Keep your eyes open!...






 

September 29, 2022  

(Rev 12:7-10) And there was a great battle in heaven: Michael and his angels fought with the dragon, and the dragon fought, and his angels. And they prevailed not: neither was their place found any more in heaven. And that great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, who seduceth the whole world. And he was cast unto the earth: and his angels were thrown down with him. And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying: Now is come salvation and strength and the kingdom of our God and the power of his Christ: because the accuser of our brethren is cast forth, who accused them before our God day and night.

ST. MICHAEL CENTER FOR THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY: How The Prayer Of St. Michael Came To Be Written

LIFESITENEWS: Producer of new St. Michael film: Weakening devotion to holy angels a ‘demonic strategy’

COMPELLING RELATED LINKS


Forgotten Customs of Michaelmas
Michaelmas and the Moon: this week on Storyteller's Night Sky
Here are the sacred places you can pray to St. Michael, enemy of Satan

CHRISTIANITY TODAY EXCERPT: Why Ukraine Calls Upon Michael the Archangel

Michael’s name in Hebrew means “like unto God” or “Who is like unto God?” Some believe he first appears in the Book of Joshua, just prior to the battle of Jericho—where an angel identifies himself to Israel’s leader as “commander of the army of the Lord” and we learn he has a “drawn sword in his hand” (5:13–14).

In the Book of Daniel, in a vision, Gabriel explains that Michael helped him defeat Persian rulers (10:13). Later in that chapter (v. 21) Gabriel identifies Michael as “your prince,” and two chapters later (12:1) “the great prince who protects your people.” Michael is notably not a prince of any particular place or thing; neither are the other archangels who are likewise identified as “prince” or “saint.” Instead, the term serves as an honorific as God the Father is the King of heaven—hence those who descend from him in positions of power are identified as princes.

In the New Testament, Jude 9 mentions that Michael rescued Moses’ body from Satan. Here he invoked the Lord in his rebuke of the Devil, a rebuke that became a common exorcism formula in later Christian tradition. (The Catholic church uses a special exorcism prayer to Michael.) And in Revelation 12:7–9, after war breaks out in heaven, we learn that Michael and his angels fought Satan and his angels, hurling them down to the earth.

These images of aggression and war gave Michael a reputation among the early church as a fighter. Christians considered Michael a leader of the church militant—in the believers’ perpetual struggle against the Devil and the ongoing fight against persecution.

Patristic texts identify Michael as the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night that guided the Hebrews through the Exodus. They further identify Michael as the chief commander of God who annihilated 185,000 Assyrian soldiers (2 Kings 19:35); as the horseman who struck and killed Heliodorus at the temple treasury (2 Maccabees 3:24–26); as the protector of the three Hebrews in the fiery furnace (Dan. 3:22–25); and as the angel who transferred Habbakuk by his hair from Judea to Babylon to take food to Daniel in the lions’ den (Dan. 14:33–37).

Although warfare imagery characterizes much perception of the archangel throughout history, he also has gained a reputation as a dream revealer, miracle worker, and healer. Early examples of Michael’s ability to interpret dreams and heal emerge in Greek magical papyri, where in various spells, the magician invokes angels such as Michael to fulfill personal requests.

According to Orthodox tradition, Constantine built a sanctuary dedicated to the archangel in a village just north of Constantinople. Known as the Michaelion, it became a model for future Orthodox churches.

The location itself became associated with healing waters. Tradition held that Michael helped a man heal his mute daughter by instructing through a dream that she drink from the spring. Both the father and child became Christians. In another incident, Michael restored water to a church and saved it after a group of pagans had cut off its supply. The ensuing spring that arose was said to offer the sick healing and restoration.

Michael is also credited with answering the prayers of Saint Gregory the Great to end a plague tormenting Rome at the end of the sixth century. Gregory saw a vision of Michael sheathing his sword atop the Mausoleum of Hadrian and believed this meant the pandemic had ended. In honor of Michael, Gregory renamed and dedicated the mausoleum to him as Castel Sant’Angelo (Castle of the Holy Angel). A monumental sculpture of Gregory’s vision of Michael sheathing his sword rests atop the building to this day.

Another tradition says that Michael was the conveyer of Christian souls and that he brought Mary a palm branch as the sign of the annunciation of her prayed-for death. It is said that his was one of the voices heard by Joan of Arc. Michael is considered the patron saint of the sick, of soldiers, and of all Christian souls. His name is often invoked in battle and in danger at sea.

FATIMA

Angel’s Prayer (With the Blessed Sacrament suspended in the air, the Angel of Peace prostrated himself and recited this prayer during this third apparition to the children in 1916.)

O Most Holy Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, I adore Thee profoundly. I offer Thee the most precious Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ, present in all the tabernacles of the world, in reparation for the outrages, sacrileges and indifferences by which He is offended. By the infinite merits of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I beg the conversion of poor sinners.

The Desert Fathers: sayings of the Early Christian Monks: Progress in Perfection

7. They used to say about Theodore of Pherme that he kept these three rules before all others: poverty, abstinence, and avoiding the company of other people.


September 28, 2022  

(Mat 24:6-8)  And you shall hear of wars and rumours of wars. See that ye be not troubled. For these things must come to pass: but the end is not yet. For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: And there shall be pestilences and famines and earthquakes in places. Now all these are the beginnings of sorrows.

HEADLINES

Russia issues new nuclear warning as it wraps up contested Ukraine referendums
Experts urge world to deter Russia from using nuclear weapons in Ukraine
Ukraine shells a second electric power station

ANALYSIS:

Russia-Ukraine war: the worst is yet to come

Putin’s Address to the Russian People, September 21, 2022
A Time of War

THE PILLAR EDITORIAL: The Horror

President Vladimir Putin has, under the fiction of “popular referenda” in the regions of eastern Ukraine, put the world on notice that he intends to declare the areas to be sovereign Russian territory.


The purpose of that, learned opinion seems to hold, is to claim any attempt to liberate those areas from Russian control is a Western-supported invasion of Russia proper — and justify any use of force to repel it. To that end, Putin has already announced the mobilization of 300,000 reservists, and begun rattling the nuclear saber.

There are a couple of ways to look at this development, which I’ll come to in a moment. But before that, we should stop and consider what these regions under Russian control are being subjected to: torture, murder, rape, and mass deportation.

The Russian track record of war crimes is now desperately long, and Pope Francis went further than ever in his public statements about the war on Wednesday, referring to the list of atrocities in “martyred Ukraine.” As winter approaches, and Russia uses its stranglehold on Europe’s energy pipelines as a weapon, people in Ukraine — families, children — are going to freeze. Things are going to get a lot harder across Europe, too, and likely further abroad. And there is going to be some talk of finding a way to make peace with Putin’s Russia.

I’ve got no informed opinion, or personal standing, to weigh in on those calls now, or later. But when they come, we need to remember that every time someone talks about ceding “territory” to Putin, that means surrendering the people there too.

It means leaving them — families, children — to what Pope Francis is now calling martyrdom.

That being said, it seems to me that Putin’s effort to freeze Ukraine into submission, and to intimidate the West into washing its hands of the situation, might be the least terrible and terrifying possibility for the next few months.

Experts have poured cold water on the idea that Russia is actually capable of fielding and equipping anything like 300,000 reservists anytime soon. The balance of probability seems to be that Putin’s threat of nuclear weapons is still (just about) more likely to be a bluff than earnest willingness to court an Apocalypse.

But that rather prompts the question: Why is he doing it? Certainly not to cement popular opinion. Putin’s mobilization announcement seems to have divided fighting-age Russians between those taking to the streets in protest (leading to thousands of arrests) and those just flat-out fleeing the country.

So, if the threatened escalation is unpopular at home, and being treated as madness abroad, who is this for?

The unpleasant conclusion that suggests itself is that Putin is under serious pressure from ultra-nationalists within his own security services and military. And this isn’t just my application of the principle of parsimony.

While it might surprise anyone to learn Putin has a wing to his right, he does, and it has put him under serious pressure following Ukraine’s unexpected advances earlier this month, which retook thousands of square miles of Russian-held territory.

By coincidence, as the Ukrainian army was rolling up the northeastern front on the evening of Sept. 11, Moscow was kicking off its “Day of the City” carnival, where Putin opened the Sun of Moscow, Europe’s largest ferris wheel.

The wheel was immediately hacked, and its passengers left stranded for hours. And it was Russian nationalists who took credit for it, posting a denunciation of the establishment as a “rotten liberal intelligentsia” enjoying fireworks while “our boys are dying on the front.” While these might appear like minor data points, I have yet to find a Russian expert who thinks any of this would have been possible without a green light from the FSB, the Russian intelligence service.

We’ve written a lot about Putin’s vision of Russkiy mir, a “Russian world” underpinned by revanchist imperialism and religious nationalism. But the thing is, while Putin might be fighting under its slogans, he didn’t invent them — he adopted them, along with the ultra-nationalist political fringes who did come up with them.

Analysts might go back and forth on how much of this stuff Putin buys into as a creed, rather than a political mantle to throw over his sheer will to power. And who knows, the mind of man is capable of anything. But it does seem clear that, for some very serious people in the security services and military, Russian victory is an article of faith — to be achieved at any cost.

All this is to say, the nightmare may not actually be Putin deciding to go all-in to keep the territory that Russia currently occupies in Ukraine, though he may. Given the Russian lives he’s already spent on his “special operation,” how many Ukrainian lives do you think Putin would sacrifice to shore up his own position?

If Putin's survival in power demanded it, would you bet against him bombing a Ukrainian nuclear power station, or deploying a strategic nuclear weapon to show he isn’t kidding around? I wouldn’t.

But the real apocalyptic scenario is that keeping the territory Russia still has in Ukraine, at whatever cost, won’t be enough to satisfy the people behind Putin who would, in total sincerity, prefer nuclear war to a perceived Russian defeat.

It’s a sobering thought, I know. But, well, I told you this newsletter wasn’t going to be a ray of sunshine.

So what is the Christian answer to all of this? Well, Padre Pio’s famous maxim "Pray, hope, and don’t worry" comes to mind.

Prayer is, as that saint could tell you, not a cop-out or an escape from reality. On the contrary, it is labor, combat even. It is a battle of faith against despair. It is a sincere engagement with the world as it really is — under threat but also before God.

“Don’t worry” doesn’t mean don’t care. It means believing, and salting the Earth with the belief, that Christ has conquered death. A Christian sees the world, dark as it may appear, in the light of the Cross — the symbol not of death but of the triumph of life over it.

So don’t worry, but pray like crazy.

The Desert Fathers: sayings of the Early Christian Monks: Progress in Perfection

5. He also said, "A monk was told that his father had died.  He said to the messenger, 'Do not blaspheme.  My Father cannot die'."


September 26, 2022  

(Luk 9:44-45) “Pay attention to what I am telling you. The Son of Man is to be handed over to men.” But they did not understand this saying; its meaning was hidden from them so that they should not understand it, and they were afraid to ask him about this saying.

ONLINE PAMPHLET:  Suffering: How to Make the Greatest Evil in Our Lives Our Greatest Happiness by Fr. Paul O'Sullivan, O.P.

ALETEIA
: A gift Jesus gives us: Seeing the cross as part of our good


Pay attention to what I am telling you. The Son of Man is to be handed over to men.” When Jesus brings up the time of his passion and death, everyone is left speechless and without questions:

“But they did not understand this saying; its meaning was hidden from them so that they should not understand it, and they were afraid to ask him about this saying.”

Perhaps they sensed a negative presentiment in this kind of talk and were careful not to go any deeper into the subject. Yet Jesus was trying to educate his disciples about the flip side of the coin, which is just as necessary as the front side, the side we all usually want.


For example, a father and mother who bring a child into the world are normally happy about it, but they try not to think about the fact that that gift must be let go at some point. Loving in this case means accepting an eventual loss, letting the child go to fulfill his or her destiny, even though it may be far from us. Loving only by possessing would be wrong; we need to accept the inconvenient side of it too.

The Cross, then, is not something that works against us, but a mysterious part of life that contributes to our good, together with the things we experience as good and enjoyable.

The gift Jesus gave us is precisely this, and St. Paul summed it up admirably: “All things work together for good for those who love God” (Romans 8:28). All things! Even the ones that seem to work against us. Therefore, we should not be afraid, but confident.

EXCERPT CATHOLIC DAILY REFLECTIONS: Meaning in Suffering

When we face the mystery of Jesus’ sufferings, and when we face the reality of suffering in our own lives or the lives of those we love, we can often be confused at first. It takes a gift from the Holy Spirit to open our minds to understand. Suffering is most often inevitable. We all endure it. And if we do not allow the Holy Spirit to work in our lives, suffering will lead us to confusion and despair. But if we allow the Holy Spirit to open our minds, we will begin to understand how God can work in us through our sufferings just as He brought salvation to the world through the sufferings of Christ.

Reflect, today, upon how well you understand both Jesus’ sufferings and your own. Are you allowing the Holy Spirit to reveal to you the meaning and even the value of suffering? Say a prayer to the Holy Spirit asking for this grace and let God lead you into this profound mystery of our faith.

SAINT PIO: Tribulations, crosses, have always been the inheritance and portion of elect souls. To the extent that Jesus wants to raise a soul to perfection, he then increases the cross of tribulation. Rejoice, I tell you, to see yourself so privileged despite your lack of merit. The more you are afflicted, the more you should exult, because a soul in the fire of tribulation will become refined gold, worthy to shine in the kingdom of heaven.

C.S. LEWIS: “God allows us to experience the low points of life in order to teach us lessons that we could learn in no other way.”


FYODOR DOSTOEVSKY: Pain and suffering are always inevitable for a large intelligence and a deep heart. The really great men must, I think, have great sadness on earth.

The Desert Fathers: sayings of the Early Christian Monks: Progress in Perfection

4. Evagrius said, "Some of our predecessors used to say that a dry and regular diet combined with love will soon bring a monk to the harbour where the storms of passion do not enter."


September 23, 2022  

(Jud 1:17-21) But you, my dearly beloved, be mindful of the words which have been spoken before by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ: Who told you that in the last time there should come mockers, walking according to their own desires in ungodlinesses. These are they who separate themselves, sensual men, having not the Spirit. But you, my beloved, building yourselves upon your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost, Keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ, unto life everlasting.

CARDINAL SARAH: "As a bishop, it is my duty to warn the West! The barbarians are already inside the city."

THE PILLARBelgian bishops publish text for same-sex blessings


LIFESITENEWS: Bp. Strickland calls for ‘chorus of bishops’ to defend the Catholic faith from ‘false teachings’

Bishop Joseph Strickland has shared a Canadian priest’s video imploring bishops to transmit the teachings of the Church to the lay faithful, instead of leaving the job to lay YouTubers.

In a Twitter post on Sunday evening, the Bishop of Tyler, Texas shared Fr. Mark Goring’s recent video entitled “Dear Bishops: We Need Clarity!”

“Once again Fr Goring nails it,” said Strickland. “We need a chorus of bishops proclaiming the truth of our Catholic Faith & refuting the false teachings that so many are putting forth.”

In his video, Fr. Goring called out the leaders of the Church in Germany for their heresy. He reported that, back in April, more than seventy bishops had signed a Fraternal Open Letter to the German bishops, begging them to remain faithful to the teachings of the Church.

Since then, the number of bishops and cardinals who have signed the document has increased. They signed the document, “imploring the German Catholic bishops to remain faithful to their promise to uphold the Deposit of the Catholic Faith.”

YOUTUBE LINK:
Dear Bishops: WE NEED CLARITY! - Fr. Mark Goring, CC

EXCERPT CHURCHPOP: Our Lady of Akita’s Alleged Apparition Warns of Coming Punishment if Sinners Do Not Repent

Third message (October 13, 1973): The tribulation of the Church

Our Lady of Akita’s last message again warns about the punishment that God will send to humanity if sinners do not repent.


“As I told you, if men do not repent and better themselves, the Father will inflict a terrible punishment on all humanity. It will be a punishment greater than the deluge, such as one will never seen before.

“Fire will fall from the sky and will wipe out a great part of humanity, the good as well as the bad, sparing neither priests nor faithful. The survivors will find themselves so desolate that they will envy the dead.

“The only arms which will remain for you will be the Rosary and the Sign left by My Son. Each day recite the prayers of the Rosary. With the Rosary, pray for the Pope, the bishops and priests.” Our Lady of Akita also expresses concern for the divisions, trials and persecutions that will enter Church.

“The work of the devil will infiltrate even into the Church in such a way that one will see cardinals opposing cardinals, bishops against bishops. The priests who venerate me will be scorned and opposed by their confreres…churches and altars sacked; the Church will be full of those who accept compromises and the demon will press many priests and consecrated souls to leave the service of the Lord.

“The demon will be especially implacable against souls consecrated to God. The thought of the loss of so many souls is the cause of my sadness. If sins increase in number and gravity, there will be no longer pardon for them” “Pray very much the prayers of the Rosary. I alone am able still to save you from the calamities which approach. Those who place their confidence in me will be saved.”

The Desert Fathers: sayings of the Early Christian Monks: Progress in Perfection

3. Gregory said, 'God asks three things of anyone who is baptized: to keep the true faith with all his soul and all his might; to control his tongue; to be chaste in his body.'


September 21, 2022  

(Joh 12:24-25) Amen, amen, I say to you, unless the grain of wheat falling into the ground die, Itself remaineth alone. But if it die it bringeth forth much fruit. He that loveth his life shall lose it and he that hateth his life in this world keepeth it unto life eternal.

THE PILLAR: Covid delays Cardinal Zen’s Hong Kong trial

EURASIA REVIEW: China’s Renewed Push To Tame Religion

DENVER CATHOLIC: A Double Persecution: The Witness of Hong Kong’s Cardinal Zen

FROM THE MAILBAG: From the final exhortation of Andrew Kim Taegon, priest and martyr

Love and perseverance are the crown of faith

My brothers and sisters, my dearest friends, think again and again on this: God has ruled over all things in heaven and on earth from the beginning of time; then reflect on why and for what purpose he chose each one of us to be created in his own image and likeness. In this world of perils and hardship if we did not recognize the Lord as our Creator, there would be no benefit either in being born or in our continued existence. We have come into the world by God’s grace; by that same grace we have received baptism, entrance into the Church, and the honor of being called Christians. Yet what good will this do us if we are Christians in name alone and not in fact? We would have come into the world for nothing, we would have entered the Church for nothing, and we would have betrayed even God and his grace. It would be better never to have been born than to receive the grace of God and then to sin against him.

Look at the farmer who cultivates his rice fields. In season he plows, then fertilizes the earth; never counting the cost, he labors under the sun to nurture the seed he has planted. When harvest time comes and the rice crop is abundant, forgetting his labor and sweat, he rejoices with an exultant heart. But if the crop is sparse and there is nothing but straw and husks, the farmer broods over his toil and sweat and turns his back on that field with a disgust that is all the greater the harder he has toiled.

The Lord is like a farmer and we are the field of rice that he fertilizes with his grace and by the mystery of the incarnation and the redemption irrigates with his blood, in order that we will grow and reach maturity. When harvest time comes, the day of judgment, those who have grown to maturity in the grace of God will find the joy of adopted children in the kingdom of heaven; those who have not grown to maturity will become God’s enemies and, even though they were once his children, they will be punished according to their deeds for all eternity.

Dearest brothers and sisters: when he was in the world, the Lord Jesus bore countless sorrows and by his own passion and death founded his Church; now he gives it increase through the sufferings of his faithful. No matter how fiercely the powers of this world oppress and oppose the Church, they will never bring it down. Ever since his ascension and from the time of the apostles to the present, the Lord Jesus has made his Church grow even in the midst of tribulations.

For the last fifty or sixty years, ever since the coming of the Church to our own land of Korea, the faithful have suffered persecution over and over again. Persecution still rages and as a result many who are friends in the household of the faith, myself among them, have been thrown into prison and like you are experiencing severe distress. Because we have become the one Body, should not our hearts be grieved for the members who are suffering? Because of the human ties that bind us, should we not feel deeply the pain of our separation?

But, as the Scriptures say, God numbers the very hairs of our head and in his all-embracing providence he has care over us all. Persecution, therefore, can only be regarded as the command of the Lord or as a prize he gives or as a punishment he permits.

Hold fast, then, to the will of God and with all your heart fight the good fight under the leadership of Jesus; conquer again the diabolical power of this world that Christ has already vanquished.

I beg you not to fail in your love for one another, but to support one another and to stand fast until the Lord mercifully delivers us from our trials.

There are twenty of us in this place and by God’s grace we are so far all well. If any of us is executed, I ask you not to forget our families. I have many things to say, yet how can pen and paper capture what I feel? I end this letter. As we are all near the final ordeal, I urge you to remain steadfast in faith, so that at last we will all reach heaven and there rejoice together. I embrace you all in love.

The Desert Fathers: sayings of the Early Christian Monks: Progress in Perfection

2. Pambo said to Antony, 'What shall I do?' Antony said, 'Do not trust in your own righteousness. Do not go on sorrowing over a deed that is past. Keep your tongue and your belly under control.'


September 19, 2022  

(Jer 2:19-20) Thy own wickedness shall reprove thee, and thy apostasy shall rebuke thee. Know thou, and see that it is an evil and a bitter thing for thee, to have left the Lord thy God, and that my fear is not with thee, saith the Lord the God of hosts. Of old time thou hast broken my yoke, thou hast burst my bands, and thou saidst: I will not serve. For on every high hill, and under every green tree thou didst prostitute thyself.

CATHOLIC CULTURE: Getting it right: On religious differences and God’s will

PATHEOS: Made For God?

ELEISON COMMENTS: Is God Selfish?

Love, if not freely given, is amiss.
God wants us free to choose, or not, His Bliss.


A reader writes in with an objection to the goodness of God which he knows to be false, but which nevertheless perturbs him, and to which he has for a long time found no answer that satisfies him.

Here is the problem –

1. To command somebody, “Love me, or I will blow out your brains,” is both selfish, because it is self-centred; and ridiculous, because threats cannot produce true love.


2. But God says just that when He says to His human creatures, “If you do not love Me, you will go to Hell.”

3. Therefore (it is Satan that speaks) God is both selfish and ridiculous.


In order to answer this objection to the love of God, let us see firstly what is the truth about what God says to His human creatures when, by Himself creating their immortal souls and infusing them into the material bodies put together by their two human parents, He brings human beings into existence: “My dear child, by giving you life and free-will, I mean you so to make use of your life on earth that when you die you will have deserved to share My eternal bliss with Me in My Heaven. But I will not force you to come to My Heaven, because if I forced you I would make you into a robot, and robots cannot enjoy My Heaven. I will leave you entirely free not to come to My Heaven if you do not want to do so. Choosing Hell will be entirely your own decision.

Now it is true that powerful influences such as the world, the flesh and the Devil will do their best to make you prefer Hell to Heaven, and it is true that a majority of men to whom I give life, end up by preferring Hell to Heaven, but in every case that will have been their own free choice, and I will no more have forced them to choose Hell than I force anybody to choose Heaven. And note that the more evil have been the influences they will have resisted in order to prefer My Heaven, the more glorious and happy that Heaven will be for them. So the evil has a purpose, and while I do not want it, I do want to allow it, precisely so that I can make it serve the eternal bliss of those who refuse evil.

And if you object to Me that in the modern world the confusion and the evil are overwhelming and are too strong for many souls to resist, I reply to you that whenever the evil really does become too much, as in the time of Noah (who still resisted it), I can intervene, as I did with the Flood. In fact the Flood saved for eternity many souls that would otherwise have given way to the corruption, so it was a great act of My Mercy. In the 21st century, just wait for Me to give you a great Warning, announced notably by the four girls of Garabandal in Spain in the 1960’s. It will give a great help from all the confusion towards salvation through Jesus Christ, but only if souls themselves freely choose that they want to be saved.

Now let us apply these truths to the three propositions of the original objection above –

1. To say to anybody “Love me or I will kill you,” is selfish if he who says it says it primarily himself to be loved. But God in Himself is in utter and unchanging bliss. Only externally to Himself does He gain anything by souls sharing His bliss. That bliss He wants for them primarily for their sake, not for Himself. Nor is God ridiculous. Of course He wants no forced love. He leaves us entirely free to love Him, or not.


2. It is true that if we do not love God as we should, so that we die in a state of mortal sin, then we will have deserved Hell. But once in Hell, a large part of the torture will be to see with the utmost clarity just how easily I could have saved my soul, with all the help and graces that God gave me in my life on earth. But freely I chose not to want His help, and so what I am suffering now is entirely my own fault.

3. So God is not at all saying, “Love Me, or I will blow your brains out.” He is neither selfish nor ridiculous.

The Desert Fathers: sayings of the Early Christian Monks: Progress in Perfection

1. Somebody asked Antony, 'What shall I do in order to please God?' He replied, 'Do what I tell you, which is this: wherever you go, keep God in mind; whatever you do, follow the example of holy Scripture; wherever you are, stay there and do not move away in a hurry. If you keep to these guide-lines, you will be saved.'


September 16, 2022  

(Gal 1:8-9) But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach a gospel to you besides that which we have preached to you, let him be anathema. As we said before, so now I say again: If any one preach to you a gospel, besides that which you have received, let him be anathema.

HEADLINES ACROSS THE GLOBE

Turbulent scenes and votes for homosexuality, women’s ordination at German Synodal Way
Collapse: Inside Ireland’s stunning rebuke of Catholicism
Study: Christians Likely to Be US Minority in a Few Decades

ON MODERNISM

Pope Pius X vs. Modernism
Modernity as Apostasy from God

CATHOLIC STAND: The Truth About Modernism

For Catholics, the heresy of Modernism has tentacles that have insinuated themselves in the life and thinking of the Church for over 100 years.

Some things Modernists say:
If so, then you have some familiarity with modernism.

Modernism with a capital m was a kind of loose movement that began in the late 19th century and early 20th century mainly in Europe among Catholic theologians some of whom were priests. Some of the more famous modernist leaders were Fr. Alfred Loisy, Fr. George Tyrrell, SJ, Baron Friedrich von Hügel, and Maurice Blondel, to name a few.

All of the first generation modernists were professors and writers and their ideas began to gain traction in seminaries and the formation of priests. There was a kind of a trickle-down effect of modernism to out the world of religion textbooks, spiritual direction advice, and approaches to catechesis and evangelization.

See:
Modernism is an idea virus. And our minds were made to grasp and live by the truth, not be subject to infection by a virus.

Thoughts and Sayings of Saint Margaret Mary: Various Subjects

30. I have no pleasure in this miserable life except in what concerns the interests of the Sacred Heart of Jesus Who often fastens me, stripped of all, to the Cross.


September 14, 2022  

(Joh 16:33) These things I have spoken to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you shall have distress. But have confidence. I have overcome the world.

GOOD FRIDAY LITURGY: “Behold the wood of the Cross, on which hung the salvation of the world: come, let us worship!”

SAINT ROSE OF LIMA: “Apart from the cross there is no other ladder by which we may get to heaven.“

ALETEIA: The Exaltation of the Cross in art


ORTHODOX COMMENTARY
: Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross

The Feast of the Universal Exaltation of the Precious and Life-Giving Cross is a blessed day and celebration of the tremendous power of the Cross of our Lord and is celebrated each year on September 14. Through the Cross, the power and wisdom of God have been revealed. By the Cross, we are reconciled to Christ, and we can find true and enduring peace. It is the Cross that directs us to Christ and to the way of salvation and eternal life.


The Feast commemorates the finding of the True Cross of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ by Saint Helen, the mother of the Emperor Constantine.

In the twentieth year of his reign (326), Emperor Constantine sent his mother Saint Helen to Jerusalem to venerate the holy places and to find the site of the Holy Sepulchre and of the Cross. Relying upon the oral tradition of the faithful, Saint Helen found the precious Cross together with the crosses of the two thieves crucified with our Lord. However, Helen had no way of determining which was the Cross of Christ.

With the healing of a dying woman who touched one of the crosses, Patriarch Macarius of Jerusalem identified the True Cross of Christ. Saint Helen and her court venerated the Precious and Life-Giving Cross along with many others who came to see this great instrument of Redemption.

The Patriarch mounted the ambo (pulpit) and lifted the Cross with both hands so that all of the people gathered could see it. The crowd responded with "Lord have mercy".

This became the occasion of the institution in all of the Churches of the Exaltation of the Precious Cross, not only in memory of the event of the finding of the Cross but also to celebrate how an instrument of shame was used to overcome death and bring salvation and eternal life.

The Feast is an opportunity outside of the observances of Holy Week to celebrate the full significance of the victory of the Cross over the powers of the world, and the triumph of the wisdom of God through the Cross over the wisdom of this world. This Feast also gives the Church an opportunity to relish the full glory of the Cross as a source of light, hope, and victory for Christ's people. It is also a time to celebrate the universality of the work of redemption accomplished through the Cross: the entire universe is seen through the light of the Cross, the new Tree of Life which provides nourishment for those who have been redeemed in Christ.

Today as we venerate the Holy Cross of our Lord, and Orthodox Christians around the world raise the symbol of the sacred and precious wood, we proclaim the Cross to be an invincible shield, a divine scepter, and the boast of the faithful. We exalt it by affirming that the Cross sanctifies to the ends of the world. We hail the life-giving Cross as the “unconquerable trophy of godliness, door to Paradise, and succor of the faithful.” Through the Cross our enemies are vanquished, freedom from corruption and mortality is established, and salvation is offered universally.

As the Cross is lifted up, we marvel at how an instrument meant for torture and shame leads us to abundant and eternal life. We contemplate how an object that inflicted suffering and death reveals the glory and power of God. We offer praise and thanksgiving, for instead of hate and inhumanity, the Cross has become love and freedom. Instead of suffering, we find healing and hope. The Cross leads us from death and life, and through the Cross, we know that all things are possible to those who believe in Christ.

UNIVERSALIS: The cross is Christ's glory and triumph (From a discourse by Saint Andrew of Crete)

We are celebrating the feast of the cross which drove away darkness and brought in the light. As we keep this feast, we are lifted up with the crucified Christ, leaving behind us earth and sin so that we may gain the things above. So great and outstanding a possession is the cross that he who wins it has won a treasure. Rightly could I call this treasure the fairest of all fair things and the costliest, in fact as well as in name, for on it and through it and for its sake the riches of salvation that had been lost were restored to us.

Had there been no cross, Christ could not have been crucified. Had there been no cross, life itself could not have been nailed to the tree. And if life had not been nailed to it, there would be no streams of immortality pouring from Christ’s side, blood and water for the world’s cleansing. The legal bond of our sin would not be cancelled, we should not have attained our freedom, we should not have enjoyed the fruit of the tree of life and the gates of paradise would not stand open. Had there been no cross, death would not have been trodden underfoot, nor hell despoiled.

Therefore, the cross is something wonderfully great and honourable. It is great because through the cross the many noble acts of Christ found their consummation – very many indeed, for both his miracles and his sufferings were fully rewarded with victory. The cross is honourable because it is both the sign of God’s suffering and the trophy of his victory. It stands for his suffering because on it he freely suffered unto death. But it is also his trophy because it was the means by which the devil was wounded and death conquered; the barred gates of hell were smashed, and the cross became the one common salvation of the whole world.

The cross is called Christ’s glory; it is saluted as his triumph. We recognise it as the cup he longed to drink and the climax of the sufferings he endured for our sake. As to the cross being Christ’s glory, listen to his words: Now is the Son of Man glorified, and in him God is glorified, and God will glorify him at once. And again: Father, glorify me with the glory I had with you before the world came to be. And once more: “Father, glorify your name.” Then a voice came from heaven: “I have glorified it and will glorify it again.” Here he speaks of the glory that would accrue to him through the cross. And if you would understand that the cross is Christ’s triumph, hear what he himself also said: When I am lifted up, then I will draw all men to myself. Now you can see that the cross is Christ’s glory and triumph.

Thoughts and Sayings of Saint Margaret Mary: Various Subjects

29. I am attacked on all sides, yet I will not fear, for I keep myself strongly entrenched in my secure fortress-- the Sacred Heart of my divine Master. Like a wise leader He deals out to me just strength sufficient for each occasion.


September 12, 2022  

(Mat 7:21-23) Not every one that saith to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven: but he that doth the will of my Father who is in heaven, he shall enter into the kingdom of heaven. Many will say to me in that day: Lord, Lord, have not we prophesied in thy name, and cast out devils in thy name, and done many miracles in thy name? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, you that work iniquity.

CATHOLIC WORLD REPORT: The Commandments and the restoration of civilization

REVIEW: The Great Awakening vs the Great Reset

MARCO TOSATTI: Ratzinger, Tyconius, and Fatima: An Interpretive Key for the End Times

EXCERPT: The Great Reset by Ted Flynn

As we progress into the near future, at some point there will be no neutrality among people. Man is being winnowed. This is a battle for all the marbles and how we will move into future generations. You will either be in or out depending on your response to government dictates. Tough decisions will need to be made by families. Jesus said, “My kingdom is not of this world” (John 18:36). We are exiles living in a strange land. Our Lady has said to her followers, “Right when it appears Satan is the victor, his victory will be snatched away in a trice.” Trice means quickly or in an instant. Our Lady has also said about her followers, “You are apostles of the last times.” Navigating in these times for a believer can be difficult, so sticking to the fundamentals of the faith for peace of soul will become paramount to maintain the mental stability and equilibrium to function. Yes, there is great hope, and we need to stand on the promises and not wobble. Jesus was not “a reed shaken by the wind,” and neither should we be.

Heaven has a plan. One could easily be demoralized if they are just seeing the negative news and ignoring Heaven’s plan. Our Lady is exposing and dismantling these groups, and she names her target specifically. Heaven will defend their people and we have to trust what Our Lady is telling us. To usher in the Triumph of the Immaculate Heart, we will see the old pass away, and this is the process that we are watching now. It is painful to watch and endure, but people must be purified as dross is removed from gold so it becomes pure. It is uplifting and encouraging to know her plan. Our Lady has told us, “All has Been Reveled to You” and we have been given “the full and entire truth.” People following what Heaven has been telling us, and specifically what The Blessed Mother has said repeatedly should not be surprised by the events we see around us, even though they are so incredulous. Before we see the Triumph of the Immaculate Heart, our era must pass. This process to walk Calvary will be painful, but the Church must pass through it. We are then promised to see the New Era, the New Times, the New Jerusalem, and the Second Pentecost.

Nothing is more comforting than what has been prophesied at Garabandal, Spain. Promises await us for a reversion of millions of people to the ways of God. Our Lady came and gave over 2,000 messages to four young visionaries in the mountains of northern Spain from 1961-1965. These prophesied events will shake the world like nothing before in history. Many have expected the events before this time, but current events seem to be pointing that they may now be closer. Heaven is seldom early, but never late. Satan knows his time is short, thus we see the unrestrained torrent of evil. However, right when all appears lost, it will be The Woman Clothed with the Sun (Revelation 12:1-6) who crushes the head of the serpent. It will be the culmination and fruition of Genesis 3:15, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”

Nothing will be more of a bounteous display of grace than the Warning and the Great Miracle that has been prophesied to come with the genesis of events that originate from that small mountain village in Garabandal, Spain. It will change life as we know it. There will be no more than one year between the two events. It will be HEAVEN’S ULTIMATE ACT OF MERCY for a wayward people. It will be so spectacular it will change life as we know it.

The Blessed Mother has said what is coming will be the greatest miracle since the creation of the world. We don’t know exactly what that is, but we do have some clues. It will be so significant, we will measure time with the event much in the same way we measure time now Before Christ (BC) and After Christ (AD). The Warning will show every person on earth the state of their soul as God will see it a judgment. All will know they are in a Divine Presence of unexplainable love. It has several names: the warning, a judgment in miniature, a life review, a correction of conscience, and an illumination of conscience. Heaven will meet the evil in the world on Heaven’s terms because, “Where sin abounds, grace abounds all the more” (Romans 5:20).

A great day soon awaits us. We must embrace the future with faith and hope that Heaven knows our circumstances and hears our cries.“Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Spirit” (Romans 15:13). We must endure the fight until the end with vigilance, temperance, fortitude, hope and the faith like those before us. Scripture informs us, In the End We Win.

Thoughts and Sayings of Saint Margaret Mary: Various Subjects

22. We should always look to God as in ourselves, no matter in what manner we meditate upon Him, so as to accustom ourselves to dwell in His divine presence.  For when we behold Him within our souls, all our powers and faculties, and even our senses, are recollected within us.  If we look at God apart from ourselves we are easily distracted by exterior objects.


September 8, 2022  

(Isa 58:7-9) Deal thy bread to the hungry, and bring the needy and the harbourless into thy house: when thou shalt see one naked, cover him, and despise not thy own flesh. Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thy health shall speedily arise, and thy justice shall go before thy face, and the glory of the Lord shall gather thee up. Then shalt thou call, and the Lord shall hear: thou shalt cry, and he shall say, Here I am. If thou wilt take away the chain out of the midst of thee, and cease to stretch out the finger, and to speak that which profiteth not.

NCR: Ongoing Support: Catholic Charities Continue to Show Ukrainian Refugees the Face of Mercy

ACN: ACN steps up effort to help victims of worst floods in 30 years

ACIAFRICA: Catholic Charity Concerned Christians in Some African Countries Practice Faith Underground

ACN: The faith is the most precious treasure,’ drives ACN’s charitable mission

Tobias Lehner spoke with Father Martin Barta, ACN’s International Spiritual Assistant, about the focus areas of ACN’s work.

Q: Father Martin, why is it sometimes easier to raise support for relief campaigns in the social welfare sector—also within the spectrum of services offered by the church—than for pastoral care emergencies?

A: We often view human beings only as corporeal, cultural, social, or economic entities, but not as spiritual beings. There is a lack of awareness that men and women are created by God and for God. A holistic conception of humanity is missing.

Q: Can you give us concrete examples of how this approach is being taken in ACN’s project work? What does a project application have to include so that it will be approved by the organization?

A: A concern for human beings, both their physical and spiritual well-being, must be at the heart of a project. It is written in the Gospels that “Humankind shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.” (Matt 4:4). The spiritual and the divine, are the first riches of humankind. You can’t first solve the socio-economic problems and then begin approaching people about the spiritual. Human, economic, and social development must go together with the growth of faith and of the Kingdom of God.

Q: ACN generally requires project applications be submitted with a recommendation by the bishop responsible for the respective region. Why is this so important?

A: For us, the recommendation of a bishop is like a seal of approval that guarantees that the project will be developed and realized in the spirit of the Church. It is not just about what will be done, but also how it will be done. The people should feel that whatever they have received comes from a heart that wants to give something of itself to others. Not only because we want to promote them socially and humanely, but also because we are supporting them as brothers and sisters in faith in God´s love. A project should not only fulfil its earthly purpose, but also deepen the faith and broaden horizons to embrace the divine.

Q: ACN has very diverse focus areas. Among other things, the charity promotes the training and education of clergy and lay people, supports religious orders, provides pastoral counselling for families and aid for refugees, donates vehicles and is engaged in media communications work. Furthermore, ACN has made a strong commitment to building churches. There are often calls to invest more in “living stones” than in buildings. Why is the construction of churches and chapels so important to ACN?

A: It is important to invest in “living stones” because human beings are the first temple of the Holy Spirit. However, church buildings are not “dead stones.” One often forgets that God also built a dwelling place for Himself here on Earth. The symbol of a tent is even used in the Old Testament to represent the presence of God in this world. Therefore, a church is not chiefly an initiative of humans, but of God, who comes to us and lives among us. And that is why the church is first and foremost a house of God. It is a living house, with living stones, because the tabernacle is the beating heart of the Church. The church is the place where human beings encounter God. And that is what makes a church unique and different from all other buildings.

Q: Do the faithful in poorer countries understand this better than we who live in the affluent West?

A: One generally finds a more vibrant faith in poorer countries. The people go to church because they know that God is there. This is often evident in outward things, such as when the people do all they can to ensure that the church is beautifully decorated, and that Mass is a true celebration—and that despite their poverty. There is also a strong feeling of community. In this unity of faith, it is palpable that we belong to the Lord as one. The word “church” stems from the Greek word kyriakos, which means “belonging to the Lord.” We belong to the Lord: that is the meaning of church.

Q: What projects are prioritized at ACN?

A: Top priority is given to countries in which Christians are directly being persecuted or suffering discrimination, in which they are risking their lives to publicly live their faith. The most urgent need of these people is subsistence aid, which is the only thing that makes it possible for them to stay in their countries and bear witness to the Gospel. These are the countries where you will find the most beautiful witnesses of faith.

This reminds me of an incident that an Iraqi priest told me about. Following an attack by the Islamic State on villages on the Nineveh Plain that forced the Christians living there to make their escape in the dark of night and take refuge in a refugee camp, a young boy asked his grandmother, “We have lost everything. Why has God allowed this to happen?” The grandmother answered him, “My boy, what are you saying? We have lost everything, but we have been able to preserve the greatest thing imaginable: our faith in God.” Faith is the most precious treasure we have.

Thoughts and Sayings of Saint Margaret Mary: Various Subjects

21. Having once made an entire donation of ourselves, let us not retract it: our Lord will employ every means to sanctify us, in proportion as we make use of every opportunity to glorify Him.


September 6, 2022  

(Heb 10:23) Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering (for he is faithful that hath promised):

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BLOG EXCERPT: An Ex-Muslim on the Traditional Mass: “From the microcosm of the Mass, the entire world is reordered”

When Adam and Eve decided to take a bite from the forbidden fruit, they put themselves above God, causing the created order to become disordered. The sin of pride that was the result of this inordinateness became the center of the human struggle from then on. Without a proper view and understanding of who God is and who we and our neighbor are in relation to Him, chaos will remain not only in the society but in our own souls.

In the Old Covenant, over and over again the Lord gives instructions and he attempts to guide His rebellious people back to the order that would lead them to fulfillment. One of the most crucial aspects of proper realignment is the way that the Israelites worshipped God. The Lord gives detailed instructions about the Temple, the vestments and how the sacrifice that would atone for sin should be conducted. The details are exhaustive and one feels the temptation to skip to the more exciting parts of the Scripture. Because the New Covenant in Christ’s sacrifice is hidden in the Old Testament, we must pay heed to what the Lord communicated to His children through these instructions. As tedious and obsolete these details may seem to our modern sensibilities, liturgy, as an activity of worship, is designed by God to re-order the fallen world, thus aiding us in our sinfulness. My first encounter with Traditional Latin Mass reminded me of the proper order of creation where we all turn to the Creator of the Universe in unison.

To this day, I remember the solemnity with which we prepared to enter the mosque or the pray the salat, the five daily prayers of Islam. One needs to perform physical ablution that requires washing of hands, feet, face and arms while uttering specific prayers. As a girl, I had to cover my whole body with clothing except my face. Everyone took off their shoes as they entered the mosque, because the house of Allah was holy. One good point about Muslims is that they appreciate reverence. However, as a child, every reverent action of mine was accompanied by a crippling servile fear that was instilled in me, and in every Muslim, from an early age. Allah is the capricious, unpredictable deity who was not bound by the rules of consistency and goodness. Our reason is useless and our love is meaningless. All we owe Him is our absolute, unquestioning and undoubting obedience where a relationship of master and slave is paramount.

From such a view of God, I plunged into the cynical, sarcastic world of atheism. The sin of pride that had poisoned almost every human heart was alive and strong within mine. We mocked every religion and deity indiscriminately, but with a special attention to insulting Allah who was supposed to instill such fear in our hearts that we would tremble and do everything he commanded. Even our cynical hearts were aware that a creator without love was not worthy of obedience. It was no surprise that my head remained perfectly erect above my shoulders even after my conversion when my Protestant friends bowed their heads in prayer. My body refused to yield.

Protestant worship services were no help either. I am eternally grateful to the missionaries who shared the gospel with me, prayed for me and stayed faithful. yet, when we gathered together on Sunday mornings, worship did not seem any different from Bible study time or the time we sat around the fire to sing songs. While I appreciated the notion that one can always reach out to the Lord wherever one may be, the stark contrast to the worship that God desired in the Old Testament was noticeable. Try as I might, given my proud heart and cynical nature, these times of worship failed to rouse my emotion and reorient my stance towards the Word that created the cosmos.

My experience with Mass brought me closer to true worship, as I noted in my conversion story, From Islam to Christ:

The Mass was reverent and beautiful. One of the things I could not get used to in the Evangelical churches I attended was the style of worship. Neither in non-denominational nor charismatic congregations did I feel as though we were standing in the presence of God or kneeling in adoration before Him. I felt rather as though we were hanging out with our pal Jesus. If we actually believed that we were the sons and daughters of the Almighty God, who created the endless cosmos and the tiniest cell in our bodies, I thought we should fall on our knees often or at least once a week on Sundays. I loved that during the Eucharistic prayer, every man and woman knelt down in silent reverence. It was clear that there was something significant and awe-inspiring taking place. This was a Lord I would not hesitate to follow, because he had humbled himself to be my friend, even though He had created the heavens and the earth.

When I attended my first traditional Latin Mass years later in an old English church with dark walnut pews, that reverence I had experienced during my very first Mass reached a new height where the reason for those tedious [Old Testament] details about worship became clear. This was a God before whom I could kneel; a God who held our existence in his hands, yet chose to humble Himself to become one of us and suffer humiliation and death in love to save us from our own sinfulness.

As the priest and the faithful faced the Lord together, Mass was no longer oriented towards the priest, but to God. It did not matter who the priest was as long as he said the black and did the red. His personality was inconsequential. The prescribed rubrics and prayers made sure that the priest would not be the center of the worship, but stood in persona Christi with and for the people as the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass was offered, surpassing the limits of time and space.

Yes, the priest was not the focus, but neither was the laity. With whispered prayers, the faithful stood, knelt and uttered their own prayers. The silence and solemnity directed our attention to the cross away from ourselves and each other, uniting us in a unique way as we all directed our gaze towards heaven. Of course, these impressions were all before I studied liturgy and the meaning of the rubrics and prayers. Even for a newcomer, the traditional Mass presented a kind of worship that reoriented our bodies, minds and souls to the perfect order where the Lord received the worship He was due as the loving Father. Finally, not only could I bow my head, but I could also kneel in worship and unite my prayers with the entire church. The limelight did not fall on the priest, the server or on the congregation, but to where it belonged: the crucified Word of God who loved the world unto death.

ST. JOHN KRONSTADT: ....as God is ever-flowing, infinite goodness, he seeks to impart His goodness to His creatures, if only they turn to Him with faith, & love, like children to their father, recognising their sinfulness, poverty & blindness without Him.

Thoughts and Sayings of Saint Margaret Mary: Various Subjects

18. I cannot but admire the goodness and liberality of the Sacred Heart towards you. Our Lord seems to take pleasure in unfolding all Its treasures for your benefit.


September 1, 2022  

(2Th 2:13-15) But we ought to give thanks to God always for you, brethren, beloved of God, for that God hath chosen you firstfruits unto salvation, in sanctification of the spirit and faith of the truth: Whereunto also he hath called you by our gospel, unto the purchasing of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, brethren, stand fast: and hold the traditions, which you have learned, whether by word or by our epistle.

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FR. JOSEPH ESPER: Never Give Up!

LIFESITENEWS.COM: Cdl. Burke: Faithful Catholics must remain in the Church, hold bishops accountable to Apostolic Tradition

In an interview with German Catholic news outlet Die Tagespost, Cardinal Raymond Leo Burke encouraged faithful Catholics to remain in the Church in fidelity to Christ, and to work from within the Church for a much-needed ecclesiastical reform, even should it require openly correcting bishops when they betray the faith.

“Catholics must bear witness to the truth of the faith,” Burke said. Addressing the distress of orthodox Catholics at the agenda of pro-synodal bishops, such as those of Germany and Ireland, who are aggressively pushing for “another church and another faith,” Burke tried to bolster the laity in their witness to Christ, saying, “In the tradition of the Church, a synod is a way to find out how to defend and promote the Catholic faith, not to create another Church and another faith. I think these good Catholics, as painful as it is, must remain in their communities and fight for the truth of the faith.”

“If everyone leaves,” he continued, “the Church would otherwise fall into the hands of those who destroy the Catholic faith and its practice. It is important that the faithful do not leave the Church, because Christ promised us to always remain with us in the Church. We thus remain with Christ, even if we have to speak very openly with our own bishops when they propose something that does not correspond to the Catholic faith. We must return to the sacred tradition.”

Emphasizing the need to be faithful to the Church’s Apostolic Tradition, the cardinal declared, “To call fidelity to Catholic doctrine rigidity is simply wrong.” Burke reminded the lay faithful that they have the right and duty to express their concerns about the Church to their pastors. He also recalled to bishops their duty to uphold the faith, which they undertook by oath at their episcopal consecration.

“The dynamism of the Catholic faith comes from its continuity,” Burke said. “Faith is God’s work and comes to us through the tradition of the apostles. This is not rigidity, but fidelity to tradition, and bishops are obliged to do so by the oath they took when they were ordained bishops. To call fidelity to Catholic doctrine rigidity is simply wrong. The faithful have the right and the duty to express their concerns about the Church. Believers should openly exercise this right – it is in canon law.

The cardinal doubled down on the need for good Catholics to correct their bishops when they have spoken or acted against the faith, saying, “In cases where the faith is betrayed even within the Church itself, it is even more important for her to insist on Catholic doctrine and practice. They must understand that they are not free to do so, but that they are obliged to defend the Catholic faith in these times. Obedience can never command us to do anything that is against faith and good morals.”

Asked what practical means the faithful might use in defense of the faith, the prelate pointed to the effectiveness of the means of communication as well as the publication of the great Catholic classics: the writings of the saints, Fathers, and Doctors of the Church.

“First of all,” Burke said, the faithful need “to use the means of communication to spread the message and, for example, to publish the classical expositions of the Catholic faith – from the Fathers of the Church, the great theologians and the reliable authors of the present. Insist on talking to the pastor about these issues.” Cardinal Burke remains a strong voice for faithful Catholics, who appreciate his outspoken defense of the Church’s authentic doctrine and practice.

Thoughts and Sayings of Saint Margaret Mary: Various Subjects

17. In all your needs, trustfully have recourse to the divine Heart, and I am confident that our Lord will provide for your wants; but above all be very grateful for the many benefits He has bestowed on you.
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