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Saint for Today - St Catherine of Siena

4/30/2014

Catherine was a maiden of Siena, and was born of godly parents. She took the habit of the Third Order of St. Dominic. Her fasts were most severe, and the austerity of her life wonderful. It was discovered that on some occasions she took no food at all from Ash Wednesday till Ascension Day, receiving all needful strength by taking Holy Communion. She was engaged oftentimes in a wrestling with devils, and was sorely tried by them with divers assaults: she was consumed by fevers, and suffered likewise from other diseases. Great and holy was the name of Catherine, and sick folk, and such as were vexed with evil spirits were brought to her from all quarters. Through the Name of Christ, she had command over sickness and fever, and forced the foul spirits to leave the bodies of the tormented.

While she dwelt at Pisa, on a certain Lord's Day, after she had received the Living Bread which came down from heaven, she was in the spirit; and saw the Lord nailed to the Cross advancing towards her. There was a great light round about him, and five rays of light streaming from the five marks of the Wounds in his Feet, and Hands, and Side, which smote her upon the five corresponding places in her body. When Catherine perceived this vision, she besought the Lord that no marks might become manifest upon her flesh, and straightway the five beams of light changed from the colour of blood into that of gold, and touched in the form of pure light her feet, and hands, and side. At this moment the agony which she felt was so piercing, that she believed that if God had not lessened it, she would have died. Thus the Lord in his great love for her, gave her this great grace, in a new and twofold manner, namely, that she felt all the pain of the wounds, but without there being any bloody marks to meet the gaze of men. This was the account given by the handmaiden of God to her Confessor Raymund, and it is for this reason that when the godly wishes of the faithful lead them to make pictures of the blessed Catherine, they paint her with golden rays of light proceeding from those five places in her body which correspond to the five places wherein our Lord was wounded by the nails and spear.

The learning which Catherine had was not acquired but inspired. She answered Professors of Divinity upon the very hardest questions concerning God. No one was ever in her company without going away better. She healed many hatreds, and quieted the most deadly feuds. To make peace for the Florentines, who had quarrelled with the Church, and under an Ecclesiastical Interdict, she travelled to Avignon to to see the Supreme Pontiff Gregory XI. To him she shewed that she had had revealed to her from heaven his secret purpose of going back to Rome, which had been known only to God and himself. It was at her persuasion, as well as by his own judgment, that the Pope did in the end return to his own See. She was much respected by this Gregory, as well as by his successor Urban VI, who even employed her in their embassies. The Bridegroom took her home, when she was about thirty-three years old, after she had given almost countless proofs of extraordinary Christian graces, and manifestly displayed the gifts of Prophecy and miracles. Pope Pius II enrolled her among the Virgin Saints.

Saint for Today - St Peter of Verona

4/29/2014

Peter was born at Verona of parents polluted with the Manichaean heresy, but he himself began his lifelong strife against error when he was but a little child. When he was seven years old, he went to school, and was asked by his heretic uncle what he learnt there: he answered that he had learnt the Christian Creed: and neither his father nor his uncle were ever able to shake his constancy in the faith, either by cajolements or threats. As a young man he went to Bologna to study, and there he was called by the Holy Ghost to an higher state of life, and entered the Order of Friars Preachers.

He was marked by great perfection as a Friar: so watchful was he over the purity of his body and soul, that he never felt himself defiled by a mortal sin. He chastened his body by fasting and watching, and ennobled his soul by the contemplation of the things of God. He was constantly busied in works for furthering the salvation of souls; and had a peculiar gift of grace for clearly convincing heretics. Such was his power as a preacher, that countless crowds were drawn together to hear him, and many were moved to repentance.

The faith which was in him burnt so hotly, that he longed to seal his confession with his blood, and oftentimes he earnestly besought from God the the grace to do so. It was but a little while before the heretics murdered him, that he foretold, in preaching, his own approaching death. While he was intrusted with the duties of the Holy Inquisition, he was returning from Como to Milan, when an ungodly ruffian assailed him, and wounded him once and again in the head with a sword. Peter, to whom these blows were nearly fatal, began with his last breath to recite that Profession of the Faith, to which as a little child he had clung with such manly courage, but the murderer thrust the weapon into his side, and he passed away to receive a Martyr's palm in heaven. It was the year of salvation 1252. In the following year, Innocent IV, seeing by how many miracles God had been pleased to glorify him, added his name to the sacred roll of Martyrs.

April 28th - St Paul of the Cross

4/28/2014

Paul of the Cross was born at Ovada in Liguria and, as soon as he came to the use of reason, burned with love for Jesus Christ crucified. Fired with the desire for martyrdom, he joined the army which was being assembled in Venice to fight against the Turks. But when the will of God was made known to him, and he had refused a most honourable marriage and an inheritance left to him by his uncle, he received a coarse tunic as a habit from his bishop and, although not yet a cleric, cultivated the field of the Lord by preaching the word of God. In Rome, out of obedience to Pope Benedict XIII, he was raised to the priesthood. Then he retired into the solitude of Monte Argentario, where the Blessed Virgin had already invited him to go, at the same time shewing unto him a black habit adorned with the insignia of her Son's Passion. There he laid the foundations of a new congregation, whose members bind themselves by vow to promote the memory of the Lord's Passion, and he also established one for nuns to meditate continually upon this mystery. Renowned for his preaching, virtues, and divine charisms, he fell asleep in the Lord at Rome, in the year 1775. Pope Pius IX enrolled him among the Blessed and then among the Saints.

Saint for Today - St Mark

4/28/2014

At that time: The Lord appointed other seventy also: and sent them two and two before his face into every city and place, whither he himself would come.

Sermon by St. Gregory the Pope

Dearly beloved brethren, our Lord and Saviour doth sometimes admonish us by words, and sometimes by works. Yea, his very works do themselves teach us: for that which he doth silently his example still moveth us to copy. Behold how he sendeth forth his disciples to preach by two and two: since there are two commandments to love, that is, a commandment to love God, and a commandment to love our neighbour: and where there are not two, the one, being alone, hath not whereon to do the Lord's commandment. And no man can properly be said to love himself: for love tendeth outward toward our neighbour, if it be the love whereto the Gospel doth oblige us.

Behold, the Lord sendeth forth his disciples to preach by two and two: and thus doing, he doth silently teach us that whosoever loveth not his neighbour, such an one it behoveth not to take upon him the office of a preacher. Well also is it said that he sent them before his face into every city and place whither he himself would come. The Lord followeth his preachers: first cometh preaching, and then the Lord himself cometh to the house of our mind, whither the word of exhortation hath come before: and so cometh the truth into our mind.

Low Sunday (Quasimodo Sunday)

4/27/2014

At that time: The same day at evening, being the First Day of the week: When the doors were shut, where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews: Came Jesus and stood in the midst, and saith unto them: Peace be unto you.

Sermon by St. Gregory the Pope

The first question to strike the mind when we hear this Gospel Lesson is: How was it that the body of the risen Lord was a real body, if it was able to pass through closed doors into the assembly of the disciples. But we ought to know that the works of God no longer seem wonderful when they are understood by man's reason, and that the worth of faith is lost as soon as the object of faith hath passed into the certainty of human demonstration. Nevertheless, those very works of our Redeemer which are in themselves impossible to be understood, must be thought over in connection with other of his works; so that wonderful things may be confirmed by things more wonderful still. The body of the Lord, which came into the assembly of the disciples through closed doors, was the same which, at its birth, had become manifest to the eyes of men in a wondrous way, by passing out of the cloister of the Virgin's womb without breaking the seal of her virginity. What wonder is it if that body which had come out of the Virgin's womb, without let to her virginity, albeit it was then a body on its way to die, now that it was risen again from the dead and was thereby instinct for ever with undying life (what wonder is it, I say), if that body passed through closed doors?

But since the beholders doubted of the reality of that body which they saw, he shewed unto them his hands and his side, and allowed them to handle that same flesh which had just passed through the closed doors. In this there were two strange things manifested, yea, things which according to our understanding are contrary the one to the other. His risen body was incorruptible and yet palpable. For whatever can be touched, must needs be subject to corruption; and whatever is not subject to corruption, cannot be touched. But, in a way altogether wonderful and incomprehensible, our Redeemer after his Resurrection revealed himself in a body at once palpable and incorruptible. Yea, he revealed himself in an incorruptible body, that we might learn to seek a like glorification; and in a palpable body, for the strengthening of our faith. He revealed himself in a body at once incorruptible and palpable, that he might thereby make manifest the fact that his risen body was unaltered in nature, albeit transfigured in glory.

Then said Jesus unto them again : Peace be unto you; as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you. That is, As my Father, who is God, hath sent me, who am God, even so do I, who am Man, send you, who are men. The Father sent the Son, whom he appointed to be made man for the redemption of man. Him he willed to send into the world to suffer, albeit this Jesus whom he sent to suffer was the Son whom he loved. And the Lord Jesus sendeth his chosen Apostles into the world, not to be happy in the world, but, as he had been himself sent, to suffer. As the Father loveth the Son and yet sendeth him to suffer, even so doth the Lord love his disciples, albeit he sendeth them unto the world, to suffer therein. And therefore it is well said: As my Father hath sent me, even so send I you. That is, Even though I send you into the wild storm of persecution, I do love you all the same; yea, I not only do have a love for you; but I love you with a love like unto that wherewith the Father loveth me, who sent me into the world to bear agony therein.

Easter Saturday

4/26/2014

At that time: On the First Day of the week, cometh Mary Magdalene early, when it was yet dark, unto the sepulchre.

Sermon by St. Gregory the Pope

Dearly beloved brethren, the portion of the Holy Gospel which hath just now been read in your ears, is exceeding simple on the face of it, which is its historical sense; but the mystic sense, which underlieth that other, requireth from us a little searching. Mary Magdalene came unto the Sepulchre when it was yet dark. The historic sense telleth us what was the hour of the day; the mystic sense, the state of her understanding who sought. Mary Magdalene sought for him, by whom all things were made, and whom she had seen die, as concerning the flesh; she sought for him, I say, in the grave, and finding him not, she believed that he had been stolen away. Yea, it was yet dark, when she came unto the sepulchre. Then she ran and told the disciples, but they who had loved him most, namely Peter and John, did outrun the others.

So they ran both together, but John did outrun Peter, and came first to the Sepulchre, but yet took he not upon himself to go in first. Then cometh Peter following him, and went in. What, my brethren, what did the racing of these Apostles signify? Can we believe that the description given by the deepest of the Evangelists is without a mystic interpretation? By no means. John had never told how that he did outrun Peter, and yet went not into the Sepulchre, if he had not believed that his hesitation veiled some mystery. What signifieth John but the Synagogue? or Peter, but the Church?

Neither must ye take it as strange that the elder Apostle should represent the Church, and younger the Synagogue: for although the Synagogue was first to worship God, yet the herd of Gentiles is in the world older than the Synagogue, as witnesseth Paul where he saith: That was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural. By Peter, then, who was the elder, is signified the Church of the Gentiles; and by John, who was the younger, the Synagogue of the Jews. They run both of them together, for from the time of her birth until now (and so will it be until the end), the Church of the Gentiles hath run in a parallel road and manywise a common road with the Synagogue, albeit not with equal understandings. The Synagogue came first to the Sepulchre, but she hath not yet entered in; for, though she hath received the commandments of the law, and hath heard the Prophets tell of the Incarnation and Passion of the Lord, she will not believe in him who died for her.

Eleison Comments CCCLVI (354)

4/26/2014

RESISTANCE POLICY -- II

The Faith must be preserved despite the Shepherd being struck (cf. EC 348). If there was one man given to us by God to show us how to keep the Faith in stricken times, by preserving the true sacrifice of the Mass and the true Catholic priesthood, that man was certainly Archbishop Lefebvre (1905-1991). And since the disaster wrought upon the Church by the Conciliar Shepherds has not essentially changed since his time, then what he said and wrote applies essentially today, and any newcomer to the disaster cannot do better than read and study his words.

However, the disaster has also grown much worse since his death, and any so-called movement of “Resistance” today will do well to learn the lessons that are there to be learned from the threatening fall of that Society of St Pius X which it was the Archbishop’s stupendous achievement to found, within the collapsing mainstream Church, for the preservation of the Faith. Why is the leadership of the SSPX now taking it in a direction different from the Archbishop’s, a direction that must lead to the SSPX’s entirely similar collapse ?

Because, in my opinion, the leaders which the SSPX chose for itself after the Archbishop’s death in 1991 at the General Chapters of 1994 and 2006, never took the full measure of the Conciliar disaster, because they were children of the undermined 1950’s or the Revolutionary 1960’s and later still. Having drunk in the Revolution with their mothers’ milk, so to speak, they never understood how it wrecks from within churchmen still seeming Catholic without. In brief, these leaders have either never studied modernism, or never understood what they studied, or have been too “pious” or “supernatural” to think that it could apply to the mainstream churchmen in front of them.

Thus where Archbishop Lefebvre saw clearly that the Conciliar Church, by losing all four marks of the Catholic Church (one, holy, catholic, apostolic), was not the Catholic Church, Bishop Fellay (Superior General since 1994) and Fr Nicholas Pfluger (First Assistant since 2006) insist today that there can only be one Church, and so the Conciliar Church is the Catholic Church. Naturally then, where the Archbishop kept the SSPX at a safe distance from the Conciliar Church, Bishop Fellay and Fr Pfluger want to abolish that distance and bring the SSPX back within that Church which is Conciliar. And neither Bishop Fellay nor Fr Pfluger will feel Catholic until they have achieved that end.

But the Faith is firstly in the mind and not in the feelings. It follows that whoever has, for whatever reason, begun to recognize that the present leadership of the SSPX is on the wrong track, must continue by studying the total problem of the Revolution, of modernism and of Vatican II. That is a tall order, because one can have a text-book knowledge of the Revolution and still not recognize it right under one’s nose. I feel so nice when I feel that everybody else is nice that I lose from view the objective falsity of almost all of us as seen by God. One may say that it requires a special grace from God to see that falsity as he sees it, without losing one’s compassion, but a soul can obtain that grace if it seeks God seriously, especially in prayer.

God is good to those that seek him, says Scripture in many places. Assuming he exists, what could he be other than supremely good to those that seek him ?

Kyrie eleison.

All of today’s world feels that it is nice, But in God’s eyes that’s self-deceiving vice.

© 2011-2014 Richard N. Williamson. All Rights Reserved.

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Our Lady's Newsletter

4/25/2014

The Only Hope for Ukraine — and the World

We receive daily reports from the media of what, according to secular journalists, is happening in Ukraine and how it may affect the nations outside that beleaguered country. As with all secular reporting, the emphasis is on parsing what the principal politicians involved in the conflict are saying in response to developments, as though the situation were to be resolved by rhetoric and media commentary.

We have, among other ironies, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry pontificating over what constitutes justice for the Ukrainian people, denouncing the use of force as “19th century behavior”. Implicit in Kerry’s comments is the presumption that what is modern is what is best and that all our predecessors were necessarily more benighted and primitive than we are. Kerry also fails to acknowledge the obvious: that his assumption of authority in the matter is based squarely and solely on the force commanded by the United States, militarily through NATO and economically through its capital investment in Russia. Apparently, 19th century behavior is acceptable from some quarters.

But is the U.S. government vitally concerned with the welfare of the Ukrainian people? Of course not. It is concerned about containing Russian power and influence. Who has the interest of the Ukrainian people at heart? The Ukrainian Catholic Church, for one. In the most significant development during the month of April (one almost entirely ignored by the media), the Patriarch of the Ukrainian Catholic Church, His Beatitude Svatioslav, re-consecrated his nation to the Blessed Virgin Mary. (See: “The Act of placing Ukraine under the Intercession of the Blessed Mother”.)

He reminded his nation – and the world, if it cared to listen – that history is in the hands of God. What secular leaders do may have grave consequences, but those consequences will be directly proportional to whether they have acted according to Heaven’s will or their own presumed wisdom. His Beatitude also reminded us of our own responsibility for the larger happenings in the world for which we may believe we bear no responsibility.

He said the consecration of Ukraine to Our Lady must happen alongside a consecration of each individual life to Our Lady. We must participate in such a consecration, he stressed, if we hope to receive Our Lady’s blessing and help for the nation. The same is true in the matter of the consecration of Russia to Our Lady of Fatima. We must further the consecration not only by urging our Church leaders to obey Our Lady’s request, but by conforming our lives to what Our Lady has asked of each and every one of us: to pray the daily Rosary, perform the First Saturday devotions and make sacrifices for the conversion of sinners.

It is easy to scapegoat our leaders — in Church or state — for their failures, but we must acknowledge our own responsibility for the problems we face as an international community. If we sanctify our lives, the channels of grace may flow in unexpected directions, influencing events in the world at large. And we should not presume, as does John Kerry, to know what constitutes the best possible outcome in any situation. All is in the hands of God, as the patriarch of Ukraine has reminded us.

Should Russia take control of greater portions of her former empire that may not necessarily be undesirable. A strange thing is happening with Vladimir Putin and, one may be permitted to think, with the national mood of the Russian people. Putin is stressing Russia’s past as a Christian nation at every opportunity and urging a return to the moral values of Christendom (see: “The Message of Fatima: Ignore It at Your Peril”).

If Russia is to be Heaven’s instrument for either the chastisement or salvation of the world, we do not know how Providence may prepare us for that eventuality. We do know that Russia will eventually be consecrated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary by the Pope and the bishops of the Catholic Church and that peace will be granted to the world. To what extent the world will have to suffer until that happens is unknown. It has been placed in our hands. So we must do all we can to conform our lives to the Fatima Message and to urge those capable of performing the consecration to act without further delay. The situation in the Ukraine may mark the beginning of a greater chastisement that could engulf the world.

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Easter Friday

4/25/2014

At that time: The eleven disciples went away into Galilee, into a mountain where Jesus had appointed them.

Sermon by St. Jerome the Priest

After his resurrection Jesus was seen on a mountain in Galilee, and there he was worshipped. And, albeit some doubted, their doubts have led to a further establishing of our faith. Then he shewed himself more openly unto Thomas, and pointed out the wound-print of the spear in his side, and the prints of the nails in his hands. And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying: All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Yea, all power is given unto him who but a little while before had been crucified, and buried in the grave, and had lain among the dead, but who also had risen again. Power is given unto him in heaven and in earth, that he who of everlasting had been King of heaven, might have a monarchy on earth also, through the faith of them which believe in him.

Go ye, therefore, saith he, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. First they were to teach all nations; then they were to wash with water such as had been taught. For it cannot be that the body should receive the Sacrament of Baptism if the mind have not first received the truth of the Faith. And they were to be baptized: In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: for, even as the Godhead of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, is all One, so is the one grace of Baptism the gift of all three divine Persons; and the Name of the Trinity is the Name of one God, not of three.

Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you. The order of the Lord's commands to the Apostles is important. First, to teach all nations; secondly, to make them partake in the Sacrament of the Faith; thirdly, when they had believed and been baptized, to teach them what to observe. And lest we should think that he commanded things light and few, he hath said: All things whatsoever I have commanded you: so that all who have believed, and have therefore been baptized in the Name of the Trinity, are bound to observe all things whatsoever he hath commanded. And lo, saith he, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. He who promiseth that he will be with his disciples, even unto the end of the world, doth give them thereby to know that they will live for ever, and that he will never fail any which believe in him.

Easter Thursday

4/24/2014

At that time: Mary stood without at the sepulchre weeping: and as she wept, she stooped down, and looked into the sepulchre, and seeth two angels in white sitting...

Sermon by St. Gregory the Pope

Mary Magdalene, the woman of the city who was a sinner, through love of the truth, washed away by her tears the befoulment of her sin; and thereby the word of the Truth was fulfilled which he spake: Her sins, which are many, are forgiven: for she loved much. She that had remained cold while she sinned, became burning when she loved. And so Mary Magdalene, after that she had been to the sepulchre, and had not found there the body of the Lord (wherefrom she was led to believe that it had been taken away), went out and told his disciples; and they came and saw, and thought it was even as she said. So it is written: Then the disciples went away again unto their own home. But of her it is said: Mary stood without, at the sepulchre, weeping.

In connection with this matter, we ought to ponder on this, namely, the great store of love which was in that woman's heart. For she, when even his disciples were gone away, could not tear herself from the grave of the Lord. She sought him whom she had not found there, and as she sought, she wept. And the fire of love in her heart yearned after him, who (as she believed) had been taken away. And so it came to pass that she, who had lingered to seek him, was the only one who then saw him. For the backbone of a good work is endurance, and the voice of the Truth itself hath said: He that endureth to the end shall be saved.

As Mary wept there, she stooped down and looked into the sepulchre. It was but a little while since she had seen that the sepulchre was empty, and had declared that the Lord was taken away. Why then should she stoop down and look in again? It was because she loved him so well, that one look was not enough; the energy of her affection constrained her to search again and again. She began by searching and not finding; but she endured in her search, and behold, it came to pass that she found. And this was done that our own longings for Christ's presence might be taught to expand; and that we might know how, that as they expand, they will meet with him to whom they aspire.

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