VOTE!

Tomorrow is what is called 'SUPER TUESDAY', where a lot of states vote for who they think ought to be in the White House for the next 4 years. Remember, if we vote for someone who supports abortion, we have, in fact, excommunicated ourselves from the Church. You might still be within the walls, but you are outside of the Faith, and are in need of the Rite of Confession. Just sayin'


JUST A NOTE BEFORE VOTING

Just a note to pass along before the voting day is here. I have thought for a long time that the Democratic party is the amoral party. I figured it is time to say it where more people might read it, so here it is. Everything the Democrats seem to champion is against God's wishes: Abortion, same-sex 'marriage', immoral sexual acts, euthanasia, etc. Hopefully, they have time to repent before they meet the Judge. We have to pray for that. And, I know that some Republicans are 'rino's, (Republican in name only); however, for the most part, they still seem to have some morals, even if not Catholic ones. All I'm saying is this: "Don't drink the koolaid of the democrats. It will leave a bad taste in your mouth, and possible cause the loss of your soul." Take some time and really think about your vote.

Following is this picture I found, and it pretty much sums up some things. Not just for her, but also for those who think like her.

Not that our vote matters anymore; since everything is now electronic and easy to manipulate (I know this since I was in programming for a time), but we have to keep on trying!


Voting the Catholic way, WAKE UP PEOPLE!

Voter’s Guide for Serious Catholics

This voter’s guide helps you cast your vote in an informed manner consistent with Catholic moral teaching. It helps you avoid choosing candidates who endorse policies that cannot be reconciled with moral norms that used to be held by all Christians.

On most issues that come before voters or legislators, the task is selecting the most effective strategy among several morally good options. A Catholic can take one side or the other and not act contrary to the faith. Most matters do not have a "Catholic position." I know that the pickings are slim, and that having a Catholic viewpoint on things gets you labelled, but here goes.

But some issues concern 'non-negotiable' moral principles that do not admit of exception or compromise. One’s position either accords with those principles or does not. No one endorsing the wrong side of these issues can be said to act in accord with the Church’s moral norms, or be in good standing with the Judge!

This voter’s guide identifies five issues involving 'non-negotiable' moral values in current politics and helps you narrow down the list of acceptable candidates, whether they are running for national, state, or local offices.

You should avoid to the greatest extent possible voting for candidates who endorse or promote intrinsically evil policies. As far as possible, you should vote for those who promote policies in line with the moral law.
This statement takes into account those who call themselves 'catholic', but don't have a clue of what Catholic teaching truly is.

In many elections there are situations where all of the available candidates take morally unacceptable positions on one or more of the 'non-negotiable' issues.

In such situations, a citizen will be called upon to make tough choices. In those cases, citizens must vote in the way that will most limit the harm that would be done by the available candidates.

In this guide we will look first at the principles that should be applied in clear-cut races where there is an unambiguously good moral choice. These same principles help lay the groundwork for what to do in situations that are more difficult.

Knowing the principles that are applied in ideal situations is useful when facing problematic ones, so as you review the principles you should keep in mind that they often must be applied in situations where the choice is more difficult. At the end of the guide I will attempt to offer practical advice about how to decide to cast your vote in those cases.

YOUR ROLE AS A CATHOLIC VOTER

Catholics have a moral obligation to promote the common good through the exercise of their voting privileges. It is not just civil authorities who have responsibility for a country. "Service of the common good require[s] citizens to fulfill their roles in the life of the political community". This means citizens should participate in the political process at the ballot box.

But voting cannot be arbitrary. "A well-formed Christian conscience does not permit one to vote for a political program or an individual law that contradicts the fundamental contents of faith and morals". A citizen’s vote most often means voting for a candidate who will be the one directly voting on laws or programs. But being one step removed from law-making doesn’t let citizens off the hook, since morality requires that we avoid doing evil to the greatest extent possible, even indirectly.

Some things are always wrong, and no one may deliberately vote in favor of them. Legislators, who have a direct vote, may not support these evils in legislation or programs. Citizens support these evils indirectly if they vote in favor of candidates who propose to advance them. Thus, to the greatest extent possible, Catholics must avoid voting for any candidate who intends to support programs or laws that are intrinsically evil. When all of the candidates endorse morally harmful policies, citizens must vote in a way that will limit the harm likely to be done.

FIVE NON-NEGOTIABLE TOPICS:

These five current issues concern actions that are intrinsically evil and must never be promoted by the law. Intrinsically evil actions are those that fundamentally conflict with the moral law and can never be deliberately performed under any circumstances. It is a serious sin to deliberately endorse or promote any of these actions, and no candidate who really wants to advance the common good will support any action contrary to the non-negotiable principles involved in these issues.

1. Abortion

The Church teaches that, regarding a law permitting abortions, it is "never licit to obey it, or to take part in a propaganda campaign in favor of such a law, or to vote for it". Abortion is the intentional and direct killing of an innocent human being, and therefore it is a form of homicide. We MUST pray for the so-called 'Catholic' politicians who support this, so that maybe they will repent before they face the Judge!

The unborn child is always an innocent party, and no law may permit the taking of his life. Even when a child is conceived through rape or incest, the fault is not the child’s, who should not suffer death for others’ sins.

2. Euthanasia

Often disguised by the name "mercy killing," euthanasia is a form of homicide. No person has a right to take his own life, and no one has the right to take the life of any innocent person.

In euthanasia, the ill or elderly are killed, by action or omission, out of a misplaced sense of compassion, but true compassion cannot include intentionally doing something intrinsically evil to another person.


3. Embryonic Stem Cell Research

Human embryos are human beings. "Respect for the dignity of the human being excludes all experimental manipulation or exploitation of the human embryo".

Recent scientific advances show that often medical treatments that researchers hope to develop from experimentation on embryonic stem cells can be developed by using adult stem cells instead. Adult stem cells can be obtained without doing harm to the adults from whom they come. Thus there is no valid medical argument in favor of using embryonic stem cells. And even if there were benefits to be had from such experiments, they would not justify destroying innocent embryonic humans.

4. Human Cloning

"Attempts . . . for obtaining a human being without any connection with sexuality through ‘twin fission,’ cloning, or parthenogenesis (a form of asexual reproduction in which growth and development of embryos occur without fertilization), are to be considered contrary to the moral law, since they are in opposition to the dignity both of human procreation and of the conjugal union".

Human cloning also involves abortion because the "rejected" or "unsuccessful" embryonic clones are destroyed, yet each clone is a human being.

5. Homosexual "Marriage"

True marriage is the union of one man and one woman. Legal recognition of any other union as "marriage" undermines true marriage, and legal recognition of homosexual unions actually does homosexual persons a disfavor by encouraging them to persist in what is an objectively immoral and deranged arrangement.

"When legislation in favor of the recognition of homosexual unions is proposed for the first time in a legislative assembly, the Catholic lawmaker has a moral duty to express his opposition clearly and publicly and to vote against it. To vote in favor of a law so harmful to the common good is gravely immoral".


WHICH POLITICAL OFFICES SHOULD I WORRY ABOUT?

Laws are passed by the legislature, enforced by the executive branch, and interpreted by the judiciary. This means you should scrutinize any candidate for the legislature, anyone running for an executive office, and anyone nominated for the bench. This is true not only at the national level but also at the state and local levels.

True, the lesser the office, the less likely the office holder will take up certain issues. Your city council, for example, perhaps will never take up the issue of human cloning but may take up issues connected with abortion clinics. It is important that you evaluate candidates in light of each non-negotiable moral issue that will come before them in the offices they are seeking.

Few people achieve high office without first holding a lower office. Some people become congressional representatives, senators, or presidents without having been elected to a lesser office. But most representatives, senators, and presidents started their political careers at the local level. The same is true for state lawmakers. Most of them began on city councils and school boards and worked their way up the political ladder.

Tomorrow’s candidates for higher offices will come mainly from today’s candidates for lower offices. It is therefore prudent to apply comparable standards to local candidates. One should seek to elect to lower offices candidates who support Christian morality so that they will have a greater ability to be elected to higher offices where their moral stances may come directly into play.


HOW TO DETERMINE A CANDIDATE’S POSITION

1. The higher the office, the easier this will be. Congressional representatives and senators, for example, repeatedly have seen these issues come before them and so have taken positions on them. Often the same can be said at the state level. In either case, learning a candidate’s position can be as easy as reading newspaper or magazine articles, looking up his views on the Internet, or studying one of the many printed candidate surveys that are distributed at election time.

2. It is often more difficult to learn the views of candidates for local offices because few of them have an opportunity to consider legislation on such things as abortion, cloning, and the sanctity of marriage. But these candidates, being local, often can be contacted directly or have local campaign offices that will explain their positions.

3. If you cannot determine a candidate’s views by other means, do not hesitate to write directly to the candidate, asking for his position on the issues covered above.

HOW NOT TO VOTE

1. Do not vote based just on your political party affiliation, your earlier voting habits, or your family’s voting tradition. Years ago, these may have been trustworthy ways to determine whom to vote for, but today they are often not reliable. You need to look at the stands each candidate takes. This means that you may end up casting votes for candidates from more than one party.

2. Do not cast your vote based on candidates’ appearance, personality, or 'media savvy.' Some attractive, engaging, and "sound-bite-capable" candidates endorse intrinsic evils, while other candidates, who may be plain-looking, uninspiring, and ill at ease in front of cameras, endorse legislation in accord with basic Christian principles.

3. Do not vote for candidates simply because they declare themselves to be Catholic. Unfortunately, many self-described Catholic candidates reject basic Catholic moral teaching. They have, in fact, excommunicated themselves from the Church, but they're still here.

4. Do not choose among candidates based on "What’s in it for me?" Make your decision based on which candidates seem most likely to promote the common good, even if you will not benefit directly or immediately from the legislation they propose.

5. Do not vote for candidates who are right on lesser issues but will vote wrongly on key moral issues. One candidate may have a record of voting in line with Catholic values except for, say, euthanasia. Such a voting record is a clear signal that the candidate should not be chosen by a Catholic voter unless the other candidates have voting records even less in accord with these moral norms.

HOW TO VOTE

1. For each office, first determine how each candidate stands on each of the issues that will come before him and involve non-negotiable principles.

2. Rank the candidates according to how well their positions align with these non-negotiable moral principles.

3. Give preference to candidates who do not propose positions that contradict these principles.

4. Where every candidate endorses positions contrary to non-negotiable principles, choose the candidate likely to do the least harm. If several are equal, evaluate them based on their views on other, lesser issues.

5. Remember that your vote today may affect the offices a candidate later achieves.

WHAT TO DO WHEN THERE IS NO "ACCEPTABLE" CANDIDATE

In some political races, each candidate takes a wrong position on one or more issues involving non-negotiable moral principles. In such a case you may vote for the candidate who takes the fewest such positions or who seems least likely to be able to advance immoral legislation, or you may choose to vote for no one.

A vote cast in such a situation is not morally the same as a positive endorsement for candidates, laws, or programs that promote intrinsic evils: It is only tolerating a lesser evil to avoid an even greater evil. As Pope John Paul II indicated regarding a situation where it is not possible to overturn or completely defeat a law allowing abortion, "an elected official, whose absolute personal opposition to procured abortion was well known, could licitly support proposals aimed at limiting the harm done by such a law and at lessening its negative consequences at the level of general opinion and public morality".

Catholics must strive to put in place candidates, laws, and political programs that are in full accord with non-negotiable moral values. Where a perfect candidate, law, or program is not on the table, we are to choose the best option, the one that promotes the greatest good and entails the least evil. Not voting may sometimes be the only moral course of action, but we must consider whether not voting actually promotes good and limits evil in a specific instance. The role of citizens and elected officials is to promote intrinsic moral values as much as possible today while continuing to work toward better candidates, laws, and programs in the future.

THE ROLE OF YOUR CONSCIENCE

Conscience is like an alarm. It warns you when you are about to do something that you know is wrong. It does not itself determine what is right or wrong. For your conscience to work properly, it must be properly informed; that is, you must inform yourself about what is right and what is wrong. Only then will your conscience be a trusted guide.

Unfortunately, today many Catholics have not formed their consciences adequately regarding key moral issues. The result is that their consciences do not "sound off" at appropriate times, including on Election Day.

A well-formed conscience will never contradict Catholic moral teaching. For that reason, if you are unsure where your conscience is leading you when at the ballot box, place your trust in the unwavering moral teachings of the Church. (The Catechism of the Catholic Church is an excellent source of authentic moral teaching. Older version is best.)

WHEN YOU ARE DONE WITH THIS VOTER’S GUIDE

Please do not keep this voter’s guide to yourself. Read it, learn from it, and prepare your selection of candidates based on it. Then give this voter’s guide to a friend, and ask your friend to read it and pass it on to others. The more people who vote in accord with basic moral principles, the better off our country will be.

Do we really want this psycho 'poster child of political corruption' in the White House? Think about your soul, and pray for hers.

Aquinas-Monday after 3rd Sunday of Lent

Monday After the Third Sunday

The Passion of Christ has delivered us from the devil.


Our Lord said, as His Passion drew near, "Now shall the princes of this world be cast out. And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all things to myself"(John xii. 31, 32)

He was lifted up from the earth by His Passion on the cross. Therefore by that Passion the devil was driven out from his dominion over men.

With reference to that power, which, before the Passion of Christ, the devil used to exercise over mankind, three things are to be borne in mind.

1. Man had by his sin earned for himself enslavement to the devil, for it was by the devil's temptation that he had been overcome.

2. God, whom man in sinning had offended, had, by his justice, abandoned man to the enslave ment of the devil.

3. The devil by his own most wicked will stood in the way of man s achieving his salvation.

With regard to the first point the Passion of Christ set man free from the devil s power because the Passion of Christ brought about the forgiveness of sin. As to the second point the Passion delivered man from the devil, because it brought about a reconciliation between God and man. As to the third point, the Passion of Christ freed us from the devil s power because in his action during the Passion the devil over-reached himself. He went beyond the limits of the power over men allowed to him by God, when he plotted the death of Christ, upon whom, since he was without sin, there lay no debt payable by death. Whence St. Augustine s words, "The devil was overcome by the justice of Christ. In Him the devil found nothing that deserved death, but, none the less, he slew him. And it was but just that those debtors that the devil detained should go free since they believed in Him whom, though he was under no bond to him, the devil had slain."

The devil still continues to exercise a power over men. He can, God permitting it, tempt them in soul and in body. There is, however, made available for man a remedy in the Passion of Christ, by means of which he can defend himself against these attacks, so that they do not lead him into the destruction of eternal death. Likewise all those who before the Passion of Christ resisted the devil had derived their power to resist from the Passion, although the Passion had not yet been accomplished. But in one point none of those who lived before the Passion had been able to escape the hand of the devil, namely, they all had to go down into hell, a thing from which, since the Passion, all men can, by his power, defend them selves.

God also allows the devil to deceive men in certain persons, times and places, according to the hidden character of His designs. Such, for example, will be anti-Christ. But there always remains, and for the age of anti-Christ too, a remedy prepared for man through the Passion of Christ, a power of protecting himself against the wickedness of the devils. The fact that there are some who neglect to make use of this remedy does not lessen the efficacy of the Passion of Christ.

3rd Sunday of Lent

The Introit of this day's Mass, which begins with the word Oculi, is the prayer of a soul imploring deliverance from the snares of the devil: My eyes are ever towards the Lord: for He shall pluck my feet out of the snare: look thou upon me, and have mercy on me; for I am alone and poor. To Thee, O Lord, have I lifted up my soul: in Thee, O my God, I put my trust, let me not be ashamed. (Ps. xxiv.)

This Sunday is the 3rd Sunday of Lent. We hear about Jesus casting a devil out from a deaf and dumb man. We need to pray for Jesus to cast out the evil spirits in the deaf and dumb men of today. Their number is LEGION. According to our Blessed Abbot Gueranger, concerning the Gospel of today:


'As soon as Jesus had cast out the devil, the man recovered his speech, for the possession had made him dumb. It is an image of what happens to a sinner, who will not, or dare not, confess his sin. If he confessed it, and asked pardon, he would be delivered from the tyranny which now oppresses him. Alas! how many there are who are kept back, by a dumb devil, from making the confession that would save them! The holy season of Lent is advancing; these days of grace are passing away; let us profit by them; and if we ourselves be in the state of grace, let us offer up our earnest prayers for sinners, that they may speak, that is, may accuse themselves in confession and obtain pardon.'

Jesus ends the Gospel reading from St. Luke by saying; "...blessed are they who hear the word of God, and keep it."


I'd like to end with a prayer from the Mozarabic breviary for the beginning of this 3rd week.

'Having now passed the fourteenth day of this season, which forms the tithe of our year, we lift up our eyes to thee, O Lord, who dwellest in heaven. Show mercy to the miserable, and heal them that are wounded. Grant that the journey we have begun may be prosperous. Direct our hearts in the way of thy commandments. Through thee may we find the way of light; through thee, may we be inflamed with the bright burning of thy love. Grant rest to our labours, and a home to us that labour; that having gained thy good pleasure by our observance of these days, we may deserve to be partakers of thy glory.'


Let us pray for the grace to, when we hear the Word of God, keep it.


It is not enough for salvation to hear the word of God, but it must also be fulfilled in action. Because Mary, the tender Mother of Jesus, did this most perfectly, Christ praised her as more happy in it, than in having conceived, borne, and nursed Him.


O Lord Jesus! true Light of the world, enlighten the eyes of my soul, that I may never be induced by the evil one to conceal a sin, from false shame, in the confessional, that on the day of general judgment my sins may not be published to the whole world. Strengthen me, O Jesus, that I may resist the arms of the devil by a penitent life, and especially by scorning the fear of man and worldly considerations, and guard against lapsing into sin, that I may not be lost, but through Thy merits may be delivered from all dangers and obtain heaven.


By the grace of Jesus with which He inwardly enlightens the sinner, so that he becomes keenly aware, that the sins which he has concealed in confession, will one day be known to the whole world, and encourages him to overcome his false shame. "Be not ashamed to confess to one man," says St. Augustine, "that which you were not ashamed to do with one, perhaps, with many." Consider these words of the same Saint: "Sincere confession subdues vice, conquers the evil one, shuts the door of hell, and opens the gates of paradise."



ps. I hope I didn't offend any real deaf and dumb people of the world. Sorry if I did. This is NOT really pertaining to any physical afflictions people might have been blessed with. I am speaking about those who refuse to acknowledge the real Truth when It presents Itself, defend It, and pass It on to the next generation.

pps. I know you realize that I use the writings of the Abbot Gueranger a lot. This is a worthwhile set of books (15) containing the whole Liturgical year. These books have all the Sundays and Holy days, as well as the days of the real Saints. I know he has helped me a lot to know the Truth and pass it on. And, I'd bet anything that he is a real Saint now!

Aquinas-3rd Sunday of Lent

Third Week in Lent Sunday

It is the Passion of Christ that has freed us from sin

'He hath loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood.--Apoc. 1. 5.

'
The Passion of Christ is the proper cause of the remission of our sins, and that in three ways

1.Because it provokes us to love God. St. Paul says, God commendeth his charity towards us; because when as yet we were sinners Christ died for us (Rom. v. 8).

Through charity we obtain forgiveness for sin, as it says in the gospel, Many sins are forgiven her because she hath loved much (Luke vii. 47).

2.The Passion of Christ is the cause of the forgiveness of sins because it is an act of redemption. Since Christ is Himself our head, He has, by His own Passion undertaken from love and obedience delivered us His members from our sins, as it were at the price of His Passion. Just as a man might by some act of goodness done with his hands buy himself off for a wrong thing he had done with his feet. For as man's natural body is a unity, made up of different limbs, so the whole Church, which is the mystical body of Christ, is reckoned as a single person with its own head, and this head is Christ.

3.The Passion of Christ was a thing equal to its task. For the human nature through which Christ suffered His Passion is the instrument of His divine nature. Whence all the actions and all the sufferings of that human nature wrought to drive out sin, are wrought by a power that is divine.

Christ, in His Passion, delivered us from our sins in a causal way, that is to say, He set up for us a thing which would be a cause of our emancipation, a thing whereby any sin might at any time be remitted, whether committed now, or in times gone by, or in time to come: much as a physician might make a medicine from which all who are sick may be healed, even those sick in the years yet to come.

But since what gives the Passion of Christ its excellence is the fact that it is the universal cause of the forgiveness of sins, it is necessary that we each of us ourselves make use of it for the forgiveness of our own particular sins. This is done through Baptism, Penance and the other sacraments, whose power derives from the Passion of Christ.

By faith also we make use of the Passion of Christ, in order to receive its fruits, as St. Paul says, Christ Jesus, whom God hath proposed to be a propitiation, through faith in His blood (Rom. iii 25). But the faith by which we are cleansed from sin is not that faith which can exist side by side with sin--the faith called formless--but faith formed, that is to say, faith made alive by charity. So that the Passion of Christ is not through faith applied merely to our understanding but also to our will. Again, it is from the power of the Passion of Christ that the sins are forgiven which are forgiven by faith in this way.

Some thoughts for this Saturday

Some thoughts to think about. they pretty much pertain to the Gospel for tomorrow, when Jesus heals the deaf/dumb person.




We all have someone in our family who has left the Faith. They might still call themselves Catholic, but their hearts are not in it, and hence, they do not practice the Faith, or have rejected it. It's just not that important to them. My new saying is this: 'Our eternity depends on Jesus Christ, and we have turned our backs to Him.' Following are some thoughts from one who had left the Faith to pursue the pleasures of the world, only to not be satisfied with them and returning to the Ark of Salvation.

“Late have I loved you, O Beauty ever ancient, ever new, late have I loved you! You were within me, but I was outside, and it was there that I searched for you. In my unloveliness I plunged into the lovely things which you created. You were with me, but I was not with you. Created things kept me from you; yet if they had not been in you they would have not been at all. You called, you shouted, and you broke through my deafness. You flashed, you shone, and you dispelled my blindness. You breathed your fragrance on me; I drew in breath and now I pant for you. I have tasted you, now I hunger and thirst for more. You touched me, and I burned for your peace.”

St. Augustine from his Confessions

His conversion is the result of many prayers from his mother, Monica. 30 years of them, in fact.

Go to Mary, and ask St. Monica's prayers also.

Aquinas-Saturday after 2nd Sunday of Lent

Saturday After the Second Sunday

The Passion of Christ wrought our salvation by redeeming us

St. Peter says, "You were not redeemed with corruptible things as gold or silver, from your vain conversation of the tradition of your fathers: but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb unspotted and undefiled"(I Pet. 1. 18).


St. Paul says, "Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us"(Gal. iii. 13). He is said to be accursed in our place inasmuch as it was for us that He suffered on the cross. Therefore by His Passion He redeemed us.

Sin, in fact, had bound man with a double obligation.

(i) An obligation that made him sin's slave. For Jesus said, whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin (John viii. 34). A man is enslaved to whoever overcomes him. Therefore since the devil, in inducing man to sin, had overcome man, man was bound in servitude to the devil.

(ii) A further obligation existed, namely between man and the penalty due for the sin committed, and man was bound in this way in accord with the justice of God. This too was a kind of servitude, for to servitude or slavery it belongs that a man must suffer otherwise than he chooses, since the free man is the man who uses himself as he wills.

Since then the Passion of Christ made sufficient, and more than sufficient, satisfaction for the sins of all mankind and for the penalty due to them, the Passion was a kind of price through which we were free from both these obligations. For the satisfaction itself that by means of which one makes satisfaction, whether for oneself or for another is spoken of as a kind of price by which one redeems or buys back oneself or another from sin and from merited penalties. So in Holy Scripture it is said, Redeem thou thy sins with alms (Dan. iv. 24).

Christ made satisfaction not indeed by a gift of money or anything of that sort, but by a gift that was the greatest of all, by giving for us Himself. And thus it is that the Passion of Christ is called our redemption.

By sinning man bound himself not to God but to the devil. As far as concerns the guilt of what he did, he had offended God and had made himself subject to the devil, assenting to his will.

Hence he did not, by reason of the sin committed, bind himself to God, but rather, deserting God's service, he had fallen under the yoke of the devil. And God, with justice if we remember the offence committed against Him, had not prevented this.

But, if we consider the matter of the punishment earned, it was chiefly and in the first place to God that man was bound, as to the supreme judge. Man was, in respect of punishment, bound to the devil only in a lesser sense, as to the torturer, as it says in the gospel, Lest the adversary deliver thee to the judge and the judge deliver thee to the officer (Matt. v. 25), that is, to the cruel minister of punishments.

Therefore, although the devil unjustly, as far as was in his power, held man whom by his lies he had deceived bound in slavery, held him bound both on account of the guilt and of the punishment due for it, it was nevertheless just that man should suffer in this way. The slavery which he suffered on account of the thing done God did not prevent, and the slavery he suffered as punishment God decreed.

Therefore it was in regard to God's claims that justice called for man to be redeemed, and not in regard to the devil's hold on us. And it was to God the price was paid and not to the devil.

Aquinas-Friday after 2nd Sunday of Lent

Friday After the Second Sunday

Feast of the Holy Winding Sheet

Joseph taking the body, wrapped it up in a clean linen cloth and laid it in his own new monument.-- Matt, xxvii. 59.


By this clean linen cloth three things are signified in a hidden way, namely:

(i) The pure body of Christ. For the cloth was made of linen which by much pressing is made white and in like manner it was after much pressure that the body of Christ came to the brightness of the resurrection. Thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise again from the dead the third day (Luke xxiv. 46).

(ii) The Church, which without spot or wrinkle (Eph. v. 27), is signified by this linen woven out of many threads.

(iii) A clear conscience, where Christ reposes.

And laid him in His own new monument. It was Joseph's own grave and certainly it was some how appropriate that He who had died for the sins of others should be buried in another man's grave.

Notice that it was a new grave. Had other bodies already been laid in it, there might have been a doubt which had arisen. There is another fitness in this circumstance, namely that He who was buried in this new grave, was He who was born of a virgin mother.

As Mary's womb knew no child before Him nor after Him, so was it with this grave. Again we may understand that it is in a soul renewed that Christ is buried by faith, that Christ may dwell by faith in our hearts (Eph. iii. 17).

St. John's Gospel adds,"Now there was in the place where He was crucified, a garden ; and in the garden a new sepulcher"(John xix. 41). Which recalls to us that as Christ was taken in a garden and suffered His agony in a garden, so in a garden was He buried, and thereby we are reminded that it was from the sin committed by Adam in the garden of delightfulness that, by the power of His Passion, Christ set us free, and also that through the Passion the Church was consecrated, the Church which again is as a garden closed.

St. Matthias/Apostle-Martyr

After our Blessed Lord's Ascension His disciples came together, with Mary His mother and the eleven Apostles, in an upper room at Jerusalem. The little company numbered no more than one hundred and twenty souls. They were waiting for the promised coming of the Holy Ghost, and they persevered in prayer. Meanwhile there was a solemn act to be performed on the part of the Church, which could not be postponed. The place of the fallen Judas had to be filled, that the number of the Apostles might be complete. Saint Peter, therefore, as Vicar of Christ, arose to announce the divine decree. What the Holy Ghost had spoken by the mouth of David concerning Judas, he said, must be fulfilled. Of him it had been written, "His bishopric let another take." A choice, therefore, was needed of one among those who had been their companions from the beginning, who could bear witness to the Resurrection of Jesus.



Two were named of equal merit, Joseph called Barsabas, and Mathias. After praying to God, who knows the hearts of all men, to show which of these He had chosen, they cast lots, and the lot fell upon Mathias, who was thereby numbered with the Apostles. It is recorded of the Saint, wonderfully elected to so high a vocation, that he was remarkable for his mortification of the flesh. It was thus that he made his election sure.

Apostle Matthias was born at Bethlehem of the Tribe of Judah. From his early childhood he studied the Law of God under the guidance of St Simeon the God-receiver. His name in Hebrew means 'gift of God'.

He preached in Judea where he was persecuted by both Jews and Gentiles, and died by stoning, a victim of their pursuits, in the year 63. When St Matthias was already dead, the Jews, to hide their malefaction, cut off his head as an enemy of Caesar. His body was taken to Rome by Saint Helena, mother of Constantine, some 250 years later. A church there bears his name.

St. Pope Clement of Alexandria passes on one of this saint's writings: "It behooves us to combat the flesh, and make use of it, without pampering it by unlawful gratifications. As to the soul, we must develop her power by Faith and knowledge."

How profound is the teaching contained in these few words?! Sin has deranged the order which the Creator has established. It gave the outward man such a tendency to grovel in things which degrade him, that the only means left us for the restoration of the Image and likeness of God unto which we were created, is the forcible subjection of the body to the spirit. But the spirit itself, that is, the soul, was also impaired by original sin, and her inclinations were made prone to evil; what is to be her protection? Faith and knowledge. Faith humbles her, and then exalts and rewards her; and the reward is knowledge. Here we have a summary of what the Church teaches us during the two seasons of Septuagesima and Lent. Let us thank the holy Apostle, on this his feast, for leaving us such a lesson of spiritual wisdom and fortitude.


Hymns

Troparion (Tone 3) [1]

O holy Apostle Matthias,
Pray to the merciful God,
That He may grant to our souls
Remission of our transgressions!

Kontakion (Tone 4) [2]

O wonder-worker and Apostle Matthias,
Your words have gone out into all the world,
Enlightening men as the sun,
And giving grace to the Church
Bringing faith to heathen lands!


Following is a sermon from the Russian Orthodox Church:

"The Church of Christ Shall Not Be Impoverished"
Sermon on the feast day of Apostle Matthias

Holy Apostle Matthias, during the earthly life of Christ, was among the seventy disciples, not among the twelve.

This even occurred after the Ascension of the Lord into heaven: During a prayerful gathering, at which some one hundred people were in attendance, Holy Apostle Peter said to all that Judas Iscariot had fallen away from the ranks of the apostles, having become a betrayer, and recalled the words of the 109th psalm, in which the Holy Spirit, through the words of the psalm-singer David, speaks of the unrighteous one: "his bishopric let another take," meaning that another should assume his office. In fulfillment of the words of the psalm, Apostle Peter offered to elect two candidates before the Lord, whom the Lord would then select, and include him among the twelve. Elected were Matthias and Joseph, who was also called Barsabas, and when the Lord, through the drawing of lots, indicated Matthias, he was included among the twelve.

So the number of twelve Apostles of Christ was restored, and Matthias, after the Ascension of the Lord to heaven, took his place on par with the other Apostles in grace and authority, and also, as did they, he preached, healed the sick, performed miracles and suffered for Christ.

It is a profoundly instructive event for us. It teaches us that the Church of Christ shall never be impoverished and shall not remain without the servants it requires. "I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it" (Matt. 16:18), said Christ.

The Church is a spiritual union of all those who keep the true faith, headed by Christ Himself, and its goal is the spiritual perfection of its members. The earthly part of the Church, in preparing its children for passing into the heavenly part, needs pastors and other servants for the achievement of its goal. It will not be prevailed upon by the gates of hell, its grace is inexhaustible and shall never want for that which it needs.

Great is the mercy of God to be called to be among them, but not all who achieve it are worthy, and many who are called are not chosen. It was not only Judas who fell from the ranks of the apostles. From among the first seven deacons appointed by the Apostles, one—Nicholas of Antioch—fell from the Church and became a pagan priest who established his own sect. From the ranks of the seventy disciples, four lapsed from Christianity, but the Church did not suffer this loss and remained whole. The vacated places were taken by those more worthy.

Despite the falling away of Nicholas, the deaconate established itself in the Church and it multiplied, existing to this day.

Despite the falling away of bishops, priests and other servants of the Church in later times, it did not suffer harm, and their places were taken by others.

Nestor, the Patriarch of Constantinople, fell into heresy, and he was replaced by one more worthy, St. Anatolius. Dioscurus of Alexandria fell into monophysitism, other hierarchs fell into other heresies, but the Church remained undamaged, and the places of those who fell away were filled by those more worthy, and often by holy men.

Many clergymen renounced Christ during persecutions, and many even in peaceful times left the priesthood for earthly reasons or for personal weaknesses, departing the life of the cloth to a lay existence.

But whatever the motivations or reasons for this: whether the servants of the Church betrayed the Christian faith or simply left their rank, the Church was never left in need. Those who fell away were always replaced by others, whom no one had even considered before, and upon whom those who departed looked with derision.

God's Church will never lack the number of bishops, priests, deacons, readers, singers and altar boys it needs. For this reason, those who were called to serve at the altar or on the kliros must bear in mind that they must not become unworthy and must not be cast out. The history of the Church shows that the Church does not have indispensable people, and the Holy Spirit will always find another who will take the place of one who becomes unworthy. It is a great mercy of God to be allowed to serve or to help serve in Church, to enter into the earthly heaven—the altar—to approach the holy Mysteries, to sing or intone church prayers.

That is why those who earned that mercy must fulfill their work with reverence, remembering the words of the psalm-singer: "Worship the Lord with reverence and rejoice with trembling" (Ps. 2:11), as well as those other terrible words: "Cursed be the one who does the Lord's work negligently" (Jer. 48:10). "See that ye refuse not him that speaketh," that is, do not turn away from him that speaks to you (Heb. 12:25). "Hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown "(Rev. 3:11).

It is a fearsome thing to become unworthy of the sacred place, or, faltering, to leave it. After departing, many sense what they have lost and desire to return to their previous worthiness, but these doors are closed, as they were for the five unwise virgins.

May the memory of Apostle Matthias and his prayers strengthen us in serving without blemish, so that we do not lose our priestly place on earth, and in heaven that we may be worthy of the Kingdom of God, where even now stands at the Throne of God he who filled the ranks of the twelve, Apostle Matthias.

Aquinas-Thursday after 2nd Sunday of Lent

Thursday After the Second Sunday

That the Passion of Christ brought about its effect
because it was a Sacrifice


A sacrifice properly so called is something done to render God the honour specially due to Him, in order to appease Him. St. Augustine teaches this, saying, "Every work done in order that we may, in a holy union, cleave to God is a true sacrifice every work, that is to say, related to that final good whose possession alone can make us truly happy." Christ in the Passion offered Himself for us, and it was just this circumstance that He offered Himself willingly which was to God the most precious thing of all, since the willingness came from the greatest possible love. Whence it is evident that the Passion of Christ was a real sacrifice.

And as He Himself adds later. The former sacrifices of the saints were so many signs, of different kinds, of this one true sacrifice. This one thing was signified through many things, as one thing is said through many words, so that it may be repeated often without beginning to weary people.

St. Augustine speaks of four things being found in every sacrifice, namely a person to whom the offering is made, one by whom it is made, the thing offered and those on whose behalf it is offered. These are all found in the Passion of Our Lord. It is the same person, the only, true mediator Himself, who through the sacrifice of peace reconciles us to God, yet remains one with Him to whom He offers, who makes one with Him those for whom He offers, and is Himself one who both offers and is offered.

It is true that in those sacrifices of the old law which were types of Christ, human flesh was never offered, but it does not follow from this that the Passion of Christ was not a sacrifice. For although the reality and the thing that typifies it must coincide in one point, it is not necessary that they coincide in every point, for the reality must go beyond the thing that typifies it. It was then very fitting that the sacrifice in which the flesh of Christ is offered for us was typified by a sacrifice not of the flesh of man but of other animals, to foreshadow the flesh of Christ which is the most perfect sacrifice of all. It is the most perfect sacrifice of all.


(i) Because since it is the flesh of human nature that is offered, it is a thing fittingly offered for men and fittingly received by men in a sacrament.

(ii) Because, since the flesh of Christ was able to suffer and to die it was suitable for immolation. (iii) Because since that flesh was itself without sin, it had a power to cleanse from sin.

(iv) Because being the flesh of the very offerer, it was acceptable to God by reason of the unspeakable love of the one who was offering his own flesh.


Whence St. Augustine says, "What is there more suitably received by men, of offerings made on their behalf, than human flesh, and what is so suitable for immolation as mortal flesh? And what is so clean for cleansing mortal viciousness as that flesh born, without stain of carnal desire, in the womb and of the womb of a virgin? And what can be so graciously offered and received as the flesh of our sacrifice, the body so produced of our priest?"

Aquinas-Wednesday after 2nd Sunday of Lent

Wednesday After the Second Sunday

The Passion of Christ brought about our salvation
because it was an act of satisfaction

"He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for those of the whole world".--I John ii. 2.


Satisfaction for offences committed is truly made when there is offered to the person offended a thing which he loves as much as, or more than, he hates the offences committed.

Christ, however, by suffering out of love and out of obedience, offered to God something greater by far than the satisfaction called for by all the sins of all mankind, and this for three reasons. In the first place, there was the greatness of the love which moved Him to suffer. Then there was the worth of the life which He laid down in satisfaction, the life of God and man. Finally, on account of the way in which His Passion involved every part of His being, and of the greatness of the suffering he undertook.

So it is that the Passion of Christ was not merely sufficient but superabundant as a satisfaction for men's sins. It would seem indeed to be the case that satisfaction should be made by the person who committed the offence. But head and members are as it were one mystical person, and therefore the satisfaction made by Christ avails all the faithful as they are the members of Christ. One man can always make satisfaction for another, so long as the two are one in charity.

2. Although Christ, by His death, made sufficient satisfaction for original sin, it is not unfitting that the penal consequences of original sin should still remain even in those who are made sharers in Christ's redemption. This has been done fittingly and usefully, so that the penalties remain even though the guilt has been removed.

(i) It has been done so that there might be conformity between the faithful and Christ, as there is conformity between members and head. Just as Christ first of all suffered many pains and came in this way to His glory, so it is only right that His faithful should also first be subjected to sufferings and thence enter into immortality, themselves bearing as it were the livery of the Passion of Christ so as to enjoy a glory somewhat like to His.

(ii) A second reason is that if men coming to Christ were straightway freed from suffering and the necessity of death, only too many would come to Him attracted rather by these temporal advantages than by spiritual things. And this would be altogether contrary to the intention of Christ, who came into this world that He might convert men from a love of temporal advantages and win them to spiritual things.

(iii) Finally, if those who came to Christ were straightway rendered immortal and impassible, this would in a kind of way compel men to receive the faith of Christ, and so the merit of believing would be lessened.

What if?

Would this slow down his pronouncements? What if he was covered like the TV show 'Under the Dome'?

St. Peter Damian

SAINT PETER DAMIAN
Cardinal Bishop
(988-1072)

St. Peter Damian, born in 988, lost both his parents at an early age. His eldest brother, to whose hands he was left, treated him so cruelly that another brother, a priest, moved by his piteous state, sent him to the University of Parma, where he acquired great distinction. His studies were sanctified by vigils, fasts, and prayers, until at last, thinking that all this was only serving God halfway, he resolved to leave the world. He joined the monks of Fonte Avellano, then in the greatest repute, and by his wisdom and sanctity rose to be Superior.

St. Peter was called upon for the most delicate and difficult missions, among others the reform of ecclesiastical communities, which his zeal accomplished. Seven Popes in succession made him their constant adviser, and he was finally created Cardinal Bishop of Ostia. He withstood Henry IV of Germany, and labored in defense of Pope Alexander II against an antipope, whom he forced to yield and seek pardon. He was charged, as papal legate, with the repression of simony and correction of scandals; again, was commissioned to settle discords amongst various bishops; and finally, in 1072, to adjust the affairs of the Church at Ravenna. He had never paid attention to his health, which was at best fragile, and after enduring violent onslaughts of fever during the night, would rise to hear confessions, preach, or sing solemn Masses, always ready to sacrifice his well-being and life for the salvation of the souls entrusted to him.

Peter was instrumental in propagating many devout practices; among these may be mentioned, fasting on Fridays in honor of the Holy Cross; the reciting of the Little Office of our Lady; and the keeping the Saturday as a day especially devoted to Mary.

After succeeding in this final mission as he ordinarily did, on his journey back to Ostia he was laid low by fever; he died at Faenza, on February 23, in a monastery of his Order, on the eighth day of his sickness, while the monks chanted Matins around him. His relics are kept in the Cisterian Church in Faenza, and is the Patron Saint of it too.

Not only is he called a 'Confessor' and Bishop, but Pope Leo XII added to his name the title of Doctor of the Church.

A quote from this Saint: "It is not sinners, but the wicked who should despair; it is not the magnitude of one's crime, but contempt of God that dashes ones hopes."

Aquinas-Tuesday after 2nd Sunday of Lent

Tuesday After the Second Sunday

The Passion of Christ brought about our salvation
because it was a meritorious act

They shall deliver Him to the Gentiles to be mocked, and scourged and crucified.--Matt. xx. 19.


Grace was given to Christ not only as to a particular person, but also as far as He is the head of the Church, in order that the grace might pass over from Him to His members. And the good works Christ performed, therefore, stand in this same way in relation to Him and to His members, as the good works of any other man in a state of grace stand to himself.

Now it is evident that any man who, in a state of grace, suffers for justice sake, merits for himself, by this very fact alone, salvation. As is said in the gospel, Blessed are they that suffer persecution for justice sake (Matt. v. 10). Whence Christ by His Passion merited salvation not only for Himself but for all His members.

Christ, indeed, from the very instant of His conception, merited eternal salvation for us. But there still remained certain obstacles on our part, obstacles which kept us from possessing ourselves of the effect of what Christ had merited. Wherefore, in order to remove these obstacles, it behoved Christ to suffer (Luke xxiv. 46).

Now although the love of Christ for us was not increased in the Passion, and was not greater in the Passion than before it, the Passion of Christ had a certain effect which His previous meritorious activity did not have. The Passion produced this effect not on account of any greater love shown thereby, but because it was a kind of action fitted to produce that effect, as is evident from what has been said already on the fitness of the Passion of Christ.

Head and members belong to one and the same person. Now Christ is our head, according to His divinity and to the fullness of Hhis grace which overflows upon others also. We are His members. What Christ then meritoriously acquires is not something external and foreign to us, but, by virtue of the unity of the mystical body, it over flows upon us too (3 Dist. xviii. 6).

We should know, too, that although Christ by His death acquired merit sufficient for the whole human race, there are special things needed for the particular salvation of each individual soul, and these each soul must itself seek out. The death of Christ is, as it were, the cause of all salvation, as the sin of the first man was the cause of all condemnation. But if each individual man is to share in the effect of a universal cause, the universal cause needs to be specially applied to each individual man.

Now the effect of the sin of the first parents is transmitted to each individual through his bodily origin (i.e., through his being a bodily descendant of the first man). The effect of the death of Christ is transmitted to each man through a spiritual rebirth, a re-birth in which man is, as it were, conjoined with Christ and incorporated with Him.

Therefore it is that each individual must seek to be born again through Christ, and to receive those other things in which works the power of the death of Christ.

St. Peter's chair at Antioch

St. Peter's Chair at Antioch (ca. 36-43)

We are called upon, a second time, to honor St. Peter's chair: first, it was his pontificate in Rome; today, it is his episcopate at Antioch. This picture is called 'The Great Chalice of Anitoch'. It is said that this is the one used by Peter himself while there. Antioch was the first city in Asia to receive the Faith. Jerusalem was doomed to destruction for having not only refused to acknowledge, but even crucify the Messiah. It was time for Peter to deprive that faithless city of the honor she had enjoyed, of possessing with her walls the chair of the Apostolate. Accordingly, it is in Antioch, the third capital of the Roman Empire (after Rome and Alexandria), that Peter first places the throne, where he was to preside over the universal Church. NOTE: This is not a physical chair, but the office, because, as St. Ambrose says: "Where Peter is, there is the Church." And again from Evodius, the successor of Peter in Antioch, says: "...but that see is not to inherit the headship of the Church, which goes wherever Peter goes."

That Saint Peter, before he went to Rome, founded the see of Antioch is attested by many Saints of the earliest times, including Saint Ignatius of Antioch and Saint Clement, Pope. It was just that the Prince of the Apostles should take under his particular care and surveillance this city, which was then the capital of the East, and where the Faith so early took such deep roots as to give birth there to the name of 'Christian'. There his voice could be heard by representatives of the three largest nations of antiquity - the Hebrews, the Greeks and the Latins. Saint Chrysostom says that Saint Peter was there for a long period; Saint Gregory the Great, that he was seven years Bishop of Antioch. He did not reside there at all times, but governed its apostolic activity with the wisdom his mandate assured.

If as tradition affirms, he was twenty-five years in Rome, the date of his establishment at Antioch must be within three years after Our Savior's Ascension, for he would have gone to Rome in the second year of Claudius. He no doubt left Jerusalem when the persecution which followed Saint Steven's martyrdom broke out (Acts 8:1), and remained in Antioch until he escaped miraculously from prison and from the hands of Herod Agrippa, while in Jerusalem in 43 at the time of the Passover. (Acts 12) Knowing he would be pursued to Antioch, his well-known center of activity, he went to Rome.

In the first ages it was customary, especially in the East, for every Christian to observe the anniversary of his Baptism. On that day each one renewed his baptismal vows and gave thanks to God for his heavenly adoption. That memorable day they regarded as their spiritual birthday. The bishops similarly kept the anniversary of their consecration, as appears from four sermons of Saint Leo the Great on the anniversary of his accession to the pontifical dignity. These commemorations were frequently continued by the people after their bishops' decease, out of respect for their memory. The feast of the Chair of Saint Peter was instituted from very early times. Saint Leo says we should celebrate the Chair of Saint Peter with no less joy than the day of his martyrdom, for as in the latter he was exalted to a throne of glory in heaven, by the former he was installed 'Head of the Church on earth.'

Our beloved Abbot Gueranger chimes in with his prayer:

Glory be to thee, O Prince of the Apostles, on thy chair at Antioch, where thou didst for seven years preside over the Universal Church! How magnificent are the stations of thy apostolate! Jerusalem, Antioch, Alexandria (by the disciple Mark), and Rome, these are the cities which have been honored by thy august chair. After Rome, Antioch was the longest graced by its presence: justly, therefore, do we honor this Church, which was thus made, by thee, the mother and mistress of all the other Churches.

Aquinas-Monday after 2nd Sunday of Lent

Monday After the Second Sunday

It was fitting that our Lord should suffer at the hands of the Gentiles

They shall deliver Him to the Gentiles to be mocked., and scourged and crucified.--Matt. xx. 19.


In the very manner of the Passion of Our Lord its effects are foreshadowed. In the first place, the Passion of Our Lord had for its effect the salvation of Jews, many of whom were baptised in His death.

Secondly, by the preaching of these Jews, the effects of the Passion passed to the Gentiles also. There was thus a certain fitness in Our Lord's Passion beginning with the Jews and then, the Jews handing Him on, that it should be completed at the hands of the Gentiles.

To show the abundance of the love which moved Him to suffer, Christ, on the very cross, asked mercy for His tormentors. And since He wished that Jew and Gentile alike should realise this truth about His love, so He wished that both should have a share in making Him suffer.

It was the Jews and not the Gentiles who offered the figurative sacrifices of the Old Law. The Passion of Christ was an offering through sacrifice, inasmuch as Christ underwent death by His own will moved by charity. But in so far as those who put him to death were concerned, they were not offering a sacrifice but committing a sin.

When the Jews declared, It is not lawful for us to put any man to death (John xix. 31), they may have had many things in mind. It was not lawful for them to put anyone to death on account of the holiness of the feast they had begun to keep. Perhaps they wished Christ to be killed not as a transgressor of their own law but as an enemy of the state, because He had made Himself a king, a charge concerning which they had no jurisdiction. Or again, they may have meant that they had no power to crucify which was what they longed for but only to stone, as they later stoned St. Stephen. Or, the most likely thing of all, that their Roman conquerors had taken away their power of life and death.

2nd Sunday of Lent

This Sunday is the 2nd Sunday of Lent. Let's try to imagine these series of events more closely.

Jesus was about to pass from Galilee into Judea, that He might go up to Jerusalem and be present at the feast of the Pasch. It was that last Pasch, which was begin with the immolation of the figurative lamb, and end with the sacrifice of the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world. Jesus would like to have His disciples know Him. His works had borne testimony to Him, even before those who were, in a manner, strangers to Him; but as for His disciples, had they not every reason to be faithful to Him, even to death? Had they not listened to His words, which had such power with them that they forced conviction? Had they not experienced His love, which it was impossible to resist? And, had they not seen how patiently He had borne with their strange and untoward ways? Yes, they must have known Him. They had heard one of their company, Peter, declare that He was the Christ, the Son of the Living God! Notwithstanding this, the trial to which their faith was soon to be put was such a terrible kind, that Jesus would mercifully arm them against temptation by an extraordinary grace.

The Cross was to be a scandal and a stumbling-block to the Synagogue, and alas to more than it. Jesus said to His apostles at the last Supper: "All of you shall be scandalized in Me this night." Carnal-minded as they then were, what would they think when they should see Him seized by armed men, handcuffed, hurried from one tribunal to another, and doing nothing to defend Himself! And when they found that the high priests and Pharisees, who had hitherto been so often foiled by the wisdom and miracles of Jesus, had now succeeded in their conspiracy against Him, what a shock to their confidence! But there was to be something more trying still: the people, who, but a few days before, greeted Him so enthusiastically with their Hosannas, would demand His execution; and He would have to die, between two thieves, on the Cross, amidst the insults of His triumphant enemies.

Is it not to be feared that these disciples, when they witness His humiliations and sufferings, will lose their courage? They have lived in His company for three years; but when they see that the things He foretold would happen to Him are really fulfilled, will the remembrance of all they have seen and heard keep them loyal to Him? Or will they turn cowards and flee from Him?! Jesus selects three out of the number, who are especially dear to Him: Peter, whom He has made the rock, on which His Church is to be built, and to whom He has promised the keys of the kingdom of heaven; James, the son of thunder, who is to be the first Martyr (witness) of the Apostolic college; and John, James's brother, and His own beloved disciple. Jesus has resolved to take them aside, and show them a glimpse of that glory, which, until the day fixed for its manifestation, He conceals from the eyes of mortals.



His top three Apostles have been privileged to many things, and tomorrow's reading shows it.

GOSPEL (Matt. XVII. 1-9.) At that time, Jesus took Peter, and James, and John his brother, and bringeth them up into a high mountain apart: and he was transfigured before them. And his face did shine as the sun, and his garments became white as snow. And behold, there appeared to them Moses and Elias talking with him. Then Peter answering, said to Jesus: Lord, it is good for us to be here; if thou wilt, let us make here three tabernacles, one for thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elias. And as he was yet speaking, behold a bright cloud overshadowed them, and lo, a voice out of the cloud, saying: "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him." And the disciples hearing, fell upon their face, and were very much afraid. And Jesus came and touched them, and said to them: "Arise, and fear not." And they lifting up their eyes, saw no one, but only Jesus. And as they came down from the mountain, Jesus charged them, saying: "Tell the vision to no man: till the Son of Man be risen from the dead."

They have seen Him transfigured before their eyes, but in a few days will totally deny Him. Our beloved Abbot Gueranger expounds on this:

After the Resurrection our three Apostles made ample atonement for this cowardly and sinful conduct, and acknowledged the mercy wherewith Jesus had sought to fortify them against temptation, by showing them His glory on Mt. Tabor a few days before His Passion. Let us not wait until we have betrayed Him; let us at once acknowledge that He is our Lord and our God. We are soon to be keeping the anniversary of His Sacrifice; like the Apostles, we are to see Him humbled by His enemies and bearing, in our stead, the chastisements of Divine justice. We must not allow our faith to be weakened, when we behold the fulfillment of those prophecies of David and Isias, that the Messias is to be treated as a worm of the earth, and be covered with wounds, so as to become like a leper, the most abject of men, and the Man of sorrows. We must remember the grand things of Mt. Tabor, and the adorations paid Him by Moses and Elias, and the bright cloud, and the Voice of the eternal Father. The more we see His glory and divinity; we must join our acclamations with those of the angels and the twenty four elders, whom St. John, one of the witnesses of the Transfiguration, heard crying out with a loud voice: 'The Lamb that was slain, is worthy to receive power and divinity, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and benediction!'

I want to end with the Collect of tomorrow's Mass:

O God, who seest how destitute we are of all strength, preserve us both within and without, that our bodies may be free from all adversity, and our souls purified from all evil thoughts.

Aquinas-2nd Sunday of Lent

Second Sunday

God the Father Delivered Christ to His Passion

God spared not even His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all.--Rom. viii. 32.


Christ suffered willingly, moved by obedience to His Father. Wherefore, God the Father delivered Christ to His Passion, and this in three ways:

1. Because the Father, of His eternal will, preordained the Passion of Christ as the means whereby to free the human race. So it is said in Isaias, The Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all (Isa. liii. 6), and again, The Lord was pleased to bruise Him in infirmity (ibid. liii. 10).

2. Because He inspired Our Lord with the willingness to suffer for us, pouring into His soul the love which produced the will to suffer. Whence the prophet goes on to say, He was offered because it was His own will (Isa. liii. 7).

3. Because He did not protect Our Lord from the Passion, but exposed him to his persecutors. Whence we read in St. Matthew's Gospel, that as He hung on the cross Christ said, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?"(Matt, xxvii. 46). For God the Father, that is to say, had left him at the mercy of His torturers.

To hand over an innocent man to suffering and to death, against His will, compelling him to die as it were, would indeed be cruel and wicked. But it was not in this way that God the Father handed over Christ. He handed over Christ by inspiring Him with the will to suffer for us. By so doing the severity of God is made clear to us, that no sin is forgiven without punishment undergone, which St. Paul again teaches when he says, God spared not his own Son. At the same time God's good-heartedness is shown in the fact that whereas man could not, no matter what his punishment, sufficiently make satisfaction, God has given man someone who can make that satisfaction for him. Which is what St. Paul means by, He delivered Him up for us all, and again when he says, God hath proposed Christ to be a propitiation, through faith in His blood (Rom. iii. 25). The same activity in a good man and in a bad man is differently judged inasmuch as the root from which it proceeds is different. The Father, for example, delivered over Christ and Christ delivered himself, and this from love, and therefore They are praised. Judas delivered Him from love of gain, the Jews from hatred, Pilate from the worldly fear with which he feared Caesar, and these are rightly regarded with horror. Christ therefore did not owe to death the debt of necessity, but of charity--the charity to men by which He willed their salvation, and the charity to God by which He willed to fulfill God's will, as it says in the gospel, Not as I will but as Thou wilt (Matt, xx vi. 39).

Mary on Ember Saturday

This is Saturday; let us have recourse to Mary, the refuge of sinners. Let us put under her maternal protection the humble penances we are now going through; for this end we may make use of the following sequence, taken from the Cluny missal;

SEQUENCE

Hail Mary, full of grace! dear Mother of Jesus and hope of the world!
O gate of heaven! O temple of God! O heaven of the sea, where sinners confidently seek shelter and repose.

Thou art worthy bride of the great King, and by thy powerful prayers, thou art kind and loving to all.

Thou art light to the blind and a sure path to such as are lame. Thou art, by thy loving affection, both Martha and Mary to the needy.

Thou wast the flower among the thorns; the flower that, by its rich graces. bloomed to the divine Flower, thy Jesus,

Thou didst speak thy word, and then conceivest the Word'; thou didst give birth to the King of kings, thou that wast a pure Virgin.

Thou wast ever faithful to this King, thy Child; and, using a mother's privilege, thou didst feed him at thy breast.

Now, thou art united with him, and in reward for thy merits, thou art made the Queen of heaven and earth.

Then pray for us, 0 Queen, to Him that is our King, beseeching Him to pardon us poor fallen sinners.

Show us thy wonted clemency, and, having obtained us the new life of remission of our sins, bring us to the kingdom, there to reign for ever. Amen.

Aquinas-Saturday after 1st Sunday of Lent

Saturday After First Sunday

The Love of God Shown in the Passion of Christ

God commendeth His charity towards us: because when as yet we were sinners, according to the time, Christ died for us.--Rom. v. 8, 9


1. Christ died for the ungodly (ibid. 6). This is a great thing if we consider who it is that died, a great thing also if we consider on whose behalf He died. For scarce for a just man, will one die (ibid. 6), that is to say, that you will hardly find anyone who will die even to set free a man who is innocent, nay even it is said, The just perisheth, and no man layeth it to heart (Isaias lvii).

Rightly therefore does St. Paul say scarcely will one die. There might perhaps be found one, some one rare person who out of superabundance of courage would be so bold as to die for a good man. But this is rare, for the simple reason that so to act is the greatest of all things. "Greater love than this no man hath, says Our Lord himself, that a man lay down his life for his friends" (John xv. 13).

But the like of what Christ did Himself, to die for evildoers and the wicked, has never been seen. Wherefore rightly do we ask in wonderment why Christ did it.

2. If in fact it be asked why Christ died for the wicked, the answer is that God in this way commendeth His charity towards us. He shows us in this way that He loves us with a love that knows no limits, for while we were as yet sinners Christ died for us.

The very death of Christ for us shows the love of God, for it was His son whom He gave to die that satisfaction might be made for us." God so loved the world, as to give His only begotten Son" (John iii. 16). And thus as the love of God the Father for us is shown in His giving us His Holy Spirit, so also is it shown in this way, by His gift of His only Son.

The Apostle says God commendeth signifying thereby that the love of God is a thing which cannot be measured. This is shown by the very fact of the matter, namely the fact that He gave His Son to die for us, and it is shown also by reason of the kind of people we are for whom He died. Christ was not stirred up to die for us by any merits of ours, when as yet we were sinners. God (who is rich in mercy) for His exceeding charity wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together in Christ (Eph. ii. 4).

3. All these things are almost too much to be believed. A work is done in your days, which no man will believe when it shall be told (Habac. i. 5). This truth that Christ died for us is so hard a truth that scarcely can our intelligence take hold of it. Nay it is a truth that our intelligence could in no way discover. And St. Paul, preaching, makes echo to Habacuc, "I work a work in your days, a work which you will not believe, if any man shall tell it to you "(Acts xiii 14).

So great is God's love for us and His grace towards us, that He does more for us than we can believe or understand.

Aquinas-Friday after 1st Sunday of Lent

Friday After First Sunday

The Feast of the Holy Lance and the Nails of Our Lord

>One of the soldiers with a spear opened His side, and immediately there came out blood and water.--John xix. 34.


1. The gospel deliberately says opened and not wounded, because through Our Lord's side there was opened to us the gate of eternal life. After these things I looked, and behold a gate was opened in heaven (Apoc. iv. i). This is the door opened in the ark, through which enter the animals who will not perish in the flood.

2. But this door is the cause of our salvation. Immediately there came forth blood and water a thing truly miraculous, that, from a dead body, in which the blood congeals, blood should come forth.

This was done to show that by the Passion of Christ we receive a full absolution, an absolution from every sin and every stain. We receive this absolution from sin through that blood which is the price of our redemption. You were not redeemed with corruptible things as gold or silver, from your vain conversation with the tradition of your fathers; but with the precious Blood of Christ as of a Lamb unspotted and undefiled (i Pet. i. 18).

We were absolved from every stain by the water, which is the laver of our redemption. In the prophet Ezechiel it is said, I will pour upon you clean water, and you shall be cleaned from all your filthiness (Ezech. xxxvi. 28), and in Zacharias, There shall be a fountain open to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for the washing of the sinner and the unclean woman (Zach. xiii. i).

And so these two things may be thought of in relation to two of the sacraments, the water to baptism and the Blood to the Holy Eucharist. Or both may be referred to the Holy Eucharist since, in the Mass, water is mixed with the wine. Although the water is not of the substance of the Sacrament.

Again, as from the side of Christ asleep in death on the cross there flowed that Blood and water in which the Church is consecrated, so from the side of the sleeping Adam was formed the first woman, who herself foreshadowed the Church.

Padre Pio-Disposition in Church

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Comportment at Holy Mass and Afterwards

A Letter from St. Padre Pio to Annita Rodote
Pietrelcina, July 25, 1915

From Volume III of Padre Pio's Letters, "Correspondence with his Spiritual Daughters (1915-1923)"

1st edition (English version), Fr. Alessio Parente, O.F.M. Cap., Editor; Edizioni Padre Pio da Pietrelcina,
Our Lady of Grace Capuchin Friary, San Giovanni Rotondo, Italy, 1994, Translated by Geraldine Nolan, pp. 88-92.

Fr. Francesco D. Colacelli, representing the above Friary and publisher, has generously given written permission
". . . to Frank M. Rega to use on his website the citation indicated above."




Beloved daughter of Jesus,

May Jesus and our Mother always smile on your soul, obtaining for it, from Her most holy Son, all the heavenly charisms!

I am writing to you for two reasons: to answer some more questions from your last letter, and to wish you a very happy names-day in the most sweet Jesus, full of all the most special heavenly graces. Oh! If Jesus granted my prayers for you or, better still, if only my prayers were worthy of being granted by Jesus! However, I increase them a hundredfold for your consolation and salvation, begging Jesus to grant them, not for me but through the heart of his paternal goodness and infinite mercy.

In order to avoid irreverence and imperfections in the house of God, in church - which the divine Master calls the house of prayer - I exhort you in the Lord to practice the following.

Enter the church in silence and with great respect, considering yourself unworthy to appear before the Lord's Majesty. Amongst other pious considerations, remember that our soul is the temple of God and, as such, we must keep it pure and spotless before God and his angels. Let us blush for having given access to the devil and his snares many times (with his enticements to the world, his pomp, his calling to the flesh) by not being able to keep our hearts pure and our bodies chaste; for having allowed our enemies to insinuate themselves into our hearts, thus desecrating the temple of God which we became through holy Baptism.

Then take holy water and make the sign of the cross carefully and slowly.

As soon as you are before God in the Blessed Sacrament, devoutly genuflect. Once you have found your place, kneel down and render the tribute of your presence and devotion to Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. Confide all your needs to him along with those of others. Speak to him with filial abandonment, give free rein to your heart and give him complete freedom to work in you as he thinks best.

When assisting at Holy Mass and the sacred functions, be very composed when standing up, kneeling down, and sitting, and carry out every religious act with the greatest devotion. Be modest in your glances; don't turn your head here and there to see who enters and leaves. Don't laugh, out of reverence for this holy place and also out of respect for those who are near you. Try not to speak to anybody, except when charity or strict necessity requests this.

If you pray with others, say the words of the prayer distinctly, observe the pauses well and never hurry.

In short, behave in such a way that all present are edified by it and, through you, are urged to glorify and love the heavenly Father.

On leaving the church, you should be recollected and calm. Firstly take your leave of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament; ask his forgiveness for the shortcomings committed in his divine presence and do not leave him without asking for and having received his paternal blessing.

Once you are outside the church, be as every follower of the Nazarene should be. Above all, be extremely modest in everything, as this is the virtue which, more than any other, reveals the affections of the heart. Nothing represents an object more faithfully or clearly than a mirror. In the same way, nothing more widely represents the good or bad qualities of a soul than the greater or lesser regulation of the exterior, as when one appears more or less modest. You must be modest in speech, modest in laughter, modest in your bearing, modest in walking. All this must be practiced, not out of vanity in order to display one's self, nor out of hypocrisy in order to appear to be good to the eyes of others, but rather, for the internal virtue of modesty, which regulates the external workings of the body.

Therefore, be humble of heart, circumspect in words, prudent in your resolutions. Always be sparing in your speech, assiduous in good reading, attentive in your work, modest in your conversation. Don't be disgusting to anybody but be benevolent towards all and respectful towards your elders. May any sinister glance be far from you, may no daring word escape your lips, may you never carry out any immodest or somewhat free action; never a rather free action or a petulant tone of voice.

In short let your whole exterior be a vivid image of the composure of your soul.

Always keep the modesty of the divine Master before your eyes, as an example; this Master who, according to the words of the Apostle to the Corinthians, placing the modesty of Jesus Christ on an equal footing with meekness, which was his one particular virtue and almost his characteristic: "Now I Paul myself beseech you, by the mildness and modesty of Christ" [Douay-Rheims, 2 Cor. 10:1], and according to such a perfect model reform all your external operations, which should be faithful reflections revealing the affections of your interior.



Never forget this divine model, Annita. Try to see a certain lovable majesty in his presence, a certain pleasant authority in his manner of speaking, a certain pleasant dignity in walking, in contemplating, speaking, conversing; a certain sweet serenity of face. Imagine that extremely composed and sweet expression with which he drew the crowds, making them leave cities and castles, leading them to the mountains, the forests, to the solitude and deserted beaches of the sea, totally forgetting food, drink and their domestic duties.

Thus let us try to imitate, as far as we possibly can, such modest and dignified actions. And let us do our utmost to be, as far as possible, similar to him on this earth, in order that we might be more perfect and more similar to him for the whole of eternity in the heavenly Jerusalem.

I end here as I am unable to continue, recommending that you never forget me before Jesus, especially during these days of extreme affliction for me. I expect the same charity from the excellent Francesca to whom you will have the kindness to give, in my name, assurances of my extreme interest in seeing her grow always more in divine love. I hope she will do me the charity of making a novena of Communions for my intentions.

Don't worry if you are unable to answer my letter for the moment. I know everything so don't worry.

I take my leave of you in the holy kiss of the Lord. I am always your servant.

Fra Pio, Capuchin

Aquinas-Thursday after 1st Sunday of Lent

Thursday After First Sunday

It was fitting that Christ should be Crucified with the Thieves


Christ was crucified between the thieves because such was the will of the Jews, and also because this was part of God's design. But the reasons why this was appointed were not the same in each of these cases.

1. As far as the Jews were concerned Our Lord was crucified with the thieves on either side to encourage the suspicion that he too was a criminal. But it fell out otherwise. The thieves themselves have left not a trace in the remembrance of man, while His cross is everywhere held in honour. Kings laying aside their crowns have broidered the cross on their royal robes. They have placed it on their crowns; on their arms. It has its place on the very altars. Everywhere, throughout the world, we behold the splendour of the cross.

In God's plan Christ was crucified with the thieves in order that, as for our sakes he became accursed of the cross, so, for our salvation, He is crucified like an evil thing among evil things.

2. The Pope, St. Leo the Great, says that the thieves were crucified, one on either side of Him, so that in the very appearance of the scene of His suffering there might be set forth that distinction which should be made in the judgment of each one of us. St. Augustine has the same thought. "The cross itself," he says, "was a tribunal. In the centre was the judge. To the one side a man who believed and was set free, to the other side a scoffer and he was condemned." Already there was made clear the final fate of the living and the dead, the one class placed at His right, the other on His left.

3. According to St. Hilary the two thieves, placed to right and to left, typify that the whole of mankind is called to the mystery of Our Lord's Passion. And since division of things according to right and left is made with reference to believers and those who will not believe, one of the two, placed on the right, is saved by justifying faith.

4. As St. Bede says, the thieves who were crucified with Our Lord, represent those who for the faith and to confess Christ undergo the agony of martyrdom or the severe discipline of a more perfect life. Those who do this for the sake of eternal glory are typified by the thief on the right hand. Those whose motive is the admiration of whoever beholds them imitate the spirit and the act of the thief on the left-hand side.

As Christ owed no debt in payment for which a man must die, but submitted to death of His own will, in order to overcome death, so also He had not done anything on account of which He deserved to be put with the thieves. But of His own will He chose to be reckoned among the wicked, that by His power He might destroy wickedness itself. Which is why St. John Chrysostom says that to convert the thief on the cross and to turn him to Paradise was as great a miracle as the earthquake.

St. Simeon, Bishop/Martyr

St. Simeon, Bishop and Martyr
by Fr. Francis Xavier Weninger, 1876


St. Simeon, whom the Catholic Church commemorates today in Holy Mass and the prayers of the day, was a son of Cleophas. His mother was named Mary, like the Blessed Virgin, and she was, according to the Gospel, also present at the Saviour's death.


There is no doubt that St. Simeon was one of Christ's followers; that he heard His teachings, and saw the many miracles which He wrought. (He was one of the Disciples of Jesus, so he actually saw and heard Him) When the apostles dispersed themselves over the whole world, Simeon remained in Jerusalem, zealously endeavoring, with the Apostle James, the first Bishop of the city, to convert the people. After St. James had suffered martyrdom at the hands of the Jews on account of his confessing Christ, St. Simeon was appointed his successor. He administered this sacred office with truly apostolic fervor, strengthening the Christians in their faith, and leading them in the path of virtue, while he unweariedly preached the crucified Christ to the heathen. On the arrival of the Romans, who besieged, conquered and devastated the city, he, obeying Christ, fled with all the Christians to a small town called Pella, on the other side of the river Jordan. As soon as the Roman legions, after demolishing the city, retired, Simeon returned with his flock. Under these circumstances, the holy Bishop's labor and anxiety for the temporal as well as spiritual welfare of those under his care, was very great. He, however, worked unceasingly, and had the satisfaction to see that the number of the faithful daily increased; and with it their devotion and virtue. To disturb all this, Satan sent several heretics, who, like wolves, forced their way into the fold of Christ, and attempted to seduce the faithful with their false, godless teachings. But St. Simeon, who watched over his flock day and night, refuted so energetically their false doctrines, and exposed the promulgaters of them to so much ignominy, that they were forced to flee away.

In the reign of the Emperor Trajan arose a terrible persecution of the Christians. Those who were of the race of King David were especially sought after, as it was feared that from among them a new Messiah might arise and cause another insurrection. Hence Jews, as well as Christians, who descended from Judah, and whose ancestor was David, were taken captive and beheaded. Amongst those first seized was St. Simeon. It was well known that he was not only a Christian, but even a Bishop, and that he was descended from the suspected race. Consequently, the Jews accused him before the Roman Governor, Atticus. At that period Simeon had already reached his 120th year. Atticus asked him if it was true that he was of the race of Judah, and a follower of Christ of Nazareth. Both questions the Saint answered fearlessly in the affirmative. The Governor assured him that in consideration of his advanced age, no harm should be done him, but that he should be loaded with presents if he would only renounce Christ and sacrifice to the gods of the Empire. The venerable man manifested the greatest horror that any one should dare to make such a request and said: "No, never, in all eternity, will I renounce Christ, nor sacrifice to idols. Your gods have been wicked people, who now burn in hell! Jesus Christ alone is the true God."

This, and much more, Simeon said with so much true dignity that most of those present seemed to be deeply, touched. To keep down this emotion, Atticus ordered that the holy man should be most severely scourged. The order was immediately executed, and the blood of the Saint soon streamed upon the ground. But he stood immovable, giving no sign of despondency but of deep inward joy. The following day they tortured him again in various most barbarous ways, but he evinced the same fortitude, and even joy. Atticus, as well as all others who witnessed it, could not comprehend how a man of his years had strength to endure torments, under which the most powerful hero would have succumbed. But God, who had already given the heathen many examples of Christian heroism, in tender boys and maidens, now showed what, with His grace, an feeble old man could endure, for the glory of the Christian faith. The Governor, desirous to make an end of the scene, sentenced Simeon to be crucified, saying, that as he ceased not to preach Christ, he should die the same ignominious death as Christ. But no kind of death could have been more welcome to this valiant confessor of Christ. Having prayed, he put off his garment, laid himself upon the cross which was in readiness for him, and offered his hands and feet to be nailed. They fastened him upon the cross, and then raised it. No possible suffering could have been greater, yet was it excelled by his patience. He proclaimed, once more, from the cross, with a loud voice, that Christ is the true God and the Saviour of the world. Imitating Him, he prayed for his executioners, commended his soul into the hands of the Almighty, and ended his holy life by a death so glorious, and so much resembling that of Christ, that the contemplation of it strengthened the Christians in their faith, and was the means of converting many of the heathens to the knowledge of the true God.



St. Simeon reached the age of 120 years, and then ends his long, holy life by a glorious and holy death. Will you become as old? Will you end your life with a happy death? This second question St. Augustine answers, with the assurance that your death will not be unhappy if your life is spent piously. He says: "He who has lived piously cannot die miserably or unhappily." These same words the holy teacher repeats more than once in the same sermon. "It is quite sure," says he, "that he who has lived in piety cannot die in misery." Returning to the first question, I hardly believe that you promise yourself to become as old as St. Simeon: and yet you hope to live long. Upon what do you build this hope? Upon your youth, your strength, or your health? Oh! how weak a foundation! Hundreds and hundreds have existed who were as young, as strong and as healthy as you, and yet they died early. The rich man in the Gospel hoped yet to live many years, but the same night his soul was required of him. Hope deceived him. Take heed that you do not thus deceive yourself. The surest way is this: never defer, in the hope of a long life, that which you need to enable you to die happily and to attain everlasting happiness, as otherwise, you are in danger of everlasting destruction. Meditate often upon the words of the pious Thomas a Kempis: "O fool! How can you believe that you will live long, when you are not sure of one single day? How many who thought that they would live long, have been deceived, and have died suddenly! Do now what is needful to be done, for you know not how soon the hour of your death may come."