The Irish Dominican

Burning Heresy

2010-11-24T21:45:00.001-05:00

And many of them that believed, came confessing and declaring their deeds. And many of them who had followed curious arts, brought together their books, and burnt them before all… (Acts 19:18-19)

JM + JD

Question:

Does Holy Mother Church encourage the burning of heretical books?

Answer:

YES!

Many times Catholics are given heretical Protestant bibles by those agents of Protestantism in an effort to "convert" the Catholic to whatever flavour of "christianity" the Protestant belongs to. The question arises, what to do with Protestant bibles? If we look in the Catechism of Pope St. Pius X he gives us the answer:

32 Q: What should a Christian do who has been given a Bible by a Protestant or by an agent of the Protestants?

A: A Christian to whom a Bible has been offered by a Protestant or an agent of the Protestants should reject it with disgust, because it is forbidden by the Church. If it was accepted by inadvertence, it must be burnt as soon as possible or handed in to the Parish Priest.

33 Q: Why does the Church forbid Protestant Bibles?

A: The Church forbids Protestant Bibles because, either they have been altered and contain errors, or not having her approbation and footnotes explaining the obscure meanings, they may be harmful to the Faith. It is for that same reason that the Church even forbids translations of the Holy Scriptures already approved by her which have been reprinted without the footnotes approved by her.

We are to "reject it with DISGUST" and told that it must be burnt as soon as possible!

No doubt many if not all the Novus Ordo catholics will shudder at the very thought of burning the bible of our "separated brothers and sisters" however this command is very clear in the Catechism so,

the next time your friendly neighbourhood heretic hands you a bible have your kindling handy..

Thanksgiving is a Catholic Holiday!

2010-11-23T23:17:00.001-05:00

JM + JD

My dear readers,

As we Americans celebrate the secular holiday of Thanksgiving, many of us do not really know the REAL story behind the holiday. Most people think is is about Protestant Puritans and Red Indians sharing a meal together however; the true origins of this "feast" are actually Catholic!

The FIRST Thanksgiving was NOT in 1621 Plymouth with Protestant Pilgrims, rather, it was in 1565
Here in Florida (St. Augustine) with Catholic Spaniards and Red Indians.

Squanto (The Indian we all learn about as school children) was the Indian who mediated between the Pilgrims and the Indians. Squanto had actually been enslaved by Protestant English but he was freed by Catholic Spanish Franciscans. Squanto was then baptised and became a Catholic.

So, in the end it was a baptized Catholic Red Indian who orchestrated what became known as Thanksgiving even in 1621.

So, remember this coming Thursday that Thanksgiving is a CATHOLIC Holiday,

Words of wisdom from the past

2010-05-16T19:32:00.000-04:00

BISHOP ANTONIO DE CASTRO MAYER'S
LETTER TO POPE PAUL VI
WITH RESPECT TO THE PROMULGATION OF THE NOVUS ORDO MISSAE

GIVEN AT CAMPOS, BRAZIL ON SEPTEMBER 12, 1969

Most Holy Father,

After a close examination of the Novus Ordo Missae, which will enter into use on November 30 next, and after having prayed and reflected a great deal, I consider that it is my duty, as a Catholic priest and bishop, to lay before Your Holiness my anguish of conscience, and to formulate, with the piety and confidence that a son owes to the Vicar of Christ, the following request.

The Novus Ordo Missae shows, by its omissions, and by the changes that it has brought to the Ordinary of the Mass, as well as by a good number of the general rules that describe the understanding and nature of the new missal in its essential points, that it does not express, as it ought to do the theology of the Holy Sacrifice as established by the Holy Council of Trent in its XXII session. The teaching of the simple catechism cannot overcome this fact. I attach below the reasons that, in my opinion, justify this conclusion.

The pastoral reasons that could, perhaps, be invoked, initially, in favor of the new structure of the Mass, cannot make us forget the doctrinal arguments that point in the opposite direction. Furthermore, they do not seem to be reasonable. The changes that prepared the Novus Ordo have not helped to bring about an increase in the Faith and the piety of the faithful. To the contrary, they remain very disturbed, with a confusion that the Novus Ordo has increased, for it has encouraged the idea that nothing is unchangeable in the Holy Church, not even the Most Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.

Moreover, as I indicate in the attached reasons, the Novus Ordo not only fails to inspire fervor, but to the contrary, diminishes the Faith in central truths of the Catholic life, such as the Real Presence of Jesus in the Most Holy Sacrament, the reality of the propitiatory Sacrifice, the hierarchical priesthood.

I hereby accomplish an imperious duty in conscience by demanding, humbly and respectfully, that Your Holiness might deign, by a positive act that eliminates every doubt, to authorize us to continue using the Ordo Missae of St. Pius V, whose effectiveness in bringing about the spread of Holy Church and an increase in the fervor of priests and faithful has been proven, as Your Holiness reminded us with so much unction.

I am convinced that Your Holiness’s fatherly kindness will bring to an end the perplexities that have risen in my heart of a priest and bishop.

Prostrate at Your Holiness’ feet, in humble obedience and filial piety, I implore your Apostolic Benediction.

+ Antonio de Castro Mayer
Bishop of Campos, Brazil

COMMENTS ON THE NOVUS ORDO MISSAE

The Novus Ordo Missae consists in general norms for the text of the Ordinary of the Mass. Both the text and the norms propose a new Mass that does not consider sufficiently the definitions of the Council of Trent concerning this matter, and constitutes, for this reason, a grave danger for the integrity and purity of the Catholic Faith. We have only examined here a few points, that, we believe, establish that which I have affirmed.

I. Definition of the Mass

In its no.7 the new Ordo gives the follow as a definition of the Mass: "Cena dominica seu Missa est sacra synaxis seu congregatio populi Dei in unum convenientis, sacerdote praeside, ad memoriale Domini celebrandum. Quare de sanctae ecclesiae locali congregatione eminenter valet promissio Christi: ‘Ubi sunt duo vel tres congregati in nomine meo, ibi sum in medio eorum’" (Mt. 18:10)¹.

In this definition:

There is insistence on the Mass understood as a meal. Moreover, this way of seeing the Mass can be found frequently, all along the general norms (cf. v.g. nos. 8, 48, 55d, 56 etc.). It seems even that the intention of the new Ordo Missae is to inculcate this aspect of the Mass, to the detriment of the other, which is essential, namely that the Mass is a sacrifice.
In fact, in the quasi-definition of the Mass given in article 7, the character of the sacrifice of the Mass is not signified.
Likewise, it attenuates the sacramental character of the priest, that distinguishes him from the faithful.
Furthermore, nothing is said of the intrinsic value of the Mass, independently of the presence of the assembly. Much to the contrary, it is supposed that there is no Mass without the "congregatio populi", for it is the "congregatio" that defines the Mass.
Finally, the text allows a confusion to exist between the Real Presence and the spiritual presence, for it applies to the Mass the text from St. Matthew which only concerns the spiritual presence.

The confusion between the Real Presence and the spiritual presence, already seen in article 7, is confirmed in article 8, which divides the Mass into a "table of the word" and a "table of the Lord’s body". But it also hides the aspect of sacrifice in the Mass, which is the principal of all, since the aspect of a meal is only a consequence, as can be deduced from Canon 31 of the XXII session of the Council of Trent.

We observe that the two texts from Vatican II, quoted in the notes, do not justify the concept of the Mass proposed in the text. We also note that the few expressions, that are more or less passing references, in which are found expressions such as this, at the altar: "sacrificium crucis sub signis sacramentalibus praesens efficitur" (no. 259) are not sufficient to undo the ambiguous concept, already inculcated in the definition of the Mass (no. 7), and in many other passages in the general norms.

II. The Purpose of the Mass

The Mass is a sacrifice of praise to the Most Holy Trinity. Such a purpose does not appear explicitly in the new Ordo. To the contrary, that which, in the Mass of St. Pius V, shows clearly this sacrificial end is suppressed in the new Ordo. Examples include the prayers "Suscipe, Sancta Trinitas" from the Offertory and the final prayer "Placeat, tibi, Sancta Trinitas". Likewise the Preface of the Most Holy Trinity has ceased to be the Preface for Sunday, the Lord’s Day.

As well as being the "sacrificium laudis Sanctissimae Trinitatis"², the Mass is a propitiatory sacrifice. The Council of Trent insists greatly on this aspect, against the errors of the Protestants (Chapter 1 & Canon 3). Such a purpose does not appear explicitly in the new Ordo. Here and there can be found a reminder of one or other expression that could be understand as implying this concept. But it never appears without the shadow of a doubt. Also, it is absent when the norms declare the purpose of the Mass (no. 54). In fact, it is insufficient to express the theology of the Mass established by the Council of Trent to simply affirm that it brings about "sanctification". It is not clear that this concept necessarily implies that of propitiation. Moreover the propitiatory intention, so clearly visible in the Mass of St. Pius V, disappears in the New Mass. In fact the Offertory prayers Suscipe Sancte Pater and Offerimus tibi and that for the blessing of the water Deus qui humanae substantiae… reformasti have been replaced by other that make no reference to propitiation at all. It is rather the sense of a spiritual banquet that they impress.

III. The Essence of the Sacrifice

The essence of the Sacrifice of the Mass lies in repeating what Jesus did at the Last Supper, and this not as a simple recitation, but accompanied by the gestures. Thus, as the moral theologians have said, it is not enough to simply say again historically what Jesus did. The words of consecration must be pronounced with the intention of repeating what Jesus accomplished, for when the priest celebrates, he represents Jesus Christ, and acts "in persona Christi".³ In the new Ordo there is no such precise statement, although it is essential. To the contrary, in the passage that speaks of the narrative part, nothing is said of the properly sacrificial part. Thus, when it explains the Eucharistic Prayer, it speaks of the "narratio institutionis"⁴ (no. 54 d.) in such a way that the expressions: "Ecclesia memoriam ipsius Christi agit" ⁵ and another at the end of the consecration: "Hoc facite in meam commemorationem" ⁶ have the meaning indicated by the explanation given in the preceding general norms (no. 54 d.). We remark that the final phrase of the (traditional) consecration "Haec quotiescumque feceritis, in mei memoriam facietis"⁷ were much more expressive of the reality that in the Mass, it is the action of Jesus Christ which is repeated.

Furthermore, placing other expressions in the midst of the essential words of consecration, namely "Accipite et manducate omnes" ⁸ and "Accipite et bibite ex eo omnes" ⁹, introduce the narrative part into the same sacrificial act. Whereas, in the Tridentine Mass the text and movements guide the priest naturally to accomplish the propitiatory sacrificial action and almost impose this intention on the priest who celebrates. In this way the "lex supplicandi"¹⁰ is perfectly in conformity with the "lex credendi"¹¹. We cannot say this for the Novus Ordo Missae. However, the Novus Ordo Missae ought to make it easier for the celebrant to have the intention necessary to accomplish validly and worthily the act of the Holy Sacrifice, especially given the importance of this action, not mentioning the instability of modern times, nor even the psychological conditions of the younger generations.

IV. The Real Presence

The sacrifice of the Mass is bound to the Real Presence of Jesus Christ in the Most Holy Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist. The Real Presence is a consequence of the sacrifice. By transsubstantiation the change of the substance of the bread and wine into the Body and Blood of the Savior is accomplished, and thus the sacrifice takes place. As a consequence the perpetual Victim is present on the altar. The Blessed Sacrament is nothing other than the Victim of the Sacrifice, who remains once the sacrificial act has been accomplished. As a consequence of the new definition of the Mass (no. 7) the new Ordo allows ambiguity to exist concerning the Real Presence, which is more or less confused with the simply spiritual presence, indicated by the phrase "where two or three are gathered in my name".

Moreover, the suppression of nearly all the genuflexions, traditional expression of adoration in the Latin church, the thanksgiving seated, the possibility of celebrating without an altar stone, on a simple table, the equating of the Eucharistic Banquet with a spiritual meal, all lead to the obscuring of the Faith in the Real Presence.

The equating of the Eucharistic Banquet to a spiritual meal leaves open the idea that Jesus’ presence in the Blessed Sacrament is bound to its use, as his presence in the word of God. From this it is not difficult to conclude with the Lutheran error, especially in a society that is little prepared to think on a higher plane. The same conclusion is favored by the function of the altar: it is only a table, on which there is not normally place for the tabernacle, in which the Victim of the sacrifice is customarily kept. The same can be said for the custom for the faithful to communicate with the same host as the celebrant. By itself, this gives the idea that once the sacrifice is completed, there is no longer any place for reserving the Blessed Sacrament. Thus none of the changes in the new Ordo Missae lead to greater fervor in the Faith towards the Real Presence, but they rather diminish it.

V. The hierarchical priesthood

The Council of Trent defined that Jesus instituted his apostles priests, in order that they, and the other priests, their successors, might offer His Body and Blood (Session xxii, Canon 2). In this manner, the accomplishment of the Sacrifice of the Mass is an act that requires priestly consecration. On the other hand, the same Council of Trent condemned the Protestant thesis, according to which all Christians would be priests of the New Testament. Hence it is that, according to the Faith, the hierarchical priest is alone capable of accomplishing the sacrifice of the New Law. This truth is diluted in the new Ordo Missae.

In this missal, the Mass belongs more to the people than to the priest. It belongs also the priest, but as a part of the assembly. He no longer appears as the mediator "ex hominibus assumptus in iis quae sunt ad Deum"¹² inferior to Jesus Christ and superior to the faithful, as St. Robert Bellarmine says. He is not the judge who absolves. He is simply the brother who presides.

We could make other observations to confirm what we have said above. However, we feel that the points that we have raised suffice to show that the new Ordo Missae is not faithful to the theology of the Mass, as established definitively by the Council of Trent, and that consequently it constitutes a serious danger for the purity of the Faith.

+ Antonio, Bishop of Campos

Wake up and smell the incense!

2010-05-09T20:11:00.000-04:00

J.M. + J.D.

My dear readers,

I thought it time for just a really fun blog post regarding something that we all love but maybe don't actually know that much about. Incense.......That's right, a blog post on incense used at Mass, Benediction, Processions, at home altars, etc..

Firstly to the heretic who claims that using incense is not "in the Bible" then clearly you don't really read Sacred Scripture. Here are a few examples:

Apocalypse 8:4
And the smoke of the incense of the prayers of the saints ascended up before God from the hand of the angel.

Apocalypse 8:3
And another angel came, and stood before the altar, having a golden censer; and there was given to him much incense, that he should offer of the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar, which is before the throne of God.

1 Machabees 4:50
And they put incense upon the altar, and lighted up the lamps that were upon the candlestick, and they gave light in the temple.

Psalms 140:2
Let my prayer be directed as incense in thy sight; the lifting up of my hands, as evening sacrifice.

Luke 1:11
And there appeared to him an angel of the Lord, standing on the right side of the alter of incense.

And I could go on and on but you get the idea... Anyway, have you ever wondered what kind of incense is used by your Chapel, Parish, etc? Have you ever asked? What are the best brands or kinds of incense used? Have you ever used incense at your family altars? If not, why not?

Some great questions that I would like to discuss here because this is; as I said a really fun Catholic topic.

Q. Firstly, what kinds of incense blends are there besides your typical Frankincense/myrrh combinations?

A. There are many various blends which all give a different scent and smoke production. (personally I love billowy smoke and strong pleasant scents)

Here are 2 of my favourite blends with pictures of the boxes

We will start with one of my all time favourites...

THREE KINGS- PONTIFICAL BLEND

Pontifical Blend is a resin incense and is one of the most famous Catholic incenses made by Three Kings

This is the incense used for Vespers at the Vatican.

Pontifical blend uses an ancient traditional recipe that combines frankincense, myrrh, benzoin and storax.

GLORIA F8 BLEND

The F8 blend is made from all-natural imported resins and has a light lavender and rose scent. This is Gloria's most popular incense which has been produced according to exacting standards for over 60 years.

Using incense at home....
My personal favourite at home mix is Three Kings Pontifical and Frankincense tears mixed together...

Hopefully you have a family altar where everyone comes to pray, lights candles, etc. and on the family altar should be incense. The kind of censer you use is up to you. Some people favour the orthodox hand style

Others prefer the more Traditional Catholic swinging censer (shown at the beginning of the blog) Regardless of what style you choose; incense can and should be used during prayers such as the Little office of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Litanies, and lectio divina/spiritual reading.

Every family altar will be different and there is no set pattern or "right way" of setting it up however, most altars share certain common characteristics. most family altars include certain basic items such as statues, candles, flowers, prayer books, censer, incense (as I said above) candle snuffer, and a bottle of Holy Water. The objects and placement are at your own discretion.

Suffering............

2010-05-09T13:11:00.000-04:00

J.M. + J.D.

Recently after the joy of becoming a son of Saint Dominic, Our Lord has seen fit to allow me now to enter a period of more suffering for Him. During suffering we learn how much we really love God because He is God, or do we love Him for the "things" He does for us, or for the happy emotive false and fleeting feelings we have.

I pray that I suffer well and that My Queen and Mother grants me the grace of good suffering.. It is at times like this that I like to read Father Paul O'Sullivan O.P. and I hope that it helps you too...........

SUFFERING

How to Make the Greatest Evil in
Our Lives Our Greatest Happiness

Fr. Paul O'Sullivan, O.P.

Suffering is the great problem of human life. We all have to suffer. Sometimes small sorrows, sometimes greater ones fall to our share. We shall now tell our readers how to avoid much of this suffering, how to lessen all suffering and how to derive great benefits from every suffering we may have to bear.

The reason why suffering appears so hard is that, first of all, we are not taught what suffering is. Secondly, we are not taught how to bear it. Thirdly, we are not taught the priceless value of suffering. This is due to the incomprehensible neglect on the part of our teachers. It is surprising how easily some people bear great sufferings; whereas, others get excited even at the smallest trouble. The simple reason is that some have been taught all about suffering; others have not.

SUFFERING IS NOT THE EVIL WE THINK IT IS

First of all, then, suffering is not simply an evil, for no one suffered more than the Son of God Himself, more than His Blessed Mother or more than the Saints. Every suffering comes from God. It may appear to come to us by chance or accident or from someone else, but in reality, every suffering comes to us from God. Nothing happens to us without His wish or permission. Not even a hair falls from our heads without His consent.

WHY DOES GOD ALLOW US TO SUFFER

Simply because He is asking us to take a little share in His Passion. What appears to come by chance or from someone else always comes because God allows it. Every act in Our Lord’s Life was a lesson for us. The greatest act in His life was His Passion. This, then is the greatest lesson for us. It teaches us that we too must suffer. God suffered all the dreadful pains of His Passion for each one of us. How can we refuse to suffer a little for love of Him!

SUFFERING IS THE GOLD IN OUR LIVES

Secondly, if we accept the suffering, He sends us and offer them in union with His sufferings, we receive the greatest rewards. Five minutes’ suffering borne for love of Jesus of greater value to us than years and years of pleasure and joy. The Saints tell us that if we patiently bear our sufferings, we merit the crown of martyrdom. Moreover, suffering borne patiently brings out all that is good in us. Those who have suffered are usually the most charming people. If we bear these facts clearly in mind, it certainly becomes much easier to suffer.

GOD ALWAYS GIVES STRENGTH TO BEAR OUR SUFFERINGS

Thirdly, when God gives us any suffering, He always gives us strength to bear it, if we only ask Him. Many, instead of asking for his help, get excited and revolt. It is this excitement and impatience that really make suffering hard to bear. Consider that we are now speaking of all suffering, even the most trifling ones. All of us have little troubles, pains, disappointments, every day of our lives. All these, if borne for love of God, obtain for us as we have said, the greatest rewards.

HOW TO BEAR SUFFERING

Even the greater sufferings that may fall to our share from time to time become easy to bear if we accept them with serenity and patience. What really makes suffering difficult to bear is our own impatience, our revolt, our refusal to accept it. This irritation increases our sufferings a hundredfold and, besides, robs us of all the merit we could have gained thereby.
We see some people pass through a tempest of suffering with the greatest of calm and serenity; whereas, others get irritated at the slightest annoyance or disappointment. We can all learn this calm and patience. It is the secret of happiness. An eminent physician, in a conference which he gave to distinguished scientists and fellow doctors, told them that he owed all his great success in life to the simple fact that he had corrected his habit of impatience and annoyance, which had been destroying all his energy and activity. Everyone, we repeat, without exception, can learn this calm and serenity.

PENANCE

We must all do penance for our sins. If we do not, we shall have long years of suffering in the awful fires of Purgatory. This fire is just the same as the fire of Hell. Now, is we offer our sufferings the very little ones as well as the greater ones–in union with the sufferings of Jesus Christ, we are doing the easiest and best penance we can perform. We may thus deliver ourselves entirely from Purgatory, while at the same time gaining the greatest graces and blessings.

LET US REMEMBER CLEARLY THAT:

1) Sufferings come from God for our benefit.

2) When we are in the state of grace, we derive immense merit from every suffering borne patiently, even the little sufferings of our daily lives.

3) God will give us abundant strength to bear our sufferings if we only ask Him.

4) If we bear our sufferings patiently, they lose their sting and bitterness.

5) Above all, every suffering is a share in the Passion of Our Lord.

6) By our sufferings, we can free ourselves in great part or entirely, from the pains of Purgatory.

7) By bearing our sufferings patiently, we win the glorious crown of martyrdom.

Of course, we may do all in our power to avoid or lessen our sufferings, but we cannot avoid all suffering. Therefore, it is clearly necessary for us to learn how to bear them.

In a word, we must understand clearly that if we remain calm, serene and patient, suffering loses all its sting but the moment we get excited, the smallest suffering increases a hundredfold. It is just as if we had a sore arm or leg and rubbed it violently; it would become irritated and painful; whereas, if we touch it gently, we soothe the irritation.

We suffer from ill-health, from pains, headaches, rheumatism, arthritis, from accidents, from enemies. We may have financial difficulties. Some suffer for weeks in their homes, some in hospitals or nursing homes.

In a word, we are in a valley of tears, Almighty God could have saved us from all suffering, but He did not do so because He knows in His infinite goodness that suffering is good for us.

PRAYER

WE HAVE A GREAT, GREAT REMEDY IN OUR HANDS, THAT IS, PRAYERS. WE SHOULD PRAY EARNESTLY AND CONSTANTLY, ASKING GOD TO HELP US TO SUFFER, TO CONSOLE US, OR IF IT PLEASES HIM, TO DELIVER US FROM SUFFERING. THIS IS ALL, ALL IMPORTANT.
A very eminent doctor, in an able article he recently published in the secular press, says that “Prayer is the greatest power in the world.” He says, “I and my colleagues frequently see that many of our patients whom we have failed to cure or whose pains we have failed to alleviate, have cured themselves by prayer. I speak now not of the prayers of holy people, but the prayers of ordinary Christians.”

We should above all pray to Our Lady of Sorrows in all our troubles. We should ask her, by the oceans of sorrow she felt during the Passion of Our Lord to help us.

God gave her all the immense graces necessary to make her the perfect Mother of God, but He also gave her all the graces, the tenderness, the love necessary to be our most perfect and loving Mother. No mother on earth ever loved a child as Our Blessed Lady loves us. Therefore, in all our troubles and sorrows, let us go to Our Blessed Lady with unbounded confidence.

THE MEMORARE
Remember, O most gracious Virgin Mary, that never was it known that anyone who fled to thy protection, implored thy help, or sought thy intercession was left unaided. Inspired with this confidence, I fly unto thee, O Virgin of virgins, my mother. To thee do I come, before thee I kneel, sinful and sorrowful. O Mother of the Word Incarnate, despise not my petitions, but in thy mercy hear and answer them. Amen.

Photos from my investiture

2010-05-01T14:56:00.000-04:00

J.M. +J.D.

Yesterday I was received into the Dominican Order and given the name:
Brother Hyacinth!!!

Here are some pics...

The OP Rite Mass

(Feast of St. Catherine)

During the reception of the Holy Habit of St. Dominic

After vesting and receiving our new names

The Dominican cake

(Baked by a dear friend)

The Three new Brothers

(From left to right)

Brother Peter

Brother Hyacinth

Brother Francis

Myself and Rev. Father

(The Chianti was delicious!)

28-APRIL- St. Louis De Montfort

2010-04-28T18:29:00.000-04:00

J.M. + J.D.

Today, the Dominican Order commemorates of of my favourite Saints of all time:

St. Louis Marie Grignion De Montfort...

    Born poor. Studied in Paris, France, and ordained in 1700. While a seminarian he delighted in researching the writings of Church Fathers, Doctors and Saints as they related to the Blessed Virgin Mary, to whom he was singularly devoted.

    Under Our Lady's inspiration, he founded the Congregation of the Daughters of Divine Wisdom, a religious institute of women devoted to the care of the destitute. During this work, he began his apostolate of preaching the Rosary and authentic Marian devotion. He preached so forcefully and effectively against the errors of Jansenism that he was expelled from several dioceses in France. In Rome Pope Clement XI conferred on him the title and authority of Missionary Apostolic, which enabled him to continue his apostolate after returning to France. He preached Mary everywhere and to everyone. A member of the Third Order of Saint Dominic, Saint Louis was one of the greatest apostles of the Rosary in his day, and by means his miraculously inspiring book, The Secret of the Rosary, he is still so today; the most common manner of reciting the Rosary is the method that originated with Saint Louis’s preaching. In 1715, he founded a missionary band known as the Company of Mary.

    His greatest contribution to the Church and world is Total Consecration to the Blessed Virgin. He propagated this in his day by preaching and after his own death by his other famous book True Devotion to Mary. Consecration to Mary is for Saint Louis the perfect manner of renewing one’s baptismal promises.

In True Devotion to Mary, Saint Louis prophesied that the army of souls consecrated to Mary will be Her instrument in defeating the Devil and his Antichrist. As Satan gains power in the world, so much more shall the new Eve triumph over him and crush his head.

The cause for his declaration as a Doctor of the Church is now being pursued.

V. Pray for us Blessed Louis Marie
R. That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ

Let us pray:

V.O God, who didst make Thy confessor, the blessed Louis Marie, a wonderful preacher of the mystery of the cross and of the most holy rosary, and who, through his means did implant a new order in Thy Church; grant through his intercession and merits, that through the life, death, and resurrection of Thy only-begotten Son, we may attain to the rewards of eternal salvation. Throught the same Christ our Lord.

R. Amen

(Taken from the Dominican Tertiarie's Manual commemoration prayers for Vespers)

Questions I was asked this week

2010-04-27T21:39:00.000-04:00

J.M. + J.D.

I think I am going to be doing a weekly post of Questions I have been asked throughout the week by Catholics and non-Catholics and my answers to them. I was thinking tonight after Vespers; about all of the interesting (and sometimes silly questions I have been asked already this week)

QUESTION:
Do animals go to Heaven after they die?
ANSWER:
While the idea of having fido or muffy in Heaven is very cute and actually very modern however; animals have a material soul and not immortal soul. Meaning that when the body of an animal dies, so too does it's soul. However, we humans we are gifted with immortal souls and therefore, when our bodies die, our soul does not. Since we have immortal we can go to heaven or Hell and animals can not............

QUESTION:
Why do we Catholics pray a Hail Mary when its not even in the Bible?
ANSWER:
Lemme guess, you go to the Novus Ordo don't you?
if you read Sacred Scripture (as you should) check out, Luke 1:28 & Luke 1:42

Now, regarding the last part of the prayer the (New) Catechism explains its significance thusly:

"Pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death: By asking Mary to pray for us, we acknowledge ourselves to be poor sinners and we address ourselves to the "Mother of Mercy," the All-Holy One. We give ourselves over to her now, in the Today of our lives. And our trust broadens further, already at the present moment, to surrender "the hour of our death" wholly to her care" (paragraph 2677).

QUESTION:

Why do you think that the Catholic Religion is the One True Religion, afterall we are all Christians....

ANSWER:

Pope Leo XIII condemned tolerance toward Protestantism under the name of Americanism, the heresy of Americanism, to be more precise not to mention to consider heretics as Christians has NEVER been the teaching of the Church.

Before the disaster of Vatican II, the Magisterium was always crystal clear: It is not a matter of an individual’s character or traits. No one can be in the Church of Christ without professing the ensemble of the truths of Catholic Faith, being in unity with the Chair of Peter and receiving the same Seven Sacraments. The only Christian is one who accepts Our Lord Jesus Christ and the Church he established.

In short, only those who profess the one Catholic Faith and are united with the Mystical Body of Christ are members of the Church of Christ. And only those members can legitimately bear the title of honor of Christian.

The Holy Bible provides an unambiguous defense that the custody of the vineyard has been committed by Christ to the Catholic Church alone. Here are a few verses.

“He who hears you (Peter) hears me, and he who rejects you, rejects me, and he who rejects me, rejects him who sent me (Lk 10:16).” It could not be clearer: the Protestant who rejects the head, rejects Christ himself, and should not be granted the name Christian.

Christ establishes one Church with a single head: "And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven" (Matt 16:19).

St. Paul is severe in his condemnation of false teachers, e.g. Protestants: “If any man preaches any other Gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed” (Gal 1: 9).

In another passage he instructs Catholics to remove themselves from the bad society of non-Catholics: “And we charge you, brethren, in the name of Our Lord Jesus Christ that you withdraw yourselves from every brother walking disorderly and not according to the Tradition which they have received of us” (2 Thess 3:6).

The Apostle St. John forbade any intercourse with heretics: “If any man come to you and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into the house or welcome him” (2 Jo 1:10)”

Holy Scriptures are clear on the point that only those who belong to the one Church founded by Christ, the Catholic Church, can rightfully be considered Christians.

Pictures from the Requiem Mass for Confederate Vets..

2010-04-27T18:55:00.000-04:00

J.M. + J.D.

Here are a few pics from the Requiem Mass for Confederate Vets celebrated by Rev. Father Marshall Roberts OP, served by myself & Br. Jason Roberts OSSM

(I am on the Epistle Side )

Elevation of the Sacred Host at the Requiem Mass for the repose of the souls of all Confederate Veterans. Proudly displaying both the Vatican flag and the first national flag of the Confederate States of America

(Epistle side of the sanctuary).

Elevation of the Chalice at the Requiem Mass for the repose of the souls of all Confederate Veterans.

Here I am clearing the Altar after Mass.

Notice the First National Confederate Flag to the right of myself and St. Michael.

Confederate Memorial Day

2010-04-25T14:10:00.007-04:00

J.M. +J.D

Today is Confederate Memorial Day in the Stae of Florda and tomorrow our Parish is having a Requiem Mass said for our Confederate Floridian Dead. With that I thought I would share some of the proud Confederate history of my state.

Florida seceded from the Union 10 January, 1861.
In 1862 minor engagements between the yankee and Confederate forces took place; the yankee troops occupied Jacksonville, St. Augustine, and Fernandina, however; Confederates, under General Finegan, gained a decisive victory over the Union forces commanded by General Seymour at Olustee in 1864.
(On a side note, I live in Jacksonville and Olustee is only about 45min from my home)

In proportion to population Florida furnished more troops than any other Confederate State; and we took an honourable part in the campaigns of Tennessee and Virginia, and bore a distinguished reputation for steadfast endurance on the march and conspicuous gallantry on the battlefield. Florida gave to the higher ranks of the Confederate service three major-generals, Loring, Anderson, and Smith, and the Brigadier-Generals Brevard, Bullock, Finegan, Miller, Davis, Finley, Perry, and Shoup.

During the so-called "reconstruction" period where yankee forces brutally raped the South, Florida was full of despair and disaster when honest citizens witnessed the control of public affairs pass into the hands of Greedy and vile Federalists.

Though Catholicism was a minority religion in both parts of the country, the Catholic influence in American society was much stronger in the less populous South than in the North at the time of the war..

In the South family mattered, numerous leading families were Catholic. The Carrolls of Maryland can be cited in this regard. Charles Carroll was the wealthiest man in the Colonies when he signed the Declaration of Independence in 1776.

Many leading Southern families that were not Catholic had members who were. An example would be the Lees of Virginia from whom was sprung the Confederacy’s Gen. Robert E. Lee. A nephew of his was the founding pastor of the Cathedral of St. Matthew in Washington, D.C.

Even when the leading families of the South were not Catholic — and most were not — they tended to have a high regard and deep respect for the Church and her institutions, especially her schools. It was very common for these families to send their children to them simply because that is where the best education was to be had. An example in this regard is Jefferson Davis himself, the eventual President of the C.S.A. His father sent him as a boy to Kentucky to be schooled by Dominicans. (I LOVE my Order!)

While among them young Davis — he was but nine — asked to be received into the Church. His desire was not realized. Alas, for what amounts to secondary concerns (family, youth, etc.),

Despite the ostentatious piety of many of his public pronouncements, Abraham Lincoln is not known ever to have joined any so-called "Christian body" (as Protestants are not TRUE Christians) as a member.
In contrast, Davis embraced a form of Episcopalianism adhered to by many leading Southerners that was very “High Church,” very “Catholic” in its externals. It was exemplified by the cleric who received Davis into Episcopalianism, his former West Point classmate Bishop Leonidas Polk, who would die in battle during the War Between the States as a general of the Army of the C.S.A.

Add to the fact that Davis became the kind of “High Church” Episcopalian he did, the additional one that the southern part of Mississippi from which he hailed was quite Catholic on account of the area’s Spanish and French past. (His home, Beauvoir, was within easy striking distance of New Orleans, where he would die while on a visit.) Further, Davis and his wife, Varina, were comfortable enough around Catholics to count numerous of them among their friends. Then there is also the fact that it was in Catholic places they took refuge when exile was their lot. All this, and more, suggests that the desire of Davis to become a Catholic when a boy was preserved into his manhood!

I would like to end my blog by inviting you to our Requiem Mass for the souls of our brave and heroic Confederate dead, and one of my personal favourire Confederate Songs:

Sing along!!

The Star-Spangled Cross

and the pure field of white

http://civilwarpoetry.org/midis/cross.mid

click for a MIDI of the tune

The Star-spangled Cross and the pure field of white
Is the banner we give to the breeze:
'Tis an emblem of Freedom unfurled in the right,
O'er our homes and our lands and our seas.

Chorus:
We'll stand by the Cross and the pure field of white,
While a shred's left to float in the air:
Our trust is in God, who can help us in fight,
And defend those who ask Him in prayer.

For years have we cringed to the unlifted red,
For years have demanded our right;
Pur voice shouts defiance--our trust is in God,
And the strong arm that gives us our might.

Chorus:

Our hills and our vales with the death-shriek may ring,
And our forests may swarm with the foe:
But still to the breeze our proud banner we'll fling,
And to Victory or Death we will go.

Chorus:

Feast of the Most Holy Crown of Thorns (OP)

2010-04-24T11:20:00.000-04:00

Tuam Coronam adoramus, Domine, alleluia.

Tuum gloriosum recolimus triumphum, alleluia.

J.M. + J.D.

Today, we Dominicans celebrate the Feast of The Crown of Thorns.

St Louis IX was gifted by Baldwin II (Latin Emperor of Constantinople) with the sacred relic of the Passion that is Our Lord's Crown of Thorns. A kingly gift! One refrains from enquiring too deeply into the sad events that led to the Latin Empire of Constantinople, and the redistribution of holy treasures from East to West...

Good king Louis commissioned the building of the Sainte-Chapelle, that marvel of stained glass, as a noble edifice itself one grand reliquary for the Crown of Thorns. Later, after the outrages of the French Revolution, the relic was translated into the metropolitan church of Notre-Dame de Paris. As two Friars Preachers had been deputed to bring the Crown to the king, St Louis gave several Spines therefrom as a gift to the Dominican Order; as the king ordered kept in his Holy Chapel the feast of the reception of the Crown of Thorns, so too the feast entered the calendar of the Dominican Order in the mid-thirteenth century.

Here is a meditation on The Crown of Thorns by a Passionist Father (1879)

"The thorns, with which the adorable head of our Lord was crowned, were not planted upon earth by the paternal hand of God, but they were maliciously sowed by a treacherous enemy. From the Gospel we learn that this enemy was the Devil, and the sin of our first parents, Adam and Eve was the noxious seed. The curse of God made them grow long and sharp. These thorns and thistles were more intended to prick the sinner's conscience than the callous hand of the industrious laborer. This is the wise reflection of St. John Chrysostom: "when God said to our fallen parents: Cursed is the earth in thy work; thorns and thistles shall it bring forth to thee." He intended to signify: thy conscience O sinner, shall never cease producing thorns and stings which will prick thy guilty soul. (St. John Chrys. in Mark 10:19) The thorns of this accursed earth are therefore the figures of our sins. They are the brand of God's malediction impressed on the forehead of sinners. Even the learned Protestant Grotius discovered this truth and said: "The curse of sin was the origin of thorns." "Maledictio in spinis Coepit." (Grot. comm. in Mark 15:17)

Now our Lord Jesus Christ, being the second Person of the most adorable Trinity, essential holiness in human flesh, Verbum Caro factum and the most cherished object of the eternal predilection of His heavenly Father, could never be defiled by the least shadow of sin and consequently He never could be subject to the malediction of God. In His infinite mercy He could however consent to experience the temporary effects of both. Jesus could assume and wear for our sake the infamous badge of sin. He could in mercy for us taste and drink the loathsome bitterness of the cup filled up to the brim with the gall and vinegar of God's malediction.

Our Divine Redeemer did in fact consent to wear during His whole mortal life, the sinner's garb and He daily drank in large doses the disgusting potion squeezed from the corrupted hearts of sinful men as from sour grapes by the weight of God's anathema. But because the large and deep vessel containing the poison of sin was not exhausted, being daily and hourly replenished by new crimes; so our dear Lord was obliged to make a most painful effort in order to drain it all at once and completely during His bitter Passion. This heroic act was accomplished in the garden of Gethsemani wherein He was so copiously drenched with the large chalice of sin that He was cast into a deadly swoon and His life's Blood was forced out from every pore of His agonizing Body.

Now we should attentively observe that the same plan was followed by our merciful Redeemer in wearing the filthy badge of sin. Having once assumed it in His incarnation with our human nature, He had to wear it continually during His whole mortal life. At the time, however, of His Passion our Lord had to be publicly and solemnly installed as the King of Sinners and Sorrows. Oh! the grand and sublime mystery of the Crown of Thorns.

It was then in the city of Jerusalem, the capital of Judea, it was in the hall of Pilate, the Roman Governor, that our Divine Lord chose to be crowned with thorns and to assume the full uniform of sinner and the infamous wreath of sin. It was on this memorable occasion that the great and eternal Son of God the Incarnate Word was installed as the King of Sinners and consequently as the man deepest in infamy and greatest in sorrow: "Despised and the most abject of men! ..." Our sins are Jesus' Crown of Thorns. "Corona ex spinis peccata sunt... (Theopil. in Matt. 27) Thorns being the offshoot and the stigma of God's malediction against sin, hence, by consenting to be crowned with thorns, our merciful Lord voluntarily became the responsible head and the willing victim of God's anathema directed and intended for sinners only. It is thus according to St. Paul that "Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us." (Gal. 3:13) Hence, by wearing the Crown of Thorns, our most holy Redeemer received upon His adorable head the curse pronounced by the irritated justice of God against our sinful race, and through this act of mercy He shielded us from its terrible blow. "In corona spinea maledictum solvit antiquum," says Origen.

Our merciful Savior effected still more in our behalf. Thorns and thistles, as we have remarked, are the principal offshoot of God's curse against sin. Now by consenting to take these sharp thorns upon His adorable head, He removed this malediction and changed it into a blessing for mankind. In this way our Lord Jesus Christ diminished the quantity and the intensity of our temporal sufferings; and through His blessing, grace and example, He rendered all our labors and toils meritorous of eternal reward. Children of sinful parents, conceived and born in sin, we have indeed much to suffer yet; but had not our blessed Lord come to our relief our temporal sufferings should have been by far more numerous in quantity and more intense in quality as daily experience testifies among Infidel and Pagan nations. Moreover we should have been condemned to pass from temporal to eternal misery. Through His merciful Crown of Thorns our Savior has removed from mankind the brand of everlasting infamy and has secured for His faithful servants the diadem of heavenly glory. "In that day, the prophet Isaias says, the Lord of Hosts shall be a crown of glory, and a garland of joy to the residue of His people." (Is. 28:5) Hence St. Jerome could with reason say that: Through the merit of the thorny crown of Jesus' head we have acquired a right to the diadem of the heavenly kingdom. "Corona spinea capitis ejus diadema regni adepti sumus." (In Marc. 15)

In all our sufferings then let us look up to the King of Sorrows crowned with thorns. This should be done more especially when by irksome neuralgia, and severe headaches, we are invited to bear a share of the thorny crown of our Divine Master. St. Bernard justly remarks that: "Christians should be ashamed to be too delicate members of a Divine head crowned with thorns." We should however acknowledge that persons afflicted with these sufferings deserve more charitable compassion than they do generally receive. These afflictions being internal and invisible do not excite to commiseration those especially who had never experienced their painful and saddening effects. We should also reflect that headaches are often caused by an overflow of blood to the head which produces a flush on the face and this is mistaken by many superficial observers for a sign of vigorous health. Hence compliments are offered which to the ears of the sufferer sound like irony. Moreover these painful attacks of the head are naturally the cause of mistakes and of awkward failures, which bring upon their victim ridicule and undeserved humiliations. The best and perhaps the only comfort and consolation on these mortifying occasions, will be a devout glance at Jesus crowned with thorns and mocked in the hall of Pilate. He is fully aware of our sufferings and trials. He suffered more than we do both in physical pain and in humiliations. Our Lord can compassionate our misery and will abundantly reward our humility, meekness and patience.

In the lives of the Fathers of the Desert, we read that St. Pacomius towards the end of his life, while suffering intense pain in his head and oppressed with interior anguish of mind, had recourse to prayer to obtain some relief and consolation from God. On this occasion our Lord appeared to him accompanied by many holy Angels and wearing a Crown of Thorns but at the same time shining with dazzling glory. Surprised at the heavenly vision the suffering servant of God prostrated himself with his face to the ground when one of the Angels very affectionately raised him up and informed him that Jesus Christ had come to console him in his affliction. Our Lord then spoke to Pacomius words of heavenly comfort encouraging him to bear his trials and sufferings with resignation, assuring him that they were intended for the purification of his soul, and for a great increase of merit which was soon to be crowned with corresponding glory and bliss for all eternity in Heaven.'

Præsta, quæsumus, omnipotens Deus: ut, qui in memoriam passionis Domini nostri Jesu Christi Coronam ejus spineam veneramur in terris, ab ipso gloria et honore coronari mereamur in cælis: Qui tecum vivit et regnat...

Grant, we beg, almighty God: that we, who in memory of the passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ do revere His thorny Crown on earth, by Him may deserve "to be crowned with glory and honour" (cf. Ps 8:6) in heaven: Who with Thee liveth and reigneth...

The Rule of the Brothers and Sisters of the Secular Third Order of Saint Dominic

2010-04-21T20:01:00.000-04:00

J.M. + J.D.

The Rule of the Brothers and Sisters of the
Secular Third Order of Saint Dominic
Approved by Pope Pius XI
by a Decree of the Sacred Congregation of Religious
April 23, 1923

The Nature and Object of the Third Order
The Third Order of Penance of Saint Dominic, also called the Militia of Jesus Christ, is an association of Christians living in the world who, sharing in the religious and apostolic life of the Order of Friars Preachers, according to their own Rule approved by the Holy See, strive to attain to Christian perfection under the government of the same Order.
The end of the Third Order is the sanctification of its own members by the practice of a more perfect Christian life and the promotion of the salvation of souls in a way that is suitable to the state of the faithful living in the world.
The means of obtaining this end, over and above the common precepts and duties of one’s state in life; - the observance of this Rule, continual prayer, and as far as possible, liturgical prayer, the practice of penance, apostolic and charitable works for the Faith and the Church according to one’s condition and particular state in life.
The associations into which the Third Order is divided are called fraternities. Nevertheless a person may be received into the Third Order who for some special reason cannot be enrolled in a fraternity.
Fraternities cannot be validly erected without the consent of the ordinary of the place. As far as possible, there should be separate fraternities for men and women.
What is said of tertiaries in the masculine applies also to women unless from the context or the nature of the case the contrary is evident.
Insofar as possible, there should be erected fraternities of secular priests, who, under the direction of some father of the Order, shall strive to lead a more apostolic life.
Chapter II
Concerning those to be received and the Conditions required
Since the increase and progress of the Third Order depend chiefly on the good qualities of the members, no one should be admitted into its ranks until he has been examined and then subjected to a term of probation. It should be proved to the satisfaction of the Director that the postulant is a good Catholic of honest life, good reputation, sincere in his desire to tend towards perfection, giving a well-founded hope, especially if he is young, of persevering in his good resolutions. Nay, more, he should be filled with a burning zeal for the promotion of the truth and should be characterized by a devoted loyalty toward the Church and the Pope.
All the faithful who have these qualities may be admitted into the Third Order of St. Dominic. Men and women, clergy or laity, married or single, may become members provided they have completed their eighteenth year and do not belong to a Religious Order or to any other Third Order. With the permission of the Father Provincial for a good reason one may be admitted at the completion of his seventeenth year. Married persons ordinarily should not be admitted without the consent of the marriage partner unless there be a good reason for doing otherwise.
The following have the power to receive into the Third Order:
1. The Master General of the Order or the Provincial within the limits of his jurisdiction;
2. The Director of the Third Order legitimately instituted for his Fraternity or in particular cases his delegate;
3. Any priest delegated by the Master General or by the Father Provincial.
In places where a Fraternity has been legitimately erected, no one, without the permission of the Director of the Fraternity or without special permission of the Superior who delegated him, may make use of these faculties. Delegation received from the Master General is for life. Delegation received from a Provincial needs confirmation by his successor.
In order that one may be admitted to a definite Fraternity of the Third Order, besides the favorable decision of the Director, the consent of the Council of the Fraternity is required.
Chapter III
The Habit of the Brothers and Sisters
The Habit of the Third Order should be made of common wool. It consists of a white robe, gathered at the waist with a leather belt, a black cloak with a hood for the Brothers and a linen guimpe for the Sisters.
Tertiaries ordinarily wear a scapular of white wool under their secular dress, in place of the Habit of the Order.
With the permission of the Ordinary of the place Tertiaries may wear in public religious functions the full Habit of the Order, or some special insignia according to custom. When they meet in a body wearing their insignia at such functions, they should march behind the cross of the Fraternity.
It is forbidden to wear the Habit of the Order publicly without the consent of the Master General and the permission of the local Ordinary.
After death, Tertiaries may be clothed with the full Habit of the Third Order, or even that of the First Order or of the Second Order.
The attire of Tertiaries should be according to approved custom and age. That Christian modesty may shine in the dress of Tertiaries; all worldly vanity should be shunned, especially in the form of fashion of one’s garments. This is becoming to the servants and the handmaids of Jesus Christ.
Chapter IV
Reception into the Third Order and the Blessing of the Habit
The time of probation having expired, the postulant is received by the Director or by his delegate before the altar of the Church or in some convenient place, according to the ceremonial of the Third Order, in the presence of at least some of the members of the Fraternity. Witnesses are not required if the postulant is not to be enrolled in a Fraternity.
Having received the Habit, the postulant is admitted to a share in all the spiritual favors of the Brothers and Sisters of the Order.
Every new Scapular should be blessed. Besides those having the faculty of receiving to the Habit, all the priests of the Dominican Order may give this blessing. In places where there is neither a priest of the Order nor a Director of a Fraternity, any priest approved for hearing confessions has the power to bless the scapular.
Chapter V
The Novitiate and Profession
Before being admitted to Profession, Novices should devote themselves to the study of the Rule for one year under the direction of the Novice Master, so that they may know their own obligations and try to become imbued with the spirit of our Holy Father, St. Dominic.
At the end of the year of probation or even before, if the particular circumstances of the person seem to demand it, the Novice may be admitted to profession by the Director with the consent of the majority of the Council of the Fraternity.
Those who are received privately into the Third Order may be admitted to profession according to the prudent judgment of anyone having the legitimate faculty.
Profession consists in the formal promise, but without a vow, of living according to the Rule of the Third Order of Friars Preachers.
The profession is made in the following manner: “To the honor of Almighty God, Father, Son and Holy Ghost, and of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and of Blessed Dominic, I … before you, the Director, and the Prior (or Prioress) of the Fraternity of the Third Order of Penance of Blessed Dominic, of this place, who hold the place of the Most Reverend Master General of the Order, do make profession that henceforth I will live according to the Rule and form of the Brothers and Sisters of this same Order of Penance of Blessed Dominic until death.”
There should be a register in every Fraternity for its own members in which are noted the name of the one received and the day of Reception and of Profession. Those who receive Tertiaries privately should send this same information to the Provincial of that territory in which the said tertiary resides, or to the Superior, from whom they received their faculty.
After Profession, which holds until death, Tertiaries are bound to perseverance in the Order and they may not, without a just cause, pass to another Third Order.
Chapter VI
The Recitation of the Office
Tertiaries should say the Office every day: either the old Office known as the Pater Noster, or the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary according to the Dominican Rite or the entire Rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary. If they be hindered from saying any of the above, they should say one of the little Offices approved by the Order, or a third part of the Rosary.
In reciting the old Office known as the Pater Noster, Tertiaries should say 28 Our Fathers and Hail Marys for Matins; 14 for Vespers and 7 for each of the other five Hours. The Apostles Creed should be recited before Matins and Prime and at the end of Compline. Matins are usually said on the evening of the preceding evening or in the morning; the Little Hours before mid-day; Vespers and Compline before the end of the day. They may, however be said at any hour of the day provided the regular order of Hours is observed.
Priests and those in major Orders will satisfy this obligation by the mere recitation of the Divine Office. They should say once a day the Responsory O Spem Miram with versicle and prayer in honor of Saint Dominic.
Tertiary priests having obtained the permission from the Master General of the Order may use the Breviary and Missal according to the calendar of the Order.
Chapter VII
Confession, Communion, And Other Pious Practices
Tertiaries should approach the Sacraments of Penance and the Holy Eucharist at least twice a month unless legitimately hindered. If they wish to be refreshed more frequently, even every day, by the Most Holy Body of Christ, their devotion is to be commended.
Tertiaries should make an effort to be present, as far as they are able, at the daily Sacrifice of the Mass and to follow the priest with devout attention during the course of the Mass. They should devote themselves to mental prayer and apply themselves to pious works suited to the spirit of the Order.
They should cultivate a special devotion based on a particular attraction toward the most faithful Patroness of the whole Order, the Virgin Mary; Saint Joseph, her spouse; our Blessed Patriarch, Dominic; Catherine of Siena, Virgin, Patroness of the Third Order; and all the Saints and Blesseds of the Order.
They should conduct themselves in churches with great reverence, particularly during the divine mysteries, and they should always show a good example to all the faithful.
It is strongly recommended that a retreat of three days, at least once a year, be made in each Fraternity.
Chapter VIII
Fasts
Besides the fasts and abstinences instituted by the Church, Tertiaries, if not legitimately hindered, should fast on the vigils of the Most Holy Rosary, our Holy Father, Saint Dominic, and Saint Catherine of Siena. Moreover, adhering to the spirit of penance characteristic of the Order and of the ancient Rule, they should observe the Fridays of the whole year as fasts and exercise themselves in other works of penance-with the advice, however, of the Director or a discreet confessor.
Chapter IX
The Avoidance of Worldliness
Tertiaries should refrain from visiting places of worldly amusement. They should not go to dances or worldly banquets or frivolous shows. If, however, it is impossible to abstain from all these, they should ask the permission of the Director or at least inform him.
Chapter X
Reverence toward Prelates and Clergy
Tertiaries should have the deepest reverence for the Bishops and the priest of their respective churches, and they should faithfully fulfill their duties towards them according to the rules and customs of each place. They should also hold all other clergy in honor according to their various positions and offices.
Chapter XI
Apostolic and Charitable Works
Following in the footsteps of the Apostolic Patriarch Dominic and of the Seraphic Virgin Catherine of Siena, all Tertiaries should devote their lives to the glory of God and the salvation of their neighbors in an ardent and generous spirit.
Mindful of the traditions of our ancestors, Tertiaries should labor in behalf of the truth of the Catholic Faith and for the Church and the Pope, in word and deed, showing themselves to be ardent defenders of their rights in all things and at all times. They should also help in apostolic works, particularly those of the Order.
They should devote themselves to works of charity and mercy according to the conditions of time and the necessities of place, either privately or as a body, according to their limits and capabilities under the direction of their Superiors.
They should also willingly assist the parish priest in pious works and particularly where there is a necessity in imparting religious instruction to boys and girls.
Chapter XII
Visiting and Assisting the Sick
In every Fraternity there should be named Visitors for the sick that shall take pains to visit members according to the wish of the Director and assist them spiritually and temporally.
Chapter XIII
Death of the Brethren and Suffrages
The death of a member of the Fraternity should be announced to the other members of the Fraternity as soon as convenient, and all the members should be present at the obsequies of the deceased member, unless legitimately hindered.
Moreover within the eight days immediately following the death notice, each member of the same Fraternity shall recite a third part of the Rosary, hear one Mass and apply one Communion for the repose of the deceased member’s soul.
Tertiaries should say, every day, one Our Father, one Hail Mary, and Eternal rest… for the living and the dead of the whole Order.
Every member within the year should have three Masses said (or should at least hear three Masses) for the welfare of the Brothers and Sisters, living and dead.
Chapter XIV
The Superiors of the Third Order
The Third Order of Friars Preachers is placed under the immediate direction and correction of the Master General, to whom, therefore, all Fraternities, all Directors, and individual Tertiaries are subject as regards those things that pertain to their living according to the Rule.
In virtue of their office, Provincials, also, within the limits of their own Provinces have care of the Third Order.
The Master General and Priors Provincial have the right to visit the Fraternities every year and more frequently if the situation demands it. They may conduct their visits through a delegate. What they deem profitable in the Lord by way of counsel, admonition, orders, or correction, even the removal of some official, should be received by all with a grateful and humble spirit.
Tertiaries who are not members of some Fraternity should regard the Master General or the Prior Provincial as their Superior in the Third Order. Others who have been enrolled in some Fraternity depend also on the Director and other Superiors of this same Fraternity.
The institution of the Director of each Fraternity in the churches of the Order is exclusively reserved to the Master General or the Prior provincial. In churches not belonging to the Order the consent of the local Ordinary is also required beforehand.
The office of Director lasts for three years at the end of which time the same Director may be reappointed.
The Director during his term of office can, by virtue of the said office, do those things, which pertain to the spiritual instruction and direction of the Brothers and Sisters. The laws of the Church should be observed in regard to the sermons to be preached.
At least once a year secular directors must send to the Provincial a statement concerning the condition and progress of the Fraternity committed to their care.
Chapter XV
Officials
In every Fraternity there should be a Prior, a Sub-Prior, a Novice Master and other Officials and Councilors.
The Council of the Fraternity should not exceed twelve members. The Prior, Sub-Prior, and Novice Master are members of the Council in virtue of their offices.
In establishing a Fraternity all officers will be installed by the Provincial. The same will be done after the dissolution of the Council, which takes place as often as the Council for any cause leaves office.
The term of office of the Officials and Councilors, lasts for three years; but each year a third part of the Councilors will be renewed by the Director with the cooperation of the remainder of the Council. In the year in which the Officials are to be removed, let the Council be first completed. Then let the Prior and other Officials be instituted by the Director conjointly with the completed Council. In case of dissension between the Director and Council, recourse should be had to the Prior Provincial.
Chapter XVI
The Office of Prior and Other Officials
It will be the duty of the Prior to take care that the Rule is observed by all. He should also take care that nothing in deportment, manner of life, and dress be done by any Brother of the Fraternity that can give disedification. If he sees any transgression or negligence, he should charitably rebuke and correct it, or if it seems more advantageous, he should have recourse to the authority of the Director.
The other Officials of the Fraternity should perform those duties, which, according to those particular customs and necessities of each Fraternity, seem most fitting.
The Sub-Prior holds place of the Prior in his absence.
The Council should be called by the Director, who presides at it in person, each time the vote of the Council is required according to the Rule, or when matters of greater moment are to be handled according to its particular rule.
Chapter XVIII
The Meetings of the Brethren
Once a month the members of the Fraternity, should assemble to hear instructions given by the Director and to assist at Mass if the hour makes this possible.
The Director, himself, should read and expound the Rule, he should inform the Brethren of the activities, he should correct and rebuke carelessness as occasion demands and as he deems expedient, according to God and the Rule.
The Suffrages should be said for the living and the dead with absolution from faults because of transgressions of the Rule.
Chapter XVIII
The Correction of the Brethren
If anyone shall have committed a notable fault and, admonished by the Director, will not reform, he should be corrected according to his condition and according to the grave or light nature of the fault. He may be excluded for a time from the companionship of the Brethren or even entirely – with the consent, however, of the Council of the Fraternity. If after one or more admonitions he neglects to mend his ways, he cannot be readmitted without the consent of the Council.
Only the Master General or the Provincial has the right to dismiss anyone for grave reasons from the Third Order, and, in case of grave scandal, without previous warning.
Chapter XIX
Dispensations
The Master General has full power to dispense from any precept of this Rule. Moreover, the Provincial within the limits of his jurisdiction, or even the Director in his Fraternity, or one delegated by them has the power to dispense the Tertiaries in particular cases for a reasonable cause.
The precepts of this Rule, except those which are divine or ecclesiastical laws, do not oblige the Brothers and the Sisters under pain of sin before God, but only under penalty fixed by the law, or to be fixed by the Prelate or Director as was stated in Chapter XVIII. However, mindful of their Profession, all the Brethren should fulfill the precepts of the Rule with the help and grace of our Lord and Redeemer, Jesus Christ, Who, with the Father and the Holy Ghost, liveth and reigneth, God, forever and ever.
Amen.

Very few Traditional Catholic Third Order Chapters exist today.
Why should I become a Third Order Tertiary?

The Third Order has been in existence for over 700 years, and provides an abundance of graces and indulgences, including monthly plenary indulgences. In addition, all members are entitled to the reward for the good works of all other members. Though one should not seek to join a Third Order for the sole purpose of seeking graces and indulgences. Those considering joining any Third Order should first have a motive or "calling" to strive for perfection. Not all Catholics may have this motive (or at least may not have it yet).

Once a person feels they have this motive, then seeking graces and indulgences through membership in a Third Order may become a natural desire. Another inspiration for us to become Third Order Tertiaries; if we look at the list of Saints and Blesseds that have been Dominican Tertiaries over the last 700 years (see link above), becoming a member is clearly a sign of predestination!

How do I become a member?

To inquire about becoming a tertiary e-mail me at:

Irish_apologist@yahoo.com

Or, you may also ask your traditional priest.

Tertiaries' Manual & April Chapter meeting

2010-04-20T22:22:00.002-04:00

JMJ

I am happy to announce that I have just won a first edition (1952) copy in very good condition of the Dominican Tertiaries Manual!! These are very hard to come by these day and I have been looking for one and praying that I would be able to find and afford one...

This book measures just 3 3/4" x 5" x 3/4" thick. The book has a red cloth cover and is in pretty nice condition. There is some minor wear, but not much, and the pages are all very nice and clean, none of which are torn, bent, or written upon, and the binding is solid

This is solid true Dominican spirituality at its best free from all of the Vatican 2 and post Conciliar heresies that have sprung up in our beloved Religious Order and the Church worldwide..

DEO GRATIAS!!

I thank firstly Our Blessed Mother for Her intercession and helping me find one of these,

Secondly the powerful intercession of our Holy Father Dominic, and all our Dominican Saints...
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Our April Chapter Meeting covered
First Part, Question 1, Article 10 of the Summa:

First Part, Question 1, Article 10. Whether in Holy Scripture a word may have several senses?

Objection 1. It seems that in Holy Writ a word cannot have several senses, historical or literal, allegorical, tropological or moral, and anagogical. For many different senses in one text produce confusion and deception and destroy all force of argument. Hence no argument, but only fallacies, can be deduced from a multiplicity of propositions. But Holy Writ ought to be able to state the truth without any fallacy. Therefore in it there cannot be several senses to a word.

Objection 2. Further, Augustine says (De util. cred. iii) that "the Old Testament has a fourfold division as to history, etiology, analogy and allegory." Now these four seem altogether different from the four divisions mentioned in the first objection. Therefore it does not seem fitting to explain the same word of Holy Writ according to the four different senses mentioned above.

Objection 3. Further, besides these senses, there is the parabolical, which is not one of these four.

On the contrary, Gregory says (Moral. xx, 1): "Holy Writ by the manner of its speech transcends every science, because in one and the same sentence, while it describes a fact, it reveals a mystery."

I answer that, I answer that, The author of Holy Writ is God, in whose power it is to signify His meaning, not by words only (as man also can do), but also by things themselves. So, whereas in every other science things are signified by words, this science has the property, that the things signified by the words have themselves also a signification. Therefore that first signification whereby words signify things belongs to the first sense, the historical or literal. That signification whereby things signified by words have themselves also a signification is called the spiritual sense, which is based on the literal, and presupposes it. Now this spiritual sense has a threefold division. For as the Apostle says (Hebrews 10:1) the Old Law is a figure of the New Law, and Dionysius says (Coel. Hier. i) "the New Law itself is a figure of future glory." Again, in the New Law, whatever our Head has done is a type of what we ought to do. Therefore, so far as the things of the Old Law signify the things of the New Law, there is the allegorical sense; so far as the things done in Christ, or so far as the things which signify Christ, are types of what we ought to do, there is the moral sense. But so far as they signify what relates to eternal glory, there is the anagogical sense. Since the literal sense is that which the author intends, and since the author of Holy Writ is God, Who by one act comprehends all things by His intellect, it is not unfitting, as Augustine says (Confess. xii), if, even according to the literal sense, one word in Holy Writ should have several senses.

Reply to Objection 1. The multiplicity of these senses does not produce equivocation or any other kind of multiplicity, seeing that these senses are not multiplied because one word signifies several things, but because the things signified by the words can be themselves types of other things. Thus in Holy Writ no confusion results, for all the senses are founded on one — the literal — from which alone can any argument be drawn, and not from those intended in allegory, as Augustine says (Epis. 48). Nevertheless, nothing of Holy Scripture perishes on account of this, since nothing necessary to faith is contained under the spiritual sense which is not elsewhere put forward by the Scripture in its literal sense.

Reply to Objection 2. These three — history, etiology, analogy — are grouped under the literal sense. For it is called history, as Augustine expounds (Epis. 48), whenever anything is simply related; it is called etiology when its cause is assigned, as when Our Lord gave the reason why Moses allowed the putting away of wives — namely, on account of the hardness of men's hearts; it is called analogy whenever the truth of one text of Scripture is shown not to contradict the truth of another. Of these four, allegory alone stands for the three spiritual senses. Thus Hugh of St. Victor (Sacram. iv, 4 Prolog.) includes the anagogical under the allegorical sense, laying down three senses only — the historical, the allegorical, and the tropological.

Reply to Objection 3. The parabolical sense is contained in the literal, for by words things are signified properly and figuratively. Nor is the figure itself, but that which is figured, the literal sense. When Scripture speaks of God's arm, the literal sense is not that God has such a member, but only what is signified by this member, namely operative power. Hence it is plain that nothing false can ever underlie the literal sense of Holy Writ.

Are you AWAKE about The Watchtower?

2010-04-20T18:50:00.002-04:00

JMJ,

Recently I have been inundated with comments from the JWs with their standard critiques and challenges. Now for you my dear Catholic readers who may not know that much about them or their organization formally known as: The Watchtower Bible and Tract Society I posting here a copy of a long out of print Catholic critique of the JWs Originally published in 1963 and distributed by the Knights of Columbus.

After posting this I am moving on from the JWs and will offer a full 15 Decade Rosary for the conversion of these poor misguided souls..

A Catholic Critique of Jehovah's Witnesses

In what follows we shall attempt to investigate the more outstanding pecularities of the Witnesses’ creed….We would emphasize our purpose in doing this, which is not to ridicule or make light of anyone’s beliefs simply because they are not our beliefs. What has prompted this analysis is the Witnesses’ own insistence on their beliefs as truths which contradict our beliefs and are incompatible with them. We shall approach the Witnesses’ creed from the standpoint of those elements in it which are avowedly destructive of the Judeo-Christian tradition in which we stand. In doing so, we hope to do a service not merely for those of the Catholic religion but also for all who share the concern of the Catholic Church for the fundamental doctrines and values of the Christianity which has molded our society….

If our judgments have sounded harsh, we insist that we have intended no ridicule for honestly held beliefs as such. Sincerity in belief is an admirable quality. Respect for sincerity, however, may not ever blind us to the duty of service to the truth, and of the defense of our own cherished heritage. We have addressed ourselves far less to the Witnesses themselves than to those who have been the targets of their propagandizing.

Made in America

The sect known today as Jehovah’s Witnesses, which has become one of the familiar oddities of the religious scene in America, can hardly be adequately explained apart from the history of the land that gave it birth. In its own way, it is as American as hot dogs and baseball. It has sprung from the same fertile soil that has produced Christian Science, Mormonism, the Black Muslims, and the hundreds of other religious curiosities that have left American without rival in this particular line of human endeavor.

Though the Witnesses claim to have existed for some six thousand years or more, less romantic and more objective historians trace their origin to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, about the year 1872. It was in this year that Charles Taze Russell (“Pastor Russell”), a Congregationalist layman, came to the many of the conclusions that have remained ever after the basic Witness dogmas. Russell published his conclusions in a series entitled Studies in the Scriptures which gained him a large reading public and many followers. The Watchtower, the now quite famous publication of the group whose first leader he was, began to appear in 1879.

The Adventist movement was very strong in the America of Russell’s day, and it was on Adventism that Russell founded his main body of doctrine, thus forming one of an endless series of sects that have emerged from Adventist speculation. Despite the Lord’s own words concerning His Second Coming, “Of that day or hour no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only” (Mark 13:32), words that have always convinced orthodox Christians that such speculation is not only useless but also unscriptural, prophets like Russell have appeared with deadly regularity to play on the religious credulity and curiosity and have generally succeeded, as he did, in gathering a following of devout believers.

Russell’s most precise predictions were made in 1891. The Second Coming of Christ, he proclaimed, had already taken place, invisibly in 1874. The Millennium itself would begin before the close of 1914, after a forty-years period during which the true members of Christ’s Church would be prepared under Russell’s guidance. At the time of the Millennium would occur the general resurrection and final judgment. The results of the latter would be the complete annihilation of the wicked—Russell had also come to the conclusion that there could be no such thing as eternal punishment—and the everlasting life granted to the “saints,” either in heaven or on a new earth cleansed of all evil.

The Great Pyramid

Russell’s grounds for these beliefs was the usual mishmash of Biblical passages inherited from generations of free-lance interpretation in fundamentalist circles. However, he combined with this another mother lode of fruitless speculation that commanded much interest in America at this time. This was the curious superstition that pretends to find secret wisdom and prophecy hidden in the dimensions and structure of the Great Pyramid of Egypt. Readers may be familiar with one form of this superstition from the newspaper advertisements of the Rosacrucians, a sect which has no pretensions to the “Bible religion” of the Witnesses. Here Russell was influenced by a certain Charles Piazzi Smyth, who had already combined Biblical speculation with “pyramidology,” finding references to the Great Pyramid in such passages as this: “In that day there will be an altar to the Lord in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a pillar to the Lord at its border. It will be a sign and a witness to the Lord of hosts in the land of Egypt…” (Isa. 19:19-20). Russell’s predictions were based equally on the Bible and the Great Pyramid.

The original legal name of Russell’s followers was Zion’s Watchtower Tract Society, which was changed in 1896 to the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society. His followers generally referred to themselves as “Bible Students,” which was taken from another one of their legal corporations: International Bible Students Association. The name “Jehovah’s Witnesses” was adopted in 1931 at the suggestion of Russell’s successor, “Judge” J.F. Rutherford, who took it from such Biblical passages as Isaiah 43:12 and John 18:37, identifying the sect with those of whom the Bible had spoken. It was Rutherford, too, who rid the sect of the embarrassment of “pyramidology” after Russell’s death in 1916. The Witnesses now claim to base themselves on the Bible alone, without reference to the Great Pyramid.

Russell’s Millennium, of course, did not break out in 1914. The first World War did begin in Europe at that time, however, and it seemed that that was what the founder had somehow been talking about all along. Later, Russell’s works were revised to clear up the discrepancy: whereas he had written, “…The deliverance of the saints must take place sometime before 1914….,” the revised text read: “…The deliverance of the saints must take place very soon after 1914…” The current party line has it that in 1914 Christ began “an invisible reign of righteousness”—whatever that may mean. (The belief that 1874 marked Christ’s Second Coming has long since been discarded.) Prophets like Russell rarely lose their following merely because their prophecies prove to be false; the credulity that can accept them in the first place remains strong enough to survive scandals of this kind. However, the Witnesses today, now that both Russell and Rutherford are dead, have learnt to make their prophecies in very general terms, and they do not encourage the reading of their founders’ prophetical works.

Zealots

Neither Russell nor Rutherford were men of much education, despite the
scraps of borrowed learning that appear in their pages. Both of them had a
genius for organization, however, and their sect has continued to grow and
flourish within the framework they gave it, displaying a zeal worthy of far
better causes and flooding the world with literally millions of books and
pamphlets in scores of languages. In recent years it has even developed a
scholarship of sorts, represented in its own translation of the Bible and
the studies which have accompanied it. Of this we shall say more later.

The Americanism of the sect is readily apparent in its publications, despite
the fact that many of these are published abroad. The articles that one
finds in the German, French, Italian, or Spanish editions of the Watchtower
and other Witness literature, or in the editions of other European, African,
and Asian languages, are all faithful translations of what appeared
originally in American English and emanated from headquarters in Brooklyn.
One is reminded of nothing so much as the foreign editions of the Reader's
Digest, particularly in view of the fact that many of the articles are not
even sectarian in character but are of the "uplift" and "self-help" variety.
Though obviously the teachings of the sect have struck a responsive chord in
minds of like disposition throughout the world, and though the claim is made
that matters of administration are handled by an international board, one
has the impression that in every sense of the word the leadership of the
Witnesses has remained solidly in American hands. The keen business sense
and efficient production methods shown by this leadership are also quite
American, and cause us to believe that the movement will be with us yet for
a long time.

The Witnesses

Because of these facts and because of the intense and capable propagandizing
carried out by the sect, it has occurred to us that the Witnesses are
deserving of the short analysis that appears in the following pages.
Americans, it seems to us, should be particularly interested in an
organization whose character and existence could hardly be accounted for
outside the peculiar religious and other influences that have long existed
in our country. In what follows we shall attempt to investigate the more
outstanding peculiarities of the Witnesses' creed, along the lines that have
already been outlined above. We would emphasize our purpose in doing this,
which is not to ridicule or make light of anyone's beliefs simply because
they are not our beliefs. What has prompted this analysis is the Witnesses'
own insistence on their beliefs as truths which contradict our beliefs and
are incompatible with them. We shall approach the Witnesses' creed from the
standpoint of those elements in it which are avowedly destructive of the
Judeo-Christian tradition in which we stand. In doing so, we hope to do a
service not merely for those of the Catholic religion but also for all who
share the concern of the Catholic Church for the fundamental doctrines and
values of the Christianity which has molded our society.

Bible Versus Cult

As has already been indicated, the Witnesses owe the origin of their curious
beliefs to that complete disdain for any traditional control of Biblical
interpretation that has accounted for the scores of marvelous sects that
have arisen from "Bible religion." The principle of private judgment as the
determinant of Bible faith has rightly been blamed for this often scandalous
state of affairs, though, to be sure, the question is somewhat more delicate
than this. Though Protestantism adopts the Bible as a rule of faith in a way
somewhat different from that of Catholicism, and though private judgment
determines this rule for Protestantism in a way that it does not in
Catholicism, actually Protestantism has never maintained the absolute
independence of private judgment against the tradition within which the
Bible was written and in which it has been used. Here, of course, we are
speaking of those authentically Protestant bodies which regard themselves as
constituting the Christian Church in reform. For them to have done otherwise
would be to invite anarchy--the very anarchy, in fact, to which groups like
the Witnesses have brought us.

That a person with no other equipment than a knowledge of the English
language and a seventeenth century English translation of the Bible in his
hands is qualified to decide all matters of eternal consequence for himself
and the rest of mankind, is the ridiculous conclusion to which the principle
of private judgment can finally be brought. In such a process, the countless
generations of devout people who have lived and died according to other
beliefs simply count for nothing. The centuries of thought and prayer that
have gone into the interpretation of the Bible for all these generations
likewise count for nothing. The very men who wrote the Bible--who,
obviously, held to a faith that could not be sustained by a patchwork of
texts culled from Genesis to Revelation and back again, books that did not
then exist--these men, too, count for nothing. All that does matter,
apparently, is that a Pennsylvania draper ignorant of the Biblical languages
and without the vaguest conception of the Bible's historical origins should
have the right to pronounce on the meaning of a book and to judge all
mankind of the past, present, and future on the basis of his pronouncements.
Here, as a Protestant author once observed, is a species of arrogance
compared with which the Pope of Rome, with his claim to infallibility, is
grovelling in the dust. For the Pope claims only to be the voice of
Christian tradition. He cannot, as Pastor Russell did, discover new truths
about which Christian antiquity was ignorant.

Bible Scholarship

The most obvious trademark of a crank or cultist interpretation of the
Bible, as of anything else, is the fact that it stands in contradiction to
the agreed conclusions of sound and disinterested scholarship. This is the
case with regard to the Witnesses' approach to what they claim to be
Biblical religion. It is inevitable that this should be the case, since this
approach grew out of a total ignorance of Biblical scholarship--a fact which
none of the Hebrew and Greek words which the Witnesses have lately begun to scatter throughout their publications will ever be able to conceal.

Take, for example, the very name by which the Witnesses wish to be known.
The word "Jehovah" has become one of the fetishes of their cult, assuming an
importance for them which it has certainly had for no other group known to
mankind. The word is derived from the name which the ancient Israelites used
to distinguish their God from the gods of the Gentiles. It is derived from
that name, however, quite incorrectly. The Hebrews called their God by a
name which was written YHWH--all in consonants, we note, since the Hebrew
alphabet has no vowels. The pronunciation of the name, which existed
independently of the spelling, was doubtless something like "Yahweh."
Through an exaggerated type of reverence for the name--and also because the
name eventually ceased to be used--later Jews never pronounced it, and as a
result the original pronunciation is not sure to this day. What is
absolutely sure, however, is that it was never pronounced "Jehovah." This
version derives from a misreading of the Hebrew Bible after it had been
supplied with vowel indications in later Christian times. The vowel
indications that had been attached to this word were actually taken from
another, the Hebrew word for "My Lord" which was customarily pronounced
instead of the sacred name YHWH.

Now the Witnesses themselves know this nowadays, even if earlier Witnesses
did not. On page 25 of their New World Translation of the Christian Greek
Scriptures they admit this fact, but say that they have "retained the form
`Jehovah' because of people's familiarity with it since the fourteenth
century" (that is, the fourteenth century after Christ). The fact is,
however, as the editors of the Revised Standard Version of the Bible have
pointed out: "1) The word `Jehovah' does not accurately represent any form
of the Name ever used in Hebrew; and 2) the use of any proper name for the
one and only God as though there were other gods from whom He had to be
distinguished, was discontinued in Judaism before the Christian era and is
entirely inappropriate for the universal faith of the Christian Church." The
editors make this sensible statement in justifying their abandonment of the
impossible "Jehovah" that has found its way into some older English
translations of the Bible.

Mistranslations

What began, therefore, merely as an erroneous reading of an ancient Hebrew
word has now become a dogma of faith to be supported by any argument and to held at all costs out of proportion to its importance. In the Foreword to
the New World Translation of the Christian Greek Scriptures (1950 edition)
no less than fifteen pages are devoted to this question, not simply to
justify the use of the word at all, but in order to justify its use in
translating the New Testament. The Witnesses make much of the fact that in
the ancient manuscripts of the Old Testament (known as the Septuagint or
LXX), the name YHWH was frequently left untranslated in its Hebrew
consonants. From this they somehow want to draw the conclusion that the same thing was true of the Greek manuscripts of the New Testament. As a matter of fact, out of the thousands of New Testament manuscripts that we possess there is not a single one that will justify such a conclusion--and the NewTestament is the best and most meticulously documented body of literature of all antiquity. Not only is there no evidence in any single instance to
justify the 237 times the Witnesses have placed "Jehovah" in the New
Testament text, there is no evidence to justify even the correct Old
Testament form in such cases. The early Christians who wrote the New
Testament certainly did not use this name, but rather the word "Lord," which
they also applied to Christ. Here, therefore, we have a pathetic example of
pseudoscholarship attempting to defend the indefensible.

The gradual abandonment of the use of YHWH by the Israelites can be seen in
the Old Testament itself. The most ancient parts of the Mosaic traditions
that have been assembled in the Pentateuch, for example, tend to use the
name YHWH for Israel's God, while the parts that were written down later
tend to use the word Elohim ("deity," or, simply, "God"). But one of the
most obvious evidences is in the so-called Elohistic Psalter, that is,
Psalms 42 to 83. In all these Psalms the word Elohim was systematically

substituted for YHWH wherever it occurred. Thus it is that Psalm 53 actually reproduces a Psalm that had already been taken into the Psalter at an earlier stage in its formation (Psalm 14), the only difference, for all practical purposes, being the use of the divine name.

Why such a thing should have occurred is not too difficult to explain. Even though the Bible ascribes the name YHWH to divine revelation (Ex. 6:3) and though it was therefore most sacred to the Israelites, there was also the danger that it could be misunderstood. It might be thought that Yahweh was
the local god of the Hebrews, just as Chemosh was the god of the Moabites,Marduk the god of the Babylonians, and so on. It was to insist on the fact
that Yahweh was the one true God of all mankind, therefore, that the proper name was increasingly avoided or replaced by other terms. Even when the Jews continued to write YHWH, they said "God" or "Lord"--whence the later vowel indications in the Hebrew Bible which have nothing to do with the
pronunciation of YHWH at all. "Lord," in Greek Kyrios, became the ordinary substitute for the YHWH of the Old Testament. That "Lord" had such divine connotations is the point of Christ's question in Mark 12:35-37. It was withthe same connotations that Christ was recognized by the first Christians as
"the Lord Jesus."

Language Confusion

The limits to which imagination will go in attempting to support the unsupportable are shown in the argument which the Witnesses employ to justify some of the "Jehovahs" in their translation of the New Testament.
First of all, the tradition that the Apostle Matthew originally wrote his Gospel in "Hebrew" is interpreted to mean Old Testament Hebrew rather than the Aramaic which was the language of Palestinian Jews in Matthew's time."In recent years," the Witnesses write, "some have claimed that Matthew's
Gospel account was at first written in Hebrew rather than in its kindred language, the Aramaic." Some have claimed this, indeed, but on the basis of evidence that has not convinced the ordinary scholar. The Witnesses, however, prefer Hebrew to an Aramaic Matthew, since YHWH was not used in
Aramaic. The Witnesses go on: "It is now believed Matthew himself translated his Gospel account into the Greek," and: "He could follow the LXX practice
and incorporate the divine name in its proper place in the Greek text." Just by whom it is believed that Matthew translated his Semitic Gospel into
Greek, is not made clear. The tradition by which alone we know that there was an Aramaic Matthew indicates precisely the opposite. Most scholars agree
that the Greek Matthew of our Bibles is hardly a "translation" in the accepted sense of the word at all, but a Greek work through and through.
That it was heavily dependant on the Aramaic work known from tradition and used it as a model justifies our calling it Matthew's Gospel, but does make
it a translation in the strict sense of the word. Who its inspired author was, we do not know. The list of names which the Witnesses allege from the
early Church as testifying to the existence of a Semitic Gospel of Matthew in the fourth and fifth Christian centuries is quite worthless. As is now known, these persons had mistaken Matthew's original Gospel for the "Gospel of the Hebrews," an apocryphal work which still survives in fragments and which is filled with legendary additions to the authentic Gospel history.

All in all, the pages which the Witnesses have devoted to the subject of "Jehovah" appear to the disinterested observer as much ado about nothing. Even if it were true, which it emphatically is not, that the Hebrews called God by the name "Jehovah," the matter would be entirely irrelevant to Christians. The introduction of the name and the importance attached to it
in the Witnesses' translation of the New Testament simply stamp thistranslation as eccentric.

Immortality

Another matter of greater consequence which rose from Pastor Russell's misunderstanding of the Bible also characterizes the creed of the Witnesses.
This is their denial of the immortality of the human soul, a denial that ties in with their rejection of eternal punishment and the strange interpretation they give to certain passages of the Book of Revelation which concern the future life of the elect.

In the appendix to the New World Translation of the Christian Greek Scriptures (1950 edition) some five pages are devoted to the translations given the word "soul." In the appendix to the New World Translation of the Hebrew Scriptures (1953 edition) another eleven pages deal with the same subject. What all of these references go to prove is that the Semites who
wrote the Bible looked on the human personality in a somewhat different fashion from our own. This is not a question of Biblical revelation, but of the notions of human psychology entertained by Biblical authors.

The Hebrew did not, as we do, think of man as a composite of body and soul. When he used the word nefesh, which in older translations of the Bible
appears as "soul," he meant the whole personality--body and soul together,
as we would think of it. Thus it is that modern translations of the Bible ordinarily do not translate the word as "soul," since that is to give an erroneous impression of what the Bible author would have been talking about.The word nefesh simply meant a living being, animal or human. In the same way, he used the same word, ruach, translated "spirit" or "breath," for the life principle of all living things. Neither does this word mean "soul"--it simply designated the concrete evidence and fact of breathing life. The same ideas lie behind the Greek words which were used in the LXX to translate the Hebrew, and which the New Testament authors used in their own works.

We repeat, this is not Biblical revelation, but part of the mental framework of the Biblical authors. The better insights that we have into the physical make-up of the human personality are a gain of subsequent scientific knowledge that is as much the gift of God as Biblical revelation itself. We are no more to be restricted by the limitations of the Biblical authors in
their knowledge of human psychology than we are to be restricted by their limitations in other realms of science. What we have to do is accept
Biblical revelation, but accept it in terms that we know must agree with sound scientific knowledge, since the God of revelation and the God Who is
also the Author of nature's laws cannot contradict Himself. Thus, whereas the Bible does not, it is true, speak of the immortality of the human soul--a concept which it does not have in our sense of the word--it does speak of the immortality of the human person. And in our language, this means the immortality of the human soul.

Science and Scripture

A good example to illustrate how we must translate Biblical language into our own in a similar instance can be found in the revelation of the creation of the world in Genesis. The Biblical authors thought of the earth as a flat disk floating on water ("the waters beneath the earth," Gen 1:2, Job 28:14,etc.), anchored there by foundation pillars (Job 38:4, Prov. 8:29, Ps 18:16,
etc.), over which was arched the sky, a "firmament" shiny and "hard as a bronze mirror" (Job 37:18, etc.). Obviously, this conception of the universe is not our own--we have far better knowledge of the structure of the earth and sky and their make-up than did the Biblical authors. What we must take from the Bible is not its authors' unscientific view of the universe, but the revealed truth that the universe is God's creation, a revelation which the author of Genesis communicated using his unscientific conception of its structure.

In the same way, when Revelation 6:14 speaks of "heaven passing away as a scroll that is rolled up," the author is thinking of the sky in the Old Testament conception, a kind of bowl inverted over the earth, hard and shiny. The Hebrew word we translate as "firmament" means just that: something solid that has been beaten out and shaped. The sky, we know, is
not really this, even though that is the way the Biblical authors thought of it. Once again we have Biblical revelation--the end of the present universe as we know it--which, however, we must understand in terms other than those the Biblical authors used.

Does the Bible, then, teach the immortality of the human person? Most assuredly. To restrict ourselves solely to the words of Christ as reported in the Gospels, consider His teaching in Matthew 25:31-46 (Witnesses' translation): "When the Son of man arrives in his glory and all the angels with him, then he will sit down on his glorious throne. And all the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate people one from another, just as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. And he will put the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on his left. Then the king will say to those on his right: `Come, you who have my Father's blessing, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the world's foundation...' Then he will say, in turn, to those on his left: `Be on your way from me, you who have been
cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels...' And these will depart into everlasting cutting-off, but the righteous ones into everlasting life."

Punishment

The Witnesses would have us believe that this language is to be taken figuratively, at least as far as the accursed are concerned. An everlasting fire, they say, but it burns nobody--immortality is God's gift to the just, but the wicked are simply annihilated. Thus their strange translation,"cutting-off," in the above passage, for what other translations universally
render "punishment." The Witnesses suggest in a footnote that the word means "Literally, a `pruning'; hence a curtailing, a holding in check." This is quite incorrect, as anyone can verify by consulting a Greek dictionary on the word kolasis. It means "mutilation," "torture," "punishment." The precise word occurs one other time, in 1 John 4:18, where it has been again
mistranslated by the Witnesses--here, however, probably because the translator simply did not understand the text. The verb of the same root,
kolazein, also occurs twice in 2 Peter 2:9 where again it is a question of eternal punishment, the Witnesses deliberately avoid using this word, and
translate "to be cut off." But in Acts 4:21, where none of their dogma is at stake, they finally come right out and translate "to punish," which is exactly what the word means.

It is pointless to attempt to deny the obvious fact that the Bible teaches an eternal reward for the just and an eternal punishment for the wicked. One
may not like such a teaching, but it is the height of dishonesty to change the Bible in order to suit one's likes and dislikes and still claim to depend on the Bible as the word of God. Eternal punishment, of course, involves a natural immortality in man. We refer to this as man's immortal soul. The Biblical authors referred to it otherwise, since they did not use
the word "soul" as we do.

Neither does the idea of eternal punishment make God into a vindictive torturer. He is a Judge, not an executioner. Hell is a state which the wicked have willingly chosen for themselves, and the punishment that they must endure there is only what is due their sins. They are their own executioners. Furthermore, no suffering that could possibly be inflicted on
them would equal that which is the very essence of hell itself--to endure for all eternity the realization that they have closed upon themselves the gateway to salvation, that they have denied to themselves what their souls were designed for, to be united with God. This is the denial of that hope which is at the heart of the New Testament message of salvation.

Judaizing the Gospel

From the Acts of the Apostles and the Pauline letters we know of one of the earliest heresies that afflicted the young Christian Church, the heresy of Judaizing. This heresy took various forms, but all of them had one trait in common, and that was a misunderstanding of the relation of the Old Testament to the New.

In its most blatant form, Judaizing attempted to impose the Mosaic Law on Christian converts, including ritual circumcision and the Jewish dietary
laws which were a figure only of the realities which had been fulfilled in Christ. Despite the fact that such a movement could only end in denying the efficacy of Christ's salvation, and despite the fact that the New Testament record is quite clear in its rejection of this entire heresy, one still finds isolated instances today of those who call themselves Christians advocating such practices--"calling to account for what you eat or drink or in regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath" (Col. 2:16)--and even appealing for their justification to the words and example of Christ
Himself. Obviously, any sect which can adopt such a viewpoint towards the divine revelation contained in the Bible is not Christian at all. It is, rather, a religion like that of Islam, which has made for itself a unique
combination of Jewish and Christian elements along with its own modifications.

The Witnesses are such a Judaizing sect. They do not, it is true, profess the Mosaic Law in its entirety as of divine obligation for mankind under the rule of Christ's grace. Neither do they insist on the Jewish Sabbath as do some other allegedly Christian sects. Nevertheless, their entire attitude towards the Old Testament is a Judaizing one, as will be seen from a few examples.

In the preceding section we spoke of the Witnesses' denial of the immortality of the soul. To support this belief, they lay great stress on such passages as this from Ezekiel 18:4, "The soul that sins shall die."

To quote Ezekiel to prove such a thing, one has to forget or to be ignorant of certain things. One thing, as we already pointed out, is that the word translated here as "soul" does not mean what we understand by the human soul. It means, rather, the human person himself. Thus, more accurate modern translations have something quite different: "The person who sins shall die" ( An American Translation); "Only the one who sins shall die" (Confraternity Translation). On the other hand, Ezekiel is repeating the well-known
Biblical doctrine, that death is the consequence of sin (Gen. 2:17).

Secondly, when Ezekiel is read in his context, it becomes obvious why he makes this statement, which is not to say anything at all about the immortality of man one way or the other, but to define the limits of divine punishment. Whereas in the past God had dealt with man as a member of a people, therefore "inflicting punishment for their fathers' wickedness on
the children of those who hate me, down to the third and fourth generation" (Ex. 20:5), in the New Covenant that was to come, it would not be so. In the
New Covenant, Ezekiel revealed in the name of God, punishment would be inflicted only on the one who sinned. When one reads the entire passage, this meaning becomes quite clear.

The Witnesses' use of such a text, however, is entirely indicative of their approach to the Old and New Testaments, in which the relation of the one to
the other is obscured, and no account is taken of the stage of history to which each refer and in which each becomes comprehensible. This attitude is
typical of the frame of mind sometimes called Fundamentalism or, less correctly, Biblical Literalism, in which the Bible simply becomes a mine of
texts to be slapped together in any helter-skelter fashion, without reference to author, context, or literary background.

Life After Death

Associated with the question we discussed in the preceding section is the idea of retribution for saint and sinner that the Witnesses derive from
their Judaizing interpretation of the Bible. Specifically, we refer to the state of the dead as portrayed in the Old Testament.

It is only at the very end of the Old Testament period that the Jews were given any clear-cut revelation concerning the nature of life after death.
The most explicit references to this occur in those books which the Witnesses exclude from their translation of the Old Testament--books,
however, which modern Scripture scholars admit are necessary for understanding the progress of revelation from the Old Testament to the New.
For all practical purposes, therefore, the revelation of a resurrection, of a blessed immortality for the just, and of eternal punishment must be sought in the New Testament. There are several reasons why this should have been the case.

Firstly, the very relation of the Old Testament to the New made an early revelation of these truths inadvisable. Since our Lord Jesus Christ was to
be the firstborn from the dead (Col. 1:18), whose return to the Father victorious from the sacrifice of the cross and resurrection from the dead
was necessary that a place be prepared for all who believe (John 14:2), there was little point in giving the people of the Old Testament too precise
a knowledge of the afterlife. They could merely have been told that it was their lot at best to wait, perhaps for ages, until the coming of the Redeemer made heaven a possibility for them. This was not a possibility until the coming of Christ (John 3:13); until then, the dead could only wait in "prison" for the redemption (1 Pet. 3:19-20).

Secondly, by lack of precise knowledge of the afterlife the Israelites were spared the many superstitions and vain observances of their Gentile
neighbors with respect to the dead. In this, the religion of Israel contrasts strikingly with that of ancient Egypt, for example, or ancient Babylonia, where a man's whole life and much of his substance might be
frittered away in vain preoccupations about his condition after death. The pyramids of Egypt are monuments to other follies than that of Pastor
Russell's speculations on the Second Coming of Christ.

The Mystery of the Afterlife

For whatever reason, the fact remains that the Old Testament has little to say about the afterlife. The people of the Old Testament knew that death did not end all, but precisely what did take place after death was largely a mystery to them. As a result, the orientation of the Old Testament is almost entirely towards a this-worldly view of rewards and punishments. This in turn explains some of the “problem” literature of the Old Testament, such as the book of Job. Had Job known of the New Testament revelation concerning the afterlife, much of what troubled him would have already found an explanation in his mind.

The Old Testament calls the place of the dead by the name Sheol, a word the exact meaning of which is unknown. Older translations used to put this in English as “hell.” Actually, there is nothing wrong with this translation, since the English word originally meant any place to which the dead went, without regard to the condition of the dead in that place. Thus we say in the Apostles’ Creed that Christ “descended into hell,” merely repeating the idea of such Biblical texts as 1 Peter 3:18-20. However, because “hell” in present-day English means for most people the hell of damnation, other translations are now used for Sheol. The Revised Standard Version simply transliterates the word as Sheol; the Confraternity Translation gives it as “the nether world.” Sometimes the Old Testament calls Sheol “the pit” or abaddon, a word that probably means “the place of those who have perished.” In the LXX and in the New Testament the Greek equivalent for Sheol is Hades.

The Old Testament thought of Sheol as a definite place, not merely the grave. It was a place beneath the earth, and also beneath the “waters under the earth” (see Job 26:5-6 and 38:16-17). It was barred by gates (Job 38:17), a place of darkness (Ps. 88:7) and of silence (Ps. 115:17).

There is not a single Old Testament view of Sheol and the fate of the dead beyond the few facts that we have just outlined—in the Old Testament times mystery surrounds the afterlife that is only to be solved by the revelation given on the threshold of the New Testament. Thus Job, who had not received the revelation of the resurrection, believed that no one ever returned from Sheol (7:9, 10:21, 14:12), and also that everyone, good and bad, went without distinction to the same place (3:3-19). This seems to have been the majority view. On the other hand, Ezekiel emphatically distinguishes the fate of the uncircumcised enemies of Israel from that of the heroes of ancient times—both are in Sheol, but not together (32:17-32). For Isaiah 24:21-22 the pit is a place of punishment, which he calls a prison.

Punishment After Death

The idea that the wicked find a place of punishment after death is expressed very clearly in Isaiah 66:22-24….In contrast to the new Jerusalem which will be the dwelling of the elect of mankind, says the prophet, “They shall go out and see the corpses of the men who rebelled against me; their worm shall not die, nor their fire be extinguished; and they shall be abhorrent to al mankind.” When we remember that for the ancient Israelite the worst fate that could befall the dead was that their bodies should be burnt or left unburied, we understand what is meant by this apparent contradictory picture of bodies being forever burnt and yet consumed by worms. The author is using partly symbolic language to describe an everlasting punishment. It is not surprising, therefore, that Christ quotes this passage in speaking of an eternal punishment that is far worse than death itself (Mark 9:42-48).

Though the author of Isaiah 66:22-24 does not say so explicitly, he was doubtless thinking of the valley of Ge-Hinnom, the rubbish heap outside Jerusalem, as the site of this everlasting punishment of the wicked (see Jeremiah 7:30-8:3). Certainly our Lord uses this word, translated Gehenna in Greek, to designate the place of eternal punishment. The name, of course, is only symbolic, just as is the name “heaven” (which means simply “the sky”) to designate eternal happiness in the presence of God. Daniel 12:2, another passage that comes from a late period in Old Testament times, knows of an eternal life and an eternal disgrace that follow on the resurrection of the dead: “Many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake; some shall live forever, others shall be an everlasting horror and disgrace.”

We see, therefore, that the ideas of the Old Testament on the condition of the dead and the matter of retribution are somewhat complex. They also suppose a development leading towards the New Testament. To quote the Old Testament without recognition of these facts adds to the confusion which contributes to the existence of sects like the Witnesses.

The New Testament, in any case, is certainly clear on this matter. The alternative to everlasting life, according to our Lord, is to be thrown into everlasting fire of Gehenna (Matt. 18:8-9). Gehenna is the lot of the wicked following the judgment of God (Matt. 23:33). Where the wicked go, there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth (Matt. 8:12). Various other expressions are used to signify the happiness of the just and the punishment of the rejected. One of the best known examples is the parable of the wicked rich man and the poor Lazarus in Luke 16:19-31, where the place of torments is called Hades and the place of Lazarus’ reward “Abraham’s bosom.” Now it is very true that this is a parable told by our Lord not to give us precise information about heaven and hell, but to teach other lessons. However, in His parables Jesus did not deal in mythology but with familiar realities—it was with well known and accepted truths that He illustrated His new teaching. In this story, therefore, He supposes along with those who heard him that there was a reward for good and a punishment for the wicked after death.

Blood and Life

Another outstanding example of the way in which the Witnesses have misconstrued the relation of the Old Testament to the New can be found in their strange teaching about blood. As is well known, the Witnesses hold that blood transfusions are a violation of God's law. There are instanceswhere they have permitted persons to die rather than have a recourse to the remedy which preserves life. Whence comes this extraordinary idea?

In the Old Testament the eating of blood was forbidden by many passages of the Mosaic Law. The reason for this appears in Leviticus 17:11-12: "Since
the life of a living body is in its blood, I have made you put it on the altar, so that atonement may thereby be made for your own lives, because it is the blood, as the seat of life, that makes atonement. That is why I have told the Israelites: No one among you, not even a resident alien, may partake of blood."

In other words, blood, like breath, was regarded as the concrete embodimentof life, the gift of God, and therefore a thing sacred to God. Blood, according to the Law of Moses, was to be used in certain sacred functions of Old Testament ritual, chief among them being the rites whereby atonement was made for sins in the various involved rituals of animal sacrifice. Because of this sacred character, blood was withdrawn from human consumption. To this day orthodox Jews do not eat meat that has not been drained of its blood--this is one of the "kosher" or dietary laws.

But not even the most rigorous Jew ever dreamed that this law constitutes a prohibition of blood transfusions! In coming to such a conclusion the
Witnesses have out-rabbied the rabbis of the Middle Ages. For the law against eating blood obviously had nothing to do with human blood--cannibalism was not a problem for the Israelites. In extending a law
that had one purpose to another conclusion that is totally foreign to that purpose, the Witnesses have truly turned the divine pronouncement into a
senseless legalism and have become guilty of the kind of casuistry that makes a laughingstock out of God's word.

In any case, what does such a law have to do with Christians, for whom the blood rituals of the Mosaic Law are meaningless? An end to the significance
of blood under the Mosaic Law was proclaimed in the pouring out of Christ's blood by which the New Covenant was inaugurated--read the ninth and tenth
chapters of Hebrews, in which it is shown how the blood ritual and the other provisions of the Law were but the shadow of good things to come.

It is true, according to Acts 15:12-29, the infant Church in Jerusalem mentioned blood as one of the things that the Gentile converts to Christianity in the regions of Antioch and Syria and Cilicia should avoid.
The reason for this was also made clear. Since the Jewish population in these regions was extensive, the new Christians were instructed to avoid
giving offense by conforming to Jewish custom in matters which involved no sacrifice of Christian principle. The decree of the Jerusalem Council was
not a universal ruling of the Church. It was directed to Gentile converts amongst a Jewish population. At the same time, it was made perfectly clear that no Christian was under any obligation to observe the Mosaic Law as a means of salvation--that to recognize any such obligation, as a matter of
fact, would be a denial of Christ. In much the same way, Paul had Timothy circumcised (Acts 16:3), not because he believed that it was in any way
necessary, but because he did not wish to offend the Jews needlessly among whom he planned to work, and the Jews would have been scandalized at the
uncircumcised state of Timothy, the son of a Jewish woman.

The prohibition of blood appears in Genesis 9:4, in one of the later parts of the Mosaic traditions brought into the Pentateuch, as an anticipation of
this provision of the Mosaic Law. The Jews insisted upon this regulation for all who lived among them, Gentiles as well as Israelites, as has been seen
in the law of Leviticus 17:12, mentioned above. It was to avoid giving needless offence to them in the early missionary work of the Church, therefore, that the instruction was given to the Gentile Christians of
Antioch, Syria, and Cilicia. It was never intended by the apostolic Church as the expression of any permanent duty of all Christians.

When the word of God is bent to make it a decree of death rather than part of the way of life, truly the Scripture has been perverted. The bizarre interpretation that the Witnesses have given to the Old Testament law of blood has shocked many people because of the wide publicity that it has occasionally been given. Those who believe in the inspired character of the Scripture in the history of God's salvation are even more shocked, however,
by no less pernicious interpretations that have been given to other parts of the divine word, making of it in every true sense a letter that kills.

In the Beginning Was the Word

From the Christian point of view, the worst of the Witnesses’ Judaizing of the Goepel lies in their rejection of the fundamental doctrine of Christianity, the divinity of Jesus Christ.

On an earlier page we spoke of the supreme arrogance that presumes to regard all traditional interpretation of the Scripture as irrelevant. Not only is this an arrogance, however, it is also a total folly that no one would dare to apply to any other area of life than religion.

What would happen, may we imagine, if every doctor were to begin his practice of medicine by disregarding everything that every other doctor before him had done or written? What would be the progress of science, if every scientist were forbidden to profit from the advances and mistakes of his predecessors, and had to begin precisely from the ground up in whatever generation he should find himself? Obviously, there would never be any progress at all. Science would always be beginning, never going anywhere. The same would be true of any other human endeavor, if such were the methodology that had to be followed.

Theology—the science of revelation—and exegesis—the scientific interpretation of the Scriptures—are among such human endeavors. God has committed His word to His people, and the elucidation of this word has been and is being carried out among this people as part of the work He has given them to do. For anyone in a later age to disregard the study of the word of God from the beginning is not only unsound procedure, it is to disregard the very will of God in communicating the word from the beginning.

Because the Witnesses do spurn the historical study of the Bible, reading their Unitarian literature is like taking a refresher course in the ancient Christian heresies. Not a mistake was ever made in these matters that has not been faithfully repeated by the Witnesses—the great difference being that the Witnesses have managed somehow to make contradictory rather than consistent mistakes. The heresies relating to Christology (the study of Christ) are many and varied—embracing such almost forgotten titles as Arianism, Modalism, Adoptionism, Subordinationism (heresies which ran their course in the early Church and disappeared from the Christian scene). But simply name it and read the Witnesses’ literature; eventually you are sure to run across it. The amusing thing is that it will be presented to you as a brand-new idea. This is as true of their arguments on the childhood level—counting three fingers to disprove the Trinity—as of those which spring from their newly acquired acquaintance with Greek words.

The Holy Trinity

The doctrine of the Holy Trinity in God is a Christian revelation not found in the Old Testament. It was a revelation made to men whose only literature was the Old Testament. Perhaps what is even more important, it was a revelation transmitted through human authors who had such an intellectual background. It was inevitable that the new content of Christianity appears in terminology that comes mainly from the Old Testament, and takes on new meaning in the process.

The Old Testament, for example, knew of a Spirit of God, but it did not know of Him as a distinct divine Person. It is our Lord Who has revealed to us this new truth about the nature of God. In revealing it He adhered to the Old Testament term. In the same way, the remainder of the New Testament speaks of the Trinity, but in Old Testament language.

How were the writers of the New Testament, and our Lord Himself, to make known this new revelation to men who were familiar only with the Old Testament doctrine of God? Not by baldly saying, as later theology could, “Christ is God, the Spirit is God, the Father is God.” This would have been understood by Jews to mean three Gods—even as the Witnesses willfully misunderstand Christian language today. The New Testament shows a far better concern for human understanding than this. Even as our Lord made Himself known to His contemporaries in His messianic character only gradually, lest misunderstandings about its nature cause Him to be accepted or rejected as the kind of Messiah He was not, in the same way He revealed His divine nature by degrees and in terms that would not lead to false conclusions.

First of all, He took the familiar term “Son,” and by its use related Himself to God in a unique way. “No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and any one to whom the Son chooses to reveal him” (Matt. 11:27). Now, it is true, “son of God” was a title that any devout Jew could use of himself (as in Hosea 2:1, see also Romans 9:26). It was also a title used of the messianic king (as in 2 Samuel 7:14, Psalm 2:7). But it should be evident that Christ was saying more of Himself than that He was the Son of God in these senses. For He claims to be the only Person Who really knows the Father, and that only through Himself can anyone else come to a true knowledge of the Father. This implies a unity of lie between the Father that is shared by no other. Furthermore, what is perhaps even more important, no one knows the Son, Christ, except the Father. Only the divine knowledge itself can penetrate the mystery of the personality of Christ. There is obviously a relationship here that is outside the realm of that of Creator and creature. It is an equal knowledge shared equally between the Son and the Father. When we remember that “knowledge” to the Semite did not mean something merely intellectual, but implied a community of life, we have a fuller comprehension of our Lord’s words.

Equal to God

Similarly, Christ did not make the bald statement, “I am equal to God,” or, “I am equal to the Father.” To a Jew, this could only have signified another God, for in his mentality, something equal to another had at the same time to be numerically different from it. What Christ did was to make the equivalent claim, in entirely different words, “I do the works of the Father,” He said (John 10:37). This was language a Jew could understand. For again, Jesus was not saying merely that He was doing the work of God in a way any devout person could do it. He was claiming a community of activity with His Father that was entirely unique. “My Father is working still, and I am working” (John 5:17). Note John’s comment in the following verse—that despite the caution with which our Lord has introduced this claim, “This was why the Jews sought all the more to kill him, because he not only broke the Sabbath but also called God his Father, making himself equal with God.” The Jews had grasped the essence of His claim to divinity, though they had drawn an erroneous conclusion from it as regards monotheism. It is for the same purpose that He made the many protestations that the Son was only doing the will of the Father, and so forth (John 5:30, etc.)—not to subordinate Himself to the Father but to insist that His activity and the Father’s were one. The oneness of the Holy Spirit with the Father and Son is similarly brought out in such passages as John 16:13.

It was in such ways that the doctrine of the Trinity of Persons in one God was first revealed. It was, mainly, in such language that the doctrine was communicated by the writers of the New Testament. However, these writers also record the doctrine in more emphatic language. After the resurrection of Christ the fullness of His meaning became much more evident. After the resurrection Thomas the Apostle greeted Christ with the most explicit act of faith in the Gospels, employing two divine titles, “My Lord and my God!” (John 20:28). After the resurrection the Christian Church, in the great hymn found in Philippians 2:5-11, acknowledged that the Jesus Who had appeared among men in human form had first “emptied himself” of the divine prerogatives He owned by right and had returned to the throne of God the triumphant bearer of the divine title “Lord.” After the resurrection the Evangelist John composed the magnificent prologue to his Gospel, in which he names Christ the Word of God Who from eternity was with God and was God.

The Christological heresy of the Witnesses resembles more than any other that of the Arians of the fourth century. They admit that Christ was, at least before His coming on earth and after His resurrection, something more than man. They call Him a “spirit person,” a non-Biblical term that they have invented. They say He was “a god,” but not God Himself. They claim that this is not to deny monotheism—the thing our Lord was so concerned not to do—since the Scripture also speaks of others as “gods.” They have worked out some rules of Greek usage unknown to the authors of the New Testament in order to justify these conclusions.

Greek Usage

It is in obedience to these rules of Greek usage that they first of all deny
that the explicit affirmation of Thomas is an affirmation at all. It is, they say, simply an emotional ejaculation, in which Thomas was not actually referring to Christ. Why so? Because what Thomas is reported as saying is ho
kyrios mou kai ho theos mou--"My Lord and my God." Ho Theos, that is, the word "God" with the Greek article, is used only of God in the true sense. The word theos only, without the article, they say means only "a god," and this word can be used of Christ to mean something less than God. They point to John's prologue, in which he says "the Word was with God" (pros ton theon--the word "God" with the article), and then "the Word was a god" (theos).

Does this really work out in practice? Let us take only a single page from the New World Translation of the Christian Greek Scriptures (1950 ed.) in order to show that it does not. This page includes the ending of Paul's letter to the Romans and the beginning of the First Letter to the
Corinthians, that is, Romans 16:21-27 and 1 Corinthians 1:1-2. On this page the word "God" appears four times--"the everlasting God," "to God wise alone," "through God's will," "the congregation of God." Note that in each
case the Witnesses have translated "God" with a capital "G." Yet in the Greek text only the first and last theos has an article. Why not "to an only
wise god" and "through the will of a god"? It seems that when no doctrinal issue is involved, the Witnesses' rule becomes very elastic.

As a matter of fact, the Greek does ordinarily use the article with "God,"just as it does with the proper names and a great number of other words that are used in English without the article. It is not proper to translate "the" in these cases, or to translate "a" or "an" when the article is omitted,
simply because usage differs between the two languages. The article is a determiner. Also, as we have shown, the article can sometimes be omitted
without changing the meaning.

Why does John say that "the Word was with God," employing the article, and also "the Word was God," omitting the article? For two reasons, the first being purely grammatical. When one gives a little thought to the subject,one realizes that the same word "was" in these two statements actually meanstwo different things. In the first instance it indicates a condition, a relationship: the Word stands in some kind of relation to Someone else, to God. In the second instance it is merely the equivalent of an equal sign: Word and God refer to the same Person. Now this second kind of use of the verb "to be" involves a subject to which another word is placed as its predicate, the two being the same. In Greek, the subject has the article, while the predicate does not. In English we know the two by position rather than by the use of an article. Thus we translate "the Word (subject) was God (predicate)," not "God was the Word." In John 4:24 our Lord says to the
Samaritan woman, "God is spirit." Now the Greek here, actually is pneuma (spirit) ho theos (God)--in that order. Still, it is not correct to translate, "The Spirit is God," because the article shows that "God" is the subject and the lack of the article shows that "spirit" is the predicate. Note, too, that no verb "to be" occurs here at all, as often is the case in Greek: the "equal sign" is just omitted.

The other reason that John does not use the article in saying "the Word was God" is theological. Actually, it would be very poor Trinitarian theology for him to have done so. Ordinarily, as we stated above, the article is used with proper names as a determiner. John has placed the Word in relation to God as a determined Person. But at the same time he affirms that the Word is God. Obviously the Word is not the determined Person with Whom He stands in relation--He is a different Person altogether. It would have been to court confusion, therefore, to repeat the article.

There is no objection whatever to translating, as some modern versions do, something like "the Word was divine," as long as this is not falsely
construed as signifying something less than "God." Throughout the entire New Testament, however, there is not the slightest shred of evidence for holding that any New Testament author means anything but "God" when he uses the word
theos in relation to the monotheistic religion in which he believed. The Greek word, of course, is like our own: we can also speak of false "gods" or
a false "god," using the same word that we use for the true God. In 1 Corinthians 8:5 and Galatians 4:8, Paul uses the term for such as are falsely called "gods." In the same sense, he speaks
of "the god of this world" (2 Cor, 4:4), even as our Lord speaks of "the prince of this world"
(John 12:21). But whenever a New Testament author refers the word theos to the one, true God of his faith, he can only mean "God."

But does not Christ Himself use such language, and justify His use of it from the Scripture? In John 10:31-39 we read: "The Jews took up stones again to stone him. Jesus answered them, `I have shown you many good works from the Father; for which of these do you stone me?' The Jews answered him, `We stone you for no good work but for blasphemy; because you, being a man, make yourself God.' Jesus answered them, `Is it not written in your law: I said, you are gods? If he then called them gods to whom the word of God came (and Scripture cannot be broken), do you say of him whom the Father consecrated
and sent into the world: "You are blaspheming," because I said: I am the Son of God? If I am not doing the works of my Father, then do not believe me; but if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me and I am in the Father.' Again they tried to arrest him, but he escaped from their hands."

Here Jesus does not take back a single word of His claims that had provoked His enemies to the charge of blasphemy, as their reaction proves. What He does only is to ask them to think, referring them to Psalm 82 where a divine
title (translated "gods" in the LXX used here by John) was employed of human judges. If such a title could be used in one sense in the Scripture, asks Jesus, could not another sense be readily applicable to Himself? Or does His suggestion of His divinity rule out, as they think, the monotheistic idea of God?

The Hebrew word used in Psalm 82 is elohim. This word, which is used of the one true God throughout the Old Testament, is as flexible as the Greek theos or the English "god." It could also mean much more. Sometimes it was used for angels. In 1 Samuel 28:13 it is even used for the spirit of Samuel called up by the witch of Endor. Also it was used for pagan deities. The very ambiguity of the word serves as a basis for our Lord's argument--which might be a lesson for the Witnesses to take to heart: "What's in a name?"
What is important is the meaning that words have in context, not what they are made to mean. There is no doubt what John the Evangelist meant when he said, "The Word was God."

For this Word, this utterance of the Father, already, before all creation and from all eternity, was with God. He becamewas. The opening phrase of John's prologue did not say, "In the beginning the Word came to be," but that in the beginning--wherever you place it--the Word
already was. It would require the passing of centuries before the precise theological language of Christian Trinitarianism doctrine would be worked out, language that would learn from heresies like the collection enshrined in Witness literature what errors to avoid as well as from the thinking of devout Christian men. As the Protestant Biblical scholar William Sanday once
wrote: "The decisions in question were the outcome of a long evolution, every step in which was keenly debated by minds of great acumen and power, really far better equipped for such discussion than the average Anglo-American mind of today." They produced the Christian theology that characterizes orthodox Christianity. But they began where we begin, with John's affirmation of the truth:

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God..." flesh, but already in the beginning He

The Witnesses and the Bible

In 1950 the Witnesses published the New World Translation of the Christian Greek Scriptures, rendered from the original language by the New World Bible Translation Committee. In 1960 they published the final volume (Volume 5) of the New World Translation of the Hebrew Scriptures. Subsequently, single-volume editions of the complete Bible in this translation has appeared in several languages. The publications are well printed and
excellently got out, and are marketed at an incredibly low price. [Since1990, Witness literature has been distributed on a donation basis in manycountries.] They are, as a matter of fact, additional cases in point of what we mentioned earlier regarding the zeal of these people which deserves a better cause than it serves.

The Witnesses’ translation is the culmination of an increasing interest they have taken in the many versions of the Scripture that are available today.
It is not unusual for one of the Witnesses' publications to cite as many as ten or more different translations. Moreover, for a number of years they have been making a point of appealing to the original texts of the
Scriptures, at least to the standard editions of these texts. All of this is something of a switch from the origins of the Witnesses in Pastor Russell's meditations over the King James Bible.

From what we have brought out above, the major reason for the Witnesses' making their own translation of the Bible is not hard to find. No sect has
ever been able to resist the temptation to vindicate its teachings as close to their alleged source as possible. Private judgment in interpretation will carry one a long way, and the claim of mistranslation will solve other
difficulties. But what better thing than for a religion based on the Bible to have its own Bible to prove it? And, as it happens, there are countless
instances in the Witnesses' Bible where the sacred text has been thoroughly tailored to fit the Witnesses' measurements. We have brought out some of the
instances above.

In general, it must be said that where there are no sectarian issues at stake, the Witnesses' translation maintains a reasonably high standard of
journeyman scholarship. The work has been done by those who have studied their grammars and dictionaries. There is an excellent system of
cross-referencing of texts. The "critical" footnotes are voluminous, even though mainly worthless and irrelevant, as are the appendices.

A translation made for crank purposes, however, will inevitably turn up with eccentricities that really have nothing to do with its main purpose. It is simply that eccentricity breeds a way of thought. Anyone who reads very far in the translation of the Old Testament, for example, will soon be bewildered by the strange way the verb tenses come one after another and by
the equally strange way that verbs tend at times to be modified by words that contribute little or nothing to meaning. If he bothers to read the Foreword he will get the explanation of this. The translators have discarded the generally accepted rules of Hebrew syntax on the verb and have followed another isolated view that has never commended itself to many scholars.

The Cross

Certain bizarre translations turn up that obviously mean a great deal to the translators but which could not matter very much to anyone else. As an
example, we might take the translation given in the New Testament to the Greek word stauros, "cross." This word did, it is true, refer principally to
the instrument of execution used by the Romans, without necessarily involving the form that the instrument took. It seems to be equally true,
however, that the form was customarily that of a cross as we know it, that is, of an upright together with a crossbar of some kind. This was the form
in which the cross as a symbol was adopted by the earliest Christians, who were at that time close enough to the practice of crucifixion to know what
would have been the most likely instrument used in the case of our Lord's suffering and death. At the same time, it obviously doesn't matter one bit
whether Christ was crucified on a single upright stake or one with a crossbar. The fact that Christian tradition has varied from East to West and
back again in representing the cross in different forms shows how secondary the whole question is. The cross is for us a symbol, merely that, to remind
us of a great event that took place, and not necessarily a photographic description of it. In any case, the words "cross" and "crucifixion" have a
meaning for everybody that commits nobody to any decision as to whether Christ was put to death on a Latin or Greek or Tau cross. For the Witnesses
to insist on using the word "torture stake" for this instrument, and to substitute the word "impale" for "crucify," adds up merely to another of the oddities of this Bible translation.

This matter of terminology is, however, another mark of cultist religion, which generally aims at a private vocabulary that substitutes for conventional language. Anyone who reads much of the Witnesses' literature
speedily discovers this. Not only does he run across terms like "spirit person," "Bride class," "sanctuary class," and the like, terms that have their home only among the initiates of the sect, but also conventional
words, like "religion," have had special meanings attached to them. "Religion," in Witness terminology, was at one time viewed as a bad word which
was used to designate any organized or unorganized, visible or invisible church or other religious (since we can't avoid the term here) movement or body or influence that was not Jehovah's Witnesses. The term has since been rehabilitated and most Witnesses today are unaware of the special meaning
that was once attached to the word "religion." As we have seen above, the fixation on the name of "Jehovah" is another manifestation of cultist
religion.

The Watchtower

It is not the Witnesses' translation of the Bible that is so important, of course, as the use, or rather, the misuse that they have made of it. Aside
from its obvious doctrinal biases reflected in translation, the New World version of the Scriptures might very well have been welcomed as another
effort to put the word of God into modern dress and have stood the test of impartial examination. It is the sect that lies behind the translation that has spoiled any chance of that.

The various publications which the Witnesses have issued on the Bible are somewhat like the Watchtower itself--there is apt to be a great deal of
material that is harmless, some occasional information that is actually helpful and profitable, and still more that is either nonsense or actually pernicious. In the first category one might put their oft-repeated polemic
against the use of the terms "New Testament" and "Old Testament." Everyone will agree, presumably, that these terms are not entirely accurate. However,
they refer to recognizable literary units, and the Witnesses will never succeed in getting anyone to substitute for them "Christian Greek Scriptures" and "Hebrew Scriptures" or, for that matter, in getting many people to think the point important enough to bother about. In the second category one might class much of what the Witnesses have written on the
history of the Biblical text and the various manuscript evidence. Here they have usually depended on scholarship that, if second-hand is at least solid.

The Witnesses represent the most primitive kind of Fundamentalism, with all its inconsistencies and disservice to the rational service of God. Their
frequent citation of recent scholarly opinions and literature, their whole approach to scholarship itself, is only for providing grist for their private mills. The same critics who will be eagerly quoted when it is a
question of supporting, or seeming to support some peculiarity of the Witness creed, will be mercilessly ridiculed or studiously ignored in any other matter. It is difficult to ascertain which has an uglier sound for a
Witness: "higher critic" or "Roman hierarchy." The real problems of Biblical translation or criticism, involving distinctions of authorship or of sources or the like, are simply ignored....The poor critics are dredged up from the depths and quoted with approval even for their most extreme opinions when it
is a question of analyzing the "apocrypha," only to be abused again when they dare to venture opinions on the other books of the Bible. The Biblical
chronology of events and books which appear frequently in Witness publications is a masterpiece of the incredible. All the above is mainly the general fundamentalist tradition, which does not differentiate the Witnesses much from other groups of a similar religious background.

Jehovah’s Witnesses began, first and foremost, as an Adventist sect, which is to say that it began from a misunderstanding of the very meaning of Biblical revelation and prophecy. In every generation known to man there have been those like Pastor Russell and Judge Rutherford, who have interpreted the Bible as a great code-book which reveals a detailed blueprint of the future leading up, by the merest coincidence, just to the present time. The Witnesses have followed faithfully in the footsteps of their founders, and it is not surprising that we find much, if not most of their literature devoted to detailed explanations of where in the Books of Daniel, Ezekiel and Revelation we may find specific reference made to the League of Nations, the First and Second World Wars, the United Nations, and events in their denominational history. There does not seem to be very much that can be said about all this. As we indicated before, the ability to swallow such an interpretation of the Bible—let alone the great Pyramid—carries with it the ability to survive such trivial setbacks as the systematic failure of the prophets when they have ventured out of the safe past and into the uncertain future. “Millions now living will never die,” said the Witnesses as they emerged into this world. “Millions now living will never die,” they say today. And “millions now living will never die” they will doubtless be saying after the millions are all dead, should they remain with us that long. And doubtless they will still have their faithful following.

The Witnesses lean very heavily on the apocalyptic literature of the Bible, that maze of lush imagery and symbolism which, unfortunately, as the Baptist Biblical scholar C.H. Dodd has written, has become “the licensed playground of every crank.” It is from the Book of Revelation that they have extracted another of the venerable old heresies of primitive Christianity, that of Millenarianism—the belief in a literal thousand year reign of the saints on earth. It is from the same Book of Revelation that they have been able to determine the precise population of heaven: the symbolic 144,000 of Revelation 7:4-8, the four-square number of the symbolic twelve tribes of Israel with which the Biblical author peopled the four-square heavenly Jerusalem (21:9-21). They insist the total number of 144,000 is literal yet at the same time say the number 12,000 from each tribe is symbolic.

With this we take our leave of Jehovah’s Witnesses, repeating the statements with which we began. If our judgments have sounded harsh, we insist that we have intended no ridicule for honestly held beliefs as such. Sincerity in belief is an admirable quality. Respect for sincerity, however, may not ever blind us to the duty of service to the truth, and of the defense of our own cherished heritage. We have addressed ourselves far less to the Witnesses themselves than to those who have been the targets of their propagandizing. If we have helped any of these to see their way the clearer through the intricacies of this propaganda, we shall be most grateful for this opportunity to serve the cause of the God of truth—whose name is not “Jehovah.”

NO to NFP!!!

2010-04-19T21:58:00.003-04:00

JMJ,

Way back when I was assisting at the Novus Ordo church (although deeply a traditional Catholic however; had no idea there were still REAL Catholics out there) I had to listen to a Diocese sponsored propaganda day for marraige prep (Hey, Remember I'm 3rd Order OP!)

Part of the day-long hippie-fest (which interestingly enough didn't even mention Pope Pius XI's Encylical to married couples Casti Connubii) was a presentation on NFP (which we had sort of heard of but the specifics were about as hard to get out of people as a Masonic Lodge) At first it seemed like a great "gift" for the laity to use in order to help conceive a child. And we bought into the Satan inspired deciet.

The reality of the matter is that the majority of "conservative" Novus Ordo "catholics" actually use it to prevent conception and in true Modernist fashion actually believe that they are following moral law and that their excuse for using NFP fits into the "extreme cases" loophold.

I am very happy to say that we recognised this horrible sin for what it is and that it fits in with the trashy so-called : "theology" of the body as articulated by Holy Father of recent memory and upholder of several heresies John Paul II....

So, what has me bringing this up?
Well, today I did something very rare. I tuned into the local "catholic" Radio Station and heard a program about NFP and my stomach started churning....One of the people said that husband and wife should "Invite Christ into the marital act." What kind of blasphemous disgusting statement is that??
One from Modernist Heretics broadcasting on so-called "catholic" Radio.

Below is a WONDERFUL article on NFP.....

Read, enjoy, and learn the TRUTH from the true teachings of Holy Mother Church!!!

What is Natural Family Planning?
Natural Family Planning (NFP) is the practice of deliberately restricting the marital act exclusively to those times when the wife is infertile so as to avoid the conception of a child. NFP is used for the same reasons that people use artificial contraception: to deliberately avoid the conception of a child while carrying out the marital act.

Pope Paul VI explained correctly that NFP is birth control when he promoted it in his encyclical Humanae Vitae.

Paul VI, Humanae Vitae (# 16), July 25, 1968:
“…married people may then take advantage of the natural cycles immanent in the reproductive system and engage in marital intercourse only during those times that are infertile, thus controlling birth in a way which does not in the least offend the moral principles which We have just explained.”

Why is NFP wrong?
NFP is wrong because it’s birth control; it’s against conception. It’s a refusal on the part of those who use it to be open to the children that God planned to send them. It’s no different in its purpose from artificial contraception, and therefore it’s a moral evil just like artificial contraception.

The Teaching of the Catholic Papal Magisterium
Pope Pius XI spoke from the Chair of Peter in his 1931 encyclical Casti Connubii on Christian marriage. His teaching shows that all forms of birth prevention are evil. We quote a long excerpt from his encyclical which sums up the issue.

Pope Pius XI, Casti Connubii (#’s 53-56), Dec. 31, 1930: “And now, Venerable Brethren, we shall explain in detail the evils opposed to each of the benefits of matrimony. First consideration is due to the offspring, which many have the boldness to call the disagreeable burden of matrimony and which they say is to be carefully avoided by married people not through virtuous continence (which Christian law permits in matrimony when both parties consent) but by frustrating the marriage act. Some justify
Natural Family Planning is sinful birth control. this criminal abuse on the ground that they are weary of children and wish to gratify their desires without their consequent burden. Others say that they cannot on the one hand remain continent nor on the other can they have children because of the difficulties whether on the part of the mother or on the part of the family circumstances.
“But no reason, however grave, may be put forward by which anything intrinsically against nature may become conformable to nature and morally good. Since, therefore, the conjugal act is destined primarily by nature for the begetting of children, those who in exercising it deliberately frustrate its natural powers and purpose sin against nature and commit a deed which is shameful and intrinsically vicious.
“Small wonder, therefore, if Holy Writ bears witness that the Divine Majesty regards with greatest detestation this horrible crime and at times has punished it with death. As St. Augustine notes, ‘Intercourse even with one’s legitimate wife is unlawful and wicked where the conception of offspring is prevented.’ Onan, the son of Judah, did this and the Lord killed him for it (Gen. 38:8-10).
“Since, therefore, openly departing from the uninterrupted Christian tradition some recently have judged it possible solemnly to declare another doctrine regarding this question, the Catholic Church, to whom God has entrusted the defense of the integrity and purity of morals, standing erect in the midst of the moral ruin which surrounds her, in order that she may preserve the chastity of the nuptial union from being defiled by this foul stain, raises her voice in token of her divine ambassadorship and through Our mouth proclaims anew: any use whatsoever of matrimony exercised in such a way that the act is deliberately frustrated in its natural power to generate life is an offence against the law of God and of nature, and those who indulge in such are branded with the guilt of a grave sin.”

One can see that Pope Pius XI condemns all forms of contraception as mortally sinful because they frustrate the marriage act. Does this condemn NFP? Yes it does, but the defenders of Natural Family Planning say “no.” They argue that in using Natural Family Planning to avoid conception they are not deliberately frustrating the marriage act or designedly depriving it of its natural power to procreate life, as is done with artificial contraceptives. They argue that NFP is “natural.”

Common sense should tell those who deeply consider this topic that these arguments are specious because NFP has as its entire purpose the avoidance of conception. However, the attempted justification for NFP – the claim that it doesn’t interfere with the marriage act itself and is therefore permissible – must be specifically refuted. This claim is specifically refuted by a careful look at the teaching of the Catholic Church on marriage and ITS PRIMARY PURPOSE. It is the teaching of the Catholic Church on the primary purpose of marriage (and the primary purpose of the marriage act) which condemns NFP.

Catholic dogma teaches us that the primary purpose of marriage (and the conjugal act) is the procreation and education of children.

Pope Pius XI, Casti Connubii (# 17), Dec. 31, 1930: “The primary end of marriage is the procreation and the education of children.”

Pope Pius XI, Casti Connubii (# 54), Dec. 31, 1930:
“Since, therefore, the conjugal act is destined primarily by nature for the begetting of children, those who in exercising it deliberately frustrate its natural powers and purpose sin against nature and commit a deed which is shameful and intrinsically vicious.”

Besides this primary purpose, there are also secondary purposes for marriage, such as mutual aid, the quieting of concupiscence, and the cultivating of mutual love. But these secondary purposes must always remain subordinate to the primary purpose of marriage (the procreation and education of children). This is the key point to remember in the discussion on NFP.

Pope Pius XI, Casti Connubii (# 59), Dec. 31, 1930: “For in matrimony as well as in the use of the matrimonial right there are also secondary ends, such as mutual aid, the cultivating of mutual love, and the quieting of concupiscence which husband and wife are not forbidden to consider SO LONG AS THEY ARE SUBORDINATED TO THE PRIMARY END and so long as the intrinsic nature of the act is preserved.”

Therefore, even though NFP doesn’t directly interfere with the marriage act itself, as its defenders love to stress, it makes no difference. NFP is wrong because practicing it subordinates the primary end (or purpose) of marriage and the marriage act (the procreation and education of children) to the secondary ends. NFP subordinates the primary end of marriage to other things by deliberately attempting to avoid children (i.e., to avoid the primary end) while having marital relations. NFP therefore inverts the order intended by God. It does the very thing that Pope Pius XI solemnly teaches may not lawfully be done. And this point refutes all of the arguments made by those who defend NFP; for all of the arguments made by those who defend NFP focus on the marriage act itself, while they ignore the fact that it makes no difference if a couple does not interfere with the act itself if they subordinate or thwart the primary PURPOSE of marriage.

To summarize: the only difference between artificial contraception and NFP is that artificial contraception frustrates the power of the marriage act itself, while NFP frustrates its primary purpose (by subordinating the procreation of children to other things).

When a married couple goes out of their way to avoid children, by deliberately avoiding the fertile times and restricting the marriage act exclusively to infertile times, they are committing a sin against the natural law – they are sinning against the God whom they know sends life. NFP is, therefore, a sin against the natural law, since God is the author of life and NFP thwarts His designs.

In publications promoting NFP, the fertile period of the wife is sometimes classified as “not safe” and “dangerous,” as though generating new life were considered a serious breach of national security and a little infant a treacherous criminal! This is truly abominable.

The word matrimony means “the office of motherhood.” Those who use NFP attempt to avoid matrimony (the office of motherhood) and shut out God from themselves.

Saint Caesar of Arles: “As often as he knows his wife without a desire for children… without a doubt he commits sin.”

Errors Condemned by Pope Innocent XI: “.The act of marriage exercised for pleasure only is entirely free of all fault and venial defect.”–Condemned

The following facts may be the most incriminating to the practice of “Natural Family Planning.”
If family planners had their way, there would have been no St. Bernadette of Lourdes, who was born from a jail flat; nor St. Therese of Lisieux, who came from a sickly mother who lost three children in a row; nor St. Ignatius Loyola, who was the thirteenth of thirteen children; and most certainly not a St. Catherine of Siena, who was the twenty-fifth child in a family of twenty-five children!

Examples of saints who were the last of many children could probably be multiplied for pages. St. Catherine of Siena and the rest of the saints who would have been phased out of existence by NFP will rise in judgment against the NFP generation. Natural Family Planners would have been sure to inform St. Catherine’s mother that there was no need having five children (let alone twenty-five!), and that she was wasting her time going through all those pregnancies.

Only in eternity shall we know the immortal souls who have been denied a chance at Heaven because of this selfish behavior. The only thing that can foil the will of the all-powerful God is the will of His puny creatures; for He will not force offspring on anyone, just as He will not violate anyone’s free will. NFP is a crime of incalculable proportions. (Just contemplate for a second the thought: if your mom had decided not to have you.)

If family planners had their way, the appearances of Our Lady of Fatima would not have occurred, as she appeared to Lucia (the seventh of seven children), Francisco (the eighth of nine children) and Jacinta (the ninth of nine children). Family Planners, by their selfish thwarting of the will of God, would have erased from human history the entire message of Fatima, as well as the incredible miracle of the sun, the extraordinary lives of these three shepherd children, and all the graces of conversion obtained by their heroic sacrifices. How many saints, conversions and miracles have been erased by this abominable birth control practice? Only God knows.

A mother of many children, who was about to be a mother once more, came to Ars (the place where St. John Vianney resided) to seek courage from him. She said to him, “Oh, I am so advanced in years, Father!” St. John Vianney responded: “Be comforted my child; if you only knew the women who will go to Hell because they did not bring into the world the children they should have given to it!”

1 Timothy 2:15- “Yet she shall be saved through child-bearing; if she continue in faith, and love, and sanctification, with sobriety.”

Scripture teaches that a woman can be saved through child-bearing (if she is Catholic and in the state of grace). But NFP advocates would have us believe that a woman can be saved through child-avoiding. Moreover, just as a woman who fulfills the will of God and maintains the state of grace in the state of matrimony is saved by her childbearing, so too are countless women going to be damned for not bearing the children that God wanted them to have.

(Objection 1) Natural Family Planning is a justifiable practice of birth control because it does nothing to obstruct the natural power of procreation.

Response: We’ve already responded to this objection above. We won’t repeat all of that here. We will simply summarize again that NFP is condemned because it subordinates the primary PURPOSE of marriage and the conjugal act to other things. This makes the fact that NFP does nothing to obstruct the marriage act itself irrelevant, since the primary purpose is being frustrated.

(Objection 2) Pope Pius XII taught that NFP is lawful for at least certain reasons. So you have no right to condemn it, as he was the pope.

Response: It is true that Pope Pius XII taught that Natural Family Planning is lawful for certain reasons in a series of fallible speeches in the 1950’s. However, this does not justify NFP. Pius XII’s speeches were fallible, and were therefore vulnerable to error.

In studying papal errors throughout history in preparation for its declaration of papal infallibility, the theologians at Vatican I found that over 40 popes held wrong theological views. In a notorious case of papal error, Pope John XXII held the false view that the just of the Old Testament don’t receive the Beatific Vision until after the General Judgment. Pope Honorius I, a validly elected Roman Pontiff, encouraged the heresy of monotheletism (that Our Lord Jesus Christ only had one will), for which he was later condemned by the Third Council of Constantinople. But none of these errors were taught by popes from the Chair of St. Peter, just like Pius XII’s speech to Italian midwives is not a declaration from the Chair of St. Peter.

One of the most notorious cases of papal error in Church history is the “Synod of the Corpse” of 897. This was where the dead body of Pope Formosus – who by all accounts was a holy and devoted pope – was condemned after his death by Pope Stephen VII for a number of supposed violations of canon law.11 Pope Sergius III was also in favor of the judgment, while later Popes Theodore II and John IX opposed it. This should show us very clearly that not every decision, speech, opinion or judgment of a pope is infallible.

The bottom-line remains that it’s an infallible teaching of the Catholic Church that the primary end of marriage (and the conjugal act) is the procreation and education of children. Natural Family Planning subordinates the primary end of marriage and the conjugal act to other things and is therefore gravely sinful.

(Objection 3) In Casti Connubii itself, Pope Pius XI taught that married couples could use the periods where the wife cannot become pregnant.

Pope Pius XI, Casti Connubii, Dec. 31, 1930: “Nor are those considered as acting against nature who in the married state use their right in the proper manner although on account of natural reasons either of time or of certain defects, new life cannot be brought forth. For in matrimony as well as in the use of the matrimonial right there are also secondary ends, such as mutual aid, the cultivating of mutual love, and the quieting of concupiscence which husband and wife are not forbidden to consider SO LONG AS THEY ARE SUBORDINATED TO THE PRIMARY END and so long as the intrinsic nature of the act is preserved.”

Response: Yes, Pope Pius XI taught that married couples could use their marriage rights in the infertile periods of the wife (or when there is a defect of nature or age which prevents new life from being conceived). But he did not teach that they could designedly restrict the marriage act to the infertile periods to avoid a pregnancy, as in Natural Family Planning.

This is why, in the very passage quoted above, Pope Pius XI reiterates that all use of the marriage rights – including when new life cannot be brought forth due to time or nature – must keep the secondary ends of marriage subordinate to the primary end! This teaching is the deathblow to NFP, as NFP itself is the subordination of the primary end of marriage (the procreation and education of children) to other things. So, in summary, the passage above does not teach NFP, but merely enunciates the principle that married couples may use their marriage rights at any time. Further, in the same paragraph, the very paragraph that the defenders of NFP erroneously twist to justify their sinful birth control practice, Pope Pius XI condemns NFP by reiterating the teaching on the primary purpose of marriage, which NFP subordinates to other things.

(Objection 4) Everyone admits that “Natural Family Planning” can be used to help a woman achieve a pregnancy. Therefore, the same method can be used to avoid pregnancy.

Response: If a couple is using Natural Family Planning to achieve a pregnancy, it is lawful because in this case they are doing their utmost to fulfill the primary end of marriage (the procreation and education of children). If a couple is using Natural Family Planning to avoid pregnancy, it is unlawful because in this case they are doing their utmost to avoid the primary end of marriage (the procreation and education of children).

Conclusion
Couples who have used NFP, but who are resolved to change, should not despair. NFP is an evil, but God is merciful and will forgive those who are firmly resolved to change their life and confess their sin. Those who have used NFP need to be sorry for their sin and confess to a validly ordained priest that they have practiced birth control (for however long it may have been used). Both the wife and the husband who agreed with the use of NFP need to confess. They should then be open to all of the children that God wishes to bestow upon them – without concern or knowledge of charts, cycles, fertile or infertile, seeking first the kingdom of God and His justice, letting God plan their family.

Just a simple question for non catholics

2010-04-19T18:10:00.000-04:00

The One and Only True Faith known as The Catholic Church was founded in the year 33 by Our Lord Jesus Christ. Our Lord named Peter as his first vicar, or Pope, when He said to him “...I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven..” (Matthew 16:19).

One thousand, five hundred years later, the Lutheran church was founded in Germany, by Martin Luther, an ex-monk of the Roman Catholic Church, in the year 1517.

The Anabaptist church is an offshoot of the Lutherans and was started by Nicholas Storch, and Thomas Münzer, former Lutherans, around 1520. The Anabaptists rejected infant baptism and were denounced by Martin Luther.

The Mennonite church was started in Switzerland, by Grebel, Mantz, and Blaurock, in the year 1525 as an offshoot of the Anabaptists. It derived its name from Menno Simons, a former Catholic priest.

The Baptist church was founded by John Smyth, who launched it in Amsterdam, in 1606 as an offshoot of the Mennonites. Baptists reject infant baptism as contrary to the Scriptures, and accept immersion as the sole valid mode of baptism.

In 1693, a Swiss bishop named Jacob Amman also broke from the Mennonite church. His followers were called the "Amish." While similar to the Mennonites, they differ in language, dress, and interpretation of the Bible.

The Church of England (Anglican), was founded by King Henry VIII in 1534, because the Pope could not grant him a divorce with the right to remarry.

The Presbyterian church was founded by John Knox, in Scotland, in the year 1560. They are theologically based on the teachings of John Calvin and are governed by a representative assembly.

The Congregationalist church is an offshoot of the Church of England and was originated by an Englishman named Robert Brown, in Holland, in 1583. He rejected, among other things, the authority of bishops. His followers later became known as Puritans. Some of these went to America to start a colony in 1623. Some, like Oliver Cromwell, got involved in the English Civil War, and overthrew Charles I in 1646.

The Unitarian church first cropped up in Poland in 1568. That sect was suppressed but another was founded in London, by John Biddle, in 1645. The Unitarians believe in a uni-personal instead of a tri-personal God.

The Episcopalian church is also an offshoot of the Church of England. It was founded by Samuel Seabury in the American Colonies in the 17th century.

The Quakers were founded by George Fox, in England in 1647. This group now calls itself The Society of Friends, although they originally called themselves “Children of Light”. They acknowledge absolutely no authority higher than what Fox called the “inner light” of personal revelation.

The Methodist church was launched by John and Charles Wesley, in England in 1739. The Wesley brothers were Anglican ministers who started a revival movement that branched off to become Methodism.
Jacob Albright, a Methodist, started an association that branched off and became the Evangelical Church, in Pennsylvania, in 1803.

The Mormons, or "Latter Day Saints", were founded by a part-time swindler named Joseph Smith in Palmyra, New York, in 1829.

The Seventh Day Adventists, originated in New York, by William Miller, in 1831. Based on his study of the prophecy of Daniel 8:14, Miller calculated that Jesus would return to earth sometime between 1843 and 1844.

The cult known as Jehovah’s Witnesses was founded by Charles Taze Russell, in 1872, as the "Millennial Dawnists." In 1931, Judge Rutherford, his successor, decided that henceforth they would be called, Witnesses of Jehovah, or Jehovah’s Witness. The JWs deny the divinity of Christ, the resurrection of the body, and refuse to take blood transfusions.

The Christian Scientists, were founded by Mary Baker Eddy in Massachusetts, in 1879.

The "Pentecostal Gospel", religion is one of the hundreds of new sects founded by men in the last 100 years.

So Who started YOUR "church?"

Requiem Mass for Confederate Veterans 26-APR-2010

2010-04-18T20:01:00.004-04:00

On April 26th 2010 (Florida Confederate Memorial Day)

There will be a Requiem Mass said for Confederate veterans

who proudly served their Country during the War of Northern Agression.

LOCATION: Saint Michael The Archangel Roman Catholic Church

1950 Bartram Road. Jacksonville, FL 32207

TIME: 08:00AM

Historically, the South has never been known as a bastion of Catholicism. But what most historians have overlooked for going on the past century and a half, were the contributions made by Catholics on behalf of The Confederate States; most notably, Pope Pius IX.

Jefferson Davis, all though he was Protestant, attended Catholic school (Dominicans) as a youth in Kentucky. Young Davis even expressed a desire to convert. But the good Fathers denied his request out of respect for the Davis family. Evidently, his first contact with Catholicism wouldn't be his last.

Twenty of the Confederacy's fighting generals were Catholic.

Among them General P.G.T Beauregard, who ordered the barrarge on Fort Sumter; General James Longstreet of Gettysburg and Chickamauga fame; and Gen. Joseph Finegan, the victor at one of the few major battles fought in Florida. Most that at least dabble in the history of The War Between The States have heard of the all Catholic New York 69th. But how many knew that The South had Catholic Brigades as well? The 6th Louisiana Tigers fought with valor in Lee's Army of Northern Virginia. The 10th Tennessee fought with equal elan at Chickamauga, Chattanooga and Atlanta.

Not only on the battlefield had Catholics well represented The South. Bishop Patrick Lynch of Charleston, South Carolina was the Confederate Ambassador to The Papal States. Infact,

The Papal States was the only nation to ever formally exchange ambassadors with the Confederacy.

Good Shepherd Sunday (2nd Sunday after Easter)

2010-04-18T16:16:00.002-04:00

JMJ,

Today is Good Shepherd Sunday and in the COMMUNION ANTIPHON of today we heard:
(John 10:14)

"I am the good shepherd, alleluia!
And I Know my sheep, and mine know me, alleluia, alleluia!"

When was the last time you prayed for your Priest?
When was the last time you prayed for the Bishop of your Diocese? (yes THAT one!)
When was the last time you prayed for our Holy Father?

How many times have you cooked a meal for Father?
How often have you invited him to your home?
How often have you thanked Our Lord for him?

Have you spoken ill of your Priest?
Have you thought him no better than any other man?
Have you even tried to usurp his authority?

These are some questions to think about today as we ponder the Priesthood and truly realise that in the midst of this terrible crisis in the Church, Our Lord has given to us Holy Priests that are Loyal to the Perennial Church's Teachings, and to the Magisterium.
So we must pray, pray, pray for them, endure their chastisements with patience and obedience, serve them humbly, and plead with Our Lady to intercede for an influx of more men to answer the call to Priesthood.

Who else but your Priest can absolve you in the name and person of Christ?
Who else but your Priest can confect the Blessed Sacrament?
Who else but your Priest can administer Extreme Unction to the dying?

His Excellency of fond memory, Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre said:
“The priest and the future priest must find in his priesthood all his religious and apostolic virtues, and firstly the virtue of religion; hence he will respect the primacy of God’s love, divine praise, adoration and prayer.”

When asked if he prays for The Holy Father Benedict XVI, Bishop Williamson said:

I pray continually for the Pope, for cardinals, bishops and priests, as the Mother of God repeatedly asks us to do. May she obtain light and strength for all of us.

Today on Good Shepherd Sunday let us double our efforts to pray for our Pope, bishops, and priests. I know it is very hard when the majority of the bishops and priests are heretics, hostile toward tradition, allowing blasphemy, etc. however; it is now more than ever that prayers for them are needed especially The Holy Father, that he may fully embrace all the past teachings of his Holy Predessors who had the courage to proclaim to the whole world the message of salvation. For after all, the cardinal law of the church is:
Salus Animarum Suprema Lex-----The salvation of the souls is the supreme law

Let us ask Our Lady, Queen of Priests to grant us the grace to love our priests, to serve our priests, and to cherish them as the Holy gifts from God that they truly are.

Lord grant us Priests.
Lord grant us many Holy Priests.
Lord grant us many Holy Priests and Religious Vocations.
Saint Dominic pray for us
Saint Pius X pray for us.
Blessed Terrence Albert O'Brien pray for us

From the Truth, to a Doctrine of devils and men!

2010-04-15T17:25:00.000-04:00

JMJ,

I have a very dear friend of mine who I shall call Mr. A.
At one time he was a Catholic, albeit a very nominal and half non-practicing Catholic like the majoirty of self called Catholics in this country. He left the The One True Church some time ago for the doctrine of devils known as Protestantism and recently has been embracing the Methodist faction of the larger heresy..

Last evening we engaged in a debate and of course some of the standard Protestant "arguments" were given. I place the word argument in quotations because there is no valid argument against THE Truth which is Our Lord Jesus Christ and everything He has given to us, I.E. The Church, Sacraments, etc. Mr. A even asserted that the Catholic Church really doesn't go back 2,000 years and several other silly rebuttals such as The Catholic Church is a "false religion" When I asked him who was the founder of Methodism, or what the history of that so-called "church" was he had no idea....Funny if you proclaim The Catholic Church (and by default Our Lord) is false when you yourself have no idea of the history of your own false religion...

Well, Since we (Catholics) Know the history of the ONE AND ONLY TRUE FAITH, allow me to inform Mr. A and you my dear readers about the history of the Methodist "church" in America

"The Methodist branch of protestant religion traces its roots back to 1739 where it developed in England as a result of the teachings of John Wesley. While studying at Oxford, Wesley, his brother Charles, and several other students formed a group devoted to study, prayer and helping the underprivileged. They were labeled "Methodist" by their fellow students because of the way they used "rule" and "method" to go about their religious affairs.

The beginning of Methodism as a popular movement began in 1738, when both of the Wesley brothers, influenced by contact with the Moravians, undertook evangelistic preaching with an emphasis on conversion and holiness. Though both Wesley brothers were ordained ministers of the Church of England, they were barred from speaking in most of its pulpits because of their evangelistic methods. They preached in homes, farm houses, barns, open fields, and wherever they found an audience.

Methodism spread and eventually became its own separate religion when the first conference was held in 1744.

George Whitefield (1714-1770) was a minister in the Church of England and also one of the leaders of the Methodist movement. Some believe that he more than John Wesley is the founder of Methodism. He is famous for his part in the Great Awakening movement in America. As a follower of John Calvin, Whitefield parted ways with Wesley over the doctrine of predestination.

Several divisions and schisms occurred throughout Methodism's American history. In 1939, the three branches of American Methodism (the Methodist Protestant Church, the Methodist Episcopal Church, and the Methodist Episcopal Church, South) came to an agreement to reunite under the name "The Methodist Church." This 7.7 million member church prospered on its own for the next twenty-nine years, as did the newly reunited Evangelical United Brethren Church. In 1968, bishops of the two churches took the necessary steps to combine their churches into what has become the second largest Protestant denomination in America, The United Methodist Church."

Wow!!!
Does THAT sound like it was created or ordained by Our Lord?!?!?!!

People who broke off from the Heretical "church" of England started their own religion, and even then two of the main founders did not agree on justification (see Calvin on his erronious teaching of predestination)
Are you seriously telling me that, THAT is Our Lord's Church?!??!?! Something only slightly more old than 300 years and couldn't even agree on doctrine???

Hmmmmmmmm something to seriously think about if you consider yourself a Methodist huh???

The Sin of Presumption

2010-04-09T10:54:00.002-04:00

JMJ

This morning I read on someone's facebook the following:

" For members of any one group to say that members of any other group will or will not "go to heaven" is presumption of the worst kind. God will judge; man's responisibility is to exercise HUMILITY, learn the TRUTH and FOLLOW it."

he then goes on to provide an extremely typical Protestant point, namely:

'So how does anyone get to Heaven? The Bible says in the book of John chapter 3 verse 3: Jesus answered and said to him, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God."

Here we go with the Protestant Heresy of Sola Fide and the Sin of Presumption.
Now for Catholics that actually know their faith this poses no problem at all for we shall soon see how completely foolish and wicked this false teaching really is.

The sin of presumption is also the same as the belief in eternal assurance; it is presuming on God's mercy. It is not just a theologically incorrect position to hold, but is also one which is deeply sinful and inspired of the Devil because it makes one proud and think that one has no need of God's further assistance. The person thinks they are already permanently “saved” and so they do not need God, the Church, the Sacraments, or anything else.

Followers of this doctrine of devils do not speak of "If we make it to Heaven" rather they say “I KNOW I will be in Heaven . . .” Catholics who are in a state of grace are assured Heaven at that moment. The sin of presumption refers to a belief that regardless of mortal sins one will still merit Heaven.

There are several passages in Holy Scripture that repudiate the "Once Saved Always Saved" position. Since
many Protestants use the King James Bible I will use quotes from this Bible although I do not be any means endorse it over the Catholic Douay-Rheims. Before I even go to the Bible however, one must realize the devil was in the state of grace and lost that grace, being sent to hell for the sin of pride.

(Just something for you to consider)

We know in the Old Testament that King David , who was holy and just, became a terrible sinner, but then repented and died a saint. He is regarded a Saint by Holy Mother the Church. King Solomon , son of King David, was wiser and achieved great holiness, fell away and became an horrendous sinner. Of course we do not know if King Solomon was saved but most authors are not optimistic. The Church does not regard him as a Saint.
In the Old Testament , Ezekiel teaches the following doctrine:

" But when the righteous turneth away from his righteousness, and committeth iniquity, and doeth according to all the abominations that the wicked man doeth, shall he live? All his righteousness that he hath done shall not be mentioned: in his trespass that he hath trespassed, and in his sin that he hath sinned, in them shall he die. Yet ye say, the way of the Lord is not equal. Hear now, O house of Israel; Is not my way equal? are not your ways unequal? When a righteous man turneth away from his righteousness, and committeth iniquity, and dieth in them; for his iniquity that he hath done shall he die." ( Ezekiel 18: 24-26)

Saint Paul in his Epistle to the Romans (11:19-22), says:

"Thou wilt say then, the branches were broken off, that I might be graffed in. Well; because of unbelief they were broken off, and thou standest by faith. Be not highminded, but fear, For if God spared not the natural branches, take heed least he also spare not thee. Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God: on them which fell, severity; but towards thee, goodness, if thou continue in his goodness: otherwise thou also shalt be cut off."

It is important to note that Saint Paul was talking to believing, genuinely born again Christians who lived in Rome. He says in the same Epistle Romans

( 1:7 ) " To all that be in Rome, beloved of God, called to be Saints..." He also says : " the mutual faith, both of you and me"

( 1:11 ). According to the "Once saved always saved" theory, these people were saved. If that was the case, why then does Saint Paul tell them to "fear" they could be cut off? The answer is, although they presently believe and are "beloved of God" they can fail to continue in his goodness and loose their salvation.

Saint Paul teaches again that justified Christians can loose their salvation in Galatians:

" I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel." (Gal.1:6)

In the same Epistle he says: "having begun in the spirit," now fail to "obey the truth" (Gal.3:1-3)

Saint Paul himself feared for his own salvation: " But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: least by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway." ( Cor. 9:2 )

So we see Saint Paul did not believe that because he was a believer and in the love of God, that he could not loose his salvation. We are not any better than Saint Paul and we too can loose our salvation.

From the Catholic Epistles which are called General Epistles in the King James version of the Bible we read Saint Peter's warning:

" For if they have escaped the pollution's of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning. For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them. But it is happened unto them according to the true proverb, The dog turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in mire."

(2 Peter. 2:20-22).

This vivid allegory is so clear that a person can loose his salvation and the presumption of being already saved is un-biblical.

Saint Peter emphasizes the point even further

" Ye therefore, beloved, seeing ye know these things before, beware lest ye also, being led away with the error of the wicked, fall from your own steadfastness." (2 Peter 3:17 )

Saint James exhorts the faithful:

"Keep yourselves in the love of God." (Jude 21) To keep is not to loose. St. Jude would not waste inspired words of his epistle , if it were impossible for them to fail to keep the love of God.

Now at last we see the warning Our Lord Himself gave us:

" And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake:he that endureth to the end shall be saved." (Matt.10:22)

Saint Cyprian (A.D. 200-258) commenting on this verse says:

" So whatever precedes the end is only a step by which we ascend to the summit of salvation. It is not the final point wherein we have already gained full result of the ascent."

In Saint Luke in the Parable of the Sower our Lord gives us the different ways the Gospel is received by different people. Our concern is the second which He states:

" They on the rock are they, which, when they hear, receive the word with joy; and these have no root, which for a while believe, and in time of temptation fall away." (Luke 8:13)

One more quote from Our Lord:

" Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, , If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed." (John 8:31)

The doctrine "once saved always saved" is a false and demonic doctrine, not even close to the teaching of the Lord and his Apostles. I could go on but the point is made. We can loose our salvation and to presume we cannot is not biblical and not Christian. No one should presume they are going to heaven, however no one should give up the virtue of hope!

(see there is that sin of presumption again!)

Just a few additions from the INFALLIBLE Canons of the Council of Trent:

CANON IX.-If any one saith, that by faith alone the impious is justified; in such wise as to mean, that nothing else is required to co-operate in order to the obtaining the grace of Justification, and that it is not in any way necessary, that he be prepared and disposed by the movement of his own will; let him be anathema.

CANON XII.-If any one saith, that justifying faith is nothing else but confidence in the divine mercy which remits sins for Christ's sake; or, that this confidence alone is that whereby we are justified; let him be anathema.

CANON XIV.-If any one saith, that man is truly absolved from his sins and justified, because that he assuredly believed himself absolved and justified; or, that no one is truly justified but he who believes himself justified; and that, by this faith alone, absolution and justification are effected; let him be anathema.

CANON XVI.-If any one saith, that he will for certain, of an absolute and infallible certainty, have that great gift of perseverance unto the end,-unless he have learned this by special revelation; let him be anathema.

CANON XXVII.-If any one saith, that there is no mortal sin but that of infidelity; or, that grace once received is not lost by any other sin, however grievous and enormous, save by that of infidelity ; let him be anathema.

CANON XXIX.-If any one saith, that he, who has fallen after baptism, is not able by the grace of God to rise again; or, that he is able indeed to recover the justice which he has lost, but by faith alone without the sacrament of Penance, contrary to what the holy Roman and universal Church-instructed by Christ and his Apostles-has hitherto professed, observed, and taugh; let him be anathema.

CANON XXX.-If any one saith, that, after the grace of Justification has been received, to every penitent sinner the guilt is remitted, and the debt of eternal punishment is blotted out in such wise, that there remains not any debt of temporal punishment to be discharged either in this world, or in the next in Purgatory, before the entrance to the kingdom of heaven can be opened (to him); let him be anathema.

CANON XXXIII.-If any one saith,that,by the Catholic doctrine touching Justification, by this holy Synod inset forth in this present decree, the glory of God, or the merits of our Lord Jesus Christ are in any way derogated from, and not rather that the truth of our faith, and the glory in fine of God and of Jesus Christ are rendered (more) illustrious; let him be anathema.

Guarding against associations with non-Catholics

2010-04-08T20:25:00.001-04:00

JMJ

"St. Thomas maintains: ‘Each one is under obligation to show forth his faith, either to instruct and encourage others of the faithful, or to repel the attacks of unbelievers.’ To recoil before an enemy, or to keep silence when from all sides such clamors are raised against truth, is the part of a man either devoid of character or who entertains doubt as to the truth of what he professes to believe.”
----------Pope Leo XIII, Sapientiae Christianae #14, Jan. 10, 1890--------------

Daily we have to deal with heretics and non-believers and many of us have bought into the post Conciliar Modernist view of not "rocking the boat" or have been deceived by false charity and have simply kept silent to our friends outside the One and Only True Religion. As we see from the above statement The Holy Father says we are "devoid of character" if we do this....

In this day and age of crisis within Holy Mother Church, relativism and emotive outpouring we Catholics are called evermore to spread the Gospel and win souls for Our Lord...Yes there really is only ONE TRUE RELIGION, yes, OUTSIDE THAT RELIGION there is NO salvation, and that Holy Religion is the one founded by Our Lord Jesus Christ, THE HOLY CATHOLIC RELIGION!

“With Faith urging us we are forced to believe and to hold the one, holy, Catholic Church and that, apostolic, and we firmly believe and simply confess this Church outside of which there is no salvation nor remission of sin… Furthermore, we declare, say, define, and proclaim to every human creature that they by absolute necessity for salvation are entirely subject to the Roman Pontiff.”
----------Pope Boniface VIII, Unam Sanctam, Nov. 18, 1302--------

You must ask yourself what is to be gained by associations with those outside the Holy Faith if they will not hear and obey the will of God? Or even associations with so-called "Catholics" who mock Our Lord daily by their attitudes, irreverance, and blasphmey. Will they help get you into Heaven? Will you help them if they obstinately reject the Truth?

The answer dear friends and readers is a resounding NO! These associations will bear no fruit and we must simply pray for their souls and seriously think about cutting our associations with heretics, schismatics, and infidels.

I can hear you saying, "Wow Brother, that is very harsh." However Our Lord Himself even tells us in Holy Scripture: "And whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear you; going forth from thence, shake off the dust from your feet for a testimony to them." ----Mark 6:11----

I have recently taken a spiritual inventory and have begun the process of removing my false associations however; I will always continue praying for the salvation of their souls.
That dear friends is true charity.....

Being Catholic is not about wining friends, it is about the business of saving souls starting with your own. It is about having that Manly Character of standing up for Christ, His Mother, and His Holy Church always even if you will be reviled, spit upon, or shunned even by family members.......
False associations will lead you away from Christ, incline your heart more toward sin, and send you running into the waiting jaws of Satan!

I ask you dear readers to meditate for a moment on your associations and ask yourself the following questions:

Are my associations Holy ones?
Do I have more non-Catholic associations than Catholic ones? and if so, why?
Have I shared the Truth with my associations?
Do I pray daily for my associations?
Am I more inclined to sin with my non-Catholic associations?

Now.........what are you going to do about it???

From Trimmers to the Truth

2010-04-05T13:32:00.001-04:00

JMJ

Our Lord really is a wonder and the old expression that "God works in mysterious ways" was proved true today. Knowing that I had a pair of T-liners that were broken I needed new ones and so journeyed to Sally's Beauty Supply to purchase another pair..

I know most of the staff there due to my frequency of purchasing products for my barbering work and was greeted by the store Mgr. and asked how my Easter went.. I explained that I'm still celebrating Easter and will throughout the whole Eastertide Season.

She then moved on to the topic of asking what I thought about the Holy Father and the media blasting him about the sex abuse issue that is currently all over the media. After talking about this briefly she opened up and told me about her and how she is questioning her faith. She was "raised Catholic" you know, those two words that actually mean, "I know next to nothing about the True Religion"

After speaking with her some more about The TRUE MASS, and the TRUE CATHOLIC FAITH I invited her to Holy Mass and gave her my phone number as she said that she very much wants to speak to me about The Church and her doubts and many questions.

I look forward to speaking with her and hopefully directing her to Rev. Father.

I ask The Holy Mother of God to pray for her so that her faith may be re-kindled and she can truly find what is missing in her life, namely Our Lord Jesus Christ......

And all of this because I had a pair of broken trimmers.....

Come Holy Ghost!!!

Christus Resurexit!!

2010-04-04T17:42:00.003-04:00

Surrexit Dominus vere, Alleluia!!

Easter Sermon
By St. John Chrysostom

Is there anyone who is a devout lover of God? Let them enjoy this beautiful bright festival! Is there anyone who is a grateful servant? Let them rejoice and enter into the joy of their Lord!

Are there any weary with fasting? Let them now receive their wages! If any have toiled from the first hour, let them receive their due reward; If any have come after the third hour, let him with gratitude join in the Feast! And he that arrived after the sixth hour, let him not doubt; for he too shall sustain no loss. And if any delayed until the ninth hour, let him not hesitate; but let him come too. And he who arrived only at the eleventh hour, let him not be afraid by reason of his delay.

For the Lord is gracious and receives the last even as the first. He gives rest to him that comes at the eleventh hour, as well as to him that toiled from the first. To this one He gives, and upon another He bestows. He accepts the works as He greets the endeavor. The deed He honors and the intention He commends.

Let us all enter into the joy of the Lord! First and last alike receive your reward; rich and poor, rejoice together! Sober and slothful, celebrate the day!

You that have kept the fast, and you that have not, rejoice today for the Table is richly laden! Feast royally on it, the calf is a fatted one. Let no one go away hungry. Partake, all, of the cup of faith. Enjoy all the riches of His goodness!

Let no one grieve at his poverty, for the universal kingdom has been revealed. Let no one mourn that he has fallen again and again; for forgiveness has risen from the grave. Let no one fear death, for the Death of our Savior has set us free. He has destroyed it by enduring it.

He destroyed Hades when He descended into it. He put it into an uproar even as it tasted of His flesh. Isaias foretold this when he said, "You, O Hell, have been troubled by encountering Him below."

Hell was in an uproar because it was done away with.
It was in an uproar because it is mocked.
It was in an uproar, for it is destroyed.
It is in an uproar, for it is annihilated.
It is in an uproar, for it is now made captive.
Hell took a body, and discovered God.
It took earth, and encountered Heaven.
It took what it saw, and was overcome by what it did not see.
O death, where is thy sting?
O Hades, where is thy victory?

Christ is Risen, and you, O death, are annihilated!
Christ is Risen, and the evil ones are cast down!
Christ is Risen, and the angels rejoice!
Christ is Risen, and life is liberated!
Christ is Risen, and the tomb is emptied of its dead; for Christ having risen from the dead, is become the first-fruits of those who have fallen asleep.

To Him be Glory and Power forever and ever. Amen!

Pascal Vigil

2010-04-03T13:42:00.004-04:00

Oremus et pro perfidis Judaeis!

2010-04-02T17:57:00.003-04:00

JMJ

Today is Good Friday & I had the pleasure of serving the devotionals and Mass of the Pre Sanctified today at our Parish where we used the pre-1955 Missal; which if you have never witnessed the beauty, solemness, and deep meaning of the pre 1955 Holy Week it is truly sad.....

Among the many beautiful differences in the 1962/1955, and pre '55 Liturgy I noticed was the great meaning of NOT genuflecting to the Jews. Even the Pagan has a "Flectamus genua" however; because of their mocking of Our Lord by kneeling before Him the Jews do not receive a Flectamus genua.

This made me think of the beginnings of our current crisis within The Church when even a Supreme Pontiff would "bow" to the Jews who mocked Our Lord by changing The Church's Liturgy because of their displeasure, or of current times when a Pontiff would dare to pray like a Jew at the so-called "wailing wall", or a Pontiff who would allow himself to be scolded by chief rabbis.

His Excellency Bishop Williamson said In his Letter to Friends and Benefactors of June 2000:"Down 2,000 years Jews have repeatedly sought to undermine the Catholic Church and to take Christ out of Christendom (leaving only endom or enddoom!)." Also His Excellency added: "Just as the chief priests and ancients hated Jesus unto death, but they needed an Apostle to betray him, so we may blame Jews and Freemasons and others like them for engineering the destruction of the Church, but it has taken churchmen from within to do the actual betraying and destroying."

And this dear friends and readers of this humble blog I ask you to reflect upon today, the day on which Our Lord died.....Will YOU bow to Our Lord's broken and bloody body who died for the salvation of souls, or to the will of those perfidious Jews who persecuted, mocked, spit upon Him, and yes, even succeeded in changing the very Church He established with their venom and hatred which in part with the Modernists has us in this current crisis?

So let us today truly pray:
"For the perfidious Jews that they might be converted to the truth."

I wish everyone a Blessed and Holy Week!

OH!!
I also had the honour of helping Father Transfer Our Lord to the tabernacle in the Sacristy after everyone left the Church.....

Just Our Lord, Rev. Father, and me signalling the transfer with the clacker.

Oh, my adorable Jesus; how much I love Thee and serving Thee..

April 30th is soon aproaching..

2010-04-01T12:40:00.003-04:00

JMJ

As I walk closer to the date of my investiture I have been doing very serious praying and helping out at my Parish... As a matter of fact today being Maundy Thursday in a short time I will leave to go to the Parish to begin preperations for tonight's Holy Mass, adoration, etc... I wanted to thank all of you who have sent comments to me about how much you enjoy this blog however; I write it not for personal gratification rather; for Our Lord and his Holy Church..

As part of the Dominican Novitiate we are required to read both volumes of Father Reginald Marie Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P's work The Three Ages of the Interior Life

I have begun reading this marvellous work and sincerely thank Rev. Father for mentioning it...

One final note........I will be updating this more frequently and I apologise to those who have been waiting ..........

St. Dominic,
Pray for us!!

The Holy Rosary is NOT optional!

2009-11-09T12:24:00.004-05:00

JMJ

The Holy Rosary of Our Lady is NOT an optional devotion!
Strong words huh? Well, clearly HH. Leo XIII didn't think that The Rosary is merely a nice little thing to do when you think about it, or rather a cutesy devotion by little old ladies, NO! Leo XIII wrote no less than 17 encylicals on the Rosary...

Today I would like to focus on one of those Encylicals:
LAETITIAE SANCTAE promulgated on September 8, 1893

The Holy Father says:
"For We are convinced that the Rosary, if devoutly used, is bound to benefit not only the individual but society at large."

Did you understand what he just said? The Rosary will be of great benefit to Society at large if we would truly devoutly pray Our Rosaries! Our hope and change is NOT the the government, and not in the empty words of the evil one, no...

Our Lady has many times told us PRAY, PRAY, PRAY.......

She has given to St. Dominic and through him the whole Church her Blessed Rosary and has told us countless times that simply through praying the Rosary that wars will be averted, nations will convert to God, souls will be saved, and the peace which comes not from the United Nations or liberal socialists but from Her Holy Son will reign upon the earth. If you have not 15mins out of each day to pray the Rosary you deserve the turmoil that befalls you.

When you pray your Rosary please also add the intention that Bishop Fellay has asked us for in the current Rosary Crusade, namely that the Holy Father will finally consecrate Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary as Our Lady requested at Fatima..

I will end this today with the words of HH. Leo XIII:

"This then is the hope, which, amid the manifold evils which beset society, brightens, consoles, and supports Us. May Mary, the Mother of God and of men, herself the authoress and teacher of the Rosary, procure for Us its happy fulfillment."

Recent thoughts

2009-09-26T19:27:00.003-04:00

JMJ
Today ends the Michaelmas Embertide & this year is an extra penetential time for me because I have been very sick this week.. I have offered my sickness for the conversion of poor sinners & especially so-called "Catholics" that they may return to the ONE TRUE FAITH..

Barber School is going very well for me, and I have passed all the tests so far with a 96% or better...Actually I had 2 100% scores.

I am sorry that I have not written much recently, between studying, and trying to get over this illness I have not found much time to write however; I will rectify that soon....

Bl. Toirdhealbhach Albert Ó Briain

2009-09-07T17:32:00.005-04:00

Toirdhealbhach Albert Ó Briain
(Terence Albert O'Brien)

His Excellency joined the Dominican order in 1622.
Priest.

Dominican prior provincial of Ireland.

Bishop of Emly, Ireland.

He was ordered to acknowledge the English king as head of the Church; he declined. Martyr.

Born

* 1601 in Tuogh (Tower Hill), Limerick, Ireland

Died

* martyred on 30 October 1651 in Limerick, Ireland
--------------------------

Bl. Toirdhealbhach, Pray for me as I walk to our Holy Father Dominic...

2009-09-06T12:40:00.002-04:00

JMJ

"No man can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will stand by the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon" (Mt.6:24).

Whom do you love and serve? God, or yourself & the world.
That is the question asked by Our Lord in today's Holy Gospel. It is something that we should contemplate because often times we find ourselves answering the question in favour of the side of mammon.

We should remember that this world is NOT our true home & we are made to know, love, and serve God in this life & to spend eternity with Him in Heaven..That dear friends is the true meaning of life, that the the essence of why we are here. Not to make a million dollars, not to have the best house, not to have what the world considers rich because remember Our Lord's words today, "No man can serve two masters"

Let us seek FIRST the kingdom of God!

Missal Madness

2009-09-05T14:19:00.003-04:00

JMJ

Ok, so....
You have realised the crisis in the Church, you have renounced the heresies of Vatican II, and have decided to NEVER attend another Novus Ordo Mass.
You desire to be CATHOLIC and not some Protestant hybrid.

You've purchased your 1962 Missal, NOW WHAT?!?!

What are all those ribbons for?
How do you even begin following along?
You feel that you will never get the "flipping" down,
you have entered what I like to call: "Missal Madness"

Hopefully after reading this post you will feel alot more comfortable with your Missal because it will be your constant companion at Holy Mass from now until your death.

While there is no hard and fast rule as to how one should set up the ribbons in their missal, I will show you the way ,y missal is set up and that way in which I personally use the ribbons. Please feel free to tell me if this helps you..
---------------------

1. The Purple Ribbon can be placed either on page 20 (The Most Necessary Prayers) or if your Parish has regular Benediction, which it SHOULD! you can place the purple ribbon on page 119

2. Find the Sunday Mass coming up, example (14th Sunday after Pentecost, pg. 764) put the White Ribbon on this page so as to follow the propers of that Sunday.

3. Put the Red Ribbon at the Ordinary of the Mass (Page 838) These are the parts of the Mass that do NOT change.

As you pray the Mass with the Priest, and flip back and forth (which WILL get easier with time) just flip the pages to keep up.

When you get to one of the Propers of the Mass simply flip to the White Ribbon. (and back...see how simple it really is?)

4. Use the Green Ribbon to keep track of the Propers for the Saint of the day. Today that would be page 1397 Saint Lawrence.
Make sure you move the ribbon daily to keep up with the Saints Feasts.

5. The Black ribbon you have several choices.
Personally I like to keep it on pg. 1796 "Prayers against Satan and the other Rebellious Angels" which I pray weekly.

During Holy Week I like to move the black ribbon to the Office of Tenebrae.

For Baptisms, Confirmations, Churching of Women etc. Your may place your black ribbon there.

You have many different options and please remember, this is only how I set up and use my ribbons, you may find a way that you like more I simply want to help you alleviate the feeling of Missal Madness...

A final word on where to obtain the best missal......
The 1962 Roman Catholic Daily Missal published by Angelus Press is simply the most complete and best of the Traditional missals out there and the one I use. It has NOT been infiltraited with the Novus Ordo mentality. You can obtain one from Angelus press or if you are in the Jacksonville Florida area I would strongly encourage you to visit the only 100% Traditional Catholic Parish around and the Parish that I am a member of: The bookstore is loaded with REAL Catholic books including the Daily Missal....

St. Pius X

2009-09-03T12:25:00.004-04:00

JMJ

Today Holy Mother Church celebrates the feast Pope St. Pius X, the hammer of the heretics & the terror of modernists!

St. Pius X is one of my personal favourite Saints due to his zeal for the True Teachings of the Church, his tireless battle and defeat of the modernists of his day, and his TRUE Marian papacy. Not a Papacy that pushed a change to Our Lady's Rosary, (as if Our Pontiff of recent memory knew better than Our Lady herself what HER Rosary should consist of) Placing an "M" on your Papal heraldic device and paying lip-service to The Blessed Mother does NOT make one a "Marian Pope" either.

St. Pius X did not gallivant all over the world teaching false, new doctrines like ecumenism, no need for the Jews, Heretics, & Schismatics to convert, and certainly Our Holy Saint Pius X NEVER kissed a copy of the Q'uran!!

He was not lauded as "P10" nor did he hold rock concerts for teens however he WAS OBEYED and by some even FEARED, and did I mention, he is incorruptible?

Today I was honored and blessed to be able to venerate a 1st Class relic of St. Pius X and even have a special Rosary that is now a 3rd class relic. My personal weapon against novelty, modernism, error, heresy, and Satan!

Let us pray to Our Holy Pope-Saint in Heaven to unleash a wave to TRUTH to destroy once and for all this evil that has overtaken most of The Church..

Let us pray.
O God, who, for the defence of the Catholic faith and the restoration of all things in Christ, didst fill Saint Pius, Supreme Pontiff, with heavenly wisdom and apostolic fearlessness, mercifully grant that, by following his teachings and examples, we may receive thine eternal recompence. Through the same.

Forgotten words of Vatican II

2009-09-02T19:06:00.003-04:00

JMJ

Many people wrongly think that we CATHOLICS use only the words of Archbishop Lefebvre, or Cardinal Ottaviani who spoke out about the evils of the Modernist agenda at The Council as our two and only two banners (as if there were not more)

Here, the words and warnings of the past come ALIVE when viewed by the current horrible crisis in The Church and the evil, rotten "fruits" of Vatican 2, Here then are the words of His Eminence, James Cardinal McIntyre, Given at the 2nd Vatican Council October 23, 1962

"The schema on the Liturgy proposes confusion and complication. If it is adopted, it would be an immediate scandal for our people. The continuity of the Mass must be kept. The tradition of the sacred ceremonies must be preserved.... Changes are not needed....

In recent times, even in materialist North America, the growth of the Church was magnificent with the liturgy being kept in Latin. The attempts of the Protestants have failed, and Protestantism uses the vernacular. We ask again: Why the change, especially since changes in this matter involve many difficulties and great dangers? All of us here at the Council can recall the fundamental changes in the meaning of words in common use. Thus it follows that if the Sacred Liturgy were in the vernacular, the immutability of doctrine would be endangered.
The introduction of the vernacular should be separated from the action of the Mass. The Mass must remain as it is. Grave changes in the liturgy introduce grave changes in dogmata."

New name?

2009-09-02T14:24:00.002-04:00

JMJ

I have been praying for 3 choices of Religious names to present to Rev. Father Roberts for my entrance to the Novitiate....Choosing "Louis" was of course my first choice due to my strong devotion to the Father from Montfort however...After reading, praying, and contemplating seriously over the matter I have really become attatched to St. Hyacinth and would be honored to bear his name & his zeal.

Hopefully Rev. Father will grant my request and allow me to bear the name:
Frater Hyacinth T.O.P.

Some of the GREAT things about St. Hyacinth:

1. Hyacinth was about to save a Monstrance (or possibly a Ciborium, it is unknown exactly which one) containing the Holy Host when he heard the voice of Blessed Virgin Mary asking him to take her too. So he decided to take also the statue of the Holy Virgin. Despite the fact that it weighed far more than he could normally lifted, it became miraculously weightless. Thus he saved both the Holy Host and the Mother Mary.

2. He WALKED ON WATER

3. He led a very small band of Brothers and successfully preached the Gospel to: Poland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Scotland, Russia, Turkey, and Greece.

4. He was one of Saint Dominic's first Brothers

5. He died on the Feast of the Assumption, (In Our Lady's embrace)

6. It takes a REAL MAN of Faith to be called "Hyacinth!"

If only I can live up to his preaching zeal
(I'm trying to do my best....ask any heretic I come into contact with!)

Dominican Soul commentary (Pt.1)

2009-09-01T14:20:00.005-04:00

JMJ

As part of the Postulancy I received a binder with various Dominican information that I am to read throughout the next 5 months prior to my entering the Novitiate. The first of these essays was entitled:
The Dominican Soul
by Fr. M. M. Philipon, OP

Tears actually fell from my face when I read this as I realised even more how called to Dominican Life I am. I have decided to write a commentary on this beautiful essay in segments (in between my normal posts)

I will first include the passage from the text, and then my comments....

A DOMINICAN SOUL is a soul of light whose rapt gaze dwells in the
inaccessible splendor wherein God conceals Himself. It lives with Him by faith, is in the company of the Three Divine Persons; a true child of God, adopted through grace into the very Family of the Trinity. The invisible world becomes familiar to it; it pursues its way on earth in intimacy with Christ, the Blessed Mother and the saints. It perceives everything in the radiance of God.

But it does not jealously guard its faith for itself. It longs to bear the torch of faith everywhere on land and sea, in every country, to the ends of the earth. This soul belongs to that race of apostles who have been prophetically designated by the Church from their earliest days as champions of the faith and true lights of the world: "Pugiles fidei et vera mundi lumina." We have here the key to the whole Dominican vocation: to live, defend and propagate the faith in the atmosphere of the Church. The Dominican soul, looking beyond the activity of secondary causes, judges men and things only in the light of God.

----------------------------

"A DOMINICAN SOUL is a soul of light whose rapt gaze dwells in the inaccessible splendor wherein God conceals Himself."

In nomine Patris et fillii et Spiritus Sancti---AMEN!

In this age when even Holy Mother Church is darkened by the smoke of Satan, when the infernal hordes have succeeded in forcing the heretical Novus Ordo Mass on the faithful, when the Diabolical Second Vatican Council is viewed as THE only Council that really matters "nowadays" a SOUL OF LIGHT is truly needed.

A Soul of light who dares to stand up for Christ, His Holy Mother, and His Church
A Soul of light who combats these modernist forces of darkness by "bearing the torch of faith everywhere on land and sea, in every country, to the ends of the earth."

It is said in the essay that: "The key to the whole Dominican vocation: to live, defend and propagate the faith in the atmosphere of the Church."

Of all times, in all ages, this current crisis in The Church demands action. Whom will you stand with, The Devil and his Modernist lackeys or Christ and His One True Church? It honestly is that simple. The action called upon by the Dominican Soul is one of Preaching, preaching to the whole Church if need be, but preach none the less.

What shall we preach?
We shall, like 3rd Order Dominican Saint Louis de Montfort proclaim the TRUTH with the Rosary in one hand, and the Word of God in the other. We, Dominicans will become the "apostles of the latter times" that St. Louis spoke of often.

Our Holy Father Dominic shows us the way. Let us walk with him to restore what was lost. The Devil has declared war on The Church, will YOU be content to embrace the dark smoke of Satan, or will you be a SOUL OF LIGHT??

Newest sticker design!!

2009-09-01T14:04:00.006-04:00

JMJ

I have yet another bumper sticker design that is short, to the point, and gets the message across for Catholics in my area who are longing for a 100% Traditional Parish.

I have already received many complements AND complaints on the few that are on my SUV at present.
(especially the "Exorcise the "spirit" of Vatican II")

CATHOLICS love it....Modernists HATE it!!

Anyway, here is my design, I should be ordering it within the next few days. anybody in the Jacksonville Florida area that would like one please send me a message.. They are about $5 each but I can order them for you...

Bishop Williamson on Russia & the Consecration

2009-09-01T13:55:00.003-04:00

The following was originally posted on Angelqueen

"Russia's Conversion
A remarkable yet possible plan of Heaven for today's world can be guessed at, if Orthodox Christianity is reviving within Russia in the manner described to me a few days ago in London by a Russian. His description corresponds to the impression brought away from Russia by an American friend visiting St Petersburg a few years ago - the average Russian has distinctly more spiritual substance in him then has the average spiritually wasted Westerner. Does this connect with Our Lady of Fatima...?

The Russian in London told me that the Orthodox Church in Russia is following rather than leading a revival of Orthodoxy amongst the people. Attendance at the Orthodox liturgy has increased by half over the last two years, and now 80% of Russians are at least calling themselves "Orthodox", i.e. believers. New parishes are springing up everywhere. Bibles are snatched up as soon as they come on sale. Religious literature is flourishing, whilst atheistic propaganda is dying. "Holy Russia" is rising from the grave in which Communism from 1917 to 1989 strove to bury it.

For when the Communist structures of the Soviet "empire of evil" (Pres. Reagan) collapsed in 1989, the Russians turned for an ideology to replace Communism not to Western Liberalism but to their national and religious roots in Russian Orthodoxy. What indeed had the decadent West had to offer to Russia's new needs in the 1990's ? In economics, the plundering of their wealth by capitalist vultures; in politics, the still on-going encirclement of their frontiers to ensure the United States' permanent global hegemony by the construction of a ring of military bases which are one, if not the real, reason for the disastrous occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan never to come to an end; in religion, the attempted push eastwards of Conciliar ecumenism, with which apparently the Russian churchmen want nothing to do - on the contrary, they are aware of the Traditional Catholic movement, and support it.

However, let us be under no illusion: Russian Orthodoxy welds together religion and patriotism in a not wholly godly mixture, and Orthodoxy is still schismatic by refusing the Papal Supremacy, and heretical by refusing a number of dogmas, so Russians do need to be converted to the truly Universal or Catholic Church. But if Our Lady of Fatima has singled out their country for the Consecration to her Heart, may it not be, not because the Russians are still wicked Communists but because the Russian people's huge sufferings from their 70 Babylonian years of Communist captivity are calling forth from the always religious depths of "Holy Russia" an upsurge of spiritual vitality which could save the true Church, presently wilting in the West, where Church Authority may still have large numbers but it has little Faith, whilst the Traditional remnant has the true Faith but little by way of numbers and less by way of Authority ? God knows how the Western Church also needs conversion !

May it then be Russia's smashing of the encirclement in a Third World War leading to its occupation of Europe, which will at last drive the Latin Pope to consecrate Russia to Our Lady's Heart, as she has so long been asking for in vain? Will at that moment the Russians' renewed religious vigor save our languishing Catholic Authority and Tradition, whose Truth will in turn cleanse their errors ? If so, then God will once again have "concluded all in unbelief, that He may have mercy on all...How incomprehensible are His judgments, and how unsearchable His ways... To Him be glory for ever" (Rom. XI, 32...36).

Catholics, mainstream and of Tradition, pray your hearts out for the Consecration of Russia to the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of the Mother of God, or "Theotokos" as she is known in the Eastern Church.

Kyrie eleison.

London, England"

JOIN THE CRUSADE!

2009-08-31T17:21:00.002-04:00

My walk with St. Dominic

2009-08-28T08:04:00.003-04:00

JMJ

Last night I spoke with Rev. Father and I will be entering the 5 month T.O.P. postulancy very soon. At the end (God willing) I will enter the novitiate, recieve the habit, and my religious name.

We talked about the fact that up until V2 the T.O.P. wore the habit to Holy Mass, during processions, any Liturgical functions, Meetings, and of course being burried in the Habit. I like this very much because each time one puts on the habit the vows are punctuated ever more strongly in ones' mind and heart.

My love of Dominican spirituality came from St. Louis De Montfort (T.O.P.)and the more and more I read, the more and more St. Dominic's call was heard. TRUE Dominican spirituality!! It is truly a shame what has happened by and large to the Order of Preachers since the Council however, I want to be a loyal son of Holy Mother Church & a son of Holy Father Dominic...

I ask for everyone's prayers as I begin my Dominican walk..

Most Blessed Mother, Pray for us,
St. Dominic, Pray for us
St. Louis De Montfort, Pray for us

St. Louis IX

2009-08-25T07:01:00.002-04:00

Oremus.
Deus, qui per beátum Ludovícum Confessórem tuum de terréno regno ad cæléstis regni glóriam transtulísti : ejus, quæsumus, méritis et intercessióne ; Regis regum Jesu Christi Fílii tui fácias nos esse consórtes : Qui tecum vivit et regnat.

Let us pray.
O God, who didst exalt blessed Louis thy Confessor, from an earthly realm to the glory of thy heavenly kingdom : grant, we pray thee, that by his merits and intercession ; we may be made heirs of the King of kings, even Jesus Christ thy Son our Lord. Who liveth and reigneth with thee.

-------------------------------------

August 17, St Hyacinth

2009-08-17T08:06:00.002-04:00

JMJ

Today is the feast of St Hyacinth, Dominican, received into the Order of Preachers by St Dominic himself.

Oremus.
Deus, qui nos beáti Hyacínthi Confessóris tui ánnua solemnitáte lætíficas : concéde propítius ; ut, cujus natalítia cólimus, étiam actiónes imitémur. Per Dóminum.

Let us pray.
O God, who makest us glad with the yearly feast of blessed Hyacinth thy Confessor : mercifully grant, that as we now observe his heavenly birthday, so we may follow him in all virtuous and godly living. Through.

Here is a special Dominican treat!

Bishop Williamson Speaks

2009-08-16T19:09:00.004-04:00

JMJ

I love His Excellency Bishop Williamson

Rev. Father Cooper SSPX (Sermon on the Assumption of Our Lady) AUG.15 2009

2009-08-16T18:40:00.001-04:00

New stickers for the car!!

2009-08-16T15:44:00.005-04:00

JMJ

As most of you know I LOVE to switch the bumper stickers on my car from time to time & many may remember the great TRAD stickers I designed some time back.

Well I have designed a few new ones that will be on the back of my Xterra soon and have them on order....

Here they are:

Rev Father's sermon today was GREAT and reminded me to NEVER back down from sharing the Holy Faith ALWAYS!!

2009-08-11T21:30:00.003-04:00

JMJ

Today I had a GREAT conversation with Rev. Father R.
My wife and I have a meeting sched. for Thursday evening and I am looking forward to actually belonging to a 100% TRADITIONAL Parish..

This will be a true answer to our long-prayed prayer.
And Rev. Father said that he would teach me chant as well which is something I have always wanted to learn....

I thank Our Lord & His Most Blessed Mother for hearing a humble slave's petition...
I am so excited....Now, its time for me to pray Vespers....

THE MASS returned to St. Joseph's

2009-08-11T09:39:00.003-04:00

JMJ

Remember 2 years ago when we, the Catholics of Jacksonville were raked over the coals by Rev. Father Tom Willis for supporting the Traditional Mass and community of St. Joseph/s Parish?

Well Our Lady heard our petitions and The Holy Ghost moved Rev. Father Cody.....

The Traditional Mass returned to St. Joseph's on Trinity Sunday, June 7th, after an absence of more than 40 years. The Mass is celebrated in the Historic Church on the first and third Sundays of each month at 11 a.m. by Rev. Father Darius Sleszynski.

A small victory for Our Lady crushing the head of satan!!

A workshop for the Soul!

2009-08-11T09:04:00.002-04:00

JMJ

Have you been looking for solid Traditional Catholic Radio programs?
If you have not listened to WFTS (A workshop for the Soul) then you really should.

They are connected with the SSPV (a sedevacantist group) however; very rarely will you hear that position broadcasted. What you WILL get is SOLID traditional Catholic teaching..

Google:
Workshop for the soul!!

Advent & Christmas

2008-12-17T13:58:00.002-05:00

JMJ

The liturgical year begins with this season, which lasts from the first Sunday of Advent ("Advent Sunday") to sundown on 24 December. The word "Advent" comes from the Latin "advenire" which means "arrival" and is our awaiting the arrival of Christ's birth at Christ's Mass (Christmas) and His Second Coming. Its mood is one of somber, penitential expectation.This season lasts 22 - 28 calendar days. Its color is violet.

Last Sunday was the 3rd Sunday of advent and the Following Gospel is from last sunday:

19:And this is the testimony of John, when the Jews sent from Jerusalem priests and Levites to him, to ask him: Who art thou?

20: And he confessed, and did not deny: and he confessed: I am not the Christ.

21: And they asked him: What then? Art thou Elias? And he said: I am not. Art thou the prophet? And he answered: No.

22: They said therefore unto him: Who art thou, that we may give an answer to them that sent us? What sayest thou of thyself?

23: He said: I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, make straight the way of the Lord, as said the prophet Isaias.

24: And they that were sent, were of the Pharisees.

25: And they asked him, and said to him: Why then dost thou baptize, if thou be not Christ, nor Elias, nor the prophet?

26: John answered them, saying: I baptize with water; but there hath stood one in the midst of you, whom you know not.

27: The same is he that shall come after me, who is preferred before me: the latchet of whose shoe I am not worthy to loose.

28: These things were done in Bethania, beyond the Jordan, where John was baptizing.
______________________________________________________________________________

St. John spoke of the one who would come after him, and it is He whom we celebrate this Advent season.. This Christ who will be born to die for us..

Let us all open our hearts more this season to Jesus and celebrate His Holy birth on Christmas Day!!

"Real Life" vs. "Work"

2007-09-21T09:04:00.001-04:00

JMJ,

Ya know, it never ceases to amaze me just how driven by false things we Americans really are. Have you noticed that when people meet for the first time the question most asked is: "So, what do you do?" (Meaning of course, where do you work?) We are obsessed with work, work, work, work!

When asked what "I" do, I proudly proclaim that I am a Husband, Father, and a proud Slave of Our Lord Jesus through his most Holy Mother. I use my talents of cooking and languages to help me in the work of Apologetics and sharing the Good News of Christ. It is at this point that I get strange looks and clarifications. "No, I mean, what do you DO? Where do you work?"

Such a sad thing when so many people rather than working to live, LIVE to work. Their families suffer, their faith (if they had any to start with) dries to a barren desert, and they sacrifice their immortal souls to their false idol…. "I choose my job, my career, money, false power, etc. over God." That is what these people are truly saying……Yes, in this current society we must work to pay the bills and sure, you can find some enjoyment in working however; when you take your focus off of what REALLY matters then my friends, you have bowed to your master. Mammon!!!

I separate work form "real life." I had this conversation this morning with a young lady at my place of employment who lives to work, and she of course had the blank stare of someone who could not conceive of such a thing…I reminded her that no matter how much money you make, how many "things" you have purchased, how far up the Corporate Ladder you have climbed, or how great of an emplyoee you are....You cannot take that with you and when you stand before The Lord of the Universe to be judged, none of that will matter. What did you do with the talents and gifts he has bestowed upon you? What WORK did you do for His Kingdom and the salvation of souls?

I told her of how, last year when I was out of work for 6 mos. That was my favourite "job” My wife was working and I stayed home, did the cleaning, cooking (well, I ALWAYS do the cooking) had dinner on the table, and spent the whole day in prayer….THAT was my favorite "job" I have ever had. This young lady looked at me as though I had lizards crawling out of my nose! My true vocation is to Know, to love, to serve God in this life and be happy with Him in the next…..That's it period when it all boils down…I am not about the business of caring about false transitory things

Do YOU spend more time focusing on work than God? Do you assist at Holy Mass EVERY Sunday? Do you make FREQUENT use of the Sacrament of Confession? Are the false things of this world and Satan's pomps and works more important to you than your salvation and service to God?

It all comes back to the ultimate question, who or what is YOUR God???

And furthermore..........

2007-09-20T13:24:00.000-04:00

JMJ,
After being diagnosed with ADHD this past Tuesday evening by. Rev. Father Thomas Willis, Pastor of Most Holy Redeemer Parish in Jacksonville Florida I have had some time to seriously think about how offended I am. I openly forgive Father for feeling the need to make such a hostile and sarcastic comment. Perhaps his acclaimed witty remarks left a lot to be desired but, doesn't that speak to how much The Devil REALLY is on the move? Satan is scared that sooo many people will be exposed to The Holy Mass, and through the Mass and Truly CATHOLIC teaching be brought a deep conversion to the One True Church.

The Devil is not going to let up on this (Not that I am comparing Father Willis to Satan. In case someone was thinking that. He is merely an individual who has made his dislike for the Holy Mass known) and instead of us lashing back at ignorance and hatred, let us do what Holy Mother Church has always done. Teach the ignorant, correct their errors, show the Novus Ordo Catholic who don't know any better the beauty, transcendence, and true worship of God found within the infallibility of the Traditional Mass.

The Novus Ordo is at the very least seriously flawed, and at the very most invalid in some cases and WE (so-called Traditionalists) know this. Lets move on and actually DO something about correcting the knowledge of individuals who don't know any better rather than continue attacking things that WE all agree on anyway.

Our Holy Father has given you and I power unheard of before. It is up to you and I to do the work of PRAYER, FASTING, INSTRUCTION, CATECHESIS, and extending our open arms in true love to those poor Catholics who don't know their faith and have no clue what has been held back from them in a lot of cases….I challenge you TODAY……invite at least 3 people with you to Holy Mass this Sunday and before-hand discuss the Mass and what it truly is. Show some love to them that persecute us and offer up the pain and humiliation for poor souls, after all that is what is at stake in this current crisis…..Souls are being lost………..I ask you to join me in my prayer:

Loving Mother of our Saviour,
I entrust to Thee the Diocese of St. Augustine

I offer everything that I am, have, and will have to Thy Immaculate Heart

In Thy unending Mercy, please pray for the hard hearts of all clergy who so desperately fight against the full worship of Thy Divine Son

Be with we, Thy faithful children mourning and weeping in this Valley of Tears

Dearest Mother, save souls, least of which shall be mine.

I humbly ask of thee through my bond of Holy Slavery..

Hail Mary……..
Hail Mary……..
Hail Mary……..

Glory Be………AMEN

Meeting at St. Joes last night

2007-09-19T09:51:00.000-04:00

JMJ,

Last night, my wife and I attended the meeting at St. Joseph’s Parish to discuss the Traditional Mass and the recent Motu Proprio by the Holy Father, and how this would effect the Diocese, and to ask Rev. Father Thomas Willis (The Director of Liturgy for the Diocese) questions. I was saddened by the way Rev. Father Willis conducted himself and the general hostile attitude of the meeting towards the Holy Mass.

The meeting started with an excellent presentation by the Director of Adult Education for St. Joseph's Parish and when Fr. Willis took the podium, the tone and mood of the meeting changed to one of controlled anger, sarcastic comments, and back-handed-ness. He expressed his wish to NOT have the meeting recorded which of course was his right. I personally would have thought he wouldn't mind so that he could NOT be mis-quoted. Hmmmmmm.

When honest questions were put to him, his answers were a beautiful exposition on various topics having nothing to do with the actual question answered....UNLESS the question was slanted against The Holy Mass.

Fr. Willis gave an extremely one-sided presentation of the history of liturgy that left alot to be desired.

Near the end of the meeting Fr. Willis in an effort to make some sort of joke I assume, mentioned a study that was conducted by Creighton University about individuals who prefer the Mass being linked to having A.D.D. This did in fact make me laugh because I thought Fr. Willis (who I heard can be rather intimidating) would have better stuff to say that that. I was not intimidated in the least, but I was very offended. (Blessed are those who are persecuted)

Now, something that Fr. Willis did say that I agree with is the fact that he mentioned that on the internet he has been blasted and very un-charitable things have been said of him. Now, I say that when we resort to those sorts of slander, we are no better than our Novus Ordo counterparts who blast The Saintly Arch Bishop Lefebvre. And those of os faithfil to the Traditions and Teachings of Holy Mother Church. Prayer and fasting for their hearts to change should be our business.
Living a TRULY Catholic life should be our silent but powerful example.

Notice I am only speaking the facts of my observations of the meeting. So much more was said that I COULD mention however; it would not solve anything. Our Holy Father has given us a beautiful gift and has tried to remove the roadblocks put up by Many Bishops. We should continue praying daily for the end to this crisis withoin Holy Mother Church and the hostility towards those of us who have been treated as the proverbial red-headed step-children.

Anyway, the meeting went as the majority of us expected with the basic gist being, His Excellency will asses the situation but Fr. Willis made clear that The Mass is NOT a priority for Bishop Galleone...

Oremus pro Antistite nostro Victor Galleone

Procession honours this coming Sat!

2007-09-10T09:20:00.000-04:00

JMJ,

I was asked after Holy Mass yesterday to join in, and help carry Our Lady in the procession this coming Sat. which is the feast of Our Lady of Penafranchia, as well as the 7 sorrows of the BVM…We will be walking in procession downtown to the water, then taking the water taxi across and finishing at the feast/reception with yummy delicious Filipino food all in honour of Our Most Blessed Mother….

As a slave of love, anything I can do for Our Lady I jump on… I LOVE My Mother completely and all of my being has been entrusted to Her.

I am honoured to serve Our Blessed Virgin in this way…

+ De Maria numquam satis +

Nativity of The Blessed Virgin Mary

2007-09-08T11:01:00.000-04:00

Oremus.
Famulis tuis, quæsumus, Dómine, cæléstis gratiæ munus impertire : ut, quibus beátæ Vírginis partus exstitit salútis exordium ; Nativitátis ejus votiva solemnitas pacis tríbuat increméntum. Per Dóminum

The beauty of passing the faith

2007-09-07T10:18:00.001-04:00

One of my favourite images at Holy Mass is when the Missal is moved from the Epistle side to the Gospel side of the Altar to symbolize the passing of Faith from the Jews to the Gentiles. The priest then returns to the middle of the Altar and bows with his hands joined. He then says the Munda Cor Meum.

"Munda cor meum ac lábia mea, omnípotens Deus, qui lábia Isaíæ Prophétæ cálculo mundásti igníto: ita me tua grata miseratióne dignáre mundáre, ut sanctum Evangélium tuum digne váleam nuntiáre. Per Christum Dóminum nostrum. Amen."

"Cleanse my heart and my lips, O Almighty God, Who didst cleanse the lips of the prophet Isaias with a burning coal; through Thy gracious mercy so purify me that I may worthily proclaim Thy holy Gospel. Through Christ our Lord. Amen."

This simple act and the prayer before the Gospel is read is such a profound moment during the Mass of the Catechumens that even those who are not yet in full communion may at least remain to hear the words of Jesus before the Mass of the Faithful.

This passing from the Jew to the Gentile is a warning also. Do not be as the Jew who keeps their blinders on and rejects the Truth…It is now up to us to hearken to what Our Lord commands, it is up to us to be the "Salt of the earth." We who were considered as dogs by the Jewish people have become the Samaritan woman who was given the Living water...

We are then confronted with the words and actions of our loving saviour….Moving away from the Old Covenant into the New.

The hinge is the Munda cor meum where the Priest identifies with the Prophet Isais and asks for the cleansing before proclaiming the Gospel of The Lord….

What a truly beautiful moment during the Holy Sacrifice of The Mass!!!!

Cardinal Kasper kissing up to the Prots!

2007-09-07T09:47:00.000-04:00

JMJ,

It would seem that Cardinal Walter Kasper is taking the usual Vat II stance of vague uncertainty with the document that came out from the CDF. He said that "some readers have misinterpreted a statement released in July by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith" which explained the Vatican II teaching that the Church founded by Christ "subsists" in the Catholic Church-- the Vatican's doctrinal agency had Protestant groups cannot properly be called "churches" since they do not preserve the Eucharist.

Now, NO!! They are not "misinterpreting" the document….The 2,000 year teaching of Holy Mother Church has been that we are THE ONE TRUE FAITH…..If that makes the Prots uneasy well, then fine…..Maybe they should be uneasy, and maybe that uneasiness will lead them to search the Truth and Praise God, through the Holy Ghost lead them into the real CHURCH.

But, no….no….in this day and age of false ecumenism we can't ell anyone that THEY are wrong and we are right because that might hurt their feelings…..Well, if feelings get hurt but souls are won and saved that's a fair trade if you ask me. There is no "subsisting" the Catholic Church IS the Truth!

If we pretend that we are all equals and that everything is relative we have turned our back on the true teaching of Holy Mother Church…In this day when people cannot speak the full un-doctored truth it is no wonder why we get called "hostile" or "not with the times" We are doing exactly what St. Paul commanded us to do……"Hold Fast!"

This shameful act by Cardinal Kasper takes the sting out of the heart and message of the document and that is what relativist in today's world need….A good STING of truth…After all the expression "The truth hurts" is indeed true….

Let us pray for all of the souls that have now been lost because Cardinal Kasper just had to tell the Prots that its all ok and the big bad Catholic Church wasn't trying to "offend them"

LINK TO ORIGINAL ARTICLE:
http://www.cwnews.com/news/viewstory.cfm?recnum=53352

My review of: Mary of Graces CD

2007-09-07T08:18:00.000-04:00

JMJ,

This is one of my ALL TIME favourite CDs!

Sung by The Daughters of Mary (A sedevacantist religious order)

Their theology may be flawed and seriously in error however; their praise of Our Most Holy Mother is beautiful with 20 tracks of songs that any Traditional Catholic will know & sadly most Novus Ordo Catholics have never heard (save for a few)

Mary Of Graces is the perfect CD to listen to when cooking, working around the house, driving, reading, honestly ANYTIME is a good time to listen. Just as ANYTIME is a good time to Praise our Glorious Immaculate Mother!!!

+ De Maria numquam satis +

The tracks are:

1. O Mary of Graces

2. Salve Mater Misericordiae

3. Bring Flowers of the Rarest

4. Angelus

5. O Queen of the Holy Rosary

6. Ave Maris Stella

7. Hail Holy Queen Enthroned Above

8. Dear Angel Ever at my side

9. Alma Redemptoris Mater

10. O Gloriosa Virginum

11. Ave Maria

12. Jesu Redemptor Omnium

13. Mother at Your Feet Is Kneeling

14. Magnificat

15. Maiden Mother

16. On This Day O Beautiful Mother

17. Regina Coeli

18. Tis the Month of Our Mother

19. Ave Verum

20. Hail Glorius Saint Patrick

Review of: "The Rapture Trap"

2007-09-06T14:10:00.000-04:00

It is sad to see that so many Christians are being deceived by this false doctrine of "The Rapture."

Thigpin, in a straightforward, low-level apologetics way covers the origins of this Non-Biblical heresy, and then proceeds to expound that this man-made invention is indeed a trap.

We Catholics need to truly be familiar with this silly false teaching so that when challenged by non Catholic "Christians" who blindly accept the heresy of Sola Scriptura; we will be able to show them IN Sacred Scripture how certain parts of verses have been twisted and distorted to "back up" the falsehood they accept as "Gospel truth."

But then again, do you expect any less if you ignore the Authority of Holy Mother Church and instead accept your own fallible personal interpretation of Sacred Scripture?

Bravo Dr. Thigpin......Christians everywhere NEED to read this book, and understand that this so-called "Rapture" business is sheer FANTASY.......

Review of the movie "Joshua"

2007-09-06T13:55:00.000-04:00

Let me begin my review by quoting a previous poster that is clearly ignorant of what The Catholic Church truly teaches or believes,"if you agree with Roman Catholicism, then you will love this movie."

Well, I am a Roman Catholic and I would not say that I "love this movie" sure it does have some great moments like when Joshua after being commissioned to carve the statue of St. Peter says, "Yeah, I know Peter." or, and this is the most moving part for me. When Joshua embraces The Holy Father (the Pope) and calls him Peter re-affirming what He said in Matt. 16-18:"And I say to thee: That thou art Peter; and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it."

The problem that I do have with the story is that Jesus/Joshua does not make any distinction between True Christian doctrine and Protestant heresy; which is a serious problem in these days of false ecumenism. Jesus established ONE Church, not 336,000 different churches. Again, most "Christian" films these day are warm-fuzzy entertainment.

What I'd really like to see a movie made out of the book "Pierced by a sword" by Bud Macfarlane Jr,

EWTN....Solem High Mass

2007-09-06T12:17:00.000-04:00

JMJ,

Something I never thought I would see (since the sad silencing of Mother Angelica) apparently EWTN will be airing a Solemn High Mass for the Exaltation of The Holy Cross on 14 Sept…I am very much looking forward to this and I know that Mother will be shedding tears of joy to see THE Mass on her network…

The battle for Tradition is a long way from being won and those of us need to remember that just because the Holy Father blessed us with his Motu Proprio does not mean that all is fine now….The essence of conciliar error is still at the heart of the crisis within Holy Mother Church & this will not be resolved by the aforementioned Motu Proprio.

In conversations with so-called "Conservative Catholics" they see this as something beautiful but again they rally behind the Modernist cry that "The Mass is The Mass" well, it is not……

This viewing of the Solemn High Mass will indeed be interesting however; I fear the the discussion panels that EWTN will have will, unfortunately be riddled with conciliar clap-trap and one-sided half-truths…..The very thought that Catholics would need to have discussions to explain what happens at Holy Mass is a sad thing in the first place but, I only hope that they do not turn it into Novus Ordo minded "explanation" which I fear will happen………..

Today 06-Sept. begins the Novena to the Sorrowful Mother:

"MOST BLESSED and afflicted Virgin, Queen of Martyrs, who didst stand generously beneath the cross, beholding the agony of thy dying Son; by the sword of sorrow which then pierced thy soul, by the sufferings of thy sorrowful life, by the unutterable joy which now more than repays thee for them; look down with a mother’s pity and tenderness, as I kneel before thee to compassionate thy sorrows, and to lay my petition with childlike confidence in thy wounded heart. I beg of thee, O my Mother, to plead continually for me with thy Son, since He can refuse thee nothing, and through the merits of His most sacred Passion and Death, together with thy own sufferings at the foot of the cross, so to touch His Sacred Heart, that I may obtain my request, Here pause and name the favours which you are asking Our Sorrowful Mother to obtain for you through this Novena. (Let your secondary intention be to pray for the intentions of all the people making this Novena anywhere in the world. Thus a great mass prayer for all Novena intentions will arise to Our Blessed Mother.) For to whom shall I fly in my wants and miseries, if not to thee, O Mother of mercy, who, having so deeply drunk the chalice of thy Son, canst most pity us poor exiles, still doomed to sigh in this vale of tears? Offer to Jesus but one drop of His Precious Blood, but one pang of His adorable Heart; remind Him that thou art our life, our sweetness, and our hope, and thou wilt obtain what I ask, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Hail Mary, Virgin Most Sorrowful, pray for us." (Seven times)

It's been a while but I'm back!!

2007-02-14T14:15:00.000-05:00

JMJ,
My friends, I am back and ready to continue sharing my thoughts, observations, etc with you.
We are now in Septuagesimatide (You know, preparation for Lent that V2 tried to do away with and hardly anyone in the NO has even heard of) And NOW is when we should begin preparing ourselves to follow Our Lord into the desert for 40 days.....

Last Sunday (sexagesima) we heard the Gospel and Parable of the sower and; as Our Lord described there are various surfaces into which His "seeds" may fall....... Use this time to deepen your penance, love suffering, and offering everything you do up to God..

I am learning a great lesson in this myself as I currently have very bad gallstones that require gallbladder surgery soon. The pain is beyond description however; Our Lord is allowing me to use this for Holy Souls and I am grateful that He is sharing this cross with me.......

May we all deepen our faith this Lent, and I'm happy to be back!!
May the hearts of Jesus and Mary reign in all souls!

The Feast of St. Luke

2006-10-18T10:40:00.000-04:00

Oremus:

Intervéniat pro nobis, quæsumus, Dómine, sanctus tuus Lucas Evangelista : qui crucis mortificatiónem jugiter in suo córpore, pro tui nóminis honóre, portávit. Per Dóminum.

What you can do for Holy Tradition

2006-10-08T15:15:00.000-04:00

JMJ

My dear friends in Christ,

We Traditional Catholics get alot of flack for our defense of the Holy Faith as it has always been taught by Holy Mother Church. We are commonly speaking out in defense of THE Holy Mass of all ages, Traditional Sacraments, and the confusion and borderline Heresy that Vatican II espoused however; what can we do to actually change these things??? My answer is simple; in addition to holding fast to the True Faith I suggest that you actually sponsor someone into the Church......Go with them to the horrible RCIA classes and then invite them back to your home for an RCIA de-programming session if you will. Teach this Catechumen the whole unchanging truths of The Holy Faith and the Mass. By doing this we are rearing converts that:

1. Truly know their Faith
2. Can defend the unchanging Truth of the One Holy Church

My wife and I are sponsoring my best friend and his Fiancé into the Church this year and I ask for your prayers for them as they journey toward full communion in the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church......

Below is a picture from today after Holy Mass: (On the left is my wife & on the right is Rosalie and her baby. We are sponsoring them this year)

The Family Altar

2006-09-14T08:02:00.000-04:00

JMJ

Our homes are supposed to be the domestic church, and as such Catholics have traditionally reserved a central place in the home to place a family altar. The true head of the Catholic home is Jesus, the husband is (as I like to put it) only there on loan and the altar can serve to remind the whole household who is really in charge.

Just as we are to pray the Holy Mass with the Priest, at our homes we should at least be praying together these few prayers that everyone should know:

The Holy RosaryThe Nicene Creed Blessing before Meals Blessing after Meals Prayer to Guardian Angel Act of Contrition Hail, Holy Queen The Eternal Rest Prayer

The focus of so many modern homes is the television set; well my dear friends if the TV is your central focus have you not made the TV your god? Just something to think about.

The focal point of a Catholic home should be the family altar and it need not be an elaborate affair however you should use the altar as a place of prayer and devotion, not just art to be looked at. The above photo is the Family Altar at our home, very simple however it serves to remind me as husband who the real boss it.

On your altars you will want to place statues, holy cards, holy water, candles, incense, a crucifix, rosary, etc. anything to help you focus your attention to prayer and devotion. It's no reason why the family Rosary has declined in this day and age. Why would children want to say the Rosary when sponge bob is on? The family altar is a place where the entire family comes together and offers adoration, praise, and devotion.

If you don't have a family altar, I ask you to remedy that TODAY......

The Gospel played out

2006-09-14T07:26:00.000-04:00

JMJ

My friends, last week (14th Sunday after Pentecost) we heard the Gospel proclaimed in which Our Lord said,

"No man can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will stand by the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon" (Mt.6:24).

Well this week has truly been an echo of that passage and I have had to remove myself from so-called friends. These are the same people who openly proclaim that they are "pagan" and feel the need to always to make sick jokes about Holy Mother Church. My wife and I have always tried to be the one good example of what Christians should act like however; sometimes you really do have to "Shake the dust from your heels."

While at Holy Mass last Sunday, Fr. Leon's sermon seemed to be fit just for my situation (isn't that always the way?) and I realized that one can only stand up and defend The Church for so long and when people don't want to hear it's time to move on...This is not the first time I've lost friends because of Our Holy Faith and it won't be the last I'm sure....

You can either serve God, or if you choose you can serve Mammon but you cannot serve both and if situations, friends, or circumstances happen to lead you from God to Mammon you must break with that, hold fast to Our Lady's mantle, and stay within the protection of the Ark of Salvation; The One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Faith.....

AMEN!!

Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary

2006-09-08T10:19:00.000-04:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOTHER MARY!!!

A moment of worship

2006-08-31T13:13:00.000-04:00

OH SACRAMENT MOST HOLY!

OH SACRAMENT DIVINE!

ALL PRAISE AND THANKSGIVING!

BE EVERY MOMENT THINE!

Breviarium Romanum

2006-08-29T10:28:00.000-04:00

JMJ

I have been digging my heels into the daily recitation of Lauds and Vespers and I must say that if you think your Latin pronunciation is pretty good; just try saying the Office.... Whew... I thought that my Latin was good until now. I'm sure I'm butchering the "flow" but Our Lord is using this to teach me the Knightly virtue of patience and obedience....

Fra. Charles has ordered 6 new Diurnales for those of us just getting started however the problem is that they're published in Econe and it will be several months before he can get them out to us.. (Again, the Knightly virtue of patience) In the mean time I'm using the online Breviary at: http://www.breviary.net/ and the preces sheet from the Militiae Templi (those are prayers special of the Order.)

I'm also getting together with Rachel when I can to say Vespers together. In any event keep praying for me as I continue learning the Office.

I have a whole lifetime to recite it daily

Heretic's sweat rag!!!

2006-08-29T08:10:00.000-04:00

JMJ

My dear friends, whilst flipping through channels this morning I came across something that I just have to share with you. In the weird world of Charismatic Protestantism (which is always a source of humor) I have just seen Don Stewart's infomercial where he is pushing his, "Green prosperity prayer handkerchief." Yes, that's right! a "Green prosperity prayer handkerchief"
(see below)

He actually dares to use Holy Scripture as a justification for this empty piece of fabric:

“So that even there were brought from his body to the sick, handkerchiefs and aprons, and the diseases departed from them, and the wicked spirits went out of them." ACTS 19:12

Now of course, the context is completely missing. Let's look at the whole of this episode in ACTS and see what we find there: ACTS 11-16

11 And God wrought by the hand of Paul more than common miracles.

12 So that even there were brought from his body to the sick, handkerchiefs and aprons, and the diseases departed from them, and the wicked spirits went out of them.

13 Now some also of the Jewish exorcists who went about, attempted to invoke over them that had evil spirits, the name of the Lord Jesus, saying: I conjure you by Jesus, whom Paul preacheth.

14 And there were certain men, seven sons of Sceva, a Jew, a chief priest, that did this.

15 But the wicked spirit, answering, said to them: Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are you?

16 And the man in whom the wicked spirit was, leaping upon them, and mastering them both, prevailed against them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded.

Ok, so right there in Scripture, St. Paul was given the gift of healing by God so that even a handkerchief that touched him could heal and drive out evil spirits. Now notice that when the Jewish exorcists tried to remove the evil spirits invoking the name of Jesus and St. Paul the evil spirits were NOT driven out, rather the Jewish Exorcists were possessed.

Apparently either Mr. Stewart thinks that he is like St. Paul or, he identifies himself with the Jewish exorcist. In either case he is preaching blasphemy and taking advantage of poor misguided Protestants. This is just yet another example of what can happen when we just try and interpret the Holy Scripture ourselves, another example of the heretical teaching of Sola Scriptura.

Please pray for Mr. Stewart's soul and the souls of all of those who believe that they will obtain their requests by using a green piece of cloth "blessed" by Mr. Stewart.

ADDITIONAL UPDATE!!!

After doing some more digging, here is what I found. When you request this "Free" piece of cloth you receive a letter a few days later requesting a "seed" (i.e. money) of $50.oo
The letter goes on to say that: (the emphasis is not mine)

"Don't break the flowing of God's spirit from my secret place of prayer to your home! Do exactly as I say!"

1. Write your name & the amount of money you need on the hanky.

2. Touch your forehead with the hanky

.3. Place the green handkerchief on your billfold or checkbook, something that represents your finances.

4. TOMORROW MORNING mail the handkerchief with your name and money amount on it, to me!

DO NOT FAIL TO DO THIS! We will anoint it with oil and place a prophecy that god has given me for you on it. Then we will send this handkerchief back to you with special instructions on how to use it as a point of contact for your miracle."

WOW!! WHAT A WHACK-JOB!

The beheading of St. John The Baptist

2006-08-29T08:01:00.000-04:00

Oremus:

Sancti Joánnis Baptistæ Præcursoris et Mártyris tui, quæsumus, Dómine, veneranda festívitas : salutáris auxílii nobis præstet effectum : Qui vivis et regnas.