Pope Michael: Instructions for Advent, 2002. 30th Nov. 2002.
©VaticanInExile.com, 2002.
No, I say to you: but unless you shall do penance, you shall all likewise perish. (Luke 13:3,5)
HAPPY NEW YEAR
Sanctifying the Lord�s Day
To examine diligently the state of our soul; how we have spent the previous week, and how our accounts - stand with God; to call to mind the numberless benefits we have received, and daily do receive, from His infinite goodness; to thank and praise Him for them; and to humble ourselves at the sight of our own ingratitude towards Him.
We recently reminded everyone of the duty of taking one thing and only one thing from the sermons read on the Lord�s Day. And today let us remember that it is our duty to improve spiritually every week. We cannot stand still, we are either moving closer to God or further away. And so let us this Advent move closer to God and this ecclesiastical year move closer to God.
Christmas Shopping
There are only 24 shopping day left until Christmas. And yet, Whose birthday is it? We expect presents on our birthdays, but do we bring anything to Jesus on His? Without Jesus there is no Christmas.
True we have no Christmas today, because Christmas comes from the words Christ and Mass. We have no Mass today, but let us pray for the soon return of a true Christmas!
But praying is not enough! We have two duties, the first is to save our own souls, and the second is to help others save their own souls. He who is content with saving himself and neglects the salvation of others, says St. John Chrysostom, cannot secure his own salvation. We could write volumes on this obligation. Let it suffice that there are only a handful of Catholics today and over 6,000,000,000 (six billion) people who need to have the Word of God preached to them.
Jesus founded His Church with eleven Apostles and 120 disciples. Soon the Gospel was preached to the ends of the earth. And today we are reduced to a handful, but this handful must take up the Cross and present the Cross to the world!
Announcement
We shall still be providing weekly (and hopefully not weakly) instructions until they run out. However, Our day job, that is the Papacy, has become a full time job. We hope you read the article Qui Legit Intelligat, which was emailed a little over a week ago. If not, get it out and read it; discuss it with your fellow Catholics, especially in Catechism class. Master its contents. If there are questions, ask Us. We must get the truths of the Faith firmly and clearly fixed in our minds. This is essential to salvation, especially in these times.
We have been contemplating how Catechism should be prepared. And then it his Us; take the basic catechism and follow its outline, supplementing from every book on your shelves that covers the same subject. Spend an hour each Lord�s Day (or longer) in this study. Whenever a point comes up that you do not understand, ask Us for explanation. The only stupid question is the one that is not asked. We and yourselves have gone to great trouble to make sure you have many good books available to you. However, these books are worthless if they do not come off the shelves, but remain there gathering dust. And so, this Advent, let us begin to sanctify the Lord�s day, because it should be rather obvious by now that none of us have been doing what we ought.
And We ask for your help. Where do we go from Qui Legit Intelligat? What should We present next? And present, We must. Things are stirring and We hope that there will be great progress for the glory of God and the exaltation of the Church. Remember that the Exaltation of the Church is one of the intentions of the Pope; intentions you must pray for in order to gain many indulgences. We look forward to having your input on this most important question. Remember six billion souls are waiting to hear the Gospel, and they can�t hear it from anyone but us, because only Catholics preach the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. And as We demonstrated, those who do not accept everything Jesus taught to the Church are not Catholics. Those in the Novus Ordo aren�t, and even the many Traditionalists, although they come close. Close is not good enough, we must go all the way. God gave Ten Commandments, is it possible to be saved by keeping only nine?
St. John Chrysostom writes: Good example gives forth a louder sound than trumpets, � for people pay more attention to our deeds than to our words. (In Matthew, Homily 15) We must preach not only with our words, which we should do by our speech, by our pen, computer and internet, but also by our deeds.
Remember the story of Saint Francis. He was going to town with his monks to preach. They walked clear through and were about to leave the other side, when one asked: When are we going to preach? Saint Francis told the monk, that they already had by what they were. We read many years ago a complaint about someone. The person complaining stated that the man�s deeds were at odds with his actions. He complained: What you are speaks so loudly, that I cannot hear what you are saying. Let this not be said of us.
Happy New Year
The First Lord�s Day of Advent begins the Ecclesiastical Year, an Ecclesiastical Year We hope and pray will be filled with good news for the salvation of souls. We ask everyone who read this to pass it around and then pray, fast and study.
Pray, that is pray more than you currently are. Devote an hour each Lord�s Day to spiritual pursuits, in addition to your current observances. Make a Holy Hour some other time, if possible. If this is not possible, at least read from some spiritual book, as well as a question from the Catechism every day.
Fasting is essential and the power of fasting is underestimated. Some devils, as Jesus observed are only overcome by prayer and fasting. We have read that the Church is quite powerful, when She fasts together, as She does on the vigils, ember days and during Lent. This is why the Vatican II Church eliminated fasting. The Devil wanted to vanquish this power. Well, it is time to renew it. But fasting can go further, it can encompass all forms of penance, and penance is essential in these days. We could produce many quotes, but this is not Our point; We have other work We must get to. Look up penance in the Catechism; read about penance in the many books that are on your shelves. This study alone, will be a good penance to start with.