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| Cardinal Pie: Doctrinal Intolerance |
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Posted by: Stone - 01-17-2021, 09:11 AM - Forum: Cardinal Pie
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The Angelus - June 2002
Doctrinal Intolerance
by Louis-Edouard-Désiré Cardinal Pie
A sermon of the great Cardinal Pie, appearing here for the first time in English, which he preached twice at the Cathedral of Chartres in 1841 and 1847.
Unus Dominus, una fides, unam baptisma–There is only one Lord, only one Faith, only one baptism (Eph. 4:5).
A sage has said that the actions of man are the children of his thought, and we have established ourselves that all good things as well as all bad things in a society are the fruit of the good or bad maxims that it professes. Truth in the mind and virtue in the heart are things that correspond nearly inseparably; when the mind is delivered to the demonic lie, the heart, if by chance the obsession has not seized it first, is close to delivering itself to demonic vice. Intellect and Will are two sisters between which seduction is contagious; if you see that the first has given itself up to error, throw a veil on the honor of the second.
This is because it is so, my brethren, it is because there is no harm, no wrong in the intellectual order which would not have fatal consequences in the moral order and as well as in the material order, that we apply ourselves to fight the evil in its principle, to stop it at its source, that is to say, in the ideas. A thousand prejudices are spread amongst us: Sophism, astonished to hear its own voice attacked, invokes prescription; paradox flatters itself to have acquired citizenship and the freedom of the city. Christians themselves, living amidst this impure atmosphere, do not avoid all its contagion; they too easily accept many of the errors. Tired of resisting on the essential points, often for the sake of peace and quiet, they give way on other points which seem to them less important, and they do not always perceive, and sometimes they do not want to perceive how far they could be led by their imprudent weakness. Among this confusion of ideas and false opinions, it is up to us priests of the incorruptible truth to intervene and to protest with action and with our voice; fortunate we are if the rigid inflexibility of our teaching can stop the flood of error, dethrone erroneous principles which are reigning superbly in minds, correct deadly axioms which already assume authority with the sanction of time, finally enlighten and purify a society which threatens to sink, in growing old, into a chaos of darkness and of disorders where it would no longer be possible to distinguish the nature, and even less the remedy, of its ills.
Our century cries: Tolerance! Tolerance! It is acknowledged that a priest must be tolerant, that religion must be tolerant. My brethren, in all things nothing equals frankness; and I am here to tell you frankly that there only exists in the world one society which possesses the truth, and that this society necessarily has to be intolerant. But, before broaching the subject, for us to better understand, let's make distinction between things, let's agree on the meaning of the words, and let's not confuse anything.
Tolerance can be either civil or theological; the first does not fall within our province, I permit myself only a word in this respect. If the law wants to say that it permits all religions because in its eyes they are all equally good, or furthermore because public power is incompetent to come to a decision on this matter, the law is irreligious and atheistic. It no longer professes civil tolerance such as we are going to define it, but dogmatic tolerance, and, by a criminal neutrality it justifies in individuals the most absolute religious indifference. On the contrary, if recognizing that only one religion is good, it supports and permits only the peaceful exercise of the others, the law, in this, as it has been observed before me, can be wise and necessary according to the circumstances. If there are times when it is necessary to say with the famous high constable: One faith, one law; there are other times when it is necessary to say as Fenelon said to the son of James II: Grant civil tolerance to everyone, not by approving everything as indifferent, but by suffering with patience what God suffers."
But I abandon this rough field of difficulties, and adhering to the properly religious and theological question, I will set forth these two principles:
1) The religion which comes from heaven is truth, and it is intolerant toward doctrines;
2) The religion which comes from heaven is charity, and it is full of tolerance toward people....
It is of the essence of every truth not to tolerate the contradictory principle. The affirmation of one thing excludes the negation of this very same thing, as light excludes darkness. Where nothing is certain, where nothing is defined, the sentiments can be divided, opinions can vary. I understand and I ask liberty in doubtful things. But since the truth appears with positive traits which characterize it, for that very reason that it is truth, it is positive, it is necessary, and consequently, it is one and intolerant. To condemn truth to tolerance is to force it to suicide. Affirmation kills itself if it doubts of itself; and it doubts of itself if it leaves indifferently the negation to pose itself beside it. For truth, intolerance is the care for preservation, it is the legitimate exercise of the right of property. When one possesses, it is necessary to defend, under pain of being soon entirely despoiled.
Therefore, by the very necessity of things, intolerance is everywhere, because everywhere there is good and evil, true and false, order and disorder. Everywhere the true does not endure the false, the good excludes the bad, order combats disorder. What is more intolerant, for instance, than this proposition: 2 and 2 are 4? If you come to me to say that 2 and 2 are 3, or that 2 and 2 are 5, I reply to you that 2 and 2 are 4. And if you said to me that you do not contest my manner of counting, but that you maintain yours, and that you request me to be as indulgent toward you as you are toward me; while I remain convinced that I am right and that you are wrong, if absolutely necessary I might remain silent, because after all it concerns me little enough that there may be on earth a man for whom 2 and 2 are 3 or 5.
On a certain number of questions, where the truth would be less absolute, where the consequences would be less grave, I could, up to a certain point, compromise with you. I will be conciliatory, if you speak to me of literature, of politics, of art, of agreeable sciences, because in all these things there is not a unique and determined type. There, beauty and the true are more or less conventions....But if it concerns religious truth taught or revealed by God Himself; if it is a matter of your eternal future and of the salvation of your soul, then there is no more compromise possible. You will find me immovable, and I must be. It is the condition of every truth to be intolerant; but religious truth being the most absolute and the most important of all the truths, is consequently also the most intolerant and the most exclusive.
My brethren, nothing is as exclusive as unity. But listen to the word of Saint Paul: "One Lord, one faith, one baptism." There is in Heaven only one Lord. This God, of which unity is the great attribute, has given to the earth only one creed, one doctrine, one faith. And this faith, this creed, He has confided only to a single visible society, to one Church of which all children are marked by the same seal and regenerated by the same Grace: one baptism. Thus, divine unity, which resides for all eternity in the splendors of the glory, has occurred on earth by the unity of the Evangelical dogma, of which the deposit has been committed by Jesus Christ to the hierarchical unity of the priesthood for keeping: One God, one faith, one Church.
An English clergyman has had the courage to do a book on the tolerance of Jesus Christ, and the philosopher of Geneva1 has said in speaking of the Savior of men: "I do not see that my divine Master may have subtilized on dogma." Nothing is more true. Jesus Christ has not subtilized on dogma. He has brought the truth to men, and He has said: "If anyone is not baptized in the water and in the Holy Spirit; if anyone refuses to eat my Flesh and drink my Blood, he will not have part in my Kingdom." I acknowledge it, there is not subtlety there; it is intolerance, the most positive exclusion, the most frank. And further, Jesus Christ has sent His Apostles to preach to all nations, this is to say, to destroy all existing religions, to establish the single Christian religion throughout the world and to substitute the unity of Catholic dogma for all the beliefs received from the different peoples. And foreseeing the movements and divisions that this doctrine is going to excite on earth, He is not stopped, and He declares that He has come to bring not peace but the sword, to incite war not only between peoples, but in the bosom of the same family, and to separate, with regard to convictions at least, the believing spouse from the unbelieving spouse, the Christian son-in-law from the idolatrous father-in-law. The thing is true, and the philosopher is right: Jesus Christ has not subtilized on dogma.
[Jean-Jacques Rousseau] says elsewhere to his Emile: "I do as St. Paul, and I place charity well above faith. I think that the essential of religion consists in practice that not only is it necessary to be an upright man, humane and charitable, but that whoever is truly such, believes enough of it to be saved, whatever religion he professes." There is indeed, my brethren, a beautiful commentary of St. Paul which says, for instance, that without faith it is impossible to please God; of St. Paul who declares that Jesus Christ is not divided, that in Him there is not the yes and the no, but only the yes; of St. Paul who affirms that, when against all probability an angel would come to preach another doctrine than the apostolic doctrine, it would be necessary to say to him anathema. St. Paul, apostle of tolerance!? St. Paul, who marches throwing down all arrogant science which rises against Jesus Christ, converting all minds to the servitude of Jesus Christ.
People have spoken of the tolerance of the first centuries, of the tolerance of the Apostles. My brethren, we do not reflect on this; but the establishment of the Christian religion has been on the contrary, above all, a work of religious intolerance. At the time of the preaching of the Apostles, the entire universe possessed almost completely this so-praised dogmatic tolerance. As all religions were as false and unreasonable as the other, they were not waging war against each other; as all the gods were equal to each other, there were as many demons, they were not exclusive, they tolerated each other: Satan is not divided against himself. Rome, in multiplying its conquests, multiplied its divinities; and the study of its mythology became complicated in the same proportion as the one of its geography. The victor who was ascending to the Capitol had the conquered gods marched before him with more pride even than in the conquered kings he was dragging along in his retinue. Most often, by virtue of a decree of the Senate, the idols of the barbarians were henceforth identified with the domain of the country, and the national Olympus became greater as the empire did.
Christianity, ...at its first appearance, was not pushed aside all at once. Paganism wondered if, instead of fighting this new religion, it should not give it access into its midst. Judaea had become a Roman province. Rome, accustomed to receiving and to reconciling all religions, at first welcomed, without too much fright, the religion corning out of Judaea....But it did not take long for the word of the prophet to prove correct. The multitudes of idols, who usually saw without jealousy new and strange gods come to take their place near them, suddenly sent forth a cry of fright at the arrival of the God of the Christians, and...tottered on their threatened altars. Rome was attentive to this spectacle. And soon, when it noticed that this new God was the irreconcilable enemy of the other gods; when it saw that the Christians. whose religion they had accepted, did not want to admit the religion of the nation; in a word, when it had undeniably established the intolerant spirit of the Christian faith, it was then that the persecution began.
Listen to how the historians of the time justify the tortures of the Christians: they do not speak ill of their religion, of their God, of their Christ, of their practices; it was only later that they invented calumnies. They reproach them only for not being able to tolerate any other religion than theirs.
"I did not doubt," said Pliny the Younger, "whatever their dogma may be, it might be necessary to punish their stubbornness and their inflexible obstinacy."
These are not criminals, said Tacitus, but they are intolerant, misanthropes, enemies of mankind. There is in them a headstrong faith in their principles, and an exclusive faith which condemns the beliefs of all other peoples. The pagans were saying rather generally of the Christians what Celsus has said of the Jews, whom people confused with the Christians for a long time because the Christian doctrine had taken birth in Judaea:
Quote:"That these men adhered inviolably to their laws," this sophist said, "I do not blame them; I blame only those who abandon the religion of their fathers to embrace a different one! But if the Jews or the Christians want to give themselves the appearances of a wisdom more sublime than the one of the rest of the world, I will say that we do not have to believe that they are more agreeable to God than the others."
The principal grievance against the Christians was the too absolute rigidity of their creed, and, as people said, the unsociable disposition of their theology. If their God had been only one of many, there would not have been complaints: but it was an incompatible God who was driving away all the others. This is why the persecution. Thus, the establishment of the Church was a work of dogmatic intolerance, the whole history of the Church is likewise only the history of this intolerance. What are the martyrs? People intolerant in matters of the faith who preferred torture rather than to profess error. What is the Creed? Formulas of intolerance that regulate what it is necessary to believe and that impose on the reason necessary mysteries. What is the Papacy? An institution of doctrinal intolerance, which through hierarchal unity maintains the unity of the faith. Why the Councils? To stop deviations of thought, to condemn false interpretations of dogma, to anathematize propositions contrary to the Faith.
We are therefore intolerant, exclusive in matters of doctrine: we profess it; we are proud of it. If we were not, it would be because we do not have the truth, since truth is one, and consequently intolerant. Daughter of Heaven, the Catholic religion in descending onto the earth has produced titles of its origin; it has offered to the examination of reason incontestable facts that prove irrefragably its divinity. Now, if it comes from God; if Jesus Christ, its Author, has said: "I am the truth," it is certainly necessary by an inevitable consequence that the Catholic Church maintain incorruptibly this truth such as it has received it from Heaven itself. It is very necessary that it reject, that it exclude everything that is contrary to this truth, all that would destroy it. To reproach the Catholic Church its dogmatic intolerance, its absolute affirmation in matters of doctrine, is to address to it a very honorable reproach. It is to reproach the sentinel for being too faithful and too vigilant; it is to reproach the spouse for being too scrupulous and too exclusive.
"Since we tolerate you," the sects sometimes say to the Church, "why do you not therefore tolerate us?" My brethren, it is as if concubines said to the legitimate spouse, "Since we tolerate you, why be more intolerant than we?" The concubines tolerate the spouse, what a great favor (!), truly, and the spouse is very unreasonable to base her claim on rights and privileges solely belonging to her, of which the concubines reluctantly accept to leave her a share, at least until they may succeed in banishing her entirely!
Imagine this intolerance of the Catholics! People often say about us, "They can tolerate no other Church than theirs. The Protestants certainly tolerate them!" My brethren, you were in the peaceful possession of your home and your estate. Armed men hurl themselves at it. They seize your bed, your table, your money, in a word, they establish themselves in your home, but they do not drive you out of it. They carry condescension to the point of allowing you your share. What do you have to complain of? You are quite unreasonable not to be satisfied with the common law!
"Since the Protestants say that one can be saved in your Church," it is said, "why do you pretend that one cannot be saved in theirs?" My brethren, let's put ourselves in one of the public squares of this city. A traveler asks me the route which leads to the capital. I direct him to it. Then one of my fellow-citizens approaches, and says to me, "I acknowledge that that route leads to Paris, I grant you that. But you owe me the same consideration, and you will not dispute with me that this other route–the route to Bordeaux, for instance–leads also to Paris.
Indeed, this route to Paris would be very intolerant and very exclusive not to admit that a route which is directly opposite it would lead to the very same end. It does not have a conciliatory spirit. How far does encroachment and fanaticism creep? My brethren, truly I could give way again, because the most opposite routes would eventually meet each other perhaps, after having gone around the world, whereas one would eternally follow the road of error without ever arriving at heaven. Therefore, no longer ask us why, when the Protestants acknowledge that one can save himself in our religion, we object to recognizing that, generally speaking, and outside the case of good faith and of invincible ignorance, one can save himself in theirs. The thorns can acknowledge that the vine gives grapes without the vine having to acknowledge to the thorns the same properties.
My brethren, we are moreover often confused from what we hear said on all these questions from sensible people. The logic in them is entirely missing when religion is in question. Is it passion, is it prejudice which blinds them? It is both. In the main, the passions well know what they want when they seek to disturb the foundations of the faith, to place religion among the things without consistency. They are not ignorant that by demolishing dogma they prepare a facile morality. Someone has said with perfect accuracy: "It is rather the Ten Commandments than the Creed that makes unbelievers." If all religions can be placed on the very same rank, it is that they are all equal. If all are true, it is that all are false. If all the gods tolerate each other, it is that there is no God. And when we arrive at that conclusion, there no longer remains constraining morality. How many consciences would be at ease the day the Catholic Church would give the fraternal kiss to all the sects, its rivals!
Religious indifference is therefore a system which has its root in the passions of the human heart. But it is also necessary to say that, as regards a great many men of our century, it holds to the prejudices of education. Either it concerns these men...and who have imbibed the milk of the preceding generation, or better, it concerns those who belong to the new generation. The former have sought the philosophical and religious spirit in Jean-Jacques's Emile; the others, in the eclectic or progressive school of these half-protestant and half-rationalists who today hold sway over education.
Jean-Jacques has been among us the apologist and propagandist of this system of religious tolerance. The invention of it does not belong to him, although he has audaciously surpassed paganism, which never extended indifference as far. Here are, with a short commentary, the principal points of the Genevese Catechism, which unfortunately became popular:
Quote:All religions are good; this is to say, otherwise for the French, all religions are bad. It is necessary to practice the religion of one's country; this is to say that truth in religious matters depends on the degree of longitude and of latitude: truth on this side of the mountains, untruth beyond the mountains. Consequently, what is still more serious, it is necessary either to have no sincere religion and to be the hypocrite everywhere, or if one has a religion in his heart, to become apostate and turncoat when the circumstances desire it. The wife has to profess the same religion as her husband, and the children the same religion as their father; this is to say what was false and bad before the marriage contract has to be true and good after, and that it would be bad for the children of the cannibals to turn aside from the estimable practices of their parents!
But I hear you tell me that the century of the Encyclopedia is past, that a longer refutation would be an anachronism. Very well, let's close the book on Education. Let's open in its place the learned Essays which are almost the common source from where the philosophy of the 19th century is poured out by a thousand faithful channels on the whole surface of our country. This philosophy is called eclectic, syncretic, and, with a small modification, it is also called progressive. This smart system consists in saying that there is nothing false, that all opinion and all religions can be reconciled, that error is not possible to man unless he despoils humanity, that every error of men consists in believing to possess exclusively all the truth, when each of them hold only a link of it and that from the union of all these links must form the entire chain of truth. Thus, according to this incredible theory, there are no false religions, but they are all incomplete without each other. The true religion would be the religion of the syncretic and progressive eclecticism, which would gather together all the others, past, present, and future. All the others, this is to say, the natural religion, which recognizes one God; Atheism, which does not recognize any; Pantheism, which recognizes God in everything and everywhere; Spiritualism, which believes in the soul, and Materialism, which believes only in the flesh, in the blood and in the temperament; evangelical societies which acknowledge a revelation, and rationalistic Deism, which spurns it; Christianity, which believes the Messiah came, and Judaism, which still waits for Him; Catholicism, which obeys the Pope, and Protestantism, which regards the Pope as the Antichrist. All this is reconcilable. These are different aspects of the truth. Combining these creeds will result in a larger, more vast religion, the great, truly catholic religion, this is to say universal, since it will include all the others in its midst!
My brethren, this doctrine, which you have all qualified absurd, is not my creation. It fills thousands of recent volumes and publications....Every day it takes new forms under the pen and on the lips of men... At what point of folly have we therefore arrived? We have arrived, My Brethren, where anyone must logically arrive whosoever does not admit this incontestable principle that we have established, namely, that truth is one and consequently intolerant, exclusive of all doctrine which is not its own. And to bring together again in a few words all the substance of this first part of my discourse, I will say to you: If you seek the truth on earth, seek the intolerant Church. All errors can make concessions to each other. They are close relations since they have a common father: "You are of your father, the devil." The Truth, daughter of heaven, is the only one which does not capitulate.
Therefore, you who want to judge this great cause, appropriate to yourself in this the wisdom of Solomon. Among these different societies between which the truth is an object of strife, as was that child between the two mothers, you want to know how to judge it. Ask for a sword, feign to slice, and examine the face that the claimants will make. There will be several of them who will be resigned, who will be contented with the part that is going to be handed over to them. Say immediately, "These are not the mothers." There is one of them on the contrary, who will deny herself every settlement, who will say, "The truth belongs to me and I have to preserve it in its entirety. I will never allow that it be diminished or parceled out." Say to this one, "This is the true mother."
Yes, Holy Catholic Church, you have the truth, because you have unity, and you are intolerant to allow this unity to decompose. There is our first principle: the religion which descends from heaven is true, and consequently it is intolerant with regard to doctrines. I will add: the religion which descends from heaven is charity, and consequently it is full of tolerance with regard to individuals...
It is the characteristic of the Catholic Church to be firm and immovable on principles and to prove itself to be kindly and indulgent in their application. What is so surprising? Is she not the spouse of Jesus Christ, and like Him, does she not possess both the intrepid courage of the lion and the gentleness of the lamb? Does she not represent on earth supreme Wisdom, which takes to its purpose strongly and which disposes everything benevolently? It is especially by this sign that the religion which descended from heaven has to make itself recognized. It is by the condescensions of its charity, by the inspirations of its love. Consider the Church of Jesus Christ, and see with what infinite regards, with what respectful attentions it acts with its children, either in the manner with which it presents its teachings to their comprehension, or in the application that it makes to their behavior and to their actions. Soon you will recognize that the Church is a mother who invariably teaches truth and virtue, who can never consent to error or to evil, but who busies herself to render her teaching amiable, and who treats with indulgence the errors of weakness.
...From the first steps that it has been given to me to make in the domain of sacred theology, what has caused in me the most admiration, what has spoken the most eloquently to my soul, what would have inspired in me the Faith if I had not had the good fortune to possess it already, is on the one hand, the tranquil majesty with which the Catholic Church affirms what is certain, and on the other hand the moderation and reserve with which it abandons to free opinions everything that is not defined. No, this is not as men teaching doctrines of which they are the inventors, this is not the way they express the thoughts that are the fruit of their genius.
When a man has created a system, he supports it with an absolute tenacity. He yields neither on one point nor on another. When he is enamored with a doctrine born from his brain, he seeks to make it prevail with authority. Do not contest a single one of his ideas with him. The one that you allow yourself to discuss is precisely the most important and the most necessary to him. Almost all the books issued from the hand of men are marked with this exaggeration and this tyranny... [T]he holy Catholic theology offers an entirely different character. Since the Church has not invented the truth, but is only the depository of it, we do not find passion nor excess in its teachings. It has pleased the Son of God, in whom resided the plenitude of truth,...to clearly reveal certain appearances, certain aspects of the truth and to show only a glimpse of the others. The Church does not extend her ministry further, and is content to have taught, maintained, avenged certain and necessary principles. It allows its children to discuss, to conjecture, to reason freely on the dubious points.
Catholic teaching has been calumniated so much...that you will perhaps hardly believe what I am going to tell you. There is not a single science in the world which is less despotic than the sacred science. The deposit of teaching has been confided to the Church, but do you know what the Church teaches? A creed in 12 articles which do not form 12 lines, a creed composed by the Apostles and that the first two General Councils have explained and developed by the addition of a few words which became necessary.
We proclaim, we Catholics, that the authentic interpretation of the Holy Scriptures belongs to the Church; but do you know, my brethren, in regards to how many of the verses of the Bible the Church has used this supreme right? The Bible includes about 30,000, and the Church has perhaps not defined the meaning of 80 of these verses. The remainder are left to the commentators, and I can say, to the free examination of the Catholic reader, so that, according to the word of St. Jerome, the Scriptures are a vast field in which the intellect can play and delight, and where it will meet only a few barriers here and there around precipices, and also a few fortified places where it will be able to retrench and to find an assured assistance.
The Councils are the principal organ for Catholic teaching. Now, the Council of Trent, wanting to include in a single and same declaration all the obligatory doctrine, had not needed two pages to contain the most complete profession of Faith. And if we study the history of this Council, we recognize with admiration that it was equally jealous to maintain dogmas and to respect opinions....
Finally, the incomparable Bossuet having opposed to the calumnies of the Protestants his well-known Exposition of the Catholic Faith, proved that this same Church, which was accused of tyrannizing intellects, could reduce its defined and necessary truths into a body of doctrine a great deal less voluminous than were the confessions, synods, and declarations of the sects that had rejected the principle of authority and were professing free examination.
But I repeat, my brethren, this remarkable phenomenon, which exists only in the Catholic Church, this tranquil majesty in its assertion, this moderation and reserve concerning all questions not defined, here is, in my opinion, the adorable sign by which I have to recognize the truth which came from heaven. When I contemplate this serene conviction and this kind indulgence on the face of the Church, I throw myself into its arms, and I say to it, "You are my mother." This is as a mother teaches–without passion nor exaggeration, but with calm authority and wise measure.
You recognize this character in the teaching of the Church, in its most eminent doctors, in those of whom it adopts and authorizes the writings nearly without restriction. Augustine undertakes his immortal work The City of God, which will be until the end of the ages one of the richest monuments of the Church. He goes about avenging the holy truths of the Catholic Faith against the calumnies of dying paganism. He feels the ardors of zeal boiling within him. But if he has read in the Scriptures that God is truth, he has also read that God is charity. He understands that excess of truth can become absence of charity. He places himself on his knees and he sends toward heaven this admirable prayer: "Send, Lord, send into my heart the consolation, the temperament of your spirit, so that carried away by the love of the truth I do not lose the truth of love."
And at the other extremity of the chain of holy doctors, listen to these beautiful words of the blessed Bishop of Geneva:2 "Truth which is not charitable ceases to be the truth because in God, Who is the supreme source of the true, charity is inseparable from the truth."
Read Augustine and Francis de Sales. You will find in their writings the truth in all its purity and, on account of this very thing, all imprinted with charity and love.
Oh, priest of Carthage,3 I admire the nerve of your energetic language, the irresistible power of your sarcasm, but...will I say it? under the surface of your most orthodox writings, I seek the unction of charity. Your incisive syllables do not have the humble and sweet expression of love. I fear that you were defending the truth as one defends a system to himself, and that one day your pride abandoned the cause that your bitter zeal had sustained. Why, having consecrated his immense talent to the service of the Gospel, has Tertullian not prayed to the Lord as Augustine did, to send into his heart the consolations, the temperaments of His spirit? Love would have maintained it in the doctrine. But because he was not in charity, he lost the truth....With more love in your heart, your intelligence would not have made such a deplorable defection; charity would have maintained you in truth.
If the Catholic Church presents to our minds the teaching of the truth with so much discretion and sweetness, it is with still more condescension and goodness that it applies its principles to our conduct and our actions. Incapable of ever supporting bad doctrines, the Church is tolerant without limit for people. It never mixes error with the one who teaches it, nor the sin with the one who commits it. The Church condemns error but continues to love the man. The Church brands sin but pursues the sinner with tenderness. It earnestly desires to make him better, to reconcile him with God, to call peace and truth into his heart.
The Church makes no preference of persons. There is for the Church neither Jew, nor Greek, nor barbarian. It is not interested in your opinions. It does not ask you if you live in a monarchy or in a republic. You have one soul to save; here is all that is necessary to save it. Call on the Church. It comes to you with hands full of graces and pardon. You have committed more sins than you have hairs on your head. That does not frighten it. It expunges everything in the blood of Jesus Christ. Some of its laws are too onerous for you, it consents to accommodate them to your weakness; their rigor yields before your failings. St. Thomas Aquinas poses in principle that if no one can dispense with the divine law, condescension to the laws of the Church on the other hand does not have to be too difficult, for the sake of the sweetness which makes the foundation of its government. When the civil law is rigid and inflexible, so much more is the law of the Church yielding and supple. What other authority over the earth governs or administers as the Church?
May the world which preaches tolerance to us be as tolerant as we. We reject only principles; the world rejects persons. How many times we forgive and the world continues to condemn! How many times, in the name of God, we have pulled the veil of oblivion over the past, and the world always remembers! The very same mouths which reproach us with intolerance, blame us for our too credulous and too easy benevolence. Our inexhaustible patience towards people is almost as impugned as our inflexibility against doctrines!
...[N]o longer ask us for tolerance with regard to doctrine. Encourage, on the contrary, our solicitude to maintain the unity of dogma, which is the only bond of peace on earth. The Roman orator has said, "The union of minds is the first condition for the union of hearts." And this great man showed even in the definition of friendship the unanimity of thought with regard to divine and human things.
Our society is prey to a thousand divisions. We complain of them everyday. Where does this weakening of affections come from, this coldness of hearts? My brethren, how should hearts be brought together where minds are so far apart? Because each of us lives alone in his own thought, each of us also confines himself to the love of himself. Do we want to put an end to these countless differences of opinion which threaten to soon destroy all the spirit of family, city, and country? Do we no longer want to be strangers to each other, adversaries and almost enemies? Let's come back again to one creed, and we will soon return to harmony and love.
Every creed concerning the things of here below is very far from us. A thousand opinions divide us and for a long time there has no longer been any human dogma. I do not know if it will ever reconstitute itself among us. Fortunately, the religious creed, the divine dogma, has always maintained itself in its purity in the hands of the Church, and that way a precious germ of salvation is preserved for us. The day when all men will say: "I believe in God, in Jesus Christ, and in the Church," all hearts will not delay to draw near, and we will find again the only truly solid and lasting peace, the one that the Apostle calls peace in truth. Amen.
Translated exclusively for Angelus Press by Mr. & Mrs. William Platz from OEuvres Sacerdotales du Cardinal Pie, Choix de Sermons et d'Instructions de 1839 a 1849. The couple responded to an invitation in The Angelus for translators to make the work of Cardinal Pie, a mentor for Pope Pius X and Archbishop Lefebvre, available in English, for most of it is only known in French.
Louis-Edouard-Desire Cardinal Pie [say: "pea"] (1815-1880), renowned Bishop of Poitiers, France, was a major-league player in the fight against the anti-Catholic movement of the 19th century. "...He is best known for his opposition to modern errors, and his championship of the rights of the Church. Regarding as futile the compromises accepted by other Catholic leaders, he fought alike all philosophical theories and political arrangements that did not come up to the full traditional Christian standard...." His distinguished service to the Church was recognized by Leo XIII, who made him cardinal in 1879. (From the Catholic Encyclopedia, 1913 ed., Vol. XII, p. 76.)
1. Jean-Jacques Rousseau.
2. St. Francis de Sales.
3. Tertullian.
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| Second Sunday after Epiphany |
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Posted by: Stone - 01-17-2021, 08:45 AM - Forum: Christmas
- Replies (6)
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SECOND SUNDAY AFTER THE EPIPHANY
Taken from The Liturgical Year by Dom Prosper Gueranger (1841-1875)
The third Mystery of the Epiphany shows us the completion of the merciful designs of God upon the world, at the same time that it manifests to us, for the third time, the glory of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The Star has led the soul to faith; the sanctified Waters of the Jordan have conferred purity upon her; the Marriage Feast unites her to her God. We have been considering, during this Octave, the Bridegroom revealing himself to the Spouse; we have heard him calling her to come to him from the heights of Libanus; and now, after having enlightened and purified her, he invites her to the heavenly feast, where she is to receive the Wine of his divine love.
A Feast is prepared; it is a Marriage Feast; and the Mother of Jesus is present at it, for it is just that having cooperated in the mystery of the Incarnation of the Word, she should take part in all that her Son does, and in all the favors he bestows on his elect. But in the midst of the Feast, the Wine fails. Wine is the symbol of Charity or Love, and Charity had failed on the earth; for the Gentiles had never tasted its sweetness; and as to the Synagogue, what had it produced but wild grapes? The True Vine is our Jesus, and he calls himself by that name. He alone could give that Wine which gladdeneth the heart of man; He alone could give us that Chalice which inebriateth, and of which the Royal Psalmist prophesied.
Mary said to Jesus: They have no Wine. It is the office of the Mother of God to tell him of the wants of men, for she is also their Mother. But Jesus answers her in words which are apparently harsh: Woman! what is it to me and to thee? My hour is not yet come. The meaning of these words is that, in this great Mystery, he was about to act not as the Son of Mary, but as the Son of God. Later on, the hour will come when, dying upon the Cross, he will do it as Man, that is, according to that human nature which he has received from her. Mary at once understands the words of her Son, and she says to the waiters of the Feast what she is now ever saying to her children: Do whatsoever he shall say to you.
Now, there were six large waterpots of stone there, and they were empty. The world was then in its Sixth Age, as St. Augustine and other Holy Doctors tell us. During these six ages, the earth had been awaiting its Savior, who was to instruct and redeem it. Jesus commands these waterpots to be filled with water; and yet, water does not suit the Feast of the Spouse. The figures and the prophecies of the ancient world were this water, and until the opening of the Seventh Age, when Christ, who is the Vine, was to be given to the world, no man had contracted an alliance with the Divine Word.
But when the Emmanuel came, he had but to say, Now draw out, and the waterpots were seen to be filled with the wine of the New Covenant, the Wine which had been kept to the end. When he assumed our human nature—a nature weak and unstable as Water—he effected a change in it; he raised it up even to himself, by making us partakers of the divine nature; he gave us the power to love him, to be united to him, to form that one Body of which he is the Head, that Church of which he is the Spouse, and which he loved from all eternity, and with such tender love, that he came down from heaven to celebrate his nuptials with her.
St. Matthew, the Evangelist of the Humanity of our Lord, has received from the Holy Ghost the commission to announce to us the Mystery of Faith by the Star; St. Luke, the Evangelist of Jesus’ Priesthood, has been selected, by the same Holy Spirit, to instruct us in the Mystery of the Baptism in the Jordan; but the Mystery of the Marriage Feast was to be revealed to us by the Evangelist John, the Beloved Disciple. He suggests to the Church the object of this third Mystery by this expression: This beginning of miracles did Jesus in Cana of Glailee, and he manifested his glory. At Bethlehem, the Gold of the Magi expressed the Divinity of the Babe; at the Jordan, the descent of the Holy Ghost and the voice of the Eternal Father proclaimed Jesus (known to the people as a carpenter of Nazareth) to be the Son of God; at Cana, it is Jesus himself that acts, and he acts as God, for, says St. Augustine, He who changed the water into wine in the waterpots could be no other than the same who, every year, works the same miracle in the vine. Hence it was that, from that day, as St. John tells us, his disciples believed in him, and the Apostolic College began to be formed.
Mass
The Introit proclaims the joy of this day, which shows us the human nature espoused to the Son of the eternal Father. Surely the earth will henceforth surrender itself wholly to the love and praise of this sacred Name which, in the Marriage Feast, has become that of the Son of Adam.
Introit
Omnis terra adoret te, Deus, et psallat tibi: psallmum dicat nomini tuo, Altissime.
Ps. Jubilate Deo omnis terra, psalmum dicite nomini ejus: date gloriam laudi ejus. Gloria Patri. Omnis terra.
Let all the earth adore thee, and sing to thee, O God: let it sing a psalm to thy name, O Most High.
Ps. Shout with joy to God, all the earth, sing ye a psalm to his name; give glory to his praise. Glory be to the Father. Let all the earth.
This name of Sons of God which has become ours by right through the bond of the sacred nuptials is none other, as Jesus himself tells us in his Beatitudes, than Peace—the Peace of God, ours truly through the action of his grace ever working it out within us. In the Collect Peace again figures as the final end of God’s government both in heaven and on earth, likewise as the supreme desire of the Church.
Collect
Omnipotens sempiterne Deus, qui cœlestia simul et terrena moderaris: supplicationes populi tui clementer exaudi, et pacem tuam nostris concede temporibus. Per Dominum.
Almighty and Eternal God, supreme Ruler both of heaven and earth, mercifully give ear to the prayers of thy people, and grant us peace in our time. Through, etc.
Commemoration is made, by their proper Collects, of the Saint whose feast may occur with this Sunday; the third prayer will be that of the Blessed Virgin.
Commemoration of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Deus qui salutis æternæ, beatæ Mariæ virginitate fœcunda, humano generi præmia præstitisti; tribue, quæsumus, ut ipsam pro nobis intercedere sentiamus, per quam meruimus auctorem vitæ suscipere, Dominum nostrum Jesum Christum Filium tuum. Qui tecum.
O God, who, by the fruitful Virginity of the Blessed Mary, hast given to mankind the rewards of eternal salvation, grant, we beseech thee, that we may experience her intercession, by whom we received the Author of life, our Lord Jesus Christ, thy Son. Who liveth, etc.
Epistle
Lesson from the Epistle of St. Paul the Apostle, to the Romans. Ch. xii.
Brethren: Having different gifts, according to the grace that is given us, either prophecy, to be used according to the rule of faith; Or ministry, in ministering; or he that teacheth, in doctrine; He that exhorteth, in exhorting; he that giveth, with simplicity; he that ruleth, with carefulness; he that sheweth mercy, with cheerfulness. Let love be without dissimulation. Hating that which is evil, cleaving to that which is good. Loving one another with the charity of brotherhood, with honour preventing one another. In carefulness not slothful. In spirit fervent. Serving the Lord. Rejoicing in hope. Patient in tribulation. Instant in prayer. Communicating to the necessities of the saints. Pursuing hospitality. Bless them that persecute you: bless, and curse not. Rejoice with them that rejoice; weep with them that weep. Being of one mind one towards another. Not minding high things, but consenting to the humble.
Quote:This peace which characterizes, in the abode of saints, the Sons of God, effects in like measure on earth the oneness of the Bride, that is of the Church: peace it is that makes her to be but one body wherein the many members find their multiplicity upheld and guided by the head, the one lord; their functions, so diverse in themselves, regulated and brought under the rule and love of the Bridegroom, Christ Jesus. The Epistle which has just been read sets before us the different operations of this peace which has as its ruling motive Charity, the Queen of virtues, and which is so essential to Christianity; the Apostle specifies in detail its forms and conditions and adapts its practice to every social condition and circumstances of life. Of such value does the Church judge these considerations, that, on the following Sunday, she resumes the text of the Apostle where today she has interrupted it.
Far from a divine life in the peace of God which was its precious gift, the human race incurred death with its penalty of separation. Let us then in the Gradual sing of this wonder that has been wrought in our midst, and with the angelic choirs exalt the Lord in praise and admiration.
Gradual
Misit Dominus verbum suum, et sanavit eos: et eripuit eos de interitu eorum.
℣. Confiteantur Domino misericordiæ ejus, et mirabilia ejus filiis hominum. Alleluia, allelluia.
℣. Laudate Deum omnes Angeli ejus: laudate eum omnes virtutes ejus. Alleluia.
The Lord sent his word and healed them: and delivered them out of their distresses.
℣. Let the mercies of the Lord give glory to him: and his wonderful works to the children of men. Alleluia, alleluia.
℣. Praise ye the Lord, all his angels, praise him all his hosts. Alleluia.
Gospel
Sequel of the holy Gospel according to St. John. Ch. ii.
At that time: there was a marriage in Cana of Galilee: and the mother of Jesus was there. And Jesus also was invited, and his disciples, to the marriage. And the wine failing, the mother of Jesus saith to him: They have no wine. And Jesus saith to her: Woman, what is that to me and to thee? my hour is not yet come. His mother saith to the waiters: Whatsoever he shall say to you, do ye. Now there were set there six waterpots of stone, according to the manner of the purifying of the Jews, containing two or three measures apiece. Jesus saith to them: Fill the waterpots with water. And they filled them up to the brim. And Jesus saith to them: Draw out now, and carry to the chief steward of the feast. And they carried it. And when the chief steward had tasted the water made wine, and knew not whence it was, but the waiters knew who had drawn the water; the chief steward calleth the bridegroom, And saith to him: Every man at first setteth forth good wine, and when men have well drunk, then that which is worse. But thou hast kept the good wine until now. This beginning of miracles did Jesus in Cana of Galilee; and manifested his glory, and his disciples believed in him.
Quote:O the wonderful dignity of man! God has vouchsafed, says the Apostle, to show the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which had no claim to, nay, were unworthy of such an honor. Jesus bids the waiters fill them with water and the water of Baptism purifies us; but, not satisfied with this, he fills these vessels, even to the brim, not to be drunk save in the kingdom of his Father. Thus, divine Charity, which dwells in the Sacrament of Love, is communicated to us; and that we might not be unworthy of the espousals with himself, to which he called us, he raises us up even to himself. Let us, therefore, prepare our souls for this wonderful union, and, according to the advice of the Apostle, let us labor to present them to our Jesus with such purity as to resemble that chaste Virgin, who was presented to the spotless Lamb.
During the Offertory, the Church resumes her songs of joy and give free course to her holy transports. All faithful souls are invited by her to the celebration of this adorable Mystery, the intimate union of man with God.
Offertory
Jubilate Deo universa terra: psalmum dicite nomini ejus, venite et audite, et narrabo vobis omnes qui timetis Deum, quanta fecit Dominus animæ meæ. Alleluia.
Shout with joy to God, all the earth, sing ye a psalm to his name. Come and hear, all ye who fear God, and I will tell you what great things he hath done for my soul. Alleluia.
Secret
Oblata, Domine, munera sanctifica: nosque a peccatorum nostrorum maculis emunda. Per Dominum.
Sanctify, O Lord, our offerings, and cleanse us from the stains of our sins. Through, etc.
After the Secret of the Saint who is being commemorated today, that of the Blessed Virgin is said.
Commemoration of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Tua, Domine, propitiatione, et beatæ Mariæ semper Virginis intercessione, ad perpetuam atque præsentem hæc oblatio nobis proficiat prosperitatem et pacem. Per Dominum.
By thy merciful forgiveness, O Lord, and by the intercession of blessed Mary, ever a Virgin, let this offering avail us for welfare and peace, both now and for evermore. Through our Lord.
The Communion Antiphon recalls once more the miracle of the changing of the water into wine. This was only a dim figure of that wondrous transformation which is accomplished on our altars, only a symbol of that divine Sacrament, the food of our souls whereby, in an unspeakable way, is realized our union with God.
Communion
Dicit Dominus: Implete hydrias aqua et fert5e architriclino. Cum gustasset architriclinus aquam vinum factam, dicit sponso: Servasti vinum bonum usque adhuc. Hoc signum fecit Jesus primum coram discipulis suis.
The Lord saith: Fill the waterpots with water and carry to the chief steward of the feast. When the chief steward had tasted the water made wine, he said to the bridegroom: Thou hast kept the good wine until now. This beginning of miracles did Jesus before his disciples.
Postcommunion
Augeatur in nobis, quæsumus Domine, tuæ virtutis operatio: ut divinis vegetati sacramentis, ad eorum promissa capienda tuo munere præparemur. Per Dominum.
May the efficacy of thy power, O Lord, be increased in us, that being fed with thy divine sacraments, we may, through thy bounty, be prepared to receive what they promise. Through, etc.
Commemoration of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Hæc nos communio, Domine, purget a crimine: et intercedente beata Virgine Dei Genitrice Maria, cœlestis remedii faciat esse consortes.
May this communion, O Lord, cleanse us from sin, and by the intercession of blessed Mary, the Virgin-Mother of God, make us partakers of thy heavenly remedy.
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| Facebook Censors Mexican Cardinal for Denouncing ‘New World Order’ |
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Posted by: Stone - 01-16-2021, 07:27 PM - Forum: Great Reset
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Facebook Censors Mexican Cardinal for Denouncing ‘New World Order’
Breitbart | January 16, 2020
Facebook has censored a video of Cardinal Juan Sandoval Íñiguez, archbishop emeritus of Guadalajara, for suggesting that
globalist leaders are exploiting the coronavirus pandemic to bring about a new world order.
In place of the cardinal’s weekly video, Facebook exhibited a greyed-out screenshot emblazoned with the banner “False information.” Underneath, Facebook added, “This publication repeats information about COVID-19 that independent fact checkers deemed false.”
On its Facebook page, Semanario Arquidiocesano Guadalajara, an information service run by the Archdiocese of Guadalajara, posted the following screenshot on January 13, along with the text “Cardinal Juan Sandoval denounced the imposition of a new world order, hours later his video was censored”:
In the nine-and-a-half-minute January 12 video, bearing the title “Plot of a new world order,” the cardinal begins by saying, “Dear friends, this will go on for a long time.”
“This pandemic won’t end in a month or two months, perhaps not this year, perhaps not in three, four, five, six years,” he said. “That’s what these men want. It will be a long haul.”
“It’s a tough, difficult situation, the likes of which has not been seen in human history,” he said:
“Bill Gates is a prophet and foretells the future,” the cardinal noted wryly, “and not only did he predict the coming of the coronavirus, but has also warned of a possible future smallpox pandemic.”
During the pandemic, Cardinal Sandoval has criticized the shuttering of businesses and services as disproportionate measures to curb the spread of the virus.
“What they’re after is a world government, a new world order,” the cardinal asserts in the video.
“They want a single world government, a single army, a single currency, a single economy, and also a single religion — that will certainly not be the Christian religion,” he said. “It will be the religion of Mother Earth, in the name of humanity and universal brotherhood.”
“To this end, pandemics serve to weaken nations; they impoverish and indebt them, bringing down their economies,” Sandoval said. “They also weaken education, closing schools and replacing them with distance learning.”
“These pandemics also impede religious practice, as we saw all last year,” he said. “They close the churches, reduce the number of people who can worship.”
“But above all, they are creating fear, a terrible fear among the people,” he warned.
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| Advent and Christmas Sermons by St. Vincent Ferrer |
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Posted by: Hildegard of Bingen - 01-16-2021, 05:14 PM - Forum: Sermons by the Saints
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The seasonal winter sermons of the preacher and proclaimer of the divine Word, interpreter of sacred scripture and most subtle professor, Saint Vincent, confessor of Valencia, of the Order of Preachers, happily begin.
First Sunday of Advent. Sermon 1 Part one -The theme
Mt 21.9
And the multitudes that went before and that followed, cried, saying: Hosanna to the son of David: Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord: Hosanna in the highest.
Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord," (Mt 21:9). We have prescribed for today's gospel this text from Mt 21. This Sunday is one of the greater Sundays of the entire year, because it is the first Sunday of the Coming (Adventus) of the Lord. Holy Mother Church sets aside the ordinary texts of the office and begins the office of the Advent of the Lord. So, wishing to conform myself to holy mother church I propose now to preach about the Advent of our Lord Jesus Christ, how he shall come at the end of the world to judge the good and the wicked, rendering to each according to his works. God willing, we shall have many good thoughts. But first let us salute the Virgin Mary.
"Blessed is he who comes," etc. The words proposed is a short song which was sung by the children and the crowd at the coming of Christ into the city of Jerusalem, saying "Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord." To more fully introduce these words and as an introduction to the matter to be preached, it must be known that there are found in sacred scripture clearly and manifestly three comings [adventus] of the Lord in this world, solemn and notable. general and principal.
First was in virtuous humility. [de humiltate virtuosa]
Second in gracious charity,[de charitate gratiosa]
Third in rigorous majesty. [de maiestate rigorosa]
The first advent is already past, the second is present, the third is yet to come. From these three advents corresponds three weeks of Advent, and the theme is understood principally of the third and last coming, and the greater, because then the good shall say, "Blessed is he who comes…etc."
VIRTUOUS HUMILITY
The first advent of the Lord was in virtuous humility, and this already is past, when he wished to descend through incarnation, conversation, captivity, scourging and passion, that those believing in him and obeying might ascend into heaven. The reason why he came in such humility was the pride of Adam and Eve, because they preferred not to obey God, but rather their own will. The sin of Adam was pride, as St. Thomas says II Sent. Dist. 22, q. 1, a. 1 and II-II, q. 163, a. 1. And, as St. Thomas says, "Disobedience in him was caused by pride," and so Augustine says To Orosius [Dial. QQ. lxv, qu. 4), " man puffed up with pride obeyed the serpent's prompting, and scorned God's commands." Truly also in the sin of the first parents, as St. Thomas says, II-II, where above in the solution ad 2m, gluttony has its place. It is said in Genesis 3," And the woman saw that the tree was good to eat, and fair to the eyes, and delightful to behold: and she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat," (Gn 3:6), but it was not its goodness and beauty that was the first motive for sinning, but rather the argument of the serpent who said: " your eyes shall be opened: and you shall be as Gods,"(v. 5), and it was by coveting this that the woman fell into pride. Hence the sin of gluttony resulted from the sin of pride. Therefore the first sin was pride rather than gluttony.
And pride is the foundation of all sins. V.g. Why is someone avaricious? It is from pride, because he does not wish to obey the precept of God saying, "You should not lust," or "not commit thefts" etc. Why is someone lustful? Is it not from pride, because he does not wish to obey the precept, "You shall not commit fornication?" Same for gluttony and the other sins. Authority: "Pride is the beginning of all sin," (Sir 10:15). Therefore Christ comes in great humility to reform us, like a servant in administering to us the works of redemption through human incarnation.
But you wish to understand well this lesson taught by the humility of Christ, imagine that there were many great lords and some gathered at dinner, and they did not have a servant waiter. Imagine that the son of the king, having taken off his royal clothing and dressed simply had come to serve them all, first by offering them water for their hands and second, by serving the food. Would this not have been by the son of the king an act of great humility? The humility of the Son of God is incomparably greater. All nations of men were gathered in the room of this world, awaiting the sublime dinner of celestial feasting, but we did not have a waiter who would serve it to us. For this purpose the Son of God exchanged, or rather hid the clothing of his godhead, and putting on the apron of humanity comes to wait on us, although he was changed in no way by the incarnation. Of this see in III Pars of the Summa of St. Thomas, q. 1, a. 1 ad 1, and q. 2, a. 6, ad 1 and in III Sent., dist. 2, q, 1, a. 1, ad 1. Authority: "Who being in the form of God," namely with the clothing of deity, "…emptied himself, " that is, humbled himself, "taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men, and in habit found as a man," (Phil 2:6-7), namely to serve and minister to us.
And first he gives us water for our unclean hands, because all were conceived, born, and nurtured in sins. The Apostle Paul says in Romans 5: "Wherefore as by one man sin entered into this world, and by sin death; and so death passed upon all men, in whom all have sinned," (v. 12). And we have in De confess. d 4, c 2, firmissime tene: On this account he first ordained the holy sacrament of Baptism. Baptism is ordained as a remedy against original sin; it is a certain spiritual regeneration and the gates of the sacrament. Whence and children lacking all actual sin, are baptized, because of the infection of original sin in which they have been conceived. "We were," the Apostle Paul says, "by nature children of wrath," (Eph 2:3) This sin through the act of nature or through a vitiated origin from the parent is passed down to the offspring, about which St. Thomas richly and subtly treats, II Sent., dist. 31, q. 1, a.1 & 2, and also I-IIae, in q. 81.
Next he serves the food saying, "I have compassion on the multitude, for behold they have now been with me three days, and have nothing to eat," (Mk 8:2), and he gives spiritual foods, namely evangelical and celestial teachings. Second he gives the food of miracles, by curing the sick and raising the dead. Third he gives the foods of the virtues. Note how tasty and nutritious [confirmabiles] they were. Finally, he again gives warm water for the hands and feet after dinner, even warm water at supper, because from his side poured out blood and water. The first water was of baptism, the second of penance which by the passion of Christ has its power and efficacy of washing the filth of sins from souls.
Of this service of humility Christ himself spoke, " the Son of man is not come to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a redemption for many," (Mt 20:28). And he speaks of the first coming, already past, about which it is necessary to eat him, and praise him. One way of speaking the theme with a change is to say, "Blessed is he who comes in the name of a servant."
GRACIOUS CHARITY
In the first coming Christ came as a servant, but in this second coming he comes as a friend [socius]. Reason: because it is the fashion and manner of a friend [socius] to stand with, to go with, to converse with, to eat and drink with [us], and so the Lord Jesus Christ comes from heaven to our home to simultaneously dine with us in communion. O what a dinner [refectio] it is for the devout soul when a man, prepared, receives communion, the intellect is fed with the enlightenment of a clear faith, the memory with the best remembrances, the will with good and holy desires. The mouth with devout prayers, and finally the whole body is fortified for penance and continuing a good life. Nor does he withdraw from us after communion, unless we should plan [congerium] for mortal sin, because otherwise it does not recede, so this association is so greatly pleasing. So he himself said, "and my delights were to be with the children of men," (Proverbs 8:31). Note "with the children of men," namely of the patriarchs, prophets, apostles and doctors who have begotten us in the Catholic faith. See how he is our companion. Authority. "The Lord is faithful in all his words," (Ps 114:13), namely by fulfilling his promises, because the words being pronounced, whether by a good or a bad priest, immediately he comes to the host.
The second coming is of gracious charity, and this is present, because every day in the sacrament of the altar in the consecrated host he is really there just as he came in the first coming in the womb of the Virgin, when the Virgin Mary said the words, "Behold the handmaid of the Lord," (Lk 1:38). Thus in every mass, when the priest says the words of consecration Christ comes to the host. And so we adore him in the sacrament of the altar. Of this coming we should eat him and praise him saying, "Blessed is he who comes in the name of the friend." In this way he does not show his dominion.
RIGOROUS MAJESTY
The third coming shall be in rigorous majesty [de maiestate rigorosa], when he shall come for judgment, for judicial retribution. Although when a man dies the soul immediately goes to judgment, and the Lord returns to it according to his deeds which he did here, because if here he had done fitting penance for his sins, immediately he gives him eternal glory. If however he did evil and impenitent, he gives him the punishment of hell. If, however, he was lukewarm, because neither wholly good nor bad, but mediocre, if because he had confessed, made satisfaction and forgave injuries etc, but had not done fitting penance, he gives him retribution of the punishment of purgatory, but these retributions are only of the soul, because the bodies both of the good and of the wicked which aided the souls does not yet have retribution, but they are turned to dust [incinerata].
Thus the Lord shall come for the general judgment and shall render retribution not only to the souls but also to the bodies according to their works. The general judgment of the future is at the end of the world, as St. Thomas says with three arguments in IV Sent., dist. 47, a. 1.
First that just as God in the beginning created all things together, so he shall judge all things together, and so the universal judgment shall correspond in being the match of the first production of things.
Second because as St. Thomas says, where above in the solution for a. 2, man can be considered in two ways, as a singular individual, and as part of a multitude, whence a twofold judgment is due to him. One singular, which happens to him after death, when he shall receive according to those things which he did in the body, although not totally, because not with respect to the body, but just with respect to the soul. The other judgment ought to be of him as he is a part of the whole human race, and so judgment shall come to him in the universal and general judgment, nor does God judge twice in the same matters, because he does not assess two punishments for one sin, but the punishment which had not been completely inflicted before, in the last judgment will be completed, when the wicked and evil ones are punished simultaneously in body and soul.
Third it is clear because although everyone who is damned is certain of his damnation, and the blessed of their glory, nevertheless not to all is the damnation or reward made known, nevertheless what is fitting that is known by all, so that the justice of God is apparent to all, and this commonly happens in the general judgment where all are gathered together.
Of this coming he himself says, "For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels: and then will he render to every man according to his works," (Mk 16:27). Then he shall not come in humility, in poverty and simplicity, as in the first, nor as a companion as in the second, but he shall come as Lord which such majesty and power that the whole world shall fear and tremble.
He shall come like the most powerful of kings, who comes to his castle or city rebellious or disobedient to him with armed troops, with bombs and catapults etc. So shall the Lord come to the castle or city of this world in which there are many rebels and disobedient to Christ the King, that he wishes and commands humility and they are proud, vain etc. He commanded mercy and generosity and they are the worst, avaricious, extortionists, thieves and robbers. He commanded chastity, they are lustful. The same with the rest. Belief without obedience will not save a man, no king or lord would be content with the belief of his subjects without obedience, on this account Christ shall come to the city of this world not as a servant, nor as a companion, but as Lord with many soldiers [cum multis gentibus], because on that day the heavens will be emptied. Because no human nor angelic creature shall remain there, for all shall come with the king for judgment. The horn or trumpet shall sound, thunder and lightning etc., to the extent that heaven and earth shall shudder. Note. If heavens and earth and the creatures which never have sinned against God are not able to stand up to his coming, what will it be for sinners, who have committed so many sins against God? Then it would be better to be in hell than to see God.
About this Job said, in the person of a sinner, "Who will grant me this, that you may protect me in hell, and hide me till your wrath passes," (Job 14:13). But on that day the good shall stand secure, nor shall they fear. Therefore holy mother church praying for all the faithful says, "Deliver me, O Lord, from eternal death on that fearful day, when the heavens and the earth are moved, when you come to judge the world with fire." Then Christ shall show himself as Lord and all peoples will recognize him as Lord, David [says]: "The Lord shall be known when he executes judgments: the sinner has been caught in the works of his own hands," (Ps 9:17). Then the blessed and the good rejoicing shall proclaim the theme in its proper form, "Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord." The theme now is clear.
A061 II Sunday of Advent, sermon 3
St. Vincent Ferrer -- Sermon on the Last Judgment
From: Angel of the Judgment: A Life of Vincent Ferrer, by S.M.C., Ave Maria Press. Chapter XI, pp. 102-117. This entire chapter consists of the third of the sermons given on the second Sunday in Advent; on the last judgment.
Douay Translation of Luke 21:25-28
25 And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, by reason of the confusion of the roaring of the sea and of the waves;
26 Men withering away for fear, and expectation of what shall come upon the whole world. For the powers of heaven shall be moved;
27 And then they shall see the Son of man coming in a cloud, with great power and majesty.
28 But when these things begin to come to pass, look up, and lift up your heads, because your redemption is at hand.
Our sermon will. be on today's gospel, which consists entirely in the doctrine and instruction of Jesus Christ Himself. In this gospel He warns us of the great evils and tribulations which are to come at the end of the world, and tells us of the signs which will precede His coming in judgment. This subject will, I think, be of service to us. Let us begin with the Hail Mary.
"There will be signs in the sun and in the moon and in the stars." By study of Holy Scripture and by factual experience we know that when any great and heavy affliction is about to come on the world, often some warning sign is shown in the sky or in the upper air. And this happens by the mercy of God, so that people forewarned of impending tribulation by means of these signs, through prayer and good works, may obtain in the tribunal of mercy a reversal of the sentence passed against them by God the judge in the heavenly courts; or at least by penance and amendment of life, may prepare themselves against the impending affliction.
So, before the coming of any great mortality, phantom battles are seen in the sky; before famine there are earthquakes; and before a country is laid waste dreadful portents are seen. We are told of the terrible signs shown to the Jews for a length of time before the destruction of Jerusalem under Antiochus. "And it came to pass that through the whole city of Jerusalem for the space of forty days there were seen horsemen running in the air, in gilded raiment armed with spears like bands of soldiers. And horses set in ranks, running one against another, with the shakings of shields, and a multitude of men in helmets, with drawn swords, and casting of darts, and glittering of golden armor, and of harness of all sorts," (2 Macc 5:2,3). After this, Antiochus plundered the temple and slew the Jews. Therefore we read in Exodus: "And shall multiply signs and wonders in the land of Egypt," (Ex 7:3).
Now among all afflictions, three of the greatest and most terrible are shortly to come upon mankind: first, the affliction of Antichrist, a man but a diabolical one; second, the destruction by fire of the terrestrial world; third, the universal judgment. And with these tribulations the world will come to an end. Therefore, according to the rule of divine Providence, as set out above, before these three, there will be warning signs in the heavens, in the sun and in the moon and in the stars, as is set out in our text.
The first affliction to come on the world in a short space of time is the advent of Antichrist, a diabolical man, who will bring distress on the whole world as is implied in. today's gospel where it is said: "And upon the earth distress of nations, by reason of the confusion of the roaring of the sea and of the waves."
In my text there are four clauses in which we are warned of the four ways in which Antichrist will deceive Christians. The first clause is this: "There will be sign, in the sun." You must know that in Holy Scripture Christ is called the Sun, and this is because, by the evidence of your own eyes, the sun is among the most beautiful of the creatures made by God. Taking the word etymologically, we have: S-O-L (Super omnia lucens), "Shining above all things." In the same way, Christ is more beautiful than all the saints, and shines above them all in the brightness of glory, not only inasmuch as He is God, but also as man. And as all the stars receive their light from the sun, who depends on nothing for its own brightness, so all the saints receive from Christ the brightness of glory, strength, sanctity, wisdom, understanding and influence. This is the reason why Christ is called the Sun, and under the same name of "Sun" God the Father sent Him into the world, saying: "But unto you who fear my name the Sun of justice shall arise" (Mal 4:2). This is not said of the natural sun. For the Church says in praise of the Virgin Mary: "For thou art happy, holy Virgin Mary, and most worthy of all praise, for out of thee has arisen the Sun of Justice, Christ, Our Lord."
The first clause tells us that there will be signs in the sun in the time of Antichrist; that is, there will be signs in Christ, and the precise sign is given by Saint Matthew saying: "The sun will not give its light." Such darkening does not happen with regard to the sun itself, for it is not in the nature of the sun to be darkened in itself. But by the interposition of clouds and vapor between the sun, and the earth the sun appears to be obscured. In the same way, in the time of Antichrist, the Sun of justice will be obscured by the interposition of temporal goods and the wealth which Antichrist will bestow on the world, inasmuch as the brightness of faith in Jesus Christ and the glow of good lives will no longer shine among Christians. For, lest they should lose their dominion, temporal rulers, kings and princes will range themselves on the side of Antichrist. In like manner, prelates for fear of losing their dignities, and religious and priests to gain honors and riches, will forsake the Faith of Christ and adhere to Antichrist. Now he will be a veritable man, but so proud that, not only will he desire to have universal dominion in the whole world, but will even demand to be called a god, and will insist on receiving divine worship. This we may gather from the second Epistle of Saint Paul to the Thessalonians (2:3): "For unless there come a revolt first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition, who opposeth and is lifted up above all that is called God or that is worshipped, so that he sitteth in the temple of God, spewing himself as if he were a god."
This will come about because Antichrist by the ministry of demons will possess all the gold and silver of the earth and seas, and pearls and all the precious stones that are in the world. As we read in Daniel (11:43) : "And he shall have power over the treasures of gold and silver and all the precious stones of Egypt." With this wealth he will gather together in arms all the nations of the world, to fight against those who oppose him. As we read in the Apocalypse (20:7) : "He shall go forth and seduce the nations which are over the four quarters of the earth, Gog, and Magog; and shall gather there together to battle the number of whom is as the sand of the sea."
Observe that he will seduce the peoples, that is, with gold and silver and honors; Gog which signifies "hidden," and Magog which signifies "that which is disclosed," because both hidden and open evil are on his side. Then temporal lords and ecclesiastical prelates, for fear of losing power or position, will be on his side, since there will exist neither king nor prelate unless he wills it. For the same reason, religious, priests and laity will also uphold him. "There will indeed be signs in the Sun of justice, for then it will be obscured in the hearts of Christians, since from those hearts it will not give forth the light of Faith; all preaching of a better life will cease, owing to the interposition of the vapor and clouds of temporal goods. As we are told in Daniel (11.39) : "He will multiply glory and will give them power in many things and divide up the earth at his pleasure."
I am asked why God permits this error among Christians, since He is God and the strongest cannot stand against Him? I answer by a dictum of theology taken from the Book of Wisdom (11:17) : "By what things a man sinneth, by the same also is he tormented." How do the peoples of the world sin against God today? They sin in order to gain honors, dignities and riches. Therefore, by honors, riches and dignities, God permits that Antichrist shall deceive them. If therefore you do not wish to be deceived, now with all your hearts contemn and despise all earthly goods, and long for those of heaven, considering that the goods of this world are transitory and empty, while heavenly and celestial goods are eternal. In this way you will be strong. Saint John gives this counsel: "Love not the world nor the things that are in the world. If any man loves the world the charity of the Father is not in him. And the world passeth and the concupiscence thereof" (1 Jn 2:15-17).
The second clause says that there will be signs in the moon. You must understand that in the Holy Scriptures the moon signifies our holy Mother the Universal Church, which implies the world-wide union of Christians; for when men speak of the Church, they do not speak of the material building, or the stone and the walls which compose it, but of that gathering of the faithful under one Head, which is the Church in reality. The Church is signified by the moon and its five phases: first there is the new moon, then the waxing moon, next the full moon, to be followed by the waning moon, and lastly the old moon.
The Church passes through these phases. The new moon signifies the Church of Christ in His own time; and as the new moon when first seen is like a bow-shaped thread with two horns following the sun, so the Church in the time of Christ had at first only two horns: Andrew and Peter who followed Christ. The waxing moon typifies the twelve Apostles, then the seventy-two disciples, then the three thousand converted by Peter on the day of Pentecost and so on. The full moon typifies the acceptance of the Gospel of Christ in every part of the world, in every kingdom and province. David says (Ps: 18.5) : "In the whole world their sound is gone forth, and their words to the ends of the earth."
The waning moon typifies the inability of men to preserve what the Apostles had acquired. In the first place, the Church was lessened by the loss of the whole of India, by means of him they called John the Presbyter; the second, Assyria by means of one of their tyrants; the third, Africa by means of Mahomet; the fourth, the Greeks under their Emperor Constantine; the fifth, the Armenians with their king; the sixth, the Georgians with a certain pseudo-prophet; the seventh, the bad example of the Christians led by a certain heresiarch [Probably the Waldenses whom Vincent evangelized in the Alpine countries. We do not know the name of the individual heresiarch]; the eighth, the Italians with Bartholomew of Bari; the ninth, the French with Peter of Candia.
The old moon, because the horns are reversed, typifies that the Church is no longer in the state in which Christ founded it. Christ founded the Church in great lowliness and poverty; now all this is turned round to pride, pomp and vanity, as may be easily seen in every rank of the Church. Mercy and liberality are changed into simony, usury and rapine; chastity becomes licentiousness, uncleanness and corruption; the brightness of virtue is changed into envy and malignity; temperance has become gluttony and voracity; patience has given place to anger, war and divisions among the peoples; diligence is superseded by negligence. Nothing is now left to make matters worse but an eclipse which is caused by the interposition of the earth between the sun and moon such as only occurs at full moon. As Isaiah says in 59:2: "Your sins have put a division between us." In the time of Antichrist, the Church, typified by the moon, will be eclipsed; because then she will not give her light, since Christians will no longer work miracles by reason of their sanctity; but Antichrist and his followers will work miracles, not true miracles, but false ones having the appearance of true miracles, in order that they may deceive the people. As Saint John says in the Apocalypse (13:13) : "And he did great signs, so that he made also fire to come down from heaven unto the earth in the sight of men," that is, balls of fire, such as it is within the power of the devil to send down, if God should permit this and does not prevent him; as we read in Job (1:16) : "And while he was yet speaking another came and said: A fire of God fell from heaven and striking the sheep and the servants hath consumed them." O! The wonder of the people, this will be the downfall of many.
You must know that Antichrist will perform other prodigies by the power of demons, and these will be true miracles according to the nature of things in themselves, but false in regard to the definition of miracle (i.e. by the power of God). For he will cause both images and babes of a month old to speak. The followers of Antichrist will question these statues or babies, and they will make answer concerning this lord who has come in the latter times, affirming that he is the savior. The devil will move their lips and form the words they utter when they declare Antichrist to be the true savior of the world; and in this way he will cause the destruction of many souls.
And the Church, typified by the moon, will perform no miracles.
Some say that such phenomena are not real miracles in the sense that raising the dead to life is a real miracle. I can give concrete examples of the dead being apparently raised to life, but such are only phantoms. For instance, in the same way as Christians raise dead people in the Name of Our Lord Jesus Christ, so your dead father or mother may appear to speak to you; but in these latter times Christians will not be able to work similar miracles. Christ has warned us of these false miracles and signs, saying: "There will arise false christs and false prophets." That is to say, the sons of Christians who have already made shipwreck of their faith owing to the gifts of Antichrist. As Saint Matthew says (24:24) : "And they will show great signs and wonders in so much to deceive, if possible, even the elect. Behold I have told you beforehand."
Suppose someone should ask: Why does Christ permit these works of destruction of Christianity by the devil? I answer according to the rule of Theology: "By what things a man sinneth, by the same also is he tormented." Since the people of the world sin against God by having recourse to the works of the devil, such as divination and fortune telling in their necessities—for instance, in order to find things they have lost, or to obtain health or children, instead of laying their needs before the omnipotent God—therefore God permits them to be deceived by the works of the demons.
If you do not wish to be deceived, then place the whole of your faith and confidence in the name of Jesus Christ., and refuse to acknowledge any miracle unless it is worked in that same name; and so you will be strong against seduction. David says (Ps 39:5) : "Blessed is the man whose hope is in the name of the Lord; and who hath not regard to vanities and lying follies." The name of the Lord is Jesus. "And thou shalt call His name Jesus," (Lk 2:21). If you should receive any wound or hurt you should sign it devoutly with the Sign of the Cross.
Antichrist arrogates to himself every other name of Christ, but as many of the saints tell us, he flies from the name of Jesus. Therefore, for that reason, the name of Jesus should receive the greatest respect from all Christians. Moreover, all the names of God, according to Saint Thomas Aquinas, should be honored in a sevenfold manner. Because the name of God is great it is to be feared; because it is holy it should be venerated; because it is sweet it should be savored in meditation; it is strong to save; rich in mercy; efficacious in impetration; and hidden in order to be discovered and known. He says also that the name of the Son of God is also the name of the father in a threefold way: for by it he is honored, invoked and manifested. He also says that in all the names given is also signified the name of Jesus, which is the sign of salvation, and therefore exceedingly to be honored.
The third clause says that there will be signs in the stars. In the Sacred Scriptures "star" signifies "light-giving"; and so it is the appellation of Masters, Doctors, and Licentiates in Theology. This signification is found in Daniel (12:3) : "And they that are learned shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that instruct many to justice, as stars for all eternity." In these stars, that is learned men, there will be signs in the time of Antichrist; because, as Christ says in the Gospel of Saint Matthew (24:29) : "Stars shall fall from heaven"; and this is the third combat waged by Antichrist, that of disputation. Then stars, that is the learned, shall fall from heaven, that is, from the truth of the Catholic Faith. The disputations of Antichrist with the learned will be based entirely on the text of the Old Testament, and these doctors, so far from being able to answer him, will not even be able to speak. Then the stars, the masters, will fall from heaven, that is from the heights of the Faith. For, according to Daniel (11.36) : "And the king, Antichrist, will do all according to his will and will lift up and magnify all against God, and against the God of Gods he will speak great things;" that is, the matter of his blasphemies will be insoluble so far as men are concerned.
You may ask again why Christ allows this, that those who defend the Faith should fail so utterly? I answer that Christ allows this for two reasons: first, according to the rule of theology: "By what things a man sinneth, by the same is he tormented;" and this follows from the fact that masters and teachers no longer care for study of the Bible, but prefer the study of the poets and other profane works.
The second reason why Christ permits this, is because of the scandalous and wicked lives and the many sins of learned. men; for in the case of many of them, the greater their knowledge the greater also is their sin and the worse their consciences; for they are proud, puffed-up, wine-bibbers and the rest. He who can bind a lioness can easily bind a sheep; if therefore the devil can hold in chains the minds of the learned by reason of their evil lives, how much easier is it for him to bind the sheep that is their tongues—so that they cannot speak.. The ignorant are in much better case, for knowledge puffeth up, if therefore you wish to be strong, embrace the counsel of the Apostle Paul (1 Cor 2:5) : "That your faith might not stand on the wisdom of men but on the power of God." Reasoning and disputation are good for strengthening the intellect, but not for fortifying belief, since faith must be held from the motive of obedience, because Christ Himself has commanded us, announcing the gospel which the Apostles preached and Holy Mother Church has ordained. Therefore, O Lord, I believe.
The fourth clause tells us: "And on earth distress of nations by reason of the confusion of the roaring of the sea and of the waves." Behold these are the tortures which Antichrist will inflict, and on the earth distress of nations by reason of the confusion of the roaring of the sea and of the waves. That is the preparations for battle, the sanding of the arena before the combat, which will be the work of the lords who are already on the side of Antichrist; because then no one will dare to name Christ nor the Virgin Mary under pain of death; and the waves are those of torments which have never in the past been so dreadful as those which will be inflicted by Antichrist. In Saint Matthew, Christ warns us (24:21): "For there shall then be great tribulation such as hath not been from the beginning of the world until now, neither shall be. And unless those days had been shortened, no flesh should be saved; but for the sake of the elect those days shall be shortened." We read in the Apocalypse (17:10): "And when he shall come he must remain a short time," The Doctors in general say that Antichrist will reign for three and a half years only; which is the measure of a thousand and two hundred days and ninety days; "and from the time when the continual sacrifice shall be taken away and the abomination unto desolation shall be set up, there shall be one thousand two hundred and ninety days" (Daniel: 12:11).
If I am asked why Christ permits the Christians to be so terribly persecuted, I answer : "By what things a man sinneth, by the same also is he tormented." Because now, at the present time, people are offending God by wars, divisions and false flattery, by feuds and duels, so Christ permits them to be torn in pieces and slain by Antichrist. If therefore, you do not wish to be slain and destroyed, be at peace and concord now with everyone, according to the counsel of the Apostle: "Have peace with all men; revenge not yourselves, my dearly beloved; but give place to wrath, for it is written : "Revenge is mine, I will repay, saith the Lord" " (Rom 12:18).
The second evil or retribution will be the conflagration of the earthly world which is mentioned in the second part of the gospel of this Sunday: "Men withering away for fear and expectation of what is to come on the whole world; for the powers of heaven will be moved."
After Antichrist has been slain by lightning on Mount Olivet and his death has been made widely known through out the world, this our earth will exist for forty-five more days; I do not say years, but days. This is clearly to be seen in Daniel (12:11) : "And from the time when the continual sacrifice shall be taken away and the abomination of desolation shall be set up, there shall be one thousand, two hundred and ninety days. Blessed is he that waiteth and cometh unto the one thousand, three hundred and thirty-five days."
The Doctors say that these forty-five days will be given by God for the conversion of those who have been seduced by Antichrist, but Antichrist will have left behind him so great riches and pleasure that hardly any of the nations will be converted to the Faith of Christ. For there is no savior but Christ, and yet they will not be converted.
Then in the four parts of the earth, east, and west, and north, and south, fire will blaze forth by thee divine power, and as it presses forward, the whole world in succession will be set on fire until nothing of the other three elements will remain. Then, when men are made aware of the tumult and the fire and see the lightnings bursting forth from it, they will wither away for fear of the fire, and expectation of eternal damnation. The Apostle Paul, in the epistle to the Hebrews (10:27) says of this: "But a, certain dreadful expectation of the judgment and the rage of a fire shall consume the adversaries."
"For the powers of heaven shall be moved." This is said to imply that the fire has no natural cause, as some people erroneously imagine, for they say that for forty years before the consummation of the world it will not rain. This fire, however, comes from the rigor of divine justice and acts through the ministry of angels, as it is shown in the saying: "For the powers of heaven shall be moved." This fire comes down, likewise, for the purification of the other three elements—earth, air and water—which have been infected and corrupted by the sins of men. Concerning this, David says (Ps 96:3): "A fire shall go before him and shall burn his enemies round about. His lightnings have shone forth to the world; the earth saw and trembled. The mountains melted like wax at the presence of the Lord; at the presence of the Lord of all the earth."
You understand how sinners are the enemies of Christ; but why do they say, "and shall burn his enemies round about," when the good as well as the bad will be destroyed by the fire? The good and the friends of God will die in the fire it is true, but they will die without pain or suffering; but the wicked and God's enemies will die in the greatest pain and torment. Therefore, the enemies of God are named.
Saint Thomas Aquinas speaks beautifully of this when he says that this last fire, inasmuch as it precedes the Judgment, will act as an instrument of God's justice. It will also act like natural fire, inasmuch as, in its natural power, it will burn both wicked and good and reduce every human body to ashes. Inasmuch as it acts as an instrument of God's justice, it will act in different ways with regard to different people. For the wicked will suffer intensely through the action of the fire, but the good in whom nothing is found which must be purged away will feel no pain from the fire, just as the three children felt nothing in the fiery furnace, although the bodies of these others will not be preserved as were those of the three children. And this will come to pass by the divine power, that without pain or suffering their bodies will be resolved into ashes.
But the good in whom there is some stain to be purged away will feel the pain of this fire, more or less according to the merits of each. But they will be swiftly purged for three reasons. The first reason is that in them little evil is found, for they have been already in great measure purged by the preceding tribulations and persecutions. The second is that the living will voluntarily endure the pain; and suffering willingly endured in this life remits much more quickly than suffering inflicted after death. This is seen in the case of the martyrs, for if, when they came to die, anything worthy of purgation was found, it was cut away by the pruning knife of their sufferings. And the sufferings of the martyrs were short in comparison with the pains of purgatory. The third reason is that the heat of the fire gains in intensity what it loses through the shortness of the time. But in so far as the fire is active after the judgment its power only extends over the damned, since all the bodies of the just will be impassible.
"This is a serious thought for those who will not do penance. In that last day, how greatly the temporal lords and prelates of the Church will desire to do penance when they see the fire. But then such repentance will avail them nothing, because they are acting not from charity, but from servile fear. Therefore, do penance now, forgive injuries, make restitution of any ill-gotten goods, live up to and confess your religion; and let priests obtain breviaries. If it were certain that in a short time this town was going to be destroyed by fire, would you not exchange all your immovable goods for something that you could take away with you? So it is with the world, which in a short while is to be destroyed by fire. Therefore place your hearts in heaven, and your lips by speaking with reverence of God, and your works by doing good. This is Christ's counsel, saying: "Lay not up to yourselves treasures on earth where the rust and moth devour and thieves break in and steal." Notice the word "rust," which is Antichrist, and "moth," which is fire, for these will devour all.
The third evil will be the tribulation of the universal Judgment which is mentioned in the third part of this gospel. "Then shall they see the Son of Man coming in the clouds with great power and majesty." After the destruction of the world by fire, Christ the Lord Judge, with the Virgin Mary and all the saints, will come to the judgment seated on a throne in the air. And the Archangel Michael will cry with a. loud voice, saying: "Arise, ye dead, and come to judgment."
Then suddenly, by the divine power, all the dead, both good and wicked, will arise, children will rise with grown people and all will be gathered to the judgment. Even those who died in their mother's womb will be there, as Saint Thomas teaches, to accuse those through whose fault they died without Baptism. And the age at which all will rise will be thirty years.
Christ Himself says concerning the General Judgment: "When the Son of Man shall come in His majesty, and all the angels with Him, then shall He sit upon the seat of His Majesty. And all the nations shall be gathered together before Him; and He shall separate them one from another as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats; and He shall set the sheep on His right hand and the goats on His left" (Mt 25:31-33). And the creed of Saint Athanasius: "At Whose coming all men must rise with their own bodies; and it will be rendered to every man according to his own deeds; those who have performed good works will go into eternal life, and those who have done evil into eternal fire."
The sheep are the good and the goats are the wicked. Christ will say to the sheep on His right hand: "Come, ye blessed of My Father, possess ye the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world." To the goats on His left He will say: "Depart from Me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire which was prepared for the devil and his angels."
The wicked will go into eternal punishment, the just into eternal life. But for the rest, no one will dwell in this world, because those things which are transitory and finite have passed away in their finite condition; movement has passed away.
Therefore, the Church in the person of every Christian makes petition in the Office for the Dead: "Deliver me, O Lord, from everlasting death, in that tremendous day when the heavens and the earth are moved, when Thou shalt come to judge the world by fire."
A150 In Vigilia nativitatis Christi. Sermo unicus
St. Vincent Ferrer: Sermon for Christmas Eve (Mt 1:18)
Mt: 1:18 Now the generation of Christ was in this wise. When as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child, of the Holy Ghost.
"She was found with child, of the Holy Ghost," (Mt 1:18)
Our whole sermon is about the impregnation of the Virgin Mary. But that you may perceive this material in your souls with the sweetness of devotion first we shall salute the pregnant Virgin, etc. [Here all recite the "Hail Mary."]
"She was found," etc. I find a great difference in sacred scripture between the conception of Christ and his birth, especially in this because the birth of Christ was not entirely hidden and secret, rather he wished that it would be announced to the world and published through the angels and through the heavens, through the star in the east, through the animals, through Eastern kings, just as it had already been prophesied. "I will move the heaven and the earth, and the sea, and the dry land. And I will move all nations: and the desired of all nations shall come," (Hag 2:7-8). Note, "the heaven," that is, the holy angels.
But about his conception he wished that it would be hidden. To no one in this world was it revealed, not to the patriarchs, not to the prophets, nor to holy persons, but only to the archangel Gabriel and to the Virgin Mary, as it had been prophesied by Isaiah, "From the ends of the earth we have heard praises, the glory of the just one. And I said: My secret to myself," (Isa 24:16). And the prophet speaks in the person of Gabriel and the Virgin Mary. Note, "from the ends of the earth." The ends of the earth are taken in two ways, either locally or temporally.
With respect to the first by calculating from the center of the earth, that which is most distant from the center is the circumference. The earth is the center, the circumference is the empyreal heaven. Behold the ends locally from which Gabriel and the Virgin Mary heard the praises of the just one, because it is a rule in holy theology that when he is called just, it is understood absolutely, always of the savior.
As for the second, the ends can be taken temporally. There are seven temporal ages of the world. The first was from Adam to Noah. The second from Noah to Abraham. Third from Abraham to Moses. The fourth from Moses to David. The fifth from David to the Babylonian captivity. Sixth from the Babylonian exile to Christ. The seventh and last, from Christ to the end of the world. About which the Apostle [Paul] says: "[We are] upon whom the ends of the world are come," (1Cor 10:11). Behold the temporal limits, about which Gabriel and the Virgin Mary speak. "From the ends of the earth, "that is in the ultimate age of the world "we have heard praises, the glory of the just one," that is, the savior. "Tell us Angel Gabriel about these praises and the glory of the savior. Say something to us." He responds, "My secret to me," supply "I shall keep." See how the conception of Christ was hidden and secret. About which David said: "He shall come down like rain upon the fleece; and as showers falling gently upon the earth," (Ps 71:6). The difference then is clear between the birth of Christ and his conception.
Nevertheless although his conception was so secret at the beginning, nevertheless it gradually became manifest, because a pregnant woman at least in giving birth reveals her pregnancy. So it was of the Virgin whose belly and uterus had swelled, and she could no longer hide her pregnancy. On this account the proposed theme speaks, "She was found with child." The theme is clear.
And since I am concerned with the pregnant Virgin in this sermon, I find that the Virgin was found pregnant by her fiancé Joseph in three ways:
First through sense experience, [per experientiam sensualem]
Second through divine wisdom, [per sapientiam divinalem]
Third through a special excellence. [per excellentiam specialem]
For each of these the theme speaks, "She was found with child," (Mt 1:18) etc.
SENSE EXPERIENCE
I say first, that the Virgin Mary was found pregnant by her espoused Joseph through sense experience. All knowledge is had through some sense perception. Through sight we recognize colors; through hearing, sound; through the sense of smell, odors; through taste, flavors; through touch, hard or soft, hot or cold. If you say to someone "How do you know this?" He replies: "Because I have seen or heard it," etc. It is clear therefore that all our cognition is through the senses. The Philosopher [Aristotle], "Sense is not deceived about the proper object, especially sight unless there is a defect." On account of this honorable judges make a great difference between eyewitnesses and hearsay [de auditu], or belief [credentia]. An eyewitness is greater. And so Christ rebuked the Jews who refused to believe, saying, "We speak what we know, and we testify what we have seen, and you receive not our testimony," (Jn 3:11). Note "what we know" namely, I and the holy prophets, "we speak," in this way, from sight. The Virgin Mary was found by her espoused Joseph to be with child. Imagine how after Mary had conceived, filled with joy she went to visit Elizabeth her cousin [literally, her related sister], who was pregnant with John the Baptist, as the angel had told her. She stayed with her for three months, as Luke says, (cf. Lk 1:56).
Her fiancé Joseph came to Nazareth to visit her, and saw her womb swollen, so he found her pregnant. Think how Joseph should have wondered, because he had not touched her. Moreover, as the holy doctors say, after they had become engaged, the Virgin Mary persuaded her fiancé, who was also a virgin, that they would take a vow of virginity together. So much the more did he wonder when she seemed pregnant. Therefore the beginning of today's gospel says, "When as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together," that is, to live together and have relations, "she was found to be with child, of the Holy Ghost. Whereupon Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not willing publicly to expose her, was minded to put her away privately," (Mt 1:18-19).
Think also when she was found pregnant by her parents, who did not believe that she had sinned, but they wondered what this was. On the one hand they were thinking of her great devotion; on the other hand they saw her pregnancy. Her mother said to her, "Daughter, what is this?" The Virgin Mary replied to her mother, this is that which pleases God, who can do to his creatures whatever he pleases. "O daughter, what will people say, that my daughter got pregnant before she was married."
Think of the distress of the Virgin, who dared not reveal because "my secret to me." Think of the entanglement in which Joseph found himself, who was old and poor, and the Virgin Mary, young and stunningly beautiful. Bernard says that Joseph, on one hand was considering the holiness of the Virgin, and that it could not be that she had sinned, and on the other hand he beheld her pregnant. And since by nature a woman cannot conceive without a man, therefore like an olive, his heart was between two millstones.
SIGNS OF A BAD WOMAN
And because he was prudent and wise he considered all the signs of a bad woman, which are: 1) an irreligious heart, 2) garrulousness in speech, 3) personal untidiness, 4) voraciousness in eating and drinking, 5) laziness toward work, 5) vanity of dress, and 6) contempt for her husband. Each of these signs indicate a woman is bad. But Joseph found none of these signs in the Virgin Mary. Rather, the total opposite; all the signs of a good woman.
1) The first sign of a dishonorable [inhonesta] woman is an irreligious heart toward God, disregarding masses and sermons, because she does not fear God. May God keep her from being inconsiderate, because unless a woman retains a fear of God, no other fear will hold her back from evil. Fear of God and devotion restrained Susanna lest she sin, when she said, "I am straitened on every side: for if I do this thing, it is death to me: and if I do it not, I shall not escape your hands. But it is better for me to fall into your hands without doing it, than to sin in the sight of the Lord," (Dan 13:22-23).
Joseph however was thinking about his fiancée whether she was devout, or irreligious, and he saw that he had never seen such a holy and devout woman, because she always wanted to pray, or read, or contemplate. And on this foundation of devotion a woman should ground herself, otherwise she will fall. "For other foundation no man can lay, but that which is laid," (1Cor 3:10). But Joseph did not find these things in the Blessed Virgin Mary, since she was most devoted and ardent toward God. So scripture says of her in Proverbs, "The woman that fears [God], she shall be praised," (Prov 31:30).
2) The second sign is garrulous talkativeness. [garrulatio oris loquax]. God keep her from the opportunity. Reason, because no devotion remains in the soul from words, just as no scent remains in the nutmeg jar which is left open. Authority: "Where there are many words, there is oftentimes want," namely of goodness (Prov 14:23). And so you should raise your little daughters lest they become talkative. And so, 1 Tim: "Let the woman learn in silence, with all subjection," (1Tim 2:11), otherwise it is a bad sign. But a quiet woman is good.
null Note the signs of taciturnity of the Blessed Virgin, because she is painted with her eyes larger than her mouth, and so she is properly represented to indicate that she had a great eye of the heart for thinking and contemplating, but a mouth small for speaking little. Mary "kept all these words in her heart," (Lk 2:51). Joseph considered for himself if his fiancée was loquacious, or garrulous, and he saw that she was not. Moreover she preferred not to speak. A sign of this, as I said, that the Virgin had large eyes and a small mouth, is clear in the portrait which St. Luke painted, which is in Rome.
3) The third sign is bodily untidiness. When a woman goes about, lascivious, dissolute and vulgar, it seems that she has ants on her feet [formicas in pedibus!]. Ambrose: A man's body is an image of his soul. So Solomon says, "A woman [meets him] in harlot's attire prepared to deceive souls; talkative and wandering, not bearing to be quiet, not able to abide still at home, now abroad, now in the streets, now lying in wait near the corners," (Prov 7:10-12). And she immediately put herself at the windows etc.
But Joseph did not find this sign in the Blessed Virgin, because she never left home, unless when she went to the temple. And thus she went about totally composed. She always had her eyes toward the ground in a gesture of holiness. She never went dancing, but went about with downcast eyes. So scripture says about her, "How beautiful are you, my love, how beautiful are you! your eyes are doves' eyes, besides what is hid within," (Song 4:1). The Holy Spirit says "how beautiful are you" to the Virgin twice, because she is beautiful in body and beautiful in soul. Note, "Your eyes are doves' eyes," he does not say, "falcons' eyes."
4) The fourth sign is stuffing the belly with food and drink. It is a bad sign in a man and in a woman, because of those nearby parts, and stimulate each other. Hence a full belly immediately stimulates its neighbor, and because of this a gluttonous person necessarily is lustful. Holy Scripture says of the gluttons, "They shall eat ... and shall lift up their souls to their iniquity,"
(Hos 4:8).
But the Virgin Mary ate very little, only enough to sustain the body. She was almost always fasting.
5) The fifth sign is laziness, as when some woman says, "I will not work. I have brought so much from my dowry to my husband." Therefore St. Bernard [De consideratione, II, 13,22] writes, "Idleness is the mother of trifles, the stepmother of virtues," so because our body is of the earth, it has the conditions of the earth, which if left uncultivated, brings forth thorns of lust, and weeds of bad thoughts and sins. Also, about the body of the lazy, on this account Sacred Scripture says of the body, "Send him," -- the servant, that is, the body which is like a servant who is to be directed – "to work, that he be not idle: For idleness has taught much evil," (Sir 33:28-29).
But the Virgin was never lazy, rather she was always busy about holy works. Jerome says that she would arise in the middle of the night and pray. Then she spun and wove.
6) Sixth is vanity and excess in dress [ornatus]. Women may dress themselves decently and honestly according to their status and condition, but when they pour all their time and zeal in dressing themselves, or their body and they don't care about their soul, God help them, because such women are vain and have a vain heart. So Scripture says, "Vanity of vanities, and all is vanity," (Eccl 1:2). Note the rule of the Apostle [Paul], "Women also in decent apparel: adorning themselves with modesty and sobriety, not with plaited hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly attire, but as it becomes women professing godliness, with good works," (1Tim 2:9-10). Note "sobriety" in measure, according to the condition of their status and the ability of their husband. But there are many women with no regard, and they should be ashamed at what they wear, like the outfit or jewelry which a prostitute wears. And so scripture says, "Favor is deceitful, and beauty is vain: the woman that fears the Lord, she shall be praised," (Prov 31:30).
But the Blessed Virgin did not care about jewelry. She washed her face well with the pure water of tears. St. Anne, her mother was adorning her with much jewelry [dives]. Out of love for her mother she wore it in the house, but not outside the house. But the daughters of today do just the opposite.
7) The seventh sign is contempt of the husband. It is a sign that she has her heart for another, when she argues with her husband about fashion [de genere ?] and about other things, she immediately wants him to get it for her. According to scriptures, a woman ought to honor her husband, and so the Apostle commands, saying, "Let the woman learn in silence, with all subjection. But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to use authority over the man: but to be in silence," (1Tim 2:11). We also read in Esther 2, that Assuerus and his people were saying, "Let all wives, as well of the greater as of the lesser, give honor to their husbands...and that the husbands should be rulers and masters in their houses," (Est 2:20,22).
Neither is this sign of contempt found in the glorious Virgin, because although she was young, beautiful, noble and rich, and her spouse old, and poor, nevertheless she honored him more than any woman in the world. All in all, Joseph found no sign of a bad woman in the Virgin Mary, but all the virtues and traits [afflictiones?, perhaps affectiones] of a good woman.
On the other hand he considered whether nature would permit a woman to conceive without a man, and he saw that it seemed not. See how perplexed he was; it was like his heart was pressed between two millstones. On the one hand he was afraid to make her condition public, because she would have immediately been stoned to death, according to the law. On the other hand, since he was a just man, lest he seem to consent, he thought about going away quietly and leaving her. And so the prophecy of David was fulfilled saying, in the person of Joseph, "Fear and trembling are come upon me: and darkness has covered me. And I said: Who will give me wings like a dove, and I will fly and be at rest?... and I abode in the wilderness," (Ps 54:6-7,8). As for his proposal: note "fear" of consenting in sin if he stayed with her, and "trembling" lest he defame an innocent one. So he proposed to put her away. It is clear, therefore, how the Virgin Mary, "was found with child," (Mt 1:18).
Morally. You should take care, like Joseph, that there be no impediments when you wish to contract marriage, like parental [permission], or affinity, or something else. And so it is an ordination of the church that it be declared. And so scripture says, "Marriage honorable in all, and the bed undefiled," (Heb 13:4). It is honorable when there is no impediment.
DIVINE WISDOM
Second, I say that the Virgin Mary was found to be with child, through divine wisdom. This is based on a rule of theology, says St. Thomas in I Pars that the mysteries of God, that is the secrets, depending on his will alone cannot be known unless through his revelation. None of you can know my heart unless I should reveal and manifest it. How much more so with God.
But that which happens naturally can be known. In this way doctors know the hour of death of a sick person, because although the effect is in the future, nevertheless the cause is already present. Not so with the will of God. And so scripture says, "For who among men is he who can know the counsel of God? or who can think what the will of God is?," (Wis 9:13). It is added, "And who shall know your thought, unless you give wisdom, and send thy Holy Spirit from above," (Wis 9:17). Now Joseph, when he saw that his fiancée was pregnant, could not naturally know the truth, because the conception of Christ had no natural cause. For it did not come through the celestial constellations, nor through angelic processes, nor elemental, or human, therefore it could not have been known unless through divine revelation. Think, therefore how Joseph, who was a holy man, just and good, turned to God in prayer about this, asking the good pleasure of God to reveal [the answer], according to that of James, "But if any of you want wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all men abundantly, ... and it shall be given him," (Jas 1:5). So Joseph did, when he wanted at night to retire, he first kneeled down in prayer, saying, "Lord, you have given me a great grace, giving me this damsel as my fiancée, but Lord, I see that she is pregnant. How is it that a woman so holy is pregnant?" and similar words. And he wept much.
I believe also that the Blessed Virgin, on the other hand was praying to God, lovingly compassionate over her predicament, and that her saddened fiancé might be consoled. I believe that even the mother of the Virgin was praying that they not be disgraced, etc. Think how God listened to these devout prayers. The Gospel says, "But while he thought on these things, behold the angel of the Lord appeared to him in his sleep, saying: Joseph, son of David, fear not to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her, is of the Holy Ghost. And she shall bring forth a son: and you shall call his name JESUS. For he shall save his people from their sins. Now all this was done that it might be fulfilled which the Lord spoke by the prophet, saying: Behold a virgin shall be with child, and bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us," (Mt 1:20-23). Think, how the angel spoke to him the prophecy of Isaiah, "Behold a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son," (Isa 7:14), not the Father nor the Holy Spirit. Think what kind of joy Joseph had, when he knew the truth.
From this a question emerges: Why did the Virgin not reveal it to him, when she saw his sadness, and perplexity, because he believed her – although nowadays a fiancé does not believe his fiancée. I respond that a secret entrusted should not be revealed, where the one by whom the secret is entrusted, is good, just and holy. Otherwise it can be revealed. "For it is good to hide the secret of a king," (Tob 12:7). Therefore the Virgin Mary, who had a most delicate conscience, chose not to reveal it, lest she offend the king, especially God.
Note [this is] against many vain persons who, if God gives them some grace or revelation, cannot keep silence. They immediately reveal it, and wrongly, unless about this they expressly know the will of God, especially because sometimes they believe the illusions of the devil to be divine revelations. They are like hens who can not keep quiet until they lay an egg. About such scripture says, "He who discloses the secret of a friend loses his credit, and shall never find an intimate friend," (Sir 27:17). See the reason why the Virgin Mary did not reveal the secret committed to her to Joseph or to her mother, but the Holy Spirit revealed it to Elizabeth.
SPECIAL EXCELLENCE
Third, I say that the Virgin Mary was found to be with child through a special excellence. Generally, when women are pregnant, they are thin, pale, tired and hungry for all kinds of things. But it was not so with the Blessed Virgin. Some holy theologians say that from the fact that the Virgin was pregnant, rays of splendor shone forth from her face, especially when she was close to childbirth. This can be proved in three ways, through philosophy, through theology and through experience.
As for the first, the Philosopher Aristotle says that every natural agent to the extent that it gives of the substantial form, to that extent it also gives the accidents following the form. What gives fire, gives also heat and light. So God the Father, of his substantial form, gave his Son to the Virgin Mary. That the Son of God is called "form," the authority of scriptures: "Who being in the form of God,...emptied himself, taking the form of a servant," (Phil 2:6-7). It is no wonder then that it conveys a radiance in the face etc. And so when pregnant, the Virgin was more beautiful and more glowing.
Second, it is proved theologically. We read in Exodus 34, that because Moses had spoken with God on the mountain, rays of splendor shone forth from his face, so much so that the people could not even gaze on him. Behold the reason. If the face was so splendorous from just a conversation with God, how much more therefore the face of the Virgin Mary from the conception of his Son. The Apostle Paul makes this point saying, "Now if the ministration of death, engraved with letters upon stones, was glorious; so that the children of Israel could not steadfastly behold the face of Moses, for the glory of his countenance, which is made void: How shall not the ministration of the spirit be rather in glory?" (2Cor 3:7-8). The "ministration of death" was the law of Moses which did not confer a life of glory.
Third, it is proved by experience, of a crystal lamp, which is beautiful in itself and bright, but if the lamp within is lighted it shall be more beautiful and even brighter. The same with the Virgin Mary. Think how her body, beautiful and pure like a lamp, and the light inside illuminating the whole world is the Son of God. No wonder therefore if the Virgin was then brighter and more beautiful, inasmuch as the text says that Joseph "knew her not," (Mt 1:25). From these rays of splendor, because eternal light was in her.
Note here how Joseph, having received the divine revelation, humbly sought pardon from the Virgin for his suspicion which he had had of her, saying, "O Blessed, why did you not tell me, because I believed you. And that she comforted him sweetly congratulating him that he would be the groom and companion of the mother of the Son of God, and his parent. O blessed family [societas]. How reverently, then, did they both adore God incarnate in the womb of the Virgin.
And so if you wish to have this association for yourself, you should do like the merchant Valentine did, who every year on Christmas, invited [to his home] one poor old man and one woman having a little child. They represented for him the Virgin with her son, and Joseph. It was revealed about him that at his death the Virgin with her son and Joseph appeared to him, saying, "Because you have received us in your house, so we receive you into our house." About this Christ says, in Matthew 25, "Amen I say to you, as long as you did it to one of these my least brethren, you did it to me," (v. 40). And so the money which you pay out in gambling, you should for the love of Christ give to the poor. The poor however, who do not have, nor can give money to themselves, can at least present tomorrow [Christmas day] as many "Hail Marys" as days she bore him in the womb, or how many weeks, or months. Forty weeks, nine months, 277 days.
A158 In Nativitate Christi. Sermo unicus
St. Vincent Ferrer: Christmas Sermon (Lk 2:11)
"This day, is born to you a Savior," (Lk 2:11). Our sermon will be about the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ and the Virgin Birth. But that you might sense the spiritual sweetness of this feast, we shall salute the glorious Mother of God. [Vincent now leads his listeners in the "Hail Mary."]
"There is born to us etc." From the beginning of the world up to the birth of Christ there has never been heard such good news, nor so useful for mankind like the news of the proposed theme, "This day, is born to you a Savior," (Lk 2:11) etc. To all who were lost and damned and sentenced to hell. The declaration of this blessed Nativity I deal with in five conclusions.
1. First, that this blessed Nativity was from of old ardently desired by the saints.
2. Second, that this blessed Nativity was cruelly unappreciated by the Jews.
3. Third, that this blessed Nativity was celebrated powerfully by God.
4. Fourth, that this blessed Nativity was humbly hidden by the Virgin Mary.
5. Fifth, that this blessed Nativity was broadcast publicly by the angels saying, "This day, is born to you a Savior," (Lk 2:11).
And anyone who, curiously, might wish to preach all five conclusions, would be excessively prolix. And all are touched in the theme, in which there are five conditions. The first, therefore, is touched by the first saying. The second in the second. The third in the third, and so on for the others.
1. LONG DESIRED
I say first that this blessed Nativity was ardently desired of old by holy persons. And that you might understand better this condition listen to this story:
You should know that there was a certain great and noble city, well populated, which was cruelly under siege by enemies, attacking it with every kind of weapons, to the extent that it was already running low on provisions, the longer the siege went on, nor were the enemies willing to take them alive, or to grant any mercy, moreover they killed them at once. Aware of this, the king and lord of the city secretly sent messengers and letters to the city, telling them that he will come personally to free them when he was able. The citizens were very happy about this and were eagerly expecting his arrival any day.
Rightly so it was of this world. This great and noble city was and is human nature. Who can number how many citizens there were and how many dwelling in her, from Adam up to the birth of Christ -- since according to some teachers more than 5,000 years have passed -- who were besieged daily by cruel enemies, namely by countless demons attacking it with diverse temptations, with catapults, pains and sufferings, since they were lacking the spiritual food, about which Christ said, "Not in bread alone does man live, but in every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.," (Mt 4:4). Although they had the Mosaic law, it did not give eternal life. Nor did they have drink, i.e., the promise of spiritual [gifts] which refresh souls. And when someone went out of the city, through death, immediately without mercy he was captured and imprisoned in the prison of hell. However, God, the Lord of this world, wishing to comfort the citizens, secretly sent messengers to them, the holy patriarchs and prophets, with his letters announcing to them that he himself personally would come to liberate them. Many citizens rejoiced over this and city-dwellers sent him supplications, devout prayers, that he would come and liberate the city.
First came Moses saying to God the Father, "I beseech you, Lord send whom you will send," (Ex 4:13) as you have promised. Second, David on behalf of the whole city says, "[Lord] stir up your might, and come to save us," (Ps 79:3). Third, Solomon saying in the Holy Spirit, "Send her out of your holy heaven, and from the throne of your majesty, that she may be with me, and may labor with me," (Wis 9:10) against your enemies. Note: "Send her," namely, the person of Christ in human flesh, which is sent by the Father and the Holy Spirit, in respect to humanity. Fourth, Isaiah, saying, "Would that you would rend the heavens, and would come down," (Isa 64:1). Others were saying, "Come, O Lord, and tarry not: forgive the sins of your people Israel," etc. (Alleluia Verse from the Advent Liturgy)
.
The King, however, having heard these supplications, sent a messenger secretly to the city who would say on his behalf, " [the vision]... it/he shall appear at the end, and shall not lie: if it/he make any delay, wait for it/him: for it/he shall surely come, and it/he shall not be slack," (Hab 2:3). Behold how ardently he was desired, and according to Augustine they would say, "When shall he come? When shall he be born? When would he appear? Do you think I shall see it? Do you think I shall endure? Do you think his birth will find me here? O, if only my eyes shall behold the one whom the eyes of the heart have revealed. O, if only my eyes shall see what I believe in the writings of God. And the closer he approached, so much the more was he desired.
He begins his path of coming on the day of his conception. So he was most fervently desired by the Blessed Virgin, his mother and St. Joseph who daily checked off the calendar yearning to see the day of his entry into this world. The Virgin carried him nine months and six days, which are 277 days. Thus in the person of Christ Holy Scripture says, "I myself also am a mortal man, like all others, ...and in the womb of my mother I was fashioned," in the figure of man, "to be flesh. In the time of ten months," (Wis 7:1-2) Because of this the Virgin Mary and Joseph knowing his coming was near prepared themselves for receiving him devoutly. The Virgin prepared woolen and linen wrappings, as women do when they are close to childbirth. Joseph purchased an ox so that he could have a great feast on the birth of the child. But in the mean time says Luke, "There went out a decree from Caesar Augustus, that the whole world should be enrolled," (Lk 2:1). So Augustus wished to enroll the world because he wanted to know how many provinces there were, how many cities, and how many people. Note the great sadness of Joseph, when he heard the edict of the Emperor, that under penalty of death everyone must proceed to the city of their birth. Joseph, who was of the city of Bethlehem, of the tribe of David, began to weep saying, "O woe, if I go to Bethlehem, I shall not see that blessed birth so long desired by the saints. If I do not go, I will be disobedient and will be killed, and too I shall not see the aforesaid birth." Sadly, he went home.
The Virgin Mary was comforting him, as a wife should do, saying, "O father, what are you worried about? You should rejoice, because the savior is about to be born soon." Then Joseph told the Virgin Mary about the edict of the Emperor and the reason for his sadness. The Virgin replied, "Father, do not weep, because for your comfort, I shall go with you, for I am also of the offspring of David. Joseph, on the one hand rejoiced, that the Virgin would wish to go, but on the other hand he wondered what people would say, that he was taking with him a young pregnant woman so near to childbirth.
Also, what if she gives birth on the way? The Virgin replied to him, "Father, do not worry about what people will say, because your intention is good. It is the will of God that we go to Bethlehem, because the savior is to be born there. According to the prophecy of Micah, "And you, Bethlehem Ephrata, are a little [place] in the kingdom of Judah: out of you shall come forth one who to be the ruler in Israel," (Mic 5:2). The Virgin Mary knew the bible better than the prophet, as Origen said.
They prepared themselves and left the town of Nazareth, the Virgin riding on a donkey, and Joseph leading the ass and ox. Behold the Queen of Paradise, and those she was traveling with. Then was fulfilled the prophecy of Haggai on this event saying, "Yet one moment [modicum], and I will move the heaven and the earth, and the sea, and the dry land. And I will move all nations: and the desired of all nations shall come and I will fill this house with glory: says the Lord of hosts," (Hag 2: 6-7). Note, "one moment," because it was only a moment of time from the prophet Haggai until Christ, "and I will move the heaven," where he speaks of the immovable empyreal heaven. St. Thomas says in the Prima Pars [of the Summa theologica, I, q. 106, a.1] that when some angel receives a revelation from God, immediately he revels it to the others so that nothing there is kept a secret. So the archangel Gabriel in the holy court of the Trinity when he had the revelation of the incarnation and the nativity of the Son of God, about which he was the messenger, immediately revealed it to all the others, and so the heaven was moved out of joy and rejoicing and dancing because of the reparation of the fall. So, "I will move the earth," the Virgin Mary is called the virginal earth, who was to produce the fruit of life who was moved by the angel’s salutation, when, "troubled at his saying, thought within herself what manner of salutation this should be," (Lk 1: 29). Then, "I shall move the sea and dry land," when from the edict of the Emperor the peoples would proceed to their sites, some by sea and some by land. Then "shall come the desired of all the ages," (Hag 2:7). So much for the first conclusion.
2. CRUELLY UNAPPRECIATED
The second conclusion says that this blessed Nativity was cruelly unappreciated by the Jews. History says that when Joseph and the Virgin were in the city of Bethlehem they found no hospitality nor any house nor hospice that was willing to receive them. Three reasons are alleged for this. First because they were the last to arrive and they had to go slowly on the way. So whoever comes late, often seems to be angry. Secondly although the city of Bethlehem was small, it nevertheless teemed with many in military service and citizens and nobles, all who were of the tribe of David who had been born in this city. They had made reservations in advance for their lodgings. A third reason was avarice of the hoteliers. When they got a look at Joseph, the poor man with his pregnant wife, thought that they would fill up a whole room and that there would be little profit from them. Therefore, etc.
Most likely, when Joseph entered through the gate of the city, with the Virgin riding on the donkey, he would head immediately to the first inn lest he would have to pass through the whole city seeking whether they might find a place there. When they asked who and how many were in the party they saw that there were only two, with an ox and ass, thinking, we will earn little, they told them to move on because there is no place here for you. At the next inn, the answer was that there were no vacancies. Imagine Joseph's anxiety here and the shame of the Virgin Mary, thus going from door to door. But the Virgin patiently put up with it and comforted Joseph. Finally they came to another inn where they said that all was full for such a gentleman and for expectant one etc.
Seeing that they couldn’t buy lodging, Joseph searched that out of love of God some private home would take in that pregnant woman near to childbirth, but he did not find one in the whole city, and so they said to him, "Old man, you are indeed concerned about your wife, but why did you put her in this situation, so pregnant?" And the poor man wept. At which the Virgin [said], "Father let us be patient, and we shall find some hospital." So they looked for a hospital seeing if they might be received out of love of God. The nurse replied, "You are healthy, and this house is for the sick. You are not able to be received here, and so spare us."
Since the hour was late and they had not yet found a place Joseph said, "O Lord these are my sins." Then they found a cave [porticulum] along a public road in which there was a manger, where visitors sometimes stabled their animals. The Virgin said, "Father, we shall stay here, because it is not right to go through the village at this hour." Joseph said, "O woe! We shall never find a house." The Virgin Mary said, "Father the whole world is the house of God, so let us stay here."
Then Joseph, with the greatest reverence assisted the Virgin from the donkey and entered the refuge [porticum] and Joseph rolled out a blanket [flatiatam] which he had brought on the donkey as a tent for privacy, and he went to buy some straw and charcoal because of the cold. And from a little straw he made a bed for the Queen of Heaven, saying, "O Lord what will you say to me, that I have placed your mother on such a bed," and in this place they stayed for at least thirteen days. The Gloss on Matthew 2 said that the kings from the east found Christ the King still there in that cave.
Behold the palace of the queen of paradise. Behold how that glorious birth was little appreciated by the Jews. God had revealed this to Jeremiah the prophet who, weeping, said in the person of the Jews, "We have sinned against thee. O expectation of Israel, the Savior thereof in time of trouble: why will you be a stranger in the land, and as a wayfaring man turning in to lodge? Why will you be as a wandering man, as a mighty man that cannot save?" (Jer 14:7-9) Thus this prophecy was fulfilled. So much for the second conclusion.
MORALITER (a moral aside)
Who of you does not say now in his heart, " Oh, if I had been there then, and had known him, I would have received him into my home," etc. Would that you would not be in the same condemnation or cruelty with the Jews. Have you ever today seen a pregnant young woman in this village with Joseph and never took them in? The consecrated host which the priest brings forth, like Joseph, is the virgin pregnant with the Son of God. Who of you receives him by communicating devoutly? None, I believe. With sincere reflection you should prepare for yourselves the home of your conscience through contrition, confession, and satisfaction. Many excuse themselves like the Bethlehemites saying: I have to welcome a great soldier, namely Sir Chicken, Lord Kid, and Mister Pig. Another says I have to receive a great and noble lady, namely Lady Hen, another Madam Partridge, etc. but they do not receive the Lord Jesus Christ. About which John in the Gospel said, "He came unto his own, and his own received him not. But as many as received him, he gave them power to be made the sons of God," (Jn 1).
3. MIGHTY BIRTH
The third conclusion says that this blessed Nativity came about through the celebrated power of God. The Virgin Mary, stayed in that cave, as is said, between the cattle. In the middle of the night the hour for her delivery arrived. The Virgin Mary sensed this, not like other women, who before they feel the onset of childbirth, have pains, miseries and suffering in the body, and their face are distorted. But the Virgin Mary had other signs, special inspirations, consolations and heartfelt sweetness, with exquisite pleasures more than others, and her face was radiant. Joseph seeing this said, "Blessed, what is happening." She replied, "Father, now the hour of my childbirth is at hand."
Joseph got up immediately so that he might send for midwives. But the Virgin stopped him saying, "Father, just as for his conception no creature did anything, so neither for his birth." Joseph then said, "Blessed, neither you or I are expert in this." The Virgin said, "Father, don't worry, because God, the heavenly Father, will provide." And so the Book of the Infancy of the Savior [Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew, ch.13] which states that there were women, has been condemned by the decree of Pope Pelagius. (Cf. Jerome: On the perpetual virginity of Mary, 8): "No midwife assisted at His birth; no women's officiousness intervened." But suddenly, like the ray of the sun passes through a glass window without breaking it, so Christ, the sun of justice passed through the gate of her virginal womb without any breaking or corruption, "like a bridegroom...from his chamber," (Ps 18:6).
The Virgin received him into her own hands, on her knees, with great reverence and veneration, adoring him and saying, "O Lord, you indeed have come from heaven to earth for the salvation of men. O Lord, desired by the holy patriarchs and prophets, I adore you, because as God you are my creator, as human you are my son." And she kissed him first on his feet as God, next on his mouth as a son, then on the hands as the creator of all things, and finally on his face as her son, saying, "O Lord you have given me such a grace." And she adored him a hundred times over. And as someone has reported, she said, "You are the Lord my God, you are my redeemer, you are my beloved Son." Ambrose: "O blessed Virgin, who can open the treasures of your heart to us, as here you adore your child as God, and here you kiss him as son?"
Joseph, weeping for joy, said, "Blessed, permit me to adore your son, the long desired Son of God," etc. How he adored him saying, "O Lord you have granted me such a grace. Kings and prophets wished to see you and they did not see, and to me, a sinner, you have given such a grace that I should see you." Then the infant began to cry because of the cold. Joseph immediately warmed the blankets and the Virgin wrapped him.
Then Joseph wanted to call for a wet nurse, but the Virgin again stopped him. Joseph said, "Blessed, what are you doing, for you do not have milk?" Doctors say that from the same root comes milk and children. So a woman who does not know man, does not have milk. The Virgin replied, "Father, God shall provide." Then the Virgin, on her knees prayed God the Father saying, "God the Father you and I have one son in common, so you who provide for all creatures ought to provide some milk for him." Then suddenly her breasts were filled with milk, sent to her from heaven. So the church says, the Virgin, not knowing man, without pain, gives birth to the savior of the ages. The Virgin herself with full breasts nursed the very King of the Angels. So much for the third conclusion.
4. HUMBLE AND HIDDEN
The fourth conclusion states that this blessed Nativity happened to a Virgin, humble and hidden. History says that as soon as Christ was born, his body shone like the rising sun, and the night became as midday, and so it was light. Think how many, who were not sleeping, and wondering about such a brightness, sought to see the source of the light and ran toward such a great spectacle of light. The Virgin sensing the excitement of the people placed the child in the manger. Jews came to see the source of the light. Some of them said prophecy says that when the Messiah will be born, "night shall be light as day," (Ps 138:12). Others asked if this might be he. Some said, be quiet; don't make much of it. If Herod finds out, he will kill us. So that out of fear of Herod they did not dare receive the Messiah King. Of this light the prophet said, " The people that walked in darkness, have seen a great light: to them that dwelt in the region of the shadow of death," of the sin of ingratitude, "a light has risen for them, You have multiplied the nation," to see the light, "and have not increased the joy," (Is 9:2-3), because no one brought him or the Virgin a gift. Of that light it is said, it is pointed out when it is said, and it follows, " For a child is born to us, and a son is given to us," not the Father, nor the Holy Spirit (v. 6).
Here the question is raised, why did the blessed Virgin place her son in the manger between the beasts? What if the ox with horns, and the donkey with teeth had attacked? St. Luke wishes to excuse the Virgin saying: "She laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn," i.e. in this cave, (Lk 2:7). But one might respond to St. Luke: "Could not the Virgin who gave birth without pain and suffering, place or position him in her arms or on her breast? Why put him between animals?" The response is, for three reasons:
First, to fulfill the scriptural truth.
Second, to alleviate bodily needs,
Third, to teach us a moral lesson.
SCRIPTURAL TRUTH
As for the first, it was prophesied that he would be placed between the animals and humbly be adored. Think what kind of joy the blessed Virgin had when she saw her son adored by an ox and ass. And how sad when she saw him ignored by the Jews. And so was fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah saying, "Hear, O ye heavens, and give ear, O earth, for the Lord hath spoken. I have brought up children, and exalted them: but they have despised me. The ox knows his owner, and the ass his master's crib: but Israel has not known me," (Isa 1:2-3).
BODILY NEEDS
As for the second reason you have already seen how cold it could be at that time. Think if the Virgin Mary was cold, because we do not read that they brought lined coats. For this reason she placed her child in the manger so that the animals might warm him with their breath, as it was revealed by Habakkuk the prophet, who said this: "Lord I have heard your voice and I have feared. Lord I have considered your work, in the middle of two animals you shall be known," (Hab 3:2, LXX transl.).
MORAL LESSON
As for the third reason the Virgin does this so that we might be instructed in good morals. - An ox is a great animal having two big horns, which signify the temporal lords and rulers of the community. The donkey which carries burdens, signifies peasants and subjects. And the Virgin places her son in the middle, pointing out that all can indeed be saved by the saving justice of the Lord, and that not by hatred nor by love nor by fear nor by bribes they give unjustly. Vassals too by keeping faith, obedience and reverence for their lords.
- Second, the ox is a clean animal which in olden times was sacrificed to God. So it symbolizes the priests who offer sacrifice to God. The simple ass signifies the laity. The Virgin places her son between them, implying that all can be saved.
- Third, the ox, which doesn't bear burdens, signifies the rich who do not labor with their hands. The ass signifies the workers, if they be patient.
- Fourth, the ox which has horns signifies devout and holy people. Two horns are true prudence or adherence to the faith, and prompt obedience to commandments. The surly ass, signifies sinners, who if they are repentant can be saved.
- Fifth the ox, which chews the cud and has divided hooves, signifies the learned masters and doctors who ruminate by studying; and the divided hooves means they have knowledge of the old and new testament. The ass signifies the ignorant. Christ is placed in the middle etc. And the text of David confirms it: "Men and beasts you will preserve, O Lord: O how you have multiplied your mercy, O God!!" (Ps 35:7-8). Note men, both powerful and powerless, both learned, and rich, and draft animals, i.e. crude sinners and the ignorant, shall be saved by the Lord.
5. OPENLY PROCLAIMED
The fifth conclusion says that this blessed Nativity was openly proclaimed by the angels when they appeared to the shepherds telling the good news: "For, this day is born to you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord, in the city of David," St. Luke writes (2:11). A little story is told about the angels at the birth of Christ, that God the Father, from heaven, where he was throwing a big party over the birth of Christ, sent them to earth so that there might be a feast here also. This blessed Nativity was revealed to the watching shepherds, not to the sleeping emperor Octavian, nor, in Jerusalem, to the masters and teachers, nor to the priests, but to shepherds singing their songs.
Why this? Bernard says that shepherds have five qualities in which it is shown to which persons God reveals his secrets and gives his glory. - First, the shepherds were keeping watch over their flocks etc. In which it is shown that shepherds both temporal and ecclesiastical ought to watch over the flock committed to them, lest they be devoured by the wolves of especially notorious sin, because the community is not punished for secret sins. To such shepherds God reveals his glory and grace.
- Second, they play their flutes harmoniously, in which is shown that to devout and peaceful persons who play music through their prayers and supplications, God reveals his grace and glory.
- Third, because they were in the desert, in the harshness of penance, etc. where eating and drinking and sleeping was hard, etc. In which it is shown, that to those who live in the rigors of penitence etc., [God reveals his grace and glory].
- Fourth, because they were poor men, etc. So Christ says, "But woe to you that are rich: for you have your consolation," etc. (Lk 6:24).
- Fifth, because they were simple men, they despised no one. To such God gives his grace. Authority of Christ: "I confess to you, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hid these things from the wise and prudent, and have revealed them to the little ones," (Mt 11:25).
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| February 16th - St. Onesimus and St. John de Britto |
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Posted by: Elizabeth - 01-15-2021, 11:27 PM - Forum: February
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Saint Onesimus
Bishop of Ephesus and Martyr
(† 95)
Onesimus was a Phrygian by birth and a slave to Philemon, a person of influence who had been converted to the faith by Saint Paul. Having offended his master and been obliged to flee, he sought out Saint Paul, then a prisoner for the faith at Rome. The Apostle baptized him and sent him back to his master, with the beautiful letter we know as the Epistle to Philemon, asking for the liberty of Onesimus, that he might become one of his own assistants.
Philemon pardoned him and set him at liberty, and Onesimus returned to his spiritual father, as Saint Paul had requested; thereafter he faithfully served the Apostle. We know that Saint Paul made him, with Tychicus, the bearer of his Epistle to the Colossians. (Col. 4:7-9)
Later, as Saint Jerome and other Fathers testify, he became an ardent preacher of the Gospel and a bishop. It is he who succeeded Saint Timothy as bishop of Ephesus. He was cruelly tortured in Rome, for eighteen days, by a governor of that city, infuriated by his preaching on the merit of celibacy. His legs and thighs were broken with bludgeons, and he was then stoned to death. His martyrdom occurred under Domitian in the year 95.
Saint John de Britto
Martyr
(1647-1693)
Don Pedro II of Portugal, when a child, had among his little pages a modest boy of rich and princely parents. The young John de Britto — for that was his name — had much to bear from his careless-living companions, to whom his holy life was a reproach. A severe illness made him turn for aid to Saint Francis Xavier, a Saint well loved by the Portuguese; and when he recovered, in answer to his prayers, his mother clothed him for a year in the tunic worn in those days by the Jesuit Fathers. From that time John's heart burned to follow the example of the Apostle of India.
When he was fifteen years old, he entered on December 17, 1662, the Lisbon novitiate of the Society of Jesus, and eleven years later, despite the determined opposition of his family and the court, he left with twenty-seven Jesuit co-disciples for Madura. Blessed John's mother, when she had learned that her son was going to India, used all her influence to prevent him from leaving his own country, and persuaded the Papal Nuncio to intervene. But the future martyr declared firmly: God, who called me from the world into religious life, now calls me from Portugal to India. Not to respond to my vocation as I ought, would be to provoke the justice of God. As long as I live, I shall never cease to desire passage to India. His ardent desire was fulfilled.
He labored in the Jesuit province of Madura, which included seven missions, preaching, converting, and baptizing multitudes, at the cost of privations, hardships, and persecutions. In 1682, struck by his success and his sanctity, his Jesuit Superiors entrusted to him the government of the entire province. To the wars of the local kings, which created ravages, disorder, pillage and death for the people, famine, pestilence, and floods came to add to the devastation of the unhappy land. Both the days and the nights of Saint John were dedicated to bringing aid to the poor Christians and pagans afflicted by so many disasters. At times he took charge of entire populations which the wars had caused to migrate. All the Christians were pursued by bands of robbers, paid by the ruling elements to prevent any increase in the influence of the disciples of Christ. Saint John's miracles helped him, and God preserved him from the snares of his many enemies.
After four years of this major responsibility, amid the anarchy which reigned, he was seized, tortured, and nearly massacred by the pagans, then banished from the local states. His Superiors sent him back to Europe to concern himself with the affairs of the missions of India. They wrote of him: He has affronted every peril to save souls and extend the kingdom of Jesus Christ, for whose love he has been captured several times and condemned to frightful torments. He preached in Portugal at the court and in the various dioceses and universities, without ever forgetting that he was a missionary of Madura, for which he recruited many generous workers for the Gospel vineyard.
He finally went back to the land of his choice in 1690 with twenty-five Jesuits, of whom several died during the voyage. The king of Portugal took every means to obtain his return to Portugal, if not as tutor to his son, which post he had declined, then as bishop of one of the Portuguese sees, but the Saint was occupied in baptizing thousands of catechumens and instructing the pagans whom grace had touched. The brahmans were alarmed once more and conjured his death; he was tracked everywhere, but the envoys could not take him for some time. Eventually they succeeded, and his great enemy, a local ruler, exiled him with orders to imprison him and kill him secretly. But his execution by decapitation was carried out in the sight of a multitude of Christians who knew of his coming martyrdom, and who saw him pray in an apparent ecstasy, which checked the executioner's courage for a time. They buried him and did not cease to pray at the tomb of this second Apostle to India. He was canonized in 1947 by Pope Pius XII.
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| +Vigano Condemns +Francis on the Vaccine |
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Posted by: kelley - 01-15-2021, 02:33 PM - Forum: Archbishop Viganò
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On the Promotion of the Vaccine by the Holy See
Considerations by Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò
January 15, 2021 (LifeSiteNews) — A few days ago, an interview was broadcast on Canale5 in which Jorge Mario Bergoglio appeared in the unusual role of sponsor of the pharmaceutical companies. We had already seen him in the role of politician, of trade unionist, of promoter of uncontrolled immigration, of supporter of welcoming illegal immigrants, and of philanthropist. In all of these metamorphoses what has always emerged, alongside his capacity to totally remove himself from his institutional role, is the polyhedric character of the Argentine, who, we now discover, is also the promoter of pharmaceutical companies, a convinced supporter of vaccines and a zealous cheerleader of those who for a year now have been using Covid as a means to control the masses and to impose the Great Reset desired by the World Economic Forum.
The fact that the vaccine does not give any guarantee of efficacy but rather can induce serious side effects; the fact that in some cases it has been produced starting from cells taken from aborted fetuses, and therefore is absolutely irreconcilable with Catholic morality; the fact that treatment with hyper-immune plasma or with alternative protocols are being boycotted despite the evidence of their efficacy — all of this means little to the new “expert” who, on the basis of absolutely zero medical competency, is now recommending the vaccine to the faithful while using his sovereign authority to require the citizens of the Vatican to submit to questionable treatment in the name of an unspecified “ethical duty.” The bleak Paul VI Audience Hall has been emblematically chosen as the temple in which to celebrate this new sanitary rite, officiated by ministers of the Covid religion in order to assure, certainly not the salvation of souls, but rather the illusory promise of health for the body.
It is disconcerting that, after unscrupulously demolishing no small number of Catholic truths in the name of dialogue with heretics and idolaters, the one dogma which Bergoglio is not ready to renounce is that of obligatory vaccination — mind you, a dogma which he himself unilaterally defined without any synodal process! — a dogma before which one would expect there to be at least a minimum of prudence, if not dictated by moral coherence, then at least by utilitarian scruple. Because sooner or later, when the effects of the vaccine on the population are seen, when they begin to count the deaths it has caused and how many people have been maimed for life by a drug that is still in the process of experimentation, someone will be able to ask those who were convinced supporters of the vaccine to render an account.
At that point it will only be natural to draw up a list of those who in virtue of the authority with which they are recognized have convinced their unsuspecting subjects to present themselves for inoculation by the so-called vaccine: self-proclaimed experts, virologists and immunologists with a conflict of interest, mosquito scientists in the pay of Big Pharma, veterinarians with scientific ambitions, government-funded journalists and opinion-shapers, and movie stars and popular singers in disgrace — to which list Bergoglio must now be added as an exceptional supporter, along with the Prelates in his entourage. And if today the lack of specific competency does not seem to be a sufficient argument to lead them to at least maintain a prudent silence, at that point their protests of “I didn’t know...;” “I never imagined...;” “It wasn’t my field of knowledge...;” will be judged only to be a factor that aggravates their offense, as it should be. Stultum est dicere putabam [It is foolish to say, “I thought.”].
Of course, in the Bergoglian church de facto concubinage can be legitimized with Amoris Lætitia, to the point that Avvenire speaks today of “LGBT parenting” with the ease of a gender propaganda pamphlet; an idolatrous rite worshiping Mother Earth can be celebrated in Saint Peter’s winking at Malthusian environmentalism; the matter for the Sacrament of Holy Orders can be modified, conferring ministries on women; the death penalty can be declared immoral while casually keeping quiet about abortion; Communion can be administered to public sinners while denying it to those who wish to receive it on the tongue in order not to commit sacrilege; and access to the classroom can be denied for Catholic school students who are not vaccinated, as has already happened in Ireland. And yet these blatant adulterations of Catholic doctrine — in perfect ideological continuity with the conciliar revolution — are accompanied by the firm and unshakeable profession of faith in a “science” that borders on esotericism and superstition. On the other hand, when you stop believing in God, you can believe anything.
Thus, if for Bergoglio belonging to the one Church of Christ through Baptism is ultimately superfluous for the eternal salvation of a soul, the initiatory rite of the vaccine is proclaimed ex cathedra to be indispensable for the physical health of the individual, and as such it is presented as undelayable and necessary. If it is possible to set aside revealed truth in the name of ecumenism and inter-religious dialogue, it is likewise not licit to question the dogmas of Covid, the revelation made by the media about the pandemic, and the salvific sacrament of the vaccine. And if with Fratelli Tutti universal brotherhood can be promoted apart from faith in the One God Living and True, no contact is permitted with so-called “deniers” — a new category of sinners to be avoided — who must be punished as heretics by the health inquisition and media excommunication so as to be made a warning to the flock. “If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him in your house and do not greet him,” Saint John warns (2 Jn 10). Bergoglio must have misunderstood, and so he greets and embraces abortionists and criminals, but he does not contaminate himself with “anti-vaxxers.”
It does not escape us that this scientistic dogmatism — which would horrify the most ardent supporters of the primacy of science over religion — is propagated by those who are not scientists, from “influencers” to Bergoglio, from athletes to Biden, from “experts” to politicians: all eager to put out their arms in front of the television cameras, only to discover from the videos that in many cases the syringe needle is still covered by the cap, or that the inoculating liquid is clear when the vaccinating serum should actually be opaque. These are obviously objections that the high priests of Covid reject with disdain: the mysterium is part of the ritualization of the sacred action, just as the sacramentum accomplishes what it signifies; administering the vaccine with a retractable needle or without pushing the plunger of the syringe serves to dramatize the message that is to be transmitted to the masses of believers. And the victims of the rite, those who for the good of all offer themselves with docility to the mirage of an immunity that not even Pfizer, Moderna, or AstraZeneca dares to guarantee, represents the sacrificium, which is also part of the new health religion. On closer inspection, the innocent babies aborted in the third month of pregnancy to produce vaccines really do seem to form a sort of human sacrifice with which to propitiate the infernal powers, in a terrifying parody that only the wicked can pretend not to see.
In the grotesque ceremonial delirium, there is not even lacking the Note of the Sacred Congregation for Divine Worship, which with a total disregard for the absurd even promulgates in limping Latin instructions on how to impose the Sacred Ashes (it is not surprising that Latin too has gone to fry): “Deinde sacerdos abstergit manus ac personam ad protegendas nares et os induit [Then the priest washes his hands and puts on the mask to protect his nose and mouth].” The purification of the hands with detergent and the use of a mask are scientifically useless but symbolically necessary for the transmission of the faith expressed by the rite. And precisely in this we understand how true and valid is the ancient adage of Prosper of Aquitaine “Lex orandi, lex credendi,” according to which the way in which one prays reflects what one believes.
Someone will object, in a pious attempt to avoid the total collapse of the Papacy carried out by Bergoglio, that the opinions expressed by him are and remain precisely opinions, and that therefore there is no obligation for the Catholic to submit to a vaccine which his conscience and natural morality demonstrate to be immoral. But the new “papal magisterium” has been made explicit right on Canale5, just as it was on the plane that the LGBT dogma “Who am I to judge?” was defined, and just as it was in a footnote of Amoris Lætitia that the indissolubility of marriage was denied in the name of pastoral practice. Politicians put out tweets on social media, self-styled experts pontificate in television studios, and prelates preach in interviews: do not be surprised if one day Bergoglio appears in a publicity spot to endorse electric scooters.
Catholics, illuminated by the sensus fidei that instinctively suggests to them what clashes with Faith and Morals, have already understood that the role of healthcare supply salesman is only one of the many parts played by the polyhedric Bergoglio. The only role that he stubbornly insists on not wanting to fill — because of his blatant incapacity, his innate impatience, or even through his deliberate choice right from the beginning — is the role of Vicar of Christ. Which, if nothing else, reveals the points of reference of the Argentine, the ideology which inspires him, the goals he sets for himself, and the means he intends to use in order to achieve them.
+ Carlo Maria Viganò, Archbishop
January 14, 2021
S. Hilarii Episcopi,
Confessoris Ecclesiæ Doctori
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| Treatise on The Spiritual Life by St. Vincent Ferrer |
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Posted by: Hildegard of Bingen - 01-15-2021, 12:37 PM - Forum: The Saints
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![[Image: 71OCn7-CFFL.jpg]](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/71OCn7-CFFL.jpg)
Treatise on
The Spiritual Life
By
ST. VINCENT FERRER
Of the Order of Preachers
Translated form the French by the
Rev. Fr. T.A. Dixon, Ord. Praed.
FOREWORD
This book was written by St. Vincent at the instance of certain religious of the Order of St. Dominic, placed under his direction. It is short, but it abounds in matter. Each sentence is more valuable than gold. The reader will find herein great lights, and by meditating seriously on its contents, will be enabled to make much progress in virtue. St. Lewis Bertrand made it his special delight; he counseled all who where desirous to advance in piety to read it constantly. “Nowhere,” said he, “have I seen virtue painted in such bright colors as in this book.”
CHAPTER I
On poverty (page 9-10)
HE who aspires to be the director of others is bound to despise all earthly goods as so much dross, to accept of nothing but what a rigid necessity allows, and to suffer some inconvenience for the sake of poverty. A certain author observes: "To be poor is a thing which in itself merits no praise; but what renders it meritorious is the fact of loving poverty, and of suffering with joy, for Christ's sake, whatever wants poverty entails on us."
Unhappily, there are many who glory only in the name of poverty, who embrace it merely on the condition that they shall want for nothing. They desire to pass for the friends of poverty, but strenuously shun its daily accomplishments, viz. hunger and thirst, contempt and humiliation. Such is not the example given by Him Who, being sovereignly rich, became poor for our sakes. Such is not what we discover in the acts and instructions of the Apostles; neither is it the model that we find in the life of our Father St. Dominic: this requires no proof.
Ask nothing of any one, except when absolute necessity obliges you; neither accept the presents which people offer you, unless it be to distribute them among the poor. By acting thus, both they whose gifts you refuse, and they who hear of your disinterestedness, will be edified; thus will you the more easily lead them to despise the world and to relieve the poor.
All that is implied in the term necessity, may be reduced to a frugal diet and plain clothing, without caring to provide for the future, but having only what is needful for the wants of each day.
I do not include among necessaries a goodly store of books; since, under this pretext, avarice not infrequently lurks. The books of the community, and those that may be borrowed, are sufficient to instruct you. He who would qualify himself in study, ought first of all to practice, with a humble heart, the lessons that have been taught him. If contrariwise, he contradicts these by a spirit of pride, he will never acquire the light of intelligence. Jesus Christ, who has taught us humility by His own example, conceals His truth from the proud, and reveals it only to the humble.
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| The suspicious link between population control advocates and COVID vaccines |
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Posted by: Stone - 01-15-2021, 09:45 AM - Forum: Socialism & Communism
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The suspicious link between population control advocates and COVID vaccines
Is a vaccine-maker’s, vaccine-authorizer’s, or a vaccine-funder’s stance on human life relevant to your decision to receive or refuse the vaccine?
January 14, 2021 (LifeSiteNews) — Some have probably heard of the psychological theory known as “projection.” Most of the online descriptions of the theory are overly complicated and irrelevant to the point being made here, so they will not be cited. But there is a specific type of projection — call it simply an observable phenomenon rather than a psychological theory — that one can identify without any experience in psychology. Some people have the tendency to project their own good principles onto others when they have an obligation not to project those good principles. The phenomenon is often verbally expressed in the following ways: “nobody would really do that” or “nobody could really be that evil.”
A cursory study of the history of certain political entities, even within the last 10 years, makes one conclude, “yes, they can” be that evil. Specific examples are unnecessary, but many of the evils involve people or entities using other human beings to gain power and to destroy others who get in their way. It is obvious that many people in the world have an extremely distorted and incorrect idea of what is “noble” and good. The draconian responses by public health officials and governing entities in America to the reported COVID-19 pandemic suggest that many people “would really do that.”
It is an unfortunate reality that many people in the world have anti-life and other distorted views that could influence how they use their power and positions in government. The views of those involved with the provision of COVID-19 data and information and COVID-19 vaccines are relevant.
A previous article discussing the Moderna/U.S. federal government COVID-19 vaccine and the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine mentioned that some found Bill Gates’s public appearances early in the COVID-19 panic odd. The article mentioned that, at the same time he was causing COVID-19 fear, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation was involved in developing a COVID-19 vaccine with Moderna and the U.S. federal government.
Moderna, which is apparently known for its secrecy, “has nearly 100 projects going at once,” but none of those has been proven safe and effective for marketing in the U.S. One has to ask, why not? Is it because they actually already know that the mRNA technology is not safe?
If companies discover early in the development of a drug or vaccine that the drug or vaccine is unsafe in animals or humans, they are not necessarily required to publish the information. So when a company has had hundreds of projects, some or many of which have failed, and did not publish the data, one may reasonably suspect that the products were discovered to be harmful.
Specifically, the COVID-19 vaccine technologies have not been shown to be safe in the long term. They reportedly work by forcing the body to make things it does not normally make. Serious short-term harms have already been discovered but wrongly downplayed. Harms discovered after more than a few months, including cancers, cannot be excluded. But that is a bit of a tangent from the main topic of this article.
Since writing the previous article, it has been determined that the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is also at least indirectly involved with the development of the other COVID-19 vaccine authorized (but not approved) in the U.S. This particular vaccine is sometimes incorrectly labeled as “the Pfizer vaccine.” The vaccine itself was actually developed by a foreign company named “BioNTech,” which then partnered with Pfizer.
BioNTech was founded by Dr. Ugur Sahin, a Turkish immigrant to Germany, and his wife Ozlem Tureci. Dr. Sahin was awarded “a prize for Muslims in science and technology” in 2019, but the company itself apparently has been in existence since 2008 and still does not have any products proven to be safe and effective on the market. It is definitely worth keeping in mind that both companies with COVID-19 vaccines that were given “emergency use authorization” in the U.S. — and liability immunity — have zero approved products on the market.
With no products on the market, BioNTech had its initial public offering on the U.S. stock market in 2019. Also in 2019, only a few months before the reported discovery of COVID-19, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation purchased $55 million’s worth of BioNTech stock. Since its initial public offering, the stock had increased by as much as roughly 800% in December 2020. And BioNTech currently partners with the Chinese company Fosun Pharma.
So, notably, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation could apparently gain off both COVID-19 vaccines authorized (but not approved) in the U.S.
There is another reason why the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’s involvement in the COVID-19 vaccines is worth noting. Before getting to that, though, consider this: would you want to know if the government entities promoting vaccine use, the vaccine-maker, or a powerful person investing in the vaccine supports population reduction? There are many liberals who consider population bad. Say, as some have said in the past, a government entity considered future population growth (and therefore large families) “a threat to national security” for whatever false reason such governing entities can make up. Say also that the same governing persons are involved with developing and authorizing a vaccine. Would a reasonable person consider that information necessary prior to deciding to refuse or receive the vaccine?
Or put it this way: is a vaccine-maker’s, vaccine-authorizer’s, or a vaccine-funder’s stance on human life — and population control, which, it has to be mentioned, could involve deceptive and intentional reduction in life expectancy or infertility, which are contrary to human life — relevant to your decision to receive or refuse the vaccine? Even the most liberal liberal who supports the grave evil of population reduction would seemingly agree that informed consent requires one to know that a vaccine was paid for, made by, or authorized by persons who support population reduction and control.
Those who support something as evil as population control probably will not tell the world when they are putting their views into action; if they support something as evil as population control, they might also support using deception and falsehoods to make that evil a reality. It is probably unreasonable to think such persons would say, “Well, folks in America and the rest of the world, we are going to do some population control here. Don’t worry, though — it is rigorously tested and even safe and effective.” So, it would definitely be noteworthy if such persons clearly express such views and are involved with vaccines.
It is pertinent — not “conspiracy theory,” as some have wrongly stated — to know that Mr. Gates, who has been heavily involved in both COVID-19 vaccines given emergency use authorization, has supported population reduction and control. In 2010, he said the following:
Quote:First, we’ve got population. The world today has 6.8 billion people. That's headed up to about nine billion. Now, if we do a really great job on new vaccines, health care, reproductive health services, we could lower that by, perhaps, 10 or 15 percent. (transcript at 04:21)
There are more than one significant point to be made about that statement. Additionally, it is not clear how his statement, and the obvious conclusions one would make from his statement in support of population reduction (and his involvement in COVID-19 vaccines) is considered a “conspiracy theory.” There is no theory there; he really said those words.
Generally speaking, it is clear that Mr. Gates supports COVID-19 vaccines — he reportedly is on a “quest to vaccinate the world” with COVID-19 vaccines. It is odd that such a person almost completely overlooks the fact that many people do not need vaccination, and many people do not even experience symptoms from SARS-CoV-2. Thus, the normal person might say, “Speak for yourself, sir” on COVID-19 vaccines. (The suggestion that “the only way to get things back to normal is through COVID-19 vaccines” is false, but that will not be elaborated here.)
Back to Mr. Gates’s clearly thinking it is a good and noble thing to reduce the world’s population, stating, “If we do a really great job on new vaccines, health care, reproductive health services, we could lower [the world’s future population] by, perhaps, 10 or 15 percent.” There are only a few conclusions one can arrive at from such a statement combined with his involvement with COVID-19 vaccines.
Of course, “nobody would really do that,” would he?
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| Pope Francis opens up formerly male liturgical roles to women |
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Posted by: Stone - 01-15-2021, 09:35 AM - Forum: Pope Francis
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Pope Francis opens up formerly male liturgical roles to women
VATICAN CITY, Italy, January 11, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) — In a newly released motu proprio, “Spiritus Domini,” Pope Francis permits the liturgical institution of female lectors and acolytes, rewriting canon law in the process. The ministries of lector and acolyte (formerly minor orders) are important stepping stones on the journey of a seminary candidate towars his eventual receipt of the sacrament of Holy Orders.
The motu proprio, released Monday, effects a direct change on canon 230, §1, which, until Sunday, stated:
Quote:Lay men who possess the age and qualifications established by decree of the conference of bishops can be admitted on a stable basis through the prescribed liturgical rite to the ministries of lector and acolyte. Nevertheless, the conferral of these ministries does not grant them the right to obtain support or remuneration from the Church.
The law now reads:
Quote:Lay persons of suitable age and with the gifts determined by decree of the Episcopal Conference may be permanently assigned, by means of the established liturgical rite, to the ministries of lectors and acolytes; however, the conferment of such a role does not entitle them to support or remuneration from the Church.
The ministries of lector and acolyte are part of the priestly formation process in seminaries. It is required that candidates for the priesthood receive the ministries of lector and acolyte before they are admitted to Holy Orders as a preparation for serving at the altar, according to Pope Paul VI’s motu proprio Ministeria Quaedam.
Pope Paul writes that “Candidates for the diaconate and for the priesthood must receive the ministries of lector and acolyte, if they have not already done so, and exercise them for a suitable period of time, so that they are better disposed to future services of the word and the altar.”
Canon 1035, §1 confirms this with the following: “Before anyone is promoted to the permanent or transitional diaconate, he is required to have received the ministries of lector and acolyte and to have exercised them for a suitable period of time.”
While Pope Paul does also write that the laity are not excluded from these ministries “so that they are no longer considered as reserved for candidates to the sacrament of Holy Orders,” he adds that the “institution of the Reader and the Acolyte, according to the venerable tradition of the Church, is reserved for men.”
The former iteration of canon 230, §1 had taken its form from Ministeria Quaedam.
Paul VI, in creating the ministries of lector and acolyte, incorporated the historical major order of subdeacon, the stage immediately prior to deacon and then priest, into the role of lector and acolyte. Whilst this does not mean that the newly instituted ministries were ever considered major orders, it does mean that the functions associated with the now largely ignored major order of subdeacon were subsumed by lector and acolyte. ...
Distinguished theologian and regular contributor to LifeSiteNews Dr. Peter Kwasniewski told LifeSite that Francis has let “the Zeitgeist inform the Church” in relation to the new motu proprio. “[T]he pope shows himself to be completely at the mercy of long-discredited liturgical ideologies that confuse egalitarianism with baptismal dignity and involvement in ministries with actual participation,” he added.
Kwasniewski sees the attempted move to incorporate women into liturgical ministry as “a kind of sop thrown to the feminists in the Church, which, of course, will not satisfy them, since the ‘holy grail’ is the priesthood or even the episcopacy.”
He does, however, see an unintended benefit arising from the change in canon law, insofar as it is “now clear past all doubt that the two ‘ministries’ of acolyte and lector are not, in fact, the historical continuation of the minor orders of the same names, but merely provisional substitutes. If anything, this will make it even easier to revive the minor orders across the Church when we have a pope someday who cares about continuity with Catholic tradition.”
To accompany the new motu proprio, Pope Francis penned a letter, addressed to the prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), Cardinal Ladaria. In his letter, the Pope asserts that there is “an ever greater urgency today to rediscover the co-responsibility of all the baptized in the Church, and especially the mission of the laity.”
Taking from the Amazon Synod, Francis urged “the need to think about ‘new paths for ecclesial ministeriality.’ Not only for the Amazonian Church, but for the whole Church, in the variety of situations.”
Focusing his attention on the institution of female ministers, Francis quoted again from the Amazon Synod, saying “it is urgent that ministries be promoted and conferred on men and women[.] ... It is the Church of baptized men and women that we must consolidate by promoting ministry and, above all, the awareness of baptismal dignity.”
Well known German Catholic theologian and canon lawyer Thomas Schüller claimed last year that Pope Francis is moving toward conferring on women “real leadership positions” in the Church, evidenced by his post-synodal exhortation Querida Amazonia (Q.A.).
In Q.A. section 101, the Pope speaks of the “two human faces” of God: “the face of his divine Son made man and the face of a creature, a woman, Mary. Women make their contribution to the Church in a way that is properly theirs, by making present the tender strength of Mary, the Mother.”
Drawing from Francis’s words, Schüller posits that “there had taken place a two-fold divine incarnational event, a male one in Jesus Christ with its continuation in those men who work as clergymen, and a female one in Mary which empowers women to be tender and powerful witnesses of the Gospel. Both are said to be faces of God.”
He adds that “the ordained men — excluding the deacons according to a decision by Pope Benedict XVI — are acting in persona Christi capitis, while the women are acting in persona Mariae, in order to rule with tenderness and proclaim the Gospel in an inspired manner.”
LifeSiteNews’s Dr. Maike Hickson notes that Schüller’s reading of Francis would lead to a restriction of men to ministers of Penance, the Eucharist, and Extreme Unction, giving way to women as “prominent figures even on the altar during the Holy Mass by giving the homilies and by other prophetic roles of proclamation.”
Schüller goes so far as to claim that Francis believes that “women, without doubt, are already and continue to be able to be bearers of authority of jurisdiction, that is to say of real authority of governance.”
Pope Francis has already appointed a number of women to important roles in the Roman Curia, such as Dr. Raffaella Vincenti as head of the Vatican Apostolic Library and Prof. Antonella Sciarrone Alibrandi as a member of the Financial Information Authority board, affording some credence to Schüller’s reading of Q.A.
The prominent liturgical role of women envisaged (and now legalized) by Francis stands in stark contrast with the authoritative and inerrant writings of St. Paul, teaching through the Sacred Scriptures. First Corinthians reads: “Let women keep silence in the churches: for it is not permitted them to speak, but to be subject, as also the law saith. But if they would learn any thing, let them ask their husbands at home. For it is a shame for a woman to speak in the church” (DRB, 1 Cor. 14:34-35).
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| Pope Pius XII: Fidei Donum - On the African Missions |
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Posted by: Stone - 01-15-2021, 09:20 AM - Forum: Encyclicals
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As an introduction to this encyclical:
"One of the main experts on African missions -- including the Archbishop of Dakar, Marcel Lefebvre, C.S.Sp. -- were called to help the Pontiff draft his practical proposals and exhortations to the Church Universal so that Catholic missions in Africa could move forward." - Rorate Caeli
"[Archbishop] Lefebvre was the first and foremost advisor to Pius XII during the writing of the encyclical Fidei Donum (1957), which instructed the clergy and laity on the missions in the Third World countries and called for more missionaries." - Wikipedia
FIDEI DONUM
ON THE PRESENT CONDITION OF THE CATHOLIC MISSIONS, ESPECIALLY IN AFRICA
To the Venerable Brethren, the Patriarchs, Primates, Archbishops, Bishops, and other Local Ordinaries in Peace and Communion with the Apostolic See.
Venerable Brethren, Greetings and Apostolic Benediction.
The gift of faith, which through the goodness of God, is accompanied by an incomparable abundance of blessings in the soul of the Christian believer, clearly requires the unceasing homage of a grateful heart to the divine Author of this gift.
2. Indeed, it is faith that allows us to draw near to the hidden mysteries of the divine life; it is faith that encourages us to hope for everlasting happiness; it is faith that strengthens and consolidates the unity of the Christian society in this transitory life, according to the Apostle: "One Lord, one faith, one Baptism."[1] It is chiefly by reason of this divine gift that our grateful hearts of their own accord pour forth this testimony: "What shall I render to the Lord for all that he hath rendered unto me?"[2]
3. In return for so divine a gift as this, after the due submission of his mind, what can a man do that will be more acceptable to God than to carry far and wide among his fellowmen the torch of truth that Christ brought to Us? By their zeal in promoting the sacred missionary efforts of the Church, a zeal that generously feeds the fire of Christian charity, men, ever mindful of the gift of faith, may in some way make a return to Almighty God; by so doing and imparting to others according to their ability the gift of the faith that is theirs, they are visibly manifesting their gratitude to the Heavenly Father.
4. As We direct our thoughts, on the one hand, to the countless multitudes of Our sons who have a share in the blessings of divine faith, especially in countries that have long since become Christian, and on the other hand as We consider the far more numerous throngs of those who are still waiting for the day of salvation to be announced to them, We are filled with a great desire to exhort you again and again, Venerable Brethren, to support with zealous interest the most holy cause of bringing the Church of God to all the world. May it come to pass that Our admonitions will arouse a keener interest in the missionary apostolate among your priests and through them set the hearts of the faithful on fire!
5. This sort of consideration, a very serious one indeed, has been advanced more than once by Our Predecessors, and We Ourselves, as you well know, have been most earnest in touching upon it.[3] It should inspire all Catholics with apostolic zeal, as their awareness of having received the faith demands. Let them direct this zeal toward those regions of Europe in which the Christian religion has been cast off, or to the boundless spaces of South America; in both of these continents there are great difficulties to be overcome, as We know well. Let them give financial assistance to the Catholics of Oceania and to the missions in Asia; such assistance is of the utmost importance, especially in those countries where the battles of the Lord are being fought so fiercely. Let them likewise perform the duties of fraternal charity in behalf of those countless Christians who are very dear to Us and are the glory of the Church, since they have earned the evangelical beatitude proper to those "who suffer persecution for justice' sake."[4] Let them grieve for the lamentable state of innumerable souls, especially of those young people who because of the atheistic propaganda of our times are growing up in the wretched condition of complete ignorance of religion and, in some cases, of active hatred of God.
6. We confess that these numerous duties and undertakings must necessarily be carried out as soon as possible and that they require a fresh growth of apostolic vigor in the Church, so that there may rush forth into the open battlefield of the Lord "countless phalanxes of apostolic men, not unlike those who sprang up in the primitive Church."[5]
7. Although We do not cease to follow all these developments with prayerful anxiety and to commend them earnestly to your active interest, We deem it fitting at the present moment to direct your serious attention to Africa - the Africa that is at long last reaching out toward the higher civilization of our times and aspiring to civic maturity; the Africa that is involved in such grave upheavals as perhaps have never before been recorded in her ancient annals.
8. Considering the healthy progress made by the Church in Africa during recent decades, Christians have every right to rejoice and feel justly proud. Upon Our elevation to the Chair of Peter, We asserted that "We should spare no efforts in order that the Cross of Christ in which is our salvation and life might cast its shadow over even the most distant quarters of the universe."[6] Therefore We have striven to promote the cause of the Gospel in that continent with all Our might. This is evidenced by the great increase of ecclesiastical provinces there, by the widespread increase in the number of Catholics, who daily become more numerous, and especially by the Hierarchy which it has been Our consolation to establish in not a few districts, as well as by the considerable number of African priests who have been elevated to the Episcopate.
9. This last is, of course, in accordance with that final, as it were, goal of missionary efforts, namely, that "the Church should be solidly established among other peoples, and a Hierarchy given to them chosen from among their own sons."[7] In accordance with this policy the new Churches of Africa are taking their legitimate place in the great Catholic family, while the rest of the faithful who have preceded them in embracing the faith unite with them in brotherly love and welcome them enthusiastically.
10. This plentiful harvest of souls has been gathered by hosts of missionaries--priests, religious (both men and women), catechists, and lay assistants--with an infinite toil and sacrifice whose value, unknown to men, is known only to God Himself. We are happy to offer Our congratulations to these good people, one and all, and to open Our grateful heart to them on this occasion; for the Church has abundant reason for taking a holy pride in the achievements of her missionaries, who are doing their duty in Africa and wherever else they have an opportunity.
11. However, one must not allow the prodigious success of missionary effort, that We allude to here, to cause him to forget that "what still remains to be done demands an immense amount of work and countless workers."[8] And although some might rashly conclude that once a Hierarchy has been established there is no further need for the work of the missionaries, yet We Ourselves are greatly troubled by Our "solicitude for all the Churches" of that vast continent.
12. Can We be aught but deeply anxious as We behold from the heights of this Apostolic See the gravity of the questions that are being debated there with regard to the manner of spreading the Christian way of life and its deeper cultivation, as well as the great scarcity of apostolic laborers to undertake the many important tasks that are waiting to be done? These are the cares and anxieties that We have been wishing to share with you, Venerable Brethren. If your response is prompt and eager, it may happily come to pass that the hearts of the many hardworking apostles already in the field will be encouraged to hope anew for better things.
13. You cannot fail to be aware of the extraordinarily difficult circumstances under which the Church in Africa is striving nowadays to forward her work among the heathen multitudes. In fact the greater part of Africa is undergoing such speedy changes in social, economic, and political life that the entire future of that continent appears to depend upon their outcome.
14. No one must overlook the fact that current events, involving as they do the entire community of nations, have grave repercussions in individual countries and do not always afford an opportunity, even to the wisest rulers, to advance their people to that level of civilization demanded by the genuine prosperity of nations.
15. The Church, however, has seen in the course of her history the rise and growth of many nations, and therefore, cannot help directing her careful attention to those nations that she perceives to be now on the point of obtaining the rights of civil liberty. We Ourselves have on frequent occasions exhorted the nations concerned to take the proper course, impelled by their sincere desire for peace and a mutual recognition of their respective interests. "At any rate," We told one group, "let not those people be denied a fair and progressive political freedom or be hindered in its pursuit." We admonished another "to give credit to Europe for their advancement: to that Europe without whose influence, extended to all fields, they might be drawn by a blind nationalism to plunge into chaos or slavery."[9]
16. As We now repeat these same admonitions, it is Our burning desire that in Africa men may attain to that concord of minds that begets every form of strength: a concord that will exclude prejudice and offense on either side, that will rise above the dangerous narrowness of excessive love of country, that will make it possible to communicate the outstanding benefits of Christian civilization to these peoples, whose natural resources are abundant and whose future prospects are bright. These benefits have already been accompanied by great advantages to the nations of the other continents.
17. Yet We are aware that seeds of trouble are being sown in various parts of Africa by the proponents of atheistic materialism, who are stirring up the emotions of the natives by encouraging mutual envy among them and by distorting their unhappy material condition in an attempt to deceive them with an empty show of advantages to be won, or to incite them to seditious acts.
18. Such is Our anxiety that the peoples of Africa should attain to an ever increasing and genuine prosperity, both civic and Christian, that We are desirous of applying to them the grave admonitions that We have on other occasions solemnly directed to the Catholics of the whole world; and We take great pleasure in extending Our paternal congratulations to those Bishops who have, more than once, firmly protected from the dangers of false leaders the sheep entrusted to them.
19. Now that those who hate God are zealously bringing their insidious attacks to bear upon this great continent, other serious difficulties have arisen to hinder the spread of the Gospel in certain districts of Africa. Of course, you know the religious tenets of those people who, although they are quick to profess that they worship God, nevertheless are easily attracting and enticing the minds of many into another path which is not that of Jesus Christ, the Savior of all nations. Our heart, which is that of the common Father of all, is open to every man of good will; but We, who are the representative on earth of Him, Who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, cannot contemplate such a situation without great sorrow.
20. This situation has come about from a number of causes, which are in general the outcome of rather recent historical events, and it has further been influenced to some extent by the conduct of certain nations that glory in the fact that the light of Christianity illuminates their annals. There is every reason, therefore, why We should be subject to no small anxiety with regard to the fortunes of Catholicism in Africa. There is every reason too why all the Church's children should clearly realize their serious obligation to give more effective assistance to the missionaries. This they must do at the opportune moment in order that the message of saving truth may be brought to what is called "darkest" Africa, where some 85,000,000 people still sit in the darkness of idolatry.
21. The gravity of these statements is further increased by the too precipitate course of events - this can be observed everywhere - which has by no means escaped the notice of the Catholic bishops and the leading Catholics. While the peoples of this continent are striving to adopt new ways and new methods (and some of them appear to be only too eager to lend an ear to the fallacies of that species of civilization known as technological), it is the solemn duty of the Church to impart to these same peoples, so far as possible, the outstanding blessings of her life and her teaching, from which a new social order should be derived, based on Christian principles.
22. Any delay or hesitation is full of danger. For the people of Africa have made as much progress toward civilization during the past few decades as required many centuries among the nations of Western Europe. Thus they are more easily unsettled and confused by the introduction of theoretical and applied scientific methods, with the result that they tend to be unduly inclined to a materialistic outlook on life. Hence a condition of affairs is sometimes brought about that is difficult to correct and in the course of time may prove to be a great obstacle to the growth of faith, whether in individuals or in society at large. For this reason it is imperative that help should be given now to the shepherds of the Lord's flock in order that their apostolic labors may correspond to the ever-growing needs of the times.
23. At the same time, the various forms of aid supplied at present to the sacred missions are everywhere &r short of the amount required for a satisfactory prosecution of missionary effort. This insufficiency of means, which, unfortunately, is not confined to Africa, seems to affect this continent more seriously than other missionary fields on account of Africa's peculiar situation at the present moment. For this reason, We deem it opportune, Venerable Brethren, to go into some detail with regard to the problems that are met in Africa.
24. For example, mission stations recently founded (i.e., within the last ten or twenty years) will have to wait a long time before they can enjoy the effective assistance of a native clergy. To this problem is added the small number of missionary workers, who are scattered widely throughout an immense population where not infrequently non-Catholic ministers are also active; they therefore cannot possibly perform all the tasks they are called upon to undertake. In one district some forty priests are working very hard among a million natives of whom only 25,000 profess the Catholic faith. In another locality fifty priests are stationed in the midst of a population of 2,000,000 persons, where the care of 60,000 Catholics in the area alone requires almost full-time service.
25. No true Catholic can fail to be concerned by these statistics. If twenty apostolic men were sent to the assistance of the local clergy in these regions, the standard of the Cross could be moved forward today, where tomorrow perhaps, after the activities of others who are not the followers of Christ have already cultivated the field, there will no longer be any opening for the true faith.
26. Moreover, it is not enough merely to preach the Gospel as if this were the whole of the missionary's task. The present situation in Africa, both social and political, requires that a carefully trained Catholic elite be formed at once from the multitudes already converted. How urgent it is then to increase the number of missionaries able to give a more adequate training to these native leaders!
27. The drawbacks experienced by the few apostolic workers in the field are increased by their want of material means, which often approaches real poverty. Who will furnish these recently established missions with the generous financial backing they so urgently need? For they are situated, for the most part, in poverty-stricken districts which are, nevertheless, promising fields for the spread of the Gospel. The apostolic laborer is deeply grieved by his lack of so many things while the performance of so many tasks rests upon him. He does not need our admiration aiding the missions, if they are fully informed of the situation.
35. This state of the African apostolate, which We have summarily set before you, Venerable Brethren, makes it manifest that in Africa it is not a question of merely local problems that can eventually be solved without any reference to those that touch upon the entire Christian community.
36. Although formerly "the life of the Church in its visible aspects showed its vigor chiefly in the older parts of Europe from which it began to spread out to the shores that may be called the periphery of the world, now however there is a kind of mutual exchange of life and strength among all the members of the Mystical Body of Christ."[10]
37. What befalls the Church in Africa is not confined to that continent, but also affects those who dwell far beyond its borders. k follows then that, in accordance with the admonitions of the Apostolic See, fraternal assistance must be extended by all parts of the Church to meet the needs of Catholics anywhere.
38. It is, therefore, not by chance that We are addressing Ourselves to you, Venerable Brethren, in this solemn hour of decision with regard to the spread of the Church. "Just as in our mortal frame, all the members suffer in union with each member, and the healthy members come to the aid of the ailing ones, so in the Church the individual members do not live for themselves alone but also assist the others and all render mutual aid to all, not only in comforting one another but also in contributing to the greater edification of the entire Body."[11] To go further, must not the bishops "be considered the chief members of the universal Church, inasmuch as they are united by a peculiar bond to the Divine Head of the whole Body and are therefore properly called the principal parts of the Lord's body"?[12]
39. Of them, more than of the rest, it can be said that Christ who is the Head of the Mystical Body "requires them to be His members . . ., first of all, because in so far as the Person of Christ is represented by the Sovereign Pontiff, the latter must call upon not a few others to share his anxieties lest he be overwhelmed by the burdens of his pastoral office."[13]
40. And so, Venerable Brethren, since you are most intimately associated with Christ and His Vicar upon earth, inspired by a burning charity be zealous to share that solicitude for all the churches,[14] which lies heavy upon Our shoulders.[15] Urged by the charity of Christ, may you realize that you are closely bound to Us in the pressing duty of spreading the Gospel and building up the Church throughout the whole world!
41. May you not cease or falter in your efforts to cultivate widely among clergy and faithful alike the spirit of prayer and zeal in giving mutual assistance according to the measure of the charity of Christ! Says St. Augustine, "Extend your charity to all the world, if you would love Christ, because Christ's members are found all over the world."[16]
42. It is an undoubted fact that it was to Peter alone and to his successors, the Roman Pontiffs, that Jesus Christ entrusted the entirety of his flock: "Feed my lambs; feed my sheep."[17] But even though each bishop is the pastor of that portion only of the Lord's flock entrusted to him, nevertheless as lawful successor of the Apostles by God's institution and commandment he is also responsible, together with all the other bishops, for the Apostolic task of the Church, according to the words of Christ to the Apostles: "As the Father has sent me, I also send you."[18]
43. This mission, or "sending forth," embraces "all nations . . . even unto the consummation of the world"[19] and certainly did not cease with the death of the Apostles. Nay, it still continues in the bishops who are in communion with the Vicar of Jesus Christ. For in them, as being specifically named "those who are sent," namely, Apostles of the Lord, the fullness of the apostolic dignity resides, which as St. Thomas Aquinas testifies "is the chief dignity in the Church."[20] That apostolic fire which Jesus Christ brought upon the earth must issue from their hearts and inflame the hearts of all Our faithful children and arouse in them fresh zeal for the missionary tasks of the Church everywhere.
44. Again, this concern for the needs of the whole Church is a true mark of the Catholic character of the living Church. "Zeal for missionary activity and the Catholic spirit are one and the same. A principal note of the Church is catholicity; consequently, a man is no true member of the Church unless he is likewise a true member of the entire body of Christian believers and is filled with an ardent desire to see her take root and flourish in every land."[21]
45. Nothing is so inconsistent with the Church of Jesus Christ as division; nothing is so opposed to her very life as for her members to take refuge in selfish solitude, or to be too much devoted to themselves and to take an interest only in the private concerns of their own little group. Such an attitude surely causes any particular Christian community to become completely self-centered.
46. Now, our holy Mother the Church is indeed the mother "of all nations, of all peoples, as well as of individual persons; nowhere is she a stranger; she lives or at least, by her very nature, ought to live among every people."[22] Further, and this must be stressed, none of those things that pertain to the Church, our Mother, is foreign to any individual Christian, nor ought it to be so. Just as the faith of individuals is the faith of the entire Church, so the consolations and the anxieties of the Church will be their consolations and anxieties as well; likewise the prospects and plans of the Church, which embrace the whole world, will be the prospects and plans of their daily Christian lives.
47. Then will it spontaneously come to pass that the exhortations of the Roman Pontiffs which are commensurate with the mighty apostolic tasks to be accomplished everywhere, will find an echo in their fully and truly Catholic hearts, as exhortations to be gladly received above all others, and to be seriously and insistently weighed and considered.
48. From the beginning holy Church by her very nature has been compelled to spread the Word of God everywhere, and in fulfilling this obligation to which she knows not how to be unfaithful she has never ceased to ask for a threefold assistance from her children: namely, prayers, material aid, and, in some cases, the gift of themselves. At the present day, too, her missionary activities, especially in Africa, demand this threefold assistance from the Catholic world.
49. First of all, therefore, Venerable Brethren, We trust that more continuous and fervent prayers will be raised to God for this cause.
50. You must see to it that earnest and unceasing prayers are offered by your priests and faithful in furthering this holy purpose. Instruction of the faithful concerning the life of the Church will supply, as it were, food for this prayerful devotion, as We have already indicated. Devout souls should be exhorted to greater efforts in prayer at definite times during the liturgical year that seem to be more suitable for fostering and promoting interest in missionary work.
51. We think the following seasons would be particularly opportune: Advent, when we recall the expectation of a Savior by the human race as well as the providential preparations for the coming of the Savior; the feast of Epiphany which reveals the Savior born among men; and Pentecost when we celebrate the foundation of the Church under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost.
52. Of course, the most excellent prayer of all is the one offered daily at the altar by Christ Jesus, the High Priest, to God the Father when the holy sacrifice of Redemption is renewed. Accordingly, let many Masses be offered for the sacred missions, especially in this our time on which the future growth of the Church in many areas is perhaps dependent. This is in accordance with the prayers of our Lord Who loves His Church and wishes her to flourish and enlarge her borders throughout the whole world.
53. Although the private prayers of Christians are to be considered entirely appropriate, it is nevertheless advantageous to recall to their minds the chief and essential purpose of the celebration of the Sacrifice of the Altar, as it is stated in the Canon of the Latin Mass: "in the first place . . . for Thy holy Catholic Church, that it may please Thee to grant her peace, to protect, unite, and govern her throughout the world." These profound intentions of the Church will be more readily grasped by the faithful, if they will meditate on the doctrine laid down by Us in the Encyclical Mediator Dei, in which We taught that every Eucharistic sacrifice must be considered an action performed in the Church's name, because "the celebrant at the Altar takes the part of Christ as our Head offering in the name of all His members."[23]
54. This being the case, the whole Church offers her holy oblation through Christ to the Eternal Father "for the salvation of the whole world." Surely then, the prayers of the faithful offered during this same sacrifice, in union with the Sovereign Pontiff, the bishops, and the entire Church, will be very fervently offered to Almighty God to implore a fresh outpouring of the graces of the Holy Spirit, because of which "the whole world rejoices with exceeding great joy."
55. More and more, then, Venerable Brethren, you must offer your fervent prayers to God. Cease not to direct your thoughtful considerations to the many peoples who are deeply involved in literally countless spiritual dangers: those who wander far from the way of truth as well as those who stand in such great need of the means of perseverance.
56. In union with Christ take your stand as suppliants before the Heavenly Father and allow that prayer to rise to Him from your lips again and again, which has been especially appropriate to apostolic men in every age: "hallowed by Thy name; Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven"! Only then shall we be influenced solely by the honor of God and by zeal to give Him greater glory, when we earnestly desire the restoration of His Kingdom - the Kingdom of justice, of love, and of peace--throughout all the world. Sincere and heartfelt eagerness to promote the missionary labors of the Church, when it is united with a burning charity for one's neighbor, is surely zeal for God's glory. For by it help is given to apostolic workers who are in a special way God's heralds and precursors.
57. We might ask, further, whether our prayers come from a sincere heart if we pray for the success of the missions without accompanying our prayers with charitable offerings in accordance with our means. We are well acquainted - in fact, better than anyone else - with the profuse liberality of Our sons, as many wonderful examples constantly testify. To these generous souls is due, beyond a doubt, the marvelous growth of our missions since the beginning of this century. In consequence We desire to express Our profound gratitude to those beloved sons and daughters of Ours who contribute their zealous efforts and charitable support to many missionary enterprises.
58. We also wish to bestow particular praise on all members of the pontifical mission society who have undertaken the noble, if sometimes thankless, task of collecting funds in the Church's name, becoming, as it were, beggars for the newly founded communities of faithful in the mission fields, which afford the Church so much glory and hope. We congratulate these Our beloved sons from Our heart, just as We are happy to express Our best thanks to all those, likewise, who support the Society for the Propagation of the Faith with such alacrity. To the latter has been entrusted a gigantic task: namely, the promotion of missionary work in vast continents under the direction of Our dear son, the Cardinal Prefect.
59. However We must make it clear, conscious as We are of Our apostolic duty, that your support, though gladly received, is still far from being adequate to the countless needs of the missions. We are daily appealed to and importuned for assistance by missionaries who are hard pressed to promote the welfare of the Church, to remove hindrances thereto, to build the churches so urgently needed, or to undertake various activities of the apostolate. Naturally We are sick at heart when We have to answer these just appeals with only partial and insufficient amounts.
60. The Pontifical Society of St. Peter the Apostle may serve as an example. Very ample means, indeed, are distributed by this Institute in mission lands. However, the number of candidates for the priesthood is increasing yearly with God's help, and so more funds are constantly required. Shall the young men who seem to be called by the providence of God to the priesthood at the present time, be admitted in smaller numbers because of insufficient funds? Is it right, as We hear has happened in a number of places, that the seminaries should be forced to exclude so many youths who aspire ardently to the priesthood and who give good hopes of persevering? Perish the thought! It cannot be that Catholics who have a high ideal of their grave obligations, as indeed they ought, should refuse to accept personal responsibility in meeting these needs of the missions.
61. We are aware of the difficulties of our times, and of the dire straits to which the ancient dioceses of Europe and America are reduced. But if we reason correctly, we can easily see that the poverty of some dioceses will appear to be abundant by comparison with the extreme need that prevails in others. Such a comparison, however, is without any point, since it is of less importance to balance statistics than to urge all the faithful, as We have done on another auspicious occasion, "to range themselves voluntarily beneath the Christian standards of abstinence and self-denial, beyond the requirements of the moral law, in accordance with each one's ability, as the grace of God inspires them and as their station in life permits." We also added, "let people devote to charity what they withdraw from vanities, and mercifully meet the needs of the Church and of her poor."[24]
62. How many good works some missionary, now hindered in his apostolic labors by poverty, might not accomplish with the money not infrequently squandered on fleeting enjoyment by some thoughtless Christian! It behooves every child of the Church, every family, every group of Christians to examine themselves diligently on this point. Let them reflect on these words: "You know the graciousness of our Lord Jesus Christ - how, being rich, he became poor for your sakes, that by his poverty you might become rich."[25] Then let them set aside some of their superfluities, nay, at times, something of what they need. Remember that in your charity are found the means whereby the boundaries of religion may be broadened; and the face of the earth will be renewed if charity prevails.
63. The Church in Africa, as well as in other parts of the mission field, needs missionaries. Hence We appeal once again to you, Venerable Brethren, beseeching you that with every resource at your command you show your zeal in supporting all those who have been divinely called to undertake the burdens of the missionary apostolate, whether they be priests or religious men and women.
64. It is especially your task, as We have already pointed out, to encourage the faithful and arouse in them such zeal in this cause that they will share the solicitudes of the entire Church and will readily lend an ear to the Lord's word, commanding, as of old, so in every age: "Go forth from thy land and thy kindred, and from the house of thy father, and come into a land which I shall show thee."[26]
65. Now if the people are trained in this truly Catholic attitude in the domestic circle, in the schools, in the parishes, in Catholic Action groups, and in other pious societies, there can be no doubt that they will give the Church those ministers she needs in preaching the divine message to all nations. Nor should this point be overlooked: if an enthusiastic interest in the missions is aroused in your particular dioceses, it will be a pledge of the renewal of religion and devotion in the minds and hearts of your people. It is impossible for a Christian community to perish that gives its sons and daughters to the Church. Consequently, if the supernatural life is the fruit of charity and is increased by the spirit of self dedication, one may rightly assert that the Catholic life of any nation is measured by its generosity in supporting and maintaining the missionary activity of the Church.
66. It is not enough, however, to make your people more zealous in supporting this work; much more is required. Not a few dioceses are so well supplied with clergy, thanks be to God, that no loss would be felt if some of their priests should enter the mission field. To such dioceses We would apply, with fatherly solicitude, the Gospel saying: what you have that is over and above your needs, give that to the poor.[27] Our heart goes out to Our brother bishops who are filled with distress and fear as they see the number of candidates for the priesthood and the religious life growing fewer, and are thus unable to provide properly for the spiritual needs of their own flocks. We share their anxiety and say to them as St. Paul did to the Corinthians: "Not that the relief of others should become your burden, but that there should be equality."[28]
67. Nonetheless, dioceses that are suffering from such a shortage of clergy should not therefore close their ears to Our supplications for help in the foreign missions. The widow's mite is proposed by our Lord for our imitation. If a poor diocese helps another poor diocese, it cannot possibly grow poorer in so doing; God does not allow Himself to be outdone in generosity.
68. The efforts of individuals are not sufficient to solve the many problems connected with seeking out and selecting missionary vocations. Study these problems in your meetings, Venerable Brethren, and in attempting to solve them make use of the Institutes, if there be any, in your respective countries that are devoted to the missionary apostolate. In this way new methods will be devised in addition to those already in use, by which the hearts of young people may be drawn more readily to missionary vocations; and thus your own obligations which bind you in conscience to work for the general welfare of the Church will be fulfilled in some degree.
69. In your dioceses zealously foster the Missionary Union of the Clergy, commended both by Our predecessors and by Ourselves. We have elevated it to the rank of a pontifical society so that no one may question the high opinion We have of it nor the great results We expect to be attained through its growth in membership. The efforts put forth by the pastors of the Church and by those who have been entrusted with mission work must be closely associated, since success depends largely upon unanimity of purpose.
70. Here We should like to mention those who are in charge of the Propagation of the Faith in every country, whose work you will assist if you support the diocesan branches of this society. We also call to mind the superiors of the highly deserving missionary congregations to whom this Holy See constantly appeals for help in the more pressing needs of the mission countries. They will be unable to increase the number of their vocations unless the local Ordinaries give them friendly support. Take pains to reconcile your individual interests after careful consideration and a genuinely mutual agreement. If these interests seem for the moment to be divergent, why not weigh them again in the light of a strong and lively faith, keeping the supernatural motives of the unity and catholicity of the Church ever before your eyes.?
71. With the same affectionate interest that joins its efforts with those of others in fraternal harmony and excludes all selfish considerations, be especially careful to bestow spiritual care upon the youths from Africa and Asia, who perchance are resident in your dioceses for the purpose of continuing their studies.
72. These young men, uprooted by the social upheavals in their own countries, for many reasons often do not enjoy sufficient Catholic social contacts among the people who are giving them hospitality. Owing to this their Christian lives may be endangered, as the true values and excellences of the new culture they are seeking may escape them and they may be, in consequence, seduced by the doctrines of materialism and may succumb to the blandishments of atheistic coteries. You cannot ignore the impact of this on their present and future careers. It would be a good idea to appoint some devout and well-equipped members of the clergy to take charge of this apostolate, thus relieving the anxieties of their own bishops in the mission fields.
73. Another form of assistance, which is more burdensome, has been undertaken by some bishops who, despite the difficulties attendant upon so doing, have permitted this or that priest of the diocese to go and spend some time in working for the bishops of Africa.
74. This procedure has the exceptional result of allowing the wise and well-planned establishment of specialized forms of the priestly ministry, such as taking charge of teaching the secular and sacred sciences for which the local clergy have not been trained. We are happy to encourage these timely and fruitful undertakings. If this course of action is taken with due preparation, very important advantages will accrue to the Catholic Church in present-day Africa, which has its full measure of both difficulties and hopes.
75. There is yet another and quite different form of assistance given nowadays to missionary dioceses, which affords Us intense pleasure and which is deserving of notice before We bring this Encyclical Letter to an end. This is the active work undertaken by laymen under the direction of the Church in behalf of the new Christian communities. It consists for the most part in cooperating with the various national and international Catholic Institutes. The application of this assistance surely requires the zeal, the moderation, and the prudence that are proper in working for the good of others; but it is of great. benefit to dioceses harassed by insistent demands from fresh apostolic activities.
76. These laymen, thus enlisted under the banner of Christ and completely obedient to the bishop who properly reserves to himself the final authority in the apostolate, and being in complete accord with the Catholics of Africa who look favorably upon these fraternal recruits, usefully bring to bear upon the recently established dioceses the full weight of their experience in Catholic Action and other social programs and in any other particular activities required in the apostolate. Further - and this is extremely beneficial - they are able to effect a speedier and easier union of their own national Institutes with countless other agencies that are international in scope. We are happy to congratulate them on the excellent work they are doing for the good of the Church.
77. While We earnestly lift Our voice in urgent exhortation in behalf of the Missions of Africa, Our thoughts, as you well know, Venerable Brethren, are not unmindful of those other sons of Ours who are devoting themselves to advancing the Church's cause in the other continents. We love them all, especially those who are undergoing extraordinary sufferings in the Far East. Although the unusual conditions in Africa have been the occasion of this Encyclical, We do not wish to bring it to a close without taking a final look at all the missionary activities of the Catholic Church.
78. To you, Venerable Brethren, who have the pastoral care of those regions where the Gospel seed has only lately been sown and who are founding or consolidating new ecclesiastical jurisdictions, We desire that this letter should be not only a pledge of Our fatherly solicitude, but an evidence as well that the entire Church of Jesus Christ is awake to the extent and the difficulty of your task and is with you to the uttermost in order to aid your work with prayers, with material help, and with the service of her noblest sons. What difference does it make that you are separated from the center of Catholicism by enormous distances? Are not those sons of the Church whose courage is outstanding and whose endurance is taxed to the utmost dearer to her heart?
79. We herewith offer a public testimonial of Our gratitude and confidence to you, heralds of the Gospel, priests chosen from every country, religious men and women, seminarians, catechists, laymen battling beneath the banner of the Gospel, and finally to all of you who are sowing the religion of Jesus Christ, scattered as you are throughout the world and utterly unknown.
80. Persevere resolutely in the work you have begun, glorying in the fact that you serve the Church, that you obey her voice, that you are prompted more and more by her inspiration and her spirit, and that you are united in the bonds of brotherly love.
81. What a consolation it is for you, beloved sons, and what a pledge of assured victory to consider that this hidden and peaceful warfare that you are waging for Holy Church is not yours alone or that of your age or your people, but the ever-enduring conflict of the whole Church which it behooves all her children to carry on manfully, since it is their bounden duty to return thanks to God and to their brethren for the gift of faith received in their baptism.
82. "If I preach the Gospel, I have therein no ground for boasting, since I am under constraint. For woe to me if I do not preach the Gospel!"[29] Why should We not apply these earnest admonitions to Ourselves, that is, to the Vicar of Jesus Christ, who by reason of his apostolic office has been appointed "a preacher and apostle . . . a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth"?[30] Therefore, as We invoke upon the Catholic missions the twofold patronage of St. Francis Xavier and St. Therese of the Child Jesus, the protection of all holy Martyrs, and the powerful maternal help of the Mother of God, the Virgin Mary, Queen of the Apostles, it is Our pleasure to repeat to the Church the victorious words of her Divine Founder: "Put out into the deep."[31]
83. Meanwhile, confident that the active will of all Catholics will respond to these Our exhortations to such a degree that, with the help of divine grace, these missionary endeavors will be able to carry to the very ends of the earth the light of Christian faith and virtue together with advances in material civilization, We lovingly impart to all of you, Venerable Brethren, to your flocks, and specifically to all the preachers of the Gospel, who are so near to Our heart, the Apostolic Blessing as a testimony of Our good will and a pledge of heavenly gifts.
84. Issued at St. Peter's in Rome, on the twenty-first day of April, the Feast of the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, in the year 1957, the nineteenth of Our Pontificate.
PIUS PP. XII
REFERENCES
1. Eph. 4. 5.
2. Ps. 115. 12.
3. Of Benedict XV, Apostolic letter Maximum illud, AAS, 11 (1919) p. 440; Pius Xl, Homily Accipietis virtutem, AA S, 14 (1922), p. 344; Pius Xl, Encyclical letter Rerum Ecclesiae, AAS 18 (1926), p. 65.; Pius XII, Encyclical letter Envangelii praecones, AAS 43 (1951), p. 497.
4. Matt. 5. 10.
5. AAS 44 (1952) p. 370.
6. Allocution, May 1, 1939, Discorsi e radiomessaggi di S.S. Pio XII, 1, 87.
7. Encyclical letter, Evangelii praecones, AAS, 43 (1951) p. 507.
8. Ibid. p. 505.
9. AAS 48 (1956), p. 40 [Christmas Message, Dec. 24, 1955. English tr.: TPS (Winter 1955-56) v. 2, no. 4, p. 3 13. - ED.]
10. AAS, 38 (1946) p. 20.
11. Encyclical letter Mystici Corporis, AAS, 35 (1943) p. 200. 12. Ibid., p. 211.
13. Ibid., p. 2 13.
14. Cf. 2 Cor. 11 28.
15. Cf. 2 Cor. 5. 4.
16. On the Epistle of John to the Parthians, Treatise X, n. 8: PL 35, 2060.
17. John 21. 16-18.
18. John 20. 21.
19. Matthew 28. 19-20.
20. Expos. in Ep. ad Rom., cap. 1, lect. 1: Parma edition, 1862, XIII, 4.
21. Discorsi e radiomessaggi, 8, 328.
22. AAS, 38 (1946), p. 18.
23. AAS, 39 (1947), p. 556.
24. AAS, 42 (1950), p. 787.
25. 2 Cor. 8.9.
26. Gen. 12. 1.
27. Cf. Luke 11. 4.
28. 2 Cor. 8. 13.
29. I Cor. 9. 16.
30. I Tim. 2. 7.
31. Luke 5. 4.
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| Remodel Your Home After Mary's Heart |
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Posted by: Stone - 01-14-2021, 12:56 PM - Forum: Articles by Catholic authors
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Remodel Your Home After Mary's Heart
by Bernard J. LeFrois, S.V.D , + Imprimatur: 1952
It's Time
It's time to remodel your home. Our Blessed Mother wants it. Not the home in which you are living; that may be beautiful enough. You are proud of it and you have a right to be. But what about your home in which God is living, the home of your heart?
"Do you not understand that you are God's temple, and that God's Spirit has His dwelling in you?
If anybody desecrates the temple of God, God will bring him to ruin.
It is a holy thing, this temple of God which is nothing other than your- selves." (1 Corinthians 3, 16-17)
Do I realize it? My heart is a home for God, His temple. It is a holy thing, this temple of God. If anyone desecrates God's temple, God will bring him to ruin!
These are the inspired words of Holy Scripture. How precious must the Temple of my heart be in God's sight!
Homes Destroyed
"God driven out. Satan welcomed." This is the sign over the entrance of many homes today. They have driven God from His home. They have let their heart be the camping ground of God's enemy. They have helped the enemy to destroy God's home and God's image within them.
"What is there in common between light and darkness?
What harmony between Christ and Belial?
How can a believer throw in his lot with an infidel?
How can the temple of God have any commerce with idols?
And you are the temple of the living God!" (2 Corinthians 6, 15-16)
Yes, how can a man be so ungrateful to his Lord and his God as to join sides with the enemy? How can a human heart turn traitor to the Savior?
Weigh it well! If anyone has destroyed the home of God in his heart, "God will bring him to ruin" (1 Cor. 3, 16). Eternal frustration, eternal ruin, such is the lot of the sinner. "It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God" (Hebrews 10, 31).
A Vision of Hell
A horrible vision of Hell, that is what Mary showed the three children of Fatima.
"The Blessed Virgin opened her hands. The beam of light that was projected from them seemed to penetrate the earth. We saw, as it were, a great sea of flame into which were plunged, black and charred, devils and souls in human form, all having the appearance of glowing coals. They shrieked and howled with pain and despair, so as to strike terror and trembling into our hearts." The children never forgot the scene.
"You have had a view of Hell" said the Blessed Mother, "That is where the souls of many poor sinners go." . . . "More souls go to Hell because of sins of the flesh than for any other reason."
". . . the unquenchable fire of Hell! The worm which eats them there never dies, The fire is never quenched." (Mark 9, 44-45) "Go far from me, you that are accursed, into that eternal fire . . . Prepared for the devil and his angels." (Matt. 25, 41)
They have spurned the voice of the Good Shepherd whilst on earth, they have followed the suggestions of Satan. Now they are his slaves forever.
Impurity, the Royal Road to Hell
"More souls go to Hell because of the sins of the flesh than for any other reason." Mary's own word. It should impress us.
Sins of the flesh! Infidelity, divorce, adultery: marriage vows thrown to the winds! Birth control, the cancer eating its way into thousands of homes: marriage ideals trampled underfoot. "I will not serve" on their lips, the very words of Satan.
Sins of the flesh! Youth enmeshed in the habits of sin! Ridiculed is the upright and clean heart, despised is the lad who refuses to follow the crowd. Teen-agers drinking in vice out of filthy books and magazines; in shows and hang-outs.
"Make no mistake about it; it is not the debauched, the adulterous, the effeminate, the sinners against nature, the drunkards that will inherit the kingdom of God." (1 Cor. 6, 10)
Sins of the flesh! Children seduced and taught the abominable habits of lust at an early age by godless, lustful adults.
This is the stench that cries to Heaven and mightily provokes the wrath of God Almighty, All Holy.
Listen then to the agonizing appeal of Mary, the Mother of all these unfortunates, an appeal to sons and daughters who are speeding toward the abyss.
Mary to the Rescue
"In order to save these sinners, God wishes that devotion to my Immaculate Heart be established throughout the world."
That is Mary's last effort to prevent souls from rushing headlong into Hell.
When children are in need they go at once to their mother. But when children are in imminent danger themselves, and seem not to heed it, it is the mother who comes speedily to their rescue. That is what has happened!
Mary has come down to earth. She has shown us the horrors of Hell. She begs us to think of her Heart, that maternal Heart that bore us, and that loves us as no mother can ever hope to do.
"Listen to me, you that are my sons. . . . Listen to the teaching that makes you wise . . . . .
Blessed are they who listen to me. . . . The man who wins me . . . drinks deep of the Lord's favor. Who fails, fails at his own bitter cost; To be my enemy is to be in love with death." (Proverbs 8, 32-36)
What child of God will refuse to listen to this Blessed Mother and to the request of her Heart? What sinner will turn away? It is a mother's request. It cannot be refused.
Our Mother's Request
"Establish devotion to my Immaculate Heart." "I ask for the consecration of the whole world to my Immaculate Heart."
This is Our Mother's request. It is God's offer of the century to the sinner and to the world at large. It carries with it promises of eternal security and of global proportions: "Many souls will be saved." "There shall be peace in the world."
Has this request of our Blessed Mother been faithfully carried out? This question is meant for you.
"Do the reckless still court their own ruin?
Rash fools, will you never learn? . . . Fools, that grew weary of instruction, And would not fear the Lord. Well for them, if they had followed my counsel, If they had not spurned all the warnings I gave! Now they must eat of the harvest their own wickedness has reaped. . . . But let a man give heed to me, Peace undisturbed shall be his." (Prov. 1, 22-23, 29-33)
Is it too late? No, it is never too late. God is always the God of mercy. And even should He chastise us, it is the Divine Physician who wounds only in order to heal. The greatest of earthly chastisements are well worth the saving of our immortal souls!
Our Holy Father Takes the Initiative
Already in 1942 our Holy Father Pius XII consecrated the Church, the world, the human race to the Immaculate Heart:
"To you, to your Immaculate Heart, in this tragic hour of our history, we consign, we entrust, we consecrate Holy Church, the Mystical Body of your Son, Jesus, which is suffering and bleeding in so many places and afflicted in so many ways. And not only the Church, but all the world, rent asunder by deadly discord, aflame with the fires of hate, victim of its own iniquities. "
Six years later on May 1, 1948, the same Holy Father broadcast this plea to the entire world: "It is our will that wherever the opportunity presents itself, this consecration be made in various dioceses as well as in each parish and family. "
"My son, give me the gift of thy heart, Scan closely the path I show thee." (Prov. 23, 26)
Every parish! Every family! Every individual! That is the goal. And you are the individual Mary also has in mind. Have you done so?
"What Christian heart, no matter how lukewarm and thoughtless, could resist the voice of Mary?" (Pius XII)
The Challenge
Are we ashamed of openly practising devotion to Mary? Is it too much for pride, human respect or our "good fellow" reputation? What man is ashamed of his mother? And we are in all truth born spiritually of the Virgin Mother! Hear what the Lord says of those who are ashamed of Him:
"Whoever acknowledges me before men, I too will acknowledge him before my Father who is in heaven; And whoever disowns me before men, Before my Father in heaven I too will disown him." (Matt. 10, 32-33)
On the contrary, let us be proud of our parentage. This then is the challenge: See to it that our Mother's wish be carried out. Exert your influence that the consecration be made by your family, your relatives and friends, and push this project wherever you can. Think of the consequences for you and for all mankind.
In the words of our Holy Father: "Now is the time to take decisive steps and shake off this fatal lethargy" (Feb. 10, 1952). If you have not done anything in this line until now, do it today. Start now. If you have done something, do more. We will never overcome a habit of sin by a weak-hearted practice of religion. Mary wants nothing less than a consecration.
Genuine Consecration
But what is a consecration? Merely the reading off of a formula of prayer, the reciting of some set phrases?
Genuine consecration goes much deeper. When a man consecrates himself to something, he dedicates himself wholly to it. It absorbs his interest and his attention. He spends his energy on it and he belongs to that project whole-heartedly. Gradually it will bring about a transformation in him. It is like an interior remodeling of his heart.
The living of such an ideal influences our entire surroundings. The Communists are dedicated to an ideal. They wield influence everywhere. They have changed half the world.
Is the mighty Mother of God less powerful to influence the world? Will she not change and transform it, if we cooperate with her project of an all-out consecration to that Immaculate Heart? But a world transformation will only come about when millions of individuals are aflame with this ideal.
I am the Mother of fair Love, "It is I that give birth to all noble living . . . From me comes all promise of life and vigor. . . . He who listens to me will never be disappointed, He who lives by me will do no wrong." (Ecclus. 24, 24-31)
I must remodel my heart!
Remodeling
Genuine consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary includes a change of life, a remodeling of your heart and your interior after the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
If I am genuinely devoted and dedicated to the Immaculate Heart, the great soul of Mary will gradually influence my thoughts, my desires, my way of thinking and acting, my inclinations and my habits.
You see, there is bound to be a good influence, even a powerful influence of the Woman who is the sworn enemy of Satan, the Woman whose Son, Jesus, has come to earth to undo what the devil has done.
"The man who lives sinfully takes his character from the devil; The devil was a sinner from the first. . . . If a man is born of God, he does not live sinfully, he is true to his parentage; He cannot be a sinner, if he is born of God." (1 John 3, 8-9)
As sons of God we are born of the Immaculate Mother of Jesus. We must be true to our parentage. We will not brook sin in our heart. O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee!
I must remodel my heart. That is the true meaning of consecration. Mary will be satisfied with nothing less.
Model Home
Mary's Immaculate Heart is the Model Home for God on which I will remodel my home for God, the home of my heart. The Son of God prepared and beautified that Heart as only a Son can. He made it unique. By its unselfish cooperation with Divine Love it won His wholehearted approval. It is truly the Model Home for all the sons of God.
"Behold thy Mother" (John 19, 26). With these words Jesus Himself directs our gaze towards His holy Mother. He has given her to us as a Mother. In directing the gaze of the sons of God upon their Mother, Jesus shows us the simplest and yet the most sublime pattern of holiness: the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
It is not difficult to remodel the home of my heart, when I can look upon the Heart of my own Blessed Mother as the Model Home, and copy the traits that make it so.
"My son, do not undervalue the corrections the Lord sends thee,
Do not be unmanned when He reproves thy faults;
It is where He loves that He bestows correction,
Like a Father whose son is dear to Him." (Prov. 3, 11-12)
By remodeling my home, I repair it along the lines of Mary's. That is the "reparation" Mary wants from me.
Blueprints for the Model Home
Our Blessed Mother doesn't do things by halves. To remodel we need blueprints. But even the blueprints Mary has unfolded before us in this one word:
"Pray the Rosary devoutly every day." That is Mary's simple plan for us. But how can that be the blueprints? The Rosary prayed properly brings before the mind the most sacred scenes that earth has ever known. Those scenes show us the Immaculate Heart in action, with Christ as the center of its aspirations. Those scenes are the blueprints!
"Hail! Thou who art full of grace; The Lord is with thee; Blessed art thou among women. And blessed is the Fruit of thy womb." (Luke 1, 28; 42)
Three baneful tendencies are widespread today. First, distaste for a simple life of labor. Second, repugnance to suffering of any kind. Third, forgetfulness of the future life.
The first of these evils is offset by the fidelity and diligence of Jesus and Mary to the ordinary duties of life (Joyful Mysteries). The second is offset by the love and endurance of Jesus and Mary in bearing the greatest sufferings for our sakes (Sorrowful Mysteries). The third is offset by the constant reminder of Jesus and Mary in the glory of the life to come (Glorious Mysteries).
Daily Rosary Devoutly
If our Blessed Mother found no better remedy to offer the world than those three short words, we will not presume to discard them thoughtlessly.
Do you say the Rosary daily? Many say the Rosary as they commute to work and back. Others make it a habit at the noon hour. Try it for yourself. Some groups say it in common in several factories throughout the country. Others boost the Family Rosary or the Block Rosary. Football teams are known to say the Rosary before a game. Where there is a will, there is a way.
Do you say the Rosary properly? Do you let those sacred scenes influence your life? Stop for a moment before each decade and gather your thoughts. This is serious business. The peace of the world depends upon it. My own eternal security may be bound up with it. It may mean the grace for me to avoid a definite occasion of sin. It's remodel or ruin.
Holy Mary, great Mother of God, Pray for us, sinners, Pray now, O Mother, and at the hour of our death. Amen.
By daily gazing on these blueprints, we learn how to build for eternity, to beautify with virtue that has real value in God's eyes, to decorate with the gold of divine and everlasting charity. Then our hearts are remodeled on Mary's own Heart.
Home Remodeled
One thing above all is learned from the Immaculate Heart of Mary: to avoid sin and abhor it. This is the cleansing of the home of our hearts. Mary is without sin. We are sinners, weak and changeable, prone to evil inclinations. But an honest effort to remodel after the Model Home will bring results. Mary will obtain the grace for us to turn away from sinful habits, and also the wonderful grace of constant love of her Divine Son, which keeps the interior of our home purified.
Yet that is only the first step. The home must also be adorned. Mary's great faith must blossom in our heart; her submission to God's will in all the details of an ordinary life, her compassionate suffering with the Savior; her love of prayer, her unquenchable charity that fed upon sacrifice. Each one of us can find the pattern he needs.
Such a heart, remodeled on Mary's Immaculate Heart, becomes a great power-house for good on earth, amid the sorrows and joys of daily life. Of such is the Legion that Mary is gathering around her to fight the great Dragon. Said God to Satan:
"She shall crush thy head And thou shalt lie in wait for her heel." (Gen. 3, 15)
What is there to fear from the side of hell and Satan, from persecution and death itself, if we are one with the great Mother of God, Mary, most holy?
Influence Your Surroundings
A prominent business man in a large manufacturing company makes the following avowal: "Throughout the 25 years of my business career, our Lord and His Blessed Mother were in the midst of our daily activities. I took the words of the Master to heart: 'Without Me you can do nothing.' He made no exceptions. Business was included too. So I made religion the basic solution for the manifold difficulties that turned up every other day.
"To one of the managers given to drink, I counselled a return to his religious convictions, promising that I would pray to our Blessed Mother for him. To a discouraged bookkeeper, on the verge of giving up her job, I briefly explained the Lord's Passion and the purpose of suffering. The results in both cases have proved the correctness of the procedure.
"Regularly I passed out Catholic papers and magazines to those interested. On Good Friday I granted a half-day to all employees who wanted to attend church services. In a hundred different ways, without ostentation, the hearts of our fellowmen can be directed towards Christ and His Mother. "
"You are the salt of the earth. If the salt loses its taste, What is there left to give taste to it? . . . You are the light of the world. A city cannot be hidden if it is built on a mountain top." (Matthew 5, 13-14)
You Can Change the World
Back in 1870 a little district in Italy had no parish priest. Ten mothers made up their minds to get together once a month to pray that God would give His Church more priests and religious. Only after they had kept that up for eleven years did they get their own parish priest. Did they stop praying then?
No, just the opposite took place. They kept on praying and got all the mothers of the district to join in. The result? Over 500 youths have gone forth from that little district as priests, brothers, sisters. What a transformation! How did it happen?
The secret is this: these mothers began to realize that if they wanted priests, they had to begin right by remodeling their own homes. Their lives became more like Mary's life, the atmosphere of their homes more like the atmosphere of Nazareth, and their children more like Mary's Son, Jesus.
That was the atmosphere in which ideal vocations sprouted. The children learned to appreciate real and lasting values. They wanted to become something worth while in life, something noble, godlike. They became priests, they became brothers, nuns; they became ideal Catholic parents who in turn planted the seed of vocation in their own children's hearts.
That is what happens when you have begun to remodel your heart after that of the Immaculate Heart. A change comes over you. You see how foul sin really is, how valuable is virtue. You begin to live your ideal of a son of God and a son of the Blessed Mother.
Now if that happens in a hundred souls, think of the influence on the surroundings. What if it happens in a thousand hearts scattered over the country? In a million? In 400,000,000 Catholics all over the world?
Hearken, then, to the recent plea of our Holy Father: "The root of modern evils . . . is lethargy of the spirit, weakness of the will and coldness of the heart . . . .
"Your Shepherd and Father charges you today to launch a mighty re-awakening of thought and action. This re-awakening is a duty for everyone without exception--clergy and people, those in authority, families, groups, individuals--along the entire front of the complete renewal of Christian life.
"Having had recourse once again to the goodness of God and the mercy of Mary, each one of the faithful and every man of good will must re-examine with a courage worthy of the great moments of human history, what he can and must do personally as his own contribution to the saving power of God, in order to help a world which is started on the road to ruin.
"We sincerely hope . . . that Our eyes shall see not only cities, but nations, continents, the entire human race return to Christ" (Pius XII, Feb. 10, 1952).
Program of Action
1. For all times: Determine to keep far from your heart and home objects used for sinful purposes, reading matter and pictures unfit for God's chosen ones, company displeasing to the Immaculate Heart. Determine, moreover, not to be enslaved and dominated by the goods of this world, be they food or drink, radio or television, money or sports; but to use all such things with moderation as our Blessed Mother taught us while on earth. These things are means to our eternal happiness in Heaven. Show that you are your own master, or rather, Mary is the mistress.
As a loyal son of Mary, let the crucifix and the Catholic Bible have a prominent place in your home. Remember: remodel or ruin. A glance at the crucifix and a paragraph from the Word of God will give you greater light and peace and strength than hours of merely arguing over politics or of television programs.
2. Annually: set aside a day in the year on which you make a solemn consecration of yourself, your home and family to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, and draw up a plan now to remodel your home. Prepare for this solemn consecration by a sincere Confession and a devout Holy Communion. Repeat this annually on the same day, or even more frequently. Our Lady's feast days are fitting occasions for this renewal, especially the Feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary (August 22), or any First Saturday.
3. Monthly: Make a special effort, even though it costs, to keep the First Saturdays. Mary's wonderful promise to those who keep the first Saturday five times in succession, is the greatest insurance policy for eternal life ever heard of. Your conditions are simple: Confession, Communion, the Rosary, keeping Mary company for fifteen minutes while meditating on those sacred mysteries, in the spirit of reparation for all the sins committed against that Immaculate Heart. Let this be your monthly checking of account books. How did things go last month? Have I kept the home of my heart in line with the Model Home? How about this new month?
4. Weekly: Nothing is more important and more pleasing to Mary than that you carry out faithfully your Sunday obligations. The Mass is the great sacrifice of Mary's Son for the sins and the needs of yourself and your family. If you can help it, don't let anything come between you and the Mass. Learn more about the Mass and encourage your family to do likewise. It only needs a bit more effort to receive our Lord weekly in Communion. The immense treasure of God Himself is at your disposal.
5. Daily: A short morning offering through Mary's Heart of all that you are and all that you have. The daily Rosary. A short renewal of your consecration before retiring.
Act of Consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary
(St. Louis de Montfort's Consecration)
"I. N., a faithless sinner--renew and ratify today in thy hands, O Immaculate Mother, the vows of my Baptism; I renounce forever Satan, his pomps and works; and I give myself entirely to Jesus Christ, the Incarnate Wisdom, to carry my cross after Him all the days of my life, and to be more faithful to Him than I have ever been before.
"In the presence of all the heavenly court I choose thee this day for my Mother and Mistress. I deliver and consecrate to thee, as thy slave, my body and soul, my goods, both interior and exterior, and even the value of all my good actions, past, present and future; leaving to thee the entire and full right of disposing of me, and all that belongs to me, without exception, according to thy good pleasure, for the greater glory of God, in time and in eternity. Amen."
Prayers
Morning offering of the Apostleship of Prayer: O Jesus, through the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I offer Thee my prayers, works, joys and sufferings of this day, for all the intentions of Thy Sacred Heart, in union with the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass throughout the world, in reparation for my sins, for the intentions of all our associates and in particular for the intention recommended this month.
Short Personal Consecration: O my Queen, O my Mother, I give myself entirely to thee, and to show my devotion to thee, I consecrate to thee this day my eyes, my ears, my mouth, my heart, my whole being without reserve. Wherefore good Mother, as I am thine own, keep me, guard me as thy property and possession.
Short renewal: O my Queen, O my Mother, remember that I am thine own. Keep me, guard me as thy property and possession. Or: I am all thine, O Mary, and all that I have is thine.
Memorare: Remember, O most gracious Virgin Mary, that never was it known, that anyone who fled to thy protection, implored thy help, and sought thine intercession was left unaided. Inspired with this confidence I fly unto thee, O Virgin of virgins, my Mother. To thee I come, before Thee I stand, sinful and sorrowful. O Mother of the Word Incarnate, despise not my petitions, but in thy mercy hear and answer me. Amen.
After each Decade of the Rosary: O my Jesus, forgive us our sins, save us from the fire of hell. Lead all souls to heaven, especially those who are most in need.
Reparation: O my God, I believe in Thee, I adore Thee, I hope in Thee, I love Thee. I ask pardon for those who do not believe, do not adore, do not hope, and do not love Thee.
In temptation: Come, Holy Ghost, fill the hearts of thy faithful, and kindle in them the fire of Thy love. My God, I love Thee! All for Thee, Most Sacred Heart of Jesus! Sweet Heart of Mary, be my salvation. Jesus, Mary, help!
Perfect contrition: O my God, I am heartily sorry for having offended Thee, because Thou art infinitely good and deserving of all my love. (Be sure to say this before retiring each night. Add three Hail Marys for purity, with the ejaculation: O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee.)
Source
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