Sunday, September 24, 2023

WHATEVER GOODNESS WE HAVE WE OWE TO GOD, LET'S NOT BE LIKE THOSE WHO SAY THEY ARE "HUMBLE" BUT TAKE UMBRAGE WHEN ANYONE REPROVES THEM


 

Many are humble in word, but not in heart. They say: “I am worse than all: I deserve a thousand hells.” But when anyone reproves them, or says a word that displeases them, they immediately take umbrage. They are like hedgehogs, which put out their bristles as soon as they are touched. But how is it – you say you are worse than all, and yet you cannot bear a word?  “He who is truly humble,” says St. Bernard, “esteems himself good for nothing, and desires to be considered good for nothing by others as well.” 

Saint Alphonsus Maria de Liguori, The Path to Salvation


Tuesday, September 19, 2023

IMPORTANT LETTER FROM BISHOP ATHANASIUS SCHNEIDER TO BISHOP JOSEPH STRICKLAND


Your Excellency, Bishop Strickland, dear and esteemed brother in the episcopate!

It is for me a privilege and a joy to express to you all my gratitude and appreciation for your intrepid dedication to uncompromisingly keep, transmit, and defend the Catholic faith, which the apostles handed over to the Church and with which all the generations of Catholics, especially our ancestors, our fathers and mothers, our priests and religious sisters-catechists, were themselves nurtured. In all truth we can apply to you, dear Bishop Strickland, what St. Basil once stated in his time: 

"The one charge which is now sure to secure severe punishment is the careful keeping of the traditions of the Fathers." (Ep. 243)

Let me share with you the following highly timely words of the same great and saint bishop:

The doctrines of true religion are overthrown. The laws of the Church are in confusion. The ambition of men, who have no fear of God, rushes into high posts in the Church, and exalted office is now publicly known as the prize of impiety. The result is that the worse a man blasphemes, the fitter the people think him to be a bishop. Clerical dignity is a thing of the past. 

There is a complete lack of men shepherding the Lord's flock with knowledge. Churchmen in authority are afraid to speak, for those of them who have reached power by human interest are the slaves of those to whom they owe their advancement. Faith is uncertain; souls are drenched in ignorance because adulterators of the word imitate the truth. The mouths of true believers are dumb, while every blasphemous tongue wags free; holy things are trodden under foot. (Ep. 92)

We are living indeed in such a time, as described by St. Basil with such a striking similarity.

The words of St. Basil in his Letter to Pope St. Damasus, in which he was asking the pope's help and efficacious intervention, are fully applicable to our situation today:

The wisdom of this world wins the highest prizes in the Church and has rejected the glory of the cross. Shepherds are banished, and in their places are introduced grievous wolves hurrying the flock of Christ. Houses of prayer have none to assemble in them; desert places are full of lamenting crowds. The elders lament when they compare the present with the past. The younger are yet more to be compassionated, for they do not know of what they have been deprived. (Ep. 90)

Dear Bishop Strickland, unlike St. Basil who addressed Pope Damasus, you don't have, unfortunately, the real chance to address Pope Francis in order that he may help you to keep zealously the holy traditions of the past. On the contrary, the Holy See put you now under scrutiny and threatens you with intimidations and deprivation of the episcopal care of your flock in Tyler, basically only for the one reason, that you, like St. Basil, St. Athanasius, and many other confessor-bishops in history, are keeping the traditions of the Fathers; only because you are not silencing the truth, only because you are not behaving like not a few of the bishops of our day, who -- using the words of St. Gregory of Nazianzus -- "are serving the times and demands of the masses, leaving their boat to the wind which happens to blow at the moment, and like chameleons, know how to give their word many colors" (De vita sua (Carmina) 2, 11)."

However, dear Bishop Strickland, you have the happiness, that all the popes of the past, all the courageous confessor-bishops of the past, all the Catholic martyrs, who in the words of St. Theresa of Avila, were "resolved to undergo a thousand deaths for any one article of the creed" (The Life of Teresa of Jesus, 25:12), are supporting and encouraging you. Furthermore, the little ones in the Church pray for you and support you; they are an ever growing, yet small, army of lay faithful -- in the United States as well as all over the world -- who were put on the periphery by high ranking churchmen, even in the Vatican, whose main concerns seems to be pleasing the world and promoting their naturalistic agenda and the approval of the sin of homosexual activity under the guise of welcoming and inclusion.

Dear Bishop Strickland, thank you, that you are resolved "to serve the Lord, and not the time," as St. Athanasius once admonished the bishops (Ep. ad Dracontium). I pray that more bishops in our day may, like you, raise their voice in defence of the Catholic Faith, providing thereby the spiritual nourishment and consolation for many Catholics, who feel themselves often abandoned like orphans.

For sure, future popes will thank you for your intrepid fidelity to the Catholic Faith and to its holy traditions, by which you contributed to the honor of the Apostolic See, which was partly darkened and stained by our unfavourable time.

St. Joseph, your patron, the "good and faithful servant," be always on your side and the Blessed Virgin Mary, our sweet heavenly Mother, the destroyer of all heresies, be your strength and refuge.

With deep esteem, united in the holy battle for the Faith and in prayers,

Bishop Athanasius Schneider of St. Mary's in Astana, Kazakhstan, August 2, 2023


Tuesday, September 12, 2023

ANGELUS


 “V. Angelus Domini, nuntiavit Mariae
R/ Et concepit de Spiritu Sancto.
 Ave Maria, gratia plena,
Dominus tecum.
Benedicta tu in mulieribus,
et benedictus fructus ventris tui, Iesus.
Sancta Maria, mater Dei,
ora pro nobis peccatoribus, nunc et in hora mortis nostrae. Amen.
 V. Ecce ancilla Domini.
R/ Fiat mihi secundum verbum tuum.
Ave Maria...
 V. Et Verbum caro factum est.
R/ Et habitavit in nobis.
Ave Maria...
 V. Ora pro nobis, sancta Dei Genetrix.
R/ Ut digni efficiamur promissionibus Christi.”

Sunday, September 3, 2023

IT IS IMPERATIVE NOW


Hopefully parents will never forget that their authority comes from God! And hopefully family life will be founded on this holy base! The whole society creaks and wobbles. Who will save it? The government? Politicians? Political parties? Social policies or reforms? What will save it? Rallies or strikes? Or perhaps speeches? None of this can save it. The remedy is this: strengthen family life, renew it on a Christian basis.

We need a regeneration, but a spiritual regeneration, a moral regeneration. We need families, fathers, mothers, children, to faithfully observe the Decalogue. Families on whose sanctuary is respected the Kingdom of God. Families in which Christ is the law. Families that in the middle of this icy world raise the Cross of Christ and are raised by the Cross of Christ.

Bishop Tihamér Tóth

Friday, September 1, 2023

LET US SET AN EXAMPLE


And for the rest of mankind pray unceasingly-for there is in them hope of repentance, that they may attain unto God. Let them also be instructed by the example of your works. In face of their outbursts of wrath be patient; in face of their arrogant words be humble; meet their revilings with prayers; where they are in error be steadfast in the faith; in face of their violence be gentle. Be not anxious to retaliate on them. Let our forbearance prove us their brethren. Endeavor to imitate the Lord, striving who can suffer the greater wrong, who can be more defrauded, who can be set at naught, that no rank weed of the devil be found in you. In all purity and sobriety abide in Christ Jesus in flesh and in spirit.

Saint Ignatius of Antioch


Monday, August 21, 2023

THE LITTLE MESSENGER OF THE VIRGIN MARY


The Virgin Mary sent a five-year-old boy in 1948 to dispel the doubts of Pope Pius XII. The French boy Gilles Bouhours from an early age spontaneously showed a devotion to prayer and penance, unusual for someone who had barely learned to speak.

On December 13, 1948, Gilles told his father that the Blessed Virgin Mary had entrusted him with a "secret" that he was to communicate only to the Pope. Somewhat incredulous, the father asked him to explain this matter to him, but the boy flatly refused.

Trying to make him give up, a few days later the father suggested that the child explain to the Virgin Mary that he did not have money to travel to Rome. Gilles did what his father had told him and to his father's surprise the little boy told him:

"The Blessed Virgin Mary has told me that you do have money for the trip and that you shouldn’t worry about the rest, everything will be sorted out."

They were finally received by Pope Pius XII on May 1, 1950. In the audience the boy asked the Pope to be alone with him. Only then did Gilles approach the Holy Father and told him the message:

"The Blessed Virgin Mary is not dead, she was assumed body and soul into Heaven."

The Pope was visibly moved after listening to the little boy.

In 1939, after being elected Pope, one of Pius XII's certainties was that he was going to proclaim the Dogma of the Assumption. All previous studies and investigations he had commissioned, and the Church's own Tradition confirmed the dogma. But German theologians disagreed.

Little Gilles Bouhours was prepared and sent by the Virgin Mary to present the sign that Pope Pius XII expected and that he had asked her for some time before. Thus, on November 1, 1950, the Pope proclaimed the Dogma of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary which declares that she was assumed body and soul into Heaven in the apostolic constitution "Munificentissimus Deus".

On February 24, 1960, little Gilles fell ill without the doctors being able to diagnose the cause of his illness and after receiving Extreme Unction, going to Confession and receiving Communion, he passed away.


Tuesday, August 15, 2023

A HOLY GIFT TO MOTHER


There is an old custom of giving the manutergium to the priest’s mother, who keeps it throughout her lifetime and then is buried holding it in her hands. The Manutergium, which was used to cleanse the priests hands; consecrated and made holy when the bishop anointed them with sacred chrism at his consecreation. According to tradition, when she comes before Our Lord, he says to her: “I have given you life. What have you given to me?” She hands him the manutergium and responds, “I have given you my son as a priest.”  At this, Jesus grants her entry into paradise. 

Friday, August 11, 2023

THE GREATEST ACT OF CHARITY


And he did not preach this truth to the air, because thousands of souls were saved thanks to his ministry.

How many souls have been saved or will be saved by your apostolic work? How big is your charity?

Friday, July 14, 2023

FLAGELLATION IS RENEWED... AND HOW DO YOU PAY HIM?


Blasphemy, denials, indifference, impurity, pride, sacrileges… all the outcries of deicides, and all the torrent of vileness and ignominy have the awful privilege of reaching Jesus' feet, of rising to His face and profaning it as it was profaned by Judas' kiss… And Jesus Christ does not go away!... He is love's captive, betrayed by His own Heart… He is there, crushed by the outrages of men… He is there, seated on the criminal's bench… He has committed a great crime, the sublime crime of loving man with divine passion…. And see how man repays Him— with neglect and loneliness!...

Extract from the book "Holy Hours" by R. Father Mateo Crawley-Boevey.


Monday, July 10, 2023

SAINT THOMAS MORE’S PRAYER FOR GOOD HUMOR


Grant me, O Lord, good digestion, and also something to digest. 

Grant me a healthy body, and the necessary good humor to maintain it.

Grant me a simple soul that knows to treasure all that is good and that doesn’t frighten easily at the sight of evil, but rather finds the means to put things back in their place.

Give me a soul that knows not boredom, grumblings, sighs and laments, nor excess of stress, because of that obstructing thing called “I.”

Grant me, O Lord, a sense of good humor. Allow me the grace to be able to take a joke to discover in life a bit of joy, and to be able to share it with others.

Amen.


Thursday, July 6, 2023

THE PERVERSITY OF APOSTASY


“Society is at the present time, more than in any past age, suffering from a terrible and deep-rooted malady which, developing every day and eating into its inmost being, is dragging it to destruction (…) this disease is apostasy from God (…) this great perversity may be as it were a foretaste, and perhaps the beginning of those evils which are reserved for the last days.”

Saint Pius X


Thursday, June 29, 2023

A HOLY GIFT TO MOTHER


There is an old custom of giving the manutergium to the priest’s mother, who keeps it throughout her lifetime and then is buried holding it in her hands. The Manutergium, which was used to cleanse the priests hands; consecrated and made holy when the bishop anointed them with sacred chrism at his consecreation. According to tradition, when she comes before Our Lord, he says to her: “I have given you life. What have you given to me?” She hands him the manutergium and responds, “I have given you my son as a priest.”  At this, Jesus grants her entry into paradise. 


Tuesday, June 27, 2023

ON PRIESTHOOD


"Saint Charles Borromeo gave apt expression to this thought when, in his discourses to the clergy, he declared: "If we would only bear in mind, dearly beloved brethren, the exalted character of the things that the Lord God has placed in our hands, what unbounded influence would not this have in impelling us to lead lives worthy of ecclesiastics! Has not the Lord placed everything in my hand, when he put there his only-begotten Son, coeternal and coequal with himself? In my hand he has placed all his treasures, his sacraments, his graces; he has placed there souls, than whom nothing can be dearer to him; in his love he has preferred them to himself, and redeemed them by his Blood; he has placed heaven in my hand, and it is in my power to open and close it to others ... How, then, can I be so ungrateful for such condescension and love as to sin against him, to offend his honor, to pollute this body which is his? How can I come to defile this high dignity, this life consecrated to his service?"


SAINT PIUS X, Apostolic Constitution Haerent animo, on the sanctity of the clergy.


Thursday, June 8, 2023

FEAST OF CORPUS CRHISTI


 

There are three Thursdays in the year that shine brighter than the sun: Maundy Thursday, Corpus Christi and the Feast of the Ascension.

The Church jubilantly celebrates the Feast of Corpus Christi 60 days after Easter Sunday to commemorate the institution of the Holy Eucharist.

The Feast of Corpus Christi was preceded by the miracle that happened in Bolsena, Italy, in 1263. According to different accounts, a priest who was celebrating the Holy Mass saw blood flow when raising the Consecrated Host.