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| June 10th - St. Margaret, Queen of Scotland |
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Posted by: Stone - 06-10-2021, 08:34 AM - Forum: June
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June 10 – St Margaret, Queen of Scotland
![[Image: ?u=https%3A%2F%2Fi2.wp.com%2Fcatholicism...f=1&nofb=1]](https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fi2.wp.com%2Fcatholicism.org%2Fwp-content%2Fblogs.dir%2F1%2Ffiles%2F2000%2F06%2FSaint_Margaret_of_Scotland.jpg%3Fresize%3D550%252C680&f=1&nofb=1)
One week has elapsed since the day on which we beheld Clotilde arise, and from yonder land of France won over to Christ by her, make known to the whole world, what is the special role of woman beside the cradle of a nation. Until Christianity came, man altogether lowered in his own person and in the social order, by the consequences of sin, was wholly ignorant of the grandeur of the divine intention, in this respect; philosophy and history never dreamed it possible that maternity could be raised to such heights. But since the Holy Ghost has been given to man to instruct him, both theoretically and practically, in all truth, examples have been multiplied whereby the wondrous vastness of the divine plan has been clearly set forth, strength and sweetness herein presiding, as ever, at the counsels of Eternal Wisdom.
Scotland had long been Christian, when Margaret was given to her, not to lead her to the baptismal font, but to establish, amidst a population so diversified and so often at mutual enmity, as was hers, that unity which makes a Nation. Ancient Caledonia defended by her lakes, mountains, and rivers, had, up to the fall of the Roman empire, kept her independence. But while herself inaccessible to invading troops, she had become the refuge of the vanquished of every race, and the proscribed of every epoch. Many an advancing wave that had paused and crouched at the feet of her granite frontiers had swept pitilessly over the Southern provinces of the great British island. Britons, Saxons, and Danes in turn, dispossessed and driven from their homes, fleeing northwards had successively crept in, and settling down, as best they might, had maintained their own customs, in juxtaposition with those of the first inhabitants, adding consequently their own mutual jealousies to the inveterate divisions of the Picts and Scots. But from the very evil itself, the remedy was to come. God, in order to show that he is master of revolutions, just as he is of the surging waves, was about to confide the execution of his merciful designs upon Scotland, to such casual instruments as a storm or a political overthrow may sometimes prove to be.
At the opening of the eleventh century, Danish invasion had driven from the English shore the sons of the Saxon king, Edmund Ironside. The crowned apostle of Hungary, Saint Stephen I, generously received the fugitives at his court, welcoming in these helpless children, the great-nephews of a Saint, namely Edward the Martyr. To the eldest, he gave his own daughter in marriage, and the second he affianced to the niece of St. Henry, Emperor of Germany. Of this last mentioned union, were born three children, Edgar, surnamed Atheling, Christian afterwards a nun, and Margaret whose feast the Church is keeping today. Ere long by the turning tide of fortune, the exile once more returned to their country and Edgar was brought to the very steps of the English throne. For in the meanwhile, the scepter had passed from the Danish princes, back again to the Saxon line, in the person of their uncle, Saint Edward the Confessor, and by very birth-right, seemed destined to pass ultimately to Edgar Atheling. But almost immediately after their return from exile, the death of St. Edward and the Norman conquest, again banished the royal Saxon family. The ship bearing these noble fugitives, bound for the continent, was driven in an opposite direction by a hurricane, and stranded on the Scottish shore. Edgar Atheling, despite the efforts of the Saxon party, was never to raise up the fallen throne of his sires; but his sister, the Saint of this day, made conquest of the land whither the storm, God’s instrument, had carried her.
Having become the wife of Malcolm III, her gentle influence softened the fierce instincts of the son of a Duncan, and triumphed over the barbarism still so dominant in those parts of the country, as to separate them utterly from the rest of the known world. The fierce highlander and haughty lowlander, reconciled at last, now followed their gentle queen along hitherto unknown paths, thrown open by her to the light of the Gospel. The strong now bent him down to meet the weak or the poor; and all alike, casting aside the rigidity of their hardy race, let themselves be captured by the alluring charms of Christian charity. Holy penitence resumed its rights over the gross instincts of mere nature. The frequentation of the sacraments once more brought into esteem, produced seasonable fruits. Everywhere, whether in Church or in state, abuses vanished. The whole kingdom became one family, whereof Margaret was called the Mother; for Scotland was born by her to true civilization. David I (inscribed like his mother in the catalogue of Saints) completed the work begun by her; and another child of Margaret’s, alike worthy of her, Matilda of Scotland, surnamed the “good Queen Maude,” was married to Henry I of England; and thus, an end was put on the English soil, to the persistent rivalries of victors and vanquished, by this admixture of Saxon blood with the Norman race.
The following are the words given in the Liturgy, concerning Saint Margaret:
Quote:Margaret, Queen of Scots, was most noble by birth, uniting in herself, from her father the blood of the kings of England, and from her mother the blood of the Cæsars, but her greatest nobility was in her brave Christian life. She was born in Hungary, where her father was then an exile, and had passed a highly religious childhood, when her uncle Edward the holy King of England, recalled him to the royal prerogatives of her ancestors, and she came to England with him. A few years afterwards, upon the ruin of her family, she was escaping from England by sea, when the violence of the weather, or to speak more truly, the Providence of God, caused the ship to be driven upon the coast of Scotland. There her extraordinary graces of mind and of body so attracted king Malcolm III, that by the wish of his mother, he took her to wife; and of Scotland she deserved exceedingly well, during the thirty years of her reign, by the holiness of her life and the abundance of her works of mercy.
In the midst of regal delicacies, she afflicted her body with hardships and watchings, being used to spend great part of the night in earnest prayer. Besides other fasts which she imposed upon herself, it was her custom to observe one of forty days before Christmas; concerning which fast she was so rigid, that she would not relax it even under sharp suffering. She took great delight in the public worship of God, and founded or renewed a number of churches and convents which she enriched at great cost with sacred furniture. Her healthy example drew the king, her husband, to habits of sobriety and to the imitation of her in her good works. She educated all her children in so holy a manner, and with such happy success, that several of them, like her own mother Agatha and her sister Christina, embraced a most holy course of life. The happiness of the whole kingdom was the object for which she constantly strove, and she successfully rooted out all the vices which had stealthily crept in, and established among the people a standard of living worthy of Christians.
This most remarkable feature of her life was the tenderness of her charity towards her neighbor, especially the needy. Of these she would not only order crowds to be relieved, but was accustomed to give dinner to three hundred of them every day, treating them with the tenderness of a mother, holding it a sacred privilege to wait upon them on her knees, like a handmaid; washing their feet with her own royal hands, and even pressing her lips to their sores, with tender kisses. To meet the expenses of her charity, she sold not only her queenly raiment and her precious jewels, but more than once wholly exhausted her treasury. Purified by grievous suffering which she bore with marvellous patience during an illness of six months, she resigned her soul into the hands of her Creator, upon the fourth of the Ides of June. At the moment of death, the bystanders saw her face, till then pale and worn with long sickness, flush again with a beauty to which it had become disused. After her death, she became illustrious on account of great signs and prodigies. By the authority of Pope Clement X, she was chosen patroness of Scotland, and she is honored most religiously throughout the whole world, with the usual cultus.
We hail thee, O Queen, truly worthy of the praises lavished upon thee by posterity, among the most illustrious of sovereigns! Power, in thy hands, became an instrument of rescue for an entire population. Thine earthly passage marks the meridian of true light for Scotland. Yesterday, holy Church commemorated in her Martyrology, him who was thy precursor in this far-off land, Colum-kille, who leaving Ireland, in the sixth century, had borne the faith thither. But Christianity crippled in its soarings, by diverse combined circumstances, could produce scarcely any of its civilizing effects on the then inhabitants of the land. Only a Mother could perfect the supernatural education of the nation. The Holy Ghost who had chosen thee, O Margaret, for the task, prepared thy maternity in the midst of tribulation and anxiety: thus had he acted in the case of Clotilde; thus does he ever act in the case of mothers. How mysterious and hidden did not the ways of Eternal Wisdom seem, as realized in thy person! Thy birth in exile, far from the land of thy sires; thy return home; then fresh misfortunes; then the tempest at sea; and at last, thy being cast despoiled of everything, upon the crags of an unknown coast; what a list of disasters, and who among the worldly wise would ever have dreamed that herein was the direct course of a merciful Providence, to make the combined violence of men and the elements, serve the sweet purpose of His designs in thy regard! Yet so it was; and this was the very way thou wast moulded into the valiant woman, raised in all thy loftiness above the deceits of this present life, and wholly fixed on God, the one supreme Good, alone untouched by earth’s revolutions.
Far from becoming either soured or dried up by suffering, thy heart firmly anchored, beyond the influence of this world’s ebb and flow, on unshaken and Eternal Love, was ever up to the mark, in foresight and in devotedness, such as was needed to hold thee always at the height of the mission destined for thee. Wherefore, thou wast indeed that treasure worthy of being sought from the uttermost coasts; that merchant ship bringing bread from afar, and all good things to the favored shore on which she is cast. Yea, fortunate indeed were thy land of adoption, had she never forgotten thy teaching and example! Happy thy descendants, had they ever remembered that the blood of saints flowed in their veins! Yet, worthy of thee in death was at least the last Queen of Scots, as she bowed beneath the heads-man’s axe, a brow faithful to her baptism up to her last breath. But, alas, the unworthy son of Mary Stuart, by a policy as false as it was sacrilegious, abandoned at once both the Church and his own mother. Thenceforth heresy blighted the noble stem whence so many kings had sprung; and this at the very moment when England and Scotland were first united under one scepter’s sway! Nor may the treason of a James I, be redeemed by the fidelity of a second James, to the faith of his fathers! O Margaret, thy throne is firmly fixed forever in the eternal kingdom; but abandon not thine own England, the land of thy sires, nor Scotland still more thine own, of which Holy Church has declared thee patroness. The Apostle Andrew shares with thee the rights of patronage: in concert with him, then, preserve those who have been steadfast in fidelity, multiply converts to the ancient faith, and prepare the way for a speedy gathering of the whole flock into the fold of the one Shepherd.
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| Biden, Pope Francis may meet in Rome ahead of US bishops’ debate on Communion for pro-abortion polit |
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Posted by: Stone - 06-09-2021, 12:47 PM - Forum: Pope Francis
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Biden, Pope Francis may meet in Rome ahead of US bishops’ debate on Communion for pro-abortion politicians
The get-together and details about the discussion have yet to be confirmed by the Vatican.
Former Vice President and ardent abortion supporter Joe Biden and Pope Francis during the latter's visit to Washington, D.C. in September 2015.Evy Mages/Getty Images
June 8, 2021 (LifeSiteNews) –President Joe Biden will make his first international trip to Europe for a number of political liaisons starting June 10, according to the White House, and Vatican sources hinted that he may stop in Rome to meet with Pope Francis on June 15.
The meeting would come just one day before American bishops are set to debate the censure of openly pro-abortion politicians like Biden who claim to be Catholic, including the possibility of being denied Holy Communion.
Biden will travel to Europe to attend a host of summits with world leaders throughout June, beginning with the G7 summit on Britain’s picturesque Cornish coast alongside six of the wealthiest nation’s leaders to discuss climate change and coronavirus-related issues. Prime Minister Boris Johnson issued a call to his fellow G7 members ahead of the summit to “vaccinate the entire world against coronavirus by the end of 2022,” according to a June 6 press release.
After the summit closes June 13, Biden will make his way to Brussels on June 14 to attend the NATO summit before heading to Geneva on June 16 to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin, CNA reported. Before meeting Putin, it is expected that Biden will stop in Rome to be hosted by Pope Francis on June 15. A meeting is not confirmed at this time or have any details been released about what might be discussed.
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) will meet from June 16 to 18 in their biannual General Assembly, held virtually for only the second time in its history.
Part of the discussion at the assembly will focus on the approval of a document on “Eucharistic coherence,” Archbishop Jose Gomez of Los Angeles, who also serves as the president of the USCCB, confirmed in a May 22 letter.
The letter outlines the scope of the proposed teaching document as “how best to help people to understand the beauty and mystery of the Eucharist as the center of their Christian lives,” Gomez wrote.
More specifically, the document proposes to address the worthiness of receiving Holy Communion for Catholics in public office. Such politicians, if they openly dissent from Catholic teaching in a grave matter like abortion would face strict ecclesiastical penalties, including exclusion from the reception of Holy Communion, in line with the Catholic Code of Canon Law.
The approval of the document during the assembly would prompt the USCCB’s doctrine committee to develop a formal text. “From there, the Conference’s usual process of consultation, modification, and amendment will take place as the document is presented for consideration at a future Plenary Assembly,” Gomez’s May 22 letter laid out.
Canon 915 states that Catholics who are “obstinately persevering in manifest grave sin are not to be admitted to holy communion.” According to a 2004 memo issued to the U.S. bishops by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the former prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith who is now Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, a Catholic politician who is “consistently campaigning and voting for permissive abortion and euthanasia laws” manifests “formal cooperation” with grave sin and must be “denied” the Eucharist.
Gomez explained in his letter that “In light of recent surveys, it is clear that there is a lack of understanding among many Catholics about the nature and meaning of the Eucharist. This teaching document will address the fundamental doctrines concerning the Eucharist that the Church, as a whole, needs to retrieve and revive.”
A section addressing Eucharistic reception, titled “Eucharistic consistency,” will purportedly tackle “the nature of eucharistic communion and the problem of serious sin.” The May 22 letter to the bishops noted that “a person should examine himself, and so eat the bread and drink the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body, eats and drinks judgment on himself (1 Cor 11:28-29).”
Opposing any debate on the exclusion of Catholics like Biden and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi from receiving the Eucharist are Cardinal Blase Cupich of Chicago, Cardinal Wilton Gregory of Washington, D.C., and 65 other prelates within the American hierarchy who have attempted to stall proceedings, going so far as to sign a letter urging their brother bishops to disregard any notion of publicly correcting anti-life, anti-family Catholic politicians.
Gomez, however, has insisted that the proposal receives a full discussion, as originally planned.
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| How the Irish, and Many Others, Lost Their Religious Freedom to COVID Restrictions |
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Posted by: Stone - 06-09-2021, 12:27 PM - Forum: Pandemic 2020 [Spiritual]
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How the Irish, and Many Others, Lost Their Religious Freedom to COVID Restrictions
National Review [secular source] | June 6, 2021
Around the world, religious institutions bore the brunt of coronavirus rules. We can’t let this happen again.
In Ireland, you can face six months behind bars for forging a drug prescription. Or for stealing €20,000 from your employer for luxury holidays. Or, until recently, for attending church.
Even in a year that has turned societal norms on its head, it’s surely a surprise that the Emerald Isle, once a home away from Rome for Europe’s Catholics, got into this state. There are few places more steeped in Church tradition.
Until now.
Last weekend the Primate of All Ireland, Archbishop Eamon Martin, reflected that it had been “humbling” when COVID-19 had “lifted the veil” off the reality of the Church’s position in Ireland. The importance of being together in worship didn’t figure as one of the “major issues.”
Ireland, of all places, enforced some of the most draconian restrictions on religious freedom in the world during the pandemic. Authorities didn’t just close places of worship; they criminalized anyone who would attend a service or a Mass, regardless of their willingness to mask and distance. When a rural priest from County Cavan tried to hold a service, police set up checkpoints surrounding the building and fined him for daring to bid parishioners to come to a large, airy church. Meanwhile, dry cleaners, supermarkets, and even liquor stores stayed open for business. It was considered safer to pick up a cheap merlot outside a corner off-license than to take bread and wine in a socially distanced Communion service with holy God.
With the internationally solidified right to worship trounced in favor of one’s right to a spruced-up suit, the Irish government’s religious illiteracy in the context of fundamental freedoms has been exposed. And it’s a far-reaching problem across the global West. In Nevada, citizens were left with no choice but to render unto Caesars Palace when casinos stayed open, but churches had to close. Meanwhile, a young doctor serving on a COVID ward became the “David” of Switzerland in May, taking a slingshot to the sweeping, Goliathan ban by getting the Constitutional Chamber of Geneva to recognize it as unnecessary and disproportionate. They could hardly decide otherwise. Professional choirs were allowed to meet for practice, and demonstrations could take place. Why were Christians ever considered more contagious?
Indeed, millions of others across the Continent were affected by severe worship restrictions at some point during the pandemic. For a society built on Judeo-Christian values, it’s been a stark revelation of how little we think of our foundations. Somebody check on Nietzsche — he might be getting his mourning clothes out again to proclaim that God is dead.
Undeniably, churches play an immensely important role in society. At a time of loss and grieving, who can question the benefit of accessing a transcendent touch-point — a place to find hope and comfort amid despair? But the significance of religious freedom in the midst of a global crisis goes beyond even spiritual welfare. It’s a test of which human rights the government truly values under pressure and which it doesn’t. The right to worship is a deeply personal one. When that right is lost and discarded, it puts the very premise of all human-rights protections at risk. And if, in the global shake-up, respect for religious freedom is proven to be nothing more than a cathedral built on sand, it’s not going to be respected tomorrow either.
If you’re hearing a faint solo over the Irish Sea, it might be a “hallelujah” — after almost 12 months of criminalization, churches reopened recently, albeit at a limited capacity. It’s good news for many. However, the Irish government has never acknowledged that the blanket ban was ever wrong. The next time an emergency hits, it will be back to police squadrons and church raids in another bizarre blend of Exodus meets World War Z. And so a Galway businessman, Declan Ganley, has taken up the challenge of persuading the courts of Ireland to join those in Scotland, Switzerland, Chile, and several U.S. states in striking down the disproportionate ban once and for all.
Christians across the country are voicing their support for the principle. Hundreds have already signed an open petition to the government asking for a commitment that the ban will never be imposed again. Court dithering and delaying has left the situation somewhat unclear. But even though the churches can now open, the courts still have an opportunity to tackle the much deeper issue: Is religious freedom really worth protecting? Did the government indeed violate that fundamental right? And do we need to do better to make sure that the rights of religious groups aren’t left vulnerable in the next global emergency?
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| June 9th – Sts. Primus and Felician, Martyrs |
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Posted by: Stone - 06-09-2021, 11:45 AM - Forum: June
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June 9 – Sts. Primus and Felician, Martyrs
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Roses and lilies are exquisitely alternated in the wreath woven by centuries, for the Bride of the Son of God. Though the world be heedless of the fact, it is none the less true that everything here below has but one object, namely to bedeck the Church with the attractive charms of heaven, to adjust her jeweled robes formed of the virtues of her saints, that she may be fitted to take her seat beside her Diving Spouse in the highest heavens for all eternity. The sacred cycle, in its yearly course, presents an image of those ceaseless labors whereby the Holy Ghost continues to form, up to the day of the eternal nuptials, that varied robe of holy Church, by diversifying the merits of God’s servants, her members here below. Today, we have two Martyrs becrimsoned with their own blood, setting off the dazzling whiteness of Norbert’s works, or of William’s innocence; and tomorrow we may contemplate with delighted gaze the softer light beamed upon our earth by Margaret, Scotland’s Pearl.
Primus and Felician, wealthy Romans, had already attained maturity of age when our Lord made his voice heard inviting them to forsake their vain idols. Brothers according to the flesh, they now became more really so, by fidelity to the same call of grace. Together, they proved themselves intrepid helpers of the confessors of Christ amidst the atrocious persecution which raged against the Church during the latter half of the Third Century. In the same combat were they to fall side by side, exchanging this frail life here below for that into which, at one birth, they were to enter forever in heaven. They furthermore were honored by having their precious relics placed in the celebrated sanctuary consecrated to Saint Stephen, the Proto-Martyr, on Monte Cœlio, and there form its richest treasure.
The holy Liturgy relates their triumph in these few lines:
Quote:Primus and Felician were brothers, and being accused of professing the Christian religion, during the persecution of Diocletian and Maximiam, they were thrown into irons, which an Angel broke, and they were delivered. But being soon led again before the prætor, and as they most earnestly clung to the Christian faith, they were separated one from the other. The steadfastness of Felician was the first to be put to the test in diverse ways. As they who strove to persuade him into impiety, found it hopeless to gain aught from him by words, he was fastened hand and foot to a stake and there left to hang three days, without either food or drink. The day after that, the prætor having called Primus before him, thus addressed him: “Seest thou how much wiser is thy brother, than thou art? He hath obeyed the Emperors, and they have made him honorable. Thou hast only to follow his example to be made partaker of his honors and favors.”
Primus replied: “What hath befallen my brother, I know, for an angel hath told me. Would to God, that seeing I have the same will that he hath, I were not divided from him in the same martyrdom.” These words raised the wrath of the prætor, and to the torments which he had already inflicted in Primus, he added this also, that he had boiling lead poured into his mouth, and this, in presence of Felician. After that, he had them both dragged into the amphitheater, and two lions let loose upon them, in presence of about twelve thousand people, who were gathered together to see the show. The lions only fawned upon the knees of the saints, making friends with them, caressingly moving their heads and tails. This spectacle turned five hundred persons of the assembled crowd, together with their households, to the Christian religion. The prætor then, moved beyond all endurance, by what had passed, caused Primus and Felician to be beheaded with the axe.
O ye brave veterans of the Lord’s battles, teach us what energy we must bring to the service of God, whatsoever be our age. Less favored than we are, ye came late in life to the knowledge of the Gospel and of those inestimable treasures promised to the Christian. But in holy Baptism your youth was renewed as that of the eagle, and for thirty years, the Holy Ghost continued to produce rich fruits in you. When, in extreme old age, the hour of final victory at last sounded, your courage was equal to that of the most vigorous warriors. You were nerved up to such heroism and sustained therein, through prayer constantly kept alive within you by the words of the Psalms, as your Acts attest. Revive then amongst us faith in the word of God; His promises will make us despise, as ye did, this present life. Lead our piety back to those true sources which strengthen the soul—the knowledge and daily use of those sacred formulæ, which bind our earth unfailingly to heaven whence they were brought down to us.
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| Cleveland Clinic Refutes Fauci: No Point Vaccinating Those Who’ve Had COVID-19 |
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Posted by: Stone - 06-09-2021, 08:20 AM - Forum: Pandemic 2020 [Secular]
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Cleveland Clinic Refutes Fauci: No Point Vaccinating Those Who’ve Had COVID-19
A new study by scientists at the Cleveland Clinic found that there was no point in vaccinating those who’ve had the COVDID19 already.
This makes logical sense and is in line with what the public was always told about infectious disease.
It was only when the megalomaniac Tony Fauci got involved with COVID-19 that healthy people were wearing masks, the entire economy was shut down, the death counts included people who died from the disease and with the disease, and those who had the disease were ordered to get the vaccine.
This study brings a bit of sanity back into the American medical community.
News-Medical.net reported:
Quote:Scientists from the Cleveland Clinic, USA, have recently evaluated the effectiveness of coronavirus disease 2019 COVID-19) vaccination among individuals with or without a history of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection.
The study findings reveal that individuals with previous SARS-CoV-2 infection do not get additional benefits from vaccination, indicating that COVID-19 vaccines should be prioritized to individuals without prior infection. The study is currently available on the medRxiv* preprint server.
In the United States, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved two mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccines developed by Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna, which have shown high efficacy against SARS-CoV-2 infection and COVID-19 disease in clinical trials. However, the ability to vaccinate a large part of the global population is limited by vaccine supply.
In order to ensure fair access to vaccines throughout the world, the COVID-19 vaccines Global Access (COVAX) initiative was launched. In many countries, especially those with low socioeconomic status, there is a serious shortage of vaccines. Thus, in order to get the maximum vaccine benefits, the most vulnerable population should be prioritized for the vaccination.
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| German Study Finds Lockdown ‘Had No Effect’ on Stopping Spread of Coronavirus |
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Posted by: Stone - 06-08-2021, 07:15 AM - Forum: Pandemic 2020 [Secular]
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German Study Finds Lockdown ‘Had No Effect’ on Stopping Spread of Coronavirus
Infection rates already falling before restrictions put in place.
Summit News | 4 June, 2021
A major new study by German scientists at Munich University has found that lockdowns had no effect on reducing the country’s coronavirus infection rate.
Oh.
“Statisticians at Munich University found “no direct connection” between the German lockdown and falling infection rates in the country,” reports the Telegraph.
The study found that, on all three occasions before Germany imposed its lockdowns in November, December and April, infection rates had already begun to fall.
The R rate – the number that indicates how many other people an infected person passes the virus to – was already under 1 before the lockdown restrictions came into force.
As we highlighted last year, a leaked study from inside the German Ministry of the Interior revealed that the impact of the country’s lockdown could end up killing more people than the coronavirus due to victims of other serious illnesses not receiving treatment.
This is by no means the only study to have concluded that lockdowns are completely useless and don’t work.
A peer reviewed study published in January by Stanford researchers found that mandatory lockdowns do not provide more benefits to stopping the spread of COVID-19 than voluntary measures such as social distancing.
Back in March, Stanford medical professor Dr. Jay Bhattacharya told Newsweek that COVID-19 lockdowns are “the single worst public health mistake in the last 100 years.”
Earlier this year, academics from Duke, Harvard, and Johns Hopkins concluded that there could be around a million excess deaths over the next two decades as a result of lockdowns.
Other research has concluded lockdowns will conservatively “destroy at least seven times more years of human life” than they save.
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| Canadian health officials baffled by MYSTERY deadly brain disease since at least |
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Posted by: Stone - 06-08-2021, 06:44 AM - Forum: Health
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‘It’s happening & it’s probably spreading’: Canadian health officials baffled by MYSTERY deadly brain disease
A fresh outbreak of a mysterious illness has been making headlines in Canada. A neurological disease dubbed the New Brunswick Syndrome has affected dozens and killed six people in recent months in the region that gave it its name.
At least 48 people aged between 18 and 85, almost equally men and women, have been suffering from an inexplicable illness that has caused their health to swiftly deteriorate. Visual and auditory hallucinations, memory loss, difficulty walking and balance issues are among the symptoms of the mysterious condition, which is reported to have killed six patients thus far.
This week, the government of the mainly affected New Brunswick province, located on the Atlantic coast, stepped up its efforts to deal with the outbreak, which had, until recently, been overshadowed by the coronavirus pandemic. An expert committee has been set up to expedite the investigation into what is being referred to as the New Brunswick Cluster of Neurological Syndrome of Unknown Cause.
“The discovery of a potentially new and unknown syndrome is scary,” New Brunswick Health Minister Dorothy Shephard told a news conference on Thursday, adding that locals have been “concerned and confused” about the new disease.
While people in the province have been suffering from alarming symptoms that appear to stem from the same unknown brain-damaging illness for the past few years, no certain cause has yet been identified. Health officials have been looking into potential environmental and animal exposure, but uncertainty prevails.
“At this point in time, we don’t know. Everything is on the table. We’re going to look at every possibility, and, hopefully, we’ll … develop a good understanding,” one of the committee co-chairs, Dr. Edouard Hendriks said. The other, Dr. Natalie Banville, admitted no advice can be given to people as to how – or whether – they can protect themselves from the disease, as the experts haven’t determined its derivation.
“We’re researching. We have no environmental causes, we have no genetic causes, we have no medication causes – we have no cause established,” Banville said.
All possibilities are being studied, including contamination through toxins, bacteria, or a virus.
To try to figure out the mystery, an extensive questionnaire has been drafted by health officials. Aimed at both patients and their families, it can take up to four hours to complete. A special clinic to diagnose and treat suspected patients has also been opened.
“It’s still a big shock,” Luc Leblanc, who has been diagnosed with the unknown syndrome, told Canada’s CTV News. “I never got any answers that I was looking for, or how to cope, or how to extend my life,” the 41-year-old man said. He is suffering from concentration problems and memory loss, and described his condition as “a ticking bomb.” “You don’t know how long you have,” he said.
Another patient’s life has also been upturned by the mysterious brain disorder. Gabrielle Cormier, whose neurological symptoms include vision problems, and sudden walking and standing inabilities, was diagnosed at the age of 20. “I can’t read, which is a shame because I love to read. I can’t move … I was very active before,” she explained to CTV News.
People living in the region have been “frustrated” for months, officials admitted this week. There have been complains of a lack of communication and transparency from health officials, with locals now demanding regular public briefings on the troubling issue.
The disease was first observed in New Brunswick in 2015 by local neurologist Dr. Alier Marrero. Over the years, more patients have emerged, exhibiting similar symptoms of dementia and strange muscle movements, among other disorders. When the number of people affected began to grow, the doctor concluded he was dealing with something that hadn’t been observed before in the medical world and sounded the alarm.
Physicians in New Brunswick have been identifying more patients with common unusual symptoms that they couldn’t diagnose since early 2020. They first linked these to another rare brain disorder, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD), but patients tested negative for it. A separate case definition for the perplexing symptoms was drafted in January this year, however, the mysterious illness was publicly exposed only after a senior medical officer’s internal memo about it was leaked in March.
“Every year since 2018, the number of cases has increased. And we don’t know why. We don’t know what is causing this. We know it’s happening and it’s probably spreading,” Marrero told the Toronto Star daily, warning that “we are exposed to something that we have not been exposed [to] before.”
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| June 8th: St. William |
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Posted by: Stone - 06-08-2021, 06:40 AM - Forum: June
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June 8 – St. William, Bishop and Confessor
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At the head of the holy Confessors admitted by the Church on the monumental page of her Martyrology for today is inscribed the illustrious name of William: “At York, in England,” thus runs the text of the Golden Book of heaven’s nobility, “the memory of Saint William, Archbishop and Confessor, who, amongst other miracles wrought at his tomb, raised three dead persons to life, and was inscribed amongst the Saints by Honorius III.” The divine Spirit who adorns the Church with variety in the virtues of her sons, reproduces in them the life of the Divine Spouse, under multiplied aspects. Thus there is no situation in life that bears not with it some teaching drawn from the example given by our Lord and his saints, under similar circumstances. However vast be the field of trial for the elect here below; however multiplied and unexpected, sometimes, be the limits of endurance, or the circumstances; herein, as ever, does that word of Eternal Wisdom chime in: Nothing is new under the sun; neither is any man able to say: Behold this is new: for it hath already gone before, in the ages that were before us.
The election of William to the metropolitan see of York was signalized by the apparition of a miraculous cross, a presage of what his life was to be. Verily the heaviest cross one can have to bear is that which originates on the part of the servants of God—from our own brethren, or from our own superiors, in the spiritual order of things: now, this was the very cross that was not to be spared to William. For our instruction (specially for us who so easily believe that we have gone to the furthest limits of endurance, in point of suffering) God permitted that, after the example of his divine Master, William should drink the chalice to the dregs and should become even to saints a sign of contradiction and a rock of scandal.
Both to the more numerous portion of the Flock, as well as to the better minded among them, the promotion of the Archbishop elect of York, was indeed a cause of great joy; but thereby also, diversely interested views among several, had been crossed. In their simplicity, some of the sheep gave ear to certain perfidious insinuations and whisperings; they were led to suppose that it would be a good deed, if they strove to break the staff that guided them to wholesome pastures; and they allowed themselves to be so far worked upon as to make formal and grave accusations against their Shepherd. Then, at last, most virtuous persons, beguiled by the craftiness of the intriguers, were to be seen espousing their cause and putting at their service the very zeal wherewith the hearts of the former were really inflamed for the House of God. After hearing as above, from the lips of Holy Church in the Martyrology, her own judgment, glorious as it stands and without appeal, it is not without feelings of wonder and even of bewilderment, that we read passages such as the following, in letters written at the time.
“To our well beloved Father and Lord, Innocent, by the grace of God, Sovereign Pontiff, Bernard of Clairvaux. The archbishop of York hath approached you; that man regarding whom we have so often already, written to your Holiness. A sorry cause indeed is his; as we have learned from such as are worthy of credit, from the sole of his foot to the top of his head, there is not a sound place in him. what can this man stripped of all justice, have to seek at the hands of the Guardian of justice?” Then recommending the accusers to the Pontiff, the Abbot of Clairvaux fears not to add: “If any one be of God, let him join himself unto them! If the barren tree still occupy the ground, to whom must I attribute the fault, save to him unto whom the hatchet belongs?”
The Vicar of Christ, who can look at things from a higher level and can see more exactly than even saints can, having taken no step to prevent William’s consecration, Saint Bernard pens these words, confidentially, to the abbot of Rievaulx, in Yorkshire: “I have learned what has become of this archbishop, and my sorrow is extreme. We have labored all we could against this common pest, and we have not obtained the desired measure; but for all that, the fruit of our labor is none the less assured from Him, who never suffers any good deed to pass unrewarded. What men have refused to us, I am confident we shall obtain from the mercy of our Father who is in heaven, and that we shall yet see this cursed fig-tree rooted up.”
Such grave mistakes as these can sometimes be made by saints. Cruel mistakes indeed they are, but very sanctifying for those saints on whom the blow falls; and though veritable persecutions, yet are they not without one sweet consolation for such saints as these, inasmuch as there has been no offense to God on either side.
Innocent II being dead, Bernard, convinced that the honor of the Church was at stake, repeated his supplications more urgently than ever to Pope Celestine II and the Roman Court: “The whole world is aware of the devil’s triumph,” he exclaimed, and with such fiery zeal that we somewhat modify the strength of his expression; “The applause of the uncircumcised and the tears of the good, resound far and wide … If such were to be the finale of this ignominious cause, why not have left it in its darksome nook? Could not that infamous man, the horror of England and the abomination of France, have been made bishop, without Rome also witnessing the general infection to pervade as far as the very tombs of the Apostles … Well, be it so: this man has received sacrilegious consecration; but still more glorious will it be to precipitate Simon from midair, than to have prevented his mounting thus far. Otherwise, what will you do with the Faithful, whose sense of religion makes them suppose that they cannot with a safe conscience, receive the sacraments from this leprous hand? Are they then, to be forced by Rome, to bend the knee to Baal?”
Rome, however, was slow in letting herself be convinced; and neither Celestine, nor Lucius II who succeeded him, was willing to find in the great services and justifiable ascendency of the Abbot of Clairvaux, a sufficient reason to pronounce a condemnation, the justice of which was far from being proved to their eyes. It was only under the pontificate of Eugenius III, his former disciple, that Saint Bernard by new and reiterated instances at last obtained the deposition of William, and the substitution, to the see of York, of Henry Murdach, a Cistercian and abbot of Fountains, near Ripon.
“All the time that his humiliation lasted,” writes John, Prior of Hexham, “William never let a murmur of complaint escape him; but with a silent heart and with his soul at peace, knew hot to keep patience. He reclaimed not against his adversaries; nay, further still, he would turn aside his ear and his very thought from those who judged them unfavorably. None of those who shared his grace, showed themselves so continually given up as he to prayer and labor.”
Five years afterwards (8th July, 1153), Eugenius III died, as also the abbot of Clairvaux (on the 20th of August), and Henry Murdach (on 14 October). The canons of York once more elected William and he was reinstated in the plenitude of his metropolitan rights by Anastasius IV. But God had willed to affirm here below the justice alone of his cause: thirty days after his triumphant return to York, he died, having only just solemnized the festival of the Holy Trinity for whom he had suffered all.
We here give the few lines wherein the Liturgy records the trials and virtues of Saint William.
Quote:Blessed William born of most noble parents (to wit, Count Hubert being his father, and Emma sister of King Stephen being his mother) was remarkable from earliest youth for singularly great virtue. Growing in merit as he advanced in ages, he was made Treasurer of York: in which office he so behaved, as to be held by all, the father of the needy in general. Nor indeed did he esteem anything a more precious treasure, than to despoil himself of his wealth, that he might more easily minister to the wants of those laboring under poverty.
Turstan the Archbishop being dead, he was elected to succeed him, though some few of the Chapter dissented. But Saint Bernard, on the ground of this election being faulty according the the sacred Canons, appealed against him to the Apostolic See, and hence he was deposed, by Pope Eugenius the Third. The which thing was in no ways taken as a grievance by this holy man but rather, as offering an excellent occasion of exercising humility and of serving God with greater freedom.
Wherefore fleeing worldly pomps, he withdrew into solitude, where he could attend solely to his own salvation, undistracted by any care of exterior things. But, at last, his adversaries being dead, he was again with the full consent of all, elected archbishop, and was confirmed by Pope Anastasius.
Having entered upon his see he was shortly afterwards attacked with sickness; and full of days as well as dear to God by reason of his alms-deeds, vigils, fasts and good works, he passed out of this life, on the sixth of the Ides of June, in the year of man’s salvation, one thousand, one hundred and fifty-four.
O William, thou didst know how to possess thy soul! Under the assaults of contradiction, thou didst join the aureola of sanctity to the glorious character of a bishop. For well didst thou understand the twofold duty incumbent on thee, from the day thou wast called by the suffrages of an illustrious Church, to defend her here below, under most difficult circumstances; on the one hand, not to refuse the perilous honor of upholding to the last the rights of that noble bride who proffered thee her alliance; on the other, to show thy flock, by the example of thy own submission, that even the best of causes can never be dispensed from that absolute obedience owed by sheep, just as much as by lambs, to the supreme Shepherd. He who searcheth the heart and the reins knew how far the trial could go, without either altering the admirable simplicity of thy faith, or troubling, in consequence, the divine calm wherein lay thy strength. Yearning to raise thee to the highest degree of glory, nigh to that Altar, yonder in heaven, fain was He to assimilate thee fully, even here below, to the eternal Pontiff, erstwhile misunderstood, denied, and condemned by the very princes of His own people. Thy refuge was in that maxim, from the lips of this divine Head: Learn of me, because I am meek and humble of heart, and ye shall find rest to your souls; and thus, the yoke that would bear down such weak shoulders as ours, a burthen, beneath which the strongest of us well might quail, far from daunting thee, seemed fraught with such sweetness, that thy step became all the lighter for it, and from that hour, thou didst appear not only to walk, but to run like a giant in the way of heroism, wherein saints are formed.
Help us, O William, to follow thy steps at least afar off, in the paths of gentleness and energy. Teach us to count for little, all personal injuries. Our Lord indeed probed the delicacy of thy great soul, when He permitted that to befall thee, which to us would have proved a very core of bitterness, namely, that thy hottest adversaries really should be true saints, who in every measure they undertook against thee, were wishful only for the honor and glory of the divine Master—thine and theirs alike. The mysterious oil that for so long flowed from thy tomb, was at once a sign of the ineffable meekness which earned for thee that constant simplicity of thy soul’s glance, and a touching testimony rendered by heaven in favor of thy pontifical unction, the legitimacy of which was so long contested. God grant that this sweet oil may ooze out once again! Spread it lovingly on so many wounded souls, whom the injustice of men embitters and drives to desperation; let it freely flow in thine own Church of York, alien though she now be, to thine exquisite submission to Rome and to her ancient traditions. Oh! would that Albion might cast aside her winding-sheet, at that blessed tomb of thine, whereat the dead have oft returned to life. In one word, may the whole Church receive from thee, this day, increase of light and grace, to the honor and praise of the undivided and ever tranquil Trinity, to Whom was paid thy last solemn homage here below.
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| Week within the Octave of Corpus Christi |
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Posted by: Stone - 06-08-2021, 06:27 AM - Forum: Pentecost
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Monday Within the Octave of Corpus Christi
Christum regem adoremus dominantem gentibus, qui se manducantibus dat spiritus pingudeninem.
Let us adore Christ, the King, who ruleth the nations; who giveth fatness of spirit to them that eat him.
The Lord hath sworn, and he will not repent him of his oath: he hath sworn: “Thou art a Priest for ever, according to the order of Melchisedech!” Thus did the sons of Levi sing, to the expected Messias, in one of the loveliest of their Psalms. This noble and privileged family, this corona fratrum, standing, in all its glory, around the altar, whence there daily ascended the smoke of the victims burned on it,—this community of brethren celebrated, on the sacred harp, the Priesthood of the good things to come, and announced their own being set aside. Shadow and figure as it was, their own priesthood was to disappear, when the brightness of the divine realities of Calvary came. They were indebted to the infidelity of the nations, for their being called to perpetuate the worship of the true God, in his one single Temple; but this precarious honor would cease when the reconciliation of the world took place. Being son of Juda, through David, the High Priest Christ receives nought of Aaron. When the inspired Psalmist sings a hymn in honour of our Jesus’ Priesthood, he goes back, in thought, to the ages beyond Moses; he passes the time of the twelve Patriarchs and their father Israel; and there, in the distant past, he meets with the type of a Priesthood, which is to have no limits, either of place or time: it is Melchisedech. Melchisedech receives, through Abraham, the homage of Abraham’s son, Levi; the priest of the uncircumcised nations gives a blessing to the venerable holder of the promise; and this mighty blessing, which is extended to the patriarch’s entire race, derives its efficacy from a mysterious sacrifice:—the peaceful offering of bread and wine to the Most High.
The priesthood of the King of justice and peace not only precedes that of Aaron as to time, but it is also to outlive it. And observe, it is at the very time when God was making a covenant with one single race, and thereby seemed to be turning away from all other nations, and was establishing the priestly order to their exclusion,—it is precisely then that the King-Priest of Salem, who has neither beginning of days nor end of life suddenly comes before us as the imposing image of our Eternal Priest, who offers the divine Memorial, which is to perpetuate the great Sacrifice on the earth, and forever take the place of the bloody sacrifices of the Mosaic dispensation.
The Sacrifice of the Cross lasts all ages of time and fills eternity. And yet, as to time, it was the offering of one single day; and as to place, it was made but on one spot. It matters not: in every place, in every age, man must have the sacrifice ceaselessly offered up in his presence; he must have its offering renewed daily in his midst. As we have already seen, sacrifice is the center of the whole of religion; and man cannot dispense with religion, for it unites him to God as the sovereign Lord, and constitutes the primary bond of social life. As, then, to satisfy the imperious necessity, which showed itself from the very beginning of the world, divine Wisdom appointed those figurative offerings, which foretold the one great Sacrifice, and from which they derived what merit soever they possessed; so, in like manner, once the oblation of the great Victim made, it is again to supply the demands of mankind, and provide the world with a permanent Sacrifice; it is to be a Memorial, and not a Figure; it destroys not the unity of the Sacrifice of the Cross; and it applies the fruits of that one Sacrifice to each member of each future generation.
We will not here describe the Lord’s Supper, and the institution of that new Priesthood, which is as far above its predecessor as the promises it holds are more glorious, and the covenant, of which it forms the basis is more divine. We have had all the details of that marvellous history related to us on Maundy Thursday. It was on that day,—that day expected from all eternity; it was at that hour (cum facta esset Hora), that Hour so long put off, that divine Wisdom sat down to the supper and banquet of the New Covenant; he sat down, having with him the Twelve Apostles, who represented mankind. Putting an end to figures by a final immolation of the Paschal Lamb, Jesus exclaimed: With desire (that is, with immense desire), I have desired to eat this Pasch with you! The Man-God thus eased his Sacred Heart, which had so long waited for this Hour; he had so loved it! and it is now come! Then, forestalling the Jews, he immolates his victim,—the divine Lamb, signified by Abel, foretold by Isaias, shown by John the Precursor; and, by a miraculous anticipation, there is already in the holy chalice the Blood which, in a few hours hence, is to be flowing on Calvary; bread now changed into his Body, which has become the ransom of the world: Take, says this Jesus, take ye and eat: this is my Body, which shall be delivered for you! Take and drink this Chalice, which is the new testament in my Blood! This do ye for the commemoration of me: that is, “As I am now anticipating, for your sakes, the death I am to suffer on the morrow, so you, when I have left this world, do this same for the commemoration of me.”
The covenant, the alliance, is now made. The New Testament is declared, and like its predecessor, is sealed by Blood. If as yet it be of no force, save in prevision of the Testator’s real death, the reason is because this Jesus, who is the victim of the divine vengeance for the salvation of the whole world, has made a solemn covenant with his eternal Father, that this universal redemption is not to be effected but by the morrow’s cruel work. He has made himself the Head of guilty mankind; he has made himself responsible to God for the crimes of his own race; for the destruction of sin, therefore, he willingly submits to the stern laws of expiation, and by the torments he undergoes, reveals to the world how immense are the claims of eternal justice. Notwithstanding all this, the earth, from that very Thursday night, is in possession of the Chalice which is to announce the Saviour’s death until he come, by communicating to each member of the human family Christ’s real and true Blood, shed for our sins. And surely it was most fitting that our adorable High Priest himself, and without all that display of outward violence,—which, a few hours later, is to disconcert the whole Apostolic college,—should offer himself, with his own hands, as a true sacrifice to his Father; he would thus evince how spontaneous was his death, and do away with our ever having such a thought as that the treachery, or violence, or crime, of a handful of men, could be the origin and cause of the whole world’s salvation.
It is on this account that, lifting up his eyes to his Father (et elevatis oculis in cœlum ad te Deum Patrem suum omnipotentem), and giving thanks, he says, and in the present (as the Greek text gives the words): This is my Body, which is given for you; this is my Blood, which is shed for you. These words,—which he bequeaths, and with all their efficacy of power, to the representatives of his Priesthood,—really produce what they express. They not only change the bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ; but as a mystical sword, they truly separate under the twofold species, and as far as their own power is concerned, they offer separately to the Father, the Body and Blood of our Lord, which are, indeed, united, but they are so by the omnipotent will of the infinite Majesty of God, who was abundantly and eternally satisfied by the offering made on Calvary. As often, then, as the words of Consecration, which may be likened to those which drew the world out of nothing, are pronounced over wheaten bread and wine of the grape, by the mouth of a Priest,—no matter how long may be the time, or how distant the place, from the Sacrifice offered on Calvary,—that same moment, the august Victim, our Jesus, is then and there really present. It was one and the same Victim both at the Last Supper, and on the Cross, and It continues the same in the oblation made to the Father, now and to the end of time, and in all places, by the One High Priest, Christ our Lord, who borrows and makes them his own, the hands and voice of the Priests of his Church, who have been chosen and consecrated, in the Holy Ghost, for this dread Ministry.
Oh! how great will not these men be, who have been taken from among the rest of men, by the imposition of hands! New Christs, that is, new anointed Priests, identified, by their ministry, with the Son of Mary, they are the privileged members of divine Wisdom; they are closely united, by love, with the power which he himself has; they are the companions of this Jesus in the doing that grand work which he, Wisdom, is ever doing throughout all ages: that is, the immolation of the great Victim, and the mingling of the Chalice, wherein our humanity, blended with its Head in the unity of the one same Sacrifice, derives also love for both its God and its fellow members, and is made to be partaker of the divine nature, as St. Peter words the mystery of union.
Praise, then, and glory be to our Jesus, the sovereign High Priest, for these noble sons of the human race! they are a marvel to heaven, and the pride of our earth! Surrounded by them, as is the palm tree with its victory-speaking palms, or the cedar, with its incorruptible branches, this divine Pontiff of ours comes forward like the olive tree budding forth its young plants, in which he puts, and with such an overflowingness, dignity, power, and holiness. And as the cypress tree that rears itself on high, hides its vigorous trunk beneath the forest of its ever-green branches,—so hiding his own direct action, and, as it were, retreating behind the countless Priests on earth, who derive all their power and unction from Him, our true High Priest draws them all to unity with his own adorable Self.
On that night ever blessed, that night of the divine Supper, when, as he said, the hour had come for the Father and Son to glorify one the other; it was just as he was on the point of ascending the blood-stained steps of the altar of the Cross, where was to be consummated the perfection of glory; yes, it was then, and thus early, that he manifested the power of his own divine Priesthood. Under the likeness and name of Simon, Son of Onias, who did such great things for the Temple, and saved his people from destruction; we have our Jesus, whose praises are inspired and celebrated by the Holy Spirit, in that last of the Books descriptive of eternal Wisdom,—Ecclesiasticus. It is into the as yet feeble hands of his Apostles, whom he vouchsafes to call his friends, and his Brethren, that our Lord entrusts the oblation, which was to immortalize, and so, in a manner, extend his sacrifice to the King of Ages. His divine hands are stretched out, offering, as a libation, the blood of the grape: he pours it forth at the very foot of the altar, which is already being put up; and the fragrance of that offering makes its way to the Most High Prince. Our High Priest saw into the future; he heard the songs of triumph which would hymn the praises of the divine Memorial; he heard the sacred Psalmody, which would fill the great House, the Church, with ceaseless and sweet harmony, around the Tabernacle of his Presence; he saw millions prostrate in the adoration of Him, the Lord their God, and paying to the Almighty their now perfect homage. Then did he rise from the table of the Supper; he went out in his strength and his love, that he might, for a whole long day, stretch forth his hands in presence of the crowd of unbelieving and hostile children of Israel; he renewed his oblation, consummated his Sacrifice by his Blood, for, by the Cross, he wished to show the power of God.
“The evening Sacrifice, which was the Passion of Christ,” says St. Augustine, “became, in his Resurrection, the oblation of the morning.” It was a Sacrifice whose mysterious transformation was signified under the Law by the solemnly presenting to the Lord of a sheaf of the first-fruits of the wheat harvest; the presentation was to be made on the third day following the slaying of the Paschal Lamb. But the time for offering the very bread itself, the true wheat and food of souls, was not as yet come; and the law subjoined as follows: Ye shall count, therefore, from the morrow after the Sabbath, wherein ye offered the sheaf of the first-fruits, seven full weeks, even unto the morrow after the seventh week be expired, that is to say, fifty days: and then ye shall offer a new Sacrifice unto the Lord:—two loaves of flour,—the first-fruits of the Lord.
Fifty days were to transpire, in the New Covenant, before the divine agent came, who alone could transform these gifts, this Bread and Wine. Pentecost, the glorious Pentecost, arose at last; and the creating Spirit came with a mighty wind. The flesh of the Word, and the divine Blood, which he formed at the very onset, and are still in his keeping, awaited for their being reproduced in the sacred Mysteries, the incommunicable operation of Him whose glorious masterpiece they are. “It was by Him who is eternal Fire, that is, by the Spirit,” says the Abbot Rupert, “that Mary conceived; it was by him that Jesus offered himself, a living Victim, to the living God; and it is by the same Fire that he now burns on our altars, for it is by the operation of the Holy Ghost that the Bread is changed into his Body.” So, too, St. Denis the Areopagite, the great disciple of the Apostle St. Paul, teaches us that our Jesus, the supreme Hierarch, when he called his disciples to share in his sovereign priesthood,—although, as God, he was the author of all consecration, yet did he leave the consummation of their priesthood to the Holy Ghost; and he bade his Apostles not to depart from Jerusalem, but there wait for the promise of the Father, that is, for their being baptized with the Holy Ghost a few days later on.
“The Priest,” says St. John Chrysostom, “comes forth, carrying, not fire, as under the Law, but the Holy Ghost.” “It is a man who appears before us, but it is God who works.” How shall this be done, said Mary to the Angel, for I know not man. Gabriel answers her: The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Most High shall overshadow thee. “And thou now askest me,” says St. John Damascene to an inquirer, “’How do the bread and wine and water become the Body and Blood of Christ?’ I answer thee: The Holy Ghost overshadows the Church, and achieves this Mystery, which is beyond all word and all imagination.”
Therefore it is that, as St. Fulgentius observes, “the Church cannot have any better reason for praying the coming of the Holy Ghost, than for the consecration of the Sacrifice, wherein, as under the shadow of the Spirit in the Virgin’s womb, the Wisdom of the Father united himself with the Man chosen by him for the divine espousal, so the Church herself is united, by the Holy Ghost, to Christ, as a bride is to her spouse, or the body to its head.” It is on account of all this that the hour of Tierce (our hour of nine o’clock), the hour wherein the divine Paraclete came into this world, is the one set apart, by the Church, on each of her Festivals, for the solemn celebration of the great Sacrifice, over which this Blessed Spirit presides in the omnipotence of his operation.
O holy hour of Tierce! O sacred Nine o’Clock, as men call that third hour! it is then that the Bride, the Church of Christ, feels an alleviation of her exile; for though still on earth, she gives to her God an homage that is worthy of him, and receives back from him every grace wherewith to bless her dear children. In this sense, the Mass is her fortune, her dower; it belongs to her to regulate its celebration, to prescribe the formulas and the ceremonies, and to receive its fruits. The Priest is her minister: she prays; he immolates the Victim, and gives her prayer an infinite power. The indelible character of the Priesthood, stamped by God himself, on the Priest’s soul, makes him the exclusive depositary of the marvellous, the divine, power, and gives to the Sacrifice, offered by his hands, a validity which no human power can control; but he may not, licitly and lawfully, make the oblation, save in and with the Church.
This mutual dependence, this union which confounds not, of the Priest and the Church in the Sacred Mysteries, was deeply impressed on the minds of the early Christians. In the cemetery of Saint Callixtus,—that central point of the Roman cemeteries, and the one set apart for the burial of the Bishops of the Mother Church during the entire 3rd Century,—there is a whole series of paintings going back as far as the beginning of the Catacomb itself. These were a symbolic teaching of the initiated how the dogma of the Eucharist was instituted by our Lord, as basis of the religion, whereof the Popes, who were buried there in the papal crypt, had been the faithful guardians. The repast of the seven disciples, for whom, during their mysterious fishing, Jesus himself has been preparing bread and a fish roasted on hot coals, is painted in one of the rooms, on the center of the wall facing the entrance door. On either side of this central subject, there are two other smaller ones: one is the sacrifice of Abraham, with its well known meaning; the other represents a non-historic scene, which, however, evidently forms a counterpart with the one on the other side; it speaks of the Sacrifice of the Christian Church; and symbolism so thoroughly hides the secret of the Mysteries from the profane, that we may expect the symbolism to be deep in proportion. On a table lies a loaf, whose meaning is made plain enough by the fish, the eucharistic icthus, being placed near it. On the spectator’s right hand is an aged female; she is standing, with her arms stretched out as an Orante, and is offering up her prayer to heaven; on the left is the figure of a young man; he wears a simple pallium, which was the usual garb of the Christian cleric in the 2nd Century; with an air of authority, he is holding his open hands over the table and its gifts. We know the meaning of all this; it is the Church, who is united, in the consecration, with the Priest, her minister and her son.
With what fidelity does not this queen, who is in mourning for her Spouse, carry out the Testament which left her in the Sacrifice, the eternal and undying remembrance of his Death,—and he gave her that Testament at his Last Supper! While he gives his whole Self to her in the mystery of love, she is forcibly reminded, by the state of immolation in which she sees Him, that she is not to be taken up so much with the joy this sweet presence of his causes her, as with the duty of completing and continuing his work, by immolating herself together with Him. Under the Altar, where she and her Jesus meet, she, the valiant woman, has laid the relics of her Martyrs, for she is aware that the Passion of her Lord demands, from her children, who are his members, a something which will fill up what is wanting of his sufferings. She was produced from his open Side, when on his Cross, and she was espoused to him in Death; that first embrace, which, from her very birth, put her Spouse’s Bleeding Body into her arms, has communicated to the soul of this second Eve the same inebriation of devotedness and love, which sent the heavenly Adam into his deep sleep on Calvary.
To this Church, then, to this Mother of the living, the immense human family runs with all its manifold miseries and countless wants. She makes good use of the treasure confided to her; that treasure is the Mass, and it supplies every necessity; and, by that same, she is enabled to fulfill all her duties, both as Bride and Mother. Each day identifying herself, more and more, with the universal Victim, who imparts to her sacrifice his own infinite worth, the Church adores God’s sovereign Majesty, gives him thanks for his favors, sues for the pardon of the past and present sins of her children, and asks for them the bestowal of blessings temporal and eternal. The precious Blood of her Jesus flows from her Altar upon the suffering souls in Purgatory, assuages their fire of expiation, or leads them to the place of refreshment, light, and peace.
So great is the power of the Sacrifice offered in the Church that, of itself, and (as far as the principal effect is concerned) independently of the merits of the Priest or the people present, it fulfils those four ends, whose realization includes the sum total of religion,—that, is Adoration, Thanksgiving, Propitiation, and Impetration;—yes independently of the merits of the human Priest,—for it is the Victim, which gives this Sacrifice its worth; and the Victim on our Altars is the Same that was on Calvary; it is a Victim equal to the Father, who offers himself, as he did on the cross, for these same ends, and in one same Oblation. The Creator of space and time is not bound to observe their laws, and he has proved his divine independence in this mystery. “Just as though offered in many places, it is one and the same Body, and not several bodies,” says St. John Chrysostom, “so is it with the unity of the Sacrifice, though offered in different ages.” Between the Altar and the Cross, there is but the difference of the manner of the offering. Bloody on the Cross, unbloody on the Altar, the offering is one, notwithstanding this diversity of mode. The immolation of the august Victim on the Cross was a visible one, for it was amidst all the cruel horrors which slew Him; but the violence of the executioners concealed the Sacrifice offered to God, by the Incarnate Word, in the spontaneity of his generous love. At our Altar, the immolation is not visible; but the religious worship of the Sacrifice is as patent as the noon-day brightness, and as splendid in its glorious ritual. Upon the earth, which on that terrible Friday, had drunk the stream of its shedding, the precious Blood left the malediction of deicide; but the chalice of salvation held by the Church’s hand sheds benediction throughout our planet.
O glorious condition of this Earth of ours, from whose surface, the Lamb that is slain, who is now receiving, on the Throne of God, the homage due to his triumph, is presenting, each day, in his state of infinite lowliness as Man, total satisfaction to his Father for the sins of the world, and a glory adequate to the perfections of the divine Majesty! The Angels are in admiration as they look down upon this our globe, mere speck as it is amidst the bright heavenly spheres, and yet so loved, from the very onset, by eternal Wisdom; they surround, trembling the while, this Altar on earth, so closely resembling, so one with theirs in heaven, that on the two, the one same High Priest pays homage to the one same God in the one same infinite Offering. Hell from its deepest depths trembles at it; and raging, as it does, against God and vowing vengeance against man, there is no object so hateful to it as this Sacrifice. What untiring efforts has not Satan been making, what artful designs has he not planned, in order to make this much detested Sacrifice cease! And alas! there has been, even in the very heart of Christendom, some partial success to those efforts and designs,—there has been the protestant heresy, which has destroyed thousands of our Altars, especially in our own dear fatherland,—and there is still the spirit of Revolution which is spreading as our modern times grow older, and whose avowed aim is to shut up our Churches, and do away with the Priests who offer sacrifice!
So it is: and therefore, our world, which heretofore used to be set right again after the storms that swept its surface, now complains that the impending ruin is a universal one, and one wherein there is no strength, save in the very chastisements sent by God. It vainly busies itself with its plans of safety, and at each turn, feels that the human legislation it would trust to is but an arm of human folly stretched out to support a decrepit age of proud weakness. The Blood of the Lamb, once the world’s power, no longer flows upon it with its former plenty. And yet, the world goes on; it does so because of that same Sacrifice, which, though despised and in many lands totally suspended, is still offered in thousands of happy spots on earth; and on the world will go, for the time yet to come, until, in a final access of mad frenzy, it shall have put the last Priest to death, and taken away from every Altar here below, the eternal Sacrifice.
The incalculable influence of the Eucharistic Sacrifice, and its unlimited power, are brought forward in the following beautiful formula, which is a continuation of what we have already taken from the Apostolic Constitutions.
Constitutio Jacobi
Poscimus te ut super hæc dona placate respicias, tu qui nullius indiges Deus, et beneplaceas in eis ad honorem Christi tui, atque supra hoc sacrificium mittas sanctum tuum Spiritum, testem passionum Domini Jesu: ut participes illius ad pietatem confirmentur, remissionem peccatorum consequantur, diabolo ejusque errore liberentur, Spiritu sancto repleantur, digni Christo tuo fiant, vitam sempiternam impetrent, te illis reconciliato, Domine omnipotens.
We beseech thee that thou mercifully look down upon these gifts, thou, O God, who standest in need of none of our things; and be thou well-pleased in them, for the honor of thy Christ; send down upon this sacrifice thy Spirit, he that was witness of the Lord Jesus’ sufferings; in order that they who are partakers of his (Body and Blood) may be strengthened unto piety, may obtain the remission of their sins, may be delivered from the devil and his deceit, may be filled with the Holy Ghost, may be made worthy of thy Christ, and may obtain life everlasting, by thy being reconciled to them, O almighty Lord.
Adhuc oramus te, Domine, pro santa Ecclesia tua, quæ a finibus ad fines extenditur, quam acquisisti pretioso sanguine Christi tui: ut eam inconcussam ac minime fluctuantem conserves usque in sæculi consummationem! item pro universo episcopatu recte verbum veritatis tractante ac distribuente, pro omni presbyterio, pro diaconis, ac universo clero: ut omnes sapientiam a te donatos Spiritu sancto impleas.
We further pray thee, O Lord, for thy holy Church, which is spread from one end of the world to the other, which thou hast purchased by the precious Blood of thy Christ: preserve it unshaken and free from disturbance until the consummation of time; we also pray for the whole episcopacy which rightly treats and distributes the word of truth; for the whole presbytery, for deacons, and the entire clergy; that, having enriched them with Wisdom, thou mayst fill them with the Holy Spirit.
Adhuc rogamus te, Domine, pro rege et iis qui in sublimitate sunt et pro cuncto exercitu, ut res nostræ ni pace versentur; quo totum vitæ nostræ tempus in quiete et concordia trajicientes, te per Jesum Christum spem nostram gloria afficiamus.
We further pray thee, O Lord, for the king and them that are in authority, and for the whole army, that all our affairs may be in peace; that, thereby, spending the whole time of our life in quietness and concord, we may glorify thee, through him who is our hope, Christ Jesus.
Adhuc offerimus tibi pro omnibus sanctis qui a sæculo placuerunt tibi, patriarchis, prophetis, justis, apostolis, martyribus, confessoribus, episcopis, presbyteris, diaconis, subdiaconis, lectoribus, cantoribus, virginibus, viduis, laicis et omnnibus quorum tu nosti nomina.
We further offer thee (this Sacrifice) for all the saints who have been pleasing to thee from the beginning: patriarchs, prophets, righteous, apostles, martyrs, confessors, bishops, priests, deacons, subdeacons, lectors, chanters, virgins, widows, laity, and all whose names are known to thee.
Adhuc offerimis tibi pro populo hoc: ut eum in laudem Christi tui exhibeas regale sacerdotium, gentem sanctam; pro iis qui in virginitate et castitate vivunt; pro viduis Ecclesiæ; pro iis qui in nuptiis honestis degunt; pro infantibus plebis tuæ: uti nostrum neminem rejiciendum habeas.
We further offer it to thee for this people, that thou wilt make them, to the praise of thy Christ, a kingly priesthood and a holy nation; for them that live in virginity and chastity; for the Church’s widows; for them that live in honorable wedlock; for the infants of thy people: that thou mayst not cast any one of us away.
Adhuc poscimus te pro urbe hac et habitantibus in ea; pro ægrotis, pro dura servitute afflictis, pro exsulibus, pro proscriptis, pro navigantibus et iter facientibus: ut sis auxiliator, omnium adjutor ac defensor.
We further beseech thee for this city and its inhabitants; for the sick; for them that are in cruel servitude; for them that are in banishment; for them that are in prison; for them that are travelling by sea or land: that thou be their supporter, thou the helper and defender of all.
Adhuc rogamus te pro iis qui oderunt nos et propter nomen tuum nos persequuntur, pro iis qui foris sunt ac errant: ut adducas eos ad bonum, et furorem eorum mitiges.
We further beseech thee for them that hate and persecute us for thy name’s sake; for them that are without, and are astray: that thou lead them to what is good, and appease their fury.
Adhuc rogamus te et pro Ecclesiæ catechumenis, et pro iis qui ab adversario jactantur, et pro pœnitentiam agentibus fratribus nostris: ut primos quidem perficias in fide, alteros vero mundes a vexatione mali, tertiorum autem pœnitentiam suscipias, condonesque cum iis tum nobis quæ delinquimus. We further also beseech thee for the Church’s catechumens, and for the possessed by satan, and for our brethren the penitents: that thou mayst perfect the first in faith, cleanse the second from the attacks of the wicked one, and accept the penance of the third, pardoning both them and us the offenses committed by us.
Offerimus quoque tibi pro aeris temperatura et frugum ubertate: ut indesinenter bona a te collata percipientes, asidue laudemus te qui das escam omni carni.
We offer it to thee, likewise, for favorable weather and abundant crops: that ever receiving the good things thou bestowest, we may cease not to praise thee, who givest food to all flesh.
Etiam rogamus te pro iis qui ob causam probabilem absentes sunt: ut omnes nos in pietate conservatos a te, in Christi tui, Dei universæ naturæ sub sensum et intelligentiam cadentis, regisque nostri regno congreges, immutabiles, inculpatos, irreprehensos.
We also beseech thee for them that are absent for a just cause: that thus, being maintained in holiness by thee, thou mayst unite us all, immoveable, blameless, and without reproach, in the kingdom of thy Christ, who is the God of every creature both sensible and intellectual, and is also our king.
Quoniam tibi omnis gloria, veneratio, gratiarum actio, honor, adoratio: Patri, et Filio, et Spiritui Sancto, nunc, et semper, et in infinita ac sempiterna sæcula sæculorum.
For to thee be all glory, worship, thanksgiving, honor, adoration, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, now, and ever, and for endless everlasting ages.
Atque omnis populis Amen respondeat. And let all the people answer: Amen.
We have taken the following fine Sequence from Daniel’s Thesaurus Hymnologicus. Unlike so many other liturgical pieces composed, in the 14th and 15th Centuries, in honor of the Blessed Sacrament, we find in it somewhat of the soul and spirit of the great Christian poets of earlier times.
![[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%2F08%2Fe5%2F80%2F08e580cd9803fc6a8271cf6d1d753baf.jpg&f=1&nofb=1)
De S. Sacramento
Infra Septuagesimam et Quadragesimam.
De superna Hierarchia,
Vera descendit Sophia
In uterum Virginis:
Optatus Dux in hac via
Venit natus de Maria,
Esse portans hominis.
True Sophia, true Wisdom, came down, from the hierarchy of heaven, into the Virgin’s womb: our long-desired Guide in this life, came, born of Mary, having the nature of Man.
Magnæ Matris magnus Natus,
Modo miro mundo natus,
Mundi tollit crimina:
Aufert morbos, dat salutem,
Ante suos fert virtutem,
Hostis fugans agmina.
Noble Son of noble Mother, born into this world in a wonderful manner, he takes that world’s sins away: he expels disease, bestows health, leads on his people with power, and puts the hostile ranks to flight.
Zelator mirabilis,
Effectus passibilis,
In cruce damnatur:
Legislator veteris
Legis plagis asperis
Pro nobis plagatur.
He that is wonderful in his love, having become passible, is condemned to the Cross: he that is the giver of the Old Law is, for our sakes, wounded with cruel wounds.
Agnus in Cruce levatus,
Et pro nobis immolatus,
Fit salutis hostia:
Vitæ nostræ reparator,
Et virtutum restaurator,
Cœli pandit ostia.
The Lamb being lifted up on the Cross, and immolated for us, is made the Victim of salvation: the repairer of our life, the restorer of all virtues, opens heaven’s gates.
Sacramenta dictat prius,
Cœna magna, bene scius
Quæ jam erant obvia:
Præbens panem benedicit;
Hoc est corpus meum, dicit;
Sit mei memoria.
At the great Supper, he first declares his mysteries, knowing well what awaited him. Taking bread, he blesses it, This, he says, is my Body: be it a remembrance of me!
Data benedictio
Fit a Dei Filio
Vini propinati;
Et cum benedicitur,
Tunc sanguis efficitur
Verbi incarnati.
The wine in the cup which he presents, is blessed by him, who is Son of God; and when blessed, it becomes the Blood of the Word made Flesh.
Deo nota sunt hæc soli:
Credi debent atque coli,
Amoto scrutinio:
Justus tantum expers doli
Sumat illa:—sed tu noli
Involute vitio.
To God alone are these things understood; we are to believe and worship them, without prying into their depths: let the just man alone approach to receive them, who is of simple faith: if thou art cloaked in vice, approach not!
Cave, Juda, ne damneris:
Petre, sume et salveris:
Cibus est fidelium:
Ad cujus mensam armatur
Justus, reus et nudatur,
Præda factus hostium.
Take heed, thou Judas! for thou wilt find thy condemnation! Thou, O Peter, take and find salvation! This is the food of Believers. At this Table, the just man is clad with armor; but the guilty one is stripped, and is made a prey to the foes.
Tua, Christe, sunt hæc mira;
Serva sumentes ab ira Judicii:
Orna nos veste gratiæ,
Defende nos a facie Supplicii.
Reparator salvifice,
Dignos cibo nos effice
Medecine cœlice.
These, O Christ, are thy marvelous works: O save us, who receive them, from an angry judgment. Adorn us with the garb of grace! Defend us from punishment. O thou restorer of salvation! O heavenly Physician! make us worthy of the food thou givest us!
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| June 7th: St. Paul, Bishop & St. Robert, Abbot |
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Posted by: Stone - 06-08-2021, 06:06 AM - Forum: June
- Replies (1)
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ST. PAUL, M., BISHOP OF CONSTANTINOPLE
ST. PAUL was a native of Thessalonica, but deacon of the church of Constantinople in 340, when the bishop, Alexander, lying on his death-bed, recommended him for his successor. He was accordingly chosen, and being a great master in the art of speaking, and exceeding zealous in the defence of the Catholic faith, he was a terror to the Arians. Macedonius, who was passionately in love with that dignity, and supported by a powerful faction of the heretics, spread abroad many calumnies against the new bishop. But the accusation being destitute of all probability, he was obliged to drop the charge; and he so well acted the part of a hypocrite, that he was soon after ordained priest by St. Pau1.1 However, Eusebius of Nicomedia, who was the ringleader of the Arians, and had been already translated from the see of Berytus to that of Nicomedia, against the canons, began to cast his ambitious eye on that of Constantinople, revived the old slanders, and impeached Paul falsely, alleging that he had led a disorderly life before his consecration: and secondly, that he ought not to have been chosen bishop without the consent of the two neighboring metropolitans of Heraclea and Nicomedia. The election of Paul had happened during the absence of Constantius. This was made a third article of the impeachment; and the two former having been easily confuted, this was so much exaggerated to that prince, as a contempt of his imperial dignity, that St. Paul was unjustly deposed by an assembly of Arian prelates, and the ambitious Eusebius placed in his see in 340. Our saint, seeing himself rendered useless to his flock, whilst Arianism reigned triumphant in the East, under the protection of Constantius, took shelter in the West, in the dominions of Constans. He was graciously received by that prince and by St. Maximinus at Triers, and, after a short stay in that city, went to Rome, where he found St. Athanasius, and assisted at the council held by pope Julius in 341, of about eighty bishops, in the church, in which, as St. Athanasius informs us, the priest Vito was accustomed to hold assemblies of the people; that is, as priest of that parish. This is that Vito who, with Vincent and Osius, was legate of St. Sylvester in the council of Nice.1 By this synod. St. Athanasius, Marcellus of Ancyra, and St. Paul were ordered to be restored to their respective sees. And pope Julius, as Socrates and Sozomen relate,* by virtue of his authority in the church, sent them back with letters to the eastern bishops, requiring them to restore them to their bishoprics. The excellent letter of pope Julius to the oriental bishops, is preserved by St. Athanasius.2 The pope particularly reproves the persecutors for having presumed to judge bishops, even of the principal sees which the apostles had governed without having first written to him, according to custom.†
St. Paul went back to Constantinople, but could not recover his see till the death of his powerful antagonist, who had usurped it, made way for him in 342. Though the Catholics took that opportunity to reinstate him in his dignity, the Arians, who were headed by Theognis of Nice, and Theodorus of Heraclea, constituted Macedonius their bishop. This schismatical ordination was followed by a furious sedition, in which almost the whole city ran to arms, and several persons lost their lives. Constantius, who was then at Antioch, upon the news of these commotions, ordered his general, Hermogenes, who was going into Thrace, to pass by Constantinople and drive Paul out of the city. The general found the mob in too violent a ferment, and while he endeavored to execute his commission by force, lost his own life. This outrage drew Constantius himself to Constantinople in the depth of winter. At the entreaty of the senate he pardoned the people, but banished Paul. Nevertheless he refused to confirm the election of Macedonius, on account of his share in the late sedition. St. Paul seems to have retired back to Triers. We find him again at Constantinople in 344, with letters of recommendation from the emperor of the West. Constantius only allowed his re-establishment for fear of his brother’s arms, and the saint’s situation in the East continued very uneasy; for he had much to suffer from the power and malice of the Arian party. He hoped for a redres from the council of Sardica, in 347. The Eusebians, withdrawing to Philipopolis, thundered out an excommunication against St. Paul, St. Athanasius, pope Julius, and several other pillars of the Catholic faith. The death of Constans in 350 left Constantius at full liberty to treat the Catholics as he pleased. Upon application made to him by those of his party, he sent from Antioch, where he then was, an order to Philip, his Præfectus Prætorii, to drive Paul out of the church and city of Constantinople, and to place Macedonius in his see. Philip, being attached to the Arian party, but fearing a sedition from the great affection which the people bore their pastor, privately sent for him to one of the public baths of the city, and there showed him the emperor’s commission.
The saint submitted cheerfully, though his condemnation was in every respect notoriously irregular. The people, suspecting some foul design, flocked about the door; but Philip caused a passage to be made by breaking down a window on the other side of the building, and sent him under a safeguard to the palace, which was not far off. From thence he was shipped away to Thessalonica, and at first allowed to choose the place of his exile. But his enemies soon repented of this mildness; and he was loaded with chains, and sent to Singara in Mesopotamia. From thence he was carried to Emesa in Syria, and afterwards to Cucusus, a small town on the confines of Cappadocia and Armenia, famous for its bad air and unhealthful situation, in the deserts of mount Taurus. Here he was confined in a close dark place, and left to starve to death. After he had passed six days without food, he was, to the great disappointment of his enemies, found alive. Upon which they strangled him, and gave out that he died after a short sickness. Philagius, an Arian officer, who was upon the spot when this was executed, told the whole affair to several persons, from whom St. Athanasius had it.3 His martyrdom happened in 350 or 351. The divine vengeance soon overtook Philip, who the same year was deprived of his honors and estate, and banished. The Arians from this time remained masters of the church of Constantinople, till the year 379, when St. Gregory Nazianzen was chosen bishop. The body of St. Paul was brought to Ancyra in Galatia, and, by the order of Theodosius the Great, was thence translated to Constantinople in 381 about thirty years after his death. It was buried there in the great church built by Macedonius, which from that time was known by no other name than that of St. Pau1.4 His remains were removed to Venice in 1226 where they are kept with great respect in the church of St. Laurence, belonging to a noble monastery of Benedictin nuns.5
The Arian emperor Constantius objected to the Catholics the prosperity of his reign, as a proof of the justice and truth of his cause; but he had not then seen the issue. When Polycrates of Samos boasted that fortune was in his pay, he little thought that he should shortly after end his life at Sardis on a cross. The smiles of the world are usually, to impenitent sinners, the most dreadful of all divine judgments. By prosperity they are blinded in their passions, and “resemble victims fattened for slaughter, crowned for a sacrifice,” according to the elegant expression of Minutius Felix.6 Of this we may understand the divine threat of showing them temporal mercy: Let us have pity on the wicked man, and he will not learn justice.7 Upon which words Saint Bernard cries, “This temporal mercy of God is more cruel than any anger. O Father of mercies, remove far from me this indulgence excluding from the paths of justice.”8 Who does not pray that if he err he may rather be corrected by the tenderness of a father, than disinherited as a castaway? Even the just must suffer with Christ, if they hope to reign with him. He who enjoys here an uninterrupted flow of prosperity, sails among rocks and shelves.
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| Judge orders Texas father of 4 to be vaccinated before seeing his children |
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Posted by: SAguide - 06-07-2021, 01:13 PM - Forum: COVID Vaccines
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Divorce court judge orders Texas father of four
to be vaccinated before seeing his children
Chris Staley explained his understanding that his ‘civil rights were kind of
violated there, whenever a judge is ordering me to take a vaccination.’
June 4, 2021 ( LifeSiteNews) – A Texas man has been ordered by the judge presiding over his divorce to receive a vaccine against COVID-19 in order to see his four children, FOX26 Houston reported.
In fact, a May 10 court summary detailed the judge’s requirement that “[b]oth parents are to get vaccinated for COVID by end of this week.”
Staley, who lives roughly two hours from his wife and four children, stated that he “didn’t agree” with the judge’s vaccine order on the grounds that Texas Gov. Greg Abbott ® signed an April 5 executive order “prohibiting state agencies or political subdivisions in Texas from creating a ‘vaccine passport’ requirement, or otherwise conditioning receipt of services on an individual’s COVID-19 vaccination status.”
Staley explained his understanding that his “civil rights were kind of violated there, whenever a judge is ordering me to take a vaccination,” emphasizing that, as things stand, the available vaccines for COVID are “not FDA approved.”
Staley’s concern arises from the terms under which all of the currently available vaccines against COVD-19 are marketed in the U.S. As things stand, the mRNS vaccines produced by Pfizer and Moderna, as well as the attenuated viral vaccine from Johnson & Johnson, are all approved for use under the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) “emergency use authorization” (EUA) protocol.
EUAs are granted to medications for which there is a perceived immediate need but which have not yet been through the rigors of a fully FDA-licensed drug. This renders EUA products experimental, with attending legal differences from their licensed counterparts.
“[T]hey really have no idea what the side effects could be down the road, you know — what it could do to me in a year or five years,” Staley said.
The FDA states that as EUA products, each vaccine is “an investigational vaccine not licensed for any indication,” and the agency requires that all “promotional material relating to the COVID-19 Vaccine clearly and conspicuously … state that this product has not been approved or licensed by the FDA, but has been authorized for emergency use by FDA.”
Furthermore, federal law states, “to protect public health,” that all manufacturers of products authorized for emergency use are required to provide “[a]ppropriate conditions designed to ensure that individuals to whom the product is administered are informed … of the option to accept or refuse administration of the product[url=https://www.law.cornell.edu/definitions/uscode.php?width=840&height=800&iframe=true&def_id=21-USC-309474065-1242874613&term_occur=999&term_src=title:21:chapter:9:subchapter:V:part:E:section:360bbb%E2%80%933][/url], of the consequences, if any, of refusing administration of the product, and of the alternatives to the product that are available and of their benefits and risks.”
In fact, based on federal law, Children’s Health Defense (CHD) chairman Robert F. Kennedy Jr. filed a citizen petition with the FDA to immediately overturn the EUA given to COVID vaccines, in the hope that full licensing may be prohibited.
Kennedy cited the stipulation “that to grant EUA status, no other effective intervention may exist.” But since ivermectin has been proven to reduce the severity of illness arising from the SARS-CoV-2 virus, as well as working as an effective prophylactic, Kennedy said the FDA should fulfil its obligation to “immediately amend its existing guidance for the use of chloroquine drugs, ivermectin, and any other safe and effective drugs against COVID.”
Kennedy also made efforts to remind FDA officials that they are duty bound to “ensure all parties are aware of the ‘option to accept or refuse’ administration of all EUA products and that alternatives are available.”
Despite Staley’s hesitation and justifiable concerns about vaccine safety, the judge “pretty much told me and her both that we were to get a COVID vaccination,” he said.
Staley refused to take one of the experimental jabs before the deadline against the advice of not only the judge, but also his own lawyer, Lana Shadwick, who counseled Staley to take the vaccine and not to challenge Kitchens’ ruling.
Shadwick advised that Kitchens will be “the one who’s going to set my visitations and be the one that handles all my stuff — pretty much be the lawyer who oversees my case until my kids are 18 and that it would be in my best interest not to upset him, and she pretty much said you probably should just go get [the vaccine],” informed Staley.
Regardless, the father of four decided to spend the following weekend with his children, technically in violation of the court order. “[I] kind of rolled with it and just kind of took my kids for the day without anyone saying whether I’ve gotten this vaccination or not,” he said.
Neither Staley nor Shadwick were able to be reached for comment before publishing.
Staley is reportedly awaiting a court hearing in July to determine custody of his children.
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