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After Fifty Years, Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre’s “1974 Declaration” Is More Vital Than Ever

Posted by: Stone - 11-05-2024, 05:56 AM - Forum: Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre - No Replies

After Fifty Years, Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre’s “1974 Declaration” Is More Vital Than Ever

[Image: 37365d86a2107e76a977ee3cea38b482_L.jpg]

Robert Morrison, Remnant Columnist | November 1, 2024

After Fifty Years, Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre’s “1974 Declaration” Is More Vital Than Ever
Almost fifty years ago, Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre wrote his famous “1974 Declaration,” a brief defense of the immutable Catholic Faith which was so powerful that the liberals in Rome realized they must immediately attack the archbishop. In his Apologia Pro Marcel Lefebvre, Michael Davies described the difference between how orthodox Catholics and Rome’s anti-Catholics saw the 1974 Declaration:

Quote:“It is difficult to see how any orthodox Catholic could possibly disagree with Mgr. Lefebvre concerning this. It is all the more significant, therefore, that the Commission of Cardinals subsequently stated that the Declaration ‘seemed unacceptable to them on all points.’”

These two perspectives remain fifty years later: as we will see below, everything in the 1974 Declaration is even more sensible today in the eyes of orthodox Catholics; and the Church’s liberal enemies are more opposed to those ideas now than ever. Unfortunately, the crisis in the Church has persisted, and even worsened, over the past fifty years largely because the Church’s enemies have succeeded in convincing some faithful Catholics that, in the name of obedience, they cannot accept Archbishop Lefebvre’s intransigent defense of the Faith. If more bishops had stood with Archbishop Lefebvre in 1974, we may never have heard of Francis or his Synod on Synodality.

Before considering how the 1974 Declaration has become more vital over the past fifty years, it is worth briefly recalling the history of why Archbishop Lefebvre wrote it. The late Bishop Bernard Tissier de Mallerais described the impetus for the 1974 Declaration in his biography of Archbishop Lefebvre:

Quote:“The storm broke suddenly on November 11, 1974: after breakfast the Archbishop gathered together the Ecône community to announce that they would that very day receive two apostolic visitors who were coming to conduct an inquiry on behalf of three Roman Congregations, following orders from Paul VI himself. In the corridor of the cloister while waiting for the visitors, Archbishop Lefebvre confided to Fr. Aulagnier: ‘I well suspected that our refusal to accept the New Mass would sooner or later be a stumbling block, but I would have preferred to die rather than have to confront Rome and the Pope!’” (p. 478)

Then, as now, few things raise the suspicion of Roman authorities more than adherence to the Traditional Latin Mass. Bishop Tissier continued his description of the Apostolic Visitation:

Quote:“Msgr. Albert Descamps, secretary for the Biblical Commission, and Msgr. Guillaume Onclin, under-secretary of the Commission for the Revision of the Code of Canon Law, arrived at nine o’clock in the morning. For three days the two Belgians would question the priests and seminarians, and make theologically questionable remarks to them. They thought the ordination of married men was normal and inevitable, they did not admit that truth is immutable, and they expressed doubts concerning the physical reality of Christ’s Resurrection.” (pp. 478-479)

In 2024, it may no longer surprise us to hear heretical statements from Roman prelates, but in 1974 the scandal was enough to spur Archbishop Lefebvre to write his famous declaration, dated November 21, 1974. As Dr. David Allen White described in his The Horn of the Unicorn: A Mosaic of the Life of Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, the declaration was written for the benefit of the seminarians:

Quote:“The Declaration was penned to quiet the apprehensions of the seminarians and to assure them of the intended direction of the seminary. It was not meant to be an attack on Rome, nor was it intended as a public pronouncement. The Declaration was leaked to the public without Archbishop Lefebvre’s knowledge or permission, and instantly phrases and fragments were broken off from it to slash the Society at its founder. Learning that the Declaration had become public and knowing the uses to which it would be put, he released it himself in its complete form.” (p. 182)

Even though Archbishop Lefebvre did not intend the declaration “to be an attack on Rome,” the seminarians understood that it was most certainly an attack on the errors threatening the Faith, as Bishop Tissier described:

Quote:“Archbishop Lefebvre had not even finished reading his declaration when the seminarians, aware of the importance of the moment, began to applaud. Scorning all human prudence and drawing on a vision of faith, the Archbishop had openly declared war on all the post-conciliar reforms.” (p. 480)

As we can see from the text below, the 1974 Declaration is indeed a declaration of war against the post-conciliar reforms. However stunning the declaration might have been in 1974, though, the experience of the past fifty years likely colors our perception of it today. With fifty years of worsening fruits from the Vatican II revolution, his words ring more true than ever, and are presented below with no additional commentary other than to identify the topic of each portion of the declaration:

Adherence to the Catholic Church. “We hold firmly with all our heart and with all our mind to Catholic Rome, Guardian of the Catholic Faith and of the traditions necessary to the maintenance of this faith, to the eternal Rome, mistress of wisdom and truth.”

Rejection of Everything That Opposes the Catholic Church. “We refuse on the other hand, and have always refused, to follow the Rome of Neo-Modernist and Neo-Protestant tendencies, which became clearly manifest during the Second Vatican Council, and after the Council, in all the reforms which issued from it.”

Evil Fruits of the Vatican II Revolution. “In effect, all these reforms have contributed and continue to contribute to the destruction of the Church, to the ruin of the priesthood, to the abolition of the Sacrifice of the Mass and the Sacraments, to the disappearance of the religious life, and to a naturalistic and Teilhardian education in the universities, in the seminaries, in catechetics: an education deriving from Liberalism and Protestantism which had been condemned many times by the solemn Magisterium of the Church.”

Rule for Keeping the Faith. “No authority, not even the highest in the hierarchy, can compel us to abandon or to diminish our Catholic Faith, so clearly expressed and professed by the Church's Magisterium for nineteen centuries.”

Quote:“"Friends," said St. Paul, "though it were we ourselves, though it were an angel from heaven that should preach to you a gospel other than the gospel we have preached to you, a curse upon him" (Gal. 1:8).”

“Is it not this that the Holy Father is repeating to us today? And if there is a certain contradiction manifest in his words and deeds as well as in the acts of the dicasteries, then we cleave to what has always been taught and we turn a deaf ear to the novelties which destroy the Church.”

Reason Why the Revolution is Evil. “It is impossible to profoundly modify the Lex Orandi without modifying the Lex Credendi. To the New Mass there corresponds the new catechism, the new priesthood, the new seminaries, the new universities, the ‘Charismatic' Church, Pentecostalism: all of them opposed to orthodoxy and the never-changing Magisterium.”

Quote:“This reformation, deriving as it does from Liberalism and Modernism, is entirely corrupted; it derives from heresy and results in heresy, even if all its acts are not formally heretical.”

Duty of Catholics to Reject the Revolution. “It is therefore impossible for any conscientious and faithful Catholic to espouse this reformation and to submit to it in any way whatsoever.”

Quote:“The only attitude of fidelity to the Church and to Catholic doctrine appropriate for our salvation is a categorical refusal to accept this reformation.”

Determination to Keep Fighting. “That is why, without any rebellion, bitterness, or resentment, we pursue our work of priestly formation under the guidance of the never-changing Magisterium, convinced as we are that we cannot possibly render a greater service to the Holy Catholic Church, to the Sovereign Pontiff, and to posterity.”

Quote:“That is why we hold firmly to everything that has been consistently taught and practiced by the Church (and codified in books published before the Modernist influence of the Council) concerning faith, morals, divine worship, catechetics, priestly formation, and the institution of the Church, until such time as the true light of tradition dissipates the gloom which obscures the sky of the eternal Rome.”

This is the Path of Remaining Faithful. “Doing this, with the grace of God, the help of the Virgin Mary, St. Joseph, and St. Pius X, we are certain that we are being faithful to the Catholic and Roman Church, to all of Peter's successors, and of being the Fideles Dispensatores Mysteriorum Domini Nostri Jesu Christi In Spiritu Sancto.”

As Michael Davies wrote, “it is difficult to see how any orthodox Catholic could possibly disagree with Mgr. Lefebvre concerning this.” Even those who may object to Archbishop Lefebvre’s decision to consecrate bishops without Rome’s approval in 1988 should have no reason to disagree with the ideas in the 1974 Declaration.

The Church is in a much different situation than it was in 1974, but the cause of the crisis and the nature of the corrective action remain the same, although Archbishop Lefebvre would also tell us that we need to fight the spiritual battle as saints. We do not need to look for other answers to Francis, his Synodal Church, or whatever scandals and tyrannical moves Rome sends us next — the greatest service we can render to the Church is to remain faithful to “everything that has been consistently taught and practiced by the Church (and codified in books published before the Modernist influence of the Council) concerning faith, morals, divine worship, catechetics, priestly formation, and the institution of the Church.”

We can even see that this determination to remain faithful to everything that the Church taught and practiced prior to the Council should be less controversial now than in 1974. As confusing as the situation was in 1974, many faithful Catholics were still convinced that Paul VI and the hierarchy were not actively trying to destroy the Church. We can have no such illusions today thanks to Francis’s most egregious initiatives: Fiducia Supplicans, Pachamama, Amoris Laetitia, Traditionis Custodes, the Synodal Church, his partnership with the anti-Catholic globalists, etc. The wrong-way signs of the Vatican II revolution may have been relatively hidden in 1974 but today they are so prominent that anyone with eyes to see cannot miss them.

God gave us the example of Archbishop Lefebvre not only for the time in which he lived but also so that we can learn how to combat the evils facing the Church today. All of us — priests or laity, friends of the Society of St. Pius X or not, those who think Francis is pope or anti-pope — are called to fight against the enemies trying to destroy the Church from within. We know they will never succeed and that God wins in the end, but it should also be clear that God calls us all to fight. Archbishop Lefebvre’s 1974 Declaration is the battle plan and call to arms that we need. Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us!

Archbishop Viganò: Message to the People of Valencia

Posted by: Stone - 11-05-2024, 05:41 AM - Forum: Archbishop Viganò - No Replies

Mons. Carlo Maria Viganò

Message to the People of Valencia

and all Spaniards among the devastating cataclysm that struck the Valencian Community

Parce, Domine:
parce populo tuo!

Joel 2, 17

In the past few days, after the tremendous cataclysm that struck the Valencia region of Spain, we have witnessed with dismay and horror the Spanish government’s deliberate prevention of any relief action, not only by the bodies in charge, but also by volunteers and citizens. The absence of timely action was accompanied by the prohibition of relief and sending first aid, offered even by foreign states. Affected populations were left for three days without food, water and electricity. And while survivors remained isolated along with the corpses of their loved ones, with shameless cynicism Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez refused to declare a state of emergency and retorted to the media: “If the Valencians need help, just ask for it.” Members of law enforcement and firefighters denounced their hierarchical superiors for expressly instructing them not to intervene. And on Sunday, the Royals of Spain and the Prime Minister went to the scene of the disaster and were harshly challenged for their scandalous absconding. Sanchez vanished before the reaction of the outraged population, which was justifiably furious.

This, as even the mainstream now admits, is yet another disastrous event scientifically planned by countries subservient to the Word Economic Forum, whose emissaries in the governments are the main proponents of the 2030 Agenda. Last August, there were reports in the international press that the impact of the extensive geoengineering projects officially adopted by Morocco could have a destructive impact on Spain’s climate conditions, and that the scientific community had expressed strong concerns and called for close monitoring of weather phenomena on the Iberian Peninsula. We know that these projects are largely funded by the European Union and other private entities aligned on the fraudulent climate change narrative. We also know, from patents filed and projects disseminated globally, that cloud seeding results in the release of highly toxic substances, such as aluminum, barium, strontium, into the air – and thus on people, water and crops. In addition to this, the HAARP – High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program – is widely used as an unconventional weapon because of the devastating impact of high frequencies on climate, seismic phenomena and volcanic activity. Monitoring in the days leading up to the flood and during the hours when the rainfall was occurring show anomalies that experts recognize as unequivocally the effect of human, not natural, interventions.

Spain is, unfortunately, not the first nation affected by these deliberately provoked phenomena. The criminal will to do as much damage as possible to populations is all too evident. Think of the insane green management of reservoirs and dams, almost all of which have been torn down in recent years; or that of canals and waterways, which European regulations prohibit dredging and clearing of logs and brushwood. And again: the reckless policies of destroying agriculture, livestock and fisheries for the benefit of the intensive production of multinational corporations; the planning of famines and droughts through geoengineering, so as to convert fields taken away from cultivation into photovoltaic installations to power data centers with which to control our every movement. Multinational corporations are appropriating water management, under the pretext of climate change, for the sole purpose of using it for the cooling systems of the same data centers.

All this is happening everywhere, in the complicit silence of a press owned by the same big investment funds: BlackRock, Vanguard, StateStreet. Everything is in their hands: the banks, the debts of states, information, food, health, weapons, the very air we breathe, the very light of the sun, which we increasingly see obscured by a blanket of clouds.

But despite the fact that this conspiracy against humanity is evident and even admitted by its perpetrators – first and foremost, Klaus Schwab – any critical voice, any form of dissent, is disqualified as conspiracy. The pandemic farce should have incontrovertibly shown the criminal intentions of those who imposed an experimental serum, knowing that it would result in permanent genetic mutation, as well as infertility, serious adverse effects including the revival of cancers and death. What did that experiment in social engineering teach us? And what image came out of it of our rulers, now that we know they were acting deliberately against their fellow citizens? Criminals in the pay of an increasingly powerful and invasive, increasingly arrogant and violent subversive elite.

Dear Valencians! And you, people of all Spain! In the face of this immense disaster that has struck you so brutally and mercilessly; in the face of the betrayal of those who should serve you and instead manifestly want your evil, I ask you to rediscover your Catholic soul to which your Nation is heir, giving proof of that bond of Christian brotherhood that unites us with Our Lord Jesus Christ to the one Eternal Father. Be proud witnesses of your Faith, with Hope, in Charity. Find again, even and especially among the mud and debris, the strength to help your neighbor, who is precisely the person who is close to you, who is in need. And pray: pray together, together pray the Rosary as you dig, as you recompose your deceased loved ones.

May the Blessed Virgin de los Desamparados console you, protect you and give you strength. May the Archangel Saint Michael accompany to Heaven the souls of those who have found death in this tremendous cataclysm caused by criminals in the service of Satan.

Know that I am spiritually close to you in prayer. I invoke upon you all, dear Valencians, and upon all of you Spaniards, the Blessing of God and the Grace of the Consoling Spirit. Viva Cristo Rey!

+ Carlo Maria Viganò, Archbishop

November 3, MMXXIV a. D.ñi
Tertia die infra Octavam Omnium Sanctorum

Prominent COVID jab critic examines the amazing evidence for the Shroud of Turin

Posted by: Stone - 11-04-2024, 07:58 AM - Forum: General Commentary - No Replies

Prominent COVID jab critic examines the amazing evidence for the Shroud of Turin
Dr. John Campbell’s analysis of the Turin Shroud highlights profound links to Gospel descriptions of Christ's suffering while showcasing pollen and soil samples that align with the place and time of the crucifixion.

[Image: Untitled-25.png]

Shroud of Turin
Screenshot

Nov 2, 2024
(LifeSiteNews) — Our world is full of sensational claims, the glittering promises of which produce disappointment – or even death and despair. This was the case with the “100 percent safe and effective” so-called “vaccines,” the terrible impact of which was documented in the U.K. by Dr. John Campbell.

Campbell has now turned his analytical skills to the Turin Shroud. In a remarkable video published on October 28, “Shroud Studies” shows that the application of the latest scientific techniques prove its authenticity – but cannot explain how the image itself was formed.

Even with modern technology, no one has managed to reproduce it.

READ: Shroud of Turin experts reveal its stunning connection to the Gospels

Campbell begins his summary of many studies of the shroud with a striking observation:

Quote:There’ve been thousands of millions of shrouds through history, but this is the only one with an image on it.

He explains that the image of Our Lord on the shroud is only “nanometers thick.” Attempts to recreate the effect with modern technology have failed. “Even now in 2024 there are no chemical or physical methods known which can account for the image,” says Campbell, showing how claims the shroud is painted have been disproven. Pollen, soil, and mineral samples all agree with the place and time of Our Lord’s crucifixion, death, and resurrection, yet no known process can explain the image itself.

“Nor can any combination of physical, chemical, biological, or medical circumstances explain the image adequately,” says Campbell, “And that remains true today.”

He adds that “this image is a total enigma,” as he summarizes the explanation for how it came to be:

Quote:[The image of Our Lord] appears to be produced by a very short flash of high-intensity light radiation.

Though Campbell says this resembles a photographic negative, the method of making such an image is unknown. “If there were another way it was produced, it still hasn’t been elucidated and can’t be replicated today.”

The miraculous image of Our Lord is only one aspect of the shroud which Campbell examines. His account covers the attempt to carbon-date the shroud, showing evidence that the sample taken for examination contained fibers added to repair the shroud in the Middle Ages.

How can we know the shroud is genuine? Campbell cites an abundance of evidence.

Pollen samples taken from the shroud correspond not only to the region in which Our Lord was crucified, but also to the season of His Passion. “The shroud contains pollen from Jerusalem, north and south Turkey, France and Italy. This is consistent with the known history of the shroud,” Campbell says.

READ: 2-year-old study traces Shroud of Turin to time of Jesus in first-century Middle East

Campbell offers “just one example” of the pollen “fingerprint” which places the shroud at the correct location and time of the crucifixion of Christ. He notes that “there’s a lot of pollen from Gundelia tournefort. It flowers in the Jerusalem area February to May – which of course is the time of the Jewish Passover.”

“The death of Jesus was at the time of the Jewish Passover,” he clarifies.

Samples of dirt from the shroud also support the Gospel’s account of Christ’s path along the Via Dolorosa to Calvary:

Quote:The shroud contains Jerusalem dirt found on the soles of the feet, [and] the left knee from where He fell.

Campbell relates that the 1978 team tasked with analyzing the shroud also found the same soil on the area of Christ’s nose, which “so alarmingly” revives how Christ fell with such violence, as remembered in the Stations of the Cross.

“To think that as Jesus was carrying the cross – He fell over and His nose would hit the ground,” said Campbell, who applied his medical training to an examination of the evidence of Christ’s wounds.

The evidence of scourging confirms the accounts given in the Gospels, says Campbell.

Quote:We see that the man of the shroud has a broken nose, a swollen face. Part of the beard has been plucked out – tearing wounds produced by the scourging.

Wounds from the crown of thorns, bruises on the shoulder which, if we believe if this is indeed Jesus of Nazareth, from carrying the weight of a cross again is consistent.

Campbell lists further correspondences to the Gospel accounts of the death of Christ – evidenced by the shroud: “Knee injuries from repeated falls. Nail wounds from Roman crucifixion – and an oval wound between the fifth and the sixth rib on the right-hand side.”

He concludes: “Again, these are the wounds that have been known about from the sufferings of Christ Himself.”

Yet Campbell is far from alone in this discovery. In his book, A Doctor at Calvary, French military surgeon and Catholic Pierre Barbet said correspondence to the Gospel accounts is unarguable:

Quote:The markings on this image are so clear and medically accurate that the pathological facts which they reflect concerning the suffering and death of the man depicted here are in my opinion beyond dispute.

Campbell states that “many hundreds have agreed with this,” as he noted a 2024 Italian study which used novel X-Ray technology – proving the shroud came from the time of Christ.

A visibly moved Campbell said that all the evidence supports the claim that this is the cloth witnessed by Saint Peter as he entered the tomb of the risen Christ.

Again, consistent with the New Testament – Simon Peter went straight into the tomb … he saw the cloth was still lying in its place – so that could well be this cloth.

In his striking summary of the evidence for the authenticity of the shroud, Campbell has noted the miraculous production of the image and that the blood, dirt, cloth, and pollen all corroborate the accounts given of the death of Our Lord Jesus Christ.

As science has progressed, it appears to reveal the mystery of Christ as well as the material reality of his incarnation – and His profound suffering in the cause of our salvation.

“While the shroud could be appreciated in earlier centuries – no one knew it was a photographic negative until photography was invented,” he said, describing the image of Christ produced by an inexplicable burst of light.

Curiously, the technology which has revealed the complexities of the shroud was first used to investigate the heavens.

“No one knew it had three-dimensional information until people started wanting to interpret the topography of distant planets,” Campbell explained, noting, “There are so many things that science is revealing about this quite extraordinary artefact.”

At the end of this sober yet awe inspiring analysis, Campbell indicates the significance of the mystery of Jesus Christ the Saviour, as transmitted through the shroud of Turin:

Quote:A lot of things aren’t looking very hopeful at the moment. It’s almost like that this is a message for later times.

This is a message which the world urgently needs to hear today. It is the message of Christ, and in Campbell’s analysis viewers will find the medical, the material, and the miraculous all in agreement with the story of His presence among us.

Purgatory Explained by the Lives and Legends of the Saints

Posted by: Stone - 11-03-2024, 07:48 AM - Forum: Resources Online - Replies (106)

Purgatory Explained by the Lives and Legends of the Saints
by Fr. F. X. Shouppe, S.J.
Published 1893
Taken from here.

Author's Preface

Object of the Work - To what Class of Readers it is Addressed

- What we are Obliged to Believe, what we may Piously Believe, and what we are at Liberty not to Admit - Visions and Apparitions - Blind Credulity and Exaggerated Incredulity

The Dogma of Purgatory is too much forgotten by the majority of the faithful; the Church Suffering, where theyhave so many brethren to succor, whither they foresee that they themselves must one day go, seems a strange land to them.

This truly deplorable forgetfulness was a great sorrow to Saint Francis de Sales. "Alas!" said this pious doctor of the Church, "we do not sufficiently remember our dear departed; their memory seems to perish with the sound of the funeral bells."

The principal causes of this are ignorance and lack of faith; our notions on the subject of Purgatory are too vague, our faith is too feeble.

In order, then, that our ideas may become more distinct and our faith enlivened, we must take a closer view of this life beyond the tomb, this intermediate state of the just souls, not yet worthy to enter the Heavenly Jerusalem.

This is the object of the present work: we propose not to prove the existence of Purgatory to skeptical minds, but to make it better known to the pious faithful who believe with a divine faith this dogma revealed of God. It is to them, properly speaking, that this book is addressed, to give them a less confused idea of Purgatory. I say purposely a clearer idea than people generally have, by placing this great truth in the strongest possible light.

To produce this effect we possess three very distinct sources of light: first, the dogmatic doctrine of the Church; then the doctrine as explained by the doctors of the Church; in the third place, the revelations and apparitions of the saints, which serve to confirm the teachings of the doctors.

1. The dogmatic doctrine of the Church on the subject of Purgatory comprises two articles, of which we shall speak later on. These two articles are of faith, and must be believed by every Catholic.

2. The teaching of the doctors and theologians, or rather their opinions on several questions relative to Purgatory, and their explanations of them, are not imposed as articles of faith; we are free to reject them without ceasing to be Catholic. Nevertheless, it would be imprudent, and even rash, to reject them, and it is the spirit of the Church to follow the opinions commonly held by the doctors.

3. The revelations of the saints, called also particular revelations, do not belong to the deposit of faith confided by Jesus Christ to His Church; they are historical facts, based upon human testimony. It is permitted to believe them, and piety finds wholesome food in them. We may, however, disbelieve them without sinning against faith; but they are authenticated, and we cannot reject them without offending against reason; because sound reason demands that all men should give assent to truth when it is sufficiently demonstrated.

To illustrate this subject more clearly, let us, in the first place, explain the nature of the revelations of which we speak.

Particular revelations are of two kinds: the one consists in visions, the other in apparitions. They are called particular, because they differ from those found in Holy Scripture, not forming part of the doctrine revealed for mankind, and not being proposed by the Church to our belief as dogmas of faith.

Visions, properly so called, are subjective lights, infused by God into the understanding of His creatures, in order to discover to them His mysteries. Such are the visions of the prophets, those of Saint Paul, of Saint Bridget, and many other saints. These visions usually take place when the subject is in a state of ecstasy; they consist in certain mysterious representations, which appear to the eyes of the soul, and which must not always be taken literally.

Frequently they are figures, symbolic images, which represent in a manner proportionate to the capacity of our understanding, things purely spiritual, of which ordinary language is incapable of conveying an idea.

Apparitions, at least frequently, are objective phenomena which have a real exterior object. Such was the apparition of Moses and Elias on Mount Thabor; that of Samuel evoked by the Witch of Endor; that of the Angel Raphael to Tobias; those of many other angels; in fine, such are the apparitions of the souls in Purgatory.

That the spirits of the dead sometimes appear to the living is a fact that cannot be denied. Does not the Gospel clearly suppose it? When the risen Jesus appeared for the first time to His assembled apostles, they supposed they saw a spirit. Our Saviour, far from saying that spirits appear not, spoke to them thus: Why are you troubled, and why do thoughts arise in your hearts? See My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself; handle and see; for a spirit has not flesh and bones, as you see Me to have. {Luke 24:37, etc.).

Apparitions of the souls that are in Purgatory are of frequent occurrence. We find them in great numbers in the "Lives of the Saints"; they happen sometimes to the ordinary faithful. We have collected those which appear best qualified to instruct or to edify, and we now present them to the reader. But, it may be asked, are all these facts historically certain? We have selected the best authenticated. If, among the number, the reader finds any which he thinks could not stand the rigor of criticism, he need not admit them In order to avoid an excessive severity, one which is akin to incredulity, it is good to remark that, generally speaking,
apparitions of souls occur, and that they frequently occur cannot be doubted. "Apparitions of this kind," says the Abbe Ribet, "are not uncommon. God permits them for the relief of souls in order to excite our compassion, and also to make us sensible of how terrible are the rigors of His Justice against those faults which we consider trivial." (La Mystique Divine, distinguee des Contrefaqons Diaboliques et des Analogies Humaines. Paris, Poussielgue). Saint Gregory in his Dialogues cites several examples, of which, it is true, we may dispute the full authenticity; but which, in the mouth of this holy doctor, prove at least that he believed in the possibility of the existence of these phenomena. A great number of other authors, not less reliable than Saint Gregory, both on account of sanctity and learning, relate similar instances. Moreover, incidents of this sort abound in the lives of the saints. To be convinced of this, it suffices to peruse the Acta Sanctorum.

The Church Suffering has ever implored the suffrages of the Church Militant; and this intercourse, bearing the impress of sadness, yet also full of instruction, is for the one a source of inexhaustible relief, and for the other a powerful incitement to sanctity.

The vision of Purgatory has been granted to many holy souls. Saint Catherine de Ricci descended in spirit into Purgatory every Sunday night; Saint Lidwina, during her raptures, penetrated into this place of expiation, and, conducted by her angel guardian, visited the souls in their torments. In like manner, an angel led Blessed Osanne of Mantua through this dismal abyss.

Blessed Veronica of Binasco, Saint Frances of Rome, and many others had visions exactly similar, with impressions of terror.

More frequently it is the souls themselves that appear to the living and implore their intercession. Many appeared in this manner to Blessed Margaret Mary Alacoque, and to a great number of other holy persons. The souls departed frequently besought the intercession of Denis the Carthusian. This great servant of God was one day asked how many times the holy souls appeared to him "Oh! hundreds of times," he replied.

Saint Catherine of Siena, in order to spare her father the pains of Purgatory, offered herself to the Divine Justice to suffer in his stead during her whole life. God accepted her offer, inflicted the most excruciating torments upon her, which lasted until her death, and admitted the soul of her father into eternal glory. In return this blessed soul frequently appeared to his daughter to thank her, and to make to her many useful revelations.

When the souls in Purgatory appear to the living, they always present themselves in an attitude which excites compassion; now with the features which they had during life or at their death, with a sad countenance and imploring looks, in garments of mourning, with an expression of extreme suffering; then like a mist, a light, a shadow, or some kind of fantastic figure, accompanied by a sign or word by which they may be recognized. At other times they betray their presence by moans, sobs, sighs, or hurried respiration and plaintive accents. They often appear enveloped in flames. When they speak, it is to manifest their sufferings, to deplore their past faults, to ask suffrages, or even to address reproaches to those who ought to succor them Another kind of revelation, adds the same author, is made by invisible blows which the living receive, by the violent shutting of doors, the rattling of chains, and the sounds of voices.

These facts are too multiplied to admit of doubt; the only difficulty is to establish their connection with the world of expiation. But when these manifestations coincide with the death of persons dear to us, when they cease after prayers and reparations have been made to God in their behalf, is it not reasonable to see therein signs by which the souls make known their distress?

In the various phenomena to which we have just drawn attention we recognize the souls in Purgatory. But there is a case when the apparition should be held in suspicion; it is when a notorious sinner, unexpectedly carried away by a sudden death, comes to implore the prayers of the living that he may be delivered from Purgatory. The devil is interested in making us believe that we can live in the greatest disorders until the moment of our death and yet escape Hell. However, even in such instances, it is not forbidden to think that the soul which appears has repented, and that it is in the temporary flames of expiation; nor, consequently, is it forbidden to pray for it, but it is proper to observe the greatest caution in regard to visions of this kind, and the credit which we give to them.

The details into which we have entered suffice to justify in the eyes of the reader the quotation of facts which he will find in the course of this work.

Let us add that the Christian must guard against too great incredulity in supernatural facts connected with dogmas of faith. Saint Paul tells us that Charity believes all things (1 Corinthians 13:7), that is to say, as interpreters explain it, all that which we may prudently believe, and of which the belief will not be prejudicial. If it is true that prudence rejects a blind and superstitious credulity, it is also true that we must avoid another extreme, that with which our Saviour reproached the Apostle Saint Thomas. You believe. He said to him, because you have seen and touched; it were better to have believed the testimony of your brethren. In exacting more, you have been guilty of incredulity; this is a fault that all My disciples should avoid. Blessed are they that have not seen, and have believed. Be not faithless, but believing. (John 20:27,29).

The theologian who expounds dogmas of faith must be severe in the choice of his proofs; the historian must proceed with rigorous circumspection in the narration of facts, but the ascetic writer, who cites examples to illustrate truths and edify the faithful, is not held to this strict rigor. The best authorized persons in the Church, such as Saint Gregory, Saint Bernard, Saint Francis de Sales, Saint Alphonsus Liguori, Bellarmine, and many others, as much distinguished for their learning as for their piety, when writing their excellent works knew nothing of the fastidious requirements of the present day - requirements which in nowise constitute progress.

In fact, if the spirit of our fathers in the faith was more simple, what is the cause of the disappearance of that ancient simplicity in the present time? Is it not the Protestant Rationalism with which, in our day, so many of our Catholics are infected? Is it not the spirit of reasoning and criticism that emanated from the Lutheran Reformation, propagated by French Philosophism, which, leading them to consider the things of God from a purely human point of view, makes them cold, and alienates them from the Spirit of God? The Venerable Louis of Blois, speaking of the Revelations of Saint Gertrude, says: "This book contains treasures. Proud and carnal men," he adds, "who understand nothing of the Spirit of God, treat as reveries the writings of the holy virgin Gertrude, of Saint Mechtilde, Saint Hildegarde, and others; it is because they are ignorant of the familiarity with which God communicates Himself to humble, simple, and loving souls, and how in these intimate communications He is pleased to illumine these souls with the pure light of truth, without any shadow of error." (Louis of Blois, Epist. ad Florentium).

These words of Louis of Blois are serious. We did not wish to incur the reproach of this great master in the spiritual life, and, whilst avoiding a blameworthy credulity, we have collected with a certain kind of liberty those which seem to us at once the best authenticated and the most instructive. May they increase in those who read them devotion towards the faithful departed. May they profoundly inspire all who read them with a holy and salutary fear of Purgatory.

Note: It is from the lives of the saints, honored as such by the Church, and other illustrious servants of God, that we have taken the greater part of the examples herein cited. The reader who wishes to investigate these facts, in order to give them their just value, may without difficulty have recourse to the originals by the aid of our references. If the incident is drawn from the life of a saint, we indicate the day on which his name is entered in the martyrology, which is sufficient for consulting the Acta Sanctorum. If we mention any venerable personage, such as Father Joseph Anchieta, Apostle and Thaumaturgus of Brazil, whose life is not inserted in the volumes of the Bollandists, they must then have recourse to biographies and particular histories. For the examples borrowed from Father Rossignoli, Merveilles Divine dans les Ames du Purgatoire (trans. Postel; Toumai, Castennan), we content ourselves by marking the number of the Merveille. because the author has there indicated one or more sources whence he himself has drawn.

Translator's Preface

The author of this work is the well-known writer, Father Francis Xavier Schouppe, of the Society of Jesus. The reverend author scarcely needs any introduction to English readers, as several of his valuable works have been already translated from French into English. To the reverend clergy the author is best known through his works on Dogmatic Theology and Sacred Scripture, which, in the judgment of competent critics, possess the very highest order of merit. In this work on Purgatory they will find the same fullness and solidity of thought and judgment, joined with wonderful clearness and simplicity of diction, which distinguish the above works. We are confident that the reverend clergy will hail with delight the appearance of this work in an English garb, and will give it their esteemed encouragement.

A profound theologian and Scriptural scholar, acquainted as only very few are with the writings of the Fathers, the author was specially equipped for writing a work of this kind. A faithful and devoted son of the Church, his works are ever guided by a Catholic instinct, which keeps them in harmony with Catholic faith and Catholic practice.

The subject of this book is at once dear and interesting to every Catholic heart. About the existence of this intermediate state Catholics have no more doubt than of the existence of Heaven or Hell. The Church, by her authoritative teaching, has decided the matter for all time. "The Catholic Church," says the Council of Trent, "instructed by the Holy Ghost, has, from the sacred writings and the ancient tradition of the Fathers, taught in sacred councils, and very recently in the Ecumenical Synod, that there is a Purgatory, and that the souls there detained are helped by the suffrages of the faithful, but principally by the acceptable Sacrifice of the Altar." (Sess. 25).

The pious reader cannot fail to have his faith nourished and strengthened after reading a chapter of this book; and realizing how much help and comfort he can bring to the poor souls, his charity will prompt him to come to their assistance and rescue. Their cries, wafted hither on the wings of faith from the shore of eternity, will not appeal to him in vain. A new interest will spring up within him for that realm of pain yet also of hope, where those not wholly pure are cleansed and prepared for everlasting joys.

This work has been translated into English at the earnest request of the author. Wishing that devotion for the holy souls might grow and flourish in many hearts, he considered that his purpose would be best attained by having this work translated into English, for the benefit of English-speaking readers. It may also interest the readers of this book to know that the learned author is at present laboring for the salvation of souls among the pagan people of India.

The translator has specially aimed at giving the exact sense of the author, without any attempt at style or literary finish. Such an attempt, she believes, would detract from the value of the work as a whole.

For the rest, should this work contribute even in a small measure to the greater glory of God and of Holy Church; should it make the doctrine of Purgatory better understood; should it convince its readers of the excellence of devotion for the holy souls, and inspire at least some of them with a holy zeal to practice it, then indeed would the ambition of the author and translator be realized.

-J.J. 5.

Protestation of the Author

In conformity to the decree of Urban VIII, Sanctissimum, of March 13, 1525, we declare that if in this work we have cited facts represented to be supernatural, nothing but a personal and private authority is to be attached to our opinion; the discernment of facts of this kind belongs to the supreme authority of the Church.

CANON XXX. SESSION VI. THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 13 JANUARY 1547

If anyone says that after the reception of the grace of justification the guilt is so remitted and the debt of eternal punishment so blotted out to every repentant sinner, that no debt of temporal punishment remains to be discharged, either in this world or in Purgatory, before the gates of Heaven can be opened, let him be anathema.

DECREE CONCERNING PURGATORY. THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. SESSION XXV. 4 DECEMBER 1563

Since the Catholic Church, instructed by the Holy Ghost, has, following the sacred writings and the ancient tradition of the Fathers, taught in sacred councils and very recently in this ecumenical council, that there is a Purgatory, and that the souls there detained are aided by the suffrages of the faithful and chiefly by the Acceptable Sacrifice of the Altar, the Holy Council commands the bishops that they strive diligently to the end that the sound doctrine of Purgatory, transmitted by the Fathers and sacred councils, be believed and maintained by the faithful of Christ, and be everywhere taught and preached.

CANONS CONCERNING THE SACRAMENT OF PENANCE. THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. SESSION XIV, 25 NOVEMBER 1551

Canon 12. If anyone says that God always pardons the whole penalty together with the guilt and that the satisfaction of penitents is nothing else than the faith by which they perceive that Christ has satisfied for them, let him be anathema.

Canon 13. If anyone says that satisfaction for sins, as to their temporal punishment, is in no way made to God through the merits of Christ by the punishments inflicted by Him and patiently borne, or by those imposed by the priest, or even those voluntarily undertaken, as by fasts, prayers, almsgiving or other works of piety, and that therefore the best penance is merely a new life, let him be anathema.

Canon 14. If anyone says that the satisfactions by which penitents atone for their sins through Christ are not a worship of God but traditions of men, which obscure the doctrine of grace and the true worship of God and the beneficence itself of the death of Christ, let him be anathema.

Canon 15. If anyone says that the keys have been given to the Church only to loose and not also to bind, and that therefore priests, when imposing penalties on those who confess, act contrary to the purpose of the keys and to the institution of Christ, and that it is a fiction that there remains often a temporal punishment to be discharged after the eternal punishment has by virtue of the keys been removed, let him be anathema.

CHAPTER IX - ON THE WORKS OF SATISFACTION. SESSION XIV. THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 25 NOVEMBER 1551

It [the Council] teaches furthermore that the liberality of the divine munificence is so great that we are able through Jesus Christ to make satisfaction to God the Father, not only by punishments voluntarily undertaken by ourselves to atone for sins, or by those imposed by the judgment of the priest according to the measure of our offense, but also, and this is the greatest proof of love, by the temporal afflictions imposed by God and borne patiently by us.

From Fr. Shouppe's 'Purgatory': Emperor Maurice Asks to Atone for His Sin on Earth

Posted by: Stone - 11-03-2024, 06:16 AM - Forum: Resources Online - No Replies

Emperor Maurice Asks to Atone for His Sin on Earth
Adapted from Purgatory by Fr. F.X. Shouppe, S.J.,
London, 1920, pp 52-53

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Emperor Maurice, as represented in the Rulers of the Byzantine Empire by Kibea

TIA | November 2, 2024

To prefer the fire of Purgatory to making penance and prayer in this life is the greatest of follies. The Byzantine Emperor Maurice (582-602) understood this and acted wisely. History relates that this Prince, notwithstanding his good qualities which had endeared him to St. Gregory the Great, towards the close of his reign committed a grave fault, and atoned for it by an exemplary repentance.

His was a reign marked by constant warfare against the Avars and Slavs in the Balkans, Lombards in Italy and the Persians from the East. This outstanding General helped transform the shattered late Roman Empire into a new and well-organized medieval Byzantine Empire.

Having lost a battle against the Khan or King of the Avars in 599, Maurice refused to pay the ransom of the prisoners, although he was asked but the sixth part of a gold coin, which is a mere pittance.

This mean refusal put the barbarous conqueror into such a violent rage that he ordered the immediate massacre of all of the 12,000 Roman soldiers.

Then the Emperor acknowledged his fault, and felt it so keenly, that he sent money and candles to the principal churches and monasteries, to beg that God would be pleased to punish him in this life rather than in the next.

These prayers were heard. In the year 602, after ordering his troops to pass the winter beyond the Danube because of shortage of funds to return them home, a mutiny arose among them. They drove away their general, and proclaimed their leader Phocas as Emperor and marched on Constantinople, which ceded to them, deserting the Emperor Maurice.

His five sons were killed before Maurice's eyes

Maurice was obliged to fly in the night, after having divested himself of all marks of royalty. Nevertheless, he was recognized. He was taken, together with his wife, five of his sons, and his three daughters – that is to say, his whole family with the exception of his eldest son.

Maurice and his five sons were unmercifully slaughtered near Chalcedon. The carnage began with the youngest of the Princes, who was put to death before the eyes of the unfortunate father, without uttering a word of complaint. The rest were then beheaded, and finally the Emperor himself.

Remembering the pains of the other world, Maurice esteemed himself happy to suffer in the present life, and throughout the massacre of all of his five sons, he spoke no other words than those of the Psalmist, Thou art just, O Lord, and Thy judgment is right (Ps. 118:137).

Maurice, portrait on a solidus

Archbishop Viganò: Homily for the Feast of All Saints

Posted by: Stone - 11-03-2024, 06:11 AM - Forum: Archbishop Viganò - No Replies

Placare, Christe
Homily on the Feast of All Saints

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Auferte gentem perfidam
credentium de finibus,
ut unus omnes unicum
ovile nos Pastor regat.

The race perfidious expel
from regions where the faithful dwell
let one sole shepherd be our guide
all Christians in one fold abide.

- Hymn. Placare Christe servulis

Only a few days ago the Divine Liturgy intoned the praises of the King of kings, proclaiming the Divine and Universal Kingship of Our Lord Jesus Christ. Today the Holy Church celebrates His Heavenly Court: Most Holy Mary, Queen; the nine angelic Hierarchies: Angels, Archangels, Principalities, Powers, Virtues, Dominions, Thrones, Cherubim and Seraphim; the Prophets of the Old Testament; the Apostles, the Martyrs, the Confessors of the Faith, the Doctors, the Holy Virgins, the Monks and Hermits, and all that infinite host of blessed souls who populate the Heavenly Jerusalem, beata pacis visio.

The hymn of Vespers of this feast, Placare Christe Servulis, is a song to our comrades in arms, to the knights of the Incarnate Word and of the most august Virgin, to the cœlicoli, the inhabitants of Heaven who enjoy the beatific vision in the presence of the Most Holy Trinity. Saint John, in his vision on Patmos, contemplates turbam magnam, quam dinumerare nemo poterat (Rev 7:9), and it is significant how he notes that these are people ex omni tribu, et lingua, et populo, et natione – of every tribe, and language, and people, and nation. An immense multiracial and multiethnic army, but united by the profession of the same Faith: They all stood before the throne and before the Lamb, dressed in white robes, and had palm branches in their hands (Rev 7:9). The angels, the elders, and the four living creatures prostrated themselves before the throne of the Divine Majesty, saying: Amen! Praise and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and strength be to our God for ever and ever. Amen (Rev 7:12).

These words recall those that the Holy Church intones during the Canon of the Mass, a few moments before the Consecration: Holy, Holy, Holy Lord God of armies arrayed for battle! The heavens and the earth are full of your glory. Hosanna in the highest. And with the eyes of the spirit we see all creatures bowing to the Holy of Holies, from angelic pure spirits to human beings, from animals to plants, whose perfections are a ray of the supreme perfections of God. That wonderful Canticle of the Three Children (Dan 3:52-90) which we priests recite at Lauds comes to mind: Benedicite, cæli, Domino… Benedicite aquæ omnes, sol et luna, stellæ cæli, omnis imber et ros, ignis et æstus, rores et pruina, gelu et frigus, glacies et nives, noctes et dies, lux et tenebræ, fulgura et nubes, montes et colles, universa germinantia in terra, fontes, maria et flumina, cete, omnes volucres cæli, omnes bestiæ et pecora… laudate et superexaltate eum in sæcula.

Joining in the praise that rises up from Creation, there are the sons of men, the priests of the Lord, His servants, the spirits and souls of the just, the saints and the humble of heart, and the three youths who face the flames of the furnace unharmed: Benedicite, Anania, Azaria, Misaël, Domino: laudate et superexaltate eum in saecula: quia eruit nos de inferno, et salvos fecit de manu mortis: et liberavit nos de medio ardentis flammae, et de medio ignis eruit nos: for He has freed us from hell and saved us from the grip of death; He has freed us from the burning flames and saved us from the fire.

This wonderful vision, in which we almost perceive the beatitude enjoyed by our companions the Saints, is certainly consoling for us who have daily before our eyes not the Civitas Dei, but the Civitas diaboli. Down here everything is falsehood, vice, fornication, murder, sin, ugliness, death, and chaos. But what could we expect from the world – of which Satan is prince – when the Lordship of Our Lord Jesus Christ is denied and blasphemed, and the societas christiana is betrayed and despised? When the Nations prefer the abject tyranny of Satan to the gentle yoke of Christ the King and High Priest?

The Feasts of Christ the King and All Saints – together with tomorrow’s Commemoration of the Faithful Departed – remind us that we are exsules, citizens of a homeland from which we are still far away from and to which we must return; exsules filii Evæ, wounded by original sin and restored to Grace in Mary Most Holy, the new Eve; in hac lacrimarum valle, which is a dark and cold valley, full of pain and trials; a valley that we pass through gementes et flentes, considering what we have lost with sin and looking with hope to what awaits us, if only we listen to the voice of Him who loved us so much that He became Incarnate, suffered and died for our Redemption and so that we might merit, while we are in this life, the enjoyment of His eternal triumph in the next.

I recalled this in my homily for the Feast of Christ the King, quoting the words of Our Lord: You say, I am King. I was born for this, and for this I came into the world: to bear witness to the Truth; Whoever comes from the truth listens to My voice (Jn 18:37). Whoever comes from the truth listens to the voice of Christ, because in Him he recognizes his God, Lord, and King, and to Whom he recognizes sovereign divine rights, both of lineage and of conquest. You are my friends, if you do what I command you (Jn 15:14).

The Saints that the Church celebrates and honors are her true children and our true friends. Their heroic example is not a remote and unachievable model, but the proof that in our nothingness we can make ourselves docile to the action of Grace and be inflamed with Charity to the point of giving our very lives, facing the burning furnace, undergoing exile and prison. Even today there are Catholics who die or suffer for Christ; and in the once-Christian West many souls testify to their fidelity to the point of being arrested because they pray in silence in front of an abortion clinic, because they oppose gender ideology, because they denounce the crimes of their governments.

Each of us, in these times of tribulation, may possibly be called to the privilege of a sanctity conquered by Martyrdom. We must not think that it is always other Catholics, in distant lands, who have placed before them the choice between apostasy and death, because the time is over in which society was well-ordered and recognized the Lordship of Christ and His Law. This is the time of preparation and combat; it is the time of trial and persecution before the return in the glory of Our Lord. And when sin abounds, Grace abounds all the more.

The Mystery of the Communion of Saints unites in Charity the souls of the elect to their Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier, restoring the Divine Order that Satan once shattered. We invoke our heavenly Patrons, and first of all our Advocate and Lady, Regina Crucis: Placare, Christe, servulis, quibus Patris clementiam tuae ad tribunal gratiae Patrona Virgo postulat – O Christ, look favorably upon your servants, for whom the Virgin Patroness invokes your clemency, at the tribunal of the Father’s grace. And so may it be.

+ Carlo Maria Viganò, Archbishop

1 November MMXXIV
Omnium Sanctorum

Fr. Luigi Villa: There is a Hell

Posted by: Stone - 11-03-2024, 06:04 AM - Forum: Add'nl Clergy - No Replies

There is A Hell by Fr. Luigi Villa

The Dominican 'Libera me, Domine'

Posted by: Stone - 11-02-2024, 07:31 AM - Forum: Catholic Hymns - No Replies

The Dominican Libera me, Domine

Gregory DiPippo, NLM | November 2, 2024

One of the most beautiful and beloved pieces of the Gregorian chant repertoire is the last responsory of Matins of the Dead, Libera me, Domine, which is also sung during the Absolution at the catafalque. The Roman version, certainly the best known, is one of the rare examples of a responsory with more than one verse; another very prominent example is the very first responsory of the liturgical year, Aspiciens a longe on the First Sunday of Advent. Many medieval Uses expanded Libera me by adding more verses, and dozens of variants are attested. Here is the text of the Dominican version as sung on All Souls’ Day, which has three additional verses; the last and longest of these is particularly beautiful. Note that the verses Tremens factus sum and Dies illa are in the opposite order from the Roman version, and the Dominicans do not sing the words Requiem aeternam ... luceat eis with any of the responsories in their Office of the Dead. The verses Quid ego miserrimus and Nunc Christe are sung only on November 2.

R. Líbera me, Dómine, de morte aeterna in die illa tremenda, * Quando caeli movendi sunt et terra, * Dum véneris judicáre sáeculum per ignem.

V. j Dies illa, dies irae, calamitátis et miseriæ, dies magna et amára valde. Quando.
V. ij Tremens factus sum ego et tímeo, dum discussio vénerit atque ventúra ira. Dum.
V. iij Quid ego misérrimus, quid dicam, vel quid faciam, cum nil boni pérferam ante tantum júdicem? Quando.
V. iv Nunc, Christe, te pétimus, miserére, quæsumus; qui venisti redímere pérditos, noli damnáre redemptos. Dum.
V. v Creátor omnium rerum Deus, qui me de limo terrae formasti, et mirabíliter proprio sánguine redemisti, corpusque meum, licet modo putrescat, de sepulchro facies in die judicii resuscitári: exaudi, exaudi me, ut ánimam meam in sinu Abrahae, Patriarchae tui, júbeas collocári.

Repetitur R. Líbera me.

R. Deliver me, O Lord, from eternal death on that awful day * when the heavens and the earth shall be shaken, * when Thou shalt come to judge the world by fire.

V. j That day shall be a day of wrath, of calamity and misery, a great day, and exceeding bitter. When the heavens...
V. ij Trembling do I become, and fearful, when the trial and wrath shall come. When Thou shalt come...
V. iij What shall I say or do, most wretched man that I am, since I have no good to bring before so great a judge? When the heavens...
V. iv Now, o Christ, we ask Thee, have mercy, we beseech Thee; Thou who came to redeem the lost, condemn not the redeemed. When Thou shalt come....
V. v Creator of all things, o God, Who formed me from the slime of the earth, and wondrously redeemed me with Thy own Blood, and, although it now rot, will cause my body to be raised up from the grave on the day of judgment: hear, o hear me, that Thou may command my soul to be placed in the bosom of Abraham, Thy Patriarch.

Deliver me, o Lord...

Abp. Viganò uses AI to show how Communion in the hand destroys belief in the Real Presence

Posted by: Stone - 11-02-2024, 05:27 AM - Forum: Archbishop Viganò - No Replies

EXCLUSIVE: Abp. Viganò uses AI to show how Communion in the hand destroys belief in the Real Presence
In an exclusive piece for LifeSiteNews, Archbishop Viganò said that when he asked ChatGPT how a pope could undermine belief in the Real Presence of the Eucharist, the AI gave answers nearly identical to the Modernist reforms implemented after Vatican II.

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Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò

Oct 31, 2024
(LifeSiteNews) — The following is a brief reflection given by Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò after he was asked if he could comment on the findings of the largest survey of Catholics in the United States which found that the #1 reason for loss of faith in the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist is communion in the hand.

The poll conducted by the Real Presence Coalition confirms what was already evident when Paul VI authorized the modification of the discipline in this matter. First of all, it was clear that the so-called “reforms” imposed by a group of subversives Modernists did not respond to any request “from the grass roots.” Neither the Novus Ordo nor the new ways of administering Communion were the fruit of a real need of the ecclesial body. The opposite is true, however, that the so-called liturgical reform was intended to help spread the doctrine it contained among the clergy and the faithful, causing the πρᾶξις (praxis) to influence the δόξα (belief). The concept summarized by the adage Lex orandi, lex credendi has been widely adopted by the proponents of the conciliar reform, but in reverse and maliciously: in this case it is not in fact the oρθοδοξία (orthodoxy) that determines the ὀρθοπραξία (orthopraxy), but the ἑτεροπραξία (heteropraxy) that shapes the ἑτεροδοξία (heterodoxy).

The faithful who are asked to kneel to receive Holy Communion in the mouth are led by the gestures they make to recognize the Real Presence in the Sacred Species and to adhere to the corresponding Catholic doctrine. Similarly, the faithful who are asked not to kneel and to touch the Host with their hands end up believing the heterodox doctrine insinuated by the Reformed rites. This doctrinal change is further favored when the ritual change replaces an entirely opposite practice.

This shows unequivocally that those who meddled with the Liturgy after the Council knew very well what would be the disruptive scope of the Novus Ordo in corrupting the Faith of the people of God. They did not explicitly modify the lex credendi, but wanted to express their deviations in the lex orandi, knowing full well that it would have been much easier to make people lose faith in the Real Presence by making them receive Communion standing and in their hands, rather than preaching these errors from the pulpits while continuing to administer Communion on their knees and in the mouth. The fact that the Hierarchy has imposed standing and holding Communion on the faithful has been perceived as a repudiation of the past and a rejection of previous doctrine.

The evidence for this reasoning is confirmed by an unusual source: ChatGPT, a conversational “artificial intelligence” app. I tried to interrogate ChatGTP not because I consider it a true form of intelligence but because its data processing system identifies causal relationships on the mathematical model and it is therefore interesting to see how an algorithm is able to detect what the mainstream narrative pretends not to see.

This is the question I asked:

If a Pope wanted to weaken the faith of Catholics in the Real Presence, how should he modify the rite of Communion?

This is the answer I got:

If a Pope wanted to weaken the Catholic faith in the Real Presence, he might consider some changes to the rite of Communion, such as:

Simplified rituals: Reduce the number of ritual elements that emphasize the sacredness of Communion, such as worship or genuflection.
Symbolic elements: Promote an emphasis on the symbolism of the bread and wine, rather than on their transformation into the Body and Blood of Christ.
Verbal communication: Use language that highlights Communion as a commemorative act rather than an actual encounter with Christ.
Modification of prayers: Change prayers and liturgical texts to reflect a more symbolic vision of Communion, minimizing references to the Real Presence.
Flexibility in administration: Allow alternative forms of receiving Communion that may seem less sacramental, such as receiving it in a more informal form or without liturgical celebration.

These changes could contribute to a more muted view of the Real Presence among the faithful.

We know very well that so-called “artificial intelligence” is nothing more than a very fast computer system for the collection and analysis of a huge amount of data; but precisely for this reason we can understand how a machine without conscience knows how to answer a question clearly, revealing the premeditation and malice of those who have tampered with the Liturgy of the Church in order to tamper with the Church’s Faith.

In the face of the evidence of the subversive intentions of the conciliar revolution and the even more evident disaster that it has caused in the faithful and in the entire ecclesial body, it is indispensable to oppose a contrary action, which must necessarily consist, on the one hand, in the sine glossa rejection of the Novus Ordo and of the doctrinal and ecclesiological structure that underlies it; and on the other hand, in a full return to the traditional Apostolic Rite, which by the very admission of the proponents of Vatican II is incompatible with their “church.” This liturgical restoration cannot and must not be motivated by mere aesthetic or taste preferences, but by the awareness that the only lex orandi of the Catholic Church is the one sanctioned by two thousand years of uninterrupted and integral profession of the same Faith, and not the fruit of a heretical bricolage cobbled together by Freemasons and Protestants.

+ Carlo Maria Viganò, Archbishop

October 30, 2024

Why Beauty Matters

Posted by: Stone - 10-31-2024, 10:45 AM - Forum: General Commentary - No Replies

Why Beauty Matters

And “Art for Art’s Sake” Is Anti-Human

David Clayton/NLM | October

The purpose of art and the role of beauty in the culture have been subjects of ongoing debate. While some view art as existing purely for its own sake - ‘art for art’s sake’ - divorced from any broader utility or message, others argue that art must serve a didactic or ideological function. The traditional Christian perspective, however, offers a distinct understanding that avoids these extremes, and the result is art for God’s sake, which, if done well, will always be art for our sake too.

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The interior of St Mark’s Cathedral Venice: Is this art for art’s sake, or art for God’s sake? (Image from Wikimedia Commons by Rob Hurson)

Central to the Christian view is the recognition of the profound unity of the material and spiritual dimensions in the human person. As beings composed of both body and soul, humans possess material and spiritual needs. Consequently, the purpose of art cannot be reduced solely to aesthetic considerations or purely practical or ideological aims. Rather, true art must harmonise these aspects, reflecting and serving the totality of human nature, material and spiritual.

This understanding is rooted in Christian anthropology, which sees beauty not as a superfluous addition to an object’s utility, but as an integral part of its purpose. When an object is truly beautiful, its beauty is seen as a sign that its purpose is in accord with God’s governance of the world—a reflection of divine inspiration or the beauty of Creation itself.

Take, for example, something as mundane as a toothbrush. While its primary purpose is the practical one of cleaning teeth and promoting bodily health, a well-designed toothbrush incorporates elements of beauty that speak to a broader understanding of human well-being. Its harmonious design serves its practical function and invites the user to consider the more profound implications of oral hygiene for overall health and spiritual vitality. While few will consciously contemplate such things when brushing their teeth (least of all first thing in the morning or last thing at night!), most of us, even with something as simple as a toothbrush, would not choose an ugly one in preference to a beautiful one. This means that we are accepting the invitation of beauty at some level.
This principle is even more evident and more important in works of art with a direct spiritual or liturgical purpose, such as sacred art or architecture. In these cases, beauty plays a crucial role in elevating the human spirit and facilitating the contemplation of the divine. For instance, the beauty of a cathedral is not merely an aesthetic embellishment, but a vital component of its purpose as a house of worship, drawing the hearts and minds of the faithful towards heaven.

The Christian perspective recognises that individuals possess free will and can respond positively or negatively to the call of beauty. While beauty can inspire a deepening desire for virtue and a closer relationship with God, it can also be rejected or dismissed as mere sentimentality.

Ultimately, the traditional Christian view sees art and beauty not as ends in themselves, but as means of elevating the human person and facilitating a deeper engagement with the spiritual realm. Beauty is not a superficial adornment but a reflection of the divine order – a sign that an object or work of art fulfils its intended purpose in harmony with God’s design.

In this understanding, the apprehension of beauty is not merely an emotional response but a profound experience that can engage the intellect, will, and emotions in a multifaceted way. It is a call to contemplate the divine, to pursue virtue, and to recognise the unity of the material and spiritual dimensions of human existence.

By integrating these perspectives, the traditional Christian view offers a nuanced and holistic approach to the purpose of art and the role of beauty – one that recognises their intrinsic value while situating them within a broader framework of human flourishing and spiritual growth.

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Introducing the Newest Jubilee Mascot: Tenebro

Posted by: Stone - 10-31-2024, 08:03 AM - Forum: Vatican II and the Fruits of Modernism - No Replies

Introducing the Newest Jubilee Mascot: Tenebro

NLM [adapted] | October 30, 2024

I am sure that by now, all of our readers have met Luce, the official mascot of the upcoming Jubilee, who was introduced to the world on Monday as an expression of the Church’s desire “to live even within the pop culture so beloved by our youth.” However, as many have noted, the style of the new mascot seems geared to appeal to those who are so young that they are just as likely to fall asleep under a pew as to sit in one, leaving the unfortunate impression that the Faith is something to be grown out of. Rightly might one suspect that she holds little interest for groups within the Church whose numbers are growing, such as young men, and those who love traditional forms of worship.

To meet this problem, the wise men of the Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith have decided that the Jubilee of 2025 will have a whole range of mascots, designed to appeal to a variety of demographics. New Liturgical Movement is very proud to have been chosen as the outlet for introducing the world to the first new character in the Luce expanded universe, her putative (n.b.!) nemesis Tenebro.

The official backstory of Tenebro is that he is one of the Rigidicons, a group who are reputed to have the dark power to gradually extinguish all the lights of progress that have been lit within the Church over the last 60 years. (This power is suggested by the fact that they dress primarily in black.) In early episodes of the upcoming animated series, it will appear to many that Tenebro is trying to hinder Luce from completing her pilgrimage to Rome.

But, as is so often the case, the real story is a lot more complicated. (Spoiler alert!) It will be gradually revealed that another character, the Pontiff Supreme Benedicto, transformed the power of the Rigidicons, such that the lights which they extinguish come blazing back to life and illuminate the whole Church. Tenebro is one of a growing faction among the Rigidicons who have embraced this transformation of their power for good, which is conveyed through the diadem on his chest. (It will also be Tenebro who teaches the young Luce that a rosary is not a necklace...)
New Liturgical Movement will be the first to let you know as each of a whole spate of new Jubilee mascot characters is brought out to an eagerly waiting Church and world.

Oratory Conference: "Auctorem Fidei" of Pope Pius VI 10/29/24

Posted by: Deus Vult - 10-30-2024, 09:52 AM - Forum: Conferences - No Replies

"Auctorem Fidei" of Pope Pius VI 10/29/24 (NH)

House committee finds Biden-Harris admin spent $900 million on COVID propaganda

Posted by: Stone - 10-30-2024, 05:58 AM - Forum: Pandemic 2020 [Secular] - No Replies

House committee finds Biden-Harris admin spent $900 million on COVID propaganda
Despite (or perhaps partially because of) the Biden administration's 'We Can Do This' promotional campaign for COVID vaccines and masks, public trust in the medical establishment continued to decline.

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Drew Angerer / Getty Images

Oct 29, 2024
WASHINGTON, D.C. (LifeSiteNews [slightly adapted - not all hyperlinks included below]) – The Biden administration spent $900 million in taxpayer dollars to unsuccessfully sell COVID-19 vaccines and masking to the general public, according to a recently completed investigation by the Republican-led U.S. House Energy & Commerce Committee.

The report, begun in April 2023 and released on October 23, sought to explore the failure of the administration’s “We Can Do This” messaging campaign to prevent public trust in the medical establishment from continuing to decline, as highlighted by a July 2023 study in the Annals of Medicine that found just 13.2% of children under five and 43.9% of youth ages 12-17 were vaccinated for COVID, and that even among those who were just under 40% of the younger group and 55.3% of those 12-17 were boosted.

The “(m)ain reasons for non-vaccination among reluctant parents were concerns about side effects (53.3%), lack of trust in COVID-19 vaccines (48.7%), the belief that children do not need a COVID-19 vaccine (38.8%), lack of trust in the government (35.6%), and that children in the household were not members of a high-risk group (32.8%),” that paper said.

The House GOP report found that “much of the scientific content” used by the campaign was based on data and advice from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC), and as such was “deeply flawed” on numerous critical points that exacerbated mistrust rather than allaying it. Among the medical misinformation it promoted were claims that the COVID vaccines effectively stopped COVID transmission, exaggerations of the effectiveness of masking, and exaggerations of the risk the virus posed to children, which in reality was almost nonexistent.

The campaign also relied on celebrities to cut advertisements promoting vaccination as well as full-time social media influencers to do the same directly to their audiences, with little success. It also worked to “regularly synthesize findings from Google search trends and monitor social listening tools (weekly reports, trackers) to recommend, develop, shepherd through clearance, and traffic a range of timely static and video ads (…) on platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, Reddit, YouTube, Google, and Bing.” The report says it is “unclear whether personally identifiable information was in any way used by Google in the development of the Campaign for the custom search dashboard, and to what extent children’s viewing habits were involved in the Campaign.”

“While the Biden-Harris administration’s public health guidance led to prolonged closures of schools and businesses, the NIH was spending nearly a billion dollars of taxpayer money trying to manipulate Americans with advertisements — sometimes containing erroneous or unproven information. By overpromising what the COVID-19 vaccines could do — in direct contradiction of the FDA’s authorizations — and over emphasizing the virus’ risk to children and young adults, the Biden-Harris administration caused Americans to lose trust in the public health system,” said the chair of the committee, Republican U.S. Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers of Washington said. “Our investigation also uncovered the extent to which public funding went to Big Tech companies to track and monitor Americans, underscoring the need for stronger online data privacy protections.”

Reviewing the report on X, Stanford University infectious disease expert Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, one of the nation’s most prominent critics of the COVID establishment, called it “devastating” to the CDC’s credibility.

He noted that the chief strategy adopted by Fors Marsh Group (FMG), the public relations firm hired for the campaign, was to exaggerate the risk of dying from COVID while downplaying the lack of evidence that the vaccines stopped transmission of the virus. To that end, the campaign continued to promote vaccine mandates even after the administration knew the shots available at the time were not effective against COVID’s Delta variant.

At the same time, the campaign sent mixed messaging that not only undermined its own message about the vaccines but also the government’s own guidance when it came to promoting other preferred measures. In March 2021, advertisements insisted on even vaccinated Americans continuing to wear masks at a time when the CDC itself was claiming vaccination rendered masking unnecessary.

Bhattacharya also noted that Dr. Ashish Jha, Biden’s own COVID adviser, “waited until December 2022 (right after leaving government service) to tell the country that ‘(t)here is no study in the world that shows that masks work that well.’ What took him so long?”

A large body of evidence has linked significant risks to the COVID vaccines, which were developed and reviewed in a fraction of the time vaccines usually take under the Trump administration’s Operation Warp Speed initiative.

The federal Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) reports 37,966 deaths, 218,241 hospitalizations, 21,952 heart attacks, and 28,641 myocarditis and pericarditis cases as of October 4, among other ailments. U.S. Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) researchers have recognized a “high verification rate of reports of myocarditis to VAERS after mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccination,” leading to the conclusion that “under-reporting is more likely” than over-reporting.

An analysis of 99 million people across eight countries published February in the journal Vaccine “observed significantly higher risks of myocarditis following the first, second and third doses” of mRNA-based COVID vaccines, as well as signs of increased risk of “pericarditis, Guillain-Barré syndrome, and cerebral venous sinus thrombosis,” and other “potential safety signals that require further investigation.” In April, the CDC was forced to release by court order 780,000 previously undisclosed reports of serious adverse reactions, and a study out of Japan found “statistically significant increases” in cancer deaths after third doses of mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccines and offered several theories for a causal link.

In Florida, an ongoing grand jury investigation into the vaccines’ manufacturers is slated to release a highly anticipated report on the shots, and a lawsuit by the state of Kansas has been filed accusing Pfizer of misrepresentation for calling the shots “safe and effective.”

Forced masking in public was similarly found to be ineffective at best in limiting the spread of the virus. More than 170 studies have found that masks fail to stop COVID while instead being harmful, especially to children, who evidence finds face little-to-no-danger from COVID itself. By contrast, evidence suggests that the ability to see faces is critical for early development.

Vatican unveils Jubilee Year mascot ‘Luce’ created by pro-LGBT artist

Posted by: Stone - 10-30-2024, 05:53 AM - Forum: Vatican II and the Fruits of Modernism - No Replies

Vatican unveils Jubilee Year mascot ‘Luce’ created by pro-LGBT artist
The Vatican unveiled ‘Luce’ on Monday, a mascot created by Italian pro-LGBT artist Simone Legno designed for the 2025 Jubilee Year which aims to connect with young Catholics through ‘pop culture.’

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'Luce': The official mascot of the Jubilee Year 2025
Simone Legno/Tokidoki

Oct 29, 2024
(LifeSiteNews) — The Vatican has unveiled an official animated mascot for the upcoming Jubilee Year 2025 in an apparent attempt to appeal to more young people.

Revealed at a press conference Monday, the mascot is a female pilgrim named Luce (light) who has blue hair and wears a yellow raincoat, muddy boots, carries a staff, and, most notably, a rainbow-colored rosary around her neck. The character was created by Italian artist Simone Legno, whose company Tokidoki has promoted LGBT “Pride” month with materials similar in style to the newly released Vatican mascot.

In addition to Luce, there are three other mascots – Fe, Xin, and Sky – who don the other three colors on the Jubilee’s logo: red, green, and blue. Together, they make up “Luce and friends.”

A Jubilee Year is a special year of pilgrimage and grace in which the Catholic faithful have unique opportunities to gain a plenary indulgence. The 2025 Jubilee Year will occur from December 24, 2024, through January 6, 2026, with the theme of “Spes non Confundit,” or “hope does not disappoint.”

The Vatican press release explained that Luce’s yellow raincoat and muddy boots symbolize her long journey through storms as a pilgrim, and the bright seashells in Luce’s eyes symbolize the Light of God.

Archbishop Rino Fisichella, the pro-prefect of the Dicastery for Evangelization and organizer of the Jubilee, said during Monday’s press conference that Luce’s shining eyes are a “symbol of hope in the heart.”

The archbishop noted that the dicastery will showcase “Luce and Friends” at this year’s Lucca Comics and Games convention for video games, comic books, and fantasy in Italy and again next year at the Holy See’s pavilion at the World Expo in Osaka, Japan.

Fisichella also emphasized that the mascot was created to draw more young people into the Church through “pop culture.” He hoped that having exhibits at these expos “will allow us to speak to younger generations about the theme of hope, which is more central than ever in the evangelical message,” while adding that the mascot underscores the Church’s will “to live even within the pop culture so beloved by our youth.”

Simone Legno, the Italian artist behind “Luce and Friends” and Tokidoki co-founder, echoed Fisichella’s sentiments about the Jubilee year as a “unique opportunity” for the Church to engage with young people.

“The Jubilee is undoubtedly a unique opportunity for encounter and dialogue for millions of people, including many young people. I hope that the pilgrim Luce can represent the sentiments that resonate in the hearts of the younger generations,” Legno said.

The artist also wrote about being raised Catholic in the press release. “I grew up in Rome in a Catholic family, where I learned the principles of a faith grounded in generosity and respect for others,” Legno said.

Despite growing up Catholic, Legno’s company, Tokidoki, has previously endorsed “LGBT pride,” selling “pride”-themed merchandise such as digital wallpapers, “art,” and hats on its website.

This is not the first time Pope Francis’s Vatican has appeared to promote pro-LGBT artwork. In 2022, the Synod on Synodality’s social media accounts posted images that showed an individual wearing a t-shirt with the word “pride” written in rainbow letters standing next to a woman dressed as a priest. Another image seemed to show the phrase “Catholic Identity” juxtaposed with “LGBTQ+ Identity.” Cardinal Mario Grech defended the artwork, saying it was simply part of being a “listening church.”

SAINT GERTRUDE

Posted by: Stone - 10-29-2024, 03:57 PM - Forum: The Saints - No Replies

SAINT GERTRUDE
By WILFRED H. WOLLEN, B.A.
Taken from here.
Nihil Obstat: JOSEPH P. NEWTH, C.C., Censor Theol. Deput.
Imprimi Potest: @ IOANNES CAROLUS, Archiep. Dublinen., Hiberniae Primas. Dublini, die 25° Feb., anno 1955.

In the year 1229, Count Burchard of Mansfield, following the custom of pious nobles of his time, founded near his castle at Mansfield, in Saxony, a community of nuns under the rule of the Cistercian branch of the Benedictine family. (*) Five years later, to secure greater quietness, they removed to Rossdorf finally settling in 1258 at Helfta, near the town of Eisleben. Helfta was a place of great natural charm, a fertile valley rich with meadows and cornfields, watered by a silvery stream-a fit setting for lives graced by the beauty of holiness. At the time of its establishment there, the convent, still in its first fervour and a model of spirituality, was ruled by the saintly Abbess Gertrude of Hackeborn. This remarkable woman had given evidence so early of exceptional spiritual and mental powers that she had been unanimously elected Abbess at the age of nineteen. For forty years she sustained her charge with admirable fitness, charity and zeal, loved by her subjects as a mother. As assistant, she had her sister, St. Mechtilde, who held the important office of cantor, mistress of novices and directress of the schools.

In St. Mechtilde's care was placed, in 1361, our Saint Gertrude, then a little girl of five. Gertrude was born on the feast of the Epiphany, January 6th, 1256, but her birthplace is unknown, probably it was at some distance from Helfta. The name and rank of her parents are also unrecorded. If not quite of obscure origin, it seems unlikely that her family held a high social position. After entering the school at Helfta she apparently never saw her parents again; perhaps they lived too far away, or possibly she was early left an orphan.

Gertrude was a most attractive child and possessed exceptional abilities which enabled her easily to out-distance her fellow-pupils in study. At that time education in the convent schools of Germany was of a high order. Instruction was not confined by any means to elementary studies; in some cases it extended even to theology. It is no wonder, then, that some of the glories of literature in the Middle Ages emanated from the German convents. At Helfta, the Abbess Gertrude and her sister assiduously promoted the cause of learning among the religious and their pupils. Gertrude became a most proficient Latin scholar. Study, indeed, was with her a passion; caring little for the ordinary distractions of childhood, she devoted to it all the time she could. When she passed in due course from the school into the community this intense interest remained. Later, after what she calls her 'conversion,' she felt that her literary studies had occupied too large a place in her life. While careful about the observance of the Rule, the recitation of the Divine Office and her spiritual exercises, she found perhaps a greater attraction in the pleasures of the mind. In her humility, no doubt, she exaggerates the former state of her soul. When she turned from secular studies to sacred, it is certain that the habits of diligence which she had formed in earlier years and the sound foundation of knowledge which she had built up were of incalculable value both to herself and to the Church.

Towards the end of Gertrude's twenty-fifth year a feeling of strong dissatisfaction with her life seized her. Her pride and joy in study disappeared. She felt isolated, and human consolation seemed of no avail. Then it was that our Lord drew her to Himself and showed her where to find repose. Peace came to her soul on the Monday before the Feast of Purification (Jan. 27th), 1281. When in the middle of the dormitory after Compline on that day, she tells us, she perceived our Lord, in the form of a beautiful youth, standing before her. Tenderly addressing her, He said: 'Thy salvation is at hand. Why art thou consumed with grief? Hast thou no counsellor that thou art so changed by sadness?' Then she adds: 'As he said these words, although I was certain of my bodily presence in the place of which I have spoken, nevertheless it seemed to me that I was in choir, in that corner where I was accustomed to say my tepid prayers, and there I heard these words: I will save thee and deliver thee; be without fear.' When He had said this, I saw His fine and delicate Hand take mine, as though solemnly to ratify these promises; then He added: Thou hast licked the earth with My enemies and sucked drops of honey amidst the thorns; return now to Me, and I will inebriate thee with the torrent of My Divine delights.' While Our Lord thus spoke, I looked and saw between us, that is to say to His right and to my left, a hedge which extended so far that neither in front nor behind could I perceive the end of it. The top of this hedge appeared to bristle with such a mass of thorns that I could see no means of reaching Him. I remained * It seems now to be definitely established that the foundation was not Benedictine, although it may have become so after St. Gertrude's time.

hesitating, carried away by my desire for Our Lord, and was on the point of falling when suddenly taking hold of me, He raised me without any difficulty and placed me by His side. I then recognised in the Hand which had just been given me as a pledge the resplendent jewels of those Sacred Wounds, which have made of no effect the handwriting that was against us.'

Thus took place Gertrude's 'conversion. Divine grace operating on a soul naturally prone to good, had hitherto preserved her from evil. Now, however, nothing less than perfection was her goal. With intense ardour she sought a closer union with God, and having now the support of her Divine Master, she made rapid progress towards that end. It was the Vigil of the Annunciation, 1281, that she felt for the first time that intimate union with God which she so greatly desired and which was to bear such marvellous fruit. While at first she enjoyed special delights only on the days on which she received Holy Communion, yet her ordinary state of union with Our Lord was so constant that nine years afterwards she could tell Him that He had not left her even for a moment, from her conversion until that time, except once for the space of eleven days, on account of a worldly conversation in which she had engaged.

Everything now spoke to her of God. In a charming little picture which she paints of an incident which happened soon after her conversion she shows how the beauties of nature may draw us to Him. 'it happened on a certain day,' she says, 'between the Resurrection and the Ascension, that I went into the court before Prime, and sitting down near the fountain, began to meditate on the beauty of the place. I was enchanted with the clearness of the flowing stream, the verdure of the trees surrounding the spot, the unrestricted flight of the birds and especially of the doves, but above all by the rare calm of this hidden retreat. I began to ponder in my mind what else I should desire to complete the charms of the place, and I concluded that I should like the presence of a sociable and loving friend, one capable, in a word, of cheering my solitude. Then Thou, O my God, the author of ineffable delights, Who, as I hope, didst prompt me to begin this meditation, didst also make Thyself the end of it, inspiring me with the thought suggested by the stream, that if by continual gratitude I should cause Thy graces to flow back to Thee; if, growing in the love of virtue, I should bring forth, like the trees, the fruit of good works; if, again, despising earthly things, I should fly heavenwards freely like the doves, and if, with my senses stranger to the tumult of exterior distractions, I should devote myself to Thee with all my soul, my heart would become for Thee a habitation full of delight.'

One of the first fruits of Gertrude's conversion was the readjustment of the relations between her intellectual and her spiritual life. In her case, she considered, the call to perfection involved the abandonment of her once-loved literary studies. The time that she had previously devoted to them she now felt it her duty to give to Holy Scripture and the theologians and Fathers of the Church, her favourites being St. Augustine, St. Gregory the Great and St. Bernard. The literary powers which her previous studies had developed she now put to excellent use by writing simple works for the people, explaining obscure passages of the Bible. Unfortunately all of these writings are lost, although we possess other most valuable works from her pen. She also procured copies of the Holy Scriptures for those who required them, apparently sometimes making transcripts with her own hand, printing yet being unknown.

As Gertrude's life was that of a simple nun in a contemplative order, it presents to us externally nothing of a startling nature. Her outward life, indeed, was a round of ordinary duties faithfully performed. She held the office of assistant to her former mistress, St. Mechtilde, but at times exterior occupations were given to her, and as the fame of her sanctity spread abroad strangers came to the convent seeking her advice. While she gladly gave her help, intercourse with the world was a real cross to her. 'Were I free to choose,' she said to Our Lord, 'I would have no other companionship and no other conversation but Thine. I abandon them all to return to Thee, O my Supreme Good and the one joy of my heart and soul.

Her well-informed and eloquent discourses often had striking effects. By her persuasive words, we are told, she would arouse in some the desire for salvation, give light to others whereby they might know God and their own defects, console the afflicted, or excite in other souls the more ardent love of God. A single word of hers, it was said, had more power to touch souls than whole sermons of the most celebrated preachers.

When her sisters in religion came to consult her, she would at any time willingly place herself at their disposal, even forsaking for them the delights of intimate intercourse with Our Lord. She used to say that the favours with which the excessive goodness of God enriched her unworthiness seemed to her like treasures hidden under a rubbishheap when kept to herself, but that immediately she revealed them to others they became like precious stones mounted in pure gold.

Gertrude's purity of heart was obvious to all who came in contact with her. Indeed the sisters used to say laughingly that she had a heart so pure that it would not be out of place among the relics on the altar. Her biographer relates that an old man of great authority declared that he had never met anyone a greater stranger to every motion of the senses than our saint; and he added that he did not wonder God had chosen to reveal His secret to her before all others; since He says in the Gospel: 'Blessed are the clean of heart, for they shall see God.'

Father Faber has said that in the creature humility is the infallible accompaniment of nearness to the Creator. St. Gertrude is a striking example of this truth. She considered no one so vile that he did not appear to her to be a more worthy recipient of God's gifts than herself. Each fresh access of grace deepened her sense of unworthiness. She recognised that the favours which God showered on His creatures are unmerited gifts. She thought with St. Teresa that 'if it seems to us that Our Lord has given us some virtue, we must regard it as a blessing received from Him that He can at any time take away from us.'

It was humility that urged Gertrude to consult others when she was about to undertake anything important, and readily to follow their advice even when it was contrary to her inclinations. It was humility, again, that both kept her for a time from making known her favours and also impelled her to reveal them, for while she feared to attract attention to herself, she felt that God did not give her His revelations for herself alone. An impetuosity natural to her temperament gave her frequent cause for humbling herself. Scrupulously careful herself about observance of the Rule, negligence on the part of others would bring down on them a reproach, sometimes severe. Then she would humbly beg her sisters to implore God to grant her the grace of gentleness and meekness. She endeavoured to obtain from Our Lord complete deliverence from these faults but learned from Him that He leaves these defects to His chosen souls so that they may bear in mind the weakness of their nature and realise that all their purity is only an effect of His free mercy.

As humility is, in the words of St. Augustine, 'the love of God reaching to contempt of self,' we should expect to find in one so humble as St. Gertrude an ardent love of God. This, indeed, was one of her most striking characteristics. Her love of God was shown by her complete submission to His will in small things as well as great. Our Lord taught her to make use of all the necessities of life, such as eating, drinking and sleeping, for the praise of God and the salvation of souls, in union with the love with which He had sanctified those actions when on earth. During Mass on a certain Palm Sunday, when she was suffering from extreme weakness, one of the sisters came and begged her to take some food. Her custom was never to take anything until she had heard the Passion. Asking Our Lord what she ought to do, she heard the reply: ' Take this refreshment, my beloved, in union with that love with which I, your Lover, before I suffered on the Cross, refusing to drink the wine mingled with myrrh and gall, after I had tasted it. ' At these words she submitted her will to God and gave Him thanks. Our Lord then showed her His Heart and said: 'Behold the cup wherein is preserved the memory of that saying, When He had tasted He would not drink. In it I present you with the desire which made me refuse to drink the draught in order that it might be reserved for you. Drink it then freely, for I, the experienced Physician, have tasted it, and have prepared it for you as a most salutary potion. The desire of suffering much for men prevented Me from drinking the wine mingled with myrrh and gall that was offered Me . . . With the same love must you, on the contrary, take all that is necessary and profitable, that you may live the longer for My service.

'In the cup offered Me, there are three considerations, and you must do three things in memory thereof. First, you must perform all your actions joyfully for My glory; this is donated by the wine. Secondly, you must make use of the conveniences of life, that you may be able to suffer the longer for My love; this is signified by the myrrh, which preserves from corruption. Thirdly, you must be quite willing for My love to be deprived of the joys of My sweet presence in Heaven and to remain in this vale of misery as long as it pleases Me; this is indicated by the gall. Whenever you use the conveniences of life with this intention, I will regard you as you would a friend who drank all the gall offered you, in order to give you in exchange the sweetest nectar .

St. Gertrude's general indifference to the material necessities of every-day life, such as food and clothing, is shown by the manner in which she would choose them. Shutting her eyes, she would take the first object she touched, and then, whatever her natural preference might be, she would regard it with affection as a direct gift from God.

St. Gertrude, as we have seen, did not allow her zeal for God's service to infringe on the charity which she owed to her neighbour. One of the fruits of her love for God was the compassion which she bestowed for His sake on all those in need or distress. On one occasion we are told that ' Gertrude had risen to say Matins, although in a very weak state, and she had already finished the first Nocturn when another sister who was also ill came to her, and Gertrude charitably began to recite the office with devotion all over again with her. Afterwards at Mass, while she was devoutly meditating on Our Lord, she saw her soul clothed in most wonderful apparel and magnificently adorned with precious stones emitting a marvellous light. Our Lord then made known to her that she had deserved these adornments because in humble charity she had said part of Matins over again with a younger sister, and that her vesture shone with as many ornaments as she had recited words. She then remembered certain negligences which she had not yet confessed on account of the absence of her confessor, and laid her trouble before Our Lord, Who said to her: Why do you bewail your negligences, you who are so gloriously clothed with the robe of charity, which covereth a multitude of sins ? How can I console myself, she answered, with the thought that charity covers my sins, when I see myself still stained with them?' Charity not only covers sins,' replied Our Lord, but like a burning sea consumes within itself and annihilates venial faults and moreover overwhelms the soul with merits.'

St. Gertrude's compassion for the afflicted extended to all living creatures, and when she saw animals in pain she would feel the deepest pity for them and implore God's mercy for their sufferings.

Nor did Gertrude's charity stop at the living; she showed the greatest zeal for the welfare of the Holy Souls in Purgatory. We are told that having offered all her good works on behalf of the soul of a departed Sister in religion, she asked Our Lord, in consequence, frequently to remember in mercy her absolute poverty. 'What more can I do,' He replied, 'for one who out of charity has thus despoiled herself, than to cover her with My Own garments and work earnestly with her for the speedy regaining of what she has lost by Charity?' 'Whereas Thou mayest do,' she answered, 'I must nevertheless appear before Thee despoiled of all, for I have renounced future as well as past benefits.' 'A mother allows her children who are clothed to sit at her feet,' replied Our Lord, 'but she takes one that is barely clad into her arms and warms it in her bosom with her own garments.' And He added, 'Seated on the shore of the ocean, are you poorer than those who seat themselves at the source of a little brook?' 'That is to say,' explained the chronicler, 'those who keep their good works to themselves remain at the source of the brook, but those who in charity and humility despoil themselves of everything, possess God, the inexhaustible ocean of all blessedness.'

St. Gertude's love of God was supplemented by an unshakable confidence in His goodness. Her confidence in God, to which, indeed, she attributed all her spiritual gifts, enabled her to receive Our Lord frequently in the Blessed Sacrament of His love at a time when frequent Communion was little practised. When some of her companions hesitated through scruples to approach the altar, she would exhort and encourage them and herself set the example. When she read or heard anyone speak of the danger of receiving the Lord's Body unworthily, she approached the Holy Sacrament with renewed acts of confidence in the goodness of God. If she had omitted to say the prayers which formed her usual preparation for Holy Communion she did not abstain from making her Communion on that account, because she knew that no preparation for so stupendous a Gift could be really adequate. The efforts of man to prepare himself worthily she compared to a drop of water in the vastness of the ocean. Still, having done what she could, she put her trust in God's infinite goodness and strove to receive the Holy Sacrament with a pure heart and fervent love.

A certain pious person once begged of God in prayer to reveal to him what it was that most pleased Him in St. Gertrude. He was told her liberty of spirit. Liberty of spirit does not mean, as Father Faber points out in praising this virtue of St. Gertrude, negligence, unpunctuality, slovenliness, or caprice, in the spiritual life. Rather it implies a certain broadness of outlook, enabling the eyes of the soul to look behind the creature to the Creator. It is the virtue which pre-eminently informs the Rule of St. Benedict, on which St. Gertrude's life as a Cistercian religious, was based. St. Gertrude's liberty of spirit was manifested by her readiness to come to the aid of her neighbour even at the expense of ordinary duties prescribed by the Rule and at the sacrifice of the delights of familiar intercourse with Our Lord; by her frequent Communions in spite of her defects; by her willingness to die even with little or no preparation for death, should God ordain it. The following illustrates this last point in a remarkable way. It once happened that when out walking in the country Gertrude fell from a dangerous height. 'Immediately, 'writes one of her companions, 'feeling great joy, she said in spirit to Our Lord: What happiness would it have been for me, O my beloved Lord, if that fall had been the occasion of my suddenly coming to Thee. And when we asked her in astonishment if she was not afraid to die without being fortified with the Sacraments of the Church, she replied: Indeed, with my whole heart do I desire to be fortified with the most salutary Sacraments; nevertheless, the will and appointment of my God seem to be the best and most salutary preparation. Therefore, I shall most gladly depart to Him in whatever way He shall wish, either by a sudden or by foreseen death, certain that whatever the manner of my death I shall never lack the mercy of God, without which in either case I know that I cannot possibly be saved''.

St. Gertude's liberty of spirit enabled her to perform all her actions for the glory of God. When she had anything to do she carried it out on the spot, in case preoccupation with the matter should prove a hindrance to the service of God. Our Lord revealed to St. Mechtilde that He was pleased by this. He appeared to her, in a vision, seated on a magnificent throne. St. Gertrude seemed to be walking up and down before Him, keeping her eyes fixed on Our Lord and following every motion of His Sacred Heart. When St. Mechtilde expressed her admiration at this sight, Our Lord said to her: 'As you see, in walking before Me, My elect acts as though she desires without ceasing the good pleasure of My Heart, and seeks diligently to learn it. When she has found out My will in any matter, she employs all her strength to perform it and soon returns to discover My other desires and execute them faithfully. Thus her whole life redounds to My praise and honour.'

On entering the convent Gertrude had dedicated herself to a life of prayer. Her conversion had confirmed and strengthened her in this resolution. The whole of her life as a contemplative nun was, of course, built round the liturgy of the Church-the Holy Mass and the Divine Office and her writings and visions indicated the extent to which these became absorbed into her very being. They indicate, too, her tender devotion to Our Lord Crucified and her childlike love for his Blessed Mother; but, if one may say so, it was the Sacred Heart of Jesus that made the greatest appeal to her soul. To exhibit the solid foundation in theology and the devotion to the Sacred Heart and thus to prepare the way for its propagation in God's good time by its apostle, St. Margaret Mary, became, in fact, the mission of this simple religious. With this high vocation in view for her, Our Lord gently led Gertrude through all the stages of the spiritual life to the highest sanctity. Gertrude became the recipient of 'extraordinary graces,' graces that is to say, quite apart from those which God has attached to the ordinary Christian acts of prayer, mortification, charity and so on. These extraordinary graces which are thus beyond the will of man to obtain by his own act, are the fruit of what is called the mystical life, whereby the soul learns to know God Himself by attaining a most intimate union with Him. And to these chosen souls, as to St. Gertrude, God sometimes, but not always, grants the favour of visions of His Divine Son and of the saints and angels, as well as supernatural discourse, or revelations.

Although the mystical life cannot be attained to by our own efforts, yet the privilege is granted only to those souls who by their piety and mortification are deemed by God in some sense to deserve it. Such was the fervour of the Helfta Convent that several of the religious reached the holy state. The path to the mystical life was thus made easier for Gertrude by the support and encouragement which she received from those of her companions who had already entered it. Among their number was her former mistress, St. Mechtilde, who was also granted the grace of visions and revelations. Between these two holy religious there existed the strongest possible bonds of confidence and spiritual affection. St. Gertrude had many visions relating to St. Mechtilde's death and Our Lord prompted her to warn her friend of the time when she ought to receive Extreme Unction.

The lives of some of the greatest mystics, like St. Bernard and St. Teresa, have been as remarkable for their unparralleled activity as for their intense spirituality. St. Gertrude's mysticism, similarly, was no hindrance to her ordinary exterior life. Once only do we read of its leading her into any appearance of eccentricity. On a certain occasion, during Mass, she was so carried away by the delights of the intimate intercourse with Our Lord that she neglected to conform to the ordinary movements of the choir. One of the sisters having drawn attention to it, she begged and obtained from Our Lord the favour of deliverance in future from all such singularity.

In order to test the souls of those who aspire to a close union with Him in the mystical life, God makes a condition of their progress the acceptance of trials, disappointments and acute bodily suffering. Unlike another soul dear to the Sacred Heart- St. Margaret Mary-St. Gertrude was spared the bitter pains of opposition from her superiors, who always gave her, indeed, their warmest sympathy. Some misunderstanding she was to encounter from her sisters within the convent, but her greatest suffering arose from the physical maladies with which she became afflicted. Not long after her conversion she received from Our Lord the impressions of the stigmata-His Five Sacred Wounds. These were imprinted interiorly on her heart and thus, unlike those of St. Francis and many other saints, were invisible to others: nevertheless, they united her intimately to the sufferings of Christ and thenceforward she was to tread the Way of the Cross.

In the eighth year after her conversion she was attacked by the first of a series of severe illnesses which did not cease until her death. 'On the Feast of the most holy Purification,' she tells us, 'I was confined to bed after a severe illness, and about daybreak was sorrowfully complaining of myself that my sickness would deprive me of the Divine visit with which I had often been consoled on such Feasts. I received consolation from the Mediatrix, Mother of Him Who is the true Mediator between God and man. You do not remember,' she said, having experienced before this, bodily sufferings more severe; but I learn that you have never received a more noble gift from My Son than the one that is to be given you, and it is in order that you may receive it worthily that your soul has been fortified by sufferings. I was much comforted by these words and received the Food of Life immediately before the Profession. As I was meditating on the presence of God within me, I beheld my soul in the likeness of wax carefully softened at the fire, presented to the bosom of Our Lord as though to a seal of which it was to receive the impression. Suddenly this Divine Seal seemed to be placed upon it, and my soul appeared to be drawn into the treasure house in which the whole fulness of the Godhead dwells corporeally, there to be marked with the impression of the resplendent and everpeaceful Trinity.

After this, Gertrude's ill-health was often so severe that she had to be dispensed from strict observance of the Rule. She was unable to fast, even during Lent; indeed, she sometimes could not get through the night without taking nourishment. We have seen already that she was obliged in times of great weakness to take sustenance during a long ceremony. She was once absent from the choir for a whole year. Even when not too ill to attend, she often had to remain seated during the Office. At first she found her inability to fulfil her religious obligations a serious trial. When, lying sick and helpless, she was forced to accept the services of her sisters-services joyously rendered -she used to feel that she was robbing God of times which she would otherwise have been able to devote to His service. Gradually, however, she learnt from Our Lord to regard herself and her own efforts as nothing. The following vision shows how completely Gertrude resigned herself to the Divine Will even to the extent of indifference to sickness or health.

Once, when very ill, she began to wonder how her malady would terminate. Our Lord then appeared to her, bearing health in His right Hand and sickness in His left. He presented them to her so that she might choose which she preferred; but Gertrude refused both. Tenderly embracing her, Our Lord allowed her to rest upon His Sacred Heart, but she turned her head away from Him, saying that she wished to show Him that it was her desire that He should disregard her will, but accomplish His good pleasure in her in all things.

To complete the union between Himself and His chosen one, Our Lord drew Gertrude mystically within His Sacred Heart. At Matins on one Feast of the Dedication of the Church, we are told that Our Lord ' introduced her into a place of incomparable splendour-the Heart of Jesus Christ, which He had adorned as a house that she might celebrate the Feast therein. The marvellous profusion of delights which she found on entering seemed to overcome her and she said to Our Lord: My Lord, if Thou hast led my soul into some place where Thy Feet had stood, it would have been more than enough for me; but what can I offer Thee in return for the stupendous favour which Thou art now bestowing on me?' Since you often seek, Our Lord replied, to offer Me the most noble part of your being- your heart-I deem it fitting that I should present you Mine for your delight . . . .'If my heart, she said, has conformed itself in any way to Thine, O my God, it has been by Thy grace.' I naturally follow,' Our Lord answered, and reward with happiness those souls whom I have previously prepared. If anyone co-operates with My grace according to the good pleasure of My Heart, I conform Myself in turn to all the good pleasure of his Heart''.

Thus was effected a spiritual marriage which marked a new stage in the relations between our saint and her Divine Lover, the highest that the creature can reach in this life. Gertrude was now sometimes deprived of the sensible presence of Our Lord, but her union with Him was so complete that she felt no pain at the loss of His visits. She asked Him why He no longer visited her in the same way as before. 'At first I often instructed you,' He answered, 'by means of replies which allowed you to make known My good pleasure to others; but now I manifest my operations to your intellect only, because it would sometimes be very difficult to explain them in words. I store up the riches of My grace in your soul as in a treasure- house, so that everyone may find in you what he seeks. You are thus like a wife who knows all the secrets of her husband, and having lived a long time with him knows how to divine his will in everything. Nevertheless, it would not be fitting that the secrets learnt through such intimacy should be revealed.'

St. Gertrude's ill-health was not the only trial of her comparatively peaceful life. The close relations which existed in the Middle Ages between convents and the families of their founders were not always to the advantage of the religious. Heirs were sometimes apt to grudge the loss of property through religious benefactions and to express their chagrin in no gentle fashion. In 1284 the community at Helfta was subject to much annoyance on the part of one of the sons of the founder, a brother, indeed, to the Abbess who succeeded Gertrude of Hackeborn. On Good Friday he sacrilegiously invaded the convent with an armed force. Ten years later a similar desecration took place as a result of a war which was devastating the whole country. A fresh misfortune befell them in 1296. Differences had arisen between the convent and the Chapter of Halberstadt on some financial position. The episcopal see falling vacant the canons seized the opportunity of launching an interdict on the nuns, who suffered greatly from the deprivation of Mass and Holy Communion and the suspensions of the public recital of the Divine Office. Fortunately the dispute appears to have been quickly settled, and cordial relations were soon established between the community and the new Bishop. None of the convent's external affairs was without its interest for Gertrude, and at this time of intense anxiety she prayed with great earnestness for a happy solution of its difficulties.

But greater than any of these calamities was the blow that befell Gertrude and her sister when their beloved Abbess died in 1291.To a fervent and united family like that of Helfta the loss of their Mother seemed an irreparable disaster. For forty years she had directed them in the way of sanctity, building up a household brightly conspicuous for its zeal and piety. A confirmed invalid during the last months of her life, the Abbess derived much spiritual consolation from St. Gertrude, especially at those times when her own sister, St. Mechtilde, was too ill to attend her. After the saintly Abbess's death, Gertrude was able to bring joy to the sorrowing hearts of her companions by relating to them the visions she had had of their mother in heavenly glory.

Eight years after the departure of Abbess Gertrude, her sister, St. Mechtilde, passed away after much suffering. Her visions and revelations were written down without her knowledge by St. Gertrude, her dear friend and former pupil, with the assistance possibly, of another nun also in her confidence. This record is entitled: 'The Book of Special Grace.' It was not the first work of St. Gertrude's, dealing with miraculous favours. She had previously written an account of the graces she had herself received in a book which Our Lord told her to name 'The Herald of Divine Love.' In her humility she felt that her favours could not have been granted her for herself alone, and that God must wish to use her as a channel to communicate them to others. Yet for a long time she hesitated about writing on the subject. She wondered what would be the use of it. She was determined not to allow anything she might write concerning her visions to circulate during her lifetime, and she doubted if anyone would benefit by reading about them after her death. Moreover, she was afraid that some narrow-minded persons, so far from being edified at learning of her favours, would find in them a pretext for calumny. We are told that Our Lord thus answered her thoughts: 'I have given you My grace in such abundance that I must exact more fruit from it. That is why I desire that those who are granted like gifts and through negligence undervalue them, when they hear of you will recollect the gifts they have themselves received and redouble their thankfulness for them, and thus My grace will be increased in them. 'Finally, Our Lord overcame all Gertrude's scruples by saying to her: 'Be assured that you will not quit the prison of your body until you have paid your debts to the last farthing.' Her desire to see Christ face to face was too strong to make further resistance possible. She then wrote with her own hand in Latin the second part of 'The Herald of Divine Love,' describing with easy grace the revelation she had received. After a time she laid aside her pen, as in her great humility she thought herself unequal to the task of giving human expression to celestial glories. She considered that another might be more skilful than herself in finishing what she had begun, and one of her sisters in religion was ordered by her superiors to write down what Gertrude would reveal. To the autobiography thus completed by dictation a short life of the saint was prefixed after her death, and the whole work, in five parts, then went by the title 'The Herald of Divine Love,' which originally applied only to St. Gertrude's contributions. Through St. Gertrude Our Lord made the following promises to readers of her book: ' . . . . he who reads this book for My glory, with a right faith, humble devotion and loving gratitude, and seeks therein the good of his soul, will obtain the remission of his venial sins and be granted the grace of spiritual consolation and in addition the disposition to receive an increase of grace.'

St. Gertrude has been called the Saint of the Humanity of Jesus Christ, as St. Catherine of Genoa was the Saint of His Sacred Heart, 'the symbol of that immense charity which urged the Word to take flesh, to institute the Holy Eucharist, to take on Himself our sins, and dying on the Cross, to offer Himself as a Victim and a sacrifice to the Eternal Father.' Down to the time of St. Gertrude there had been few to sound the praises of the Sacred Heart. Allusions to It indeed, are to be found in the Works of the Fathers of the Church, especially in St. Bernard, the illustrious Abbot of Clairvaux, whom St. Gertrude as a Cistercian venerated as a second founder of her Order, and for whose writings she had especial affection. But St. Gertrude gathered more knowledge of the Sacred Heart and Its love for men from the many years of intimate companionship with her revered mistress, St. Mechtilde. In 'The Book of Special Grace,' the Sacred Heart is a constantly recurring theme. The knowledge of the Sacred Heart granted to St. Mechtilde and to some other elect souls, however, was a 'special grace' for those souls alone. To St. Gertrude the revelation was made that it might be scattered broadcast to all men, and the chief source of her profound apprehension of the doctrine of the Sacred Heart was that Heart Itself, which willed that St. Gertrude with her sound foundation of learning should be Its theologian.

In her vision St. Gertrude reveals to us in a series of marvellous parables different aspects of the Divine Heart of Jesus Christ as the source of His infinite love for man. She thus prepared the way for the propagation of the devotion to the Sacred Heart by St. Margaret Mary nearly four centuries later and for its official recognition by the Church in the establishment of the Feast of the Sacred Heart. Then was put into operation one of the most powerful means that God had devised for drawing souls to Him, and Ireland, which cherishes a particular affection for this devotion, to-day one of the most striking characteristics of its religion, should hold in special veneration the forerunner St. Gertrude, who illuminated the path that St. Margaret Mary was to tread.

A few of St. Gertrude's visions we have already mentioned; some of the most beautiful are unfortunately too long in their panoramic unfolding of heavenly scenes to be included in this brief sketch. But we shall be able to consider a few of the many visions scattered through ' The Herald of Divine Love ' which have the Sacred Heart for their theme. In one she tells how Our Lord appeared to her during a certain Lent when she was lying seriously ill. 'I was alone one morning,' she said, 'while the other sisters were attending to their duties, when Our Lord, Who does not abandon those who are deprived of human consolation, appeared to me, thus fulfilling the word of the prophet, I am with him in tribulation. He showed me His left Side, from which gushed forth, as from the inmost depths of His Sacred Heart, a fountain of pure water, which appeared solid like crystal. Flowing away, it covered His holy bosom like a costly necklace, which seemed to alternate in colour between gold and purple. Meanwhile Our Lord thus spoke to me:' The illness from which you are now suffering has so sanctified your soul that whenever for My love or in condescension to your neighbour you seem to forsake Me in thought, word, or deed, you will in reality no more withdraw yourself from Me than this fountain withdraws itself from My Heart. And as the gold and purple shine through the pure crystal, so the co-operation of My Divinity, shown forth by the bold and the perfect patience of My Humanity, represented by the purple, will render all your actions agreeable in My eyes''.

Once when the saint was praying for certain persons who had been recommended to her prayers, Our Lord, we are told, said to her: 'I have given to every soul a golden tube by means of which it can draw from the depths of My Divine Heart whatever it desires.' She understood that this tube signified the good will with which men can appropriate for themselves all the spiritual riches of heaven and earth. If they wish, for example, to offer to God the praises, thanksgivings, obedience and fidelity of which some saints have given us an example, the infinite goodness of God immediately accepts the intention for the deed. This tube becomes more brilliant than gold when men thank God for the gift of so noble a faculty as the will, by which they may acquire infinitely greater riches than the whole world could obtain by exerting all its strength.

She understood further that all the sisters of the community who were surrounding Our Lord, were provided with tubes, and that each received Divine grace according to the measure of her powers. Some appeared to draw it directly from the depths of the Divine Heart, others received it from Our Lord's Hands. The further the source of grace from Our Lord's Heart, the greater was their difficulty in obtaining their desires, whereas the nearer this source was to His Heart the more easily, sweetly, and abundantly they obtained them. Those who drew directly from Our Lord's Heart represented those who conform themselves entirely to the Divine Will and desire above all things that His adorable will should be fully accomplished in them, both in spiritual and temporal affairs. These souls move the Divine Heart so profoundly and effectively that at the time ordained by God they receive the torrent of Divine sweetness with abundance and pleasure proportioned to the extent that they will have abandoned themselves perfectly to the Divine will. Those who endeavour to draw grace from the other members of Our Lord's Body represent those who try to obtain gifts or virtues by following their inclinations and their own will: and these obtain their desires with difficulty proportioned to their failure, in relying on their own will, to abandon themselves to Divine Providence.

On Christmas Day Our Lord taught St. Gertrude how acceptable to Him is the good-will of those devout souls who are lawfully hindered from offering Him all the devotions their hearts desire. During Midnight Mass she offered to Our Lord, as she had been requested, the prayers of certain persons which had been made before the Feast, together with the good-will of others who had been legitimately prevented from offering those prayers. She then saw all the prayers which had been devoutly said laid before Our Lord in the form of costly pearls, on a table of gold; but the good-will of those who had been unable to carry out their intentions was placed in a magnificent chain which adorned Our Lord's bosom. ' These souls, ' we are told, ' thus obtained from this nearness to the Divine Heart an advantage like that possessed by a person who holds the key of a treasure-chest from which he can take all that he can desire. '

Our Lord also taught St. Gertrude how He offers the love of His Sacred Heart to the Eternal Father for the omission of faithful souls who seek to repair their neglect. The Passion was, naturally, a frequent subject of meditation with St. Gertrude. But on a certain Friday evening she remembered that her occupations had crowded out the thought of the sufferings of her Saviour on the very day of the week when she most wished to remember them. When she lamented her negligence before a crucifix, Our Lord consoled her thus: 'What you have neglected I have supplied for you; for every hour I have accumulated in My Heart what you ought to have accumulated in yours, and My Heart has become so full that I have waited with an ardent desire for the hour when you should address this prayer to Me. With this prayer I now offer to God My Father all that I have done for you during this day, for without your good intentions this offering of Mine would not be so advantageous for your salvation.'

In another vision St. Gertrude learnt that the grace of the Holy Ghost flows into the hearts of the faithful through the Sacred Heart of Jesus. 'On the Vigil of Pentecost,' we are told, 'as she was fervently praying during the Office that she might be prepared for the coming of the Holy Ghost, she heard Our Lord say to her interiorly, with infinite tenderness: You shall receive the power of the Holy Ghost coming upon you. These words brought her a feeling of wondrous sweetness, yet she began desponding to consider her unworthiness. It then seemed to her that this feeling of unworthiness produced a kind of cave in her heart, which became deeper and deeper as she considered herself more and more vile. Then from the most sweet Heart of the Son of God there flowed a stream most pure, like honey, which trickled drop by drop into the cave of her heart until it was completely filled. She understood that this stream represented the sweetness of the Holy Spirit which gently flows into the hearts of the elect through the Heart of the Son of God.'

At another time Our Lord showed His Sacred Heart to our Saint under the form of a lyre which offered sweet music to the Blessed Trinity. 'When Vespers were begun,' on a certain Feast of the Holy Trinity, 'the Son of God offered His Sacred Heart to the glorious Trinity, holding It in His Hands in the form of a lyre, upon which all the fervour of the worshippers and all the words which were chanted through the whole of the Feast resounded most melodiously before God. The singing of those who chanted without special devotion, either by routine or with merely human satisfaction, produced unpleasing sounds on the lower strings of the instrument. But those who gave themselves up to singing devoutly the praise of the adorable Trinity, seemed to produce through the most holy Heart of Jesus Christ sweet and melodious strains upon the most sonorous strings.' Again, at Lauds on the same Feast, while the Antiphon was being sung, 'Gertude praised with all her soul the Ever- Blessed Trinity, desiring that if it were possible, she should sing the Antiphon in her last agony with fervour sufficient to consume her forces and cause her to die praising God; and it seemed that the resplendent and ever-peaceful Trinity inclined with loving tenderness to the most venerable Heart of Jesus, which like a marvellous lyre sweetly resounded in Its presence. On this lyre the Blessed Trinity placed three strings, which in harmony with the invincible omnipotence of God the Father, the wisdom of God the Son, and the benevolence of God the Holy Ghost, might atone without ceasing for all Gertrude's defects in pleasing the Most Blessed Trinity.'

On another occasion, during Vespers of the Assumption, St. Gertrude, we are told, was privileged to make mystical use of the lyre of the Blessed Heart to sound the praise of Our Lady. While the psalms were being sung she saw Our Lord first draw into His Divine Heart all the praises addressed to Him and then pour them forth in a stream towards the holy Mother of God. At the chanting of the Antiphon, Gertrude rushed into Our Lord's arms and tried to make these words resound on the instrument of His Sacred Heart, in honour of the tenderness which He had lavished on His Blessed Mother. This demonstration of love caused the torrents from the Sacred Heart to gush forth upon Our Lady's soul with such force that drops of water sprang out from the stream. These drops, becoming brilliant stars of incomparable beauty, served as an adornment for the Queen of Heaven; but so numerous were they that many fell to the ground, whereupon the Saint found delight in hastening to gather and present them to Our Lord. By this time St. Gertrude understood that the saints experience the greatest joy in the superabundance of Our Lady's merits.

In another marvellous vision Our Lord presented St. Gertrude with His Sacred Heart under the form of a burning lamp. On a certain occasion, during the recitation of the Divine Office, we are told that ' when she was endeavouring to pay the greatest attention to every note and word, she was often hindered by natural weakness, and grieving at her failure, she said to herself: What fruit can I obtain from this exercise in which I show such inconsistency ? Our Lord, being unable to endure the sight of her affliction, with His Hands presented her with His Divine Heart in the form of a burning lamp, saying to her: Behold I offer to the eyes of your soul My Heart, the sweet organ of the EverAdorable Trinity, that you may with confidence ask It to perform all that you are unable to perform yourself, and thus you will appear perfect in My eyes. For just as a faithful servant is always in readiness to carry out the wishes of his master, so My Heart will henceforth be always ready at any moment to make good your negligence . . . .'

Some days afterwards, while she was reflecting upon this magnificent gift, she anxiously enquired of Our Lord how long He would deign to continue the favour, As long as you desire to have it,' He replied, you will never have to grieve that I have taken it away. 'But how is it possible,' she said, O God, Who workest the greatest marvels, that I can perceive that Thy Divine Heart is suspended like a lamp in the midst of my heart, which is alas ! so unworthy, and nevertheless whenever by the help of Thy grace I have been counted worthy to approach Thee, I rejoice to find within Thy bosom the same source of all delights?' When you wish to take hold of anything,' Our Lord replied, you stretch out your hand, withdrawing it after you have clasped what you wanted; so also, when you turn your attention to exterior things, I, in My extreme love for you, stretch out to you My Heart to draw you to Myself; and when you respond to My tender advance and recollect yourself, I withdraw My Heart and you with It, offering you in Its recesses the delights of all virtues''.

During the Mass of the Presanctified on a certain Good Friday, Our Lord gave St. Gertrude His Sacred Heart under the form of a golden thurible, from which as many clouds of incense rose as there are races of men redeemed by the Precious Blood. When the prayers were offered for the different orders in the Church, St. Gertrude saw all the prayers of the whole Church ascend together like fragrant incense from the thurible of the Sacred Heart, This union gave the prayers a singular splendour and beauty. 'We should therefore pray for the Church on this day, with greater devotion,' says 'The Herald of Divine Love,' 'because it is Christ's Passion which gives our prayers their greatest value in the sight of God the Father.'

A wonderful vision is recorded in which St. Gertrude assisted at a mystical Mass in Heaven while the priest was offering the Holy Sacrifice in the convent church. Our Lord, true Priest and Supreme Pontiff, was the celebrant; the saints and heavenly hosts acted as ministers and choir. At the elevation of the host on earth, Our Lord in Heaven rose from His throne and presented to God the Father, with His Own Hands, His Sacred Heart under the form of a golden altar. Thus St. Gertrude learnt that the sacred liturgy links Heaven and earth, the Church doing for Christian souls below what the Saviour does above. The oneness of the spiritual life on earth and in Heaven is indeed the supreme lesson of St. Gertrude's mysticism and the key to many of her visions. 'She soars to Heaven,' says Aubrey de Vere in the course of a beautiful panegyric on St. Gertrude, to fmd there in a resplendent form, the simplest of those truths which are our food on earth . . . Her special gift was realisation; what others admitted, she believed; what others believed, she saw. It was thus that she felt the co-presence of the supernatural with the natural, the kingdom of spirit being to her not a future world, but a wider circle clasping a smaller one. From this feeling followed her intense appreciation of the fact that all earthly things have immediate effects on high. If a prayer is said on earth, she sees the sceptre in the hand of the heavenly King blossom with another flower; if a sacrament is worthily received, the glory of His Face flashes lightning round all the armies of the blessed. That such things should be seen by us may well seem wonderful; that they should exist can appear strange to no one who realises the statement that when a sinner repents there is joy among the angels in Heaven.'

Towards the end of St. Gertrude's life the desire for death which she had often felt but which she had learnt to subordinate to the will of God, became very insistent. On one Feast of St. Martin she felt, like St. Martin himself, a vehement desire to die and be with Christ, and she heard Him say: 'Soon I shall bear you away from this life.' These words increased her longing and one day during the following Easter week, just after she had received Our Lord in Holy Communion, He said to her: 'Come, my elect, and I will place you in My throne.' She then realised that the day of her release was approaching. Our Lord, indeed, counselled her to prepare for death. She did so by means of an exercise which she had written for the use of others-a kind of five-days' retreat devoted to the consideration of the last illness, the last sacraments and death itself. But she was not to die before further sufferings were to be added to the many that she had already endured. When she became weaker and the doctors pronounced her malady practically incurable, she increased her prayers and acts of piety, but all the time she did not neglect to console and sustain her sorrowing sisters.

There is no explicit record of St. Gertrude's actual death, but it was revealed to her during these last days in what manner she was to die. In this vision she beheld herself during her last agony in the arms of Our Lord, reposing on His Sacred Heart. She saw Our Lady tenderly embrace her, and the saints and angels surround her bed and adorn her soul with their gifts. Then she saw Our Lord gently draw her to Himself, 'as the sun in its mid-day heat draws to itself and makes to disappear the little drops of dew.' Thus, rapt in ecstasy, we may believe, did she pass to a full and everlasting enjoyment in Heaven of those celestial favours which she had already tasted on earth.

St. Gertrude died on October 17th, 1301 or 1302, aged 45 or 46 years. Her burial-place is unknown, but no doubt she was laid to rest at Helfta, where she had spent nearly the whole of her life. For a long time, in the secret designs of God's providence, her name remained in obscurity. Before her death, St. Gertrude's remarkable writings had been submitted by the authorities of Helfta to a thorough examination by theologians of the Dominican and Franciscan Orders, who gave them their entire approbation. Copies of her works were doubtless made from time to time in the monasteries and convents but they did not become generally known until the pious Carthusian Lanspergius, of Cologne, brought out a Latin edition of 'The Herald of Divine Love,' in 1536. Only then did St. Gertrude begin to exert an appreciable influence in preparing the ground for the general adoption of the devotion to the Sacred Heart. Her cultus spread. In 1677 her name was inscribed on the Roman Martyrology and her Office was made obligatory on the Universal Church. St. Gertrude was declared Patron of the West Indies, at the petition of the King of Spain. Peru cultivated a particular devotion to her, and in New Mexico a town was built in her honour and named after her. St. Gertrude's Feast is kept by the Benedictine and Cistercian Orders on November 17th, but by the rest of the Church on November 15th.

Among the countless holy men and women who have felt an especial attention to this saint of the Sacred Heart, the great spiritual writer, Abbot Louis of Blois (or Blosius), occupies a foremost place. He composed in her honour the following prayer, with which we may conclude:

'O sweetest Lord Jesus Christ, I praise Thee and give Thee thanks, with all the devotion of which I am capable, for all the benefits Thou didst bestow on the virgin Gertrude, Thy beloved spouse; and by that love with which Thou didst from eternity choose her out for Thy special favour, and in Thine Own good time didst sweetly attract her and familiarly invite her to Thyself, and joyfully abide in her soul, and end the course of her life by a blessed death, I pray and beseech Thee that Thou wilt have mercy on me, and render me pleasing to Thee, and lead me into eternal life. Amen.'

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