Keep
your eyes open!...
November 16, 2023
(Jas
4:13-15) But who art thou that judgest thy neighbour? Behold, now you
that say: To-day or to-morrow we will go into such a city, and there we
will spend a year and will traffic and make our gain. Whereas you know
not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is a vapour
which appeareth for a little while and afterwards shall vanish away.
For that you should say: If the Lord will, and, If we shall live, we
will do this or that.
VICTIMS OF ABORTION NEWSLETTER: Broken Branches Newsletter Final Letter, Nov/Dec 2023
Please join me in a prayer of
thansgiving for the wonderful ministry of Anne Lastman over the past 30
years. She has touched so many with her powerful and loving
care. She was blessed to be thought of as a dear friend by the
late Cardinal Pell.
DR Z MRI report:
Large right renal mass compatible with renal cell carcinoma a central
replacing the right kidney measuring 11.7 x 12.2 x 11.5 cm
The Trib Times will be on a temporary sabitical as I, with the help of
our Lord, work to resolve the situation described in this report.
I will be undergoing a radical nephrectomy this week in the hope of
eradicating the bittersweet gift of renal cell carcinoma. I
praise God that it has not spread to other organs as far as can be
determined. The nephrectomy should be curative, but given the
size of the tumor, an open approach with its attendant prolonged
recovery will be required.
I'll be back, God willing.
The
Desert Fathers: sayings of the Early Christian Monks: Discretion
73. She said, '"Let not the sun go down upon your wrath" (Eph. 4:26).
Likewise, if you wait until the sun is going down on your life, you
will not know how to say, "Sufficient unto the day is the evil therof"
(Matt. 6:34). Why do you hate the man who has harmed you? It is not he
who has harmed you but the devil. You ought to hate the sickness, not
the sick man.'
November 12, 2023
(Isa 5:20-21) Woe
to you that call evil good, and good evil: that put darkness for light,
and light for darkness: that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for
bitter. Woe to you that are wise in your own eyes, and prudent in your
own conceits.
CHURCH MILITANT: ‘America's Bishop' No Longer Ordinary of Tyler, Texas
Pope Francis has removed a Texas bishop from his office, a move shocking many in the Church.
The move was announced Saturday in
the Holy See's daily bulletin after Francis yesterday reportedly met
with Cdl. Robert Francis Prevost, prefect of the Dicastery of Bishops.
According to the bulletin:
The Holy Father has removed Bishop
Joseph E. Strickland from the pastoral care of the diocese of Tyler,
United States of America, and has appointed Bishop Joe Vásquez of
Austin as apostolic administrator of the same diocese, rendering it
sede vacante.
BLOG: Cardinal Müller on Strickland's Sacking: "It's an abuse of the Divine Right of the Episcopate."
What is being done to Bishop Strickland is terrible, an abuse of the divine right of the episcopate.
If I could advise Mgr Strickland,
he should absolutely not resign, because then they could wash their
hands of his innocence. [Note: Which is why Strickland refused to
resign, and was sacked.] According to the commandment of justice, a
bishop can only be removed by the Pope if he has been guilty of
something evil (heresy, schism, apostasy, crime, or a totally
non-priestly behavior), for example the pseudo-benediction that insults
God and deceives people about their salvation - blessing people of
opposite or the same sex in extramarital relationships.
Arbitrary dismissal from the post
of bishop of a diocese in which a bishop is established by Christ
himself as his own shepherd undermines the Pope's authority, as
happened historically with the unworthy bargaining for the office under
the Avignon papacy (this loss of trust was one of the main reasons for
the Reformation's separation of Christianity from the Catholic Church
and its hatred of the Pope, who by his arbitrary actions had put
himself in God's place).
According to Catholic teaching, the
Pope is in no way the Lord of the Church, but rather, as Christ's
representative for the universal Church, the first servant of his Lord,
who was to say to Simon Peter, who had just become the rock of the
Church: "Get thee behind me (Italian indietro, the true indietrismo),
for thou thinkest not what God wills, but what men will" (Mt 16:23).
The Pope has no authority from
Christ to intimidate and bully good bishops modeled on Christ the Good
Shepherd who, in accordance with the episcopal ideal of Vatican II,
sanctify, teach and shepherd God's flock in Christ's name, simply
because false friends denounce these good bishops to Francis as enemies
of the Pope, while heretical and immoral bishops can do as they please
or disturb Christ's Church every day with some other nonsense.
BISHOP ATHANASIUS SCHNEIDER:
"The one charge which is now sure to secure severe punishment is the
careful keeping of the traditions of the Fathers." These words of St.
Basil (Ep. 243) can most aptly illustrate the deposition of the Bishop
of Tyler, TX/USA, His Excellency Joseph E. Strickland. The deposition
of Bishop Joseph E. Strickland signifies a black day for the Catholic
Church of our day.
We are witnessing a blatant injustice towards a bishop who did his duty
in preaching and defending with parrhesia the immutable Catholic faith
and morals and in promoting the sacredness of the liturgy, especially
in the immemorial traditional rite of the Mass. All understand, and
even the declared enemies of this Confessor Bishop, that the
accusations brought against him are ultimately insubstantial and
disproportionate and were used as a welcome opportunity to silence an
uncomfortable prophetic voice within the Church.
What happened to the Bishops during the Arian crisis in the 4th
century, who were deposed and exiled only because they intrepidly
preached the traditional Catholic Faith, is again happening in our day.
At the same time several Bishops, who publicly support heresy,
liturgical abuses, gender ideology and openly invite their priests to
bless same-sex couples, are not in the least importuned or sanctioned
by the Holy See.
REPORT: Statement by Archbishop Vigano following the dismissal of Archbishop Joseph Strickland by Pope Francis
The removal of His Excellency Archbishop Joseph Strickland, especially
after the failure to ambush him with the Apostolic Visitation, appears
as a cowardly form of authoritarianism, which in no way fits with
Bergoglio’s rants about “welcoming” and “inclusiveness.”
Seeing the sacrilegious and
perverted Marco Rupnik incardinated in the Diocese of Capodistria, or
Bishop Michael Olson still in office despite the petition of the
faithful of Fort Worth following his abuses and scandalous behavior
with the Carmelite Sisters of Arlington, while one of the few faithful
Bishops is persecuted and kicked out for no reason shows us in all its
arrogance the tyranny of the Argentine Jesuit.
A tyranny that is even more
scandalous to the faithful due to the fact that the majority of the
Pastors are silent out of cowardice or complicity.
This affair will reveal who stands
with the true Church of Christ and who chooses to stand with His
declared enemies. To remain silent and endure this umpteenth violation
of the most basic principles of justice and truth is to make oneself
complicit with a subverter.
FR. MARK GORING, CC: Bishops Asked to Resign?
DAILY COMPASS: Cardinal Fernandez overturnes Church teaching to baptise gays and trans
The
Desert Fathers: sayings of the Early Christian Monks: Discretion
72. She also said, 'It is good not to be angry. If it happens, do not give way to it for as much as one day.'
November 10, 2023
(Exo 20:13) Thou shalt not kill.
CRISIS MAGAZINE: We Live Among Barbarians
THE CATHOLIC THING: What Today’s Abortion Dispute is Not About
LIFENEWS.COM: Court Orders Baby’s Life Support Removed Without Her Parents’ Consent
OPINION: Ohio Abortion Vote Only Intensifies Conflict by Frank Pavone
Ohio Issue 1 — A Sign of the Weakness, Not the Strength, of the
Abortion Lobby Ohio voters have made a big mistake. Issue 1 puts into
their state's Constitution a "right" to unlimited abortion.
The first consideration is that nobody won last night on abortion.
Abortion destroys everything it touches. It rips a living human baby to
pieces.
It also brings profound devastation to the parents and family of that baby.
I have served for the last 20 years as the pastoral director of the
world’s largest ministry for healing after abortion — Rachel’s Vineyard
— and the largest mobilization of those who have had abortions and
share their stories — the Silent No More Awareness Campaign.
In both roles I have seen human grief beyond description, as people wrestle with the shame of having had their own child killed.
It’s a lifetime of regret and multiple forms of damage to their own ability to function.
Abortion destroys the abortionists, who live under a convoluted and
self-destructive pile of lies that dehumanize themselves as well as the
babies they kill.
And abortion destroys our system of self-governance, because its
proponents, to achieve their goals, have to steer people away from the
legislative process.
Instead of considering the reality of what abortion is, they attempt to
shut down all debate by inventing fake constitutional rights that have
no basis in reason or in American history.
Indeed, it’s not a matter of anti-abortion wins or pro-abortion rights wins.
Unless anti-abortion wins, nobody wins.
X: From "The Didache" (The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles to the Nations): You shall not murder a child by abortion, nor kill a child at birth.
The
Desert Fathers: sayings of the Early Christian Monks: Discretion
71. She also said, 'There is a useful sorrow, and a destructive sorrow.
Sorrow is useful when we weep for our sins, and for our neighbour's
ignorance, and so that we may not relax our purpose to attain to true
goodness, these are the real kinds of sorrow. Our enemy adds something
to this. For he sends sorrow without reason, which is something called
lethargy. We ought always to drive out a sadness like that with prayers
and psalms.'
November 8, 2023
(Col
2:6-8) As therefore you have received Jesus Christ the Lord, walk ye in
him: Rooted and built up in him and confirmed in the faith, as also you
have learned: abounding in him in thanksgiving. Beware lest any man
cheat you by philosophy and vain deceit: according to the tradition of
men according to the elements of the world and not according to Christ.
THE CATHOLIC THING: Three Theologians on the Pope’s ‘Paradigm’ Shift in Theology
THE PILLAR: Pope Francis new apostolic letter ‘Ad theologiam promovendam’: A brief guide for busy readers
CATHOLIC WORLD REPORT: New papal document reads like a conclusion in search of an argument
EXCERPT: Msgr. Carlo Maria Viganò: Homily on the Feast of St. Charles Borromeo
Church and anti-church are set against one another, in this epochal
moment, so that that the mysterium iniquitatis which until now we have
seen emerge only episodically in the course of History – and which has
always been energetically opposed by holy Pastors – now appears in all
its crude reality.
On one side is the Church of Christ is an acies ordinata, moved by
Charity in Faith for the glory of God and the sanctification of souls,
in the gratuitousness of Grace. She is semper eadem, in the
immutability that comes from her Head, who is the most perfect God and
whose Word is unchanging throughout the centuries. On the other side is
the synagogue of Satan, the ancient conciliar and synodal church, whose
corrupt ministers are driven by personal interest, by the thirst for
power and pleasure, blinded by the pride that makes them put themselves
before the Majesty of God and the salvation of souls: a sect of
traitors and renegades who do not recognize any immutable principle but
who feed on temporariness, contradictions, misunderstandings,
deceptions, lies and foul blackmail. This antichurch can only be
intrinsically revolutionary, because its subversion of the divine order
does not accept anything eternal a priori, and indeed abhors it
precisely because it is immutable, because it cannot tamper with it,
since there is nothing to add to its perfection or to modify. The
permanent revolution, a hallmark of the current ecclesiastical
structure, has seduced many faithful laity and clergy with the lure of
the liberal mentality and Hegelian thought, making many moderates
believe that their momentary quiet existence is sufficient to guarantee
an impossible coexistence between Tradition and Revolution, due to the
sole fact that they are allowed to celebrate the ancient Mass in
exchange for accepting the compromise and not questioning Vatican II,
just as the Jews compromised with the priests of Baal at the time of
the prophet Elijah.
The Catholic adage nihil est innovandum – nothing is to be changed – is
not a sterile entrenchment in preconceived positions for fear of facing
what is new, as the false shepherds who have infiltrated the Church
would have us believe. On the contrary, it expresses the serene
awareness that the Truth of Christ – which is Christ himself, the
?????, the eternal Word of the Father, the Alpha and Omega – does not
know the corruption of time, because it belongs to the perfection of
God: veritas Domini manet in æternum (Ps. 116:2). For this reason there
is not, nor can there be, a substantial change in the teaching of the
Church: because her Magisterium is and must be that of her Divine
Founder. And if there is anything that the good of souls requires to be
highlighted in greater light, this must always and in any case consist
in our own personal reform, that is, in bringing our response to the
immutable teaching of Our Lord back to the fidelity of the original
form. Because it is not the eternal perfection of God that must adapt
to our miserable mutability, but rather our own unfaithfulness must
seek being conformed to God’s will as the model and goal: sicut in cœlo
et in terra.
For the first time in History, in this battle between the Church and
the anti-church, the former is not only marginalized and persecuted,
but also finds herself defrauded of the supreme authority of the Roman
Pontiff, which has been usurped and used to demolish its own authority
from the very foundations, in order to make official a transition that
began sixty years ago. She sails without a helmsman in a great storm
(Dante, Inferno, VI, 77). If we did not have the promise of Christ with
the Non prævalebunt, one would believe that the gates of hell are now
triumphant. But we know that the apparent victory of the Enemy is all
the closer to the end the greater the arrogance of those who dare to
challenge Our Lord, and that our tribulations are the blessed earthly
punishment with which He purifies us, putting before us the horror of
the apostasy of a pope and also many bishops along with him. Let us
therefore thank the Divine Majesty for having made so many masks fall
off, behind which lost souls were hiding. Masks that dropped off
especially during the farce of the Synod on Sinodality, and which allow
us to understand how true and timely the words Our Lord’s words are: No
one can serve two masters (Lk 16:13).
Along with Charity there is always holy Humility, which nurses this
theological virtue. Saint Charles was a truly humble man and pastor.
Not in stripping himself of his cardinalatial or episcopal dignity; not
in behaving or speaking in a rough way by affecting simplicity; Not in
showing off a fake poverty followed by photographers, or in kissing the
hand of the great usurers of the synagogue, or in simulating compassion
for the poor used as an ideological flag. Saint Charles was humble and
poor in secret, far from the eyes of the masses, where only the Lord
sees the purity of our intentions and the sincerity of our heart.
In the face of the crisis that troubles the Holy Church and the
apostasy of the hierarchy, we must take an example from what Saint
Charles did, and at the same time avoid what Saint Charles avoided: a
golden rule that will allow us to discern how to behave in these
terrible times. This certainly applies to the faithful, but even more
so to the ministers of God to religious, who in the great archbishop of
Milan can find a model of life and holiness. A model that remains valid
precisely because it has as its only purpose the love of God and of
one’s neighbor, and does not chase after the spirit of the times or try
to please the prince of this world. This is what invites us to make our
own the prayer of the Mass for his feast day: O God, who have adorned
your Church with the healthy reforms made by Saint Charles, your
confessor and high priest, graciously grant us to feel his heavenly
protection, and to imitate his example while here on earth. And so may
it be.
The
Desert Fathers: sayings of the Early Christian Monks: Discretion
70. Syncletica said, 'Merchants toil in search of riches and are in
danger of their lives from shipwreck; the more wealth they win, the
more they want; and they think what they have already is of no worth
but bend their whole mind to what they have not yet got. But we have
nothing, not even that which we ought to seek; we do not even want to
possess what we need, because we fear God.'
November 6, 2023
(Zep 2:3) Seek
the Lord, all ye meek of the earth, you that have wrought his judgment:
seek the just, seek the meek: if by any means you may be hid in the day
of the Lord's indignation.
POPE FRANCIS:
I continue to think about the serious situation in Palestine and in
Israel where many, many people have lost their lives. In God’s name, I
beg you to stop: Cease using weapons! I hope that avenues will be
pursued so that an escalation of the conflict might be absolutely
avoided, so that the wounded can be rescued and help might get to the
population of Gaza where the humanitarian situation is extremely
serious. May the hostages be freed immediately. There are also many
children among them – may they return to their families!
Yes, let’s think of the children, of
all the children affected by this war, as well as in Ukraine and by
other conflicts: this is how their future is being killed. Let us pray
that there might be the strength to say, “enough.”
BREAKING NEWS: ISRAEL STRIKES CIVILIAN VEHICLE NEAR LEBANESE BORDER TWO DAYS AFTER HEZBOLLAH WARNING
Two days ago, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah warned Israel that a red line is killing Lebanese civilians.
Just now, we got a report that a
civilian CRV model car, belonging to journalist Samir Ayoub, has been
hit, resulting in the loss of his wife and three children.
Hezbollah's leader, Hassan Nasrallah, warned:
"The enemy’s behavior towards
Lebanon is a determinant of our movements, and this will return us to
the rule of civilian versus civilian."
Could this lead to Hezbollah escalating their attacks and targeting Israeli civilians?
If so, what happens next?
CNA: Jerusalem patriarch Cardinal Pizzaballa: The Lord ‘wants me to bring his grace to this place’
ALETEIA: The only way to vanquish violence on earth
EXCERPT ELEISON COMMENTS: Seeking God
Pride in a soul is the greatest of blockages between the soul and God.
Hence the Prophet Sophonias says, “Seek the Lord, all you humble of the
land, who do His commands, seek righteousness and humility; perhaps you
may be hidden on the day of the wrath of the Lord” (Soph. II, 3). This
last quotation is a salutary reminder that seeking God is not for souls
today an optional extra, if they wish to deflect the punishment from
God that is hanging over all our heads.
Events seem to be advancing slowly but inexorably towards a third World
War, and it is difficult to imagine that war not turning nuclear at
some point. We are already seeing horrors in the Ukraine and Palestine,
and mankind as a whole has never been so far distant from God as it is
today. But God did not create mankind, nor the universe for mankind, in
order to populate Hell, but His Heaven. Therefore He is going to
intervene, and soon, before all mankind finishes by choosing Hell. But
such is the corruption of men today that only a very severe
Chastisement will be enough to turn away the survivors from those
sinful delights which they have so known in our time, if not practised,
the worst being the mockery of God.
And so Almighty God has His arms wide open to welcome sinners in this
last hour before His wrath breaks out, but at the same time life is not
a game to be played on man’s terms “The Lord searches all hearts, and
understands every plan and thought. If you seek Him, He will be found
by you, but if you forsake Him, He will cast you off for ever” (I
Chronicles, XXVIII, 9). Let no man today be so foolish as to say, “I am
not a religious person,” meaning, “so the Chastisement does not concern
me.” He runs a grave risk of understanding all too late how gravely he
mistreated the infinite goodness of God.
The
Desert Fathers: sayings of the Early Christian Monks: Discretion
68. A brother said to Sisois, 'Why do my passions not leave me?' He
said to him, 'Because the vessels that fill those passions are within
you. Empty them and the passions they cause will go away.'
November 3, 2023
(Rev 6:3-4) And when he had opened the second seal, I heard the second
living creature saying: Come and see. And there went out another horse
that was red. And to him that sat thereon, it was given that he should
take peace from the earth: and that they should kill one another. And a
great sword was given to him.
CATHOLIC HERALD: St John Paul II ‘had vision of an Islamist invasion of Europe’
VATICAN NEWS: Pope Francis trusts in ‘human wisdom’ to avoid escalation of war
REUTERS: Yemen's Houthis enter Mideast fray, hardening spillover fears
ANALYSIS VIA Rick Harrison, MSgt, USAF (retired):
I get the same general sense of the historic importance of the Oct. 7th
event. It seems to be a paradigm breaker somehow in the magnitude of
both the attack and response.
Hamas, probably with much planning assistance from Iran and possibly
other nations' professional intelligence and military experts, has laid
an intricate military/political/world opinion Catch-22 type trap for
Israel. There is no way for Israel to effectively eliminate the
terrorist threat without causing large numbers of civilian casualties
due to the urban setting, the underlying maze of strong tunnels, and
Hamas willingness to use its own people as human shields.
I suspect Communist China is indirectly financing Iran's increased
troublemaking efforts and expansion of proxy groups' military
capabilities. The Commies were likely interested to see a real-world
test of Israel's Iron Dome air defense system. I think the Commies have
exploited Iran and Iran has exploited Hamas by promising more backup
than they are actually willing to deliver when push comes to shove.
Hamas is now left to pay the price for China and Iran over-selling
their capabilities.
I don't see Turkey or Russia piling on Israel in a larger Middle East
war--not in this generation. They both know the United States' military
capability too well to challenge it. All Russia can add is the nuclear
deterrent threat of Armageddon, but Armageddon is not in Russia's
interest any more than ours. If Turkey bucks the collective interest of
NATO countries in preserving Israel as a key Western chess piece in the
Middle East region she stands to be ejected from NATO, which puts her
at risk of Russian expansion into Turkey. Turkey is too savvy to make
that mistake.
The core problem is Iran and radical Islam generally. As you both know,
Iran is on the verge of attaining nuclear weapons. I don't think Iran
is crazy enough to use nukes unless the devil overruns her leaders; but
they may already be overrun. Iran may falsely believe that China and
Russia's combined nuclear weapons capability would protect Iran from a
U.S. nuclear response in the event Iran attacked Israel with nuclear
weapons. It wouldn't, but Iran may not understand that. Compared to the
United States and its allies, Russia is relatively poor and weak in
conventional warfare capabilities. Russia can only add a threat of
Armageddon via her huge nuclear arsenal. But it is an empty threat.
Armageddon destroys Russia too--Russia won't follow through with such a
threat. China isn't yet ready to challenge the United States, so she
won't back up Iran either. Even when China gains strength in the
future, an Armageddon exchange with the West doesn't serve China's
interest--if she is thinking rationally.
However, if Iran is under the devil's influence, she may naively
blunder forward with a nuclear attack on Israel. As an atheist nation
substantially lacking in God's protection due to lack of faith, China's
leaders could be overrun by the devil as well. Prayer, therefore, is,
as always, the answer.
The Pope's recent comments that there won't be peace as long as
abortion is a legally and culturally condoned practice does not add a
reassuring note to the situation. The world has never seen a problem
this hard to solve without exorbitant risk of WWIII/Armageddon,
although, on the surface, Armageddon would seem to be too extreme of a
punishment for abortion in the sense that it does not leave much if any
room for correcting the behavior and reestablishing a God-fearing
culture.
On the other hand, God's wisdom is much greater than ours. He may see
modern cultures showing no potential for repentance and change,
whereas, survivors of Armageddon, if there are any, would have every
incentive to return to God and pray for help.
For our part, it is time to pray now. Such an unthinkable tragedy.
The
Desert Fathers: sayings of the Early Christian Monks: Discretion
67. Palladius said, 'The soul which is being trained according to the
will of Christ should either be earnest in learning what it does not
know, or should publicly teach what it does know. If it wants to do
neither, though it could, it is mad. The first step on the road away
from God is contempt for teaching, that is not to want to give food to
the soul that truly wants it.'
November 1, 2023
(Rev 7:9-12) After
this, I saw a great multitude, which no man could number, of all
nations and tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne
and in sight of the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their
hands. And they cried with a loud voice, saying: Salvation to our God,
who sitteth upon the throne and to the Lamb. And all the angels stood
round about the throne and the ancients and the four living creatures.
And they fell down before the throne upon their faces and adored God,
Saying: Amen. Benediction and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving, honour
and power and strength, to our God, for ever and ever. Amen.
SAINT POPE JOHN PAUL II (Friday, 1 November 2002):
Today the Church, as the liturgy states, has "the joy of celebrating in
one feast the merits and the glory of all the Saints" (Opening Prayer):
not only of those whom she has canonized in the course of the
centuries, but also of the numberless men and women whose holiness,
hidden in this world, is only known to God and shines in his eternal
kingdom.
CATHOLIC DAILY REFLECTIONS: Honoring All Saints
Today we celebrate one of the most glorious solemnities within our
Church! Every saint, canonized or not, is honored today. Our Gospel
passage lays out the path by which these saints entered Heaven. While
on earth, these great men and women lived lives that were poor in
spirit, filled with a holy mourning, meekness, a hunger and thirst for
righteousness, mercy, peace, purity of heart and even persecution. Each
one of these Beatitudes concludes by stating the reward that those who
lived these qualities obtains: Heaven, comfort, satisfaction, mercy,
seeing God, being children of God and rewards beyond what we can
imagine in God’s Kingdom.
Reflect, today, upon the beautiful truth that you are called to become
a saint. And the surest path to sainthood is the Beatitudes. Read them
carefully. Meditate upon them and know that they reveal to you how God
is calling you to live. If one of these Beatitudes stands out to you,
then spend time focusing upon it. Work to internalize these graces, and
God will work wonders in your life, one day making this solemnity
within our Church a true celebration of your life well lived.
CATHOLIC CULTURE: Remember to pray for the Faithful Departed from November 1 to the 8th.
UNIVERSALIS: From a sermon of St Bernard of Clairvaux
Let us make haste to our brethren who are awaiting us
Why should our praise and glorification, or even the celebration of
this feast day mean anything to the saints? What do they care about
earthly honours when their heavenly Father honours them by fulfilling
the faithful promise of the Son? What does our commendation mean to
them? The saints have no need of honour from us; neither does our
devotion add the slightest thing to what is theirs. Clearly, if we
venerate their memory, it serves us, not them. But I tell you, when I
think of them, I feel myself inflamed by a tremendous yearning.
Calling the saints to mind inspires, or rather arouses in us, above all
else, a longing to enjoy their company, so desirable in itself. We long
to share in the citizenship of heaven, to dwell with the spirits of the
blessed, to join the assembly of patriarchs, the ranks of the prophets,
the council of apostles, the great host of martyrs, the noble company
of confessors and the choir of virgins. In short, we long to be united
in happiness with all the saints. But our dispositions change. The
Church of all the first followers of Christ awaits us, but we do
nothing about it. The saints want us to be with them, and we are
indifferent. The souls of the just await us, and we ignore them.
Come, brothers, let us at length spur ourselves on. We must rise again
with Christ, we must seek the world which is above and set our mind on
the things of heaven. Let us long for those who are longing for us,
hasten to those who are waiting for us, and ask those who look for our
coming to intercede for us. We should not only want to be with the
saints, we should also hope to possess their happiness. While we desire
to be in their company, we must also earnestly seek to share in their
glory. Do not imagine that there is anything harmful in such an
ambition as this; there is no danger in setting our hearts on such
glory.
When we commemorate the saints we are inflamed with another yearning:
that Christ our life may also appear to us as he appeared to them and
that we may one day share in his glory. Until then we see him, not as
he is, but as he became for our sake. He is our head, crowned, not with
glory, but with the thorns of our sins. As members of that head,
crowned with thorns, we should be ashamed to live in luxury; his purple
robes are a mockery rather than an honour. When Christ comes again, his
death shall no longer be proclaimed, and we shall know that we also
have died, and that our life is hidden with him. The glorious head of
the Church will appear and his glorified members will shine in
splendour with him, when he forms this lowly body anew into such glory
as belongs to himself, its head.
Therefore, we should aim at attaining this glory with a wholehearted
and prudent desire. That we may rightly hope and strive for such
blessedness, we must above all seek the prayers of the saints. Thus,
what is beyond our own powers to obtain will be granted through their
intercession.
The
Desert Fathers: sayings of the Early Christian Monks: Discretion
66. A brother asked Pambo, 'Why does the enemy prevent me doing good to
my neighbour?' He said, 'Do not talk like that, or you will make God a
liar. Say, "I is I myself do not want to be kind to others." For God
came down to us and said, "I have given you the power of treading upon
scorpions and snakes" (Luke 10:19), and so you are beyond the power of
the enemy. Why then do you not tread down these evil spirits?'
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