Mary in the Sacred Scriptures: The Queen of Mercy

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JMJ

Feast of the Queenship of Mary

A treatise of St. Alphonsus Liguori on the
"Salve Regina, Mater Misericordiae"
(Hail Holy Queen, Mother of Mercy)

As the glorious Virgin Mary has been raised to the dignity of the Mother of the King of kings, it is not without reason that the Church honors Her, and wishes Her to be honored by all, with the glorious title of Queen. 'If the Son is King the Mother who begot Him is rightly and truly considered a Queen and a Sovereign.' St. Bernardine of Sienna: 'No sooner had Mary consented to be Mother of the Eternal Word, than she merited by this consent to be made Queen of the world and of all creatures.' The Abbot Arnold of Chartres: 'Since the flesh of Mary was not different from that of Jesus, how can the royal dignity of the Son be denied to the Mother? Hence we must consider the glory of the Son, not only as being common to, but as one with, that of His Mother.' And if Jesus is the King of the universe, Mary is also its Queen. 'And as Queen,' says the Abbot Rupert, 'she possesses, by right, the whole kingdom of Her Son.'

Mary, then, is a Queen: but, for our common consolation, be it known that She is a Queen so sweet, clement, and so ready to help us in our miseries, that the Holy Church wills that we should salute Her in this prayer under the title "Salve Regina, Mater Misericordiae". 'The title of Queen,' says St. Albert the Great, 'differs from that of Empress, which implies severity and rigor, in signifying compassion and charity towards the poor.' 'The greatness of kings and queens,' says Seneca, 'consists in relieving the wretched;' and whereas tyrants, when they reign, have their own good in view, kings should have that of their subjects at heart. For this reason it is that, at their consecration, kings have their heads anointed with oil, which is the symbol of mercy, to denote that as kings they should, above all things, nourish in their hearts feelings of compassion and benevolence towards their subjects.

Kings should then occupy themselves principally in works of mercy, but not so as to forget the just punishments that are to be inflicted on the guilty. It is, however, no so with Mary, who, although a Queen, is not a queen of justice, intent on the punishment of the wicked, but a Queen of mercy, intent only on commiserating and pardoning sinners. And this is the reason for which the Church requires that we should expressly call Her 'the Queen of Mercy.'

These two things have I heard, that power belongeth to God, and mercy to Thee, O Lord  (Ps. 61.12-13, the Sacred Latin Vulgate Bible and DRV). That is, the kingdom of God, consisting inn justice and mercy, was divided by Our Lord: the Kingdom of justice He reserved for  Himself, and that of Mercy He yielded to Mary, ordaining at the same time that all mercies that are dispensed to men should pass by the hands of Mary, and be disposed of by Her at will. This is confirmed by the angelic Doctor St. Thomas Aquinas, in his Preface to the Canonical Epistles: 'that when the Blessed Virgin conceived the Eternal Word in Her womb, and brought Him forth, She obtained half the Kingdom of God; so that She is Queen of Mercy, as Jesus Christ is the King of Justice.'

The Powerful Intercession of Mary as Queen Typified by Queen Esther of the Old Testament

We read in the 4th chapter of the Book of Esther, that in the reign of Assuerus, a decree was issued, by which all the Jews were condemned to death. Mardochai, who was one of the condemned, addressed himself to Queen Esther, in order that she might interpose with King Assuerus, and obtain the revocation of the decree, and thus be the salvation of all. At first, Esther declined the office, fearing that such a request might irritate the King still more; but Mardochai reproved her, sending her word that she was not to think only of saving herself, for God had placed her on the throne to obtain the salvation of all the Jews: think not that thou mayst save thy life only, because thou art in the King's house, more than all the Jews  (4.13). And so can we poor sinners address our Queen Mary, should She show any repugnance to obtain of God our delivery from the chastisement we have justly deserved: 'Think not, O Lady, that God has raised Thee to the dignity of Queen of the world, only to provide for thy good; but in order that, being so great, thou mightest be better able to compassionate and assist us miserable creatures.'

As soon as Assuerus saw Esther standing before him, he asked her, with love, what she came to seek. What is thy petition... that it may be granted thee? And what wilt thou have done: although thou ask the half of my kingdom, thou shalt have it  (7.2). The queen replied, If I have found favor in thy sight, O king, give me my people, for which I request? (v.3) Assuerus granted her petition and immediately ordered the revocation of the decree and the death of the enemy-conspirator, Aman. And now, if Assuerus, through love for her, granted, at her request salvation to the Jews, how can God refuse the prayers of Mary, loving Her immensely as He does, when She prays for poor miserable sinners who recommend to Her, and She says to Him: 'My King and my God, if ever I have found favor* in Thy sight, give me my people for which I ask.' If Thou lovest me, She says, 'give me, O Lord, these sinners, for whom I entreat Thee.' Is it possible that God should refuse Her? It is written: the law of clemency is on her tongue  (Prov. 31.26). Each of Her prayers is, as it were, an established law for whom She intercedes. St. Bernard asks why the Church calls Mary "the Queen of Mercy" and he replies: "It is because we believe that She opens the abyss of the mercy of God to whomsoever She wills, when She wills, and as She wills; so that there is no sinner, however great, who is lost if Mary protects him."
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* Though the Divine Mother well knows that She was the blessed,** the holy one (Thou art all fair, O my love, and there is not a spot in thee, Canticle of Canticles - 'Song of Songs' in Protestant and Neo-Catholic versions - 4.7), the only one of the human race who found the grace lost by all mankind,*** well does know that She is the beloved One of Her Lord, loved more than all the saints and angels together]

** Blessed art thou among women, Lk. 1.28; all generations shall call me blessed, v.48: "These words are a prediction of that honor which the Catholic Church in all ages should pay to the Blessed Virgin Mary. Let the 'Bible-only' sectarians examine whether they are any way concerned in this prophecy," Bp. Richard Challoner in his revised edition of the Catholic Douay-Rheims Version.

*** Hail, full of grace, "kecharitomene" in Greek, Lk. 1.28: only St. Jerome's Latin Vulgate Bible and its English translation, the Douay-Rheims Version, render this passage correctly; the Neo-Catholic versions, such as the NAB, JB, NRSV-CE render it even worse than the traditional Protestant versions.
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But perhaps we may fear that Mary would not deign to interpose for some sinners, on account of their being so overloaded with crimes? Or perhaps we ought to be overawed at the majesty and holiness of this great Queen? Pope St. Gregory VII: "No, for the higher and more holy She is, the greater is Her sweetness and compassion towards sinners, who have recourse to Her with the desire to amend their lives." Kings and queens, with their ostentation of majesty, inspire terror, and cause their subjects to fear to approach them: but what fear, says St. Bernard, can the miserable have to approach this Queen of Mercy, for She inspires no terror, and shows no severity, to those who come to Her, but is all sweet and gentleness, "offering milk and wool to all," that is, the milk of mercy to animate our confidence, and the wool [take note why Her Brown Scapular must be woolen] of Her protection against the thunderbolt of Divine Justice.

How great then should be our confidence in this Queen, knowing Her great power with God, and that She is so rich and full of mercy, that there is no one living on earth who does not partake of Her compassion and favor. This was revealed by Our Blessed Mother Herself to St. Bridget: "I am the Queen of heaven and the Mother of Mercy; I am the joy of the just and the door through which sinners are brought to God. There is no sinner on earth so accursed as to be deprived of my mercy; for all, if they receive nothing else through my intercession, receive the grace of being less tempted by the devils, than they would otherwise have been. No one, unless the irrevocable sentence has been pronounced (that is, the one pronounced on the damned), is so cast off by God, that he will not return to Him, and enjoy His mercy, if he invokes my aid. I am called by all the Mother of Mercy, and truly the mercy of my Son towards men has made me thus merciful towards them... and therefore, miserable will he be, and miserable will he be to all eternity, who, in this life, having it in his power to invoke me, who am so compassionate to all, and so desirous to assist sinners, is miserable enough not to invoke me, and so is damned."

Let us then fly, and fly always, to the feet of this most sweet Queen, if we would be certain of salvation; and if we are alarmed  and disheartened at the sight of our sins, let us remember that it is in order to save the greatest  and most abandoned sinners, who recommend themselves to Her and desire to amend their lives, that Mary is made the Queen of Mercy. Such souls have to be Her crown in heaven; according to the words addressed to Her by Her Divine Spouse: Come from Libanus, My spouse; come from Libanus, come: thou shalt be crowned... from the dens of the lions, from the mountains of the leopards (Cant. 4.8). And what are these dens of beasts, but miserable sinners, whose souls have become the home of sin, the most frightful monster that can be found. 'With such souls,' says the Abbot Rupert, addressing Our Lady, 'saved by thy means, O great Queen Mary, wilt Thou be crowned in heaven; for their salvation will form a diadem worthy of, and well becoming, a Queen of Mercy.'

Prayer

"O, Mother of my God, and my Lady Mary: as a beggar, all wounded and sore, presents himself before a great Queen, so do I present myself before Thee, who art the Queen of heaven and earth. From the lofty throne on which thou sittest,disdain not, I implore Thee to cast Thine eyes on me, a poor sinner. God has made Thee so rich that Thou mightest relieve the miserable. Behold me, then, and pity me: behold me, and abandon me me not, until thou seest me changed from a sinner into a saint. Therefore do I address Thee in the words of St. Bonaventure: "Do Thou govern me, O my Queen, and leave me not to myself." Command me; employ me as thou wilt; and chastise me when I do not obey, for the chastisements that come from Thy hands will to me be pledges of salvation. Tuus sum ego salvum me fac ("I am thine; save me," Ps 118.94). Accept me, O Mary, for Thine own, and as Thine, take charge of my salvation. I will no longer be mine; to Thee do I give myself. If, during the time past I have served Thee ill, and lost so many occassions of honoring Thee, for the future I will be one of Thy most loving and faithful child and servant. I am determined that from this day forward no one shall surpass me in honoring and loving Thee, my most amiable Queen. This I promise; and this, with Thy help, I hope to execute. Amen."

A blessed Feast to all!

The Divine Spirit and the "spirit" of Vatican II on Homosexuality

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JMJ

Monday of the Octave of Pentecost

In our post "Our Lady and the Diabolical Campaign," we pointed out that it were the Vatican II Roman Pontiffs (Pope John XXIII, Pope Paul VI, and Pope John Paul II) themselves who articulated the calamity of madness and worldliness that has struck and almost corrupted the whole of Catholic world - with its institutions diabolically infested and 'possessed' as it were - since the close of the Second Vatican Council. Pope John XXIII, in a symbolic gesture of his brightest forecast of what his Second Vatican Council would entail for the Church, ordered all the windows of the Vatican to be thrown open to let the "fresh air" to come in. "Fresh air"? as if the Church had been long choking until the Second Vatican Council; we wonder what happened to the Spirit of Truth Our Lord promised to abide in His Church for all ages. Then Pope Paul VI - the Roman Pontiff who closed the Council, promulgated its documents, and promoted its novelties - admitted to the effect that his predecessor was deceived for what actually happened after the Council was not a "second Pentecost" but "...a veritable invasion of the Church by worldly thinking" (L'Osservatore Romano​ , November 23, 1973) [earlier, on June 30, 1972 at the Lombard College in Rome, he confessed in his most famous speech: "The smoke of Satan has entered the temple of God" - alluding to the fulfillment of Apoc. 9.2]. "It was believed," Pope Paul VI further confessed in his famous speech of June 30, 1972, "that after the [Vatican II] Council a sunny day in the Church's history would dawn, but instead there came a day of... darkness." And Pope John Paul II did not dispel this diabolical darkness that has been hovering over the Church since Vatican II but only lamented at: "We must admit realistically... that... ideas opposed to the truth... are being scattered abroad in abundance..." (L'Osservatore Romano​, February 7, 1981).

"... Ideas opposed to the truth... are being scattered..." And this the New 'Catechism' (the "Catechism of the Catholic Church" or the CCC) serves as its organ. Being deceived with error thou adore strange gods and serve them ​(Deut. 30.17). Religious error leads one to a diabolical [dis-]order of things - to a diabolical life. And just as there are degrees of sanctity and of perfection, so there are also degrees of diabolical perversion the basest of which, according to St. John Chrysostom, is the  ​curse and mad[ness ]​ (Is. 24.6) of homosexuality (cf., "Our Lady, Vatican II Orientation, and the Annihilation of Many Nations"). The "spirit" of Vatican II expressing itself through the New 'Catechism' - the synthesis of what Vatican II declares in its documents - on the subject of homosexuality:

"2357: Homosexuality refers to relations between men or between women who experience an exclusive or predominant sexual attraction toward persons of the same sex. It has taken a great variety of forms through the centuries and in different cultures. Its psychological genesis remains largely unexplained. Basing itself on Sacred Scripture, which presents homosexual acts as acts of grave depravity,141 tradition has always declared that "homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered."142 They are contrary to the natural law. They close the sexual act to the gift of life. They do not proceed from a genuine affective and sexual complementarity. Under no circumstances can they be approved.

2358: The number of men and women who have deep-seated homosexual tendencies is not negligible. This inclination, which is objectively disordered, constitutes for most of them a trial. They must be accepted with respect, compassion, and sensitivity. Every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided. These persons are called to fulfill God's will in their lives and, if they are Christians, to unite to the sacrifice of the Lord's Cross the difficulties they may encounter from their condition" (​Catechism of the [']Catholic Church[']).

Now, how the Spirit of Truth taught the Catholic Church as has been the traditional doctrine unanimously maintained by the Fathers, Doctors, and the successors of St. Peter until Vatican II: homosexuality is the intrinsically disordered attraction (though not categorically internally sinful in themselves yet can be internally sinful when  consented to, cf., Mt. 5.28) toward another of the same sex. And when consented to, its sinfulness is not only limited also to willing the unnatural (contrary to nature) vice of perverted "genital acts" but even extends to behavior* (effeminacy or boyishness, cf. 1 Cor. 6.10; Is. 3.4,9, resorting even to transsexual or transvestite aberration, cf. Deut. 22.5).
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* St. Basil, a Father and Doctor of the Church, prescribes severe punishment for those who behave in a homosexual fashion even though they do not practice the act.
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The New 'Catechism' reduced homosexuality to a relation and reduced also moral culpability only to willing the "genital acts" (contrary to what Our Lord amplified in the Gospel reference indicated above). It even falsified the Traditional stand (and its underlying Scriptural bases) in stating that only the homosexual genital acts have always been considered to be intrinsically disordered. And though it states that the homosexual "inclination [the bend of the will]" is "objectively disordered," the 'Catechism' of Vatican II does not ground the objectivity of the disorder on what is intrinsic to the disorder - that is, "contrary to natural law" which it affirms only of the acts! In what consists the objectivity is a very interesting, or rather amusing, guess. As to the "deep-seated homosexual tendency [the bend of the mind]", the Neo-Catechism only makes of it as that element which describes [not defines - characteristic of a non-dogmatic Vatican II] a homosexual!  This only clearly points to the classic case of a ridiculous 'religion' (being the mock-Catholicism of the infiltrated revolutionary dummies, cf., our post "The Year 1929") breeding a ridiculous 'morality'. 

Objection: "The magisterium [the teaching office] of the Church is correct in its teachings on faith and morals. Always. The minute you start saying that one thing is wrong, what is to stop you from saying everything is wrong? The Holy Spirit is not wrong, and will not guide the Church down the wrong path."

The Church is both human and divine. Whatever could go wrong in its human element will go wrong and there you have Roman Pontiffs ratifying and even promoting (cf., the Roman Pontiff according to the Alta Vendita or the Masonic Blueprint for the Subversion of the Catholic Church in "A Perilous 'Catholic' Voyage"), since Vatican II, novelties that materially contradict what Tradition has always and everywhere held - over which we need not turn a blind eye. But since the Church is also divine, the Spirit of Truth did not permit the same Roman Pontiffs to ratify, speak of, and promote these novelties in such a way as to formally contradict what the Chair had consistently maintained, taught, defended, and anathematized - that is, in their capacity as the infallible doctor of the truth or the sovereign legislator and judge, speaking "ex cathedra", whose pronouncements and decrees, solemnly issued in the name of God, can never be revoked. Hence, when Pope John Paul II issued the New 'Catechism' with his 'Apostolic Constitution' Fidei Depositum, the contradiction - as between the Traditional Catholic teaching on homosexuality and the New notion as "present[ed]" in the New 'Catechism' - is MATERIAL and, given the terms used by the Roman Pontiff in promulgating the 'Catechism' of Vatican II ("I... order by virtue of MY Apostolic authority.... this document PRESENTING the 'Catechism'..." in comparison with the usual terms the SOVEREIGN PONTIFF would employ "ex cathedra" - "We decree, in virtue of our Apostolic authority", cf., our post "In virtue of OUR Apostolic authority"), NOT FORMAL - that is, Pope John Paul II did not bind the Universal Church under pain of eternal damnation to this Vatican II madness. These distinctions should help us restrain our feet from running either side of the two contrary forms of false Catholicism - Neo-Catholicism (denial of material facts) and Sedevacantism (exaggeration of material facts), cf., "On the Sedevacantist Position: A Reply (II)." 

Related post: "Our Lady, Vatican II Orientation, and the Annihilation of Many Nations"

God the Holy Ghost: the Divine Gift "par excellence"

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JMJ

Pentecost Sunday

Pentecost is the plenitude of God's gift to men. On Christmas Day, God gives us His only-begotten Son Jesus Christ, the Mediator, the bridge connecting humanity and divinity. During Holy Week, Our Lord, by His Passion, gives Himself entirely for us, even to death on the Cross. He bathes us, purifying and sanctifying us in His Blood - our ransom for our deliverance from the slavery of the devil. At Easter, Jesus Christ rises, and His Resurrection, as well as His Ascension, is the pledge of our own glorification. He goes before is to His Father's house to prepare a place for us, for in Him and with Him, we have become a part of the divine Family; we have become the children of God, destined for eternal beatitude. But the gift of God to men does not end there; having ascended into heaven, Our Lord and Savior, in union with the Father, sends us His Spirit, the Holy Ghost. 

The Father and the Holy Ghost loved us to the point of giving us the Word in the Incarnation; the Father and the Word so loved us as to give us the Holy Ghost. Thus the Three Persons of the Most Holy Trinity give Themselves to man, stooping to a poor nothing to redeem him from sin and the dominion of Satan, to sanctify him - to purify and empty his heart of everything that is not God, and to bring him into Their own intimacy. Such is the excessive charity with which God has loved us; and the divine gift to our souls reaches its culminating point in the gift of the Holy Ghost, Who is the Gift ​par excellence​: "Altissimi Donum Dei" (Gift of the Most High God).

By his descent upon the Apostles under the form of tongues of fire, the Holy Ghost shows us how He, the Spirit of charity, is given to us in order to transform us, so that ​the inward man is renewed day by day ​(2 Cor. 4.16), ​​unto the measure of the age of the fulness of Christ ​(Eph. 4.13), until Christ be formed in [us] (Gal. 4.19): ​And I live now, not I; but Christ liveth in me ​(Gal. 2.20). The Holy Ghost therefore is given to us to help us in our infirmity (cf., Rom. 8.26) so that we may be able attain to this summit of the program of Christian perfection. 

Life Himself (the Uncreated Grace) is communicated to us, that is, the participation of His Divine Life. Since God's nature is pure life (​I Am Who Am​ , Ex. 3.14), by participating therein we cannot help but share in the divine life, in eternal life itself which resides in the Father and was manifested to us for the precise purpose of being communicated to us. And possessing divine life, we ought also to possess the divine operations conformable to it - that is, a most perfect degree of charity manifested by Our Lord in His Passion and Death on the Cross - that we may proceed as the true sons of God, like Our Lord and Savior in His submission and obedience to the pleasures of His Heavenly Father ​even to the death of the Cross (​Phil. 2.8). However, in this supernatural Christian operation of a most perfect charity which consists in the supreme sacrifice of our whole mind, heart, body, and soul to God (cf., "Christian Love: Love of the Cross") - in union with the supreme sacrifice of Our Lord of His life and self which is being sacramentally renewed on His high altar (cf., "My Sacrifice and yours...") - the Holy Ghost is the Supreme Conductor and Director, the Supreme Master, for ​by the Holy Ghost, [Jesus Christ] offered Himself unspotted unto God​ (Heb.9.14). The Holy Ghost is communicated to us that we may reach this perfect transformation of love without which we cannot enter Heaven - the abode of God and His angels and His SAINTS.

A blessed Feast to all! 

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Related post: "The Divine Spirit and the 'spirit' of Vatican II on Homosexuality"

Our Lady's First Fatima Message (II): Everyday Rosary to Obtain the Peace of God

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JMJ

Feast of St. Peter Celestine

Our Blessed Mother ended Her first apparition (May 13, 1917) at Fatima in Portugal with these words: "Pray the Rosary everyday to obtain peace for the world and the end of the war." Europe was at war at that time. If Our Lady simply referred to world peace as cessation of armed hostilities, She would have just said "Pray the Rosary everyday to obtain peace for the world." But no, She made a distinction: "peace for the world AND the end of the war."

At Bethlehem, the angels announced two things: Glory to God in the highest; and on earth peace to men of good will (Lk. 2.14); the one, the glory of God, corresponds to the other, peace but to men of good will. The Divine Infant taught us that to glorify God - to exalt His wisdom, goodness, mercy, love and justice - we must humble  ourselves by submitting as sons to what our good Heavenly Father ordains and permits: He must increase, but [we] must decrease (Jn. 3.30). Those who obey God's law enjoy peace; observing the divine law they also glorify God. And no one more than Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ brings peace to men; making reparation for sin, He reconciles man with His Creator and establishes a new covenant between them: the Creator will become Father, and man, His son. Our Lady at Fatima therefore treats of that peace which comes only from Jesus, from His grace, from being reconciled to the Father through His redemptive ministry now He entrusts to His Church - peace which man will seek in vain elsewhere : the "Novus Ordo" or the New World Order shaped by the Synagogue of Satan (Apoc. 2.9; 3.9) marching under the Masonic banner of "brotherhood, liberty, and equality."

"Peace is the tranquility of order," says St. Thomas Aquinas. Order is established by the law and will of God. This Order has since been established: the Traditional Catholic Order of things where Jesus Christ, the King of kings, has the absolute dominion not only in His Church but also in the Constitution and Laws of nations, for the kingdom is the Lord's; and He shall have dominion over the nations... all kings of the earth shall adore Him: all nations shall serve Him (Ps. 21.29; 71.11); not a "Novus Ordo" where its center is still up for search - since the "Church of Christ is a reality bigger than the Catholic Church" (cf., "Our Lady and the New Orientation in Rome"), according to Cardinal Ratzinger now Pope Benedict XVI - in the ecumenical venture Cephas* has agreed to collaborate with the enemies of the Truth and the Crucified. Those who respect this Order fully,** possess the plenitude of interior peace; those who depart from it, even in the slightest degree, lose their peace*** in proportion to their deviation from it.
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* Cephas once received a most grave rebuke from His Lord and Master when he sought to deviate from the path leading to the bloody immolation on the Cross and which will be the center of Christ's Church for all ages to come: Go behind Me, Satan, thou art a scandal unto Me: because thou savourest not the things that are of God, but the things that are of men (Mt. 16.23). And the word of God is living and effectual, and more piercing than any two edged sword (Heb. 4.12).

** Pope Benedict XVI, in his "motu proprio" "Summorum Pontificum", upheld the Traditional Latin Mass to have never been abrogated (in virtue of Pope St. Pius V's irrevocable decree "Quo Primum") and yet reduced the same Traditional Roman Rite of Divine Worship to a mere "extraordinary form" - which literally means a non-normal Rite of Divine Worship - contradicting the same "Quo Primum" (cf., "The Traditional Latin Mass...").

*** Hence, The Lord will enter into judgment with the ancients of His people, and its princes (Is. 3.14). When the divine chastisement of worldwide conflagration as foretold by Our Lord in Lk. 17.29-30 and referred to by Our Lady at Fatima, Portugal and in Akita, Japan, shall fall from heaven it is no exaggeration to say that many bishops and priests will be the first to be reduced by God to ashes.
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As at Bethlehem the angels promised peace to men of good will, so now at Fatima Our Lady promised peace but also to men of good will - for Our Lady can never depart from the truth. Our will is good when it is upright, docile, and resolute. It is upright when it is sincerely and entirely oriented toward good, not spoiled by even 00.01% dissimulation;* docile, when it is always ready to follow every indication of God's will;** resolute, when it is prompt to adhere to the will of God, even though difficulties and obstacles arise, and sacrifices are required (cf., what Pope John Paul II did in his last Papal act of 'Consecration' supposed to be in fulfillment of Our Lady's desire at Fatima, cf., "When Mary Comes... (III)," and the compromises Pope Benedict XVI dealt the subverted episcopal bodies who threaten to cut off their nations from 'full communion' with him over the Traditional Latin Mass regaining its rightful place in the Catholic sanctuary, cf., "The Ultimate Delusion..." and his clarification on his "motu proprio").
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 * On the false [g]od or the false Jesus Christ - the object of the New 'Order' of 'Catholic' Worship, cf., "The Ultimate Delusion of Vatican II 'Catholicism';" and, Pope Benedict XVI literally referring to the very foundation of the Traditional Catholic Order - the Traditional Rite of the Mass - as "evil" when he clarified that his "motu proprio" was only, after all, a mere "act of toleration" (cf., "Pope Benedict XVI's 'motu proprio'...").

** Our Lady desired that the Third Secret be revealed as early as the 1960, cf., "Our Lady and the New Orientation in Rome," but when Pope John XXIII read it and nearly fainted,*** all he had to say was "this does not concern my pontificate['s agenda]."

*** Since, in all probability, God anathematizes the orientation: 1) which his Second Vatican Council would consecrate as if it were a dogma of the faith that must be adhered to under pain of 'excommunication' or canonical 'irregularity' [which canonical penalty really is for which crime?!]; and, 2) which will pave the way for the loss of faith as foretold by Our Lord (But yet the Son of man, when He cometh, shall He find, think you, faith on earth? - Lk. 18.8) and referred to by Our Lady Herself once more at Fatima: "In Portugal [She did not say "In Rome"] the dogma of the Faith shall always be preserved, etc." (in Sr. Lucia's Fourth Memoir, closing the Second Secret and introducing the Third Secret)

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Our holy Mother St. Teresa of Jesus (Teresa of Avila) says, "Holy Peace consists in a union with God's will, of such a kind that no dissension arises between the will of God and the soul, but they are both one - not in words or in desires alone but in works... and considers not its own profit nor its own tranquility" ("Conceptions of the Love of God," 3). This is perfect good will and Our Immaculate Mother is an unsurpassable model of it when She responded Fiat mihi ("Let it be done to me...") to the divine message of Redemption brought to Her by the Archangel Gabriel - that "Angelic Salutation" which forms the greater part of the Rosary to serve as our "battering ram" against the constant assaults of the infernal powers and forces blinding, defeaning, and dumbing pastors and the souls entrusted to them into an order of life that is unsuspectingly at enmity with God.

Our Lady's First Fatima Message (I): Life of penance in union with the Crucified

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JMJ

Feast of St. Venantius

Martyr at the age of fifteen

We often read "Penance! Penance! Penance!" among those who promote also the Messages of the heavenly Queen in Her apparitions at Fatima in Portugal. Yes, Our Blessed Mother calls souls to a life penitential sacrifice (as Her divine Son did at the beginning of His redemptive ministry), cf., "First Fatima Message...," but what is a Christian life of penitential sacrifice without its very source - the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass (cf., "'My Sacrifice and yours...'"), the unbloody renewal of Our Lord's immolation on the Cross (cf., "'We have an altar' (Heb. 13.10)..."), the very life of a Christian: Give us this day our Supersubstantial Bread... (from the "Pater Noster" of Mt. 6.11, DRV, cf. Jn. 6.34). Indeed, since the suppression of the Traditional Latin Mass - decreed "ex cathedra"* by Pope St. Pius V to be "the norm [that is, "the ordinary" of the Roman Rite] in perpetuity" (cf., "The Traditional Latin Mass...") -  by the issuance of Pope Paul VI's "Missale Romanum" which merely formally declared the Roman Pontiff's "wish" to have Bugnini's 'Mass' widely celebrated (cf., "Obey God, rather than men"), almost the whole of Catholic world has lost the Catholic sense of penance: for the New 'Mass' introduced by the Vatican in 1969 is a [Protestant] celebrative fellowship around a commemorative meal.** Some other indications of this loss of the Catholic sense of penance flowing from the New 'celebration': the abolition in the New 'Church Calendar' of the traditional observance of abstinence from meat every Friday (except when there is a First Class Feast, as when Christmas falls on that day) throughout the year, restricting it to Ash Wednesday and Holy Friday; and, the general reaction of "Novus Ordo" Catholics (who are used to see the priests and religious of their New 'Catholic Order' in layman's apparel and fashion) to Traditional members of the clergy who don the black cassock everywhere they go even when the sun is at its peak: "Don't you feel uncomfortable?" - for there shall be like people like priest [Osee (Hosea in non-Catholic versions) 4.9].

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* That is, "from the Chair" of the Sovereign Roman Pontiff speaking also in his capacity as the supreme lawgiver and judge whose judgments and decrees, solemnly issued in the name of God, cannot be revoked.

** ** The New 'Mass' was defined in Pope Paul VI's "Institutio Generalis" (General Introduction) according as the Lutherans understood it and not as the Council of Trent dogmatically defined it: “The Lord’s Supper or Mass is the assembly or meeting of the People of God, met together with a priest presiding, to celebrate the Memorial*** of the Lord."

*** Though still using the same term, this is no longer understood, however, in the same sense as it was understood in Catholicism prior to Vatican II, that is, to show the death of the Lord (1 Cor. 11.26) by the shedding of His Most Precious Blood; hence, we find in the traditional formula for the consecration of the wine the "Mysterium Fidei" (the mystery of Faith) - now, shifted to the "anamnesis" of the New 'Mass' but pushed from the sole focus to a side: the "presider", "Let us proclaim the mystery of our faith," to which the assembly responds, "Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again," for the inventors of the New Rite knew very well that an explicitly diabolical action always manifests a doing away with the Cross and that completely.

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Our Lady in Her first Fatima Message attempts to salvage then our Traditional Eucharistic life, vicarious of the Passion and Death of the Beloved on Calvary - a life in which the interests of the Sovereign God (all which pertain to His glory - that is, His manifested majestic goodness duly acknowledged by His creatures) occupy the centrally prime position to which follows in order the interest of salvation of souls; a life according to the rhythm of the beatings of the Most Sacred Heart of Our Lord on the Cross: to console and appease the greatly offended heart of Our Heavenly Father (cf., our reply to a comment on "The Problem with the 'Divine Mercy Devotion'") and to snatch poor miserable sinners descending to their  eternal wretchedness in hell which was prepared for the devil and his angels (Mt. 25.41).   

Related post: "'My Sacrifice and yours...'" 

The Ascension of the Risen Christ

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JMJ

Solemn Feast of the Ascension of Our Lord Jesus Christ

God is ascended with jubilee, and... with the sound of trumpet... Thou hast ascended on high, Thou hast led captivity captive (Ps. 46.6; 67.19).

The central idea in the Liturgy today is the raising of our hearts towards heaven, so that we may begin to dwell in spirit where Jesus has gone before us. "Christ's Ascension," says St. Leo I, "is our own ascension; our body has the hope of one day being where its glorious Head has preceded it" (in the Roman Breviary). In fact, Our Lord had already said in His discourse after the Last Supper, I go to prepare a place for you. And if I shall go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to Myself; that where I am, you also may be (Jn. 14.2-3). The Ascension, then, is a feast of joyful hope, a sweet foretaste of heaven. By going before us, Jesus our Head has given us the right to follow Him there some day, and we can even say with St. Leo, "In the person of Christ, we have penetrated the heights of heaven" (in the Roman Breviary).

As in Christ Crucified we die to sin, as in the Risen Christ we rise to the life of grace, so too, we are raised up to heaven in the Ascension of Christ. This vital participation in Christ's mysteries is the essential consequence of our incorporation in Him. He is our Head (cf., Eph. 1.22-23); we, as His members, are totally dependent upon Him and intimately bound to His destiny. God, Who is rich in mercy, says St. Paul, for His exceeding charity wherewith He loved us... hath quickened us together in Christ... and hath raised us up... and hath made us sit together in the heavenly places through Christ Jesus (Eph. 2.4-6).

Our right to heaven has been given us, our place is ready; it is for us to live in such a way that we may occupy it some day. Meanwhile this sure way, greatly obscured* from many since the Second Vatican Council or Vatican II, is none other than the Traditional Catholic order of things which, since it was God Himself who constituted it, can not fade away to obsolescence - and therefore irrelevancy - as is impiously asserted even by those who occupy key positions in the Vatican. Stand ye on the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, which is the good way, and walk ye in it: and you shall find refreshment for your souls (Jer. 6.16). And Our Lady at Fatima, since the apparition of the guardian angel of Portugal, which preceded Her first apparition, to the last message She delivered to Sr. Lucia, C.D., came precisely to call us back to the traditional ways of Christian living - based as it is on the unchanging principles which Our Lord lived and taught and the same principles consistently understood in the same sense by generations of Catholics prior to Vatican II - and to make us firm in it.
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* Immediately after the tribulation of those days, the sun shall be darkened and the moon shall not give her light (Mt. 24.29) – by the sun, according to St. Augustine, is meant Our Lord Jesus Christ Himself; by the moon, the Church, which will appear as involved in darkness (in the traditional Holy Catholic Haydock Bible), cf., our post "The 'Great Tribulation'". “In Portugal [not "in Rome"], the dogma of the Faith shall always be preserved, etc.” (Our Lady of Fatima in the final clause of the Second Secret and introducing the Third Secret which shall speak of the fate of Church in Rome, following “etc.”)

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Where thy treasure is, there is thy heart also (Mt. 6.21). If Jesus is really our treasure, our heart cannot be anywhere but near Him in heaven. This is the great hope of the Christian soul, so beautifully expressed in today's Liturgy: "O Jesus, be the hope of our hearts, our joy in sorrow, the sweet fruit of our life" (Roman Breviary, hymn for Vespers). "Grant, O Almighty God, that we, too, may dwell in spirit in the heavenly mansions" (Collect of the Mass).

First Fatima Message: Penitential Sacrifice and Everyday Rosary

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JMJ

Anniversary of the First Apparition of "the Great Sign in heaven"* in Fatima, Portugal

Our Blessed Mother on this day, May 13, exactly 95 years ago - Her first apparition in Fatima, Portugal: "Are you willing to offer yourselves to God (cf., our post "'My Sacrifice and yours...'") to endure all the sufferings He may be pleased to send you, as both an act of reparation for the sins with which [God] is offended, and an act of supplication for the conversion of sinners? Well, then, you will have much to suffer. But the grace of God will be your comfort. Pray the Rosary everyday to obtain peace for the world..."

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* Cf., our post "The 'Great Sign in Heaven'"
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The First Fatima "Message" and its import:
"Our Lady's First Fatima Message (I): Penitential Life in Union with the Crucified"
"Our Lady's First Fatima Message (II): Everyday Rosary to Obtain the Peace of God"

The Great Promise

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JMJ

Fourth Sunday after Easter

Since last Sunday, the Church has been preparing us for the Ascension of the Lord. Today, taking up the subject again, she goes a step further. Now she mentions the gift of God: the Holy Ghost - and His coming.

​It is expedient to you that I go, for if I go not, the Paraclete will not come to you ​(Jn. 16.7).

The Apostles were about to loose the sensible, physical presence of their beloved Risen Lord and Master (cf., "The Divine Farewell"). However, the Risen Christ would not leave them orphans and would continue to help them invisibly by His Spirit, Who would take up His work with them. The Lord Jesus did His work in  a visible manner in their midst; the Holy Ghost would do His in a secret, hidden way, but in one no less efficacious and real. Such is the way that leads to the height of Christian perfection: not by our human sensibilities and reckoning which calculate a greater degree of comfort and consolation and, but by the "dark", hidden and mysterious ways of the Spirit designed for our spiritual 'purgation' or purification which is indispensable for our more perfect intimacy with God. ​ ​​If the soul is convinced of this, it will remain, even in difficulties and in the most trying ones, and, if it neither understands nor sees its path, it will trust in the divine Paraclete, Who sees and knows well the goal to which He is leading it. The sensual man perceiveth not [the] things that are of ... God; for it is foolishness to him, and he cannot understand, because it is spiritually examined. But the spiritual man judgeth all things; and he himself is judged of no man ​(1 Cor. 2.14-15). 

The hearts of the Apostles could not comprehend what has happened to their Lord and Master and what is to happen still now that He is bidding them farewell because they are still dulled by sin. It was necessary that their Beloved Friend and Master, by dying on the Cross, destroy sin - the great obstacle to the action of the Holy Ghost - and then, when He had ascended into heaven, He would send the divine Paraclete Whom He merited for them and for us - after that man chose to listen to the deceitful and filthy infernal spirit - by His Passion. Therefore, theology teaches that the sending of the Holy Ghost to our souls is the principal fruit of the Passion of Our Lord.

Since sin is the greatest obstacle to the outpouring of the Holy Ghost, our preparation for the reception of this highest Gift Divine must consist then in a very special purity of conscience. Sin must be destroyed in us, not only in its actual manifestations, even though they are slight, but also in its deepest and most hidden roots (cf., "passive purification" in "Christian Love: Love of the Cross").

The Tridentine Latin Mass: The "norm" of the Roman Rite "in perpetuity" - Pope St. Pius V

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JMJ

Feast of Pope St. Pius V

The Roman Pontiff who codified the Traditional Latin Mass to be the "norm...in perpetuity" (in the Apostolic Constitution "Quo Primum" of July 14, 1570)

From the Apostolic Constitution "Quo Primum" promulgated by His Holiness Pope St. Pius V: "We specifically command... and We order... in virtue of holy obedience to chant or to read the Mass according to the rite and manner and norm herewith laid down by Us... Furthermore, by these presents [this law], in virtue of Our Apostolic authority, We grant and concede in perpetuity that, for the chanting or reading of the Mass IN ANY CHURCH WHATSOEVER, THIS MISSAL is hereafter TO BE FOLLOWED ABSOLUTELY... NOW AND FOREVER, without any scruple of conscience or fear of incurring any penalty, judgment, or censure, and may freely and lawfully be used. Nor are superiors, administrators, canons, chaplains, and other secular priests, or religious, of whatever title designated, obliged to celebrate the Mass otherwise than as enjoined by Us. We likewise declare and ordain . . . that this present document cannot be revoked or modified, but remain always valid and retain its full force ... Therefore, no one whosoever is permitted to alter this notice of Our permission, statute, ordinance, command, precept, grant, indult, declaration, will, decree, and prohibition. He should know that he will incur the wrath of Almighty God and of the Blessed Apostles Peter and Paul."

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"We specifically command... we order... in virtue of Our Apostolic Authority...": thus how the Sovereign Pontiff, speaking "ex cathedra" and in the name of Jesus Christ - his Lord and Master - deals with a life or death matter for God's universal flock which is entrusted to his care and superintendence; he does not "wish" (Pope Paul VI in instituting Bugnini's 'Mass', cf. "Obey God, rather than men," and Pope Benedict XVI's "Summorum Pontificum": Pope Paul VI "moved by the desire" of Vatican II), does not "hope" (Pope Benedict XVI, cf. "Pope Benedict XVI's "Motu Proprio": "Toleration" of something evil"), and does not suggest nor appeal.

"... Chant or read the Mass according to the...norm herewith laid down by Us": the Sovereign Pontiff solemnly commands and orders that the Traditional Latin Mass is the norm of Catholic Worship in the Roman Rite. Pope Benedict XVI altered the injuction, making the Mass a sort of a 'fringe' Rite - outside ("extra-") the norm: a non-normal celebration - but did so not in the solemn exercise of his sovereign Apostolic Authority, commanding and ordering (on the virtual abdication of Vatican II Popes as a Middle-Ages sovereign lord, reduced to that of the modern-day constitutional monarch - limited by Freemasonry-run States to a mere ceremonial head or as a democratic "presider", cf., "The Great Tribulation").

"...In perpetuity": The Traditional Latin Mass is the norm of divine worship "in any church whatsoever" in the Roman Rite for all ages.

"... This Missal is hereafter to be followed absolutely...": Pope Paul VI's "Missale Romanum", by which he merely "wishe[d]" or "desired" the institution of Bugnini's 'Mass' (cf., "The Catholic Sanctuary Prefigured in the OT ii"), is therefore legally "null and void". Pope St. Pius V moved to protect the divine worship of the Latin Church against the most subtly insidious attacks of the powers and forces of hell, realizing, through the outbreak of the religious 'enlightenment' of the 16th century, the imminence of the ​abomination of desolation... in the holy place​ (Mt. 24.21) to be set up in the name of "holy obedience" (cf., "Obey God, rather than men...") to compromised or subverted ecclesiastical superiors - nullifying "any penalty, [adverse] judgment, censure" as they may impose against any priest (and faithful) adhering "absolutely" to the Traditional Latin Mass.

To those who would dare alter or give permission to alter the above "notice of Our permission, statute, ordinance, command, precept, grant, indult, declaration, will, decree, and prohibition": ​Let [them] be anathema ​(Gal. 1.8) and draw upon themselves "the wrath of Almighty God and of the Apostles Peter and Paul."

When therefore you shall see the abomination of desolation [the New Rite of Worship of a Neo-Christ invented by the Freemason Bugnini and "WISHED" by Pope Paul VI to be celebrated throughout the Roman Rite Church]...  standing in the holy place... flee to the mountains (Mt. 24.15,16). Flee to our Mass Centers - see our page "Catholic Resistance, Not Disobedience"

Pope Benedict XVI's "Motu Proprio" (on the Traditional Latin Mass): "Toleration" of evil

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JMJ

Feast of Pope St. Pius V
The Roman Pontiff who codified the Traditional Latin Mass to be the norm "in perpetuity" (in the Apostolic Constitution "Quo Primum" of July 14, 1570)

When our Holy Father visited France in September 12, 2008 (2007, he granted a 'broader permission' for the celebration of the Traditional Latin Mass by his "Motu Proprio"), he clarified, amidst the French 'pastors' fearful of the "backward" step "from the great insights of Vatican II" which the Pope's measure might have caused, that the "Motu Proprio": "... Is an act of tolerance." The "National Catholic Reporter" which covered also the Papal visit carried the headline: "Pope in France: 'Latin Mass an act of tolerance" (John Allen, 12 September 2008).

Technically speaking, the Roman Pontiff, in using the term "toleration", literally referred to the Traditional Latin Mass (and the whole traditional Catholic Order built upon it) as evil. In Latin: "Toleratio est permissio negativa mali" (Toleration is a negative permission of evil). Abp. Fulton Sheen explains the Catholic concept: "Toleration is... a patient forbearance in the face of evil, either real evil or imaginary." "Notice," the same Prelate points out, "that tolerance is negative ["negativa"]. Tolerance is never positive. If it were, it would be connivance with evil... The good is never tolerated; rather, it is to be approved; aye! it is to be loved" (in "Life is Worth Living," 100). 

The 'conservatives' (the Carmelite Monks of Wyoming, the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter, and the rest of those who have fallen under the "Ecclesia Dei Commission") must have understood also the full import of Pope Benedict XVI's statement. But these 'conservatives', in being considered to be in "full communion" with Rome, were bound to silence, by way of an unwritten condition, in the face of such Papal declaration of a most scandalous magnitude yet unequivocally pointing to the "profound [radical] theological differences" (German and French Episcopal Conferences) between the New 'Catholic' theological orientation behind the New 'Mass' and the traditional Catholic Theology behind the Traditional Latin Mass (cf., "The Ultimate Delusion of Vatican II 'Catholicism'").

Pope Paul IV, in his "ex cathedra" decree "Cum ex apostolatus officio" (Feb. 15, 1559): ".... The Roman Pontiff... may nonetheless be contradicted if he be found to have deviated from the Faith.* Remembering also that, where danger is greater, it must more fully and more diligently be counteracted... lest We seem to be dumb watchdogs [cf., Is. 56.10] that cannot bark and lest We perish with the wicked husbandman and be compared with the hireling." The 'conservatives' have reneged on this clerical duty in exchange for a mere 'officiality'. All that they are bound to say: "The Pope has spoken..." And to his [Cephas'] dissimulation the rest... consented ... (Gal. 2.13).

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* The Traditional Latin Liturgy is the Church's means of inculcating her Faith especially in the minds of the faithful who are not competent in making theological examination, following the traditional Roman axiom: "how one prays shows what one believes" ("lex orandi, lex credendi").

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A week after Easter, our Holy Father wrote to the German bishops regarding the phrase "for all"** in the 'Consecration' narrative of the New 'Mass'. The conclusion of his appeal: "... We must proceed with love and respect for the Word of God... We hope [Your Holiness, you are the reigning "Sovereign Pontiff"] to do so indeed." That's what makes the New 'Mass' formally sacrilegious - and therefore an evil rite - for at the very heart of it, at the 'Consecration', is a diabolical lie: a distortion of the Word of God! Let us quote the "Jerome Biblical Commentary" of the New 'Catholic' Biblical Exegesis which provides a fitting remark on the parallel between Pope Benedict XVI's dissimulation and the same Roman Pontiff's effort to engage the German episcopal body in making a 'correction' in the New formula of 'Consecration' of the wine that is in keeping with "respect for the Word of God" on the one hand, and the serpent's distortion  and the woman's effort to correct it - though with the addition of her own words - in Genesis 3.2-3 on the other: "Sin begins with some distortion of the truth" (2:26)

With the Prophet Isaias, we, the Discalced religious of Our Immaculate Queen and Mother of Carmel, after the example of St. Paul (St. Peter's inferior), with[stand] Cephas to the face (Gal. 2.11): Woe to you that call evil good, and good evil (5.20).

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** Our Lord, as we learn in the Sacred Scriptures, did not utter "pro omnibus" but pro multis (for many, Mt. 26.28)]. Father Federico Lombardi, S.J., director of the Vatican Press Office, in commenting on Pope Benedict XVI's message to the German episcopal body, points out the reason for "the modification of the Biblical translation": "... Intended to clarify the universality of salvation which was brought about by Christ." On "universalist salvation," that all, including the damned, shall be saved in the end, cf., "The Ultimate Delusion of Vatican II 'Catholicism'" and "What is Truth?"
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Withdraw yourselves from every brother walking disorderly,

and not according to the tradition which they have received of us.

Yet do not esteem him as an enemy, 

but admonish him as a brother.

 2 Thessalonians 3.6,15

Related post: "St. Athanasius on Catholic Tradition 'Overturned'"

St. Athanasius on the Institutional Church 'Overturned'

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JMJ

Feast of St. Athanasius
Greek Doctor of the Church, "The Voice of Orthodoxy"

In the fourth century, we saw Christendom ravaged by Arianism (the heresy of Arius denying the divinity of Jesus Christ). St. Jerome wrote of that period: "The whole world groaned and was amazed to find itself Arian." And at the heart of the catastrophe was the compromised Pope (Liberius) who succumbed to pressures (1) to sign an ambiguous formula of the Catholic Faith where the "homoousion" (Jesus Christ was consubstantial with the Father: of one divine substance) was omitted and later (2) to issue also a decree of "excommunication" against St. Athanasius, then Bishop of Alexandria, who, according to Cardinal Newman, was  the  "principal instrument, after the Apostles, by which the sacred truths of Christianity have been conveyed and secured to the world." Unjustly "excommunicated" by the Roman Pontiff and with almost the entire hierarchy infected with Arianism, St. Athanasius was forced to operate outside the 'official communion' with the Holy See and even ordained priestly candidates of orthodox theological formation in the dioceses of other infected-bishops to ensure that the true Catholic priesthood would survive. The faithful also who stood fast and h[e]ld (2 Thess. 2.14) the traditional teachings of the Faith, then reduced to a handful of the Scriptural remnant, had to worship outside their 'official' parish churches - the churches of those infected-priests in communion with their equally infected-local ordinaries [the local bishops] - and sought the truly orthodox Catholic teaching, the rest of the uninfected Sacraments, and sound spiritual guidance not from their local 'priests' and not from the 'bishops' of their diocese and their country who were in 'official communion' with a compromised Roman Pontiff, but from an 'excommunicated' bishop (cf., 1 Machabees 2.37) and the priests he 'illicitly' ordained. It might be asked, "How could the faithful listen to an 'excommunicated' bishop and his 'illicitly' ordained priests who claimed to be right while the Roman Pontiff and the body of the episcopate [ not teaching infallibly of course] were wrong?" In the first place, it is not the majority that determines what is the truth and, conversely, what is good - as is the spirit of our present age breathing in and out the Masonic principles of 1769. St. Athanasius and his priests could only claim the guarantee of the Eternal Word: His truth shall compass thee with a shield; thou shalt not be afraid of the terror of the night.... A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand: but it shall not come nigh thee.... Thou hast despised all them that fall off from Thy judgment; for their thought is unjust (Ps. 90.5,7; 118.118). In the second place, the faithful recognized in the mouths and in the epistles of the 'excommunicated' bishop and his 'illicitly' ordained priests the one true Apostolic confession of the Faith into which they had been baptized, in which they had been catechized, and which they had the obligation to uphold and defend by their reception of the Sacrament of Confirmation.

Epistle of St. Athanasius to his flock:

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"May God console you! ... What saddens you ... is the fact that others have occupied the churches by violence, while during this time you are in the outside. It is a fact that they have the premises – but you have the Apostolic Faith. They can occupy our churches, but they are outside the true Faith. You remain outside the places of worship, but the Faith dwells within you. Let us consider: what is more important, the place or the Faith? The true Faith, obviously. Who has lost and who has won in the struggle – the one who keeps the premises or the one who keeps the Faith? True, the premises are good when the Apostolic Faith is preached there; they are holy if everything takes place there in a holy way ...

"You are the ones who are happy; you who remain within the Church by your Faith, who hold firmly to the foundations of the Faith which has come down to you from Apostolic Tradition. And if an execrable jealousy has tried to shake it on a number of occasions, it has not succeeded. They are the ones who have broken away from it in the present crisis. No one, ever, will prevail against your Faith, beloved Brothers. And we believe that God will give us our churches back some day.

"Thus, the more violently they try to occupy the places of worship, the more they separate themselves from the Church. They claim that they represent the Church; but in reality, they are the ones who are expelling themselves from it and going astray. Even if Catholics faithful to Tradition are reduced to a handful, they are the ones who are the true Church of Jesus Christ."

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That this catastrophe repeating itself, and even with graver magnitude, we learn in the night of February 2, 1634 at the Conceptionist Convent in Quito, Ecuador. The Reverend Mother Mariana de Jesus Torres was praying with her eyes fixed on the Tabernacle. After this, the sanctuary lamp went out, leaving the main sanctuary in complete darkness. Then, suddenly, she saw a celestial light illuminate the whole church. The Queen of Heaven, in Her title "Our Lady of Good Success", appeared, approached her, and explained to her why the sanctuary lamp - which tells the faithful that the Lord Jesus Christ is really and truly present in the tabernacle - was extinguished: "In the 19th century, and advancing into a large part of the 20th, various heresies will be propagated... As they come to dominate, the precious light of Faith will be almost extinguished.... In this epoch, the secular clergy [the diocesan priests, not members of religious Orders or Congregations] will be far removed from its ideal [cf., our post "The 'Voice of Orthodoxy' in the Post-Vatican II Era: 'At the Heart of Catholic Crisis - the Priesthood'"], because the priests will be careless in their sacred duties. Lacking the divine compass [the "diabolical disorientation" according to Sr. Lucia, C.D., cf., "Our Lady and the New 'Catholic' Orientation of Rome in the 1960's" and "The Ultimate Delusion of Vatican II 'Catholicism'"], they will stray from the road traced by God for the priestly ministry [cf., "Our 'Great Reversal'"]...." At La Salette, France (1849): "Rome will loose the Faith [cf., Pope Paul VI: "We preach ecumenism," in "Our 'Great Reversal;'" also "The 'Great Tribulation,'" and "Our Lady & the New Orientation in Rome in the 1960's"] and become the seat of the Antichrist* [cf., "A Perilous 'Catholic' Voyage" and "The 'Great Tribulation'"]; and, at Fatima, Portugal (1917): "In Portugal [not in Rome] the dogma of the Faith will always be preserved, etc."**
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* Originally part of the Secret which Our Lady said could be published in 1858. This was contained in the original edition of Lecce (1879) and again in Lecce edition of Nov. 15, 1979 with the Imprimatur of Bishop Zola.

** In the Fourth Memoir of Sr. Lucia, C.D. closing the Second Secret yet introducing the Third Secret with "etc."
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"Matters have come to this pass..." (St. Basil writing about the year 372 A.D. on the catastrophic state of the Church):

"Surely the pastors have done foolishly; for - excepting a very few who either on account of their insignificance were passed over, or who by reason of their virtue resisted, and who were to be left as a seed and root for the springing up again and revival of Israel [the Church. ed.] by the influence of the Spirit - all temporized, only differing from each other in this, that some succumbed earlier, and others later; some were foremost champions and leaders in the impiety, and others joined the second rank of the battle, being overcome by fear, or by interests, or by flattery, or, what was the most excusable, by their own ignorance" (St. Gregory Nazianzen, about 360 A.D.).

"Religious people keep silence, but every blaspheming tongue is let loose. Sacred things are profaned; those of the laity who are sound in the Faith avoid the places of worship as schools of impiety, and raise their hands in solitude, with groans and tears to the Lord in Heaven" (St. Basil, about the year 372 A.D.). Four years later: "... The people have left their houses of prayer, and assembled in the deserts, – a pitiable sight; women and children, old men, and men otherwise infirm, wretchedly faring in the open air, amid most profuse rains and snowstorms and winds and frosts of winter; and again in summer under a scorching sun. To this they submit, because they will have no part of the wicked Arian leaven [now, the Modernist leaven with the label "New 'Catholic Theology']." And: "Only one offense is now vigorously punished an accurate observance of our Fathers' traditions. For this cause the pious are driven from their countries and transported into deserts [cf., 1 Machabees 1-2]."

When therefore you shall see the abomination of desolation... standing in the holy place.... where it ought not...:
then let them... flee to the mountains.
[For] wheresoever the Body shall be, thither will the eagles also be gathered together
(Mt. 24.15; Mk. 13.14; Mt. 24.28)

Related posts: "The 'Voice of Orthodoxy' in the Post-Vatican II Era: 'At the Heart of Catholic Crisis -the Priesthood'" and "The Wine of the Wrath of God".

See: "Catholic Resistance, Not Disobedience"