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"Rome and Constantinople are not called to vie for primacy" - Leo XIV Contradicts Leo I |
Posted by: Stone - 07-22-2025, 07:54 AM - Forum: Pope Leo XIV
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"Rome and Constantinople are not called to vie for primacy" - Leo XIV Contradicts Leo I
![[Image: ov40yk8cldd1ey39lowhbcdpjz68jblvu4ob37k....1753266617]](https://seedus2043.gloriatv.net/storage1/ov40yk8cldd1ey39lowhbcdpjz68jblvu4ob37k.avif?secure=DqhKqBYk0RbWIAqBT7l8Eg&expires=1753266617)
gloria.tv | July 21, 2025
Pope Leo XIV said on July 17 in Castel Gandolfo to a group of byzantine Catholics from the USA:
Quote:"Unity among those who believe in Christ is one of the signs of God’s gift of consolation; Scripture promises that 'in Jerusalem you will be comforted' (Is 66:13). Rome, Constantinople and all the other Sees, are not called to vie for primacy, lest we risk finding ourselves like the disciples who along the way, even as Jesus was announcing his coming passion, argued about which of them was the greatest (cf. Mk 9:33-37)."
However, Catholicism teaches that the primacy belongs to the Pope.
Pope Leo I (†461)
“The See of Constantinople cannot be made equal to that of Rome.”
Council of Florence (1439)
“We define that the Holy Apostolic See and the Roman Pontiff holds the primacy over the whole world; and that the Roman Pontiff is the successor of the blessed Peter, prince of the Apostles, and the true vicar of Christ, the head of the whole Church, and the father and teacher of all Christians.”
First Vatican Council (1870)
“If anyone says that the Roman Pontiff has merely an office of supervision and guidance, and not the full and supreme power of jurisdiction over the whole Church... let him be anathema.”
Catechism of the Catholic Church
“The Pope, Bishop of Rome and Peter’s successor, ‘is the perpetual and visible source and foundation of the unity both of the bishops and of the whole company of the faithful.’ For the Roman Pontiff, by reason of his office as Vicar of Christ, and as pastor of the entire Church, has full, supreme, and universal power over the whole Church, a power which he can always exercise unhindered.”
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Opinion: Rome Only Blinks When You Push |
Posted by: Stone - 07-21-2025, 02:08 PM - Forum: General Commentary
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Mr. Jackson's picture is incomplete - he passes over in silence those priests and laity of the True Resistance who have stood up to both the new conciliar-SSPX and the fake Resistance [which allows for many of the same doctrinal errors of the now conciliar-SSPX with respect to the New Mass, etc].
But his overall point is well made.
Rome Only Blinks When You Push
Turns out Rome doesn’t reward loyalty, it rewards leverage.
![[Image: https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.ama...x1080.jpeg]](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/%24s_!BIBH!,w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F66b3f5be-4256-42f3-a101-d1758b8e62d6_1920x1080.jpeg)
Chris Jackson via Hiraeth in Exile | July 21, 2025
Let’s stop pretending. If you’re still waiting for Rome to reward docility with doctrinal clarity or liturgical protections, it’s time to wake up. The evidence is in. The path to concessions, respect, and liturgical preservation doesn’t run through obedience. It runs through rupture.
No one wants to say that out loud, but the proof is right in front of us. Has it ever been clearer?
Orthodox in Schism, Orthodox Untouchable
Start with the Orthodox. Officially outside the Church for nearly a millennium. They reject Vatican I. They don’t believe in papal infallibility or universal jurisdiction. They’ve lit candles to mutual excommunications and walked away from reunion councils.
So what does Leo XIV do?
Smiles, embraces, ecumenical photo-ops. And now, this: “Rome and Constantinople are not called to vie for primacy.” That’s going beyond ecumenism to capitulation. It’s a pope publicly walking back what a prior pope defined as divinely revealed dogma.
And yet no one bats an eye.
Eastern Rite Catholics get their Divine Liturgy untouched. No guitars. No clown Masses. No inculturated dance processions. Their liturgical dignity was preserved for one reason and one reason only: the Orthodox Schism.
If Bugnini had gotten his hands on them without the Orthodox to flee to, they’d be reciting Eucharistic Prayer II in track suits by now. But Rome’s fear of these Catholics leaving for the Orthodox kept them safe. That’s the reality.
SSPX: Results Through Resistance
Now shift to the Society of St. Pius X. Excommunicated in 1988 or so we were told. For decades they were treated as pariahs, “not in full communion,” sniffed the bureaucrats. But what did the SSPX do in return?
They kept building chapels. Kept training priests. Kept publicly calling out the postconciliar popes for heresy, blasphemy, apostasy, you name it. Lefebvre’s spiritual sons were the last public voice of clarity in a Church drunk on aggiornamento.
And what happened?
Rome blinked.
We got the 1988 Indult. Then Ecclesia Dei. Then Summorum Pontificum. Then a sudden discovery: the Latin Mass had never been abrogated after all. Funny how that worked.
Doctrinal talks followed, and they weren’t just one-sided lectures. Rome conceded, at least implicitly, that some documents of Vatican II might not be binding. They told the SSPX, in essence, “You can come back without accepting everything.” Try saying that to a diocesan trad.
Resistance got results. Public confrontation made space for tradition. Everyone knows it even if they don’t want to admit it.
Then Came the Silence and the Collapse
But after 2012, something changed. The SSPX went quiet. In the last letter of Bishop Williamson to the faithful he quoted a priest who was leaving the SSPX with many of his congregation:
Quote:What we came to realize was that, for all practical purposes, the Society of St. Pius X had become in effect the tenth religious Congregation to have rallied to the Conciliar Church. Even if no deal has yet been signed, the principle of such a deal was adopted by the July 2012 General Chapter. For indeed, however few or many conditions the SSPX leaders might insist on for such an eventual deal, they decided that the Society could henceforth sign a pact with those who are relentlessly changing the Catholic Faith…
The present management of the Society is stamping out dissent and expelling critics…
And if we ask when we can fully trust the SSPX again, the answer is the same: when all SSPX leaders and priests of the Society who have promoted the new line will be demoted; when the texts of the 2012 Chapter will be properly condemned; when the faithful priests will be vindicated by the new management; when a book on the history of this crisis will be published and read yearly in our communities; when a new General Chapter will abjure any contact with Conciliar authorities, until Rome has cleaned up its mess.
Let us merely do our duty, give glory to God, and let Him deal with our former colleagues who are in danger of compromising. We pray and sacrifice for their conversion, sure enough. But compromise, and put ourselves in harm’s way? Never! Nevertheless, let us remain united with them in prayer.
In effect, Francis took the Chair, and suddenly the firebrand critiques faded. The Society stopped calling out the daily scandals. No more public condemnations. No more naming the errors of the new regime.
And then what did Rome do?
They gave the new kinder, gentler SSPX its private pay-out: jurisdiction for confessions and marriages, ceased condemnations, no new charges of schism.
And what did the rest of us get?
Traditionis Custodes.
Diocesan Latin Masses shut down. FSSP priests cornered into ghettos. Public declarations that the Novus Ordo is now “the unique expression” of the Roman Rite. Summorum was torched, and with it, any illusion that good behavior earns you favor.
The SSPX’s silence bought them protection. Everyone else got crushed.
Obedience Is for the Outcasts
Let’s be blunt: Rome rewards disobedience. In practice, those who resist get courted. Those who submit get sidelined.
The Orthodox reject Rome outright? They don’t have to accept Roman primacy, Leo speaks of changing our Easter date to theirs, Rome allows Eastern Rite Catholics to revere schismatic Orthodox Saints locally, and Rome gives Eastern Rite Catholics zero interference in their liturgy for fear they will flee.
The SSPX loudly call out heresy for 18 years, illicitly ordain priests and consecrate bishops, invade the bishops’ dioceses and disobediently offer the Latin Mass and old sacraments to the faithful? Rome suddenly approves the FSSP to say the TLM and use the old sacraments, issues Ecclesia Dei opening up the diocesan TLM with bishop approval. Then 20 years later, after even more vocal SSPX resistance and growth, Rome offers to compromise on Vatican II, lifts the “excommunications,” admits the Latin Mass was “never abrogated,” and frees it for all Catholics.
You obediently attend the diocesan TLM, support your bishop, pray for the pope? You get locked doors, Mass cancellations, and a lecture on Vatican II.
But for any of this to work, it has to cost Rome something. One man resisting doesn’t move the dial. A dozen priests in exile doesn’t either. What forces Rome’s hand is numbers: mass defections from the pews, entire families fleeing to chapels outside diocesan control, vocations drying up, donations vanishing. In other words: Rome only notices when a rival center of gravity starts pulling people, and legitimacy, away from the Conciliar machine. That’s what the Orthodox have. That’s what the old SSPX built. A competing brand Rome could reclaim, but only by rolling back its own revolution. And the only way to make them consider that? Be big enough that ignoring you becomes a liability.
This is the reward structure. It works. That’s all Rome seems to care about.
A Note to the Silent Sons of Archbishop Lefebvre
There are still priests in the Society who know all this. They were formed in the days when calling out Rome’s heresies wasn’t controversial, it was the daily apostolate. They remember when the SSPX was feared by the Vatican, not flattered. They know that Summorum Pontificum wasn’t the result of compromise, it was the fruit of confrontation.
So here’s the question: if LifeSite News can be reclaimed by its faithful after an attempted coup, why can’t the Society reclaim its original mission?
The men who took back LifeSite didn’t wait for permission. They saw the direction things were going, softness, silence, strategic surrender, and said: not on our watch. And they acted. Traditions don’t defend themselves. And neither will the legacy of Archbishop Lefebvre, unless his sons decide it’s time to start fighting again.
If they do, they won’t be alone.
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The Love of Eternal Wisdom by St. Louis De Montfort |
Posted by: Stone - 07-18-2025, 07:52 AM - Forum: Resources Online
- Replies (20)
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THE LOVE OF ETERNAL WISDOM
CONTENTS:
Prayer to Eternal Wisdom
Preliminary observations
CHAPTER 1. TO LOVE AND SEEK DIVINE WISDOM WE NEED TO KNOW HIM
1. Our need to acquire knowledge of divine Wisdom
2. Definition and division of the subject
CHAPTER 2. ORIGIN AND EXCELLENCE OF ETERNAL WISDOM
1. Wisdom in reference to the Father
2. The activity of eternal Wisdom in souls
CHAPTER 3. THE MARVELOUS POWER OF DIVINE WISDOM SHOWN IN THE CREATION OF THE WORLD AND MAN
1. In the creation of the world
2. In the creation of man
CHAPTER 4. MARVELS OF WISDOM'S GOODNESS AND MERCY BEFORE HIS INCARNATION
1. The Incarnation is decreed
2. The time before the Incarnation
CHAPTER 5. MARVELOUS EXCELLENCE OF ETERNAL WISDOM
CHAPTER 6. EARNEST DESIRE OF DIVINE WISDOM TO GIVE HIMSELF TO MEN
1. Eternal Wisdom's letter of love
2. Incarnation, Death and the Eucharist
3. The ingratitude of those who refuse
CHAPTER 7. CHOICE OF TRUE WISDOM
1. Wisdom of the world
2. Natural wisdom
CHAPTER 8. MARVELOUS EFFECTS OF WISDOM IN THE SOULS OF THOSE WHO POSSESS HIM
CHAPTER 9. THE INCARNATION AND LIFE OF ETERNAL WISDOM
1. The Incarnation
2. Life of Wisdom Incarnate [Jesus Christ]
CHAPTER 10. THE CAPTIVATING BEAUTY AND THE INEXPRESSIBLE GENTLENESS OF INCARNATE WISDOM
1. Wisdom is gentle in his origin
2. He is declared gentle by the Prophets
3. He is gentle in his name
4. He is gentle in his looks
5. He is gentle in his words
CHAPTER 11. THE GENTLENESS OF THE INCARNATE WISDOM IN HIS ACTIONS
6. He is gentle in his actions
7. He continues to be gentle in heaven
CHAPTER 12. THE PRINCIPAL SAYINGS OF WISDOM INCARNATE WHICH WE MUST BELIEVE AND PRACTICE IF WE ARE TO BE SAVED
CHAPTER 13. SUMMARY OF THE UNBELIEVABLE SORROWS THE INCARNATE WISDOM CHOSE TO ENDURE OUT OF LOVE FOR US
1. The most convincing reason for loving Wisdom
2. The circumstances of his Passion
3. The great love with which he suffered
CHAPTER 14. THE TRIUMPH OF ETERNAL WISDOM IN AND BY THE CROSS
1. Wisdom and the Cross
2. The Cross and ourselves
CHAPTER 15. MEANS TO ACQUIRE DIVINE WISDOM
1. THE FIRST MEANS: AN ARDENT DESIRE
2. THE SECOND MEANS: CONTINUOUS PRAYER
CHAPTER 16. THE THIRD MEANS: UNIVERSAL MORTIFICATION
1. Necessity of Mortification
2. Qualities required for mortification
CHAPTER 17. FOURTH MEANS: A LOVING AND GENUINE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN
1. Necessity of genuine devotion to Mary
2 What genuine devotion to Mary consists in
CONSECRATION OF ONESELF TO JESUS CHRIST, WISDOM INCARNATE, THROUGH THE HANDS OF MARY
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The Catholic Trumpet: Fighting with the Queen Against the Revolution |
Posted by: Stone - 07-18-2025, 07:03 AM - Forum: The Catholic Trumpet
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Fighting with the Queen Against the Revolution
![[Image: rs=w:1280]](https://img1.wsimg.com/isteam/ip/df55e1a9-c854-4d0b-a2a9-94177954436c/IMG_7671.png/:/cr=t:0%25,l:0%25,w:100%25,h:100%25/rs=w:1280)
The Catholic Trumpet [slightly adapted and reformatted] | July 17, 2025
Millions today pray the Rosary. Thanks be to God. But if that Rosary is said while remaining in the Conciliar Church, attending the New Mass, or accepting Vatican II, it is not resistance. It is camouflage.
As St. Louis de Montfort warned:
Quote:“The devil, like a false coiner, puts out a great deal of counterfeit devotion to Mary…” (True Devotion to Mary, §90)
Our Lady is not a sentimental symbol. She is the Destroyer of All Heresies. She does not negotiate with error. She crushes it.
At Lepanto, the Rosary won a miraculous victory over the Turks. In the Vendée, peasants tied Rosaries to their rifles and died for the Mass. In Mexico, Cristeros shouted “¡Viva Cristo Rey y Santa María!” as they resisted Masonic tyranny. In Japan, hidden Catholics clung to the Rosary for 200 years rather than attend one false Mass.
These were not ecumenical gestures. They were acts of war. True Marian devotion is always counter-revolutionary.
Yet today, many pray the Rosary while accepting the false religion of Vatican II, a Council that taught religious liberty, praised heresies, and replaced the true Mass with a man-centered fabrication. This is not Marian. This is betrayal dressed as piety.
Quote:“The Church which affirms such errors is at once schismatic and heretical. This Conciliar Church is, therefore, not Catholic.” —Archbishop Lefebvre, 1976
If you love Mary, you must reject the revolution that hijacked her Son’s Church.
To fight with Mary means:
- Rejecting Vatican II, entirely.
- Refusing the New Mass, completely.
- Praying the Rosary, daily.
- Embracing the Tridentine Faith, without compromise.
- Consecrating yourself to the Immaculata, totally.
This is the path of the martyrs, the faithful remnant, and the true children of Our Lady.
Quote:“Only the Immaculata has from God the promise of victory over Satan.” —Maximilian Kolbe
You can pray the Rosary and still serve the revolution.
Or you can pray it as a soldier, with fire, in truth, at war.
Choose.
Because the Rosary is enough, when it is the Rosary of battle.
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Leo’s War on Consecrated Life Continues: Foxes are Running the Henhouse |
Posted by: Stone - 07-17-2025, 07:51 AM - Forum: Pope Leo XIV
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Leo’s War on Consecrated Life Continues: Same-Sex Blessers and Amazon Rite Advocates Now Oversee Traditional Orders
A new Vatican junta takes shape. One that venerates Pachamama more than St. Benedict.
Chris Jackson via Hiraeth in Exile [emphasis mine, slightly adapted and reformatted] | Jun 25, 2025
What better way to safeguard the future of consecrated life than by handing it over to men who bless same-sex couples, advocate pagan syncretism, and treat the priesthood like a job-share? That, apparently, is Leo XIV’s vision, judging by his June 24 appointments to the Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life (DICLSAL): the Vatican body tasked with overseeing religious orders, including those attached to the Latin Mass.
The lineup is nothing short of a theological provocation. Among the newly appointed members are Cardinal Arthur Roche, the liturgical arsonist of the Francis era; Cardinal Cristóbal López Romero, a full-throated defender of Fiducia Supplicans and its same-sex “pastoral blessings”; and Cardinal Jaime Spengler, the Brazilian prelate actively pushing for an Amazonian rite steeped in indigenous paganism and “open” to married clergy.
All three will now have a voice in the very dicastery responsible for regulating the FSSP, the Institute of Christ the King, and other traditional religious institutes. In other words: the foxes are now running the henhouse.
The Return of Cardinal Roche: Liturgical Hostility Elevated
Roche’s place in this cabal is no surprise. As the enforcer of Traditionis Custodes, he spent the better part of the last decade snuffing out the Latin Mass wherever it dared to bloom. His disgust for traditional piety is well documented; so much so that a senior member of his office once reportedly expressed dismay at the success of the Chartres pilgrimage purely because it featured the Tridentine liturgy.
Now installed at DICLSAL, Roche will have a hand in scrutinizing the constitutions, leadership, and very existence of traditional communities. The man who once called the old Mass a “threat to unity” is now positioned to determine whether the monks, nuns, and priests who love it will even be allowed to exist.
Cristóbal Romero: Fiducia’s Favorite Salesman
Cardinal Romero, Archbishop of Rabat, is best known for his ideological loyalty to Fiducia Supplicans, the Vatican’s Trojan horse for same-sex blessings. After most of Africa rightly rejected the document, Romero issued a statement urging Catholics to “avoid any spirit of controversy” and accept the declaration as a deepening of “discernment.”
In other words, shut up and bless it.
Romero has insisted that even “irregular couples” asking for blessings deserve the benefit of the doubt. Gone is any fear of scandal. Gone is clarity. What remains is a muddle of emotional affirmations posing as mercy; all designed to baptize moral disorder.
This is the man who will now help decide the fate of religious congregations bound to traditional vows, traditional morals, and traditional theology.
Spengler’s Jungle Rite and the March of the Viri Probati
Cardinal Spengler, president of the Latin American Bishops’ Conference, has long danced on the edge of doctrinal disaster. His flirtation with an Amazon rite, including pagan symbolism and indigenous rituals, has been well documented. He praises the “dignity” of tribal inculturation and hints at approving the ordination of married men as a pastoral necessity.
When asked about blessing homosexual couples, Spengler offered the kind of sentimental drivel that passes for pastoral wisdom today: “Are they people? If they are people, they deserve our respect.” It’s the theological equivalent of “Love is love.” And now, this same man will help determine whether a traditional Carmelite monastery in the Alps is sufficiently “synodal.”
Inculturation or Infiltration?
With Spengler now a voting member of the dicastery overseeing religious life, his long flirtation with a new Amazonian rite takes on new gravity. The process of inventing a syncretistic liturgy, complete with tribal dress, clay incense bowls, and ambiguous gestures toward the divine, is already underway. The very bishops Spengler represents have openly admitted that these practices stem from indigenous pagan rituals. They are not merely inculturated Catholicism, but the sacral forms of another religion, now invited into the sanctuary.
In 2019, Rome welcomed Pachamama to St. Peter’s. In 2025, we may see her liturgy receive ecclesial approval.
And who will approve it? The same men now overseeing traditional religious life. The same men who want monks in sandals and rainbow stoles, not cowls and cassocks. In their hands, the question is no longer whether religious life should be conformed to Christ, but whether it can be adapted to every authentically “human need,” a category so elastic it now includes blessing mortal sin and rewriting the Mass to appease local spirits.
The Real Target: The Few Orders Still Faithful
Let us not forget why this dicastery matters. DICLSAL has been the Vatican’s preferred instrument for strangling traditional religious life. Under Francis, it produced Cor Orans, the document that wiped out the autonomy of contemplative convents. It’s the same dicastery that now demands bishops get Vatican approval before founding any new religious institute; effectively blocking new traditional communities from ever forming.
It now boasts a female religious as prefect (Sr. Simona Brambilla) and a laywoman on its governing body. Welcome to the synodal Church, where governance without ordination is a feature, not a bug.
This is no longer the age of St. Bernard or St. Teresa of Ávila. It is the age of Brambilla and Roche.
Conclusion: Not Reform, But Reeducation
The few remnants of faithful religious life, those who cling to the old Mass, the old vows, the old teachings, are being placed under the control of men who have openly rejected them. This is not a matter of governance or oversight, but a hostile takeover.
And as the Latin Mass communities undergo visitations, restructurings, and “pastoral dialogues,” the same prelates who promote syncretism and moral ambiguity will smile from their thrones in Rome, reminding us that “discernment” is the new doctrine and “unity” the new faith.
But faithful Catholics should not be fooled. This is not unity or discernment. This is coercion.
And the war on consecrated life is no longer waged in shadows. It now marches under the banner of synodality: blessing irregular unions, praising Amazonian rituals, and silencing what remains of the sacred.
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Half of Polish Priests Say They Were Attacked Last Year |
Posted by: Stone - 07-17-2025, 07:38 AM - Forum: Anti-Catholic Violence
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Half of Polish Priests Say They Were Attacked Last Year
gloria.tv | July 16, 2025
A recent survey by the Church's Institute of Statistics (ISKK) has revealed a concerning increase in violence against priests in Poland (Zenit.org, 14 July). Based on 996 responses, the findings show that almost half of the clergy surveyed (49.7%) had experienced some form of aggression in the previous 12 months.
- 41.6% faced verbal abuse (threats and name-calling)
- 33.6 % experienced online harassment
- 19% had aggression directed towards church properties
- 10.8% reported physical or property damage.
The survey indicates that most incidents go unreported. Over 80% of priests did not file formal reports, often because they did not consider the incidents to be serious enough, or because they lacked trust in the authorities.
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Our Lady of Humility - July 17th |
Posted by: Stone - 07-17-2025, 06:19 AM - Forum: Our Lady
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The Humility of Mary
By St Alphonsus Maria de Liguori (1696-1787)
Most Zealous Doctor of the Church
The Humility of Mary
Excerpt from: “ The Glories of Mary”
![[Image: bernard-van-orley-virgin-and-child-5.jpg]](https://anastpaul.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/bernard-van-orley-virgin-and-child-5.jpg)
anastpaul.com [Slightly adapted and reformatted] | July 17, 2022
NB: The Feast of the Humility of the Blessed Virgin Mary was included in the General Roman Calendar of 1954 among the feasts ‘pro aliquibus locis’ (in some places) but was removed from the General Roman Calendar of 1960. However, many Diocese worldwide still celebrate this beautiful Feast as do all Traditional Catholics.
“Humility” says St. Bernard, “is the foundation and guardian of virtues” and with reason, for without it, no other virtue can exist in a soul. Should she possess all virtues, all will depart when humility is gone. But, on the other hand, as St Francis de Sales wrote to St Jane Frances de Chantal, “God so loves humility, that whenever He sees it, He is immediately drawn there.” This beautiful and so necessary virtue, was unknown in the world but the Son of God Himself came upon the earth, to teach it by His Own example and willed that in that virtue, in particular, we should endeavour to imitate Him – “Learn of Me, for I am meek and humble of heart.”
Mary, being the first and most perfect disciple of Jesus Christ, in the practice of all virtues, was the first also in that of humility and by it, merited to be exalted above all creatures. It was revealed to St. Matilda that the first virtue in which the Blessed Mother particularly exercised herself, from her very childhood, was that of humility.
The first effect of humility of heart is a lowly opinion of ourselves: – “Mary had always so humble an opinion of herself, that,” as it was revealed to the same St Matilda, “although she saw herself enriched with greater graces, than all other creatures, she never preferred herself to anyone.” The Abbot Rupert, explaining the passage of the Sacred Canticles, Thou hast wounded my heart, my sister, my spouse, …with one hair of thy neck, [Cant. 4:9] says, that the humble opinion, which Mary had of herself, was precisely that hair of the Spouse’s neck, with which she wounded the heart of God.” Not indeed that Mary considered herself a sinner: for humility is truth, as St Teresa remarks and Mary knew that she had never offended God: nor was it that she did not acknowledge that she had received greater graces from God, than all other creatures; for a humble heart always acknowledges the special favours of the Lord, to humble herself the more but the Divine Mother, by the greater light wherewith she knew the infinite greatness and goodness of God, also knew, her own nothingness and, therefore, more than all others, humbled herself, saying with the Sacred Spouse – Do not consider that I am brown, because the sun hath altered my colour. [Cant. 1:5] That is, as St Bernard explains it, “When I approach Him, I find myself black.”
“Yes,” says St Bernardine, for “the Blessed Virgin had always the majesty of God and her own nothingness, present to her mind.” As a beggar, when clothed with a rich garment, which has been bestowed upon her, does not pride herself on it, in the presence of the giver but is rather humbled, being reminded thereby, of her own poverty, so also, the more Mary saw herself enriched, the more did she humble herself, remembering that all was God’s gift; whence she herself told St Elizabeth of Hungary, that “she might rest assured that she looked upon herself, as most vile and unworthy of God’s grace.” Therefore, St Bernardine says, that “after the Son of God, no creature in the world was so exalted as Mary because, no creature in the world ever humbled itself, as much as she did.”
Moreover, it is an act of humility to conceal heavenly gifts. Mary wished to conceal from St Joseph, the great favour whereby she had become the Mother of God, although it seemed necessary to make it known to him, if only to remove from the mind of her poor spouse, any suspicions as to her virtue, which he might have entertained on seeing her pregnant: or, at least the perplexity, in which it indeed threw him: for St. Joseph, on the one hand, unwilling to doubt Mary’s chastity and on the other, ignorant of the Mystery, was minded to put her away privately. [Matt. 1:19] This he would have done, had not the Angel revealed to him that his Spouse was pregnant by the operation of the Holy Ghost.
Again, a soul that is truly humble refuses her own praise and should praises be bestowed on her, she refers them all to God. Behold, Mary is disturbed at hearing herself praised by St Gabriel and when St Elizabeth said, Blessed art thou among women … and whence is this to me, that the Mother of my Lord should come to me? … blessed art thou that hast believed, [ Luke 1:42] Mary referred all to God, and answered in that humble Canticle, My soul doth magnify the Lord, [Ibid., 46-47] as if she had said: “Thou dost praise me, Elizabeth but I praise the Lord, to Whom alone honour is due, thou wonders that I should come to thee and I wonder at the Divine Goodness in which alone my spirit exults” and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour. Thou praisest me because I have believed; I praise my God because He hath been pleased to exalt my nothingness: because He hath regarded the humility of His handmaid. Hence Mary said to St Bridget: “I humbled myself so much and thereby, merited so great a grace because I though, and knew, that of myself I possessed nothing. For this same reason I did not desire to be praised, I only desired that praises should be given to the Creator and Giver of all.” Wherefore, an ancient author, speaking of the humility of Mary, says: “O truly blessed humility, which hath given God to men, opened Heaven and delivered souls from Hell.“
It is also a part of humility to serve others. Mary did not refuse to go and serve Elizabeth for three months. Hence St Bernard says, “Elizabeth wondered that Mary should have come to visit her but that which is still more admirable, is that she came, not to be ministered to but to minister.”
Those who are humble are retiring and choose the last places and, therefore, Mary, remarks St Bernard, when her Son was preaching in a house, as it is related by St Matthew, [12:46], wishing to speak to Him, would not, of her own accord, enter but “remained outside and did not avail herself of her maternal authority to interrupt Him.” For the same reason, when she was with the Apostles awaiting the coming of the Holy Ghost, she took the lowest place, as St Luke relates, All these were persevering with one mind in prayer, with the women, and Mary, the Mother of Jesus. [Acts 1:14] Not that St Luke was ignorant of the Divine Mother’s merits, on account of which, he should have named her in the first place but because she had taken the last place amongst the Apostles and women and, therefore, he described them all, as an author remarks, in the order in which they were. Hence St. Bernard says, “Justly has the last become the first, who being the first of all became the last.”
In fine, those who are humble, love to be contemned, therefore, we do not read that Mary showed herself in Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, when her Son was received by the people with so much honour but, on the other hand, at the Death of her Son, she did not shrink from appearing on Calvary, through fear of the dishonour which would accrue to her, when it was known that she was the Mother of Him Who was condemned to die an infamous death, as a criminal. Therefore, she said to St Bridget, “What is more humbling than to be called a fool, to be in want of all things and to believe one’s self, the most unworthy of all? Such, O daughter, was my humility, this was my joy, this was all my desire, with which I thought how to please my Son alone.”
The Venerable Sister Paula of Foligno was given to understand, in an ecstasy, how great was the humility of our Blessed Lady and giving an account of it to her Confessor, she was so filled with astonishment at its greatness that she could only exclaim, “O, the humility of the Blessed Virgin! O, Father, the humility of the Blessed Virgin, how great was the humility of the Blessed Virgin! In the world there is no such thing as humility, not even in its lowest degree, when you see the humility of Mary.” On another occasion our Lord showed St Bridget two ladies. The one was all pomp and vanity. “She,” He said, “is Pride but the other one, whom you see with her head bent down, courteous towards all, having God alone in her mind and considering herself as no one, is Humility: her name is Mary.” Hereby God was pleased to make known to us that the humility of His Blessed Mother, was such that she was humility itself.
Then, O my Queen, I can never be really thy child, unless I am humble but dost thou not see that my sins, after having rendered me ungrateful to my Lord, have also made me proud? O my Mother, do thou supply a remedy. By the merit of thy humility, obtain that I may be truly humble and thus become thy child, Amen.
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