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| Francis once again repeats the errors of Vatican II: All Religions Lead to God |
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Posted by: Stone - 09-13-2024, 08:27 AM - Forum: Pope Francis
- Replies (2)
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As the SiSiNoNo series on The Errors of Vatican II have long pointed out, V-II:
Quote:Falsely attribut[es] to non- Christian religions that, like us, they believe in God the Creator.
Gaudium et Spes §36 states:
Quote:"...[All] believers of whatever religion have always heard His revealing voice in the discourse of creatures."
To attribute this to non-Christian religions is false. Citing just the two examples of Hinduism and Buddhism, both completely ignore the idea of a God who created from nothing and who reveals Himself in His creatures, since both are convinced that reality proceeds through emanation of an impersonal, cosmic, eternal force which is identically replicated in all things, from which force all comes and to which all returns, becoming a part of it, dissolving into it.
Likewise, inconceivably awarding the marks of truth and holiness to all the non-Christian religions, whereas they do not contain revealed truth, but are the fruit of the human spirit and, so, neither redeem nor save anyone. Nostra Aetate §2 states:
Quote:The Catholic Church rejects nothing that is true and holy (vera et sancta) in these religions. She looks with sincere respect upon those ways of conduct and of life, those rules and teachings which, though differing in many particulars from what she holds and sets forth, nevertheless often reflect a ray of that Truth which enlightens all men.
It is necessary to note the contradiction in the above, noting too its decidedly Deist tone. That is, if these religions "differ... in many particulars" from the Catholic Church's teaching, how can they "often reflect a ray of that Truth which enlightens all men"? This means that, for the Council, the truth "which enlightens all men" perhaps comes through rules and teachings that differ "in many particulars" from the Church's teaching! (How could an authentic ecumenical Council of the Catholic Church have been inspired to articulate such an idea?)
For a more in-depth study of the errors of Vatican II on the topic of Non-Christian Religions, see here.
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BREAKING: Pope Francis: ‘Every religion is a way to arrive at God’
Pope Francis told young people in Singapore that being ‘Sikh, Muslim, Hindu, Christian’ are just ‘different paths,’
as ‘every religion is a way’ to God.
![[Image: PF-Sing.jpg]](https://www.lifesitenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/PF-Sing.jpg)
Pope Francis addresses young people in Singapore
Vatican News video
SINGAPORE (LifeSiteNews) — Pope Francis today told young people of different faiths that “every religion is a way to arrive at God.”
Addressing an inter-religious meeting of young people in Singapore just before departing for his return flight to Rome, Pope Francis turned to one of the central themes of his pontificate – inter-religious dialogue.
“One of the things that struck me about all of you here is your ability to engage in inter-religious dialogue, and this is very important,” he told the crowd, assembled in Singapore’s Catholic Junior College.
Notwithstanding any comments to the contrary, the Catholic Church has consistently and clearly taught that it is the only true Church, the Body of Christ (Eph 1:22), and it exercises the charge given by Christ to spread the Gospel to all nations and to bring souls into the Church (Mark 16).
‘Every religion’ reaches God
Leaving aside his prepared speech and speaking without a script, Francis instead spoke chiefly on dialogue between religions, having just taken questions from a Catholic, a Sikh, and a Hindu.
The meeting’s widely varied mix of creeds represents Singapore’s status as one of the most diverse religious nations in the world. Focusing on this, Francis urged that no religion be given priority but that individuals instead focus on parity between beliefs:
Quote:If we start to fight amongst ourselves and say “my religion is more important than yours, my religion is true, yours is not,” where will that lead us? Where?
It’s okay to discuss [between religions].
Continuing, the Pope declared that each religion is a means to attain God, stating:
Quote:Every religion is a way to arrive at God. There are different languages to arrive at God, but God is God for all. And how is God God for all? We are all sons and daughters of God. But my god is more important than your god, is that true?
There is only one God and each of us has a language to arrive at God. Sikh, Muslim, Hindu, Christian, they are different paths.
The Pope’s words were warmly welcomed by those present in the hall, which included leaders and representatives of Singapore’s many religious bodies and the large papal retinue.
Courage to pursue religious harmony
Francis also dedicated time warning of the dangers of “bullying” and urging young people to have “courage” to move forward in inter-religious dialogue.
Quote:In order to have inter-religious dialogue between youth it takes courage, because youth is really the time when there is courage in our lives. But you can also have this courage and use it for things that really don’t help you, or you can use that courage to move forward and engage in dialogue.
Engaging in a discussion with the selected young people on the stage about the evils of bullying, Francis urged that to “move past” differences “helps with inter-religious dialogue.”
“You can build and move forward with inter-religious dialogue when you respect each other, and this is very important.”
He encouraged them to build a “safe space” where they could discuss their differences without fear of bullying. “Because dialogue is something that creates a path, a way,” Francis said.
He closed the meeting by calling on all present to “pray for each other” in silence. The Pope did not give a formal blessing – echoing his actions in Indonesia – but instead vocally called for God’s blessings on those present:
Quote:Let’s pray for each other … May God bless all of us. And as time passes and you become older, especially as you become grandparents, pass this on to the children and grandchildren.
God bless you and pray for me, but pray in favor, not against [me].
Following the conclusion of Francis’ comments, the young people assembled made an inter-religious pledge, committing to promote religious dialogue and harmony:
We the future generation pledge to be a beacon of unity and hope by promoting cooperation and friendships that nurture the harmonious co-existence between people of diverse beliefs.
Speaking to a similar inter-religious gathering of youth in Indonesia only last week, Francis said “Here, you are from diverse religions, but we have only one God, He is only one.”
Catholicism and salvation
Pope Francis has made numerous inter-religious statements and collaborated in formal documents on the matter – notably the controversial 2019 Abu Dhabi document and the Istiqlal Declaration, signed just days ago in Indonesia. The Abu Dhabi text has been described as seeking to “overturn the doctrine of the Gospel” due to its promotion of equality of religions in a form of “fraternity.”
However, the much-loved and widely respected approved catechism, the Baltimore Catechism, reminds readers simply that “The one true Church established by Christ is the Catholic Church.” {Q. 152}
Catholic doctrine teaches that this fact is knowable since the Catholic Church alone has the four marks of being the true Church: one, holy, Catholic, and apostolic.
As a result, the Church teaches that all souls must “belong” to the Church to be saved: “All are obliged to belong to the Catholic Church in order to be saved.” {Baltimore Catechism Q 166.}
This teaching of “Extra Ecclesiam nulla salus” (no salvation outside the Church), has been increasingly rejected by modernizing activists in recent years, yet remains valid and unchanging in the Church’s teaching.
Pope Leo XIII pronounced it clearly in his 1824 encyclical letter Ubi Primum:
Quote:It is impossible for the most true God, who is Truth Itself, the best, the wisest Provider, and the Rewarder of good men, to approve all sects who profess false teachings which are often inconsistent with one another and contradictory, and to confer eternal rewards on their members. For we have a surer word of the prophet, and in writing to you We speak wisdom among the perfect; not the wisdom of this world but the wisdom of God in a mystery.
By it we are taught, and by divine faith we hold one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and that no other name under heaven is given to men except the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth in which we must be saved. This is why we profess that there is no salvation outside the Church.
The Vatican’s 1949 decree from the Holy Office instructed bishops charged with promoting true ecumenism to draw souls to the Church, and that they must always teach the fullness of the Church’s priority:
Quote:By no means is it permitted to pass over in silence or to veil in ambiguous terms the Catholic truth regarding the nature and way of justification, the constitution of the Church, the primacy of jurisdiction of the Roman Pontiff, and the only true union by the return of the dissidents to the one true Church of Christ.
The Catholic Church notes that it is possible for those remaining outside the Church “through no grave fault of their own” and who are somehow unaware that the Church is the true Church, to still be saved “by making use of the graces which God gives them.” However, salvation in these cases of “invincible ignorance” is not found through other churches, but is through the Catholic Church as the channel of grace, as taught by St. Thomas Aquinas.
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| The Rosary Crusade that Freed Austria from the Communists |
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Posted by: Stone - 09-12-2024, 03:06 AM - Forum: Prayers and Devotionals
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The Rosary Crusade that Freed Austria from the Communists
TIA | September 11, 2024
“The war [World War I] is going to end. But if they do not stop offending God, another and worse one will begin in the reign of Pius XI. When you shall see a night illumined by an unknown light, you know that this is the great sign that God gives you that He is going to punish the world for its many crimes by means of war, hunger and of persecution of the Church and the Holy Father...
“If my requests are heeded, Russia will be converted, and there will be peace; if not, she will spread its errors throughout the world...”
![[Image: G061_OLF.jpg]](https://www.traditioninaction.org/HotTopics/HTimages_g-k/G061_OLF.jpg)
A warning in 1917: 'Russia will spread her errors throughout the world'
Our Lady of Fatima gave the three shepherd children this prophetic message shortly before the end of World War I. Her predictions sadly came to pass. People continued to offend God and turned the short period of peace into a pursuit of wicked and alluring pleasures in an era that is known as the Roaring Twenties. As is only just, God inflicted the punishment predicted by Our Lady: A worse war came that raged for four long years.
The devastating World War II leveled many European cities and claimed 40-50 million lives across Europe. When at last a peace treaty was negotiated, Germany and her allies were forced to accept harsh punitive terms.
The Soviet Union, one of the Allied powers siding with Britain, France and the United States, was given a large share in the victory spoils: it gained control over large swaths of Eastern Europe, including countries it had occupied like Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania and Eastern Germany. Communism took advantage of the situation to spread its propaganda and tighten its control of the countries. Unlike the other Allied countries, the communists soon showed that they had no intention of abandoning the prized territories allotted to them in the peace treaty.
Austria falls victim to the Soviets
Austria was one of the victims of the iron hand of the Soviets. During the War, Austria had been annexed by Nazi Germany, which gave it both the claim of victim and accomplice in the ensuing debate over Austria’s responsibility for the Nazi war crimes.
![[Image: G061_Occ.jpg]](https://www.traditioninaction.org/HotTopics/HTimages_g-k/G061_Occ.jpg)
After the war, Austria was divided and given to the Four Powers; Russia received the wealthy Viennese region; below, Stalin's portrait being wheeled through central Vienna in 1952
![[Image: G061_Sov.jpg]](https://www.traditioninaction.org/HotTopics/HTimages_g-k/G061_Sov.jpg)
![[Image: G061_Len.jpg]](https://www.traditioninaction.org/HotTopics/HTimages_g-k/G061_Len.jpg)
The Austrian flag alongside the hammer-and-sickle on a tram in Vienna in 1946
Lingering suspicions of Austria’s complicity with the Nazis led the Four Great Powers – United States, Britain, France, and the Soviet Union – to divide the country into four sections to be monitored by the victor countries. Austria was able to maintain her own government since she had not been fully compliant with the Nazi takeover; however, any new legislation could be vetoed by a unanimous vote from all four powers.
The communist forces occupied the wealthiest region of industry and agriculture that included the capital city of Vienna. Subjecting it to their rule, the Soviet Union demanded reparations from Austria. The regions’ oil and shipping companies, factories and railroads were seized by the communists under the pretext that they had been used by the Nazis. The only way the struggling Austrian business owners could have a share in the revenue was to purchase the industries back at an unreasonable price.
The “conquered people” were also forced to pay for the food and clothing of the Red Army, a considerable sum for the already depleted Austria treasury. The soviet soldiers also committed crimes of looting and rape, which were not sufficiently punished by the officers who often sympathized with their men.
Communists infiltrated Austrian society and attempted to stir up unrest. Although the Austrian Communist Party received very little support in the post-war election, the presence of the Red Army in Vienna emboldened them.
In September 1950, it seemed that the Communist Party was plotting a putsch to seize power. For 10 days, workers went on strike, angry at the post war policy of the Austrian government and roused by the communist spirit of class struggle. At last, the strikes were put down, ending the threat of a Communist Revolution.
The Soviet Union claimed no part in the putsch, led as it was mostly by Austrian communists, but the soviets could not deny their promotion of the communist doctrine that continuously posed a threat to the Austrian government.
As Our Lady of Fatima had predicted, Russia was spreading its errors throughout the world. But the Queen of Heaven had a plan to liberate Austria from the communist tyranny, using neither weapons nor words but rather one of the most powerful tools against evil that a Catholic can wield – the Holy Rosary.
Fr. Pavlicek & Our Lady of Fatima
Petrus Otto Pavlicek was born in Innsbruck in 1902. Although raised a devout Catholic, he left the Church in his youth and led a disorderly life. In 1935, he converted after a near death sickness. He determined to pursue the priesthood despite many obstacles, and was at last ordained as a Capuchin in 1941.
![[Image: G061_Pav.jpg]](https://www.traditioninaction.org/HotTopics/HTimages_g-k/G061_Pav.jpg)
Fr. Petrus Pavlicekria spearheaded the Rosary Reparation Crusade; below, the medieval statue of Our Lady of Mariazell in the famous shrine in Austria
![[Image: G061_Mar2.jpg]](https://www.traditioninaction.org/HotTopics/HTimages_g-k/G061_Mar2.jpg)
One year later, Fr. Pavlicek was conscripted into the German Army as a paramedic. The Americans took him prisoner on the feast of the Assumption in 1944. From them he learned about Our Lady of Fatima, whose messages strengthened his commitment to the Holy Rosary, which he strove to promote after his release on July 16, 1945.
Inspired by the message of Fatima, Fr. Pavlicek came to see the Rosary as the answer to the liberation of Austria from communist control. To pray for guidance from above, he traveled to Mariazell, the most popular Austrian pilgrimage site that houses a miraculous wooden statue of Our Lady.
While praying before the statue on February 2, 1947, he heard these words from Our Lady: “Do as I tell you and there will be peace.” Convinced of the truth of her words, Fr. Pavlicek founded the Crusade of Reparation of the Holy Rosary.
Those who joined the Rosary Reparation Crusade prayed not only for the liberation of Austria, but also for the conversion of sinners and the true peace promised by Our Lady of Fatima. Public rosary rallies with growing crowds of people led by Fr. Pavlicek were held on the 13th of each month from 1947 to 1955.
Although lacking funds, Fr. Pavlicek managed to acquire a statue of Our Lady of Fatima from a Bishop of Portugal who was impressed by the Austrian priest’s fervor. This statue, which accompanied Fr. Pavlicek on his processions throughout Austria, was crafted by the same sculptor who made the original Pilgrim Statue of Fatima. As he traveled through the villages, he exhorted sinners and lapsed Catholics to repentance, hearing thousands of confessions along the way.
The monthly rosary processions grew so large that Fr. Pavlicek decided to introduce an annual procession, inviting all the parishes of Vienna to participate. The date he chose was September 12, the feast of the Holy Name of Mary; this was the date in the year 1683 that Vienna was delivered from the threat of the Ottomans through the power of the Rosary and the valor of the Polish King Jan Sobieski.
To achieve a similar victory for Vienna years later, notable state officials joined in the annual procession, including Foreign Minister Leopold Figl and Federal Chancellor Julius Raab. Minister Figl nobly proclaimed to Fr. Pavlicek: “Even if just the two of us be present, I will go. My country demands it!” As it turned out, thousands of Austrians gathered each year to ask for the intercession of Our Lady.
![[Image: G061_Proc.jpg]](https://www.traditioninaction.org/HotTopics/HTimages_g-k/G061_Proc.jpg)
Foreign Minister Figl & Chancellor Raab lead the Rosary Procession through the streets of Vienna
Fr. Pavlicek wanted at least one-tenth of the Austrian population – about 700,000 people – to pray the Rosary every day. His goal was reached in 1955, when more than half a million Austrians had pledged to pray the Rosary; some estimates claim 700,000 Austrians made the pledge.
Coincidently, years earlier roughly the same number of Austrians had officially joined the Nazi Party. It was as though Our Lady was calling the same number of souls to make reparation for the sins of Austrians who chose National Socialism over the liberty of the Catholic Church.
Cold War tensions miraculously lift to free Austria
The early 1950s saw an increased tension between the Soviet Union and the other European Powers: The Cold War had emerged. Many countries, fearing a new war, began to prepare for a Soviet blockade. Communist dictator Joseph Stalin took an aggressive stance and raised high tension in the Allied Nations. Intent on spreading Communism throughout the world, Stalin used violent means to achieve his end.
Stalin’s death in 1953 saw a slight shift in Russian policy, with the communist leaders being more open to peace. However, they still kept a strong hold on all of their acquired territories, which they were unwilling to surrender. Continued negotiations and conferences did little to end the Cold War tensions.
On March 24, 1955 – the same year Fr. Pavlicek had received the Rosary pledge of half a million Austrians – the communists unexpectedly invited the Austrians to yet another peace conference: over 260 such meetings had been held since the end of the War with no progress towards Austrian independence.
Before departing, Chancellor Julius Raab sought out Fr. Pavlicek to implore intensified prayer: “Please pray, and ask your people to pray harder than ever.”
All the occupying powers – the United States, Britain, France and the Soviet Union – gathered for this conference. To the great astonishment of all, the communists agreed to grant Austria independence and to leave Austrian soil with the single condition that Austria remain a neutral country.
![[Image: G061_Ros.jpg]](https://www.traditioninaction.org/HotTopics/HTimages_g-k/G061_Ros.jpg)
Thousands of Austrians join the Rosary Crusade procession to thank Our Lady for freeing the country from the communists in 1955
All four countries signed the Austrian State Treaty on May 15, 1955. This is the only time during the Cold War that the Soviet Union withdrew from a country and signed a treaty with the United States. By October 26, the last Russian soldier had departed Austria, a victory that no other occupied country would see until much later.
Jubilant Austrians gathered in the streets of Vienna processing triumphantly with the statue of Our Lady of Fatima. Realizing that this success had little to do with himself, Chancellor Raab declared: “Today, we, whose hearts are full of faith, cry out to Heaven in joyful prayer: We are free. O Mary, we thank Thee!”
Hearkening to his words, thousands of Austrians have come to Vienna year after year on the feast of September 12 to thank Our Lady of Fatima for the liberation of their country and to pray for peace and the conversion of sinners.
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| The Catholic Trumpet: Alta Vendita 2.0 - The New Face of Masonic Subversion |
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Posted by: Stone - 09-11-2024, 09:44 AM - Forum: Vatican II and the Fruits of Modernism
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Alta Vendita 2.0: The New Face of Masonic Subversion
![[Image: rs=w:1280]](https://img1.wsimg.com/isteam/ip/df55e1a9-c854-4d0b-a2a9-94177954436c/TheTrumpet%20Blog-6.png/:/cr=t:0%25,l:0%25,w:100%25,h:100%25/rs=w:1280)
The Catholic Trumpet [slightly adapted] | September 10, 2024
Quote:The following document outlines a comprehensive strategy devised by Masonic leaders to undermine the Catholic Church. Effective from 1962 and updated in October 1993, these directives aim to erode the Church from within, targeting its liturgical, doctrinal, and organizational aspects.
Summary
The plan detailed in this document reveals an alarming effort to diminish the significance of the Church’s rituals, challenge the sacredness of the Mass, and promote a more secular approach to religion. This systematic reshaping of the Catholic Church aligns with Judeo-Masonic objectives, highlighting the urgent need for vigilance and discernment among the faithful.
Liturgical Changes: The directives advocate for the removal of traditional elements from the Mass, including Latin, the veneration of saints, and the reception of Communion on the knees. It promotes Protestant-influenced practices and secular music, diluting the sacredness of the liturgy.
Alterations in Devotional Practices: The document suggests eliminating traditional penances, devotional books, and hymns. It encourages a shift away from traditional practices such as the veneration of relics and saints, promoting secular and ecumenical approaches instead.
Changes to Religious Education and Vocations: The plan includes undermining Catholic education by employing non-Catholic teachers and reducing religious content. It also aims to transform religious vocations, altering nuns' habits and prioritizing secularism over traditional piety.
Attacks on Papal Authority and Doctrine: The directives seek to challenge the authority of the Pope and weaken the Church’s doctrinal teachings. This includes revising catechisms to align with secular and Protestant views, and reducing the emphasis on traditional Catholic teachings.
This document’s contents alarmingly reflect the objectives outlined in the Alta Vendita—the very document against which Pope Gregory XVI and Pope Leo XIII warned. Just as those Popes foresaw the dangers of Masonic infiltration.
In evaluating this document, let us consider the critique from Bishop Fellay’s 2012 Doctrinal Declaration, particularly point #4, which supports the “hermeneutics of continuity” proposed by Pope Benedict XVI. Bishop Fellay’s declaration states that “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.” However, this approach is merely a modernist rebranding of the condemned notion of the evolution of dogma, firmly rejected by St. Pius X.
How should we interpret the ''THE MASONIC PLAN FOR THE DESTRUCTION OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH'' in light of tradition?
Popes Gregory XVI, Pius IX, Leo XIII, St. Pius X, pray for us!
-The ☩ Trumpet
![[Image: rs=w:1280]](https://img1.wsimg.com/isteam/ip/df55e1a9-c854-4d0b-a2a9-94177954436c/tumblr_n52cr8Os7Y1rsd0e4o1_500.jpg/:/cr=t:0%25,l:0%25,w:100%25,h:100%25/rs=w:1280)
From the column « Storia» of the magazine:« Teologica» n. 14 – March/April 1998 - pages 22-25
Edition Segno – Udine - Italia
Source: conchiglia.us
Note to Reader: You will observe that the majority, if not all, of the instructions outlined below have already been completed.
THE MASONIC PLAN FOR THE DESTRUCTION OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH
Directives of the Grand Master of the Masonry to the Catholic Mason Bishops, effective of 1962.
(Updating of the Vatican II). All of the mason brethren must report on the progress of this decisive disposition. Re-elaborated in October 1993 as the progressive plan for the final study. All of the masons occupied in the Church must collect them and accomplish them.
1. Remove once and for all Saint Michael, protector of the Catholic Church, from all of the prayers internal and external of the Holy Mass. Remove his statues affirming that he distracts the attention to the Adoration of Christ.
2. Remove the Penitential Exercises of Lent like no meat on Friday or even fasting; impede every act of abnegation. In their place acts of happiness, joy and love for the neighbour must be favoured. You must say: “Christ has already deserved Paradise for us” and “every human effort is useless”. Tell everyone that they must seriously think about their health. Encourage them to eat meat, especially pig meat.
3. Entrust the Protestant Pastors to re-examine the Holy Mass and to desecrate it. Spread doubt on the Real Presence in the Eucharist and confirm that the Eucharist – with a faith close[r] to that of the Protestants- it is only bread and wine and is intended as a pure symbol. Spread Protestants in the Seminars and in the schools. Encourage ecumenism as the way towards unity. Accuse anyone who believes in the Real Presence as subversive and disobedient towards the Church.
4. Prohibit the Latin Liturgy of the Mass, Adoration and Hymns, because they communicate a mysterious and deference emotion. Present them like spells of soothsayers. The men will stop to consider the Priests as men of superior intelligence, to be respected as carriers of the Divine Mysteries.
5. Encourage the women to not to cover their heads with a veil in Church. The hairs are sexy. Pretend woman to be readers and Priests. Present the idea as a democratic ideal. Found a movement of liberation of the women. Who enters in to the Church must be badly dressed in order to feel at home. That will make less important the Holy Mass.
6. Dissuade the faithful in receiving the Holy Communion on their knees. Tell the nuns that they must dissuade the children from keeping their hands together before and after Communion. Tell them that God loves them as they are and that they should feel at ease.
Eliminate in the church to remain on the knees and every genuflection. Remove the kneeling stools. Tell the people that during Mass they show their faith standing in an erect position.
7. Eliminate all the holy music played with the organ. Introduce the guitar, Jewish harps, drums, stamping, and holy laughs in the church. That distracts people from their personal prayers and from the conversations with Jesus. Do not give Jesus the time to call children to the religious life. Do liturgical dances with exciting clothes, theatres and concerts around the Altars.
8. Remove all the holy character of the songs to the Mother of God and to Saint Joseph. Indicate their veneration as idolism. Render ridiculous those who persist. Introduce Protestant songs. That will give an impression that the Catholic Church finally admits that the Protestant religion is the true religion or at least it is equal to that of the Catholic Church.
9. Eliminate all of the hymns even those to Jesus because they make the people think of happiness and serenity that derives from life of mortification and of penance for God since infancy. Introduce new songs only to convince the people that the preceding rituals in some way were false.
Assure yourselves in every Mass that there is at least one in which Jesus is not mentioned and that instead speaks only of love for men. The young people will be enthusiastic to hear someone speaking of love for the neighbour. Preach love, tolerance and unity. Do not mention Jesus, prohibit any announcements of the Eucharist.
10. Remove all of the Relics of the Saints from the Altars and then also the Altars themselves. Substitute them with pagan tables without Consecration that can be used to make human offerings during satanic masses.
Eliminate the Ecclesiastical law that want the celebration of the Holy Mass only on Altars containing Relics.
11. Interrupt the practice of the celebration of the Holy Mass at the presence of the Holy Sacrament in the Tabernacle. Do not place any Tabernacle on the Altars that are used for the celebration of the Holy Mass. The table must have the appearance of a kitchen table. It must be transportable to express that it is not at all sacred but must serve a double function as, for example, a table for conferences or for card games. Later on place a chair under the table.
The Priest must take that position to indicate that after Communion he rests as after a meal. The Priest must never be on his knees nor genuflect during the Mass.
At the meals in fact, one is never on his knees. The chair of the Priest must be placed in the position of the Tabernacle. Encourage the people to venerate and also to adore the Priest instead of the Eucharist, to obey him instead of the Eucharist. Tell the people that the Priest is Christ, their leader. Place the Tabernacle in a local place out of sight.
12. Make disappear all of the Saints from the Ecclesiastical calendar, always some in determined days. Prohibit the Priests to preach the Saints, except for those who are mentioned in the Gospel. Tell the people that eventual Protestants, probably present in the church, could be scandalised. Avoid all that disturbs the Protestants.
13. In the reading of the Gospel omit the word “holy”, for example, instead of “Gospel according to Saint John”, simply say: “Gospel according to John”. That will make the people to think that they should not venerate them anymore.
Continuously write new bibles so that they are identical to the Protestants ones. Omit the adjective “Holy” in the expression “Holy Spirit”. That will open the way. Emphasize the feminine nature of God as a mother full of sweetness. Eliminate the use of the term “Father”.
14. Make all the books on personal piety disappear and destroy them. In consequence even the Litanies to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, to the Mother of God, to Saint Joseph will cease as well as for the preparation for the Holy Communion. The giving thanks after the Communion will be superfluous.
15. Make also all of the statues and images of the Angels disappear. Why the statues of our enemies must be between our feet? Define them as myths or stories for the goodnight. Do not allow discussion on the Angels for they perturb our Protestant friends.
16. Abrogate minor exorcisms to expel the devils: work on this, announcing that the devils do not exist. Explain that it is a method adopted in the Bible to design evil and that without the evil there could not exist interesting stories.
In consequence the people will not believe in the existence of hell nor will they fear to ever fall in to it. Repeat that hell is nothing but the furthering away from God and that there is nothing terrible in that if we are speaking about the same life here on earth.
17. Teach that Jesus was only a man who had brothers and sisters and who hated the people with power. Explain that He loved the company of the prostitutes, especially Maria Magdalene; that he did not know what to do with the churches and the synagogues.
Tell them that he advised not to obey the leaders of the Clergy, explain that he was a great teacher that though he deviated from the correct path when he neglected to obey the leaders of the church. Discourage the discussion on the Cross as a victory, on the contrary present it as a failure.
18. Remember that you can endure nuns towards the betrayal of their vocation if you refer to their vanity, attractiveness and beauty. Make them change their Ecclesiastical Habit and that will make them throw away their Rosary.
Reveal to the world that in their convents there are dissents. This will dry their vocation. Tell the nuns that they will not be accepted if they do not renounce their habit. Favour the discredit of the Ecclesiastical Habit even amongst the people.
19. Burn all of the Catechisms. Tell the teachers of religion to teach love the creatures of God instead of God Himself. To openly love testifies maturity. Make that the term “sex” becomes a term of daily use in your classes of religion. Make sex a new religion. Introduce images of sex in the religious lessons to teach the children the reality. Assure yourselves that the images are clear.
Encourage the schools to become progressive thinkers in the field of sex education. Introduce the sexual education through the authority of the Bishop so that the parents will have nothing to say on the contrary.
20. Suffocate the catholic schools, impeding the vocation of the nuns. Reveal to the nuns that they are social workers who are under paid and that the Church is about to eliminate them. Insist that the catholic layman teachers receive the same wage as those of the public schools. Use non catholic teachers. The Priests must receive the same wage the corresponding secular employees. All of the Priests must put away their Clergy Vests and their Crosses in order to be accepted by everyone. Render ridiculous those who do not adapt themselves.
21. Annihilate the Pope, destroying his University. Detach the Universities from the Pope, saying that that way of governing could subsidise. Substitute the names of the Religious Institutes with profane names, in favour of ecumenism. For example, instead of “School of the Immaculate Conception” say “New High School”. Create bodies of ecumenism in all of the Dioceses and worry about having them controlled by Protestants.
Prohibit the Prayers for the Pope and for Mary because they discourage ecumenism. Announce that the local Bishops are the competent authorities. Sustain that the Pope is only a representative figure.
Explain to the people that the teachings of the Pope is necessary only for conversation but they don’t have any meaning.
22. Fight the Authority of the Pope, placing a limit of age on his activity. Reduce him to a very little, explain that you want to preserve him from excess work.
23. Be audacious. Weaken the Pope by introducing synods of Bishops. The Pope will then become only a representative figure as in England where the High Cabinet and the Low one reign and from them the queen receives the orders. Then, weaken the authority of the Bishop, giving life to a concurrent institution at the Presbyterian level.
Say that in that way the Priests will receive the right attention.
Finally weaken the authority of the Priests with the constitution of laymen groups that dominate the Priests. In this way you will originate such a hatred that they will abandon the Church even Cardinals will do so and the Church will then be democratic…the New Church…
24. Reduce the vocation of the Priesthood, making the laymen lose their reverential fear for them. The public scandal of a Priest will annihilate thousands of vocations. Praise the Priests who for the love of a woman abandoned everything, defining them as heroes.
Honour the Priests reduced to a laymen state as authentic martyrs, oppressed to such a point that they could not support anything else. Condemn even as a scandal that our mason brethren in the Priesthood must be made known and that their names be published. Be tolerant with the homosexuals of the Clergy. Tell the people that the Priests suffer of solitude.
25. Begin the closure of the churches due to the scarcity of the Clergy. Define as good and economical this practice. Explain that God listens everywhere the prayers. In that way the church will become extravagant waste of money. Close above all the churches in which there is a traditional piety practice.
26. Use commissions of laymen and Priests who are weak in faith who condemn and reprehend without difficulty every apparition of Mary and apparent miracle, especially those of the Archangel Saint Michael. Assure yourselves that nothing of this, in no measure will receive approval according to the Vatican II.
Name disobedience in respect to the authorities if someone obeys to the Revelations or even if someone reflects on them. Indicate the Prophets as disobedient in respect to the Ecclesiastical Authority.
Cover their name with mud, so that no one will ever think of considering some part of their Message.
27. Elect an Antipope. Affirm that he will bring back the Protestants to the Church and perhaps even the Jews. An Antipope can be elected if the right to vote is given to the Bishops. Then many Antipopes will be elected so that as a compromise an Antipope will be selected. Affirm that the true Pope is dead.
28. Remove the Confession before the Holy Communion for the students of the second and third grade so that it will not be important for them when they go to the fourth or fifth grade and onto higher classes. The confession then will disappear. Introduce (in silence) the community confession with the absolution in group. Explain to the people that this happens due to the scarcity of the Clergy.
29. Make women and laymen distribute the Communion. Tell them this is the time for the laymen. Begin with the deposition of the Communion in the hands, as the Protestants, instead of on the tongue. Explain that Christ did it in the same way. Collect some hosts for the “black masses” in our temples. Distribute also instead of the personal Communion a chalice of non-consecrated hosts for the communion that one could take home with him. Explain to them that in this way they could have divine gifts in their everyday life. Place automatic distributors of hosts for communion and call them Tabernacles.
Say that there must be an exchange of the sign of peace. Encourage the people to move about the church to interrupt the prayer and the devotion. Do not make the Sign of the Cross; in place of It a sign of peace. Explain that even Christ moved to greet the Disciples. Do not allow any concentration in these moments. The Priests must turn their back to the Eucharist and honour the people.
30. After that the Antipope has been elected, dissolve the synod of the Bishops as well as the associations of the Priests and the parish counsels.
Prohibit all the religious people to make discussions without permission, on these new dispositions. Explain that God loves humbleness and hates those who aspire glory. Accuse of disobedient in respect of the Ecclesiastic Authorities all those who raise questions.
Discourage Obedience towards God. Tell the people that they must obey to these Ecclesiastic Superiors.
31. Give the Pope (=Antipope) the maximum power to choose his successors. Order under the penalty of being excommunicated all those who love God to wear the sign of the beast. Do not call it though the “sign of the beast”. The Sign of the Cross must not be done nor used on persons nor through it (one must not bless anymore). To do the Sign of the Cross will be designed as an idolatry and disobedience.
32. Declare false the preceding Dogmas, except for the Pontifical Infallibility. Proclaim Jesus Christ a failed revolutionary. Announce that the true Christ will come soon. Only the elected Antipope must be obeyed. Tell the people that they must bow when they pronounce his name.
33. Order all of the subordinates of the Pope to fight in the holy crusade to extend the only one worldwide religion. Satan knows where all of the lost gold is.
Conquer without pity the world!
All this will bring onto humanity what humanity has always yearned for: “the golden époque of peace”.
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| The Scriptural Rosary - short verse for each bead |
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Posted by: Stone - 09-10-2024, 06:39 AM - Forum: Prayers and Devotionals
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The Old Testament Rosary - short verse for each bead
“Was not our heart burning within us, whilst he spoke in the way and opened to us the scriptures?”
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Picture: Chora Church Anastasis, Wikimedia Commons
WM Review | Oct 08, 2021
“Search the scriptures,” said the Lord. “For you think in them to have life everlasting: And the same are they that give testimony of me, and you will not come to me that you may have life. […]
Think not that I will accuse you to the Father. There is one that accuseth you: Moses, in whom you trust. For if you did believe Moses, you would perhaps believe me also: for he wrote of me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words?” (John 5:39-47)
Several times in the Gospels, Our Lord Jesus Christ himself asserts that the Law, the Psalms and the Prophets point towards him as the Saviour. He specifically claims that Moses wrote of him.
This aid takes short texts from the Old Testament for each Our Father and Hail Mary. It prioritises texts used by the Church, particularly in her Holy Liturgy.
The texts for each Our Father are taken from the Pentateuch (the first five books), also known as the Law of Moses. The redemption appears with great clarity even in these earliest Scriptures, showing Christ as the New Adam and fulfilling so many promises.
“All things must needs be fulfilled which are written in the law of Moses and in the prophets and in the psalms, concerning me.”
Then he opened their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures. (Luke 24:44-46)
There are many such aids in circulation, but ours are briefer – adding nothing to the time taken to say the Rosary – and are therefore more suited to memorisation. The texts are prophecies and foreshadowings of the life of Christ, and they perhaps even give us a glimpse into the thoughts and feelings of his Sacred Heart, in his joys, sorrows and glories.
“O foolish and slow of heart to believe in all things which the prophets have spoken,” said the Lord. “Ought not Christ to have suffered these things and so, to enter into his glory?”
And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded to them in all the scriptures the things that were concerning him. And they drew nigh to the town whither they were going: and he made as though he would go farther. But they constrained him, saying:
“Stay with us, because it is towards evening and the day is now far spent.”
And he went in with them. And it came to pass, whilst he was at table with them, he took bread and blessed and brake and gave to them. And their eyes were opened, and they knew him. And he vanished out of their sight, and they said one to the other:
“Was not our heart burning within us, whilst he spoke in the way and opened to us the scriptures?” (Luke 24:25-32)
Some of these texts must have featured in this explanation on the road to Emmaus. We hope that those who use this aid also find their hearts burning within them at the majesty of Our Lord Jesus Christ and his holy Mother, and the admirable precision with which his life makes sense of these 165 texts from the Old Testament.
The Joyful Mysteries
1. The Annunciation
I shall put enmities between thee and the woman. Our Father, etc. Gn 3.15.
- Behold a virgin shall be with child. Hail Mary, etc. Is 7.14
- And his name shall be called Emmanuel. Is 7.14
- He shall come down like rain on the fleece. Ps 71.6
- And a rod shall come forth from the root of Jesse. Is 11.1
- He shall sit on the throne of David. Is 9.7
- Drop down dew, ye heavens: let the clouds rain the Just. Is 45.8
- Let the earth bud forth a Saviour. Is 45.8
- Thou art my Son: this day have I begotten thee. Ps 2.7
- From the womb, before the daystar, I begot thee. Ps 109.3
- A body thou hast fitted to me: I come to do thy will. Ps 39.7
2. The Visitation
Shall an old woman bear a child? Is anything hard to God? Gn 18.14-15.
- Arise, O Lord, with the Ark that thou hast sanctified. Ps 131.8
- Before thou camest forth from the womb, I sanctified thee. Jr 1.5
- I made thee a prophet to the nations. Jr 1.5
- Behold, I send my angel before my face. Ml 3.1
- I send you Elias before the dreadful day. Ml 4.5
- The voice crying out in the wilderness: Is 40.3
- Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths. Is 40.3
- Valley shall be exalted. Is 40.4
- Mount made low. Is 40.4
- And the glory of the Lord revealed. Is 40.5
3. The Nativity of our Lord
A star shall rise out of Jacob. Nm 24.17.
- And thou, Bethlehem, art not the least in Juda. Mi 5.2
- From thee shall come the Captain to rule my people. Mi 5.2
- His going forth shall be from the days of eternity. Mi 5.2
- A Child is born to us, a Son is given to us. Is 9.6
- The Mighty God, the Prince of Peace. Is 9.6
- Before she was in labour, she brought forth a man. Is 66.7
- The ox knoweth his owner, the ass his master’s crib. Is 1.3
- But Israel hath not known me or understood. Is 1.3
- But the Kings of Tharsis shall offer presents. Ps 71.10
- And they from Saba bring gold and frankincense. Is 60.6
4. The Presentation of Our Lord in the Temple
Thou shalt offer thy son for an holocaust. Gn 22.2.
- Every firstborn is mine, since I struck the firstborn of Egypt. Nm 3.13
- Sanctify to me the firstborn that opens the womb. Ex 13.12
- Then the woman shall enter the sanctuary after her purification. Lv 12.4
- And bringing a holocaust, shall she be cleansed. Lv 12.8
- But thou art all fair, my love, without a spot in thee. Cn 4.7
- The Lord whom you seek shall suddenly come to his temple. Ml 3.1
- The Desired of All Nations shall fill this house with glory. Ag 2.8
- Then a voice in Rama, Rachel bewailing her children. Jr 31.15
- So the Lord will ascend and enter into Egypt. Is 19.1
- ’Til out of Egypt have I called my son. Os 11.1
5. The Finding of our Lord in the Temple
Thrice a year shall thy males appear before me. Ex 23.17.
- My soul longs for the courts of the Lord. Ps 83.3
- For better is one day in thy courts than thousands elsewhere. Ps 83.11
- Zeal for thy house hath eaten me up. Ps 68.10
- I have understood more than my teachers. Ps 118.99
- For out of the mouths of infants thou hast perfected praise. Ps 8.3
- I will rise, and will go about the city. Cn 3.2
- In the streets I will seek my beloved. Cn 3.2
- I sought him, and I found him not. Cn 3.2
- And when I found him, whom my soul loveth: Cn 3.4
- I held him: and will not let him go. Cn 3.4
The Sorrowful Mysteries
1. The Agony of our Lord in the Garden
The Lord God put Adam in the Garden, to dress it and keep it. Gn 2.15.
- Save me O God: for the waters come into my soul. Ps 68.2
- My heart hath expected reproach and misery. Ps 68.21
- Friend and neighbour thou hast put far from me. Ps 87.9
- I looked for one to grieve with me. Ps 68.21
- But I found none that would comfort me. Ps 68.21
- The cords of the wicked encompassed me. Ps 118.61
- They have hated me without cause. Ps 34.19
- They weighed for my price, thirty pieces of silver. Zc 11.12
- If an enemy had reviled me, I would have borne it. Ps 54.13
- But he who ate my bread hath lifted his heel against me. Ps 40.10
2. The Scourging at the Pillar
He shall wash his robe in wine, in the blood of the grape. Gn 49.11
- Unjust witnesses paid me evil for good. Ps 34.11
- But I have set my face as a most hard rock. Is 50.7
- I am ready for scourges: my sorrow is ever before me. Ps 37.18
- I have given my body to the strikers. Is 50.6
- The wicked have wrought on my back. Ps 128.3
- We thought him struck by God and afflicted. Is 53.4
- For the Lord bruised him in infirmity. Is 53.10
- But he was wounded for our iniquities. Is 53.10
- He was bruised for our sins. Is 53.5
- And by his stripes we are healed. Is 53.5
3. The Crowning of our Lord with Thorns
Thorns and thistles shall the earth bring forth to thee. Gn 3.18
- There is no beauty in him, nor comeliness. Is 53.2
- Despised, the most abject of men. Is 53.3
- A man of sorrows, acquainted with infirmity. Is 53.3
- His look was hidden and despised. Is 53.3
- Whereupon we esteemed him not. Is 53.3
- The wicked draw near against me. Ps 26.2
- I have given my cheeks to them that plucked them. Is 50.6
- I turned not my face from spitting. Is 50.6
- And all that saw me have laughed me to scorn. Ps 21.8
- O ye that pass by the way, is there sorrow like to mine? Lam 1.12
4. Our Lord’s Carrying of his Cross
He laid the wood for the holocaust on Isaac his son. Gn 22.6.
- He shall be led as a sheep to the slaughter. Is 53.7
- Dumb as a lamb before his shearer. Is 53.7
- He hath borne our infirmities, carried our sorrows. Is 53.4
- The chastisement of our peace was upon him. Is 53.4
- For the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. Is 53.6
- My soul hath cleaved to the pavement. Ps 118.25
- I am a worm and no man. Ps 21.7
- My strength is dried up like a potsherd. Ps 21.16
- My tongue hath cleaved to my jaws. Ps 21.16
- Thou hast brought me down to the dust of death. Ps 21.16
5. The Crucifixion and Death of our Lord
God will provide himself a victim for an holocaust. Gn 22.8.
- O God, my God, look upon me: why hast thou forsaken me? Ps 21.2
- They have pierced my hands and my feet. Ps 21.17
- They have numbered all my bones. Ps 21.17
- They divided my garments; casting lots for my vesture. Ps 21.19
- In my thirst they gave me vinegar. Ps 68.22
- Her sun is gone down, while it was yet day. Ez 37.26
- They shall not break a bone of him. Ex 12.46
- They shall look upon him whom they pierced. Zc 12.10
- He was reputed with the wicked. Is 53.12
- But his sepulchre shall be glorious, made with the rich man. Is 11.10, 53.9
The Glorious Mysteries
1. The Resurrection of our Lord from the Dead
The Lord God cast a deep sleep upon Adam. Gn 2.21.
- The Stone which the builders rejected has become the head of the corner. Ps 117.22
- My heart hath been glad, and my flesh shall rest in hope. Ps 15.9
- For thou wilt not leave my soul in Hell. Ps 15.10
- Nor suffer thy Holy One to see corruption. Ps 15.10
- O Death, I will be thy death: O Hell, I will be thy bite. Os 13.14
- I have risen, and am with thee still. Ps 138.18
- Thou hast lifted me up from the gates of death. Ps 9.15
- The Lord brought me out of the pit, and set my feet on a rock. Ps 39.3
- To him my soul shall live: and my seed shall serve him. Ps 21.31
- This is the day that the Lord hath made: let us be glad and rejoice therein. Ps 117.24
2. The Ascension of our Lord into Heaven
Arise, O Lord, and let thy enemies be scattered. Nm 10.35.
- Make a way for him who ascendeth upon the West. Ps 67.5
- He mounteth above the heavens to the East. Ps 67.34
- God is ascended with jubilee, the Lord with sound of trumpet. Ps 46.6
- Ascending on high, thou hast led captivity captive. Ps 67.19
- Sit at my right, ’til I make thy enemies thy footstool. Ps 109.1
- The Lord hath prepared his throne in Heaven. Ps 102.19
- His kingdom shall rule over all. Ps 102.19
- The Lord hath reigned, he is clothed with beauty. Ps 92.1
- Thou hast set on his head a crown of precious stones. Ps 20.4
- All people, tribes and tongues shall serve him. Dn 7.14
3. The Descent of the Holy Ghost at Pentecost
The Lord thy God is a consuming fire. Dt 4.24.
- Send forth thy Spirit, and they shall be created: Ps 103.30
- And thou shalt renew the face of the earth. Ps 103.30
- Come, Spirit, from the four winds: Ez 37.9
- Blow on these slain, and let them live: Ez 37.9
- And the Spirit came into them, and they lived. Ez 37.10
- I will pour upon you clean water: Ez 36.25
- And you shall be cleansed from all your filthiness. Ez 36.25
- I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh: Jo 2.28
- And write my law in their hearts. Jr 31.33
- And those that call on the Lord shall be saved. Jo 2.32
4. The Assumption of our Lady into Heaven
It is not good for man to be alone. Gn 2.18.
- Hearken, O Daughter, for the King hath desired thy beauty: Ps 44.12
- Arise, my love, my dove, and come. Cn 2.13
- For winter is past, the rain is over and gone. Cn 2.11
- Forget thy people, and thy father’s house. Ps 44.11
- With thy comeliness and beauty, proceed and reign. Ps 44.5
- Who is she going up from the desert? Cn 3.6
- A pillar of smoke, of aromatical spices; Cn 3.6
- Perfumed with myrrh and frankincense; Cn 3.6
- Flowing with delights, and leaning upon her Beloved. Cn 8.5
- Come from Libanus, my spouse, come and be crowned. Cn 4.8
5. The Coronation of our Lady as Queen of Heaven
She shall crush thy head. Gn 3.15.
- My heart hath uttered a good word, I speak my words to the King. Ps 44.2
- By me, his handmaid, hath he fulfilled his mercy. Jt 13.18
- And he hath killed his people’s enemy by my hand. Jd 13.18
- I am the Mother of fair love, and of holy hope. Ecclus 24.24
- The Queen at thy right hand, in gold arrayed. Ps 44.10
- Thou art the glory of Jerusalem, and the honour of our people. Jt 15.10
- All the rich shall entreat thy countenance. Ps 44.13
- Grace is poured out from thy lips. Ps 44.3
- Instead of thy fathers, princes are born to thee. Ps 44.17
- They shall remember thy name forever and ever. Ps 44.18
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| An Unexpected Confession Due to Our Lady |
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Posted by: Stone - 09-09-2024, 05:57 AM - Forum: Our Lady
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An Unexpected Confession Due to Our Lady
St. Alphonsus de Ligouri
Taken from The Glories of Mary
TIA | September 7, 2024
Our Lady is called the Gate of Heaven by the Holy Church: "Felix coeli porta" because as St. Bernard observes, just as every rescript of pardon sent by the King comes through the palace gate, so it is that through Mary comes every pardon from God. Likewise, St. Bonaventure says that Mary is called the Gate of Heaven because no one can enter Heaven if he does not pass through Mary, who is the door of it.
Now then, this example is not recorded in any book, but a priest, a companion of mine, related it to me as having happened to himself.
Whilst this priest was hearing confessions in a certain church (for sufficient reasons he did not mention the place where this occurred, although the penitent gave him leave to publish the fact), a youth stood before him, who appeared to wish and not to wish to come to confession.
The priest, after looking at him several times, at length called him and asked him if he wished to make his confession. He answered, yes; but as he required a long time for it, the confessor took him into a retired room. There the penitent began by telling him that he was a foreigner and of noble birth, but he could not believe that it was possible for God to pardon him after the life he had led.
Besides innumerable other sins he had committed of impurity, homicide, etc, he said that he had fallen entirely into despair of salvation, and so he had set about committing sins not so much for his own gratification but only to defy God and manifest the hatred he bore Him. He said that among other things, he had with him a crucifix, which he had beaten out of contempt.
He said that on that very morning, he had made a sacrilegious Communion, and for what object? That he might put under his feet the consecrated Host. In fact, he continued, he had actually received Communion and was about to put into execution this horrible intention, but was prevented by the people who might observe him.
He then consigned to the confessor the consecrated Host, wrapped in a paper, and told him that as he was passing by that church he had a great desire to enter. He could not resist this desire, and had entered. Then, he continued, he had felt great remorse of conscience, together with a certain confused and irresolute desire to make his confession. For this reason he had placed himself before the confessional, but while standing there he felt so confused and timid that he wished to go away, but it seemed as if some one had retained him by force.
This was his situation until, he said: "You, Father, called me, and now I find myself here. I find myself making my confession, but I know not how to do it."
The priest then asked him if he had practiced any act of devotion during that time – meaning towards the Most Holy Mary – for such sudden conversions only come through the powerful hands of the Virgin.
"None, Father; what devotion could I offer," answered the youth, “when I believed myself lost?"
"But try to remember more carefully," replied the priest.
"Father, nothing."
But accidentally putting his hand to his breast, he remembered that he wore the Scapular of the Seven Dolors of Mary: Maria addolorata.
"Ah, my son," said the confessor to him, "do you not see that Our Bessed Lady has bestowed this grace upon you? And know," he added, "that this church is a church of Our Blessed Lady."
Hearing this, the youth was moved to contrition, and began to weep. He confessed his sins, and his compunction increased to such a degree that, bursting into tears, he fell down, overcome with grief, as it seemed, at the feet of the priest. That priest, after having restored the youth with a cordial, finally finished by hearing his confession and absolving him with the greatest consolation, as he was entirely contrite and resolved to amend his life.
The priest sent him back to his own country after having obtained from him full liberty to preach and publish everywhere the great mercy exercised by Mary towards him.
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| Archbishop Viganò: Homily on the Feast of the Nativity of Mary Most Holy |
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Posted by: Stone - 09-09-2024, 03:53 AM - Forum: Archbishop Viganò
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![[Image: IMG_4827.jpeg]](https://exsurgedomine.it/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/IMG_4827.jpeg)
Genuisti qui te fecit
Homily on the Nativity of Mary Most Holy
Allow me to express my greeting to the dear parents, relatives, and friends of Claudio and Fabrizio, who today consecrate themselves to the service of the Most High: not on the feast day of the Presentation in the Temple, as usually happens, but on another Marian feast that is no less important. Tu es qui restitues hereditatem meam mihi. You are the One who gives me the inheritance that is due to me (Ps 15:5). These are the words that accompany the rite of the Sacred Tonsure, signifying that the abandonment of the world represented by the cutting of hair involves a loss of transient and changeable things in order to appropriate the eternal and immutable ones.
As on the Feast of the Assumption, so also on the Nativity of Mary Most Holy we find the parallel between the Virgin Mother and Holy Church confirmed. She is Queen and Lady just as her Divine Son is King and High Priest. The liturgy of this blessed day is centered on the Mystery of the Incarnation, for which the Most Holy Trinity created ab æterno, from of old (Prov 8:23) the One who – assimilated to Divine Wisdom – would be the Ark of the Covenant, the Tower of David, the Living Tabernacle of the Most High. From the first moment of Her Conception, Our Lord consecrated the integrity of the Mother of God by preserving Her from original sin and keeping Her Ever-Virgin: quæ et Unigenitum tuum Sancti Spiritus obumbratione concepit; et Virginitatis gloria permanente, lumen æternum mundo effudit, Jesum Christum Dominum nostrum. Who also conceived Thine only-begotten Son by the overshadowing of the Holy Ghost, and the glory of her virginity still abiding, gave forth to the world the everlasting Light, Jesus Christ our Lord. (Preface of the Blessed Virgin Mary).
Saint Bernard calls Mary Most Holy the Aqueduct of Grace, because through her all the graces and blessings of Christ, the Divine Fountainhead, come to us. Holy Church is also a channel of Grace through the Sacraments. In Her bosom the Body of the Lord is mystically formed in the Blessed Sacrament of the Altar; thanks to the Priesthood, the Sacrifice of the Mass perpetuates the presence of Emmanuel, God-with-us.
The clerical vestment and the sacred tonsure that I am preparing to confer on Claudio and Fabrizio in this solemn celebration mark the moment in which they freely choose to dedicate themselves to the Lord and to renounce the world. The rite contained in the Roman Pontifical shows this separation with its external signs – the black cassock, the cutting of hair, and the surplice that symbolizes the new man with whom to clothe oneself in justitia, et sanctitate Veritatis, in righteousness and true holiness. The cleric stops living in a worldly manner, however licit, so as to follow the example of the Divine Master: in the world, but not of the world. In fact, what is of the world is profane, and as such must remain outside the temple, which is precisely sacred and holy, that is, separate and inviolable because it is reserved for the worship of God (sacer) and ratified by God as His (sanctus).
The cleric, with his austere robe that silently but eloquently recalls the Cross of Christ, penance, renunciation, and mortification, is and must be “outside the world.” For this reason, the world hates everything that recalls heavenly realities, the external signs of Religion, the Cross, the relics of the saints, the sacred images, and also the cassock that today you will put on forever, and which is stripped from those who, although honored with Holy Orders, continue to live in a manner that belongs to the world.
This ceremony is the first step in the itinerarium (path) towards the priesthood. In the Liturgy of the Nativity of Mary Most Holy, and in particular in the Epistle taken from the Book of Wisdom, we find a starting point for spiritual meditation: Therefore, O children, listen to me: Blessed are those who walk in my ways. Hear the teaching, be wise, and do not reject it: Blessed is the man who hears me and watches over me daily at the entrance of my house, and is attentive to the edge of my door. Whoever finds me will find life and receive salvation from the Lord (Prov 8:32-35).
Dear Claudio and Fabrizio, you are preparing to walk towards a goal, following a very precise path. You are called to keep vigil every day in the dwelling of the Lord, on the threshold of the Holy of Holies, in order that one day you may be worthy to offer to the Divine Majesty the pure, holy and immaculate Victim, born of a pure, holy and immaculate Virgin. And for this reason your life and your whole being must have as their model Christ, Victim and Priest, and His Most Holy Mother, who is our Mother and who in Co-redemption united herself to the Lord’s Passion. Divine Wisdom and the Virgin Mary both speak to the heart of each one of you: my delights are to be with the children of men (Prov 8:31). The Church also repeats these words to you, and you yourselves must combine your duties towards God with charity towards your neighbor, so that those who from this day forward see you, listen to you, and turn to you, may see in you a minister of Christ and listen to his voice, the voice of the Church, established by God in initio viarum suarum, the firstborn of His ways (Prov 8:22).
The world is hostile to you, as it was hostile to Our Lord, and as it is hostile to everything that comes from God: if they have persecuted me, they will persecute you also (Jn 15:20), the Divine Master warns us. If the world did not mock you, did not marginalize you, did not fight you, that would mean that the world saw something of its own in you, and you would know that you do not represent a threat. But you are like these conscientious doctors who were disbarred during the pandemic farce because they treated patients instead of killing them with wretched protocols; you are like these teachers suspended because they were unwilling to corrupt children and young people with the perversions of gender and woke ideology; you are like these magistrates who are dismissed because they administer justice instead of letting criminals go free. You are strangers to the world, and the world knows this and fears you because of the power of the Gospel of Christ that you preach.
Today the Church of Christ has been obscured and eclipsed by the heretics and corrupt who have occupied it: the Hierarchy has prostituted itself to the world and has made its maxims its own. It no longer recognizes the Lordship of Our Lord, and proclaims along with the Sanhedrin: We have no king but Caesar (Jn 19:15). On the Throne of Peter sits, not the Vicar of Christ, but a usurper devoted to the demolition of the Church. The ostracism that the faithful and clerics suffer for their fidelity to the Lord is therefore not the voice of the Church but rather of its counterfeit. This is why false pastors fear and fight against those who denounce their betrayal.
They will tell you that you are an endangered minority; that you want to distinguish yourself from others out of pride; that your rigidity and backwardness are contrary to the Gospel; that the Faith you proclaim is obsolete and intolerant; that the Liturgy you celebrate is incomprehensible and distant. They will tell you that you are few and alone, just as there are few good doctors, good teachers, and good judges: pusillus grex (little flock). And while they fill their mouths with words of inclusiveness and acceptance, tolerance and dialogue, it will be only against you that their fury will be unleashed, only for you that their prisons will be opened. Excommunications for heretics and schismatics are hurled against those who fight error and schism, in the overthrow of every principle and in the abuse of both civil and religious authority. Just as prison doors open to release criminals while honest people are locked up. Satan is not bipolar: his corrupting action – a liar and murderer from the beginning (Jn 8:44) – reveals that lucidity in deception and perverse coherence which is proper to an angelic mind, albeit fallen – that is, diabolical. And this is why today the Church goes through its own passio at the hands of its own leaders, just as it was once the Sanhedrin that stirred up the people and blackmailed Pilate in order to send Our Lord to death.
Yet, despite the efficiency of the organization of the forces of evil and the disorganization of the good, Satan knows he has already lost, this is why he does everything he can to drag as many souls as possible into damnation with him, thus nullifying the Redemption. This is why he wants a world without faith, without hope, without love. This is why he wants a world without priests, without religious and nuns, without expiatory souls. And for this reason – as we see happening – he wants every vocation to be corrupted, perverted, or rendered useless. This is why Satan demands that his arrogant lie not only be tolerated, but that it be accepted as such and that the Truth be condemned. His imposture requires conscious and ostentatious adherence to error, together with the obstinate rejection of the Good. This is the only way to explain the abomination of desolation in the holy place: a man who usurps the Throne of Peter and the sacred authority of Our Lord to impose apostasy and destroy the Church.
Dear Claudio and Fabrizio, do not be discouraged! The Church has always been considered alien to the world, as is Our Lady, Mary Most Holy. We are exsules filii Hevæ, children of the old Eve in sin, children of the new Eve in Grace. Our exile is the time of trial and struggle by which we merit the citizenship of the heavenly Jerusalem. Our Lady’s Nativity makes Her the purest and holiest of all creatures, associating our poor humanity with Her perfections. And with Her Assumption into Heaven in body and soul, she shows us our heavenly homeland. May her virtues – first of all humility and purity – be the cornerstone of your spiritual life, because all the evils that afflict the ecclesial body today derive from pride and fornication. We have a distressing example of this in the scandals of the Bergoglian sect. Be humble in accepting the treasure that Holy Church holds, handing it over to posterity without adding or taking anything away from it. Be pure in the daily immolation of your body and soul, knowing that you are always in the presence of God and the Virgin Mary.
Let us therefore make ourselves worthy, with the Grace of God and under the patronage of Mary Most Holy, to reach the goal indicated by the Stella matutina, the Morning Star that announces the Sun of Justice, repeating with filial trust the Marian antiphon: Et Jesum, benedictum fructum ventris tui, nobis, post hoc exilium, ostende. And after this our exile show unto us the blessed fruit of thy womb, Jesus. And so may it be.
+ Carlo Maria Viganò, Archbishop
September 8, a. D.ñi MMXXIV
In Nativitate B.M.V.
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| Fr. Coleridge [1886]: The Life of Our Lady in St Anne's Womb |
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Posted by: Stone - 09-08-2024, 04:37 AM - Forum: Our Lady
- No Replies
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The Life of Our Lady in St Anne's Womb, and the Silence of Scripture
Does Scripture's silence on the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God, mean there's nothing to know?
Explore the hidden truths and theological insights that shape our understanding of her unique role.
![[Image: https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.ama...x1263.jpeg]](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F2302144c-a5ac-4ba0-baae-aa5a2e3dde07_2246x1263.jpeg)
St Anne and St Joachim meeting at the Golden Gate, Wiki Commons.
WM Review [slightly adapted] | Sep 06, 2024
As we are approaching the feast of the Nativity of Our Lady, we will be publishing a few meditations on her role in God’s divine plan for redemption.
Our Lady in the Womb of St Anne
From Mother of the King – Mary During the Life of Our Lord
How we are to know the history of Mary
It is well known that the history of our Blessed Lady, both interior and exterior, is not written for us in the records of Scripture, nor preserved for us by any authentic traditions of the Church.
Many parts of it furnish us with one of the most beautiful instances that we possess of the working of the principle of development in matters of truth, as if it had been the purpose of our Lord to leave the children of the Church to find out, by their own diligent musings and considerations on the few facts revealed to them, what had been His dealings with this most beloved soul of His Mother, rather than to impose them as matters of faith and draw them out formally as revealed doctrines from the first.
This may remind us of the manner in which He seems to have frequently dealt with the Blessed Mother herself, whose characteristic grace it was to ponder over the mysteries as they passed in a glorious procession before her eye, to compare one feature with another in the gradually unfolded series, and then to use the thoughts of her own heart, so full of Divine grace, to help her to conclusions as to the meaning and importance of what was thus made manifest, and of all that it implied which was not made specially manifest.
Unless we are mistaken, we have in this truth the secret of the whole interior life of Mary, as far as that life consisted in her own cooperation with the graces and illuminations which she received.
What we conclude concerning her
The subject of the present chapter is one as to which we have no single word of direct information in Scripture, and yet we conclude with great confidence that, during the months which she spent in the womb of her mother, Mary's intelligence and heart were fully alive and immensely active, in praising and adoring God, in thanksgiving, in offering of herself for His service, and in other interior operations of the mind and the affections.
That is, we suppose that by an unusual gift her mind and her heart were enriched thus early by the use of their powers, and that she was thus raised by grace to a condition in this respect like that of our Blessed Lord when He was in her womb. We learn this truth concerning Him, not by any statement in the Gospel history, but by drawing a reasonable conclusion from the theological facts concerning His Person, which is confirmed positively by some words of St. Paul.
The reason why we assume it as to His Mother will be seen hereafter. But it may be well, once for all, to say first, a few words which may serve as an explanation of the method here followed, which is neither new nor in any way dangerous or suspicious to Christian piety. Let us say what is to be said by way of answer to the complaint that these things are not related to us in Holy Writ.
Men are always fretting over the silence of Scripture, because they do not understand that its purpose, in the Divine counsels, is not what they suppose it to be; and that, on the other hand, there may be many Divine reasons for its silence on certain points.
The composition of the New Testament, under the guidance of the Holy Ghost, did not leave room for the revelation in its pages of all the matters which our Christian curiosity might wish to find there.
The four Gospels were written each with a definite purpose and object, and are more or less confined to the history of our Lord's Preaching and Passion. This history is almost entirely external. It records what men like the Evangelists and Apostles could see and hear.
The Acts contain but the shortest, though most pregnant, sketch of the prominent features in the history of the teaching of the Apostles, especially with reference to the first great change which was made after the day of Pentecost, in the admission of the Gentiles and the abrogation of the Mosaic Law as of any obligation on the Church.
The Epistles are all incidental and particular in their object and contents, and the Apocalypse, though it contains so many wonderful mysteries of the future, or of the early history of the Church, was not intended to fill up any of the omissions of the rest of the Sacred Books with regard to the subject on which we are engaged. In one most signal instance, at least, it does fill up for us a blank as to our Blessed Lady, but this is not done in the form of a contribution to her history on earth.
Another source from which we might have learnt a great deal concerning our Lady's family and early life, was cut off when the traditions of the first Jewish Christianity were lost in the desolation of the Church of Jerusalem on the destruction of the national polity.
But it may be well to pause awhile in order to dwell shortly on some considerations which may help to explain the silences of Scripture in general. We shall then be able to see how much there is to account to us for this particular silence of which we are here speaking.
Scripture does not repeat itself
We meet readily enough the objections which are brought by ordinary Protestants about the silence of Scripture on many matters which belong to the doctrine and discipline of the Church.
It is not the way of Scripture to say twice what has already been sufficiently said once, and this answer applies to a number of subjects on which the Old Testament had been sufficiently explicit for all practical ends. Thus our Lord did not lay down in explicit terms the doctrine of the Resurrection of the dead as a new matter of revelation. He told the Sadducees that it was sufficiently proved by the words of God in the manifestation to Moses at the burning bush.
In the same way we may account for the great silence of the Gospels as to the doctrine of Sacrifice. That doctrine has been universal among men from the first, and, moreover, it was taught to the Jews in the most precise and minute manner, descending even to the distinction of the various ends of Sacrifice, and the like, by the divinely authorized witness of the Temple services and the ritual obligations of the Law.
Again, we are told that there is no New Testament authority for prayers for the dead, which form a part, it may be said, even of natural religion. We answer that the truth about the departed was believed, and the corresponding practice already common, among the children of the elder dispensation.
Nor deal with the organization of the Church
When we are challenged as to the hierarchical order of the Church, the number of sacraments, the duty of confession for the remission of sins by absolution, and the like, we answer either that the books of the New Testament were not meant to give a code on such subjects, which was already in practical existence among those for whom the New Testament was written, or that the truths in question are virtually in principle enounced by our Lord Himself, as is the case with the duty of confession.
We say that the whole living system of Christian organization was a matter which did not fall within the scope of the several Gospels or Epistles, even if there had not been strong positive reasons why Scripture should not be made the authoritative and explicit record of these things.
The tendency on the part of heretics and rebels against authority to use the words of Scripture against the Church, must have been obvious from the first. As Scripture was to witness to the Church as to her authority, and as to her teaching in most of its details, it was not to write out that teaching for any one to misunderstand or misrepresent at will.
The doctrine was to grow
Moreover, the doctrine of the Church was to grow in the Divine manner appointed for its growth, and it was to take the whole lifetime of the Church on earth to unfold it with full explicitness, in all its parts and developments, the time for which was to arrive for each part in the order arranged by God.
Thus the old universal truth was to be unfolded in all its fulness of inherent richness, sometimes by the process of conflict with the undying swarms of heresy, sometimes under the more gentle influence of the natural progress and instinct of Christian devotion. It would have been destructive of this provision if all had been set forth in full detail at once, before it could be understood.
St. John says that the world could not have contained all the books which might be written about our Lord, and he is understood by some of the Christian writers to mean that if all had been written out at the very beginning, many facts and truths would have been proclaimed out of their due time, and when the world was not ripe for them, and would therefore have turned against them and rejected the whole system for the sake of them.
Holy Scripture was to contain many things which were not to be seen in their full meaning till long after they were written, as the statement in Genesis on which St. Paul builds an argument for the doctrine of justification by faith and not by the works of the Law.
But it was always also to have due regard to the minds and conditions of knowledge to those to whom it was immediately addressed, at least so far as not to put forward what they would take offence or scandal at, or what they might dangerously misunderstand.
Office of theological reason
There are two other reasons for many of the silences of Scripture which may be used here, as bearing more especially on the subjects which are now before us.
The first lies in this, that it is the purpose of Sacred Scripture to leave many things unsaid, for a reason parallel to that which has been already mentioned in connection with such matters as prayers for the departed, which are hinted at in the New Testament rather than expressly enjoined. The doctrine in which that practice was founded was in full possession among the Jews, and as the New Testament does not formally enact the Ten Commandments, so neither does it formally enact prayer for the departed, or again, recourse to the intercession of the departed saints.
Something of the same kind is to be found in the recognition in Scripture, and in the system of our Lord, of the use of what is called theological reason as an instrument of truth. Our Lord did not draw out all the inferences and conclusions which are involved in the principles and in the precepts which He promulgated. He even complained of the Apostles for not using their understanding on such points, and the occasion on which He made the complaint was not one when everything was plain at first sight.1
He leaves many things to the enlightened Christian reason, working out its results under the guidance of the Church. The Church was to have her office as to truth, which was not to be anticipated even in the words of our Lord. An instance of this may be found in His forbearance as to so much dogmatic teaching, which might have saved controversy in the Apostolic age with regard to the abrogation of the Mosaic Law.
The conclusions of that question are, indeed, contained in the New Testament, because it embraces the history of the controversy and many of the arguments of St. Paul therein. But in those arguments we see the constant use of Christian theological reasoning.
This is the beautiful and fruitful instrument by the use of which the great fabric of the Church's system of truth has been brought out and organized. And what was meant to be the fruit of one holy instrument in this matter, was not meant to be the fruit of another.
There are many conclusions concerning our Blessed Lady which seem purposely to have been left for this, and the silence of Scripture concerning her is a Divine provision for its working. It was not that Scripture could not have told us…
- All that was involved in the dignity of the Mother of God
- Or, again, all the truths that are wrapt up in the single Greek word [κεχαριτωμένη (kecharitomene)] in which the Angel is recorded to have saluted her as full of grace
- Or all the principles on which theologians proceed when they argue that whatever grace belonged fitly to her position in God's Kingdom must have been hers
- Or that any grace that is to be found in other saints must have been in her in a higher measure of perfection,
- Or how reasonable it is to suppose that she must have been as like as possible to our Lord
- Or that it is equally reasonable to suppose that she must have a wonderful insight into the thoughts and feelings and designs of the Sacred Heart, and so with other truths.
Many of these things are naturally conveyed to us either by that other great part of the Word of God which is unwritten, and recorded in tradition, or they were to form the proper and natural sphere for another instrument by which truth was to be ascertained better than from Scripture.
For Scripture was to be read by good and bad, friends and enemies of the Church alike, by the captious as well as the devout, the proud as well as the humble. The principles of which we speak are principles for the devout and pious use of the reason, working upon the facts and truths of faith.
As to these things it is more blessed to know them in this way, than by direct teaching. As there are some that are blessed who have not seen, and yet have believed, so there are those of whom it might be said that they are blessed because they have not been told the truth, and yet have grasped it.
Scripture discourages curiosity
It is on this account that we shall use most freely in these considerations this instrument of theological reason for the elucidation of the history of our Blessed Lady, in all sobriety and reverence, under the guidance and according to the mind of the Catholic Church.
But there is yet another reason for the silence of Scripture, on many points as to which we are inclined to crave for more full information, which is of a very different character. It is the reason which is implied in our Lord's answer to the question of St. Peter concerning St. John, "What is it to thee? follow thou Me!"
For however beautiful must have been the external details of the life of the Blessed Mother of God, at Nazareth or elsewhere, and however great may be the delight which we are to derive from the knowledge of her virtues and ways when we come to the blessed home of our rest in Heaven, there is a Divine wisdom in the ordinance of Providence by which we are left so much in the dark concerning these matters, as also of the details of the Life of our Lord Himself.
We have already said that many things are rightly left to Christian reason and thought in matters which relate to the principles and ways of the dealings of God and of the workings of the Holy Ghost in the hearts of the saints. We have a large store of information as to these, the accumulation of many ages, and it is well that we should use them. They are illustrations of the workings of God in Mary, drawn from His workings in the souls of others.
We call it a large store, but it is but a ten thousandth part of what there is to know. But for other matters, such as the details and incidents of life, belonging to a class of facts into which human curiosity loves to pry, it may fairly be said that they are not likely to feed the soul more profitably for the great work of the service of God than other matters of the like kind belonging to the lives of ordinary men.
Our Lord spoke almost sternly to St. Peter on the occasion of that question, not certainly because the future career of St. John, if it had been revealed to his brother Apostle, could have contained anything either disedifying or discouraging, but because He knew so well the mischievous effect of curiosity in the soul, in dissipating, weakening, unfitting it for prayer and heavenly converse, even when its indulgence is not accompanied, as it is most generally accompanied in its ordinary manifestations, with a secret vanity, or pride, or censoriousness, or a tendency to rash judgments and foolish speculations.
In nothing is the silence and calm reserve and self-control, so to say, of Sacred Scripture more eloquent and instructive, than in the constant rebuke which it deals out to curiosity.
Two classes of facts
We have here two classes of facts with regard to which we are thus losers, whether from the silence of the Scriptures or the absence of authentic traditions. It is well to distinguish these classes, because their respective importance is very different, and the means which we have of filling up the want are different also.
What we should desire to know concerning our Blessed Lady, and also with regard to so much that concerns our Lord and His saints of the New Testament, comprises in the first place the external facts of the history, such as the details of…
- The lives of the parents of the Blessed Mother
- The early years, in particular, both of our Lady and her Divine Child, and of St. Joseph
… or, again…
- In the fact as to her life in the Church after the Ascension
- The influence which she exercised over the counsels of the Apostles
- … and the like. Nor have we any direct statement of the history of her passage out of this world.
In another class altogether may be placed the dealings of God with the soul of His Mother, the successive enrichments of that soul from the treasury of His fulness of grace in the Sacred Humanity.
The words of the Angel at the Annunciation tell us that she was already full of grace, before the Incarnation had taken place in her most chaste womb with her own deliberate consent. Yet these few words sum up, as we know, a whole marvellous history of Divine operations, in the results of which her own cooperation could not be without its part.
As the history proceeds, it shows us incidentally the height of grace and perfection to which she must have been raised, but it gives only this incidental help in tracing it out.
Notwithstanding this, the mind of the Church is full of conclusions and reasonings concerning this part of the history of Mary, which are inexpressibly dear and profitable to her children.
They are found in the books of the strictest theologians, and the tendency, as the Church grows older, is strong towards the further development of what is called the Marian theology.
Historical incidents
As to the other class of facts, which may be considered as mainly or entirely historical, we find ourselves in presence of several venerable traditions, some of which have been so far adopted by the Church as is implied by her celebration of feasts and anniversaries connected with and founded upon them.
Such, for instance, is the tradition about the dwelling of our Lady in the Temple after her solemn Presentation by her parents when she was three years of age.
In the seventeenth century an attempt was made to expunge this feast from the calendar, on the ground that it had crept in without sufficient authority. But the feast was almost immediately restored, and a holy religious who had exerted himself very much to obtain this restoration by collecting ancient authorities which indicated its antiquity, had the happiness of being called away to his reward on the anniversary itself.
If we are thus left with far less authentic information than we could wish concerning this class of external facts in connection with our Blessed Lady, we may console ourselves with the reflection that these are not, after all, the facts of the highest importance that relate to her.
It would aid us in our contemplations, and furnish us with many most holy examples and manifestations of the wisdom and goodness of God in the conduct of the lives of those most dear to Him, if we had all the facts of the history authentically established for us.
But they might also have something of danger about them, and they are not so momentous as the interior history of the soul of this marvellous Queen.
Importance of the Immaculate Conception
With regard to the interior history of Mary, it is not a subject that we have any right to pry into further than it has been revealed to us in Scripture, or as certain great outlines which belong to it are within the reach of the careful student of the ways of God in the sanctification of His servants.
It is a subject which belongs to the theologian, and he can find in his favourite study more than one ray of light to guide him where all seems at first so dark.
The doctrine of the Immaculate Conception enables him to grasp with security the corollary to that doctrine, in the fact of the immense treasure of grace and spiritual gifts which was bestowed on her at the same time.
The Life of our Lord shows us the truth that the highest homage that can be rendered to God by His intelligent creatures is that interior worship of the mind and heart, the will and affections, in adoration and oblation of oneself by way of sacrifice to His service. As it is reasonable to conclude that His Blessed Mother was to be like Him in everything possible, and as we have the instance of the anticipation of the use of the intelligence and will in the case of the unborn babe St. John, it becomes a matter of Christian reason that Mary also should have employed herself in the same holy exercises of prayer and contemplation with her Son.
St. Bernardine's doctrine of St. Joseph, applied to Our Lady
But this, again, is not all we know. We must add to this the doctrine on which St. Bernardine insists so strongly in the case of St. Joseph, that whenever God calls one of His rational creatures to any special work in His Kingdom, He confers on that person so favoured the graces which are requisite and convenient for the faithful and honourable discharge of the duties imposed. Then we have no difficulty in seeing how very magnificent from the very beginning must have been the graces bestowed on her who was to be the Mother of the Incarnate God.
If we add to this the truth of the immense value in the sight of God of the interior life of the soul glowing with light and burning with love for Him, we are already far on our way towards the understanding of the interior life of the Blessed Mother from the first moment of her consciousness, and of her capacity to offer herself, her whole heart and life and being, to Him from Whom she had received them.
What we know about Mary
In all these stages, therefore, of the life of our Blessed Lady we know certain things and we do not know others.
We know what kind of life that must have been which was now led by her, whether in the womb of her happy mother, or in the years of her earliest infancy, even before she was offered in the Temple, and left there to grow up like an olive tree in the House of the Lord.
We know that her mind and heart must have been entirely given to God, that she was occupied with Him day and night, and that her homage and worship must have been ineffably pleasing to Him, and the like.
But we know none of the details of this interior life, this perpetual holocaust of love and prayer. It is the character and kind of occupation of the mind and heart in which she can be a model to us in our own interior life, and in the devotion of herself to such exercises as the most pleasing possible to God. The subject matter of her prayers and self-oblation, the particulars of the heavenly converse which then began between God and her soul, are her secret for herself, and it would not have been according to the ordinary rules of His government of souls that these details should have been written for our benefit.
Thus, to return for a moment to the subject of the positive Scriptural statements concerning our Blessed Lady, we see that they by no means exhaust the teaching of Scripture on the subject. Scripture contains many hints and much light which we must carefully use in application to her, though they do not occur in Scripture where it is directly speaking of her.
And it must always be remembered that we have often to deal, in our meditations and contemplations on these subjects, with large ranges of facts which it was not the office of Scripture to record. It was not the business of the writers of the New Testament to chronicle interior facts, and to draw out in detail the wonderful history of the workings of the Holy Ghost in the Sacred Humanity, or with the souls of the Blessed Virgin or of the Saints.
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| Fr. Coleridge [1886]: How the Immaculate Conception reflects Our Lady's sacred role |
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Posted by: Stone - 09-07-2024, 06:34 AM - Forum: Our Lady
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How the Immaculate Conception reflects Our Lady's sacred role
Explore the profound mystery of the Immaculate Conception with Fr H.J. Coleridge, who reveals Mary's unique grace, sacred privileges, and unparalleled role in salvation history as the Mother of God.
![[Image: https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.ama...x1138.jpeg]](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ff53b5286-2076-4db0-b9d3-4d616abb2db4_2023x1138.jpeg)
Fr Lawrence Lew OP, Flickr.
WM Review [slightly adapted] | Sep 5, 2024
As we are approaching the feast of the Nativity of Our Lady, we will be publishing a few meditations on her role in God’s divine plan for redemption.
The Immaculate Conception
From Mother of the King – Mary During the Life of Our Lord
Fr Henry James Coleridge, 1886, Ch. I, pp 9-19
Privileges of all the saints found in Mary
In accordance with a principle to which we are guided by the use made by the saints and the Church of the great instrument of theological reasoning, we are accustomed to look, in the life of the Blessed Virgin, for all the various privileges and blessings which are found elsewhere in the lives of the saints of God, as far as such privileges and blessings could fitly find a place in her glorious course.
It would perhaps be rather more accurate to say that we find in the lives of the saints the several glories and graces which are found in her, but that in her they are collected and in them they are dispersed, no one having them all as she has, nor in the same beauty and perfection as she.
This is not, as we shall see, to attribute to Mary idle and useless honours and decorations, as if a great king were to lavish the honours of his state on a favourite child, before that child was able to wear them with fitting dignity or to use them for his service, to put arms or military commands into the hands of a baby or a girl, or to give to a blind boy books and beautiful pictures. There is nothing in all the range of the gifts which we find in Mary from the very first which is unbecoming her state or condition, or for which there is not a good reason, even to our poor powers of intelligence. Now let us apply the principle of which we speak in some particular instances.
Distinction of parentage
It is a distinction on earth to be born of royal parents and to be the heir of a long and illustrious line, and this distinction naturally belonged to her who was to be the mother of the promised King of the house of David.
But the parents of Mary were in no way conspicuous in position, the royal line having then, for many generations, fallen altogether into obscurity and even, as it seems, some degree of poverty.
There is another and a greater distinction which is found in some of the saints of God, and is a great blessing wherever it is found. This consists in the sanctity and virtues of the parents who bring a child into the world. We find this in our Blessed Lady, and we find more than this.
For she has that special blessing which attaches to the children, not simply of saints, but of saints who have had the discipline of affliction to prepare them for their office, in the designs of God, of being the parents of saints like themselves.
This discipline of affliction we find in the holy pair, Anne and Joachim, and it is affliction, not of any common kind, but having particular reference to the Divine Providence which watched over them as to the fruitfulness of their marriage.
Saints under affliction
We have more than one instance in the history of the Old Testament of mothers who have been afflicted for a long time with the supposed disgrace of sterility, and who have then been made the parents of children who were to become great instruments or great servants of God.
Such especially was the namesake of the mother of our Blessed Lady, the holy mother of the Prophet Samuel, to whom it is not unreasonable to think that that blessed mother had a deep devotion, which she may have handed on to her own child, and of which we see the traces in the Magnificat.
The affliction of which we speak was in both cases the cause of much prayer, patience, resignation, humility, and other virtues which fitted the saints in question for the reception, in the good time appointed by Providence, of that fruitfulness as a boon of Heaven, which so many others receive as a natural right.
Such affliction also prepares them to exercise greater purity of intention and a more perfect reverence and continency in the use of their marriage, and this brings down a blessing on themselves and on their children. We see this in the case of the other holy Anna, and her husband, the younger Tobias.
These circumstances are all found in the parents of our Blessed Lady, whose conception was the fruit of prayer and the reward of much patient submission to the will of God, under trials and reproaches.
For in those days sterility was a reproach, as we see also in the parents of the blessed Baptist, himself one of the greatest of saints and the child of prayer and affliction.
Mary to be like her Son
In this way the conception of the Blessed Mother of God was one which might bring down on her and her parents great blessings, and might have been expected to deserve a kind of special sanctification.
We know that this honour and privilege was not wanting in her. But we know far more than this For she was to be the Mother of the Immaculate Lamb of God, and her entrance into existence was to take its chief honours and privileges, from her Child, rather than from her parents.
We come here upon another rule which is found to obtain in the dealings of God with Mary. This rule is that she was to be, for the sake of her Son, as like Him in His Sacred Humanity as was possible, deriving from His inherent fulness of grace that fulness of the same grace of which she was capable, all her grace being received and imparted, while all His was His own by natural right and possession.
He was full of grace and truth because He was the Incarnate Son, and it is to His glory, not only that all who receive any grace shall receive it from Him, but that all should receive from Him as much grace as possible, and that in this His Mother should be pre-eminent, who was to be, more than any other could be, His companion and the partaker of all His thoughts.
Freedom from original sin
With regard to our Lord Himself, it was altogether impossible that He could be born in original sin, which was the doom of all who were generated from Adam by natural generation.
He could not be in any sense morally averse from God, which is the lot of all so born. He could not have an intelligence clouded by ignorance, a will enfeebled, that interior disorder which ensues from the want of power and authority in the ruling faculties of man over the lower and the more sensuous.
These and all other moral miseries of those born in original sin could not possibly have place in Him. They had not been in our first parents, being shut out by the gift of original justice, which gave order and peace and light and strength to their souls, so that they were not kingdoms divided against themselves.
What our Lord could not be subject to in this respect, our Blessed Lady would have been subject to by the rule which applied to all the children of Adam generated in the ordinary way, except for the fact that she was to be His Mother and that, for His merits and on His account, she was not to be allowed to fall under that rule.
Thus the ban of that original sin never came home to her, and as far as that alone is considered, she was conceived as Adam and Eve had been created, without the stain of that aversion from God which has been mentioned, with no darkness on her intelligence, in consequence, nor lack of power in her will, no disorder in the interior kingdom, no rebellion of the lower faculties against the rule of reason, and she was clothed also with a mantle of ineffable graces and spiritual endowments by far surpassing any that they had received before their fall.
Foundation of other gifts
It is clear that, with regard to these graces and endowments which may have been bestowed by God on any of His intelligent creatures, over and above the natural gifts which were required to make their rational service of Him possible, the freedom from the effects and contagion of original sin as above explained must be pre-supposed as the foundation of such gifts.
Such freedom may be imparted in two ways, either by preservation from the stain altogether, or by the healing of the effects of the stain, as far as such healing is requisite for the purpose of God.
It cannot be imagined that the gifts of the Holy Ghost, or the infused virtues, and the like, which are generally considered to accompany the regeneration of the soul, as in holy Baptism, could be imparted to a soul averse from God, in the sense in which such aversion is the fruit of original sin. To say this would be the same thing as to say that original justice and original sin could co-exist in the same soul, at the same time, light and darkness, heat and cold.
Thus the gift of exemption from original sin, or of the removal of certain of its effects when it has been incurred, is the gift also of the necessary qualification of the soul for the spiritual gifts of grace of whatever order and degree.
It cannot be doubted that our Blessed Lady received in the fullest possible abundance these gifts and graces which were to fit her for the great office of her Maternity, and to be the weapons of her most faithful service of God from the first moment of her life to the very last. It belonged to that fulness of grace which Mary could receive, that she should be thus enriched at the first by the marvellous bounty of God.
Thus the Immaculate Conception paved the way for, and was immediately crowned by, this immense dowry of graces which it was fitting that the mother of God should receive.
Anticipated use of intelligence and will
In addition to this we find, in one at least of the great saints of God, what was probably extended to others also, another special favour which must have accompanied in Mary the bestowal of the graces on her of which we have spoken.
For we find that the Blessed Precursor of our Lord, St. John Baptist, was not only sanctified in his mother's womb and so freed from original sin, but was also endowed then and there, as soon as the voice of the salutation of the Mother of God sounded in the ears of his own mother, St. Elisabeth, with the use of his reason, the power of full intelligence and will, so that from that moment he was enabled to begin serving God with the service of the interior acts of virtue which were possible in cases such as his.
The Divine reason for this special grace in the case of St. John may have been manifold. This acceleration of the use of his reason and will may have been granted by God, in order that his consummate and most lofty sanctity might begin from the very first possible moment to expand and ripen and multiply itself, by his own cooperation with the gifts of grace, and that thus no time might be lost in the perfection of a soul which was to be so supremely dear to our Lord.
But at the moment of the sanctification of St. John in the womb of St. Elisabeth, he was as yet thirty years off the time when his great work of preaching was to begin. At the time of the Conception of Mary in the womb of St. Anne, only about half that length of time was to pass before she was to be called on, in the plenitude of her sanctity, to give her consent to be made the Mother of God.
Great beauty of Her soul
Thus Mary was to attain to a far higher degree of sanctity than was required for the office of St. John, and she was to acquire it in a far shorter time. It is not therefore wonderful if we find this gift of the acceleration of the use of full intelligence and power of volition, in her, as in the great Precursor, if indeed on other grounds it could be conceived that she could lack so essential a gift as this for her immense and most rapid sanctification.
Thus with her mental faculties perfect from the first, her soul absolutely free from the disorder and feebleness which come on all who are born in original sin, her lower faculties perfectly obedient to reason and conscience, with the most perfect peace and calm serenity reigning in her soul, which had been turned with all its powers to God from the first dawn of its consciousness, with the source of concupiscence—that is, all inordinate appetite—entirely destroyed or suppressed within her, with an immense treasure of grace and knowledge, as has been said, and with a body fitted to be the perfect companion and assistant of her glorious soul in all its service of God, interior or exterior, Mary from the first moment of her conception was the most beautiful thing in the eyes of God of all that He had made.
Thus with…
- Her mental faculties perfect from the first
- Her soul absolutely free from the disorder and feebleness which come on all who are born in original sin
- Her lower faculties perfectly obedient to reason and conscience
- The most perfect peace and calm serenity reigning in her soul, which had been turned with all its powers to God from the first dawn of its consciousness
- The source of concupiscence—that is, all inordinate appetite—entirely destroyed or suppressed within her,
- An immense treasure of grace and knowledge, as has been said
- A body fitted to be the perfect companion and assistant of her glorious soul in all its service of God, interior or exterior
… Mary from the first moment of her conception was the most beautiful thing in the eyes of God of all that He had made.
The graces bestowed upon her in the way of sanctification were so high, that though it was not in the abstract or essentially impossible that she could fail in her perfect service of God, because her liberty was not yet fixed to that service by that incapacity of deviation which is the blessed lot of the saints in Heaven who see God, still there was in her that impossibility of any offence of Him which was involved in the intense plenitude of the grace which inundated her soul, and which left no room for a thought or a choice contrary to the highest perfection and faithfulness.
Devoted to God from the beginning
Thus was our Blessed Lady allowed the immense privilege of giving to God her Creator and Redeemer from the first moment of her existence, which was also the first moment of her consciousness, a most perfect and intelligent service.
It was so with her Blessed Son, Whose Sacred Humanity was never for a moment unconscious or inactive in the praise and worship of His Father. With Him there was that fulness of grace which precluded the possibility of increase, and He was the author and source of grace to her and to all others.
Whereas the service of Mary, like that of the Blessed Baptist, who from the moment of his sanctification enjoyed the like privilege, was beautiful indeed at the first and pleasing to God above the beauty of the angels and archangels, but could nevertheless increase and grow in perfection by virtue of her own increase in grace and in intelligence.
Not that it could ever reach the perfection of the worship and interior activity of her Son, but that it could become more and more like His.
It would have been an immense loss, in our way of reckoning, if our Lord had not begun from the first moment to honour and adore His Father, a loss to the greater glory of God and to us for whom His prayers and affections were offered.
It would have been a great loss if He had not made, at the very outset of His human existence, the perfect oblation of Himself as coming to do the will of God at so great a cost to Himself, if He had not, at the first dawn of His Life as Man, taken us all into His Sacred Heart for the love of His Father, Who had given Him to us as our brother.
And in the same way, though not in the same degree, it would have been a loss to the honour of God and to the interests of mankind, if our Blessed Lady had been denied the privilege of which we are here speaking, as the corollary of her Immaculate Conception.
After the homage of the Sacred Humanity itself, there was never homage paid to God so beautiful as that of the heart of Mary, and the giant progress of her daily advance in grace was all the greater for having begun so soon.
The source of all Her graces
We thus see how all the graces which distinguish the Blessed Mother of God are founded on the Immaculate Conception, though under another aspect they all come from her selection by God to be the Mother of the Incarnate Word.
The lofty ideas and language concerning her of which the ancient writers are so full, imply the clearness with which they held this fundamental doctrine.
And we may expect to find that the certainty which we now possess that this doctrine was a part of the original deposit of revelation in the Church, may open the way to a more explicit and definite manifestation of other doctrines concerning her which are more or less involved in this, and thus herald in the coming of the time when her greatness in the Kingdom of her Son may become still more and more conspicuous and helpful to the Christian people.
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| Bishop Fellay's "Seer": SSPX's Dance with False Mysticism |
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Posted by: The☩Trumpet - 09-06-2024, 03:45 PM - Forum: The New-Conciliar SSPX
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Bishop Fellay's "Seer": SSPX's Dance with False Mysticism
This three-part series delves into a pivotal yet troubling chapter in the history of the Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX), focusing on Bishop Bernard Fellay's controversial relationship with Madame Rossiniere, a self-proclaimed mystic. Her significant influence on the bishop has stirred deep doctrinal concerns. Through meticulous analysis, we aim to expose the layers of this relationship and its ramifications on the Society's direction. Notably, this saga underscores the troubling elevation of prudence over faith—a misguided prioritization that deviates from the expected doctrinal rigidity of Archbishop Lefebvre’s sons. In light of Fellay's own imprudent engagements with unrecognized private revelations, we highlight the hypocrisy and inherent dangers that have surfaced following this false mystic interaction and how it very well may be the influence and birth of compromise for Fellay's doctrinal declaration. This examination begs the question for those on the fence about the compromise.
Sources for the Series: www.nonpossumus.com
Part I: "Monsignor Fellay and Madame Rossiniere: An Attempt of Agreement Between the FSSPX and Pseudo-Mysticism"
In the mid-1990s, an intriguing encounter took place that would later stir significant controversy within the Society of St. Pius X (FSSPX). Bishop Bernard Fellay, then Superior General of the FSSPX, was introduced to a Swiss woman, Germaine Cornaz, known under the pseudonym Madame Rossiniere. Claiming to be a mystic with divine insights, her interactions with Bishop Fellay and subsequent endorsements by him raised profound concerns regarding the influence of pseudo-mysticism on the Society's leadership.
Madame Rossiniere had compiled numerous spiritual writings between 1947 and 1969, which she claimed were inspired by the Holy Spirit. These writings were the foundation of a movement she founded called "The Homes of Christ the Priest." Father Lovey, who played a crucial role in introducing Rossiniere to Bishop Fellay, was reportedly convinced of her spiritual stature.
Bishop Fellay, influenced perhaps by his initial favorable impression and Rossiniere's assertions, praised her writings in Cor Unum, the Society's internal bulletin. He described them as aligning well with the Society’s mission and the broader struggle for tradition within the Church. This endorsement was not just a mere acknowledgment but an enthusiastic affirmation of the supposed authenticity of her revelations.
The situation escalated when Bishop Fellay encouraged the broader FSSPX community to engage with Rossiniere’s works and integrate them into their spiritual practices. This directive was communicated through various official publications and announcements, urging families and members of the Society to align themselves with Rossiniere’s mission, which he believed could significantly contribute to the sanctification of priests within the Society.
However, ''this unbelievable superchery was discovered by two priests, Fathers Ortiz and Joly who, without warning the 'prophetess', visited her and found her with astonishment in a very disconcerting position for a holy soul privileged to deal with Heaven: she was, in fact, 'piously' installed in jeans, cigarette in her mouth, before her lighted television set (history does not tell us which program she was watching)"【source: Non Possumus】
This discovery led to significant embarrassment for Bishop Fellay and raised questions about his judgment in endorsing such a controversial figure. Despite the initial reprimand and temporary dismissal of Father Lovey, who had facilitated Fellay’s introduction to Rossiniere, he was soon reinstated, indicating ongoing complexities within the Society’s handling of the affair.
The repercussions of this episode extended beyond mere personal embarrassment for Bishop Fellay. It highlighted the risks of integrating private revelations without thorough scrutiny and the broader implications for the Society’s mission and integrity. This case serves as a stark reminder of the necessity for vigilance and discernment within religious communities, especially those dedicated to preserving traditional Catholicism against modernist influences.
This narrative sets the stage for a deeper exploration into how private revelations and claimed mystical experiences have influenced leadership decisions within the now conciliar SSPX, a topic we will continue to explore in the subsequent articles of this series. Stay tuned as we delve further into the impact of these events on the Society’s mission and its stance within the Conciliar Church.
-The☩Trumpet
PART II Coming soon...
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| Fr. Coleridge [1887]: The Delight of God: His Eternal Design for the Blessed Virgin Mary |
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Posted by: Stone - 09-05-2024, 12:08 PM - Forum: Our Lady
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The Delight of God: His eternal design for the Blessed Virgin Mary unveiled in prophecy
Preparing for the feast of the Nativity of Our Lady: Fr Henry James Coleridge explains how God had delighted in his plans for the Blessed Virgin Mary and the Incarnation from all eternity.
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Our Lady, Seat of Wisdom. Wiki Commons.
WM Review | Sep 04, 2024
As we are approaching the feast of the Nativity of Our Lady,
we will be publishing a few meditations on her role in God’s divine plan for redemption.
The Design of God
From Mother of the King – Mary During the Life of Our Lord
Fr Henry James Coleridge, 1886, Ch. I, pp 1-7
Words applied to Mary by the Church
The Church on more than one occasion applies to our Blessed Lady the great words which are found in the Book of Proverbs, spoken there of the Wisdom of God.
Quote:“The Lord possessed me in the beginning of His ways, before He made anything from the beginning. I was set up from eternity, and of old, before the earth was made. The depths were not as yet, and I was already conceived, neither had the fountains of waters as yet sprung out. The mountains with their huge bulk had not as yet been established. Before the hills I was brought forth,”1 (and the rest.)
The truth which is contained in this application is beyond all question, and might have been assumed as true, if we had not this especial sanction for believing it from the authority of the Church. For His own work “is known to the Lord from the beginning,” as St. James said in the Council of Jerusalem.2
In this there is no difference between the design of God with regard to Mary and His design concerning any other of His creatures. The difference lies in the importance of the design in this case over that of any other, in the greatness of the work of God which He determined to perform, in the treasures of wisdom and power and love which He chose to lavish upon this work rather than on any other, that is, in the supreme beauty of the plan, and the mighty attributes of power and holiness and mercy which He intended to exert in its execution.
Design of God for Our Lady
This design of God is the foundation of the whole greatness and glory of this Blessed Mother. It derived its pre-eminent beauty and greatness from the close union between the Mother and the Son in the great decree of the Incarnation.
In that decree it is impossible to separate them. The Incarnate Son, according to the decree of the Most Blessed Trinity, must have a Mother, and she with all her graces and glories is, for His sake, a part of the decree itself. It being once settled that God was to become Man by the way of generation from a Mother, that Mother belongs to the decree of the Incarnation as much, though not so directly, as the Sacred Humanity itself.
The designs of God are all supremely beautiful in the degree which belongs to each, and this design of the Incarnation was the greatest of all God's designs, and was to issue in the greatest and most beautiful of all His works. He could give nothing more than Himself, and thus the Divine Maternity of Mary is a work which cannot be surpassed.
It is therefore one of those most beautiful of the works of God in which He Himself takes an actual part, as in the Sacred Humanity of our Lord, the redemption of the world, and the beatification of the saints by the possession of Himself in Heaven.
God’s delight in His plans
We know that in earthly designs, as when some great genius endeavours to express his thoughts in music or in poetry, a sculptor in marble, or a painter on his canvas, the idea itself is far more beautiful than its expression.
That idea itself also, as well as its expression, grows in perfection and magnificence with the progress of time, as it germinates and expands and ripens in the mind which has conceived it, or in the vehicle which is used for its outward manifestation.
But in the designs of God there is absolute perfection and fulness and ripeness from the very first. For God must conceive at once with the highest possible beauty, and when He sets His hand to the accomplishment of His plan there is no possible lack of power or resource in carrying it out.
Thus the magnificent designs of God in the formation of the Sacred Humanity and in its Hypostatic Union with the Eternal Son were for ever present to Him, and were carried out by Him with perfect and faultless integrity in the time which He had appointed. The pre-existence of these glories and beauties in His mind is what is dwelt upon in the passage from the Wise Man of which mention has been made.
It gives a dignity and grandeur to the design itself, which is said to have been before all other things in the mind of God — before them, not chiefly in the order of time, but rather in the order of His counsels from eternity, in which other things depend on and are chosen in relation to this, not this in relation to and for the sake of other things. For our Lord is the end and final cause of the whole creation.
The words of Scripture which have been quoted represent God to us as contemplating with intense delight from the beginning this great and marvellous plan, a part of which was the creation of Mary and all the gifts and glories which were to find their home in her.
This simple truth contains the whole foundation of what we are familiar with in the private devotions and sacred solemnities of the Church and her children, in which the truths which we have received concerning our Lord and His Blessed Mother find their natural expression in the honour and love which we pay to both.
Nothing that her most devout servants have ever said of the greatness of Mary, but rests on this truth. And we may surely feel that we are bound on our own part to correspond in our measure with this contemplation, so to speak, of God, and that what He has dwelt on so lovingly from all eternity must be one of the most profitable and legitimate subjects for the occupation of such intelligence as He has given to us.
Predictions and anticipations
Another consideration concerning this design of God as to our Blessed Lady, may well be founded on what we have inherited in the prophetic anticipations and predictions which relate to our Lord and His Mother.
For it is the rule of God's dealings with us to prepare His great works beforehand, and to execute them in the time which He has chosen, and moreover not to do this suddenly and without warning to us, but on the contrary, after preparing us also for them by various kinds of prediction.
Many reasons may be given for this arrangement of God, for the predictions concerning the Incarnation and its fruits were necessary as the objects and food of faith and hope, and thus they supported the spiritual life of those who lived before the execution of the design, as well as after it. In the one case previous knowledge, in the other knowledge subsequent to the execution, was necessary for men.
But it is a distinct truth, when we set ourselves to count up what God has done for us in this respect, that He not only dwelt Himself with the utmost complacency from all eternity on His great work of love and mercy and power, and with a contemplation which included us also as the objects of the ineffable love which was therein embodied, but also that He broke the revelation of His exceeding beneficence to us long beforehand, from the very beginning of His dealings with our race, gradually increasing the splendour and clearness of the manifestation as the time drew nigh, and making it all the while the source of infinite spiritual blessings to our souls.
The design of God for the creation of Mary is one thing, and His merciful and tender consideration for us in revealing it beforehand is another.
Revelation of His counsel
It belongs therefore to our subject to consider this revelation of the counsel of God in the second place, after the conception of the design of infinite mercy in the Eternal Mind.
It begins with the creation of a helpmate to Adam in the person of Eve, who was to be called by a name which did not perfectly befit one who was the author of all our woe, “the Mother of all living.”
She was so-called for the sake of Mary, who was to be the second and truer Eve, as our Lord was to be the second Adam. Thus the fountain of prophecy rises from the ground in the garden of Paradise, and the human race starts on its weary pilgrimage through successive ages with the vision before it of a Mother between whom and Satan an endless and truceless warfare was set by the hand of God Himself, and whose Child was to be the deliverer of the race whose nature He was to take from her.
Various anticipations
This original prophecy made faith in the coming redemption possible to man, and so served as the foundation of hope and religion, and the means of reconciliation with God.
In the course of ages it grew into a great stream, and as streams widen as they move onwards by the addition of numberless affluents, so did this prophecy widen more and more in the course of generations by the specification of its details, as it came to be revealed more and more precisely to what nation and tribe and family the promised Deliverer was to belong, and it came to be a matter of notoriety when and where He should come into the world.
This kind of preparation for the fulfilment of the promise was accompanied by the appearance, from time to time, in the history of the chosen people, of events which foreshadowed the deliverance itself, its manner and its effects, as well as by the presence of a series of heroic characters reflecting beforehand the features of the future Messias, anticipating portions of His career, as well as the singular holiness of His Life.
At the same time we find in the stream of these predictions and anticipations, constantly recurring references to the figure of the Mother who appears by His side in the original promise. She herself is made the subject of a fresh series of anticipations of the same kind with Him.
Thus when the Blessed Mother is honoured in Christian devotion by the side of her Son, it is the delight of the religious soul to see how all has come about, as St. Paul says to St. Timothy, "according to the prophecies going before on" her,3 the history interpreting the prophecies, and the prophecies shedding a light of their own on the history.3
Thus, while Noe and Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and Joseph, Moses and Josue, Samson and Samuel, David and a long succession of saints and heroes after him down to the Machabean defenders and deliverers of the people, handed on each in his own way, the various features of His character or the various offices which He was to fulfil as…
- Lawgiver
- Prophet
- King
- Captain
- Teacher
… and while the perpetual sacrifices offered in the Temple, as in the Tabernacle before the Temple was built, spoke continually to the people of the great work of redemption which was to be accomplished by Him and of the application of its fruits for the various needs of the soul, so was there, by the side of this stream of prediction concerning the Son, another running parallel with it concerning the Mother who was to be associated with Him in her measure and degree.
She was prefigured in holy women who had borne prominent parts in great deliverances, Mary her namesake the sister of Moses, or Jael the destroyer of Sisera, or the good Queen Esther, who saved the Jews in their captivity, or the chaste and valiant Judith.
She was seen in the bush that burned and was not consumed, in the fleece of Gedeon, in the cloud that arose out of the sea at the prayer of Elias, and in the Ark of the Covenant, the perpetual treasure of the sanctuary, as well as in the prophecies which spoke clearly of her incommunicable privilege of Virgin Maternity and fruitful Virginity.
Importance of these decrees
It is not here the place to trace out all the details of the prophetic and typical anticipations either of our Lord or of His Blessed Mother. But the fact itself is worthy of our devout remembrance.
It shows us the great importance of this particular arrangement in the designs of God. It shows us the delight which He had in the decree of His love concerning Mary. It shows us how He thought fit to prepare the chosen people and the world at large for her position in the coming Kingdom.
It makes her at once an object of the most intense and grateful veneration, founded, not only on what she is, but also on what God in various ways said of her before He called her into the world.
We can have no higher ambition, no more dutiful desire, than that we should think and feel about the great works of God, as far as that is possible to us, with an estimation and appreciation, an intelligence and devotion, which may correspond to His own thoughts concerning those great works, in which He has not only shed out His power and manifested His holiness, but in which He has also been so exceedingly and ineffably merciful to us and beneficent to us.
There is something deficient in our correspondence to His condescensions when we do not try to stretch our feeble minds, our purblind intelligences, and above all our narrow and cold hearts, as far as may be, to take in and understand and give thanks for all that He has done for us. We are so blind and lost in the things of sense, that we are inclined to think that our intelligences and hearts have been given us to be used on them alone, and that it is a kind of invasion of the rights of this lower world to use these gifts on the things of God for which they were in truth given us.
And we may be sure also that we shall gain and rise in spiritual strength and in blessings of every kind, if we thus exert ourselves to do what we can in these respects.
Thus, then, we may lay the foundation of our considerations concerning Mary and God's dealings with and in her, by the devout contemplation of the eternal designs of God in her respect, and of the great mercy by which He determined not only to lavish on her so large a magnificence of His treasures, but also to prepare our minds by proclaiming beforehand how great she was to be as the chosen vessel of His mercies.
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