And Elias, the prophet, stood up, as a fire, and his word burnt like a torch (Ecclesiasticus. 48.1, DRV)

Sunday, March 16, 2014

Transfiguration Unto Christian Perfection

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J.M.J.

The Transfiguration of the Lord and Savior

Lord, it is good for us to be here
(from today's Holy Gospel, Mt. 17.4 – Second Sunday in Lent)



A short time before Our Lord's transfiguration on Mount Thabor in Galilee, He declared Peter blessed for confessing what the Heavenly Father revealed – that the Messias is not only the Son of man but also a divine Person: the Son of the living God (16.16); but, from that time, Jesus began to show to His disciples, that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the ancients, and scribes and chief priests, and be put to death, and the third day rise again (v.21): a truth which Peter could not accept – why he got this severe rebuke from the Lord and Master: Go behind Me, Satan, thou art a scandal to Me: because thou savorest not the things that are of God, but the things that are of men (v.23).

The Lord and Savior, already foresaw this human weakness in the face of pain, suffering, and death. But He would not do away with these facets of defeat – not until the most glorious manifestation of His ultimate triumph over sin and evil, their cause, at the end of time; rather, He would transform them into instruments of Christian victory – but only in so far as they are attached to the Cross and saturated by His Most Sacred and Precious Blood. He was moved, therefore, with compassion for them and their weakness since He also foreknew the severe trials to which His disciples would shortly be subjected in witnessing His bitter Passion and death, as well as the more distant crosses which, when He had finally departed from them, would be theirs on their battle for eternal life and happiness with God, and to strengthen them for their burdens ahead and give them a foretaste of the eternal rewards, He took apart those most devoted to Him, and unfolded to their eyes a glimpse of His divine glory.

Effects similar to those which the three Apostles experienced on Mount thabor are wrought in the souls of those who assist at the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and partake worthily of Holy Communion – they are fortified* against the assault of passion, they are powerfully assisted in bearing the crosses of life, and they receive here below a foretaste of heavenly – not a sentimental or emotional – joy and bliss. So that truly, each time the worthy communicant kneels before our traditional sacred altar, he can say with Peter, Lord it is good for us to be here.
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* Something which the “New 'Mass'” - as with the other “New 'Sacraments'” and “New 'Sacramentals'” - with its “ineffective prayers” (claims Fr. Gabriel Amorth, Vatican's Chief Exorcist, on the “New Rite of Exorcism” even approved by a Vatican II-Pope which is just a Sacramental) does not confer as experiences and the widespread basest perversions in and out of the institutional Church that has become 'possessed' for the headquarters, especially the Vatican of Ecumenical “Disorientation” (Our Lady of Fatima), by the infiltrators-propagandists of the pseudo-Church (cf., our post “TheYeart 1929”) eloquently testify.
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The Holy Eucharist – made present on the altar according to our sacred Traditional Rite – is the living fountain of graces, whereas the other Traditional Sacraments are so many streams conveying graces to our souls; the former contains the Author of grace Himself, the latter contain grace.

The grace of the Holy Eucharist is superior to that of the other Sacraments; these others are but a preparation for and ordained to Holy Communion; Baptism and Penance remove sin, Confirmation and Extreme Unction strengthen the soul against external assaults of spiritual debility, Holy Orders and Matrimony dispose a man for the proper fulfillment of certain special duties. Thus the grace of each of the other Sacraments is a preparation for the crowning grace of the Holy Eucharist.

The grace of this Most Holy Sacrament is that of spiritual nourishment by which the soul is transformed into the likeness of Christ. The results of this grace are similar to those which ordinary food produces in the body – it repairs; it strengthens; it delights; it sustains. The Holy Eucharist: by remitting venial sins repairs the losses which the soul suffers through these sins; it strengthens the soul by uniting man through charity more closely with God and his neighbor; it delights the soul by exciting actual devotion and fervor; it sustains the soul by fortifying it against temptation, by repressing the inordinate cravings of the flesh for sensual pleasures and passion, and by facilitating the attainment of eternal life.

As natural food is not of use t one who is physically dead, so neither does Holy Communion produces spiritual nourishment in a soul that is spiritually dead, that is, conscious of mortal sin. Those who receive unworthily the Real and Substantial Presence of the Lord and Savior in Holy Communion do not receive benefit*, but on the contrary eateth and drinketh judgment to himself, not discerning the Body of the Lord (1 Cor. 11.29).
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* The case with the sacrilegious “New 'Mass'” - with its “ineffective prayers,” as noted above, having beed changed to reflect the “NewTHEO...” (Theo: “God” in Greek).
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Spiritual Communion, which consists in an ardent desire of Sacramental Communion – for those who cannot by any means assist at the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass (our Traditional Rite of Worship in Latin) and receive Holy Communion, confers a considerable fruit of the Holy Eucharist, although it is inferior to Sacramental Communion.

Related post: Abominatio Desolationis (The Abomination of Desolation, Mt. 24.24: the sacrilegious "New 'Mass'")


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Salvation is in the "Blood of the Lamb"

Apocalypse XIV now unfolding (cf., our posts "The Wine of the Wrath of God" and "After Pope Benedict XVI, the 'Last' Roman Pontiff?"). The divine chastisement of world-wide conflagration (Lk. 17.29-30, cf., our post "Our Lady, Vatican II Disorientation, and the Annihilation of Many Nations") to annihilate the 'super-power' and cities and nations drunk with the wine of its immodesty, impurity, fornication, homosexuality, and blasphemies (Apoc. 14.8) is imminent - the close of our end-times period (distinct from the consummation of the world, Mt. 28.20).

They... have made them white in the Blood of the Lamb
(Apoc. 7.14) ... All things... are cleansed with Blood: and without shedding of Blood there is no remission (Heb. 9.22).

The Blood of the [Divine] Lamb can be availed of in the traditional Rite of the Sacrament of Penance (cf., our post "On Concealing Sins in Confession") and of the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist (the Traditional Latin Mass). Go to our traditional Catholic Mass Centers (links on the left-side bar of this site). Flee to the mountains... (Mt. 24.16).

See also the Messages and Appeals (on the upper right-side bar) of the Apocalyptic Woman in her title of Our Lady of Fatima.