Mary, The Cause of Our Joy! - Advent 2024

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Taken from this issue of the Mary, Cause of Our Joy! Newsletter:

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Advent 2024

Dear Friends of the Oratory of the Sorrowful Heart of Mary,

It was a busy summer, beginning with the Ignatian Retreats for the Men and Women in June. Many, many thanks to all who volunteered to help in the kitchen and all the arrangements to make it successful! Then in July, the Oratory grounds sponsored the first Young Adult’s Gathering for over twenty-five enthusiastic souls participating from all over the United States and half from Canada! It was a joyous occasion and may Our Lady spread Her mantle over all those youth, guide them to sanctity, and make them courageous in fighting for the Holy Faith in whatever vocation God wills for them.

A small contingent of volunteers stayed on to begin renovations on the Oratory building and grounds. A new addition was finished on the side of the chapel, constituting the brand new sacristy. Porches were freshly painted, 40 sheets of dry wall hauled to the third floor for two extra rooms, yet to be completed. All this, in preparation for the priestly training, which began on the Feast of Our Lady of Sorrows, September 15.

August saw the IPSA CONTERET PILGRIMAGE 2024, which was held In Montana. The young men and assisting adults hiked over twenty miles in the steep Rocky Mountains, fiercely competed in a muddy Iron Man contest, but best of all, prayed and chanted their hearts out at the shrines of St. Mary’s, St. Ignatius, and Cotaldo Mission, where the Jesuit priests and brothers converted the Indians in the 19th Century. At St. Mary’s Mission, in Stevensville, Montana, in 1842, Our Lady appeared to an Indian girl of thirteen, to tell her the Blackrobes will soon come and teach them the way to Heaven and bring the “Great Prayer” of the Mass! Then, not long after, She appeared to an Indian boy to encourage him to learn the Catechism. The boy was troubled by the Devil, believing he could never enter Heaven because of his struggling, poor memory. But, after seeing Our Lady, he learned it with joy and ease.

In September, the two first candidates arrived to try their vocations. The Rule of the Oratory day follows the Rule for Seminaries of Abp. Marcel Lefebvre and the classes continue in a rigorous schedule of Latin grammar, Sacred Scripture, Acts of the Magisterium, Church History, Ascetical & Mystical Theology, etc. This may be one of the few existing pre-55, non-sedevacantist houses of studies in operation, but the formation must be on solid liturgical grounds, counter-Revolutionary, and consecrated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. May She see to it, run it, protect it, motivate it, and treat it as Her own property. All of it is Hers! Blessed Mother, do with it as you please!

There have been a few inquiries about the possibility of a convent. This is greatly needed. If God wills this and enables the purchase of a building not too far from the Oratory, the sisters’ life would follow the basic Rule of the Society of St. Pius X for Sisters, lead a semi-contemplative life of adoration and some active apostolate. How desperately needed are generous, consecrated souls for the revival of the Church!

It grieves me much that some of the missions have suffered from fewer Masses due to the priestly training at the Oratory. As of now, it is a cross we must carry until Our Sorrowful Mother finds some solution. Fr. Ruiz will be helping from Mexico, periodically, which will free one of us, at least, to cover the distant missions. This will help.

“Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that He send forth laborers into His harvest” (St. Matthew 9:38). Pray that some priests snap out of the Liberal trance of compromise with Modernist Rome and join in the Combat of Tradition with renewed zeal. Abp. Lefebvre was never silent against the Modernist Errors and its sterile New Mass! He warned that any “canonical solution” without Rome’s conversion to Tradition would be nothing more than a trap in order to silence the true Catholic Resistance. This is now the situation of all priests who have compromised, including the Conciliar-SSPX and almost all of the Fake Resistance. Their silence is deafening. Their silence is scandalous. Their silence is anything but golden! Instead, it is a cause of great harm to souls who need to hear the Catholic Faith preached! And not the preaching of Liberal Catholicism either, that refrains from rebuking Error under a false pretext of “prudence” or out of human respect, but a fearless preaching of the integral Catholic Faith, as the good Popes demanded and commanded it to be preached from the clergy. “Woe is unto me if I preach not the Gospel!” (I Corinthians 9:16).

We are in “Operation Survival” ten times over since 1988! How accurately Abp. Lefebvre labeled our situation in the Church! Let us put all our confidence in the Immaculate Heart of Mary, since She first performed “Operation Survival” from Good Friday to Easter Sunday. She alone maintained the Catholic Faith in those darkest hours. Will She not help us do the same in these darkest hours of the Church’s history?

Immaculate Heart of Mary, we put all our trust in Thee!


In Christ the King,

Fr. David Hewko