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| Please pray for Bishop Faure |
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Posted by: Stone - 11-28-2021, 07:53 AM - Forum: Appeals for Prayer
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It has been brought to our attention that Bishop Faure is seriously ill with Covid and has been hospitalized in Paris, France.
Please keep him in your prayers.
✠ ✠ ✠
Litany of the Sick
(For Private Devotion)
Lord, have mercy on us.
Lord, have mercy on us.
Christ, have mercy on us.
Christ, have mercy on us.
Lord, have mercy on us.
Lord, have mercy on us.
Christ, hear us.
Christ, graciously hear us.
God the Father of heaven,
Have mercy on us. *
God the Son, Redeemer of the world, *
God the Holy Ghost, *
Holy Trinity, one God, *
Jesus, Who art near to all those who invoke Thee, *
Jesus, Who through mercy helpest all who confide in Thee, *
Jesus, Who didst go to seek and cure the sick, *
Jesus, Who didst stay up the weak and suffering, *
Jesus, Who dost refresh those who labor and are heavily burdened, *
Jesus, Who didst console the stricken hearts, *
Jesus, Who didst raise the dead unto life, *
Jesus, Who didst bear all our pains, *
Be merciful, spare us, O Jesus.
Be merciful, hear us, O Jesus.
From all evil,
Deliver us, O Jesus. **
From all sin, **
From all diseases and infirmities, **
From impatience and despondency, **
From the snares of the devil, **
From a sudden and unprovided death, **
From eternal damnation, **
Through Thy toils and hardships, **
Through Thy affliction and tears, **
Through Thine agony and bloody sweat, **
Through Thy holy wounds, **
Through Thy precious blood, **
Through Thy Passion and cross, **
Through Thy bitter death, **
Through Thy glorious resurrection, **
Through Thy marvellous ascension, **
In the Day of Judgment, **
We, poor sinners, beseech Thee, hear us.
That Thou wouldst spare us,
We beseech Thee, hear us. ***
That Thou wouldst pardon us, ***
That Thou wouldst bring us to true penance, ***
That Thou wouldst give us a contrite heart, ***
That Thou wouldst strengthen us in our weakness, ***
That Thou wouldst preserve us in patience, ***
That Thou wouldst relieve our pains, ***
That Thou wouldst restore us to health of body and soul, ***
That Thou wouldst grant us perseverance in good, ***
That Thou wouldst grant us a happy death, ***
That Thou wouldst receive our spirit into Thy hands, ***
That Thou wouldst preserve us from the fire of purgatory, ***
That Thou wouldst bring us to the joys of heaven, ***
Son of God, ***
Lamb of God, Who takest away the sins of the world,
Spare us, O Lord.
Lamb of God, Who takest away the sins of the world,
Graciously hear us, O Lord.
Lamb of God, Who takest away the sins of the world,
Have mercy on us.
Christ, hear us,
Christ, graciously hear us.
Lord, have mercy on us,
Christ, have mercy on us.
Lord, have mercy on us.
Our Father (secretly).
V. And lead us not into temptation,
R. But deliver us from evil. Amen.
V. Save, O Lord, Thy servants.
R. Who hope in Thy mercy.
V. Lord, hear our prayer.
R. And let our cry come unto Thee.
Let us Pray:
O Heavenly Father, have mercy on Thy servant, who is sick. Confirm him [her] in faith, strengthen his [her] hope, fill him [her] with the fire of Thy love. Give him [her] enduring patience, that he [she] may victoriously go through the fight and suffer everything for Thy greater glory and the salvation of his [her] soul. Lessen his [her] pains, forgive him [her] his [her] sins, and bring him [her] to life everlasting. Through Christ, Our Lord. Amen.
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| Please pray for Fr. Patrick Perez |
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Posted by: Stone - 11-28-2021, 07:47 AM - Forum: Appeals for Prayer
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It has been brought to our attention that Fr. Patrick Perez has died suddenly. He was the pastor of a group of traditional Catholics in Garden Grove, CA.
Please keep him in your prayers.
REQUIEM aeternam dona ei, Domine, et lux perpetua luceat ei. Requiescat in pace. Amen.
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| Notre Dame Cathedral slammed over rebuild plans turning it into 'woke theme park' |
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Posted by: Stone - 11-28-2021, 07:37 AM - Forum: General Commentary
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Notre Dame Cathedral slammed over rebuild plans turning it into 'woke theme park'
The cathedral was destroyed by fire in 2019
Fox News | November 27, 2021
Critics are bashing the rebuild of the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, accusing renovators of turning the 850-year-old church into a "woke theme park."
Under the new plans to rebuild the fire-ravaged church, confessional boxes, altars and several classical sculptures will be replaced by art murals, sound and lighting effects, and room for "emotional spaces," according to the Telegraph.
Visitors will also be able to travel along a "discovery trail" that beams scripture onto the walls in a variety of languages, including Mandarin Chinese.
One of the sanctuaries in the new church will reportedly be dedicated to the environment.
"It's as if Disney were entering Notre Dame," award-winning Paris architect Maurice Culot told the Telegraph. "What they are proposing to do to Notre Dame would never be done to Westminster Abbey or Saint Peter's in Rome. It's a kind of theme park and very childish and trivial given the grandeur of the place."
The Catholic church claims the renovations will make the building accessible and understandable to people all over the world. One critic countered that the renovations will turn the church into a "politically correct Disneyland."
"Can you imagine the administration of the Holy See allowing something like this in the Sistine Chapel?" said a senior source with access to the proposed plans. "It would be unimaginable. We are not in an empty space here.
"This is political correctness gone mad," the source added. "They want to turn Notre Dame into an experimental liturgical showroom that exists nowhere else, whereas it should be a landmark where the slightest change must be handled with great care."
The cathedral was almost completely destroyed by a devastating fire in April of 2019, and hundreds of millions of dollars have been donated to rebuild it. French President Emmanuel Macron has set a goal of 2024 to allow visitors inside.
![[Image: 41845874-10004271-Fortunately_the_cathed...804393.jpg]](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2021/09/18/15/41845874-10004271-Fortunately_the_cathedral_s_stone_ceiling_above_which_the_lead_c-a-2_1631975804393.jpg)
Quote:Our Lady of Paris: The 850-year-old cathedral that survived being sacked in the Revolution to become Europe's most-visited historical monument
Intrigued by tales of Quasimodo, fascinated by the gargoyles, or on a pilgrimage to see the Crown of Thorns said to have rested on Jesus' head on the Cross, more than 13 million people each year flock to see Europe's most popular historic monument.
The 12th century Catholic cathedral is a masterpiece of French Gothic design, with a cavernous vaulted ceiling and some of the largest rose windows on the continent.
It is the seat of the Archdiocese of Paris and its 69m-tall towers were the tallest structures in Paris until the completion of the Eiffel Tower in 1889.
It survived a partial sacking by 16th century zealots and the destruction of many of its treasures during the atheist French Revolution but remains one of the greatest churches in the world and was the scene of Emperor Napoleon's coronation in 1804.
The foundation stone was laid in front of Pope Alexander III in 1163, with building work on the initial structure completed in 1260.
The roof of the nave was constructed with a new technology: the rib vault. The roof of the nave was supported by crossed ribs which divided each vault into compartments, and the use of four-part rather than six-part rib vaults meant the roofs were stronger and could be higher.
After the original structure was completed in the mid 13th century - following the consecration of the High altar in 1182 - flying buttresses had been invented, and were added to spread the weight of the mighty vault.
The original spire was constructed in the 13th century, probably between 1220 and 1230. It was battered, weakened and bent by the wind over five centuries, and finally was removed in 1786.
During a 19th century restoration, following desecration during the Revolution, it was recreated with a new version of oak covered with lead. The entire spire weighed 750 tons.
At the summit of the spire were held three relics; a tiny piece of the Crown of Thorns, located in the treasury of the Cathedral; and relics of Denis and Saint Genevieve, patron saints of Paris. They were placed there in 1935 by the Archibishop Verdier, to protect the congregation from lightning or other harm.
The Crown of Thorns was one of the great relics of medieval Christianity. It was acquired by Louis IX, king of France, in Constantinople in AD 1239 for the price of 135,000 livres - nearly half the annual expenditure of France.
The elaborate reliquary in which just one of the thorns is housed sits in the Cathedral having been moved from the Saint-Chappelle church in Paris. The thorn is mounted on a large sapphire in the centre.
The crown itself is also held in the cathedral, and is usually on view to the public on Good Friday - which comes at the end of this week.
During the 1790s with the country in the grip of atheist Revolution the cathedral was desecrated and much of its religious iconography destroyed. It was rededicated to the Cult of Reason and 28 statues of biblical kings - wrongly believed to by French monarchs - were beheaded. Even the great bells were nearly melted down.
Napoleon returned the cathedral to the Catholic Church and was crowned Emperor there in 1804, but by the middle of the 19th century much of the iconic building.
It wasn't until the publication of Victor Hugo's novel - The Hunchback of Notre Dame - in 1831 that public interest in the building resurfaced and repair works began.
A major restoration project was launched in 1845 and took 25 years to be completed.
Architects Jean-Baptiste-Antoine Lassus and Eugène Viollet-le-Duc won the commission.
By 1944 the cathedral was to be damaged again and during the liberation of Paris, stray bullets caused minor damage to the medieval stained glass.
This would be updated with modern designs.
In 1963 France's Culture Minister, André Malraux, ordered the cleaning of the facade of the cathedral, where 800 years worth of soot and grime were removed.
Notre Dame has a crypt, called the Crypte archéologique de l'île de la Cité, where old architectural ruins are stored. They span from the times of the earliest settlement in Paris to present day.
The cathedral has 10 bells, the heaviest bell - known as the boudon and weighing 13 tonnes - is called Emmanuel and has been rung to mark many historical events throughout time.
At the end of the First and Second World Wars the bell was rung to mark the end of the conflicts.
It is also rung to signify poignant events such as French heads of state dying or following horrific events such as the terrorist attack on the Twin Towers in New York in 2001.
The three stained glass rose windows are the most famous features of the cathedral. They were created in the Gothic style between 1225 and 1270.
While most of the original glass is long gone, some remains in the south rose which dates back to the last quarter of the 12th century.
The rest of the windows were restored in the 18th century.
The south rose is made up of 94 medallions which are arranged in four concentric circles.
They portray scenes from the life of Christ and those who knew him - with the inner circle showing the 12 apostles in it 12 medallions.
During the French Revolution rioters set fire to the residence of the archbishop, which was around the side of the cathedral, and the south rose was damaged.
One of the cathedral's first organs was built in 1403 by Friedrich Schambantz but was replaced in the 18th century before being remade using the pipe work from former instruments.
The Cathedral is also home to a Catholic relic said to be a single thorn from the crown of thorns worn by Jesus on the cross.
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| Short Poem of St. Ambrose on Advent |
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Posted by: Stone - 11-27-2021, 08:26 AM - Forum: Advent
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This beautiful poem by St. Ambrose speaks eloquently of “Thy cradle here shall glitter bright, and darkness breathe a newer light.”
O COME, Redeemer of the earth, and manifest thy virgin-birth.
Let every age in wonder fall: such birth befits the God of all.
Begotten of no human will but of the Spirit, Thou art still the Word of God in flesh arrayed, the promised fruit to man displayed.
The Virgin’s womb that burden gained, its virgin honor still unstained.
The banners there of virtue glow; God in his temple dwells below.
Proceeding from His chamber free that royal home of purity a giant in twofold substance one, rejoicing now His course to run.
O equal to the Father, Thou! gird on Thy fleshly mantle now; the weakness of our mortal state with deathless might invigorate.
Thy cradle here shall glitter bright, and darkness breathe a newer light where endless faith shall shine serene and twilight never intervene.
All praise, eternal Son, to Thee, whose advent sets Thy people free, whom, with the Father, we adore, and Holy Ghost, for evermore. Amen.
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| St. Augustine: Concerning Faith of Things Not Seen |
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Posted by: Stone - 11-27-2021, 08:19 AM - Forum: Fathers of the Church
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St. Augustine: Concerning Faith of Things Not Seen
Taken from here.
![[Image: ?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.gantshillurc.co.uk%2...f=1&nofb=1]](https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.gantshillurc.co.uk%2Fuploads%2F1%2F2%2F5%2F1%2F125104906%2F337273290_orig.JPG&f=1&nofb=1)
De fide rerum quæ non videntur
This tract was thought spurious by some, but is known to be St. Augustine's by his mention of it in Epistle 231 ad Darium Comitem. It seems to have been written after 399, from what is said about Idols, § 10; for in that year Honorius enacted laws against them.— From Bened. Ed.
1. There are those who think that the Christian religion is what we should smile at rather than hold fast, for this reason, that, in it, not what may be seen, is shown, but men are commanded faith of things which are not seen. We therefore, that we may refute these, who seem to themselves through prudence to be unwilling to believe what they cannot see, although we are not able to show unto human sight those divine things which we believe, yet do show unto human minds that even those things which are not seen are to be believed. And first they are to be admonished, (whom folly has so made subject to their carnal eyes, as that, whatsoever they see not through them, they think not that they are to believe,) how many things they not only believe but also know, which cannot be seen by such eyes. Which things being without number in our mind itself, (the nature of which mind is incapable of being seen,) not to mention others, the very faith whereby we believe, or the thought whereby we know that we either believe anything, or believe not, being as it is altogether alien from the sight of those eyes; what so naked, so clear, what so certain is there to the inner eyes of our minds? How then are we not to believe what we see not with the eyes of the body, whereas, either that we believe, or that we believe not, in a case where we cannot apply the eyes of the body, we without any doubt see?
2. But, say they, those things which are in the mind, in that we can by the mind itself discern them, we have no need to know through the eyes of the body; but those things, which you say unto us that we should believe, you neither point to without, that through the eyes of the body we may know them; nor are they within, in our own mind, that by exercising thought we may see them. And these things they so say, as though any one would be bidden to believe, if that, which is believed, he could already see set before him. Therefore certainly ought we to believe certain temporal things also, which we see not, that we may merit to see eternal things also, which we believe. But, whosoever you are who will not believe save what you see, lo, bodies that are present you see with the eyes of the body, wills and thoughts of your own that are present, because they are in your own mind, you see by the mind itself; tell me, I pray you, your friend's will towards you by what eyes do you see? For no will can be seen by the eyes of the body. What? See you in your own mind this also which is going on in the mind of another? But if you see it not, how do you repay in turn the good will of your friend, if what you cannot see, you believe not? Will you haply say that you see the will of another through his works? Therefore you will see acts, and hear words, but concerning your friend's will, that which cannot be seen and heard you will believe. For that will is not color or figure, so as to be thrown upon the eyes; or sound or strain, so as to glide into the ears; nor indeed is it your own, so as to be perceived by the motion of your own heart. It remains therefore that, being neither seen, nor heard, nor beheld within yourself, it be believed, that your life be not left deserted without any friendship, or affection bestowed upon you be not repaid by you in return. Where then is that which you said, that you ought not to believe, save what you saw either outwardly in the body, or inwardly in the heart? Lo, out of your own heart, you believe an heart not your own; and lendest your faith, where you do not direct the glance of your body or of your mind. Your friend's face you discern by your own body, your own faith you discern by your own mind; but your friend's faith is not loved by you, unless there be in you in return that faith, whereby you may believe that which in him you see not. Although a man may also deceive by feigning good will, and hiding malice: or, if he have no thought to do harm, yet by expecting some benefit from you, feigns, because he has not, love.
3. But you say, that you therefore believe your friend, whose heart you cannot see, because you have proved him in your trials, and have come to know of what manner of spirit he was towards you in your dangers, wherein he deserted you not. Seems it therefore to you that we must wish for our own affliction, that our friend's love towards us may be proved? And shall no man be happy in most sure friends, unless he shall be unhappy through adversity? So that, forsooth, he enjoy not the tried love of the other, unless he be racked by pain and fear of his own? And how in the having of true friends can that happiness be wished for, and not rather feared, which nothing save unhappiness can put to the proof? And yet it is true that a friend may be had also in prosperity, but proved more surely in adversity. But assuredly in order to prove him, neither would you commit yourself to dangers of your own, unless you believed; and thus, when you commit yourself in order to prove, you believe before you prove. For surely, if we ought not to believe things not seen, since indeed we believe the hearts of our friends, and that, not yet surely proved; and, after we shall have proved them good by our own ills, even then we believe rather than see their good will towards us: except that so great is faith, that, not unsuitably, we judge that we see, with certain eyes of it, that which we believe, whereas we ought therefore to believe, because we cannot see.
4. If this faith be taken away from human affairs, who but must observe how great disorder in them, and how fearful confusion must follow? For who will be loved by any with mutual affection, (being that the loving itself is invisible,) if what I see not, I ought not to believe? Therefore will the whole of friendship perish, in that it consists not save of mutual love. For what of it will it be able to receive from any, if nothing of it shall be believed to be shown? Further, friendship perishing, there will be preserved in the mind the bonds neither of marriages, nor of kindreds and relations; because in these also there is assuredly a friendly union of sentiment. Spouse therefore will not be able to love spouse in turn, inasmuch as each believes not the other's love, because the love itself cannot be seen. Nor will they long to have sons, who they believe not will make them a return. And if these be born and grow up, much less will the parents themselves love their own children, whose love towards themselves in those children's hearts they will not see, it being invisible; if it be not praiseworthy faith, but blameable rashness, to believe those things which are not seen. Why should I now speak of the other connections, of brothers, sisters, sons-in-law, and fathers-in-law, and of them who are joined together by any kindred or affinity, if love is uncertain, and the will suspected, that of parents by sons, and that of sons by parents, while due benevolence is not rendered; because neither is it thought to be due, that which is not seen in another not being thought to exist. Further, if this caution be not a mark of ability, but be hateful, wherein we believe not that we are loved, because we see not the love of them who love, and repay not them, unto whom we think not that we owe a return; to that degree are human affairs thrown into disorder, if what we see not we believe not, as to be altogether and utterly overthrown, if we believe no wills of men, which assuredly we cannot see. I omit to mention in how many things they, who find fault with us because we believe what we see not, believe report or history; or concerning places where they have not themselves been; and say not, we believe not, because we have not seen. Since if they say this, they are obliged to confess that their own parents are not surely known to them: because on this point also they have believed the accounts of others telling of it, who yet are unable to show it, because it is a thing already past; retaining themselves no sense of that time, and yet yielding assent without any doubting to others speaking of that time: and unless this be done, there must of necessity be incurred a faithless impiety towards parents, while we are, as it were, showing a rashness of belief in those things which we cannot see. Since therefore, if we believe not those things which we cannot see, human society itself, through concord perishing, will not stand how much more is faith to be applied to divine things, although they be not seen; failing the application of which, it is not the friendship of some men or other, but the very chiefest bond of piety that is violated, so as for the chiefest misery to follow.
5. But you will say, the good will of a friend towards me, although I cannot see it, yet can I trace it out by many proofs; but you, what things you will us to believe not being seen, you have no proofs whereby to show them. In the mean time it is no slight thing, that you confess that by reason of the clearness of certain proofs, some things, even such as are not seen, ought to be believed: for even thus it is agreed, that not all things which are not seen, are not to be believed; and that saying, that we ought not to believe things which we see not, falls to the ground, cast away, and refuted. But they are much deceived, who think that we believe in Christ without any proofs concerning Christ. For what are there clearer proofs than those things, which we now see to have been foretold and fulfilled? Wherefore do ye, who think that there are no proofs why ye ought to believe concerning Christ those things which you have not seen, give heed to what things ye see. The Church herself addresses you out of the mouth of a mother's love: I, whom you view with wonder throughout the whole world, bearing fruit and increasing, was not once such as you now behold me. But, In your Seed shall all nations be blessed. When God blessed Abraham, He gave the promise of me; for throughout all nations in the blessing of Christ am I shed abroad. That Christ is the Seed of Abraham, the order of successive generations bears witness. Shortly to sum up which, Abraham begot Isaac, Isaac begot Jacob, Jacob begot twelve sons, of whom sprung the people Israel. For Jacob himself was called Israel. Among these twelve sons he begot Judah, whence the Jews have their name, of whom was born the Virgin Mary, who bore Christ. And, lo, in Christ, that is, in the seed of Abraham, that all the nations are blessed, you see and are amazed: and do ye still fear to believe in Him, in Whom ye ought rather to have feared not to believe? What? doubt ye, or refuse ye to believe, the travail of a Virgin, whereas ye ought rather to believe that it was fitting that so God should be born Man. For this also receive ye to have been foretold by the Prophet; Behold, a Virgin shall conceive in the womb, and shall bring forth a Son, and they shall call His Name Emmanuel, which is, being interpreted, God with us. You will not therefore doubt of a Virgin bringing forth, if you be willing to believe of a God being born; leaving not the governance of the world, and coming unto men in the flesh; unto His Mother bringing fruitfulness, not taking away maidenhood. For thus behooved it that He should be born as Man, albeit He was ever God, by which birth He might become a God unto us. Hence again the Prophet says concerning Him, Your Throne, O God, is for ever and ever; a sceptre of right, the sceptre of Your Kingdom. You have loved righteousness, and hated iniquity; therefore God, Your God, has anointed You with the oil of gladness above Your fellows. This anointing is spiritual, wherewith God anointed God, the Father, that is, the Son: whence called from the Chrism, that is, from the anointing, we know Him as Christ. I am the Church, concerning whom it is said to Him in the same Psalm, and what was future foretold as already done; There stood at Your right hand the Queen, in a vesture of gold, in raiment of various colors; that is, in the mystery of wisdom, adorned with various tongues. There it said to me, Hearken, O daughter, and see, and incline your ear, and forget your own people and your father's house: for the King has desired your beauty: seeing that He is the Lord your God: and the daughters of Tyre shall worship Him with gifts, your face shall all the rich of the people entreat. All the glory of that King's daughter is within, in fringes of gold, with raiment of various colors. There shall be brought unto the King the maidens after her; her companions shall be brought unto You. They shall be brought with joy and gladness, they shall be brought into the Temple of the King. Instead of your fathers, there are born unto you sons, you shall set them as princes over the whole earth. They shall be mindful of your name, even from generation to generation. Therefore shall the people confess unto you for ever, and for ever and ever.
6. If this Queen ye see not, now rich also with royal progeny. If she see not that fulfilled which she heard to have been promised, she, unto whom it was said, Hear, O daughter, and see. If she has not left the ancient rites of the world, she, unto whom it was said, Forget your own people and your Father's house. If she confesses not every where Christ the Lord, she, unto whom it was said, The King has desired your beauty, for He is the Lord your God. If she sees not the cities of the nations pour forth prayers and offer gifts unto Christ, concerning Whom it was said to her, There shall worship Him the daughters of Tyre with gifts. If the pride also of the rich is not laid aside, and they do not entreat help of the Church, unto whom it was said, Your face shall all the rich of the people entreat. If He acknowledges not the King's daughter, unto Whom she was bidden to say, Our Father Who art in Heaven; and in her saints in the inner man she is not renewed from day to day, concerning whom it was said, All the glory of that King's daughter is within: although she strike upon the eyes of them also that are without with the blaze of the fame of her preachers, in diversity of tongues, as in fringes of gold, and raiment of various colors. If there be not, now that His fame is spread abroad in every place by His good odor, virgins also brought unto Christ to be consecrated, of Whom it is said, and to Whom it is said, There shall be brought unto the King the virgins after her, her companions shall be brought unto You. And that they might not seem to be brought like captives, into some, as it were, prison, he says, They shall be brought in joy and gladness, they shall be brought into the King's temple. If she brings not forth sons, that of them she may have, as it were, fathers, whom she may appoint unto herself every where as rulers, she, unto whom it is said, Instead of your fathers there are born unto you sons, you shall set them as princes over the whole earth: unto whose prayers their mother both preferred and made subject, commends herself, They shall be mindful of your name, even from generation to generation. If, by reason of the preaching of those same fathers, wherein they have without ceasing made mention of her name, there are not so great multitudes in her gathered together, and without end in their own tongues unto her confess the praise of grace, unto whom it is said, Therefore shall the people confess unto you for ever, and for ever and ever. If these things are not so shown to be clear, as that the eyes of enemies find not in what direction to turn aside, where the same clearness strikes them not, so as by it to be obliged to confess what is evident: you perhaps assert with reason, that no proofs are shown to you, by seeing which you may believe those things also which you see not. But if those things, which you see, both have been foretold long before, and are so clearly fulfilled; if the truth itself makes itself clear to you, by effects going before and following after, O remnant of unbelief, that you may believe the things which you see not, blush at those things which you see.
7. Give heed unto me, the Church says unto you; give heed unto me, whom you see, although to see ye be unwilling. For the faithful, who were in those times in the land of Judæa, were present at, and learned as present, Christ's wonderful birth of a virgin, and His passion, resurrection, ascension; all His divine words and deeds. These things you have not seen, and therefore ye refuse to believe. Therefore behold these things, fix your eyes on these things, these things which you see reflect on, which are not told you as things past, nor foretold you as things future, but are shown you as things present. What? Seems it to you a vain or a light thing. and think you it to be none, or a little, divine miracle, that in the name of One Crucified the whole human race runs? You saw not what was foretold and fulfilled concerning the human birth of Christ, Behold, a Virgin shall conceive in the womb, and shall bear a Son; but you see the Word of God which was foretold and fulfilled unto Abraham, In your seed shall all nations be blessed. You saw not what was foretold concerning the wonderful works of Christ, Come ye, and see the works of the Lord, what wonders He has set upon the earth: but you see that which was foretold, The Lord said to Me, My Son are You, I have this day begotten You; demand of Me and I will give You nations as Your inheritance, and as Your possession the bounds of the earth. You saw not that which was foretold and fulfilled concerning the Passion of Christ, They pierced My hands and My feet, they numbered all My bones; but they themselves regarded and beheld Me; they divided among them My garments, and upon My vesture they cast the lot; but you see that which was in the same Psalm foretold, and now is clearly fulfilled; All the ends of the earth shall remember and be turned unto the Lord, and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship in His sight; for the kingdom is the Lord's, and He shall rule over the nations. You saw not what was foretold and fulfilled concerning the Resurrection of Christ, the Psalm speaking, in His Person, first concerning His betrayer and persecutors: They went forth out of doors, and spoke together: against Me whispered all My enemies, against Me thought they evil for Me; they set in order an unrighteous word against Me. Where, to show that they availed nothing by slaying Him Who was about to rise again, He adds and says; What? Will not He, that sleeps, add this, that He rise again? And a little after, when He had foretold, by means of the same prophecy, concerning His betrayer himself, that which is written in the Gospel also, He that did eat of My bread, enlarged his heel upon Me, that is, trampled Me under foot: He straightway added, But do Thou, O Lord, have mercy upon Me, and raise me up again, and I shall repay them. This was fulfilled, Christ slept and awoke, that is, rose again: Who through the same prophecy in another Psalm says, I slept and took my rest; and I rose again, for the Lord will uphold Me. But this ye saw not, but you see His Church, concerning whom it is written in like manner, and fulfilled, O Lord My God, the nations shall come unto You from the extremity of the earth and shall say, Truly our fathers worshipped lying images, and there is not in them any profit. This certainly, whether you want to or not, you behold; even although ye yet believe, that there either is, or was, in those idols some profit; yet certainly unnumbered peoples of the nations, after having left, or cast away, or broken in pieces such like vanities, you have heard say, Truly our fathers worshipped lying images, and there is not in them any profit; shall a man make gods, and, lo, they are no gods? Nor think that it was foretold that the nations should come unto some one place of God, in that it was said, Unto You shall the nations come from the extremity of the earth. Understand, if you can, that unto the God of the Christians, Who is the Supreme and True God, the peoples of the nations come, not by walking but by believing. For the same thing was by another prophet thus foretold, The Lord, says he, shall prevail against them, and shall utterly destroy all the gods of the nations of the earth: and all the isles of the nations shall worship Him, each man from his place. Whereas the one says, Unto You all nations shall come; this the other says, They shall worship Him, each man from his place. Therefore they shall come unto Him, not departing from their own place, because believing in Him they shall find Him in their hearts. You saw not what was foretold and fulfilled concerning the ascension of Christ; Be exalted above the Heavens, O God; but you see what follows immediately after, And above all the earth Your Glory. Those things concerning Christ already done and past, all of them you have not seen; but these things present in His Church ye deny not that you see. Both things we point out to you as foretold; but the fulfillment of both we are therefore unable to point out for you to see, because we cannot bring back into sight things past.
8. But as the wills of friends, which are not seen, are believed through tokens which are seen; thus the Church, which is now seen, is, of all things which are not seen, but which are shown forth in those writings wherein itself also is foretold, an index of the past, and a herald of the future. Because both things past, which cannot now be seen, and things present which cannot be seen all of them, at the time at which they were foretold, no one of these could then be seen. Therefore, since they have begun to come to pass as they were foretold, from those things which have come to pass unto those which are coming to pass, those things which were foretold concerning Christ and the Church have run on in an ordered series: unto which series these pertain concerning the day of Judgment, concerning the resurrection of the dead, concerning the eternal damnation of the ungodly with the devil, and concerning the eternal recompense of the godly with Christ, things which, foretold in like manner, are yet to come. Why therefore should we not believe the first and the last things which we see not, when we have, as witnesses of both, the things between, which we see, and in the books of the Prophets either hear or read both the first things, and the things between, and the last things, foretold before they came to pass? Unless haply unbelieving men judge those things to have been written by Christians, in order that those things which they already believed might have greater weight of authority, if they should be thought to have been promised before they came.
9. If they suspect this, let them examine carefully the copies of our enemies the Jews. There let them read those things of which we have made mention, foretold concerning Christ in Whom we believe, and the Church whom we discern from the toilsome beginning of faith even unto the eternal blessedness of the kingdom. But, while they read, let them not wonder that they, whose are the books, understand not by reason of the darkness of enmity. For that they would not understand was foretold beforehand by the same Prophets; which it behooved should be fulfilled in like manner as the rest, and that by the secret and just judgment of God due punishment should be rendered to their deserts. He indeed, Whom they crucified, and unto Whom they gave gall and vinegar, although when hanging upon the Tree, by reason of those whom He had been about to lead forth from darkness into light, He said to the Father, Forgive them, for they know not what they do; yet by reason of those whom through more hidden causes He had been about to desert, by the Prophet so long before foretold, They gave Me gall for My meat, and in My thirst they gave Me vinegar to drink; let their table become a snare before them, and a recompense, and a stumbling-block: let their eyes be darkened that they see not, and ever bow down their back. Thus, having with them the clearest testimonies of our cause, they walk round about with eyes darkened, that by their means those testimonies may be proved, wherein they themselves are disapproved. Therefore was it brought to pass, that they should not be so blotted out, as that this same sect should altogether exist not: but it was scattered abroad upon the earth, in order that, carrying with it the prophecies of the grace conferred upon us, more surely to convince unbelievers, it might every where profit us. And this very thing which I assert, receive ye after what manner it was prophesied of: Slay them not, says He, lest at any time they forget Your law, but scatter them abroad in Your might. Therefore they were not slain, in that they forgot not those things which were read and heard among them. For if they were altogether to forget, albeit they understand not, the Holy Scriptures, they would be slain in the Jewish ritual itself; because, when the Jews should know nothing of the Law and of the Prophets, they would be unable to profit us. Therefore they were not slain, but scattered abroad; in order that, although they should not have in faith, whence they might be saved; yet they should retain in their memory, whence we might be helped; in their books our supporters, in their hearts our enemies, in their copies our witnesses.
10. Although, even if there went before no testimonies concerning Christ and the Church, whom ought it not to move unto belief, that the Divine brightness has on a sudden shone on the human race, when we see, (the false gods now abandoned, and their images every where broken in pieces, their temples overthrown or changed into other uses, and so many vain rites plucked out by the roots from the most inveterate usage of men,) the One True God invoked by all? And that this has been brought to pass-by One Man, by men mocked, seized, bound, scourged, smitten with the palms of the hand, reviled, crucified, slain: His disciples, (whom He chose common men, and unlearned, and fishermen, and publicans, that by their means His teaching might be set forth,) proclaiming His Resurrection, His Ascension, which they asserted that they had seen, and being filled with the Holy Ghost, sounded forth this Gospel, in all tongues which they had not learned. And of them who heard them, part believed, part, believing not, fiercely withstood them who preached. Thus while they were faithful even unto death for the truth, strove not by returning evil, but by enduring, overcame not by killing, but by dying; thus was the world changed unto this religion, thus unto this Gospel were the hearts of mortals turned, of men and women, of small and great, of learned and unlearned, of wise and foolish, of mighty and weak, of noble and ignoble, of high and low, and, throughout all nations the Church shed abroad so increased, that even against the Catholic faith itself there arises not any perverse sect, any kind of error, which is found so to oppose itself to Christian truth, as that it affect not and go not about to glory in the name of Christ: which very error would not be suffered to spring up throughout the earth, were it not that the very gainsaying exercised an wholesome discipline. How would The Crucified have availed so greatly, had He not been God that took upon Him Man, even if He had through the Prophet foretold no such things to come? But when now this so great mystery of godliness has had its prophets and heralds going before, by whose divine voices it was before proclaimed; and when it has come in such manner as it was before proclaimed, who is there so mad as to assert that the Apostles lied concerning Christ, of Whom they preached that He had come in such manner as the Prophets foretold afore that He should come, which Prophets were not silent as to true things to come concerning the Apostles themselves? For concerning these they had said, There is neither speech nor language, whereof their voices are not heard; their sound went out into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world. And this at any rate we see fulfilled in the world, although we have not yet seen Christ in the flesh. Who therefore, unless blinded by amazing madness, or hard and steeled by amazing obstinacy, would be unwilling to put faith in the sacred Scriptures, which have foretold the faith of the whole world?
11. But you, beloved, who possess this faith, or who have begun now newly to have it, let it be nourished and increase in you. For as things temporal have come, so long before foretold, so will things eternal also come, which are promised. Nor let them deceive you, either the vain heathen, or the false Jews, or the deceitful heretics, or also within the Catholic (Church) itself evil Christians, enemies by so much the more hurtful, as they are the more within us. For, lest on this subject also the weak should be troubled, divine prophecy has not been silent, where in the Song of Songs the Bridegroom speaking unto the Bride, that is, Christ the Lord unto the Church, says, As a lily in the midst of thorns, so is my best Beloved in the midst of the daughters. He said not, in the midst of them that are without; but, in the midst of daughters. Whoever has ears to hear, let him hear: and while the net which is cast into the sea, and gathers together all kinds of fishes, as says the holy Gospel, is being drawn unto the shore, that is, unto the end of the world, let him separate himself from the evil fishes, in heart, not in body; by changing evil habits, not by breaking sacred nets; lest they who now seem being approved to be mingled with the reprobate, find, not life, but punishment everlasting, when they shall begin on the shore to be separated.
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| St. Ambrose: On the Mysteries |
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Posted by: Stone - 11-27-2021, 08:12 AM - Forum: Fathers of the Church
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St. Ambrose: On the Mysteries
Introduction.
The writer explains in the commencement of this treatise that his object was to set forth, for the benefit of those about to be baptized, the rites and meaning of that Sacrament, as well as of Confirmation and the Holy Eucharist. For all these matters were treated with the greatest reserve in the Early Church, for fear of profanation by the heathen, and it was the custom, as in the case of the well-known Catechetical Lectures of St. Cyril of Jerusalem, to explain them to the catechumens during the latter part of Lent.
Treatises of this kind possess therefore a special interest, as in them we find clearly stated the full teaching of the Church at the time when those addresses which have come down to our times were drawn up.
St. Ambrose goes through and explains the greater part, first of the rites usual at the time of solemn baptism, pointing out the deep truths and mysteries underlying these outward things. He then treats Confirmation, referring to the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit; and lastly, speaks of the Holy Eucharist, especially setting forth the doctrine of the Real Presence.
Some writers in and since the sixteenth century have endeavoured to prove that this treatise has been falsely attributed to St. Ambrose, but there can be no real doubt on the matter, as is conclusively shown by the Benedictine Editors, and now universally admitted. The treatise was composed for use during Lent, but in what year cannot be fixed, possibly, from reference made to the treatise De Patriarchis, about a.d. 387.
Chapter 1
St. Ambrose states that after the explanations he has already given of holy living, he will now explain the Mysteries. Then after giving his reasons for not having done so before, he explains the mystery of the opening of the ears, and shows how this was of old done by Christ Himself.
1. We have spoken daily upon subjects connected with morals, when the deeds of the Patriarchs or the precepts of the Proverbs were being read, in order that being taught and instructed by these you might grow accustomed to enter the ways of the ancients and to walk in their paths, and obey the divine commands; in order that being renewed by baptism you might hold to that manner of life which beseems those who are washed.
2. The season now warns us to speak of the Mysteries, and to set forth the purport of the sacraments, which if we had thought it well to teach before baptism to those who were not yet initiated, we should be considered rather to have betrayed than to have portrayed the Mysteries. And then, too, another reason is that the light itself of the Mysteries will shed itself with more effect upon those who are expecting they know not what, than if any discourse had come beforehand.
3. Open, then, your ears, inhale the good savour of eternal life which has been breathed upon you by the grace of the sacraments; which was signified to you by us, when, celebrating the mystery of the opening, we said, Epphatha, which is, Be opened, Mark 7:34 that whosoever was coming in quest of peace might know what he was asked, and be bound to remember what he answered.
4. Christ made use of this mystery in the Gospel, as we read, when He healed him who was deaf and dumb. But He touched the mouth, because he who was healed was dumb and was a man, as regards one point that he might open his mouth with the sound of the voice given to him; as regards the other point because that touch was seemly towards a man, but would have been unseemly towards a woman.
Chapter 2
What those who were to be initiated promised on entering the Church, of the witnesses to these promises, and wherefore they then turned themselves to the East.
5. After this the Holy of holies was opened to you, you entered the sanctuary of regeneration; recall what you were asked, and remember what you answered. You renounced the devil and his works, the world with its luxury and pleasures. That utterance of yours is preserved not in the tombs of the dead, but in the book of the living.
6. You saw there the deacon, you saw the priest, you saw the chief priest [i.e. the bishop]. Consider not the bodily forms, but the grace of the Mysteries. You spoke in the presence of the angels, as it is written: For the priest's lips keep knowledge, and they seek the law at his mouth, for he is the angel of the Lord Almighty. Malachi 2:7 There is no place for deception nor for denial. He is an angel who proclaims the kingdom of Christ and eternal life. He is to be esteemed by you not according to his appearance, but according to his office. Consider what he delivered, reflect upon the rule of life he gave you, recognize his position.
7. You entered, then, that you might discern your adversary, whom you were to renounce as it were to his face, then you turned to the east; for he who renounces the devil turns to Christ, and beholds Him face to face.
Chapter 3
St. Ambrose points out that we must consider the divine presence and working in the water and the sacred ministers, and then brings forward many Old Testament figures of baptism.
8. What did you see? Water, certainly, but not water alone; you saw the deacons ministering there, and the bishop asking questions and hallowing. First of all, the Apostle taught you that those things are not to be considered which we see, but the things which are not seen, for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal. 1 Corinthians 5:18 For you read elsewhere: That the invisible things of God, since the creation of the world, are understood through those things which have been made; His eternal power also and Godhead are estimated by His works. Romans 1:20 Wherefore also the Lord Himself says: If you believe not Me, believe at least the works. John 10:38 Believe, then, that the presence of the Godhead is there. Do you believe the working, and not believe the presence? Whence should the working proceed unless the presence went before?
9. Consider, however, how ancient is the mystery prefigured even in the origin of the world itself. In the very beginning, when God made the heaven and the earth, the Spirit, it is said, moved upon the waters. Genesis 1:2 He Who was moving upon the waters, was He not working upon the waters? But why should I say, working? As regards His presence He was moving. Was He not working Who was moving? Recognize that He was working in that making of the world, when the prophet says: By the word of the Lord were the heavens made, and all their strength by the spirit of His mouth. Each statement rests upon the testimony of the prophet, both that He was moving and that He was working. Moses says that He was moving, David testifies that he was working.
10. Take another testimony. All flesh was corrupt by its iniquities. My Spirit, says God, shall not remain among men, because they are flesh. Genesis 6:3 Whereby God shows that the grace of the Spirit is turned away by carnal impurity and the pollution of grave sin. Upon which, God, willing to restore what was lacking, sent the flood and bade just Noah go up into the ark. And he, after having, as the flood was passing off, sent forth first a raven which did not return, sent forth a dove which is said to have returned with an olive twig. You see the water, you see the wood [of the ark], you see the dove, and do you hesitate as to the mystery?
11. The water, then, is that in which the flesh is dipped, that all carnal sin may be washed away. All wickedness is there buried. The wood is that on which the Lord Jesus was fastened when He suffered for us. The dove is that in the form of which the Holy Spirit descended, as you have read in the New Testament, Who inspires in you peace of soul and tranquillity of mind. The raven is the figure of sin, which goes forth and does not return, if, in you, too, inwardly and outwardly righteousness be preserved.
12. There is also a third testimony, as the Apostle teaches us: For all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and were all baptized to Moses in the cloud and in the sea. 1 Corinthians 10:1-2 And further, Moses himself says in his song: You sent Your Spirit, and the sea covered them. Exodus 15:10 You observe that even then holy baptism was prefigured in that passage of the Hebrews, wherein the Egyptian perished, the Hebrew escaped. For what else are we daily taught in this sacrament but that guilt is swallowed up and error done away, but that virtue and innocence remain unharmed?
13. You hear that our fathers were under the cloud, and that a kindly cloud, which cooled the heat of carnal passions. That kindly cloud overshadows those whom the Holy Spirit visits. At last it came upon the Virgin Mary, and the Power of the Highest overshadowed her, Luke 1:35 when she conceived Redemption for the race of men. And that miracle was wrought in a figure through Moses. If, then, the Spirit was in the figure, is He not present in the reality, since Scripture says to us: For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. John 1:17
14. Marah was a fountain of most bitter water: Moses cast wood into it and it became sweet. For water without the preaching of the Cross of the Lord is of no avail for future salvation, but, after it has been consecrated by the mystery of the saving cross, it is made suitable for the use of the spiritual laver and of the cup of salvation. As, then, Moses, that is, the prophet, cast wood into that fountain, so, too, the priest utters over this font the proclamation of the Lord's cross, and the water is made sweet for the purpose of grace.
15. You must not trust, then, wholly to your bodily eyes; that which is not seen is more really seen, for the object of sight is temporal, but that other eternal, which is not apprehended by the eye, but is discerned by the mind and spirit.
16. Lastly, let the lessons lately gone through from the Kings teach you. Naaman was a Syrian, and suffered from leprosy, nor could he be cleansed by any. Then a maiden from among the captives said that there was a prophet in Israel, who could cleanse him from the defilement of the leprosy. And it is said that, having taken silver and gold, he went to the king of Israel. And he, when he heard the cause of his coming, rent his clothes, saying, that occasion was rather being sought against him, since things were asked of him which pertained not to the power of kings. Elisha, however, sent word to the king, that he should send the Syrian to him, that he might know there was a God in Israel. And when he had come, he bade him dip himself seven times in the river Jordan.
17. Then he began to reason with himself that he had better waters in his own country, in which he had often bathed and never been cleansed of his leprosy; and so remembering this, he did not obey the command of the prophet, yet on the advice and persuasion of his servants he yielded and dipped himself. And being immediately cleansed, he understood that it is not of the waters but of grace that a man is cleansed.
18. Understand now who is that young maid among the captives. She is the congregation gathered out of the Gentiles, that is, the Church of God held down of old by the captivity of sin, when as yet it possessed not the liberty of grace, by whose counsel that foolish people of the Gentiles heard the word of prophecy as to which it had before been in doubt. Afterwards, however, when they believed that it ought to be obeyed, they were washed from every defilement of sin. And he indeed doubted before he was healed; you are already healed, and therefore ought not to doubt.
Chapter 4
That water does not cleanse without the Spirit is shown by the witness of John and by the very form of the administration of the sacrament. And this is also declared to be signified by the pool in the Gospel and the man who was there healed. In the same passage, too, is shown that the Holy Spirit truly descended on Christ at His baptism, and the meaning of this mystery is explained.
19. The reason why you were told before not to believe only what you saw was that you might not say perchance, This is that great mystery which eye has not seen, nor ear heard, neither has it entered into the heart of man. 1 Corinthians 2:9 I see water, which I have been used to see every day. Is that water to cleanse me now in which I have so often bathed without ever being cleansed? By this you may recognize that water does not cleanse without the Spirit.
20. Therefore read that the three witnesses in baptism, the water, the blood, and the Spirit, 1 John 5:7 are one, for if you take away one of these, the Sacrament of Baptism does not exist. For what is water without the cross of Christ? A common element, without any sacramental effect. Nor, again, is there the Sacrament of Regeneration without water: For except a man be born again of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. John 3:5 Now, even the catechumen believes in the cross of the Lord Jesus, wherewith he too is signed; but unless he be baptized in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, he cannot receive remission of sins nor gain the gift of spiritual grace.
21. So that Syrian dipped himself seven times under the law, but you were baptized in the Name of the Trinity, you confessed the Father. Call to mind what you did: you confessed the Son, you confessed the Holy Spirit. Mark well the order of things in this faith: you died to the world, and rose again to God. And as though buried to the world in that element, being dead to sin, you rose again to eternal life. Believe, therefore, that these waters are not void of power.
22. Therefore it is said: An angel of the Lord went down according to the season into the pool, and the water was troubled; and he who first after the troubling of the water went down into the pool was healed of whatsoever disease he was holden. John 5:4 This pool was at Jerusalem, in which one was healed every year, but no one was healed before the angel had descended. Because of those who believed not the water was troubled as a sign that the angel had descended. They had a sign, you have faith; for them an angel descended, for you the Holy Spirit; for them the creature was troubled, for you Christ Himself, the Lord of the creature, works.
23. Then one was healed, now all are made whole; or more exactly, the Christian people alone, for in some even the water is deceitful. Jeremiah 15:18 The baptism of unbelievers heals not but pollutes. The Jew washes pots and cups, as though things without sense were capable of guilt or grace. But do you wash this living cup of yours, that in it your good works may shine and the glory of your grace be bright. For that pool was as a type, that you might believe that the power of God descends upon this font.
24. Lastly, that paralytic was waiting for a man. And what man save the Lord Jesus, born of the Virgin, at Whose coming no longer the shadow should heal men one by one, but the truth should heal the whole. He it is, then, Whose coming down was being waited for, of Whom the Father said to John the Baptist: Upon Whom you shall see the Spirit descending and abiding upon Him, this is He Who baptizes with the Holy Spirit. John 1:33 And John bore witness of Him, and said: I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove and abiding upon Him. John 1:32 And why did the Spirit descend like a dove, but in order that you might see, that you might acknowledge, that that dove also which just Noah sent forth from the ark was a likeness of this dove, that you might recognize the type of the sacrament?
25. Perhaps you may object: Since that was a real dove which was sent forth, and the Spirit descended like a dove, how is it that we say that the likeness was there and the reality here, whereas in the Greek it is written that the Spirit descended in the likeness of a dove? But what is so real as the Godhead which abides for ever? Now the creature cannot be the reality, but only a likeness, which is easily destroyed and changed. So, again, because the simplicity of those who are baptized ought to be not in appearance but in reality, and the Lord says: Be wise as serpents and simple as doves. Matthew 10:16 Rightly, then, did He descend like a dove, in order to admonish us that we ought to have the simplicity of the dove. And further we read of the likeness being put for the reality, both as regards Christ: And was found in likeness as a man; Philippians 2:8 and as regards God the Father: Nor have you seen His likeness. John 5:37
Chapter 5
Christ is Himself present in Baptism, so that we need not consider the person of His ministers. A brief explanation of the confession of the Trinity as usually uttered by those about to be baptized.
26. Is there, then, here any room left for doubt, when the Father clearly calls from heaven in the Gospel narrative, and says: This is My beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased? Matthew 3:17 When the Son also speaks, upon Whom the Holy Spirit showed Himself in the likeness of a dove? When the Holy Spirit also speaks, Who came down in the likeness of a dove? When David, too, speaks: The voice of the Lord is above the waters, the God of glory thundered, the Lord above many waters? When Scripture testifies that at the prayer of Jerubbaal, fire came down from heaven, Judges 6:21 and again, when Elijah prayed, fire was sent forth and consecrated the sacrifice.
27. Do not consider the merits of individuals, but the office of the priests. Or, if you look at the merits, consider the priest as Elijah. Look upon the merits of Peter also, or of Paul, who handed down to us this mystery which they had received of the Lord Jesus. To those [of old] a visible fire was sent that they might believe; for us who believe, the Lord works invisibly; for them that happened for a figure, for us for warning. Believe, then, that the Lord Jesus is present at the invocation of the priest, Who said: Where two or three are, there am I also. Matthew 18:20 How much where the Church is, and where His Mysteries are, does He vouchsafe to impart His presence!
28. You went down, then (into the water), remember what you replied to the questions, that you believe in the Father, that you believe in the Son, that you believe in the Holy Spirit. The statement there is not: I believe in a greater and in a less and in a lowest person, but you are bound by the same guarantee of your own voice, to believe in the Son in like manner as you believe in the Father; and to believe in the Holy Spirit in like manner as you believe in the Son, with this one exception, that you confess that you must believe in the cross of the Lord Jesus alone.
Chapter 6
Why they who come forth from the laver of baptism are anointed on the head; why, too, after baptism, their feet are washed, and what sins are remitted in each case.
29. After this, you went up to the priest, consider what followed. Was it not that of which David speaks: Like the ointment upon the head, which went down to the beard, even Aaron's beard? This is the ointment of which Solomon, too, says: Your Name is ointment poured out, therefore have the maidens loved You and drawn You. Song of Songs 1:2 How many souls regenerated this day have loved You, Lord Jesus, and have said: Draw us after You, we are running after the odour of Your garments, Song of Songs 1:3 that they might drink in the odour of Your resurrection.
30. Consider now why this is done, for the eyes of a wise man are in his head; Ecclesiastes 2:14 therefore the ointment flows down to the beard, that is to say, to the beauty of youth; and therefore, Aaron's beard, that we, too, may become a chosen race, priestly and precious, for we are all anointed with spiritual grace for a share in the kingdom of God and in the priesthood.
31. You went up from the font; remember the Gospel lesson. For our Lord Jesus Christ in the Gospel washed the feet of His disciples. When He came to Simon Peter, Peter said: You shall never wash my feet. John 13:8 He did not perceive the mystery, and therefore he refused the service, for he thought that the humility of the servant would be injured, if he patiently allowed the Lord to minister to him. And the Lord answered him: If I wash not your feet, you will have no part with Me. Peter, hearing this, replies: Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head. The Lord answered: He that is washed needs not save to wash his feet but is clean every whit. John 13:9-10
32. Peter was clean, but he must wash his feet, for he had sin by succession from the first man, when the serpent overthrew him and persuaded him to sin. His feet were therefore washed, that hereditary sins might be done away, for our own sins are remitted through baptism.
33. Observe at the same time that the mystery consists in the very office of humility, for Christ says: If I, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet; how much more ought you to wash one another's feet. For, since the Author of Salvation Himself redeemed us through His obedience, how much more ought we His servants to offer the service of our humility and obedience.
Chapter 7
The washing away of sins is indicated by the white robes of the catechumens, whence the Church speaks of herself as black and comely. Angels marvel at her brightness as at that of the flesh of the Lord. Moreover, Christ Himself commended His beauty to His Spouse under many figures. The mutual affection of the one for the other is described.
34. After this white robes were given to you as a sign that you were putting off the covering of sins, and putting on the chaste veil of innocence, of which the prophet said: You shall sprinkle me with hyssop and I shall be cleansed, You shall wash me and I shall be made whiter than snow. For he who is baptized is seen to be purified both according to the Law and according to the Gospel: according to the Law, because Moses sprinkled the blood of the lamb with a bunch of hyssop; Exodus 12:22 according to the Gospel, because Christ's garments were white as snow, when in the Gospel He showed forth the glory of His Resurrection. He, then, whose guilt is remitted is made whiter than snow. So that God said by Isaiah: Though your sins be as scarlet, I will make them white as snow. Isaiah 1:18
35. The Church, having put on these garments through the laver of regeneration, says in the Song of Songs: I am black and comely, O daughters of Jerusalem. Song of Songs 1:4 Black through the frailty of her human condition, comely through the sacrament of faith. And the daughters of Jerusalem beholding these garments say in amazement: Who is this that comes up made white? Song of Songs 8:5 She was black, how is she now suddenly made white?
36. The angels, too, were in doubt when Christ arose; the powers of heaven were in doubt when they saw that flesh was ascending into heaven. Then they said: Who is this King of glory? And while some said Lift up your gates, O princes, and be lifted up, you everlasting doors, and the King of glory shall come in. In Isaiah, too, we find that the powers of heaven doubted and said: Who is this that comes up from Edom, the redness of His garments is from Bosor, He who is glorious in white apparel? Isaiah 63:1
37. But Christ, beholding His Church, for whom He Himself, as you find in the book of the prophet Zechariah, had put on filthy garments, now clothed in white raiment, seeing, that is, a soul pure and washed in the laver of regeneration, says: Behold, you are fair, My love, behold you are fair, your eyes are like a dove's, Song of Songs 4:1 in the likeness of which the Holy Spirit descended from heaven. The eyes are beautiful like those of a dove, because in the likeness of a dove the Holy Spirit descended from heaven.
38. And farther on: Your teeth are like a flock of sheep that are shorn, which have come up from the pool, which all bear twins, and none is barren among them, your lips are as a cord of scarlet. Song of Songs 4:2-3 This is no slight praise. First by the pleasing comparison to those that are shorn; for we know that goats both feed in high places without risk, and securely find their food in rugged places, and then when shorn are freed from what is superfluous. The Church is likened to a flock of these, having in itself the many virtues of those souls which through the laver lay aside the superfluity of sins, and offer to Christ the mystic faith and the grace of good living, which speak of the cross of the Lord Jesus.
39. The Church is beautiful in them. So that God the Word says to her: You are all fair, My love, and there is no blemish in you, for guilt has been washed away. Come hither from Lebanon, My spouse, come hither from Lebanon, from the beginning of faith will you pass through and pass on, Song of Songs 4:7-8 because, renouncing the world, she passed through things temporal and passed on to Christ. And again, God the Word says to her: How beautiful and sweet are you made, O love, in your delights! Your stature has become like that of a palm-tree, and your breasts like bunches of grapes. Song of Songs 7:6-7
40. And the Church answers Him, Who will give You to me, my Brother, that sucked the breasts of my mother? If I find You without, I will kiss You, and indeed they will not despise me. I will take You, and bring You into the house of my mother; and into the secret chamber of her that conceived me. You shall teach me. Song of Songs 8:1-2 You see how, delighted with the gifts of grace, she longs to attain to the innermost mysteries, and to consecrate all her affections to Christ. She still seeks, she still stirs up His love, and asks of the daughters of Jerusalem to stir it up for her, and desires that by their beauty, which is that of faithful souls, her spouse may be incited to ever richer love for her.
41. So that the Lord Jesus Himself, invited by such eager love and by the beauty of comeliness and grace, since now no offenses pollute the baptized, says to the Church: Place Me as a seal upon your heart, as a signet upon your arm; Song of Songs 8:6 that is, you are comely, My beloved, you are all fair, nothing is wanting to you. Place Me as a seal upon your heart, that your faith may shine forth in the fullness of the sacrament. Let your works also shine and set forth the image of God in the Whose image you were made. Let no persecution lessen your love, which many waters cannot quench, nor many rivers drown.
42. And then remember that you received the seal of the Spirit; the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and strength, the spirit of knowledge and godliness, and the spirit of holy fear, Isaiah 11:2 and preserved what you received. God the Father sealed you, Christ the Lord strengthened you, and gave the earnest of the Spirit in your heart, 2 Corinthians 5:5 as you have learned in the lesson from the Apostle.
Chapter 8
Of the mystical feast of the altar of the Lord. Lest any should think lightly of it, St. Ambrose shows that it is of higher antiquity than the sacred rites of the Jews, since it was foreshadowed in the sacrifice of Melchisedech, and far better than the manna, as being the Body of Christ.
43. The cleansed people, rich with these adornments, hastens to the altar of Christ, saying: I will go to the altar of God, to God Who makes glad my youth; for having laid aside the slough of ancient error, renewed with an eagle's youth, it hastens to approach that heavenly feast. It comes, and seeing the holy altar arranged, cries out: You have prepared a table in my sight. David introduces the people as speaking, where he says: The Lord feeds me, and nothing shall be wanting to me, in a place of good pasture has He placed me. He has led me forth by the water of refreshment. And later: For though I walk in the midst of the shadow of death, I will fear no evils, for You are with me. Your rod and Your staff have comforted me. You have prepared in my sight a table against them that trouble me. You have anointed my head with oil, and Your inebriating cup, how excellent it is!
44. We must now pay attention, lest perchance any one seeing that what is visible (for things which are invisible cannot be seen nor comprehended by human eyes), should say, God rained down manna and rained down quails upon the Jews, Exodus 16:13 but for the Church beloved of Him the things which He has prepared are those of which it is said: That eye has not seen, nor ear heard, neither has it entered into the heart of man, what things God has prepared for them that love Him. 1 Corinthians 2:9 So, lest any one should say this, we will take great pains to prove that the sacraments of the Church are both more ancient than those of the synagogue, and more excellent than the manna.
45. The lesson of Genesis just read shows that they are more ancient, for the synagogue took its origin from the law of Moses. But Abraham was far earlier, who, after conquering the enemy, and recovering his own nephew, as he was enjoying his victory, was met by Melchisedech, who brought forth those things which Abraham reverently received. It was not Abraham who brought them forth, but Melchisedech, who is introduced without father, without mother, having neither beginning of days, nor ending, but like the Son of God, of Whom Paul says to the Hebrews: that He remains a priest for ever, Who in the Latin version is called King of righteousness and King of peace.
46. Do you recognize Who that is? Can a man be king of righteousness, when himself he can hardly be righteous? Can he be king of peace, when he can hardly be peaceable? He it is Who is without mother according to His Godhead, for He was begotten of God the Father, of one substance with the Father; without a father according to His Incarnation, for He was born of a Virgin; having neither beginning nor end, for He is the beginning and end of all things, the first and the last. The sacrament, then, which you received is the gift not of man but of God, brought forth by Him Who blessed Abraham the father of faith, whose grace and deeds we admire.
47. We have proved the sacraments of the Church to be the more ancient, now recognize that they are superior. In very truth it is a marvellous thing that God rained manna on the fathers, and fed them with daily food from heaven; so that it is said, So man ate angels' food. But yet all those who ate that food died in the wilderness, but that food which you receive, that living Bread which came down from heaven, furnishes the substance of eternal life; and whosoever shall eat of this Bread shall never die, and it is the Body of Christ.
48. Now consider whether the bread of angels be more excellent or the Flesh of Christ, which is indeed the body of life. That manna came from heaven, this is above the heavens; that was of heaven, this is of the Lord of the heavens; that was liable to corruption, if kept a second day, this is far from all corruption, for whosoever shall taste it holily shall not be able to feel corruption. For them water flowed from the rock, for you Blood flowed from Christ; water satisfied them for a time, the Blood satiates you for eternity. The Jew drinks and thirsts again, you after drinking will be beyond the power of thirsting; that was in a shadow, this is in truth.
49. If that which you so wonder at is but shadow, how great must that be whose very shadow you wonder at. See now what happened in the case of the fathers was shadow: They drank, it is said, of that Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ. But with many of them God was not well pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness. Now these things were done in a figure concerning us. 1 Corinthians 10:4 You recognize now which are the more excellent, for light is better than shadow, truth than a figure, the Body of its Giver than the manna from heaven.
Chapter 9
In order that no one through observing the outward part should waver in faith, many instances are brought forward wherein the outward nature has been changed, and so it is proved that bread is made the true body of Christ. The treatise then is brought to a termination with certain remarks as to the effects of the sacrament, the disposition of the recipients, and such like.
50. Perhaps you will say, I see something else, how is it that you assert that I receive the Body of Christ? And this is the point which remains for us to prove. And what evidence shall we make use of? Let us prove that this is not what nature made, but what the blessing consecrated, and the power of blessing is greater than that of nature, because by blessing nature itself is changed.
51. Moses was holding a rod, he cast it down and it became a serpent. Exodus 4:3-4 Again, he took hold of the tail of the serpent and it returned to the nature of a rod. You see that by virtue of the prophetic office there were two changes, of the nature both of the serpent and of the rod. The streams of Egypt were running with a pure flow of water; of a sudden from the veins of the sources blood began to burst forth, and none could drink of the river. Again, at the prophet's prayer the blood ceased, and the nature of water returned. The people of the Hebrews were shut in on every side, hemmed in on the one hand by the Egyptians, on the other by the sea; Moses lifted up his rod, the water divided and hardened like walls, and a way for the feet appeared between the waves. Jordan being turned back, returned, contrary to nature, to the source of its stream. Joshua 3:16 Is it not clear that the nature of the waves of the sea and of the river stream was changed? The people of the fathers thirsted, Moses touched the rock, and water flowed out of the rock. Exodus 17:6 Did not grace work a result contrary to nature, so that the rock poured forth water, which by nature it did not contain? Marah was a most bitter stream, so that the thirsting people could not drink. Moses cast wood into the water, and the water lost its bitterness, which grace of a sudden tempered. Exodus 15:25 In the time of Elisha the prophet one of the sons of the prophets lost the head from his axe, which sank. He who had lost the iron asked Elisha, who cast in a piece of wood and the iron swam. This, too, we clearly recognize as having happened contrary to nature, for iron is of heavier nature than water.
52. We observe, then, that grace has more power than nature, and yet so far we have only spoken of the grace of a prophet's blessing. But if the blessing of man had such power as to change nature, what are we to say of that divine consecration where the very words of the Lord and Saviour operate? For that sacrament which you receive is made what it is by the word of Christ. But if the word of Elijah had such power as to bring down fire from heaven, shall not the word of Christ have power to change the nature of the elements? You read concerning the making of the whole world: He spoke and they were made, He commanded and they were created. Shall not the word of Christ, which was able to make out of nothing that which was not, be able to change things which already are into what they were not? For it is not less to give a new nature to things than to change them.
53. But why make use of arguments? Let us use the examples He gives, and by the example of the Incarnation prove the truth of the mystery. Did the course of nature proceed as usual when the Lord Jesus was born of Mary? If we look to the usual course, a woman ordinarily conceives after connection with a man. And this body which we make is that which was born of the Virgin. Why do you seek the order of nature in the Body of Christ, seeing that the Lord Jesus Himself was born of a Virgin, not according to nature? It is the true Flesh of Christ which crucified and buried, this is then truly the Sacrament of His Body.
54. The Lord Jesus Himself proclaims: This is My Body. Matthew 26:26 Before the blessing of the heavenly words another nature is spoken of, after the consecration the Body is signified. He Himself speaks of His Blood. Before the consecration it has another name, after it is called Blood. And you say, Amen, that is, It is true. Let the heart within confess what the mouth utters, let the soul feel what the voice speaks.
55. Christ, then, feeds His Church with these sacraments, by means of which the substance of the soul is strengthened, and seeing the continual progress of her grace, He rightly says to her: How comely are your breasts, my sister, my spouse, how comely they are made by wine, and the smell of your garments is above all spices. A dropping honeycomb are your lips, my spouse, honey and milk are under your tongue, and the smell of your garments is as the smell of Lebanon. A garden enclosed is my sister, my spouse, a garden enclosed, a fountain sealed. By which He signifies that the mystery ought to remain sealed up with you, that it be not violated by the deeds of an evil life, and pollution of chastity, that it be not made known to thou, for whom it is not fitting, nor by garrulous talkativeness it be spread abroad among unbelievers. Your guardianship of the faith ought therefore to be good, that integrity of life and silence may endure unblemished.
56. For which reason, too, the Church, guarding the depth of the heavenly mysteries, repels the furious storms of wind, and calls to her the sweetness of the grace of spring, and knowing that her garden cannot displease Christ, invites the Bridegroom, saying: Arise, O north wind, and come, thou south; blow upon my garden, and let my ointments flow down. Let my Brother come down to His garden, and eat the fruit of His trees. For it has good trees and fruitful, which have dipped their roots in the water of the sacred spring, and with fresh growth have shot forth into good fruits, so as now not to be cut with the axe of the prophet, but to abound with the fruitfulness of the Gospel.
57. Lastly, the Lord also, delighted with their fertility, answers: I have entered into My garden, My sister, My spouse; I have gathered My myrrh with My spices, I have eaten My meat with My honey, I have drunk My drink with My milk. Song of Songs 5:1 Understand, you faithful, why He spoke of meat and drink. And there is no doubt that He Himself eats and drinks in us, as you have read that He says that in our persons He is in prison. Matthew 25:36
58. Wherefore, too, the Church, beholding so great grace, exhorts her sons and her friends to come together to the sacraments, saying: Eat, my friends, and drink and be inebriated, my brother. Song of Songs 5:1 What we eat and what we drink the Holy Spirit has elsewhere made plain by the prophet, saying, Taste and see that the Lord is good, blessed is the man that hopes in Him. In that sacrament is Christ, because it is the Body of Christ, it is therefore not bodily food but spiritual. Whence the Apostle says of its type: Our fathers ate spiritual food and drank spiritual drink, 1 Corinthians 10:3 for the Body of God is a spiritual body; the Body of Christ is the Body of the Divine Spirit, for the Spirit is Christ, as we read: The Spirit before our face is Christ the Lord. Lamentations 4:20 And in the Epistle of Peter we read: Christ died for us. 1 Peter 2:21 Lastly, that food strengthens our heart, and that drink makes glad the heart of man, as the prophet has recorded.
59. So, then, having obtained everything, let us know that we are born again, but let us not say, How are we born again? Have we entered a second time into our mother's womb and been born again? I do not recognize here the course of nature. But here there is no order of nature, where is the excellence of grace. And again, it is not always the course of nature which brings about conception, for we confess that Christ the Lord was conceived of a Virgin, and reject the order of nature. For Mary conceived not of man, but was with child of the Holy Spirit, as Matthew says: She was found with child of the Holy Spirit. Matthew 1:18 If, then, the Holy Spirit coming down upon the Virgin wrought the conception, and effected the work of generation, surely we must not doubt but that, coming down upon the Font, or upon those who receive Baptism, He effects the reality of the new birth.
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| Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò: Meditation for the Advent Season |
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Posted by: Stone - 11-27-2021, 08:06 AM - Forum: Archbishop Viganò
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Meditation for the Advent Season
by Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò
![[Image: mgr_vigano_15_10_2021.jpg]](https://media.medias-presse.info/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/mgr_vigano_15_10_2021.jpg)
Medias-Presse [computer-translated and adapted]| November 27, 2021
VENI, UT FACIAS SALUTEM IN TERRIS, IN CŒLO GAUDIUM.
"Quaere, worried, servum tuum, quoniam mandata tua non sum oblitus." » Veni ergo, Domine Jesu, quaere servum tuum, quaere lassam ovem tuam; veni, pastor, quaere sicut oves Joseph. Erravit ovis tua, dum tu moraris, dum tu versaris in montibus. Dimitte nonaginta novem oves tuas, and veni unam ovem quaerere quae erravit. Veni sine canibus, veni sine malis operariis, veni sine mercenario, which per januam introire non noverit. Veni sine adjutore, sine nuntio, jam dudum te expecto venturum; scio enim venturum, quoniam mandata tua non sum oblitus. Veni non cum virga, sed cum caritate spirituque mansuetudinis.[1]
The season of Advent is an ancient institution and we find it mentioned to the Vth century as a time of the liturgical year for the preparation of the Nativity of Our Lord Jesus Christ secundum carnem. Indeed, Advent marks the beginning of the Liturgical Year, which allows us to seize this opportunity to follow the voice of the Church with holy intentions.
The discipline of penance and fasting during Lent in preparation for Easter is certainly of apostolic origin, while that in expectatione Domini is later and inspired by the first, but less rigid and passed over the centuries to abstinence only, certain days of the week. “It is true that St. Peter Damien, in the eleventh century, still supposes that the Advent fast was forty days, and that St. Louis, two centuries later, continued to observe it to this extent; but perhaps this holy king practiced it thus by a transport of particular devotion” [2]. The slackening of modern generations has prompted the maternal wisdom of the Church to ease the rigors of the past, without preventing them from being practiced voluntarily; but perhaps the current situation leads us to consider as appropriate, precisely because they are not imposed, the privations practiced by our ancestors in obedience to an ecclesiastical precept.
The Advent liturgy owes a great deal to the work of Saint Gregory the Great, not only for the texts of the Office and the Mass, but also for the plainsong compositions themselves. The old trope Sanctissimus namque, which introduces the introit Ad te levavi of the First Sunday of Advent, recalls the inspiration of the Holy Pontiff through the Holy Spirit, who appeared in the form of a dove [3]. First six, then five weeks of preparation for Holy Christmas were [later] reduced to four between the end of the IXth and early Xth century, so that the current use is at least a thousand years old. The Ambrosian Church maintains another six weeks, for a total of forty-two days, on the model of Lent.
St. Ambrose, Father and Doctor of the Church, is one of the first authors of homilies on the theme of Advent. I would like to begin this meditation with a prayer taken from the Commentary on Psalm 118. The Incipit of the prayer is Quaere, inquit, servum tuum. As you can see, the whole text is peppered with quotes from Sacred Scripture: not to flaunt a biblical culture, which the holy Bishop of Milan certainly possessed, but because of this knowledge of the Word of God which is the fruit of an intimate and almost vital assiduity for the soul, as air is essential for breathing. This assiduity led Saint Ambrose to speak and write himself using the words of the sacred Author, not because he wanted to plagiarize the divine Wisdom, but because he had made them his own so much that he made them his own. repeated in his turn without noticing it.
When we approach, almost as laymen, the writings of these saints, we may feel somewhat disoriented and confused. But if we have the grace to participate in liturgical prayer by attending Mass and reciting the Divine Office according to the traditional form, we discover that it is the voice of the Church herself that accompanies us in this meditation. of the Scriptures, from the Invitatory to Matins. And this also applies to the Advent liturgy: Regem venturum Dominum, venite adoremus, sings the first prayer which is intoned in the middle of the night as we await the rising of the true undefeated Sun. This solemn invitation to worship the divine King is followed by the beginning of the book of the prophet Isaiah, which sounds like a severe rebuke to his people:
“Hear, heavens, hear, earth, thus says the Lord: 'I have brought up and brought up children, but they rebelled against me. The ox knows his master, and the donkey his master's manger, but Israel does not know, my people do not understand. 'Woe to you, people of sinners, people of iniquity! You are wicked and corrupt sons! They abandoned the Lord, they despised the Holy One of Israel, they turned back. Why do you still want to be hit, building up rebellion? The whole head is sick, the whole heart is languishing. From the soles of the feet to the crown of the head there is nothing healthy, but wounds and bruises and open wounds which have not been cleaned, nor dressed, nor healed with oil."(Is 1,2-6).
The oracle of the Prophet shows the indignation of the Lord before the infidelity of his people, obstinate in their rebellion against His holy law. But the literal or historical sense [4] of Isaiah's passage concerning the Jews is accompanied by the moral sense, that is, concerning what we are to do. It is therefore to us that the Majesty of God turns: “Thus saith the Lord ” (ibid., 2), to admonish us, once again, to show us our betrayals, to urge us to conversion.
So, as we ask the Lord to deliver us from ore leonis and de profundo lacu, we realize how much we do not deserve God's mercy, how much we are unworthy of his mercy, and how much we deserve his punishments. Deus, who culpa offenderis, pœnitentia placaris ...To the prostitutions - as Scripture calls them - into which the Jews fell, are added new and much worse prostitutions, not of the people to whom the Redeemer was promised, but of those born from His side, the Mystical Body. of the Redeemer Himself; or rather, of those who call themselves Catholics, but who, by their infidelity, dishonor the Bride of the Lamb, as members of the taught and teaching Church. The new Israel has been no less rebellious than the old, and the new Roman Sanhedrin is no less culpable than those who made the golden calf and offered it for the worship of the Jews. Therefore the Prophet threatens with terrible plagues those who have disobeyed the Lord without seeing the coming Messiah.
In the dramatic crisis that has struck the Church of Christ for sixty years, and which is manifested today in all its gravity, a pusillus grex asks his Lord to spare lost humanity, while corruption and apostasy have penetrated even into the sacred enclosure and onto the highest throne. And he is pusillus because the majority of those who have been regenerated by Baptism and thus deserved to be called “sons of God” daily deny the promises of this Baptism, under the leadership of hirelings and false shepherds.
Think how many believers, who have grown up in absolute ignorance of the rudiments of the Faith despite having followed the catechism, are imbued with heretical philosophical and theological doctrines, convinced that all religions are equivalent; that man is not injured by the original fault but naturally good; that the State must ignore the true Religion and tolerate error; that the mission of the Church is not the eternal salvation of souls and their conversion to Christ, but the protection of the environment and the blind welcome of immigrants. Think of those who, although they fulfill the festive precept, do not know that the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Our Lord are contained in the Holy Host, and think that it is only a symbol; think of those who are convinced that it is enough for them to repent in their hearts to receive communion, without imagining the torments which weigh on those who unworthily receive the Body and Blood of the Lord.
Think how many priests, men and women religious and sisters believe that the Council brought a breath of renewal to the Church, or that it favored the knowledge of Sacred Scripture, or that it enabled the laity to understand the liturgy, until then ignored by the masses and jealously guarded by a caste of rigid and intolerant clerics. Think of those who saw in Her an indestructible beacon against the darkness of the world, an impregnable fortress against the onslaught of the “modern” mentality, of widespread immorality, of the defense of life from conception to its natural end. At last, think of the irrepressible satisfaction of the enemies of Christ to see His Church prostrate before the world, its ideologies of death, the idolatry of the State, of power, of money, of the myths of false science; a Church ready to deny its own glorious past, to adulterate the Faith and Morals that Our Lord taught it, to corrupt its liturgy to please heretics and sectarians: even the most delirious ramblings of the worst Freemason would not have could hope to see the cry of Voltaire come true: 'Crush the infamous!'
During Advent, we stand symbolically at the doors of the temple, like Ash Wednesday in Lent, and we observe from afar what is happening at the altar: here the birth of the King of Israel, there his Passion, his Death and his Resurrection. Imagine that we have to do a self-examination before being admitted to the holy place, as individual faithful and as members of the ecclesial body. We can approach the worship of the King of kings, of the Lord of Lords, only if we understand, on the one hand, the infinite Good that is offered to us in the swaddling clothes of the manger, and on the other hand, our absolute unworthiness, which must necessarily be accompanied by the horror of our sins, the pain of having infinitely offended God and the desire to repair the evil committed by penance and good works. And we must also understand that, as living members of the Church, we also have a collective responsibility for the faults of other faithful and of our pastors; and as citizens we have a responsibility for the public faults of nations. Indeed, the Communion of Saints allows us to share with the souls of Purgatory and with the blessed souls of Heaven their merits, in order to counterbalance in an incomparably more effective way this “communion of the ungodly” which brings down the effects of their bad actions on their neighbors, especially on other people who are enemies of God. We have a responsibility for the public faults of nations. Indeed, the Communion of Saints allows us to share with the souls of Purgatory and with the blessed souls of Heaven their merits, in order to counterbalance in an incomparably more effective way this “communion of the ungodly” which brings down the effects of their bad actions on their neighbors, especially on other people who are enemies of God. we have a responsibility for the public faults of nations. Indeed, the Communion of Saints allows us to share with the souls of Purgatory and with the blessed souls of Heaven their merits, in order to counterbalance in an incomparably more effective way this “communion of the ungodly” which brings down the effects of their bad actions on their neighbors, especially on other people who are enemies of God.
“Come to me, who am tormented by the attack of dangerous wolves," exclaims Saint Ambrose. “Come to me, who have been cast out of paradise and whose wounds have long been penetrated by the poisons of the serpent, to me who wandered far from your flocks in these mountains."
We begin to realize that we are besieged by predatory wolves: by those who sow error, by those who corrupt morals, by those who propagate death and despair, by those who want to kill us in our souls first. even killing us in our body. We realize how superficial, stupid and proud we have been to allow ourselves to be deceived by the false promises of the world, of the flesh and of the devil; how false were the words of those who, since the expulsion of our first Parents, continue to repeat the same temptations, to exploit our weaknesses, to appeal to our pride or our vices to bring us down and drag us along with them in hell. We have forgotten that we have been cast out of the earthly paradise, that we bear the marks of the poisonous bite of the serpent, that we have sinned by abandoning the sure pastures of true faith to allow ourselves to be seduced by the world, by the flesh, by the devil. Indeed, if we lived with the awareness of our initial guilt - which is also a collective guilt and moreover hereditary - and of all the evil that we commit and that we allow to be committed; if we meditate on our inability to save ourselves, except by the supernatural help that God grants us by Grace; if we convince ourselves that many of our acts are grave offenses against the Majesty of God and that we deserve to be wiped off the face of the earth in a way much worse than what happened to the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah, then we wouldn't even need the Good Shepherd to come and get us," Kidnapper wolves cannot attack them ".
The holy Bishop adds: “ Come without dogs, come without bad workers, come without the mercenary who cannot pass the door. Come without assistance, without a messenger,” because the dogs, the bad workers and the mercenary servant are passing figures, destined to perish, to be dispersed at the breath of the mouth of God, even if at this moment it seems that the world belongs to them. “ So come and look for your sheep, not by servants, not by mercenaries, but you in person,” the unfaithful servants invite us to be “resilient” and “inclusive”, to listen to the “cry of Mother Earth” [5 ] , to have us vaccinated with a serum made with cells from aborted fetuses; the mercenary, "cujus non sunt oves propriæ” (…) disperses us, abandons us, does not chase ferocious wolves and does not punish bad workers, but on the contrary encourages them.
Why then should the Lord come? Why can we ask Him, "Come in person"? Saint Ambrose answers with prayer, quoting the psalmist: “For I have not forgotten your commandments” (Ps 118, 176). Our obedience to the will of God finds a perfect correspondence - and a divine example - in the obedience of the Eternal Son of the Father from the eternity of time, agreeing to incarnate, to suffer and to die for our salvation: “Then I say: Behold, I come - for it is written of me in the scroll of the book - to do your will, O God.” (Heb 10,7). The Lord comes in obedience to the Father and we must await His coming by being in our turn obedient to the will of the Holy Trinity, “for I have not forgotten your commandments ”.
The reason we can be sure that the Lord will come and seek us, delivering us from the attack of wolves and the nefarious influence of bad workers and mercenaries, is that we must not forget what He has commanded us; we should not take His place in deciding what is good and what is bad; we must not follow the multitude into the abyss out of human respect or out of cowardice or complicity, but remain like the ninety-nine sheep in the safe pastures of the Holy Church, "for the ravishing wolves cannot attack them as long as they are in the mountains”, closer to God by being detached from earthly things. Likewise, we must show a holy humility, recognizing ourselves as sinners: “Come and seek the only sheep that has gone astray”, because “only you can bring back the lost sheep and you will not make suffer those from whom you have strayed,” that is to say the Catholics of all times, who remained faithful, safe from wolves in the high pastures. "And they too will rejoice at the return of the sinner."
Saint Ambrose's prayer continues with a very deep and meaningful expression: “Receive me in the flesh that fell in Adam. Receive me not from Sarah, but from Mary, so that she may not only be an inviolable virgin, but a virgin preserved by the effect of grace, from every stain of sin . »In Mary most holy, Sancta Virgo virginum, we find the Mediator of all graces: in Her, very pure creature, the eternal Word of the Father was incarnated, from Her was born the Savior in the world; through Her we are presented to Her divine Son, and through Her merits we can be received "in the flesh that fell in Adam." By virtue of the Grace which restores us friendship with God. An excellent starting point for meditation in preparation for Christmas.
But there is another very important consideration that Saint Ambrose gives us at the end of his prayer: "Lead me to the cross which gives salvation to the wanderers, in which only the rest of the weary is found, in which only the one will live who died." Everything revolves around the Cross of Christ, it stands in time and in eternity as a sign of contradiction, because it reminds us that it is the instrument of Redemption, salvation for the wandering, rest for the tired, life for the dying. An image of the XIVth century Pacino di Buonaguida [6] offers a very rare and highly symbolic image: the Lord rises upon the Cross with a scale - the scala virtutum- to underline the voluntary nature of his sacrifice and the “paradox” of his double nature.
In the iconography of the XVIIth century, we find a recurring image of the Child Jesus asleep on the Cross [7], an allusion explicit to divine love and sacrifice of Christ. Christmas and Easter are intrinsically linked, so as we prepare for the birth of the Savior, we must always contemplate as the center and focus precisely the Cross, on which the infant Jesus rests and on which the Immaculate Lamb ascends by a mystical scale. This is where we too must arrive, because it is only on the Cross that we find salvation, following the Lord: “ If anyone wants to come after me, let him renounce himself, take up his cross every day and follow me ”(Lk 9,23).
“Veni, ut facias salutem in terris, in coelo gaudium,” “Come and bring salvation on earth, joy in heaven."
May it be our invocation during this sacred time of Advent, to prepare us spiritually for the trials that await us.
+ Carlo Maria Viganò, archbishop
November 28, 2021
1st Sunday of Advent
Translation by F. de Villasmundo, proofread and corrected by Mgr Viganò
Footnotes
[1]»Come therefore, Lord Jesus, seek your servant [Ps 118, 176] seek your weary sheep. Come, shepherd, seek, as Joseph sought the sheep [Gn 37:14]. Your sheep has wandered, while you procrastinate, as you walk in the mountains. Let your ninety-nine sheep go, and come and look for the one that has gone astray [Mt 18, 12 sqq .; Lk 15, 4]. Come without dogs, come without bad workers, come without the hired servant, who does not enter through the door [Jn 10, 1-7]. Come without assistance, without a messenger. I have been waiting for your coming for a long time. For I know that you will come, for I have not forgotten your commandments [Ps 118, 176]. Do not come with a rod, but with charity and in a spirit of meekness[Cor 4:21]. "Sancti Ambrosii Episcopi Expositio Psalmi CXVIII, 22, 2
[2] Dom Prosper Guéranger, The Liturgical Year , I. Advent - Christmas - Lent - Passion, trad. it. P. Graziani, Alba, 1959, pp. 21-26.
[3] " Sanctissimus namque Gregorius cum preces effunderet ad Dominum ut musicum donum ei desuper in carminibus dedisset , tunc descended Spiritus Sanctus super eum, in specie columbæ, et illustravit cor ejus, et sic demum exortus est canere, ita dicendo: Ad te levavi … "- Trope at the Introit of the First Sunday of Advent -
Cfr. https://gregobase.selapa.net/chant.php?id=4654
[4] Littera gesta docet, quid credas allegoria, moralis quid agas, quo tendas anagogia (The letter teaches what happened, the allegory what you must believe, the moral what you must do, the end towards which you must strive) - Nicolas de Lyre, Postilla in Gal. , 4, 3.
[5] See https://www.vaticannews.va/it/papa/news/...to-si.html and https://www.avvenire.it/opinioni/pagine/ il-grido-della-terra-e-dei-poveri
[6] See https://scriptoriumdaily.com/ladder-at-the-cross/ - A painting from the school of Giotto with an identical subject can be found in the monastery of Sant'Antonio in Polesine, in Ferrara. See also Anna Eörsi, Haec scala significat ascensum virtutum. Notes on the iconography of Christ ascending the cross on a ladder -
https://arthist.elte.hu/Tanarok/EorsiA/F...9tra_a.htm
[7] See, for example, the painting by Guido Reni, The Child Jesus asleep on the Cross, oil on canvas, circa 1625.
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| Healthy Australian woman says she was forced into COVID quarantine camp for 14 days |
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Posted by: Stone - 11-27-2021, 07:09 AM - Forum: Socialism & Communism
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Healthy Australian woman says she was forced into COVID quarantine camp for 14 days
'These COVID camps are real. It doesn’t matter if you’re fully-vaxxed, one-vaxxed or non-vaxxed:
you can get sent to these camps if you’re a close contact,' said Haley Hodgson from her prison.
Pierre Boralevi
Thu Nov 25, 2021
DARWIN, Australia (LifeSiteNews) — An Australian woman says she was taken to a quarantine facility and held there for 14 days against her will as punishment for failing to test against COVID and lying about it.
Haley Hodgson shared her ordeal in an interview with Monica Smit, founder of Australian news website Reignite Democracy Australia (RDA), a week ago when she was still in quarantine at the Howard Springs facility near Darwin, Northern Australia.
“These COVID camps are real,” Hodgson told Smit.
“You can get sent to those camps no matter what if you’re ‘close contact’.”
The video was released only yesterday on RDA’s official website, as Hodgson feared that releasing it sooner might result in the extension of her stay at the quarantine camp.
Hodgson explained that she had been in “close contact” with someone who tested positive for COVID-19.
She recalled that health officials came to her house asking whether she knew the person who tested positive and if she had had a test done.
Hodgson initially lied about having had a test. When the Australian health authorities got back to her saying they couldn’t find her result, Hodgson admitted that she had failed to do a test.
“I was scared. I’ve been in quarantine before, [and] I just didn’t want to go back there,” Hodgson explained.
She then apologized to the health officers, saying, “I’m sorry that I lied.”
“They said, ‘No worries,’ and [before] they hung up the phone, they said, ‘Someone will be there to test you in the next 20 minutes, so don’t leave your home,” Hodgson recalled.
Within 20 minutes the police were at her house. Hodgson said they told her that she had to go with them and that she was “going to Howard Springs to quarantine.”
Hodgson said she told the police that she had not been informed of this, and the police replied that if she refused to come, she would have to pay a $5000 fine (roughly $3600 U.S.).
She then agreed to follow the police officers and was escorted to a “COVID cab” which took her to Howard Springs. On the way there, one of the police officers allegedly told Hodgson that she would need to quarantine for only 48 hours while awaiting the result of her COVID test.
But once at the facility, Hodgson said, she was informed that she would have to stay there for 14 days “no matter what” and that she “[had] no choice.”
“So, I’m here against my will,” the woman said.
Smit asked why Hodgson wasn’t given the option to self-quarantine at home, especially when the 7 to 10 other close contacts of the person who tested positive were all allowed to self-isolate at home.
“That’s what I was [asking] them,” replied Hodgson.
“Now that I’ve found out, it’s because I said I had a test done when I hadn’t,” she continued.
“So, it’s pretty much a punishment; they’re punishing me because I lied and said I had a test when I hadn’t.”
Hodgson went on to describe the harsh rules at the quarantine facility. Inmates are not allowed out of their rooms, except for certain chores such as laundry, and have to wear a mask.
“It’s so strict, you can’t do anything. You can’t go for a walk. You get anxious [because] you’re trapped in a small room,” said Hodgson.
“You can go out on your balcony, [but] you have to wear a mask. That’s all you can do. There’s nothing else.”
Hodgson recalled that when she asked to go for a walk, arguing that she needed to exercise and was feeling trapped and anxious, the staff offered her a strong anxiolytic [anti-anxiety drug] instead, telling her: “No, you’re not allowed to do that, but we can give you Valium to calm you down.”
The young woman remarked on the paradoxical lack of oversight.
“There’s no paperwork when you come in here; you’re literally chucked in this little box, and that’s it, you’re left [on your own],” she explained.
Her interviewer Monica Smit then remarked that she herself had been to prison and compared the conditions at the quarantine camp with conditions in prison. She suggested that Howard Springs “actually sounds worse than prison because you have this illusion of being a free person, but actually you’ve got no freedoms.”
“In prison, [inmates] can walk wherever they want, by the way, and they don’t have to wear a mask, and they can go to the gym on prison campus,” said Smit.
Hodgson concluded the interview by warning the public about these quarantine facilities and stressing the ease with which a person can be transferred there even against his or her will.
“These COVID camps are real, [and] there’s one being built in Melbourne now,” she said.
“If anyone becomes a close contact, it doesn’t matter if you’re fully-vaxxed, one-vaxxed, or non-vaxxed: you can get sent to these camps no matter what if you’re a close contact.”
Howard Spring is the same quarantine facility where 38 people from a remote Aboriginal community were sent earlier this week after some people there tested positive for COVID-19.
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| The Angelus 1981: The Kingship of Christ Since Vatican II |
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Posted by: Stone - 11-26-2021, 12:52 PM - Forum: In Defense of Tradition
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The Angelus - January 1981
The Kingship of Christ Since Vatican II
by Michael Davies
This is the text of a public lecture delivered by Mr. Davies at Preston, Lancashire, England, on 26 October 1980, the Feast of Christ the King. Preston is the most Catholic part of England and a good number of martyrs are associated with this locality. Though much of the lecture is related specifically to the British situation, it is equally applicable to America. For example, the criticisms he makes of the National Pastoral Congress held in Liverpool this past year could just as well be applied to our own notorious Detroit Congress. If anything, his indictment of the British bishops for their failure to pay more than lip-service to the Kingship of Christ could even more appropriately be directed at the bishops of the Untied States of America.
In penal times, when the Catholics of this country were the victims of persecution and discrimination, there was a saying: "It's the Mass that matters." There was another saying, a greeting among Catholics, "Keep the Faith." In this country keeping the Faith and fidelity to the Mass were synonymous. Almost providentially, Evelyn Waugh's masterpiece, Edmund Campion, has been reprinted.1 I can think of no book more relevant to the time we live in. It is consoling, inspiring and revealing. Those who read it some years ago should read it again today. They will find passage after passage, page after page, which appear to have been written specifically to enlighten Catholics in the post-conciliar era. One of the most interesting revelations it makes is that the persecution of Catholics in England was relatively mild until Doctor—later Cardinal—Allen, a Lancashire man, as you all know, founded the English College at Douai in 1568. The Elizabethan government had presumed that, as priests could not be ordained in England, when the Marian priests died out,
Quote:"the old Church would quietly expire without them....So long as the Church seemed to be on her death-bed, Cecil was content to cut off the necessaries of her life and leave her to die in peace. Deprived of the sacraments, England would be lost to the Faith in a generation. But as soon as the young priests, now patiently conning their textbooks abroad, began to appeal to the old loyalties that lay deep in the heart of the people, to infuse their own zeal into the passive conservatism over which the innovators had won a victory too bloodless to be decisive, the character of the government would change."
Well, the young priests did come. They brought the Mass to the people, and the Mass kept the Faith of a Catholic Remnant alive throughout centuries when it appeared that Catholicism in this country could never flourish again. I am told that it is here in Preston that fidelity to the Church and the Mass was greater than anywhere else in Britain. When I was asked to come here and speak I decided, not surprisingly, that the only appropriate topic would be the Mass—the Mass for which our martyr priests died. The Douai priests who brought the Mass to the faithful Remnant brought the Mass codified in the Missal of St. Pius V, promulgated by this great saint in obedience to the Council of Trent. Obviously, when we say that it is "the Mass that matters" we mean the Mass itself, the making present of the Sacrifice of Calvary when an ordained priest brings Our Lord down upon the altar through the power of the words of consecration, ex vi verborum, as the theologians put it. There are a good number of rites recognized by the Church which make this sacrifice present, but the rite of Mass found in the Missal of St. Pius V should clearly occupy a special place in the hearts of British Catholics as it is the very rite of Mass which sustained our fathers in the faith, the very rite of Mass for which our martyr priests died. They also died for their fidelity to the Holy See, for the belief that no one can be fully a Christian who is not in communion with the Pope, the Vicar of Christ, the visible head of the Church on earth. It is not simply the Mass that matters; it must be a Mass offered by a priest who is in communion with the Pope.
Having decided to speak to you about the Mass, I noticed that I would be here upon the Feast of Christ the King and decided that, in view of the date, it would be more appropriate to discuss the Kingship of Christ. As you will see, despite this I shall also be talking to you about the Mass—which isn't so surprising when we consider how intimately the Sacrifice of Christ the Priest is linked with the prerogatives of Christ the King. Obviously, there will be people here who are saying to themselves: "But today is not the Feast of Christ the King. The Feast doesn't occur for another month." In the Missal of Pope Paul VI the Feast of Christ the King has indeed been moved to the end of the Liturgical Year, and this is a change of considerable significance, as I hope to show you later. Since the Second Vatican Council, the Church in Western countries has suffered a decline that ranges from the serious to the catastrophic. Officially, of course, this is not the case. Officially we are supposed to be euphoric about an unprecedented renewal which is taking place throughout the Church. There is, for example, the renewal in the liturgy. The fact is that there have been declines in Mass attendance of fifty per cent or more in France, Holland, and Italy, thirty per cent in the U.S.A., and about twenty per cent in England and Wales. There has been a decline in seminary enrollment of ninety-seven per cent in Holland, eighty-three per cent in France, sixty-four per cent in America, forty-five per cent in Italy, and twenty-five per cent in England and Wales. In this week's Universe (the Catholic weekly with the largest circulation in Britain) a report on the back page is entitled: "Parishes With No Priests." It reads as follows:
Quote:By 1990 one third of the parish clergy in the Birmingham Diocese will be aged over 70 and up to a third of the 231 parishes could be without a resident priest.
Archbishop Dwyer of Birmingham quotes these figures in an ad clerum to his clergy. During the next ten years only about three ordinations are expected annually in the diocese. Birmingham clergy are considering how the diocese is to remain viable in the face of the priest shortage at deanery meetings.
Then there is the renewal in the religious life—the number of nuns in the U.S.A. has declined by 50,000 since 1966, and during the same period 10,000 priests have abandoned the priesthood.
Those of you with children attending Catholic schools will have experienced the catechetical renewal. This consists of children being taught that they must love pussy cats, the friendly postman, Martin Luther King, and John F. Kennedy.
Canon George Telford was Vice-Chairman and Secretary to the Catechetical Commission of the Bishops of England and Wales until he resigned in 1977, because it was quite clear that the bishops had no intention whatsoever of taking any effective steps to ensure that Catholic children were taught the Catholic Faith. He stated in an article printed in the October 1975 issue of Christian Order that:
Quote:Today, vast numbers of the truly faithful are suffering anguish of heart at what is being done to the Catholicism they love. What would our martyrs have thought of the "faith" which is preached and practiced by many ardent "renewalists" today? A faith in which "leading catechists" tell parents to instruct their children that the Mass is "Jesus' jolly tea-party"? A faith in which "leading liturgists" invite an adult congregation to hop, skip and jump around the altar as a "meaningful thanksgiving" at the end of Mass? A faith in which "leading theologians" reject solemn declarations of the Holy Father, because, "the matter is still under discussion"? All these aberrations I have personally witnessed—and many more.
In his letter of resignation to the Bishops, published in the April 1977 issue of Christian Order, he stated that he wished to sever every connection with the catechetical establishment in this country because "modern catechetics is theologically corrupt and spiritually bankrupt. Its strictures and innovations are irrelevant and unmeaningful for Catholic faith, and can achieve nothing but its gradual dilution."
"Theologically corrupt, spiritually bankrupt, irrelevant" —this is the description of the religious instruction being given in many if not most Catholic schools today by a witness of the most impeccable credentials speaking from within the catechetical establishment—not some ill-informed parent who has been unable to grasp the insights which are supposed to make the stirring tales his children are told of pussy cats, postmen, Martin Luther King, and John F. Kennedy so much more meaningful and relevant than the religious instruction given before Vatican II.
In his letter of resignation, Canon Telford described the principle characteristic of modern catechetics as follows:
Quote:Ambiguity is also an important part of the technique: if applied skillfully it becomes possible to talk and write about essential doctrines in a manner quite unrelated, or even contradictory, to anything taught by the Church. The golden rule is to avoid all clear and explicit statements.
This claim corresponds very closely to a similar observation made by Archbishop Lefebvre concerning the Second Vatican Council:
Quote:I shall stress the fact that the Council steadily refused to give exact definitions of the matters under discussion. It is this rejection of definitions, this refusal to examine philosophically and theologically the questions under discussion which meant that we could do no more than describe them, not define them. Not only were they not defined, but very often in the course of discussions on the subjects, the traditional definition was falsified. I believe that we are now confronted with a whole system which we cannot accept, manage to grasp and can keep in check only with because the traditional definitions, the true definitions, are no longer accepted.2
Canon Telford and Archbishop Lefebvre have both discerned the basis of the present malaise of the Church, a malaise which the French theologian, Fr. Louis Bouyer, has described as "the decomposition of Catholicism." This malaise is a lack of concern for Catholic Truth which amounts in practice to its implicit rejection. Writing of the Anglican Church in the nineteenth century, Cardinal Newman complained:
Quote:We are over-tender in dealing with sin and sinners. We are deficient in jealous custody of the revealed Truths which Christ has left us. We allow men to speak against the Church, its ordinances, or its teaching, without remonstrating with them. We do not separate from heretics, nay, we object to the word as if uncharitable.3
The situation has been repeated within the Catholic Church in the latter part of the twentieth century. As I have just remarked, the lack of concern for Catholic Truth manifested throughout the West today amounts to its implicit rejection. Our attitude to the present crisis must be determined both by what we believe to be true, and the consequences which follow from that truth. There are few if any British bishops who would openly deny a dogma of the Faith, but there are also few if any British bishops who will accept the consequences deriving from the dogmas which they do not openly deny. As Catholics we believe that we were created by God with an eternal destiny in heaven made possible because God the Son became incarnate and died to atone for our sins. He offers all men the graces necessary for salvation, but these graces can be culpably rejected. It was Christ's will that men should be saved by being incorporated into His Mystical Body, a visible Church upon earth. The Church teaches us what we must believe, what we must do to be saved, and mediates the graces necessary for our salvation through the seven divinely instituted sacraments.
The Catholic Church is, then, the only body with a mandate from Our Lord to preach the Gospel, to administer the Sacraments, and to offer public worship. The unique prerogatives of the Catholic Church were well summarized by no less a person than Bishop B. C. Butler in an article in The Tablet on 6 April 1968:
Quote:Ours is the one, true Church; the only body in the world which has a mandate to preach the Gospel. Outside this Church there is no salvation. According to the divine intention there are, outside the full visible Catholic Communion, only individual human beings (I exclude from consideration those who are not yet morally adult), for each of whom entry into the guaranteed sphere of salvation is by the unique door of personal adhesion to the one Catholic Communion. Moreover, the only authorized form of public worship is that of the Catholic Church, performed under her mandate. Her claims are not of her own making; they are an expression of immutable divine law. She cannot compromise.
The claims of the Catholic Church, the bishop tells us, are an expression of immutable divine law. They cannot be changed. If we accept the claims of the Catholic Church, it follows that any other body claiming to preach the Gospel or offer public worship outside the visible unity of the Church is acting contrary to the will of God, and the very thought of acting contrary to the divine will should make us tremble with fear for our eternal salvation. Looked at in the most objective and dispassionate manner possible, it is clearly unthinkable that any Catholic could ever take part in the services of a sect which offers public worship to God in opposition to the Church.
Father John Gerard was one of the seminary priests who came to this country to bring the Mass to the faithful Remnant. He had hardly landed in England about four hundred years ago, in November 1588, when he was arrested on suspicion of being a priest and told that he must appear before the Constable and Officer of the Watch who happened, as Father Gerard expressed it, "at that moment to be in church attending their heretical worship." His presence was reported to them and he was ordered to come inside the church where he would be interrogated at the end of the service. But Father Gerard refused absolutely to do this, despite considerable pressure. Imagine the reasons he could have put forward to justify doing so—he has just finished a long course of seminary training; the faithful were starved of priests; if his refusal resulted in his arrest and execution the immense good that he could do in England would be forfeited. But no, he would not even be present in a building where heretics were conducting public worship, because to conduct worship in opposition to the one, true Church is contrary to the will of Jesus Christ. The two officers took Father Gerard before a Justice of the Peace who, in an almost miraculous manner, eventually released him and told him to continue his journey in God's name. Perhaps this Justice was a Catholic who had compromised his faith by conforming to the new religion outwardly, but keeping the old faith in his heart. Such men were known as "schismatics" to the true Catholics.
Similarly, Thomas Colton, a teen-aged boy, who had endured terrible sufferings for his faith, refused to mitigate those sufferings by so much as setting foot inside a Protestant church:
Quote:If I should go inside your church, I should sin against God and the peace and unity of the whole Catholic Church, exclude myself from all the holy sacraments, and be in danger to die in my sins like a heathen. But although I am but a poor lad, I have a soul to save as well as any other Catholic.
Now let us travel forward 400 years into our own time. In the year of Our Lord 1980, a married Anglican layman by the name of Runcie vested himself in episcopal attire in Canterbury Cathedral, and went through a ceremony purporting to make him Archbishop of Canterbury. At the end of the service he remained what he was before it—a lay member of a heretical sect. Perhaps putting this so bluntly seems not simply uncharitable but even offensive—it is not intended to be so, and I have not the least intention of impugning Dr. Runcie's good faith. What scandalized me, and scandalized so many other faithful Catholics, was that Cardinal Hume not only attended this ceremony but took an active part in it by reading a lesson! The Tablet claimed jubilantly that this amounted to de facto recognition of Anglican Orders, and I am sure that The Tablet is right. Cardinal Hume has made no secret of the fact that he does not accept Pope Leo XIII's verdict on the invalidity of Anglican Orders as final—just as during the Synod in Rome this month he called into question the teaching of Humanae Vitae.
Now what explanation can there be for the radically different attitude towards heretical worship evinced by Father Gerard and Cardinal Hume? There has certainly been no gradual development in doctrine or practice since the sixteenth century, beyond permission for very occasional attendance at particular Protestant services for personal reasons, e.g., baptisms, marriages, or funerals of relatives or very close friends. Such attendance had to be entirely passive. No Catholic was permitted to take any active part in the service by so much as joining in a single hymn or prayer. I have before me a Catholic Truth Society pamphlet published in 1961 entitled "Attending Non-Catholic Services." It states on page three:
Quote:It is absolutely forbidden for a Catholic, whatever his social standing may be, to take part in or even be merely present at the religious rites of non-Catholics . . . The fundamental reason behind this prohibition is that for a Catholic to take part in, or even be present at, the religious rites of non-Catholics whilst at the same time giving internal voluntary approval, would be tantamount to denying that the Catholic religion is the one true religion, the only form of religious belief and practice which as a religion has been revealed and is here and now willed by God.
This example should have made clear what I meant by saying that few if any of our bishops would openly deny a dogma of the Faith while refusing to accept the consequences imposed by acceptance of these dogmas. In theory, I am sure, Cardinal Hume would accept that ours is the one true Church, if placed in a situation where he could not evade giving an answer. But in practice he is prepared to behave in a manner which, to quote the C.T.S. pamphlet I have just cited, is tantamount to a denial "that the Catholic religion is the one true religion." This form of aberrant ecumenism to which Cardinal Hume is so addicted is taken to even greater lengths in the U.S.A. A number of American Catholic bishops have actually loaned their cathedrals for Episcopalian ordination ceremonies.
In October 1979 Archbishop Whealon, of Hartford, Connecticut, did so in particularly scandalous circumstances as the celebrant of the Eucharist was to be a priestess, and other priestesses and female deacons were given prominent roles in the ordination rite. Ironically, conservative Episcopalian clergy boycotted the ceremony in protest at the role given to these priestesses. This incident can form a profitable subject for meditation at a time when a priest who celebrates the Mass for which our martyrs died is told that he is a rebel or a schismatic. Just think carefully about what took place in Hartford—a priestess of an heretical sect was allowed to use the altar of a Catholic cathedral to celebrate an invalid Eucharist as part of an invalid ordination ceremony. What would the martyrs have thought about that?
It should hardly be necessary for me to point out how relevant this is to the Kingship of Christ. What merit can there be in giving notional assent to the Kingship of Christ, while denying it in practice by flagrantly contradicting the manifest will of our Divine Sovereign?
I have described the actions of Cardinal Hume and Archbishop Whealon as an implicit denial of the Catholic religion and the Kingship of Christ—perhaps I am being too charitable and their denial could more accurately be described as explicit. There is no doubt at all that Bishop Butler has denied the Catholic religion and the Kingship of Christ in a manner that could not have been more open. I have already quoted him to the effect that no religion but ours has a mandate to preach the Gospel or offer public worship, and that these principles "are an expression of immutable divine law." He also assured us that the Church "cannot compromise." In this, at least, he is correct. But although the Church cannot compromise individual bishops can, and frequently do (witness the English hierarchy during the Protestant Reformation). In 1974 a joint evangelistic campaign took place in Hertfordshire. The text of the joint appeal included the following:
Quote:God is calling you through us, to be open to his Spirit's power and joyous conviction, so that the people of your area may see, hear and understand that the one Church of Jesus Christ has good news indeed to share with you all.
This appeal was signed by the leaders of ten Protestant denominations and two Catholic bishops—Bishop Charles Grant and Bishop Christopher Butler. Clearly, Saint Margaret Clitherow would not have received much sympathy from Bishop Butler. How embarrassed he would have been before his many Anglican friends at her response to the suggestion that she should pray with some Protestant ministers before her execution: "I will not pray with you, nor shall you pray with me: neither will I say Amen to your prayers, nor shall you to mine."
False ecumenism, then, is one factor undermining the Kingship of Christ, where it has not completely undermined it. There are now a number of shared churches in England, another was announced in this week's Universe. Where this happens there is not even a pretense made of upholding belief in a divinely founded visible Church. An equally dangerous phenomenon is the tendency to treat the Church as a democracy. Those of you who have read Ten Sixty-Six and All That, a wonderfully comic account of British history, will know that it classifies historical events into good and bad things. Most English-speaking Catholics would unhesitatingly classify democracy as a good thing, probably being unaware of the fact that in its fundamental sense the concept has been repeatedly condemned by the popes. Democracy, in the condemned sense, is the belief that authority emanates from the people, and that those exercising authority in society do so as delegates of the people. They are thus bound to ensure that legislation conforms to what the people desire. In his Encyclical, Quod Apostolici Muneris, "Concerning Modern Errors," Pope Leo XIII wrote:
Quote:Hence, by a fresh act of impiety, unknown even to the very pagans, governments have been organized without God and the order established by Him being taken at all into account. It has even been contended that public authority, with its dignity and its power of ruling, originates not from God but from the mass of the people, which considering itself unfettered by all divine sanction, refuses to submit to any laws that it has not itself passed of its own free will.
Catholic teaching is that all authority emanates from God and that the rulers of a country govern as His legates and not as delegates of the people. Thus no government has the right to pass legislation which does not conform to the natural law no matter what the proportion of those within a state desiring such legislation. Thus no state has the right to permit divorce, abortion, or pornography. In his larged ignored Encyclical Quas Primas, on "The Kingship of Christ," Pope Pius XI teaches:
Quote:Nor is there any difference in this matter between the individual and the family or the State; for all men, whether individually or collectively, are under the dominion of Christ. In Him is the salvation of the individual, in Him is the salvation of society.
However, the Church is not opposed to democracy in the sense that those exercising authority within the state are chosen by a vote based on universal suffrage. She is not concerned with the manner in which a ruler is selected, only with the principle that rulers, however chosen, govern as legates of God. Once this principal has been grasped it can be seen how completely untenable is the position of such a politician as Edward Kennedy in the U.S.A., who claims to oppose abortion as a Catholic but accept it as a politician.
If this false principal of democracy is not acceptable in a secular government, it is even less acceptable in the Church. The Church is a monarchy in which Christ is King. The pope and the bishops are the successors of St. Peter and the Apostles, who were given the mandate of preaching His Gospel to the world. Those who heard them, He said, heard Him. Those who refused His Apostles refused Him. In this country we have just had a spectacle that is both scandalous and heartbreaking. At a time when there is virtually no dogmatic truth or moral precept of the Faith that is not under attack, firm and unequivocal guidance was called upon from our pastors. Instead of giving this guidance, instead of standing up among the flock as true shepherds and proclaiming the teaching of Christ our King, the bishops succumbed to the pressure of a handful of self-styled renewalists and decided to hold a National Pastoral Congress to sound out the opinions of their flock. Such a procedure is almost blasphemous, given the nature of the Church, i.e., that of an absolute monarchy. As Christians we must submit ourselves to the sweet yoke of Christ. What our Divine King commands we must do and what He forbids we must not do. If we reached a point where everyone decided that adultery was not sinful it would still be a sin. Sin is an offense against God, it remains an offense no matter how many people deny its sinful nature.
Anyone who is familiar with the preparation for the National Pastoral Congress or the Congress itself will be aware that it was not, in fact, democratic in any sense of the word. Ninety-five per cent of the delegates came from the miniscule but vociferous clique of renewalists to which I have referred—and the Congress resolutions represented their thinking in almost every respect, and will be made clear when the full texts are published shortly. But having succumbed to pressure to call the Congress, the bishops' prestige was linked with its being an unqualified success—and they have assured us that it was an unqualified success in their official response, The Easter People. It is true that they have not been able to concede everything the resolutions demanded—in the liturgical sector almost every demand of the Congress was forbidden by the recent Instruction Inaestimabile Donum—but they have given way on the two demands most dear to the hearts of renewalists, progressives, liberals—or whatever you choose to call them. These were a revision of the teaching of contraception and the admission of divorced Catholics to Holy Communion. Both these demands received sympathetic treatment in The Easter People and were duly presented to the bishops at the Rome Synod this October by Cardinal Hume and Archbishop Warloch. Cardinal Hume even told the assembled bishops and the Pope, who has forcefully reiterated the consistent papal condemnation of contraception, that those who ignore this law, which is a law of Christ the King, are "often good, conscientious and faithful sons and daughters of the Church." We are thus presented with a spectacle that is not simply scandalous but grotesque. Cardinal Hume, far from exercising his mandate as a successor of the Apostles to teach Catholic truth in season and out of season, has relegated himself to the role of a delegate of the National Pastoral Congress. The Congress was in favor of contraception, and so its eminent delegate dutifully put forwards its views to the Synod. This democratizing the Church to the point of absurdity!
Clearly, if our prelates do not even have sufficient heart to command the Faithful to observe the rule of Christ the King there is no hope whatsoever of their mobilizing the faithful to combat civil legislation which is contrary to the Divine will. This was manifestly the case throughout the West well before the Second World War. Little pretense was made by any Western hierarchy at implementing the teaching of Quas Primas. In practice, Catholics accepted a role as a contented minority within a pluralistic society. It was not for them to try to impose Catholic teaching on the whole of society. Obviously, no such obligation exists where ecclesiastical law is concerned. It is not the function of the Church to campaign for legislation compelling every citizen to observe Friday abstinence or assist at Mass on Sunday. But such questions as divorce, abortion, contraception, and pornography transcend ecclesiastical boundaries. They are condemned by the law of Christ the King which applies to the whole of mankind.
ONE OF THE MOST DEPRESSING aspects of the documents of Vatican II is the implicit or explicit acceptance of the relegation of Catholicism to a body of opinion within a pluralistic society, a body more concerned in dialogue and cooperation than with condemnation or conversion. The ultimate betrayal of the traditional Catholic position is found in the Declaration on Religious Liberty, where it is stated that no one must be prevented from following his conscience in private or in public unless his doing so would threaten public order.
If, then, Christ is not to be King, who is? The only possible answer is man. Since the Renaissance there has been an increasingly powerful current of opinion working for the replacement of the theocentric basis of society with one that is anthropocentric. Society must be based not on what God commands but what man demands. This tendency was resisted uncompromisingly by a succession of great popes. It was admitted into the Church via Vatican II. It is reflected very clearly in the new rite of Mass. The rite of Mass codified by St. Pius V, which dates back in all essentials to the pontificate of St. Gregory the Great, is clearly a theocentric ritual. It is concerned with offering a solemn sacrifice to God with the greatest possible dignity and reverence. The prayers of the Mass reflect its nature, they are solemn, they are beautiful, and they are replete with explicit reference to its sacrificial nature. The New Mass is clearly concerned less with God than with the congregation. Will they understand it, will they enjoy it, will it be meaningful?
Perhaps the most dramatic symbol of the change of ethos is the transformation of a sacrificial altar into a table over which priest and people gaze at each other. Previously, priest and people had stood together on the same side of the altar, offering their sacrifice in the direction of the East, symbol of the Resurrection and the Second Coming. Now they have turned in upon themselves, an apt symbol of the man-centered, inward-looking nature of the new rite. Gone too are almost all the explicitly sacrificial prayers which gave such clear expression to the nature of the Mass, conforming to the principle lex orandi, lex credendi, as the Church prays, so she believes. What, I wonder, would a Hindu conclude that the Catholic Church believed if he visited some of our churches during Mass today?
The more one studies the changes in the liturgy the more clear it becomes that every change has a particular significance. I shall conclude by examining certain changes made with regard to today's feast, that of Christ the King. The changes made in the Ordinary of the Mass, and even more so in the Breviary Office, reflect the acceptance by the Conciliar Church that, contrary to the teaching of Quas Primas, Christ the King does not rule over nations, only over those individuals who voluntarily choose to submit themselves to Him. This is an explicit rejection of the intention of Pope Pius XI, who has instituted the feast as a solemn affirmation of Our Lord's Kingship over every human society. Thus the second half of the original Collect reads:
Grant in Thy mercy that all the families of nations, rent asunder by the wound of sin, may be subjected to Thy most gentle rule.
The same passage in the revised Collect reads:
May all in heaven and earth acclaim your glory and never cease to praise you. (ICEL translation)
A number of verses have been omitted from the Breviary hymn Te saeculorum Principem of First Vespers. They include the following which, in the best tradition of Nineteen Eighty-Four, have been consigned to the "memory-hole" for the crime of professing the Kingship of Christ in unambiguous terms:
May the rulers of the world publicly honour and extol Thee
May teachers and judges reverence Thee;
May the laws express Thine order and the arts reflect Thy beauty.
May kings find renown in their submission and dedication to Thee.
Bring under Thy gentle rule our country and our homes.
Glory be to Thee, Jesus, supreme over all secular authorities
And glory be to the Father and the loving Spirit through endless ages.
The hymn Aeterna Imago Altissimi has been transferred from First Vespers to Lauds, and the last two lines of the second verse, which state that the Father has entrusted to Christ, as His right, "absolute dominion over peoples," have been replaced by the statement that we, i.e., as individuals, should willingly submit ourselves to Christ. The following verse has, understandably, been omitted completely:
To Thee, Who by right claim rule over all men,
we willingly submit ourselves;
to be subject to Thy laws means happiness for a state
and its peoples.
A version of the Vexilla Regis, which has been suppressed, contains the following verses:
Christ triumphantly unfurls His glorious banners
everywhere;
Come, nations of the world, and on bended knee
acclaim the King of Kings.
How great is the happiness of a country that rightly owns
the rule of Christ
And zealously carries out the commands God gave to men.
The plighted word keeps marriage unbroken,
The children grow up with virtue intact
and homes where purity is found,
abound also in the other virtues of home life.
A number of readings from Quas Primas were included as lessons in the office. These made the traditional teaching on Church and State extremely clear. They have been removed.
There is, as I have said, a reason behind all the changes made in the traditional liturgy to accommodate it to the policies of the Conciliar Church. This is most certainly true of the transfer of the Feast of Christ the King from the last Sunday in October to the end of November, the very end of the liturgical year. Archbishop Lefebvre explains:
Quote:During October the liturgical year is not yet over and three or four Sundays remain. This signifies the reign of Our Lord over our time, over all peoples, over all nations. The feast has been transferred to the end of the liturgical year. What does this signify? That Our Lord will reign—certainly He will, oh yes! certainly... He will reign—but at the end of time. Not now. Now, it is not possible.
I will be accused of exaggerating. No; I do not exaggerate. I'm sorry to have to say this. Why? Because I heard it directly from the mouth of a papal nuncio to whom I had said: "You are in the process of suppressing all the Catholic states. You have collaborated in their suppression." Then I asked the nuncio: "And what will you do about the social reign of Our Lord Jesus Christ?" He replied: "That is no longer possible today." That is what a nuncio told me, the representative of our Holy Father the Pope. "The social reign of Christ the King is no longer possible today."
Archbishop Lefebvre is not alone in reading this meaning into the transferrence of the Feast. Professor J. P. M. van der Ploeg, O. P., one of the most distinguished theologians in Europe, commented in the October 1978 issue of Christian Order:
Quote:Formerly, it was celebrated on the last Sunday of October, close to the Feast of All Saints; now it is celebrated at the end of the ecclesiastical year, to make the "eschatalogical"4 meaning of the feast. Christ will be King of the World at the end of time."
I hope that now, after following so patiently for so long, you will be able to put Archbishop Lefebvre's work into its proper perspective. He is not a prelate motivated by nostalgia who wishes to keep everything in the Church just as it was. He is a bishop with a burning zeal for the honor and Kingship of Christ—he is perhaps the only bishop in the West willing to accept all the consequences involved in Christ's Kingship. He believes that every Catholic, from the Pope to the most humble layman, has a duty to work for the social reign of Christ the King, because both nations and individuals are obliged to submit themselves to His rule. The Archbishop will not be deflected from this purpose even if it means a temporary conflict with authority. Thus today, as did all the priests of the Society of St. Pius X, he celebrated the Mass of Christ the King. Thus today, as did all his priests, he read the Breviary Office which contained the words:
To Thee, Who by right claim rule over all men,
We willingly submit ourselves;
To be subject to Thy law means happiness
for a state and its people.
The question we must put to ourselves is this, who is more devoted to the cause of Christ the King—Archbishop Lefebvre and his priests who said this prayer, and accept its implications, or the thousands of bishops and tens of thousands of priests who did not say it, and most certainly do not accept its implications?
1. Available from The Angelus Press for $7.50 post paid, and from the Augustine Publishing Company in Great Britain. (1981 price)
2. A Bishop Speaks (Writings and Addresses of Archbishop Lefebvre, 1963-1975), available from the Angelus Press, $5.50 post paid. (1981 price)
3. Newman Against the Liberals, available from the Angelus Press, $11.00 postpaid. (1981 price)
4. Eschatology, the theological doctrine of the last things.
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| EU Declares "Nu" A "Variant Of Concern", WHO Calls Emergency Meeting |
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Posted by: Stone - 11-26-2021, 11:33 AM - Forum: Pandemic 2020 [Secular]
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EU Declares "Nu" A "Variant Of Concern", WHO Calls Emergency Meeting
ZH | NOV 26, 2021
Update (1000ET): In the latest sign that the world will be at defcon four over the "Nu" variant before dinner - or perhaps even before the US market's early Friday close at 1300ET - an EU agency has just labeled "Nu" a "variant of concern".
The decision has apparently prompted the WHO to call an emergency meeting Friday to consider whether or not to do the same. As we reported earlier, public health officials are sounding the alarm as a new strain of the coronavirus has been detected.
According to the latest reports, Hong Kong and the Netherlands have stepped up border restrictions. Hong Kong has barred non-residents from 8 different south African countries, from entering.
The new strain doesn't have an official name yet, but scientists first confirmed the apparently fast-spreading variant in South Africa. They say it is highly contagious, and shows signs that it might be able to easily overpower vaccines.
The World Health Organization is calling a meeting Friday to determine if they will declare the new strain a 'variant of concern'.
Even without the new strain, COVID cases have been on the rise for about a month, nearing an average of 100,000 per day, and experts worry it could be the start of a new wave.
The Dutch are already using "Nu" as a reason to tighten their lockdown restrictions on businesses. Starting Sunday, restaurants and other businesses will be subject to a 0500ET to 1700ET curfew. Schools will remain open, and the measures will be in place provisionally for 3 weeks, at least.
The CDC's latest forecast predicts between 4,100 and 12,000 people will be hospitalized with COVID in the US by mid-December.
Wall Street sell-side analysts are going all-in on "Nu" fearmongering: One Citi analyst note says the "accumulation of variations" in Nu suggest that "our fears have been realized". Then again, "concern over Nu" needs to be balanced with the failure of other variants to outmuscle delta as the world's most prevalent variant. However, Europe has been struggling with a resurgence of cases, while the US follows a similar path.
Although, in the US, Dr. Anthony Fauci is already telling cable news networks that the US has no plans to restrict travel from South Africa. At least, not yet.
* * *
In what is becoming a nightmare for thousands of traders (and an even larger number of public health officials, we imagine), the latest COVID variant to elicit a hysterical response - the ironically named "nu" variant" - has just been confirmed in Belgium, the first European country to confirm cases of the new strain.
Two suspected cases of the new variant have been detected and confirmed in Belgium, according to local media reports. The strain was initially found in South Africa, Hong Kong, Botswana and Israel.
It's early days, but according to some the variant has already elicited major surges in infections. Enough so that news about the variant and panic about a more chaotic outlook for interest rates and the broader global economy has sent S&P 500 futures tumbling, and the VIX surging, in premarket trading, on an otherwise quiet post-Thanksgiving Friday morning, a day where markets close at 1300ET. [...]
The Nu variant, formerly referred to as B.1.1529, was initially identified five days ago, first in Botswana, with subsequent confirmation and sequencing in South Africa where 100 cases have been confirmed. The variant has also spread to Israel and Hong Kong, according to Citi analyst Andrew Baum.
Of course, all of this comes with a pretty big asterisk: The analyst believes concern over Nu needs to be balanced against the failure of other concerning variants such as Beta to out-compete delta.
Belgium also confirmed that the "nu" cases involved a traveler who had just arrived in the country from "abroad". Already, Spain, the U, India and a handful of other nations have imposed new border restrictions, citing the new variant as the motive. Advisors in the UK have already declared the variant a serious threat (although they said the same thing about the last variant boogeyman, delta-plus).
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| An Easy Method of Mental Prayer |
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Posted by: Stone - 11-26-2021, 07:18 AM - Forum: Prayers and Devotionals
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I. What Mental Prayer Is
Prayer is, says St. Gregory Nazianzen. a conference or conversation with God , St. John Chrysostom calls it a discoursing with the Divine Majesty ; according to St. Augustine it is the raising up of the soul to God. St. Francis of Sales describes it as a conversation of the soul with God, by which we speak to God and He to us, by which we aspire to Him, and breathe in Him, and He in return inspires us and breathes on us.
All prayer then is the speaking of the soul to God. This may be done in three ways; for the prayer may be either in thought only, unexpressed in any external way, or on the other hand the secret thoughts and feelings of the soul may be clothed in words; and these words again may either be confined to a set form, or they may be words of our own, unfettered by any form and expressing the emotions of our soul at the moment. In the first case our prayer will be purely mental ; in the second, in which we employ a set form of words, it will be vocal prayer; in the third case, where the prayer is chiefly in thought, but these thoughts are allowed to break forth into words in any way that at the moment seem best to express the feelings of the soul, it is a mixture of mental and vocal prayer; but as the words are spontaneous and not in any prescribed form, it may justly be considered as mental prayer.
In an audience with the Pope, we might read a written address to His Holiness, or we might trust to the words that might occur at the moment to express what we desired to convey to his mind. But if God were to enable the Pope to read the thoughts of our mind, we might then simply stand silent in his presence, and he would see all that we wanted to express. The formal address would be vocal prayer, the silent standing before his throne would be purely mental prayer, the conversation with unprepared words would be a mixture of the two, and might be called mental prayer in a more general and extended sense. God knows our secret thoughts more clearly than we can express them, more certainly than we ourselves can know them; and words therefore are not necessary in our intercourse with Him, though often a considerable help to us.
A set form of words spoken or read cannot be called prayer at all unless the mind intends it as prayer and gives some kind spiritual attention, either to the actual sense of the words themselves or to God Himself while they are uttered. Shakespeare spoke as a theologian when, in Hamlet, he put into the mouth of the King, who asked for pardon without repentance:
My words go up, my thoughts remain below; Words without thoughts never to heaven go.
God condemned the merely material homage of the Jews by declaring, ” This people honoureth Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me.” All prayer, therefore, of whatever kind. must be ” in spirit and in truth “ [St. John iv, 23]; but vocal prayer is confined to a prescribed form of words, whereas mental prayer is the spontaneous utterance of the soul either with or without words. When St. Francis of Assisi said an Our Father, or recited his office, he used vocal prayer ; when he knelt before God without a word, his prayer was purely mental ; when he spent the whole night in saying ” My God and my all”, his mental prayer was mingled with words which expressed the burning love of his seraphic soul.
II. The Importance and Necessity of Mental Prayer
Prayer of one kind or another is absolutely and indispensably necessary for salvation – in other words, no one who has come to the use of reason, so as to be capable of prayer, can, according to God’s ordinary providence, be saved without it. This necessity is proved in the first place from the distinct, emphatic and constantly repeated command to pray, and to pray continually. For instance . “He spoke a parable to them (to show) that we ought always to pray, and not to faint” [St Luke xviii, 1] ; ” Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation ” [St Matt. xxvi, 41] : “Ask, and it shall be given you ” [St. Matt. vii , 7] : ” Be instant (that is earnest) in prayer ” [Coloss. iv, 2], and ” Pray without ceasing ” .
Besides these positive commands it is evidently necessary ; because though God really wills the salvation of all, [1 Tim. li. 4|, He will not save us without our own co-operation. He will save no one by force : for heaven is not the land of slaves. into which men are driven by compulsion ; it is the home of the free children of God, of those who love God, of those who are free with the freedom with which Christ hath made us free. Therefore God gives to all the grace to pray ; and if they use this grace and continue to pray aright, He will continue to bestow on them a chain of graces that will end in salvation. But to those who will not pray, He has promised nothing : ” The Lord is nigh unto all that call upon Him ; to all that call upon Him in truth ” [Ps. cxliv, 18]. ” Draw nigh to God, and He will draw nigh to you” [St. James iv, 8].
From this absolute and indispensable necessity of prayer in general, we can easily infer the importance and the moral necessity of the best and highest kind of prayer – namely mental prayer. If not absolutely it is certainly morally necessary in some form or another even for salvation; and there can be no manner of doubt that it is strictly necessary for any real advance of the soul in virtue and divine love. St. Alphonsus says: "He who neglects meditation (a part of mental prayer), and is distracted by the affairs of the world, will not know his spiritual wants, the dangers to which his salvation is exposed, the means he ought to take to conquer temptations ; and will forget the necessity of the prayer of petition for all men: thus he will not ask for what is necessary, and by not asking God’s grace, he will certainly lose his soul.”
In the same way St. Teresa asks: ” How can charity last, unless God gives perseverance ? How will l the Lord give us perseverance if we neglect to ask Him for it? And how shall we ask it without mental prayer ? Without mental prayer there is not the communication with God which is necessary for the preservation of virtue.” The holy Doctors agree that those who persevere in mental prayer will live in God’s grace. The following words are the deliberate sentence of the holy Doctor St. Alphonsus, the conclusion gathered from his vast learning and experience : "Many say the Rosary, the Office of Our Lady, and other acts of devotion, but they still continue in sin. But it is impossible for him who perseveres in mental prayer to continue in sin: he will either give up mental prayer or renounce sin. Mental prayer and sin cannot exist together. And this we see by experience ; they who make mental prayer rarely fall into mortal sin ; and should they have the misery of falling into sin, by persevering in mental prayer they see their misery and return to God. Let a soul, says St. Teresa, be ever so negligent ; if she persevere in mental prayer the Lord will bring her back to the haven of salvation.”
If this were merely the opinion of St. Alphonsus himself, it would be of immense weight, considering his resplendent sanctity, his vast spiritual learning, and the varied experience of his long and active life; but besides this the holy Doctor is here only summing up in one sentence the teaching and experience of all the doctors, saints, writers, preachers, and confessors of the whole Church since the beginning. What stronger argument could be used to prove the importance and necessity of mental prayer?
III. Is Mental Prayer Easy?
Anyone who has a real desire to be saved, and who believes that the opinion of St. Alphonsus and all other spiritual teachers – that mortal sin and mental prayer cannot live together, but are mutually destructive – is really true, but must feel a desire to adopt so certain a means of salvation. But many are fainthearted, and dread the little difficulty they feel in beginning a new exercise; and many more lack the courage and self-denial necessary to continue in it after the novelty has worn away, and the yoke of perseverance begins to gall. Blessed are they who courageously persevere, for their salvation is secure!
Those who find it difficult to begin, or are tempted to abandon this powerful means of salvation, must pluck up heart, and encourage themselves by remembering that mental prayer requires no learning, no special power of mind. no extraordinary grace, but only a resolute will and a desire to please God. In fact, the hard matter is to convince people how easy and simple a matter mental prayer really is, and that the difficulty is far more imaginary than real. This difficulty often rises from not having grasped the true idea of what is meant by mental prayer ; and the false idea of the exercise, once formed, is often never corrected, the consequence being that the practice is either abandoned in disgust, or persevered in with extreme repugnance and little fruit.
One common cause of misunderstanding, perhaps the most common of all, is the custom of calling the whole exercise by the name of one subordinate and not the most important part -that is meditation. From this the idea arises that it is a prolonged spiritual study, drawn out at length with many divisions and much complicated process ; and this notion frightens many good souls, and makes them fall back on vocal prayer alone. They imagine that the soul must preach a discourse to itself. and they feel no talent for preaching. Many, if they spoke their minds clearly, would say : “I cannot meditate. but if I might be allowed to pray during that time instead. I could do very well.” This is no imaginary case. as anyone who has had any experience will testify: and this miserable misunderstanding, that so often holds souls back for years. is partly brought about by defective teaching, but partly also by the name meditation being used instead of the more comprehensive one of mental prayer.
Mental prayer, properly understood, will be found to be easy and within the power of all who desire salvation. Of course there are many degrees of prayer, and to pray perfectly is no doubt a matter of great difficulty ; but to pray well, and in a way very pleasing to God and very profitable to the soul, is an easy and simple manner. If we remember how many thousands have excelled in mental prayer, though not even able to read, we shall see that this holy exercise cannot require any special power of mind or any degree of culture. St. Isidore, a farm labourer, is an example of a man utterly devoid of human learning, but rising, by God’s grace, to the sublimest prayer.
The following method of making mental prayer is drawn from the works of St. Alphonsus who may justly be called the Doctor of Prayer ; and it is so simple that no one who studies it with any attention can fail to understand it, and all who reduce it to practice will find that in great measure it takes away the difficulty they may feel in the exercise. Many who have found ” making a meditation ” to be a wearisome penance, have experienced that with this method the time is all too short: and that conversation with God is indeed the greatest joy of life ; ” Taste and see how sweet the Lord is.”
IV. Method of Mental Prayer
All methods of mental prayer are essentially the same. They are different ways of reaching the same end, the object of all being to teach the soul how she can converse lovingly with God. In the method recommended by St. Alphonsus, the whole exercise is divided into three parts – the Preparation, the Body of the Prayer, and the Conclusion.
i. Preparation
The real preparation for prayer is a good life, a spirit of recollection enabling a man to live in God’s presence, and the invaluable habit of regular spiritual reading. But this is not the place to enter into these matters, and so we must proceed to the immediate preparation, when the time of prayer has come. ” Before prayer prepare thy soul, and be not as a man that tempteth God ” [Eccles. xviii, 23]. From this admonition of the Holy Ghost, it is evident that we must not presume to throw ourselves down before God unprepared, our minds full of idle, distracting thoughts, and imagine that we can thus pray in a way pleasing to Him. How careful should we be to prepare both body and mind if admitted to a papal or a royal audience! At least then make in preparation for your conference with God, three short though fervent acts :
1. An act of faith in God’s presence, and of adoration, profound and humble, of His majesty.
2. An act of contrition for sin, sin forming the cloud thick and dark over our heads that hides the brightness of God’s face. ” Your sins have hid his face from you ” [Isaiah lix, 2].
3. A fervent petition for light to see God’s holy will , especially in some one matter either pressing upon us then or suggested by the subject we are going to consider, and for grace to do God’s will when we do see it.
Examples of these acts may help beginners, but it must be clearly understood that they are only examples and that they may be made in any form.
Quote:1. Adoration of God present in your soul: My God, I believe that Thou art present with me and within me, and I adore Thee with all the affection of any soul,”
Be watchful,” says St. Alphonsus, ” to make this act with a lively faith, for the remembrance of the presence of God is a great help to keep away distractions. Cardinal Carracciolo, Bishop of Aversa, used to say that distractions are a sign that the soul has not made a lively act of faith.”
2. Sorrow for sin, our sins preventing union with God in prayer: O Lord by my sins I deserve now to be in hell; I repent, 0 infinite Goodness, with my whole heart of having offended Thee. I am sorry for sin from the bottom of my heart; have mercy on me.
3. Ask for light: 0 Eternal Father, for the love of Jesus and Mary, give me light in this prayer, that I may profit by it.
Then add a Hail Mary, an ejaculation to St. Joseph, your Guardian Angel, and your holy patrons.
These acts should be short. In a mental prayer of half-an-hour, not more than three minutes should be devoted to them. But at the same time they should be fervent and earnest, the whole attention being given to them ; for upon the manner in which they are made will, in great measure, depend the fervour of the whole prayer.
ii. Body of the Prayer
In order to pray with fruit and without distraction, it is very useful, and in most cases necessary, to spend some time meditation or pious thought, on some definite subject; and from this fact, as before stated, the whole exercise is often called meditation. Instead of mental prayer. This often misleads people into imagining that meditation , that is, the use of the intellect in thinking on a holy subject, the main end to be aimed at, whereas in fact it is prayer, or conversation with God. Meditation furnishes us with the matter for conversation, but it is not itself prayer at all. When thinking and reflecting, the soul speaks to itself, reasons with itself; in prayer it speaks to God.
Meditation, in its wide sense, is any kind of attentive and repeated thought upon any subject and with any intention; but in the more restricted sense in which it is understood as a part of mental prayer, it is, as St. Francis of Sales puts it, "an attentive thought, voluntarily repeated or entertained in the mind, to excite the will to holy and salutary reflections and resolutions." It differs in its object from mere study: we study to improve our minds and to store up information; we meditate to move the will to pray and to embrace good. We study that we may know, we meditate that we may pray.
We must then use the mind in thus thinking of or pondering on a sacred subject for a few minutes; and in order to help the mind in this exercise, we must have some definite subject of thought, upon which it is well to read either a text of Holy Scripture, or a few lines out of some other holy book. St. Teresa tells us that she thus helped herself with a book for seventeen years. By this short reading, the mind is rendered attentive and is set on a train of thought. Further to help the mind, you can ask yourself some such questions as the following: What does this mean ? What lesson does it teach me? What have I done about this in the past? What shall I now do, and how?
Two remarks are here most important:
The first is, that care must be taken not to read too much. but to stop when any thought strikes the mind. If the reading is prolonged, if for example, in a short prayer of half-an-hour you were to read for ten minutes, the exercise would be changed into spiritual reading.
The second remark is, that you must not be distressed if you find the mind torpid, and if only one or two very simple thoughts present themselves. It is by no means necessary to have many thoughts, nor to indulge in deep and well arranged reflections. The object of mental prayer is not to preach a well-prepared and eloquent sermon to yourself, the object is to pray. If one simple thought makes you pray, why distress yourself because you have not other and more elaborate thoughts ? If you wanted to reach the top of a roof, you would not trouble yourself because your ladder was a short one, provided it was long enough to land you safely on the roof. The end is gained. If one simple reflection enables you to pray, you would, in reality, be merely distracting yourself from prayer, in order to occupy yourself with your own thoughts, if you were to go on developing a lengthy train of thought. This would be to mistake the means for the end, and it is a very common mistake, and the cause of great discouragement. This mistake will be evident if you remember that while you are following out a line of thought, for instance, when you are answering the questions suggested above you are conversing with yourself.
It is plain therefore that as your object is to converse with God, you should not remain too long in talking to yourself, and that therefore, if you feel a difficulty in doing this, you need not be distressed. ” The progress of a soul,” says the enlightened St. Teresa, ” does not consist in thinking much of God, but in loving Him ardently; and this love is gained by resolving to do a great deal for Him.”
I have said that misunderstanding this point is the most fruitful source of discouragement and one of the commonest reasons for abandoning mental prayer in disgust; and the reason is, because very few people are accustomed to prolonged or deep thought on any subject few indeed are capable of it. If therefore they imagine that prolonged if not deep thought, is necessary for mental prayer, they are in constant trouble and discouragement, which ends in their abandoning the whole exercise in despair. ” If I might only be allowed to pray,” they will sigh to themselves,” how much easier it would be! ”
Let such persons then clearly understand that many thoughts are not necessary, that their reflections need not be deep and ought not, especially in a prayer of half-an-hour to be long, lest prayer should be neglected and the exercise be changed into a study. “Meditation,” says St. Alphonsus. ” is the needle which only passes through so that it may draw after it the golden thread, which is composed of affections, petitions and resolutions.” The needle is only used in order to draw the thread after it. If then you were to meditate for an hour and think out a subject in all its details, but without constant acts and petitions, you would be working hard with an unthreaded needle.
Men’s minds differ as much as their features, and some men, especially those employed in very distracting duties, need more thought than others before they can pray; but many, especially women, will find that the effort, after prolonged reflections, will generally defeat itself, and end in distraction.
As soon, therefore, as you feel an impulse to pray, give way to it at once in the best way you can by acts and petitions, in other words, begin your conversation with God on the subject about which you have been thinking. Do not imagine, moreover, that it is necessary to wait for a great fire to burn up in your soul, but cherish the little spark that you have got. Above all, never give way to the mistaken notion that you must restrain yourself from prayer in order to go through all the thoughts suggested by your book, or because your prayer does not appear to have a close connection with the subject of your meditation. This would simply be to run from God to your own thoughts, or to those of some other man.
One useful suggestion may here be introduced. Those who are accustomed to make regular spiritual reading will often meet some idea, or passage of their author, which strikes their mind forcibly, or seems especially suited for their own practice. When this is the case, they could not do better than to take that idea, or that passage, as the subject of their next mental prayer. As they have read about it and thought about it in the time of spiritual reading, a very slight reflection will be enough to enable them to pray upon that subject with solid fruit, and to make practical resolutions concerning it.
We have spoken thus far of the needle: now we must proceed to consider the golden thread which is the matter of principal importance. and should occupy the chief part of the time devoted to prayer. The golden thread is composed of"
a) acts or affections of the will,
b) petitions and
c) resolutions: a triple cord of beauty and strength, which, when the soul uses earnestly, she can be said to have ” girded her loins with strength, and strengthened her arm.” [Prov. xxxi, 17].
a) acts or affections of the will
Acts, or affections of the will, are the movements of the soul towards God. The affections are called the feet of the soul, because by them she approaches to or recedes from God. To ”draw nigh to God ” does not mean any bodily motion, but the spiritual progression of love. When therefore in meditating on a subject you feel some holy sentiment arising in your heart, begin to make simple acts, with or without words, to God. Acts of this nature are very various, such as faith, hope, confidence, humility, thanksgiving, contrition, love. They should be simple, short, and often repeated. Think of our Lord’s prayer in the Garden, which is intended as a model to us. He prayed for three hours, and His whole prayer consisted in the constant repetition of one single act of resignation and petition. The word “ACTS ” will suggest the chief aspirations, that it is well constantly to repeat : A stands for Adoration ; C for Contrition ; T for Thanksgiving, to which is joined love; and S for Supplication, the prayer of petition.
These acts should be spontaneous, springing up from your own soul, but some examples may help beginners. If then you were to take as the subject of your prayer the death of our Lord Jesus Christ on the Cross, you would, after the preparatory acts, begin to think of the mystery. ” Who is that hanging on the Cross? “- you would say to yourself – “What is He suffering – in body, in soul? Why does He suffer? ”
Not many minutes’ thought would be necessary before you would feel moved to acts of Faith: ”O my Lord, hanging on the Cross, I believe in Thee. Thou art the Eternal God, made man for me. Thou art my Redeemer ; for my sins Thou art thus bleeding and dying on the Cross,” etc.
Humility: ”O my Jesus, I am not worthy to live. I have slain Thee, the Son of God. Who am I, dear Lord, that Thou, the everlasting God, hast thus suffered and died for me ! I am Thy creature, made by Thy Hands. I am Thy rebellious child. I deserve hell for my sins, I deserve to have been abandoned by Thee, and yet Thou hast thought of me and hast offered Thyself as a victim for me. How good Thou art, dear Lord, to be nailed to the Cross for so miserable and ungrateful a sinner ! I will not sin again,” etc.
Confidence: ”If I look at myself, dear Lord, l am filled with fear. I have sinned, O Lord, against Thee, my sins are more in number than the hairs of my head. How shall I dare ever to hope for pardon, after having so often and so basely offended Thee ! But Thy death is my hope. Thou hast made me, I am Thine, and Thou hast suffered for me, and died for me. I hope in Thee, in Thee do I put my trust, and I shall not be confounded for ever. Thou canst not reject me now that I repent, when Thou hast shed Thy Blood for me,” etc.
Thanksgiving : ”I thank Thee. 0 Lord, with all my heart for Thy great goodness in dying for me and shedding all Thy Blood for me. Blessed be Thy holy Name ! I thank Thee for not abandoning me when 1 committed that sin, for loving me in spite of all my many sins against Thee. Blessed be Jesus, who shed His precious Blood for me ! Most holy Mary, help me to thank thy Son for all He has done for me,” etc.
Contrition: ” I am heartily sorry for all my sins. I detest them all, and especially because they have displeased Thee, because they have nailed Thee to the Cross. Lord, be merciful to me, a sinner ! Father, forgive me, for I knew not what I did,” etc.
Love: ” I love Thee. my Jesus. I love Thee. but I do not love Thee as I ought ; make me love Thee more and more. I love Thee with my whole heart. I desire to see Thee loved by all. I will only what Thou willest. Thou hast died for love of me. I desire to die for love of Thee : I rejoice that Thou art eternally happy. Do with me and all that is mine according to Thy will “. “This last act of love and oblation of self,” says St. Alphonsus, “is especially pleasing to God. and St. Teresa used thus to offer herself to God at least fifty times in the day.”
Acts of love should be frequent whatever the subject of meditation may have been.
” The act of love”, continues the same Saint,” as also the act of contrition (which is sorrow founded on love) is the golden chain which binds the soul to God.” An act of perfect charity is sufficient for the remission of all our sins : “Charity covereth a multitude of sins ”
The Ven. Sister Mary of the Crucified once saw, in a vision, a globe of fire, in the flames of which straws were instantly burnt up. She was thus made to understand that when the soul makes acts of love to God, all her sins are consumed in the flames of charity and are forgiven. Besides, the Angelic Doctor, St. Thomas, teaches that by every act of love, we gain a fresh degree of glory. ” Every act of charity merits eternal life.” How many we can make in the course of the day, if we have some little fervour, especially during the time of mental prayer !
St. Francis of Sales has the following consoling and most instructive words concerning acts of sorrow founded on love, or, as he styles them, acts of loving repentance. "Because this loving repentance is ordinarily practised by elevations and raisings of the heart to God, like to those of the ancient penitent: I am Thine, save me ! Have mercy on me, 0 God, have mercy on me , for my soul trusteth in Thee.’ Save me, 0 God; for the waters are come in even unto my soul.’ Make me as one of Thy hired servants.’ 0 God be merciful lo me a sinner.
It is not without reason that some have said, that prayer justifies ; for the repentant prayer or the suppliant repentance raising up the soul to God and reuniting it to His goodness, without doubt obtains pardon, in virtue of the holy love which gives it the sacred movement. And therefore we ought all to have very many such ejaculatory prayers, made in the sense of a loving repentance and of sighs which seek our reconciliation with God ; so that by these laying our tribulation before our Saviour, we may pour out our souls before and within His pitiful heart, which will receive them to mercy” (Treatise on the Love of God Book i i , chap. XX).
As already stated, these acts or affections should spring from the heart; we must not look for fine words nor make up grand sentences ; the mere movement of the will towards God, with love, gratitude, hope, sorrow for sin, etc, is sufficient even without words. Therefore does our Lord say: ” Do not speak much when you pray “- a simple movement of the heart is better than many words proceeding merely from the lips. Nor should we hurry from one affection to another. If you feel yourself moved to make acts of love, keep on making acts of love; if you are excited to sorrow, repeat acts of sorrow for a while, till the affections grow cold ; then pass on to another. Moreover, these affections should be made slowly, allowing the soul to dwell upon each act. It is well to make slight pauses between. God often speaks to us during these pauses, and when He does, when we perceive some good thought in our mind giving us some new light, a clearer insight into ourselves or a better knowledge of God, or showing us our duty or God’s will for us, then we should listen humbly while God speaks, prepared to obey His commands.
b) petitions
Besides the acts and affections of the soul, all of which are truly prayer, since the soul, in making them, converses with God, it is extremely useful to occupy ourselves during mental prayers in making many fervent petitions to God for His spiritual graces and favour.
This prayer of petition is a matter that St. Alphonsus, in all his ascetical works, is continually urging upon every soul in language the most emphatic. Indeed, our Lord Himself has given us the first lesson as to the necessity of constant petition, not only by His command, “Ask and it shall be given unto you,” but by the fact that the Our Father, the model of all prayers, consists half of affections and half of petitions for what we need. In English, we have not any one word that expresses this kind of prayer, and we are obliged to call it prayer of petition. The French word la prière expresses it, while oraison means mental prayer with its acts, affections, and resolutions. This distinction explains many passages in the works of St. Alphonsus – for instance, where he says, ” Without prayer (that is, petitions for graces) all the meditations we make, all our resolutions. all our promises will be useless. If we do not pray (that is, if we do not make petitions for graces) we shall always be unfaithful to the inspirations of God, and to the promises we make Him. Because in order actually to do good, to conquer temptations, to practise virtues, and to observe God’s law, it is not enough to receive light from God, and to meditate and to make resolutions. but we require moreover the actual assistance of God, and He does not give this assistance except to those who pray, and pray with perseverance” (Treatise on Prayer Part I).
Here is the distinction between meditation with resolutions, or mental prayer in general, and prayer of petition, or between l’oraison and la prière.
Without this distinction. which is not at first apparent in English translations, much that is said of prayer is confusing and unintelligible. For instance, in the above extract the Saint appears to say that mental prayer without prayer is of no avail. Again in his "Rule of Life for a Christian” in that most valuable volume called "The Christian Virtues”, the second rule is about mental prayer while the sixth is concerning prayer. When we understand that prayer means prayer of petition, the difficulty vanishes. In his constant exhortations to the practice of prayer of petition, the holy Doctor is fond of quoting the experience of that learned and enlightened writer Fr Paul Segneri. S.J., who thus speaks of himself: "When I began and before I had studied theology, I used to employ my time of mental prayer in reflections and affections ; but God opened my eyes afterwards. and from that time I endeavoured to occupy myself in petitions, and if there is any good in me I consider it to be due to this habit of recommending myself to God.”
Petitions, therefore, for all you need, are a very important part of mental prayer, and are most useful to the soul. But a caution is necessary here to prevent misunderstanding. The petitions in the time of mental prayer should be spiritual petitions – that is, for spiritual objects, such as forgiveness of sin, love of God, light to see, and grace to do God’s will.
For if the petitions were for temporal favours, such as health of body for yourself or others, success in business, rain or fine weather and the like, two inconveniences would follow:
— In the first place it is always doubtful whether such things are according to the will of God or not, and they must be asked for only if they should be the Divine Will, and the whole spiritual value of the petition will then be in that act of resignation.
— Secondly, the mind be much distracted from God in order to think of the matters upon which to form petitions, and especially if the subject of the petition should be some person in whose temporal welfare you are much interested, or some worldly business that gives you anxiety, to pray for these things would probably result in distraction. The mind would begin to reflect upon the things themselves and forget God.
By this, it is not meant that these temporal matters must never be made the subject of prayer, but only that it is not generally advisable to occupy the mind with them during mental prayer, for the reasons given. The truth is that all these things are suggestions from experience ; for in the matter of mental prayer, in which ” the Spirit bloweth where He listeth,” there are very few “musts,” few things of which you can say this must be done.
With this understanding as to the subject matter of petitions, the soul cannot be better occupied during mental prayer than in making frequent and earnest petitions, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, for all the graces she feels to need.
Ask, then, for help in the time of temptation, beg grace always to persevere in prayer when tempted, but particularly remember always to pray for the three following graces, which, if you obtain, will render your salvation secure. These three all-important graces are:
* (a) The perfect forgiveness of past sin ;
* (b) The perfect love of God ;
* © The grace of a holy death.
Christ our Lord, Truth itself, has promised distinctly and emphatically, “Ask, and it shall be given you ; seek, and you shall find ; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.” [St. Matt. v i i , 7]. ” All things whatsoever you shall ask in prayer, believing, you shall receive.” [St. Matt. xxi, 22]. Ask then for these three graces, which, by their very nature, must be according to God’s will that you shall have ; ask for them with humility, confidence and perseverance, and they must be given to you. God’s promise cannot fail. Ask for the perfect forgiveness of all your sins, and, however many and grievous they may have been, forgiveness will be yours. Seek for the love of God by many earnest petitions, and you shall find it. Knock at Heaven’s gate by constant petition for a holy death, and the golden gate of that city o f love and peace will be opened to you, as your eyes close in death, and your soul departs into eternity. ” Pray,” exclaims St. Alphonsus,” pray, and never give up praying. If you pray, you will certainly be saved ; if you do not pray, you will certainly be lost.” We have so many spiritual wants, that half-an-hour’s prayer will be all too short to make our earnest petitions before the throne of mercy.
c) resolutions
In order to make mental prayer truly fruitful, you should be careful to make some definite and precise resolution, either to avoid some fault or to practise some virtue. Mere thought, it is evident, cannot make us holy. Acts and affections by themselves will not make us practise virtue. Even petitions by themselves are not enough. They obtain for us, it is true, the strength to conquer sin. and to do what is good ; but the most difficult matter remains – that is, to use this grace. and actually to do what we recognize to be God’s will.
We must, then, make a resolution to carry in practice what we see to be good. How frequently, from want of this steadfast resolution, men pray for a grace, but in their actions deny and contradict their prayers! The resolution should be often repeated, day after day, until we can easily keep faithful to it. Moreover, it should be definite, that is, not too general and vague. A determination for instance, to be better than we have hitherto been, to be humble, to love God, is of no practical advantage whatever. It means nothing, it will begin and end itself, and produce no effect on our daily life; we must therefore resolve to avoid some particular fault into which we are likely to fall that day, or to practise some one act of virtue that very day.
The resolution moreover must be of a practical nature, that is, it must be something that we can do if we please ; and above all. it must be sincere, by which is meant that we must truly intend in our hearts to carry it into practice when the opportunity occurs. It may be perfectly sincere at the time, even if we are weak enough afterwards to fail in its practice, but there is no excuse if we are insincere at the time of making it. That would surely be insulting to God, who sees the heart. We must never forget ‘he words of St. Teresa, already quoted ”The progress of a soul does not consist in thinking much of God, but in loving Him ardently, and this love is gained by resolving to do a great deal for him.” Make then one practical definite resolution that you can keep and mean to keep that very day.
iii. Conclusion of the prayer
Before rising from your knees, three short but fervent acts should be made, as the finishing stroke of your mental prayer.
1. An act of thanksgiving for the lights and graces that God has given you during your prayer. for instance: “I thank Thee, 0 my God, in the name of Jesus Christ, for all the help Thou hast given mc Blessed be Thy holy name. Glory be to the Father,” etc.
2. Renew earnestly the good resolution you have already made.
3. Ask for grace to keep it.
You can address this petition either to the Eternal Father, begging Him through the merits of Jesus and the intercession of Mary, to grant you this favour; or, you can address our Lord Himself, or you can beg the prayers of our Lady or your patrons.
Lastly, make an ejaculation for the conversion of sinners, and for the souls in purgatory.
V. Concluding Remarks
A few concluding remarks may be useful, in order to remove difficulties that often arise and discourage the souls who feel drawn to give themselves to the holy and delightful exercise of prayer.
1. “Is not mental prayer a very complicated manner? There seems so much to remember, so many things to do! “
When the method of prayer is drawn out step by step on paper this is quite true. It does look a complicated affair, and so would everything else if it were thus minutely described. Try to set down on paper all that we must remember in order to eat and drink in a polite manner, and see how formal and complicated it all seems; but do it, and it at once appears easy and natural. It is the same with mental prayer. Practise it for a short time, and all its difficulty will vanish.
2. “Are all these things to be done in the exact order prescribed?“
The preparation will always come first, with the three short fervent acts, and the conclusion will always naturally be at the end ; but in the body of the prayer no formal order is to be observed. That part should indeed always begin by a short meditation, some simple earnest thoughts, but the acts and petitions should come forth from the heart in any way that they arise. In describing them we must adopt some order that the matter may be intelligible ; but in practice they can be all intermingled in any way in which they spring from the soul. Remember the end and object of the whole exercise is to converse with God ; if you are doing this therefore you are doing well. I have said that there should always be some short meditation, because I am speaking to beginners of whom this is true ; but for those more advanced this become less necessary, and after a time might be only a distraction.
If the mind is all day long full of worldly and distracting thoughts and imaginations suggested by business, amusements, conversations, study, light reading, etc, it is evidently necessary to think of some holy subject in order to be able to pray with any fervour or recollection.
When, on the other hand, a person leads a quiet, secluded life, with few distractions, regular spiritual readings and frequent reflections on spiritual subjects, the soul is very easily moved to pray, and less meditation is necessary. After a time, with holy and contemplative souls, any train of thought would become a distraction ; they are at once, and without effort, absorbed in God. We may liken them to gunpowder ; the slightest thought of God acts like a spark and sets them at once in a blaze, whereas distracted souls are like damp wood that requires much artificial help to kindle it into a flame.
3. “How long ought mental prayer to last?"
No general rule can be laid down. The real answer is that if we only consider the matter in itself, the longer mental prayer can last the better for the soul; but taking into account the weakness of most souls, and the many occupations that cannot be neglected, half-an-hour in the day is a reasonable average time. If however half-an-hour appears too long, begin with fifteen minutes. One little quarter of an hour in each day is surely not too long to devote to the grandest of all occupations – conversation with God Himself. People who are less constantly occupied and more devout could easily spend two half hours: one in the morning, one in the evening, in this holy exercise. The appetite for this spiritual manna will increase by satisfying it. The more you allow yourself, the more you will want. This may be said in conclusion; that the longer time you spend in fervent and humble mental prayer the more rapid will be your progress in the way of virtue.
4. “When is the best time for mental prayer?"
Most certainly early in the morning. If it be faithfully performed in the early morning, this spiritual banquet is secured, but when once the duties of the day have begun, it is far more difficult to find time. Moreover, the early morning is the quietest time, and is far less liable to interruption. The brain, being then refreshed with sleep, is more able to attend to prayer. Besides all this, God seems more inclined to give His graces to those who mortify their sloth and arise early in order to praise Him; and all those who practice mental prayer will agree that the early morning is the best time to converse with God. This seems to be the lesson conveyed by the act of the manna being rained down in the desert early in the morning and melting with the first rays of the sun, ” that it might be known to all, that we ought to prevent the sun to bless Thee, and to adore Thee, at the dawning of the light.” [Wisdom xvi, 28]
5. ” I have no time for mental prayer."
It is difficult to answer this common objection with a grave face. What it means is, "I do not want to take the trouble to make mental prayer.” To say that would be at least honest. But to plead the want of time to spend 15 minutes out of the 24 hours in conversation with God is childish. What would the same persons say if they saw a way of gaining £5 or even 5 dollars employing one quarter of an hour in a particular pursuit well within their power? How quickly would time be found! Who is there that does not spend a quarter of an hour daily in useless conversation or idle reading or in doing nothing ? I should reply, make time by arising a quarter of an hour earlier. All that is required is a little more earnestness in the one all-important business of salvation.
6. "Where should mental prayer be made?"
God is everywhere, and there is no place in which we cannot find Him, but in order to speak to Him reverently and without distraction, a private place should be sought.” Thou when thou shalt pray, enter into thy chamber, and having shut the door, pray to thy Father in secret." St. Matt. vi. 6. Our Lord prescribed this secrecy to avoid ostentation and vain-glory, but another motive would be to shun distraction. But for those who have no suitable place at home, the church is always ready.
7. “What book shall I use ?”
For those who are able to think a little for themselves, a text of Holy Scripture is the best food for meditation, or a sentence from the Following of Christ1. But many need their thinking to be done for them by another, and this very thing often causes a difficulty. They come across a book which furnishes them with the thoughts and reflections of a man who probably was in a completely different state, both mental and spiritual, from their own. His thoughts most excellent and fruitful for himself, are not suited to them, to their difficulties, their temptations, their duties. The consequence is that they find these thoughts ” dry ” – that is, they do not come home to those using the book with any force or light, although so good in themselves. As a general rule the simpler a book is, the better for practical use, and each one should try to find an author, or to select some parts out of a book, suited to the needs of his own soul. If you come across one thought that strikes the mind, immediately delay upon it, as a bee on a honey flower, and strive to draw from that one thought your acts, petitions and resolutions. If the thought suggested by the book enables you thus to pray and to resolve, it has done its office ; and you need by no means distress yourself even if the acts elicited and the resolution formed do not seem to have any evident and immediate connection with the previous thought.
There is one snare, as has been said above, most carefully to be avoided – that is, to stop praying in order to refer to the book for more points of reflection; for this would be to give up intercourse with God in order to entertain new thoughts. On the other hand it is well to have some other thought in store, in case you can pray no longer, and need some fresh light from the understanding to give impetus to the will. If you persist in using some book that does not suit your needs and fall in with your spiritual state, you will run the risk of suffering from a kind of mental indigestion, from trying to assimilate thoughts of another mind not fitted to be the food of your soul. The result will very probably be that you will abandon mental prayer in disgust, saying, ”It’s no use, I cannot meditate!” This would be as unreasonable as to give up eating because one particular kind of food disagreed with you and you could not digest it. Find the food that will.
Simple thoughts on the four great truths of religion. on the Passion of Our Lord, or the mystery of the Blessed Sacrament, will suit the greater number of souls ; and half the difficulty vanishes when it is clearly understood that one simple thought is amply sufficient as long as it helps you to pray, which is the real object of the exercise. Nor is it by any means necessary always to vary the thought, for often the same reflection repeated morning after morning, will suffice to help you to pray, and if so why change it! We eat bread day after day, and if one thought nourishes the soul morning after morning why change it for another? If it begins to pall and to produce distraction, then seek for another. One holy soul found matter for prayer and union with God for months together from the two simple words ” Our Father.” If they were sufficient to form matter for prayer for years together, why change? Yet some people would have been inclined to pull St. Francis by the habit and to say – ” You have been saying “My God and my all” for an hour now : had not you better go to the second point? ”
8. ”I am distracted.”
Examine the causes of these distractions. If they arise from too great dissipation of mind during daily life, try to live more in God’s presence. If from not having prepared any definite thought to dwell upon, the remedy is to have one always prepared. If from mere weakness of mind, do not be disturbed, use no violent effort but quietly turn the mind back to God. One thing at least to utterly avoid is to abandon mental prayer because you are distracted. By this you will please no one except the devil. He does all he can to make you give up mental prayer, because he knows full well that if you persevere in it you will be saved. If by causing you troublesome distractions he can make you abandon mental prayer, he has succeeded in his object. St. Francis of Sales tells us that if in mental prayer we are able to do nothing but continually banish distractions and temptations, we shall derive great profit from the exercise and please God. What more could be desired ?
Lastly, to encourage souls to persevere in the sanctifying habit of mental prayer, it is well to remember that Benedict XIV granted an indulgence of seven years to those who make half-an-hour’s mental prayer during the day, and a plenary indulgence if it is made once a month, on the condition of confession and communion, with prayers for the Pope’s intention. Those who are members of the Holy Rosary Confraternity can also gain a hundred days’ indulgence every time they make a quarter of an hour’s mental prayer, and seven years with seven quarantines for every half-hour devoted to this holy exercise.
Some books recommended : The Love and Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ and the Way of Salvation by St. Alphonsus. Besides Our Savior and His Love for us; Providence; and The Mother of the Savior and Our Interior Life by Garrigou-Lagrange. O.P. as well as Divine Intimacy by Fr. Gabriel of St. Mary of Magdalen. O.C.D. and Philothea or Introduction to the Devout Life by Saint Francis of Sales.
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| Italy Bans Unvaccinated From Cinemas, Restaurants and Sports Events |
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Posted by: Stone - 11-26-2021, 07:08 AM - Forum: Socialism & Communism
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Italy Bans Unvaccinated From Cinemas, Restaurants and Sports Events
ZH | NOV 26, 2021
As protesters and governments alike braced for another round of unrest during the coming weekend, with most of the US preoccupied by the Thanksgiving holiday, Italy's increasingly authoritarian government has declared instead that a growing number of government workers will be subjected to vaccine mandates.
According to the new rules, unvaccinated people will not be able to enter venues such as cinemas, restaurants and sports events.
Stringent new rules further blur the line between a vaccine mandate and the status quo in Italy, potentially prompting another wave of protests, like those that swept across Rome and a handful of other European cities recently as governments intensified their restrictions on vaccinations with increasingly authoritarian policies.
According to the Italian newswire service Ansa, the Italian government, led by former ECB head "super Mario" Draghi, has decided to "tighten the screws" so to speak, on Italians who have been "unwilling" to get the vaccine.
Reuters reports that Draghi has sharply restricted access to an array of services, making vaccines mandatory for a wider group of public sector workers.
Italy acted as much of Europe is increasing restrictions to try to grapple with a new wave of the pandemic.
Under the Italian measures, which will come into force from Dec. 6, unvaccinated people will not be able to enter venues such as cinemas, restaurants and sports events, Prime Minister Mario Draghi's government said in a statement.
Never one to avoid the press (unlike another world leader we could name), Draghi delivered a statement late Wednesday, claiming the situation in Italy is "getting worse" and that his government wanted to act before it was "too late." "We want to be very prudent," Draghi insisted, in a statement to Reuters.
Quote:"We are seeing the situation in bordering countries is very serious and we also see that the situation in Italy is gradually but constantly getting worse," Draghi told reporters after the cabinet approved the new rules.
"We want to be very prudent to try to safeguard what Italians have achieved in the last year," Draghi said, stressing the need to avoid a full-blown lockdown against the coronavirus that in 2020 caused Italy's steepest post-war recession.
The government extended mandatory vaccination, already in force for healthcare workers, to all school staff, police and the military, beginning from Dec. 15.
Under the new measures, which will come into effect beginning on Dec. 6, unvaccinated people will not be able to enter venues such as cinemas, restaurants and sports events, Prime Minister Mario Draghi's government said in a statement. What's more, in addition third doses of the vaccine, so-called "boosters", currently available to those over 40 years of age will be made available to everyone over the age of 18.
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| Pope Pius XI: Ad Catholici Sacerdotii - On the Catholic Priesthood |
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Posted by: Stone - 11-25-2021, 07:31 AM - Forum: Encyclicals
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AD CATHOLICI SACERDOTII
ENCYCLICAL OF POPE PIUS XI - ON THE CATHOLIC PRIESTHOOD
TO OUR VENERABLE BRETHREN THE PATRIARCHS, PRIMATES, ARCHBISHOPS, BISHOPS, AND OTHER ORDINARIES IN PEACE AND COMMUNION WITH THE APOSTOLIC SEE.
1. By the inscrutable design of Divine Providence We were raised to this summit of the Catholic priesthood. From that moment Our thoughts were turned to all the innumerable children whom God entrusted to Us. Yet, in a special way, We have felt an affectionate and earnest solicitude towards those who have the commission to be "the salt of the earth and the light of the world," for those who have been signaled out and adorned by the priestly character. In a still more special way Our thoughts have turned towards those dearly beloved young students who are being educated in the shadow of the sanctuary and are preparing themselves for this most noble charge, the priesthood.
2. Even in the first months of Our Pontificate, before We had addressed Our solemn word to the whole Catholic world, We hastened to lay stress upon the principles and ideals which ought to guide and inspire the education of future priests. This we did by Our Apostolic Letter Officiorum omnium written on the first of August, 1922, to Our beloved son, the Cardinal Prefect of the sacred Congregation for Seminaries and Universities. And whenever Our pastoral watchfulness prompts Us to consider more in particular the good estate and the needs of the Church, Our attention is directed always, and before all things else, to priests and clergy.
3. Nor is there lacking witness to this Our special interest in the priesthood. For We have erected many new seminaries; and others We have, at great expense, provided with new and befitting buildings, or endowed more liberally with revenues or staff, that they may the more worthily attain their high aim.
4. Upon the occasion of Our Sacerdotal Jubilee, We allowed that event, so blessed in its memories, to be celebrated with some solemnity, and We even encouraged with fatherly gratification the marks of filial affection which came to Us from every part of the globe. Our reason was that We regarded this celebration not so much as a homage to Our Person, as a dutiful tribute of honor to the dignity of the priestly character.
5. Similarly, We decreed a reform of studies in ecclesiastical faculties, by the Apostolic Constitution Deus scientiarum Dominus, of the twenty-fourth of May, 1931. Our special purpose in this decree was to make even broader and higher the culture and learning of priests.
6. This matter, indeed, is of so great and universal importance that We think fitting to devote to it a special Encyclical; since it is Our desire that the faithful, who already possess the priceless gift of Faith, may appreciate the sublimity of the Catholic Priesthood and its providential mission in the world; that those, too, who do not yet possess the Faith, but with uprightness and sincerity are in search of Truth, may share this appreciation with the faithful; above all, that those who are themselves called may have still deeper understanding and esteem of their vocation. This subject is particularly opportune at the present moment, for it is the end of the year which has seen extended, beyond the Eternal City to the whole Catholic world, the Jubilee of the Redemption. This Extraordinary Jubilee, at Lourdes, came, like a sunset, to a splendid close. There, under the mantle of the Immaculate, for a fervent and uninterrupted Eucharistic Triduum, gathered together Catholic clergy of every tongue and rite. Our beloved and venerated priests, never more energetic in well-doing than during this special Holy Year, are the ministers of the Redemption of which this year was the Jubilee. Moreover, this year, as We said in the Apostolic Constitution Quod nuper, commemorated, likewise, the nineteenth centenary of the institution of the priesthood.
7. Our previous Encyclicals were directed to throwing the light of Catholic doctrine upon the gravest of the problems peculiar to modern life. Our present Encyclical finds a natural place among these others, opportunely supplementing them. The priest is, indeed, both by vocation and divine commission, the chief apostle and tireless furtherer of the Christian education of youth; in the name of God, the priest blesses Christian marriage, and defends its sanctity and indissolubility against the attacks and evasions suggested by cupidity and sensuality; the priest contributes more effectively to the solution, or at least the mitigation, of social conflicts, since he preaches Christian brotherhood, declares to all their mutual obligations of justice and charity, brings peace to hearts embittered by moral and economic hardship, and alike to rich and poor points out the only true riches to which all men both can and should aspire. Finally, the priest is the most valorous leader in that crusade of expiation and penance to which We have invited all men of good will. For there is need of reparation for the blasphemies, wickedness and crimes which dishonor humanity today, an age perhaps unparalleled in its need for the mercy and pardon of God. The enemies of the Church themselves well know the vital importance of the priesthood; for against the priesthood in particular, as We have already had to lament in the case of Our dear Mexico, they direct the point of their attacks. It is the priesthood they desire to be rid of; that they may clear the way for that destruction of the Church, which has been so often attempted yet never achieved.
8. The human race has always felt the need of a priesthood: of men, that is, who have the official charge to be mediators between God and humanity, men who should consecrate themselves entirely to this mediation, as to the very purpose of their lives, men set aside to offer to God public prayers and sacrifices in the name of human society. For human society as such is bound to offer to God public and social worship. It is bound to acknowledge in Him its Supreme Lord and first beginning, and to strive toward Him as to its last end, to give Him thanks and offer Him propitiation. In fact, priests are to be found among all peoples whose customs are known, except those compelled by violence to act against the most sacred laws of human nature. They may, indeed, be in the service of false divinities; but wherever religion is professed, wherever altars are built, there also is a priesthood surrounded by particular marks of honor and veneration.
9. Yet in the splendor of Divine Revelation the priest is seen invested with a dignity far greater still. This dignity was foreshadowed of old by the venerable and mysterious figure of Melchisedech, Priest and King, whom St. Paul recalls as prefiguring the Person and Priesthood of Christ Our Lord Himself.
10. The priest, according to the magnificent definition given by St. Paul is indeed a man Ex hominibus assumptus, "taken from amongst men," yet pro hominibus constituitur in his quae sunt ad Deum, "ordained for men in the things that appertain to God": his office is not for human things, and things that pass away, however lofty and valuable these may seem; but for things divine and enduring. These eternal things may, perhaps, through ignorance, be scorned and contemned, or even attacked with diabolical fury and malice, as sad experience has often proved, and proves even today; but they always continue to hold the first place in the aspirations, individual and social, of humanity, because the human heart feels irresistibly it is made for God and is restless till it rests in Him.
11. The Old Law, inspired by God and promulgated by Moses, set up a priesthood, which was, in this manner, of divine institution; and determined for it every detail of its duty, residence and rite. It would seem that God, in His great care for them, wished to impress upon the still primitive mind of the Jewish people one great central idea. This idea throughout the history of the chosen people, was to shed its light over all events, laws, ranks and offices: the idea of sacrifice and priesthood. These were to become, through faith in the future Messias, a source of hope, glory, power and spiritual liberation. The temple of Solomon, astonishing in richness and splendor, was still more wonderful in its rites and ordinances. Erected to the one true God as a tabernacle of the divine Majesty upon earth, it was also a sublime poem sung to that sacrifice and that priesthood, which, though type and symbol, was still so august, that the sacred figure of its High Priest moved the conqueror Alexander the Great, to bow in reverence; and God Himself visited His wrath upon the impious king Balthasar because he made revel with the sacred vessels of the temple. Yet that ancient priesthood derived its greatest majesty and glory from being a foretype of the Christian priesthood; the priesthood of the New and eternal Covenant sealed with the Blood of the Redeemer of the world, Jesus Christ, true God and true Man.
12. The Apostle of the Gentiles thus perfectly sums up what may be said of the greatness, the dignity and the duty of the Christian priesthood: Sic nos existimet homo Ut ministros Christi et dispensatores mysteriorum Dei - "Let a man so account of us as of the ministers of Christ and the dispensers of the mysteries of God." The priest is the minister of Christ, an instrument, that is to say, in the hands of the Divine Redeemer. He continues the work of the redemption in all its world-embracing universality and divine efficacy, that work that wrought so marvelous a transformation in the world. Thus the priest, as is said with good reason, is indeed "another Christ"; for, in some way, he is himself a continuation of Christ. "As the Father hath sent Me, I also send you," is spoken to the priest, and hence the priest, like Christ, continues to give "glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to men of good will."
13. For, in the first place, as the Council of Trent teaches, Jesus Christ at the Last Supper instituted the sacrifice and the priesthood of the New Covenant: "our Lord and God, although once and for all, by means of His death on the altar of the cross, He was to offer Himself to God the Father, that thereon He might accomplish eternal Redemption; yet because death was not to put an end to his priesthood, at the Last Supper, the same night in which He was betrayed in order to leave to His beloved spouse the Church, a sacrifice which should be visible (as the nature of man requires), which should represent that bloody sacrifice, once and for all to be completed on the cross, which should perpetuate His memory to the end of time, and which should apply its saving power unto the remission of sins we daily commit, showing Himself made a priest forever according to the order of Melchisedech, offered to God the Father, under the appearance of bread and wine, His Body and Blood, giving them to the apostles (whom He was then making priests of the New Covenant) to be consumed under the signs of these same things, and commanded the Apostles and their successors in the priesthood to offer them, by the words 'Do this in commemoration of Me.' "
14. And thenceforth, the Apostles, and their successors in the priesthood, began to lift to heaven that "clean oblation" foretold by Malachy, through which the name of God is great among the gentiles. And now, that same oblation in every part of the world and at every hour of the day and night, is offered and will continue to be offered without interruption till the end of time: a true sacrificial act, not merely symbolical, which has a real efficacy unto the reconciliation of sinners with the Divine Majesty.
15. "Appeased by this oblation, the Lord grants grace and the gift of repentance, and forgives iniquities and sins, however great." The reason of this is given by the same Council in these words: "For there is one and the same Victim, there is present the same Christ who once offered Himself upon the Cross, who now offers Himself by the ministry of priests, only the manner of the offering being different."
16. And thus the ineffable greatness of the human priest stands forth in all its splendor; for he has power over the very Body of Jesus Christ, and makes It present upon our altars. In the name of Christ Himself he offers It a victim infinitely pleasing to the Divine Majesty. "Wondrous things are these," justly exclaims St. John Chrysostom, "so wonderful, they surpass wonder."
17. Besides this power over the real Body of Christ, the priest has received other powers, august and sublime, over His Mystical Body of Christ, a doctrine so dear to St. Paul; this beautiful doctrine that shows us the Person of the Word-made-Flesh in union with all His brethren. For from Him to them comes a supernatural influence, so that they, with Him as Head, form a single Body of which they are the members. Now a priest is the appointed "dispenser of the mysteries of God," for the benefit of the members of the mystical Body of Christ; since he is the ordinary minister of nearly all the Sacraments, - those channels through which the grace of the Savior flows for the good of humanity. The Christian, at almost every important stage of his mortal career, finds at his side the priest with power received from God, in the act of communicating or increasing that grace which is the supernatural life of his soul.
18. Scarcely is he born before the priest baptizing him, brings him by a new birth to a more noble and precious life, a supernatural life, and makes him a son of God and of the Church of Jesus Christ. To strengthen him to fight bravely in spiritual combats, a priest invested with special dignity makes him a soldier of Christ by holy chrism. Then, as soon as he is able to recognize and value the Bread of Angels, the priest gives It to him, the living and life-giving Food come down from Heaven. If he fall, the priest raises him up again in the name of God, and reconciles him to God with the Sacrament of Penance. Again, if he is called by God to found a family and to collaborate with Him in the transmission of human life throughout the world, thus increasing the number of the faithful on earth and, thereafter, the ranks of the elect in Heaven, the priest is there to bless his espousals and unblemished love; and when, finally, arrived at the portals of eternity, the Christian feels the need of strength and courage before presenting himself at the tribunal of the Divine Judge, the priest with the holy oils anoints the failing members of the sick or dying Christian, and reconsecrates and comforts him.
19. Thus the priest accompanies the Christian throughout the pilgrimage of this life to the gates of Heaven. He accompanies the body to its resting place in the grave with rites and prayers of immortal hope. And even beyond the threshold of eternity he follows the soul to aid it with Christian suffrages, if need there be of further purification and alleviation. Thus, from the cradle to the grave the priest is ever beside the faithful, a guide, a solace, a minister of salvation and dispenser of grace and blessing.
20. But among all these powers of the priest over the Mystical Body of Christ for the benefit of the faithful, there is one of which the simple mention made above will not content Us. This is that power which, as St. John Chrysostom says: "God gave neither to Angels nor Archangels" - the power to remit sins. "Whose sins you shall forgive they are forgiven them: and whose sins you shall retain they are retained"; a tremendous power, so peculiar to God that even human pride could not make the mind conceive that it could be given to man. "Who can forgive sins but God alone?" And, when we see it exercised by a mere man there is reason to ask ourselves, not, indeed, with pharisaical scandal, but with reverent surprise at such a dignity: "Who is this that forgiveth sins also?" But it is so: the God-Man who possessed the "power on earth to forgive sins" willed to hand it on to His priests; to relieve, in His divine generosity and mercy, the need of moral purification which is rooted in the human heart.
21. What a comfort to the guilty, when, stung with remorse and repenting of his sins, he hears the word of the priest who says to him in God's name: "I absolve thee from thy sins!" These words fall, it is true, from the lips of one who, in his turn, must needs beg the same absolution from another priest. This does not debase the merciful gift; but makes it, rather, appear greater; since beyond the weak creature is seen more clearly the hand of God through whose power is wrought this wonder. As an illustrious layman has written, treating with rare competence of spiritual things: ". . . when a priest, groaning in spirit at his own unworthiness and at the loftiness of his office, places his consecrated hands upon our heads; when, humiliated at finding himself the dispenser of the Blood of the Covenant; each time amazed as he pronounces the words that give life; when a sinner has absolved a sinner; we, who rise from our knees before him, feel we have done nothing debasing. . . We have been at the feet of a man who represented Jesus Christ, . . . we have been there to receive the dignity of free men and of sons of God."
22. These august powers are conferred upon the priest in a special Sacrament designed to this end: they are not merely passing or temporary in the priest, but are stable and perpetual, united as they are with the indelible character imprinted on his soul whereby he becomes "a priest forever"; whereby he becomes like unto Him in whose eternal priesthood he has been made a sharer. Even the most lamentable downfall, which, through human frailty, is possible to a priest, can never blot out from his soul the priestly character. But along with this character and these powers, the priest through the Sacrament of Orders receives new and special grace with special helps. Thereby, if only he will loyally further, by his free and personal cooperation, the divinely powerful action of the grace itself, he will be able worthily to fulfill all the duties, however arduous, of his lofty calling. He will not be overborne, but will be able to bear the tremendous responsibilities inherent to his priestly duty; responsibilities which have made fearful even the stoutest champions of the Christian priesthood, men like St. John Chrysostom, St. Ambose, St. Gregory the Great, St. Charles and many others.
23. The Catholic priest is minister of Christ and dispenser of the mysteries of God in another way, that is, by his words. The "ministry of the word" is a right which is inalienable; it is a duty which cannot be disallowed; for it is imposed by Jesus Christ Himself: "Going, therefore, teach ye all nations . . . teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you." The Church of Christ, depository and infallible guardian of divine revelation, by means of her priests, pours out the treasures of heavenly truth; she preaches Him who is "the true Light which enlighteneth every man that cometh into this world"; she sows with divine bounty that seed which is small and worthless to the profane eyes of the world, but which is like the mustard seed of the Gospel. For it has within itself power to strike strong deep roots in souls which are sincere and thirsting for the truth, and make them like sturdy trees able to withstand the wildest storms.
24. Amidst all the aberrations of human thought, infatuated by a false emancipation from every law and curb; and amidst the awful corruptions of human malice, the Church rises up like a bright lighthouse warning by the clearness of its beam every deviation to right or left from the way of truth, and pointing out to one and all the right course that they should follow. Woe if ever this beacon should be - We do not say extinguished, for that is impossible owing to the unfailing promises on which it is founded - but if it should be hindered from shedding far and wide its beneficent light! We see already with Our own eyes whither the world has been brought by its arrogant rejection of divine revelation, and its pursuit of false philosophical and moral theories that bear the specious name of "science." That it has not fallen still lower down the slope of error and vice is due to the guidance of the light of Christian truth that always shines in the world. Now the Church exercises her "ministry of the word" through her priests of every grade of the Hierarchy, in which each has his wisely allotted place. These she sends everywhere as unwearied heralds of the good tidings which alone can save and advance true civilization and culture, or help them to rise again. The word of the priest enters the soul and brings light and power; the voice of the priest rises calmly above the storms of passion, fearlessly to proclaim the truth, and exhort to the good; that truth which elucidates and solves the gravest problems of human life; that good which no misfortune can take from us, which death but secures and renders immortal.
25. Consider the truths themselves which the priest if faithful to his ministry, must frequently inculcate. Ponder them one by one and dwell upon their inner power; for they make plain the influence of the priest, and how strong and beneficent it can be for the moral education, social concord and peaceful development of peoples. He brings home to young and old the fleeting nature of the present life; the perishableness of earthly goods; the value of spiritual goods and of the immortal soul; the severity of divine judgment; the spotless holiness of the divine gaze that reads the hearts of all; the justice of God, which "will render to every man according to his works." These and similar lessons the priest teaches; a teaching fitted indeed to moderate the feverish search for pleasure, and the uncontrolled greed for worldly goods, that debase so much of modern life, and spur on the different classes of society to fight one another like enemies, instead of helping one another like friends. In this clash of selfish interest, and unleashed hate, and dark plans of revenge, nothing could be better or more powerful to help, than loudly to proclaim the "new commandment" of Christ. That commandment enjoins a love which extends to all, knows no barriers nor national boundaries, excludes no race, excepts not even its own enemies.
26. The experience of twenty centuries fully and gloriously reveals the power for good of the word of the priest. Being the faithful echo and reecho of the "word of God," which "is living and effectual and more piercing than any two-edged sword,' it too reaches "unto the division of the soul and spirit"; it awakens heroism of every kind, in every class and place, and inspires the self forgetting deeds of the most generous hearts. All the good that Christian civilization has brought into the world is due, at least radically, to the word and works of the Catholic priesthood. Such a past might, to itself, serve as sufficient guarantee for the future; but we have a still more secure guarantee, "a more firm prophetical word" in the infallible promises of Christ.
27. The work, too, of the Missions manifests most vividly the power of expansion given by divine grace to the Church. This work is advanced and carried on principally by priests. Pioneers of faith and love, at the cost of innumerable sacrifices, they extend and widen the Kingdom of God upon earth.
28. Finally, the priest, in another way, follows the example of Christ. Of Him it is written that He "passed the whole night in the prayer of God" and "ever lives to make intercession for us"; and like Him, the priest, is public and official intercessor of humanity before God; he has the duty and commission of offering to God in the name of the Church, over and above sacrifice strictly so-called, the "sacrifice of praise," in public and official prayer; for several times each day with psalms, prayers and hymns taken in great part from the inspired books, he pays to God this dutiful tribute of adoration and thus performs his necessary office of interceding for humanity. And never did humanity, in its afflictions, stand more in need of intercession and of the divine help which it brings. Who can tell how many chastisements priestly prayer wards off from sinful mankind, how many blessings it brings down and secures?
29. If Our Lord made such magnificent and solemn promises even to private prayers, how much more powerful must be that prayer which is said ex officio in the name of the Church, the beloved Spouse of the Savior? The Christian, though in prosperity so often forgetful of God, yet in the depth of his heart keeps his confidence in prayer, feels that prayer is all powerful, and as by a holy instinct, in every distress, in every peril whether private or public, has recourse with special trust to the prayer of the priest. To it the unfortunate of every sort look for comfort; to it they have recourse, seeking divine aid in all the vicissitudes of this exile here on earth. Truly does the "priest occupy a place midway between God and human nature: from Him bringing to us absolving beneficence, offering our prayers to Him and appeasing the wrathful Lord."
30. A last tribute to the priesthood is given by the enemies of the Church. For as We have said on a previous page, they show that they fully appreciate the dignity and importance of the Catholic priesthood, by directing against it their first and fiercest blows; since they know well how close is the tie that binds the Church to her priests. The most rabid enemies of the Catholic priesthood are today the very enemies of God; a homage indeed to the priesthood, showing it the more worthy of honor and veneration.
31. Most sublime, then, Venerable Brethren, is the dignity of the priesthood. Even the falling away of the few unworthy in the priesthood, however deplorable and distressing it may be, cannot dim the splendor of so lofty a dignity. Much less can the unworthiness of a few cause the worth and merit of so many to be overlooked; and how many have been, and are, in the priesthood, preeminent in holiness, in learning, in works of zeal, nay, even in martyrdom.
32. Nor must it be forgotten that personal unworthiness does not hinder the efficacy of a priest's ministry. For the unworthiness of the minister does not make void the Sacraments he administers; since the Sacraments derive their efficacy from the Blood of Christ, independently of the sanctity of the instrument, or, as scholastic language expresses it, the Sacraments work their effect ex opere operato.
33. Nevertheless, it is quite true that so holy an office demands holiness in him who holds it. A priest should have a loftiness of spirit, a purity of heart and a sanctity of life befitting the solemnity and holiness of the office he holds. For this, as We have said, makes the priest a mediator between God and man; a mediator in the place, and by the command of Him who is "the one mediator of God and men, the man Jesus Christ." The priest must, therefore, approach as close as possible to the perfection of Him whose vicar he is, and render himself ever more and more pleasing to God, by the sanctity of his life and of his deeds; because more than the scent of incense, or the beauty of churches and altars, God loves and accepts holiness. "They who are the intermediaries between God and His people," says St. Thomas, "must bear a good conscience before God, and a good name among men." On the contrary, whosoever handles and administers holy things, while blameworthy in his life, profanes them and is guilty of sacrilege: "They who are not holy ought not to handle holy things."
34. For this reason even in the Old Testament God commanded His priests and levites: "Let them therefore be holy because I am also holy: the Lord who sanctify them." In his canticle for the dedication of the temple, Solomon the Wise made this same request to the Lord in favor of the sons of Aaron: "Let Thy priests be clothed with justice: and let Thy saints rejoice." So, Venerable Brethren, may we not ask with St. Robert Bellarmine: "If so great uprightness, holiness and lively devotion was required of priests who offered sheep and oxen, and praised God for the moral blessings; what, I ask, is required of those priests who sacrifice the Divine Lamb and give thanks for eternal blessings?" "A great dignity," exclaims St. Lawrence Justinian, "but great too is the responsibility; placed high in the eyes of men they must also be lifted up to the peak of virtue before the eye of Him who seeth all; otherwise their elevation will be not to their merit but to their damnation."
35. And surely every reason We have urged in showing the dignity of the Catholic priesthood does but reinforce its obligation of singular holiness; for as the Angelic Doctor teaches: "To fulfill the duties of Holy Orders, common goodness does not suffice; but excelling goodness is required; that they who receive Orders and are thereby higher in rank than the people, may also be higher in holiness." The Eucharistic Sacrifice in which the Immaculate Victim who taketh away the sins of the world is immolated, requires in a special way that the priest, by a holy and spotless life, should make himself as far as he can, less unworthy of God, to whom he daily offers that adorable Victim, the very Word of God incarnate for love of us. Agnoscite quod agitis, imitamini quod tractatis, "realize what you are doing, and imitate what you handle," says the Church through the Bishop to the deacons as they are about to be consecrated priests. The priest is also the almoner of God's graces of which the Sacraments are the channels; how grave a reproach would it be, for one who dispenses these most precious graces were he himself without them, or were he even to esteem them lightly and guard them with little care.
36. Moreover, the priest must teach the truths of faith; but the truths of religion are never so worthily and effectively taught as when taught by virtue; because in the common saying: "Deeds speak louder than words." The priest must preach the law of the Gospel; but for that preaching to be effective, the most obvious and, by the Grace of God, the most persuasive argument, is to see the actual practice of the law in him who preaches it. St. Gregory the Great gives the reason: "The voice which penetrates the hearts of the hearers, is the voice commended by the speaker's own life; because what his word enjoins, his example helps to bring about." This exactly is what Holy Scripture says of our Divine Savior: He "began to do and to teach." And the crowds hailed Him, not so much because "never did man speak like this man," but rather because "He hath done all things well." On the other hand, they who "say and do not," practicing not what they preach, become like the scribes and Pharisees. And Our Lord's rebuke to the other hand, they who "say and do not," practicing not what they preach, the word of God, was yet administered publicly, in the presence of the listening crowd: "The Scribes and Pharisees have sitten on the chair of Moses. All things therefore whatsoever they shall say to you observe and do: but according to their work do ye not." A preacher who does not try to ratify by his life's example the truth he preaches, only pulls down with one hand what he builds up with the other. On the contrary, God greatly blesses the labor of those heralds of the gospel who attend first to their own holiness; they see their apostolate flourishing and fruitful, and in the day of the harvest, "coming they shall come with joyfulness carrying in their sheaves."
37. It would be a grave error fraught with many dangers should the priest, carried away by false zeal, neglect his own sanctification, and become over immersed in the external works, however holy, of the priestly ministry. Thereby, he would run a double risk. In the first place he endangers his own salvation, as the great Apostle of the Gentiles feared for himself: "But I chastise my body, and bring it into subjection: lest perhaps, when I have preached to others, I myself should become a castaway." In the second place he might lose, if not divine grace, certainly that unction of the Holy Spirit which gives such a marvelous force and efficacy to the external apostolate.
38. Now to all Christians in general it has been said: "Be ye perfect as your Heavenly Father is perfect"; how much more then should the priest consider these words of the Divine Master as spoken to himself, called as he is by a special vocation to follow Christ more closely. Hence the Church publicly urges on all her clerics this most grave duty, placing it in the code of her laws: "Clerics must lead a life, both interior and exterior, more holy than the laity, and be an example to them by excelling in virtue and good works." And since the priest is an ambassador for Christ, he should so live as to be able with truth to make his own the words of the Apostle: "Be ye followers of me, as I also am of Christ"; he ought to live as another Christ who by the splendor of His virtue enlightened and still enlightens the world.
39. It is plain, then, that all Christian virtues should flourish in the soul of the priest. Yet there are some virtues which in a very particular manner attach themselves to the priest as most befitting and necessary to him. Of these the first is piety, or godliness, according to the exhortation of the Apostle to his beloved Timothy: Exerce . . .teipsum ad pietatem, "exercise thyself unto godliness." Indeed the priest's relations with God are so intimate, so delicate and so frequent, that clearly they should ever be graced by the sweet odor of piety; if "godliness is profitable to all things," it is especially profitable to a right exercise of the priestly charge. Without piety the holiest practices, the most solemn rites of the sacred ministry, will be performed mechanically and out of habit; they will be devoid of spirit, unction and life. But remark, Venerable Brethren, the piety of which We speak is not that shallow and superficial piety which attracts but does not nourish, is busy but does not sanctify. We mean that solid piety which is not dependent upon changing mood or feeling. It is based upon principles of sound doctrine; it is ruled by staunch convictions; and so it resists the assaults and the illusions of temptation. This piety should primarily be directed towards God our Father in Heaven; yet it should be extended also to the Mother of God. The priest even more than the faithful should have devotion to Our Lady, for the relation of the priest to Christ is more deeply and truly like that which Mary bears to her Divine Son.
40. It is impossible to treat of the piety of a Catholic priest without being drawn on to speak, too, of another most precious treasure of the Catholic priesthood, that is, of chastity; for from piety springs the meaning and the beauty of chastity. Clerics of the Latin Church in higher Orders are bound by a grave obligation of chastity; so grave is the obligation in them of its perfect and total observance that a transgression involves the added guilt of sacrilege.
41. Though this law does not bind, in all its amplitude, clerics of the Oriental Churches, yet among them also, ecclesiastical celibacy is revered; indeed in some cases, especially in the higher Orders of the Hierarchy, it is a necessary and obligatory requisite.
42. A certain connection between this virtue and the sacerdotal ministry can be seen even by the light of reason alone: since "God is a Spirit," it is only fitting that he who dedicates and consecrates himself to God's service should in some way "divest himself of the body." The ancient Romans perceived this fitness; one of their laws which ran Ad divos adeunto caste, "approach the gods chastely," is quoted by one of their greatest orators with the following comment: "The law orders us to present ourselves to the gods in chastity - of spirit, that is, in which are all things, or does this exclude chastity of the body, which is to be understood, since the spirit is so far superior to the body; for it should be remembered that bodily chastity cannot be preserved, unless spiritual chastity be maintained." In the Old Law, Moses in the name of God commanded Aaron and his sons to remain within the Tabernacle, and so to keep continent, during the seven days in which they were exercising their sacred functions.
43. But the Christian priesthood, being much superior to that of the Old Law, demanded a still greater purity. The law of ecclesiastical celibacy, whose first written traces pre-suppose a still earlier unwritten practice, dates back to a canon of the Council of Elvira, at the beginning of the fourth century, when persecution still raged. This law only makes obligatory what might in any case almost be termed a moral exigency that springs from the Gospel and the Apostolic preaching. For the Divine Master showed such high esteem for chastity, and exalted it as something beyond the common power; He Himself was the Son of a Virgin Mother, Florem Matris Virginis, and was brought up in the virgin family of Joseph and Mary; He showed special love for pure souls such as the two Johns - the Baptist and the Evangelist. The great Apostle Paul, faithful interpreter of the New Law and of the mind of Christ, preached the inestimable value of virginity, in view of a more fervent service of God, and gave the reason when he said: "He that is without a wife is solicitous for the things that belong to the Lord, how he may please God." All this had almost inevitable consequences: the priests of the New Law felt the heavenly attraction of this chosen virtue; they sought to be of the number of those "to whom it is given to take this word," and they spontaneously bound themselves to its observance. Soon it came about that the practice, in the Latin Church, received the sanction of ecclesiastical law. The Second Council of Carthage at the end of the fourth century declared: "What the Apostles taught, and the early Church preserved, let us too, observe."
44. In the Oriental Church, too, most illustrious Fathers bear witness to the excellence of Catholic celibacy. In this matter as in others there was harmony between the Latin and Oriental Churches where accurate discipline flourished. St. Epiphanius at the end of the fourth century tells us that celibacy applied even to the subdiaconate: "The Church does not on any account admit a man living in the wedded state and having children, even though he have only one wife, to the orders of deacon, priest, bishop or subdeacon; but only him whose wife be dead or who should abstain from the use of marriage; this is done in those places especially where the ecclesiastical canons are accurately followed." The Deacon of Edessa and Doctor of the Universal Church, well called the Harp of the Holy Spirit, St. Ephraem, the Syrian, is particularly eloquent on this matter. In one of his poems, addressed to his friend, the bishop Abraham, he says: "Thou art true to thy name, Abraham, for thou also art the father of many: but because thou hast no wife as Abraham had Sara, behold thy flock is thy spouse. Bring up its children in thy truth; may they become to thee children of the spirit and sons of the promise that makes them heirs to Eden. O sweet fruit of chastity, in which the priesthood finds its delights . . . the horn of plenty flowed over and anointed thee, a hand rested on thee and chose thee out, the Church desired thee and held thee dear." And in another place: "It is not enough for the priest and the name of the priesthood, it is not enough, I say, for him who offers up the living body, to cleanse his soul and tongue and hand and make spotless his whole body; but he must at all times be absolutely and preeminently pure, because he is established as a mediator between God and the human race. May He be praised who made His servants clean!" St. John Chrysostom affirms: "The priest must be so pure that, if he were to be lifted up and placed in the heavens themselves, he might take a place in the midst of the Angels."
45. In short the very height, or, to use St. Epiphanius' phrase, "the incredible honor and dignity" of the Christian priesthood, which We have briefly described, shows how becoming is clerical celibacy and the law which enjoins it. Priests have a duty which, in a certain way, is higher than that of the most pure spirits "who stand before the Lord." Is it not right, then, that he live an all but angelic life? A priest is one who should be totally dedicated to the things of the Lord. Is it not right, then, that he be entirely detached from the things of the world, and have his conversation in Heaven? A priest's charge is to be solicitous for the eternal salvation of souls, continuing in their regard the work of the Redeemer. Is it not, then, fitting that he keep himself free from the cares of a family, which would absorb a great part of his energies?
46. And truly an ordination ceremony, frequent though it be in the Catholic Church, never fails to touch the hearts of those present: how admirable a sight, these young ordinands, who before receiving the subdiaconate, before, that is, consecrating themselves utterly to the service and the worship of God, freely renounce the joys and the pleasures which might rightfully be theirs in another walk of life. We say "freely," for though, after ordination, they are no longer free to contract earthly marriage, nevertheless they advance to ordination itself unconstrained by any law or person, and of their own spontaneous choice!
47. Notwithstanding all this, We do not wish that what We said in commendation of clerical celibacy should be interpreted as though it were Our mind in any way to blame, or, as it were, disapprove the different discipline legitimately prevailing in the Oriental Church. What We have said has been meant solely to exalt in the Lord something We consider one of the purest glories of the Catholic priesthood; something which seems to us to correspond better to the desires of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and to His purposes in regard to priestly souls.
48. Not less than by his chastity, the Catholic priest ought to be distinguished by his detachment. Surrounded by the corruptions of a world in which everything can be bought and sold, he must pass through them utterly free of selfishness. He must holily spurn all vile greed of earthly gains, since he is in search of souls, not of money, of the glory of God, not his own. He is no mercenary working for a temporal recompense, nor yet an employee who, whilst attending conscientiously to duties of his office, at the same time is looking to his career and personal promotion; he is the "good soldier of Christ" who "entangleth not himself with secular business: that he may please Him to whom he hath engaged himself."
49. The minister of God is a father of souls; and he knows that his toils and his cares cannot adequately be repaid with wealth and honors of earth. He is not indeed forbidden to receive fitting sustenance, according to the teaching of the Apostle: "They that serve the altar may partake with the altar . . . so also the Lord ordained that they who preach the Gospel should live by the Gospel." But once "called to the inheritance of the Lord," as his very title "cleric" declares, a priest must expect no other recompense than that promised by Christ to His Apostles: "Your reward is very great in Heaven." Woe to the priest who, forgetful of these divine promises should become "greedy of filthy lucre." Woe if he join the herd of the worldly over whom the Church like the Apostle grieves: "All seek the things that are their own: not the things that are Jesus Christ's." Such a priest, besides failing in his vocation, would earn the contempt even of his own people. They would perceive in him the deplorable contradiction between his conduct and the doctrine so clearly expounded by Christ, which the priest is bound to teach: "Lay not up to yourselves treasures on earth: where the rust and moth consume and where thieves break through and steal. But lay up to yourselves treasures in Heaven." Judas, an Apostle of Christ, "one of the twelve," as the Evangelists sadly observe, was led down to the abyss of iniquity precisely through the spirit of greed for earthly things. Remembering him, it is easy to grasp how this same spirit could have brought such harm upon the Church throughout the centuries: greed, called by the Holy Spirit the "root of all evil," can incite to any crime; and a priest who is poisoned by this vice, even though he stop short of crime, will nevertheless, consciously or unconsciously, make common cause with the enemies of God and of the Church, and cooperate in their evil designs.
50. On the other hand, by sincere disinterestedness the priest can hope to win the hearts of all. For detachment from earthly goods, if inspired by lively faith, is always accompanied by tender compassion towards the unfortunate of every kind. Thus the priest becomes a veritable father of the poor. Mindful of the touching words of his Savior, "As long as you did it to one of these My least brethren, you did it to Me," he sees in them, and, with particular affection, venerates and loves Jesus Christ Himself.
51. Thus the Catholic priest is freed from the bonds of a family and of self-interest, - the chief bonds which could bind him too closely to earth. Thus freed, his heart will more readily take flame from that heavenly fire that burns in the Heart of Jesus; that fire that seeks only to inflame apostolic hearts and through them "cast fire on all the earth." This is the fire of zeal. Like the zeal of Jesus described in Holy Scripture, the zeal of the priest for the glory of God and the salvation of souls sought to consume him. It should make him forget himself and all earthly things. It should powerfully urge him to dedicate himself utterly to his sublime work, and to search out means ever more effective for an apostolate ever wider and ever better.
52. The Good Shepherd said: "And other sheep I have that are not of this fold; them also I must bring;" and again, "See the countries for they are white already to the harvest." How can a priest meditate upon these words and not feel his heart enkindled with yearning to lead souls to the Heart of the Good Shepherd? How can he fail to offer himself to the Lord of the harvest for unremitting toil? Our Lord saw the multitudes "Iying like sheep that have no shepherd." Such multitudes are to be seen today not only in the far distant lands of the missions, but also, alas! in countries which have been Christian for centuries. How can a priest see such multitudes and not feel deeply within himself an echo of that divine pity which so often moved the Heart of the Son of God? - a priest, we say, who is conscious of possessing the words of life and of having in his hands the God-given means of regeneration and salvation?
53. But thanks be to God, it is just this flame of apostolic zeal which is one of the brightest jewels in the crown of the Catholic priesthood. Our heart fills with fatherly consolation at the sight of Our Brothers and Our beloved Sons, Bishops and Priests, who like chosen troops ever prompt to the call of their chief hasten to all outposts of this vast field. There they engage in the peaceful but bitter warfare of truth against error, of light against darkness, of the Kingdom of God against the kingdom of Satan.
54. But, by its very nature as an active and courageous company, the Catholic priesthood must have the spirit of discipline, or, to use a more deeply Christian word, obedience. It is obedience which binds together all ranks into the harmony of the Church's Hierarchy.
55. The Bishop, in his admonition to the ordinands, says: "With certain wonderful variety Holy Church is clothed, made comely and is ruled; since in her some are consecrated Pontiffs, and other priests of lesser degree, and from many members of differing dignity there is formed one Body of Christ." This obedience priests promised to the Bishop after Ordination, the holy oil still fresh on their hands. On the day of his consecration the Bishop, in his turn, swore obedience to the supreme visible Head of the Church, the successor of St. Peter, the Vicar of Jesus Christ. Let then obedience bind ever closer together these various members of the Hierarchy, one with another, and all with the Head; and thus make the Church Militant a foe truly terrible to the enemies of God, ut castrorum aciem ordinatam, "as an army set in array." Let obedience temper excessive zeal on the one hand, and put the spur to weakness and slackness on the other. Let it assign to each his place and station. These each should accept without resistance; for otherwise the magnificent work of the Church in the world would be sadly hindered. Let each one see in the arrangement of his hierarchical Superiors the arrangements of the only true Head, whom all obey: Jesus Christ, Our Lord, who became for us "obedient unto death, even to the death of the cross . "
56. The divine High Priest wished us to have abundant witness to His own most perfect obedience to the Eternal Father; for this reason both the Prophecies and the Gospels often testify to the entire submission of the Son of God to the will of the Father. "When He cometh into the world He saith; sacrifice and oblation Thou wouldst not: but a body Thou has fitted to Me. . .Then said I: Behold I come. In the head of the book it is written of Me that I should do Thy will, O God. . ." "My meat is to do the will of Him that sent Me." On His very cross He consecrated obedience. He did not wish to commit His soul into the hands of His Father before having declared that all was fulfilled in Him that the Sacred Scriptures had foretold; He had accomplished the entire charge entrusted to Him by the Father, even to the last deeply mysterious "I thirst," which He pronounced "that the Scripture might be fulfilled." By these words He wished to show that zeal even the most ardent ought always to be completely subjected to the will of the Father; that our zeal should always be controlled by obedience to those who for us, have the place of the Father, and convey to us His will, in other words our lawful Superiors in the Hierarchy.
57. But the portrait of the Catholic priest which we intend to exhibit to the world would be unfinished were We to omit another most important feature,--learning. This the Church requires of him; for the Catholic priest is set up as a "Master in Israel"; he has received from Jesus Christ the office and commission of teaching truth: "Teach . . . all nations." He must teach the truth that heals and saves; and because of this teaching, like the Apostle of the Gentiles, he has a duty towards "the learned and the unlearned." But how can he teach unless he himself possess knowledge? "The lips of the priest shall keep knowledge, and they shall seek the law at his mouth," said the Holy Spirit in the Prophecy of Malachy. Who could ever utter a word in praise of sacerdotal learning more weighty than that which divine Wisdom itself once spoke by the mouth of Osee: "Because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will reject thee that thou shalt not do the office of priesthood to Me." The priest should have full grasp of the Catholic teaching on faith and morals; he should know how to present it to others; and he should be able to give the reasons for the dogmas, laws and observances of the Church of which he is minister. Profane sciences have indeed made much progress; but in religious questions there is much ignorance still darkening the mind of our contemporaries. This ignorance the priest must dispel. Never was more pointed than today the warning of Tertullian, "Hoc unum gestit interdum (veritas), ne ignorata damnetur," "This alone truth sometime craves, that it be not condemned unheard." It is the priest's task to clear away from men's minds the mass of prejudices and misunderstandings which hostile adversaries have piled up; the modern mind is eager for the truth, and the priest should be able to point it out with serene frankness; there are souls still hesitating, distressed by doubts, and the priest should inspire courage and trust, and guide them with calm security to the safe port of faith, faith accepted by both head and heart; error makes its onslaughts, arrogant and persistent, and the priest should know how to meet them with a defense vigorous and active, yet solid and unruffled.
58. Therefore, Venerable Brethren, it is necessary that the priest, even among the absorbing tasks of his charge, and ever with a view to it, should continue his theological studies with unremitting zeal. The knowledge acquired at the seminary is indeed a sufficient foundation with which to begin; but it must be grasped more thoroughly, and perfected by an ever-increasing knowledge and understanding of the sacred sciences. Herein is the source of effective preaching and of influence over the souls of others. Yet even more is required. The dignity of the office he holds and the maintenance of a becoming respect and esteem among the people, which helps so much in his pastoral work, demand more than purely ecclesiastical learning. The priest must be graced by no less knowledge and culture than is usual among well-bred and well-educated people of his day. This is to say that he must be healthily modern, as is the Church, which is at home in all times and all places, and adapts itself to all; which blesses and furthers all healthy initiative and has no fear of the progress, even the most daring progress, of science; if only it be true science.
59. Indeed, in all ages the Catholic clergy has distinguished itself in every field of human knowledge; in fact, in certain centuries it so took the lead in the field of learning that the word "cleric" became synonymous with "learned." The Church preserved and saved the treasures of ancient culture, which without her and her monasteries would have been almost entirely lost; and her most illustrious Doctors show that all human knowledge can help to throw light upon and to defend the Catholic faith. An illustrious example of this We Ourselves have recently called to the world's attention. For We crowned with the halo of sanctity and the glorious title of Doctor of the Church that great teacher of the incomparable Aquinas: Albert of Cologne, whom his contemporaries had already honored with the titles of Great and of Universal Doctor.
60. Today it could hardly be hoped that the clergy could hold a similar primacy in every branch of knowledge; the range of human science has become so vast that no man can comprehend it all, much less become distinguished in each of its numberless branches. Nevertheless wise encouragement and help should be given to those members of the clergy, who, by taste and special gifts, feel a call to devote themselves to study and research, in this or that branch of science, in this or that art; they do not thereby deny their clerical profession; for all this, undertaken within just limits and under the guidance of the Church, redounds to the good estate of the Church and to the glory of her divine Head, Jesus Christ. And among the rest of the clergy, none should remain content with a standard of learning and culture which sufficed, perhaps, in other times; they must try to attain - or, rather, they must actually attain - a higher standard of general education and of learning. It must be broader and more complete; and it must correspond to the generally higher level and wider scope of modern education as compared with the past.
61. Sometimes, it is true, and even in modern times, Our Lord makes the world, as it were, His plaything; for He has been pleased to elect to the priestly state men almost devoid of that learning of which We have been speaking; and through them He has worked wonders. But He did this that all might learn, if there be a choice, to prize holiness more than learning; not to place more trust in human than in divine means. He did this because the world has need, from time to time, to hear repeated that wholesome, practical lesson: "The foolish things of the world hath God chosen to confound the wise . . . that no flesh should glory in His sight."
62. In the natural order, divine miracles suspend for a moment the effect of physical laws, but do not revoke them. So, too, the case of these Saints, real living miracles in whom high sanctity made up for all the rest, does not make the lesson We have been teaching any the less true or any the less necessary.
63. It is clear, then, that virtue and learning are required, that there is need of example and of edification, need for the priest to spread on all sides, and to all who draw near him "the good odor of Christ." This need is today more keenly felt, and has become more evident and urgent. This is because of Catholic Action, that movement so consoling, which has within it the power to spur on to the very highest ideals of perfection. Through Catholic Action the relations of the laity with priests are becoming more frequent and more intimate. And in this collaboration, the laity quite naturally look upon the priest not merely as a guide, but as a model also of Christian life and of apostolic virtue.
64. The state of the priesthood is thus most sublime, and the gifts it calls for very lofty. Hence, Venerable Brethren, the inescapable necessity of giving candidates for the sanctuary a training correspondingly superior.
65. Conscious of this necessity, the Church down the ages has shown for nothing a more tender solicitude and motherly care than for the training of her priests. She is not unaware that, as the religious and moral conditions of peoples depend in great measure upon their priests, so too, the future of the priest depends on the training he has received. The words of the Holy Spirit apply no less truly to him than to others: "A young man according to his way, even when he is old, he will not depart from it." Hence, the Church, moved by the Holy Spirit, has willed that everywhere seminaries should be erected, where candidates for the priesthood may be trained and educated with singular care.
66. The seminary is and should be the apple of your eye, Venerable Brethren, who share with Us the heavy weight of the government of the Church; it is, and should be, the chief object of your solicitude. Careful above all should be the choice of superiors and professors; and, in a most special manner, of the spiritual father, who has so delicate and so important a part in the nurture of the priestly spirit. Give the best of your clergy to your seminaries; do not fear to take them from other positions. These positions may seem of greater moment, but in reality their importance is not to be compared with that of the seminaries, which is capital and indispensable. Seek also from elsewhere, wherever you can find them, men really fitted for this noble task. Let them be such as teach priestly virtues, rather by example than by words, men who are capable of imparting, together with learning, a solid, manly and apostolic spirit. Make piety, purity, discipline and study flourish in the seminary. With prudent foresight, arm and fortify the immature minds of students both against the temptations of the present, and against the far more serious perils of the future. For they will be exposed to all the temptations of the world, in the midst of which they must live, "that they save all."
67. Now it is of great importance, as We have said, that priests should have a learning adequate to the requirements of the age. For the attainment of this, in addition to a solid classical education, there is required both instruction and training in scholastic philosophy "according to the method, and the mind and the principles of St. Thomas Aquinas" - ad Angelicl Doctoris rationem, doctrinam et principia. This Our Illustrious Predecessor, Leo XIII, has called the philosophia perennis. It is essential to the future priest. It will help him to a thorough understanding of dogma. It will effectively forearm him against modern errors of whatever sort. It will sharpen his mind to distinguish truth from falsehood. It will form him to habits of intellectual clearness, so necessary in any studies or problems of the future. It will give him a great superiority over others, whose mere erudition, perhaps, is wider but who lack philosophical training.
68. There are some regions, where the dioceses are small, or students unhappily few, or where there is a shortage of means and suitable men. Hence it is impossible for every diocese to have its own seminary, equipped according to all the regulations of Canon Law and other prescriptions of the Church. Where this happens, it is most proper that the Bishops of the district should help one another in brotherly charity, should concentrate and unite their forces in a common seminary, fully worthy of its high purpose. The great advantages of such concentration amply repay the sacrifices entailed in obtaining it. It is indeed a sacrifice, grievous to the fatherly heart of a Bishop, to see his clerics, even for a time, taken away from their shepherd, who wishes himself to give his future co-workers his own apostolic spirit; and to see them taken away from the diocese which is to be the field of their ministry. But these sacrifices will all be repaid with interest when these clerics return as priests. They will be better formed, and more richly endowed with spiritual wealth, which they will spend with greater generosity and with greater profit to their diocese. Therefore, We have never let pass an opportunity to favor, and encourage and foster such efforts. Often, in fact, We have suggested and recommended them. On Our part, also, wherever We thought it necessary, We have Ourselves, as is well known, erected or improved or enlarged several such regional seminaries, not without heavy expense and trouble; and We will continue in the future, by the help of God, to apply Ourselves with all zeal to this work; for We hold it to be the most conducive to the good of the Church.
69. This achievement in the erection and management of Seminaries for the education of future priests deserves all praise. But it would be of little avail, were there any lack of care in the selecting and approving of candidates. In this selection and approval, all who are in charge of the clergy should have some part: superiors, spiritual directors and confessors, each in the manner and within the limits proper to his office. They must indeed foster and strengthen vocations with sedulous care; but with no less zeal they must discourage unsuitable candidates, and in good time send them away from a path not meant for them. Such are all youths who show a lack of necessary fitness, and who are, therefore, unlikely to persevere in the priestly ministry both worthily and becomingly. In these matters hesitation and delay is a serious mistake and may do serious harm. It is far better to dismiss an unfit student in the early stages; but if, for any reason, such dismissal has been delayed, the mistake should be corrected as soon as it is known. There should be no human consideration or false mercy. Such false mercy would be a real cruelty, not only towards the Church, to whom would be given an unfitted or unworthy minister, but also towards the youth himself; for, thus embarked upon a false course, he would find himself exposed to the risk of becoming a stumbling block to himself and to others with peril of eternal ruin.
70. The Head of the seminary lovingly follows the youths entrusted to his care and studies the inclinations of each. His watchful and experienced eye will perceive, without difficulty, whether one or other have, or have not, a true priestly vocation. This, as you well know, Venerable Brethren, is not established so much by some inner feeling or devout attraction, which may sometimes be absent or hardly perceptible; but rather by a right intention in the aspirant together with a combination of physical, intellectual and moral qualities which make him fitted for such a state of life. He must look to the priesthood solely from the noble motive of consecrating himself to the service of God and the salvation of souls; he must likewise have, or at least strive earnestly to acquire, solid piety, perfect purity of life and sufficient knowledge such as We have explained on a previous page. Thus he shows that he is called by God to the priestly state. Whoever, on the other hand, urged on, perhaps, by ill-advised parents, looks to this state as a means to temporal and earthly gains which he imagines and desires in the priesthood, as happened more often in the past; whoever is intractable, unruly or undisciplined, has small taste for piety, is not industrious, and shows little zeal for souls; whoever has a special tendency to sensuality, and after long trial has not proved he can conquer it; whoever has no aptitude for study and who will be unable to follow the prescribed courses with due satisfaction; all such cases show that they are not intended for the priesthood. By letting them go on almost to the threshold of the sanctuary, superiors only make it ever more difficult for them to draw back; and, perhaps, even cause them to accept ordination through human respect, without vocation and without the priestly spirit.
71. Let Superiors of seminaries, together with the spiritual directors and confessors, reflect how weighty a responsibility they assume before God, before the Church, and before the youths themselves, if they do not take all means at their disposal to avoid a false step . We declare too, that confessors and spiritual directors could also be responsible for such a grave error; and not indeed because they can take any outward action, since that is severely forbidden them by their most delicate office itself, and often also by the inviolable sacramental seal; but because they can have a great influence on the souls of the individual students, and with paternal firmness they should guide each according to his spiritual needs. Should the superiors, for whatever reason, not take steps or show themselves weak, then especially should confessors and spiritual directors admonish the unsuited and unworthy, without any regard to human consideration, of their obligation to retire while yet there is time; in this they should keep to the most secure opinion, which in this case is the one most in favor of the penitent, for it saves him from a step which could be for him eternally fatal. If somethimes they should not see so clearly that an obligation is to be imposed, let them, at least, use all the authority which springs from their office and the paternal affection they have for their spiritual sons, and so induce those who have not the necessary fitness to retire of their own free will. Let confessors remember the words of St. Alphonsus Liguori on a similar matter: "In general . . . in such cases the more severity the confessor uses with his penitents, the more will he help them towards their salvation; and on the contrary, the more cruel will he be the more he is benign." St. Thomas of Villanova called such over-kind confessors: Impie pios - "wickedly kind"; "such charity is contrary to charity."
72. The chief responsibility, however, rests with the Bishop, who according to the severe law of the Church "should not confer holy orders on anyone, unless from positive signs he is morally certain of canonical fitness; otherwise he not only sins grievously, but also places himself in danger of sharing in the sins of others." This canon is a clear echo of the warning of the Apostle to Timothy: "Impose not hands lightly on any man, neither be partaker of other men's sins." "To impose hands lightly," Our Predecessor St. Leo the Great expounds, "is to confer the sacerdotal dignity on persons not sufficiently approved: before maturity in age, before merit of obedience, before a time of testing, before trail of knowledge; and to be a partaker of other men's sins is for the ordainer to become as unworthy as the unworthy man whom he ordains"; for as St. John Chrysostom says, "You who have conferred the dignity upon him must take the responsibility of both his past and his future sins."
73. These are severe words, Venerable Brethren, yet still more dreadful is the responsibility which they declare, a responsibility which justified the great Bishop of Milan, St. Charles Borromeo in saying: "In this matter, my slightest neglect can involve me in very great sin." Listen to the warning of Chrysostom whom We have just quoted: "Impose not hands after the first trial nor after the second, nor yet the third; but only after frequent and careful observation and searching examination"; a warning which applies in an especial way to the question of the uprightness of life in candidates to the priesthood: "It is not enough," says the holy Bishop and Doctor St. Alphonsus de Liguori, "that the Bishop know nothing evil of the ordinand, but he must have positive evidence of his uprightness." Hence, do not fear to seem harsh if, in virtue of your rights and fulfilling your duty, you require such positive proofs of worthiness before ordination; or if you defer an ordination in case of doubt; because, as St. Gregory the Great eloquently teaches: place the weight of the building upon them at once. Delay many days, until they are dried and made fit for the purpose; because if this precaution be omitted, very soon they will break under the weight"; or, to use the short but clear expression of the Angelic Doctor: "Holiness must come before holy orders . . . hence the burden of orders should be placed only on walls seasoned with sanctity, freed of the damp of sins."
74. In short, let all canonic prescriptions be carefully obeyed, and let everyone put into practice the wise rules on this subject, which We caused to be promulgated a few years ago by the Sacred Congregation of the Sacraments. Thus will the Church be saved much grief, and the faithful much scandal.
75. We have also had similar regulations sent to Religious; and while We urge upon all concerned their faithful observance, We now recall them to the attention of all heads of religious institutes, who have youths destined for the priesthood. They should consider as addressed also to them what We have recommended above concerning the formation of the clergy; since it is they who present their students for ordination, and the Bishop usually relies upon their judgment.
76. Bishops and religious superiors should not be deterred from this needful severity by fear of diminishing the number of priests for the diocese or institute. The Angelic Doctor St. Thomas long ago proposed this difficulty, and answers it with his usual lucidity and wisdom: "God never abandons His Church; and so the number of priests will be always sufficient for the needs of the faithful, provided the worthy are advanced and the unworthy sent away." The same Doctor and Saint, basing himself upon the severe words quoted by the fourth Ecumenical Council of the Lateran, observes to Our purpose: "Should it ever become impossible to maintain the present number, it is better to have a few good priests than a multitude of bad ones." It was in this sense that We Ourselves, on the solemn occasion of the international pilgrimage of seminarists during the year of Our priestly jubilee, addressing an imposing group of Italian Archbishops and Bishops, reaffirmed that one well trained priest is worth more than many trained badly or scarcely at all. For such would be not merely unreliable but a likely source of sorrow to the Church. What a terrifying account, Venerable Brethren, We shall have to give to the Prince of Shepherds, to the Supreme Bishop of souls, if we have handed over these souls to incompetent guides and incapable leaders.
77. Yet although it remains unquestionably true that mere numbers should not be the chief concern of those engaged in the education of the clergy, yet at the same time, all should do their utmost to increase the ranks of strong and zealous workers in the vineyard of the Lord; the more so, as the moral needs of society are growing greater instead of less. Of all the means to this noble end, the easiest and the most effective is prayer. This is, moreover, a means within the power of everyone. It should be assiduously used by all, as it was enjoined by Jesus Christ Himself: "The harvest, indeed, is great but the laborers are few. Pray ye, therefore, the Lord of the harvest, that He send forth laborers into His harvest." What prayer could be more acceptable to the Sacred Heart of our Savior? What prayer is more likely to be answered as promptly and bounteously as this, which meets so nearly the burning desire of that Divine Heart?" "Ask therefore, and it will be given unto you"; ask for good and holy priests and Our Lord will not refuse to send them to His Church, as ever He has done throughout the centuries. It has been, in fact, precisely in times which seemed least propitious, that the number of priestly vocations increased. This is clear from Catholic hagiography of the nineteenth century a century rich in splendid names on the rolls both of secular and regular clergy. One has only to think of those three splendid saints whom We Ourselves had the consolation of canonizing - St. John Mary Vianney, St. Joseph Benedict Cottolengo and St. John Bosco, men of truly lofty holiness, each in his special way.
78. Now God Himself liberally sows in the generous hearts of many young men this precious seed of vocation; but human means of cultivating this seed must not be neglected. There are innumerable ways and countless holy means suggested by the Holy Spirit; and all such salutary works which strive to preserve, promote and help priestly vocations, We praise and bless with all Our heart. "No matter how we seek," says the lovable Saint of charity, Vincent de Paul, "we shall always discover ourselves unable to contribute to anything more great than to the making of good priests." In truth nothing is more acceptable to God, of more honor to the church, and more profitable to souls than the precious gift of a holy priest. If he who offers even a cup of water to one of the least of the disciples of Christ "shall not lose his reward," what reward will he receive who places, so to speak, into the pure hands of a young priest the sacred chalice, in which is contained the Blood of Redemption; who helps him to lift it up to heaven, a pledge of peace and of blessing for mankind?
79. And here Our thoughts turn gladly to that Catholic Action, so much desired and promoted and defended by Us. For by Catholic Action the laity share in the hierarchical apostolate of the Church, and hence it cannot neglect this vital problem of priestly vocations. Comfort has filled Our heart to see the associates of Catholic Action everywhere distinguishing themselves in all fields of Christian activity, but especially in this. Certainly the richest reward of such activity is that really wonderful number of priestly and religious vocations which continue to flourish in their organizations for the young. This shows that these organizations are both a fruitful ground of virtue, and also a well-guarded and well cultivated nursery, where the most beautiful and delicate flowers may develop without danger. May all members of Catholic Action feel the honor which thus falls on their association. Let them be persuaded that, in no better way than by this work for an increase in the ranks of the secular and regular clergy, can the Catholic laity really participate in the high dignity of the "kingly priesthood" which the Prince of the Apostles attributes to the whole body of the redeemed.
80. But the first and most natural place where the flowers of the sanctuary should almost spontaneously grow and bloom, remains always the truly and deeply Christian family. Most of the saintly bishops and priests whose "praise the Church declares," owe the beginning of their vocation and their holiness to example and teaching of a father strong in faith and manly virtues, of a pure and devoted mother, and of a family in which the love of God and neighbor, joined with simplicity of life, has reigned supreme. To this ordinary rule of divine Providence exceptions are rare and only serve to prove the rule.
81. In an ideal home the parents, like Tobias and Sara, beg of God a numerous posterity "in which Thy name may be blessed forever," and receive it as a gift from heaven and a precious trust; they strive to instill into their children from their early years a holy fear of God, and true Christian piety; they foster a tender devotion to Jesus, the Blessed Sacrament and the Immaculate Virgin; they teach respect and veneration for holy places and persons. In such a home the children see in their parents a model of an upright, industrious and pious life; they see their parents holily loving each other in Our Lord, see them approach the Holy Sacraments frequently and not only obey the laws of the Church concerning abstinence and fasting, but also observe the spirit of voluntary Christian mortification; they see them pray at home, gathering around them all the family, that common prayer may rise more acceptably to heaven; they find them compassionate towards the distress of others and see them divide with the poor the much or the little they possess.
82. In such a home it is scarcely possible that, while all seek to copy their parents, example, none of the sons should listen to and accept the invitation of the Divine Master: "Come ye after Me, and I will make you to be fishers of men." Blessed are those Christian parents who are able to accept without fear the vocations of their sons, and see in them a signal honor for their family and a mark of the special love and providence of Our Lord. Still more blessed, if, as was often the case in ages of greater faith, they make such divine visitations the object of their earnest prayer.
83. Yet it must be confessed with sadness that only too often parents seem to be unable to resign themselves to the priestly or religious vocations of their children. Such parents have no scruple in opposing the divine call with objections of all kinds; they even have recourse to means which can imperil not only the vocation to a more perfect state, but also the very conscience and the eternal salvation of those souls they ought to hold so dear. This happens all too often in the case even of parents who glory in being sincerely Christian and Catholic, especially in the higher and more cultured classes. This is a deplorable abuse, like that unfortunately prevalent in centuries past, of forcing children into the ecclesiastical career without the fitness of a vocation. It hardly does honor to those higher classes of society, which are on the whole so scantily represented in the ranks of the clergy. The lack of vocations in families of the middle and upper classes may be partly explained by the dissipations of modern life, the seductions, which especially in the larger cities, prematurely awaken the passions of youth; the schools in many places which scarcely conduce to the development of vocations. Nevertheless, it must be admitted that such a scarcity reveals a deplorable falling off of faith in the families themselves. Did they indeed look at things in the light of faith, what greater dignity could Christian parents desire for their sons, what ministry more noble, than that which, as We have said, is worthy of the veneration of men and angels? A long and sad experience has shown that a vocation betrayed - the word is not to be thought too strong - is a source of tears not only for the sons but also for the ill-advised parents; and God grant that such tears be not so long delayed as to become eternal tears.
84. And now, finally, to you, dear Children. Priests of the Most High, both secular and regular, the world over, We address Our words. You are "Our glory and joy," you, who with such generosity bear the "burden of the day and the heats," you, who so powerfully help Us and Our Brethren of the Episcopate in fulfilling the duty of feeding the flock of Christ. To you We send Our Paternal thanks and Our warmest encouragement. We know and fully appreciate your admirable zeal; and to it, in the needs of the present, We make this heartfelt appeal. These needs are becoming daily graver. All the more must your redeeming work grow and intensify; for "you are the salt of the earth, and the light of the world."
85. If, however, your work is to be blessed by God and produce abundant fruit, it must be rooted in holiness of life. Sanctity, as We said above, is the chief and most important endowment of the Catholic priest. Without it other gifts will not go far; with it, even supposing other gifts be meager, the priest can work marvels. We have the example of St. Joseph of Cupertino, and in times nearer to our own of that humble Cure d'Ars, St. John Mary Vianney, of whom We have already spoken; whom We have willed to set up before all parish priests as their model and heavenly Patron. Therefore with the Apostle of the Gentiles, We say to you: "Behold your vocation"; and beholding it, you cannot fail to value ever more highly the grace given to you in ordination and to strive to "walk worthily of the vocation in which you are called."
86. In this striving you will be most wonderfully helped by a practice commended by Our Predecessor of holy memory Pius X. This commendation is contained in that "Exhortation to the Catholic Clergy," which he wrote with such unction and affection. This We warmly recommend you to read. In it, among all the means to preserve and increase the grace of the priesthood, he placed first the use of the Spiritual Exercises. This means We Ourselves have also frequently recommended; and particularly in Our Encyclical Letter Mens Nostra, We have paternally and solemnly urged it upon all Our sons, but more especially upon Our Priests. As the year of Our priestly Jubilee drew to a close, We could find no better and more salutary reminder of that happy anniversary, than to give to Our sons an invitation, through the above-mentioned letter, to draw more copiously from the waters of life springing up into life everlasting, this inexhaustible fountain providentially opened by God to His Church. Again now, to you, Our Dear Brethren, who are all the closer to us because you work more directly with Us to establish the kingdom of Christ upon earth, We believe We cannot give better proof of Our Fatherly affection than by exhorting you most fervently to make use of this means of sanctification, to the best of your abilities. Take for your guide those principles and norms laid down by Us in the above-mentioned Encyclical. It is not enough to withdraw to the sacred seclusion of the Spiritual Exercises only at the intervals and in the exact measure prescribed by ecclesiastical law but you should enter into retreat more often and for longer periods, as far as possible to you, and you should consecrate, in addition, a day of each month to more fervent prayer and greater recollection, according to the practice of priests of great zeal.
87. In such retreats and recollection even one who may have entered in sortem Domini, not by the straight way of a true vocation, but for earthly or less noble motives, will be able to "stir up the grace of God." For he, too, is now indissolubly bound to God and the Church, and so nothing remains for him but to follow the advice of St. Bernard: "If sanctity of life did not precede, let it at least follow . . . for the future make good your ways and ambitions and make holy your ministry." The grace of God, and specifically that grace proper to the sacrament of Holy Orders, will not fail to lend aid, if he sincerely wishes to correct whatever was originally amiss in his purpose or conduct. However it may have come about that he undertook the obligations of the priesthood, the abiding grace of this divine sacrament will not be wanting in power to enable him to fulfill them.
88. Each and all of you, then, from the recollection and prayer of a retreat will come out fortified against the snares of the world, quickened by lively zeal for the salvation of souls, and enkindled with the love of God, as befits priests in times like the present. For together with so much corruption and diabolical malice, there is everywhere felt a powerful religious and spiritual awakening, a breath of the Holy Spirit, sent forth over the world to sanctify it, and to renew with its creative force the face of the earth. Filled with the Holy Ghost you will communicate this love of God like a holy fire to all who approach you, becoming in a true sense bearers of Christ in a disordered society, which can hope for salvation from Jesus Christ alone, since He, and He alone, is ever "the true Savior of the world."
89. Before concluding, we turn Our thoughts and Our words, with very special tenderness to you who are still in your studies for the priesthood; and urge you from the depth of Our heart to prepare yourselves with all seriousness for the great task to which God calls you. You are the hope of the Church and of the people, who look for so much, or rather everything, to you. For to you they look for that living and life-giving knowledge of God and of Jesus Christ, in which is eternal life. In piety, purity, humility, obedience, discipline and study strive then to make yourselves priests after the Heart of God. We assure you that in the task of fitting yourselves for the priesthood by solid virtue and learning, no care, no diligence, no energy can be too great; because upon it so largely depend all your future apostolic labors. See to it that on the day of your ordination to the priesthood, the Church find you in fact such as she wishes you to be, that is "replenished with heavenly wisdom, irreproachable in life and established in the ways of grace," so that "the sweet odor of your life may be a delight to the Church of Christ, that both by word and good example you may build the house, that is, the family of God."
90. Only thus can you continue the glorious traditions of the Catholic priesthood and hasten that most auspicious hour when it will be given to all humanity to enjoy the fruits of the peace of Christ in the kingdom of Christ.
91. And before concluding Our letter, to you, Venerable Brethren in the Episcopate, and through you to all Our beloved sons of both clergy, We are happy to add a solemn proof of Our gratitude for the holy cooperation by which, under your guidance and example, this Holy Year of Redemption has been made so fruitful to souls. We wish to perpetuate the memory and the glory of that Priesthood, of which Ours and yours, Venerable Brethren, and that of all priests of Christ, is but a participation and continuation. We have thought it opportune, after consulting the Sacred Congregation of Rites, to prepare a special votive Mass, for Thursdays, according to liturgical rules: De summo et aeterno Iesu Christi Sacerdotio, to honor "Jesus Christ, Supreme and Eternal Priest." It is Our pleasure and consolation to publish this Mass together with this, Our Encyclical Letter.
92. There only remains for Us, Venerable Brethren, to impart to all the Apostolic and paternal Benediction, which all expect and desire from their common Father. May it be a blessing of thanksgiving for all the benefits poured out by Divine Providence in these extraordinary Holy Years of the Redemption; may it be a blessing of good augury for the new year which is about to begin.
Given at Rome, at St. Peter's, the twentieth day of December, 1935, in the fifty-sixth anniversary of Our priesthood, the fourteenth of Our Pontificate.
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| Ten Aids to Mental Prayer by Dom Jean-Baptiste Chautard (1858-1935) |
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Posted by: Stone - 11-25-2021, 07:27 AM - Forum: Prayers and Devotionals
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Ten Aids to Mental Prayer
Abbot of the French Cistercian Monastery of Sept-Fons
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This text is an appendix of the book “The Soul of the Apostolate”, which was a favorite book of Pope Saint Pius X. The good Pope said he left this spiritual masterpiece by his night stand, so he could read it in his bed.
Mental prayer is the furnace in which we go to renew the custody of the heart. By our fidelity to our mental prayer all the other exercises of piety will be rekindled. The soul will gradually acquire vigilance and the spirit of prayer, that is, the habit of having recourse to God more and more frequently.
Union with God in mental prayer will produce an intimate union with Him, even amongst the most absorbing occupations.
The soul, living thus in union with our Lord, by its vigilance, will attract more and more the gifts of the Holy Ghost and the infused virtues, and perhaps God will call it to a higher degree of mental prayer.
That excellent volume, “The Ways of Mental Prayer” by Dom Vital Lehodey (Lecoffre, Paris), gives an exact account of what is required for the ascension of the soul by the different degrees of mental prayer, and gives rules for discerning, whether higher mental prayer is truly a gift of God or the result of illusion.
Before discussing affective mental prayer (the first degree of the higher classes to which God as a rule calls only the souls that have reached the state of vigilance by meditation), Fr. Rigoleuc, S.J., gives in his fine book (Œuvres Spirituelles, Avignon, 1843, page 1 ff.) ten ways of discoursing with God – when after a serious effort, one finds it a moral impossibility to meditate on a subject prepared the night before.
I sum up the pious author:
1st Way – Take a spiritual book (New Testament or “Imitation of Christ”) – read a few lines at intervals – meditate a little on what has been read, try to fix the sense and impress it on your mind. Draw from it some holy thought, love, penance etc., resolve to practice this virtue when opportunity offers.
Avoid reading or meditating too much. Stop at each pause as long as the mind find agreeable and useful converse.
2nd Way – Take some text of Scripture or some vocal prayer – Pater, Ave, Credo, for instance – repeat it, stopping after each word, drawing from it various sentiments of piety on which you dwell as long as it pleases you.
At the end, ask God for some grace or virtue, according to the subject meditated upon.
You are not to stop on any word if it wearies or tires you, but if you find nothing more to think on, pass on quietly to another. When you are touched by some good thought, dwell on it as long as it lasts without troubling to go any further. Nor is it necessary to make fresh acts always, it is sometimes enough to keep in God’s presence, reflecting in silence on the words already meditated or in enjoying the feelings they have already produced in your heart.
3rd Way – When the prepared subject matter does not give you enough scope, or room for free action, make acts of faith, adoration, thanksgiving, hope, love, and so on, letting them range as wide and free as you please, pausing at each one to let it sink in.
4th Way – When meditation is impossible, and you are too helpless and dried-up to produce a single affection, tell Our Lord that it is your intention to make an act, for example, of contrition, every time you draw breath, or pass a bead of the rosary between your fingers, or say, vocally, some short prayer.
Renew this assurance of your intention from time to time, and then if God suggests some other good thought, receive it with humility, and dwell upon it.
5th Way – In time of trial or dryness, if you are completely barren and powerless to make any acts or to have any thoughts, abandon yourself generously to suffering, without anxiety, and without making any effort to avoid it, making no other acts except this self-abandonment into the hands of God to suffer this trial and all it may please Him to send.
Or else you may unite your prayer with Our Lord’s Agony in the garden of desolation upon the cross. See yourself attached to the Cross with the Saviour and stir yourself up to follow His example, and remain there suffering without flinching, until death.
6th Way – A survey of your own conscience. – Admit your defects, passions, weaknesses, infirmities, helplessness, misery, nothingness. – Adore God’s judgments with regard to the state in which you find yourself. – Submit to His holy will. – Bless Him both for His punishments and for the favors of His mercy. – Humble yourself before His sovereign Majesty. – Sincerely confess your sins and infidelities to Him and ask Him to forgive you. – Take back all your false judgments and errors. – Detest all the wrong you have done, and resolve to correct yourself in the future.
This kind of prayer is very free and unhampered, and admits of all kinds of affections. It can be practiced at all times, especially in some unexpected trial, to submit to the punishments of God’s justice, or as a means of regaining recollection after a lot of activity and distracting affairs.
7th Way – Conjure up a vivid picture of the Last Things. Visualize yourself in agony, between time and eternity – between your past life and the judgment of God. – What would you wish to have done? How would you want to have lived? – Think of the pain you will feel then. – Call to mind your sins, your negligence, your abuse of grace. – How would you like to have acted in this or that situation? – Make up your mind to adopt a real, practical means of remedying those defects which give you reason for anxiety.
Visualize yourself dead, buried, rotting, forgotten by all. See yourself before the Judgment-seat of Christ: in purgatory—in hell.
The more vivid the picture, the better will be your meditation.
We all need this mystical death, to get the flesh off of our soul, and to rise again, that is, to get free from corruption and sin. We need to get through this purgatory, in order to arrive at the enjoyment of God in this life.
8th Way — Apply your mind to Jesus in the Most Blessed Sacrament. Address yourself to Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament. With all the respect that His Real Presence demands, unite yourself to Him and to all His operations in the Eucharist, where He is ceaselessly adoring, praising, and loving His Father, in the name of all men, and in the condition of a victim.
Realize His recollection, His hidden life, His utter privation of everything, obedience, humility, and so on. – Stir yourself up to imitate this, and resolve to do so according as the occasions arise.
Offer up Jesus to the Father, as the only Victim worthy of Him, and by whom we offer homage to Him. Thank Him for His gifts, satisfy His justice, and oblige His mercy to help us.
Offer yourself to sacrifice your being, your life, your work. Offer up to Him some act of virtue you propose to perform, some mortification upon which you have resolved, with a view to self-conquest, and offer this for the same ends for which Our Lord immolates Himself in the Holy Sacraments. – Make this offering with an ardent desire to add as much as possible to the glory He gives to His Father in this august mystery.
End with a spiritual Communion.
This is an excellent form of prayer, especially for your visit to the Blessed Sacrament. Get to know it well, because our happiness in this life depends on our union with Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament.
9th Way — This prayer is to be made in the name of Jesus Christ. It will arouse our confidence in God, and help us to enter into the spirit and the sentiments of Our Lord.
Its foundation is the fact that we are united to the Son of God, and are His brothers, members of His Mystical Body; that He has made over to us all His merits, and left us the legacy of all the rewards owed Him by His Father for His labors and death. And this is what makes us capable of honoring God with a worship worthy of Him, and gives us the right to treat with God, and, as it were, to exact His graces of Him as though by justice. – As creatures, we have not this right, still less as sinners, for there is an infinite disproportion between God and creatures, and infinite opposition between God and sinners. But because we are united to the Incarnate Word, and are His brothers, and His members, we are enabled to appear before God with confidence, and speak familiarly with Him and oblige Him to give us a favorable hearing, to grant our requests, and to grant us His graces, because of the alliance and union between us and His Son.
Hence, we are to appear before God either to adore, to praise, or to love Him, by Jesus Christ working in us as the Head in His members, lifting us up, by His spirit, to an entirely divine state, or else to ask some favor in virtue of the merits of His Son. And for that purpose we should remind Him of all that His well beloved Son has done for Him, His life and death, and His sufferings, the reward for which belongs to us because of the deed of gift by which He has made it over to us.
And this is the spirit in which we should recite the Divine Office.
10th Way – Simple attention to the presence of God, and meditation.
Before starting out to meditate on the prepared topic, put yourself in the presence of God without making any other distinct thought, or stirring up in yourself any other sentiment except the respect and love for God which His presence inspires. – Be content to remain thus before God, in silence, in simple repose of the spirit as long as it satisfies you. After that, go on with your meditation in the usual way.
It is a good thing to begin all your prayer in this way, and worth while to return to it after every point. – Relax in this simple awareness of God’s presence. – It is a way to gain real interior recollection. – You will develop the habit of centering your mind upon God and thus gradually pave the way for contemplation. – But do not remain this way out of pure laziness or just to avoid the trouble of making a meditation.
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