AntiLiturgical Heresy --Dom Gueranger, Ab. of Solesmes (1805-1875)

Since the liturgical reform had for one of its principal aims the abolition of actions and formulas of mystical signification, it is a logical consequence that its authors had to vindicate the use of the vernacular in divine worship. This is in the eyes of sectarians a most important item. Cult is no secret matter. The people, they say, must understand what they sing. Hatred for the Latin language is inborn in the hearts of all the enemies of Rome. They recognize it as the bond among Catholics throughout the universe, as the arsenal of orthodoxy against all the subtleties of the sectarian spirit (. . .). The spirit of rebellion which drives them to confide the universal prayer to the idiom of each people, of each province, of each century, has for the rest produced its fruits, and the reformed themselves constantly perceive that the Catholic people, in spite of their Latin prayers, relish better and accomplish with more zeal the duties of the cult than most do the Protestant people. At every hour of the day, divine worship takes place in Catholic churches. The faithful Catholic, who assists, leaves his mother tongue at the door. Apart form the sermons; he hears nothing but mysterious words which, even so, are not heard in the most solemn moment of the Canon of the Mass. Nevertheless, this mystery charms him in such a way that he is not jealous of the lot of the Protestant, even though the ear of the latter doesn’t hear a single sound without perceiving its meaning.(...)

. . . We must admit it is a master blow of Protestantism to have declared war on the sacred language. If it should ever succeed in ever destroying it, it would be well on the way to victory. Exposed to profane gaze, like a virgin who has been violated, from that moment on the Liturgy has lost much of its sacred character, and very soon people find that it is not worthwhile putting aside one’s work or pleasure in order to go and listen to what is being said in the way one speaks on the marketplace (. . .).

Devocionario Católico: Instrucción religiosa (1931)

NOCIONES GENERALES

Para qué estamos en la tierra. Hace cien años, y aún mucho menos tiempo, no existíamos. Ahora existimos, estamos en este mundo. Dentro de algún tiempo, tal vez muy pronto, moriremos. Es muy justo y razonable, pues, que averigüemos seriamente: ¿Quién nos ha dado el ser que tenemos? ¿Para qué estamos en este mundo? ¿Qué será de nosotros después de la muerte? La razón iluminada por la fe nos dice que: Dios nos ha criado para conocerle, amarle y servirle en esta vida, y después gozarle para siempre en la otra. El fin para el cual Dios nos ha criado es tan elevado y excelente, que no puede serlo más. Los Ángeles del cielo y María Santísima no tienen otro fin más elevado. Nuestro fin es infinitamente grande. Estamos en la tierra para servir a Dios y ganar el cielo; para nada más. Por consiguiente, en esto debemos poner todo nuestro empeño y diligencia. A Dios se le sirve guardando sus mandamientos. La religión verdadera nos enseña cuáles son estos divinos mandamientos.

Religión

Religión es el conjunto de los deberes del hombre para con Dios. Debemos servir a Dios como El quiere ser servido y no como a nosotros nos agrade. La religión verdadera es la que enseña servir a Dios como El quiere ser servido. La religión verdadera nos enseña de dónde venimos, para qué estamos en la tierra y cuál será nuestro paradero después de la vida presente. El asunto de la religión es, pues, el más digno de estudio para todo hombre de sana razón.

La primera obligación que tiene todo hombre es procurar conocer y practicar la verdadera religión.

Nada teme tanto la religión verdadera como el ser ignorada; pues quien la conoce bien, no puede menos que amarla sinceramente, a no ser que tenga el corazón enteramente corrompido. La mayor parte de las personas que aborrecen la religión, la aborrecen porque no la conocen. La religión no es solamente para las mujeres, sino que es también para los hombres, pues todos tienen un alma que salvar. Jesucristo predicó a hombres y a mujeres y confió especialmente a hombres la enseñanza de su doctrina.

Indiferencia religiosa o no tener religión

El que profesa una religión, aun falsa, a lo menos demuestra el deseo de honrar de alguna manera a la divinidad, y puede ser que esté involuntariamente en el error. Pero el que no quiere tener ninguna religión, manifiesta no querer servir a Dios de ningún modo, se rebela contra Dios y le niega todo homenaje. Un hombre sin religión no merece ninguna confianza; pues no creyendo en un Dios que premia o castiga, sólo tratará de satisfacer sus propias pasiones, sin respetar derechos ajenos. Se enriquecerá, si puede, aunque sea robando; se entregará a la obscenidad, aún cometiendo las mayores infamias. La única regla de su conducta será el placer y el interés; si para conseguirlos es necesario cometer acciones indignas, las cometerá; en tal caso, su único cuidado será procurar no ser descubierto. La falta de honradez, justicia y demás buenas costumbres son efecto de la falta de religión.

Es lógico: si no hubiera más vida que la presente, nuestro supremo anhelo sería gozar, mientras vivimos, todo lo posible, valiéndonos de todos los medios a nuestro alcance. La virtud, que exige mortificación y abnegación, fuera una locura. Si todas las personas trataran de conocer y cumplir bien la santa religión, no habría ladrones, asesinos, borrachos, deshonestos, etc. La religión condena todo acto indigno, sea quien fuere el que lo cometa. Hay personas religiosas que tienen algún defecto, como mal carácter, etc. Dios lo permite para que sean humildes. Los impíos notan estas pequeñas imperfecciones de la gente religiosa, y se escandalizan grandemente; pero no sienten rubor de los muchos y gravísimos pecados que ellos mismos cometen.

Bien dice de ellos N. S. Jesucristo: “Ven la paja en el ojo ajeno, y no ven la viga que tienen en el suyo propio.”

No son buenas todas las religiones

Como hay monedas falsas, hay también religiones falsas. No pueden ser buenas todas las religiones. No es buena la religión que manda adorar a ídolos y ofrecerles sacrificios humanos. Ni aun son buenas todas las religiones que se llaman cristianas; pues una afirma lo que otra niega. Por consiguiente, una u otra de ellas está en el error. Todas las religiones están de acuerdo en algunas verdades, como por ejemplo: que existe la divinidad, que es necesario honrarla, etc. Las religiones falsas tienen siempre algo o mucho que es de la verdadera. No es, pues, falso todo lo que enseñan las religiones falsas. Hay muchas religiones, porque hombres perversos han querido modificar a su gusto la religión verdadera.

La falsedad de una religión está en aquello que se aparta de la verdadera. Para conocer cuál es la religión verdadera no es necesario conocer y examinar todas las religiones, pues esto fuera imposible. La razón natural nos dicta que debemos amar y servir a Dios, pedirle luz para conocer la verdad y seguirla prontamente al conocerla. Quien esto practica, hace todo lo que está de su parte para seguir la verdadera religión. El que hace todo lo que está de su parte, no está obligado a más. Nadie se condena por no haber practicado lo que sin culpa no conoció. El que por error involuntario profesa una religión falsa, creyendo de buena fe que es la verdadera y procura amar y servir a Dios lo mejor que puede, se salvará. Sólo Dios es el juez de las conciencias; El sabe quién está voluntaria o involuntariamente en el error. Quien se da cuenta de que su religión es falsa, debe dejarla y abrazar la verdadera. No puede seguir la religión de los padres, el que conoce que es falsa.

Doctrina cristiana

Para ser cristiano verdadero es necesario conocer y practicar la doctrina cristiana. Doctrina cristiana es la que enseñó Nuestro Señor Jesucristo. La primera y principal obligación de todo cristiano llegado al uso de razón, es aprender bien la doctrina cristiana. El cristiano que no practica la doctrina de Jesucristo, no va al cielo; y para practicarla es necesario conocerla. No basta saber el catecismo de un modo rutinario; es necesario entenderlo. El catecismo nos enseña el camino del cielo. Las demás ciencias nos enseñan los conocimientos útiles para nuestro bienestar en la tierra. El estudio del catecismo es mucho más importante que el estudio de todas las otras ciencias. El cielo y la salvación del alma valen infinitamente más que la tierra y todos los bienes temporales.

Discovery of America

For when he [Columbus] first petitioned Ferdinand and Isabella, the Sovereigns of Spain, for fear lest they should be reluctant to encourage the undertaking, he clearly explained its object: "That their glory would grow to immortality, if they resolved to carry the name and doctrine of Jesus Christ into regions so distant." And in no long time having obtained his desires, he bears witness: "That he implores of God that, through His Divine aid and grace, the Sovereigns may continue steadfast in their desire to fill these new missionary shores with the truths of the Gospel." ~Quarto Abeunte Sæculo, Leo XIII

He [Columbus] implored the Queen of Heaven to assist his efforts and direct his course; and he ordered that no sail should be hoisted until the name of the Trinity had been invoked. When he had put out to sea, and the waves were now growing tempestuous, and the sailors were filled with terror, he kept a tranquil constancy of mind, relying on God. The very names he gave to the newly discovered islands tell the purposes of the man. At each disembarkation he offered up prayers to Almighty God, nor did he take possession save "in the Name of Jesus Christ." Upon whatsoever shores he might be driven, his first act was to set upon the shore the standard of the holy Cross: and the name of the Divine Redeemer, which he had so often sung on the open sea to the sound of the murmuring waves, he conferred upon the new islands. Thus at Hispaniola he began to build from the ruins of the temple, and all popular celebrations were preceded by the most sacred ceremonies. ~Quarto Abeunte Sæculo, Leo XIII

And if he [Columbus] moved Ferdinand and Isabella to decree that only Catholic Christians should be suffered to approach the New World and trade with the natives, he brought forward as reason, "that he sought nothing from his enterprise and endeavour but the increase and glory of the Christian religion." And this was well known to Isabella, who better than any had understood the great man's mind; indeed it is evident that it had been clearly laid before that most pious, masculine-minded, and great-souled woman. For she had declared of Columbus that he would boldly thrust himself upon the vast ocean, "to achieve a most signal thing, for the sake of the Divine glory." And to Columbus himself, on his second return, she writes: "That the expenses she had incurred, and was about to incur, for the Indian expeditions, had been well bestowed; for thence would ensure a spreading of Catholicism." ~Quarto Abeunte Sæculo, Leo XIII

The Church a Divine Witness

To the Protestant, history must be a record of the past gathered from documents by criticism, fallible as the judge who applies it. To the Catholic, history, though it be of the past, is of the present also. The Church is a living history of the past. It is the page of history still existing, open before his eyes. Antiquity to the Catholic is not a thing gone by; it is here, still present. If Christianity, then, be historical, Catholicism is Christianity.

What is the Church in the mouth from those separated from Catholic unity? Is it more than a human society? Is it not the religious organization of national life? If it be not, like the schools of Athens, collected round the voice of some potent and persuasive teacher, it is, at most, like the Jewish people, an organized government of men, as in temporal matters, so in ecclesiastical. This is the idea of the Church among those separated from unity. But what do you believe when you speak of the Church of God? ... We... believe that the Holy Spirit of God presides over the Church, illuminates it, guides and keeps it; that its voice is the voice of the Holy Spirit Himself; that when the Church speaks, God speaks; that the outward and the inward are one; that the exterior and the interior authority are identified; that what the Church outwardly testifies, the Spirit inwardly teaches; that the Church is the Body of Christ, so united to Christ its Head, that He and it are one...

The Glories of the Catholic Church, Vol. II

Devout Exercise for Fridays

See, wicked sinner, what your sins have done
Your Saviour crucified, who is God and man!
Endeavor not on Jews the blame to lay,
You are a deicide as well as they.
With contrite heart your sinful life deplore,
The best sacrifice is to sin no more.
He'd rather you'd from tears and sins refrain
Than weep, though tears of blood, and sin again.
He the sufferings of his Lord bewails;
O'er whom His precepts and His life prevails;
To weep, and sin again, is but a jest,
He then weeps best, who doth now sin the least.
To weep, and moan, and sigh, and still to sin,
Is but to nail Him on the cross again;
With holy living, He's better pleased and won,
Than mixing blood with blood, and wounds anon.

The Glories of the Catholic Church, Vol III.

The Government Does Not Help the Poor -- Italy

For those of you who are able to read Italian, here is an article written by a 19 yr. old friend (Pietro Serra) from Sardegna, Italy about what the government there does or does not do to help the (poor) working class.

The article appeared in Il Sardegna.

**I just want to say that in order to get a good idea of what the article talks about one has to be somewhat familiar with Italian politics, especially in Sardegna.... otherwise, the message of the artcile will not be that clear or interesting.**

*******
IL GOVERNO NON AIUTA GLI UMILI LAVORATORI
I poveri sempre più poveri

~Pietro Serra
Sorso

È sconcertante vedere come alla fine delle trattative con le parti sociali e i sindacati, il Governo Prodi, dei comunisti e dei figli del proletariato abbia concesso solo 33 euro di aumento per le pensioni minime. Tutto ciò è vergognoso! È chiaro che l'evidente complicità tra Governo e Sindacati, non avrebbe potuto portare niente di meglio. I pensionati sono stati illusi, traditi e umiliati. Non capisco infatti come possa sostenere questo Governo di essere attento alle classi meno abbienti e ai pensionati se poi, di fatto, attua provvedimenti pessimi come questo. Non è possibile che in uno Stato come quello italiano, che dovrebbe essere prima di tutto basato sull'etica e la morale, vi siano sprechi come quelli che vedono da una parte politici, e amministratori di aziende partecipate con stipendi da far girare la testa e dall'altra il popolo con stipendi e pensioni da fame! Sicuramente chi sta a governare non ha la più pallida idea e non ha mai pensato a cosa significhi vivere con appena 400 euro al mese. Che fine ha fatto tutta quella sensibilità, tanto proclamata in campagna elettorale, sui problemi sociali e sulle pensionati?

(Loose) TRANSLATION:

It’s alarming to see how after some negotiations with the social parties and labor unions, the Prodi government, the communists and the children of the proletariat have conceded only an increase of 33 euro to social security. All this is very shameful! It’s very clear that the evident complicity between the government and the unions could not have accomplished any better. Retired citizens have been deluded, betrayed and humiliated. I don’t understand how this government could claim to be attentive to those who are in greater need and to retired citizens if later, in deeds, takes bad measures such as this. It’s not possible that in a nation such as Italy – which should be first of all based on ethics and morals – there should be examples of waste of money such as when one sees politicians and business owners receiving a salary that would make our heads spin, yet the people do not make money or receive enough help to put food on the table! Surely those who are part of the government have not the slightest idea and do not even think about the hardships of trying to make a living with only 400 euro every month. What was the final result of all that insight that was frequently proclaimed during the electoral campaign about social problems and retired citizens?

The Catholic Church: A Divine Institution

What benefit is there in a judge who judges in his days, and dies? A perpetual doctrine tested by a perpetual rule needs a perpetual judge! Who judged in the times following the Apostles but the Church in their next successors? Who in the century after, when heresy arose, but the Church in councils? Who in the heresy of Arius, the heresy of Eutyches, the schism of the Greek Church? Who judged in the Middle Ages? Who in later times? Who judges today? The same Judge always sitting, the same One living body, which by the illumination of Pentecost received the Truth.

What Church is it that speaks for God in the world? What Church but ONE not only claims, but possesses and puts forth at this hour an Universal Jurisdiction? What Church is it which is not shut up in a locality or in a nation, not bounded by a river or by a sea, but interpenetrates wheresoever the name of Christ is known? What Church, as the light of Heaven, passes over all, through all, and is in all? What Church claims a Universal Authority? What One sends missions to the sunrise and to the sunset? What Church has the power of harmonizing its Universal Jurisdiction, so that there can be no collision when its pastors meet? What Church is there, but One, before Whom kingdoms and states give way? When, yet, did the Church of Greece, for instance, make a whole nation rise? When did a voice issue from Constantinople before which even a civilized people forgot its civilization? Why came not such a voice from the East? BECAUSE there was no divine mission to speak it!

What created Europe? What laid the foundation of a new empire when the old had withered in the East? What was the mould from which Christian nations sprang? What power was it that entered into England when it was divided by seven jarring, conflicting kingdoms, and harmonized them, as by the operation of light, into one empire? What power is it that as it created all these, also survived them all? What created the very constitution of which we are so proud? Whence came its first great principles of freedom? Why do we hear, then that because the Catholic Church has a polity and is a kingdom, because it claims Supremacy, and is found everywhere supreme, therefore it is not to be tolerated? What Church but One has ever claimed a Primacy over all other Churches instituted by Christ? Did any Church before the great division, four hundred years ago, save that One Church which still possesses it, ever dream of claiming it? Has any separate body since that time ever dreamed of pretending to such a Primacy?

In answer you may say, “Yes, but the Primacy of Rome has been denied from the beginning.” Then it has been asserted from the beginning!!! Tell me that the waves have beaten upon the shore, and I tell you that the shore was there for the waves to beat upon. Tell me that St. Irenæus pleaded with St. Victor that he would not excommunicate the Asiatic Churches, and I tell you that St. Irenæus thereby recognized the authority of St. Vincent to excommunicate. What do wars of succession prove but the inheritance and succession of the crown? Because from the beginning this Truth has been denied, THEREFORE, from the beginning it has been both held and taught.

What other church is there that has even spread itself through all the nations of the world as speaking with the Voice of God? Does Protestantism ever claim in any form to be heard by nations or by individuals as the Voice of God? Do any of their assemblies or conferences put forth their definitions of faith as binding the conscience with the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven? Do they venture to loose the conscience, as having the power of absolving men?

Take Rome from the earth, and where is Christendom? Blot out the science of Catholic Theology, and where is Faith?

The Glories of the Catholic Church, Vol. II

Death -- ~Fr. Eugenio Escribano

A day will arrive --who will dare to doubt it?-- when I myself shall be the one who is seriously ill, the one past recovery, the one dying, with people around me beginning to worry about preparations for my burial: the laying out, the coffin, the funeral, obituary cards...

Do you think these details are somewhat ludicrous, unworthy of the seriousness of a meditation? Apply them to yourself, and perhaps they will have the effect of plunging you into deep thought. If the thought of death does not impress me or deter me from evil, as the Scriptures promise it will, it is because I think of someone else's death, not my own.

My God, frankly, I have never really given a thought to my own death, I have hardly believed in it, despite the fact that I see the face of death in my daily ministrations and almost feel its icy breath.

When my time comes everything and everywhere around me will echo that "respónsum mortis" of which St. Paul speaks. God forbid that I should be the only one deaf to its challenge!

Let us picture the scene: The priest comes to hear your last confession; the tinkling bell heralds your Viaticum; then follow the Last Anointings, the prayers for the recommendation of the soul, and the low mumblings, drawn faces, and silent tears of relatives and friends standing round your bed --if indeed there is anyone at all to weep your departure!-- Your whole body is in a cold sweat, there is a gradual stiffening of your features, a twitching of your rigid fingers as if trying to clutch at somthing, the cold impression of the crucifix on your livid half-open lips; and the shadows of death crowd upon you thicker and thicker, and your eyes acquire that fixed look as if pursuing sights that vanish from you...

My Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, Who for love of me didst submit to the anguish of dying, do not fail me Thou when everything and everyone else forsakes me!

At long last your soul will quit the body, leaving it a repulsive heap of lifeless matter.

The bells you so often heard toll or had toll for others will now toll for you. The funeral service that you so often [heard] chanted for others is now to be chanted for you. And there will be a burial, your very own; and the officiating priest, while your body sinks into the earth, will seal your disappearance from this world with a last supplication wherein you will lose even your name: Anima ejus et ánimæ ómnium fidélium defunctórum, per misericórdiam Dei requiéscant in pace. Amen.

And then, what will this world have to offer you? What will become of those material goods that you seemed to have fused with your inmost soul, so deeply had you buried them within your heart's affections?

Your name will be struck off all the lists of the living; your benefice, office, money, titles, every one of them will be handed over to another; and people will be quite indifferent and oblivious; they are used to these irrevocable resignations!

Lord, let me not live like the heathen, a slave to death. Allow me to pluck from the Tree of Thy Cross this luscious fruit: joyful confidence and constant readiness in preparation for my death.

Molumba: El monaguillo negro

For those of you who are able to read Spanish, here is a link to a beautiful and inspiring story about a 12 year old black Altar server.

Molumba: The Black Altar Server

Enjoy!

Wake up and Smell the Incense

I do not really know what the "Wake up and Smell the Incense" thing that is going around is really about, but I assume that it has to do with the traditional Mass and the results the Motu Proprio will have. So, here is a picture (from a Magazine from 1947) that a friend gave me.