An Outrageous Affront against God

ABORTION: An outrageous conspiracy against God and Human Dignity

Children are the most eloquent sign of life and hope. Nevertheless, with support, acceptance, and encouragement from the government their existence is now threatened in the most terrible manner and by the most horrible crime: ABORTION. Abortion is the most unnatural, the most immoral, and the most unjust act against God, and against the unborn children themselves.

To interrupt the process of life from its very first beginning in the womb, with the sole aim to destroy it, is the vilest, the most vicious, and the most brutal crime that a human being can commit. Every child should enjoy the right to be born regardless of how destructively creative science (medicine) has become. It is not only shameful, but a direct affront against God to put an abrupt and sacrilegious end to the life that He alone created and which He alone should decide when to take away. It is not even necessary to believe in God to have the common sense and be able to discern that it is NOT possible, that it is an affront to human INTELLIGENCE and to the human CONSCIENCE to pretend that on the size of a creature depends its right to life.

Even without using the definition of morality, and instead we use that of ethics, in which scientists and psychologists take much pride – at least when it is a matter of plagiarism – ABORTION is wrong. According to Manuel Velasquez, Claire Andre, Thomas Shanks S.J., and Michael Meyer from the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics (Santa Clara University), ethics is the criteria of what is good, what is right, and what we should do – which is, in its basic form, the definition of morality. Therefore, morality (or ethics) concerns everyone including atheists, parents, doctors, scientists, psychologists, law-makers, and every being that exists and claims to have the use of reason, and of course, a human soul.

According to the Church and morals (ethics), abortion is a repugnant and abominable act because it transgresses basic human respect for life and mocks human dignity. The State, scientists (doctors), and parents have the responsibility to provide these children, not only the protection they need to be born healthy, but also their other inherent needs, in particular their human dignity and their moral rights. However, just the opposite is being put into practice. As affirmed by Fr. Hasbún, in these days there is a SINISTER CONSPIRACY between three of the most important institutions: Motherhood, Medicine, and the State. Mothers who practice, promote, and defend abortion BETRAY their natural vocation by becoming the assassins, sepulcher, and grave of their very own children.

Doctors opting to perform abortions commit a crime by staining their true mission and the very oath they claim to hold dear: “I will neither prescribe nor administer a lethal dose of medicine... [I will show] utmost respect for every human life from fertilization to natural death and reject abortion that deliberately takes a unique human life.” Scientists and doctors who endorse and perform abortion become negligent and indifferent transgressors of morals, or in their own scientific language, of ethics.

The State that legalizes abortion commits an act of supreme injustice and violates its essential reason to exist (to defend and protect human life) by encouraging, financing, and protecting the crime of abortion and its perpetrators. Fr. Hasbún is right when he says, “Legalized abortion is an act of insane TERRORISM; brutal aggression against a creature that is defenseless, weak, innocent, who does not have any responsibility or fault, yet is still chosen as a victim condemned to pay for the fault of OTHERS...” just as it is the case with terrorism – where innocent civilians end up paying for something for which they are not directly responsible. The only difference is that with abortion these terrorist attacks take place “in the interior sanctuary of the mother's womb.”

There is no little truth in the words of Fr. Hasbún when he says, “A society based in the brutality of abortion is a society that has already opted for violence based in terrorism... a volcano ready to erupt at any moment.” Afterwards, no one should complain about VIOLENCE in the streets, at home, national or international, etc. Mother Teresa once said, "How can you expect your children to be safe in the streets, if they cannot even be safe in their mother's womb?”

A person who complains about violence in the streets and in the schools (such as that perpetrated at Columbine High School), but yet supports abortion has lost all common sense. How can you expect your children to believe you when you tell them that what happened at Columbine is wrong, when you teach them that abortion is right? People who support abortion do not deserve to have the right to become, and much less be called, procreators (parents), doctors (scientists), and judges (makers of justice). Expressions such as “equality, it’s my right, it’s a woman’s right… ” SHOULD NOT be an excuse to let feminists absorb the children’s right to life.

On the contrary, once they were willing to have sexual intercourse and became candidates to become parents, instead of getting an extra right, parents obtained a new responsibility that they should not forget: to bring to completion the pregnancy that resulted from their actions. Unborn children’s rights should not be the object of tyrannical abuse nor of stupid negligence on the part of feminists who seek blind “equality” without worrying to establish a moral and just equilibrium, thereby destroying or sacrificing the rights of the innocent, the voiceless, and the defenseless.

In a true democracy, as Fr. Hasbún affirms, all lives must have the same value and should receive the same protection. The State that legalizes abortion has renounced its right to exercise justice or even to be called a state at all, not to mention a democratic one.... because without life, what do we need the other rights for? Parents, doctors, and the State... institutions that accept and promote abortion, have betrayed the deposit of trust given to them to save, protect, defend and preserve all life by perpetrating an act of absolute injustice: willful murder! All life is sacred, free, untouchable, and intangible from the moment of conception to natural death because in IT we recognize God.

~ Based on a sermon by Fr. Hasbún

Some Reactions to the Traditional Order of the Mass

Hello!

Here are some reactions to the Traditional Liturgy by some footballers who had never been to one before. Their first time was on Holy Thursday at Sacred Heart, New Haven. I have a friend who was there (in the Sanctuary - serving) who told me about this group of guys from Yale. These guys have some interesting things to say - although we have heard them before because... well, beautiful Liturgy gets the same words out of people who are (or want to be) truly devout... or from those who are not (or want to be) blind!

We can, of course, omit Bugnini's and Marini's idea of beautiful Liturgy! O.K. To read these guys' comments and reactions, go here:

IvyCatholic

Dogma of the Assumption II

I have found a longer version of the clip where Pius XII is declaring the Dogma of the Assumption. This longer version includes a prayer that Pius XII says after the declaration, and the quality is a little better.

Dogma of the Assumption

Enjoy!

Holy Doors

O.K. guys, you are in luck!

Some time ago, I saw a picture of Pius X opening the Holy Doors over at hallowedground. It was a beautiful picture! I'm talking about this picture:

Now, I have found a video (8 mins long!) of Pius XII opening the Holy Doors! It can't get better than this! The video is a little too dark, but you can still see what is going on. AND you get to see Pius XII opening the Doors (kneeling holding the Cross, etc.).

Holy Doors

Enjoy!

Papal Blessing: Easter

O.K. guys, here is another one!

This is a video clip of Pius XII giving the Papal Blessing during Easter (Pasqua Romana). This is great! You can see and hear everything! Pius XII really knew how to do things! Just take a look at the video and you'll see!

Pasqua Romana

Enjoy!

Holy Year

Hello again!

Here is another short clip of Puis XII reading the Bull in which he declares the Holy Year. There is no audio, but you can still see some things.

Holy Year

Enjoy!

Innocent XI

Hello everyone!

Here is another short clip that some of you might not have seen before. If you have, though, well... here it is again.

Canonization of Innocent XI:

This video is a video of the Canonization of Innocent XI by Pius XII. Very good quality!

The Institution of the Mass

Why the Mass was Instituted

Why do I believe? In considering the purposes Our Lord had in mind when instituting this wonderful Sacramental Sacrifice, I shall discover a further motive of credibility, and not the least of them:

1^st purpose: To convert every square foot of earth and sea into a Calvary purpled with the steaming Blood of the Lamb. O Lover of this our earthly dwelling, it did not satisfy Thee to shed Thy Blood on one Golgotha, it was Thy desire to turn the whole earth into a Golgotha and an Altar of Thy Sacrifice

2^nd purpose: To establish the New Covenant: Novum Testaméntum. The Old Covenant was made for the observance of the Law; the New Covenant was made for the sake of pardoning sins, in virtue of the Redeeming Blood: in remissiónem peccatórum.

3^rd purpose: To erect a monument to the greatest of all achievements: Christ’s Passion and Death, the divine work of the Redemption: Hoc fácite in mean commemoratiónem.

For as often as you shall eat this bread and drink this chalice, you shall shew the death of the Lord, until he comes (1 Cor. 11:26).

A monument that will last as long as the human race. It is so natural for the human heart to want to erect lasting monuments! What are those monoliths, menhirs, mausoleums, pyramids, obelisks, and statues in such materials like granite, marble, and iron, erected in every age to kings, travelers, pioneers, and inventors, but the unquenchable human longing to eternalize an achievement, to perpetuate a name? And what monument will the King of Kings erect to His enterprise, the world’s Redemption? Bronze from the old Colossi? Stones from the eternal wonders of Egypt? ... No, Christ’s monument will be unique: His porphyry, His diamonds, His bronze, will be but a tiny consecrated Host – the meager appearances of bread and wine… And the pyramids will crumble, and the colossi will be thrown to the ground, and the marble statues will turn into dust, and the monoliths will be buried by the sands of the centuries; and even if the cataclysm should fail to consume them, there will be the implacable beat of the weather eroding and pulverizing them all. BUT the Monument to the Death of Christ, with all its fragile appearances, remains; with the passing of the years and after every hour It becomes still more gigantic; each Consecration and Communion is a new ashlar that nothing will move.

4^th purpose: To infuse into my being the germ of a New Life, the life of grace, eternal life, the Spirit of Christ, the Spirit of God, the Holy Ghost.

St. John, the Priest Model in his Dealings with the Holy Eucharist:

Let us read St. John’s Gospel and his other writings:

So steeped was he in the profound mysteries of his Divine Master’s Heart that, when he takes up the pen to relate the Life-story of Christ, the very first thing that comes to his mind is Christ’s Divinity: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1:1). Blessed are the clean of heart, for they shall see God! How truly this is fulfilled in the beloved Disciple!

We should learn from St. John how to deal with Jesus Christ hidden under the Sacramental Species: The essential purpose of the priest is to offer Sacrifice. There is no priesthood without sacrifice. So the more perfectly [the priest] perform[s] this essential duty the better priests [they] are, and the better priests [they] are the nearer [their] approach to the Holiness and Greatness of the Victim [they] offer and of the Father to Whom It is offered. For the victims and oblations of old have vanished like shadows before the Light of the New Covenant, which, in abrogating them, substituted in their place the One Clean Oblation prophesied by Malachias (1:2), Christ our God, the Holy One born of the Virgin Mary, the Divine Victim of our altars.

Taken from The Priest at Prayer by Fr. Eugenio Escribano

The Sign of the Cross (first part)

† The Sign of the Cross †

The modern world, that world that calls itself Christian and to which without a doubt belong all your friends, could be compared to a ship that has suffered shipwreck, many damages, and is about to perish. The Church, compared also to a Ship, has always been battered by strong tempests, which have opened huge gaps through which anti-Christian doctrines, uses, practices and tendencies have long been introduced. I give an urgent warning then, not to the Ship, which is imperishable, but to Its passengers, who are not. What has happened? I do not speak of the world that is openly pagan for its shipwreck is already accomplished. I speak about the world that still pretends to be Christian. This world has thrown into the sea everything, or almost everything!

Where’s common prayer in families? Sunk in the sea –Pious readings, meditation? Sunk in the sea –Graces and blessings during meals? Sunk in the sea –Habitual attendance at Holy Mass, the scapular, the Rosary? Sunk in the sea –Where’s the regular worthy reception of the Sacraments, the laws of fasting and abstinence? Sunk in the sea –The spirit of simplicity and mortification in dress and eating? Sunk in the sea –The Crucifix, holy images, holy water in our bedrooms? Sunk in the sea, sunk in the sea. Meanwhile, the ship continues to sink. The Christian spirit decreases; the opposing spirit gains ground very quickly. We go to Low Mass on Sunday, and God knows with what devotion! We go to Sung Mass 3 or 4 times a year; to Vespers, we do not go anymore! We go to spectacles and to dances; we read everything that we get our hands on; we do not share anything except that which we should not even have!!! Behold the fragile ships into which we trust our own salvation! No wonder there are so many shipwrecks! Poor passengers, separated from the Great Ship, how much you have to cry!

Among all the Catholic practices that have been abandoned so imprudently by the modern world, there is ONE, worthy of respect among them all, that I would like to save from shipwreck at any cost! It is that which your peers openly reject without knowing what they are doing: The Sign of the Cross. It is the time to see to its preservation. Go to a church one day and examine the crowd that comes to the House of God. Many do not make the Sign of the Cross: others make It badly, or just pretend to make It. It is a disconcerting fact: Today’s Christians do not make the Sign of the Cross, make It rarely, or make It badly. On this point, as in many others, we do the opposite of what our ancestors, the Christians of the primitive Church did. They made the Sign of the Cross: they made It well, and they made It frequently.

In the East as in the West, in Jerusalem, in Athens, in Rome, men and women, young and old, rich and poor, priests and faithful observed religiously this Tradition. Tertullian says: “At every moment and for everything, on entering and on going out, when bathing, when dressing, when eating, when going to bed, when we do all other things, we make the Sign of the Cross on our foreheads.” They made the Sign of the Cross, not only on their foreheads, but on their eyes, on their mouths, on their breasts. So, if our Christian ancestors made the Sign of the Cross at every moment, we are obliged to conclude that they were obeying an Apostolic recommendation; they lived around the time of the Apostles, who conversed with the Incarnate Word in Person. This closeness in time to the Apostles is one of the reasons to imitate them and make the Sign of the Cross.

A second reason to imitate the early Christians in making the Sign of the Cross is their sanctity. The first Christians were not only better instructed on the doctrine of the Apostles, but they were most faithful in practicing it. The proof is their holy persons. There is no better established fact than the fact that sanctity was the general character of the first Christians. They loved to lose everything, their goods and their lives in the midst of afflictions rather than offend God. Their heroism lasted as long as the persecutions, that is THREE centuries. They were charitable! Heaven and Earth united to make their love for each other a unique praise in the annals of the world. “See how they love each other and how they are always ready to die for each other” exclaimed the pagans. The Fathers of the Church, actual eye-witnesses, have also continued to render the most splendid testimony of their holiness. Tertullian, addressing the judges, praetorians and consuls of the empire, made this solemn challenge: “I appeal to your processes, O you who are in charge of administering justice. Among that multitude of accused people that is brought daily before your tribunals, which is the assassin, the sacrilegious, the corrupt, the thief who is a Christian? Prisons are overcrowded only with your own people.”

In the world, the traditional use of the Redemptive Sign comes down to us in a parallel line. All the great men, those incomparable geniuses of East and West, whom we call the Fathers of the Church: Tertullian, Cyprian, Athanasius, Ambrose, Gregory, Basil, Augustine, John Chrysostom, Jerome, and so many others, all these respectable beings made the Sign of the Cross, and recommended with ardor to all the Christians to make It at every occasion.

A third motive to make the Sign of the Cross is that the Church uses It. As centuries go by, men change with the times, Laws, habits, fashions, languages, ways of thinking, seeing and judging. The Church alone does not change. Immutable as truth itself, of which She is the Teacher, that which She taught and did yesterday, teaches and does today, will teach and will do tomorrow and always. What are Her thoughts, Her conduct regarding the Sign of the Cross? There is no point on which Her divine immutability is more splendidly visible! For 21 centuries up to today, it could be said that the Church lives with the Sign of the Cross; there’s no instant in which She stops using It. She starts, continues, and undertakes everything with this Sign (†).

Among all Her practices, the Sign of the Cross is the principal one, the most common, the most familiar. It is the soul of Her exorcisms, of Her prayers, of Her blessings. That which we see Her do before our own eyes in our churches, She did in the catacombs before the eyes of our forefathers in the Faith. She takes possession of everything through the Sign of the Cross. Everything She uses: water, salt, bread, wine, fire, rocks, wood, oils, balsam, bronze, precious metals, houses, camps, everything is blessed with the Sign of the Cross. Observe above all the conduct of the Church with respect to man who is a living temple of the Trinity. The first thing She does over him, as he comes out of his mother’s womb, is the Sign of the Cross. The last thing, when he re-enters the womb of the earth, is still the Sign of the Cross. This is Her first salutation and also Her last good-bye towards Her dear children.

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.

Taken from Il Segno della Croce by Msgr Gaume

Dogma of the Assumption

Hello!

Here is something I found that many, many of you will just enjoy! It is a short (4 mins) clip of when Pius XII is declaring the dogma of the Assumption. The quality of the video is not the best, but you can see some things AND you can hear everything, especially the last paragraph of the declaration of the dogma IN LATIN!!! Enjoy!

Assumption

At the beginning, the image of our Lady under the title of Salus Pópuli Románi is carried in procession. About 250,000 pilgrims show up for this unique event and about 600 bishops/archbishops. Cardinal Tisserant is the one who solemnely (and officially) asks the Pope (during the ceremonies) to proclaim the Dogma of the Assumption.

If only we had a video clip of the declarati0n of the Immaculate Conception......