Don Bosco, Confessor, 1888 A.D.
by VP
Posted on Saturday January 31, 2026 at 12:00AM in Saints
Don Bosco la Torino in 1880
- "At Castelnuovo, where there was a family gathering and great rejoicing, his mother said to him, what he calls "these memorable words": "You are a priest. In saying Mass henceforward you are then nearest to Jesus Christ. Remember, however, that to begin to say Mass means to begin to suffer. You will not realize it at once, but little by little you will see that your mother has told you the truth. I am confident that every day you will pray for me, whether I am living or dead: that is enough for me. Henceforward, think only of the salvation of souls, and don't be troubled in mind about me." Source: R.F. O'Connor Venerable Don Bosco The American Catholic Quarterly Review ..., Volume 46 1921
"Only two means are left to save Her (the Church) amidst so much confusion: Frequent Communion and Devotion to Mary most holy, making use of every means and doing our best to practice them and having them practiced everywhere and by everybody."
"When speaking of public scandals: Don’t be surprised at anything. People and waywardness go hand in hand. The Church has nothing to fear because even if all were to conspire to overthrow Her, the Holy Spirit would still uphold Her."
- Don Bosco, Apostle of the Papacy:
"The Pope!", says Fr. Lemoyne, biographer of Don Bosco, "there is the theme that Don Bosco wished to develop without ceasing, in order that the supremacy and the glory of the Vicar of Jesus Christ might stand uppermost in the mind of the faithful." The American Ecclesiastical Review, Volume 147 edited by Herman Joseph Heuser 1962
Prayer for Imploring Holy Popes
Kyrie eleison! Christe eleison! Kyrie
eleison! Lord Jesus Christ, You are the Good Shepherd! With your
almighty hand you guide Your pilgrim Church through the storms of each
age.
Adorn the Holy See with holy popes who neither fear the powerful of this
world nor compromise with the spirit of the age, but preserve,
strengthen, and defend the Catholic Faith unto the shedding of their
blood, and observe, protect, and hand on the venerable liturgy of the
Roman Church.
O Lord, return to us through holy popes who, inflamed with the zeal of
the Apostles, proclaim to the whole world: “Salvation is found in no
other than in Jesus Christ. For there is no other name under heaven
given to men by which they should be saved” (see Acts 4:10-12).
Through an era of holy popes, may the Holy See—which is home to all who
promote the Catholic and Apostolic Faith— always shine as the cathedra
of truth for the whole world. Hear us, O Lord, and through the
intercession of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, Mother of the Church,
grant us holy Popes, grant us many holy Popes! Have mercy on us and hear
us! Amen.
+ Athanasius Schneider Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of Saint Mary in Astana
- SPIRITUAL, MORAL AND EDUCATIONAL ASPECTS (Don Giovanni Bosco as an Educator By Carola E. Kopf-Seitz 1926)
"Among all the means which Don Bosco used in education, by far the most important is religion. Even at the Sunday-Oratories so great a part of the time was given to religious exercises that one might feel inclined to think that Don Bosco required more than might be justified. On the other hand, the continual increase in the number of those coming to the Oratory from all quarters showed that the time given to religious exercises was not considered excessive by his auditors, especially since Don Bosco knew how to make them always attractive and entertaining.
In the institutions, the whole life of the community came under the influence of religion. Don Bosco taught the children to offer the first moment of the day to God. After the morning prayer all assisted at Holy Mass during which, besides other prayers, the rosary was to be recited. At every Mass, the children were to have an opportunity for confession and communion. Every task during the day was to be begun and ended with prayer. Special value was placed upon an occasional visit, some time during the day, to the Blessed Sacrament. No day was to pass without spiritual reading. To avoid distractions during the sermons, these were to be short, practical and rich in illustrations. Don Bosco admonished the children never to leave after a sermon without having made some firm resolution which could be carried out during the occupation which followed. He also considered the short address, given in the evening just before retiring, of great importance. Evening prayers in common concluded the day.
Monthly pious exercises, such as the exercise of a holy death on the first Sunday of each month, the solemn celebration of the feasts of the Church, processions and the like, were used by Don Bosco to accustom the children to the frequent reception of the Sacraments and to inspire them with renewed zeal. Frequent confession and communion were in his eyes probably the most important of all the factors of education. In spite of this, probably just because of this, he did not want to see constraint used under any circumstances. In order that the children, in receiving the Sacraments, might obtain their full benefit, he urged them to select a constant confessor to whom they might reveal every corner of their heart.
In order to keep alive the zeal of the children, and in a sense to organize the exercise of their good works, he established several fraternities, for example, the fraternity of St. Aloysius and the Sodality of the Immaculate Conception, in the latter of which only the best and most deserving boys could be received. For the St. Aloysius fraternity, he himself drafted the constitutions, in which he urged upon the members chiefly: frequent communion, the avoiding of evil companions, mutual encouragement to piety, a zeal for duty, obedience towards parents and superiors, and the practice of charity towards neighbors.
By teaching and example he sought to awaken and to cultivate in his protégés a love of prayer; he warned them against listless or inattentive prayer, saying it would be better not to pray at all than to pray poorly. He also warned them of "too much prayer"; they should not take up new devotions without the permission of their father confessor and should go by the words of St. Philip Neri: "Non vi caricate di troppo divozioni, ma siate perseveranti in quelle que avete prese." ( Do not burden yourselves with too many devotions, but be persevering in those you have taken.)
The importance attached by Don Bosco to
the religious life, as a factor of education, is evident also from the
fact that he added to his Regolamento a special chapter about conduct in
the house of God, that he appointed a special catechist to supervise
the religious exercises of the students and that he specified at length
in the Regolamento the duties of this office."
Septuagesima Time
by VP
Posted on Saturday January 31, 2026 at 12:00AM in Tradition
"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.
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 Martina, Virgin and Martyr A.D. 229
by VP
Posted on Friday January 30, 2026 at 12:00AM in Saints
Pietro da Cortona Saint Martina Refuses to Adore the Idols
"A Roman virgin, who in the third century, under Alexander the emperor, refusing to sacrifice to idols, had her constancy tried with scourges, racks, boiling oil, wild beasts, and the fire. But being miraculously preserved, she finished at length a glorious martyrdom by the sword. Pray for a like constancy under all trials. There is no peace in this world, which is not mixed with persecution; and bearing it with humility, courage, and patience, is the trial of your fidelity. In the passions of men, you meet with something of the wild beast: in the difficulties and misfortunes of the world, you have your scourge: in the misconduct of children, and evil ways of those for whom you are most concerned, how often do you meet with a rack? And what you cannot prevent, or remedy of these by lawful means, are you not bound to bear with patience? This is a common duty: pray then for yourself, and all others in affliction, and endeavour to be faithful.St. Martina merited the crown of martyrdom by her extraordinary charity. She had lost her parents at an early age, and being inflamed with the spirit of a true Christian, she distributed her great riches to the poor with profuse liberality. When, after many torments, she was condemned to be devoured by wild beasts, she was miraculously preserved unhurt: and being then cast into the fire, she escaped in like manner. These miracles, by God's grace induced some of her torturers even to embrace the faith of Christ. At length when she was beheaded, the whole city of Rome was shaken by an earthquake, and many worshippers of idols were converted to the faith of Christ.
While you honour the happy end of this martyr, pray for a happy death for yourself. Death is a violence to nature; and to embrace this with submission to the hand of God, is a kind of martyrdom.
Endeavour then to be humble in all pain and sickness; and bow down with
entire submission, begging that whenever death comes, you may surrender
your soul with the dispositions of this martyr." The Catholic Year by Rev. Fr. John Gother
Fast for the Church
by VP
Posted on Friday January 30, 2026 at 12:00AM in Quotes
"Today is a Friday, traditionally a day of fasting and abstinence from meat. Fasting is Apostolic, it expands our ability to love, it casts out demons and brings peace to Holy Church. Fast for the Holy Father, for the bishops, for your pastor, for vocations, for unity, for the dying, the sick, for victims of abuse, for the troubled, for peace, for those suffering through natural disasters. FAST!" Monsignor Ferrari
Prayer: Remember, O most loving Heart of Jesus,
that they for whom I pray are those for whom You prayed so earnestly the
night before Your death. These are they to whom You look to continue
with You in Your sorrows when others forsake You, who share Your griefs
and have inherited your persecutions, according to Your word: That the
servant is not greater than his Lord.
Remember, O Heart of
Jesus, that they are the objects of the worldʼs hatred and Satanʼs
deadliest snares. Keep them then, 0 Jesus, in the safe citadel of Your
Sacred Heart and there let them be sanctified in truth. May they
be one with you and one among themselves, and grant that multitudes may
be brought through their word to believe in You and love You. Amen.
There is a Hell for the Wicked
by VP
Posted on Friday January 30, 2026 at 12:00AM in Books
"How is it possible that a merciful God could punish with eternal misery poor human beings for slips and faults of natural weakness? Why does He create them? Does He rejoice in calling persons into existence to damn them? God created us for eternal happiness; heaven is our destiny. Those who succeed in damning themselves, do it against the will of God.
God, though infinite in His mercy is infinite in all His perfections: He is infinitely just. No punishment which He can inflict upon him who dies in mortal sin will be commensurate with His justice unless that punishment be boundless in its intensity and eternal in its duration.
I do not understand how anybody can believe in a God without believing in everlasting punishment. The very existence of God calls for a hell of the wicked where the worm never dies and the fire shall never be quenched. He who dies in mortal sin remains in that sin, as the Scripture assures us: "Wherever the tree falleth there it shall lie." He remains for all eternity as he died: the enemy of God. And God must for all eternity treat him as His enemy. Reason, I repeat, requires the existence of hell; therefore, all ages and all nations have believed in it. The pagans firmly believed in it; they spoke of the wicked dead as suffering endless banishment and as being condemned to endless labor and torment.
It is no credit to our enlightened age if it records the names of individuals who became conspicuous by sneering at the mention of hell, who pretended there was no such place or state or hell-fire or everlasting punishment. Does such an impudent denial destroy the doctrine of hell? Besides, hell is not an opinion, and not even a mere doctrine, but hell is a real fact; reason and revelation convince us of the existence of this fact. Can a man do away with a fact by denying it? Is there no such city as San Francisco, because you deny it on the ground that you never saw it? Does the sun cease to shine as soon as you state: The sun is not shining? Moreover, did ever a learned man prove that there was no hell? Voltaire and Rousseau made a desperate attempt to prove the non-existence of hell, but all that these blasphemers accomplished was to assert boldly that perhaps there was no hell. Against such a silly perhaps we have sound reason supported by the infallible word of God to convince us of hell. Yes, there is a hell, and those who refuse to believe in it will be cast into it forever. The wicked may wish that there be no hell and laugh at the idea of it: Jesus Christ, the Son of God, shall say to them on the last day: "Depart from Me, ye accursed, into everlasting fire, which was prepared for the devil and his angels." Such is the just retribution of mortal sin, which is a turning away from God for the sake of a created thing. The damned are deprived of ever seeing God. This is the greatest of all imaginable sufferings, and yet it is a most appropriate punishment: He who has rejected God on earth, shall be rejected by Him for all eternity.
As soon as the wicked soul leaves the body in death, it shall realize the irreparable loss of God, and find itself cast away from the face of God forever. It shall be sunk into the flames of hell, into a sea of fire. The soul, without the body, can be reached by this fire; God shall cause all those sensations in the soul which it had when lodged in the body. The fire of hell, set ablaze to punish the Wicked, is not like earthly fire; it does not consume, but preserves; it does not give light, but causes extreme darkness.
The unspeakable torment of hell is waiting for you if you die in a grievous sin. Make up your mind to avoid such an eternal misfortune at the risk of losing everything temporal."
Source: Spiritual Pepper and Salt for Catholics and Non-Catholics by Bishop William Stang 1902
Home Altars and Private Chapels
by VP
Posted on Thursday January 29, 2026 at 12:00AM in Articles
"How ironic it would be if the “Christian house church” — that
concept so dear to the antiquarianizing liturgical revolutionaries who
took it as a pretext for their streamlined modern prayer-service —
turned out to be the place where the Tridentine Mass in all its medieval
and Baroque density, albeit in temporarily humble circumstances,
survived the coming persecution of Catholics." New Liturgical Movement.
- Building Home Altar (New Liturgical Movement)
- Private Chapels brought to Light by Social Distancing (Liturgical Art Journal)
- Portable Altars in Malta (Liturgical Art Journal)
- The Domestic Church: The Catholic Home (The Fish Eater)
- A family realizes a longtime dream of a Home Chapel (Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis)
Catholic Persecution and Private Chapels in America
"It was to gain religious liberty that the pioneer Catholics of the old world left their comfortable homes in Europe to brave the unknown hardships of the new Province upon the shores of Maryland; which freedom of conscience they granted to all comers as far as was in their power. But they themselves met with intolerance when English rulers later came into power and sought to enforce the then bigoted laws of Great Britain.
Colonel Bernard U. Campbell in his “Life and Times of Archbishop Carroll” tells us that as late as 1758 an attempt was made to pass a bill to prevent the growth of Popery, by which priests were to be rendered incapable of holding any lands and forbidden to make any proselytes under penalty for high treason; and which further provided that no person educated at foreign Popish seminaries should be qualified to hold land or inherit any estate within the new province.
This bill, which did not pass, seems to have been aimed particularly at John Carroll, who later became the first Catholic Bishop of the New World; Charles Carroll, signer of the Declaration of Independence; and Robert Brent, afterwards, first Mayor of Washington, who were all heirs to large estates in Maryland and at that time were boys being educated abroad at Catholic institutions.
Colonel Campbell further states that though this bill did not pass, the early Catholics were compelled to pay a land tax exactly double that exacted from others; that Catholic places of worship were forbidden and Catholic education not permitted; that Catholics were declared unfit to hold public office and that the Council even granted orders to take children away from the “pernicious contact of their Catholic parents.”
Nor did these days of intolerance pass until the Revolutionary period had broadened the minds of men and united all Americans in a more truly Christian spirit.
“In 1774 when the Reverend John Carroll returned to America, a priest, it is not believed,” says Colonel Campbell, “that there was a public. Catholic Church in all of Maryland.” “St. Peter's in Baltimore had been begun but never finished, being closed by the authorities.” And it was not until 1776 that the ban against public Catholic worship was removed.
It is not to be inferred from this, however, that Catholicity was crushed out, nor Catholic worship abolished. The well-to-do Catholics of that period had private chapels in their own homes upon their large estates and here the family and its many retainers, would gather for service whenever a faithful pastor came that way in the ministry of his duties. Of these early private chapels, in the vicinity of the present city of Washington are known to have been three: Queen's Chapel, a part of the large estate of Richard Queen, Esq., situated amid the wooded hills of Langdon; the Capitol Hill Chapel of Cern Abbey on the Duddington estate; and one in the manor house of Notley Young near the present corner of Tenth and G Streets S. W., where Father Devitt, Professor of History at Georgetown College says public Mass was first said in Washington, after it was permitted.
Father John Carroll finding this condition of catholicity in 1774 began his ministry from his own home near Rock Creek in the vicinity of Forest Glen. Here his zealous mother had maintained a small private chapel for her own family use and this was the nucleus of the present St. John's Church. After 1776, however, when the law against public Catholic worship was abolished, Father Carroll built an humble frame Church near his home, which was without doubt the first public Church in the vicinity of the District of Columbia. Father Carroll was ordained the first Catholic Bishop of the New World and was later made Archbishop. In 1789, Georgetown College was built with a small chapel attached, which in 1792 was superseded for public worship by Trinity Church, served by the same Jesuit Fathers."
Source: Records, Volume 23,Columbia Historical Society (Washington, D.C.)
Saint Francis de Sales, Bishop and Confessor (1567-1622)
by VP
Posted on Thursday January 29, 2026 at 12:00AM in Saints
St Francis de Sales, by Giovanni Battista Lucini
"He was bishop of Geneva; and spent his life in looking after the lost sheep. In this, his zeal was so great, that no difficulties or dangers discouraged him. He considered not himself, but only the misery of those seduced souls, who stood in need of his help; and God blessed his endeavours with the conversion of many thousands. Pray for all the bishops of Christ's Church, that they may be animated with the spirit and zeal of this holy prelate: that duly attending to all the necessities of their charge, neither errors nor vice may have the opportunity of spreading through their neglect. Pray for the people of Geneva, that being delivered from all their errors, they may become faithful professors of the truth.
Notwithstanding the immense charity and apostolic labours of this holy pastor, he could not escape the tongues of men, who misrepresented him at the court of Rome, and in France and Savoy, and traduced his books as heretical. But none of these calumnies made any impression upon his mind, or discouraged him in the faithful discharge of his duty. Pray for his meekness and constancy; and let his example convince you, that neither fidelity nor innocence can secure you against calumnies. And when these come to be your portion, follow his advice in doing right to truth by justifying yourself; and to humility, by submitting to those trials, which God shall permit for your exercise. Be faithful to your duty, and discreet in your conduct: and then, however folly or malice may murmur against you, go on with courage, having God for your witness, and the testimony of a good conscience to comfort you.
The charity of this saint still lives and brings forth fruit in his holy books; and in that holy order of the Visitation, which he instituted. Pray and endeavour that his books may lead you to a devout life, and increase in you the love of God. Never be tired, till his directions become your rule. Pray for all the religious of the order of the Visitation, that they may answer the designs of their founder, and give proof of his holy spirit." The Catholic Year by Rev. Fr. John Gother
CHAPTER XI. OF THE UNIVERSALITY OR CATHOLICITY OF THE CHURCH: THIRD MARK.
"THAT great Father, Vincent of Lerins, in his most useful Memorial, says that he must before all things have a great care to believe "that which has been believed by all [always and everywhere]"... such as the jugglers and tinkers; for the rest of the world call us Catholic; and if we add Roman, it is only to inform people of the See of that Bishop who is general and visible Pastor of the Church. And already in the time of S. Ambrose to be Roman in communion was the same thing as to be Catholic.
But as for your church, it is called everywhere Huguenot, Calvinist, Heretical, Pretended, Protestant, New, or Sacramentarian. Your church was not before these names, and these names were not before your church, because they are proper to it. Nobody calls you Catholics, you scarcely dare to do so yourselves. I am well aware that amongst you your churches call themselves Reformed, but just as much right to that name have the Lutherans, and the Ubiquitarians, Anabaptists, Trinitarians, and other offshoots of Luther, and they will never yield it to you. The name of religion is common to the Church of the Jews and of the Christians, in the Old Law and in the New; the name of Catholic is proper to the Church of Our Lord; the name of Reformed is a blasphemy against Our Lord, who has so perfectly formed and sanctified his Church in his blood, that it must never take other form than of his all lovely Spouse, of pillar and ground of truth. One may reform the nations in particular, but not the Church or religion. She was rightly formed, change of formation is called heresy or irreligion. The tint of Our Saviour's blood is too fair and too bright to require new colours.
Your church, then, calling itself Reformed, gives up its part in the form which the Saviour had established. But I cannot refrain from telling you what Beza, Luther, and Peter Martyr think on this. Peter Martyr calls you Lutherans, and says you are brothers to them; you are then Lutherans; Luther calls you Zwinglians * and Sacramentarians; Beza calls the Lutherans Consubstantiators and Chymists, and yet he puts them in the number of Reformed churches. then the new names which the reformers acknowledge for one another. Your church, therefore, not having even the name of Catholic, you cannot with a good conscience say the Apostles' Creed; if you do, you judge yourselves, who, confessing the Church Catholic and universal, obstinately keep to your own, which most certainly is not such. If S. Augustine were living now, he would remain in our Church, which from immemorial time is in possession of the name of Catholic." Source: St. Francis de Sales: The Catholic controversy
The Priesthood was Instituted by Christ
by VP
Posted on Wednesday January 28, 2026 at 12:00AM in Books
"From the multitude that followed Him, He chose His apostles. At the Last Supper He ordained them priests to offer sacrifice. After His resurrection He commissioned them to go forth and to teach and sanctify all nations. He promised to be with them all days, even to the consummation of the world. The Priesthood, therefore, will continue to exist on earth till the last day. Without it, the holy sacrifice of the Mass would not be offered, the sacraments would not be administered, the word of God would not be preached to the faithful, and the true religion would soon disappear. It is principally through the priesthood that Christ continues to maintain and establish His kingdom; and it is through those who have entered this state, that is, through the priests of His holy Church, that He is accomplishing His greatest achievements in the work of salvation and sanctification. Truly have they been called other Christs, for none are more Christlike in the duties to be performed, or in dignity or in power than the duly ordained priest."
Source: The Sunday-School Director's Guide to Success by Rev. Patrick James Sloan 1909
St. Peter Nolasco, Confessor, A.D. 1280.
by VP
Posted on Wednesday January 28, 2026 at 12:00AM in Saints
"A FAITHFUL servant of God, eminent for his singular charity to his neighbour, and founder of the religious order for the redemption of captives. Pray for this spirit of charity for the assistance and relief of your neighbour. You meet daily many objects that deserve your compassion, and demand your help. Consider seriously the necessities of your neighbours, both spiritual and temporal; if you have charity, you will study their relief, either by yourself, or others. You have it often in your power to do service to your neighbour. If you omit it, because of the trouble, pains, or uneasiness it must give you, it is not charity, but self-love that commands your heart.
Examine what your calling is, and see whether you live by oppressing your neighbour. There are too many professions exposed to this, of men who set up for helping others, and take advantage of their misfortunes. Their only concern is gain; and they value not how much their neighbour suffers, so that they can be gainers by it. This is quite opposite to the charity which we honour this day in this holy man. He gave away what he had for the relief of his neighbour in misery: these, under the colour of relieving, add to their neighbour's sufferings, that they themselves may be enriched by them. If his was the method of charity, theirs is contrary to it; and if his was the way of the Gospel and salvation, how can theirs be so? Let then all those seriously examine their proceedings by this test, who by lending money, receiving goods, giving advice, managing their business, or in any other way, pretend to assist their neighbour in his distress. For if there be oppression in the help which they give, their assistance is cruelty; and without restitution, how can they have a share in the mercy of God?
It being the last days of the month, give God thanks for all his blessings, and by hearty contrition beg pardon for all your sins and failings of this month." The Catholic Year by Fr. John Gother
"WORKS OF MERCY: It may be said of charity, what the apostle St. James has said of faith: " Charity without good works is a vain thing;" for thus have the saints apprehended it: with them to love and to act was one and the same thing. It was a thought springing wholly out of charity which inspired Peter Nolasco to found the order of Mercy for the redemption of captives. A vast number of Christians captured by the infidels were sighing in chains far from their native land, subject to every indignity and exposed to the risk of losing the faith. "Let us ransom them," exclaimed Peter Nolasco, a French gentleman attached to the court of the king of Aragon. Thirteen pious companions joined him, and the order was founded on the 10th of August, 1218. The number of unfortunate captives redeemed by them almost surpasses belief. St. Peter Nolasco was rewarded for so much zeal by encouragements from on high: the Blessed Virgin appeared to him, and angels bore him up in their hands. He died in 1280.
MORAL REFLECTION.-We cannot do better than bear in mind the words of the apostle St. James: "If a brother or sister be naked and want daily food, and one of you say to them, Go in peace, be you warmed and filled, yet give them not those things that are necessary for the body, what shall it avail ?"-(Jas. ii. 15.)" Pictorial Half an Hour with the Saints by Abbe Auguste Lecanu
The Mass
by VP
Posted on Tuesday January 27, 2026 at 12:00AM in Books
The Mass is the memorial of the passion of Jesus Christ. His death is here mystically represented by the separate consecration of the bread and of the wine. The ornaments are all marked with the sign of the the cross, which is used in all ceremonies and benedictions. But above all, the silence, the meekness, the patience of the adorable Victim, everything at the altar, vividly remind us of the ignominious and sorrowful scenes of Calvary. Moreover, outrages ceased not to be offered to Jesus Christ with the termination of His mortal life. We know what indignities have been reserved for Him hidden under the Eucharistic veils. Alas! does He not find in our churches renewal of the cruel trials of Calvary? Does not His heart experience the same sorrow at the sight of the crimes daily committed by men, whilst He offers Himself to the Eternal Father as a victim of propitiation? Does He not find also coldness, indifference, abandonment, and that, too, on the part of those very persons who were the recipients of his greatest favors and on whose fidelity He had therefore the strongest claims. On the cross He was loaded with opprobrium by the Jews; on the altar He is overwhelmed with it by the heretics and the impious. But in this example of the Savior, who not only devotes Himself to torments and to death, but who also, as it were, prolongs and perpetuates His passion by leaving Himself in the hands of men, there is a wonderful power to make us love mortification, or at least render the practice of is more agreeable.
Jesus Christ foresaw everything. Therefore, when through love for men He constituted Himself a prisoner in the Holy Eucharist, the persecutions of the future were as clearly present to Him as those which He was actually undergoing. His tender love for us triumphed over every feeling of repugnance. He accepted the twofold chalice. Oh, that thought alone, which everything connected with the celebration of the sacred Mysteries so vividly recalls, ought to suffice to inspire the priest with unbounded generosity and courage!
Thou hast, O Lord! constituted Thyself my Victim; shall I refuse to be Thine? When instituting the Sacrament of the Altar, and pre-ordaining me to be its privileged minister, Thou didst well know how many tribulations Thou wouldst have to undergo from that moment to this. Thou hast ever present to Thee those numberless impieties, those horrible sacrileges, committed against Thee in Thy holy sacraments during this long interval of nearly nineteen hundred years. Thou didst distinctly foresee how many Judases Thou wouldst encounter on Thy way, how many times on multiplied Calvaries Thy thirst wouldst be sated with vinegar and gall; yet that terrifying prospect could not allay the fervor of Thy love, nor prevent Thee accomplishing this prodigy of charity in my behalf. Will it now be said that I have nothing but a lukewarm heart to offer Thee in return for all Thou has done for me? For love of me Thou hast sacrificed consolations, glory, life itself; shall I hesitate to sacrifice for Thee my love of ease, my sensitive emotions? For the love of me Thou hast consented to be spit upon, to be trampled under foot, to be crucified; Thou has abandoned Thyself to the fury of Thy enemies, to be rejected, insulted, vilified by many even of Thy own disciples, and all this Thou endurest till the consummation of the world; and shall I complain of remaining in obscurity during the few days of my sojourn on earth? Shall I permit a slight insult or contradiction to irritate me to such an extent as completely to upset my mind? Shall I continued to be proud, impatient, excitable, exacting? Such a contrast should not be tolerated.
Source: The Sacrifice of the Mass Worthily Celebrated by Rev. Pierre Chaignon S.J., 1897
