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| Protesting the Protestant Movement |
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Posted by: Stone - 1 hour ago - Forum: Resources Online
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Protesting the Protestant Movement
The Angelus – March 2005
Truth requires us to combat error. Justice demands that we do so by honest means. Charity would have us combat only the error itself, and not the human being who is its victim.¹ In what follows, the words Protestant and Catholic are used with their traditional meanings. Excluded from consideration are liberal Protestants and modernist Catholics, two groups of people who seem to believe nothing any more.
Protestantism can be summarized by paraphrasing Mark Twain:
Quote:"The trouble is not that Protestants are ignorant. Rather, the trouble is with all the things they know that ain't so..."
Protestantism is negative: it is defined in terms of Catholicism by emphasizing the rejection of various teachings of the Catholic Church. These rejections are justified by attempts to refute dogmas of the Catholic Church, but these refutations are never successful because they always contain factual errors.
In the United States, Roman Catholicism² by Loraine Boettner is considered a comprehensive collection of refutations of Catholic beliefs and practices. The book rejects Catholic beliefs and practices, but it does not succeed in refuting a single one of them. The book reveals that Protestants have little understanding of Catholicism, and thus little understanding of what exactly they are rejecting. So in the strictest sense it is true that "the trouble is with all the things they know that ain't so...." A few comments on Boettner's book:
Quote:• The book was written for Protestants, and a Catholic does not really know what they will make of it. But the Catholic reader very quickly discovers that the book does not present religious truth, but anti-Catholic propaganda, and so predictably there is almost nothing in it that is true. To Catholics, the Protestant picture of Catholicism may appear amusingly misinformed, deliberately misleading or downright mean-spirited.
• The book is characterized by an intense hatred of the Catholic Church, which we shall discuss later.
• The book is full of blatantly dishonest arguments none of which will ever stand up in the court of reason (e.g., Roman Catholicism is just like communism; Catholics worship images, statues, and, of course, also Mary; American civil law is superior to Roman Catholic Canon Law; Catholics are poor, ignorant, idolatrous, superstitious people, etc. ad nauseam). It is written in the style of typical modern propaganda or "hate literature," i.e., it appeals to the emotions rather than to the intellect.
• When it comes to strictly religious issues, in many cases various straw men are knocked down, and caricatures of Catholic beliefs and practices are refuted. For example, it is correct to denounce idolatry, but it is completely bogus to accuse Roman Catholics of idolatry.
• Not surprisingly, Boettner fails to refute (i.e., to prove wrong) a single Catholic belief or practice. For example, he announces that Mary is the mother of Jesus but not the mother of God because God does not have a mother (p. 133). Anybody who says that does not understand the Trinity, does not understand the Incarnation, and is guilty of the heresy of Nestorius. The Council of Ephesus in A.D. 431 settled this matter once and for all: Mary is the Mother of God, and this stands for all eternity.
St. Thomas Aquinas explains (Summa Theologica, III, Q. 35, Art. 4) that when a mother gives birth to a child we do not say that the mother is the mother of the "body of the child" but simply that she is the mother of the person of the child. The Blessed Virgin Mary gave a body to the person of Jesus Christ, but this person was the God-man, with both a human and a divine nature. Therefore, the Blessed Virgin, being the mother of the person of Christ, is justifiably called the Mother of God.
Boettner grudgingly admits that the Council of Ephesus did say that Mary is the Mother of God, but then takes it on himself to explain what "Mary is the Mother of God" really means, arriving at the conclusion that it should have never been said because it is "unscriptural." (This turning things upside down is typical Protestant "scholarship.") Finally, p. 135 concludes with the following nonsense: "The correct statement of the person of Christ in this regard is: As His human nature had no father, so His divine nature had no mother." Natures have no father and mother, only persons have a father and mother.
The book of Boettner, being a typical presentation of the stock Protestant arguments, suffers from the same basic problem the whole of Protestantism suffers from: it is inconsistent, which means that all its arguments are worthless. (In an inconsistent system when a proposition P is provable, then so is its negation). See below "Why believe the Bible?–Inerrancy."
Protestantism is not a single religion that could be examined and debated. It only has some "principles" which can be invoked with flexibility and can be used to generate the religion congenial to the Protestant. In these pages, as examples, we discuss two Protestant "principles," one Protestant doctrinal error, and the rejection of two Catholic doctrines, each in deliberately simple terms.
Sola Scriptura and Private Judgment
Sola Scriptura means that (supposedly) Divine Revelation is contained in Scripture alone. This is expressed in popular language by saying that Protestantism is "the religion of the Bible."
Reading the Bible Cannot Be a Requirement for Salvation
According to Protestants, a Christian is supposed to save his soul by acquiring a book called the Bible; read the Bible, make up his mind about what the Bible means (principle of private judgment), and now he is supposedly in possession of Divine Revelation.
Unfortunately, the Bible did not exist for the first 400 years of Christian history (the canonical books were selected by the Catholic Church only at the Council of Carthage in A.D. 397):
Quote:The whole revelation of Christianity was given by the Holy Spirit and preached also and believed among the nations of the world before the New Testament existed. The knowledge of God through the Incarnation, and the way of salvation through grace, was revealed partly by our Divine Lord, and fully by the Holy Ghost at His coming. The faith or science of God was infused into the Apostles by a divine illumination. It was in itself the New Testament, before a line of it was written....³
For the subsequent 1100 years the Bible was completely inaccessible to most ordinary mortals because there was no way to reproduce the Bible cheaply. Thus, apparently Our Lord Jesus Christ has completely failed to provide for His followers for 75% of Christian history. Since such charge of failure is untenable against God, these Protestant ideas must be wrong.
The Bible Is Not the Sole Source of Divine Revelation
It makes little sense to consider the Bible the only source of Divine Revelation in the light of the following consideration:
St. John put on Our Lord's lips about 8,000 words. Sts. Matthew, Mark and Luke about three times as many. To speak slowly and distinctly, all the words of Our Lord recorded in St. John would take less than an hour, the words given in the Synoptics about two and half. Now the Gospels give us to understand that during His Public Ministry Our Lord spoke practically, day by day, for many hours. If Our Lord spoke only one hour a day in public, His public speeches would occupy say one thousand hours, but Our Lord did not merely speak in public. He spoke continually in private to His disciples. His longest recorded speech in St. John (12-17) was spoken entirely in private to His disciples. Considering that apparently, Christ devoted all His time to speaking and teaching, somehow, His twelve Apostles must have heard him for thousands of hours, and what is contained in the Gospels is in consequence not one-thousandth part of what they heard Him say.⁴
Indeed, Tradition is another important source of our knowledge of Divine Revelation. For example, the Catholic is not impressed at all when Protestants question the existence of purgatory; the Catholic knows that not only the most ancient liturgies, but also the Roman catacombs were full of proofs of purgatory, because purgatory was always believed.
This also explains the fact that all the frenzy of Protestants fulminating against something "unscriptural" leaves the Catholic absolutely cold. He knows that everything does not have to be in Holy Scripture.
Why Believe the Bible!
Unfortunately, Protestants have no conceivable right to base any argument on the inspiration of the Bible, for the inspiration of the Bible was a doctrine which had been believed, before the Reformation, on the mere authority of the Church; it rested on exactly the same basis as the doctrine of Transubstantiation. The only reason for holding the Bible worthy of credence is because the Catholic Church has said so. St. Augustine stated this very clearly: "I would not believe the Gospel unless moved thereto by the authority of the Church."⁵
Protestantism repudiated Transubstantiation, and in doing so repudiated the authority of the Church; and then, without a shred of logic, calmly went on believing in the inspiration of the Bible as if nothing had happened! It is a most absurd and untenable position to be in, but most Protestants do not even realize this.
Of course, for liberal Protestants, literal inspiration led to literary inspiration, which then led to the total disintegration of the authority of the Bible. Only fundamentalists still hold on to the old inconsistent position.
The Protestant Bibles
Johann Gutenberg (1397–1468), inventor of the printing press, was a Catholic, and numerous (47) Catholic Bibles were printed in the vernacular (in many languages) between 1466 and 1520, but the Protestant propaganda is persistent that Luther somehow found the Bible and gave it to the people for the first time in their own language.⁶ Another one of the things they know that ain't so...
So what did the Protestants do with the Bible as it now became easily available? First, they have mutilated the Bible, the book for which they claim to have such high regard. They dropped typically six books from the Old Testament. For example, the second book of Machabees had to go because it proves the existence of purgatory beyond a shadow of doubt.
They left out parts of the books they kept (e.g., seven chapters of the Book of Esther, and most of the third chapter of Daniel), and they mistranslated key passages to suit their purposes. A theologically important example is from the prophecy of Malachias (Douay Version), which predicts a sacrifice that would be offered universally even among the Gentiles: "In every place there is sacrifice, and there is offered to my name a clean oblation" (Mal. 1:11). The King James Version deliberately mistranslates it as: "And in every place incense shall be offered unto my name, and a pure offering" (Mal. 1:11). Of course, having refused all sacrifice to God, Protestants should now at least offer incense to Him (to be consistent with this Scripture passage), but they probably declare that practice "unscriptural" too.
As a result, even the very best of the Protestant Bible translations (such as the King James Version) are very faulty translations, full of errors.
But worst of all, they systematically misinterpreted the Bible. The Protestant revolution involved a great "explaining away" of many of the doctrines that the Catholic Church held for 1500 years. Without the divinely appointed interpreter, the Word of God preserved in Scripture is just a lifeless text, defenseless before the wildest interpretations. Propagating and respectfully accepting wild interpretations of Holy Scripture is an undeniable fact of Protestant life, which led to a proliferation of sects. The resulting doctrinal anarchy is in itself a complete condemnation of Protestantism: Protestants are inherently incapable of agreeing on what exactly Divine Revelation is supposed to be.
Although it is hard to find two Protestants who agree on all they believe (in the sense in which all Catholics agree on what their Faith is), it is still possible to comment on the range of beliefs Protestantism has generated. Opposition to the Catholic Church, the Catholic priesthood, the Sacrifice of the Mass and the Catholic sacramental system are certainly common to them all.
Although the Catholic Church had always had to contend with heresies, Protestantism was a totally new class of heresies. Nobody had ever believed the kinds of things Protestants came to believe. Protestantism, with its individualism, complete refusal of authority and anti-sacramental nature is absolutely alien to Christianity as it existed for 1500 years.
Boettner is flagrantly lying when he writes: "Ever since New Testament times there have been people who accepted the basic principles now set forth in Protestantism."⁷ He cannot support this with any citation because it is not true. Anybody familiar with history knows that the "basic principles of Protestantism" did not exist until Luther scraped them together in a most haphazard fashion. And the irony of it all is that Luther ended up with his feelings hurt when his fellow "reformers," instead of admiring his principles, overruled him, and started producing their own "principles." Pandora's box was open.
And of course St. Paul has warned against such things: "But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach a gospel to you besides that which we have preached to you, let him be anathema" (Gal. 1:8).
Private Interpretation of the Bible
One of the "principles" of Protestantism is private judgment: "I deny the authority of the Catholic Church: every man must examine the credibility of every doctrine for himself." The result is a complete anarchy not only in belief but also in practice. Using this "principle," well-meaning Protestants, Lutherans, Episcopalians, Baptists, Presbyterians, Unitarians, Methodists find different things in their Bibles. A humorous result of private interpretation is the Shaker (now virtually extinct):
Quote:You are a presumptuous people. Do you not know that the Bible tells you that you must work out your salvation in fear and trembling, and you do not tremble at all. My brethren, if you want to go to heaven, shake, my brethren, shake!
All of which proves that the Bible is not easy to understand. The chief of the apostles said so:
Quote:As also our most dear brother Paul, according to the wisdom given him, hath written to you: As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are certain things hard to be understood, which the unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, to their own destruction. (II Pet. 3:15, 16)
Private judgment is implicit in all heresies, but Protestants were the first to state it explicitly as one of their "principles." St. Augustine commented on private interpretation:
Quote:If there is no branch of teaching, however humble and easy to learn, which does not require a master, what can be a greater sign of rashness and pride than to refuse to study the books of divine mysteries by the help of those who have interpreted them?⁸
When some Protestants say that it is not the whim of the individual, but the inspiration of the Holy Ghost that produces the Protestant interpretations of the Bible, their position gets even more awkward. Since the interpretations contradict each other (just take two well documented cases like Luther and Calvin), we must conclude that the Holy Spirit is contradicting himself. Since this assertion is blasphemous, private interpretation of the Bible must be a false concept. And it should be pointed out that what Protestants here claim for themselves (i.e., the Holy Spirit guides the reader of the Bible to the knowledge of the truth) is much more than the Catholic Church has ever claimed even for the Pope himself.
Although Protestants claim to derive their whole religion from the Bible, their "principle of private interpretation" cannot be found in the Bible. Protestant groups often try to counter the resulting doctrinal chaos and inherent fragmentation by instituting some kind of a "Confession of Faith." But these are not tolerated well: imposing any kind of norms is in contradiction with Protestantism, to which all fixed dogma, all immutable morality and any definitive rule is absolutely foreign.
It is easy to verify that the Catholic religion is clearly contained in the Bible, but the Protestant religion cannot be found in the Bible. If a Protestant honestly examines his own mutilated Protestant Bible, even there he can find the Catholic religion.
This has happened many times, and occasionally it was documented. Paul Whitcomb, who eventually converted to the Catholic religion, describes himself:
Quote:I was born of Protestant parents, was baptized a Protestant, was reared a Protestant, married a Protestant, and for a number of years held down a Protestant pulpit. If ever there was a "thoroughbred" Protestant, I was one.⁹
His conversion began with the painful realization that the Church, the Body of Christ is one, and he, as a Protestant, is not a member of it.
The Protestant misinterpretations of the Bible and the persistent errors of Luther and Calvin are propagated by means of a Protestant oral tradition whose existence only few Protestants are willing to admit.
The doctrinal error of the "reformers" easiest to explain is their erroneous concept of being justified. It also proves that Protestants–in violation of their principle of Sola Scriptura–also have an oral tradition: what Luther and Calvin (for example) said often decides what a Protestant is going to believe.
The Protestant Concept of "Justification"
The issue is what did St. Paul mean by the expression "to justify." (Catholics use "sanctifying grace" as a synonym for "justification." Justification is effected through the infusion of sanctifying grace into the soul.) Protestant exegetes from Luther and Calvin all the way to Barth maintain that it means nothing more than "to declare just," that it applies merely to extrinsic justice, which has nothing real to correspond with it in the person justified. God only declares the sinner to be justified, although he remains intrinsically unjust and sinful. On the negative side, justification is not a real eradication of sin, but merely a non-imputation or covering of the sin. On the positive side, it is not an inner renewal and sanctification but merely an external imputation of Christ's justice.
This is sometimes illustrated by saying that according to Luther a justified soul is like a pile a dung covered by snow. So then heaven would eventually be populated with, and God would for all eternity be surrounded by, piles of dung. This concept is truly repulsive and absurd.
The correct meaning is "to make just," or "to declare officially just someone who is so in reality." The correct, Catholic understanding is that justification sanctifies the soul, bestows supernatural beauty on the soul, makes the just man a friend of God, makes the just man a child of God and gives him a claim to the inheritance of heaven, and makes him a temple of the Holy Ghost. The justified man has been remade by God; he is truly a "new creation."
This explains why not only there are no saints in Protestantism, but there cannot possibly be any. The saint is a person converted and newly created in the grace of God, and Protestantism refuses even to consider the existence of such a thing.
The rejection of the Catholic Church and that of the Catholic sacramental system are closely connected.
Rejecting the Church
What did Our Lord leave behind him at his Ascension? Merely an example, and fleeting memories? (At that moment no words had yet been written down.) His primary legacy to the world was a society which he originated; a society which consisted in the first instance of his own immediate followers, and which has become known as the Catholic Church. The Divine Redeemer, who brought us the final revelation of God, would see to it that His purposes were not frustrated by the infidelity of His legatees. He gave His Church a monarchical organization, with the Apostle St. Peter as the first head.
The Church is the most sore subject for the Protestant, the truth he most bitterly rejects, denies or tries to evade, and therefore it is the pivotal issue in trying to comprehend Protestantism.
Since it was necessary that the divine mission of Jesus Christ should be perpetuated to the end of time, Jesus Christ took to Himself disciples, trained them Himself, and made them partakers of His own authority. And when He had invoked upon them from heaven the Spirit of Truth, He bade them to go through the whole world and faithfully preach to all nations what He had taught and what He had commanded, so that by profession of His doctrine, and the observance of His laws, the human race might attain holiness on earth and never-ending happiness in heaven. In this wise, and on this principle, the Church was begotten.¹⁰
The unspeakable tragedy of the Protestant revolt was the wholesale rejection of the Church Jesus Christ had founded. It deprived Protestants of the Truth, and deprived them of the means to save their souls. Pope Pius IX correctly described Protestantism in all its forms as a "revolt against God," it being an attempt to substitute human for divine authority.
The true Church of Christ is both natural and supernatural; it is both external and spiritual.
Quote:If we consider the chief end of this Church and the proximate and efficient causes of salvation, it is undoubtedly spiritual; but in regard to those who constitute it, and to the things which lead to these spiritual gifts, it is external and necessarily visible.¹¹
The Church being both natural and supernatural simultaneously is a reflection of her Divine Founder, who is True God and True Man at the same time. It is an error to imagine that the Church is only natural or that the Church is only supernatural. In the words of Pope Leo XIII:
Quote:It is assuredly as impossible that the Church of Christ can be the one or the other as that man should be a body alone or a soul alone. The connection and union of both elements is as absolutely necessary to the true Church as the intimate union of the soul and body to the human nature.¹²
The human body without a soul is merely a corpse, and the human soul separated from the body is not a living human being either. Separating the body and soul of a human being is equivalent to killing it. And that is what the Protestants tried to do with the Church.
According to Protestant beliefs, there is really no vital need of a Church. For Catholics, the Church is a vital fact; for Protestants it is an intellectual figment. Unfortunately, the Bible is too full of references to the Church for the Protestants to make it completely disappear. So the wholesale rejection of the Catholic Church by Protestants was accomplished by declaring the Church either
1) only natural, visible and external (a merely human organization, convenient for organizing the energies of individuals) or;
2) only supernatural, invisible, intangible, merely "pneumatological" (i.e., united by a bond that eludes the senses).
Unfortunately (or rather fortunately), nobody is at liberty to "redefine" the Church of Christ. The Church has been perfectly clearly defined by Jesus Christ Himself, and His definition cannot possibly be changed.
The Church is certainly mysterious: the Church is the Mystical Body of Christ (Rom. 12:4-5), the Church is the Bride of Christ (Eph. 5:25-27), and the Church is a continuation or an extension of the Incarnation of Jesus Christ continuing to dwell among us.¹³
The words of Jesus Christ in Holy Scripture announce a certain identity of Himself–and not merely His presence–with those who corporately represent Him: "I am the Vine, you the branches" (Jn. 15:5), or "As the Father sent Me, I also send you" (Jn. 20:21), or "He that heareth you, heareth Me: he that despiseth you despiseth Me" (Lk. 10:16).
Even after the Ascension Jesus Christ most clearly identified Himself with His Church in His encounter with Saul. "For I am the least of the apostles who am not worthy to be called an apostle because I persecuted the church of God" (I Cor. 15:9). But in persecuting the Church, Saul was persecuting Jesus Christ Himself: "Who art thou, Lord? And he: I am Jesus whom thou persecutest" (Acts 9:5).
The Church is Jesus Christ still living with us, she is Jesus Christ still at work in the world. As Jesus Christ lived His natural life on earth 2,000 years ago in a body drawn from the Blessed Virgin Mary, so now He lives His Mystical Life today in a body drawn from the human race in general, and this body is called the Catholic Church. In the words of St. Gregory the Great:
Quote:"Christ with His whole Church, in heaven and on earth, is one single person. And as there is only one soul vivifying the different members of a human body, so the Holy Ghost vivifies and enlightens the Church."
Indeed, the Church is mysterious, there is nothing like it in the whole world. No community in the merely natural order can be called a person. For example, no nation is a person, no nation has a divine mission, nor any promise of lasting always and being constantly assisted by God. Only the Catholic Church has these properties, given to her by her divine founder. It is this personality of the Church that we affirm in the Nicene Creed: "I believe in One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church...." "Apostolic" means that the personnel of the Church can be traced back all the way to the twelve Apostles of Jesus Christ, i.e., that the Church existed at all times without interruption.
Quote:And I say to thee: That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give to thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven. And whatsoever thou shalt bind upon earth, it shall be bound also in heaven: And whatsoever thou shalt loose upon earth, it shall be loosed also in heaven. (Mt. 16:18-19)
Our Lord means that His Church, built on Peter, will never be destroyed. To "give the keys" of a storeroom, a house, or a city, to someone meant to give him delegated control of all that is in it. "To bind and loose" means to forbid and permit in a wide sense: Peter is to be the visible "master of the house," Our Lord of course being the invisible foundation and controller by whom all power held by a visible representative is delegated.
Quote:All power is given to me in heaven and earth. Going therefore, teach ye all nations: baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you. And behold I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the world. (Mt. 28:20)
In this tremendous declaration Our Lord sends the apostles, with delegated power 1) to teach and 2) to baptize all nations–no more only Israel–in the name of the Trinity. The last sentence implies the indefectibility of the Church, i.e., the Church will never fail. This clearly contradicts the Protestant myth that the Catholic Church has somehow "failed," the Church has become corrupted, has fallen into error, and Protestantism had to step in to take her place. If this myth were true, then Our Lord would be a liar. But that cannot be: "And I will ask the Father, and he shall give you another Paraclete, that he may abide with you forever" (Jn. 14:16).
That the Church is not a merely human organization but is truly Christ continued, is not an obscure dogma for Catholics but a self-evident fact. The Catholic knows that Christ really and truly lives and acts in His Church: the grace of every sacrament comes from Christ, the Catholic makes his confession to and receives absolution from Christ, and in the Holy Eucharist he receives Jesus Christ Himself.
The Rejection of the Catholic Sacramental System
"I am the Way, and the Truth and the Life" (Jn. 14:6) means that Our Lord is Lawgiver, Teacher and High Priest. Correspondingly, the Church governs, teaches, and dispenses the fruits of the Redemption through the sacraments. Protestants reject all that, but most of them especially vehemently reject the Catholic sacraments. Some Protestant groups claim to recognize a few (typically two) sacraments, but these claims are completely misleading. When a Protestant says "sacrament," what he means is not a sacrament at all. A Protestant "sacrament" is not a channel of divine grace, rather it is a means of stirring up faith.
There are strong similarities between the most dramatic examples of opposition in the Gospels against our Lord's teachings and the most violent rejections of Catholic teachings by Protestants:
"How can a man be born when he is old?" (Jn. 3:4)–a challenge against Baptism;
"Who can forgive sins save God only?" (Mk. 2:7)–a challenge against Christ forgiving sins;¹⁴
"How can this man give us His flesh to eat?" (Jn. 6:53)–a challenge against the Eucharist, and finally
"Before Abraham was made, I am. They took up stones to cast at Him" (Jn. 8:58)–a challenge to the divinity of Christ.
As Christ was rejected then, the Catholic Church is rejected by Protestants now, some of the most violent rejections being leveled against the Catholic sacraments (including Baptism, Confession and the Eucharist) and against asserting the divine prerogatives of the Catholic Church.
Even Protestants tend to admit that God had to become man to redeem us. Our Divine Lord redeemed us in a most unspiritual way, through His bodily sufferings and His death. God could have done it differently but that is how He did it. And the Incarnation did not end with the Ascension. The Eternal Son of God assumed a human nature never to lay it down. Our Lord Jesus Christ will remain a man forever. And thus the religion He founded is also incarnational. The principle implicit in the Incarnation is that matter is not bad, nor is it to be despised, but can be made use of by God in the work of our sanctification.
G. K. Chesterton offers the following explanation:
Quote:The sacramental system is based on the idea that certain material acts are mystical acts; are events in the spiritual world. This mystical materialism does divide us from all those forms of idealism that hold all good to be inward and invisible and matter to be unworthy to express it.¹⁵
Since the Incarnation, no one can possibly criticize a religion because it is not wholly "spiritual." We, humans, are not wholly spiritual, and Christ is not wholly spiritual. Therefore, the religion that He gave us is not wholly spiritual either; it does not disdain material elements but includes them.
Just as the Incarnation was believed from day one, but began to be understood only later, the situation was similar with the sacraments. All the sacraments were used from day one, but an understanding of them was only gained gradually. Jesus Christ Himself instituted all seven of the sacraments, and they are not haphazard but form an orderly series, a central idea giving coherence and unity to their number and nature.
The Seven Sacraments of the Church are a Record, or Scripture of God anterior to the written Gospels of the Evangelists....The Church, its sacraments, and its worship were spread throughout the world before as yet the books of the New Testament were written.¹⁶
All seven sacraments give sanctifying grace. God does the work, He gives the grace, but the minister and the recipient have to cooperate. Lack of proper cooperation prevents reception of grace. So it is not God who is tied by the sacraments, but we. God is merely fulfilling His promise to give grace.
When G. K. Chesterton was asked by horrified fellow Anglicans why he chose to become a Catholic, his answer was: "To get rid of my sins."¹⁷ He wanted certainty that he was forgiven, and the Catholic Church, and she alone, can give such a certainty. All the sacraments provide such certainty: if the minister and recipient do their (easily verifiable) part, God gives sanctifying grace according to His promise.
Of course, God in His omnipotence and freedom can communicate grace in a purely spiritual manner also, but about that, being the exceptional case, we know very little. The Sacraments of the New Covenant are necessary for the salvation of mankind, exactly because Christ gave them to the Church to be used as the ordinary channels of divine grace. God is the one who determines the way He is pleased to bestow His graces.
One of the sacraments, the Holy Eucharist, is special, because in it we not only receive sanctifying grace (a participation in the divine life) but in it we receive Christ Himself. In the account of the Last Supper we read:
Quote:And taking bread, he gave thanks, and brake; and gave to them, saying: This is my body, which is given for you. Do this for a commemoration of me. In like manner the chalice also, after he had supped, saying: This is the chalice, the new testament in my blood, which shall be shed for you. (Lk. 22:19-20)
The men to whom He was speaking were not modern psychologists and symbolists but men of antiquity who thought simply and in a corporeal way. When Jesus said to them, "This is my Body" and, "This is my Blood...," then it is that and does not merely signify it. So they knew that here He was giving them Himself, in the mystery of an inconceivable sacrifice. This too is contained in the new Community which was here established. It is the central point, the Holy of Holies. Here again we are told what the Church is-the living Christ who imparts Himself to His own throughout the ages.¹⁸
The Catholic Church is the heir to the rights of Jesus Christ. She is the faithful guardian of the spiritual treasures of Jesus Christ. She is the infallible teacher of the doctrines of Jesus Christ. She wields the authority of Jesus Christ. She lives by the life and spirit of Jesus Christ. She enjoys the guidance, protection and help of Jesus Christ. She speaks, orders, commands, concedes, prohibits, defines, looses and binds, in the name of Jesus Christ. But when the Catholic Church claims her uniqueness, that she is Christ continued, that she is the Truth, the whole Truth and nothing but the Truth, then Protestants are ready to take up stones to cast at her.
Msgr. Robert Hugh Benson, a convert from Anglicanism, described England in 1911:
Quote:It is a very delicate and significant compliment to the Catholic Church that religious people are bound to hate her more than anything else in the wide world. Religious people may differ among themselves on every other imaginable point, but they are at any rate agreed on this, that the Church is the enemy and must be annihilated. Now surely this is a remarkable phenomenon–that one religion should have such a monopoly of being hated by religious persons. Anglicans do not hate Wesleyanism; Wesleyans do not hate Congregationalism; Congregationalists do not hate Christian Science. They disapprove, and they disagree, but their emotion is not vivid enough to be called hatred. But they hate Catholicism. There is no question about that.
The Inquisition or the massacre of St. Bartholomew are alleged as reasons for this hatred when it makes its appearance; but it is not really these things. It is Catholicism itself.
It is what is called "intolerance"–that is, the claim of the Church to be the Truth–that is at the bottom of the trouble. And so we see religious persons rending their garments in horror at this blasphemous arrogance; and we see Jesus in His Church, bound, spat upon and condemned, standing at the bar.¹⁹
In the United States, Jimmy Swaggart, Jack Chick, Alberto Rivera, Tony Alamo, and men of that ilk not only personify but also fuel the hatred of the Catholic Church.
Bishop Fulton Sheen in his preface to Radio Replies tried to minimize the extent of this hatred:
Quote:There are not over a hundred of people in the United States who hate the Catholic Church. There are millions, however, who hate what they wrongly believe to be the Catholic Church–which is, of course, quite a different thing.²⁰
Whether all the slander is motivated by malice or ignorance is a moot point. But Jesus Christ clearly predicted this hatred. It started with Caiphas, was given a strong boost by the vulgarities of Luther, and will only end at the Last Judgment:
Quote:If the world hate you, know ye that it hath hated me before you...because you are not of the world but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you. Remember my word that I said to you: The servant is not greater than his master. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you: if they have kept my word, they will keep yours also. But all these things they will do to you for my name's sake: because they know not him that sent me. (Jn. 15:18-21)
Being Separated from the Catholic Church
To the Protestant, the Christian religion consists in the union of the individual with Christ–of individual with individual–the Church having nothing to do with the whole thing. The Divine Person lived on earth 2,000 years ago, performed actions, spoke words, finished His work and went back whence He came; and true religion consists in the adherence of the human to the Divine Person, with no priest, prelate, church or sacrament involved, since none are thought necessary. (This individualism in religion is repudiated by few Protestants only, most notably the Anglicans.)
The Protestant, not understanding that the Catholic Church is Christ, thinks in terms of intermediaries. Even if the Church is considered an intermediary, it does not have to be an obstacle, preventing access to Christ. On the contrary, it is an aid, greatly helping us to have access to Christ (as in the Holy Eucharist) or to the benefits we hope to obtain from Christ (divine grace in all the sacraments).
But not only is the Church very beneficial to our salvation, she is absolutely necessary to it. The claim of the Church that she alone can lead men to salvation, what men call her "intolerance," is not a mere trick, a human invention to get ahead in a crowd of equal rivals. The Catholic Church has no equals. She is absolutely unique. She is the Bride of Christ, she is the Mystical Body of Christ, she is Christ continued. That is why the Fathers of the Church like to compare the Catholic Church with the ark in which Noe and his family were saved, while all those who were outside the ark perished.
To be saved, we must do the will of God: "Not every one that saith to me Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father who is in heaven, he shall enter into the kingdom of heaven" (Mt. 7:21). The will of God the Father is that men hear and believe his Son, Jesus Christ: "This is my most beloved Son. Hear ye Him" (Mk. 9:6). Now Jesus Christ said to His apostles and lawful successors: "He that heareth you, heareth Me: he that despiseth you despiseth Me" (Lk. 10:16).
From these words it is clear that it is not possible to be united with Jesus Christ while despising His Church. Yet Protestants despise the Catholic Church, they turn their back most contemptuously on the Catholic Church, they slander her at every turn, and follow their own will in all religious matters. It is a delusion and a tragic mistake for anyone to count on gaining his salvation outside the Catholic Church. Holy Scripture, the Fathers and the Doctors of the Church all warn against it.
Jesus Christ:
Quote:If he will not hear the Church, let him be to thee as the heathen and publican. (Mt. 18:17)
St. Cyprian:
Quote:Whoever has been separated from the Church is yoked with an adulteress, is separated from the promises made to the Church. Nor shall he who leaves Christ's Church arrive at Christ's rewards. He is a stranger, he is sacrilegious, he is an enemy. Who has not the Church for mother can no longer have God for father. (On the Unity of the Catholic Church, 6)
St. Isidore of Seville:
Quote:Therefore heresy is so called from the Greek word meaning "choice," by which each chooses according to his own will what he pleases to teach or believe. But we are not permitted to believe whatever we choose, nor to choose whatever someone else has believed. We have the apostles of God as authorities, who did not themselves of their own will choose what they would believe, but faithfully transmitted to the nations the teaching received from Christ. (Etymologies, 8, 7)
St. Augustine:
Quote:• In the Catholic Church there are both good and bad. But they who are separated from her, as long as they remain in their opinion against her, cannot be good; ...the separation itself makes them bad, the Lord saying: "He who is not with me is against me; and he who gatherest not with me, scattereth." (Ep. ccviii, n. 6, col. 1177)
• No one, indeed, attains to salvation and eternal life except he who has Christ as his head. But no one can have Christ as head, except he who is in His body, which is the Church. (Ep. ad Cath. contra Donat. xix, 49)
• The Christian ought to fear nothing so much as to be separated from the body of Christ. For if he is separated from the body of Christ, he is not a member of Christ; if not a member of Christ, he is not quickened by his Spirit. (Tract, xxvii, in Joan., n. 6, col. 1992, tom., iii)
• Outside the Catholic Church one can have anything except salvation. One can have honor. One can have the sacraments. The "Alleluia" can be sung. The response "Amen" can be given. One can hold to the Gospel, and can have and preach the faith in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. But one can never find salvation except in the Catholic Church. (Sermo ad Caesariensis ecclesia plebem, 6. MPL., XLIII 695)
These quotes have the full authority of the Catholic Church, and therefore the full authority of Jesus Christ behind them. By contrast, it is both comical and tragical, when, aping the Catholic Church, Protestants make statements in a similar fashion, usually assigning all Catholics to hell on their own authority.
The meaning of the statement "There is no salvation outside the Catholic Church" is not that all Protestants necessarily lose their souls. The meaning, admitting no qualifications, is that the Catholic Church is the only religious body in the world through which salvation can be procured. Membership in any other religious body will not contribute to any man's welfare in eternity. So if a Protestant eventually manages to gain his salvation, it will be not because he was a Protestant, but despite it.
Finally, some words of G. K. Chesterton, one of the greatest converts to Catholicism in the 20th century, describing what is it like having arrived home:
Quote:It is impossible to be just to the Catholic Church. The moment men cease to pull against it they feel a tug toward it. The moment they cease to shout it down they begin to listen to it with pleasure. The moment they try to be fair to it they begin to be fond of it. But when that affection has passed a certain point it begins to take on the tragic and menacing grandeur of a great love affair. The man has exactly the same sense of having committed or compromised himself; of having been in a sense entrapped, even if he is glad to be entrapped. But for a considerable time he is not so much glad as simply terrified. It may be that this real psychological experience has been misunderstood by stupider people and is responsible for all that remains of the legend that Rome is a mere trap. But that legend misses the whole point of the psychology. It is not the Pope who has set the trap, or the priests who have baited it. The whole point of the position is that the trap is simply the truth. The whole point is that the man himself has made his way toward the trap of truth, and not the trap that has run after the man. All steps, except the last step, he has taken eagerly on his own account, out of interest in the truth; and even the last step, or the last stage, only alarms him because it is so very true.²¹...After nearly 2,000 years, Catholics have come to regard Catholicism as one thing, all the parts of which are in one sense equally assailed and in another sense equally unassailable. Now it is unfortunately impossible for a Roman Catholic to state the principle without its sounding provocative and, what is much worse, superior; but unless he does state it, he does not state Roman Catholicism. Having stated it, however, in its dogmatic and defiant form, as it is his duty to do, he may afterwards suggest something of why the system seems, to those inside it, to be not so much a system as a home, or even a holiday.²²
Dr. Gyula Mago was born in 1938 in Hungary and raised a Catholic. He lived under Communist rule for 20 years. Dr. Mago obtained his Ph.D. from Cambridge University, England, in 1970, and was a professor of Computer Science at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill (1970–99). He presently lives in retirement in Durham, North Carolina, and assists at the Latin Mass at Holy Redeemer Catholic Church in Raleigh, North Carolina.
Footnotes
1. A. G. Sertillanges, Spirituality (McMullen Books, 1954), p. 180.
2. Loraine Boettner, Roman Catholicism (Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Company, 1962).
3. Ralph Woods, The Catholic Companion to the Bible (Lippincott, 1955), p. 199.
4. J. P. Arendzen, The Gospels: Fact, Myth or Legend? (Sands, 1923), pp. 64–65.
5. Contra Epis. Munich., Fund., n. 6.
6. Woods, The Catholic Companion to the Bible, p. 76.
7. Boettner, Roman Catholicism, p. 11.
8. Woods, The Catholic Companion to the Bible, p. 95.
9. Paul Whitcomb, The Bible Made a Catholic Out of Me (Gregorian Press, 1956).
10. Pope Leo XIII, Satis Cognitum (On the Unity of the Church), June 20, 1896, §5.
11. Ibid.
12. Ibid., §8.
13. Tihamer Toth, The Catholic Church: A Course of Sermons (Herder, 1943), pp. 36–39.
14. Not surprisingly, Boettner uses it to attack Confession in the Catholic Church (p. 202).
15. G. K. Chesterton, The Catholic Church and Conversion (Burns & Oates, 1926), p. 122.
16. Woods, The Catholic Companion to the Bible, p. 200.
17. G. K. Chesterton, The Autobiography of G.K.C. (Sheed & Ward, 1936), p. 341.
18. Romano Guardini, The Church of the Lord (Henry Regnery, 1966), p. 24.
19. Robert Hugh Benson, Christ in the Church (Sheed & Ward, 1911), pp. 145–150.
20. Rumble and Carty, Radio Replies (TAN Books, 1938).
21. Chesterton, The Catholic Church and Conversion, pp. 53–54.
22. Ibid., pp. 117–118.
[Emphasis – The Catacombs]
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| Statue of Jesus vandalized outside UK church, man in custody |
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Posted by: Stone - 3 hours ago - Forum: Anti-Catholic Violence
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Statue of Jesus vandalized outside UK church, man in custody
The parish priest called the attack on the Catholic statue and war memorial an act of ‘true persecution.’
Nov 3, 2026
BEWSEY, Warrington (LifeSiteNews) – An unidentified man is in custody in connection with a Halloween attack on a war memorial at a Catholic church that decapitated a statue of Jesus Christ.
The BBC reports that the war memorial at St. Alban’s Church, which depicts Christ on the cross above a monument bearing the names of church members who died in World Wars I and II, was beheaded and defaced on Friday with what parish priest Canon Christopher Cunningham described as “offensive language against the Catholic Church.”
The graffiti has since been scrubbed off, but photos and footage reveal a scrawled message that some social media users have interpreted as Arabic, while other reports have quoted the message as “no cross s–t.” Other unspecified incidents had been reported in the area around the same time, as well.
Cunningham called the deed an act of “true persecution” but called on the faithful to “stick together.”
Police released a blurry CCTV image of a nondescript figure believed to have been in the area at the time, and on Tuesday the Warrington Guardian reported that a 42-year-old male has been detained under the Mental Health Act. Neither his identity nor his motives have yet been confirmed.
“We understand the concern this incident has caused within the community, and I hope that now we have identified the suspect through an extensive and fast-moving investigation, parishioners and residents will be somewhat reassured,” said Warrington LPU Chief Inspector Joseph McNally.
In the meantime, a fundraiser has begun on the platform Just Giving that aims to raise £5,000 to restore the memorial.
“To see a place of such historical and emotional significance damaged is deeply upsetting, not just for those connected to the church, but for the entire community. We cannot undo what has happened, but together we can put things right,” wrote organizer Stephen Burke.
“Let’s show that acts of vandalism will never outweigh the kindness, generosity and community spirit of local people,” he added. “They gave their tomorrow for our today. The least we can do is protect their memory.”
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| Latin prayer for November from St. Gertrude |
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Posted by: Stone - 3 hours ago - Forum: For the Souls in Purgatory
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Latin prayer for November from St. Gertrude
![[Image: 500px-Santa_Giustina_Padua_-_Ecstasy_of_...=500&ssl=1]](https://i0.wp.com/paxorbis.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/500px-Santa_Giustina_Padua_-_Ecstasy_of_St._Gertrude_by_Pietro_Liberi.jpg?w=500&ssl=1)
Santa Giustina (Padua) – Ecstasy of St. Gertrude by Pietro Liberi SOURCE
paxorbis.org | November 1, 2026
This month’s Latin prayer is one by St. Gertrude – the wonderful saint who promoted devotion to the Sacred Heart, as well as to the Holy Souls. Some sources claim that reciting this prayer releases 1000 souls from Purgatory; regardless of the numbers helped, it remains a powerful prayer for the souls of the dead.
Scripture tells us “It is therefore a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead, that they may be loosed from sins.” [2 Macc. 12:46]
The Church takes this requirement so seriously that She dedicates the entire month of November to offering and encouraging prayers for the Holy Souls in Purgatory.
Here is one story taken from her writings:
Quote:ON one occasion, while Mass was celebrating for a poor woman who had died lately, St. Gertrude recited five Pater nosters in honor of our Lord’s Five Wounds for the repose of her soul; and, moved by divine inspiration, she offered all her good works for the increase of the beatitude of this person. When she had made this offering, she immediately beheld the soul in heaven, in the place destined for her; and the throne prepared for her was elevated as far above the place where she had been, as the highest throne of the seraphim is above that of the lowest angel.
The Saint then asked our Lord how this soul had been worthy to obtain such advantage from her prayers, and He replied: “She has merited this grace in three ways: first, because she always had a sincere will and perfect desire of serving Me in religion, if it had been possible; secondly, because she especially loved all religious and all good people; thirdly, because she was always ready to honour Me by performing any service she could for them.” He added: “By the sublime rank to which she is elevated, you may judge how agreeable these practices are to Me.”
ON Rogation Wednesday, at the elevation of the Host, she besought our Lord for the souls of the faithful in purgatory, that He would free them from their pains by virtue of His admirable Ascension; and she beheld our Lord descending into purgatory with a golden rod in His Hand, which had as many hooks as there had been prayers for their souls, by which He appeared to draw them into a place of repose. She understood by this, that whenever anyone prays generally, from a motive of charity, for the souls in purgatory, the greater part of those who, during their lives, have exercised themselves in works of charity, are released.
St. Gertrude Prayer in English
Eternal Father, I offer Thee the Most Precious Blood of Thy Divine Son, Jesus, in union with the Masses said throughout the world today, for all the holy souls in Purgatory, for sinners everywhere, for sinners in the universal Church, those in my own home and within my family. Amen.
St. Gertrude Prayer in Latin
Offero, Pater Aeterne, Sanguinem Pretiosissimum Filii Divini Tui Tibi, Iesu, in unitate cum Missis quibus dicuntur in toto mundo hodie, pro animabus sanctis omnibus in Purgatorio, pro peccatoribus quibus undique sunt, pro peccatoribus in Ecclesia universa, pro illis in domo ipsa mea et intra familiam meam. Amen.
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| The Spirituality of Time and the Use of Traditional Catholic Calendars |
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Posted by: Stone - Yesterday, 11:39 AM - Forum: Resources Online
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The Spirituality of Time and the Use of Traditional Catholic Calendars
Fatima.org | January 16, 2026
Introduction
In his meditations for the Christmas Season, St. Alphonsus writes: “Time is a treasure of inestimable value because in every moment of time we can gain an increase of grace and eternal glory. Time is a treasure which can only be found in this life: it is not to be found in the next, in hell or in Heaven. If the Blessed in Heaven could grieve, they would do so for having lost so much time; and in hell the lost souls are tormented with the thought that there is now no more time for them. “According to St. Bernadine of Siena, a moment of time is of as much value as God; because in each moment a man can, by acts of contrition or of love, acquire the grace of God and eternal glory.” This excerpt is taken from Meditations and Readings for Every Day of Christmas by St. Alphonsus Liguori (The Fatima Center, 2023), p. 66.
A Catholic Understanding of Time
We should never forget that time itself is a creation of God. It is hard for us to define exactly what time is.1 We can never return to the past nor can we move into the future. We can only live in the moment that is “now” and yet by the time you have read this sentence that moment is gone, and we exist in a different, unique, and irrepeatable “now.” In the final analysis, perhaps all we can do is be conscious of our existence in time. Our only way of “grasping” time is by measuring it, which we do through the movement of the celestial bodies. God also created these bodies and has likewise decreed their proper place and motion. To sanctify time is to sanctify life itself. God, Who created all things “in measure, and number, and weight” (Wis. 11:21), also ordained time as the arena of man’s salvation. The Church, as the Mystical Body of Christ, extends the sanctification wrought by the Incarnation into every hour and season through her liturgical life. The traditional Catholic calendar – rich with feasts, octaves, vigils, fasts, and commemorations – is more than a schedule of devotions. It is a spiritual architecture that orders our days according to the mysteries of Christ and His saints. In contrast, the modern world treats time as a commodity to be managed, filled, and spent. But in the traditional Catholic view, time is not money; it is grace.
Time as a Sacred Reality
From the very beginning, God sanctified time. “God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it” (Gen. 2:3). In this act, the Creator set apart one day for Himself, establishing the rhythm of worship and rest. After the Fall, man’s labor became toilsome, yet even then, God continued to mark His dealings with humanity through sacred times and seasons – the Sabbath, the Passover, the Jubilee. With the coming of Christ, time itself was redeemed. The eternal Word entered history at a particular hour: “When the fullness of the time was come, God sent His Son” (Gal. 4:4). As St. Augustine explained: “The Lord did not change times by abolishing them, but by filling them” (Sermon 219). Thus, the Church inherited not only the truths of the Gospel but a new sanctification of time: the liturgical year, wherein the mysteries of Christ’s life unfold from Advent through Easter to Pentecost and beyond.
The Traditional Calendar and the Sanctification of Life
Before the reforms of the mid-twentieth century, the Church’s calendar presented a profound interplay of fasts, feasts, vigils, and octaves – a structure that formed the rhythm of Catholic civilization. The year was not secular time punctuated by holy days; it was sacred time intersecting with earthly realities. Each feast carried both theological meaning and practical grace. Advent prepared the soul for Christ’s coming; Lent purified the heart for Easter; Pentecost spurred missionary zeal. The ‘triduum’ of All Hallows Eve, All Saints, and All Souls proclaimed the mystery of the communion of saints by bringing into sharp relief the Church Militant, Church Triumphant, and Church Suffering, respectively. Every season has great Marian feasts keeping Our Lady at the forefront of our minds. These feasts conveyed the chief dogmas and honors of Our Lady – which in turn always defend the truths of Christ and man. The feasts of saints filled the year with models of virtue and heavenly intercession. The octaves extended great mysteries across eight days of joy or contemplation. Fr. Pius Parsch summarized this spiritual pedagogy: “The liturgical year is Christ Himself, ever living in His Church. Each day the Church places before us a mystery of Christ’s life, that we may live by it and thus transform our whole being into Him” (The Church’s Year of Grace, vol. 1).
The Hours of the Day: A School of Prayer
Just as the liturgical year sanctifies the seasons, the Church sanctifies each day through the Divine Office – the liturgical hours of Matins, Lauds, Prime, Terce, Sext, None, Vespers, and Compline. In the traditional rhythm of monastic and clerical life, these hours mark the passage of time with psalmody and prayer. Dom Prosper Guéranger, in The Liturgical Year, wrote: “The Hours are the echoes of that divine hymn which the Son of God sang upon earth when He glorified His Father in all the moments of His human life.” By uniting with the Church’s prayer, the faithful learn to perceive every hour as a meeting place with God. Even for the laity, the spirit of the Divine Office can be lived by praying the Angelus at morning, noon, and evening; saying Compline before bed; or meditating on a psalm corresponding to the hour. Time thus becomes not a sequence of empty intervals but a succession of sanctified moments.
The Domestic Church and the Liturgical Year
Traditional Catholic families once shaped their homes and routines according to the Church’s feasts and fasts. Ember Days reminded them of gratitude for creation; rogation processions sanctified the land; and saints’ days were occasions for celebration and virtue. In a home faithful to the liturgical year, children learn the faith not merely from books but through living memory: lighting the Advent wreath, fasting on Fridays, blessing homes at Epiphany, crowning statues of Our Lady in May, spreading the Rosary in October, and praying for the dead in November. Pope Pius XII praised this harmony of home and Church: “The family, sanctified by the sacraments and animated by the spirit of the liturgy, becomes the first school of Christian life and the first altar of God” (Mediator Dei, no. 78).
Modern Disruption and the Loss of Sacred Time
The twentieth century’s liturgical and social revolutions have obscured the Catholic sense of time. The suppression of octaves, the reduction of fasting, and the calendar’s simplification, while presented as reforms, stripped the faithful of spiritual milestones that once shaped Catholic life. The result has been a flattening of the sacred year into an indistinct sequence. The rich cycle of preparation, feasting, and recollection gave way to a rhythm indistinguishable from the secular calendar. Sundays have lost their primacy, and Feast Days once celebrated as Holy Days of Obligation are ignored or transferred for convenience. Pope Pius XI foresaw this danger when he warned that modern man, “forgetful of the divine majesty, makes an idol of time and labor” (Divini Cultus, 1928).
Recovering the Sanctification of Time
To recover Catholic time is to recover Catholic life. This begins with rediscovering the traditional calendar and observing it within the family and parish. Even in the absence of full liturgical observance, the faithful can sanctify time by:
- Praying the Angelus morning, noon, and evening.
- Observing the traditional fast and abstinence days, especially Ember Days and Fridays.
- Praying the Mass Propers of the day, meditating upon the Roman Martyrology, or reading the life of the saint honored each given day.
- Praying the Stations of the Cross, especially in Lent, but also on any Friday during the year.
- Making First Fridays and First Saturdays in honor of the Sacred and Immaculate Hearts.
- Celebrating Feast Days with appropriate joy, meals, or hymns, and especially devotions. There are countless examples; here are just a few:
- Blessing of candles at Candlemass, Feast of the Purification.
- Blessing of throats on St. Blase’s Feast Day.
- Praying monthly litanies.
- Participating in Eucharistic processions on the Feasts of Corpus Christi and Christ the King.
- Organizing a public Rosary on October 7.
- Giving of small presents on the Feast of St. Nicholas.
In this way, Catholics begin to re-enter the sacred rhythm of time – a rhythm that forms souls in patience, gratitude, and dependence on grace.
Time and Eternity
The ultimate goal of sanctifying time is to prepare for eternity. Every day and season is a rehearsal for that eternal Sabbath which has no evening. As Dom Marmion taught: “By sanctifying our time, we make our life a continual preparation for that eternal day when time shall be no more”(Christ the Life of the Soul). See also “Blessed Columba Marmion on Living a Daily Catholic Life.” The faithful soul learns to see hours, days, and years as opportunities for showing our love of God. The ticking clock becomes not an enemy but a teacher – a reminder that every moment draws us closer to the vision of God.
Conclusion
The traditional Catholic calendar is not nostalgia; it is theology lived through time. It transforms the days of labor and the hours of rest into occasions of grace. It reminds us that history is not random but ordered by Providence and redeemed by the Cross. To sanctify time is to acknowledge God as Lord of all moments. As the psalmist prayed, “My lots [times] are in Thy hands” (Psalm 30:16). Let us then recover the ancients’ reverence for time – beginning with our homes and hearts – so that every hour may echo with the rhythm of Heaven.
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| Leo XIV-led Vatican sends Diwali message to Hindus |
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Posted by: Stone - Yesterday, 11:09 AM - Forum: Pope Leo XIV
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Leo XIV-led Vatican sends Diwali message to Hindus
The Vatican extended its ‘warmest prayerful and festive wishes’ to Hindus on Diwali
while suggesting the ‘spirit of Assisi’ could help Christians and Hindus ‘forge pathways of peace’ together.
![[Image: Shutterstock_2416146333.jpg]](https://www.lifesitenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/Shutterstock_2416146333.jpg)
Giant golden statue of Hindu god Lord Murugan
Paul Maguire/Shutterstock
Nov 2, 2026
(LifeSiteNews [adapted - not all hyperlinks included from original]) — The Dicastery for Interreligious Dialogue (DID) under Pope Leo XIV on Friday published a special message to Hindus ahead of their Diwali holiday next week, stressing the Vatican’s commitment to peace “in the spirit of Assisi.”
In its October 30 message, published the day before Allhallowtide and signed by Cardinal George Jacob Koovakad and Monsignor Indunil Janakaratne Kodithuwakku Kankanamalage – prefect and secretary of the DID, respectively – the dicastery offered its “warmest prayerful and festive wishes” to Hindus who will celebrate the Diwali “festival of lights.” The dicastery also emphasized its commitment to fraternity and interreligious peace “in the spirit of Assisi.”
“The Dicastery for Interreligious Dialogue extends its warmest prayerful and festive wishes to you as you celebrate Deepavali on 8 November this year. May God, the fount of all that is good, bless you, your families, loved ones and communities with abundant joy, peace and prosperity!” the message stated.
The dicastery highlighted how just over 40 years ago the first Assisi “World Day of Prayer for Peace” took place, calling it “a historic encounter, in which people of various religions came together to pray, convinced that religions and interreligious solidarity can help address global crises and promote peace.” They added that Pope John Paul II called this the “spirit of Assisi.”
“In the face of the many challenges facing humanity today, especially those arising from wars, conflicts, and the use of religion for political ends, the commemoration of the 1986 Assisi gathering offers us the opportunity to reflect with you on how Hindus and Christians can forge pathways of peace together, drawing inspiration from the spirit of Assisi,” the dicastery wrote.
“One such pathway is to come together to pray with a shared spiritual commitment to peace, each according to his or her own religious tradition, while respecting that of the other. Indeed, genuine prayer overcomes differences and disarms hearts, minds and lives, transforming us into men and women of compassion and peace,” it added.
Contrary to the tone of the dicastery’s message, the Catholic Church teaches that it is the one true Church founded by Our Lord Jesus Christ, who is the one true God. Sacred Scripture also states that the “gods” worshipped by members of false religions are “devils.”
Furthermore, the DID’s message implies that true peace can be achieved through interreligious dialogue, whereas the perennial teaching of the Church is that true peace is achieved through Christ alone.
The message came within a week of the Vatican’s international ecumenical meeting commemorating the 40th anniversary of the first interfaith “World Day of Prayer for Peace” in Assisi.
During that meeting, the female Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury, Sarah Mullally, scandalously processed and offered prayers alongside Catholic Cardinals Kurt Koch, president of the Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity, and Matteo Zuppi, ecclesiastical assistant to the Community of Sant’Egidio. In another scandal, the meeting also included a Jewish rabbi who told Vatican News that “God can be found outside the Catholic Church.”
Perhaps worst of all, in a video address to the meeting, Pope Leo also avoided speaking about the need to evangelize the world and instead focused on a supposed need for dialogue, seemingly among equals.
“The world needs dialogue,” Leo said. “The path of Assisi calls religious leaders to foster a climate of dialogue amongst the faithful and within society, so that the language of arrogance may give way to the language of peace, negotiation and understanding. This will help to “gradually (lead) humanity away from the cycle of violence.”
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| Requiem Mass in New Jersey - November 4, 2026 |
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Posted by: Stone - 11-02-2026, 01:43 PM - Forum: November 2026
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Holy Sacrifice of the Mass - Requiem Mass for Richard Schwarz
[Grandfather to one of the Seminarians]
Date: Wednesday, November 4, 2026
Time: Confessions - 9:00 AM
Holy Mass - 10:00 AM
Location: Falco, Caruso, Leonard Funeral Home
6600 W. Browning Rd
Pennsauken, NJ 08109
Contact: 315-391-7575
sorrowfulheartofmaryoratory@gmail.com
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| Catholic Kingship and Monarchy: The Ideal Form of Government |
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Posted by: Stone - 11-02-2026, 10:40 AM - Forum: Resources Online
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Catholic Kingship and Monarchy: The Ideal Form of Government
![[Image: monarch-king-charlemagne.avif]](https://fatima.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/monarch-king-charlemagne.avif)
Fatima.org | October 24, 2026
Last year marked the centenary of Quas Primas (1925), the great encyclical of Pope Pius XI establishing the Feast of Christ the King. In that text, the Holy Father reminded the faithful that Christ reigns not only in Heaven but also in society and in the hearts of men:
“He must reign in our minds, which should assent with perfect submission and firm belief to revealed truths and to the doctrines of Christ. He must reign in our wills, which should obey the laws and precepts of God. He must reign in our hearts, which should spurn natural desires and love God above all things. He must reign in our bodies and in our members, which should serve as instruments for the interior sanctification of our souls” (Quas Primas, no. 33).
As we reflect on this recent centenary, it is fitting to recall that the Social Kingship of Christ once found visible expression in the political order itself. For centuries, Christendom upheld the Catholic monarchy as the ideal form of government, uniting temporal authority to the spiritual order under Christ the King.
Scriptural Foundations of Monarchy
Sacred Scripture presents kingship not as a human invention but as a divinely sanctioned institution. God Himself gave Israel a king in Saul, and later David, of whom He said: “I have found David the son of Jesse, a man according to My own heart, who shall do all My wills” (Acts 13:22).
The Davidic monarchy prefigured the eternal reign of Christ, the Son of David, Whose Kingdom is everlasting. Moreover, Our Lord confirmed Pilate’s words that He was indeed a King, declaring: “My kingdom is not of this world…[1] Thou sayest that I am a king. For this was I born, and for this came I into the world; that I should give testimony to the truth” (John 18:36-37).
Thus, monarchy is not contrary to Christian revelation but finds its perfection in Christ the King.
Patristic and Medieval Witness
The Fathers of the Church recognized monarchy as the natural and most stable form of governance. St. Gregory of Nazianzus wrote: “Monarchy is the most ancient and most fitting image of the divine government” (Orationes, 3). Note his use of the term “image.” Men are made in the image of God. Thus, the order of our earthly government is best when it images the order of heavenly rule. Heaven is most definitely a monarchy. Our time on earth is meant to be a “practicing” for Heaven and thus our finite political forms of government ought to prepare us to better participate in the eternal order of Heaven.
Likewise, St. Augustine, though acknowledging the abuses of corrupt rulers, affirmed that righteous kingship is a great good when subordinated to God: “Justice being taken away, then, what are kingdoms but great robberies?” (City of God, IV, 4)
The Scholastic theologians, especially St. Thomas Aquinas, gave the most systematic defense of monarchy. In De Regno, Aquinas argued that monarchy best secures the unity and common good of a people, just as the universe is governed by the one God:
Quote:“It is manifest that it is better for a multitude to be governed by one man, than by many: for there is nothing worse than for the multitude to be without unity” (De Regno, I, 2).
Thus, monarchy reflects both the unity of divine governance and the order of nature itself.
Papal Teaching on Catholic Monarchy
The Popes of the Church have consistently upheld monarchy as a legitimate and even ideal form of rule, so long as it is subordinated to Christ and His Church.
Pope Leo XIII, in Diuturnum Illud (1881), explained:
Quote:“The authority of the rulers is not greater than that of God, and it is not lawful for them to command or ordain anything against His will. … The right to rule is not bound up with any particular form of government; it may take this or that form, provided only that it be of a nature to ensure the general welfare.”
While the Church did not bind Catholics to monarchy as the only permissible form of government, she consistently taught that monarchy most perfectly mirrors the divine kingship of Christ when properly ordered to God’s law.
Pope Pius XI himself, who instituted the Feast of Christ the King, lamented that nations had rejected the gentle yoke of Christ and sought instead to found their laws apart from Him:
Quote:“Then, truly, will many evils be cured … when all the world shall have recognized the authority of Christ and every tongue shall confess that our Lord Jesus Christ is in the glory of God the Father” (Quas Primas, no. 19).
The implication was clear: Societies governed under Christ the King – often embodied in Catholic monarchs – flourished in faith and culture, while those rejecting His reign fell into disorder.
Historical Witness of Catholic Monarchs
History itself testifies to the fruitfulness of Catholic monarchy. Charlemagne, crowned by Pope St. Leo III in 800 A.D., sought to defend Christendom and advance the Faith. St. Louis IX of France reigned not only as a wise administrator but also as a saint, embodying the Catholic ideal of kingship:
Quote:“I prefer to see my kingdom destroyed and reduced to a desert rather than receive the mark of a mortal sin” (St. Louis IX’s advice to his son).
The Holy Roman Empire under Henry II and his wife, Cunigunde; England under Edward the Confessor; Russia under Vladimir the Great; Spain under Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand; Austria under the Habsburgs; and Portugal under King John II – all reveal how monarchs could foster Catholic culture, defend orthodoxy, and uphold the social reign of Christ.
The Decline of Catholic Monarchy
The Protestant Revolt, the Enlightenment, and the French Revolution dealt devastating blows to Catholic kingship. The dethronement and even execution of kings in Europe reflected not merely political upheaval but the rebellion of man against the Kingship of Christ.[2] The rise of liberal democracies, founded on religious indifferentism and the separation of Church and State, was condemned repeatedly by the Popes of the 19th and early 20th centuries.
Pope Pius IX’s Syllabus of Errors (1864) rejected the proposition that “the Church ought to be separated from the State, and the State from the Church” (no. 55). Monarchy had once embodied the opposite principle: the union of Altar and Throne for the glory of Christ the King.
Why Monarchy Is Superior
From a theological and philosophical perspective, monarchy remains the superior form of government because:
- Unity of Rule – Reflects the divine governance of the universe by one God.
- Stability – Provides continuity across generations, rooted in dynastic succession.
- Symbolism – Embodies the Kingship of Christ and His reign over men.
- Paternal Authority – The king serves as a father to his people, reflecting natural law and the family structure.
The Jesuit theologian Suárez, while acknowledging that sovereignty originates in the community, taught that monarchy is the form that most perfectly secures order:
Quote:“Among the legitimate forms of government, monarchy is to be preferred, since the unity of the ruler corresponds most closely to the unity of divine governance.” (De Legibus ac Deo Legislatore, Bk. III, c. 4)
And St. Robert Bellarmine (1542-1621), a Doctor of the Church, confirmed monarchy’s preeminence but insisted it must remain bound to the Faith:
Quote:“The best form of government is that of one just prince, tempered by laws and counsel, for this most nearly resembles the government of God over the universe” (De Laicis, c. 6).
As St. Thomas succinctly taught, “The best government is that of one who rules with a view to the common good” (Summa Theologiae, I-II, q. 105, a. 1). And that is found in a true Catholic monarchy.
Lessons from History
It is important for Catholics today to recall that an “absolute monarchy” is not the only form of monarchy. European history saw the rise of totalitarian (or absolute) monarchies in the late 17th Century, notable examples include Louis XIV (†1715), the Sun King in France; Frederick the Great (†1786) in Prussia; Joseph II (†1790) in Austria; and Peter the Great in Russia (†1725). All too often people living today associate ‘monarchy’ with the abusive rule of these kings. Their sinful rule actually paved the path for their demise by opening the path for revolutionary ideas to take root in the zeitgeist of their age.
Earlier forms of Christian monarchy had a built-in system of checks and balances. The monarch depended on the support of his high-ranking vassals, and this ensured he acted with greater justice. The Church also exerted a great deal of influence upon the ruling class and frequently pressured them into acting in favor of their people’s common good.
An absolute monarch on this earth, without any checks and balances, will almost always fall into corruption. (There is a reason why we have the saying ‘absolute power corrupts absolutely.’) However, a virtuous Christian monarch with proper limits, checks and balances is clearly the best form of government here on earth.
We all know that, given the reality of original sin, every human government is liable to succumb to corruption. In a democratic form of government, with rule by the many, it is nearly impossible to enact real and lasting reform. Likewise, it is very difficult to reform an oligarchy because the majority of the ruling class would all need to convert. A communist or socialist form of government is even further beyond repair because the very materialistic principles of the system reject God and His grace. However, a monarchy, ruled by a single family, is the structure which can most easily undergo conversion and reform. Moreover, virtuous royal parents can have a profound impact on raising saintly children and forming them from infancy in the art of governing according to the common good and Christian principles.
Proof of this is easily found in how many monarchs have been canonized by Holy Mother Church. The list includes many of the good kings listed above, as well as St. Hermenegild (Visigoths), St. Magnus (Orkney), St. Ferdinand III (Castille), St. Stephen (Hungary), St. Canute (Denmark), St. Olaf (Norway), St. Wenceslaus (Bohemia), St. Clotilde (Franks), St. Elizabeth (Hungary), St. Adelaide (Holy Roman Empire), St. Hedwig (Bavaria), St. Jadwiga (Poland), St. Isabel (Portugal), and many others. Contrast this with the complete absence of canonized rulers in democratic systems of government.[3]
Conclusion: Restoring the Kingship of Christ
With the passing of the centenary of Quas Primas, Catholics are called to renew their faith in Christ the King – not only as a personal devotion but as a social and political reality. While monarchies have largely disappeared in the modern world, their theological justification remains. They remind us that political authority is from God and must be exercised in union with His law and His Church.
The restoration of Catholic monarchy may not be immediate, but the restoration of the Kingship of Christ in our homes, communities, and nations is urgent! For as Pius XI taught:
“When once men recognize, both in private and in public life, that Christ is King, society will at last receive the great blessings of real liberty, well-ordered discipline, peace and harmony” (Quas Primas, no. 19).
In a world of chaos, Catholic monarchy stands as a forgotten but enduring witness to the truth that only Christ reigns, and only under His reign can men and nations find peace.
ENDNOTES:
[1] This phrase does not mean that Christ’s kingdom has no influence or power in the world. Rather it means His kingdom is not made of the things of this world. The things of which earthly kingdoms are made (money, resources, military force, etc.) is not what makes up Christ’s kingdom. It is precisely because Christ’s kingdom is of eternal, infinite, spiritual, and true realities that His kingdom is supreme and universal.
In a similar phrase, it is often said that Christians are ‘in the world but not of the world.’ [As I have heard it (& based on Jn 15:19; 17:14-16)] This means Christians are not to be governed by the same values and false maxims which govern the world, which is under the dominion of the prince of darkness. But we do live in this vale of tears and must fight for the common good of the world.
[2] The French Revolution attacked both Altar and Throne because both Bishop and King are meant to represent Christ’s Kingship in Church and State, respectively. This revolution destroyed the French monarchy, and the Italian Revolution devastated the Papal monarchy. The English monarchy never recovered its splendor after Henry VIII’s schism, and the Spanish monarchy was never able to recover after the Communist Revolution of the 1930’s. World War I dealt a final “death blow” to monarchies by dethroning the Austrian (Holy Roman) Emperor and the Russian Tsar. It was Divine Providence that Our Lady would appear at Fatima to restore God’s right order in the midst of the crumbling of Christendom’s monarchies.
[3] Gabriel Garcia Moreno (1821-1875), former Catholic President of Ecuador, is perhaps the only ruler of a democratic republic that deserves the title of saint. It is highly unlikely that any elected ruler of a democracy or republic which does not confess the Catholic Faith as its official state religion would ever be able to rule in such a manner as to be canonized.
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| Praying for the Pope’s Intentions: The 6 Intentions of the Holy Father |
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Posted by: Stone - 11-02-2026, 10:06 AM - Forum: Church Doctrine & Teaching
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Praying for the Pope’s Intentions: The 6 Intentions of the Holy Father
Fatima.org | March 20, 2019
St. Clement Mary Hofbauer once said: “A Christian who does not pray for the pope is like a child who does not pray for his father.” Yet, in our age when the Faith is under attack, when the Pope himself seems to be propagating errors and advancing heresy, and when the Church allows the scandal of the sexual abuse of children to advance, how can we possible pray “for the intentions of the Holy Father”?
Often, you may hear people praying for the intentions of the Holy Father at the end of their Rosaries or other prayers since this is usually a requirement to gain an indulgence. For instance, praying an Our Father, Hail Mary, and Glory Be for such intentions always concludes the Way of the Cross. But should we join in such prayers if the Pope’s personal, private intentions seem contrary to the Church’s intentions?
Yes. In fact, we should! By offering our prayers for the intentions of the Holy Father we are not praying for the personal intentions of Pope Francis but rather for the six objective intentions of the Holy Father as the Church Herself teaches.
What are the 6 intentions of the Pope? The 6 objective intentions of the Holy Father are as follows:- The Exaltation of the Church
- The Propagation of the Faith
- The Extirpation of Heresy
- The Conversion of Sinners
- The Concord between Christian Princes
- The Further Welfare of the Christian People
Exaltation of the Church
It is not an exaggeration that the Church Herself is in a great tempest as She is under assault from both the liberal, modernist forces within Her as well as from the secular, atheistic external forces that beset Her from outside. With immoral and scandalous priests within and with corrupt governments and politicians assaulting Her rights, it is imperative that we pray for the exaltation of the holy Catholic Faith, without which it is not possible to be saved.
Propagation of the Faith
We have before our eyes the example of St. Francis Xavier, among others, who labored for years in great trials and sufferings to save souls and propagate the saving Faith to all peoples. St. Francis converted more people in his life than anyone since the Apostle St. Paul. He baptized over 50,000 in 10 years, converted the entire town of Goa in India, and he labored long in Japan. Where are our missionaries today? Have they vanished in large parts because we no longer pray for them?
Extirpation of Heresy
We live in dangerous times when error is advanced as progress. The average Catholic today is exposed to more heresies and errors than arguably ever before in our history. Modernism, the synthesis of all heresies, along with relativism, subjectivism, religious liberty, and false ecumenism poisons the mind of many in the Church. And this disease of heresy is so pervasive it has infected many clergy as well. What are we doing to stop it? What are we doing to help counter this heresy? Do we pray for God, through Our Lady, to crush heresy?
Conversion of Sinners
Our Blessed Mother at Fatima said that many souls go to Hell because there is no one to pray for them. What are we doing to counsel the doubtful, to correct the erring in charity, and to make satisfaction to God for the sins of others? We can make Holy Hours of Reparation, pray Rosaries of reparation, or offer up all our daily prayers and actions for this intention.
Concord between Christian Princes
Only 100 years ago the world was plunged into the “war to end all wars” as Catholic nations fought and annihilated each other. As the Faith has further been eroded within society especially in Europe, we have seen the rise of democratic, atheistic nations. God is no longer the King of all ages. Nations claim to receive their power from the governed and there is no room for God. But what would our world look like today if the kings of old – the King of France, the King of Bavaria, the King of Belgium – were to reign today as true sovereigns who advanced the rights of God and restored true charity to all? Do we pray for truly Catholic governments to return like France of old or Ecuador under Garcia Moreno?
Further Welfare of the Christian People
The Holy Father, the Servant of the Servants of God, can teach us by example how to love our neighbor and perform both the corporal as well as the spiritual works of mercy. If you have read How the Catholic Church Built Western Civilization by Thomas Woods, you will recall how Dr. Woods relates the varied, countless achievements from monasticism. Among them, we have not only the preservation of literacy and the priceless books of antiquity but countless works of charity, the first wide scale use of water power, the cultivation of agriculture, the clearing of immense areas of previously uninhabitable land, the creation of complex astronomical clocks, the creation of champagne, and dozens of other significant accomplishments. We owe a deep debt to the monks for their work in building our society. The welfare of the Christian people can only be advanced when we return to God and exalt the Holy Catholic Church again. Indeed, part of this restoration must involve prayer for the growth of monastic vocations. May we one day see this happy day return when monasteries and convents blanket our lands and these holy souls pray to God day and night for their fellow Christians.
Conclusion
Alas, if we have fallen from the habit of praying for the intentions of the Holy Father out of despair or sadness for what has been occurring in our Church, let us renew our rigor to say our prayers for the intentions of the Holy Father. As we do so, we should keep these six intentions at the forefront of our minds.
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| Contemplatives: Their Place in the Church Militant |
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Posted by: Stone - 11-01-2026, 04:42 AM - Forum: Resources Online
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Contemplatives: Their Place in the Church Militant
By A Carthusian Monk
This work, originally written by French Carthusians circa 1895 and adapted to the situation in England by the Carthusians of St. Hugh's Charlerhouse, Parkminsler in 1920, has been adapted by The Angelus to address the needs of the modern post-Conciliar apostolate.
Imprimi potest
Fr. JACOBUS MARIA, Prior Cartusiae. In domo Lucae, 4 Maii 1920.
Nihil obstat
Fr. THOMAS BERGH, O.S.B. Censor deputatus. 7 Junii 1920.
Imprimatur
+ PETRUS, Episcopus Southwarcensis. 9 Junii 1920.
![[Image: 3.jpg]](http://www.angelusonline.org/images/articles/2001_May/3.jpg)
The Angelus [Emphasis - The Catacombs]- May 2001
We are certain that God has not permitted all the destruction in Church and civil society in recent years without intending to bring good out of it. If the great "Reconstruction" is ever to occur, then we must take our part in it and we ought to do so particularly by working for the revival of the monastic orders which are given to prayer and penance. But various objections are raised against this view; it is the task therefore of the following pages to answer some of them.
Such complete absorption in the things of God as is involved in the contemplative life, it is said, could be understood in the ages of faith, when out of a society almost wholly Christian, religious vocations sprang up in lavish profusion. In the vast monastic family of those days, contemplatives had their chosen place in the front rank. But nowadays things are changed, and contemplation seems to be another word for selfishness. It is the day of active apostolate. The enemies of Christianity have banded together all the forces of evil for a last assault against the Church; it is, then, our urgent duty to gather in the same way all the vital forces of Catholicism and throw them into the breach. To hold aloof is to act the part of a deserter. And, they add, it is the more regrettable that men such as the Carthusians should stand apart from the fight, since they hold back from the Church Militant in action, not only well-trained soldiers, but even born leaders, the solitary life demanding qualities of mind and heart, and strength of character greater than that of other religious vocations. It will be seen that we do not seek to minimize the force of this objection; but to its plain statement we shall give an equally plain and frank answer.
Active Life or Contemplative?
That it is the day of active apostolate is quite true. In the present fight there is room for all men of good will, and to hold aloof is to act the part of a deserter; with this we are in hearty agreement. But let us make clear what we mean by that. What are we to understand by "activity"? Does it consist in bustle and noise, in feverish movement to start and keep going works of propaganda? Some might think so; they, however, judge by outward appearances only. Thinking men and theologians judge differently, accustomed as they are to descry beneath the exterior, the essence of things.
The marvelous force of activity increases in a being in proportion with the perfection and simplicity of its nature; so that it increases by leaps and bounds as we pass from animal to man, from man to angel, from angel on to God Himself. Grounding his argument on that of Aristotle, Saint Thomas Aquinas (ST, II-II, Q. 182, A. 1) shows the greater excellency of the contemplative over the active life, both in its origin and in its object, as well as being more meritorious and more fruitful in results.
If we let our faith reply, the answer is even more decisive. For indeed, God Himself is the unchangeable and eternal Contemplative; but is He not at the same time pure activity as well, always acting ad intra, within Himself, even supposing creation not to have taken place? Again, on earth where do we find the most intense activity but in the Tabernacle on our altars? Yet, where is there less appearance of activity? Our divine Lord seems to be sunk in a death-like slumber. Nevertheless, what is certain is that the world draws its life from the divine Contemplative of our altars, the world, that is, both material and spiritual. The day when the last altar shall have disappeared will be the day of doom, when the world shall fall asunder.
What Is True "Activity"?
"It is the day of active apostolate." Certainly, if we take due account of the above principles. But let us place the question on a practical footing. For men of light and leading, in what does this activity consist, which is their duty and on which the salvation of society depends?
Of late, much breath has been spent and much ink spilt in the attempt to formulate the principles upon which the campaign at this crisis must be conducted. Meeting after meeting has been held, plans have been multiplied, resolutions affirmed and reaffirmed; a kind of artillery preparation before attack. And indeed, the outcome has been that many well-tried institutions have taken a new lease on life, while new societies or associations are rising to meet new situations. But is there not the danger of forgetting that the true principles underlying all Reconstruction, the divinely traced program, is something simpler and of wider scope than all this; something simple with heaven's simplicity, since thence it was brought to earth when angels sang their Gloria in excelsis on Christmas night over a sleeping world: "Glory to God in the highest; and on earth peace to men of good will" (Lk. 2:14).
First of all, then, we are to give glory to God. That is to say, we must first seek the kingdom of God and His justice (cf. Mt. 6:33). Peace and happiness for the individual, the family, for society at large and the Church will follow in the nature of things and as a necessary consequence.
Now, it was for the realization of this program that God gave us His Son, the Word made Flesh, who is the principle and the essence of His activity. Bethlehem, Nazareth, and Calvary, His indwelling in the Blessed Sacrament, tell us with masterly eloquence how this glory has been given to God and peace brought to men.
But look more closely into the life on earth of Jesus Christ. It lasts but for three and thirty years; and of those, thirty are given to silence, to prayer and to hidden toil. Three only does He consecrate to His public ministry, and even then, during that short time, see how again and again our Savior goes apart from His disciples by day and by night to give Himself to prayer. For amidst all the comings and goings of the divine Word on earth, never for a moment does He lose sight of His Father's glory. As Fr. Faber says,
Quote:If we look at (our Lord's life on earth) in general, so as to get a view of its characteristics, it seems to us, first of all, a life of oblation. Worship was its predominant idea. Adoration was the mold in which it was cast. It continually reflected God. Yet it was not a private life, not a life which looked only to God and itself and so was sanctified. Its oblations were not simply its individual worship of God, but they belonged to all creation and were offered in its name....The business set before it was to consume itself for the glory of God. Thus it was incense, as well as victim....Its human soul was the thurible in which it was fragrantly consumed, offered asleep or waking, by night or by day, with every pulse of its human life. (Bethlehem, 78-79, 1860 ed.)
The entire work of the Incarnation, it is true, received its fullness of perfection and power from the sacrifice of Calvary; but dare we say that the years of hidden life at Nazareth were void of merit? Surely not; that would be blasphemy. No,
Quote:the secret life of the simple union of the two Natures in the divine Person is a vast series of wonders, whose scene is the house of Nazareth, but whose grandeur outshines that of all creation beside....Here was God adoring God. Here was a finite nature out of which infinite worship was streaming. Here was a created life which was in a most awful way a double of the Holy Trinity. (Faber, op. cit., 328, 331 of all cr)
Rerum Ecclesiae Gestarum
On the Foreign Missions, Pope Pius XI, February 18, 1926:
Quote:"Now what great store We set by the contemplative life...that by the foundation of monasteries, their stricter form of contemplative life may be introduced and widely spread in missionary territories, so likewise in season and out of season do We pray you, Venerable Brethren and your beloved sons, to interest yourselves therein, for it is marvelous what measure of heavenly graces such solitaries would call down upon your labors....Whence it is perfectly clear that our anchorites keeping unbroken the Rule and spirit of their Founder, and taking no part in the life of action, can be daily of no small help towards the success of your holy apostolate. So that if the superiors of such Orders give ear to your appeals and set up houses, wherever you may agree together that they should, they do a thing in the first place helpful to the salvation of a vast crowd of heathen and one which, in addition, will be acceptable and agreeable to Us beyond the bounds of belief." (A.A.S., Vol. 18, p. 78)
The Divine Contemplative
Our divine Savior did not limit this active power, the source of glory to God and of the world's salvation, to the few years of His earthly life; He continues it down the centuries in a twofold manner: through His real and through His mystical body, that is, in the Holy Eucharist and in the Church.
In the Holy Eucharist, despoiled of all, even of the accidents of His human nature, poorer even than when on the Cross, He continues in a true manner His contemplation and sacrifice; He lives only for prayer: "ever living to make intercession for us" (Heb. 7:25).
In the Church, which is His mystical body, He wills that each of the states of His mortal life should be reproduced in its entirety, otherwise the parallel would be incomplete. Now from what we have said above, the one that excels all the rest, the fountain, so to say, of all the others, is His state of contemplation, His self-immolation.
This, then, must be reproduced. But by whom? Principally by souls dedicated to a particular mode of life and giving themselves exclusively to penance and prayer. It is in continuing one of these states, the highest of our Lord's earthly life, by the strict observance of the evangelical counsels, that the contemplative orders find their reason for being. They take no part in the general government of the Church, nevertheless they belong to the essence of her constitution, and undoubtedly her divine Founder has given them their mission.
We speak here of the contemplative orders only. The proposition in a more general sense and extended to other religious institutes would cease to be true. St. Bernard says that the religious life is so much of the Church's essence that it began with it, or rather, the Church was begun by it, Qui primus fuit in Ecclesia, imo a quo coepit Ecclesia (Patr. Lat., t. 182. co1. 912. Cf. also, The Ideal of the Monastic Life, by Dom Germain Morin, 69,
Quote:"This then is our model, the life of the first Christians: the life which sprang up with the beginning of the Church, etc.").
We do not see them at work as corporate bodies in apostolic times, because then, in this particular, God's glory was served by the blood of the martyrs; that was sufficient witness for the visible continuation of Calvary. But when the era of the great persecutions came to an end, the blood-stained arena of martyrdom was exchanged for the unbloody martyrdom of the religious life. In the countless lauras of Egypt and Palestine, as later on, in the monasteries of the East; and later still in those of the West, men saw with wonder, the hidden Christ of Nazareth, the dying Christ of Golgotha living and dying over again.
For several centuries, all external ministry was forbidden to these contemplatives; it was an understood thing that nothing should be done to lessen the value of their penitential life or the power of their intercession. It is remarkable to notice that decay of discipline entered the monasteries only from the time, and to the extent that the monks, either out of necessity or from choice, were permitted to go forth and take part in the active ministry in imitation of those new religious orders which the needs of the time had produced to aid and supplement the work of the secular clergy.
Fr. Baker, in Sancta Sophia, (173, 1876 ed.) additionally notices:
Quote:No doubt there is that the decay of religion hath principally proceeded from this preposterous disorder, viz., that in most religious communities active spirits have got the advantage to possess themselves of prelatures and spiritual pastorships over the contemplative, though the state of religion was instituted only for contemplation.
In the 11th century, as a consequence of the great impulse given earlier by Charlemagne to popular education, of which the burden fell principally on the monasteries; and likewise, as a result of the disturbed state then of Christendom, the purely contemplative life had ceased to be practiced in the Church. Providence, however, to make it flourish anew, raised up one of those men of faith and genius who seem to be held in reserve through the centuries for the accomplishment of its mighty plans. This was St. Bruno (A.D. 1030-1101) the founder of the Carthusian order. The oft quoted saying, Cartusia nunquam reformata, quia nunquam deformata, the Carthusian order has never been reformed because never deformed, is substantially true, because it has remained true to the spirit of its foundation, has kept apart from all external activities and devoted itself absolutely and entirely to contemplation.
Contemplatives Are Active
We have deemed it necessary to show the solid foundation which theology and history lay for this question. The reason why it is sometimes discussed in a small-minded way is that it is viewed from one of its secondary aspects only. We may draw several conclusions.
The Carthusian monk is essentially contemplative. He reproduces and continues in the Church the hidden and suffering life of our Lord Jesus Christ. His cell is at one and the same time Bethlehem, where he begins a new life; Nazareth where his life of voluntary penance is passed in silence and obscurity; Calvary where obedience never ceases to offer him as a sacrifice on the cross which his observances and his Rule raise up for him; it is a Tabernacle where in union with the prayer of our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament he fulfills St. Paul's great boast, "I fill up those things that are wanting of the sufferings of Christ, in my flesh" (Col. 1:24).
In a word, he is an official suppliant and penitent offering to God one of the greatest glories that He can provide for Himself on this earth. At the same time, he works powerfully for his own salvation and that of his neighbor.
From this then, we may judge what is the excellence of a contemplative's activity, even though he exercises it only by prayer and penance; nay, just for that very reason. It is God's will for him, it is apostolic, universal in scope, and how efficacious!
Quote:A cloistered life among men may cover the whole earth with its activity, if it be a life of worship, while the conqueror, the statesman, or the man of letters have at most but a circle which they only influence partially and in which their influence is but one of many influences. (Faber, op. cit., 80)
A Carthusian who had formerly been a foreign missioner was once asked what he did in his cell.
Quote:"I am still a missionary," he replied. "Formerly, I could work only in a circumscribed area; now the whole world lies open to my zeal, and by prayer I can reach the furthest off savage in Africa or Oceania."
We may also compare it to the motors hidden away in the heart of some vast piece of machinery and communicating life to the whole. A French orator (Mgr. Turinaz, Bishop of Nancy) in answering the question, "What do these solitaries do, of what use are they?" compares them, not inaptly, to lightning rods warding off the shafts of divine anger from a guilty world. They are to the world at large what the ten just men, had they been found, would have been to the Cities of the Plain; indeed, were they to be lacking in the world, there is only too much reason to suppose that God's thunderbolts would fall on an unrepentant generation.
Montalembert wrote,
Quote:"I cannot imagine a finer subject than the history of prayer....If it was given to human pen to write it, that history should be the history of the monks....Thanks to them, prayer existed in the character of a permanent and public force, universally recognized and blessed by God and man" (Monks of the West [London: Nimmo, 1896] Vol. I, 32 ).
The Power of Intercession
You ask, what is it that gives contemplation its wonderful intercessory power, making it superior to every other created activity? It follows from what we have already said. In imitation of our Lord Jesus Christ, whose different states he reproduces, the contemplative offers his freedom, his talents, his entire person and life before the majesty of God's claims. He abandons himself without reserve to His good pleasure. In God alone he seeks light and guidance; He is the goal and rule of all he does. God never allows Himself to be outdone in generosity. He takes supreme delight in this self-abandonment, a source of so much glory to Him; and He repays it with wonderful graces.
With Dom Innocent Le Masson, General of the Carthusians in the 17th century, we may say that the contemplative is, in the best sense of the word, a courtier and intimate friend of God. Seated at His feet like Mary at Bethany, his adoration, worship and attendance are never intermitted. His prayer assumes the character of a holy boldness of intimacy, and God, Who loves that we should do violence to His mercy, holds open the treasury of His favors to him.
A further reason for his power of intercession is found in the very nature of contemplation, and in the forms of prayer employed by the contemplative. Contemplation is above all an affair of the heart, in its method it is widely different from discursive meditation, in which the intellect plays the largest part. Now, the intellect easily gets taken up with its own ideas; pride, at one and the same time, forms a hindrance and becomes a punishment.
The heart is humbler; in simplicity and uncalculating, without self-seeking, it goes to meet its Beloved. And when day and night, as a Carthusian does, it feeds its desires on the divine marrow found in the Holy Scriptures, and more especially in the psalms, a change comes over it; it becomes all on fire, and without reasonings darts forward to regions unknown to the intellect. Faith, worship, desires, all breathe forth in one outpouring of love; it is no longer mere prayer, but uplifting of the soul, fiery transports, impassioned flights that are the result, under the impulse of the Holy Spirit it wings its flight unhindered to God; an eagle flies less swiftly towards its prey. What need is there to say more? The heart abandons itself and throws itself upon God, and God in return gives Himself to the soul. It may gaze upon Him, lay hold of Him, threaten, aye disarm Him! He suspends the decrees of justice, and looks down upon the world with a smile of forgiveness. A child, then, may save a whole nation. (We are not here supposing extraordinary phenomena, such as ecstasy, which sometimes may accompany prayer, but those "ascensions" which tend to union, the normal goal of mental prayer.) Abraham, Moses and Onias in the old Testament are the visible proofs of this truth; and how many other instances are there not in the lives of the saints?
Monastic Prayer, the Great Weapon
Yes indeed, it is the day of active apostolate.
Quote:"We must fight, and he who deserts God's standard to hide himself in slothful selfishness is a traitor. We must fight, but reasonably, in a favorable position, and use good arms and wise tactics" (cf. The Contemplative Life in Its Apostolic Aspect [London: Burns, Oates & Washbourne], 17).
That is precisely what the contemplative does; whence we may understand how useful, how necessary in the mighty conflict with evil, is the contemplative's intercession whether exercised by Carthusian monk or nun, or other religious.
A fatal illusion may follow on the intoxication of excessive activity: more or less inexperienced souls persuade themselves that the salvation of society depends entirely on human means. Once started on this downward way, fatal blindness will supervene which will lay open the way for a defeat beyond repair. Quos vult perdere Jupiter dementat ("whom Jupiter wishes to destroy, he drives mad"). One suspects that the devil is only half afraid of active opposition. As an old campaigner, he even helps it on at times, much as a general allows the enemy to advance and come to grips, afterwards the more easily to surround them. For one good work started, he can set up ten in opposition, since he is more gifted with activity than all the active workers in the world taken together. And is it not true that amidst all the self sacrifice, the enthusiasm and devotion that active workers bring to the cause, there is a super abundance at the same time, of the human element? How many fair beginnings have ended in disappointment and worse, because of the petty jealousies and rivalries of those who persuade themselves that the success of God's work is bound up with their own personal success? Time wasted, good money thrown after bad, disunion amongst Catholics, all this and much more to a like effect is but too often the result of works of active apostolate.
What the devil really does fear, because he knows its marvelous power and because he has nothing to meet it with, is prayer and above all, monastic prayer, supported by penance and practiced with an intensity that arrives at contemplation. The chant of the Divine Office, the official prayer of the liturgy which has a twofold power according to the saying, Qui bene cantat, bis orat ("sung prayer is double prayer"). Here he recognizes his real enemy. His tactics against it, therefore, are ever the same: he tries to destroy the homes of prayer, or at least to introduce a relaxation in their discipline; he sets to work, to turn them from their purpose by attracting and attaching them to the employments of the active ministry, or by keeping back from them as much as possible the vocations that God intends for them. It is the devil's greatest gain when, under the pretext of employing one's zeal to better purpose, he is able to retain on the battlefield of active works some of those generous souls, keen in their spirit of devotion, who under wiser guidance as to the supernatural value of the contemplative life would unhesitatingly set out to scale those spiritual heights which their Rule sets before the Carthusian monk and nun or other contemplative religious.
Proportionate Need of Contemplative and Active Workers
In writing as we have done, we are far from wishing to throw the least discredit on the multiplicity of good works that are today set going so hopefully and with so much zeal. It is quite clear that they are necessary. If we need suppliants we must also have combatants. Let the religious and the priest alike, join hands with the laity; let him turn apostle, missioner, schoolmaster, hospitaller, newspaper editor even! Let him seize every opportunity of holding up the torch of faith for those that sit "in the valley of the shadow of death" (Ps. 22:4). The list of names of the standard bearers of the Church's social action in modern times is a long and honorable one, and no one will deny that their lives afford shining examples of self sacrifice and heroism. Contemplatives are foremost in giving hearty praise to all such enterprises as have ecclesiastical approval.
But at the same time we are faced by a twofold phenomenon which it would be childish to deny. On the one hand, the vastness of the effort expended; and on the other hand, the smallness of the visible result. Providence has its own ways, but here at least, the effect is not proportionate with its cause. May it not be because the volume of prayer demanded by God has not been forthcoming?
Let those given to the active life, whose battlefield is down in the plain, keep up the struggle without faltering. But if they wish for victory in the end, let them seek recruits who shall add to the number of hands raised up on the mountain in prayer for them. If only it might be possible to draw towards the purely contemplative life as it is led in the Charterhouse, a number of souls proportionate to that attracted by the needs of our day to institutes devoted to active work what a guarantee would there be of an earlier and more decisive victory; the tardy dawn of the long awaited Restoration would broaden out into full day.
The Restoration of All Things in Christ by Prayer
The conversion of our nation! How much more is included in that well worn phrase than is generally thought of. The Church's divine commission to preach the gospel to every creature is not fulfilled in shepherding this or that section of non-Catholics into Christ's fold. Her message is for all. She must convert her own wandering children as well; raise the fallen, rouse the slothful and hold the wayward. And as we gaze in expectation into the years immediately before us, whose heart will not quail before the gigantic nature of the task committed to her in saving the souls of the millions outside her borders! Some words of a well-known Jesuit writer, Fr. Joseph Rickaby, are as true today, or truer, than when penned some 25 years ago [c. 1895]. He spoke of England, but his words are applicable to the United States, to the work of American Catholics in this country before the Council, and contains warnings and applications to the post-Conciliar apostolate that we must all seriously consider. He says in The Month:
Quote:The prospect of the religious future of England...is very dark indeed. We poor English Catholics have "piped" and our countrymen have not "danced." Our learning, our controversy, our church-building, our schools, our publications, our societies, our preaching, our works of benevolence, all seem thrown away. They have not been useless to be sure; we have saved the few, and that is much: but on the solid mass of the nation we make no impression, nor seem likely to make any; and, compared with our failure, our successes go for little. It will be difficult for us to hold in the future such vantage ground as we have won and now possess.
The world is steeped in a spirit which is solvent of all Christianity; and there are signs manifest enough of the action of that spirit upon our people. It does not do to be too gloomy; but it is difficult to feel cheerful in thinking of the conversion of England, if one has any idea, as most of us have, of the tendencies of thought around us. But here comes in the second part of the text, "we have mourned and you have not lamented." We have not "mourned" half enough, to induce our country to "lament" their false religious position. The sin of England has been great for centuries and remains unexpiated, a bar to conversion.
We should have more conversions, if we did more penance to procure them. That is not a pleasant thing to think of. How can we fast and pray whose daily work suffers from our lack of time and strength to do it? There is comfort in the principle of the division of labor, and in those much reviled but still Catholic doctrines of vicarious expiation and communion of saints. We must have some of our number to go apart, and fast and pray and do penance for the rest of us, not certainly to excuse us in sin, not to cover our idleness and neglect of duty, not to exempt us from sorrow and contrition and such penance as God will require of us personally, but to draw down by their extraordinary penances that extraordinary mercy and those superabundant graces, without which this country never will be brought to God and to His Christ.
Thinking of this profound truth, one is filled with grief and resentment to hear the (contemplative) life...described as a 'useless and selfish life' even by Catholics, and by those Catholics of all others who should know better. Such is the utilitarian, naturalistic spirit of the age, that we cease to believe in any but the corporal works of mercy, and those spiritual works which have a direct natural efficacy. "To pray for the living and the dead," and to add fasting to the prayer of intercession, as Tobias did, does not strike us as so very necessary. Yet it may be just the one thing wanting to make the rest of our works efficacious (Vol. 96, 27).
With these considerations before us, we may ask ourselves again: What is the place of contemplatives in the Church Militant? And, what is their value in these troubled times? Shall we answer that their day has gone by? That in going aside from the battle to pray and watch and fast they are acting the part of deserters? Read what the venerable Fr. Baker wrote, when in his own day surely if ever his nation had need of active workers.
Those that are inexperienced may, and often do, call this (contemplation) a state of idleness and unprofitable cessation, as Martha complained against her sister Mary; but those that have attained to a taste of it know it to be the business of all businesses, as St. Bernard calls it....
Quote:Those inexpressible devotions which they exercise, and in which they tacitly involve the needs of the whole Church, are far more prevalent with God than the busy endeavors and prayers of ten thousand others, a few such secret and unknown servants of God are the chariots and horsemen, the strength and bulwarks of the kingdom and churches where they live.
(Sancta Sophia, 508, 1876 ed.).
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