Vol 13 Issue 51 ~ Editor: Rev. Fr. Courtney Edward Krier
December 19, 2020 ~ Ember Saturday in Advent

1.      What is the Holy Eucharist
2.      Fourth Sunday in Advent
3.      Saint Ammon
4.      Family and Marriage
5.      Articles and notices
Dear Reader:

A question was raised regarding the abandonment of Church attendance as ordered by State governments and accepted by the Conciliar Church and mainstream denominations as to whether people will return to Church. Placing this question also raises another that was proposed in the very beginning: Are Churches essential? According to the State, no! According to those Churches that closed, no! Therefore, in the minds of the people, no!

There is a replacement for Church that has been around for decades and plays a major role in the lives of the general populace: News Religion. News Religion has arisen as the fastest growing religion in the last four years and now claims dominance. It has its own Liturgical Cycle, mimicking the Church Cycle. From Thanksgiving to January 1 is the Holidays Cycle, then there is Valentine’s followed by Mardi Gras with Spring Break and Easter, Earth Day and Graduation, Summer and the Screen School Start with Halloween following. It has its own idols, the persons who exemplify their values like Martin Luther King (Patron of Civil Disobedience), Gloria Steinem and Betty Friedan (Patrons of Woman Degradation), Jimmy Carter (Patron of Peace by Appeasement), Bill Clinton (Patron of Women Rule), Barack Obama (Patron of Racial Agitation), Ellen DeGeneres (Patron of Perverts). It has its dogmas, chief of which are: 1. Christians are the worse people, 2. people who don’t believe the News Religion are ignorant, 3. if the News Religion says its true it is true even if yesterday the News Religion said it wasn’t true (1984), 4. a baby is not a baby unless Planned Parenthood and the News Religion says it’s a baby, 5. no one is born a male or female because that would say they are a male or a female—gender is a feeling or desire, not a fact—, 6. all men are rapists, 7. priests are all child molesters, 8. Antifa is not violent, 9. Black Lives Matter members are peaceful protestors just kindly reminding white granny she is racist because she is white (because apparently skin color reveals your inner prejudices—the whiter the more prejudiced you are, the darker the less prejudiced—according to the News Religion basic science model), 10. the News Religion tells you everything you will ever need to know—just don’t turn the channel and especially don’t be a deplorable and go to Church.

The News Religion even has its prophecies: Biden will be the savior of America and upon his entrance into the presidency everyone will be cured of all illness, no one will ever die; money will miraculously appear on everyone’s Biden-Harris issued card every month—but don’t worry about paying for anything, just go in the store and take it because it’s yours; everything will be free. Afraid of being arrested? No more—there will be no more police—law and order is a Christian belief and the News Religion has liberated everyone from morality—you are only required to be Politically Correct. Yes, Christians will be forced to apologize for ever having gone to Church and believing in a Creator of Heaven and Earth—confessing it was only because of their deplorable ignorance. And if they don’t, well, back to re-education.

Welcome to the News Religion where you must believe everything they say; and they promise to take good care of you whether you want them to or not. So next time you turn on the News, ask yourself if this is not what you are hearing.

Excuse the satire, but it parodies the truth of the matter. If you really want to keep your sanity, step out of the News Religion and go to Church!

As always, enjoy the readings provided for your benefit.—The Editor

________________

WHAT IS THE HOLY EUCHARIST

By Rev. Courtney Edward Krier

Part V

Reception of the Holy Eucharist: Holy Communion

The Reception of the Body and Blood of Christ

Receiving Holy Communion as a Sacrament

Intention

Intention of Priest

The Holy Eucharist as the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ, is the blessed Sacrament itself. That is, Jesus Christ is present Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity whether the receiver wants it to be or not. There must be an intention, the intention of confecting the Sacrament, which lies solely within the mind of the priest. The priest must intend to change the bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ to be offered in sacrifice and received as food. Pohle instructs:

There would be no Consecration if, in repeating the words of institution, he merely intended to relate an historical event. He must pronounce them, therefore, with the practical purpose of effecting the conversion; nor is it indifferent which words he employs. The effect will depend on his employing those words which Christ has instituted as the sacramental form, and which He Himself employed in consecrating, i. e. the words of institution. Hence if the priest, in celebrating Mass, says: “This is my Body,” he speaks and acts not in his own name and person, but ” in the Person of Christ,” as His minister, and as an instrument of the Divine Omnipotence. (207)

As noted in the articles above, there must be proper matter and form with the intent to confect the Sacrament. The Schismatic Nestorians do not have the proper form when they omit the consecratory words using the Addai and Mari Liturgy (They do have proper form when the other two liturgies are celebrated as these are merely forms of the Divine Liturgy of Saint John Chrysostom and Saint Basil).

The priestly intention may be general, that is, intending to do as the Christ does through this matter and form—but it cannot be opposed to the intention of the Sacrament, such as only if the Church intends to offer bread and wine to the faithful in memory of the Last Supper. This why both the Holy Eucharist and Sacred Orders require an understanding of the nature of the Sacrament so a contrary intention is not formulated in the will of the one confecting the Sacrament. Example, I will do what the Church does but I will not change bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ, expresses a contrary intention which may be vague in one aspect, but clear as to what is not intended. The priest must intend to offer a sacrifice when celebrating Mass because Christ intended, as explained previously, to change bread and wine into His Body and Blood to be both offered and received (contained is a necessary condition of being offered and received). If there is no intention to offer, then there is no transubstantiation—just as there is no transubstantiation if there is no intention by the priest to receive.

Intention of Recipient

Regarding the recipient of the Sacrament, the intention of the recipient does not change whether one receives the Body and Blood of Christ or not; the intention of the recipient is only needed to receive the Body and Blood of Christ worthily. Certainly, a non-baptised person cannot receive another Sacrament before Baptism. If they were to receive the Body and Blood of Christ, Christ would be consumed by them not as a Sacrament, but as a reality within nature. They received Christ but unworthily and without being a reception of a sacrament. What does this mean? No sacrament was received, but a sacrilege was committed because they took something sacred they were not supposed to take; that is, they consumed the Body and Blood of Christ, of which they are forbidden to do.

For those who are baptized, they must be properly prepared and made worthy to receive so they have the right intention in receiving. Saint Paul gives this warning to the Corinthians:

Therefore whosoever shall eat this bread, or drink the chalice of the Lord unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and of the blood of the Lord. But let a man prove himself: and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of the chalice. For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh judgment to himself, not discerning the body of the Lord. Therefore are there many infirm and weak among you, and many sleep. (1 Cor. 11:27-30)

For a worthy reception one must:

1)      Be in the state of sanctifying grace.

This is what the Council of Trent decreed:

It is not right that anyone should participate in any sacred functions except in a holy manner.  Certainly, then, the more a Christian is aware of the holiness and the divinity of this heavenly Sacrament, the more careful he should be not to receive it without great reverence and sanctity, especially since we read in the Apostle the fearful words: “He who eats and drinks unworthily, without distinguishing the body of the Lord, eats and drinks judgment to himself” (1 Cor. xi. 29).  Therefore, a person who desires to communicate should recall the Apostle’s command: “But let a man so prove himself” (1 Cor. xi. 28).  The custom of the Church makes it clear that the proof necessary is this: no one who has a mortal sin on his conscience shall dare receive the Holy Eucharist before making a sacramental confession, regardless of how contrite he may think he is.  This holy Council declares that this custom is to be kept forever by all Christians, including even priests who are bound to celebrate in virtue of their office–provided that they have access to a confessor.  If, in case of necessity, a priest should celebrate without having confessed, he should confess as soon as possible. (Session XIII, chapter 7; cf. D880)

And, as the Council was addressing the Protestant Innovators, it added this Canon:

11. If anyone says that faith alone is a sufficient preparation for receiving the sacrament of the most Holy Eucharist: let him be anathema.  And, lest this great Sacrament be received unworthily and thus be received unto death and condemnation, this holy Council has determined and decreed that those who have mortal sin on their conscience, no matter how contrite they may think they are, must necessarily make a sacramental confession before receiving, provided that they have access to a confessor.  If anyone presumes to teach, or preach, or stubbornly maintain, or defend in public disputation the opposite of this, he is excommunicated by his action. (Cf. D893)

As a priest is obliged to say Mass for his congregation and does not always have access to another priest for Confession, the Code of Canon Law applies this in Canon 807:

Priests conscious of grave sin, no matter how contrite they believe themselves to be, shall not dare to celebrate Mass without prior sacramental confession; but if because there is lacking a sufficient supply of confessors and there is urgent necessity, he shall make an act of perfect contrition, celebrate, and as soon as possible confess.

And Canon 856:

No one burdened by mortal sin on his conscience, no matter how contrite he believes he is, shall approach holy communion without prior sacramental confession; but if there is urgent necessity and a supply of ministers of confession is lacking, he shall first elicit an act of perfect contrition.

The urgent necessity would seem to apply to avoiding desecration to the Blessed Sacrament by vandalism, war, or other acts that would cause grave offense—not by the one receiving—by others against the Holy Eucharist.

On the other hand, the Church rejects Jansenistic extremes that demand freedom from even venial sin. Pope Alexander VIII approved the Decree of the Holy Office on 7 December 1690 which condemned these beliefs: They are to be judged sacrilegious who claim the right to receive Communion before they have done worthy penance for their sins (Arnauld, De frequ. comm., praef.; cf. DB 1312); and: Similarly, they must be prevented from Holy Communion, who have not yet a pure love of God, without any admixture. (Ibid.; cf. DB 1313) Pope Saint Pius X approved  the following declaration in the Decree Sacra Tridentina of December 20, 1905, regarding Holy Communion even daily:

Frequent and daily Communion, as a practice most earnestly desired by Christ our Lord and by the Catholic Church, should be open to all the faithful, of whatever rank and condition of life; so that no one who is in the state of grace, and who approaches the Holy Table with a right and  devout intention can be prohibited therefrom. (Cf. DB 1985)

And, in Canon Law Digest (II, 208-15), there is this from the Sacred Congregation of the Sacraments, Instruction, 8 Dec., 1938:

Reserved Instruction on Daily Communion and Precautions to Be Taken Against Abuses

Since Pius X of happy memory aroused the faithful to frequent and daily Communion by the Decree of the Sacred Congregation of the Council, Sacra Tridentina Synodus, of 20 Dec., 1905, and invited even children to it by the Decree, Quam singulari, of this Sacred Congregation, 8 Aug., 1910—which decrees the Code of Canon Law has made its own in canon 863—the practice of frequent and daily Communion, as all are aware, has been happily spread.

This practice, a source of ‘innumerable blessings, is not only to be commended but to be further propagated, and that, not only among the faithful in general, but also among young people and children, according to the precept imposed by the aforesaid decrees, and with due observance of the rules there laid down.

“Frequent and daily Communion . . . must be promoted as much as possible in seminaries of clerics . . . also in other Christian institutions for the young, of whatever kind” (Decree, Sancta Tridentina Synodus, n. 7). And “those who have charge of children must make every effort that the children, after their first Communion, may approach the Holy Table frequently, and if possible even daily, as Christ and Mother Church desire, and that they do so with all the devotion of which they are capable at their age” (Decree, Quam singulari, n. 6).

I. But just as frequent and daily Communion is to be commended, so too there must be insistence on the observance of the conditions which are necessary, and which consist in the state of grace and a right intention. Suitable precautions should also be taken that no one eat this Bread unworthily. For the Apostle says, “whosoever shall eat this bread, or drink the chalice of the Lord unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and of the blood of the Lord” (I Cor. xi, 27).

For the danger of receiving Communion unworthily, which is seen to be as it were inherent in the widespread practice of frequent and daily Communion, in view of human nature which tends to have little esteem for things to which it is accustomed by frequent use, is increased when the faithful, especially the young, approach the Holy Table, not singly but generally and in a body, as happens daily in seminaries and religious communities, frequently in colleges and institutions for the training and education of Christian youth, and sometimes in the gatherings which are held for the purpose of receiving the Most Blessed Eucharist at Easter time or on some other solemn occasion.

For it can happen that some one, though conscious of grave sin, may yet approach the Holy Table influenced by the example of his associates and moved by the vain fear that if he stays away he will cause astonishment in the others, especially in his Superiors, and will be suspected of having committed a grave sin.

II. Therefore in order to prevent as far as possible all abuse, it has seemed necessary to this Sacred Congregation to consider appropriate remedies and to communicate them to the Pastors of souls. These remedies are as follows:

1. Preachers and spiritual directors, when they either publicly or privately exhort the faithful, particularly young people, to frequent and daily Communion, must not be content with this exhortation, but must at the same time inform them: (a) that daily Communion is not obligatory; (b) that it may not be practiced without the concurrence of the necessary conditions.

a) Frequent and daily Communion is indeed very much recommended, but it is not commanded by any law. It is, therefore, left to each one’s devotion and piety. So true is this that even the obligation of Paschal Communion is modified by the clause “unless by advice of his own priest, for some reasonable cause (the person) judge that he should abstain from it for a time” (c. 859, § 1). Now it follows from this that there is no occasion for astonishment or suspicion if, where the practice of daily Communion is in use, someone occasionally abstains. And if this truth is clearly grasped, the vain fear which can be the occasion of receiving Communion unworthily will be entirely removed.

b) Holy Communion, which is life to the good, is death to the wicked. Hence, first of all, the state of grace is required. Horror of sacrilege must be thoroughly inculcated, and attention must be directed to the law according to which “no one who is conscious of mortal sin, however persuaded he be that he is also contrite, shall go to Communion without previously making a sacramental confession . . .” (c. 856).

(To be continued)

————————–

The Sunday Sermons of the Great Fathers

M. F. Toal

THE GOSPEL OF THE SUNDAY

LUKE iii. 1-6

Now in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea, and Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and Philip being tetrarch of Iturea, and the country of Trachonitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilina; under the high priests Annas and Caiphas; the word of the Lord was made unto John, the son of Zachary, in the desert. And he came into all the country about the Jordan, preaching the baptism of penance for the remission of sins; as it was written in the book of the sayings of Isaias the prophet: a voice of one crying in the wilderness: prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight his paths. Every valley shall be filled: and every mountain and hill shall be brought low; and the crooked shall be made straight; and the rough ways plain; and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.

ORIGEN: ON THE GOSPEL

When a prophetic message was intended for the Jews alone the names of the Jewish Kings were placed at the beginning. For example: The vision of Isaias . . . in the days of Ozias, Joachim, Achaz; and Ezechias, Kings of Israel: (Is. i, 1) nor other names do I see designated in the time of Isaias, except the kings of Judah. In certain prophets we can read narratives of the Israelite kings, as in Osee (Osee i, 1), where he says: In the days of Jeroboam, the son of Joas, a king of Israel. When however the mystery of the Gospel was to be proclaimed, and its word spread abroad through the whole world, in which John in the desert was the leader, and the world lay under the Roman Empire of Tiberius, it is recorded, that in the fifteenth year, the word of the Lord was made unto John. If salvation was to be announced alone to the nations that were to believe, and Israel was to be entirely excluded, it would have sufficed to say: in the fifteenth year of Tiberius and under the governorship of Pilate. But, because many were to believe both from Judea and from Galilee, these kingdoms are also recorded in the inscription; and so it is written: and Herod being Tetrarch of Galilee, etc.

Of old the word of the Lord was made unto Jeremiah, the son of Elchias in Anatoth, in the days of Josia King of Judea. Now a message of God is made unto John the son of Zachary, which never was given to the prophets in the desert; but since more are the children of the desolate, than of her that hath a husband, accordingly, the word of God is made unto John the son of Zachary in the desert. Note, that this has more meaning if the desert is considered mystically, and not according to its literal sense. For he who preaches in the desert it is needless to cry out aloud, since there is no one to hear him speaking. Therefore the Precursor of Christ, and the voice of one crying in the wilderness, preach in the desert of the soul that has known no peace. Not alone then, but even now a bright and burning lamp first comes and preaches the baptism of repentance unto the forgiveness of sins. Then follows the True Light, as itself has said: He must increase, but I must decrease (Jn. iii. 30).

The word was made in the desert, and came forth to all the country about the Jordan. For around what other places should the Baptist journey unless those close to the Jordan, so that whosoever had the will to repent, would there be near the water of purification? The name of Jordan is interpreted as descent, or coming down. Coming down and running in a bounteous flood is the River of God, the Lord our Saviour, in which we were baptized. This true and life-giving water is, he proclaims in his baptism, unto the forgiveness of sins. Come then, Catechumens, do penance that you may receive in baptism the forgiveness of your sins. He that ceases to commit sin, will, in his baptism, be forgiven his former sins. But if he remain in his sins, and so approaches the baptismal font, his sins will not be forgiven him.

Therefore I beseech you, that you approach not to receive baptism without due caution and careful reflection. Strive first for fruits worthy of penance. Remain for some time in a becoming manner of living. Cleanse yourself of uncleanness. Keep yourself free from the vices; then when you have begun to stamp out your offences, remission of your sins will be given unto you. And that you may be forgiven, forgive those that offend you.

This same message we find in the Old Testament, in the prophet Isaias: A voice of one crying in the wilderness . . . For the Lord wishes to find in you a way prepared before Him, where He may enter in, and have there a right of way. Prepare for Him this path, of which is written: Make straight his path.

The voice cries: Prepare ye the way of the Lord. First the voice strikes upon the ear, then after the voice, indeed together with the voice, the word penetrates the mind. In this way was Christ announced by John. Let us then hear what the Voice announces concerning the Word. Prepare ye, it says, the way of the Lord. Which way shall we prepare for the Lord? A way on the earth? Can the Word of God travel such a road? Or rather must we not prepare the way within us, setting up in our hearts a straight and true way?

This is the way through which the Word of God enters, and comes to rest within the bounds of the human body. And great indeed is the heart of man, wide and spacious as if it were a world in itself Do you wish to know how great and how profound it is? Behold what a sweep of divine knowledge it can embrace: For he hath given me true knowledge of the things that are: to know the disposition of the whole world, and the virtues of the elements, the beginnings and the endings and midst of the times, the alterations of their courses, and the changes of the seasons, the revolutions of the year, and the dispositions of the stars, the natures of living creatures, and the reasonings of men (Wisd. vii. 17).

See then that no small thing is the heart of man which can contain so much. And see also that its greatness is not in bodily quantity, but in the power by which it can receive such knowledge of the truth. Let me recall to you a simple example from our daily life, so that you may see how great is this power. Let us consider this. Through whatever cities we may have passed, we have still within our minds the style and the shape of their squares and houses and walls and buildings, stored in our memory. We keep within us, as in a picture, the roads, we have travelled. The sea we have voyaged over we can recall in moments of quiet recollection. No small thing, as I have said, is the heart of man.

If then it can contain so much, and is not something small and narrow, then let a way for the Lord be prepared in it, and let His path be made straight, so that the Word of God and His Wisdom may enter there. Prepare this way by a worthy manner of living. and with good works make straight the path, so that without hindrance the Word of God may tread this way to you, and give you understanding, both of His Coming and of His Mysteries, to Whom be glory and empire for ever and ever, Amen.

———————–

20: SS. AMMON AND HIS COMPANIONS, MARTYRS  (A.D. 250)

ST DIONYSIUS, Bishop of Alexandria during the persecution under the Emperor Decius, wrote to Fabian, Bishop of Antioch, an account of the sufferings, heroism and failures of the Egyptian Christians, which has been preserved for us in the Ecclesiastical History of Eusebius. In the course of it he mentions a certain Christian who, when he was brought to trial, began to fear and to waver. Some Christian soldiers who were among the guards, fearing that the man would deny his faith, made signs to him by looks, gestures, and nods to stand firm. The magistrate noticed this, made an inquiry, and amid the clamour of the onlookers five soldiers broke from the ranks and declared themselves Christians. The magistrates were extremely disturbed and the prisoners correspondingly encouraged by the profession of the soldiers, who duly suffered with the rest; “and by their victory Christ, who had given them this firmness of mind, gloriously triumphed”. Their names were Ammon, Zeno, Ptolemy, Ingenes and an, older man, Theophilus.

(Butler’s Lives of the Saints)

_____________________

A  MOTHER’S LETTERS

A Book for Young Women

by

FATHER ALEXANDER , O.F.M.

(1923)

LETTER VII

SCRUPULOSITY

I AM glad to hear that you have been able to help the young woman who was formerly so scrupulous. You say that, in the past, she was perpetually making open confession of her interior troubles of mind by her dreaminess, absent-mindedness, catching of her breath, ill-disguised pious ejaculations, fidgeting, and all the rest. How well I know the symptoms! No one who has been a victim is likely to forget. So let us thank God that your friend is improving. You tell me that you had tendencies in that direction, but that I have cured you! Well, dearest, I am glad that my letters have been addressed to such a sensible girl. (But let us guard against forming a School for Mutual Admiration!)

It is noticeable that those who have scrupulous tendencies are invariably attacked when “run down.” Forgetting the close connection between soul and body, the victims all too readily leap to the conclusion that the soul is altogether wrong, with the net result that both body and soul are plunged into deeper misery. In answer to the question: “Who can minister to a mind diseased?” I should say: “First consult a medical doctor.” For it will do no harm at all to discover whether the body is in normal health. But this is the last thing thought of by the scrupulous.

Uncertainty is another element that enters into the composition of the scrupulous, yet far from seeking advice from decisive teachers they spend their lives in consulting advisers as scrupulous as themselves. They hate definiteness as the devil hates holy water. Thus, I am glad that your friend has had the good sense to open her mind to you and that you have had the courage to use your definite knowledge to advantage. But beware of being too eager in imparting information. Be content to await the opportunities that God may send. My experience is that, in the course of life, Providence puts it in our power to do a vast deal of good if we bide His time. This does not mean that we are to be idle in doing good. God forbid! but rather that, with regard to special help, we must never be officious. Some folks are for ever throwing their nostrums at the heads of their neighbours and end by being avoided. If our attitude can be voiced—“O my God, who am I that I should pretend to be of any special use?”—God Himself will make use of us, in some way or other, for His own glory and the profit of our neighbour.

Do not misunderstand me. The above applies to special and what may be called out-of-the-way help; but with regard to ordinary helpfulness we must be up and doing, using to the full all the talents that God has given us. And what a blessing it is that, in our age, He is putting it in the power of women to do what was scarcely visualized in the wildest of past dreams! I do hope you will keep in touch with all that is going on in the political and social world and throw yourself into whatever good work may suit your health and talents. In scrappy letters such as these you won’t expect me to dwell at length on the various branches of “Women’s Work,” nor need I, for the Catholic Social Guild, the Catholic Women’s Guild, the other institutions for women, and our zealous women lecturers, authors, and journalists will keep you up-to-date in all matters connected with the franchise, etc. Do get in touch with some Society in your parish which makes for culture and for the betterment of the people, and so get to feel that you are doing something, if it were merely the distributing of a few leaflets. Get rid of the shyness that haunted you as a child, for, if persevered in, it might lead to the awful curse of selfishness. Alas! far too many contract that curse by shrinking into their shells until too advanced in years to be fit for any practical good work. (I’m half afraid you’ll think I am one of the number!)

Lay in a stock of current Catholic books bearing on subjects that are uppermost in men’s minds today, and fail not to take in a Catholic weekly. I blush when I see so many young women spending their earnings on trashy literature, all the while that solid and soul-building books are neglected. Not-mind you-that I’d have you ignorant of current literature. Oh no! but that you should always give the preference to doctrinal and devotional books. The latter must serve as foundation-stones if an edifice of culture and usefulness is to be raised. True literature will never be found quarrelling with the essential dogmas of the Church any more than architectural details can quarrel with the essentials of a particular style. As there are bastard details in architecture, so are there in literature—and with these I beg you to have nothing to do.

This suggests an answer to the postscript in your last letter. The business chum who twitted you about the “Index” of prohibited books must be rather juvenile, otherwise she would be aware that in England (the land of the free) many books and plays are written which never see the light, just as many pictures are posted which never reach the addressee. Why not? Because their circulation is prohibited! If, then, the State, which does not profess to be the champion of faith and morals, sees fit to prohibit books, plays, and pictures offensive to good taste, why not the Church that is divinely appointed to be the teacher and defender of faith and morals? If the ordinary law forbids the indiscriminate sale of poisons, and most jealously safeguards the populace against risks, why may not the Church legislate against the poisoning of the mind and the consequent damnation of the soul? For, as poison destroys the body, so pernicious literature kills the soul.

Objections to the legislation of the Church come only from those who do not think at all, or whose thinking runs on materialistic lines. But even on materialistic lines the State objects to certain publications—viz., seditious pamphlets and obscene pictures. On supernatural grounds the Church objects to those and kindred publications, holding that it would be better for the whole world to perish than that a single soul should be lost.

Not only should you avoid such books as are absolutely forbidden by the Church, but those also which are offensive to your sense of propriety. You may say that it is almost impossible to take up either through the falsification of history or because of the indelicacy of a plot or the indecency of some of the characters. Granted that it is so, try not to lose your balance. After sampling the book (without undue timidity) ask yourself whether you feel that you can conscientiously continue to read. Trained as you have been, you should have no real difficulty in making up your mind. If conscience says: ” It is horrid!” have the courage to put it aside. If, on the other hand, it says: “Some few parts are rather crude and indelicate, but there is much in the book that is helpful,” pass lightly over the objectionable parts and try to profit by those which are wholesome. An entire volume need not be discarded because of accidental blemishes.

There are two classes of books which you should not touch even with a forty-foot pole: those avowedly written against the faith and those which are unmistakably obscene. The very idea should be abhorrent to a Catholic girl. With regard to the textbooks which you may have to study or consult, if you mean to be a well-informed woman, or to be useful in the careers now open to our sex—i.e., books bearing on Law, Medicine, Surgery, Midwifery, Hygiene, Physiology, “The Social Evil,” Art, Sculpture, etc.—if you bear in mind the principles laid down in my previous letters you need have no fear of making any mistake. If a wholesome curiosity is in all cases permissible when God’s works and sanctions are reverently contemplated, it is a necessity when one is preparing for a profession or for a career of usefulness. God, who calls you to the work, will bless you in preparing for it, provided you use the safeguards so often spoken of. Your healthy outlook on His works will rank in His sight as compensation for the frivolity and indecency with which many non-Catholic students regard them. But one thing I must insist upon. In all non-Catholic textbooks on Medicine, Marriage, Physiology, and kindred subjects, whilst availing yourself of the technical knowledge conveyed, you must absolutely refuse to accept their moral deductions or conclusions if they are in opposition to Catholic teaching. We may take our physic from a pagan, but our morals only from the One true Church of God.—But enough for to-day. I am about to dive into Lady Lovat’s latest book: “Marriage and Motherhood.” I waited for its publication, thinking that it would anticipate all that I wished to say to you, but while all her chapters are very valuable, they do not run on the lines that my wider experience of the wants of the modern girl who faces the world render necessary.

————————-

Father Krier will be in Eureka December 28. He will be in Albuquerque December 30.

————————-

For those who purchase through Amazon, please help support the work here at Saint Joseph’s by going through this link:  http://smile.amazon.com/ch/94-2855162

————————-

The topics of Faith and Morals will correspond to the Roman Catholic Faith in Tradition and the Magisterium. The News will be of interest. The commentaries are for the reader to ponder and consider. The e-mail address will be for you to provide thought for consideration. The donations will be to support the continuation of this undertaking.

While the Newsletter is free of charge it is not free of cost. Please consider supporting St Joseph’s Catholic Church with a tax – deductible donation by clicking the secure link: Donate

  Or if you prefer send a check to

Catholic Tradition Newsletter

c/o St Joseph’s Catholic Church

131 N. 9^th St

Las Vegas, NV 89101

Visit us on the Worldwide Web: http://stjosephlv.org

e-mail news and comments to: tcatholicn@yahoo.com