MAY - THE MONTH OF OUR LADY

FOURTH WEEK AFTER EASTER
"The Secret of Mary" by Saint Louis Marie de Montfort

A True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin Is Indispensable
23. The difficulty, then, is how to arrive at the true knowledge of the most holy Virgin and so find grace in abundance through her. God, as the absolute Master, can give directly what he ordinarily dispenses only through Mary, and it would be rash to deny that he sometimes does so. However, St Thomas assures us that, following the order established by his divine Wisdom, God ordinarily imparts his graces to men through Mary. Therefore, if we wish to go to him, seeking union with him, we must use the same means which he used in coming down from heaven to assume our human nature and to impart his graces to us. That means was a complete dependence on Mary his Mother, which is true devotion to her.

2. What Perfect Devotion To Mary Consists In

A. Some True Devotions to the Blessed Virgin Mary
24. There are indeed several true devotions to our Lady. I do not intend treating of those which are false.

25. The first consists in fulfilling the duties of our Christian state, avoiding all mortal sin, performing our actions for God more through love than through fear, praying to our Lady occasionally, and honouring her as the Mother of God, but without our devotion to her being exceptional.

26. The second consists in entertaining for our Lady deeper feelings of esteem and love, of confidence and veneration. This devotion inspires us to join the confraternities of the Holy Rosary and the Scapular, to say the five or fifteen decades of the Rosary, to venerate our Lady's pictures and shrines, to make her known to others, and to enrol in her sodalities. This devotion, in keeping us from sin, is good, holy and praiseworthy, but it is not as perfect as the third, nor as effective in detaching us from creatures, or in practising that self-denial necessary for union with Jesus Christ.

27. The third devotion to our Lady is one which is unknown to many and practised by very few. This is the one I am about to present to you.

B. The Perfect Practice of Devotion to Mary
1. What it consists in

28. Chosen soul, this devotion consists in surrendering oneself in the manner of a slave to Mary, and to Jesus through her, and then performing all our actions with Mary, in Mary, through Mary, and for Mary.

Let me explain this statement further.

29. We should choose a special feast-day on which to give ourselves. Then, willingly and lovingly and under no constraint, we consecrate and sacrifice to her unreservedly our body and soul. We give to her our material possessions, such as house, family, income, and even the inner possessions of our soul, namely, our merits, graces, virtues and atonements.

Notice that in this devotion we sacrifice to Jesus through Mary all that is most dear to us, that is, the right to dispose of ourselves, of the value of our prayers and alms, of our acts of self-denial and atonements. This is a sacrifice which no religious order would require of its members. We leave everything to the free disposal of our Lady, for her to use as she wills for the greater glory of God, of which she alone is perfectly aware.

30. We leave to her the right to dispose of all the satisfactory and prayer value of our good deeds, so that, after having done so and without going so far as making a vow, we cease to be master over any good we do. Our Lady may use our good deeds either to bring relief or deliverance to a soul in purgatory, or perhaps to bring a change of heart to a poor sinner.

31. By this devotion we place our merits in the hands of our Lady, but only that she may preserve, increase and embellish them, since merit for increase of grace and glory cannot be handed over to any other person. But we give to her all our prayers and good works, inasmuch as they have intercessory and atonement value, for her to distribute and apply to whom she pleases. If, after having thus consecrated ourselves to our Lady, we wish to help a soul in purgatory, rescue a sinner, or assist a friend by a prayer, an alms, an act of self-denial or an act of self-sacrifice, we must humbly request it of our Lady, abiding always by her decision, which of course remains unknown to us. We can be fully convinced that the value of our actions, being dispensed by that same hand which God himself uses to distribute his gifts and graces to us, cannot fail to be applied for his greatest glory.

32. I have said that this devotion consists in adopting the status of a slave with regard to Mary. We must remember that there are three kinds of slavery.

There is, first, a slavery based on nature. All men, good and bad alike, are slaves of God in this sense.

The second is a slavery of compulsion. The devils and the damned are slaves of God in this second sense.

The third is a slavery of love and free choice. This is the kind chosen by one who consecrates himself to God through Mary, and this is the most perfect way for us human beings to give ourselves to God, our Creator.

33. Note that there is a vast difference between a servant and a slave. A servant claims wages for his services, but a slave can claim no reward. A servant is free to leave his employer when he likes and serves him only for a time, but a slave belongs to his master for life and has no right to leave him. A servant does not give his employer a right of life and death over him, but a slave is so totally committed that his master can put him to death without fearing any action by the law.

It is easy to see, then, that no dependence is so absolute as that of a person who is a slave by compulsion. Strictly speaking, no man should be dependent to this extent on anyone except his Creator. We therefore do not find this kind of slavery among Christians, but only among Muslims and pagans.

34. But happy, very happy indeed, will the generous person be who, prompted by love, consecrates himself entirely to Jesus through Mary as their slave, after having shaken off by baptism the tyrannical slavery of the devil. Read whole post......

FOURTH WEEK AFTER EASTER

The perfect practice of devoution to Mary
from "The secrets of Mary" by St. Louis Marie de Montfort

28. Chosen soul, this devotion consists in surrendering oneself in the manner of a slave to Mary, and to Jesus through her, and then performing all our actions with Mary, in Mary, through Mary, and for Mary.

Let me explain this statement further.

29. We should choose a special feast-day on which to give ourselves. Then, willingly and lovingly and under no constraint, we consecrate and sacrifice to her unreservedly our body and soul. We give to her our material possessions, such as house, family, income, and even the inner possessions of our soul, namely, our merits, graces, virtues and atonements.

Notice that in this devotion we sacrifice to Jesus through Mary all that is most dear to us, that is, the right to dispose of ourselves, of the value of our prayers and alms, of our acts of self-denial and atonements. This is a sacrifice which no religious order would require of its members. We leave everything to the free disposal of our Lady, for her to use as she wills for the greater glory of God, of which she alone is perfectly aware.

30. We leave to her the right to dispose of all the satisfactory and prayer value of our good deeds, so that, after having done so and without going so far as making a vow, we cease to be master over any good we do. Our Lady may use our good deeds either to bring relief or deliverance to a soul in purgatory, or perhaps to bring a change of heart to a poor sinner.

31. By this devotion we place our merits in the hands of our Lady, but only that she may preserve, increase and embellish them, since merit for increase of grace and glory cannot be handed over to any other person. But we give to her all our prayers and good works, inasmuch as they have intercessory and atonement value, for her to distribute and apply to whom she pleases. If, after having thus consecrated ourselves to our Lady, we wish to help a soul in purgatory, rescue a sinner, or assist a friend by a prayer, an alms, an act of self-denial or an act of self-sacrifice, we must humbly request it of our Lady, abiding always by her decision, which of course remains unknown to us. We can be fully convinced that the value of our actions, being dispensed by that same hand which God himself uses to distribute his gifts and graces to us, cannot fail to be applied for his greatest glory.

32. I have said that this devotion consists in adopting the status of a slave with regard to Mary. We must remember that there are three kinds of slavery.

There is, first, a slavery based on nature. All men, good and bad alike, are slaves of God in this sense.

The second is a slavery of compulsion. The devils and the damned are slaves of God in this second sense.

The third is a slavery of love and free choice. This is the kind chosen by one who consecrates himself to God through Mary, and this is the most perfect way for us human beings to give ourselves to God, our Creator.

33. Note that there is a vast difference between a servant and a slave. A servant claims wages for his services, but a slave can claim no reward. A servant is free to leave his employer when he likes and serves him only for a time, but a slave belongs to his master for life and has no right to leave him. A servant does not give his employer a right of life and death over him, but a slave is so totally committed that his master can put him to death without fearing any action by the law.

It is easy to see, then, that no dependence is so absolute as that of a person who is a slave by compulsion. Strictly speaking, no man should be dependent to this extent on anyone except his Creator. We therefore do not find this kind of slavery among Christians, but only among Muslims and pagans.

34. But happy, very happy indeed, will the generous person be who, prompted by love, consecrates himself entirely to Jesus through Mary as their slave, after having shaken off by baptism the tyrannical slavery of the devil. Read whole post......

FOURTH WEEK AFTER EASTER
SAINT SIMON STOCK
Superior General of the Carmelite Order
(†1265)

Spiritual Bouquet: The Father loves Me, because I lay down My life... No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. St. John 10:17-18

Saint Simon Stock was born of one of the most illustrious Christian families of England, at the castle of Harford in 1164. Certain prodigies marked him, while an infant in the cradle, as a soul chosen by the Mother of God for Her own. Not yet one year old, he was heard to say the Angelic Salutation distinctly, before he had reached the age to learn it. As soon as he could read he began to recite the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin, and he would never cease to do so daily. He read Holy Scripture on his knees at the age of six. He became the object of the jealous persecution of one of his brothers, and at the age of twelve determined to leave and go to live in a forest.

He found a very large hollow tree which became his oratory; and there Simon Stock lived like an angel of the desert. There he triumphed over the demon, as he would later tell his religious, only by the assistance of the Most Holy Virgin. When, deprived in his retreat of the Sacraments, he suffered sharp remorse and fear of his danger amid demoniac visions of criminal pleasures, Mary showed him the wiles of his enemy’s intentions in these harassments.

After twenty years he returned to his parents and resumed his studies, in particular those of theology. He was ordained a priest to obey the orders of Heaven, then went back to his retreat, which he left definitively in the year 1212. The incentive for his departure was a revelation the Blessed Virgin made to him that the Carmelite Fathers of Palestine would come to found monasteries in England. When two Carmelite monks arrived in the company of two English lords returning from a crusade, he hastened to join them, but troubles prevented the foundation of their projected monastery. The three hermits therefore lived in cells near Oxford. The University of Oxford, by recourse to obedience, prevailed upon Simon’s Superiors to allow him to teach theology there, but he did not remain for long.

During a time of difficulty for England which resulted from the Britannic king’s conflicts with the Pope, he composed the famous hymn, Alma Redemptoris Mater, in honor of the Mother of God, to ask for the king’s conversion; his prayers were heard and suddenly the prince accepted all conditions of peace which a papal legate proposed. Saint Simon was soon made Vicar General of his Order for all of Europe. But opposition to the spread of the ancient Order of the Virgin was raised up by the enemy of souls, until Pope Honorius III put an end to it by bulls approving, confirming and protecting the Order from its enemies. He did so, he said, to conform to a command of the Mother of God Herself.

When a General Chapter of the Order was assembled on Mount Carmel itself, Saint Simon attended it. The question of the flight of the monks from the persecutions of the infidels was debated; Saint Simon won out over another opinion by saying that it was a great evil to expose one’s faith to the dangers of persecution without a specific order from heaven, according to the Gospel: “When you are persecuted in one city, flee to another.” The Order had already lost many of its houses, burnt and desecrated. So the monks dispersed to join an army of Crusaders, not without suffering the loss of the lives of several among them at the hands of the infidels. The Christian army, however, found its waters were poisoned by the hand of its enemies, and retired with Saint Simon and his religious to the Mountain of Carmel once again; there the ancient fountain of Elias gave water in abundance, in answer to their prayers. For six years Saint Simon remained on Carmel before returning to Aylesford in England.

The Order afterwards multiplied its foundations, making several in France, under its pious king Saint Louis IX. So prodigiously did it multiply under Saint Simon, that a few years after his death, towards the end of the 13th century, it numbered, according to William of Tyre, several thousand monasteries or solitudes, which the same author estimated were peopled with some 125,000 religious. Saint Simon visited many of them in his extreme old age; he died at Bordeaux during his journeys in 1265. Read whole post......

FOURTH WEEK AFTER EASTER.
Prayer of Recollection - from "Divine Intimacy" by Fr Gabriel of St. Mary Magdalen OCD
PRESENCE OF GOD - May I find You within me, O my God, in the little heaven of my soul!
MEDITATION
1. St. Teresa of Jesus warmly recommends to interior souls another kind of prayer, much simpler and more profitable - the prayer of recollection. The foundation of this prayer is the divine presence in our souls: the presence of friendship, by which in a soul in the state of grace, God is present as a Father, as a Friend and as a sweet Guest, who invites that soul to dwell with the three divine Persons: with the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. This is the consoling promise of Jesus to the soul who loves Him: "If anyone love Me... My Father will love him, and We will come to him, and will make our abode with him" (Jn 14,23).
The prayer of recollection consists in the realisation of this great truth: God is in me, my soul is His temple; I recollect myself in the intimacy of this temple to adore Him, love Him, and unite myself to Him. "O soul, most beautiful of all creatures," exclaims St. John of the Cross, "that so greatly desireth to know the place where your Beloved is, in order to seek Him and be united with Him.... It is a matter of great contentment and joy for you to see that He is so near you as to be within you. Rejoice and be glad in your inward recollection with Him, since you have Him so near. There desire Him, there adore Him, and do not go to seek Him outside yourself" (SC, 1, 7.8). The soul who had a sense of the presence of God within it, possesses one of the most efficacious means of making prayer. "Do you believe," says St. Teresa of Jesus, "that it is of little importance for a soul who is easily distracted, to understand this truth [that God is within it] and to know that, in order to speak with its heavenly Father and to enjoy His company, it does not have to go up to heaven or even to raise its voice? No matter how softly it speaks, He always hears it, because He is so near. It does not need wings to go to contemplate Him in itself" (Way, 28).
2. Although the prayer of recollection is the highest of the active forms of prayer, St. Teresa notes that we can obtain it for ourselves, "for this is not a supernatural state [a passive recollection which can only be produced by divine motion], but depends upon our volition; and by God's favour, we can enter it of our own accord." (ibid., 29).
Therefore, it is important to know what the soul should do in order to practice this prayer, and this can be reduced to two things: "The soul collects together all its faculties and enters within itself to be with its God" (ibid., 28). Our senses, imagination, and intellect tend spontaneously toward exterior things, on which they are dispersed; therefore, the soul, by a prolonged, resolute act of the will, ought to withdraw them from these exterior things in order to concentrate them on interior things - in this little heaven of the soul where where the Blessed Trinity dwells. This exercise, especially in the beginning, requires effort and energy and it will not be easy at first. However, the saint teaches, "let the soul try to cultivate the habit, despite the fatigue entailed in recollecting itself and overcoming the body which is trying to reclaim its rights."
Little by little, "as a reward for the violence which it has previously done to itself" (ibid.), recollection will become easy and delightful; the senses will obey promptly; and even if the soul is not entirely free from distractions, it will not be so hard to overcome them.
In this way, the soul will be able to concentrate entirely on God present within us, and there at His feet will be able to converse with Him to our heart's delight. It will not be difficult to spend even the whole time of prayer in acts of faith, love, and adoration, admiring and contemplating the great mystery of the indwelling of the Trinity in our poor heart, and offering our humble homage to the three divine Persons. But if this is not enough, we can also use other practices: "Hidden there within our soul, we can think about the Passion, and picture the Son, and offer Him to the Father, without tiring the mind by going to seek Him on Mount Calvary, or in the Garden, or at the Column"; or else, more simply, we can "speak with Him as with a Father, a Brother, a Lord, and a Spouse - sometimes in one way, sometimes in another....we can tell Him our troubles, beg Him to put them right, and yet realise that we are not worthy to be called His child" (ibid.). And the saint concludes with these words: "Those who are able to shut themselves up in this way within this little heaven of the soul, where dwells the Maker of heaven and earth....may be sure that they are walking on an excellent road and will come without fail to drink of the water of the fountain" (ibid.).

COLLOQUY
......."O my God, You are in me and I am in You. I have found my heaven on earth, since heaven is You. I have found my heaven on earth, since heaven is You, O Lord, and You are in my soul. I can find You there always; even when I do not fell Your presence, You are there nevertheless, and I like to seek You there. Oh! if only I could never leave You alone!" (cf.E.T.L). Read whole post......

Fourth Sunday after Easter (Mother's Day) J.M.J.

THE MOST IMPORTANT PERSON ON EARTH

"THE most important person on earth is a mother. She cannot claim the honor of having built Notre Dame Cathedral. She need not. She has built something more magnificent than any cathedral - a dwelling for an immortal soul, the tiny perfection of her baby's body.

"The angels have not been blessed with such a grace. They cannot share in God's creative miracle to bring new saints to Heaven. Only a human mother can. Mothers are closer to God the Creator than any other creature; God joins forces with mothers in performing this act of creation. What on God's good earth is more glorious than this: to be a mother?

--Joseph Cardinal Mindszenty

"Pray and work for souls."
http://olrl.org Read whole post......

Fourth Sunday after Easter

Roman Breviary at Matins: The reading of the holy Gospel according to John:

Lesson vii: c.16, 5-14
At that time: Jesus said to his disciples: I go to him that sent me; and none of you asketh me: Whither goest thou? 6 But because I have spoken these things to you, sorrow hath filled your heart. 7 But I tell you the truth: it is expedient to you that I go: for if I go not, the Paraclete will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. 8 And when he is come, he will convince the world of sin, and of justice, and of judgment. 9 Of sin: because they believed not in me. 10 And of justice: because I go to the Father; and you shall see me no longer.

8 "He will convince the world of sin"... The Holy Ghost, by his coming brought over many thousands, first, to a sense of their sin in not believing in Christ. Secondly, to a conviction of the justice of Christ, now sitting at the right hand of his Father. And thirdly, to a right apprehension of the judgment prepared for them that choose to follow Satan, who is already judged and condemned.

11 And of judgment: because the prince of this world is already judged. 12 I have yet many things to say to you: but you cannot bear them now. 13 But when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will teach you all truth. For he shall not speak of himself; but what things soever he shall hear, he shall speak; and the things that are to come, he shall shew you. 14 He shall glorify me; because he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it to you.

Homily of St. Augustine, Bishop
Treatise 94 on John

When the Lord Jesus had foretold to his disciples the persecution they would have to undergo after his departure, he went on to say: But I told you not these things from the beginning, because I was with you: and now I go to him that sent me. The first thing to be noticed here is, whether he had not already predicted their future sufferings. But the three Evangelists make it sufficiently clear that he had foretold these things prior to the approach of the Supper; according to John, it was when the supper was over that he spoke thus, saying: But I told you not these things from the beginning, because I was with you.

Lesson viii
Are we, then, to settle such a question in this way, that they, too, relate that he was near his passion when he said these things?Then it was not when he was with them at the beginning that he so spoke; seeing he was even now about to depart, even now about to go his way to the Father. And so also, according to to these other Evangelists, it is true what is said here: But I told you not to these things from the beginning. But what are we to make of the credibility of the Gospel according to Matthew, who relates that these things were made known to them by the Lord, not only when he was about to eat the Paschal supper with his disciples just before his passion, but also at the beginning, when the twelve apostles were first mentioned by name, and sent out upon their divine work?

Lesson ix
What, therefore, can he mean by what he says here: But I told you not these things from the beginning, because i was with you, but that what he here says about the Holy Spirit, who was to come to them, and to bear witness, when they should have such ills to endure, this he said not unto them at the beginning, because he was with them? The Comforter, then, or advocate, (for the Greek word Praclete may be interpreted in both these senses), had become necessary after Christ's departure; and therefore he had not told them of the Holy Spirit at the beginning, while he himself was with them, because they were consoled by his presence.

Little Chapter: James, 1, 19-21

You know, my dearest brethren; and let every man be swift to hear, but slow to speak, and slow to anger. For the anger of man worketh not the justice of God
Wherefore casting away all uncleanness and abundance of naughtiness, with meekness receive the ingrafted word which is able to save your souls. Read whole post......

May - The Month of the Blessed Virgin Mary

THIRD WEEK AFTER EASTER
St Louis Marie de Montford - "The Secret of Mary"

To Find The Grace Of God, We Must Discover Mary

6. It all comes to this, then. We must discover a simple means to obtain from God the grace needed to become holy. It is precisely this I wish to teach you. My contention is that you must first discover Mary if you would obtain this grace from God. 7. Let me explain: (1) Mary alone found grace with God for herself and for every individual person . No patriarch or prophet or any other holy person of the Old Law could manage to find this grace. 8. (2) It was Mary who gave existence and life to the author of all grace, and because of this she is called the "Mother of Grace". 9. (3) God the Father, from whom, as from its essential source, every perfect gift and every grace come down to us , gave her every grace when he gave her his Son. Thus, as St Bernard says, the will of God is manifested to her in Jesus and with Jesus.
10. (4) God chose her to be the treasurer, the administrator and the dispenser of all his graces, so that all his graces and gifts pass through her hands. Such is the power that she has received from him that, according to St Bernardine, she gives the graces of the eternal Father, the virtues of Jesus Christ, and the gifts of the Holy Spirit to whom she wills, as and when she wills, and as much as she wills. 11. (5) As in the natural life a child must have a father and a mother, so in the supernatural life of grace a true child of the Church must have God for his Father and Mary for his mother. If he prides himself on having God for his Father but does not give to Mary the tender affection of a true child, he is an impostor and his father is the devil. 12. (6) Since Mary produced the head of the elect, Jesus Christ, she must also produce the members of that head, that is, all true Christians. A mother does not conceive a head without members, nor members without a head. If anyone, then, wishes to become a member of Jesus Christ, and consequently be filled with grace and truth , he must be formed in Mary through the grace of Jesus Christ, which she possesses with a fullness enabling her to communicate it abundantly to true members of Jesus Christ, her true children. 13. (7) The Holy Spirit espoused Mary and produced his greatest work, the incarnate Word, in her, by her and through her. He has never disowned her and so he continues to produce every day, in a mysterious but very real manner, the souls of the elect in her and through her. 14. (8) Mary received from God a unique dominion over souls enabling her to nourish them and make them more and more godlike. St Augustine went so far as to say that even in this world all the elect are enclosed in the womb of Mary, and that their real birthday is when this good mother brings them forth to eternal life. Consequently, just as an infant draws all its nourishment from its mother, who gives according to its needs, so the elect draw their spiritual nourishment and all their strength from Mary. 15. (9) It was to Mary that God the Father said, "Dwell in Jacob", that is, dwell in my elect who are typified by Jacob. It was to Mary that God the Son said, "My dear Mother, your inheritance is in Israel", that is, in the elect. It was to Mary that the Holy Spirit said,"Place your roots in my elect". Whoever, then, is of the chosen and predestinate will have the Blessed Virgin living within him, and he will let her plant in his very soul the roots of every virtue, but especially deep humility and ardent charity. 16. (10) Mary is called by St Augustine, and is indeed, the "living mould of God" . In her alone the God-man was formed in his human nature without losing any feature of the Godhead. In her alone, by the grace of Jesus Christ, man is made godlike as far as human nature is capable of it.

A sculptor can make a statue or a life-like model in two ways: (i) By using his skill, strength, experience and good tools to produce a statue out of hard, shapeless matter; (ii) By making a cast of it in a mould. The first way is long and involved and open to all sorts of accidents. It only needs a faulty stroke of the chisel or hammer to ruin the whole work. The second is quick, easy, straightforward, almost effortless and inexpensive, but the mould must be perfect and true to life and the material must be easy to handle and offer no resistance. 17. Mary is the great mould of God, fashioned by the Holy Spirit to give human nature to a Man who is God by the hypostatic union, and to fashion through grace men who are like to God. No godly feature is missing from this mould. Everyone who casts himself into it and allows himself to be moulded will acquire every feature of Jesus Christ, true God, with little pain or effort, as befits his weak human condition. He will take on a faithful likeness to Jesus with no possibility of distortion, for the devil has never had and never will have any access to Mary, the holy and immaculate Virgin, in whom there is not the least suspicion of a stain of sin. 18. Dear friend, what a difference there is between a soul brought up in the ordinary way to resemble Jesus Christ by people who, like sculptors, rely on their own skill and industry, and a soul thoroughly tractable, entirely detached, most ready to be moulded in her by the working of the Holy Spirit. What blemishes and defects, what shadows and distortions, what natural and human imperfections are found in the first soul, and what a faithful and divine likeness to Jesus is found in the second! 19. There is not and there will never be, either in God's creation or in his mind, a creature in whom he is so honoured as in the most Blessed Virgin Mary, not excepting even the saints, the cherubim or the highest seraphim in heaven. Mary is God's garden of Paradise, his own unspeakable world, into which his Son entered to do wonderful things, to tend it and to take his delight in it. He created a world for the wayfarer, that is, the one we are living in. He created a second world - Paradise - for the Blessed. He created a third for himself, which he named Mary. She is a world unknown to most mortals here on earth. Even the angels and saints in heaven find her incomprehensible, and are lost in admiration of a God who is so exalted and so far above them, so distant from them, and so enclosed in Mary, his chosen world, that they exclaim: "Holy, holy, holy" unceasingly. 20. Happy, indeed sublimely happy, is the person to whom the Holy Spirit reveals the secret of Mary, thus imparting to him true knowledge of her. Happy the person to whom the Holy Spirit opens this enclosed garden for him to enter, and to whom the Holy Spirit gives access to this sealed fountain where he can draw water and drink deep draughts of the living waters of grace. That person will find only grace and no creature in the most lovable Virgin Mary. But he will find that the infinitely holy and exalted God is at the same time infinitely solicitous for him and understands his weaknesses. Since God is everywhere, he can be found everywhere, even in hell. But there is no place where God can be more present to his creature and more sympathetic to human weakness than in Mary. It was indeed for this very purpose that he came down from heaven. Everywhere else he is the Bread of the strong and the Bread of angels, but living in Mary he is the Bread of children. 21. Let us not imagine, then, as some misguided teachers do, that Mary being simply a creature would be a hindrance to union with the Creator. Far from it, for it is no longer Mary who lives but Jesus Christ himself, God alone, who lives in her. Her transformation into God far surpasses that experienced by St Paul and other saints, more than heaven surpasses the earth. Mary was created only for God, and it is unthinkable that she should reserve even one soul for herself. On the contrary she leads every soul to God and to union with him. Mary is the wonderful echo of God. The more a person joins himself to her, the more effectively she unites him to God. When we say "Mary", she re-echoes "God". When, like Saint Elizabeth, we call her blessed, she gives the honour to God. If those misguided ones who were so sadly led astray by the devil, even in their prayer-life, had known how to discover Mary, and Jesus through her, and God through Jesus,they would not have had such terrible falls. The saints tell us that when we have once found Mary, and through Mary Jesus, and through Jesus God the Father, then we have discovered every good. When we say "every good", we except nothing. "Every good" includes every grace, continuous friendship with God, every protection against the enemies of God, possession of truth to counter every falsehood, endless benefits and unfailing headway against the hazards we meet on the way to salvation, and finally every consolation and joy amid the bitter afflictions of life. 22. This does not mean that one who has discovered Mary through a genuine devotion is exempt from crosses and sufferings. Far from it! One is tried even more than others, because Mary, as Mother of the living, gives to all her children splinters of the tree of life, which is the Cross of Jesus. But while meting out crosses to them she gives the grace to bear them with patience, and even with joy. In this way, the crosses she sends to those who trust themselves to her are rather like sweetmeats, i.e. "sweetened" crosses rather than "bitter" ones. If from time to time they do taste the bitterness of the chalice from which we must drink to become proven friends of God, the consolation and joy which their Mother sends in the wake of their sorrows creates in them a strong desire to carry even heavier and still more bitter crosses. Read whole post......

May - The Month of the Blessed Vrigin Mary

THIRD WEEK AFTER EASTER. Feast day of Our Lady of Fatima
Spiritual Bouquet: I am the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd lays down His life for His sheep. St. John 10:11

Much has been written concerning the six famous apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary in a little town in Portugal between May 13 and October 13, 1917. Later it would be said, and rightly so, that everything She predicted there to the three little shepherds has been fulfilled point by point. The story is too long to tell in detail in a few words, and indeed it is not over yet.

Our Lady of Fatima was sent to warn the 20th century that humanity had not followed the path that had been indicated to it by her Son; humanity had not developed as God intended, and the time of the last and worst enemy was fast approaching. She said that if Her requests for prayer and penance were not heard, Communism would spread its errors all over the earth. She appealed to the Apostles of the Latter Times to come forth, those who lived in humility, poverty and contempt for the world, repeating what She had already said at La Salette, France, in greater detail in 1846.

During the final apparition on October 13th, She appeared as Our Lady of Mount Carmel, accompanied by Saint Joseph and the divine Child. Through Lucy of Fatima, Mary had promised a miracle to convince doubters of the reality of Her presence and the Will of God She had conveyed by Her words, and She fulfilled that promise. On October 13, 1917, the great Miracle of the Sun occurred, witnessed by all who were present at Fatima, an international crowd of 70,000 spectators. The sun whirled about and seemed to be plunging down as it sent off multicolored rays; many cried out that it was the end of the world.

A large shrine was built at Fatima, and in the 1940’s more than a thousand miracles had already been duly confirmed there. The famous “Secret of Fatima,” part of which was disclosed by the Vatican to certain heads of State in 1963, still remains largely a secret for most of the people who have been waiting for it since 1960, the year that the Virgin said it was to be made public.

For further information: Magnificat magazine — special edition on Fatima.


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SAINT ROBERT BELLARMINE
Doctor of the Church, Cardinal
(1542-1621)

Saint Robert Bellarmine was born at Montepulciano, Italy in 1542, the third of ten children. After being educated by the Jesuits, he joined the Society of Jesus in 1560, and as a young man taught Greek, Hebrew and theology. While at Louvain University he became famous as a controversialist, and never afterwards did he cease to defend Catholic doctrine against its adversaries. He has enriched the Church with a large number of learned and valuable writings, among which are his Course of Controversy, his famous Commentary on the Psalms, and a treatise on The Seven Last Words of Jesus Christ.

In 1598 Saint Robert was made a Cardinal and in 1602 was raised to the archbishopric of Capua. In 1605 he was recalled to Rome and appointed head of the Vatican Library. He served as theologian and counselor to five Popes: Sixtus V, Innocent IX, Clement VIII, Paul V, and Gregory XV. He died in October of 1621, greatly mourned by the people of Rome as well as by the hierarchy, and was canonized by Pope Pius XI in 1930. The following year the same Vicar of Christ declared him a Doctor of the Church. His tomb is in the Jesuit Church, the Gesù, in Rome.


Reflection. A love of Christian silence is proof that a soul makes it a delight to be occupied on God, and finds no consolation comparable to that of conversing with Him. This is the paradise of all devout souls.

Sources: Heavenly Friends: a Saint for each Day, by Rosalie Marie Levy (Saint Paul Editions: Boston, 1958); Les Petits Bollandistes: Vies des Saints, by Msgr. Paul Guérin (Bloud et Barral: Paris, 1882), Vol. 11. Read whole post......

THIRD WEEK AFTER EASTER

The Church and Her Enemies by Father Michael Mueller  C.SS.R.

The word of God, in the First Commandment, is: "I am the Lord thy God." By this commandment all men are obliged to believe in God as the Infinite Being, Who is essentially good and just, the sovereign Author and Lord of all things, Who has an absolute authority over all,- an authority which He can exercise either directly by Himself, or through an angel, a prophet, or one or more of His reasonable creatures. God, therefore, has a right to command the human understanding to admit certain truths, the human will to perform certain duties, the senses to make certain sacrifices. Nothing can be more reasonable than to submit to such a command of God. This submission is called Faith, which, as St. Paul says, "bringeth into captivity every understanding to the obedience of Christ." (2 Cor. 10: 5.) As soon, then, as man hears the voice of his Maker, he is bound to say, "Amen: it is so." I believe it, no matter whether I understand it or not.
But Protestants have no regard for God when He says, "I am the Lord thy God. I have a right to tell you what you must believe and do, in order to be saved, and you are bound to submit to My Will, and practice the religion which I have established." The Protestant answers: "Of course, I believe that thou art the Lord of Heaven and earth, but I believe only what I choose to believe ;" thus defying the Almighty to prescribe a religion for him. Protestants, therefore, live constantly in violation of the First Commandment.
They also transgress the Second Commandment of God, which says: "Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain." By this commandment God forbids all men to blaspheme Him or any of His saints, or to ridicule religion. Yet, what is more common among Protestants than to blaspheme Jesus Christ in His Mother and other saints; what more common than to ridicule the religion of Christ and its holy practices? Are not Protestant books, sermons, tracts, and conversations, filled with abusive language, invectives, mockeries against Christ, His religion and His saints?
Protestants also transgress the Third Commandment of God, which says: "Remember thou keep holy the Sabbath day." By this commandment God commands all men to worship Him in the manner which He has prescribed.  From the beginning of the world, God wished  to be worshipped by the offering of sacrifices; but Protestants have done away with the worship of the Sacrifice of the Mass, which Christ commanded to be offered up by His priests and all Christians. They refuse to give God the honour of adoration; that is, to honour Him as the sovereign Lord of all creatures, and to acknowledge their entire dependence on Him, by offering the Sacrifice of the Body and Blood of His divine Son, Jesus Christ, in holy Mass.  Instead of thus honouring and worshipping Him, they blaspheme Christ by calling this Holy Sacrifice a superstitious ceremony or abominable idolatry, whilst their own worship is a false worship, which is an abomination in the sight of God.
Protestants transgress the Fourth Commandment, by refusing obedience to the lawful ecclesiastical superiors. They transgress the Fifth Commandment, by refusing to make use of the means of grace,-the sacraments,-to obtain God's grace, and preserve themselves in His holy friendship. They transgress the Sixth and the Ninth Commandments, which forbid adultery, (also contraception and sterilisation, ed.) and even the desire to commit it.  Jesus Christ says: "I say to you, that whosoever shall put away his wife, and shall marry another, committeth adultery; and he that shall marry her that is put away, committeth adultery." (Matt. 19:9.) "No," says Protestantism to a married man, "you may put away your wife, get a divorce, and marry another."
God says to every man: "Thou shalt not steal." "No," said Luther to secular princes, "I give you the right to appropriate to yourselves the property of the Roman Catholic Church." And the princes, from that day to this, have been only too happy to profit by this pleasing advice. Jesus Christ says: "Hear the Church." "No," says Protestantism, "do not hear the Church; protest against her with all your might." Jesus Christ says: "If any one will not hear the Church, look upon him as a heathen and publican." "No," says Protestantism, "if any one does not hear the Church look upon him as an apostle, as an ambassador of God." Jesus Christ says: "The gates of hell shall not prevail against My Church." "No," says Protestantism, "'tis false; the gates of hell have prevailed against the Church for a thousand years and more." Jesus Christ has declared St. Peter, and every successor to St. Peter, -the pope,-to be His Vicar on earth. "No," says Protestantism, "the pope is Anti-Christ." Jesus Christ says: "My yoke is sweet, and My burden is light." (Matt. 11:30). "No," said Luther and Calvin, "it is impossible to keep the commandments." Jesus Christ says: "If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments." (Matt. 19:17). "No," said Luther and Calvin, "faith alone, without good works, is sufficient to enter into life everlasting." Jesus Christ says: "Unless you do penance, you shall all likewise perish." (Luke 3: 3. ) "No," says Protestantism, "fasting and other works of penance are not necessary, in satisfaction for sin." Jesus Christ says: "This is My body." "No," said Calvin, "This is only the figure of Christ's body; It will become His body as soon as you receive It."
The Holy Ghost says in Holy Scripture: "Man knoweth not whether he be worthy of love or hatred." (Eccl. 9:1.) "Who can say, My heart is clean, I am pure from sin?" (Prov. 20: 9); and, "Work out your salvation with fear and trembling." (Phil. 2:12.) "No," said Luther and Calvin, "but whosoever believes in Jesus Christ is in the state of grace."
Saint Paul says: "If I should have faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing." (1 Cor. 13: 2. ) "No, said Luther and Calvin, "faith alone is sufficient to save us."
Saint Peter says that in the Epistles of Saint Paul there are many things "hard to be understood, which the unlearned and unstable wrest, as also the other Scriptures, to their own perdition." (2 Epist. 3:16.) "No," says Protestantism, "the Scriptures are very plain, and easy to be understood." Saint James says: "Is any man sick among you? Let him bring in the priests of the Church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil, in the name of the Lord." ( Chap. 5: 14. ) "No," says Protestantism, "this is a vain and useless ceremony."
Protestants being thus impious enough to make liars of Jesus Christ, of the Holy Ghost, and of the Apostles, need we wonder if they continually slander Catholics, telling and believing worse absurdities about them than the heathens did? What is more absurd than to preach that Catholics worship stocks and stones for gods; set up pictures of Jesus Christ, of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and other saints, to pray to them, and put their confidence in them; that they adore a god of bread and wine; that their sins are forgiven by the priest, without repentance and amendment of life; that the pope or any other person can give leave to commit sin, or that for a sum of money the forgiveness of sins can be obtained ? To these and similar absurdities and slanders, we simply answer: "Cursed is he who believes in such absurdities and falsehoods, with which Protestants impiously charge the children of the Catholic Church. All those grievous transgressions are another source of their reprobation."
But there are other reasons still, why Protestants cannot be saved. Jesus Christ says: "Except you eat the Flesh of the Son of man, and drink His blood, you shall not have life in you." (John 6: 54.) Now, Protestants do not receive the Body of Our Lord, because their ministers are not priests, and consequently have no power from Jesus Christ to say Mass, in which, by the words of consecration, bread and wine are changed into the Body and Blood of Christ. It follows, then, clearly that they will not enter into life everlasting, and deservedly so, because they abolished the holy Sacrifice of the Mass; and by abolishing that great Sacrifice they robbed God the Father of the infinite honour which Jesus Christ renders Him therein, and themselves of all the blessings which Jesus Christ bestows upon those who assist at this holy Sacrifice with faith and devotion: "Wherefore the sin of the young men (the sons of Heli) was exceeding great before the Lord, because they withdrew men from the sacrifice of the Lord." (1 Kings 2:17.) Now, God the Father cannot admit into Heaven these robbers of His infinite honour; because if those are damned who steal the temporal goods of their neighbour, how much more will those be damned who deprive God of His infinite honour, and their fellow-men of the infinite spiritual blessings of the Mass !
Again, no man is saved who dies in the state of mortal sin, because God cannot unite Himself to a soul in Heaven who by mortal sin is His enemy. But Protestants are enemies of God, committing, as they do, other mortal sins besides those already mentioned; for, if it is a mortal sin for a Roman Catholic willfully to doubt only one article of his Faith, it is also, most assuredly, a mortal sin for Protestants wilfully to deny not only one truth, but almost all the truths revealed by Jesus Christ. On account of the sins of apostasy, blasphemy, slander, etc., they remain enemies of God, as long as they do not repent, and receive absolution of these sins. Jesus Christ assures us that those sins which are not forgiven by the absolution of His apostles or their successors, will not be forgiven: "Whose sins you retain, they are retained." (John 20:92 23.) But Protestants are unwilling to confess their sins to a Catholic bishop or a priest, who alone has power from Christ to forgive sins: "Whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven them." They generally have an utter aversion to confession; they die in their sins, and are lost; for sins, unrepented and unatoned for, stand through all eternity.
Again, no grown person can enter the kingdom of Heaven without good works. On the great day of judgment Jesus Christ will say to the wicked: "Depart from Me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire. For I was hungry, and you gave Me not to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me not to drink," etc. (Matt. 25:41, 42.) It is true that many regular, naturally good Protestants practice good works, make long prayers, fast, give alms, and perform other works of natural virtue, all of which are, indeed, laudable actions. But all these works are destitute of one essential thing, viz., docility to faith, without which there is neither merit nor recompense. For merely natural virtues there are natural rewards. But works, to be meritorious of Heaven, must be performed in the state of grace; they must proceed from, and be vivified by, divine faith, to deserve an eternal reward; for then it is that they proceed, as it were, from God himself, and from His divine Spirit, Who lives in us, and urges us on to the performance of good works.
Hence, as faith without works is dead, so also works without faith are dead, and cannot save the doer from destruction. Splendid, but barren works ! Apparently delicious fruit, but rotten within! In vain, then, shall they glory in these works. The Gospel will always tell them that he "who does not believe, is already judged." (John 3:18.) The apostle will ever declare to them that "without faith it is impossible to please God." (Heb. 11: 6.) Jesus Christ Himself will ever command us to look upon "him as the heathen and the publican, who will not hear the Church" (Matt. 18:17), though otherwise he should be as severe in his life as an anchoret, as enlightened in his understanding as an angel. "In the Catholic Church," says Saint Augustine, "there are both good and bad. But they who are separated from her, as long as they remain in their opinion against her, cannot be good; for, although a kind of laudable conversation seems to show forth some of them as good, the separation itself makes them bad, the Lord saying: 'He who is not with Me is against Me; and he who gathereth not with Me, scattereth ' " What, then, will be the astonishment, sorrow, and despair of those who, void of faith, and separated from the Church, will one day present themselves before God, and imagining to have heaped up treasures of merits, will appear in His sight with their hands empty ?
In the history of the foundation of the Society of Jesus, in the Kingdom of Naples, is related the following story of a noble youth of Scotland, named William Ephinstone, who was a relative of the Scottish king. Born a heretic, he followed the false sect to which he belonged; but enlightened by divine grace, which showed him his errors, he went to France, where, with the assistance of a good Jesuit father, who was also a Scotchman, he at length saw the truth, abjured heresy, and became a Catholic. He went afterward to Rome, joined the Society of Jesus, in which he died a happy death. When at Rome, a friend of his found him one day very much afflicted, and weeping He asked him the cause, and the young man answered that in the night his mother had appeared to him, and said "My son, it is well for thee that thou hast entered the true Church; I am already lost, because I died in heresy. " (Saint Liguori, "Glories of Mary ")
We read, in the Life of Saint Rose of Viterbo, that she was inflamed with great zeal for the salvation of souls She felt a most tender compassion for those who were living in heresy. In order to convince a certain lady, who was a heretic, that she could not be saved in her sect, and that it was  necessary for salvation to die a true member of the Catholic Church, she made a large fire, threw herself into it, and remained in it for three hours, without being hurt. This lady, together with many others, on witnessing the miracle, abjured their heresy, and became Catholics.
When the Emperor Valens ordered that Saint Basil the Great should go into banishment, God, in the high court of heaven, passed, at the same time, sentence against the emperor's only son, named Valentinian Galatus, a child then about six years old. That very night the royal infant was seized with a violent fever, from which the physicians were unable to give him the least relief; and the Empress Dominica told the emperor that this calamity was a just punishment of heaven for his banishing the bishop, on which account she had been disquieted by terrible dreams. Thereupon Valens sent for the saint, who was about to go into exile. No sooner had the holy bishop entered the palace, than the fever of the child began to abate. Saint Basil assured the parents of the absolute recovery of their son, on condition that they would order him to be instructed in the Catholic Faith. The emperor accepted the condition, Saint Basil prayed, and the young prince was cured. But Valens, unfaithful to his promise, afterward allowed an Arian bishop to baptize the child. The young prince immediately relapsed and died. By this miraculous cure of the child, God made manifest the truth of our religion; and by the sudden death of the child, which followed upon the heretical baptism, God showed in what abomination He holds those who profess heresy.
But is it not a very uncharitable doctrine to say that out of the Church there is no salvation ?  If we desire that all those who are not members of the Catholic Church should cease to deceive themselves as to the true character of their belief, and propose to them considerations which may contribute to that result, it is certainly not from enmity to their persons, nor indifference to their welfare. As long as they remain victims of a delusion as gross as that which makes the Jew still cling to his abolished synagogue, and which only a miracle of grace can dispel, they will probably resent the counsels of their truest friends but why do they take us for enemies? "The Christian," as Tertullian said, "is the enemy of no one," not even of his persecutors. He hates heresy because God hates it, but he has only compassion for those who are caught in its snare. Whether he exhorts or reproves them, he displays not malice, but charity He knows that they are, of all men, the most helpless; and  his voice of warning is most vehement, he is only doing what the Church has done from the beginning. His voice is but the echo of hers.  We are told that, before the Council of Nicea, she had already condemned thirty-eight different heresies; and in every case she pronounced anathemas upon those who held them. And she was as truly the mouthpiece of God in her judicial as in her teaching office.
The Church is, indeed, uncompromising in matters of truth. Truth is the honour of the Church. The Church is the most honourable of all societies.  She is the highest standard of honour, because she judges all things in the light of God, Who is the Source of all honour.  A man who has no love for the truth, a man who tells a wilful lie or takes a false oath, is considered dishonour. No one cares for him; and it would be unreasonable to accuse one of intolerance or bigotry because he refuses to associate with a man who has no love for the truth.  It would be just as unreasonable to accuse the Catholic Church of intolerance, or bigotry, or want of charity, because she excludes from her society, and pronounces anathema upon, those who have no regard for the truth, and remain wilfully out of her communion.
If the Church believed that men could be saved in any religion whatever, or without any at all, it would be uncharitable in her to announce to the world that out of her there is no salvation. But, as she knows and maintains that there is but one Faith, as there is but one God and Lord of all, and that she is in possession of that one Faith, and that without that Faith it is impossible to please God and be saved, it would be very uncharitable in her, and in all her children, to hide Christ's doctrine from the world.
We have seen that there is no salvation possible out of the Roman Catholic Church. It is therefore very impious for one to think and to say that "every religion is good." To say every religion is good, is as much as to say: The devil is as good as God. Hell is as good as Heaven. Falsehood is as good as truth. Sin is as good as virtue. It is impious to say, "I respect every religion." This is as much as to say: I respect the devil as much as God, vice as much as virtue, falsehood as much as truth, dishonesty as much as honesty, Hell as much as Heaven. It is impious to say, "It matters very little what a man believes, provided he be an honest man." Let such a one be asked whether or not he believes that his honesty and justice are as great as the honesty and justice of the Scribes and Pharisees.  These were constant in prayer, they paid tithes according to the law, gave great alms, fasted twice in every week, and compassed sea and land to make a convert, and bring him to the knowledge of the true God. Now, what did Jesus Christ say of this justice of the Pharisees?  "Unless," he says, "your justice shall exceed that of the Scribes and Pharisees, you shall not enter into the kingdom of Heaven." ( Matt. 6: 20. )
The righteousness of the Pharisees, then, must have been very defective in the sight of God. It was, indeed, nothing but outward show and ostentation. They did good only to be praised and admired by men; but, within, their souls were full of impurity and malice. They were lewd hypocrites, who concealed great vices under the beautiful appearance of love for God, charity to the poor, and severity to themselves. Their devotion consisted in exterior acts, and they despised all who did not live as they did; they were Strict in the religious observances of human traditions, but scrupled not to violate the commandments of God. No wonder, then, that this Pharisaic honesty and justice were condemned by Our Lord. To those, therefore, who say, "It matters little what a man believes, provided he be honest," we answer: "Your outward honesty, like that of the Pharisees, may be sufficient to keep you out of prison, but not out of Hell. It should be remembered that there is a dishonesty to God, to one's own soul and conscience, as well as to one's neighbour."
You say, it is enough to be an honest man. What do you mean by an honest man ?  The term, honest man, is rather a little too general. Go, for instance, to that young man whose shameful secret sins are written on his hollow cheeks, in his dull, lacklustre eye: ask him if one can be an honest man who gratifies all his brutal, shameful passions. What will be his answer ? "Why," he will say, "these natural follies and weaknesses do not hinder a man from being honest. To tell the truth, for instance, I am somewhat inclined that way myself, and yet I would like to see the man that would doubt my honesty. "
Go to that covetous shop-keeper, who sells his goods as if they were of the finest quality; go to that tradesman, that mason, that bricklayer, or carpenter, who does not work even half as diligently when he is paid by the day as when he is paid by the job; go to these men that have grown rich by fraudulent speculation, by cheating the public or government; go to the employers that cheat the servant and the poor labourer; ask them if what they do prevents them from being honest people, and they will answer you coldly that they are merely tricks of trade, shrewdness in business; that they do not by any means hinder one from being an honest man.
Go, ask that habitual drunkard, ask that man who has grown rich by selling liquor to drunkards: ask them whether these sins do not hinder them from being honest, and they will tell you, "By no means. They are honest men, very honest men."
Go, ask that man or that woman who sins against the most sacred laws of nature; go, ask that doctor who murders the poor helpless babe before it can see the blessed light of day: ask them if those who are guilty of such foul deeds are honest gentlemen, and they will tell you, with the utmost assurance, that such trifles do not hinder one from being a gentleman-from being a respectable lady !
True faith requires obedience, humility, and childlike simplicity; it excludes pride, self-will, clinging to our own ideas, and that unwillingness to obey which hurled the angels from heaven, and cast our first parents out of Paradise. Faith is a duty which God requires of us, and unless we fulfil this duty sincerely, we can never enter the kingdom of Heaven.  One may say: "To submit to the yoke of faith is to submit to spiritual and moral tyranny; it is to lose one's liberty." There is liberty, and there is license. To be the slave of vile passions, and seek to satisfy them always, and at any cost, is not true liberty. Surely God is free. But God cannot sin. It is, therefore, no mark of liberty to be under the power of sin; on the contrary, it is the very brand of slavery. The power of sin implies the possibility of becoming a slave of sin and the devil. Those, then, who are greatly under the power of sin, and so go to hell, cannot truly be called free men. They are blinded and brutalized by satisfying the promptings of their brute nature, and thus renounce their glorious freedom, to sell it for a bestial gratification.
He only is truly free who wills and does what God wishes him to do for his everlasting happiness Now, as we have seen, God wishes that all should be saved in the Roman Catholic Church. Those, therefore, who believe and do what the Church teaches, do not lose their liberty; on the contrary, they enjoy true liberty, and make the proper use of it. Hence, the greater our power of will is, and the less difficulty we experience in following the teaching of the Church, the greater is our liberty. Accordingly, Catholics, who live up to the teaching of the Church, enjoy greater liberty, and peace, and happiness, than Protestants and unbelievers, because they are the children of the light of truth, that leads them to Heaven; whilst those who live out of the Church are the children of the darkness of error, which leads them, finally, into the abyss of Hell.
If no one, then, can be saved except in the Roman Catholic Church, all those who are out of it are bound to become members of the Church. This is what common sense tells every non-Catholic. In worldly affairs, Protestants never presume to act without good advice. They never compromise their pecuniary interests or their lives, by becoming their own private interpreters and practitioners of law or medicine. Both the legal and the medical books are before them, written by modern authors, in clear and explicit language, but they have too much practical common sense to attempt their interpretation. They prefer always to employ expert lawyers and physicians, and accept their interpretations, and act according to their advice. Now, every non-Catholic believes that every practicing member of the Catholic Church will be saved. Hence, when there is question about eternal salvation and eternal damnation, a sensible man will take the surest way to Heaven.
It was this that decided Henry IV of France to abjure his errors.  An historian relates that this king, having called before him a conference of the doctors of either Church, and seeing that the Protestant ministers agreed, with one accord, that salvation was attainable in the Catholic religion, immediately addressed a Protestant minister in the following manner:  "Now, sir, is it true that people can be saved in the Catholic religion ?"  "Most assuredly it is, sire, provided they live up to it." "If that be so," said the monarch, "prudence demands that I should be of the Catholic religion, not of yours, seeing that in the Catholic Church I may be saved, as even you admit; whereas, if I remain in yours, Catholics maintain that I cannot be saved. Both prudence and good sense tell me that I should follow the surest way, and so I propose doing." Some days after, the king made his abjuration at Saint Denis.
Christ assures us that the way to everlasting life is narrow, and trodden by few. The Catholic religion is that narrow road to Heaven. Protestantism, on the contrary, is that broad way to perdition trodden by so many. He who is content to follow the crowd, condemns himself by taking the broad way. A man says: "I would like to believe, but I cannot." You say you "cannot believe." But what have you done, what means have you employed, in order to acquire the gift of faith? Why are heretics lost ?  Heretics, that is to say, baptized persons who choose such doctrines of the Roman Catholic Church as please them, and reject the rest, are lost for the reason given by Saint Paul the Apostle, who says: "A man that is a heretic, after the first and second admonition, avoid; knowing that he who is such an one is subverted, and sinneth, being condemned by his own judgment." (Tit. 3: 10,11.)
Let us consider the two following anecdotes together, if we wish to know a little of the spirit of Saint John. Saint Jerome, in the Lections in the Breviary for Saint John's day, says, "When he was living in extreme old age at Ephesus, and could scarcely be carried into the Church, and was unable to say many words at a time, he used often to say nothing but this, 'My little children, love one another.' But the brethren grew weary of always hearing the same words, and said to him, 'Master, why do you always say this ?' The answer was worthy of John, 'It is the commandment of Our Lord, and, alone, it is enough.'
Saint Irenaeus says that he heard from Saint Polycarp this story: "The Apostle John, going into a bath and finding Cerinthus there, immediately rushed out of the house, because he could not bear to be under the same roof with such a heretic. He exhorted his companions to do the same, saying, 'Let us hasten out, lest the bath fall on us in which is Cerinthus, the enemy of the truth.' "
Would to God that we had more of this spirit of Saint John amongst us; more brotherly love, and more hatred of heresy. It is impossible for any one to have too fierce a hatred of every distortion of the Faith. Heresy destroys the souls for which Jesus died. It is in every way a foul and a loathsome thing. Outside the Roman Church there is nothing but heresy, or infidelity, or paganism in some of its countless forms. Every Christian sect is heretical, whether it be in the East or the West, for they all deny the personal infallibility of the Vicar of Christ. And it is of very small consequence whether they deny much or little of Revelation, if they deny the authority of the one Church of God. That Church is Catholic and Roman. "Now whosoever shall keep the whole law, but offend in one point, is become guilty of all." You ought to hate mortal sin with all your souls, whether it be in the intellectual or moral order. I do not say that you have to hate heretics; you ought to love them and pray for them, as you love and pray for those of the Church who are in mortal sin; but I do say that you can not have too strong and fierce a hatred of heresy.

after www.drbo.org Read whole post......

THIRD WEEK AFTER EASTER

The Conversion of Dr. David A. White - by Dr White, professor of literature at the U.S. Naval Academy

Dr. White converted to the Catholic Faith in 1979. He has won some 35 converts at the U.S. Naval Academy to the Catholic Faith. Here is his story.

Since I am a professor of Literature I'll tell a story. I converted to the Catholic Church at the age of thirty-one, some years ago. I was raised liberal Protestant. That adjective is extremely important because there are Protestants who know their Bible, who know something of Christian doctrine. They're the fundamentalists-hard-core conservative ones.
I was raised liberal Protestant which means I had an upbringing in terms of church-going, of church suppers, and there were some lovely people. I was lucky to be raised in a very good home with good parents but I never received any real religious training. I memorized a few scripture verses. Occasionally I would go and sit through a Sunday morning worship ceremony in the bare church, not pay attention to the sermon, sing a few hymns and then go home. That was about it. This means that when I was seventeen and was free and went off to university, I just gave the whole thing up. I say in sorrow, by the way, that this is what I now see my Catholic students doing. Very often, when the young people leave home, as soon as they get away, they stop going to Church. I know that. That's what I did. It is a mark of Protestantism, because there is nothing there to hold on to and they know it. As a result they leave. So I went into the university, a modern university, where they taught me the three things that I think you get at a modern university: hate your family, hate your country, hate God (Who "doesn't exist," but hate Him anyway). That's what my head was filled with. So that when I graduated and went on to graduate school, my head was filled with absolute nonsense. I still knew nothing about religion, although I would talk about it at length, mainly to try to debunk it. As far as I was concerned, there was only nature. Nature was all we needed. Everything was material. There was really only one "Commandment", that was, "We should be nice to each other even though life has no meaning" - which is a very peculiar thought. When I began teaching, that's the sort of nonsense I was teaching. Absolute nonsense, because I knew nothing. I had no business being in front of a class teaching anything because I didn't know anything. But I was a modern teacher with a head full of feathers and sawdust that I spewed out around the room. Then one day, when I was teaching at Temple University in Philadelphia, I had a student in the back of the class, who raised his hand and challenged me. He began debating me in the classroom. In no time at all, I became aware of a situation that most teachers live in terror of: I had a student in my class who knew a hundred times more than what I knew. I was an absolute ignoramus and this student was really smart. Now the only thing I can say to my credit is that I began coming into class - I am not making this up, this is not an exaggeration - I would come into class with a note book, stand at the podium, ask the young man a question and then take notes of the answers he gave. This is one of many illustrations that the modern world, in every detail, is a place of inversion. The symbol of the devil is a man turned upside down. If you look at anything in the modern world, it's inverted. My classroom was inverted. I was being paid to teach and I was standing at the podium taking notes from a student who knew something. Now fortunately, I was lucky enough to get a quick education. The rest of the students really didn't care. Most of them slept through it, which is what they'd been doing during most of my lectures anyway. Well the long and the short of it was, we debated, we talked for hours, for days, for weeks. And he won every debate, every single debate. God be praised that I had a logical head so that I could follow an argument and know when I'd lost one. I lost every debate we had. Now if you pursue questions of truth; that is, is there truth, how can we know it? If there is truth, what do we do about it? Where do we find it? You're going to end up at Christ. It's going to happen. So at that point, I realized that Christ and His message is not only important and serious, but it is true. Having realized this, it was clear that I had to get involved with some church.
There were two choices: the fundamentalist Protestants, because they seem to know their Bible, and they do believe in something; or the Catholic Church.
As a student of literature and as a professor of literature, I knew something about the past. Now, the great writer Evelyn Waugh, who converted to Catholicism, said of the Catholic Church that "in considering it, any man has to know that it is true because it presents a coherent philosophical system that makes intransigent historical claims." If you look at the philosophy of the Catholic Church, it is air tight, it is reasonable and complete. If you look at the history of the Church over two thousand years, it has given us everything that is good. Hence, how could it not be true? Therefore when the time came I chose the Catholic Church. Now my student who had challenged me in class had converted about six months before I did. He had not been a Catholic either; he was simply an honest mind seeking the truth. He had walked into a Catholic Church and said to the priest, "I want to become a Catholic." It wasn't long before this young man was battling with the priest who was supposed to be giving instruction, because the priest was presenting a whole series of new ideas in a new way. This brilliant young man was rightly challenging these new ideas, saying to the priest, "No, Father, the Church teaches this...".
So you now had a convert instructing the priest in the Faith. My friend did not want me to go through that experience. He went all around the Philadelphia area until he found an elderly Irish Monsignor, out in one of the suburbs, who had the Faith. So once a week, I would take the train to go out there and receive real instruction from a priest who had the Catholic Faith. It was a great blessing. I would also go out to his Mass, the Novus Ordo, which he said very reverently. So at the beginning of my conversion, I wasn't quite aware of what had happened regarding the liturgy. But after I was received into the Church, I decided to attend Mass in center city Philadelphia, where I was living at the time. Suddenly, I walked into something that looked just like the empty Protestant service I had left when I was seventeen. I'd been there, I'd seen it, I knew it. I thought, what is this? This can't be what I've joined, this can't be what it's about. Two thousand years can't have come to this! I've already rejected this. Nonetheless, I still went to this new Mass for a while. Then I began doing the same thing again; I would sleep in on Sunday mornings because there didn't seem to be a reason to go. Then one summer I was home visiting in Wisconsin where I am originally from. I decided to fulfill my duty and go to Mass. I got in the car to drive to Church "A". It was my intention to drive to Church "A", St. Patrick's. I knew where it was. I backed out of the driveway, I headed for St. Patrick's and somehow, I arrived at Church "B", on the other side of town. It was one of those oddities. I was thinking about other things, I was not paying attention. I wound up not just at the wrong church, but at a church miles away from the one I intended to go to. I was at Sacred Heart Parish and I didn't know how I got there. I looked in. They had a Mass starting. I was just baffled. What am I doing here? But I thought, I don't have time to get over to St. Patrick's. I'll go to Mass here. I walked inside and heard "Introibo ad altare Dei", and my goodness, there it was. I heard this strange language. There was the priest with his back to us. I had no idea what was happening. I then realized that this was that "Old Mass" I'd heard about. About half way through it, I said to myself, this is Catholic! And I was home at a place that I had never known before.
The old Mass, for me, at that moment, was entirely new. It was not "old". It was home! At that instant I knew that this is what the Catholic Faith is all about. I knew that this is how I would worship God in the future. I mentioned earlier that all good things have come out of that Old Latin Mass, the Mass of all time. I'll give you examples. I teach literature; I have a special love for music and for art. It is the Mass that gave us western music. The oldest western music we have written is Gregorian Chant. If you take a music history course, you'll begin with Chant, continue through Church music, and you won't find music secularized until much later. But even when music becomes secularized, you're still going to have Mozart writing Masses and Haydn writing Masses. You'll even have someone like Beethoven who wrestled with God his whole life, still writing the great "Missa solemnis" and seeing the priest on his death bed. That is the traditional music. If you go to Western art, it is Catholic. It grows out of the Church. That's where it comes from. Western art as we know it comes from the Church. Go to an art gallery. Go back to the beginning of art and, (aside from Greece and Rome - still the beginning of art as we know it) the great Renaissance works - their subject matter is Catholic. Go to literature, and you have Dante, you have Shakespeare. The writers have been Catholic. All of that came out the Mass. The Novus Ordo Mass, in the thirty years its been around, has given us lousy music, lousy literature, putrid liturgical dancing. In fact, it has only given us one thing that has actually caught on and become culturally significant. And when I heard this, I nearly fell off my chair, but it's true. The New Mass gave us one thing that the culture knows, and that is Beavis and Butthead - that ghastly, ghastly cartoon series that all your children know from MTV. I heard the creator of it speaking on television. He was asked how he came up with the idea. He answered, "Well I was sitting at Mass in my Catholic high school, and I wasn't really paying attention, and the priest said 'this is the body of Christ' and this guy behind me went 'heh heh heh heh heh heh heh,' and suddenly I got the whole thing in my mind and started drawing Beavis and Butthead." There you have the one cultural fruit of the Novus Ordo Mass. If you expect anything other than that from that ceremony, I would say, you're not going to get it. The best you can hope for is the kind of barrenness that Protestant worship has given to the world. Protestant worship has not produced great art, great music. It's given us a few good hymns, but it has produced very little and now it's fading away. There is nothing more to produce. The same will be true with the new Mass. It's time for those in the Church to come home to the true Mass. The Mass is our heritage, even for those of us who were not born into it. It is our heritage. I thank God every day that I found it. When I get up on Sunday mornings and make the hour drive to the Tridentine Mass, it's nothing compared to the great glory and beauty of the majestic Sacrifice that awaits me there on the altar when I arrive.

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THIRD WEEK AFTER EASTER

Spiritual Bouquet: I am the light of the world. He who follows Me does not walk in the darkness. St. John 8:12

SAINT GREGORY NAZIANZEN
Archbishop of Constantinople, Doctor of the Church
(312-390)

Saint Gregory was born in 312 near Caesarea of Cappadocia, of parents who are both honored as Saints, and the infant was immediately consecrated to God. After learning all that he could in his native land, he journeyed to Caesarea in Palestine to study at the famous school founded by Origen, then went to Alexandria in Egypt to rejoin his brother there. After some time he embarked for Athens, the metropolis of the sciences and the humanities. During the voyage, a storm of twenty days’ duration nearly caused the loss of the ship and all passengers; their safe arrival in Athens was attributed to Saint Gregory’s prayers, and all aboard adopted Christianity.

In Athens he met and became the close friend of Saint Basil, and these noble souls turned away together from the most attractive worldly prospects. For some years they lived in seclusion, self-discipline, and studious labor, knowing only two roads, Gregory wrote, “one to church, the other to school.” Only after thirty years of studies and good works in Athens did they leave that city and separate. They would meet again in the year 358, to live in solitude for a time in the Province of Pont.

Saint Gregory was raised to the priesthood almost by force, preaching his first sermon, after a ten-weeks’ retreat, on the dangers and responsibilities of the priesthood. In 372, when he was sixty years old, he was consecrated a bishop by his dear friend Saint Basil, who had become Archbishop of Caesarea in Cappadocia. All their lives they would correspond; many of Saint Gregory’s noble and eloquent letters to Saint Basil can still be read among the 212 pieces of his correspondence which are still conserved.

Saint Gregory’s rare gifts and conciliatory disposition had become well known. In the year 379, when he was sixty-seven years old, he was chosen to be Patriarch of Constantinople. That city was distracted and laid waste in those times by Arian and other heretics. After a reception which was at best lukewarm, the new Patriarch labored there successfully, from his base in a small church named the Anastasia (Resurrection), where he gave instructions and saw the number of his listeners increase daily.

The Arians were so irritated at the decay of their heresy that they pursued the Saint with outrage, calumny and violence, and at length resolved to take his life. For this purpose they chose an intrepid youth who was willing to undertake the sacrilegious commission. But God did not allow him to carry it out; he was touched with remorse and cast himself at the Saint’s feet, avowing his sinful intent. Saint Gregory forgave him at once, treated him with all kindness and received him among his friends, to the wonder and edification of the whole city and to the confusion of the heretics, whose crime had served only as a mirror to the virtue of the Saint.

Saint Jerome states that he himself learned at the feet of this master, who was his catechist in Holy Scripture. But Saint Gregory’s humility, his austerities, the humble appearance of his aging and worn person, and above all his very success in Constantinople, did not cease to draw down upon him the hatred of every enemy of the Faith. He was persecuted by the magistrates, stoned by the rabble, and thwarted and deserted even by his brother bishops. During the second General Council, hoping to restore peace to his tormented city, the eloquent bishop, whom the Church calls Saint Gregory the Theologian, resigned his see and retired to his native town, where he died in the year 390.

Reflection. “We must overcome our enemies,” said Saint Gregory, “by gentleness, and win them over by forbearance. Let them be punished by their own conscience, not by our wrath. Let us not at once fell the fig tree, from which a more skillful gardener may yet entice fruit.”

Sources: Little Pictorial Lives of the Saints, a compilation based on Butler’s Lives of the Saints and other sources by John Gilmary Shea (Benziger Brothers: New York, 1894); Les Petits Bollandistes: Vies des Saints, by Msgr. Paul Guérin (Bloud et Barral: Paris, 1882), Vol. 5. Read whole post......

THIRD WEEK AFTER EASTER.

The reading of the Holy Gospel according to Matthew

Lesson vii: c.18, 1-10
At that time: The disciples came to Jesus, saying: Who thinkest thou is the greater in the kingdom of heaven? 2 And Jesus calling unto him a little child, set him in the midst of them, 3 And said: Amen I say to you, unless you be converted, and become as little children, you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. 4 Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, he is the greater in the kingdom of heaven. 5 And he that shall receive one such little child in my name, receiveth me. 6 But he that shall scandalize one of these little ones that believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone should be hanged about his neck, and that he should be drowned in the depth of the sea. 7 Woe to the world because of scandals. For it must needs be that scandals come: but nevertheless woe to that man by whom the scandal cometh. 8 And if thy hand, or thy foot scandalize thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee. It is better for thee to go into life maimed or lame, than having two hands or two feet, to be cast into everlasting fire. 9 And if thy eye scandalize thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee. It is better for thee having one eye to enter into life, than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire. 10 See that you despise not one of these little ones: for I say to you, that their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father who is in heaven.

6 "Shall scandalize"... That is, shall put a stumblingblock in their way, and cause them to fall into sin.
7 "It must needs be"... Viz., considering the wickedness and corruption of the world.
8 "Scandalize thee"... That is, cause thee to offend.

Homily of St. Hilary, Bishop
Commentary on Matthew, can.18

The Lord teaches that only those enter the kingdom of heaven who have returned to the nature of children: that is that through childlike simplicity the vices of our body and soul are to be done away with. To all who believe in the faith which cometh by hearing, he gave the name of children. For these follow their father, they love their mother, they know not how to wish evil to their neighbour, they care nothing about riches. They are not haughty, they do not hate, they do not lie, they believe what is told them, and what they hear they hold for true. Therefore we must return to the simplicity of babes; because if we are established in that, we shall carry about with us an image of the Lord's humility.

R.Fear not before the Gentiles, but fear the Lord and adore him in your hearts; For his Angel is with you, alleluia.
V. The Angel stood at the altar of the temple having a golden censer in his hand.

Lesson viii
Woe to this world because of scandals. The ignominy of the Passion is a scandal to the world. In this most of all is the ignorance of man held fast, in that because of the disgrace of the cross it would not receive the Lord of eternal glory. And what is so dangerous to the world, as not to have accepted Christ? Therefore indeed did he say it must needs be that scandals come; because to accomplish the mystery of giving back to us eternal life, all the ignominy of the Passion must be made complete in him.
R. The Archangel Michael came to the help of God's people, He stood firm to defend the souls of the just, alleluia.
V. The Angel stood at the altar of the temple having a golden censer in his hand.

Lesson ix
See that you despise not one of these little ones, that believe in me. A most fitting bond of mutual love did He lay, especially upon those who had truly believed in the Lord. For the Angels of the little ones daily see God: because the Son of man came to save what was lost. Therefore the Son of man saves, and the Angels see God, and the Angels of the little ones preside over the prayers of the faithful. That the Angels so preside, there is absolute authority. The Angels then daily offer to God the prayers of those who are saved through Christ. Therefore it is dangerous to despise him, whose desires and entreaties are carried to the eternal and invisible God by the eager service and ministry of Angels. Read whole post......

THIRD WEEK AFTER EASTER.
APPARITION of SAINT MICHAEL the ARCHANGEL Monte Gargano, Italy (492)

Spiritual Bouquet: He who believes in Me, from within him there shall flow rivers of living water. St. John 7:38

It is evident from Holy Scripture that God is pleased to make frequent use of the ministry of the heavenly spirits in the dispensations of His providence in this world. The Angels are all pure spirits; by a property of their nature they are immortal, as is every spirit. They have the power of moving or conveying themselves at will from place to place, and such is their activity that it is not easy for us to conceive of it. Among the holy Archangels, Saints Michael, Gabriel and Raphael are particularly distinguished in the Scriptures. Saint Michael, whose name means Who is like unto God?, is the prince of the faithful Angels who opposed Lucifer and his followers in their revolt against God. Since the devil is the sworn enemy of God’s holy Church, Saint Michael is given to it by God as its special protector against the demon’s assaults and stratagems.

Various apparitions of this powerful Angel have proved the protection of Saint Michael over the Church. We may mention his apparition in Rome, where Saint Gregory the Great saw him in the air sheathing his sword, to signal the cessation of a pestilence and the appeasement of God’s wrath. Another apparition to Saint Ausbert, bishop of Avranches in France, led to the construction of Mont-Saint-Michel in the sea, a famous pilgrimage site. May 8th, however, is destined to recall another no less marvelous apparition, occurring near Monte Gargano in the Kingdom of Naples.

In the year 492 a man named Gargan was pasturing his large herds in the countryside. One day a bull fled to the mountain, where at first it could not be found. When its refuge in a cave was discovered, an arrow was shot into the cave, but the arrow returned to wound the one who had sent it. Faced with so mysterious an occurrence, the persons concerned decided to consult the bishop of the region. He ordered three days of fasting and prayers. After three days, the Archangel Saint Michael appeared to the bishop and declared that the cavern where the bull had taken refuge was under his protection, and that God wanted it to be consecrated under his name and in honor of all the Holy Angels.

Accompanied by his clergy and people, the pontiff went to that cavern, which he found already disposed in the form of a church. The divine mysteries were celebrated there, and there arose in this same place a magnificent temple where the divine Power has wrought great miracles. To thank God’s adorable goodness for the protection of the holy Archangel, the effect of His merciful Providence, this feast day was instituted by the Church in his honor.

It is said of this special guardian and protector of the Church that, during the final persecution of Antichrist, he will powerfully defend it: “At that time shall Michael rise up, the great prince who protects the children of thy people.” (Dan. 12:1) Compare this text with Chapter 10 of the Apocalypse of Saint John.

Reflection. Saint Michael is not only the protector of the Church, but of every faithful soul. By humility he defeated the devil; we who are enlisted in the same warfare must adopt his weapons — humility and ardent love of God. Regarding this Archangel as our leader under God, let us courageously resist the devil in all his assaults with our protector’s famous exclamation: “Who is like unto God?”

Sources: Little Pictorial Lives of the Saints, a compilation based on Butler’s Lives of the Saints and other sources by John Gilmary Shea (Benziger Brothers: New York, 1894); Vie des Saints pour tous les jours de l’année, by Abbé L. Jaud (Mame: Tours, 1950).

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THIRD SUNDAY AFTER EASTER,

St. John; 16, 16-22

At that time : Jesus said to his disciples : 16 A little while, and now you shall not see me; and again a little while, and you shall see me: because I go to the Father. 17 Then some of the disciples said one to another: What is this that he saith to us: A little while, and you shall not see me; and again a little while, and you shall see me, and, because I go to the Father? 18 They said therefore: What is this that he saith, A little while? we know not what he speaketh. 19 And Jesus knew that they had a mind to ask him; and he said to them: Of this do you inquire among yourselves, because I said: A little while, and you shall not see me; and again a little while, and you shall see me? 20 Amen, amen I say to you, that you shall lament and weep, but the world shall rejoice; and you shall be made sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy. 21 A woman, when she is in labour, hath sorrow, because her hour is come; but when she hath brought forth the child, she remembereth no more the anguish, for joy that a man is born into the world. 22 So also you now indeed have sorrow; but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice; and your joy no man shall take from you.

A Homily by St. Augustine the Bishop
Tract. 101

Lesson vii
This Little While is the whole duration of this present world. In the same sense this same Evangelist saith in his Epistle : It is the last time. The words : Because I go to the Father : refer to the first clause of the text, thus : A little while and ye shall not see me, because I go to the Father. Hence we should not connect them with this latter clause : And again a little while, and ye shall see me. For his going to the Father was about to bring to pass this, namely, that they should see him no more. And on this account he is not to be understood as saying that he was about to die, and that, until he should rise again, he would be withdrawn from their sight ; but rather, that he was going to the Father ; which same he did when (after he had risen, and had manifested himself to them for forty days), he ascended up into heaven.

Lesson viii
It was therefore to them which were then looking on him in the flesh that he said : A little while, and ye shall not see me. A little while, and they would no longer see him as mortal man, such as they saw him to be whilst thus speaking, because he was about to go to the Father. But he added : And again a little while, and ye shall see me : and these words are a promise to the Universal Church, just as are those others : Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Our Lord delayeth not his promised coming. Yea, again a little while, and we shall se him. Yea, and when we thus shall see him, then shall we ask for nothing more ; for no desire will be unsatisfied, and no riddle unsolved.

Lesson ix
This Little While seemeth a very long while to us now, while as yet it is still going on, but when it is ended, we shall realize what a little while it was. Let not our joy, then, be like that of the world, whereof it is said : The world shall rejoice. A woman when she is in travail hath sorrow, and yet, while, as hitherto, our gladness is still coming to the birth through throes of sorrow, let us not be altogther sorrowful, but as the Apostle hath it : Rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation. A woman, when she is in travail hath sorrow, because her hour is come ; but as soon as she is delivered of the child, she remembereth no more the anguish, for joy that a man is born into the world. And so will it be with us. And with that let me end my sermon. For the next passage is one of extreme difficulty ; nor is it possible to treat it briefly, if, by the will of God, it is to be treated satisfactorily.

May the grace of the Holy Spirit all our heart and mind enlighten.
R. Amen.

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