"De profundis..."

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J.M.J.

Feast of St. Augustine

Bishop and Doctor of the Church

Out of the depths.... He shall redeem...

(Ps. 129.1,8)

Saint Augustine, once "caught fast in a disease of the flesh..." (Confessions, Bk. VI, Ch. 12), rose to such a towering figure of sanctity. See how the grace of Our Lord would rise those it finds plunged in the degrading depths of the sea of beastly carnal pleasures. "Caught fast in a disease of the flesh with its deadly sweetness, I dragged along my chains and was fearful of being loosed from them... Thus we were, until You, O Most High, Who never desert our clay, mercifully by marvelous and hidden ways come to aid us in our wretchedness" (ibid.).

"Disease," "deadly," "wretchedness." Thus how God's grace triumphs when in the time He shows our sickness through the light of the Catholic Faith (cf., our post "On Lust and the Vice of Impurity"), we incline our ear and finally avail of His great power! So our dear "Little Therese" puts it thus: "Humility is truth." For He shall save the humble... of spirit.... glory shall uphold the humble of spirit (Ps. 17.28; 33.19; Pr. 29.23). We then sing as the converted Augustine sang (Bk. IX, Ch. 1): You have broken my bonds! (Ps. 115.16). In great contrast is the diabolical response among the unclean (see "Comment" below) and, more loudly, among those who now pride themselves to have revised Gen. 1.27 (male and female He created them) by 'creating' a 'third sex/gender': "We're O.K. Nothing DISordered, nothing DISoriented in us [no thanks to the 'Pontifex', in our post "The Thoughts of God's Heart..."]. [g]od made us this way! This is 'NATURAL'" - the 'Naturalism' (denial of Original Sin) fundamental to Freemasonry and its 1789 revolutionary 'Rights of Man'! (cf., our post "Papal Condemnations of Freemasonry and Their Doctrines").

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

"Double-minded"

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J.M.J.

Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost

Draw nigh to God and He will draw nigh to you.

Cleanse your hands, ye sinners: and purify your hearts, ye double-minded

(James 4.8)

St. Augustine

"O Lord... because the frailty of man without Thee cannot but fall, keep us ever by Thy help from all things hurtful, and lead us to all things profitable to our salvation" ("Collect" of today's Holy Mass). Behold the position of man in respect to the spiritual life: he is like a child who finds himself at a crossroad: he cannot go on alone, and he does not know which road leads to his home. Two roads open up before the Christian: one leads to the kingdom of the Spirit - the kingdom of God; the other to the kingdom of the flesh - the kingdom of Mammon. Evidently, he wishes to give the preference to the one leading to the kingdom of God, the calm, peaceful kingdom described by the Lord and Savior in today's Gospel (Mt. 6.24-33). Unfortunately, however, the kingdom of Mammon also has attractions and tries to seduce the heart. For the flesh lusteth against the spirit, and spirit against the flesh; for these are contrary one to another, so that you do not the things that you would, teaches today's Epistle (Gal. 5.16-24).

The struggle is hard, even in souls that are decidedly advanced in the things of God. Why? Because the path that leads to the kingdom of God is rough and tiring; it is often shrouded in dense darkness, rendering it impossible for the soul to discern the progress already made. Then the soul must proceed in the night, believing and hoping. Meanwhile, its gaze falls on the other road, which is broader and more comfortable, strewn with sensible [perceivable to the senses] which can be seen and touched, gathered and enjoyed immediately, by merely stretching out one's hand. The soul feels the temptation and realizes that alone it could not resist, but if it takes refuge in God, if it yields to the guidance of the Spirit, it will be saved, although not without sacrifice. I say then, walk in the Spirit, continues St. Paul, and you shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh... fornication, uncleanness [that is, the act of bringing about the issu[ance] of seed - Num. 5.2, DRB; Cf., vv.16,18 and Dt. 23.10 - not for the purpose of producing offspring], immodesty, luxury, idolatrym witchcrafts, enmities, contentions, emulations, wraths, quarrels, dissensions, sects, envies, murders, drunkenness, revelings, and such like... Of the which... they who do such things shall not obtain the kingdom of God. It is always true: sensible goods present themselves like flowers; attractive, yes, but doomed to quickly vanish and decay; it is not worthwhile to stop to enjoy them. That is why they that are Christ's have crucified their flesh, with the vices and concupiscences.

The Holy Gospel again puts us on guard against the attractiveness of earthly goods. First it affirms that no man can simultaneously serve two masters, God and Mammon, any more than one can follow two roads [as, per Msgr. Fellay's, Superior General of the 'institutional SSPX', mind and heart, leading to integration with the Neo-Catholic Disorder "presided" by a 'Pontifex' or bishop; the other, to the traditional Catholic Order which is in "hierarchical subordination" (Pope Pius XII, Mystici Corporis) to the SUMMUS Pontifex or the SOVEREIGN Pontiff crowned with the Papal tiara and functioning as Vicar of the King of kings] at the same time. Anyone giving himself to God must have the courage to give himself entirely, with no regrets, no backward glance! The soul who, after choosing the path of perfection, does not go forth generously, with its whole heart, will never be contented. It will neither experience the joy of knowing that it belongs entirely to God, nor will it have the satisfaction of being able to follow all the attractions of the world; the first will be impeded by the soul's unfaithfulness, the second by the fear of God which it still possesses. Such a soul is unhappy, torn between the two and in continual struggle with itself.

But what keeps it from seeking the kingdom of God with its whole heart? The Lord and Savior gives us the answer in today's Holy Gospel: too much solicitude about sensible things [as the 'INSTITUTIONAL Church' also of Msgr. Fellay and his henchmen], about ease and security [which the delusion of 'officiality' with Neo-Catholic Rome also holds out] in this present life. Even though we have the will to live according to the spirit, as long as we are militant pilgrims here below and in a corruptible mortal body, we shall always have to face the possibility of becoming engrossed in worldly cares: What shall we eat? What shall we drink? Wherewith shall we be clothed? Precisely to relieve us of such anxieties, Jesus presents to us the marvelous picture of divine Providence. Behold the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap, nor gather into barns; and your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are you not of more value than they? These are words that give us wings and fill us with a desire to cast aside all vain preoccupations about earthly things and concentrate on seeking the kingdom of God and His justice: Seek ye therefore first the kingdom of God, and His justice, and all these things shall be added unto you. If only we had greater faith in divine Providence, how much freer we would be to attend to the things of our soul: Take care of him (Lk. 10.35, from the Holy Gospel on the 12th Sunday after Pentecost). Although obliged to occupy ourselves with earthly affairs, we would not remain entrapped by them, but would know how to attend to them with complete liberty of spirit.

"O Lord my God... by the Holy Ghost, You have given me the possibility of 

keeping my members under control;

therefore all my hope is in Thee.

Grant that I may do what You command, and then command what You will.

I do not want to be a friend of this world, O Lord,

for if I were, I should be Your enemy.

I want to make a ladder of all created things, by which I may mount to You,

for if I love creature more than You, I shall not possess You.

Of what benefit would an abundance of created things be to me,

if I did not have Thee, the Creator of all things?

Why do I work so much for the love of riches?

The desire for gain imposes fatigue, dangers, and tribulations;

and I, unhappy that I am, submit to them.

I accept them in order to fill my coffers, and so I lose my tranquility.

But Thee, what do you command me to do, my God? To love Thee.

If I love gold, I try to seek it but am not able to find it;

but You are always with those who seek for Thee.

I desire honor, and I may not receive it; but can anyone love Thee and not reach Thee?

All I have to do is to love Thee, and love itself will bring Thee near me.

Is there anything sweeter than such love? 

You, O Lord, are my love! I love Thee will all the ardor of my heart,

and I trample underfoot all earthly attractions, resolving to pass them by."

(St. Augustine)

Catholic Pontiffs Are Princely Rulers

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J.M.J.

Feast of St. Bartholomew

Apostle

The Church instituted by the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is governed by bishops (episcopoi in original Greek), Ac. 20.28. But a Catholic Pontifex or bishop is not only known for his 100%* orthodoxy in his doctrine - in accordance with the Apostolic Tradition (cf., 2 Thess. 2.14); he is also identified as a prince: Thy friends, O God, are made exceedingly honorable... princes over all the earth (Ps. 138.17; 44.17, from the "Introit' and "Gradual" of the Holy Mass for today's Feast).
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* "He must preserve this Faith whole and untarnished" (Athanasian Creed, recited by clerics and religious in the Office of Prime on Sundays). But, "The Ultimate Delusion of Vatican II 'Catholicism'", "Pope Francis Proclaims the New 'Gospel' of 'Universal Salvationism'", "Lumen fidei - a 'faith' or the Catholic Faith?", and Pope Francis on Homosexuality
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A prince of the Church, Card. Pacelli - who became Pope Pius XII

Pope Pius XII borne aloft crowned with the Papal tiara as
SUMMUS Pontifex, that is,
the SOVEREIGN Vicar of the King of kings

When the Neo-Catholic ministers scoffed at and repudiated the royal position and dignity with which God has deigned to honor, even while on this earth, those whom He has elected and drew to Himself as His friends - like to Moses (cf., Ex. 33.11) - it should not be therefore surprising that in their precipitation from the royal position of a prince... made exceedingly honorable, they hit that exceeding shame that was ever unheard of (cf., "Our Lady, Vatican II Disorientation, and the Annihilation of Many Nations")!

'Simplicity' as that effect of 'humility'? But our dear "Little Therese" says: "Sanctity consists in being what God wants us to be" and that "humility is truth." That is, humility is that supernatural disposition which inclines us to take our proper place before God and no other. Cf., "Pope Francis and Desacralization"

Our Lady at Fatima - Not An "Apparition" of a Mere 'Private Revelation' as Neo-Catholics Dismiss It!

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J.M.J

Feast of the Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary

When confronted by the introductory phrase to the Third Part of the Great Secret of Fatima which rewords thus: "[NOT IN ROME will] the dogma of the Faith... be always preserved, ETC [here is contained the Third Part of the Great Secret which, logically, details why Rome "will lose the Faith" - Our Lady at La Sallete, cf., our post "Lumen fidei - a 'faith' or the Catholic Faith?"]," Novus Ordo people dismiss it: "Private revelation does not super[s]ede Church authority. [We] uphold the magisterium." In a desperate effort to "uphold" a disoriented Rome [The whole head is sick - Is. 1.5] and its Neo-Catholic 'magisterium' they in all reality admitted opposition between Our Lady of Fatima and - not the true Catholic authority and not the true Catholic Magisterium - the Neo-Catholic authorities and their 'ecumenical' disorientation.

Pope John Paul II would belie them, however, for on 13th May 2000 at Fatima, where he was reported to be finally revealing the contents of the Third Part of the Great Secret, he referred to the 12th Chapter of the Book of the Apocalypse in his sermon:

"'Another portent appeared in heaven; behold a great red dragon' (Apoc. 12.3).... The Message of Fatima is... alerting humanity to have nothing to do with the 'dragon' whose 'tail swept down a third of the stars of heaven, and dragged them to the earth' (Apoc. 12.4)....

In Her motherly concern, the Blessed Virgin came here to Fatima [from May to October, before the great red dragon appeared in November of the same year 1917 - hence, Our Lady was that Great Sign in heaven (Apoc. 12.1) preceding the other sign of the red dragon]... It is a mother's sorrow that compels Her to speak; the destiny of Her children is at stake."

On 13th May 1982, also at Fatima, Pope John Paul II asked in his sermon: "Can the Mother who, with all the force of the love that She fosters in the Holy Spirit and desires everyone's salvation, can She remain silent when She sees the very bases* of Her children's salvation undermined?" And he himself answered: "No, She cannot remain silent."
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* That is, the truths of the Faith would be "undermined." "Undermined" by whom? The Book of the Apocalypse says that the red dragon appeared in heaven - that is, in traditional Apoclyptic language, IN the Church, cf., our post "The Year That Was 1929" - where his tail, which in Sacred Scriptures is the symbol of lying and hypocrisy, would sweep a third of the stars [that is, clerics for they that instruct many unto justice [shall shine] as stars for all eternity (Dan. 12.3)] who would become the dragon's propagators of his subtly deceitful errors (cf., our post "Upheaval: Russia's Errors Spreading from the Vatican"): the prophet [that is, the cleric, cf., 1 Ki.  9.11-16; 2 Cor. 11.13] that teacheth lies, he is the tail. And they [these compromised clerics] that call [the Novus Ordo faithful] blessed shall cause them to err (Is. 9.15-16). Cf., our posts "Our Lady and the Diabolical Campaign", "Our Lady and the Disorientation of Rome", and "The Ultimate Delusion of Vatican II 'Catholicism'"
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Indeed, what occurred at Fatima from May to October 1917 was an "apparition" but it was the unfolding of a public revelation in its concrete historical circumstances with the Apocalyptic Woman (Gen. 3.15: She shall crush [the dragon's] head] giving the rest of Her seed (Apoc. 12.17) the standard and commands of God on the one hand, and pinpointing to them, on the other, the dissimulating standard of the devil and those who would march, carrying his commands, under his "diabolical disorientation" (cf., our post "A Perilous 'Catholic' Voyage") culminating in a visibly grand victory of God's justice over His enemies and the "triumph of [the Woman's] Immaculate Heart" - Scriptural prophecy being fulfilled!

Related post: "The Honor of the Blessed Virgin Mary Sacrificed By Vatican II". See also "Consecration to the Immaculate Heart Of Mary: Let God be God"

'Rationalist and Protestant Enlightenment' Propaganda of Catholic 'Dark' Ages De-Mythologized by Modern 'Reformists'

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J.M.J.

Feast of St. Bernard of Clairvaux

Abbot and Doctor of the Church

St. Bernard preaching the Second Crusade

The "largest" 'Bible' and biblical resources software developer released a digitized edition of "many of the most significant spiritual and pastoral writings of the Middle Ages" - The Medieval Preaching and Spirituality Collection (Logos Bible Software).

In introducing the digitized edition of the Catholic Medieval Preaching and Spirituality which "includes sermons from the most acclaimed preachers of the period as well as resources commonly used in their composition," the modern 'Reformist' developers of the software acknowledge:

"Far from being the 'dark ages' once disparaged by the rationalists of the Enlightenment, modern scholarship has revealed the Middle Ages as a period of profound intellectual, artistic, and spiritual vitality. The culture of the West revolved around Christianity, and the intellectual life culminated not in abstract theology, but in the sermon. It was in pursuit of better preaching that the scholars of the Middle Ages organized the [Sacred Scriptures] by chapter and verse, why they compiled countless lexicons and concordances, why they wrote their summae and their commentaries, and ultimately why they built the university system. The preaching of the Middle Ages was both exegetical and pastoral. Its purpose was to bring the Word of God to life and through it to convert the people. They believed that preaching was a grace and that the Holy Spirit spoke through the preacher, interpreting Scripture. Preaching and Spirituality were therefore intimately connected."

The "Lesser Light" Mocked

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J.M.J.

Solemnity of the Glorious Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Body and Soul, 
into Heaven 

"In the beginning God placed in the heavens two lights. The one, because of its great brilliance, was called the greater light; the other was named the lesser - the greater one to enlighten and govern the day, the lesser to enlighten and govern the night [Gen. 1.16]. For, though our Creator willed that there should be changes of day and night, and that the shades of night should succeed the brightness of day, being Light Himself [Jn. 1.5] He did not will that darkness and night should remain completely devoid of light. Having created the greater light to govern the day, He created a lesser light to govern the night so that the obscurity of the night's darkness might be tempered by means of its brightness.

This same God, with His holy Providence, determining to create the spiritual world of His Church, placed over it as in a divine vault of Heaven two great lights: one greater, the other lesser. The greater is His Son Jesus Christ our Savior and Master, abyss of light, source of splendor, true Sun of justice [Heb. 1.3; Mal. 3.20]. The lesser is the most holy Mother of this great Son, all-glorious Mother, all resplendent and truly more beautiful than the moon [Cant. 6.10].

Now, this greater Light came here upon earth. The Son of God assumed our human nature. He is the true Sun which comes over our hemisphere and makes the light and the day - happy day, so long desired, which lasted for about 33 years, during which He enlightened the land of the Church by the radiance of His miracles, example, teachings, and holy words! But at length when the hour came in which this precious Sun must set and take its radiance to the other hemisphere of the Church, Heaven and the angelic hosts, what could be expected but the obscurity of a dark night? And the night came all too quickly after the day. What were so many afflictions and persecutions which came upon the Apostles but a night?

But this night had also its light which brightened it so that the darkness was more tolerable. For the Blessed Mother remained on earth among the disciples and the faithful" (St. Francis de Sales, Sermon on this day in 1602).

And even now that the "lesser light" has been united to its "greater light" in eternal glory in Heaven, She would return for the Church on earth would be engulfed still with darkness and, as the Light Himself foretold, after the Great Tribulation, in dreadfully bitter darkness* when the Sun, Jesus Christ and His Gospel, and the moon, the Church in the Apocalyptic language of the Eternal Word, would be obscured (St. Augustine, in our post The Great Tribulation), cf. Mt. 24.29, starting from Rome (cf., "Lumen fidei - a 'faith' or the Catholic Faith?"). The "lesser light" pointed to the necessity of the conversion of Russia to the Catholic Faith with its consecration to the Immaculate Heart by the Holy Father, together with all the Catholic Bishops, in a public solemn ceremony (cf., our post "When Mary Comes... III") if Rome were to stand fast as that Sion from where the Lord... [sends] forth the sceptre of [His] power: [ruling] in the midst of [His] enemies (Ps. 109.2, from the Office of Vespers for today's great Feast of Our Immaculate Mother's glorious triumph - body and soul).
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* Cf., the prediction of Card. Pacelli who became Pope Pius XII in our post Abominatio Desolationis; see also our posts The Great Sign in Heaven and "The Year 1929".
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"Our Lady did not ask for the consecration of the 'world' to Her Immaculate Heart... She demanded specifically... the consecration of Russia" (Sr. Lucia, C.D., in Prof. Thomas Walsh, Our Lady of Fatima, p. 221). The Neo-Catholic Vatican (the Vatican according to the Communist propaganda, cf., our post "The Year That Was 1929" link above) issued in 1988 an anonymous 'order' [of course, from the desk of the bastard 'Cardinal' - Angelo Sodano - a Freemason in ecclesiastical trappings then the Cardinal State Secretary] which runs in contradiction to the spontaneous departure by Pope John Paul II in his last Papal 'consecration' of 1984 (cf., our post "When Mary Comes... III" link above). Now, after all the dumb Neo-Catholic Vatican 'order' and the clear and precise indications to the contrary, the 'Pontifex' is to make a consecration of the "WORLD" again on 13th October - the very day our "lesser light" manifested Herself as that Great Sign... in heaven... clothed with the Sun (Apoc. 12.1, from the Introit of today's Mass). But God is not mocked (Gal. 6.7)! We wonder if that day would be a 'showdown' between the God of silence and the 'Pontifex' who has now been going full blast* with the Russian-inspired (cf., our post "Upheaval: Russia's Errors Spreading from the Vatican") Neo-Catholic madness!
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* Cf., 'Pontifex' Succumbs to the Roman Gay Lobby, Lumen fidei - a 'faith' or the Catholic Faith? - link above, 'Pontifex' Proclaims the Neo-Catholic 'Gospel' of 'Universal Salvationism', and Desacralization
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[Prevent] our ruin in the presence of our God (Jdt 13.25)!

Arise, fair and beautiful... Daughter of Jerusalem,

terrible as an army array (Cant. 6.3)!

"God is not mocked!"

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J.M.J.

Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost

Take care of him

(Lk. 10.35)

"On the Abuse of Divine Mercy"

A Sermon of St. Alphonsus Mary Liguori

Bishop and Doctor of the Church

IN this day’s Gospel we read, that a certain man fell into the hands of robbers, who, after having taken his money, wounded him, and left him half dead. A Samaritan who passed by, saw him, and taking pity on him, bound up his wounds, brought him to an inn, and left him to the care of the host, saying: Take care of him. These words I this day address to those, if there be any such among you, who, though their souls are wounded by sin, instead of attending to the care of them, continually aggravate the wounds by new sins, and thus abuse the mercy of God, who preserves their lives, that they may repent, and not be lost for ever. I say to you: Brethren, take care of your souls, which are in a very bad state; have compassion on them. Have pity on thy own soul (Eccl. 30.24.). Your souls are sick, and what is worse they are near the eternal death of hell; for he who abuses to excess the divine mercy, is on the point of being abandoned by the mercy of God.

St. Augustine says that the devil deludes Christians in two ways "by despair and hope." After a person has committed sin, the enemy, by placing before his eyes the rigour of divine justice, tempts him to despair of the mercy of God. But, before he sins, the devil by representing to him the divine mercy, labours to make him fearless of the chastisement due to sin. Hence the saint gives the following advice: ”After sin, hope for mercy; before sin, fear justice." If, after sin, you despair of God’s pardon, you offend Him by a new and more grievous sin. Have recourse to His mercy, and He will pardon you. But, before sin, fear God’s justice, and trust not to his mercy; for, they who abuse the mercy of God to offend Him, do not deserve to be treated with mercy. Abulensis says, that the man who offends justice may have recourse to mercy; but to whom can they have recourse, who offend and provoke mercy against themselves?

When you intend to commit sin, who, I ask, promises you mercy from God? Certainly God does not promise it. It is the devil that promises it, that you may lose God and be damned. ”Beware," says St. John Chrysostom, “never to attend to that dog that promises thee mercy from God." (Hom. 50, ad Pop.) If, beloved sinners, you have hitherto offended God, hope and tremble: if you desire to give up sin, and if you detest it, hope; because God promises pardon to all who repent of the evil they have done. But if you intend to continue in your sinful course, tremble lest God should wait no longer for you, but cast you into hell. Why does God wait for sinners? Is it that they may continue to insult him? No; he waits for them that they may renounce sin, and that thus he may have pity on them, and forgive them. Therefore the Lord waiteth, that He may have mercy on you. (Isa. 30.18.) But when He sees that the time which he gave them to weep over their past iniquities is spent in multiplying their sins, He begins to inflict chastisement, and He cuts them off in the state of sin, that, by dying, they may cease to offend Him. Then He calls against them the very time He had given them for repentance. He hath called against me the time. (Lam. 1. 15.) "The very time, ” says St. Gregory, ”comes to judge."

O common illusion of so many damned Christians! We seldom find a sinner so abandoned to despair as to say: I will damn myself. Christians sin, and endeavour to save their souls. They say: ”God is merciful: I will commit this sin, and will afterwards confess it." Behold the illusion, or rather the snare, by which Satan draws so many souls to hell. ”Commit sin," he says, ”and confess it afterwards." But listen to what the Lord says: And say not, the mercy of the Lord is great; He will have mercy on the multitude of my sins." (Eccl. 5. 6.) Why does He tell you not to say, that the mercy of God is great? Attend to the words contained in the following verse: For mercy and wrath come quickly from Him, and His wrath looketh upon sinners." (Ibid., ver. 7.) The mercy of God is different from the acts of His mercy; the former is infinite, the latter are finite. God is merciful, but he is also just. St. Basil says, that sinners only consider God as merciful and ready to pardon, but not as just and prepared to inflict punishment. Of this the Lord complained one day to St. Bridget: "I Am just and merciful: sinners regard Me only as merciful." St. Basil’s words are: “Bonus est Dominus sed etiam Justus, nolimus Deum ex dimidia parte cogitare." God is just, and, being just, He must punish the ungrateful. Father John Avila used to say, that to bear with those who avail themselves of the mercy of God to offend Him, would not be mercy, but a want of justice. Mercy, as the divine Mother said, is promised to those who fear, and not to those who insult the Lord. And His mercy to them that fear Him. (Luke 1.50.)

Some rash sinners will say: God has hitherto shown me so many mercies; why should He not hereafter treat me with the same mercy? I answer: He will show you mercy, if you wish to change your life; but if you intend to continue to offend Him, He tells you that He will take vengeance on your sins by casting you into hell. Revenge is Mine, and I will repay them in due time, that their foot may slide. (Deut. 32.35.) David says, that except you be converted, He will brandish his sword. (Ps. 7.13.) The Lord has bent His bow, and waits for your conversion; but if you resolve not to return to Him, he will in the end cast the arrow against you, and you shall be damned. O God! there are some who will not believe that there is a hell until they fall into it. Can you, beloved Christians, complain of the mercies of God, after He has shown you so many mercies by waiting for you so long? You ought to remain always prostrate on the earth to thank him for His mercies, saying: The mercies of the Lord that we are not consumed. (Lamen. 3. 32.) Were the injuries which you offered to God committed against a brother, He would not have borne with you. God has had so much patience with you; and He now calls you again. If, after all this, He shall send you to hell, will He do you any wrong? What is there, He will say, that I ought to do more for my vineyard, that I have not done to it? (Isa. 5.4.) Impious wretch! what more ought I to do for you that I have not done?

St. Bernard says, that the confidence which sinners have in God‟s goodness when they commit sin, procures for them, not a blessing, but a malediction from the Lord. O deceitful hope, which sends so many Christians to hell! St. Augustine says... they do not hope for the pardon of the sins of which they repent; but they hope that, though they continue to commit sin, God will have mercy upon them; and thus they make the mercy of God serve as a motive for continuing to offend him. accursed hope! hope which is an abomination to the Lord! And their hope the abomination. (Job 11.20.) This hope will make God hasten the execution of His vengeance; for surely a master will not defer the punishment of servants who offend him because he is good. Sinners, as St. Augustine observes, trusting in God‟s goodness, insult him, and say: "God is good; I will do what I please. ”(Tract, xxxiii. in Joan.) But, alas! how many, exclaims the same St. Augustine, has this vain hope deluded! ”They who have been deceived by this shadow of vain hope cannot be numbered." St. Bernard writes, that Lucifer’s chastisement was accelerated, because, in rebellion against God, he hoped that he should not be punished lor his rebellion. Ammon, the son of king Manasses, seeing that God had pardoned the sins of his father, gave himself up to a wicked life with the hope of pardon; but, for Ammon there was no mercy. St. John Chrysostom says, that Judas was lost because, trusting in the goodness of Jesus Christ, he betrayed Him.

He that sins with, the hope of pardon, saying: "I will afterwards repent, and God will pardon me :" is, according to St. Augustine, ”not a penitent, but a scoffer." The Apostle tells us that God is not mocked. (Gal. 6.7.) It would be a mockery of God to offend Him as often and as long as you please, and always to receive the pardon of your offences. For what things a man shall sow, says St. Paul, those also shall he reap. (Ibid., ver. 8.) They who sow sins, can hope for nothing but the hatred of God and hell. Despisest thou the riches of his goodness, and patience, and long-suffering. (Rom. 2.4.) Do you, O sinner, despise the riches of the goodness, of the patience, and long-suffering of God towards you? He uses the word riches, because the mercies which God shows us, in not punishing our sins, are riches more valuable to us than all treasures. Knowest thou not, continues the Apostle, that the benignity of God leadeth thee to penance?" (Ibid.) Do you not know that the Lord waits for you, and treats you with so much benignity, not that you may continue to sin, but that you may weep over the offences you have offered to him? For, says St. Paul, if you persevere in sin and do not repent, your obstinacy and impenitence shall accumulate a treasure of wrath against the day of wrath, that is, the day on which God shall judge you. According to thy hardness and impenitent heart, thou treasurest up wrath, against the day of wrath, and revelation of the just judgment of God. (Ibid., verse 5.)

To the hardness of the sinner shall succeed his abandonment by God, who shall say of the soul that is obstinate in sin, what he said of Babylon: We would have cured Babylon; but she is not healed; let us forsake her. (Jer. 51. 9.) And how does God abandon the sinner? He either sends him a sudden death, and cuts him off in sin, or he deprives him of the graces which would be necessary to bring him to true repentance; he leaves him with the sufficient graces with which he can, but will not, save his soul. The darkness of his understanding, the hardness of his heart, and the bad habits which he has contracted, will render his conversion morally impossible. Thus, he shall not be absolutely but morally abandoned. I will take away the hedge thereof, and it shall be wasted. (Isa. 5. 5.) When the master of the vineyard destroys its hedges, does he not show that he abandons it? It is thus that God acts when he abandons a soul. He takes away the hedge of holy fear and remorse of conscience, and leaves the soul in darkness, and then vices crowd into the heart. Thou hast appointed darkness, and it is night: in it shall all the beasts of the wood go about. (Ps. 103.20.) And the sinner, abandoned in an abyss of sins, will despise admonitions, excommunications, divine grace, chastisement, and hell: he will make a jest of his own damnation. The wicked man, when he is come into the depth of sin, contemneth. (Prov. 18.3.)

Why, asks the Prophet Jeremias, doth the way of the wicked prosper? (Jer. 12. 1.) He answers: Gather them together as sheep for a sacrifice. (v. 3.) Miserable the sinner who is prosperous in this life! The prosperity of sinners is a sign that God wishes to give them a temporal reward for some works which are morally good, but that he reserves them as victims of his justice for hell, where, like the accursed cockle, they shall be cast to burn for all eternity. In the time of the harvest, I will say to the reapers: Gather up the first cockle, and bind it in bundles to burn. (Matt. 13.30.)

Thus, not to be punished in this life is the greatest of God’s chastisements on the wicked, and has been threatened against the obstinate sinner by the Prophet Isaias. Let us have pity on the wicked, but he will not learn justice. (Isa. 26. 10.) On this passage St. Bernard says: This mercy I do not wish for: it is above all wrath. And what greater chastisement than to be abandoned into the hands of sin, so that, being permitted by God to fall from sin to sin, the sinner must in the end go to suffer as many hells as he has committed sins? Add thou iniquity upon their iniquity. .. .let them be blotted out of the book of the living." (Ps. 68.28.29.) On these words Bellarmine writes: ”There is no punishment greater than when sin is the punishment of sin." It would be better for such a sinner to die after the first sin; because by dying under the load of so many additional iniquities, he shall suffer as many hells as he has committed sins. This is what happened to a certain comedian in Palermo, whose name was Cæsar. He one day told a friend that Father La Nusa, a missionary, foretold him that God should give him twelve years to live, and that if within that time he did not change his life, he should die a bad death. Now, said he to his friend, I have travelled through so many parts of the world: I have had many attacks of sickness, one of which nearly brought me to the grave; but in this month the twelve years shall be completed, and I feel myself in better health than in any of the past years. He then invited his friend to listen to a new comedy which he had composed. But, what happened? On the 24th November, 1688, the day fixed for the comedy, as he was going on the stage, he was seized with apoplexy, and died suddenly. He expired in the arms of a female comedian. Thus the scene of this world ended miserably for him.

Let us make the application to ourselves, and conclude the discourse. Brethren, I entreat you to give a glance at all the bygone years of your life: look at the grievous offences you have committed against God, and at the great mercies which he has shown to you, the many lights he has bestowed upon you, and the many times he has called you to a change of life. By this sermon He has today given you a new call. He appears to me to say to you: What is there that I ought to do to my vineyard, that I have not done to it? (Isa. 5. 4.) What more ought I to do for you that I have not done? What do you say? What answer have you to make? Will you give yourselves to God, or will you continue to offend Him? Consider, says St. Augustine, that the punishment of your sins has been deferred, not remitted; unfruitful tree! the axe has been deferred. Be not secure: you shall be cut off. If you abuse the divine mercy, you shall be cut off; vengeance shall soon fall upon you. What do you wait for? Do you wait till God sends you to hell? The Lord has been hitherto silent; but he is not silent for ever. When the time of vengeance shall arrive He will say: These things hast thou done, and I was silent. Thou thoughtest unjustly that I should be like to thee: but I will reprove thee, and set before thy face. (Ps. 49.21.) He will set before your eyes the graces which He bestowed upon you, and which you have despised: these very graces shall judge and condemn you. Brethren, resist no longer the calls of God; tremble lest the call which he gives you today may be the last call for you. Go to Confession [seek a traditional Catholic priest; see our traditional Catholic "Mass Centers" on the left-side bar] as soon as possible, and make a firm resolution to change your lives. It is useless to confess your sins, if you afterwards return to your former vices. But you will perhaps say, that you have not strength to resist the temptations by which you are assailed. Listen to the words of the Apostle: God is faithful, who will not permit you to be tempted above that which you are able. (1 Cor. 10.13.) God is faithful: He will not permit you to be tempted above your strength. And if of yourself you have not strength to overcome the devil, ask it from God, and he will give it to you. Ask, and you shall receive. (John 16.24.) Praising, said David, I will call on the Lord, and I shall be saved from my enemies. (Ps. 17.4.) And St. Paul said: I can do all things in Him who strengthened me." (Phil. 4.13.) Of myself I can do nothing; but with the divine assistance I can do all things. Recommend yourselves to God in all temptations, and God will enable you to resist them, and you shall not fall.

Related post: "On the Number of Sins Beyond Which God Pardons No More". See also: "... Annihilation of Many Nations" and "Our Lady at Fatima: MANY souls go to hell"

The Thoughts of God's Heart...

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J.M.J.

First Saturday of the Month

The thoughts of His Heart...

to deliver their souls from death...

(Ps. 32.19, from the "Introit" of the Mass of the Sacred Heart)

Our Immaculate Mother of Carmel
In me is all hope of Life and virtue.
In me is all grace of the Way and
of the Truth (Ecclus. 24.25).
He who finds me finds Life and
draws salvation from the Lord
(Prov. 8.35)

In His sight... and before Him I declare my trouble... for I am brought very low.... (Ps. 141.3,7). St. John Chrysostom, a great Father and Doctor of the Church, points out that the disoriented lust between men and between women (either consented to in the heart or consummated by acts) is the basest and most degrading moral perversion - "the worst of all passions" (in our post "Our Lady, Vatican II Disorientation, and the Annihilation of Many Nations"). Just recently, the Head of State of Zimbabwe graphically affirmed this traditional Catholic position: "They are worse than dogs and pigs [not rational in nature]. I keep pigs and the male one [instinctively] knows the female one."

Deliver me... bring my soul out of prison... (Ps. 141.7,8). It is very unfortunate how the 'Pontifex' (cf., our post "'Pontifex' Succumbs to the Roman Gay Lobby") would have souls bearing in them such basest disorder of the passions comforted by a "luvingly" tolerant 'Church-of-the-times' - pandering to the perverted notion of 'righteousness' and moral 'perfection' of de-Catholicized mind: "Who am I to judge?" Most certainly, the confessor can not judge the internal state of conscience for God alone searches the depths of the heart but most certainly he can on the external manifestations of the inclinations of the mind and the bent of the heart/will by way of behavior and actions. It is not of the order of the supernatural Christian virtue of Charity to leave them an ambiguous 'medical' prescription as it were saying "find a medicine and as long as you are of good will in finding it, you'd be well" without telling them the whole truth of their condition and the specific remedy [a traditional Catholic life of prayer and mortification centered around the efficacious Sacraments of the Church, especially Penance and the Holy Eucharist, but Sacraments administered according to the traditional Rite by those of the traditional Catholic priesthood] they need! Faith worketh... Charity, but what of the Faith supplanted by Neo-Catholicism (cf., our posts "Our Lady and the Disorientation of Rome" and "The Ultimate Delusion of Vatican II 'Catholicism'"), the Truth by half-truths?

To "seek [the true] God" is to seek also from Him the eternal redemption He alone can give. But there can be no redemption for those in error (Rom. 1.27) who blindly say they're O.K. - nothing DISordered, nothing DISoriented in them, cf., our post "Christian Prayer III: Send forth Thy light and Thy truth" - in justification for abandoning themselves to a reprobate sense, to do those things... worthy of death (Rom. 1.28,32): women... chang[ing] the natural use into that use which is against nature... the men also... burn[ing] in their lusts one towards another, men with men working that which is filthy (Rom. 1.26,27); or, in justification for abandoning themselves to effeminacy or boyishness, "behaving in homosexual fashion" (St. Basil in our post "Our Lady, Vatican II Disorientation, and the Annihilation of Many Nations" - link above) even to a woman... clothed in man's apparel... [and] a man [in] woman's apparel: for he that doeth these things is abominable before God (Deut. 22.5) so that neither... the effeminate... shall possess the kingdom of God (1 Cor. 6.10). And not only they that do them, but they also that consent to them that do them... are worthy of death (Rom. 1.32)!

Related post: "Our Lady of Fatima: MANY souls go to hell". See Ephphetha! (The Lord and Savior to the deaf and dumb: souls under the action of the devil).