CAPG's Blog 

Fr. Tyler Sparrow, TLM Holy Name Cathedral, Raleigh NC

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

"It is supremely important that the Church’s liturgy fully conform to Catholic belief (“the law for prayer is the law for faith”[3]), and that only those devotional forms be sanctioned which well up from the unsullied springs of true faith."

"(...) worship achieves its normal fulfillment in sacramental communion with the same Blood, indissolubly united with Christ’s Eucharistic Body. In intimate association with the celebrant the faithful can then truly make his sentiments at communion their own: “I will take the chalice of salvation and call upon the name of the Lord. . . The Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ preserve my soul for everlasting life. Amen.” Thus as often as they come worthily to this holy table they will receive more abundant fruits of the redemption and resurrection and eternal life won for all men by the Blood Christ shed “through the Holy Spirit.”[13] Nourished by his Body and Blood, sharing the divine strength that has sustained count less martyrs, they will stand up to the slings and arrows of each day’s fortunes — even if need be to martyrdom itself for the sake of Christian virtue and the kingdom of God. Theirs will be the experience of that burning love which made St. John Chrysostom cry out:

Let us, then, come back from that table like lions breathing out fire, thus becoming terrifying to the Devil, and remaining mindful of our Head and of the love he has shown for us. . . This Blood, when worthily received, drives away demons and puts them at a distance from us, and even summons to us angels and the Lord of angels. . . This Blood, poured out in abundance, has washed the whole world clean. . . This is the price of the world; by it Christ purchased the Church… This thought will check in us unruly passions. How long, in truth, shall we be attached to present things? How long shall we remain asleep? How long shall we not take thought for our own salvation? Let us remember what privileges God has bestowed on us, let us give thanks, let us glorify him, not only by faith, but also by our very works. [14]

If only Christians would reflect more frequently on the fatherly warning of the first pope: “Look anxiously, then, to the ordering of your lives while your stay on earth lasts.

You know well enough that your ransom was not paid in earthly currency, silver or gold; it was paid in the precious blood of Christ; no lamb was ever so pure, so spotless a victim.”[15] If only they would lend a more eager ear to the apostle of the Gentiles: “A great price was paid to ransom you; glorify God by making your bodies the shrines of his presence.”[16] Their upright lives would then be the shining ex ample they ought to be; Christ’s Church would far more effectively fulfill its mission to men. God wants all men to be saved,[17] for he has willed that they should all be ransomed by the Blood of his only-begotten Son; he calls them all to be members of the one Mystical Body whose head is Christ. If only men would be more responsive to these promptings of his grace, how much the bonds of brotherly love among individuals and peoples and nations would be strengthened. Life in society would be so much more peaceable, so much worthier of God and the human nature created in his image and likeness.[18]"

"O sublime priesthood! Perfect Priest!

Superabundant consecration!

Jesus, I adore Thee in the plenitude and the perfection of Thy Priesthood!

Ascend Thy altar, "Eternal throne of justice; God, Thy God, He who is Thy Father, has consecrated Thee by the anointing of the most glorious priesthood, above all angels, and above all men, Thy brethren - Thronus tuus Deus...unxit te Deus, Deus Tuus, Oleo loetitioe proe consortibus tuis! -Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: a scepter of justice is the scepter of Thy kingdom. Thou hast loved justice and hated iniquity: therefore God, thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows. It is from Thee that flow their sole created source, all the sacerdotal graces. All those, therefore, who will be called to the exalted honor of the priesthood will participate in Thy incomparable elevation, and ought to show themselves worthy of Thee by means of a holiness which will render them more like to Thee than all their brethren"

-- Rev. Fr. Albert Tesnière, S.S.S.
(The Eucharistic Christ: Reflections and Considerations on the Blessed Sacrament)

Rorate Caeli: Fontgombault Sermon for Maundy Thursday 2021:

"Sacraments and Prayer are our sole strength against the apostasy of our times."

For a Holy Church and Priests (St. Faustina Kowalska):

O my Jesus, I beg You on behalf of the whole Church: Grant it love and the light of Your Spirit and give power to the words of priests so that hardened hearts might be brought to repentance and return to You, O Lord. Lord, give us holy priests; You Yourself maintain them in holiness. O Divine and Great High Priest, may the power of Your mercy accompany them everywhere and protect them from the devilʼs traps and snares which are continually being set for the souls of priests. May the power of Your mercy, O Lord, shatter and bring to naught all that might tarnish the sanctity of priests, for You can do all things.
I pray to You for the triumph of the Church, that You may bless the Holy Father and all the clergy; I beg You to grant the grace of conversion to sinners whose hearts have been hardened by sin, and a special blessing and light to priests, to whom I shall confess for all of my life. Amen.

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 many 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."

"When, in 1453, the city of Constantinople, which is now seemingly threatened with another change of masters, came first into the possession of the victorious Moslems, we are told that the success of the assailants was largely due to the want of energy of the townsfolk who, relying upon the predictions of their monks, were satisfied that Providence must surely intervene to procure their deliverance. In particular an ancient prophecy had foretold that the Turks would advance as far as the Pillar of Constantine, but would then be driven back by an angel from Heaven, not only out of the city but back to the Persian frontier. This seems directly to have led to the crowding of the populace into the Church of St Sophia, and was mainly responsible for the horrors which were afterwards enacted there when the Turks stormed the city.

The fall of Constantinople is admittedly one of the landmarks of history, but it may be that posterity will judge the Franco-Prussian campaign of 1870-71, which called into existence the new German Empire with its vast military organization, to be also one of the turning points in the evolution of nations. Certain it is, in any case, that at this, as at other great political crises, an extraordinary craze developed itself for inquiring into the secrets of the future. No one who has not looked into the matter can form any idea of the multitude of pretended prophecies, borrowed from the most varied sources, which were gathered together at this period and published in volumes of every size and price. The best known and most respectable of these, a collection called Voix Prophétiques, was edited by a certain worthy Abbé, who had some pretensions to be regarded as a man of letters. The book quickly grew from a modest little brochure, of which two editions were printed in 1870, into a vast compilation of some fourteen hundred pages in two stout volumes, which described itself as a fifth edition and issued from the press before the close of 1872. And this was only one of a multitude of similar publications, most of them repeating the same pretended visions and oracles in slightly varying texts. Neither can it be quite truthfully maintained that this type of literature was disseminated broadcast in the teeth of ecclesiastical prohibition. It is true that Father De Buck, the Bollandist, when denouncing the flood of spurious prophecies in November, 1870, was able to assert that all the publications of this nature which had come into his hands were destitute of any kind of episcopal imprimatur. But this could not be said of all the later issues. For example, the fifth edition of the Voix Prophétiques is prefaced by a formal and lengthy approbation from Mgr Dechamps, Archbishop of Malines, who takes occasion to refer to certain articles in the Civiltà Cattolica, which had treated these and similar predictions as worthy of all respect. And, indeed, it is beyond doubt that such influential organs of French Catholic opinion as the Univers and the various Semaines Religieuses encouraged these prophecies, and for the most part did their best to give them publicity. There was a more sober party among the clergy who regarded the movement with suspicion, but they were distinctly in the minority and contented themselves as a rule with quietly holding aloof.

But that this avidity for penetrating the designs of Providence, whatever the motive which animated it, was thoroughly unhealthy in itself and most unfortunate in its result no one who looks back upon that epoch can now have any doubt. Speaking generally, the collection and dissemination of these prophecies only became very active after the first French reverses, culminating in the disaster of Sedan, had cast gloom and discouragement over the whole nation. It was, perhaps, not unnatural under such circumstances that men should clutch at straws. The predictions almost invariably announced in some form or another the ultimate triumph of France and the Church. The grands malheurs were to come first. The nation had to be purified by suffering; it had to expiate its godlessness, its vice, its frivolity, its neglect of the especial mission that had been entrusted to the eldest son of the Church. Pius IX in particular had been left a helpless prey to the enemies who had so long been plotting the overthrow of the temporal power. But when God's chastisements had been rigorously inflicted, when Paris, as many anticipated, had been burned to the ground, there would be seen the dawn of brighter things. France would come to her senses, she would welcome back the representative of the old stock of Hugh Capet (le rejeton de la Cape) according to the famous “ Prophecy of Orval,” in other words the Comte de Chambord, who was to reign as Henri cinq. “Come, young prince," so the same prophecy apostrophized him, “ quit the island of captivity, unite the lion to the white flower; come.” It caused no embarrassment to resolute believers that the “ young prince” in question was now (1871) more than fifty years of age. It mattered not to them that there was no longer any island of captivity and that he had no means of uniting the lion with the white flower.*(* The so-called “ Prophecy of Orval,” which was supposed to have been preserved from mediaeval times in the monastery of Orval (aurea vallis), near Luxemburg, was an audacious fabrication of a certain Abbé H. Dujardin. The date of the forgery is established by this very reference to the “isle of captivity,” for the Comte de Chambord only lived in Great Britain as a refugee from 1830 to 1832. By the union of the lion to the white flower the forger no doubt wished to suggest that the “ young prince," having mounted the throne of France, might marry the Princess Victoria, the future Queen of England.)

 The one important fact was that Henri V was the predestined ruler of France, and that the hour might now be looked for when his high destiny would be accomplished. And with him was to come the triumph of the Holy See and the restoration of all the Papal dominions. The words, Le grand Pape et le grand Roi, which formed the title of one of the most popular of these prophetical books,(+ This book, of which the seventh edition was published in 1872, was compiled by a famous Capuchin preacher and director of souls, Father Marie Antoine. He was known as “ Le Saint de Toulouse," and under that title a voluminous biography of him has recently been published by one of his confrères.) sum up in a phrase the whole dream of Catholic France in the years which immediately followed the humiliations of 1870.

But hand in hand with that dream, harmless enough in itself, went all kinds of delusions and credulities. That they were complete delusions the subsequent course of events has proved. Perhaps one cannot give a better illustration of the kind of beliefs which then found acceptance, almost without a voice being raised in protest, than the supposed predictions of the Venerable Anna Maria Taigi, who died in 1837. With her life and virtues, which were in many ways remarkable, we are not here concerned. Whether she ever really delivered herself of the predictions concerning the future which are commonly attributed to her is certainly open to much doubt; but the promoters of the cause of her beatification have never definitely repudiated them on her behalf, while a certain Dom Raphael Natali, who had been her confessor and who long survived her, apparently made himself responsible for their correctness. In particular she seems to have announced that the pontificate of Pius IX would last exactly twenty-seven years and a half. In point of fact he was Pope for nearly thirty-two years. Again, Anna Maria is stated to have declared most positively that he would live to see the triumph of the Church in spite of all the calamities which would previously come upon the world. She foretold, we are assured, 'three days of physical darkness, which would only be the starting-point of other marvels.

"All the enemies of the Church, hidden or open, will perish during the days of darkness with the exception of some few whom God will convert immediately afterwards.

The air will then be infected by the demons who will appear under all kinds of hideous shapes. The possession of a blessed candle will secure its owner from death, so also will the saying of prayers addressed to Our Blessed Lady and the holy angels.

After the days of darkness, Saints Peter and Paul, . having come down from heaven, will preach throughout the world and will designate the new Pope, Lumen de Coelo, who is to succeed Pius IX. A great light will flash from their bodies and will settle upon the cardinal, the future pontiff.

Saint Michael the Archangel, appearing then upon earth in human form, will hold the devil enchained until the period of the preaching of Antichrist.

In these days, Religion shall extend its empire throughout the world. There shall be “one Shepherd.” The Russians will be converted, as well as England and China, and all the faithful will be filled with joy in beholding this overwhelming triumph of the Church.

After the days of darkness, the Holy House of Loreto will be carried by the angels to Rome and will be deposited in the basilica of Saint Mary Major." (Voix Prophetiques (fifth edition), 11, pp. 170-1.)

Let it be repeated that there is no satisfactory evidence to prove that the Venerable Anna Maria ever made these prophecies.(But the Père Calixte, her biographer, records them. La Ven. Anna Maria Taigi (third edition), p. 244)

 What alone is certain is that down to the time that Pius IX died, when the peaceful election of his successor discredited the whole figment, the prediction was repeated in one publication after another, while other visions were adduced in confirmation of the first. There was, for example, a certain ecstatica, Elizabeth Canori Mora (1774-1825), who, it is curious to notice, was also, like Anna Maria Taigi, a tertiary of the Trinitarian Order. Elizabeth, according to the details given in her published Life, had visions regarding the days of darkness, the descent of the apostles SS. Peter and Paul, and the nomination of a new Pope by St Peter, which are the very counterpart of the predictions of the Venerable Anna Maria. To which of these two belongs the priority of publication we cannot pretend to say. (Let the reader who is interested compare Voix Prophétiques (fifth edition), 11, pp. 307-310, with 11, pp. 170-1. Cf. Chabauty, Concordance de Toutes les Prédictions (second edition), 1872, pp. 124-6, and P. Calixte, Vie de la V. Anna Maria Taigi (fifth edition), pp. 405-7. Cf. also V. de Stenay, Derniers Avis Prophétiques (1872), pp. 119-27.)

 Mention of the days of darkness was also made by, or at least attributed to, the stigmatisée, Palma Matarelli, of Oria, near Brindisi, a mystic who was believed to receive the Holy Communion three times daily, once at Mass and twice supernaturally from the hands of an angel. She died in March, 1888, having, it was averred, at one time for several years together taken no other nourishment than the Blessed Eucharist. Let us notice in passing that though some of the extravagant predictions attributed to her and published in the Univers and the Echo de Rome were afterwards disavowed, she unquestionably declared that the successor of Leo XIII, that is to say the late Pope, Pius X, would live to witness the triumph of the Church. (See V. de Stenay, Derniers Avis, pp. 176-7. Imbert-Gourbeyre, La Stigmatisation, vol. 1, PP. 568-9. Paris, 1894.)

Not less than the days of darkness, the suggestion of a further migration of the Holy House of Loreto also fit fortune. It has since then apparently been discovered that St Benedict Joseph Labre announced that before the end of the world the Santa Casa was to be miraculously transported to France, while a person in repute of sanctity wrote in 1862 that Our Lady had given her to understand that the place designated for this high privilege was situated in the diocese of Meaux and that its name began with the letters MARL....(V. de Stenay, Derniers At is, p. 126.)

When one looks at all closely into the developments of this epidemic of prophecy-mongering, it is difficult to resist the conviction that there must be something infectious in the atmosphere which it generates. I would appeal in proof of this to an interesting account, which was published forty years ago by two French doctors, of an examination which they made of a certain ecstatica of Fontet in the Gironde, named Marie Bergadieu, but more commonly known as Berguille. With regard to the genuineness of her trances from the pathological point of view no doubt can be entertained. The report of these gentlemen attests that when in this condition the patient could be pricked and pinched with considerable violence without her feeling any sensation of pain. They report unhesitatingly that there was both cutaneous and muscular insensibility in this condition, and they also speak of the existence of rudimentary-stigmata, though the wounds never actually formed or bled. Now, whilst in this state of trance the ecstatica frequently had visions of a beautiful lady whom she believed to be the Blessed Virgin. On July 26, 1873, the beautiful lady told Berguille, “The Great King, the very Christian King, promised to France, whose coming is now near at hand, is and can be no other than the Comte de Chambord.”

On August 23 of the same year the vision told her:

“The three days of darkness are near. Terrible events will take place. Paris will be entirely destroyed."

On September 11 Berguille announced that the Great King, Henri V, would come not by the vote of the people but by the Almighty Will of God and because he was needed to rescue France from decay and utter overthrow.
On December 8, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, Our Lady came, surrounded by a legion of angels, and told Berguille “ The Père de Bray is a saint. It is he who is destined to be the Great Pope. The critical moment is at hand. Incessant prayer is needed, but the evils that threaten will be averted, for Henri V will come.” (Mauriac and Verdalle, Etude medicale sur l'Extatique de Fontet. Paris. 1875. p. 19.)

Of course the innumerable prophecies of this period which announced the advent of Henri V were closely bound up with all kinds of fantastic imaginings concerning the coming of Antichrist and the end of the world. While all were unanimous in identifying the Comte de Chambord as the grand roi who was to inaugurate a new era of peace, there was much diversity in the forecasts regarding the pontiff destined to become the spiritual ruler of a reunited and chastened Christendom. It is not in the least surprising to discover that to certain French visionaries it had been supernaturally intimated that this pope would be a Frenchman. “He will not be a Cardinal," wrote one of the prophets, “he will be a French religious who has been persecuted by his own Order; he will have all the firmness of Sixtus V without his severity.”(See V. de Stenay, Derniers Avis, pp. 110-11.) On the other hand, it was announced, even before 1875, that this ideal pontiff, the Pastor angelicus, was a native of Dalmatia, and was then already living as a learned, humble and self-denying Franciscan. His character and work had been foretold, it appears, by “the Venerable Fra Bartholomew, of Saluzzo, whose long prophecy in odd Italian poetry Pius VI so highly esteemed as to have it enclosed in a silver urn, which is preserved as a precious relic in Rome." (The Christian Trumpet, or Previsions and Predictions about Impending General Calamities, etc. London, 1875, p. 202.)

There was a similar conflict of authorities regarding the date of the Church's final triumph. The majority of the prophecies either explicitly or by implication conveyed the idea that Pius IX himself would live to see his enemies humbled and the temporal power restored. Maximin Giraud, the shepherd boy, who with Mélanie, was the witness of the apparitions of La Salette, was positive in asserting that the Beast of the Apocalypse, whose arrival followed upon the general peace of the Church, was due at the end of the nineteenth century, or at latest at the beginning of the twentieth.(Voix Prophétiques (fifth edition), 1, p. 122.)

The Abbé Chabauty, after a painstaking attempt to reconcile all the discordant data, decided that Henri V would be recognized as sovereign of France in 1872 or 1873 and would die in 1894 or 1895, while the Holy Pope who was to triumph over heresy and infidelity would be installed by the grand roi himself, (Lettres sur les Prophéties modernes et Concordance de toutes les Prédictions (second edition, 1872), pp. 156, 173-4, 218, 220, etc.) and consequently before 1895. Similarly, a prophecy attributed to the supposed hermit Telesphorus proclaimed that the world was to come to an end in 1901,(Stenay, Derniers Avis, p. 285, and cf. Dollinger, Prophecies and the Prophetic Spirit, pp. 153, seq.) though the Soeur de la Nativité (Jeanne Le Royer) is quite precise in declaring that domesday will be deferred until at least the close of the twentieth century and most probably to a date later still.(Ib. pp. 281-2.) This latter view was supported by the fact that the list of papal mottoes attributed to St Malachy has still seven left after the religio depopulata applied to the present Pope; to which, however, the reply was easy that the last age of the world would probably be prolific in anti-popes who would rule not successively but simultaneously. Indeed, the editors of these books of prophecies in 1872 even pointed to the mottoes, ignis ardens, religio depopulata and de medietate lunae as probably descriptive of schismatical pontiffs.(The Christian Trumpet, p. 203.)

But the controversy as to the exact date of the end of the world is not one which we are tempted to linger over. Be it sufficient to note that the so-called “prophecy of St Malachy," upon which the dispute largely turned, is an audacious fabrication of the close of the sixteenth century. Though these mottoes still find popular acceptance, (Even Cardinal Newman, in his essay, The Patristical Idea of Antichrist (ed. 1872, p. 86) appeals to St Malachy's prophecy as if it were a serious document; but it must be remembered that the essay was written as a Tract for the Times as far back as 1838.) there is probably no other prophetical" document whose fraudulent character has been more conclusively established; for we can point to the book out of which the mottoes were concocted, and we find that the palpable blunders of that book are in each instance copied in the prophecy which professes to have been supernaturally inspired and given to the world four hundred years before the book itself was published. (For a justification of these statements readers may be referred to a little volume by the present writer recently issued under the title of The War and the Prophets. The Malachy prophecy is there treated at some length in Chapter VI.)

Now the first reflection which imposes itself after a survey of this prophetic literature of the 'seventies is the recognition of the plain fact that not one single detail in all this vast edifice of conjecture, hallucination and superstition has been justified by the course of events. The Comte de Chambord, in 1883, died in exile as he had lived. Pius IX, after a pontificate which extended four years beyond the term which the prophets had assigned him, passed away in 1878, and though three pontiffs have succeeded him, no change of any kind has yet taken place in the attitude of Italy to the Holy See. The end of the world has obviously not yet come and the blessed candles provided in readiness for the three days of darkness have long been forgotten or thrown aside.

Secondly, it can hardly be doubted that, as among the Greeks in the siege of Constantinople, the encouragement of these elusive hopes has led to a slackening of effort, to a forgetfulness of that supremely important maxim, that God helps those that help themselves, or, at any rate, to the adoption of an unpractical attitude of mind in which facts and fictions, realities and dreams, are constantly mistaken for each other.

Let us take an illustration from the history of the sister isle. No man ever had a truer love for his native land than the celebrated Irish scholar, Professor Eugene O’Curry. As a devout Catholic and as a patriot his testimony is above all suspicion of hostile bias. But in his lectures delivered at the Catholic University of Dublin in 1856 he speaks as follows:

"Another motive, too, impelled me to come forward—the first that I am aware of to do so—to throw doubt and suspicion on the authenticity of these long-talked-of Irish prophecies. I mean the strong sense I entertain of the evils that a blind belief in and reliance on their promises have worked in this unfortunate land for centuries back. I have myself known-indeed, I know them to this day-hundreds of people, some highly educated men and women among them, who have often neglected to attend to their worldly advancement and security by the ordinary prudential means, in expectation that the false promises of these so-called prophecies many of them gross forgeries of our own day—would in some never accurately specified time bring about such changes in the state of the country as must restore it to its ancient condition. And the believers in these idle dreams were but too sure to sit down and wait for the coming of the promised golden age, as if it were fated to overtake them, without the slightest effort of their own to attain happiness or independence.

And the lecturer added:

When such has been and continues to be the belief in such predictions, even in these modern times of peace, what must their effect have been in the days of our country's war of independence, when generation after generation so often nobly fought against foreign usurpation, plunder and tyranny? And in the constant application of spurious prophecies to the events of troubled times in every generation, observe that the spirit of intestine faction did not fail to make copious use of them. (O'Curry, Lectures on the Manuscript Materials of Ancient Irish History (Edition 1878), p. 431.)

Thirdly, it can hardly be necessary to emphasize the evil effects of this kind of literature in the begetting of superstition and credulity. It would be easy to quote dozens of typical examples, but we may content ourselves with one illustration which, after finding a place in the various periodicals devoted to unveiling the secrets of the future, was included in an English volume of prophetic utterances to which reference has already been made. The extract is adduced, with other evidence equally convincing, to prove that Antichrist had then (1872) already been born. The passage, which is given on the authority of “a gentleman connected with the highest circles of the political world [the italics, of course, belong to the original], endowed with a solid, enlightened and prudent judgment," runs as follows:

Moreover, there is an extraordinary French lady of eminent and solid virtue who has been for some years employed in divers important and difficult missions to several sovereigns in Europe, and more especially to the Pope. In arriving or passing through any country, the language of which she did not previously know, she is by a special gift of God enabled to understand well what the people say to her, and she can make herself fully understood by them. When commissioned to treat on important affairs which require secrecy, during her journey, she knows whither and to whom she is sent, but she totally forgets the subject of her mission until she is introduced to the personage to whom she has to speak. Her mission ended, she again loses the remembrance of it. The lady solemnly declares that, passing through a certain city, and having to stop at some hotel, she saw a woman with her son about twelve years old. As soon as the boy perceived this French lady he was seized with a violent colic. His mother, with some evident anxiety, asked what ailed him. He answered, “ I do not know, but as soon as I have seen that lady down below, I have been seized with a strong internal pain.” This was very likely a sign to the mother to make his real character known to the French lady, to whom she manifested that her son was Antichrist !!!
(The Christian Trumpet or Previsions and Predictions, London, 1875, P. 375)

The impression left upon the reader by this awe-inspiring narrative can only be that the supposed mother of Antichrist must have been a lady with a keen sense of humour which was distinctly not shared by her unfortunate victim. One would be tempted to assign the story to the Diana Vaughan cycle of fabrications save for the fact that it was in print a dozen years before Diana Vaughan was dreamed of. But it shows us nevertheless the type of mentality to which that most humiliating exposure of human gullibility owed its success, and it is surely replete with warnings for the future.

Further, the mention of Antichrist may remind us of another prophecy which, beyond all question, was made and reiterated under conditions of the utmost solemnity, and that by a canonized Saint. Preaching in Spain and France during the years 1409-12 the great Dominican missionary, St Vincent Ferrer, repeatedly announced the near approach of the end of the world. He worked innumerable miracles to confirm the truth of his words, and he declared that he was himself satisfied by convincing proofs that Antichrist was then already born. For this the Saint was denounced to the Pope of his obedience (it was during the great schism), viz., Benedict, formerly known as Peter de Luna. It became necessary for Vincent to defend himself, and he accordingly addressed to the Pope a letter, which is still preserved and the authenticity of which is beyond dispute. St Vincent does not in the least deny that he preached everywhere that the end of the world was close at hand. He also declared himself convinced that Antichrist was even then living, and gave reasons, founded in part upon supernatural experiences of his own, for the belief which he held. To use his own words:

From all these facts there has been formed in my mind an opinion and a probable belief, though not such as I can proclaim for an absolute certainty, that Antichrist has already been born these nine years past. But as for the conviction which I have already stated,(He had previously written, “ Quarta conclusio est quod tempus Antichristi et finis mundi erunt cito et bene cito et valde breviter." (F. Fagès, O.P. Notes et Documents de l'Histoire de St Vincent Ferrier, Paris, 1905, p. 220.) to wit, that soon, quite soon, and very shortly, the time of Antichrist and the end of the world will be upon us, I proclaim it everywhere with certainty and without misgiving, “ the Lord working with me and confirming the word by the signs that follow.” (Fagès, Notes et Documents, p. 223. I Fagès, Histoire de St Vincent Ferrier, Louvain, 1901, vol. 1, PP. 312)

Further, St Vincent both said in his sermons and told the Pope that he (St Vincent) was himself the angel spoken of in the Apocalypse (xiv, 6-7), who was sent to proclaim with a great voice, “ Fear God and give Him glory for the hour of His judgement is come.”I He declared also that when he announced that the end of the world would come soon, he meant this in the proper sense of the words (proprie et stricte loquendo), while contemporaries declared that he worked the stupendous miracle of recalling a dead person to life to bear witness to the truth of what he stated.

And yet, though all this happened more than five hundred years ago, the end of the world has not yet arrived. So, again, we learn from no less a person than St Bernard of Clairvaux, that St Norbert, the founder of the Premonstratensians, prophesied about the year 1128 that the coming of Antichrist might be expected immediately. “ I asked him," writes St Bernard, “what were his ideas about Antichrist. He declared that he knew in a very certain way that he would be made manifest in this generation (ea quae nunc est generatione revelandum illum esse). As I did not share his belief, I asked him his reasons, but his reply did not satisfy me."'* St Francis of Paola, on the other hand, the founder of the Minims, in a most astounding series of letters to a Neapolitan nobleman, predicted that before the expiration of 400 years (he was writing in 1486) a descendant of his should institute the “last and greatest of all the religious orders," a military order of “ Cross bearers," who would exterminate all the Mohammedans and unbelievers left unconverted in the last age of the world. As to the authenticity of the letters some doubt may be felt, though Morales, Cornelius a Lapide and other such writers, appeal to them without misgiving; but one thing is certain, viz., that no military religious order in any way answering the description was founded either before 1886 or since that date.

We see, then, from these examples and it would be easy to supply many others - that when canonized Saints make bold to prophesy concerning public events, they are not more immune from error than those upon whose sanctity the Church has not set her seal. Indeed, it would be hardly too much to say that in the whole of ecclesiastical history not one satisfactory example can be quoted of a prophet, whether canonized or not, who has clearly predicted any unguessable future event which was of public interest. Previsions concerning private individuals, sometimes very remarkable for their minute and exact detail, do not seem to be so rare. But with regard to public events we have every reason to believe that the dispensation enunciated by our Saviour, “ It is not for you to know the times or moments which the Father has put in His own power,” is still in full vigour. Now even those Agnostics or Rationalists who may believe in some special intuitive faculty or power of second sight would probably allow that the Christian mystic is, to say the least, not less likely to participate in such a gift than the ordinary palmist or astrologer. If the hagiographers, then, who have sedulously busied themselves with collecting examples of the prophetic faculty are constrained to admit that the Saints throughout the ages have added practically nothing to our knowledge of the future destiny of the world, is it likely that any obscure Brother Johannes, or Zadkiel or Madame de Thèbes will have information to impart which is one jot more worthy of confidence than the decision of the tossing of a coin?

I have left myself very little space to speak of those predictions concerning the present war which in a hundred different forms have been circulated in books and periodical literature since hostilities began. One's dominant feeling with regard to them comes in time to be a sense of humiliation at having wasted valuable hours over such unprofitable material. For there is absolutely nothing which deserves serious investigation. The only respect in which the prophetic literature of 1914 has any advantage over that current in 1871 is that there is less of it. The appeal to the superstitious credulity of the reader is not now, perhaps, so obvious as it was, but the fraudulent element has grown, and it is hard to believe that the editors of these later pretended prophecies are really in good faith.

Take, for example, the prediction attributed to the Blessed J. M. Vianney, the celebrated Curé d'Ars. It has been readapted to fit present circumstances in the following form:

"The enemy will not retire immediately. They will again return, destroying as they come. Effective resistance will not be offered them. They will be allowed to advance, but after that their communications will be cut off and they will suffer great losses. . They will then retire towards their own country, but they will be followed, and not many will reach their goal. They will then restore what they have taken away, and more in addition, Much more terrible things will happen than have yet been seen. Paris will suffer, but a great triumph will be witnessed on the Feast of Our Lady."

Now, apart from the fact that the terms of this supposed prophecy depend entirely upon the recollection of an uneducated lay-brother, twelve or fifteen years after the Curé had strangely selected him as the recipient of these confidences, it is certain that the editors who published it in 1872 understood the prediction to apply to a return of the Prussians before the garrisons, left to secure the payment of the war indemnity, had been withdrawn from French soil. And the last sentence about the Feast of Our Lady (September 8) is a fraudulent addition, of which no trace occurs in the other copies.(See Voix Prophétiques (fifth edition), 11, 182.)

Even more discreditable is the pro luction of a prophecy supposed to have been made by the famous Dom Bosco, which speaks of an invasion of France by the Germans in August and September, during which time “the Pope shall be dead and live again.” The superiors of the Order which Dom Bosco instituted, men who knew the saintly founder personally, deny that he ever made any such prediction. Further, though the statement was made that this document had been printed in the Matin as far back as June, 1901, inquiry at the Paris office of the Matin elicited the reply that no trace of it was to be found in the paper and that nothing was known about it.

Regarding another lengthy and remarkable prognostic which was circulated in August last as “the famous prophecy of Mayence, printed in 1854,” one can only point out that not a scrap of evidence is offered that anyone ever set eyes upon it before it saw the light a few months ago. On the other hand, as it gives a startingly accurate summary of the Franco-Prussian war of 1870-71, it is quite incredible, on the supposition that it was really a “ famous prophecy” published in 1854, that no one of the scores of collections which were compiled in 1872 or thereabouts should make any reference to it. I have examined many volumes of this kind and I can attest that I have never come across a single allusion to “the famous prophecy of Mayence.”

Lastly, there is the “ Brother Johannes ” document, the most audacious of all. Not only does this supposed seventeenth century monk speak of the new Pope Benedict by name, but he tells us of the aerial warfare, of the clergy serving as combatants, of the one-armed Emperor whose soldiers have “God with us” for their device, of the manifesto of the theologians, of the extension of the war to east as well as west, etc., etc. The prophecy was communicated to the Figaro in two installments by that notoriously bizarre and extravagant personage, M. Josephin Péladan, who calls himself Le Sar (the seer) and dresses in Oriental robes to suit the character. He declares that he found it among his father's papers, and that his father obtained it from a Premonstratensian monk in the south of France. When all is said, the fact remains that no one pretends to know anything of Brother Johannes or his prophecy. No early book or manuscript has been produced nor any scrap of confirmation of the statement which M. Péladan has made. Moreover, while the prediction fits the circumstances of the war as they were known in September, at the time of its publication, not a hint is given of those not less striking later developments, the trench warfare, the sack of Belgium, the “blockade ” by submarines, etc., which could not then have been foreseen. On the other hand, the predicted cursing of the Kaiser-Antichrist by the new Pope has not been realized and is not likely to be realized. The truth seems to be that the Sar very possibly did find a rather extravagant prophetic document among the papers of his father, who collected such things. This, as we learn from the evidence of a certain Madame Faust, he converted into a sort of weird rhapsody and he used it about 1891 as a recitation piece. When the present war broke out M. Péladan bethought him of this ready made oracle, and after adding various effective touches about Pope Benedict, the Kaiser's theologians, and other incidents then palpitating with actuality, he sent off the whole concoction to the Figaro to be printed.

As a last word it may be well to point out that in spite of what has been said about the avidity of the French Legitimists in swallowing predictions and portents, this form of credulity is not to be regarded as any monopoly of Catholicism. On the one hand such vigorous writers as Bishop Dupanloup and Père De Buck soon inaugurated a healthy reaction in favour of sobriety and commonsense; on the other, the immense sale of publications like the astrological almanacs, the vogue of palmists and crystal-gazers, and the constant demand in evangelical circles for commentaries on the Apocalypse, show that an eager desire to penetrate the secrets of the future is common to all mankind. We may congratulate ourselves that in the present war the prophets have attracted comparatively little attention, and that no effort has at any rate been made to regard the acceptance of their utterances as if it were a test of orthodoxy."

 Rev. Fr. Herbert Thurston, S.J. p.341, The Plague of the False Prophets. The Dublin Review, Volume 156 edited by Nicholas Patrick Wiseman 1915

The War and the Prophets, Fr. Herbert Thurston

"Septuagesima Time lasts three weeks. The first week is called Septuagesima Week, the second Sexagesima Week, and the third Quinquagesima Week ; names taken from the Sundays beginning each week.
(...)

The number seven is found in numberless places in the Bible, and here the holy Church invites us to stop and ponder on this number, and on these seasons of the year. Let us go back to the olden times of the fathers of the Church. St. Augustine says "there are two seasons, one the time of our trials and of our temptation during this life, the other the time of our happiness and of our glories in the other life. We celebrate these times, the first before Easter, the second after Easter. The season before Easter represents the trials of the present life, the season after Easter signifies the happiness we will have in heaven. Such is the reason we pass the first of these seasons in fasting and in prayer, while the second season is consecrated to canticles of joy, and then fasting is not allowed."

The Church, the guardian and the interpreter of the Holy Bible, tells us that there are two places relating to the two seasons spoken of by St. Augustine. They are Babylon and Jerusalem. Babylon is the symbol of this world of sin and of temptation, in the midst of which the Christian must pass his time of trial ; Jerusalem is the heavenly country where the good Christian rests after his trials and his labors of this life. Of these two cities, the one worldly, the other heavenly, St. Augustine writes in his immortal work, " The City of God." The people of Israel, whose history in the Bible is but a grand figure of the history of the human race, were exiled from Jerusalem and were held as captives in Babylon. Their captivity in Babylon lasted for sixty-six years, and according to the great writers on the Liturgy of the Church, the seventy days of fasting and of prayer, from Septuagesima Sunday to Easter, recall the captivity of the Jews in Babylon.

Seven is a mystic number.  In six days, God made the world and he rested on the seventh day. The most ancient traditions of Christianity tell us (...) that the race of man upon the earth is divided into seven great epochs. The first dated from the creation of Adam to the Flood, the second from Noah to the calling of Abraham, the third from Abraham to Moses, the fourth from Moses to David, the fifth from David to the captivity in Babylon, the sixth from the captivity to the coming of the Savior, and the seventh from the time of our Lord to the end of the world. Thus the age of man on the earth is measured by these great epochs. During these different times the Lord prepared the race to receive their Redeemer, and to come into the Church He established for their salvation. In the first epoch, from Adam to Abraham, all justice, all goodness, all godliness, which look down from heaven and was planted in the heart of man, was driven out by sin. In the second, from Abraham to Moses, God called the people of Israel and made of them his chosen race, to receive the prophecies relating to His Son. In the third, from Moses to David, God commanded the tabernacle to be made, the Rites and Services of the Jewish law to be carried out, to prefigure the Services of our Church. In the fourth, from David to the Captivity in Babylon, the nation of the Jews were ruled by kings, the temple of Solomon stood grand and gorgeous, and the world saw the greatest glories of the people of God. In the sixth, from the captivity to the days of our Lord, the Jewish people were the prey of conquering nations; the Maccabees alone could restore in part their departed splendors. In the seventh, from Christ to the end of the world, the Church, founded and established by our Lord, shines out before the nations called to the faith. Its glories are far greater than those of the tabernacle of Moses. The cathedrals of Christendom exceed in splendor Solomon's temple. The ceremonies in our sanctuaries are more sublime than the most gifted imagination of the Jewish priests could fancy. (...)

Thus the number seven is deeply planted in the works of the Creator of the universe. Thus for seven weeks we bow our heads in prayer and fasting before the coming of the glorious day of Easter, and in joy and praise we raise our heads for seven weeks during the glorious Paschal time following Easter. The seven weeks of sadness for our sins before the passion of our Lord, are followed by the seven weeks of happiness following His resurrection. Thus after having fasted and prayed like the Savior in the desert, we rejoice with Him as we rise from the sackcloth and ashes of Lent. We rise with our souls filled with the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit imprinted in our souls. This is what the mystic writers on the ceremonies of the Church tell us. They say that the seven weeks before Easter, and the seven weeks following Easter, are according to the mystic number seven, revealed to man from heaven.

The seven weeks from Septuagesima to Easter yearly come and go, while the years of our lives, like the waters of the rivers, flow onward to be lost in the vastness of the ocean ; thus our years pass rapidly on toward the boundless ocean of eternity. The Church, our mother, tells us each year to stop and to think of the Babylon of this world in which we live as strangers, exiled from our home. She tells us to hang our harps on the willows growing on the banks of the Euphrates, like the Jews of old held captives in Babylon, and to prepare for our call to our heavenly Jerusalem above, which is our home beyond the skies, and whose glories we celebrate during the joyful time which follows Easter. She wishes us to sing the canticles of joy in her services, and that while we live here, far from our home in heaven, yet to keep our thoughts on God while in this world, lest attached to earthly things we may be exiled for ever from everlasting bliss with him, for our unfaithfulness while here below, yet,"How shall we sing the song of the Lord in a strange land?"  Following thus the inspired Book, the songs and hymns of gladness are hushed in the Church Services during this time of penance, signifying our exile here below. At other times of the year the heavenly Alleluias are often repeated, now they are heard no more, for exiles in the Babylon of this world of sin, we are traveling onward toward the Jerusalem which is above, for "we are travelers far from the Lord."  

(...)

The joyful forty days of the Christmas season have passed. With happiness have we celebrated the birth of God on earth. Now the Church enters the sad and solemn time when we prepare for the mysteries of the suffering and the dying Savior. All around us in the Church are the sombre signs of penance. We are entering in amid the three weeks of our baptism of penance, that we may well and worthily celebrate the Lord's baptism of blood in his sufferings for us on Calvary's cross. We are leaving Bethlehem and going to Calvary. We are leaving the infant God in his mother's arms, and following his steps to see him fasting in the desert. We are leaving him in the manger, and looking for him in Gethsemane. The Illuminating Life of the Christmas time has passed, and the Preparing Life of the Septuagesima time has come. We have seen him in his sweetness as a child; we are going to see him in his weakness as a man, fasting in the desert. But we must pray God for his light, in order to see his Son as each year the Church shows him to us. We must ask for grace to look first into ourselves, and see the sins which dim the brightness of our souls and keep us from seeing the truths of religion. We must ask the light of God to clearly understand how the human race had fallen when our parents sinned by eating in the garden, and to realize the deep wickedness of our sins and the deeper mercy of God in becoming man to save us from being lost forever.

The Septuagesima Season, then, is the time of the year for the deepest thought. In the words of a great writer of the eleventh century, the Apostle says, " We know that every creature groaneth and travaileth in pain, even till now ; and not only it, but ourselves, also, who have the first fruits of the spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption of the sons of God, the redemption' of our body. ' That creature which groans is the soul looking at the corruption of sin which weeps to be still subject to the vanities of this world in this exile of tears. It is the cry of the Royal Prophet, " Woe is me that my sojourning is prolonged." Thus holy David desired the end of his exile in this vale of tears. The Apostle who was wrapped up to the third heaven says, "I am straightened between two, having a desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ."St. Paul wishes to be taken from this world of sorrow and to be with Christ.

We must then pray during these days more than at any other time, giving ourselves up to sighs and to tears, so as to merit by the bitterness of our repentance, to return to the innocence we lost in our first parents. Let us weep then on the way, so as to rejoice at its end. Let us pass along the arena of this life so as to merit the awards awaiting us at its end. Let us not be like foolish travelers, who, forgetting their country, get attached to their place of exile and remain loitering on the way to their home. Let us not be like the senseless people who look not for the medicine which will cure their deadly sickness. Let us run to the healer of our diseases, saying to him, " Have mercy on me, O Lord, for I am weak  heal me, O Lord, for my bones are troubled." Then our Physician will forgive us our sins. He will cure our sickness. He will shower down on us his choicest blessings.

Such are the thoughts which the Church brings before her children during this holy time of Septuagesima, that all may be prepared to celebrate well and worthily the holy Season of Lent. "

Source: The Festal Year, Or, The Origin, History, Ceremonies And Meaning Of The Sundays, Seasons, Feasts And Festivals Of The Church During The Year, Explained For The People by Fr. James L. Meagher 1883

Saint Catherine of Siena Catholic Church, Wake Forest, Raleigh Diocese, NC

"Mr. LePlay, a world-renowned scientist, who during many long years of close application made the study of social questions his special occupation, but a short time before his death tersely recorded in a single phrase the result of his investigations. "Nations," he wrote, "that observe the Commandments of God prosper; nations that transgress them are on the decline; while nations that openly reject them are dying out."

Now, the first and all important duty prescribed by the ten Commandments is that of divine worship: "The Lord thy God shalt thou adore and Him only shalt thou serve" were the words of our Lord addressed to the tempter. And why must we adore God? Because HE IS. For how, if His existence cannot be denied, are we to refuse Him the homage which His sovereignty demands? Moses was drawing nearer to the burning bush, where "the Lord had appeared to him in a flame of fire," and he was bid to stand back by the Almighty: "Come not nigh hither, put off the shoes from thy feet; for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground.... I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob." Moses hid his face, for he durst not look at God.

And when Moses was about to receive his mission, at the prayer of Moses God gave His own name, a name implying the eternity of His duration and the necessity of His existence: "I AM WHO AM,... Thus shalt thou say to the Children of Israel: "He Who IS sent me to you"... This is My name forever; and this is my memorial unto all generations."

God is the Supreme, self-existent and Necessary Being immutable from all and for all Eternity, for whom past, present and future are as the minute in which we live.

"But amongst the many claims that God has upon us: the very first of all is the claim of adoration or worship.  He is our God - our Creator. He is infinite in perfection, infinite in wisdom, infinite in power, mercy and love. The very first thing that God demands is that he should admit and recognize these attributes of God, and, recognizing them, that we should bow down and adore them. Therefore the Holy Ghost tell us in Scripture, that if any man wish to approach God the very first thing is how to know God as He is. This virtue is called religion, in which we recognize God in Himself, in His attributes, in His creatures; and the first act of religion is the act of adoration or worship.

"Now, the Psalmist who uttered the words "I have love, O Lord! the beauty of Thy house and the place where Thy glory  dwelleth" had not yet beheld the glory of God, the temple of Jerusalem. The temple was not yet built, but was to be the work of His son, the great and wise King Solomon. But David saw it not, and yet he said: "I have love, O Lord, the beauty of Thy house." He beheld it in the vision of his mind, he saw the stateliness of its grandeur, the majesty of its proportions, the richness of its material. He saw there the gold of Ophir, the scarlet twice-dyed of Tyre, and the costly marbles taken out of the hearts of the hills, and he rejoiced because all this was fitting for the house in which the glory of the Lord God was to dwell.

"But above all things he beheld in the vision then in his mind all the tribes of Israel coming to Jerusalem to worship in the temple and adore their God. He beheld the beauty of adoration surpassing all other beauties of the House of God. He saw as the vision extended before his prophetic eyes the successive generations of true Israelites worshiping there, and he rejoiced; until at length he beheld the Virgin leading in that Child, who was God, into is own house. Then it was in the fullness of his prophetic heart he exclaimed: "O Lord, I have loved the beauty of This house and the place where Thy glory dwelleth; for lo! the Lord God has sent down His only Son into His own mansion;" and then the vision extended until the prophet saw the fading glories of Jerusalem pass away. He saw the veil rent and the holiness depart from the house of God, until the abomination of desolation was there. He saw the mercy-seat empty, but again he saw rise from out the ruins of the one temple of Jerusalem ten thousand temples surpassing each other in beauty and loveliness. He saw the ten thousand temples of the living God spring up under the sky, and everywhere the altar of sanctification, the tabernacle of the Divine Presence. And the latter glories far exceeded the former, and then it was that he again exclaimed: "I have loved, O Lord! the beauty of Thy house and the place where Thy glory dwelleth." (The beauty of Divine worship, Fr. Thomas N. Burke, OP vol 3, page 414)

This worship we owe God is not, then, merely interior and personal. Far from it. The Holy Council of Trent reminds us that is must also be outward and public: "Man, in fact, being so constituted that it is but with difficulty, if outward signs be wanting, as he is body and soul, that he can raise his thoughts to Heaven and consider the things that are of God. Wherefore Holy Church, like a tender mother, has instituted certain rites and varied ceremonies, mystic blessings, lights, incense, sacred vestments and a number of other outward practices based on Apostolic teaching and Tradition." Or, in the words of the illustrious Dominican: "The very nature of man requires this; for such is the intimate union of souls and body in man, that it is impossible to reach the soul save through the senses of the body; if you wish to influence the mind of man, and touch his heart either for good or for evil, you must appeal to his bodily senses. God Himself respects His own divine disposition in this regard, making the sense the ordinary channels of His highest graces; and the Church of God - the only true interpreter of His Will - whose mission it is to raise fallen man up to God, to purify and to preserve his soul, and to make him perfect by charity, makes uses of everything that strikes and captivates the senses, in order thereby to reach man's soul, to touch his heart, and offer to God the homage of the entire creature, as well of the body as of the soul." This will explain to us why the Catholic Church uses so much of external grandeur in her ceremonies. The lights and ornaments of the altar, the vestments of the priests, the smoke of incense, the pealing notes of the organ, the lofty dome, the graceful arch, the pictures and statues - all these things are intended by the Church as means whereby to reach the hearts and souls of her children, by instructing, ennobling, touching and captivating their senses.

"Now, the mission of the Church in this world is to win man to God; in order to do this, she must take him as he is, and treat him according to his nature, leading him up from natural things to supernatural - from the things that are made to the invisible things of God, and to a knowledge of "His eternal power and divinity." She must turn to God all the powers of man's soul, all the affections of his heart; and therefore she seizes upon all that is beautiful in this world, and makes it subservient to this end.

"Hence, the fine arts have always found their most generous protection, as they found their highest inspiration in the Catholic Church. Painting and sculpture were exclusively hers until the heretical spirit of this world, and then they fell, nor found in their wretched imitations of Paganism anything that could make up to them for the fair Christianity which they had abandoned.

"But painting and sculpture, after all, can hardly be called the offspring of the Church, though she consecrated, refined and exalted them. They flourished in ancient times, and Greece and Rome beheld them in all their glory. But there is another of the fine arts which God seems to have consecrated in a peculiar manner to the services of the sanctuary, and  which may be said to be especially the child of the Church, and this is music." (Music in Catholic Worship, Fr. Thomas N. Burke OP, Vol 1 p345)

Though we have borrowed already largely from the great Irish orator, we cannot bring ourselves to omit the development of this last thought, which we find in another part of the first lecture from which we quoted: "If He (Christ our Lord) had intended to appeal only to the mind of man, He would have stopped at the tradition of the word; but the intention of Our Lord Jesus Christ in founding the Christian religion was to go farther and deeper than the mere intelligence. It was to strike home to the heart. It was to penetrate the spirit and to obtain possession of the whole man; and therefore He did not stop at the mere granting of the word, creating light and faith, but He furnished His Church with every means by which she can appeal to the heart, move the spirit, bow down the head, and chasten and purify the body as well as the soul of man; and amongst the means with which God furnished His Church to reach the heart and to strike the spirit of man in His worship, one of the most direct, one of the most powerful is the appeal which is made by the music of the Church to the ear, and though the hearing to the heart of man.

  Church music, the voice of praise lifted up in melodious chords; the swell and the pealing of the organ bearing aloft the loud hosanna of adoration to God; the soft, low, tender notes that steal through the senses into the heart of man, and draw us away from ourselves until we are altogether before God; a mild strain that falls like the breathing of God's angels in its soothing influence on the trouble spirit, until we are truly called, lulled into that state of sacred rest that is necessary in order to hear the voice and realize the presence of God; the storm-rushing notes that proclaim in voice of praise, some strong emotion of joy, some delightful surprise of revealed truth, some mighty mystery giving us triumph over the enemies of God - all this interpreted by the Church's music forms one of the most powerful appeals which she makes in her worship to man, not only to his intelligence but it rouses the heart of man to the preacher, proclaiming revealed truth as on appeal to the mind."

So much for the necessity of outward ceremonial and splendor in the worship man owes to his God. But there is something more of which we must not lose sight. God did not create man to, as it were, an isolated or solitary being, to live apart or estranged from this fellow-men. On the contrary, He created him for companionship with these his fellow-mortals. Both reason and infallible Church demand that God's worship be not outward and personal only, but that it be public and social. For, as the individual is wholly dependent on his Creator, so society depends on Him for its existence and preservation; and without the public recognition of God's supreme sanctioning authority, society would suffer dissolution, and the reign of barbarism or anarchy would be the inevitable outcome.

As for the principal effects of outward ceremonial or sensible signs in divine worship, instituted, we must remember, by the Savior Himself and perpetuated by His legitimate Spouse, the Holy Catholic Church, show of all oratorical ornament, they may be stated as follows:

- The great liturgical prayer - for such would be the correct appellation of divine worship enhanced by the many holy rites which accompany it - raises up the hearts of the faithful to the consideration and contemplation of spiritual and divine things; it constitutes the most perfect and most striking of all professions of faith; it unceasingly reminds us of our great duties; it forms the most powerful of social ties; in a word, as a master mind in such matters has put it, "it is above all divine; it is at one and the same time milk for the little ones and the bread of the strong, in this, that like unto the miraculous manna of the desert, it assumes every savor according to the taste of those whose nourishment it becomes." (The Liturgical Year, Don Gueranger, T.T. p. 16)

It cannot certainly escape our observation that the greater the pomp and splendor which surrounds the worship given to God by His Holy Church, the more do the wonderful effects we have enumerated manifest themselves, and all the greater exuberance. For no other reason has the Church, as we have seen, from the very beginning, even in the hidden recesses of the catacombs, and the dim windings of subterraneous Rome, endeavored to impart to divine worship all the grandeur, solemnity and beauty at her command, circumstances of time and place being taken into account. Never has she hearkened for an instant to these imitators of the Iscariot, who have lived in every country and in every age, and who in our own days more particularly persist in crying out: "To what purpose is this waste? For this might have been sold for much and given to the poor." Let us not be dazzled by their specious objections,and let us bear in mind that if Jesus Christ, our God made Man, who of all the poor ought to be dearest to us, were honored and surrounded as He should be with becoming splendor in His tabernacles and in His temples, all of His suffering members, the indigent, the blind, the halt and the weary, would be the better for it, and that from that hour waning zeal and charity growing cold would be fanned into flame in the heats of the faithful, and good works would flourish and bear fruits in abundance.

Let those on whom God has lavished the goods of this world, surrounded without stint with the comforts of this life, endowed with all the resources of wealth, rejoice in being able to rear temples and shrines befitting the august, the infinite majesty of the living God. The "eye of the needle" will be expanded to the proportions of Heaven's great portals thrown open to receive them, and their mansion will be all the grander and more sumptuous for eternity.

Let those who have caught from some faint echo of celestial melody the true inspiration of heavenly song enrich the repertory of the Church's music;
or, in a lesser degree, according to the talent they have received from the Master, contribute to the sweetness and majesty of her chant or accompanying harmony.

Let those who have snatched from the bow which spans the heavens the secret of blending, not with tawdry effect or meretricious coloring, its evanescent hues and of fixing them on groined arch or willing canvass, lend their skill to the decorating of God' sanctuaries.

But let all our beloved Apostles of Prayer, by whom the great LITURGICAL PRAYER should be held in such high esteem and reverence, energetically battle against lukewarm piety, the growing evil of the day, which dims the splendor of divine worship. It is in this particular that the sterner sex especially should make a greater effort to add, by their presence, solemnity to our feasts and sacred ceremonies, and lend their influence to make them more imposing.

As for the devout sex, women and Christian maidens, let them continue from day to day to swell the membership of such excellent associations as tabernacle societies or workers for poor churches, and lay under contribution their  innate taste and deft fingers for the ornamentation of the altar in the many divers ways the love of God's holy places alone can suggest. And when all else is wanting and the God of all majesty is adored in the poor nude chapel, recalling the penury of Bethlehem's crib, let the altar line be at least spotless and of immaculate whiteness, for there one is to rest Holiness and Purity itself, for who is there who is too poor or too lowly not to be able to assist in maintaining cleanliness in whatever is consecrated to God's service? Nothing is too good or too costly to be devoted to Him, neither is there any office to be considered menial when performed for the God of Glory.

(...) May our prayer be, that divine worship may again become what it was in the most glorious days of the Church: "the light of the learned, the book of the lowly and the joy of nations."

Source: The Canadian Messenger of the Sacred Heart, Vol 4, page 81. 1894

O! Holy Virgin, powerful Help of Christians, we entreat thee, come to our aid. Come quickly with the celestial army, especially the intrepid Archangel Michael. Kindle in all hearts, especially in the hearts of Priests, the sacred fire of most ardent zeal. Place thyself at our head, august Mother of the God of hosts, and lead us to the battle. Sustain us by thy prayers; encourage us by thine eye. Scatter before us these new infernal legions, as the wind scatters the clouds. Powerful Help of Christians, give us victory, give us triumph and peace; obtain for us a holy life and a holy death. Amen.

"The Holy Ghost and the Church

5. The Church which, already conceived, came forth from the side of the second Adam in His sleep on the Cross, first showed herself before the eyes of men on the great day of Pentecost. On that day the Holy Ghost began to manifest His gifts in the mystic body of Christ, by that miraculous outpouring already foreseen by the prophet Joel (ii., 28-29), for the Paraclete "sat upon the apostles as though new spiritual crowns were placed upon their heads in tongues of fire" (S. Cyril Hier. Catech. 17). Then the apostles "descended from the mountain," as St. John Chrysostom writes, "not bearing in their hands tables of stone like Moses, but carrying the Spirit in their mind, and pouring forth the treasure and the fountain of doctrines and graces" (In Matt. Hom. L, 2 Cor. iii., 3). Thus was fully accomplished that last promise of Christ to His apostles of sending the Holy Ghost, who was to complete and, as it were, to seal the deposit of doctrine committed to them under His inspiration. "I have yet many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now; but when He, the Spirit of Truth, shall come, He will teach you all truth" ( John xvi., 12-13). For He who is the Spirit of Truth, inasmuch as He proceedeth both from the Father, who is the eternally True, and from the Son, who is the substantial Truth, receiveth from each both His essence and the fullness of all truth. This truth He communicates to His Church, guarding her by His all powerful help from ever falling into error, and aiding her to foster daily more and more the germs of divine doctrine and to make them fruitful for the welfare of the peoples. And since the welfare of the peoples, for which the Church was established, absolutely requires that this office should be continued for all time, the Holy Ghost perpetually supplies life and strength to preserve and increase the Church. "I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Paraclete, that He may abide with you for ever, the Spirit of Truth" (John xiv., 16, 17).

6. By Him the bishops are constituted, and by their ministry are multiplied not only the children, but also the fathers-that is to say, the priests-to rule and feed the Church by that Blood wherewith Christ has redeemed Her. "The Holy Ghost hath placed you bishops to rule the Church of God, which He bath purchased with His own Blood" (Acts xx., 28). And both bishops and priests, by the miraculous gift of the Spirit, have the power of absolving sins, according to those words of Christ to the Apostles: "Receive ye the Holy Ghost; whose sins you shall forgive they are forgiven them, and whose you shall retain they are retained" (John xx., 22, 23). That the Church is a divine institution is most clearly proved by the splendour and glory of those gifts and graces with which she is adorned, and whose author and giver is the Holy Ghost. Let it suffice to state that, as Christ is the Head of the Church, so is the Holy Ghost her soul. "What the soul is in our body, that is the Holy Ghost in Christ's body, the Church" (St. Aug., Serm. 187, de Temp.). This being so, no further and fuller "manifestation and revelation of the Divine Spirit" may be imagined or expected; for that which now takes place in the Church is the most perfect possible, and will last until that day when the Church herself, having passed through her militant career, shall be taken up into the joy of the saints triumphing in heaven. (...)

An Annual Novena Decreed

13. Wherefore, We decree and command that throughout the whole Catholic Church,this year and in every subsequent year, a Novena shall take place before Whit-Sunday, in all parish churches, and also, if the local Ordinaries think fit, in other churches and oratories. To all who take part in this Novena and duly pray for Our intention, We grant for each day an Indulgence of seven years and seven quarantines; moreover, a Plenary Indulgence on any one of the days of the Novena, or on Whit-Sunday itself, or on any day during the Octave; provided they shall have received the Sacraments of Penance and the Holy Eucharist, and devoutly prayed for Our intention. We will that those who are legitimately prevented from attending the Novena, or who are in places where the devotions cannot, in the judgment of the Ordinary, be conveniently carried out in church, shall equally enjoy the same benefits, provided they make the Novena privately and observe the other conditions. Moreover We are pleased to grant, in perpetuity, from the Treasury of the Church, that whosoever, daily during the Octave of Pentecost up to Trinity Sunday inclusive, offer again publicly or privately any prayers, according to their devotion, to the Holy Ghost, and satisfy the above conditions, shall a second time gain each of the same Indulgences. All these Indulgences We also permit to be applied to the suffrage of the souls in Purgatory."

Source: Divinum Illud Munus, Pope Leo XIII May 9, 1897

In the course of the audience, the Pope made it clear that institutes such as the Fraternity of St. Peter are not affected by the general provisions of the Motu Proprio Traditionis Custodes, since the use of the ancient liturgical books was at the origin of their existence and is provided for in their constitutions.

The Holy Father subsequently sent a decree signed by him and dated February 11, the day the Fraternity was solemnly consecrated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, confirming for the members of the Fraternity the right to use the liturgical books in force in 1962, namely: the Missal, the Ritual, the Pontifical and the Roman Breviary.

Source: Fraternite Saint Pierre

"The Holy See sanctioned a special solemn“ Benedictio Aquae in Vigilia Epiphaniae Domini ", with a separate formula duly approved (6 December, 1890). This blessing is found in the recent typical edition of the Roman Ritual.

 It consists of the Litany of the Saints, chanted kneeling, ending with Pater noster ... et ne nos inducas, etc. Then follow three Psalms, "Afferte Domino, filii Dei” (28), “Deus noster refugium” (45), and “ Laudate Dominum " (146). Next the celebrant chants the Exorcism, concluding with “Sanctus, sanctus, sanctus Dominus Deus Sabaoth ". After this the chanters take up the antiphon “ Hodie caelesti sponso juncta est Ecclesia”, followed by the canticles Benedictus and Magnificat.

The celebrant now chants Dominus vobiscum and the oration taken from the office of the Epiphany, “ Deus qui hodierna die Unigenitum tuum Gentibus stella duce revelasti ”, after which the Ordo ad faciendam A quam benedictam used for Sunday, given in the ritual and missal, is carried out in full with the exorcism and blessing of the salt and water. It may prevent confusion to note here that the exorcism which the celebrant chants at the beginning of the ceremony is the one found in the Appendix of the Roman Ritual under the title “Exorcismus in satanam et angelos apostaticos ” which was issued by Leo XIII. In the present ceremony it begins with the words " Exorcizamus te". The function ends with the Te Deum; after which the people take some of the blessed water for their homes and the sick.

The significance of this blessing is that it marks the opening of the Epiphany cycle in the ecclesiastical year, and offers an opportunity to explain the continual care of the Church for her children in the daily course of their lives and for the sick. It is in this way that the sacramental channels flowing from the Tabernacle in our churches are utilized. Our Catholic people thus find a way to keep faith in the mysteries of religion, and to make holiday for the Lord as readily as they will for the civic festivals which a secular sense of gratitude inspires.

- Some Catholic families are accustomed to mark the doors of their houses for the feast of the Epiphany with the letters C. M. B., and a cross between each of the letters, which stand for the supposed names of the three Wise Men from the East. These people ask the priest to bless the doors with holy water, after which they invite guests to a feast, the priest being supposed to stay with them as at a wedding or christening. Is there any sanction for this?

Resp. An old custom exists of blessing a piece or pieces of chalk which are afterward used to mark the doors of houses with the initials of the three holy Kings from the East, Caspar, Melchior, Balthasar, who are supposed to bring a special blessing on the inhabitants. A formula for this is found in the Roman Ritual (Benedictio Cretae in Festo Epiphaniae)."

Source:The American Ecclesiastical Review.

"6. If We look into the kind of life men lead everywhere, it would be impossible to avoid the conclusion that public and private morals differ much from the precepts of the Gospel. Too sadly, alas, do the words of the Apostle St. John apply to our age, "all that is in the world, is the concupiscence of the flesh, and the concupiscence of the eyes and the pride of life."(1) For in truth, most men, with little care whence they come or whither they go, place all their thoughts and care upon the weak and fleeting goods of this life; contrary to nature and right reason they willingly give themselves up to those ways of which their reason tells them they should be the masters. It is a short step from the desire of luxury to the striving after the means to obtain it. Hence arises an unbridled greed for money, which blinds those whom it has led captive, and in the fulfillment of its passion hurries them madly along, often without regard for justice or injustice, and not seldom accompanied by a disgraceful contempt for the poverty of their neighbor. Thus many who live in the lap of luxury call themselves brethren of the multitude whom in their heart of hearts they despise; and in the same way with minds puffed up by pride, they take no thought to obey any law, or fear any power. They call self love liberty, and think themselves "born free like a wild ass's colt. "(2) Snares and temptation to sin abound; We know that impious or immoral dramas are exhibited on the stage; that books and journals are written to jeer at virtue and ennoble crime; that the very arts, which were intended to give pleasure and proper recreation, have been made to minister to impurity. Nor can We look to the future without fear, for new seeds of evil are sown, and as it were poured into the heart of the rising generation. As for the public schools, there is no ecclesiastical authority left in them, and in the years when it is most fitting for tender minds to be trained carefully in Christian virtue, the precepts of religion are for the most part unheard. Men more advanced in age encounter a yet graver peril from evil teaching, which is of such a kind as to blind the young by misleading words, instead of filling them with the knowledge of the truth. Many now-a-days seek to learn by the aid of reason alone, laying divine faith entirely aside; and, through the removal of its bright light, they stumble and fail to discern the truth, teaching for instance, that matter alone exists in the world; that men and beasts have the same origin and a like nature; there are some, indeed, who go so far as to doubt the existence of God, the Ruler and Maker of the World, or who err most grievously, like the heathens, as to the nature of God. Hence the very nature and form of virtue, justice, and duty are of necessity destroyed. Thus it is that while they hold up to admiration the high authority of reason, and unduly elevate the subtlety of the human intellect, they fall into the just punishment of pride through ignorance of what is of more importance.

7. When the mind has thus been poisoned, at the same time the moral character becomes deeply and essentially corrupted; and such a state can only be cured with the utmost difficulty in this class of men, because on the one hand wrong opinions vitiate their judgment of what is right, and on the other the light of Christian faith, which is the principle and basis of all justice, is extinguished.

8. In this way We daily see the numerous ills which afflict all classes of men. These poisonous doctrines have utterly corrupted both public and private life; rationalism, materialism, atheism, have begotten socialism, communism, nihilism evil principles which it was not only fitting should have sprung from such parentage but were its necessary offspring. In truth, if the Catholic religion is willfully rejected, whose divine origin is made clear by such unmistakable signs, what reason is there why every form of religion should not be rejected, not upheld, by such criteria of truth? If the soul is one with the body, and if therefore no hope of a happy eternity remains when the body dies, what reason is there for men to undertake toil and suffering here in subjecting the appetites to right reason? The highest good of man will then lie in enjoying life's pleasures and life's luxuries. And since there is no one who is drawn to virtue by the impulse of his own nature, every man will naturally lay hands on all he can that he may live happily on the spoils of others. Nor is there any power mighty enough to bridle the passions, for it follows that the power of law is broken, and that all authority is loosened, if the belief in an ever-living God, Who commands what is right and forbids what is wrong is rejected. Hence the bonds of civil society will be utterly shattered when every man is driven by an unappeasable covetousness to a perpetual struggle, some striving to keep their possessions, others to obtain what they desire. This is well-nigh the bent of our age.

9. There is, nevertheless, some consolation for Us even in looking on these evils, and We may lift up Our heart in hope. For God "created all things that they might be: and He made the nations of the earth for health. "(3) But as all this world cannot be upheld but by His providence and divinity, so also men can only be healed by His power, of Whose goodness they were called from death to life. For Jesus Christ redeemed the human race once by the shedding of His blood, but the power of so great a work and gift is for all ages; "neither is there salvation in any other."(4) Hence they who strive by the enforcement of law to extinguish the growing flame of lawless desire, strive indeed for justice; but let them know that they will labor with no result, or next to none, as long as they obstinately reject the power of the gospel and refuse the assistance of the Church. Thus will the evil alone be cured, by changing their ways, and returning back in their public and private life to Jesus Christ and Christianity."

Encyclical Leo Xiii