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| The Recusant #60 - Easter 2023 |
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Posted by: Stone - 04-14-2023, 05:43 AM - Forum: The Recusant
- Replies (1)
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Contents
• Sermon at Martigny, Switzerland, 1984 (Abp. Lefebvre)
• “Sorrowful Heart of Mary SSPX-MC” Newsletter (Fr Hewko)
• ‘How the Novus Ordo Mass was Made’ (thecatacombs.org)
• SSPX Moves Closer to Accepting the New Mass:- Denying Quo Primum’s in order to legitimise the New Mass
- Rehabilitating Pius Parsch
- Freestanding Altars emerging
- Accepting the ‘Hybrid Mass’
• How to Spiritually assist at Mass
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| Vatican Newspaper: Judas' Kiss Was "Sign Of Friendship" |
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Posted by: Stone - 04-12-2023, 06:18 AM - Forum: Pope Francis
- No Replies
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Sarcastic Vatican Newspaper: Judas' Kiss Was "Sign Of Friendship"
![[Image: f7qe6kj8fc3yug5gnooobk55x1oaqdln14w3jlm....ormat=webp]](https://assistant.gloria.tv/1z94gyaCTBei3D8MsGrYwjE6j/f7qe6kj8fc3yug5gnooobk55x1oaqdln14w3jlm.webp?secure=J_9Wb8FMnSrSOxp1Mpaw8A&expires=1682079811&format=webp)
gloria.tv | April 11, 2023
OsservatoreRomano.va (March 29) doubts Judas’ condemnation in an article entitled “Our brother Judas” by Father Simone Caleffi.
Contrary to the Gospel, Caleffi claims, that Judas’ kiss to Christ in Gethsemane was a “sign of friendship” with no sinister meaning. The Gospel says that Judas kissed Jesus to identify him.
Inadvertently, Caleffi questions his own interpretation when he says, "It's hard to get inside someone's mind, let alone understand the motives and behaviour of others, when sometimes we can't even understand ourselves!" He rhapsodises about Judas, “What could have gone through his mind in the end, what final thought, what cry?"
For Caleffi it is "certain" that Jesus, "who is infinite Mercy, gave his life for everyone, even for the most unfortunate, desperate, and guilty of his friends" - a fact that no one disputes.
Judas romanticism has been propagated several times by Francis, who pretends he doesn't know where Judas ended up.
Sticking to the facts: Christ calls Judas the son of perdition who is “lost” (John 17) and for whom it would be “better not to be born” (Mark 14).
Since the Vatican is presently full of traitors, it is understandable that they are interested in "rehabilitating" Judas.
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| International CBDC Launched: Universal Monetary Unit |
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Posted by: Stone - 04-12-2023, 05:52 AM - Forum: General Commentary
- Replies (1)
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The Digital Currency Monetary Authority (DCMA) Launches an International Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC)
![[Image: Digital_Currency_Monetary_Authority_1.jpg?w=600]](https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2050523/Digital_Currency_Monetary_Authority_1.jpg?w=600)
International Monetary Fund Spring Meetings 2023
PRNewswire [Emphasis mine] | Apr 10, 2023
WASHINGTON, April 10, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Spring Meetings 2023, the Digital Currency Monetary Authority (DCMA) announced their official launch of an international central bank digital currency (CBDC) that strengthens the monetary sovereignty of participating central banks and complies with the recent crypto assets policy recommendations proposed by the IMF.
Universal Monetary Unit (UMU), symbolized as ANSI Character, Ü, is legally a money commodity, can transact in any legal tender settlement currency, and functions like a CBDC to enforce banking regulations and to protect the financial integrity of the international banking system.
Banks can attach SWIFT Codes and bank accounts to a UMU digital currency wallet and transaction SWIFT-like cross-border payments over digital currency rails completely bypassing the correspondent banking system at best-priced wholesale FX rates and with instantaneous real-time settlement.
In an IMF interview with Tobias Adrian, Financial Counsellor at the International Monetary Fund, he states "Cross-border payments can be slow, expensive, and risky. In today's world of payments, counterparties in different jurisdictions rely on costly trusted relationships to offset the lack of a common settlement asset together with common rules and governance. But imagine if a multilateral platform existed that could improve cross-border payments—at the same time transforming foreign exchange transactions, risk sharing, and more generally, financial contracting."
According to Darrell Hubbard, the Executive Director of the DCMA, and the chief architect of UMU, "This vision expressed by the IMF is the exact solution the DCMA is delivering to central banks worldwide."
Adopting a global localization public monetary system architecture, UMU can be configured to operate according to the central banking regulations of each participating jurisdiction.
George Walker, a Partner at Practus, LLP, specializing in international law, facilitated meetings between the DMCA and the IMF, states "Although the IMF has not officially endorsed Universal Monetary Unit, in reviewing the DCMA's Whitepaper and in weekly team discussions, the IMF has yet to state any objections to UMU's FX premium rates and its monetary sovereignty approach."
According to Darrell, "UMU is not attempting to disrupt the international monetary system. If fact, it strengthens it by helping the IMF achieve its stated mandate to provide economic and financial stability to its member states. UMU is a game-changer in how cross-border payments are transacted and mitigates against seasonal and systemic local currency depreciation."
Universal Monetary Unit Model Law legislation has been drafted in collaboration with several sovereign states. In this proposed legislation, UMU should not be enacted as legal tender for negotiating domestic prices or international trade agreements. Instead, the legislation proposes UMU to be enacted as a complementary money commodity for the store of value, mitigating against potential seasonal and systemic local currency depreciation, and tendered as a payment currency at the time of settlement.
Merchants and trading partners could accept UMU for the equivalent market value for their good and services priced in any national legal tender. UMU has premium exchange rates built into its wallet and can convert any settlement currency amount to the equivalent UMU amount.
Universal Monetary Unit is cryptocurrency reimagined from the ground up to support central banking and regulated financial institutions. It features a trusted consensus protocol, Staked Proof of Trust (SPOT) Protocol, and a multi-dimensional DLT (mDLT) capable of supporting any asset or liability ledger enabling full-service digital banking and international trade payments.
The DCMA introduces Universal Monetary Unit as Crypto 2.0 because it innovates a new wave of cryptographic technologies for realizing a digital currency public monetary system with a widespread adoption framework encompassing use cases for all constituencies in a global economy.
About the Digital Currency Monetary Authority (DCMA) –
The DCMA is a world leader in the advocacy of digital currency and monetary policy innovations for governments and central banks. Membership within the DCMA consists of sovereign states, central banks, commercial and retail banks, and other financial institutions.
https://dcma.io
About Universal Monetary Unit (UMU) –
Universal Monetary Unit (UMU), also known as Unicoin, is an innovation in store of value cryptography powered by artificial intelligence (AI). It adopts a central banking monetary policy framework to ensure it has continuous purchasing demand, minimal price volatility, and annual asset pricing targets.
A copy of the UMU Whitepaper is available on its website.
https://umu.cash
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| Organizations Participating in the FedNow Pilot Program |
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Posted by: Stone - 04-12-2023, 05:36 AM - Forum: General Commentary
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Quote:On January 25, 2021, the Federal Reserve announced that more than 110 organizations from the FedNow Community will participate in the FedNow Pilot Program. The program will support development, testing and adoption of the FedNow Service, as well as encourage development of services and use cases that leverage FedNow functionality.
See also: https://www.frbservices.org/financial-services/fednow
1st Source Bank
ACI Worldwide Corp.
Alacriti Payments LLC
Alloya Corporate Federal Credit Union
American Bank
American Express National Bank
American Savings Bank
American State Bank
Aptys Solutions
Arvest Bank
Atlantic Community Bankers Bank
Bank of Hawaii
Bankers' Bank
Bankers' Bank of Kansas
Bankers' Bank of the West
BMO Harris Bank
BNY Mellon
BOC Bank
Bridge Community Bank
Bryant Bank
C&N
Capital One Financial
Catalyst Corporate Federal Credit Union
CGI Technologies and Solutions, Inc.
Citi
Citizens Bank of Las Cruces
Citizens National Bank
Clear Mountain Bank
Commerce Bank
Community Bankers' Bank
Computer Services Inc.
ConnectOne bank
Corporate America Credit Union
Corporate Central Credit Union
Corporate One Federal Credit Union
Cross River Bank
DHI Computing Service Inc. DBA FPS GOLD
Eastern Corporate Federal Credit Union
ECS Fin Inc.
Exchange Bank
Excite Credit Union
F&M Bank
Fairwinds Credit Union
Farmers Insurance Federal Credit Union
FIS
Finastra
Finxact
Finzly
First Bank
First Citizens State Bank
First Foundation Bank
First Hawaiian Bank
First Internet Bank of Indiana
First National Bankers Bank
First Republic Bank
FirstBank
Fiserv Solutions, LLC
Form3
Freedom Bank
Goldman Sachs
Green Dot Bank
HawaiiUSA Federal Credit Union
Heritage Bank
High Plains Bank
Horicon Bank
INB, N.A.
Independent Community Bankers’ Bank
Jack Henry & Associates
JP Morgan Chase
Juniper Payments
Lakeview Bank
Mediapolis Savings Bank
Mercantile Bank of Michigan
Michigan State University Federal Credit Union
Midwest Independent Bankers Bank
Millennium Corporate Credit Union
ModusBox, Inc.
North American Banking Company
North Salem State Bank
NorthCountry Federal Credit Union
Oakworth Capital Bank
Open Payment Network
Pacific Coast Bankers' Bank
Peoples National Bank, N.A.
Premier Bank
Q2 Software, Inc.
Quad City Bank & Trust
Regions Bank
Salem Five Bank
Service One Credit Union
SHAZAM, Inc.
Silicon Valley Bank
Square Financial Services, Inc.
Star One Credit Union
TD AMCB
Temenos Headquarters S.A.
Texas Brand Bank
Texas First Bank
The Bankers Bank
The Callaway Bank
The Citizens Bank of Edmond
TIB The Independent BankersBank, NA
Tri Counties Bank
U.S. Bank
U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Bureau of the Fiscal Service
UMB Bank, n.a.
United Bankers' Bank
University Bank
University of Michigan Credit Union
Vantage Bank Texas
Veridian Credit Union
Vizo Financial Corporate Credit Union
Volante Technologies, Inc.
Volunteer Corporate CU
VSoft Corporation
Waldo State Bank
Wells Fargo Bank, N.A.
Westside State Bank
See also: Fed Announces Launch Of 'FedNow' Real-Time Payment System, Sparking Debate
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| Walter Reed National Military Medical Center Terminates Catholic Pastoral Contract |
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Posted by: Stone - 04-11-2023, 05:34 AM - Forum: General Commentary
- No Replies
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Walter Reed National Military Medical Center Terminates Catholic Pastoral Care Contract During Holy Week
Move violates First Amendment Right to Free Exercise of Religion
milarch.org [slightly adapted] | APRIL 7, 2023
WASHINGTON, DC – Walter Reed National Military Medical Center has issued a “cease and desist order” to Holy Name College, a community of Franciscan Catholic priests and brothers, who have provided pastoral care to service members and veterans at Walter Reed for nearly two decades.
The government’s cease and desist order directed the Catholic priests to cease any religious services at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. This order was issued as Catholics entered Holy Week, the most sacred of days in the Christian faith, in which they participate in liturgies remembering Jesus’ passion, and leading the Church to celebrate the Resurrection on Easter morning.
The Franciscans’ contract for Catholic Pastoral Care was terminated on March 31, 2023, and awarded to a secular defense contracting firm that cannot fulfill the statement of work in the contract. As a result, adequate pastoral care is not available for service members and veterans in the United States’ largest Defense Health Agency medical center either during Holy Week or beyond. There is one Catholic Army chaplain assigned to Walter Reed Medical Center, but he is in the process of separating from the Army.
His Excellency, the Most Reverend Timothy P. Broglio, J.C.D., Archbishop for the Military Services, condemned the move as an encroachment on the First Amendment guarantee of the Free Exercise of Religion. Archbishop Broglio said: “It is incomprehensible that essential pastoral care is taken away from the sick and the aged when it was so readily available. This is a classic case where the adage ‘if it is not broken, do not fix it’ applies. I fear that giving a contract to the lowest bidder overlooked the fact that the bidder cannot provide the necessary service. I earnestly hope that this disdain for the sick will be remedied at once and their First Amendment rights will be respected.”
Ms. Elizabeth A. Tomlin, Esq., General Counsel of the Archdiocese for the Military Services, USA (AMS), has reached out to the contracting officers at Walter Reed numerous times throughout Holy Week asking for the Franciscans’ Catholic ministry to be reinstated at least through Easter. Walter Reed National Military Medical Center has not responded to these requests from the Archdiocese.
While Walter Reed’s chaplain office claims Catholic care is being provided during Holy Week, the AMS maintains that without Catholic priests present at the medical center, service members and veterans are being denied the constitutional right to practice their religion.
Walter Reed National Military Medical Center is one of many medical centers within the Department of Defense and Defense Health Agency whose pastoral care lies within AMS jurisdiction. The refusal to provide adequate pastoral care while awarding a contract for Catholic ministry to a for-profit company that has no way of providing Catholic priests to the medical center is a glaring violation of service members’ and veterans’ Right to the Free Exercise of Religion. Especially, during Holy Week, the lack of adequate Catholic pastoral care causes untold and irreparable harm to Catholics who are hospitalized and therefore a captive population whose religious rights the government has a constitutional duty to provide for and protect.
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| FBI sought to develop sources in Catholic churches to combat domestic terrorism, docs show |
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Posted by: Stone - 04-11-2023, 04:29 AM - Forum: General Commentary
- No Replies
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FBI sought to develop sources in Catholic churches to combat domestic terrorism, docs show
FBI hit with subpoena for records by House Judiciary Committee
Fox News [slightly adapted] | April 10, 2023
The FBI recently sought to develop sources inside Christian churches and Catholic dioceses as part of an effort to combat domestic terrorism, according to internal documents released by House Judiciary Committee on Monday.
The internal documents — obtained last month by House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, and Rep. Mike Johnson, R-La., who are also members of the so-called Weaponization Subcommittee — showed the FBI planned to use churches as "new avenues for tripwire and source development." The federal law enforcement agency also aimed to specifically target "mainline Catholic parishes" as part of its efforts.
In addition, according to Jordan, the FBI expressed interest in "leverag[ing] existing sources and/or initiat[ing] Type 5 Assessments to develop new sources with the placement and access." And, in another example, the agency cited a desire to to sensitize religious congregations "to the warning signs of radicalization and enlist their assistance to serve as suspicious activity tripwires."
PURPORTED FBI DOCUMENT SUGGESTS AGENCY MAY BE TARGETING CATHOLICS WHO ATTEND LATIN MASS
"Based on the limited information produced by the FBI to the Committee, we now know that the FBI relied on at least one undercover agent to produce its analysis, and that the FBI proposed that its agents engage in outreach to Catholic parishes to develop sources among the clergy and church leadership to inform on Americans practicing their faith," Jordan wrote in a letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray on Monday.
Jordan also issued a subpoena for a series of related documents the committee previously requested from the FBI, but which the FBI has failed to provide.
"This information is outrageous and only reinforces the Committee’s need for all FBI material responsive to our request," Jordan wrote to Wray. "The documents produced to date show how the FBI sought to enlist Catholic houses of worship as potential sources to monitor and report on their parishioners."
"Americans attend church to worship and congregate for their spiritual and personal betterment," the letter continued. "They must be free to exercise their fundamental First Amendment rights without worrying that the FBI may have planted so-called "tripwire" sources or other informants in their houses of worship."
Jordan and Johnson first requested related documents from the FBI on Feb. 16, days after former FBI agent and whistleblower Kyle Seraphin published an internal document originating from the FBI's Richmond Field Office that appeared to outline a plan to "mitigate the threat of Radical-Traditionalist Catholics."
The leaked document generated widespread condemnation from Republican lawmakers who said the FBI's efforts may violate the Constitution.
However, the original letter from Jordan and Johnson went unanswered prompting a follow-up request on March 20. Three days later, the FBI produced the 18-page document Jordan announced on Monday.
"The FBI received the subpoena," the FBI told Fox News Digital in a statement. "The FBI recognizes the importance of congressional oversight and remains fully committed to cooperating with Congress’s oversight requests consistent with its constitutional and statutory responsibilities. The FBI is actively working to respond to congressional requests for information –including voluntary production of documents."
The agency also referred Fox News Digital to recent comments Wray made during congressional testimony in which he said he was "aghast" when he saw reports about the FBI targeting Catholics.
"We took steps immediately to withdraw it and remove it from FBI systems. It does not reflect FBI standards," Wray added. "We do not conduct investigations based on religious affiliation or practices, full stop. We have also now ordered our inspection division to take a look at how this happened and try to figure out how we can make sure something like this doesn't happen again."
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| St. Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms |
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Posted by: Stone - 04-10-2023, 05:03 AM - Forum: Fathers of the Church
- Replies (18)
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St. Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Taken from here.
Exposition on Psalm 1
1. Blessed is the man that has not gone away in the counsel of the ungodly Psalm 1:1. This is to be understood of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord Man. Blessed is the man that has not gone away in the counsel of the ungodly, as the man of earth did, 1 Corinthians 15:47 who consented to his wife deceived by the serpent, to the transgressing the commandment of God. Nor stood in the way of sinners. For He came indeed in the way of sinners, by being born as sinners are; but He stood not therein, for that the enticements of the world held Him not. And has not sat in the seat of pestilence. He willed not an earthly kingdom, with pride, which is well taken for the seat of pestilence; for that there is hardly any one who is free from the love of rule, and craves not human glory. For a pestilence is disease widely spread, and involving all or nearly all. Yet the seat of pestilence may be more appropriately understood of hurtful doctrine; whose word spreads as a canker. 2 Timothy 2:17 The order too of the words must be considered: went away, stood, sat. For he went away, when he drew back from God. He stood, when he took pleasure in sin. He sat, when, confirmed in his pride, he could not go back, unless set free by Him, who neither has gone away in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stood in the way of sinners, nor sat in the seat of pestilence.
2. But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law will he meditate by day and by night Psalm 1:2. The law is not made for a righteous man, 1 Timothy 1:9 says the Apostle. But it is one thing to be in the law, another under the law. Whoever is in the law, acts according to the law; whoever is under the law, is acted upon according to the law: the one therefore is free, the other a slave. Again, the law, which is written and imposed upon the servant, is one thing; the law, which is mentally discerned by him who needs not its letter, is another thing. He will meditate by day and by night, is to be understood either as without ceasing; or by day in joy, by night in tribulations. For it is said, Abraham saw my day, and was glad: John 8:5-6 and of tribulation it is said, my reins also have instructed me, even unto the night.
3. And he shall be like a tree planted hard by the running streams of waters Psalm 1:3; that is either Very Wisdom, Proverbs viii which vouchsafed to assume man's nature for our salvation; that as man He might be the tree planted hard by the running streams of waters; for in this sense can that too be taken which is said in another Psalm, the river of God is full of water. Or by the Holy Ghost, of whom it is said, He shall baptize you in the Holy Ghost; Matthew 3:11 and again, If any man thirst, let him come unto Me, and drink; John 7:37 and again, If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that asks water of you, you would have asked of Him, and He would have given you living water, of which whoever drinks shall never thirst, but it shall be made in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life. Or, by the running streams of waters may be by the sins of the people, because first the waters are called peoples in the Apocalypse; Revelation 17:15 and again, by running stream is not unreasonably understood fall, which has relation to sin. That tree then, that is, our Lord, from the running streams of water, that is, from the sinful people's drawing them by the way into the roots of His discipline, will bring forth fruit, that is, will establish Churches; in His season, that is, after He has been glorified by His Resurrection and Ascension into heaven. For then, by the sending of the Holy Ghost to the Apostles, and by the confirming of their faith in Him, and their mission to the world, He made the Churches to bring forth fruit. His leaf also shall not fall, that is, His Word shall not be in vain. For, all flesh is grass, and the glory of man as the flower of grass; the grass withers, and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord abides forever. Isaiah 40:6-8 And whatsoever He does shall prosper that is, whatsoever that tree shall bear; which all must be taken of fruit and leaves, that is, deeds and words.
4. The ungodly are not so, they are not so, but are like the dust which the wind casts forth from the face of the earth Psalm 1:4. The earth is here to be taken as that steadfastness in God, with a view to which it is said, The Lord is the portion of mine inheritance, yea, I have a goodly heritage. With a view to this it is said, Wait on the Lord and keep His ways, and He shall exalt you to inherit the earth. With a view to this it is said, Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Matthew 5:5 A comparison too is derived hence, for as this visible earth supports and contains the outer man, so that earth invisible the inner man. From the face of which earth the wind casts forth the ungodly, that is, pride, in that it puffs him up. On his guard against which he, who was inebriated by the richness of the house of the Lord, and drunken of the torrent stream of its pleasures, says, Let not the foot of pride come against me. From this earth pride cast forth him who said, I will place my seat in the north, and I will be like the Most High. Isaiah 14:13-14 From the face of the earth it cast forth him also who, after that he had consented and tasted of the forbidden tree that he might be as God, hid himself from the Face of God. Genesis 3:8 That his earth has reference to the inner man, and that man is cast forth thence by pride, may be particularly seen in that which is written, Why is earth and ashes proud? Because, in his life, he cast forth his bowels. Sirach 10:9 For, whence he has been cast forth, he is not unreasonably said to have cast forth himself.
5. Therefore the ungodly rise not in the judgment Psalm 1:5: therefore, namely, because as dust they are cast forth from the face of the earth. And well did he say that this should be taken away from them, which in their pride they court, namely, that they may judge; so that this same idea is more clearly expressed in the following sentence, nor sinners in the counsel of the righteous. For it is usual for what goes before, to be thus repeated more clearly. So that by sinners should be understood the ungodly; what is before in the judgment, should be here in the counsel of the righteous. Or if indeed the ungodly are one thing, and sinners another, so that although every ungodly man is a sinner, yet every sinner is not ungodly; The ungodly rise not in the judgment, that is, they shall rise indeed, but not that they should be judged, for they are already appointed to most certain punishment. But sinners do not rise in counsel of the just, that is, that they may judge, but perhaps that they may be judged; so as of these it were said, The fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is. If any man's work abide, he shall receive a reward. If any man's work shall be burned, he shall then suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.
6. For the Lord knows the way of the righteous Psalm 1:6. As it is said, medicine knows health, but knows not disease, and yet disease is recognised by the art of medicine. In like manner can it be said that the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the ungodly He knows not. Not that the Lord is ignorant of anything, and yet He says to sinners, I never knew you. Matthew 7:23 But the way of the ungodly shall perish; is the same as if it were said, the way of the ungodly the Lord knows not. But it is expressed more plainly that this should be not to be known of the Lord, namely, to perish; and this to be known of the Lord, namely, to abide; so as that to be should appertain to the knowledge of God, but to His not knowing not to be. For the Lord says, I Am that I Am, and, I Am has sent me."
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| Dom Guéranger: The History & Mystery of Paschaltide |
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Posted by: Stone - 04-09-2023, 04:25 AM - Forum: Easter
- Replies (2)
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THE HISTORY OF PASCHAL TIME
by Dom Guéranger
![[Image: ZS5qcGc]](https://imgs.search.brave.com/snXxi2PN4879gwPECq_MEnBgQslq2_iItEakBSrvNn4/rs:fit:660:470:1/g:ce/aHR0cHM6Ly9jYXRo/b2xpY2xlYWRlci5j/b20uYXUvd3AtY29u/dGVudC91cGxvYWRz/LzIwMTUvMDQvVGlu/dG9yZXR0b18tX0xh/X1Jlc3VycmV6aW9u/ZS5qcGc)
We give the name of Paschal Time to the period between Easter Sunday and the Saturday following Whit Sunday. It is the most sacred portion of the Liturgical Year, and the one towards which the whole Cycle converges. We shall easily understand how this is, if we reflect upon the greatness of the Easter Feast, which is called the Feast of Feasts, and the Solemnity of Solemnities, in the same manner, says St. Gregory, [Homilia, xxii.] as the most sacred part of the Temple was called the Holy of Holies; and the Book of Sacred Scripture, wherein are described the espousals between Christ and the Church, is called the Canticle of Canticles. It is on this day, that the mission of the Word Incarnate attains the object towards which it has hitherto been unceasingly tending: mankind is raised up from his fall, and regains what he had lost by Adam’s sin.
Christmas gave us a Man-God; three days have scarcely passed, since we witnessed His infinitely precious Blood shed for our ransom; but now, on the day of Easter, our Jesus is no longer the Victim of death: He is a Conqueror, that destroys death, the child of sin, and proclaims life, that undying life which He has purchased for us. The humiliation of His swathing-bands, the sufferings of His Agony and Cross, these are passed; all is now glory,- glory for Himself, and glory also for us. On the day of Easter, God regains, by the Resurrection of the Man-God, His creation such as He made it at the beginning; the only vestige now left of death, is that likeness to sin which the Lamb of God deigned to take upon Himself. Neither is it Jesus alone that returns to eternal life; the whole human race also has risen to immortality together with our Jesus. ‘By a man came death,’ says the Apostle; ‘and by a Man the Resurrection of the dead: and as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all shall be made alive.' [1 Cor. xv. 21,22].
The anniversary of this Resurrection is, therefore, the great Day, the day of joy, the day par excellence; the day to which the whole year looks forward in expectation, and on which its whole economy is formed. But as it is the holiest of days,- since it opens to us the gate of Heaven, into which we shall enter because we have risen together with Christ,- the Church would have us come to it well prepared by bodily mortification and by compunction of heart. It was for this that she instituted the Fast of Lent, and that she bade us, during Septuagesima, look forward to the joy of her Easter, and be filled with sentiments suitable to the approach of so grand a solemnity. We obeyed; we have gone through the period of our preparation; and now the Easter sun has risen upon us!
But it was not enough to solemnize the great Day when Jesus, our Light, rose from the darkness of the tomb: there was another anniversary which claimed our grateful celebration. The Incarnate Word rose on the first day of the week,- that same day, where on, four thousand years before, He, the Uncreated Word of the Father, had begun the work of the Creation, by calling forth light, and separating it from darkness. The first day was thus ennobled by the creation of light. It received a second consecration by the Resurrection of Jesus; and from that time forward Sunday, and not Saturday, was to be the Lord’s Day. Yes, our Resurrection in Jesus which took place on the Sunday, gave this first day a pre-eminence above the others of the week: the divine precept of the Sabbath was abrogated together with the other ordinances of the Mosaic Law, and the Apostles instructed the faithful to keep holy the first day of the week, which God had dignified with that twofold glory, the creation and the regeneration of the world. Sunday, then, being the day of Jesus’ Resurrection, the Church chose that day, in preference to every other, for its yearly commemoration. The Pasch of the Jews, in consequence of its being fixed on the fourteenth of the moon of March, (the anniversary of the going out of Egypt,) fell by turns on each day of the week. The Jewish Pasch was but a figure; ours is the reality, and puts an end to the figure. The Church, therefore, broke this her last tie with the Synagogue; and proclaimed her emancipation, by fixing the most solemn of her Feasts on a day, which should never agree with that on which the Jews keep their now unmeaning Pasch. The Apostles decreed, that the Christian Pasch should never be celebrated on the fourteenth of the moon of March, even were that day to be a Sunday; but that it should be everywhere kept on the Sunday following the day on which the obsolete calendar of the Synagogue still marks it.
Nevertheless, out of consideration for the many Jews who had received Baptism, and who formed the nucleus of the early Christian Church, it was resolved that the law regarding the day for keeping the new Pasch, should be applied prudently and gradually. Jerusalem was soon to be destroyed by the Romans, according to our Saviour’s prediction; and the new City, which was to rise up from its ruins and receive the Christian colony, would also have its Church, but a Church totally free from the Jewish element, which God had so visibly rejected. In preaching the Gospel and founding Churches, even far beyond the limits of the Roman Empire, the majority of the Apostles had not to contend with Jewish customs; most of their converts were from among the Gentiles. Saint Peter, who in the Council of Jerusalem had proclaimed the cessation of the Jewish Law, set up the standard of emancipation in the City of Rome; so that the Church, which through him was made the Mother and Mistress of all Churches, never had any other discipline regarding the observance of Easter, than that laid down by the Apostles, namely, that it should be kept on a Sunday.
There was, however, one province of the Church, which for a long time stood out against the universal practice: it was Asia Minor. The Apostle St. John, who lived for many years at Ephesus,- where indeed he died,- had thought it prudent to tolerate, in those parts, the Jewish custom of celebrating the Pasch; for many of the converts had been members of the Synagogue. But the Gentiles themselves, who, later on, formed the mass of the faithful, were strenuous upholders of this custom, which dated from the very foundation of the Church of Asia Minor. In the course of time, however, this anomaly became a source of scandal: it savoured of Judaism, and it prevented unity of religious observance, which is always desirable, but particularly so in what regards Lent and Easter.
Pope St. Victor, who governed the Church from the year 193, endeavoured to put a stop to this abuse; he thought the time had come for establishing unity in so essential a point of Christian worship. Already, that is in the year 160, under Pope St. Anicetus, the Apostolic See had sought, by friendly negotiations, to induce the Churches of Asia Minor to conform to the universal practice; but it was difficult to triumph over a prejudice, which rested on a tradition held sacred in that country. St. Victor, however, resolved to make another attempt. He would put before them the unanimous agreement which reigned throughout the rest of the Church. Accordingly, he gave orders, that Councils should be convened in the several countries where the Gospel had been preached, and that the question of Easter should be examined. Everywhere there was perfect uniformity of practice; and the historian Eusebius, who lived a hundred and fifty years later, assures us, that the people of his day used to quote the decisions of the Councils of Rome, of Gaul, of Achaia, of Pontus, of Palestine, and of Osrhoene in Mesopotamia. The Council of Ephesus, at which Polycrates, the Bishop of that city, presided, was the only one that opposed the Pontiff, and disregarded the practice of the universal Church.
Deeming it unwise to give further toleration to the opposition, Victor separated from communion with the Holy See the refractory Churches of Asia Minor. This severe penalty, which was not inflicted until Rome had exhausted every other means of removing the evil, excited the commiseration of several Bishops. St. Irenaeus, who was then governing tile See of Lyons, pleaded for these Churches, which, so it seemed to him, had sinned only through a want of light; and he obtained from the Pope the revocation of a measure which seemed too severe. This indulgence produced the desired effect. In the following century, St. Anatolius, Bishop of Laodicea, in his Book on the Pasch, written in 276, tells us that the Churches of Asia Minor had then, for some time past, conformed to the Roman practice.
About the same time, and by a strange co-incidence, the Churches of Syria, Cilicia. and Mesopotamia, gave scandal by again leaving the Christian and Apostolic observance of Easter, and returning to the Jewish rite of the fourteenth of the March moon. This Schism in the Liturgy grieved the Church; and one of the ponts to which the Council of Nicaea directed its first attention, was the promulgation of the universal obligation to celebrate Easter on the Sunday. The Decree was unanimously passed, and the Fathers of the Council ordained, that ‘all controversy being laid aside, the Brethren in the East should solemnize the Pasch on the same day as the Romans, the Alexandrians, and the rest of the faithful.' [Spicilegium Solesmense.] So important seemed this question, inasmuch as it affected the very essence of the Christian Liturgy, that St. Athanasius, assigning the reasons which had led to the calling of the Council of Nicaea, mentions these two: the condemnation of the Arian heresy, and the establishment of uniformity in the observance of Easter.’ [Epist. ad Afros Episcopos.]
The Bishop of Alexandria was commissioned by the Council to see to the drawing up of astronomical tables, whereby the precise day of Easter might be fixed for each future year. The reason of this choice was, that the astronomers of Alexandria were looked upon as the most exact in their calculations. These tables were to be sent to the Pope, and he would address letters to the several Churches, instructing them as to the uniform celebration of the great Festival of Christendom. Thus was the unity of the Church made manifest by the unity of the holy Liturgy; and the Apostolic See, which is the foundation of the first, was likewise the source of the second. But, even previous to the Council of Nicaea, the Roman Pontiff had addressed to all the Churches, every year, a Paschal Encyclical, instructing them as to the day on which the solemnity of the Resurrection was to be kept. This we learn from the synodical Letter of the Fathers of the great Council held at Arles, in 314. The Letter is addressed to Pope St. Sylvester, and contains the following passage: ‘In the first place, we beg that the observance of the Pasch of the Lord may be uniform, both as to time and day, in the whole world, and that You would, according to the custom, address Letters to all concerning this matter.’ [Concil. Galilae. t. 1].
This custom, however, was not kept up for any length of time, after the Council of Nicaea. The want of precision in astronomical calculations occasioned confusion in the method of fixing the day of Easter. It is true, this great Festival was always kept on a Sunday; nor did any Church think of celebrating it on the same day as the Jews; but, since there was no uniform understanding as to the exact time of the Vernal Equinox, it happened sane years, that the Feast of Easter was not kept., in all places, on the same day. By degrees, there crept in a deviation from the rule laid down by the Council, of taking the 21st of March as the day of the Equinox. There was needed a reform in the Calendar, and no one seemed competent to bring it about. Cycles were drawn up contradictory to one another; Rome and Alexandria had each its own system of calculation; so that, some years, Easter was not kept with that perfect uniformity which the Nicene Fathers had so strenuously laboured for: and yet, this variation was not the result of anything like party-spirit.
The West followed Rome. The Churches of Ireland and Scotland, which had been misled by faulty Cycles, were, at length, brought into uniformity. Finally, science was sufficiently advanced in the 16th century, for Pope Gregory XIII. to undertake a reform of the Calendar. The Equinox had to be restored to the 21st of March, as the Council of Nicaea had prescribed. The Pope effected this by publishing a Bull, dated February 24, 1581, in which be ordered that ten days of the following year, namely from the 4th to the 15th of October, should be suppressed. He thus restored the work of Julius Caesar, who had, in his day, turned his attention to the rectification of the Year. Easter was the great object of the reform, or, as it is called, the New Style, achieved by Gregory XIII. The principles and regulations of the Nicene Council were again brought to bear on this the capital question of the Liturgical Year; and the Roman Pontiff thus gave to the whole world the intimation of Easter, not for one year only, but for centuries. Heretical nations were forced to acknowledge the divine power of the Church in this solemn act, which interested both religion and society. They protested against the Calendar, as they had protested against the Rule of Faith. England and the Lutheran States of Germany preferred following, for many years, a Calendar which was evidently at fault, rather then accept the New Style, which they acknowledged to be indispensable; but it was the work of a Pope! [Great Britain adopted the New Style, by Act of Parliament, in the year 1732. - Tr.] The only nation in Europe that keeps up the Old Style is Russia, whose antipathy to Rome obliges her to be thus ten or twelve days behind the rest of the civilized world.
All this shows us how important it was to fix the precise day of’ Easter; and God has several times shown by miracles, that the date of so sacred a Feast was not a matter of indifference. During the ages when the confusion of the Cycles and the want of correct astronomical computations occasioned great uncertainty as to the Vernal Equinox, miraculous events more than once supplied the deficiencies of science and authority. In a letter to St. Leo the Great, in the year 444, Paschasinus, Bishop of Lilybea [The modern Marsala] in Sicily, relates that under the Pontificate of St. Zozinius,- Honorius being Consul for the eleventh, and Constantius for the second time,- the real day of Easter was miraculously revealed to the people of one of the churches there. In the midst of a mountainous and thickly wooded district of the Island was a village called Meltinas. Its church was of the poorest, but it was dear to God. Every year, on the night preceding Easter Sunday, as the Priest went to the Baptistery to bless the Font, it was found to be miraculously filled with water, for there were no human means wherewith it could be supplied. As soon as Baptism was administered, the water disappeared of itself, and left the Font perfectly dry. In the year just mentioned, the people, misled by a wrong calculation, assembled for the ceremonies of Easter Eve. The Prophecies having been read, the Priest and his flock repaired to the Baptistery,- but the Font was empty. They waited, expecting the miraculous flowing of the water, wherewith the Catechumens were to receive the grace of regeneration: but they waited in vain, and no Baptism was ad ministered. On the following 22nd of April, the Font was found to be filled to the brim, and thereby the people understood that that was the true Easter for that year. [Sti. Leonis Opera, Epist. iii.]
Cassiodorus, writing in the name of king Athalaric to a certain Severus, relates a similar miracle, which happened every year on Easter Eve, in Lucania, near the small Island of Leucothea, at a place called Marcilianum. There was a large fountain there, whose water was so clear, that the air itself was not more transparent. It was used as the Font for the administration of Baptism on Easter Night. As soon as the Priest, standing under the rock where with nature had canopied the fountain, began the prayers of the Blessing, the water, as though taking part in the transports of the Easter joy, arose in the Font; so that, if previously it was to the level of the fifth step, it was seen to rise up to the seventh, impatient, as it were, to effect those wonders of grace whereof it was the chosen instrument. God would show by this, that even inanimate creatures can share, when He so wills it, in the holy gladness of the greatest of all days. [Cassiodorus, Variarum, lib. vii. epist. xxxiii.]
St. Gregory of Tours tells us of a Font, which existed even then, in a church of Andalusia, in a place called Osen, and whereby God miraculously certified to His people the true day of Easter. On the Maundy Thursday of each year, the Bishop, accompanied by the faithful, repaired to this church. The bed of the Font was built in the form of a cross, and was paved with mosaics. It was carefully examined, to see that it was perfectly dry; and after several prayers had been recited, every one left the church, and the Bishop sealed the door with his seal. On Holy Saturday the Pontiff returned, accompanied by his flock; the seal was examined, and the door was opened. The Font was found to be filled, even above the level of the floor, and yet the water did not overflow. The Bishop pronounced the exorcisms over the miraculous water, and poured the Chrism into it. The Catechumens were then baptized; and as soon as the sacrament had been administered, the water immediately disappeared, and no one could tell what became of it. [De Gloria Martyrum, lib. i. Cap. xxiv.] Similar miracles were witnessed in several churches in the East. John Moschus, a writer in the 7th century, speaks of a Baptismal Font in Lycia, which was thus filled every Easter Eve; hut the water remained in the Font during the whole fifty days, and suddenly disappeared after the Festival of Pentecost. [Pratum spirituale, cap. ccxv.]
We alluded, in our History of Passiontide, to the decrees passed by the Christian Emperors, which forbade all law proceedings during the fortnight of Easter, that is, from Palm Sunday to the Octave day of the Resurrection. St. Augustine, in a sermon he preached on this Octave, exhorts the faithful to extend to the whole year this suspension of law-suits, disputes, and enmities, which the civil law interdicted during these fifteen days.
The Church puts upon all her children the obligation of receiving Holy Communion at Easter. This precept is based upon the words of our Redeemer, who left it to His Church to determine the time of the year, when Christians should receive the Blessed Sacrament. In the early ages, Communion was frequent, and, in some places, even daily. By degrees, the fervour of the faithful grew cold towards this august Mystery, as we gather from a decree of the Council of Agatha (Agde), held in 506, where it is defined, that those of the laity who shall not approach Communion at Christmas, Easter, and Pentecost, are to be considered as having ceased to be Catholics. [Concil. Agath. Canon xviii.] This Decree of the Council of Agatha was accepted as the law of almost the entire Western Church. We find it quoted among the regulations drawn up by Egbert, Archbishop of York, as also in the third Council of’ Tours. In many places, however, Communion was obligatory for the Sundays of Lent, and for the last three days of Holy Week, independently of that which was to be made on the Easter Festival.
It was in the year 1215, in the 4th General Council of Lateran, that the Church, seeing the ever growing indifference of her children, decreed with regret that Christians should be strictly bound to Communion only once in the year, and that that Communion of obligation should be made at Easter. In order to show the faithful that this is the uttermost limit of her condescension to lukewarmness, she declares, in the same Council, that he that shall presume to break this law, may be forbidden to enter a church during life, and he deprived of Christian burial after death, as he would be if he had, of his own accord, separated himself from the exterior link of Catholic unity. [Two centuries after this, Pope Eugenius the Fourth, in the Constitution Digna Fide, given in the year 1440, allowed this annual Communion to be made on any day between Palm Sunday and Low Sunday inclusively. - In England, by permission of the Holy See, the time for making the Easter Communion extends from Ash Wednesday to Low Sunday. Tr.]] These regulations of a General Council show how important is the duty of the Easter Communion; but, at the same time, they make us shudder at the thought of the millions, throughout the Catholic world, who brave each year the threats of the Church, by refusing to comply with a duty, which would both bring life to their souls, and serve as a profession of their faith. And when we again reflect upon how many even of those who make their Easter Communion, have paid no more attention to the Lenten Penance than if there were no such obligation in existence, we cannot help feeling sad, and we wonder within ourselves, how long God will bear with such infringements of the Christian Law?
The fifty days between Easter and Pentecost have ever been considered by the Church as most holy. The first week, which is more expressly devoted to celebrating our Lord’s Resurrection, is kept up as one continued Feast; but the remainder of the fifty days is also marked with special honours. To say nothing of the joy, which is the characteristic of this period of the year, and of which the Alleluia is the expression,- Christian tradition has assigned to Eastertide two practices, which distinguish it from every other Season. The first is, that fasting is not permitted during the entire interval: it is an extension of the ancient precept of never fasting on a Sunday, and the whole of Eastertide is considered as one long Sunday. This practice, which would seem to have come down from the time of the Apostles, was accepted by the Religious Rules of both East and West, even by the severest. The second consists in not kneeling at the Divine Office, from Easter to Pentecost. The Eastern Churches have faithfully kept up the practice, even to this day. It was observed for many ages by the Western Churches also; but now, it is little more than a remnant. The Latin Church has long since admitted genuflexions in the Mass during Easter time. The few vestiges of the ancient discipline in this regard, which still exist, are not noticed by the faithful, inasmuch as they seldom assist at the Canonical Hours.
Eastertide, then, is like one continued Feast. It is the remark made by Tertullian, in the 3rd century. He is reproaching those Christians who regretted having renounced, by their Baptism, the festivities of the pagan year; and he thus addresses them: "If you love Feasts, you will find plenty among us Christians; not merely Feasts that last only for a day, but such as continue for several days together. The Pagans keep each of their Feasts once in the year; but you have to keep each of yours many times over, for you have the eight days of its celebration. Put all the Feasts of the Gentiles together, and they do not amount to our fifty days of Pentecost." [De Idolatria, cap. xiv.] St. Ambrose speaking on the same subject, says: "If the Jews are not satisfied with the Sabbath of each week, but keep also one which lasts a whole month, and another which lasts a whole year;- how much more ought not we to honour our Lord’s Resurrection? Hence our ancestors have taught us to celebrate the fifty days of Pentecost as a continuation of Easter. They are seven weeks, and the Feast of Pentecost commences the eighth. ... During these fifty days, the Church observes no fast, as neither does she on any Sunday, for it is the day on which our Lord rose: and all these fifty days are like so many Sundays." [In Lucam, lib. viii. cap. xxv.]
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| Archbishop Viganò: Easter 2023 |
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Posted by: Stone - 04-08-2023, 05:29 AM - Forum: Archbishop Viganò
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Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò: REGNAVIT A LIGNO DEUS: God reigns from the Cross
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gloria.tv | April 7, 2023
Vexilla regis prodeunt, fulget crucis mysterium: The insignia of the King advance, the Mystery of the Cross shines forth. These are the words of the hymn which we have sung during the moving liturgical celebration of Good Friday, when the Blessed Sacrament is carried from the Sepulcher to the altar for the Communion of the priest. And these same solemn words were adopted in 1793 as the hymn of the Vendéean Army during the heroic Catholic uprising against the French Revolution.
At that time too, in the face of the antichristic fury that raged against Catholic Kingdoms and against the Church, the faithful people rose up to oppose the destruction of the Christian Civilization. And at that time too – as later happened in Mexico with the Cristeros against the liberal Masons or in Spain against the Communist atheists – only a few rose up, and among them were many who fell as martyrs. It is the destiny of the pusillus grex, of the little flock, of the remainder, the remnant. The destiny of the Holy Maccabees. But what a fate, to fight under the insignia of Christ!
Those who fight the good fight today – and you are among these – find themselves facing a no-less tremendous enemy: rebel governments, institutions devoted to evil, conniving judges, hordes of fanatics who hate Christ, just as has always happened throughout the course of History. The enmity between the offspring of the Woman and the offspring of the serpent invariably recurs, and every attempt to impose a forced coexistence between Good and Evil is destined to fail. Our Lord has said this: Whoever is not with Me is against Me (Lk 11:23). Because even the choice not to do good is some way a help to those who do evil. One cannot be neutral in the war between God and Satan.
In America – but also in many other Western Nations whose governments are in the hands of emissaries of the subversive elite of NATO, the UN, and the World Economic Forum – a war is underway against Christ and against Christians: not only against the Catholic Church, but also against any Christian denomination that still preserves the principles of the Gospel and the Natural Law. A war that wants to cancel – just as in the Vendée, Mexico, Spain, Communist Russia, or Pol Pot’s Cambodia – any trace whatsoever of the Good, even to the point of affecting life itself with abortion, gender mutilation, euthanasia, and genetic manipulation. The present is cancelled for those who want to live honestly following the Commandments; the past is cancelled in order to tear people away from their Christian roots and history; and the future is cancelled by indoctrinating our children in perverse and corrupting ideologies. And what is most painful is that in this infernal work of establishing the Kingdom of the Antichrist there is even a part of the Catholic hierarchy actively cooperating, betraying the mandate received from Christ and abandoning souls to damnation.
We feel powerless, just as Our Lord’s disciples felt helpless during the terrible days of the Passion; just as the Martyrs massacred before the pagan crowd in the circus felt powerless; just as the Cristeros or the Spanish Catholics shot by the Masonic army felt, or the Orthodox believers who were exterminated by Stalin.
And yet, look at what remains of Herod, Nero, Diocletian, Antiochus IV Epiphanes, Robespierre, and Pol Pot: nothing. They are all dead, and along with them their ideologies and their armies. While the followers of Christ are still here, and with them the Church that Christ has founded on earth as the one Ark of Salvation. They continue suffering, enduring, dying: seeing their churches burned, their Creed derided, their pastors persecuted. But they are always there, as the Mystical Body of Christ, completing in their flesh what is lacking in Christ’s sufferings for the good of His Body which is the Church (Col 1:24).
At the foot of the Cross, which we have adored in the silence of Good Friday, we lift up our eyes to the Lord who offers His life to the Father for us. We do not listen to the shouts of the crowd, the cries of his enemies, the offenses of the Sanhedrin: that God who seems defeated, in the darkness of the Ninth hour, as he breathes his last breath; He who precisely because He is the Son of God does not descend from the Cross, because he wants to fulfill the Father’s will even unto death, resurrect from the dead three days later, triumph over Satan who believed that he had defeated Him on Calvary, ut qui in ligno vincebat, in ligno quoque vinceretur, that he who seemed to conquer by the Tree would by the Tree be defeated.
Let us therefore celebrate, dear Friends, this Holy Easter of the Resurrection with the certainty of the victory of Christ. A victory that the more impossible it seems – and it certainly is impossible to resurrect someone who is dead – will be all the more dazzling and total. Because that victory is accomplished on the Cross: regnavit a ligno Deus, God reigns from the wood of the Cross, which is His throne of glory, the same throne that we will see shine forth on the Day of Judgment, as Saint John describes in the Apocalypse.
George Soros will also die, as will Klaus Schwab, Bill Gates, Joe Biden, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Nancy Pelosi, and all those who today seem to be powerful and invincible, but who cannot add a single moment to their lives. And when their corpses are resurrected on the Day of Judgment, they will find themselves before the terrible and tremendous Face of Christ the Judge, and the abyss of unquenchable fire prepared for them will open before them, if they remain obstinate in their sins.
Let us ensure that the radiant Face, the same one that illuminated the Dawn of the Third Day, will find us worthy of the Glory of Heaven after following the Divine Master along the Way of Golgotha. And let us remember that the first person to whom the Risen Lord wanted to reveal Himself was the Magdalene: a great consolation for those who, like us, are sinners and seek the Lord in order to anoint His Body with the balsam of penance and the spices of repentance.
Mors et vita duello conflixere mirando, we will sing during the eight days of Easter: death and life have contended in a terrible duel. Dux vitæ mortuus regnat vivus: the Lord of Life, who died, reigns alive. And so may it be.
+ Carlo Maria Viganò, Archbishop
9 April 2023
Dominica Resurrectionis
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| Abp. Viganò: Good Friday 2023 |
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Posted by: Stone - 04-08-2023, 05:20 AM - Forum: Archbishop Viganò
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Abp. Viganò: We have been created to love, let us prostrate ourselves in adoration before the Cross
This is the mystery of God: the ardent charity that envelops and inflames everything.
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The crucifixion by Giotto in Scrovegni Chapel
spatuletail/Shutterstock
Apr 8, 2023
(LifeSiteNews) —
Popule meus, quid feci tibi?
My People what have I done for you? In what have I offended you? As we prepare to adore the blessed wood of the Cross, the words of the Improperia or Reproaches echo in our hearts. They are words of disconsolate reproach, of the excruciating suffering of the Lord, who addresses His people and each one of us. The words of a God who became man in order to save each one of us, dying by the most infamous of tortures, and who in Gethsemane looks with horror on the multitude of sins of all times, of all men.
Άγιος ο Θεός, άγιος ισχυρός, άγιος αθάνατος ελέησον ημάς. Sanctus Deus, Sanctus Fortis, Sanctus Immortalis, miserere nobis. So cries out the Humanity of Christ to His Father, imploring forgiveness in our name, as the Lord of the human race and as Head of the Mystical Body. As the Lamb of God who has taken upon Himself the sins of the world. And in that disconsolate cry is contained all the infinite love that is so often unrequited, the ardent charity outraged by selfishness, and the awareness of our ingratitude in the face of the boundless magnificence of the gifts we have received.
A single drop of the Most Precious Blood of Our Lord would have been enough to redeem the entire world: cujus una stilla . . . But the charity of God – the charity who is God Himself – knows no measure, and reaches the point of giving the life of His Incarnate Son in order to redeem us, the children of wrath. We who have spat a thousand times upon that Blessed Face, struck that Sacred Head crowned with thorns with the reed, lacerated that Most Sacred Flesh with scourges, and driven nails into those Venerable Hands.
Let us gaze upon the lifeless Redeemer, opprobrium hominum et abjectio plebis (Ps 21, 6). The King of kings raised up on the scaffold reserved for slaves. The most beautiful of the sons of men rendered unrecognizable, stripped of his garments, exposed to derision and insults. And for whose sake? On behalf of arid souls, petrified hearts, and rebellious minds.
And yet, in this sacred representation that involves nature, darkens the sky, and shakes the depths of the earth in witnessing the Death of the Man-God, we are just able to glimpse the abyss of Divine Love of which only a God is capable. The Adversary does not understand Mercy, because he does not understand Love, he is not capable of loving or of choosing to love. He does not understand that the only reason why the Divine Majesty tolerates the presence of sin is that it is an occasion for repentance and conversion, and that it is precisely in the mercy of a God who reaches the point of offering Himself to redeem sinful humanity that the perfect coherence of truth and charity, of justice and mercy, manifests himself.
In the delirious illusion of defeating God by killing him on the Cross, Satan has signed his own condemnation. O mors, ero mors tua. Morsus tuus ero, inferne (1 Cor 15:55; Hos 13:14). O death, I will be your death; I will be your ruin, O hell! Ut unde mors oriebatur, inde vita quoque resurgeret; et qui in ligno vincebat, in ligno quoque vinceretur: so that whence death came, there life could be born; and he who conquered by the Cross would also be conquered by the Cross. That instrument of torture and death has become the throne of the Lord of life, on which He reigns. Regnavit a ligno Deus. What an unfathomable Mystery! And what an abyss of deaf selfishness, the abyss of Satan, of blind pride, of mute rancor that devours the lost soul of the most luminous angel. The same wretched ὕβρις, the same delirium of omnipotence that moves the wicked of the earth, the enemies of Christ and His Church, who believe they can overthrow the Lord of hosts and can snatch from Him the souls that His Son has redeemed from them by dying.
Satan’s hatred is not infinite, nor is his power infinite, nor is the kingdom of the Prince of this world eternal. But the charity of God is infinite, His Omnipotence is infinite, and His Kingdom is infinitely eternal. His Mercy is infinite, which burns and consumes every sin and every shortcoming in the fire of love for us, poor creatures that we are, if only we surrender, recognizing that we are sinners in need of forgiveness and help, so that we may then participate in His eternal beatitude, in His glory. We have been created to love and to be loved. To reciprocate with our nothingness all that we have received without merit. To allow ourselves to be loved by God just as we allow ourselves to be warmed and illuminated by the Sun, just as a child allows himself to be embraced and held in his father’s strong arms without any fear of being crushed.
Misericordiam volo, et non sacrificium (Mt 9:13), the Lord says to us. Because the Divine Mercy is manifested in the Sacrifice of the Eternal Son of the Father, which we perpetuate in an unbloody form in the Mass; and we ought to correspond to this miracle of divine charity by offering what costs us the most – our self-love, our ego, our claim to have merited something when in fact we are indebted for all that we have – showing mercy to our brothers and sisters and doing so in the knowledge that no one has greater love than he who lays down his life for his friends (Jn 15:13).
This is the mystery of God: the ardent charity that envelops and inflames everything. And the mysterium iniquitatis consists in the inability to bow down to this love, in the stubbornness of fighting a lost battle, in deluding oneself that Evil can conquer the Good, that lies can obscure the Truth, that darkness can overpower the Light, that the creature can overcome the Creator.
Let us prostrate ourselves in adoration before the Cross and repeat those words which we already know, but whose significance we will never fully comprehend: Adoramus te, Christe, et benedicimus tibi: quia per sanctam Crucem tuam redemisti mundum.
+ Carlo Maria Viganò, Archbishop
April 7, 2023, Feria VI in Parasceve
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