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| The Catholic Trumpet: The Lay Crusade - Defending Christ the King in a World of Apostasy |
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Posted by: Stone - 01-03-2025, 09:05 AM - Forum: The Catholic Trumpet
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The Lay Crusade: Defending Christ the King in a World of Apostasy
![[Image: rs=w:1280]](https://img1.wsimg.com/isteam/ip/df55e1a9-c854-4d0b-a2a9-94177954436c/IMG_3727.png/:/cr=t:0%25,l:0%25,w:100%25,h:100%25/rs=w:1280)
The Catholic Trumpet [adapted] | January 2, 2025
The Call to Public Witness
Quote:“Today, this day, is Operation Survival. If I had made this deal with Rome, by continuing with the agreements we had signed, and by putting them into practice, I would have performed ‘Operation Suicide.’”
— Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, Sermon at the Consecrations of Four Bishops, June 30, 1988
The faithful of every era are called to rise against the unique challenges of their time. Today, amidst the ongoing crisis in the Church and society, Catholics must embrace their role as lay crusaders, publicly witnessing to the Kingship of Christ and the Triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
This public witness is not merely a reaction to modernist errors; it is an act of fidelity to the mission entrusted to us by Our Lord Himself. As Archbishop Lefebvre taught, the defense of the Faith requires total reliance on the grace of God, courage to resist compromise, and the steadfast proclamation of Christ’s Kingship.
Operation Survival: Fidelity Without Compromise
The term Operation Survival is more than a slogan; it encapsulates the mission of Archbishop Lefebvre to preserve the Faith in its entirety. The doctrinal compromises seen in modernist Rome and among certain branches of Tradition necessitate a response that is uncompromising in fidelity yet humble in execution.
Archbishop Lefebvre warned:
Quote:“We want to remain united to Jesus Christ, as the Vatican has dethroned the Lord. We want to remain faithful to our Lord King, Prince and Ruler of the world. We cannot change anything in this line of conduct.”
(Flavigny Conference, December 1988)
The Catholic Trumpet follows this same line, emphasizing that public witness is not optional but a divine mandate for all Catholics who seek to preserve and defend the Faith.
The Example of the Vendée Martyrs
The Vendée martyrs of the French Revolution exemplify the spirit of public witness and resistance. When their priests were exiled or executed, the faithful of the Vendée rose in defense of Christ the King, armed with Rosaries and the Sacred Heart emblazoned on their chests. Against the cannons and bayonets of the Revolutionary army, they stood firm, declaring their allegiance to God.
Their battle cry,“We have no King but Christ!” echoes across the centuries to our own time. In an era where modernist Rome seeks to enthrone the cult of man over the Social Kingship of Christ, we too must rise with the same courage and fidelity. As Archbishop Lefebvre declared:
Quote:“We want to remain united to Jesus Christ, as the Vatican has dethroned the Lord. We want to remain faithful to our Lord King, Prince and Ruler of the world. We cannot change anything in this line of conduct.”
(Flavigny Conference, December 1988)
Fr. Arminjon on the Signs of the Times
Fr. Charles Arminjon, in his renowned work The End of the Present World and the Mysteries of the Future Life, speaks of the necessity of vigilance and public witness in times of crisis. Reflecting on the rise of the Antichrist and the persecution of the faithful, he warns:
Quote:“The Church must pass through her Passion, just as Christ did. The Cross is the way to victory.”
(First Conference, “The End of the World”)
Fr. Arminjon reminds us that, while speculation on the timing of the end is often misguided, the faithful must be ever prepared, rooted in prayer and active in the apostolate. This vigilance demands public witness to Christ’s Kingship, even amidst opposition and persecution.
Public Witness as a Lay Crusade
Public witness is not reserved for clergy or religious; it is a call to all Catholics. The Catholic Trumpet emphasizes the necessity of visible, active participation in the fight for Christ the King. This includes:
1. Rosary Rallies and Processions: Public demonstrations of faith that proclaim the Kingship of Christ and the Triumph of the Immaculate Heart.
2. Catechetical Outreach: Educating others on the errors of modernism, the truths of Tradition, and the importance of Marian devotion.
3. Defending the Faith: Standing firm against heresies and compromises, proclaiming the truth with clarity and charity.
As Fr. Roger Calmel reminds us:
Quote:“The Church of all time will endure, and the Lord will preserve her. Let us persevere with confidence in this eternal Church, resisting all modernist distortions.”
Addressing Questions of Focus and Purpose
Some readers may wonder about the recent focus of The Catholic Trumpet on topics such as transhumanism, the Antichrist, and the errors of Rabbinical Judaism. These articles were not written to sensationalize or provoke but to warn the faithful of the dangers that threaten the Church and society in these times. They are a reflection of the mission to expose error and uphold truth, always in service to Christ the King and His Church.
As Fr. Charles Arminjon reminds us in his meditations on the end times:
Quote:“Men no less holy and learned than Holzhauser have often indulged in such calculations and have constantly been mistaken.”
(Second Conference, “The Persecution of Antichrist”)
We humbly acknowledge that we do not possess the sanctity or wisdom of such men. Our reflections are offered in a spirit of vigilance and fidelity, grounded in prayer and always seeking the guidance of Our Lady. The duty to inform and prepare the faithful is a grave responsibility, especially in times of widespread confusion and error.
The Triumph of the Immaculate Heart[b][/b]
Our ultimate hope lies in the promise of Our Lady at Fatima:
“In the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph.”
This promise is the cornerstone of The Catholic Trumpet’s mission. By calling all souls to the refuge of her Immaculate Heart, we aim to equip the faithful to resist error and embrace truth with confidence. Public witness, rooted in prayer and devotion, is the means by which we can participate in the Triumph of the Immaculate Heart and proclaim the Kingship of Christ in a world yearning for truth and hope.
No Compromise, No Retreat
The Catholic Trumpet calls all Catholics to join this lay crusade, proclaiming Christ the King in a world of apostasy. Let us follow the example of the Vendée martyrs, the teachings of Archbishop Lefebvre, and the warnings of Fr. Arminjon. Together, we can stand firm in the truth, trusting in the victory of Christ and the Triumph of the Immaculate Heart.
In the words of St. Louis de Montfort:
Quote:“Mary will raise up apostles of the latter times who will crush the head of Satan and establish the reign of Christ.”
Vive le Christ Roi! Vive Marie, Reine du Ciel!
-The ☩ Trumpet
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| The Ways to Perfect Religion by St. John Fisher while a Prisoner in the Tower of London |
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Posted by: Stone - 01-02-2025, 09:50 AM - Forum: The Saints
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The Ways to Perfect Religion
by John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, being Prisoner in the Tower of London
Taken from A Spiritual Consolation and Treatises, by Saint John Fisher, edited by D. O’Connor, 1903
imprimatur by + Bishop Edward Ilsley, Diocese of Birmingham, England, 25 April 1903
Taken from here [slightly adapted]
Sister Elizabeth, gladly I would write unto you something that might be to the health of your soul and furtherance of it in holy religion. But well I know that without some fervour in the love of Christ, religion cannot be to you savoury, nor any work of goodness can be delectable, but every virtuous deed shall seem laborious and painful. For love maketh every work appear easy and pleasant, though it be right displeasant of itself. And contrariwise right easy labour appeareth grievous and painful, when the soul of the person that doeth the deed hath no desire nor love in doing of it. This thing may well appear by the life of hunters, the which out of doubt is more laborious and painful than is the life of religious persons, and yet nothing sustaineth them in their labour and pains but the earnest love and hearty desire to find their game. Regard no less my writing, good sister, though to my purpose I use the example of hunters, for all true Christian souls be called hunters, and their office and duty is to seek and hunt for to find Christ Jesu. And, therefore. Scripture in many places exhorteth us to seek after Him, and assureth that He will be found of them that diligently seek after Him — Invenieiur ab his qui quaerunt eum. That is to say. He will be found of them that seek Him; well happy are all those that can find Him, or can have any scent of Him in this life here. For that scent, as Saint Paul saith, is the scent of the very life. And the devout souls, where they feel this scent, they run after Him apace — Curremus in odorem unguentorutn tuorum. That is to say, we shall run after the scent of Thy sweet ointments. Seeing then all devout souls may be called hunters, I will further prosecute the comparison made before between the life of the hunters and the life of the religious persons after this manner.
A Comparison between the Life of Hunters and the Life of Religious Persons
What life is more painful and laborious of itself than is the life of hunters, which most early in the morning break their sleep and rise when others do take their rest and ease? And in his labour he may use no plain highways and the soft grass, but he must tread upon the fallows, run over the hedges and creep through the thick bushes, and cry all the long day upon his dogs, and so continue without meat or drink until the very night drive him home. These labours be unto him pleasant and joyous, for the desire and love that he hath to see the poor hare chased with dogs.
Verily, verily, if he were compelled to take upon him such labours, and not for this cause, he would soon be weary of them, thinking them full tedious unto him; neither would he rise out of his bed so soon, nor fast so long, nor endure these other labours, unless he had a very love therein. For the earnest desire of his mind is so fixed upon his game that all these pains be thought to him but very pleasures. And therefore I may well say that love is the principal thing that maketh any work easy, though the work be right painful of itself, and that without love no labour can be comfortable to the doer. The love of his game delighteth him so much that he careth for no worldly honour, but is content with full simple and homely array. Also the goods of the world he seeketh not for, nor studieth how to attain them; for the love and desire of his game so greatly occupieth his mind and heart. The pleasures also of his flesh he forgetteth by weariness and wasting of his body in earnest labour. All his mind, all his soul, is busied to know where the poor hare may be found. Of that is his thought, and of that is his communication, and all his delight is to hear and speak of that matter, every other matter but this is tedious for him to give ear unto; in all other things he is dull and unlusty, in this only quick and stirring; for this also to be done, there is no office so humble, nor so vile, that he refuseth not to serve his own dogs himself, to bathe their feet and to anoint them where they be sore, yea, and to cleanse their stinking kennel, where they shall lie and rest them. Surely if religious persons had so earnest a mind and desire to the service of Christ as have these hunters to see a course at a hare, their life should be unto them a very joy and pleasure.
For what other be the pains of religion but these that I have spoken of? That is to say, much fasting, crying and coming to the choir, forsaking of worldly honours, worldly riches, fleshly pleasures and communication of the world, humble service and obedience to her sovereign, (i.e., religious superior) and charitable dealing to her sister; which pains in every point the hunter taketh and sustaineth more largely for the love that he hath to his game, than doeth many a religious person for the love of Christ. For albeit the religious person riseth at midnight, which is painful to her in very deed, yet she went before that to her bed at a convenient hour, and also cometh after to her bed again. But the hunter riseth early, and so continueth forth all the long day, no more returning to his bed until the very night, and yet peradventure he was late up the night before, and full often up all the long nights. And though the religious woman fast until it be noon, the which must be to her painful, the hunter yet taketh more pain, which fasteth until the very night, forgetting both meat and drink for the pleasure of his game. The religious woman singeth all the forenoon in the choir, and that also is laborious unto her, but yet the hunter singeth not, but he crieth, hallooeth and shouteth all the long day and hath more greater pains. The religious woman taketh much labour in coming to the choir and sitting there so long a season, but yet no doubt of it more labour taketh the hunter in running over the fallow, and leaping over the hedges, and creeping through the bushes than that can be. And would to God that in other things, that is to say, touching worldly honours, worldly riches, worldly pleasures — would to God that the religious persons many of them might profit as much in mindfulness in seeking of Christ, as the hunter doeth in seeking of his game, and yet all their comfort were to commune and speak of Christ, as the hunters have all their joy to speak of the poor hare, and of their hunting.
And furthermore, would to God the religious persons would content themselves with the humble service done to their sovereign, and with charitable behaviour unto their sisters, and with as good a heart and mind as the hunters acquit them to serve their hounds. I wot it is a thing much more reasonable to love and serve reasonable creatures made to the image of Almighty God, rather than to love and serve dogs which be unreasonable creatures. And rather our duty were to speak of Christ, and of things belonging to His honour, than of the vain worldly matters which be but very trifles indeed. And also with more attentive mind we should seek after our Saviour Christ Jesu, to know our very comfort in Him — wherein resteth the great merit of our souls — than the hunters should seek after the hare, which when they have gotten they have no great gains thereby. But as I have said, the cause why so many religious persons so diligently pursue not the ways of religion as do the hunters, is the want of the observation of their game, which is nothing else but the lack of love. For verily, as I think, the earnest love and hearty desire of game maketh all labours and pains joyous unto the hunter. And if there v/ere in religious persons as great favour and love to the service of God, as be in hunters to their game, all their life should be a very paradise and heavenly joy in this world. And contrariwise without this fervour of love it cannot be but painful, weary and tedious to them.
My purpose therefore, dear sister, is to minister unto you some common considerations which if you will often resort unto by due remembrance and so by diligent prayer call upon Almighty God for His love, you shall now by His grace attain it.
The First Consideration
The first consideration may be this: First consider by your own mind and reason that Almighty God of His own singular goodness and free will did create you and make you of naught, whereunto He was not bound by any necessity, nor drawn by any commodity that might rise upon Him by your creation. No other thing moved Him but His very goodness and special favour that He bare unto you, long or ever He did make you. This, good sister, take for a very truth and firmly believe it, for so it is in very deed; innumerable creatures, more than ever were made or ever shall be made, He might have made if it had been so pleasing unto Him. For how many, suppose you, married men and married women have been and shall be hereafter in this world, that never had nor never shall have any children, yet they full gladly would have had, and by possibility of nature might have had many, if it had so pleased Almighty God to have made and to have given unto them children. But all those be left unmade, and amongst them He might have left you also unmade, and never have put His hand to the making of you if He had so would. Nevertheless, as I said, it pleased His goodness herein to prefer you of His special favour that He bore unto you, leaving unmade others more innumerable, electing you and appointing you to be made, refusing and setting apart all them which would, peradventure, have considered His special grace and favour more lovingly than you hitherto have done, and would have studied more for His pleasure and service than ever you did; and you occupy the room and place that some of them might have occupied by like favour as Almighty God hath shewed unto you. Ah, dear sister, how much should this one consideration move you to the earnest love of this our so gracious a Lord, that thus hath appointed and chosen you to be His creature before so many others, where He might have taken any of them at His pleasure and repelled you and left you as naught without any manner of being!
The Second Consideration
The second consideration is this: Where there is many manner of beings, some creatures have a goodly being, some have an ungoodly being. It is a more goodly being margarite (i.e., a pearl) of a precious stone than of a pebble stone; of the fair bright gold than of rusty iron; of a goodly pheasant than of a venomous serpent; of a pretty fawn than of a foul toad; of a reasonable soul than of an unreasonable beast. And it is not to be doubted but Almighty God might have given to any of them what being soever He would, and might have transformed each of those into the nature and kind of any of the other at His pleasure and will. For of the stones He might make men, as in the Gospel our Saviour doth affirm: Potens est Deus de lapidibus istis suscitare filios Abrahae, Almighty God hath the power to make of these stones the children of Abraham. And contrariwise He might of men have made stones, as the wife of Lot was turned into a salt stone. And in like wise me or you or any other man or woman, He might have made a stone, or a serpent, or a toad, for His pleasure. There is no creature so foul, so horrible, or so ungodly, but He might put you in the same condition that the most loathly of them be put in, and them, in contrariwise, He might have put in the same condition that you be in. Consider now, by your reason, that if you had been made in the hkeness of an owl, or of an ape, or of a toad, how deformed you should have been, and in how wretched and miserable condition. And thank your Lord God that hath given you a more excellent nature, yea, such a nature as excelleth in nobleness, in dignity, all other bodily natures; for it is made to the very likeness and image of Almighty God, whereunto none other bodily creature doth reach near. Metals nor stones, be they never so precious, neither herbs nor trees, neither fishes nor fowls, neither any manner of beast, be they never so noble in their kind, doth attain to this high point of nobleness to have in them the image and likeness of Almighty God, but only man.
Forasmuch then as our Lord God might have given this excellent dignity to other innumerable creatures, as to beasts, to fowls, to fishes, totrees, to herbs, to metals, to stones, and hath not so done, but before all those hath elected and chosen you to bear His image and likeness and to be endued with a reasonable soul, how much should his loving dealing move you to enforce yourself with all the strength and power of your heart and mind to love Him therefore again.
The Third Consideration
The third consideration is this: That whereas, notwithstanding this great and excellent gift, you, nevertheless, by reason of original sin wherewith you were born of your mother into this world, had lost the great inheritance above in heaven and purchased everlasting imprisonment in hell, He of His great and singular goodness had provided you to be born within the precincts of Christendom, where you have been instructed in the doctrine of His taith and received the holy Sacrament of Baptism, and have been made a Christian woman, whereby you did receive again your inheritance before lost, and have escaped the most horrible danger of everlasting damnation. How many, suppose you, in all the world that be not instructed in this law and faith of Christ, nor have not received the holy Sacrament of Baptism, both noble men and women, both knights and princes, which have great wisdom and reason, and many such as, peradventure, if they were taught it, would more readily apply their minds to Christ’s faith than you do, and more heartily serve Him, honour and love Him than ever you did; and yet, lo! thus graciously hath He provided for you before all them, and hath appointed you to be a Christian woman and to be partaker of all those graces and benefits that belong unto the Christian people, which be so many and so great, that it passeth the wits of men, not only to number but also to think.
And here, good sister, do deeply consider in your soul how much this loving preferment of our Lord God should stir you to love Him again, when He suffereth so innumerable a multitude of men and women to perish and to be lost for ever, amongst whom many do pass you in all natural virtues, both of body and soul, and also would farther pass you in profiting in the law of Christ if they were received thereunto; and yet, I say, He suffereth them to perish everlastingly and perpetually to be damned; and for your safeguard hath provided of His singular goodness and mercy towards you, for the which since it is not possible of your part to recompense, why shall you not with all your power enforce yourself to love His most gracious goodness again, and after your possibility to give unto Him most humble thanks therefor?
The Fourth Consideration
The fourth consideration is this: That where, since that time of your Baptism and that you were made a Christian woman, you have many times unkindly fallen into deadly sin and broken His laws and commandments, setting at naught all those benefits which He before had given to you, following your wretched pleasure to the great displeasure and contempt of His Most High Majesty; and yet He furthermore did not strike you, nor yet revenge Himself upon you rigorously, punishing the transgressors and breakers of His law as He might and should by His righteousness have done. But, contrariwise, He did long spare you by His excellent mercy, and mercifully He did abide your return to Him again by sorrowful repentance and asking of Him mercy for your abominable offences. And where you so did with good hearty mind at any time, He received you to His grace, and by the sacrament of penance you were taken into His favour again, and so yet escape the horrible pains of hell due for your outrageous unkindness. No reason may judge the contrary but that you of good right have deserved them for your foul presumption in breaking of the laws of your Lord God, and preferring your wretched appetites before His pleasure, and following your own wilful desires before His most high commandments. Alas, what miserable condition should you now have been in if He so incontinent after your offences had stricken you by death and had sent you to the horrible pains of hell, where you should not only for a time have bidden, but for ever and without all remedy. No prayers of your friends, no almsdeeds, no such other good works should have relieved you.
Ah, sister, imprint deeply in your soul this inestimable mercy of your Lord God showed unto you through His most gracious and merciful abiding for your return to Him by true repentance and asking of His mercy. For innumerable souls of men and women, for less offences than you have done, lie now in the prison of hell, and shall there continue without end; which if they might have had as great sufferance as you have had, and so long leisure to repent them, they would have taken more sorrowful repentance than ever you took, and do now more sorrowfully repent than ever you did, but that as now cannot profit them, for that sorrow and repentance is now too late. But to my purpose, how may you think that this loving sufferance and gracious abiding of your amendment and merciful accepting of your sorrows and repentance for your great sins, Cometh not of a singular love showed unto you by your Lord God before all them? And shall not this consideration pierce your heart and move you much to love Him again?
The Fifth Consideration
The fifth consideration is this: Peradventure, after that thus by your repentance and asking mercy you were taken to this grace of your God, yet far more grievously and far more unkindly you fell again to sin, and kept not the purpose and promise that before you did make, but more without shame and dread of His highness took your liberty in your sinful ways, abusing His gentleness and presuming upon His mercy, not regarding any benefit or kindness showed by His most excellent goodness unto you before, so defiling your soul by innumerable ways, and making it filthy and more ungoodly than is the sow that waltereth herself in the foul miry puddle, and more pestilently stinketh in the sight of God than is the stinking carrion of a dead dog being rotten and lying in a ditch; yet, nevertheless, for all these misbehaviours, your Lord God of His far-passing goodness hath called you again from your sinful life and hath graciously stirred your soul to forsake your sin and to leave this wretched world and to enter the holy religion. Whereby (after the sentence of holy doctors) your soul is made as clean as it was at your baptism and restored again to the purity and cleanliness of your first innocence; and not only that, but also He hath appointed you to be of the number of them that He assigned for His best beloved spouses. And what high point of singular favour is this? How many women, far better than you, be left behind in this world, not called to this high dignity nor admitted to this most special grace? When the noble King Asuerus, as it is written in the Scripture, commanded many fair maidens to be chosen out and to be seen unto with all things that might make them fair and beautiful and pleasant to his sight, to the intent that they at all times when it should like him to appoint any of them to come to his presence and to be his spouse, they might be the more ready, this thing, no doubt of it, was to them that were thus chosen a comfort, that they were preferred before others, and also every one of them might live in hope to come to the king’s presence and have some likelihood to be accepted for his spouse, in SO much that all others but they were excluded. In like manner it is with religious women. All they, by the gracious calling of the great King of heaven, be gathered into God’s religion and dissevered from the other secular women that be of the world, there a season to abide until they be sufficiently prepared by the holy sacraments and the holy observations of religion to come to His gracious Highness’s presence, and to be brought into His secret chamber above in heaven, there to abide with Him in endless joy and bliss. Blessed is that religious woman that so doth prepare herself for this little time that here she shall tarry by prayer, by meditation, by contemplation, by tears of devotion, by hearty love and burning desire, that after that this transitory lite she may be admitted to the most excellent honour, and not with shame and rebuke be repelled therefrom when the day shall come.
The Sixth Consideration
The sixth consideration that you call well to your remembrance, who it is that doth thus exhort you for to love, verily He is that person that if either you will freely give your love, or else sell your love, He is most worthy to have it above all other. First, if ye were of that mind to give your love free, it were good yet there to bestow it that you should choose such a one, as both in goodliness of person, as also in prowess and wisdom, and good gentle manners may be worthy of your love. For if there be any deformity in him whom you would love, it is an impediment and great let for to love him; but in our Saviour Christ the Son of God is no deformity, for He is all goodly, and surmounteth all other in goodliness; and, therefore, of Him the prophet David affirmeth in this manner: Speciosus forma prae filiis hominum, that is to say, “He is goodly before the children of men.” And of truth much goodly must He needs be that hath so many goodly creatures. Behold the rose, the lily, the violet; behold the peacocks, the pheasant, the popinjay; behold all the other creatures of this world—all these were of His making, all their beauty and goodliness of Him they received it. Wherefore this goodliness describeth that He Himself must needs of necessity be very goodly and beautiful. And for that in the book of Canticles the Spouse describeth His goodliness, saying: Dilectus meus candidas et rubicundus, electus ex millibus that is to say: “He that I love is white and red, chosen out amongst thousands.” And this beauty and goodliness is not mortal, it cannot fade nor perish as doeth the goodliness of other men, which like a flower to-day is fresh and lusty, and to-morrow with a little sickness is withered and vanisheth away. And yet it is sensible to the goodliness of man’s nature, for the which also he is more naturally to be beloved of many. For likeness is the ground of love, like always doth covet like, and the nearer in likeness that any person be, the sooner they may be knit together in love. The same likeness He hath and you have, like body and like soul, touching His manhood; your soul is also like unto Him in His Godhead, for after the image and similitude of it your soul is made. Furthermore of His might and power you may be likewise a certain season. He made this world by the only commandment of His mouth, and gave to the herbs and all other creatures their virtue and might that they have; and may also by His power save and damn creatures, either to lift them up in body and soul into heaven above, or else to throw them down into ever-during pains of hell. If ye doubt of His wisdom, behold all this world, and consider how every creature is set with another, and every of them by himself, how the heavens are apparelled with stars, the air with fowls, the water with fishes, the earth with herbs, trees and beasts, how the stars be clad with Hght, the fowls with feathers, the fishes with scales, the beasts with hair, herbs and trees with leaves, and flowers with scent, wherein doth well appear a great and marvellous wisdom of Him that made them. Finally His good and gentle manner is all full of pleasure and comfort so kind, so friendly, so liberal and beneficious, so piteous and merciful, so ready in all opportunities, so mindful and circumspect, so dulcet and sweet in communication. For as Scripture saith: Non hahet amaritudinem conversatio vel taedium convictus illius, sed laetitiam et gaudium, that is to say: “His manners be so sweet and pleasant that the conversation of Him hath no bitterness; yea, His company hath no loathsomeness nor weariness in it, but all gladness and joy.” Here peradventure you will say unto me, how may I love that I see not? if I might see Him with all the conditions ye speak of, I could with all my heart love Him. Ah! good sister, that time is not come yet; you must, as I said, now for the time prepare yourself in cleanness of body and soul, against that time; so when that time Cometh you may be able and worthy to see Him, or else you shall be excluded from Him with the unwise virgins, of whom the Gospel telleth that they were shut out from His presence with great shame and confusion, because they had not sufficiently prepared themselves. Therefore, good sister, for this time be not negligent to prepare yourself with all good works, that then you may be admitted to come unto His presence, from the which to be excluded it shall be a more grievous pain than any pain of hell. For, as Chrysostom saith: Si decem mille gehennas quis dixerit, nihil tale est quale ab illa beata visione excidere, that is to say: “If one would rehearse unto me ten thousand hells, yet all that should not be so great pains as it is to be excluded from the blessed sight of the face of Christ.”
The Seventh Consideration
The seventh consideration is this: where now it appeareth unto you, that if you will give your love freely, there is none so worthy to have it as Jesus the Son of the Virgin Mary. I will further shew unto you that if you will not freely give it, but you will look peradventure to have something again, yet there is none so well worthy to have it as He is; for if another will give more for it than He, I will not be against it; take your advantage. But sure I am there is none other to whom your love is so dear, and of so great a price as it is unto Him, nor any that will come nigh unto that that He hath given or will give. If His benefits and kindness shewed towards you, whereof I spake somewhat before, were by you well pondered, they be no small benefits, and especially the love of so great a prince, and that He would thus love you, and prefer you before so many innumerable creatures of His, and that when there was in you no love, and when you could not skill of love; yea, and that, that more is, when you were enemy unto Him, yet He loved you, and so wonderfully that for your love, and to wash you from sin, and to deliver your soul from the extreme peril, He shed His most precious blood, and suffered the most shameful, the most cruel and the most painful death of the cross; His head to be pierced with thorns. His hands and feet to be through holed with nails, His side to be lanced with a spear, and all His most tender body to be torn and rent with whips and scourges. Believe this for a very truth, good sister, that for your sake He suffered all, as if there had been no more in all the world but only yourself, which I will declare more largely unto you in the next consideration following.
Believe it in the meantime certainly, for so it is indeed, and if you believe it not, you do a great injury and shew a full unkindness unto Him that thus much hath done for you.
And if this belief truly settle in your heart, it is to me a marvel if you can content your heart without the love of Him, of Him, I say, that thus dearly hath loved you, and doth love you still. For what other lover will do thus much for your love? What creature in all the world will die for your sake? What one person will part with one drop of his heart blood for your sake? When then the Son of God, the Prince of heaven, the Lord of Angels, hath done this for your sake, which thing no other creature will do, what frost could have congealed your heart that it may not relent against so great an heat of love? If He, so excellent in all nobleness, should have given you but one favourable countenance from the heavens above, it had been a more precious benefit than ever you could recompense by your love again. It were impossible for your love to recompense that one thing. But how much rather when He hath descended into this wretched world for your sake, and here hath become man, and hath endured all misery pertaining unto man, save only sin and ignorance, and finally hath suffered this great horrible death for your love, how shall you ever now recompense this by any love or service to be done for your pity? And He hath not only done all this for your sake, but also hath prepared for you after this transitory life a reward above in heaven, so great that never mortal eye saw the like, nor any tongue can express, nor yet any heart can think. Ah, sister, when your wretched soul shall hence depart, which cannot be very long here, who shall give you refreshing the space of one hour? Good therefore it is that you look unto yourself and upon Him bestow your love, the which hitherto hath done most for you and best hath deserved it beyond all other; and yet after this life He will give for it a reward so inestimable that it shall never fail you.
The Eighth Consideration
The eighth consideration is this: that albeit, there are many others which also are beloved of Christ Jesu, yet the love that He sheweth to them, nothing minisheth His love towards you, as if there were no more beloved of Him in all the kind of man. This may evidently be shewed unto you by this example following. If before any image of our Saviour were disposed and set in a long row many glasses, some great and some little, some high and some low, a convenient distance from the image, so that every one of them might receive a presentment of the image, it is no doubt but in every one of these glasses should appear the very likeness of the same image. I will not say but this likeness should be longer in the great glasses than in the less, and clearer in the better cleansed glasses, and in them that were nigh unto the image, than in the others that were not so well cleansed and much farther off. But as to the likeness itself it shall be as full and as whole in every one glass as though there were but one.
Now to my purpose, if you consider likewise that all the good souls that be scoured from deadly sin be in the manner of glasses set in an order to receive the love of our Saviour Christ Jesu, such souls as by true penance doing, by sighing, by weeping, by praying, by watching, by fasting and by other like, be the better scoured and cleansed from the spots and malice of deadly sin, they be the brighter glasses and more clearly receive this love, and such also be near unto our Saviour, for nothing putteth us far from Him but only sin. And therefore they that have more diligently scoured their souls from the rust of sin be nearer unto Him than the others that so have not done. Such souls also as of their part enforce themselves to a great love and to a more ample fervour, they do enlarge the capacity of their souls to receive a more large abundance of love; again, those that less enforce them, have a less capacity in receiving, and therefore so much the less they receive of this love, even as a man that openeth his bosom wide and enlargeth it, is more able to receive a greater thing into it than he that doeth not.
But yet, as I have said before of the glasses, every one of the souls receives as full and as whole a love of Jesu Christ as though there were no more souls in all the world but that one alone, for the love of Christ Jesus [is] infinite. And therefore when innumerable of souls have every one of them received as much the love of Christ Jesu as to every one of them is possible, yet hath He still in Himself love sufficient for infinite more, and this His love thereby is not in any point diminished nor lessened, though it be divided into many, be the number of them never so great. None of them that be beloved receive the less because of the multitude of his fellows, nor if he had no more but himself he should not thereby have any more abundance of love to his part, but according to the cleansing and capacity of his soul and nighness unto Christ, his part in love shall be the less or more. Wherefore, good sister, I pray you be diligent to scour your soul clean, and to enforce your soul on your part fervently to love your spouse Christ Jesu, and draw nigh unto Him with entire devotion, and then undoubtedly you shall be partner to the more plenteous abundance of His love, notwithstanding any other multitude which beside is beloved of Him; for He nevertheless is as studious of you and as mindful and as fervently careth for your weal as though there were no more beloved of Him but you alone in all this world.
The Ninth Consideration
The ninth consideration is this: where peradventure you would object to me again and say: “Brother, if it be thus as you say, that my Lord Jesu loveth me so much, and is so mindful of me, and so fervently intendeth my weal, what need me to care whatsoever I do? He will not cast me away; He will not forsake me nor suffer me to perish.” Good sister, without doubt as I have said, our Saviour Christ Jesu is in love towards you, and He is mindful and more loving towards you than I can express. And sure you may be that He will never cast you away, nor forsake you, if you before cast not yourself away, nor forsake yourself. But if you give any place to sin in your soul, and suffer it to enter upon you, verily then you forsake yourself and cast yourself away, and willingly destroy yourself, that is your deed and not His; for He never forsaketh any creature unless they before have forsaken themselves. And if they will forsake themselves, were they never in so great favour with Him before, they then incontinently lose His favour. The which thing well appeareth in His first spiritual creatures the noble angels, Lucifer and his company, which were created in excellent brightness, and were much in the favour of Almighty God, they presumptuously offended Him in pride; for the which not only they lost His favour, but also their marvellous brightness became incontinently horrible, foul, and were expelled out of the glorious kingdom of heaven that they were in, and thrown into perpetual darkness, into the prison of hell.
The first man Adam also, who was created in singular honour, and was put into paradise, a place full of gladness, there to live in comfort of all pleasure, the which was done to him for a singular love that Almighty God had towards him; yet anon as he fell to sin he was in like manner expelled out from that pleasure, and sent into this miserable world to endure misery and pain.
If those noble creatures which were lifted up into so great favour with Almighty God, so lightly by their misdemeanour in sin lost His gracious favour, let none other creature think but if they admit any sin to their soul, they shall be likewise excluded out of His favour. For sin is so odious unto Almighty God, that not the dearest friends that ever He had in all the world, but if there were found in their souls any deadly sin after death, they should never be received into the joy of heaven. Not the blessed Mary Magdalene for all her love towards Him, nor yet His own blessed Mother that bare Him into this world, if one deadly sin were found in their souls, they should incontinent be thrown into the dark dungeon of hell. Wherefore, good sister, say not, if His love be so much upon you, and He so desirously intendeth your profit, that you may do what you list, you need not to care what you do; but contrariwise, the more that He loveth you, the more you should take heed unto yourself and beware that you offend Him not, for so did the Blessed Mary Magdalene, of whom I spake before. She, notwithstanding the great love that both our Saviour had to her and she unto Him again, for the which also her sins were forgiven her, yet after His death she fled from the company of men, and lived in the wilderness far from any worldly comfort, in great wailing, fasting and prayer and such other painfulness of her body, and was nothing the less diligent to keep herself warily from sin, for the great love that our Lord and Saviour had to her; but for that the more studiously she did avoid and eschew everything whereby she might run into any displeasure against Him.
The Tenth Consideration
The tenth consideration is this: it were well done, and much it should further this cause if you truly esteem of how little value your love is, how vain, how light and how trifling a thing it is, and how few there be that would much regard it or set much price thereby, for few there be or none to whom it may do any profit or avail. Contrariwise, you should consider the love of your spouse, the sweet Jesu, how excellent it is, how sure, how fast, how constantly abiding, how many have much specially regarded it. Martyrs innumerable, both men and women, for His love have shed their blood and have endured every kind of martyrdom, were it never so cruel, were it never so terrible. No pain, no torment, might compel them to forsake His love; so desirous were they of His love that rather than they would forego it, they gave no force of the loss of all this world beside, and their own life also. So dear and precious was that love to them that all the honours, pleasures and possessions of this life they accounted as very trifles in comparison of that. And what be you in comparison of them, but naughty, wretched and miserable? Where then they, which be now glorious saints above in heaven, so much have valued and so greatly esteemed this most excellent love, and you may have the same love for yours, that is so naughty and so little worth, what should you do of your part? How much should you enforce yourself not only to obtain this love, but studiously to keep it, since that you have it once, and for nothing to depart therefrom! He of His goodness doth not repel any creature from His love, but permitteth them assuredly that if any draw nigh unto Him by love, He will love them again, and give His most precious love for theirs. He sayeth: Ego diligentes vie diligo; that is to say: “I love them that love Me.” And in another place: En qui venit ad me non ejiciam foras; that is to say: “What person soever cometh unto Me, I will not cast him away.” Sister, if you consider this deeply, it should move you to fall down upon your knees and with all your heart and mind say unto your Spouse in this manner:
“O my blessed Saviour Lord Jesu, Thou askest my love, Thou desirest to have my heart, and for my love Thou wilt give me Thy love again. O my sweet Lord, what is this for Thee to desire, which art so excellent? If my poor heart were of so much value as all the hearts of men and women that ever were, if they were put together in one; and if it were as precious and noble as there is price and nobleness in all the orders of angels; if furthermore it did contain in it all bodily and spiritual treasure that is within the compass of heaven or without, yet it were but a little gift to give unto so great a Lord, for His most delicate and precious love to be had of Him again: much rather my love and heart, as it is now naughty, wretched and miserable, so is it but a small gift and of little value. Nevertheless, such as it is, since it is Thy pleasure to have it and Thy goodness doth ask it of me, saying: Praebe mihi cor tuum; that is to say: ‘Give me thy heart’ — I freely give it unto Thee, and I most humbly beseech Thy goodness and mercy to accept it, and so to order me by Thy grace, that I may receive into it the love of nothing contrary to Thy pleasure, but that I always may keep the fire of Thy love, avoiding from it all other contrary love that may in any wise displease Thee.”
The Final Conclusion of All
Now then, good sister, I trust that these considerations, if you often read them with good deliberation, and truly imprint them in your remembrance, they will somewhat inflame your heart with the love of Christ Jesu, and that love once established in you all the other points and ceremonies of your religion shall be easy unto you, and no wit painful; you shall then comfortably do everything that to good religion appertaineth, without any great weariness. Nevertheless, if it so fortune that you at any time begin to feel any dulness of mind, quicken it again by the meditation of death, which I send you here before, or else by some effectual prayer earnestly calling for help and succour upon the most sweet Jesu, thinking, as it is indeed, that is your necessity and that no where else you can have any help but of Him. And if you will use these short prayers following, for every day in the week one, I think it shall be unto you profitable. For thus you may in your heart shortly pray, what company soever you be amongst.
The Prayers be these:
O blessed Jesu, make me to love Thee entirely.
O blessed Jesu, I would fain, but without Thy help I cannot.
O blessed Jesu, let me deeply consider the greatness of Thy love towards me.
O blessed Jesu, give unto me grace heartily to thank Thee for Thy benefits.
O blessed Jesu, give me good will to serve Thee, and to suffer.
O sweet Jesu, give me a natural remembrance of Thy passion.
O sweet Jesu, possess my heart, hold and keep it only to Thee.
These short prayers if you will often say, and with all the power of your soul and heart, they shall marvellously kindle in you this love, so that it shall be always fervent and quick, the which is my especial desire to know in you. For nothing may be to my comfort more than to hear of your furtherance and profiting in God and in good religion, the which our blessed Lord grant you for His great mercy. Amen.
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| St. John Fisher: Prayer Written in the Tower |
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Posted by: Stone - 01-02-2025, 09:44 AM - Forum: The Saints
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Prayer Written in the Tower1
by John Fisher
Reynolds, E. E. Saint John Fisher.
London: Burns & Oates, 1955. 297-299.
![[Image: fisher17thc.jpg]](https://www.luminarium.org/renlit/fisher17thc.jpg)
Help me, most loving father, help me with thy mighty grace. Succour me with thy most gracious favour. Rescue me from these manifold perils that I am in, for unless thou wilt of thy infinite goodness relieve me, I am but as a lost creature.
Thy strict commandment is that I should love thee with all my heart, with all my soul, with all my mind, with all my power. And thus, I know, I do not, but am full far short and wide therefrom; which think I perceive by the other loves that I have had of thy creatures heretofore. For such as I sincerely loved, I loved them so that I seldom did forget them. They were ever in my remembrance and almost continually mine heart was occupied with them and my thought ran ever upon them as well absent as present. Specially when they were absent I much desired to have their presence and to be there where they were, or else my heart were never in any rightful quiety.
But alas, my dear father, I am not in this condition towards thee. For I keep thee not in my remembrance nor bear thee in my thought nor occupy my heart with thee so often as I should, but for every trifle that cometh to my mind I let thee slip and fall out thereof. And for every fantasy that stirreth in my heart I set thee aside, shortly forget thee. I suffer many a trifling thought occupy my soul at liberty, but with thee, my dear father, I have lightly done, and forthwith turn me to, the remembrance of thy creatures and so tarry with thee but a short while, the delight in thy creatures so pulleth and draweth me hither and thither, my wretched desires so blind me. This false world so deceiveth me that I forget thee, which art my most loving father and art so desirous to have my heart and love.
What are thy creatures but creatures made by thee? Thou made me and them of naught and thou far incomparably passeth all them. And what are my desires, when they are set on thy creatures and not in an order to thee, what are they but wretched and sinful affections? And finally what is this world but a miserable exile, full of perils and evils far unlike that glorious country where thou art resident and sheweth thy most excellent Majesty in wonderful glory? There thou art clearly seen to all thy blessed angels and saints of thy most highly triumphant court. They be there ever present before thy blessed face and behold thy Majesty continually face to face.
O my dear father, here should be mine heart, here should be my desire and remembrancy. I should long to have sight of thy most blessed face, I should earnestly desire to see thy country and kingdom, I should ever wish to be there present with thee and thy most glorious court. But this, alas, I do not. And therefore I sorrow at my grievous negligence, I weep for my abominable forgetfulness, I lament my vileness, yea, my very madness, that thus for trifles and vanities forget my most dear and loving father.
Alas, woe is me! What shall I do? Wither may I turn me? To whom shall I resort for help? Where shall I seek for any remedy against the worldly and earthly waywardness of my heart? Whither should I rather go than to my father, to my most loving father, to my most merciful father, to him that of his infinite love and mercy hath given me boldness to call him father? Whose son Jesu my saviour hath taught me thus to call him, and to think verily that he is my father, yea, and a more loving father than is any natural father unto his child.
These are his words speaking unto the natural fathers of this world when ye that are infect with evil can liberally give unto your children good gifts, how much rather your heavenly father shall give a good spirit to them that ask it of him. These works, most gracious father, are the words of thy most dearly beloved son, Jesu, wherein he teaches us that thou art our very father and maketh promise on thy behalf that thou shalt give thine holy spirit unto them that ask thy son or thee studiously.
Thou willest that we should believe him and faithfully trust his words. For thou testified of him that he was thine entirely beloved son and bade us hear him and give a full faith unto his words. Wherefore we may be certain and sure of three things. The first is that thou art our father, the second that thou art a more kind and loving father unto us than are the carnal fathers of this world unto their children. The third, that thou wilt give, to such as devoutly ask it of thee, thy most holy spirit. We may be well assured that for thine inestimable goodness, and for the honour of thy name and everlasting truth thou wilt not disappoint these promises, for as much as they were made by thy most entirely beloved son Christ Jesu whom thou sent into this world to make the truth certain and to confirm the same unto us by the blood which he shed for us on his cross.
O father, then, whither shall I turn in my necessity rather than to thee which have me call thee by this name, a name of much love and tenderness, of much delight and pleasure, a name which stirreth the heart with much hope and constancy and many other delectable affections. And if nothing were told me but only this name, it might suffice to make me steadfastly trust that thou, which hast commanded me to call thee by this name father, will help me and succour me at my need when I sue unto thee; but much rather because my saviour thy son Christ Jesu hath assured me that thou art a more kind and more loving father unto me than was mine own natural father.
This assurance made by the most entirely beloved son should specially move both thee and me. First it should move me to have an hope and a confidence that thou wilt deal with me according to the same promise. Second, it should also move thee to perform this promise effectually and so to show thyself a kind and loving father in this my petition. My petition, most dear father, is agreeable to that same promise made by thy most entirely beloved son my saviour Jesu. I ask none other thing but thy good and holy spirit to be given unto me according to that same promise which he promised.
I know, most gracious father, that thou art here present with me albeit I see thee not. But thou both seest me and hearest me and no secrecy of my heart is hid from thee. Thou hearest that I now ask thine holy spirit and thou knowest that I now pray therefore and that I am very desirous to have the same. Lo! Dear father, with all the enforcement of my heart I beseech thee to give thine holy spirit unto me. Wherefore unless thou wilt disappoint the promise of thy son Jesu thou canst not but give me this holy spirit; so by this means I shall be fully relieved of that misery whereof I complained unto thy goodness at the beginning.
Thy most holy spirit he shall make me to love thee with all my heart, and with all my soul, with all my mind, with all my power, for he is the author of all good love, he is the very furnace of charity and he is the fountain of all gracious affections and godly desires. He is the spiritual fire that kindles in the heart of them where he enters all gracious love; he fills their souls in whom he is received with the abundance of charity; he makes their minds sweetly to burn in all godly desires and gives unto them strength and power courageously to follow all ghostly affections and specially towards thee.
Wherefore, dear father, when thou hast strictly commanded me thus to love thee with all my heart and thus would I right gladly do (but without thy help and without thy holy spirit I cannot perform the same), I beseech thee to shed upon my heart thy most holy spirit by whose gracious presence I may be warmed, heated and kindled with the spiritual fire of charity and with the sweetly burning love of all godly affections, that I may fastly set my heart, soul and mind upon thee and assuredly trust that thou art my very loving father and according to the same trust I may love thee with all my heart, with all my soul, with all my mind and all my power. Amen.
[AJ Note: 1. Included in Letters and Papers Foreign and Domestic of the Reign of Henry VIII, vol. viii.]
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| The Catholic Trumpet: The Passion of the Mystical Body |
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Posted by: Stone - 01-01-2025, 09:58 AM - Forum: The Catholic Trumpet
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The Passion of the Mystical Body
![[Image: rs=w:1280]](https://img1.wsimg.com/isteam/ip/df55e1a9-c854-4d0b-a2a9-94177954436c/IMG_3547.png/:/cr=t:0%25,l:0%25,w:100%25,h:100%25/rs=w:1280)
The Catholic Trumpet [adapted] | December 31, 2024
The Mystical Body and the Passion of Christ
The Catholic Church, as the Mystical Body of Christ, is destined to relive the Passion of her Lord. Just as Christ endured His agony, betrayal, crucifixion, and death before rising in glory, so too must the Church undergo her own Passion. This suffering, foretold by Christ Himself, has unfolded through centuries of persecution, heresy, and modernist infiltration. Yet, the Church’s Resurrection is certain, as promised through the Triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
This article endeavors to explore the Church’s mystical Passion, paralleling it with Christ’s Passion, using typology and rigorous analysis. Through Scripture, the Church Fathers, and verifiable historical evidence, we seek to expose the betrayal of Vatican II, the errors of modernist popes, and the Synagogue of Satan–Rabbinical Judaism and its Freemasonic agents that orchestrated this Passion.
It is not merely a recounting of history, but a reflection on prophecy in motion—a call to remain faithful, humble, and hopeful amid the trials of our time.
I. The Church’s Agony: The Rise of Modernism and Betrayal Within
The Church’s agony began in the 19th century with the rise of modernism—what Pope St. Pius X called the “synthesis of all heresies.” This movement sought to corrupt the Church’s teachings, planned by the Synagogue of Satan–Rabbinical Judaism and carried out through its agent, Freemasonry.
Pope Leo XIII, in Humanum Genus (1884), explicitly warned:
Quote:“The goal of Freemasonry is to overthrow the entire religious and political order of the world which the Christian teaching has produced, and to replace it with a new state of things in accordance with their ideas, of which the foundations and laws shall be drawn from mere naturalism.”
Pope St. Pius X, in Pascendi Dominici Gregis (1907), condemned modernism as:
Quote:“The synthesis of all heresies… laying the axe to the very root, that is, to the faith and its deepest fibers. Once this is destroyed, they destroy everything.”
These infiltrations were not merely ideological but strategic. The secret societies—Alta Vendita, Freemasonry, and Carbonari—acted as the arms of Rabbinical Judaism to undermine Catholicism from within. The Permanent Instruction of the Alta Vendita explicitly reveals this plan:
Quote:“Our ultimate end is that of Voltaire and of the French Revolution—the destruction forever of Catholicism, and even of the Christian idea… That idea, like ashes, might revive under some new impulse.”
These betrayals mirror Judas’ role in Christ’s Passion, carried out by those closest to Him. The seeds of Vatican II were planted by these movements, initiating the Church’s mystical agony.
II. Vatican II: The Trial of the Mystical Body
Just as Christ stood before the Sanhedrin—the supreme Jewish council tasked with upholding the Law and preserving religious order—He was falsely accused and condemned by the Pharisees. The Sanhedrin, established to defend divine truth, instead became an instrument of betrayal. After condemning Christ, they handed Him over to Pilate, the secular authority, where He was mocked, scourged, and sentenced to death despite Pilate’s declaration of innocence.
In the same way, Vatican II mirrors this trial. The modern Sanhedrin—the Council Fathers—allowed Rabbinical Judaic and Masonic influences to infiltrate their deliberations. By choosing to align with the modern world rather than uphold Christ’s Kingship, they rejected the divine mission of the Church and delivered her into the hands of secularism.
Just as the crowd rejected Christ and demanded Barabbas, Vatican II echoed this tragic cry. By rejecting Christ’s Kingship for worldly power, Vatican II mirrored the crowd’s cry for Barabbas, symbolizing rebellion, false freedoms, and humanism. Barabbas, whose name ironically means “son of the father,” represents the Church’s preference for naturalism and humanism, rejecting the divine Kingship of Christ. As St. Augustine observed:
Quote:“In Barabbas, they chose sin; in Christ, they rejected righteousness.”
The Alta Vendita instructed:
Quote:“Infiltrate the young clergy… Let them become masters of parishes and educators of future priests, until they govern and transform the Church.”
This revolution came to fruition at Vatican II. Its key documents reflect the betrayal:
• Dignitatis Humanae: Declared false religious liberty, undermining Christ as the sole King of Nations.
• Nostra Aetate: Elevated Rabbinical Judaism and Islam, silencing calls for conversion to the true Faith.
• Unitatis Redintegratio: Equated heretical sects with the Church, undermining her unique salvific mission.
This marked the trial of the Mystical Body, where Christ’s Bride was handed over to the secular world, just as He was handed over to Pilate.
III. The Crucifixion of the Mystical Body
Just as Christ was handed over to the Romans by the Pharisees, the Church was handed over to spiritual death by modernist Catholics. While Catholics, as the true Jews of the New Covenant, should have upheld the Faith, many—including some who later repented—signed Vatican II documents or remained silent in the face of its errors. Yet, this betrayal perpetuated the Pharisaic rejection of Christ.
The Alta Vendita instructed infiltrators to feign Catholicism, even blaspheming their own origins to gain trust:
Quote:“Even if your posture is false, remain under a mask. Let some among you become Catholic priests… allow them to curse their Madonna.”
The Novus Ordo Missae (1969), with its Jude and Protestant-inspired revisions, epitomizes the Church’s crucifixion, stripping the Mass of its sacrificial essence. Alongside this, the new rite of episcopal consecration, confirmations, and even baptisms are dubious and doubtful, and now in our age, most likely invalid. Yet, as with Christ’s Passion, Rabbinical Judaism bears responsibility for perpetuating this rejection, invoking the curse of their forefathers: “His blood be upon us and upon our children” (Matthew 27:25).
IV. The Burial: Suppression of Tradition and the Role of the Remnant
The Church entered her burial phase following Vatican II. The suppression of the Traditional Latin Mass, the [promotion of the] Novus Ordo Missae, and the rise of compromised clergy marked this spiritual dormancy. Faithful Catholics were silenced, mirroring the apostles’ despair after Christ’s burial.
Key Moments of Burial:
1. The Indult Mass (1984): A mockery of Tradition, placing severe restrictions on the Mass of the Ages.
2. The 2012 Doctrinal Declaration: Presented by Bishop Fellay, this declaration signaled a grave compromise with modernist Rome, accepting ambiguous formulations and 95% of Vatican II. Despite fierce resistance from faithful priests and laity, it remains unretracted, threatening the integrity of Archbishop Lefebvre’s uncompromising stance.
V. The Role of the Holy Prelate
Our Lady of Good Success foretold a holy prelate who would preserve the priesthood. +Archbishop Lefebvre emerges as the fulfillment of this prophecy. His actions formed the bridge between the Church’s burial and her Resurrection, inspiring a remnant of uncompromised clergy and laity.
VI. The Resurrection: The Triumph of the Immaculate Heart
The Resurrection of the Church will come through the Triumph of the Immaculate Heart. Signs of this Resurrection include:
1. The True Restoration of the Tridentine Mass: Celebrated by uncompromised priests who remain faithful to the Church’s doctrine and liturgy.
2. The Conversion of the Jews (Romans 11:26).
3. The Social Kingship of Christ.
This article attempts to illuminate the Church’s Passion, identifying the Synagogue of Satan and its agents in Judeo-Masonry as the orchestrators of her trials. Yet, as with Christ’s Passion, the Church’s Resurrection is assured. Fidelity to Tradition, consecration to the Immaculate Heart, and trust in God’s promises will guide the remnant through this storm.
“In the end, My Immaculate Heart will triumph.” – Our Lady of Fatima
No Compromise. No Retreat.
-The☩Trumpet
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| Holy Mass in Arizona [Phoenix area] - January 1, 2025 |
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Posted by: Stone - 12-31-2024, 07:52 PM - Forum: January 2025
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Holy Sacrifice of the Mass - Feast of the Circumcision of Our Lord Jesus Christ
Date: Wednesday, January 1, 2025
Time: Confessions - 7:30 AM
Holy Mass - 8:00 AM
Location: 4717 N 48th Dr.
Phoenix, AZ 85031
Contact: Myrna 623-695-0278
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| Transcription: Fr. Hewko's Sermon for Feast of St. Stephen 2024 "Liars Detest Truth" |
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Posted by: Stone - 12-29-2024, 06:27 AM - Forum: Rev. Father David Hewko
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"Liars Detest Truth"
Transcription of Fr. Hewko's Sermon for the Feast of St Stephen, Protomartyr
12/26/24
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Transcript by The Catholic Trumpet [slightly adapted and reformatted] | December 28, 2024
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and the Holy Ghost, Amen.
“Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who stoned the prophets that I have sent you, and kill those who speak to you, how I would have gathered you under my wings, like a mother hen gathers her chicks, but you would not.”
And Our Lord warns His apostles, “You will preach to the synagogue, you will preach to these Pharisees, you will preach to the whole world, and many will not like it. Many will stone you, crucify you, they will put you to death, thinking they do a service to God.”
And today, Mother Church, right after the adoration of the baby Jesus in the crib, the charming Christmas night in Bethlehem, with the Angels singing, and the Shepherds adoring, and the Star appearing to the Three Kings, leading them for 13 days on the journey to find the face of the Savior, of the true Messiah, on this beautiful, charming night, we have the first day after the splash of blood.
Second day, splash of, not physical blood, but he was ready to give it- St. John- tomorrow. Tomorrow's feast is a blessing for wine and beer on a special day. St. John was boiled in oil, he should have sizzled into a french fry, but he didn't. God saved him to write the Apocalypse and to see the visions of the Last Days.
And then we have the Holy Innocents on the 28th. All the blood of those, some say up to 14,000 babies, baby boys, who were slaughtered under Herod's abortion law, abortion policy, post-abortion policy. So, all this blood splashed right after Our Lord Jesus Christ is born to tell us, “This is how they loved Me, they gave their life for Me”, and you and I love Our Lord this much that we would give our life for Him.
And the Church has seen so many martyrs and canonized so many of them, and there's many that are not canonized, many saints and martyrs who are just not known. In China, think of the millions killed in China and under Stalin, and even now going on in the Muslim countries, Catholics being slaughtered in cold blood, whole families just being massacred with machetes, and the news coverage is absolutely silent about it. And the persecution will come to blood again, as Our Lady of Fatima forewarned.
So, let's, I always quote this magnificent sermon of Saint Fulgentius, a holy bishop, speaking of Saint Stephen. Here it is:
Quote:“Yesterday we celebrated the birth in time of our eternal King. Today, the triumph through suffering of His soldier, Saint Stephen. Yesterday Our King, having put on our robe of flesh, came forth from the sanctuary of the Virgin's womb to visit the world. Today, His soldier, Stephen, going forth from the tabernacle of his body, enters Heaven a conqueror.
The one, Our Lord Jesus Christ, retaining the majesty of the everlasting Godhead, girded Himself with the servile cincture of flesh and entered upon the battlefield of this world. The other, Saint Stephen, laying down the garments of this corruptible body, ascended to the palace of Heaven to reign eternally. The one, the Christ Child, descended veiled in the flesh.
The other ascended, laureled in blood. The one ascended amid the stoning of the Jews, because the other, the Christ Child, descended amid the jubilation of angels. Yesterday the holy angels chanted exultantly, ‘Glory to God in the Highest.’ Today, still rejoicing, they take Saint Stephen into their company. Yesterday, the Lord came forth from the womb of the Virgin. Today, His soldier, Saint Stephen, goes forth from the prison house of the flesh.
Yesterday, for our sake, Christ was wrapped in swaddling clothes. Today He clothes Saint Stephen in the robe of immortality. Yesterday a narrow manger held the infant Christ. Today the immensity of heaven receives a triumphant Saint Stephen. Alone the Lord came upon earth that He might raise up the many to Heaven. Our King humbled himself that He might exalt His soldiers. Now let us consider, brethren, the arms with which Saint Stephen girt himself to overcome the cruelty of the Jews and arrive at so blessed a triumph.”
In other words, what weapons did he use to overcome them?
Quote:“Saint Stephen indeed deserved to bear his name, which means, the crowned one, for he had armed himself with the mail, the chain mail of law and conquered through it everywhere. Because of his love for God, he was unshaken before the cruelty of the Jews. Through his love for his neighbor, he interceded even for those who stoned him. Through love, he argued with the erring that they might be corrected. Through love, he prayed for those who stoned him, lest they be punished. Strong with the might of love, he overcame Saul who had compassed his death cruelly and won his persecutor on earth as his comrade in Heaven.”
So by love, Saint Stephen conquered. Those were his weapons. Those were his weapons.Those are the weapons of all the martyrs. They say the truth. They preach the truth.
They get persecuted for it. Look at Saint Athanasius, exiled many times, condemned over five times, excommunicated by Pope Liberius. Look at Archbishop Lefebvre, a white martyr, we could call him, of Catholic tradition, suspended unjustly, excommunicated unjustly, all for what? For preaching the truth, condemning the Vatican II’s monstrous heresies and errors, and that horrible New Mass, and (he) called the Code of Canon Law full of heresies, which it is. So we can't just accept the Code of Canon Law of 1983 without distinction. Yet that's what happened in 2012 with the leaders of our SSPX.
So they raise their voices because they love, they love the truth, and they want to bring them to the truth. But Rome would not hear it. Rome, like the modern Pharisees, blocked their ears, gnashed their teeth, and came on him (Archbishop Lefebvre) with knives of abuse of their authority by persecuting Catholic tradition. And they changed their tactics under Pope Benedict XVI. They changed their tactic: “Let's not… let's not show our teeth. Let's not show our sharp ears, like Little Red Riding Hood.”
Oh, what nice teeth you have, and what nice ears you have. And it's the wolf dressed as the nice granny. And that's the tactic modernists used to seduce many traditional groups, many traditional priests.
And think of the great fighting priests of Bishop de Castro Mayer. Read The Mouth of the Lion by Dr. David Alan White to get an idea of the greatness of Archbishop de Castro Mayer. And he really built an army of great priests who would defend tradition.
But when he died in 1991, one month after Archbishop Lefebvre, [and] in 2003, they crumbled. They crumbled under a liberal bishop, Bishop Rangel, who wanted to make peace with modernist Rome. And he was seduced by Benedict XVI, then Cardinal Ratzinger, to lay down their weapons. “You (can) have your Latin Mass, you can preach against modernism.”
Sounds nice, doesn't it? But for Archbishop Lefebvre and Bishop de Castro Mayer, “You make no peace until Rome comes back to tradition and proclaims the Kingship of Christ. No peace.”
And that's the same with the Catholic Resistance today. The good priests who are trying to defend the Faith, trying to rebuild, trying to continue “Operation Survival”. Yes, those priests do raise their voice against the modern compromises with the new SSPX of 2012, with the New Mass, the New Sacraments, Vatican II, the [false] Hermeneutics of Continuity, which is just a buzzword for accepting modernism under a mitigated form.
And then accepting point-blank the New Code of Canon Law, we just can't accept this. And our leaders know better, Bishop Fellay and Bishop de la Galaretta, Bishop Tissier de Mallerais, may he rest in peace, they all knew better.
They all knew better. And then the later developments in what we call the “fake resistance”, which is exactly what it is, a fake resistance. You can't resist while accepting error.
You can't resist modernism while accepting that the New Mass can still nourish your faith and give grace. And I know there's many arguments that theologians can have over these questions. Does the New Mass, if it's valid, give grace? You're going to have different opposing opinions on this.
But we have to admit it's a dangerous teaching. And Archbishop Lefebvre, who was the best theologian of all, he said it very point-blank and without any mitigation: “The New Mass is sterile. The New Mass does not give grace!”
And there's a strong argument from St. Thomas Aquinas for this. And he says he's talking about the Orthodox Schismatics because they have a valid priesthood. They stole the Catholic priesthood. They stole the Catholic sacraments, and they are valid. So the argument that many liberals hold today is, “well, if the mass is valid, if the priests are valid and the bishops are valid, it's good to go to. It's safe. It's no problem at all.”
That's not how the Church thinks because they're not licit. They stole the Sacraments. So St. Thomas Aquinas raises the question, “Do they receive grace at those valid Masses?” And he says, “No, those Masses do not pass grace because they are not united to the head. The branches are not united to the Tree, Jesus Christ. We have to be united to the one holy Roman Catholic Faith to receive the grace through the Mass.” That's his argument. And that's St. Thomas Aquinas. I just bow down to him. And to me, case closed. With Archbishop Lefebvre, case closed.
So yes, you might have your arguing opinions, but it's certainly dangerous, to say the least, to argue that the New Mass so-called Eucharistic Miracles are all true and valid. These are very dangerous teachings because it just causes confusion. And it smears the lines of clarity.
When with Archbishop Lefebvre, he never descended to that level, “Does it give grace to me or not? Does it nourish my faith or not?” No, he said the New Mass attacks the Faith and dogmas of the Faith. It attacks the Real Presence of Christ in the Holy Eucharist by focusing the real presence from the altar to the people. Hence, The Sign of Peace.
'You have to acknowledge the presence of Jesus in the presence of your neighbor and your brothers and sisters.' And that's the New Mass. It's an attack on the Real Presence. It's an attack on the Sacrifice of Christ on the altar by calling it a meal and diminishing every reference to sacrifice and diminishing all the reverence, genuflections, Signs of the Cross, bows, many of these just obliterated, which really makes the priest lose the faith when he says that New Mass. And then the New Mass attacks the sacrificial nature of the Mass, the propitiatory effect of the Mass for the souls in Purgatory, for example. Nowhere in any New Mass, even the one for the dead, will you find the word “soul” mentioned.
They don't mention “soul” to pray for the soul of the dead. It's been erased by Bugnini. So we have to be really blind not to see the attack of the New Mass, what it is really on our Catholic faith, and to pretend that it can be a means of grace is really insulting to the Catholic truth.
And Archbishop Lefebvre would recall all the people to remember the Martyrs of England, how many martyrs, boys, girls, young, old, priests, families, went to death or imprisonment or heavily fined, which they wouldn't have to have gone through if they just attended one time the Anglican service, which in those days, 1500-1600, you still had valid priests who before said the Tridentine Catholic Mass and now went with Henry VIII's “new religion” and are now saying the new Anglican service. So many of those masses, were still valid because the priests still kept the old consecration form, but (they) adapted to the whole Anglican service. And yes, you had Catholics in a quandary. They could have argued till the moon turns to cheese. They could have argued, “Well, it's valid. I can go to it. I can get grace.” But they didn't.
And you had St. Margaret Clitherow, a heroine of York. She had priests in her house. She was warned, “don't do this. If you get caught, off with your head.” And she had priests come to say Mass in disguise. They said Mass, and someone squealed on her, and she was sentenced to a cruel death. She was pregnant too.
And just the other few weeks ago, I was in England, and we prayed at the spot under the bridge where she was crushed with a door laid over her, over a rock, and then heavy weights put on her until her ribs snapped and penetrated through her skin. And she was suffocated to death and the little baby in her womb. So they wouldn't compromise on error.
And Saint Stephen too, look, he's talking to the Jews. He's telling them, “You uncircumcised bandits, you refuse to hear the truth. You refuse to realize that Moses was speaking of Jesus Christ, that all the prophets were speaking about Jesus Christ. He fulfilled all the prophets. Look at Daniel. Daniel said He would be sacrificed, the Lamb would be sacrificed outside the city of Jerusalem, and that's what you did on Calvary. And you remember John the Baptist pointing him out, there's the Lamb of God. You refuse that Lamb. And remember when Caiaphas and Annas were stabbing the Lamb at 3 p.m. on Good Friday, the Passover day, the earthquake hit, and the temple shook, and the veil of the temple was ripped in half from top to bottom. Don't you remember this?”
And Saint Stephen brought up all the prophecies, and still they blocked their ears and would not hear it. So that's how modernist Rome has treated Catholic tradition, and still is trying to crush tradition. So they won't succeed.
So we have to raise our voice, priests and bishops. We cannot pretend to have peace where there is no peace. Pretend to declare peace when there is war, and a war for the reign of Christ the King, the reign of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, and the triumph of true Catholic doctrine in the dogmas of the Faith. These are the lights that will enlighten the world, and we cannot put these lights under a bushel. So let us in this happiness of Christmas time rejoice with all the angels in receiving Saint Stephen today in Heaven.
Pray for our bishops. Pray that we get a good pope. Pray for all the priests, especially of tradition, that all know better. Pray for all the priests who have compromised and have agreed to be silent, that they snap out of that trance.
Pray for all the priests of the Catholic resistance. Father Ruiz just visited the Oratory last week from Mexico. He spent a week, and he gave a couple great talks on the spirit of liberalism. I encourage you to hear it. They are posted on the Oratory of the Sorrowful Heart of Mary [You Tube channel]. Also, The Catholic Trumpet is a powerful little website, and also, of course, The Catacombs and The Recusant. These are the few anti-liberal Catholic publications that are warning the faithful: “They cannot compromise with error.”
So let's fight on, learning from Saint Stephen that we must love, conquer by love, conquer by charity, forgive those who injure us, pray for them, wish them no evil, hold no grudges, but always hold up the light and be ready to shed our blood for the beautiful Christ Child, who invites us to love Him with all our heart, all our strength, all our mind, all our efforts.
Immaculate Heart of Mary, You who burned with love at the foot of the Christ Child and held Him in Your arms and nursed Him, inflame our hearts to love Our Lord and receive Him today in Communion, and inflame us like gas on a dying fire. Inflame our hearts with the fuel of the love of God, that we may really love Him with all our heart, strength, and capacity.
O Mary Conceived without sin.
O Mary Conceived without sin.
O Mary Conceived without sin.
And for those who do not have recourse to thee especially, all communists and Freemasons and other enemies of Holy Mother Church. Amen.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.
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| Bishop Williamson: Against Sedevacantism - December 28, 2024 |
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Posted by: Stone - 12-28-2024, 01:44 PM - Forum: Sedevacantism
- Replies (1)
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As many of you know, there are some very questionable, if not downright erroneous, things Bishop Williamson has taught (cf. Fake Resistance Watch) in the years since 2015. Some of these errors have even been shown to be at variance from the way he previously used to preach and teach (e.g. Bishop Williamson [and the old-SSPX]: The New Mass is Intrinsically Evil).
But whenever the truths of the Faith are correctly preached and taught, they are gratefully repeated here on The Catacombs. On his blog Eleison Comments dated December 28, 2024, Against Sedevacantism, Bishop Williamson clarifies how the Church as dealt with dubious pontificates in the past.
In essence, he cites multiple instances in Church history where the principle of universal acceptance has been employed by the Church to 'heal at the root' the turbulent times where popes ascended the Throne of Peter under doubtful circumstances. In this matter, it seems that by demonstrating the manner in which the Church has in the past corrected and smoothed over a perhaps questionable papacy, His Excellency has correctly shown how the Church may indeed choose, as She has multiple times in the past, to resolve the confusion surrounding the papacy of Francis. This is an important consideration. To be aware of how the Church has dealt with similar situations, though the evils of our times seem very great in comparison to previous doubtful pontificates, it is a great help to us to know and act as the Church does, and in all serenity. St. Vincent Lerins hammers away at this point in his Commonitorium, stating over and over words similar to these:
Quote:Chapter 29. Recapitulation.
[76.] This being the case, it is now time that we should recapitulate, at the close of this second Commonitory, what was said in that and in the preceding.
We said above, that it has always been the custom of Catholics, and still is, to prove the true faith in these two ways; first by the authority of the Divine Canon, and next by the tradition of the Catholic Church. [...]
[77.] We said likewise, that in the Church itself regard must be had to the consentient voice of universality equally with that of antiquity, lest we either be torn from the integrity of unity and carried away to schism, or be precipitated from the religion of antiquity into heretical novelties. We said, further, that in this same ecclesiastical antiquity two points are very carefully and earnestly to be held in view by those who would keep clear of heresy: first, they should ascertain whether any decision has been given in ancient times as to the matter in question by the whole priesthood of the Catholic Church, with the authority of a General Council: and, secondly, if some new question should arise on which no such decision has been given, they should then have recourse to the opinions of the holy Fathers, of those at least, who, each in his own time and place, remaining in the unity of communion and of the faith, were accepted as approved masters; and whatsoever these may be found to have held, with one mind and with one consent, this ought to be accounted the true and Catholic doctrine of the Church, without any doubt or scruple.
AGAINST SEDEVACANTISM
By Bishop Richard Williamson on December 28, 2024
EC# CMXI (911)
How men behave must be by law refined,
But law must follow reality close behind.
The controversy over the resignation by Benedict XVI from the Papacy in February of 2013 continues to feed the argument over the vacancy of the Apostolic See – was that resignation valid or not? If it was valid, then the ensuing election of Pope Francis was not invalidated by Benedict still being in any way the valid Pope. But if Benedict’s resignation was doubtfully valid, then a doubt is left hanging over all Francis’ subsequent papacy, because Benedict only died in 2022 after Francis had acted as Pope for the space of nearly ten years. In the autumn of last year Bishop Athanasius Schneider wrote a most interesting article, accessible on the Internet, giving precious principles on the whole dispute of whether the Apostolic See (Latin “sedes”) is vacant or not.
It may seem an idle dispute, but it is not. The Catholic Church is a worldwide organisation, strictly hierarchical, in which all parish priests depend upon valid diocesan bishops for their valid appointment to parishes, and those bishops depend in turn upon a valid Pope for their valid appointment to their dioceses. For the Church to be able to function, its head must be really existent, clearly identified and universally accepted. Of course several times in Church history the identity of the Pope has been disputed, notably during the Great Western Schism from 1378 to 1417, which saw at its end not just two but three candidates all claiming to be Pope. However, all Catholics knew that more than one Pope was most harmful to the Church, so the Schism lasted only 39 years.
In that dispute, it is precious to observe how the Church judged of the validity of the popes in question. On the one hand Urban VII was duly elected in Rome in the papal conclave of 1378 amid huge pressure and threats, but he was accepted and recognised as Pope by all the cardinals who had elected him. The Church has come to see in him and in his successors the line of true and valid Popes. On the other hand, a few months later, French cardinals counter-elected a Frenchman as Pope Clement VII, who set up the Avignon papacy in Southern France. This line of “Popes” the Church has come to condemn as anti-popes. What is to be observed from this example and several others, especially in the Middle Ages, is that for a Pope to be valid the letter of the law is less important than the absolute need for the Church to have a single, visible, recognised and certain head.
Thus Gregory VI bought his papacy in 1045 for a large sum of money, so that his election was strictly invalid, yet the Church has always recognised him as a valid Pope. In 1294 Pope Celestine V doubtfully resigned and Boniface VIII disputedly succeeded him, yet both events were “healed at the root,” or made valid afterwards, by their being universally accepted by Catholics, clergy and laity. This doctrine of an event, illegal at the time but being made legal afterwards, the Church applies to marriages and to papal elections, under certain conditions. For papal elections those conditions are that the new Pope should be immediately accepted as Pope by the Universal Church. This was surely the case of Pope Francis, when he greeted the crowd from a Vatican balcony overlooking St Peter’s Square just after his papal election, with all the election’s possible canonical faults.
As for the disputed or doubtful resignation of Benedict XVI, opinions may differ, and the Church may decide with Authority what it meant, only after the Church emerges at last from the unprecedented crisis brought about by the splitting of Catholic Authority from Catholic Truth at the Second Vatican Council. However, based on the realistic principles laid out by Bishop Schneider in his article, it does not seem difficult to conclude that that resignation was both doubtful in itself and harmful in practice to the Church.
Doubtful in itself, because God designed His Church as a monarchy, or rule of one, and not as a diarchy, or rule of two. God obviously meant His Vicar, or stand-in, to have at his disposal in Rome a whole aristocracy of officials to help him to rule the worldwide Church, but of that aristocracy he is the undisputed sole king. And harmful in practice, because Benedict’s distinction between “munus” (office) for himself and “ministerium” (ministry or work) for Francis, did not clearly exclude his own continuing to participate in the rule of the Church. However, who did rule the Church from Benedict’s resignation to his death? Not Benedict. And when Benedict died – was there a papal conclave? No. It is Francis who has been Pope, from 2013 until now.
Kyrie eleison.
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| The Station Churches of the Christmas Season |
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Posted by: Stone - 12-28-2024, 08:34 AM - Forum: The Liturgical Year
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The Station Churches of the Christmas Season
(Part 1)
Gregory DiPippo - NLM [slightly adapted - not all hyperlinks included from original] | December 27, 2024
The Station Churches of Rome are nowadays perhaps thought of as a particular feature of Lent, since that season is the only one that has a station for every day, and the Lenten stations are the only ones which are still kept in Rome itself. However, the Missal of St Pius V, preserving the ancient traditions of the Roman Church, lists stations for several other periods of the liturgical year, such as the Sundays and Ember days of Advent, the pre-Lenten Sundays, and the octaves of both Easter and Pentecost. Prior to the 70-year long removal of the Papacy to Avignon, it was still the custom for the Pope to personally celebrate the principal liturgies at the stations, although one safely assume that this was kept more assiduously by some and less so by others. The following article in three parts will examine the station churches of the Christmas season, from the vigil of Christmas to the feast of the Epiphany.
Christmas Eve and Christmas Day
According to a very ancient custom of the Church of Rome, Christmas Day is celebrated with three Masses: one at midnight, preceded by Matins and followed by Lauds; one at dawn, after the hour of Prime; and a third during the day, to be celebrated, as on all major feasts, after Terce. In the Roman Breviary, we still read a homily of St Gregory the Great (590-604) at Christmas Matins, which begins with the words “Because, by the Lord’s bounty, we are to celebrate Mass three times today…” Like most of the great solemnities, Christmas is also preceded by a vigil day, particularly dedicated to fasting and penance in preparation for the feast. Thus, there are in fact four Masses on the twenty-fourth and twenty-fifth of December.
Of these four Masses, three currently have the same station listed, the great Basilica of Saint Mary Major. This is, of course, the oldest church in the world dedicated to the Blessed Virgin, and the most important of the many Marian churches in Rome. It was built by Pope St Sixtus III (432-440) to honor Her after the third Ecumenical Council at Ephesus had rejected the heresy of Nestorius, and formally defined Her title “Mother of God.” It is the traditional home of the famous icon known as the “Salus Populi Romani – Salvation of the Roman people”, one of the oldest icons in existence. Almost directly above the main altar of the church, the great arch still preserves the original mosaics of Pope Sixtus’ time, depicting events from the life of the Virgin. The Nativity of Christ, however, is not shown among them; it seems that the Annunciation and Epiphany, prominently depicted one above the other on the left side, were felt to contain between them the whole of the Nativity story.
![[Image: Santa+Maria+Maggiore.jpg]](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXV3Uj6xwmbvgACiOxcFXGUIsZz9O8TeFgRbwS0RE4dFmG8AtXKKqL2SF-d4MaHABfgXyLggJJVzYGcH0Dbc0Ac82RrkYQWyDpl8Jd5BHRFdGgBjsdAaiAsot-VZNDw5-3gmMpZQ/s400-rw/Santa+Maria+Maggiore.jpg)
Santa Maria Maggiore in an 18th century engraving by Giuseppe Vasi.
It is almost certain that already in St Gregory’s time, on the twenty-fourth of December, the canonical hour of None and the vigil Mass of the Nativity were both celebrated by the Pope and his court in the main basilica of Mary Major, to be followed by solemn First Vespers of Christmas. After a rest of some hours, the Pope and clergy would arise in the early part of the night for Matins, the first Mass of Christmas, and Lauds; thus, the Church kept watch for the Nativity of the Lord alongside the Virgin Mary in the stable at Bethlehem. By the middle of the seventh century, however, a small oratory had been built on the right side of the basilica, called “Sancta Maria ad Praesepe”, that is, Saint Mary at the Crib. This chapel was for many centuries the home of the relics reputed to be those of the Lord’s Crib, first attested in Rome in the reign of Pope Theodore (640-49). From roughly that time, the station of the Midnight Mass was kept in the chapel, while the services properly belonging to the Vigil of Christmas remained in the main basilica.
![[Image: St.+Anastasia+of+Sirmium.jpg]](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKFhC6-ipzdJQCCk9aZZo3FSdLOTm7CmAlmfuQbjGCBNsktHrzBuZ_FbgKJLWGFiDYpl-RIMpqFS7cDtGFXyTpjjrI9SNw1W15HrREozgzVG-tIR2m7qgs6OCRXJgQUcH9j1zElQ/s400-rw/St.+Anastasia+of+Sirmium.jpg)
St. Anastasia
The second Mass is kept at the church of St Anastasia, located at the base of the Palatine hill, very close to the site of the great chariot racing stadium of Rome, the Circus Maximus. The standard opinion among liturgical scholars has long been that this was originally not part of the celebration of Christmas at all, but a Mass in honor of the church’s titular Saint, who was martyred during the persecution of Diocletian in the city of Sirmium, the modern Mitrovica in Serbia. (See the article on St Anastasia by J.P. Kirsch in the Dictionnaire d’archéologie chrétienne et de liturgie, vol. 1.2, col. 1923, and Bl. Ildephonse Schuster’s The Sacramentary, vol. 1, p. 368.) This strikes me as extremely improbable, since her feast is not included in the oldest liturgical books of the Roman Rite. The so-called Leonine Sacramentary gives her name last among a group of seven martyrs whose feast is on December 25th, but there is no mention of her (or any of the others) in any of the nine different Mass formulae for Christmas that follow; she is completely absent from the Gelasian Sacramentary. The lectionary of Wurzburg, the oldest of the Roman Rite (ca. 650 AD) lists the Gospel for the second Mass as Luke 2, 15-20, the account of the shepherds coming to Bethlehem, which continues the Gospel of the first Mass, Luke 2, 1-14. This does not exclude the possibility that the station was chosen because the day was also St Anastasia’s feast; in the later Gregorian Sacramentary, her Mass and that of Christmas are given together, with the proper texts of the martyr first. In the Missal of St Pius V and its late medieval predecessors, she is kept as a commemoration at this second Mass.
The third Mass of Christmas was originally celebrated not at Mary Major, but at Saint Peter’s in the Vatican. This would certainly be because the sheer size of the church, just over 100 meters long, would allow for a greater crowd to attend the most solemn of the three Nativity Masses, that which commemorates the eternal birth of God the Son from God the Eternal Father. St Ambrose tells us in the De Virginibus that his sister Marcellina was veiled as a nun by Pope Liberius in St Peter’s on Christmas Day; it is also known that Pope St Celestine I (422-32) read the decisions of the Council of Ephesus to the faithful on the same occasion. One of the most important events in the history Christendom is also connected with this stational observance; on Christmas Day, 800 A.D., Charlemagne was crowned as the Emperor of Rome by Pope St Leo III, before the celebration of the Mass.
![[Image: Sacre+de+Charlemagne.jpg]](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhh89kLlsYj7WUhL8z9ptoFlVHFiQVVQnipO0rSGwcF2KAq7YizGkwi70_qhZ0S2HdHdTxpFX2iX9OlRPkNl9iT_VwcXTdDMd4cIlj9OHY3MDXycemJQqOMHXN5jDTtOZu1wHIUBw/s400-rw/Sacre+de+Charlemagne.jpg)
The Coronation of Charlemagne, from the Grand Chronique de France, ca. 1455
In about 1140, a canon of St Peter’s Basilica named Benedict records in his account of the ceremonies held in his church, now known as the eleventh Ordo Romanus, that the station of this third Mass was still kept there, but a half a century later, the twelfth Ordo tells us that it is at Mary Major. For most of the Middle Ages, the population of Rome was roughly 20,000 people, living in a city built for a million and a half, and a large church was no longer necessary for the papal Mass of Christmas. Furthermore, for much of the period, the city was ruled by military strongmen, and the Pope, though nominally temporal sovereign of the city, had little or no control over it. For these practical reasons, the station was sometimes kept in the 12th century at Mary Major, which is very much closer than St Peter’s to the Pope’s residence at the Lateran Basilica, and would have been easier and safer for the Papal court to reach. There were in fact several such “double stations” at various periods, and the definitive transfer of this one was probably not made until the later 14th century. The liturgical writer Sicard of Cremona still speaks of the station at St Peter’s in roughly 1200, and explains that “in the Communion of this Mass… ‘All the ends of the earth (have seen the salvation of our God.’); and because the blessed Peter saw this, and confessed it more than the others, as the Father that is in Heaven revealed it to him, therefore the station is at St Peter.”
On the mosaic arch over the altar of Mary Major, the lowest part of the right side depicts the city of Bethlehem, and the left side the city of Jerusalem; this pairing of the two holy cities is a common motif in early Christian art. It is interesting to note that the oratory of the Crib was also frequently called “Sancta Maria in Bethlehem”, and represented, as it were, the city of Christ’s Birth within the Eternal City. For this reason, when the relics of Saint Jerome were moved to Rome from the real Bethlehem, where he died, they were placed once again “in Bethlehem.” In like manner, the church which housed the relics of the True Cross was called “Holy Cross in Jerusalem.” The union of the two holy cities was further shown by the fact that the relics of the Crib of Christ, who was born in this world so that He might die for our sakes, were formerly arranged in the shape of a cross.
![[Image: Sacra+culla+S.+Maria+Maggiore.jpg]](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3eecNG2lv9Dx2-1tqDiW8UlDcGcGfkQiJiPPEa9Vb5WjiOehgMOI6Alk2L_z9XzpfdmNHZZ7I3rTxpOAEi28rE9lPerljqLQoGPNtRSs7RW7TxeUgvUI_rspw_gplwztSGync6w/s320-rw/Sacra+culla+S.+Maria+Maggiore.jpg)
The relics of the Lord's Crib in a reliquary of 1830.
This chapel also has a special connection with two of the great Saints of the Counter-reformation. St Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Company of Jesus, celebrated his first Mass on the principal altar of the Crib chapel; so great was his devotion to the Mass that he deemed a full year necessary to prepare himself properly to celebrate it. In the same place, St Cajetan of Thiene, founder of the first order of Clerks Regular, was graced on Christmas Eve with a vision, in which the Blessed Virgin appeared to him and handed him the Infant Jesus to hold. Both of these events are still commemorated by marble plaques near the altar of the now rebuilt Sancta Maria ad Praesepe.
The chapel was severely damaged during the sack of Rome in 1527, and almost entirely rebuilt in the later 16th-century; it is now often called “the other Sistine Chapel” in honor of the Franciscan Pope Sixtus V (1585-90), under whose auspices the rebuilding was carried out. Like many of the Popes of this era, he was not buried at St Peter’s, which was still under construction during his pontificate. The place which he chose for his monument, therefore, was the great chapel of the Crib, placing opposite himself the monument of his now sainted predecessor, Pius V. To this day, their spiritual brothers are still present in the Virgin Mary’s most ancient church; Dominican friars hear confessions in several languages through most of the day, and Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate serve as sacristans and chaplains. The relics of the Crib have long since been moved to the main altar, so that they may be seen more easily by the many pilgrims who come to church each day.
The second part of this article will discuss the Station churches of the feast days within the Christmas Octave.
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| Just How Different Are the Pre-1955, 1962, and 1969 Calendars Around Christmas and Epiphany? |
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Posted by: Stone - 12-28-2024, 08:24 AM - Forum: In Defense of Tradition
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Just How Different Are the Pre-1955, 1962, and 1969 Calendars Around Christmas and Epiphany?
(2024 Edition)
![[Image: CALENDAR%20-%20Just%20How%20Different%20...ition).jpg]](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghouXJnWFMz6nN60LMXkfRHInFM364BuO6RT8iDRiX-IVAv5IR55RwFTiC8VpvTCfKonGjlYwIwTpSNXGLA6-pi5I30lb_Cb6_wkWw_4yZyhlJqTm6-0ZjV1KBjnQglHam3sHsW5vL9zS6P5cTiCiRjeQaJ7Zo0wbEUuFuT4POvsfgZI8vecNl/s6600/CALENDAR%20-%20Just%20How%20Different%20Are%20the%20Pre-55,%2062,%20and%2069%20Calendars%20(2024%20edition).jpg)
By Peter Kwasniewski - Rorate Caeli [adapted - not all hyperlinks included from original] | December 27, 2024
More and more Catholics are waking up to the huge differences between the old and new Roman liturgical calendars—the one, a product of two millennia of organic development; the other, brainchild of a 1960s committee. A subcategory of these folks are waking up to the significant differences between the calendar of the pre-1955 Missale Romanum and the one observed with the 1962 Missale Romanum. The chart above compares all three for the period from December 25th to January 19th.
In the period from Christmas to Epiphany, one can see at a glance the variations in logic and emphasis. The old calendars place great emphasis on Christmas, which is commemorated throughout the Octave, with the daily use not only of the Gloria but also of the Creed. Even more, the old calendars place massive emphasis on Epiphany, which is a feastday older than Christmas and of loftier pedigree—although one would never know that from how it was demoted in recent decades, shoved to a nearby Sunday for convenience, and shorn of its octave. In the old calendars, the Most Holy Name of Jesus (an 18th-century addition) is an obligatory Sunday celebration, but in the new, an optional weekday celebration for January 3, which is impeded in 2021.
In terms of the “psychology” of the season, one notes that the more modern feast of the Holy Family is not permitted to “intrude” until the great event of the Nativity in all its facets—including its cluster of special companion saints who, as it were, surround the cradle of the infant King—has been given plenty of room to shine. Our gaze is intently focused on the mystery of the Incarnate Word: Christmas for eight days, the Circumcision when the Redeemer first shed His blood, the Holy Name He was given and by which we are saved, the Epiphany or revelation of God as savior of the Gentiles. Only after this do we turn expressly to the family in which Our Lord grew up, His baptism in the Jordan, His first miracle at Cana (Second Sunday after Epiphany: see my article “Basking in the glow of Epiphany: The wedding feast at Cana”), and the start of His preaching and miracles (subsequent Sundays).
It’s not that Our Lady and St. Joseph are neglected, for they are always present in the readings, prayers, and antiphons, especially those of January 1st. Besides, they have their own major feastdays elsewhere in the liturgical year. It’s a matter, rather, of allowing the central mystery of the Incarnation of the Eternal Son of the Father to “breathe,” to occupy center stage. In the new calendar, on the other hand, there is a bureaucratic breathlessness by which we efficiently rush from one thing to the next, almost as if we’d like to get back to “Ordinary Time” as quickly as possible—and with as little interruption of our workaday schedule as possible.
An attentive study of these three columns indicates how the 1962 calendar is transitional to the new calendar of 1969. For example, the Sunday of the Octave of Christmas, instead of being transferred when it collides with one of the feasts of the great saints of the octave, supplants it; the beautiful contrast between the original day and the octave day of the Holy Innocents is lost (“useless repetition”?); the once-universal proper celebrations of the beloved bishop St. Thomas Becket and of the pivotal Roman pontiff Silvester are stifled. More gravely, the feast of the Circumcision is no longer given that title, but simply called the Octave of Christmas; the Vigil of the Epiphany is gone; the full-scale octave of Epiphany is gone, although the ferias continue to use the Epiphany Mass in a vestigial or placeholding way, which made the later introduction of “Ordinary Time” that much easier.
Although the 1962 calendar of the Pacellian-Roncallian Roman Rite is far superior to the 1969 calendar of the modern rite of Paul VI, the pre-1955 classical Roman Rite is superior to both. As with Holy Week, as with Pentecost, so too with Christmastide: this chart gives us yet another angle from which to see the importance of a principled return to the liturgical books prior to the hasty modernizations and clumsy simplifications of Pius XII and John XXIII. It is the next great step in the ongoing restoration of Catholic tradition. And there is no better time than now to take up the pre-55 rites and calendar: we can see how little we can and should rely on the “guidance” (such as it is) of churchmen who are supposedly in charge but who have announced their intention to liquidate all memory of tradition. (And need I add that the concept of official “permission” has received its coup de grâce in our times?)
Now all we need is a good republication of a pre-55 altar missal . . .
(Originally posted 2021, updated in 2022, now updated for 2024. If anyone sees any errors, please contact me. -PK)
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