Vol 9 Issue 46 ~ Rev. Fr. Courtney Edward Krier
October 15, 2016 ~ Saint Teresa of Avila
1. Baptism: Means of Salvation (90)
2. Twenty-second Sunday after Pentecost
3. Saint Hedwig
4. Christ in the Home (63)
5. Articles and notices
Dear Reader:
This past week has been an introduction to the what the Catholic Church has to expect under the regime of Hilary Clinton and the Rainbow House. The Rainbow House appointee Chairman Martin R. Castro of the US Commission on Civil Rights had a report drawn up where he states:
The phrases “religious liberty” and “religious freedom” will stand for nothing except hypocrisy so long as they remain code words for discrimination, intolerance, racism, sexism, homophobia, Islamophobia, Christian supremacy or any form of intolerance. Religious liberty was never intended to give one religion dominion over other religions, or a veto power over the civil rights and civil liberties of others. However, today, as in the past, religion is being used as both a weapon and a shield by those seeking to deny others equality. In our nation’s past religion has been used to justify slavery and later, Jim Crow laws. We now see “religious liberty” arguments sneaking their way back into our political and constitutional discourse (just like the concept of “state rights”) in an effort to undermine the rights of some Americans. This generation of Americans must stand up and speak out to ensure that religion never again be twisted to deny others the full promise of America.
That is, according to the Commission set up by the Rainbow House, people turn to religion to hide their intolerance and that the government has the right to take away religious freedom (and here I am just speaking of civil law within the United States) if it deems that it conflicts with government imposed civil rights, i.e., the right to sodomize, the right to homogenize, the right to sterilize, the right to euthanize, the right to de-Christianize, the right to socialize. If you claim sodomy is contrary to your belief, or that certain moral standards must be upheld, or that contraceptives are not permissible, or that abortion and euthanasia is murder, or that Catholicism is the true religion and other religions are erroneous, than you are violating the civil rights of others and your rights must be curtailed (i.e., you are subject to be imprisoned). What is happening is the Progressive State has transformed into a god and those within its borders are being enslaved. The leaked correspondence within the Hilary Clinton camp show that this is the accepted future she foresees and which we, as Catholics, will live under. Come, Lord Jesus! (Apoc. 22:20)
As always, enjoy the readings and commentaries provided for your benefit. —The Editor
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Baptism
Means of Salvation
Sacrament of Baptism
Summary of Church Teaching Concerning Baptism
The Baltimore Catechism No. 3, (New York: Benziger Brothers, 206-213) gave this instruction to the Catholic youth prior to 1964, whether in Catholic schools or CCD classes. The numbered questions are according to the No. 2, which is based on the 1884 version. Those questions not numbered are expansions for the higher grades. One must remember that it was expected that the students memorize the questions and answers, therefore the form.
LESSON 24
Baptism
315. What is Baptism?
Baptism is the sacrament that gives our souls the new life of sanctifying grace by which we become children of God and heirs of heaven.
When did Christ institute Baptism?
Christ instituted Baptism some time before His passion and death; then, after His resurrection He commanded its reception by all, saying to His apostles; “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit (Matt., 28, 19).
Why does Baptism make us heirs of Heaven?
Baptism makes us heirs of heaven because it makes us children of God, and since a child is an heir to its father’s possessions, we by the grace of Baptism become heirs to the eternal treasures of heaven, which are God’s possessions.
Was the baptism given by St. John the Baptist, which Our Lord received, a sacrament?
The baptism given by St. John the Baptist, which Our Lord received, was not a sacrament; it was only a ceremony that prepared the way for the sacrament of Baptism but could not of itself give grace.
316. What sin does Baptism take away?
Baptism takes away original sin; also actual sins and all punishment due to them, if the person baptized be guilty of any actual sins and truly sorry for them.
What punishments are due to actual sin?
Two punishments are due to actual sin- eternal punishment inflicted in hell, if the sin is mortal and the sinner dies without repenting, and temporal punishment inflicted either in this life or in purgatory, if the sin is venial or a forgiven mortal sin.
If a person dies immediately after receiving Baptism worthily, what becomes of his soul?
If a person dies immediately after receiving Baptism worthily, his soul goes directly to heaven, because even though he may have committed many sins before, the punishment due to them, both eternal and temporal, is taken away by Baptism together with their guilt.
317. What are the effects of the character imprinted on the soul by Baptism?
The effects of the character imprinted on the soul by Baptism are that we become members of the Church, subject to its laws, and capable of receiving the other sacraments.
Does Baptism make a person subject to the laws of the Church only when conferred by a Catholic?
Baptism makes a person subject to the laws of the Church, not only when conferred by a Catholic but also when conferred by any one, provided it is a valid, or true, Baptism.
Is it unjust that one baptized as an infant should be bound to obey the laws of the Church, since it was not by his own will that he received Baptism?
It is not unjust that one baptized as an infant should be bound to obey the laws of the Church, because Christ, the Lord of all baptized persons shall be subject to the authority of His Church, and in reality this is a great favor, since the laws of the Church help baptized persons to attain eternal happiness.
What similar case have we in civil life?
We have a similar case in civil life of the citizen who is bound to obey the laws of the country in which he is born, though it was not by his own will that he was born in that country.
Can a person receive the other sacraments before he has been baptized?
A person cannot validly receive the other sacraments before he has been baptized; even though he went through the ceremonies of receiving them, they would not be validly received.
318. Who can administer Baptism?
The priest is the usual minister of Baptism, but if there is danger that someone will die without Baptism, anyone else may and should baptize.
Can one who is not himself baptized and does not believe in Baptized give this sacrament?
Even one who is not himself baptized and does not believe in Baptism can give this sacrament, provided he performs the ceremony properly and has the intention of doing what the Church does or what Catholics wish done by this ceremony.
319. How would you give baptism?
I would give Baptism by pouring ordinary water on the forehead of the person to be baptized, saying while pouring: “I baptize thee in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.”
What points must be carefully noticed in giving of Baptism?
In giving of Baptism, these points must be carefully noticed First, the water must touch the skin on the crown of the person’s head or for head, not merely his hair; second, the water must flow over the skin- not merely moisten it; third, the words must be spoken while the water is being poured, not before or afterward; fourth, the words must be recited most exactly in a tone of voice that can be heard by the one baptizing.
What changes in the words would make the sacrament doubtful or invalid?
Almost any change in the words would make the sacrament a least doubtful—for example, the omission of the word “and” after “Son”—and it would be invalid if one omitted “I baptize thee”, or said “in the name of the Holy Trinity” without mentioning the Three Persons by name.
Is it permitted to baptize a dying person with the intention of giving the sacrament only in case the priest does not come in time?
It is never permitted to baptize a dying person with the intention of giving the sacrament only in case the priest does not come in time, for such intention, based on the fulfillment of a future condition, would make the sacrament invalid; hence, one should intend to baptize absolutely, whether or not the priest will come in time.
In case of necessity, if the water cannot be poured on the head, may it be poured on another part of the body?
In case of necessity, if the water cannot be poured on the head, it may be poured on another part of the body, particularly the chest, since such a baptism is probably valid; but in this case, if the person can later be baptized on the head, it should be done, with the condition: “If you are not already baptized”.
(To be continued)
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Benedict Baur, O.S.B.
Growth in love
1. The Church prays that we may abound in charity. This “first and greatest commandment” which the Lord gave us is continually before her eyes. “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and thy whole mind. . . . Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself” (Matt. 22:37. 39). Love is the essence of perfection and the highest reach of Christian virtue. Whether we are “upright and unspotted in the day of Christ” will depend on the measure of our love. Love decides our destiny.
2. “He that abideth in charity, abideth in God and God in him” (I John4:16). Love rises above the awareness of “me and you”; the language of love says, “And all my things are thine, and thine are mine” (John17:10). Love gives everything. It is the supreme expression, the summation of all that one can do for another. Through love we are united and identify ourselves with the one we love. Because we love God, we adore Him, we glorify Him, and we honor Him as best we can. “For he that loveth his neighbor hath fulfilled the law” (Rom. 13:8). “Charity. . . is the bond of perfection” (Col. 3:14). All commandments are based on the precept of charity.
There is, after all, only one commandment, since all commandments have only one objective, which is charity. As the many twigs and branches of a tree are offshoots of the same root, so the various acts of virtue grow out of the one root, charity. The commandments of the Lord are many, and yet they are one. They are many in a multiplicity of works, but they are one in their source, which is charity (St. Gregory the Great). Charity is the motive force behind all the commandments, and it is charity and charity alone which unites us with God and makes us like unto Him. It makes us objects of divine love and children of God, and draws God Himself to us. God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost dwell in us and share with us their divine and blessed life. “He that abideth in charity, abideth in God and God in him.”
There are certain marks of growth in charity. The more we love, the more conscious we become of our own imperfection, of our own sinfulness, of our own impurity, of our own perversity. We become acutely aware of our lack of progress because of our attachment to worthless things that prevent us from giving ourselves up completely to the love of God and of our Savior. How selfish we are, how reluctant to give up all for God, to submit to Him entirely and completely! When we realize this we are not hindered and checked, but we are humbled and inspired to strive for a more perfect love of God. This is the feeling that urged the saints to long for humiliations and suffering. Previously the consciousness of sin was a torture to them and the source of their zeal; now their inability to love Him sufficiently, to consume themselves by sacrifices for Him, is an incomparably greater torture. They wish to give God a superabundant love because of their vivid consciousness of the feebleness of all that they do. This is a sign that they are growing in charity. The more we grow in charity, the more dissatisfied we are with our present state. Such a dissatisfaction does not prostrate us, or discourage us, or make us despondent; it urges us rather to greater and better things. It awakens in us a need for greater perfection, a need to be more pure and holy. It makes us grateful to God and gives us an unshakable confidence in His help and grace; at the same time we acquire a deep remorse for not having responded to the graces already offered. The more we grow in charity, the more insatiable becomes our desire to make use of all that life brings for the greater honor and glory of God. The greater our love for God, the closer we draw to Him, the more we desire to suffer for Him, the more we desire to bear all things for Him out of pure and perfect love.
3. “Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity” (Gradual). By these words the sacred liturgy directs us to unite ourselves to the Church and to Christ our head. By this union with the body of Christ and with our brethren our love will grow more and more till it reaches perfection. Only by such a union does the Lord, the “first-born among many brethren,” unite Himself to us. He makes us His members and makes it possible for us to join our prayers, works, sufferings, which are in themselves worthless, to His prayers, works, and sufferings. Now our prayers and works become a vital part of His, which are of infinite value. Our works and sufferings are transformed by His spirit, His love, His purity, and His perfection, and thus acquire a value in the sight of God which by themselves they would lack. Thus we grow rapidly in grace, virtue, and love. This power of growth is acquired by virtue of our baptism and our union with Christ our head. “Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity.” What would we be without this union with Christ our head and with His Church? Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.
PRAYER
O God, our refuge and strength, the very Author of godliness, hear the devout prayers of Thy Church and grant that what we confidently ask we may efficaciously obtain. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
The love of God
1. The Church prays that “your charity may more and more abound in knowledge and in all understanding, that you may approve the better things, that you may be sincere and without offense unto the day of Christ” (Epistle).
2. “That your charity may more and more abound in knowledge.” The more intense our love of God, the deeper will be our understanding of divine things. To abound in charity means to acquire a deeper and more perfect knowledge of God, of His salvation, of His holiness, and of His redemption. Charity unites the soul to God. The charitable soul reposes in the heart of Jesus as the child reposes on the breast of its mother. It finds its only joy in God. The more it desires God, the more closely God draws it to Himself and manifests Himself to it so that it can see and taste how sweet He is. It has a profound knowledge of God and of His mysteries, a knowledge which God Himself provides personally and directly. He reveals Himself to such a soul in a mystical way and manifests His lovableness through the instrumentality of men. He dwells in the loving soul to be its sole love and consolation. It may approach Him, touch Him, speak to Him with confidence, and turn to Him as a flower turns to the sun to receive the full benefit of the light. This light given by God develops our understanding of God and of His essence. In this sense Holy Mother the Church prays that our charity may abound more and more in knowledge and understanding, “that you may approve the better things.”
Knowledge born of charity makes us understand that we still are not what we ought to be. It gives us a desire for what lies before us and sets before us the ideal of perfect union with God; it makes us wish to submit perfectly to His holy will and good pleasure. The soul thirsts to share His perfect life and to become enraptured by His inexhaustible holiness. Knowledge born of charity urges us to a greater purity and holiness in thought, word, and deed. Steeped in the glow of this divine purity and holiness, the loving soul is stripped of all uncleanness, of all imperfection, of all selfishness. It becomes pure in its intentions, in its motives, in its works, in its deeds. Finally, knowledge born of charity fills our hands with the fruit of good works, for charity and good works are so dependent on one another that the one cannot exist without the other. Charity in the soul is the root of all good works. On the other hand, charity decreases and disappears if it is not nourished by good works, just as a fire languishes unless fuel is supplied. Good works are the fuel for charity. If charity abides in our souls, we are “filled with the fruit of justice” (Epistle), we are clean and “without offense unto the day of Christ,” prepared for the hour of death and judgment.
3. The liturgy is concerned with our growth in charity, which is the foundation and source of all other virtues; indeed, it includes all the other virtues. Where charity is lacking, all else fails. Where charity exists, there also are the other virtues. Where charity exists, man gives to God the things that are God’s and to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s.
Charity gives without reservation. It will suffer hardships and reverses. Charity renounces the world, its goods, its honors, its pleasures. It crucifies the flesh, sacrifices its time, its powers, its health, and even its life for the sake of God. It places the love of God above all things, even above its own well-being and its own satisfaction. Charity is strong; it despises the world with its trials and dangers, the devil with his plots and his temptations. Charity subjects the passions and breaks evil habits. It is strong in the hour of trial and causes us to suffer crosses and sufferings, in justices and humiliations, trials and temptations with equanimity. Charity is unselfish. It loves God not for the sake of His gifts but for Himself alone. It directs all its energies to God and knows no desire but God’s good pleasure.
The love of God is closely bound up with the love of neighbor. How can one love God without loving his neighbor, since God’s love embraces all men? How can one love God and not love those for whom He suffered and died, for whom He established His Church and its sacraments, and in whom the Blessed Trinity lives and works? The test of true charity is our love for our neighbor. “Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity” (Gradual).
“Give a well-ordered speech in my mouth”; give me Christ in the Holy Eucharist. This is the way to perfection in love. At the Holy Sacrifice the Lord, the Word of God, places His gifts in our hands. His heart, His prayers, His limitless charity, His praise, devotion, and thanksgiving belong to us. “Through Him, and with Him, and in Him is to Thee, O God,” a meet and perfect praise, even from us poor sinners. We love God with the loving heart of Jesus Himself. At Holy Communion the sacrificial victim, glowing with love for the Father, plants in our hearts the fire of love which consumes His heart. God puts the “well-ordered speech” into our mouth. Must not our charity grow strong and be perfected? If only we possessed the spirit of the sacred liturgy, with how much courage and confidence we should be inspired; “I can do all things in Him who strengtheneth me” (Phil. 4: 13). Do we not depend too much on ourselves, and too little on Him who works in us? “And I live, now not I, but Christ liveth in me” (Gal. 2:20).
PRAYER
O God, our refuge and strength, the very Author of godliness, hear the devout prayers of Thy Church and grant that what we confidently ask we may efficaciously obtain. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
“And now this I pray, that your charity may more and more abound in knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve the better things, that you may be upright and without offense unto the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of justice, through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God” (Phil. 1:9-11).
16: ST HEDWIG, Widow (A.D. 1243)
HEDWIG (Jadwiga) was a daughter of Berthold, Count of Andechs, and was born at Andechs in Bavaria about the year 1174; through her sister Gertrude she was aunt to St Elizabeth of Hungary. She was placed when very young in the monastery of Kitzingen in Franconia, and taken thence when twelve years old to marry Henry, Duke of Silesia, who was then eighteen. They had seven children, of whom only one, Gertrude, survived her mother, and she became abbess of Trebnitz. Her husband succeeded to his father’s dukedom in 1202, and he at once at Hedwig’s persuasion founded the great monastery of Cistercian nuns at Trebnitz, three miles from Breslau. To construct the building it is said that all malefactors in Silesia, instead of other punishments, were condemned to work at it. This was the first convent of women in Silesia, [It was suppressed and secularized in 1810, and the estate came to Prince Blucher after Waterloo.] and the first of a large number of monastic establishments by the foundation of which the duke and duchess both aided the religious life of their people and spread a Germanic culture over their territories. Among them were houses of Augustinian canons, Cistercian monks, Dominican and Franciscan friars. Henry established the hospital of the Holy Ghost in Breslau and Hedwig one for female lepers at Neumarkt, in which they took a close personal interest. After the birth of her last child in 1209 Hedwig engaged her husband to agree to a mutual vow of continence, from which time they lived to a considerable extent in different places. Her husband, we are told, for the thirty years that he lived afterwards, never wore gold, silver or purple, and never shaved his beard, from which he was named Hen
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