Wednesday, August 31, 2022

LEO XIII DIXIT


 Pope Leo XIII, Encyclical letter Libertas praestantissimum, 20/06/1888 :

“Justice forbids, and reason itself forbids, the State to be godless; or to adopt a line of action which would end in godlessness-namely, to treat the various religions (as they call them) alike, and to bestow upon them promiscuously equal rights and privileges. Since, then, the profession of one religion is necessary in the State, that religion must be professed which alone is true, and which can be recognized without difficulty, especially in Catholic States, because the marks of truth are, as it were, engravers upon it. This religion, therefore, the rulers of the State must preserve and protect.”


Saturday, August 27, 2022

ABOUT HERESY


“The crowning disloyalty to God is heresy. It is the sin of sins, the very loathsomest of things which God looks down upon in this malignant world. Yet how little do we understand of its excessive hatefulness!...

We look at it, and are calm. We touch it and do not shudder. We mix with it, and have no fear. We see it touch holy things, and we have no sense of sacrilege...

Our charity is untruthful, because it is not severe; and it is unpersuasive, because it is untruthful. Where there is no hatred of heresy, there is no holiness.”

F. Faber, The Precious Blood, 1868.


Thursday, August 25, 2022

GO INTO THE ETERNAL FIRE


"Hell is a reality, gentlemen. Christ Himself has said it. It matters little that non-believers deny it. Despite their denial, its existence is a terrible reality. But it is convenient that we go a little further and try to discover what is in it. The Catechism, that little book that contains a wonderful summary of Catholic doctrine, tells us that hell is "the sum of all evils, without any good". A wonderful definition. But there is another one, even more profound: the one that Our Lord Himself gave us in the Gospel. It is the same sentence that He will pronounce on the Day of the Final Judgment: "Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire." This terrible formula contains a marvelous summary of the whole theology of hell."

Father Royo Marín


Tuesday, August 23, 2022

URGENT PRAYER


Saint Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle, be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil. May God rebuke him we humbly pray; and do thou, O Prince of the Heavenly host, by the power of God, cast into hell Satan and all the evil spirits who prowl about the world seeking the ruin of souls. Amen.


Friday, August 19, 2022

MODESTY SHOULD BE TAUGHT SINCE CHILDHOOD. THOSE WHO DID NOT ACQUIRE THIS VIRTUE THEN, WILL HARDLY PRACTICE IT AS TEENAGERS OR ADULTS


TO CHRISTIAN PARENTS

“The good of our soul is more important than the good of our body; and we have to prefer the spiritual welfare of our neighbor to our bodily comforts… If a certain kind of dress constitutes a grave and proximate occasion of sin, and endangers the salvation of your soul and others, it is your duty to give it up… O Christian mothers, if only you knew the future distress, peril and ill-restrained shame that you prepare for your sons and daughters by imprudently accustoming them to live barely clothed, and permitting them to lose the sense of modesty, you would be ashamed of yourselves, and of the harm done to the little ones entrusted to you by Heaven to be reared in a Christian dignity and culture."

Pius XII to the Groups of Young Catholic Women of Italy


Friday, August 12, 2022

THE ANGELS GO TO MASS WITH US


There they are, all the angelic choirs, from the highest seraphim to the guardian angels, to worship God.

The most important part of the Mass is the Consecration, when the host and the wine are transformed into the true Body and Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ.

Do you think that the Blessed Sacrament is there alone, in the hands of the priest?

Of course not.

The Sacrifice of the Mass is assisted by the Holy Ghost and, at the moment of consecration, myriads of angels are there to adore God. There they are, all the angelic choirs, from the highest seraphim to the guardian angels.

Where God is, the holy angels are also.

Consider this when going to Mass: we are before God, in His real presence, and we adore Him together with all His holy angels.

We are the Church, the assembly of the children of God, the Kingdom of God!

Blessed be God in the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar.


Monday, August 8, 2022

BEING LED BY THE SPIRIT OF GOD


Epistle (Rom. 8, 12-17)

Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh to live according to the flesh.  For if you live according to the flesh, you shall die: but if by the Spirit you mortify the deeds of the flesh, you shall live. For whosoever are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For you have not received the spirit of bondage again in fear: but you have received the spirit of adoption of sons, whereby we cry: Abba (Father).

For the Spirit himself giveth testimony to our spirit that we are the sons of God. And if sons, heirs also; heirs indeed of God and joint heirs with Christ: yet so, if we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified with him.


Saturday, August 6, 2022

HIDDEN ROOTS


An Argentine poet, many years ago, wrote a poem to express what he had discovered: what we suffered for, what we cried for, what we lost, it only makes sense if it led us to good goals, to encounters, to undying loves.


Here is his poem:


“If to regain what I regained,

I first had to lose what I lost;

If to achieve what I achieved,

I had to endure what I endured;


If to be in love now

First I had to be hurt,

I consider what I suffered well suffered,

I consider what I wept for as well wept for.


Because in the end I came to see

That we do not really enjoy what we enjoyed

Unless we have suffered for it.


For in the end I realized

That the blossoms on the tree

Draw life from what lies buried beneath”.


(Francisco Luis Bernárdez, "Soneto", in "Cielo de Tierra", Buenos Aires 1937).


Yes, we have experienced it more than once. The things that made us suffer or cry acquire their importance if we discover that they brought us closer to a love or to a greater good.

In Christian words, it is worth to suffer everything in order to grow in love for God and for our neighbor.

Then, like the poet, we discover that the flowers of the tree obtain their life from the hidden roots. Or, as Christ teaches in the Gospel, we recognize that the kernel of wheat that dies produces many seeds... (cf. Jn 12:24).


Tuesday, August 2, 2022

PRAYER TO OUR GUARDIAN ANGEL


"Holy Angel, beloved of God, who after having taken me, by divine disposition, under your blessed custody, you never cease to defend me, enlighten me and direct me: I venerate you as my protector, I love you as my custodian; I submit to your direction and I give myself to you, to be governed by you. For the love of Jesus Christ I beg you, that when I am ungrateful to you and stubbornly deaf to your inspirations, do not abandon me despite this; on the contrary, put me soon on the straight path, if I have strayed from it; teach me, if I am ignorant; lift me up, if I have fallen; help me, if I am in danger and lead me to Heaven to possess eternal happiness. Amen." 

Saint John Berchmans