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  The Funeral Rites of Benedict XVI and the Many Petty Gestures of Francis
Posted by: Stone - 01-08-2023, 07:43 AM - Forum: Pope Francis - Replies (1)

The Funeral Rites of Benedict XVI and the Many Petty Gestures of Francis

[Image: ff.jpg]

Rorate Caeli | January 5, 2023

Mediocre people surround themselves with ones even more mediocre than themselves in order to be able to manage them as they please and conceal their own mediocrity. This is what Bergoglio did as soon as he took over the papal throne. And it has been demonstrated for the umpteenth time with the death of Pope Benedict XVI.

I summarize here some of the events of the last few days, mostly anecdotal, but which reveal the mean and petty soul of Pope Francis. Some are public; others, on the other hand, were confided to me by discreet sources who walk the corridors of the Sacred Palace:

- Even before the news of Benedict XVI's death became known, the orders had already gone out from Santa Marta: in the Vatican work would continue as usual. In other words, "nothing happened here". Those who work at the Holy See - clerics and lay people - made it known that if their activities were not suspended in order to be able to attend at least the funeral Mass, they would take the day off. Santa Marta then had to compromise: they would be allowed to attend the Mass but only until 1 pm. After that, they were to return to work.

- Neither in Vatican City, nor in its extraterritorial dependencies nor in its nunciatures was official mourning declared. The bells did not toll and flags were not flown at half-mast. This last detail came as a great surprise. Any country has this measure of mourning when a relatively important person dies. For the Vatican and the court of Pope Francis, Pope Benedict XVI was not. Curiously, the Italian state and Great Britain ordered their flags to be flown at half-mast on December 31.

- It was repeated again and again in the sacred palaces, that the order was for things to go on as if nothing had happened. For this very reason, on Wednesday, Pope Francis held his general audience as usual, while a few meters away was the unburied body of his predecessor. And he barely made a reference to him to call him "a great master of catechesis".

- Many cardinals and bishops were disappointed for not being able to be part of the procession that moved the remains of the deceased pope from the Mater Ecclesiae monastery to St. Peter's Basilica. In any country, in any monarchy, this procession has a particular and austere solemnity, even when it is not the death of the reigning monarch (remember the case of Don Juan de Borbón, or the Queen Mother of England or Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh). The mortal remains of Benedict XVI were transported in a gray van. Neither Francis nor the Cardinal Vicar presided over the procession. Georg Gänswein and the memores, the women who assisted them in recent years. In the curia, this went down very badly: "This is not done even to any man from the smallest village in Italy," they said.

- One of the things that most attracted the attention of the members of the Pontifical Household and other Curial offices who were walking around the funeral chapel was the number of young priests -several hundred- who came to bid farewell to Pope Benedict dressed in cassock. One of them, in a low voice, commented the following: "I met Pope Benedict when I was a seminarian, along with the rest of my classmates. The words he told us again and again were: 'Study hard and pray a lot. It was unthinkable that he would tell us: 'Priests are men, and that is why many of them look at pornography' (these last words were Pope Francis' recent comments to the seminarians of the Archdiocese of Barcelona).

- In the same vein, the number of young people and families with children who came to see Pope Benedict off was very striking.

- One of the things that most annoyed the bishops and cardinals present was the indolent attitude of Cardinal Gambetti, archpriest of St. Peter's Basilica. His cold and mechanical attitude in the celebration of the rites (and the voice of a man just out of bed that could be heard), and his lack of obedience of many rubrics did not go unnoticed. Also repulsive was the presence of Ettore Valzania, a dental mechanic by profession, whom the same cardinal appointed as manager of the basilica, who walked around inside the basilica during the three days wearing jeans while receiving cardinals and heads of state. This obscure and vulgar character has been responsible, among other things, for arranging that the faithful could stop for no more than two or three seconds before the body of the deceased pope, without even being able to say a prayer before him. Would it not have been possible, for example, to extend the opening hours of St. Peter's Basilica?

- Pope Francis was determined to retire to his quarters in Santa Marta as soon as the funeral Mass was over. Two of his closest collaborators had to insist a lot in order to make him see the inconvenience of the gesture. Finally, he agreed to say goodbye to Pope Benedict's coffin in the atrium of St. Peter's Basilica, stripped of his pontifical vestments. And he flatly refused to accompany the cortege to the crypt and celebrate the last rites there, which were assumed by Cardinal Re, dean of the Sacred College.

- A good part of the bishops and cardinals from all over the world who came to bid farewell to the Pope Emeritus were astonished -and they made this known to their relatives- by the indolence of the gestures and words of Pope Francis with respect to his predecessor. One of them commented: "To feed souls and not mouths, that is the mission of the Church".

- As soon as the death of Benedict XVI was known, Santa Marta hastened to say that due to a dubious will of the deceased, only official delegations from Italy and Germany would attend. The problem came on Wednesday when the Secretariat of State discovered with astonishment that many delegations from the governments of various countries would be attending in a personal capacity. Such was the unexpectedness of the news that only late that day the Governatorato gave the order to the respective officials to provide parking spaces for the official vehicles that would be transporting the heads of state and ministers.

- The Secretariat of State officially communicated to the countries sending delegations that their representatives should refrain from wearing formal attire. This caused surprise, since even in the case of cardinals' funerals this type of dress is used. Even these honors were denied to Pope Ratzinger.

- We know the cloth from which journalists are made, but a few still retain a certain honesty. The narrative that ran through newsrooms around the world, and the Holy See press room itself, was that Pope Benedict was always a distant pontiff, hated or indifferent to the Christian people. Many of them acknowledged in a low voice the mistaken judgment they held when they saw the enormous and surprising amount of people who came to St. Peter's Basilica during the last few days. In fact, the number of chairs that filled St. Peter's Square for the funeral Mass had only been equaled at the inaugural Mass of Francis' pontificate, "when people still hadn’t got to know them," added some malicious bishop.

The face of Pope Francis during the funeral Mass, which illustrates this article, is sufficiently eloquent of the darkness of his soul: he seems to be attending his own funeral.

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  Our Lady of Prompt Succor - January 8th
Posted by: Stone - 01-08-2023, 07:35 AM - Forum: Our Lady - Replies (1)

Our Lady of Prompt Succor, a Patroness for Americans
Honored on January 8th

TIA | January 6, 2009

The cities and towns of Europe often have a particular devotion to Our Lady. Through the ages she manifested herself under a particular title and expressed her desire to be invoked under a different name. A shrine with that particular image would become a pilgrimage site as Our Lady worked miracles for the people of the vicinity.

[Image: A038_OLPromptSuccor_Shrine.jpg]

Our Lady of Prompt Succor at the National Shrine in New Orleans

In the United States, we have fewer such marvels, and unfortunately the small number of miraculous statues that exist is not widely known, even among Catholics. A unique title and devotion that Our Lady chose for our country – certainly deserving of more recognition – is that of Our Lady of Prompt Succor, patroness of the city of New Orleans and the State of Louisiana. A Mass in her honor is said every January 8 to commemorate a great miracle she worked on behalf of the city in the Battle of New Orleans of 1815.

On that occasion, the Ursuline sisters made a vow to Our Lady of Prompt Succor to have a solemn high Mass offered each year on January 8 if she would give victory to the vastly outnumbered American forces. The favor was granted, and for the past 195 years without exception the promised Mass has been celebrated in gratitude for Our Lady’s intercession in that critical battle.

How Our Lady chose to come to Louisiana under this new title is one story. Her miraculous intervention in the Battle of New Orleans in 1815 is another. Both deserve to be told and retold.


A New Invocation

With the outbreak of the French Revolution in 1792, all the religious in that country were forced to leave their convents. When the revolutionary fury abated a bit, Mother St. Michel, an Ursuline nun, gathered a small group of the scattered sisters and opened a boarding school in the city of Montpellier in Provence, south France.

Across the ocean, the situation was also unsettled. Louisiana, a French colony that had been ceded by France to Spain 50 years earlier, had been restored to France, who sold it to the United States as part of the Louisiana Purchase. Fearing that violence could break out with these changes, 16 members of the Ursuline Convent in New Orleans went to Cuba, leaving only 7 sisters to keep their orphanages and schools. The convent would have to close.

[Image: A038_Teaching.jpg]

The Ursulines taught daughters of the colonists

An appeal for help was sent to Mother St. Michel in France, who felt impelled to come to the assistance of her Ursuline sisters in Louisiana. The obstacles, however, seemed insurmountable. Her spiritual adviser referred the matter to Bishop Fournier of Montpelier, who thought that France needed that valiant religious more than Louisiana did. He told her, "The Pope alone can give this authorization."

To receive a response from the Pope was next to impossible. At that time Pope Pius VII was a prisoner of Napoleon in the Vatican and communication with him was prohibited. Nonetheless, Mother St. Michel wrote her letter. Three months passed and no opportunity presented itself to get the letter out of France. One day, she was inspired to say this prayer before a statue of Our Lady:

"O Most Holy Virgin Mary, if you obtain a prompt and favorable answer to my letter, I promise to have you honored in New Orleans under the title of Our Lady of Prompt Succor."

Almost immediately a way opened to send the letter. The missive left Montpellier for Rome on March 19, 1809 and the answer was dated Rome, April 29, 1809 – an exceedingly prompt reply in those days. What seemed impossible was achieved.

The Pope’s answer was not only prompt, but favorable. Against all opposition, he gave his full approval and an apostolic blessing to her and those who would help in her mission. It only remained for Mother St. Michel to accomplish her part of the wonderful contract.

[Image: A038_SweetheartatUrsuline2.jpg]

The petite original statue, called the "sweetheart statue," invoked to ward off the fire of 1812

She set out at once to fulfill her duty by ordering a noble statue of the Holy Mother of God to be sculpted. In her arms Our Lady held the Divine Child, in whose hand was a globe. The Bishop of Montpellier, convinced now of the desire of the Blessed Virgin to be honored under the title of Our Lady of Prompt Succor on the far-away shores of Louisiana, blessed the statue and set it on its way with a small brave band of Ursulines.

Mother St. Michel and her companions reached New Orleans on December 31, 1810. At once the cherished statue was installed in the Convent Chapel. Immediately Our Lady began to show her goodness and willingness to offer succor to her American children. "Under this title the Most Blessed Virgin has so often manifested her power and goodness that the religious have unbounded confidence in her," read the early Convent chronicles.

Two years after her arrival, in 1812, Our Lady of Prompt Succor interceded for New Orleans with a first great miracle. A terrible fire was ravaging the city, and the wind was rapidly driving it in the direction of the Ursuline Convent. The sisters received an order to evacuate their premises, but Mother St. Michel instructed a lay sister to place a small statue of Our Lady of Prompt Succor on a windowsill facing the fire. Then she prayed, “Our Lady of Prompt Succor, we are lost unless you hasten to our help.”

Instantly the wind changed and the Convent was out of danger. The Ursuline Convent was one of the few buildings in the French Quarter spared from destruction. Seeing the inexplicable occurrence, witnesses cried out, "Our Lady of Prompt Succor has saved us!"

From the prayer of Mother St. Michel came the invocation: Our Lady of Prompt Succor, hasten to help us!


The Victory of New Orleans in 1815

The extraordinary victory of New Orleans won by American arms will forever be attributed by Catholics to Our Lady of Prompt Succor. The rescue of Our Lady came at a moment when a great and imminent danger was threatening the city.

The Battle of New Orleans on January 8, 1815, was the last major confrontation of the War of 1812. The Napoleonic Wars were ended, and England had sent its forces to America to protect its Canadian provinces and to wrest from the U.S. the Mississippi Valley. New Orleans was the gateway of the great Valley and must fall first. For this purpose, the British boasted a force of 15,000 men commanded by seasoned officers and a fleet of 50 ships carrying a thousand guns.

On the American side, the unseasoned General Andrew Jackson had 6,000 ragged, half-armed defenders of an unprepared city without supplies or arms. So certain were the British of victory that on board a ship accompanying the fleet were the future staff of civil officials sent to administer the conquered province. From a human standpoint, there was little hope of success.

Facing this crisis, Bishop William Dubourg urged all in the city to have recourse to Our Lady to come to their prompt succor. On the night before the battle, the faithful gathered at the Chapel with the Ursuline nuns to implore Our Lady’s intercession. She did not fail them.

On the morning of January 8, Bishop Dubourg offered Mass at the altar on which the statue of Our Lady of Prompt Succor had been placed. The Prioress of the Convent made a vow that a Mass of Thanksgiving would be solemnly celebrated each year should the Americans triumph. At the moment of Communion, a courier ran into the Chapel to inform all those present that, against all odds, the British had been defeated.


What had happened in the battle field?

As the fog lifted on the morning of January 8, the main body of the British force advanced to the attack. Met by steady fire from the American lines, they inexplicably fell into confusion. Then followed disorder, slaughter and rout of such a nature and magnitude that natural explanations alone cannot account for the disaster.

[Image: A038_Battle.jpg]

The outnumbered American troops defeated the British in 25 minutes

In a mere 25 minutes the battle was over. Over 2,500 of the British were dead, wounded or prisoners on the field, falling like blades of grass beneath the scythe of a powerful mower. The American losses did not exceed 13 – seven killed and six wounded. The victory Our Lady gave could not have been more prompt or more complete.

The favor of Heaven did not escape the eye of General Jackson. Throughout his life he would remark that the battle was won only with the aid of a supernatural presence. After the battle, he went to the Ursuline Convent himself to thank the sisters for the prayers they had offered for the success of his campaign.

Then he addressed a letter to Bishop Dubourg, entreating that an act of public thanksgiving be performed in the Cathedral in token of the “signal interposition from Heaven” and “our humble sense of it.” The letter puts beyond question Jackson’s conviction and testimony that the victory was due to a supernatural cause.


The Devotion Grows

A constant stream of benefits continued to stream from the hands of Our Lady favoring those who came to her asking prompt succor.

In 1851 Rome officially approved the devotion. In 1894 Pope Leo XIII indulgenced the Confraternity and three years later raised it to an Archconfraternity. Our Lady of Prompt Succor was crowned by the papal delegate in 1895 – the first such coronation ceremony in our country.

In 1928 the shrine of Our Lady of Prompt Succor was relocated to the current Ursuline Academy, and she was named patroness of New Orleans and Louisiana. The official feast was set for January 15, although the Mass of January 8, the day of the miraculous assistance given to our troops, continues to be solemnly offered. It also fulfills the first promise of Mother St. Michel who brought this blessed devotion and statue from Montpellier to New Orleans.


A Merciful Warning


One cannot help but consider how aptly the title Our Lady of Prompt Succor applies to the United States. As the American temperament is marked by efficiency, we see the goodness of Our Lady who tells us, “Come to me, my children. I am the first agency of efficiency and have every means at my hands to give a prompt response to your requests.”

Second, Our Lady chose to come to New Orleans, a city privileged by Heaven with marked favors. When the people are faithful, Our Lady responds with signal gifts and graces. When they are not, she warns them with her tears and chastises them with natural disasters.

During hurricane season, prayers are said at every Mass in the city requesting Our Lady of Prompt Succor's intercession and protection. Although the Old Convent and chapel sustained damage when Hurricane Katrina struck in August 2005, the buildings were not destroyed, and repairs were hastily made.

For the vigilant Catholic, Katrina can be seen as a merciful warning from a concerned Mother of the coming chastisement for an unrepentant city and world. Her message also seems clear: She is telling us to follow her admonitions and remain close to her and her Son so that she might protect us and give her succor in the days to come.


Prayers for the Novena to Our Lady of Prompt Succor

O Almighty and Eternal God, Who sees us surrounded by so many dangers and miseries, grant in Thy infinite goodness that the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of Thy Divine Son, may defend us from the evil spirit, protect us against all adversities, obtain for us (here ask for the particular favor you desire), and safely guide us to the Kingdom of Heaven. This we ask of thee through Our Lord Jesus Christ, Thy Son, Who lives and reigns with Thee in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, forever. Amen.

Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory be.
Our Lady of Prompt Succor, hasten to help us. (three times)

O Mary, Mother of God, amid the tribulations of the world, watch over the people of God and be to us truly Our Lady of Prompt Succor. Make haste to help us in all our necessities, that in this fleeting life thou may be our succor. Obtain for us (here mention the particular favor you desire). Help us to gain life everlasting through the merits of Jesus, thy Son, Our Lord and Redeemer. Amen.

Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory be.
Our Lady of Prompt Succor, hasten to help us.
(three times)

V. Our Lady of Prompt Succor, pray for us.
R. That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.

(Imprimatur: Philip M. Hannan, D.D., Archbishop of New Orleans, October, 1966)

[Image: A038_NationalShrineofOurLady.jpg]

Reigning above the altar of the National Shrine


Short Prayer to Our Lady of Prompt Succor

O Mary, Mother of God, who amid the tribulations of the world, watches over us and over the Church of Thy Son, be to us and to the Church, truly, Our Lady of Prompt Succor. Make haste to help us in all our necessities, that in this fleeting life Thou mayest be our succor, and obtain for us (here ask the particular favor you desire).

Help us to gain life everlasting through the merits of Jesus, Thy Son, Our Lord and Redeemer. Amen.

Our Lady of Prompt Succor, hasten to help us. (Three times)

(Imprimatur Lucien Caillouet, Vicar General, November 12, 1960)

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  Pope Francis at Benedict's Funeral
Posted by: Stone - 01-07-2023, 10:05 AM - Forum: Pope Francis - No Replies

From gloria.tv, interesting if true:


Francis Couldn't Behave Properly - Not Even at Benedict's Funeral


SilereNonPossum.it (January 5) leaked information on embarrassing moments surrounding Benedict's funeral. Highlights.

• Francis' Master of Ceremonies, Father Diego Ravelli, struggled to convince Francis not to leave St Peter's Square before Benedict’s coffin was carried into the basilica.

• However, Francis categorically refused to be present at the burial in the grottoes of Saint Peter's.

• Originally, Francis wanted the funeral to be “like that of a cardinal, nothing more.”

• While Italy, Spain and Britain put their flags at half-mast after Benedict's death, Francis wanted "no mourning" at the Vatican.

• Francis pushed the information that only two state’s delegations would be present. In reality, many high-ranking personalities attended, but in a personal capacity.

• The Secretariat of State asked them to attend without a gala dress but they didn’t comply because they would also have done so for the funeral of a simple cardinal.

• The Secretary of State told its court reporters to water down Archbishop Gänswein's statements.

• Francis wanted to bury Benedict in the ground, but then Benedict's last wish to be laid to rest in John Paul II's former tomb became known, forcing Francis to relent.

• The Governatorato made no plans for the funeral. Only at the last minute did they organise parking for high-ranking participants.

• Francis wanted to leave the funeral as soon as possible and said to someone next to him, "It's cold."

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  Ven. Louis of Granada: The Sinner's Guide
Posted by: Stone - 01-06-2023, 09:11 AM - Forum: Resources Online - Replies (49)

The Sinner's Guide
by Ven. Louis of Granada
1504-1588

[Image: Zw]

With Imprimi Potest and Imprimatur


"If you walk in my precepts, and keep my Commandments, and do them, I will give you rain in due seasons. And the ground shall bring forth its increase, and the trees shall be filled with fruit: . . . And you shall eat your bread to the full, and dwell in your land without fear. I will give peace in your coasts: you shall sleep, and there shall be none to make you afraid. . . . I will set my tabernacle in the midst of you, and My soul shall not cast you off. I will walk among you, and will be your God, and you shall be my people."-----Leviticus 26: 3-6,11-12


CONTENTS

Imprimatur and Apostolic Brief of Pope Gregory XIII

Motives for Practising Virtue
1. The First Motive which obliges us to practice Virtue and to serve God: His Being in itself, and the excellence of His Perfections
2. The Second Motive which obliges us to practice Virtue and to serve God: Gratitude for our Creation
3. The Third Motive which obliges us to serve God: Gratitude for our Preservation and for the Government of His Providence
4. The Fourth Motive which obliges us to practice Virtue:Gratitude for the Inestimable Benefit of our Redemption
5. The Fifth Motive which obliges us to practice Virtue: Gratitude for our Justification
6. The Sixth Motive which obliges us to practice Virtue: Gratitude for the Incomprehensible Benefit of Election
7. The Seventh Motive for practicing Virtue: The Thought of Death, the First of the Four Last Things
8. The Eighth Motive for practicing Virtue: The Thought of the Last Judgment, the Second of the Four Last Things
9. The Ninth Motive for practicing Virtue: The Thought of Heaven, the Third of the Four Last Things
10. The Tenth Motive for practicing Virtue: The Thought of Hell, the Fourth of the Four Last Things
11. The Eleventh Motive for practicing Virtue: The Inestimable Advantages promised it even in this Life

The Privileges of Virtue
12. The First Privilege of Virtue: God's fatherly Care of the Just
13. The Second Privilege of Virtue: The Grace with which the Holy Spirit fills Devout Souls
14. The Third Privilege of Virtue: The Supernatural Light and Knowledge granted to Virtuous Souls
15. The Fourth Privilege of Virtue: The Consolations with which the Holy Spirit visits the Just
16. The Fifth Privilege of Virtue: The Peace of a Good Conscience
17. The Sixth Privilege of Virtue: The Confidence of the Just
18. The Seventh Privilege of Virtue: The True Liberty Of the Just
19. The Eighth Privilege of Virtue: The Peace enjoyed by the Just
20. The Ninth Privilege of Virtue: The Manner in which God hears the Prayers of the Just
21. The Tenth Privilege of Virtue: The Consolation and Assistance with which God sustains the Just in their Afflictions
22. The Eleventh Privilege of Virtue: God's Care for the Temporal Needs of the Just
23. The Twelfth Privilege of Virtue: The Happy Death of the Just
24. The Folly of those who Defer their Conversion
25. Of those who Defer their Conversion until the Hour of Death
26. Of those who Continue in Sin, trusting in the Mercy of God
27. Of those who allege that the Path of Virtue is too Difficult
28. Of those who refuse to practice Virtue because they love the World
29. The First Remedy against Sin: A Firm Resolution not to commit it
30. Remedies against Pride
31. Remedies against Covetousness
32. Remedies against Lust
33. Remedies against Envy
34. Remedies against Gluttony
35. Remedies against Anger and Hatred
36. Remedies against Sloth
37. Other Sins to be avoided
38. Venial Sins
39. Shorter Remedies against Sins, particularly the Seven Deadly Sins
40. The Three Kinds of Virtues in which the Fullness of Justice Consists; and first, Man's Duty to Himself
41. Man's Duty to his Neighbor
42. Man's Duty to God
43. The Obligations of our State
44. The Relative Importance and Values of the Virtues
45. Four Important Corollaries of the preceding Doctrine
46. The Different Vocations in the Church
47. The Vigilance and Care necessary in the Practice of Virtue
48. The Courage necessary in the Practice of Virtue

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  St. John Bosco's Prophetic Vision on the Vigil of the Feast of the Epiphany, 5 January 1870
Posted by: Stone - 01-06-2023, 08:50 AM - Forum: Catholic Prophecy - No Replies

This was shared on gloria.tv
The person who posted this didn't leave a source so take it with a grain of salt unless otherwise confirmed.


153 years ago - St. John Bosco's Prophetic Vision on the Vigil of the Feast of the Epiphany, 5 January 1870

[Image: uvln6miw9kpqdy59lzbaitwab56ajbwanb5uozq....ormat=webp]

St. Giovanni Melchior Bosco

God alone is almighty, all-knowing, all-seeing. God has neither past nor future; everything is present to Him, everything at a single point of time. Nothing eludes God. No person, no place is distant from Him. In His infinite mercy and for His glory He alone can unveil the future to man.

On the vigil of the Epiphany of this year, 1870, all material things in my room disappeared, and I found myself contemplating supernatural matters. It was only a matter of an instant, but I saw a great deal. Although what I witnessed was sensibly present, I find it extremely difficult to communicate it to others intelligibly, as one may realize by what follows. This is the Word of God in human parlance:

"War will come from the south, peace from the north.

"The laws of France no longer recognize the Creator. The Creator will reveal Himself by visiting her three times with the scourge of His wrath. The first time He will destroy her pride by defeat, pillage, and destruction of crops, cattle, and men. On His second visit the great whore of Babylon, which the faithful grievingly call Europe's brothel, shall lose her leader and fall prey to chaos.

"Paris! Paris! Instead of fortifying yourself with the Lord's name, you surround yourself with houses of ill repute. You yourself shall destroy them; your idol, the Pantheon, will be razed to the ground, so that it may truthfully be said that 'iniquity has lied to itself.' [Ps. 26,12] Your enemies will plunge you into anguish, famine, terror, and the contempt for My law, says the Lord.

"On My third visit, you shall fall under the foreign yoke. From afar your enemies will see your palaces in flames, your home in ruins, soaked in the blood of your heroes who are no more.

"But behold, a great warrior from the north appears, carrying a banner in his right hand, his arm bearing this inscription: 'Irresistible is the Hand of the Lord.' At that very moment the Venerable Old Man of Lazio [the Pope] went forward to meet him, holding aloft a brilliantly glowing torch. The banner then increased in size and turned from black to snow-white. In the middle of the banner, in letters of gold, there was written the name of Him who is able to do all things. "The warrior and his men bowed profoundly to the Venerable Old Man and joined hands with him. [NOTE: The “Archbishop of Latium”(Lazio) was one of the titles of the Pope at the time of the Papal States.]

"Now the voice of Heaven is addressed to the Shepherd of shepherds. You are in solemn conference with your co-workers, but the enemy of good never stands idle. He cunningly plots and sets all his wiles against you. He will sow discord among your helpers and will rear enemies among My sons. The powers of the world shall vomit fire. They would love to smother My words in the throats of the guardians of My law, but they shall not succeed. [This has already been attempted and will still be attempted, especially in Prussia - Germany.] They shall do much harm, but only to themselves. Hurry! If knots cannot be untied, sever them. Do not halt in the face of difficulties, but go forth until the hydra of error has been beheaded. At this blow earth and hell shall tremble, but the world will be saved and the faithful shall exult. Gather around you only two co-workers, yet wherever you go, carry on the task entrusted to you and bring it to completion. Days go by swiftly and your years are reaching their appointed number, but the great Queen shall always assist you, and, as in the past, She shall always be magnum et singulare in Ecclesia praesidium [“the powerful, prodigious defense of the Church” or more precisely, "the Great and Singular Defense in the Church.”]

"But you, O Italy, land of blessings, who has plunged you into desolation? Not your enemies, but your own friends. Do you not hear your children begging for the bread of faith, unable to find one to break it for them? What shall I do? I shall strike the shepherds and scatter the sheep so that those who sit upon the chair of Moses may seek better pastures and their flock may gently listen and be fed.

"But My hand shall be heavy upon both flock and shepherds. Famine, plague, and war shall cause mothers to mourn the blood of their sons and husbands shed on foreign soil.

"What shall befall you, ungrateful, effeminate, proud Rome? You have reached a point when you seek and admire nought in your sovereign but luxury, forgetting that both your glory and his stands upon Golgotha. Now he is old, frail, defenseless, and dispossessed. Nevertheless, though captive, his words cause the whole world to tremble.

"O Rome! Four times shall I come to you! The first time I shall smite your regions and its people. The second time I shall bring slaughter and destruction to your very gates. Should not that make you open your eyes? A third time shall I come, and I will demolish your defenses and defenders. At My Father's command, terror, dismay, and desolation will reign.

"My wise followers flee, but My law is still trod underfoot. Therefore, I shall come a fourth time. Woe to you if My law again shall go unheeded. There shall be defections among both learned and ignorant. Your blood and that of your children shall wipe out your transgressions.

"War, plague, and famine are the scourges to smite human pride and malice. Where are your magnificent villas and palaces, you people of wealth? They have become the litter of squares and streets!

"And you priests, why are you not prostrate between the vestibule and the altar, weeping and praying that the scourge may cease? Why do you not take up the shield of faith and preach My Word from the rooftops, in the houses, streets, and squares, and even in inaccessible places? Do you not know that this is the terrible two-edged sword which smites My enemies and placates the wrath of God and man?

"These things shall inexorably come to pass, all in succession.

"Things follow too slowly upon each other, but the great Queen of Heaven is at hand; the Lord's power is Hers.

Like mist She shall scatter Her enemies. She shall vest the Venerable Old Man [the Pope] with all his former garments.

"There shall yet come a violent hurricane. Iniquity is at an end, sin shall cease, and before two full moons shall have shone in the month of flowers, the rainbow of peace shall appear on the earth.

"The great Minister shall see the Bride of his King clothed in glory.

"Throughout the world a sun so bright shall shine as was never seen since the flames of the Cenacle until today, nor shall it be seen again until the end of time.

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  US government approves use of world’s first vaccine for honeybees
Posted by: Stone - 01-06-2023, 08:45 AM - Forum: General Commentary - No Replies

US government approves use of world’s first vaccine for honeybees
Hopes of a new weapon against diseases that routinely ravage colonies that are relied upon for food pollination

The Guardian [adapted] | Jan 2023

The world’s first vaccine for honeybees has been approved for use by the US government, raising hopes of a new weapon against diseases that routinely ravage colonies that are relied upon for food pollination.

The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) has granted a conditional license for a vaccine created by Dalan Animal Health, a US biotech company, to help protect honeybees from American foulbrood disease.

“Our vaccine is a breakthrough in protecting honeybees,” said Annette Kleiser, chief executive of Dalan Animal Health. “We are ready to change how we care for insects, impacting food production on a global scale.”

The vaccine, which will initially be available to commercial beekeepers, aims to curb foulbrood, a serious disease caused by the bacterium Paenibacillus larvae that can weaken and kill hives. There is currently no cure for the disease, which in parts of the US has been found in a quarter of hives, requiring beekeepers to destroy and burn any infected colonies and administer antibiotics to prevent further spread.

“It’s something that beekeepers can easily recognize because it reduces the larvae to this brown goo that has a rancid stink to it,” said Keith Delaplane, an entomologist at the University of Georgia, which has partnered with Dalan for the vaccine’s development.

The vaccine works by incorporating some of the bacteria into the royal jelly fed by worker bees to the queen, which then ingests it and gains some of the vaccine in the ovaries. The developing bee larvae then have immunity to foulbrood as they hatch, with studies by Dalan suggesting this will reduce death rates from the disease.

“In a perfect scenario, the queens could be fed a cocktail within a queen candy – the soft, pasty sugar that queen bees eat while in transit,” Delaplane said. “Queen breeders could advertise ‘fully vaccinated queens.’”

American foulbrood originated in the US, and has since spread around the world. Dalan said the breakthrough could be used to find vaccines for other bee-related diseases, such as the European version of foulbrood.

As they have been commercialized, transported and pressed into agricultural service, honeybees have been exposed to a cocktail of different diseases that typically lay waste to large numbers of colonies and require major interventions by beekeepers to keep numbers up.

The US is unusually dependent upon managed honeybee colonies to prop up its food pollination, with hives routinely trucked across the country to propagate everything from almonds to blueberries.

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  Archbp. Gänswein: 'Benedict XVI ... wished to get them away from Lefebvre'
Posted by: Stone - 01-05-2023, 08:04 PM - Forum: The Architects of Vatican II - Replies (2)

Abp. Gänswein: Traditionis Custodes caused Benedict XVI ‘pain in his heart’
'If you think about how many centuries the Old Mass was the source of spiritual life for many people, nourishment for many saints, you cannot imagine that this is something that is no longer good.'

[Image: GettyImages-457486212-810x500.jpg]

Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, flanked by Prefect of the Pontifical House and his former personal secretary Georg Ganswein, April 2014.
Photo by Franco Origlia/Getty Images

Jan 4, 2023
(LifeSiteNews [adapted]) — Archbishop Georg Gänswein has revealed that Pope Benedict XVI read Pope Francis’s orders restricting the use of the Traditional Latin Mass “with pain in his heart.”

Gänswein, Pope Benedict’s private secretary from 2003 until the Pope Emeritus’ death in 2022, made the comments about the late pontiff’s reaction to Traditionis Custodes in a recent interview with the German Catholic newspaper Die Tagespost

When asked if Pope Benedict was disappointed about the release of the motu proprio, Gänswein said that “it was indeed a blow.” 

I believe that Pope Benedict read this motu proprio with pain in his heart because he wished to help those who wanted to find inner peace, also the liturgical peace, and to get them away from [Archbishop Marcel] Lefebvre. Those who simply found a home in the Old Mass,” Gänswein stated.

“If you think about how many centuries the Old Mass was the source of spiritual life for many people, nourishment for many saints, you cannot imagine that this is something that is no longer good,” he continued.

“Many young people who were born long after the Second Vatican Council and no longer really understand the whole fuss about the Council, who also know the new Mass… have found a spiritual home and a spiritual treasure in the Old Mass. To take this treasure away from the people, I am not quite comfortable with that.”

Gänswein also stressed that the “Vati-Leaks” scandal or “so-called homosexual lobbies” had nothing to do with Pope Benedict’s resignation. The German prelate called these theories “stupid and wrong.”

“That’s what they want to have so they can say he couldn’t handle it and just threw in the towel. Just not true,” Gänswein said.

He insisted that Benedict resigned “because he did not have the strength,” referring to his physical health. 

When asked why Pope Benedict chose to still wear white, be referred to as “His Holiness,” and live in the Vatican, Gänswein said that “a cardinal who resigns stays an ‘Eminence’” and keeps his red colors, and so a pope who resigns could do the same.

Pope Benedict expanded then-current permissions to celebrate the Traditional Latin Mass (TLM) with his 2007 motu proprio Summorum Pontificum and said that the older form of the Roman Rite had never been abrogated. In a letter accompanying his motu proprio, Benedict wrote the following about the TLM: “What earlier generations held as sacred, remains sacred and great for us too, and it cannot be all of a sudden entirely forbidden or even considered harmful.”

However, on July 16, 2021, Pope Francis issued his restrictions against the TLM, abrogating Benedict’s Summorum Pontificum at the same time. Directly contradicting his still-living predecessor, Francis declared that the liturgy of Paul VI, or the Novus Ordo, is the “unique expression of the lex orandi of the Roman Rite.” [Catacombs note: Summorum Pontificum also noted that the Novus Ordo is pre-eminent rite of the Church, while the Latin Mass of all time was relegated to a secondary or 'extraordinary' form.]

According to a statement by the Fraternity of St. Peter (FSSP), a traditional priestly society that exclusively celebrates the Traditional Latin Mass, the Pope Emeritus sent a “private letter of encouragement” to the superior of the FSSP after the publication of Traditionis Custodes in the summer of 2021. 

The FSSP did not publish this news until after Benedict’s death on December 31, 2022.

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  Another Fake Resistance Bishop
Posted by: TheRecusant.com - 01-05-2023, 04:36 PM - Forum: True vs. False Resistance - Replies (9)

(With apologies for the late appearance of this particular EC)
Early in the New Year there is due to be ordained, on the Emerald Isle another priest for Catholic Tradition, by a bishop who is well-known in that country as a priest but not as a bishop. This is because he was consecrated in private nearly two years ago, in January of 2021, when the false Covid crisis with all its travel restrictions was in full swing. It then seemed that Éire might be completely cut off from England for an indefinite length of time, and then what would have continued to protect in the Land of Saints and Scholars those Catholics who understand the dangers for their Faith both of the Newchurch and of the Newsociety of St Pius X ? These Catholics may not be numerous, but by their rare grasp of the unchanging Catholic Faith they have for the future of the Church a rare importance. The precious consecration might have remained private for longer, were not circumstances seeming to become steadily more hostile to Catholic Tradition. Now as Catholic bishops are, by the power of their sacramental Orders to ordain priests and to consecrate bishops, essential for the survival of the Church, so Traditional bishops have been essential to the survival of Catholic Tradition. When Archbishop Lefebvre consecrated four bishops in 1988 without the clear permission of the Church’s official leaders in Rome, let nobody think that he was simply defying those leaders, because they had in fact given permission in principle for at least one to be consecrated. But when it came to fixing a date for that one consecration, Cardinal Ratzinger so avoided naming a date that the Archbishop saw clearly that he would never in practice be able to use the permission granted to him in principle by Church Authority. That was the decisive moment for the Archbishop to understand that Catholic Truth would never be properly defended by the modernists ruling in “Rome”, and so he went ahead with the consecration of four of his own priests as bishops, to ensure “Operation Survival”, as he called it, the very survival of Catholic Tradition. At the time, many believing Catholics did not understand his action, and roundly condemned it, but today, after Pachamama, and after Traditionis Custodes pretending to abolish the Traditional rite of Mass, and after a host of other heresies coming from the summit of the Newchurch, many of those same Catholics now admit that it is thanks to those consecrations of 1988 that the true Church survived. In the unprecedented crisis of the Church precipitated by its own leaders splitting their Catholic Authority from Catholic Truth at Vatican II (1962-1965), Archbishop Lefebvre never scorned or defied the true Authority of the Church, he merely put the Truth of Tradition in front of that Authority as embodied in neo-modernists, and by his so doing, more and more Catholics still have a Tradition to which they can rally. Honest souls among them acknowledge Mother Church’s immeasurable debt to the Archbishop. Now in the early 2020’s, Almighty God has still not yet seen fit to reunite Catholic Truth and Catholic Authority, so that the neo-modernists are still in control of “Rome”, and the Faith needs still to be sustained despite “Rome”. Therefore what the Archbishop began by putting Truth before Authority must be continued. However, while Catholic Truth must be preferred in the last resort to Catholic Authority if “Authority” opposes that Truth which it was only instituted by Our Lord to defend, nevertheless Truth in a fallen world does need that Authority to protect it, so that without that Authority on high, Truth has real difficulties. For instance the Archbishop’s successors had such problems in ruling the Society after his death that by a policy of deferring to “Rome” much more than he would ever have done, they so changed the Archbishop’s Society that it needs a new name, e.g. the “Newsociety”. And just as the mass of Catholics after Vatican II followed their leaders from the Church into the Newchurch, so the mass of followers of the Archbishop’s Society have followed his successors from his Society into what one can call the “Newsociety”, because it strains after official approval by the neo-modernists of “Rome”. Therefore as in 1988, or even more today, for the survival of Catholic Tradition, the necessity arises for the consecration of bishops without Roman Authority, so to speak, to maintain the Archbishop’s defence of the Faith above all. Hence the consecration in private of Fr Giacomo Ballini, here in England on January 14, 2021. The on-going Covid crisis showed how bravely he looks after the Mass and the Faith of all time.

Kyrie eleison

Today’s “Rome” will not properly care for sheep ?
We must have shepherds who will the true Faith keep !

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  Pope Benedict’s most important legacy is Francis
Posted by: Stone - 01-04-2023, 08:39 AM - Forum: The Architects of Vatican II - No Replies

A few highlights/excerpts from an article by Ed Condon at Pillar Catholic noted by gloria.tv, full Condon article to follow:


What Is Benedict's Main Legacy? Francis

PillarCatholic.com (January 2) writes the most significant legacy of Benedict XVI is Francis. Highlights.

• It’s improbable Benedict liked Francis’ Traditionis custodes but he never dissented from it.

• The timing of Benedict’s resignation suggest he made the decision in full awareness of what could follow, and he chose to do it anyway.

• He could have delayed his resignation only for a few months and 10 of the 117 voting cardinals, including several anti-Catholic figures [e.g. Cardinal Kasper], would have turned 80 losing the right to participate in the conclave.

• The list of the 2013 electors [67 of 115 appointed by Benedict] may lead to the conclusion that only that conclave could have produced Francis, due to Benedict’s resignation at that exact time.

• Two months before announcing his resignation, Benedict received a [never released] voluminous dossier on "Vatican [lavender] lobbies" prepared by a special investigation committee. Some believe Benedict decided to resign that day, after concluding he was unable to clean out bad actors from the curia.

• In retirement, Benedict kept a low profile and constantly affirmed his "loyalty" to Francis. Rare public interventions were pointedly in support of Francis.

• Francis was not an infrequent visitor to Benedict.


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Pope Benedict’s most important legacy is Francis
It may seem counterintuitive, but the defining legacy of Pope Benedict XVI is that he gave the Church Pope Francis.

[Image: E818YJ.jpg]

Pope Francis greets Benedict XVI, September, 2014. Credit: Alamy Stock Photo.

ED. CONDON at PillarCatholic.com | January 2, 2023


Following the death of Pope Benedict XVI, the tributes and testimonies to his life have flowed, offering different accounts of an extraordinary life of study and service to the Church.

Joseph Ratzinger, ordained a priest in 1951 and a bishop in 1977, was a prolific theologian and author. A major force in the post conciliar decades, his academic and theological writings seem likely to form part of the canon of essential study for future generations of professors, priests and bishops.

As a bishop, priest, and cardinal, Ratzinger was also, contrary to many media caricatures, well known as a kindly and personal figure, often sending thoughtful, handwritten letters in response to mail he received from Catholics around the world.

The legacy of Joseph Ratzinger the theologian and the man seems obvious.

But the most significant and defining legacy of Pope Benedict XVI as governor of the universal Church seems equally obvious, though it may seem counterintuitive to say so: It was Pope Benedict who gave the Church Pope Francis.

To say that Francis is Benedict’s most enduring legacy isn’t to suggest that Benedict achieved little in office — on the contrary.

His 2009 constitution Anglicanorum coetibus created a space for former Anglicans, laity and clergy, to reconcile with Rome, and the personal ordinariates it erected have become a unique part of the Catholic patrimony and family.

And it was Benedict who redefined clerical sexual abuse as a crime against the faith as well as against the person of the victims, reshaping the Church’s legal and pastoral responses to the abuse crises which still continue to emerge.

But from the moment Benedict read out his statement of resignation to the consistory of cardinals nearly a decade ago, many Church watchers predicted that his decision to renounce his office would be the defining act of his reign.

In many ways, this is both true and self-explanatory. As the first pope to resign in centuries, Benedict’s decision did “make history.” But how that decision would shape the future was not clear. Today, it seems impossible to separate the significance of Benedict’s resignation from what followed.

At the time Benedict stepped down, some canonists wondered what a “pope emeritus” was, legally speaking, and questioned the title and dress he would use in his semi-secluded retirement, and how he would relate to his eventual successor. Others wondered if his age (then 85) and stated reasons (failing strength) for resigning would create a kind of pressure on future popes to follow his example.

Those questions have largely been answered, not so much by Benedict himself as by the man elected to succeed him: Pope Francis.

The relationship between Francis and Benedict, both as men and as popes, has been the subject of continual Church gossip, media speculation, and even pop culture fiction, almost since the day the 2013 conclave ended.

The two popes are usually framed in stark contrast, if not outright tension, with the Francis era pitched as a radical change of direction, if not intentional breach with his predecessor.

And it is true that, apart from his resignation itself, many assumed Benedict’s most enduring legacy would be his 2007 motu proprio Summorum pontificum, which widened and re-established the celebration of the older form of the Roman liturgy throughout the Latin Church — which Francis abrogated in 2021.

But while it’s unlikely Benedict expected, or perhaps even privately welcomed, Francis’ issuance of Traditionis custodes, he never dissented from it. And the context and timing of Benedict’s decision to resign suggest he made the decision in full awareness of what could follow — and he chose to do it anyway.

When he stepped down from the Petrine office, Benedict said his decision was the fruit of long meditation and prayer, and those closest to him have always said that Benedict sincerely believed resigning was what the Lord had called him to do.

At the same time, Vatican gossip has long held that the ensuing conclave was expected to deliver a particular result — the election of Cardinal Angelo Scola — and that the choice of Jorge Maria Bergolio was the fruit of superior planning and electioneering by a small group of supporters.

The Kremlinology of conclave politicking has always been a point of fascination for Vatican watchers and those in the immediate orbit of curial politics. And the process of electing a pope is certainly a human process. But, in the same way that the Church is both human and divine, Catholics also trust that the Holy Spirit acts as a guide to the process, and protects the future of the Church.

Judging by the timing and manner of his resignation, Benedict appeared to trust this absolutely, and that the next pope would be the right one for the circumstances.

A pope intent on steering an orderly succession to a chosen candidate could have promoted a critical number of “reliable” cardinal electors to help deliver a result. But Benedict did not do so.

He could also have simply waited several months more before announcing his resignation, to see a sizable turnover in the college — 10 of the 117 voting age cardinals, including several widely held to be key Francis supporters —  would have turned 80 and aged out of the conclave by the end of that year.

Indeed, had he timed his resignation to take effect only a week later, Cardinal Walter Kasper, the longtime theological sparring partner of Benedict’s - and a key influence on both the first years of the Francis pontificate and the apostolic exhortation Amoris laetitia - would have been excluded.

Benedict chose none of those options, despite surely being aware of them.

And looking over the list of 2013 cardinal electors with hindsight, many might conclude that only that conclave could have produced Pope Francis — and only Benedict’s resignation at that exact time could have brought it about.

And if Benedict was expecting a different man to succeed him, he still might well have expected the conclave to produce a pope who would do some of the things Francis has done.

When Pope Benedict resigned, he made clear that, at 85, he believed he was no longer up to the job, physically or mentally.

There was at the time considerable speculation that Benedict had an as-yet unannounced medical condition and his time as “pope emeritus” would be short — though that speculation proved clearly unfounded.

But there was just as much discussion about Benedict resigning in the wake of mounting scandals, especially the so-called Vatileaks saga, which saw his former butler tried and jailed for delivering confidential documents to reporters.

Curial scandal loomed large in the final months of Benedict’s pontificate, with reporting and conjecture mixing to form a toxic cloud of suspicion about financial and moral corruption in the Vatican.

Two months before he announced his resignation, Benedict received a voluminous dossier on "Vatican lobbies" prepared by a special investigation committee. Some reports claim Benedict decided to resign that day, after concluding he was unequal to the task of cleaning out bad actors from the curia.

That report was never released, though its authors, Cardinals Tomko, Herranz, and Di Giorgi were apparently free to discuss their findings with the cardinal electors, and they re-presented them to Francis after he was elected.

Although assessments of Francis’ pontificate are often dominated by other issues, at the time he emerged on the loggia, it was almost universally understood that he had been elected with a mandate for curial reform as a first priority. And many of his first and most dramatic moves as pope involved shaking up financial oversight bodies and appointing outsiders to bring in new measures to combat corruption.

That reforming agenda has ebbed and flowed considerably over the last decade, so much so that one of Francis’ key appointments, former Vatican auditor general Libero Milone, is now attempting to sue the Secretariat of State for forcing him out for doing his job.

But with reams of new financial laws brought onto the Vatican statute books, and 10 people on trial for financial crimes — including a senior cardinal, Francis’ own former chief of staff — it is fair to say that Francis has acted boldly on a key issue that Benedict, by all accounts, could not.

Whatever the final reason Benedict decided to renounce the papal office, and however long he thought he would live on as “pope emeritus” to see what followed, he had always set himself to live quietly and in semi-seclusion in a monastery in the Vatican gardens.

But despite keeping a low profile and constantly affirming his own loyalty to his successor, in retirement Benedict became a constant flash point for the fringes of Church discourse.

For those Catholics disaffected with Pope Francis’ leadership, the “pope emeritus” became the locus of deranged conspiracy theories about an invalid resignation and the election of an “antipope.”

On the other side of the horseshoe of ecclesiastical discourse, Benedict became a kind of boogeyman — a silent marshal of “conservative” opposition to Francis, even as he affirmed his own deep affection for and obedience to the new pope.

Through all of that, Benedict was never reported to have said a dissenting word about his successor, indeed his rare public interventions were pointedly in support of Francis.

Yet, paradoxically, invoking Benedict as an obstacle for his successor, or even a limit on his freedom to lead the Church became, at times, a kind of rhetorical device for liberals to criticize Francis when the two men were inconveniently in agreement.

Ahead of Francis’ 2019 summit to respond to the abuse crisis triggered by the twin scandals of Theodore McCarrick and the Chilean bishops’ conference, Benedict issued a lengthy letter on the different calls for changes to Church law to enhance episcopal accountability.

Prominent boosters for Francis, like writer Austen Ivereigh, hailed the pope emeritus’ "helpful contribution," and noted how "they are very different men, and very different popes. But on the fundamentals, there seems to be little distance between them."

Those same commentators reversed course the following year, after Benedict allowed his name to appear on a book defending clerical celibacy, following calls during the synod on the Amazon to erode the discipline.

Although the book essentially backed the position of Francis himself, who called celibacy "a gift to the Church," and said he "does not agree with allowing optional celibacy," Iveriegh called the publication “elder abuse” and claimed Benedict was too senile and infirm to be allowed to contribute his thoughts on the subject — even while official Vatican spokesmen welcomed the text as a helpful and loyal contribution.

Francis is, of course, now older than Benedict was when he decided to resign, showing no signs of emulating his predecessor’s example. And, give or take a bad knee and colon surgery in 2021, the pope appears to be in rude health and set to continue in office for the foreseeable future.

But however long Francis continues, his relationship with his predecessor for the first decade of his pontificate will be an important part of his own time in office.

Conspiracy theorists and partisan commentators to one side, Francis was a not infrequent visitor to the monastery at the bottom of the garden. While we may never know how much counsel the pope sought from his predecessor, or what effect it had in shaping Francis’ own thinking, that too is a part of Benedict’s legacy.

Without diminishing his own time on the chair of St. Peter, it is a simple statement of fact that Benedict spent longer in retirement than in office — it has been and looks set to remain a time of considerable reform and change in the life of the Church.

How much of the last decade Benedict would have lived through had he continued in office is open to speculation. So, too, is what he might have done differently to Francis in that time, or who else might have succeeded Benedict had he not resigned when he did.

While there is no way of knowing how things might have been different had Benedict chosen to do differently in February of 2013, it is for certain that what has followed since is a fruit of that decision. So too will be whatever comes next in the Francis era, including the fate of the Church in Germany, and the conclusion of the worldwide synodal process.

While contemporary commentators and future historians can disagree over whether all this should be assigned as credit or blame to him, that fact is, perhaps unarguably, Benedict’s most significant legacy.
[Emphasis mine]

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  Benedict XVI's Requiem without the Roman Canon
Posted by: Stone - 01-04-2023, 08:24 AM - Forum: General Commentary - Replies (1)

Last Humiliation: Requiem Without Roman Canon

[Image: 3p4tx2py4398z410qzkhdi1r1xc6agwju6uz5pi....ormat=webp]


gloria.tv | January 3, 2023

The Vatican has published the brochure for Benedict XVI's funeral.

Most strikingly, for the first time since at least the 6th century, the Roman Canon will NOT be used at a Requiem for a Pope.

Also, the Gospel will not be solemnly sung in Latin - which has always been the case at such a liturgy.

Francis, 86, will not celebrate but be present in a cope. Nevertheless, he is referred to as the "presider". His parts are labelled "The Holy Father", but at the Eucharistic Prayer the booklet simply refers to "the celebrant" that is Cardinal Re, 88, the Dean of the College of Cardinals.

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  Collection of Links on Joseph Ratzinger
Posted by: Stone - 01-03-2023, 08:20 AM - Forum: The Architects of Vatican II - Replies (1)

Warning: These links come from a, shall we say, impassioned sedevacantist website. The posting of these links is in no way a promotion of sedevacantism. But the sedevacantists are among the few that keep track of many of the errors against the faith of Joseph Ratzinger, later Pope Benedict XVI. Please disregard the sedevacantist references. This is offered here merely as reminder that everything Conciliar is tainted and suspect, particularly coming from one of the architects of the errors of Vatican II.

There are many who choose to only see the conservative side of Joseph Ratzinger. But quietly and without much fanfare, he too has wrecked much havoc upon the Church. May God have mercy on his soul.

The Catacombs does not advocate nor promote public judgements of heresy. We follow in the footsteps of Archbishop Lefebvre and leave such judgements to the Church, when She rises again from Her Passion. But certainly, Joseph Ratzinger gave us many reasons to think the Church may one day condemn him as a heretic.


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Collection of Links on Joseph Ratzinger

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  IMF Head Warns Third Of World In Recession This Year
Posted by: Stone - 01-03-2023, 07:14 AM - Forum: Global News - No Replies

IMF Head Warns Third Of World In Recession This Year

[Image: imf.jpg?itok=IDOZjwF9]

ZH | JAN 03, 2023

International Monetary Fund Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva warned on CBS's 'Face the Nation' in an interview aired on Jan. 1 that a third of the global economy will be in recession this year and investors must prepare for "a tough year, tougher than the year we leave behind."

Kristalina explained recession risks are elevated "because the three big economies, US, EU, China, are all slowing down simultaneously." She added that some countries will avoid recession, though "it would feel like a recession for hundreds of millions of people."

"Our big worry is that with the economy slowing down globally, we are projecting global growth to go down to 2.7%, maybe even lower next year," she said. In 2021, global growth was 6%. It slumped to 3.2% in 2022 and continues to decline as central banks worldwide unleash the most aggressive monetary policy tightening scheme in a generation to get inflation under control.

Georgieva added the US might avoid a recession, but the situation looks bleaker in Europe, which has been hit hard by the war in Ukraine, she said. "Half of the European Union will be in recession," she warned.

"For the first time in 40 years, China's growth in 2022 is likely to be at or below global growth. That has never happened before. And looking into next year for three, four, five, six months, the relaxation of COVID restrictions will mean bushfire COVID cases throughout China," she said.

Georgieva warned the world is "more shock-prone" than ever before. An energy crisis is plaguing the world -- national security issues in Europe and Asia and liquidity issues in the banking system. The shocks of Covid are still not over though global supply chain congestion is receding.

Georgieva's comments are alarming for investors hoping for a soft economic landing this year. The latest figures over the weekend pointed to more weakness in the Chinese economy.

The official purchasing managers' index for China's factory activity shrank for the third consecutive month in December despite reopening efforts. The downturn is also visible in the purchasing managers index for manufacturing worldwide, slipping into a contraction in September.

Besides the IMF, BlackRock, the world's largest investment manager, has also warned a recession is imminent due to central banks aggressively boosting borrowing costs to tame inflation. According to a team of BlackRock strategists, their actions will ignite more market turbulence than ever before.

"Recession is foretold as central banks race to try to tame inflation. It's the opposite of past recessions," the team wrote in their 2023 Global Outlook, which said that the global economy has already exited a four-decade period of stable growth and inflation, and has now entered a period of heightened instability.

And when things get bad, BlackRock said, "Central bankers won't ride to the rescue when growth slows in this new regime, contrary to what investors have come to expect. Equity valuations don't yet reflect the damage ahead."

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  Rasmussen: More Than 1-in-4 Think Someone They Know Died From COVID-19 Vaccines
Posted by: Stone - 01-03-2023, 06:41 AM - Forum: Health - No Replies

‘Died Suddenly’? More Than 1-in-4 Think Someone They Know Died From COVID-19 Vaccines

Rasmussen Reports [slightly adapted] | Monday, January 02, 2023

Nearly half of Americans think COVID-19 vaccines may be to blame for many unexplained deaths, and more than a quarter say someone they know could be among the victims.

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone and online survey finds that (49%) of American Adults believe it is likely that side effects of COVID-19 vaccines have caused a significant number of unexplained deaths, including 28% who think it’s Very Likely. Thirty-seven percent (37%) don’t say a significant number of deaths have been caused by vaccine side effects, including 17% who believe it’s Not At All Likely. Another 14% are not sure. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

Twenty-eight percent (28%) of adults say they personally know someone whose death they think may have been caused by side effects of COVID-19 vaccines, while 61% don’t and another 10% are not sure.

The documentary Died Suddenly has been criticized as promoting “debunked” anti-vaccine conspiracy theories but has been seen by some 15 million people.

Forty-eight percent (48%) of Americans believe there are legitimate reasons to be concerned about the safety of COVID-19 vaccines, while 37% think people who worry about vaccine safety are spreading conspiracy theories. Another 15% are not sure.

The survey of 1,000 American Adults was conducted on December 28-30, 2022 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.

Seventy-one percent (71%) say they have received a COVID-19 vaccination, while 26% have not. Concerns about vaccine safety are much higher among the unvaccinated.

Seventy-seven percent (77%) of adults who have not gotten COVID-19 vaccinations believe it’s at least somewhat likely that side effects of COVID-19 vaccines have caused a significant number of unexplained deaths. Among those who have gotten the vaccine, just 38% consider unexplained deaths from the vaccine at least somewhat likely.

Similarly, while 45% of those who have not been vaccinated against COVID-19 think someone they know personally might have died from vaccine side effects, only 22% of vaccinated adults think so.

Forty-six percent (46%) of adults who have gotten vaccinated against COVID-19 believe people who worry about vaccine safety are spreading conspiracy theories, but just 15% of the unvaccinated share that belief. Sixty-nine percent (69%) of those who haven’t gotten the COVID-19 vaccine think there are legitimate reasons to be concerned about the safety of COVID-19 vaccines, as do 40% of those who have gotten vaccinated against the virus.

More Democrats (85%) than Republicans (63%) or those not affiliated with either major party (64%) have been vaccinated against COVID-19. More Republicans (60%) than Democrats (44%) or the unaffiliated (43%) think there are legitimate reasons to be concerned about the safety of COVID-19 vaccines. However, there is less political difference in the number who suspect someone they know might have died from vaccine side effects – 33% of Democrats and 26% of both Republicans and the unaffiliated.

Forty-six percent (46%) of whites, 48% of blacks and 57% of other minorities believe it is at least somewhat likely that side effects of COVID-19 vaccines have caused a significant number of unexplained deaths.

Younger Americans are less likely to be vaccinated against COVID-19, and 35% of adults under 40 believe someone they know personally might have died from vaccine side effects, compared to 28% of those 40-64 and just 14% of Americans 65 and older.

Slightly more men (52%) than women (47%) think it is at least somewhat likely that a significant number of unexplained deaths may have been caused by side effects of COVID-19 vaccines.

Married adults are more likely to be vaccinated against COVID-19 than their unmarried peers, but more married (33%) than unmarried (23%) Americans think someone they know personally might have died from vaccine side effects.

Voters with annual incomes below $30,000 are most likely to think there are legitimate reasons to be concerned about the safety of COVID-19 vaccines, while those with incomes above $200,000 are most likely to believe people who worry about vaccine safety are spreading conspiracy theories.

A majority of Americans think COVID-19 vaccines are effective, but have concerns about side effects.

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  Message of Archbishop Viganò for the end of 2022
Posted by: Stone - 01-02-2023, 07:34 AM - Forum: Archbishop Viganò - No Replies

DESIDERATUS CUNCTIS GENTIBUS: Message of Archbishop Viganò for the end of 2022
Taken from here.


Salvum fac populum tuum, Domine, et benedic hereditati tuæ.
Et rege eos, et extolle illos usque in æternum.


Save your people, Lord, and bless your inheritance.
Govern and uphold them now and always.  - Hymn. Te Deum


In these last hours that mark the conclusion of the civil year, each of us is preparing to take part in the solemn functions with which the Church raises to the Divine Majesty the praises of thanksgiving contained in the hymn Te Deum.

Te Deum laudamus: te Dominum confitemur. We praise you, O God: we acclaim you as Lord. In the plural “we,” one perceives the august voice of the Bride of the Lamb, adorned with the precious jewels of the Sacraments and the most precious gems of her royal crown: the most august Sacrament of the Altar, the Sacrosanct Sacrifice of the Mass and the Order of the Priesthood. And it is before the Most Blessed Sacrament that we all, standing as befits victors who are on our feet with Christ on the day of triumph, give thanks to God for the year that is drawing to a close.

Let us therefore consider that for which we must give thanks to the Most Holy Trinity.

We thank the Lord God for punishing us for our lukewarmness, our silence, our inclination to compromise, our hypocrisies, our yielding to the spirit of the world and the errors of the dominant ideologies. It was these sins and shortcomings that have allowed those who today impose the tyranny of the New World Order to flourish in the civil world, and those who excommunicate a pro-life priest and scandalously promote corrupt and heretical prelates and clerics to prevail in the ecclesiastical world. They have allowed, in the civil world, democracy to be transformed into the apostasy of nations and the cruel slaughter of the innocent.

They have allowed, in the ecclesial body, the Second Vatican Council to introduce the principles of the Revolution into the Church, as a subversive lever to destroy it from within. They have allowed sin and vice be encouraged in the civil world, while honesty, integrity, and Christian morality are mocked and trampled upon, if not criminalized. They have allowed, in the ecclesiastical world, the persecution of the faithful and clerics who ask to profess the Catholic Faith and to celebrate it in the Apostolic Rite, while the Vatican Sanhedrin worships an infernal idol at the tomb of the Prince of the Apostles. They have allowed, in both the civil and ecclesiastical world – significantly allied on this point – the health mark of the Beast to be imposed on billions of people, in the name of a delirious plan of global population control, using as a pretext a disease that has proven to be curable and not fatal only after the prohibition of appropriate treatments had caused a sufficient number of deaths to terrorize the masses. They have allowed an operation, long time planned, carried out with impunity by NATO to provoke a war against an “invader” and in order to destroy the economy of Western nations, while it is evident that the Ukrainian crisis is instrumental to the realization of the Great Reset; no more and no less than COVID-19, as well as being as an expedient for Joe Biden to hide the evidence of the corruption of his family and the presence of biolaboratories linked to the Pentagon. They have allowed, in both civil and ecclesiastical institutions, officials to be more blackmailed the more they ascend in their careers, and that neither citizens nor believers demand that the corrupt and perverted be removed and prosecuted.

What we are witnessing today is the inevitable outcome of a series of small steps, each of which could have been prevented if only we had exercised a minimum of critical judgment and raised our voice, if we had protested in order to defend our rights that have been violated by those who should have been the first to protect them. Divorce, abortion, euthanasia, sodomy, gender ideology, leftist or right-wing liberalism, immigrationism, cancel culture, globalism, the health dictatorship, Malthusian environmentalism, ecumenism, synodality. . . Each time, we could and should have denounced the threat that loomed, and yet we were silent, so as not to be called “conspiracy theorists” or branded as “fundamentalists,” so that we would not suffer social and ecclesial ostracism because of our ideas or our Faith.  “Each person is free to do what he wishes, so long as this also allows me to be Catholic and to go to the Latin Mass,” say those who have allowed themselves to be contaminated by liberal thought. But it is precisely this “doing whatever one wants” that has allowed the manipulators of the masses to change society and to make us strangers in our homeland, both in our own Nations and also within the Church.

Yet we knew very well that the project of Masonic liberalism ought to have been opposed by Catholics, following the repeated alarms and multiple condemnations of the Roman Pontiffs. We knew that liberals give their tolerance to everyone except Catholics, and that their worst enemy is Christ the King of the Nations, because wherever He reigns, the enemies of God and mankind are in shackles and not at the head of governments. We knew very well that rebellion against God in temporal and spiritual matters could only lead to either dictatorship or anarchy, yet we have allowed the trampling down of Justice in our courts and workers’ rights in our businesses, the prevention of treatment in our hospitals, the spreading of lies in our media, the corruption of young people’s morals in our schools, and the contradiction of the Magisterium from our pulpits.

Those who up until now have held positions of authority have done so by usurping power for the opposite purpose to that for which it exists. As I said earlier: we feel treated as if we are foreigners, indeed, although we are citizens we are treated like enemies of the State, and although we are members of the faithful we are treated as enemies of the Church, while the true foreigners and enemies of the State are welcomed, honored, and obeyed in the delirious “humanitarian” and “philanthropic” projects of the elite who have usurped authority. And some of us, in the face of this operation of social and religious engineering, have given up fighting, or even sided with the conspirators: they have chosen to please the powerful, to support their subversive plans in our Parliaments, in the halls of international institutions, in our cathedrals and even right under the cupola of St. Peter’s Basilica. Conformism, cowardice, obsequiousness; with the hope that today’s betrayal by which they crush our neighbor – whether it is a citizen who asks for honest rulers or one of the faithful who asks for holy shepherds – can somehow spare us from subsequent decimation. They forget that the Revolution devours its own children like Saturn, and that none of the accomplices of the first hour are spared the gallows, either in reality or in the media.

The Lord is our Father, and as Father He punishes us so that we understand our faults, repent of them, and change our lives. Deus, qui culpa offenderis, pœnitentia placaris, says a prayer of Lent: O God, who is offended by guilt and appeased by penance. Wherever there is guilt, wherever the Majesty of God is infinitely offended, there is the need of a punishment. Flagella tuæ iracundiæ, quæ pro peccatis nostri meremur: the scourges of Your indignation, which we merit because of our sins – just as so often happened to the people of Israel.

Blessed be this chastisement, which has lasted for over two years, and which is destined to endure if we do not make ourselves worthy of being spared, giving signs of conversion, repentance, expiation, and reparation. Blessed be this most inauspicious year that we now leave behind, during which the pandemic farce has shown itself in its criminal nature by revealing the project of death of the globalist elite; during which the ruthless cynicism of international organizations has manifested itself in hypocritical propaganda in favor of governments led by those who are most corrupt and subservient to the Great Reset, showing what lies those who do not recognize the transcendent principle of Truth are capable of telling, deluding themselves that they can erase the very work of the Creator by transhumanism, in whose image and likeness we have been made. Blessed be the boldness with which the tyrants of the New World Order have shown us the horrors that await us if we remain inert, passively enduring their health, environmental, energy, economic or war blackmails. Blessed is the arrogance of the Bergoglian sect, the accomplice of power and the servant of Masonic ideology, which with its compliance towards the wicked and its pharisaic severity against the good reveals – even to the simple – its apostasy and uncovers the gangrene of its vices. Like Job, let us bless the Lord above all in moments of tribulation, because in those trials – even in the most arduous and painful – we ought to see the intervention of Providence, the loving hand of God who does not abandon us to our own devices, we who have ended up much worse than watching over pigs, as happened to the prodigal son.

Miserere nostri, Domine, miserere nostri. Fiat misericordia tua, Domine, super nos, quemadmodum speravimus in te. Have mercy on us, Lord, have mercy on us. May thy mercy be upon us, Lord, in the measure that we have hoped in You. Have mercy on your children who have been abandoned by their rulers and shepherds. Have mercy on those who, precisely because they do not wallow in the false illusions of this age but live by the blessed Hope of your holy help, find in You the strength to fight the good fight, whether conducted in the family or in the workplace, from the seats of Parliament or from the editorial offices of a newspaper, from the pulpit of a country church or from the cell of a convent. Have mercy on those who do not resign themselves to the establishment of the hell on earth of the New World Order, nor to the no-less-infernal apostasy of irenic ecumenism.

And if we ask for an end to the scourges of this 2022, preparing to invoke with the Veni Creator the gifts of the Paraclete at the beginning of 2023, let us do so with the trusting humility of the prodigal son: Father, I have sinned against Heaven and against you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son (Lk 15:21). We do this by renewing our determination to obey God rather than men (Acts 5:29), when men abuse their authority by offending and disobeying Him in temporal and spiritual things.

The Te Deum is a hymn of thanksgiving for victory, a song of triumph. But this triumph is not the passing triumph of men. Rather it is the eternal triumph of the Son of God, who conquered Satan, not with armies and angelic hosts, but by dying on the Cross, an instrument of ignominy transformed into a banner of glory by the Blood of the Lamb. Christ’s victory – Ego vici mundum, I have overcome the world, Our Lord assures us (Jn 16:33) –  is accomplished on the triumphal way to Calvary, which the entire Mystical Body must follow, even to the passio Ecclesiæ, following the example of the Divine Redeemer, its Head. If we do not unite ourselves to the Passion of Christ, we will not be able to rise with Him and sit at His right hand in the blessed glory of Heaven. If we do not fight against sin under the banner of Christ and the Blessed Virgin, we will not be able to celebrate the final triumph over the ancient Serpent and his followers. If we do not rouse ourselves from torpor but instead remain simply watching the scoundrels who rage against the Church and humanity, seeking to cancel every trace of Christ, we have no reason to thank the Lord by singing the Te Deum, because we will have remained insensitive to His punishments and to the many warnings that He deigns to send us to urge us to reciprocate His love, that perfect and infinite love which enabled the Second Person of the Most Holy Trinity to become Incarnate in order to redeem us. Then we will be deserving of that dystopian nightmare which the servants of Masonic globalism have been preparing for us for years and of which we have had a terrifying foretaste in the recent past.

Let us therefore sing this Te Deum with a renewed heart and with the intention of witnessing to our fidelity to the Lord, regardless of our abilities, trusting in His holy help, which is all the more powerful the greater and more ferocious is the assault of the Enemy: In te, Domine, speravi: non confundar in æternum.

And so may it be.

+ Carlo Maria Viganò, Archbishop
31 December 2022
S. Silvestri Papæ et Confessoris

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  St. Alphonsus Liguori: Daily Meditations for January 1st - 5th
Posted by: Stone - 01-02-2023, 07:16 AM - Forum: Christmas - Replies (4)

New Year's Day
(Feast of the Circumcision of Our Lord)

Morning Meditation

JESUS OUR SAVIOUR


[Image: cj0z]

Consider that the Infant Jesus, eight days after His Birth, showed Himself even then to be our Saviour, by shedding His divine Blood for us in the Circumcision, and taking the Name of Saviour. O most merciful Infant God, I give Thee thanks, and I beseech Thee by the pain which Thou didst feel, and by the Blood which Thou didst shed in Thy Circumcision, to grant me the grace and the power to tear out of my heart all earthly affections.


I.

Behold how the Eternal Father, having sent His Son to suffer and die for us, wills that on this day He should be circumcised, and should begin to shed His Divine Blood, which He has to shed for the last time on the day of His death upon the Cross in a sea of contumely and sorrow. And wherefore? In order that this innocent Son should thus pay the penalties which we have deserved. The Holy Church exclaims: "O admirable condescension of divine pity towards us! O inestimable love of charity! To redeem the slave Thou hast delivered Thy Son to death!"

O Eternal God, who could ever have bestowed upon us this infinite gift but Thou Who art infinite goodness and infinite love. O my God, if in giving me Thy Son, Thou hast given me the dearest treasure Thou hast, it is right that I should give myself entirely to Thee. Yes, my God, I give Thee my whole self; do Thou accept of me, and permit me not to leave Thee again.


II.

Behold, on the other hand, the Divine Son, Who, all humble, and full of love towards us, embraces the bitter death destined for Him in order to save us sinners from eternal death, and willingly begins on this day to make satisfaction for us to the divine justice with the price of His Blood. He humbled himself, says the Apostle, becoming obedient unto death, even to the death of the cross (Phil. ii. 8). Thou, therefore, O my Jesus, hast accepted death for my love; what, then, shall I do? Shall I continue to offend Thee by my sins? No, my Redeemer, I will no longer be ungrateful to Thee. I am sorry from my heart that I have caused Thee so much bitterness in times past. I love Thee, O infinite Goodness, and for the future I will never cease to love Thee.

Our Redeemer has said: Greater love than this no man hath, that a man lay down his life for his friends (Jo. xv. 13). Thou, O my Jesus, as St. Paul tells us, hast shown greater love than this towards us, by giving Thy life for us who were Thy enemies. Behold one of them, O Lord, at Thy feet. How many times have I, a miserable sinner, renounced Thy friendship because I would not obey Thee! I now see the evil I have done; pardon me, my Jesus, for I could wish to die of sorrow. I now love Thee with my whole soul, and I desire nothing else but to love Thee and to please Thee. O Mary, Mother of God and my Mother, pray to Jesus for me.


Spiritual Reading

THE NAME OF JESUS CONSOLES.

This great Name of Jesus was not given by man, but by God Himself; "The Name of Jesus," says St. Bernard, "was preordained by God." It was a new Name: A new name which the mouth of the Lord shall name (Is. lxii. 2). A new Name which God could give only to Him Whom He destined to be the Saviour of the world. A new and an eternal Name; because, as our salvation was decreed from all eternity, so from all eternity was this Name given to the Redeemer. Nevertheless this Name was only bestowed on Jesus Christ in this world on the day of His Circumcision: And after eight days were accomplished that the child should be circumcised, his name was called Jesus. The Eternal Father wished at that time to reward the humility of His Son by giving Him so honourable a Name. Yes, while Jesus humbles Himself, submitting in His Circumcision to be branded with the mark of a sinner, it is just that His Father should honour Him by giving Him a Name that exceeds the dignity and sublimity of any other name: God hath given him a name that is above all names (Phil. ii. 9). And He commands that this Name should be adored by the Angels, by men, and by devils: That in the name of Jesus every knee should bow of those that are in heaven, on earth, and under the earth (Ibid. ii. 10). If, then, all creatures are to adore this great Name, still more ought we sinners to adore it, since it was in our behalf that this Name of Jesus, which signifies Saviour, was given to Him; and for this end also He came down from Heaven, namely, to save sinners: "For us men and for our salvation He came down from Heaven, and was made Man." We ought to adore Him, and at the same time to thank God Who has given Him this Name for our good; for it is this Name that consoles us, defends us, and makes us burn with love.

The Name of Jesus consoles us; for when we invoke Jesus, we find relief in all our afflictions. When we have recourse to Jesus, He wishes to console us because He loves us; and He can do so, because He is not only Man, but He is also the Omnipotent God; otherwise He could not properly have this great Name of Saviour. The Name of Jesus signifies that the bearer of it is of infinite power, infinite wisdom and infinite love; so that if Jesus Christ had not united in Himself all these perfections, He could not have saved us: "If any one of these," says St. Bernard, "had been wanting, Thou couldst not call Thyself Saviour." Thus, when speaking of the Circumcision, the Saint says: "He was circumcised as being the son of Abraham, He was called Jesus as being the Son of God." He is branded as man with the mark of sin, having taken upon Himself the burden of atoning for sin; and from His very Infancy He began to satisfy for the crimes of men, by suffering and shedding His Blood.

The Name of Jesus is said by the Holy Spirit to be like oil poured out: Thy name is as oil poured out (Cant. i. 2). And so indeed it is, says St. Bernard; for as oil serves for light, for food, and for medicine, so especially the Name of Jesus is light: "it is a light when preached." And how was it, says the Saint, that the light of Faith shone forth so suddenly in the world that in a short time so many Gentile nations knew the true God, and became His followers, if it was not through hearing the Name of Jesus preached? "Whence, think you, shone forth in the whole world, so bright and so sudden, the light of Faith, except from the preaching of the Name of Jesus?" Through this Name we have been happily made sons of the true light, that is, sons of the Holy Church; since we were so fortunate as to be born in the bosom of the true Church, in Christian and Catholic kingdoms -- a grace which has not been granted to the greater part of men, who are born amongst idolaters, Mahometans, or heretics.

Further, the Name of Jesus is a food that nourishes our souls. "The thought of it is nourishment." This Name gives strength to find peace and consolation even in the midst of the miseries and persecutions of this world. The holy Apostles rejoiced when they were ill-treated and reviled, being comforted by the Name of Jesus: They went from the presence of the council rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer for the name of Jesus (Acts. v. 41).

It is light, it is food, and it is also medicine to those who invoke it: "When pronounced, it soothes and anoints." The holy Abbot says: "At the rising of the light of this Name, the clouds disperse, and calm returns." If the soul of any one is afflicted and in trouble, let him pronounce the Name of Jesus, and immediately the tempest will cease and peace will return. Does any one fall into sin? Does he run in despair into the snares of death? Let him invoke the Name of Life, and will his life not be renewed? He shall immediately be encouraged to hope for pardon, by calling on Jesus, Who was destined by the Father to be our Saviour, and obtain pardon for sinners. Euthymius says that if when Judas was tempted to despair, he had invoked the Name of Jesus, he would not have given way to temptation: "If he had invoked that Name, he would not have perished." Therefore, he adds, no sinner can perish through despair, however abandoned he may be, who invokes the Holy Name, which is one of hope and salvation: "Despair is far off where His Name is invoked."

But sinners leave off invoking this saving Name, because they do not wish to be cured of their infirmities. Jesus Christ is ready to heal all our wounds; but if people cherish their wounds, and will not be healed, how can Jesus Christ heal them? The Venerable Sister Mary of Jesus Crucified, a Sicilian nun, once saw the Saviour, as it seemed, in a hospital, going round with medicines in His hands, to cure the sick people who were there; but these miserable people, instead of thanking Him and begging Him to come to them, drove Him away. So do many sinners, after they have of their own free will poisoned their souls with sins, refuse the gift of health, that is, the grace offered them by Jesus Christ, and thus remain lost through their infirmities.

But, on the other hand, what fear can that sinner have who has recourse to Jesus Christ, since Jesus offers Himself to obtain our pardon from His Father, He having paid by His death the penalty due to us? St. Laurence Justinian says: "He Who had been offended, appointed Himself as Intercessor, and Himself paid what was owing to God." Therefore, adds the Saint, "if thou art bound down by sickness, if sorrows weary thee, if thou art trembling with fear, invoke the Name of Jesus." O poor man, whoever thou art, if thou art weighed down by infirmity or by grief and fear, call on Jesus, and He will console thee. It is enough that we pray to the Father in His Name, and all we ask will be granted to us. This is the promise of Jesus Himself, which He repeated many times, and which cannot fail: If you ask the Father anything in my name, he will give it to you (Jo. xvi. 23). Whatsoever you shall ask of the Father in my name that will I do (Jo. xiv. 13).


Evening Meditation

HIS NAME WAS CALLED JESUS (Gospel, Luke ii. 21).

I.

The Name of Jesus is a divine Name, announced to Mary on the part of God by St. Gabriel: and thou shalt call his name Jesus (Luke i. 31). For that reason it was called a name above all names (Phil. ii. 9). And it was also called a Name in which alone salvation is found: whereby we must be saved (Acts iv. 12).

This great Name is likened by the Holy Spirit unto oil: Thy name is as oil poured out (Cant. i. 2). For this reason, says St. Bernard, that as oil is light, food, and medicine, so the Name of Jesus is light to the mind, food to the heart, and medicine to the soul.

It is light to the mind. By this Name the world was converted from the darkness of idolatry to the light of Faith. We who have been born in these regions, where before the coming of Christ our ancestors were Gentiles, should all have been in the same condition had not the Messias come to enlighten us. How thankful ought we not, then, to be to Jesus Christ for the gift of Faith! And what would have become of us if we had been born in Asia, in Africa, in America, or in the midst of heretics and schismatics? He who believes not is lost: He that believeth not shall be condemned (Mark xvi. 16). And thus probably we also should have been lost.

O Jesus, Thou Who didst make the power of Thy Name to shine forth to deliver us from the servitude of sin, and the slavery of the devil, deign now and always to preserve our souls from all unworthy subjection. O Jesus all powerful, if the eyes of our souls had not been opened and enlightened by the light of Faith which Thou hast taught us by Thy own mouth, how should we ever have been able to know Thy divine mysteries! Without Thy aid we should always have been buried in the darkness of ignorance and the shadow of death. May thanks be ever given to our sweet Jesus Who has had compassion on us, and, in opening the gates of Heaven to us, has made us heirs of His Eternal Kingdom.


II.

The Name of Jesus is also food that nourishes our hearts; yes, because this Name reminds us of what Jesus has done to save us. Hence this Name consoles us in tribulation, gives us strength to walk along the way of salvation, supplies us with courage in difficulties, and inflames us with love for our Redeemer, when we remember what He has suffered for our salvation.

Lastly, this Name is medicine to the soul, because it renders it strong against the temptations of our enemies. The devils tremble and fly at the invocations of this Holy Name, according to the words of the Apostle: That at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow, of those that are in heaven, on earth, and under the earth (Phil. ii. 10). He who in temptation calls upon Jesus shall not fall, and shall be saved: Praising, I will call upon the Lord; and I will be saved from my enemies (Ps. xvii. 4). And who was ever lost who when he was tempted invoked Jesus? He alone is lost who does not invoke His aid, or who, whilst the temptation continues, ceases to invoke Him. Oh, that I had always called upon Thee, my Jesus; for then I should never have been conquered by the devil! I have miserably lost Thy grace, because in temptation I have neglected to call Thee to my assistance. But now I hope for all things through Thy Holy Name. Write, therefore, O my Saviour, write upon my poor heart Thy most powerful Name of Jesus, so that, by having it always in my heart by loving Thee, I may have it always on my lips by invoking Thee, in all the temptations that hell prepares for me to induce me to again become its slave, and to separate myself from Thee. In Thy Name I shall find every good. If I am afflicted, it will console me when I think how much more afflicted Thou hast been than I am, and all for the love of me. If I am disheartened on account of my sins, it will give me courage when I remember that Thou camest into the world to save sinners. If I am tempted, Thy Holy Name will give me strength, when I consider that Thou canst help me more than hell can cast me down; finally, if I feel cold in Thy love, Thy Name will give me fervour, by reminding me of the love that Thou bearest me. I love Thee, my Jesus! To Thee do I give all my heart, O my Jesus! Thee alone will I love! Thee will I invoke as often as I possibly can. I will die with Thy Name upon my lips; a Name of hope, a Name of salvation, a Name of love. O Mary, if thou lovest me, this is the grace I beg of thee to obtain for me -- the grace constantly to invoke thy name and that of thy Son; obtain for me that these most sweet Names may be the breath of my soul, and that I may repeat them constantly during life, in order to repeat them with my last breath. Jesus and Mary, help me; Jesus and Mary, I love You; Jesus and Mary I recommend my soul to You.

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