Thoughts on Lent…..

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… Not always in their efforts against the unity of science and religion do we find our opponents frankly declaring war upon Christianity. No, its enemies prefer to extinguish it by stratagem. They wisely fear the love of parents for their offspring; and while they are eager to destroy the Faith of the one, they hope to accomplish their task without the knowledge of the other. It is on this account that they have sought and found the proper word to conceal their design, and this word is neutrality in teaching. I wish, then, to show you two things:

First Part. That neutrality in teaching, as far as it regards the Christian religion, is evidently impossible; that a teacher must unavoidably declare (either directly like the atheists, or indirectly like the liberals/modernists/freemasons) himself for or against the Christian Faith, even as Christ himself said, "He that is not for me is against me."

Second Part. Science cannot declare itself against the Christian Faith without denying itself, without being unfaithful to its own principle, which is reason, and without renouncing the very conditions of a free, perfect, and progressive science. May the Mother of Science and Faith, Mater Agnitionis, obtain for us from the incarnated Wisdom the light, which we need!

It remains for us to see that, when science declares against the Christian Faith, it really denies its own principle, that is to say, reason. And why? Because it is reason which invokes the light of Faith, and it is reason which recognizes it. It is reason which invokes the light of Faith. For what is reason? Reason is that one of our powers which reaches after truth; it is that faculty which is ever forcing us to search out the "why" of things. It has even the same name as its object, for the reason and the "why" of anything are one. Again, we only act reasonably when we know why we are acting. Even in our most insignificant actions, we always propose to ourselves an intention, an end which determines them. In order, therefore, to live reasonably, we must know why. It is necessary to know the why, or the end, of life, so that the first words of our catechism answer the first question of reason. Why are you in the world? Is it only to go to the cemetery? Has man been placed upon the earth only that he may be thrown into a grave? Humanity will never accept this doctrine. The generations of the human race kneel at the tombs of their ancestors and protest against this monstrosity - the miserable and absurd system of those who clamorously desire a liberty of the human mind, which can only terminate in corruption and worms. The human conscience and human reason unite in declaring that life is only a journey, that its end is beyond the tomb, and that to die is to attain it. But what do we attain? Where do we arrive? Here reason searches, and trembles while she seeks. She looks, and feels that she is powerless to penetrate single-handed into the abyss of the future life. The learned and the ignorant are equally baffled, and can only say, "It is necessary to return to the other world, in order to know what really is done there." The gospel tells us the same; no one has penetrated the heavens except he who came from them: "No one has ascended into heaven, except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man who is in heaven."

Let us try then, brethren, to discover what reason asks, and justly asks. It asks the " why" of life; it does not care to exist without knowing "why," and knowing it with certainty. It can obtain certitude in many other spheres of thought; but it wishes to be assured upon this far more than upon any other question. Let us, then, state how reason has certitude in some other matters, and how it wishes and can attain it in this.

We know the things of the exterior world with certainty, and reason tells us to admit that which is well attested by the senses. We know the things of the interior world, of that world which is within our own breasts, because reason tells us to admit what is revealed by our self-consciousness. We know the great mass of truths of the intellectual world with certainty, for our reason tells us that we must acknowledge the truths proclaimed by evidence. We know that which is passing upon the earth in the present day. We know events which occur in distant quarters of the world, and we know the facts which are separated from us by long intervals of time, because our reason tells us that history and the testimony of mankind are reliable grounds of certitude.

But that which we wish to know more than all these things is the end of our own existence; and we wish to know this precisely, because we are reasonable beings. Our reason longs to know more of the meaning of our creation; it desires to know what is true in regard to our end, because this truth must be divine and eternal. But to be certain of divine truth, must not reason be willing to obey the voice of God? To be certain of eternal truth, must we not accept the testimony of eternity? The testimony of God was implored in every age, and from this it comes that Faith, which is the acceptance by human reason of God's revelation, is a constant, perpetual, universal fact, even as the fact of reason itself. It is ridiculous to urge against the truth of revelation the various religions which claim to be revealed; for the counterfeits of revelation do not prove more against it than the perversion of reason proves against reason. The wanderings of reason do not compel us to deny the truth of human reason, so neither do the misrepresentations and counterfeits of revelation force us to deny its truth. We have seen, therefore, what reason requires; let us see how it recognizes revelation when it meets with it.

There is a certain manner of speaking indifferently of all religions which is used as a cloak to hide the desire to confound them. This is common in the world of letters among men of scanty science. But serious science, like a sincere conscience, discovers divine revelation, in spite of its human alterations, by certain signs and characteristic marks which are unmistakable. These signs have been multiplied by Providence with love; but I wish to insist here upon that token which has not only followed past ages in their course, but has, if I may so speak, grown with their growth: that grand characteristic which reveals the author of nature, and which assures us of the giver of revelation, is unity. The unity of nature reveals God as the creator, the harmony of the heavens and of the earth recount the glory of their author: "The heavens explain the glory of God." It is the chant of the unity of space. But the unity of time is not less splendid than the unity of worlds; it is the harmony of centuries in Jesus Christ, who has revealed God as the author of revelation. Nature and revelation are, then, the two great works in which God is revealed by the same sign --- queenly and all-powerful unity! The unity of time in Jesus Christ, and in him alone, is a fact without a parallel; more easy for us to rejoice in than to depict. Yet here is the master-stroke of a great pencil: "These are great facts, clearer than the light of the sun itself, which make us know that our religion is as old as the world, and demonstrate that he only could be its author who, holding all things in his hand, has been able to begin and continue that which holds all centuries in its embrace. To be expected, to come, to be adored by a posterity which will last through every age, is the character of him whom we adore, Jesus Christ, yesterday, today, and to endless ages, the same." This, then, is the manifest sign of divine revelation, the unity of time in Jesus Christ.

St. Augustine spoke of this sign, considering it, however, under only one of its aspects, when he answered those persons who envied the good fortune of those who conversed with the risen Christ: "The apostles saw one thing, but they believed another; and because they saw, they believed that which they did not see. They saw Jesus Christ risen, the head of the Church, but they did not yet see this body, this Universal Church, which Jesus Christ announced to them," this marvelous and almost incredible Catholicity, extending over every country, with its un-bloody sacrifice of the great invisible Victim, with the manifestation of conscience and remission of sins, with its perpetuity to the end of time, with its center of unity established by these words: "Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." The apostles saw none of these things, and how could they believe in such apparently incredible promises? But they were in the presence of the risen Christ; they had seen him dead and crucified, they saw him living and glorious, and it is from his mouth that they received the promise of that which they did not see. "They have seen the head," says St. Augustine, "and they have believed in the body; we see the body, and we believe in the head. We are like them, because we see, and therefore we believe that which we do not see."

Saint Patrick of Ireland

THE date and place of St. Patrick's birth are uncertain. He was born about the year 387, the son of Calpurnius and Conchessa. In his sixteenth year he was carried as a captive into Ireland and obliged to serve a heathen master as herdsman, Escaping from captivity he prepared himself in the schools of Tours and Lerins to be the instrument and Apostle of God in converting Ireland. Pope Celestine I commissioned him, and having received episcopal consecration in 442, he began his wonderful mission of winning to Christ a pagan nation, and making it an island famous for its seats of piety and learning. St. Patrick died March 17, 493, in the monastery of Saul, in Down in Ulster, where his remains, and thirty years later, the body of St. Bridgid, the Mary of Ireland, were buried in one grave.

THE subject of modesty has completely disappeared from the list of subjects to speak about in Sunday sermons. A real pity. In fact, it seems that the word "modesty" has been make extinct by its lack of use. Our dictionaries and lexicon experts are already working at giving this word a "new" different meaning more in tune with the "needs and sentiments of modern man". Similar to words like abnegation, longanimity, humility, and love, the word modesty will soon have an alien meaning than that meaning which it had in the past. The multi--million dollar international media conglomerates will make sure that the public will use the word modesty giving it a different meaning. The public will take their cue from the magazines, newspapers, movies, TV news, academia, et al. Soon the new generation will use "modesty" to exclusively mean "reserve".

Fr. Gabriel of St Mary Magdalen says: "Perfect chastity presupposes an absolute dominion of spirit over matter. However, there is in us a disordered tendency toward sensible pleasure which is opposed to this dominion; even souls consecrated to God bear the treasure of chastity in earthen vessels (2 Cor 4,1), in the fragile vessel of flesh, which is attracted by satisfactions of the senses." Today there is much talk about "chastity". "Chastity this", "chastity that". If even souls who are consecrated must make constant efforts to practice chastity how much more the laymen who by being in the world is constantly buffeted by the waves of filth and wanton immodesty of our brave modern fashions, modern literature, modern art, modern academia with a penchant for "uncensored subjects", modern lifestyles etc.

Not even Holy Baptism, nor the vow of chastity, removes our fallen nature tendencies from our souls. It is important then for the religious and for the laic to practice continual vigilance. However, you could ask me: Were you not writing about modesty? What has that to do with chastity? I would have to answer that there is a big connection between chastity and modesty. We can not have one without the other. This is why it is so erroneous and wrong for many of our clergy and laymen to isolate chastity as if man can have chastity in a vacuum.

There is no chastity without modesty. It is of little value to preach, write, or make movies about "chastity" without teaching the virtue of modesty and its great importance. Fr. de St Mary-Magdalen explains: "It is modesty which moderates and regulates all our actions, both interior and exterior… St. Paul recommends this virtue to all Christians: "Let your modesty be known to all men" (Phil 4,5)…. Brethren, be sober and watch," says St. Peter (I Pt 5, 8), for the enemy is always lying in wait."

"One who without valid urgent necessity desires to see, hear, wear, experience and taste everything is like a man who leaves the door of his house open to any intruder. The senses are the door of the soul; we must guard them and not endanger the treasure of chastity."

"Modesty, however, is not only a weapon of defense for chastity; it is the bulwark of the interior life. Only a soul who knows how to guard the senses is capable of recollecting with God. By detaching the senses from earthly things, modesty concentrates and fixes them on God. This is the positive value of modesty." Modesty is an extraordinary virtue without the practice of which we fallen souls, would not attain true friendship and lasting with God. Let us make our modesty be in everything we do. Catholic modesty is the basis for a truly Catholic culture. A culture that expresses the practice of this holy virtue in word, action, dress code, art, literature is truly Catholic, because it follows the command and the example of Our Lord who is perfectly modest. The culture will be truly Catholic because it will enrich and convey none other than a fruit of the Most Holy Ghost: MODESTY.

PATRON OF THE UNIVERSAL CHURCH

ST. JOSEPH, the pure spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary and foster father of our Blessed Lord, was descended from the royal house of David. He is the "just man" of the New Testament, the lowly village carpenter of Nazareth, who among all men of the world was the one chosen by God to be the husband and protector of the Virgin Mother of Jesus Christ God Incarnate. To his Faithful, loving care was entrusted the childhood and youth of the Redeemer of the world.

After the Mother of God, not one of the children of men was ever so gifted and adorned with natural and supernatural virtues as was St. Joseph, her spouse. In purity of heart, in chastity of life in humility, patience, fortitude, gentleness and manliness of character, he reveals to us the perfect type and model of the true Christian

Poor and deprived in this world's possessions and honors, he was rich in grace and merit, and eminent before God in the nobility and beauty of holiness. Because St. Joseph was the representative of the Eternal Father on earth, the divinely appointed head of the Holy Family, which was the beginning of the great Family of God, the Church of Christ, on December 8, 1870, the Vicar of Jesus Christ, Pope Pius IX solemnly proclaimed the foster father of Jesus, Patron of the Universal Church, and from that time his feast has been celebrated on March 19th as a feast of high rank.

From his throne of glory in heaven, St. Joseph watches over and protects the Church militant, and no one who calls on him in need ever calls in vain. He is the model of a perfect Christian life and the patron of a happy death. His patronage extends over the Mystical Body of Christ, over the Christian family, the Christian school, and all individuals who in their need appeal to his charity and powerful intercession, especially in the hour of death; for he who, when dying, received the affectionate ministry of his foster Son, Jesus, and his Virgin spouse, Our Lady, may well be invoked and trusted to obtain for us poor sinners the mercy of God and the grace of a peaceful and holy death.

To obtain help and comfort in time of difficulty

O Most Holy Infant Jesus, Thou who knew the affliction of Thy beloved foster-father, Saint Joseph, and consoled him in his need, revealing to him through the Archangel the mystery of the Incarnation in the Womb of the most Blessed Virgin Mary send me, I beseech Thee, in this time of my difficulty and affliction, the help and comfort of Thy grace, so that I may find a remedy for the evils that afflict my soul and body.

This favor I also ask of you, O beloved Saint Joseph, beseeching you to obtain it from the Infant Jesus, by that great joy which you felt at the angelic tidings, "That which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Liberalism is a group of errors regarding the relation between Church and State, divine law, ecclesiastical law, and various articles of belief. In various forms it contends that all laws are derived from authority of the state, or man (Absolute Liberalism); or, while granting a juridical authority to the Church, it denies that the Church is in any way supreme or superior to the state and, maintaining that her authority is over consciences only, lays down that she has no external or social authority (Moderate Liberalism); or, granting the Church's independence and supremacy, it lays down that her power should not be pressed. The origin of Liberalism dates back to the liberal elements of the pre-Revolution French society, and it has blossomed later in Modernism. It has been condemned frequently by a succession of popes from St. Pius IX to Benedict XV. The above summary is mainly referring to liberalism in the social-political sphere. Liberalism in the Theological and Religious sphere teaches that "created reason"(man) is equal or superior to Uncreated Reason (God). In other words man can dismiss God's Revealed Truth, God's Religion, and man can create his own Religion. Religious freedom of conscience to follow error comes next, and it is called a "right". One religion is as good as another is. "Error has rights and freedom"; it is put at the same level as Truth.

From the encyclical letter:

"…indifferentism /liberalism gives rise to that absurd and erroneous proposition that claims that liberty of conscience must be maintained for everyone. It spreads ruin in sacred and civil affairs, though some repeat over and over again with the greatest impudence that some advantage accrues to religion from it. "But the death of the soul is worse than freedom of error," as Augustine was wont to say. When all restraints are removed by which men are kept on the narrow path of truth, their nature, which is already evil, propels them to ruin. Then truly "the bottomless pit" (Apoc.9:2) is open from which John saw smoke ascending which obscured the sun, and out of which locusts flew forth to devastate the earth. Thence come transformation of minds, corruption of youths, contempt of sacred things and holy laws---in other words, a pestilence more deadly to the state than any other. Experience shows, even from earliest times, that cities renowned for wealth, dominion and glory perished as a result of this single evil, namely, immoderate freedom of opinion, license of free speech and desire for novelty.

Note. This is the mindset of liberals who, if you complain about the rampant debauchery in our media, academia, art, etc., will tell you, "Well, they have freedom to do as they please and so do you! This is a free country!" The idea of censorship of falsehood, censorship error and of sin -- immorality is alien to liberalism. For them there is no falsehood, no error, no sin, no truth, for them everything is fine as long as it makes man temporarily "happy" and it does not interfere with the law and order of the liberal state.

ST. GREGORY, born at Rome about the year 540, was the son of Gordianus, a wealthy senator, who later renounced the world and became one of the seven deacons of Rome. After he had acquired a thorough education, the Emperor Justin the Younger appointed him, in 574, Chief Magistrate of Rome, though he was only thirty-four years of age. After the death of his father he built six monasteries in Sicily and founded a seventh in his own house in Rome, this became the Benedictine Monastery of St. Andrew. Here he himself assumed the monastic habit in 575, at the age of thirty-five. After the death of Pelagius, St. Gregory was chosen Pope by the unanimous consent of priests and people. Now began those labors that have merited for him the title of great. The English owe their conversion to Gregory the Great who sent a group of Roman monks to make "the Angles angels". In his time the invasion of Europe by Barbarians created a new situation, and St. Gregory played a great part in winning them to the Church. His zeal extended over the entire known world, he was in contact with all the Churches of Christendom, and, in spite of his bodily sufferings and innumerable labors, he found time to compose a great number of works. St. Gregory the Great watched over the sanctification of the clergy and the maintenance of the Church discipline, the temporal interests of his Roman people and the spiritual interest of all Christendom. He is known above all for his magnificent contributions to the liturgy of the Mass and Office, not to exclude the development of "Gregorian Chant". St. Gregory the Great along with Sts. Ambrose, Augustine, and Jerome, is one of the four great Doctors of the Latin Church. He died on March 12, 604 AD.