quote:The Congregation for Religious, presided by Cardinal Braz de Aviz, is very much aligned with Francis and is going to get work to put things in order. For example, they will make canonical visits to the seminaries to verify that the teaching given there is in conformity with Vatican II, and to ensure they study and celebrate the new liturgy there. In short: the goal will be to discourage vocations. When we object: “But you are going to cause these institutes’ vocations to dry up”, they answer, “But we don’t need these people, they are useless.” (That was the actual response of a certain person I shall not name!)”
Regarding the question as to what we need to do in preparation, we learned from Bishop Athanasius Schneider that he expects many traditional priests and laymen clandestinely continuing the traditional liturgy and devotions. What this specifically would entail, we would like to learn.
Archbishop Viganò, in his own assessment of the current situation after the motu proprio, wrote that “the Bishops, priests and clerics incardinated in dioceses or religious Orders know that hanging over them is the sword of Damocles of removal from office, dismissal from the ecclesiastical state, and the deprivation of their very means of subsistence.”
He pointed out that Pope Francis usually gets what he wants to achieve, and His Grace mentions, as an example, the recent synods, which the pope was able to use for his goals. “We all know,” writes the Italian archbishop, “that if Bergoglio wants to obtain a result, he does not hesitate to resort to force, lies, and sleight of hand: the events of the last Synods have demonstrated this beyond all reasonable doubt, with the Post-Synodal Exhortation drafted even before the vote on the Instrumentum Laboris [which is the preparatory text written before the synod starts].”
Further describing the pope’s methods, Viganò explained that “in order to prevent the ontological superiority of the Mass of Saint Pius V from becoming evident, and to prevent the criticisms of the reformed rite and the doctrine it expresses from emerging, he prohibits it, he labels it as divisive, he confines it to Indian reservations, trying to limit its diffusion as much as possible, so that it will disappear completely in the name of the cancel culture of which the conciliar revolution was the unfortunate forerunner.”
Pope Francis’s goal is “to cancel every trace of Tradition, relegating it to the nostalgic refuge of some irreducible octogenarian or a clique of eccentrics, or presenting it – as a pretext – as the ideological manifesto of a minority of fundamentalists.” This prelate is concerned about the “overall tyrannical nature accompanied by a substantial falsity of the arguments put forward to justify the decisions imposed.”
Archbishop Viganò also calls upon Catholics “to prepare ourselves for a strong and determined opposition, continuing to avail ourselves of those rights that have been abusively and illicitly denied us,” explaining that “our resistance to abuses of authority will still be able to count on the Graces that the Lord will not cease to grant us – in particular the virtue of Fortitude that is so indispensable in times of tyranny.”
He expects that not all of the bishops “will be willing to passively submit to forms of authoritarianism” and he points out that “the Code of Canon Law guarantees the Bishops the possibility of dispensing their faithful from particular or universal laws, under certain conditions.”
According to Archbishop Viganò:
Quote:It will be our duty, whether as Ministers of God or as simple faithful, to show firmness and serene resistance to such abuse, walking along the way of our own little Calvary with a supernatural spirit, while the new high priests and scribes of the people mock us and label us as fanatics. It will be our humility, the silent offering of injustices toward us, and the example of a life consistent with the Creed that we profess that will merit the triumph of the Catholic Mass and the conversion of many souls.
As LifeSite reported today, the Italian prelate further clarified his thoughts on what priests should do in circumstances where the Traditional Mass is being persecuted, stressing “that in continuing to celebrate the Mass of Saint Pius V no priest performs any act of disobedience, but on the contrary he exercises his right sanctioned by God, which not even the Pope can revoke.”
He invites priests to reach out to their bishops and to make their hearts known to them and even to invite them to celebrate themselves the ancient rite of the Mass, which possibly could work a “miracle” in their own hearts.
Archbishop Viganò says that a priest has to make a decision as to how to proceed in light of where his own bishop stands with regard to the Mass of Ages. Some bishops might try to help these priests. In some cases, it might be better to continue the traditional Mass in hiding, but in other case, a priest might have to resist his bishop, and the latter solution might very well be the response of the saints. States the archbishop:
Quote:The priest must therefore consider whether his action will be more effective with a fair and direct confrontation, or by acting with discretion and in hiding. In my opinion, the first option is the most linear and transparent, and the one that responds most to the behavior of the Saints, to which we must comply.
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| The Month of August is devoted to Our Lady's Immaculate Heart |
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Posted by: Stone - 08-07-2021, 08:40 AM - Forum: Our Lady
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Taken from this Our Lady of Fatima chapel email:
"Jesus wants to establish in the world devotion to my Immaculate Heart. To whoever embraces this devotion I promise salvation . . ."
The month of August has the honor of being consecrated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. This year, the feast day of the Immaculate Heart is Sunday, August 22nd. The Church chose this date because it is also the Octave day of our Blessed Lady's Assumption. It is very significant that this feast was established only in relatively recent times (1944). For Almighty God has especially reserved this powerful devotion for our present day Crisis of Faith. Our Lady tells us that her Immaculate Heart is Heaven's special gift - a sure refuge to protect and guide Catholics through the diabolical confusion afflicting both the Church and the world.
Devotion to the Heart of Mary not only parallels devotion to the Heart of Jesus, it augments it. For devotion to her Heart prepares and leads souls to a more intimate union with the Divine Heart of her Son. In fact, St. Margaret Mary, the recipient of the Sacred Heart's revelations, often taught her novices:
"The most efficacious way to obtain devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus is through the Immaculate Heart of Mary."
At Paris in 1839, Our Lady approved this teaching when specifically instructing St. Catherine Laboure on the specific designs for the Miraculous Medal.
Along with the image of Our Lady of Grace on the front, the back depicts the Sacred Heart of Jesus & the Immaculate Heart of Mary - together.
No words were written on this side of the medal. The two Hearts spoke volumes and told the whole story.
Then, at the dawn of the Twentieth Century, the Immaculate Heart's greatest manifestation in history took place at Fátima.
The Blessed Virgin held in her right hand a Heart encircled by thorns, which pierced it from all sides. The young children seers understood that it was the Immaculate Heart of Mary, afflicted by all the sins of the world, which demanded reparation.
Our Lady explained to the children:
“Jesus wishes to use you to make me known and loved. He wishes to establish in the world devotion to my Immaculate Heart. To whoever embraces this devotion I promise salvation; these souls shall be dear to God, as flowers placed by me to adorn His throne.”
A month later, the same children were shown a vivid vision of condemned souls; after which Our Lady said to them:
“You have seen Hell, where the souls of poor sinners go. To save them, God wishes to establish in the world devotion to my Immaculate Heart... I shall come to ask for the consecration of Russia to my Immaculate Heart and the Communion of Reparation on the First Saturdays. If what I ask is done, many souls will be saved and there will be peace.”
Peace! Not the false peace of the world - but the true peace of God. A peace that reigns in our hearts - in our homes - and in the Church. This is Heaven's great promise in exchange for our devotion to the Immaculate Heart. God wishes to grant us certain special graces so vital, so necessary to strengthen, sustain and preserve our holy Catholic Faith - whole and entire.
This is why He wants our love and devotion to the Heart of His Mother. This is why He established the First Saturdays Communion of Reparation. Because it is through reparation to the Immaculate Heart - a devotion especially reserved and prescribed for these apostate times, that many souls will be saved.
If only Catholics would practice this simple devotion - as Our Lord lovingly wills for them, then just as the Fatima children, they too would find that sure refuge and the way that leads them to God. Indeed, it was in 1925 that Heaven crystallized this devotion and sealed it with a magnificent promise from the Mother of God: "To whoever embraces this devotion, I promise salvation.”
✠ ✠ ✠
The Five First Saturdays
On December 10th 1925, the Most Holy Virgin appeared to Sister Lucia. By Our Lady’s side, elevated on a luminous cloud, was the Child Jesus. The Most Holy Virgin rested her hand on Sister Lucia's shoulder and as she did so, she showed her Heart encircled by thorns, which she was holding in her other hand. At the same time, the Holy Child said:
"Have compassion on the Heart of your Most Holy Mother, covered with thorns, with which ungrateful men pierce it at every moment and there is none to make an act of reparation to remove them."
Then, the Most Holy Virgin said:
"Look, my daughter, at my Heart, surrounded with thorns with which ungrateful men pierce me at every moment by their blasphemies and ingratitude. You at least try to console me and announce in my name that I promise to assist, at the moment of death, with all the graces necessary for salvation, all those who:
(1) On the First Saturday of five consecutive months,
(2) Shall confess,
(3) Receive Holy Communion,
(4) Recite five decades of the Rosary and
(5) Keep me company for 15 minutes while meditating on the fifteen mysteries of the Rosary,
(6) With the intention of making reparation to me"
- Conditions of the Promise -
Why Five First Saturdays? Our Lord Himself gave the answer to Sister Lucia:
"My daughter, the reason is simple. There are five types of offenses and blasphemies committed against the Immaculate Heart of Mary:
1 - Blasphemies against the Immaculate Conception;
2 - Blasphemies against her virginity;
3 - Blasphemies against her Divine Maternity, in refusing at the same time to recognize her as the Mother of men;
4 - The blasphemies of those who publicly seek to sow in the hearts of children, indifference or scorn or even hatred of this Immaculate Mother;
5 - The offense of those who outrage her directly in her holy images.
Here, My daughter is the reason why the Immaculate Heart of Mary inspired Me to ask for this little act of reparation..."
+ THE CONFESSION +
Sister Lucia asked Our Blessed Lord:
My Jesus! Many souls find it difficult to confess on Saturday. Will Thou allow a confession within eight days to be valid?
He replied: "Yes. It can even be made later on, provided that the souls are in the state of grace when they receive Me on the First Saturday and that they had the intention of making reparation to the Immaculate Heart of Mary."
Sister Lucia replied: "My Jesus! And those who forget to form this intention?"
"They can form it at the next confession, taking advantage of their first opportunity to go to confession."
In brief, therefore:
(a) The confession should be made as close as possible to the First Saturday;
(b) We must be sorry for our sins, not only because we have offended God but also with the intention of making reparation to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
+ THE HOLY COMMUNION +
If one cannot fulfill all the conditions on a Saturday, can it be done on Sunday? Our Lord gave the answer to Sister Lucia:
"The practice of this devotion will be equally acceptable on the Sunday following the First Saturday when My priests - for a just cause, allow it to souls."
Important: It is to His priests - not to the individual conscience that Our Lord gives the responsibility of granting this additional concession.
+ THE ROSARY +
Since it is a question of repairing for offenses committed against the Immaculate Heart of Mary, what other prayer could be more pleasing to Our Lady than that which she requested the people to recite every day?
+ THE 15 MINUTE MEDITATION +
This is in addition to the recitation of the Rosary.
It requires, in Sister Lucia’s words:
"...to keep Our Lady company for 15 minutes while meditating on the mysteries of the Rosary."
Note: It is not required to meditate on all fifteen mysteries. Meditation on one or two is sufficient.
+ THE INTENTION OF MAKING REPARATION +
"You, at least, try to console me."
Without this general intention - without this will of love which desires to make reparation and consolation to Our Lady - all these external practices are worth nothing for the Promise.
" ...I promise salvation"
"To all those who, on the First Saturday of five consecutive months, fulfill all the conditions requested, I promise to assist them at the hour of death with all the graces necessary for the salvation of their soul."
This little devotion practiced with a good heart, is enough to procure - ex opere operato, so to speak; as with the sacraments - the grace of final perseverance and eternal salvation!
Heaven for eternity for five Holy Communions!
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| Novena in Honor of Our Lady's Assumption (August 7th - 15th) |
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Posted by: Stone - 08-07-2021, 08:17 AM - Forum: Novenas
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Taken from here:
Novena in Honor of the Assumption
Start August 7, Complete on August 15
![[Image: ?u=https%3A%2F%2Fi.pinimg.com%2Foriginal...f=1&nofb=1]](https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fi.pinimg.com%2Foriginals%2F4c%2Fbe%2F6a%2F4cbe6a6a5f73ea7b8e22adcb8275b51f.jpg&f=1&nofb=1)
Eternal Father, you graciously looked upon the humility of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and made her to be the Mother of the Word Incarnate, Jesus Christ our Lord. Grant we beseech you that we who honor her Assumption into the Kingdom of Heaven, may by her Motherly intercession also come to share in the inheritance of those whom you have redeemed by the precious Blood of your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
Most holy Immaculate Virgin and my Mother Mary, to thee who art the Mother of my Lord, the Queen of the world, the advocate, the hope, and the refuge of sinners, I have recourse today, I who am the most miserable of all. I render thee my most humble homage, 0 great Queen, and I thank thee for all the graces thou hast conferred on me until now. I love thee, 0 most amiable Lady; and for the love which I bear thee, I promise to serve thee always, and to do all in my power to make others love thee also. Dearest Mother bring before the throne of your beloved Son the prayers and intentions I ask during this novena
(Here we mention our prayers. Pray for the intentions of our Holy Father the Pope, and for all the clergy. Pray also for the sick and dying, and for the suffering souls in purgatory)
I place in thee all my hopes; I confide my salvation to thy care. Accept me for thy servant, and receive me under thy mantle, 0 Mother of Mercy. And as thou art so powerful with God, deliver me from all temptations, or rather obtain for me the strength to triumph over them until death. Of thee I ask a perfect love for Jesus Christ. Through thee I hope to die a good death. 0 my Mother, by the love which thou bearest to God, I beseech thee to help me at all times, especially at the last moment of my life. Leave me not, I beseech thee, until I am safe in heaven, blessing thee, and singing thy mercies for all eternity. Amen.
Say 9 Hail Marys
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| August 7th – St. Cajetan of Thienna, Confessor; Comm. of St. Donatus, Bishop & Martyr |
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Posted by: Stone - 08-07-2021, 08:07 AM - Forum: August
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August 7 – St. Cajetan of Thienna, Confessor; Comm. of St. Donatus, Bishop & Martyr
Cajetan appeared in all his zeal for the sanctuary at the time when the false reform was spreading rebellion throughout the world. The great cause of the danger had been the incapacity of the guardians of the holy City, or their connivance by complicity of heart or of mind with pagan doctrines and manners introduced by an ill-advised revival. Wasted by the wild boar of the forest, could the vineyard of the Lord recover the fertility of its better days? Cajetan learned from Eternal Wisdom the new method of culture required by an exhausted soil.
The urgent need of those unfortunate times was that the clergy should be raised up again by worthy life, zeal, and knowledge. For this object men were required, who being clerks themselves in the full acceptation of the word, with all the obligations it involves, should be to the members of the holy hierarchy a permanent model of its primitive perfection, a supplement to their shortcomings, and a leaven, little by little raising the whole mass. But where, save in the life of the counsels with the stability of its three vows, could be found the impulse, the power, and the permanence necessary for such an enterprise? The inexhaustible fecundity of the religious life was no more wanting in the Church in those days of decadence than in the periods of her glory. After the monks, turning to God in their solitudes and drawing down light and love upon the earth seemingly so forgotten by them; after the mendicant Orders, keeping up in the midst of the world their claustral habits of life and the austerity of the desert: the regular clerks entered upon the battlefield, whereby their position in the fight, their exterior manner of life, their very dress, they were to mingle with the ranks of the secular clergy; just as a few veterans are sent into the midst of a wavering troop, to act upon the rest by word and example and dash.
Like the initiators of the great ancient forms of religious life, Cajetan was the Patriarch of the Regular Clerks. Under this name Clement VII, by a brief dated the 24th of June, 1524, approved the institute he had founded that very year in concert with the Bishop of Theati, from whom the new religious were also called Theatines. Soon the Barnabites, the Society of Jesus, the Somasques of St. Jerome Æmilian, the Regular Clerks Minor of St. Francis Carracciolo, the Regular Clerks ministering to the sick, the Regular Clerks of the Pious Schools, the Regular Clerks of the Mother of God, and others, hastened to follow in the track, and proved that the Church is ever beautiful, ever worthy of her Spouse; while the accusation of barrennness hurled against her by heresy, rebounded upon the thrower.
Cajetan began and carried forward his reform chiefly by means of detachment from riches, the love of which had caused many evils in the Church. The Theatines offered to the world a spectacle unknown since the days of the Apostles; pushing their zeal for renouncement so far as not to allow themselves even to beg, but to rely on the spontaneous charity of the faithful. While Luther was denying the very existence of God’s Providence, their heroic trust in It was often rewarded by prodigies.
Let us now read the life of this new patriarch.
Quote:Cajetan was born at Cicenza of the noble house of Thienna, and was at once dedicated by his mother to the Virgin Mother of God. His innocence appeared so wonderful from his very childhood that everyone called him “the Saint.” He took the degree of Doctor in canon and civil law at Padua, and then went to Rome where Julius II made him a Prelate. When he received the priesthood, such a fire of divine love was enkindled in his soul, that he left the court to devote himself entirely to God. He founded hospitals with his own money and himself served the sick, even those attacked with pestilential maladies. He displayed such unflagging zeal for the salvation of his neighbor that he earned the nickname “Hunter of souls.”
His great desire was to restore Ecclesiastical discipline, then much relaxed, to the form of the Apostolic life, and to this end he founded the Order of Regular Clerks. They lay aside all care of earthly things, possess no revenues, do not beg even the necessaries of life from the faithful, but live only on alms spontaneously offered. Clement VII having approved this institution, Cajetan made his solemn vows at the High Altar of the Vatican basilica, together with John Peter Caraffa, Bishop of Chieti, who was afterwards Paul IV, and two other men of distinguished piety. During the sack of Rome, he was most cruelly treated by the soldiers, to make him deliver up his money, which the hands of the poor had long ago carried into the heavenly treasures. He endured with the utmost patience stripes, torture, and imprisonment. He persevered unfalteringly in the kind of life he had embraced, relying entirely upon Divine Providence: and God never failed him, as was sometimes proved by miracle.
He was a great promoter of assiduity at the divine worship, of the beauty of the House of God, of exactness in holy ceremonies, and of the frequentation of the most Holy Eucharist. More than once he detected and foiled the wicked subterfuges of heresy. He would prolong his prayers for eight hours, without ceasing to shed tears; he was often rapt in ecstasy and was famous for the gift of prophecy. At Rome, one Christmas night, while he was praying at our Lord’s crib, the Mother of God was pleased to lay the Infant Jesus in his arms. He would spend whole nights in chastising his body with disciplines, and could never be induced to relax anything of the austerity of his life; for he would say, he wished to die in sackcloth and ashes. At length he fell into an illness caused by the intense sorrow he felt, at seeing the people offend God by a sedition; and at Naples, after being refreshed by a heavenly vision, he passed to heaven. His body is honored with great devotion in the Church of St. Paul in that town. As many miracles worked by him both living and dead made his name illustrious, Pope Clement X enrolled him amongst the Saints.
Who has ever obeyed so well as thou, O great Saint, that word of the Gospel: Be not solicitous therefore saying: What shall we eat? or what shall we drink? or wherewith shall we be clothed? Thou didst understand, too, that other divine word: The workman is worthy of his meat, and thou knewest that it applied principally to those who labor in word and doctrine. Thou didst not ignore the fact that other sowers of the word had before thee founded on that saying the right of their poverty, embraced for God’s sake, to claim at least the bread of alms. Sublime right of souls eager for opprobrium in order to follow Jesus and to satiate their love! But Wisdom, who gives to the desires of the Saints the bent suitable to their times, caused the thirst for humiliation to be overruled in thee by the ambition to exalt in thy poverty the holy Providence of God; this was needed in an age of renewed paganism which, even before listening to heresy, seemed to have ceased to trust in God. Alas! even of those to whom the Lord had given himself for their possession in the midst of the children of Israel, it could be truly said that they sought the goods of this world like the heathen. It was thy earnest desire, O Cajetan, to justify our Heavenly Father and to prove that he is ever ready to fulfill the promise made by his adorable Son: Seek ye therefore the kingdom of God, and his justice, and all these things shall be added unto you.
Circumstances obliged thee to begin in this way the reformation of the sanctuary, whereunto thou wert resolved to devote thy life. It was necessary, first, to bring back the members of the holy militia to the spirit of the sacred formula of the ordination of clerks, when, laying aside the spirit of the world together with its livery, they say in the joy of their hearts: “The Lord is the portion of my inheritance and of my cup: it is thou, O Lord, that wilt restore my inheritance to me.”
The Lord, O Cajetan, acknowledged thy zeal and blessed thine efforts. Preserve in us the fruit of thy labor. The science of sacred rites owes much to thy sons; may they prosper in renewed fidelity to the traditions of their father. May thy patriarchal blessing ever rest upon the numerous families of the Regular Clerks which walk in the footsteps of thine own. May all the ministers of holy Church experience the power thou still hast, of maintaining them in the right path of their holy state, or if necessary, of bringing them back to it. May the example of thy sublime confidence in God teach all Christians that they have a Father in heaven whose Providence will never fail his children.
Let us honor the holy memory of the Bishop of Arezzo whom the persecution of Julian the Apostate sent on this day to heaven. The following prayer, wherein the Church expresses her unchanging confidence in his powerful intercession, is found so far back as in the Gelasian Sacramentary; though the title of Confessor is there used instead of Martyr, it is beyond all question that Donatus died for Christ.
Prayer
Deus, tuorum gloria sacerdotum: præsta quæsumus; ut sancti Martyris tui et Episcopi Donati, cujus festa gerimus, sentiamus auxilium. Per Dominum.
O God, the glory of thy priests, grant, we beseech thee, that we may experience the succor of thy holy martyr and bishop, Donatus, whose festival we celebrate. Through our Lord, &c.
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| Quebec Becomes First Canadian Province To Introduce Vaccine Passports |
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Posted by: Stone - 08-07-2021, 07:18 AM - Forum: COVID Passports
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Quebec Becomes First Canadian Province To Introduce Vaccine Passports
![[Image: quebec.jpg?itok=GG5qNe5R300]](https://assets.zerohedge.com/s3fs-public/styles/inline_image_mobile/public/inline-images/quebec.jpg?itok=GG5qNe5R300)
ZH | AUG 06, 2021
Following in the footsteps of French President Emmanuel Macron, whose vaccine passport was yesterday upheld by France's Constitutional Court, Quebec has drawn up plans for a vaccine passport of its own.
According to France24, Quebec - Canada's second-largest province by population and its only province that's francophone, announced this week that it plans to introduce a vaccine passport, the first in Canada, to counter a fourth wave of the coronavirus and the spread of the Delta variant.
"The principle behind the vaccine passport is that people who have made the effort to get their two doses should be able to live a semi-normal life," provincial prime minister Francois Legault told a press conference.
Legault said the exact rules surrounding the passports will be revealed in the coming days, but explained that they would mostly govern access to "non-essential" activities such as dining out at a restaurant, or using the gym. NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio announce a similar program this week making NYC the only city in the US to adopt its own version of a vaccine passport.
Legault didn't offer an exact date for when the pass would go into effect. However, at this point, few adults would be affected: more than 80% of Quebec residents have received at least one dose, while more than 60% of adults have received at least one dose. However, unlike the NYC pass, which will allow those who have received at least one shot to dine indoors and work out at indoor gyms, the Quebec pass will require both shots.
"We will give certain privileges to those who have agreed to make the effort to get their two shots," Legault said.
The decision to adopt the pass comes as case numbers in Quebec have climbed recently, with the province recording more than 300 cases in a day this week, compared with roughly 100 per day in recent weeks.
While this increase is "still much lower than what we see in the United States, in most of the countries in Europe...can already talk about the beginning of a fourth wave," Legault said.
He also said the pass would help Quebec avoid another lockdown. Canadian PM Justin Trudeau said he supported the decision: "I fully support the initiative of Mr Legault and the Quebec government."
As Quebecois wait to learn more about the plan, Legault didn't say anything about the potential punishments. For example, those who violate the vaccine passport rules in France could face up to 6 months in prison for the offense. Will Quebec adopt a similarly over-the-top punishment?
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| August 6th – Saint Sixtus II, Pope and Martyr, and Sts. Felicissimus and Agapitus, Martyrs |
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Posted by: Stone - 08-06-2021, 10:12 AM - Forum: August
- No Replies
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August 6 – Saint Sixtus II, Pope and Martyr, and Sts. Felicissimus and Agapitus, Martyrs
“Xistum in cimiterio animadversum sciatis octavo iduum augustarum die. Know that Sixtus has been beheaded in the cemetery on the 8th of the Ides of August.” These words of St. Cyprian mark the opening of a glorious period both for the cycle and for history. From this day to the feast of St. Cyprian himself, taking in that of the deacon Laurence, how many holocausts in a few weeks does the earth offer to the Most High God! One would think that the Church, on the feast of our Lord’s Transfiguration, was impatient to join her testimony as Bride to that of the Prophets, of the Apostles, and of God himself. Heaven proclaims him well-beloved, the earth also declares its love for him: the testimony of blood and of every sort of heroism is the sublime echo wakened by the Father’s voice through all the valleys of our lowly earth, to be prolonged throughout all ages.
Let us, then, today salute this noble Pontiff, the first to go down into the arena opened wide by Valerian to all the soldiers of Christ. Among the brave leaders who, from Peter down to Melchiades, have headed the struggle whereby Rome was both vanquished and saved, none is more illustrious as a martyr. He was seized in the Catacomb lying to the left of the Appian Way, in the very chair wherein, in spite of the recent edicts, he was presiding over the assembly of the brethren; and after the sentence had been pronounced by the judge, he was brought back to the sacred crypt. There in that same chair, in the midst of the martyrs sleeping in the surrounding tombs their sleep of peace, the good and peaceful Pontiff received the stroke of death. Of the seven deacons of the Roman Church, six died with him; Laurence alone was left, inconsolable at having this time missed the palm, but trusting in the invitation given him to be at the heavenly altar in three days’ time.
Two of the Pontiff’s deacons were buried in the cemetery of Prætextatus, where the sublime scene had taken place. Sixtus and his blood-stained chair were carried to the other side of the Appian Way into the crypt of the Popes, where they remained for long centuries an object of veneration to pilgrims. When Damasus, in the days of peace, adorned the tombs of the saints with his beautiful inscriptions, the entire cemetery of Callixtus, which includes the burial place of the Popes, received the title “of Cæcelia and of Sixtus,” two glorious names inscribed by Rome upon the venerable diptychs of the Mass. Twice over on this day did the Holy Sacrifice summon the Christian to honor, at each side of the principal Way to the eternal City, the triumphant victims of the 8th of the Ides of August.
Quote:Sixtus II, an Athenian, was first a philosopher, and then a disciple of Christ. In the persecution of Valerian, he was accused of publicly preaching the faith of Christ; and was seized and dragged to the temple of Mars, where he was given his choice between death and offering sacrifice to the idols. As he firmly refused to commit such an impiety, he was led away to martyrdom. As he went, St. Laurence met him, and with great sorrow, spoke to him in this manner: “Whither goest thou, Father, without thy son? Whither art thou hastening, O holy Priest, without thy deacon?” Sixtus answered: “I am not forsaking thee, my son, a greater combat for the faith of Christ awaiteth thee. In three days thou shalt follow me, the Deacon shall follow his Priest. In the meanwhile distribute amongst the poor whatever thou hast in the treasury.” He was put to death that same day, the 8th of the Ides of August, together with the Deacons Filicissimus and Agapitus, and the Subdeacons Januarius, Magnus, Vincent, and Stephen. The Pope was buried in the cemetery of Callixtus, but the other martyrs in the cemetery of Prætextatus. He sat eleven months and twelve days; during whith time he held an ordination in the month of December, and made four priests, seven deacons, and two bishops.
![[Image: PopesixtusII.jpg?w=500&ssl=1]](https://i0.wp.com/sensusfidelium.us/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/PopesixtusII.jpg?w=500&ssl=1)
The following Preface from the Leonian Sacramentary breathes the freshness of the Church’s triumph over persecution:
Preface
Vere dignum. Cognoscimus enim, Domine, tuæ pietatis effectus, quibus nos adeo gloriosi Sacerdotis et Martyris tui Xysti semper honoranda solemnia, nec inter præteritas mundi tribulationes, omittere voluisti, et nunc reddita præstas libertate venerari.
It is truly just to return thanks to thee, O Lord. For we know the effects of thy loving kindness, whereby thou wouldst not suffer us to omit the ever honorable solemnity of thy glorious Pontiff and Martyr, Sixtus, during the past tribulations of the world, and dost enable us to celebrate it now that liberty is restored.
The Prayer now in use is that found in the Gregorian Sacramentary for Saints Felicissimus and Agapitus, the name of Saint Sixtus having been placed before theirs:
Prayer
Deus, qui nos concedis sanctorum Martyrum tuorum Xysti, Felicissimi et Agapiti natalitia colere: da nobis in æterna beatitudine de eorum societate gaudere. Per Dominum.
O God, who permittest us to keep the festivals of thy holy Martyrs, Sixtus, Felicissimus and Agapitus, grant us to rejoice in their society in eternal happiness. Through our Lord, &c.
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| Argentine Diocese Mocking Our Lady with "Pachamama Prayer" |
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Posted by: Stone - 08-06-2021, 09:27 AM - Forum: Vatican II and the Fruits of Modernism
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Argentine Diocese Mocking Our Lady with "Pachamama Prayer"
![[Image: 9y6gcnzepmprdte3989b5e2yal1jdz58oyq0cy6....ormat=webp]](https://assistant.gloria.tv/FxK6pqhk7ZiS1AZwTDoBU6KMY/9y6gcnzepmprdte3989b5e2yal1jdz58oyq0cy6.webp?format=webp)
gloria.tv | August 6, 2021
Venado Tuerto Diocese, Argentina, posted through Caritas, its relief organisation, on August 1 ("Pachamama Day") a spoof of the Hail Mary calling it “a prayer.”
Pachamama is an Andean idol venerated by pagans and the Francis party. This is the text:
”Hail Pachamama, sweet source of our life, may you be forever venerated.
Blessed are the fruits of your womb, our daily bread, may you be blessed now and forever.
Look with compassion, Holy Mother, upon the human pack that destroys you out of ambition.
Blessed be your clemency, Pachamama.
My land is preyed upon by madness.
You are the source of life and joy.
Pachamama, holy land, Holy Mother, Virgin Mary.”
The social media post presented Pachamama as a symbol of fertility, of the earth, and of a sacredness of life, claiming that it is “full of spiritual meaning." This was followed by a Francis quote, “Some religious festivals have a sacred meaning and are occasions for gathering and fraternity. These are the new paths for the Church and for the achievement of an integral ecology.”
After a massive pushback on social media, the diocese deleted the post on August 3. It apologised to those who "felt offended,” but insisted that the post's intention was to "communicate our communion with Francis who in the Apostolic Exhortation Querida Amazonia says to us: ‘It is possible to take up an indigenous symbol in some way, without necessarily considering it as idolatry.”
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