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| Sermons of St. Francis de Sales: On Prayer |
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Posted by: Hildegard of Bingen - 01-13-2021, 09:19 PM - Forum: Doctors of the Church
- No Replies
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THE SERMONS OF ST. FRANCIS DE SALES ON PRAYER
These sermons were translated from St. Francis de Sales' Oeuvres, vol. IX (Annecy: Nierat,1892-1964), pp. 46-72. They come from the memories of two
of the visitation sisters who heard them, and not from St. Francis' own notes. St. Francis died at age 55 in 1622. He was canonized in 1665 and declared a
Doctor of the Universal Church by Pope Pius IX in 1877.
THE GOAL OF PRAYER - 22 March 1615
Sermon for the Third Sunday of Lent, given on March 22, 1615, concerning the usefulness and necessity of prayer, the operations of the understanding, meditation, petitions,
contemplation, and the goal of prayer.
St. Bernard--whose memory is dear to those who have to speak on prayer--in writing to a bishop, advised him that all that was necessary for him was to
speak well (meaning to instruct, to discourse); then to do well in giving good example; and finally, to devote himself to prayer. And we, addressing
this to all Christians, shall dwell upon the third point, which is prayer. First, let us remark in passing that, although we condemn certain heretics
of our time who hold that prayer is useless, we nevertheless do not hold with other heretics that it alone suffices for our justification. We say
simply that it is so useful and necessary that without it we could not come to any good, seeing that by means of prayer we are shown how to perform all
our actions well. I have therefore consented to the desire which urges me to speak of prayer, even though it is not my intention to explain every
aspect of it because we learn it more by experience than by being taught. Moreover, it matters little to know the kind of prayer. Actually, I would
prefer that you never ask the name or the kind of prayer you are experiencing because, as St. Antony says, that prayer is imperfect in which
one is aware that one is praying. Also, prayer which one makes without knowing how one is doing it, and without reflecting on what one is asking
for, shows clearly that such a soul is very much occupied with God and that, consequently, this prayer is excellent.
We shall treat, then, on the following four Sundays, of the final cause of prayer; of its efficient cause; of that which properly should not be called
the "material cause," but rather the "object" of prayer; and of the effective cause of prayer itself. For now, I shall speak only of its final
cause. But before entering upon the subject of prayer, I must say three or four little things that it is well to know.
Four operations pertain to our understanding: simple thought, study, meditation, and contemplation. Simple thought occurs when we go running
over a great number of things, without any aim, as do flies that rest upon flowers, not seeking to extract any juice from them, but resting there only
because they happen upon them. So it is with our understanding, passing from one thought to another. Even if these thoughts be of God, if they have
no aim, far from being profitable, they are useless and detrimental and are a great obstacle to prayer.
Another operation of our understanding is study, and this takes place when we consider things only to know them, to understand them thoroughly or to
be able to speak correctly of them, without having any other object than to fill our memory. In this we resemble beetles which settle upon the roses
for no other end than to fill their stomachs and satiate themselves. Now, of these two operations of our understanding we shall speak no more,
because they are not to our purpose.
Let us come to meditation. To know what meditation is, it is necessary to understand the words of King Hezekiah when the sentence of death was
pronounced upon him, which was afterward revoked on account of his repentance. "I utter shrill cries," he said, "like a swallow," and "I moan
like a dove,"' in the height of my sorrow. [Cf. Is. 38:14]. He meant to say: When the young swallow is all alone and its mother has gone in search
of the herb called "celandine" in order to help it recover its sight, it cries, it pips, since it does not feel its mother near and because it does
not see at all. So I, having lost my mother, which is grace, and seeing no one come to my aid, "I utter shrill cries." But he adds, "I moan like a
dove." We must know that all birds are accustomed to open their beaks when they sing or chirp, except the dove, who makes her little song or cooing
sound whilst holding her breath and it is through the movement up and down which she makes of it, without letting it escape, that she produces her
song. In like manner, meditation is made when we fix our understanding on a mystery from which we mean to draw good affections, for if we did not have
this intention it would no longer be meditation, but study. Meditation is made, then, to move the affections, and particularly that of love. Indeed,
meditation is the mother of the love of God and contemplation is the daughter of the love of God.
But between meditation and contemplation there is the petition which is made when, after having considered the goodness of Our Lord, His infinite
love, His omnipotence, we become confident enough to ask for and entreat Him to give us what we desire. Now there are three kinds of petition, each
of which is made differently: The first is made by justice, the second is made by authority, and the third is made by grace.
The petition which is made by justice cannot be called "prayer," although we use this word, because in a petition of justice we ask for a thing which
is due to us. A petition which is made by authority ought not be called "prayer" either; for as soon as someone who has great authority over
us--such as a parent, a lord or a master--uses the word "please,"2 we say immediately to him, "You can command," or "Your 'please' serves as my
command." But true prayer is that which is made by grace, i.e., when we ask for something which is not due to us at all, and when we ask it of someone
who is far superior to us, as God is.
The fourth operation of our understanding is contemplation, which is nothing other than taking delight in the goodness of Him whom we have
learned to know in meditation and whom we have learned to love by means of this knowledge. This delight will be our happiness in Heaven above.
We must now speak of the final cause [that is, the goal] of prayer. We ought to know in the first place that all things have been created for
prayer, and that when God created angels and men, He did so that they might praise Him eternally in Heaven above, even though this is the last thing
that we shall do--if that can be called "last" which is eternal. To understand this better we will say this: When we wish to make something we
always look first to the end [or purpose], rather than to the work itself. For example, if we are to build a church and we are asked why we are
building it, we will respond that it is so that we can retire there and sing the praises of God; nevertheless, this will be the last thing that we
shall do. Another example: If you enter the apartment of a prince, you will see there an aviary of several little birds which are in a brightly colored
and highly embellished cage. And if you want to know the end for which they have been placed there, it is to give pleasure to their master. If you look
into another place, you will see there sparrow hawks, falcons and such birds of prey which have been hooded; these latter are for catching the
partridge and other birds to delicately nourish the prince. But God, who is in no way carnivorous, does not keep birds of prey, but only the little
birds which are enclosed in the aviary and destined to please Him. These little birds represent monks and nuns who have voluntarily enclosed
themselves in monasteries that they may chant the praises of their God. So their principal exercise ought to be prayer and obedience to that saying
which Our Lord gives in the Gospel: "Pray always." [Lk. 18:1].
The early Christians who had been trained by St. Mark the Evangelist were so assiduous in prayer that many of the ancient Fathers called them
"suppliants," and others named them "physicians," because by means of prayer they found the remedy for all their ills. They also named them
"monks," because they were so united; indeed, the name "monk" means "single." Pagan philosophers said that man is an uprooted tree, from which
we can conclude how necessary prayer is for man, since if a tree does not have sufficient earth to cover its roots it cannot live; neither can a man
live who does not give special attention to heavenly things. Now prayer, according to most of the Fathers, is nothing other than a raising of the
mind to heavenly things; others say that it is a petition; but the two opinions are not at all opposed, for while raising our mind to God, we can
ask Him for what seems necessary.
The principal petition which we ought to make to God is that of union of our wills with His, and the final cause of prayer lies in desiring only
God. Accordingly, all perfection is contained therein, as Brother Giles, the companion of St. Francis [of Assisi], said when a certain person asked
him what he could do in order to be perfect very soon. "Give," he replied, "one to One." That is to say, you have only one soul, and there is only one
God; give your soul to Him and He will give Himself to you. The final cause of prayer, then, ought not to be to desire those tendernesses and
consolations which Our Lord sometimes gives, since union does not consist in that, but rather in conforming to the will of God.
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| The Arthritis Saint, St. Alphonsus de Liguori by Rev. Lawrence G. Lovasik |
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Posted by: Hildegard of Bingen - 01-13-2021, 09:16 PM - Forum: Doctors of the Church
- No Replies
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There has been 23 printings of this pamphlet, unfortunately it seems that is it no longer available. I typed it up for everyone to read, it contains a short
biography of St. Alphonsus Liguori and prayers for arthritic diseases.
Saint Alphonsus
The Arthritis Saint
By
Rev. Lawrence G. Lovasik
FOREWORD
Rheumatic diseases – arthritis, gout, rheumatic fever, and a host of allied ailments that affect joints and muscles – are the greatest cripplers of mankind.
This booklet has been written for the more than seven and half million Americans who are victims of arthritis, and for those who pray for them, in the hope that it will give some of them consolation, confidence, strength – and if be God’s will – a cure.
This is a fifth in a series of my booklets for the sick who suffer the misery of various diseases. The other booklets are: The Cancer Saint (St. Peregrine); The Heart Saint (St. John of God); The T.B. Saint (St. Therese); Saint Dymphna (patron of those suffering from mental and nervous disease).
Since St. Alphonsus Liguori suffered from arthritis for more than nineteen years and bore its pains with heroic patience, it is fitting that he be invoked as a patron of those who are afflicted with this disease.
These pages are dedicated to Our Heavenly Mother-Mary, the Health of the Sick – whom Saint Alphonsus loved so tenderly.
Father Lawrence G. Lovasik
Imprimatur
John Mark Gannon, D.D., D.C.I., Bishop of Erie
Saint Alphonsus Liguori
The Arthritis Saint
From the World to God
Alphonsus Liguori was born at Marianella, near Naples, September 27, 1696. His father was Don Joseph Liguori a naval officer and Captain of the Royal Galleys, a man of genuine faith. Every year father and son would make a retreat together in some religious house. The saint’s mother was donna Anna Cavalieri, of Spanish descent. She was a very fervent Christian and an inspiration for her son.
The good example of his parents had a great influence on the early years of Alphonsus. They encouraged him to put God first in his life. A pure and modest boyhood passed into a manhood without reproach. The saint’s confessor declared that he preserved his baptismal innocence till death.
Alphonsus started out in life as a lawyer. At the age of sixteen he was made doctor in law. In the eight years of practice he had never lost a case. In his last case in 1723 he made a brilliant plea, but the opposing lawyer pointed out a fatal defect in this presentation. He lost the lawsuit in the courts because he overlooked a document. He thought his mistake would be ascribed not to oversight but to deliberate deceit. He felt as if his career were ruined, and left the court almost beside himself, saying, “World, I know you now. Courts, you shall never see me again.” For three days he refused all food. Then the storm subsided, and he began to see that is humiliation had been sent to him by God to break down his pride and wean him from the world. He spent his days in prayer, seeking to know God’s will.
On August 28th, 1723, the young lawyer had gone to perform a favorite charity by visiting the sick is the Hospital for Incurables. Suddenly he found himself surrounded by a mysterious light; the house seemed to rock, and an interior voice said, “Leave the world and give yourself to Me.” This occurred twice. Alphonsus left the hospital and went to the church of Our Lady of the Redemption of Captives. Before the statue of Mary he promised to enter the holy priesthood and to offer himself as a novice to the Fathers of the Oratory.
For two months his father, already displeased at the failure of two of his own plans for his son’s marriage and his neglect of his legal profession, opposed his plan. His father agreed to allow his son to become a priest, provided he would give up his proposal of joining the Oratory and would continue to live at home. To this Alphonsus agreed.
Now that God had shown him His will, he devoted himself entirely to the glory of God and the salvation of souls. He was ordained a priest December 21st, 1726. For six years he labored in and around Naples preaching missions. He had a burning zeal for souls and devoted himself to the most neglected. To carry on this work be founded the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer at Scala.
The rule of the Redemptorists was approved by Benedict XIV in 1748. At that time there were about fifty members, and they confined their activity to the districts of the kingdom of Naples. Today they number about six thousand and are spread throughout the whole world. Their founder wished them to preach practical sermons, retreats, and missions.
Alphonsus forgot himself and preached Jesus Christ. He told his missionaries, “I have never preached a sermon which the poorest old woman in the congregation could not understand.” In the direction of souls, he was always kind and sympathetic. His confessional was usually crowded, and hardened sinners returned to the healing sacraments in great numbers.
At the age of sixty-six Alphonsus was prevailed upon to become the Bishop Saint Agatha, and undertook the reform of his diocese with the zeal of a saint. The diocese numbered 30,000 souls with 17 religious houses and 400 diocesan priests. He sent out a band of priest to conduct a general mission throughout the diocese.
Alphonsus made a vow never to lose time. He wrote and published about sixty books on the spiritual life, morals, dogma, poetry and music. Very many of these books were written in the half hours snatched from his labors as a missionary, religious superior, and bishop, or in the midst of continual bodily and mental sufferings.
The bishop spent much time in charity. He did not refuse to hold a long correspondence with a simple soldier who asked his advice. Once he pawned his pectoral cross to help the poor. He would have pawned his ring but could not find a broker to give him anything for it. Once a mob clamored for the life of the mayor, who was suspected of hoarding food. The bishop quieted the mob and distributed the food himself.
“He fulfilled in a most perfect way,” said Father Mazzini of Naples, “the divine precept of loving God above all things, with his whole heart and with all his strength, as all might have seen and as I saw better than anyone during the long years I spent with him. The love of God shone forth in all his acts and words, in his devout manner and his continual exercise of the divine presence. If I were Pope I would canonize him without process.”
Alphonsus lived in evil times, and met with many persecutions and disappointments till his death. Some evil minded individuals had inserted deceptive clauses in his interpretation of the Rule that he seemed to run counter to the Supreme Pontiff. In 1780, by a special decree, the pope excluded the saint from the Congregation he himself had founded. Alphonsus said amid tears, “I wish only what God wishes; His grace is sufficient. The pope will have it so. God be praised”
Through Alphonsus was a very old man and had lived a life of heroic sanctity, he had to suffer many terrible temptations. Often he was heard to exclaim, “O my Jesus, grant that I may die rather than yield to temptation. O Mary, if you do not assist me, I shall sin even more than Judas did.”
In 1784, he went through a terrible “dark night of the soul.” He was assailed by temptations against every article of faith and against every virtue. He was tortured by scruples and vains fears, and was visited by diabolical illusions. For eighteen months this torment lasted, with intervals of light and relief, and was followed by a perfect when ecstasies were frequent, and prophecy and miracles took the place of interior trials.
THE ARTHRITIS SAINT
In June 1767, Alphonsus was attacked by terrible rheumatic pains which developed into an illness from which he was not expected to recover. Not only did he receive the last sacraments, but preparations were begun for his funeral. After twelve months, his life was saved, but he was left with a permanent and incurable bending of the neck, familiar from the portraits of him. Until the surgeons had succeeded in straightening it a little, the pressure of the chin caused a raw wound in this chest.
Since Alphonsus was in poor health and advanced in age, he dictated a letter to the Pope explaining that he was unable to keep in close personal touch with the thirty thousand souls in his diocese. He begged the Holy Father to let him resign his office as bishop. Pope Clement, however, refused the petition. “Your shadow alone,:” be wrote in his reply, “is enough to govern the diocese.”
So Alphonsus remained, but every year the burden grew heavier. One day torrential rains had sent landslides across a mountain road as he was returning from a trip to the country. Brother Romito, the infirmarian, found him on his sleeping sack with all available blankets piled over him.
“The body is wearing out, Brother,” Alphonsus said. And remembering that a few weeks he would celebrate his seventy-second birthday, he added, “And it is about time.”
The next morning he was unable to say Mass. Arthritis had gripped his wrists. They were swollen and so sore that he could not endure even the touch of the sheets against them.
“It looks like an acute attack of rheumatism,” the doctor said that afternoon. “A man of his age can’t stand overwork and exposure. Keep him quiet. Nothing will help but rest.|”
Alphonsus rested. Indeed, there was no temptation for him to do otherwise, for the inflammation which had appeared first in his wrists later spread to all his other joints. The least movement caused him pain.
Every morning the vicar general brought him Holy Communion. He would then make acts of reparation, meditating on the Passion of Christ, and praying for the people of his diocese. He offered to God not only his sufferings, but also his uselessness – the hands that were too swollen and stiff and sore for any work, the feet that could no longer sustain his body, the head whose throbbing pain made reading impossible.
Yet he continued handling details of work form his bed. He called for his half-finished manuscripts, read them over, and finished them. After months of enforced silence he resumed his work of writing dozens of pamphlets. Hour after hour, propped up with pillows, he dictated to Brother Romito.
One morning Alphonsus lay quite rigid, his chin bent toward his chest. During the night he had suffered a stroke of paralysis. Although his spine and limbs were affected, his mind remained clear, and he still had the power of speech.
“This is our Lord’s way of relieving my pain,” he said jokingly to those who attended him. “Before, every movement hurt. Now so little movement is possible that I am quite free of pain.”
While the people of the diocese prayed for the recovery of their bishop, he prayed for the chance to be of service again, in any way that God might wish. By spring he found that with help he could get out of bed. He could walk back and forth across his room supported by crutches and two attendants. A month later he was carried downstairs. Although he had regained the use of his arms, and at least partially of legs, the paralysis in his neck had not changed. His head was bent so far that he was unable to raise it to look ahead.
Once when Brother Romito and the coachman were taking him to the carriage, some boys paying in the street looked up and cried with terror, for, seen from behind, his body appeared to be headless.
The misery Alphonsus felt in being unable to say Mass was far greater than any physical pain. Because of the position of his head, he could take liquids only through a straw. When he was alone in his room, he would try over and over to find some position which would enable him to drink from a cup without spilling the water in it. He endured the agony of such efforts in silence, but they left him exhausted, and his body was covered with perspiration. Once the Brother found him slumped in his hair because he could not get back to his bed.
The priest who helped the Brother put him back to bed noticed a large, open sore on the bishop’s chest. Smiling, he asked, “Are you looking at that?” It’s been there a long time. My attendant knows, but he promised to keep the secret. Now I suppose you will be making a big to-do over nothing.”
The paralysis was pressing the bishop’s chin into his chest and causing constant irritation.
“It’s good for me,” said Alphonsus. “It’s a reminder of the Passion. Now let’s forget about it, Brother, because I have good news. If I sit down and take plenty of time, I can at last drink form a cup. Will you write to Rome this very afternoon and ask if I may sit in a chair to receive the Precious Blood?” If so, I can say Mass again.”
The permission was granted, and Alphonsus once more stood before the altar, with two seminarians supporting him. He received the Precious Blood through a golden tube. The effort was very painful. “There’s no life in me without the Mass,” he insisted. “The suffering it costs is nothing compared to being deprived of it.”
During the next three years his condition did not improve. The sore on his chest repeadtedly became infected. In 1772 he was still unable to walk alone beyond the paces between his bed and and his chair.
Alphonsus was resigned to a life of physical inactivity, since the pope would not accept his resignation. “It is enough for me that he govern his diocese from his bed,” the pope said. “His prayers will do as much for his flock as all the activity in the world.”
Alphonsus delegated his work to others. He spent much of the time dictating, either in bed or stretched upon a sofa, his chin jutting into the sore of his chest. He wrote pamphlets explaining the Mass and urging people to receive Holy Communion frequently.
One he lay motionless in a chair for twenty-four hours. When he was awake, he told the Brother, “I have been with the Holy Father. He has Just died. Now if you will help me, I would like to say a requiem Mass.” Three days later Pope Clement died.
Alphonsus dictated his formal resignation to Pope Pius VI. Among other things he wrote. “I am in extreme old age, for in the month of September I enter on my eightieth year. Besides old age, I have many infirmities which warn me that death is near. I suffer from a weakness of the chest which several times has reduced me to the last extremity, and from palpitation of the heart which has also several times nearly put an end to my life. At present I am suffering from such constant headaches that sometimes they make me like one deprived of the use of his faculties. During the time of my episcopate I have four times received Viaticum and twice Extreme Unction. My hearing fails, I am paralyzed to such an extent that I can no longer write a line. With difficulty I sign my name so badly that is scarcely understood. I am become so crippled that I can no longer walk a step, and I have need of two assistance to move at all . . .”
The resignation was officially accepted, and Alphonsus was taken home to Redemptorist monastery in the village of Pagani. Around him in the refectory were the old, friendly faces of the past, but he was too paralyzed to see them. He was present at the community devotions, visited the Blessed Sacrament every day, and made the Stations of the Cross. He also continued his writing and correspondence.
For the last seven years of his life Alphonsus was unable to say Holy Mass; but he received Holy Communion daily, and his love for Jesus Christ and his trust in Mary’s prayers sustained him to the end. He sat up many a night with asthma, breathing with difficulty and plagued by such headaches that even his vision was impaired. Yet he spent the hours between midnight and morning writing. Even a man in good health could not stand such exertion.
In the month of July 1789, Alphonsus lay in bed. With the increasing weakness of his body, the pains which had tortured him for many years subsided. He was almost blind. He asked Brother Romito to lay his habit across the bed, so that when he stretched his arms down he could touch it. He would wear it again when he lay in his coffin. At times he held on to it tightly and prayed.
Sometimes people bent over his bed, and wondering who they were, he would make the Sign of the Cross over them and whisper, “Save your soul!” He was ninety-one now.
One by one the priests were saying Mass in the room of Alphonsus on the morning of August 1st, 1789. At eleven o’clock the house bell was rung to announce that the prayers for the dying would begin. At noon the Angelus rang. A moment later the ringing resumed, but now nit was announcing the death of Alphonsus Liguori.
In 1839 Alphonsus was canonized. He was declared a Doctor of the Church in 1871. His feast is celebrated August 1st.
The finest eulogy of St. Alphonsus was pronounced by Pius VII in his Decree of Beatification, September 6th, 1816. He said “Alphonsus was in God’s hands a sharp arrow, which discharged against vice, strikes now in one place, now in another, in order to promote the honor of God and the salvation of souls. As a sharp arrow, heated by the fire of love, he has wounded the hearts of not a few priests, and so inflamed them that they also left all things and followed their Redeemer. Thus he established the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer, who se priests have the special duty to preach to the people living scattered in the country. One cannot wonder enough how many enmities he has removed, how many wandering sinners he has led back to the right road and to Christian perfection, by work and example, and by his numerous writings. Besides, he was so devoted a client of the Morher of God, that it was always a pleasure to him to praise this sublime Mother and Virgin, and to write about her glories books filled with holy learning. Bowed down physically by age, labor, and very grievous illness, yet mentally strong and ardent, he never ceased to speak and to write about heavenly things till his ninetieth year, when full of joy, he died a saintly death.”
According to the results of the full medical and radiological examination of the remains and radiological examination of the remains of St. Alphonsus carried out from July 1951 to January 1952 under the direction of Professor Gaston Lambertini, Director of the Institute of Human Anatomy of the University of Naples, and his assistant Dr. Gennaro Goglia, who wrote the full medical report on the conclusion of the examination, the saint suffered from osteoarthritis of the spine.
Osteoarthritis is mainly a disease of agins, of wear and tear, and degeneration or breakdown with advancing age. There are far more people who suffer from this form – 97 per cent of the people over 60 get it in some degree. It is responsible for untold aches and pains and stiffness, and sometimes crippling. Osteoarthritis begins with a slight or stiffness in fingertips, knees, shoulders, or vertebrae of the spine. Exercise and movement make the stiffness worse. Then the affected joints become more uncomfortable; they thicken and creak when moved, and become painful. This disease progresses slowly, and it can result in gnarled fingers or deformities.
In the case of St. Alphonsus, this malady made itself dramatically known in May, 1768. He went to bed in June and was not able to say Mass until the end of September of the beginning of October, 1769. Arthritis remained with him until he died. The doctors believe that it was present in his system for a considerable time previous to the severe attack that incapacitated him in 1768.
God has given us the saints not only that we might imitate their example of virtue but also that we might seek their intercession before His heavenly throne. They have served God faithfully in life, and He has rewarded them richly in heaven. Their prayers before God are very powerful. The Church has taught us to invoke the saints in our needs of soul and body, and has even chosen certain saints as patrons in various needs.
Because of his patience in bearing the sufferings of arthritis for almost twenty years and felt the gripping pains of this terrible disease, St. Alphonsus can rightly be invoked as the Arthritis Saint. From personal experience he can sympathize with those who also suffer arthritic pains. And because of his sufferings and labors, as well as the holiness of his life, he certainly has great power of intercession in heaven. All of us, but especially those afflicted with arthritis, should turn to him with confidence. If it God’s will, his prayers will give them the cure they look for, or at least relieve their sufferings and obtain for them the great grace of patience in bearing their cross in union with the Crucified Savior and His Sorrowful Mother.
Prayer is the wonderful means God gave us of seeking His help. He gave us this assurance: “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives; and he who seeks, finds; and to him who knocks, it shall be opened” (Matt. 7: 7-9). “If you ask the Father anything in my name, he will give it to you. Hitherto you have not asked anything in my name. Ask, and you shall receive, that your joy may be full” (John 16:23, 24).
PRAYERS
Prayer to St. Alphonsus
My glorious and well-beloved patron, Saint Alphonsus, you have toiled and suffered abundantly to assure to men the fruits of the Redemption. Behold the miseries of my poor soul and have pity on me.
By your powerful intercession with Jesus and Mary, obtain for me true repentance for my sins together with their pardon and remission, a deep hatred of sin, and strength evermore to resist all temptations. Share with me, I pray, at least a spark of that fire of love with which your heart always burned. Grant, that, following your example, I may make the will of God the only rule of my life.
Obtain for me also a fervent and lasting love of Jesus, and a tender and childlike devotion to Mary, together with the grace to pray without ceasing and to persevere in the service of God even to the end of my life, that I may finally be united with you in praising God and most holy May through all eternity. Amen.
Novena Prayer
Glorious Saint Alphonsus, Bishop, Confessor, and Doctor of the Church, devoted servant of our Lord and loving child of Mary, I invoke you as a saint in heaven. I give myself to you that you may always be my father, my protector, and my guide in the way of holiness and salvation. Aid me in observing the duties of my state of life. Obtain for me great purity of heart and a fervent love of the interior life after your own example.
Great lover of the Blessed Sacrament and the Passion of Jesus Christ, teach me to love Holy Mass and Holy Communion as the source of all grace and holiness, and to receive this Sacrament as often as I can. Give a tender devotion to the Passion of my Crucified Redeemer.
Promoter of the truth of Christ in your preaching and writing, give me a greater knowledge and appreciation of the divine truths.
Gentle father of the poor and sinners help me to imitate your charity toward my fellowmen in word and deed.
Consoler of the suffering, help me to bear my daily cross patiently in imitation of your own patience in your long illness and to resign myself to the will of God.
Good Shepherd of the flock of Christ, obtain for me the grace of being a true child of Holy Mother Church.
Saint Alphonsus, I humbly implore your powerful intercession for obtaining from the Divine Heart of Jesus all the graces necessary for my spiritual and temporal welfare. I recommend to you in particular this favor . . . . . . . . . . (Mention your request).
I have great confidence in your prayers. I earnestly trust that if it is God’s holy will, my petition will be granted through your intercession for me at the throne of God.
Saint Alphonsus, pray for me and for those I love, I beg of you, by your love for Jesus and Mary, do not abandon us in our needs. May we experience the peace and joy of your holy death. Amen.
In thanksgiving to God for the graces bestowed on Saint Alphonsus:
Our Father. Hail Mary. Glory be.
(3 times).
For a Cure
Glorious Saint Alphonsus, loving Father of the poor and the sick, all your
life you devoted yourself with a charity really heroic to lightening their
spiritual and bodily miseries. Full of confidence in thy tender pity for
the sick, since you yourself have patiently borne the cross of illness,
I come to thee for help in my present need . . . . . . (Mention it)
Loving Father of the suffering, Saint Alphonsus, whom I invoke as
the Arthritis Saint, since you have suffered from this disease in your
lifetime, look with compassion upon me in my suffering. Beg God to
give me good health. If it is not God's will to cure me, then give me
strength to bear my cross patiently and to offer my sufferings in union
with my Crucified Savior and His Mother of Sorrows, for the glory of God
and the salvation of souls, in reparation for my sins and those of others,
for the needs of this troubled world, and for the souls in purgatory.
Our Father. Hail Mary. Glory Be.
Saint Alphonsus, patron of the sick, pray for me. Amen.
Liturgical Prayers
Father, Thou continually build up Thy Church by the lives of Thy saints. Give us grace to follow St. Alphonsus in his loving concern for the salvation of men and so come to share his reward in heaven. Grant this through Our Lord Jesus Christ Thy Son, who lives and reigns with Thee and the Holy Ghost, one God, forever and ever. Amen.
(Feast of St. Alphonsus, August 1st)
God, Thou constantly introduce new examples of virtue in Thy Church. Walking in the footsteps of Bishop Alphonsus, may we be consumed with zeal for souls and attain the rewards he has won in heaven. This we ask through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.
Lord, Thou made St. Alphonsus a faithful minister and preacher of the Holy Eucharist. May all who believe in Thee receive it often and give thee never-ending praise. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Father, inflame our hearts with the Spirit of Thy Love as we honor St. Alphonsus who dedicated his life to Thee in the Eucharist. We ask this in the name of Jesus the Lord. Amen.
Novena of Confidence
Lord Jesus Christ, to Thy most Sacred Heart I confide this intention: (Mention your request).
Only look upon me, then do what Thy Heart inspires. Let Thy Sacred Heart decide. I count on Thee. I trust in Thee. I throw myself on Thy mercy. Sacred Heart of Jesus, Thou will not fail me!
Sacred Heart of Jesus, I trust in Thee!
Sacred Heart of Jesus, I believe in Thy love for me!
Sacred Heart of Jesus, Thy Kingdom come!
Sacred Heart of Jesus, I have asked Thee for many favors, but I earnestly implore this one. Take it, place it in Thy open, broken Heart, and when the Eternal Father looks upon it, cover with Thy Precious Blood, He will not refuse it. It will be no longer my prayer, but Thine, O Jesus.
I ask this favor through the intercession of Thy Blessed Mother, the Comforter of the Afflicted and the Health of the Sick, and also of St. Alphonsus, Patron of Arthritic patients. If it be God’s holy will, hear my prayer, O Sacred Heart of Jesus. Amen.
[url=https://www.proboards.com/tos][/url]
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| Saint Augustine: Duties toward the Dead |
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Posted by: Hildegard of Bingen - 01-13-2021, 09:12 PM - Forum: Fathers of the Church
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Saint Augustine: Duties Toward the Dead
The care taken in planning a funeral, the respectful conditions of the burial, the solemn funeral ceremonies, although they are above all a consolation for the living, are a homage justly paid to the bodies of the deceased, especially those of the just and of the faithful, which were like the instruments and the vessels which the soul made use of in a holy way for all sorts of good works.
If the clothing and the ring of a father, if any other souvenir of this sort remains all the more dear to his children, since their love for their parents is greater, by no means should we treat disrespectfully the body itself, which we wear more intimately and closely united to ourselves than any article of clothing. Indeed, our bodies are not mere ornaments or instruments placed externally at our disposal, but rather belong to the very nature of a human being.
Besides the funeral ceremonies, the respect with which we surround the bodies and the dignified burial that is given to them, the most important thing is still the love, the memories and the prayers, the suffrages that aid the souls of the faithful departed after their life: even if because of some necessity it is not possible to find a way either of interring their bodies or of burying them in a holy place, we still must not fail to offer supplications for the souls of the dead. This is what the Church has undertaken to do on behalf of all deceased Christians in the communion of Christian society, even without mentioning their names, through a general commemoration, so that those who lack the prayers of parents, children, neighbors or friends might receive this help from this one pious Mother who is common to all the faithful.
We should also be convinced that, in those funeral ceremonies, we cannot bring any relief to the dead persons in whom we are interested unless we offer for them to the Lord the sacrifice of the altar, or the sacrifice of prayer or almsgiving. It is true that these supplications are not useful to everyone for whom they are made, but only for those who, during their life, merited the application of them to themselves. But it is better to offer superfluous suffrages for the deceased whom they can neither harm nor benefit, than to leave in distress those for whom they are useful.
Let everyone however hasten to render fervently this tribute of prayers for his parents and friends, so that his dear ones might do the same for him. As for what we do for the body that must be interred, it offers no aid for the salvation of the deceased person, but is a human sign of respect or affection, in keeping with the idea that nobody hates his own flesh.
Therefore we must take as much care as possible of the wrapping of flesh left behind by one of our neighbors when the one who took care of it has departed from it. And if those who do not believe in the resurrection of the body act in this way, how much more should those who believe, so that the final respects are paid to this dead body—which however is destined to be revived and to remain eternally—in such a way that people should find in them, so to speak, a testimony of this faith.
(Source: Saint Augustine, “Des devoirs à rendre aux morts”, in Oeuvres complètes [Bar-le-Duc], vol. XII, pp. 280-293. – DICI no. 378, November 2018)
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| The Liturgical Year: January 13th - The Octave of the Epiphany |
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Posted by: Stone - 01-13-2021, 08:50 PM - Forum: Christmas
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January 13 – The Octave of the Epiphany
The thoughts of the Church, today, are fixed on the Baptism of our Lord in the Jordan, which is the second of the three Mysteries of the Epiphany. The Emmanuel manifested himself to the Magi, after having shown himself to the Shepherds; but this manifestation was made within the narrow space of a stable at Bethlehem, and the world knew nothing of it. In the Mystery of the Jordan, Christ manifested himself with greater publicity. His coming is proclaimed by the Precursor; the crowd, that is flocking to the river for Baptism, is witness of what happens; Jesus makes this the beginning of his public life. But who could worthily explain the glorious circumstances of this second Epiphany?
It resembles the first in this, that it is for the benefit and salvation of the human race. The Star has led the Magi to Christ; they had long waited for his coming, they had hoped for it; now, they believe. Faith in the Messias’ having come into the world is beginning to take root among the Gentiles. But faith is not sufficient for salvation; the stain of sin must be washed away by water. He that believeth and is baptised, shall be saved. (St. Mark, xvi. 16.) The time is come, then, for a new manifestation of the Son of God, whereby there shall be inaugurated the great remedy, which is to give to Faith the power of producing life eternal.
Now, the decrees of divine Wisdom had chosen Water as the instrument of this sublime regeneration of the human race. Hence, in the beginning of the world, we find the Spirit of God moving over the Waters, (1 Gen. i. 2.) in order that they might “even then conceive “a principle of sanctifying power,” as the Church expresses it in her Office for Holy Saturday. (2 The Blessing of the Font.) But, before being called to fulfill the designs of God’s mercy, this element of Water had to be used by the divine justice for the chastisement of a sinful world. With the exception of one family, the whole human race perished, by the terrible judgment of God, in the Waters of the Deluge.
A fresh indication of the future supernatural power of this chosen element was given by the Dove, which Noe sent forth from the Ark; it returned to him, bearing in its beak an Olive-branch, the symbol that peace was given to the earth by its having been buried in Water. But, this was only the announcement of the mystery; its accomplishment was not to be for long ages to come.
Meanwhile, God spoke to his people by many events, which were figurative of the future Mystery of Baptism. Thus, for example, it was by passing through the waters of the Red Sea, that they entered into the Promised Land, and during the miraculous passage, a pillar of a cloud was seen covering both the Israelites, and the Waters, to which they owed their deliverance.
But, in order that Water should have the power to purify man from his sins, it was necessary that it should be brought in contact with the sacred Body of the Incarnate God. The Eternal Father had sent his Son into the world, not only that he might be its Lawgiver, and Redeemer, and the Victim of its salvation — but that he might also be the Sanctifier of Water; and it was in this sacred element that he would divinely bear testimony to his being his Son, and manifest him to the world a second time.
Jesus, therefore, being now thirty years of age, comes to the Jordan, a river already celebrated for the prophetic miracles which had been wrought in its waters. The Jewish people, roused by the preaching of John the Baptist, were nocking thither in order to receive a Baptism, which could, indeed, excite a sorrow for sin, but could not effect its forgiveness. Our divine King approaches the river, not, of course, to receive sanctification, for he himself is the author of all justice — but to impart to Water the power of bringing forth, as the Church expresses the mystery, a new and heavenly progeny. (The Blessing of the Font.) He goes down into the stream, not, like Josue, to walk dry-shod through its bed, but to let its waters encompass him, and receive from him, both for itself and for the Waters of the whole earth, the sanctifying power which they would retain for ever. The saintly Baptist places hit: trembling hand upon the sacred head of the Redeemer, and bends it beneath the water; the Sun of Justice vivifies this his creature; he imparts to it the glow of life-giving fruitfulness ; and Water thus becomes the prolific source of supernatural life.
But, in this the commencement of a new creation, we look for the intervention of the Three Persons of the Blessed Trinity. All Three are there. The heavens open; the Dove descends, not, as a mere symbol, prophetic of some future grace, but as the sign of the actual presence of the Holy Ghost, the Spirit of love, who gives peace to men and changes their hearts. The Dove hovers above the head of Jesus, overshadowing, at one and the same time, the Humanity of the Incarnate Word and the water which bathed his sacred Body.
The manifestation is not complete; the Father’s voice is still to be heard speaking over the Water, and moving by its power the entire element through- out the earth. Then was fulfilled the prophecy of David: The Voice of the Lord is upon the waters; the God of majesty hath thundered. The Voice of the Lord breaketh cedars, (that is, the pride of the devils). The Voice of the Lord divideth the flame of fire, (that is, the anger of God). The Voice of the Lord shaketh the desert, and maketh the flood to swell, (that is, announces a new Deluge, the Deluge of divine Mercy). (Ps. cxxviii. 3, 5, 7, 8, 10.) And what says this Voice of the Father? This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. (St. Matth. iii. 17)
Thus was the Holiness of the Emmanuel manifested by the presence of the Dove and by the voice of the Father, as his Kingly character had been previously manifested by the mute testimony of the Star. The mystery is accomplished, the Waters are invested with a spiritual purifying power, and Jesus comes from the Jordan and ascends the bank, raising up with himself the world, regenerated and sanctified, with all its crimes and defilements drowned in the stream. Such is the interpretation and language of the Holy Fathers of the Church regarding this great event of our Lord’s Life.
The Feast of the Epiphany celebrates this wonderful mystery of Jesus’ Baptism; and we cannot wonder at the Eastern Church having selected this Day for one of the solemn administrations of the sacrament of Baptism. The same custom was observed, as we learn from ancient documents, in certain Churches in the West. John Mosch tells us, that, as regards the Oriental Church, the Font was more than once miraculously filled with water on the Feast of the Epiphany, and that immediately after having administered the Sacrament, the people saw the water disappear. The Roman Church, even so early as the time of St. Leo, decreed that Easter and Pentecost should be the only two days for the solemn administration of Baptism; but the custom of blessing the baptismal water with great solemnity on the Epiphany was still retained, and is observed even now in some parts of the West.
The Eastern Church has always religiously observed it. Amidst all the pomp of sacred rites, accompanied by his Priests and Ministers, who are clothed in the richest vestments, and followed by the whole people, the Bishop repairs to the banks of a river. After reciting certain beautiful prayers, which we regret not being able to offer to our readers, the Bishop plunges into the water a Cross richly adorned with precious stones; it represents our Lord being baptised by St. John. At St. Petersburg, the ceremony takes place on the river Neva, and it is through a hole made on the ice that the Metropolitan dips the Cross into the water. This same ceremony is observed by those Churches in the West, which have retained the custom of blessing the baptismal water on this Feast.
The faithful are very anxious to carry home with them the water of the stream thus sanctified; and St. John Chrysostom, in his twenty-fourth Homily, on the Baptism of Christ, speaks to his audience of the circumstance, which was well known by all of them, of this water never turning corrupt. The same has been often seen in the Western Church.
Let us honour our Lord in this second Manifestation of his divinity, and thank him, with the Church, for his having given us both the Star of Faith which enlightens us, and the Water of Baptism which cleanses us from our iniquities. Let us lovingly appreciate the humility of our Jesus, who permits himself to be weighed down by the hand of a mortal man, in order, as he says himself, that he might fulfill all justice, (1 St. Matth. iii. 15.) for having taken on himself the likeness of sin, it was requisite that he should bear its humiliation, that so he might raise us from our debasement. Let us thank him for this grace of Baptism, which has opened to us the gates of the Church both of heaven and earth; and let us renew the engagements we made at the holy Font, for they were the terms on which we were regenerated to our new life in God.
Mass
The Introit, Epistle, Gradual and Alleluia-Verse, Offertory, Preface, and Communion, are the same as on the Feast.
In the Collect, the Church prays that her children may have the grace of becoming like to Jesus, who appeared in the Jordan, filled, indeed, with the Holy Ghost, and the object of the Heavenly Father’s love, but, at the same time, truly Man like us, and faithful in the fulfillment of all justice.
Collect
Deus, cujus Unigenitus in substantia nostræ carnis apparuit: præsta, quæsumus, ut per eum, quem similem nobis foris agnovimus, intus reformari mereamur. Qui tecum.
O God, whose Only Begotten Son appeared in the substance of our flesh: grant, we beseech thee, that we may be interiorly reformed by him whom we confess to have outwardly taken our flesh on himself. Who liveth, &c.
O Lamb of God! thou didst enter into the steam to purify it, the Dove came down from heaven, for thy sweet meekness attracted the Spirit of love; and having sanctified the Waters, the mystery of thy Baptism was over. But what tongue can express the prodigy of mercy effected by it! Men have gone down after thee into the stream made sacred by contact with thee; they return regenerated; they were wolves, and Baptism has transformed them into lambs. We were defiled by sin, and were unworthy to stand near thee, the spotless Lamb; but the waters of the holy Font have been poured upon us, and we are made as the sheep of the Canticle, which came up from the washing fruitful, and none is barren among them; or, as doves upon the brooks of water, white and spotless as though they had been washed with milk, sitting near the plentiful streams! Preserve us, O Jesus, in this white robe which thou hast put upon us. If, alas! we have tarnished its purity, cleanse us by that second Baptism, the Baptism of Penance. Permit us too, dear Lord, to intercede for those countries to whom thy Gospel has not yet been preached; let this river of peace, the waters of Baptism, flow out upon them, and inundate the whole earth. We beseech thee, by the glory of thy manifestation at thy Baptism, forget the crimes of men, which have hitherto caused the Gospel to be kept from those unhappy countries. Thy heavenly Father bids every creature hear thee; speak, dear Jesus! to every creature.
Secret
Hostias tibi, Domine, pro nati Filii tui Apparitione deferimus, suppliciter exorantes; ut sicut ipse nostrorum auctor est munerum, ita sit ipse misericors et susceptor, Jesus Christus Dominus noster. Qui tecum.
We offer sacrifice to thee, O Lord, in remembrance of the Manifestation of thy Son, humbly beseeching thee; that as our Lord Jesus Christ is the author of what we offer, to he may mercifully receive the same. Who liveth, &c.
While giving thanks for the heavenly nourishment just received, the holy Church prays for the unceasing help of that divine Light which has appeared to her, and which will enable her to contemplate the purity of the Lamb, and to love him as he deserves.
Postcommunion
Cœlesti lumine, quæsumus, Domine, semper et ubique nos præveni; at mysterium, cujus nos participes esse voluisti, et puro cernamus intuitu, et digno percipiamus affectu. Per Dominum.
May thy heavenly light, we beseech thee, O Lord, go before us at all times, and in all places; that we may contemplate with a clear sight, and receive with due affection, the mystery whereof thou hast been pleased we should partake. Through, &c.
Let us, once more, sing the praises of the divine Epiphany—the Theophany. Let us make a concert, as it were, of the Liturgies of all the Churches.
St. Hilary of Poitiers shall be our first chapter, in the Hymn he has written on the three mysteries of this great Octave.
Hymn
Jesus, the merciful Redeemer of all nations, shone forth on this day; let the faithful of every race celebrate him in their songs of praise.
A Star, shining in the heavens, announces his Birth; it leads the way, and guides them to his Crib.
Prostrating, they adore the Infant wrapped in swaddling clothes; they confess him to be the true God, offering him their mystic gifts.
Thirty years of his life had passed, and He, the infinitely pure God, seeks the laver of baptism.
John, the favored Baptist, trembles as he bends the head of Jesus beneath the waters—that Jesus whose Blood was to purify the whole earth from its sins.
The divine voice of the Father is heard from heaven, bearing testimony to his Son; and the Holy Spirit too is present, the giver of holy grace.
We beseech thee in humble supplication, O Jesus! protect thy people; we ask it of thee by the power thou didst show when thou didst command the water to be changed into wine.
May praise, honor, and all power be to the Trinity for ever and for ever. Amen.
The Ambrosian Church of Milan thus celebrates the Baptism of our Lord in the beautiful Preface we take from its Missal.
Preface
Vere dignum et justum est, æquum et salutare, nos tibi semper hic et ubique gratias agere, Domine sancte, Pater omnipotens æterne Deus, qui te nobis super Jordanis alveum de cœlis in voce tonitrui præbuisti, ut Salvatorem cœli demonstrares, et te Patrem æterni luminis ostenderes, cœlos supernisti, aerem benedixisti, fontem purificasti: et tuum unicum Filium per speciem columbæ Sancto Spiritu declarasti. Susceperunt hodie fontes benedictionem tuam, et abstulerunt maledictionem nostram, ita ut credentibus purificationem omnium delictorum exhibeant, et Dei filios adoptione faciant ad vitam æternam. Nam, quos ad temporalem vitam carnalis nativitas fuderat, quos mors per prævaricationem ceperat, hos vita æterna recipiens, ad regni cœlorum gloriam revocavit.
It is truly meet and just, right and available to salvation, that we should always, here and in all places, give thanks to thee, O Holy Lord, Almighty Father, Eternal God, who didst show thyself unto us in the river Jordan by speaking to us from heaven in the voice of thunder, whereby thou wouldst manifest unto us our heavenly Savior, and show thyself to be the Father of eternal light, and therefore thou didst open the heavens, and bless the air, and purify the stream: and thou didst announce him to be thine Only Begotten Son by the Holy Ghost, who appeared in the form of a Dove. On this day did the waters receive thy benediction, and take away our malediction, so that they give to believers the purification of all their sins, and make them, by adoption, sons of God unto life everlasting. For, they that were born by the flesh unto temporal life, and made by sin subject to death, have been admitted into life everlasting, and restored to the glory of the heavenly kingdom.
The venerable Antiphons we now give are the precious remnants of the ancient Gallican Liturgy: they are of oriental origin, and are still preserved in the Cistercian Breviary.
Antiphons
Renewing our old man, the Savior comes to Baptism, that he might by water restore our nature which had been corrupted: he clothed us with an incorruptible garment.
We glorify thee as our God and Redeemer, that didst purify the contagious defilements of mankind in the Spirit and in fire.
The Baptist trembled, and dares not to touch the head of God; but cries out, with fear: Sanctify me, O Savior!
The Savior crushed the serpent’s head in the river Jordan, and delivered us all from his power.
A great Mystery is this day declared to us; for the Creator of all wipes away our sins in the Jordan.
The soldier baptizes his King, the servant his Lord, and John his Savior: the waters of the Jordan were amazed, and testimony was borne by the Dove: the voice of the Father was heard: this is my Son.
The springs of water were sanctified when the glory of Christ was manifested: all ye countries of the earth, draw out waters from the Savior’s fountains, for on that day did Christ our God sanctify every creature.
The following Sequence, which we take from the ancient Paris Missals, was composed in the Middle Ages, when it was used by many of the Churches in the West.
It celebrates the three Mysteries of the Epiphany.
Sequence
A Star has miraculously risen, that was foretold by the Prophets: it tells the rising of the divine Light.
It guides the Magi, it terrifies Herod, it leads the Gentiles to Jesus, the haven of peace.
It reveals the Child, the creator of the stars, the avenger of crime, the Strong God.
The mystic gifts proclaim him to be the Ruler of all things, and the Redeemer who saved us by his death.
He is baptized in the waters, and the waters imbibe from him a virtue, whereby they wash away Adam’s sins.
The Dove is seen: the voice of the Father speaks his love of the Son, therefore making known his glory.
The word of John bears also testimony; and the law of love is begun.
The guests are gladdened, when the spring-water is made to do the service of the better wine.
The Word of the Father is espoused in sweet love in the womb of the Virgin, the Spouse without stain.
May he cleanse our alms, and so loosen our chains, protecting us forever, at his Mother’s prayer. Amen.
The Greek Church offers us, in her Menæa, these magnificent verses on the Baptism of our Lord: they are full of poetry, doctrine, and devotion.
vi Die Januarii, In Theophania
Elias had been taken up on high: Eliseus touched the Jordan with his cloak, and the stream was turned back; the waters divided, leaving the Prophet a dry, yet moistened, path, as a true type of that Baptism, whereby we pass the stream-like path of life. Christ appeared, desiring to renew his creature.
On this day was sanctified the element of water; the Jordan is divided, and its waters cease to flow, seeing its Lord seeking baptism in its stream.
Thou hast come to the river, O Christ our King! thou hast come as Man to receive baptism at thy servant’s hands; good Jesus! lover of mankind! thou art eager to bend beneath thy Precursor’s hand.
At the voice of him that cried out in the desert: Prepare ye the way of the Lord! thou didst come, O Lord! making to thyself the likeness of a servant, and, thou that knowest not sin, asking for Baptism! The waters saw thee, and trembled. The Precursor trembled, and exclaimed: “How shall the lamp give light to the Light? O Savior! thou takest away the sins of the world, sanctify me and the waters.”
His right hand trembled, for, though Precursor, and Baptist, and Prophet greater than all Prophets, he saw before him the Lamb of God that washes away the sins of the world: oppressed with anxious doubt, he exclaimed: “O Word! I dare not put my hand upon thy head: do thou sanctify and enlighten me, O Merciful One! for thou art the life, and light, and peace of the world.”
It was a wonderful thing to see the Lord of heaven and earth standing naked in the river, receiving as a servant, and from his servant, Baptism for our salvation. The choirs of Angels stood amazed, in fear and in joy. We adore thee, O Jesus! together with them. Save us.
O holy Baptist! raise up to him, for us, that hand of thine, which touched the untouched Head of our Lord, and wherewith thou didst point him out to us. Thou hast great power, for he declared thee to be greater than all the Prophets. Turn, also, to him thine eyes, which saw the Most Holy Spirit come down in the form of a Dove. Have pity on us, and be with us encouraging our hymn, and thyself beginning the canticle of praise.
The waters of the Jordan received thee, O Jesus, the fountain of life! and the Paraclete came down upon thee in the form of a Dove. He who bent down the very heavens, now bends his sacred Head! The clay that was formed cries out complainingly to Him who formed it: “Why biddest thou me do what is above me? I have need to be baptized by thee, O Sinless One!”
Thou didst bend thine head to thy Precursor; thou didst crush the heads of the serpents. Thou didst go down into the river; thou didst enlighten all things that they might glorify thee, O Savior, thou Light of our souls!
He that is clad with light as with a garment, deigned, for our sakes, to become like unto us. Today, he girds himself with the waters of the Jordan, not needing them for his own purification, but that he might give regeneration to us through himself. O wondrous work!
Come, let us imitate the wise virgins; come, let us go to meet our Lord thus manifested to us, for, like a bridegroom, he comes to John. The Jordan turned back, when it saw thee, O Jesus! it bent its course and stood. John exclaimed: “I dare not touch the head of the eternal God.” The Spirit came down, in the form of a Dove, to sanctify the waters, and a Voice said from heaven: “This is my Son, that is come into the world to save mankind.” Glory be to thee, O Christ!
Christ is baptized, and comes up from the water; he raises up the world with himself, and sees that heaven opened, which Adam had closed against himself and his children. The Spirit, too, proclaims the divinity of Him that was baptized, and a Voice from heaven is heard at the same time. Thus is Christ declared to be the Savior of our souls.
When thou didst will, O Lord! to fulfill thy eternal decrees, thou didst permit all creatures to minister to thy Mystery! Gabriel, among the Angels; the Virgin, among men; the Star, among the heavenly bodies; the Jordan, among the streams of water. Thou didst take on thyself the sin of the world. Glory be to thee, O Savior!
O Jordan, why wonderest thou at seeing the Invisible thus naked before thee? “I saw,” thou repliest, “and how should I not tremble? The angels see him, and are awed. The heavens were moved, the earth shook, the sea curled up its waves, and all things visible and invisible feared.” Christ manifested himself in the Jordan, that he might sanctify the waters.
The Precursor, the herald of Christ, exclaimed: “Who is there that has seen a spot upon the sun, the orb of brightness! And how shall I, that am but as grass of the field, baptize thee, thou brightness of glory, and image of the eternal Father? How shall I dare touch the fire of the Divinity? For thou art the Christ, the wisdom and the power of God.”
Christ, the great Light, has shone on Galilee of the Gentiles, on the country of Zabulum, and on the land of Nephthalim; to them that sat in darkness there has appeared a bright light in Bethlehem the bright. But, the Sun of Justice, the Lord, has risen from Mary, and shown far brighter rays on the whole earth.
Let us, therefore, who, in Adam, are naked of all good, put on Jesus, that we may grow warm; for, thou art come, O Christ! to be the clothing of the naked, and the light of them that are in darkness. O Light inaccessible! thou hast appeared to the world.
Let us recite, in honor of the Virgin Mother of our dear Jesus, this venerable Hymn of our ancient Missals.
It is an imitation of the celebrated Sequence for Pentecost, composed by the holy king Robert, and which we shall give in its proper place.
Sequence
May the grace of that Holy Spirit be now with us,
Whereby the Virgin Mary conceived, and brought forth Jesus, our God,
And holy Virginity, in this Mother, brought forth its Flower.
O Spirit of Love! thou didst fill Mary with thyself,
Thou didst infuse the dew of heaven into her.
O Divine Lover! the purest Virgin receives Jesus from Thee.
Under thy shadow, she continues a Virgin, and is made the Mother of God.
Thou didst preserve Mary from contracting the original guilt.
Thou didst consecrate the sanctuary of this so blessed a womb.
That it might be the dwelling of Jesus, and Mary be his Mother,
And so bring forth her Son, as to be still the same pure Flower.
Thou it was that didst inspire the Prophets to foretell how Mary should conceive her God.
Thou it was that didst strengthen the Apostles to preach this God, the Son of Mary.
When God created this world, he gave us a type of Mary.
The virgin-earth produced the first Adam; so did Mary give birth to the second.
Thou art the hope of sorrowing hearts, sweet Mary!
Loosen the fetters of thy devoted servants, O Mary!
Thou didst restore to life the world that was crushed by sin, O Mary!
Thou didst destroy idolaters and wicked laws, O Mary!
We humbly beseech thee, therefore, that thou mercifully help us, O Mary!
Ave, Maria. And, pray to thy Son for us who sing to thee, Ave Maria!
Thou art Blessed of all the blessed, O Mary!
Thou art raised above the highest choirs of the Angels, O Mary!
Thou didst clad with the nature of Man, O Mary,
Him who made thee, and not as other mothers, be his Mother, O Mary!
He is our God; pray him to have mercy on us, O Mary!
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| Quote of St. John Mary Vianney |
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Posted by: Hildegard of Bingen - 01-13-2021, 08:46 PM - Forum: The Saints
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QUOTE OF ST. JOHN MARY VIANNEY
"Generally speaking, one dies as one has lived. That is one of the great truths which Holy Scripture and the Fathers repeat in many different places. If you live as good Christians, you will be sure to die as good Christians, but if you live badly, you will sure to die a bad death . . . It is true, however, that sometimes, by a kind miracle, one may begin badly and finish well, but that happens so rarely that, as St. Jerome puts it, death is generally the echo of life. You think that you will return then to God? No, you will perish in sin . . . " - The Cure of Ars (Page 139 from the Book "Sermons of the Cure Ars)
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| Pope Emeritus Benedict joins Pope Francis in taking abortion-tainted COVID vaccine |
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Posted by: Stone - 01-13-2021, 04:29 PM - Forum: Pandemic 2020 [Spiritual]
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Pope Emeritus Benedict joins Pope Francis in taking abortion-tainted COVID vaccine
Pope Francis became one of the first to receive his dose of Pfizer’s abortion-tainted vaccine this morning.
VATICAN CITY, January 13, 2021 (LifeSiteNews) — Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI is to become one of the first in the Vatican to receive an abortion-tainted COVID-19 vaccine, as part of the Vatican’s own vaccination roll-out commencing today.
Pope Benedict’s personal secretary Archbishop Georg Gänswein spoke to the German language edition of Catholic News Agency (CNA), saying that Benedict would receive it “as soon as the vaccine is available.” Gänswein noted that he would receive the jab along with Benedict, as would “the whole household of the Mater Ecclesiae Monastery” where Benedict is living.
In a television interview aired on Sunday night, Pope Francis also stated that he would receive the vaccine, calling it “an ethical choice,” adding that “I’ve signed up. One must do it.” Francis went further, adding that “ethically, everyone should take the vaccine.”
“I don’t understand why some say, ‘No. Vaccines are dangerous,’” the Pope said. “If it is presented by doctors as a thing that can go well, that has no special dangers, why not take it? There is a suicidal denial that I wouldn’t know how to explain.”
The 84-year-old pontiff became one of the first to receive his dose of Pfizer’s abortion-tainted vaccine this morning, and will have his second injection in three weeks. While there were no photos of the event, the Vatican press room confirmed the news to Argentine newspaper La Nacion.
The Vatican COVID vaccinations are beginning today in the Pope Paul VI Audience Hall, where a special fridge has been placed in order to accommodate the exceptionally low temperatures necessary for the storage of the Pfizer vaccine. The head of the Vatican health service, Dr. Andrea Arcangeli, said: “Priority will be given to health and public safety personnel, to the elderly and to personnel most frequently in contact with the public.”
Speaking to Vatican News in mid-December, Arcangeli announced how Vatican residents and employees would be receiving COVID vaccinations in January, mentioning it was “very important” that a “vaccination campaign” was started as soon as possible. He even referred to “our duty to offer all residents, employees and their families the opportunity to be immunized against this dreaded disease.”
At the time, Arcangeli said the Vatican would be using the Pfizer vaccine, but that others would be administered subject to approval. The first doses of the Pfizer jab in Italy were given shortly after Christmas, with the Moderna vaccine being approved last week, and deployed January 12. As of Tuesday, January 12, over 650,000 people in the country had been injected with COVID vaccines in apparent efforts to prevent the spread of the virus.
Both the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, along with the Oxford/Astra Zeneca vaccine which is currently awaiting approval in the country, have connections to abortion.
Pro-life organization Children of God for Life notes that the Pfizer vaccine was tested using the HEK-293 cell line, which is derived from kidney tissue taken from a baby who was aborted in the Netherlands in the 1970s.
The group also compiled research showing that Moderna “extensively” uses the “aborted fetal cell line HEK-293” in the “fundamental design of mRNA technology, their Spike protein and in the research, development, production and testing.” The proteins used in the vaccine itself and the mRNA “were built on technology that extensively used aborted fetal cells, rendering the vaccine absolutely immoral from start to finish.”
Meanwhile, the Oxford/Astra Zeneca vaccine has been developed from the cell lines of an aborted baby, the cell line HEK-293, and also uses the fetal cell line in design and testing.
While the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) issued a statement assuring Catholics they could take even an abortion-tainted COVID vaccine if there are no ethical alternatives available, many bishops and cardinals have spoken up against such a message.
In a paper released on December 12, Bishop Athanasius Schneider, along with co-signers Cardinal Janis Pujats, Bishop Joseph Strickland, and Archbishops Tomash Peta and Jan Pawel Lenga, expressed the strong conviction that any use of a vaccine tainted with the “unspeakable crime” of abortion “cannot be acceptable for Catholics” under any circumstances.
The prelates pointed to the contradiction between Catholic doctrine, which teaches that abortion is “a grave moral evil that cries out to heaven for vengeance,” and the commonly found view that abortion-connected vaccines are permitted in “exceptional cases of ‘urgent need.’”
“To argue that such vaccines can be morally licit if there is no alternative is in itself contradictory and cannot be acceptable for Catholics,” the letter read.
Cardinal Raymond Burke, former Prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura, has previously spoken out against vaccines using aborted babies, saying “it must be clear that it is never morally justified to develop a vaccine through the use of the cell lines of aborted fetuses. The thought of the introduction of such a vaccine into one’s body is rightly abhorrent.”
In addition to this, in a recent episode of the John-Henry Westen show, Catholic biologist and author Pamela Acker described how the babies involved in the abortion-tainted COVID vaccines were actually alive when they were extracted for their body parts.
“They will actually deliver these babies via cesarean section. The babies are still alive when the researchers start extracting the tissue; to the point where their heart is still beating, and they’re generally not given any anesthetic, because that would disrupt the cells that the researchers are trying to extract.”
Referring to the news of Pope Benedict and Pope Francis taking the vaccine, prominent Catholic commentator Deacon Nick Donnelly wrote: “How is this not seen as condoning abortion, in some circumstances, if it produces medically useful products?”
“If the Pope and bishops had stuck with the principle that all abortions are abominable crimes and the Church will have nothing to do with them, maybe a vaccine would have been developed that wasn’t tainted with abortion,” he noted. “But instead they collapsed like a house of cards. Again.”
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| The unborn babies used for vaccine development were alive at tissue extraction |
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Posted by: Stone - 01-13-2021, 09:11 AM - Forum: Abortion
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The unborn babies used for vaccine development were alive at tissue extraction
Pamela Acker is a biologist and author of a recently released book on vaccinations.
January 12, 2021 (LifeSiteNews) – Today I had the great pleasure of sitting down with Pamela Acker, one of the most knowledgeable people in the world on vaccines and on what goes into them. Acker actually spent time in a vaccine research lab for nine months before encountering the ethical and moral issue of the HEK-293 cell line.
Our conversation today was one of the most enlightening but also deeply disturbing interviews I’ve ever done for my podcast The John-Henry Westen Show. [See video here: https://youtu.be/joWZmcHhfBg]
Acker is a biologist and author of the recently released (and extremely informative) book Vaccination: A Catholic Perspective. In it, she reveals precisely how Catholics should be thinking about vaccines. You can buy it from our friends at the Kolbe Center for the Study of Creation.
Unfortunately – depressingly really – under Pope Francis, the Vatican has largely downplayed if not entirely ignored the importance of bioethics.
Francis himself just last week endorsed the COVID-19 vaccine, saying that “it must be done.”
Acker and I spoke about many topics today for over an hour. Please watch the entire interview if you can. The most revealing aspect of our conversation, I think, was when we discussed the various fetal cell lines being used in vaccines, specifically.
There are a number of fetal cell lines in existence right now. There’s WI-38, MRC-5, HEK-293, PER C-6, and WALVAX-2; WALVAX-2 is not currently being used in any vaccines, but does have the potential to be used and is currently used in therapeutic treatments. As Acker and I agreed, most people have this understanding that it was one or two babies that died and will simply dismiss these cell lines.
Acker speaks about her research into the HEK-293 cell line specifically, and talks about the number that’s at the end of that cell line name. “HEK” stands for Human Embryonic Kidney and the “293” actually reveals the number of experiments that a specific researcher did to develop that cell line.
It doesn’t mean there were two hundred and ninety-three abortions, but for two hundred and ninety-three experiments, you would certainly need far more than one abortion. We’re talking probably hundreds of abortions,” Acker shares.
Acker goes on to discuss why researchers would choose a fetal cell line over an adult cell line. The details boil down to one answer: because they’ll last longer, having a much longer lifespan. However, these cell lines encounter some dangerous side effects, such as the genes are given cancer promoting genes (but more on that inside the interview).
Acker dispels the myth that these cell lines are created using spontaneous abortions, simply by understanding that these cells have to be gathered within five minutes of the abortion. A miscarriage would simply not provide cells that were alive enough for researchers to be able to use the cells.
This is where things get very disturbing, because in most cases it’s not a “simple abortion,” but rather, Acker says:
Quote:They will actually deliver these babies via cesarean section. The babies are still alive when the researchers start extracting the tissue; to the point where their heart is still beating, and they’re generally not given any anesthetic, because that would disrupt the cells that the researchers are trying to extract.
So, they’re removing this tissue, all the while the baby is alive and in extreme amounts of pain. So, this makes it even more sadistic.”
While our discussion is broad, we do highlight the Moderna and Pfizer COVID vaccines specifically. The above is a small sample of the vital information Pamela Acker and I discussed today. I encourage each one of you to listen to the full interview, and share with your friends and family.
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| In new lockdown, Ontario threatens fines, jail for leaving home |
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Posted by: Stone - 01-13-2021, 08:00 AM - Forum: Pandemic 2020 [Secular]
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In new lockdown, Ontario threatens fines, jail for leaving home
Ontarians can be fined and prosecuted for leaving home for 'non-essential' activities under the new stay-at-home order.
ONTARIO, January 12, 2021 (LifeSiteNews) — The Ontario government has declared a second state of emergency and is issuing a stay-at-home order for the province beginning January 14, to last at least 28 days.
Premier Doug Ford announced today that the order allows people to leave their homes only for “essential” purposes, “such as going to the grocery store, pharmacy, accessing health-care services, exercising, or essential work.” In addition, “[o]utdoor organized public gatherings and social gatherings are further restricted to a limit of five people with limited exceptions.”
The order is “aimed at limiting people's mobility and reducing the number of daily contacts with those outside an immediate household,” according to the news release announcing the second state of emergency.
The new restrictions were announced following new projections of ICU occupancy by COVID-19 patients, which is now over 400 beds and “is projected to be as high as 1,000 beds by early February which has the potential to overwhelm Ontario's hospitals,” the news release states.
According to Solicitor General Sylvia Jones, "[s]trong, new measures will be enforced to stop the spread of COVID-19.”
“We are taking extraordinary action to provide law enforcement officers with the tools and support they need to protect the health and wellbeing of Ontarians,” reported Jones.
These new “extraordinary” measures include allowing law enforcement to “issue tickets to those who breach the order and disperse crowds larger than five people, if they’re not part of the same household.”
Ontarians found violating the stay-at-home order face a fine and prosecution under the Reopening Ontario Act and the Emergency Management and Civil Emergency Management (EMPCA). Penalties include up to a year in jail, according to Solicitor General Jones.
“We have made great strides in vaccinating tens of thousands of Ontarians, and we can’t let these efforts go to waste,” stated Christine Elliott, deputy premier and minister of health. “Urgent action is required to break this deadly trend of transmission, ensure people stay home, and save lives.”
Just weeks ago, Ontario emergency room (E.R.) doctor Dr. Gil Nimni called out his “colleagues” who say the E.R. is “crazy” when he has observed that it is “empty.”
Nimni acknowledged that COVID-19 is real and serious but expressed concerns on Twitter that “lockdowns are resulting in economic devastation but also resulting in fewer people accessing care in a timely manner.”
“The sad tragedy in all of this is when the government tells people to lock down, unfortunately that translates into people not seeking care for things they should. You see a lot of late presentation in things that should have been dealt with weeks earlier. Those are the concerning issues,” Nimni stated in a Toronto Sun report.
“Locking down people and sending people into financial ruin and worsening mental-health issues isn’t really the right answer,” he added.
A recent Gallup survey found that lockdowns have contributed to a record mental health decline, with social distancing and stay-at-home orders identified by the CDC as likely culprits of “adverse mental or behavioral health conditions.”
The American Institute for Economy Research (AIER) also released a report in November affirming that virtually all aspects of day-to-day life, including mental health, the economy, unemployment, and crime, have been harmed by the COVID-19 lockdowns.
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| PBS Principal Counsel Advocates Putting Certain Voters' Children into Special 'Camps' |
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Posted by: Stone - 01-12-2021, 01:57 PM - Forum: General Commentary
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PBS Principal Counsel Michael Beller Incites Political Violence In Radical Left-Wing Agenda
PBS Principal Counsel Lays Out Violent Radical Agenda; Says Americans Are ‘*** Dumb’ … ‘Go to White House & Throw Molotovs’ … ‘Put [Children] into Re-Education Camps…Watch PBS All Day’ … ‘COVID Spiking in Red States…[Red State Voters] Are Sick & Dying’
- Michael Beller, PBS principal counsel: “We go for all the Republican voters and Homeland Security will take their children away…we’ll put them into the re-education camps.”
- Beller: “Enlightenment camps. They’re nice, they have Sesame Street characters in the classrooms, and they watch PBS all day."
- Beller: “Americans are so f*cking dumb. You know, most people are dumb. It’s good to live in a place [Washington, D.C.] where people are educated and know stuff. Could you imagine if you lived in one of these other towns or cities where everybody's just stupid?”
- Beller: “What’s great is that COVID is spiking in all the red states right now. So that’s great…a lot of them [red state voters] are sick and dying.”
- PBS is a non-profit institution receiving millions of dollars per year from the federal government
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Jan. 12, 2021] Project Veritas released a new video today exposing Michael Beller, Principal Counsel for The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), for his statements defending violent attacks on the White House, re-education for the children of Trump supporters and praising the deaths of red state voters as a result of COVID-19.
In a conversation with a Veritas journalist, Beller explained his violent intention:
Michael Beller: “In these times, which are unique -- I mean Trump -- Trump is close to Hitler.”
Journalist: “What are you going to do if we [Democrats] don’t win?”
Beller: “Go to the White House and throw Molotov cocktails.”
Beller said that the children of Trump supporters were being raised to be horrible people, and that a solution would be sending those children to re-education camps.
“They’ll [Trump supporters] be raising a generation of intolerant, horrible people – horrible kids,” Beller said.
“We go for all the Republican voters and Homeland Security will take their children away…we’ll put them into the re-education camps,” he said.
“Enlightenment camps. They’re nice, they have Sesame Street characters in the classrooms, and they watch PBS all day,” he said.
Beller told the Veritas journalist that he was happy to live in Washington D.C. instead of a small town in the United States. He said that people in those towns are not intelligent.
“Americans are so ****** dumb. You know, most people are dumb. It’s good to live in a place where people are educated and know stuff. Could you imagine if you lived in one of these other towns or cities where everybody's just stupid?”
Beller said it was a good thing that COVID-19 expanded in states where Republican candidates often win elections. He said it would help his political objectives if voters in those states did not show up to vote given that they would likely be sick or dying:
Beller: “What’s great is that COVID is spiking in all the red states right now. So that’s great.”
Journalist: “Why do you think so?”
Beller: “Because either those people won’t come out to vote for Trump -- you know the red states -- or a lot of them are sick and dying.”
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| What’s Up with the Great Reset? |
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Posted by: Stone - 01-12-2021, 10:14 AM - Forum: Great Reset
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What’s Up with the Great Reset?
AIER | January 6 , 2021
At any anti-lockdown protest, you will see signs that say “Stop the Great Reset.” The New York Times calls this phrase “a baseless conspiracy theory.” Here is the problem. None of this is secret. There are books you can read about it and detailed websites describing it. Time Magazine even did a cover story. It’s the title of World Economic Forum (WEF) head Klaus Schwab’s book on the lockdowns and the future. It was published July 9, 2020, and now has nearly 900 reviews on Amazon.
Proponents of “The Great Reset” argue that the pandemic proves our former society “doesn’t work,” so we need a tech-focused, “sustainable” future to reduce emissions and thereby “save the planet.” The Great Reset is a rebranded, tightened-up version of the UN’s decades-old “Sustainable Development” agenda (“Agenda 21”). The same policies and ideas are contained in “The Green New Deal,” which was defeated in 2019 in the US Congress.
It bears repeating: Six months before “SARS-CoV-2” was discovered by China, the UN and the WEF signed a “Strategic Partnership” specifically to advance the “Sustainable Development” agenda, now known as “The Great Reset.” You can read all about this partnership online.
Schwab has been openly “fighting” (to use his own word) against Milton Friedman-style economics for decades, ever since Friedman published his famous 1970 essay: The Social Responsibility of Business Is to Increase Its Profits. Schwab now predicts that the “COVID19 pandemic” – which he says will last at least until 2022 – will mark the final death-knell of “Neo-Liberalism,” which he defines as “a corpus of ideas and policies ... favoring competition over solidarity, creative destruction over government intervention and economic growth over social welfare.”
Others would describe Neo-Liberalism as “decentralized power and smaller government,” and Schwab’s preferred system as “China under Xi Jinping.”
How long has Schwab known that a pandemic could be used to advance his ideals? A while, if his publications and planning exercises are any indication. His book, COVID-19: The Great Reset contains lengthy discourse on how pandemics are known agents for major societal shifts. He asks, “Why should COVID-19 be any different?”
Then there is the fact that Schwab’s organization practiced a “high-level pandemic exercise” in October 2019, less than five months before “Covid-19″ came along. The WEF’s co-sponsors for this event were The Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, both of which have actively promoted 2020’s unprecedented pandemic response – as Imperial College London’s Neil Ferguson recently explained, lockdowns were not recommended by any government until Xi Jinping “changed what was possible” by proclaiming “this worked for us in China.”
This extraordinarily fortuitously-timed pandemic planning exercise makes Schwab look like something of an oracle. Indeed, he openly brags about his foresight:
Quote:“For years, international organizations like the World Health Organization (WHO), institutions like the World Economic Forum and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI – launched at the Annual Meeting 2017 in Davos), and individuals like Bill Gates have been warning us about the next pandemic risk, even specifying that it: 1) would emerge in a highly populated place where economic development forces people and wildlife together; 2) would spread quickly and silently by exploiting networks of human travel and trade; and 3) would reach multiple countries by thwarting containment.”
In 2017, Anthony Fauci made a similar prediction, declaring that “there is no doubt” that Donald J. Trump “will be confronted with a pandemic” before the end of his term. Like Schwab, Fauci actively promotes lockdowns. Like Schwab, he declares that we can never again return to normal – if we do, we should expect diseases to constantly jump from animals to humans (because pandemics never happened until 2020, when the world grew “too industrialized”). To save ourselves, we must redesign society “in harmony with nature.”
Both Fauci and Schwab’s prose are littered with terms like “sustainability,” “inclusiveness,” “green,” “nature,” and “harmony.” Terms that are hard to disagree with, although the behaviors supposedly promoting them are a harder sell. Schwab reveals in his “Great Reset” book that our new germ-avoidant behaviors are seen as optimal to “the environment:”
“During lockdowns, many consumers previously reluctant to rely too heavily on digital applications and services were forced to change their habits almost overnight ... many of the tech behaviors that we were forced to adopt during confinement will through familiarity become more natural. If health [read: fear of germs] considerations become paramount, we may decide, for example, that a cycling class in front of a screen at home ... is safer (and cheaper!).
“The same reasoning applies to many different domains like flying to a meeting (Zoom is safer, cheaper, greener and much more convenient), driving to a distant family gathering for the weekend (the WhatsApp family group is not as fun but, again, safer, cheaper and greener) or even attending an academic course (not as fulfilling, but cheaper and more convenient).”
Spelling this out for those too stunned to take it in: this is an open admission that it benefits Schwab and Fauci’s political agenda to continue lockdowns as long as possible. The same people who sell interminable lockdowns – by ignoring great science on pre-existing immunity, lack of asymptomatic spread, and flawed PCR tests – believe the lockdowns are the perfect agent to usher in the changes they desire. Will they succeed? Is their behavior remotely justified? Does the pandemic really prove our society is fatally flawed? Why can’t they use the political system to gain majority votes if their agenda is so good?
Covid-19 is the first major pandemic in six decades. Worse pandemics occurred in 1918, 1957 and 1968, when the population was exponentially smaller (1.8 billion; 2.8 billion; and 3.6 billion, respectively) and carbon emissions were not even on anyone’s radar. Because pandemics have always occurred, there is no logical basis – not even a flimsy one – to infer that “population growth,” “climate change” or “industrialization” caused this one.
People may or may not agree with Schwab that Zoom meetings are preferable to in-person work, that sitting in the same house every day of the week is preferable to commuting to an office, that local entertainment is better than international travel, that exercise classes are just as good over the computer screen as they are in a studio. But there is one thing most people agree with: Being told that “germs” threaten your existence when they really do not is abusive.
Scaring people into their homes, making them fear their own family and friends, preying on their vulnerabilities, shattering their social existences – especially when you knowingly do this in hopes of making it permanent – is just about as bad as human behavior gets.
Just as bad, Schwab et al. know the lockdowns are “taking out” certain industries while sparing others: in a nutshell, the powerful survive. Anyone who has both this knowledge and the ability to influence lockdown duration has an unthinkable level of power and an unlimited ability to amass more of it by manipulating pretty much the entire global financial system. All of this is eminently predictable by the people encouraging, supporting and imposing the restrictive orders.
“The [restaurant] sector of activity has been hit by the pandemic [lockdown] to such a dramatic extent that it ... may never come back. In France and the U.K., several industry voices estimate that up to 75% of independent restaurants might not survive the lockdowns and subsequent social distancing measures.
"The large chains and fast-food giants will. This in turn suggests that big business will get bigger while the smallest shrink or disappear. A large restaurant chain, for example, has a better chance of staying operational as it benefits from more resources and, ultimately, less competition in the wake of bankruptcies among smaller outfits.”
Knowingly taking out small businesses – one of the last bastions of free speech and independence, distinguishable from the tightly-controlled corporate world – is evil. It is hard to believe anyone would do it if they could avoid it. However, it is equally hard to ignore the fact that Florida, Georgia, South Dakota, Texas and Sweden (among many others) have fully open economies and average mortality to show for it.
Both public health ethics and the Siracusa Principles dictate that the “least restrictive means” must be used when “public health” is given as a justification for restricting basic human rights, such as the right to earn a living. Yet Schwab and Fauci both ignore Sweden and Florida, and claim that Covid-19 lockdown restrictions must continue until 2022 (or longer). How on earth do they justify it?
They seem to be telling themselves – and may even truly believe – that they are “saving the planet,” so the ends justify the means. In his book, Schwab poses the rhetorical question, “Is it okay to lie to the public for some greater good?” “Well,” I would respond, “who should we trust to decide what is the greater good?” There will never be unified agreement on which system achieves this end. Some will vote Milton Friedman, some Klaus Schwab. Most everyone, however, would agree that tricks like exploiting pandemics should not be used, even by “one’s own” side.
Reasonable people may well believe in the merit of Schwab’s “stakeholder economy.” But they undoubtedly expect to be persuaded of its merit, not to have the system foisted on them by ruse. The democratic process exists so ideas can be openly hashed out, debated and settled by the public, each person allotted one vote. Schwab quite openly admits that he would like to dispense with this process – it is not producing the result he desires. Far from it: recent populist movements in the US (“Make America Great Again”) and UK (“Brexit”) have specifically rejected his collectivist ideals:
“Without greater collaboration, we will be unable to address the global challenges that we collectively face. Put in the simplest possible terms: if, as human beings, we do not collaborate to confront our existential challenges (the environment and the global governance free fall, among others), we are doomed.”
In his Great Reset marketing book, Schwab threatens that this rising tide of nationalism will prove “incompatible” with the United States dollar’s “status as global reserve currency.” He suggests that an alternative currency will be needed, that a global digital currency is eventually going to arrive, and that China is “years ahead of the rest of the world” in developing one.
Although he doesn’t say so directly, Schwab et al. undoubtedly dislike what Trump has been doing to defend the dollar. Schwab quotes Barry Eichengreen and European Central Bank representatives as follows: “The security premium enjoyed by the U.S. dollar could diminish” because “the U.S. is disengaging from global geopolitics in favor of more stand-alone, inward-looking policies.”
Predictably, Schwab makes the argument that these same nationalist policies proved disastrous during “the pandemic.” Echoing the WHO’s praise of China’s collectivist action in Wuhan – which Xi Jinping proudly declares “eradicated the virus” from the entire nation of China – Schwab writes that countries fared better during the pandemic when they share “a real sense of solidarity, favoring the common good over individual aspirations and needs.”
“Favorable societal characteristics [include] core values of inclusivity, solidarity and trust [which] are strong determining elements and important contributors to success in containing an epidemic.”
Support for these concepts is not a new feeling for Schwab. This did not spring organically out of the pandemic for him, like an epiphany. Rather, this is his long-held vision of utopia and his life’s work. He’s been talking about it for decades:
“Earlier this year, Schwab told the Financial Times that his aim has been to beat back Friedman. “What was for me always disturbing was that Milton Friedman gave a moral reasoning to shareholder Capitalism – [he argued] the role of business was to make business earn as much as possible and then the money would flow back from the company to the government in the form of taxes. I had to fight against the wave.”
In short, Schwab et al. are on a mission. The mission is to change society. They admire China’s and New Zealand’s governance. They practiced for a pandemic. Science has been thrown to the wind for months, censorship is rampant, Sweden and Florida are ignored, the rule of law is suspended, and certain governors seem determined never to release us from their declared “state of emergency.”
These circumstances are favorable to Schwab and his powerful allies, including technology companies, billionaires, the media, China, the UN, and others. They are detrimental to billions of less powerful, less organized people and small businesses. There is a lot we don’t know, because we aren’t being told.
Schwab and his ideologically-aligned allies think they are saving the world. It is not conspiracy theory to read their own books and listen to their own words, which target fundamental liberties and rights that the West has long taken for granted. At some point, it’s not unreasonable to observe that this is no longer about public health. It’s about a new political vision, one hatched by a private few in order to rule over the many. It is unlikely to be shared by most people, thus setting up what is likely to be an epic battle in 2021.
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| The Recusant 54: The SSPX's October 2020 Interview with the Superior General |
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Posted by: Stone - 01-12-2021, 08:03 AM - Forum: The New-Conciliar SSPX
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From The Recusant - Issue 54 [Epiphany 2021]
No, the SSPX has not altered course for the better under a new Superior General. If very little has been heard from him during the past year or two, that is not necessarily a good sign: things are much the same as ever, rotten on the inside and dying. In case anyone wishes to make absolutely certain, however, and to see for himself, here is:
A little look at the SSPX’s recent: “Interview with The Superior General”
Source: https://fsspx.uk/en/news-events/news/interview-superior-general-61063
Remember that the current Superior General is no longer Bishop Fellay, but Fr. Pagliarani. Father who? Exactly. When he was appointed in 2018, more than two years ago, cynics at the time said that he would be a figurehead-only ‘Superior,’ and that the same people would hold power behind the scenes. Well? How are things looking now? Still, lest anyone say that we haven’t tried to give the man his fair say, here he is in his own words, in an interview published in October 2020.
Quote:THE FIFTY YEARS OF THE SSPX
1. DICI: What does the fiftieth anniversary of the SSPX represent for Tradition?
First of all, this jubilee is an opportunity for us to thank Divine Providence for all that it has granted us during these fifty years, because a work that was not from God would not have withstood the wear and tear of time. It is firstly to Him that we must attribute all this. But also, and above all, this jubilee is an opportunity for us to reinvigorate our fidelity to what we have received. Indeed, after so many years, there can be an understandable weariness. It is therefore a question of rekindling our fervour in the battle to establish the reign of Christ the King. Firstly, may he reign in our souls, and then, secondly, around us. It is on this particular point that we must work, following the example of His Grace Archbishop Lefebvre.
Talk is cheap. As we shall see throughout this interview, fine words are very easy to throw out, but how do the actions of the modern SSPX match up to them? How, for instance, are they “following the example of His Grace Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre?
• During the last years of his life, Archbishop Lefebvre denounced the Second Vatican Council and all its rotten fruits in the strongest terms, in written interviews, in his sermons - at practically every opportunity, in fact. Does the SSPX do the same?
• Archbishop Lefebvre regarded the then- Cardinal Ratzinger as perhaps the most dangerous man in the Church, a man who might look conservative on the outside, but who is every bit a liberal on the inside; a man with a track record of destroying Traditional communities and making them modern and conciliar again; a quintessential modernist who could not be trusted. Does the SSPX regard (“Pope Emeritus”) Benedict XVI in the same way, or has it not rather spent most of the past decade singing his praises and trying to hide how dangerous he really is?
• Archbishop Lefebvre regarded the new rites, particularly of priestly ordination and episcopal consecration, as doubtful. Does the modern SSPX so regard them? Do they not rather regard them as all valid, and will conditionally ordain a priest from the conciliar church only if he insists, and only to keep one or two overscrupulous faithful quiet, not because they entertain the slightest doubt about the validity of the new rites? (Remember, for instance, the case of Mgr. Charles “New Coke” Byrnes in Ridgefield, CT, who was appointed SSPX prior without ever having been conditionally ordained).
• Archbishop Lefebvre condemned the new 1983 Code of Canon Law, saying that it was a fruit of the Council, the Vatican II revolution translated into law; the SSPX now officially accept the new Code. Likewise Archbishop Lefebvre condemned in the strongest terms the modernist 1989 “Oath of Fidelity” - the SSPX officially accepted it in 2012 (See ‘Doctrinal Declaration,’ footnote 1 - an official acceptance which to this day has never been retracted or contradicted).
• Archbishop Lefebvre had more than once publicly expressed his support for so-called ‘right wing regimes’ in Europe (Franco, Salazar…) as well as Latin America. He visited the grave of Marshal Phillipe Pétain on the Isle d’Yeu on the anniversary of that man’s death and wrote positively about what a good leader France had lost. He was prosecuted in court by the Judaeo-Masonic ‘LICRA’ (the equivalent of the ADL or SPLC) for his public warnings against Islamic immigration, and yet never once apologised or sought to appease his persecutors. The modern SSPX, by contrast, has not ceased to apologise, to pander, to grovel and to seek to appease those same forces of political correctness and censorship.
As for the “reign of Christ the King” - we make the same criticism which we have made in these pages so many times before. Why is it not referred to as the “Social Reign of Christ the King”..? That one little word is important: in it lies the distinction between the Catholic Faith on the one hand, which is apostolic and which seeks to make whole nations and whole societies Catholic and on the other hand the liberal, pluralist idea long promoted by the Protestants and more recently favoured by the modernists, whereby Christ is allowed to reign in your heart, in your private home and even in your immediate circle of friends and relatives. But there is never any mention of Him reigning publicly in the constitution, in Parliament, in the law courts, in the economy, in the workplace, in foreign and domestic policy and in other forms of public life… after all, that would be intolerant and might offend someone! “Firstly...in our souls and then, secondly, around us” - does that sound like the former or the latter?
How about, “thirdly, in the constitutions and public life of our countries”..? Did he forget that last bit, perhaps? Let us ask ourselves again - which concept of Christ’s Kingship did Archbishop Lefebvre support and promote? The “me and my immediate circle of family and friends” version, or the “we need to conquer our countries for Christ and make them officially Catholic” version? And which one does the modern SSPX support and promote? Lest there be any doubt at all, let us give just one final little example. Archbishop Lefebvre wrote a book on this very subject, “They Have Uncrowned Him.” Just try obtaining a copy from the SSPX today, go down to you local SSPX chapel repository and see what they say. Not only is it not available, it’s not even in print! A quick look on the website Amazon.com, at the time of writing, reveals two used copies going for nearly £100 each..! How can that be, if the SSPX were still “following the example of Archbishop Lefebvre”..? It can’t, and they aren’t.
Talk is cheap. Actions speak louder than words. The SSPX betrayed Archbishop Lefebvre a while ago, as it betrayed Christ the King. In light of the above, “Question 2” and its answer appear equally cynical and hypocritical. All the talk of how holy Archbishop Lefebvre was, of “his love of Our Blessed Lord, King” and how “throughout his life he had always worked only for the reign of Our Lord Jesus Christ,” is just so much insincere window dressing. How can it be sincerely meant when coming from the Superior who approves the tacit suppression of Archbishop Lefebvre’s writings and the backpedalling from and undoing of all that he stood for? It is tasteless in the extreme.
Quote:3. DICI: On September 24th, at your request, the body of Archbishop Lefebvre was transferred to the crypt of the church of the Écône seminary. Despite the Coronavirus crisis, many priests, seminarians, religious and faithful participated in the ceremony. What were your feelings on that day?
What were your feelings..? Seriously? Is the interviewer a woman? “Tell us all about your feelings!” Couldn’t anyone think of a more important question: why, for example? Alas, the answer is no less wishy-washy. “I think he [Archbishop Lefebvre] deserves our veneration…” - not enough to actually follow his example, though, clearly! Talk is, it seems, extremely cheap! And all the other emotional fluff, the “expressions of the gratitude,” the event being “particularly poignant,” and priests being “moved to tears,” cannot hide the fact that the modern SSPX has nevertheless turned its back on everything Archbishop Lefebvre stood for. Praising the memory of the man whilst simultaneously undoing his legacy - can it get any more cynical than this?
Quote:5. DICI: After two years at the head of the Society, what is your assessment of the development of the SSPX? The SSPX has long been present throughout the world. I don’t think that, at the present time, Divine Providence is asking us to open new houses and to expand further, which would perhaps be a lack of prudence on our part. Rather, I think that the SSPX must establish deeper roots where it is already present, in order to have stronger communities.
“Deeper roots” is a euphemism for managed decline, the ‘spreadsheet Brucciani’ approach, in other words. It is difficult to see how this approach is compatible with apostolic zeal. “Prudence” is always the defence of the cowardly, the idle and the worldly, perhaps because it is the most misunderstood of all the virtues. “Prudence” does not mean doing nothing, nor does it mean being slow to act. It is the virtue by which one takes a principle and applies it concretely in the circumstances in which one happens to find oneself. To be slow to act, to take a long time, to think and discuss a great deal before actually doing anything might conceivably be the prudent approach. Equally the prudent approach might be to act instantly and without a moment’s hesitation, depending on the circumstances (in an emergency, for instance). When it comes to the managed decline of the SSPX’s apostolate, true prudence would surely dictate a very different approach. Is it really so prudent to decide in advance that you are not going to open any new chapels or Mass centres, that you are going to close down any which you feel are too small or are a nuisance to get to? If the modern SSPX had a fraction the apostolic zeal of the old SSPX, they would be twice their current size and growing every day. But they aren’t, because forces at work inside the SSPX, including at the top, will make sure that they don’t, and a large number of its clergy will go along to get along, whether it be out of straightforward laziness or a desire not to ruin their priestly “career” with a black mark against their name. Either way, the one thing this is not is “prudence”!
DICI’s readers ought to ask themselves this. If it were really true that “Divine Providence” didn’t want Tradition to expand (and we no longer see the SSPX as being synonymous with Tradition, but the point is that they still do), what does that imply? Does it not mean in turn that Divine Providence doesn’t want everyone - or rather, wants positively that many not have access to the Traditional Mass? All those people living without a Traditional chapel anywhere near them, all those people who are currently at the Novus Ordo and don’t know any better and have never yet met a Traditionalist, much less a Traditional priest, does Divine Providence want them to remain in ignorance and keep going to the Novus Ordo? If the SSPX is capable still of producing good fruit where it is present (and again, they at any rate would say that it is), why would Divine Providence not want to see more of that good fruit or want more people to be able to have a share in it? Fortunately the Resistance, it seems, has a different view of the virtue of prudence and seems to regard the desire to expand everywhere and conquer the entire country, the entire world for Christ as the “prudent” approach. That, after all, is surely what the promotion of the Social Kingship of Christ looks like in practice. The SSPX approach of “prudent” refusal to go anywhere new, by contrast, looks a lot more like an armistice, a truce with the conciliar church and the world. Live and let live. We won’t tread on your toes, as long as you allow us to exist. It all seems a lot less like the Social Kingship of Christ and far more akin to pluralism, religious liberty and all the other masonic, liberal ideas. Subsequent answers in the same interview seem to bear this out.
Quote:7. DICI: What are your current and future projects? For the moment, the projects are mainly of a moral nature and are therefore not necessarily projects whose implementation can be seen externally. Basically, it is a question of continuing to work as much as possible to make the SSPX strong, united, truly anchored to God...
Projects which are “mainly of a moral nature” and “not necessarily visible” - what on earth is that supposed to mean? So nothing, then? Notice also the astonishing admission by a Superior General that he now feels he has to “work to make” the SSPX united. In the past it simply was united, no work necessary. The same goes for working to make the SSPX more “anchored to [sic] God” - when did that become necessary, when did it stop being anchored in God..? Above and beyond that, it is also worth noting that the Superior General here as good as admits that the SSPX is working for the SSPX. That the object of the SSPX’s projects and work is… itself. How’s that for lack of apostolic zeal? We’ve been saying it here for years - now we see the Superior General admitting that we were right all along. Navel-gazing and blatant self-interest is the death of any organisation, even a secular one. Imagine a factory or business whose main or only goal was to keep its employees employed. Wouldn’t you expect it to produce very poor quality goods and eventually have to fold? The same is true of the NHS having as its goal “save the NHS” - the moment the organisation begins to view itself as its own goal, it’s all over. What is true even in the godless, secular world is surely even more true as regards the Catholic apostolate. The object of the SSPX’s goals, aims and future projects ought to be souls and everything which leads to them being saved: converting more people to Tradition, making true Catholic doctrine known, even the ‘unpopular’ politically incorrect bits, fighting against the incessant drive towards a secular ‘new world order,’ forming laymen in Catholic Action to establish Catholic societies and ultimately the social reign of Christ the King… condemning all the modern errors, and the sources of modern errors, from evolutionism to liberalism and live and-let-live pluralism, all the way down to the latest product and effect of such errors, the “lockdowns” the mask-wearing, the vaccines... Is that in fact what they are doing? We have already seen that they are not really interested in the Social Kingship of Christ and have in effect betrayed that cause.
As with They Have Uncrowned Him, another classic Archbishop Lefebvre book, I Accuse the Council, is also conspicuous by its absence in the modern SSPX. It doesn’t seem to be being promoted, or even to be in print any more. But don’t worry, copies can still be obtained online, though there aren’t many to be had and each one will set you back the wrong side of £100 each, in this country though “only” $60 in the USA..!
To see how far things have come, try to imagine for one moment Archbishop Lefebvre talking in such a way or giving such an interview. Did he ever express such pusillanimous or self-interested sentiments? Picture the scene. Écône, 1976, following the ordinations.
Quote:“Archbishop Lefebvre, you’ve just been suspended by Paul VI for not saying the New Mass and for ordaining these priests without permission. Tell us, why are you doing these things? Just what exactly are you trying to achieve?”
“Well… to make them more united and to become more anchored to God.”
“And what are your plans for the future of your priestly society, Archbishop?”
“We’re going to be doing some invisible stuff which has to do with looking after ourselves, but it won’t be visible, so to you on the outside, it might look as though we’re not actually doing anything…”
“Archbishop Lefebvre, talk about your feelings for us…”
It is so ridiculous that one can only conclude that the SSPX in relation to Archbishop Lefebvre is pretty much in the same position as so many parishes and diocese in the conciliar church in relation to the Church before the Council: living off the capital acquired and built up by past generations even as they destroy and undermine the very thing which provided them with a platform and basis for their current existence. Like termites eating away at the house which they occupy, the structure will look on the outside as though it still stands for quite some time after it has gone rotten on the inside. But it cannot last forever.
Accepting the Council and the New Mass
There is more in this interview, but the reader ought by now to have a fairly accurate picture of how things really stand. Most of the rest of the interview is just so much hot air, cheap talk, easy-to-utter platitudes. We continue following Archbishop Lefebvre. Are you, though? It is not just that Fr. Pagliarani really is a bland non-personality? After all, many have noticed and commented on that since he became Superior General more than two years ago. It’s almost as though it had been a token appointment to an empty, pointless office, as though the real power lay elsewhere… but that would be “conspiracy theory” talk, so it can’t be true! No, what we see here is something more than just that. There is a way of covering-up ones own betrayal by talking as though it had never happened. Talking about how you’ll never do...the very thing which you already have done! If one talks a good fight, plenty of people will be perfectly satisfied, even though the actions belie such fine talk. Hence, we witness Fr. Pagliarani saying, apparently in all seriousness, that:
Quote: “in 2017, when the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith wanted to oblige the SSPX to accept the teachings of the Second Vatican Council and to recognise the legitimacy of the New Mass, if the SSPX had accepted those conditions…”
...but hold on, you already have accepted them! The Society accepted those very things in the infamous 2012 Doctrinal Declaration! How can you talk about “if we were” to do something which you’ve in fact already done..?! Oh - so sorry Father, didn’t mean to interrupt you! Please, continue. You were about to tell us why accepting the teaching of Vatican II and the legitimacy of the New Mass are a bad thing:
Quote: “...it [the SSPX] would have simply denied everything it stands for and everything it values and holds to, from the depths of its heart.”
Strike out the “would have” and you have a true statement, albeit one which took place in 2012, not 2017. By the by, it (“would also have”) denied Our Lord, which is arguably even more important than “the depths of its heart” (more selfish navel-gazing). Notice however, that this comes very close to an implicit admission that the Resistance were right. For years the faithful were told that such an attitude was misplaced, that we were reading too much into things, that it did not concern us in any case… Bishop Fellay characterised it as a question “wearing dark glasses” as opposed to “wearing rose-tinted glasses,” as though if anyone had a problem with the acceptance of Vatican II contained in the Doctrinal Declaration, then that could only be because they were deliberately trying to see evil where it did not exist.
I defy anyone to re-read what the 2012 Doctrinal Declaration has to say concerning the New Mass and not see it as an acceptance. And yet, according to the current Superior General of the SSPX, such an acceptance amounted to “a denial” of what the SSPX stood for (which in the end, ought to be “the Faith,” surely?). In like manner, the interview ends with these fine sounding words:
Quote: “...Divine Providence has always guided the SSPX and has always protected it in the midst of a thousand difficulties. Divine Providence is always faithful to its promises; it is always vigilant and generous. Therefore, it cannot abandon us in the future […] ”
Will somebody kindly point out to Fr Pagliarani that “has always” is not the same as “will always.” Our Lord’s divine guarantee of indefectibility was given to the Church, not to the SSPX. Likewise, “Divine Providence … cannot abandon us” - true, but you can abandon it..! “...God cannot change. He always remains the same” - true, but man can and does change. After all, the human heart “is perverse above all things, and unsearchable, who can know it?” (Jer.17:9) Methinks this confidence is misplaced. Time will of course tell, and is already telling. But we take no satisfaction whatever in saying “I told you so” - rather we must continue to try to wake up as many as possible whilst there still is time. Archbishop Lefebvre’s words and actions are as valuable a guide to us today as ever they were, perhaps more so. Thanks be to God that not everyone has abandoned him, even if the SSPX has.
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| The Liturgical Year: January 12th - Seventh Day in the Octave of the Epiphany |
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Posted by: Stone - 01-12-2021, 06:36 AM - Forum: Christmas
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January 12 – Seventh Day within the Octave of the Epiphany
Taken from The Liturgical Year by Dom Prosper Gueranger (1841-1875)
Having laid their offerings at the feet of Jesus as a sign of the alliance they had, in the name of all mankind, contracted with him, and laden with his graces and blessings, the Magi take their leave of the Divine Babe; for such was his will. They take their departure from Bethlehem, and the rest of the world seems a wilderness to them. Oh! if they might be permitted to fix their abode near the newborn King and his incomparable Mother!—but no; God’s plan for the salvation of the world requires that everything savoring of human pomp and glory should be far from Him who had come to take upon himself all our miseries.
Besides, they are to be the first messengers of the Gospel; they must go and tell to the Gentiles that the Mystery of Salvation has begun, that the earth is in possession of its Savior, and that their salvation is nigh at hand. The star does not return to them; they needed it to find Jesus; but now, they have him in their hearts, and will never lose him. These three men are sent back into the midst of the Gentile world as the leaven of the Gospel which, notwithstanding its being so little, is to leaven to whole paste. (Matthew 13:33) For their sakes, God will bless the nations of the earth; from this day forward, infidelity will lose ground, and faith will progress; and when the Blood of the Lamb having been shed, Baptism shall be promulgated, the Magi shall be not merely men of desire, but perfect Christians, initiated into all the Mysteries of the Church.
The ancient tradition, which is quoted by the author of The Imperfect Work on St. Matthew, which is put in all the editions of St. John Chrysostom, and was probably written about the close of the 6th century—tells us that the three Magi were baptized by St. Thomas the Apostle, and devoted themselves to the preaching of the Gospel. But we scarcely need a tradition on such a point as this. The vocation of these three Princes could never be limited to the mere privilege of being the first among the Gentiles to visit the eternal King, who had come down from heaven to be born on this earth and show himself to his creatures; a second vocation was the consequence of the first, the vocation of preaching Jesus to men.
There are many details relating to the life and actions of the Magi after they had become Christians, which have been handed down to us; but we refrain from mentioning them as not being sufficiently ancient or important traditions to have induced the Church to give them place in her Liturgy. We would make the same observation with regard to the names assigned to them of Melchior, Gaspar, and Balthsassar; the custom of thus naming them is too modern to deserve credit; and though it might be indiscreet to deny that these were their true names, it seems very difficult to give proofs of their correctness.
The Relics of these holy Kings were translated from Persia to Constantinople, under the first Christian Emperors, and for a long time were kept in the Church of Saint Sophia. At a later period, they were translated to Milan, when Eustorgius was Bishop of that City. There they remained till the 12th century, when through the influence of the Emperor Frederic Barbarossa, they were translated to the Cathedral Church of Cologne by Reynold, Archbishop of that metropolitan See. The Relics are in a magnificent Shrine, perhaps the finest specimen now extant of medieval metallic art, and the superb Cathedral where it is religiously kept is, by its size and architectural beauty, one of the grandest Churches of the Christian world.
Thus have we followed you, O Blessed Magi! Fathers of the Gentile world! from your first setting out from the East for Bethlehem, to your return to your own country, and even to your sacred resting place, which the goodness of God has made to be in this cold West of ours. It was the love of children for their parents that made us thus cling to you. Besides, were we not ourselves in search of that dear King whom you so longed for and found? Blessed be those ardent desires of yours, blessed be your obedience to the guidance of the Star, blessed be your devotion at the Crib of Jesus, blessed be the gifts you made him, which while they were acceptable to God, were full of instruction to us! We revere you as Prophets, for you foretold the characters of the Messias by the selection of your three gifts. We honor you as Apostles, for you preached, even to Jerusalem herself, the Birth of the humble Jesus of Bethlehem, of that Jesus whom his disciples preached not till after the triumph of his Resurrection. We hail you as the Spring Flowers of the Gentile world, but Flowers which produced abundant and rich fruits, for you brought over entire nations and countless people to the service of our divine King. Watch over us, and protect the Church. Be mindful of those Eastern countries whence rises to the earth the light of day, the beautiful image of your own journey towards Bethlehem. Bless this Western world of ours, which was buried in darkness when you first saw the Star, and is now the favored portion of God’s earth, and on which the Divine Son of Justice pours forth his brightest and warmest rays. Faith has grown weak among us; re-enkindle it. Obtain of the divine mercy that the West may ever send forth her messengers of salvation to the south and north and even to that infidel East, where are laid the tents of Sem, and where the light that you gave her has been long extinguished by her apostasy. Pray for the Church of Cologne, that illustrious sister of our holiest Churches in the West; may she preserve the faith, may she defend her sacred rights and liberty; may she be that bulwark of Catholic Germany, and be ever blessed by the protection of her Three Kings, and the patronage of the glorious Ursula and her virginal army. Lastly, we beseech you, O venerable Magi! to introduce us to the Infant Jesus and his Blessed Mother; and grant us to go through these forty days which the Church consecrates to the Mystery of Christmas, with hearts burning with love for the Divine Child, and may that same love abide with us during the pilgrimage of our life on this earth.
Today, also, we will make use of the formulas employed by the several ancient Churches in honour of the Mystery of the Epiphany.
Our first selection is a hymn written by the great Fulbert of Chartres.
Hymn
‘I bring you tidings from heaven above: Christ, the Ruler of the earth, is born in Bethlehem of Juda: for thus was it foretold by the Prophet.’
Thus sing the glad choir of Angels; the same is announced by the Star, and the Eastern Kings come to offer to Jesus the worthy homage of their mystic gifts.
They offer their Frankincense to him as to their God; the Myrrh honors his sepulchre; the Gold is the token of his Kingly character.
Whilst thus worshipping One, the three offerers give three gifts to the Blessed Three.
Let us, too, sing praise to our Triune God: glory to the Father, and to his divine Son, and to the Holy Spirit, who is sent into the hearts of the faithful by the Father and the Son. Amen.
The two following Prayers are taken from the Mozarabic Breviary.
Prayer
Tu es, Domine, stella veritatis oriens ex Jacob, homoque consurgens ex Israel: et in novo sidere ostenderis Deus, et in præsepio positus Deus et homo, unus crederis Christus: propter magnam misericordiam tuam visionis tuæ nobis proroga gratiam: appareat in nobis lucis tuæ radiabile signum, quod expellat omnes tenebras vitiorum; ut qui visionis tuæ desiderio anhelamus, visionis tuæ præmio consolemur. Amen.
Thou, O Lord, art the Star of truth, that riseth out of Jacob, and the man that springeth from Israel. In the new Star thou showest thyself as God, and lying in the Crib God and Man, we confess thee to be the one Christ. In thy great mercy grant us the grace of seeing thee, and show unto us the radiant sign of thy light, whereby all the darkness of our sins may be put to flight: that so we who now languish with the desire of seeing thee, may be refreshed with the enjoyment of that blissful vision. Amen.
Prayer
Fulget, Domine, cœlum rutilum serenitate astrorum, terraque ipsa refulgenti lumine serenatur, quia apparere dignatus es mundo de habitaculo sancto tuo; sana ergo cordis nostri mœstitiam, quia ad hoc venisti, ut redimas universa: illudque nostris oculis lumen attribue, quo te purificati semper mereamur aspicere: ut qui Apparitionis tuæ gaudia lætabunda nuntiamus in gentibus, infinita tecum lætitia gaudeamus. Amen.
The heavens are shining with the clear beauty of the stars, O Lord, and the very earth is made beautiful by a shining light, because thou didst vouchsafe to appear to the world from out thy holy dwelling-place. Remove, therefore, from our hearts all sadness, for unto this end art thou come, that thou mayest make all things new. Grant also that light unto our eyes which may purify us and fit us to behold thee for ever; that thus we who preach to the nations the glad joys of thy Apparition, may be made glad with thee in infinite joy. Amen.
We take the following Sequence from the ancient Missals of the Churches of Germany.
Sequence
Our Savior is born unto us! Let us solemnly celebrate his Birthday.
To us was he given, unto us was he born, and with us has he lived, he the light and salvation of the Gentiles.
In the beginning Eve caused our death; but Jesus, by the merits of the human nature he assumed, has redeemed us.
Our first mother brought us woe; but Mary joyfully brought forth for us the fruit of life.
We neglected our heavenly Father, but he did not neglect us; he looked down upon us from heaven, and sent us his only Son.
This Jesus, though in the world, was hidden from the world; but, at length he came forth as a Bridegroom from the nuptial chamber, and made himself known.
He is the Giant foretold by the Psalmist—swift, and strong, and vanquishing our death, for he was girt with power.
He came that he might run his course, and so verify the prophecy, and the mysteries of the Law.
Jesus, thou our saving medicine, our only Peace and glory!
May all creatures give thee praise, for that thou didst so mercifully condescend to redeem us thy servants! Amen.
This beautiful canticle in honor of the Infant Jesus is from the pen of St. Ephrem, the sublime bard of the Syrian Church.
Hymn
The Hebrew maidens, who heretofore had been wont to chant the Lamentations of Jeremias in the plaintive strain of their Scriptures, now borrowed from the same holy volume joyful thoughts, and, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, sang them thus in hymns:
‘Let Eve, in Limbo, now raise up her eyes, and see this day whereon one of her race, and he the author of life, descends to raise up from death the mother of his own dear Mother. The adorable Infant crushed the head of the serpent, by whose poison Eve had perished.
‘Sara, the fair Isaac’s mother, foresaw thine Infancy, O Jesus, in her own son’s crib; the lullaby she sang over him told the mysteries of thy Childhood, which were foreshadowed and prefigured in her own child. Thus did she sing: “Sweet Babe! fruit of my prayers! I see in thee the Lord, who is hidden in thee as in his type: ’tis his receives the wishes and the prayers of pious hearts, and grants them their requests.”
‘The Nazarite Samson, the youth of exceeding strength, was a figure of thy strength, O Jesus! He tore a lion to pieces, typifying the death thou didst slay, for thou didst crush death, and from its bitter entrails didst draw forth life, whose taste would be most sweet to us.
‘Anna, too, pressed thee to her bosom in the person of Samuel the Prophet, who was twice a figure of thy ministry: firstly when he prefigured thy most just severity on the day when he slew King Agag, the figure of the devil, and cut him to pieces; secondly, by imitating thy mercy, though imperfectly, when he unceasingly shed his tears of loving and sincere compassion over the fall of Saul.’
The Menæa of the Greek Church furnish us with these beautiful stanzas in honor of the holy Mother of God.
Die xvi Januarii
O most august Queen! thou wast the untilled land that gavest us our Wheat, Jesus, the Lord and feeder of the universe; by eating this Bread we are restored to life.
Seeing our Lord made incarnate from thee, chaste Virgin! we confess thee to be in very deed the Mother of God, that didst thus become, we hesitate not to proclaim it, the cause of the regeneration of all things.
He, the Being above all beings, who was a pure spirit, took flesh to himself from thy pure blood, O Spotless Maid! and, remaining God as before, he was made Flesh, and lived among men.
Nature’s Laws were truly suspended in thee, most pure Virgin! for thou remainest a Virgin after thy delivery, as thou wast before it, for thou didst give birth to Him who is the giver of all laws, Christ.
Spotless Mother of God! heal the passions of my wretched soul: appease my mind, tossed by the attacks of my enemy as with tempests, and bring, O Virgin, peace unto my heart.
Jesus, the divine Husbandman of the world, thound thee, chaste Virgin! in the lowly valley of this earth, growing as a Rose amidst thorns. He entered thy womb, and was born of thee, refresing us with the delicious fragrance of the knowledge of divine things.
O Virgin Mary! we acknowledge thee to be the mystic candlestick, on which was placed the Light inaccessible; thereby, thou hast enlightened the minds of all the faithful, and hast put to flight the darkness of sin.
Thus do we cry out to thee in words of thankful love: Hail, most pure dwelling of spiritual Light! Hail, cause of our union with God! Hail, destroyer of the curse! Hail, O thou that didst call from their exile the children of this earth!
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| The Present Crisis of the Holy See by Cardinal Manning |
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Posted by: Elizabeth - 01-12-2021, 01:12 AM - Forum: Catholic Prophecy
- Replies (20)
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THE
PRESENT CRISIS
of
THE HOLY SEE
TESTED BY PROPHECY.
Four Lectures
BY
CARDINAL HENRY EDWARD MANNING, D.D.
LONDON :
BURNS & LAMBERT, 17 & 18 PORTMAN STREET,
AND 63 PATERNOSTER ROW ;
KNOWLES, NORFOLK ROAD, BAYSWATER.
MDCCCLXI.
1861
TO THE VERY REVEREND
JOHN HENRY NEWMAN, D.D.
OF THE congregation OF ST. PHILIP NERI
MY DEAR DR. NEWMAN,
About three years ago you kindly joined my name with your own in the dedication of your last volume of Sermons. Let me give a proof how grateful it was to me to be in any way united with you by asking you to let me join your name with mine in this unworthy return. But, as you know, xahkcea Xpvoelov is the old bargain.
You were so kind as to own me as a friend of nearly thirty years; and that tells me that we are both touching upon the time of life when men may look back and measure the path they have trod. It is no small thing to have been in an active life of much eventfulness and labour for more than a quarter of a century, and for a full generation of man. With very few exceptions, all the men who held trust and power when our friendship began have passed away, and a new generation has been born and has grown up to manhood since we entered into life.
Men are always tempted to think the times in which they live eventful and pregnant beyond other ages. But, allowing for this common infirmity, I think we shall not be far wrong in considering as exceptionally great the thirty years which, beginning with Catholic Emancipation, embrace the restoration of the Catholic Episcopate to England, and terminate with the antichristian movement of Europe against the Temporal Sovereignty of the Holy See. I may add, that to you and to me this period has another high and singular interest in the intellectual movement which sprung up chiefly at Oxford, and has made itself felt throughout our country and our times. You have been a master-builder in this work, and I a witness of its growth. You remained long in Oxford, still with all its disfigurements so dear to both of us; but I was removed to a distance, and had to work alone. Nevertheless, to you I owe a debt of gratitude for intellectual help and light, greater than to any one man of our time; and it gives me a sincere gratification now publicly to ac knowledge, though I can in no way repay, it. Among the many things which give a vivid and grave interest to this moment is the pronounced and explicit development on either side of the two great intellectual movements, the course of which we have watched so long. There was a time when those who now stand opposed as Catholics and Rationalists were apparently in close and perfect identity of conviction. But under the form of a common opinion there lay concealed, even then, the essential antagonism of two principles, the divergence of which is as wide as Divine faith or human opinion can inter pose between the minds of men.
While every year has confirmed with luminous evidence the reasons which, to you and to me, elevated the convictions of intellect into the consciousness of faith, and has revealed to us the Divine unity and endowments of the only Church of God, some of those who were at our side, or sitting at your feet, have been carried back, as by a ground-swell, into Anglicanism, Protestantism, Latitudinarianism, and rationalistic Deism. While the Divine character and sovereignty of the One Church Catholic and Roman, with the prerogatives of the Vicar of the Incarnate Word, have manifested themselves to us in an amplitude and majesty which commands the loving obedience of intellect, and heart, and will, and all the powers of our life, others we once loved well have come to find their chief claim to statesmanship in a policy which, to me, is simply the prelude of Antichrist. The Italian policy of England is without any other name. And I am amazed that the great French people, so sensitive of English preeminence, so jealous of English influence, and so justly contemptuous of the absurdities of English Protestantism, should have allowed itself to be goaded or gibed into accomplishing a policy hateful to Catholic France, and surpassing all the hopes of Protestant England. To strip the Holy See of its temporal sovereignty has been since Henry VIII. the passion of Protestant England; but it never dreamed of accomplishing its object of predilection by the hand of Catholic France. This is a surpassing achievement.
I had hardly written this sentence when I read the debate in the House of Commons on the Foreign Policy of Government. I do not think either you or I are likely to be suspected as apologists for the Neapolitan prisons, if they are as bad as ours were a few years ago; or for la torture de Naples, if there be in it a particle of truth, which I more than doubt. You and I have no fear of being thought to be lovers of despotism, or absolutism, or even of repressive government. But I think we shall both judge it to be a melancholy spectacle when we see the House of Commons led away by declamations on these topics from the laws which have created Christian Europe, and all that is precious in the English constitution, to approve a policy subversive of European society. The law of nations, public rights, established treaties, and legitimate possession, are no doubt to the modern school of statesmen null and with out meaning. They are nevertheless the realities which bind society together; and they constitute the moral tests by which the justice of a cause is to be tried. The policy which violates them is immoral ; its end is public lawlessness, and its success will be its own punishment. Now I have no deeper conviction than that this anticatholic movement, led or stimulated by England, will have its perfect success, and will reign for a time supreme; and next that, perhaps before we are in our graves, all who have partaken in it—princes, statesmen, and people—will be scourged by a universal conflict with revolution, and a European war, to which 1793 and the wars of the first empire are a faint prelude. What shames and alarms me most is to see that men, who once believed in a higher order of Christian politics, now propagate against the Holy See the doctrine of nationality, and the lawfulness of revolution, which, if applied to England, would only fail to dismember the empire because it would be put down in blood. It seems as if men had lost their light. How otherwise can we explain the blindness which cannot see that the conflict of France and Austria has weakened the Catholic society of Europe, and has given to the Protestant politics of England and Prussia a most dangerous predominance? It will not be long before a European war will wear out and waste the powers of the Christian society, including Protestant and Catholic alike, and will give a fatal predominance to the antichristian society, or revolution, which is every where preparing for the last struggle, and for its supremacy. The Catholic society of Europe weakened, the Christian society will soon in turn give way. Then comes the scourge. The conviction Ifeel that a great retribution is impending over the anticatholic movement of England, France, and Italy, is rendered all the more certain by the fact that the critical point in the whole conflict, the key of the whole, and the last success to be gained, is the dethronement of the Vicar of our Redeemer. The temporal power of the Pope, we are told, has been the great hindrance to the peace of Italy and Europe. It is this which distributes and marshals the two arrays. Qui mon mecum, contra me est. They will have their day, and the Vicar of Jesus Christ will await his time. Si moram fecerit, expecta illum ; quia veniens veniet, et non tardabit.
Meanwhile England is preparing for its own dis solution. It has headed the unbelief of Europe, and it will be devoured by its own followers. The Re formation has done its work upon it. Protestantism, like the shirt of Nessus, cleaves to the flesh of Eng land, and its day will come at last. We are told that man has some eighty-three parasites which live upon his substance. The Anglican Church in like manner gives pabulum to every heresy, and harbours within its system what the living Church of God expels and casts out. At this moment in the Established Church there exists in a formal state Sabellianism, Pelagianism, Nestorianism, Calvinism, Lutheranism, Zuinglianism, Naturalism, and Rationalism. I pass over a multitude of other less
formal heresies, and name only these because they have a definite and active existence in the Establishment, and are reproducing themselves. It is the intrinsic enmity of this congeries of heresies which directs the political power of England against the Catholic Church, and, above all, against the Holy See; and gives to England the melancholy and bad preeminence of the most anticatholic, and therefore the most antichristian, power of the world.
In the following pages I have endeavoured, but for so great a subject most insufficiently, to show that what is passing in our times is the prelude of the antichristian period of the final dethronement of Christendom, and of the restoration of society with out God in the world. But, sooner or later, so it must be. “The Son of Man indeed goeth, as it is written of Him; but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man shall be betrayed; it were better for him if that man had not been born” (St. Matt. xxvi. 24).
May God keep us from sharing even by silence in the persecution of His Church
Believe me, my dear Dr. Newman, always affectionately yours,
H. E. MANNING.
ST. MARY's, BAYSWATER,
Easter 1861.
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| The Chaplet of the Sacred Heart of Jesus |
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Posted by: Hildegard of Bingen - 01-11-2021, 09:45 PM - Forum: In Honor of Our Lord
- Replies (1)
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Since we are not able to attend mass on the First Friday of the month, we started this devotion "THE CHAPLET OF THE SACRED HEART",
we say it every First Friday of each month.
THE CHAPLET OF THE SACRED HEART
There is only one chaplet of the Sacred Heart. The chaplet consists of 33 small beads,
6 large beads, a centerpiece, crucifix and a Sacred Heart medal. The medal bears the
Sacred Heart of Jesus on one side and the Sacred Heart of Mary on the other.
ON THE CRUCIFIX SAY:
"Soul of Christ, sanctify me!"
"Body of Christ, save me!"
"Blood of Christ, inebriate me!"
"Water from the side of Christ, wash me!"
"Passion of Christ, strengthen me!"
"O good Jesus hear me!
"Within they wounds hide me;
permit me not to be separated from Thee;
from the malignant enemy defend me;
in the hour of death, call me and bid me
come over to Thee, that with Thy saints
I may praise Thee forever and ever. Amen"
ON THE LARGE BEADS SAY:
"O Sweetest Heart of Jesus, I implore that I may
every love Thee more and more."
ON THE SMALL BEADS SAY:
"Sweet Heart of Jesus, be my love."
AT THE END OF EACH DECADE SAY:
"Sweet Heart of Mary, be my salvation."
AT THE CONCLUSION SAY:
"May the Heart of Jesus in the Most Blessed Sacrament be
blessed, adored and loved with grateful affection at every
moment in all the Tabernacles of the world even to the end of time. Amen."
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| Prayer of St. Pius X to St. Joseph |
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Posted by: Hildegard of Bingen - 01-11-2021, 09:41 PM - Forum: Prayers and Devotionals
- No Replies
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Prayer of Saint Pius X to Saint Joseph
O Glorious Saint, pattern of all who are devoted to work, obtain for me the grace.
- To work in the spirit of penance in order to atone for my sins;
- To work faithfully, putting duties before my own desires;
- To labor with gratitude and joy, considering it an honor to use and develop the talents I have received from God;
- To work with order, peace, moderation and patience, without shrinking from weariness or difficulties;
- To work with a pure intention and with detachment for self, having ever before my eyes the hour of death and the accounting I must give of time poorly spent, of talents unused, of good undone, and of empty pride in success.
All for Jesus through Mary; all in imitation of you, Holy Joseph.
Memorare to Saint Joseph
Remember, O most illustrious Patriarch Saint Joseph, on the testimony of St. Teresa, thy devoted client, never hath it been heard that anyone invoked thy protection and sought thy mediation who has not obtained relief. In this confidence, I come before thee, my loving protector, chaste spouse of Mary, foster-father of the Savior of men and dispenser of the treasures of His Sacred Heart. Despise not my earner prayer but graciously hear and obtain my petition.
Let us pray:
O God, who by the ineffable Providence didst vouchsafe to choose blessed Joseph for the spouse of thy most holy Mother; grant, we beseech thee, that he whom we venerate as our protector on earth may be our intercessor in heaven; who livest and reignest for ever and ever. Amen.
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