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| November 18th |
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Posted by: Stone - 11-23-2020, 09:21 AM - Forum: November
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Saint Odon or Eudes of Cluny
Benedictine, abbot of Cluny
(† 942)
On Christmas Eve of the year 877, a pious but childless Christian nobleman of Aquitaine implored Our Lord, by the fecundity of His Holy Mother and His Incarnation, to grant him a son. His prayer was heard; Odon was born, and his grateful father, in a prayer offered him — still an infant in his arms — to Saint Martin of Tours (†400) to be his spiritual son. Odon was later taught by a wise priest, then was placed in the court of the Count of Anjou and that of the Duke of Aquitaine. There he was influenced by the passions which reign in courts, and neglected his prayers to think only of games, hunting, and military pursuits. But God did not abandon him, and he was haunted in his dreams by the dangers of a disordered life. He prayed to the Blessed Virgin and begged Her one Christmas Eve to lead him on the narrow path of sanctity.
He was then sixteen years old, and the next day he fell ill with a sickness which increased and for three years kept him on the verge of death. When his father told him he had consecrated him to Saint Martin, Odon renewed this consecration and promised to enter into his service; suddenly then his headaches left him and he recovered from his illness.
He went to Tours to serve in the church of Saint Martin for a time. But when a hermitage was built nearby he retired there to devote himself to prayer and study, while continuing to visit the tomb of Saint Martin every night. He began to study the Scriptures and abandoned all pagan readings. Later he was inspired to enter the monastery of Baume in the diocese of Besançon, and there he received the habit from Saint Bernon, the abbot, in the year 909. He was charged with the instruction of novices and boarding students. When later he returned home on a visit to his parents, they were so touched by his words that despite their age they renounced the world and entered a monastery. When Odon returned to Baume he was ordained a priest.
When Saint Bernon, who had governed six monasteries, died, three of those were entrusted to Saint Odon; these were Cluny, newly founded in 910, Massay, and Deols. He resided in Cluny, of which he is often titled the Founder, because he organized and enlarged this new house. His reputation attracted a large number of vocations. His special care was for children; at that period the schools had taken refuge in the cathedrals and monasteries. He watched with gentleness over the habits, studies, and repose of these dear children. He personally taught them as well as the monks. The Rule of Saint Benedict, providing for the education of children as well as the formation of monks, was followed zealously. Many alms were given to the poor, without concern for the morrow. The charity of Cluny was so abundant that in one year food was distributed to more than seven thousand indigent persons.
Saint Odon visited Rome three times; there he reformed a monastery, and later in France he submitted several abbeys to the discipline of Cluny. These were organized into a federation under the sole abbot of Cluny, with great unity of statutes and regime. It was said that from Benevent to the Atlantic Ocean, the most important monasteries of Italy and Gaul rejoiced in being under his commandment. After celebrating the feast of Saint Martin at Tours in 942, Saint Odon fell ill; and having exhorted all the religious who had come there to see him and learn how to be regular in their observance, he blessed them and gave up his soul to God. He was buried at Tours in the church of Saint Julian.
* * *
Saint Elizabeth of Hungary
Widow
(1207-1231)
Patron of the Third Order of St. Francis
Elizabeth was the daughter of the just and pious Andrew II, king of Hungary, the niece of Saint Hedwig, and the sister of the virtuous Bela IV, king of Hungary, who became the father of Saint Cunegundes and of Saint Margaret of Hungary, a Dominican nun. Another of her brothers was Coloman, King of Galicia and prince of Russia, who led an angelic life amid the multiple affairs of the world and the troubles of war.
She was betrothed in infancy to Louis, Landgrave of Thuringia, and brought up from the age of four in his father's court. Never could she bear to adopt the ornaments of the court for her own usage, and she took pleasure only in prayer. She would remove her royal crown when she entered the church, saying she was in the presence of the Saviour who wore a crown of thorns. As she grew older, she employed the jewels offered her for the benefit of the poor. Not content with receiving numbers of them daily in her palace, and relieving all in distress, she built several hospitals, where she herself served the sick, bathing them, feeding them, dressing their wounds and ulcers. The relatives of her fiancé tried to prevent the marriage, saying she was fit only for a cloister; but the young prince said he would not accept gold in the quantity of a nearby mountain, if it were offered him to abandon his resolution to marry Elizabeth.
Once as she was carrying in the folds of her mantle some provisions for the poor, she met her husband returning from the hunt. Astonished to see her bending under the weight of her burden, he opened the mantle and found in it nothing but beautiful red and white roses, though it was not the season for flowers. He told her to continue on her way, and took one of the marvelous roses, which he conserved all his life. She never ceased to edify him in all of her works. One of her twelve excellent Christian maxims, by which she regulated all her conduct was, Often recall that you are the work of the hands of God and act accordingly, in such a way as to be eternally with Him.
When her pious young husband died in Sicily on his way to a Crusade with the Emperor Frederick, she was cruelly driven from her palace by her brother-in-law. Those whom she had aided showed nothing but coldness for her; God was to purify His Saint by harsh tribulations. She was forced to wander through the streets with her little children, a prey to hunger and cold. The bishop of Bamberg, her maternal uncle, finally forced the cruel prince to ask pardon for his ill treatment of her, but she voluntarily renounced the grandeurs of the world, and went to live in a small house she had prepared in the city of Marburgh. There she practiced the greatest austerities. She welcomed all her sufferings, and continued to be the mother of the poor, distributing all of the heritage eventually conceded to her, and converting many by her holy life. She died in 1231, at the age of twenty-four.
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| November 17th |
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Posted by: Stone - 11-23-2020, 09:03 AM - Forum: November
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Saint Gregory Thaumaturgus
Bishop, Confessor
The Wonder Worker
(† 270)
Patron against floods, earthquakes, and in desperate cases
Saint Gregory was born in the Pont, of distinguished parents who were still engaged in the superstitions of paganism. He lost his father at the age of fourteen, and began to reflect on the folly of idolatry's fables. He recognized the unity of God and was becoming disposed to accept the truths of Christianity. His father had destined him for the legal profession, in which the art of oratory is very necessary, and in this pursuit he was succeeding very well, having learned Latin. He was counseled to apply himself to Roman law.
Gregory and his brother Athenodorus, later to be a bishop like himself, had a sister living in Palestine at Caesarea. Not far from that city was a school of law, and in Caesarea itself, another which the famous Origen had opened in the year 231 and in which he was teaching philosophy. The two brothers heard Origen there, and that master discovered in them a remarkable capacity for knowledge, and more important still, rare dispositions for virtue. He strove to inspire love for truth in them and an ardent desire to attain greater knowledge and the possession of the Supreme Good; and the two brothers soon put aside their intentions to study law. Gregory studied also in Alexandria for three years, after a persecution drove his master, Origen, from Palestine, but returned there with the famous exegete in 238. He was then baptized, and in the presence of a large audience delivered a speech in which he testified to his gratitude towards his teacher, praising his methods, and thanking God for so excellent a professor.
When he returned to his native city of Neocaesarea in the Pont, his friends urged him to seek high positions, but Gregory desired to retire into solitude and devote himself to prayer. For a time he did so, often changing his habitation, because the archbishop of the region desired to make him Bishop of Neocaesarea. Eventually he was obliged to consent. That city was very prosperous, and the inhabitants were corrupted by paganism. Saint Gregory, with Christian zeal and charity, and with the aid of the gift of miracles which he had received, began to attempt every means to bring them to the light of Christ. As he lay awake one night an elderly man entered his room, and pointed to a Lady of superhuman beauty who accompanied him, radiant with heavenly light. This elderly man was Saint John the Evangelist, and the Lady of Light was the Mother of God. She told Saint John to give Gregory the instruction he desired; thereupon he gave Saint Gregory a creed which contained in all its plenitude the doctrine of the Trinity. Saint Gregory consigned it to writing, directed all his preaching by it, and handed it down to his successors. This creed later preserved his flock from the Arian heresy.
He converted a pagan priest one day, when the latter requested a miracle, and a very large rock moved to another location at his command. The pagan priest abandoned all things to follow Christ afterwards. One day the bishop planted his staff beside the river which passed alongside the city and often ravaged it by floods. He commanded it never again to pass the limit marked by his staff, and in the time of Saint Gregory of Nyssa, who wrote of his miracles nearly a hundred years later, it had never done so. The bishop settled a conflict which was about to cause bloodshed between two brothers, when he prayed all night beside the lake whose possession they were disputing. It dried up and the miracle ended the difficulty.
When the persecution of Decius began in 250, the bishop counseled his faithful to depart and not expose themselves to trials perhaps too severe for their faith; and none fell into apostasy. He himself retired to a desert, and when he was pursued was not seen by the soldiers. On a second attempt they found him praying with his companion, the converted pagan priest, now a deacon; they had mistaken them the first time for trees. The captain of the soldiers was convinced this had been a miracle, and became a Christian to join him. Some of his Christians were captured, among them Saint Troadus the martyr, who merited the grace of dying for the Faith. The persecution ended at the death of the emperor in 251.
It is believed that Saint Gregory died in the year 270, on the 17th of November. Before his death he asked how many pagans still remained in the city, and was told there were only seventeen. He thanked God for the graces He had bestowed on the population, for when he arrived, there had been only seventeen Christians.
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| Vatican II Architect: Teilhard de Chardin |
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Posted by: Stone - 11-23-2020, 08:54 AM - Forum: The Architects of Vatican II
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Teilhard de Chardin: The Vatican II Architect You Need to Know
November 27, 2017
In the middle of the fourth century, Saint Jerome remarked that the world “awoke with a groan to find itself Arian.” Arianism divided the Church and Empire of the fourth and fifth centuries and beyond by claiming that the Divine Logos, Jesus Christ, was not of the same substance (homoousios) as the Father and not co-eternal with the Father as defined at the Council of Nicea (325 A.D.). Some sought to substitute homoiousios, “of a similar nature,” to find a peaceful solution. However, as the Catholic Church has perennially taught, the truth must be presented whole and complete, without subterfuge or compromise.
In the mid-twentieth century, one may have paraphrased St. Jerome: “the world awoke, without so much as a whimper, to find itself Teilhardian.”
Still troubled by the Galileo affair, the Church bent over backwards in trying to incorporate faith and science into a seamless garment. Following the 1925 Scopes Trial, Darwin’s theory of evolution was more and more presented as dogma by the scientific community, and Fr. Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, S.J. (1881-1955) took it upon himself to reconcile Darwinian evolution and Catholic theology .
In fact, Teilhard was originally censured and exiled by his Jesuit superiors in 1923 for questioning the doctrines of original sin and eternal damnation. In 1947, upon return from banishment in China, he was once again censured by the Holy Office, Pope Pius XII himself having called his work a “cesspool of errors.” However, Teilhard began further insinuating his ideas among his fellow Jesuits at the French theologate La Fourvière in Lyon by means of unsigned mimeographed monographs. By the mid- to late 1950s, his theories were extolled by many, if not most, Jesuits, including Karl Rahner, Hans Urs von Balthasar, Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini, and especially Henri de Lubac, who wrote glowingly of Teilhard: “We need not concern ourselves with a number of detractors of Teilhard, in whom emotion has blunted intelligence” [ii]. By the time of the opening of the Second Vatican Council in October 1962, the Society of Jesus had all but abandoned the Neo-Scholastic theology of Francisco Suarez in favor of Teilhardian evolutionary “cosmogenesis.”
The reason for Teilhard’s popularity, as stated above, was his apparent resolution of the differences between religious truth as proposed by the Catholic Church and scientific “fact” as proposed by Darwinian evolution. The problem was that his solution was neither particularly scientific nor particularly Catholic, a fact he admitted privately to his cousin Léontine Zanta in 1936:
Quote:What increasingly dominates my interests, is the effort to establish within myself and define around me, a new religion (call it a better Christianity, if you like) where the personal God ceases to be the great monolithic proprietor of the past to become the Soul of the World which the stage we have reached religiously and culturally calls for. [iii]
This proposed synthesis is not a “new and better Christianity,” but rather a negation of the Catholic faith, as presented in the definitive dogmatic constitution of Vatican I, Dei Filius (April 24, 1870):
Quote:Deus … est re et essentia a mundo distinctus, in se et ex se beatissimus, et super omnia quae praeter ipsum sunt et concipi possunt, ineffabiliter excelsus. (God … is to be declared as really and essentially distinct from the world, of supreme beatitude in and from Himself, and ineffably exalted above all things which exist, or are conceivable, except Himself.)
Teilhard’s “God,” the “soul of the world,” is identical with nature and consequently subject to change. As Teilhard explains it in his book Human Energy:
Quote:As a direct consequence of the unitive process by which God is revealed to us, he in some way ‘transforms himself’ as he incorporates us. … I see in the World a mysterious product of completion and fulfillment for the Absolute Being himself. [iv]
And, again:
Quote:[God] evolves, via “complexification” and “convergence” to his own perfection, immersed in matter. … One is inseparable from the other; one is never without the other[.] … No spirit (not even God within the limits of our experience) exists, nor could structurally exist without an associated multiple, any more than a center can exist without its circle or circumference[.] … n a concrete sense there is not matter and spirit, all that exists is matter becoming spirit [God]. [v]
One must note that in Teilhard’s writing there is hardly any mention of purely spiritual beings or entities within the existing cosmos. There is virtually no mention of angels or demons, no Satan, no St. Michael, no guardian angels, nor is there much mention of particular judgment or the existence of Hell.**
Teilhard’s “God” is no more nor less than the “god” of Pantheism as described (and rejected) by St. Pius IX in his allocution Maxima Quidem, June 9, 1862:
Quote:There exists no Supreme Being, perfect in His wisdom and in His providence and distinct, all things are God and have the very substance of God. God is thus one and the same thing as the world and consequently spirit is identified with matter, necessity with liberty, truth with falsehood, good with evil and justice with injustice[.]
Teilhard, through his denial of original sin and of the consequent need for redemption, tried to inject Christ into his pantheism by naming him the “Cosmic Christ” or the “Alpha” and “Omega” of revelation. Christ is an emanation of God infused into matter from the beginning, evolving, was born into this world, died, rose from the dead, and ascended – not to heaven, but to the “noosphere,” a spiritual level encircling the earth, where all spirits contained in matter will eventually converge at the “Omega Point,” where Christ awaits us, guiding us on with “unconditional love.” At the “Omega Point,” we, and the entire cosmos, down to the lowliest atom, will be divinized, and “God” will be “all in all” [vi]. The quote was selectively picked from St. Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians 15:28. Whether this “all in all” will be totally spiritual, as in Buddhism and other Eastern religions with which it shares similarities, or whether, as others affirm, humans, alive at the end of time, the “Omega Point,” will become “transhuman,” filled with the transformative knowledge of the “noosphere” (some even citing the internet), is unclear in the writings of Teilhard.
As for Teilhard, the problem of evil is not due to angelic or human malice, but is an inevitable side-effect of the evolutionary process: “In our modern perspective of a Universe in a process of cosmogenesis, the problem of evil no longer exists.” The “Multiple” is “essentially subject to the play of probabilities of chance in its arrangements.” It is “absolutely unable to progress toward unity without engendering [evil] here or there by statistical necessity” [vii]. It appears, then, that there is no room for error or sin, as all is inevitably evolving toward the “Omega Point” drawn on by the infinite love of Christ.
In fact, for Teilhard, the Mystical Body of Christ “forms a cosmic Center for mankind and the whole material universe” [viii]. This insight he claims to have found in St. Paul. The passage – “You … are Christ’s Body[;] … each of you is a different part of it” (I Cor. 12:27) – reveals humanity in its varying functions to be the mystical Body. This is a misreading of St. Paul, who is clearly speaking of the baptized Christian community.
It is just on the part of God and to give relief to you [followers of Christ] who are afflicted and to us as well, when the Lord Jesus will be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels in flaming fire. These [who afflict you now] will be punished with eternal ruin, away from the face of the Lord and the glory of his power[.] (2 Thessalonians 1: 6-8)
It also contradicts the words of Our Lord himself:
Quote:I am asking on their behalf; I am not asking on behalf of the world, but on behalf of those whom you gave me, because they are yours. All mine are yours, and yours are mine; and I have been glorified in them. … I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. I am not asking you to take them out of the world, but I ask you to protect them from the evil one. They do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world[.] (John 17: 9-16)
For Teilhard, all religions are an attempt to realize this ultimate transformation, led on by the Cosmic Christ, who animates, loves, and awaits all at the Omega Point.
Teilhard does not deny the role of the Church in bringing about his vision of cosmogenesis. In a letter to his friend Auguste Valensin, S.J., he writes:
Quote:I believe in the Church, mediatrix between God and the world[.] … The Church, the reflectively christified portion of the world, the Church, the principal focus of interhuman affinities through super-charity, the Church, the central axis of universal convergence and the precise point of contact between the universe and Omega Point. … The Catholic Church, however, must not simply seek to affirm its primacy and authority but quite simply to present the world with the Universal Christ, Christ in human-cosmic dimension, as animator of evolution.
Teilhard, therefore, said:
Quote:We must work toward an ecumenism open not only to Christianity, but also to other religions, because all religions of inner necessity converge in the Cosmic Christ and are destined to find their completion in the single Church of Christ.
Having done away with an eternal supernatural order, there is no room for “sanctifying grace” freely bestowed by God, especially through the sacraments (historical Catholic prerequisites to eternal salvation). All that exists is the onward movement of the cosmos toward unity in the Cosmic Christ, who animates and awaits us at the Omega Point.
As to the Eucharist, according to Teilhard, it is by means of the Eucharist that the Church gradually divinizes the world:
Quote:“Adherence to Christ in the Eucharist must inevitably, ipso facto, incorporate us a little more fully on each occasion in a christogenesis which itself … is none other than the soul of universal cosmogenesis.”
Teilhard de Chardin’s “Mass on the (Altar of the) World":
Quote:Since once again, Lord … I have neither bread, nor wine, nor altar, I will raise myself beyond these symbols, up to the pure majesty of the real itself; I, your priest, will make the whole world my altar and on it will offer you all the labors and sufferings of the world[.] … I will place on my paten, O God, the harvest to be won by this renewal of labor. Into my chalice I shall pour all the sap which is to be pressed out this day from the earth’s fruits[.] … My chalice and my paten are the depths of a soul laid widely open to all the forces which in a moment will rise up from every corner of the earth and converge upon the Spirit. Grant me the remembrance and the mystic presence of all those whom the light is now awakening to a new day[.] … I call before me the whole vast anonymous army of living humanity; those … who, … through their vision of truth or despite their error, truly believe in the progress of earthly reality and who today will again take up their impassioned pursuit of the light[.] … This is the material of my sacrifice, the only material you desire[.] … Receive, O Lord, this all-embracing host which your whole creation, moved by your magnetism, offers you at this dawn of a new day.
In Teilhard’s “Mass,” there is no mention of Christ’s propitiatory death on the cross for the salvation of souls, nor of Transubstantiation [ix] of the Eucharistic Species into the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Rather, this is an offering of all trials and works of humanity to build a future divinized common earthly reality.
Given this brief summary, it should be clear that Teilhard’s “new and better Christianity” is a paean to Darwinian evolution raised to the level of universal theosis and has little or nothing in common with traditional Catholic Christology.
It is therefore not surprising that, at the opening of the Second Vatican Council, the Holy Office, under the pontificate of Pope John XXIII, issued the following “monitum” (warning):
Quote:Several works of Fr. Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, some of which were posthumously published, are being edited and are gaining a good deal of success. Prescinding from a judgment about those points that concern the positive sciences, it is sufficiently clear that the above-mentioned works abound in such ambiguities and indeed even serious errors, as to offend Catholic doctrine[.] (Given at Rome, from the palace of the Holy Office, on the thirtieth day of June, 1962. Sebastianus Masala, Notarius.)
It would appear that the case was closed; however, this was not to be. Under the influence of Jesuit periti (counselors), especially Henri de Lubac and Hans Urs von Balthasar, the Teilhardian vision re-emerged [x]. Pope Paul VI tentatively wrote in a 1966 address contained in Insegnimenti di Paulo VI, the official compilation of his thought: “Teilhard de Chardin, who gave an explanation of the universe that, among many fantastic and imprudent things, nonetheless understood how to find the intelligent principle that one should call God inside everything. Science itself, therefore, obliges us to be religious. Whoever is intelligent must kneel and say: ‘God is present here’” [xi].
The real revolution, according to Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, the present head of the Pontifical Academy for Life, began with Pope John Paul II and his letter to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences on 22 October 1996, when he affirmed:
Quote:Some new findings lead us toward the recognition of evolution as more than an hypothesis. In fact it is remarkable that this theory has had progressively greater influence on the spirit of researchers, following a series of discoveries in different scholarly disciplines. The convergence in the results of these independent studies – which was neither planned nor sought – constitutes in itself a significant argument in favor of the theory.
On May 12, 1981, the centenary of Teilhard’s birth, cardinal secretary of state Agostino Casaroli wrote to Cardinal Poupard, rector of the Catholic Institute of Paris, as follows:
Quote:The international scientific community and, more broadly, the whole intellectual world, are preparing to celebrate the centenary of the birth of Father Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. … I am happy, Your Excellency, to communicate this message to you on behalf of the Holy Father [Pope John Paul II] for all the participants in the conference over which you preside at the Catholic Institute of Paris as a tribute to Father Teilhard de Chardin, and I assure you of my faithful devotion.
The Vatican Press Office, however, two months later, reaffirmed the monitum, which remains in effect:
Communiqué of the Press Office of the Holy See (printed in L’Osservatore Romano, English ed., July 20, 1981):
Quote:The letter sent by the Cardinal Secretary of State to His Excellency Mons. Poupard on the occasion of the centenary of the birth of Fr. Teilhard de Chardin has been interpreted in a certain section of the press as a revision of previous stands taken by the Holy See in regard to this author, and in particular of the Monitum of the Holy Office of 30 June 1962, which pointed out that the work of the author contained ambiguities and grave doctrinal errors. The question has been asked whether such an interpretation is well founded.
After having consulted the Cardinal Secretary of State and the Cardinal Prefect of the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which, by order of the Holy Father, had been duly consulted beforehand, about the letter in question, we are in a position to reply in the negative.
H.H. John Paul II, echoing Teilhard’s “Mass on the Altar of the World,” continued in his praise of Teilhard:
Quote:The Eucharist is also celebrated in order to offer “on the altar of the whole earth the world’s work and suffering” in the beautiful words of Teilhard de Chardin. [xii]
The praise was continued by Cardinal Ratzinger, who said in his Principles of Catholic Theology:
Quote:The impetus given by Teilhard de Chardin exerted a wide influence [on the Council]. With daring vision it incorporated the historical movements of Christianity into the great cosmic process of evolution from Alpha to Omega. … The Council’s ‘Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World’ (Gaudium et Spes) took the cue; Teilhard’s slogan “Christianity means more progress, more technology,” became a stimulus in which the Council Fathers from rich and poor countries alike found a concrete hope. [xiii]
And again, from his Spirit of the Liturgy (emphasis added):
Quote:Against the background of the modern evolutionary world view, Teilhard depicted the cosmos as a process of ascent, a series of unions. … From here Teilhard went on to give new meaning to Christian worship: the transubstantiated Host is the anticipation of the transformation and divinization of matter in the Christological “fullness.” In his view, the Eucharist provided the movement of the cosmos with its direction; it anticipates its goal and at the same time urges it on. [xiv]
Pope Benedict also reaffirmed his praise of Teilhard on July 24, 2009, during the vespers service in the Cathedral of Aosta in northern Italy, as reported by John Allen (emphasis added):
Quote:Toward the end of a reflection upon the Letter to the Romans, in which St. Paul writes that the world itself will one day become a form of living worship, Pope Benedict said: “It’s the great vision that later Teilhard de Chardin also had: At the end we will have a true cosmic liturgy, where the cosmos becomes a living host. Let’s pray to the Lord that he help us be priests in this sense,” the pope said, “to help in the transformation of the world in adoration of God, beginning with ourselves.”
To confirm the shift from traditional Catholic theology to Teilhard’s “new and better Christianity” in July of 2009, Vatican spokesman Fr. Federico Lombardi, S.J. said, “By now, no one would dream of saying that [Teilhard] is a heterodox author who shouldn’t be studied.”
The current holy father, Pope Francis, as a product of Jesuit education, refers to Teilhard’s eschatological contribution in his encyclical Laudato Si in paragraph 83 (footnote 53):
Quote:83. The ultimate destiny of the universe is in the fullness of God, which has already been attained by the risen Christ, the measure of the maturity of all things [53]. Here we can add yet another argument for rejecting every tyrannical and irresponsible domination of human beings over other creatures. The ultimate purpose of other creatures is not to be found in us. Rather, all creatures are moving forward with us and through us towards a common point of arrival, which is God, in that transcendent fullness where the risen Christ embraces and illumines all things.
In footnote 53 of the encyclical, the pope makes a clear reference to the statements of previous conciliar popes cited above:
Quote:Against this horizon we can set the contribution of Fr Teilhard de Chardin; cf. PAUL VI, Address in a Chemical and Pharmaceutical Plant (24 February 1966): Insegnamenti 4 (1966), 992-993; JOHN PAUL II, Letter to the Reverend George Coyne (1 June 1988): Insegnamenti 11/2 (1988), 1715; BENEDICT XVI, Homily for the Celebration of Vespers in Aosta (24 July 2009): Insegnamenti 5/2 (2009), 60.
We see here Pope Francis’s reliance on Teilhard and his vision of the “Cosmic Christ” drawing all, regardless of religious affiliation, nationality – in fact, all living creatures, and even inert matter, which contains rudimentary “Spirit” – to be Christified at the end of time, or the “Omega Point” of evolution. It explains his fascination with ecology as well as the tearing down of all walls, both political (including the end of nationalism and amalgamation via mass immigration) and religious (via ecumenism): “Proselytism is solemn nonsense.” “Luther’s intention 500 years ago was to renew the Church, not divide her.” As Teilhard expounded in Human Energy, “[t]he age of nations has passed. Now, unless we wish to perish, we must shake off our old prejudices and build the earth” [xv].
The evolutionary theories of Teilhard help explain some of the current holy father’s most puzzling statements. In a March 15, 2015 interview, Eugenio Scalfari, the famed atheist reporter, quotes (from memory) as follows: “What happens to that lost soul? Will it be punished? And how? The response of Francis is distinct and clear: there is no punishment, but the annihilation of that soul. All the others will participate in the beatitude of living in the presence of the Father. The souls that are annihilated will not take part in that banquet; with the death of the body their journey is finished.” This interview was first published on the Vatican website but then removed. When questioned, Vatican spokesman Fr. Thomas Rosica did not deny the conversation, but said, “They were private discussions that took place and were never recorded by the journalist.”
These sentiments were reiterated on October 9 of this year, 2017, in an article published by the Italian newspaper La Repubblica, once again quoting Eugenio Scalfari:
Quote:Pope Francis has abolished the places where souls were supposed to go after death: hell, purgatory, heaven. The idea he holds is that souls dominated by evil and unrepentant cease to exist, while those that have been redeemed from evil will be taken up into the beatitude, contemplating God. ...The universal judgement that is in the tradition of the Church therefore becomes devoid of meaning. It remains a simple pretext that has given rise to splendid paintings in the history of art. Nothing other than this.
To understand, perhaps, some of Pope Francis’s reticence to clarify passages of Amoris Laetitia, one must recall that neither original sin nor traditional mortal sins exist in Teilhard’s worldview – only infinite mutations or variants in the evolutionary process moved by the unconditional love of the “Cosmic Christ.” Some of the pope’s statements include the following, emphasizing that all who live in loving relationships share, to some degree, in the all-encompassing love of Christ:
Quote:– The unmarried. “I’ve seen a lot of fidelity in these cohabitations, and I am sure that this is a real marriage, they have the grace of a real marriage because of their fidelity[.]”
– The sacramentally married. “ great majority” of Catholic marriages are “null.”
– The so-called “remarried. "Priests could – in some cases – offer the “help of sacraments” to Catholics living in “irregular family situations” as part of a broader effort to support and integrate divorced Catholics in other relationships into the life of the church.
– Homosexuals. “Who am I to judge?”
Further evidence of the underlying Teilhardian influence on Amoris Laetitia are found in the words of Cardinal Christoph Schönborn, archbishop of Vienna, Austria, whom Pope Francis named official interpreter of Amoris Laetitia:
Quote:Hardly anyone else has tried to bring together the knowledge of Christ and the idea of evolution as the scientist (paleontologist) and theologian Fr. Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, S.J., has done. … His fascinating vision has remained controversial, and yet for many it has represented a great hope, the hope that faith in Christ and a scientific approach to the world can be brought together. … These brief references to Teilhard cannot do justice to his efforts. The fascination which Teilhard de Chardin exercised for an entire generation stemmed from his radical manner of looking at science and Christian faith together.
It should be remembered that on October 11, 2016, the weekly bulletin of Cardinal Schönborn’s cathedral in Vienna published, with pictures, a glowing profile of a same-sex couple and their adopted son, titled “we are dads.”
While all the confusion existing in the modern Church cannot be fully laid at his feet [xvi], Fr. Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, S.J. and his Jesuit confrères, with their “new and better Christianity,” have unfortunately deracinated Holy Mother Church, replacing the worship of the eternal God with the worship of man and creation.
Finally, it is worth mentioning: while there is no direct evidence linking Fr. Teilhard to Freemasonry, their goal is the same: the deification of man. In the words of Manly P. Hall in his Lost Keys of Freemasonry:
Quote:Man is a God in the making. … The true Mason is not creed-bound. He realizes with the divine illumination of his lodge that as a Mason his religion must be universal: Christ, Buddha or Mohammed, the name means little, for he recognizes only the light and not the bearer. He worships at every shrine, bows before every altar, whether in temple, mosque or cathedral, realizing with his truer understanding the oneness of all spiritual truth. It is relevant that Teilhard’s works are read and quoted in the lodges. [xvii]
*Editor’s note: after we received this essay for publication, the news broke at Vatican Insider that the “Plenary Assembly of the Pontifical Council for Culture largely approved a proposal to be sent to Pope Francis, asking him to contemplate whether it is possible to remove the Monitum of the Holy Congregation of the Holy Office on the works of Father Pierre Teilhard de Chardin”. The petition, according to Vatican Insider, was approved on Saturday, November 18, 2017, “during the work of the Assembly on ‘The Future of Humanity: New Challenges to Anthropology’.” Further:
Quote:The proposal, as raised by the online newspaper Sir , is thus motivated: “We believe that such an act would not only restore the genuine efforts of the pious Jesuit in an attempt to reconcile the scientific vision of the universe with Christian eschatology but would also represent a formidable stimulus for all theologians and scientists of good will to collaborate in the construction of a Christian anthropological model which, following the directions of the encyclical Laudato Si, is naturally placed in the wonderful plot of the cosmos. “
Pope Francis is expected to receive the proposal for consideration soon, if not already. As of this writing, no decision has been announced.
NOTES:
It should be mentioned here that a contemporary of Teilhard, Fr. Georges Lemaître, a renowned physicist and the postulator of the “Big Bang” theory, advised Pope Pius XII not to mention his discovery as proof of the doctrine of creation “[i]ex nihilo,” as scientific knowledge, which is refined and always growing and changing and should not be used in defense of the Faith, which is unchanging.
[ii] Henri Cardinal de Lubac, S.J., The Religion of Teilhard de Chardin (New York: Image Books (1967). De Lubac is generally considered the main influence on the Vatican II document The Church in the Modern World (Gaudium et spes). De Lubac, himself first censured by Pope Pius XII, went on to be named a cardinal by Pope John Paul II in 1983.
[iii] Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, Letters to Léontine Zanta, trans. Bernard Wall (New York: Harper & Row, 1965), 114 (letter dated 26 January 1936).
[iv] Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, The Heart of Matter (New York: Harcourt Brace Jahanovich, 1978), p. 54.
[v] Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, Human Energy (New York: Harcourt Brace Jahanovich, 1969), pp. 57, 58, 162.
[vi] “What we call inorganic matter is certainly animate in its own way[.] … Atoms, electrons, elementary particles … must have a spark of spirit” (Science and Christ, written 1920s, published in English in 1968).
[vii] Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, Comment je vois, Par. 29, Tr. p.39, cit. Jacques Maritain, The Peasant of the Garonne (New York: Holt, Reinhart and Winston, 1968), p. 265.
[viii] Le Coeur de la Matière, (1950), p. 30, cit. “The Body of Christ in the writings of Teilhard de Chardin S.J.,” by Cristopher Moody S.J.
[ix] The Fourth Council of the Lateran in 1215 spoke of the bread and wine as “transubstantiated” into the body and blood of Christ: “His body and blood are truly contained in the sacrament of the altar under the forms of bread and wine, the bread and wine having been transubstantiated, by God’s power, into his body and blood.”
[x] David L. Schindler, Heart of the World, Center of the Church (New York: William B. Erdmans, 1996), footnote 34 on p. 22, exposes von Balthasar’s cautious but fundamental dependence on Teilhard.
[xi] Speech to Employers and Workers of a Pharmacy Company, February 24, 1966, in Insegnamenti di Paolo VI, Poliglotta Vaticana, 1966, pp. 992-993.
[xii] Pope John Paul II, Gift and Mystery, (New York: Image, 1996), p. 73.
[xiii] Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, Principles of Catholic Theology (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1987), p. 334.
[xiv] Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, The Spirit of the Liturgy (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2000), p. 29.
[xv] Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, Human Energy (New York Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1969), p. 37.
[xvi] See Philip Trower, The Church and the Counter Faith (Oxford: Family Publications, 2006) for a résumé of intellectual currents leading up to Vatican II, or here for an essay on the Jesuit formation of Pope Francis.
[xvii] “The Masonic bishop, priest, or layman will forsake his faith in God and in His Son, Jesus Christ. This may occur slowly but it is inevitable. Sooner or later he will be confronted with the dilemma posed by Monsignor Dillon above. If he remains in the Craft, however, he will lose touch completely with the Divine element in the religion he has secretly betrayed and become preoccupied with the human. He may recite the prayer of the Modernist Jesuit, Teilhard de Chardin, with conviction—
“‘May the Lord preserve in me a burning love for the world, and a great gentleness and may he help me persevere to the end, in the fullness of my humanity.'”
This post has been updated.
** Correction: this article originally claimed that “nowhere in Teilhard’s writing is there to be found any mention of purely spiritual beings or entities within the existing cosmos. There is no mention of angels or demons, no Satan, no St. Michael, no guardian angels, nor is there any mention of particular judgment or the existence of Hell”. It has been brought to our attention by a reader that in fact, there is some mention of these things — though very little, and not in a way that expresses with clarity and firmness the Church’s teaching on these matters — specifically, in Le Milieu Divin, under the subheading ‘The outer darkness and the lost souls,’ (p.140-143.). Nevertheless, we have amended the text accordingly in the interest of correctness and fairness to the late Fr. de Chardin.
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Adapted from here.
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| The Permanent Instruction of the Alta Vendita |
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Posted by: Stone - 11-23-2020, 08:37 AM - Forum: Vatican II and the Fruits of Modernism
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The Permanent Instruction of the Alta Vendita
A Masonic Blueprint for the Subversion of the Catholic Church
by John Vennari (Catholic Family News)
Few Catholics know of the Permanent Instruction of the Alta Vendita, a secret document written in the early 19th Century that mapped out a blueprint for the subversion of the Catholic Church. The Alta Vendita ws the highest lodge of the Carbonari, an Italian secret society with links to Freemasonry and which, along with Freemasonry, was condemned by the Catholic Church. (1) Father E. Cahill, S.J. in his book Freemasonry and the Anti-Christian Movement states that the Alta Vendita was "commonly supposed to have been at the time the governing centre of European Freemasonry." (2) The Carbonari were most active in Italy and France.
In his book Athanasius and the Church of Our Time, Bishop Rudolph Graber quoted a Freemason who declared that "the goal (of Freemasonry) is no longer the destruction of the Church, but to make use of it by infiltrating it."(3)
In other words, since Freemasonry, cannot completely obliterate Christ's Church, it plans not only to eradicate the influence of Catholicism in society, but to use the Church's structure as an instrument of "renewal", "progress" and "enlightenment" to further many of its own principles and goals.
An Outline
The strategy advanced in the Permanent Instruction of the Alta Vendita is astonishing in its audacity and cunning. From the start, the document tells of a process that will take decades to accomplish. Those who drew up the document knew that they would not see its fulfillment. They were inaugurating a work that would be carried on by succeeding generations of the initiated. "In our ranks the soldier dies and the struggle goes on."
The Instruction called for the dissemination of liberal ideas and axioms throughout society and within the institutions of the Catholic Church so that laity, clerics and prelates would, over the years, gradually are imbued with progressive principles.
In time, this mind-set would be so pervasive that priests would be ordained, bishops would be consecrated, and cardinals would be nominated whose thinking was in step with the modern thought rooted in the French Revolution's Declaration of the Rights of Man and other "Principles of 1789" (religious pluralism, equality of religions, separation of Church and State, etc.)
Eventually, a Pope would be elected from these ranks who would lead the Church on the path of enlightenment and renewal. It must be stressed that it was not their aim to place a Freemason on the Chair of Peter. Their goal was to effect an environment that would eventually produce a Pope and a hierarchy won over to the ideas of liberal Catholicism, all the while believing themselves to be faithful Catholics.
These Catholic leaders, then, would no longer oppose the modern ideas of the revolution (as had been the consistent practice of the Popes from 1789 until 1958 who condemned these liberal principles) but would amalgamate them into the Church. The end result would be a Catholic clergy and laity marching under the banner of the enlightenment all the while thinking they are marching under the banner of the Apostolic keys.
Is it Possible?
For those who may believe this scheme to be too far-fetched -- a goal too hopeless for the enemy to attain, it should be noted that both Pope Pus IX and Pope Leo XIII asked that The Permanent Instruction be published, no doubt, in order to prevent such a tragedy from taking place. These great Pontiffs knew that such a calamity was not impossible.
However, if such a dark state of affairs would come to pass, that there would be three unmistakable means of recognizing it;
It would produce an upheaval of such magnitude that the entire world would realize that the Catholic Church had undergone a major revolution in line with modern ideas. It would be clear to all that an "updating" had taken place.
A new theology would be introduced that would be in contradiction to previous teachings.
The Freemasons themselves would voice their cockle-doodle of triumph believing that the Catholic Church had finally "seen the light" on such points as pluralism, the secular state, equality of religions, and whatever other compromises had been achieved.
The Authenticity of the Alta Vendita Documents
The secret papers of the Alta Vendita that fell into the hands of Pope Gregory XVI embrace a period that goes from 1820 to 1846. They were published at the request of Pope Pus IX by Cretineau-Joly in his work The Roman Church and Revolution.(4)
With the brief of approbation of February 25, 1861 which he addressed to the author, Pope Pus IX guaranteed the authenticity of these documents, but he did not allow anyone to divulge the true members of the Alta Vendita implicated in this correspondence.
The full text of the Permanent Instruction of the Alta Vendita is also contained in Msgr. George E. Dillon's book, Grand Orient Freemasonry Unmasked. When Pope Leo was presented with a copy of Msgr. Dillon's book, he was so impressed that he ordered an Italian version to be completed and published at his own expense.(5)
In the encyclical Humanum Genus, Leo XIII called upon Catholic leaders to "tear off the mask from Freemasonry and make plain to all what it really is. (6)" The publication of these documents is a means of "tearing off the mask". And if the Popes asked that these letters be published, it is because they want all Catholics to know the secret societies' plans to subvert the Church from within -- so that Catholics would be on their guard and hopefully, prevent such a catastrophe from taking place.
The Permanent Instruction of the Alta Vendita
What follows is not the entire Instruction, but the section that is most pertinent to our discussion. The document reads:
"Our ultimate end is that of Voltaire and the French Revolution - -the final destruction of Catholicism, and even of the Christian idea...
The Pope, whoever he is, will never come to the secret societies; it is up to the secret societies to take the first step toward the Church, with the aim of conquering both of them.
The task that we are going to undertake is not the work of a day, or of a month, or of a year; it may last several years, perhaps a century, but in our ranks the soldier dies and the struggle goes on.
We do not intend to win the Popes to our cause, to make them neophytes of our principles, propagators of our ideas. That would be a ridiculous dream; and if events turn out in some way, if Cardinals or prelates, for example, of their own free will or by surprise, should enter into a part of our secrets, this is not at all an incentive for desiring their elevation to the See of Peter. That elevation would ruin us. Ambition alone would have led them to apostasy, the requirements of power would force them to sacrifice us. What we must ask for, what we should look for and wait for, as the Jews wait for the Messiah, is a Pope according to our needs...
With that we will march more securely towards the assault on the Church than with pamphlets of our brethren in France and even the gold of England. Do you want to know the reason for this? It is that with this, in order to shatter the high rock on which God has built His Church, we no longer need Hannibalian vinegar, or need gunpowder, or even need our arms. We have the little finger of the successor of Peter engaged in the ploy, and this little finger is as good, for this crusade, as all the Urban IIs and all the Saint Bernards in Christendom.
We have no doubt that we will arrive at this supreme end of our efforts. But when? But how? The unknown is not yet revealed. Nevertheless, as nothing should turn us aside from the plan drawn up, and on the contrary everything should tend to this, as if as early as tomorrow success were going to crown the work that is barely sketched, we wish, in this instruction, which will remain secret for the mere initiates, to give the officials in the charge of the supreme Vente (Lodge) some advice that they should instill in all the brethren, in the form of instruction or of a memorandum.
Now then, to assure ourselves a Pope of the required dimensions, it is a question first of shaping him... for this Pope, a generation worthy of the reign we are dreaming of. Leave old people and those of a mature age aside; go to the youth, and if it is possible, even to the children. You will contrive for yourselves, at little cost, a reputation as good Catholics and pure patriots.
This reputation will put access to our doctrines into the midst of the young clergy, as well as deeply into the monasteries. In a few years, by the force of things, this young clergy will have overrun - all the functions; they will form the sovereign's council, they will be called to choose a Pontiff who should reign. And this Pontiff, like most of his contemporaries, will be necessarily more or less imbued with the Italian and, humanitarian principles that we are going to begin to put into circulation. It is a small grain of black mustard that we are entrusting to the ground; but the sunshine of justice will develop it up to the highest power, and you will see one day what a rich harvest this small seed will produce.
In the path that we are laying out for our brethren, there are found great obstacles to conquer, difficulties of more than one kind to master. They will triumph over them by experience and by nearsightedness; but the goal is so splendid that it is important to put all the sail to the wind in order to reach it. You want to revolutionize Italy, look for the Pope whose portrait we have just drawn. You wish to establish the reign of the chosen ones on the throne of the prostitute of Babylon; let the Clergy march under your standard, always believing that they are marching under the banner of the apostolic keys. You intend to make the last vestige of tyrants and the oppressors disappear; lay your snares (nets) like Simon Bar-Jona; lay them in the sacristies, the seminaries, and the monasteries rather than at the bottom of the sea: and if you do not hurry, we promise you a catch more miraculous than his. The fisher of fish became the fisher of men; you will bring friends around the apostolic Chair. You will have preached a resolution in tiara and in cope, marching with the cross and the banner, a revolution that will need to be only a little bit urged on to set fire to the four corners of the world."(7)
It now remains for us to examine how successful this design has been.
The Enlightenment, My Friend, Is "Blowin' in the Wind"
Throughout the 19th Century, society had become increasingly permeated with the liberal principles of the French Revolution to the great detriment of the Catholic Faith and the Catholic State. The supposedly "kinder and gentler" notions of religious pluralism, religious indifferentism, a democracy which believes all authority comes from the people, false notions of liberty, interfaith gatherings, separation of Church and State and other novelties were gripping the minds of post-enlightenment Europe infecting Statesmen and Churchmen alike.
The Popes of the 19th Century and early 20th Century waged war against these dangerous trends in the battle-dress. With clear-sighted presence of mind rooted in an uncompromised certitude of Faith, these Popes were not taken in. They knew that evil principles, no matter how honorable they may appear, could not bear good fruit, and these were evil principles at their worst, since they were rooted not only in heresy, but apostasy.
Like commanding generals who recognize the duty to hold their ground at all cost, these Popes aimed powerful cannons at the errors of the modem world and fired incessantly. The encyclicals were their cannonballs, and they never missed their target. (8)
The most devastating blast came in the form of Pope Pius IX's monumental 1864 Syllabus of Errors, and when the smoke cleared, all involved in the battle were in no doubt as to who was on what side. The lines of demarcation had clearly been drawn. In this great Syllabus, Pius IX condemned the principle errors of the modern world, not because they were modern, bur because these new ideas were rooted in pantheistic naturalism and therefore incompatible with Catholic doctrine, as well as being destructive to society.
The teachings in the Syllabus were counter-Liberalism, and the principles of liberalism were counter-Syllabus. This was unquestionably recognized by all parties. Father Denis Fahey referred to this showdown as Pius IX versus the Pantheistic Deification of Man.(9) Speaking for the other side, the French Freemason Ferdinand Buisson likewise declared "A school cannot remain neutral between the Syllabus and the 'Declaration of the Rights of Man'." (10)
"Liberal Catholics"
Yet the 19th Century saw a new breed of Catholic who utopianly sought a compromise between the two. These men looked for what they believed to be "good" in the principles of 1789 and tried to introduce them into the Church. Many clergymen, infected by the spirit of the age, were caught into this net that had been "cast into the sacristies and into the seminaries". They came to be known as liberal Catholics. Pope Pius IX remarked that they were the worst enemies of the Church. Despite this. their numbers increased.
Pope Pius X and Modernism
This crisis reached a peak around the turn of the century when the liberalism of 1789 that had been "blowin' in the wind" swirled into the tornado of modernism. Fr. Vincent Miceli identified this heresy as such by describing modernism's "trinity of parents". He wrote:
1. Its religious ancestor is the Protestant Reformation;
2. Its philosophical parent is the Enlightenment;
3. Its political pedigree comes from the French Revolution.(11)
Pope St. Pius X, who ascended to the Papal chair in 1903, recognized modernism as a most deadly plague that must be arrested. He wrote that the most important obligation of the Pope is to insure the purity and integrity of Catholic doctrine, and further mentioned that if he did nothing, then he would have failed, in his essential duty.(12)
St. Pius X waged war on modernism issued an Encyclical (Pascendi) and a Syllabus (Lamentabili) against it, instituted the Anti-Modernist Oath to be sworn by all priests and teachers, purged the seminaries and universities of modernists and excommunicated the stubborn and unrepentant.
Pius X effectively halted the spread of modernism in his day. It is reported, however, that when he was congratulated for eradicating this grave error, Pius X immediately responded, that despite all his efforts, he had not succeeded in killing this beast, but had only driven it underground. He warned that if Church leaders were not vigilant, it would return in the future more virulent than ever.(13)
Curia on the Alert
A little known drama that unfolded during the reign of Pope Pius XI demonstrates that the underground current of Modernist thought was alive and well in the immediate post-Pius period.
Father Raymond Dulac relates that at the secret consistory of May 23, 1923, Pope Pius XI questioned the thirty Cardinals of the Curia on the timeliness of summoning an ecumenical council. In attendance were such illustrious prelates as Cardinals Merry del Val, De Lai, Gasparri, Boggiani and Billot. The Cardinals advised against it.
Billot warned, "The existence of profound differences in the midst of the episcopacy itself cannot be concealed ... [They] run the risk of giving place to discussions that will be prolonged indefinitely."
Boggiani recalled the Modernist theories from which, he said, a part of the clergy and of the bishops are not exempt. "This mentality can incline certain Fathers to present motions, to introduce methods incompatible with Catholic traditions."
Billot was even more precise. He expresses his fear of seeing the council "maneuvered" by "the worst enemies of the Church, the Modernists, who are already getting ready, as certain indications show, to bring forth the revolution in the Church, a new 1789."(14)
In discouraging the idea of a Council for such reasons, these Cardinals showed themselves more apt at recognizing the "signs of the times" then all the post-Vatican II theologians combined. Yet their caution may have been rooted in something deeper. They may also have been haunted by the writings of the infamous, illumine, the excommunicated Canon Roca (1830-1893) who preached revolution and Church "reform", and who predicted the subversion of the Church that would be brought about by a council.
Canon Roca's Revolutionary Ravings
In his book Athanasius and the Church of Our Times, Bishop Graber quotes Roca's prediction of a new, enlightened Church which would be influenced by "the socialism of Jesus and the Apostles".(15)
In the mid-19th Century, Roca had predicted: "The new church, which might not be able to retain anything of Scholastic doctrine and the original form of the former Church, will nevertheless receive consecration and canonical jurisdiction from Rome." Bishop Graber, commenting on this prediction, remarked, "A few years ago this was still inconceivable to us, but today?"(16)
Canon Roca also predicted a liturgical "reform". With reference to the future liturgy, he believed "that the divine cult in the form directed by the liturgy, ceremonial, ritual and regulations of the Roman Church will shortly undergo a transformation at an ecumenical council, which will restore to it the venerable simplicity of the golden age of the Apostles in accordance with the dictates of conscience and modern civilization."(17)
He foretold that through this council will come "a perfect accord between the ideals of modern civilization and the ideal of Christ and His Gospel. This will be the consecration of the New Social Order and the solemn baptism of modern civilization."
Roca also spoke of the future of the Papacy. He wrote "there is a sacrifice in the offing which represents a solemn act of expiation ... The Papacy will fall; it will die under the hallowed knife which the fathers of the last council will forge. The papal caesar is a host (victim) crowned for the sacrifice."(18)
Roca enthusiastically predicted a "new religion", "new dogma", "new ritual", "new priesthood." He called the new priests "progressists"[sic] and speaks of the "suppression" of the soutane (cassock) and the "marriage of priests."(19)
Chilling echos of Roca and the Alta Vendita are to be found in the words of the Rosicrucian, Dr. Rudolph Steiner, who declared in 1910 "We need a council and a Pope to proclaim it."(20)
The Great Council that Never Was
Around 1948, Pope Pius XII, at the request of the staunchly orthodox Cardinal Ruffini, considered calling a general Council and even spent a few years making the necessary preparations. There is evidence that progressive elements in Rome eventually dissuaded Pius XII from bringing it to realization since this Council showed definite signs of being in sync with Humans Generis. Like this great 1950 encyclical, the new Council would combat "false opinions which threaten to undermine the foundations of Catholic doctrine." (21)
Tragically, Pope Pius XII became convinced that he was too advanced in years to shoulder such a momentous task, and resigned that "this will be for my successor." 922)
Roncalli Will Canonize Ecumenism
Throughout the Pontificate of Pope Pius XII, the Holy Office under the able leadership of Cardinal Ottaviani maintained a safe Catholic landscape by keeping the wild horses of modernism firmly caged. Many of today's modernist theologians disdainfully recount how they and thew friends had been "muzzled" during this period.
Yet even Ottaviani could not prevent what was to happen in 1958. A new type of Pope "whom the Progressives believed to favor their cause" (23) would ascend to the Pontifical Chair and would force a reluctant Ottaviani to remove the latch, open the corral and brace himself for the stampede.
However, such a state of affairs was not unforeseen. At the news of the death of Pius XII, the old Dom Lambert Beauduin, a friend of Cardinal Roncalli (the future John XXIII), confided to Father Louis Bouyer: "If they elect Roncalli everything would be saved; he would be capable of calling a council and of consecrating ecumenism."(24)
And so it happened just as Dom Lambert foretold. Roncalli was elected, called a Council and consecrated ecumenism. The "Revolution in tiara and cope" was underway.
Pope John's Revolution
It is well known and superbly documented(25) that a clique of liberal theologians (periti) and bishops hijacked Vatican II (1962-1965) with an agenda to remake the Church into their own image through the implementation of a "new theology". Critics and defenders of Vatican II are in agreement on this point.
In his book Vatican II Revisited, Bishop Aloysius J. Wycislo (a rhapsodic advocate of the Vatican II revolution) declares with giddy enthusiasm that "theologians and biblical scholars who had been 'under a cloud' for years surfaced as periti (theological experts advising the bishops at the Council), and their post-Vatican II books and commentaries became popular reading."(26)
He notes that "Pope Pius XII's encyclical Humani Generis (1950) had ... a devastating effect on the work of a number of pre-conciliar theologians" (27) and explains that "During the early preparation of the Council those theologians (mainly French, with some Germans) whose activities had been restricted by Pope Pius XII were still under a cloud. Pope John quietly lifted the ban affecting some of the most influential ones. Yet a number remained suspect to the officials of the Holy Office." (28)
Bishop Wycislo sings the praises of triumphant progressives such as Hans Kung, Karl Rahner, John Courtney Murray, Yves Congar, Henri de Lubac, Edward Schillebeeckx and Gregory Baum, who had been considered suspect before the Council, that are now the leading lights of post-Vatican II theology." (29)
In effect, those whom Pope Pius XII considered unfit to be walking the streets of Catholicism were now in control of the town. And as if to crown their achievements, the Oath Against Modernism was quietly suppressed shortly after the close of the Council. St. Pius X had predicted correctly. Lack of vigilance in authority had provoked modernism to return with a vengeance.
Marching Under a New Banner
There were countless battles at Vatican II between the International Group of Fathers who fought to maintain Tradition, and the progressive Rhine group. Tragically, in the end, it was the Liberal and Modernist element that prevailed. (30)
It was obvious, to anyone who had eyes to see was that the Second Vatican Council opened to door to many ideas that had formerly been anathema to Church teaching, but that were in-step with modernist thought. This did not happen by accident, but by design.
The progressives at Vatican II avoided condemnations of Modernist errors. They also deliberately planted ambiguities in the Council's texts which they intended to exploit after the Council. (33) These ambiguities have been utilized to promote an ecumenism that had been condemned by Pope Pius XI, a religious liberty (32) that had been condemned by the 19th and early 20th-century Popes (especially Pope Pius IX), a new liturgy along the lines of ecumenism that Archbishop Bugnini called "a major conquest of the Catholic Church", a collegiality that strikes at the heart of the Papal primacy, and a "new attitude toward the world" primarily promulgated in one of the most radical of all the Council documents, Gaudium et Spes.
As the Permanent Instruction of the Alta Vendita had hoped, the notions of liberal culture had finally won adherence among the major players in the Catholic hierarchy and was thus spread throughout the entire Church. The result has been an unprecedented crisis of Faith which continues to worsen. While at the same time, countless highly placed Churchmen, obviously inebriated by the "spirit of Vatican II", continuously praise those Council reform's that have brought such a calamity to pass.
Cheers on the Masonic Bleachers
Yet, not only many of our Church leaders, but Freemasons also celebrate the turn of events wrought by the Council. They rejoice that Catholics have fianlly "seen the light,' and that many of their Masonic principles have been sanctioned by the Church.
Yves Marsaudon of the Scottish Rite, in his book Ecumenism Viewed by a Traditional Freemason praised the ecumenism nurtured at Vatican II. He said "Catholics ... must not forget that all roads lead to God. And they will have to accept that this courageous idea of free-thinking, which we can really call a revolution pouring forth from our Masonic lodges, has spread magnificently over the dome of St. Peters." (33)
The post-Vatican II spirit of doubt and revolution obviously warmed the heart of French Freemason Jacques Mitterand who wrote approvingly, "Something has changed within the Church, and replies given by the Pope to the most urgent questions such as priestly celibacy and birth control, are hotly debated within the Church itself; the word of the Sovereign Pontiff is questioned by bishops, by priests, by the faithful. For a Freemason, a man who questions dogma is already a Freemason without an apron." (34)
Marcel Prelot, a senator for the Doubs region in France, is probably the most accurate in describing what has really taken place. He writes:
"We had struggled for a century and a half to bring our opinions to prevail with the Church and had not succeeded. Finally, there came Vatican II and we triumphed. From then on the propositions and principles of liberal Catholicism have been definitively and officially accepted by Holy Church." (35)
Prelot's statement deserves comment, since we must make the distinction between the Church and Churchmen. Despite any claims by Freemasons, it is impossible for doctrinal errors to be "definitively and officially accepted by Holy Church" as such. The Church, the Mystical Body of Christ, cannot fall into error. Our Lord promised that "the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it." (Matt. 16:18) But this does not mean that Churchmen, even at the highest levels, cannot be infected with the liberal spirit of the age and promote ideas and practives that are opposed to the Church's perennial Magisterium. (36)
A Break with the Past
Those "conservatives" who deny that Vatican II constitutes a break with tradition, and that it contradicts previous magisterium have failed to listen to the very movers and shakers of the Council who shamelessly acknowledge it.
Yves Congar, one of the artisans of the reform remarked with quiet satisfaction that "The Church has had, peacefully, its October [Communist] Revolution." (37)
The same Father Yves Congar admitted that Vatican IIs Declaration on Religious Liberty is contrary to the Syllabus of Pope Pius IX. He said:
"It cannot be denied that a text like this does materially say something different from the Syllabus of 1864, and even almost the opposite of propositions 15 and 77-79 of that document." (38)
Lastly, some years ago, Cardinal Ratzinger, apparently unruffled by the admission, wrote that he sees the Vatican II text Gaudium et Spes as a "counter-Syllabus." He wrote:
If it is desirable to offer a diagnosis of the text [ Gaudium et Spes] as a whole, we might say that (in conjunction with the texts on religious liberty and world religions) it is a revision of the Syllabus of Pius IX, a kind of countersyllabus .... Let us be content to say here that the text serves as a countersyllabus and as such, represents, on the part of the Church, an attempt at an official reconciliation with the new era inaugurated in 1789. (39)
The new era inaugurated in 1789 consists, in effect, in the elevation of the "Rights of Man" above the rights of God.
In truth, this comment by Cardinal Ratzinger is disturbing, especially since it came from the man who, as head of the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, is now in charge of guarding the purity of Catholic doctrine.l But we can also cite a similar statement by the progressive Cardinal Suenens, himself a Council Father, who spoke in terms of "old regimes" that have come to an end. The words he used in praise of the Council are the most telling, the most chilling and the most damning. Suenens declared "Vatican II is the French Revolution of the Church." (40)
The Status of the Vatican II Documents
For years, Catholics have labored under the mistaken notion that they must accept the pastoral Council, Vatican II, with the same assent of faith that they owe to dogmatic Councils. This, however, is not the case.
The Council Fathers repeatedly referred to Vatican II as a pastoral Council, a Council which dealt not with defining the Faith, but with implementing it.
The fact that Vatican II is inferior to a dogmatic Council is confirmed by the testimony of Council Father, Bishop Thomas Morris, which at his request was not unsealed until after his death:
I was relieved when we were told that this Council was not aiming at defining or giving final statements on doctrine, because a statement on doctrine has to be very carefully formulated and I would have regarded the Council documents as tentative and liable to be reformed. (41)
At the close of Vatican II, the bishops asked the Council's Secretary General, Archbishop Pericle Felici, for that which theologians call the "theological note" of the Council, that is, the doctrinal "weight" of Vatican II's teachings. Felici replied:
We have to distinguish according to the schemas and the chapters those which have already been the subject of dogmatic definitions
in the past; as for the declarationswhich have a novel character, we have to make reservations. (42)
After the close of Vatican II, Paul VI gave this explanation:
There are those who ask what authority, what theological qualification the Council intended to give to its teachings, knowing that it avoided issuing solemn dogmatic definitions engaging the infallibility of the ecclesiastical Magisterium. The answer is known by whoever remembers the conciliar declaration of March 6, 1964, repeated on November 16, 1964: Given the Council's pastoral character, it avoided pronouncing, in an extraordinary manner, dogmas endowed with the note of infallibility. . . (43)
In other words, unlike a dogmatic Council, Vatican II does not demand an unqualified assent of faith. Vatican II's verbose and ambiguous statements are not on a par with dogmatic pronouncements. Hence, Vatican II's novelties are not unconditionally binding on the faithful.
Catholics may "make reservations" and even resist any teachings from the Council that would conflict with the perennial Magisterium of the centuries.
"A Revolution in Tiara and Cope"
The post-Vatican II revolution bears all the hallmarks of the fulfilling of the designs of the Permanent Instruction of the Alta Vendita as well as the prophecies of Canon Roca.
1.The entire world has witnessed a profound change in the Catholic Church on an international scale that is in step with the modern world.
2. Vatican IIs defenders and detractors both demonstrate that certain teachings of the Council constitute a break with the past.
3. The Freemasons themselves rejoice that thanks to the Council, their ideas "have spread magnificently over the dome of Saint Peter's".
The Passion of the Church
Thus, the passion that our Holy Church is presently suffering is really no great mystery. By recklessly ignoring the Popes of the past, our present Church leaders have erected a compromised structure that is collapsing upon itself. Though Pope Paul VI lamented that "the Church is in a state of auto-demolition", he, as does the present Pontificate, insisted that the disastrous aggiornamento responsible for this auto-demoiltion be continued full-steam.
In the face of such "diabolic disorientation (the term that Fatima's Sister Lucy employed to describe the present mind-set of many in today's hierarchy) the only response for all Catholics concerned are:
1. to pray much, especially the Rosary.
2. to learn and live the Traditional Doctrine and morals of the Catholic Church as it is found in pre-Vatican II Catholic writings,
3. to adhere to the Latin Tridentine Mass where the Catholic faith and devotion are found in their fullness uninfected by today's ecumenism,
4. to resist with all one's soul the liberal post-Vatican II trends wreaking such havoc on the Mystical Body of Christ,
5. to charitably instruct others in the traditions of the Faith and warn them of the errors of the times,
6. to pray that a contagious return to sanity may sweep through a sufficient number of the hierarchy,
7. to put great confidence in Our Lady and her power to reorient our Church leaders back to Catholic Tradtion,
8. and to never compromise.
Only She Can Help You
Since this present struggle is essentially a supernatural battle, we must not, ignore the supernatural helps given to us at Fatima in 1917. All concerned Catholics should faithfully fulfill the requests of Our Lady of Fatima, and especially work toward the consecration of Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. For in the promised Triumph of the Immaculate Heart, the unrepentant agents of liberalism, modernism and naturalism will all be gathered in a great ecumenical cluster with the prince of this world to receive the communal head-crushing from the heel of the Queen of Heaven.
Footnotes
- The Catholic Encyclopedia, Vol, 3 (New York: Encyclopedia Press, 1913), pp. 330-331.
- Rev. E. Cahill, S.J. Freemasonry and the Anti-Christian Movement (Dublin: Gill, 1959), p. 101.
- Yves Marsaudon, quoted in Dr. Rudolph Graber, Athanasius and the Church of our Time (Palmdale, CA: Christian Book Club, 1974), p. 39.
- Cretineau-Joly, The Roman Church and Revolution,Vol. 2, orig. ed., 1859, reprinted by Circle of the French Renaissance, Paris, 1976. Msgr. Delassus reproduced these documents again in his work The Anti-Christian Conspiracy, Desclee de Brouwer, 1910, Tome III, pp. 1035-1092.
- Michael Davies, Pope John's Council (Kansas City: Angelus Press, 1992), p. 166.
- Pope Leo XIII, Humanum Genus-On Freemasonry(Rockford, IL: TAN, 1978), par. 31.
- Msgr. Delassus, The Anti-Christian Conspiracy (Paris: Desclee de Brouwer, 1910), Tome III, pp. 1035-1092. The full text of "The Permanent Instruction of the Alta Vendita" is also published in: Msgr. Dillon, Grand Orient Freemasonry Unmasked (Dublin: Gill, 1885; Palmdale, Calif.: Christian Book Club, n.d.), pp. 51-56.
For a true understanding of Catholic doctrine vs. modern errors, it is imperative to study the Papal Encyclicals and other documents against Liberalism, Modernism and
- Freemasonry from the 19th and early 20th-century Popes. The most important of these are collected in The Popes against Modern Errors: 16 Papal Documents (Rockford: TAN, 1999).
- Fr. Denis Fahey, The Mystical Body of Christ in the Modern World, C.S.Sp. (Dublin: Regina Publications, 1939), chap. VII.
Quoted in ibid., p. 116 (143).
- Fr. Vincent Miceli, The Antichrist (Harrison, NY: Roman Catholic Books), p. 133.
- Pope Pius X, Pascendi ("On Modernism"), par. 1.
- Fr. Vincent Miceli, The Antichrist (cassette lecture) (Keep the Faith, Inc.).
- Raymond Dulac, Episcopal Collegiality at the Second Council of the Vatican (Paris: Cedre, 1979), pp. 9-10.
- Graber, op. cit., p. 34.
- Ibid., pp. 34, 35.
- Ibid., p. 35.
- Ibid.
- Ibid., p. 36.
- Ibid.
- A full account of this fascinating history can be found in: Frere Michel of the Holy Trinity, The Whole Truth About Fatima, Volume 3: The Third Secret (Ft. Erie, Ontario: Immaculate Heart Publications, 1990), pp. 257-304.
- Ibid., p. 298.
- Vicomte Leon de Poncins, Freemasonry and the Vatican (Palmdale, CA: Christian Book Club, 1968), p. 14.
- Bouyer, Dom Lambert Beauduin A Man of the Church (Casterman, 1964) pp. 180-181. Quoted by Fr. Dilder Bonneterre in The Liturgical Movement (Ed. Fideliter, 1980), P. 119.
- Cf. Fr. Ralph Wiltgen S.V.D., The Rhine Flows into the Tiber (New York: Hawthorne, 1967; TAN, 1985); Michael Davies, Pope John's Council (New York: Arlington House, 1977;
- Kansas City: Angelus Press, 1992); and Bishop Wycislo (see next note), which sings praises of the reform.
- Most Rev. Aloysius Wycislo, Vatican II Revisited: Reflections by One Who Was There (Staten Island, NY: Alba House, 1987), p. x.
- Ibid., p. 33.
- Ibid., p. 27.
- Ibid., pp. 27-34.
- The entire story of the hijacking of the Council by liberal prelates and theologians, and the tragic consequences of this modernist coup, are superbly explained in Fr. Ralph Wiltgen,
- S.V.D.'s The Rhine Flows into the Tiber (New York: Hawthorne, 1967; TAN, 1985) and in Michael Davies' Pope John's Council (New York: Arlington House, 1977; Kansas City:
- Angelus Press, 1992).
- This tactic was admitted by liberal Council peritus Father Edward Schillebeeckx. He said, "We will express it in a diplomatic way, but after the Council, we will draw the implicit conclusions." (Cited from the Dutch magazine De Bazuin, No. 16, 1965, in Iota Unum, by Romano Amerio, Kansas City, MO: Sarto House, 1996.) Another quote (or translation of the same quote) from Fr. Schillebeeckx reads, "We have used ambiguous phrases during the Council and we know how we will interpret them afterwards' " (Archbishop Marcel
- Lefebvre, An Open Letter to Confused Catholics, Kansas City: Angelus Press, 1992, p. 106.)
- Cf. Michael Davies' The Second Vatican Council and Religious Liberty (Long Prairie, MN: Neumann Press, 1992) for evidence that Vatican II's Dignitatis Humanae (particularly Art. 2) reflects a contradiction with previous Papal teaching. The same is admitted without compunction by the progressive Council theologian Fr. Yves Cougar. See p. 26 of this booklet.
- Quoted in Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, An Open Letter to Confused Catholics (Kansas City: Angelus Press, 1992), p. 89.
- Ibid., pp. 88-89.
- Le Catholicisme Liberal, 1969; also Lefebvre, op. cit., P. 100.
- The great theologian, Cardinal Juan de Torquemada (1388-1468), citing the doctrine of Pope Innocent III, teaches that it is possible for even a Pope to go against the universal customs of the Church. Torquemada writes, "Thus it is that Pope Innocent III states (De Consuetudine) that it is necessary to obey the Pope in all things so long as he himself does not go against the universal customs of the Church, but should he go against the universal customs of the Church, he need not be followed . . ." Cited from Father Paul Kramer, B.Ph., S.T.D., M. Div., A Theological Vindication of Roman Catholic Traditionalism, 2nd edition (St. Francis Press, India), p. 29.
- Lefebvre, op. cit., p. 100.
- Yves Cougar, O.P., Challenge to the Church (London, 1977), p. 147, in Michael Davies, The Second Vatican Council and Religious Liberty (Long Prairie, MN: Neumann Press, 1992), p. 203.
- Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, Principles of Catholic Theology (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1987), pp. 381-382.
- Lefebvre, op. cit., p. 100.
- Interview of Bishop Morris by Kieron Wood, Catholic World News, September 27, 1997.
- Lefebvre, op. cit., p. 107.
- Paul VI, General Audience of January 12, 1966, in Insegnamenti di Paolo VI, vol. 4, p. 700, in Atila Sinke Guimaraes, In the Murky Waters of Vatican II (Metairie: MAETA, 1997; TAN, 1999), pp. 111-112.
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| Summary of the Principal Errors of Vatican II Ecclesiology |
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Posted by: Stone - 11-23-2020, 08:35 AM - Forum: Vatican II and the Fruits of Modernism
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The Vatican II Concept of Ecumenism
The Vatican II concept of the Church as "People of God" is false ecumenism. It leads to the belief that Protestantism is no more than one particular form of the same Christian religion.
The Vatican II Council document "Unitatis Redintegratio" heretically teaches that "…the Holy Spirit does not refuse to make use of other religions as a means of salvation."
John Paul II's document "Catechesi Tradendae" repeats the same heresy.
The Vatican II concept of Ecumenism, condemned by Catholic moral teaching and law, has arrived at the point of allowing the sacraments of penance, Eucharist and Extreme Unction to be received from "non-Catholic ministers" (Vatican II Canon 844 N.C) and it favours "ecumenical hospitality" by authorizing Catholic ministers to give the sacrament of the Eucharist to non-Catholics.
Vatican II Canon 844 "Christ's faithful for whom it is physically or morally impossible to approach a Catholic minister, may lawfully receive the sacraments of penance, the Eucharist and anointing of the sick from non-Catholic ministers in whose Churches these sacraments are valid. Catholic ministers may lawfully administer the sacraments of penance, the Eucharist and anointing of the sick to members of the eastern Churches not in full communion with the Catholic Church, if they spontaneously ask for them and are properly disposed. If there is danger of death or if, in the judgement of the diocesan Bishop or of the Episcopal Conference, there is some other grave and pressing need, Catholic ministers may lawfully administer these same sacraments to other Christians not in full communion with the Catholic Church."
The Vatican II Concept of Democratic Government
The Vatican II document "Lumen Gentium" is explicitly adopted by the new Vatican II Canon 336, a doctrine whereby the college of Bishops together with the Vatican II "pope" equally enjoy supreme power in the Church, habitually and constantly.
Vatican II Canon 336 "This College of Bishops, in which the apostolic body abides in an unbroken manner, is, in union with its head and never without this head, also the subject of supreme and full power over the universal Church."
This doctrine of double supreme power is contrary to the teaching and practice of the true Catholic Church, especially in the First Vatican Council (DZ. 3055) and in Pope Leo XIII's Encyclical "Satis Cognitum." The Pope alone has this supreme power which he communicates as he judges opportune and in extraordinary circumstances.
The Vatican II Concept of The Natural Rights of Man
The Vatican II Council's declaration "Dignitatis Humanae" affirms a false natural human right "in matters of religion" contrary to prior papal teachings, which formally deny such a blasphemy.
Pius IX in his Encyclical "Quanta Cura", Leo XIII in his Encyclicals "Libertas Praestantissimum" and "Immortale Dei", Pius XII in his allocution "Le Riesce", addressed to Italian Catholic jurists, deny that such a right has any basis in reason or revelation.
These doctrines are based on a false concept of human dignity, stemming from the agnostic and materialist pseudo-philosophers of the French Revolution, already condemned by St. Pius X in his pontifical letter "Our Apostolic Mandate."
The Vatican II document "Gaudium et Spes" expresses a false principle when it regards human and Christian dignity as being a consequence of the Incarnation, which restored this dignity for all men. This same error is repeated in John Paul II's Encyclical "Redemptor Hominis."
The Vatican II Concept of the Mass
The new concept of the Church as defined by John Paul II calls for a profound change in the principal act of the Church, which is the Sacrifice of the Mass. The new Vatican II definition is that the Mass is "a service and a collegial, ecumenical communion." A better definition could not be found for the new mass, which, like the new Vatican II Church, is a wide departure from the true Church's Tradition and Magisterium.
It is a concept that is more Protestant than Catholic and explains all that has been unduly exalted and all that has been diminished.
Contrary to the teaching of the Council of Trent in the 22nd Session, and contrary to Pius XII's Encyclical "Mediator Dei", the faithful's part in the Mass has been exaggerated and that of the priest diminished until he is now no more than the president, after the manner of Protestants.
The place of the liturgy of the word has been exaggerated at the expense of the Sacrifice.
The communion meal has been exalted and layicized at the expense of respect for and faith in the real presence through transubstantiation.
Popes St. Pius V and Clement VIII insisted on the necessity of avoiding changes and mutations by perpetually adhering to this Roman rite consecrated by Tradition.
Vatican II's Unimpeded Errors and Heresies
Vatican II introduces the Protestant practice of free judgement, the consequence of many creeds within the V2 church.
Vatican II universities and major seminaries now teach modern philosophies rather than traditional Catholic doctrine.
Vatican II favors "Humanism" which echos the modern world by making man the end of all things.
Vatican II favors "Naturalism" which exalts man and human values, thereby causing the supernatural values of the Redemption and of grace to be forgotten.
Vatican II favors "Evolution" which causes the true Catholic teachings of 20 centuries to be rejected.
Vatican II refuses to condemn the errors of "Socialism and Communism." The attitude of the Vatican II false-popes since the 1960's confirms this, on both sides of the Iron Curtain.
Vatican II agreements with "Masonry", the "World Council of Churches" and "Moscow" have reduced the Vatican II sect to the status of prisoner to these organizations.
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| SSPX: No Problem taking CV Vaccine from Aborted Fetal Lines |
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Posted by: Stone - 11-23-2020, 08:31 AM - Forum: The New-Conciliar SSPX
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Hard to believe it's true but here it is in their own words, citing as an authority, the Conciliar Church's pronouncement from 2005 [under Benedict XVI] that Catholics can take a Covid vaccine that is derived from or contains aborted fetal cells:
sspx.org/en/news-events/news/can-catholic-good-conscience-receive-coronavirus-vaccine-62007
As one reads it- it reads exactly as a modernist hit piece: Believe what we tell you; you have no other choice; our experts tell us its fine to take the vaccine derived from aborted fetal cells; 'the [Conciliar] Church has provided prudent guidance' on this issue, no need to look elsewhere, etc.
Here is Fr. Hewko's excellent reminder that the Church [of Tradition- not the Conciliar Church] does NOT allow for this abomination [beginning at the relevant minute mark]:
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| SSPX: No Problem taking CV Vaccine from Aborted Fetal Lines |
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Posted by: Stone - 11-23-2020, 08:31 AM - Forum: Pandemic 2020 [Spiritual]
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Hard to believe it's true but here it is in their own words, citing as an authority, the Conciliar Church's pronouncement from 2005 [under Benedict XVI] that Catholics can take a Covid vaccine that is derived from or contains aborted fetal cells:
sspx.org/en/news-events/news/can-catholic-good-conscience-receive-coronavirus-vaccine-62007
As one reads it- it reads exactly as a modernist hit piece: Believe what we tell you; you have no other choice; our experts tell us its fine to take the vaccine derived from aborted fetal cells; 'the [Conciliar] Church has provided prudent guidance' on this issue, no need to look elsewhere, etc.
Here is Fr. Hewko's excellent reminder that the Church [of Tradition- not the Conciliar Church] does NOT allow for this abomination [beginning at the relevant minute mark]:
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| Interesting Conversation Between Jesus and Satan |
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Posted by: Elizabeth - 11-22-2020, 04:22 PM - Forum: Catholic Prophecy
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The Prophecies of Fraudais
CHAPTER XIII - ULTIMATE REVELATIONS
THE DEVIL’S SHARE
I see in the sun, that when the Lord ascended into Heaven and took possession of His kingdom, then hell became the kingdom of the Enemy. The Lord took possession of His earthly kingdom and said:
"I am established as Eternal King.”
Satan, furious, looks for some deviations in order to maliciously extend his power...
The Lord says to him: "You will be subject to Me; you will do only what My eternal law allows you.”
Satan asks to bear the name of Prince and that the finger of the Lord engrave this name in the sight of us all.
"Yes, you shall have all the names... the name of Prince: Prince of Darkness, Prince of the Abyss... "
"Don't put limits to Thy power," says Satan, "let me be free to expand as greatly as Thou should expand, until the end of the centuries."
"I will remain, as King, above all that you will do, above all that you will possess. I will be above, and I will command.”
Satan revolts. Yet he had his share, but the Lord also took enjoyment of His possessions.
The Lord says to him: "Prostrate yourself at My feet and worship My wills.”
"I will bend the knee, but on one condition... Let me be free," Satan said with authority, "to use, as Thou do and at my will, power over death, to be its master".
"I give you the power to tempt all men, to make them suffer to a certain extent... but I will be present".
Satan also asks for the power to perform wonders. The Lord does not leave it entirely to him, but He gives him something so that we can gain merits.
"In the beginning," says the Lord, "you shall not do many wonders, but a few. They will serve you for evil."
Satan protests that the share is not fair.
"A time will come, far away," the Lord replied, "when you will have so great a multitude in the world that your portion will exceed Mine. You will become a great conqueror for a period of time that will be too long and yet will be very short. While you are conquering multitudes, I will perform brilliant wonders and an earthquake, when the world is about to perish, when you will triumph over a victory without measure, when almost all parts of the world and the whole of Europe will rise up against each other. During the darkness there will be many conversions; many who have gone astray will come back to Me in repentance."
As they are about to separate, to return each one to his kingdom, Satan asks for the power to take all forms, in order to go everywhere.
"I give you permission to tempt My people," replies the Lord, "but I will never allow you to take the divine form or that of true figures (1)."
... Satan dares to be on first-name terms with the Lord.
"Respect Me, in the name of My Eternal Power.”
"Yes," says Satan, "one day, far from this day, Thou appears to tell me that I am a mighty conqueror. Thou will not put limits to the ravages which, already, the desire devours me...".
Marie-Julie asks the Flame of the Holy Ghost if the time is fixed, where Satan shall reign as such a great master. The Flame answers that it is fixed in the designs of the Lord and that the Devil feels the moment, without knowing it exactly. "It is the one where you are now, children of God", says the Flame.
Satan continues.
"In the beginning of that time," he said, "I will use every blasphemy and every unjust thing for the destruction of Thy kingdom... I will turn everything into a tool to work against Thee. First, I will dig that place where the greatest number dwell... [You do not ignore what it is, says the Flame (2)] "I will dig this place on which you will bring down lightning...”
“You will destroy first, and, I after you, I will finish it all; I will make a rubble such as has never existed. I will cover Mine with the protection of tenderness," says the Lord.
"I will bring about a revolt between Thine and mine," says Satan; "I will raise up all kings; I will put a division that will lead to civil war throughout the universe.”
"On My side," the Lord continues, "I will send My Justice: punishments, miracles, deaths, plagues, pestilences, unknown diseases...”
"I will overthrow the temple of Thy prayers," Satan claims; "I will set up idols there to be worshipped. Everything that in peacetime resides in Thy temples will be broken, dragged out, reduced to dust by mine.”
"I will show," says the Lord, "that I am the Eternal King. I will crush, under the thunderbolt of heaven, all those who will be given to you for hell. I will restore my people; I will preserve them from the plagues; I will raise up the ruins. I will cast you into the abyss, but only after you have used the powers, I leave you for now."
The Flame says that the pain is close to entering the hearts and Hell ready to sing the great song of its victory.
Mary Julie Jahenny (August 30th , 1880) page 247-250
(1) By true figures is meant, no doubt, the resemblance to saints or persons who really existed.
(2) Paris.
Jesus and Satan's Conversation.pdf (Size: 160.21 KB / Downloads: 2)
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Lord of the Rings: Apocalyptic Prophecies |
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Posted by: Elizabeth - 11-22-2020, 04:01 PM - Forum: Catholic Prophecy
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This link has the book available in a variety of different types of files.
https://archive.org/details/LordOfTheRin...Prophecies
Lord of the Rings: Apocalyptic Prophecies
Published at:
Scribd.com
© Copyright 2014, 2015 E.A. Bucchianeri
Work published gratis by the author: you may freely share this work, download it, print
copies, etc., without seeking the author’s permission. However, if quoting any material for personal
or research purposes, please include the proper credit / citations, credits, bibliography, etc. Artwork
used is either in the public domain, or issued under Creative Common Licences.
Table of Contents:
In the End Times: the Great Monarch and the Angelic Pontiff
A Hidden King ~ Descendant of a Great Lineage
Absolute Monarchies ~ Approved by Heaven
The Bible and Prophecies: Inspiration for Tolkien’s Great Epic?
Aragorn and the Prophecies of the Great Monarch
The Angelic Pontiff
Lord Sauron ~ Veiled Malice
The Great Period of Peace
Bibliography
Illustration Credits
“ ‘These are indeed strange days,’ he muttered.
‘Dreams and legends spring to life out of the grass.’ ”
~ J.R.R. Tolkien, The Two Towers
Darkness covers the land, war and rumours of war threaten the lands of Middle Earth, the powers of evil are rising, the earth itself is convulsed, yet there is hope; a small band of courageous souls enter upon a nigh impossible quest to quell a diabolical enemy, while a hidden king comes to claim his rightful throne through the turmoil of battle as foretold by prophets of old and rebuilds his kingdom laid waste by his enemies.
The plot of J.R.R. Tolkien’s classic High Fantasy epic, Lord of the Rings, is it not? However, the above narrative may be more than a fantastic story. Is it possible Tolkien was inspired by astounding Roman Catholic prophecies yet to be fulfilled? In fact, not many Catholics are aware of these prophecies, and for those who have read them do not believe, for they indeed sound surreal as though penned by a fiction author despite having been imparted by approved saints and mystics of the Church.
Why, the reader may ask? These little known prophecies may sound fantastic, but in truth are downright frightening, condemning the sinful corruption of both the Church and the secular world alike. One may dare to suggest these foretellings have been suppressed from the majority of the faithful due to the damning nature of the warnings from Heaven despite receiving Church approval. Yet, the prophecies are available for those who seek, and Tolkien being a devout Catholic may have woven threads of these revelations into his famous epic, which we shall now explore.
In the End Times: the Great Monarch and the Angelic Pontiff
For centuries, saints and mystics of the Church foretold that near the End Times, Satan would be given a period to test mankind, also foretold in the Book of the Apocalypse: “And after that, he must be loosed a little time.” (Apoc. 20, 2) Pope Leo XIII (pontificate 1878-1903) experienced a vision displaying the liberty that would be granted to Satan, and was shown that the devil and his followers would be given the time he demanded to tempt the world: about seventy-five to one hundred years. The mystic and stigmatist Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich (1774-1824) has even provided the faithful with a date for when this horrific ‘Age of Satan’ would commence. According to her revelations,* the devil and his minions would be allowed this period of freedom fifty or sixty years before the year 2000 AD and they would begin to prepare the earth for this age long before the year ever arrived.
Ominous, is it not?
Other mystics fill in considerable details about this dark time: corruption would cover the earth, sin would be so great that the land will rebel against man and the seasons would no longer be discernible. Morals would become nonexistent, impurity would be so terrible that there would be hardly any virgin souls left on earth. Hedonism would grow more rapid than in the pagan times. The Church itself would become corrupt from within and would abandon its holy traditions as they had been practised for centuries, (often perceived to be the revolutionary reformations of the Vatican II Council), and that Heaven would be forced to send cataclysmic misfortunes to the earth in an attempt to bring mankind back to its senses such as previously unknown plagues, famines, catastrophic earthquakes, three World Wars, the threat of Muslim invasions in the western world and the complete destruction of Paris to name a few. When these fail, the last and greatest punishment would be the Three Days of Darkness when all Hell would literally and physically be let loose, destruction would come in a rain of fire, and those not properly prepared for these chastisements would be struck dead. Two-thirds, or in some prophecies, three-quarters of the human race would be annihilated, those remaining would be left to repopulate and rebuild the earth.
After these horrific days have passed, there would be a great period of peace the like of which was never witnessed before in history. Heresies will be wiped out, world wide conversions will take place. All Christian churches separated by heresy or schism would come back to the Roman Catholic fold, which would be completely reformed back to its former Latin traditions under the guidance of a great pope, an ‘Angelic Pontiff’. In union with the Angelic Pontiff, the secular world would be ruled by a Great Monarch who will be chosen by Heaven to restore all the absolute monarchies of Europe that would then rule under his sceptre as in the days of the Holy Roman Empire. This great period of peace would last for about thirty years until the death of the Great Monarch, after which the Antichrist will reveal himself and attempt to corrupt the faithful once more before Christ shall appear from Heaven with His Angels on the Last Day and commence the General Judgement. This appears to be the general outline of the various prophecies.
Concerning the Great Monarch, who is he? From whence shall he appear? From the numerous prophecies, the time of his appearance is difficult to discern— he will be a man of war, driving back enemies that will have invaded Europe. The miracles that will appear at his coming and his own personal holiness will be so great he will convert many and his enemies will be quickly defeated. From this we can assume he might come during a great war before the harrowing Three Days of Darkness with its Rain of Fire, although it is still possible he might come after. However, there is no doubt from what country he will take his throne: he will be a descendant of the Merovinginan dynasty, Charlemagne and the slaughtered Bourbons. He will be the last and greatest of the Kings of France.
* Bl. Catherine Emmerich’s revelations were recorded by the author Clemens Brentano, and unfortunately it is noted he introduced several of his own embellishments to her testimony making it impossible to discern her prophecies from his additions. That being said, Catholics continue to read her revelations as recorded by Brentano and Tolkien may have also been influenced by what was attributed to her, hence her prophecies are also included in this study.
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| First Sunday of Advent |
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Posted by: Stone - 11-22-2020, 02:30 PM - Forum: Advent
- Replies (7)
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FIRST SUNDAY IN ADVENT.
Taken from Fr. Leonard Goffine's Explanations of the Epistles and Gospels for the Sundays, Holydays throughout the Ecclesiastical Year, 1880
THE first Sunday in Advent is the first day of the Ecclesiastical Year, and the beginning of the holy season of Advent. The Church commences, on this day, to contemplate the coming of the Redeemer, and with the prophets to long for Him; during the entire season of Advent she unites her prayers with their sighs, in order to awaken in her children also the desire for the grace of the Redeemer; above all to move them to true penance for their sins, because these are the greatest obstacles in the path of that gracious Advent; therefore she prays at the
Introit of the day's Mass: To Thee, O Lord, have I lifted up my soul: in Thee, O my God, I put my trust; let me not be ashamed: neither let my enemies laugh at me: for none of them that wait on Thee shall be confounded. Show me, O Lord, Thy ways, and teach me Thy paths." (Ps.XXIV)
V. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost. As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.
PRAYER OF THE CHURCH. Raise up, we beseech Thee, O Lord, Thy power, and come; that by Thy protection we may deserve to be rescued from the threatening dangers of our sins, and to be saved by Thy deliverance.
EPISTLE. (Rom. XIII. 11 — 14.) Brethren, knowing the time, that it is now the hour for us to rise from sleep: for now our salvation is nearer than when we believed. The night is past, and the day is at hand. Let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and put on the armor of light. Let us walk honestly, as in the day: not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and impurities, not in contention and strife; but put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ.
Quote:What does St. Paul teach us in this epistle?
After fully explaining the duties of a Christian life to the Romans who were converted mainly by St. Peter, he exhorts them to hesitate no longer to fulfill these duties, and he seeks to move their hearts by this time of grace, presented them by the Christian dispensation, and by the shortness of the time of grace.
What is meant here by sleep?
The stupidity and blindness of the soul that, forgetting her God, is sunk in a lukewarm, effeminate, slothful and lustful life, which, when it is gone, leaves nothing more than a dream.
Why does St. Paul say, “salvation is nearer”?
He wishes to impress upon the Romans that they now have far greater hope of salvation than when they first became Christians, and that they should secure it by a pious life, because death, and the moment on which depended their salvation, or eternal reward, was drawing near. "What is our life," says St. Chrysostom, "other than a course, a dangerous course to death, through death to immortality?"
What is the signification of day and night?
The night signifies the time before Christ, full of darkness, of infidelity, and of injustice; the day represents the present time, in which by the gospel Christ enlightens the whole world with the teachings of the true faith.
What are the "works of darkness"?
All sins, and especially those which are committed in the dark, to shun the eye of God and man.
What is the "armor of light"?
That faith, virtue and grace, the spiritual armor, with which we battle against our three enemies, the world, the flesh, and the devil, and in which armor we should walk honestly before all men. A Christian who in baptism has renounced the devil and all his pomps, must not live in vice, but must put on Christ Jesus, that is, must by the imitation of Christ's virtues adorn his soul, as it were, with a beautiful garment. This text (verse 13J moved St. Augustine to fly from all works of uncleanliness in which he had been involved, and to lead a pure life which he had before thought difficult.
ASPIRATION. Grant, O Lord, that we may rise by penance from the sleep of our sins, may walk in the light of Thy grace by the performance of good works, may put on Thee and adorn our souls with the imitation of Thy virtues. Amen.
GOSPEL. (Luke, XXI. 25—33.) At that time, Jesus said to his disciples: There shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars: and upon the earth distress of nations, by reason of the confusion of the roaring of the sea and of the waves, men withering away for fear and expectation of what shall come upon them. For the powers of heaven shall be moved; and then they shall see the Son of man coming in a cloud with great power and majesty. But when these things begin to come to pass, look up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is at hand. And he spoke to them a similitude: See the fig-tree, and all the trees; when they now shoot forth their fruit, you know that summer is nigh. So you also, when you shall see these things come to pass, know that the kingdom of God is at hand. Amen I say to you, this generation shall not pass away till all things be fulfilled. Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.
Quote:Why does the Church cause the gospel of the Last Judgment to be read on this day?
To move us to penance, and to induce us to prepare our souls for the coming of Christ, by placing the Last Judgment before our minds. Should not the thought of this terrible Judgment, when all good and all evil will be revealed, and accordingly be rewarded or punished in the presence of the whole world— should not this thought strengthen us in virtue!
What signs will precede the Last Judgment?
The sun will be obscured, the stars will lose their light and disappear in the firmament, (Isai. XIII. 10) lightning and flames will surround the earth, and wither up every thing; the powers of heaven will be moved, the elements brought to confusion ; the roaring of the sea with the howling of the winds, and the beating of the storms, will fill man with terror and dread. Such evil and distress will come upon the world, that man will wither away from fear, not knowing whither to turn. Then will appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven, the holy cross, the terror of the sinners who have scorned it, the consolation of the just who have loved it. (Matt. XXIV. 30.)
Why will all this come to pass?
Because as the people love the creatures of God so inordinately, more than the Creator, and use them only to His dishonor, He will destroy them in this terrible manner, arming all creatures for vengeance against His enemies, (Wisdom V. 8 — 24.) and showing by the manner of their destruction the evils which will fall upon all sinners, darkness of the sun will indicate the darkness of hell; the blood-red moon, the anger and wrath of God; the disappearance and falling of the stars, will represent the fall of sinners into the abyss of hell and their disappearance from earth; and the madness of the elements, will exhibit the rage of the beasts of hell. Sinners will then vainly, and too late repent that they have attached their hearts to things which will end so horribly, and that only increase their torments.
Why does Christ nevertheless command: “Lift up your heads, for your redemption is at hand”?
These words are spoken to the just who as long as they live on earth are like prisoners and exiles, but who at the Last Judgment will be taken body and soul into their long desired fatherland, the kingdom of heaven: into the freedom of the children of God. These will have reason to raise their heads, now bowed in mourning, and to rejoice.
How will the Last Judgment commence?
By the command of God the angels will sound the trumpets, summoning men from all four parts of the earth to come to judgment. (I. Thess. IV. 15.) Then the bodies of the dead will unite with their souls, and be brought to the valley of Josaphat, and there placed, the just on the right, the wicked on the left. (Matt. XXV. 33.) Then will appear the devils as well as the angels; Christ Himself will be seen coming in a cloud, in such power and majesty that the sinners will be filled with terror. They will not dare to look at Him, and will cry to the mountains to fall upon them, and to the hills to cover them. (Luke XXIII. 30.)
How will the judgment be held?
The books of conscience, upon which all men are to be judged, and which closed with this Life, will be opened. All good and evil thoughts, words, deeds and motives, even the most secret, known only to God, will then be as plainly revealed to the whole world as if they were written on each one's forehead; by these each one will be judged, and be eternally rewarded, or eternally punished.
O God! If we must then give an account of every idle word, (Matt. XII.36.) how can we stand in the face of so many sinful words and actions!
Why will God hold a universal public judgment?
Although immediately after death, a special private judgment of each soul takes place, God has ordained a public and universal judgment for the following reasons: First, that it may be clearly shown to all how just has been His private judgment , and also that the body which has been the instrument of sin or of virtue may share in the soul's punishment or reward; secondly, that the justice which they could by no means obtain in this life, may be rendered before the whole world to the oppressed poor, and to persecuted innocence, and that the wicked who have abused the righteous, and yet have been considered honest and good, may be put to shame before all; thirdly, that the graces and means of salvation bestowed upon each, may be made known; fourthly, that the blessed providence of God which often permitted the righteous to suffer evil while the wicked prospered, may be vindicated, and it be shown on that day, that His acts are acts of the greatest wisdom; fifthly, that the wicked may learn the goodness of God, not for their comfort or benefit, but for their greater sorrow, that they may see how He rewards even the slightest work performed for His love and honor; finally, that Christ may be exalted before the wicked on earth as before the good in heaven, and that the truth of His words may solemnly be made manifest.
ASPIRATION. Just art Thou O God, and just are Thy judgments. Ah, penetrate my soul with holy fear of them, that I may be kept always in awe, and avoid sin. Would that I could say with the penitent St. Jerome: "Whether I, eat or drink, or whatever I do, I seem to hear the awful sound of the trumpet in my ears: 'Arise ye dead, and come to judgment'."
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| Advent Customs |
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Posted by: Stone - 11-22-2020, 01:45 PM - Forum: Advent
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Maria von Trapp: Celebrating with the Family in Heaven
Advent
The events that come to mind when we say "Christmas," "Easter," "Pentecost," are so tremendous that their commemoration cannot be celebrated in a single day each. Weeks are needed. First, weeks of preparation, of becoming attuned in body and soul, and then weeks of celebration. This goes back to an age when people still had time--time to live, time to enjoy. In our own day, we face the puzzling fact that the more time-saving gadgets we invent, the more new buttons to push in order to "save hours of work"--the less time we actually have. We have no more time to read books; we can only afford digests. We have no time to walk a quarter of a mile; we have to hop into a car. We have no time to make things by hand; we buy them ready made in the five-and-ten or in the supermarket. This atmosphere of "hurry up, let's go" does not provide the necessary leisure in which to anticipate and celebrate a feast. But as soon as people stop celebrating they really do not live any more--they are being lived, as it were. The alarming question arises: what is being done with all the time that is constantly being saved? We invent more machines and more gadgets, which will relieve us more and more from the work formerly done by our hands, our feet, our brain, and which will carry us in feverishly increasing speed--where? Perhaps to the moon and other planets, but more probably to our final destruction.
Only the Church throws light onto the gloomy prospects of modern man--Holy Mother Church--for she belongs, herself, to a realm that has its past and present in Time, but its future in the World Without End.
It was fall when we arrived in the United States. The first weeks passed rapidly, filled with new discoveries every day, and soon we came across a beautiful feast, which we had never celebrated before: Thanksgiving Day, an exclusively American feast. With great enthusiasm we included it in the calendar of our family feasts.
Who can describe our astonishment, however, when a few days after our first Thanksgiving Day we heard from a loudspeaker in a large department store the unmistakable melody of "Silent Night"! Upon our excited inquiry, someone said, rather surprised: "What is the matter? Nothing is the matter. Time for Christmas shopping!"
It took several Christmas seasons before we understood the connection between Christmas shopping and "Silent Night" and the other carols blaring from loudspeakers in these pre-Christmas weeks. And even now that we do understand, it still disturbs us greatly. These weeks before Christmas, known as the weeks of Advent, are meant to be spent in expectation and waiting. This is the season for Advent songs--those age-old hymns of longing and waiting; "Silent Night" should be sung for the first time on Christmas Eve. We found that hardly anybody knows any Advent songs. And we were startled by something else soon after Christmas, Christmas trees and decorations vanish from the show windows to be replaced by New Year's advertisements. On our concert trips across the country we also saw that the lighted Christmas trees disappear from homes and front yards and no one thinks to sing a carol as late as January 2nd. This was all very strange to us, for we were used to the old-world Christmas, which was altogether different but which we determined to celebrate now in our new country.
THE ADVENT WREATH
In the week before the first Sunday in Advent, we began to inquire where we could obtain the various things necessary to make an Advent wreath.
"A what?" was the invariable answer, accompanied by a blank look.
And we learned that nobody seemed to know what an Advent wreath is. (This was fifteen years ago.) For us it was not a question of whether or not we would have an Advent wreath. The wreath was a must. Advent would be unthinkable without it. The question was only how to get it in a country where nobody seemed to know about it.
Back in Austria we used to go to a toy shop and buy a large hoop, about three feet in diameter. Then we would tie hay around it, three inches thick, as a foundation; and around this we would make a beautiful wreath of balsam twigs. The whole was about three feet in diameter and ten inches thick. As we tried the different toy shops in Philadelphia, the sales people only smiled indulgently and made us feel like Rip Van Winkle. "Around the turn of the century" they had sold the last hoop.
"Necessity is the mother of invention." Martina, who had made the Advent wreath during our last Advents back home, decided to buy strong wire at ahardware store and braid it into a round hoop. Then she tied oldnewspaper around it, instead of hay, and went out to look for balsam twigs. We lived in Germantown, a suburb of Philadelphia. Martina looked at all the evergreens in our friends' gardens, but there was no balsam fir. So she chose the next best and came home with a laundry basket full of twigs from a yew tree. In the hardware store, where she had bought the wire, she also got four tall spikes, which she worked into her newspaper reel as candleholders, and in the five-and-ten next door she bought a few yards of strong red ribbon and four candles. The yew twigs made a somewhat feathery Advent wreath; but, said Martina, "It's round and it's made of evergreen, and that is all that is necessary." And she was right. An Advent wreath is round as a symbol of God's mercy of which every season of Advent is a new reminder; and it has to be made of evergreens to symbolize God's "everlastingness."
This was the only Advent we celebrated at home because the manager who arranged the concerts for us had discovered that our tenth child would soon arrive and had canceled the concerts for the month of December. In the next few years a much smaller Advent wreath would be made by our children and fastened to the ceiling of the big blue bus in which we toured the country. We always started out by looking for balsam fir, but not until years later, when we were to have our own farm in Vermont, would we have a balsam Advent wreath again. Meanwhile we had to take what we could find in the way of evergreens in Georgia it was holly; in Virginia, boxwood; in Florida, pine. The least desirable of all was spruce, which we used the year we traveled through Wisconsin, because spruce loses its needles quickest. But as long as it was an evergreen....
In order to get ready for the celebration of the beginning of Advent, one more thing has to be added a tall, thick candle, the Advent candle, as a symbol of Him Whom we call "the Light of the World." During these weeks of Advent it will be the only light for the family evening prayer. Its feeble light is the symbol and reminder of mankind's state of spiritual darkness during Advent.
On the first of January a new calendar year begins. On the first Sunday of Advent the new year of the Church begins. Therefore, the Saturday preceding the first Advent Sunday has something of the character of a New Year's Eve. One of the old customs is to choose a patron saint for the new year of the Church. The family meets on Saturday evening, and with the help of the missal and a book called "The Martyrology," which lists thousands of saints as they are celebrated throughout the year, they choose as many new saints as there are members of the household. We always choose them according to a special theme. One year, for instance, we had all the different Church Fathers; another year we chose only martyrs; then again, only saints of the new world....During the war we chose one saint of every country at war.
The newly chosen names are handed over to the calligrapher of the family (first it was Johanna; after she married, Rosemary took over). She writes the names of the saints in gothic lettering on little cards. Then she writes the name of every member of the household on an individual card and hands the two sets over to the mother. Now everything is ready.
In the afternoon of the first Sunday of Advent, around vesper time, the whole family--and this always means "family" in the larger sense of the word, including all the members of the household--meets in the living room. The Advent wreath hangs suspended from the ceiling on four red ribbons; the Advent candle stands in the middle of the table or on a little stand on the side. Solemnly the father lights one candle on the Advent wreath, and, for the first time, the big Advent candle. Then he reads the Gospel of the first Sunday of Advent. After this the special song of Advent is intoned for the first time, the ancient "Ye heavens, dew drop from above, and rain ye clouds the Just One...."
It cannot be said often enough that during these weeks before Christmas, songs and hymns of Advent should be sung. No Christmas carols! Consciously we should work toward restoring the true character of waiting and longing to these precious weeks before Christmas. Just before Midnight Mass, on December 24th, is the moment to sing for the first time "Silent Night, Holy Night," for this is the song for this very night. It may be repeated afterwards as many times as we please, but it should not be sung before that holy night.
Since we have found that Advent hymns have been largely forgotten, we want to include here the ones we most often sing; and we also want to explain how we collected our songs. First, there were a certain number, the traditional ones, which were still sung in homes and in church during the weeks of Advent. Then we looked for collections in libraries; we inquired among friends and acquaintances; we wrote to people we had met on our travels in foreign countries. Each song that has come to us in this way is particularly dear to us--a personal friend rather than a chance acquaintance.
COME, O COME, EMMANUEL
The text of this hymn is based on the seven Great Antiphons (O-Antiphons) which are said before and after the Magnificat at Vespers from December17 to 23. The metrical Latin form dates from the early 18th century.
1. O come, O come, Emmanuel,
And ransom captive Israel,
That mourns in lonely exile here,
Until the Son of God appear.
Refrain: Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel!
Shall come to thee, O Israel!
2. O come, Thou Wisdom from on high,
Who ordrest all things mightily;
To us the path of knowledge show,
And teach us in her ways to go.--Refrain
3. O come, Thou Key of David, come,
And open wide our heav'nly home;
Make safe the way that leads to thee,
And close the path to misery.--Refrain
4. O come, Desire of Nations, bind
In one the hearts of all mankind;
Bid thou our sad divisions cease,
And be thyself our King of Peace.--Refrain
DROP YOUR DEW, YE CLOUDS OF HEAVEN
Text, Isaias 45,8; melody, first (Dorian) mode.
This is the medieval Advent call--sing three times, each time a tone higher.
1. Drop your dew, ye clouds of heaven,
Rain the Just One now to save!
With that cry the night was riven
From the world, a yawning grave.
On the earth by God forsaken
Sin and death their toll had taken.
Tightly shut was heaven's gate,
For salvation all must wait.
2. To redeem our sad condition
Was the Father's loving Will,
And the Son took the glad mission
His decision to fulfill.
Gabriel to earth descended,
Brought the answer long attended
"See the Handmaid of the Lord,
Do according to thy word."
3. Let us walk with right intention,
Not in drunkenness and greed,
Quarrels, envies and contention
Banished far from us indeed.
Fully now to imitate Him
As with longing we await Him
Is the duty of these days,
As the great Apostle says.
O SAVIOUR, HEAVEN'S PORTAL REND
Text and melody, 17th century German. This forceful melody in the first (Dorian) mode should be sung in unison.
1. O Saviour, heaven's portals rend,
Come down, from heav'n, to earth descend!
Open celestial gate and door;
Never to lock nor fasten more.
2. O brilliant Sun, O lovely Star,
We dare behold Thee from afar.
O Sun arise, without Thy light
We languish all in darkest night.
3. Drop dew, ye heavens from above,
Come in the dew, O God of love!
Ye clouds now break, rain down the King,
His peace to Jacob's house to bring.
MARIA WALKS AMID THE THORN
German folksong known since the 16th century; probably much older. Translation, Henry S. Drinker.
1. Maria walks amid the thorn,
Kyrie eleison,
Which seven years no leaf has borne,
She walks amid the wood of thorn,
Jesus and Maria.
2. What 'neath her heart does Mary bear?
Kyrie eleison.
A little child does Mary bear,
Beneath her heart He nestles there.
Jesus and Maria.
3. And as the two are passing near,
Kyrie eleison,
Lo! roses on the thorns appear,
Lo! roses on the thorns appear.
Jesus and Maria.
BLESSED MOTHER OF THE SAVIOUR
Text by Hermann the Cripple, 1013-1054, monk at Reichenau in the Lake of Constance. Melody in the fifth (Lydian) mode. This is the liturgical Antiphon in honor of the Blessed Virgin for the season of Advent and Christmas.
Blessed Mother of the Savior,
thou art the gate leading us to heaven,
and Star of the Sea, aid thy falling people,
help all those who seek to rise again.
Thou who art the Mother, all nature wondering,
to thy Lord, thy own Creator: Virgin before, Virgin forever,
from Gabriel's mouth thou didst hear that blessed Ave,
on us poor sinners take pity.
After our first gathering around the Advent light, and the singing of the first Advent hymn, an air of expectancy spreads over the family group; now comes the moment when the mother goes around with a bowl in which are the little cards with the names of the new saints. Everybody draws a card and puts it in his missal. This saint will be invoked every morning after morning prayer. Everyone is supposed to look up and study the life story of his new friend, and some time during the coming year he will tell the family all about it. As there are so many of us, we come to know about different saints every year. Sometimes this calls for considerable research on the part of the unfortunate one who has drawn St. Eustachius, for instance, or St. Bibiana. But the custom has become very dear to us, and every year it seems as if the family circle were enlarged by all those new brothers and sisters entering in and becoming known and loved by all.
And then comes another exciting moment. Once more the mother appears with the bowl, which she passes around. This time the pieces of paper contain the names of the members of the family and are neatly rolled up, because the drawing has to be done in great secrecy. The person whose name one has drawn is now in one's special care. From this day until Christmas, one has to do as many little favors for him or her as one can. One has to provide at least one surprise every single day--but without ever being found out. This creates a wonderful atmosphere of joyful suspense, kindness, and thoughtfulness. Perhaps you will find that somebody has made your bed or shined your shoes or has informed you, in a disguised handwriting on a holy card, that "a rosary has been said for you today" or a number of sacrifices have been offered up. This new relationship is called "Christkindl" (Christ Child) in the old country, where children believe that the Christmas tree and the gifts under it are brought down by the Christ Child himself.
The beautiful thing about this particular custom is that the relationship is a reciprocal one. The person whose name I have drawn and who is under my care becomes for me the helpless little Christ Child in the manger; and as I am performing these many little acts of love and consideration for someone in the family I am really doing them for the Infant of Bethlehem, according to the word, "And he that shall receive one such little child in my name, receiveth me." That is why this particular person turns into "my Christkindl." At the same time I am the "Christkindl" also for the one I am caring for because I want to imitate the Holy Child and render all those little services in the same spirit as He did in that small house of Nazareth, when as a child He served His Mother and His foster father with a similar love and devotion.
Many times throughout these weeks can be heard such exclamations as, "I have a wonderful Christkindl this year!" or, "Goodness, I forgot to do something for my Christkindl and it is already suppertime!" It is a delightful custom, which creates much of the true Christmas spirit and ought to be spread far and wide.
And there is still one very important thing to do for Advent. According to Austrian custom, every member of the family writes a letter to the Holy Child mentioning his resolutions for the weeks of Advent and listing all his wishes for gifts. This "Christkindl Brief" (letter to the Holy Child) is put on the window sill, from whence the Guardian Angel will take it up to heaven to read it aloud to the Holy Child.
To make small children (and older ones, too) aware of the happy expectancy of Advent, there is a special Advent calendar which clever hands can make at home. It might be a house with windows for each day of Advent; every morning the child opens another window, behind which appears a star, an angel, or some other picture appropriate to the season. On the 23rd, all windows are open, but the big entrance door still is closed. That is opened on Christmas Eve, when it reveals the Holy Child in the manger, or a Christmas tree. All kinds of variations on this theme are possible, such as the Jacob's Ladder shown on our illustration, which leads step by step to the day of Christ's birth. All such little aids make Christmas more wonderful and "special" to a child, and preparing them adds to our own Christmas joy.
{Advent Calendar: Take piece of cardboard; cut out clouds, leaving them attached at one point so that they can fold out. Cut spaces in ladder as on insert so that they can fold down. Take transparent paper same size as cardboard. Paint and draw pictures of stars, angels, toys, etc. on spots behind clouds and ladder steps. For top cloud, put Christmas tree or Christ Child in crib. Paste this on back of calendar. Each day another cloud or ladder step should be opened, until Christmas Eve is reached on top of ladder.}
ST. BARBARA'S DAY
There is a group of fourteen saints known as the "Fourteen Auxiliary Saints." In Austria they are sometimes pictured together in an old chapel, or over a side altar of a church; each one has an attribute by which he may be recognized--St. George will be shown with a dragon, or St. Blaise with two candles crossed. One of these Auxiliary Saints is St. Barbara, whose feast is celebrated on December 4th. She can be recognized by her tower (in which she was kept prisoner) and the ciborium surmounted by the Sacred Host. St. Barbara is invoked against lightning and sudden death. She is the patron saint of miners and artillery men and she is also invoked by young unmarried girls to pick the right husband for them.
On the fourth of December, unmarried members of the household are supposed to go out into the orchard and cut twigs from the cherry trees and put them into water. There is an old belief that whoever's cherry twig blossoms on Christmas Day can expect to get married in the following year. As most of us are always on tour at this time of the year, someone at home will be commissioned to "cut the cherry twigs." These will be put in a vase in a dark corner, each one with a name tag, and on Christmas Day they will be eagerly examined; and even if they are good for nothing else, they provide a nice table decoration for the Christmas dinner.
ST. NICHOLAS' DAY
Although St. Nicholas is not in the illustrious company of the Fourteen Auxiliary Saints, he has been one of the most popular saints in the East and in the West for many hundreds of years. He is the patron of seafarers and also of scholars, bankers, and--thieves. But most of all, he is the very special saint of children. Devotion to St. Nicholas is found in every European country. In the north, in Scandinavia and in northern Germany, he is known as Santa Claus. I do not know what happened to him on his way from Europe to America. While he is still pictured in the old world as an ascetic-looking bishop with cope, mitre, and crozier, since crossing the ocean he has turned into a fat, jolly, red-nosed, elderly gentleman in a snowsuit and a red cap. From Lapland he has brought his reindeer. Unfortunately, he has changed the date of his appearance. In the old country he comes on the evening before his feast day (the feast of St. Nicholas, on December 6th), accompanied by the "Krampus," an ugly, chain-rattling little devil, who has to deal with the children who have been naughty. St. Nicholas is much too kind to do the punishing and scolding himself.
It all goes back to the days when St. Nicholas was Bishop of Myra, where he once discreetly threw alms in through a window as a dowry for three young girls, who would otherwise have been sold into slavery, according to the custom of the day. For this good deed God rewarded him by giving him permission to walk the streets of earth on the eve of his feast, bringing gifts to all good children.
While in some places the children only put their shoes on the window sill on the eve of St. Nicholas' Day and find them filled with candies, cookies, oranges, and dried fruit the next morning (but only the good ones; the bad ones find a switch), in other parts St. Nicholas comes in person. He always did in our house. On the eve of December 5th the whole family would gather in the living room with great expectancy. By the time the much-expected knock at the door could be heard, one could almost hear the anxious heartbeat of the little ones. The holy bishop, in his pontifical vestments, accompanied by Krampus, would enter the room while everybody stood up reverently. St. Nicholas always carried a thick book in which the Guardian Angels make their entries throughout the year.
That's why the saint has such an astonishing knowledge about everybody. He calls each member of the household forward, rewarding the good and admonishing the less good. The good children will get a package of sweets, whereas Krampus aims at the legs of the children who did not deserve one. After everyone has received his due, the holy bishop addresses a few words of general admonition to the whole family, acting as a precursor to the One Who is to come, drawing their thoughts toward Christmas, asking them to prepare their hearts for the coming of the Holy Child. After giving his blessing, he takes his leave, accompanied reverently by the mother, who opens the door for him. Soon afterwards the father, who, oddly enough, usually misses this august visit, will come home, and he has to hear everything about it from the youngest in the house.
Of course it did not occur to us, even in the first and second years in America, that St. Nicholas' Day should pass without the dear saint's appearing in our family circle. In the old home this beloved bishop's attire was stored away in the attic to be used every year on the evening before his feast, but now we had to work with cardboard and paper for the mitre, a bed sheet for an alb, a golden damask curtain borrowed from friends for a cope, and a broomstick artistically transformed into a bishop's staff. But at the right moment St. Nicholas opened the door. That taught us that it really does not require money, but only imagination and good will, to revive or introduce these lovely old customs.
"St. Nicholas smells of Christmas, don't you think, Mother?" one of my little girls said once, meaning that on December 5th the whole house was filled with the same good smell as it would be in the days just before Christmas. For this day there is a special kind of cookie called "Speculatius". The dough is rolled very thin and then cut in the shape of St. Nicholas, and these little figures are then decorated with icing in different colors and candied fruit. And just as we are sharing with the reader our ancient songs and customs, I believe we should also share those ancient recipes that have come down to us through the centuries. So here is the recipe for "Speculatius" (St. Nicholas). It comes from Holland.
Quote:Speculatius
1 cup butter
4 tsp. cinnamon
1 cup lard
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
2 cups brown sugar
1/2 tsp. cloves
1/2 cup sour cream
4-1/2 cups sifted flour
1/2 tsp. soda
1/2 cup chopped nuts
Cream the butter, lard, and sugar. Add sour cream alternately with sifted dry ingredients. Stir in nuts. Knead the dough into rolls. Wrap the rolls in waxed paper and chill in the refrigerator overnight. Roll the dough very thin and cut it into shapes. Bake in moderate oven 10 to 15 minutes.
Another family recipe must not be forgotten here. As we are a rather cosmopolitan family, with one branch of English relatives and with my husband's people coming from northern Germany, and sprinkled with cousins from France and Italy and Switzerland, not to mention personal culinary memories of my husband's early years in the Balkans and our own far-flung journeys, we have quite a number of recipes. This one is a venerated old "must"--a real British plum pudding. It has to be started on the first Sunday of Advent, which in England is still known to this day as "Stir-Up Sunday." There is an old belief that the more you stir a pudding the better it will be, and that each member of the household must come for a good stir. Plum pudding is painstaking to make, and time-consuming, but when it finally appears on the table, aflame with burning brandy, everyone agrees that it was worth the trouble and it wouldn't be Christmas without it.
Quote:Plum Pudding
1 lb. suet
1 fresh orange peel
3 cups brown sugar
1/4 lb. candied orange peel
2 cups stale bread crumbs
1/4 lb. candied grapefruit peel
6 eggs
1-1/2 lb. raisins
juice of ten oranges
1/2 lb. currants
4 cups sifted flour
1/2 lb. citron
1 tsp. ginger
1/4 lb. blanched almonds
1 tsp. salt
2 medium-size raw potatoes
1 tsp. cinnamon
2 medium-size raw apples
1 tsp. nutmeg
2 medium-size raw carrots
1 fresh lemon peel
Grind the suet and bread. Moisten with beaten eggs and orange juice. Add sifted dry ingredients. Grind fresh and candied peel with the raw vegetables. Add these to the batter. Stir in raisins, currants, citron, and almonds. If the pudding is dry or lumpy, add fruit juice. Pack in buttered tins and steam.
"And steam" is taken literally in our house, even now in the days of the pressure cooker. It takes a whole day, eight to ten hours, but then the pudding keeps indefinitely, or, rather, it improves with time. As I write this we have just begun the holy season of Advent.
Yesterday there was in my mail a somewhat bulky, large envelope and when I picked it up, something rattled. I found a Christmas card from our good friends the Sisters of Social Service, and a little brown envelope containing seeds (that, of course, explained the rattling). "Christmas wheat," it said. When I read the explanation, I was happy to know that here was a group who wanted to share a folk custom from their old home--the Sisters of Social Service were founded in Hungary--with their friends in America. With the permission of the Sisters, I pass on the story of this lovely custom, feeling sure that many of us will wish to adopt it.
Quote:THE MEANING OF THE CHRISTMAS WHEAT
It is an ancient Hungarian custom to offer to the Infant in the manger the green sprouts of wheat.
Agriculture is the mainstay of the Hungarian nation and wheat is the symbol of sustenance and prosperity for this nation. It is therefore the most suitable gift for the newborn Saviour.
But it also has a meaning for everyone. The "new wheat" symbolizes the "new bread" in the natural order and also the "New Bread of Life" in the supernatural order; for it is from wheat that the altar bread is made which becomes the Holy Eucharist, the bread of our souls.
The wheat seeds are planted on the day of St. Lucy, the virgin martyr, December 13th. Kept in a moderately warm room and watered daily, the plant reaches its full growth by Christmas. The little daily care given to it is flavored with the joy of expectation for the approaching Christmas and spreads the spirit of cheerfulness as the tender plant reminds us of our spiritual rebirth through the mysteries of Christmas.
To plant the seeds, take a flower pot four or five inches in height and fill it with plain garden sod. Spread the seeds on the top and press gently, so that the seeds are covered with sod. Do not push them too deep.
Watered daily at the manger and paying its simple homage to the newborn Saviour, the plant will last until about January 6th.
"O all ye things that spring up in the earth, bless the Lord." (Canticle of the Three Children)
THE CHRISTMAS CRIB
If asked about the origin of these old folk customs, one sometimes finds it hard to answer. They have come down to us through the centuries out of the gray past. Some are so old that they go back to pre-Christian times, having been baptized together with the people and turned from pagan into Christian customs. But once in a while we know how one or the other custom originated. The Christmas crib as we have it today goes back to St. Francis of Assisi. Not that he was the one who made the first creche.
This devotion is almost as old as the Church. We are told that the very place of Christ's birth and the manger in which He lay "wrapped in swaddling clothes" were already venerated in Bethlehem in the first centuries of the Christian era. Later devout people substituted a silver
manger for the original one and built a basilica over it; and, with the centuries, the veneration of the Holy Child Iying in the manger spread all over the Christian countries. More and more ceremonies sprang up around this devotion, until in medieval times they had grown into a real theatre performance--drama, opera, and ballet combined. Finally, Pope Honorius had to put a stop to this, for it had grown into an abuse. A generation later St. Francis of Assisi got permission for his famous Christmas celebration in the woods of Greccio near Assisi, on Christmas Eve, 1223. His first biographer, Thomas of Celano, tells us how it happened:
"It should be recorded and held in reverent memory what Blessed Francis did near the town of Greccio, on the feast day of the Nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ, three years before his glorious death. In that town lived a certain man by the name of John (Messer Giovanni Velitta) who stood in high esteem, and whose life was even better than his reputation.
Blessed Francis loved him with a special affection because, being very noble and much honored, he despised the nobility of the flesh and strove after the nobility of the soul.
"Blessed Francis often saw this man. He now called him about two weeks before Christmas and said to him "If you desire that we should celebrate this year's Christmas together at Greccio, go quickly and prepare what I tell you; for I want to enact the memory of the Infant who was born at Bethlehem and how He was deprived of all the comforts babies enjoy; how He was bedded in the manger on hay between an ass and an ox. For once I want to see all this with my own eyes." When that good and faithful man had heard this, he departed quickly and prepared in the above-mentioned place everything that the Saint had told him.
"The joyful day approached. The Brethren [the Friars who had gathered around St. Francis] were called from many communities. The men and women of the neighborhood, as best they could, prepared candles and torches to brighten the night. Finally the Saint of God arrived, found everything prepared, saw it and rejoiced. The crib was made ready, hay was brought, the ox and ass were led to the spot....Greccio became a new Bethlehem.
The night was made radiant like the day, filling men and animals with joy. The crowds drew near and rejoiced in the novelty of the celebration. Their voices resounded from the woods, and the rocky cliffs echoed the jubilant outburst. As they sang in praise of God the whole night rang
with exultation. The Saint of God stood before the crib, overcome with devotion and wondrous joy. A solemn Mass was sung at the crib.
"The Saint, dressed in deacon's vestments, for a deacon he was, sang the Gospel. Then he preached a delightful sermon to the people who stood around him, speaking about the nativity of the poor King and the humble town of Bethlehem....And whenever he mentioned the Child of Bethlehem or the Name of Jesus, he seemed to lick his lips as if he would happily taste and swallow the sweetness of that word." (Celano. "Life and Miracles of St. Francis," as quoted in Francis X. Weiser, "The Christmas Book," pp. 106 f., New York, Harcourt, Brace & Co.)
That is the beginning of the creche as we know it in our own day. St. Francis' idea of bringing Bethlehem into one's own town spread quickly all over the Christian world, and when there was a Christmas crib in every church, the families began to re-enact the birth of Christ in their homes too. With loving imagination, more or less elaborately, the little town of Bethlehem would be reconstructed. There would be the cave with the manger, "because there was no room at the inn," and the figures would be carved in wood or modeled in clay or worked after the fashion of puppets. They also might be drawn and painted and then glued on wood.
In some countries whole valleys would take up the carving of these figures--as in Tyrolia and southern Bavaria. Some of these creches are works of great art. On the long winter evenings, during the weeks of Advent, the people are working on them. First, the scenery is set up
again, and then the figures are placed, each year seeing some new additions, until such a crib fills almost a whole room with its hundreds of figures.
Outside the town of Bethlehem, Connecticut, the nuns of the Benedictine Priory, "Regina Laudis," have devoted a whole building to their huge Christmas crib, a Neapolitan work that was given to them as a gift. This beautiful crib could become an American shrine, the center for a pilgrimage during the Christmas season.
Just as the Reformation did away with statues and pictures of saints in Protestant churches, it also deprived many Protestant homes of the creche. A few of the German sects, however, kept up this custom even after the Reformation, and brought it to America. When the Moravians, for example, founded the town of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, on a Christmas Eve, they had preserved the custom of the creche.
At home in Austria we wanted a creche which we could make mostly by ourselves. That is why we did not buy one of the ready-made models, but went out into the woods with the children before the first snowfall and carried home stones, moss, bark, lichen, and pine cones. A large table-top, three by five feet, was placed over two carpenter's sawhorses and draped with green cloth. This was the foundation on which every year a slightly different scene would be erected by artistic young hands--the stony hill with the cave, the field, covered with moss, with shepherds in the foreground. For the figures we bought only the heads and hands, beautifully modeled in wax at a little store in Salzburg that sold handmade and artistically decorated candles and "Lebkuchen". At home we made the foundation of the figures with wire and then dressed them with loving care, and it is incredible what ingenious hands can produce with a needle and thread and remnants of dress material. Every evening during Advent some time was devoted to the creche. At the end of the first week the landscape was completed; the second week was animal week, at the end of which many little sheep were grazing on the meadow and the ox was standing in the cave. In the third week the shepherds appeared, watching their sheep in little groups; while in the fourth week Mary and Joseph could be seen approaching from afar with the little ass, advancing steadily every day. Finally, on Christmas Eve, they reached the cave. The ass joined the ox behind the empty manger. Mary was kneeling down in expectation (that's the beauty of the wire under the blue dress the figures can kneel, stand, or sit), while Saint Joseph hung up a lantern above the manger and everyone seemed to hold his breath, waiting until just before Midnight Mass. Then the youngest member of the family would put the little Baby into the manger and joy would reach its height. After Midnight Mass, the figure of the big angel would appear, suspended on a long wire above the shepherds, announcing, "Glory to God in the Highest."
There is no telling how much love and joy goes into the making of such a crib year after year.
Again I must go back to our first year in this country. Of course, Christmas without a crib under the tree would for us have been Christmas with something essential missing. The beloved figures of our Christmas crib, however, were among the things we had left behind. But now the older children's Christmas present to me in that memorable first year turned out to be a large, elaborate Christmas crib with the figures and the little town of Bethlehem, self-designed, cut out of cardboard and hand-painted. Our neighbors in Germantown had kindly invited the children
to help themselves in their gardens to the necessary bark, moss, and stones.
In addition to the large Christmas crib in the living room, we had one more custom in our family as long as the children were little. We used to place in the nursery a large wooden crib which could hold an almost life-size Infant Jesus. On the first Sunday in Advent it would be empty, but a big bag full of straw would rest beside it. Every evening, after the family evening prayers, each child could take as many pieces of straw from the bag as it had performed sacrifices and good deeds during the day "in order to please the Infant Jesus"--in other words, out of love of God. This is a precious opportunity for a mother to teach her little ones the true nature of a sacrifice brought voluntarily for the love of God.
Meal times furnish excellent occasions for self-denial. To take an extra helping of an unpopular vegetable or to pass up a delicious dessert may be a real sacrifice for a child. So Hedwig ate a whole plateful of very healthy but unloved beets, while Martina followed the chocolate cake with longing eyes, saying, "No, thank you," however. Toys gave another opportunity for self-denial. I could hardly believe my eyes when I found Hedwig's favorite doll, "Happy," in Martina's lap, and Martina's little family of dwarfs--Father Dwarf, Mother Dwarf, and Baby Dwarf--in Johanna's corner, while Johanna had put her otherwise jealously guarded doll house into the middle of the room for everybody to use. These may be acts of heroism; we have only to think of the parable of the widow's mite--in the eyes of God she had given more than any other, for the others gave from their abundance, while she had given all she had.
What a race among the youngsters from evening to evening until the crib was finally filled to the brim! When, on Christmas Eve, little Martina--for a long time the youngest among the children--was allowed to put the Holy Child on His bed of straw, the Infant seemed to smile at the children, grateful for the soft bed prepared with so much love. It is curious how such a childhood habit stays with you through life. You may be grown up, even white-haired, but all during Advent you will feel the same urge to "collect more straws for the crib."
SEEKING SHELTER
In the old country we had in our house an oil painting showing St. Joseph leading the Blessed Mother, who was with Child and looked fatigued and tired, as they were asking shelter at the inn. Through the crack of the door one could see the ugly, rough face of the innkeeper, and it was rather easy to guess what he had just said. This picture played a big role during the last part of Advent in the custom called "Herbergsuchen" (seeking shelter). By lot, nine members of the household were chosen to be host to this holy couple, to make up for the hard words, each one in turn offering room and shelter for one day. The children, especially, vied with each other, decorating little altars with candles and fir branches and trying to outdo each other in loving care for the august visitors. The one who was the host for the day could have the picture in his room and spend as much time with his holy guests as he wanted and school permitted. He could, for instance, take his meals together with them upstairs. How inspiring this is for the imagination of the very young--sharing even their meals with the poor Holy Mother, who "doesn't look so tired any more and seems to like it here." Every night, before evening prayers, the whole family would gather outside the room where the picture had stayed for the day, and in solemn procession it would be carried through the house accompanied by the singing of Advent songs, until it reached the next resting place. Each evening there would be enacted the scene before the closed door of the inn. We used to sing the old Austrian "Herbergsucherlied," the song called "Wer Kopfet an":
Quote:Who's knocking at my door?
Two people poor and low.
What are you asking for?
That you may mercy show.
We are, O Sir, in sorry plight,
O grant us shelter here tonight.
You ask in vain.
We beg a place to rest.
It's "no" again!
You will be greatly blessed.
I told you no!
You cannot stay.
Get out of here and go your way.
When we were in Mexico, we learned that there they have a similar custom, called the Posada. On the nine evenings before Christmas they play the "Herbergsuchen" from house to house. They invite the local priest, who joins the procession, saying prayers. Eight nights the holy couple is refused shelter and on the ninth evening, Christmas Eve, they are let into a house where everything is prepared most lovingly--a large cradle is waiting, and while a statue of the Infant is put on the straw, the cradle is being rocked and a famous lullaby is being chanted, "A la Rurruru."
As the weeks of Advent are now our busiest concert season, we have had to give up this custom of "Herbergsuchen"--but only in one way. Every evening of these holy weeks of Advent we sing our Christmas program in a different town. While doing so, we hope we may prepare a warm place for the homeless holy couple in many hearts among our audiences.
CHRISTMAS GIFTS
In ancient Rome, people used to exchange gifts on New Year's Day. According to their means, these might be jewelry, pieces of gold and silver, or just home-made pastry, cookies, and candies. But they were a means of saying "Happy New Year." (In French Canada this custom has been preserved to the present day.)
This is one of the instances where Holy Mother Church took an already existing custom and "baptized" it. When the Apostles brought the Gospel to Rome, the people learned of the Three Wise Men who came from the Orient to present gifts to the newborn King of the Jews. From then on, the old custom was only slightly changed. The exchanging of presents remained, but now it was done in imitation of the Three Holy Kings.
It should be understood that everyone in the family has a present for everybody else; these presents should be precious, though not in terms of money, as they should not be bought, but home-made. This is quite a task in a large family, but fingers become skilled in handicrafts of many kinds block prints, wood carvings, leather work, needle work, lettering with beautiful illuminations, and clay work. All these, and one's imagination, are called upon to create many beautiful, useful things, which could not be bought for money because they are made not only with the hands but also with the heart.
But it is not of the immediate family alone that we have to think when we make gifts. The true Christmas spirit results in a desire, if only it were possible, to extinguish all suffering, all hunger and need of any kind, all over the world. Inspired by this desire, everyone prepares for some poor or unfortunate member of the community some real substantial Christmas joy. The parcels that have to go a long distance, or even overseas, are made in the first week of Advent, and the boxes are lined with fir branches from our own woods. "Geben ist seliger als nehmen" ("To give is more blessed than to receive"), says an old proverb, and these are the weeks of the year to prove how true it is. The very essence of Christmas is to give, give, give--since at the very first Christmas the Heavenly Father gave His only begotten Son to us.
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| Dom Marmion's Divine Preparations - The Time of Advent |
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Posted by: Stone - 11-22-2020, 01:23 PM - Forum: Advent
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Divine Preparations: Time of Advent
From Christ in His Mysteries
by Dom Columba Marmion, O.S.B.
SUMMARY
Why God willed to prolong the preparation for the Incarnation during so many centuries.
I. How Divine Wisdom, in recalling and specifying, by the voice of the prophets, the first promise of a Redeemer, prepared the souls of the just of the Old Covenant for the coming of the God-Man on earth.
II. St. John Baptist, the Forerunner of the Incarnate Word, sums up and surpasses all the prophets.
III. Although we live in " the fulness of time, "the Church, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, each year recalls the memory of these divine preparations. Threefold reason for this supernatural economy.
IV. Dispositions that we ought to have in order that Christ's coming may produce within our souls the plenitude of its fruits: purity of heart, humility, confidence and holy desires. To unite our aspirations to those of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of Jesus.
All God's blessings that come down upon us have their source in the election that He made of our souls, throughout eternity, to make them "holy and unspotted in His sight" (Eph 1:4). In this divine decree so full of love is contained our adoptive predestination as children of God and all the favours thereto attached.
St. Paul says that it was through the grace of Jesus Christ, sent by God in the fulness of time, that this adoption was granted to us: "At ubi venit plenitudo temporis, misit Deus Filium suum factum ex muliere... ut adoptionem filiorum reciperemus" (Gal 4:4-5).
God's eternal design of sending His own Son into the world to redeem the human race, broken and bruised by sin, and of restoring to it the children's inheritance and heavenly beatitude, this is the masterpiece of His wisdom and love.
The views of God are not our views; all His thoughts are higher than ours as the heavens are higher than the earth; but it is especially in the work of the Incarnation and Redemption that the sublimity and greatness of the Divine ways shine forth. This work is so high, so closely united to the very life of the Most Holy Trinity, that it remained throughout long ages hidden in the depths of the divine secrets: "Sacramentum absconditum a saeculis in Deo" (Eph 3:9).
As you know, God willed to prepare the human race for the revelation of this mystery during some thousands of years. Why did God chose to delay the coming of His Son amongst us for so many centuries? Why such a long period? We cannot, mere creatures as we are, fathom the depths of the reasons why God accomplishes His works under such or such conditions. He is the Infinitely Sovereign Being Who has no need of a counsellor (Cf. Rom 11:34). But as He is likewise Wisdom itself that reacheth "from end to end mightily, and ordereth all things sweetly" (Sir 8:1). Cf. Great antiphon O Sapientia, 17th Dec.) we may yet humbly seek to learn something of the appropriateness of the conditions of His mysteries.
It was fitting that men, having sinned by pride, "Eritis sicut dii" (Gen 3:5) should be obliged, by the prolonged experience of their weakness and the extent of their misery, to confess the absolute need they had of a Redeemer and to aspire after His coming with all the fibres of their nature (Cf. S. Thom. III, q.I, a.5).
The idea of this future Redeemer fills all the Ancient Law; all the symbols, all the rites and sacrifices prefigure Him: "Haec omnia in figura contigebant illis" (1 Cor 10:2); all desires converge towards Him. According to the beautiful expression of an author of the first centuries, the Old Testament bore Christ in its loins: "Lex Christo gravida erat" (Appendix to the works of S. Augustine, Sermon 196). The religion of Israel was the expectation of the Messias.
Moreover, the greatness of the mystery of the Incarnation and the majesty of the Redeemer demanded that the revelation of Him to the human race should only be made by degrees. Man, on the morrow of his fall, was neither worthy of receiving nor capable of welcoming the full manifestation of the God-Man. It was by a dispensation at once full of wisdom and mercy, that God disclosed this ineffable mystery only little by little, by the mouth of the prophets; when the human race should be sufficiently prepared, the Word, so many times announced, so often promised, would Himself appear here below to instruct us: "Multifariam multisque modis olim loquens patribus in prophetis... novissime locutus est nobis in Filio" (Heb 1:1).
I will therefore point out some traits of these divine preparations for the Incarnation. We shall herein see with what wisdom God disposed the human race to receive salvation; it will be for us an occasion of returning fervent thanksgiving to "the Father of mercies" (2 Cor 1:3) for having caused us to live in "the fulness of time" which still endures and wherein He grants to men the inestimable gift of His Son.
I
You know that it was just after the sin of our first parents in the very cradle of the already rebellious human race that God began to reveal the mystery of the Incarnation. Adam and Eve, prostrate before the Creator, in the shame and despair of their fall, dare not raise their eyes to heaven. And behold, even before pronouncing the sentence of their banishment from the terrestrial paradise, God speaks to them the first words of forgiveness and hope.
Instead of being cursed and driven out for ever from the presence of their God, as were the rebel angels, they were to have a Redeemer; He it was Who should break the power won over them by the devil. And as their fall began by the prevarication of the woman, it was to be by the son of a woman that this redemption should be wrought: "Inimicitias ponam inter te et mulierem, et semen tuum et semen illius: ipsa conteret caput tuum" (Gen 3:15).
This is what is called the "Protogospel," the first word of salvation. It is the first promise of redemption, the dawn of divine mercy to the sinful earth, the first ray of that light which was one day to vivify the world, the first manifestation of the mystery hidden in God from all eternity.
After this promise, all the religion of the human race, and, later, all the religion of the chosen people is concentrated around this "seed of the woman," this "semen mulieris" which is to deliver mankind.
Throughout the years as they pass by, and as the centuries advance, God makes His promise more precise; He repeats it with more solemnity. He assures the patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob that it is from their race that the blessed seed shall come forth: "Et benedicentur in semine tuo omnes gentes terrae" (Gen 22:18; cf. Gal 3:16); to the dying Jacob, He shows that it is in the tribe of Juda that shall arise the One Who is to come, the desire of all peoples: "Donec veniat qui nittendus est, et ipse erit exspectatio gentium" (Ibid. 49:10).
And now behold how the nations, forgetful of the primeval revelations, sink insensibly into error. God then chooses for Himself a people that shall be the guardian of His promises. To this people, throughout the centuries, God will recall His promises, renew them, render them clearer and more abundant: this will be the era of the prophets.
If you listen to the sacred oracles of the prophets of Israel, you will remark that the traits whereby God depicts the Person of the future Messias and specifies the character of His mission, are at times so opposed that it seems as if they could not be encountered in the same person. Sometimes the prophets attribute to the Redeemer prerogatives such as could only befit a God, sometimes, they predict for this Messias a sum of humiliations, contradictions, infirmities and sufferings with which the last of men could scarcely deserve to be overwhelmed.
You will constantly be coming across this striking contrast.
For example, there is David, the king dear to God's Hears; the Lord swore to confirm his race for ever: the Messias was to be of the royal family of David. God reveals Him to David as "his son and his Lord" (Ps 59:1; cf. Mt 22:41-45): his son by reason of the humanity that He was one day to take from a Virgin of his family, his Lord, by reason of His divinity. David contemplates Him "in the brightness of the saints," begotten eternally before the rising of the day star; a supreme High Priest "according to the order of Melchisedech" (Ps 59:3-4), anointed to reign over us because of His " truth and meekness and justice" (Ps. 44:5); in a word, the Son of God Himself to Whom all nations are to be given as an inheritance: "Dominus dixit ad me: Filius meus es tu, ego hodie genui te: postula a me et dabo tibi gentes haereditatem tuam" (Ps. 2:7-8). St. Paul says to the Hebrews that these are prerogatives wherein a God alone can glory (Heb 1:13).
But David contemplates too the pierced Hands and Feet, the garments divided among the soldiers who cast lots upon His coat (Ps 22:17-19); He beholds Him given gall and vinegar to drink (Ps 68:22). Then again see the Divine attributes: He will not be touched by the corruption of the tomb, but, victorious over death, He will sit down at the right hand of God (Ps 15:10).
This contrast is not less striking in Isaias, the great Seer; so precise and full of detail is he that he might be called the fifth Evangelist. One would say that he was relating accomplished facts rather than foretelling future events.
The prophet, transported up to heaven, says of the Messias: "Who shall declare His generation": "Generationem ejus quis enarrabit" (Is 53:8)? He gives Him names such as no man has ever borne: "His name shall be called, Wonderful, Counsellor, God the mighty, the Father of the world to come, the Prince of Peace" (Is 9:6). Born of a Virgin, "His name shall be called Emmanuel" (7:14), God with us. Isaias describes Him "come forth as brightness," and "lighted as a lamp" (62:1); he sees Him opening the eyes of the blind and unstopping the ears of the deaf, loosing the tongue of the dumb and making the lame to walk (35:5-6); he shows Him as "a Leader and a Master to the Gentiles" (55:4); he sees the idols utterly destroyed before Him (2:14-18); and he hears God promise by oath that before this Saviour "every knee shall be bowed" and every tongue shall confess His power (Is 45:23).
And yet this Redeemer, Whose glory the prophet thus exalts, is to be overwhelmed with such sufferings, and such humiliations are to crush Him that He will be looked upon as "the most abject of men... as it were a leper, and as one struck by God and afflicted;... led as a sheep to the slaughter... reputed with the wicked... because the Lord was pleased to bruise Him in infinity" (Is 53, 3 seq.).
In most of the prophets you can see this opposition of traits with which they describe the greatness and the abasements, the power and the weakness, the sufferings and the glory of the Messias. You will see with what condescending wisdom God prepared the minds of His people to receive the revelation of the ineffable mystery of a God-Man, at once the supreme Lord Whom all nations adore, and the Victim for the sins of the world.
The economy of the Divine mercy is, as you know, wholly based upon faith; faith is the foundation and the root of all justification. Without this faith, even the bodily presence of Christ Jesus would be unable to produce the fulness of its effect in souls.
Now faith is communicated to us by the Holy Spirit's inward action which accompanies the statement of the divine truths made by prophets and preachers: Fides ex auditu (Rom 10:7).
In so often recalling the ancient promises, in revealing, little by little through the mouths of the prophets, the traits of the Redeemer Who was to come, God willed to produce in the hearts of the just of the Old Covenant the requisite conditions whereby the coming of the Messias should be salutary for them. Besides the more the just of the Old Covenant were filled with faith and confidence in the promises announced by their prophets, the more they would burn with the desire to see them realized, and the more they would be ready to receive the abundance of graces that the Saviour was to bring to the world. It was thus that the Virgin Mary, Zachary and Elisabeth, Simeon, Anna, and the other faithful souls who lived at the time of Christ's coming, at once recognised Him and were inundated with His favours.
You see how God was pleased to prepare mankind for the coming of His Son upon earth. St. Peter could truly say to the Jews that they were "the children of the prophets" (Acts 3:25). St. Paul could write to the Hebrews that before God spoke to them in person, He "at sundry times, and in divers manners, spoke in times past to the fathers by the prophets": "Multifariam multisque modis" (Heb 1:1).
The faithful Jews were, moreover, constantly in expectation of the Messias. Their faith discerned in the person of this Redeemer one sent by God, a King, a God Who was to put an end to their miseries, and deliver them from the burden of their sins. They have but one longing: "Send, O Lord, Him Who is to come." They have but one desire: to behold with their eyes the countenance of the Saviour of Israel. The promised Messias was the object towards which converged all the hopes, all the worship, all the religion of the Old Covenant. All the Old Testament is a prolonged Advent the prayers of which are summed up in this prayer of Isaias: "Emitte Agnum, Domine, Dominatorem terrae" (Is 16:1). "Send forth, O Lord, the Lamb, the Ruler of the earth." "Drop down dew, ye heavens, from above, and let the clouds rain the just": "Rorate caeli desuper, et nubes pluant justum"; "Let the earth be opened, and bud forth a Saviour": "A periatur terra et germinet Salvatorem" (Is 45:8).
II
We have marvelled at the profound ways of Divine Wisdom in the preparations for the mystery of the coming of the God-Man. And yet this is not all.
While by a succession of marvels, Eternal Wisdom keeps intact, among the chosen people, the ancient promises, unceasingly confirmed and developed by prophecy, while even the successive captivities of the Jewish people, who at times became unfaithful, are made to serve to spread abroad the knowledge of these promises even among the nations of the Gentiles, Wisdom likewise directs the destinies of these nations.
You know how, during this long period of several centuries God, Who holds the hearts of kings in His hand (Cf. Prov 21:2), and Whose power equals His wisdom, establishes and destroys the most vast empires one after the other. To the empire of Ninive, reaching as far as Egypt, follows that of Babylon; then, as Isaias had foretold, God "calls His servant Cyrus" (Isa 45:1), king of the Persians, and places the sceptre of Nabuchodonosor within his hands; after Cyrus, He makes Alexander the master of the nations, until He gives the world's empire to Rome, an empire of which the unity and peace will serve the mysterious designs of the spread of the Gospel.
Now the "fulness of time" (Gal 4:4) has come: the world is flooded with sin and error; man at length realizes the weakness in which pride kept him; all peoples stretch out their arms towards this Liberator so often promised, so long awaited: "Et veniet desideratus cunctis gentibus" (Hag 2:8).
When this fulness of time comes, God crowns all his preparations by the sending of St. John the Baptist, the last of the prophets, one whom He will render greater than Abraham, greater than Moses, greater than all, as He Himself declares: "Non surrexit inter natos mulierum major Joanne Baptista" (Mt 11:2; cf. Lk 7:28). It is Jesus Christ Who says this. Why is it?
Because God wills to make St. John the Baptist His herald above all others, the very Precursor of His beloved Son: "Propheta altissimi vocaberis" (Lk 1:76).. so as to enhance still further the glory of this Son Whom He is about to introduce into the world, after having so many times promised Him, God is pleased to reveal the dignity of the Precursor who is to bear witness that the Light and the Truth have at length appeared upon earth: "Ut testimonium perhiberet de lumine" (Jn 1:8).
God wills him to be great because his mission is great, because he has been chosen to precede so closely the One Who is to come. In God's sight, the greatness of the saints is measured according to their nearness to His Son Jesus.
See how He exalts the Precursor in order to show yet once more, by the excellence of this last Prophet, what is the dignity of His Word. He chooses him from an especially saintly race; an angel announces his birth, gives the name that he is to bear and indicates the extent and greatness of his mission. God sanctifies him in his mother's womb; He works such miracles around his cradle that the fortunate witnesses of these marvels wonderingly ask each other: "What an one, think ye, shall this child be?" (Lk 1:66)
Later on, John's holiness appears so great that the Jews come to ask him if he is the looked-for Christ. But he, forestalled as he is with divine favours, protests that he is but " the voice of one crying in the wilderness, make straight the way of the Lord" (Jn 1:23).
The other prophets only saw the Messias afar off; he points Him out in person and in terms so clear that all sincere hearts understand them: " Behold the Lamb of God " behold the One Who is the object of all the desires of the human race, because He "taketh away the sins of the world": "Ecce Agnus Dei" (Jn 1:29). You do not yet know Him, although He is in the midst of you: "Medius vestrum stetit quem vos nescitis"; He is greater than I, for He was before me; He is so great that I am not even worthy to loose the latchet of His shoe; so great, that "I saw the Spirit coming down, as a dove from heaven, and He remained upon Him... and I saw, and I gave testimony that this is the Son of God" (Jn 1:26-27, 3-34). What more has he yet to say? "He that cometh from above, is above all. And what He hath seen and heard, that He testifieth ;... He Whom God hath sent, speaketh the words of God; for God cloth not give the Spirit by measure. The Father loveth the Son; and He hath given all things into His hand. He that believed in the Son, hath life everlasting; but He that believeth not the Son, shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on Him" (Jn 3:31f.).
These are the last words of the Precursor. By them he achieves his work of preparing souls to receive the Messias. Indeed, when the Incarnate Word, Who alone can speak the words from on high because He is ever in sinu Patris (Jn 1:18), begins His public mission as the Saviour, John will disappear; he will no longer bear testimony to the Truth save with the shedding of his blood.
The Christ, Whom he announced, has come at last; He is that Light unto which John bore testimony, and all those who believe in that Light have life everlasting. It is to Him alone to Whom it must be said: "Lord, to Whom shall we go ? Thou hast the words of eternal Life " (Jn 6:69).
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| The Christmas Tree |
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Posted by: Stone - 11-22-2020, 01:10 PM - Forum: Advent
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Originally posted in the 'archived' Catacombs by the member Initiation:
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As the season of Advent and Christmas is upon us, I thought I would share something I had read in a catechism done by Sisters in the SSPX a long time ago.
Quote:"Everything we we see and bear around us seems to say that something special will happen soon. The store windows are full of decorations; the people are shopping for gifts and cards; the houses glow with colorful lights; and music is playing on the street. What is going on? Why all this hustle and bustle? Of course it is because Christmas is coming!
Students, what is Christmas? It is the great celebration of Our Lord's birthday. No birthday could be more important than His, for if God had not become man, we would have no hope of going to heaven. How many even think of the Infant Jesus? How many even know when His birthday is? How many remember that before Christmas comes, there is Advent, and that the most important thing to do during Advent is to prepare our hearts for our Savior's birth?
You know that almost every family puts up a beautiful Christmas tree in its home. This tree is a symbol of Christ, the true "tree of life," who by His death on the tree of the cross gained for us the fruit of eternal life. The tree points straight to heaven to remind us of the first and greatest commandment of all: "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, with thy whole soul, with thy whole mind, and with thy whole strength." Its branches extend on all sides to remind us of the second great commandment: "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as Thyself." A Christmas tree is usually an evergreen which calls to mind that Our Lord is always the same; He never changes.
Before a Christmas tree is put up, a woodsman removes all its dead branches. To make our souls ready for Christ's coming, we must cut away everything which is ugly and displeasing in God's sight. You know what He hates most of all - SIN. Our Lord cannot be happy in a soul which is full of sin. The bad branches in our souls are our sins.
Think about what kind of bad branches you have, and which ones are the most displeasing to God. If you disobey, lie, cheat, talk back, swear, skip your prayers, steal, neglect your chores, ruin the property of others...you are keeping Christ from your heart. Your soul is saying to Him, "There is no room for Thee in this inn." Students, cut off these bad branches during Advent. If you are moody, picky at the table, mean to others, jealous of their talents...then you have some work to do before your hearts will be pure and ready for Christmas.
But is it enough to get rid of all these dead branches? No, to make a Christmas tree more beautiful, we put candles or lights on it, for Christ is the "light of the world." We also add glittering decorations and ornaments which symbolize His virtues and His great glory. And what about preparing our souls? Is it enough that they be free from sin? No, they must also be strong and beautiful in virtue. The lights and ornaments on the tree are the virtues that make our souls pleasing to God. We practice virtue by doing what the Child Jesus us to do at every moment. We decorate our souls by our desires to have Our Lord come. "Come, O Lord, visit us in patience!" We need Him so over and over.
Yes, candles have always been a way of honoring Our Lord. They give warmth and light. Light is pure. It is said of Our Lord that He is a light "to enlighten them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death." The Messiah has come, indeed, to save us from the darkness of sin and to bring us to the glory of heaven.
Each of our souls is like a candle which is lit by grace. Its flame burns more brightly whenever we receive the sacrament, make sacrifices, or perform acts of virtue. The more we love God, the bigger and brighter the flame is. The more we love God, the bigger and brighter the flame is. Love makes our candles burn and keeps them burning. Sin, on the other hand, makes our candles smoke and may even put out their flames completely.
Every day during Advent, the four weeks before our Savior's birthday, we are going to try to make our souls ready. For example:
- I will promptly and cheerfully obey my parents at home and my teachers at school, doing what they ask right away and without complaining.
- I will be charitable to my companions (especially those we need kindness the most).
- If someone hurts me, instead of giving a quick, sharp answer that will hurt back, I will forgive him and do a good deed in return.
- I will make a good confession and to make a firm resolution not to offend God again.
- I will prepare myself better to receive Holy Communion, and be more collected during my thanksgiving.
- To spend Advent in a more holy way, I will not go to parties, or celebrate Christmas before December 25th.
The more generous we are in preparing to welcome Jesus when He comes into our hearts on Christmas day, the more grace our souls will be able to receive from Him. He will know all the sacrifices and secret acts of virtue we have made for Him during Advent and will reward us in the depths of our hearts. Knowing that He is pleased will give us great happiness."
Source:
Our Lady of Fatima correspondence catechism - Year F
2004 by Sisters of the Society of Saint Pius X
Browerville MN U.S.A
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