Queenship of Mary

From the earliest ages of the Catholic Church a Christian people, whether in time of triumph or more especially in time of crisis, has addressed prayers of petition and hymns of praise and veneration to the Queen of Heaven. And never has that hope wavered which they placed in the Mother of the Divine King, Jesus Christ; nor has that faith ever failed by which we are taught that Mary, the Virgin Mother of God, reigns with a mother's solicitude over the entire world, just as She is crowned in heavenly blessedness with the glory of a Queen. ~Pope Pius XII

But the Blessed Virgin Mary should be called Queen, not only because of Her Divine Motherhood, but also because God has willed Her to have an exceptional role in the work of our eternal salvation. ~ Pope Pius XII

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Finally, art which is based upon Christian principles and is animated by their spirit as something faithfully interpreting the sincere and freely expressed devotion of the faithful, has since the Council of Ephesus portrayed Mary as Queen and Empress seated upon a royal throne adorned with royal insignia, crowned with the royal diadem and surrounded by the host of Angels and Saints in Heaven, and ruling not only over nature and its powers but also over the machinations of Satan. ~ Pope Pius XII

Salus Pópuli Románi

Another video for those of you who just love seeing the Angelic Pope in liturgical action!

Salus Pópuli Románi

This is a video (short) of the coronation of the image of Our Lady under the title "Salvation of the Roman People."

Enjoy!

The Sign of the Cross - III

A seventh reason why we must make the Sign of the Cross is that It is a treasure that enriches our poverty. A beggar is he who everyday goes from door to door to beg his daily bread. Cresus was a beggar, Caesar was a beggar, the Emperors and Kings were all beggars, Empresses and Queens are beggars, crowned beggars if you will, but always beggars. Man’s indigence is present daily, at every hour, at every moment! From this results the great law of the moral world upon which few reflect. I’m talking about the law of prayer. The pagan world had lost a great part of its patrimony of the traditional truths, but it did not lose the knowledge of the law of prayer. The human race, from the first days of its appearance upon the earth, has observed it, although under various forms. The day in which no person, human or angelic, lift itself towards God in prayer, on that day there will cease all rapport between the Creator and the creature, between the rich par excellance and the beggar. The physical world itself has been organized in view of the perpetual observance of the law that Our Lord gave us: that we must pray always. Thanks to the successive path of the sun over one and the other part of the hemisphere half the human race is always awake to attend to prayer. One of the most potent prayers is the Sign of the Cross.

In the Old Testament, for the sacrifices, the priest first raised the victim, and then he moved it along from east to west. This movement formed the figure of the Cross. The High priest, and all other simple priest, blessed the people after the sacrifice doing the same movements. At the time of Ezekiel, when the abominations of Jerusalem were at its peak, a mysterious person received the order to cross the city and mark with the sign T the foreheads of those who cried for the iniquities of that guilty city. All those who were marked with the Sign of Salvation were spared from death. Tertullian and Jerome say: “The Tau Sign, marked on the foreheads of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, who cried for the crimes of that city, protected them against the exterminating angels. The Sign of the Cross on the forehead is an assurance that those who are marked will not be the victims of the devil.” The Philistines had reduced the Israelites to the most humiliating servitude. Samson begins to free them. Unfortunately, the strong one of Israel let himself be surprised, and was chained and blinded. Meanwhile, Samson, meditating on how to take revenge, plans to kill thousands of his enemies in one blow. Providence disposed that he would accomplish his plan making the Sign of the Cross. “Standing in between the two columns that held the building,” says St. Augustine, “the strong one of Israel extends his arms in the form of a Cross. In such an omnipotent attitude, he pushes against the columns, makes them tremble, and destroys his enemies.”

From there and many other examples in the Bible we can see that to pray with the arms extended, forming the Sign of the Cross, has been known from the most remote times of antiquity; and its mysterious omnipotence has been experienced. In a certain sense then, the Sign of the Cross would say what the Savior Himself said: “All power has been given to Me in the Heavens and on the earth.” Heaven itself is disposed in the form of the Sign of the Cross: What do the four cardinal points represent if not the four lines of the cross and the universality of its virtue.

We are soldiers, and the Sign of the Cross is a weapon against the enemy. More than three (3) thousand years ago, Job defined human life as a continuous battle. Centuries have gone by and the definition has remained the same. Life is a battle for you, for me, for your peers, for the rich as well as for the poor. It’s a battle that begins at the cradle and it does not end but at the grave! Such my dear friend is the condition of man, and we can’t do anything to change that. And who are man’s enemy, yours, and mine? Eh! We all know them, not only by their name, but also by their attacks: The devil, the world, and the flesh! Three (3) powers conspiring to bring us to ruin!

Demons are fallen angels. Their intellect, strength, agility, etc., are superior to ours; their number is incalculable. Jealous that the children of Adam were called to eternal happiness, which they had lost, their only aim and occupation is our destruction, increasing or passions, creating dangerous situations, darkening in us the gift of faith, destroying our moral sense, suffocating our remorse, making us accomplices of their rebellion in order to make us their companions in Hell!!! So, as sure as our battles, and man being in so weak a condition, could it be conceivable that Divine Wisdom would not give us a way to defend ourselves? On the contrary, in order to help us in our battles, God has given to man a powerful and universal weapon that is always at the reach of everyone. What could this weapon be???

Let us question every century, above all the Christian centuries. They respond with a unanimous voice that this weapon is the Sign of the Cross! This weapon had been used by the most learned and holy men in the East as well as in the West. St. John Chrysostom says: “Do not ever go out of your house without making the Sign of the Cross. It will be for you a shield, a weapon, an inexpugnable tower. Neither man nor demon will ever dare to attack you, if they see you clothed with this armor.” Origen says: “The Sign of the Cross is the invisible armor of Christians. Soldier of Christ that you are, wear (use) This Armor always during the day, and during the night, and everywhere. Without It do not undertake any task, whether it be sleeping or traveling, resting or working, eating or drinking, be always clothed with This Protective Armor. Adorn and protect every single one of your members with This Victorious Sign. At the sight of This Sign the infernal powers flee scared and stupefied.” St. Augustine used to say to the Catechumens: “We must confront the enemy with the Symbol and Sign of the Cross; so that the Christian vested with these weapons may easily triumph over the ancient and prideful tyrant.” St. Athanasius says: “By means of the Sign of the Cross the works of magic are made impotent; all the enchantments lose their efficacy. By means of It, the impetus of the most brutal will is moderated and pacified.”

The Human Conscience

Pope Pius XII once said: “The great sin of our century is the loss of the conscience of sin;” an eclipse of the moral conscience. People in our times do not believe in sin anymore. They minimize immoral acts to mere choices that according to them, just because they choose them and like them, are O.K…. and should be accepted by everyone else.

There are sane and evil conducts. Our own consciences tell us when we do something that is not right, that hurts us or others, that is not natural, that goes beyond the limits of our rights and freedom.

In the eclipse, or darkening, of the moral conscience, there are three phases:

1) In the first phase, there is sin and there are sinners. In this phase, sin and sinners and their guilt are recognized. The sinner is held accountable for his crime, sin, and/or fault, and is punished accordingly by the law, after being accused by his own actions and conscience.

2) In the second phase, there is sin, but there is no sinner. All crimes, sins, social and moral misdeeds are attributed to the system, the environment, circumstances, needs, weakness, etc., but there is no mention of guilty persons, no sinners, no punishments.

3) In the third phase, there is no sin… and LONG LIVE the sinner! People believe that no one has the right to tell them what to do and how to do it. In the name of distorted freedom, sinners are rewarded for all the time that they were seen and treated as sinners.

Morals are thrown out the window and are replaced by laws that are really usurpers of Divine Truth and true liberty. What was considered sinful becomes a virtue; virtues are belittled, mocked, repudiated. Public sinners are considered heroes, role models of society, and become the idols of the youth.

All of this is a process of a moral involution in which the human conscience is silenced, obscured, and disfigured. According to Pius XII, “the human conscience is the tabernacle of man,” which protects and defends the voice of God in and for man…. so that we may know what we do right and what we do wrong.

In human beings, there are two consciences: the psychological conscience and the moral conscience. The psychological conscience is the indicative perception of what we actually do and feel. For example, when we are hurt, hungry, tired, thanks to our psychological conscience, we feel pain, hunger, and the desire to relax.

The moral conscience is the imperative appreciation of what we should do and feel. Our moral conscience tells us how we should behave in certain situations, how we should respond to certain events, and when we do something that is right or wrong, good or evil. This moral conscience is what makes us, humans, different and even superior to irrational animals because it is superior to the psychological conscience.

For example, during Lent we usually fast. Even though our psychological conscience tells us that we are hungry, after hours without eating or drinking anything, our moral conscience tells us that we should not eat or drink anything so as not to break the fast. This is due to the fact that our consciences are witnesses of our actions; it is the herald or messenger that announces the decrees of the King (according to St. Bonaventure). We are all born with it (moral conscience), and it guides our steps when it comes to deciphering whether what it tells us comes from God (King) or not.

In order to find out, anytime we want, whether what our conscience commands us to do, or not do, comes from God, there are three things that we should always do:

1) To pray sincerely, to immerse ourselves in the depths of God.
2) To apply the holy virtue of Prudence: to use reason, to act with logic, to ask when we do not know or need advice, to anticipate future dangers or obstacles, to be cautious, to analyze circumstances and situations, and to use our intuitions wisely.
3) To exercise ourselves in the virtue of Charity in order to form and reform our moral conscience. We can achieve this by:
a) Doing good and to opposing and resisting all evil.
b) Making the resolution: “I will NEVER do evil under the pretext of getting something good.”
c) Never doing to another person what we would never consent anyone to do to us.
d) Never cooperating voluntarily in evil against another person.
e) Accepting the dictum that there is no liberty of conscience without TRUTH, but only within TRUTH. This last point concerns politicians more than others because they are the ones in charge of making, abolishing or distorting laws that might, and usually do, fall under the turf of morality such as abortion, contraception, capital punishment, stem cell research, etc.

~Fr. Hasbún

The Sign of the Cross II

† The Sign of the Cross †

BUT that’s not all! Take a look at what the Church does through the person of the priest at the Altar. Armed with the Omnipotence that was given to Her, She commands not only creatures, but the Creator Himself; not man, but God Himself. At Her voice the Heavens are opened, the Word incarnates and renews all the mysteries of His life, death, and resurrection! Also, in the course of the Action par excellance, that is the Mass, what does the Church do? More than ever, She multiplies the Sign of the Cross; She surrounds Herself with the Sign of the Cross; She walks by means of the Sign of the Cross; She repeats It so frequently that the number could even seem an exaggeration, if it were not deeply mysterious!!! Do you know how many times the priest makes the Sign of the Cross during the Mass? Forty-eight (48) times! I’m wrong, forty-nine (49) times because as long as the Holy Sacrifice is taking place, the priest himself is a living Sign of the Cross. Would the Catholic Church, the great Instructor of nations, the great Teacher of Truth, would She be amused at repeating so frequently in Her most solemn act a useless, superstitious and unimportant sign? If you or your friends think so, then you are guilty of incredulity.

A fourth motive for making the Sign of the Cross as the first Christians did is those people who do not make the Sign of the Cross.
1) The Pagans: Chinese, Indians, Tibetans, savages, adorers of idols, people completely degraded and unhappy. These do not make the Sign of the Cross.
2) Muslims: pigs for sensualism, tigers for cruelty; these do not make the Sign of the Cross.
3) Jews: deeply encrusted in a dense stratum of ridiculous superstitions, living petrification of a decayed race. These do not make the Sign of the Cross.
4) Heretics: (Protestants) - impertinent sect followers, who in their pride and protests, have lost all trace of Truth. Protestants do not make the Sign of the Cross.
5) Bad Catholics: renegades of their baptisms, slaves of human respect, ignorants and arrogants who speak of everything and know nothing, adorers of their bellies, of pleasure, of materials. These do not make the Sign of the Cross.
6) Beasts: Bipeds and quadrupeds of every species; dogs, cats, donkeys, mules, camels, crocodiles, ostriches, hippopotamus. These do not make the Sign of the Cross.

A fifth reason for making the Sign of the Cross is that we are creatures of dust and the Sign of the Cross ennobles us. We are worms of the earth on the cradle, and food of worms in the grave. We are weak, nothing, shamefully confused as any other animal when we are born. However, we are the image of God; we are the crown of creation! God touches our foreheads and imprints the divine sign that ennobles us! It ennobles us because it comes from Heaven! We know that It comes from Heaven because the earth confesses not to have invented It. Go through every country and every century, nowhere will you find a man who claims to have invented the Sign of the Cross, or a Saint who claims to have taught It, or a council that claims to have imposed It! Tertullian says: “Tradition teaches It, practice confirms It, and the Faith observes It.”

A sixth reason to make the Sign of the Cross is that It is a book that instructs our ignorance. Creation, Redemption, Glorification. These three words are necessary to man more than the bread that nourishes him, more than the air he breathes. What doctor will be charged with teaching the indispensable Truth? St. Paul, St. Augustine, St. Thomas, or another great genius of the East or the West? No! These doctors die; here, there’s need of one that will not die. There’s need of a doctor that is everywhere, that speaks a language intelligible to all, to the savage as well as to the civilized man. Who will be this doctor? You have already said it: The Sign of the Cross! This and only this sign fulfills all the required conditions. It does not die; It is everywhere; Its language is universal. An instant is enough for It to teach us Its lesson! An instant is enough for everyone to understand Its lesson. Behold the Sign of the Cross! Behold the duly established catechist of the human race!!!

When we make the Sign of the Cross we say In the Name not in the names, which teaches us that there is an indivisible unity of the Divine Essence. Through these words a boy or a girl knows more than the philosophers of the old paganism ever knew! Pronouncing the word of the Father a new and immense ray of light shines in our intelligence. This Sign of the Cross tells us that there’s a Being, Father of all fathers, Eternal Beginning of the Being from which creatures take their origin. As we continue saying: And of the Son, the Sign of the Cross continues giving Its lesson. It tells us that the Father of all fathers has a Son similar to Himself; It teaches us that This Eternal Son once made Himself Son of Man in the Womb of a Virgin to rescue man. Man was lost. Then we end by saying: And of the Holy Ghost. This word completes the teaching of the Sign of the Cross; thanks to It we know that there is in God Unity of Essence and Trinity of Persons.

Based on all this, what does the modern world knows then? This century of intellect, which does not know how to make the Sign of the Cross, knows not more and not less than the pagans knew! This world adores the god-me, the god-commence, the god-vapor, the god-cotton, the god-belly! As means of satisfaction for its concupiscence, it adores the science of matter, of chemistry, of physics, of mechanics, of dynamics, salt, etc. Behold its gods, its cults, its theology, its philosophies, its morals, its life!!!

THE EUCHARIST

THE HOLY EUCHARIST

BELIEF IN THE REAL PRESENCE

I believe, Lord, with a firm and gratifying faith that even when the words of Consecration may have sprung from unworthy lips, like lilies from the mire, in obedience to them Thou wert really and substantially present beneath the forms and appereances of bread and wine. I believe it because Thou, the Absolute Truth; Thou, the Essential and Unfailing Light didst never deceive, art not one to deceive, much less the immense flock of little ones who adore Thee, seek Thee and receive Thee as being truly present; because Thou hast said it. Lord, I believe in Thy creative word.

Why do I believe? Because Christ, the sole Author of the Sacraments, is All-powerful:

He summons the bodies of the dead, and they return to life from the corruption of the grave. He utters a word of command to the most rebellious diseases, either in the sick person’s presence or several miles away, and those diseases leave not a trace behind. He reproves the boisterous winds and waves, and they sing down calm and silent, like a class of prankish schoolboys at the shout of a feared master. He treads the sea, and it sustains Him with rock-like solidity. Over a few loaves and fish, He bestows a single word of blessing, and they multiply indefinitely.

Not once did Christ give a command –and He gave many- to any element of the material world, that He was not obeyed without the slightest resistance or hesitation. In other words, He ever showed Himself an Absolute –we might even say Tyrannycal- Master over matter, doing with it and in it whatever He willed; for the simple reason that it was He Who had brought it into existance out of nothing, endowing it with the capacities He pleased. Will He not, therefore, be able to do with it more, infinitely more, than anything my blunt mind can possibly cope with?

Lord, I believe. For Thou canst annihilate the whole world, if it should please Thee; Thou canst transform it to Thy liking; Thou canst change the substance of bread and wine into Thy own Body and Blood, and thus multiply Thy Presence beyond all human scope and measure. What was possible for Thee became an actual fact, for Thou didst say but the word, and never was it necessary for Thee to voice Thy commands to inert matter twice over. “Ipse dixit et facta sunt” (Ps. 32:9).

Again, why do I believe? Because the whole Church believes. No, I am not alone; I share this belief with millions and millions of human beings from every nation, race, and climate; with all the centuries of Christian history, with people of every age and condition and temperament, with souls joyful and sorrowful, with souls raised aloft in the auroral splendors of grace, or sunk in the night of sin; with the little children who seal the first dawning of reason with an act of faith in Christ’s Eucharistic Presence and their first Holy Communion, as with a morning star; with all those who close their length of days with the heavenly clasp of Holy Viaticum.

I believe with the Church, whose Faith in the Eucharist is Her very life. Wrench from Her this belief, and you will have destroyed Her entire Liturgy, demolished Her Cathedrals and churches, killed Her priesthood, effaced from Her history the most brilliant and holy pages written with Her blood and tears. It was for Thee, O Jesus in the Most Blessed Sacrament, that She allowed Herself to be persecuted and bled, and allowed remnants of Her vesture and entrails to cleave to the claws of tyrants! Today, the same as in the Catacombs, the same as in the Middle Ages, and in the century that witnessed the institution of the Feast of Corpus Christi; today, as truly as then, and perhaps even more so, this belief in the Eucharist urges the faithful on to the sublimest acts of adoration ever recorded in history.

Resolutions:

I will make more frequent acts of faith in the Real Presence of Jesus Christ upon our altars. This I will also teach others time and time again, until they, of their own accord, go eagerly in quest of Christ in the Blessed Sacrament, loving Him and adoring Him in this Sacrament before everything and everyone else, preferring His Presence to every picture or statue or shrine, however devotional or miraculous; giving Him precedence over every popular Saint, over the Most Holy Mother of God Herself, over His most cherished and venerated images.

~ Fr. Eugenio Escribano