Homily - First Sunday In Lent

There is neither an excuse or a reason to have missed Mass the first Sunday in Lent but it happened.  To make up for it, this blogger searched for a homily online that he might have heard had he gone to Mass, not just any Mass but a Traditional Mass in Latin.  The homily that was found was given in 2015 but it is just as relevant in 2018 and likely in the years to come.  The homily for "Dominica Prima in Quadragesima 22 February 2015" can be read by going to RORATE CÆLI 's website [1].   It concludes with these words: "only with prayer and fasting will the demon with which modern man is possessed be cast out." [2]  Prior to this ending, the priest who gave the homily quoted Cardinal Ratzinger before he was Pope Benedict XVI [3]:

“The primacy of God is not really achieved if it does not also include man's corporality.  The truly central actions of man's biological life are eating and reproduction.  Therefore virginity and fasting have been from the beginning of the Christian tradition two indispensable expressions of the primacy of God, of faith in the reality of God.  Without being given corporeal expression also, the primacy of God with difficulty remains of decisive moment in man's life.  It is true that fasting is not all there is to Lent, but it is something indispensable for which there is no substitute.  Freedom in the actual application of fasting is good and corresponds to the different situations in which we find ourselves.  But a communal and public act of the Church seems to be no less necessary than in past times, as a public testimony to the primacy of God and of spiritual values, as much as solidarity with all who are starving.  Without fasting we shall in no way cast out the demon of our time.”

Latin (Tridentine) Mass homilies tend to be spiritually fulfilling and at the same make no reference to the news of the day which is irrelevant to achieving holiness which is what Mass is about if even it lasts only for the duration of the Mass.  Learning and experiencing some degree of holiness during a Tridentine Mass is infinitely better than none at all which takes place more often than not at post-Vatican II Masses.


[1] https://rorate-caeli.blogspot.com/2015/02/homily-by-traditional-priest-for-fe irst.html
[2] Ibid.
[3] Ibid.

Temptation

Ash Wednesday 2018 began on February 14th, Valentine's Day, a day of love, but coinciding with Ash Wednesday brings to mind not the possessive and fleeting romantic love compelled by the instincts of the flesh of man but Christ's sacrificial and abiding unconditional love compelled by the Holy Spirit that is united with God and the Son Whose sufferings ought to be on the mind often throughout the Lenten period.

Suffering did not begin from without; it began with a temptation [1].  While suffering continues to this day, so do temptations.  Below is a paragraph on temptation quoted from Divinum Officium, pre-Trident Monastic's Ad Matutinum's reading for February 18, 2018 [2]:


Reading 9 
We ought to know that temptation worketh through three forms. There is, first, the suggestion; then the delectation [3]; lastly, the consent. When we are tempted, it often happenth that we fall into delectation, and even into consent, because in the sinful flesh of which we are begotten, we carry in ourselves matter to favour the attack. But God, when He took Flesh in the womb of the Virgin, and came into the world without sin, did so without having in Himself anything of this lusting of the flesh against the spirit. It was possible therefore for Him to be tempted in the first stage, namely suggestion; but there was nothing in His Mind in which delectation could fix its teeth. And thus all the temptation which He endured from the devil was without, and none within Him.


[1] http://www.usccb.org/bible/genesis/3
[2] http://divinumofficium.com/cgi-bin/horas/officium.pl
[3] Dictionary.com  defines delectation as "delight; enjoyment." See http://www.dictionary.com/browse/delectation

State-sponsored Apostolic Succession

On 12/26/17, this blog posted an entry entitled Apostolic Succession, concluding that an apostle of Christ does not necessarily have to have a direct link to the pope, the successor of Peter, yet it had not gone to an extreme reaching the unthinkable that a Catholic bishop could be sponsored and appointed by a secular state without any historical evidence whatsoever suggesting an "[a]lignment with scriptural teaching." [1]

Having an alignment with Christ is consistent with the Vatican's position:

The apostolic succession of the ministry concerns the whole Church, but it is not something that derives from the Church taken as a whole but rather from Christ to the apostles and from the apostles to all bishops to the end of time. [2]

Apparently, the Vatican's position above will have to be updated to reflect what could take place based on an article published by the Federalist  dated February 12, 2018 [3]:

Last week, the Vatican announced that Pope Francis plans to replace two Chinese bishops loyal to Rome with seven excommunicated men chosen by Beijing. Two of those seven men are alleged to have girlfriends and fathered children. Most importantly, all seven men put their loyalty to China’s communist government before their faith in God.

China has long demanded that the Vatican accept only Chinese government-appointed bishops and give them full authority to rule a Chinese diocese. But Francis’s predecessors in the Catholic Church have long believed, as Pope Benedict XVI said, “the authority of the Pope to appoint bishops is given to the church by its founder Jesus Christ. It is not the property of the Pope, neither can the Pope give it to others.”

Yet in Pope Francis the atheist Chinese Communist government found a willing partner eager to give in to their demands. Pope Francis seems to have no problem subordinating his authority to a repressive communist government. Even China’s state-run newspaper Global Times acknowledged that Pope Francis has made “substantial concession.”

Earlier, on February 2, 2018, America The Jesuit Review  filed this report entitled China and the Vatican are close to a groundbreaking agreement,  parts of which are quoted below [4]:

One of the most contentious problems that remained to be resolved, however, related to the seven Chinese bishops (originally eight but one died) whom the Holy See considers illegitimate because they received episcopal ordination without the papal mandate, in breach of canon law. Indeed, three of them were formally excommunicated for this. Chinese Catholics, moreover, raised questions regarding the moral suitability of two of the seven. From the start of negotiations, the Chinese insisted that all seven had to be legitimized and recognized by the Holy See as the ordinary bishops of their respective dioceses.

After considerable reflection and investigation, the Holy See concluded that it could recognize all seven. Pope Francis is expected to sign a decree that lifts the excommunication on the three bishops subject to such penalty, grants pardon to all seven illicit bishops and recognizes them as legitimate bishops in the Catholic Church and as ordinaries in the seven dioceses where they now reside. America has learned that already each of the seven bishops has asked the pope for pardon and has requested reconciliation with him and the universal church.

But there was still a problem to be resolved: Two of the seven are in dioceses—Shantou and Mindong—where the so-called underground church community is much larger than that of the open one and is led by two highly respected underground bishops, Msgr. Peter Zhuang Jianjian and Msgr. Joseph Guo Xijin. Both dioceses have official and underground bishops today. To resolve the problem regarding the leadership of those dioceses, it was necessary for the Holy See’s delegation to meet and present the proposal to the two underground pastors and, if possible, gain their acceptance of it “for the good and the future of the whole church in China.” The Holy See’s proposal invited Msgr. Zhuang, now 88, to resign and make way for the illicit Msgr. Huang Bingzhang to become bishop of Shantou diocese. Likewise, it invited Bishop Guo Xijin to step down and accept to become auxiliary or coadjutor to the illicit Msgr. Zhan Silu in Mindong diocese.

Vatican's canonically-appointed bishops are asked to step down to make way for state-sponsored and appointed bishops.  Does this mean than any Catholic bishop is now at risk when a state exercises its powers to replace bishops that are not in accordance with secular mores of the day?  Can a pro-life bishop be asked to step down because a state finds abortion to be legal?  Can a Catholic priest or a bishop be asked to step down because he refuses to perform a marriage between two women or two men?

What is the other side of the Vatican's forked tongue saying?  Does that mean that Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre's appointment of bishops are no longer excommunicated, and the schism no longer exist?  Below is a look back at the excommunication of Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre and his bishops, quoted in part from SSPX [5]:

On July 1, 1988, Cardinal Bernardin Gantin, Prefect of the Congregation for Bishops, signed a decree of excommunication announcing that Archbishop Lefebvre, Bishop de Castro Mayer, and the four new bishops had performed a schismatic act and excommunicated themselves latae sententiae (automatically) in accordance with the provisions of canon 1382 of the Code of Canon Law:

A bishop who consecrates someone a bishop without a pontifical mandate and the person who receives the consecration from him incur a latae sententiae excommunication reserved to the Apostolic See.”

The following day, July 2, 1988, Pope John Paul II issued the apostolic letter motu proprio, Ecclesia Dei adflicta, confirming the excommunications and the existence of a schism.

The Society of St. Pius X has always contested the juridical validity of the censure. Besides other considerations, the excommunication was not incurred because a person who violates a law out of necessity is not subject to a penalty (canon 1323 §4), and even if there is no state of necessity, when one inculpably thought the opposite he would not incur the penalty (canon 1323 §7); and if one culpably thought there was such a state of necessity, he would still incur no automatic penalties (canon 1324 §3).

What is really happening with the Catholic Church?  Is nothing sacrosanct anymore?  Should this pope be (automatically) excommunicated at the moment he permits state-sponsored and appointed bishops to serve the Catholic Church?



[1] https://www.gotquestions.org/apostolic-succession.html, last paragraph.
[2] http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/cti_documents/rc_cti_1973_successione-apostolica_en.html, Section V, last paragraph.
[3] http://thefederalist.com/2018/02/12/accepting-communist-chosen-bishops-pope-francis-betrays-chinese-christians/, quoted without hyperlinks.
[4] https://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2018/02/02/china-and-vatican-are-close-groundbreaking-agreement
[5] http://fsspx.org/en/sspx%E2%80%99s-bishops

"'Am I not here who am your Mother?'"

The title of this entry above "'Am I not here who am your Mother?'" is quoted from http://catholicism.org/brmichael-guadalupe.html.  These words or words similar were spoken by Our Lady of Guadalupe to Juan Diego in his native language.

On the cross spoken by the Christ were these words [1]:

When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple there whom he loved, he said to his mother, “Woman, behold, your son.” 

Then he said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother.” And from that hour the disciple took her into his home.

Then there are these words, spoken by Bergoglio [2]:

And so, the Pope said, “let us make the Mother the guest of our daily life, the constant presence in our home, our safe haven.” [Emphasis added.]

Every person has two mothers, a biological mother and the Mother of God, the Mother of all.  Mother is family.  She cares for each child, attends to each child's needs and loves every child.

Below is the complete article written by Christopher Wells for Vatican News  published "28 January 2018, 12:03" from which the above (the last sentence) is quoted [3]:

Pope: When Mary is in the home, the devil does not enter

On the Fourth Sunday of Ordinary Time, Pope Francis celebrated Mass at the Basilica of St Mary Major in Rome. 

By Christopher Wells 

Pope Francis celebrated the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass on Sunday at the Basilica of Saint Mary Major on the occasion of the translation of the Icon of Mary “Salus Populi Romani” – Salvation of the Roman People. The Icon was returned to its home in the Borghese Chapel in the Basilica after it was restored by the Vatican Museums. 

The image of Mary Salus Populi Romani is an object of particular devotion for people of Rome, and for Pope Francis as well, who routinely comes to the Basilica to venerate the Icon, especially before and after his Apostolic journeys throughout the world. 

Mary our Mother

In his homily during the Mass, the Pope focused especially on the idea of Mary as Mother. “The presence of the Mother makes this temple a family home for us children,” he said. And so we are able to recognize the Church as “our home, the home where we find rest, consolation, protection, refuge.” 

Pope Francis recalled that our ancestors have taught us, in the difficult moments of life, to always turn to Mary, to gather together “under the mantle of the Holy Mother of God.” Mary, he said, “guards our faith, protects relationships, saves us in stormy weather, and preserves us from evil.” When Mary our Mother is in the home, “the devil does not enter.” 

Mary answers promptly 

When we pray to Mary, the Pope continued, a traditional prayer says, “despise not our petitions.” Mary never despises our petitions, but always answers them promptly – just as, she promptly went to Elizabeth in her time of need, as we hear in the Gospels. 

We also pray that Mary might free us from danger. “The Lord Himself knows that we need shelter and protection in the midst” of the many dangers we face in life, the Pope said. It is precisely for this reason, he continued, that from the Cross Jesus entrusted St John, the beloved disciple; and all His future disciples to His blessed Mother. 

Taking Mary into our homes 

Like St John, the Pope said, we too must “take Mary into our own homes,” inviting her “into our homes, our hearts, our lives.” Christians cannot be “neutral or detached” from Mary, our Mother, he said, or we will lose our identity as children. 

And so, the Pope said, “let us make the Mother the guest of our daily life, the constant presence in our home, our safe haven.”

The words in the paragraph immediately above spoken by Bergoglio speak for themselves.  The real truth usually reveals itself in the most casual and unplanned ways, no matter how high-sounding the language is that surrounds it.  Here Bergoglio treats the Mother of God as a guest and not as family.  "Guest" is defined by dictionary.com  as "a person who spends some time at another person's home in some social activity, as a visit, dinner, or party." [4]  Was that how Jesus treated His Mother, as a "guest" in His daily life?  Is that how Jesus treats His Mother in Heaven now?  Is the "home" one's only "safe haven" or is the Blessed Mother the  true safe haven no matter where one is?

According to the article, Bergoglio said that "[w]hen Mary our Mother is in the home, 'the devil does not enter.'" [5]  This is true, but not everyone is confined to one's home at all times.  Bergoglio also said, "'let us make the Mother the guest of our daily life.'" [6]  In other words, Bergoglio treats the Mother of God as a "guest" in his daily life; therefore, it would have been at the time when the Mother of God was not present when Satan had entered Bergoglio's life and home, for a guest necessarily departs at some point only to return another time when again invited.

Will the Blessed Mother have room to enter into Bergoglio's life and home when the Devil has fully occupied both?  Probably not.  Only when one is committed to be the enemy of Satan, leaving it outside with temptations will one have room for the Mother of God in one's daily life and in one's home as a member of the family.



[1] http://www.usccb.org/bible/john/john19.htm, 26-7, quoted without paragraph numbers and footnote references.
[2] http://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2018-01/pope-francis-mass-saint-mary-major.html
[3] Ibid.
[4] http://www.dictionary.com/browse/guest
[5] http://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2018-01/pope-francis-mass-saint-mary-major.html
[6] Ibid.

Silence In Simplicity

Simplification is necessary to achieve silence.  Besides cutting back ownership of material things, one must live through and accept the storms of life with generous understanding and humble acceptance knowing full well that they soon will pass.  No matter how seemingly unfair it might seem to have to weather such storms, agitating them will only make them last longer and more violent, causing unnecessary stress that cannot be good for one's health.

Far less exhausting is to sail through them by enclosing oneself within an invisible vessel surrounded by the silence of peace that can be had when one occupies the mind with the simplicity of eternity: contentment in heavenly splendor that makes all of the passing riches and short-lived satisfactions irrelevant.

The mindfulness of the unforgiven past, the complicated present and the near-term foreseeable future are sources of disturbance.  It is in the simplicity of silence that an eternity in Heaven can be imagined and it is from this heavenly perspective that reduces to irrelevance all the matters that disquiets the mind, weakens the body and depresses the spirit.  When all that troubles is reduced to insignificance is when everything is simple once more, as it was in the Garden of Eden before the Serpent appeared and spoke, and in this simplicity, one may have silence.

Divine Wrath

The number of readers of this blog have dwindled recently from a few to fewer still, probably because the posts are no longer tolerant of the errors of this papacy and express such intolerance with words that have been harsh with respect to Bergoglio.  The reason for such harshness is to provide a reasonable basis for those who hear the words of Bergoglio to gain a different perspective, and this blogger is not the first and only person who is doing this but he may very well be one of the few who is so direct and undiplomatic for he is not beholden to the Vatican.  The pope is not his boss, the Lord is, and the Lord may not be too happy these days, perhaps even angry.

Quoted below in part is from http://divinumofficium.com, a reading for February 4th, 2018, the first reading of the day, Ad Matutinum, under pre-Trident Monastic [1]:

Reading 4

From the Book upon Noah's Ark by St Ambrose, Bishop of Milan.

Chap, iv.
We read that the Lord was angry. It is in the thoughts, that is to say, in the knowledge of God, that man being put on earth and weighted with the body cannot be without sin, for earth is the home of temptations, and the flesh is a bait for corruption. Yet man had a reasonable soul, and his soul had power to control his body; and, being so made, he made no struggle to keep himself from falling into that from whence he would not return. God's thoughts are not as man's thoughts; in Him there is no such thing as change of mind, no such thing as to be angry and then cool down again. These things are written that we may know the bitterness of our sins, whereby we have earned the Divine wrath. To such a degree had iniquity grown that God, Who by His nature cannot be moved by anger, or hatred, or any passion whatsoever, is represented as provoked to anger.
V. But thou, O Lord, have mercy upon us.
R. Thanks be to God.  [Emphasis added.]

(The above-quoted passage can be read in Latin, Deutsch, Français, Italiano, Magya and Polski, see http://divinumofficium.com/cgi-bin/horas/officium.pl#)

If Saint Ambrose is correct, then Bergoglio has to be wrong, and vice versa.  They cannot both be correct being that one speaks of (and alludes to unconditional) Divine mercy and one spoke of Divine wrath.  This blogger stands with Saint Ambrose and rejects Bergoglio with the proviso that Divine mercy does not stand alone but together with Divine justice.

If the foregoing statement is even harsher than what had been expressed previously in this blog with respect to Bergoglio and the blog loses all its readers, it will still continue as long as this blogger is capable of functioning.




[1] http://divinumofficium.com/cgi-bin/horas/officium.pl
[2] https://oca.org/saints/lives/2012/12/07/103485-st-ambrose-the-bishop-of-milan

In Silence, An Imaginary Journey Toward God

Imagine the mind taking a detour from the cares, concerns, frustrations and news of the world in which one often races against time regulated by the cycles of night and day to get to places, to overcome obstacles and do the things that one has to do or wants to do according to some set schedule and enter into a parallel universe that is devoid of sounds and thoughts, where time simply is, moving forward ever so imperceptibly as if going nowhere, seemingly standing still, waiting patiently for one's mind to quiet down, to be at rest so as to be able to coexist in perfect unison with time eternal.

This parallel universe is always present in silence.  Its invisible walls wall out all distractions that burden the senses.  Only those who are committed to leaving the present world behind can pass through this doorless universe of silence.  The inside is a space that is infinite.  It is a place of interior peace which has constancy as its character.  It is a peace that is to a small degree similar to the peace that Christ gives because nothing man imagines can come close to matching the real presence of Christ.

The desire to enter this space is not the desire to escape reality.  Reality, defined here as all the fabrications of this world, as the collective fantasies of man believing that more one has the better, the more powerful one is the more secure and the more popular one becomes the happier, is the antithesis of the sum of truths that this space contains.  These truths constitute one's soul which is the true essence of man.  Therefore, the desire to enter this silent space is not to escape reality but to face true reality, defined here as one's conscious choice to embrace Original Sin that is manifested in its many variegated forms at different times to different degrees.

Facing true reality in silence, paradoxically, destroys silence.  Truths are noisy and disturb the mind.  To have pure silence, one must set aside even one's true reality.  When the mind goes blank is when one is able to find God.  In this silence God is able to hear clearly one's prayers.  Praying in silence allows one to pause and think deeply the prayer that is being prayed.  In this silence one has the time to reflect and pray repeatedly, allowing one to supplicate in sincerity.  Preferably this is being done on one's knees during the adoration of the Holy Eucharist, knowing with a doubt that one is kneeling in the presence of the living Christ, not a piece of wafer inside a monstrance.  The Holy Eucharist is Christ Himself, the wounded Heart of Christ that loves despite the pain inflicted upon Christ's Heart by man's sins.

People who see silence as a source of power by those observing it or as a rejection of those subjected to it do not appreciate the true purpose of silence.  True silence is neither dominating nor vengeful.  True silence is necessary to attain interior peace.  However, there are times when certain people simply do not appreciate this necessity in others and meddle in matters that are not theirs, for they may see themselves as indispensable and may be far removed from their true realities.  It would benefit them if they would suffer tribulations in life so that they will learn humility and know how to humble themselves before God, and be able to receive pardon from God before it is too late.

These people need to be prayed for by those in the solitude of silence before God, so that they can become strong against the evil influence of Satan and repel its demonic forces.