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J.M.J.
First Saturday of the Month
When God weaned the Hebrew people away
from idolatry, He did not destroy altogether the necessity of an
altar in directing them to His worship. In fact, He commanded them to
set before Him altars (cf., Exodus 40.24-25, 27) distinct from those
dedicated by the heathens to the devils (Psalms 90.5,
Douay-Rheims Catholic Version) and according to the pattern
(Hebrews 9.22) He showed Moses on the mount – the figure,
doubtless, of what would later be the united and perfected one altar
upon which the awaited divine sacrificial Victim is still immolated,
now in an unbloody manner, under the form of Bread and Wine, by Our
Lord and Savior Himself, in fulfillment of His priesthood according
to the order of Melchisedech (Ps. 110.4; Heb. 5.6); hence, St.
Paul the Apostle says: We... have… a more perfect… altar
(Heb. 13.10).
In the sanctuary of Old, the Ark of the
Covenant – which contained a golden pot of manna [now, the
gilded ciborium containing the Sacred Hosts], the blossomed rod of
Aaron, and the two tablets of stone on which were written the Ten
Commandments (Heb. 9.4) – became the meeting point, its
propitiatory (Ex. 25.20,22), between God and His intimate
friend among men after the spectacular manifestation at Mount Sinai
where God descended at its peak or summit and spoke to Moses face
to face [why the traditional Catholic priest is rather turned
towards the tabernacle or the Crucifix] as a man is wont to speak
to his friend (Ex. 33.11). And he who is to stand before the face
of God must have the divine bidding to ascend to Him: I
chose him out of all… to be my priest, to go up to My
altar and burn incense to Me… (1 Kings 2.28).
Now, since the Liturgy or the official
public divine service (Heb. 9.1) of the Old dispensation
corresponded only to the better ministry (Heb. 8.6) of the
Christian dispensation - the pattern shown to the great
Legislator of Old - the man of God, in the New Covenant, is
also a minister with the unction of the everlasting Levitical
priesthood (Ex. 40.13), a “Christianized” Levite (cf., “Liturgy,"
The Catholic Encyclopledia, 1907): the Levite of Old, whom God
claims to be His minister (Jeremias 33.22)… to go up to
[His] altar… to serve [Him] forever (1
Paralipomenon 15.2), finding the perfect fulfillment of his public
divine ministry in the Christian priest, the priest ordained
according to the Traditional Roman Rite of Catholic Ordinations [Paul
VI suppressed the ceremony of the minister ascending the high altar –
logical consequence: the suppression also of the Minor Orders (the
ceremony of tonsure, by which a man is admitted to the clergy, and
even the Sub-Diaconate were also suppressed ) – in the New Rite:
symbolic gesture of an unfortunate break ], who draws near face to
face with the Sanctissimum dwelling at the center of the high
altar – as at the summit of Mount Sinai – in the “Christianized”
Ark of the Covenant, that is, the tabernacle.
The man of God – the
“Christianized” Levite – being the minister of the Most
High, is referred to by His Eternal Word as the angel of the Lord
of hosts (Malachi 2.7). And as there is established an order, a
hierarchy, among the heavenly ministering pure spirits, so there is
established also an order among those who are called to minister to
the King of kings and Lord of lords (1 Timothy 6.15) in His
earthly temple: among the Levites of Old when they were still
distinct from the priests, cf., Numbers 3.15-38, which order was
brought to perfection as follows – according to the seven degrees
of a more perfect ascending approach to the Sanctissimum: the four
Minor Orders – of Porters, Lectors, Exorcists, and Acolytes; the
three Major Orders – Sub-Diaconate, Diaconate, and the Priesthood.
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| Our Discalced Carmelite Ordinand in the full habit of the Order kneeling before His Lordship Bp. R. Williamson to receive the Minor Orders. 12th December 2013, Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe - Batangas, Philippines |
On the 12th
of December last year, the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Friar John,
a Discalced Carmelite who was forced to leave the Novus Ordo
O.C.D. Community in 2005 because of his traditional stand
on the Mass and on the priesthood, was admitted to ascend up to the
fourth step of the high altar of God (Friar already spent
three-and-a-half years of traditional priestly formation at Holy
Cross Seminary-Australia of the mainstream-SSPX where he received the
Tonsure). Bishop Richard Williamson (an auxiliary bishop consecrated
by Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre to perpetuate the Traditional Catholic
Priesthood) ordained him to the Offices of Porter, Lector, Exorcist,
and Acolyte at the first Traditional Catholic Seminary in the Philippines - since the revolution of Vatican II - established September last year by the Fathers of the Society of St.
Pius X-Marian Corps in Batangas Province.
According to the Pontificale
Romanum, by the Order of Porters, the ordinand was conferred the
power of guarding the house of God “day and night” – opening
its doors to the faithful and “always clos[ing] it to the
unbelievers” – and of summoning with the strike of the bell the
ministers of God at certain hours (the Divine Office or the
recitation of the Roman Breviary) “for invoking the Name of the
Lord.” By the Order of Lectors, the power to be “the proclaimer
of the Word of God.” By the Order of Exorcist, “the power of
imposing hands over the possessed whether baptized or catechumens;
and through the imposition of hands, the grace of the Holy Ghost, and
by the words of exorcism… expel demons.” And, by the Order of
Acolytes, the power to “deliver [himself] up as light for the
illumination of the Church [having been made to carry the torches and
to light the lamps of the Church], and… to offer the wine and water
for confecting the Blood of Christ… in the Eucharistic Sacrifice.”
Laudentur Jesus Christus et Maria!
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