09 November 2022

The Artist

He writes poems without words

Music without sound

Paints without a brush 

Yet He says more than can be captured in words, or music or visuals, 

The medium is His Love which is not received by many who see only fragments of incidentals, 

Had I not eyes to see nor ears to hear, His same Love would capture me for it is in this medium that I have true sight and true hearing.  He animates my soul by the instrument of the Tree, and the media of his Heart.


10 October 2022

Why Only the Traditional Latin Mass

 Note to a friend who has never attended the traditional, Latin Roman Rite Mass:

You should go to a Latin Mass.  Actually, first you should 'google' a comparison between the Novus Ordo Missae and the traditional Roman Rite.  The traditional Roman Rite is called, informally, "traditional" because it came from tradition in the Church.  St. Francis of Assisi loved this rite from Rome so much that he had to go to Rome to ask for permission to be able to use it.  He obtained permission for his order, and priests that would celebrate it with them.  It then became codified.  Then in 1969, thanks to a Freemason named, Bugnini, they made a Mass partly from the tradition, but removed those signs of solemnity that offended our "absent brethren" (Protestants), and replaced it with an emphasis on the people rather than God and his transcendence, replacing the focus from the very, essential nature of the mass: Christ's sacrifice.  I am not putting the Novus Ordo down:  It it is what the men of the council openly admitted to doing as this was their aim.  

I'm not sure how successful their endeavor was, though, in terms of attracting Protestants,.   I think Protestants just rather attend their own communities, rather than a Catholic Mass that had adopted their early practices during the Reformation.

The reason for the Latin, by the way, which is only a liturgical Latin (which was never spoken as a common Latin) was because the Church recognized early on that it  was for the entire world.  Since languages are different and reflect customs,  ideals,. nuances, etc., and could change the meanings from country to country, or even region to region or whomever was writing down the words of scripture or the formulas for sacred rites, etc., they needed a language for the Church to be used worldwide.  This was used for official documents, as well, as the prayers of different liturgical rites under the (religious) Roman  Rite.  This way, the original intent of the words as first interpreted from their initial state as given to us by divine origin, would be preserved, celebrated and spread throughout the entire world.  Priests could easily teach to the laity what was being said regularly. and what was new for that day could also be read in their vernacular, without any risk of distorting the sacred form of the liturgy.  

Today, when people attend the new liturgy, they have, along with the Novus Ordo Missae itself, lost the sense of the sacred.   They look to "get something out of it", showing they they have no idea of the actual intent of the Mass itself and why it exists in the first place.   They look to be entertained, amused, understood, etc., a miss the nature of the Catholic Mass.   Yes, the Holy Eucharist is the crucified and resurrected body of Christ, but this comes at the cost of sacrifice --- a holy sacrifice, which is done once, but re-created in a spiritual and physical reality at every (valid) Catholic Mass.  In an effort to find worldly relevancy to 'get with the times', as they say, the most profound holiness and significance of the sacrifice for all ages has been obscured, and some may say, utterly lost.  Rather than "welcome our absent brethren", the new rite has succeeded in confusing those that celebrate it into strange doctrines more in  line with a type of neo-Ariansm,  seeking to remove the divine Son of God from the Crucifix, and even the tabernacles  from the altars.  

Evidence of the Novus Ordo Missae promoting an neo Arianism is in how few Bishops will stand up to the gravest public scandals of the Church's history.  In nations where the people are not in danger of losing their lives, Bishops and priests refuse to stand up to political leaders who promote the most abominable sins, And in the land of the Protestant apostates, who ironically (falsely) claim to be "bible-based"* (*then why did they redact it to form a new religion?) hurl public insults at those who promote what teachings that came directly from Christ's mouth:  "[6] But he that shall scandalize one of these little ones that believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone should be hanged about his neck, and that he should be drowned in the depth of the sea."  Matthew 18:6     Also ," [4] He who saith that he knoweth him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. " --- 1 John 2:6

But even in defense of the most defenseless lives, the majority are silent.  Yet, when we have a high-ranking prelate, even a Cardinal, speak out of the rights of God in His Church, he is imprisoned and worse, and yet, has the Pope spoken out on his behalf?   Has the Pope spoken out on God's behalf? Has the Pope put God's rights as a priority in the duties of his office?  If the answer is, "no", then he, too, is guilty of grave scandal.

Humanism is at the core of the New Order, including the New Order Mass.  It basically says that the highest good is what man can do for man, rather than God, himself.  It obscures the transcendence of God and replaces it with a man-centered worship and theology.  It hides and demeans the need for the sacred and replaces it with the ever-changing inclinations of a wounded society with its fickleness and creates a false 'god' in its own image.  It says that God's grace no longer transforms but at best "covers", lowering the bar of what Christ has commanded (and he would not command the impossible).  It is  religion of sentimentality and lies, to accommodate worldliness, more or less, with out putting the Christ at the center of the heart of man, or at the heart of society, or even  at the heart of his church.


04 October 2022

Mother of Holy Hope

 +JMJ+

On the Feast of St. Francis of Assisi

Our Lady is the Mother Holy Hope.  All it takes is for a poor sinner to call upon her and ask for her prayers on his (or her) behalf, and she will petition her son.  She is the Mother of Holy Hope, because she petitions for the good of the souls entrusted to her care.  This is the will of God, that people should come to his son, but know that they must do so with humility and a desire to grow in obedience to Him, and he created the perfect person for this act of redemption of Man-kind.  In other words, God the Father did not create Jesus, his only son, but Jesus was the first 'thought' of God, as Jesus Christ is begotten and not made.  From the love God the Father has for his son, comes the Holy Spirit, who is also the spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary.  God chose* Mary as also an example to truly love Him as a creature made in His own image.  (*Note: He created her "full of grace", but she also fulfilled His perfect Will by remaining under complete obedience to the fullness of grace given to her, therefore, it is right to also say that God chose Mary.)  The Blessed Virgin Mother was not only the first Christian, but remains the greatest Christian, and more powerful by her intercession than all other saints combined.  A true follower of Christ is obedient to God and His Commandments, as Christ says so himself, "He who says he loves me, yet fails to keep the Commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him."  He also commands that the Christian keep to the traditions he gave them through the Apostles.  Therefore, the Apostles knew Christ witnessed to his intention and work towards their being only one (1) church, and referred to her as Christ's "bride." 

Likewise, the Blessed Mother's role also points to the relationship of Christ to the Church, as the Holy Spirit is espoused to the Blessed Mother.  Just as anyone who detests the Church will detest Our Lady, conversely, anyone who says they love our Lady and yet fails to love the Church or who says they love the Church and not our Lady, is a liar.  He who says he loves Christ, and does not love his holy Mother is not worthy in the least bit to be called Christian, that is meaning, "a follower of Christ."  Nothing is separated from the Person's the Holy Trinity, and the dignity the 3 Persons of God have bestowed upon the Blessed Mother requires one to pay her honor for this simple fact that God honors her.

There is also a connection to obedience to the Commandments and hyperdulia** paid to the Mother of God the Son (**hyperdulia is the honor due to the Blessed Mother, which is separate from the worship due to God alone, which is latria. Incidentally, dulia is the worship due to the saints, therefore, as 'hyper' denotes 'above' the worship of (other) saints, the Church says that honor above all the other saints is due to the Blessed Mother).  Those who refuse to obey God by the traditions he has ordained to give grace that does not "cover" but actually transforms the heart and mind of the recipient (see about the 'new wine' in "The Wedding Feast of Cana" in the Bible), also not only resist but tend to despise adoration due to the God by honoring Mary, since she is the perfect example of the greatest obedience to Him (see, also, devotion to "Our Lady of Sorrows").

Since the Blessed Mother seeks to intercede for those who wish to sincerely serve Christ in this short life, she is our hope -- our holy hope. 

Conversely, the devil who knows he could never outshine the honor due to Our Lady, in his jealousy, he looks to steal hope away from people's hearts.   That loss of holy hope is the first to go, which allows the sinner to be further misdirected away from things that will bring it to the right course.  The loss of holy hope can be imperceptible to most, as it is not in what is seen but what is not seen. There is an avoidance of worship of  God  for HIS sake to the point that people will have ambivalence as to how they worship at all.  The loss of the sense of the sacred grows like a fast growing disease.  People will look for satiation in created goods and feelings and their expressions rather than God Himself for Himself.  The sense of transcendence of God is lost, and they place their false faith in their fickle emotions and vanities.  These are all signs of loss of holy hope. Then there is a type of loss of holy hope in despair, where it is basically the result of the former, along with even greater wounds of sin, whether actuated by the sinner and/or the sins of others of which they were effected.  The devil doesn't like to work hard at all, and when he can have someone else do much of his work for him, he just sits, waits, watches, and then takes advantage of someone in their particularly weakened state. Then, he introduces thoughts that are in error much more easily.  The way of the world today is not only to justify these lies, but to defend these disordered ideas as ideals, which truly proves from whom they come.  Disorder and chaos replaces order and true peace by supplanting reason with emotions that come specifically from wounded souls lacking in the infused virtue of hope.  

Sometimes the attack on the virtue of hope can come to even pious souls.  This is because the devil looking for a weak area in charity, which is firstly the love of God for HIS sake, because He is all good and all deserving of all one's love.  Avoidance of God, much less the Cross, the avoidance of suffering or even looking to gain something out of suffering other than glory to and for God, are all areas open for attack.  The counter to this is the pursuit of virtue for God's glory, through the means of deliberate requests to grow in the virtue, particularly that of holy hope, through Our Lady.

Christ's mother knew from the very beginning of her "Fiat" to God the Father, that she would also suffer, as her son would suffer, since she was raised to know the prophecies of the prophets, especially that of Isaiah.  The gave her, "Thy Will be done" to God for His glory, not her own, knowing that she would be glorified by Him for this, but completely detached from what suffering or good would come to her.  Everything was for God, and today, nothing has changed: 

Our Mother of Holy Hope does everything for the glory of God.

+AMDG+