Tomorrow is the 3rd Sunday after Pentecost. This year it also coincides with the day set aside to honor the holy Apostles Peter and Paul. We know that Peter is the head of the Church on earth; however, protestants seem to think that Paul should have been the first leader of the Church. They'll never get it; the Church had been in existence for many years before Paul showed up to persecute those pesky Christians, or Nazareans, or whatever the non-believers called them. After his conversion, it was still a long time before Paul even saw Peter. He knew that Peter was the head. These two were martyred on the same day in the year 67A.D. Peter was crucified like Christ. However, since he didn't want to be crucified exactly like Christ, he asked his executioners to be placed upside down. He was. Paul, being a Roman citizen, was beheaded. These two are the pillars of the early Church, and we should emulate them. A prayer concerning them is later.
Now, on to this Sunday's thoughts. We should be hearing about being a soldier of Christ, and how to give all we have to promote the Truth. The world's bishops are doing their best to stifle the old Rite, so I'm not really sure what we will get ! Or, more likely, they don't care; except to push their agenda, which will entail at least getting all the Masses on the same calendar. This will be the start of them trying to end the Mass of all ages! They don't seem to mess with all of the other Rites within the fold, just the Traditional one. Shame on them! They will answer some day, however. Just sayin'.
In a short side note; Here's a good example. I just this week contacted our local Bishop, concerning the 'dress' of those attending the 'new' Mass. You know, the shorts, the sun dresses, halter tops, etc. I mentioned to him that the respect due to our Lord in the tabernacle and in the Eucharist was sorely lacking, as well as being an occasion of sin to those of us who are weak. He pretty much said that he would rather have the people going to Mass instead of correcting them and maybe losing them because they got corrected. He said that the priests are in charge of this correction, even though he is the head priest in the diocese. I answered him back that as a successor of the Apostles that it was his duty to get the ball moving and instruct us as children of God and his 'spiritual children', as it were. His response pretty much said that he didn't like being chastised. All I can say further is: "Good luck with that opinion when you go to the Eternal Judge at your demise." Anyway, moving on:
This Sunday should be about when our first Holy Father, Peter, warns us in his Epistle to be on our toes. He tells us how the devil is to be going around the world seeking souls he can destroy. Up til now, we have learned about Christ, His Heart; His being in the Holy Eucharist; how He is the Bread that has come down from heaven to nourish us. The Holy Ghost has now come to teach us what we need to know. But first, we need to be clean of heart and seek the Eternal Truth, which we need to reach our end goal, heaven. Now, with this knowledge, we are to become soldiers for Christ. From this moment, NOTHING will come easy!
GOOD SOLDIERS OF CHRIST
"A good soldier of Jesus Christ." 2 Timothy 2:3
This is quite additional to the preceding titles. A servant, a disciple, a friend, may become a soldier. But it is a new relationship. It requires peculiar qualities. It imposes peculiar duties. To be a soldier, implies exposure, contest, difficulty. To be a good soldier, implies also courage, fidelity, and success. Let me consider some of the attributes of a good soldier of Jesus Christ. He is one of the great army of the living God. He is engaged in a most important warfare. He has set up his standard toward Zion. He must press on through all opposition, to his glorious end. He will be made a conqueror through the Lord Jesus Christ, Who gives him the victory. Am I such a soldier of Christ?
2. A good soldier must have true COURAGE. Ah, how important is this for me! I have many enemies to meet. My enemies are the enemies of Christ. I must continually contend if I would conquer at last. These enemies are temptations around, that would lead me away, or drive me back from my Savior. Evil propensities and habits of thought within, that would entangle and harass me. Evil men who surround me, and oppress me with their hostility to my Lord. The more faithful I am, the more my enemies will multiply, and the more earnestly they will oppose. If I am indolent and careless in my life, they will not trouble me. If they can make me a traitor, or induce me to desert my Master's cause, they will have accomplished their end. But if I strive to do my Master's will, and to follow him truly and fully, then my enemies seem more hostile, and more bitter, and more multiplied. When I would do good, evil is present with me. But what then? Why, I ought to be the more bold and the more decided as a soldier. I must fight on. There is no other path. I see my great Leader before me, and I must follow after him. Soon the contest will be over, and then the victory will be mine. I am resolved rather to displease and to forsake all others, than to forsake or deny my glorious Lord.
3. A good soldier must ENDURE HARDNESS. It is a hard life. The soldier has much to bear--sometimes very much. He must endure suffering without murmuring. His power of endurance is often the very means of his victory. The warfare in which I am engaged, may require me to bear much. It may be long and very trying. But my mind must be fixed and strengthened to bear even to the end. My great Leader, the Captain of my salvation, goes before me. He has endured the cross and despised the shame. Let me follow him to the end. I would make no terms with him for my obedience. I would go with him through all. Patiently abide his will. Resist even unto blood, striving against sin. And allow nothing to separate me from the service or love of my glorious Master and Lord. Other soldiers have freely laid down their lives upon the field. I desire to be willing to do so, if my Lord requires and appoints. Come what will come, by his strength, I am resolved to abide by him.
4. A good soldier has a confident HOPE OF TRIUMPH. He never is despondent. He fights not as uncertainly. He is saved and strengthened by hope. In all human contests there is great uncertainty. But in our warfare there is none. Our Captain has already triumphed. We follow him to the fruits of his own victory. We are sure of success by his power. This hope is an anchor to the soul. The warfare may now be very dark and discouraging. Circumstances and probabilities may be all against me. But God gives me the victory. The crown is certain. The kingdom is sure. And he appoints the darkest as well as the brightest periods of the battle. We cannot be overcome, if we stand our ground. Oh let me never flee, nor be discouraged. I would be found faithful, earnest, engaged, devoted. I have one voice to hear, and one Master to follow. I may lose all beside. It is of little consequence. Whatever can live with Christ, I shall get again in that great day. Oh let me never lose my interest in Christ himself.
5. I am a soldier of Christ. And thus I have enlisted myself for life. And with courage, endurance, and hope, I will press forward. I may not have to fight long. But I will fight faithfully. Let me rest upon his power. Let me give myself up to his care. Let me prize him even as chief among ten thousand. In his favor is life, and his loving-kindness is better than life. He will be my strength and my salvation.
We're soldiers fighting for our God,
Let trembling cowards fly–
We'll stand unshaken, firm, and fixed,
With Christ to live and die.
Let devils rage, and hell assail,
We'll fight our passage through;
Let foes unite, and friends desert,
We'll seize the crown in view.
As our beloved Abbot Gueranger states:
The miseries of this present life are the test to which God puts His soldiers; He passes judgment upon them, and classifies them, according to the degree of courage they have shown. Therefore is it, that we all have our share of suffering. The combat has commenced. God is looking on, watching how each of us comports himself. The day is not far off, when the Judge will pass sentence on the merits of each combatant, and award to each one the recompense he has won. Combat now; peace and rest and a crown, then. Happy they who, during these days of probation, have recognized the mighty hand of God in all the trials they have had, and have humbled themselves under its pressure, lovingly and confidingly! Against such Christians, who have been strong in faith, the roaring lion has not been able to prevail. They were sober, they were watchful, during this their pilgrimage. They were fully convinced of this, that every one has to suffer in the present life; they therefore never sighed and moaned, as though they were the only sufferers; they did not assume the attitude of victims, and call it resignation; but they took each trial as it came, and, without talking to every one about it, they quietly and joyously united it with the sufferings of Christ. O true Christians! you will be joyous for all eternity, when there will be made the manifestation of that eternal glory in Christ Jesus, which He will pass on to you, that you may share it with Him forever!
May God, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit have mercy on us and strengthen us til our appointed hour. Amen
The following hymn was written by a Sicilian woman named Elpis, concerning the two great Apostles, St. Peter and St. Paul. The last part is attributed to St. Paulinus of Aquileia, and added by St. Pius V:
Lo! beauteous light eternal floods with sacred fires this golden day, which crowns the princes of Apostles and opens out unto the guilty a free path to heaven.
The teacher of the whole earth, as well as the doorkeeper of heaven, both of them fathers of Rome and judges of nations, each a victor of death, the one by the sword, the other by the cross: laurel-crowned, both take their seats in the senate of eternal life.
O happy Rome, by noble gore of princes twain art thou now consecrated; empurpled by the blood of such as these, thou alone dost surpass in beauty all the rest of the earth.
To the Trinity in Unity that governeth all things through ages of ages, may there be eternal glory, honour, power, and jublilation. Amen.
The Solemnity of Sts. Peter and Paul
Saint Augustine of Hippo
Early Church Father & Doctor of the Church
Peter and Paul - June 29This piece on Sts. Peter and Paul is an excerpt from a sermon (Sermo 295, 1-2, 4, 7-8; PL 38, 1348-1352) by St. Augustine, bishop of Hippo, who died in the year 430AD. It is used in the Roman Office of Readings for the Solemnity of Sts. Peter and Paul on June 29 and shows that as early as the fourth century, Christians celebrated this day in honor of these two apostles and martyrs who laid down their lives for Christ in the Eternal City.
'This day has been consecrated for us by the martyrdom of the blessed apostles Peter and Paul. It is not some obscure martyrs we are talking about. "Their sound has gone out into all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world" (Psalm 19). These martyrs had seen what they proclaimed, they pursued justice by confessing the truth, by dying for the truth.
The blessed Peter, the first of the Apostles, the ardent lover of Christ, who was found worthy to hear, "And I say to you, that you are Peter" (Matthew 16:13-20). He himself, you see, had just said, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." Christ said to him, "And I say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church." Upon this rock I will build the faith you have just confessed. Upon your words, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God," I will build my Church; because you are Peter. Peter comes from petra, meaning a rock. Peter, Peter comes from the word for a rock in exactly the same way as the name Christian comes from Christ.
Before his passion the Lord Jesus, as you know, chose those disciples of his whom he called apostles. Among these it was only Peter who almost everywhere was given the privilege of representing the whole Church. It was in the person of the whole Church, which he alone represented, that he was privileged to hear, "To you will I give the keys of the kingdom of heaven." After all, it is not just one man that received these keys, but the Church in its unity. So this is the reason for Peter’s acknowledged pre-eminence, that he stood for the Church’s universality and unity, when he was told, "To you I am entrusting," what has in fact been entrusted to all. To show you that it is the Church which has received the keys of the kingdom of heaven, listen to what the Lord says in another place to all his apostles: "Receive the Holy Spirit; and immediately afterwards, Whose sins you forgive, they will be forgiven them; whose sins you retain, they will be retained" (John 20:22-23).
Quite rightly, too, did the Lord after his resurrection entrust his sheep to Peter to be fed (Jn. 21: 15-19). It is not, you see, that he alone among the disciples was fit to feed the Lord’s sheep; but when Christ speaks to one man, unity is being commended to us. And he first speaks to Peter, because Peter is the first among the apostles. Do not be sad, Apostle. Answer once, answer again, answer a third time. Let confession conquer three times with love, because self-assurance was conquered three times by fear. What you had bound three times must be loosed three times. Loose through love what you had bound through fear. And for all that, the Lord once, and again, and a third time, entrusted his sheep to Peter.
There is one day for the passion of two apostles. But these two also were as one; although they suffered on different days, they were as one. Peter went first, Paul followed. We are celebrating a feast day, consecrated for us by the blood of the apostles. Let us love their faith, their lives, their labors, their sufferings, their confession of faith, their preaching.'
When the time in Rome was all for killing these Christians, Peter's followers urged him to flee the city, at least for a while. According to St. Ambrose, Peter set out along the Appian Way. Just as he reached the Capuan gate, Christ suddenly appeared to him as if about to enter the city. 'Lord, whither goest thou?' cried out the apostle. Christ replied: "to Rome, to be there crucified again.' Peter understood his Master; he at once retracted his steps, having now no thought but to await his hour of martyrdom.
According to Abbot Gueranger, Peter started to set everything in order, because he now knew his time was short. He laid his hands on Clement, whose nobility of birth recommended him to the consideration of the Romans, while at the same time his zeal and learning merited the esteem of the faithful, was the one on whom the prince of the Apostles fixed his choice. Clement, then, is the first successor of Peter. His name is mentioned in Paul's letters.
After the Church had been established for years, this was when Paul was converted; he went around and reaffirmed the Faith who had already been converted. Protestants don't know any history. They don't realize that the Church had been around way before Paul came along. He had been a persecutor of these same, so the Church must have already been established. DUH! Like all the saints say: 'if anyone were to read history and realize it, they would be streaming to Rome, where Christ's Church was and is today.'
But, they still do not bow to the Holy, Roman, Catholic, and Apostolic Church, because they think it is the whore of Babylon! IDIOTS! Hopefully they will find out and convert before they croak.
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