Vol 14 Issue 42 ~ Editor: Rev. Fr. Courtney Edward Krier
October 16, 2021 ~ Saint Hedwig, opn!

1.      Sacrament of Penance
2.      Twenty-First Sunday after Pentecost
3.      Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque
4.      Family and Marriage
5.      Articles and noticesDear Reader:

The head of everything that is antichrist in the United States of America, Nancy Pelosi, met with the Antichrist (cf. 1 John 2:18, et al.) sitting in the Chair of Peter this past week. Both project themselves as Catholics, but both are at the opposite pole of where the true Catholic Faith is. Both are doing everything possible to destroy the influence Catholicism had over the world by supporting all the Church has fought against through the centuries and strove to remove from society: divorce, abortion, humanism, sodomy, idolatry, indifferentism, culture (the development of a people into one respectful identity because of birth, customs, and defined borders with a sovereignty that cannot be violated by other peoples) and Christian nations. The two, being like-minded, must have been happy to meet each other since their joint agenda is moving along smoothly. [In contrast, remember Bergoglio was unwilling to meet the former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo as these two had nothing in common since Pompeo was trying to stop the extinction of Christian Culture and stop the persecution of Christians around the globe—whereas Bergoglio and Pelosi are promoting their extinction and persecution.] The persecution of Catholics by Mohammedans, Hindus, Animists and Atheists is condoned or silenced by these two; the invasion of non-Christians into Christian populations is paid for by these two; Catholics opposing are condemned as non-Christians. You dare not publicize Catholic Truths. You cannot even post Catholic teachings and reflections on social media platforms without the algorithms picking up the innuendos that designate it as Christian and therefore forbidden speech—and this is all pushed by Bergoglio and Pelosi—yes, two outstanding examples of Catholics according to the world. Search the Scriptures and nowhere does it say the world would love the followers of Christ; but the world loves these two because the world loves its own (cf. John 15:19). As Catholics we need to expect to be hated by the world as Our Lord said: If the world hate you, know ye, that it hath hated me before you (John 15:18).

As a Roman Catholic priest I am not here to save the material world, I am here to save souls—their salvation is all that is in my interest and that is accomplished when I do everything for their spiritual welfare I am able. This is true charity on my part for otherwise:

If I speak with the tongues of men, and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And if I should have prophecy and should know all mysteries, and all knowledge, and if I should have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. And if I should distribute all my goods to feed the poor, and if I should deliver my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing. (1 Cor. 13:1-3)

In praying our Rosary, may we meditate upon the humility, suffering and glorifying of Our Lord and His Blessed Mother—for only in humility and in suffering will we be glorified with them. At Mass let us remember we are present at God humbly taking the appearance of simple bread to be food for us, but so He can be also offered in sacrifice so we can enter into His Glory by uniting ourselves to His humility in the mystery of faith, uniting ourselves in His suffering through Christian self-abnegation as we place ourselves beneath His Cross and ask that we may partake in His Glory in Heaven.

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

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WHAT IS THE SACRAMENT OF PENANCE

What is the Sacrament of Penance?

The Church has the Power to Forgive All Sins

Pope Siricius (384-398) wrote this to Bishop Himerius of Terracina on February 10, 385:

It was also added that certain Christians, crossing over into apostasy—which is abominable to be uttered—have been profaned by the worship of idols and the pollution of sacrifices. We order that they be cut off from the body and blood of Christ, by which formerly they were redeemed in new birth. And if coming to their senses at some point perhaps they turn to grieving, they should do penance as long as they live, and in their final moments the grace of reconciliation ought to be given, because, as the Lord teaches, we do not wish the death of a sinner, only that he be converted and live.

And, in writing to Himerius about marriage, in the same Letter Siricius instructs:

Not improperly, beloved, you believed that the apostolic see should be consulted about those who, having performed penance, again hungered, just as dogs and swine returning to old vomit and wallowing ponds, for the military belt, pleasures of the theater, new marriages, and forbidden liaisons whose manifest incontinence was shown by children born after absolution. Concerning them, because now they do not have the option of doing penance, we decided that this ought to be decreed. Inside church they can be united with the faithful only in prayer; they can be present for the sacred celebration of the mysteries, although they are unworthy, but should be excluded from the banquet of the Lord’s table, so that reproached at least by this stricture they can castigate their faults within themselves and give an example to others that they may be drawn back from obscene desires. But since they fell by weakness of the flesh, we wish them to be supported by the gift of a viaticum through the grace of communion when they are about to depart to the Lord. We are of the opinion that this procedure should be observed also for women who, after penance, devoted themselves to such pollutions. (Directa ad decessorem, Cf. DB 88)

This accords with Saint Paul, who in chapter 5 of his First Epistle to the Corinthians, excommunicates an incestuous man, but in chapter 2 of his Second Epistle to the Corinthians, commands that the man be forgiven:

So that on the contrary, you should rather forgive him and comfort him, lest perhaps such a one be swallowed up with overmuch sorrow. Wherefore, I beseech you, that you would confirm your charity towards him. For to this end also did I write, that I may know the experiment of you, whether you be obedient in all things. And to whom you have pardoned any thing, I also. For, what I have pardoned, if I have pardoned any thing, for your sakes have I done it in the person of Christ. (2 Cor. 2:7-10).

Sins against the Holy Ghost

One of the early arguments that shows the Church claimed to forgive sins as well as all sins was the argument by heretics that certain sins could not be forgiven. The Montanists and Novatian argument was that of Sins against the Holy Ghost which Christ spoke of as recorded in Matthew and seemingly reiterated by Saint Paul in Hebrews.

Therefore I say to you: Every sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven men, but the blasphemy of the Spirit shall not be forgiven. And whosoever shall speak a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him: but he that shall speak against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, nor in the world to come. (Matt. 12:31-32)

For it is impossible for those who were once illuminated, have tasted also the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, have moreover tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, and are fallen away: to be renewed again to penance, crucifying again to themselves the Son of God, and making him a mockery. (Heb. 6: 4-6)

Joseph Pohle gives this explanation as the Church’s rebuttal that she is able to forgive all sins through her priests:

The Novatians were plainly in the wrong when they asserted that St. Paul meant to except apostasy, and our Lord Himself the sins against the Holy Ghost, from the power of the keys.

It is true that Christ said: “Every sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven men, but the blasphemy of the Spirit shall not be forgiven . . .” But this text by no means proves that sins against the Holy Ghost are unpardonable. Our Lord is addressing the Pharisees, who had accused Him of casting out devils by Beelzebub. Hence there is question here of a very particular sin against the Holy Ghost.

The Pharisees had hardened their hearts against the truth, which is a proof of malice, — the sin of which our Lord says that it “shall not be forgiven, neither in this world nor in the world to come.” Why are malice and obduracy unpardonable? Surely not because God is either unable or unwilling to forgive them. His mercy is boundless, and He wills that all men be saved. The reason must therefore lie with the sinner, either because he is incapable of being converted or because he lacks the necessary good will. Now, no man is incapable of being converted, because, as we have seen in our treatise on Grace, so long as there is life, there is hope, even for the most obdurate sinner. It follows that the particular sin of which our Lord speaks is unpardonable simply and solely for the reason that the sinner refuses to be converted. As soon as he changes his mind and is sorry for his sins, the Church can and will forgive him. (Sacraments III, 54-55)

Already, in the Fourth Century Saint Pacian (+391) is again explaining the passage in Saint Matthew to one taking up the Novatian heresy:

Your next proposition is, that it is written by the Lord, All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men. But whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come. Either I am mistaken, or this example makes against thee. For if all manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven, thou seest that pardon is not denied to penitents; all sin then, even blasphemy itself then. According to Luke you have it added, And whosoever shall sin against the Son of Man, it shall be forgiven him. What can be more large than this as to the mercy of God, the clemency of the Judge? Is not thine eye evil because the Householder is good? May not He do, what He willeth? Moreover, Who art thou that judgest a servant? to his own Master he standeth or falleth. Yea, God is able to make him stand. But he that blasphemeth against the Holy Spirit, He saith, shall not be forgiven. Thou usually readest the whole lessons. Why didst thou not read here what that meaneth, against the Spirit? Thou hast it written above, that, when our Lord was casting out devils by His word, and performing many other deeds by the power of the Spirit, the Pharisees said, This fellow doth not cast out devils but by  Beelzebub the prince of the devils. This it is to have sinned against the Holy Spirit, to have blasphemed against those things which were wrought by the Holy Spirit. For in other sins we either fall through error, or are conquered by fear, or are overcome by the infirmity of the flesh. This is the blindness of not seeing what thou seest, imputing to the devil the works of the Holy Spirit, and calling that glory of God, by which the. devil himself is overcome, the power of the devil. This it is then which shall not be forgiven. All other things, brother Sympronian, are forgiven to good penitents. (St. Pacian, Ep. ad Sympron., 3, n. 15)

Regarding the second passage taken from Saint Paul, Joseph Pohle writes:

To understand this passage correctly we must examine Some of the most eminent Fathers of the Church interpret the phrase as referring to Baptism, and explain it as follows: One who has fallen away from the faith cannot possibly be renewed again by a second Baptism, i. e. justified with the same full effect as the first time, because Baptism is incapable of repetition. Thus St. Chrysostom, commenting on the passage, says: “Hence there is no second Baptism. . . . Is there, then, no penance? There is a penance, but it is not a second Baptism.” This interpretation derives additional probability from two facts. The first is that St. Paul treats of Baptism a little farther up in the text; the second, that in Biblical parlance the words φωτιζειν  and ἀνακαινίζειν are principally applied to Baptism, and sometimes to Confirmation.

Modern exegetes are, however, unwilling to accept this Patristic interpretation because it does not do justice to the context. They argue as follows: St. Paul says it is impossible for an apostate “to be renewed again to penance” because he has abused many supernatural graces and thereby hardened his heart and plunged himself into a state of obduracy and impenitence in which conversion has become so difficult as to be morally impossible. . . . (Sacraments III, 55-56)

Saint Jerome (+420) addresses this passage to show the errors of Jovinius, who taught the elect could not be tempted:

Does any one think that we are safe, and that it is right to fall asleep when once we have been baptized? And so, too, in the epistle to the Hebrews 6:4ff: For as touching those who were once enlightened and tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, and tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the age to come, and then fell away, it is impossible to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame. Surely we cannot deny that they have been baptized who have been illuminated, and have tasted the heavenly gift, and have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God. But if the baptized cannot sin, how is it now that the Apostle says, And have fallen away? Montanus and Novatus would smile at this, for they contend that it is impossible to renew again through repentance those who have crucified to themselves the Son of God, and put Him to an open shame. He therefore corrects this mistake by saying: Hebrews 6:9f But, beloved, we are persuaded better things of you, and things that accompany salvation, though we thus speak; for God is not unrighteous to forget your work and the love which you showed towards his name, in that you ministered unto the Saints, and still do minister. And truly the unrighteousness of God would be great, if He merely punished sin, and did not welcome good works. (Against Jovinius, II, 1)

Jerome points that even Saint Paul gives hope to those who fall. Saint John Chrysostom, in reflecting on this passage, expresses that forgiveness can be obtained, not through baptism—which can not be repeated—but through repentance in conversion.

What then (you say)? Is there no repentance? There is repentance, but there is no second baptism: but repentance there is, and it has great force, and is able to set free from the burden of his sins, if he will, even him that has been baptized much in sins, and to establish in safety him who is in danger, even though he should have come unto the very depth of wickedness. And this is evident from many places. For, says one, does not he that falls rise again? Or he that turns away, does not he turn back to [God]? Jeremiah 8:4 It is possible, if we will, that Christ should be formed in us again: for hear Paul saying, My little children of whom I travail in birth again, until Christ be formed in you. Galatians 4:19 Only let us lay hold on repentance. (Hom. 9 on Hebrews, 8)

In summary, a sin against the Holy Ghost would be one that put one in a state of not seeking forgiveness through penance either by one’s hardness of heart, malice, despair or presumption. For in all these one does not seek forgiveness and one dies in one’s sins. But if one were to repent, forgiveness can be obtained by the Sacrament of Penance.

(To be continued)

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The Sunday Sermons of the Great Fathers

M. F. Toal

THE GOSPEL OF THE SUNDAY

MATTHEW xviii. 23-35

At that time: Jesus spoke to his disciples this parable: The kingdom of heaven is likened to a man, a king, who would take an account of his servants. And, when he had begun to take the account, one was brought to him that owed him ten thousand talents. And, as he had not wherewith to pay it, his lord commanded that he should be sold, and his wife and children and all that he had, and payment to be made. But that servant falling down besought him, saying: Have patience with me and I will pay thee all. And the lord of the servant, being moved with pity, let him go and forgave him the debt.

But, when that servant was gone out, he found one of his fellow-servants that owed him an hundred pence; and laying hold of him, he throttled him, saying: Pay what thou owest. And his fellow-servant, falling down, besought him, saying: Have patience with me and I will pay thee all. And he would not; but went and cast him into prison till he paid the debt.

Now his fellow-servants, seeing what was done, were very much grieved; and they came and told their lord all that was done. Then his lord called him and said to him: Thou wicked servant, I forgave thee all the debt, because thou besoughtest me; shouldst not thou then have compassion also on thy fellow servant, even as I had compassion on thee? And his lord, being angry, delivered him to the torturers until he paid all the debt. So also shall my heavenly Father do to you, if you forgive not every one his brother from your hearts.

ST BASIL THE GREAT, BISHOP AND DOCTOR

Against the Angry

1. Just as the value of the physician’s advice is seen only when his directions have been carefully carried out, so also is it with spiritual teaching; where it can be seen whether its counsels and directions, given for the right ordering of our way of life and for the perfection of those that obey them, have been wisely and profitably observed from the results which follow. We have heard the clear counsel of Proverbs: A mild answer breaketh wrath (xv. 1), and the apostolic warning: Let all bitterness and anger and indignation and clamour be put away from you (Eph. iv. 31). And listen again to the words of the Lord Himself: that he who is angry with his brother shall be in danger of the Judgement (Mt. v. 22). And lastly, when we ourselves have come to suffer this violence of feeling, which did not rise from us, but suddenly rushed upon us like a storm, then especially do we come to know the wondrous excellence of the divine teaching. And if we have ever yielded to this anger, as to a rushing torrent, or have observed in silence the shameful state of those held in the grip of this violent emotion, we learned by deeds how true the saying: An angry man is not becoming (Prov. xi. 25, Sept.).

For once this passion, reason set aside, acquires dominion over the soul, it changes a man into a beast; and does not even permit him to be a man, since it deprives him of the help of reason. As poison is to those who are poisoned, so is violence of feeling to those provoked to anger. They become rabid like dogs; they dart like scorpions. The Scriptures well knew those ruled by this emotion, calling them beasts; whom they resemble in ferocity. For it calls them dumb dogs (Is. lvi. 10), serpents, a generation of vipers (Mt. xxiii. 33), and similar names. For they who are ready to destroy one another and to injure their fellow creatures may well be looked upon as wild beasts and reptiles; in whom by nature there is an implacable hatred against man.

Through anger, tongues become unbridled, mouths unguarded: hands without control, insults, accusations, slanders, blows and all such things too numerous to mention are the evil fruit of this violence of feeling. Through anger the sword is sharpened, the hand of man dares to take human life; because of anger, brother will forget brother, and parents and children the ties of nature. For the angry first no longer know themselves, and then those near and dear to them. And just as the mountain streams, rushing to the valleys below, will sweep all before them, so will the headlong, and ungovernable violence of the anger that enters into all men: for anger respects no one, neither grey hairs nor virtue, nor ties of blood nor benefits received, nor any of the things that men reverence.

Anger is a sudden madness. For the angry will at times rush insanely into manifest evil, heedless of danger, in their lust for revenge. Stung as by a gadfly with the thought of those who may have injured them, anger boiling and seething within them, they will not stop till they have done some injury to whoever provoked them, or until they themselves have suffered injury: for it frequently happens that they who offer violence, receive more than they inflict; their fury turned upon themselves by those who resist them.

2. Who can describe this evil? How those who are prone to anger, roused by some trivial slight, will shout and rage and attack others with no more shame than wild beasts, and will not cease until the conflagration has spent itself in some dreadful and irreparable disaster; and then their anger bursts as a bubble. Neither the point of the sword nor fire nor any other dreadful thing can restrain the spirit raging in anger, no more than it can restrain those possessed by demons; between whom and angry men there is no difference, either in appearance or in the state of their soul. The blood swells in the hearts of those thirsting for revenge as though it were seething and boiling over the heat of a fire. Bursting forth, anger will make a man look like another person, changing his outward aspect that all know, as though with a masque upon the stage. His look, to those who know him, will appear strange, his appearance like one deranged, his eye fiery. He grinds his teeth like a wild pig. His face becomes livid and suffused with blood. His body swells, his veins are bursting; his breathing is shaken by the storm within him. His voice becomes harsh, and is raised to the utmost. His words are indistinct, rushing, unmeasured, without order and without sense. And when his anger, like a fire heaped with wood, blazing up from the things that feed his rage, has reached the point of explosion, he then becomes a spectacle truly beyond words to describe, and indeed not fit to be seen: His hands are raised even against his own kindred, and against every part of the body. With his feet he will stamp without caring on the most vital parts, and whatever he lays his eyes on becomes a weapon for his fury and madness. And should he find another threatening the same evils against himself, that is, possessed by the same anger, the same mad rage, they both come head to head against each other, so much so that they inflict upon each other what those who serve such a devil deserve to suffer. And these warriors will often suffer maiming, even death itself, as the reward of their rage. One begins with hands laid unjustly on another; who in turn repulses the first. The first strikes back, while the second refuses to yield. Their bodies are bruised with blows; but fury makes them indifferent to pain. There is not time to notice what they suffer; for their whole soul is absorbed in vengeance on the other attacker.

3. Do not cure evil by evil, nor strive to outdo one another in inflicting injuries. For in such evil strife he who wins is the more to be pitied, for he goes away bearing the greater part of the blame. Do not pile up the debt of your own wickedness; do not make an evil debt more evil. Does someone in a rage insult you? Bear with the offence in silence. Instead, you gather into your heart the evil flood of his wrath; you imitate the winds, that throw back whatever is thrown against them. Do not let your enemy be your teacher; and do not strive to become what you detest. Beware lest you become the mirror of an angry man; repeating his image in yourself. His face is red. Must you make yours red also? His eyes are suffused with blood; do yours, tell me, look serene and calm? His voice is harsh; is yours mild and gentle? No echo in the desert so clearly returns to the speaker, as abuse to the abuser. Rather, the sound of an echo comes back unchanged; but insults are returned with interest.

And what sort of things do angry men hurl at each other? One shouts out that the other is worthless; or that he comes from nothing. The other will call the first, a slave of slaves. This man calls another a beggar; who answers that the first is a vagabond. One shouts ‘fool’; the other ‘madman’, until their stock of insults, like bowmen’s arrows, is exhausted. Then when they have slung from their mouths as from a sling, every insult they can think of, they fall to blows. For anger provokes strife; strife begets insults; insults lead to blows, blows to injuries, and from injuries death itself will often follow.

Let us crush the evil at its first beginning; by every means driving anger from our souls: And doing this, we shall root out many vices that have their root and beginning in this very passion of anger. Someone insults you? Let you bless him. He strikes you? Bear with it. Should he despise you, make nothing of you? Let you remember within your own heart that you came from the earth, and that to earth you will again return. He who fortifies himself with such thoughts will find every humiliation less than the truth. And your enemy will be at a loss when he cannot insult you; since you show yourself invulnerable to his insults, while at the same time you prepare for yourself a great crown of patience; by making another’s folly an occasion for the practice of humility and wisdom.

And, if you will be persuaded by me, let you even add to his insults. If he calls you a nobody, worthless, come from nothing; let you call yourself dust and ashes. You are not more to be honoured than our father, Abraham, and he spoke of himself in this way (Gen. xviii. 27). You are called ignorant, a beggar, worthless? Let you then, using the words of David, call yourself a worm coming from a dunghill (Ps. xxi. 7). Add to these, the example of the great Moses: Moses who, attacked with insults by Mary his sister and by Aaron his brother, did not appeal to God against them, but rather prayed for them (Num. xii). Whose disciple do you prefer to be? The imitator of men who were blessed and pleasing to God, or of those puffed up with the spirit of wickedness? Whenever the temptation to offer insult seizes you, think to yourself that you are being tested: to see whether in patience you turn to God, or yield in anger to the Adversary. Give time to your thoughts to choose the better part. Let you either do a kindness to your enemy by an example of mildness, or defend yourself more strongly by taking no notice of him. For what is more bitter to one hostile to you, than to see you indifferent to his insults? Do not debase your own soul. Do not leave yourself open to whoever insults you. Let him bark away. Let him explode against himself (For as a man who strikes what is without feeling punishes himself (for he neither caused pain to his enemy, nor appeased his own wrath) so he who abuses one who is indifferent to his abuse, finds no solace in his violence. Rather, as I said, he rends himself What does it matter what name others call you? Someone rails at you. Let you be magnanimous. Another is angry with you. Let you be gentle and mild. He will regret his words; you however will never regret your own practise of virtue.

4. What need is there to say more? To such a man railing closes the kingdom of heaven; neither drunkards nor railers shall possess the kingdom of God (I Cor. vi. 10), while your silence will open it for you. He that shall persevere unto the end, he shall be saved (Mt. x. 22). But should you revenge yourself in equal measure and answer abuse with abuse, what excuse then remains to you? That he attacked you first! How does that make you deserving of forgiveness? A fornicator who blames his accomplice for leading him into sin is held as no less guilty of condemnation. There can be no crowns without contests; and there are no contests without an enemy. Listen to what David says: When the sinner stood against me, I was not provoked, I sought no vengeance; but I was dumb, and was humbled, and kept silence from good things (Ps. xxxviii. 2, 3).

You are provoked by abuse as by something repulsive? Pretend to yourself it is something good. Otherwise you do what you complain of. Or is it that you look carefully at the evil others commit, and think nothing of your own wickedness. Is such abuse not an evil thing? Then fly from imitating it. That another began it is no excuse. Indeed to me it seems more fitting to blame you for the quarrel; in that you gave him no example in self restraint. You seeing an angry man behaving in an unbecoming manner do not guard against imitating him, but becoming angry and bitter you rage against him: so your anger now becomes a justification for the one who began the quarrel. And in doing this you provide an excuse for him, and condemn yourself.

For if anger is an evil thing, why did you not decline from evil (Ps. xxxvi. 27)? And if it is deserving of forgiveness, why did you deal so harshly with an angry man? So it is no defence to say another person attacked you. For in contests for a crown, it is not the one who begins the contest is crowned, but the one who ends it. And therefore it is not he only who began the evil will be condemned, but he also who followed evil example. If he calls you a beggar, and if he calls you what is true, bear with the truth. But if he lies, what does it matter what he says against you? You should not be deceived by praise that oversteps truth; neither should you be provoked by insults that do not apply to you. Have you not seen how an arrow will pierce what resists it, while its force is broken by a surface that yields? Reflect how the same is true of railing and abuse. He who resists it, receives it. He who gives way and makes no resistance, undoes by mildness the evil directed against him.

And why should it trouble you that someone gives you the name of beggar? Recall to mind your own nature: that naked you come into the world, and naked you go forth from it. Who is more a beggar than one who is naked? You have been called nothing that is evil; unless you think the word applies to you only. Who ever was taken to prison because he was poor? It is not poverty that is shameful, but not to bear poverty generously. Think of our Lord, Who being rich, became poor for your sakes (II Cor. viii. 9). Should anyone call you stupid and unlettered, remember the insults with which the Jews reviled the True Wisdom: Thou art a Samaritan and hast a devil (Jn. viii. 48). But if you become angry, you only confirm what they say against you. For what is more stupid than anger? But if you remain unprovoked, you shame the one who insults you; giving him an example of restraint and moderation. Were you struck in the face? So too was the Lord. Were you spat upon? And so was our Lord: I have not turned away my face from them that spit upon me (Is. l. 6). Were you falsely accused? So too was your Judge. Did they tear your garments? They stripped my Lord and divided His garments among them (Mt. xxvii. 31). You have not yet been condemned to death; nor fastened upon a cross. Many things are wanting before you become like to Him.

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OCTOBER 17

St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, Virgin

1. Margaret Mary was born in France near Paray-le-Monial, on July 22, 1647, of highly respected parents. She possessed a cheerful disposition, a clear mind, a noble heart, and extraordinary power of will. On June 20, 1671 she entered the Visitation convent at Paray-le-Monial. Already in the novitiate, grace worked powerfully in her soul, and our Lord favored her with His constant, perceptible presence, filling her with such great reverence that she used to read and work on her knees whenever she was alone. Her life was a perpetual prayer; she had acquired such perfection of purity and unselfishness that she found bitter what was to other people pleasant. It soon became clear to her that she must walk the humiliating way of the Cross: she felt a passionate longing for suffering.

In this way God prepared Margaret Mary for a great mission. She was to be the instrument for the introduction of the liturgical cult of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. In the years 1673 to 1675 our Lord instructed her as to the nature of this devotion, and assigned her the task of preparing the way for a public feast of the Sacred Heart in the Church. From that time on her life had only this one purpose. Her first convert to the cause was her confessor, Blessed Claude de la Colombiere, and through him she gained the powerful support of the Society of Jesus, of which he was a member. Margaret Mary had the joy of seeing this devotion spread little by little throughout the Church. She died on October 17, 1690. In 1765 Pope Clement XIII approved a Mass and Office for the feast; in 1850 Pope Pius IX extended the feast to the entire Church, and in 1900 Pope Leo XIII ordered that the whole world be consecrated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Finally Pope Pius XI raised the feast to the highest rank, with an octave. Margaret Mary was declared blessed in 1864 and canonized by Pope Benedict XV in 1920.

2. “Brethren: On me, least as I am of all saints, God has bestowed this privilege, of making known to the Gentiles the unfathomable riches of Christ” (Epistle). Our Lord opened to a humble nun the inscrutable treasures of His Heart (cf. Collect). He showed her His Heart aflame with love and said: “Behold the heart that so loved men that it exhausted itself for them. And for this it receives only ingratitude and neglect.” It was then that our Lord commissioned her to promote a feast in the Church to call forth a return of the Savior’s love, and to offer satisfaction for the insults hurled against it. This was a difficult task. There had, indeed, been those who venerated and adored the Sacred Heart before this time, but there had never been an official apostle or representative of this form of piety. Very soon difficulties arose; many of the other nuns thought that Margaret Mary was the victim of a deception; outside the convent there were some, especially the Jansenists, who were suspicious of this new devotion and who opposed it with all their might. Margaret Mary bore all this with humility and patience, saying: “I can occupy my mind with nothing but the divine heart of Jesus. I shall die content, if only I can procure a little honor for Him.” Still, the opposition to the Sacred Heart plunged her “into an ocean of bitterness.” “By the grace of God, I have been totally annihilated in the esteem of men. That pleases me more than I can say.”

“Shade cool to rest under, fruit sweet to taste, such is He my heart longs for continually” (Introit). Margaret Mary lived entirely for the love of the Sacred Heart, thinking of no other vocation after she received her command. By word and pen she tried to acquaint all with whom she came in contact, with the love of the heart of Jesus. She offered all her prayers, sacrifices, sufferings and humiliations for this intention. One could give her no greater joy than to show oneself receptive to this devotion; on the other hand, nothing pained her more acutely than to meet with difficulties in its promotion. “All my prayers and actions have the sole purpose of establishing the reign of the heart of Jesus.” Our Lord declared that He had given her such rich graces in order to make her a sanctuary “in which the fire of love shall always burn . . . . I have established in your heart the rule of pure love.” Thus she was enabled more and more “to measure, in all its breadth and length and height and depth, the love of Christ, to know what passes knowledge” (Epistle); to measure that love which reveals itself under the symbol of the Sacred Heart. “Behold, the heart that has loved you so much.” In her love for the Savior she courageously accepted calumnies: “Love is a fire no waters avail to quench, no floods to drown. This frame, this earthly being of mine must come to an end; still God will comfort my heart, God will be, eternally, my inheritance’“ (Gradual), “My beloved is all mine, and I am his; see where he goes out to pasture among the lilies” (Communion),

3. “God has chosen what the world holds base and contemptible . . . so as to bring to nothing what is now in being” (I Cor. 1:28). This unpretentious nun received a magnificent mission for the benefit of the Church and carried it through.

In the concluding prayer of the Mass we ask Christ that we “may have grace to strip ourselves of this world’s overweening vanities, and to put on the meekness and humility of [His] own heart.” May St. Margaret Mary obtain for us a profoundly devout understanding of the divine gift that is ours and a fervent love of this Sacred Heart.

With the Saint we pray: “I choose Thee, most Sacred Heart of Jesus, to be my only love, the protector of my life, the pledge of my salvation, the strength of my weakness and instability, as the atonement for all the sins of my entire life. O meek and kind Heart, be Thou my refuge in the hour of my death. Heart of love, in Thee I place all my trust. From my weakness and wickedness I fear everything, but from Thy goodness I hope for everything.”

Collect: Lord Jesus Christ, who didst wondrously reveal the inscrutable treasures of Thy heart to the blessed maiden Margaret Mary, through her merits and example give us grace to love Thee above all and in all things, so that we may deserve to have in that same heart of Thine our everlasting abode. Amen.

(Benedict Baur)

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LETTERS TO JACK

WRITTEN BY A PRIEST TO HIS NEPHEW

By the

RIGHT REV. FRANCIS C. KELLEY, D.D., LL.D.

(1917)

XIV

THE PLAIN MAN

SOME people have been born to the purple; but they never worn it as if it fitted them.

THE dress of a man or woman is ugly in proportion as it gets away from the natural.

SAINTS are not exactly different; they are only right and normal.

My dear Jack:

For common sense, I commend you to get acquainted with the sayings of Abraham Lincoln. Most of them are delightful; some of them I keep with me always. Lincoln divides the human race very truly, and very quaintly, into two sections, one of which, the larger, comprises the “plain” people. It is not necessary for him to label the rest. “God,” he said, “must have loved the plain people; He made so many of them.” It is not necessary to be poor to be enrolled in the ranks of the plain people. There are many rich men who never had the desire to move out of the class of plain men. Some people have been born to the purple, but they never wore it as if it fitted them. The best of kings have remained “plain” men. Saint Louis, King of France, was the simplest of men. The most highly educated of the world have had “plain” men in plenty amongst them. This letter is to counsel you not even to attempt to be anything but a “plain man”.

It is time we stopped using the word “plain” as a reproach. It is true that to be plain means to be common; but it is not true that to be common means to be ugly. More often the opposite is true; for that which is plain is usually well ordered, and beauty is essentially an attribute of what is well ordered—a result of things existing, or being placed, so as to conform with fixed and proper standards. The plain things are usually the very beautiful things.

Contrary to the ideas of many, it is true that one must be a plain man or woman to be beautiful. No rouge can equal the tint of ordinary red blood showing through healthy skin. No trimming of the hair was ever half so beautiful as unbound tresses, flowing and free. Physical beauty in man does not concern itself with his gaudy clothes. What ugliness there is in his form is accounted for by what is abnormal in it.

The dress of a man or woman is ugly in proportion as it gets away from the natural. It is natural for women who usually stay in the home to throw over them garments made with little cutting, falling in graceful folds about them, such as the dresses and cloaks that were worn by the ancient Celtic and British women. The female form lends itself to this graceful draping, and women do not ordinarily live where the cold winds buffet and chill them. As the fashion in women’s dress moves away from this simplicity and plainness, it becomes ugly, because it offers the abnormal for admiration. Too much decoration succeeds only in concealing beauty. On a feast day the artistic Italian may tolerate bunting and drapery on the walls of St. Peter’s; but he would not like St. Peter’s were the draping and bunting to be left there permanently.

The plain man or woman thinks plain, normal thoughts. The cultivated orchard produces large, ruddy and beautiful apples, but such apples are only normal. They were produced by getting back to the rule and away from the exception. Wormy apples are the exception. Farmers who habitually have been neglecting their orchards have become accustomed to exceptions. But the normal apple, the plain apple, is always the beautiful one.

To live a plain life fits the plain man and woman, and keeps them plain. To live otherwise spoils the lines of the figure, and makes them abnormal and ugly. Obesity is a sign of overeating or disease. To eat when hungry, to drink when thirsty, to rest when tired, these are plain actions that produce results in physical beauty. To feed the soul as honestly with plain spiritual food as the body is fed with what it needs, is to produce the normal goodness, the soul’s natural and beautiful state. Saints are not exactly different; they are only right and normal.

It is not remarkable that he who lives in a palace and eats nightingales’ tongues should be forced sometimes to fly to a hut in the woods or on the shore, and eat only what he can fish or shoot. His action is the natural protest of the plain man which the palace is killing in him, against the ugliness of his condition. It is a temporary assumption of control by the normal, and a temporary defeat for the ugly.

It is not to be wondered at that the plain man is loved. We shiver and frown at his opposite, when we shiver and frown at the dandy or the ragamuffin. We like the middle because it is the normal. We honor it even without noticing that we do so. The things we notice are often the things which disgust us; and sometimes the disgust is at ourselves, because we have noticed, or were enticed by them. The plain man is the world’s man; so he always has been; but he also and always has been God’s man; for what God hates in the world is what the world has done against His Will with itself and with His children. What God made was and is good. He loves the good. Yes! He loves the plain man as Lincoln said He did; for thus He made him, and thus He wills he should remain.

(To be continued.)

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Father Krier will be in Eureka, Nevada, (Saint Joseph) October 21.

Again, we want to thank everyone for praying that the City of Las Vegas would approve the building of a parish hall and classrooms. We received the approval and we are grateful that Divine Providence was made manifest in that decision.

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