Welcome, Guest
You have to register before you can post on our site.

Username
  

Password
  





Search Forums

(Advanced Search)

Forum Statistics
» Members: 273
» Latest member: Anna Roome
» Forum threads: 6,462
» Forum posts: 12,088

Full Statistics

Online Users
There are currently 335 online users.
» 0 Member(s) | 333 Guest(s)
Bing, Google

Latest Threads
Oratory Conference: Fr. H...
Forum: Conferences
Last Post: Deus Vult
6 hours ago
» Replies: 0
» Views: 29
Livestream: First Sunday ...
Forum: November 2024
Last Post: Stone
Yesterday, 07:43 AM
» Replies: 0
» Views: 62
Fr. Hewko's Mass: Thanksg...
Forum: November 2024
Last Post: Stone
Yesterday, 07:41 AM
» Replies: 0
» Views: 66
Heaven Opened by the Prac...
Forum: Our Lady
Last Post: Stone
Yesterday, 06:33 AM
» Replies: 0
» Views: 90
Thursday Night Holy Hour ...
Forum: Appeals for Prayer
Last Post: Stone
Yesterday, 05:57 AM
» Replies: 8
» Views: 2,307
Fr. Ruiz: Renewal of the ...
Forum: Rev. Father Hugo Ruiz Vallejo
Last Post: Stone
Yesterday, 05:05 AM
» Replies: 19
» Views: 1,832
Fr. Hewko's Sermons: St....
Forum: November 2024
Last Post: Stone
11-28-2024, 08:24 AM
» Replies: 1
» Views: 204
The Catholic Trumpet: Bis...
Forum: True vs. False Resistance
Last Post: Stone
11-28-2024, 08:24 AM
» Replies: 0
» Views: 124
The Editor of The Recusan...
Forum: Introduction to the Resistance
Last Post: Sacrificium
11-27-2024, 01:34 PM
» Replies: 1
» Views: 190
Feast of the Miraculous M...
Forum: Our Lady
Last Post: Stone
11-27-2024, 07:24 AM
» Replies: 1
» Views: 1,497

 
  Pfizer CEO says FDA has approved microchip for pills
Posted by: Stone - 12-20-2021, 02:15 PM - Forum: Health - No Replies

PFIZER CEO ALBERT BOURLA SAYS THAT THE FDA HAS APPROVED THE INSERTION OF A CHIP INTO THE PILL

[Notice the WEF background]


https://www.bitchute.com/video/NkLZxyE350ky/

Print this item

  Swedish company showcases microchip that can download COVID-19 passport status
Posted by: Stone - 12-20-2021, 01:58 PM - Forum: COVID Vaccines - No Replies

Swedish company showcases microchip that can download COVID-19 passport status
Firm has showcased implant capable of storing COVID passport that can be read by many devices


FoxBusiness | December 20, 201

A microchip technology introduced in recent years by the Stockholm-based startup Epicenter is being presented as a means to store one's COVID-19 vaccine passport under the skin, according to a video from the South China Post that went viral Friday.

The firm has showcased an implant capable of storing a COVID passport that can then be read by any device using the near-field communication (NFC) protocol, according to the video.

The video featured DSruptive CEO Hannes Sjöblad, who was founder of the Swedish Association of Biohackers.

Sjöblad demonstrated how Epicenter's rice-sized microchip, which has been adapted as a COVID-19 passport, is implanted under the skin either in the arm on between the thumb and forefinger.



Three Square Market, a Wisconsin-based technology company, became the first company in the U.S. to offer its employees similar free microchip implants in August 2017. The chip gives employees access to locked rooms and the ability to pay for food and drinks in the break room.

The microchips were provided to Three Square Market (32M) at the time by Biohax, which was run by Jowan Österlund, a Swedish tattooist and body piercing specialist, according to The Guardian.

"Eventually, this technology will become standardized allowing you to use this as your passport, public transit, all purchasing opportunities, etc.," said Todd Westby, the 32M CEO at the time.

The technology the company uses is called RFID (Radio-Frequency Identification), which uses electromagnetic fields to identify electronically stored information. The chips also use near-field communications (NFC), the same type of technology that is used in most contactless credit cards and mobile payments.

Westby said at the time that these microchips have already become very popular in many European countries and that the companies intended to be ahead of the curve in bringing it to the U.S. Now they could become COVID passports.

Print this item

  Global Protests Against Lockdowns - December 18, 2021
Posted by: Stone - 12-19-2021, 10:42 AM - Forum: Socialism & Communism - No Replies













Print this item

  A "Revolution of Tenderness", or "The Roche Christmas Massacre": A Farce in Eleven Dubia
Posted by: Stone - 12-18-2021, 10:38 AM - Forum: Pope Francis - Replies (1)

A "Revolution of Tenderness", or "The Roche Christmas Massacre": A Farce in Eleven Dubia
[Official Vatican Press Release follows in next post]


Rorate Caeli | December 18, 2021

As reported by this blog a few days ago, the "clarifications" of Traditionis custodes from the CDWDS, which the Pope has given his assent to, have been published today - relentlessly appalling in their attempted suppression of the traditional rites, yet comically absurd in their claim to be "preserving the gift of ecclesial communion by walking together, with conviction of mind and heart". In this current joke of a pontificate, war truly is peace.

The summary of what the Pope and the CDWDS are attempting to do is as follows:

1. Dispensations from art. 3 § 2 of TC can, in principle, be given for the traditional Mass to be celebrated in parish churches. Of course, under the current regime, "decentralisation" means the opposite of what most people would expect it to mean, so the Bishop is to request permission from the CDWDS, who may then graciously allow him to give permission for this, but "only if it is established that it is impossible to use another [non-parish] church, oratory or chapel." Further, once a non-parish church is available, "this permission will be withdrawn."

Of course, "there is no intention in these provisions to marginalise the faithful who are rooted in the previous form of celebration". No, contrary to all appearances, "this is a concession to provide for their good". Unlike the luminaries currently occupying the CDWDS, we plebs are not practiced in this sort of doublespeak. Why, sometimes Archbishop Roche can believe as many as six impossible things before breakfast!

2. The use of the traditional Rituale Romanum is allowable only for personal parishes, and use of the traditional Pontificale Romanum is absolutely forbidden. Pope Benedict's statement that "What earlier generations held as sacred, remains sacred and great for us too, and it cannot be all of a sudden entirely forbidden or even considered harmful" has officially been chucked down the memory-hole.

3. The canonical right of priests to freely choose not to take part in concelebrated Masses (see Canon 902) is now being treated as "a lack of acceptance of the liturgical reform". Perhaps in the fulness of time there will be someone in the CDWDS who this sort of wrongthink can be reported to.

4. To fulfil the conditions of TC art. 3 § 3, only a Bible in an authorised vernacular translation may be used for the proclamation of the readings at the usus antiquior. I have already pointed out the many problems and issues that will result from this, but the CDWDS is insistent that "no vernacular lectionaries may be published that reproduce the cycle of readings of the previous rite". So, we now have a new Index Librorum Prohibitorum for "modern man" - the traditional lectionary!

5. The CDWDS clarifies that TC art. 4 decentralises power by centralising it, requiring the explicit permission of the Apostolic See for priests ordained after 16th July 2021 to celebrate the traditional Latin Mass. This is "intended to assist the diocesan Bishop in evaluating such a request", presumably as long as the answer the Bishop comes to is "permission denied".

6. The granting of fixed-term, temporary permissions for the celebration of the usus antiquior is clearly desired by the CDWDS to be the norm: "the possibility of granting the use of the Missale Romanum of 1962 for a defined period of time... is not only possible but also recommended". And you'd all better be on your best behaviour, boys and girls, as "the outcome of this assessment [at the end of the ad tempus period] can provide grounds for prolonging or suspending the permission". A new Roman Inquisition of tenderness!

7. Papers, please! Every sacred minister now requires authorisation for celebrations of the traditional Mass - not just priests, but deacons, instituted ministers, etc. - no matter the circumstances. If the priest celebrating your Sunday traditional Mass falls sick, but he's the only priest the Bishop has authorised for such celebrations, then tough. If you're a priest who has permission from your own Bishop to celebrate the usus antiquior but find yourself in another diocese for travel, study, etc., then tough.

8. Finally, no bination using the 1962 Missal, for any reason whatsoever. Canon 905 § 2 doesn't apply here, apparently, because we can just attend Mass "in its current ritual form." How very pastoral!


* * * * *


"Peace, peace" they say, when there is no peace (Jer. 8:11). And there can be no peace, or unity, from this irresponsible, ideological and illegitimate attack on the traditional Roman Rite, and the faithful attached to it.

If it wasn't obvious at this point, then it really should be to all by now: this attempted extermination of the usus antiquior demonstrates that everything this papacy claims to be - "merciful", "accompanying", "listening", "synodal", "tender", "decentralising" - is a vicious lie.

Lord, have mercy on your Church!

Print this item

  Pope Francis’ new foundation appears to have more in common with French Revolution ...
Posted by: Stone - 12-18-2021, 08:00 AM - Forum: Pope Francis - No Replies

Pope Francis’ new foundation appears to have more in common with French Revolution than with Catholicism
References to God, the Holy Trinity, Our Lord Jesus Christ, and His Beloved Mother are totally absent from this catalogue of the new foundation's politically correct 'values,' among which environmentalist concerns and 'fraternity between believers and non-believers are, of course, paramount.

[Image: shutterstock_72657706-810x500.jpg]


Fri Dec 17, 2021 - 8:07 am EST
VATICAN CITY (LifeSiteNews) — A “Fratelli tutti Foundation” attached to Saint Peter’s Basilica in Rome was launched on Wednesday by Pope Francis who signed a decree that officially established the new entity. It aims at encouraging “fraternity and dialogue” among pilgrims and tourists visiting the Vatican.

The document was signed on December 8, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, and released to the Vatican Press office on Wednesday, together with the news of the nomination of its president, Cardinal Mauro Gambetti, archpriest of the Basilica, vicar general for the Vatican State, and president of the Fabric of Saint Peter. It is in this last capacity, as the head of the institution tasked with the conservation and maintenance of the Basilica, that Gambetti has now been given a free hand for the cultural and spiritual animation of the church itself and Saint Peter’s Square, within the “embrace” of the colonnade of Bernini, as the papal decree put it.

Cardinal Gambetti, it should be said, was the initiator of the new Foundation; he presented his brainchild to the world last October, describing it as a “dream” that was born in Assisi even before Fratelli tutti was written, but adding that the Encyclical is “the vision for which we should be striving globally.”

The example of what is afoot at Notre Dame of Paris immediately springs to mind: as LifeSite readers know, plans for a makeover of the Gothic jewel’s interior include creating a “discovery trail” for people of all religions, leading through chapels dedicated to the five continents and messages of the Old and New Testaments and culminating with Laudato si’. The revamping of Notre Dame is set to include benches with modern lighting systems, elements of “contemporary art” and music and light projections in the side-chapels, “creating the conditions for an experience” that would appeal to the cathedral’s many non-Catholic visitors.

The revamping of Notre Dame wants a clear break from traditional liturgy, as the designer of the revamp, Father Gilles Drouin, a staunch promoter of Traditionis custodes, has made clear. In interviews he has rejected what he says is a “Tridentine” conception of the liturgy as a “theater,” instead favoring an “active participation” that blurs the limits between the priest and the faithful attending Mass.

No practical details of upcoming changes or “animations” to St. Peter’s Basilica have been given yet, but a parallel can surely be drawn regarding Cardinal Gambetti, a 52-year-old Franciscan hand-picked by Pope Francis last year to receive the red hat. Gambetti has banned the traditional Latin Mass from the nave and side-chapels of Saint-Peter’s, relegating individual priests and groups to the Crypt and insisting that Masses within the central church of Christendom be in the vernacular, preferably Italian, and concelebrated.

He is certainly a perfect fit for presidency of the new “Fratelli Tutti Foundation” based on Pope Francis’ eponymous Encyclical. Fratelli tutti has already borne fruits such as the relativistic Abu Dhabi Declaration proclaiming that the “diversity of religions” was “willed by God in his wisdom.”

How this will play out in and around the Basilica of Saint Peter, where Catholics venerate the tomb of Saint Peter, the “rock” on whom the Church was built, can already be sensed in the few elements of the Foundation’s statutes that have been quoted by the Italian media. Key words and phrases are “humanism,” “building social alliances,” and, of course, “bridges,” the creating of “events,” “trails,” “experiences” and “spiritual exercises,” and “promoting dialogue with cultures and the other religions based on the themes of the Pope’s last Encyclical.”

In a communiqué published on Wednesday by the Holy See, the language is even more revealing: ten “purposes” are quoted in detail, and they certainly deserve to be reproduced in full. Here is our translation of the statement:

The Foundation’s mission areas are:

1. to support and design pathways of art and faith;
2. to invest in cultural and spiritual formation through events, experiences, paths, and spiritual exercises;
3. to promote dialogue with cultures and other religions on the themes of the Pontiff’s latest encyclicals to build a “social alliance.”


The purposes of the Foundation are included in Article 3 of the Statute:

“The Foundation has purposes of solidarity, training, dissemination of art and particularly sacred art; it promotes synodality, the culture of fraternity and dialogue. To this end, the Foundation:

  1. promotes a holistic formation, attentive to the spiritual and cultural levels, to the community dimension and to the commitment of service in the world;
  2. encourages tourists to live the experience of pilgrims through spiritual, cultural, and artistic itineraries in St. Peter’s Basilica and in the spaces made available bythe Fabric of St. Peter;
  3. organizes itineraries, events, and experiences to promote fraternity and social friendship between Churches, different religions, and between believers and non-believers;
  4. promotes the culture of peace in the various spheres of life, from the personal to the social and political dimensions;
  5. promotes “new encounters” nourished by social dialogue, by the sense of social forgiveness, by the purification of memory, by the promotion of restorative justice as an alternative to social revenge;
  6. nurtures initiatives aimed at fostering the development of fraternal humanism, through the promotion of the principles of liberty, equality and fraternity, conditions for building a “universal love” that recognizes and protects the dignity of persons;
  7. encourages projects for the care of creation, the protection of environmental resources, international solidarity, and social responsibility;
  8. promotes social alliance, responsible entrepreneurship, social investment, human and sustainable forms of work; integral ecology, sustainable development, ecological transition, health and scientific and technological research, in light of the principles of the Social Doctrine of the Church;
  9. supports responsible communication, the truthfulness of sources, and the credibility and reliability of those committed to building bridges;
  10. takes charge of, in the symbolic embrace of the colonnade of St. Peter’s Basilica, the weakest people, the stranger and the foreigner, the different and the marginalized, and the cultural and social frontiers to reinterpret the sufferings of the world and offer solutions in the light of the Gospel and the papal Magisterium”.

To carry out its activities, the Foundation will be chaired by Cardinal Mauro Gambetti, a nine-member Board of Directors, a single Auditor, and a General Secretary. The future guiding bodies of the Foundation will be: the General Council composed of members of the Vatican Dicasteries to which the Foundation’s mission themes pertain, and the Sustainability Committee in which the Foundation’s benefactors are represented.”

References to God, the Holy Trinity, Our Lord Jesus Christ, and His Beloved Mother are totally absent from this catalogue of politically correct “values,” among which environmentalist concerns and “fraternity between believers and non-believers” are, of course, paramount.

For French observers, the mention of “liberty, equality, and fraternity” in objective VI, together with a nod to “fraternal humanism,” has obvious Masonic overtones. A carbon copy of the motto of the French Republic, Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité, the words point to the French Revolution that allowed “no liberty for the enemies of Liberty” and understood the concept as the right to think and do what one wills, without regard for the superior right of truth and divine law.

“Equality” would soon degenerate into collectivism, socialism, or communism, and the overthrowing of natural hierarchies, while “Fraternity” is not so much a desire for true love and friendship among human beings as a rejection of paternity and its God-given authority.

Of course, all these words have their true value but, taken together and made absolute, they contradict each other and, improperly defined, they were the basis for the revolutionary “Terror” of 1792 and the following years when the Vendée region of France underwent a legal genocide as ordered by the Parisian revolutionaries[NB: See here and here for more on the Catholic Vendée - The Catacombs].

The Pope’s chirograph (i.e., papal decree limited to the Roman Curia) was also devoid of any obvious Catholic references, being content to refer to “religion” and “spirituality:”

Quote:I have learned with satisfaction that the Fabric of Saint Peter, together with some of the faithful, wish to join together to establish a Foundation of Religion and Worship intended to collaborate in spreading the principles set forth in my recent encyclical, Fratelli tutti, in order to encourage initiatives linked to spirituality, art, education and dialogue with the world, around Saint Peter’s Basilica and in the embrace of its colonnade.

I therefore gladly accede to the request expressed to me to establish in the State of Vatican City an autonomous foundation for the above-mentioned purposes.

By virtue of my apostolic power in the Church and my sovereignty in Vatican City, I establish the Fratelli tutti Foundation as a public canonical juridical person and as a civil juridical person with its headquarters in Vatican City State.

The Foundation will be governed by the canonical laws, in particular by the special norms that regulate the Bodies of the Holy See, by the civil norms in force in the Vatican City State, and by the attached Statute which I simultaneously approve.

From the Vatican, 8 December 2021

FRANCIS

The Foundation’s first public initiatives are expected to take place early next year. Cardinal Gambetti gave an interview to Vatican News last October in which he said the new Foundation will be a “polyhedron” (one of Pope Francis’ stock words) made up of “formation and dialogue, sacred art and economy, young people, and startups.” All will be welcome there “to find the direction of a common road towards the future… in harmony with the magisterium of Pope Francis,” he said.

Much of his interview is made up of variations and repetitions on this theme of a “common road.” But beyond the glib Newspeak, there is a clear, political objective that smacks of global spirituality and global governance. As Gambetti puts it:

Quote:We already have in mind, probably at the beginning of next year, some initiatives linked to the dual theme of art and spirituality, which are the first, and also the simplest, to activate. But then we are also thinking of something on formation, and it is probable that we will begin with young people, although this is not yet decided because we need to study it well. In any case, the idea is to have a few weeks of residential meetings to allow people to get together, to share, to think about some issues and then try to bring out something new or a new way. For example, if we think of young people, it could be a startup in some segment of the economy, mobility, climate, and environmental issues. Or if we turn to the world of business, putting together people who have managerial roles, or in any case important ones, we could look at the theme of new models of development.


Are we also looking at politics?

We could also think about new ways of doing politics, which are perhaps a bit tired or suffocated by the problems that exist, problems that are obviously real and need to be addressed. But along with this fatigue, we also need to look beyond, to the future. If we do not help each other imagine the future, or a society in which we wish to live, not just see others live it, perhaps politicsin particular will lose a bit of its own vocation.

This all sounds very ambitious for a Foundation centered on a Basilica and a Square – but so much in tone with the objectives of the global “élite” that it can certainly hope for its support.

Print this item

  Pfizer is now testing 3 injections of its #COVID19 jab in babies and preschoolers.
Posted by: Stone - 12-18-2021, 07:10 AM - Forum: COVID Vaccines - No Replies




See also here: https://www.cnn.com/2021/12/17/health/pf...index.html

Print this item

  The Month of the Nativity of Our Lord Jesus Christ - Translated from the French, 1848
Posted by: Stone - 12-17-2021, 10:46 AM - Forum: Resources Online - No Replies

The Month of the Nativity
A Series of Devotional Practices Whereby to Honour and Prepare for the Birth of the Holy Infant Saviour

[Image: ?u=https%3A%2F%2Fvidalcuglietta.com%2Fwp...f=1&nofb=1]

"We have a Paradise much better, and far more agreeable than that of our first parents," says St. Bernard "and this Paradise is our Lord Jesus Christ." (1 Serm. Nativity.) He is our beatitude in body and soul; His Divinity is the bliss of the latter, his Humanity that of the former. He is then our true Paradise. And He is all ours; all for our use, all for our wants: "Light to our eyes, hearing to our ears, perfume to our smell, bread to our mouth," says Origen. (Hom. 2 in Cant.) How lamentable, then, that faith and hope in, and knowledge and love of, this divine Saviour are so much on the decrease and become daily more diminished! To remedy this evil, in some degree, is the object of the following pages, having for title, "The Month of the Nativity of our Lord," in which are retraced the mysteries of the Incarnation and Nativity of this divine Saviour.

"The daily entertainment for each day, which besides a point of doctrine, includes reflections, &c., is preceded by a practice and aspiration, both to render it more conformable to the devotions appointed for other months, as well as to gratify more fervent souls who never think they can do enough to please their divine Saviour. In order to include all the feasts of Christmas without exceeding the period of a month, this devotion does not commence until the sixth of December. It will by this means terminate on the feast of the Epiphany, and those who have faithfully and fervently practised it, may hope to receive, in presenting it, with the offerings of the holy Magi, to their Infant God in His manger, a share in His choicest graces here, and because they have known and loved, "and confessed Him before men," to be acknowledged by Him before His Father who is in heaven, to whom, in unity of the Holy Ghost be all honour, might, glory, power, for endless ages.


Prayer of Thanksgiving

God of our hearts, while desiring this prodigy, we, the children of the Holy Catholic Church, thank you for having caused us to be born in its bosom, and fed with the milk of pure faith. “You have not done this for every nation,” which vastly enhances the precious gift. We shall never cease to thank You for it, and to praise and bless you for having bestowed upon us such a mark of predilection. May our gratitude be sincere and eternal. Amen.




Download the book, "The Month of the Nativity"

Print this item

  Children's Consecration to the Sacred Heart [1890]
Posted by: Stone - 12-17-2021, 10:23 AM - Forum: In Honor of Our Lord - Replies (1)

[Image: ?u=https%3A%2F%2Frlv.zcache.com%2Fsacred...f=1&nofb=1]


Children's Consecration to the Sacred Heart
by Rev. R. S. Dewey, S.J. 1890


Blessed Margaret Mary exhorted all Christians, even as they value their salvation, to consecrate themselves to the Heart of Jesus. These are her words: "The devil fears above all things else the accomplishment of this good work . . . by the saving of so many souls, through devotion to this loving Heart, of those who shall consecrate themselves wholly to Its love, honor, and glory."

A sure means of having all Christians consecrate themselves to the Divine Heart is to begin with the children. The year 1889 was the year of the reign of the Sacred Heart over society, promoted by the Consecration of Families to the Divine Heart. The year 1890, the 2d Centenary of Blessed Margaret Mary, should be the crowning and completion of the work so well begun. Under the auspices of this blessed seer a special effort will be made to consecrate to the Sacred Heart the "heart of the family"--the children so dear to the Divine Master. A special motive urgently pressing the proposal of this Consecration of Children, is the relentless and unholy warfare against the Christian education of children. A more powerful protection than this Consecration could not be given them.


Form Of Consecration

(To be said by all the children after the priest, or teacher, or one in the family leading.)


Priest or teacher:    Divine Heart of Jesus, behold us prostrate in Thy sight to give Thee our love and consecrate ourselves to Thee for ever. In the name of Mary, our Mother in heaven, sweet Heart of Jesus, have pity on us.

Children:    In the name of Mary, our Mother in heaven, sweet Heart of Jesus, have pity on us.


Priest or teacher:    O good and most loving Jesus, during the days of Thy mortal life, Thou wert pleased to bless little children and didst allow them to press close to Thee, saying to the bystanders: Suffer the little children to come unto Me and forbid them not. "We thank Thee, O good Jesus, for Thy great love toward us and we offer in return our whole heart and all our love.

Children:    We thank Thee, O good Jesus, for Thy great love toward us and we offer in return our whole heart and all our love.


Priest or teacher:    O good and most loving Jesus, Thou delightest in the prayers of children and dost listen to their innocent desires. On this beautiful day, more than ever, give ear to their wishes and grant their requests. Together we will say: Heart of Jesus, bless our father, bless our mother, bless our relatives and our teachers.

Children:    Heart of Jesus, bless our father, bless our mother, bless our relatives and teachers.


Priest or teacher:    Heart of Jesus, bless our companions and pardon poor sinners.

Children:    Heart of Jesus, bless our companions and pardon poor sinners.


Priest or teacher:    Divine Heart of Jesus, we pray Thee, also, for the children of the whole world: guard the cradle of tho new-born, the school of children, the vocation of youth; be Thou Thyself the support of poor children and a father to orphans. But, most of all, O Jesus, Thou fulness of mercy and of love, we beseech Thee to aid us in the hour of death; then, more closely than ever before, unite us to Thy Divine Heart and the Immaculate Heart of Thy gracious Mother; be our shelter and our refuge, and our resting-place; and when, one after the other, we shall have fallen asleep in Thy blessed bosom, O Jesus, may each of us in Paradise find again all his family unbroken in Thy Sacred Heart.

All together:    Divine Heart of Jesus, have mercy on us! Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us! Great Saint Joseph, pray for us! Holy Guardian Angels, intercede for us! Amen.


Note: This consecration may be made by children at any time, either in common in church, or privately at home.

Print this item

  Bishop Challoner: On the Wonders of God in the Incarnation of His Son [1807]
Posted by: Stone - 12-17-2021, 10:18 AM - Forum: Articles by Catholic authors - No Replies

On the Wonders of God in the Incarnation of His Son
by Richard Challoner, 1807

[Image: Incarnation_Wonders_Challoner_2019.jpg]

Infant Jesus, true God and Lord, have mercy on us.


Consider first, how after the blessed Virgin's consent, and offering herself with a profound humility, with an entire obedience and a perfect conformity to the sacred will of God, by those words: 'Behold the handmaid of the lord, be it done to me according to thy word,' Luke i. 38, the greatest of all the wonders of God, and of all His works, was immediately effected: even a Man-God, the miracle of miracles. For a human body perfect in all its parts, was formed in an instant by the Holy Ghost, out of the purest blood of the blessed Virgin, and a most excellent rational soul was at the same time created; and this body and soul were joined with and assumed by the eternal Word, the second person of the most adorable Trinity. Thus God was made man, and man was made God; and the blessed Virgin was made mother of God. Thus in her womb was celebrated that sacred wedding of our human nature with the divine person of the Son of God, to the feast of which we are invited, Matt. xxii. Thus was our humanity exalted to the very highest elevation, by being united with, and subsisting by the person of, the eternal Word, and we all in consequence of this elevation of our human nature, have also been wonderfully dignified and exalted, by being raised up to a kindred with the most high God, who by taking to Himself our nature, has made us all his brothers and sisters; and by assuming our humanity has made us in some measure partakers of His divinity. O my soul, stand thou astonished at these wonders, which will be a subject of the greatest astonishment both to men and angels for all eternity! O admire and adore, praise and love, with all thy power, and with all thy affections, that infinite goodness that has wrought all these wonders out of love to thee!

Consider 2ndly, the wonders of God in all those graces and excellences which He conferred on the soul of Christ and on His sacred humanity, in the first instance of His conception, in consequence of its being united with the divine person--graces and excellences which are all immense and incomprehensible, and which exceed, without any comparison, all the rest of the wondrous works of God, and all whatsoever He has done at any time in favour of any of His saints, or of all of them put together. For God did not give to this His Son His spirit by measure, (John iii. 34,) as to the rest of His saints, but gave all things into His hands, 'and of His fullness we all receive,' John i. 16, even all grace and truth, according to the measure of His giving it to us, Eph. iv. 7. Now these graces and excellences we may reduce under the following heads: 1. An immense purity from all manner of sin or imperfection whatsoever--not as by privilege but in His own right, as being the Lamb of God, who came to take away the sins of the world. 2. The grace of sanctity, incomparable exceeding that of all the angels and saints put together; from whence He is called the holy of holies, Dan. ix., that is, the Saint of all saints--the Spirit of God resting on Him with all His gifts, with an incomprehensible plenitude, Isaias ii. 3. The grace of the beatific vision of the divine essence, and that in the most consummate degree, with proportionable love of the deity and joy in God. 4. All the treasures of the wisdom and knowledge of God. 5. The power of working all kinds of miracle and of raising the dead to life by His own will, with a general command over all the elements and over all nature. 6. The power of excellency in forgiving sins, converting sinners, changing their hearts, ordaining sacraments and sacrifices, and distributing amongst men graces and super-natural gifts. 7. The grace of being the perpetual head of all the church, both of heaven and earth, and the source of all blessings, gifts, and graces that either have been, are at present, or shall at any time be bestowed upon this His mystical body, or any of its members. O what subject have we here, my soul, to bless and praise the eternal Father for all these excellent gifts and graces with which He has enriched His Son, the man Christ Jesus! How ought we also to rejoice and congratulate with the sacred humanity of our Saviour on this occasion, and to give thanks without ceasing for all that share or portion of divine grace we continually derive from this overflowing fountain!

Consider 3rdly, in all these graces and excellences conferred on the humanity of Christ in His incarnation, how that of the prophet was verified, Isaias ix. 6, 'A child is born to us, and a son is given to us, and the government is upon His shoulders, and His name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, God, the Mighty, the Father of the world to come, the Prince of Peace.' Yes, Christians, these great titles here bestowed on your Saviour by the Spirit of God abundantly declare both the wonders that God wrought for Him and those which, through His incarnation, He has wrought also for you in giving Him to you; that He might be not only your Saviour, your redeemer, and your deliverer, but also your king, your lawgiver, your teacher, your model, your advocate, your physician, your friend, your high priest, and your victim, your father, and your head--in a word, the source of all your good; the way, the truth and the life, in your regard, by whom alone you can go to God. And do not all these great things, effected by the incarnation of the Son of God, show forth the power, the wisdom, the mercy, and goodness of God, with all the other divine attributes, infinitely more than any of the rest of the works of the Almighty!

Conclude to honour by a lively faith, by a serious and frequent meditation, and a sincere devotion, all those wonders of God, wrought, in the incarnation of His Son, both in favour of Him and of us, and to lead henceforward such lives as become those who, by this mystery, have been so highly exalted, and brought so near to the very source of all grace and sanctity.




On the Glory of God in the Incarnation of His Son


Consider first, how the angels, upon occasion of the birth of Christ, sung forth that blessed hymn, recorded Luke ii. 4, 'Glory to God on high, and on earth peace to men of goodwill;' to give us to understand that the incarnation and birth of the Son of God was designed to produce those two principal fruits, the greater glory of God and the peace and reconciliation of man with God. The glory of God shines forth most brightly in the incarnation of His Son by the manifestation of His power, of His wisdom, of His goodness, of His justice, and of His mercy, and by setting all these His divine attributes in their most beautiful light. The almighty power of God is here manifested in all these wonders He wrought in this mystery, and especially in that greatest and most glorious of all His wonderful productions, viz., a God-man--a greater work, without comparison, than the creation of ten thousand worlds. The infinite wisdom of God is here manifested in the contrivance of this wonderful way of uniting God and man, the creator and the creature, which were at an infinite distance from each other, so closely together as to be but one and the same person, and of reconciling by this means man, who was fallen from God by sin, in such manner as that, without his divine majesty departing in the least tittle from what was due to the reparation of His glory, He should continually receive from this one man, for every moment of time and eternity, a homage of adoration, praise, thanksgiving, and love, infinitely more glorious to the deity than all the homages of ten thousand worlds could be, though they were all full of angels and men eternally employed in nothing else but in glorifying God.

Consider 2ndly, with relation to the other attributes of God, viz., His goodness, His mercy, and His justice, how brightly they also shine forth in the incarnation of His Son, in which, according to the psalmist, (Ps. lxxxiv.,) 'Mercy and truth met each other; justice and peace have kissed.' The infinite mercy of God is set in no less clear a light by this mystery, in His here furnishing us, out of pure compassion, without any regard at all to our merits, with such and so great a Redeemer, to be both out priest and our sacrifice, for a propitiation for all our sins. And as to the infinite justice of God, so far from its being set aside in this mystery, or forgetting its right, it never exerted or manifested itself more than when it insisted upon such a satisfaction for sin as could not be paid by any lesser or meaner person than a God made man. So that the justice of God has been in effect more evidently demonstrated by the incarnation of the Son of God, coming down here amongst us to be made a bleeding victim for our sins, than by any other judgments or punishments whatsoever that either have been or ever could be inflicted by the divine majesty, either in time or eternity, for the sins of men.

Consider 3rdly, that the infinite dignity of the person of this God-man, as it gives an infinite dignity and worth to all His performances--even to every thought, word, or action, and every suffering of His--so it is an inexhaustible source from which continually and eternally flows an infinite glory to God from every thought, word, or action, or suffering of his Son, even from the moment of His conception till His expiring upon the cross, as well to all that adoration, praise, glory, thanksgiving, &c., which, as man He shall present to His Father for all eternity. See then, my soul, how very much the incarnation of the Son of God has advanced the glory of His Father; since every motion of the heart of this God made man gives in effect infinitely more glory to the Father, both in time and eternity, than all the adorations and praises of millions of angels and millions of worlds could ever have done, though eternally employed in nothing else but in glorifying God. Besides all that glory which the Son of God incarnate has procured for His Father by His gospel; by His worship which He has established here upon earth; by that great sacrifice of His body and blood, offered up daily on a million of altars, &c., and that kingdom of souls which he has here purchased, to be delivered up hereafter to His Father, to glorify Him for all eternity.

Conclude to rejoice in this great glory which the Son of God has procured both for His Father and for Himself by His incarnation, and sing to Him with the angels hymns of perpetual praise for His having so well associated together in this mystery His own glory with thy peace and salvation.

Print this item

  Christmas Novena of St. Alphonsus Liguori
Posted by: Stone - 12-17-2021, 10:13 AM - Forum: Novenas - No Replies

Christmas Novena

This Novena is translated from the Italian of Saint Alphonsus Maria de Liguoiri and was first published in 1758. Although this novena is intended primarily as a preparation for the feast of our Lord's Nativity, it can be used with spiritual profit at any time of the year as a devotion in honor of the Infant Jesus.

[Image: ?u=http%3A%2F%2Fimages2.fanpop.com%2Fima...f=1&nofb=1]



First Day

God's Love Revealed in His Becoming Man.



Because our first parent Adam had rebelled against God, he was driven out of paradise and brought on himself and all his descendants the punishment of eternal death. But the Son of God, seeing man thus lost and wishing to save him from death, offered to take upon Himself our human nature and to suffer death Himself, condemned as a criminal on a cross. "But, My Son," we may imagine the eternal Father saying to Him, "think of what a life of humiliations and sufferings Thou wilt have to lead on earth. Thou wilt have to be born in a cold stable and laid in a manger, the feeding trough of beasts. While still an infant. Thou wilt have to flee into Egypt, to escape the hands of Herod. After Thy return from Egypt, Thou wilt have to live and work in a shop as a lowly servant, poor and despised. And finally, worn out with sufferings. Thou wilt have to give up Thy life on a cross, put to shame and abandoned by everyone." "Father," replies the Son, "all this matters not. I will gladly bear it all, if only I can save man."

What should we say if a prince, out of compassion for a dead worm, were to choose to become a worm himself and give his own life blood in order to restore the worm to life? But the eternal Word has done infinitely more than this for us, though He is the sovereign Lord of the world. He chose to become like us, who are immeasurably more beneath Him than a worm is beneath a prince, and He was willing to die for us, in order to win back for us the life of divine grace that we had lost by sin. When He saw that all the other gifts which He had bestowed on us were not sufficient to induce us to repay His love with love. He became man Himself and gave Himself all to us. "The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us"; "He loved us and delivered Himself up for us."


Prayer

O Great Son of God Thou hast become man in order to make Thyself loved by men. But where is the love that men give Thee in return? Thou hast given Thy life blood to save our souls. Why then are we so unappreciative that, instead of repaying Thee with love, we spurn Thee with ingratitude? And I, Lord, I myself more than others have thus ill treated Thee. But Thy Passion is my hope. For the sake of that love which led Thee to take upon Thyself human nature and to die for me on the cross, forgive me all the offences I have committed against Thee.

I love Thee, O Word incarnate; I love Thee, O infinite goodness. Out of love for Thee, my God, I am so sorry for all the injuries I have done Thee, that I could die of grief for these offences. Give me, O Jesus, Thy love. Let me no longer live in ungrateful forgetfulness of the love Thou bearest me. I wish to love Thee always. Grant that I may always persevere in this holy desire.

O Mary, Mother of God and my Mother, pray for me that Thy Son may give me the grace to love Him always, unto death. Amen.





Second Day

God's Love Revealed in His Being Born an Infant.



When the Son of God became man for our sake. He could have come on earth as an adult man from the first moment of His human existence, as Adam did when he was created. But since the sight of little children draws us with an especial attraction to love them, Jesus chose to make His first appearance on earth as a little infant, and indeed as the poorest and most pitiful infant that was ever born. "God wished to be born as a little babe," wrote Saint Peter Chrysologus, "in order that He might teach us to love and not to fear Him." The prophet Isaias had long before foretold that the Son of God was to be born as an infant and thus give Himself to us on account of the love He bore us: "A child is born to us, a son is given to us."

My Jesus, supreme and true God! What has drawn Thee from heaven to be born in a cold stable, if not the love which Thou bearest us men? What has allured Thee from the bosom of Thy Father, to place Thee in a hard manger? What has brought Thee from Thy throne above the stars, to lay Thee down on a little straw? What has led Thee from the midst of the nine choirs of angels, to set Thee between two animals? Thou, who inflamest the seraphim with holy fire, art now shivering with cold in this stable! Thou, who settest the stars in the sky in motion, canst not now move unless others carry Thee in their arms! Thou, who givest men and beasts their food, hast need now of a little milk to sustain Thy life! Thou, who art the joy of heaven, dost now whimper and cry in suffering! Tell me, who has reduced Thee to such misery; "Love has done it," says Saint Bernard. The love which Thou bearest us men has brought all this on Thee.


Prayer

O Dearest Infant! Tell me, what hast Thou come on earth to do? Tell me, whom art Thou seeking? Yes, I already know. Thou hast come to die for me, in order to save me from hell. Thou hast come to seek me, the lost sheep, so that, instead of fleeing from Thee any more, I may rest in Thy loving arms. Ah my Jesus, my treasure, my life, my love and my all! Whom will I love, if not Thee? Where can I find a father, a friend, a spouse more loving and lovable than Thou art?

I love Thee, my dear God; I love Thee, my only good. I regret the many years when I have not loved Thee, but rather spurned and offended Thee. Forgive me, O my beloved Redeemer; for I am sorry that I have thus treated Thee, and I regret it with all my heart. Pardon me, and give me the grace never more to withdraw from Thee, but constantly to love Thee in all the years that still lie before me in this life. My love, I give myself entirely to Thee; accept me, and do not reject me as I deserve.

O Mary, thou art my advocate. By thy prayers thou dost obtain whatever thou wilt from thy Son. Pray Him then to forgive me, and to grant me holy perseverance until death. Amen.





Third Day

The Life of Poverty which Jesus Led from His Birth.



God so ordained that, at the time when His Son was to be born on this earth, the Roman emperor should issue a decree ordering everyone to go to the place of his origin and there be registered in the census. Thus it came about that, in obedience to this decree, Joseph went to Bethlehem together with his virgin wife when she was soon to have her Child. Finding no lodging either in the poor inn or in the other houses of the town, they were forced to spend the night in a cave that was used as a stable for animals, and it was here that Mary gave birth to the King of heaven. If Jesus had been born in Nazareth, He would also, it is true, have been born in poverty; but there He would at least have had a dry room, a little fire, warm clothes and a more comfortable cradle. Yet He chose to be born in this cold, damp cave, and to have a manger for a cradle, with prickly straw for a mattress, in order that He might suffer for us.

Let us enter in spirit into this cave of Bethlehem, but let us enter in a spirit of lively faith. If we go there without faith, we shall see nothing but a poor infant, and the sight of this lovely child shivering and crying on his rough bed of straw may indeed move us to pity. But if we enter with faith and consider that this Babe is the very Son of God, who for love of us has come down on earth and suffers so much to pay the penalty for our sins, how can we help thanking and loving Him in return?


Prayer

O dear Infant Jesus, how could I be so ungrateful and offend Thee so often, if I realized how much Thou hast suffered for me? But these tears which Thou sheddest, this poverty which Thou embraces! for love of me, make me hope for the pardon of all the offences I have committed against Thee.

My Jesus, I am sorry for having so often turned my back on Thee. But now I love Thee above all else. "My God and my all!" From now on Thou, O my God, shalt be my only treasure and my only good. With Saint Ignatius of Loyola I will say to Thee, "Give me the grace to love Thee; that is enough for me." I long for nothing else; I want nothing else. Thou alone art enough for me, my Jesus, my life, my love.

O Mary, my Mother, obtain for me the grace that I may always love Jesus and always be loved by Him. Amen.






Fourth Day

The Life of Humiliation which Jesus Led from His Birth.



The Sign which the angel gave the shepherds to help them find the new-born Savior, points to His lowliness: "This shall be a sign to you: you will find an infant wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger." No other new-born baby who was wrapped in poor swaddling clothes and lying in a manger, a feeding trough for animals, could be found anywhere else but in a stable. Thus in lowliness the King of heaven, the Son of God, chose to be born, because he came to destroy the pride that had been the cause of man's ruin.

The prophets had already foretold that our Redeemer was to be treated as the vilest of men on earth and that He was to be overwhelmed with insults. How much contempt had not Jesus indeed to suffer from men! He was called a drunkard, a trickster, a blasphemer and a heretic. What ignominies He endured in His Passion! His own disciples abandoned Him; one of them sold Him for thirty pieces of silver, and another denied having ever known Him. He was led in bonds through the streets like a criminal; He was scourged like a slave, ridiculed as a fool, crowned with thorns as a mock king, buffetted and spit upon, and finally left to die, hanging on a cross between two thieves, as the worst criminal in the world. "The noblest of all," says Saint Bernard, "is treated as the vilest of all." But the Saint adds, "The viler Thou art treated, the dearer Thou art to me." The more I see Thee, my Jesus, despised and put to shame, the more dear and worthy of my love dost Thou become to me.


Prayer


O Dearest Savior, Thou hast embraced so many outrages for love of me, yet I have not been able to bear one word of insult without at once being filled with resentful thought--I who have so often deserved to be trodden under foot by the demons in hell! I am ashamed to appear before Thee, sinful and proud as I am. Yet do not drive me from Thy presence, O Lord, even though that is what I deserve. Thou hast said that Thou wilt not spurn a contrite and humbled heart. I am sorry for the offences I have committed against Thee. Forgive me, O Jesus. I will not offend Thee again.

For love of me Thou hast borne so many injuries; for love of Thee I will bear all the injuries that art done to me. I love Thee, Jesus, who wast despised for love of me. I love Thee above every other good. Give me the grace to love Thee always and to bear every insult for love of Thee.

O Mary, recommend me to Thy Son; pray to Jesus for me. Amen.






Fifth Day

The Life of Sorrow which Jesus Led from His Birth.



Jesus Christ could have saved mankind without suffering and dying. Yet, in order to prove to us how much He loved us, He chose for Himself a life full of tribulations. Therefore the prophet Isaias called Him "a man of sorrows," His whole life was filled with suffering. His Passion began, not merely a few hours before His death, but from the first moment of His birth. He was born in a stable where everything served to torment Him. His sense of sight was hurt by seeing nothing but the rough, black walls of the cave; His sense of smell was hurt by the stench of the dung from the beasts in the stable; His sense of touch was hurt by the prickling straw on which He lay. Shortly after His birth He was forced to flee into Egypt, where He spent several years of His childhood in poverty and misery. His boyhood and early manhood in Nazareth were passed in hard work and obscurity. And finally, in Jerusalem, He died on a cross, exhausted with pain and anguish.

Thus, then, was the life of Jesus but one unbroken series of sufferings, which were doubly painful because He had ever before His eyes all the sufferings He would have to endure till His death. Yet, since our Lord had voluntarily chosen to bear these tribulations for our sake, they did not afflict Him as much as did the sight of our sins, by which we have so ungratefully repaid Him for His love towards us. When the confessor of Saint Margaret of Cortona saw that she never seemed satisfied with all the tears she had already shed for her past sins, he said to her, "Margaret, stop crying and cease your lamenting, for God has surely forgiven you your offences against Him." But she replied, "Father, how can I cease to weep, since I know that my sins kept my Lord Jesus in pain and suffering during all His life?"


Prayer

O Jesus, my sweet Love! I too have kept Thee suffering through all Thy life. Tell me, then, what I must do in order to win Thy forgiveness. I am ready to do all Thou askest of me. I am sorry, O sovereign Good, for all the offences I have committed against Thee. I love Thee more than myself, or at least I feel a great desire to love Thee. Since it is Thou who hast given me this desire, do Thou also give me the strength to love Thee exceedingly.

It is only right that I, who have offended Thee so much, should love Thee very much. Always remind me of the love Thou hast borne me, in order that my soul may ever burn with love of Thee and long to please Thee alone. O God of love, I, who was once a slave of hell, now give myself all to Thee. Graciously accept me and bind me to Thee with the bonds of Thy love. My Jesus, from this day and forever in loving Thee will I live, and in loving Thee will I die.

O Mary, my Mother and my hope, help me to love Thy dear God and mine. This is the only favor I ask of thee, and through thee I hope to receive it. Amen.





Sixth Day

God's Mercy revealed in His Coming Down from Heaven to Save us.



Saint Paul says, "The goodness and kindness of God, our Savior, has appeared." When the Son of God made Man appeared on earth, then was it seen how great is God's goodness towards us. Saint Bernard says that first God's power was manifested in the creation of the world and His wisdom in its conservation, but His merciful goodness was especially manifested later in His taking human nature on Himself, in order to save fallen mankind by His sufferings and death. For what greater proof of His kindness towards us could the Son of God show us than in taking on Himself the punishment we had deserved?

See Him as a weak, new/born infant, wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger. Unable to move or feed Himself, He has need of Mary to give Him a little milk to sustain His life. Or see Him again in Pilate's courtyard, tied with fast bonds to a column and there scourged from head to foot. Behold Him on the way to Calvary, falling down from weakness under weight of the cross that He must carry. Finally behold Him nailed to this tree of shame, on which He breathes His last amid pain and anguish. Because Jesus Christ wished that His love for us should win all the love of our hearts for Himself, He would not send an angel to redeem us, but chose to come Himself, to save us by His Passion and death. Had an angel been our redeemer, men would have had to divide their hearts in loving God as their Creator and an angel as their redeemer; but God, who desires men's whole hearts, as He was already their Creator, wished also to be their Redeemer.


Prayer

O my dear Redeemer! Where should I be now, if Thou hadst not borne with me so patiently, but hadst called me from life while I was in the state of sin? Since Thou hast waited for me till now, forgive me quickly, O my Jesus, before death finds me still guilty of so many offences that I have committed against Thee. I am so sorry for having vilely despised Thee, my sovereign Good, that I could die of grief. But Thou canst not abandon a soul that seeks Thee.

If hitherto I have forsaken Thee, I now seek Thee and love Thee. Yes, my God, I love Thee above all else; I love Thee more than myself. Help me. Lord, to love Thee always during the rest of my life. Nothing else do I seek of Thee. But this I beg of Thee, this I hope to receive from Thee.

Mary, my hope, do thou pray for me. If thou prayest for me, I am sure of grace. Amen.






Seventh Day

The Flight of the Infant Jesus into Egypt.



Although the Son of God came from heaven to save men, scarcely was He born when men began to persecute Him to death. Herod, fearing that this Child would deprive Him of his kingdom, seeks to destroy His life. But St. Joseph is warned by an angel in a dream to take the Infant and His Mother and flee into Egypt. Joseph obeys at once, and tells Mary about it. He takes the few tools of his trade, that he may use them to gain a livelihood in Egypt for himself and his poor family. Mary wraps up a small bundle of clothes for the use of her little Son, and then, going to the crib, she says with tears in her eyes to her sleeping Child, "O my Son and my God! Thou hast come from heaven to save men; but hardly art Thou born when they seek to take Thy life." Lifting Him meanwhile in her arms and continuing to weep, she sets out that same night with Joseph on the road to Egypt.

Let us consider how much these holy wanderers must have suffered in making so long a journey, deprived of every comfort. The divine Child was not yet able to walk, and so Mary and Joseph had to take turns in carrying Him in their arms. During their journey through the desert towards Egypt they had to spend several nights in the open air, with the bare ground for their bed. The cold makes the Infant cry, and Mary and Joseph weep in pity for Him. And who would not weep at thus seeing the Son of God poor and persecuted, a fugitive on earth, that He might not be killed by His enemies!


Prayer

Dear Infant Jesus, crying so bitterly! Well hast Thou reason to weep in seeing Thyself persecuted by men whom Thou lovest so much. I, too, O God, have once persecuted Thee by my sins. But Thou knowest that now I love Thee more than myself, and that nothing pains me more than the thought that I have so often spurned Thee, my sovereign Good.

Forgive me, O Jesus, and let me bear Thee with me in my heart on all the rest of the journey that I have still to make through life, so that together with Thee I may enter into eternity. So often have I driven Thee from my soul by my sins. But now I love Thee above all things, and I regret above other misfortunes that I have offended Thee. I wish to leave Thee no more, my beloved Lord. But do Thou give me the strength to resist temptations. Never permit me to be separated from Thee again. Let me rather die than ever again lose Thy good grace.

O Mary, my hope, make me always live in God's love and then die in loving Him. Amen.






Eighth Day

The Life of the Child Jesus in Egypt and in Nazareth.



Our Blessed Redeemer spent the first part of His childhood in Egypt, leading there for several years a life of poverty and humiliation. In that land Joseph and Mary were foreigners and strangers, having there neither relatives nor friends. Only with difficulty could they earn their daily bread by the labor of their hands. Their home was poor, their bed was poor, their food was poor. Here Mary weaned Jesus; dipping a piece of bread in water, she would put it in the sacred mouth of her Son. Here she made His first little garments and clothed Him with them. Here the Child Jesus took His first steps, stumbling and falling as other children first do. Here too He spoke His first words, but stammeringly. O wonder of wonders! To what has not God lowered Himself for love of us! A God stumbling and falling as He walks! A God stammering in His speech!

Not unlike this was the poor and humble life that Jesus led in Nazareth after His return from Egypt. There, until He was thirty years old. He lived as a, simple servant or workman in a carpenter shop, taking orders from Joseph and Mary. "And He was subject to them." Jesus went to fetch the water; He opened and closed the shop; He swept the house, gathered the fragments of wood for the fire, and toiled all day long, helping Joseph in his work. Yet who is this? God Himself, serving as a apprentice! The omnipotent God, who with less than a flick of His finger created the whole universe, here sweating at the task of planing a piece of work! Should not the mere thought of this move us to love Him?


Prayer

O Jesus, my Savior! When I consider how, for love of me. Thou didst spend thirty years of Thy life hidden and unknown in a poor workshop, how can I desire the pleasures and honors and riches of the world? Gladly do I renounce all these things, since I wish to be Thy companion on this earth, poor as Thou wast, mortified and humble as Thou wast, so that I may hope to be able one day to enjoy Thy companionship in heaven. What are all the treasures and kingdoms of this world" Thou, O Jesus, art my only treasure, my only Good!

I keenly regret the many times in the past when I spurned Thy friendship in order to satisfy my foolish whims. I am sorry for them with all my heart. For the future I would rather lose my life a thousand times than lose Thy grace by sin. I wish never to offend Thee again, but always to love Thee. Help me to remain faithful to Thee until death.

O Mary, thou art the refuge of sinners, thou art my hope. Amen.






Ninth Day

The Birth of Jesus in the Stable of Bethlehem.



When the edict was issued by the emperor of Rome that everyone should go to his own Joseph and Mary went to be enrolled in Bethlehem. How much the holy Virgin must have suffered on this journey of four days, over mountainous road and in the wintertime, with its cold rain and wind! When they arrived in Bethlehem, the time of Mary's delivery was near. Joseph, therefore, sought some lodging where she might give birth to her Child. But because they were so poor, they were driven away from the houses and even from the public inn, where other poor people had found shelter. So in that night they went a short way out of the town and there found a cave that was used as a stable, and here Mary entered. But Joseph said to his virgin wife, "Mary, how can you spend the night in this cold, damp cave and here give birth to your Child?" Mary however replied, "Dear Joseph, this cave is the royal palace in which the King of kings, the Son of God, wishes to be born."

When the hour of her delivery had arrived, the holy Virgin, as she knelt in prayer, all at once saw the cave illumined with a dazzling light. She lowered her eyes to the ground and there saw before her the Son of God now born on earth, a poor little Babe, crying and shivering in the cold. Adoring Him as her God, she took Him to her breast and fondled Him. Then she wrapped Him in swaddling clothes and laid Him on the straw of the manger that stood in the cave. Thus did the Son of God choose to be born among us to prove His infinite love for us.


Prayers

O Adorable Infant Jesus! I should not have the boldness to cast myself at Thy feet, if I did not know that Thou Thyself invitest me to draw near Thee. It is I who by my sins have made Thee shed so many tears in the stable of Bethlehem. But since Thou hast come on earth to pardon repentant sinners, forgive me also, now that I am heartily sorry for having spurned Thee, my Savior and my God, who art so good and who hast loved me so much.

In this night, in which Thou bestowest great graces on so many souls, grant Thy heavenly consolation to this poor soul of mine also. All that I ask of Thee is the grace to love Thee always, from this day forward, with all my heart. Set me all on fire with Thy holy love. I love Thee, O my God, who hast become a Babe for love of me. Never let me cease from loving Thee evermore.

O Mary, Mother of Jesus and my Mother, thou canst obtain everything from thy Son by thy prayers. This is the only favor I ask of Thee. Do thou pray to Jesus for me. Amen.

Print this item

  Big Pharma, Gates, Fauci, UK officials accused of crimes against humanity in complaint to IC
Posted by: Stone - 12-17-2021, 08:00 AM - Forum: Pandemic 2020 [Secular] - No Replies

Big Pharma, Gates, Fauci, UK officials accused of crimes against humanity in complaint to International court
Activists are charging UK officials and the world’s most powerful health figures with genocide,
citing a range of statistics on the effects of COVID “vaccines” and policies.

[Image: shutterstock_1102794638-810x500.jpg]

Thu Dec 16, 2021 - 9:29 pm EST
(LifeSiteNews) – A group that includes former Pfizer vice president Dr. Michael Yeadon filed a complaint with the International Criminal Court (ICC) on behalf of UK citizens against Boris Johnson and UK officials, Bill and Melinda Gates, chief executives of Big Pharma companies, World Economic Forum executive chairman Klaus Schwab, and others for crimes against humanity.

The UK group, including an astrophysicist and a funeral director, additionally charged Dr. Anthony Fauci; Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the World Health Organization (WHO);  June Raine, chief executive of Medicines and Healthcare products regulatory agency (MHRA); Dr. Radiv Shah, president of the Rockefeller Foundation; and Dr. Peter Daszak, president of EcoHealth Alliance,  as “responsible for numerous violations of the Nuremberg Code … war crimes and crimes of aggression” in the UK and other countries.

After repeated unsuccessful attempts to raise a case with the English Court system, the applicants resorted to calling with “the utmost urgency” for the ICC “to stop the rollout of COVID vaccinations, introduction of unlawful vaccination passports and all other types of illegal warfare … being waged against the people of the UK.”

In the group’s complaint filed December 6, they present evidence that COVID-19 “vaccines” are in fact experimental gene therapies engineered with gain-of-function research from bat coronaviruses, arguing that these “vaccines” have caused massive death and injury and that the UK government has failed to investigate such reported deaths and injuries; that COVID case and death numbers have been artificially inflated; that face masks are harmful due to hypoxia, hypercapnia and other causes; and PCR tests are “completely unreliable” and “contain carcinogenic ethylene oxide.”

They furthermore argued that effective treatments for COVID-19 such as hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin, were suppressed, leading to a greater death toll from COVID-19 than what should have occurred.

They make the case that the lockdowns were enacted under the pretext of artificially inflated infection and death numbers from an engineered virus, as well as the experimental “vaccines” have resulted in:

Massive short-term damage and death, with at least 395,049 reported adverse reactions to COVID “vaccines” in the UK alone; a sharp uptick in ChildLine calls from vulnerable children during lockdowns; “destruction of wealth and businesses” through imposed lockdowns;” “severe deprivation of physical liberty in violation of fundamental rules of international law,” including bans on travel and gatherings, and forced quarantine and self-isolation; apartheid due to segregation by vaccine passport possession; and “expected reduction in fertility” after “vaccination,” among other harmful physical and psychological effects.

In addition, the applicants maintain that “the suppression of safe and effective alternative treatments for Covid-19 amounts to murder and warrants a full investigation by the court.” They noted that besides censorship of online information on and promotion of these alternative treatments, “some academic journals are blocking the publication of studies showing the effectiveness of drugs such as ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine.”

The applicants also cited quotes from Holocaust survivors who have drawn “stark parallels between Covid restrictions and the beginning of the Holocaust.” In an open letter, the Holocaust survivors have asked medical regulatory authorities  to “stop this ungodly medical experiment on humankind immediately,” which they maintain violates the Nuremberg Code.

They even allege that “another holocaust of greater magnitude is taking place before our eyes.” One survivor, Vera Sharav, noted in an interview cited in the complaint,

“The stark lesson of the Holocaust is that whenever doctors join forces with government and deviate from their personal, professional, clinical commitment to do no harm to the individual, medicine can then be perverted from a healing, humanitarian profession to a murderous apparatus.”

What sets the Holocaust apart from all other mass genocides is the pivotal role played by the medical establishment, the entire medical establishment. Every step of the murderous process was endorsed by the academic, professional medical establishment. Medical doctors and prestigious medical societies and institutions lent the veneer of legitimacy to infanticide, mass murder of civilians.

According to the applicants, all of the damaging consequences of the “vaccines,” lockdown and virus meet the criteria for genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes against the people of the UK, because the guilty “members of the UK government and world leaders have both knowledge and intent with respect to these alleged crimes.”

In fact, they argue that the destructive consequences of the “vaccines,” lockdowns and engineered virus are deliberate attempts at depopulation and societal destabilization as part of a globally coordinated plan to consolidate wealth and power in the hands of a few.

They argue that these measures therefore also constitute a “crime of aggression,” that is, the effort “effectively to exercise control over or to direct the political or military action of a State.” In this case, they claim, the goal is to “dismantl[e] all the Democratic Nation States, step by step,” and to “destroy small and medium sized businesses, moving the market shares to the largest corporations,” owned by the ultra-rich, to give this “elite” group greater political and monetary control.

Print this item

  Fr. Daniel Lord: Revolt Against Heaven [1936]
Posted by: Stone - 12-17-2021, 07:51 AM - Forum: Articles by Catholic authors - No Replies

REVOLT AGAINST HEAVEN
By DANIEL A. LORD, S.J.

[Image: ?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.traditionalcatholicp...f=1&nofb=1]


SHARP commotion ran through the streets of heaven. The calmness of eternal day was broken by alarms and shouts, the gathering of angels in excited, hurried knots, the rushing to and fro of mighty-winged seraphs.

Two names were spoken in hushed and terrified voices, the name of the Most High and the name of His fairest and strongest angel, Lucifer. Glorious beyond all the other angels of heaven, endowed with brilliant intellect and compelling will, Lucifer had deserved his name and wore it proudly, Bearer-of-the-Light.

But where heaven yesterday had known peace, today excitement drew angels together in troubled groups and filled the very air with dread and wonder. A new problem, filled with fearsome possibilities, agitated their intellects and disturbed their wills.

For from the White Throne had gone forth word of a new Leader. He was, rumour said, to be chosen from the ranks of a race as yet untreated. Mankind was to be the race's name. The Most High had announced that the Second Person of the Divine Trinity would pass by the nine orders of heavenly knighthood and unite Himself with this inferior nature of an inferior race. Uniformed in this lower rank, He would still claim place as God of heaven and commander of the celestial armies.


What of Lucifer?

Wonder that grew into consternation, questions that rose like the swift swelling of a hurricane, swept the far reaches of the Heavenly City. In every mind was one piercing doubt. What of Lucifer?

Would the mighty warrior of God take his commands from one who wore a uniform less splendid than his own? Would Lucifer drop his proud head in obedience to a being of inferior race? If sometimes with a glint of rising resentment he accepted the orders even of the Most High, what would he do when the orders fell from the lips of a man lower in human nature than the weakest and least noble angel among Lucifer's subordinates?

Though there was doubt in the minds of all, the passing of the day brought to Lucifer's friends a frightening certainty. God Himself might command Lucifer and be obeyed; but were the command sounded by a lesser voice than that of Omnipotence, Lucifer, his followers felt, would lift his head in proud refusal. He was not likely to recognise a substitute commander for the Almighty.

Suppose, ran the terrifying speculation, he refused to acknowledge this new commander in chief. Would God bow before his haughty resentment? Would God yield to His glorious favourite? And if God did not yield, that might mean war in heaven. Dared Lucifer make war upon the Almighty?

Was he-and here his followers felt a strange exultant thrill-strong enough to wrest to himself the sovereignty even of the Heavenly city?

'He would not dare rebel,' was the voiceless whisper that swept through heaven.

'He will keep his plume unbowed to any save the All-Highest, even if this means war,' his closest followers answered; and there was pride in their reply.


The Summons

Across the measureless distances of heaven the ringing blasts of trumpets were flung from battlement to battlement. Excited knots instantly slipped into disciplined companies. The disorderly rushing to and fro became the steady flow of marshalled spirits toward the Throne from which radiated the white, vibrant light that filled heaven. Silence quickly chained the doubts and questions that still thrashed about in angelic minds, for the wordless voice of Omnipotence sounded above the trumpets and the wind-like rush of forward-moving legions.

Before the Throne the long lines halted. Light leaped from spear to spear and flashed back in brilliant repercussion from starlike shields. Great, massed choirs, whose voices were like the swell of an organ built by no human hands, now stood silent and waiting.

God from His throne looked upon the angels of His creation, and loved them as an artist loves the supreme work of his hands, and then loved them with the deeper love of a father for the brilliant, glorious sons of his begetting.

A wide, hollow square of angels framed the reviewing ground before the Throne. Into this square, his glory like the glory of a thousand suns, his strength anal beauty involuntary tribute to God's great craftsmanship, stepped Lucifer. His sword flashed in a salute that had in it as much pride as reverence-flashed and was quickly buried once more in its scabbard. His head, unbowed, was lifted toward the face of the All-Beautiful.


A New Captain

Then, above them all rolled the words of divine prophecy and command. In the fulness of time a man should be born, Jesus who is the Christ. He was to be the Second Divine Person, emptying Himself and taking the form of a slave to serve and redeem a fallen race. Clad in perishable flesh and human mortality, he was still to be King of Kings, Lord of Lords, Commander in Chief of the armies of earth and heaven. Now in vision they will see their new Leader. In vision they are free to accept or reject His divinely appointed leadership.

The glorious, haughty form of Lucifer stiffened. An almost imperceptible tremor ran through the serried ranks, quickening the light that broke in glinting sparks from spear tips and swaying the shields to the involuntary tautening of angelic arms.

Suddenly darkness, heaven's first and only darkness, flung its quenching cone over all. Then, like a powerful spotlight, a circle of radiance splashed the steps of the now hidden throne, and in the exact centre of the circle stood the figure of a Man.


The Man

A long, seamless garment robed Him from throat to instep. Above the robe, His dignified head was crowned with the strangest crown-blood-red thorns matted into the gold of His hair. He carried, not in His hand, but against His shoulder, a terrifying standard: two heavy, crossed beams that He held with difficulty. And with the slow lifting of His head His eyes swept the angel ranks, not commandingly, but in tender, pitiful beseeching.

Again the voice of the, Almighty rolled and shook in power and majesty.

'Your Commander and your King!'

Tense, almost tangible, silence as the humble, beseeching eyes of the Man swept their lines hungrily. Then the vision was gone. Like the lash of a whip withdrawn, the circle of light was snapped away. Again the city was flooded with the light from the great White Throne. And in its searching brilliance the angels stood revealed.

Half of them knelt or stood with lifted spears offering royal salute. But myriads stood hesitant, shocked by the command to bend their proud strength to one of inferior nature. Still others had drawn back in instinctive repugnance and proud resentment. This weak, tortured man with thorns for a crown and crossed sticks for a standard, could he be the Commander in Chief of their strength and beauty and magnificence? It could not, must not be! What would Lucifer think or do or bid them do?


'Non Serviam'

To him swung every eye. Would he kneel, raise his sword in salute to royalty, turn cold back on inferiority, or . . . Like lightning on a summer's evening, Lucifer whirled. His sword leaped from its scabbard and the flame of its blade cut like a sulphurous flash through heaven.

Instantly the resentful and the wavering angels knew. That flashing sword was their rallying signal. His angry, black look swept the ranks, searching for and singling out his followers. Then back he whirled toward the Throne, knowing that with him was half of heaven's army, and his voice, was dashed with all his power into the very face of God.

'I will not serve!' he shouted.

And from the hosts of his followers came the answering cry, 'Nor will we serve!'


War Breaks Out

Instantly heaven seemed chaos. From their knees or from their exalted gestures of salute leaped the obedient angels. The banner of Michael, chosen, in one of God's instants, captain of His faithful warriors, cracked in the wind of conflict. Pure white, it bore for the first time the purple symbol of the Cross.

Over the swiftly marshalled hosts of Lucifer leaped like a tongue of devouring flame the red banner of defiance. Trumpet answered trumpet in angry screams as the two armies rushed with the force of a tempest through a narrow canyon into fierce embrace. The shock of that meeting seemed to rock the foundations of heaven.

It was war the more terrible because the issue was not death-death could not touch immortal spirits-but ruin of power and beauty and spiritual dignity.

Lines swung back and charged again like breakers against a rocky cliff. Angels, a moment before brothers, rushed at each other with levelled spears. But in the hands of Lucifer and his army these spears melted as candles melt in the hottest flame; while the spears of Michael's followers dug deep wounds that all eternity would never heal.

Back were flung the lines of the rebellious angels. A moment they hesitated on the brink of God's city. One final charge of loyal lances against dishonoured shields, and Michael saw his opponents fall like lightning from the clouds, and the gates of hell, shell-hole of this battle of immortals, swung open and swung shut to cut off the last repetition of that cry, despairing now and crazed in agony, but shrill and bitter in its defiance. 'I will not serve.' And the echoes of the universe flung it back and then far beyond the reaches of obedient space.

The armies of God and evil had met in their first deadly conflict. Creatures for the first time had dared defy their Creator. They had dreamed of driving Him out of His own creation?


Free Choice

Sin with quick fingers fashioned the blood-red banner of rebellion. The first sad army of the proud and rebellious had looked upon the leadership of Christ and had cried defiantly, 'Him we will not serve.' And the battle cry and the rebellion had initiated a war that never yet has ended.

From the very start God placed no compulsion upon His creatures. He wanted only free service. He preferred to be served by willing spirits. Beautifully, He despised the service of slaves.

So for the angels there was a perfectly free choice. They could accept Him or reject Him, lift their swords in allegiance to His divinely appointed Leader or turn their swords against His Sacred Heart. They could league themselves with their Creator or join forces with the rebellious Lucifer. They could stand under the standard marked with the purple cross or under the red flag of rebellion.


Retribution

They made the choice. Those who chose the leadership of Christ were assured of eternal happiness. Michael and Raphael and Gabriel, the angels who later were to be men's guardians, the mighty spirits of the Apocalypse, were given an eternity of God's friendship and glory and of faithful devotion to the interests of man. The very moment that saw the rebellious angels draw their swords against Christ, saw them transformed by the ugliness and destructive power of their own malice into the devils of hell.

From that day to this the rival banners have flown: the pure white banner bearing the purple cross, and the flaming red flag of revolt. Around each has gathered an eager army. One accepts gladly as captain and leader the crucified Christ. The other picks up and echoes in each new age the battle cry of the fallen angels, 'We will not serve!' Christ or Lucifer, there are no other leaders, only subordinates. God's cause or the cause of evil; the choice is inevitable.


The Captain Comes

He came, that Commander of the angelic vision, and Lucifer watched Him with hatred and tricky plotting. Thrice they met face to face in the insult of Christ's triple temptation. Conquered from that moment, Lucifer worked, as Lucifer has cleverly learned to work, through and behind his willing lieutenants.

Christ's first call to His followers was the cry of the Babe of Bethlehem swept through the world on a wintry wind. Then from His hidden life He walked out into the rough highway, searching for followers. He entered fearlessly the bloody battlefield of Calvary, and for a moment Lucifer must have exulted in the thought that perhaps at last his red banner was floating in victory.

During those three years of searching and struggling, success and failure fought for apparent mastery. Men and women flocked to Christ's side, loving His humility and humanity. But far more turned from Him, contemptuous of His work-hardened hands and the ragged followers He drew after Him. His stalwart courage and tender heart, the divine power that manifested itself in His miracles and the human and divine pity that dropped those miracles upon mankind's bent shoulders won Him deep and passionate love. But it won Him enmities in high places, and suspicion where suspicion quickly bred hate and hate bred death.

For every twelve who hailed Him as King on Palm Sunday, a hundred gathered in dark corners of temple or pretorium to league themselves in ugly plots against His life. They hated the thought of a king born in a manger. They could yield no throne to Him except the cross on which they meant to exalt Him. They resented His talk of the pure of heart and His denunciation of divorce. They were furious that He wasted time on fishermen and peasants, while they waited vainly in palaces for a sight of His miracles or the recital of one of His parables. They wanted a king who would smash their enemies, not one who preached love even for those who had wronged them.


Again the Armies

His very first appearance on earth was the signal for the gathering of those two rival armies as the first vision of Him in heaven had split the heavenly hosts into relentless civil war. Lucifer was not ready now to let the Captain gain an easy victory. He had his army ready to fight every step of the way. And that army rose quickly at his command.

If Magi came from afar seeking Christ, the filthy Herod sent his soldiers seeking Him too. One group came bearing gifts to a Child; the others came with bared swords for the throats of infants. And Lucifer exulted when the first brush with the armies of evil sent Christ into apparent retreat to Egypt.


The World is Split

High was the purpose that flamed in the heart of Christ the Saviour. He had from the moment of the Incarnation one multiple purpose: to drive sin and its sad consequences from the world, to bring happiness to human hearts, to restore to our race the lost sonship of God and the heavenly inheritance which Adam lost when for a moment he rejoined the rebellious forces of Lucifer. His divine mission was to bring to the world the blessed peace of His Beatitudes.

Yet He foresaw mankind split into hot enmities because of Him. The army of Lucifer lay solidly entrenched throughout a world that had gone over in rank treason to idolatry and sin. Glorious armies of white-clad virgins would follow Him singing; but armies of martyrs would grow red under the swords of His enemies or in the midst of torturing flames.

He visioned the cross carried before peaceful armies led by Paul and Patrick and Augustine and Boniface as they marched to conquer new lands. But he saw hairy hands clasping the handles of Asiatic lances and Mohammedan swords to cut through Christian civilisations a path for oriental barbarism or the rising Crescent.

He watched golden pens racing across vellum to write His praise, but the harsh scratch of other pens reached His ears, pens dipped in acid and venom as they attacked His personality, His doctrines, His Church, His truth, and corroded with their poison the minds of His followers.


No Coercion

He was, He well knew, the storm centre of the world, a sign to be contradicted, a person set for the rise and fall of many in Israel and in the whole world. Lucifer had refused Him homage; Lucifer would struggle with all his subtle, if sin-twisted, intellect to turn mankind from His service and His praise.

At any moment Christ could have wrested from the world a slave service. But this He would not do. He wanted free men and women to follow Him. He had not wanted the angels to be slaves; He would not allow mankind to be slaves, either. They must answer His quiet 'Follow Me' as John did or Magdalen. He would bind no one to His service except with the chains of love and devoted loyalty.

Force would have been easy. His was the power that struck the raging waves into cowering tranquillity. He spoke quiet words to the thundering tempest, and it shrank back to its mountains, cowed and frightened. Once, in the garden, when His enemies leaped forward at the signal kiss to bind Him, He spoke gently and they fell back upon the ground helpless to touch Him. Even then, however, He released them and stood patiently for the beginning of the bloody work on which they were obstinately bent.

He could have forced men to follow Him, broken their wills to His commands, and dragged them after Him by the same divine force that commanded demons, sent swine thundering into the sea, shook free the grip of disease, changed the very nature of water by bidding it be wine, and forced a few loaves and fishes to feed a multitude.

Instead, almost humbly, He asked men to follow Him. 'Come,' He said gently again and again as He walked along the road or skirted a lake. A handful of fishermen, out of all the fishing fleets of Galilee, heard the invitation and accepted. One taxgatherer from Rome's multitudes forsook his money table for a place in the apostolate. And of those who did accept, one sold out to His enemies as a spy, preferring thirty pieces of silver to the riches of a spiritual kingdom.

Lucifer, self-confessed lord of the world, had won the vast majority to his side. With gold he held them, or with the laughter of dancing girls, or the promise of kingdoms bounded only by the limits of civilisation, or with cleverness calling itself wisdom and drugging the mind, or the sweet insistence of wine. Men gladly fought the wars of evil, lured on, as warriors all too often are lured, by Lucifer's promise of the spoils that belong to the conquerors of earth.


The Crest of the Conflict

Never did the eyes of Christ so clearly see the rival armies as He did from the lookout of the Cross. Embattled Rome was there, guarding with its world-conquering legionaries this spiritual world conqueror from possible rescue by His tattered followers. Embattled Israel stood at alert attention, the soldiers of the high priests with swords and clubs ready to smite down any disciple who dared to slink back in the futile hope of saving his Master.

In the blackness that covered Calvary, Lucifer brooded over his suspiciously easy victory and wondered why he had been allowed to win. He had gloated in quiet confidence as he saw his work taken completely from his hands by able lieutenants. His war against Christ was safely carried on without his personal care as long as he trusted one regiment to Herod, wedded to incestuous lust, and another to Pilate, cynical of anything except a place in the good graces of Caesar, and a third to the high priests, who had grown to prefer power to the truth, the wealth and revenue of the temples to religion, the certain luxuries and eminences of this life to the doubtful blessings of eternity. Never, and he knew it, had Lucifer seen his army more adequately commanded. Yet, even so, he was puzzled by the swiftness and apparent completeness of his victory.

The twin powers of the world, political Rome and religious Israel, had looked upon the leadership of Christ and rejected it. Like Lucifer, they would have none of a king born in a stable, nurtured in a cottage, trained in a carpenter shop, sun-browned by foot-journeys through the hill country, companioned by illiterate fishermen, acclaimed by women and children, leading the life of a poor, itinerant preacher, pitiful toward the poor whom they despised, and pitiless toward their transparent hypocrisy.


Rejection

So, when Christ turned toward them and said, 'Come, follow Me,' Lucifer knew that their answer would be the same as his own.

'We will not serve,' they shouted. But Lucifer must have seen the irony of their further cry, 'We have no king but Caesar,' when he knew how vigorously and tirelessly they were fighting for him.

Never was a leader rejected with such relentless finality. They levelled against Him Roman short swords and heartpiercing lances. They beat Him down with Jewish clubs and scourges. No consecrating oil of royalty anointed His head or filled His palms. They had only one anointing for Him, the purple blood spilled from His own body. Before Him they bowed indeed, but in the taunting homage of mockery and the jeers of unbelief as they substituted for grateful praise their laughter and obscene ridicule.

A vast armed host, led by a Roman Governor, and blessed by outstretched priestly hands, sprang up to repel Him just as the legions of Lucifer had rallied against Him in that first heavenly vision. He asked for followers, and they willingly followed Him along the Via Crucis. He pleaded for companionship, and they crowded about Him only when He was safely fastened to a cross. His divine eloquence was directed against the horrible effects of sin, and sin achieved its masterpiece, the murder of a God-man.


His Defeated Army

Lucifer stood by in panting approval as Christ's mercy actually inflamed hatred and His gentleness aroused force. Dying, He saw for His bodyguard the coldly indifferent executioners and priests who, like fox hunters, had tracked their quarry to the death. Did He see the sinister smile of Lucifer, proudof this day's work as his revenge for the defeat of heaven?

Yet, from the Cross Christ saw what Lucifer could not possibly see nor guess, the rising of another army that would pick up this blood-stained cross and carry it to triumphant victory. Strangely impotent in appearance, but wonderfully potent in the powers o£ their soul, the nucleus of that army was near Him as He died: Mary the Mother; John, His young captain; the Holy Woman, who loved Him unselfishly, and a centurion whose spear through His side opened the way to his own faith and the world's way to the Sacred Heart.

Lucifer would have, had he so much as noticed them, despised that pitiful handful. Lucifer has a way of missing the strength of God's saints.

But the rest of Christ's army was in apparent rout. His bodyguard of apostles had been scattered in the first sharp brush of conflict. The disciples, his skeleton regiment, were flung back into complete disorder. Hopelessly outnumbered, they crouched in their hiding places as the conquering armies of Lucifer's lieutenants swept to and fro unchallenged.

In heaven the conflict between His faithful angels and the insurgent forces of Lucifer had been sharp but quickly decisive. Michael's army, in an irresistible charge, had swept Lucifer's proud regiments over the brink to utter defeat. From Calvary He saw His army beaten not so much by their vigorous foes as by the terrors and cowardice of their own hearts.

Never had an army been so hopelessly outnumbered and outfought. Never had a victory so completely shattered the vanquished while it carried the defeated commander, not to a noble death under fire, but to a slave's death by torture.


Victory Beyond Defeat

Yet Christ, as He looked from the Cross upon the world's most decisive battlefield, must have smiled through His pain and shame. He must have smiled at the puzzled gloating of Lucifer, the open exultation of the priests, and the cold assurance of the legionaries. For beyond the defeat He saw the slow reforming of His scattered bodyguard, the regathering of His skeleton regiment, augmented by the first converts of Pentecost, and the counter-attack that was to sweep across the world.

He foresaw that tiny army starting off with high hearts and His own noble purposes. He saw it attack Israel in its temple and Rome in its impregnable citadels. He saw that army turning aside sword stroke with uplifted crucifix, sapping in the dark tunnels of the catacombs under the very centre of Roman dominion, matching the naked bodies of martyrs against the tridents of steel-clad gladiators, pitting virgins in victorious conflict against the lions of the arena and the beasts in men's hearts, beating the imperial legions with an army of slaves released from the slave marts by the freedom of Christ.

He saw, as Lucifer could not possibly see, how one morning Rome would wake to find its emperor kneeling before the Pope, His personal representative on earth, and asking for baptism. He saw the Roman eagles disappearing from the standards of the Empire to give place to the Labarum of the Cross. Israel He saw as it hurled its power against the Rock of Calvary and then against the Rock of Peter, breaking into a thousand scattered, exiled groups without temple or priesthood or fatherland.

Lucifer, puzzled as he was by his too easy conquest, could not see this, but he was soon to feel that counter-attack upon his allies.


The Victorious March

The fishermen Christ had chosen soon became the inspired preachers and writers of His Gospel. John of the rower's bench became the lofty eagle of God, and Peter from the helm of a fishing craft became Peter guiding the destinies of His Church. The scattered handful of His fighting men and women, broken by the victorious plotters of Good Friday, reformed into the irresistible Church marching through history, attacked and persecuted, outnumbered and outshouted always, yet moving from victory to victory.

The peaceful regiments of His priests and religious, His devoted fathers and mothers, His high-minded young men and pure young women took up His victorious war. They made relentless battle upon sin; they hated from their hearts the forces of evil; they struggled with undimmed hopes for the conquest of the world. And when they conquered, they imposed upon the vanquished, not the chains of the oppressor, but the reign of Christ's beatitudes and the kingdom of His peace.

All this is history. History, too, is the brilliant way in which after each defeat Lucifer musters new armies and initiates a new campaign. Seldom, though, does he announce his war in terms of loyalty to himself. Instead, he makes the war centre, as spiritual war will always centre, around the figure of Christ. He did not say, as he rallied to his side Nero and the persecuting emperors, Julian the Apostate and the cynical philosophers of his court, all the powers of pagan lust and pagan cynicism, 'Here is my banner; follow it.' Instead, he cried, 'There is His Cross; attack it.'

So, since Calvary, there has been a warfare against Christ to which there is neither truce nor armistice. Always Lucifer, seen or unseen, acknowledged or lurking behind some chosen subaltern, has been the leader of the attack on Christ, which is really an attack upon all that is best in humanity.


New Armies

Often the war was bloody. More often it was fought with subtler weapons than swords or lances. Arianism made war on the divinity of Christ and carried forward that war on the rugged war ponies of Teutonic barbarians. But a thousand other heresies, all directed against the person of Christ, used brilliant books and scholarly-sounding lectures, political intrigue and polished rhetoric.

Mohammed might rouse wild Arab tribesmen to a holy war against the Cross and Christ; his far more potent weapon was the lust of the harem and the promise of an earthly paradise followed by an eternity of unending sense of gratification.

There have been armies like that of Genghis Khan, marching forward under oath to stable their horses on the altar steps of St. Peter's. Lucifer surely approved that oath. But there have been the far more deadly armies of a pagan renaissance, attacking the love of Christ by offering instead the love of decadent Greek and Roman gods and goddesses, proposing the rotten novels of Petronius Arbiter for the Gospel according to St. John, and the brilliant smut of the Decameron for the parables of Christ. The perverted brilliance of Lucifer surely approved all that with much more enthusiasm.


The War Goes On

Today, however much humanitarianism may soften the hearts of men and pacifism outlaw armies and navies and beat swords and guns into pen points, the war between good and evil, between Christ and Lucifer, between those who accept the Saviour's leadership and those who reject it, goes on unendingly. Around the person of Christ still gather His faithful armies. Against Him are directed, not crude spears or ten-inch guns, but the crafty dislike and resentment and far subtler warfare of clever minds and rotten morals, by men who hate His law and refuse to permit His intrusion into their lives or loves.

They may scarcely know His name or recognise His face. They may violently deny or contemptuously laugh at the idea that there is or ever was a Lucifer. They are none the less making war upon Christ and carrying on the warfare begun in heaven. They are fighting the things which He came to bring to the world: purity and charity and faith and the love of realities beyond this world. They are fighting for the things by which Lucifer conquers men for himself: pride and sin and lust and power and dominance and gold and pleasure and the things of the immediate Now rather than the things of the ultimate Then.


With or Against

Christ stated the fact of this unending war in one clear phrase: 'He that is not with Me is against Me.' There is no middle ground. We can no more be on the side of Christ today and at the same time on the side of His enemies than we could, in the year 33, have been a disciple of Christ and approved the treachery of the priests and the death sentence passed by Pilate.

Pacifists in this war between good and evil are monstrosities . Either we accept the standard of His Cross or we are really under the red banner of Lucifer. We promote His kingdom upon earth or we make war upon it. With Him or against Him. There is no third choice.


The Fight is Fiercest

Never was the fight as fierce or as bitter as it is today. War against God has reached incredible heights of intensity and hatred. Organised atheism captures Russia, walks in doctor's hood into college classrooms, and shoots the poisoned bullets of its propaganda from behind the shelter of newspapers, pamphlets, books and magazines.

Defiant of all laws of civilised warfare, it carries its war to women and children and organises them into battalions of death. Lucifer admitted God even when he fought Him. The foes of Christ had first to lay their hands upon Him before they could put Him to death. Atheism, by a supreme contradiction, makes war upon a God whose existence it denies. It says there is no God and then, with personal venom and fury, attacks Him.

Surely Lucifer must gloat over this magnificent re-inforcement of his army. War was never fought more unscrupulously.


The War of Contempt

Where God is not flatly denied, war is made upon Him by a much more subtle method. His presence in the world is ignored. His rights over His own creation are emphatically questioned. That He has anything to say about His own creatures is regarded as a relic of obsolete superstitions. Whether he made the world or not is of little importance; it is important that He have no right to rule it. He may have redeemed the world, but the world has no desire for that redemption.


Cashiering Christ

Lucifer, who once cast his glance covetously on the control of heaven, must have a sneaking admiration for those who have tried to grasp the control of earth by the simple expedient of asking God to mind His own affairs and let mankind alone.

One reads much of modern literature wondering if the authors ever heard of God or Christ. Clearly they know there is a fight between the issues of Christ and the issues of evil, but just as clearly theyare not interested in Christ's side. He is thrust aside as carelessly is if He were a myth like William Tell or an outmoded philosopher like Philo the Greek. Man is encouraged to trace his relationship with the orangutan; his relationship with His Elder Brother, Jesus Christ, is regarded almost as a blot on the escutcheon.

Lucifer tried by the magnificently conceived and executed conspiracy of Calvary to drive Christ from the world. He failed. Modern society has taken up his task most willingly.


Frankly Ignored

Christ spoke very clear words on a great many subjects. He expected, apparently, those words to be heard, accepted, and obeyed by His followers. Otherwise they could hardly call themselves His followers. Are they heard?

With almost brutal frankness He called marriage following divorce adultery. Almost every so-called Christian country has written divorce into its laws. Most of them have speeded up their divorce courts to the point of vying in efficiency with a modern automobile factory.


Millstones

Christ talked beautifully of personal purity and laid down strict laws for its preservation. A thousand writers of the day regard His views as childish and amusingly out of date. The hero of your modern novel changes his mistress when he changes his tie. The heroine of your best seller kicks purity under her party slippers or mules and tears it into ribbons as something less important than the favour of a New Year's party.

Christ recommended millstones for the necks of those who scandalised little children. Today little children, when they are graciously' permitted entrance into this modern world, are in a million cases deprived of any knowledge of God their Father or of their eternal destiny, and are subjected to the most insidious and disheartening attacks upon their innocence. It is not hard to imagine the approval which Lucifer gives to all this.

Christ demanded faith. Faith is widely regarded as the refuge of cowardly minds and a survival of stale superstition. He praised the poor in spirit; our monuments rise and our incense is burned to honour those who have built fortunes by the doubtful methods and brash buccaneering of modern business. Lucifer would hardly disapprove of that.

Christ is not admitted to the public schools or State universities of Christian lands. His image may not appear on the walls of our State institutions. He is permitted no place at the council tables of the nations, and His presence in diplomatic circles would be often, to put it mildly, embarrassing for all concerned.


Or Disliked

Lust, that tore Christ's back with scourges, is no longer regarded as very terrible. In fact, it is treated as distinctly amusing and undoubtedly delightful. (Let lust make war upon Him if it will. Perhaps Herod was right when he treated the pure Christ as a fool.) Pride, that crowned His head with thorns, is a modern sign of bravery and courage. (The soldiers may not have been far wrong when they laughed at the meek Christ and struck His bowed and thorn-crowned head with reeds.)

Doubt, that led the callous Pilate to let an innocent man go out to die, is now regarded as a sign of broadmindedness and an enlightened attitude toward life. (Perhaps Pilate knew what he was doing when he sent this man who taught an embarrassing and annoying sort of truth to crucifixion.)

Honesty is good enough for underlings. One does not rob a news-stand, but one may without qualms of conscience pillage the stock market. (Clearly the real crime of Judas was not that he sold Christ, but that he failed to demand a decent price for his sale.)

State worship, which once placed a statue of the emperor in Roman temples, has become the religion of millions, and the State rises supreme over all things, Church, conscience, the right of mothers and fathers to their own children, property, the natural right of a sick man or an imbecile to life. (Can it be that we have no king but Caesar?)

If the French Revolutionists took a courtesan and placed her upon the altar of Notre Dame, we have seen notorious courtesans placed in the electric lights of Broadway, honoured by the admiration and adulation of millions of men and women, and held up on stage and screen for the delighted admiration of the young. (It may be possible that God made a mistake in selecting His Mother.)


Worship of Self

Most of all, Christ has seen Himself supplanted in modern life, not by the service of even so brilliant a leader as Lucifer. When the angels turned from God to Lucifer, they were picking a bad second choice, yet a second choice of brilliance and beauty and power. Today Lucifer has cleverly substituted for himself and God the contemptible service of self, the debasing worship of self.

'Why should you serve the Creator?' Lucifer insinuates into receptive ears. 'Serve your own interests, and only your own interests. What right has God to give you commandments? Make your own laws. What right has Christ to lay down hard laws for you? Decide for yourself which of His commands you will accept and which you will reject. The Church pretendsto speak with an infallible voice. Don't allow your life to be governed by so thoroughly mediae- val an institution.'

And his suggestions, accepted and repeated by thousands of brilliant subordinates, ring through modern life and modern literature. Lucifer is content gracefully to appear to step aside, provided that the service of self means the thrusting of God into second place.


For His Defence

This is the black picture of the warfare, the presentation of just one side of the conflict. Fortunately there is another side, too, the ever-growing army sworn to stand at the side of Christ and fight His war to the death. There are the modern successors, millions of them, of the good angels and of those faithful few who loved and clung to Him when the whole world was conspiring for His death.

For, if every sin is a blow struck at Christ, every good action is a blow struck in His defence. If impurity, by rotting bodies, brutalising souls, destroying homes, and spoiling the future of little children, drags down the work He came to do, every pure man or woman is an intimate associate of the pure Christ and places a pure body between the wolves of the world and the future generation.

Dishonesty takes sides with the lying witnesses who swore away the life of Christ; honesty cries out in His defence. Doubt wags its head and walks no more with Him; faith says staunchly, 'To whom else shall we go? for Thou hast the words of eternal life.' If the grafting politician and the tricky statesman ape the betrayal of Judas, the honourable man of affairs stands with John near the Cross, admitting his part with Christ crucified.


High Stakes

Men and women are prone to forget the tremendous issues at stake in this warfare. Christ is the concrete expression of what is finest and best in humanity. We cannot make war upon Him without attacking human purity, unselfishness, love of neighbour, high honour, service of country, gratitude for favours, the desire to benefit mankind, tenderness of heart, strength of purpose, respect for women, gentleness to the unfortunate, comradeship among men, reverence for little children, loyalty to friends, forgiveness of enemies, all that He Himself expressed in the idea of the fatherhood of God, and the brotherhood of men.

Nor can we make war on any of these things without making war on Him.

The man who betrays a woman betrays Christ's reverent love of womankind. A man who tricks his neighbour, tricks the Christ who bade us love our neighbour. No man closes his heart to the cries of the unfortunate or to the needs of little children without closing his heart to the Christ who comforted the unfortunate and loved little children. If a man refuses forgiveness to his enemies, he dare not ask forgiveness of the Christ from whom he himself so desperately needs forgiveness.

'As long as you did it to one of these My least brethren, you did it to Me.' Christ's statement is unequivocal and inclusive. For the good it should be the highest joy; for the evil, a frightening consideration.

So, if one adopts the side of Christ, one stands for all that is best in human conduct.

If one takes any low standard, at that moment he has turned against Christ and taken his place with the lustful Herod, the tricky Judas, the sceptical Pilate, the ambitious priests; and Lucifer the proud holds out welcoming arms to another recruit.

Christ's army is not battling merely to scale the heights of heaven. It is fighting with all its magnificent strength to bring decency to earth, and honour and cleanness of body and soul. It is warring for the protection of children and women and homes, of the weak and defenceless, of the precious things on which the happiness of the world is grounded and without which the earth becomes a pigsty and a terrifying cage of lawless wild animals.


Again the Vision

So, before the world today appears, as it appeared in that first vision of heaven, the calm, strong, beautiful, appealing figure of Jesus Christ. He looks straight into the heart of every man and woman in the world. Each heart hears Him say, 'Come, follow Me.'

No invitation could be clearer than this royal invitation to enlist as the saints have done, under the standard that signifies happiness for the world and the conquest of .that world for the Heavenly Father. Strange1y enough, that invitation sounds in the hearts of millions who never knew the name of Jesus Christ and other millions who know Him only imperfectly. It is the rallying cry of all the good and fine throughout the world.


Invitation and Response

Yet it is, we must remember, an invitation. No coercion is exercised here. No force binds or compels. No chain drags any soul to slavery. All must join Him freely. He invites men and women to accept His captaincy. He offers them His comradeship as well as His leadership. But they must answer spontaneously, moved by the charm of the Leader and the glory of His cause.

And from a million loyal followers goes up the answer, in rousing shout, in quietly whispered prayer, in gallant gesture, in the quick bending of the knee: 'Lead on, for we will follow You.'


Dominance

From another million go up low rumbles of protest, wild shouts of indignant refusal, sneering laughter tinged with contempt, indignant repudiation of all the invitation implies. Cowards turn away afraid of the conflict. Laggards glance back over their shoulders at the beautiful things of the world (made in that moment especially fascinating by command of Lucifer) and sigh, 'Must I give up all these to follow You?' Proud heads are flung upwards as Lucifer's was flung, and the cry, 'I will not serve!' is hurled in the face of Christ.

Now, as in every age, Christ's is the dominant figure. In love or hatred men look up at Him, see Him, and lift their hands flung high in royal salute or clenched in threatening fist. Cowards may run away, but there is no place for them to run except into the ranks of His enemies. Men may seek to avoid the conflict; they find themselves in the end leagued, by their destructive apathy, with His enemies.

Now and always 'He that is not with Me is against Me.'


New Weapons

Day after day the din of battle rises all about the modern man and woman. From filthy news stands the poison gas of rotten literature floats in deadly green clouds. Sharpshooters from a decadent stage snipe virtue, innocence, and the decencies. Scholarly professors fire deadly shrapnel into crowded classrooms, with deadly effect upon the souls of youth.

Dishonest business enlists the brains and brilliance of men in a war that makes might right and sees in success the supreme justification for any method of attack. Dark conspiracies hurl mobs against personal property. The hobnailed armies of Communism march steadily on against State and Church and the home and the commonest rights of humanity.

With Michael and His Hosts. With masterly generalship Lucifer enlists on his side great forces of cleverness and wit and beauty and wealth and envy and passion and discontent and pride. He knows that even with them he can never ultimately defeat God or His chosen Leader, Jesus Christ. But he also knows that they canhurt God's best beloved sons and daughters. They can impede the work of His Church. They can spoil the peace and happiness of earth. They can drive men into the mad charge of battle, until, blinded by the smoke and deafened by the din, they regain full consciousness only as the gates of hell clang to behind them. Recruiting his army on earth, Lucifer knows he is recruiting his slaves for eternity.

But that side which was powerful enough to attract God's warrior, Michael, and the best of the angelic hosts is daily augmented by the best of earth. New missionaries, cross aloft, advance steadily to the conquest of fresh lands. Each morning, at a million altars, the priests bring down the Commander in Chief for an early council before the day's battle. Religious priests and brothers train young men to fight the battle of life with high courage.

Brave, splendid men fire a decisive no into the teeth of temptation. Young men face the hot rebellion within their own souls, curb it with strong, pure hands, and turn what might have been ruinous passion into the devoted service of God and humanity. The same emotional strength which, perverted, would have made them rakes and roués and despoilers of innocence makes them, enlisted in the cause of Christ, tender husbands, sympathetic fathers, sincere lovers of their fellow-men.

And though they may not wear silver armour or stride a white horse, young women and older women, like modern Joans of Arc, do mighty battle for God's cause. Devoted, unselfish mothers, they guard courageously and vigilantly the little fortresses that are their homes. Tenderly they bind the wounds that sin has made in human souls.

Purity with them is the golden shield protecting their bodies for the sake of the man they will love and the children they will give to the Lover of little children. Charity for them is the daily walking at the side of the Divine Physician, touching with cool, healing hands the aching heads and sick hearts of humanity, bringing to sin-sodden mankind the tenderness that lies in the soul only of good women.

Stainless nuns hold the far outposts of Christ's far-flung battle line in hospitals, orphanages, refuges, schools, contemplative convents. Splendid mothers stand protectingly between their children and the soldiers of a modern Herod come to slay them. Young women walk into the world, and their shining purity and intelligent faith strike victoriously for Christ with wounds that bring life, not death, safety, not ruin, to the future.


Defence by Attack

In this war, as in all wars, the best defence is fearless attack. The army of Christ does not merely stand its ground in safe entrenchments. It carries the fight to the enemy. It even wins from the side of Lucifer new recruits for the army of God.

Sterling example carried into business and social life by those who stand by the side of the perhaps invisible Christ captures where arguments might be fired without results. Bad literature is met with the return barrage of good literature. Deeds of charity compel an acknowledgment of the love of God and of humanity that inspired them. Faltering souls are strengthened by theexample of heroic courage that they see in Christ's followers. Hesitant souls are swayed to the army that is Christ's.


Through History

Through the ages brave men and women have responded with all the high enthusiasm of their hearts to this war that throws them into the companionship and under the captaincy of Christ. Paul rose from the dust to turn the sword of persecution with which he had been smiting the Christians into the gloriously sweeping sword of world-conquest. Lucifer knew he had lost one of his brilliant allies when he heard the changed voice of Saul crying, 'Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?'

The martyrs went out into the battlefield glad to shed their blood in so glorious a cause. Missionaries walked fearlessly into savage lands where Lucifer was worshipped under a thousand hideous shapes and with a thousand vile rites, to fling down his obscene images from the temples and put in their place the symbol of Redemption.

Husbands and fathers, coming from their homes beautifully like the house of Nazareth, preached to the world by example and by deed the beauty of the faith that inspired their conduct.

And the glorious army of women, from those first brave souls on Calvary to the last courageous girl entering religious life or the modern Madonna accepting the children God sends her, have carried on the fight with a strength that cannot be resisted. Agnes and Cecilia and Theresa and Catherine, Jane Frances and Frances of Rome, Joan of Arc and Catherine of Siena, the nun who trained you in third grade, the mother whose devoted self-sacrifice made your youth safe and happy, are Christ's willing warriors on the only important battlefield in the world.


A Reconnoitre of the Enemy

But before us, more truly now than ever, the army of Lucifer gathers in restless energy and skilled plans of attack. Brilliantly the light gleams from their armour, though that armour covers hearts filled with hatred of God and His law, and with open purposes that mean the destruction of the human race through an attack on faith, on charity, on innocence, on marriage, on the home.

Scarcely less beautiful and strong do they seem than were the angels who rallied to the side of Lucifer when he began his war upon God. They bear a strong resemblance to those haughty priests who held fast the rich corridors and sanctuaries of the Temple of Jerusalem and to those clever, cynical, magnificently strong Romans who looked upon the figure of a Carpenter-King and thought Him more than a little absurd. And like the priests and the governors, these moderns are leagued together in a frank conspiracy to destroy the Christ who still has the temerity to speak to a morally emancipated world of purity and faith and the humble acceptance of His law.

What right-minded man or woman cares that the handle of the sword is beautifully carved and its blade of Toledo steel if its blows are directed toward the heart of Christ and of humanity? What matters it that tongues are clever if they sneer at the Saviour? What does literary brilliance avail, the almost diabolic cleverness of many a modern book, if that brilliance is used to attack God and ridicule the honest man and the pure woman?

What ultimately does it profit a business man to build his fortune to the clouds and fill his nights with pleasure, when in the end he' must give a strict balance-sheet of his life to the God whose accounting takes exact reckoning only of good and evil deeds? What will it avail the famous beauty to have her name written in the lights of Broadway if it is not also written in the Book of Life?


The Modern Challenge

The call to modern battle rings out in t he challenge of Christ's chief of staff, the Holy Father. 'Catholic Action!' he cries, and the followers of Christ respond.

This is no vague and mysteriously ambiguous call. It is simply the ringing challenge to be ashamed of sloth and apathy, when the army of Lucifer moves with restless energy and resourcefulness. It is the call to a life of active service, whatever one's vocation may be, service dedicated to Christ and His cause.

And the challenge has drawn to the side of Christ great new armies of warriors. Their own lives are the clear expression of the faith that is in their souls and of the love of God that dominates that faith. They are active in their campaign for souls, whether it be by supporting the missions, working for their parish church, taking part in great Catholic movements, spreading Catholic literature, talking of their faith to others, learning to know it better so that they may better explain it to inquirers, doing charity work among God's poor, or any of the thousand aggressive things by which new fields are won for Christ.


Ultimate Decision

When the soul faces its Judge it will not want to say in trembling admission, 'I waged war against You.' It will want to say, humbly but confidently, 'Christ, my Leader, to the best of my ability I fought at Your side.

This is no deathbed decision. One does not become a fighter as the last grim warrior known as Death grapples the body for a final throw. It is a decision for youth, for full maturity, for vigorously alive manhood and glowing womanhood. And it is a decision that must be made with perfect freedom.

Christ will not force your decision. You make it freely, without coercion. Now as always He wants willing service. Now as always He will accept no other. Christ wants brothers in arms, sisters in service, not slaves nor driven mercenaries.

The whole conquest of the world might have been accomplished by Christ alone. Christ was omnipotent, He was God made man; He might have crushed His enemies with a gesture, won the whole kingdom during his lifetime, marched into heaven in proud and complete triumph.

That, however, was not His purpose. He determined to share the glory with us, His creatures. He permitted us to take part in the conflict, to bear honourable scars, to win sectors of the battlefield for Him. He unfurled the banner of the Cross as a signal for volunteers. He wanted free companions. He asked for brave souls loyal to His Father and devoted to their fellow men.


My Captain

And with a thrill of pride I realise my high privilege. I may stand at the very side of Christ Himself. I may make His cause my cause, His glorious purposes my objectives. I may claim as my commander no selfish general bent on looting the world, nor harsh dictator whose eyes are aflame with lust of power and whose hand rises in mail-clad power above a crushed world. I follow no philosopher groping for truth nor scientist piddling about till he grasps some infinitesimal fraction of the universe and weighs it in inaccurate scales.

I follow the glorious Son of God, whose eyes are filled with tender pity, whose hands are scarred with the wounds of His sacrifice for mankind, whose feet are tireless in the pursuit of the world's needy, whose back is loaded with the weight of the world's ills, whose mind fountains divine truth, whose heart glows with burning love for all the children of His Heavenly Father.

I follow the Leader who hates only evil and makes war only upon those things that will ruin mankind. I give my loyalty to the world's most illustrious man. I follow Him, perhaps through the dangers and terrors of Gethsemane and the apparent defeat of Calvary, but to a victory as certain as Easter's and as glorious as the Resurrection.

Not the most beautiful or clever or brilliant or persuasive or powerful of Lucifer's modern lieutenants can turn me aside from that Leader. No eloquent tongue can seduce me. No enthralling book can persuade my treason. For those who fight Christ hardly knowing Him I feel deep and prayerful pity. For those who fight Him with hatred in their heart I have the firm resolve to meet war with war, their relentless attack upon Christ with my tireless defence of Him.


Your Choice

My captain is Christ. Let those follow Lucifer who do not know the Saviour or who, knowing Him, reject Him. So the choice must be made, and made by you. This is no allegory or flight of fancy or dramatic unreality. It is stern and terrifying fact.

As truly as in that vision of heaven, you must choose either Christ or Lucifer.

Then, where do you stand? Whom do you choose?

Lucifer and his followers? Those rebellious and ungrateful angels? Cain, the first murderer? The builders of the

Tower of Babel? The loathsome sinners of Sodom? The priests of occult and filthy cults? Pilate and Judas? Herod and Nero? Arius and the early heretics? Voltaire and the unhappy Christ-haters and God-baiters of literature? The donothing kings and their lustful courts? Henry of England, faithful neither to wives nor to Church? The brilliant modern writers who make their hatred of morality dominate their hatred of truth, and who lead young men and women deliberately astray? The murderers, convicted or unconvicted. whose hands are soiled with the blood of bodies and the invisible death of souls? Surely they do not appear attractive.

Or shall it be the army of Christ? Michael the Archangel, and the faithful band of warrior angels? The Patriarchs struggling against a world grovelling at the feet of idols and offering Lucifer the sweet incense of their sacrificed children and their raped virgins? Peter and the Apostles marching out to reconstruct the world? Sebastian and Lawrence? Anastasia and Philomena? Xavier and Aloysius? The Little Flower and young Gabriel? The worldconquering missionaries and the fathers happy in their children? The great abbesses of mediaeval days and the splendid mothers of holy families? The writers who loved truth better than cleverness, and true beauty more than the daintiest smut? The scholars who could see beyond the atom under their microscope to the God who sent the atom's particles spinning in a tiny solar system? Saints and poets and the vast army of the pure and strong and good?

Mary is there. So are the great and virtuous who perhaps never heard the name of Christ, but who loved their fellow-men and worshipped truth and beauty with disinterested service.

Both groups ask you to join their ranks.

There is no escaping.

It is war to the death.

Which army is yours?

Which leader claims your allegiance?




Nihil Obstat:J. DONOVAN, Censor Deputatus.

Imprimatur:  D. Mannix, Archiepiscopus Melbournensis. 1 May 30, 1936. (No. 64.)



[Image: ?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.booksofparadise.net...f=1&nofb=1]

Print this item

  Archbishop Viganò defends Cardinal Müller and his Great Reset critique
Posted by: Stone - 12-16-2021, 04:14 PM - Forum: Archbishop Viganò - No Replies

Archbishop Viganò defends Cardinal Müller and his Great Reset critique
Vigano comments on those considered by the 'globalist Sanhedrin' to be heretics,
'unworthy to ask questions about the new dogmas of the health religion defined ex cathedra by the experts in the pay of BigPharma.'

[Image: vigano-muller-810x500.jpg]


Thu Dec 16, 2021
(LifeSiteNews - slightly adapted) – After Cardinal Gerhard Müller gave Catholic activist Alexander Tschugguel a thoughtful and good interview concerning the coronavirus lockdowns, vaccine mandates, and especially the dangerous and anti-democratic agenda of the Great Reset, he came under strong attacks in Germany. Both state and faith leaders rebuked him for purportedly spreading “conspiracy theories” and even “anti-semitic codes,” because he mentioned George Soros as one of the globalists whose worldview he is rejecting.

LifeSite reached out to Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, whose strong position against the Great Reset is well-known, asking him whether he would like to comment on the strong reaction against Cardinal Müller’s reasonable critic of the current political developments which seem to use the health crisis in order to establish an anti-democratic, globalist order.

We thank Archbishop Viganò for his immediate response and help.

Please see here the full statement by the Italian prelate (here is the English translation):



Ephpheta, quod est, Adaperire!

“Ephphatha!”, which means: “Be opened!” - Mk 7:34


The virologist who affirms the ineffectiveness of the vaccine and highlights the serious conflicts of interest in the officials responsible for the authorization of drugs or therapies; the member of the Parliament who objects to the advisability of imposing lockdowns after they have proved useless to contain the pandemic and disastrous for the nation’s economy; the jurist who criticizes the rules imposed by the Government in violation of the Constitution; the parish priest who from the pulpit questions the morality of an experimental serum produced with abortive fetuses; the intellectual who points out how the criminal plan of the Great Reset promoted by the World Economic Forum and the United Nations Agenda 2030 find timely and disturbing realization precisely following that pandemic emergency hoped for since 2009 by Jacques Attali in the French weekly L’Express are considered by the globalist Sanhedrin as heretics, unworthy to ask questions about the new dogmas of the health religion defined ex cathedra by the experts in the pay of BigPharma. We can imagine what honesty and impartiality can be ensured by controllers paid by the controlled. am not surprised that the truth provokes mixed reactions in those who propagate the error that opposes it. The reactions of the Pharisees to the words of Our Lord – starting with the theatrical gestures of Caiaphas to the proclamation of His divinity by the Messiah – always betray the anger of liars and people in bad faith in the face of the affirmation of truth and intellectual honesty. And this indignation as forced as it is unmotivated, having no arguments to counter the refutation, often moves to the interlocutor, in an attempt to ridicule him, make him pass for mad or a dangerous criminal: the examples we have been able to witness to those who have put in any of the cornerstones of the official narrative on Covid are the confirmation of an intolerant attitude on the part of those who lie, and at the same time the accusation of intolerance towards those who limit themselves to saying a clear evidence of truth.

There is no point in citing the writings and the statements of the exponents of the deep state in which they brazenly confess their criminal project. Let’s take for example the quote from Jacques Attali:

Quote:«History teaches us that humanity evolves significantly only when it is really afraid: then it initially develops defense mechanisms; sometimes intolerable (of scapegoats and totalitarianisms); sometimes useless (of distraction); sometimes effective (therapies that deny all previous moral principles if necessary). Then, once the crisis is over, fear transforms these mechanisms to make them compatible with individual freedom and enroll them in a democratic health policy» (https://scenarieconomici.it/jacques-atta...permettera- to-establish-a-world-government/).

These words were spoken in 2009, in the imminence of the swine flu for which the WHO was then denounced. In them we can have confirmation of an exact picture of the methods of managing the health emergency, indeed even of the planning of the emergency itself, with the provision of possible responses from citizens. Just a few days ago Attali was interviewed without wearing a mask by two prone journalists, whom he scolded because they were holding the mask under their noses. The anecdote – which you can find in a video on the Internet – is proven proof of the absurdity of the pandemic narrative, which applies to the subjects and slaves of the system, but not to those in charge. Biden, Johnson, Merkel, Draghi, Bergoglio and all the “greats of the world” flaunt contempt for the masses, imposing on them absurd rules that they are the first to break precisely to demonstrate that adherence to this pandemic cult requires fideistic assent, and not it has nothing scientific.

His Eminence Müller, who is an intellectually honest person, said things already denounced by Cardinal Burke, by Msgr. Schneider and myself, among others; things that Klaus Schwab, George Soros, Bill Gates and all the followers of the Great Reset have always publicly declared, even producing official documents and printing books in which they explain in detail the different scenarios that can be predicted, from pandemic to climatic emergency. And the words of the Cardinal are the confirmation that his name affixed to my Appeal for the Church and for the World of last May 2020 was meditated and desired. I thank Eminence of him for that gesture in some respects courageous.

And I regret that in Germany the mainstream media have accused Cardinal Müller of anti-Semitism, for the simple fact that George Soros and Klaus Schwab have Jewish origins, while they have scrupulously avoided entering into the merits of the matter. Yet similar denunciations against the globalist elite and in particular against Schwab, Gates, Soros, the Rothschilds and the Rockefellers are made by orthodox rabbis and Jews who survived the Nazi concentration camps: are they anti-Semites too? But, again: asking reasonable questions to those who are biased is useless. As in Aesop’s tale, the wolf at the top of the waterway believes he has the right not to let the water be polluted by the lamb downstream.

I can imagine that, for a Cardinal who was also Prefect of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, it is somehow challenging and not so easy to take a stand on an issue that sees Bergoglio on the opposite side of propagating Pfizer vaccines and supporting the green economy and inclusive capitalism with the Rothschilds and Rockefellers. But I also think that, if His Eminence had the honesty to denounce the anti-human conspiracy of the New World Order and the interference of the billionaires Gates and Soros in the destiny of nations based on the evidence and the consent of their statements, he will recognize with equal clarity of analysis the same consent to the globalist ideology in the tenant of Santa Marta, who just recently blessed an inter-religious park in Argentina and approved the Foundation Fratelli tutti and its “holistic training” for dialogue with religions. If the interference of Soros and Gates in the government of nations is evident, Bergoglio’s responsibility in giving dignity and legitimacy to the accomplices of the WEF and the UN, to their plans and to those who cooperate with them is undeniable; because ecumenism, the divinization of Mother Earth, the “Amazonian” dimension of the Church, the synodal path, the transhumanism of the Foundation for Artificial Intelligence and all the unfortunate innovations of this pontificate are perfectly consistent with this framework, are instrumental to it and pursue the same end, namely the establishment of the Religion of Humanity which is the necessary goal of the New World Order.

If the health emergency has caused incalculable damage, it has nevertheless the merit of having opened the eyes of so many blind people, of having healed so many deaf and dumb, who return to listen and speak. This grace must be an opportunity for all of us to be able to evaluate with a supernatural gaze what is happening before our eyes, to perceive the inspiring principles and the undeclared purposes, to denounce those responsible and to warn the simple, who rightly expect let their Pastors be the ones to give them healthy indications, and not to push them into the abyss. And to understand how true are the words of the Lord: «Without me you can do nothing» (Jn 15: 5).

+ Carlo Maria Viganò, Archbishop
December 16, 2021

Print this item

  Rev. Fr. Clement Crock: Morality [1939]
Posted by: Stone - 12-16-2021, 09:52 AM - Forum: Articles by Catholic authors - No Replies

MORALITY
By Rev. Clement Crock



I. THE VIRTUES OF CHASTITY, PURITY, MODESTY AND VIRGINITY

'Blessed are the clean of heart; for they shall see God' (Matt., v. 8). -'I beseech you therefore, brethren, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, pleasing unto God, your reasonable service' (Rom., xii. 1).

Of all the disquieting moments human flesh is heir to, my friends, there is nothing that seems to disturb the conscience of us mortals more than the sins against the Sixth and Ninth Commandments. Due to ignorance or misinformation many people worry when there is no cause for worry. Others again do not worry when they should, and arouse their dormant conscience from slumber. Those who worry unnecessarily are usually those who confuse concupiscence and temptation with sin itself. Temptation in itself is no sin. Since the fall of Adam man is prone to evil. Concupiscence is but the aftermath of original sin.

Therefore, everybody should remember this: concupiscence in itself, like temptation, is not a sin. It is the mere tendency, the inclination, to sin. St. Paul speaks of this in his own members. He calls it a 'sting of the flesh,' which warreth against the spirit and keepeth a man humble. 'And lest the greatness of the revelations should exalt me,' he says, 'there was given me a sting of my flesh, an angel of Satan, to buffet me. For which thing thrice I besought the Lord that it might depart from me. And He said to me: 'My grace is sufficient for thee'' (II Cor., xii. 7-9). It is only when this concupiscence is given free rein and left uncontrolled that it becomes sinful. It is then called the sin of lust. But when we retain control, or self-mastery, over our thoughts, words, and actions, we possess the beautiful virtue known as chastity.

Today, we shall first of all consider this key virtue, chastity, which is so necessary to make our daily conduct-our every thought, word and deed-pleasing to and meritorious before God.

Meaning of Chastity-Most people have heard the words, chastity, purity, modesty, virginity and continency; but few Catholics even know the correct meaning of all these terms. Let us define them briefly:

(a) Chastity or purity is a moral virtue or habit, which excludes or moderates the inordinate appetite of venereal pleasures, or concupiscence, according to the norm of right reason. Just as temperance and sobriety determine the proper use of food or drink, so chastity determines the proper control of our lower appetites.

(b) Modesty differs again from chastity or purity. Modesty is that blush, that shame, that instinct, to be found in all people who are not utterly depraved, which prompts them to abstain from improper words or actions, from unbecoming dress or conduct, to repress the curiosity of the eyes and the other senses, lest their chastity be violated. In German it is called 'Schamgefuhl,' the nearest to which is our word 'shamefulness.' For example, after their sin of disobedience, Adam and Eve realized for the first time that they were without clothes. Their instinct of modesty was awakened.

We might call modesty, therefore, the forerunner, the companion, the guardian, the teacher and protector, or the outpost of chastity. Whatever, then, is against chastity or purity, is also against modesty; but not vice versa.

© Lastly, chastity differs from continency. Although continency is ordinarily understood to mean only the restraint of all venereal appetites (because these are the hardest and most necessary to bring under control), in reality continency is that virtue by which we bridle all concupiscence and every other immoderation, even in eating and drinking or whatever it be.

Under the word chastity, we should also mention the terms of 'virginity, virginal chastity,' and 'conjugal chastity.' (i) Conjugal chastity avoids every thought, word, or deed that is not permitted in holy wedlock. It is that virtue which makes every Christian home so lovely, so happy, so sweet; and manifests itself so beautifully on the mellowed and chaste countenance of married people, who possess this domestic tranquility. (2) Virginal chastity, again, differs from virginity. Virginal chastity restrains from all forbidden sensual pleasures. It is the virtue so highly cherished by every good man and woman outside of holy wedlock. (3) Virginity, on the other hand, is that special jewel, that unspotted lily, that immaculate white garment, possessed by every man or woman who through life has preserved his or her body inviolate, unspotted by any willful Sin against holy purity.

Highly Cherished Virtue.-This, then, my friends, gives us a comprehensive idea of the virtue of chastity, no matter under what term we speak of it, be it purity, modesty, continency, virginity, and so on. To learn how dear to the pure Heart of Jesus this virtue is, especially in the lives o£ the young people, we need but to turn to Christ's associates in His own early childhood. Both in childhood and adolescence Jesus associated Himself mainly with those whom He knew to be absolutely pure and beyond suspicion. His Mother was the spotless and most pure Virgin, even in her divine motherhood. His foster-father, St. Joseph, was and remained a virgin. His precursor, St. John the Baptist, who prepared the way for His coming, was and remained a virgin. His favorite Apostle was the virgin John, who later took care of His Virgin Mother, Mary.

His enemies accused Jesus of being a law-breaker; but He would never permit even His enemies to accuse Him of violating the virtue of chastity. Why this insistence on holy virginity, holy purity, in His own behalf and for His intimate companions in the very beginning of His life? Undoubtedly, to impress upon all His followers the high value and urgent necessity of the virtue of chastity, particularly in the beginning of our career on earth. For Jesus knew that, once self-mastery has been acquired, all other virtues follow readily; and with them peace of heart and mind, which are the safe anchors for temporal and spiritual happiness. This Jesus confirmed once more in His Sermon on the Mount, when He addressed the multitude, saying 'Blessed are the clean of heart: for they shall see God' (Matt., v. 8).

St. Anthony, who loved this virtue so dearly, was visibly rewarded one day when the Blessed Mother herself presented her Divine Infant into his arms. St. Agnes, Philomena, Cecilia, Lucy-all young girls-offered their lives in martyrdom rather than violate this holy virtue. In the Lives of other Martyrs we read that not only brutal men, but even savage beasts maddened with hunger and turned loose upon the helpless Christians who awaited their martyrdom in the arena, lost their ferocity, and were subdued unto gentleness and meekness by the sight of pure and innocent manhood and maidenhood.

Even the ancient pagan Greeks and Romans, who were noted for their lust, had their vestal virgins in testimony of the human instinct to reverence and prize whatever makes for purity and chastity. So great was their reverence for these vestal virgins, even though only outwardly so, that if a conquering hero returning from glorious victories was having a triumphal procession through the streets of the city and a vestal virgin came his way, the procession was halted in reverence to her, and the conqueror paid her public homage.

Considered even from a merely natural standpoint, it is far sweeter and more profitable to lead a chaste life than to be in the thralls of impurity. How often do we not read of a young man or woman committing suicide, after having lead an immoral life! But you never read of a young person ending his or her life through misery of mind and wretchedness of heart brought on through the practice of purity and self-control. Hence, for physiological and psychic reasons alone, a sensible young person will keep the mind clean, the heart pure, and the imagination away, as much as possible, from matters of sex.

Many non-Catholics, who have not the religious training that we have, from a mere interest in their personal comfort and wellbeing, from an instinctive appreciation of modesty, and as a strong factor towards self-control and self-possession and towards ensuring future happiness, ease and contentment, aim to keep their minds pure and their hearts chaste. Their native good sense tells them that this cannot be attained, except through a rigid check, a severe and unrelenting guard, over their sensuous leanings and sexual appetites. In consideration of all these motives, both and unrelenting guard, over their sensuous leanings and sexual appetites. In consideration of all these motives, both 2) could rightfully cry out: 'O how beautiful is the chaste generation with glory for the memory thereof is immortal: because it is known both with God and with men. When it is present, they imitate it: and they desire it when it hath withdrawn itself, and it triumpheth crowned forever, winning the reward of undefiled conflicts.'

Virginal Chastity Regained.-Many of my listeners are doing so perhaps with a heavy heart. Already, their many past transgressions against this virtue may lead them to cry out with St. Paul: 'Unhappy man (or woman) that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?' (Rom., vii. 24). In consequence, there may be such who are wondering if, through their past lapses, they have forfeited the dignity and honor of virginal chastity forever; or if lost, can it ever be recovered somehow? And if so, in what manner?

The answer is contained in the same Epistle of St. Paul to the Romans: 'The grace of God, by Jesus Christ, our Lord' (Rom., vii. 25). It is true that the Church has made no explicit pronouncement upon this point. But St. Augustine, one of the greatest Doctors of the Church who in his youth and before his conversion had been guilty of shameful excesses of impurity, says a comforting word, when he declares, that 'virginity, which has been lost, may be recovered by a long practice of chastity' (see Meyer's 'Youth's Pathfinder,' p. 122). Added strength to this view of St. Augustine is found in the life of St. Margaret of Cortona. She is known as the St. Mary Magdalen of the Order of St. Francis. After her conversion from a scandalous life of immorality, Our Lord drew her closer and closer to Himself by the bonds of divine love. The stronger their holy friendship and union grew, the more tender and endearing were the names with which Jesus addressed Margaret. At first He called her His 'dear little sheep,' which He had found again. Then, in loving gradation He called her His 'child, His daughter, His beloved, and finally, His spouse,' assuring her at the same time that her place in Heaven would be among the virgins, whose glory she would share. No matter what be the theological value or non-value of this legend, there is at least a great deal of real comfort and genuine encouragement here for every God-loving soul who has been unfortunate after the manner of St. Margaret, but who, like her, wants to give whatever remains of her love and devotion entirely and forever to Jesus, the pure Lover of penitents, as well as of innocent virgins. In addition to St. Margaret and St. Augustine, there is another consoling fact. It is this: beneath the Cross of Jesus, as He was dying upon it, as His Precious Blood oozed forth from His sacred members, not only was Mary the spotless one, but immediately next to her stood also Mary, the penitent one. Following, therefore, the example of Christ, no position or vocation in the Church established by the same forgiving Lord should be closed to a repentant soul, be it honorable wedlock, or holy priesthood-just as St. Augustine was not barred from the priesthood, nor St. Margaret of Cortona from a religious sisterhood.

Conclusion: Never to Have Sinned Is Sweetest.-But sweet as is the forgiveness of sin on the part of God after the fall, the consciousness of never having seriously violated holy chastity and virginity, thanks to the grace of God, is a joy infinitely more soothing and delicious. Mary Magdalen was indeed happy at having been pardoned by Jesus after her fall. But Mary, the Mother of Jesus, must have been unspeakably more happy for never having sullied her innocence and purity with the least shadow of guilt.

But if it is too late for us to be happy after the manner of Mary Immaculate, then we must strive earnestly to be happy after the manner of Mary, the Penitent. If our innocence is still unsullied, then let our one ambition in life be to merit the eulogy pronounced by God upon Mary, namely: 'Thou art all fair, O my love, and there is not a spot in thee' (Cant., iv. 7). At all events, either for innocence preserved or for innocence regained through penance, let us cultivate an ardent love and tender devotion to Mary, who invites all sincere lovers of purity, saying: 'Come to me, all ye that desire me. I am the Mother offair love. . . . In me is all grace, . . . all hope of life, and of virtue' (Ecclus., xxiv. 24 sq.). Amen.


II. THE SIN OF LUST

'Know ye this and understand, that no fornicator nor unclean person hath inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God' (Eph., v. 5).

From the moment of our conception, my friends, we have the germ of good and evil implanted within us. When we attain the use of reason, the battles of life begin. From then on until our dying day there is a dual struggle going on within our being, each inclination striving to gain the mastery over us. The one aims at the higher, the nobler things of life-the chaste, the pure, and the beautiful. Opposed to this is that other power which Sacred Scripture calls 'the beast' the animal nature within us, ever-striving to overpower our spiritual nature. This lower element of our nature constantly tends to the unholy things of life, and craves to satisfy those baser appetites.

These struggles become more violent as we grow into adolescence until the closing years of our teens, especially. Usually, after the age of twenty or thereabouts, one or the other of these dual powers will predominate. The stronger of the two will determine most of our thoughts, words and actions thereafter. Should the evil predominate, only a miracle of God's grace can liberate us from its meshes. Yes, any person so ensnared can truly cry out with St. Paul: 'O unhappy man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? The grace of God, by Jesus Christ, our Lord' (Rom., vii. 24 sq.),.

Proposition.-Under the Sixth and Ninth Commandments, we call this dual struggle within us between the good or bad, virtue or vice. The virtue we call chastity, the vice we call lust. In our previous sermon we have already considered the virtue of chastity under its different aspects. Today we turn to the unpleasant phase of this dual struggle. In other sermons to follow we shall consider the sins of the flesh and the occasions thereof, more in detail; but today we will speak of them under the one common term, namely, lust.

Definition.-What do we mean by the word, lust? It is defined as an inordinate, unnatural love of the pleasures of the flesh and of the senses. Contrary to the opinions of some, not all pleasures of the senses are forbidden. Divine Providence has prepared many pure and innocent pleasures for us-pleasures that are necessary to entertain us, to repair our strength, to preserve our health, to sustain us in our weakness, and to relieve our ills. For example, we have the sensible pleasure that goes with well-prepared food or drink; the sweetness of sleep in a cozy bed; the exhilarating sensation after a good bath; the beautiful aspects which nature and God's creatures present to our eyes; the sweet and harmonious strains of music, etc. Any such pleasures, when they are not excessive and are enjoyed with a proper motive, are praiseworthy and legitimate.

But it is different with the pleasures of the flesh and of the senses, in relation to the organs of sex, when they are contrary to the purpose for which God created them. We then call these pleasures 'sins of the sense,' or sensuality. There are other terms by which we designate these sins, due to their peculiar malice, with which all intelligent Catholics should be familiar. There is, for example, the sin of immodesty, the sin of impurity. (a) If the complete sexual satisfaction is sought by oneself alone, it is called self-abuse. (b) If it is an intercourse of sexes between single or celibate people, it is called fornication. © If one or both are married, the sin is called adultery. (d) If they are closely related, though not married to each other, it is incest. (e) Unnatural sexual relation between persons of the same sex, or of the opposite sex, is called sodomy-after the biblical city of Sodom, which was destroyed by fire and brimstone on account of these unnatural sins. (f) Finally, sexual transgression with an animal is called bestiality. But all these sins, by whatever name you call them, are classified under the one term, lust, of which Holy Scripture says 'that they who do such things shall not obtain the kingdom of God' (Gal., v. 21).

Nature and Gravity of Lust.-St. Jerome and St. Alphonsus give it as their opinion that nine out of every ten persons in hell owe their damnation to the sins of lust. Be that as it may, it seems probable that about that proportion of sacrilegious confessions are reducible to the sins of the flesh-either on account of lack of proper contrition or on account of failure to confess sins properly through false shame or pride. The reason why so many are lost on account of this sin, is because this sin so completely overpowers its victim that the unfortunate soul clings to its charms and pleasures to the last. Thus, dying unrepentant, it becomes for him the unpardonable sin.

The Dignity of Man.-It is only after we understand the dignity of man that we realize fully the gravity of these sins. (1) 'We are, first of all, creatures made to the image and likeness of God, endowed with understanding and free will. Through Baptism, Confirmation, Holy Communion, and the other Sacraments, our bodies, says St. Paul (I Con, vi. 15), become 'members of Christ,' nay, 'one with Christ.' 'Know you not,' says St. Paul (I Con, iii. 16-sq.), 'that you are the temple of God, and that the spirit of God dwelleth in you? But if any man violate the temple of God, him shall God destroy. For the temple of God is holy, which you are.' This body is one day to arise again from the grave, either in glory or in shame. What, therefore, can be more degrading, more debasing, than to pollute this body with the sins of lust and sensuality?

What would you say if a man should come here before God's sanctuary and profane this temple with shameful crimes and abuses? But what of these crimes in comparison to those who profane the living temples of the Holy Ghost-their bodies, the dwelling places of their souls for whom Christ shed His Precious Blood, and died the ignominious death on the Cross?

(2) Secondly, to ascertain how displeasing to God the sins of lust are, we need but to look at the terrible punishments He has sent to those who have committed this sin. Was it not this vice that caused the deluge? Was it not the sins of lust that brought down fire and brimstone upon the infamous cities of Sodom and Gomorrah and destroyed all the inhabitants thereof? Was it not lust that caused the death, through the sword of Phinees, of 24,000 Israelites in one day, that effected the extermination of almost the entire tribe of Benjamin, and which drew so many evils upon the house of David (Num., xxv. 6-9)?

In our own day, whence arise the many plagues and misfortunes that afflict us? Pestilences and contagious diseases; so many sudden deaths, bloody wars, tempests and storms, floods and drought; so many disasters, as fires and earthquakes, which ravage cities and provinces. In all of these can be seen the hand of an angry God, who strikes and chastises us. 'Believe me,' says St. Thomas of Villanova, 'they are also in punishment of intemperance and the frightful lust of mankind.' God's mills grind slowly, but surely; and severe chastisements of this nature God employs only as a last resort, in order to draw His wayward children from evil and sin.

Fatal Consequences to the Individual.-Furthermore, the individual addicted to the sin of lust brings both spiritual and physical ruin upon himself. I quote from a doctor of authority: 'The entire nervous system, the emotional and religious life become deranged. The body loses its vigor and resistive powers, while the mind forfeits its robustness, alertness and resourcefulness. Many a youthful and beautiful complexion, florid appearance, sprightly gait, graceful carriage, and easy manner, are hopelessly ruined by this unnatural practice; many a brilliant mind is shorn of its power of initiative, spirit of enterprise, glow of originality, fire of enthusiasm, by the same suicidal habits. It sickens the imagination, deadens the emotions, and brings on depression of spirits, melancholy, despondency and despair, and extinguishes every spark of religious enthusiasm.' There is no crime too low to which a man of lust will not stoop. Hardly had the wise Solomon become unchaste, when he offered incense to idols and became an apostate. King David, from an adulterer, became a homicide. What about Martin Luther, King Henry VIII of England, and Napoleon of France? It was lust that started them all on their career of apostasy, infidelity, murder and ruin. Why so many infidels in the world today, who mock everything holy, everything pure, if not because they are steeped in the sins of lust? O frightful plague of religion, of society, of so many individuals!

Conclusion.-Realizing the evil consequences, may I exhort you to fly from and to detest every avenue of approach to this sin? Every pastor knows, and God knows, the many temptations that are flaunted before us at every turn in the world today. For this reason, holy Mother Church is most generous in dispensing the graces of God to fortify us from being drawn into this maelstrom of lust which surrounds us on every side. In turn, there is something refreshing, amidst the present whirlpool of filth, to see those untold numbers of beautiful souls, young men and women as well as elders, in every walk of life, who in spite of evil surroundings still retain the beautiful virtue of purity and chastity.

These realize that we are never sure from an unexpected attack. Hence they combat these powers of evil by practising the virtue opposed to lust, namely, chastity-that most beautiful of all virtues, the flower of good morals, the honor of the body, the glory of both sexes, the foundation of all sanctity. Chastity elevates man above the angels, and renders him, so to say, similar to God. Let us pray often to God for this holy virtue; then rest assured that He will never refuse us the graces necessary to fulfill what He commands. Fortified thus, we can say with St. Paul: 'I can do all things in Him that strengtheneth me.' Amen.


III. OCCASIONS OF SINS OF LUST: THOUGHTS AND LOOKS

(Newspapers, Pictures, Movies, etc.)

'Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh' (Matt., xii. 34).-'I fear lest, as the serpent seduced Eve by his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted, and fall from the simplicity which is in Christ' (II Cor., xi. 3).

Man, my friends, is made up of body and soul. Unlike all other creatures, he is endowed with intellect and free will. Through his soul, he becomes reasonable and free, master of his own actions.

It matters not how strait the gate,

How charged with punishments the scroll,

I am the master of my fate,

I am the captain of my soul. (Wm. E. Hanley).

Yes, endowed with intellect, immortal and allied to the Angels is man! For, as the Psalmist declares: 'Thou hast made him a little less than the Angels.' On the other hand, through his body, man is related to inferior creatures, and even to the very dust of the earth. Hence these two elements, the material and the spiritual, body and soul united, forms man. But there must be one head, one master, that must dominate and rule. Which shall it be? You will say that it is the soul and reason, of course. And what is to be the subject of this rule? You answer that it is the body. It is the body that must obey.

But now take a glance at those steeped in lust and impurity. In such, the soul is degraded to the position of a servant and slave of the body and of the flesh. The right order is inverted. Passion controls, and reason obeys. To avoid this inverse order in our lives, of the body domineering over the soul, God has given us the Sixth and Ninth Commandments as guides. In these He forbids not only the sinful act itself, but also all those factors that may lead up to the sinful act, or prepare the way for it. The latter group, we shall begin to consider today. We may call them the avenues of the enemy's approach, or the occasions for the sins of impurity. Our Catechism groups them under the following heads, namely: thoughts, desires, looks, words, and deeds. Today we shall take up thoughts, desires and looks.

Thoughts and Desires. -Our enemy's first avenue of approach is through the intellect, by placing before us thoughts and images against holy purity. These thoughts and images, however bad they may be, are not sinful if not followed by bad and wilfully entertained desires. St. Paul and others of the greatest Saints had violent temptations of this nature.

These thoughts may even be accompanied by a certain sensation of pleasure without becoming sinful. Concupiscence is an effect of original sin; and it is in us, in spite of ourselves. But it is in our power not to give consent, either to the thought or to the sensation of pleasure. It is in our power to reject both as soon as we are conscious of them. In case we do, these thoughts are not only not sinful, but may be even meritorious. Such, for example, are the thoughts that so frequently confront us, like a mist, like a cloud, passing over a clear sky.

Therefore, before we should be disturbed over evil thoughts or desires, we must be certain of three things: (a) the thought or image must be intrinsically immodest or impure; (b) we must be conscious of its presence and take pleasure therein; © we must give our free consent to the thought or pleasure. If one or other of these conditions is missing, there can be no grievous sin. But when all three conditions are present, then our thoughts are sinful, and very often grievously sinful. For, says Christ, such a one has already committed the sin 'in his heart.' This important fact is frequently overlooked, when people examine their conscience for confession and neglect to mention the sin of thought.

Sins of Looks. -Next to our thought, come our sight and hearing and our other senses. Our eyes are frequently called the 'mirror of the soul.' For, it is through the eyes that objects from without are mirrored in our minds. Also our eyes may reveal to others the thoughts that are entertained within the mind. Frequently, without a warning, our eyes may fall upon an object that is indecent. If we immediately turn away from that object, we may incur no guilt. Even willful looks of curiosity may not in themselves be sinful; but they readily expose one to the danger of sin. For example, a curious and indiscreet look led David to fall (II Kings, xi. 2), the chief of Sichem to outrage Dina, the daughter of Jacob (Gen., xxiv. 2), the two men who threatened to attack the chaste Susanna, and so on. So grievous, therefore, may the sin of sight become that it is equal to the act itself. For, says Our Lord, 'whosoever shall look on a woman to lust after her, has already committed adultery with her in his heart' (Matt., v. 28). And St. Augustine tells us that he knew persons of such eminent sanctity that he would have been less surprised to see an Angel fall than these holy persons; and yet they fell and were lost on account of immodest looks.

Bad Books and Pictures. -Most people's actions, and this is especially true with the young, are mere repetitions of what they see others do. For that reason, there used to be a popular saying: 'As the parent, so the child. As the father, so the son. As mother, so the daughter.' But in our day, when the fireside is no longer the place where children gather for their recreation and social hours, when the home is rather a place to eat and to sleep in when there is no other place to go, there are other outside influences that are equally as great as, if not greater than, the influence parents exercise in moulding the physical, mental, and moral future of their children. And of all the unbridled commercialized influences that have been instrumental in bringing morality, especially amongst the young, to such a low ebb as we find it today, there is nothing more destructive than the immoral picture magazines, cheap books, and the moving picture traffic, as we find them at present.

To confirm these statements, I visited one of our local 'respectable' newsstands, similar to those that are commonly found in every community all over the land. On its shelves I discovered more than 15 pornographic magazines, that reek with lewdness, filth, and immorality from cover to cover. In the same newsstands, you find circulating libraries of books, amongst which cannot be found one out of a hundred that is fit reading matter for respectable people. And yet, we find that our own Catholic people frequent and patronize these places without qualms of conscience.

Next to these magazines and books, which lead people to sin against the Sixth and Ninth Commandments through the sense of sight, we must mention in particular, our modern moving picture theatres. There, lewdness and sex have been depicted upon the screen in such a manner that the movie colony at Hollywood has fallen into ill-repute the world over. Even the players themselves there fell so low in their morals that one writer describes the colony 'as so rotten that it stinks.' In some foreign countries, as in Ireland, as high as 80% of American movies are banned from the country because of their obscenity and indecencies.

As advocates of the Legion of Decency, we do not condemn all movie pictures. Every new discovery in art or science can be used for good or evil. Visual education, too, can be productive of much good. But the evil lies rather in the industry itself, as it has been conducted, than with the individual movie houses. The reason is this: in this country four or six motion picture producing companies control, not only the production, but the distribution of nearly all movie films as well. Through their 'block' and 'blind' booking, these companies oblige the distributor to buy blindly in a block, without previous inspection and without any right of selection or discretion, whatever is sent to him locally. Those too in control of production are commonly people without any religion, and are frequently opposed to all positive religion.

And lest we be accused of exaggerating the physical, mental and moral harm that moving pictures are doing, let us hear from a nationally recognized authority. His name is Henry James Forman, who published his findings in 1929 after an exhaustive study. He entitled his book: 'Our Movie-Mad Children.' He estimates that the movies touch the lives of 250,000,000 people every week. The average weekly attendance in our own country is nearly 80 millions, of which 23 millions are young people under 21 years of age. These 23 millions of children spend at least two hours each week in movie theaters. Twelve millions of these children are 14 years or younger, while 6 millions are seven years or younger. Seventy per cent of the pictures reviewed had for a dominant theme crime, sex love, violence, or horror, with 449 crimes being noted in 115 films taken at random.

Effects on Children. -Here are the results upon the minds and bodies of these children.

(i) First, after attending such pictures, scientific tests were made of a group of children selected at random. The physical disturbances, indicated by increased restlessness in sleep, averaged 4% in girls and 26% in boys; while individuals registered as high as 90%. In all cases, the increased restlessness lingered over a period of several nights, while the normal work at school was disturbed for days after attending the movies.

(2) The emotional reactions were found equally as great, registering five times as great in children as in adults. Due to the excitement caused, it was found that the pulse had jumped to 140, instead of the normal pulse rate of 8o; in individual cases it reached 192. In the opinion of a noted neurologist, the scenes of horror and tense excitement produce an 'effect similar to shell-shock,' which eventually 'amounts to an emotional debauch, sowing the seeds for future neuroses and psychoses'-which, in our language, are forms of insanity.

(3) The moral harm can scarcely be estimated. The sex appeal; the racketeers, the flaming passion and high-power emotionalism so featured in the movies, may easily nullify every standard of life and conduct set up at home and at school for the child. What a crime this 'greed for profits on the bodies and souls of little children!' No wonder the Manchester Guardian of England, referring to our American movies, should suggest: 'The United States has agitated against the trade of opiates in the Far East. Would it not be well for her to act as vigorously against the corrupting influence that comes from her own shores (through her moving pictures)? No wonder, then, that according to a conservative estimate (Commonweal, May 5, 1933) there are at least 55 millions of intelligent people in this country, who never go to a movie theatre, because the pictures are 'below the level of their intelligence.'

Likewise with reason, therefore, did a group of Catholic women, under the National Council of Catholic Women, condemn the movies in the following caustic terms: 'We find the average film reeking with vulgarity, crammed with lewd dialogue, disguised under the term of 'wisecracking.' We find immorality exalted; gross spectacles presented in the form of realism. Divorce is upheld as an ideal condition; faithfulness between husband and wife is looked upon as something unusual. Films deal with the lives of morons, rather than of decent men and women. The gangster and horror pictures have given place to the production of the most immoral films of all time.'

The Legion of Decency.-Justified, therefore, was the Catholic Church as a whole, unitedly to organize her 'Legion of Decency,' under the capable leadership of the Most Rev. Archbishop McNicholas, O. P. Everyone knows the nature and intent of this organization now. Other religious bodies and organizations have united with us in this campaign. A good beginning has been made, but only a beginning. The producers in Hollywood have promised a reform. There are signs of improvement from that source. But we cannot stop there. This is only one angle of the work of the Legion of Decency. Our campaign must go on until all sources of corrupting influence are checked. We must go on until our news-stands with their bookshelves and magazine counters are cleared of filth and corruption; until our schools, colleges and universities remove from their teaching staffs those whose doctrines are demoralizing and corrupting the minds of their pupils.

This is your work and mission, you fathers and mothers, you older men and women! It is not the youth of the land that is seeking a lower standard of morals than our forbears. It is their elders that are preparing and pointing the way. It is true that thirty years ago the average criminal's age was forty. Today, those who glut our penal institutions are nearer twenty years of age, or even less. But where must we look for the causes of the youthful criminal? Is it not in our lewd advertisements in our daily newspapers, books and magazines, placed there for profit? In our theatres where crime and racketeering, where vice and immorality, are extolled and virtue flaunted? Is it not in our many schools of learning, where teachers are deliberately misleading youth from the high principles of living, offering in their stead unbridled license as the guiding principle of life, self-indulgence and self- gratification as its goal? These teachers of youth declare, that neither the criminal nor the ordinary citizen has any freedom to determine his own acts but that everything is predestined by his heredity and experiences. What respect can the pupils have for religion, what reverence for authority, human or divine, when their teachers sneer at the 'myth and outworn superstition,' as they call it, of a personal God? When the young are told that the Ten Commandments are only a man-made code of etiquette, the crystallized will of a group, and not the revealed law of God, binding upon the conscience of man? Are we forgetting George Washington's wise warning, that 'reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle'? Have we forgotten the proverb: 'It is hard to take out of the oak the twist that grewin the sapling'? Here lies our responsibility.

And our cause is not entirely hopeless. There are signs of an awakening in many quarters. 'The very presence of a widespread alarm and concern for youth is a sign of health. When public men and women are voicing the need of safeguarding the youth of the land, it is an indication that the Nation is becoming aroused to the evil influences threatening the young. When business and professional men, clergymen, parents and teachers are beginning to give thought to the problem, that fact alone begets the well-founded hope that youth, with 'its illusions, aspirations, and dreams,' will come through the perils of the new age victorious' ('Nation's Youth Problem,' by J. I. Corrigan, S. J.).

If we elders will not protect youth against this modern exhibition of 'greed for profits' which preys 'on the bodies and souls of little children,' there are signs that youth will soon refuse to follow us. They will set out to chart their own future course. The heart of American youth is still sound. 'Our young are fired with stronger idealism, higher ambitions to climb greater heights than ever before. They are charged with a courage to dare, with ambition to achieve, with nobility to strive, with inspiration to win, what their forefathers could not achieve.' What hopes for America, with her 40 and more millions of children and adolescents! 'What a picture they make as they troop off to school, day after day, 231/2 millions strong to our elementary schools, 5 millions to our high schools, and 1 million to our colleges and universities.' There is yet hope for the future-if not in our elders, then in our youth. We still retain confidence in modern youth, whose heart and mind are moulded after God's own plan. In the words of the poet, let us close with a tribute to youth:

How beautiful is youth! How bright its gleams,

With its illusions, aspirations, dreams!

Books of beginnings, story without end,

Each maid a heroine, and each man a friend!

All possibilities are in its hands,

No danger daunts it, and no fee withstands; In its sublime audacity of faith,

'Be thou removed,' it to the mountain saith. And with ambitious feet, secure and proud, Ascends the ladder, leaning on the cloud. Amen.


IV. OCCASIONS OF SINS OF LUST: WORDS AND ACTIONS

'Out of the abundance o f the heart the mouth speaketh' (Matt., xii. 34).-'Uncleanness, let it not so much as be named among you, as becometh saints' (Eph., v. 3).

Everything that is necessary for the proper care of the body, so that it remain clean and healthy, is allowed, and is no sin. Everything that is done for wicked pleasure, is forbidden, and is a sin; be it in thought or desire, in looks, in words, or in action. These are mostly known as the sins of the senses-the 'avenues of approach,' as we called them in our last discourse, or the occasions for sins against the Sixth and Ninth Commandments. First of all, since the soul or mind should control the actions of the body in rational creatures, the evil one begins by directing his attack upon our thought-life. Evil thoughts may arise like a sudden mist, and try to disturb us. But, as we said, these thoughts are not sinful unless they are wilfully entertained. And by prayer and determination of will we can control these thoughts and dispel them before they become sinful.

Next to thought, Satan plans his approach through the eyes. Jeremias calls the eyes the 'windows through which death enters.' Salvian calls them the 'mines of the soul.' For, as the strongest rocks and walls are blasted by mines, so, by fixing the eyes upon dangerous objects, the soul is instantly confronted with impure thoughts and desires that cause the destruction of holy virtue. St. Bernard, therefore, says: 'A true sign of chastity is caution in looks, and he who is dissolute in looks, you must conclude, is also unchaste.'

Proposition.-From sinful objects or looks follow evil thoughts and desires; and from these proceed also evil words and actions. For, as St. Matthew wistfully says: 'Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh' (Matt., xii. 34). What these sinful words and actions are in relation to chastity, we shall discuss today.

Immodest Words.-St. Paul in his Epistle to the Ephesians (v. 3) tells us: 'Uncleanness, let it not so much as be named among you, as becometh saints.' Elsewhere (1 Cor. xv. 33), he further warns: 'Evil companionships (communications) corrupt good morals.' For, once the eye has grown evil and thoughts become corrupt, the sense of speech is not slow to express in words what is in the minds of people with whom we associate. Who has not heard the saying: 'Like begets like'? Or: 'Tell me with whom you go, and I will tell you what you are.' In other words, he that sees alike, will think alike; and they that think alike, will speak alike; and from thinking and speaking there is but one step to doing alike.

No one knows human nature better than Jesus, our Saviour, knew it. And for the question under discussion He left us the parable of the prodigal son. This wayward son had become impregnated with evil thoughts and desires through bad companionship. Through his conversation with others he had heard of the liberties he might enjoy away from home. His home surroundings became distasteful, and he became restless. He asked his father for his inheritance- something he was not entitled to until after his father's death. 'He went abroad,' says Scripture, 'and wasted his substance, living riotously' (Luke, xv. 13). Upon his return, his brother states it more explicitly, by saying he 'devoured his substance with harlots' (ibid., 30).

Here Our Lord points out every step that is taken by one who falls into grievous sins against the Sixth and Ninth Commandments. Had this young man not listened to the evil conversation of his wicked and corrupt companions with whom he associated, his downfall would have been averted. And yet, there are those who think lightly of the immodest conversation that is carried on daily by and around them. You frequently hear them say: 'Oh, we don't mean any harm by it. It is just in fun.' But not all those who hear that filthy talk, will go away and believe 'it was all in fun.' In their quiet moments, the things they have heard will recur again and again to their minds. It becomes a scandal to them; and like the prodigal son, it may be the beginning of a coming downfall, a life of sin. Hence, without making any distinction, whether any harm is meant or not, Sacred Scripture, through the mouth of the Apostle, forbids all immodest language, saying: 'Let no evil speech proceed from your mouth' (Eph., iv. 29). 'Put away filthy speech out of your mouth' (Col., iii. 8).

Bad Actions.-Speak no evil, do no evil! Or the reverse: speak about immodest things, and there is but one step to doing impure things! This brings us to another question which a Catholic priest would rather not speak about, but would prefer to pass over unnoticed. But were I, from false delicacy, to leave some of you entrusted to my care in dangerous ignorance of or in doubt concerning certain sinful acts, I might incur blame for serious injury to your souls and one day hear from God the awful sentence: 'If thou dost not announce My word to man and make it known, I will require his blood (his soul) at thy hand' (Ezech., iii. 18).

First of all, we must proceed to answer some of our objectors, who do not agree with us on what we call forbidden or sinful actions.

Objection 1-'Why,' they say, 'insist upon an impossibility? Nobody keeps quite chaste. You don't understand what life is, until you've tasted life. Give me a man who has had experience, and then he can talk, if he wants.'

Answer.-As to the impossibility, we know that there is a large group of clean men and women composed of Catholics and non-Catholics alike, who conduct themselves quite as they should. They come to marriage, or even live out their whole life of single blessedness, without their purity ever losing its lustre. There is still another group larger than the first, who, either through ignorance or through human frailty, have done wrong once perhaps, but never again. These quickly regain their friendship with God, and lead pure and noble lives the rest of their days.

Again, it is quite true that keeping oneself chaste involves the sacrifice of one experience, but it means the gaining of a better experience. For example, if I never had smallpox, I miss the experience of the infection of smallpox. Yet, is it not better to have experienced good health without the experience and marks of smallpox? Hence, you may answer the impure: 'I agree that I have sacrificed one experience; but I have also gained one. And so have you. But the one I have gained is by far better than the one you have had. I have got nearer to true manhood, you nearer to animalhood.'

Objection 2-Another fallacy you often hear is this: 'A certain amount of indulgence is good for you. It quiets your nerves.' In reply we say: go and ask any reputable doctor whether it 'is good for you.' He will tell you that our social diseases and nervous exhaustion, about which we hear a great deal today, are due to sexual debauchery. As to 'quieting your nerves,' he will tell you that just the contrary is true. Why does every instructor for prize fights and athletics advocate the very opposite, namely, complete abstinence? The fact of the matter is that sexual indulgence is a short, acute shock to the nerves, leaving its scars and searing the conscience. But virtue's experience 'is like a glow, not a flash; an experience of happiness, not of mere pleasure.'

In every age there have been those who held that ever so often it was good, nay, evennecessary, to ease one's concupiscence, either through pollution, self-abuse, or intercourse with others. This is one of the trump charges which the lecherous and impure love to make, especially against the chastity of priests and Sisters.

Here is a story to the point. A certain anti-Catholic speaker was making these very charges against priests and Sisters. Amongst other charges he made this statement: 'It is impossible for any man to remain pure for six months at a time.' A man in the audience arose, and asked the speaker this question: 'You are a married man with a family, are you not?' 'Yes,' was the speaker's reply. 'You just told us you recently spent nine months abroad on business, while your family was here at home, did you not?' 'Yes,' was again the reply. 'Then,' said the man in the audience, 'I pity your wife and your children.' The audience caught the point, and booed the speaker from the platform.

These people deny the possibility or the advisability of continency. Do you know the meaning of that word? Continency means the positive abstention from all carnal pleasures under all circumstances. This does not include those nocturnal or periodical emissions, which are natural for a healthy, normal person of either sex. We affirm that physicians are in almost unanimous agreement with the statement of Dr. Henry Stanton, a recognized authority, who says: 'Strict continence is neither injurious to health, nor does it produce impotence [as some contend]. While self- denial is difficult, since the promptings of nature often seem imperious, it is not impossible. It is certain that no youth will suffer physically by remaining sexually pure. The demands which occur during adolescence are mainly abnormal, due to the excitements of an over-stimulating diet, pornographic literature and art, and the temptations of impure association.' Of our own strength, yes, it might be physically impossible. But, says Our Lord 'My grace is sufficient for thee' (II Cor., xii. 9). 'The grace of God, by Jesus Christ, Our Lord' (Rom., vii. 25). And so counsels the Wise Man: 'As I knew that I could not otherwise be continent, except God gave it, I went to the Lord, and besought Him with my whole heart' (Wis., viii. 21). Prayer, then, gives us the added strength needed.

Objection 3.-But our adversaries are persistent. Their next reply is: 'Well, after all, these actions are but natural.' But this is only a half-truth, and that is why it sounds so plausible. In man, endowed with intellect and freewill, such actions uncontrolled are only partly natural. They correspond to instinct, which we have in common with the animal, the brute. But if they are duly controlled and properly governed by reason, they are fully natural. For actions through instinct go all the way in an animal, but only part of the way in man. Hence, to follow instinct and not reason would be to cut away the very part that makes man human-that which makes our acts human acts. Therefore, continency, or control of sensual appetites by reason and instinct combined, is natural, and self-indulgence is not.

Even aside from a supernatural standpoint, let us not be misled by these false prophets of self-indulgence. Listen to this remarkable document. In accordance with the best medical opinion of the world, the following Bulletin (known as 'General Headquarters Bulletin, No. 54') was issued from the American Army Staff in France, on August 7, 1918: 'Sexual continence is the plain duty of members of the American Expeditionary Forces, both for the vigorous conduct of the war, and for the clean health of the American people after the war. Sexual intercourse is not necessary for good health, and complete continence is wholly possible. . . . Commanding officers will urge continence on all men of their commands, as their duty as soldiers, and the best training for the enforced sexual abstinence at the front. Instruction, work, drill, athletics, and amusements will be used to the fullest extent in furthering the practice of continence. By command' of General Pershing. Official: Signed: Robert C. Davis, Adjutant General, James W. McAndrew, Chief of Staff.'

Finally, if 'it is but natural,' then why the feeling of remorse that follows every abnormal sensual satisfaction? Why call it a temptation or sin at all, if it is but natural? Why call 'each maid a heroine, and each man a friend,' who overcomes that evil propensity, if it is but natural? Why, if the opposite is but natural, does Tennyson cry out in Sir Galahad:

My strength is as the strength of ten,

Because my heart is pure.

Nay, rather 'blessed is the man that endureth temptation,' says St. James, 'for when he hath been proved, he shall receive the crown of life.' Amen.


V. OCCASIONS OF SINS OF LUST: DRESS AND DANCING.

'Evil communications corrupt good manners' (I Cor., XV. 33)

In childhood we acquire most of our knowledge by imitating what we see and hear our elders do and say. Even

after our mental faculties are properly developed, it is estimated that less than five percent of the people think for themselves. The other ninety-five per cent continue, as in childhood, to accept what they see others propose, or do, for them. You can readily understand, therefore, what an influence for good or for evil our modern newspapers, magazines, books, theatres, school and daily associates exercise in moulding the thoughts and habits of the majority of our people. It is estimated that the eighty millions of people who frequent our theaters every week spend more money on this form of amusement alone than is spent in and for all the churches in the country taken together.

As stated before, these external forces are frequently occasions for grievous sins against the Sixth and Ninth Commandments. Bad example, then, is a fruitful source of many of our social evils of today. Even our recreation, our mode of dress, have come under their spell. I have, therefore, selected for our discussion today two other avenues of approach not heretofore mentioned, which Satan frequently employs as occasions that may lead to grave sins against the Sixth and Ninth Commandments. They are two popular subjects, namely: dress and dancing.

Dress or Styles of Dress .-Frequently, when an audience hears a speaker mention the subject of styles and dress, a certain resentment arises in the minds of many, who murmur to themselves: 'Now, why should he bring up that subject again? Are not the styles determined by the designers of clothes? And must we not dress according to the time and the country in which we live?' Rather, would I ask you not to prejudge me as a radical on this matter. As intelligent Catholics and Christians, we should sooner ask: 'Why do we wear clothes at all? Where do styles originate? Who determines styles, and for what purpose?' After these facts have been determined, we may perhaps have cause for censure or for praise.

Origin of Dress. -The origin of dress dates back to the Garden of Eden. After Adam and Eve had sinned, their concupiscence was aroused; and they, for the first time, realized that they were naked.

In the Book of Genesis (iii. 7), the first Book of the Bible, we read: 'And when they perceived themselves to be naked, they sewed together fig leaves, and made themselves aprons. . . . And the Lord God made for Adam and his wife, garments of skins, and clothed them' (Gen., iii. 7, 21). It was God Himself, therefore, who dictated the first styles of clothing, and gave them to man. And it was modesty on man's part that prompted him to adopt clothing to cover his body.

Later on, clothing was worn, as it is today, for protection against heat and cold, to preserve health, and to ward off disease. Styles were further adopted to distinguish the sexes, to mark the difference in office, occupation or social rank, and so on. Thus, we find the different uniforms for general, captain, sergeant and common soldier, and for the police in cities all over the world; also different church vestments for the different festivals.

But early in the history of the human race women were known to clothe themselves for the sake of adornment, also using jewels and cosmetics to enhance their appearance. Nowhere do we find the Church condemning this practice as long as it is done with proper decorum and in moderation. But in the course of time these adornments were used for vanity's sake, and for other baser motives. Already we find St. Paul, for example (1 Tim., ii. 9), refer to improper styles of dress amongst his converts to Christianity, over whom Timothy was to preside as bishop. In his final instructions to Timothy, St. Paul says this: 'In like manner, women also, in decent apparel adorning themselves with modesty and sobriety, not with plaited hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly attire (for vanity's sake).' In other words, he asked his convert women to dress becomingly and modestly. For 'after this manner,' says St. Peter, the head of the Apostles, 'heretofore the holy women also, who trusted in God, adorned themselves' (I Pet., iii. 5). Hence, ever obeying the mind of the Church, good Christian women clothe themselves with virtue; and virtue has always determined the styles or modes of dress for decent people.

However, on account of the constant contact with pagan nations, with their immoral principles and practices, the Church has been forced again and again to remind Christians in the words of St. Paul: 'Evil communications corrupt good manners' (1 Cor, xv. 33). And corrupt morals invariably manifest themselves m the mode or style of dress that is adopted, especially in feminine apparel. It is easily seen, therefore, how our designers of modern styles of dress are governed by the same pagan immoral influences, unless checked by our open protests. The impelling motives behind modern styles are no longer modesty, protection against weather, or becoming adornment, but principally sex appeal. And the sad part of it is, that so many of our modern Christian women and girls often have no idea what a factor their dress (which to the wearer may seem harmless) is in arousing the sex urge of others who must associate with them.

It is for this reason that especially the last three Pontiffs, Pius X, Benedict XV, and Pius XI, have deplored the modern styles of feminine apparel. Only recently, Pope Pius XI deplored the modern trend of fashion in the following terms: 'The unfortunate mania for fashion causes even honorable women to forget every sentiment of dignity and modesty. The decrease of womanly reserve has always been a sign of social decadence. The vanity of woman causes the disintegration of the family. An immodest mother will have shameless children. A shameless girl cannot be a good wife. It is possible to dress with ladylike decorum, without imitating monastic severity.'

On January 12, 1930, the same Holy Father of Christendom instructed the bishops throughout the world to take active measures in behalf of decency of dress. He requests them to report to him on this matter every three years. The note of instruction enjoins not only bishops, but also parish priests, fathers and mothers, directors of schools and institutions, and nuns conducting these schools, to remember their serious duty in giving all necessary instruction, and 'insisting' on modesty in feminine attire.

It is, therefore, vanity of dress that the Church condemns. For, says Lavater: 'She who studies her glass, neglects her heart.' And, continues Shakespeare: 'The soul of the vain man is in his clothes.' Hence, no matter how innocent the girl's intentions, no matter how good her motives, common decency forbids her parading before others to display the beauty of her form, instead of the 'beauty of her soul and the loveliness of her virtue.' For, as Father Scott, S.J., expresses it: 'God put the instinct of attractiveness in women, in order to induce honest love and marriage. The way some women dress induces only dishonorable love. . . . It implies no esteem, no honest purpose, no idea whatever of true affection. Nothing fades so fast as the attraction founded on animal passion. The scandalous dress of some women exposes them to lustful eyes, generates false love, and lays the foundations of lifelong misery.'

Dancing.-From improper styles in dress, we go to improper dancing. The one, as we readily see, is the natural supplement to, or outgrowth of, the other. The vain person is not content with self-adornment, but wants to display this vanity before others. Social gatherings and amusements afford the best opportunities for this. Hence, those whose vanity centers in the sex appeal, find no better outlet than in our dance halls, where participants may be observed at close range.

Here again the doctrine of the Catholic Church on dancing holds fast to the principle: 'Is it right, or is it wrong?' Unlike the puritanical attitude of those who condemn all forms of diversion and recreation-be it smoking, chewing, drinking, playing cards, games, theatricals, etc., even though practised in moderation-the Catholic Church condemns no pastime as long as there is no sin connected with it. Many pastimes can be directly or indirectly utilized for healthbuilding purposes. But, like in dress, so in dancing it is not the use, but the abuse, to which a thing is put that we condemn.

We know, for example, that in the Old Testament the Jewish people were accustomed on festival days to dance around the Ark. Even to-day, on great feasts in some countries, it is customary for children to dance before the Blessed Sacrament in the sanctuary. So, now we do not condemn respectable dances, where the participants are properly clad, proper decorum is observed, and the evening is spent together for recreation and innocent enjoyment. In fact, in most of our schools, we find instructors in this art, teaching the children rhythmical movements of their bodies and cultivating grace and proper bearing, all of which are conducive to health and happiness.

But what the Church does condemn is every form of sin and abuse in dancing. And today, as in the past, experience teaches that most of the public dance halls are hotbeds for sin and cesspools of vice. Hence, the Church forbids all public dances, where there is no restriction as to who attends. Whenever the advertisement reads, 'Everybody welcome,' that should be a sufficient warning in itself. Secondly, the Church condemns certain forms of dancing, no matter whether conducted in public or in private. This includes such types as the 'bunny-hug,' the 'tango,' certain 'foxtrots,' certain 'round dances,' which, on account of the position and proximity of the participants, are considered immoral, and are therefore forbidden. Individuals again are forbidden every form of dance which they themselves find a proximate occasion of sin.

Against sinful dances we are warned already in the Old Testament, where we read: 'Use not much the company of her that is a dancer, and hearken not to her, lest thou perish by the force of her charms' (Ecclus., ix. 4). And even though we sin at such dances only in thought, St. Paul tells us that 'he that lusteth after her in his mind, has already committed the sin before God.'

Even though one should not believe in the inspired word of God, we still have many other proofs from many other sources that confirm our attitude towards indecent dances. For example, Demosthenes, the greatest orator of pagan Greece, wishing to cast odium upon persons belonging to the army of King Philip of Macedon, accuses them of participating in public dances. In pagan Rome, to describe a woman without morals it was enough to say that 'she dances more elegantly than becomes an honest woman.' Ovid, Aristotle, Plato, Seneca and Scipio, all profane writers, describe public dances in their times in a manner that cannot even be quoted here. Tertullian represents the public dance hall as a 'temple of Venus, or a sink of obscenity.'

St. Ambrose calls them 'a choir of iniquity, the rock of innocence, the grave of shame.' And St. Charles Borromeo adds: 'The worldly dance is nothing else than a circle of which the devil is the centre and his slaves the circumference; whence it hardly ever happens that a person dances without sin.'

Just listen to these two quotations of our own times from the Hobart College Herald and the New York University News, representing two non-Catholic schools for women in this country.

From the Hobart College Herald, I quote: 'The outstanding objection to the modern dance is that it is immodest and lacking in grace. It is not based on the natural and harmless instinct for rhythm, but on a craving for abnormal excitement. And what is it leading to? The dance in the process of its degradation has passed from slight impropriety to indecency, and now threatens to become brazenly shameless. From graceful coordination of movement it has become a syncopated embrace. Even the most callous devotee of modern dancing cannot think with unconcern of the danger involved in any further excess. For American morals have undoubtedly degenerated with the dance. It cannot be denied that many who indulge in modern dancing do not realize the nature of the incentive which leads them to do so. They like to dance; it becomes a habit, a fascinating obsession. . Were this thoughtless immodesty restricted to the ballroom, the danger would be great enough, but it is unconsciously carried into everyday life. Truly, then, it is imperative that a remedy be sought to arrest the development of the modern dance before this perilous state gets beyond control.'

Now, briefly from the New York University News: 'Overlooking the physiological aspects of women's clothing, there is a strong moral aspect to this laxity of dress. When every dancing step discloses the entire contour of the dancer, it is small wonder that moralists are becoming alarmed. The materials, also, from which women's evening dresses are made, are generally of transparent cobweb. There is a minimum of clothes and a maximum of cosmetics, head-decorations, fans, and jewelry. It is, indeed, an alarming situation when our twentieth century debutant comes out arrayed like a South Sea island savage.' These, my friends, are words, not from a Catholic Priest, but from two groups of non-Catholic women, who still believe in decency and proper decorum.

Conclusion.-With such an array of indictments, then, surely no normal-minded Catholic or Christian can refrain from vigorously censuring such forms of amusement. What surprises us so often is the fact that all upright and cleanliving women do not rebel, and rise up in open revolt against the degradation that is being heaped upon pure womanhood everywhere around us. Why permit those enticing posters of nudity and unbecoming posture which we see upon display so frequently in front of present-day moving picture houses? Why permit the indecent display of their sex upon the shelves of our public newsstands? Shall we continue to tolerate such abuses, solely for lucre's sake, and the demoralization of our youth? It is said that if our Catholic people alone would unite and rise up in rebellion against these organized powers of evil, we could force every industry of vice into bankruptcy, and close the doors of our salacious haunts of vice and corruption. Once the start is made, all decent people will rally their forces behind us. Pray to God to give us strength and courage to marshal our forces against this present debauchery, and preserve for posterity holy purity, that anchor of all other virtues for which Christ Jesus came to earth, bled and died. Amen.



VI. OCCASIONS OF SINS OF LUST: UNDUE FAMILIARITIES, PETTING

'He that loveth danger shall perish in it' (Eccles., iii. 27).

A religious survey conducted in 1926 at Villanova College, a Catholic boys' school, disclosed a surprising need of more explicit instruction upon the specific dangers confronting young people of our day. In reply to the question, 'On what points of Catholic Doctrine do you feel you need more instruction?' purity and matrimony were mentioned more than any other point of doctrine. A similar questionnaire was given to my own high school pupils, and the same reply was received from both our boys and girls. Another similar questionnaire was submitted to 186 college graduates concerning their attitude on mixing socially with the better class of girls at dances, parties, etc., their attitude on minor love-making, their reaction from reading modern fiction containing realistic love scenes, from attendance at the average musical comedy and movies. Nearly all of these 186 men reported something disquieting in their conscience upon one or all of these points.

My friends -and especially you, my dear young men and women-the expressions of concern on the part of so many who answered these questionnaires, prove that, in spite of what others might think about these matters, a conscientious person is not entirely satisfied with the decorum observed by so many of our people today. It proves to us all that we see so frequently in modern fiction, on the screen, in our movies-the love scenes, those prolonged kisses, the undue familiarities between the sexes, the petting parties, and so on-do not prove to be innocent when put to an actual test. Our subject then for today will be as follows: 'Undue Familiarities and Petting Parties,' as two more means by which Satan leads people to sin against the Sixth and Ninth Commandments of the Decalogue.

Upon this subject I would love to speak to you as a friend to a true friend. And I trust you will accept my words in this spirit. Many parents and teachers are often ignorant of what actually goes on in the minds of young people. In like manner, upright young men are often ignorant of what is really transpiring in the minds of ideal young women with whom they associate, and vice versa. I refer to the fact that boys and girls, and parents too, are generally ignorant of the essential difference of the sex instinct, as found in man and woman. The common notion is that it is about the same in all people, and that it differs only in intensity. But biologists and psychologists have done well in exposing this wrong notion. They distinguish two factors in the sex urge which all should know. First, we have the psychic factor, that is, the craving of the soul for companionship, understanding and response. The second is the physical factor, which is inherent in the body, and which craves the sensuous phase of sex. It is well for all to know and remember this distinction.

In the boy it is usually the physical factor that predominates, while in the girl it is the psychic factor; and this not infrequently continues throughout life. Dr. Maurice A. Bigelow expresses it in this way: 'The sexual instincts of young men are characteristically active, aggressive, spontaneous, and automatic; while those of the girl, as a rule, are passive, and subject to awakening by external stimuli, especially in connection with affection.'

These facts should be of particular interest, especially to our young people. So often a good girl has no idea of the vehemence of the boy's passion. As a pure girl, she is conscious only of her love, and her desire to be loved in return. She often censures the parent or confessor for being too severe. She believes that the boy has the same innocent intentions as herself. And so she cannot understand what harm there could be in kissing and embracing. She knows that she has no evil intentions. She wishes merely to display her affection. She wishes nothing more, and expects nothing more. This is usually the average experience of the normal girl, who is so eager to have a boy friend and to go out with him. And thus she 'makes dates with him,' as she calls it.

On the other hand, the boy has no knowledge of th e girl's attitude. He does not know or realize that the girl is different from himself. And when the girl is affectionate, he immediately concludes that she is just as passionate as he himself; that she is feeling the same physical urge as he. How many a pitfall, how many a fatal step, might have been avoided, if every boy and girl had known these differences in their sex urge earlier in life! Hence, Pope Pius XI, in his Encyclical on the 'Christian Education of Youth,' warns parents and teachers in these striking words: 'It is no less necessary to direct and watch the education of the adolescent, 'soft as wax to be moulded into vice,' in whatever environment he may happen to be, removing occasions of evil and providing occasions for good in his recreations and social intercourse; for 'evil communications corrupt good manners.'

I trust you will pardon me for my frequent quotations. I am doing this in order to drive home my point more forcibly, by giving you the opinions of other recognized authorities, besides my own. Twenty Catholic doctors, a few years ago, were asked their opinions on various topics in the PeckWell's inquiry. I shall quote them only in part. They declare, that 'love-making, petting and kissing ordinarily arouse passion, few are immune; some get disgusted when the girl makes too ardent advances; extreme liberties cause the height of sexual excitement, in perhaps 15% or 20% of the cases. . . . Mixing socially with the better class of people disturbs the sexual emotion only with particularly sensitive boys; public dances cause much more trouble, both because of loose conversation, and because the girls frequently encourage close hugging, and the like; and the immoral dances, so common today, are nothing more nor less than sensuality set to music.'

These, my friends, are the words of twenty experienced physicians; men who, in view of their profession, certainly cannot be accused of bias or undue sentimentality on the subjects. And yet, there are those girls who persist that they see nothing wrongin kissing and petting, with prolonged embraces in one another's arms. They belong to that class who, in the words of Dr. George W. Sandt (Lutheran), 'paint and powder and drink and smoke, and become an easy prey to a certain class of well-groomed and wellfed high livers, whose chief business is 'to pluck the blush of innocence from off the cheek of maidenhood and put a blister there.' ' It is from this type of girls that the startling evidence came to light a few years ago through judge Fred E. Bale, of Columbus, Ohio, who estimated that in one year 68,000 girls were reported missing in the United States. The majority of these girls, he says, were from good families and had 'got in trouble,' and rather than face their parents or embarrass their families they simply 'dropped from sight.'

And the young boy, too, who boasts of the number of girls he can kiss and fondle, is far from being a gentleman. Dr. Exner sets forth the true character of such a young man, addicted to petting. 'The real lover,' he says, 'aspires to personal development and perfection, in order that he may the more readily contribute to the happiness of his mate in love. The petter, on the other hand, seeks chiefly his own pleasure and uses other persons to that end as he would use a thing, each to be cast aside when it has served his purpose.'

This, my friends, is the sleek sheik who will dash to the curb in his auto and offer to take an innocent, unsuspecting girl for that fatal auto ride. Imagine a girl from a good home, coming to you withthe question: 'Father, is a girl allowed to give up her virtue before marrying the boy she is going with?' These are the scoundrels who try to make a girl believe anything just to attain their evil end. This is the dangerous type of young man, who cannot feel comfortable, or at ease, when he must keep company with his girl friend in the presence of her parents and other members of her family. Of such the poet writes:

Is there, in human form, that bears a heart,

A wretch! a villain! lost to love and truth!

That can, with studied, sly, ensnaring art,

Betray sweet jenny's unsuspecting youth?

Curse on his perjured arts! dissembling smooth!

Are honor, virtue, conscience, all exiled?

Is there no pity, no relenting ruth?

(Cotter's Saturday Night).

Now comes a fair question many a good girl is tempted to ask. It is this: 'Father, can't we girls have any friends at all then? Must we remain 'wall flowers' all our lives?' Our answer is that every good boy and girl should have their friends. In the world of today, as in past ages, as well as in time to come, all good people look for friendship. They pine for lack of it. The pagans held friendship as the very end and purpose of life. They declared it the most perfect gift of God to man. There is nothing else which gives so great joy in life as true friendship. Our Perfect Model had His friends. Jesus has His chosen twelve, including a special three; and of the three, an especial one, John, who is called the 'Beloved Disciple.'

But what is true friendship? It is openness between friends, confidence, the absence of all reserve. Between friends there can hardly be any secrets. With each other, by silence as well as by the spoken word, they exchange their inmost thoughts. Unconsciously, they are allowing each other to enter into the depths of the heart, that is hidden by a thick veil from all others. And, to be genuine, friendship must reveal certain qualities. First, it must be loyal-no fairweather friendship, nor such as allows an attack on one's friend to go unchallenged. Secondly, it must be constant. Those who are always changing friends, one friend today, another tomorrow, know not what true friendship is. They have many acquaintances-yes; many friends-no! Thirdly, it must be frank. It must be based on sincere confidence and trust. Constant correction is not frankness in friendship, but rather an overzealous attempt to reach the results of friendship. Next, it must be ideal friendship; that is, I must see my friend as he is and as I would like that he should be. Lastly, it must be respectful, that is, decent and modest. For passion destroys friendship by destroying respect, and debases the precious signs of love.

Conclusion. -My friends, with these words I conclude my series of discourses on the occasions of sins of lust- or, as another has called them, 'the Devil's methods of approach' in leading people into the sins of impurity. These, we said, were principally through our senses-our thoughts, our desires, our eyes, our speech, and our actions. We included bad literature, theaters and the movies, bad companionship, sinful styles of dress, sinful dancing, and lastly petting parties, or undue familiarities with others. How well Satan succeeds in all these various methods of approach was revealed to St. Teresa, who, in a vision, was permitted by God to get a glimpse of hell. In this vision she saw impure souls fall into hell like flakes of snow in a wintry storm.

Yes, with such an overwhelming flood of temptations surrounding us, with false maxims and false principles of a pagan world confronting us, we may well be induced to cry out: 'Lord help us!' And our loving Saviour replies in the words He addressed to St. Paul, namely: 'My grace is sufficient for thee.' Yes, prayer and the Sacraments are our weapons to safeguard holy purity.

Speaking in the name of every priest, let me close with one more word of advice -never forget it! It is this: no matter what be your temptations, what your difficulties, never be afraid to go to your pastor, your priest, with your difficulties. To run away from our problems, to try to hide them, only makes matters worse. Let us face them together; and you will always find your priest a sympathetic friend. I still have great confidence in our young men and women of today. They have not lost their courage. In fact, they possess a refreshing absence of hypocrisy, unparalleled in earlier times. We admire their frankness and their sense of humor. When confronted with difficult problems, they would rather face and conquer them than try and avoid them. Therefore, when temptations against our holy virtue cross our paths, let us have a like courage, and exclaim with the Patriarch Joseph of old: 'How then can I do this wicked thing, and sin against my God l' (Gen., xxxix. 9). And with St. Paul: 'I can do all things in Him who strengtheneth me.' Amen.



VII. SAFEGUARDS TO HOLY PURITY: MEANS OF PRESERVING IT.

'Wherefore, he that thinketh himself to stand, let him take heed, lest he fall' (1 Cor., x. 12).

Most people are self-centered to a greater or lesser degree. To the extremist, the world appears much like a largespider web. Everything gravitates towards him. He stands in the center, with every pleasure, every comfort, every other creature forming the various strands which constitute the web around him. With him, self and not God is the ultimate end of his ambitions. His law-not God's law-is supreme. For such there is but one law, and that is selfgratification, be it in wealth, in pleasure, in lust, orin any other violation of God's Commandments. In fact, he does not believe in the existence of a Supreme Being. Untold numbers follow these principles, this doctrine.

To the true Christian, on the other hand, God and not the individual is the center of attraction. All other creatures form the various strands of this web, which is world-wide, and everything gravitates toward the center, which is God, the Creator of us all. To hold fast these various strands, God has given us certain laws to follow- to irrational creatures the natural law, and to His rational creatures His positive laws, contained in the Ten Commandments. To safeguard our honor and the honor of our neighbor in relation to God, we have the Sixth and Ninth Commandments. We call this virtue chastity or purity-purity of intention, purity of thought, word and action.

Keeping the two schools of present-day philosophy in mind, one centering everything in self and the other centering everything in God, we can better understand, according to our Christian ideals, the gravity of every sin-and especially of impurity, as we have demonstrated in our preceding sermons. Every Christian and Catholic, then, should desire to know what are the safeguards, what the means, of preserving purity or chastity in thought and deed. This shall be our subject to-day.

With purity all other virtues thrive: without it no others can. Purity is such a beautiful virtue, so delicate in nature, that it precludes any and every tampering with it, lest the lily fade and die.

Knowing this to be true, we must look for all the safeguards with which we may enshroud it and protect it. To discover these safeguards, God has given us understanding and free will.

But there is another modern school of thought which has a large following. Their doctrine originated with the socalled Reformation of the sixteenth century. They deny the freedom of the human will, our freedom to do or not to do a thing. With them there is no such thing as 'safeguards' for holy purity. Reason and free will are mere myths, in their estimation. Martin Luther called reason the 'Devil's Harlot.' Denying the freedom of the will, he wrote to Erasmus: 'The human will is like a beast of burden; if God mounts it, it goes and wishes as God wills; if Satan mounts it, it goes and wishes as Satan wills. Nor can it choose the rider it prefers.' In other words, man is not responsible for his actions, be they good or bad. Therefore, there is nothing we can do about it when temptations come.

We, on the other hand, say that we are responsible for our actions. God has given us understanding and free will. He has also given us the Commandments to guide us. When our reason and will act in conformity with these Commands, we say our actions are good. If not, we say they are bad. In regard to holy purity, then, we have two classes of safeguards to preserve it. The first class comprises those means to be used before temptation, or when we are free from temptation; the second comprises those to be used when we are actually tempted.

Before Temptation.-While we are free from temptation, we must prepare and gird ourselves for possible and unexpected attacks. Before Colonel Lindbergh and his wife set out together on their 29,000 miles of perilous journey over land and sea from July to December of 1933, they did not say: 'Everything depends on God or Satan for the success or failure of that flight.' They did not wait until dangers and difficulties confronted them. On every lap of that journey, before setting out, they checked their airplane, every instrument and detail; they prepared to meet any and every crisis.

Over the sea of life, despite the unexpected and dangerous storms and squalls surrounding us, God has given us certain means by which we may secure a safe passage. To safeguard the lily of holy purity before the attack, He has given us four means to ward off the assault: two of these we hold in our own hands; the other two are supernatural. The first two are the avoidance of bad company or occasions of sin and the custody of our senses, especially the eyes. The second two are prayer and the Sacraments.

(1) Avoidance of Bad Company.-We have already seen how easily bad company can lead us into sin; how lack of restraint of the senses, especially of the eyes, gives rise to impure thoughts and desires. Some may say: 'Oh, I'll be careful! God will protect me.' But this is not sufficient. There is something peculiar about temptations against holy purity, which allows no halfway measures. We cannot hesitate. For, 'he who hesitates will perish.' 'He who loves danger will perish therein' (EccIus., iii. 27). Immediate flight is the only alternative. And in this flight, we must-like the aviator-watch every instrument; that is, our senses, so that none fail us.

This is the advice one holy man gave to a boy who came to him for advice after having yielded to temptations against holy innocence. 'There are three things,' he said, 'you must do, if you really desire to overcome these temptations. First, you must fly away; secondly, you must fly at once; and thirdly, you must fly away quickly.' The young man followed this advice and his efforts were crowned with success.

Self-denial or mortification is also a powerful help. This means to deny ourselves some pleasure, some particular dish at table, some tit-bits, and the like, which we might legitimately enjoy, and are allowed. This strengthens our wills so that when the time comes we may deny ourselves the things that are not allowed.

(2) Prayer and the Sacraments.-Secondly, the helps from above, which enable us to overcome temptation, are prayer and the Sacraments.

(a) For the virtue of purity, earnest prayer to God and His Blessed Mother, our Guardian Angel and the Saints, is a notable means of overcoming temptations. We find this promise recorded in the Book of Wisdom(viii. 21): 'And as I knew that I could not otherwise be continent except God gave it, I went to the Lord and besought Him.' And St. Augustine, who was a great sinner before his conversion, confirms this, saying: 'I thought that I could lead a pure life bymy own strength; but soon I felt that I was too weak. Then I began to pray.'

Let us mention a few of the prayers we might use. The making of the sign of the Cross, with the word 'Jesus' said three times, is sufficient to ward off ordinary temptations. Then we have the beautiful prayer to our Guardian Angel, which we learnt at our mother's knee, and which should be repeated mornings and evenings, namely:

Angel of the Lord, my Guardian dear,

To whom His love commits me here,

Ever this day be at my side,

To light and rule, to guard and guide.

For the Blessed Virgin, we have the beautiful 'Hail Mary,' and St. Bernard's prayer of consecration, beginning with the words: 'Remember, O most gracious and Blessed Virgin Mary, that never was it known, that anyone who fled to thy protection was left unaided,' etc. Then again, most of you know this little prayer: 'O Mary, my Queen and my Mother, remember I am thine own. Keep me and guard me as thy property and possession. To thee, this day, I consecrate my eyes, my ears, my mouth, my heart, and myself and my whole being.' Then you can add any other prayer you may know.

The Blessed Virgin once said to St. Bridget: 'As a mother who sees her child in danger of being put to death by an enemy, runs forward and does all in her power to save that child; so do I also run to help my children, even those among them who have already yielded to impure temptations, just as soon as they call upon me for help.'

(b) The other helps from above are the Sacraments of Penance and Holy Eucharist. The more we polish a jewel, the brighter its lustre, and the less chance is there for dust to gather. The Sacrament of Penance does a similar thing to the soul, in protecting it from any tarnish against holy purity. And what food is to the body, that Holy Communion is to the soul. Hence, these two Sacraments support us in temptation, raise us when we have fallen, and strengthen us when we are weak. If we cling with all our hearts to the Blessed Sacrament, 'the bread of the strong, the wine of virgins,' then purity is safe.

Thousands of books have recommended these two remedies. The Saints have used Penance and Holy Eucharist as their panacea. Millions through the centuries have tried the same, and with constant success. And today, when men and women, exposed to the allurements of the world and beset at the most dangerous age with temptations of all kinds, have succeeded not only in leading pure lives outwardly, but also in keeping their hearts and their thoughts pure, it is because they have gone regularly to Confession, and received often the Blessed Sacrament of the Altar. Such persons, and these only, triumph. And, if even they sometimes fall, what can those expect who without watchfulness, without prayer, without the Sacraments, try to conquer temptations? St. Don Bosco, a holy confessor, says: 'To confess only once every three months, is for young people as little as a drop of water upon a redhot iron.' And St. Francis de Sales advises us: 'You ought not to wait longer than a month, you who love your innocence.'

Means Used When Actually Tempted .-But supposing Satan, with his temptations, has broken through the first line of defense, and the storms of temptation are already upon us, what is to be done then? First of all, resort to flight, if that is possible. If not, then again, turn immediately to prayer: 'Lord, save me, or I perish!' 'O my God, rather let me die than sin!' 'O Mary, help me; do not desert me.' 'How can I do this wicked thing and sin before my God!' Other similar short ejaculations, accompanied by a sign of the Cross upon your forehead, your lips and your breast, will surely help. For the Cross is the sword for all Christians.

Secondly, remember what you sacrifice by a few moments of sensual pleasure.

My strength is as the strength of ten,

Because my heart is pure.

Thus cries out Sir Galahad. When the morning sun shines into the little dewdrops, we can see some of the glory and splendor of the heavens reflected there. So in chastity. Some of God's glory and beauty is reflected in my soul, for the soul is the image and likeness of God. 'Chastity gives me a memory, prompt and tenacious; thought, quick and abundant; a will, strong and persevering; a character, tempered with a vigor unknown to libertines.'

All this I will sacrifice for a sin that will cover me with shame. My conscience becomes disturbed; my countenance grows pale and wan; the voice grows feeble and hoarse; my memory grows dull; intellectual exertion becomes difficult; and ills without number haunt me as old age creeps over my dissipated and polluted body. What an exchange for so little in return!

Conclusion. -Before closing, let me tell you the story of a beautiful picture. Once described, you may profitably recall it in times of temptation. It is a group-picture, with the Blessed Virgin Mary occupying the center. She is seated upon a throne, wearing a lovely crown, the symbol of royalty. In her arms she holds the Child Jesus, who is distributing four lilies to four Saints. The lilies are symbols of innocence of heart-that virtue which makes a soul especially, dear to Jesus and His purest Mother. On this picture, to the right of Mary, are two figures of the protectors of innocent youth, namely, St. Aloysius and St. John Berchmans. To her left are the two virgins, St. Cecilia and St. Agnes. Immediately in front of these four Saints are four little children, who are stretching out their hands to the Infant Jesus. The four Saints in the picture urge them to do this. For these little children, too, want to receive the lily of purity. Their favor is granted, because they prayed to Mary with Jesus in her arms. Yes, my friends, when temptations come, we are not alone.

SOMEBODY KNOWS

Somebody knows when your heart aches, And everything seems to go wrong; Somebody knows when the shadows Need chasing away with a song;

Somebody knows when you're lonely, Tired, discouraged, and blue;

Somebody wants you to know Him, And know that He dearly loves you.

Somebody cares when you're tempted And the world grows dizzy and dim; Somebody cares when you're weakest, And farthest away from Him;

Somebody grieves when you've fallen, Tho' you are not lost from His sight: Somebody waits for your coming, Taking the gloom from your night.

Somebody loves you when weary; Somebody loves you when strong; Always is waiting to help you, Watches you, one of the throng,

Needing His friendship so holy,

Needing His watch-care so true.

His name? We call His name Jesus.

His people? Just I and just you.

(Fanny Edna Stafford.)

O, how beautiful and pleasing, then, must the virtue of purity be, since it makes a soul the favorite one with Jesus

and Mary! 'O, how beautiful,' says Holy Writ, 'is the chaste generation with glory; for the memory thereof is known both with God and with men. . . . It triumpheth crowned forever, winning the reward of undefiled conflicts' (Wis., iv. i sq.). Amen.


VIII. DUTIES OF PARENTS TOWARDS CHILDREN: INSTRUCTING THEM IN MATTERS OF SEX.

'All things are clean to the clean; but to them that are defiled, and to unbelievers, nothing is clean; but both their mind and their conscience are defiled' (Titus, i. 15).

On April 10, 1907, Pope Pius X gave to the Catholic world a message which at the time seemed strange and startling to many of the older folks of that day. It was that memorable Decree, in which this Holy Pontiff directed pastors and parents to encourage early and frequent Communion. Instead of waiting until the boy or girl had reached the age of 12 or 14 (as had been the custom), he advised that children at the age of seven, or when they have attained the use of reason, should be instructed in the rudiments of our holy religion, and then be permitted to receive their First Holy Communion. The reason this Pope, a great lover of children, gave was that this had been the practice of the early Christians; and that, on account of our times, when the young people are exposed to so many temptations against their holy innocence, Holy Communion is to be the antidote which is to preserve them in their virtue and innocence.

In like manner, in recent years, the thinking minds of the Church have perceptibly changed their attitude in favor of more direct and explicit instructions on the Commandments, and of the Sixth and Ninth Commandments in particular. On account of the many new channels through which a child of today may acquire false ideas on sex matters, the Church counsels especially parents and teachers to be mindful of their sacred duties in these matters. Primarily, however, the duty rests upon parents to impart to their children this necessary instruction on the sacred mysteries of life. This duty of parents is the subject for our discussion to-day.

A few years ago, an experienced missionary (see 'Sex Education,' by Fr. Felix Kirsch, O.M.Cap., p. 146), sent the following questionnaire to 500 pastors in various parts of the country. 'Is it,' he asks, 'your impression that Catholic parents give the necessary sex instruction early enough to their children? If not, why not?' From these 500 pastors, 320 replied 'No,' and only 43 replied in the affirmative,. The principal reasons given by these pastors, for the parents' neglect of their duty, were these: (i) parents do not know how to instruct their children; (2) they do not realize the need of the instruction; (3) they are too timid about discussing the subject with their children; (4) they think that the priest should take care of the matter in the confessional; (5) some parents believe that teachers might give sufficient information in a general way in school; (6) too many parents believe that children may be left to themselves in the matter; that somehow or other they will find a way out of the difficulty themselves.

One old pastor in the East added the following note: 'You will render a much needed service, if you will do something that will make our Catholic parents bestir themselves. Not all parents seem to realize to what frightful dangers their children are exposed at the present time. Children are seduced at an early age, whereas they could be saved if they were instructed betimes at home. They contract the habits of impurity before they are aware of what is happening to them. The confessor cannot do everything.'

In recent years, a number of our public schools introduced in their curriculum a special course in sex hygiene and eugenics, trying to supplement the instructions the child should receive from his parents. But, on account of the unfitness and divided opinions of the teachers themselves, experience has proved that these public school instructions have done more harm than good. These subjects cannot be taught independently of religion. And yet, so many of these teachers begin with the principle: 'Sex and morals have nothing to do with one another.'

Besides, these instructions should begin long before a child is sufficiently advanced in school to receive instructions there. Tennyson was correct in saying that 'we are a part of all we meet.' Other scholars say that the character of a child is formed from birth until he reaches the age of reason, at about the seventh year. Then also, on account of our environment, curiosity about the mysteries of life is aroused at a much earlier age than in the past. Imagine a child of five or six years old coming to his parent or teacher, as has happened, and asking without blush or shame: 'Where do babies come from?' Imagine the statement of Miss Tracy, a policewoman of Worcester, Mass. (October, 1928), where she admits that nine-year-old children have told her things about sex which she did not know at forty.

And just because the age at which the legitimate curiosity of children may be aroused varies so greatly, it becomes all the more difficult for teacher or pastor to give class instructions on this subject. Hence, it becomes evident that father and mother, who are in daily contact with their sons and daughters from birth, have the sacred duty to instruct the child when the opportune time arrives. This is what Pope Pius XI restates in his Encyclical on the 'Christian Education of Youth' when he writes: 'It is no less necessary to direct and watch the education of the adolescent, 'soft as wax to be moulded into vice,' in whatever environment he may happen to be, removing occasions of evil and providing occasions for good in his recreations and social intercourse; for 'evil communications corrupt good manners.' '

But many a father or mother will ask the questions: 'When should I begin with these instructions? How shall I go about it?' The time to begin is when you see that the child grows curious to know what it has a right to know. Our principle is: 'Rather a year too soon than one hour too late.'

When and How to Proceed.-Age and circumstances must determine this to a great extent. Take the little boy or girl, for example, who asks the question: 'Mamma, where do babies come from?' There was a time when the question was answered with a curt reply 'The stork (or the doctor) brings the babies.' Or: 'Little children like you should not ask such questions.' But these answers do not satisfy the mind of the child. They only arouse the curiosity of the child still further. They create a mistrust in the mind of a child towards his parent; and the child quietly awaits the opportunity when he may obtain that information from other sources. Hence the Church discourages-in fact, condemns-such vague and unsatisfactory answers. Alban Stoltz, the writer and author, calls such replies 'lies.' And 'a lie never brings a blessing.'

The same author (Fr. Felix Kirsch, 'Education to Purity,' p. 188) suggests that parents should answer such a child in a more direct manner; yet, with proper delicacy and reserve. For example, when the child is old enough to understand, parents might well begin with the beautiful narrative of the Incarnation and Birth of our Divine Saviour. The Scriptural story of the first Christmas at Bethlehem appeals to the mind of every child. And the part Mary and Joseph played in the birth of the Baby Jesus can be beautifully and effectively retold. As children grow older, more details might be added. Following this, the mother can proceed to tell her boy or girl how they too were formed.

Let us cite an example how other parents proceeded to impart this information. One mother informs us that she found the following method, taken from Good Housekeeping (September, 1911), quite satisfactory and helpful. To the child she spoke somewhat as follows: 'Mother and father love each other very much. Where God is, there is love, and God wants little ones to be. Children are the special proof that God is love. When God wants to send a little child into a home, He fits up, just beneath the mother's heart, a snug nest, not unlike the nests the birds live in. Then out of two tiny eggs the father and mother bring together, in the nest, a little child is hatched just like a little bird. But for months and months helives in his nest in the mother's body. The mother knows the little one is there and loves him dearly. A part of all the food she eats goes to his nourishment. At last when the little one is too big to stay longer in the nest, the doctor comes and helps to bring him out into the world.'

One little boy who fearfully had asked his mother the question, and had received the above reply, hastened to ask: 'That must hurt, mamma, does it not?' 'Sure, my darling,' replied the mother. 'Are you still mad at me?' 'Mad?' replied the mother, as she warmly clasped the boy to her heart. 'No, my dear, that was not your fault.

All mothers, except the mother of Jesus, suffer when their children are born. But they forget all their pains the moment they see their little ones. Now, darling, don't look so sad. Smile and laugh again like mamma.'

The little boy did not laugh for a while. The thought that he had caused his mother pain, made him serious, and haunted him for hours. Later, when mamma kissed him good-night, the little chap flung his arms around mamma's neck, saying: 'Oh mamma, I love you so much more now than ever before.' 'Yes, my boy,' she added, 'these are holy things we talked about. Anything else you wish to know, do not go to anyone else, but come right to your papa or mamma, and we shall gladly tell you anything you wish to know.'

Such parents have won the undying love and complete confidence of their children forever. Such children usually grow up to be good sons and daughters; and nothing could ever shake their reverential love and their unlimited filial confidence in the future. Children from such homes will not come later in life, like the girl who was kept in total ignorance about sex matters, asking the question: 'Father, does a girl become pregnant if she kisses the boy whom she loves?' Or: 'Father, is it all right for a girl to give up her virtue to a boy she loves before she marries him?' and many other similar questions. Nay, but rather will good parents, who know their duties towards their children, inform them still further, as they enter their teens, of the fact that the knowledge of sex matters is not wrong. Only the abuse of such knowledge is bad.

Again, they will take the story of the Incarnation as their guide. When the Angel appeared to the Immaculate Virgin Mary, and told her she should become the Mother of God, she showed clearly from her answer, 'I know not man' (that is: 'I have not done what is necessary to become a mother'), that she was well informed on sex matters. And she was, no doubt, very young at the time when her parents, Joachim and Anna, imparted this knowledge to her. For she was probably only about 16 years old when the Angel appeared. And we do know that this knowledge did not cast the least shadow on her incomparable, spotless chastity.

Often when young people present themselves for holy matrimony, during the preliminary instruction preceding the ceremony, I frequently ask the question: 'Did your parents or anyone else instruct you on the things young people should know before entering holy wedlock?' Repeatedly, the reply is: 'No, neither our parents nor anyone else told us anything about our duties in this regard.' Such young people have never had explained to them the real meaning of the words repeated daily in the Hail Mary: 'Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.'

Such parents are guilty of grave neglect. Following the example of Joachim and Anna, the parents of the Blessed Mother, it is the sacred duty of every parent to call son and daughter aside before they have reached the ages of twelve or fourteen, and especially before marriage, and explain to them the nature and purpose of the various organs of the body. Beginning with the various appetites of the senses, as they develop, the appetite we call 'sex instinct' should be properly explained. And it should be made clear that this sex instinct is good in itself; that God has given it for a noble and definite purpose; but that it must be used only according to God's plan and design.

Hence, it would be wrong to speak of it as being 'bad pleasure,' or certain parts of our body as being 'forbidden.' Jesus, when He became man, took to Himself a complete body, with all the organs of man. His Blessed Mother, too, had a complete body, with all the organs of a woman. Hence, no part of our body is 'forbidden' or 'bad.' God made them all. I should rather say, that certain parts of the body are 'too sacred' to be trifled with-to be abused or to be talked about lightly. God could have created the bodies of every one of us, just as He creates every soul-as He created out of nothing our first parents, Adam and Eve, or as He created the Angels. But, by giving man these organs of the body, God made every man and woman a potential co-partner in His work of creating new human beings- creatures who are one day to fill the spaces made vacant by the fallen angels.

Here lies the tremendous responsibility of marriage. It is a partnership, not only between man and woman, but between a man and a woman and God. God is not mocked. Parents cannot leave Him out of the picture of married life. A terrible judgment awaits those who try to cheat God of His share in this partnership. And whoever assumes the responsibility of parenthood, must preserve the life of that child, both for time and for eternity. Parents have a sacred duty to teach that child how to preserve both body and soul pure and undefiled.

Conclusion:-And the easiest way to accomplish this is by leading the way through good example. Remember this point well: in parental teaching it is not so much what parents say, but what they are and do. There is a wise saying: 'Parents may say what they please, but they thunder what they are.' What parents are may speak so loudly that children cannot hear what they say. Therefore, the best parents for training children in chastity, are the chaste parents who set the example first.'Verba docent, exempla trahunt.' 'Words teach, but example draws.' Children see through their parents much quicker and better than parents see through their children. 'Actions speak louder than words.' Hence, the father who says to his son 'Come,' has some influence. But the father who says to his son 'Go,' has much less influence.

I have the greatest sympathy for any boy or girl who may have made a mistake. For we never know how much of the guilt is due to the child and how much to the parent of that child. We know that Scripture tells us that the sins of parents shall pass on to the third and fourth generations. In like manner, we might say, the blessings of good parents pass on to their children and children's children, even to the third and fourth and fifth generations. What tremendous powers and responsibilities, therefore, has God placed in the hands of fathers and mothers, for good or for evil! Truly, then, may every good father and mother address his or her children in the words of the noble Machabean mother, who spoke to her seven sons, about to be martyred, in the following terms: 'I know not how you were formed in my womb; for I neither gave you breath nor soul nor life, neither did I frame the limbs of every one of you. But the Creator of the world, who formed the nativity of man' (11 Mach., vii. 22 sq.). Amen.

Nihil Obstat: Artheu J. Scanlan, S.T.D. Censor Librorum.

Imprimatur: Patrick Cardinal Hayes, Archbishop of New York, New York, September 28, 1935.

Print this item

  St. Louis de Montfort: Friends of the Cross
Posted by: Stone - 12-16-2021, 09:22 AM - Forum: The Saints - No Replies

FRIENDS OF THE CROSS
by St. Louis Marie De Montfort

[Image: ?u=https%3A%2F%2Ftse1.mm.bing.net%2Fth%3...%3DApi&f=1]


PREFACE

St. Louis Mary 1716, author of this 'Letter,' is widely known through his treatise on 'The True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary' and its abridgment 'The Secret of Mary.' Well has he merited the title of 'Apostle of Mary' and des ervedly he is called 'Tutor of the Legion of Mary.' Addressing the many pilgrims at the canonization of St. De Montfort, July 1947, the Holy Father calls him 'the guide who leads you to Mary and from Mary to Jesus.' Speaking of St. Louis' 'Prayer for Missionaries,' Father Faber says:

'Since the Apostolical Epistles, it would be hard to find words that burn so marvelously.' He has founded two religious congregations: the priests and the brothers of the Company of Mary (Montfort Fathers) and the Daughters of Wisdom. To his sons and daughters he has left a rich heritage of doctrinal writings.

In this 'Letter' St. Louis manifests his passionate love for the Cross and pours forth the noble sentiments of his ardent soul. Like St. Paul, he is 'determined to know nothing. . . . except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified' (1 Cor. 2-2); 'indeed a stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness to the Gentiles, but to those who are called. . the Wisdom of God' (1 Cor 1-23, 24).

While giving missions in the city of Nantes in 1708, this eloquent preacher of the Cross and devout slave of Jesus in Mary formed, from the most fervent souls among his audiences, an association of 'The Friends of the Cross.' This fraternity or association was established .in the localities evangelized by the holy Missionary to fight against the many disorders and vices of the times and to make reparation for the outrages perpetrated against the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Each time he visited these places he exhorted the members to persevere in their first fervor. Alas! Suddenly he was forbidden to preach to them. Through intrigues, machinations and calumny his arch enemies, the Jansenists, prevailed to have their redoubtable adversary silenced.

During the summer of 1714 Father De Montfort stopped at Rennes. Here, too, with diabolical hate and fury, the Jansenists succeeded in having the saintly Missionary silenced. Welcoming this added humiliation-for his heaviest cross was to be without a cross-he took refuge at his alma mater, the Jesuit College at Rennes, where he was warmly received. Here he buried himself in an eight day retreat meditating on the mystery of Calvary. From an incessant heart-to-heart talk with the Man of Sorrows and His Blessed Mother he received a new light and a more ardent love for the Crucified Savior.

On the last day of the retreat St. Louis, always eager to lead the faithful souls on the Royal Road of the Cross, desired to communicate to his fervent followers the fruits of his sublime meditation and poured forth the burning sentiments of his apostolic soul in the following 'Letter.'

In this epistle he gives us a holy doctrine which he preached and lived all his life thus imitating his Divine Master, Jesus Christ. It is believed that as a seminarian he wrote those two wonderful poems: 'The Strength of Patience' (39 stanzas) and the 'Triumph of the Cross' (31 stanzas) in which we find the elements contained in this 'Letter.' As a young priest he wrote his first book, 'Love of Eternal Wisdom,' and in its beautiful fourteenth chapter, 'The Triumph of Eternal Wisdomin the Cross and by the Cross,' is demonstrated the author's great love for the Folly of the Cross. In his allocution on St. De Montfort, quoted above, the Holy Father said: 'Being crucified himself he has a perfect right to speak with authority on Christ Crucified. . . . He gives a sketch of his own life when drawing up a plan of life in his 'Letter to the Friends of the Cross'' (Cf. 'Letter,' No. 4, 2).

When this 'Letter' appeared St. Louis had already written the 'Secret of Mary' and most probably had fi nished its lucid development 'True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary' to which this 'Letter' is very closely related and is, as it were, the development and completion of the saintly author's 'plan of forming a true client of Mary and a true disciple ofJesus Christ' (True Devotion No. 111).

Although written more than two centuries ago to fight against the evils and vices of those days this 'Letter' retains all its usefulness and freshness. It wages a holy war on the evils, vices, pagan materialism and secularism of the present day. St. Louis gives us a panacea for all these ills: Christian mortification, prayer and a total consecration of ourselves to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. In a strong staccato tone he tells us 'to suffer, to weep, to fast, to pray, to hide ourselves, to humiliate ourselves, to impoverish ourselves, to mortify ourselves. He who has not the spirit of Christ, which is the spirit of the Cross, does not belong to Him, but they who belong to Him have crucified their flesh and their concupiscenccs.'

Is this not the message Our Lady of Fatima gave to the world- penance, mortification, sacrifice, prayer and consecration to her Immaculate Heart-in 1917. Is it not Our Blessed Mother who guided and inspired her faithful Apostle to write it!

Thus imbued with a burning love for Christ Crucified, a love born of humiliation, suffering, persecution and contempt, like his Divine Master, St. Louis gives us, at the close of his 'Letter,' some wise, prudent rules that teach us how to suffer and bear our crosses patiently, willingly and joyfully in the footsteps of Our Lord and Crucified Savior. Thus convinced of the necessity of the Cross, stimulated by the happy effects it produces in our souls, and guided by these same rules laid down by St. Louis De Montfort we will more readily renounce Satan, the world and the flesh; we will more patiently bear our trials, crosses and tribulations and we will more carefully heed Christ's admonition: 'If any one wishes to come after Me let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me' (Luke: 8-23).

- The Editor



INTRODUCTION

Dear Friends of the Cross:

1. Since the divine Cross keeps me hidden and prevents me from speaking, I cannot, and do not even wish to express to you by word of mouth the feelings of my heart on the divine excellence and practices of your Association in the adorable Cross of Jesus Christ.

However, on this last day of my retreat, I come out, as it were, from the sweet retirement of my interior, to trace upon paper a few little arrows from the Cross with which to pierce your noble hearts. God grant that I could point them with the blood of my veins and not with the ink of my pen. Even if blood were required, mine, alas!, would be unworthy. May the spirit of the living God, then, be the life, vigor and tenor of this letter. May His unction be my ink, His divine Cross my pen and your hearts my paper.


Part I - EXCELLENCE OF THE ASSOCIATION OF THE FRIENDS OF THE CROSS

1. -Grandeur of the Name, Friends of the Cross

2. Friends of the Cross, you are a group of crusaders united to fight against the world, not like those religious, men and women, who leave the world for fear of being overcome, but like brave, intrepid warriors on the battlefront, refusing to retreat or even to yield an inch. Be brave. Fight with all your might.

Bind yourselves together in that strong union of heart and mind which is far superior, far more terrifying to the world and hell! than the armed forces of a well-organized kingdom are to its enemies. Demons are united for your destruction, but you, be united for their overthrow; the avaricious are united to barter and hoard up gold and silver, combine your efforts in the pursuit of the eternal treasures hidden in the Cross; reprobates unite to make merry, but you, be united to suffer.

3. You call yourselves 'Friends of the Cross.' What a wonderful name! I must admit that it charms and fascinates me. It is brighter than the sun, higher than the heavens, more imposing and resplendent than any title given to king or emperor. It is the great name of Christ Himself, true God and true Man at one and the same time. It is the unmistakable title of a Christian.

4. Its splendor dazzles me but the weight of it frightens me. For this title implies that you have taken upon yourselves difficult and inescapable obligations, which are summed up in the words of the Holy Ghost: 'A chosen generation,a kingly priesthood, a holy nation, a purchased people' (1 Peter 2, 9).

A Friend of the Cross is one chosen by God from among ten thousand who have reason and sense for their only guide. He is truly divine, raised above reason and thoroughly opposed to the things of sense, for he lives in the light of true faith and burns with love for the Cross.

A Friend of the Cross is a mighty king, a hero who triumphs over the devil, the world and the flesh and their threefold concupiscence. He overthrows the pride ofSatan by his love for humiliation, he triumphs over the world's greed by his love for poverty and he restrains the sensuality of the flesh by his love for suffering.

A Friend of the Cross is a holy man, separated from visible things. His heart is lifted high above all that is frail and perishable; 'his conversation is in heaven' (Phil. 3, 20); he journeys here below like a stranger and pilgrim. He keeps his heart free from the world, looks upon it with an unconcerned glance of his left eye and disdainfully tramples it under foot.

A Friend of the Cross is a trophy which the crucified Christ won on Calvary, in union with His Blessed Mother. He is another Benoni (Gen. 35, 18) or Benjamin, a son of sorrow, a son of the right hand. Conceived in the sorrowful heart of Christ, he comes into this world through the gash in the Savior's right side and is all empurpled in His blood. True to this heritage, he breathes forth only crosses and blood, death to the world, the flesh and sin and hides himself here below with Jesus Christ in God (Col. 3, 3).

Thus, a perfect Friend of the Cross is a true Christ-bearer, or rather another Christ, so much so that he can say with truth: 'I live, now not I, but Christ liveth in me' (Gal. 2, 20).

5. My dear Friends of the Cross, does every act of yours justify what the eminent name you bear implies? Or at least are you, with the grace of God, in the shadow of Calvary's Cross and of Our Lady of Pity, really eager and truly striving to attain this goal? Is the way you follow the one that leads to this goal? Is it the true way of life, the narrow way, the thorn-strewn way to Calvary? Or are you unconsciously traveling the world's broad road, the road to perdition? Do you realize that there is a highroad which to all appearances is straight and safe for man to travel, but which in reality leads to death?

6. Do you really know the voice of God and grace from the voice of the world and human nature? Do you distinctly hear the voice of God, our kind Father, pronouncing His three-fold curse upon every one who follows the world in its concupiscence: 'Woe, woe, woe to the inhabitants of the earth' (Apoc. 8, 13) and then appealing to you with outstretched arms: 'Be separated, My chosen people (Is. 48,20; 52,11; Jer. 50,8; 51,6), beloved Friends of the Cross of My Son, be separated from those worldlings, for they are accursed by My Majesty, repudiated by My Son (John 17,9) and condemned by My Holy Spirit (John 16,8-12). Do not sit in their chair of pestilence; take no part in their gatherings; do not even step along their highways (Ps. 1,1). Hurry away from this great and infamous Babylon (Is. 48,20; Jer. 51,6); hearken only to the voice of My Beloved Son; follow only in His footprints; for He is the One I have given to be your Way, Truth, Life (John 14,6) and Model: hear yeHim' (Matt. 17,5; Luke 9,35; Mark 9,6; 2 Pet. 1,17).

Is your ear attentive to the pleadings of the lovable and crossburdened Jesus, 'Come, follow Me; he that followeth Me walketh not in darkness (John 8,12); have confidence, I have conquered the world' (John 16, 33)?


II-The Two Groups

A-THE FOLLOWERS OF CHRIST AND THE FOLLOWERS OF THE WORLD

7. Dear Brethren, these are the two groups that appear before you each day, the followers of Christ and the followers of the world.

Our loving Savior's group is to the right, scaling a narrow path made all the narrower by the world's corruption. Our kind Master is in the lead, barefooted, thorn-crowned, robed in His blood and weighted with a heavy cross. There is only a handful of people who follow Him, but they are the bravest of the brave. His gentle voice is not heard above the tumult of the world, or men do not have the courage to follow Him in poverty, suffering, humiliation and in the other crosses His servants must bear all the days of their life.

B -THE OPPOSING SPIRIT OF THE GROUPS

8. To the left is the world's group, the devil's in fact, which is far superior in number, and seemingly far more colorful and splendid in array. Fashionable folk are all in a hurry to enlist, the highways are overcrowded, although they are broad and ever broadening with the crowds that flow through in a torrent. These roads are strewn with flowers, bordered with all kinds of amusements and attractions, and paved with gold and silver (Matt. 7,13-14).

9. To the right, the little flock that follows Jesus can speak only of tears, penance, prayer and contempt for worldly things. Sobbing in their grief, they can be heard repeating: 'Let suffer, let us weep, let us fast, let us pray, let us hide, let us humble ourselves, let us be poor, let us mortify ourselves, for he who has not the spirit of Christ, the spirit of the Cross, is none of Christ's. Those who are Christ's have crucified their flesh with its concupiscence. We must be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ or else be damned!' 'Be brave,' they keep saying to each other, 'be brave, for if God is for us, in us and leading us, who dare be against us? The One Who is dwelling within us is stronger than the one who is in the world; no servant is above his master; one moment of light tribulation worketh an eternal weight of glory; there are fewer elect than man may think; only the brave and daring take heaven by storm; the crown is given only to those who strive lawfully according to the Gospel, not according to the fashion of the world. Let us put all our strength into the fight, and run very fast to reach the goal and win the crown.' Friends of the Cross spur each other on with such divine words.

10. Worldlings, on the contrary, rouse one another to persist in their unscrupulous depravity. 'Enjoy life, peace and pleasure,' they shout, 'Enjoy life, peace and pleasure. Let us eat, let us drink, let us sing, let us dance, let us play. God is good, He did not make us to damn us; God does not forbid us to enjoy ourselves; we shall not be damned for that; away with scruples; we shall not die.' And so they continue.

C -LOVING APPEAL OF JESUS

11. Dear Brethren, remember that our beloved Jesus has His eyes upon you at this moment, addressing you individually: 'See how almost everybody leaves Me practically alone on the royal road of the Cross. Blind idolworshipers sneer at My Cross and brand it folly. Obstinate Jews are scandalized at the sight of it as at some monstrosity (1 Cor. 1,23). Heretics tear it down and break it to pieces out of sheer contempt. But one thing I cannot say without My eyes filling with tears and My heart being pierced with grief is that the very children I nourished in My bosom and trained in My school, the very members I quickened with My spirit have turned against Me, forsaken Me and joined the ranks of the enemies of My Cross (Is. 1,2; Phil. 3,18). Would you also leave Me? (John 6,68). Would you also forsake me and flee from My Cross, like the worldlings, who are acting as so many Anti-Christs? (1 John 2,12). Would you subscribe to the standards of the day (Rom. 12,2), despise the poverty of My Cross and go in quest of riches; shun the sufferings connected with My Cross, to run after pleasure; spurn the humiliations that must be borne with My Cross, and pursue worldly honors? There are many who pretend that they are friends of Mine and love Me but in reality they hate Me because they have no love for My Cross. I have many friends of My table, but few indeed of My Cross.' (Imitation of Jesus Christ, Book 2, Chap. 11.)

12. In answer to the gracious invitation which Jesus extends, let us rise above ourselves. Let us not, like Eve, listen to the insidious suggestion of sense. Let us look up to the unique Author and Finisher of our faith, Jesus crucified (Heb. 12,2). Let us fly from the corrupting concupiscence and enticements of a corrupt world (2 Pet. 1,4). Let us love Jesus in the right way, standing by Him through the heaviest of crosses. Let us meditate seriously on these remarkable words of our beloved Master which sum up the Christian life in its perfection: 'If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me' (Matt. 16,24).


Part II - PRACTICES OF CHRISTIAN PERFECTION
The Divine Master's Program

13. Christian perfection consists:

1. in willing to become a saint: 'If any man will come after Me';

2. in self denial: 'Let him deny himself';

3. in suffering: 'Let him take up his cross';

4. in doing: 'Let him follow Me.'

14. If anyone, not many a one, shows that the elect who are willing to be made conformable to the crucified Christ by carrying their cross are few in number. It would cause us to faint away from grief to learn how surprisingly small is their number.

It is so small that among ten thousand people there is scarcely one to be found, as was revealed to several Saints, among whom St. Simon Stylita, referred to by the holy Abbot Nilus, followed by St. Basil, St. Ephrem and others. So small, indeed, that if God willed to gather them together, He would have to cry out as he did of yore through the voice of a prophet: 'Come ye together one by one' (Is. 27,12), one from this province and one from that kingdom.*

I -THE DESIRE TO BECOME A SAINT?

15. If anyone wills: if a person has a real and definite determination and is prompted not by natural feelings, habit, self-love, personal interest or human respect but by an all-masterful grace of the Holy Ghost which is not communicated indiscriminately: 'it is not given to all men to understand this mystery' (Matt. 13,11). In fact, only a privileged number of men receive this practical knowledge of the mystery of the Cross. For that man who climbs up to Calvary and lets himself be nailed on the Cross with Jesus in the heart of his own country must be a brave man, a hero, a resolute man, one who is lifted up in God, who treats as muck both the world and hell, as well as his very body and his own will. He must be resolved to relinquish all things, to undertake anything and to suffer everything for Jesus.

Understand this, dear Friends of the Cross, should there be anyone among you who has not this firm resolve, he is just limping along on one foot, flying with one wing, and undeserving of your company, since he is not worthy to be called a Friend of the Cross, forwe must love the Cross as Jesus Christ loved it 'with a great heart and a willing mind' (2 Mach. 1,3). That kind of half-hearted will is enough to spoil the whole flock, like a sheep with the scurvy. If any such one has slipped into your fold through the contaminated door of the world, then in the name of the crucified Christ, drive him out as you would a wolf from your sheepfold.

16. 'If anyone will come after Me': for I have humbled Myself and reduced Myself to mere nothingness in such a way that I made Myself a worm rather than a man: 'I am a worm and no man' (Ps. 21,7). After Me: for if I came into the world, it was only to espouse the Cross: 'Behold I am come' (Ps. 39,8; Heb. 10,7-9); to set the cross in My heart of hearts: 'In the midst of my heart' (Ps. 39,9); to love it from the days of my youth: 'I have loved it from my youth' (Wisdom 8,2); only to long for it all the days of my life: 'how straitened I am' (Luke 12,50); only to bear it with a joy I preferred even to the joys and delights that heaven and earth could offer: 'Who, having joy set before him, endured the cross' (Heb. 12,2); and, finally, not to be satisfied until I had expired in its divine embrace.

II-SELF-DENIAL

17. Therefore, if anyone wants to come after Me, annihilated and crucified, he must glory as I did only in the poverty, humiliation and suffering of My Cross: 'let him deny himself' (Matt. 16,24).

Far be from the Company of the Friends of the Cross those who pride themselves in suffering, the worldly-wise, elated geniuses and self-conceited individuals who are stubborn and puffed-up with their lights and talents. Far be they from us, those endless talkers who make plenty of noise but bring forth no other fruit than vainglory.

Far from us those high-browed devotees everywhere displaying the selfsufficient pride of Lucifer: 'I am not like the rest!I' (Luke 18,11). Far be from us those who must always justify themselves when blamed, resist when attacked and exalt themselves when humbled.

Be careful not to admit into your fellowship those frail, sensitive persons who are afraid of the slightest pin-prick, who sob and sigh when faced with the lightest suffering, who have never experienced a hair-shirt, a discipline or any other penitential instrument, and who, with their fashionable devotions, mingle the most artful delicacy and the most refined lack of mortification.

* St. De Montfort here speaks of that small group of saintly souls who carry their cross more perfectly. He does not, however, exclude from salvation that vast multitude of less perfect Christians which the mercy of God wills to save.

III -SUFFERING

18. Let him take up his cross, the one that is his. Let this man or this woman, rarely to be found and worth more than the entire world (Prov. 31,10-31), take up with joy, fervently clasp in his arms and bravely set upon his shoulders this cross that is his own and not that of another; his own cross, the one that My Wisdom designed for him in every detail of number, weight and measurement; his own cross whose four dimensions, its length, breadth, thickness and height (Eph. 3,18), I very accurately gauged with My own hands; his own cross which all out of love for him I carved from a section of the very Cross I bore on Calvary; his cross, the grandest of all the gifts I have for My chosen ones on earth; his cross, made up in its thickness of temporal loss, humiliation, disdain, sorrow, illness and spiritual trial which My Providence will not fail to supply him with every day of his life; his cross, made up in its length of a definite period of days or months when he will have to bear with slander or be helplessly stretched out on a bed of pain, or forced to beg, or else a prey to temptation, dryness, desolation and many another mental anguish; his cross, made up in its breadth of hard and bitter situations stirred up for him by his relatives, friends or servants; his cross, finally, made up in its depth of secret sufferings which I will have him endure nor will I allow him any comfort from created beings, for by My order they will turn from him too and even join Me in making him suffer.

19. Let him carry it, and not drag it, not shoulder it off, not lighten it, nor hide it. Let him hold it high in hand, without impatience or peevishness, without voluntary complaint or grumbling, without dividing or softening, without shame or human respect.

Let him place it on his forehead and say with St. Paul: 'God forbid that I should glory save in the Cross of Our Lord Jesus Christ' (Gal. 6,14).

Let him carry it on his shoulders, after the example of Jesus Christ, and make it his weapon to victory and the scepter of his empire (Is. 9,16).

Let him root it in his heart and there change it into a fiery bush, burning day and night with the pure love of God, without being consumed.

20. The cross: it is the cross he must carry for there is nothing more necessary, more useful, more agreeable and more glorious than suffering for Jesus Christ.

21. All of you are sinners and there is not a single one who is not deserving of hell; I myself deserve it the most. These sins of ours must be punished either here or hereafter. If they are punished in this world, they will not be punished in the world to come.

If we agree to God's punishing here below, this punishment will be dictated by love. For mercy, which holds sway in this world, will mete out the punishment, and not strict justice. This punishment will be light and momentary, blended with merit and sweetness and followed up with reward both in time and eternity.

22. But if the punishment due to our sins is held over for the next world, then God's avenging justice, which means fire and blood, will see to the punishing. What horrible punishment! How incomprehensible, how unspeakable! 'Who knoweth the power of thy anger?' (Ps. 89,11). Punishment devoid of mercy (James 2,13), pity, mitigation or merit; without limit and without end. Yes, without end! That mortal sin of a moment that you committed, that deliberate evil thought which now escapes your memory, the word that is gone with the wind, that act of such short duration against God's law-they shall all be punished for an eternity, punished with the devils of hell, as long as God is God! The God of vengeance will have no pity on your torments or your sobs and tears, violent enough to cleave the rocks. Suffering and still more suffering, without merit, without mercy and without end!

23. Do we think of this, my dear Brothers and Sisters, when we have some trial to undergo here below? Blessed indeed are we who have the privilege of exchanging an eternal and fruitless penalty for a temporary and meritorious suffering, just by patiently carrying our cross. What debts we still have to pay! How many sins we have committed which, despite a sincere confession and heartfelt contrition, will have to be atoned for in Purgatory for many a century, simply because in this world we were satisfied with a few insignificant penances! Let us settle our debts with good grace here below in cheerfully bearing our crosses, for in the world to come everything must be expiated, even the idle word (Matt. 12,36) and even to the last farthing. If we could lay hands on the devil's death-register in which he has noted down all our sins and the penalty to be paid, what a heavy debit we would find and how joyfully we would suffer many years here on earth rather than a single day in the world to come.

24. Do you not flatter yourselves, Friends of the Cross, that you are, or that you want to be, the friends of God? Be firmly resolved then to drink of the chalice which you must necessarily drink if you wish to enjoy the friendship of God. 'They drank the chalice of the Lord and became the friends of God' (Common of Apostles, Lesson 7). The beloved Benjamin had the chalice while his brothers had only the wheat (Gen. 44,1-4). The disciple whom Jesus preferred had his Master's heart, went up with Him to Calvary and drank of the chalice. 'Can you drink my chalice?' (Matt 20,22). To desire God's glory is good, indeed, but to desire it and pray for it without being resolved to suffer all things is mere folly and senseless asking. 'You know not what you ask (Matt. 20,2 2) . . . you must undergo much suffering' (Acts 14,21): you must, it is necessary, it is indispensable!

We can enter the kingdom of heaven only at the price of many crosses and tribulations.

25.You take pride in being God's children and you do well; but you should also rejoice in the lashes your good Father has given you and in those He still means to give you; for He scourges every one of His children (Prov. 3,11; Heb. 13,5-6; Apoc. 3,19). If you are not of the household of His beloved sons, then-how unfortunate! what a calamity!-you are, as St. Augustine says, listed with the reprobate. Augustine also says: 'The one that does not mourn like a stranger and wayfarer in this world cannot rejoice in the world to come as a citizen of heaven' (Sermon 31, 5 and 6). If God the Father does not send you worth-while crosses from time to time, that is because He no longer cares for you and is angry at you. He considers you a stranger, an outsider undeserving of His hospitality, or an unlawful child who has no rightto share in his father's estate and no title to his father's supervision and discipline.

26. Friends of the Cross, disciples of a crucified God, the mystery of the Cross is a mystery unknown to the Gentiles, repudiated by the Jews and spurned by both heretics and bad Catholics, yet it is the great mystery which you must learn to practice at the school of Jesus Christ and which you can learn only at His School. You would look in vain for any philosopher who taught it in the Academies of ancient times; you would ask in vain either the senses or reason to throw any light on it, for Jesus alone, through His triumphant grace, is able to teach you this mystery and make you relish it.

Become proficient, therefore, in this super-eminent branch of learning under such a skillful Master. Having this knowledge, you will be possessed of all other branches of learning, for it surpassingly comprises them all. The Cross is our natural as well as our supernatural philosophy. It is our divine and mysterious theology. It ía our philosopherstone which, by dint of patience, is able to transmute the grossest of metals into precious ones, the sharpest pain into delight, poverty into wealth and the deepest humiliation into glory. He amongst you who knows how to carry his cross, though he know not A from B, towers above all others in learning.

Listen to the great St. Paul, after his return from the third heaven, where he was initiated into mysteries which even the Angels had not learned. He proclaims that he knows nothing and wants to know nothing but Jesus Christ crucified (1 Cor. 2,2). You can rejoice, then, if you happen to be a poor man without any schooling or a poor woman deprived of intellectual attainments, for if you know how to suffer with joy you are far more learned than a doctor of the Sorbonne who is unable to suffer as you do.

27. You are members of Jesus Christ (1 Cor. 6,15; 12,27; Eph. 5,30). What an honor! But, also, what need for suffering this entails! When the Head is crowned with thorns should the members be wearing a laurel of roses? When the Head is jeered at and covered with mud from Calvary's road should its members be enthroned and sprayed with perfume? When the Head has no pillow on which to rest, should its members be reclining on soft feathers? What an unheard of monster such a one would be! No, no, dear companions of the Cross, make no mistake. The Christians you see around you, fashionably attired, super-sensitive, excessively haughty and sedate, are neither true disciples nor true members of the crucified Jesus. To think otherwise would be an insult to your thorn-crowned Head and His Gospel truth.

My God! How many would-be Christians there are who imagine they are members of the Savior when in reality they are His most insidious persecutors, for while blessing themselves with the sign of the Cross, they crucify Him in their hearts.

If you are led by the spirit of Jesus and are living the same life with Him, your thorn-crowned Head, then you must look forward to nothing but thorns, nails and lashes, in a word, to nothing but a cross.

A real disciple needs to be treated as his Master was, a member as its Head. And if the Head should offer you, as He offered St. Catherine of Siena, the choice between a crown of thorns and a crown of roses, do as she did and grasp the crown of thorns, fastening it tightly to your brow in the likeness of Jesus.

28. You are aware of the fact that you are living temples of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 6,19) and that, like living stones (1 Pet. 2,5), you are to be placed by the God of love in the heavenly Jerusalem He is building. You must expect then to be shaped, cut and chiseled under the hammer of the Cross, otherwise you would remain unpolished stone, of no value at all, to be disregarded and cast aside. Do not cause the hammer to recoil when it strikes you. Yield to the chisel that is carving you and the hand that is shaping you. It may be that this skillful and loving Architect wants to make you a cornerstone in His eternal edifice, one of His most faithful portraits in the heavenly kingdom. So let Him see to it. He loves you, He really loves you; He knows what He is doing, He has experience. Love is behind every one of His telling strokes; nor will a single stroke miscarry unless your impatience deflects it.

29. At times the Holy Spirit compares the cross to a winnowing that clears the good grain from the chaff and dust (Matt. 3,13; Luke 3,17). Like grain in the winnowing, then, let yourself be shaken up and tossed about without resistance, for the Father of the household is winnowing you and will soon have you in His harvest. He also likens the cross to a fire whose intense heat burns rust off iron. God is a devouring fire (Deut. 4,24; 9,3; Heb. 13,29) dwelling in our souls through His Cross, purifying them yet not consuming them, exemplified in the past in a burning bush (Ex. 3,2-3). He likens it at times to the crucible of a forge where gold is refined (Prov. 17,3; Eccli. 2,5) and dross vanishes in smoke, but, in the processing, the precious metal must be tried by fire while the baser constituents go up in smoke and flame. So, too, in the crucible of tribulation and temptation, true Friends of the Cross are purified by their constancy in suffering while the enemies of the Cross vanish in smoke by their impatience and murmurings.

30. Behold, dear Friends of the Cross, before you a great cloud of witnesses (Heb. 12,1-2) who silently testify that what I assert is the truth. For instance, consider Abel, a righteous man, who was slain by his own brother; then Abraham, a righteous man, who journeyed on the earth like a wanderer; Lot, a righteous man, who was driven from his own country; Jacob, a righteous man, who was persecuted by his own brother; Tobias, a righteous man, who was stricken with blindness; Job, a righteous man, who was pauperized, humiliated and covered with sores from the crown of his head to the soles of his feet.

31. Consider the countless Apostles and Martyrs who were bathed in their own blood; the countless Virgins and Confessors who were pauperized, humiliated, exiled and cast aside. Like St. Paul they fervently proclaim: Behold our beloved Jesus, 'Author and Finisher of the faith' (Heb. 12,2) we put in Him and in His Cross; it was necessary for Him to suffer and so to enter through the Cross into His glory (Luke 24,26).

There at the side of Jesus consider Mary, who had never known either original or actual sin, yet whose tender, Immaculate Heart was pierced with a sharp sword even to its very depths. If I had time to dwell on the Passion of Jesus and Mary, I could prove that our sufferings are naught compared to theirs.

32. Who, then, would dare claim exemption from the cross? Who would refuse to rush to the very place where he knows he will find a cross awaiting him? Who would refuse to borrow the words of the martyr, St. Ignatius: 'Let fire and gallows, wild beasts and all the torments of the devil assail me, so that I may rejoice in the possession of Jesus Christ.'

33. If you have not the patience to suffer and the generosity to bear your cross like the chosen ones of God, then you will have to trudge under its weight, grumbling and fretting like reprobates; like the two animals that dragged the Ark of the Covenant, lowing as they went (1 Kings 6,12); like Simon the Cyrenaean who unwillingly put his hand to the very Cross of Christ (Matt. 27,32; Mark 15,21), complaining while he carried it. You will be like the impenitent thief who from the summit of his cross plunged headlong into the depths of the abyss.

No, the cursed earth on which we live cannot give us happiness. We can see none too clearly in this benighted land. We are never perfectly calm on this troubled sea. . We are never without warfare in a world of temptation and battlefields. We cannot escape scratches on a thorn-covered earth. Both elect and reprobate must bear their cross here, either willingly or unwillingly. Remember these words:

'Three crosses stand on Calvary's height

One must be chosen, so choose aright; Like a saint you must suffer, or a penitent thief,

Or like a reprobate, in endless grief.'

This means that if you will not suffer gladly as Jesus did, or patiently like the penitent thief, then you must suffer

despite yourself like the impenitent thief. You will have to drain the bitterest chalice even to the dregs, and with no hope of relief through grace.

You will have to bear the entire weight of your cross, and without the powerful help of Jesus Christ. Then, too, you will have that awful weight to bear which the devil will add to your cross, by means of the impatience the cross will cause you. After sharing the impenitent thief's unhappiness here on earth, you will meet him again in the fires of hell.

34. But if you suffer as you should, your cross will be a sweet yoke (Matt. 11,30), for Christ will share it with you. Your soul will be borne on it as on a pair of wings to the portals of Heaven. It will be the mast on your ship guiding you happily and easily to the harbor of salvation.

Carry your cross with patience: a cross patiently borne will be your light in spiritual darkness, for he knows naught who knows not how to suffer (Eccli. 34,9).

Carry your cross with joy and you will be inflamed with divine love, for only in suffering can we dwell in the pure love of Christ.

Roses are only gathered from among thorns. As wood is fuel for the fire, so too is the Cross the only fuel for God's love. Remember that saying we read in the 'Following of Christ': 'Inasmuch as you do violence to yourself,' suffering patiently, 'insofar do you advance' in divine love (Bk. 1, Chap. 15,11). Do not expect anything great from those fastidious, slothful souls who refuse the Cross when it approaches and who do not go in search of any, when discretion allows. What are they but untilled soil, which can produce only thorns because it has not been turned up, harrowed and furrowed by a judicious laborer. They are like stagnant water which is unfit for either washing or drinking.

Carry your cross joyfully and none of your enemies will be able to resist its conquering strength (Luke 21,15), while you yourself will enjoy its relish beyond compare. Yes, indeed, Brethren, remember that the real Paradise here on earth is to be found in suffering for Jesus, Ask the saints. They will tell you that they never tasted a banquet so delicious to the soul than when undergoing the severest torments. St. Ignatius the Martyr said: 'Let all the torments of the devil come upon me!' 'Either suffering or death!,' said St. Theresa, and St. Magdalen de Pazzi: 'Not death but suffering!' 'May I suffer and be despised for Thy sake,' said Blessed John of the Cross. In reading the lives of the saints we find many others speaking in the self-same terms.

Dear Brethren, believe the Word of God, for the Holy Spirit says: The Cross affords all kinds of joy to anyone without exception who suffers cheerfully for God, (Jas. 1,2). The joy that springs from the cross is keener than the joy which a poor person would experience if over-laden with an abundance of riches, than the joy of a peasant who is made ruler of his country, than the joy of a commander-in-chief over the victories he has won, than the joy of a prisoner released from his fetters. In conclusion, let us picture the greatest joys to be found here below: the joy of a crucified person who knows how to suffer not only equals them but even surpasses them all.

35. Be glad, therefore, and rejoice when God favors you with one of His choicest crosses, for without realizing it you are being blessed with the greatest gift that Heaven has, the greatest gift of God. Yes, the cross is God's greatest gift. If you could only understand this, you would have Masses said, you would make novenas at the tombs of the saints; you would undertake long pilgrimages, as did the saints, to obtain this divine gift from Heaven.

36. The world claims it is madness on your part, degrading and stupid, rash and reckless. Let the world, in its blindness, say what it likes. This blindness which is responsible for a merely human and distorted view of the cross is a source of glory for us. For every time they provide us with crosses by mocking and persecuting us, they are simply offering us jewels, setting us upon a throne and crowning us with laurels.

37. What I say is but little. Take all the wealth and honors and scepters and brilliant diadems of monarchs and princes, says St. John Chrysostom, they are all insignificant compared with the glory of the Cross; it is greater even than the glory of the Apostles and the Sacred Writers. Enlightened by the Holy Spirit, this saintly man goes as far as to say: 'If I were given the preference, I would gladly leave Heaven to suffer for the God of Heaven. I would prefer the darkness of a dungeon to the thrones of the highest heaven and the heaviest of crosses to the glory of the Seraphim. Suffering for me is of greater value than the gift of miracles, the power to command the infernal spirits, to master the physical universe, to stop the sun in its course and to raise the dead to life. Peter and Paul are more glorious in the shackles of a dungeon than in being lifted to the third heaven and presented with the keys to Paradise.'

38.In fact, was it not the Cross that gave Jesus Christ 'a name which is above all names; that in the name of Jesus every knee should bow of those that are in heaven, on earth and under the earth' (Phil. 2,9-10). The glory of the one who knows how to suffer is so great that the radiance of his splendor rejoices heaven, angels and men and even the God of Heaven. If the saints in Heaven could still wish for something they would want to return to earth so as to have the privilege of bearing a cross.

39. If the cross is covered with such glory on earth, how magnificent it must be in Heaven. Who could ever understand and tell the eternal weight of glory we are given when, even for a single instant, we bear a cross as a cross should be borne (2 Cor. 4,17). Who could ever collate the glory that will be given in Heaven for the crosses and sufferings we carried for a year, perhaps even for a lifetime.

40. Evidently, my dear Friends of the Cross, heaven is preparing something grand for you, as you are told by a great Saint, since the Holy Ghost has united you so intimately to an object which the whole world so carefully avoids. Evidently, God wishes to make of you as many saints as you are Friends of the Cross, if you are faithful to your calling and dutifully carry your cross as Jesus Christ has carried His.



IV -IN CHRIST-LIKE FASHION

41. But mere suffering is not enough. For even the devil and the world have their martyrs. We must suffer and bear our crosses in the footsteps of Jesus. Let him follow Me: this means that we must bear our crosses as Jesus bore His. To help you do this, I suggest the following rules:

II

FOURTEEN RULES TO FOLLOW IN CARRYING ONE'S CROSS 42. First. Do not, deliberately and through your own fault, procure crosses for yourself. You must not do evil in

order to bring about good. You should never try to bring discredit upon yourself by doing things improperly, unless you have a special inspiration from on high. Strive rather to imitate Jesus Christ, who did all things well (Mark 7,37), not out of self-love or vainglory, but to please God and to win over His fellow-men. Even though you do the best you can in the performance of your duty, you will still have to contend with contradiction, persecution and contempt which Divine Providence will send you against your will and without your choice.

43. Second. Should your neighbor be scandalized, although without reason, at any action of yours which in itself is neither good nor bad, then, for the sake of charity, refrain from it, to avoid the scandal of the weak. This heroic act of charity will be of much greater worth than the thing you were doing or intended to do.

If, however, you are doing some beneficial or necessary thing for others and were unreasonably disapproved by a hypocrite or prejudiced person, then refer the matter to a prudent adviser, letting him judge of its expedience and necessity. Should his decision be favorable, you have only to continue and let these others talk, provided they take no means to prevent you. Under such circumstances, you have Our Lord's answer to His disciples when they informed Him that Scribes andPharisees were scandalized at His words and deeds: 'Let them alone; they are blind.' (Matt. 15,14).

44. Third. Certain holy and distinguished persons have been asking for and seeking, or even, by eccentricities, bringing upon themselves, crosses, disdain and humiliation. Let us simply adore and admire the extraordinary workings of the Holy Spirit in these souls. Let us humble ourselves in the presence of this sublime virtue, without making any attempt to reach such heights, for compared with these racing eagles and roaring lions we are simply fledglings and cubs.

45. Fourth. You can nevertheless and even should ask for the wisdom of the Cross, that sapid, experimental knowledge of the truth, which, in the light of faith, shows us the deepest mysteries, among others the mystery of the Cross. But this can be had only by dint of hard toil, profound humiliation and fervent prayer. If you need that perfect spirit (Ps. 50,14) which enables us to bear the heaviest crosses with courage-that sweet, kindly spirit (Luke 11,13) which enables us to relish in the higher part of the soul things that are bitter and repulsive-that wholesome, upright spirit (Ps. 50,12) which seeks God and God alone-that all-embracing knowledge of the Cross- briefly that infinite treasure which gives the soul that knows how to make good use of it a share in the friendship of God (Wisdom 7,14), ask for this wisdom, ask for it constantly, fervently, without hesitation or fear of not obtaining it. You will certainly obtain it and then see clearly, in the light of your own experience, how it is possible to desire, seek and relish the Cross.

46. Fifth. If, inadvertently, you blunder into a cross, or even if you do so through your own fault, forthwith humble yourselves interiorly under the mighty hand of God (1 Pet. 5,6), but do not worry over it. You might say to yourself: 'Lord, there is another trick of my trade.' If the mistake you made was sinful, accept the humiliation you suffer as punishment. But if it was not sinful, then humbly accept it in expiation of your pride. Often, actually very often, God allows His greatest servants, those who are far advanced in grace, to make the most humiliating mistakes. This humbles them in their own eyes and in the eyes of their fellow men. It prevents them from seeing and taking pride in the graces God bestows on them or in the good deeds they do, so that, as the Holy Ghost declares: 'no flesh should glory in the sight of God' (1 Cor. 1,29).

47. Sixth. Be fully persuaded that through the sin of Adam and through our own actual sins everything within ourselves is vitiated, not only the senses of the body but even the powers of the soul. So much so that as soon as the mind, thus vitiated, takes delight in poring over some gift received from God, then the gift itself, or the act or the grace is tarnished and vitiated and God no longer favors it with His divine regard. Since looks and thoughts of the human mind can spoil man's best actions and God's choicest gifts, what about the acts which proceed from man's own will and which are more corrupt than the acts of the mind?

So we need not wonder, when God hides His own within the shadow of His countenance (Ps. 30,21), that they may not be defiled by the regards of their fellow men or by their own self-consciousness. What does not this jealous God allow and do to keep them hidden! How often He humiliates them! Into how many faults He permits them to fall! How often He allows them to be tempted as St. Paul was tempted (2 Cor. 12,7)! In what a state of uncertainty, perplexity and darkness He leaves them! How wonderful God is in His saints, and in the means He takes to lead them to humility and holiness!

48. Seventh. Be careful not to imitate proud self-centered zealots. Do not think that your crosses are tremendous, that they are tests of your fidelity to God and tokens of God's extraordinary love for you. This gesture has its source in spiritual pride. It is a snare quite subtle and beguiling but full of venom. You ought to acknowledge, first, that you are so proud and sensitive that you magnify straws into rafters, scratches into deep wounds, rats into elephants, a meaningless word, a mere nothing, in truth, into an outrageous, treasonable insult. Second, you should acknowledge that the crosses God sends you are really and truly loving punishments for your sins, and not special marks of God's benevolence. Third, you must admit that He is infinitely lenient when He sends you some cross or humiliation, in comparison with the number and atrocity of your sins. For these sins should be considered in the light of the holiness of a God Whom you have offended and Who can tolerate nothing that is defiled; in the light of a God dying and weighted down with sorrow at the sight of your sins; in the light of an everlasting hell which you have deserved a thousand times, perhaps a hundred thousand times. Fourth, you should admit that the patience you put into suffering is more tinged than you think with natural human motives. You have only to note your little self-indulgences, your skillful seeking for sympathy, these confidences you so naturally make to friends or perhaps to your spiritual director, your quick, clever excuses, the murmurings or rather the detractions so neatly worded, so charitably spoken against those who have injured you, the exquisite delight you take in dwelling on your misfortunes and that belief so characteristic of Lucifer, that you are somebody (Acts 8,9), and so forth. Why I should never finish if I were to point out all the ways and by-ways human nature takes, even in its sufferings.

49. Eighth. Take advantage of your sufferings and more so of the small ones than of the great. God considers not so much what we suffer as how we suffer. To suffer much, yet badly, is to suffer like reprobates. To suffer much, even bravely, but for a wicked cause, is to suffer as a martyr of the devil. To suffer much or little for the sake of God is to suffer like saints.

If it be right to say that we can choose our crosses, this is particularly true of the little and obscure ones as compared with the huge, conspicuous ones, for proud human nature would likely ask and seek for the huge, conspicuous crosses even to the point of preferring them and embracing them. But to choose small, unnoticeable crosses and to carry them cheerfully requires the power of a special grace and unshakeable fidelity to God. Do then as the storekeeper does with his merchandise: make a profit on every article; suffer not the loss of the tiniest fragment of the true Cross. It may be only the sting of a fly or the point of a pin that annoys you, it may be the little eccentricities of a neighbor, some unintentional slight, the insignificant loss of a penny, some little restlessness of soul, a slight physical weakness, a light pain in your limbs. Make a profit on every article as the grocer does, and you will soon become wealthy in God, as the grocer does in money, by adding penny to penny in his till. When you meet with the least contradiction, simply say: 'Blessed be God! My God I thank you.' Then treasure up in the till of God's memory the cross which has just given you a profit. Think no more of it, except to say: 'Many thanks!' or, 'Be merciful!'

50. Ninth. The love you are told to have for the Cross is not sensible love, for this would be impossible to human nature.

It is important to note the three kinds of love: sensible love, rational love and love that is faithful 'and supreme; in other words, the love that springs from the lower part of man, the flesh; the love that springs from the superior part, his reason; and the love that springs from the supreme part of man, from the summit of his soul, which is the intellect enlightened by faith.

51. God does not ask you to love the Cross with the will of the flesh. Since the flesh is the subject of evil and corruption, all that proceeds from it is evil and it cannot, of itself, submit to the will of God and His crucifying law. It was this aspect of His human nature which Our Lord referred to when He cried out, in the Garden of Olives: 'Father, . . . not My will but Thine be done.' (Luke 22,42). If the lower powers of Our Lord's human nature, though holy, could not love the Cross without interruption, then, with still greater reason, will our human nature, which is very much vitiated, repel it. At times, like many of the saints, we too may experience a feeling of even sensible joy in our sufferings, but that joy does not come from the flesh though it is in the flesh. It flows from our superior powers, so completely filled with the divine joy of the Holy Ghost, that it spreads to our lower powers. Thus a person who is undergoing the most unbearable torture is able to say: 'My heart and my flesh have rejoiced in the living God' (Ps. 83,3).

52. There is another love for the Cross which I call rational, since it springs from the higher part of man, his reason. This love is wholly spiritual. Since it arises from the knowledge of the happiness there is in suffering for God, it can be and really is perceived by the soul. It also gives the soul inward strength and joy. Though this rational and perceptible joy is beneficial, even very beneficial, it is not an indispensable part of joyous, divine suffering.

53. This is why there is another love, which the masters of the spiritual life call the love of the summit and highest point of the soul and which the philosophers call the love of the intellect. When we possess this love, even though we experience no sensible joy or rational pleasure, we love and relish, in the light of pure faith, the cross we must bear, even though the lower part of our nature may often be in a state of warfare and alarm and may moan and groan, weep and sigh for relief; and thus we repeat with Jesus Christ: 'Father . . . not My will but Thine be done' (Luke 22,42), or with the Blessed Virgin: 'Behold the handmaid of the Lord, be it done to me according to Thy word' (Luke 1,38).

It is with one of these two higher loves that we should accept and love our cross.

54. Tenth. Be resolved then, dear Friends of the Cross, to suffer every kind of cross without excepting or choosing any: all poverty, all injustice, all temporal loss, all illness, all humiliation, all contradiction, all calumny, all spiritual dryness, all desolation, all interior and exterior trials. Keep saying: 'My heart is ready, O God, my heart isready' (Ps. 56,8). Be ready to be forsaken by men and angels and, seemingly, by God Himself. Be ready to be persecuted; envied, betrayed, calumniated, discredited and forsaken by everyone. Be ready to undergo hunger, thirst, poverty, nakedness, exile, imprisonment, the gallows and all kinds of torture, even though you are innocent of everything with which you may be charged. What if you were cast out of your own home like Job and Saint Elizabeth of Hungary; thrown, like this saint, into the mire; or dragged upon a manure pile like Job, malodorous and covered with ulcers, without anyone to bandage your wounds, without a morsel of bread, never refused to a horse or a dog? Add to these dreadful misfortunes all the temptations with which God allows the devil to prey upon you, without pouring into your soul the least feeling of consolation.

Firmly believe that this is the summit of divine glory and real happiness for a true, perfect Friend of the Cross. 55. Eleven. For proper suffering, form the pious habit of considering four things:

First, the Eye of God. God is like a great king, who from the height of a tower observes with satisfaction his soldier in the midst of the battle and praises his valor. What is it on earth that attracts God's attention? Kings and emperors on their thrones? He often looks at them with nothing but contempt. Brilliant victories of a nation's armies, precious stones, any such things that are great in the sight of men? 'What is great to men is an abomination before God' (Luke 16,15). What then does God look upon with pleasure and delight? What is He asking the Angels about, and even the devils? It is about the man who is fighting for Him against riches, against the world, hell and himself, the man who is cheerfully carrying his cross. Hast thou not seen upon earth that great wonder which the heavens consider with admiration? said the Lord to Satan; 'hast thou considered My servant Job' (Job 2,3) who is suffering for Me?

56. Second, the Hand of God, Every disorder in nature, from the greatest to the smallest, is the work of His almighty Hand. The Hand that devastates an army of a hundred thousand (2 Kings 19,35) will make a leaf drop from a tree and a hair fall from your head (Luke 2 1,18). The Hand that was laid so heavily upon Job is particularly light when it touches you with some little trial. This Hand fashions day and night, sun and darkness, good and evil. God permits the sin which provokes you; He is not the cause of its malice, although He does allow the act.

If anyone, then, treats you as Semei treated King David (2 Kings 16,5-11), loading you with insults and casting stones at you, say to yourself: 'I must not mind; I must not take revenge for this is an ordinance of God. I know that I have deserved every abuse and it is only right that God punish me. Desist, my hands, and strike not; desist, my tongue, and speak not; the person who injures me by word or deed is an ambassador, mercifully sent by God to punish me as His love alone knows how. Let us not incur His justice by assuming His right to vengeance. Let us not despise His mercy by resisting the affectionate strokes of His lash, lest, for His vengeance, He should remand us to the rigorous justice of eternity.'

Consider how God bears you up with one Hand, of infinite power and wisdom, while with the other He chastises you. With the one He deals out death, while with the other He dispenses life. He humbles you and raises you up. With both arms, He reaches sweetly and mightily (Wisdom 8,1) from the beginning of your life to its end. Sweetly: by not allowing you to be tempted or afflicted beyond your strength. Mightily: by favoring you with a powerful grace, proportioned to the vehemence and duration of your temptation or affliction. Mightily:-and the spirit of His holy Church bears witness-'He is your stay on the brink of a precipice, your guide along a misleading road, your shade in the scorching heat, your raiment in the pouring rain or the biting cold. He is your conveyance when you are utterly exhausted, your help in adversity, your staff on the slippery way. He is your port of refuge when, in the throes of a tempest, you are threatened with ruin and shipwreck.'

57. Third, consider the Wounds and Sorrows of our crucified Jesus. Hear what He Himself has to say:'All ye that pass along the thorny and crucifying way I had to follow, look and see. Look with the eyes of your body; look with the eye of contemplation, and see if your poverty, nakedness, disgrace, sorrow, desolation are like unto Mine. Behold Me, innocent as I am, then will you complain, you who are guilty' (Lam. 1,12).

The Holy Ghost tells us, by the mouth of the Apostles, that we should keep our eyes on Jesus Crucified (Gal. 3,1) and arm ourselves with this thought of Him (1 Pet. 4,1) which is our most powerful and most penetrating weapon against all our enemies. When you are assailed by poverty, disrepute, sorrow, temptation or any other cross, arm yourselves with this shield, this breastplate, this helmet, this two-edged sword (Eph. 6,12-18), that is, with the thought of Jesus crucified. There is the solution to your every problem, the means you have to vanquish all your enemies.

58. Fourth, lift up your eyes, behold the beautiful crown that awaits you in Heaven if you carry your cross as you should. That was the reward which kept patriarchs and prophets strong in faith under persecution. It gave heart to the Apostles and martyrs in their labors and torments. Patriarchs used to say as Moses had said: 'We would rather be afflicted with the people of God,' so as to enjoy eternal happiness with Him, 'than to have the pleasure of sin for a afflicted with the people of God,' so as to enjoy eternal happiness with Him, 'than to have the pleasure of sin for a 26). The prophets repeated David's words: 'We suffer great persecutions on account of the reward' (Ps. 63,8; 118,112). The Apostles and martyrs voiced the sentiments of St. Paul: 'We are, as it were, men appointed to death: we are made a spectacle to the world, and to angels, and to men,' by our sufferings 'being made the offscouring of the world,' (1 Cor. 4,9-13), 'by reason of the exceeding and eternal weight of glory, which this momentary and light tribulation worketh in us' (2 Cor. 4,17).

Let us see and listen to the angels right above us: 'Be careful not to forfeit the crown that is set aside for you if you bravely bear the cross that is given you. If you do not bear it well, someone will bear it in your stead and will take your crown. All the saints warn us: fight courageously, suffer patiently and you will be given an everlasting kingdom.' Let us hear Jesus: 'To him only will I give My reward who shall suffer and overcome through patience' (Apoc. 2,6; 11,17; 3,5; 21,7).

Let us lower our eyes and see the place we deserve, the place that awaits us in hell in the company of the wicked thief and the reprobate, if we go through suffering as they did, resentful and bent on revenge. Let us exclaim after St. Augustine; 'Burn. O Lord, cut, carve, divide in this world, in punishment for my sins, provided Thou pardon them in eternity.'

59. Twelfth. Never murmur or deliberately complain about any created thing that God may use to afflict you. It is important to note the three kinds of complaints that may arise when misfortune assails you. The first is natural and involuntary. This happens when the human body moans and groans, sobs and sighs and weeps. If, as I said, the higher point of the soul submits to the will of God, there is no sin. The second is rational. Such is the case when we complain and disclose our hardship to some superior or physician who is able to remedy it. This complaint may be an imperfection, if too eagerly made, but it is no sin. The third is sinful. This happens when a person complains of others either to rid himself of the suffering they cause him, or to take revenge. Or else when he wilfully complains about the sorrow he must bear and shows signs of grief and impatience.

60. Thirteenth. Whenever you are given a cross, be sure to embrace it with humility and gratitude. If God, in His infinite goodness, favors you with a cross of some importance, be sure to thank him in a special way and have others join you in thanking him. Do as that poor woman did who, through an unjust lawsuit, lost everything she owned. She immediately offered the last few pennies she had, to have a Mass said in thanksgiving to Almighty God for the good fortune that had come to her.

61. Fourteenth. If you wish to be worthy of the best crosses, those that are not of your choice, then, with the help of a prudent director, take on some that are voluntary.

Suppose you have a piece of furniture that you do not need but prize. Give it to some poor person, and say to yourself: 'Why should I have things I do not need, when Jesus is destitute?'

Do you dislike certain kinds of food, the practice of some particular virtue, or some offensive odor? Taste this food, practice this virtue, endure this odor, conquer yourself.

Is your affection for some person or thing too ardent and tender? Keep away, deprive yourself, break away from things that appeal to you.

Have you that natural tendency to see and be seen, to be doing things or going some place? Mind your eyes and hold your tongue, stop right where you are and keep to yourself.

Do you feel a natural aversion to some person or thing? Rise above self by keeping near them.

62. If you are truly Friends of the Cross, then, without your knowing it, love, which is always ingenious, will discover thousands of little crosses to enrich you. Then you need not fear self-conceit which often accompanies the patient endurance of conspicuous crosses and since you have been faithful in a few things, the Lord will keep His promise and set you over many things (Matt. 25,21,23): over many graces He will grant you; over many crosses He will send you; over much glory He will prepare for you. . . . .

Imprimi Potest: S. Laurentii ad Separim die 3a Maii, 1950.
A. JOSSELIN, S.M.M., Superior General.

Nihil Obstat: MARTINUS J. HEALY, S.T.D., Censor Librorum.

Imprimatur: THOMAS EDMUNDUS MOLLOY, S.T.D., Episcopus Brooklyniensis.

Brooklynii, XX mensis Octobris 1950.

Print this item