PIUS XI DIXIT

“The fathers and mothers of families particularly must give an example to their children, especially when, at sunset, they gather together after the day's work, within the domestic walls, and recite the Holy Rosary on bended knees before the image of the Virgin, together fusing voice, faith and sentiment. This is a beautiful and salutary custom, from which certainly there cannot but be derived tranquillity and abundance of heavenly gifts for the household”.

Pope Pius XI

________________________________

The Smoke of Satan by Anacleto González Flores (Mexican martyr)

"Many Catholics are unaware of the seriousness and especially of the causes of the disaster, they ignore how the three great enemies, Protestantism, Freemasonry and Revolution, work tirelessly and with an alarming and well-organized program of action.

These three enemies are defeating Catholicism on all fronts, at all hours and in all possible ways. They fight in the streets, in the squares, in the press, in the workshops, in the factories, in the homes. In the case of a generalized battle, they have their sword drawn and their battalions deployed everywhere. This is a fact. Christ does not reign in the streets, in the schools, in the Parliaments, in books, in universities, in the public and social life of the countries. Who reigns there is the devil. In all those environments you can see the smoke of Satan.

And what do we do? We content ourselves with praying, going to church, practicing some works of mercy, as if that were enough "to counteract all the vast conjuration of God's enemies." We have left them everything else, the streets, the press, the teaching at various levels of education. In none of these places have they encountered serious opposition. And if sometimes we have acted, we have done it so poorly, so weakly, that it can be said that we have not fought at all. We have sung in churches but we have not announced God in schools, in squares, in Parliaments, and so, we have cornered Christ out of fear.

Reducing Catholicism to a secret prayer, to a grievous complaint, to trembling and fright before public authorities when they kill the national soul and destroy everything before everyone’s eyes, is not only cowardice and excusable disorientation, but also a religious, public and social historical crime, which deserves all execrations.

...Souls suffer from spiritual anemia. We have become beggars, renouncing ownership of our destinies. We have been evicted from everywhere, and we have abandoned everything.

So far, almost all Catholics have done nothing but ask God to do, to work, to accomplish, to do something or everything for the fate of the Church in our countries. And that's why we have only prayed, waiting for God to work. And all this under the mask of an alleged "prudence." We need the imprudence of Christian boldness.

Moreover, there are many Catholics who dare to call imprudent those who know how to assert their rights before their persecutors. It is necessary that this situation of isolation, estrangement, national dispersion, ends once and for all, and that as soon as possible we think in a serious way that we are all Catholics of our country, not a lot of particles without union, but an immense body that has one program, one head, one thought, one organizing flag to face all persecutors."

_______________________________

WHEN PRIDE DISGUISES ITSELF AS HUMILITY

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 Way of Salvation and Perfection

______________________________________

MODERNISM WILL BE THE RELIGION OF THE ANTICHRIST

• It maintains the outer forms of all religions, but empties them of its content.

"Modernism is the latest evolution of liberal Protestantism and is the most subtle and complex heresy that has existed and can exist, so it will undoubtedly be the religion of the Antichrist; because it reconciles in itself the two antagonistic notes with which St. Paul mysteriously describes the Man of Sin, and that until today seemed incompatible: first, he will be an adversary of all religion and worship; second, he will sit in the temple making himself worship as God. Modernism undoes all existing religion, appropriating their external forms, and emptying them of all content to finally fill them with the idolatry of Man."

Father Leonardo Castellani, Comentarios a la Suma Teológica de Santo Tomás.

_______________________________

THE DEVOTION TO THE SEVEN SORROWS OF MARY

Promises of the Blessed Virgin to those who meditate on her sorrows.

THE DEVOTION:

Our Lady has always taught Christians to better love Christ. The devotion to her Seven Sorrows was developed by various private revelations.

The Blessed Virgin Mary said to Saint Bridget of Sweden (1303-1373):

“I look around at all who are on earth, to see if by chance there are any who pity me, and meditate upon my sorrows; and I find that there are very few. Therefore, my daughter, though I am forgotten by many, at least do you not forget me; consider my anguish, and imitate, as far as you can, my grief.”

Our Lady promised that she would grant seven graces to the souls who honor her and accompany her daily, praying seven Hail Marys while meditating on her anguish and sorrows:

1. I will grant peace to their families.

2. They will be enlightened about the Divine mysteries.

3. I will console them in their pains and I will accompany them in their work.

4. I will give them as much as they ask for as long as it does not oppose the adorable will of my Divine Son or the sanctification of their souls.

5. I will defend them in their spiritual battles with the infernal enemy and I will protect them at every instant of their lives.

6. I will visibly help them at the moment of their death, they will see the face of their Mother.

7. I have obtained this Grace from my Divine Son, that those who propagate this devotion to my tears and sorrows, will be taken directly from this earthly life to eternal happiness since all their sins will be forgiven and my Son and I will be their eternal consolation and joy.

In The Glories of Mary, St. Alphonsus also lists the four promises Jesus made to the devotees of His Mother’s sorrows. Alphonsus recounts the revelation made to St. Elizabeth of Hungary “that after the assumption of the Blessed Virgin into heaven, St. John the Evangelist desired to see her again. The favor was granted to him; his dear Mother appeared to him, and with her Jesus Christ also appeared; Saint John then heard Mary ask her Son to grant some special grace to all those who are devoted to her sorrow. Jesus promised her four principal ones:

1. Those who before death invoke the Divine Mother in the name of her sorrows should obtain true repentance of all their sins.

2. He will protect all who have this devotion in their tribulations, and especially at the hour of death.

3. He will impress upon their minds the remembrance of His Passion, and they will have their reward for it in heaven.

4. He will commit such devout souls to the hands of Mary, with the power to dispose of them in whatever manner she might please, and to obtain for them all the graces she might desire.”

Meditating on the Seven Sorrows of Our Blessed Mother is a way to share the deepest sufferings of her life on earth.

At the foot of the Cross, where a sword of pain pierced the heart of Mary, Jesus gave us His Mother as our Mother shortly before He died. In response to this supreme demonstration of His love for us, let's repeat every day of our lives: “Yes, She is my Mother. Jesus, I receive her and I ask You to lend Me Your Heart to love Mary as You love her.”

____________________________________

In Exaltatione Sanctae Crucis

From today's Gradual, Sancta Missa, In Exaltatione Sanctae crucis ~ II. classis:

Dulce lignum, dulces clavos, dúlcia ferens póndera: quæ sola fuísti digna sustinére Regem coelórum et Dóminum. 

Allelúia.

____________________________________

H.H. PIUS XII WARNED US ABOUT THE INNOVATORS WHO WOULD TRY TO DESTROY THE CHURCH

“I am concerned about the confidences of the Virgin to the little Lucia of Fatima. This persistence of the Good Lady in face of the danger that threatens the Church is a divine warning against the suicide that the alteration of the Faith, in its liturgy, its theology, and its soul, would represent… I hear around me innovators who wish to dismantle the Sacred Chapel, destroy the universal flame of the Church, reject her ornaments, and make her remorseful for her historical past. A day will come when the civilized world will deny its God, when the Church will doubt as Peter doubted. She will be tempted to believe that man has become God, that His Son is only a symbol, a philosophy like so many others. And in churches, Christians will search for the red lamp where Jesus awaits them, like the sinful woman crying out before the empty tomb: ‘Where have they taken Him?’.”

(Pope Pius XII, cited in Bishop Roche, Pius XII Devant l'Histoire, pp. 52-53).

_____________________________