by Thomas A. Droleskey
Ever on a rampage against his Pharisaical and Pelagian straw men, Jorge Mario Bergoglio/Francis, that champion of world peace through dialogue and encounter, took time out from his preparations for last night "prayer vigil" for peace in Syria to rail against his favorite boogie men, namely, each one of us who is a traditionally-minded Catholic.
Bergoglio/Francis has spent the last two mornings at the Improv, otherwise known as the Casa Santa Marta, disparaging the past on Friday, September 6, 2013, as representing nothing other than the "old wineskins" that cannot hold the "novelty" of the Gospel of Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ while following that up yesterday, Saturday, September 7, 2013, by disparaging those who obey "laws" and practice certain devotions without knowing what they are doing or why they are doing them other than to engage in empty rituals that can never take them to "see Jesus."
Here is Jorge Mario Bergoglio's spiel about all of us crazy traditionalists representing the "old wineskins," thereby misrepresenting and distorting the meaning of Our Lord's speaking to us about not putting new wine into old wine bottles:
“It occurs to us: ‘But, Father, how? These were found on streetcorners,
and you ask of them a wedding garment? This is wrong ... What does this
mean? It is very simple! God asks only one thing of us in order that we
gain admittance to the feast: our all. The Bridegroom is the most
important. The Bridegroom fills all! This brings us to the first
reading, which speaks so powerfully of Jesus as the all - the firstborn
of all creation. In Him were created all things, through Him and with a
view to Him were they created. He is the center: the all.”
“[Jesus],”
added Pope Francis, “is also the Head of the Body of the Church: He is
the principle. God gave to him fullness, totality, in order that, in
Him, all things might be reconciled.” If, therefore, the first attitude
is celebration, Pope Francis said, “The second attitude is [that of]
recognizing Him as the One.” The Lord, he went on to say, “asks us only
this: to recognize Him as the One Bridegroom.” He is, “always faithful,
and asks fidelity of us.” This is why when we desire, “to have a little
party of our own, which is not that great feast, it does not do.” He
went on to say that the Lord tells us that we cannot serve two masters:
one either serves God, or the world:
“This is the second Christian
attitude: to recognize Jesus as the whole, the center, the totality. But
we will always be tempted to cast this newness of the Gospel, this new
wine, into old attitudes ... It is sin, we are all sinners. Only
recognise it: ‘This is a sin.’ Do not say this goes with this. No! The
old wineskins cannot hold the new wine. This is the novelty of the
Gospel. Jesus is the bridegroom, the bridegroom who weds the Church, the
groom who loves the Church, who gives his life for the Church. Jesus is
the one who makes this wedding feast! Jesus asks us the joy of
festivity, the joy of being Christians. He also asks of us the all:
it’s all Him. If we have something that is not of Him, repent, ask for
forgiveness and move on. May the Lord give us, to all of us, the grace
always to have this joy, as if we were attending a wedding. And also
have this faithfulness to the only bridegroom, who is the Lord.” (Friday's Session of Ding Dong School at the Casa Santa Marta.)
Have a party, will ya?
Live it up.
Have a blast.
There is no need to do penance for one's sins. That's so Pharisaical and Pelagian, after all, don't ya know?
This is what Jorge Mario Bergoglio/Francis said two months ago about meditation and mortification:
(Vatican Radio) To meet the living God we must tenderly kiss the wounds of Jesus in our hungry, poor, sick, imprisoned brothers and sisters. Study, meditation and mortification are not enough to bring us to encounter the living Christ. Like St. Thomas, our life will only be changed when we touch Christ’s wounds present in the poor, sick and needy. This was the lesson drawn by Pope Francis during morning Mass at Casa Santa Marta Wednesday as he marked the Feast of St. Thomas Apostle.
Jesus after the Resurrection, appears to the apostles, but Thomas is not there: "He wanted him to wait a week - said Pope Francis - The Lord knows why he does such things. And he gives the time he believes best for each of us. He gave Thomas a week. " Jesus reveals himself with his wounds: "His whole body was clean, beautiful, full of light - said the Pope - but the wounds were and are still there" and when the Lord comes at the end of the world, "we will see His wounds". In order to believe Thomas wanted to put his fingers in the wounds.
"He was stubborn. But the Lord wanted exactly that, a stubborn person to make us understand something greater. Thomas saw the Lord, was invited to put his finger into the wounds left by the nails; to put his hand in His side and he did not say, 'It's true: the Lord is risen'. No! He went further. He said: 'God'. The first of the disciples who makes the confession of the divinity of Christ after the Resurrection. And he worshiped Him”.
"And so - continued the Pope - we understand what the Lord’s intention was when he made him wait: he wanted to guide his disbelief, not to an affirmation of the Resurrection, but an affirmation of His Divinity." The "path to our encounter with Jesus-God - he said - are his wounds. There is no other”.
"In the history of the Church there have been some mistakes made on the path towards God. Some have believed that the Living God, the God of Christians can be found on the path of meditation, indeed that we can reach higher through meditation. That's dangerous! How many are lost on that path, never to return. Yes perhaps they arrive at knowledge of God, but not of Jesus Christ, Son of God, the second Person of the Trinity. They do not arrive at that. It is the path of the Gnostics, no? They are good, they work, but it is not the right path. It’s very complicated and does not lead to a safe harbor. "
"Others - the Pope said - thought that to arrive at God we must mortify ourselves, we have to be austere and have chosen the path of penance: only penance and fasting. Not even these arrive at the Living God, Jesus Christ. They are the pelagians, who believe that they can arrive by their own efforts. " But Jesus tells us that the path to encountering Him is to find His wounds:
"We find Jesus’ wounds in carrying out works of mercy, giving to our body – the body – the soul too, but – I stress - the body of your wounded brother, because he is hungry, because he is thirsty, because he is naked because it is humiliated, because he is a slave, because he's in jail because he is in the hospital. Those are the wounds of Jesus today. And Jesus asks us to take a leap of faith, towards Him, but through these His wounds. 'Oh, great! Let's set up a foundation to help everyone and do so many good things to help '. That's important, but if we remain on this level, we will only be philanthropic. We need to touch the wounds of Jesus, we must caress the wounds of Jesus, we need to bind the wounds of Jesus with tenderness, we have to kiss the wounds of Jesus, and this literally. Just think of what happened to St. Francis, when he embraced the leper? The same thing that happened to Thomas: his life changed. "
Pope Francis concluded that we do not need to go on a “refresher course” to touch the living God, but to enter into the wounds of Jesus, and for this "all we have to do is go out onto the street. Let us ask St. Thomas for the grace to have the courage to enter into the wounds of Jesus with tenderness and thus we will certainly have the grace to worship the living God. " (We encounter the Living God through His wounds.)
To misrepresent the words and actions of Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ shows oneself to be filled with pride and disordered self-love, which is why Francis the Insidious Little Pest's disparagement of prayer, penance and mortification is all the more damnable.
Indeed, prayer, penance, fasting and mortification are essential to growth in the interior life. Time simply does not permit a full recitation of the examples of truly heroic sanctity practiced by canonized saints as they sought to die to self on a daily basis and to be completely mortified to the world, to human respect and to sense pleasures.
Suffice it for present purposes to draw upon the following reflection, written by Father John Croiset, S.J., on Mortification:
Mortification is a necessary disposition for the true love of Jesus Christ; this was the first lesson that Jesus Christ Himself gave those who wished to be His disciples; without mortification no one can expect to be a true follower of Him. “If any man, ” says He, “will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me” (Luke 9:23). And again He says: “If any man come to me, and hate not his father, his mother, and wife and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:26). Accordingly, all the saints had this distinguishing mark of perfect mortification. When people praised the virtue of anyone in the presence of St. Ignatius, he would ask: “Is that person truly mortified?” By that he wished to intimate that true mortification is inseparable from true piety, not only because virtue cannot exist long without general and constant mortification, but also because without mortification there can be no true virtue.
There are two kinds of mortification: the one, exterior, which consists
in bodily austerities; the other, interior, which consists in repressing
all inordinate affections of the mind and heart. Both kinds are
necessary to attain perfection, and one cannot continue to exist long
without the other. Fasting,
vigils, the use of the hairshirt and other such macerations of the body
are powerful means to become truly spiritual and really perfect; when
used with discretion, they help wonderfully to strengthen our human
nature, which is cowardly when there is question of
doing good, but very eager to do evil; they are of great assistance also
to repel the attacks and avoid the snares of our common enemy, and to
obtain from the Father of Mercies the helps necessary for the just,
especially for beginners.
Sanctity, it is true, does not consist in
exterior penances, and they are not incompatible with hypocrisy; it is
not so with interior mortification. It is always a certain mark
of true piety, and so is more necessary than exterior mortification, and
no one can reasonably be dispensed from it. This is the violence which
we must do to ourselves in order to possess the kingdom of Heaven. Not
everyone can fast or wear a hairshirt, but there is no one who cannot be
silent when passion prompts him to reply or vanity to speak; there is
no one who cannot mortify his human nature, his desires, and his
passions. That is what is understood by this interior mortification by
which a person weakens and conquers his self-love, and by which he gets
rid of his imperfections. It is idle to flatter ourselves that we love
Jesus Christ if we are not mortified; all the fine sentiments of piety
and the practices of devotion are suspect without perfect mortification.
We are astonished to see ourselves so imperfect and to find, after so
many exercises of piety and so many Holy Communions, that all our
passions are still alive and continue to excite our hearts. Can we not
see that want of mortification is the source of all these revolts? We
must, then, if we wish to conquer this self-love by which all the
passions are nourished, resolve to exercise generous and constant
mortification.
It is not enough to mortify ourselves in some things, for some time;
we must, as far as possible, mortify ourselves in everything and at all
times, with prudence and discretion. A single unlawful gratification
allowed to human nature will do more to make it proud and rebellious
than a hundred victories gained over it. Truce with this sort of enemy
is victory for him; “Brethren,” said Sr. Bernard, “what is cut will grow
again, and what appears extinguished will light again, and what is
asleep will awake again.”
To preserve the interior spirit of devotion, the soul must not be
dissipated with exterior distractions, and as the prophet says, must be
surrounded on all sides by a hedge of thorns. Now, if we omit to do
that, it will be for us the cause of tepidity, back sliding, and want of
devotion. When we mortify our disordered inclinations in one thing, we
generally make up for it by some other satisfaction which we allow
ourselves. During the time of retreat, we are recollected, but as soon
as it is over, we open the gates of the senses to all kinds of
distractions.
The exercise of this interior
mortification, so common in the lives of the saints, is known by all who
have a real desire to be perfect. In this matter we have only to listen
to the Spirit of God. The love of Jesus Christ makes people so
ingenious, that the courage and energy which they display and the means
of mortifying themselves with which the Holy Spirit inspires even the
most uncultured people, surpass the genius of the learned, and can be
regarded as little miracles.
There is
nothing which they do not make an occasion to contradict their natural
inclinations; there is no time or place which does not appear proper to
mortify themselves without ever going beyond the rules of good sense. It
is enough that they have a great desire to see or to speak, to make
them lower their eyes or keep silent; the desire to learn news, or to
know what is going on, or what is being said, is for them a subject of
continual mortification which is as meritorious as it is ordinary, and
of which God alone is the Witness. The appropriate word, a witticism in
conversation, can bring them honor, but they make it the matter of a
sacrifice.
There is hardly a time of the day but gives opportunities for
mortification; whether one is sitting or standing, one can find a place
or an attitude that is uncomfortable without being remarked. If they are
interrupted a hundred times in a serious employment, they will reply a
hundred times with as much sweetness and civility as if they had not
been occupied. The ill-humor of a person with whom we have to live, the
imperfections of a servant, the ingratitude of a person under
obligations to us, can give much exercise for the patience of a person
solidly virtuous. Finally, the inconveniences of place, season or
persons suffered in a manner to make people believe that we do not feel
them are small occasions of mortification, it is true, but the
mortification on these occasions is not small; it is of great merit.
It may be said that great graces and even sublime sanctity usually
depend on the generosity with which we mortify ourselves constantly on
these little occasions. Exact
fulfillment of the duties of one’s state and conformity in all things to
community life without regard to one’s inclinations, employment, or age
involve that continual mortification which is not subject to vanity but
which is in conformity with the spirit of Jesus Christ.
If occasions for exterior mortifications are wanting, those for
interior mortification are ever at hand. Modesty, recollections, reserve
require mortification; honesty, sweetness and civility may the the
effects of education, but are more usually the result of constant
mortification. Without this virtue it is difficult for a person to be
always at peace, to be self-possessed, to do his actions perfectly, and
be always content with what God wills. (Mortification.)
Father John Croiset was a Jesuit priest who was a faithful son of the Catholic Church.
Jorge Mario Bergoglio/Francis is not very indulgent when it comes to such old-fashioned, outdated and Pharisaical penitential practices that Paragraph Fifteen in the General Instruction to the Roman Missal tells us "belong to another age of human history" even though the lives of so many saints, including the relatively few whose lives have been the subject of various articles, could be cited to bring forth evidence to refute the falsity of his propagandizing.
Consider just one such example, that of the patron saint of parish priests himself, Saint John Mary Vianney:
The explanation of this mysterious transformation of the village of Ars can only be grasped in the remarkable manner that this simple priest realized that a man must always begin with himself, and that even the rebirth of a community can only be achieved by its renewing itself. We must expect nothing of men which is not already embodied within them. On the basis of this perception St. John Vianney set to work, in the first place, upon himself, so that he could attain the ideal which he demanded of his parishioners in his own person. He took his own religious obligations with the greatest seriousness, and did not care whether the people noticed this or not. And finally the inhabitants of Ars said to each other: "Our priest always does what he says himself; he practices what he preaches. Never have we seen him allow himself any form of relaxation."
The priest of Ars subjected himself to a strict fast. In this way he sought to reduce the requirements of his life to minimum. One meal sufficed him for the whole day. He abstained from alcohol except wine at holy Mass and normally ate only a little black bread and one or two potatoes cooked in water: he would prepare sufficient of these to last him the whole week, keeping them in an earthenware pan, and often they were covered with a coating of mold. Frequently he fasted for a whole day until, overcome, he would collapse from physical weakness. In view of this mode of life he had no need, of course, of a housekeeper – apart from the fact that his house stood almost empty anyway. Since he considered that his self-mortification was all too inadequate, he had a special penitential garment made, which he wore next to his skin, and which, by reason of the constant friction against his body, was soon stained a reddish brown. For the most part he slept on a bare mattress when he was not sleeping on a bundle of wood down in the cellar.
St. John Vianney’s assiduity in the confessional and the hardships entailed thereby would, of themselves, have sufficed to raise him to high sanctity. However, he thirsted for mortifications as others thirst for pleasure, and he never had his fill of penance. He laid on himself the sacrifice never to enjoy the fragrance of a flower, never to taste fruit nor to drink, were it only a few drops of water, during the height of the summer heat. He would not brush away a fly that importuned him. When on his knees he would not rest his elbows on the kneeling bench. He had made a law unto himself never to show any dislike, and to hide all natural repugnances. He mortified the most legitimate curiosity: thus he never expressed so much as a wish to see the railway which passed by Ars at a distance of a few kilometers, and which daily brought him so many visitors. During the whole of his priestly life he never indulged in any light reading, not even that of a newspaper. The Annals of the Propagation of the Faith are the only periodical that he ever perused.
Regarding mortification, he once said, “My friend, the devil is not greatly afraid of the discipline and other instruments of penance. That which beats him is the curtailment of one’s food, drink and sleep. There is nothing the devil fears more, consequently, nothing is more pleasing to God. Oh! How often have I experienced it! Whilst I was alone – and I was alone during eight or nine years, and therefore quite free to yield to my attraction – it happened at times that I refrained from food for entire days. On those occasions I obtained, both for myself and for others, whatsoever I asked of Almighty God.”
St. John Vianney read much and often the lives of the saints, and became so impressed by their holy lives that he wanted for himself and others to follow their wonderful examples. The ideal of holiness enchanted him. This was the theme which underlay his sermons. “We must practice mortification. For this is the path which all the Saints have followed,” he said from the pulpit. He placed himself in that great tradition which leads the way to holiness through personal sacrifice. “If we are not now saints, it is a great misfortune for us: therefore we must be so. As long as we have no love in our hearts, we shall never be Saints.” The Saint, to him, was not an exceptional man before whom we should marvel, but a possibility which was open to all Catholics. Unmistakably did he declare in his sermons that “to be a Christian and to live in sin is a monstrous contradiction. A Christian must be holy.” With his Christian simplicity he had clearly thought much on these things and understood them by divine inspiration, while they are usually denied to the understanding of educated men. (The Story of Saint John Vianney.)
According to Jorge Mario Bergoglio/Francis, Saint John Mary Vianney did not "know the living God," and neither did the likes of Saint Alphonsus de Liguori, Saint John of God, Saint Mary Magdalene, Saint Catherine of Siena, Saint Rose of Lima, Padre Pio and even Saint Francis of Assisi himself, who lived a life of austere penance and mortification, something that Pope Pius XI explained in Rite Expiatos, April 13, 1926:
40. Especially in our days franciscana have been studied more profoundly by
the learned and a great number of works printed in various languages have seen
the light of day. The talents, too, of artists who have made works of great
artistic value have succeeded in arousing an almost limitless admiration for St.
Francis among our contemporaries despite the fact that sometimes this admiration
is not based on a true understanding of the Saint. Some admired in him the
character of the poet by which he so wonderfully expressed the sentiments of his
soul, and his famous Canticle became the delight of learned men who recognized
in it one of the first great poems of the early Italian language. Others were
taken by his love of nature, for he not only seemed fascinated by the majesty of
inanimate nature, by the splendor of the stars, by the beauty of his Umbrian
mountains and valleys, but, like Adam before his fall in the Garden of Eden,
Francis even spoke to the animals themselves. He appears to have been joined to
them in a kind of brotherhood and they were obedient to his every wish. Others
praised his love of country because in him Our Italy, which boasts the great
honor of having given him birth, found a more fruitful source of blessings than
any other country. Others, finally, honor him for that truly singular and
catholic love with which he embraced all men. All of this is quite admirable but
it is the least that is to be praised in our Saint, and it all must be
understood in a correct sense. If we stop at these aspects of his life and look
upon them as the most important, or change their import so as to justify either
our own morbid ideas or excuse our false opinions, or to uphold thereby some of
our prejudices, it is certain that we would not possess a genuine picture of the
real Francis. As a matter of fact, by his practice of all the virtues in a
heroic manner, by the austerity of his life and his preaching of penance, by his
manifold and restless activity for the reformation of society, the figure of
Francis stands forth in all its completeness, proposed to us not so much for the
admiration as for the imitation of Christian peoples. As the Herald of the Great
King, his purposes were directed to persuading men to conform their lives to the
dictates of evangelical sanctity and to the love of the Cross, not that they
should become mere friends or lovers of flowers, birds, lambs, fishes or hares.
He seemed filled with a great and tender affection for animals, and "no matter
how small they were" he called them all "by the name of brother and sister"-a
love which if it is kept within bounds is assuredly not prohibited by any law.
This love of animals was due to no other cause than his own love of God, which
moved him to love these creatures because he knew that they had the same origin
as he (St. Bonaventure, Legenda Maior, Chap VIII, No. 6) and in them all
he perceived the goodness of God. St. Francis, too, "saw the image of the
Beloved imprinted on all things, and made of these things a ladder whereby to
reach His throne." (Thomas of Celano, Legenda, Chap. II, No. 165) (Pope Pius XI, Rite Epiatos, April 13, 1926.)
By disparaging the necessity of making reparation for one sin's in order to enjoy the "party," Bergoglio/Francis shows himself to be far, far from the spirit of Saint Francis of Assisi.
Indeed, this septuagenarian Jesuit layman has been saying little other than the very words i that the devil himself spoke to Saint Francis of Assisi to keep him from his life of prayer, penance, fasting and mortification:
While Francis was at prayer, the devil called him three times by name.
The saint responded, and the devil added: "In the whole world there is
not a single sinner to whom the Lord will not grant pardon if he
repents; but if someone kills himself with excessive penances, he will
not obtain mercy forever." By a revelation, the saint instantly
recognized the lie and the liar, and saw how the demon was trying to
cool his ardor to lukewarmness. The ancient enemy, seeing that his
effort was of no avail, aroused in Francis a violent temptation of the
flesh, but the man of God, feeling this, took off his habit and scourged
himself with a coarse rope, saying to his body. "See here, brother
[donkey]! Either behave yourself or take a beating!" But the temptation
persisted, so the saint went out and threw himself naked into the deep
snow. Then he made seven snowballs, which he set in front of him, and
spoke again to his body: "Look here," he said, "the biggest ball is your
wife, the next four are two sons and two daughters, and the last two
are a manservant and a maidservant. Hurry up and clothe them, they dying
of cold! Or if it bothers you to give them so much attention, then
serve the Lord with care!" Thereupon the devil went away in confusion,
and the man of God returned to his cell glorifying God. (Archbishop Jacobus de Voragine, O.P., The Golden Legend.)
Father George Haydock's commentary on the passage from the Gospel according to Saint Luke makes it clear that those who have turned away from Our Lord to commit sin must do penance, and since each of us is a sinner, of course, this means every single last one of us:
Ver. 33. St. Matthew says, it was St. John the Baptist's disciples themselves that objected this to Christ. Most probably both they and the Pharisees endeavoured all they could to press this objection. (St. Augustine, de cons. Evang. lib. ii. chap. 27) --- Why do you not fast, as is customary with all that wish to regulate their lives according to the law? The reason why the saints fasted was, that they might, by afflicting their bodies, subdue their passions. Jesus Christ, therefore, had no need of fasting, being God, and of course free from every, the least, disorderly motion of concupiscence. Neither did his attendants stand in need of fasting, for being enriched with his grace, they were strengthened in virtue, without the help of fasting. When, therefore, Christ fasted forty days, he fasted to set an example to carnal men. (St. Cyril) --- As long as the Spouse is with us, we are in joy, we cannot fast, we cannot mourn. But when he has been driven away by sin, then we must both fast and weep. (Ven. Bede)
Jorge Mario Bergoglio/Francis is a past master of creating false dichotomies that are supposed to drive a wedge between the "old attitudes" of the "no church" so beloved his Pharisaical and Pelagian straw men to the "novelty" of the "yes church" of which he is now the universal public face of apostasy.
There is no dichotomy between being joyful as one tries to live more and more penitentially in cooperation with the ineffable graces won for us by the shedding of Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ's Most Precious Blood during His Passion and Death on the wood of the Holy Cross that flow into our hearts and souls through the loving hands of Our Lady, she who is the Mediatrix of All Graces.
Indeed, the lives of the saints teach us that the only way to true joy is to deny oneself and to love being brought low before men, humiliated and calumniated. We must be so attached to the love of God that we become wholly indifferent to castigation, ridicule and rejection, recognizing that few of us ever suffer as our sins deserve to be punished and that it is a great sign of God's love for us that He chastises us in order to save. (I will append Saint Anthony Mary Claret's wonderful reflection on "Holy Indifference" at the end of this commentary. Yes, I have included that several times in the past. However, it is always good to serve as a reminder in these days when so many Catholics suffer at the hands of their own family members and friends for choosing to suffer all of the slings and barbs rather than to enjoy the "party" of conciliarism and its false doctrines, sacrilegious liturgies and pagan pastoral practices.)
Jorge Mario Bergoglio/Francis drove home the necessity of shedding the "old attitudes" in yesterday's session of Ding Dong School Of Apostasy, which disparaged those are attached to old devotions and "private revelations" that can never lead them to truly know Our Lord:
Citing the Letter of St Paul to the Colossians (1:21-23) the Holy Father talked about what the Apostle said: that Jesus reconciled us “in his body of flesh by his death – we reconciled us all – in order to present you holy and blameless and irreproachable before him; provided that you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast”. Jesus is the centre and he regenerates us and grounds us in faith. But “the pharisees instead put the law at the centre of their religiosity. And Jesus says of them: they are laying burdens on people's shoulders”.
If Jesus is not at the centre, the Pontiff said, “other things are”. And today “we encounter many Christians without Christ, without Jesus. For example, those with the sickness of the pharisees and there are Christians who put their faith, their religiosity, their Christianity, in laws: I must do this, I must do that. Christians by habit”: who do what they do because they must, but in fact, “they do not know what they do”.
Pope Francis wondered: “Where is Jesus?... A command is valid if it comes from Jesus”. There are so many Christians without Christ, like those “who seek out only devotions, but no Jesus. There is something missing, my brother! Jesus is missing. If your devotions lead you to Jesus, then they are good. But if they stay where they are, then something is wrong”. There is another group of “Christians without Christ: those who seek out novelties, special things, they follow some private revelations”, meanwhile Revelation was completed with the New Testament. The Holy Father warned these Christians against the wish to go “to some kind Revelation spectacle, to feel new things. Take up the Bible instead!”. Among Christians without Christ the Pope then mentioned “those who make their souls, so to speak, smell sweet but have not virtue because they do not have Jesus”.
What then is the rule for being a Christian with Christ? And what is the “sign” that someone is in fact a Christian with Christ? It is simple, the Pope explained: “the rule is whatever leads you to Jesus is the valid, and only what comes from Jesus is valid. Jesus is the centre, the Lord, as he himself says”. As a “sign”, he said: it is simple. “ A man or a woman who adores Jesus is a Christian with Jesus. If you can't worship Jesus, something is missing”. The rule is to “follow what comes from Jesus and do what leads to Jesus. The sign is to adoration of Jesus, prayer and adoration before Jesus”. (Saturday Morning at Ding Show School.)
Jorge Mario Bergoglio/Francis packed a lot into yesterday's session of Ding Dong School at the Improv inside of the Vatican Walls.
The false "pontiff" wants us to believe that those who practice various devotions are in essence latter day Pharisees who think that they can win a hearing with Our Lord by what believes to be the "mere multiplication of prayers." By doing this, Jorge Mario Bergoglio/Francis is throwing out the entire Raccolta of Holy Mother Church's indulgenced prayers. This makes one wonder if he, not unlike his octogenarian predecessor, Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI, believes in the efficacy of indulgenced prayers for the Poor Souls in Purgatory, if he even believes in Purgatory at all, that is(see From Sharp Focus to Fuzziness for Ratzinger/Benedict's obfuscation of the doctrine of Purgatory).
To disparage personal devotions as presenting an obstacle to "finding" Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ is to demonstrate fidelity to Martin Luther, John Calvin, Ulrich Zwingli, Thomas Cranmer, John Wesley and each of the other Protestant Revolutionaries of the Sixteenth Century and thereafter. It is disparage all of the pious practices of simple and truly humble souls who sought to glorify the Most Blessed Trinity and to make reparation for their own sins and for those of whole world while praying for their own intentions and those of their loved ones and friends.
Moreover, Jorge Mario Bergoglio's continued efforts to denigrate those who observe the binding precepts of the Divine Positive Law and the Natural Law and Holy Mother Church's own precepts are designed to exculpate himself for refusing to seek to denounce grievous Mortal Sins by emphasizing his supposed "humility," his "simplicity," and his "love for the poor." He is knocking his straw men down in order to prop himself up as a model for all Catholics to follow.
Yes, Jorge Mario Bergoglio/Francis wants Catholics to "get rid" of the "old wineskins," the "old attitudes" and the old, superstitious devotions in order to be as "liberated" as he is doctrinally, liturgically and pastorally. To accomplish this feat of pure revolutionary demagoguery, the Jesuit layman must invoke the words that Our Lord spoke whilst He hung on the Holy Cross to excuse His executioners Who were cursing at Him and daunting Him as He redeemed their souls and those of us all.
"They know not what they are doing"?
This is the man who sought to pray for peace yesterday evening as he said once again that peace is built by "encounter" and dialogue" (see Yet Another Appeal to Encounter and Dialogue)?
No one who makes such constant warfare against the entire patrimony of the Catholic Church, including her Treasury of Indulgenced Prayers, if only by inference, is going to have his "prayers," such as they are, heard by the true God of Divine Revelation. It is precisely the sort of offensive doctrines and sacrilegious liturgies and harmful pastoral practices that brings down the wrath of God and worsens the chastisement that is at hand. Men who are at warfare with God by means of their false doctrines and liturgies and their efforts to throw aside all true Catholic practices as Pharisaical and/or Pelagian can never be instruments under any circumstances.
And while it is true that Divine Revelation ended with the death of the last Apostle, Saint John the Evangelist, it is also true that Holy Mother Church has accepted the authenticity of various private revelations. None of these revelations bind the consciences of Catholics. Holy Mother Church declares only on the authenticity of any private revelation and notes that there is nothing in it that is contrary to Faith and Moral.
It is also true that Holy Mother Church takes a cautious approach to private revelations and that she does discourage her children from seeking after signs and wonders.
Nevertheless, however, Holy Mother Church has used private revelations as the basis of many of her approved devotions, many of which have indulgences attached to them, and her true popes have established universal liturgical feasts based upon them.
Consider, for example, just a few examples, starting with the Brown Scapular of Our Lady of Mount Carmel given by the Queen of Heaven to Saint Simon Stock. Our Lady Sabbatine Privilege was privately revealed to Jacques Cardinal D'Euse, the
future Pope John XXII (that's Pope John the Twenty-second), who gave it his full papal approbation in the Thirteenth Century.
Dom Prosper Gueranger, O.S.B., in The Liturgical Year described how this came about.
In the night between the 15th and 16th of July of the
year 1251, the gracious Queen of Carmel confirmed to her sons [the
Carmelites] by a mysterious sign the right of citizenship she had
obtained for them in their newly adopted countries [of the West]; as
mistress and mother of the entire religious state she conferred upon
them with her queenly hands the scapular, hitherto the distinctive garb
of the greatest and most ancient family of the West. O giving St. Simon
Stock this badge, ennobled by contact with her sacred fingers, the
Mother of God said to him: 'Whosoever shall die in this habit shall not
suffer eternal flames.' But not against hell fire alone was the
all-powerful intercession of the Blessed Mother to be felt by those who
should wear the scapular. In 1316, when every holy soul was imploring
heaven to put a period to that long and disastrous widowhood of the
Church, which followed in the death of Clement V, the Queen of Saints
appeared to James d'Euse, whom the world was soon to hail as John XXII;
she foretold to him his approaching elevation to the Sovereign
Pontificate, and at the same time recommended him to publish the
privilege she had obtained from her Divine Son for her children of
Carmel--viz., a speedily deliverance from purgatory. 'I, their Mother,
will graciously go down to them on the Saturday after their death, and
all whom I find in purgatory I will deliver and will bring to the
mountain of life eternal.' These are the words of our Lord herself,
quoted by John XII in the Bull which he published for the purpose of
making known the privilege and which was called the Sabbatine Bull on
account of the day chosen by the glorious benefactress for the exercise
of her mercy.
We are aware of the attempts made to nullify the
authenticity of these heavenly concessions; but our extremely limited
time will not allow us to follow up these worthless struggles in all
their endless details. The attack of the chief assailant, the too famous
Lounoy, was condemned by the Apostolic See, and after, as well as
before, these contradictions, the Roman Pontiffs confirmed, as much as
need be, by their supreme authority, the substance and even the letter
of the precious promises. The reader may find in special works the
enumeration of the many indulgences with which the Popes have, time
after time, enriched the Carmelite family, as if earth would vie with
heaven in favouring it. The munificence of Mary, the pious gratitude of
her sons for the hospitality given them by the West, and lastly, the
authority of St. Peter's successors, soon made these spiritual riches
accessible to all Christians, by the instruction of the Confraternity of
the holy Scapular, the members whereof participate in the merits and
privileges of the whole Carmelite Order. Who shall tell the graces,
often miraculous, obtained through this humble garb? Who could count the
faithful now enrolled in the holy militia? When Benedict XIII, in the
eighteenth century, extended the feast of July 16 to the whole Church,
he did but give an official sanction to the universality already gained
by the cultus of the Queen of Carmel. (Dom Prosper Gueranger, O. S.B., The Liturgical Year.)
Additionally, of course, Holy Mother Church's solicitude for Our Lady's Most Holy Rosary, which she gave to Saint Dominic in the year 1208, has been blessed with many indulgences and has been the subject of many eloquent encyclical letters, including those written every year by Pope Leo XIII.
Holy Mother Church also has sanctioned Our Lady's apparition to Juan Diego in
December of 1531 as she instructed him to tell Bishop [then Administrator
Fray] Juan de Zumarraga to build a church in her honor, which request
was honor when Juan Diego presented the Castilian roses that Bishop
Zumarraga wanted as proof of the apparition, revealing also the
miraculous image of Our Lady of Guadalupe on his tilma in the process. Pope Pius XII proclaimed Our Lady of Guadalupe to be the Empress of the Americas.
Holy Mother Church's liturgical feast of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus came about as a result of the private revelations made to Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque in the late-Seventeenth Century at a time that Jansenism, which disparaged all private devotions and desired to foster a "simplicity" of doctrine and liturgy was running rampant.
Holy Mother Church has also sanctioned the devotion of the Nine First Fridays in a specific response to the message that Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque received from Our Lord Himself.
Similarly, the Miraculous Medal that Our Lady instructed Saint Catherine Laboure in 1830 to have struck received ecclesiastical approbation, and Pope Leo XIII instituted a feast in its honor in 1894.
The Green Scapular that Our Lady revealed to
Sister Justine Bisqueyburo, who lived in the same convent on Rue de Bac as Saint Catherine Laboure, received the approval of Pope Pius IX in 1863 and 1870.
Promotion of devotion to the Immaculate
Heart of Mary, especially through the Five First Saturdays, was requested in what some disparage as only a "private revelation" by
Our Lady in the Cova da Iria in Fatima, Portugal, in 1917. Pope Pius
XII placed the feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary on the universal
calendar of the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church in 1942 as a direct
result of the Fatima apparitions.
Although it is possible for one to save his soul without believing in
Our Lady's Fatima Message or without fulfilling the requests she made in
the Cova da Iria to Lucia dos Santos and Francisco and Jacinta Marto,
it would be very foolish to reject the great Mercy of Our Lord Himself
represented by His sending His own Most Blessed Mother to earth a number
of times since the beginning of the Nineteenth Century (Saint Catherine
Laboure, Sister Christine Bisqueyburo, Melanie Calvert and Maximim
Giraud, Saint Bernadette Soubirous, at Pontmain, Pellevoisin, Knock,
Fatima, Banneaux, Beauraing). To dismiss Our Lady's Fatima Message on
the grounds that it is but a private revelation makes it incongruous for
any priest to justify keeping devotions to the Most Sacred Heart of
Jesus on the First Friday of the month as these devotions are based
entirely on the private revelations given by Our Lord to Saint Margaret
Mary Alacoque. The Rosary itself is based on a private revelation. Would
one be justified in dismissing devotion to Our Lady's Most Holy Rosary
by saying that it is based on a private revelation?
And although not a private revelation as such, one can point to the dream that Pope Innocent III had of the "little man in brown" who was going save the Church from falling down, which is how he recognized a little man in brown who appeared to him later, Saint Francis of Assisi himself.
To be sure, there have been and continue to be plenty of false apparitions, including, of course, Medjugorje, which is so beloved by the likes of the vulgar, profane Christoph Schonborn, the conciliar "archbishop" of Vienna, and Conyers, Georgia, and any number of others.
Bergoglio//Francis, however, was thus engaging in another exercise of knocking down a straw man yesterday morning at the Casa Santa Marta as he spoke about private revelations without specifying which ones he had in mind. The man is not very indulgent of the patrimony of the Catholic Church as he belongs to a a false church about which various mystics (you know, those people we are supposed to ignore, right?) had prophesied long ago:
I saw a strange church being built against every rule. . . No angels were supervising the building operations. In that church, nothing came from high above. . . There was only
division and chaos. It is probably a church of human creation, following
the latest fashion, as well as the new heterodox church of Rome, which
seems of the same kind. . .
I saw again the strange big church that was being
built there (in Rome). There was nothing holy in it. I saw this just as I
saw a movement led by Ecclesiastics to which contributed angels, saints
and other Christians. But then (in the strange big change) all the work
was being done mechanically (i.e. according to set rules and formulae).
Everything was being done according to human reason. . .
I saw all sorts of people, things, doctrines, and
opinions. There was something proud, presumptuous, and violent about it,
and they seemed to be very successful. I did not see a single Angel nor
a single saint helping in the work. But far away in the background, I
saw the seat of a cruel people armed with spears, and I saw a laughing
figure which said: "Do build it as solid as you can; we will put it to
the ground" . . . . (as found in Yves Dupont, Catholic Prophecy: The Coming Chastisement, TAN Books and Publishers, 1970, p. 61)
We must pray for the day when more and more believing Catholics will come to embrace the penances and devotional practices that have the sanction of the Catholic Church but have been disparaged, deconstructed or entirely jettisoned by the counterfeit church of conciliarism.
We are called to do penance, now and always.
We are called to live as citizens of Heaven as we fulfill our duties of state each day, relying upon Our Lady's maternal intercession and protection, especially by means of her Most Holy Rosary, with every beat of our hearts, consecrated as they must be to her own Immaculate Heart and to the Most Sacred Heart of her Divine Son. We are called to live as the children Mary our Immaculate Queen in the service of Christ the King.
We must trust in Our Lady as we undertake our daily battles with the forces of the world, the flesh and the devil, remembering that one glance from her causes the devil and his minions, who prowl about the world seeking the ruin of souls, to flee instantaneously:
On the way back to the Petits-Fosses [after the fourth apparition, February 19, 1858], Bernadette revealed how at a certain moment the Apparition seemed different from before. Suddenly loud yells, belched from the Gave, had rent the sacred silent of Massabielle. The 'challenged, crossed, collided with one another, like the clamour of a brawling crowd'. One voice, more furious than the rest, dominated them all and roared out: 'Get out of here! . . . Get out of here!' Bernadette guessed rightly that the threatening curse was by no means addressed merely to her humble self, but was an attack directed beyond her to the Vision of Light standing above the eglantine.
The Vision merely glanced in the direction of the rushing stream. This single look, one of sovereign authority, reduced the invisible mob to silence: the enemy of all good would not drive her from the grotto where she gave her audiences. 'He is in a rage. So much the better!' the saintly Cure d'Ars used to say of the grappin. 'He lets me know himself when big sinners are coming!'
At Massabielle, the future was to prove that the Spirit of evil, in this burst o fury, had admitted his defeat; he was not to extinguish the great radiance that would issue from this dark, peaceful nook, where so many sinners would renounce sin! (Abbe Francois Trochu, Saint Bernadette Soubirous: 1844-1879, p. 64.)
Our voluntary embracing of our own daily penances--and our absolute fidelity to Our Lady's Most Holy Rosary as we keep ourselves and our children unspotted by the world--now and up to the hour of our deaths is the path by which which we can be greeted by the Lady of Lourdes and then crowned with a halo of sanctity for all eternity in the glory of the Beatific Vision of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost.
Isn't it time to pray a Rosary now?
Vivat Christus Rex! Viva Cristo Rey!
Our Lady of Fatima, pray for us.
Saint Joseph, pray for us.
Saints Peter and Paul, pray for us.
Saint John the Baptist, pray for us.
Saint John the Evangelist, pray for us.
Saint Michael the Archangel, pray for us.
Saint Gabriel the Archangel, pray for us.
Saint Raphael the Archangel, pray for us.
Saints Joachim and Anne, pray for us.
Saint Adrian, pray for us.
