CAPG's Blog 

The Revolt of the Intellect Against God by Cardinal Manning

"But yet the Son of Man, when He cometh, shall He find, think you, faith on earth? St. Luke, 28.8.

By this question our Divine Lord intends us to understand that, when He comes, He shall find many who do not believe, many who have fallen from the faith. It foretells that there shall be apostasies; and if apostasies, therefore that He shall still find the truth; but He will find also those that have fallen from it. And this is what the Holy Ghost, speaking by the Apostle, has distinctly prophesied. St. Paul says, "Now the Spirit manifestly saith that, in the last times, some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to spirits of error, and doctrines of devils." And again, St. John says, "Little children, it is the last hour; and as you have heart that Antichrist cometh, even now there are become many Antichrists, whereby we know that it is the last hour." The meaning therefore of our Lord is this: not that when He comes He will not find the Church He founded in all the plenitude of its power, and the faith He revealed in all the fullness of its doctrine. "The city seated upon the hill cannot be hid." The Holy Catholic Church is the "light of the world," and so shall be to the end. It can never be separated from its Divine Head in heaven. The Spirit of Truth, who came on the day of Pentecost, according to our Divine Lord's promise, will abide with it forever: therefore when the Son of God shall come at the end of the world, there shall be His Church as in the beginning, in the amplitude of its Divine authority, in the fullness of its Divine faith, and the immutability of its teaching. He will find then the light shining in vain in the midst of many who will be willingly blind; the teacher in the midst of multitudes, of whom many will be willingly deaf: they will have eyes, and see not; and ears, and hear not; and hearts that will not understand. As it was at His first coming, so shall it be at His second. This, then is the plain meaning of our Lord's words."

Source: Catholic Oratory: A Compilation of Sacred and Sublime Orations by Card. James Gibbons

The Office of Holy Week, 1870

"It is now uncommon to hear Maundy Thursday referred to as Holy Thursday. This is a mistake. Holy Thursday is a name belonging absolutely from time immemorial to the Feast of the Ascension. Maundy is a significant name and ought therefore to be jealously guarded. Enough of that element of religion which serves to make it popular has been lost in the course of past centuries.

The word Maundy is derived, through the French maundier, from the Latin mandatum: "Mandatum novum do vobis," (a new commandment I give unto you) John, 13:34. The Mandatum or Maundy was the ceremony of the washing of the feet and almsgiving observed on this day, both of which were performed as a token of that brotherly love which Christ so earnestly inculcated at the last supper.

The ceremony of the washing of the feet was and is part of the liturgy. It was performed by Pope, Bishop, and priest, and kings, nobles and peasants, imitated their example. Twelve poor men were selected to be the recipients of the dignitaries' favor.

The Maundy is observed in the ceremonies of the church, and in may religious communities even at the present time.

Visiting the repositories is a custom as popular of old as it is today. It is indeed edifying to Catholic and non-Catholic alike to witness the spontaneous demonstration of devotion to the Blessed Sacrament, and deeper than we are aware of is the impression produced on the multitude of unbelievers around us by this and similar acts of faith."

Source: Maine Catholic Historical Magazine

Answer: Certainly one ought not to be a bigot! Who says you should? Do those who rant most about bigotry really know what bigotry is? If so, it would be well to use the knowledge for their own improvement: for generally they are the most intensely bigoted bigots. They are so deeply immersed in their own little puddle of bigotry that they cannot see a whole ocean of fairness beyond them.

Bigotry is not religion, it is the abuse of it.

The defects of persons who are guilty of that abuse, generally from ignorance, ought not to be imputed to Religion.

Religion is abused, like every good thing in the world. We must reject the abuse, and retain the use. We must be pious, but we must not be bigots. God loves one, but He does not love the other. The desires to behold in our hearts devotion, that is, devotedness to His service, devotedness to the duties which He imposes, and love of His commandments; but He does not desire to see bigotry reigning in them, that is to say, those enthusiastic, those narrow-minded or superstitiously religious practices, which often replace the chief object by the accessories, and substitute the means for the end.

Nevertheless, these abuses of religion are not so universal and so heinous as they are generally said to be.

Generally speaking, they do not injure any one, and are only hurtful to those who commit them. Those who fall into these pitiable mistakes are unenlightened persons, who surround and fatigue themselves with numerous external forms and practices of devotion, food in themselves, but carried to too great a length; who assume a certain strangeness of manner; who torment their consciences in the fear of doing wrong; and who become excited and angry, through misguided zeal, when it would be more prudent and wise to remain silent, etc.

This is bigotry. It is a great defect, but I should be glad to think there were no worse ones here on earth! Those who inveigh so loudly against bigotry, and are indignant at the absurdities it gives rise to, are too often persons who remind one of the criminal, who, sentenced to perpetual labor for a frightful murder he had committed, was indignant at having given him for his prison companion a thief!

They are often more worthy of censure than those whom they attack.

Their profligacy, bad conduct, neglect of the most sacred duties, religious ignorance, licentious conversation, evil example, etc, etc, are not these abuses? Are they not crimes?

Their whole life is an abuse; and the abuse of devotion is, I venture to say, the only one they never commit. Would it not be as well to exchange this one for the others, I ask?

Do not, then, be a bigot, but a Christian, and a good Christian. Love God, serve Him faithfully, observe all His commandments; fulfill all your duties, so as to be pleasing in the eyes of God, and listen with docility to the teaching of the ministers of Jesus Christ.

Source: Short answers to common objections against religion By Louis Segur

"Man being such," Says the Council of Trent, "that, without the help of sensible signs, he can only with difficulty rise to the consideration of divine things, the Church, like a tender mother, has establish certain rites, has ordered that certain parts of the Mass should be said in a low and other in a loud voice. She has also instituted ceremonies: such are mysterious blessings, lights, incense, vestments, and many other things, in accordance with discipline and apostolic tradition. " The end of all this is to add to the majesty of the Adorable Sacrifice, and to lead the minds of the Faithful, by means of these visible signs of piety and religion, to the contemplation of the great mysteries hidden in Christianity.

On this point, the impious agree perfectly in their words and deeds with us. Religion reduced to pure spirituality, says one of them, is very soon banished to the regions of the moon. Another adds that dogmas disappeared with the external signs bearing witness to them. When, at the close of the last century, the disciples of these men, who could argue so well, were pleased to destroy religion among us, with what did they begin? With external worship. They first turned ceremonies into ridicule. They then pulled downs temples, crosses, and altars.

But in vain does man wage war against nature. These pitiless enemies of external worship had scarcely taken the reins of government into their own hands, when they felt all the necessity for public and solemn rites. In order to convert people to their ideas of morality, they hastened to practice what they had condemned, by calling to their aid external worship. They only changed its immortal object, and referred it altogether to human virtues, which are but pompous nonentities when separated from their Author.

They scoffed in their writings and in their lyceums at the worship of the Saints, and substituted for it the worship of heroes, after the manner of the pagans, who rendered the honors of apotheosis only to persons remarkable for extraordinary feats, most generally the ravagers of nations. They jeered at the piety of Catholics towards the precious remains of the just man, and they rendered honors almost divine to their own great men. In fine, is there a single part of Catholic worship that they did not employ to win favor and credit for their lessons with the multitude? Hymns, canticles, altars, the tables of the law, the ark of the constitution, candelabra, sacred fire, holidays, statues of liberty and equality, tutelary genii, and other emblems of the revolution: did they not offer us a collection of religious ceremonies as extensive as that of any other worship?"

Source: Catechism of perseverance, Msgr. Gaume

Tomorrow, Aug. 9, is the feast of St. John Vianney. He was pastor of a remote French village and so he is often known as the Cure of Ars.

A visitor today might see a white-washed priest’s house near a chapel. In the dingy kitchen is a common sauce-pan and a long- handled pan. On the floor is a burnt plank which was used as a bed. In another room is a well-worn cassock, a flat hat with a very wide brim, and a pair of large unblackened peasant shoes.

If we move into the old church we see old benches, pictures, statues, a pulpit. Nearby is a confessional. Not far away in the new church lies the body of the man, who spent 40 years in these surroundings.

This pastor came to Ars in 1818. He had been born John Marie Vianney in Dardllly, near Lyons, on May 8, 1786, during the era of the French Revolution. He knew what It was to live under persecution, for all priests were hunted to death. As a boy John attended Mass and received Holy Communion secretly In his barn.

John was the third of six children; he was 18 years old when he sought consent from his father to become a priest. Because the father was a poor farmer he could not immediately release his helpful son, and John was 20 years old when he finally received permission.

In the seminary at Lyons John did not shine as a brilliant student. He failed in his studies and he had to leave the seminary for the private teaching of a Father Bailey at Ecully. After three months of private tutoring John took an examination and failed miserably.

Then it was that his teacher went privately to one of his examiners. At his request the president of the seminary and one examiner agreed to question Vianney privately. In their report to the Vicar of the Bishop they said that John was “the most unlearned, but the most devoted seminarian in Lyons.”

The Vicar asked a few simple questions, “Is Vianney good? Has he a devotion to Our Lady? Does he say his rosary?'’ The professors replied, “He is a model of goodness.” “Very well,” said the Vicar, “then let him be ordained. The grace of God will do the rest.” It was in 1815, long before I.Q. tests, and a few months after the genius Napoleon was defeated at Waterloo, that John was ordained a priest.

A priest is vesting

His time of questing

Dreams is passed, Now at last

A Christ he stands.

  The first appointment of the new priest was to his former teacher, Father Bailey. Each in time reported the other to the Bishop for excessive mortification. Thus are assistants made saints by their pastors.

It was in 1818 that Father Bailey died and the Bishop said to Father John Vianney, “Thirty miles from here, my dear friend, in the district of Trevoux, the village of Ars is without a priest. The church there is a chapel-of-ease. serving about 200 souls. There’s not much love of God in this village. Your job will be to instill it .”

What do we mean by a parish priest, sometimes called a secular, or diocesan priest? The Church is divided like a checker board, into parts called dioceses, ruled by Bishops, all under Peter the Holy Father. The diocese, In turn, is subdivided into parishes marked off in definite boundaries.The parish priest therefore is the keystone of the entire organization of the Church.

Within the territory of certain parishes we sometimes find houses in which a religious community lives. Religious bodies have been started at certain times in the history of the Church for a definite specialized work. They often come into being because of an emergency and cease to exist after a span of years.

This noble example to his sheep he gave.

That flrst he wrought, and afterward he taught.

To draw his fold to heaven by fairness

By good example, was his business.

There were two Frenchmen whose features were somewhat alike; one was John Vianney and the other was Voltaire. The later said, “Throw enough mud and some will stick.” The former set up a means for converting a stubborn parish, “You’ve preached? You’ve prayed? Have you fasted? Have you scourged yourself? Have you slept on bare boards? As long as you haven’t done that you’ve no right to complain.”

Saint John Vianney, the patron of parish priests, spent 16 hours a day in the confessional. The devil, with whom he had physical combat, is said to have revealed that the Cure had taken more than 80,000 souls out of his evil power.

In 1859 St. John Viannev was 73 years old: on July 29 he went to his sick bed, where he died on Aug. 4.

A better priest. I trow that nowhere none is.

He waited for no pomp end reverence.

Nor maked him a spiced conscience.

But Christes lore, and is apostles twelve,

He taught, and first he followed it himself.

Source: Catholic Research Resources Alliance,The Monitor, Volume CI, Number 15, 8 August 1958

"The external honors rendered by the Catholic Church to our Lord in the Holy Eucharist, have been the subject of constant attack from protestant writers, and their objections have been principally founded on these ceremonies and practices being unknown to the primitive Church; nor even introduced till at a comparatively recent period. But those who argue thus, lose sight of the great principle, that the Church is a body directed by the Spirit of God, constantly abiding with it, and acting according to circumstances; hence, whenever a particular heresy arises, some counteracting means is used to arrest its progress. For this reason the Nicene Creed was framed and introduced in the service of the Church as a test of Arianism; and it is a well-known fact that it was not sung at Rome, during the celebration of Mass, for some centuries after it was used throughout the rest of Europe, on account of the orthodoxy of the people not requiring it. For the same reason the Elevation was introduced in the Mass as a test whereby the followers of Berengarius might be distinguished; and the solemn processions to honor the Holy Eucharist have been designed to compensate in some measure for the irreverence and sacrileges of the last few centuries. Had the Christians retained their primitive fervor, daily Communion, and purity of heart and conduct, there would have been no occasion for the introduction of these rites; but under the state of things which have existed for the last few centuries, it ought to be a subject of infinite consolation to all sincere Christians that the scoffs and blasphemies of modern infidels may be in some measure atoned for, by the solemnities instituted in especial honor of this great Mystery of love. Had we no other rule but that of mere antiquity, the Catholic Ritual would be reduced to a level with the Mahometan Koran. A rite instituted by a Council of the sixteenth century, has not a less claim on the obedience and the reverence of the faithful that one of an older date."

Glossary of Ecclesiastical Ornament and Costume, by Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin page 164

By Msgr. George W. Shea , S.T.D.

"The Mass has a fourfold purpose, and therefore a fourfold efficacy. It is offered, first and foremost, to adore God, whence it is called the "Sacrifice of Praise ". Secondly, it is offered to thank God for His great glory and for the benefits He has showered upon us, whence the Mass is called the "Eucharistic Sacrifice," that is the “Sacrifice of Thanksgiving ". Thirdly, it is offered to implore new benefits, notably grace, whence it is called an "lmpetratory Sacrifice ". Finally, it is a "Propitiatory Sacrifice", because it is offered to move the divine mercy to the pardon of sins.

Of these various effects of the Mass, the two which derive to men (the impetratory and the propitiatory) are usually termed the "fruits" of the Mass. Whereas the effects of the Mass insofar as it is a Sacrifice of Praise and of Thanksgiving are infinite, the “fruits" of the Mass are limited. The measure in which they are bestowed depends especially on the dispositions of those to whom they are given.

To whom are they given? To some degree or other the fruits of the Mass are bestowed upon the celebrant, upon those who serve or assist at the Holy Sacrifice, upon the person or persons for whom it is offered, upon all living, especially the members of the Church, and also upon the souls in Purgatory. The latter, however, are capable only of the propitiatory fruits of the Mass.

That the celebrant shares in the fruits of the Mass is readily understandable. No one more than he participates in the sacrifice. His active cooperation is necessary. He acts as the instrument of Christ, the High Priest, in virtue of the power received at Ordination. So he has a right to what is called the “most special fruit" of the Mass.

Sharing with him in this "most special fruit", but to a lesser degree, are the faithful who serve or assist at the Holy Sacrifice. The greater their devotion, the more plentiful are the graces God gives them through the Mass.

The person or persons for whom the priest celebrates the Mass in particular obtain what is termed the "special fruit" of the Mass. The priest may offer the Holy Sacrifice for any living person (although only privately for the excommunicated), and for the souls in Purgatory (although only privately for those to whom the Church has denied ecclesiastical burial). Since we have no way of knowing to what extent this special fruit is obtained by a soul in Purgatory for whom a particular Mass is offered, it is a pious practice to have the Holy Sacrifice celebrated repeatedly for the faithful departed.

Then, finally, there is the “general fruit" of the Mass. This comes to all the living, especially the members of the Church, and also to all the souls in Purgatory. At the Offertory of the Mass the celebrant prays that "the Sacrifice will be beneficial not only for himself and for all here present", but also for all faithful Christians, whether living or dead", not only for our own salvation," but also for that of the whole world ".

This is a most consoling thought because of our membership in the Church we share in a general way (but more intimately than those who are outside the Church) in the effects of every single Mass being offered up anywhere on earth Even when we are absorbed in our dally routine there accrue to us the beneficent effects of every Mass!

Source: The Catholic Advocate Vol 8 N17, 10 April 1959

St. Michael The Archangel 25th Anniversary Mass with Bishop Zarama: 

Sunday, Oct 3rd at 10:30 am 

"I imagined entering the church, eyes immediately being drawn to the brightness and beauty of the marble sanctuary.

The most sacred things deserve the finest materials and workmanship: interestingly, this principle brought me to consider God’s lavish creation and the sacred order He established to reflect His glory. "

Fr. Steven Costello St. Michael Catholic Church, Cary. NC

• Source: Saint Michael the Archangel Catholic Church, Cary, NC
  

"Let Catholics listen to the word of God, which the Church, and the Church alone, preserves and teaches entire and incorrupt. Let them not run, like sheep that have no shepherd, where other voices resound and try to drown out the voice of God when they are raised in opposition to the voice of the Church.

We have Sacred Scriptures. We have Tradition. We have the Supreme Pastor, and certainly a greater number of priests near us.

Why then, in the face of those who fight against us and hate us, must we give an exhibition of stupidity or fanaticism? "Christians, be harder to move," wrote Dante in his own time, "don't be like feathers that move with every breeze." He gave the very reasons that are valid today. " You have the Old Testament and the New, and the Pastor of the Church to guide you." And he concluded as we conclude, "This is enough for your salvation."

Source: American Ecclesiastical Review. Msgr. Alfredo Ottaviani

"Nothing is done by the Church that is not for the salvation of souls. The Church is not rightly portrayed if it is shown as in any way, or at any time, or in any activity, cultural, social or disciplinary, opposed to or in competition with the salvation of souls. I do not say the salvation of some souls in the shortest possible time; I do not say the break-neck making of new converts. I say the salvation of the greatest number of souls before time ceases: that is the raison d'etre of the Church and of the missions. It is a mistake to try to distinguish between them."

Source: The American Ecclesiastical review.  January -  June 1951 .Patrick O'Connor, St. Columban's Tokyo Japan