Taken from The Liturgical Year by Dom Prosper Guéranger  (1841-1875)

Quote:Vincent de Paul, a Frenchman, was born at Pouy, near Dax, in Aquitaine, and from his boyhood was remarkable for his exceeding charity towards the poor. as a child he fed his father’s flock, but afterwards pursued the study of humanities at Dax, and of divinity first at Toulouse, then at Saragossa. Having been ordained priest, he took his degree as Bachelor of Theology; but falling into the hands of the Turks was led captive by them into Africa. While in captivity he won his master back to Christ, by the help of the Mother of God, and escaped together with him from that land of barbarians, and undertook a journey to the shrines of the Apostles. On his return to France he governed in a most saintly manner the parishes first of Clichy and then of Châtillon. The king next appointed him Chaplain of the French galleys, and marvellous was his zeal in striving for the salvation of both officers and convicts. St. Francis of Sales gave him as superior to his nuns of the Visitation, whom he ruled for forty years with such prudence, as to amply justify the opinion the holy Bishop had expressed of him, that Vincent was the most worthy priest he knew.

He devoted himself with unwearying zeal, even in extreme old age, to preaching to the poor, especially to country people; and to this Apostolic work he bound both himself and the members of the Congregation which he founded, called the Secular Priests of the Mission, by a special vow which the Holy See confirmed. He labored greatly in promoting regular discipline among the clergy, as is proved by the seminaries for clerics which he built, and by the establishment, through his care, of frequent Conferences for priests, and of exercises preparatory to Holy Orders. It was his wish that the houses of his institution should always lend themselves to these good works, as also to the giving of pious retreats for laymen. Moreover, with the object of extending the reign of faith and love, he sent evangelical laborers not only into the French provinces, but also into Italy, Poland, Scotland, Ireland, and even to Barbary, and to the Indies. On the demise of Louis XIII, whom he had assisted on his death-bed, he was made a member of the Council of Conscience, by Queen Anne of Austria, mother of Louis XIV. In this capacity, he was most careful that only worthy men should be appointed to ecclesiastical and monastic benefices, and strove to put an end to civil discord and duels, and to the errors then creeping in, which had alarmed him as soon as he knew of their existence; moreover, he endeavored to enforce upon all a due obedience to the judgments of the Apostolic See.

His paternal love brought relief to every kind of misfortune. The faithful groaning under the Turkish yoke, destitute children, incorrigible young men, virgins exposed to danger, nuns driven from their monasteries, fallen women, convicts, sick strangers, invalided workmen, even madmen, and innumerable beggars. All these he aided and received with tender charity into his hospitable institutions which still exist. When Lorraine, Campania, Picardy, and other districts were devastated by pestilence, famine, and war, he supplied their necessities with open hand. He founded other associations for seeking out and aiding the unfortunate; amongst others the celebrated Society of Ladies, and the now widespread institution of the Sisters of Charity. To him also is due the foundation of the Daughters of the Cross, of Providence, and of St. Genevieve, who are devoted to the education of girls. Amid all these and other important undertakings his heart was always fixed on God; he was affable to every one, and always true to himself, simple, upright, humble. He ever shunned riches and honors, and was heard to say that nothing gave him any pleasure, except in Christ Jesus, whom he strove to imitate in all things. Worn out at length, by mortification of the body, labors, and old age, on the 27th September, in the year of salvation 1660, the 85th of his age, he peacefully fell asleep, at Paris, at Saint Lazare, the mother-house of the Congregation of the Mission. His virtues, merits, and miracles having made his name celebrated, Clement XII enrolled him among the Saints, assigning for his annual feast the 17th July. Leo XIII, at the request of several Bishops, declared and appointed this great hero of charity, who has deserved so well of the human race, the peculiar patron before God of all the charitable societies existing throughout the Catholic world, and of all such as may hereafter be established.

https://fssp.com/statement-regarding-traditionis-custodes/


July 16, 2021

July 18 – St Camillus of Lellis, Confessor
Taken from The Liturgical Year by Dom Prosper Guéranger  (1841-1875)

Quote:Camillus was born at Bachianico, a town of the diocese of Chieti. He was descended from the noble family of the Lellis, and his mother was sixty years old at the time of his birth. While she was with child with him, she dreamt that she gave birth to a little boy, who was signed on the breast with the cross, and was the leader of a band of children, wearing the same sign. As a young man he followed the career of arms, and gave himself up for a time to worldly vices, but in his twenty-sixth year he was so enlightened by heavenly grace, and seized with so great a sorrow for having offended God, that on the spot, shedding a flood of tears, he firmly resolved unceasingly to wash away the stains of his past life, and to put on the new man. Therefore on the very day of his conversion, which happened to be the feast of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin, he hastened to the Friars Minors, who are called Capuchins, and begged most earnestly to be admitted into their number. His request was granted on this and on a subsequent occasion, but each time a horrible ulcer, from which he had suffered before, broke out again upon his leg; wherefore he humbly submitted himself to the designs of Divine Providence, which was preparing him for greater things, and conquering himself he twice laid aside the Franciscan habit, which he had twice asked for and obtained.

He set out for Rome and was received into the hospital called “Of Incurables.” His virtues became so well known that the management of the institution was entrusted to him and he discharged it with the greatest integrity and a truly paternal solicitude. He esteemed himself the servant of all the sick, and was accustomed to make their beds, to wash them, to heal their sores, and to aid them in their last agony with his prayers and pious exhortations. In discharging these offices he gave striking proofs of his wonderful patience, unconquered fortitude, and heroic charity. But when he perceived how great an advantage the knowledge of letters would be to him in assisting those in danger of death, to whose service he had devoted his life, he was not ashamed at the age of thirty-two to return again to school and to learn the first elements of grammar among children. Being afterwards promoted in due order to the Priesthood, he was joined by several companions, and in spite of the opposition attempted by the enemy of the human race, laid the foundations of the Congregation of Regular Clerks, Servants of the sick. In this work Camillus was wonderfully strengthened by a heavenly voice coming from an image of Christ crucified, which, by an admirable miracle loosing the hands from the wood, stretched them out towards him. He obtained the approbation of his Order from the Apostolic See. Its members bind themselves by a fourth and very arduous vow, namely, to minister to the sick, even those infected with the plague. St. Philip Neri, who was his Confessor, attested how pleasing this institution was go God, and how great it attributed towards the salvation of souls; for he declared that he often saw Angels suggesting the words to disciples of Camillus, when they were assisting those in their agony.

When he had thus bound himself more strictly than before to the service of the sick, he devoted himself with marvellous ardor to watching over their interests, by night and by day, till his last breath. No labor could tire him, no peril of his life could affright him. He became all to all, and claimed for himself the lowest offices, which he discharged promptly and joyfully, in the humblest manner, often on bended knees, as though he saw Christ himself present in the sick. In order to be more at the command of all in need, he of his own accord laid aside the general government of the Order, and deprived himself of the heavenly delights, with which he was inundated during contemplation. His fatherly love for the unfortunate shone out with greatest brilliancy when Rome was suffering first from a contagious distemper, and then from a great scarcity of provisions; and also when a dreadful plague was ravaging Nola in Campania. In a word, he was consumed with so great a love of God and his neighbor that he was called an Angel, and merited to be helped by the Angels in different dangers which threatened him on his journeys. He was endowed with the gift of prophecy and the grace of healing, and he could read the secrets of hearts. By his prayers he at one time multiplied food, and at another changed water into wine. At length, worn out by watching, fasting, and ceaseless labor, he seemed to be nothing but skin and bone. He endured courageously five long and troublesome sicknesses, which he used to call the “Mercies of the Lord;” and, strengthened by the Sacraments, with the sweet names of Jesus and Mary on his lips, he fell asleep in our Lord, while these words were being said: “May Christ Jesus appear to thee with a sweet and gracious countenance.” He died at Rome, at the hour he had foretold, on the day before the Ides of July, in the year of salvation 1614, the sixty-fifth of his age. He was made illustrious by many miracles, and Benedict XIV solemnly enrolled him upon the calendar of the Saints. Leo XIII, at the desire of the Bishops of the Catholic world, and with the advice of the Congregation of Rites, declared him the heavenly Patron of all nurses and of the sick in all places, and ordered his name to be invoked in the Litanies for the Agonizing.

INSTRUCTION ON THE EIGHTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST
Rev. Fr. Leonard Goffine's The Church's Year

Quote:Who live according to the flesh?

Those who follow the evil pleasures and the desires of corrupt nature, rather than the voice of faith and conscience. Such men are not guided by the Spirit of God, for He dwells not in the sensual man, (Gen. VI. 3.) they are no children of God, and will not inherit heaven, but eternal death. But he who is directed by the Spirit of God, and with Him and through Him crucifies his flesh and its concupiscence, is inspired with filial confidence in God. by the Holy Ghost, who dwells in him, and by whom he cries: Abba (Father.) Prove yourself well, Christian soul, that you may know whether you live according to the flesh, and strive by prayer and fasting to mortify all carnal and sensual desires that you may by such means become a child of God and heir of heaven.

ASPIRATION Strengthen me, O Lord, that I may not live according to the desires of the, flesh; but resist them firmly by the power of Thy Spirit, that I may not die the eternal death.

Taken from The Liturgical Year by Dom Prosper Guéranger  (1841-1875)

Quote:Alexius was the son of one of Rome’s noblest families. Through his exceeding love for Jesus Christ, he, by a special inspiration from God, left his wife still a virgin on the first night of his marriage, and undertook a pilgrimage to the most illustrious Churches all over the world. For seventeen years he remained unknown, while performing these pilgrimages, and then his name was revealed at Edessa, a town of Syria, by an image of the most holy Virgin Mary. He therefore left Syria by sea and sailed to the port of Rome, where he was received as a guest by his own father who took him for a poor stranger. He lived in his father’s house, unknown to all, for seventeen years, and then passed to heaven, leaving a written paper which revealed his name, his family, and the story of his whole life. His death occurred in the Pontificate of Innocent I.

One can only find two articles on SSPX websites (and only one of those with actual commentary) on the motu proprio of Pope Francis' Traditionis Custodes of July 16, 2021, reversing Pope Benedict XVI's "permission" for the Tridentine Mass.  

The first article is on the SSPX's Australian and New Zealand website (there is nothing so far on the website of the 'General House' nor the 'District of the USA') which is merely a reprinting of an article from Rorate Caeli, entitled, "Legal Considerations on the motu proprio Traditionis Custodes" - Restrictions demand strict interpretation by Fr. Pierre Laliberté, J.C.L.*.

The only SSPX website with a (brief) commentary on the Pope's new motu proprio is on the French SSPX site, La Porte Latine. Here is the (google-translated) English version of the commentary, which is then simply followed by the actual motu proprio and accompany Letter from Francis.

Quote:

Pope Francis restricts the use of the traditional mass

Posted on July 17, 2021


No longer speak of "mass according to the extraordinary form of the Roman rite".

By his Motu proprio entitledTraditionis Custodes of July 16, 2021 to which is attached a covering letter to the bishops, Pope Francis has just decided that this distinction invented by Benedict XVI was null and void: only the new mass of Paul VI is entitled of city in the conciliar Church, the traditional mass is only tolerated.


Unity behind the New Mass

What is the status of the Tridentine Mass now? The answer is not given in these documents but what does it matter since the clearly stated objective is its disappearance. It is now permitted under drastic conditions for "those who need time to return to the Roman rite promulgated by Saints [sic] Paul VI and John Paul II  ", that is to say say the new mass.

The means employed to succeed in stifling the Mass of all times are clearly indicated in the  Motu proprio: severe limitation of the times and places of the celebration of the traditional Mass; firm control by the bishops of diocesan priests wishing to celebrate according to the old rite; removal of all protective supervision for Institutes under the former Ecclesia  Dei Commission.


Unity behind Vatican Council II

The Pope thus intends to eradicate any pocket of resistance to the reforms of the Second Vatican Council. It was, he admits bluntly, the goal of the motu proprio of 1988 and 2007; their 
implementation having on the contrary consolidated the positions leading to "doubting the Council", Pope Francis puts an end to the experiment. The groups which will still be authorized to celebrate according to the old rite will have to certify that they “do not exclude the validity and the legitimacy of the liturgical reform, of the precepts of the Second Vatican Council and of the Magisterium of the Sovereign Pontiffs ”, Thus adhering to the Council and the post-conciliar magisterium.

The point is brutal for those who believed they could put their trust in authorities still imbued with liberal values, when the Society of Saint Pius X can faithfully rely on the wisdom of its founder warning about the indult of 1984 granting the traditional mass a conditional freedom:  "We cannot place ourselves under an authority whose ideas are liberal and which would condemn us little by little, by force of circumstances, to accept these ideas and their consequences, first of all. the new mass ”.

Recently translated from the Italian by this site: