Banished....
by VP
Posted on Thursday February 28, 2019 at 11:00PM in Books
Oh, how sad would be the state of society were the Popes, the bishops and priests to be banished from the earth! The bonds that unite the husband and wife, the child and the parent, the friend and the friend would be broken. Peace and justice would flee from the earth. Robbery, murder, hatred, lust, and all the other crimes condemned by the Gospel, would prevail. Faith would no longer elevate the souls of men to heaven. Hope, the sweet consoler of the afflicted, of the widow and the orphan, would flee away, and in he stead would reign black despair, terror, and suicide. Where would we find the sweet virtue of charity, if the Popes, the bishops and priests were to disappear forever? Where would we find that charity which consoles the poor and forsaken, which lovingly dies the tears of the widow and the orphan; that charity which soothes the sick man in his sufferings, and binds up the wounds of the bleeding defender of his country? Where would we find that charity which casts a spark of divine fire into the hearts of so many religious, bidding them abandon home, friends, and everything that is near and dear to them in this world , to go among strangers, among savage tribes, and gain there, in return for their heroism, nothing but outrage, suffering and death?
Where, I ask, would we find this charity, if the Popes, the bishops and priests were to disappear forever?
Leave a parish for many years without a priest, and the people thereof will become the blind victims of error, of superstition, and of all kinds of vices.
Show me an age, a country, a nation without priests, and I will show you an age, a country, a nation without morals, without virtue. Yes, if "Religion, Science, Liberty, and Justice, Principle and Right, " are not empty sounds - if they have a meaning, they owe their energetic existence in the world to the "salt of the earth" to the Popes, bishops and priests.
Source: The Catholic Priest, Rev. Michael Muller C.S.S.R
New Prayers on CAPG
by VP
Posted on Thursday February 28, 2019 at 11:00PM in Prayers
New prayers on the CAPG:
Way of the Cross for Priests ( Especially for those who are suffering persecution)
Day of Great Reparation: Thursday of Sexagesima week
by VP
Posted on Thursday February 28, 2019 at 08:00AM in Prayers
According to the writings of Mother Catherine Mectilde de Bar, the Day of Great Reparation takes place on the Thursday of Sexagesima week, this year today on February 28. Mère Catherine was a French Benedictine who lived in 17th century and was the foundress of the institute of the Benedictines of the Perpetual Adoration.
Holy Hour of Adoration and Reparation for the sins of Priests
From Fr. Kirby's page: (http://vultuschristi.org/index.php/2019/02/reparation-3/#respond): "In her meditations for the Feast of Reparation, solemnized on the Thursday of Sexagesima week, Mother Mectilde de Bar reflects on the sins of those who serve in the sanctuaries of the Lord. The Church, in her desolation, cries, O you who have some love for me, you who know all the glory that my Bridegroom deserves, see and consider if there be any sorrow like unto mine. O you, ministers of the Lord and friends of the Bridegroom, the Bride address these laments to you. Hasten to relieve her pain by making reparation for the affronts to Jesus Christ; give Him the glory that others would strip from Him. Having once shown the disorders of the children of Israel to the prophet Jeremias, the Lord led him to the entrance of the temple; He ordered him to pierce an opening in its wall, and to look upon what was going on inside. The prophet obeyed, and says that therein he saw even greater abominations. Who, alas, does not grasp that this is but a figure? Who does not know that the sanctuary is the theater par excellence of the Lord’s ignominies? Who does not know that, alongside of priests who are fervent and truly divine, there are priests who are lukewarm and indifferent, priests who are wicked […]? And so, the Church, in calling [us] to reparation, begs us not to forget the outrages made against the glory of her Divine Spouse by His own ministers. Yours it is, she says, to expiate the sins of the Sanctuary; yours it is to bear the weight of the sins of the priesthood. Let us enter into these intentions of the Church, and united in spirit with what remains on earth of fervent Christians, and of priests pressed by the charity of Jesus Christ, let us strive to repair the outrages of indifference and impiety; let us lift up the throne of the Lord, and offer Him the tribute of homage that, by so many titles, He deserves."
Thrones and Scepters
by VP
Posted on Wednesday February 27, 2019 at 11:00PM in Books
Thrones and scepters and crowns have withstood the hierarchy of the Church; but, immutable, like God, who laid its foundation, it is the firm, unshaken center round which the weal and woe of nations move - weal if they adhere to it - woe if they separate from it.
If the world takes from the Pope, the bishops, and priests of the Catholic Church, the cross of gold, they will bless the world with one of wood. If necessary, popes, bishops and priests can suffer and die for the welfare of the world, as Jesus suffered and died. The hierarchy of the Catholic Church is immortal.
Source: The Catholic Priest, Rev. Michael Muller C.S.S.R
The Priest
by VP
Posted on Tuesday February 26, 2019 at 11:00PM in Quotes
He is another Christ - Respect him;
He is God's Representative - Trust him;
He is your benefactor - be thankful to him.
At the Altar
He offers your prayer to God - do not forget him;
He prays for you and yours in purgatory - ask God's mercy for him.
In the confessional
He is the physician of your soul - show him its wounds;
He directs you towards God - follow his admonitions;
He is judging - abide by his decision.
In his daily life
He is human - do not hastily condemn him;
He is human - a word of kindness will cheer him;
If you must tell his faults - tell them to God, that He may give him light and strength to correct them;
He has a great responsibility -ask God to guide him in life, and to be merciful to him in death.
Behold Thy Mother
by VP
Posted on Monday February 25, 2019 at 11:00PM in Books
The Faithful invoke Mary as their Mother, but they invoke Her as private individuals: Priests, on the contrary, invoke Mary, not only as private individuals, but also in the capacity of public ministers of the Church, and in the name of the Church. It is certain that in celebrating Mass, in reciting their office, and in other functions they shine with a splendor which the laity cannot possess, because (as St. Ignatius the Martyr says) they are nearer to the light - they are, as it were, clothed with the light. Now, the Church continually charges Priests to invoke Mary; and, however much faith may sometimes languish, Mary has ever been held in honor and special veneration. How great, then, will be Her liberality to Priests who strive to honor Her, not only in the Church's name, but in the Church's spirit! Therefore, let us invoke Her as our tender Mother, and be assured that She will protect hose who labor for the Church under Her shadow (as Blessed Amadeus says), and that She will, at least, obtain for us strength to bear our tribulations. Let us be assured that She has a special right over us, because Her Son has communicated His rights to Her. Let us, then, call upon Her for succor with the greatest confidence, and She will fill us with grace, and will not refuse us help in fit time.
Source: Meditations for the Use of the Clergy, Oblate of Saint Charles Angelo Scotti
Love of Liturgy
by VP
Posted on Sunday February 24, 2019 at 11:00PM in Books
A priest should love the liturgy, both for his own spiritual life and for that of his people; and likewise for the outward glory of God, for it is the official life of the Church.
A priest should be educated in the liturgical sense that he in turn may educate his people. If he has little taste for liturgy he is wanting in the fullness of his vocation. It is certainly not an over-statement that much more trouble might be taken with the liturgical services that is often the case. To learn to be at home on the sanctuary and to move about quietly and in a dignified way requires a little effort, but presents no great difficulty. Yet often we see it far otherwise.
Ardor
by VP
Posted on Sunday February 24, 2019 at 12:01AM in Books
Blessed are those servants who have had nothing else in view but that through their ministry every knee should bend at the name of Jesus and every tongue should confess His divinity.
Blessed are those servants who, wholly intent upon the word and prayer, have esteemed all things else as dross, so long as they obtained the glory of God and the salvation of souls.
But you indolent servants, useless servants, blush and be confounded. Far from being zealous you flee from labor.
You love a bountiful recompense but not the labors of the ministry, a well-furnished table but not the altar, reading but not the tribunal of penance, conversation but not prayer, walking but not study, amusement but not the care of the flock.
You are ever ready to take part in worldly affairs, but every spiritual duty finds you lukewarm and indolent.
I excavate the walls of your hearts and I find written thereon: Oh, that I did not have to pray! Of, that I did not have to teach catechism! Of, that I did not have to preach! Of, that nobody would come to confession!
Wretched men! How can you call yourselves priests? How can you call yourselves the ministers of God? You do not build up but destroy: You do not heal but kill: You do not save but ruin my sheep.
Source: An Epitome of the Priestly Life, Fr. CLaude Arvisenet
The Priest's Attire
by VP
Posted on Saturday February 23, 2019 at 12:01AM in Books
My son, let thy modesty be known to all men; walk as you have the model prescribed by the Church.
If thou dost not conform to the law of the Church, thou shalt be as the heathen and the publican; see therefore that thou despise not the law of thy Mother; she has decreed what shall be the color and the style of thy clothes; observe her rules.
She has prescribed simplicity and becomingness in priestly attire; comply with her rules; she discountenances the wearing of soiled and tattered garments; cast them aside.
How, my son, has the gold become dim, the fine color been changed?
How many there are among my priests who are ashamed of my uniform! They belong to the royal priesthood and they disdain to wear a royal crown.
They have renounced the world and yet they love to wear clothes of the most worldly pattern; they are my soldiers and scarcely gave they enlisted and been enrolled when they rebel and cast aside my uniform.
They are my servants yet they strive to please men; they are clerics and they appear as bridegrooms; they are of the world, therefore they love the world and the world loves them.
O foolish men! They are esteemed indeed by worldlings, but they are an abomination in my sight; they are ashamed of me before men; I shall be ashamed of them before my Father who is in heaven.
O my son, avoid the society of such disedifying clerics; put far from thee the vanity and price of their demeanor.
Follow not the example of those, my son, who do not give themselves wholly to worldly vanity, but who nevertheless are undisciplined and regardless of rules, saying that they do not bother about these trifles.
Neither follow the example of those, my son, who by their slovenly attire rather provoke laughter than excite veneration.
But study and imitate those who by the becomingness of their external apparel show forth the interior integrity of their lives; let thy feet walk in their footsteps.
Saint Peter Damian
by VP
Posted on Friday February 22, 2019 at 02:19PM in Books
Who can expect the flock to prosper when its shepherd has sunk so deep into the bowels of the devil....Who will make a mistress of a cleric, or a woman of a man? Whom by his lust, will consign a son whom he had spiritually begotten for God to slavery under the iron law of Satanic tyranny?
Saint Peter Damian