Thought for the day:

"Give me grace to amend my life, and to have an eye to mine end, without grudge of death, which to them that die in thee,
good Lord, is the gate of a wealthy life."
St. Thomas More

THREE THINGS

"Three things are necessary for the salvation of man; to know what he ought to believe; to know what he ought to desire; and to know what he ought to do."
St. Thomas Aquinas

Rights of Man?

"The people have heard quite enough about what are called the 'rights of man'. Let them hear about the rights of God for once". Pope Leo XIII Tamesti future, Encyclical

Eternity

All souls owe their eternity to Jesus Christ. Unfortunately, many have turned their back to him.


Saturday, November 24, 2012

Last Sunday after Pentecost


Tomorrow is the last Sunday of the Liturgical year, right before Advent 2012.



Last Sunday
after Pentecost



Today we've almost completed the liturgical cycle, which starts over again with Advent next Sunday. Our focus now is on the Second Coming of Christ (the "Parousia"), the Last Judgment, and the Heavenly Jerusalem. Today's Mass readings will include the frightening "Olivet Discourse" (Matthew 24:15-35).

What does the Church teach about the Parousia? That Jesus will come in glory and unexpectedly and that no man knows when this will be. That when He comes, the bodies of the dead -- who've already been judged in what is called the "particular judgment" that takes place just after death -- will be raised and united with their souls. That all who have ever lived will be judged in what is called the "Last Judgment" which will happen in such a manner that everyone will know Who Christ is and that His judgments are just.

This world will be destroyed, and a new world will take its place. Christ will reign forever and ever with His saints.

Apocalypse 21:1-5, 22:1-5
And I saw a new heaven and a new earth. For the first heaven and the first earth was gone, and the sea is now no more. And I John saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice from the throne, saying: Behold the tabernacle of God with men, and He will dwell with them. And they shall be His people; and God Himself with them shall be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes: and death shall be no more, nor mourning, nor crying, nor sorrow shall be any more, for the former things are passed away. And he that sat on the throne, said: Behold, I make all things new. And He said to me: Write, for these words are most faithful and true...

...And He showed me a river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb. In the midst of the street thereof, and on both sides of the river, was the tree of life, bearing twelve fruits, yielding its fruits every month, and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. And there shall be no curse any more; but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and his servants shall serve him. And they shall see His Face: and His Name shall be on their foreheads. And night shall be no more: and they shall not need the light of the lamp, nor the light of the sun, because the Lord God shall enlighten them, and they shall reign for ever and ever.

It is interesting that the readings from Matthew for today's Mass are almost duplicated in next week's Mass's readings from Luke 21:25-33. On the first Sunday of Advent, we hear again of the destruction of Jerusalem, but this time with an eye toward His Second Coming -- even as we ready ourselves to remember His First Coming at the Feast of the Nativity. The first and last Sundays of the year meet and together remind us to prepare.


Reading

from Dom Gueranger's "The Liturgical Year"

...Our readers will remember that, in the time of St. Gregory, Advent was longer than we now have it; and that, in those days, its weeks commenced in that part of the cycle which is now occupied by the last Sundays after Pentecost. This is one of the reasons for the lack of liturgical riches in the composition of the dominical Masses which follow the twenty-third.

Even on this one, the Church, without losing sight of the last day, used to lend a thought to the new season which was fast approaching, the season, that is, of preparation for the great feast of Christmas. There was read, as Epistle, the following passage from Jeremias, which was afterwards, in several Churches, inserted in the Mass of the first Sunday of Advent: 'Behold! the days come, saith the Lord, and I will raise up to David a just branch: and a King shall reign, and shall be wise: and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth. In those days, shall Juda be saved, and Israel shall dwell confidently: and this is the name that they shall call Him: The Lord our Just One. Therefore, behold the days come, saith the Lord, and they shall say no more: The Lord liveth, who brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt! But: The Lord liveth, who hath brought out, and brought hither, the seed of the house of Israel, from the land of the north, and out of all the lands, to which I had cast them forth! And they shall dwell in their own land.'

As is evident, this passage is equally applicable to the conversion of the Jews and the restoration of Israel, which are to take place at the end of the world. This was the view taken by the chief liturgists of the middle ages, in order to explain thoroughly the Mass of the twenty-third Sunday alter Pentecost. Bearing in mind that, originally, the Gospel of this Sunday was that of the multiplication of the five loaves, let us listen to the profound and learned Abbot Rupert, who, better than anyone, will teach us the mysteries of this day, which brings to a close the grand and varied Gregorian melodies.

'Holy Church,' he says, 'is so intent on paying her debt of supplication, and prayer, and thanksgiving, for all men, as the apostle demands, that we find her giving thanks also for the salvation of the children of Israel, who, she knows, are one day to be united with her. And, as their remnants are to be saved at the end of the world, so, on this last Sunday of the year, she delights in them, as though they were already her members. In the Introit, calling to mind the prophecies concerning them, she thus sings every year: My thoughts are thoughts of peace, and not of affliction. Verily, His thoughts are those of peace, for He promises to admit to the banquet of His grace the Jews, who are His brethren according to the flesh; thus realizing what had been prefigured in the history of the patriarch Joseph. The brethren of Joseph, having sold him, came to him when they were tormented by hunger; for then he ruled over the whole land of Egypt. He recognized them; he received them; and made, together with them, a great feast. So, too, our Lord, who is now reigning over the whole earth, and is giving the bread of life, in abundance, to the Egyptians (that is, to the Gentiles), will see coming to Him the remnants of the children of Israel. He, whom they had denied and put to death, will admit them to His favour, will give them a place at His table, and the true Joseph will feast delightedly with His brethren.

'The benefit of this divine Table is signified, in the Office of this Sunday; by the Gospel, which tells us of our Lord's feeding the multitude with five loaves. For it will be then that Jesus will open to the Jews the five Books of Moses, which are now being carried whole, and not yet broken; yea, carried by a child, that is to say, this people itself, who, up to that time, will have been cramped up in the narrowness of a childish spirit.

'Then will be fulfilled the prophecy of Jeremias, which is so aptly placed before this Gospel: ``They shall say no more: The Lord liveth, who brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt! But, the Lord liveth, who hath brought out the seed of Israel from the land of the north, and from all the lands into which they had been cast.''

'Thus delivered from the spiritual bondage which still holds them, they will sing with all their heart the words of thanksgiving as we have them in the Gradual: "Thou hast saved us, O Lord, from them that afflict us!"

'The words we use in the Offertory: "From the depths I have cried to thee, O Lord," clearly allude to the same events; for, on that day, His brethren will say to the great and true Joseph: "We beseech thee to forget the wickedness of thy brethren!" The Communion: "Amen, I say to you, all things whatsoever ye ask, when ye pray," etc., is the answer made by that same Joseph, as it was by the first: "Fear not! Ye thought evil against me: but God turned it into good, that He might exalt me, as at present ye see, and might save many people. Fear not, therefore, I will feed you, and your children."'

Although the choice of this Gospel for the twenty-third Sunday is not of great antiquity, yet is it in most perfect keeping with the post-pentecostal liturgy, and confirms what we have stated relative to the character of this portion of the Church's year. St. Jerome tells us, in the homily selected for the day, that the hemorrhoissa, healed by our Lord, is a type of the Gentile world; whilst the Jewish people is represented by the daughter of the ruler of the Synagogue. This latter is not to be restored to life until the former has been cured; and this is precisely the mystery we are so continually commemorating during these closing weeks of the liturgical year, viz., the fullness of the Gentiles recognizing and welcoming the divine Physician, and the blindness of Israel at last giving way to the light.

The liturgy at this close of the year continually alludes to the end of the world. The earth seems to be sinking away, down into some deep abyss; but it is only that it may shake off the wicked from its surface, and then it will come up again blooming in light and love. After the divine realities of this year of grace, we ought to be capable of feeling a thrill of admiration at the mysterious, yet, at the same time, the strong and sweet ways of eternal Wisdom. At the beginning, when man was first created, sin soon followed, breaking up the harmony of God's beautiful world, and throwing man off the divine path where his Creator had placed him. Wickedness went on increasing, until God's mercy fell upon one family. The light which beamed on that privileged favourite only showed more plainly the thick darkness in which the rest of mankind were enveloped. The Gentiles, abandoned to their misery, all the more terrible because they had caused it and loved it, saw God's favours all bestowed on Israel, whilst they themselves were disregarded, and wished to be so. Even when the time came for original sin to be remedied, it seemed to be the very time for the final reprobation of the Gentiles; for the salvation that came down from heaven in the person of the Man-God was seen to be exclusively directed towards the Jews and the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

But the people that had been treated with so much predilection, and whose fathers and first rulers had so ardently prayed for the coming of the Messias, was no longer in the position to which it had been raised by the holy patriarchs and prophets. Its beautiful religion, founded on desire and hope, was then nothing but a sterile expectancy, which kept it motionless and unable to advance a single step towards its Redeemer. As to its Law, Israel then minded nothing but the letter, and, at last, turned it into a mummy of sectarian formalism. Now, whilst in spite of all this sinful apathy it was mad with jealousy, pretending that no one else had any right to heaven's favours, the Gentile, whose ever-increasing misery urged him to go in search of some deliverer, found one, and recognized him in Jesus the Saviour of the world. He was confident that this Jesus could cure him; so he took the bold initiative, went up to Him, and had the merit of being the first to be healed. True, our Lord had treated him with an apparent disdain; but that had only had the effect of intensifying his humility, and humility has a power of making way anywhere, even into heaven itself.

Israel, therefore, was now made to wait. One of the Psalms he sang ran thus: 'Ethiopia shall be the first to stretch out her hands to God.' It is now the turn for Israel to recover, by the pangs of a long abandonment, the humility which had won the divine promises for his fathers, the humility which alone could merit his seeing those promises fulfilled.

By this time, however, the word of salvation has made itself heard throughout all the nations, healing and saving all who desired the blessing. Jesus, who has been delayed on the road, comes at last to the house towards which He first purposed to direct His sacred steps; He reaches, at last, the house of Juda, where the daughter of Sion is in a deep sleep. His almighty compassion drives away from the poor abandoned one the crowd of false teachers and lying prophets, who had sent her into that mortal sleep, by all the noise of their vain babbling: He casts forth for ever from her house those insulters of Himself, who are quite resolved to keep the dead one dead. Taking the poor daughter by the hand, He restores her to life, and to all the charm of her first youth; proving thus, that her apparent death had been but a sleep, and that the long delay of dreary ages could never belie the word of God, which He had given to Abraham, His servant.

Now therefore, let this world hold itself in readiness for its final transformation; for the tidings of the restoration of the daughter of Sion puts the last seal to the accomplishment of the prophecies. It remains now but for the graves to give back their dead. The valley of Josaphat is preparing for the great meeting of the nations; Mount Olivet is once more to have Jesus standing upon it, but this time as Lord and Judge!


Kyrie, eleison!

Wednesday, November 21, 2012

Thanksgiving 2012





Just a reminder. Pope Pius XII gave us Americans a dispensation for the Friday after Thanksgiving. On this day, we may eat turkey leftovers. But, remember, it's just for this Friday! And, pray for his soul that he be made a saint. Have a Happy Thanksgiving. Give thanks for your family and for the Faith.

Saturday, November 17, 2012

The Catholic Knight: Boycott the CCHD -- Don't Give a Dime!!!

The Catholic Knight: Boycott the CCHD -- Don't Give a Dime!!!: THE CATHOLIC KNIGHT: Please pass this video on to every single Catholic you know and beg them (if necessary) to watch this.

25th Sunday after Pentecost/6th after Epiphany


Tomorrow is the 25th Sunday after Pentecost, or, the 6th after Epiphany. Either way, we are nearing the beginning of Advent 2012. We hear about the mustard tree, being the smallest in size by its seed, yet, becoming a very substantial tree after maturation. This, of course, represents the Church. The Catholic Church, in particular. It started out the smallest of religions, yet has become the largest believing community in the world. Of course, the muslims are increasing at an alarming rate. Soon, we will have the opportunity to become martyrs for the Faith. The word martyr means 'witness'. Will we be a witness for Christ and His Church or not?

25th Sunday after Pentecost (6th after Epiphany)

This year there are 26 Sundays after Pentecost. Therefore on the 24th Sunday, the mass for the 5th Sunday after Epiphany was celebrated; on the 25th Sunday, the mass for the 6th Sunday after Epiphany; and on the 26th Sunday, the mass for the last Sunday after Pentecost.



For the 4th, 5th and 6th Sundays after the Epiphany, when they are used after Pentecost, the chanted propers of the mass - Introit, Gradual, Alleluia, Offertory, and Communion - are repetitions of those for the 23rd Sunday after Pentecost.




The Gospel brings out again the divinity of Christ. Jesus is God, for He reveals to us "things hidden from the foundation of the world." HIs word, compared by Him to a small seed cast into the field of the world, and to a little leaven put in the lump, is divine, for it stills our passions and produces in our hearts the wonders of faith, hope and charity of which the Epistle speaks. The Church, stirred to greater effort by the word of Christ, is admirably represented by these three measures of meal that the energy of fermentation has "wholly leavened" and by the mustard plant, the largest of its kind, where the birds of heaven gladly come for shelter.


Praesta, quaesumus, omnípotens Deus: ut, semper rationabília meditántes, quae tibi sunt plácita, et dictis exsequámur et factis.
Grant, we beseech Thee, almighty God, that ever meditating on the truths Thou hast proposed for our intelligence, we may in every word and work of ours, do that which is pleasing to Thee.
(Collect)

Saturday, November 10, 2012

A sad day indeed/24th Sunday after Pentecost



Well, we're all set for our country as we used to know it, to fully become socialistic. The 'Spawn of Satan' has won re-election, and he now has free reign to totally destroy our beloved nation. What a disaster! Get ready for our country to become 'Amerika'! Those who call themselves 'catholic' are much to blame, especially including the bishops, who are supposed to teach us the entire Truth. They are suppose to tell us that whoever votes for anyone who supports abortion and same-sex marriages have, in fact, excommunicated themselves from the Church. They have failed completely! Good luck to them when they croak.

And now, on to this upcoming Sunday, the 24th after Pentecost. We hear about the end of the world. How coincidental! Does anyone else feel that we have reached that low spot? Do NOT! accept the mark of the Beast! It will destroy your soul!



St. Paul tells us not to despair:

Brethren: We have been praying for you unceasingly, asking that you may be filled with knowledge of God's Will, in all spiritual wisdom and understanding. May you walk worthily of God and please Him in all things, bearing fruit in every good work and growing in the knowledge of God. May you be completely strengthened through His glorious power unto perfect patience and long-suffering; joyfully rendering thanks to God the Father, Who has made us worthy to share the lot of the saints in light. He has rescued us from the power of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of His beloved Son, in Whom we have our redemption, through His Blood, the remission of sins.

Our beloved Abbot Gueranger adds:

Thanksgiving and Prayer! There we have the epitome of our Epistle, and an eloquent conclusion to the Apostle's course of instructions: it is also both summary and conclusion of the Year of the Sacred Liturgy. The Doctor of the Gentiles has been zealous beyond measure in his fulfillment of the task assigned to him by Holy Mother Church. Of a certainty, the fault is not his if the souls he undertook to guide, on the morrow of the descent of the Spirit of Love, have not all reached the summit of perfection, which he longed we should all get up to! Those who have gone bravely forward in the path which, a year ago, was opened out to them by Holy Mother Church, now know, by a happy experience, that this path most surely lead them to the life of Union, where Divine charity reigns supreme! Who is there that, with anything like earnestness, has allowed his mind and heart to take an interest in the several Liturgical Seasons, which have been brought before us and celebrated by the Church during the past twelve months, has not also felt an immense increase of light imparted to him? Now light is that indispensible element, which delivers us from the power of darkness, and translates us, by the help of God, into the Kingdom of the Son of His love. The work of redemption, which this His beloved Son came down upon earth to accomplish for His Father's glory, could not do otherwise than make progress in those who have, with more or less fervor, entered into the spirit of His Church during the whole Year, that is, from the opening of Advent right up to these the closing days of the sacred Cycle. All of us then, whosoever we may be, should give thanks to this Father of Lights (James 1: 17), Who hath made us worthy to be partakers, somewhat at least, of the lot of the Saints.

So then, all of us—be the share of such participation what it may—yes, all of us must pray that the excellent gift (Ibid.), which has been put into our hearts, may fervently yield itself to the still richer development, which the coming new Cycle is intended to produce within us.

The just man cannot possibly remain stationary in this world—he must either descend or ascend; and whatever may be the degree of perfection to which grace has led him, he must be ever going still higher, as long as he is left in this life (Ps. 83: 6). The Colossians, to whom the Apostle was writing, had fully received the Gospel: the word of truth, which had been sown in them, had produced abundant fruit in faith, hope and charity (Col. 1: 4-6); and yet instead of relenting, on that account, his solicitude in their regard, it is precisely for that reason (Ibid. 9), that St. Paul, who had prayed for them up to then, ceases not to go on praying for them. So let us do—let us go on praying. Let us beg of God, that He will again and always, fill us with His Divine Wisdom, and with the Spirit of Understanding. We need all that in order to correspond with His merciful designs. If the new Year of the Church, which is so soon to begin, find us faithful and making fresh progress, we shall be repaid with new aspects of truth in the garden of the Spouse, and the fruits we shall produce there will be more plentiful and far sweeter than in any bygone year. Therefore let us make up our minds to walk worthy of God, "with dilated hearts" (Rule of St. Benedict), and bravely—for the eye of His His approving love will be ever upon us, as we toil along. Oh, yes; let us run on in that uphill path, which will lead us to eternal repose in the Beatific Vision!

Sunday, November 4, 2012

23rd Sunday after Pentecost, nearing the end



This was last week's post, and I don't know why it didn't go in!? Anyway, I hope it goes before this week's post. However, it might come first. I don't know. I've been on vacation.

This is the 23rd Sunday after Pentecost. We're getting close to the end of the Liturgical year, and our Gospel gives us a hint to what is to come. In the Gospel of St. Matthew, we hear of the ruler whose daughter has died, and of the woman with the blood issue and hoping to even touch His garment.

St. Jerome tells us, in the homily selected for the day, that the hemorrhoissa, healed by our Lord, 'is a type of the Gentile world; whilst the Jewish people is represented by the daughter of the ruler of the Synagogue. This latter is not to be restored to life until the former has been cured; and this is precisely the mystery we are so continually commemorating during these closing weeks of the liturgical year, viz., the fullness of the Gentiles recognizing and welcoming the divine Physician, and the blindness of Israel at last giving way to the light.'

Let us ask our Lord to enlighten us to recognize the Truth and act accordingly.

Lord, have mercy.

Thursday, November 1, 2012

All Saints Day


Today is All Saints day. We are currently in Petaluma, California. We have found a chapel called St. Vincent Home for Boys in Marinwood, CA. They have a celebration for this day. If I can figure out how to enter any pictures of this place, I will enter them. It looks like an awesome place.

Anyway, this is the day we honor all those who have actually made it into eternal happiness. Good for them. I hope people I know are there. I hope a dream I had years ago is true. I saw my mom get her crown placed on her head by Jesus on one side and His Mother Mary on the other. Then the vision immediately left. It was a really different feeling.

The Mass was a High one. It was beautiful. Even sang the litany for All Saints in Latin at the end. Incredible! I guess I'll have to post pictures when we get home. Tomorrow we go to Vegas, where many prayers are needed.