Author: Catholic Candle

The heresy of denying man is inclined to sin and selfishness

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Catholic Candle note:  The article below examines a modernist heresy.  Heresy is an error about the Faith (in contrast to errors on some other subject, such as geometry).  Here is how St. Thomas Aquinas explains this truth:

We are speaking of heresy now as denoting a corruption of the Christian Faith.  Now it does not imply a corruption of the Christian faith, if a man has a false opinion in matters that are not of faith, for instance, in questions of geometry and so forth, which cannot belong to the faith by any means; but only when a person has a false opinion about things belonging to the faith.

Now a thing may be of the faith in two ways, as stated above, in one way, directly and principally, e.g. the articles of faith; in another way, indirectly and secondarily, e.g. those matters, the denial of which leads to the corruption of some article of faith; and there may be heresy in either way, even as there can be faith.

Summa, IIa IIae, Q.11, a.2, respondeo (emphasis added).    

The Catholic religion is the only true religion.  All other religions and all heresies, regardless of how they may conflict with one another, are the devils’ tools to lead people away from the Catholic truth.  

For example, the devil uses modernists (such as Henri de Lubac) to promote the heresy of universal salvation (i.e., “everybody goes to heaven”) by teaching that God gives grace to everyone.[1]

The devil and the conciliar church also promote the heresy of universal salvation by denying original sin and its effects.  

Experience and common sense show us that man, because he has a fallen nature, is naturally inclined more to evil rather than to good.  Though baptism remits original sin from one’s soul, it does not wipe away original sin’s effects: ignorance, malice, weakness and concupiscence.[2] 

St. Augustine, Doctor of the Church, teaches that infants are born with this concupiscence (and this wound is not taken away with baptism).  Here are his words:

Concupiscence, therefore, as the law of sin which remains in the members of this body of death, is born with infants.[3] 

Wise parents know that only a sound Catholic upbringing can correct their children’s natural selfishness and make them good, generous, and loving.

Strangely, the “new” SSPX says that children are “naturally” good and loving.  Here are its words:

Doing good and loving are acts that come naturally to children.[4]

Original sin twists children from their earliest years.  Children who act virtuously do so because of good upbringing.[5]

Further, children learn to do good to obtain the praise they want for themselves, from their parents.  Good parents use praise and other rewards, as part of training their children to be generous and good.  Nonetheless, children, with their fallen nature, “naturally” are selfish and need to be taught generosity.

Conclusion

Let us not be fooled by the “new” SSPX!  Raising children well is hard work because children have a fallen nature (like us) and they are naturally inclined to selfishness and sin.

By failing to appreciate how the wounds of original sin affect children, the N-SSPX shows itself unfit to run schools and direct the souls of parents and children.

[2]          Here is how St. Thomas Aquinas, greatest Doctor of the Church, explains this truth:

Again, there are four of the soul's powers that can be the subject of virtue, as stated above (I-II:61:2), viz. the reason, where prudence resides, the will, where justice is, the irascible, the subject of fortitude, and the concupiscible, the subject of temperance. Therefore, in so far as the reason is deprived of its order to the true, there is the wound of ignorance; in so far as the will is deprived of its order of good, there is the wound of malice; in so far as the irascible is deprived of its order to the arduous, there is the wound of weakness; and in so far as the concupiscible is deprived of its order to the delectable, moderated by reason, there is the wound of concupiscence.

Accordingly, these are the four wounds inflicted on the whole of human nature as a result of our first parent’s sin.  But since the inclination to the good of virtue is diminished in each individual on account of actual sin, as was explained above (I-II:1:2), these four wounds are also the result of other sins, in so far as, through sin, the reason is obscured, especially in practical matters, the will hardened to evil, good actions become more difficult and concupiscence more impetuous.

Summa, Ia IIae, Q.85, a.3, respondeo.

[3]          On Infant Baptism, Bk 2, ch.4, in a section entitled Concupiscence, How Far in Us; The Baptized are Not Injured by Concupiscence, But Only by Consent Therewith.

[4]            Regina Coeli Report #285, December 2018 – January 2019, p.7.

[5]          Aristotle explained this truth well, about 350 years before Christ.  Here are his words:

[H]abits are produced from the acts of working like to them: and so what we have to do is to give a certain character to these particular acts, because the habits formed correspond to the differences of these.  So then, whether we are accustomed this way or that straight from childhood, makes not a small but an important difference, or rather I would say it makes all the difference.

Nichomachean Ethics, Aristotle, Bk.2, ch.1.

The Easy and Only Way to Be a Saint: LOVE GOD

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If you think it is hard to be a saint, you (and almost all others) have listened to the devil who convinced you it is nearly impossible, so why even try?  (God and heaven are all love; the devil and hell are all hate.)

It’s not hard to love God Who is infinitely good and loves us immensely.  Our hearts were created to love God, as our ears were made to hear how He loves us.  God certainly demonstrated His love for us during His 33 years on earth.

The devil also plants the idea that God is stern and quick to punish and you should be afraid of Him.  That couldn’t be further from the truth.  God is just, which is a divine virtue that you should thank Him for.  But it is also important to realize that God is love, mercy, and sweetness, and loves you so much He died for you.  There is no greater love than one who gives up his life for another.

The members of your family love each other to a point that all want that fact to be known.  So each member of the family tries to demonstrate that with gifts, hugs, kisses, and words of affection.  Your love for God is not something you have to outwardly prove to Him every day, because He can “read” your heart.  He knows you love Him without your spending your life in the desert, dressed in sackcloth and ashes.  The saint in the desert is an extraordinary saint, called to do extraordinary things.  You live your lives in the world – but not of the world.  You love God and live accordingly.  You do God’s will as uncompromising traditional Catholics, quick to stand up for Christ the King.

You strive to become ordinary saints.  You are called to be saints, but not necessarily to perform extraordinary tasks, (for example, one who has been called by God to start a religious order like the Franciscans, etc.)

Let’s consider the steps one must take to learn to love God.

     1)  You have real interest in knowing and loving God.

     2)  You must learn much about God so you are willing to study much.

     3)  You are willing to sacrifice out of love.

     4)  You must have faith that your love is returned.

     5)  It’s only natural to speak often to someone you love.  

Thus, when you talk to God, it should be like talking to a friend – not a taskmaster, but a friend.  So do it often, through the day and when you awake at night.  He is always there and ready to help.  “Whatsoever you shall ask the Father in My name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.”  (St. John's Gospel, 14:13)  

The biggest confidence-building point in your journey to becoming an ordinary saint is understanding God’s ability to read what is in your heart.  Therein lies the truth that can’t be deceptively altered.

Another duty one has on this journey is to set the best of examples for others to follow.  No compromise with liberalism to avoid criticism or loss of family or friends.

Another big help in your efforts to love God is His Mother’s help.  She is all-powerful (through her Son) and is just waiting for your request for help to love her Son and join her in heaven.

Also, don’t forget your Guardian angel.  He is waiting to help and share his love for God.

It is important while on this journey to sanctity, to talk with God many times in a day, expressing your love and offering help to do His will saving souls.  You must always be in the state of grace, of course, and avoid sin at all costs.  If life without sin is your problem, you have very much work to do to build a sinless platform to spring forward on your journey to sanctity.  Christ does not ask the impossible of Catholics, in order for us to get to heaven.  He made us specifically to be in heaven with Him.  He did His part; now, it’s up to you (with His help).

Isn’t it wonderful to know God is in charge and that He loves you more than we can understand?  It’s important to speak about your love for God and set the example for others to follow.

There are many more saints in heaven than those listed in the saint books.  So, take heart, love God, and live your life accordingly.  An indication of your love for God is your willingness (with real satisfaction) to defend God and His Church against all odds.  If this is not the case in your life, you’re on the wrong track, and changes must be made.  You’re probably depending on the N-SSPX or other liberals for guidance and direction.  You cannot simply give them what is your responsibility for your own salvation.  Handing it off to others is very dangerous, and yes, uncertain.  Follow the five steps above and secure your sanctity.

The N-SSPX’s Liberal Slide Continues

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In an article about the false “apparitions” in Medjugorje, Bosnia, the “new” liberal SSPX says that, in Medjugorje:

“there is undoubtedly some good – Masses ….”[1] 

Here the N-SSPX implies that the new mass is good because those “Masses” are all (or at least mostly) the sacrilegious, anti-Catholic new masses![2]

[2]          This is only the latest of the many occasions on which the “new” SSPX has promoted or approved of the new mass.  Read, e.g., the evidence in this article: https://catholiccandle.neocities.org/priests/fellay-teaches-the-new-mass-is-good-and-holy.html

Booke Review — Ungodly Rage

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The Hidden Face of Catholic Feminism

By Mrs. Donna Steichen

Ignatius Press, San Francisco ©1991

Mrs. Donna Steichen, the author of Ungodly Rage, is a Catholic journalist who attended many “women’s empowerment” conferences in many locations, investigating the feminist movement.  Here is part of her biography from a May 31, 2011 interview:

In the 1970s, Steichen began working as a Catholic journalist, writing for her diocesan newspaper.  She was also active in the pro-life movement, the Catholic League and religious education.

 

Long an avid reader of Catholic publications, in the 1980s Steichen became increasingly concerned about the effect of feminism on American Catholicism.[1]

Mrs. Steichen studied religious feminism because, as she explained, “it is the ultimate manifestation” of feminism.[2]  She explained further how she came to write her book, Ungodly Rage:

This book is a report on the subterranean phenomena of religious feminism as observed over more than a dozen years.  My journalistic investigation began, roughly, in 1977, when Rosemary Ruether, in a keynote address to Minnesota’s International Women’s Year (IWY) meeting, identified feminist theology as a species of [Marxist] liberation theology.[3]

Before we survey what Mrs. Steichen discovered in her investigation of religious feminism, let us first see what feminism is on a broader level, which includes secular feminism.  

The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines “feminism” as a theory of equality:

Feminism: the theory of the political, economic, and social equality of the

sexes.[4]

Encyclopedia Britannica adds that, in the 1990s, the feminist movement shifted to become more integrated with the racial equality movement and that the (so-called) “third wave” of the feminist movement which began then, redefined women as assertive and powerful:

The third wave [viz., in the 1990s] was much more inclusive of women and girls of color than the first or second waves had been.  …  the third wave redefined women and girls as assertive, powerful …[5]

This version of feminism is the popular, “mass consumption” version.  This is the level in which one encounters it around us every day.

“Rank & file” feminists merely focus on career advantage or in the “empowerment” of not needing to obey their husbands.  The “every day”, ordinary feminists don’t look any deeper than that.  This is like most Masons who don’t look deeper than the shallow appearance of Freemasonry being a career aid, a networking group, a fraternal society and a social club.  So, it easily happens that feminists and Masons seem perfectly normal and good people and that they are friendly and well-intentioned.  But looking deeper, Freemasonry is much more insidious[6] and, based on her years of investigation, Mrs. Steichen explains that the feminist movement is insidious too.

In a 2011 interview, Mrs. Steichen notes that the feminists do not define what feminism is:

Question: What is feminism and how does it operate in our society?

Donna Steichen: That’s a good place to start, because if you notice, feminism is rarely defined.  In particular, the feminists don’t define it.  It is to their advantage not to define it, because most people interpret it as meaning that you’re for women, or that you believe women have a right to be educated or are just as smart as men.

But that’s not what it is about at all.  Feminism is about overthrowing the structure of the family and society.  It rose out of the writings of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels [authors of The Communist Manifesto]. They saw that the family was at odds with their vision of society.  Owning the factories is not enough; you can’t change society unless you get rid of the family.  When you attack the family, you attack society itself, including its institutions, authority, and traditions, as well as the Ten Commandments and God.

Religious feminists, and even secular feminists, want to overthrow God.  The religious feminists have set about replacing the Trinitarian God with a mishmash of New Age spirituality[7], paganism, psychology, and anything that is not structured, that is not traditional, that is not Christianity.[8]

Mrs. Steichen explains the various related levels of feminism in this way:

When feminism is defined as a movement to establish the equality of women, it sounds plausible.  But its fruits betray its real nature.  Even at its least destructive, it is a tactical falsehood, like the Emperor’s new clothes.  It attempts to establish equality between the sexes, which already exists in fact, by forcing everyone to pretend the sexes are identical.  

  • In the family, it would substitute performance contracts and pre-nuptial divorce agreements for the loving donation of all one’s self and goods to a permanent common life.

  • In commerce, it is a divisive form of reverse discrimination.

  • In academia, as academics know, it is a cut-throat politics, unconcerned with fact or scholarly objectivity.  

  • In its ultimate manifestation, in religious feminism, it is an anarchic madness.[9]

Mrs. Steichen explained the connection of this “religious feminism” to the secular versions, in these words:

Religious feminism is the logical extension of secular feminism into the realm of the sacred.  From the beginning its leaders have worked closely with secular and anti-Christian feminists.[10]

Mrs. Steichen remarks that this is the reason the secular feminist Gloria Steinem, in her introduction to the conference “textbook” Goddesses in Every Woman, wrote about the value of the goddess movement.[11]  Mrs. Steichen adds that “the ultimate feminist objective is the obliteration of Christianity.”[12]  Mrs. Steichen explains that even the leaders of the secular feminist movement know that feminism is, at bottom, a revolution against traditional religion.  Mrs. Steichen quotes Gloria Steinem as saying, “Women-Church is the women’s movement.”[13] 

Mrs. Steichen also quotes secular feminist leader, Betty Friedan about feminism being, at bottom, anti-God:

When asked what the feminist movement could hope to accomplish in the future, Betty Friedan told reporters, “I can’t tell you that now.  You wouldn’t believe it anyway.  It’s theological.”[14]

Mrs. Steichen’s book is full of first-hand accounts of feminist conferences.  Many of her narratives are quite long and detailed.  Here is a representative part of one of her accounts:

At most workshops, there seemed to be a deliberate attempt to draw participants into ritual activities.  No one asked me to leave when I declined, but I began to suspect a concerted effort to enlist everyone present in the conspiracy against the “patriarchal” Church through group dynamics.  All the rituals I witnessed, and most of the “language and imagery” discussed, were drawn from Starhawk’s[15] books.  Clearly, she had become a matriarch of feminist spirituality.[16]  …

By Sunday morning, the Mankato conference crowd had declined to about three hundred.  While two other feminist services were held down a hallway, some 150 women gathered for the Wiccan rite described in the program as combining “both ancient matriarchal concepts and contemporary feminist issues”.  The large room was unfurnished except for a table altar, decorated with corn and gourds, four unlighted candles, a conch shell and a small brass cauldron.  Priestesses Patti Lather and Antiga said the service would be conducted in the “Dianic Wiccan tradition”.  The women formed a loose circle and followed Antiga and Lather in a vigorous opening chant:

We are strong and loving women;

We will do what must be done,

Changing, feeling, loving, growing,

We will do what must be done.

It was repeated, in accelerating tempo, half a dozen times.  Next came a song in a quick folk-blues rhythm. The women sang eagerly, clapping in time, some singing the harmony:

Woman am I, Spirit am I,

I am the infinite within my soul;

I have no beginning and I have no end,

All this I am.[17] …

Antiga called the large circle together again with a blast from her conch shell.  The women stood with hands linked, eyes closed, while she led them in the hypnotic “centering meditation”, a “Tree of Life ritual largely taken from Starhawk’s Dreaming the Dark” and almost identical to the one used earlier in Joan Keller-Marcsh’s workshop.

There were sighs and groans.  … Around the room, bodies obediently swung forward, heads hanging down, like a circle of rag dolls.

She paused. “Open your eyes, and we’ll begin casting the circle of the east.”

The circle of the east lay on the floor like spokes of a wheel, toes together. Crooning, the women rose slowly, waving their arms, then joined hands and moved in and out from the center, like children dancing around a maypole. They made windy, whistling sounds.

“Welcome, spirit of the east”, said Antiga, lighting the first candle. “Blessed be.”  “Blessed be”, the congregation responded.

The circle of the south knelt with foreheads touching the floor, then rose and raised their arms. “Blessed fire”, they intoned. “Fire is transformation, is passion, is beauty, is eternity ….  Come join our fire.”

“Welcome, spirit of the south.  Blessed be.” Antiga lit the second candle.

“Blessed be”, the group replied.

The circle of the west stood, alternately lifting their arms, then folding them in. “Hear me, Aphrodite. . . sunset. . . intuition. . . life giving. . . deep waters, dark waters”, they crooned, swaying.

“Welcome, spirit of the west.  Blessed be.” The third candle was lighted.

“Blessed be.”

The circle of the north knelt, foreheads pressed to the floor. As they began to sway from side to side, they lifted their heads and droned, “Oooom, oooora,” Rising, arms linked, they called out, “North star. Cold. Cold moon dying. Ice. Northern lights.  Blackness. Nothingness.” They howled wordlessly. Then they knelt, pressed their heads to the floor again, raised them and, swaying, chanted over and over ….

“Welcome, spirit of the north. Blessed be”, said Antiga.

“Blessed be.” The last candle was lighted, the large circle reformed.  …

Antiga moved the smoking cauldron to the center of the circle.  Everyone was invited to “cast into the cauldron all that you want to let go of”. Voices called out,  “Patriarchy!” “Anger!” “Fear!” “Oppression!” “Lack of time!” “Military mindset!”  …

We are three witches from different places”, one of the trio said “I resent being classified with satanism!. . . Satanism has nothing whatever to do with women’s religion!  Satanism is a perversion of the white male Catholic religion …”

“Freedom! Freedom!” Kneeling in a circle, the congregation shouted. They pounded on the floor. The shouts became screams, and then a rising roar.[18]

This account, like many of Mrs. Steichen’s eye-witness accounts, demonstrates what she called “feminism’s anti-feminine heart”,[19] because feminism is ultimately a movement of rage and hatred.

Mrs. Steichen recounts how these feminist conferences promote not only feminism and witchcraft (wicca) but also cross-promote unnatural impurity[20], the murder of the innocent[21], extreme environmentalism, the New Age Movement, and many other great evils.  Mrs. Steichen summarized:

Feminism appears to be the bait, moral disintegration the hook and the occult the dark and treacherous sea into which the deluded are towed.[22]

Mrs. Steichen provides the broader picture of feminism and its goals:

The primary target of secular feminism was the traditional family.  …  [Before the 1960s feminist revolution,] one can concede that some men demeaned women’s characteristic role.  Every era has its own imperfections.  But it was a far better society for women and children than the present chaotic one, and few women would not gladly trade their present state to restore it if they could.  The feminists did not call on society to value women’s distinctive contributions properly but instead attempted the impossible task of opposing human nature, denying the differences everywhere revealed in experience.  Feminists won the battle, and women lost. …

[One of the many evils of feminism is that it caused] an indignant masculine backlash against irrational feminist accusations, and litigation is emerging to erode further men’s protective instincts toward women.  

[In summary, Mrs. Steichen explains that] Catholic feminism incorporates all the errors of secular feminism and others more profound.  Its major target is the religious belief that underlies the traditional family and society.[23]

A key part of feminism’s attack on the family, is an attack on patriarchy.  Mrs. Steichen explained this fact:

Under the feminist assault, patriarchy has come to be regarded as odious, even by patriarchs [such as the Catholic Church’s hierarchy].  Feminists denounce it as atavistic,[24] inherently inequitable, irredeemably oppressive. But they misunderstand the nature of women’s rights.  Recovering those rights will require that patriarchy be reclaimed.  Selfishness, like pride, is gender neutral.  So patriarchy has sometimes been abused by sinners to justify their selfishness.  But the present agonies of the family, of secular society and of the Church all result from failure to meet patriarchal responsibilities, understood and lived as St. Paul outlined them.  …

The term patriarchy refers to the male-headed family form and social system expressed in Scripture and existing everywhere in human society.  In the Church, it is a title referring to bishops who rank just below the Pope in jurisdiction, though Catholic feminists use the word to mean the male priesthood and the entire male hierarchy.  In all cases, it is properly an office, not a declaration of qualitative superiority.  …

Feminist mythology to the contrary, the Church did not inflict inequality on women.  Catholicism in fact elevated women to a status they had never enjoyed in pre-Christian societies by venerating the Blessed Virgin Mary as the perfect model of human response to God, by consecrating marriage as a sacrament, by recognizing the family as the basic unit of society and by constantly teaching that [certain intimate] acts are the unique privilege of the married state.[25]

Mrs. Steichen then beautifully explains the roles of men and women, as God intended them:

The Church teaches that creation exists to raise up souls to God.  Woman’s natural vocation is irreplaceably at the heart of that purpose, where human nature is most plainly seen to be neither simply animal nor purely spiritual but a mysterious combination of both.  …  In the “domestic Church” of the family, where the future Church is born, they are the ones most immediately responsible for the physical and spiritual formation of the new generation through the transmission of faith and culture.  Their wisdom and generosity are essential in shaping the family as a holy and enduring center where each member is cherished not for what he does but because his immortal soul is of incalculable value.  It is in the family that all mankind’s labor is transmuted by love into the human and the personal.

Parenthood is a work of eternal significance in which both parents share, but by nature woman is the one most deeply engrossed.  Her vocation is so much a part of herself that she becomes submerged in it; she is compelled by its demands always to be centered outside herself.  Certainly, motherhood is a demanding work, and it sometimes brings anguish as well as joy.  When a woman’s husband and children rise up and call her blessed, [Prov.31:28] she doubtless deserves their praise.  Some who deserve it never receive it; there are heroines of holiness struggling at the brutally difficult task of raising and supporting their children alone.  But even in the most painful circumstances, a mother usually finds that her baby awakens in her a previously unknown passion of protective love.  To have a life work so absorbing that it makes us forget ourselves is a great human privilege.

Fathers are called by that name because they reflect God’s capacity to generate life outside Himself, a high honor and an awesome responsibility.  A father’s role is of great importance; many women have lately discovered from painful experience how vital it is to family stability and the healthy psychological and moral development of children.  But normally he must be engaged elsewhere much of the time, dealing with the world, providing for his family’s material needs.  Only a fortunate minority of men find a work significant in itself.  For most, the knowledge that they are supporting their families is all that gives their labor meaning.  

Patriarchy, properly interpreted, means men meeting their vocational obligations.  When a husband fulfills his responsibilities as St. Paul prescribes, his role is not one of domination but of service.  As husband and father, he is to negotiate with the outside world, provide for and protect his family, guide and direct it in consultation with his wife.  In normal human relationships, such consultation is broad ….[26]

Because feminism is, at root, a rebellion, Mrs. Steichen draws a parallel between Eve’s rebellion and modern feminism:

Cunning, the serpent draws Eve into dialogue.  She knows the limits God has set, but she listens as the deceiving voice lures her with a promise of autonomy – the promise that she can be her own God.  When she yields, her disobedience separates her from God and from Adam.  Contemporary Catholic feminists are part of a vivid, and ruinous, reenactment of that ancient tragedy.  Their history strikingly recalls Eve’s susceptibility to false promises, her rebellion against legitimate authority and her presumptuous ambition to make herself “as God”.  Women, it seems, are more prone than men to such fraudulent spiritual enthusiasms.[27]

Mrs. Steichen continues by astutely showing men’s very heavy responsibility for feminism:

Men, in contrast, seem especially tempted to irresponsibility.  Adam chooses to evade the very duties of leadership that Eve covets.  He is not deceived by the serpent, but he eats the forbidden fruit anyway.  [1 Tim 2:13-14]  Perhaps he cannot bear to be separated from his bride by her sin.  Perhaps he is intimidated by the prospect of confronting her.  In either case, the head of the first family disobeys his Creator and betrays his patriarchal obligations with his eyes open.  

We can see parallels to Adam’s sin in men who abdicate their legitimate authority and obligations in the family.  Some use the slogans of feminism to seduce women into [impure] relationships outside of marriage, then coerce them to [kill innocent life]. Some deny their wives motherhood or deprive them of the right to live their maternal vocation with full attention, by driving them into the labor force.  Some welcome any excuse to remain immature and carefree boys by shunting their responsibilities onto their wives.[28]

Mrs. Steichen’s book is an eye-opening peek behind the veil of the most virulent form of feminism, to help us see what is at stake in feminism, for society and for the family.  We recommend this book.

Catholic Candle’s afterword: the Catholic Life is the Answer for all of Society’s Ills!

The virtuous Catholic life is the solution to all our social ills and we should live this Catholic life fully.[29]  The devil apes this genuine Catholic solution through his own counterfeit “solutions”, one of which is feminism and the “women’s equality” movement.  This is like the devil aping genuine Catholic social teachings with the false “solution” of Marxist liberation theology.  

Because of Original Sin, men (and women) don’t always live up to their vocations and responsibilities.  Men should show respect for women and, more than that, they should honor women, cherish them and be chivalrous.  This is the true and Catholic way of life.  

Men should show this in many ways, large and small, e.g., changing a flat tire for a woman motorist at the side of the road, opening a door for a woman (although she is capable of opening a door herself), giving her his seat on a crowded train, offering to help her carry her heavy packages, even when she is capable of lifting them herself, etc.

Men should be courteous to women, charitable, respectful, polite, attentive, considerate, patient, thoughtful, obliging, listening well, not failing to listen because they are formulating a new comment while a woman (or a man) is talking.

God made men to compete with men.  God made women to be man’s helpmate, not his competitor.  That is why the Catholic Church overcame paganism to instill into a man to be a gentleman and to be gallant toward women. 

Girls and women are children of God (as men are too).  Women and girls have their own role and dignity in God’s Plan.  God did not put them on earth merely for men’s selfishness (any more than men are on earth only for women’s selfishness).  Rather, God made women to collaborate with men in the work God intends them to accomplish, in the roles for which God created them in the family.[30]

We should treat all women as images of Our Lady.

The weightiest lesson of all comes from the law to love our neighbors as ourselves, which St. Paul applies to women (wives) in particular:

Thus, ought husbands also to love their wives as their own bodies. Who loveth his wife, loveth himself, for no one ever hated one’s own flesh (Eph. 5:28-29).

The Catholic Church has ever been the leaven fostering the dignity of women.  This is what the Catholic Church has to say in the context of the family:

“Husbands, love your wives, as Christ also loved the Church, and delivered Himself up for it.”  Ephesians 5:25.  This means that, as Christ gave His Life for His Church, a husband should give/devote his life to his wife.

Our Lord teaches us the generosity we should have for each other, and husbands for their wives:

“Greater love than this no man hath, that a man lay down his life for his

friends.”  St. John’s Gospel, 15:31.  Husbands should remember that their wives should be their best friends.

A man who loves much does not “count the cost” and he sacrifices gladly everything for his friend (especially his wife and children).  “If a man should give all the substance of his house for love, he shall despise it as nothing.” Canticle of Canticles, 8:7.

We should take to heart, also as regards the women in our midst (and men too), what our holy Redeemer taught us:

As ye would that others should treat you, so do ye likewise to them. … So be compassionate as your Father also hath compassion.  Judge ye not, and ye shall not be judged.  Condemn ye not, and ye shall not be condemned.  Forgive ye, and ye shall be forgiven.  Give ye, and it shall be given unto you.  They shall give into your bosom good measure, pressed down and shaken together and overflowing.  For it shall be meted unto you again with the same measure wherewith ye have meted.

St. Luke’s Gospel, 12:31, 36-38.

[1]          May 31, 2011 interview found here: https://www.catholicworldreport.com/2011/05/31/incalculable-damage/

[2]
         Ungodly Rage, page 237.

[3]          Ungodly Rage, page 17 (bracketed explanation added).

[5]          https://www.britannica.com/topic/feminism/The-third-wave-of-feminism (bracketed words added for clarity).

[6]
         See, e.g., Custodi Di Quella Fede, Encyclical Of Pope Leo XIII (On Freemasonry), 1892.

[7]          See, further information in Ungodly Rage, page 122.

[8]
         Quoted from the May 31, 2011 interview found here:

https://www.catholicworldreport.com/2011/05/31/incalculable-damage/ (bracketed words in the original).

[9]          Ungodly Rage, page 237 (reformatted with bullet points for easier reading; emphasis added).

[10]
         Ungodly Rage, page 50.

[11]          Ungodly Rage, page 58.

[12]          Ungodly Rage, page 79.

[13]          Ungodly Rage, page 117-118 (emphasis in the original).

[14]          Ungodly Rage, page 20.

[15]          Mrs. Steichen explained: “Born Miriam Simos in St. Paul, Minnesota, Starhawk was given dubious respectability, and introduced into many Catholic settings, by Rev. Matthew Fox, O.P., the founder and director of the Institute for Culture and Creation Spirituality (ICCS).”  Ungodly Rage, page 34.

[16]          Ungodly Rage, page 34.

[17]          Ungodly Rage, page 35.

[18]          Ungodly Rage. pages 36-39.

[19]          Ungodly Rage, page 165

[20]          We use delicate terminology in this article, as Catholics must.  Read the Catholic teaching on this principle here:

https://catholiccandle.neocities.org/faith/sins-caused-by-obscene-speech.html

[21]          We use delicate terminology in this article.

[22]          Ungodly Rage, page 27.

[23]

          Ungodly Rage, p. 225

[24]
         Atavism is: recurrence of or reversion to a past style, manner, outlook, approach, or activity.  https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/atavism

[25]          Ungodly Rage, page 226 (bracketed euphemistic words used for delicacy).

[26]          Ungodly Rage, page 227.

[27]
         Ungodly Rage, page 223.

[28]
         Ungodly Rage, page 223 (bracketed explanations used for delicacy).

[29]          Here is one way in which Pope St. Pius X taught this truth: “there is no true civilization without a moral civilization, and no true moral civilization without the true religion”.  Our Apostolic Mandate, August 25, 1910.

[30]          For an overview of the roles that God gave to women and men, read this article: https://catholiccandle.neocities.org/faith/the-role-that-god-gave-to-woman-and-the-great-work-of-her-life.html

The “New” SSPX Follows the Conciliar Popes in Minimizing the Abuse Crisis

Posted on by Catholic Candle

Catholic Candle note: Pope Pius XI declared that “purity of morals” is a “most delicate matter”.[1]  When talking about the Sixth and Ninth Commandments, the Council of Trent Catechism warns that a person sins if he does not use “great caution and prudence, and … great delicacy”.[2]  The article below attempts to use that great delicacy which God requires.

Although this article involves conciliar clergy, the inherent doubts[3] concerning their “ordinations” and “consecrations” do not mean that those clergy do not possess the jurisdiction of their offices (for governing).  For a full explanation of this principle, read this article: https://catholiccandle.neocities.org/faith/against-sedevacantism.html#section-10

Honest Catholics know that Vatican II’s promotion of laxity and “openness to the world” has caused unimaginable harm to the morals of Catholics and (indirectly) to non-Catholics.  Since Vatican II, pornography, adultery, divorce, murder of the innocent, euthanasia, unnatural impurity, rejection of the children God Wills to send, and countless other grave vices, have dramatically multiplied.

The true Catholic Church is the Light of the world[4] and anchors the world regarding morals and the Natural Law.[5]  Beginning only at Vatican II, when the Catholic Church’s human element became increasingly lax, “decent” non-Catholics began to accept a great many vices they previously rejected.  For example, “decent” non-Catholics opposed cremation and tattoos before the Vatican II revolution.[6] 

Therefore, Vatican II’s very bad fruits will continue (and worsen) until the human element of the Catholic Church rejects Vatican II and the conciliar church through Our Lady’s miraculous intervention when Russia is consecrated to Her Immaculate Heart.  

Until then, no Catholics (if they have any common sense) are surprised by additional bad fruits when they hear of them.  One such example, is the impurity crisis of conciliar “priests” abusing the innocent.  Honest and informed Catholics would never deny the problem nor deny that the conciliar revolution caused it.

So many conciliar “priests” have committed these crimes that the attorneys general of all fifty United States (Republican as well as Democrat) are investigating this abuse within their states.[7]

One might hope that the “new” SSPX, as it ought, would accuse Vatican II and its resulting conciliar church of forming the lax “priests” who commit these crimes so widely.

One might further hope that, because of this crisis, the N-SSPX would warn its followers to stay away from the conciliar church and its horrific, evil fruits.  The N-SSPX does no such thing because the N-SSPX wants to join the anti-Catholic conciliar church.

Former Pope Benedict and the N-SSPX both minimize this Abuse Crisis

The N-SSPX follows the minimizing tactics of conciliar popes.  For example, while former Pope Benedict XVI oversaw (for the Vatican) all cases worldwide of these abuse crimes committed by “priests”, he downplayed the problem by falsely claiming that in the United States “less than 1% of priests are guilty of acts of this type.”[8]

The SSPX downplays yet more extremely than former Pope Benedict by hesitating to admit that any conciliar “priests” have committed this abuse.  Here are the N-SSPX’s words: “Even if perverts or unbalanced men can be found among consecrated men …” – thereby suggesting that it is doubtful that there are any abusers at all among conciliar “priests”.[9]

Who would say “if the devil is not God” unless the person was leaving open that the devil might be God?  Likewise, why would anyone who accepts these clergy crimes as fact say “if clergy are committing these crimes”?

By supposing that no conciliar “priests” are abusers when countless priests are, the SSPX fights the truth.

Pope Francis and the N-SSPX deflect blame away from the lax, conciliar “new priesthood”.

Pope Francis deflects blame from conciliar “priests” by blaming “clericalism”, i.e., blaming a lack of power-sharing by the hierarchy.[10]  Here are Pope Francis’ words:

Clericalism, whether fostered by priests themselves or by lay persons, leads to an excision in the ecclesial body that supports and helps to perpetuate many of the evils that we are condemning today. To say ‘no’ to abuse is to say an emphatic ‘no’ to all forms of clericalism.[11]

Thus, Pope Francis blames the conciliar “priest”-abuse on (comparatively conservative) Catholics who oppose democratic decision-making in the church.  Of course, the true blame for this abuse lies with the lax, conciliar “priesthood” which Archbishop Lefebvre rejected – calling it modernist Rome’s “new priesthood”.[12]

The N-SSPX uses a tactic similar to Pope Francis’ tactic – by deflecting the blame from where it belongs, viz., the lax, conciliar “new priesthood”.  The N-SSPX blames evil media outlets, saying that any problem is only with a comparatively “tiny” group and the media have exaggerated this problem.  Here are the N-SSPX’s words:

The media attacks the Church furiously while pretending to forget that these cases, as scandalous as they may be, are only a tiny minority compared to the abuse committed by adults on children in schools, sports activities, or stepfamilies, not to mention the shady circles of fashion, the show business and the media.[13]

The N-SSPX not only deflects blame from the lax, conciliar “priesthood” – which is where the blame belongs – but the N-SSPX falsely suggests the media is the problem “if” there are any pervert-“priests” and that this abuse involves only a comparatively “tiny” minority.  

The N-SSPX also deflects blame for the abuse caused in the lax, conciliar “new priesthood”, on the grounds that godless civil society is worse.  By contrast, relatively conservative Catholic media sound the alarm about abuse in the new, conciliar priesthood:  

  • Media such as (the relatively conservative, Catholic) Lifesitenews.com reports on a new study showing the “priest”-abuse crisis is worse than “commonly thought”.[14] 

  • Media such as Lifesitenews.com report increasing statistics of abuse.  (However much abuse actually occurred in 2002, temporarily fewer abuses came to light because the abusers were scared by the lawsuits and media then.)[15]

Whereas the N-SSPX faults the media for (supposedly) exaggerating the “priest”-abuse crisis, Lifesitenews.com reports on a new study which specifically blames this abuse on the immorality of the conciliar hierarchy and the “new priesthood”, i.e., upon that fact that:

you’ve got eight times the proportion of [unnaturally impure men in the conciliar priesthood] as you do in the general population – it’s as if the priesthood becomes a particularly welcoming and enabling and encouraging population for [that kind of unnaturally impure] activity and behavior.[16]

Lifesitenews.com cited a survey in which most of the recently “ordained” conciliar “priests” disclosed the existence of a subculture and network of men at their seminaries who were steeped in unnatural impurity.[17]

This is a crisis!  Yet the N-SSPX deflects blame from the lax “new priesthood” to the media.  Pope Francis could not ask for a better partner than the N-SSPX to deflect blame from that same conciliar “new priesthood” which Archbishop Lefebvre entirely rejected.

The N-SSPX minimizes the abuse crisis by citing the lower abuse numbers from a report which conciliar “bishops” commissioned and financed.

Honest Catholics know that they cannot trust the conciliar “bishops” to protect the innocent.  Those conciliar “bishops” want to appear to defend innocent victims.  However, they never implemented the “Dallas Charter” regulations to restrain their “priests”, until the media and other external pressure drove them to do so in 2002.  Even then, the “bishops” exempted themselves from this regulation.[18]

The Ordinary of the Diocese of Burlington, VT, “bishop” Christopher Coyne, admitted (concerning his own fellow-“bishops”), that “The mistrust underlying all this was earned ….  The bishops had proven over the last two decades that they had not been able to police themselves.”[19] 

The U.S. conciliar “bishops” hired and paid for a study by John Jay College which concluded that 4% of “priests” are credibly accused of committing abuse which became public (at least eventually).[20]

A different study, not paid for by the U.S. “bishops”, concluded that the actual percentage was about 50% higher than that, i.e., about 6%.  These statistics, of course, include only abuse for which there were complaints which were made public, at least eventually.[21]  In other words, these percentages leave aside unreported as well as privately-handled abuse.

Even using the lower statistics used by the U.S. “bishops” and the N-SSPX, this abuse still shows there is a crisis.  This abuse is a type of spiritual death caused by 4% (or 6%) of the “priests” not counting (maybe much higher incidences of) unreported abuse as well as privately-handled abuse.  Doubtlessly, the victims number in the thousands or tens of thousands in the U.S. alone.

Further, the “bishops” shuffle the “priest”-abusers from parish to parish to hide the spiritual death they cause.  Also, the conciliar dioceses settle confidentially with victims, to keep this spiritual death hidden.

Let us suppose an analogous crisis of physical death:

  • Suppose there were a soft drink which was sold throughout the U.S. (and throughout the world), of which, 4% (or 6%) of the cans caused death, killing thousands or tens of thousands of persons in the U.S. alone.  

  • Suppose further the stores and the soft drink’s manufacturer moved the cans from one store to another, when the people began to notice persons dying from the soft drinks they bought at a particular store.  

  • Suppose then (like the “bishops” in the current “priest”-abuse crisis) the soft drink’s maker made confidential settlements to keep the deaths hidden from the public.

No honest person would say the type of thing which the N-SSPX says about the spiritual deaths caused by “priest”-abusers, viz., Even if there are any poison soft drink cans, the media is blowing the matter out of proportion from what is only a tiny minority of soft drink cans.

Conclusion

Plainly, the “new” SSPX is trying to ingratiate itself with the conciliar revolutionaries.  The N-SSPX minimizes the evil of the conciliar hierarchy and the lax “new priesthood”.  The “new” SSPX will say anything to have its followers accept the coming deal with modernist Rome.  This shows that you should not expect the truth from the N-SSPX.[22]

[1]          Divini Illius Magistri, (On Christian Education), Pope Pius XI, 1929, §65.  

To learn more about this grave duty to use great caution in discussing the sins against purity and to discuss them only when necessary, read this article: https://catholiccandle.neocities.org/faith/sins-caused-by-obscene-speech.html

[2]
         Warning given by the Council of Trent Catechism in the section on the 6th Commandment.

[3]          Faithful and informed Catholics know that conciliar ordinations and consecrations are inherently doubtful and so must be treated as invalid.  For an explanation why this is true, read these articles:

[4]

          St. Matthew’s Gospel, 5:14.

[5]          The Natural Law is what we know we must do by the light of the natural reason God gave us.  One example of the Natural Law is that we must never tell a lie.  We naturally know this because we know that the purpose of speech is to convey the truth and so we naturally know that telling a lie is abusing the purpose of speech.  

Here is how St. Thomas explains what the Natural Law is:

[L]aw, being a rule and measure, can be in a person in two ways: in one way, as in him that rules and measures; in another way, as in that which is ruled and measured, since a thing is ruled and measured, in so far as it partakes of the rule or measure.  Wherefore, since all things subject to Divine providence are ruled and measured by the eternal law, as was stated above [in Summa, Ia IIae, Q.91, a.1]; it is evident that all things partake somewhat of the eternal law, in so far as, namely, from its being imprinted on them, they derive their respective inclinations to their proper acts and ends.  Now among all others, the rational creature is subject to Divine providence in the most excellent way, in so far as it partakes of a share of providence, by being provident both for itself and for others.  Wherefore it has a share of the Eternal Reason, whereby it has a natural inclination to its proper act and end: and this participation of the eternal law in the rational creature is called the natural law.  Hence the Psalmist after saying (Psalm 4:6): "Offer up the sacrifice of justice," as though someone asked what the works of justice are, adds: "Many say, Who showeth us good things?" in answer to which question he says: "The light of Thy countenance, O Lord, is signed upon us": thus implying that the light of natural reason, whereby we discern what is good and what is evil, which is the function of the natural law, is nothing else than an imprint on us of the Divine light. It is therefore evident that the natural law is nothing else than the rational creature's participation of the eternal law.

Summa, Ia IIae, Q.91, a.2, respondeo.

[8]          Words of former Pope Benedict XVI before he became pope, in November 2002, when he was in charge of all abuse cases for the Vatican, quoted from an interview here:

http://www.bishop-accountability.org/AtAGlance/USCCB_Yearly_Data_on_Accused_Priests.htm

[9]          Emphasis added.  Here is the longer quote from the SSPX:

Even if perverts or unbalanced men can be found among consecrated men, we must not lose sight of the general hypocrisy that reigns in our “liberated” societies, where everything is permitted, and the worst depravities are encouraged.  

Here is the entire N-SSPX article: https://fsspx.news/en/news-events/news/300-priests-united-states-suspected-abuse-between-1947-and-2010-40486?utm_source=Society+of+Saint+Pius+X+%7C+Newsletter&utm_campaign=9d1eca99f1-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2018_09_21_04_48&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_8c13eb2341-9d1eca99f1-203947293 (emphasis added).

[10]          The Merriam-Webster Dictionary’s only definition of “clericalism” is “a policy of maintaining or increasing the power of a religious hierarchy”.  https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/clericalism

[12]          In his November 21, 1974 declaration of principles, Archbishop Lefebvre wrote:

We refuse, on the other hand, and have always refused to follow the Rome of neo-Modernist and neo-Protestant tendencies which were clearly evident in the Second Vatican Council and, after the Council, in all the reforms which issued from it. …

It is impossible to modify profoundly the lex orandi without modifying the lex credendi. To the Novus Ordo Missae correspond a new catechism, a new priesthood, new seminaries, a charismatic Pentecostal Church—all things opposed to orthodoxy and the perennial teaching of the Church.

This Reformation, born of Liberalism and Modernism, is poisoned through and through; it derives from heresy and ends in heresy, even if all its acts are not formally heretical. It is therefore impossible for any conscientious and faithful Catholic to espouse this Reformation or to submit to it in any way whatsoever.

http://sspx.org/en/1974-declaration-of-archbishop-lefebvre (emphasis added).

[13]          https://fsspx.news/en/news-events/news/300-priests-united-states-suspected-abuse-between-1947-and-2010-40486?utm_source=Society+of+Saint+Pius+X+%7C+Newsletter&utm_campaign=9d1eca99f1-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2018_09_21_04_48&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_8c13eb2341-9d1eca99f1-203947293

Here is the longer N-SSPX quote:

The Hypocrisy of the World and the Statistical Reality

Even if perverts or unbalanced men can be found among consecrated men, we must not lose sight of the general hypocrisy that reigns in our “liberated” societies, where everything is permitted, and the worst depravities are encouraged.  The media attacks the Church furiously while pretending to forget that these cases, as scandalous as they may be, are only a tiny minority compared to the abuse committed by adults on children in schools, sports activities, or stepfamilies, not to mention the shady circles of fashion, the show business and the media.

The creators of opinion, who are so careful to decry any form of amalgam on certain topics, between Islam and terrorism for example, or immigration and invasion, etc., are having a field day here.  And yet, as the blog “[], Church and Media” recalled in 2016, the most complete study on the cases of [] abuse in the Church is that of the John Jay College of Criminal Justice of the University of New York, published in February 2004.  Drawing up an inventory of all the court cases between 1950 and 2002, this study makes a strict distinction between allegations and condemnations.

Thus, out of the 4,392 allegations listed in the study, 1,021 led to police investigations resulting in only 384 criminal accusations. This enabled the blog to draw up more precise statistics on the cases of confirmed [abuse]. The numbers go from 4% of priests accused of alleged [] abuse, to 0.35% of priests actually convicted of these acts.  Of course, “in this difference, not all the priests are innocent (some are no longer alive, statute of limitations, etc.), but there are some who are innocent, for unfortunately, false testimony and defamation do exist.”  And based on the rate of convictions among the inquests that were conducted and completed without being interrupted by the statute of limitations or the death of the accused, the blog concludes that between 98.5% and 99.65% of American priests are innocent.  The black sheep represent between 0.35 and 1.5% of consecrated men. Obviously, this is still too many.

In France, statistics show, according to the National Observatory of Social Action, that in 75% of the cases recorded, abuse of minors happens in the family, and a quarter of these cases of abuse are committed by other minors.  The proportion of Catholic priests convicted and imprisoned for such acts, all sentences combined, represents 0.48% of the clergy in function, as the French Bishops’ Conference pointed out on January 23, 2017.  As serious as it may be, it remains a marginal reality, much more marginal, in any case, than the media, always ready to pounce on an opportunity to dishonor the Church, would have it.

The Church intercedes for her wounded children, not for this hypocritical and corrupt world for which Christ refused to pray (see Jn. 17:9).

Emphasis added; slightly edited (at brackets) for delicacy.

[16]          Read the longer Lifesitenews report here: https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/landmark-study-proves-homosexuality-is-strongly-linked-to-catholic-cle (bracketed synonyms substituted for delicacy).

[18]
         “The bishops specifically excluded themselves from the [2002 Dallas Charter] landmark child protection measures”.  https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/landmark-study-proves-homosexuality-is-strongly-linked-to-catholic-cle

The Conciliar Church Abuses the Phrase “People of God” to Promote Heresy

Posted on by Catholic Candle

Catholic Candle note: When you read the word “conciliar” in the following article, think “anti-Catholic” or “anti-Christ”.

The devil and evil men in the conciliar church know that they can control people’s thinking if they control how people speak.  For example, “Christian” truly means one who follows Christ.  But only Catholics truly follow Christ and so only Catholics are really Christian.[1]

One who truly follows Christ enters heaven.  No one truly follows Christ unless he is a Catholic in the state of grace.  It is a dogma of the Catholic Faith that there is No Salvation Outside the Catholic Church!  If a person is not Catholic, he is not a Christian and cannot save his soul.[2]

The conciliar church abuses the word “Christian” by calling heretics and schismatics “Christian”, to promote the heresy that non-Catholics can go to heaven.

To promote Heresy, the Modernists adopted the phrase “the People of God”

Just as the conciliar church abuses “Christian” to corrupt people’s thoughts by corrupting speech, so also the conciliar church abuses “the People of God”.  Although one can use this phrase in a Catholic way (viz., to refer only to Catholics), the modernists have hijacked this phrase to promote two conciliar errors: ecumenism and collegiality.

Whereas Catholics seldom called the Church “the People of God” before Vatican II, the conciliar church has been continually using this phrase since the 1960s.

 

The conciliar church claims this phrase, “the People of God” as its own.

Vatican II (and the conciliar church it caused), increased the use of “the People of God” so dramatically that the conciliar church claims this phrase as its own innovation.  Pope John Paul II remarked that “the doctrine in which the Church is presented as the People of God” is a “novelty of the Second Vatican Council”.[3] 

Although the phrase is not completely new, nonetheless, because Vatican II widely popularized the phrase to promote heresy, a faithful and informed Catholic risks confusing and scandalizing others by using “the People of God”.

Vatican II’s use of this expression is traceable to the writings of a 20th Century Lutheran heretic.

Former Pope Benedict XVI (who served as a peritus, i.e., an expert, at Vatican II) traces the origin of Vatican II’s usage of the phrase “the People of God” to a Lutheran heretic, Ernst Käsemann.  Here is how this former pope explains Käsemann’s influence upon Vatican II:

There is a third factor that favored the idea of [using the phrase] the “People of God”.  In 1939, the Evangelical exegete, Ernst Käsemann, gave his monograph on the Letter to the Hebrews the title, The Pilgrim People of God. In the framework of Council discussions, this title became right away a slogan because it made something become more clearly understood in the debates on the Constitution on the Church [i.e., Lumen Gentium] ….[4]

The conciliar usage of the expression “the People of God” promotes heretical ecumenism with non-Catholics.

The conciliar church falsely teaches that the Church of Christ encompasses more than just the Catholic Church, and that therefore one need not belong to the Catholic Church to save one’s soul.  The conciliar church uses the phrase “the People of God” to spread this heresy (viz., there is salvation outside the Catholic Church).[5]

Here is the way former Pope Benedict XVI explains how the phrase “the People of God” promotes Vatican II’s ecumenism with the heretics and schismatics:

[T]he Council introduced the concept of “the People of God” above all as an ecumenical bridge.  It applies to another perspective as well: the rediscovery [sic!] of the Church after the First World War that initially was a phenomenon [sic!] common to both Catholics and Protestants. …

[T]he phrase “People of God” … expresses the ecumenical dimension, that is, the variety of ways in which communion and ordering to the Church can and do exist, even beyond the boundaries of the Catholic Church.[6]

The conciliar notion of the Church as “the People of God” allows the conciliar church to falsely posit different degrees of “communion” with the Church.  Here is the way former Pope Benedict XVI explains how the phrase “the People of God” promotes the conciliar idea of degrees of “communion”:

If we use the image of a body to describe “belonging” we are limited only to the form of representation as “member”.  Either one is, or one is not, a member; there are no other possibilities.  One can then ask if the image of the body was too restrictive, since there manifestly existed in reality intermediate degrees of belonging.  

The Constitution on the Church [viz., Lumen Gentium] found it helpful for this purpose to use the concept of “the People of God”.  It could describe the relationship of non-Catholic Christians [sic] to the Church as being “in communion” and that of non-Christians as being “ordered” to the Church where in both cases one relies on the idea of the People of God (Lumen Gentium, nn. 15, 16).[7]

The conciliar usage of the expression “the People of God” promotes the heretical notion of a “horizontal”, non-hierarchical church.

This emphasis on “the People of God”, instead of the Mystical Body of Christ, de-emphasizes the hierarchical nature of the Church, since a body is hierarchical (with some parts more exalted and which control other parts) but “the people” is non-hierarchical.   This de-emphasis of hierarchy panders to the Protestants, as well as to the “we are church” modernist Catholics.[8]

Whereas priestly and Episcopal orders, and the delegation of Divine authority distinguish the clergy from the laity, describing the Catholic Church as “the People of God” obscures these differences.  For example, in Lumen Gentium, §13, Vatican II lumps together the hierarchy and clergy along with laymen as “members of the People of God”.[9]

Here is how former Pope Benedict XVI explained (with approval) how the phrase “the People of God” deemphasizes the hierarchical nature of the Church:

The expression does not lend itself easily to a description of the hierarchical structure of this community, especially if “People of God” is used in “contrast” to the ministers ….[10]

Conclusion

One can correctly describe the Catholic Church as “the People of God”.  However, Catholics seldom used this phrase.  Beginning at Vatican II, the modernists hijacked this phrase, and the conciliar church has used it ever since to promote two heresies.  

The “New” SSPX now uses the phrase “the People of God” as an additional step accustoming their followers to the way the conciliar church speaks
 

Because the SSPX formerly differed greatly from the conciliar church, to merge the SSPX into the conciliar church required enormous changes in how the SSPX thought and spoke.  

Thus, the leaders of the revolution in the SSPX had to tell its followers that they must “continually reposition”[11] themselves, i.e., continually change.  Bishop Fellay declared that the SSPX will try to maintain the support of its followers for a deal with Rome, by working hard to get its followers to understand the “new reality” in the Church.[12]

The “new” SSPX is steadily adopting the vocabulary of the conciliar church so that its followers will get used to how the conciliar church speaks.  The N-SSPX meters out its new conciliar terminology slowly enough to accustom its followers to hearing and using conciliar terms – without waking up those followers.  

The SSPX now speaks of “the People of God”, to accustom its followers to this conciliar lingo so they feel comfortable with it.[13]

But the SSPX also now uses many other conciliar phrases as part of its ongoing revolution against Catholic Tradition.  Here are a few more examples of the N-SSPX’s shift to conciliar terminology:

  1. Just as the conciliar church does, the N-SSPX describes the true Catholic Faith together with false heretical faiths, as “the Christian Faith” (in the singular).[14]

  1. The “new” SSPX promotes what it falsely calls “tradition”, by expanding this term to include groups that promote the new mass, the Assisi ecumenical gatherings, and the writings of Pope Francis.[15]

  1. Following the conciliar church by promoting the heresy of naturalism, the N-SSPX now defines the Catholic term “sacred” to include things such as any kind of bread and any eating together,[16] as well as all human life.[17]  Faithful and informed Catholics know that these are all only natural goods and are not sacred.

  1. The “new” SSPX follows the conciliar church in falsely saying that heretics and schismatics are “Christians”.[18]

  1. The “new” SSPX follows the conciliar church by falsely describing as “martyrs” those heretics who are killed for their heresies (e.g., by Muslims).[19]

  1. The “new” SSPX uses the phrase “faithful Catholics” to include those who attend the new mass.[20]

  1. Like the conciliar church, the “new” SSPX heretically teaches the vice of presumption, calling it the Theological Virtue of Hope.[21]

  1. The N-SSPX uses the conciliar jargon “Catholic Community” to refer to a parish, just as the conciliar church does.[22]        

  1. The N-SSPX uses the conciliar lingo degrees of communion (viz., full communion and partial communion), just as the conciliar church does.[23]

  1. The N-SSPX has begun to call the Traditional Mass by the conciliar name “Extraordinary Form” (just as the conciliar church does).[24]

  1. The N-SSPX follows the modernists by using the conciliar lingo “New Evangelization”, which is a program of indoctrination into conciliar errors.[25]

Conclusion

After Vatican II, most people who disliked the changes nonetheless stayed in their parishes, assuring themselves and each other that they would be strong enough to continue secretly rejecting the changes.  Those people gradually became conciliar.  

In the same way, most SSPX followers who dislike the SSPX’s changes have stayed in their local SSPX parish, assuring themselves and each other that they are strong enough to secretly reject the changes.  These people are gradually becoming conciliar.

Those who don’t learn from history are doomed to repeat it!

[1]        Read the explanation of this Catholic principle here: https://catholiccandle.neocities.org/faith/heretics-are-not-christians.html

[3]          Sacrae Disciplinae Leges, 25 January 1983 (emphasis added).

[4]          The Ecclesiology of Vatican II, 15 September 2001 conference given by (former) Pope Benedict XVI before he became pope, found at http://www.ewtn.com/library/curia/cdfeccv2.htm (bracketed words added for clarity).

[5]          For a thorough explanation of this Vatican II heresy about a (so-called) “Church of Christ” which the conciliar church teaches is broader than the true Catholic Church, read the explanation in Lumen Gentium Annotated, by the editors of Quanta Cura Press, © 2013, p.47 et seq.  This book is available:


and

[6]          The Ecclesiology of Vatican II, 15 September 2001 conference given by (former) Pope Benedict XVI before he became pope, found at: http://www.ewtn.com/library/curia/cdfeccv2.htm (emphasis and bracketed words added).

[7]          The Ecclesiology of Vatican II, 15 September 2001 conference given by (former) Pope Benedict XVI before he became pope, found at: http://www.ewtn.com/library/curia/cdfeccv2.htm (parenthetical citation is in the original; bracketed words added for clarity).

[8]          When promoting the non-hierarchical expression, “the People of God”, former Pope Benedict XVI stated:

  1. “[S]omeone should ask what must I do to become Church and to grow like the Church”;
  2. [E]ach one of us can and ought to say, ‘we are the Church’”; and

  1. “[W]e must be the Church.  We are the Church”.

The Ecclesiology of Vatican II, 15 September 2001 conference given by (former) Pope Benedict XVI before he became pope, found at: http://www.ewtn.com/library/curia/cdfeccv2.htm

Promoting conciliar collegiality, former Pope Benedict the XVI also warned that there is always a danger that the papal monarchy could have too much power.  Here are his words:

The idea of reform became a decisive element of the concept of the People of God, while it would be difficult to develop the idea of reform within the framework of the Body of Christ.  …  yet above and beyond all distinctions, all are pilgrims in the one community of the pilgrim People of God. … It is certainly true that there are imbalances that need correcting.  We should watch for and root out an excessive Roman centralization that is always a danger.

The Ecclesiology of Vatican II, 15 September 2001 conference given by (former) Pope Benedict XVI before he became pope, found at: http://www.ewtn.com/library/curia/cdfeccv2.htm (emphasis added).

[9]         For a thorough explanation of the hundreds of heresies in Vatican II’s Lumen Gentium, read: Lumen Gentium Annotated, by the editors of Quanta Cura Press, © 2013.  

This book is available:


and

[10]          The Ecclesiology of Vatican II, 15 September 2001 conference given by (former) Pope Benedict XVI before he became pope, found at: http://www.ewtn.com/library/curia/cdfeccv2.htm

[11]          Read the N-SSPX’s own words cited to its own sources here:

https://catholiccandle.neocities.org/priests/pfluger-traditional-catholics-change.html

[12]          When Bishop Fellay was asked if the SSPX [can] be confident of the support of SSPX churchgoers for reconciliation (i.e., a “deal”) with Rome, he stated:

It will be quite a work, and it will take time to be able to bring the faithful to realize this new face in the history of the Church, this new reality ….

http://www.ncregister.com/daily-news/sspxs-bishop-fellay-little-by-little-rome-is-giving-us-all-we-need-for-reco#ixzz4BfvbVEms

In other words, Bishop Fellay recognizes that, over time, he has to change the way the priests and laymen see things, and get them accustomed to accepting the “new reality” of the conciliar church.  How else could the “new” SSPX ever fit into the conciliar church?  Reflect for a moment: how often has he and the “new” SSPX assured us that “nothing has changed”, while the revolution advances?

[13]          For example, liberal Fr. Jurgen Wegner, N-SSPX U.S. District superior wrote a recent letter which stated:

It is hard to imagine such strong medicine for grave moral ills being prescribed by Rome today, yet that is what the Church requires if she is ever to recover.  In the meantime, the People of God cannot sit idly by waiting for a new Pius V to ascend to the Papal Thone with a divine mandate to secure the faithful and drive the unrepentant from the temple.

Quoted from Fr. Wegner’s undated letter mailed to the N-SSPX’s U.S. mailing list in late October 2018 (emphasis added).

[14]          Read the N-SSPX’s own words cited to its own sources here:

https://catholiccandle.neocities.org/priests/sspx-refers-christian-faith.html

[15]          Read the N-SSPX’s own words cited to its own sources here: https://catholiccandle.neocities.org/priests/sspx-meaningless-definition-tradition.html

[16]          Read the N-SSPX’s own words cited to its own sources here: https://catholiccandle.neocities.org/priests/sspx-the-new-sspx-falsifies-catholic-terminology.html

[17]          Read the N-SSPX’s own words cited to its own sources here: https://catholiccandle.neocities.org/faith/it-is-a-modernist-error-that-human-life-is-sacred.html

[18]          Read the N-SSPX’s own words cited to its own sources here: https://catholiccandle.neocities.org/priests/sspx-calls-heretics-christian.html

[19]          Read the N-SSPX’s own words cited to its own sources here: https://catholiccandle.neocities.org/priests/sspx-ecumenism-heretics-martyrs.html

[20]          Read the N-SSPX’s own words cited to its own sources here: https://catholiccandle.neocities.org/priests/sspx-novus-ordo-faithful.html

[22]          Read the N-SSPX’s own words cited to its own sources here: https://catholiccandle.neocities.org/priests/sspx-conciliar-lingo-community.html

[23]          Read the N-SSPX’s own words cited to its own sources here: https://catholiccandle.neocities.org/priests/schmidberger-conciliar-ideas-jargon.html

[24]          Read the N-SSPX’s own words from its own source here: http://www.angelusonline.org/index.php?section=articles&subsection=print_article&article_id=2658

[25]          Read the N-SSPX’s own words cited to its own sources here: https://catholiccandle.neocities.org/priests/sspx-promote-new-evangelization.html

The Rosary – How & Why

Posted on by Catholic Candle

Prayer is the lifting of the heart and mind to God. The heart is the will and the mind is the intellect.  The Rosary is a special prayer because it involves both mental prayer and vocal prayer.  One recites the prayers of the Rosary while meditating on the mysteries that the Holy Catholic Church gives us, namely, the Joyful, the Sorrowful, and the Glorious mysteries.  Yet what does this mean and how does one do it?

Most people do not understand how the Rosary is supposed to be said and hence they find the Rosary boring, tiresome, and let’s face it, “a drag.”  “I just don’t get anything out of the Rosary”; “It is so repetitious and boring to be just saying Hail Mary’s over and over again”; “I get so distracted saying the Rosary” or “I spend the whole time fighting distractions;” “Oh, it takes so long to say the Rosary” or “I don’t have time to say the Rosary.”

  Of course, the devil, who hates the Blessed Virgin Mary, is the one who inspires these discouraging thoughts.  He certainly knows by observation how efficacious the Rosary is, and how powerful the Rosary is, in protecting the soul from his onslaughts.  This is one of the primary reasons why Our Lady requests that we say at least five decades a day. She requested this specifically at Fatima, and at Lourdes.  Our Lady of Fatima said in the end times, that we would only have her Immaculate Heart and the Rosary. Thus, there should be no doubt in a serious Catholic’s mind, that we certainly have a moral obligation to say the Rosary.  We need to have devotion to Our Lady in order to save our souls, and the Rosary is one of the simplest devotional prayers one can say.

It is a positive shame that as many books as have had reference to the Rosary, there doesn’t seem to be anything written on exactly how the Rosary should be said. It seems to be assumed that people would automatically just “know” how to say it. What a clever trick of the devil, to ensure that folks will never say the Rosary, or never say it in the way the Blessed Mother intends it to be said!  Books and pamphlets about the Rosary mention that one says so many Hail Mary’s and an Our Father and Glory Be while meditating on the Mysteries. One can even find a “Scriptural Rosary” book that has basically Scriptural Quotes to be said between Hail Mary’s. Very well indeed, but just saying a Scriptural Quote is not meditating.  One can find books with the pictures of the Rosary depicting each of the 15 decades. Again, all very nice, but these do not explain how to say the Rosary. These books merely are hinting that just thinking or recalling to one’s mind the “story” of each mystery is supposed to be “praying” the Rosary.

There are many books written about mental prayer, yet unfortunately the way one actually is supposed to do it, is not described.  Even the Concise Catholic Dictionary does not give an accurate definition of mental prayer.  Meditation involves bringing some truth to mind and thinking on this truth or one could call it pondering a truth.  One considers the truth and draws what could be called some “profit, insight, or further conclusion” from “the considering” that one is presently doing. This process of considering might be called the preparation for mental prayer.  The actual mental prayer is simply this, that one says something to God.   This saying something to God is referred to as “an affection” or an “act of the will”.  Of course this statement is really said inside and does not have to be spoken aloud, although at times when one is alone, he might find himself saying things to God or the saints aloud.  Because prayer is the “lifting of the heart and mind to God”, the “act of the will” is the “lifting” of the heart.

The consideration can be compared to the tilling of the soil and the act of the will is like the harvest or fruit of the consideration.  The goal of the consideration is the acts of the will. If one does not make acts of the will, then one is not lifting both the heart and the mind to God, and thus, one is not praying.  When one is doing a good job making considerations, then the heart seems to overflow with things to say.  This pouring out of the heart is what is also called the colloquy.  These acts are typically of four kinds, namely, thanksgiving, contrition, petition, or adoration, which are the four types of prayer.

In meditation one considers some truth. One can think and consider about some topic, for example, the fall of the Angels. Then someone would take as many aspects of this topic as he wished to ponder and this pondering would produce many things to say to God, for instance, “Thank-you dear Lord for revealing this truth to mankind”; or “Thank-You dear Lord for saving me from falling into hell”; or “Thank-You for your mercy to me, etc.” One can meditate on a standard Catholic prayer and think about the words of the prayer itself.  This kind of meditation would involve thinking about the meaning of the words [singly, or perhaps, a couple at a time] and dwelling on them in order to appreciate them, and these thoughts would inspire acts of the will.  This might go something like this, maybe taking the Hail Mary:  

  • One would say Hail [thinking inside himself – this is a greeting to Mary]
  • Then, Mary [this name means seas]
  • Then, Full of grace[this means that Mary is completely holy]

These are examples of the considerations one would make and the following are possible “acts of the will” which the considerations might inspire:

  • Thou are so fair, O sweet Mother, and so pure.
  • I love you dear Mary, or, thy sweet name consoles me
  • Help me fair Lady of grace

Now putting these concepts in the sphere of the Rosary, when one is reciting the Hail Mary’s during the decades of the Rosary, one would not do this type of meditating on the words of the Hail Mary. Because meditating only on words of the Hail Mary for each Hail Mary of the entire Rosary would be difficult, the church has us base our considerations on the life of Our Lord and/or Our Lady, and let these considerations inspire our acts of the will. Thus, we only recite the Hail Mary’s, while considering the lives of Our Lord and/or Our Lady and making acts of the will. One may ask, “How can I be thinking about the lives of Our Lord and/or Our Lady, decide what I want to say to them, then say it, while I recite  the Hail Mary?” The simple answer is, that if one is saying the Rosary with someone else, then one can make his considerations, decide his act of the will and say it, (mentally), while the other person is leading or following the Hail Mary. When one is just starting out, one should not worry about making acts of the will when he is leading or following. It may happen at first that one’s act of the will, might slip out into the vocal recitation while following, but despite the embarrassment, know that in time this won’t keep happening.  

After a while of practicing making these acts of the will in this manner, one will find that he is actually able to say acts of the will while leading and/or following.  

One should try to make his acts of the will as simple as one can, because this will help him to get into the habit of mental prayer while he is reciting the vocal prayer.

One may also ask, “What if I am saying the Rosary by myself?” If one is saying the Rosary alone, it is a better thing to say the Our Father’s, Hail Mary’s, and Glory Be’s out loud, in a whisper, or at least mouthing the words with his lips. This makes it easier to say the required internal acts of the will.  Then, similarly one can say his act of the will in between the Hail Mary’s and eventually the acts of the will start “bleeding” into the recited Hail Mary’s. The person will find that he can truly make an act of the will at the same time he is reciting the Rosary. In fact, the expression, “reciting the Rosary” shows that the vocal aspect of the Rosary is merely a recital by rote of the Hail Mary’s.  The recital by rote and simultaneously saying acts of the will can, of course, include the Our Father’s and Glory Be’s as well.  Or one can think of the meaning of the Our Father and Glory Be while reciting them stirring up as much tender love as one can, trying to say them with fervor.  Then while reciting the Hail Mary’s one can pour out acts of the will.  One should not fret if his acts are simple, or if he finds himself making the same act throughout the entire decade.  One will discover that the Rosary becomes something that one really enjoys saying and that the Rosary seems to fly by and has far fewer distractions and maybe no distractions at all.  The Rosary is a powerful prayer and does soothe the soul when said properly. The following is a possible demonstration of how to do what is described above:

If the Rosary is not said alone-

Leader announces: The first joyful Mystery is the Annunciation. Then the leader begins the Our Father.

The follower: {reader of this article} while listening to the first part of the Our Father might say within himself, “Dear Heavenly Father, thank You for all your blessings to me. I am so unworthy,” or he might just internally join in the recital while he tries to focus intensely on the meaning of the words.

The leader: “Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.”

The follower: [while the leader leads] internally thinks of considerations or intentions to say to God, Our Lord specifically, Our Lady specifically, or the saints. E.g. “thank-You dear Lord for becoming Man”

The follower: answers the Hail Mary “Holy Mary Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen”.

 The leader: says the next Hail Mary. [During this, the follower may ponder longer and come up with more ideas of what to say or add additional acts based on what he said already, e.g. “I adore Thee O Lord for Thy Incarnation,” or “Mary, I thank thee for thy ‘Fiat’”

The follower: answers the 2nd Hail Mary.

And so the process continues for the rest of the Annunciation decade and the rest of the decades.

If the Rosary is said alone-

Here the Leader and the follower are the reader.  So the reader as the leader announces the first Mystery. “The Annunciation” Then the reader says aloud, in a whisper, or at least mouthing the words recites the Our Father with a fervent focus on the words of the Our Father striving to say it with love.  Or the reader can say a short act of the will before beginning to recite the Our Father. {Of course the person praying can say any particular intention he may have when announcing the decade and this may inspire acts of the will likewise.}

Before saying the first Hail Mary, the reader should say an act of the will aloud, in a whisper, or at least mouth the words, e.g. “I love Thee O Lord for Thy Humility in becoming Man.” Then the reader should recite the first Hail Mary. He should simply recite the Hail  Mary,think of a different theme or continue with the same idea that he started with, e.g. “O Lord, I thank Thee for Thy Mercy.” [This process can also be done during the Our Father, and Glory Be.]

 

Below are some sample acts of the will that may help in understanding how one says the Rosary by making acts of the will while one is reciting the decades by rote. One can be as ornate in his acts as he wishes to be, or is inspired to be.  God is certainly pleased with our contrite prayers and humble begging of His help.  As one becomes more proficient, one can get more elaborate.

Sample Acts of the Will

The Joyful Mysteries

{The Annunciation}

Simple Acts

1. Mary, teach me humility.  2. Mary, help me be humble.  3. Mary, help me accept God’s Will. 4. I love you, Mary. 5. I adore Thee, O Lord.  

Flowery Acts

1. Mary, rich in humility, teach me.  2. Thank-you Lord for becoming Man. 3. Mary, help me accept God’s Will. 4. Thank-you, Mary for your fiat. 5. O Blessed Mother and St. Joseph, thank-you for your examples.  6. Mary, teach me your ways.

Poetic Acts

1. Mary, model of humility, please teach me humility.  2. Mary, O humble handmaid, help me be humble.  3. Mary, help me accept God’s Will. 4. I thank-you for your humble submission to God’s Will. 5. O Incarnate Wisdom, I adore Thee. 6. O Hypostatic Union, I adore Thee. 7. How can I thank Thee enough O Lord for Thy incarnation? I love Thee, O Lord.

{The Visitation}

Simple Acts

1. Mary, teach me generosity.  2. Mary, help me be selfless.  3. Mary, teach me love of neighbor. 4. I love thy virtue, Mary. 5. Mary, help me stay close to Jesus.

Flowery Acts

1. Mary, model of generosity, teach me.  2. Mary, help me be give of myself completely.             3. Mary, help me follow your sweet example. 4. O Sweet Mary, I love you. 5. I love your examples, O Mary.

Poetic Acts

1. Mary, O sweet model of charity, help me.  2. Mary, help me be selfless like thee.  3. Mary, help me stay close to Our Lord. 4. Mary, model of generosity, teach me to be unselfish. 5. O Mary, vessel of devotion, keep me close to your heart. 6. Mary, Mother of my sweet Jesus, I love you.

{The Nativity}

Simple Acts

1.  Infant King, I love Thee. 2. Thank-you dear Jesus for coming.  3. Mary, help me adore thy Son. 4. Dear Infant Jesus, help me be humble.

Flowery Acts

1. Sweet Infant Jesus, I love Thee.  2. I thank Thee dear Jesus for Thy sweet example of humility.  3. I adore Thee O sweet Infant King. 4. I love Thee dear Infant Jesus. 5.  Mary, help me accept God’s Will as you and St. Joseph did. 6. O heavenly Mother and patriarch St. Joseph, help me to have a real spirit of Poverty.

Poetic Acts

1. Dear Jesus, help me be detached from the world.  2. Mary, teach me a love of poverty.  3. Mary and St. Joseph teach me holy detachment. 4. Thank-you dear Jesus for your example of humility. 5. Help me, O Holy Family to love the things of heaven.

{The Presentation}

Simple Acts

1. Mary and St. Joseph, teach me obedience 2. O Infant King, I love Thee. 3. O Infant King, I love Thy humility.

Flowery Acts

1. Mary and St. Joseph thank you for your example.  2. Mary, help me give myself to the Infant King.  3. Mary, keep me close to Thy Divine Son. 4. Mary, thank–you for your tender heart.

Poetic Acts

1. Mary, present me to the Infant Jesus.  2. Thank-you for listening to my wretched woes. 3. Mary, help me accept God’s Will. 4. Mary, help me present my heart to God. 5. I am so unworthy dear Mary, please help me. 6. O Mary, you understand my woes, thou art my consolation. 7. Thank-you dear Lord for giving us Mary.

{The Finding of the Child Jesus}

Simple Acts

1. Mary, teach me resignation to God’s Will.  2. Mary, help me love God.  3. Mary, help me accept God’s Will. 4. Mary, keep me close to the Child Jesus.

Flowery Acts

1. Mary, teach me how to love God’s Will.  2. O Holy Family, keep me close to the Child Jesus.  3. Mary, help me keep the Child Jesus in my heart. 4. O Mother of Sorrows, teach me patience in my sorrows. 5. Dear Mother of Sorrows, please convert poor sinners.

Poetic Acts

1. Mary, model of patience, I love you.  2. Mary, help me always seek Our Lord.  3. Mary, help me accept God’s Will with generosity. 4. Mary, help me love God with all my heart.

5. O Child Jesus, please help me be patient teaching others. 6. O Child Jesus, please help me always do the Will of Thy Father with love. 7. O Child Jesus, please unite me to Thee always.

The Sorrowful Mysteries

{The Agony in the Garden}

Simple Acts

1. O Lord, I am sorry for my pride.  2. O Lord, help me be humble.  3. Mary, help me accept God’s Will. 4. O Lord, I love Thee.  5. O Lord, help me be patient.

Flowery Acts

1. O Lord, I am weak, teach me.  2. O Lord, help me always accept Thy Holy Will.  3. I thank Thee O Lord for Thy examples of humility.4. I thank Thee for Thy example of patience. 5. O Lord, help me follow Thy example of patience.

Poetic Acts

1. O My Agonizing Jesus, please forgive my cold and conceited heart. 2. O Lord, help me follow Thy example of humility. 3. I adore Thee O Lord in Thy suffering for me. 4. I am so sorry for me sins of pride. 5. O Lord, I see what my wretched pride hath done to Thee. 6. O Lord, I beseech Thee to give me tears of compunction.

{The Scourging at the Pillar}

Simple Acts

1. O Lord, I am sorry for my self-indulgence.  2. O Lord, help me be selfless.  3. Dear Jesus, I love Thee.

Flowery Acts

1. Dear Jesus, help me mortify myself.  2. I thank Thee for suffering such cruelty for my sake.  3. Mary, help me willingly suffer for Christ. 4. O Lord, help me love Thee. 5.  Dear Lord, help me suffer willingly for Thee.

Poetic Acts

1. Dear Lord, I am sorry for my sins of pampering myself.  2. Mary, help me mortify my flesh. 3. Dear Lord, I love Thee with my whole heart and soul. 4. I give Thee my heart dear Lord. 5. O Lord, I adore Thy Precious Blood. 6. Bathe my wretched, ungrateful heart in Thy Precious Blood, O Lord.

{The Crowning with Thorns}

Simple Acts

1. Mary, teach me humility.  2. O Jesus, help me be humble.  3. O Lord, I am sorry for my pride.

Flowery Acts

1. O Lord, I thank Thee for Thy Humility.  2. Mary, help me love humility with all my heart.  3. Mary, help me accept every pain that God sends me. 4. Thank Our Lord for us, O Mary, for all the humble examples He gives us. 5. Help me Dear Lord to stand up for Thy Glory. 6. O Jesus, I am sorry for my horrible sins of pride.

Poetic Acts

1. O Crown of my Savior, I love Thee.  2. O Crown of my Savior, I adore Thee.  3. O My dearest Jesus, please forgive me for my wretched pride. 4. Dear Jesus, help me mortify my imagination. 5. O Sacred Head so wounded, I love Thee. 6. O Humble Jesus, help me to be unconcerned about the insults and hatred I receive from others.

{The Carrying of the Cross}

Simple Acts

1. Mary, help me bear suffering well.  2. O Jesus, give me patience.  3. Mary, help me accept God’s Will.

Flowery Acts

1. O Lord I am sorry for my sins of impatience.  2. Mary, help me unite with thee in suffering.  3. Jesus, help me carry my cross with love. 4. Jesus, I adore Thee and praise Thee. 5. O Jesus, help me to love my cross for love of Thee. 6. Mary, help me cling to the Cross of Our Lord.

Poetic Acts

1. I adore Thee and I praise Thee O Lord, because by Thy Holy Cross Thou hast redeemed the world.  2. Thy Cross, O Lord is my hope and my refuge.  3. O Mother of Sorrows, be my guide. 4. Mary, help me compassionate Thy Dear Son. 5. Mary, show me the sweetness of the Cross. 6. O Mary, help me joyfully sacrifice for Thy Son.7. Dear Mary, please help me carry my crosses joyfully. 8. Dear Lord, please help me carry my crosses in the way that pleases Thee most and serves Thee best.

{The Crucifixion}

Simple Acts

1. Jesus, I love Thee with my whole heart.  2. Mother of Sorrows, guide me.   3. Mary, help me have true contrition. 4. O Lord, I am sorry for my sins.

Flowery Acts

1. O Lord, draw me to Thy Sacred Heart.  2. Jesus, I am unworthy to be Thine.  3. O Incarnate Wisdom, I thank Thee and I love Thee. 4. Dear Mary, help me love my Lord more and more. 5. I adore Thee O Christ because by Thy Holy Cross Thou hast redeemed the world. 6. O Lord, never let me abandon Thee.

Poetic Acts

1. I am so sorry, Lord, for all my sins, especially my sins of pride.  2. Melt my cold heart, dear Lord.  3. Mary at the foot of the Cross, teach me to love thy Son with all my heart. 4. O Sacred Heart of melting wax, soften my heart, and make me melt with love for Thee. 5. O Sorrowful Heart of Mary, teach me compassion. 6. O Sorrowful Mother, help me compassionate thy Son. 7. I adore Thee and I love Thee O Lord for enduring the wound on Thy left wrist. [likewise, one could mention the right wrist, the left foot, the right foot, and the pain of the Most Sacred Heart- the painful throbbing and inflammation as well as the moral and spiritual suffering of His Heart.]

The Glorious Mysteries

{The Resurrection}

Simple Acts

1. I thank Thee Lord for the gift of faith.  2. O Lord, strengthen my faith.  3. O Lord, help me love the faith more.

Flowery Acts

1. O Lord, I believe, help my unbelief.  2. Thank Thee, O Lord for resurrecting. 3. Mary, you who ever kept the faith, help me always keep the faith. 4. O Mary, keep us strong in the faith in this Great Apostasy in which we live. 5. O Holy Apostles, protect us in this Great Apostasy.

Poetic Acts

1. O Victorious Lord and Redeemer, may Thou ever be praised.  2. O Compassionate Lord, I adore and praise Thy many apparitions.  3. I adore Thee, praise Thee, thank Thee, and love Thee, O Lord, for Thy Glorious Resurrection. 4. Please keep me faithful to Thee, O Lord.  

5. I adore Thee, God the Father, for Thy Divine Plan for redeeming mankind. 6. I adore Thee, God the Son, for being obedient unto the death of the Cross. 7. I adore Thee, God the Holy Ghost, for Thy Divine Plan for man’s redemption.

{The Ascension}

Simple Acts

1. O Lord, I adore Thee for Thy Ascension.  2. O Lord, increase my hope.  3. O Lord, give me a great desire for heaven.

Flowery Acts

1. Thank Thee O Lord, for ascending into heaven.  2. O Lord, I beg Thee to make me one of Thy elect. 3. Mary, help me have a burning desire for heaven.

Poetic Acts

1. I adore Thee, O Lord, for Thy Glorious Ascension.  2. Mary, help me have an intense desire for heaven.  3. Mary, my life, my sweetness and my hope, pray for me. 4. O Sweet Jesus, please increase my hope for heaven.

{The Descent of the Holy Ghost}

Simple Acts

1. O Holy Ghost, I adore Thee.  2. O Holy Ghost, I love Thee.  3. Mary, teach me to love.

Flowery Acts

1. O Holy Ghost, Infinite Love between the Father and the Son, I adore Thee.  2. O Holy Ghost, Infinite Love between the Father and the Son, I love Thee.   3. O Holy Ghost, Infinite Love between the Father and the Son, please open my heart. 4. O Paraclete, please inspire me, and guide me. 5. O Paraclete, grant that I learn and have virtue in my heart.

Poetic Acts

1. Fill my heart I beg Thee, O Holy Ghost.  2. I can do nothing without Thee, O Holy Ghost, please teach me.  3. Mary, spouse of the Holy Ghost, beg Him to teach me how to love. 4. O Paraclete, I, a creature, can neither give nor receive Thy Infinite Love, yet make my poor finite love pure. 5. I can only receive and give finite love yet please grant that my love be pure. 6. O Holy Ghost, grant that I ever love the Truth.

{The Assumption}

Simple Acts

1. Mary, please pray for me.  2. Thank Thee dear Lord for giving us Mary.  3. Mary, please obtain for us a holy death.

Flowery Acts

1. Mary, Mediatrix of all grace, please obtain for us the grace of final perseverance.  2. O Mary, Mother of Mercy, pray for us.  3. Sweet Mother Mary, please guide us and protect us. 4. I thank Thee, O Lord, for Thy wonderful gift of Mary, for our Mother.

Poetic Acts

1. O Lord, I cannot thank Thee enough, for Thy bountiful gift of Mary.   2. Mary, help us to love God with all our hearts.  3. Mary, Our Mother, help us and keep us safe. 4. Mary, Our Blessed Mother, help us ever lean on thee. 5. Mary, model of all virtue, teach us who are thy poor children.

{The Coronation of Mary as Queen of All Creation}

Simple Acts

1. Mary, powerful Queen, pray for us.  2. Mary, dear humble Queen, help me be humble.  3. Mary, Our Queen, protect us.

Flowery Acts

1. Mary, please increase our devotion to thee.  2. Mary, no one can go to Jesus except through thee, please help us stay close to thee.  3. Mary, never let us abandon thee..

Poetic Acts

1. O Infinite Goodness of God, I thank Thee with my whole heart for giving Mary to us.  2. O dear Lord, Mary is Thy masterpiece; I cannot thank Thee enough for creating such a treasure as Mary.  3. O Mary, my Mistress and Queen, protect me. 4. O Queen of Heaven and all creation, keep me ever safe with thee.

Thus one can see that the rosary is the wise prayer of the church to teach her children the principles of meditation which draw the soul to the life of contemplation and a mystical union with Christ which is part of God’s intention for Catholic souls.

How to Destroy the Catholic Church (in Her Human Element)

Posted on by Catholic Candle

Catholic Candle note: The article below was written by a man who has always been Traditional Catholic and who has been continually fighting liberalism since before Vatican II.

That is exactly what the Masons and the modernists did to the Catholic Church through a heresy of the Second Vatican Council – that of universal salvation, (i.e., everyone goes to heaven).  How did this heresy become respectable?  I’ll tell you how, in the context of a funeral:

  1. Draping the casket in white;

  1. Stating over and over again that the deceased is now in heaven, or “in a much better place smiling down on us,” etc.;

  1. Using the new conciliar “mass of the resurrection”;

  1. Revising the words of the Consecration of the Wine, from “many” to “all” to suggest that everyone’s sins are forgiven;

  1. Reciting the Glorious Mysteries or the conciliar Luminous Mysteries (if the family insists on prayers);

  1. There is never a request for a mass said for the soul of the deceased;

  1. The priest implies there is no need for prayers because the deceased is already in heaven;

  1. There is no need for “Christians” (i.e., heretics) to convert as they are already united to Christ in Baptism;

  1. There is no longer a need for a prayer card for the deceased because their life story on a page or two, with pictures, is “more appropriate” now.

  1. The Novus Ordo mass is a community meal and not appropriate for prayers of atonement for the sins of the deceased.  When they eliminated the traditional Catholic Requiem Mass for the salvation of the deceased, they had to point out there is no longer a need for the Requiem Mass because “everyone goes to heaven now.”[1]


With the above heresy made respectable, why is there a need to go to mass, confession, receive the sacraments, or ever go to a church, or support the Catholic Church?  Everyone goes to heaven, no doubt.  The Catholic Church is unnecessary, obsolete; there’s no need for it anymore.  To sell a product, the salesman must convince the buyer that he really needs the item being sold.  When there is no longer a need for the Catholic Church and all its regulations, sacraments, doctrines, service, etc., it is easy to predict the Church’s substantial loss of influence and membership.


The results of this heresy – that everyone goes to heaven, and that there is no further need of the Church for salvation – can be clearly seen by comparing Catholic Church statistics for the U.S., from 1965 to 2016.  It spotlights that the Church is losing influence and that Catholics’ perceived need for the Church is greatly diminished or completely eliminated:

  1. Total priests:  58,632 to 37,192 (and these are doubtfully valid priests anyway);[2]

  1. Ordinations:  994 to 548 (and these are doubtfully valid ordinations anyway);

  1. Religious Sisters:  179,954 to 47,170;

  1. Religious Brothers:   12,271 to 4,119;

  1. Parishes without a resident priest:  549 to 3,499;

  1. Baptisms of infants: 1.31 million in 1965, to 670,481 in 2016 (and when these baptisms occur at all, they are usually delayed for months or years, as shown by the sizes of the baptismal gowns now widely sold);

  1. Marriages:  352,458 in 1965, to 145,916 in 2016; and

  1. Mass attendance:  55% to 22%.[3]

The above very, very sad and disheartening statistics indicate a real problem for those few who adhere to and live the traditional Catholic Faith.  Moreover, these statistics do not include the rampant impurity and pervasive abuse of countless victims in every diocese through the world.

Don't expect the above statistics to improve at all.  This fact of life is based on Pope Francis and church leaders criticizing traditional Catholicism.  More and more, Traditional Catholics will be considered by Church and local civil authorities to be a disruptive group that acts contrary to the lifestyle and accepted morals of the majority, and that this group must be “dealt with”. 

It might come to that.

Blessed are they that suffer persecution for justice' sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.  Blessed are ye when they shall revile you, and persecute you, and speak all that is evil against you, untruly, for my sake: Be glad and rejoice, for your reward is very great in heaven.  For so they persecuted the prophets that were before you.[4] 

Catholic Candle note: We might be in the End Times and, if we are not, there certainly seems to be a strong basis for comparing the current great apostasy to the apostasy then.

Here is the teaching of St. Ambrose, Doctor of the Church, regarding widespread apostasy in the End Times:

With so many people apostatizing from Christianity, the brightness of the faith will be dimmed by this cloud of apostasy ….

Further, when the End Times come, the Catholic Church will be persecuted everywhere.  Here is the teaching of St. Augustine, Doctor of the Church:

[Our Lord’s End Times prophesy] will come to pass when tribulations shall be so spread through the whole world that it will affect the Church (which will be persecuted in every place) and not those who will persecute her; for it is they who will say “peace and security”….

Both quoted from the Catena Aurea on St. Luke’s Gospel, ch 21, vv. 25-33, St. Thomas Aquinas, editor.

 




[1]          Here the Council of Trent interposed with a definition of Faith (Sess. XXII. can. iii) “If anyone saith, that the Mass is only a sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving … but not a propitiatory sacrifice; or, that it profits only the recipient, and that it ought not to be offered for the living and the dead for sins, punishments, satisfaction, and other necessities; let him be anathema."  Catholic Encyclopedia, Vol. X, pp. 16-17.

[2]          For an explanation of the inherent doubtfulness of conciliar ordinations and why every conciliar ordination must be treated as invalid, read the analysis in these articles:

[4]
        St. Matthew’s Gospel, ch.5, vv. 10-12.

The N-SSPX Sisters Sell-out on Modesty

Posted on by Catholic Candle

Catholic Candle note:  Some of our readers might consider the decline of modesty in the “new” SSPX and the conciliar church as normal and acceptable.  This only shows how gradualism affects even Traditional Catholics.  

Just as morals slowly and steadily declined in the local parishes after Vatican II, so morals are now declining among self-described Traditional Catholics, who sit silently and do nothing to reverse this soul-destroying trend.

The Catholic Church has always carefully guarded modesty, especially of young women and girls.  As Pope Pius XI taught:

[S]pecial care must be had of Christian modesty in young women and girls, which is so gravely impaired by any kind of exhibition in public ….[1]

In the 1990s, the Sisters of the SSPX taught the Traditional Catholic standard of modesty, including that a woman’s or girl’s knees must always be covered and her sleeves must always reach at least halfway to her elbow.  Here is one way those Sisters used to describe this Traditional Catholic standard of modesty:

Truly modest clothing reaches below the knees whether one is standing or sitting.  It has sleeves extending to the elbows.  Quarter-length sleeves are nevertheless tolerated, but be careful: if they are too short or loose, bodily movements expose to view what should be concealed.[2]

But the Sisters and the rest of the N-SSPX are becoming morally lax.  Contrast the above standard of traditional modesty to the picture in the Sisters’ latest article published in the Angelus Magazine.  This picture is of a girl exposing half her thighs and wearing a sleeveless blouse.[3]

Sadly, the N-SSPX Sisters are merely following the new direction of their leaders.  The “new” SSPX wants to “fit in” with the world and with the conciliar church.[4]  Thus, the N-SSPX undermines the traditional modesty it used to uphold.  For example, the “new” SSPX promotes the idea of women wearing pants if the women around them wear pants.[5]

The SSPX Sisters taught the opposite in the 1990s, viz., that women should wear dresses and skirts and never wear pants.  Here is one way the SSPX Sisters explained the Traditional Catholic standard of modesty in the 1990s:

God made men and women different.  He gave them their own roles to play in the divine plan.  Pants are appropriate apparel for a man’s nature and figure, whereas dresses and skirts are fitting attire for a woman, since they help her maintain her identity and dignity.  On the other hand, when a woman wears men’s clothing, the respect due to her God-given nature is lowered.  

Girls, dress like true women and daughters of the Virgin Mary.  Be courageous enough to get rid of all your pants and shorts.  Show that you are proud to be what God has made you!  This is your glory before Him and before others.[6]

Regrettably, the “new” SSPX’ promotes lax morals in many ways.  Here are a few more examples:

Conclusion

Beware of the Sisters and of the Angelus Magazine:

  • The Sisters of the Society of St. Pius X have weakened and compromised like the rest of that group.  Don’t look to them for guidance and for the Catholic standards they used to uphold.

  • Reject the liberal and immodest Angelus Magazine.  It is a tool for revolution within the SSPX.[10]

[1]          Divini Illius Magistri, (On Christian Education), Pope Pius XI, §68.

[2]          Quoted from: The Marylike Standards of Modesty in Dress, published by the Sisters of the Society of Saint Pius X, Browerville, MN, p.2 (emphasis added).  This publication is not dated but the Sisters distributed it in the 1990s.

[3]          Nov-Dec. 2018 Angelus Magazine, p.61.

[4]         Here are a few more examples of the “new” SSPX liberalizing itself to “fit in” with the world and with the conciliar church:

[5]
         Read the N-SSPX’s own words, quoted from its own source, here: https://catholiccandle.neocities.org/priests/pfluger-culture-women-trousers.html

[6]          Quoted from: The Marylike Standards of Modesty in Dress, published by the Sisters of the Society of Saint Pius X, Browerville, MN, p.3.  This publication is not dated but the Sisters distributed it in the 1990s.

[7]          Read the N-SSPX’s own words, quoted from its own source, here: https://catholiccandle.neocities.org/priests/sspx-immodesty-sell-books.html

[8]          See, the SSPX’s DICI Magazine, #310, p.5.

The Pride of Considering Ourselves Indispensable

Posted on by Catholic Candle

It is extremely hard for leaders to get to heaven because pride is so subtle, so seductive and seemingly irresistible.  That is why a man places himself in danger when he acquires power.  Power so often causes a person (or a group) to be full of his (or its) own self-importance.  That is why saints often refused to accept the dignity of becoming a bishop or abbot.

When a proud man is filled with self-importance, he thinks he (or his group) is indispensable and that only he (or his group) can accomplish a particular difficult deed.[1]  A man’s pride causes him to exult himself (or his group) as capable of more than he (or it) truly is.[2] 

Pride blinds the soul so much that, after nurturing this pride in his heart, a man often boasts openly.[3]

The virtue of humility is the spiritual remedy we need to correct this pride and boasting.[4]

Persons in power have special difficulty avoiding pride and boasting about themselves or their group.  Everyone, but especially those in power, should remember the words of St. Bonaventure, Doctor of the Church:

Look upon yourself as insignificant.[5]

The Imitation of Christ warns all of us, and especially those in power:

Be not proud of your own works.[6]

Archbishop Lefebvre fought this temptation of excessive self-importance (pride), as we all must do.  People tried to flatter him that his group (the Society of St. Pius X) would convert the human element of the Church and bring it to Catholic Tradition.  Archbishop Lefebvre called this an illusion.  Here are his words (starting with the interview question he answers):

Question: Some people say, “Yes, but Archbishop Lefebvre should have accepted an agreement with Rome because once the Society of St. Pius X had been recognized and the suspensions lifted, he would have been able to act in a more effective manner inside the Church, whereas now he has put himself outside.”

Archbishop Lefebvre: Such things are easy to say.  To stay inside the Church, or to put oneself inside the Church – what does that mean?  Firstly, what Church are we talking about? If you mean the Conciliar Church, then we who have struggled against the Council for twenty years because we want the Catholic Church, we would have to re-enter this Conciliar Church in order, supposedly, to make it Catholic.  That is a complete illusion.  It is not the subjects that make the superiors, but the superiors who make the subjects.

Amongst the whole Roman Curia, amongst all the world’s bishops who are progressives, I would have been completely swamped.  I would have been able to do nothing, I could have protected neither the faithful nor the seminarians.  Rome would have said to me, “Alright, we’ll give you such and such a bishop to carry out the ordinations, and your seminarians will have to accept the professors coming from such and such a diocese.”  That's impossible.  In the Fraternity of St. Peter, they have professors coming from the diocese of Augsburg.  Who are these professors?  What do they teach?[7]

The Institutional Pride of the “New” SSPX

There are many ways in which the “new” liberalizing SSPX no longer follows its founder, Archbishop Lefebvre.  Among those ways is in his humility and common sense.  The N-SSPX is proud and self-important, bragging that it is indispensable.  

For example, Fr. Pagliarani, the N-SSPX’s new superior general, bragged that there is no other way for the hierarchy to be reminded about Catholic Tradition except by the SSPX.  Here are the words he spoke publicly:

[O]nly the Society can help the Church, in reminding the popes and the bishops that Our Blessed Lord founded a monarchical Church and not a chaotic modern assembly.[8]

One can see the seductive power of pride in his words, endangering the vulnerable SSPX leaders because they don’t have Archbishop Lefebvre’s humility and common sense.  

Similarly, Bishop Fellay bragged that the SSPX works “marvels”.  Here are the words he spoke publicly:

We sing every day the Magnificat for the marvels that the Almighty still enables us to accomplish.[9]

Although Bishop Fellay tells people how he thanks God (sings the Magnificat) for the marvels he says the SSPX works, this is like the thanks which the Pharisees gave for the marvels that the Almighty still enables them to accomplish:

O God, I give thee thanks that I am not as the rest of men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, as also is this publican.  I fast twice in a week:  I give tithes of all that I possess.[10]

        

Conclusion

The devils are directing the proud and foolish leaders of the N-SSPX!  Let us pity and pray for them!  

But let us also not follow them.  Pride is a type of blindness and when the blind lead the blind, they both fall into the pit![11]

[1]          Here is how St. Thomas Aquinas, greatest Doctor of the Church, teaches this truth:

Pride is so called because a man thereby aims higher than he is; wherefore Isidore [the saintly Doctor of the Church from Seville] says (Etym. x): “A man is said to be proud, because he wishes to appear above what he really is”; for he who wishes to overstep beyond what he is, is proud.

Summa, IIa IIae, Q.162, a.1, respondeo (bracketed words added for identification).

[2]          Here is how St. Thomas Aquinas teaches this truth:

When a man ascribes to himself a good greater than what he has, it follows that his appetite tends to his own excellence in a measure exceeding his competency: and thus we have the third species of pride, namely “boasting of having what one has not”.

Summa, IIa IIae, Q.162, a.4, respondeo.

[3]          Here is how St. Thomas Aquinas teaches this truth:

Boasting is reckoned a species of lying, as regards the outward act whereby a man falsely ascribes to himself what he has not: but as regards the inward arrogance of the heart it is reckoned by [Pope Saint] Gregory [the Great, Doctor of the Church] to be a species of pride.

Summa, IIa IIae, Q.162, a.4, ad 2 (bracketed words added for identification).

[4]          Here is how St. Thomas Aquinas teaches this truth:

It belongs to humility to withdraw the mind from the inordinate desire of great things, against presumption.

Summa, IIa IIae, Q.162, a.1, ad 2.

[5]          Words of St. Bonaventure, quoted in Spiritual Diary, Daughters of St. Paul Press, Boston, © 1962, p.39.

[6]
         Imitation of Christ, Thomas á Kempis, Bk.1, ch.7.

[7]          Interview published in the July-August 1989 issue of the SSPX’s magazine, Fideliter.

[9]          Bishop Fellay’s letter to friends and benefactors, #83, dated 11-21-14.

[10]          St. Luke’s Gospel, ch.18, vv.11-12.

[11]
         Our Lord told his disciples: “Let them alone:  they are blind, and leaders of the blind.  And if the blind lead the blind, both will fall into the pit.”  St. Matthew’s Gospel, ch.15, v.14.

The Basics of the Church’s Traditional Laws of Fast and Abstinence

Posted on by Catholic Candle

Catholic Candle note: With Lent fast approaching, we are pleased to print an expanded version of an excellent article from a woman who has always been Traditional Catholic and who has been continually fighting liberalism since before Vatican II.  We printed her original article in 2016.

In these days of shocking scandals in the conciliar church and creeping liberalism in the “new” SSPX, we sometimes forget one of the basic duties of a good Catholic: observing the Church’s Rules of Fast and Abstinence.  In the old days, our parish priests reminded us of them in a timely manner:  four times a year (Ember Days approximately at the change of seasons) and Vigils of four Feast days.

However, it was not always easy to keep them clear in our minds.  Thus, in the 1970s our (traditional Catholic) pastor put together and distributed a chart (included below, in a simplified form which more closely follows the 1917 code).  It was a real plus for us traditional Catholic families.  You may want to save this chart as well as copy it to give to others.  

Having said that, it is worthwhile noting that the Church’s obligatory laws of fast and abstinence have always required a bare minimum and not the recommended or ideal amount.  We should do much more fasting and abstinence than what is required.  “Unless you do penance, you shall likewise perish.”  St. Luke, 13:5.

We are traditional Catholics and so we follow the “traditional rules” – not choosing the easier path as the conciliar church has.  Further, we recommended that Catholics:

  • Fast even after turning 59, if they can, to be more generous with Our Lord;

  • Fast and abstain until Easter Sunday morning, rather than ending these Lenten observances at noon Holy Saturday; (the 1955 extension of fast and abstinence until midnight was historically connected with the 1955 changes in the Holy Week liturgy.  The merits of those liturgical changes are a separate issue.)

  • Have children begin to abstain from meat with the rest of the family, before the rules absolutely require it.  This would send the right message to younger children (and not harm their health in the least).  This shows them that a serious Catholic does not ask, “How little can I do?”

Two further points: 

  1. The traditional (pre-1983) rules required fasting beginning at 21 until turning 59, but the Church’s fasting law is perhaps the only occasion when the new code is stronger (in a very narrow respect) – it requires fasting beginning at age 18 – although only on a (wimpy) two days per year.  We need more fasting (and other penance), not less, and so it is a good thing we are required to begin fasting at 18.  Because we recognize the validity of the pope who issued the law that fasting begins at 18 years old, we must obey that law because it does not oppose the Traditional Catholic Faith and morals.

  1. Contrary to what the conciliar church does in practice, the new code of Canon Law (despite its countless flaws) does require abstinence on all Fridays.  Although the 1983 Code of Canon Law – canon 1251 – does allow a national bishops’ conference to substitute the penance of abstaining from a different food, we are not aware of any national conference of bishops which has done so.[1] 

    Indult groups like the “new” SSPX wrongly follow the soft conciliar practice of asserting that no abstinence is mandatory under pain of mortal sin, on most Fridays of the year.  This soft practice ignores:

  1. the traditional law of the Church;
  2. even the lax 1983 code of Canon Law they purport to follow; and
  3. the fact that the bishops’ conferences have never specified any other food from which Catholics must abstain on Fridays instead of meat.

Traditional Catholic

Fast and Abstinence Recommendations

Based on the 1917 Code of Canon Law, §§1250-54, slightly revised to include later canonical requirements where they are stricter.

Abstinence: no meat or meat-sourced broth (binds persons who have turned 7 years old)

Fast: only one meal per day and two small meatless collations* (binds persons who have turned 18† and have not yet turned 59)

Fridays

✓

Ash Wednesday

✓

✓

Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays & Thursdays between Ash Wednesday & Easter

✓

Fridays & Saturdays between Ash Wednesday and Easter‡

✓

✓

Ember Days

✓

✓

Day before Pentecost

✓

✓

August 14 (unless Sunday)

✓

✓

October 31 (unless Sunday)

✓

✓

December 24 (unless Sunday)

✓

✓


* As a concession to human weakness, traditional rules allow two small meatless collations in addition to the meal.  The New Marian Missal, by Silvester P. Juergens, S.M., Regina Press, NY, NY, 1961, p.11.

† The New Code of Canon Law (§1252) changes the 1917 Code by revising the beginning age from 21 to 18.

‡ Under the 1917 Code, fasting and abstaining ends at noon on Holy Saturday.  Canon Law later extended this penance until mid-night.  Cf., New Marian Missal, by Silvester P. Juergens, S.M., Regina Press, NY, NY, 1961, p.11.

Appendix

Catholic Candle note: Above, is our recommendation for fasting and abstaining and the reasons for those recommendations.  Below, is a historical analysis showing the weakening of the fasting/abstinence rules over the 1900s.  

This weakening is important because fasting and abstaining is a strong defense against impurity and gluttony as well as all sins and heresies.  The weakening in the Church’s fasting and abstaining laws grew much worse after Vatican II.  But the weakening before Vatican II could have played some role in reducing Catholics’ readiness to resist the doctrinal and moral attacks beginning in the 1960s.

How Catholic fasting law relaxed over the 1900s

Canons 1250-54 (1917)

Dr Sylvester Juergens, The New Marian Missal for Daily Mass (ca. 1955)* (another source for same text)

Canons 97 §1, 1251-52 (1983)

definition of abstinence

no flesh or flesh-sourced broth

no flesh or flesh-sourced broth

no flesh

definition of fasting

one meal per day; one may take some additional food (aliquid cibi) at two other times in the day; the meal may not be in the morning

one meal per day; one may take some additional food, so long as it is not flesh and does not add up to a second meal, at two other times in the day

undefined

how old one is when one must abstain

7+

7+

14+

how old one is when one must fast

21-58

21-58

18-58

abstinence

fast

abstinence

fast

abstinence

fast

All Fridays

✓

✓

✓

Ash Wednesday

✓

✓

✓

✓

✓

✓

All days after Ash Wednesday and before Easter, except Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays

✓

✓

Fridays between Ash Wednesday and Easter, not including Good Friday

✓

✓

✓

✓

✓

Saturdays between Ash Wednesday and Easter, not including Holy Saturday

✓

✓

✓

Good Friday

✓

✓

✓

✓

✓

✓

Holy Saturday forenoon

✓

✓

✓

✓

Holy Saturday afternoon

✓

✓

Ember Fridays

✓

✓

✓

✓

Ember Wednesdays and Saturdays

✓

✓

✓

Eve of Whitsunday

✓

✓

✓

August 14 (unless Sunday)

✓

✓

October 31 (unless Sunday)

✓

✓

December 7 (unless Sunday)

✓

✓

December 24 (unless Sunday)

✓

✓

✓

✓


* We would be grateful for a more authoritative source for tracking how the rules changed between the early 1950s and the early 1960s. It is hard to track Vatican legislation between codifications; some of it is online, but poorly organized and labeled even on the Vatican website. Dr. Juergens’ book is difficult to date, because Pius XII’s administration extended the Holy Saturday fast till midnight with the decree Maxima Redemptionis nostrae mysteria (16 Nov. 1955), but the administration had already abolished the Vigil of the Immaculate Conception, December 7, by the decree Cum nostra hac aetate (23 March 1955).

[1]        Further, promoting collective authority of the national conferences of “bishops” is a conciliar error and one of the countless evils of Vatican II (collegiality).  This conciliar evil aims both to diminish the monarchical authority of the pope and to diminish the authority of individual “bishops” in their own dioceses.

        Faithful and informed Catholics know that conciliar ordinations and consecrations are inherently doubtful and so must be treated as invalid.  For an explanation why this is true, read these articles:

        Although there are inherent doubts concerning the “ordinations” and “consecrations” of conciliar “bishops”, this does not mean that those clergy do not possess the jurisdiction of their offices (for governing).  For a full explanation of this principle, read this article: https://catholiccandle.neocities.org/faith/against-sedevacantism.html#section-10

Final Perseverance is the Last Great Battle with The Devil

Posted on by Catholic Candle

Catholic Candle note: The article below was written by a man who has always been Traditional Catholic and who has been continually fighting liberalism since before Vatican II.

Most people put off till later preparing for death and this battle, because it is something they don't want to think about.  That is a mistake.  It will be the biggest and most important and final spiritual combat of your life.  Being that it will be the devil’s last chance to escort your soul to the everlasting fires of hell, he will “pull out all the stops” to ensure his success.  He will come after you in a different or more promising way, something that he has been saving for you in this final battle.

The definition of perseverance is to persist in an undertaking in spite of counter-influences or opposition. This will be your final test, and you must prepare for it.  As a student, you prepared to do your best for the big test at the end of the school year.  It goes without saying that the most significant test of your life – with the results lasting for an eternity – will take your earnest preparation.  When success is important in some endeavor, you certainly should never wait till the last minute to prepare.

How does one prepare for this encounter?  Let me list a few goals:

  1. Conquer pride

  1. Practice humility

  1. Gain complete control of your passions

     4)  Make the uncompromising Catholic Faith your whole life

     5)  Establish a deep love for God with a definite and regular prayer life

     6)  Practice self-denial daily

     7)  Set a good example in this pagan world

     8)  Study the lives of the Saints to see what they did to succeed

     9)  Say little indulgenced prayers regularly and often

    10) Pray (at least) twice daily for final perseverance: first thing in the morning

and last thing at night

In this endeavor, prayer is certainly the most important preparation.  The Saints, filled with the love of God, would gladly pray all night, following Our Lord’s example.[1]  They were talking to the Love of their life.  Most people pray like they are talking to their strict boss at work and can’t end the conversation soon enough.  Learn to love God and pray gladly.

Most people take a chance that they will be strong and able to withstand the onslaught of the devil at the end of life.  That is wishful thinking without the proper preparation.

I know of a situation where a pious and humble, bed-ridden traditional Catholic was in veterans’ hospice care.  On his death bed, he was under attack by the devil to such an extent that fear took over and he was able to get out of bed and run down the hall shouting, “They [viz., the devils] are trying to get me to commit mortal sin!”  And then he dropped dead.

From all appearances, he did what he had to do to win the battle with the devil.  He had prepared himself to do whatever it took to win.

For Satan does not tempt unbelievers and sinners whom he already holds securely, but he does tempt and trouble the faithful servant in many ways.

Quoted from The Imitation of Christ, Book 4, chapter 18.

We will all face death and this final great battle with the devil.  However, there is powerful help available: prayers to St. Joseph, who is the Patron of a Happy Death and also the Terror of Demons.

So prepare yourself for this great battle that will come.  Don’t risk failure by putting off the important and necessary preparation to win that battle.

Catholic Candle note: To learn more about how to prepare well for death, read Preparation for Death, by St. Alphonsus de Liguori, Doctor of the Church.  This book is available for free, here: https://www.goodcatholicbooks.org/alphonsus.html

[1]          Then Jesus “went out into a mountain to pray, and he passed the whole night in the prayer of God.”  St. Luke’s Gospel, ch.6, v.12.

Conscience is a Great Gift from God

Posted on by Catholic Candle

The Catholic Encyclopedia definition of conscience is: “A feeling of pain accompanying and resulting from our non-conformity to principles.”[1]  You have a duty to inform your conscience with the highest principles by consulting great philosophical leaders like St. Thomas and St. Paul.

St. Thomas defines conscience as “The judgment or dictates of the practical intellect which (arguing) from the general principle (of Morals) pronounces that something in particular here and now is to be avoided, inasmuch as it is evil, or to be done, inasmuch as it is good.”[2]

Most people living in our immoral world consider their conscience a problem they are stuck with, that it stands in their way of having fun and really isn’t necessary.  They fail to realize that it is a most important gift to be used throughout the day, to obtain salvation.  Oh, what a gift that actually lets you know if you’re on the correct (narrow) path to a heavenly reward, or on the (wide) road to eternal damnation.  A gift beyond your imagination.

You must avoid going through life with an uninformed conscience or a lax conscience.  It is a “minimizer” if it falsely judges actions to be harmless which are sinful.  God has established an objective moral order and cannot be presumed to be indifferent to its maintenance.[3]  Both passion and ignorance interfere with correct dictates of an informed conscience.

There is such a thing as a scrupulous conscience.  The scrupulous person is the victim of an imaginary spiritual impediment to his free action.  He is tormented in every action by the thought that he may be committing a sin.[4]  A scrupulous conscience is really the work of the devil hoping you will become frustrated and refuse to listen to your conscience in the future.  Such a conscience can be informed and corrected with guidance from an uncompromising confessor.  Before confession, we examine our consciences to ensure a “good” confession.  However, it is best to examine our conscience every night in order to avoid a lax conscience.

Let’s pledge to appreciate our conscience as a generous gift from God, and keep it informed and use it as He intended, cooperating with God to work out our salvation.

[1]          1913-1917 Catholic Encyclopedia, Vol. 4, page 269.

[2]
         Catholic Dictionary and Encyclopedia of Religious Information, Addis & Arnold, Entry: Conscience, page 215

[3]
         Moral and Pastoral Theology, Davis, volume 1, page 78.

[4]
         Moral and Pastoral Theology, Davis, volume 1, page 73.

What 3 Things Help Most to Convert Souls and to Pass on Catholic Tradition?

Posted on by Catholic Candle

(Hint: it is not Giving Money to the N-SSPX, which is the

N-SSPX’s Own Avaricious Answer.)

The three greatest helps to passing on the Catholic Faith (i.e., converting souls) are:

  1. Sanctifying our own souls;

  1. Increasing our knowledge of the Catholic Faith; and

  1. Increasing our devotion to Our Lady, in particular.

Below, we examine each one of these crucial helps to convert others to the Catholic Faith.[1]

  1. Sanctifying our own soul is a great help in converting other people.

When a person converts to the Catholic Faith, he is beginning his road to holiness.  Although converting souls is God’s work, we can be better tools for God’s use, by being holier ourselves because “you can’t give what you don’t have” (as the proverb says).[2] 

Further, when we sanctify our own souls more, this shows a potential convert that we are serious about our souls and we give him a model and example of pursuing holiness seriously.

  1. Increasing our knowledge of the Catholic Faith is a great help in converting other people.

God uses human instruments to explain the Catholic Faith to potential converts.  Thus, knowing the Faith better ourselves allows us to better explain it and answer a potential convert’s questions.[3]

Further, when we continually study our Faith (as the Church instructs us to do) this shows the potential convert that the true Faith is important and we set a good example to him.

  1. Increasing our devotion to Our Lady is a great help in converting souls.

Drawing closer to Our Lady and being more devoted to her, will increase her help bringing potential converts to her Son, as she brings us closer to her Son also.  Strengthening our devotion and friendship with the Blessed Virgin Mary is crucial for increasing our interior life, for saving our own souls, and for winning converts to her Son because:  

  • Our Lady is the “Neck of the Mystical Body of Christ”.[4]  This means that everyone who goes to our Lord Jesus Christ, goes to Him (the Head of the Mystical Body), through the Neck (Our Lady).

  • Devotion to Our Lady is not an optional devotion for us or for the person we seek to convert to the Catholic Faith.[5]  The potential convert sees the example of our devotion to Our Lady and thereby understands that the way to Our Lord is through His mother.

  • Conversion to the true Catholic Faith is a gift of God which no one can merit for himself.  All conversions require grace.  Our Lady is the Mediatrix of All Graces.  Thus, we must be devoted to her and lead potential converts toward devotion to her, who supplies the grace to convert to the Faith and to grow in it.[6]

  • Our Lady is the Co-Redemptrix of mankind.  She joined in Our Lord’s Sacrifice to redeem the “lost sheep” (mankind).  Joining with her Son to redeem man, she is most ready to apply that salvific merit to individual souls.  Our increased devotion helps us to unite with her those persons whom we seek to convert.

Conclusion of this article so far

The three greatest helps to passing on the Catholic Faith (i.e., converting souls) are:

  1. Sanctifying our own souls;

  1. Increasing our knowledge of the Catholic Faith; and

  1. Increasing our devotion to Our Lady, in particular.

Let us use them to cooperate with God in sanctifying our souls and being God’s tools in leading others to heaven.

The “New” SSPX says the best way to pass on the Catholic Faith is to give the N-SSPX money.

The “new” SSPX has a very different, unspiritual outlook.  It tells people that the best way we can spread the Catholic Faith is by giving the N-SSPX money in our wills or trusts.  Here are its words:

There is no more meaningful or lasting way to pass on the gift of Catholic Tradition and the traditional Latin Mass, than to make a legacy gift [viz., to the N-SSPX].[7]

There are two problems with this statement:

  • giving money is not the best of all ways to pass on Catholic Tradition (as shown above); and

  • it is proud self-interest for the N-SSPX to declare that it is the best place to give money for this purpose.[8]

How different is the Catholic truth, from the N-SSPX’s money-grubbing claim![9]  Above, we see that sanctity and studying the Faith are our best means to pass on the Faith.  The Catholic Church focuses on the spiritual, whereas the N-SSPX is money-focused.  The Venerable Bede, Doctor of the Church, teaches that priests should trust so much in Providence and be so focused on the eternal things of God that they give no thought to temporal things.  Here are his words:

For such should be the preacher's trust in God, that, though he takes no thought for supplying his own wants in this present world, yet he should feel most certain that these will not be left unsatisfied, lest whilst his mind is taken up with temporal things, he should provide less of eternal things to others.[10]

The “old” SSPX did not used to be so money-focused.  For example, in the mid-1990s we remember an SSPX priest who was newly-assigned to our area.  In his first sermon, he told the congregation that:

You won’t hear me talk much about money.  I think that if I do my job [viz., sanctifying souls], the money will take care of itself.  

(Bracketed explanation added to this priest’s words, to show the context.)  This priest still belongs to the (new) SSPX but has been marginalized in recent years by his superiors, who are money-focused and unspiritual.

Conclusion

 

Let us focus on holiness and on studying the Catholic Faith, and not on giving money to the N-SSPX.

[1]          In footnotes below, we quote The Soul of the Apostolate, which is a book about holiness and prayer.  This book lucidly demonstrates that converting and sanctifying other persons especially requires our own sanctification.  We heartily urge all Catholics to read this wonderful book on prayer and holiness, as the means to converting other people!

Pope St. Pius X read this book and admired it so much that he declared:

If you desire that God should bless your apostolate and make it fruitful, undertake everything for His glory, saturate yourself and your devoted fellow-workers with the spirit of Jesus Christ, animating yourself with an intense interior life.  To this end, I can offer you no better guide than The Soul of the Apostolate, by Dom Chautard, Cistercian Abbot, I warmly recommend this book to you, as I value it very highly and have myself made it my bedside book.

Quoted from the Introduction of The Soul of the Apostolate, by Dom Jean-Baptiste Chautard, O.C.S.O., Abbot of Notre Dame de Sept-Fons, Abbey of Gethsemane Press, U.S.A., ©1946.

Pope Benedict XV wrote the author, Dom J. B. Chautard, about The Soul of the Apostolate, in these words:

We congratulate you sincerely upon having brought out so clearly the absolute necessity of the interior life for those engaged in good works, a life so necessary for the success of their ministry.

Expressing a wish that this work in which are found gathered together doctrinal lessons and practical advice suited to the needs of our times may continue to spend and do good, We send with all Our Heart to its esteemed author, an affectionate Apostolic Blessing,

[signed] Benedict PP XV

Id.

[2]          Here is how The Soul of the Apostolate expresses this truth:

  • The apostle should always remember that “the extent to which you yourself are able to live on the love of Our Lord, will be the exact measure of your ability to stir it up in other people.  What it all comes to, is that you base everything on the inner life.”  Page 57.
  • It is crucial to “give [lay apostles] piety, genuine and ardent piety, based on conviction and full of understanding”.  Page 56.

  • For the lay apostle, it is crucial that his “center … will be Jesus and Mary”.  Page 56

[3]          The Soul of the Apostolate explains the importance of “lay apostles” knowing the Catholic Faith well in order to effectively help convert others.  For example, here is an instruction to a priest for forming laymen into effective apostles:

You are going to build up a strong faith in them [viz., laymen], by a series of well-prepared talks, which will take up many of their winter evenings.  Your Christians will go out, after these talks, well enough armed not only to give complete and effective answers to their fellows in the various plants and offices, but also to resist the more treacherous action of newspapers and books.  

The Soul of the Apostolate. page 56.

[4]          Pope Pius X called her the Neck of the Mystical Body, in his Encyclical On the Immaculate Conception, Ad diem illum laetissimum.

[5]          True Devotion to Mary, St. Louis de Montfort, part 1, ch.1, §3, #39.

[6]          Here is how The Soul of the Apostolate explains this truth:

Whether it be the task of the active worker to rescue souls from sin or to make virtues put forth flowers in their souls, his first objective must always be, as was St. Paul’s, to bring forth Our Lord in them.  Now Bossuet says that God, having once willed to give us Jesus through the Most Blessed Virgin, there is no further change in that order.  It was she who brought forth the Head, and so it is she too who is to bring forth the members.

To isolate Mary from the apostolate would be to misconstrue one of the most vital parts of the divine Plan.  …  St. Bernardine of Siena justly concludes that, since the Incarnation, Mary has acquired a sort of jurisdiction over every temporal mission of the Holy Ghost, in such a way that no creature receives any graces but through her hands.

But the man with true devotion to Mary becomes all-powerful over the Heart of his Mother.  And so, what apostle can doubt the efficacy of his Apostolate when, by his devotions, he can control the all-powerful mediation of Mary in the distribution of the merits of the Precious Blood?

The Soul of the Apostolate, page 286.

[W]e observe that all great converters of souls are filled with an unusually powerful devotion for the Blessed Virgin. …  What persuasive accents will Mary give to her true children, that they may open to Jesus hearts hitherto locked!

The Soul of the Apostolate, page 286-7.

[7]          Quoted from an undated SSPX money-seeking brochure mailed to the U.S. District mailing list in April 2019.

[8]
         With great self-importance, the N-SSPX adds that whatever money you give to the N-SSPX benefits the whole Church.  Here are Fr. Wegner’s words soliciting bequests for the N-SSPX:

And your bequest, one that benefits the whole Church in Her desperate hour of need, will certainly be remembered.

Quoted from the March 28, 2019 letter from Fr. Wegner, N-SSPX District Superior for the U.S. (emphasis added).

[9]
         For additional examples of the N-SSPX’s focus on money, read here: https://catholiccandle.neocities.org/priests/sspx-fundraiser-fatigue.html

[10]
         Words of the Venerable Bede, Doctor of the Church, quoted from the Catena Aurea on St. Mark’s Gospel, St. Thomas Aquinas, editor, ch.6 §2 (emphasis added).