The Pope in Austria - III

Obedience to the Lord, reminds Pope Benedict, is obedience to Holy Mother Church:

...obedience to God’s will, obedience to Jesus Christ, must be, really and practically, humble obedience to the Church. This is something that calls us to a constant and deep examination of conscience.

It is all summed up in the prayer of Saint Ignatius of Loyola – a prayer which always seems to me so overwhelming that I am almost afraid to say it, yet one which we should always repeat:

“Take O Lord, and receive all my liberty, my memory, my understanding and my entire will. All that I have and all that I possess you have given me: I surrender it all to you; it is all yours, dispose of it according to your will. Give me only your love and your grace; with these I will be rich enough and will desire nothing more”. (Benedict XVI, Mariazell - Vespers, September 8, 2007)

Nothing could be further from the Ignatian spirit of obedience to the Church than the proud stance of Modernists. As Pope Saint Pius X reminded all ecclesiastical authorities in Pascendi:

"It is pride which fills Modernists with that confidence in themselves and leads them to hold themselves up as the rule for all, pride which puffs them up with that vainglory which allows them to regard themselves as the sole possessors of knowledge, and makes them say, inflated with presumption, We are not as the rest of men, and which, to make them really not as other men, leads them to embrace all kinds of the most absurd novelties; it is pride which rouses in them the spirit of disobedience and causes them to demand a compromise between authority and liberty; it is pride that makes of them the reformers of others, while they forget to reform themselves, and which begets their absolute want of respect for authority, not excepting the supreme authority. No, truly, there is no road which leads so directly and so quickly to Modernism as pride."

100 years of Pascendi - II Web resources

By [Pius X's] person and by his work, God willed to prepare the Church to the new and hard duties a troubled future was preparing. To timely prepare a Church united in its doctrine, firm in discipline, efficient in its pastors, generous laymen, an instructed people, a youth sanctified in its first years, a well-formed conscience in relation to the social problems. ... It appears manifest today that his whole Pontificate was supernaturally directed according to a loving and redeeming plan to prepare souls to face our own struggles and to ensure our victories and the victories of future generations.

Pius XII
Sermon for the Beatification of Pius X
June 3, 1951

There are several relevant web resources on the greatest papal document of the 20th Century, Pascendi Dominici Gregis, beginning with the text of the encyclical itself, available in several languages:

• Pascendi Dominici Gregis (De Modernistarum Doctrinis): Deutsch; English; Espãnol; Français; Italiano; Nederlands; Polski; Português; Русский. (Excerpts in Latin).
  



• The decree Lamentabili Sane Exitu, of the Holy Roman and Universal Inquisition (which would be renamed simply as Sacred Congregation of the Holy Office in 1908), whose centennial was celebrated here in July.



• The motu proprio Præstantia Scripturæ Sacræ, which would be issued in November 1907, establishing ecclesiastical punishments for the Modernist heretics.



• The motu proprio Sacrorum Antistitum (full text in Spanish), which included, among other contents, the Oath against the Errors of Modernism (September 1, 1910).



• The great Cardinal Mercier, Archbishop of Malines (Belgium), explains Modernism and the need for the Papal encyclical in an indispensable book: Modernism.



• Father Norbert Jones exposes the errors of Modernism in his tome Old Truths, Not Modernist Errors. An excerpt of the book's introduction makes clear that contemporaries understood why Pascendi was the most important Papal document in recent memory:
  
  

  One of the most important Encyclicals that, perhaps, for centuries has ever been given to the whole Catholic world by the Vicar of Jesus Christ is the one condemnatory of the errors of Modernism by the Holy Father Pope Pius X. This Encyclical, by its clear grasp of the subtle errors hitherto concealed from the unwary by Modernist writers, has quite spoilt their cleverly devised plot to destroy Catholicism -- nay, all Christian doctrines retained by non-Catholics -- by simply undermining them. One is not surprised at their discomfiture and chagrin, so evidenced by letters to the Times and other newspapers generally known for their partisan hostility to everything Roman.
  
  ...
  
  The Papal Encyclical 'Pascendi,' of September 8, 1907, is a most timely warning of the existence of this dangerous heresy, destructive of all real and solid religion. It is a public exposure of its false tenets from their very first principles, and it is an authoritative condemnation of them by the visible head of Catholic Christendom -- a condemnation that, for all practical purposes, is final for all Catholics, so that none can bold Modernist doctrines and remain within the Catholic Church.



• A good option to understand the Modernist doctrines and the need for a firm Papal response is in the Catechism on Modernism, by Father Lemius, which includes the text of the encyclical in an easy catechism Q&A format (in the Internet Archive).



• The Modernist heretics, led in Italy by Ernesto Buonaiuti, redacted a pamphlet as a response to Pascendi - in Il Programma dei Modernisti, the defense against the Papal indictment of the heresy revealed instead the deep malice of the heretics. The book would be condemned by the Cardinal-Vicar of Rome and its authors would be excommunicated (29 October, 1907). The Program of Modernism shows how clearly Pope Saint Pius understood the Modernist challenge - and how deep the Modernist spirit has invaded the Church in the past few decades, as many of the safeguards established by Saint Pius were dismissed (Internet Archive - Reader Discretion Advised).



• The greatest theologian of the 20th Century, Father Réginald Garrigou-Lagrange, OP, exposed the recycling of Modernist principles by the masters of the "Nouvelle Théologie" in his groundbreaking article "Whither the New Theology?" ("La Nouvelle Théologie, où va-t-elle?", published in the Angelicum review, July 1946), a must-read for any well-informed Catholic of this age.
  
  

Help your Priest: learn how to serve Mass

September 14 is right around the corner and all Catholic men may learn how to serve the Traditional Mass - you never know when your help might be needed, even if you are one of those who feel uncomfortable entering the Holy of Holies past the altar rail. It is also quite useful for any layman to be able to help Catholic young men, including their sons, who wish to be altar servers.

The new resources for serving the Traditional Mass at Sancta Missa are extremely helpful and the page also includes other resources which were previously scattered throughout the web.

The Pope in Austria - III Christ, "the one universal Mediator of salvation, valid for everyone"

Today as in the past, it is not enough to be more or less like everyone else and to think like everyone else. Our lives have a deeper purpose. We need God, the God who has shown us his face and opened his heart to us: Jesus Christ. Saint John rightly says of him that only he is God and rests close to the Father’s heart [cf. John i, 18); thus only he, from deep within God himself, could reveal God to us – reveal to us who we are, from where we come and where we are going.

Certainly, there are many great figures in history who have had beautiful and moving experiences of God. Yet these are still human experiences, and therefore finite. Only he [Christ] is God and therefore only he is the bridge that brings God and man together. So if we call him the one universal Mediator of salvation, valid for everyone and, ultimately, needed by everyone, this does not mean that we despise other religions, nor are we arrogantly absolutizing our own ideas; on the contrary, it means that we are gripped by him who has touched our hearts and lavished gifts upon us, so that we, in turn, can offer gifts to others. (Pope Benedict XVI, Mariazell, September 8, 2007)

Thus, Pope Benedict gloriously confronts the great error of the Modernists regarding the Person of Christ: "In the person of Christ, [the Modernists] say, science and history encounter nothing that is not human. Therefore, in virtue of the first canon deduced from agnosticism, whatever there is in His history suggestive of the divine, must be rejected." (Pope Saint Pius X, Pascendi, September 8, 1907).

In fact, our faith is decisively opposed to the attitude of resignation that considers man incapable of truth – as if this were more than he could cope with. This attitude of resignation with regard to truth lies at the heart of the crisis of the West, the crisis of Europe. If truth does not exist for man, then neither can he ultimately distinguish between good and evil. (Pope Benedict XVI, Mariazell, September 8, 2007)

Pope Benedict confronts once again the same errors denounced by Saint Pius X exactly 100 years ago: Christ is God, he was not a special man who had a most beautiful "experience" (Pope Benedict's words) or "sentiment" (Pope Saint Pius's words) of God. Man is capable of Truth.

"...the religious sentiment... [according to Modernists] is the germ of all religion, and the explanation of everything that has been or ever will be in any religion. The sentiment, which was at first only rudimentary and almost formless, gradually matured, under the influence of that mysterious principle from which it originated, with the progress of human life, of which, as has been said, it is a form. This, then, is the origin of all religion, even supernatural religion; it is only a development of this religious sentiment. Nor is the Catholic religion an exception; it is quite on a level with the rest; for it was engendered, by the process of vital immanence, in the consciousness of Christ, who was a man of the choicest nature, ... . ...these are not merely the foolish babblings of infidels. There are many Catholics, yea, and priests too, who say these things openly; and they boast that they are going to reform the Church by these ravings! ...we have reached the point when it is affirmed that our most holy religion, in the man Christ as in us, emanated from nature spontaneously and entirely. Than this there is surely nothing more destructive of the whole supernatural order. Wherefore the [First] Vatican Council most justly decreed: "If anyone says that man cannot be raised by God to a knowledge and perfection which surpasses nature, but that he can and should, by his own efforts and by a constant development, attain finally to the possession of all truth and good, let him be anathema". (Pope Saint Pius X, Pascendi, September 8, 1907).

100 years of Pascendi - I

Te Deum laudamus,
te Domine confitemur,
te æternum Patrem omnis terra veneratur.

On the Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, 1907, exactly 100 years ago today, Pope Saint Pius X signed the most important document of his glorious Pontificate, the encyclical letter

Pascendi Dominici Gregis
(De Modernistarum Doctrinis)

against the errors of the insidious heretics of his and of our age, the Modernists.

We will propose excerpts of this great work of Pontifical authority and reflections on it and its consequences today and in the next few days.

The Pope in Austria - II - The Hofburg Address

In the Hofburg, Vienna, the ancient seat of the great Habsburg Empire, the Pope addressed all leaders of Europe on the malaise of the continent.

Main excerpts of "The Hofburg Address":

The “European home”, as we readily refer to the community of this continent, will be a good place to live for everyone only if it is built on a solid cultural and moral foundation of common values drawn from our history and our traditions. Europe cannot and must not deny her Christian roots. ...

It was in Europe that the notion of human rights was first formulated. The fundamental human right, the presupposition of every other right, is the right to life itself. This is true of life from the moment of conception until its natural end. Abortion, consequently, cannot be a human right – it is the very opposite. It is “a deep wound in society”, as the late Cardinal Franz König never tired of repeating.

In stating this, we are not expressing a specifically ecclesial concern. Rather, we are acting as advocates for a profoundly human need, speaking out on behalf of those unborn children who have no voice. I do not close my eyes to the difficulties and the conflicts which many women are experiencing, and I realize that the credibility of what we say also depends on what the Church herself is doing to help women in trouble.

I appeal, then, to political leaders not to allow children to be considered as a form of illness, nor to abolish in practice your legal system’s acknowledgment that abortion is wrong.

I say this out of a concern for humanity. But that is only one side of this disturbing problem. The other is the need to do everything possible to make European countries once again open to welcoming children. Encourage young married couple to establish new families and to become mothers and fathers! You will not only assist them, but you will benefit society as a whole. We also decisively support you in your political efforts to favour conditions enabling young couples to raise children. Yet all this will be pointless, unless we can succeed in creating once again in our countries a climate of joy and confidence in life, a climate in which children are not seen as a burden, but rather as a gift for all.

Another great concern of mine is the debate on what has been termed “actively assisted death”. It is to be feared that at some point the gravely ill or elderly will be subjected to tacit or even explicit pressure to request death or to administer it to themselves. The proper response to end-of-life suffering is loving care and accompaniment on the journey towards death – especially with the help of palliative care – and not “actively assisted death”. ...

Yet another part of the European heritage is a tradition of thought which considers as essential a substantial correspondence between faith, truth and reason. Here the issue is whether or not reason stands at the beginning and foundation of all things. The issue is whether reality originates by chance and necessity, and thus whether reason is merely a chance by-product of the irrational and, in an ocean of irrationality, it too, in the end, is meaningless, or whether instead the underlying conviction of Christian faith remains true: In principio erat Verbum – in the beginning was the Word; at the origin of everything is the creative reason of God who decided to make himself known to us human beings.

Benedict XVI
September 7, 2007

The Pope in Austria - 1

Upon arriving:

Mariazell does not only represent 850 years of history, but shows us on the basis of that history – as reflected in the statue of the Blessed Mother pointing to Christ her Son – the way to the future.

At Mariensäule:

From earliest times, faith in Jesus Christ, the incarnate Son of God, has been linked to a particular veneration for his Mother, for the Woman in whose womb he took on our human nature, sharing even in the beating of her heart. Mary is the Woman who accompanied Jesus with sensitivity and deference throughout his life, even to his death on the Cross. At the end, he commended to her maternal love the beloved disciple and, with him, all humanity. In her maternal love, Mary continues to take under her protection people of all languages and cultures, and to lead them together, within a multiform unity, to Christ. In our problems and needs we can turn to Mary. Yet we must also learn from her to accept one another lovingly in the same way that she has accepted all of us: each as an individual, willed as such and loved by God. In God’s universal family, in which there there is a place for everyone, each person must develop his gifts for the good of all.

The Mariensäule, built by the Emperor Ferdinand III in thanksgiving for the liberation of Vienna from great danger [the Turkish invasions] and inaugurated by him exactly 360 years ago, must also be a sign of hope for us today. How many persons, over the years, have stood before this column and lifted their gaze to Mary in prayer! How many have experienced in times of trouble the power of her intercession! Our Christian hope includes much more than the mere fulfilment of our wishes and desires, great or small. We turn our gaze to Mary, because she points out to us the great hope to which we have been called (cf. Eph 1:18), because she personifies our true humanity!

...if we continue to bring our everyday concerns to the immaculate Mother of Christ, she will help us to open our little hopes ever more fully towards that great and true hope which gives meaning to our lives and is able to fill us with a deep and imperishable joy.

Benedict XVI
September 7, 2007

Sancte Pie, ora pro nobis!

An Ambrosian Roman Curia

The Lombards invade Rome once again, as two Milanese are named to important positions in the Roman Curia. Several sources (including Andrea Tornielli and Gioia Locati in this Sunday's edition Il Giornale) confirm that Monsignor Gianfranco Ravasi, current Prefect of the Ambrosian Library of the Archdiocese of Milan, will soon be named President of the Pontifical Council for Culture (a cardinalatial position) - maybe as soon as tomorrow, as Pope Benedict returns from Loreto (see our posts of June 26 and August 26). Another Milanese, Monsignor Vincenzo di Mauro, special delegate of the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See (the Apsa), will be named Secretary of the Prefecture for the Economic Affairs of the Holy See.

Raffaele Farina, former Vice-Prefect of the same Ambrosian Library, recently started his activities as Vatican Librarian and Archivist (another cardinalatial position) - the former Librarian and Archivist, Cardinal Tauran, officially took over the presidency of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue yesterday.

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Sep. 3, 2007 - Confirmed: Ravasi named President of the Pontifical Council for Culture (replacing Cardinal Poupard, retired), and also of two Pontifical Commissions, the Pontifical Commission for the Cultural Heritage of the Church and the Pontifical Commission for Sacred Archeology (replacing Archbishop Mauro Piacenza, named Secretary for Clergy last May).

Confirmed: Vincenzo di Mauro named Secretary of the Prefecture for the Economic Affairs of the Holy See.

Italian Protestants: "a spirit of Counter-Reformation" has returned...

News from the Synod of the Valdensians and Methodists in Italy, assembled in Torre Pellice (Piedmont), on Summorum Pontificum and the recent Responses of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. From the text of the "order of the day" (motion), approved yesterday, which shows that the Italian Protestants understand the full meaning of the Traditional Mass:

"-considering the ecumenical situation created following the recent motu proprio entitled Summorum Pontificum, of Benedict XVI, which has restored the position of the Latin Mass according to the Roman Missal of Pius V (1570), characterized by the denial of all that the Reformation had affirmed on the matter of the renewal of public Christian worship, and the document entitled Responses to some questions regarding certain aspects of the doctrine on the Church...of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith , in which, among other things, it is affirmed that the only Church of Christ 'subsists exclusively in the one Catholic Church' of Rome and that the churches born out of the Reformation of the 16th century 'cannot, according to Catholic doctrine, be called 'Churches' in the proper sense'."...

"-We thank God for having liberated us, for eight centuries as Valdensians and for five centuries as Protestants, from submission to the Roman Pontiff, whom we recognize as a brother in Christ, but not as a teacher of the faith, realizing additionally, once again, that the Papacy and the Roman Curia are today, as in the 16th century, an obstacle to Christian unit;"...

Écrasez l'Infâme, chapter # 92,901,437

While mosques, Muslim "cultural centers", and Muslim "social services organizations" expand with the help of oil revenues throughout Europe, this is what really concerns the European Commission (International Herald Tribune):

BRUSSELS, Belgium: The European Commission has asked the Italian government to explain a tax break for Catholic Church clinics or hostels that may break EU rules on state subsidies by giving an unfair advantage over rivals, officials said Tuesday.

In 2005, then Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi extended a property tax exemption for the Church to cover buildings where it runs businesses such as private health clinics or convents that host pilgrims.

EU regulators said they had received complaints about the tax breaks from people it would not name and had written to Italy to ask for more information on how they work.

"Once a body has economic activities attached to it, then there can be a distortion of competition and it wouldn't be the first time we look at advantages given to the Church in various member states," EU spokesman Jonathan Todd said.

Fellay speaks: "Turmoil" in the Church

The most respectable daily in Argentina, La Nación, published this Monday two articles based on interviews granted to its reporters by the Superior General of the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Pius X (FSSPX / SSPX), Bishop Bernard Fellay.

The most relevant excerpts of the first article, including Fellay's actual words:

"We have never moved away from the Church. We have always been and are Catholics, and we have always worked with the intent of remaining so. There are difficulties with the authority, but that does not mean that we deny it [the authority]."

..."There are men in the Vatican Curia who do not work for the Pope."

...
"The only problem which remains now is [of a] political [nature]. There is a part of the Church which does not love us, which considers us as dinosaurs, and Rome does not know how to manage this dialectic between the conservatives, as we are, and the progressives who do not want [to follow on] the same path. If [they] give us too much, the others would react."

...
He [Fellay] explained that, "until things improve", the links to the Catholic bishops and priests are very scarse. They do not maintain a dialogue, for instance, with Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio [S.J.], Archbishop of Buenos Aires and president of the Argentinian Episcopate. "Father Bouchacourt [head of the Latin American District of the FSSPX, whose headquarters are in Martínez, in the Greater Buenos Aires area] sent two letters to Cardinal Bergoglio, and did not receive an answer. That is, the silence comes more from him than from us," said Fellay.

...
"We have never intended to build a parallel Church or authority"..."The official Church has put us aside. We have been marginalized. That is true. Yet, they cannot say or prove that we are on the outside. It is interesting that in the motu proprio which rehabilitated the ancient Mass of the Tridentine Rite [Summorum Pontificum], the Pope says that the reason for his action is to work towards internal reconciliation in the Church. He is speaking about us. We have thus here the declaration of the Pope himself that we are not schismatics," he affirmed.
...

[On the current situation of the Church:]

"It is very complex," he answers. And he adds: "There are many currents which produce turmoils when they meet, and the authority has lost control over some of these currents. One example is the situation of a de facto schism which is noticed in North America, even though Rome wishes to prevent it from becoming a formal schism".

Part of the actual interview was published in the second article, whose questions and answers are available below:

To the question on whether a real opening [towards the FSSPX] or a state of confusion prevails in Rome, Bishop Bernard Fellay states that "it may be both".

"The Pope - he explains - wishes that all the body of the Church be in peace and he thus pursues the true union of all her members. The Church desires unity with all those who are outside her. But to effect this ecumenical movement without pursuing the internal union would undermine her credibility. There is a task [needed in order] to reorder things, and this takes time. It is very hard to reintroduce discipline. There is a fear of punishing. The Pope wants discipline with order, but I ask myself if he can accomplish it"

-[La Nación] Why would he not be able to do it if he wanted to?

-"Because there are men in the Vatican Curia who do not work for the Pope, but for others."

-[La Nación] For instance?

-"[They work] For groups. One of them is the mafia looking for money in dealings with the Church. There are terrible scandals in this area. Another group, more dangerous, are the Freemasons; there are three of four lodges specific for Vatican Bishops and priests which seek to use the Church to reach the union of all peoples and religions. The current Pope is against this [the current state of affairs] and works to clean it. He has done a part of this work in silence up to now, charging small faithful groups with studying a theme, as, for instance, the motu proprio on the Latin Mass."

-[La Nación] On what other theme?

-"The recently released review of the manner of electing a Pope. This corrects a rule by John Paul II which [had been] done under the direction of the Secretariat of State."

-[La Nación] Do you foresee the future extinction of the current Mass?

-"The Latin Mass appears now [to be] an extraneous body because it was said to be forbidden for 50 years. But one will take the place of the other. This motu proprio which rehabilitates the ancient rite will generate a movement which, at first, will be slow. It will demand time, but it will grow slowly. I am certain [of this]."

-[La Nación] But if so few understand Latin...

-"It is not necessary to know Latin to take part in the Traditional Mass. What is important is that the readings and the sermon be understood by the faithful."

-[La Nación] Is the new Mass valid?

-"It can be. But this is not important. What is important is that we see in it a danger which may lead to an erroneous thought. We say that this Mass has a Protestant flavor. Benedict XVI said that he regrets the excesses in the liturgy, but while we attack it, he defends it. The definition of the Mass which was given had three errors which are heresies. But it was so grave that they changed this definition." [Rorate note: Reference to the first version (1969) of the General Instruction of the Roman Missal, number 7, altered in the official text of the 1970 Roman Missal (first Editio Typica).]

Why do "progressives" want this Lombard in the College of Cardinals so much?...

It has been decades since the name of a priest has last been advanced with such forcefulness by the Italian "progressive" elite for a position in the Curia. For almost two years, Monsignor Gianfranco Ravasi, Prefect of the great Ambrosian Library of the Archdiocese of Milan and a biblical academic of the Martinian school, has had his named promoted by the Italian nomenklatura close to the "progressives" in the Church. Month after month, his name resurfaces, as if he were an ecclesiastical pet project of the Italian Socialist and Post-Socialist forces. The project? A curial position, a cardinalatial hat, and whatever may result from Ravasi's presence (as leader, popemaker, Great Elector, or...else) in a future conclave, perhaps...

It is true that the name of Montini was widely proposed for a cardinalatial nomination to John XXIII by the more "progressive" forces in Italian politics - but, even though Pius XII did not create him a Cardinal (for chronological reasons, since Montini was named to Milan in 1954, one year after Pacelli's last consistory for the creation of cardinals), he had named him Archbishop of the largest diocese in Italy and his appointment to the College would only be a matter of time.

The Ravasi-mania in the Italian "Catholic progressive" circles is thus unprecedented in recent memory: several reports in the past few weeks assure that the heavy lobbying is finally working and that Ravasi (chosen by Benedict for the Via Crucis readings of 2007) will be named President of the Pontifical Council for Culture (currently occupied by Cardinal Poupard, who will be 77 at the end of the week), a cardinalatial chair - the last paper to present this as a certainty, in a long list of similar articles, was Il Riformista (transcript in Paolo Rodari's weblog).

My heart is inditing of a good matter

Qui audit me non confundetur, et qui operantur in me non peccabunt. Qui elucidant me vitam æternam habebunt. (from the Lesson for the Feast of the Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary - Ecclesiasticus xxiv, 30-31: "He that hearkeneth to me, shall not be confounded: and they that work by me, shall not sin. They that explain me shall have life everlasting.")

Mary is the Virgin most faithful who by her fidelity to God makes good the losses caused by Eve's unfaithfulness. She obtains fidelity to God and final perseverance for those who commit themselves to her. ... It was to Mary that the saints who attained salvation most firmly anchored themselves as did others who wanted to ensure their perseverance in holiness.

Blessed, indeed, are those Christians who bind themselves faithfully and completely to her as to a secure anchor! The violent storms of the world will not make them founder or carry away their heavenly riches. Blessed are those who enter into her as into another Noah's ark! The flood waters of sin which engulf so many will not harm them because, as the Church makes Mary say in the words of divine Wisdom, "Those who work by me" -for their salvation - "shall not sin." Blessed are the unfaithful children of unhappy Eve who commit themselves to Mary, the ever-faithful Virgin and Mother who never wavers in her fidelity and never goes back on her trust. She always loves those who love her, not only with deep affection, but with a love that is active and generous. By an abundant outpouring of grace she keeps them from relaxing their effort in the practice of virtue or falling by the wayside through loss of divine grace.

Moved by pure love, this good Mother always accepts whatever is given her in trust, and, once she accepts something, she binds herself in justice by a contract of trusteeship to keep it safe. Is not someone to whom I entrust the sum of a thousand francs obliged to keep it safe for me so that if it were lost through his negligence he would be responsible for it in strict justice? But nothing we entrust to the faithful Virgin will ever be lost through her negligence. Heaven and earth would pass away sooner than Mary would neglect or betray those who trusted in her.

...

Do not leave your gold and silver in your own safes which have already been broken into and rifled many times by the evil one. They are too small, too flimsy and too old to contain such great and priceless possessions. Do not put pure and clear water from the spring into vessels fouled and infected by sin. ... Chosen souls, although you may already understand me, I shall express myself still more clearly. Do not commit the gold of your charity, the silver of your purity to a threadbare sack or a battered old chest, or the waters of heavenly grace or the wines of your merits and virtues to a tainted and fetid cask, such as you are. Otherwise you will be robbed by thieving devils who are on the look-out day and night waiting for a favourable opportunity to plunder. If you do so all those pure gifts from God will be spoiled by the unwholesome presence of self-love, inordinate self-reliance, and self-will.

Pour into the bosom and heart of Mary all your precious possessions, all your graces and virtues. She is a spiritual vessel, a vessel of honor, a singular vessel of devotion. Ever since God personally hid himself with all his perfections in this vessel, it has become completely spiritual, and the spiritual abode of all spiritual souls. It has become honorable and has been the throne of honor for the greatest saints in heaven. It has become outstanding in devotion and the home of those renowned for gentleness, grace and virtue. Moreover, it has become as rich as a house of gold, as strong as a tower of David and as pure as a tower of ivory.

Saint Louis-Marie Grignion de Montfort
True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin

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Recess for a few days; relevant news may be posted at any time.

Help Peru

Tens of thousands of our Catholic brothers and sisters, the true heirs of the Christian West, are suffering in Peru.

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___________

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Requiem æternam dona eis, Domine,
et lux perpetua luceat eis.

Donations (from the website of the Peruvian Episcopal Conference/Caritas del Perú):

Bank: Banco de Crédito del Perú - Miami Agency
Donation to: CARITAS DEL PERÚ - EMERGENCIA TERREMOTO ICA Y CAÑETE
Account # 201030010003521
ABA # 067015355
SWIFT: BCPLUS33

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Picture selection: Creer en México

The true peace of Christ

...the peace which [Jesus Christ] came to bring is not synonymous with the absence of conflicts. On the contrary, the peace of Jesus is the fruit of a constant struggle against evil. The fight which Jesus decided to wage is not against men or human powers, but against the enemy of God and man, Satan.

Whoever wishes to resist this enemy by remaining faithful to God and goodness must necessarily face incomprehensions, and, at times, true and actual persecutions. Therefore, those who intend to follow Jesus and devote themselves to truth without compromises must know that they will face oppositions and shall become, despite of themselves, a sign of division among others, even within their own families. Love for parents is in fact a holy commandment, but, for it to be lived in an authentic way, it may never be placed before the love of God and of Christ.

In such a way, on the steps of the Lord Jesus, Christians become "instruments of his peace", according to the famous expression of Saint Francis of Assisi. Not of an inconsistent and superficial peace, but of a real [peace], sought with courage and tenacity in the daily struggle to overcome evil by good [cf. Romans xii, 21] and paying in the flesh the price which this entails.

Benedict XVI
Angelus
August 19, 2007

Memento Abraham, Isaac et Iacob

Precatus est Moyses in conspectu Domini, Dei sui, et dixit: Quare, Domine, irasceris in populo tuo? Parce iræ animæ tuæ: memento Abraham, Isaac et Iacob, quibus iurasti dare terram fluentem lac et mel. (Offertory for the Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost - cf. Exodus xxxii: "Moses prayed in the sight of the Lord his God, and said: 'Why, O Lord, is thine indignation enkindled against thy people? Let the anger of thy mind cease; remember Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to whom thou didst swear to give a land flowing with milk and honey'.")

It might be assigned as a reason for the Law being given to the Jews rather than to other peoples, that the Jewish people alone remained faithful to the worship of one God, while the others turned away to idolatry; wherefore the latter were unworthy to receive the Law, lest a holy thing should be given to dogs.

But this reason does not seem fitting: because that people turned to idolatry, even after the Law had been made, which was more grievous, as is clear from Exodus xxxii and from Amos v, 25-26: "Did you offer victims and sacrifices to Me in the desert for forty years, O house of Israel? But you carried a tabernacle for your Moloch, and the image of your idols, the star of your god, which you made to yourselves." Moreover it is stated expressly: "Know therefore that the Lord thy God giveth thee not this excellent land in possession for thy justices, for thou art a very stiff-necked people": but the real reason is given in the preceding verse: "That the Lord might accomplish His word, which He promised by oath to thy fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob."

What this promise was is shown by the Apostle, who says that "to Abraham were the promises made and to his seed. He saith not, 'And to his seeds,' as of many: but as of one, 'And to thy seed,' which is Christ." And so God vouchsafed both the Law and other special honors to that people, on account of the promises made to their Fathers that Christ should be born of them. For it was fitting that the people, of whom Christ was to be born, should be marked by a special sanctification, according to the words of Leviticus xix, 2: "Be ye holy, because I . . . am holy." Nor again was it on account of the merit of Abraham himself that this promise was made to him, that is, that Christ should be born of his seed: but of gratuitous election and vocation. Hence it is written: "Who hath raised up the just one form the east, hath called him to follow him?"

It is therefore evident that it was merely from gratuitous election that the patriarchs received the promise, and that the people sprung from them received the law; according to Deuteronomy iv, 36-37: "Thou didst hear His words out of the midst of the fire, because He loved thy fathers, and chose their seed after them."

Saint Thomas Aquinas
S.Theol. I-II, 98, iv

It is estimated that at least one hundred Catholics died in the church of San Clemente, in Pisco, Peru, when it collapsed as a result of the massive earthquake which hit the Andean nation last Wednesday, feast of the Assumption of Our Lady.

Requiem æternam dona eis, Domine,
et lux perpetua luceat eis.

There are tens of thousands of refugees in Ica, Pisco, San Vicente de Cañete, and surrounding areas. Donations in the United States (Information from the website of the Peruvian Episcopal Conference/Caritas del Perú):

Bank: Banco de Crédito del Perú - Miami Agency
Donation to: CARITAS DEL PERÚ - EMERGENCIA TERREMOTO ICA Y CAÑETE
Account # 201030010003521
ABA # 067015355
SWIFT: BCPLUS33

Traditional Latin Mass Live on EWTN

EWTN to Televise Live Tridentine Mass Celebrated by the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter

DENTON, Nebraska [FSSP] - AUGUST 17, 2007 - For the first time in its 26 year history, Mother Angelica's Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN) will be broadcasting a live Solemn High Mass at the Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament in Hanceville, Alabama on September 14, 2007 at 8:00AM EST. EWTN has asked for the assistance of the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter, an international Society of Apostolic Life of Pontifical Right, to help celebrate this "extraordinary" form.

This past July 7th, Pope Benedict XVI affirmed the beauty and importance of the Tridentine Mass by issuing Summorum Pontificum, a papal document encouraging and confirming the right of all Latin Rite priests to use this more ancient use of the Mass starting September 14th. The Tridentine Mass was the normative liturgy experienced by Latin Rite Catholics prior to the Second Vatican Council.

"Most Catholics have not seen this heavenly celebration in over 40 years," said Father Calvin Goodwin, a professor at the Society's international English-speaking seminary located in Denton, Nebraska. "We are very excited to help EWTN and to support the Holy Father's call for a wider presence of this form of the Mass. This is a cause for great joy."

Priests and seminarians from Denton, Nebraska will travel to Alabama and provide the celebrant, deacon, subdeacon, preacher, master of ceremonies and altar servers.

Introibo ad altare Dei!

Thanks to the Holy Father, now every priest of the Latin Rite can offer the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass according to the Missal of 1962. Many priests desire to celebrate the venerable and ancient liturgy of the Church, but this supposes that they know the rubrics of the Mass and its spirit. The Fraternity of Saint Peter would like to help them in this task. For that, we offer another training workshop in our Seminary of Denton, Nebraska. Please, spread the word!

Communiqué of the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Peter

The Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter in collaboration with Una Voce America will be offering another training workshop for priests interested in learning how to celebrate the “extraordinary form” of the Roman Rite. The workshop will take place the first week of September 2007 from the 3rd (Monday) through 7th (Friday) hosted by Our Lady of Guadalupe Seminary in Lincoln, Nebraska. All the fundamentals involved in learning the Traditional Latin Mass will be covered. Priests will receive a complete explanation with hands-on practice of the rubrics of the 1962 Missale Romanum as well as an introduction to Latin, traditional liturgical principles, and Gregorian Chant. A comprehensive materials packet will also be provided.The course will follow the same method used successfully in the workshops conducted this past June when the Fraternity trained diocesan and religious priests in the Older Use during three different sessions.Further workshops are being planned for the late fall.

Interested priests should contact Fr. Calvin Goodwin,FSSP at 402-797-7700.

It does not matter what the Pope says I am the Bishop, I know better

One of our very favorite inactive websites, Seattle Catholic, has been updated with the letter of the Archbishop of Seattle (HTML; also in PDF) on the "implementation" of the motu proprio Summorum Pontificum. The link has been added to our collection of episcopal reactions, but the letter displays so many of the mistakes of the average authoritarian episcopal response to the papal document that it deserves its own post.

"Moderator" does not mean dictator, Your Excellency.

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In other news - for those in or near New York and Connecticut in early September: Martin Mosebach and Father U.M.Lang will be speaking at three separate locations in the area (St. Mary Church Hall, in New Haven, on Sep. 7; New Canaan Public Library, in New Canaan, CT, on Sept. 8; and in the Church of Our Savior on Park Avenue, on Sept. 9, with Solemn High Mass). Further details here.

Assumpta est Maria ad æthereum thalamum

"The Lord is with thee." With thee, certainly, as the sun is with the dawn going before it, and preceding its rise, and beginning the day by its light. Truly, indeed, Mary, the dawn of the world, prepared in a most singular manner by the Eternal Sun, being thus marvelously irradiated, prepares herself the rising of this Sun, has wonderfully inaugurated for the world the day of grace of such a Sun, as Saint Bernard says: "Like the dawn exceedingly resplendent hast thou come into the world, O Mary, when thou didst foreshow the splendor of the true Sun by such a wonderful radiance of sanctity that truly the day of salvation, the day of propitiation, the day which the Lord hath made, was worthy to be begun by thy bright light."

...note that Mary is, as it were, a happy dawn because of her place in glory; and according to this Job well says of the dawn: "Didst thou ... show the dawning of the day its place ?" (Job xxxviii, 12.) Now, certainly our dawn, Mary, elevated high in Heaven, holds the place nearest to the Eternal Sun.

We may consider that the throne of Mary in Heaven has a threefold greatness. The first is that she received Our Lord spiritually; the second, that she received Him corporeally; the third, that she received Him eternally. Behold the threefold place of Mary.

I say that the first place in which Mary received Our Lord, spiritually, is her mind, tranquil and peaceful, according to the Psalmist: "His place is in peace, and His dwelling in Zion," which, interpreted, means a mirror or contemplation. Whoever wishes to contemplate God, or to behold Him with the eyes of the mind, must make Him a place in peace in his mind; for without peace of mind no one can arrive at the knowledge of contemplation. Therefore the Apostle saith: "Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see God" (Hebrews xii, 14.) Oh, who shall relate, or who can even imagine, in what contemplations daily that Sion, that holy mind of Mary, was employed, while she fervently revolved in her mind all those mysteries known to herself above all mortals? Of this, Saint Jerome well says: "If there are in you any bowels of piety or mercy, consider with what love was crucified, with what desire this virgin burned, while she revolved in her soul all that she had heard and seen, all that she had known; with what emotions she was moved, being filled with the Holy Ghost, with the thrilling knowledge of heavenly secrets."

The place in which Mary conceived, corporeally, was her holy womb, to which may be applied the word of Genesis: "The river which came forth from the paradise of pleasure (Jesus Christ from the Virgin's womb) was to water the garden" (Genesis ii, 10.) The special paradise is Mary; the universal paradise is the Church. Happy is the watering of both these gardens by the mystic river from the womb of Mary, Jesus Christ, who has said: "I will water my garden of plants" (Ecclesiasticus xxiv, 42.)

Well, therefore, doth Saint Jerome say, commenting on these words: "I saw her coming up beautiful from the banks of the water." Well is it said, "above the rivers of water," because the Lord had nourished her on the waters of refreshment, and brought her up on them; from whom many rivers emerge, water all the land of delights, and flow over the garden of pleasure." Again, the place wherein Mary received the Lord when she was about to dwell forever in Heaven is the place of glory, of which the Lord said to Job: "Hast thou shown the dawn its place?" (xxxviii, 12), as if he said, "Not thou, but I." -- it does not belong to thee to show Mary, the dawn, her place in Heaven, but to Me. Well doth He say, her place, as it were, appropriating it to her, and discriminating it from all the other places of the Saints.

Hence we read: "The priests brought in the ark of the covenant into its place" (3 Kings viii, 6). This place is most certainly above all the choirs of angels. Finally, this place is the most worthy in Heaven, as Saint Bernard testifies saying: "Neither was there in the world a more worthy place than the bridal chamber of the virginal womb, in which Mary received the Son of God, nor in the heavens one more worthy than the royal throne to which the Son of Mary raised her."

Mary is compared to the dawn; first, because she put an end to the night of guilt, in her most full holiness; secondly, because of the advance of the light of grace in her most bright conversation; thirdly, because of the bringing forth of the Sun of justice in her wonderful generation of her Son; fourthly, because of her taking possession of her place in glory in her most glorious Assumption.

Conrad of Saxony
Speculum Beatæ Mariæ Virginis

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Recess continues for a few days;
relevant news may be posted at any moment.

New bishop in EWTNland

Yes, it is highly unusual for a Bishop to be transferred to a new diocese with a smaller population and an even smaller number of nominal Catholics. Yet, Birmingham, the new diocese of Robert Baker, the former Bishop of Charleston, includes one specific Catholic institution, which deserves special treatment (for better or for worse).

From our collection of episcopal reactions to Summorum Pontificum:

In a letter to priests of the Diocese of Charleston, SC, Bishop Robert J Baker takes a warm and positive position. Among the many good things he says are the following, "Let us use this time of reflection on the rich liturgical heritage of the Catholic Church to renew our commitment as priests, deacons, Religous, and lay faithful to ensure that our parish liturgies are celebrated well, whether in the 'ordinary form' or the 'extraordinary form' of the Roman Missal." Bishop Baker also addresses the issue of training and knowledge of Latin in a much more genuinely supportive way than do several other Bishops of recent note. "I would further request that any priest who may wish to celebrate Holy Mass according to the Missal of 1962 be certain that he has mastered the rubrics of the ancient Roman Missal and has a suitable grasp of the Latin language." He goes on to note that there are priests who have "graciously agreed to train others in the proper manner in which the traditional Mass is celebrated".

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Recess continues for a few days; relevant news may be posted at any time.

Tradidi quod et accepi

"Fratres, notum vobis facio Evangelium, quod prædicavi vobis, quod et accepistis ... Tradidi enim vobis, in primis quod et accepi: quoniam Christus mortuus est pro peccatis nostris secundum Scripturas: et quia sepultus est, et quia resurrexit tertia die secundum Scripturas: et quia visus est Cephæ, et post hoc undecim..."

"Now I make known unto you, brethren, the Gospel which I preached to you, which also you have received ... For I delivered unto you first of all, which I also received: how that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures and that He was seen by Cephas; and after that by the eleven..." (I Cor. xv, 1, 3-5, from the Epistle for the Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost)

...as to the common faith of all people; therefore, he says: which you received, all of you. But Augustine says that this pertains to the evidence of this faith, using this argument: For believing things of faith, miracles are either performed or not.

If miracles are performed, I have my point: that they are most worthy and most certain. If none is performed, this is the greatest of all miracles: that by a certain few an infinite multitude of men were converted to the faith, rich men by poor men preaching poverty; by men of one language preaching things that surpass reason, wise men and philosophers have been converted: "Their voice goes out through all the earth"

If it is objected that even the law of Mohammed has been received by many, the answer is that the cases are not alike, because he subjugated them by oppressing them and by force of arms, while the apostles, by dying and by working signs and prodigies, brought others to the Faith.

For he [Mohammed] proposed things which pertain to pleasure and lasciviousness, while Christ and the apostles [proposed] contempt for earthly things...

Saint Thomas Aquinas
On the First Epistle of Saint Paul to the Corinthians

The "greatest of all miracles": Christ said "Ephphetha" to the whole world through his Apostles... [see Gospel for the Sunday, Mark vii, 31-37; and the Baptismal rite: "Ephphetha, quod est, adaperire. In odorem suavitatis..."]

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Reposted for the Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost, 2007.
Recess continues for a few days; urgent news may be posted at any time.

Sancte Laurenti,
ora pro nobis!

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Recess for a few days; urgent news may be posted at any time.

....ad Dei altare se verteret...

If it is obviously true that a priest receives his priesthood so as to serve at the altar and that he enters upon this office by offering the Eucharistic Sacrifice, then it is equally true that for as long as he lives as God's minister, the Eucharistic Sacrifice will be the source and origin of the holiness that he attains and of the apostolic activity to which he devotes himself. All of these things came to pass in the fullest possible way in the case of St. John Vianney.

For, if you give careful consideration to all of the activity of a priest, what is the main point of his apostolate if not seeing to it that wherever the Church lives, a people who are joined by the bonds of faith, regenerated by holy Baptism and cleansed of their faults will be gathered together around the sacred altar? It is then that the priest, using the sacred power he has received, offers the divine Sacrifice in which Jesus Christ renews the unique immolation which He completed on Calvary for the redemption of mankind and for the glory of His heavenly Father. It is then that the Christians who have gathered together, acting through the ministry of the priest, present the divine Victim and offer themselves to the supreme and eternal God as a "sacrifice, living, holy, pleasing to God." There it is that the people of God are taught the doctrines and precepts of faith and are nourished with the Body of Christ, and there it is that they find a means to gain supernatural life, to grow in it, and if need be to regain unity. And there besides, the Mystical Body of Christ, which is the Church, grows with spiritual increase throughout the world down to the end of time.

It is only right and fitting to call the life of St. John Vianney a priestly and pastoral one in an outstanding way, because he spent more and more time in preaching the truths of religion and cleansing souls of the stain of sin as the years went by, and because he was mindful of the altar of God in each and every act of his sacred ministry!

It is true of course that the holy Curé's fame made great crowds of sinners flock to Ars, while many priests experience great difficulty in getting the people committed to their care to come to them at all, and then find that they have to teach them the most elementary truths of Christian doctrine just as if they were working in a missionary land.

But as important and sometimes as trying as these apostolic labors may be, they should never be permitted to make men of God forget the great importance of the goal which they must always keep in view and which St. John Vianney attained through dedicating himself completely to the main works of the apostolic life in a tiny country church. This should be kept in mind, in particular: whatever a priest may plan, resolve, or do to become holy, he will have to draw, for example and for heavenly strength, upon the Eucharistic Sacrifice which he offers, just as the Roman Pontifical urges: "Be aware of what you are doing; imitate what you hold in your hands."

Pope Blessed John XXIII
Sacerdotii Nostri Primordia

Etchegaray visits Moscow

According to the Bollettino, Cardinal Etchegaray "handed to the Head of the Russian Orthodox Church a cordial message from Pope Benedict XVI, accompanied by a personal gift". The Patriarch, "who particularly thanked the Pope's gesture" wrote a "personal response" to the Pontiff.

Interfax reports that:

"A meeting between Pope Benedict XVI and Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Alexy II is becoming evermore likely, Cardinal Roger Etchegaray, President [Emeritus] of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace and Vice-Dean of the College of Cardinals said after a meeting with the Patriarch.

"The sides are progressing towards this goal, and the pace is accelerating, but the Roman Catholic Church cannot make it happen quicker, he said."

Updates

1. Brian Mershon returns with an outstanding article: SSPX in schism? You can believe Fr. Newman... or you can believe the Church

2. Are there still reactions of Catholic authorities to the motu proprio Summorum Pontificum worth recording? Add them to our large collection here.

Castrillón's interview to 30 Giorni - in English

The extensive interview granted by Cardinal Castrillón Hoyos to the Italian monthly 30 Giorni (see our previous post of July 24) is now available in the magazine's official English website ("Nova et Vetera" - © 30 Days).

Useful resource

The Chicago-based Canons Regular of Saint John Cantius have launched the special portal Sancta Missa, full of resources related to the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite, including a special video tutorial of the Traditional Mass.

"Lift up your eyes now: behold Jesus Christ!"

Levantes autem oculos suos, neminem viderunt nisi solum Iesum. (From the Gospel for the Transfiguration of Our Lord Jesus Christ, Matthew xvii, 8: And they lifting up their eyes saw no one, but only Jesus.)

Vice is so incompatible with the Christian faith, that that faith grows weak and languishes in those who will no longer combat their passions[...]. Neither the Muslim nor the heathen need to apostatize in order to be calm in the ignominy of their senses: the Christian alone has a God who forces him to blush.

And yet this God became man, He bore a flesh like our own; He was similar in His body to the idols of nations, and differing from all who had preceded Him, and from all who should follow him, He has exercised upon earth a regenerating power. In Him as their source, in His form as their center, are reflected all the characters which have made of Christianity an incomparable monument. Lift up your eyes now: behold Jesus Christ!

Who among you will blaspheme against Him without a certain fear that you may err? On emerging from infancy, perhaps, at an age when the eyes measure nothing because they as yet have compared nothing, you may pass before Him without halting or bowing your head; but wait a little.

The shadows of life will increase behind you; you will know man, and returning from man to Christ with regards more humble, because they will have seen more, you will begin to discover in that face signs which will trouble you. A day will come when you will say to yourselves: Is God really there? Whatever may be the answer, your conscience will have asked the question. And what a question! What a man must he be who constrains another man to propose to himself the question of his divinity!

And even should you not feel the foreboding of that doubt, think that for eighteen centuries it has moved and divided mankind. Now more than ever it is the great question of the world. Behind the political quarrels which resound so loudly, there is another which is the true and the last one: it is whether the nations civilized by Christianity will abandon the principle which has made them what they are, whether they will reach the point of apostasy, and what will be their lot. To be or not to be Christian, such is the enigma of the modern world.

And, however you may solve it in your minds, it exists, and I leave it there. It exists, Jesus Christ reigns by that doubt suspended over our destinies, as much as by the faith of those who have given Him their whole soul. His divinity is the riddle of the future, as it was of the past [...].

Henri-Dominique Lacordaire
Conférences de Notre-Dame de Paris (1846)

Gospel for the Transfiguration of Our Lord Jesus Christ: see also Lent with Lacordaire: Catholic doctrine cannot speak "to man only of man".

Complete dossier on Summorum Pontificum

The news agency of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples (Propaganda Fide), Fides, provides a complete historical-documentary dossier (DOC) on the motu proprio Summorum Pontificum, edited by Don Nicola Bux and Don Salvatore Vitiello.

Summary:

1. THE ANTECEDENTS

• Sacrosanctum Concilium
• The Constitution Missale Romanum of Pope Paul VI (1969)
• The Indult Quattuor Abhinc Annos of Pope John Paul II (1984)
• The Commissio Cardinalitia of 1986
• The Motu Proprio Ecclesia Dei Adflicta of Pope John Paul II (1988)
• Cardinal Medina on the Third Editio Typica of the Missal of Paul VI (2002)
• Bibliography by Uwe Michael lang

2. THE ‘RENOVATIO’ OF THE ROMAN MISSAL

It is available here (DOC file; © FIDES).

A Holy Meeting

Quasi stella matutina in medio nebulæ, et quasi luna plena in diebus suis, et quasi sol refulgens, sic iste effulsit in templo Dei (Capitulum for First Vespers, Lauds, Terce for the Feast of Saint Dominic, Breviarium iuxta Ritum Ordinis Prædicatorum - cf. Ecclesiasticus, l, 6-7: As the morning star in the midst of a cloud, and as the moon at the full, and as the sun when it shineth, so did he shine in the temple of God.)

While the life-giving stream of God’s Word welled forth from the pure and saintly depths of Dominic’s heart, another man had been called of God to revive in His Church, amid the soul-destroying luxury of the age, the love and observance of Poverty. This sublime lover of Jesus Christ was born in the town of Assisi, at the foot of the Umbrian hills, and was the son of a rich, but miserly, merchant. Having learnt French in the interests of his father’s business, they called him Francis, although it was neither his baptismal nor family name. Returning from Rome at the age of twenty-four, he, often solicited by the Spirit of God, was now wholly taken possession of by the same. Being led by his father into the presence of the Bishop of Assisi in order that he might renounce all his family rights, the heroic young man, stripping himself of all his clothes, lad them at the Bishop’s feet, saying, “Now I can say with more truth than ever, ‘Our Father who art in heaven.’” A little later on, being present at the Holy Sacrifice, he heard that part of the Gospel read where Jesus Christ tells His Apostles to take nothing for their journey, neither staff, nor scrip, nor bread, nor money, neither to have two coats. On hearing these words, he was filled with an inexpressible joy; he took off his shoes, cast aside his staff, with horror threw away the little money he possessed, and during the remainder of his life wore no other garment than an under one, a tunic, and a cord. Even these appeared too great riches, and before his death he had himself laid on the pavement in the presence of his brethren, nude as in the day when, on his final conversion, he had placed his garments at the Bishop’s feet.

Whilst these events were occurring, Dominic, at peril of his life, was evangelizing Languedoc, and crushing heresy by his apostolic labors. Unknown to themselves, a wondrous harmony had been established between these two men, and the similarity of their career extended even to the events which followed their death. Dominic was the senior by two years; and having been trained in a more learned manner for his mission, was in due time joined by this young brother, who needed no universities to teach him the science of poverty and love. Almost at the same instant that Dominic was laying the foundation of his Order at Our Lady of Prouille, at the foot of the Pyrenees, Francis was laying the foundation of his at Our Lady of the Angels, at the foot of the Apennines. An ancient sanctuary of the Blessed Virgin, Mother of God, was the sweet and lowly corner-stone of both these edifices. Our Lady of Prouille was Dominic’s cherished spot; while Our Lady of the Angels was the one spot of ground for which Francis had reserved a place in the immensity of a heart detached from all things visible. Both had commenced their public life by a pilgrimage to Rome, whither they returned to solicit for their Orders the approbation of the Holy Father. At first Innocent III refused their appeal, but was afterwards constrained by the same vision to give a verbal and conditional approval to both. As Francis, so Dominic, embraced within the flexible austerity of his Rule, men, women, and people of the world, making three Orders on single power combating for Jesus Christ with the arms of nature and grace; the only difference was, that while the first members of Dominic’s Order were women, those of St. Francis’ were men. The same Sovereign Pontiff, Honorious III, confirmed their institutions by apostolic Bulls, and the same Pope, Gregory IX, canonized them both. Also the two greatest doctors of all ages arose from their ashes; St Thomas from those of Dominic, and St. Bonaventure from those of Francis. Yet these two men, whose destinies were so harmonious in the sight of heaven and earth, were strangers to one another, and although both were in Rome during the fourth Lateran Council, it does not appear that they ever heard of each other.

One night, when Dominic was praying, he beheld Jesus Christ filled with wrath against the world, and His blessed Mother presenting to Him two men, in order to appease Him. He recognized himself as one, but did not know the other, whom he regarded so attentively that the face was ever present to him. On the morrow, in a church, we know not which, he beheld, in the dress of a mendicant, the face seen by him the preceding night, and running to the poor man, embraced him with holy effusion, uttering these words, “You are my companion; you will walk with me; let us keep together and none shall prevail against us.” He then related his vision, and thus were their hearts blended into one.

Henri-Dominique Lacordaire
Vie de Saint Dominique