Quote:It would be difficult to insist more than does our today’s Liturgy on the episode of Peter’s captivity in Jerusalem. Several Antiphons and all the Capitula of this Office are drawn from thence; the Introit has just sung the same; and here our Epistle comes giving us every line of that which seems to interest the attention of Mother Church, in so special a manner today. The secret of her preference can easily be divined. This festival celebrates the fact, that peter’s death confirms the Queen of the Gentile world in her august prerogatives of Sovereign Lady, Mother, and Bride; but then, the starting point of all this greatness of hers was the solemn moment in which the Vicar of the Man-God, shaking the dust from off his feet over Jerusalem, turned his face westwards, and transferred to Rome those rights which the Synagogue had repudiated. Now it was on quitting Herod’s prison that all this happened. And going out of the city, says the Acts, he went into another place. This other place, according to the testimony of history and tradition, is no other than Rome, then about to become the new Sion, where Simon Peter arrived some weeks afterwards. Thus, catching up the angel’s word, the Gentile Church sings this night in one of her Responsories at Matins: “Peter, arise, and put on thy garments: gird thee with strength to save the nations; for the chains have fallen from off thy hands.”

Just as, in bygone days, Jesus, slept in the bark that was on the point of sinking, so Peter was sleeping quietly on the eve of the day doomed for his death. Tempests and dangers of all kinds are not spared, in the course of ages, to Peter’s successors. But never is there seen on the bark of Holy Church the dire dismay which held aghast the companions of Our Lord on that vessel tossed as it was by the wild hurricane. Faith was then lacking in the breasts of the disciples, and its absence was that which caused their terror. Since the descent of the Holy Ghost, however, this precious faith, whence all other gifts flow, can never be lost in the Church. Faith it is that imparts to superiors the calmness of their Divine Master; faith maintains in the hearts of the Christian people that uninterrupted prayer, whose humble confidence silently triumphs over the world and the elements, yea, even over God himself. Should the bark of Peter near the abyss, should the Pilot Himself seem to sleep, never will Holy Church imitate the disciples in the storm of Lake Genesareth. Never will she set herself up as judge of the due means and moments for Divine Providence, nor deem it lawful for her to find fault with him who is watching over all: remembering that she possesses within her a better and a surer means than any other, of bringing to a solution, and that without display or commotion, crises the most extreme; never ignoring, that if intercessory prayer falter not, the angel of the Lord will surely come at the given hour to awaken Peter and break his chains asunder.

Oh! how far more potent are a few souls that in their unobtrusive simplicity know how to pray, than all the policy and all the soldiers of a thousand Herods put together. That small community assembled in the house of Mary, mother of Mark, were few indeed in numbers; but thence, day by day and night by night, arose one continual prayer; fortunately, that fatal naturalism was unknown there, which under the specious pretext of not tempting God, refrains from asking of him the impossible, whenever there is question of the Church’s interests. This pest of naturalism is a domestic enemy harder far to grapple with, at a critical moment, than the crisis itself! To be sure, the precautions taken by Herod Agrippa not to suffer his prisoner to escape his hands, do credit to his prudence, and certainly it was an impossible thing asked for by Holy Church, when she begged the deliverance of Peter, at such a moment: so much so indeed, that even those who were praying, when their prayers were heard, did not at first believe their own eyes! But the prevailing force of their strength was just in that, namely, to hope against all hope, for what they themselves knew to be holy foolishness; that is to say, to submit in prayer the judgment of reason to the sole views of Faith!

Quote:In the Epistle, Rome has celebrated the day on which Juda’s obstinacy in rejecting the Vicar of the Man-God won for the gentile Church the honors of the Bride. See how in joyous gratitude she now recalls the memory of that blissful moment when first earth hailed the Spouse by His divine title: Thou art Christ, Son of the Living God! Oh! happy word awaited for centuries, and for which John the Baptist has been preparing the Bride! But the Precursor himself had quitted the world ere its accents awakened an echo in earth too long dormant. His role was to bring the Word and the Church face to face; after that he was to disappear, as indeed he did, leaving the Bride to the spontaneity of her own effusions. Now is not the pure gold of the Divinity wherewith his Head is adorned, the first of the Beloved’s excellencies pointed out by the Bride in the sacred Canticle? Thus, therefore does she speak on the plains of Cesarea Philippi; and her organ is Simon Bar-Jona, who for having thus rendered her heart’s full utterance, remains forever the “Mouth of Holy Church.”

Faith and love with one accord, hereupon, constitute Peter Supreme and most ancient summit of Theologians, as Saint Denys calls him in his book of the Divine Names. First verily, both in order of time and in plenitude of dogma, he solves the problem, the involvable formula of which had stretched to the utmost the theology of prophetic times. “The words of him that gathereth the people,” said the Wise man, “the words of him who scattereth truths; the vision which the man spoke with whom God is, and who being strengthened by God abiding with him said: I have not learned wisdom … Who hath ascended up into heaven, and descended, so that he may know the name of Him who made the earth? And what is the name of His Son? Who can tell it?” Then, after this mysterious exordium, leading up to the mysterious question, the Wise man, without pursuing it further, concludes with a confiding reserve yet mingled with timidity: Every word of God is fire-tried: he is a buckler to them that hope in him. Add not anything to his words, lest thou be reproved and found a liar.

What then, O Peter, art thou more wise than Solomon? and can that which the Holy Ghost declared to be above all science, be confided as a secret to a poor fisherman? Yes, even so. None knowth the Father, but the Son; yet the Father Himself hath revealed to Simon the mystery of his Son, and the word which attests it may not be gainsaid. For that word is no lying addition to divine dogma: it is the oracle of Heaven which, passing through human lips, raises its happy interpreters above the level of mere flesh and blood. Like Christ, whose Vicar it causes him to become, his one mission is to be Heaven’s faithful echo here below,—that is, the Word of the Father. Here we have the entire Mystery of the Church, at once of heaven and of earth, and against which hell may not prevail.

Quote:As the highly contagious delta variant of the coronavirus gained traction around the world, the World Health Organization urged vaccinated people to continue to wear masks and social distance, according to reports.

The recommendation comes weeks after the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said vaccinated people can go most places without masks. However, federal mandates remain on airplanes, for example.

The vaccines are considered “highly effective” against the delta variant, according to a recent study by the British government, although slightly less than the original strain.

But the WHO urged those vaccinated to “play it safe” and wear a mask because so many remain unvaccinated globally and the variant has become the main spreader in several countries, CNBC reported.[

Taken from Rev. Fr. Leonard Goffine's The Church's Year

Quote:How can and how should we sanctify the Lord in our hearts?

By practising those virtues which Peter here recommends, and which he so exactly describes; for thereby we become true disciples of Christ, honor Him and edify others, who by our good example are led to admire Christianity, and to become His followers. Moreover, we thus render ourselves more worthy of God's grace and protection, so that if for justice' sake we are persecuted by, wicked men, we need not fear, because God is for us and will reward us with eternal happiness.

ASPIRATION O good Saviour, Jesus Christ, grant that I may make Thy virtues my own; especially Thy humility, patience, mercy, and love; grant that I may practise them diligently, that I may glorify Thee, sanctify myself, and thus become worthy of Thy protection.

A brief reminder - while Pope Francis is doing so very much to undermine the last vestiges of the Catholic Faith, he is only building on the nefarious work begun at Vatican II and of his Conciliar predecessors.  

• From the Summary of the Principal Errors of Vatican II Ecclesiology: The Vatican II Concept of Ecumenism 
  

  Quote:The Vatican II concept of the Church as "People of God" is false ecumenism. It leads to the belief that Protestantism is no more than one particular form of the same Christian religion.
  
  The Vatican II Council document "Unitatis Redintegratio" heretically teaches that "…the Holy Spirit does not refuse to make use of other religions as a means of salvation."
  
  John Paul II's document "Catechesi Tradendae" repeats the same heresy.
  
  The Vatican II concept of Ecumenism, condemned by Catholic moral teaching and law, has arrived at the point of allowing the sacraments of penance, Eucharist and Extreme Unction to be received from "non-Catholic ministers" (Vatican II Canon 844 N.C) and it favours "ecumenical hospitality" by authorizing Catholic ministers to give the sacrament of the Eucharist to non-Catholics.
  
  Vatican II Canon 844 "Christ's faithful for whom it is physically or morally impossible to approach a Catholic minister, may lawfully receive the sacraments of penance, the Eucharist and anointing of the sick from non-Catholic ministers in whose Churches these sacraments are valid. Catholic ministers may lawfully administer the sacraments of penance, the Eucharist and anointing of the sick to members of the eastern Churches not in full communion with the Catholic Church, if they spontaneously ask for them and are properly disposed. If there is danger of death or if, in the judgement of the diocesan Bishop or of the Episcopal Conference, there is some other grave and pressing need, Catholic ministers may lawfully administer these same sacraments to other Christians not in full communion with the Catholic Church."

• See also SiSiNoNo - The Errors of Vatican II Section 8: Errors Concerning Members of Sects, Heretics, and Schismatics (i.e., the So-called "Separated Brethren")
  

Quote:John and Paul, Roman brethren, fed the poor of Christ out of the riches left to them by Constantia, Constantine’s daughter, whom they had faithfully and piously served. Being invited into the number of his familiars by Julian the Apostate, they boldly refused, declaring that they had no wish to be in company of one who had forsaken Jesus Christ. Whereupon, he gave them ten days for deliberation, at the end of which term they must know for certain they were to die unless they would consent to attach themselves to him and to sacrifice to Jupiter.

They, meanwhile, employed the time in distributing the remainder of their goods to the poor, so that they might the quicker go to the Lord, and that there might be more persons helped by them, through whose means they might be received into the eternal tabernacles. On the tenth day, Terentianus, Prefect of the prætorian guard, was sent to them, bringing with him the statue of Jupiter, that they might worship it, and he expounded unto them the Emperor’s mandate: to wit, that unless they would pay homage to Jupiter, they must forthwith die. They, still continuing their prayer, replied that they hesitated not to suffer death for the faith of Christ, whom they with both mind and mouth did adore as God.

Now Terentianus was afraid lest there should ensue a popular tumult were they executed in public, so there and then, on the sixth of the Kalends of July, and in their own house, their heads being struck off, they were secretly buried; whilst the rumor was spread abroad that John and Paul had been sent into banishment. But their death was published by the unclean spirits that began to torment a number of persons whose bodies they possessed: amongst whom was the son of Terentianus, who being troubled by a devil, was led to the sepulcher of the martyrs and there freed. By the which miracle, both he and his father Terentianus believed in Christ; Terentianus himself, as it is said, afterwards wrote the history of their blessed martyrdom.

Quote:It is with extreme satisfaction that I have heard the news of the praiseworthy initiative in which you are involved, together with Reverend Father James Altman, in the defense of priests persecuted by their superiors due to their fidelity to the immutable Magisterium of the Church and the venerable Apostolic Liturgy.

I can only wholeheartedly encourage you and your collaborators for this project, which I hope finds generous support among many faithful laity and perhaps some good Brothers among the clergy. In this hour of grave deviations in the Hierarchy, the commitment of lay people is essential and very important: it concretizes the prophetic words of the Venerable Archbishop Fulton Sheen, who in speaking of the End Times recalled how the salvation of the Holy Church would be achieved — besides, of course, through the intercession of the Mater Ecclesiae before the Throne of Her Divine Son — by the courageous contribution of the laity.

During these times of apostasy, in which the de facto schism of the rebellious German pastors and many others in the world not only is not punished but even appears almost to be encouraged by the mercenaries who occupy the highest levels of the Church, it is a great consolation to witness this awakening of those who are good, who are ready to assist the material needs of persecuted priests and support them with prayer and tangible gestures of that Charity which always, in the course of history, has given unequivocal proof of the newness of the Gospel.

Let us not forget that, if there was once a time in which the Sacred Ministers were respected for their conduct of life and for the example which they offered to the world, Satan never gave up unleashing his hatred against those whom he fears the most among men, because it is thanks to priests that the Divine Sacrifice which decreed the defeat of the Enemy of the human race is renewed in an unbloody form on our altars.

Our Lord, the Eternal High Priest, calls his Sacred Ministers blessed when he says: “Blessed are you when they insult you and persecute you, and utter every kind of evil against you falsely because of Me. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven. Thus have they persecuted the prophets before you” (Mt 5:1-12). Persecution is thus a manifestation of the sacrificial nature of the Priesthood, following the example of Christ: he who offers the sacrifice must also be a victim at the same time, an oblation to the Divine Majesty. It is grievous that today we must number among the persecutors not only the enemies of God who are far from the Church but even those whom the Lord has placed as Shepherds to guard His Flock. We can tremble at the thought of the punishment that awaits them, which will be all the more severe in proportion to the level of responsibility of those who, placed in authority in the name of Christ, rage with cruelty on the innocent and show scandalous connivance with the guilty.

I permit myself to exhort all of you, dear lay faithful, not only to commit yourselves with renewed zeal in this true corporal and spiritual work of mercy towards good priests, but also to pray and offer penance and sacrifices for the conversion of the evil Shepherds and of those who, abusing their authority, persecute those who do good and preach the Catholic truth opportune importune [in season and out season – 2 Tm 4:2]. The return of so many who have strayed from the Flock of Christ, their change of heart, and the awareness of the betrayal committed against the Lord and His Holy Church will be the greatest victory that we can hope for, and which we confidently beg the Most Holy Virgin, Mother of Priests, to grant us.

I invoke the Lord’s greatest blessing upon all of you, and in a particular way upon our beloved priests who have been ostracized, derided, estranged from their communities, struck by illegitimate sanctions, and whose reputations have been injured. Know that you all have a special place in my prayers and in my priestly heart.

+ Carlo Maria Viganò, Archbishop

June 24, 2021
In Nativitate S. Joannis Baptistae

Quote:In 2020, the World Economic Forum (WEF) conducted a simulation called “Cyber Polygon 2020” that predicted a coming global catastrophe caused by a worldwide “cyber pandemic.”

Much like how billionaire eugenicist Bill Gates’ “Event 201” predicted the Wuhan coronavirus (Covid-19) before it happened, Cyber Polygon 2020 predictively programmed a coming supply-chain cyberattack similar to the SolarWinds attack that occurred earlier this year.

Quote:Event 201 was a 3.5-hour pandemic tabletop exercise that simulated a series of dramatic, scenario-based facilitated discussions, confronting difficult, true-to-life dilemmas associated with response to a hypothetical, but scientifically plausible, pandemic. 15 global business, government, and public health leaders were players in the simulation exercise that highlighted unresolved real-world policy and economic issues that could be solved with sufficient political will, financial investment, and attention now and in the future.

The exercise consisted of pre-recorded news broadcasts, live “staff” briefings, and moderated discussions on specific topics. These issues were carefully designed in a compelling narrative that educated the participants and the audience.

The Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, World Economic Forum, and Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation jointly propose these recommendations.