Vainglory

"As the shadow follows him who flies from it, and flies from him who persues it, so glory follows him who flies from it and flies from him who seeks it."

~St. Jerome

Flattery

No smoke of incense has blinded more eyes and caused so many tears to flow than the incense of flattery.

~Fr. Escribano

Exaltation of the Holy Cross

In the interval between the cradle and the grave how many Signs of the Cross are made over man! At Baptism, through which we become children of God, the Sign of the Cross; at Confirmation, through which we are made soldiers of virtue, the Sign of the Cross; in receiving the Eucharist, when we are nourished with the Bread of Angels, the Sign of the Cross; in Confession, through which we recover divine life, the Sign of the Cross; when we receive Extreme Unction, through which we are fortified for the last battle, the Sign of the Cross; at Ordination and Holy Matrimony, through which we become associated to the paternity of God Himself, the Sign of the Cross. Always and everywhere, today as in other times, in the East as in the West, the Sign of the Cross is made over men.

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.

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 until 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.”

~Il Segno della Croce by Mgr. Gaume

A Brother Like That

A man named Paul had received a new car as a Christmas gift. The night before, when Paul left his office, there was a boy looking around close to the amazing and astounding car, which he gawked with admiration.

- "Is this your car, Sir?" – The boy asked.
- Paul nodded. – "My brother gave it to me for Christmas."

The boy was amazed. – "You mean that your brother gave it to you for free? Wow! You are lucky, I wish…" (The boy sighed…).

Naturally, Paul thought he knew the boy’s wish. “The young boy wishes he had a brother like that” thought Paul, but what the boy said left Paul paralyzed from head to toes.

- “I wish” – the boy continued – “I were a brother like that.”

Paul looked at the boy stunned, and added, impulsively: “Would you like to ride in my car?”

“Oh, yes, Sir, I’d love it!”

After a short ride, the boy turned to Paul and with sparkling eyes said: “Sir would it be a bother if you went by my house?”

Paul smiled. He thought he knew what the boy wanted to do… that the boy wanted to show to his neighbors that he could arrive home in a big, beautiful car. However, this time too Paul was wrong.

- “Can you park right where those two steps are?” asked the boy. He ran up the steps. After a few minutes, Paul heard him coming back, but he was not moving fast. The boy was carrying his handicapped little brother. He sat him on the lower steps, and then he hugged him and pointed towards the car.

“That is ‘Buddy’ (the car) as I told you upstairs. His brother gave it to him for Christmas and it did not cost him a penny. Some day, I will give you a car like that… and then you will be able to see all the beautiful things there are in the stores during Christmas… of which I have told you about.”

Paul got out of the car and sat the little boy on the front seat of the car. His older brother was euphoric… and the three of them went on the most memorable ride of their lives. That Christmas Night, Paul understood what Jesus meant when he said: “It’s better to give than to receive…”

Taken from the book Chocolate caliente para el Alma.

Subida al Monte Carmelo / Notte Oscura

San Juan del Cruz / San Giovanni della Croce

En una noche oscura,
Con ansias, en amores, inflamada,
¡Oh dichosa ventura!
Salí sin ser notada,
Estando ya mi casa sosegada;

A oscuras y segura,
Por la secreta escala, disfrazada,
¡Oh dichosa ventura!,
A oscuras y celada,
Estando ya mi casa sosegada;

En la noche dichosa,
En secreto, que nadie me veía,
Ni yo miraba cosa,
Sin otra luz y guía
Sino la que en el corazón ardía.

Aquesta me guiaba
Más cierto que la luz del mediodía,
Adonde me esperaba
Quien yo bien me sabía,
En parte donde nadie parecía.

¡Oh noche que guiaste!,
¡Oh noche amable más que la alborada!,
¡Oh noche que juntaste
Amado con amada,
Amada en el Amado transformada!

En mi pecho florido,
Que entero para Él sólo se guardaba,
Allí quedó dormido,
Y yo le regalaba
Y el ventalle de cedros aire daba.

El aire de la almena,
Cuando yo sus cabellos esparcía,
Con sus manos serena
En mi cuello hería,
Y todos mis sentidos suspendía.

Quedéme y olvidéme,
El rostro recliné sobre el Amado,
Cesó, y dejéme,
Dejando mi cuidado
Entre las azucenas olvidado.

†††††††

1. In una notte oscura
anelante e d’amori infiammata
- oh felice ventura!-
uscii senz’essere vista
la casa mia essendosi acquietata.

2. Al buio riparata
per la scala segreta, travestita,
- oh felice ventura!-
uscii senz’essere vista
la casa mia essendosi acquietata.

3. Nella notte felice
in segreto e da nessun notata,
senza nulla guardare,
senz’altra guida o luce
fuor di quelle che nel cor mi riluce

4. Essa mi conduceva
più certa della luce a mezzodì
là dove mi attendeva
chi bene io conosceva
e dove nessun altro si vedeva

5. Notte che m’hai guidata,
notte più dell’alba incantata!
Oh notte che riunisti
L’Amato con l’amata,
l’amata nell’Amato trasformata!

6. Sul mio petto fiorito
che intatto per lui solo si serbava
egli trovò riposo
ed io lo compiacevo
e la chioma dei cedri ventilava

7. Dagli alti merli ‘aura,
mentr’io i suoi capelli carezzavo,
con la mano leggera
il collo mi feriva
e tutti i sensi miei in sé rapiva

8. Dimentica rimasi
il volto reclinato sull’Amato
tutto cessò e ristetti
obliando ogni premura
tra i gigli abbandonata

The Crucifix

Holy Monday Procession in Guatemala

Concistory - 1946

Pope Pius XII creating new Cardinals in 1946. (Great stuff!)

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Envy

Envy: Its Malice and Destructiveness

*******

There is nothing like envy for spreading sickness of mind and heart thoughout the whole body, until it eats into the very marrow of the bones. Envious people, we may say, adapting a quotation from Shakespeare,

... like serpents are, who though they feed

On sweetest flowers, yet they poison breed.

... if I envy you for the good you have done, my envy not only misses the opportunity of making that good my own, it is fain to destroy whatever good you possess. Envy would rather your good did not exist, did not give glory to God or service to the neighbor; it begrudges you the merit of climbing a step higher up the path of moral goodness and perfection. And yet everyone else rejoices at the good you have done: God, His holy Angels, the Just, the sound of mind and the upright of heart. Only two beings are sad, only two people fret and consume with anguish -- the devil and envious me! What blindness! To perish by what brings health to others! To waste away on the strength of what imparts life and joy! What a dreadful calamity: another's gain, my loss; the good tidings of others, my sentence of doom!

Envy is a fire devouring and destroying every germ of life. Envy, by its very nature, is death and deals with death, being born of Satan, who was a murderer from the beginning. (John 8:44). It was envy that instigated him to bring about the fall of our first parents, and by the envy of the devil death came into the world.

Envy was the evil genius which inspired the first human murderer to assassinate his own brother, on the noble score that this brother of his was a better man than he. It is envy that has put weapons into the hands of man, and so blinded man as to make him commit the foulest crimes that have ever stained the face of this earth. It was envy which challenged God Himself, persecuted Him, calumniated Him, nailed Him to the wood of the Cross --

For he (Pilate) knew that for envy they had

delivered Him.-- (Matt. 27:13)

No other passion could go to such an extreme; only in envy does there remain not a trace of common humanity... In order to defend its own interests, envy would sweep everything away, would annihilate even God Himself.

And all these horrors, the natural outcome of envy, arise when I am not guided by the principles of faith, when I care not a straw for God's glory and the welfare of souls; that is, when I foster but one love, self-love; the cruel idol at whose altar I have slaughtered every other love.

~Fr. Escribano

Hatred

Oh, when hatred enters your heart so as to govern it completely, be silent, flee, hide yourself, disappear, play dead, or be ready in advance to forswear all that you hold most precious, with honor in the lead! ~Fr. R. L. Bruckburger

The History of Jesus Christ

THE HISTORY of a man is the inscription of his personality on his time, and the deciphering of that inscription. Most men barely have a history; they leave on the sands of time the faint tracings of an insect. But some go deeper, reach the rock, rend it, hollow it out, shape it, and their course is indelible.

A history of Napoleon exists. We also have Napeloen's memoirs. No one interested in the subject could neglect Napoleon's own point of view about himself and his life. Jesus Christ left no memoirs, but an idea of His personal view of Himself can be formed from what the Gospels tell us about His actions, gestures, and words.

One peculiarity strikes us at once. All through the Gospels a single question keeps returning to Jesus again and again like the flood tide recurrently seeking a cliff. "Who are You? Who do You say that You are? Are You He that is to come, or must we wait for another? Explain what You mean about Yourself." Friends, enemies -- everyone, at one time or another, puts this question to Him; He Himself sometimes puts it to others: "Who do you believe that I am?" Not Socrates, not Alexander, not Napoleon was asked who he was; men thought they knew, and, in effect, they did.

It seems that Jesus took pleasure in evoking and maintaining this atmosphere of interrogation about His origins and His true mission. His replies were not always clear, sometimes they sidestepped the question, somtimes He replied in riddles or in parables, but He made sure the question would be repeated.

One day He gave an astounding reply. "Before Abraham was," He said, "I am." A speech with which no utterance of any other man can be compared, a speech impossible for an Evangelist to invent if it had not been said by Him Who had the right to say it. A speech in which without warning eternity erupts into time. A false evangelist, wishing to magnify his hero to the dimensions of eternity, would have made the tenses agree; he would have written: "Before Abraham was, I was." The tranquil affirmation of that solemn present, prior to Abraham, I am, has an authority that takes one's breath.

"Before Abraham was, I am." That present tense, which breaks the sentence, that present, all alone, agreeing with nothing but its subject, must have evoked in the minds of its hearers the famous sentence in which God defines Himself outside of time: "I am He that am." Therefore, when St. John in his old age returns in memory to what he has seen and heard, it is quite natural for him to choose a starting point outside time. "In the beginning," he says "was the Word. And the Word dwelt with God. And the Word was God.... And the Word was made flesh. And He pitched his tent among us. And we saw His glory."