OUR LADY OF GUADALUPE, SAVE OUR COUNTRY

 

A VERY IMPORTANT NOMINATION

 The president of the United States, Donald Trump, announced this Saturday his nominee to fill the vacancy left in the United States Supreme Court by the death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg. 

At an event held in the White House Rose Garden, Trump introduced Judge Amy Coney Barrett, who, if confirmed by the Senate, will become the third member of the Court chosen by the president, after the appointments of Neil Gorsuch in 2017 and Brett Kavanaugh in 2018. 

“Today I am honored to nominate one of our nation's brightest and most talented legal minds to the Supreme Court. She is a woman of unrivaled achievement, an imposing intellect, excellent credentials and an unwavering loyalty to the Constitution.” 

Before a group of guests including Barrett's family, Trump praised her nominee as a "stellar academic and judge."

 Source: BBC

INCLINE MY HEART TO YOUR DECREES, by Saint Robert Bellarmine

 

Sweet Lord, you are meek and merciful. Who would not give himself wholeheartedly to your service, if he began to taste even a little of your fatherly rule? What command, Lord, do you give your servants? Take my yoke upon you, you say. And what is this yoke of yours like? My yoke, you say, is easy and my burden light. Who would not be glad to bear a yoke that does not press hard but caresses? Who would not be glad for a burden that does not weigh heavy but refreshes? And so you were right to add: And you will find rest for your souls. And what is this yoke of yours that does not weary, but gives rest? It is, of course, that first and greatest commandment: You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart. What is easier, sweeter, more pleasant, than to love goodness, beauty and love, the fullness of which you are, O Lord, my God? 

Is it not true that you promise those who keep your commandments a reward more desirable than great wealth and sweeter than honey? You promise a most abundant reward, for as your apostle James says: The Lord has prepared a crown of life for those who love him. What is this crown of life? It is surely a greater good than we can conceive of or desire, as Saint Paul says, quoting Isaiah: Eye has not seen, ear has not heard, nor has it so much as dawned on man what God has prepared for those who love him. 

Truly then the recompense is great for those who keep your commandments. That first and greatest commandment helps the man who obeys, not the God who commands. In addition, the other commandments of God perfect the man who obeys them. They provide him with what he needs. They instruct and enlighten him and make him good and blessed. If you are wise, then, know that you have been created for the glory of God and your own eternal salvation. This is your goal; this is the center of your life; this is the treasure of your heart. If you reach this goal, you will find happiness. If you fail to reach it, you will find misery. 

May you consider truly good whatever leads to your goal and truly evil whatever makes you fall away from it. Prosperity and adversity, wealth and poverty, health and sickness, honors and humiliations, life and death, in the mind of the wise man, are not to be sought for their own sake, nor avoided for their own sake. But if they contribute to the glory of God and your eternal happiness, then they are good and should be sought. If they detract from this, they are evil and must be avoided. 

From a treatise On the Ascent of the Mind to God by Saint Robert Bellarmine, Grade 1: Opera Omnia 6

PRAYER 

O God, who adorned the Bishop Saint Robert Bellarmine with wonderful learning and virtue to vindicate the faith of your Church, grant, through his intercession, the grace to live with the joy of fully professing the true faith. Through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. 

52 YEARS AGO, PADRE PIO DIED

 

 Padre Pio was born into a simple, humble and religious family of farmers, on May 25, 1887, in a small village in southern Italy called Pietrelcina. 

At the age of 15 he entered the Novitiate of the Capuchin Friars Minor, in the town of Morcone. He was ordained a priest on August 10, 1910, in the Cathedral of Benevento. Eight years later, on September 20, 1918, Our Lord's wounds visibly appeared on his hands, feet, and left side of his chest, making Padre Pio the first stigmatized priest in the history of the Church. 

He was heroic in his priestly apostolate, which lasted 58 years. Large crowds, of all nationalities, passed through his confessional. The conversions were innumerable. 

Through his letters to his confessor, unsuspected and tremendous spiritual and physical sufferings are discovered, followed by ineffable happiness, the fruit of his intimate and continuous union with God and of his ardent love for the Eucharist and for the Blessed Virgin.  

The Lord called him on September 23, 1968. Padre Pio was buried in the crypt of the Shrine of Our Lady of Graces, in San Giovanni Rotondo, a place where an ever-increasing number of pilgrims from all over the world wish to go every year. 

Padre Pio, pray for us. 

WITHOUT CONFESSION, FROM ABYSS TO ABYSS

 

"When a Catholic stops going to Confession and is abandoned to himself, he walks from abyss to abyss and as a weak plant without protection, exposed to the force of the winds, falls into the most terrible excesses." 

 Saint John Bosco 

OFFERING

Oh my Lady, oh my Mother, I offer myself entirely to you. As proof of my filial affection, I consecrate you on this day, my eyes, my ears, my tongue, my heart: in one word, my entire being. Since I am all yours, oh Good Mother, keep me and defend me as your child, and your possession. 

Amen. 

WHY SHOULD HOLY COMMUNION NEVER BE RECEIVED ON THE HAND

Conference of Bishop Athanasius Schneider, Auxiliary Bishop of Astana, Kazakhstan, and Titular Bishop of Celerina 

Bishop Schneider is a specialist in Patristics and the early church, no one better than him to explain this subject perfectly well and indicate the correct and true interpretation of the Church. This conference refutes many false opinions and misrepresentations not only of simple lay people, but also - sadly - of many modernist priests and even bishops. Let us pay attention to a true expert on this subject of VITAL IMPORTANCE AND THE MOST IMPORTANT OF ALL: THE BODY OF CHRIST HIMSELF IN THE CONSECRATED HOST. Let's not be fooled. Under any circumstances should the laity receive Holy Communion on their hands that are not consecrated and from which the consecrated particles that will remain will fall to the ground. The pretext of the pandemic is not only insufficient but, in addition, it is ridiculous because there is true contamination when taking the Eucharist with a hand that has greeted other people, touched the pews, taken money to give alms, etc., than to receive it in the mouth from the clean hands of a priest, as eminent doctors have explained. The indult granted by Paul VI for those places where the instruction that the Eucharist should be received on the mouth was disobeyed, was a concession so that they did not depart from the Church and was allowed only under certain conditions that avoided the danger of desecration and the weakening in the Eucharistic faith. Conditions that in practice were not viable, as it has been seen in the course of these decades in which carelessness with particles and the theft of Hosts is scandalous, and it also has weakened the faith of many people, to the extent that many receive Communion sacrilegiously in mortal sin without prior confession, a clear sign of lack of faith. The fact of legitimizing disobedience and turning it into a source of law has demonstrated its absolute ineffectiveness and, furthermore, it has paved the way for that terrible and irreverent custom to spread to places where this disobedience was not common when the indult was granted. If the conditions established in it were not viable, the indult cannot be applied, and if it was only for those places where the laws of Church were not obeyed, the spread of this terrible custom - which leads to desecration - makes no sense whatsoever under any pretext. Finally, Bishop Schneider's conference shows that it is false that the current custom of receiving Communion in the hand is the same as that used by the Church during the first centuries and explains the difference between the two forms.

CONFERENCE

“… The manner in which the faithful receive Holy Communion shows if Holy Communion is for them not only the most sacred reality, but the most beloved and the most sacred Person. The reception of the Body of Christ in the little host requires therefore deep faith and purity of heart, and in the same time unequivocal gestures of adoration. This was the constant characteristic of Catholics from all ages, beginning with the first Christians, the Christians in the time of the Church Fathers until the times of our grandparents and parents. Even in the first centuries when in many places the sacred host was deposited by the priest on the palm of the right hand or on a white cloth which covered the right hand of the women, the faithful didn’t touch the consecrated bread with their fingers (with their tongue they took the host from the palm of their hand -or from the white cloth- and also with their tongue they picked up the loose fragments of the consecrated bread that could have been left there so that none of the particles could be lost). (1) The Holy Ghost guided the Church instructing her more deeply about the manner to treat the sacred humanity of Christ during Holy Communion. Already in the 6th century the Roman Church distributed the sacred host directly in the mouth, as it is witnessed by Pope Gregory, the Great (cf. Dial., 3). The next step we observe in the Middle Ages, when the faithful began to receive the Body of Christ kneeling, in an exteriorly clearer expression of adoration (cf. St. Columban, Regula coenobialis, 9). In our times, and there has passed already 40 years, there is a deep wound in the Mystical Body of Christ. This deep wound is the modern practice of Communion in hand, a practice which essentially differs from an analogous rite in the first centuries, as above described. This modern practice is the deepest wound in the Mystical Body of Christ because of the following four deplorable manifestations: (1) An astonishing minimalism in gestures of adoration and reverence. Generally, there is in the modern practice of Communion in hand almost an absence of every sign of adoration. (2) A gesture as one treats common food, that is: to pick up with one’s own fingers the Sacred Host from the palm of the left hand and put It by oneself in the mouth. A habitual practice of such a gesture causes in a not little number of the faithful, and especially of children and adolescents, the perception that under the Sacred Host there isn’t present the Divine Person of Christ, but rather a religious symbol, for they can treat the Sacred Host exteriorly in a way as they treat common food: touching with his own fingers and putting the food with the fingers in one’s own mouth. (3) A numerous loss of the fragments of the Sacred Host: the little fragments often fall down in the space between the minister and the communicant because of no use of Communion plate, often the fragments of the Sacred Host stick to the palm and to the both fingers of the person who receives Communion and then fall down. All these numerous fragments are often lying on the floor and crushed under the feet of the people, without them noticing the fragments. (2) (4) An increasing stealing of the Sacred Hosts, because the manner to receive It directly with one’s own hand effectively greatly facilitates such theft. There is nothing in the Church and in this earth, which is so sacred, so Divine, so alive and so personal as the Holy Communion, because It is the Eucharistic Lord Himself. And such four deplorable things do happen to Him. The modern practice of Communion in hand never existed in such an exterior form. It is incomprehensible that many persons in the Church don’t acknowledge this wound, consider this matter as secondary, and even wonder why one speaks about this theme. And what is even more incomprehensible: many persons in the Church even defend and spread this practice of Communion. It was the constant belief and practice of the Church that Christ, really present under the species of the bread, must receive an exclusively Divine adoration, which is realized interiorly as well as exteriorly (3). Such an act of adoration was called in the Holy Scripture “proskynesis”. Our Lord Jesus Christ rejected the temptations of the devil and proclaimed the first duty of all creatures: “Thou shalt adore God alone” (Math. 4, 10). Jesus used here the word “proskynesis”. In the Bible the act of adoration of God was performed exteriorly in the following manner: kneeling and bowing the head to the earth or prostration. Such an act of adoration was performed by Jesus Himself, His holy Mother the Blessed Virgin Mary and Saint Joseph when they annually visited the Temple in Jerusalem. In this manner of “proskynesis” the Body of Christ, the Incarnate God, was venerated: firstly, by the Three Wise Men (Math. 2, 11); the numerous people, who were healed be Jesus, also performed this exterior act of adoration (cf. Math. 8, 2; 9, 18; 15, 25); the women who saw the risen Lord in the Easter morning fell down in the presence of His glorious Body and adored him (Math. 28, 9); the Apostles as they saw the Body of Christ ascending into Heaven fell down and adored Him (Math. 28, 17; Luc. 24. 52); the Angels and all the redeemed and glorified Saints in the Heavenly Jerusalem prostrate themselves and adore the glorified humanity of Christ, symbolized in the “Lamb” (Apoc. 4, 10) (4).

This gesture symbolizes that it is Christ in the person of the priest who is nourishing the faithful. Furthermore, this gesture symbolizes the attitude of humility and the spirit of spiritual infancy, which Jesus Himself requires from all who want to receive the kingdom of God (Math. 18, 3). During the Holy Communion, the sacred host is the real heavenly kingdom, because there is Christ Himself, in whose Body all the Divinity dwells (cf. Col. 2, 9). Therefore, the most appropriate exterior gesture is to receive the kingdom of God like a child, is to make oneself little, to kneel and to allow to be fed like a little child, opening the mouth. Consequently, the rite of receiving the Divine Body of Christ during Holy Communion kneeling and on the tongue was elaborated during several centuries in the Church by the guidance of the Holy Ghost, the Spirit of sanctity and piety. The abolishing of explicit gestures of adoration during Holy Communion, that is the abolishing of kneeling and the abolishing of the biblically motivated gesture of receiving the Body of Christ like a child in the tongue, will surely not bring a deeper flourishing of the Eucharistic faith and devotion. The following words of the Ecumenical Council of Trent remain always valid and continue to be very up to date: “There is, therefore, no room for doubt that all the faithful of Christ may, in accordance with a custom always received in the Catholic Church, give to this most Holy Sacrament in veneration the worship of latria, which is due to God Himself. Neither is it to be less adored because it was instituted by Christ the Lord in order to be received. For we believe that in it the same God is present of whom the eternal Father, when introducing Him into the world, says: And let all the angels of God adore him (Hebr. 1, 6) (session 13, chapter 5).”

Theological and liturgical reasons for receiving Holy Communion on the knees and in the mouth

1

The sacred host is the most sacred and great on this earth, because here it is about the Lord Himself. Consequently there should be provided also exteriorly a manner to receive Holy Communion in such a way that will guarantee a greatest possible security against the loss even of the most little fragments of the sacred host and against the stealing of the hosts. Furthermore, the rite of Communion should express possibly in a most evident manner the sacred and sublime aspect, that means should clearer be distinguished from the gesture of taking a profane food. These exigencies express undeniably the rite to receive Communion kneeling and to allow to be “fed” by the priest, that means to allow that the sacred host be put on the tongue. On the contrary, the modern manner to receive the sacred host on the palm of the hand and after to put the host by oneself in the mouth is more likely similar to the manner to take profane food (this essentially differs from an analogous rite in the Ancient Church). Such scenes one can observe often in receptions “buffet” or in the distribution of sweets in kindergartens.

2

The interior aspect alone is not sufficient in the Divine worship, for God became man, became visible. An exclusively or predominantly interior worship of the sacred host during Communion with the exclusion of the exterior aspect is not incarnational. Such a Eucharistic worship is “platonic”, is protestant and ultimately gnostic. Man is essentially also visible and corporal. Consequently, the worship of the Eucharistic Body of Christ should be necessarily also exterior and corporal. Such worship is adequate to the dignity of man, even if the most important of such worship remains the interior aspect. Both aspects are inseparable one from the other.

3 The whole human body and each of his part is a temple of the Holy Ghost. Therefore, it is wrong to contrast the hand with the tongue. One should not say: “The hand is more worthy than the tongue” or the contrary. 4

Who sins is not the tongue or the hand, but the person. The sin begins in the thoughts and is imputed to the will. Therefore, it is wrong to say: “One dies sin more with the tongue than with the hand”. The tongue remains innocent, because the person is who sins with his faculties of the intellect and of the will.

5 The symbolism of the mouth expresses in a more convincing manner the spiritual and religious content: the kiss as an image of the interior and spiritualized act of love (cf. the Book of Song of Songs; Ps 84:11: “Righteousness and peace kiss each other”), but above all the liturgical kiss or the “holy fraternal kiss” (cf. 1 Cor 16:20 etc.). The word “adoration” is derived from the Latin words “os ad os” (from mouth to mouth). The word proceeds from the mouth: this is an image for the procession of the ETERNAL WORD from GOD. Jesus breathed from His mouth the Holy Ghost (cf. Jn 20:27). 6 The words “take and eat” (in Greek “labete” [λάβετε]), Mt 26:26, should be translated correctly “receive (accept) and eat”. These words were addressed immediately to the Apostles, the priests of the New Covenant and not to the totality of the faithful. Otherwise the words “Do this in memory of Me” (Lk 22:19) should consequently be addressed to the totality of the faithful, who by this would partake on the ministerial priesthood. Furthermore, the word the Greek word “lambanein” (λαμβάνειν) does not mean the touching with one’s hand, but the act of receiving. This word “lambanein” one find e.g. in the following expressions: “receive the Spirit of truth” (Jn 14:17), “Receive the Holy Spirit” (Jn 20:22) etc. In the reception of Holy Communion the question isn’t about “taking or touching with one’s hand”, but the question is about a profoundly spiritual event: “to be allowed to receive” the Eucharistic sacrament with the heart, with the souls, but also obviously with the bodily and this conveniently by tongue and kneeling. 7 The risen Lord didn’t allow that His glorious Body be touched by everybody indiscriminately (“Do not hold on to Me”, “Do not touch Me”, Jn 20:17). However, He permitted that the Apostle Thomas, therefore a priest of the New Covenant, should touch His glorious Body, and one could say His Eucharistic Body (cf. Jn 20:27). 8 In the case of the practice of Communion by tongue, a practice which lasts more than a millennium (witnessed already from the times of Pope Gregory the Great), and in the case of the Catholic Oriental churches and of all the Orthodox churches and the ancient-oriental churches, where the Holy Communion is put in the mouth and often even with a spoon, there are not known cases of deceases because of infection. From the hygienic point of view the hand has more bacteria than the tongue. 9 When nowadays one receive a very important or a venerable person, there are prepared all details in a scrupulous manner and nobody would say: “One can greet such a person also with unwashed hands or without clear signs of respect” (e.g. a King or a President). Isn’t Our Lord, present under the species of the little host, more important than a President or a King? Should there in the case of the reception of the Lord under the species of the host not be taken more detailed and more scrupulous measures than in the case when one receives of a King or a President and treats their persons? 10 In the case of the Communion in the hand the faithful himself puts the sacred Host on his tongue, ultimately also in this case we have Communion on the tongue. The difference is in the following: in the case of Communion by tongue it is the priest, representing Christ in this sacred moment, who puts the sacred Host on the tongue of the faithful. In the case of Communion in hand however, it is the faithful himself, who puts the sacred Host on his own tongue. 11 The gesture of “putting the host by oneself on the tongue” expresses surely less the aspect of receiving in comparison with the gesture of “allowing the host be put by another person”. This last gesture expresses in a very impressive way the attitude of being child before the greatness of God, Who is present in the sacred host. This gesture expresses also the truth: “unless you become like little children…” (Mt 18:3), and one could say: “unless you become infants”, for the Holy Scripture says: “Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may taste that the Lord is good” (1 Pet 2:2-3). Ultimately the “spiritual milk” is Christ Himself, and especially Christ in the Eucharistic food. The babies receive food only by mouth, the adult, however, puts himself with his hands the food in one’s mouth. The following words could be applied to the Holy Communion: “as a child that is weaned of his mother: my soul is as a weaned child”. (Ps 131:2). Indeed, Jesus didn’t say: “Unless you become adults…”, but the contrary. 12 When there is the case of the Most Holy, of the Lord Himself, then there has to be valid this principle: “What you can, you must dare to do” (“Quantum potes, tantum aude”, sequence Lauda Sion of Saint Thomas Aquinas). Therefore, here must be valid the maximum, and not the minimum of interior and at the same of exterior reverence. The littleness of the sacred host doesn’t justify treating it in the moment of Holy Communion with minimalistic gestures of adoration and sacredness.

Pastoral reasons for the general return to Communion on the tongue and kneeling down

1 The current rite of Communion in hand was never practiced in the Catholic Church, because the so called Communion in hand in the Ancient Church differed substantially from the current use, which was introduced by the Calvinists and not even by the Lutherans, who however till our days kept the traditional rite by tongue and kneeling. 2 The rite of the first centuries was in the following manner: the consecrated bread was put on the palm of the right hand, then the faithful bowed profoundly (similar as today is the gesture “metanoia” [μετἀνοια] in the Byzantine rite) and took the Communion directly with the mouth without touching the consecrated bread with the fingers. Furthermore, with the tongue the faithful could collect from the palm of his hand the fragments which eventually were loosed from the consecrated bread so that none of the fragments might be lost. Women received the consecrated bread upon a white cloth, called “dominicale”. 3 In the current rite, wrongly declared as a rite of the ancient Church, the faithful receives the host not upon the right but upon the left hand and then he takes the host with the fingers and puts himself the Communion in his mouth. This manner was invented by the Calvinists already in the 17th century. From the point of view of the gesture such a rite rather is like a form of self-Communion and like the manner to take common food. 4 Pope Paul VI, giving the possibility of an indult for receiving Communion in hand (cf. Instruction “Memoriale Domini” from May 29th, 1969), requested however that the traditional rite be retained in the whole Church: “This (i.e. the traditional) manner of distributing holy Communion must be retained, regarding the current state of the Church as whole”. All the more: in the same document the Holy See exhorted vehemently the bishops, priests and faithful to observe diligently the currently valid law and confirms again the law to receive holy Communion in the traditional manner (cf. ibd.). Already during the Second Vatican Council the Pope Paul VI stated in his encyclical “Mysterium fidei” from 1965, that there should not be changed the rite of the Holy Communion with reference to a custom from the Ancient Church: “Nor should we forget that in ancient times the faithful—whether being harassed by violent persecutions or living in solitude out of love for monastic life—nourished themselves even daily on the Eucharist, by receiving Holy Communion from their own hands when there was no priest or deacon present. We are not saying this with any thought of effecting a change in the manner of keeping the Eucharist and of receiving Holy Communion that has been laid down by subsequent ecclesiastical laws still in force; Our intention is that we may rejoice over the faith of the Church which is always one and the same” (nn. 62–63). Some years before the Pope Pius XII in the same sense warned against changing current reverent Eucharistic rites and customs “No more can any Catholic in his right senses repudiate existing legislation of the Church to revert to prescriptions based on the earliest sources of canon law. Just as obviously unwise and mistaken is the zeal of one who in matters liturgical would go back to the rites and usage of antiquity, discarding the new patterns introduced by disposition of divine Providence to meet the changes of circumstances and situation. This way of acting bids fair to revive the exaggerated and senseless antiquarianism” (Encyclical “Mediator Dei”, nn. 63–64). 5 The reasons of Paul VI in favor of the traditional rite of Communion are also today valid and even more than ever: 1. The truth about the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharistic mystery was deeper penetrated by the Church (cf. ibid.). 2. The urgency of a greater exterior reverence (cf. ibid.). 3. The feeling of humility towards this Sacrament on behalf of who receives It (cf. ibid.). 4. It is about a tradition of many centuries (cf. ibid.). 5. It guarantees in a more efficacious manner the solemnity and dignity of the moment of the distribution of Communion (cf. ibid.). 6. It prevents in a more efficacious manner from the danger of profanation of the sacred species (cf. ibid.). 7. By the traditional manner is retained in a more diligent way the care of the Church that no fragment of the consecrated bread might be lost (cf. ibid.). 6 The misgivings of Pope Paul VI were realized in an indisputable manner, based on the experience of Communion in the hand in the past 40 years: 1. The diminishing of the reverence towards the Most Blessed Sacrament of the Altar (cf. ibid.). 2. 2) The profanations of the same Sacrament (cf. ibid.). 3. 3) The alteration of the right doctrine and the Eucharistic faith (cf. ibid.). 7 The conditions under which Pope Paul VI granted the possibility of such an indult have not been observed or fulfilled in a general manner today such a required observation of the conditions became even worse. Paul VI required that any danger had to be avoided (cf. ibid.): 1. the danger of the defect of reverence, 2. the insinuation of wrong opinions about the Holy Eucharist, 3. other improper things. 8 Furthermore, Pope Paul VI expected that the new manner of the rite of Communion would bring an increase of the faith and of the piety of the faithful (cf. ibid.). This expectation, however, is contradicted nowadays by the facts because of the Communion in hand. 9 In view of the real dangers and considering the negative opinion of the majority of the Catholic episcopate, which was consulted on this subject in 1968, the Instruction “Memoriale Domini” says that Pope Paul VI doesn’t think that the traditional rite of administering Communion to the faithful should be changed (cf. ibid.). 10 The current rite of Communion in hand, which never belonged to the liturgical patrimony of the Catholic Church (because it was invented by the Calvinists and differs substantially from the rite in the first centuries of the Church), caused and continues to cause a damage with real worrying dimensions, that is: damaging the right Eucharistic faith, the reverence and the care with the Eucharistic fragments on the limit of the bearable. 11 The Eucharist is the culmination and the source of the entire life of the Church (Vatican II), the Church lives from the Eucharist (Encyclical and testament of John Paul II) and the Eucharist is consequently the very heart of the Church. The real crisis of the Church of today reveals itself in the manner in which this source and this heart are concretely treated. However, because of Communion in the hand and standing, the Most Holy is treated with a real minimalism of exterior reverence and sacredness and moreover the consecrated bread, the most precious treasure of the Church, is exposed with an astonishing carelessness to an enormous loss of the Eucharistic fragments and to an ever more increasing steeling for sacrilegious aims. These are facts no one with good faith can deny. 12 The very crisis of the Church of today is a Eucharistic crisis and more concretely the crisis caused in a decisive manner by Communion in hand, a crisis prognosticated by Paul VI and demonstrated nowadays by the facts. An authentic reform of the Church and a real new evangelization remain less efficacious, if the principal disease is not cured, that is the Eucharistic crisis in general and more concretely the crisis caused by the rite of Communion in hand. A disease is cured more efficaciously not with the cure of the symptoms, but with the cure of the concrete cause. One speaks certainly in a more general and theoretical manner about the necessity of a greater reverence and care of the consecrated bread. However, until there will remain the concrete cause of irreverence and of the generalized carelessness, i.e. Communion in hand, the speeches and necessary programs of a reform and of a new evangelization will not bring a great effect in the sphere of the faith and the Eucharistic piety, which is the heart of the life of the Church. 13 The littlest one, the most fragile one, the most defenseless one nowadays in the Church is the Eucharistic Lord under the Eucharistic species in the moment of the distribution of Holy Communion. Would it be not a most logical demand of the faith and of the love towards the Eucharistic Lord and a most necessary pastoral measure to provide that there might be a possibly most sacred and most safe manner of distributing Communion in order to defend the Eucharistic Lord Who is the most fragile and in the same time the most sacred? Such a more sacred and more safe manner is the rite of Communion by tongue and kneeling, which has borne abundant fruits during more than a thousand years, as has been recalled by Pope Paul VI and also his successors, especially Pope Benedict XVI. 14 One can adduce pastoral reasons in favor of continuing with the practice of Communion in the hand, as for example the right of the faithful to choose. Such a right, however, violates—considering the general proportions of the practice—the right that the Eucharistic Jesus has, i.e. the right to the greatest possible sacredness and reverence. In this regard it is about the right of the most fragile in the Church. All the reasons in favor of the continuation of the practice of Communion in the hand lose their weight confronting the gravity of the situation of the minimalism of reverence and sacredness, the obvious danger of carelessness and loss of the fragments and of the increasing steeling of the consecrated hosts. The continuation of the use of the indult of Communion in the hand cannot be said to be a pastoral need, because it damages the faith and the piety of the faithful and it damages the rights of the Eucharistic Lord Himself. 15 Great Saints who reformed the Church and true apostolic souls in the history of the Church have said: the spiritual progress of an epoch of the Church is measured by the manner of reverence and devotion towards the Sacrament of the Altar. Saint Thomas Aquinas has expressed this truth very concisely: “Sic nos Tu visita, sicut Te colimus” (Saint Thomas Aquinas, hymn “Sacris solemniis”): Lord, visit us to the extent as we venerate you! This is valid also for our days: the Lord will visit His Church nowadays with special graces of an authentic renewal. December 15, 2013, Hong Kong Liturgical Formation Seminar 2013-2014 *NOTES (1) The text in brackets is explained by Bishop Schneider later in this conference. (2) There will be those who say that it is exaggerated, that there can always be particles in one way or another, but it is one thing that a microparticle cannot be humanly controlled, for example, flying unnoticed to our eyes, and another very different is that it falls down through our fault, negligence, cowardice and / or the way we receive Holy Communion. It is true that even receiving it on our knees, in the mouth and without a tray this can also happen -another irresponsibility of the priest-, but it is infinitely less possible than if we subject the Host to the friction of contact with the hands. (3) The Catechism of Saint Pius X teaches: 6 Q. Is it not enough internally to adore God with the heart alone? A. No, it is not enough internally to adore God with the heart alone; we must also adore Him externally with both soul and body, because He is the Creator and absolute Lord of both. 3 Q. How do we fulfill the First Commandment? A. We fulfill the First Commandment by the practice of internal and external worship. 26 Q. Ought the Eucharist to be adored? A. The Eucharist ought to be adored by all because it contains really, truly, and substantially, our Lord Jesus Christ Himself. (4) Other multiple biblical references like these ones can be made. _________________________________________ Bishop Athanasius Schneider Anton Schneider was born in Tokmok, (Kirghiz, Former Soviet Union). In 1973, shortly after receiving his First Communion from the hand of Blessed Oleksa Zaryckyj, priest and martyr, he went with his family to Germany. When he joined the Canons Regular of the Holy Cross of Coimbra, a Catholic religious order, he adopted the name Athanasius (Athanasius). He was ordained a priest on March 25, 1990. In 1999, he began teaching Patrology at the Mary, Mother of the Church seminary in Karaganda. On June 2, 2006, he was consecrated bishop on the Altar of the Chair of Saint Peter in the Vatican by Cardinal Angelo Sodano. In 2011 he was appointed as auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Holy Mary in Astana (Kazakhstan), which has about one hundred thousand Catholics out of a total population of four million inhabitants. Bishop Athanasius Schneider is the current Secretary General of the Episcopal Conference of Kazakhstan. Source: Adelante la Fe. Introduction and notes from Catolicidad

ELEGANT, BUT WITHOUT VANITY OR LACK OF DECORUM

GOOD TASTE IS NOT OPPOSED TO VIRTUE OF MODESTY

 Does how I dress make a difference in how a guy treats me? 

Absolutely. Men can tell how much a woman respects herself by how she dresses. If her sexual value is the first impression she gives to a man, she’ll be more likely to encounter the type of guys who want to use her body. They might say or do whatever is necessary to get access to it. But after she gives in, they often lose respect for her, get bored, and leave. Meanwhile, she’s left thinking, “Maybe if I had been skinnier, or had done more with him sexually, he would have liked me more and stayed longer.” No, but he may have used her longer… 

 Modesty is a bold statement of your worth because it invites men to consider something deeper about you. It tells a guy that he can take you seriously as a woman, because you don’t need to make boys gawk at you in order to feel secure. I’ll grant that guys will stare at a girl who wears a short skirt that could be mistaken for a wide belt. But none of them respect her more because of it. As a woman, do you long to be gawked at or to be loved? 

 If your heart is saying, “Is this too short?” or “Is this too tight?” listen to that intuition because it has answered your question. Stand in front of a mirror and ask, “What am I drawing attention to with this outfit?” Is this outfit saying that the best thing about me is my body, or does it announce that I’m worth waiting to see?” 

 Modesty does not mean looking unattractive or covering every inch of your body as if it’s bad or dirty. Like a bride wearing a veil, clothing conceals a woman’s body as an invitation of respect. Your body is a tabernacle for life and a temple of the Holy Spirit, not a collection of body parts. But if you don’t realize this about yourself, how will a man? 

 - Jason Evert, Pure Love Taken from La Dama Católica https://www.facebook.com/damacatolica/

OFFERING

Oh my Lady, oh my Mother, I offer myself entirely to you. As proof of my filial affection, I consecrate you on this day, my eyes, my ears, my tongue, my heart: in one word, my entire being. Since I am all yours, oh Good Mother, keep me and defend me as your child, and your possession. Amen. 

WHOEVER PERSEVERES IN THE DAILY PRAYER OF THE HOLY ROSARY WILL NOT BE CONDEMNED, THE DEVILS THEMSELVES HAVE CONFESSED IT

-THE DEVIL WILL PRESENT YOU WITH MANY OBSTACLES SO YOU DO NOT PRAY IT 

 Then, forced by God, the demons said to Saint Dominic: 

“… This Mother of Christ is omnipotent, and can prevent her servants from falling into hell. She, like a sun, dissipates the darkness of our cunning machinations. Discovers our intrigues, breaks our nets and reduces all uselessness our temptations WE ARE FORCED to confess that no one who perseveres in his service condemns with us. 

“A single sigh that she presents to the Holy Trinity is worth more than all the prayers, vows and desires of all the saints We fear her more than all the blessed together and we can do nothing against her faithful servants. 

"Also keep in mind that many Christians who invoke her at death and who should be condemned according to ordinary laws, are saved thanks to her intercession. We have to add, with greater clarity and precision - BOUND by the violence they cause us - that no one who perseveres in the prayer of the Rosary will be condemned. Because she obtains for her faithful devotees the true contrition of sins, so that they may confess them and achieve their forgiveness.” 

 Saint Louis Marie Grignion de Montfort, The Secret of the Rosary 

HELP RESCUE THE HOLY SOULS FROM THE TORMENTS OF PURGATORY

 

It is therefore a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead, that they may be loosed from their sins." (2 Machabees 12:46) . 

Who is in more urgent need of our charity than the souls in Purgatory? What hunger, or thirst, or dire sufferings on Earth can compare to their dreadful torments? Neither the poor, nor the sick, nor the suffering, we see around us, have such an urgent need of our help. Yet we find many good-hearted people who interest themselves in every other type of suffering, but alas! scarcely one who works for the Holy Souls. When they are finally released from their pains and enjoy the beatitude of Heaven, far from forgetting their friends on earth, their gratitude knows no bounds. Prostrate before the Throne of God, they never cease to pray for those who helped them. By their prayers they shield their friends from many dangers and protect them from the evils that threaten them. 

WITHOUT A DOUBT, THOSE WHO DON’T HOLD THE CATHOLIC FAITH WHOLE AND INVIOLATE WILL PERISH FOREVER: POPE GREGORY XVI

“Now We consider another abundant source of the evils with which the Church is afflicted at present: indifferentism. This perverse opinion is spread on all sides by the fraud of the wicked who claim that it is possible to obtain the eternal salvation of the soul by the profession of any kind of religion, as long as morality is maintained. Surely, in so clear a matter, you will drive this deadly error far from the people committed to your care. With the admonition of the Apostle that “there is one God, one faith, one baptism”may those fear who contrive the notion that the safe harbor of salvation is open to persons of any religion whatever. They should consider the testimony of Christ Himself that “those who are not with Christ are against Him,” and that they disperse unhappily who do not gather with Him. Therefore “without a doubt, they will perish forever, unless they hold the Catholic faith whole and inviolate.”

MIRARI VOS

ON MODERN ERRORS

Encyclical Letter of Pope Gregory XVI promulgated on August 15, 1832.

PERMANENT STATE OF MILITIA

"Christian life is not for cowards, for those who want to make a pact with their enemies, and win a false peace, the peace of the defeated and of the slave. With the weapons of faith, with the weapons of prayer, with the weapons of flight of occasions, in a permanent state of militia, we will win under the banner of our high King and Captain Jesus Christ. He told us: "Have confidence. I have overcome the world." We must all fight behind Jesus Christ the great battle of our fidelity to Him until the end!"

Father José María Alba Cereceda

HABITUAL SIN (WITH OBSTINACY) LEADS TO PERDITION

"All sinners must bear in mind that there is a great difference between sinning by habit (with obstinacy) and sinning accidentally (by weakness); and know that it is necessary for us to stop committing habitual sins while WE ARE IS STILL ALIVE and not wait at the time of our death..."

"For the salvation of my soul, it is so necessary for me to get out of the habit of sinning, because habitual sins are the ones that lead men to Hell ..."

Saint Francis Xavier