Lutetiae parisiorum, die XXI mensis aprilis, dominica III post Pascha
International Campaign for the Total Freedom of the Traditional Liturgy
Being a Catholic in 2024 is no easy endeavour. The West is undergoing a massive de-Christianization, so much so that Catholicism appears to be vanishing from the public sphere. Elsewhere, the number of Christians being persecuted for their faith is on the rise. What’s more, the Church has been struck by an internal crisis that manifests itself in a decline in religious practice, a downswing in priestly and religious vocations, a decrease in sacramental practice, and even a growing dissension between priests, bishops and cardinals which, until very recently, was utterly unthinkable. Yet, among all the things that can contribute to the internal revival of the Church and to the renewal of her missionary zeal, there is, above all, the worthy and reverent celebration of her liturgy, which can be greatly fostered thanks to the example and the presence of the traditional Roman liturgy.
Despite all the attempts that have been made to suppress it, especially during the present pontificate, it lives on, continuing to spread and to sanctify the Christian people who are blessed to be able to benefit from it. It bears abundant fruits of piety, as well as an increase of vocations and of conversions. It attracts young people and is the fount of many flourishing works, especially in schools, and is accompanied by a solid catechesis. No one can deny that it is a vector for the preservation and transmission of the faith and religious practice in the midst of a waning of religious belief and a dwindling number of believers. This Mass, due to its venerable antiquity, can boast of having sanctified countless souls over the centuries. Among other vital forces still active in the Church, this form of liturgical life stands out because of the stability given to it by an uninterrupted lex orandi.
Certainly, some places of worship have been granted, or rather tolerated, where this liturgy can be celebrated, but too often what has been given by one hand is taken back by the other, without, however, ever managing to make it vanish.
Since the massive decline during the period immediately following the Second Vatican Council, every attempt has been made on numerous occasions to revive religious practice, to increase the number of priestly and religious vocations, and to preserve the faith of the Christian people. Everything, except letting the people experience the traditional liturgy, by giving the Tridentine liturgy a fair chance. Today, however, common sense urgently demands that all the vital forces in the Church be allowed to live and prosper, and in particular the one which enjoys a right dating back to over a millennium.
Let there be no mistake: the present appeal is not a petition to obtain a new tolerance as in 1984 and 1988, nor even a restoration of the status granted in 2007 by the motu proprio Summorum Pontificum, which, recognizing in principle a right, has in fact been reduced to a regime of meagerly granted permissions.
As lay people, it is not for us to pass judgment on the Second Vatican Council, its continuity or discontinuity with the previous teaching of the Church, the merits, or not, of the reforms that resulted from it, and so on. On the other hand, it is necessary to defend and transmit the means that Providence has employed to enable a growing number of Catholics to preserve the faith, to grow in it, or to discover it. The traditional liturgy plays an essential role in this process, thanks to its transcendence, its beauty, its timelessness and its doctrinal certainty.
For this reason, we simply ask, for the sake of the true freedom of the children of God in the Church, that the full freedom of the traditional liturgy, with the free use of all its liturgical books, be granted, so that, without hindrance, in the Latin rite, all the faithful may benefit from it and all clerics may celebrate it.
Jean-Pierre Maugendre, Managing Director of Renaissance Catholique, Paris, France
April 22, 2024
This appeal is not a petition to be signed, but a message to be disseminated, possibly to be taken up again in any form that may seem appropriate, and to be brought and explained to the cardinals, bishops and prelates of the universal Church.
Si Renaissance catholique a l’initiative de cette campagne, c’est uniquement pour se faire l’interprète d’un large désir en ce sens qui se manifeste dans l’ensemble du monde catholique. Cette campagne n’est pas la sienne, mais celle de tous ceux qui y participeront, la relayeront, l’amplifieront, chacun à leur manière.
Renaissance Catholiqueis a Paris-based movement of lay people working to reestablish the social reign of Christ.
God puts us where we need to be. A radical statement for an article on the Titanic, I know. But on April 10, 1912, God placed Catholic men and women on board the Titanic to offer prayer and hope when it was needed most.
Three priests are known to have sailed on the Titanic: Father Juozas Montvila of Lithuania, Father Josef Peruschitz of Bavaria, and Father Thomas Byles of England, who had converted to Catholicism while studying theology at Oxford.
When Father Byles boarded the Titanic, he did not know that his greatest service as a priest was about to begin. He planned to enjoy the voyage and then officiate at his brother’s wedding when the ship reached New York City. However, Father Byles was needed in a different role.
Titanic survivors recall that on the morning of Sunday, April 14, 1912, Father Byles said Mass in the third class section of the ship and gave a homily that included references to lifeboats.After Mass, the priest and Mass attendees resumed their typical schedules.
Father Byles was seen on deck near midnight when the Titanic hit an iceberg and began to sink. When crewmen urged the priest to get in a lifeboat, he refused and ministered to passengers trapped in second and third class areas. Titanic survivor Mary Ellen Mockler recalled, “We saw before us, coming down the passageway, with his hand uplifted, Father Byles…. ‘Be calm, my good people,’ he said, and then he went about the steerage giving absolution and blessings.” Fellow survivor Agnes reported, “When the Titanic went to the bottom, Father Thomas B. Byles stood on the deck with Catholics, Protestants, and Jews kneeling around him. Father Byles was saying the rosary and praying for the repose of the souls of those about to perish. To many he administered the last rites of the Church.” Titanic survivors stated that neither Father Byles nor any of the other priests on the Titanic took seats in the lifeboats. They remained on deck to hear confessions and administer last rites.
The example set by Fathers Byles, Montvila, and Peruschitz may have inspired survivors Ellen Mocklare and Anne Kate Kelly to imitate their life of service. Both women entered the convent years after their rescue at sea.
As the priests stayed on deck, another Catholic, Margaret Brown, helped passengers get into lifeboats. History books and Hollywood filmmakers have named her the Unsinkable Molly Brown, but Margaret never referred to herself as Molly. Friends and family members called her Maggie.
Born in 1867, Maggie was one of eight children in an impoverished Irish Catholic family. By the age of thirteen, Maggie was stripping tobacco leaves in Hannibal, Missouri, to help support her family. She moved to Colorado where she met and married James Joseph (J.J.) Brown in 1886. Maggie and J.J. had two children and faced financial struggles in the early years of their marriage. They became immensely wealthy when J.J. developed a way to safely extract gold from the Colorado mines. Although she now had the money to live a life of leisure, Maggie Brown devoted her time to soup kitchens and other charitable organizations that helped women and children.
Maggie Brown was in Europe in 1912 when she purchased a ticket on the Titanic so that she could visit her grandson who was ill in the United States. As a first class passenger, she was quickly offered a seat in a lifeboat. In the rush for survival, many lifeboats were launched into the sea with empty seats that could have been filled. Maggie Brown is said to have demanded that her lifeboat not leave until it had taken on as many passengers as possible. When she and others were rescued by another ship, the Carpathia, Maggie collected funds and clothing from its wealthy passengers to aid the Titanic’s survivors shivering on the decks.
Before and after her voyage on the Titanic, Maggie Brown put her Catholic faith in action. While living in Colorado, she raised money to build the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, St. Joseph’s Hospital, and Catholic and public elementary schools. Throughout her life, she was deeply interested in questions of justice and equality. She teamed with Judge Ben Lindsey to develop the first juvenile court in the United States. It became a model for the country. Maggie Brown’s concern for the poor led her to invite the Red Cross to use her home in Newport, Rhode Island, in times of emergency. She knew that money was of no use unless it relieved the suffering of others.
The crew of the Carpathia met the Titanic lifeboats in the icy sea because they had received a distress call sent through a newly developed system of wireless telegraphy. Only twelve years earlier, Guglielmo Marconi, aided by the work of Father Jozef Murgas, a priest from Pennsylvania, proposed a system of communicating by radio waves sent over long distances. Jack Phillips, a wireless operator onboard the Titanic, used Marconi’s equipment to send a distress call. The Carpathia followed the coordinates provided by Phillips and rescued over seven hundred passengers who had jumped into lifeboats. Without Marconi’s invention there may not have been any survivors of the Titanic.
Catholic faith and leadership brought hope on the night of the Titanic tragedy, 112 years ago this month. Priests onboard the ship sacrificed their lives by staying on deck to administer sacraments. Maggie Brown used her leadership skills to get as many people as possible into lifeboats. The wireless telegraphy developed from the work of Father Jozef Murgasa and Guglielmo Marconi brought the Carpathian to rescue Titanic passengers. Fortified by their faith, Catholics on the Titanic saved lives.
It has become evident to many Catholics around the world that the Francis pontificate has been a disappointment and even a disaster. There are more learned Catholics than myself who have meticulously catalogued the myriad of ways in which Pope Francis, from the beginning of his pontificate in 2013, has made statements and promoted pastoral practices that depart from Scripture, Sacred Tradition, and previous solidified teachings of the magisterium.
Off the top of my head, here are some of the bigger messes that Francis has made:
signing a document that states that “pluralism and the diversity of religions…are willed by God” even though God tells us that He is One (Deuteronomy 6:4) and Him alone shall we serve (Luke 4:8);
stating that contraception can be used by married couples “in certain cases,” making it clear through his spokesman that these include “cases of emergency or special situations” even though the Catechism of the Catholic Church follows Humanae Vitae in teaching that using contraception is “intrinsically evil”—namely, that it is always and in every case morally wrong to use contraception in marriage, no matter what the circumstance or the purpose;
setting the stage for and then explicitly approving a pastoral practice that allows those committing the grave sin of adultery to receive Holy Communion despite this practice negating the Sixth Commandment and Catholic teaching from previous popes;
approving a pastoral practice that allows for the blessing of homosexual couples even though such a practice contradicts previous Catholic teaching (here, here, and here) and the Bible’s explicit condemnation of homosexuality (here and here);
Characteristic of some of these messes is how unmerciful they are to those they are purportedly aimed at helping. They keep sinners locked in their sin while refusing to call them to repentance and redemption. These practices, far from loving the sinner, bar them from receiving salvific grace and close off Heaven to them, leaving them in spiritual darkness as they stumble to the abyss to be swallowed up. This is the opposite of being truly pastoral. It is the opposite of offering real mercy.
In the face of all these messes, all of which are characterized by a departure from Catholic teaching and morality, one alarming trend I’ve noticed among Catholics who have been scandalized is to fall prey to the spiritually cancerous idea that Francis is somehow not the pope, that he is a usurper at best and an imposter at worst.
Some have even made calls for Catholics to “separate” themselves from Francis to remain “in Communion” with the Church. These sources claim to accurately present Catholicism while peddling these ideas that are, in essence, anti-Catholic because they attack the pastoral office of Peter—the rock—which has been instituted by Christ as belonging to the very foundation of the Catholic Church. I have seen firsthand the grave spiritual harm to those who subscribe to these ideas, resulting in some of them separating themselves from the Catholic Church and losing their faith.
Many are currently being led by those who voice this idea into schism, leaving their wounded Mother, the Church, who has been kicked to the curb and is bleeding and broken, as they seek an alternative church created to their own liking which has been gutted of recent popes and councils. It is, of course, a false church of human origin. Satan’s diabolical ingenuity is that he has managed to pry souls away from the Church founded by Christ as it exists today by tempting them with distorted visions of the Church as she existed hundreds of years ago, when, according to the temptation, everything was “better” and there were “no problems.”
Only the Serpent could be subtle enough to turn tradition into an ideology—traditionalism which trumps everything else—and use it to lead so many well-intentioned but unsuspecting Catholics out of the bosom of the Church. Satan did something similar with Scripture some time ago, turning it into an ideology—sola scriptura—that resulted in countless Catholics being dragged into the outer darkness as they left the bosom of Holy Mother Church.
These sources mentioned above call into question the validity of Francis’ election, saying that it was rigged by a mafia of cardinals. Or, they point to errors in his documents and statements, claiming that by making these the pope has somehow stripped himself of his authority to sit on the chair of Peter. While Pope Francis may be a bad pope, he is certainly no usurper or imposter. A usurper is defined as someone who takes a position of power or importance illegally or by force. An imposter is someone who pretends to be someone else to deceive others.
The fact is that Pope Francis was validly elected on March 13, 2013, after Pope Benedict’s resignation. How do we know this? Because not one single cardinal who elected Jorge Bergoglio, who would go on to take the name Francis, has ever contested the election results. Not one. All arguments for an invalid election run up against this solid brick wall: there is not one single cardinal who supports this thesis.
It is the cardinals, the princes of the Church, who are the only ones who have any power and standing to contest the results of a papal election. Benedict, while he was still alive, certainly acknowledged on a few occasions that Francis was, in fact, the valid pope. Of all people, he would have been the first to cry foul had the election been invalid.
The fact is, if Francis were somehow not the pope, this alone would create far more problems than it would solve since it would mean that the papacy has failed, there is no vicar of Christ on earth, and the promise of Christ when it comes to the Church, her leadership, and her doctrine prevailing until the end of time has been broken. No one who calls themselves Catholic can entertain this idea. The Church is indefectible by God’s grace; Satan will never be able to prevail against her (Matthew 16:18).
Moreover, while the idea has been floated by some prominent Catholics earlier on in Francis’ pontificate that he has ceased being the pope from the moment he uttered such-and-such false teaching, the problem remains that there is no one above the pope who can officially make this declaration and have it be binding. No one on this earth is above the pope who can remove him from his office. Only God alone has the power to do this, usually via death. The pope, of course, could step down on his own accord, something that Francis doesn’t seem keen on doing.
What this means is that Catholics, whether we like it or not, are stuck with Francis as the valid pope. The question remains, however, how do we remain faithful to the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church headed by Pope Francis as he nears the end of a disastrous pontificate? How do we remain faithful when our spiritual leader may be wielding his leadership in a way analogous to St. Peter, the first pope, who betrayed Christ at the moment it counted most when he said, “I do not know the man,” not once, but thrice? Yes, our Church has had a long history of popes who betrayed Christ, starting with the first one and not stopping there.
First of all, Catholics must stick with the pope to remain within the bosom of the Church. Catholics can never separate themselves from the pope and somehow remain faithful to Christ and united to His Church. St. Ambrose of Milan, a fourth-century doctor of the Church who was instrumental in the conversion of St. Augustine, laid out this spiritual principle when he said, “Where Peter is, there is the Church.” One of the surest ways of knowing you remain united to the Church is because you are united to the visible head of the Church, the pope.
Does anyone want to know where the Church founded by Christ is? Find Peter, and you will find the Church. Conversely, if one leaves Peter, one leaves the Church. And leaving the Church certainly puts one’s salvation in jeopardy. Just as no one was saved outside of the ark in the time of Noah, those leaving the barque of Peter, the Church, are putting themselves in grave peril.
The Church is Christ’s. He birthed her out of His side with blood and water when He was pierced by a lance on the Cross. The Church is His bride. He will save His bride. Well-meaning Catholics must realize that it is not their job to save the Church. Jesus is the Savior! Jesus is certainly the one who will sustain His Church, having already died for her and purified her. It’s up to Jesus, in His good time, to save His Church—the Barque of Peter—from being swamped by the waves of heresy, abuse, cover-up, and hypocrisy that are threatening to sink her. “The disciples went and woke him, saying, ‘Lord, save us! We’re going to drown!’” (Matthew 8:25). We need to keep begging Jesus, “Lord, save your Church!”
How ought Catholics who love the Church and see her following her Lord in crucifixion hold a pope like Francis in their hearts? I believe that Catholics who wish to remain in communion with the Church must take the position of David in his relation to the bad King Saul when it comes to their relationship with Pope Francis.
David, as a young boy, was anointed by the prophet Samuel to be the next king of Israel (Samuel 1:16) after the spirit of God had withdrawn from Saul because of the evil the king had committed. Saul had become a pretty disastrous king at this point. He was making a mess of things. He was even tormented by an evil spirit who had replaced the spirit of God in his life.
When Saul realized that David had won the praise of the people and would be acclaimed as the next king instead of one of his sons, he attempted to kill David on numerous occasions. David had to flee for his life. David’s companions tried to convince the young warrior to slay Saul and be rid of this bad king and, by his hand, come into the kingship for which David had been anointed by God’s prophet. But David always refused, even when he had the king in his power in the cave or when he found him poorly guarded sleeping in a camp, saying that he would not put his hand against the “Lord’s anointed” for no one could do such a deed and be “guiltless.”
David was operating on the principle that Saul, while still alive, was the “Lord’s anointed”—even though Saul was a bad king who was making a mess of things. David understood that no man had the authority to remove the Lord’s anointed from the office to which God had appointed him. David trusted that God would deal with Saul in God’s own way and in God’s own time.
When Saul was defeated in battle and saw his sons slain before his eyes, he despaired. Saul asked a young man from the camp to slay him, which the young man did. When the young man told David about this, David first rent his clothes and wept before executing the man for killing the king. Before the execution, David chastised the young man, saying, “How is it you were not afraid to put forth your hand to destroy the Lord’s anointed?”
When it comes to Pope Francis, our sentiment should be the same as David’s. Those who promote the idea that Francis is not the pope, that he is a usurper or imposter, are, I believe, raising their hand against the “Lord’s anointed.” A better path is to follow the example of those princes of the Church who are engaged in prayer campaigns for the purification of the Church.
All this being said, Scripture nevertheless lays out a path for how to oppose an erring pope “to his face” while still respecting his office (Galatians 2:11). David certainly resisted Saul while respecting his office. In the final analysis, Catholics must respect that Francis is pope and allow the Lord to replace him when the good Lord sees fit.
For reasons which may be inscrutable at the time, God has allowed Francis to become head of His Church for God’s own designs and purposes. What is clear is that under the Francis pontificate, the swamp that exists in the Church and all the monsters that inhabit the swamp have brazenly manifested themselves. They have been emboldened by Francis to reveal themselves, no longer hiding in the murky waters to drag down unsuspecting souls. What this means is that a future pope who has been called by God to clean up the mess will know exactly who are the enemies within the Church, which will make his task of dealing with them all the easier. In other words, God may have allowed Francis to make a mess to aid in the future purification of the Church.
Another silver lining in the Francis pontificate is that his mess has forced Catholics who want to be faithful to Christ and the Church to find out for themselves what the Church actually teaches practically on every subject. Francis making a mess has had the effect of awakening ordinary Catholics out of their slumber like no other pope has been able to do. This can only lead to a stronger and more faithful Church over time.
In 2021, I had an email exchange with Bishop Athanasius Schneider about this distressing trend of Catholics abandoning the pope. He told me—in comments published here for the first time—that Catholics “must not allow themselves to be misled by sophist canonical arguments about the alleged invalidity of the pontificate of Pope Francis.”
“The schismatic person is one who refutes the Pope as a Pope, i.e. the papacy, or who refutes the validity of the current Pope, or who establishes his own parallel church without any canonical union with the Pope,” he added. Schneider reminded me that Catholics “have to be sober and have a supernatural view and great trust in God’s Providence and in His powerful intervention also in this disastrous pontificate.”
Yes, increasing our trust in God is the way to remain faithful during these confusing times. “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not rely on your own insight. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths,” (Proverbs 3:5-6). Or, as St. Faustina Kowalska wrote in her diary, “The greater the darkness, the more complete our trust should be” (para. 357). In the meantime, as we wait on the Lord Jesus to save His Church and deal with the mess in His own way, at the acceptable time, some holy advice from the book of Lamentations is also helpful: “It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord” (3:26).
Peter, filled with the holy Spirit, answered them, “Leaders of the people and elders: If we are being examined today about a good deed done to a cripple, namely, by what means he was saved, then all of you and all the people of Israel should know that it was in the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarean whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead; in his name this man stands before you healed. He is ‘the stone rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone.’ There is no salvation through anyone else, nor is there any other name under heaven given to the human race by which we are to be saved.”
Psalms118(117),1.8-9.21-23.26.28cd.29.
Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good, for his mercy endures forever. It is better to take refuge in the LORD Than to trust in man. It is better to take refuge in the LORD Than to trust in princes.
I will give thanks to you, for you have answered me and have been my savior. The stone which the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. By the LORD has this been done; it is wonderful in our eyes.
Blessed is he who comes in the name of the LORD; we bless you from the house of the LORD. I will give thanks to you, for you have answered me and have been my savior. Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; for his kindness endures forever.
First Letter of John3,1-2.
Beloved: See what love the Father has bestowed on us that we may be called the children of God. Yet so we are. The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we shall be has not yet been revealed. We do know that when it is revealed we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint John10,11-18.
Jesus said: “I am the good shepherd. A good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. A hired man, who is not a shepherd and whose sheep are not his own, sees a wolf coming and leaves the sheep and runs away, and the wolf catches and scatters them. This is because he works for pay and has no concern for the sheep. I am the good shepherd, and I know mine and mine know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I will lay down my life for the sheep. I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. These also I must lead, and they will hear my voice, and there will be one flock, one shepherd. This is why the Father loves me, because I lay down my life in order to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down on my own. I have power to lay it down, and power to take it up again. This command I have received from my Father.”
Saint Leo the Great (?-c.461) Pope and Doctor of the Church Sermon 63 of Pope Leo the Great, #12 on the Passion, para. 6
There shall be one flock and one shepherd!
It is He Who, born of the Virgin Mother by the Holy Ghost, fertilizes His pure Church with the same blessed Spirit, that by the birth of Baptism an innumerable multitude of sons may be born to God, of Whom it is said, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God (John 1:13) . It is He, in Whom the seed of Abraham is blessed by the adoption of the whole world (Genesis 22:18), and the patriarch becomes the father of nations by the birth, through faith not flesh, of the sons of promise.
It is He Who, without excluding any nation, makes one flock of holy sheep from every nation under heaven, and daily fulfils what He promised, saying, Other sheep also I have which are not of this fold; them also I must bring, and they shall hear My voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd (John 10:16) . For though to the blessed Peter first and foremost He says, Feed My sheep ; yet the one Lord directs the charge of all the shepherds, and feeds those that come to the rock with such glad and well-watered pastures, that countless sheep are nourished by the richness of His love, and hesitate not to perish for the Shepherd’s sake, even as the good Shepherd Himself was content to lay down His life for His sheep.
The famous Roman Rite pilgrimage to Chartres from 18 to 20 May, organised by Notre Dame de Chrétienté, is attracting unprecedented interest.
The organisers have had to close registrations well in advance because they have reached full capacity. Spokeswoman Odile Téqui told TribuneChretienne.com that this year’s demand far exceeded initial forecasts:
“We were expecting an increase of 12% in the number of pilgrims over the three days, which was already a big effort given that our average growth, excluding the Covid period, has been 8% per year over the last ten years. But”, she adds, “these expectations have been exceeded.”
Last year’s pilgrimage was also heavily overbooked, but registration closed a week before the event instead of a month before.
Due to the massive influx of pilgrims, especially on Monday when attendance peaks, exact numbers will not be known until after the pilgrimage.
This growth is due in no small part to Bergoglio’s ongoing battle against the Roman liturgy.
CP&S comment – This is an excellent question we should all ask ourselves in this day and age when our Catholic Faith is being constantly challenged. It is becoming increasingly harder, and often even dangerous, to resist today’s woke culture. By doing no more than refusing to accept to go along with what we know is sinful behaviour or speech we are often putting our heads into the lion’s mouth. And yet to keep quiet, accepting to bow to the evil ideology of our modern world, we are betraying our fundamental Christian beliefs. “For what shall it profit a man, if he gain the whole world, and suffer the loss of his soul?” (Mark 8:36).
Several years ago, I was challenged by an acquaintance of mine. He asked me, “Where is your line?”
At first, I did not understand his question, so he asked me again, “Where is your line?” He then clarified, “At what point will you respond to an attack, direct or indirect, be it moral, or physical, or ideological?”
I was a bit irritated. How could he be asking me this question? He continued. “If you cannot tell me where your line is, you will never know when the line is crossed.”
Although I was irritated, I listened as he went on to explain. He spelled out that if I did not know where my line is on different ideas, an immoral culture would slowly, incrementally, wear away until it had overtaken me without any objection.
Even while I was taking offense to his question, I knew he was on target. I did not know where my line was. I had not thought through at what point I would react to assaults on my beliefs.
He used the example of a frog being thrown into hot water. The frog will immediately jump out. Of the other hand, if you put a frog in cold or tepid water and slowly raise the temperature, the frog will slowly be boiled to death unaware that the water temperature was slowly rising.
He ended with, “If you do not know your line, you need to figure out where it is.”
Holding the Line
So why is this important? Why draw a line at all?
Some years ago, while living overseas, one of my friends at the factory at which I was working was a woman whose family owned a farm. Since she was an only child and a female, few in her hometown respected her family. In this country’s culture, only boys could inherit their parents’ farmland.
Her parents’ neighbors would consistently move the stakes marking out their plot of farmland. Her father was constantly putting the stakes back to stay the encroachment of his neighbors.
He knew he had to constantly enforce the boundaries of his farm or lose it to his predatory neighbors. He knew if he did not, he would lose one meter the first year, two meters the second, and so on. Before long he would be looking over a farm that was no longer his.
This is a physical example of a line that needed to be constantly defended, in this case a property line.
Holding the Line of Ideas
Ideas are more difficult to defend. The line is not clearly visible. In many cases, we are the beneficiaries of those who established a line for us long ago. But since we did not establish the boundary of ideas and morality that make up our culture, sometimes we do not understand where it should be or even if it has moved.
For example, we live in a Judeo-Christian world which tends to uphold the Mosaic tradition of “an eye for an eye” (Exodus 21:23-25). But because many perceive this approach to law as barbaric, they have allowed to line to move.
Unfortunately, many people do not understand what “eye for an eye” really means. It is not about gouging out a person’s eye if that person hurts another individual’s eye. Unlike some traditions in other cultures, a nobleman’s eye is not worth more than the eye of peasant. Similarly, a stone carver’s tooth is worth the same as that of a wealthy merchant’s. This tradition is that of equality under the law. If you really understand its meaning, it is not barbaric at all.
Be that as it may, the line here has continued to move. Tough sentences from the past have softened. Today, it seems laws in many parts of the United States have become just a suggestion. The line has moved beyond reason.
And the line continues to move. Under the guise of “rank has its privileges,” modern nobles (the wealthy and the political elites) often avoid punishments for crimes which would land the common man life in prison.
Living without a Line
Most of us are convinced that if asked to abdicate our beliefs, we would protest. If asked to engage in savage brutality most think they would resist. Unfortunately, history shows us this is overly optimistic.
Take the case of Reserve Police Battalion 101 chronicled in the book titled “Ordinary Men” by Christopher R. Browning. These policemen were responsible for mass shootings in Poland in 1942. Yet these men were not fanatical Nazis. The men were ordinary middle-aged, working-class men.
Nevertheless, these ordinary men quickly separated themselves into three groups: willing executioners, reliable killers, and a small minority who evaded participation in the acts. Unfortunately, even the small minority did nothing to diminish the homicidal efficiency of the battalion. None of them protested or resisted the murder of men, women, and children.
These men probably did not fathom that they would be asked to partake in such atrocities when starting their careers as policemen. None of them dreamed they would be asked to cross the line of murder not by not inches, but by miles. What makes us think we would be any different?
Know Your Line
Unless you know your line, you might cross it without knowing. At what point should we serve our fellow men by speaking out against sins that have corrupted so many. At what point should one resist the normalization of abortion, euthanasia, pornography, adultery, homosexual behavior, transgenderism, etc.
If we cannot do this due to fear of persecution or hurting someone’s feelings, we should ask “Why?” How can we refuse to speak against sinful actions knowing that so many outside and even inside the Church repeatedly engage in them? Holding the lines against these ideologies provides an opportunity to call others to repentance and witness to the Faith.
The faithful, and the not-so-faithful, need to hear from us. If it makes us uncomfortable, then the truth is doing its job. Speaking God’s truth will hopefully prompt many to reject the continual shift in our culture and acceptance of sin as normal behavior.
In a culture this corrupt, Catholics cannot afford to be timid. We need to love God and battle evil with fortitude. We must not let the malevolent control the culture.
Consequences
Since I was challenged years ago, I have spent a lot of time thinking about where my line is, or more so, where my line is on several ideas. I have also taken a risk in defending and pushing back when I felt I was being asked to cross the line.
At my place of work, I was sent to diversity training. In reality the training had very little to do with diversity. The training had more to do with training people not just to accept, but affirm many sinful behaviors.
This is one of my lines. I stated openly (and in so doing I thought I might be fired), that I was unwilling to lie to someone and call a person a woman who was, in fact, a man.
I must add that once I spoke up, I was not alone. Be that as it may, my company is beginning to embrace the ideologies pushed by the secularists in society and government (ESG). I still believe it is only a matter of time before I am fired, along with many others, for not conforming to secular ideologies that have nothing to do with my actual employment duties.
As a way of reminding myself that I must hold the line, I carry a physical reminder. On my keychain is replica of a Roman denarius with the head of Tiberius Caesar. This may have been the same coinage given to Judas for his betrayal. It is a reminder for me not to sell out and betray our Lord.
I encourage everyone to know where their line is in today’s culture. Without knowing where their line is, people may betray their principles without even knowing they’ve sold out.
Eucharistic Adoration is one of the richest sources of graces for souls. In this excerpt, taken from ‘The Holy Eucharist: Our All,’ Fr. Lukas Etlin, OSB draws on the tradition of the early church and the example of the saints to inspire souls to often visit Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament.
A Rich Source of Grace
After the Sacrifice of the Mass and the reception of Holy Communion, visiting the Blessed Sacrament is one of the richest sources of grace for souls. The memorable words of Pope St. Pius X, the Pope of the Eucharist, show us clearly how he regarded such visits: “The daily adoration or visit to the Blessed Sacrament is the practice which is the fountainhead of all devotional works.” In these daily visits, therefore, St. Pius X recognized the root of Eucharistic devotions.
By daily visiting the Blessed Sacrament, we follow the footsteps of the first Christians. In the catacombs were frequently found representations of the shepherds and the Magi kneeling before the Infant Jesus. Animated by the living faith that Jesus is present in the Eucharist, with Divinity and Humanity, with Body and Soul, with Flesh and Blood, these early Christians said with the shepherds, “Let us go to Bethlehem”; with the Magi, “falling down they adored him.” (Matt. 2:11).
Eucharistic Adoration in the Early Church
In the first ages of the Church, as Justin, Tertullian and other spiritual writers relate, the faithful were permitted to take the Sacred Hosts with them to their homes, so that if captured for martyrdom, they might yet communicate. Even on their journeys these faithful Christians did not wish to be separated from their Lord, and for this reason they carried the Holy Eucharist with them, so that, although far from a priest or church, they could still venerate the Blessed Sacrament. Interesting anecdotes could be mentioned of the hermits who took the Holy Eucharist with them into the desert. And nowadays, alas, so many Christians who live near the church do not find a moment’s time to pay a visit to their Lord! But they have plenty of leisure for worldly visits, for useless conversations or harmful reading.
To them apply the words which St. John Chrysostom addressed to his people, “What excuse shall we have, or how shall we obtain pardon, if we consider it too much to go to Jesus, who descended from Heaven for our sake? Those foreign pagan kings hastened thither from Persia to see Him who lay in the manger; and thou, O Christian, canst thou not spare a few moments to enjoy this heavenly spectacle?”
How we shall regret our negligence at the hour of death! How we shall wish that we had oftener visited our Judge who dwells in the Blessed Sacrament!
Example of Saints
Pilgrims often make long and perilous journeys to visit the holy house of Loreto where Our Lord Jesus Christ dwelt for a time, or to venerate the sacred places of the Holy Land where He was born, where He suffered and died. But Father John Avila says that, among all sacred places, he knows of none more sacred or worthy of veneration than a church in which the Blessed Sacrament is preserved. It is not a place where Christ once lived and suffered, but where He is truly living and dwelling now! For this reason the Saints found no greater delight in this world than to be in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament. Their biographers cite numberless examples.
St. Francis Xavier, after employing the entire day in laboring for the salvation of souls, would often spend the night in prayer before the Blessed Sacrament. When he was overcome by sleep, he would cast himself on the altar steps for a short rest, then resume his converse with our Divine Lord.
St. Dominic went to the church a number of times every day. The devout Father Sanchez was accustomed to visit his Lord five times a day; St. Francis Borgia, seven times; St. Mary Magdalen de’ Pazzi, thirtythree times; St. Ignatius and St. Stanislaus Kostka spent all their leisure time before the Tabernacle. On his visits to the poor and suffering, St. Vincent de Paul entered every church along his way. If the church happened to be locked, he would perform his devotions outside at the door. Whenever they reached a city, St. Leonard of Port Maurice and St. Benedict Labre directed their first steps to a church where the Blessed Sacrament was kept.
Before his ordination, St. John Bosco, who has been called the Vincent de Paul of the nineteenth century, made the resolution to visit his Lord often. For the youths under his charge he was an apostle of these daily visits. There was no constraint, no compulsion resorted to, and yet the boys took great delight in visiting their Eucharistic God.
The Servant of God Fr. Lukas Etlin, OSB (1864-1927) was a Benedictine monk, author, and spiritual director from Switzerland. He was the saintly chaplain of the Benedictine Sisters of Clyde, Missouri. He spent his life zealously promoting devotion to the Sacred Heart and he is believed to be the author of the best-selling pamphlet called Devotion to the Sacred Heart, also published by TAN Books
“We were a group of half-frozen, starving, dying people who were completely unaware of where they were, hugging each other so as not to die from the cold. Without anything other than affection and intelligence we found the way out, both spiritually and physically.” Eduardo Strauch
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Eduardo Strauch Urioste, one of the 16 survivors of the 1972 Andes air crash, recently travelled to Garabandal in the company of two reporters from a Spanish TV programme called ‘Fourth Millennium’. The reporters were preparing an edition on one of the most extraordinary survival stories ever told, and one where the Catholic faith of the stranded men, and of their distraught families, had kept the flame of hope alive. Eduardo wanted to see for himself the remote little mountain village in northern Spain where the Mother of God appeared many times between 1961 to 1965 to four 11 and 12 year old girls. He said this trip was extremely important to him because, as he himself explained, in that small village in Cantabria there was a lot of prayer offered for his return after the accident.
Eduardo Strauch on a hilltop in Garabandal with one of the ‘Fourth Millennium’ reporters.
”My mother was a devout Catholic who prayed constantly”, Eduardo relates. “One day when she was alone at Mass someone came up to her, touched her on the shoulder, and gave her a holy picture of Our Lady of Garabandal. From that moment my mother began to learn about the apparitions of the Virgin Mary there, her messages to the children and the wonderful miracles that had occurred. She also showed my mother a book. In it my mother immediately recognised the name of her friend China Herrán de Bordaberry, at that time the first lady of Uruguay, who later told her that miracles were taking place in the Spanish village of San Sebastián de Garabandal, associated with apparitions of the Virgin Mary. She then began to pray non-stop to the Virgin of Garabandal for my return, convinced that the Virgin would work a miracle for her and bring her son home alive. Just over a month after that happened, my mother learned, by a call from her brother Pepe, that two survivors of our flight had appeared, and without even knowing if I was on the list, she took the first plane to Santiago with other parents. Another strange coincidence: on the same flight there was a priest who was returning from having witnessed miracles in Garabandal. When my mother arrived in San Fernando, another happy mother confirmed that I had been saved.“
And so it was. Against all the odds, when after the disappearance of the plane the search and rescue team had been called off, and when most of the world believed all the passengers of the plane had perished somewhere in the vast snow-covered peaks of the Andes mountains, Eduardo and 15 other survivors of the crash were rescued alive 72 days after the accident. The many prayers of their relatives at home, and the Rosaries offered to God through His Blessed Mother by the stranded men, as they huddled together clutching their Rosary beads with frozen fingers in the snowy ruins of their plane, had been heard and answered.
Eduardo says that this excruciatingly painful but transformative experience has made him more sensitive, and with the knowledge that love conquers everything. It has taught him to live life to the full, but he cannot conceive of a life without faith. His experiences are today a tool that he has decided to put at the service of others to bring hope and strength.
Our Lady of Garabandal
From the Garabandal website:
The Virgin of Garabandal in the Miracle of the Andes by One of the Survivors
Eduardo Strauch Urioste is one of the survivors of the renowned “Miracle of the Andes.” The story was told in the book ‘Alive’ by Piers Paul Read, from which a film with the same title was also made. On October 13, 1972, the plane Eduardo was travelling in and that had taken off from Montevideo, Uruguay, to Santiago de Chile, with forty passengers and five crew members on board. The plane crashed 4,500 metres high, in the Cordillera of the Andes. Given up for dead, the authorities gave up their search just a week later. On December 22, 1972, they were rescued after 72 days of odyssey over the course of which they saw their relatives and best friends die. The survivors had to nourish themselves with the flesh of the deceased.
Faith and friendship were the force that sustained them in those difficult days, thirty degrees below zero, with death hovering over them. But they had a “great ally:” the Virgin of Garabandal, to whom their mothers prayed for the miracle.
Eduardo Strauch Urioste was silent about the dramatic experience for thirty years, but then he started to speak. In 2012 he wrote about his experience, matured by years of reflection, in a book ‘Out of the Silence: After the Crash’. Below there are paragraphs in which Eduardo, deeply touched, talks about the rescue and relates it to his mother’s –and other peoples’, including the first lady of Uruguay at that time – prayer to the Virgin of Garabandal, who appeared “in the mountain.”
From the book OUT OF THE SILENCE: After the Crash by Eduardo Strauch Urioste, survivor of the Andes.
“One would think that its meaning had little foundation, but receiving a sign is something very personal and almost non-transferable, because it goes beyond the specific element that produces it and finds its place in the conscience of those who receive it” he said.
“This is how I felt on the morning of December 22, when from the small portable radio in the middle of the Andes, where reception was always defective and weak, Gounod’s Ave María began to be heard, clearly and intensely, and I knew immediately that the young people vaguely mentioned in the news were Roberto and Nando (two of the survivors), who had managed to arrive.”
He continues: “Moments later we heard the confirmation that it was indeed our companions who had finally reached their destination. But for me the news had come before and in a different way. This type of experience may be inexplicable, but it is a personal message that appeals to the deepest part of oneself. In that case, the message had come through the beauty of the music and the emotion it gave me, along with the moment I heard it, when the sun was rising behind the Sosneado, and with the unusual quality of reception. All this made me recognise in the Ave Maria an unmistakable sign that we would continue to live, because our friends had achieved their goal.”
[…] This is a story about Cardinal Sarah being courageous and brave in the face of overwhelming odds. He knows the Vatican is against him and he knows the world media is against him. But instead of cowering in fear he stands up for Catholic teaching.
The world certainly needs saints right now. And soon it will require martyrs.
John Henry Westen of LifeSiteNews.com gives you the Readers Digest version of the story but you can click and read the entire thing. It’s worth it.
Warning that the “Church is dying,” Robert Cardinal Sarah has issued a striking call to action for African Catholics to be the “defenders of the universality of faith” especially at the Synod on Synodality, while also praising them for their rejection of same-sex blessings.
Speaking in Cameroon as part of a current visit he is making, the cardinal from Guinea praised the Cameroon bishops for their “courageous and prophetic declaration” rejecting Fiducia Supplicans. In “recalling Catholic doctrine on this issue, you have greatly and profoundly served the unity of the Church,” said Sarah. “You have accomplished a work of pastoral charity by recalling the truth.”
The 78-year-old cardinal’s speech was published by veteran Vatican journalist Sandro Magister, who wrote that Sarah delivered the address on April 9.
The December 21 text from Cameroon’s bishops, responding to Fiducia Supplicans, remains one of the strongest interventions against the Vatican document. They were joined by numerous African episcopal conferences and diocese’s – along with Sarah himself – as nearly the entire continent rejected the Vatican’s document proposing blessings for homosexual “couples.”
Such opposition has been labeled by secular media outlets, and crucially by Pope Francis himself, as coming from “small ideological groups,” with Francis adding that the Church in Africa is “a special case” because of its culture.
But Sarah rejected this depiction. “Some in the West wanted to make believe that you acted in the name of an African cultural particularism. It is false and ridiculous to attribute these purposes to you,” he said.
The Cameroon bishops “have spoken for the whole Church ‘in the name of the truth of the Gospel and for the human dignity and salvation of all humanity in Jesus Christ,’” said Sarah.
“This vision of a faith adapted to cultures reveals to what extent relativism divides and corrupts the unity of the Church,” he added, in a thinly veiled attack on the Pope’s own slight towards Africa’s bishops.
Me again: Here’s something that’s driving me a bit bonkers. It’s been written that he bishops are going to push for female deacons or perhaps even for married priests but they always tell the African bishops that they won’t push that on them yet.
But why not? If it’s the right thing to do, why not? The Church isn’t supposed to be relativistic or be different in different parts of the world. The Church is supposed to promulgate the teachings of Christ, not be different things to different people. That they are changing the Church in some spaces and not others tells you they’re not doing their job. They are focused too much on the world and not enough on God’s truth. God’s truth is not regional. It is universal. But in some places it simply takes too much courage to espouse God’s truth.
Cardinal Sarah said that many western prelates are too scared of what the world will say about them is they oppose the progressive agenda. The Church reeks of cowardice right now.
From the cardinals and bishops to the priests and the laity, the Church is crippled by cowardice. I pray that we all wake up because if we allow the progressives to continue their march through Western civilization we will see a terrible time once again of Christian martyrdom.
Peter said to the people: “The God of Abraham, (the God) of Isaac, and (the God) of Jacob, the God of our ancestors, has glorified his servant Jesus whom you handed over and denied in Pilate’s presence, when he had decided to release him. You denied the Holy and Righteous One and asked that a murderer be released to you. The author of life you put to death, but God raised him from the dead; of this we are witnesses. Now I know, brothers, that you acted out of ignorance, just as your leaders did; but God has thus brought to fulfillment what he had announced beforehand through the mouth of all the prophets, that his Messiah would suffer. Repent, therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be wiped away.”
Psalms4,2.4.7.9.
When I call, answer me, O my just God, you who relieve me when I am in distress; have pity on me, and hear my prayer!
Know that the LORD does wonders for his faithful one; the LORD will hear me when I call upon him. O LORD, let the light of your countenance shine upon us!
As soon as I lie down, I fall peacefully asleep, for you alone, O LORD, bring security to my dwelling.
First Letter of John2,1-5a.
My children, I am writing this to you so that you may not commit sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous one. He is expiation for our sins, and not for our sins only but for those of the whole world. The way we may be sure that we know him is to keep his command ments. Whoever says, “I know him,” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoever keeps his word, the love of God is truly perfected in him. This is the way we may know that we are in union with him:
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke24,35-48.
The disciples of Jesus recounted what had taken place along the way, and how Jesus was made known to them in the breaking of bread. While they were still speaking about this, he stood in their midst and said to them, “Peace be with you.” But they were startled and terrified and thought that they were seeing a ghost. Then he said to them, “Why are you troubled? And why do questions arise in your hearts? Look at my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Touch me and see, because a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you can see I have.” And as he said this, he showed them his hands and his feet. While they were still incredulous for joy and were amazed, he asked them, “Have you anything here to eat?” They gave him a piece of baked fish; he took it and ate it in front of them. He said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the law of Moses and in the prophets and psalms must be fulfilled.” Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures. And he said to them, “Thus it is written that the Messiah would suffer and rise from the dead on the third day and that repentance, for the forgiveness of sins, would be preached in his name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things.”
Saint Peter Chrysologus (c.406-450) Bishop of Ravenna, Doctor of the Church Sermon 31, 8th on the Resurrection of the Lord; PL 52, 427
“Touch me and see”
After the resurrection, as the Lord had entered when all the doors were shut (Jn 20,19), the disciples did not believe he had regained his body in reality but imagined that only his soul had returned under a bodily appearance, like the images that appear to people dreaming in their sleep. «They thought it was a ghost» (Lk 24,37)…
«Why are you troubled? And why do questions arise in your hearts? Look at my hands and my feet.» Look – that is to say, consider attentively. Why? Because what you are beholding is not a dream. Look at my hands and my feet since, as yet, you cannot look at my face with your bewildered eyes. Look at the wounds in my flesh since, as yet, you cannot see the works of God. Behold the marks made by my enemies since, as yet, you cannot perceive the signs of God. Touch me so that your hand will give you proof since, so far, your eyes are blinded… Feel the holes in my hands, probe my side, reopen my wounds, for I cannot refuse to the faith of my disciples what I did not refuse to my enemies for my agony. Feel, feel…, seek even to my bones, that you may confirm the reality of my flesh and that these still open wounds may attest that it is truly I myself…
Why don’t you believe that I am risen who called several dead persons back to life before your eyes?… When I was hung on the cross, they taunted me, saying: «He saved others, he cannot save himself… Let him come down from the cross now and we will believe in him» (Mt 27,42). Which is more difficult? To come down from the cross, tearing out the nails, or to come up from hell, treading death underfoot? Look, I have saved myself and, breaking the chains of hell, have come back up to the world above.
The Saturday before Good Shepherd Sunday is a special day to honour Mary, Mother of the Good Shepherd, and was a popular feast in certain parts of the world. Historically, the Saturday preceding Good Shepherd Sunday was dedicated to Our Lady, Mother of the Good Shepherd. This devotion comes to us from Capuchin Franciscans in Spain in the 18th century. The Capuchins of Central Canada have an extensive history of this devotion on their website.
The Sundays following Easter Sunday have various themes, such as Low Sunday or Octave of Easter in the Traditional rite (Divine Mercy Sunday in the Novus Ordo rite) and Good Shepherd Sunday, which falls on 14th April this year in the Traditional calendar. (On 21st April this year for the Novus Ordo.)
The readings for Good Shepherd Sunday include the passage from the Gospel according to St. John in which Jesus refers to himself as the Good Shepherd: “I am the good shepherd. A good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.” (John 10:11)
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Good Shepherd Sunday
From Saint Andrew Daily Missal:
Today is called “Good Shepherd Sunday”. For, in the epistle, St. Peter himself, made by the risen Lord head and chief Pastor of His Church, tells us that Christ is the shepherd of our souls, which were like wandering sheep. They are gathered round Him who came to give His life for them. The gospel relates the touching parable of the good shepherd who defends his sheep against the wolf, and protects them from death (Collect); and foretells that the heathen will come to join the Jews of the Old Law and to form with them one only Church and flock, under one shepherd.
These our Lord recognizes as His sheep and like the disciples at Emmaus, whose eyes were opened at the breaking of the bread, at the altar when the priest consecrates the Host which is the memorial of our Lord’s passion, they acknowledge that Christ is “the Good Shepherd who gives His life that He may feed His sheep with His Body and Blood” (St. Gregory). Raising their eyes to Him (Offertory), they pour forth to Him their gratitude for His great mercy (Introit).
“It was in those days,” says St. Leo, “that the Holy Ghost was bestowed upon all the apostles by our Lord’s breathing upon them, and that the blessed apostle Peter, raised above the rest, having already received the keys of the kingdom, saw the care of the Lord’s flock committed to his charge” (Second nocturn). This was the first step in the founding of the Church.
Let us press round the divine Shepherd of our souls, hidden in the Eucharist and whose visible representative is the Pope, Pastor of the Universal Church.
Misericordia Domini plena est terra, alleluia: verbo Domini caeli firmati sunt, alleluia, alleluia. * Exsultate, justi, in Domino: rectos decet collaudatio.
The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord, alleluia: by the word of the Lord were the heavens made, alleluia, alleluia. * Rejoice in the Lord, O ye righteous: praise is comely for the upright. (Psalm 32:5-6,1 from the Introit of Mass)
Deus, qui in Fllii tui humilitate jacentem mundum erexisti, fidelibus tuis perpetuam concede laetitiam; ut, quos perpetuae mortis eripuisti casibus, gaudiis facias perfrui sempiternis.
O God, who by the humility of Thy Son hast raised up a fallen world, grant to Thy faithful people abiding joy; that those whom Thou hast delivered from the perils of eternal death, Thou mayest cause to enjoy endless happiness. (Collect)
Continuation of the holy Gospel according to St. John. At that time Jesus said to the Pharisees: I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd giveth his life for his sheep. But the hireling, and he that is not the shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, seeth the wolf coming and leaveth the sheep and flieth: and the wolf catcheth and scattereth the sheep: and the hireling flieth, because he is a hireling, and he hath no care for the sheep. I am the good shepherd: and I know Mine, and Mine know Me, as the Father knoweth Me, and I know the Father : and I lay down My life for My sheep. And other sheep I have that are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear My voice, and there shall be one fold and one shepherd. (St. John 10:11-16)
Venerable Cornelia Connelly is an odd case of vocational discernment. She was a mother, wife of an Episcopal minister, wife of a Catholic priest, and foundress of the Society of the Holy Child Jesus, although she took on the last two roles reluctantly. She and her husband, Pierce Connelly, had converted to Catholicism in 1835, long before Episcopal minister converts were allowed to become priests without having to give up their marriages. Exchanging family life for consecrated life wasn’t Cornelia’s idea, but rather one she gradually accepted as the will of God in the face of Pierce insisting on his own vocation to the priesthood.
Ironically, though, she was the one who persevered in both her new faith and new vocation.
Cornelia’s husband often serves as a foil for analyzing her life and sanctity, and perhaps it couldn’t be otherwise. As husband and wife, their lives were intimately intertwined. Pierce was also the catalyst for the chain of events that lead Cornelia to a unique vocation and put her sanctity in relief. Cornelia married the handsome, eloquent Episcopal minister in 1831 in Philadelphia. Afterward, they settled in Natchez, Mississippi, where Pierce was given a church. They had an exceptionally happy marriage, but he was becoming disillusioned with his ministry and Protestantism in general. He was on the verge of becoming Catholic. In 1834, he resigned his position in the Episcopal church to dedicate himself to the study of Catholicism. He wanted to go to Rome. As later events would show, Pierce’s reasons for conversion and what he expected from life in the Catholic Church were complicated.
Cornelia had been following her husband’s crisis and studies. Though she may have started into the adventure as a wife trusting the husband she deeply loved, she embraced Catholicism as her own choice during their stay in New Orleans awaiting passage to Rome. While Pierce was delaying his entrance into the Church until he could get all his questions answered in Rome — perhaps also to explore the possibilities of an ecclesial career before making a final commitment — Cornelia suddenly decided to seek admission into the Church independently of her husband. She was convinced she needed to be Catholic and that she couldn’t make the dangerous sea voyage without having taken that step.
In Rome, Pierce obtained a private audience with Pope Gregory XVI. No record exists of the exchange except that Pierce brought the Holy Father to tears. Afterward, Pierce not only requested to join the Church and be confirmed, but to also be considered for the priesthood. Cornelia was horrified.
“Is it necessary for Pierce to make this sacrifice and sacrifice me? I love my husband and my darling children, so why must give them up? I love my religion — why cannot we remain happy like the Earl of Shrewsbury and his family?” she asked Fr. John McCloskey, later archbishop of New York.
Cornelia at least had the relief that Pierce would first have to have his desire for the priesthood tested with time. The couple spent the next couple of years in Rome, living off the dividends of their investments and enjoying the company of English and American Catholic high society. Pierce was feted as a big catch of a convert. Cornelia visited the poor with a friend, received spiritual direction, and took painting, language and music lessons. She wrote to her sister that she had never been so happy in her practice of religion. At the end of 1837, it became clear that the markets were crashing, and the Connellys had to return to Mississippi.
They soon found a new opportunity in the Jesuit mission in Grand Coteau, Louisiana, where Pierce started teaching English at the College of St. Charles and Cornelia taught music lessons at the girls’ school run by the Religious of the Sacred Heart. They both also took advantage of the opportunity for spiritual direction and retreats. Pierce wrote to his brother that Cornelia was “happy as a bird.” She was also expecting their fifth child when Pierce told her he had decided definitively that he was called to the priesthood. It was Oct. 13, 1841. Recalling that moment years later, Cornelia said that without the grace of God she would have collapsed. Instead, she asked Pierce to think it over again carefully, but she was ready to make the sacrifice, “and with all my heart.”
The Catholic Church considers men and women as equals in their marriage commitment and therefore Pierce could not become a priest without his wife freely consenting to it. She could have tried to force him to stay unhappily in the marriage, but Cornelia was too realistic for that and accepted this as God’s will. Even if she had decided to hold Pierce to their marriage, Cornelia would have had public opinion on her side, and the social and economic support of her siblings, some of them quite wealthy.
She then chose to enter religious life, a decision that was also completely her own. For Pierce to become a priest, she had to take a perpetual vow of chastity, but how she lived it was completely up to her. Cornelia was a woman of her age, but, above all, she was a woman who had been given an exceptional grace to deeply sacrifice her natural happiness for a higher purpose.
“Lord, if all this happiness is not for Thy glory and the good of my soul, take it from me. I make the sacrifice,” she had prayed shortly before Pierce decided on the priesthood.
Before Pierce’s ordination she also wrote to her brother, “We ought to look for a greater share of the Divine love in proportion as we are willing to sacrifice our natural happiness.”
In the end, Pierce died as a lapsed Catholic, but losing her husband — twice, in a way — was not Cornelia’s only loss. Like Mother Elizabeth Ann Seton before her, she was supposed to be able to raise her young children while starting a new congregation, the Society of the Holy Child Jesus. However, in his reversal, Pierce took the children away from her to try to force her back into their marriage. His persecution went on for years, and Cornelia died estranged from her children, though she had never stopped thinking about and praying for them. In the midst of her sorrows, she received mystical graces and shared them with others. During her lifetime, people reported prayers answered through her intercession and noted the healing, peaceful touch of her hand.
Cornelia Connelly shows us that no sacrifice made for the love of God goes unrewarded.
In 1992, the Catholic Church proclaimed Cornelia as Venerable. With the validation of one healing miracle of a serious medical condition through her singular intercession by the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, she will then go on to be declared Blessed.
From WikipediaCornelia Connelly, SHCJ (née Cornelia Peacock; January 15, 1809 – April 18, 1879) was an American-born educator who was the foundress of the Society of the Holy Child Jesus, a Catholicreligious institute. In 1846, she founded the first of many Holy Child schools, in England.
Fra Angelico, “The Annunciation” (c 1440), in the Convent of San Marco, Florence. Fra Angelico fasted and prayed before starting any image.
Today the Church celebrates a most significant event in the liturgical calendar – the Incarnation of our Lord in the womb of His blessed Mother.
For Father Louis Marie Grignion de Montfort, the great French missionary and saint, the secret of authentically living the Gospel lies in the Blessed Mother.
This is because a Christian life lived fully is a radical and powerful participation in the life of Christ Himself, and a genuine and complete participation requires a corresponding genuine and complete relationship with His blessed Mother:
Therefore, those who truly seek to grow into the full maturity of life in Jesus Christ could find no more certain means than by “surrendering themselves fully into the care of the great Mother of God in the same way that the Lord Himself had done – who did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made Himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness (Phil 2:6-7) – for us and for our salvation.” (1)
St Louis de Montfort said: “St Augustine speaking to our blessed Lady said: You are worthy to be called the mould of God”
Mary is a mould capable of forming people into the image of Christ. Anyone who is cast into this divine mould is quickly shaped and moulded into Jesus and Jesus into him.”
He advised to cast oneself into the mould of our Lady – “that beautiful mould where Jesus was so divinely and naturally formed.” (3)
For it was His Blessed Mother who had intimate knowledge and experience of Jesus.
Indeed, the charism of the order under which Father de Montfort was formed, le Petit St Sulpice, was one of contemplation of the Incarnation and its mysteries.
Father de Montfort proclaimed a true devotion to our Lady as the most powerful and direct means of becoming fully mature in the spirit of Jesus Christ, saying:
“Our good Master stooped to enclose Himself in the womb of the Blessed Virgin, a captive but loving slave, and to make Himself subject to her for thirty years.” (2)
“He emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross.
Therefore God has highly exalted Him and bestowed upon Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Phil 2: 5-11)”
The most powerful prayer, as we have been told by Our Lady herself, is the Rosary.
For Father de Montfort, the mysteries of Jesus, when one meditates on them in the presence of Our Lady, “have a transformative power in them that roots within us the virtues of Christ. The Rosary is truly a prayer of Jesus living in Mary, a prayer that is prayed within the presence of Mary and through which the Holy Spirit transforms us into the likeness of Jesus whom we meet in the contemplation of His mysteries.” (4)
*****
(1) Father Hugh Gillespie SMM, “Preparation for Total Consecration to Jesus through Mary, according to St Louis de Montfort”, Montfort Publications, New York, 2012, at p. 104.
The community of believers was of one heart and mind, and no one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they had everything in common. With great power the apostles bore witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great favor was accorded them all. There was no needy person among them, for those who owned property or houses would sell them, bring the proceeds of the sale, and put them at the feet of the apostles, and they were distributed to each according to need.
Psalms118(117),2-4.13-15.22-24.
Let the house of Israel say, “His mercy endures forever.” Let the house of Aaron say, “His mercy endures forever.” Let those who fear the LORD say, “His mercy endures forever.”
I was hard pressed and was falling, but the LORD helped me. My strength and my courage is the LORD, and he has been my savior. The joyful shout of victory in the tents of the just:
The stone which the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. By the LORD has this been done; it is wonderful in our eyes. This is the day the LORD has made; let us be glad and rejoice in it.
First Letter of John5,1-6.
Beloved: Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is begotten by God, and everyone who loves the father loves (also) the one begotten by him. In this way we know that we love the children of God when we love God and obey his commandments. For the love of God is this, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome, for whoever is begotten by God conquers the world. And the victory that conquers the world is our faith. Who (indeed) is the victor over the world but the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? This is the one who came through water and blood, Jesus Christ, not by water alone, but by water and blood. The Spirit is the one that testifies, and the Spirit is truth.
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint John20,19-31.
On the evening of that first day of the week, when the doors were locked, where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in their midst and said to them, «Peace be with you.» When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. The disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. (Jesus) said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained.” Thomas, called Didymus, one of the Twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples said to him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands and put my finger into the nailmarks and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.” Now a week later his disciples were again inside and Thomas was with them. Jesus came, although the doors were locked, and stood in their midst and said, “Peace be with you.” Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my hands, and bring your hand and put it into my side, and do not be unbelieving, but believe.” Thomas answered and said to him, “My Lord and my God!” Jesus said to him, “Have you come to believe because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed.” Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of (his) disciples that are not written in this book. But these are written that you may (come to) believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through this belief you may have life in his name.
Saint Faustina Kowalska (1905-1938) Religious Sister Diary of St Faustina, Divine Mercy in my Soul. Para. #1298
Proclaim, my soul, God’s mercy with fervor
O God, show me Your mercy
According to the compassion of the Heart of Jesus.
Catholicism Pure & Simple 
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