Once you’ve caught your breath, here’s some sound advice from Fr Z:
I’ll add some points I’ve made before many times on this blog. They bear repetition.
I. Of all the universes God could have created, He created this one, into which He called us into existence at exactly the right point in time and with exactly the right set of tools to carry out our little piece of His overarching, divine Plan. If we dedicate ourselves to our state in life, as it is hic et nunc, here and now, God will give us all the actual graces we need to fulfill our part in His economy of salvation. It is an honor to have been called by God to live in these difficult times. WE are the team He has assembled for His purposes hic et nunc. Fidelity and the pursuit of His will bring greater graces than if our paths were smooth.
II. Popes come and go. There have been good Popes and bad Popes, important Popes and forgettable Popes. Men pick them, not the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit’s role in their election is to make sure that the Pope isn’t a total disaster for the Church. Some disaster, maybe. Total disaster, never. Moreover, generations of faithful Catholics lived and died without even knowing the Pope’s name. In a lot of ways, in daily life, they just aren’t that important. Modern communication our perception, and the media changed the role. That said, the RUACH hasn’t stopped either in the Church or in your soul. The day to day is what you need to work on.
III. For priests, especially…. learn the Traditional Latin Mass. Time and again, priests have told me that learning the TLM changed them profoundly. They began to grasp aspects of their priesthood which they hadn’t gleaned before. In turn, that produces a knock on effect in other aspects of their work, in particular how they celebrate the Novus Ordo. Congregations note the differences. The knock on effect continues to knock. This will be for you a suit of armor. You can tell how important it is by how much certain people are afraid of it and work to shut it down, denigrate it with utterly absurd claims that both the Rite itself and people who desire it are at odds with an Ecumenical Council. They are practitioners of The Big Lie. We must persevere.
IV. For priests, seminarians, lay people alike… consider your CONFIRMATION. Confirmation strengthens us to make the hard call and then stand firm when we are challenged in our Christian living. We can call upon the power of this sacrament, which has imparted an indelible character, like the potter’s mark of ownership, into our souls. Confirmation is an ongoing reality in our lives just as the Pentecost event is an ongoing reality in the Church. In these troubled and troubling times, make a conscious choice to call upon that mighty sacrament you received. Activate it. The sacrament will be mighty in you when you are in the state of grace. A daily prayer HERE.
V. Therefore… GO TO CONFESSION!
Catholicism Pure & Simple 
Good advice; I’ll remember those 3 items! Thanks,
Fr Z.
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Correction: 5 items.
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Yes but this is the whole homily…
https://www.romereports.com/en/2021/09/23/full-text-of-pope-francis-homily/
I have my issues with Pope Francis but he is still the Pope and should be read in context.
It isn’t always, but n this case the context is a big improvement…
Taking one line like this and fighting is just exacerbating divisions.
Read the charity and humility with which St Catherine corrected the Pope…
Besides which on this point, if traditionalism is but a relic of the past he is right.
Unless the traditionalist movement is about fighting for a living, present, grace filled reality in the here and now it is nothing. We don’t restore the past for the sake of it – we fight for what is good in the present and what will serve to glorify God and save souls in the future. It is the honour due to God that must be fought for, and that in a reverence and love that is not left behind in the chapel…
Sorry if this is annoying, I don’t want to bicker but we need to be careful…
Pax et bonum
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“In the Catholic Church Herself every care must be taken that we may hold fast to that which has been believed everywhere, always, and by all. For this is truly and properly Catholic.”
– St. Vincent of Lerins
“… as the teaching of the Church, transmitted in orderly succession from the apostles, and remaining in the Churches to the present day, is still preserved, that alone is to be accepted as truth which differs in no respect from ecclesiastical and apostolical tradition.”
– Origen
“What is held by the whole Church, and that not as instituted by Councils, but as a matter of invariable custom, is rightly held to have been handed down by authority.”
– St. Augustine
“If anyone in word and mind does not properly and truly confess according to the holy Fathers all even to the last portion that which has been handed down and preached in the holy, Catholic, and apostolic Church of God…let him be anathema.”
– Pope Martin I, The Lateran Council
“It is necessary to obey a Pope in all things as long as he does not go against the universal customs of the Church, but should he go against the universal customs of the Church, he need not be followed.”
– Pope Innocent III
“The custom of the Church has very great authority and ought to be jealously observed in all things.”
– St. Thomas Aquinas
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@ Máire Íde
In talking about the “context” of Pope Francis’ words and actions you are defending the indefensible. Whatever the context happens to be, time and again we’ve seen the Dictator Pope has tried to destroy:
The honour and respect due to the Blessed Virgin Mary (Pachamama idols),
The Pro-Life Family Institute founded by St John Paul II,
The Sacrament of Marriage,
The Chinese underground Church,
The Franciscan Friars & Sisters of the Immaculate,
Traditionalist Catholics,
The TLM in St Peter’s and around the world….
Should I continue? Pope Francis is clearly attempting to make a church not in God’s but in his own flawed image and likeness. We have a moral duty to resist.
“To preach any doctrine therefore to Catholics other than what they have received never was lawful, never is lawful, never will be lawful: and to anathematise those who preach anything other than what has once been received, always was a duty, always is a duty, always will be a duty” – St Vincent of Lerins.
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Respectfully, I didn’t try to defend his actions, and I acknowledged having issues with him. My point was merely that this tweet picked out and commented on in isolation, isn’t helpful to the cause of presenting a traditionalist case that doesn’t polarise the Church and set faithful Catholics against each other. It may also seem to me that Pope Francis himself exacerbates this division, but all the more reason to be guarded against taking the bait. Humility, patience, love in all things. Defending the truth is necessary, but doesn’t give one an exemption from practising the aforementioned virtues.
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