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| An Open Letter to Bishop Fellay by The Catholic Trumpet |
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Posted by: Stone - 01-05-2025, 09:15 AM - Forum: The Catholic Trumpet
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An Open Letter to Bishop Fellay by The Catholic Trumpet
![[Image: rs=w:1280]](https://img1.wsimg.com/isteam/ip/df55e1a9-c854-4d0b-a2a9-94177954436c/IMG_3860.png/:/cr=t:0%25,l:0%25,w:100%25,h:100%25/rs=w:1280)
The Catholic Trumpet [adapted] | January 4, 2025
Your Excellency,
In the spirit of charity and truth, and for the salvation of souls, we address this letter with profound humility yet great urgency. The crisis in the Church and the world demands clarity and courage from those entrusted with the defense of the Faith.
We write this letter to plead with Your Excellency to act decisively: to publicly and formally condemn the doctrinal and moral errors that have emerged under your leadership, particularly the 2012 Doctrinal Declaration and the SSPX’s silence—or tacit approval—on moral issues such as the COVID vaccines tied to abortion.
This is not written to accuse but to implore: to urge Your Excellency to stand firmly with Tradition and Archbishop Lefebvre’s mission, even at the cost of temporal backlash. The salvation of souls, including your own, depends on fidelity to Christ and His unchanging truths.
The Errors of the 2012 Doctrinal Declaration
The 2012 Doctrinal Declaration is not merely a misstep or misunderstanding; it codifies errors that strike at the very heart of the SSPX’s mission. Two key paragraphs reveal its devastating implications:
1. Paragraph III, 4: Vatican II “Enlightens and Deepens” Doctrine
The Declaration states:
“The entire tradition of Catholic Faith must be the criterion and guide in understanding the teaching of the Second Vatican Council, which, in turn, enlightens—in other words, deepens and subsequently makes explicit—certain aspects of the life and doctrine of the Church implicitly present within itself or not yet conceptually formulated.”
This paragraph is utterly indefensible. To suggest that Vatican II “enlightens” or “deepens” Catholic doctrine is to grant the Council a level of authority and legitimacy that Archbishop Lefebvre categorically rejected. Lefebvre stated:
“Vatican II is not an authentic Council; it is a revolution within the Church, introducing errors and heresies that contradict Tradition.”
Even more troubling, the footnote to this paragraph cites Lumen Gentium, no. 21, which contains the flawed teaching on the episcopacy—a hallmark of the collegiality Archbishop Lefebvre condemned. This alignment with Vatican II is an implicit endorsement of its errors, contradicting the SSPX’s founding principles.
2. Paragraph III, 5: Acceptance of Religious Liberty and Ecumenism
The Declaration further states:
“The affirmations of the Second Vatican Council and of the later Pontifical Magisterium relating to the relationship between the Church and the non-Catholic Christian confessions, as well as the social duty of religion and the right to religious liberty, whose formulation is with difficulty reconcilable with prior doctrinal affirmations from the Magisterium, must be understood in the light of the whole, uninterrupted Tradition, in a manner coherent with the truths previously taught by the Magisterium of the Church, without accepting any interpretation of these affirmations whatsoever that would expose Catholic doctrine to opposition or rupture with Tradition and with this Magisterium.”
This paragraph is a textbook example of the “hermeneutic of continuity”, a sophistic approach advanced by Benedict XVI to mask the irreconcilable contradictions between Vatican II and prior magisterial teaching.
By framing religious liberty and ecumenism as reconcilable with Tradition, the Declaration endorses doctrines explicitly condemned by the preconciliar Church:
• Religious Liberty (Dignitatis Humanae) contradicts the Kingship of Christ, which Pope Pius XI reaffirmed in Quas Primas: “It would be a grave error to believe that all religions have the same rights as the one true Church of Christ.”
• Ecumenism (Unitatis Redintegratio) denies the Church’s unique claim to truth and salvation, violating Pope Pius XI’s Mortalium Animos: “The union of Christians can only be achieved by the return of dissidents to the one true Church.”
By adopting this language, the Declaration relativizes Catholic teaching, reducing immutable truths to matters of “interpretation.” As Fr. Méramo warned:
“Mixing truth and error can only result in new error. This relativism destroys the principle of non-contradiction and jettisons objective truth.”
The SSPX’s Silence on the COVID Vaccine Scandal
Your Excellency, the SSPX’s failure to condemn COVID vaccines tied to abortion has caused grave scandal. Some priests even suggested their use was permissible—a position that violates Catholic moral teaching.
Pope Pius XII taught that cooperation with intrinsic evil is never permissible, even when remote, especially when it involves the destruction of innocent life. Archbishop Lefebvre echoed this:
Quote:“We must reject even the appearance of consent to evil, for such consent endangers our souls and the souls of others.”
Your Excellency, silence or ambiguity on this issue is a grave failure to protect the faithful. We implore you to address this scandal publicly.
A Call for Public Condemnation
We respectfully but urgently ask Your Excellency to:
1. Publicly condemn the 2012 Doctrinal Declaration as a grave error and betrayal of Tradition.
2. Reaffirm the SSPX’s rejection of Vatican II and the New Mass as incompatible with the Catholic Faith.
3. Issue a formal condemnation of the COVID vaccines and clearly prohibit their use.
Such actions would restore clarity to the SSPX’s mission and renew the trust of the faithful.
Eternal Consequences
Your Excellency, Our Lord has warned: “To whom much is given, much will be required” (Luke 12:48).
Failure to act has eternal consequences. The responsibility of shepherding souls comes with immense accountability. Every soul misled by these errors will cry out for justice before God. Archbishop Lefebvre reminded us: “We are not of this world, and our treasure is in Heaven.”
Encouragement and Hope
We assure you that if you take these courageous steps, you will not stand alone. Faithful Catholics worldwide will support you, and more importantly, Our Lord and Our Lady will sustain you.
Let us resist apostasy with all our strength, knowing that the triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary is certain.
In Christ the King and Mary, Queen of Heaven and Earth,
- The Catholic Trumpet
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| The War on Farming |
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Posted by: Stone - 01-05-2025, 09:00 AM - Forum: General Commentary
- Replies (1)
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![[Image: modern-farm.jpg]](https://www.newenglishreview.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/modern-farm.jpg)
The Modern Farm (James McCracken, 1930s)
Farmers across the West are going through financial hell, especially small farmers, many of whom are leaving the profession that was once a noble vocation carried out by hard-working families.
I used to work as an agricultural correspondent and editor of a farming magazine some 20 years ago and things were bad back then throughout the West. But now the cow dung has really hit the fan, especially aggressively in the UK and EU.
The war on farming in the past was less obvious, but it goes back a long time to late-1950s/early ’60s, when new expensive machinery led to bigger intense farming and less farm employees, amongst other socioeconomic factors.
Currently, with AI technologies, some farms are already hosting robotic ‘workers’ toiling away on the land, from dusk to dawn. These tend to the livestock’s needs, but there are also plans to have them watch over crops, while other agri-robots hoe weeds and spray pests. Experts claim that self-guiding machines will soon revolutionize farming and perhaps redraw some of our landscapes. And there is the danger that future generations of large farming animals will become unfamiliar with human contact and aggressive/territorial when approached by a person.
Even in the field of entertainment, negative views on farming were often portrayed in drama. This subtle push to get rid of farms was active in TV soap operas (more like psy-operas), and not just through taxation and Green red-tape, anti-farming initiatives.
In 1965, a dark paradigm shift in world social history prefacing the Sexual Revolution and attack on the Nuclear Family exploded, when TVs went mainstream in every home throughout the West, although many American homes had TVs some years prior to the 1960s. This powerful machine can be used as a Trojan Horse devise, as it is one of the most effective mind-controlling tools of propaganda to influence mainly weak-willed, Normie couch potatoes, especially those lacking in spiritual/social/political discernment.
The year after 1965, when Vatican 2 closed to the sound of singing nuns and trendy priests, the opening of the Church of Satan in San Francisco occurred. Its founder, Anton LaVey, referred to a TV as a “Satanic altar in a room.”
It was also the year an American TV sitcom called Green Acres broadcast its first episode. This hilarious comedy was about a wealthy New York City attorney, fulfilling his dream to become a farmer, with his pretty, high-maintenance wife, uprooted against her will from her Manhattan luxury apartment to a run-down farm in a place called Hooterville. The childless couple’s domestic pet in their farm house was a pig called Arnold, an animal that they treated like a fellow human.
During the same year (coincidence?), across the Atlantic Ocean, another well-made TV drama began, coinciding with the broadcast of Green Acres. Called The Riordans, this well-produced drama was about a farming family in Ireland, screened by the State broadcaster, RTE.
In its early episodes, it was the first soap opera to film exterior scenes, in gritty black and white under dark grey clouds, punctuated by interior studio ones of the bland ‘kitchen sink’ variety.
Both dramas, when viewed by a semiotic/psychological perspective, seem to subliminally ridicule rural life and family wholesome traditions, especially farming. But to a regular ‘Joe’ or ‘Karen,’ they look innocuous and quite entertaining.
In Green Acres, the townsfolk fellow farmers, store owners, and other workers were physically unattractive bumpkins. Similarly, The Riordans, depicted a rural village of plain-looking, curtain-twitching yokels, who were dull, gossipy, and mostly Catholics.
In one scene, broadcasted around suppertime, the young goofy protagonist, Benji, had his arm up a cow’s rectum (part of an artificial insemination process). In another scene, Benji’s parents, looking more like his grandparents, are having tea in the kitchen when the ceiling caves in on them.
The name Benji subsequently became slang for something smelly, as in, “there’s a smell of Benji off you.” One can imagine young boys viewing such scenes as something to be avoided when pondering on their future careers; or young women thinking, “I don’t want to marry a farmer. All that drudgery, muck, and hard labour.”
These women in Western countries during the 1970s would also have viewed The Mary Tyler Moore Show: A sexy sitcom on the joys of a young woman being carefree, beautiful, single, and working as a journalist.
When Moore died in 2017, Newsweek wrote: “It would be an understatement to say The Mary Tyler Moore Show was an important moment in the women’s rights movement in the 1970s.” But the MTM show was a lot tamer than what followed some 25 years later in the hit TV series, Sex and the City: The story of four single young attractive women with top-class professions.
Some of these women are depicted more sexually overt compared to the MTM character. In such a decadent “exciting world,” who needs motherhood and family? Yes, the family-destroying Feminist project was in full flight in tandem with the MTM show and, later, SATC, influencing tens of millions of young Feminists who craved “Girl power” and “freedom.”
Aside from the the television programmes, fast-forward to recent times: In 2023, Irish farmers were pressured to cull up to 200,000 cows to meet climate goals. Most farmers did not go along with this, as dairy farmers, whose herds allegedly produce much of Ireland’s emissions, said large-scale culling was not the answer.
In England, the main political parties were recently up in arms regarding a row about farming finances. During the last Budget, Labour’s Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rachel Reeves, was slammed for “destroying the family farm” by imposing inheritance tax on agricultural land.
According to Daily Mail, TV presenter Kirstie Allsopp accused Chancellor Rachel Reeves of leaving all farmers “f****d,” following her inheritance tax raid during an explosive broadside online.
Reeves dropped a £40bn tax bomb, and was accused of destroying the traditional family farm. The result is that, for all farms worth more than £1 million (this includes expensive equipment), the ‘death tax’ will apply with a 50% relief at an effective rate of 20% from April 2026. The UK Spectator reported some constituents warned they would “have to now consider selling up.” A popular TV star called Jeremy Clarkson, who owns a 1,000-acre farm in Oxfordshire, posted on X that farmers had been “shafted” by Labour’s inheritance tax hike.
Eva Vlaardingerbroek is a Dutch common-sense politician and farmers’ activist. She said there is a global war on farming going on under the guise of ‘saving’ our ‘greatest global good’: The planet. In a recently published policy paper called Powering Up Britain, ‘The Net Zero Growth Plan,’ the UK government announced that it has a plan to tackle cows’ seemingly deadly burps and farts.
Speaking on BBC Radio 5 Live recently, a potato farmer called Mark said he was left fearing for his livelihood. He told host Nicky Campbell: “It was a sleepless night last night. I started farming 27 years ago … and I have no idea where to go now.
“I’m a third-generation farmer. My next-door neighbour calls us a window-box farmer; we’re just under 500 acres … I’ve worked out I will have £2 million to pay. I have no idea what I’ve got to do other than it will be sold and I will be the last generation which will farm it, which will be a sad state of affairs.”
As for America, farm debt is at an all-time high and thousands of farmers have given up farming. In 2019, Time magazine wrote: “Suicides in farm communities are happening with alarming frequency. Farmers aren’t the only workers in the American economy being displaced by technology, but when they lose their jobs, they are also ejected from their homes and the land that’s been in their family for generations.”
Despite the doom and gloom, we should never lose hope. As we begin our journey at the dawn of 2025, things might get better, as there are many signs of a regime change. History shows us that these (circa) 50-year paradigm shifts come in cycles. Ultimately, God is in charge.
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| Spanish bishops condemn mockery of Sacred Heart of Jesus on Spanish public television |
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Posted by: Stone - 01-05-2025, 07:12 AM - Forum: General Commentary
- No Replies
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Spanish bishops condemn mockery of Sacred Heart of Jesus on Spanish public television
![[Image: sacredheartofjesus010225.jpg?w=670&h=447]](https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/storage/image/sacredheartofjesus010225.jpg?w=670&h=447)
The Sacred Heart of Jesus. | Credit: Unidentified painter, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
ACI Prensa Staff [adapted] | Jan 3, 2025
Spain’s bishops are speaking out after the host of a new year’s countdown on Spanish public television showed during the broadcast a picture with the face of the mascot of a well-known program in place of the face of Jesus on a traditional image of the Sacred Heart.
Laura Yustres Vélez, known as “Lalachús,” is a Spanish actress and comedian who appears on the program “La Revuelta” (“The Revolt”), a nighttime comedy show on Spanish public television characterized by its irreverent humor and asking the show’s guests about their sex life and financial worth.
Yustres starred on the New Year’s Eve episode along with David Broncano, host of “La Revuelta,” in a segment from the Puerta del Sol, a large plaza in Madrid, as its famous clock chimed the last few moments of 2024.
At one point during the broadcast, Lalachús showed an image in which the face of a bull that is a character on “El Gran Prix,” a well-known family entertainment show in Spain, was superimposed over where the face of Jesus would be in an image of the Sacred Heart.
The image includes a halo behind the character’s head, a Sacred Heart on the chest on which the left hand rests, and the right hand is raised with three fingers extended and two folded, symbolizing the Trinity.
“I always carry my little image of the Vaquilla [‘the cute bull’] of the ‘Gran Prix’ with me,” said Yustres, showing it to the viewers as one of her amulets for the new year.
Spanish bishops react
The president of the Spanish Bishops’ Conference, Archbishop Luis Argüello, said he was saddened by the controversial image. “With the excuse of freedom of expression and the excesses of the festivities, TVE [Spanish public television] makes fun of the symbol of the heart so dear to all Catholics,” he said.
“The saddest thing is that those responsible are not aware of what they’re doing. Once again banality surrounds us,” he added.
The archbishop of Seville, José Ángel Saiz Meneses, also criticized the mockery and asked: “How long will they take advantage of our patience?”
The archbishop of Oviedo, Jesús Sanz Montes, emphasized that “if she tried to do [the same thing] with [an image of] Mohammed, it wouldn’t be funny at all.”
The bishop of Vitoria, Juan Carlos Elizalde, pointed out that “Catholics are not second-class citizens, and even less so in a country where the vast majority of citizens are baptized or are children of Catholics.”
Fernando Prado, the bishop of Bilbao, invited people to protest the incident by choosing other television options next year.
Christian Lawyers Foundation files complaint
The Spanish Christian Lawyers Foundation filed a complaint against the president of Spanish Radio Television, José Pablo López, and Yustres for an alleged hate crime under Article 510 of the Spanish Penal Code and another complaint in violation of religious sentiments under the code’s Article 525.
In addition, the complaint points out that López posted on his social media the image of Yustres holding the altered holy card, together with other images from the program, stating he is “happy to work with people who take risks.”
For the lawyers, “this message on social media shows that the mockery of Christians had, at the very least, his approval or was even orchestrated by him.”
The organization also charged “that attacks on Christians are being used to create controversy and thus increase viewership, something that already happened with the opening gala of the Olympic Games” and that “the use of the image of the Sacred Heart of Jesus as the [bull] on the ‘Gran Prix’ denotes clear contempt and mockery toward the rites and symbols of Catholicism and constitutes an affront, an insult, and an outrage toward religious sentiments and Catholic beliefs.”
Eliminating crimes against religious sentiments
Last July, the Spanish government announced it would address the issue of eliminating the crime against religious sentiments from the penal code, which has been criticized by different entities and personalities, including the president of the Spanish Bishops’ Conference.
The announcement became official last September when the measure was included in the so-called Action Plan for Democracy.
Argüello noted on X that “feelings have been elevated to a category in the law, for example, to be able to change one’s sex; more and more expressions are considered hate crimes. In this environment of paying tribute to emotions in the law, religious sentiments cease to be a protected good in the law.”
The government’s intention has also been opposed by Christian denominations other than the Catholic Church as well as by the Jewish and Muslim communities.
In a recent joint statement they stressed that “as citizens and believers, we also claim the right of our faithful to be able to live their faith in a climate of respect for religious sentiments, protected by other rights also protected by the constitution, such as the right to religious freedom, freedom of conscience, and the right to one’s dignity and moral standing.”
This measure would remove Spain from the majority of the countries in the European Union that protect religious freedom, since 21 of the 27 member states provide penalties for actions against religious sentiments.
The minister of the Presidency, Justice, and Relations with Parliament, Félix Bolaños, reacted to the complaint by Christian Lawyers with a message on X stating that their complaint represents an “attempt by the right-wing opposition to intimidate” in which he reiterated the government’s intention to repeal the crime of offending religious sentiments.
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| Spanish Republic: Attempts to Deny the Anti-Church Genocide |
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Posted by: Stone - 01-04-2025, 08:10 AM - Forum: General Commentary
- No Replies
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Spanish Republic: Attempts to Deny the Anti-Church Genocide
![[Image: w1k87clmg7m8mi74zn3f0y0l6aqcepk2stayzuv....71&webp=on]](https://seedus2043.gloriatv.net/storage1/w1k87clmg7m8mi74zn3f0y0l6aqcepk2stayzuv.webp?secure=VLlvWpvpS82LrSTEEqSPCw&expires=1736198771&webp=on)
gloria.tv | January 3, 2025
The hatred of the Spanish Popular Front (Communists) against the Church in 1936 went so far as to regularly desecrate the tombs in churches and cathedrals, even posing with the corpses, writes Juan Manuel de Prada in Abc.es (30 December).
After ten years of "hard work", four "political scientists" have produced a forty-page (sic) study in which they claim that the massacres of priests, nuns and religious during the Spanish Civil War were not motivated by hatred but had a "strategic character".
The left has 'explained' the massacres as the work of people who were 'out of control' or who 'disobeyed' the orders of the [Communist] authorities.
De Prada exposes this as a "completely implausible thesis" and writes that "delirious studies are being promoted [by the heirs of the genocidaires] in an attempt to justify these crimes.
In order to avoid the characterisation of the Left as an organisation gangrenous with a blistering hatred, these apologists claim that the violence against the Church was "neither blind nor indiscriminate, but rather obeyed political calculations" and sought to "prevent the formation of a resistance" against the Spanish Republic.
In other words, in order to deny that the massacres were dictated by hatred, they defend the existence of a calculated plan to destroy a "dangerous" group.
In their attempt to deny a hate crime, they acknowledge the existence of a "calculated genocide" directed against "figures with the capacity to mobilise, which points to the strategic nature of the violence".
De Prada recalls that in those unhappy years 13 bishops, 4,184 priests, 2,365 religious and 283 women were murdered. In the Spanish Civil War, however, Church hierarchs and novices, barely out of their teens and with no 'mobilisation capacity', were killed indiscriminately.
Juan Manuel de Prada had the opportunity to study the 'anti-clerical violence' of the Civil War while writing the biography of the Catalan writer Ana María Martínez Sagi (+2000).
Martínez Sagi came from a good family but ended up embracing the murderous anarchist ideology and demonic rage against the Catholic faith, which she exposes in many bile-filled articles.
De Prada offers some quotations published in Nuevo Aragón on 12 May 1937:
Quote:"It would be necessary, out of dignity and ethics, to wage a campaign against those who have unjustly adopted the attitude of mourning beggars, of tortured outcasts, of victims and martyrs, persecuted by misfortune and calamity.
"The Catholic religion, with its justifications for sacrifice, resignation and renunciation, with its anathemas against joy, material enjoyment, against the pursuit of glory and triumph, with its lurid legends and the martyrology of its thousands of saints, has succeeded in darkening the spirit and the life of the majority of mortals".
"Let us fiercely persecute all those who, systematically and with malicious intent, seek to destroy our faith in the destiny of humanity, our faith in ourselves and in the results of our efforts and our work".
"Let all our anger, all our hatred fall on them".
Unsurprisingly, all this is hushed up in the disinformation encyclopaedia Wikipedia.
Such a criminal appetite would lead organisations 'in the service of the Republic' to incite their followers to commit all kinds of crimes in order to eradicate the Church.
In the regime's press of the time, calls for murder, destruction and religious devastation were constant.
De Prada cites as an example an editorial published in Solidaridad Obrera on 18 October 1936:
Quote:"It is necessary to destroy. All the old dogmas must be reduced to ashes. And on the ashes of so much barbarism, raise the monument of freedom. Without hesitation, with blood and fire".
"Not only must not a single beetle be left standing, but we must uproot every germ it has hatched. We must destroy! Their world and ours are incompatible, they do not fit into one, they drown. So let them die, for they represent barbarism, uncivilisation and, what is worse, a constant danger to our existence".
De Prada concludes that the persecution of Catholics was not about "rendering leaderless" an enemy organisation.
He quotes Chesterton, who spoke of a "halo of hatred" which opposes the Church of God from the outside.
"And now they [= the Left] are trying to disguise that halo of hatred academically, to justify it vomitously as a necessary 'strategy'," he writes.
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| If +Archbishop Lefebvre Were Alive in 2025 AD |
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Posted by: Stone - 01-03-2025, 09:06 PM - Forum: Articles by Catholic authors
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If +Archbishop Lefebvre Were Alive in 2025 AD
![[Image: rs=w:1280]](https://img1.wsimg.com/isteam/ip/df55e1a9-c854-4d0b-a2a9-94177954436c/IMG_3811.png/:/cr=t:0%25,l:0%25,w:100%25,h:100%25/rs=w:1280)
The Catholic Trumpet [slightly adapted] | January 3, 2025
A Call to Fidelity Without Compromise
Quote:“Thus those who were with us and were working with us for the rights of Our Lord, for the salvation of souls, are now saying, ‘So long as they grant us the old Mass, we can shake hands with Rome, no problem.’ But we are seeing how it works out. They are in an impossible situation. Impossible. One cannot both shake hands with modernists and keep following Tradition. Not possible. Not possible.”
+Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, Écône Address, September 1990
A Timeless Fight for Truth
As Catholics in 2025, we find ourselves in the same fight that Archbishop Lefebvre described over three decades ago: the City of Satan against the City of God. His prophetic words ring truer now than ever. The crisis in the Church has deepened, the modernist errors condemned by Popes for over a century have flourished, and the faithful remnant must now grapple with an even more subtle and pervasive infiltration.
+Archbishop Lefebvre warned us not to waver, not to be deceived by a false charity, and not to collaborate with those betraying the Faith. His guidance gives us a clear roadmap for navigating the challenges we face today.
No Compromise, No Retreat
In 2025, we face the same temptation that plagued many in Lefebvre’s time: the urge to compromise for the sake of peace or unity. +Lefebvre stated:
Quote:“We must make up our minds if we too want to collaborate in the destruction of the Church and in the ruin of the Social Kingship of Christ the King, or are we resolved to continue working for the Kingship of Our Lord Jesus Christ?”
Today, as many celebrate the traditional Mass under structures that compromise the Faith, we must remain steadfast. The Faith is not preserved by outward appearances alone. True fidelity requires unwavering adherence to the doctrines and traditions of the Church of all time.
The Grave Importance of the Faith
+Archbishop Lefebvre emphasized that the greatest crisis is not the loss of the Mass but the loss of the Faith itself:
Quote:“Certainly the question of the liturgy and the sacraments is important, but it is not the most important. The most important question is the question of the Faith. This question is unresolved in Rome. For us it is resolved. We have the Faith of all time.”
The modernist Church continues to promote Vatican II’s errors, which seek to dethrone Christ and replace Him with the cult of man. This fight is not over. We must ensure that every decision we make as Catholics—whether in worship, association, or apostolate—is rooted in the Faith of all time.
A Warning Against Betrayal
[Archbishop] Lefebvre’s stern warning about betrayal speaks directly to us today:
Quote:“Friends, to the Church’s defenders, to those fighting on the battlefield, they look to our enemies on the other side. ‘After all, we must be charitable, we must be kind, we must not be divisive, after all, they are celebrating the Tridentine Mass, they are not as bad as everyone says’—but THEY ARE BETRAYING US—betraying us! They are shaking hands with the Church’s destroyers.”
The faithful must discern clearly between true allies in Tradition and those who use Tradition as a veneer while undermining the Faith. Collaboration with modernists is not charity; it is capitulation.
What Must the Faithful Do?
1. Choose the Faith Over Unity
[Archbishop] Lefebvre declared:
Quote:“We have to choose between you and the Council on one side, and your predecessors on the other; either with your predecessors who stated the Church’s teaching, or with the novelties of Vatican II.”
This choice is as stark in 2025 as it was in 1988. We cannot straddle the line between Tradition and modernism. Fidelity to the Faith demands separation from those who compromise it.
2. Reject False Charity
The Archbishop warned against false ecumenism and compromise:
Quote:“Stay in touch with them to bring them back, to convert them to Tradition, yes, if you like, that’s the right kind of ecumenism! But give the impression that after all one almost regrets any break, that one likes talking to them? No way!”
3. Trust in God’s Providence
Despite the bleakness of the crisis, Lefebvre urged us not to despair:
Quote:“No, the Good Lord does not want this fight to come to an end… We find ourselves caught up in the continuation of the same fight, and we thank God.”
The battle is not ours alone. It is God’s fight, and He will sustain us through grace and the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
A Call to Action
+Archbishop Lefebvre’s legacy is one of courage, clarity, and uncompromising fidelity. In 2025, his words call us to take up the fight with renewed zeal. We must uphold the Faith of all time, reject modernism in all its forms, and resist the temptation to compromise. As he stated:
Quote:“Humanly speaking, there is no chance of any agreement between Rome and ourselves at the moment.”
Our focus must remain on preserving the Kingship of Christ and the salvation of souls.
Let us resolve, with Archbishop Lefebvre as our guide, to stand firm in the face of modernist betrayal. Let us remain the faithful remnant, uncompromised and undeterred. As we do so, we entrust this fight to God, trusting in His grace and the ultimate Triumph of the Immaculate Heart.
A Final Note
+Archbishop Lefebvre’s unwavering principles leave no room for ambiguity: he would have categorically rejected the 2012 agreement with Rome and the compromises outlined in Bishop Fellay’s Doctrinal Declaration. To accept Vatican II “in light of Tradition,” or to claim 95% alignment with a Council that +Lefebvre identified as the foundation of a “new religion,” is to betray the mission he gave his life for. As he famously declared:
Quote:“We have to choose between you and the Council on one side, and your predecessors on the other; either with your predecessors who stated the Church’s teaching, or with the novelties of Vatican II.”
The Archbishop fought not merely for the Tridentine Mass but for the fullness of Catholic Tradition, untainted by modernism or the errors of Vatican II. He would have seen such agreements as nothing less than a surrender to the enemy. The bishops and priests of the SSPX know this in their hearts. To betray the Archbishop’s stand is to betray the fight for the Kingship of Christ and the eternal truths of the Church.
Let us pray, through the grace that flows through Our Lady, that Bishop Fellay publicly retracts and condemns his declaration. We love you, Bishop Fellay, and we pray that you will return fully to the mission entrusted to +Archbishop Lefebvre: the defense of Catholic Tradition without compromise, without retreat.
Let us honor +Archbishop Lefebvre’s legacy by remaining faithful—steadfast, unwavering, and united in the fight for the reign of Christ the King.
No Compromise,
No Retreat.
-The ☩ Trumpet
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| Archbishop Viganò: Homily on the Octave of Most Holy Christmas |
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Posted by: Stone - 01-03-2025, 10:55 AM - Forum: Archbishop Viganò
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The first day of January coincides with the Octave of Christmas, when the Liturgy is centered on the Circumcision of the Lord and the Divine Motherhood of Mary Most Holy, proclaimed by the Council of Ephesus in 431 as Deipara – in Greek Theotokos – or Mother of God. In ancient times, two Masses were celebrated on this day, one of the Octave and one in honor of the Virgin Mother. Later the memory of the Marian celebration remained in the postcommunio and in the station church at Santa Maria in Trastevere.
In the Incarnation, the Word of God became flesh, making fruitful the unblemished virginity of the Holy Mother of the Redeemer. The Word takes shape – Verbum caro factum est – generating Emmanuel in the womb of the Virgin, by the power of the Holy Spirit. And he will be called, as Scripture says in Isaiah’s prophecy, admirable counsellor, strong God, Prince of peace, Father of the coming age, Angel of the great counsel (Is 9:6). Even the Archangel Gabriel, in bringing the announcement to Mary, says to her: Behold, you will conceive and bear a son, and you will call his name Jesus. He will be great and called the Son of the Most High; the Lord God will give him the throne of David his father and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and his kingdom will have no end (Lk 1:31-33). With the Circumcision, His Name is imposed on Him: Jesus, God saves.
To name someone or something means to define the person or thing in its essence. And this is the prerogative of the Most Holy Trinity, of the Triune God who manifests Himself by revealing His Name. In the creative act, the name designates creation itself: Let there be light. And there was light (Gen 1:3). And he called the light day and the darkness night (Gen 1:5); he called the firmament heaven; he called the dry land the earth and the mass of the waters the sea (Gen 1:10). Having decreed that man should be in His image and likeness (Gen 1:26) and that he should rule the earth, He allows Adam to participate in some way in the creative act by allowing him to give a name to the animals: Then the Lord God formed out of the ground all kinds of wild animals and all the birds of the air and brought them to the man, to see what he would call them: whatever the man called each of the living beings, that was to be his name (Gen 2:19). The name expresses reality and defines it: this is why the Word is holy, and why the name of God is holy and terrible (Ps 111:10) – as the Psalm says – because it is the Word of Truth. This is why the sacraments have matter, intention and form, that is, the sacramental word: “I baptize you,” “I absolve you,” “I confirm you,” are all words that bring about what they say and signify.
In a few days we will celebrate the feast of the Most Holy Name of Jesus: so that at the name of Jesus every knee may bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth; and every tongue may proclaim – here too, the word proclaimed, spoken – that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father (Phil 2:10-11). In the Name of Jesus the devil is cast out: because the Name makes present the one who bears it, and the Truth makes the lie manifest as the Light dispels darkness. Creator and creature are in some way united by the word: Ecce, venio, says Wisdom in the eternity of time. Fiat mihi secundum verbum tuum, replies the Seat of Wisdom, Mary Most Holy. And that blessed body that by obedience the Second Person of the Most Holy Trinity assumes in the hypostatic union begins His journey towards the Passion from the cradle, facing the rigors of winter in a cave; and shortly thereafter, again out of obedience, the Holy Child will shed the first drops of His Precious Blood in the rite of Circumcision, in which the Passion is prefigured.
In this new civil year, which for two thousand and twenty-five years has been counted from the Birth of Our Lord Jesus Christ, I would like us to reflect on the importance of the word: the Word of God, in which the meaning of our eternal life is preserved; and the word with which we communicate and express ourselves, which preserves the meaning of our daily life.
The Revolution, the satanic matrix of this rebellious world hostile to the Incarnate Word, knows well that changing words also changes their meaning. This is why the lie of the ancient Serpent uses false and deceptive language. This is why the servants of the Evil One hide their deceptions behind words that are only apparently harmless. It is the Orwellian newspeak that renames the horrendous crime of abortion as reproductive health, mutilation as gender transition, vice and transgression as freedom, the destruction of Creation as green deal, the extermination of humanity as net zero, and ethnic replacement as inclusion.
And if up until a few decades ago Holy Mother Church knew how to oppose this subversion by repeating unchanged the eternal and true Word of God and using the language proper to Faith and Morals, today a corrupt Hierarchy shows its betrayal in the same way, manipulating language, thus annulling the word of God (Mk 7:12). It renames the destruction of the divine constitution of the Church and the manipulation of the Papacy as synodality, the renunciation of the need for evangelization and conversion as ecumenical dialogue, redefines the poor as the real presence, and the legitimization of sin as acceptance.
The Word of God is the word of Truth. It does not limit itself to echoing in eternity, but becomes flesh and food, immolates itself on the Cross so that the Word proclaims the glory of the Father, redeems us from Satan’s lie and preserves us on this earthly journey from the falsehood and deception of the world, the flesh, and the devil.
Remaining faithful to the Word of God means remaining faithful to the Gospel, to doctrine, to Tradition, and to the Mass of all time in which the words, spoken in the sacred language of the Church, keep their meaning intact and communicate it unequivocally, as light shines in darkness. Remaining faithful to the Word of God, that is, to God himself, means knowing how to respond to the word with the word, as Mary Most Holy did when she welcomed the greeting of the Archangel Gabriel.
Let us therefore call things by their name: let us refer to virtue as virtue and vice as vice; mindful of the admonition of Sacred Scripture: Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who change darkness into light and light into darkness, who change bitter into sweet and sweet into bitter (Is 5:20). Let your speech, therefore, be Yes, yes, no, no: all the rest comes from the Evil One (Mt 5:37). And so may it be.
+ Carlo Maria Viganò, Archbishop
1 January 2025
Octava Nativitatis
In Circumcisione Domini
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| The Catholic Trumpet: The Lay Crusade - Defending Christ the King in a World of Apostasy |
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Posted by: Stone - 01-03-2025, 09:05 AM - Forum: The Catholic Trumpet
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The Lay Crusade: Defending Christ the King in a World of Apostasy
![[Image: rs=w:1280]](https://img1.wsimg.com/isteam/ip/df55e1a9-c854-4d0b-a2a9-94177954436c/IMG_3727.png/:/cr=t:0%25,l:0%25,w:100%25,h:100%25/rs=w:1280)
The Catholic Trumpet [adapted] | January 2, 2025
The Call to Public Witness
Quote:“Today, this day, is Operation Survival. If I had made this deal with Rome, by continuing with the agreements we had signed, and by putting them into practice, I would have performed ‘Operation Suicide.’”
— Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, Sermon at the Consecrations of Four Bishops, June 30, 1988
The faithful of every era are called to rise against the unique challenges of their time. Today, amidst the ongoing crisis in the Church and society, Catholics must embrace their role as lay crusaders, publicly witnessing to the Kingship of Christ and the Triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
This public witness is not merely a reaction to modernist errors; it is an act of fidelity to the mission entrusted to us by Our Lord Himself. As Archbishop Lefebvre taught, the defense of the Faith requires total reliance on the grace of God, courage to resist compromise, and the steadfast proclamation of Christ’s Kingship.
Operation Survival: Fidelity Without Compromise
The term Operation Survival is more than a slogan; it encapsulates the mission of Archbishop Lefebvre to preserve the Faith in its entirety. The doctrinal compromises seen in modernist Rome and among certain branches of Tradition necessitate a response that is uncompromising in fidelity yet humble in execution.
Archbishop Lefebvre warned:
Quote:“We want to remain united to Jesus Christ, as the Vatican has dethroned the Lord. We want to remain faithful to our Lord King, Prince and Ruler of the world. We cannot change anything in this line of conduct.”
(Flavigny Conference, December 1988)
The Catholic Trumpet follows this same line, emphasizing that public witness is not optional but a divine mandate for all Catholics who seek to preserve and defend the Faith.
The Example of the Vendée Martyrs
The Vendée martyrs of the French Revolution exemplify the spirit of public witness and resistance. When their priests were exiled or executed, the faithful of the Vendée rose in defense of Christ the King, armed with Rosaries and the Sacred Heart emblazoned on their chests. Against the cannons and bayonets of the Revolutionary army, they stood firm, declaring their allegiance to God.
Their battle cry,“We have no King but Christ!” echoes across the centuries to our own time. In an era where modernist Rome seeks to enthrone the cult of man over the Social Kingship of Christ, we too must rise with the same courage and fidelity. As Archbishop Lefebvre declared:
Quote:“We want to remain united to Jesus Christ, as the Vatican has dethroned the Lord. We want to remain faithful to our Lord King, Prince and Ruler of the world. We cannot change anything in this line of conduct.”
(Flavigny Conference, December 1988)
Fr. Arminjon on the Signs of the Times
Fr. Charles Arminjon, in his renowned work The End of the Present World and the Mysteries of the Future Life, speaks of the necessity of vigilance and public witness in times of crisis. Reflecting on the rise of the Antichrist and the persecution of the faithful, he warns:
Quote:“The Church must pass through her Passion, just as Christ did. The Cross is the way to victory.”
(First Conference, “The End of the World”)
Fr. Arminjon reminds us that, while speculation on the timing of the end is often misguided, the faithful must be ever prepared, rooted in prayer and active in the apostolate. This vigilance demands public witness to Christ’s Kingship, even amidst opposition and persecution.
Public Witness as a Lay Crusade
Public witness is not reserved for clergy or religious; it is a call to all Catholics. The Catholic Trumpet emphasizes the necessity of visible, active participation in the fight for Christ the King. This includes:
1. Rosary Rallies and Processions: Public demonstrations of faith that proclaim the Kingship of Christ and the Triumph of the Immaculate Heart.
2. Catechetical Outreach: Educating others on the errors of modernism, the truths of Tradition, and the importance of Marian devotion.
3. Defending the Faith: Standing firm against heresies and compromises, proclaiming the truth with clarity and charity.
As Fr. Roger Calmel reminds us:
Quote:“The Church of all time will endure, and the Lord will preserve her. Let us persevere with confidence in this eternal Church, resisting all modernist distortions.”
Addressing Questions of Focus and Purpose
Some readers may wonder about the recent focus of The Catholic Trumpet on topics such as transhumanism, the Antichrist, and the errors of Rabbinical Judaism. These articles were not written to sensationalize or provoke but to warn the faithful of the dangers that threaten the Church and society in these times. They are a reflection of the mission to expose error and uphold truth, always in service to Christ the King and His Church.
As Fr. Charles Arminjon reminds us in his meditations on the end times:
Quote:“Men no less holy and learned than Holzhauser have often indulged in such calculations and have constantly been mistaken.”
(Second Conference, “The Persecution of Antichrist”)
We humbly acknowledge that we do not possess the sanctity or wisdom of such men. Our reflections are offered in a spirit of vigilance and fidelity, grounded in prayer and always seeking the guidance of Our Lady. The duty to inform and prepare the faithful is a grave responsibility, especially in times of widespread confusion and error.
The Triumph of the Immaculate Heart[b][/b]
Our ultimate hope lies in the promise of Our Lady at Fatima:
“In the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph.”
This promise is the cornerstone of The Catholic Trumpet’s mission. By calling all souls to the refuge of her Immaculate Heart, we aim to equip the faithful to resist error and embrace truth with confidence. Public witness, rooted in prayer and devotion, is the means by which we can participate in the Triumph of the Immaculate Heart and proclaim the Kingship of Christ in a world yearning for truth and hope.
No Compromise, No Retreat
The Catholic Trumpet calls all Catholics to join this lay crusade, proclaiming Christ the King in a world of apostasy. Let us follow the example of the Vendée martyrs, the teachings of Archbishop Lefebvre, and the warnings of Fr. Arminjon. Together, we can stand firm in the truth, trusting in the victory of Christ and the Triumph of the Immaculate Heart.
In the words of St. Louis de Montfort:
Quote:“Mary will raise up apostles of the latter times who will crush the head of Satan and establish the reign of Christ.”
Vive le Christ Roi! Vive Marie, Reine du Ciel!
-The ☩ Trumpet
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| The Ways to Perfect Religion by St. John Fisher while a Prisoner in the Tower of London |
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Posted by: Stone - 01-02-2025, 09:50 AM - Forum: The Saints
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The Ways to Perfect Religion
by John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, being Prisoner in the Tower of London
Taken from A Spiritual Consolation and Treatises, by Saint John Fisher, edited by D. O’Connor, 1903
imprimatur by + Bishop Edward Ilsley, Diocese of Birmingham, England, 25 April 1903
Taken from here [slightly adapted]
Sister Elizabeth, gladly I would write unto you something that might be to the health of your soul and furtherance of it in holy religion. But well I know that without some fervour in the love of Christ, religion cannot be to you savoury, nor any work of goodness can be delectable, but every virtuous deed shall seem laborious and painful. For love maketh every work appear easy and pleasant, though it be right displeasant of itself. And contrariwise right easy labour appeareth grievous and painful, when the soul of the person that doeth the deed hath no desire nor love in doing of it. This thing may well appear by the life of hunters, the which out of doubt is more laborious and painful than is the life of religious persons, and yet nothing sustaineth them in their labour and pains but the earnest love and hearty desire to find their game. Regard no less my writing, good sister, though to my purpose I use the example of hunters, for all true Christian souls be called hunters, and their office and duty is to seek and hunt for to find Christ Jesu. And, therefore. Scripture in many places exhorteth us to seek after Him, and assureth that He will be found of them that diligently seek after Him — Invenieiur ab his qui quaerunt eum. That is to say. He will be found of them that seek Him; well happy are all those that can find Him, or can have any scent of Him in this life here. For that scent, as Saint Paul saith, is the scent of the very life. And the devout souls, where they feel this scent, they run after Him apace — Curremus in odorem unguentorutn tuorum. That is to say, we shall run after the scent of Thy sweet ointments. Seeing then all devout souls may be called hunters, I will further prosecute the comparison made before between the life of the hunters and the life of the religious persons after this manner.
A Comparison between the Life of Hunters and the Life of Religious Persons
What life is more painful and laborious of itself than is the life of hunters, which most early in the morning break their sleep and rise when others do take their rest and ease? And in his labour he may use no plain highways and the soft grass, but he must tread upon the fallows, run over the hedges and creep through the thick bushes, and cry all the long day upon his dogs, and so continue without meat or drink until the very night drive him home. These labours be unto him pleasant and joyous, for the desire and love that he hath to see the poor hare chased with dogs.
Verily, verily, if he were compelled to take upon him such labours, and not for this cause, he would soon be weary of them, thinking them full tedious unto him; neither would he rise out of his bed so soon, nor fast so long, nor endure these other labours, unless he had a very love therein. For the earnest desire of his mind is so fixed upon his game that all these pains be thought to him but very pleasures. And therefore I may well say that love is the principal thing that maketh any work easy, though the work be right painful of itself, and that without love no labour can be comfortable to the doer. The love of his game delighteth him so much that he careth for no worldly honour, but is content with full simple and homely array. Also the goods of the world he seeketh not for, nor studieth how to attain them; for the love and desire of his game so greatly occupieth his mind and heart. The pleasures also of his flesh he forgetteth by weariness and wasting of his body in earnest labour. All his mind, all his soul, is busied to know where the poor hare may be found. Of that is his thought, and of that is his communication, and all his delight is to hear and speak of that matter, every other matter but this is tedious for him to give ear unto; in all other things he is dull and unlusty, in this only quick and stirring; for this also to be done, there is no office so humble, nor so vile, that he refuseth not to serve his own dogs himself, to bathe their feet and to anoint them where they be sore, yea, and to cleanse their stinking kennel, where they shall lie and rest them. Surely if religious persons had so earnest a mind and desire to the service of Christ as have these hunters to see a course at a hare, their life should be unto them a very joy and pleasure.
For what other be the pains of religion but these that I have spoken of? That is to say, much fasting, crying and coming to the choir, forsaking of worldly honours, worldly riches, fleshly pleasures and communication of the world, humble service and obedience to her sovereign, (i.e., religious superior) and charitable dealing to her sister; which pains in every point the hunter taketh and sustaineth more largely for the love that he hath to his game, than doeth many a religious person for the love of Christ. For albeit the religious person riseth at midnight, which is painful to her in very deed, yet she went before that to her bed at a convenient hour, and also cometh after to her bed again. But the hunter riseth early, and so continueth forth all the long day, no more returning to his bed until the very night, and yet peradventure he was late up the night before, and full often up all the long nights. And though the religious woman fast until it be noon, the which must be to her painful, the hunter yet taketh more pain, which fasteth until the very night, forgetting both meat and drink for the pleasure of his game. The religious woman singeth all the forenoon in the choir, and that also is laborious unto her, but yet the hunter singeth not, but he crieth, hallooeth and shouteth all the long day and hath more greater pains. The religious woman taketh much labour in coming to the choir and sitting there so long a season, but yet no doubt of it more labour taketh the hunter in running over the fallow, and leaping over the hedges, and creeping through the bushes than that can be. And would to God that in other things, that is to say, touching worldly honours, worldly riches, worldly pleasures — would to God that the religious persons many of them might profit as much in mindfulness in seeking of Christ, as the hunter doeth in seeking of his game, and yet all their comfort were to commune and speak of Christ, as the hunters have all their joy to speak of the poor hare, and of their hunting.
And furthermore, would to God the religious persons would content themselves with the humble service done to their sovereign, and with charitable behaviour unto their sisters, and with as good a heart and mind as the hunters acquit them to serve their hounds. I wot it is a thing much more reasonable to love and serve reasonable creatures made to the image of Almighty God, rather than to love and serve dogs which be unreasonable creatures. And rather our duty were to speak of Christ, and of things belonging to His honour, than of the vain worldly matters which be but very trifles indeed. And also with more attentive mind we should seek after our Saviour Christ Jesu, to know our very comfort in Him — wherein resteth the great merit of our souls — than the hunters should seek after the hare, which when they have gotten they have no great gains thereby. But as I have said, the cause why so many religious persons so diligently pursue not the ways of religion as do the hunters, is the want of the observation of their game, which is nothing else but the lack of love. For verily, as I think, the earnest love and hearty desire of game maketh all labours and pains joyous unto the hunter. And if there v/ere in religious persons as great favour and love to the service of God, as be in hunters to their game, all their life should be a very paradise and heavenly joy in this world. And contrariwise without this fervour of love it cannot be but painful, weary and tedious to them.
My purpose therefore, dear sister, is to minister unto you some common considerations which if you will often resort unto by due remembrance and so by diligent prayer call upon Almighty God for His love, you shall now by His grace attain it.
The First Consideration
The first consideration may be this: First consider by your own mind and reason that Almighty God of His own singular goodness and free will did create you and make you of naught, whereunto He was not bound by any necessity, nor drawn by any commodity that might rise upon Him by your creation. No other thing moved Him but His very goodness and special favour that He bare unto you, long or ever He did make you. This, good sister, take for a very truth and firmly believe it, for so it is in very deed; innumerable creatures, more than ever were made or ever shall be made, He might have made if it had been so pleasing unto Him. For how many, suppose you, married men and married women have been and shall be hereafter in this world, that never had nor never shall have any children, yet they full gladly would have had, and by possibility of nature might have had many, if it had so pleased Almighty God to have made and to have given unto them children. But all those be left unmade, and amongst them He might have left you also unmade, and never have put His hand to the making of you if He had so would. Nevertheless, as I said, it pleased His goodness herein to prefer you of His special favour that He bore unto you, leaving unmade others more innumerable, electing you and appointing you to be made, refusing and setting apart all them which would, peradventure, have considered His special grace and favour more lovingly than you hitherto have done, and would have studied more for His pleasure and service than ever you did; and you occupy the room and place that some of them might have occupied by like favour as Almighty God hath shewed unto you. Ah, dear sister, how much should this one consideration move you to the earnest love of this our so gracious a Lord, that thus hath appointed and chosen you to be His creature before so many others, where He might have taken any of them at His pleasure and repelled you and left you as naught without any manner of being!
The Second Consideration
The second consideration is this: Where there is many manner of beings, some creatures have a goodly being, some have an ungoodly being. It is a more goodly being margarite (i.e., a pearl) of a precious stone than of a pebble stone; of the fair bright gold than of rusty iron; of a goodly pheasant than of a venomous serpent; of a pretty fawn than of a foul toad; of a reasonable soul than of an unreasonable beast. And it is not to be doubted but Almighty God might have given to any of them what being soever He would, and might have transformed each of those into the nature and kind of any of the other at His pleasure and will. For of the stones He might make men, as in the Gospel our Saviour doth affirm: Potens est Deus de lapidibus istis suscitare filios Abrahae, Almighty God hath the power to make of these stones the children of Abraham. And contrariwise He might of men have made stones, as the wife of Lot was turned into a salt stone. And in like wise me or you or any other man or woman, He might have made a stone, or a serpent, or a toad, for His pleasure. There is no creature so foul, so horrible, or so ungodly, but He might put you in the same condition that the most loathly of them be put in, and them, in contrariwise, He might have put in the same condition that you be in. Consider now, by your reason, that if you had been made in the hkeness of an owl, or of an ape, or of a toad, how deformed you should have been, and in how wretched and miserable condition. And thank your Lord God that hath given you a more excellent nature, yea, such a nature as excelleth in nobleness, in dignity, all other bodily natures; for it is made to the very likeness and image of Almighty God, whereunto none other bodily creature doth reach near. Metals nor stones, be they never so precious, neither herbs nor trees, neither fishes nor fowls, neither any manner of beast, be they never so noble in their kind, doth attain to this high point of nobleness to have in them the image and likeness of Almighty God, but only man.
Forasmuch then as our Lord God might have given this excellent dignity to other innumerable creatures, as to beasts, to fowls, to fishes, totrees, to herbs, to metals, to stones, and hath not so done, but before all those hath elected and chosen you to bear His image and likeness and to be endued with a reasonable soul, how much should his loving dealing move you to enforce yourself with all the strength and power of your heart and mind to love Him therefore again.
The Third Consideration
The third consideration is this: That whereas, notwithstanding this great and excellent gift, you, nevertheless, by reason of original sin wherewith you were born of your mother into this world, had lost the great inheritance above in heaven and purchased everlasting imprisonment in hell, He of His great and singular goodness had provided you to be born within the precincts of Christendom, where you have been instructed in the doctrine of His taith and received the holy Sacrament of Baptism, and have been made a Christian woman, whereby you did receive again your inheritance before lost, and have escaped the most horrible danger of everlasting damnation. How many, suppose you, in all the world that be not instructed in this law and faith of Christ, nor have not received the holy Sacrament of Baptism, both noble men and women, both knights and princes, which have great wisdom and reason, and many such as, peradventure, if they were taught it, would more readily apply their minds to Christ’s faith than you do, and more heartily serve Him, honour and love Him than ever you did; and yet, lo! thus graciously hath He provided for you before all them, and hath appointed you to be a Christian woman and to be partaker of all those graces and benefits that belong unto the Christian people, which be so many and so great, that it passeth the wits of men, not only to number but also to think.
And here, good sister, do deeply consider in your soul how much this loving preferment of our Lord God should stir you to love Him again, when He suffereth so innumerable a multitude of men and women to perish and to be lost for ever, amongst whom many do pass you in all natural virtues, both of body and soul, and also would farther pass you in profiting in the law of Christ if they were received thereunto; and yet, I say, He suffereth them to perish everlastingly and perpetually to be damned; and for your safeguard hath provided of His singular goodness and mercy towards you, for the which since it is not possible of your part to recompense, why shall you not with all your power enforce yourself to love His most gracious goodness again, and after your possibility to give unto Him most humble thanks therefor?
The Fourth Consideration
The fourth consideration is this: That where, since that time of your Baptism and that you were made a Christian woman, you have many times unkindly fallen into deadly sin and broken His laws and commandments, setting at naught all those benefits which He before had given to you, following your wretched pleasure to the great displeasure and contempt of His Most High Majesty; and yet He furthermore did not strike you, nor yet revenge Himself upon you rigorously, punishing the transgressors and breakers of His law as He might and should by His righteousness have done. But, contrariwise, He did long spare you by His excellent mercy, and mercifully He did abide your return to Him again by sorrowful repentance and asking of Him mercy for your abominable offences. And where you so did with good hearty mind at any time, He received you to His grace, and by the sacrament of penance you were taken into His favour again, and so yet escape the horrible pains of hell due for your outrageous unkindness. No reason may judge the contrary but that you of good right have deserved them for your foul presumption in breaking of the laws of your Lord God, and preferring your wretched appetites before His pleasure, and following your own wilful desires before His most high commandments. Alas, what miserable condition should you now have been in if He so incontinent after your offences had stricken you by death and had sent you to the horrible pains of hell, where you should not only for a time have bidden, but for ever and without all remedy. No prayers of your friends, no almsdeeds, no such other good works should have relieved you.
Ah, sister, imprint deeply in your soul this inestimable mercy of your Lord God showed unto you through His most gracious and merciful abiding for your return to Him by true repentance and asking of His mercy. For innumerable souls of men and women, for less offences than you have done, lie now in the prison of hell, and shall there continue without end; which if they might have had as great sufferance as you have had, and so long leisure to repent them, they would have taken more sorrowful repentance than ever you took, and do now more sorrowfully repent than ever you did, but that as now cannot profit them, for that sorrow and repentance is now too late. But to my purpose, how may you think that this loving sufferance and gracious abiding of your amendment and merciful accepting of your sorrows and repentance for your great sins, Cometh not of a singular love showed unto you by your Lord God before all them? And shall not this consideration pierce your heart and move you much to love Him again?
The Fifth Consideration
The fifth consideration is this: Peradventure, after that thus by your repentance and asking mercy you were taken to this grace of your God, yet far more grievously and far more unkindly you fell again to sin, and kept not the purpose and promise that before you did make, but more without shame and dread of His highness took your liberty in your sinful ways, abusing His gentleness and presuming upon His mercy, not regarding any benefit or kindness showed by His most excellent goodness unto you before, so defiling your soul by innumerable ways, and making it filthy and more ungoodly than is the sow that waltereth herself in the foul miry puddle, and more pestilently stinketh in the sight of God than is the stinking carrion of a dead dog being rotten and lying in a ditch; yet, nevertheless, for all these misbehaviours, your Lord God of His far-passing goodness hath called you again from your sinful life and hath graciously stirred your soul to forsake your sin and to leave this wretched world and to enter the holy religion. Whereby (after the sentence of holy doctors) your soul is made as clean as it was at your baptism and restored again to the purity and cleanliness of your first innocence; and not only that, but also He hath appointed you to be of the number of them that He assigned for His best beloved spouses. And what high point of singular favour is this? How many women, far better than you, be left behind in this world, not called to this high dignity nor admitted to this most special grace? When the noble King Asuerus, as it is written in the Scripture, commanded many fair maidens to be chosen out and to be seen unto with all things that might make them fair and beautiful and pleasant to his sight, to the intent that they at all times when it should like him to appoint any of them to come to his presence and to be his spouse, they might be the more ready, this thing, no doubt of it, was to them that were thus chosen a comfort, that they were preferred before others, and also every one of them might live in hope to come to the king’s presence and have some likelihood to be accepted for his spouse, in SO much that all others but they were excluded. In like manner it is with religious women. All they, by the gracious calling of the great King of heaven, be gathered into God’s religion and dissevered from the other secular women that be of the world, there a season to abide until they be sufficiently prepared by the holy sacraments and the holy observations of religion to come to His gracious Highness’s presence, and to be brought into His secret chamber above in heaven, there to abide with Him in endless joy and bliss. Blessed is that religious woman that so doth prepare herself for this little time that here she shall tarry by prayer, by meditation, by contemplation, by tears of devotion, by hearty love and burning desire, that after that this transitory lite she may be admitted to the most excellent honour, and not with shame and rebuke be repelled therefrom when the day shall come.
The Sixth Consideration
The sixth consideration that you call well to your remembrance, who it is that doth thus exhort you for to love, verily He is that person that if either you will freely give your love, or else sell your love, He is most worthy to have it above all other. First, if ye were of that mind to give your love free, it were good yet there to bestow it that you should choose such a one, as both in goodliness of person, as also in prowess and wisdom, and good gentle manners may be worthy of your love. For if there be any deformity in him whom you would love, it is an impediment and great let for to love him; but in our Saviour Christ the Son of God is no deformity, for He is all goodly, and surmounteth all other in goodliness; and, therefore, of Him the prophet David affirmeth in this manner: Speciosus forma prae filiis hominum, that is to say, “He is goodly before the children of men.” And of truth much goodly must He needs be that hath so many goodly creatures. Behold the rose, the lily, the violet; behold the peacocks, the pheasant, the popinjay; behold all the other creatures of this world—all these were of His making, all their beauty and goodliness of Him they received it. Wherefore this goodliness describeth that He Himself must needs of necessity be very goodly and beautiful. And for that in the book of Canticles the Spouse describeth His goodliness, saying: Dilectus meus candidas et rubicundus, electus ex millibus that is to say: “He that I love is white and red, chosen out amongst thousands.” And this beauty and goodliness is not mortal, it cannot fade nor perish as doeth the goodliness of other men, which like a flower to-day is fresh and lusty, and to-morrow with a little sickness is withered and vanisheth away. And yet it is sensible to the goodliness of man’s nature, for the which also he is more naturally to be beloved of many. For likeness is the ground of love, like always doth covet like, and the nearer in likeness that any person be, the sooner they may be knit together in love. The same likeness He hath and you have, like body and like soul, touching His manhood; your soul is also like unto Him in His Godhead, for after the image and similitude of it your soul is made. Furthermore of His might and power you may be likewise a certain season. He made this world by the only commandment of His mouth, and gave to the herbs and all other creatures their virtue and might that they have; and may also by His power save and damn creatures, either to lift them up in body and soul into heaven above, or else to throw them down into ever-during pains of hell. If ye doubt of His wisdom, behold all this world, and consider how every creature is set with another, and every of them by himself, how the heavens are apparelled with stars, the air with fowls, the water with fishes, the earth with herbs, trees and beasts, how the stars be clad with Hght, the fowls with feathers, the fishes with scales, the beasts with hair, herbs and trees with leaves, and flowers with scent, wherein doth well appear a great and marvellous wisdom of Him that made them. Finally His good and gentle manner is all full of pleasure and comfort so kind, so friendly, so liberal and beneficious, so piteous and merciful, so ready in all opportunities, so mindful and circumspect, so dulcet and sweet in communication. For as Scripture saith: Non hahet amaritudinem conversatio vel taedium convictus illius, sed laetitiam et gaudium, that is to say: “His manners be so sweet and pleasant that the conversation of Him hath no bitterness; yea, His company hath no loathsomeness nor weariness in it, but all gladness and joy.” Here peradventure you will say unto me, how may I love that I see not? if I might see Him with all the conditions ye speak of, I could with all my heart love Him. Ah! good sister, that time is not come yet; you must, as I said, now for the time prepare yourself in cleanness of body and soul, against that time; so when that time Cometh you may be able and worthy to see Him, or else you shall be excluded from Him with the unwise virgins, of whom the Gospel telleth that they were shut out from His presence with great shame and confusion, because they had not sufficiently prepared themselves. Therefore, good sister, for this time be not negligent to prepare yourself with all good works, that then you may be admitted to come unto His presence, from the which to be excluded it shall be a more grievous pain than any pain of hell. For, as Chrysostom saith: Si decem mille gehennas quis dixerit, nihil tale est quale ab illa beata visione excidere, that is to say: “If one would rehearse unto me ten thousand hells, yet all that should not be so great pains as it is to be excluded from the blessed sight of the face of Christ.”
The Seventh Consideration
The seventh consideration is this: where now it appeareth unto you, that if you will give your love freely, there is none so worthy to have it as Jesus the Son of the Virgin Mary. I will further shew unto you that if you will not freely give it, but you will look peradventure to have something again, yet there is none so well worthy to have it as He is; for if another will give more for it than He, I will not be against it; take your advantage. But sure I am there is none other to whom your love is so dear, and of so great a price as it is unto Him, nor any that will come nigh unto that that He hath given or will give. If His benefits and kindness shewed towards you, whereof I spake somewhat before, were by you well pondered, they be no small benefits, and especially the love of so great a prince, and that He would thus love you, and prefer you before so many innumerable creatures of His, and that when there was in you no love, and when you could not skill of love; yea, and that, that more is, when you were enemy unto Him, yet He loved you, and so wonderfully that for your love, and to wash you from sin, and to deliver your soul from the extreme peril, He shed His most precious blood, and suffered the most shameful, the most cruel and the most painful death of the cross; His head to be pierced with thorns. His hands and feet to be through holed with nails, His side to be lanced with a spear, and all His most tender body to be torn and rent with whips and scourges. Believe this for a very truth, good sister, that for your sake He suffered all, as if there had been no more in all the world but only yourself, which I will declare more largely unto you in the next consideration following.
Believe it in the meantime certainly, for so it is indeed, and if you believe it not, you do a great injury and shew a full unkindness unto Him that thus much hath done for you.
And if this belief truly settle in your heart, it is to me a marvel if you can content your heart without the love of Him, of Him, I say, that thus dearly hath loved you, and doth love you still. For what other lover will do thus much for your love? What creature in all the world will die for your sake? What one person will part with one drop of his heart blood for your sake? When then the Son of God, the Prince of heaven, the Lord of Angels, hath done this for your sake, which thing no other creature will do, what frost could have congealed your heart that it may not relent against so great an heat of love? If He, so excellent in all nobleness, should have given you but one favourable countenance from the heavens above, it had been a more precious benefit than ever you could recompense by your love again. It were impossible for your love to recompense that one thing. But how much rather when He hath descended into this wretched world for your sake, and here hath become man, and hath endured all misery pertaining unto man, save only sin and ignorance, and finally hath suffered this great horrible death for your love, how shall you ever now recompense this by any love or service to be done for your pity? And He hath not only done all this for your sake, but also hath prepared for you after this transitory life a reward above in heaven, so great that never mortal eye saw the like, nor any tongue can express, nor yet any heart can think. Ah, sister, when your wretched soul shall hence depart, which cannot be very long here, who shall give you refreshing the space of one hour? Good therefore it is that you look unto yourself and upon Him bestow your love, the which hitherto hath done most for you and best hath deserved it beyond all other; and yet after this life He will give for it a reward so inestimable that it shall never fail you.
The Eighth Consideration
The eighth consideration is this: that albeit, there are many others which also are beloved of Christ Jesu, yet the love that He sheweth to them, nothing minisheth His love towards you, as if there were no more beloved of Him in all the kind of man. This may evidently be shewed unto you by this example following. If before any image of our Saviour were disposed and set in a long row many glasses, some great and some little, some high and some low, a convenient distance from the image, so that every one of them might receive a presentment of the image, it is no doubt but in every one of these glasses should appear the very likeness of the same image. I will not say but this likeness should be longer in the great glasses than in the less, and clearer in the better cleansed glasses, and in them that were nigh unto the image, than in the others that were not so well cleansed and much farther off. But as to the likeness itself it shall be as full and as whole in every one glass as though there were but one.
Now to my purpose, if you consider likewise that all the good souls that be scoured from deadly sin be in the manner of glasses set in an order to receive the love of our Saviour Christ Jesu, such souls as by true penance doing, by sighing, by weeping, by praying, by watching, by fasting and by other like, be the better scoured and cleansed from the spots and malice of deadly sin, they be the brighter glasses and more clearly receive this love, and such also be near unto our Saviour, for nothing putteth us far from Him but only sin. And therefore they that have more diligently scoured their souls from the rust of sin be nearer unto Him than the others that so have not done. Such souls also as of their part enforce themselves to a great love and to a more ample fervour, they do enlarge the capacity of their souls to receive a more large abundance of love; again, those that less enforce them, have a less capacity in receiving, and therefore so much the less they receive of this love, even as a man that openeth his bosom wide and enlargeth it, is more able to receive a greater thing into it than he that doeth not.
But yet, as I have said before of the glasses, every one of the souls receives as full and as whole a love of Jesu Christ as though there were no more souls in all the world but that one alone, for the love of Christ Jesus [is] infinite. And therefore when innumerable of souls have every one of them received as much the love of Christ Jesu as to every one of them is possible, yet hath He still in Himself love sufficient for infinite more, and this His love thereby is not in any point diminished nor lessened, though it be divided into many, be the number of them never so great. None of them that be beloved receive the less because of the multitude of his fellows, nor if he had no more but himself he should not thereby have any more abundance of love to his part, but according to the cleansing and capacity of his soul and nighness unto Christ, his part in love shall be the less or more. Wherefore, good sister, I pray you be diligent to scour your soul clean, and to enforce your soul on your part fervently to love your spouse Christ Jesu, and draw nigh unto Him with entire devotion, and then undoubtedly you shall be partner to the more plenteous abundance of His love, notwithstanding any other multitude which beside is beloved of Him; for He nevertheless is as studious of you and as mindful and as fervently careth for your weal as though there were no more beloved of Him but you alone in all this world.
The Ninth Consideration
The ninth consideration is this: where peradventure you would object to me again and say: “Brother, if it be thus as you say, that my Lord Jesu loveth me so much, and is so mindful of me, and so fervently intendeth my weal, what need me to care whatsoever I do? He will not cast me away; He will not forsake me nor suffer me to perish.” Good sister, without doubt as I have said, our Saviour Christ Jesu is in love towards you, and He is mindful and more loving towards you than I can express. And sure you may be that He will never cast you away, nor forsake you, if you before cast not yourself away, nor forsake yourself. But if you give any place to sin in your soul, and suffer it to enter upon you, verily then you forsake yourself and cast yourself away, and willingly destroy yourself, that is your deed and not His; for He never forsaketh any creature unless they before have forsaken themselves. And if they will forsake themselves, were they never in so great favour with Him before, they then incontinently lose His favour. The which thing well appeareth in His first spiritual creatures the noble angels, Lucifer and his company, which were created in excellent brightness, and were much in the favour of Almighty God, they presumptuously offended Him in pride; for the which not only they lost His favour, but also their marvellous brightness became incontinently horrible, foul, and were expelled out of the glorious kingdom of heaven that they were in, and thrown into perpetual darkness, into the prison of hell.
The first man Adam also, who was created in singular honour, and was put into paradise, a place full of gladness, there to live in comfort of all pleasure, the which was done to him for a singular love that Almighty God had towards him; yet anon as he fell to sin he was in like manner expelled out from that pleasure, and sent into this miserable world to endure misery and pain.
If those noble creatures which were lifted up into so great favour with Almighty God, so lightly by their misdemeanour in sin lost His gracious favour, let none other creature think but if they admit any sin to their soul, they shall be likewise excluded out of His favour. For sin is so odious unto Almighty God, that not the dearest friends that ever He had in all the world, but if there were found in their souls any deadly sin after death, they should never be received into the joy of heaven. Not the blessed Mary Magdalene for all her love towards Him, nor yet His own blessed Mother that bare Him into this world, if one deadly sin were found in their souls, they should incontinent be thrown into the dark dungeon of hell. Wherefore, good sister, say not, if His love be so much upon you, and He so desirously intendeth your profit, that you may do what you list, you need not to care what you do; but contrariwise, the more that He loveth you, the more you should take heed unto yourself and beware that you offend Him not, for so did the Blessed Mary Magdalene, of whom I spake before. She, notwithstanding the great love that both our Saviour had to her and she unto Him again, for the which also her sins were forgiven her, yet after His death she fled from the company of men, and lived in the wilderness far from any worldly comfort, in great wailing, fasting and prayer and such other painfulness of her body, and was nothing the less diligent to keep herself warily from sin, for the great love that our Lord and Saviour had to her; but for that the more studiously she did avoid and eschew everything whereby she might run into any displeasure against Him.
The Tenth Consideration
The tenth consideration is this: it were well done, and much it should further this cause if you truly esteem of how little value your love is, how vain, how light and how trifling a thing it is, and how few there be that would much regard it or set much price thereby, for few there be or none to whom it may do any profit or avail. Contrariwise, you should consider the love of your spouse, the sweet Jesu, how excellent it is, how sure, how fast, how constantly abiding, how many have much specially regarded it. Martyrs innumerable, both men and women, for His love have shed their blood and have endured every kind of martyrdom, were it never so cruel, were it never so terrible. No pain, no torment, might compel them to forsake His love; so desirous were they of His love that rather than they would forego it, they gave no force of the loss of all this world beside, and their own life also. So dear and precious was that love to them that all the honours, pleasures and possessions of this life they accounted as very trifles in comparison of that. And what be you in comparison of them, but naughty, wretched and miserable? Where then they, which be now glorious saints above in heaven, so much have valued and so greatly esteemed this most excellent love, and you may have the same love for yours, that is so naughty and so little worth, what should you do of your part? How much should you enforce yourself not only to obtain this love, but studiously to keep it, since that you have it once, and for nothing to depart therefrom! He of His goodness doth not repel any creature from His love, but permitteth them assuredly that if any draw nigh unto Him by love, He will love them again, and give His most precious love for theirs. He sayeth: Ego diligentes vie diligo; that is to say: “I love them that love Me.” And in another place: En qui venit ad me non ejiciam foras; that is to say: “What person soever cometh unto Me, I will not cast him away.” Sister, if you consider this deeply, it should move you to fall down upon your knees and with all your heart and mind say unto your Spouse in this manner:
“O my blessed Saviour Lord Jesu, Thou askest my love, Thou desirest to have my heart, and for my love Thou wilt give me Thy love again. O my sweet Lord, what is this for Thee to desire, which art so excellent? If my poor heart were of so much value as all the hearts of men and women that ever were, if they were put together in one; and if it were as precious and noble as there is price and nobleness in all the orders of angels; if furthermore it did contain in it all bodily and spiritual treasure that is within the compass of heaven or without, yet it were but a little gift to give unto so great a Lord, for His most delicate and precious love to be had of Him again: much rather my love and heart, as it is now naughty, wretched and miserable, so is it but a small gift and of little value. Nevertheless, such as it is, since it is Thy pleasure to have it and Thy goodness doth ask it of me, saying: Praebe mihi cor tuum; that is to say: ‘Give me thy heart’ — I freely give it unto Thee, and I most humbly beseech Thy goodness and mercy to accept it, and so to order me by Thy grace, that I may receive into it the love of nothing contrary to Thy pleasure, but that I always may keep the fire of Thy love, avoiding from it all other contrary love that may in any wise displease Thee.”
The Final Conclusion of All
Now then, good sister, I trust that these considerations, if you often read them with good deliberation, and truly imprint them in your remembrance, they will somewhat inflame your heart with the love of Christ Jesu, and that love once established in you all the other points and ceremonies of your religion shall be easy unto you, and no wit painful; you shall then comfortably do everything that to good religion appertaineth, without any great weariness. Nevertheless, if it so fortune that you at any time begin to feel any dulness of mind, quicken it again by the meditation of death, which I send you here before, or else by some effectual prayer earnestly calling for help and succour upon the most sweet Jesu, thinking, as it is indeed, that is your necessity and that no where else you can have any help but of Him. And if you will use these short prayers following, for every day in the week one, I think it shall be unto you profitable. For thus you may in your heart shortly pray, what company soever you be amongst.
The Prayers be these:
O blessed Jesu, make me to love Thee entirely.
O blessed Jesu, I would fain, but without Thy help I cannot.
O blessed Jesu, let me deeply consider the greatness of Thy love towards me.
O blessed Jesu, give unto me grace heartily to thank Thee for Thy benefits.
O blessed Jesu, give me good will to serve Thee, and to suffer.
O sweet Jesu, give me a natural remembrance of Thy passion.
O sweet Jesu, possess my heart, hold and keep it only to Thee.
These short prayers if you will often say, and with all the power of your soul and heart, they shall marvellously kindle in you this love, so that it shall be always fervent and quick, the which is my especial desire to know in you. For nothing may be to my comfort more than to hear of your furtherance and profiting in God and in good religion, the which our blessed Lord grant you for His great mercy. Amen.
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