For he hath given his angels charge over thee; to keep thee in all thy ways. Quoniam angelis suis mandavit de te, ut custodiant te in omnibus viis tuis.
In their hands they shall bear thee up: lest thou dash thy foot against a stone. In manibus portabunt te, ne forte offendas ad lapidem pedem tuum.
-Psalm 90: 11-12
I strongly suspect that we will all be mightily embarrassed when we are shown just how much our guardian angels have done for us, how many times they have saved our skins, how much they love us, and how little we acknowledged them. Make sure you acknowledge your guardian angel today, most especially.
Saint Remigius baptizes Clovis I, by the Master of Saint Gilles, c. ARSH 1500 (National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.)From CatholicTradition.org:
Clovis, king of all northern Gaul (France), was himself yet a pagan, though not unfriendly to the Church. He had married St. Clotildis, daughter of the Christian king of Burgundians, Chilperic, and she made repeated attempts to convert her husband. In 496, the Alemanni crossed the Rhine and the Franks marched out to drive them back. One account says that St. Clotildis had said to Clovis in taking leave, “My lord, to be victorious invoke the God of the Christians. If you call on Him with confidence, nothing can resist you”; and that the wary Clovis had promised that he would be a Christian if he were victorious. The battle was going badly against him when the king, either reminded of these words or moved by desperation, shouted to the heavens, “O Christ, Whom Clotildis invokes as Son of the Living God, I implore Thy help! I have called upon my gods, and they have no power. I therefore call on Thee. I believe in Thee! Deliver me from my enemies and I will be Baptized in Thy name!” The Franks rallied and turned the tide of battle; the Alemanni were overcome.
Queen St. Clotildis was not trusting to any enthusiasm of victory, and sent for St. Remigius, telling him to touch the heart of the king while he was well disposed. When Clovis saw her he cried out, “Clovis has vanquished the Alemanni and you have triumphed over Clovis. What you have so much at heart is done.” The queen answered, “To the God of hosts is the glory of both these triumphs due.” Clovis suggested that perhaps the people would not be willing to forsake their gods, but said he would speak to them according to the bishop’s instructions. He assembled the chiefs and warriors, but they prevented his speaking, and cried out, “We abjure mortal gods, and are ready to follow the immortal God whom Remigius preaches.” St. Remigius and St. Vedast therefore instructed and prepared them for Baptism. To strike the senses of barbarous people and impress their minds, Queen Clotildis took care that the streets from the palace to the church should be adorned with hangings, and that the church and baptistery should be lighted with a great number of candles and scented with incense. The catechumens marched in procession, carrying crosses, and singing the litany; St. Remigius conducted the king by the hand, followed by the queen and the people. At the font the bishop is said to have addressed Clovis in words that are memorable, if not actually pronounced: “Humble yourself, Sicambrian! Worship what you have burned, and burn what you have worshipped!” Words which may be emphatically addressed to every penitent, to express the change of heart and conduct that is required of him.
St. Remigius afterwards Baptized the king’s two sisters and three thousand men of his army, as well as women and children, with the help of the other bishops and priests present.
Read this over and over again until you get it. Shutting up and going along to get along is simply not an option. It never has been.
The one and only antidote to scandal is the TRUTH ITSELF. Excuse me, the TRUTH HIMSELF. When you speak the Truth, even when it’s ugly, you proclaim Christ.
Leave it to a Boomer Novus Ordoist to drive a zealous convert out of the Church. It’s infuriating. The most wantonly destructive generation in human history. By a long shot.
Thank St. Jerome (died 30 September ARSH 420). He was fluent in… everything, so he was tasked with doing a definitive Latin translation of everything in preparation for setting the Canon of Scripture. Hence, we have to this day St. Jerome’s translation which synthesized perfectly the Greek, Hebrew and Aramaic original texts. I use St. Jerome’s translation, which is the official version of The Church, called the “Vulgate”, translated into modern English, which is called the “Douay-Rheims”.
St. Jerome was known for not being… cuddly. Hence, I always think of him as Grumpycat.
Now, be inspired by St. Jerome’s grumpy wisdom. Be attentive!
The Church was founded upon Peter: although elsewhere the same is attributed to all the Apostles, and they all receive the keys of the kingdom of heaven, the strength of the Church depends upon them all alike, yet one among the twelve is chosen so that when a head has been appointed, there may be no occasion for schism.
It is our part to seek, His to grant what we ask; ours to make a beginning, His to bring it to completion; ours to offer what we can, His to finish what we cannot.
The Scriptures are shallow enough for a babe to come and drink without fear of drowning and deep enough for theologians to swim in without ever reaching the bottom.
A false interpretation of Scripture causes that the gospel of the Lord becomes the gospel of man, or, which is worse, of the devil.
Instead of speaking saintly words we must act them.
Martyrdom does not consist only in dying for one’s faith. Martyrdom also consists in serving God with love and purity of heart every day of one’s life.
We must love Christ and always seek Christ’s embraces. Then everything difficult will seem easy.
They please the world most, who please Christ least.
It is no fault of Christianity that a hypocrite falls into sin.
Seek to learn on earth those truths which will remain ever valid in Heaven.
So valuable to heaven is the dignity of the human soul that every member of the human race has a guardian angel from the moment the person begins to be.
Without doubt, the Lord grants all favors which are asked of Him in Mass, provided they be fitting for us.
The best advice that I can give you is this. Church-traditions — especially when they do not run counter to the faith — are to be observed in the form in which previous generations have handed them down; and the use of one church is not to be annulled because it is contrary to that of another.
Thank God I am deemed worthy to be hated by the world.
The Church of Christ has been founded by shedding its own blood, not that of others; by enduring outrage, not by inflicting it. Persecutions have made it grow; martyrdoms have crowned it.
Honest speech does not seek secret places.
Whosoever you are who introduce new doctrines, I beseech you to spare the ears of Romans! Spare that faith which was commended by the voice of an Apostle. Why should you attempt to teach us, at the end of hundreds of years, that which we never heard before? Why bring forward what Peter and Paul did not will to make known? Until this day, the world was Christian without your doctrine. Thus, I hold as an old man onto that faith wherein I was regenerated as a boy.
Today is the Feast of St. Michael the Archangel, and I am going with the Byzantine style this year even though on the Byzantine Calendar this feast is observed on November 8. Why? Because the Byzantine name of the Feast is just about the coolest, most macho thing you’ve ever heard. Check it out:
The Synaxis of the Chief of the Heavenly Hosts, Archangel Michael and the Other Heavenly Bodiless Powers
The term “synaxis” in this context refers to “a common commemoration of a number of saints in a single service”.
Also, I just like saying the word “synaxis”, because… easily entertained. Talk about a six dollar word!
I also like referring to Angels as “Heavenly Bodiless Powers”. I reckon they like it too, because the whole business of depicting Angels as winged babies, or as Precious Moments figurines must be galling to them. “Heavenly Bodiless Powers” is not only macho, it is also much more accurate a description of their nature.
Here is a really good page (albeit Eastern Orthodox, but the content is totally sound) about our friends the Heavenly Bodiless Powers.
And remember, this… YES:
This… NO:
And for your musical interlude, Bortniansky’s Cherubic Hymn Number 7:
“All we that in mystery
Holy Cherubim portray
As the life’creating Trinity
With thrice-holy hymn we adore and praise.
Come, let us cast off all earthly care,
And forget every vain employ.
FOR THE KING OF ALL COMES IN TRIUMPH
BY UNSEEN HOSTS OF ANGELS BROUGHT
TO US THAT BID HIM WELCOME.
ALLELUIA, ALLELUIA, ALLELUIA!”
St. Michael and all Heavenly Bodiless Powers, pray for us!
“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. In both cases such mode of behaving is base and is insulting to God, and both are incompatible with the salvation of mankind. This kind of conduct is profitable only to the enemies of the faith, for nothing emboldens the wicked so greatly as the lack of courage on the part of the good.” – Catholic Pope Leo XIII, Sapientiae Christianae, 10 January 1890
Imagine if Aragorn’s party were being fired upon from behind by their own. That’s where we Remnant Catholics are in the ‘Two-Five.
It’s apropos that this is being posted on day 1000 of the current interregnum, as we can see on the counter on the sidebar.
NonVeni Mark gets the credit on this one, as he wrote the answer. NonVeni Mark is one of the most eloquent and accessible exponents today of the argument as to why the post-Vatican II popes were valid, albeit really, really bad, and therefore the Petrine See has only been vacant for 2 years and 9 months and counting, NOT 67 years.
Again, I didn’t write the answer to this Q&A, NonVeni Mark did, so please credit him accordingly. —-Alpha Bravo
Question:
Dear Ann and the Gang,
While I can agree that Prevost cannot be Pope based on what he is saying, the thing that bothers me is the reasoning you are using to make the case: how does it substantially differ from the arguments made by the sedevacantists who say there has been no valid Pope since Pius XII or John XIII?
If you rely on “heresy disqualifies or takes away any office” then how can you accept any of the Popes after Pius XII?
Sincerely yours,
P
Answer (written by NonVeni Mark): I believe the answer is that none of post-conciliar, pre-Bergoglian popes ever denied an infallibly defined dogma of the faith.
The errors of Vatican II do not rise to the level of dogmatic negation, and the council itself declared that it defined no new dogma. Of the errors that do exist, some are a matter of interpretation (Dignitatis Humanae, Lumen Gentium), and some are indeed more serious and opposed to perennial teaching (Nostra Aetate). Our faithful assumption is that these errors will be corrected in due time, because… this sort of thing has happened before.
The most famous case is that of the omission of the Filioque in the Nicene Creed, something that wasn’t corrected for 700 years, at the cost of schism. Surprisingly, this does not rise to the level of dogmatic error, because none of the various creeds are considered infallible.
For me, the most relevant episode in comparison to Vatican II is the Council of Constance during the Great Western Schism. This validly-convoked council eventually obtained the disposition of all three simultaneous claimants to the papacy, and the installation of a valid and universally accepted one. But before that, the council in 1415 promulgated the heresy of Conciliarism (Haec Sancta), which does indeed violate at least two infallible dogmas. This error was not corrected until a hundred years and three popes later. None of those men were considered antipopes, and no one thought the Church had apostatised. The backstop of the Petrine Promises came in the form of the Holy Ghost preventing the proper implementation of plan as was laid out in the document”Frequens” which determined the frequency of councils going forward as having the primacy of jurisdiction over the Church. Again, no one went Sede, no one claimed the Church apostatized. People simply waited, and it was eventually corrected.
Aside: The current heresy of Synodality is much worse, of course, because it uses the model of Conciliarism but extends the ruling body to the non-ordained, violating still other infallible dogmas. A laymen attempting to wield ecclesiastical jurisdiction is a heretic by Divine Law.
(Everything in the above answer was written by NonVeni Mark.)
Meet St. Maurice, or Mauritius. Today is his Feast, and you need to know ALL about him. St. Maurice was the leader of the elite Roman Theban Legion headquartered in Egypt. The Theban Legion was comprised of 6,666 men, who all converted, with their commander Maurice, to Christianity en masse late in the Third Century. Emperor Maximian ordered the Theban Legion from Egypt to France in order to put down a peasant revolt.
When the Theban Legion arrived in France, Maximian ordered them to start persecuting Christians. The Theban Legion, led by Maurice, REFUSED TO OBEY MAXIMIAN’S ORDERS. Ahem. Cough.
Maximian ordered a decimation of the Theban Legion as punishment. The actual meaning of the word “decimation” means to kill one out of every ten men. After Maximian’s men had killed every tenth Theban, Maximian again issued orders for the Thebans to persecute Christians. Under Maurice’s virile, manful, authoritative and inspiring leadership, the Theban Legion stood firm and still refused Maximian’s orders, even though it meant certain death. Ahem. Cough.
Maximian ordered the entire remaining Theban Legion killed to the last man in what is now present-day St. Maurice-en-Valais, Switzerland.
Now, look at the picture above. St. Maurice is the soldier in the middle in full battle armor, manfully grasping his ASSAULT WEAPON as he consults with St. Erasmus, on the left.
St. Maurice was a black African. He wasn’t a north African. He was a sub-Saharan black man.
St. Maurice was HUGE in the Church, and was THE patron saint of the Holy Roman Emperors. In fact, the Holy Roman Emperors knelt and were anointed before the altar of St. Maurice at St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. The Austro-Hungarian emperors used St. Maurice’s spurs and sword (assault weapon) as an integral part of their coronation rite until ARSH 1916.
