To elaborate on the Magisterium of the Catholic Church is our mission on Plinthos (Gk. "brick"); and to do so anonymously, so that, like any brick in the wall, we might do our little part in the strength of the structure of humanity almost unnoticed.
Extraordinary Faith is a new television documentary series exploring the immense Catholic liturgical treasure in art, architecture and music, all tied to the logic of the Extraordinary Form of the Catholic Liturgy. The first episode focuses largely on the San Juan Capistrano Mission in California. Check it out! This is first class television promoting the Mass of the ages!
Here is a quote by Saint Thomas Aquinas on why Islam is a religion lacking any basis in reason. In the first section of the chapter Thomas shows how it is most reasonable to believe Catholicism; begun and spread by the supernatural Wisdom of it's doctrines and not by violence (Christ and the Holy Apostles and all the Christian saints throughout the ages killed no one); and proved by it's miracles and the fulfillment of all the Old Testament prophesies in the New Testament! Summa Contra Gentiles Book I, Chapter 6: paragraph 4.
Chapter 6: THAT TO GIVE ASSENT TO THE TRUTHS OF FAITH IS NOT FOOLISHNESS EVEN THOUGH THEY ARE ABOVE REASON
[4] On the other hand, those who founded sects committed to erroneous doctrines proceeded in a way that is opposite to this, The point is clear in the case of Muhammad. He seduced the people by promises of carnal pleasure to which the concupiscence of the flesh goads us. His teaching also contained precepts that were in conformity with his promises, and he gave free rein to carnal pleasure. In all this, as is not unexpected, he was obeyed by carnal men. As for proofs of the truth of his doctrine, he brought forward only such as could be grasped by the natural ability of anyone with a very modest wisdom. Indeed, the truths that he taught he mingled with many fables and with doctrines of the greatest falsity. He did not bring forth any signs produced in a supernatural way, which alone fittingly gives witness to divine inspiration; for a visible action that can be only divine reveals an invisibly inspired teacher of truth. On the contrary, Muhammad said that he was sent in the power of his arms—which are signs not lacking even to robbers and tyrants. What is more, no wise men, men trained in things divine and human, believed in him from the beginning, Those who believed in him were brutal men and desert wanderers, utterly ignorant of all divine teaching, through whose numbers Muhammad forced others to become his followers by the violence of his arms. Nor do divine pronouncements on the part of preceding prophets offer him any witness. On the contrary, he perverts almost all the testimonies of the Old and New Testaments by making them into fabrications of his own, as can be seen by anyone who examines his law. It was, therefore, a shrewd decision on his part to forbid his followers to read the Old and New Testaments, lest these books convict him of falsity. It is thus clear that those who place any faith in his words believe foolishly.
No miracles. No prophets. Religion by compulsion of arms rather than by convincing force of the Truth! Case closed! A religion for fools! This sounds very much like the famous Regensburg Address of Pope Benedict XVI. The Holy Father there makes the logical statement "not to act in accordance with reason is contrary to God's nature.[5]" Islam is based in such contradiction of the nature of God. Christianity is consistent with the reasonableness of God's nature.
Bishop Edgar Da Cuhna stands out as an enthusiastic opposer of all things Traditional. A bit of relief for Newark but a great warning of caution to the Fall River faithful (I use the latter term in the strict sense).
His Excellency Da Cuhna was notorious for prohibiting any use of Latin at Mass (or Greek for that matter, e.g. the Kyrie) even during his parish visitations for Confirmations, etc., and he opposed any clergy who promoted such things. I also recall that he was embarrassed by the question of contraception at least on one occasion. It is not clear that he is clear on the matter. Watch out Fall River!
On the other hand, this lack of clarity might make for a warm welcome among the throngs of very influential nominal (and non-believing) Catholics of Massachusettes, including many in the liberal press!
On a positive note, at least he's South American, in a heavily ethnic (Portuguese and Spanish speaking) diocese! It's about time the hierarchy of the U.S. should begin to reflect the Latino ethnicity of the faithful, still grossly under represented! But if you think it's tough to get traditional Catholic leaders, it is doubly difficult for traditional minorities to rise, just witness the presidency. That is why Obama is president and not Alan Keyes!
Here we have in Bishop Da Cuhna a Pastor according to the mind of Pope Francis: "pastoral sensitivity" while setting aside and even opposing doctrinal and liturgical clarity. There is the greatest care to make the enemies of Catholicism (even within the Church) at ease while at the same time ostracizing the traditionalist. In this present climate the only ones who are not welcome to come out of the closet are those who love and promote clear and true Catholic pride. Self-hating Catholicism is again on the rise! Watch out America, watch out world!
Describing himself as "thrilled" at the news, a Lansing op sends this portrait of the bishop-elect Raica....
This may sound a bit cliché, but he is truly one of the most kind, gentle, intelligent and faithful people I know.... He is very deliberate and thoughtful, has a great sense of humor and yet is very attentive. He is big on using technology and communications for evangelization.... If this is the sort of bishop Pope Francis is naming, I'm thrilled. He is solid but not an ideologue. He has chancery, Rome and parish experience. Though he loves pasta, travel and culture, he lives very simply. He's an excellent cook. His desk is very messy! He is bright, faithful and yet has no ax to grind.
I have never witnessed him to have an appetite for the sort of rhetoric we see from others in the U.S. hierarchy on the hot button issues. Like Pope Francis, I don't see +Raica watering anything down but I think his emphasis will be in line with this pope - on the positive aspects of our faith. I hope this is a sign of more good appointments to come. I think +Raica really reflects what we are hearing that Pope Francis wants – shepherds who are gentle, approachable, smell like the sheep and are open to bringing everyone closer to the Lord.
Plinthos' remark: That has been the bishop making trend for a couple of decades. The Church names men who are political to be bishops, because bishops must work in the world. Nevertheless, if a man is good with the world and also faithful to the Catholic religion, that one is often preferred to the mere bureaucrat. Deo gratias. But, if you are just a faithful ax grinder, you're altogether out of luck (at least in this life)!
Yes, I agree that the general consequences of what is commonly passed on today as feminism does lead women down blind alleys. It is a shame, because many willingly and blindly follow! That is why this picture is so precious and so tragic, because these girls think it is all a big political game, a triviality or at least an exaggerated caricature! The joke is on them.
The distortion and evil within the feminist movement is real! And this is very serious; these young ladies in Austria represent entire generations of identity confusion, and confusion regarding one's true enemies, and total denial regarding the countless victims of false ideologies which riddle today's feminist movement! (e.g. countless are continually swallowed by the Maloch of "Choice") The Feminist Movement is greatly influenced by very popular and seductive ideologies which are destroying our women and girls and the unborn--and yes, our families!
On the other hand, we must not allow true feminism to be hijacked and defined by the enemies of femininity.
Catholicism is the greatest defense for women, which must include the defense of the dignity of virginity and motherhood--the true rights of women as human persons: equal in dignity to men--"male and female He (God the Creator) made them".
No less than a woman, the Virgin, Queen and Mother, the Mother of God, is the model of true womanhood! Maria!
I pity these young ladies. I beg God's mercy and light for them and all whom they represent, from the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus (on this Vigil of that solemn feast). Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on them. Immaculate Heart of Mary (this Saturday's feast), intercede for them. Their Guardian Angels, enlighten, guard, rule and govern them in the way of holiness and truth! Amen.
Today's Google World Cup 2014 logo design ("doodle") includes a church with a cross! I find that remarkable because it is the first time that I have ever seen Google allude to Christianity on it's search engine portal.
Never an image of Christ for Christmas nor a Happy Easter greeting, as far as I remember, although Google does celebrate many of the secular civic feasts. There seems to be a bit dishonesty in that.
Hopefully this is the beginning of a new trend with Google Doodle, celebrating the Christian (even if Catholic) heritage and celebrations.
Watching the World Cup 2014 Soccer Matches over the past couple of weeks I have noticed that a disproportionate number of the players and coaches who make the sign of the cross are doing it the opposite of the Latin Rite way. Many of them are signing themselves the way it is done in the Eastern Rite Rituals, even though they are surely not Eastern Rite Christians: e.g. I noticed it again today with Mexico's win against Croatia. Even the coach crossed himself the wrong way: right shoulder first!
Someone needs to teach our Latin Rite professional athletes how to bless themselves! Don't they have priest chaplains! Don't they have team Masses and other formal prayers? If not, they should, for that would be a grand omission! I must say that I find it a bit embarrassing every time it happens, unless it is of course a team of a country with a predominantly Eastern Rite population (of which there are very few in the world and even fewer who make it to the world cup: e.g. Greece, Russia). But all of the Latin American Countries are vastly Latin Rite Catholics! They should know the Latin way!
Here are a couple of videos that I made while in Asturias a few years ago. Mary's birthday (The Feast of Our Lady of Covadonga) is also the national feast of the principality of Austurias and is celebrated big at the same Shrine of Our Lady. These bagpipe bands are typical of the entire northern coastal regions of Spain: they are called "Bandas de Gaitas."
The plaza statue seen in the second video is of Pelayo, the national hero who in 722 led the first victory (the Battle of Covadonga) in the Iberian reconquest against foreign occupation of the Moors.
Today I decided not to wear the saturno on my way from our Mascherone residence to the Biblicum. In front of Sant'Andrea della Valle there was a parade of children in colorful Andaluz looking costumes coming from a performance, and one of them was a boy in cassock and saturno priest hat!
From the likes of children!
Wear the priest hat at least for the sake of the children!
A few months ago an elderly Hungarian golden jubilarian priest stopped me in Piazza Navona to congratulate me on the saturno because it has very special significance for him who knew the Rome of the ubiquitous priest hat.
Another senior priest of my residence related how as a young student they were always required to carry that hat and he would carry it in his hand, except when it rained! After a year now I can attest to it's efficacy against all of the Roman elements.
A priest of Opus Dei recently criticized it saying that having worked with perhaps thousands of priests he had never seen this type of hat before! I'm not sure what that means? It is now normal for priests not to know what the normal priest hat is!
Wear the public priest hat in order to promote the cassock! One ought not go without the other, despite an age which popularizes poor taste identity confusion.
The inscription which runs along the top of the inner wall (just below the ceiling) of this great Roman Church is a quote from the Saint Andrew's confession of faith. It is beautiful prose comparing the contrast of the two woods of death (the tree of original sin and the tree of the Cross of Christ) and the two contrasting immaculate creatures (the immaculate earth and the Immaculate Conception) as sources of life.
B. ANDREAS RESPONDIT AEGEAE PROCONSULI: PRIMUS HOMO PER LIGNI PRAEVARICATIONEM MORTEM INDUXIT: ET NECESSARIUM ERAT GENERI HUMANO UT PER LIGNI PASSIONEM MORS PELLERETUR: ET QUONIAM DE IMMACULATA TERRA FACTUS FUERAT HOMO PRIMUS NECESSARIUM FUIT UT DE IMMACULATA VIRGINE NASCERETUR PERFECTUS HOMO FILIUS DEI QUI VITAM AETERNAM QUAM PERDIDERANT HOMINES REPARARET.
Blessed Andrew responded: For since the first man had brought death into the world by means of a wooden object, (namely the tree of good and evil) it was necessary that the Son of Man should banish death by dying on an object of wood; since the guilty man had been made of spotless earth, it was necessary that the Redeemer should be born of a spotless virgin; (since Adam had stretched forth his greedy hands toward the forbidden fruit, it was necessary that the second Adam should stretch out His pure hands on the Cross; since Adam had tasted the sweetness of the apple, it was necessary that Jesus should taste the bitterness of gall on the Cross; since Jesus was giving His own immortality to man, it was necessary that He should take man's mortality in exchange. For if God had not become mortal, man could not have become immortal). The Golden Legend of Jacobus de Voragine Part One, New York: Longmans, 1941, 11-12.
El Beato Andrés le respondió al Procónsul Aegeo: Así como el primer hombre incurrió, por el madero del engaño, la muerte: era necesario para el género umano también que por el madero de la pasión la muerte fuera combatida: Y como de la tierra inmaculada fue hecho el primer hombre, fue necesario que de la Inmaculada Virgen naciera el Hombre Perfecto Hijo de Dios a que reparara la vida eterna a los hombres que la habían perdido. (Mi pobre traducción).
Here below is what the Roman Martyrology says of Saint Andrew
This Day, the Thirtieth Day of November At Patras, in Achaia, the birthday of the Apostle Saint Andrew, who preached the Gospel of Christ in Thrace and Scythia. Being apprehended by the proconsul Aegaeas, he was shut up in prison, severely scourged, and finally, being suspended on a cross, he lived two days on it, teaching the people. Having besought our Lord not to permit that he should be taken down from the cross, he was surrounded with a great brightness from Heaven, and when the light disappeared he breathed his last.
Archbishop Gänswein spoke yesterday in Switzerland in anticipation of the upcoming European Parliament elections about the strong anti-Christian (read anti-Catholic) bias as reported below from Katholisches.info: Magazin für Kirche und Kultur.
Einsiedeln) Curia Archbishop Georg Gänswein found clear words a week before the elections to the European Parliament. He criticized the lack of commitment of politicians opposed to discrimination against Christians in Europe.
The Prefect of the Papal Household of Pope Francis and personal secretary of Benedict XVI spoke on Sunday in the Benedictine Abbey of Einsiedeln in Switzerland at the annual pilgrimage of the Pontifical Relief and Works Agency of the Church in Need . Archbishop Gänswein mentioned that while in the media and politics every form of anti-Semitism and Islamophobia are condemned, the same standards are not applied in relation to the discrimination against Christians in Europe.
The German Curia archbishop lamented that in the EU, with a new European Parliament to be selected on May 25th, there is a widespread "militant secularism". Certain circles in Europe want to put a "muzzle" on Christians and push religion to the margins, according to Gänswein. This, however, would mean suicide for the European Union, according to the Archbishop, because Europe cannot survive if it renounces its Christian roots.
The angels are our slaves since they are the slaves of God and we are sons of God: equal in status to God, the King of heaven and earth. They must do our bidding when we ask them for any good spiritual thing which they can provide for ourselves or for others. In this sense, after the Sacraments, they are our most powerful and effective means to holiness!
Pope Francis' letter on spreading the Gospel unintentionally omits this great supernatural reality and these most effective missionaries. Actually, in the most precise sense, the angels are the only creatures that are by nature missionaries: angelos (Gk. messenger, legate). They are God's creatures whose function is to constantly adore him and minister to him, carrying out His mission of holiness.
We rightfully call God "our Father" which is an expression of our Divine (albeit adoptive, though no less real) status! We are God in Jesus Christ, flesh of our flesh and bone of our bones. So, we have kingly authority over the angels. We command and they obey. They must obey us whenever we direct them for our own spiritual good or that of other persons. Use them to convert people that you want to convert and they will never fail you. Use the prayer of the Guardian Angels and even transpose it to apply to other individuals or groups of people in any encounter and you will see incredible and constant unfailing results! Enlighten! Guard! Rule! Govern!...me,...him,...her,...them,...etc.
Having had a lifelong devotion to the Guardian Angel(s) I only began for the past month entrusting specific intentions of evangelization and personal sanctification to their care with clear and marked results every time. In the apostolate directed towards specific persons I have had hundreds of repeated successes without any failure, a significant contrast to my whole life of often apparently frustrated results. The angels come through every time no matter how difficult the case!
Furthermore, I know personally of a priest who admits that he has had a particular struggle in the area of chastity for many years, where everything recommended by the Church and numerous confessors has been consistently ineffective, even the discipline and every manner of ascetical practice! However, ever since he began to pray in this way, clearly and confidently and in the moment of temptation to the Guardian Angel(s), he has in every case been victorious to ward off the temptation without falling! The angels never fail him!
The method? Besides the basic norms of the Christian life: daily prayer and an habitual life of holiness, daily Mass and communion; including daily Rosary and aspirations throughout the day with an habitual presence of God and recourse to Him, etc., make specific commands to the Guardian Angel using the Guardian Angel Prayer (preferably in Latin), in parts (e.g. illumina eum!) or whole, applying the invocations to specific intentions and circumstances. To loyally respond is the angelic specialization! To sanctify this one right now and right here, and to manifest the change! The results will not fail to amaze!
Ángele Dei, qui custos es mei, me tibi commissum
pietáte supérna, illúmina, custódi, rege et gubérna. Amen.
P.S. I often prefer to sing it: the simple Gregorian Chant version which I'll find for my readers some other time.
P.S.S. By the way, the chant below: "Tota pulchra es Maria" is a most beautiful antiphonal style chant which I only heard and sang for the first time last 8th of December in our priest residence of Rome. One of the great and simple treasures of our Catholic heritage of which we have been so long largely deprived!..."Late have [we] loved you!" --Augustine
Purity is stronger than impurity! If you want to be strong seek to live the chastity of Christ and of all the holy apostles and saints. And enlist the angels in your service for the sake of purity.
If we are sons of God, which we are, then the angels, if we direct them, will obey us in the good of souls, principally our own.
You've heard of cafeteria Catholics, based and expressed in a "pick and choose" morality and religion. Now, Pope Francis, ups the ante.
Pope Francis frequently alludes to what he calls museum Catholicism: faith treated as simply a precious and sacred Deposit to be cherished, preserved, and guarded, and shared but sparingly and only with the greatest discretion and with sundry regulations and restrictions.
We Catholics, due to our selfishness, are licentious and indolent dogs who base our life on avoiding the pigs (those who habitually ignore and even wantonly reject the Faith) while the whole world goes to the Devil; and we continue in our little paradise sanctuaries (traditional, conservative, liberal as they may be), pretending to be holy, hoping to be holy,...even striving to be holy--which ends up meaning separated and uninvolved with the myriads who are dying on all sides! And we ourselves are dead in our sins!
This is the predominant fault and occupational hazard of fervent Catholics and perhaps especially of traditional Catholics. The Faith is shared sparingly if at all and most of our emphasis is on ourselves!
Solution: "Go out to all the world and tell the Gospel!" That is the traditional and the only answer to our problem and the problem of the whole world!
Get the committed Catholics out of themselves--to put their lives at the service of the Gospel--like Christ and the Apostles--before others, in the world!--and you conquer the world!
When is the last time you told someone: "Jesus Christ loves you!", "Jesus Christ gave His life for you!", "Jesus Christ gave His life to save you and He is alive right now and is with you every day, to enlighten you, to strengthen you, to set you free."? Evangelii Gaudium, 164
Make your life revolve around this one thing, to bring Christ consciously to all people near and far: that they may know the love of God.
The Church is not a museum but the battlefield hospital of the world to treat and save the immense masses of wounded humanity, one by one. And every believer needs to be at the task of bringing in and treating the wounded that they may be saved!
Do something! for others, for Christ! Get out of yourself! And you will save your soul!
Thank you Pope Francis for incarnating this most essential evangelical insight.
This great Saint, whose life spanned most of the 15th century (1416-1507), was a hermit, vegan, miracle worker, founder of a Franciscan religious order and a confessor of kings. Not a priest. There are two statues of him at Saint Peter's Basilica.
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