Monday, February 26, 2018

The True Treasures


It is most useful for our salvation to say often to ourselves: I must one day die! The Church every year on Ash Wednesday brings this remembrance to the faithful. This certainty of death is brought to our recollection many times in the year; sometimes by the burial grounds which we pass upon the road, sometimes by the graves which we behold in churches, sometimes by the dead who are carried to burial.

The most precious furniture that was carried by the anchorites to their caves was a cross and a skull; the cross to remind them of the great love of Jesus Christ for us, and the skull to remind them of the day of their own death. And so they persevered in penitential works till the end of their days; and thus dying in poverty in the desert, they died more contented than if they had died as kings in their palaces.

"The end is at hand! The end is at hand! In this life one man lives a longer, another a shorter time; but for everyone sooner or later, the end comes; and when that end comes, nothing will comfort us at death but the thought that we have loved Jesus Christ, and have endured with patience the labors of this life for love of Him.

Then, not the riches we have gained, nor the honors we have obtained, nor the pleasures we have enjoyed, will console us. All the greatness of the world cannot comfort a dying man; it rather adds to his pains; and the more he has gained of it, the more does he suffer.

It was said by Sister Margaret of St. Anne, a very holy Discalced Carmelite, and daughter of the Emperor Rudolph II: "What profit is a kingdom at the hour of death?". Oh, how many worldly persons are there to whom, at the very moment when they are busy in seeking for gain, power, and office, the message of death comes: "Set thy house in order; for thou shalt die, and not live." (Isaias 37:1). Why, O man, hast thou neglected to make thy will till the hour when thou art in sickness? O my God, what pain is suffered by him who is on the point of gaining some lawsuit, or of taking possession of some palace or property, who hears it said by the priest who has come to pray for his soul: Depart, Christian soul, from this world. Depart from this world, and render thy account to Jesus Christ. "But," he cries, "I am not now well prepared." What matters that? Thou must now depart.

O my God, give me light, give me strength to spend the rest of my life in serving and loving Thee. If now I should die, I should not die content; I should die disturbed. What, then, do I wait for? That death should seize me at a moment of the greatest peril to my soul? O Lord, if I have been foolish in the past, I will not be so for the time to come. Now I give myself wholly to Thee; receive me and help me with Thy grace.

In a word, to every one the end comes, and with the end comes that decisive moment on which depends a happy or wretched eternity. Oh, what a moment, on which Eternity depends! Oh, that all would think upon that moment, and the account they must give to their Judge of their whole life! Truly, they would not then devote themselves to amassing riches, nor labor to become great in this perishable world; they would think how to become Saints, and to be great in that life which never ends. If, then, we have Faith, let us believe that there is a Death, a Judgment, an Eternity, and labour for the rest of our life to live only for God. And, therefore, let us take care to live as pilgrims on this earth, remembering that we must speedily leave it. Let us live ever with death before our eyes; and, in all the affairs of life, let us take care to act precisely as we should act at the point of death.

All things upon earth either leave us or we leave them. Let us hear Jesus Christ, Who says: "Lay up for yourselves treasures in Heaven, where neither the rust nor moth doth consume." (Matthew 6:20). Let us despise the treasures of earth, which cannot content us, and speedily end; and let us gain those heavenly treasures which will make us happy and will never end.

Miserable I am, O Lord, in that I have so often, for the sake of the goods of this life, turned my back upon Thee Who art the Infinite Good! I see my folly in having sought for a great name, and for making my fortune in the world. I see what my true happiness is: it is henceforth to love Thee, and in everything to fulfill Thy Will. O my Jesus, take from me the desire of gain; make me love neglect and a humble life. Give me strength to deny myself in everything that displeases Thee. Make me embrace, with a calm mind, infirmities, persecutions, desolations, and all the crosses that Thou mayst send me. Oh, that I could die for the love of Thee, abandoned by all, as Thou didst die for me!

Holy Virgin, Thy prayers can enable me to find my true happiness, which is earnestly to love Thy Son. Oh, pray for me; in Thee I put my trust.

SAINT ALPHONSUS MARIA DE LIGUORI

Thursday, February 22, 2018

The Naked Truth About Modesty

A TOPIC THAT MANY PRIESTS AVOID TODAY


This is an excellent video, although it is important to clarify that the example that the man gives on Adam and Eve is incorrect, because the sin of our first parents was wanting to be like God and not a sin of fornication as he (and many others) wrongly believe.


Monday, February 19, 2018

"Is Fasting Good for Us?" Saint Thomas Answers this Question:


We fast mainly for three reasons:

1) To suppress the lusts of the flesh. Reason why the Apostle says: "In fasting, in chastity" (II Cor 6:5), because fasts preserve chastity. As St. Jerome says: "Without Ceres and Bacchus Venus would freeze, as much as to say that lust loses its heat through spareness of food and drink.
2) We fast so that the spirit rises with more freedom to the contemplation of sublime things. That is why it is written in Daniel that after a three-week fast, he received the revelation from God (10, 2 and later).

3) To make satisfaction for sin. This is the reason given by the prophet Joel: “Be converted to me with all your heart, in fasting and in weeping and in mourning” (Joel ii. 12). And here is what St. Augustine writes on the matter. "Fasting purifies the soul. It lifts up the mind, and it brings the body into subjection to the spirit. It makes the heart contrite and humble, scatters the clouds of desire, puts out the flames of lust and the true light of chastity."

II There is commandment laid on us to fast. For fasting helps to destroy sin, and to raise the mind to thoughts of the spiritual world. Each man is then bound, by the natural law of the matter, to fast just as much as is necessary to help him in these matters. Which is to say that fasting in general is a matter of natural law. To determine, however, when we shall fast and how, according to what suits and is of use to the Catholic body, is a matter of positive law. To state the positive law is the business of the bishops, and what is thus stated by them is called ecclesiastical fasting, in contradistinction with the natural fasting previously mentioned.

III. The times fixed for fasting by the Church are well chosen. Fasting has two objects in view:
the destruction of sin, and the lifting of the mind to higher things. The times self-indicated for fasting are then those in which men are especially bound to free themselves from sin and to raise their minds to God in devotion.

Such a time especially is that which precedes that solemnity of Easter in which baptism is administered and sin thereby destroyed, and when the burial of Our Lord is recalled, for we are buried together with Christ by baptism into death (Rom. vi. 4). Then, too, at Easter most of all, men's minds should be lifted, through devotion to the glory of that eternity which Christ in His resurrection inaugurated. Wherefore the Church has decreed that immediately before the solemnity of Easter we must fast, and, for a similar reason, that we must fast on the eves of the principal feasts, setting apart those days as opportune to prepare ourselves for the devout celebration of the feasts themselves.

Saint Thomas Aquinas, Meditations, 2nd 2ae, q. CXLVII, a. 1, 3 and 5

Thursday, February 15, 2018

Faith is not a Buffet where You Can Choose Which Truths to Believe. Whosoever has True Faith Accepts Everything that God Revealed which is Guarded by His Church

  • The buffet "Catholics", are neither Catholics nor have faith, but mere personal opinions.
  • Faith must be integral or it is not faith.
  • Whoever has faith believes all that God revealed, not just the dogmas that he likes or agrees with.
  • There is no foundation more true and rational than the Truth that God left us, because God never lies since He is the Truth itself.
  • He who consciously and pertinaciously denies one or more dogmas of the Catholic faith is a formal heretic.
  • Such person would be in error and would not be a formal heretic if he does not deny it with pertinacity.
  • The formal heretic who denies a single truth of faith, does not believe in the others with true faith but as a simple personal opinion. Therefore, the heretic does not have faith.



Tuesday, February 13, 2018

Prayer reminder for the thirteenth day of each month


We remind you that today, as every 13th day of each month, we will join together in prayer for five minutes, for the intentions that are explained in the following link: http://www.catholicityblog.com/2016/01/appeal-to-our-friendsreaders.html

Monday, February 12, 2018

The Faith of the Church on the Holy Eucharist


Canons on the Most Holy Sacrament of the Eucharist
Session XIV of the Dogmatic Council of Trent
of November 25, 1551 (Denz. 883 to 893):

CANON 1.-If any one denieth, that, in the sacrament of the most holy Eucharist, are contained truly, really, and substantially, the body and blood together with the soul and divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ, and consequently the whole Christ; but saith that He is only therein as in a sign, or in figure, or virtue; let him be anathema.

CANON 2.-If any one saith, that, in the sacred and holy sacrament of the Eucharist, the substance of the bread and wine remains conjointly with the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, and denieth that wonderful and singular conversion of the whole substance of the bread into the Body, and of the whole substance of the wine into the Blood-the species Only of the bread and wine remaining-which conversion indeed the Catholic Church most aptly calls Transubstantiation; let him be anathema.

CANON 3.-If any one denieth, that, in the venerable sacrament of the Eucharist, the whole Christ is contained under each species, and under every part of each species, when separated; let him be anathema.

CANON 4.-If any one saith, that, after the consecration is completed, the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ are not in the admirable sacrament of the Eucharist, but (are there) only during the use, whilst it is being taken, and not either before or after; and that, in the hosts, or consecrated particles, which are reserved or which remain after communion, the true Body of the Lord remaineth not; let him be anathema.

CANON 6.-If any one saith, that, in the holy sacrament of the Eucharist, Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, is not to be adored with the worship, even external of latria; and is, consequently, neither to be venerated with a special festive solemnity, nor to be solemnly borne about in processions, according to the laudable and universal rite and custom of holy church; or, is not to be proposed publicly to the people to be adored, and that the adorers thereof are idolators; let him be anathema.

CANON 7.-If any one saith, that it is not lawful for the sacred Eucharist to be reserved in the sacrarium, but that, immediately after consecration, it must necessarily be distributed amongst those present; or, that it is not lawful that it be carried with honour to the sick; let him be anathema.

CANON 8.-lf any one saith, that Christ, given in the Eucharist, is eaten spiritually only, and not also sacramentally and really; let him be anathema.

CANON 9.-If any one denieth, that all and each of Christ's faithful of both sexes are bound, when they have attained to years of discretion, to communicate every year, at least at Easter, in accordance with the precept of holy Mother Church; let him be anathema.

CANON 10.-If any one saith, that it is not lawful for the celebrating priest to communicate himself; let him be anathema.

CANON 11.-lf any one saith, that faith alone is a sufficient preparation for receiving the sacrament of the most holy Eucharist; let him be anathema. And for fear lest so great a sacrament may be received unworthily, and so unto death and condemnation, this holy Synod ordains and declares, that sacramental confession, when a confessor may be had, is of necessity* to be made beforehand, by those whose conscience is burthened with mortal sin, how contrite even soever they may think themselves. But if any one shall presume to teach, preach, or obstinately to assert, or even in public disputation to defend the contrary, he shall be thereupon excommunicated.

*NOTE OF THE EDITORIAL: In cases of real emergency, when there is no possibility to go to Confession individually for lack of time, such as when an army goes to war or a ship sinks, with a previous Act of Contrition and purpose of amendment, the priest proceed to a collective absolution with the condition that the faithful go to Confession individually afterwards, if they’re still alive. Unfortunately today's Modernism proceeds to apply it in common situations unduly. For example: It is not a basis for doing so the high number of faithful who attend Mass, as some Modernists abusively and sacrilegiously claim.

Monday, February 5, 2018

Mortification


How to preserve sanctifying grace? Avoiding mortal sin. The main means to avoid it are:
1.- Thinking about the last moments (death, judgment, hell and heaven).
2.- Flee from sin.
3.- Mortification.
4.- Fight against idleness.
5.- Prayer.
6.- Frequent the sacraments.
7.- Devotion to Mary.
8.- Fight against temptations.

Mortification

We must mortify the senses of the body and the powers of the soul.
a) Mortify your eyes. "The other senses are the windows of the soul," says St. Augustine, "but the eyes are its doors." You are not forbidden to see but you are forbidden to look. Young people, you must look at all the maidens as you look at your sister, and all the women as you look at your mother.
b) Mortify the taste, trying not to eat or drink excessively. St. Jerome states: "I will never believe that a drunkard is a chaste man."
c) Mortify touch, because your body is a sacred vessel that can only be touched with respect.
d) Mortify your mind, taking care of all your thoughts, fantasies and memories that can open the door to the enemy, rejecting them in the act.
e) Mortify your heart, in its affections too sensitive, even if they are supernatural, because they begin with the spirit and come to rest in the flesh (Gal 3.3).

Saturday, February 3, 2018

Castellani Dixit:


"The more religious a man is, the less he desires to show off his religiosity, to pray with shouts or to blow trumpets -and to invite journalists- when he gives alms." The great modesty to show the good that lies within us comes from the fear of the handling that ruins everything. When a man has extraordinary gifts he has a great desire to look like an ordinary man, at least religiously. "

Leonardo Castellani (1899 - 1981)