Vol 12 Issue 35 ~ Editor: Rev. Fr. Courtney Edward Krier
August 31, 2019 ~ Saint Raymond Nonnatus, opn!
1. What is the Holy Eucharist
2. Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost
3. Saint Giles
4. Family and Marriage
5. Articles and notices
Dear Reader:
I was engaged with several Catholic teenagers who attend public school. Talking about Adam and Eve being the first parents of everyone, and not a polygenesis as evolution would wish to introduce [merely to deny the Genesis account], I mentioned that White Supremacy organizations stem from the same belief system as Planned Parenthood and Eugenics: Evolution. That is, some people are more superior then others and the less superior should be eliminated. If polygenesis happened, then one could claim coming from a higher life form—an orangutan instead of a chimpanzee or a gorilla. Of course such ideas are nonsense and we all know we are united in a common brotherhood through our first parents (and even more through baptism in Christ). I explained that Planned Parenthood considered some babies were not worth living and they would therefore have the mother kill them (human sacrifice). At this point many said that it was not killing or murder because it was just a blob of cells, it was legal, it wasn’t a human, and the mother has the right to an abortion, et cetera. These young ladies are supposed to be Catholics, but they are products of neglect by their parents and indoctrination by the public school system (at such a young age). The more sophisticated looked at having an abortion as proving one was not subject to male domination. These young ladies find themselves dominated by a culture that takes away the feminine quality of sacrificing themselves for their children—one even saying that she shouldn’t have to die for her child. I can imagine (actually know) that the heroes they are presented with are those who do exactly that: sacrificing children for the sake of having what they want: power, money, career, pleasure, etc. These are not heroes, but narcissists—self-absorbed. Of course selfies, social media and you.tube generates such narcissists. The time of real heroes was when mothers truly sacrificed all to raise their children to become citizens of heaven and earth—performing all the tasks that made stone soup into the most delectable meal and the barest of homes into the most luxurious of palaces. Those were the ages of faith where God provided; now we live in an age of materialism where the state provides. Then, children were happy; today, children are miserable. I do not blame those old enough to reminisce in the days of faith—days when we didn’t murder our children, but nurtured them.
As always, enjoy the readings and commentaries provided for your benefit.—The Editor
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WHAT IS THE HOLY EUCHARIST
By Rev. Courtney Edward Krier
Evolution and Modernism
As the above teachings of Pope Pius IX mentioned [Syllabus of Errors], Indifferentism was being promoted that was a consequence of holding faith as a different truth than reality, but which was true for each individual in as much as it made the reality they lived in true—and one’s experience was different than another’s experience, all of which denied Divine Revelation. As such, there could not be a condemnation of other religions or that one religion was the only true religion. Such expressions circulated and are still circulated today. The words of Pius IX in Maxima quidem were already cited, particularly:
In addition, they dare to deny any activity of God in men and in the world. And they rashly assert that human reason, without any reference to God, is the only judge of truth and falsehood, good and evil, and that human reason is a law unto itself, and suffices by its own natural power for the care of the good of persons and peoples. But since they perversely dare to derive all truths of religion from the inborn force of human reason, they assign to man a certain basic right, from which he can think and speak about religion as he likes, and give such honor and worship to God as he finds more agreeable to himself.
And, again, opposing rational faith in his encyclical, Qui pluribus, of November 9, 1846:
It is possible to see from this how grave is the error of those who, abusing reason and looking upon the divine revelations as the work of man, dare to submit them to their own judgment and temerariously to interpret them. Has not God Himself established a living authority to teach and to maintain the true and legitimate meaning of his heavenly revelation, and to close by an infallible pronouncement all controversies on matters of faith and morals, so that the faithful will not be buffeted about by every wind of doctrine, and led into the snares of error by human perversity?
And the Allocution, Ubi primum, the following year (December 17, 1847):
Therefore, let those who wish to be saved come to this pillar, to this foundation of the truth which is the Church; let them come to the true Church of Christ which, in her Bishops and in the Roman Pontiff, the supreme head of all, possesses the uninterrupted succession of apostolic authority, which has never had anything more closely at heart than to preach, to preserve, and to defend with all her strength the doctrine announced by the Apostles on the order of Jesus Christ; who, since the days of the Apostles, has grown in the midst of difficulties of every kind, and who, splendid with the splendor of miracles in the entire world, made fruitful by the blood of Martyrs, ennobled by the virtues of Confessors and Virgins, strengthened by the testimony and the wise writings of the Fathers, has sent down roots and still nourishes in all the countries of the earth, brilliant in the perfect unity of her faith, of the sacraments and of her spiritual sacred ‘government. For Us, who, in spite of Our unworthiness, sit on this supreme Chair of the Apostle Peter, on which Jesus Christ Our Lord laid the foundations of his Church, We will never spare either Our efforts or Our labors, to bring back, by the grace of the same Jesus Christ, to this unique way of truth and salvation, those in ignorance and error. Let all those who oppose Us remember that heaven and earth will pass away, but that not One of Christ’s words can pass away, that nothing can be changed in the doctrine which the Catholic Church has received from Jesus Christ to preserve, to defend, and to preach.
The Allocution, Singulari quadam, Dec. 9, 1854, condemned universal salvation based, again, on the view that all religions are the same, that is, based on human reasoning.
Not without sorrow we have learned that another error, no less destructive, has taken possession of some parts of the Catholic world, and has taken up its abode in the souls of many Catholics who think that one should have good hope of the eternal salvation of all those who have never lived in the true Church of Christ. Therefore, they are wont to ask very often what will be the lot and condition after death of those who have not submitted in any way to the Catholic faith, and, by bringing forward most vain reasons, they make a response favorable to their false opinion. Far be it from Us, Venerable Brethren, to presume on the limits of the divine mercy which is infinite; far from Us, to wish to scrutinize the hidden counsel and “judgments of God” which are ‘a great deep” [Ps. 35:7] and cannot be penetrated by human thought. But, as is Our Apostolic duty, we wish your episcopal solicitude and vigilance to be aroused, so that you will strive as much as you can to drive from the mind of men that impious and equally fatal opinion, namely, that the way of eternal salvation can be found in any religion whatsoever. May you demonstrate with that skill and learning in which you excel, to the people entrusted to your care that the dogmas of the Catholic faith are in no wise opposed to divine mercy and justice. (Cf. DB 1646)
On March 17, 1856, he would write to the Austrian Episcopate (Letter Singulari quidem):
The true Church is one, Holy, Catholic, Apostolic, and Roman; unique: the Chair founded on Peter by the Lord’s words (Matt. 16:18); outside her fold is to be found neither the true faith nor eternal salvation, for it is impossible to have God for Father if one has not the Church for Mother, and it is in vain that one flatters oneself on belonging to the Church, if one is separated from the Chair of Peter on which the Church is founded. There could be no greater crime, no more detestable injury than opposition to Christ, than the rending of the Church purchased and engendered in his divine Blood, (cf. Acts 20:28) than the furious attacks of pernicious discord against the peaceful and Single-minded people of God, to the detriment of evangelical charity.
Continuing later in the same Letter with these words:
The Church declares openly that all man’s hope, all his salvation, is in Christian faith, in that faith which teaches the truth, dissipates by its divine light the darkness of human ignorance, works through charity; that it is at the same time in the Catholic Church, who, because she keeps the true worship, is the inviolable sanctuary of faith itself and the temple of God, outside of which, except with the excuse of invincible ignorance, there is no hope of life or of salvation.
Several years later, in the Encyclical Letter, Quanto conficiamur moerore, of August 10, 1863, Pope Pius IX
And here, beloved Sons and Venerable Brothers, We should mention again and censure a very grave error in which some Catholics are unhappily engaged, who believe that men living in error, and separated from the true faith and from Catholic unity, can attain eternal life. Indeed, this is certainly quite contrary to Catholic teaching. It is known to Us and to you that they who labor in invincible ignorance of our most holy religion and who, zealously keeping the natural law and its precepts engraved in the hearts of all by God, and being ready to obey God, live an honest and upright life, can, by the operating power of divine light and grace, attain eternal life, since God who clearly beholds, searches, and knows the minds, souls, thoughts, and habits of all men, because of His great goodness and mercy, will by no means suffer anyone to be punished with eternal torment who has not the guilt of deliberate sin. But, the Catholic dogma that no one can be saved outside the Catholic Church is well-known; and also that those who are obstinate toward the authority and definitions of the same Church, and who persistently separate themselves from the unity of the Church, and from the Roman Pontiff, the successor of PETER, to whom “the guardianship of the vine has been entrusted by the Savior,” [Council of Chalcedon in relation to Leo I] cannot obtain eternal salvation. (Cf. DB 1677)
All of these errors, as also that mentioned previously in the encyclical, Noscitis et nobiscum, found their condemnation once more pronounced in the Syllabus:
15 Every man is free to embrace and profess that religion which he, led by the light of reason, thinks to be the true religion. (Cf. DB 1715)
16. In the worship of any religion whatever, men can find the way to eternal salvation, and can attain eternal salvation. (Cf. DB 1716)
17. We must have at least good hope concerning the eternal salvation of all those who in no wise are in the true Church of Christ. (Cf. DB 1717).
18. Protestantism is nothing else than a different form of the same true Christian religion, in which it is possible to serve God as well as in the Catholic Church (Cf. DB 1718).
Finally, in the Allocution, Iamdudum cernimus, of March 18, 1861, Pius IX condemned the call to update, conceptualized in the word Aggiornamento of Angelo Roncalli and accomplished by the Second Vatican Council.
The former demand that the Roman Pontiff be reconciled with and come to terms with Progress and Liberalism-these are their expressions-in One word, with modern civilization. The latter maintain, and with reason, that the immutable and unshakable principles of eternal justice be kept without alteration; they insist that We keep intact the salutary force of our divine religion which alone can extend the kingdom of God and bring remedies to the ills which afflict humanity, which is the one true norm by which the children of men can, in this mortal life, acquire all virtue and make their way to the harbor of a blessed eternity. But the proponents of modern civilization do not understand this opposition, although they claim to be true and sincere friends of religion. We would wish to believe them, if the sad events happening every day in the sight of everyone did not prove to Us the contrary.
In fact there is only one true and holy religion, founded and instituted by Christ Our Lord. Mother and Nurse of the virtues, Destroyer of vice, Liberator of souls, Guide to true happiness, she is called Catholic, Apostolic and Roman. (TC 230)
And, to confirm that this was contrary to Catholic teaching, Pius IX added it as the last error in his Syllabus.
80. The Roman Pontiff can and should reconcile and adapt himself to progress, liberalism, and the modern civilization. (Cf. DB 1780)
Despite the condemnations, Catholics who did not believe in the Divine guidance of the Church, but in their own intellectual abilities, worked on various systems of theology to adapt Catholicism exactly into the errors of the evolutionists and rationalists (Positivism of August Compte and Hegelianism of Georg Hegel—Herbert Spencer brought Hegelianism to the English speaking population). As Cunningham writes:
Out of the union of Hegelianism and Positivism—the negation of absolute truth, and the disdain of metaphysics—was born a new historical criticism, which repudiated a priori the supernatural as false and impossible. This new system taught that: “When criticism refuses to believe in the narration of miracles, it has no need to bring proofs to the support of its negation. What is narrated is false, simply because it cannot be,” and again, it declares—”The foundation of all criticism consists in setting aside in the life of Christ the supernatural,” and again, “Nothing enters into human affairs but what is human; and every science, particularly history, must bid farewell definitely to the supernatural and the divine.” (loc. 99-105)
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The Sunday Sermons of the Great Fathers
M. F. Toal
THE GOSPEL OF THE SUNDAY
LUKE X. 23-37
At that time: Jesus said to his disciples: Blessed are the eyes that see the things which you see. For I say to you, that many prophets and kings have desired to see the things that you see, and have not seen them; and to hear the things that you hear, and have not heard them. And behold a certain lawyer stood up tempting him and saying; Master what must I do to possess eternal life? But he said to him: What is written in the Law? how readest thou? He answering said: Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart and with thy whole soul and with all thy strength and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thy self. And he said to him: Thou hast answered right. This do; and thou shalt live.
But he, willing to justify himself, said to Jesus: And who is my neighbour? And Jesus, answering said: A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell among robbers, who also stripped him and having wounded him went away, leaving him half dead. And it chanced that a certain priest went down the same way; and seeing him passed by. In like manner also a Levite when he was near the place and saw him, passed by. But a certain Samaritan, being on his journey, came near him; and seeing him was moved to pity. And, going up to him, bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine; and, setting him upon his own beast, brought him to an inn and took care of him. And the next day he took out two pence and gave to the host and said: Take care of him; and whatsoever thou shalt spend over and above, I, at my return, will repay thee. Which of these three, in thy opinion, was neighbour to him that fell among the robbers? But he said: He that showed mercy to him. And Jesus said to him: Go, and do thou in like manner.
EXPOSITION FROM THE CATENA AUREA
THEOPHYLACTUS: As a little before He had said: No one knoweth who the Father is, but the Son, and to whom the Son will reveal him. He calls His Disciples blessed, to whom, through Him, the Father was now being revealed. Hence we are told:
V.23. And turning to his disciples he said: Blessed are the eyes that see the things which you see.
CYRIL: He turns to them, for, rejecting the Jews as deaf and blind of mind, and unwilling to see, He offers Himself wholly to those who love Him; and declares that blessed are the eyes which were then seeing, before any others, the things they were beginning to see. This however we must know, that this seeing does not refer to the act of the eyes, but to the renewal of the soul through the favours bestowed; as if some one were to say: Such a man has seen good days, that is, he has rejoiced in good days, as in the psalm: Mayest thou see the good things of Jerusalem (Ps. cxxvii. 5). For many of the Jews had, with the eyes of the body, seen Christ performing divine works. Yet this did not bring blessedness to all of them: for they did not believe; and neither did they see the glory of God with the eyes of the soul. Our eyes therefore are declared blessed in this, that through faith we have seen the Word, for us made Man, signing us with the grace of His Godhead, that He may make us like to Himself through sanctity and justice.
THEOPHYLACTUS: He declares them blessed, and with them all who without guile look upon Him with eyes of faith; because the prophets and kings of old had longed for this: to see and hear God in the flesh; as follows:
V.24. For I say to you, that many prophets and kings have desired to see the things that you see and have not seen them; and to hear the things that you hear and have not heard them.
BEDE: Matthew, more explicitly, calls them prophets and just men (Mt. xiii. 17). For they are great kings; who knew how to rule, by dominating the impulses that tempted them, not consenting to them.
CHRYSOSTOM, in John, hom. 8: From this saying many think that the prophets were without knowledge of Christ. But if they longed to see what the Apostles saw, they knew He was to come among men, and that He would do what He did. For no one hungers for the things his mind is unaware of. They had therefore known of the Son of God. So He does not simply say: They desired to see Me, but, the things which you see; not, to hear Me, but, to hear the things that you hear. For they had seen Him, though not yet Incarnate, not living in this manner among men, nor speaking to them with such majesty.
BEDE: For they, looking from afar off, saw Him, through a glass, in a dark manner. But the Apostles, having the Lord in their midst, and learning, through questioning Him, whatever they wished to know, had no need to be taught through Angels or through any other kind of vision.
ORIGEN, in Canticles, Catena GP: But why does He say that many prophets desired this, and not all of them? Because it was said of Abraham, that he saw the day of Christ, and was glad (Jn. viii. 56); and this vision was given, not to many, but rather to a few. But there were other prophets and just men, not of such greatness as to attain to the vision of Abraham and to the immediate knowledge of the Apostles. And it is of these He says that they have not seen but that they desired to see.
V.25. And behold, a certain lawyer stood up, tempting him . . . .
BEDE: A little before this the Lord had said to them (v.20) that their names were written in heaven; and it was from this, as I think, the lawyer took occasion to tempt the Lord. And, behold, a certain lawyer . . . CYRIL: There were certain wordy persons going about through the whole country of the Jews, attacking Christ and saying, that He had said that the law of Moses was useless, and that He Himself had brought forward certain new teachings. The lawyer therefore, seeking to mislead Christ, so that he might say something against Moses, stood by Him, tempting Him, calling Him Master; yet not enduring to be taught by Him. And because the Lord was accustomed to speak of eternal life to those who came to Him, the lawyer makes use of this. And making this attempt with guile, he hears nothing in reply except what the commandments of Moses laid down. For there follows:
V.26. But he said to him: What is written in the law? How readest thou?
AMBROSE: He was one of those who believed themselves to be experts in the law; who knew its words, but ignored its obligations. And from this very chapter of the law He shows that they are ignorant of the law; proving to them that from the beginning the law proclaimed both the Father and the Son and made known the mystery of the Lord’s Incarnation. For there follows:
V.27. He answering said: Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart and with thy whole soul and with all thy strength and with all thy mind.
BASIL, in Catena GP: That He says: with all thy mind, excludes sharing the love of the mind with other things. For whatever love you spend upon lower things, this you must necessarily take from the whole. For when some water is poured out from a full vessel, so much of necessity is taken from its fulness. So likewise in the soul, whatever love it gives to unlawful things, by so much must its love for God be lessened.
GREGORY NYSSA, On Creation of Man, 8: The power of the soul is seen in three certain things. One is the power of growth and of self-nourishment; which is the sole power in plants. Another is that of sensitivity, by which the nature of irrational creatures is protected. But the perfect power of the soul is the rational power, manifested in human nature. Therefore, in saying the heart, He meant the bodily power, that is, the nutritive; in saying the soul, He refers to the middle or sensitive power; in saying the mind, He refers to the higher nature, that is, to the intellectual and reflective power.
THEOPHYLACTUS: Here then we are to understand, that every power of the soul is to be subjected to the divine love; and this strongly, not indifferently. On this account there is added: and with all thy strength.
MAXIMUS, Catena GP: With this in mind the law imposes on us a threefold love of God, and for this end: To root out from us our threefold attachment to the world, which looks to possessions, to glory, and to pleasure; in which Christ also was tempted.
BASIL: Should some one ask: How can the divine love be obtained? we answer, that the divine love is not something that can be taught: neither did we learn from another how to enjoy the sunlight, or how to hold fast to life, or how to love our parents and those who rear us, nor, and how much more, to love God. But implanted within us is a certain as it were seed of the mind, which has within it the causes why man adheres to God. And the science of the divine commands receiving in trust this inward power of the soul, devotes itself to its loving cultivation, carefully fostering it, to lead it to the perfection of divine grace.
For we love naturally what is good, and we love our own and those related to us, and we freely pour out our affection to those who do good to us. If therefore God is good, and if all things desire what is good, what is spontaneously done by us, is by nature present in us. And even though we are far from knowing Him through His Goodness, nevertheless, from this that we come from Him, we are bound to love Him beyond measure, that is, as our kindred. He is also a greater good to us than all whom we naturally love.
The first and chief commandment therefore is that of the love of God. The second completes the first, and is by it made perfect; that in which we are taught to love our neighbour. So we have: And thy neighbour as thyself. The aptitude to fulfil this commandment comes to us from God. Who does not know that man is a kind and social being, not wild and solitary? For nothing is so natural to us as to speak with one another, to seek each other’s company, to love our kindred. Since He in His Providence gives us the seeds of these things, He therefore requires of us the fruits of them.
CHRYSOSTOM, hom. 32 in I Cor.: Observe how either precept requires of us the same overflowing fulfilment. For of God it says: With thy whole heart; of our neighbour: As thy self. And were this lovingly fulfilled, there would be neither slave nor free, victor nor vanquished, rich nor poor, nor would the devil have ever been known; for chaff would endure fire better, than the devil the flame of charity. So does the constancy of love overcome all things?
GREGORY, Morals, 19, 20: And since we are told: Love thy neighbour as thyself; how is anyone merciful, having compassion on another, who continuing to live wickedly has no compassion on himself? CYRIL, Catena GP: But when the lawyer had answered what was contained in the law, Christ, to whom all things are known, cuts through the net of his deceit. For there then follows:
V.28. And he said to him: Thou hast answered right. This do; and thou shalt live.
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SEPTEMBER 1
ST GILES
GILES lived alone in a cave deep in a wild forest, not far from where the river Rhone flows into the Mediterranean Sea. He had, after many travels, made his home there so that he might escape from people who thought he was a saint. One day, as he was going into church, he had noticed a poor, sick beggar lying on the pavement outside; and to make him more comfortable he had taken off his own cloak and spread it over him. The man had been immediately healed, and the crowds started to gather and call Giles a holy man.
But Giles knew that the healing had nothing to do with his own goodness. He remembered, too, that when the people had surrounded Jesus after He had performed one of His miracles He had escaped from them and gone away alone into a deserted place to pray to God. Giles determined to try to do the same, not because he did not want to help the sick and the suffering, but because he thought the best way to do it was by hiding himself from the world and spending his time in prayer for it.
So he became a hermit in the forest of Nimes; and no one knew of his cave by the side of a clear spring, which gave him water to drink, as the trees and plants round about gave him herbs and fruits to eat. But he had one companion, a little hind who had become tame and made her home with him.
One day, when the King of that part of France was hunting in the Forest, the hind was pursued by the huntsmen and dogs, and in terror it fled to the cave and took refuge in Giles’s arms. The prayers of the holy man-so the story says-caused thick bushes to spring up as a protection, so that the hounds were baffled. But one of the huntsmen shot an arrow in the direction the hind had taken, and when at last they found their way to the cave they discovered that the arrow had wounded, not the hind, but Giles.
When they saw this the King and his huntsmen were very sorry. They knelt and asked the hermit’s forgiveness; but Giles, who realized it was an accident, said there was nothing to forgive. They offered to bind the wound; but Giles explained that it was of no account. The King implored him to come with him to court; but Giles told him that nothing would make him leave the way of life that he had chosen for the glory of God. So at last they left him alone and returned to the chase.
But now that he had discovered so famous a holy man living in his dominions the King could not let the matter rest. He went back to Giles and asked that, if he would not come to court, at least he would allow some people who were also trying to live a good life to come and live near him. Giles realized that this was his duty to God. About a hundred and fifty years earlier, you remember, St Benedict had gone away to serve God in the desert just as Giles had; but in the end he had allowed others who wished to serve God in the same way to come and live with him under a strict Rule of Life which he drew up for them. By Giles’s day there were many monasteries in Europe under this Benedictine Rule; and Giles, after much prayer and thought, told the King that if he would build a Benedictine monastery near his cave he would become abbot of it.
This the King did; and though Giles himself never left his cave and at last died in it, the great Abbey of St Giles which was built there in the forest became one of the greatest homes of monks in France.
In France, in Italy, and in England, for the next hundred years or so, the Church was left in peace; but in Spain a new danger appeared which, in one form or another, was to attack Christendom for nearly a thousand years—the Mohammedans. And another land was added to Christendom, the land we now call Germany.
Father Krier will be in Albuquerque, New Mexico, September 2. He will be in Pahrump September 12 and Eureka, Nevada, on September 19.
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