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Website Contents - Page 1

Section I. Introduction to the Shrine of Christ the King
Section II. First Holy Communion
Section III. Tributes to Pope St. Pius V and Pope St. Pius X
Section IV. Catholic Quotes - Catechetical Food for Thought from

the greatest minds in Catholic Tradition

Section V. Rome's War Against the Traditional Catholic Mass and

Religion - Article

Section VI. The world's most ancient Christian communities are

being destroyed — and no one cares - Article

Section VII. Prayer to the Holy Ghost

Section VIII. Litany of Humility
Section IX. Sacred Heart of Jesus
A. Explanation of First Friday Devotions
B. 12 Promise of Our Blessed Lord to those who devote

themselves to His Sacred Heart
C. Consecration Prayer of the Human Race to the Sacred

              Heart of Jesus
         D. Novena Prayer to the Sacred Heart
         E. Litany of the Sacred Heart of Jesus

Section X. Novena to Our Lady of Good Success

Section XI. Novena of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Section I.

INTRODUCTION to the

SHRINE OF CHRIST THE KING

The Shrine of Christ the King in Winfield, Illinois is a Roman Catholic church parish which offers the traditional Latin Mass according to the ancient and apostolic rite of the Roman Catholic Church. This rite of Mass was given by Christ to the Apostles who in turn passed this tradition down to their successors. Pope St. Pius V then took this tradition and codified it in 1570 for us to use in perpetuity. This Mass in the Missal edition of 1945 is the one used at the Shrine. The Shrine also offers all other Sacraments and blessings in the traditional form.

In addition to the traditional pre-Vatican II Latin Rites, only the traditional orthodox pre-Vatican II doctrine as found in the Baltimore Catechism and other authoritative and reliable catechisms is believed and taught at the Shrine. It is taught in such a way as to exclude the New Theology of Vatican II (1963-1965) which has brought confusion to the Church and scattered the flock. A strong emphasis is placed on the teachings and traditions established by Our Blessed Lord 2000 years ago and sustained by the work of the Holy Ghost acting throughout Church history since Pentecost.

All visitors whether Catholic or exploring the Catholic Faith are welcomed to attend Holy Mass as well as devotions and other religious functions. However, only those who have received permission of the Pastor may approach the Communion Rail to receive Holy Communion. Non-members must also receive permission of the Pastor in advance of receiving the Sacrament of Confession.

Those people who are thinking of becoming members of the Shrine's congregation must go through a period of catechesis before participating in the Sacraments. This is done to ensure that new members have the necessary time to become acquainted with the Catholic Faith and her traditions before deciding to participate in them at the Shrine. After a suitable period of time passes, the Pastor will also become familiar with the new members before deciding on their fitness for the reception of the Sacraments. At that time, previously baptized new members will take the Profession of Faith and make the Abjuration of Errors against the Faith as required by the Church.

Previous attendance at other chapels or churches where the Latin Mass is said does not immediately qualify a person for participation in the Sacraments at the Shrine. It is often the case that little instruction is given in those places concerning the differences between the Catholic Tradition and the Novus Ordo. Too often, the instruction provided does not conform to Church teaching but seeks to bridge the gap between the Catholic Religion and modern ideas and practices.This results in a woeful lack of understanding of these matters. As the doctrines of the Catholic Faith differ from the new doctrines devised at Vatican II for the Novus Ordo Church, the Catholic Faith and the Novus Ordo Religion constitute two different, separate and irreconcilable religions. A lack of understanding of this important point may allow one to approach the sacraments of the Novus Ordo Church just as easily as one would approach the traditional Catholic Sacraments which were instituted by Jesus Christ 2000 years ago. This practice is sacrilegious and it contradicts the teaching of Catholic Moral Theology, the Magisterial Pronouncements on these matters, as well as the consistent example given to the Church by the lives of the Saints.

Fifty years ago, when the Latin Mass chapels were beginning to form as an answer to the betrayal of the majority of the Clergy against the Catholic Religion, the faithful were reasonably knowledgeable of the Church's Doctrines and Practices. They were well instructed in the Catholic Religion by the Baltimore Catechism and other instruction taught by the Priests and Nuns in the Catholic grammar schools and high schools. Many even went on to study the Catholic Religion more deeply at the university level. This allowed for a well-grounded understanding of the Faith to develop within the minds and souls of the faithful. Because of their well-grounded understanding of the Catholic Religion, these people were capable of recognizing the changes of Vatican II as a departure from previously Catholic teaching and practice, and therefore, a betrayal of their religion. They saw their 2000 year old traditional Latin Mass destroyed in several phases during the 1960's. By 1969, they saw this holy rite of Mass scorned and removed from the church's Altar. All, whether Priest or layman, who objected to this sacrilege were subjected to ridicule and scorn themselves. The few Catholic Priests who remained Catholic and faithful to the Church provided support for the faithful who wanted join them that they may remain loyal themselves. In those days, the Clergy who remained loyal to the Church by refusing to follow the novel teachings of Vatican II, invited faithful to become members of their newly formed chapels. However, faithful Priests today cannot do the same as they did fifty years ago. The people today no longer know the Catholic Faith. Priests cannot reasonably expect that people coming to them from the present-day Novus Ordo parishes, which were Catholic decades ago, have the required knowledge and belief in the Teachings of the Church. Priests faithful to their calling may not allow individuals coming from the Novus Ordo parishes to receive Catholic Sacraments without first providing them with the required instruction in Church Doctrine. After providing them the required instruction, the individual must then make unambiguously clear before the Priest and the Blessed Sacrament with open Tabernacle that he accepts these teachings in their entirety and in the sense taught by the Church. The Church obliges Priests to make sure of this under the penalty of mortal sin. Fifty years after the revolution of Vatican II has swept through the Roman Catholic Church, even many of those who were once properly taught the Catholic Religions have forgotten it. They have failed to persis in maintaining the belief and practice of the Catholic Faith. Over time, their faith eroded. They forgot the old Catholic teachings and began to follow the bad example of wayward Priests , and their own peers, who fell away from the Faith to embrace the novelties of Vatican II. They were increasingly tempted to compromise their Catholic beliefs by accepting the beliefs and practices of a society secularized by Modernism, Liberalism and atheism which the teachings and practices of Vatican II cooperated with and enthusiastically encouraged. The younger generation, on the other hand, has NEVER been exposed to the Catholic Religion. They were born at a time after the majority of their Clergy revolted against the Baltimore Catechism, Catholic orthodoxy, the Sacred Liturgy and Church Law. These same clergy have taken control of the Church's former institutions and used them for the propagation of the doctrinal changes of Vatican II. For this reason, the younger generations have NEVER been exposed to the Catholic Religion. Much less have they been given the opportunity to accept and be formed by the Catholic Religion. For this reason, no one will receive the Sacraments at the Shrine unless he has been properly instructed in the Catholic Faith of our Fathers.

Those people who would like to make a conversion to the Catholic Faith or who may be contemplating this move are invited to approach the Priest as soon as possible. The Priest will guide them as they take steps to become members of the Church. As part of their preparation, they will be required to undergo a period of study from a traditional catechism for at least one year before the waters of Baptism will be poured.

All who desire to become part of the Catholic faithful at the Shrine must show a desire for closeness to Christ by consistent attendance at Holy Mass and faithful observance of the 10 Commandments, love and acceptance for the Church's doctrinal and ecclesiastical traditions, diligence in their study of the Faith, acceptance of all the crosses God sends them, love towards God above all, love of neighbor as oneself in spite of personal differences, and show a general desire to grow in virtue, particularly the virtue of Charity.

In keeping with the Catholic Church's apostolic tradition as well as fulfilling the requirements of Church Law in spirit if not also in letter, the Shrine of Christ the King functions as a Catholic parish (or spiritual family) rather than as a mere "Mass Center." A "Mass Center" only provides the Mass and perhaps some of the other Sacraments. In many cases, these are provided only as a sideline. A parish, on the other hand, not only provides the faithful with Holy Mass and the Sacraments as its central ministry but also the other forms of ministerial nurturing which are needed for a healthy Catholic spiritual life. For this reason, the faithful of the Shrine treat it as their spiritual home rather than as one of many transitory destinations. In return for the spiritual nourishment which they receive, the faithful, in turn, provide loyally for the support and enrichment of the Shrine parish through their gifts of spiritual and material good works.

The website outreach is a new effort on our part for the propagation of the Faith. We are presently limited to a three-page website and must put all of our published material on one of the three tabbed pages. With God's help, this venue for sharing God's work with others in the community and the Chicagoland area will expand beyond the present boundaries. This site will be updated periodically (every two or three days) as events develop at the Shrine of Christ the King.

Thank you for visiting us and May God bless all of you.

Christ the King, Save us!

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Pope Pius VII., by his Rescript of August 14,1801, granted -
i. A plenary indulgence to all the faithful who, on the Feast of St. Pius V., May 5, being truly penitent, shall, after Confession and Communion, say on this day with devotion the following hymn before an altar or greater relic of this Saint, or else in some church dedicated to his honour, praying according to the intention of the Sovereign Pontiff.
ii. An indulgence of forty days, once a day, on saying this hymn with devotion.
These Indulgences Pope Pius VIII. of blessed memory granted afresh for ever by a decree of the S. Congr. of Indulgences of Oct. 2, 1830.

HYMNUS: BELLI TUMULTUS INGRUIT

LATIN

Belli tumultus ingruit,
Cultus Dei contemnitur;
Ultrixque culpam persequens
Jam poena terris imminet.

Quem nos in hoc discrimine
Coelestium de sedibus
Praesentiorem vindicem,
Quam te, Pie, invocabimus?

Nemo, beate Pontifex,
Intensiore robore
Quam tu, superni numinis
Promovit in terris decus.

Quem nos. &c.

Ausisve fortioribus
Avertit a cervicibus,
Quod Christianis gentibus
Jugum parabant barbari.

Quem nos. &c

Tu comparatis classibus,
Votis magis sed fervidis
Ad insulas Echinadas
Fundis tyannum Thraciae.

Quem nos. &c.

Absensque eodem tempore,
Hostis fuit quo perditus,
Vides, et adstantes doces
Pugnae secundos exitus.

Quem nos. &c.

Majora qui coelo potes,
Tu supplices nunc aspice,
Tu civium discordias
Compesce, et iras hostium.

Quem nos. &c.

Precante te, pax aurea
Terris revisat; ut Deo
Tuti queamus reddere
Mox laetiora cantica.

Quem nos. &c.

Tibi, Beata Trinitas
Uni Deo sit gloria,
Laus, et potestas omnia
Per saeculorum saecula. Amen.

V. Ora pro nobis, Beate Pie.
R. Ut digni efficiamur promissionibus Christi.

Oremus.
Deus, qui ad conterendos ecclesiae tuae hostes, et ad divinum cultum reparandum beatum Pium pontificem maximum eligere dignatus es: fac nos ipsius defendi praesidiis, et ita tuis inhaerere obsequiis, ut omnium hostium superatis insidiis perpetua pace laetemur. Per Dominum nostrum Jesum Christum Filium tuum, &c. R. Amen.

HYMN: BELLI TUMULTUS INGRUIT

ENGLISH

Wars and tumults fill the earth;
Men the fear of God despise;
Retribution, vengeance, wrath,
Brood upon the angry skies.

Holy Pius! Pope sublime!
Whom, in this most evil time
Whom, of saints in bliss, can we
Better call to aid than thee?

None more mightily than thou
Hath, by holy deed or word,
Through the spacious earth below
Spread the glory of the Lord.

Holy Pius! Pope sublime!
Whom, in this most evil time
Whom, of saints in bliss, can we
Better call to aid than thee?

Thine it was, O pontiff brave!
Pontiff of eternal Rome!
From barbaric yoke to save
Terror-stricken Christendom.

Holy Pius! Pope sublime!
Whom, in this most evil time
Whom, of saints in bliss, can we
Better call to aid than thee?

When Lepanto's gulf beheld,
Strewn upon its waters fair,
Turkey's countless navy yield
To the power of thy prayer:

Holy Pius! Pope sublime!
Whom, in this most evil time
Whom, of saints in bliss, can we
Better call to aid than thee?

Who meanwhile with prophet's eye
Didst the distant battle see,
And announce to standers-by
That same moment's victory.

Holy Pius! Pope sublime!
Whom, in this most evil time
Whom, of saints in bliss, can we
Better call to aid than thee?

Mightier now and glorified,
Hear the suppliant cry we pour;
Crush rebellions haughty pride;
Quell the din of rising war.

Holy Pius! Pope sublime!
Whom, in this most evil time
Whom, of saints in bliss, can we
Better call to aid than thee?

At thy prayer may golden peace
Down to earth descend again:
License, discord, trouble cease;
Justice, truth and order reign.

Holy Pius! Pope sublime!
Whom, in this most evil time
Whom, of saints in bliss, can we
Better call to aid than thee?

To the Lord of endless days,
One Almighty Trinity,
Sempiternal glory, praise,
Honour, might, and blessing be.

Holy Pius! Pope sublime!
Whom, in this most evil time
Whom, of saints in bliss, can we
Better call to aid than thee?

V. Pray for us, blessed Pius.
R. That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.

Let us pray:

God, Who, to the destruction of the enemies of thy Church and for the restoration of Thy holy worship didst vouchsafe to elect blessed Pius to be thy High Priest; grant us so to be defended by his protection, and so to remain steadfast in Thy service, that, overcoming the snares of all our enemies, we may enjoy perpetual peace. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Feast Day of Pope Saint Pius X

September 3, 2013

Reign: 1903 - 1914

"Instaurare Omnia in Christo"

Pope St. Pius X:
Modern Defender of the Catholic Faith

by Br. Ansgar Santogrossi, O.S.B.

One hundred years ago, on August 4, 1903, Cardinal Joseph Sarto of Venice was elected Pope Pius X, the pope who would make St. Benedict's Monastery in Mount Angel, Oregon an abbey.

Of peasant origin, the saintly and straight-speaking Pius X captured the world's attention while proposing to "restore all things in Christ." Restoration was needed, for Freemason-influenced governments, newspapers and public education in Catholic Europe were driving the Faith out of public life. Governments and social movements were spreading the myth of the ultimate supremacy of individual freedom. The clergy and educated Catholic laity were threatened from within by a crisis of faith which the Pope labeled "Modernism." Pius X would soon be called an obscurantist for refusing to change the Catholic Faith. Claiming that modern science had discredited many dogmas, "Modernist" clergy proposed a new Christianity based on evolving "religious experience," a human experience which, they said, would continually transform the meaning of dogmas to keep them authentic. Modernism, so contrary to common sense which knows that the true religion cannot contradict itself from one age to the next, was not always stated clearly, but the philosopher Jacques Maritain observed that young priests in Paris were advancing ideas about "immanence," "creative evolution" and "vitality." Like an X-ray surgeon who brings out what is really going on beneath the surface, Pius X laid bare the false doctrines of the Modernists.

As the Church's prayer says it on his feast-day, St. Pius X was a defender of the Catholic Faith. He knew it was not enough to simply write about the Modernist heresy, for heresy has a face, and sometimes the face of popular priests and writers known and loved by good people. Pius X directed that Modernist priests and professors who kept spreading their ideas had to be confronted, so as to convert them and to protect the Church from corruption of the Faith. No obscurantist, Pius X said dogma and Scripture could be rationally defended, and he promoted the philosophy of St. Thomas Aquinas and Scriptural studies. In dealing personally with some individual cases, the Pope moved slowly with pastoral concern, and he allowed at least one Scripture scholar the freedom to not accept certain decisions of the Roman Biblical Commission which were not matters of dogma. Before the canonization by Pius XII in 1954, an exhaustive study refuted accusations that Pius X had treated people unjustly.

The ideas about experience which Pius X strongly opposed dominated public education, politics and the mass media. Pius X called on Catholics to restore all things in Christ, to restore the Christian character of their governments, economy and education. With firmness tempered by compromise, he stood up to the hostile government of France, welcomed the support of French monarchists for the Church, and helped French bishops preserve their authority. After his death even political opponents in France recognized Pius X's greatness.

Anti-modern-ist, Pius X was also modern in streamlining and restoring many areas of Christian life. Laws of the Church had piled up for centuries without much system; Pius X initiated work for the Code of Canon Law of 1917 which still has its admirers today. So many saints were being celebrated liturgically that priests and people celebrated Sundays less and less and hardly ever prayed the weekday hymns of St. Ambrose; Pius X reformed the calendar to remedy this. Having heard his people sing Gregorian chant while a country priest and bishop, St. Pius X ordered popular but bad liturgical music to stop, declaring Gregorian chant and classical polyphony the sacred music of the Roman rite. "I want my people to pray on beauty." Children were growing up without Holy Communion until adolescence; Pius X fixed the age of reason as the time for first Communion.

This anti-modernist, modern saint on the throne of Peter has always had both critics and defenders. The novelist François Mauriac sniffed, "He's not a saint from my parish," while his contemporary George Bernanos' unforgettable literary portraits of a Modernist priest and of a bishop trying to keep up with the times showed what Pius X was concerned about. The monarchist poet and activist Charles Maurras of the Acadámie Française wrote Blessed Pius X Savior of France because of the Pope's defense of healthy philosophy and principles of society, while a French prime minister who fought the Church later acknowledged Pius X as "marvelous" and as having been turned to the future. In one of his most famous works, the apostate, avant-garde poet Guillaume Apollinaire could write, "Alone in Europe you are not old, 0 Christianity / The most modern European is you, Pope Pius X."

(Credit: Santogrossi, Br. Ansgar. "Pope St. Pius X (1903-1914), Modern Defender of the Catholic Faith." Mount Angel Letter Winter 2004: 4.)

"May God console you! ... What saddens you ... is the fact that others have occupied the churches by violence, while during this time you are on the outside. It is a fact that they have the premises – but you have the Apostolic Faith. They can occupy our churches, but they are outside the true Faith. You remain outside the places of worship, but the Faith dwells within you. Let us consider: what is more important, the place or the Faith? The true Faith, obviously. Who has lost and who has won in the struggle – the one who keeps the premises or the one who keeps the Faith? True, the premises are good when the Apostolic Faith is preached there; they are holy if everything takes place there in a holy way ...

"You are the ones who are happy; you who remain within the Church by your Faith, who hold firmly to the foundations of the Faith which has come down to you from Apostolic Tradition. And if an execrable jealousy has tried to shake it on a number of occasions, it has not succeeded. They are the ones who have broken away from it (the Church) in the present crisis. No one, ever, will prevail against your Faith, beloved Brothers. And we believe that God will give us our churches back some day.

"Thus, the more violently they try to occupy the places of worship, the more they separate themselves from the Church. They claim that they represent the Church; but in reality, they are the ones who are expelling themselves from it and going astray. Even if Catholics faithful to Tradition are reduced to a handful, they are the ones who are the true Church of Jesus Christ."

-- St. Athanasius the Great, Primate of Alexandria, Father of the Church, Champion of Orthodoxy

"...Let it be far from anyone's mind to suppress for any reason any doctrine that has been handed down. Such a policy would tend rather to separate Catholics from the Church than to bring in those who differ. There is nothing closer to Our heart than to have those who are separated from the fold of Christ return to it, but in no other way than the way pointed out by Christ...."

-- Pope Leo XIII in his Encyclical: Testem

Benevolentiae Nostrae, Jan. 22, 1899

"Those therefore who after the manner of wicked heretics dare to set aside Ecclesiastical Traditions, and to invent any kind of novelty, or to reject any of those things entrusted to the Church, or who wrongfully and outrageously devise the destruction of any of those Traditions enshrined in the Catholic Church, are to be punished thus:

IF THEY ARE BISHOPS, WE ORDER THEM TO BE DEPOSED; BUT IF THEY ARE MONKS OR LAY PERSONS, WE COMMAND THEM TO BE EXCLUDED FROM THE COMMUNITY."

-- Second Council of Nicaea (787 A.D.)

The witness of St. Athanasius clarifies just how much theology matters. How we conceive of the truths of the Faith is of pressing importance. The great truths we profess in our creed and celebrate in our liturgy are not to be taken lightly or dismissed as abstractions that are best left to experts. We have a responsibility as disciples to know the Church’s teachings at a measure of depth, or the mission Christ gives us will be imperiled. A disciple cannot be content with a spiritual life that is built on the sandy foundations of platitudes or slogans. Christ comes into this world as a man so that we might know him as God. The Christian spiritual life is a continual intensification of our experience and understanding of this revelation.

(Fr. Grunow commenting on the witness of St. Athanasius)

"The priest is not a priest for himself; he does not give himself absolution; he does not administer the Sacraments to himself. He is not for himself, he is for you. After God, the priest is everything. Leave a parish twenty years without priests; they will worship beasts. If the missionary Father and I were to go away, you would say, "What can we do in this church? there is no Mass; Our Lord is no longer there: we may as well pray at home. " When people wish to destroy religion, they begin by attacking the Priest, because where there is no longer any Priest there is no sacrifice, and where there is no longer any sacrifice there is no religion. "

-- St. John Vianney, Patron of Parish Priests

"The partisans of error are to be sought not only amongst the Church's open enemies; but...in her very bosom, and are the more mischievous the less they keep in the open." "The Church has no greater enemies. For they put into operation their designs for her undoing, not from without but from within. Hence, the danger is present almost in the very veins and heart of the Church, whose injury is the more certain from the very fact that their knowledge of her is more intimate." "They seize upon professorships in the seminaries and universities, and gradually make of them chairs of pestilence." "Certainly we don't expect to find men dressed in sheepskin. No. What we are told to "beware" of is that which on the surface sounds pleasing to the ear; that which seems "positive" or "beneficial" at first glance. But behind it all is a subtle error that destroys Faith. What is one of the best ways that an error against the Faith can be taught to a Catholic and have him easily accept it as true even if it at first they question the novelty of it? The way it was done at the turn of the century was to say that "doctrine evolves", or that "truth evolves with man." Today, however, being that evolution is not generally looked upon favorably by Catholics, they will instead say that you must realize that there is "doctrinal development" - this is the "sheep's clothing" of which Our Lord speaks."

(Pascendi Gregis, Encyclical of Pope St Pius X,)

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St Augustine on Baptism of Desire

“For whatever unbaptized persons die confessing Christ, this confession is of the same efficacy for the remission of sins as if they were washed in the sacred font of baptism. For He who said, ‘Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter in to the kingdom of God’ (Jn. 3:5), made also an exception in their favor, in that other sentence where He no less absolutely said, ‘Whosoever shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven’ (Mt. 10:32); and in another place, ‘Whosoever will lose his life for my sake, shall find it’ (Mt. 16:25). And this explains the verse, ‘Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints’ (Ps. 115:15). For what is more precious than a death by which a man’s sins are all forgiven, and his merits increased an hundredfold? For those who have been baptized when they could no longer escape death, and have departed this life with all their sins blotted out, have not equal merit with those who did not defer death, though it was in their power to do so, but preferred to end their life by confessing Christ, rather than by denying Him to secure an opportunity of baptism.”

—St. Augustine, Father of the Church

“As to the company of the world, far be it from our hearts to judge any one in particular to be of a worldly spirit; but let us shun long or much conversation with those, from whose words or demeanour we fear danger to ourselves, mixing with them only as much as charity and decency may require; and, during such company, raising our hearts often with fervour to God, to keep ourselves in spirit with him. Let that be our usual company, by which our hearts may be most improved and warmed in virtue. The less we can have of this, the more leisure we must reserve to converse and renew our spirit with God. In short, our grand preservatives are, mortification, prayer, meditation, good books. The oftener we are exposed to hear vanity, the more diligently must we listen to God."

- Rev. Father Alban Butler, Saint Biographer: Butler's Lives of the Saints

"Neither did we keep company with the rude, wicked, or impudent, but with those who were the best and the most virtuous; nor with the quarrelsome, but with the mild and the most peaceable, and those whose conversation brought us much profit; being persuaded that it is an illusion to seek the company of sinners, that we may convert them; it is far more to be feared that they will communicate their poison to us."

-- St. Gregory Naziansen, Father of the Church

"Salute one another with an holy kiss. All the churches of Christ salute you. Now I beseech you, brethren, to mark them who make dissensions and offences contrary to the doctrine which you have learned, and avoid them. For they that are such, serve not Christ our Lord, but their own belly; and by pleasing speeches and good words, seduce the hearts of the innocent. For your obedience is published in every place. I rejoice therefore in you. But I would have you to be wise in good, and simple in evil. And the God of peace crush Satan under your feet speedily. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you."

-- St. Paul in his Epistle to the Romans, Chapt 16, verse 16

"Pope Gelasius in his ninth letter (chap. 26) to the bishops of Lucania condemned the evil practice which had been introduced of women serving the Priest at the celebration of Mass. Since this abuse had spread to the Greeks, Innocent IV strictly forbade it in his letter to the bishop of Tusculum: 'Women should not dare to serve at the altar; they should be altogether refused this ministry.' We too have forbidden this practice in the same words...."

-- Pope Benedict XIV, Encyclical Allatae Sunt, July 26, 1755

The Spiritual Danger of Immodest Clothing

“Avoid everything tending in the least to immodesty in your dress, no matter if it be the fashion. It is never the fashion for modest women who fear God; for such women never follow evil fashions."

St. Chrysostom says of those who do so:

‘They make a sport of the death of souls, merely to gratify a senseless pride, a pitiful vanity. They adhere to sin a thousand times more by the indecency of their apparel than by the voice.’

St John Chrysostom, Father of the Church, 347-407 AD

Immodest Dress and Deportment Fatal to the Soul

"You carry your snare everywhere and spread your nets in all places. You allege that you never invited others to sin. You did not, indeed, by your words, but you have done so by your dress and your deportment. ... When you have made another sin in his heart, how can you be innocent? Tell me, whom does this world condemn? Whom do judges punish? Those who drink poison or those who prepare it and administer the fatal potion? You have prepared the abominable cup, you have given the death dealing drink, and you are more criminal than are those who poison the body; you murder not the body but the soul. And it is not to enemies you do this, nor are you urged on by any imaginary necessity, nor provoked by injury, but out of foolish vanity and pride."

St John Chrysostom, Father of the Church, 347-407 AD

The Necessity of Modest Clothing

"Low-necked dresses and bare arms give an air of vulgarity to those who wear them, and provoke much remark which would cause the blush of shame to crimson the cheek of the modest. They cause mortal sin sometimes, more even than a more open and undisguised indecency, which would disgust by its coarseness."

"Consult, then, the Holy Ghost, listen to His voice in your hearts, and rather be too particular than careless in so important a matter.”

—Fr. George Deshon, American Paulist Father 1823 - 1903

Pope Pius IX speaking to the Bishops of the Church:

“You must fight energetically, since you know very well what great wounds the undefiled Spouse of Christ Jesus has suffered, and how vigorous is the destructive attack of Her enemies. You must also care for and defend the Catholic faith with episcopal strength and see that the flock entrusted to you stands to the end firm and unmoved in the faith. For unless one preserves the faith entire and uninjured, he will without doubt perish forever.

“So, in accordance with your pastoral care, work assiduously to protect and preserve this faith. Never cease to instruct all men in it, to encourage the wavering, to convince dissenters, to strengthen the weak in faith by never tolerating and letting pass anything which could in the slightest degree defile the purity of this faith.”

-- Pope Piux IX in Qui Pluribus, 1846

"Nothing ever happens in the world that does not first happen inside a mind. When one meditates and fills the mind for an hour a day with thoughts and resolutions bearing on the love of God and neighbor above all things, there is a gradual seepage of love down to the level of what is called the subconscious, and finally, these good thoughts emerge, of themselves, in the form of effortless good actions."

--Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen

"It is never true to say that we have no time to meditate; the less one thinks of God, the less time there will always be for God. The time we have for anything depends of how much we value it. Thinking determines the uses of time; time does not rule over thinking. The problem of spirituality is never, then, a question of time; it is a problem of thought. For it does not require much time to make us saints; it requires only much love.

--Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen

“A number of interior souls have told us of the sorrow they feel when they see, in certain places, almost the entire body of the faithful leave the church immediately after the end of the Mass during which they have received Holy Communion. Moreover, this custom is becoming general, even in many Catholic boarding schools and colleges where formerly the students who had received Communion remained in the chapel for about ten minutes after Mass, thus acquiring the habit of making a thanksgiving, a habit which the best among them kept all their lives.

Formerly to show the necessity of thanksgiving, people were told how St. Philip Neri had two altar boys, carrying lighted candles, accompany a lady who left the church immediately after the end of the Mass during which she had received Holy Communion. How many times this well deserved lesson was told, and how often it bore fruit! But nowadays people have acquired the habit of treating almost everybody, superiors as well as equals and inferiors, and even our Lord Himself, with easy familiarity. If this abuse continues, there will be, as someone has said, many Communions and few real communicants. If zealous souls do not set to work to stop this habit of unconcern, it will go on increasing, gradually destroying all spirit of mortification and of true and solid piety. And yet Christ Himself is ever the same, and our duty of gratitude toward Him has not changed.”

-- Rev. Father Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P.

Professor of Theology at the Pontifical University Angelicum in Rome,

Also, the greatest Thomistic theologian of the Twentieth Century

Shortly before he died, St. Francis of Assisi called together his followers and warned them of the coming troubles, saying:

'Act bravely, my Brethren; take courage, and trust in the Lord. The time is fast approaching in which there will be great trials and afflictions; perplexities and dissensions, both spiritual and temporal, will abound; the charity of many will grow cold, and the malice of the wicked will increase.

The devils will have unusual power, the immaculate purity of our Order, and of others, will be so much obscured that there will be very few Christians who will obey the true Sovereign Pontiff and the Roman Church with loyal hearts and perfect charity. At the time of this tribulation a man, not canonically elected, will be raised to the Pontificate, who, by his cunning, will endeavour to draw many into error and death.

Then scandals will be multiplied, our Order will be divided, and many others will be entirely destroyed, because they will consent to error instead of opposing it.

There will be such diversity of opinions and schisms among the people, the religious and the clergy, that, except those days were shortened, according to the words of the Gospel, even the elect would be led into error, were they not specially guided, amid such great confusion, by the immense mercy of God.

Then our Rule and manner of life will be violently opposed by some, and terrible trials will come upon us. Those who are found faithful will receive the crown of life; but woe to those who, trusting solely in their Order, shall fall into tepidity, for they will not be able to support the temptations permitted for the proving of the elect.

Those who preserve their fervour and adhere to virtue with love and zeal for the truth, will suffer injuries and, persecutions as rebels and schismatics; for their persecutors, urged on by the evil spirits, will say they are rendering a great service to God by destroying such pestilent men from the face of the earth. but the Lord will be the refuge of the afflicted, and will save all who trust in Him. And in order to be like their Head, [Christ] these, the elect, will act with confidence, and by their death will purchase for themselves eternal life; choosing to obey God rather than man, they will fear nothing, and they will prefer to perish rather than consent to falsehood and perfidy
Some preachers will keep silence about the truth, and others will trample it under foot and deny it. Sanctity of life will be held in derision even by those who outwardly profess it, for in those days Jesus Christ will send them not a true Pastor, but a destroyer.'

-- Saint Francis of Assisi

"To recoil before an enemy, or to keep silence when from all sides such clamors are raised against truth, is the part of a man either devoid of character or who entertains doubt as to the truth of what he professes to believe. In both cases such mode of behaving is base and is insulting to God, and both are incompatible with the salvation of mankind. This kind of conduct is profitable only to the enemies of the faith, for nothing emboldens the wicked so greatly as the lack of courage on the part of the good. Moreover, want of vigor on the part of Christians is so much the more blameworthy, as not seldom little would be needed on their part to bring to naught false charges and refute erroneous opinions, and by always exerting themselves more strenuously they might reckon upon being successful. After all, no one can be prevented from putting forth that strength of soul which is the characteristic of true Christians, and very frequently by such display of courage our enemies lose heart and their designs are thwarted. Christians are, moreover, born for combat, whereof the greater the vehemence, the more assured, God aiding, the triumph: "Have confidence; I have overcome the world."(13) Nor is there any ground for alleging that Jesus Christ, the Guardian and Champion of the Church, needs not in any manner the help of men. Power certainly is not wanting to Him, but in His loving kindness He would assign to us a share in obtaining and applying the fruits of salvation procured through His grace."

-- Pope Leo XIII, Encyclical Sapientiae Christianae

"The chief elements of this duty consist in professing openly and unflinchingly the Catholic doctrine, and in propagating it to the utmost of our power. For, as is often said, with the greatest truth, there is nothing so hurtful to Christian wisdom as that it should not be known, since it possesses, when loyally received, inherent power to drive away error. So soon as Catholic truth is apprehended by a simple and unprejudiced soul, reason yields assent."

-- Pope Leo XIII, Encyclical Sapientiae Christianae

Now We consider another abundant source of the evils with which the Church is afflicted at present: indifferentism. This perverse opinion is spread on all sides by the fraud of the wicked who claim that it is possible to obtain the eternal salvation of the soul by the profession of any kind of religion, as long as morality is maintained. Surely, in so clear a matter, you will drive this deadly error far from the people committed to your care. With the admonition of the apostle that “there is one God, one faith, one baptism”[16] may those fear who contrive the notion that the safe harbor of salvation is open to persons of any religion whatever. They should consider the testimony of Christ Himself that “those who are not with Christ are against Him,”[17] and that they disperse unhappily who do not gather with Him. Therefore “without a doubt, they will perish forever, unless they hold the Catholic faith whole and inviolate.”[18] Let them hear Jerome who, while the Church was torn into three parts by schism, tells us that whenever someone tried to persuade him to join his group he always exclaimed: “He who is for the See of Peter is for me.”[19] A schismatic flatters himself falsely if he asserts that he, too, has been washed in the waters of regeneration. Indeed Augustine would reply to such a man: “The branch has the same form when it has been cut off from the vine; but of what profit is the form, if it does not live from the root?”

-- Pope Gregory XVI, Encyclical Mirari Vos,1832

"Can it be lawful for anyone to reject any one of those truths without by the very fact falling into heresy?-without separating himself from the Church?-without repudiating in one sweeping act the whole of Christian teaching? For such is the nature of faith that nothing can be more absurd than to accept some things and reject others. Faith, as the Church teaches, is "that supernatural virtue by which, through the help of God and through the assistance of His grace, we believe what he has revealed to be true, not on account of the intrinsic truth perceived by the natural light of reason, but because of the authority of God Himself, the Revealer, who can neither deceive nor be deceived" (Conc. Vat., Sess. iii., cap. 3). If then it be certain that anything is revealed by God, and this is not believed, then nothing whatever is believed by divine Faith: for what the Apostle St. James judges to be the effect of a moral deliquency, the same is to be said of an erroneous opinion in the matter of faith. "Whosoever shall offend in one point, is become guilty of all" (Ep. James ii., 10). Nay, it applies with greater force to an erroneous opinion. For it can be said with less truth that every law is violated by one who commits a single sin, since it may be that he only virtually despises the majesty of God the Legislator. But he who dissents even in one point from divinely revealed truth absolutely rejects all faith, since he thereby refuses to honour God as the supreme truth and the formal motive of faith.

-- Pope Leo XIII, Encyclical Satis Cognitum, 1893

" I wonder that you are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ, unto another gospel. Which is not another, only there are some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ. But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach a gospel to you besides that which we have preached to you, let him be anathema. As we said before, so now I say again: If any one preach to you a gospel, besides that which you have received, let him be anathema. For do I now persuade men, or God? Or do I seek to please men? If I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ. "

-- St Paul, Galatians Chapter 1, Verse 6-10

"In journeying often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils from my own nation, in perils from the Gentiles, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils from false brethren."

-- St. Paul, 2 Corinthians 11, v. 26

Comment: "In perils from false brethren" meant that St. Paul suffered from harm done to him and to the true believers in his Catholic communities by false converts who brought disruption and bad spirits into the church. We see this phenomenon today everywhere in the Latin Mass communities. The duty of Pastors includes vigilance against attacks coming from those who manifest false piety but are not practicing the Faith nor are they really members of the Church, Such people stand out in that they have no interest in learning the Catholic doctrine and traditions. They have no interest in learning the 10 Commandments and applying them in their daily lives. Rather, they forcefully rebel against these and try to impose their own false ideas about the Church upon the community in opposition to the teaching and practice of Catholic tradition. St Paul mentions this in a list of perils and warfare which are waged against himself and other faithful Bishops and Priests of the Church. Pastors must use firmness and prudence with these hypocrites so as to protect the Church from the great harm which they cause lest these communities be left with a traditional Mass but no faith, and eventually neither.

"He [Satan] will set up a counter-church which will be the ape of the Church, because he, the Devil, is the ape of God. It will have all the notes and characteristics of the Church, but in reverse and emptied of its divine content. It will be a mystical body of the Antichrist that will in all externals resemble the mystical body of Christ. . . .But the twentieth century will join the counter-church because it claims to be infallible when its visible head speaks ex cathedra"

--Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen (1895-1979)

(Fulton J. Sheen, Communism and the Conscience of the West, Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1948, pp. 24-25)

"The Papacy will be attacked by all the powers of Hell. In consequence the Church will suffer great trials and afflictions in securing a successor upon the throne of Peter.... It is a matter of history that the most disastrous periods for the Church were times when the Papal throne was vacant, or when anti-popes contended, with the legitimate head of the Church. Thus also shall it be in those evil days to come"

"The Papacy will be Attacked by all the Powers of Hell... the Church will suffer great Trials ... in Securing a Successor upon the Throne of Peter... The Church [will be] deprived of her Chief Pastor..."

- Fr. E. Sylvester Berry, The Apocalypse of St. John (1921)

"The apostasy of the city of Rome from the vicar of Christ and its destruction by Antichrist may be thoughts so new to many Catholics, that I think it well to recite the text of theologians of greatest repute. First Malvenda, who writes expressly on the subject, states as the opinion of Ribera, Gaspar Melus, Biegas, Suarrez, Bellarmine and Bosius that Rome shall apostatise from the faith, drive away the Vicar of Christ and return to its ancient paganism. ...Then the Church shall be scattered, driven into the wilderness, and shall be for a time, as it was in the beginning, invisible hidden in catacombs, in dens, in mountains, in lurking places; for a time it shall be swept, as it were from the face of the earth. Such is the universal testimony of the Fathers of the early Church."

- Henry Edward, Cardinal Manning, The Present Crisis of the Holy See, 1861, London: Burns and Lambert, pp. 88-90)

"After the teachings of the apostles, says the voice of the ages, a day will come where Satan, full of rage against Jesus Christ and the Christians will regain the ground he has lost, reinforce his reign and will extend it in the distance. Then he will thrust himself on Rome, because she and the residence of the Pontiffs are his rival. He will render himself master, he will drive out the Vicar of Jesus Christ, he will persecute the true faithful and will cut the throats of the religious and the priests."

(Cornelius a Lapide, Suarez, St. Robert Bellarmine quoted by

Msgr. Gaume, Protonotary Apostolic under Pope Pius IX, La Situation, p. 28, 1860.)

Friday, December 6, 2013

Katholisches.info, Original source in German

http://www.katholisches.info/2013/12/05/uneingeschraenkter-krieg-gegen-die-franziskaner-der-immakulata-der-unsaegliche-makel/

Taken from "Eponymous Flower" in English

"Absolute War" Against the Franciscans of the Immaculata? The Unspeakable "Blemish"

(Rome) No other order has suffered such dramatic consequences on the change of pontificate in late winter 2013 as the Franciscans of the Immaculate. In July, the Order was placed under provisional administration by order of the Congregation for Religious with papal approval. Although the Order actually exactly corresponds to what Pope Francis wishes, namely evangelical poverty, missionary zeal and new evangelization, of which the Franciscans of the Immaculate are one of the only orders, against which the new pope has proceed with drastic measures.

So dramatically that even a progressive Vatican expert like Marco Tosatti has now asked what should have these poor friars have only arranged, yes, done wrong, to deserve such a harsh punishment? He could not fine an answer because he could not find a "crime", with which to burden them. He therefore published a letter that describes the radicality with which the Order is being rebuilt. The question remains: Why did you destroy a thriving Order?

Young, Poor, Missionary and Evangelizing, but with a "Blemish" ...

The answer is in fact to look at a whole different level and observe the punished innocently. It immediately arives at the level of intrigue. As a cold as well as brutal coup by a minority in the Order. This was possible but only because this minority has been heard by the Congregation for Religious and in his turn heard by the Pope. The Order had a major "flaw." The "flaw" was that under the leadership and guidance of Pope Benedict XVI. they rediscovered the traditional rite and implemented it internally within the Order. The pastoral care of the Order was bi-ritual, internally it was old ritual. All in perfect accordance with the applicable rules and the canon law.

The Order is one of the few orders that have numerous vocations and can be described as a flourishing religious family in both the male and the female branches. The cons discovery of the liturgical riches of the Church makes the Franciscans of the Immaculate more to a unique phenomenon in the Catholic Church. Franciscan, missionary, flourishing and altrituell. Was unique to the Franciscans of the Immaculate, that a New Order was changing to the Old Rite. It was a combination that didn't only win the Order friends in the Vatican. With the rediscovery of the ancient liturgy, the Order began to intensively study the Second Vatican Council and of its examination and interpretation took place, working in the light of the ever valid tradition.

The Order Followed Benedict XVI. and discovered the Old Rite

A "flaw", which was all the more serious, because the Order had numerous vocations. A "blemish", that certain church circles of little friendliness and probably envious, did not dare to criticize under Pope Benedict XVI.. All the more uninhibited and with incredible haste they struck after his resignation. And Pope Francis gave them leave. For none of the other orders were effected in the change of pontificate more dramatically than for the Franciscans of the Immaculate.

Let us hear so what Marco Tosatti wrote in the newspaper La Stampa on Wednesday:

"We received a letter from a layman who is close to the Franciscans of the Immaculate, a small Order, which is under an acting manager (a highly debatable matter), and he complained of a special hardness posed by the new management. Based on many years of experience, we know of the cruelty in dealing with fellow brothers in church circles toward those other circles inferior to nothing. But just as Pope Francis, who signed the provisional administration, demanded in his interview with the chief editor of the Civilta Cattolica an attitude of Compassion 'and softness'. He was as one of those in the Church, who entered the field hospital after a battle and said, I see clearly that what the Church needs today is the ability to heal wounds,' because, 'Nevertheless, there are people weary of authoritarianism '.

Each reader should decide for themselves whether in fact the authoritarianism plays a role in the Franciscans of the Immaculate and arrogance among the Sisters. What have these poor men done? Have they speculated in money, sexually abused minors or maintained an immoral lifestyle? So here's the letter. "

Letter from a layman who is close to the Franciscans of the Immaculate

Little is known about how things went on after the Order of the Franciscans of the Immaculate was placed under provisional administration. Therefore, a brief summary is necessary.

After Father Stefano Maria Manelli, the worthy and pious founder of the Franciscans of the Immaculate (FI) was placed under charges that he had led the brothers away from their founding charism, without explaining this to date, of which the father is said to have concretely carried anyone away; then, the priests' celebration of the old rite was prohibited, a ban that applies to this day, and has been followed in the Order with absolute and faithful obedience; after which the brothers, who are faithful to the charism of the founding fathers, were hastily charged in summary proceedings and removed, and all those brothers who support the "new" line were promoted in the various monasteries around the world, then without a visible reason, the General Procurator Father Apollonio, Director of the Theological Seminary and Guardian of the Cloister Roma-Boccea was dismissed and sent to Portugal, as the Order's Superior of Florence was dismissed and sent to Austria; then Father Settimio Manelli and Father Siano, were dismissed as Rector and Vice Rector of the Order Seminary and sent to Africa; then they were replaced by two brothers of the "new" line, one of which does not even have a degree; then Father Budani, who was in the middle of completing his studies of the canon law to end overnight and without possibility of completing his studies was sent to Africa; then, after Founder Father Stefano Manelli was deposed as Superior General and exiled and even though he has met all instructions and guaranteed absolute obedience, even his closest relatives are forbidden to visit him, and it is forbidden to make phone or receive phone calls and any contact with the outside world is denied to him ... after all, now it's the Apostolic Commissioner, the Capuchin Father, Fidenzio Volpi, with the assistance of Father Alfonso Bruno, who is the new powerful man in the Order, and it's all-out war against the laity who are in continuing connection to the Order.

By a letter dated 27 November, he forbade any activity of the lay members of the Mission Immaculate Mediatrix (MIM) and the Third Order of the Franciscans of the Immaculate (Tofi). He refused that the Tertiaries to wear their robes.

Is it resolving alleged internal difficulties claimed f a thriving religious community with such incredible hardness and such Stalinist purges? Or its charisma be destroyed instead, which was not only able to arouse increasing number of vocations and to attract and expand the Order on all continents, but was, until yesterday, praised and promoted by the highest ecclesiastical authorities. Just think that the now outlawed Father Manelli and Father Lanzetta, were once welcome until a few months ago by cardinals and bishops and were welcome in the columns of the Osservatore Romano Publications were even open to them.

Text: La Stampa / Giuseppe Nardi
image: Franciscans of the Immaculate

http://theweek.com/article/index/255403/the-worlds-most-ancient-christian-communities-are-being-destroyed-mdash-and-no-one-cares&utm_medium=website&utm_campaign=twitter#

http://theweek.com/article/index/255403/the-worlds-most-ancient-christian-communities-are-being-destroyed-mdash-and-no-one-cares

Religion

The world's most ancient Christian communities are being destroyed — and no one cares

Christians in the Middle East have been the victims of pogroms and persecution. Where's the outrage in the West?

Published January 23, 2014, at 6:07 AM

Egyptian Coptic Christians mourn during a mass funeral in 2011. Photo: (REUTERS/Amr Abdallah Dalsh)

Like many Coptic Christians in Egypt, Ayman Nabil Labib had a tattoo of the cross on his wrist. And like 17-year-old men everywhere, he could be assertive about his identity. But in 2011, after Egypt's revolution, that kind of assertiveness could mean trouble.

Ayman's Arabic-language teacher told him to cover his tattoo in class. Instead of complying, the young man defiantly pulled out the cross that hung around his neck, making it visible. His teacher flew into a rage and began choking him, goading the young man's Muslim classmates by saying, "What are you going to do with him?"

Ayman's classmates then beat him to death. False statements were given to police, and two boys were taken into custody only after Ayman's terror-stricken family spoke out.

Ayman's suffering is not an isolated case in Egypt or the region.

The Arab Spring, and to a lesser extent the overthrow of Saddam Hussein, were touted as the catalysts for a major historic shift in the region. From Egypt to Syria to Iraq, the Middle East's dictatorships would be succeeded by liberal, democratic regimes. Years later, however, there is very little liberality or democracy to show. Indeed, what these upheavals have bequeathed to history is a baleful, and barely noticed legacy: The near-annihilation of the world's most ancient communities of Christians.

The persecution of Christians throughout the Middle East, as well as the silence with which it has been met in the West, are the subject of journalist Ed West's Kindle Single "The Silence of Our Friends." The booklet is a brisk and chilling litany of horrors: Discriminatory laws, mass graves, unofficial pogroms, and exile. The persecuted are not just Coptic and Nestorian Christians who have relatively few co-communicants in the West, but Catholics, Orthodox, and Protestants as well.

Throughout the Middle East the pattern is the same. Christians are murdered in mob violence or by militant groups. Their churches are bombed, their shops destroyed, and their homes looted. Laws are passed making them second-class citizens, and the majority of them eventually leave.

August 26, 2013: Bishop-General Macarius (right), a Coptic Orthodox leader, walks around the damaged Evangelical Church in Minya, south of Cairo. | (REUTERS/Louafi Larbi)

In Egypt, a rumor that a Muslim girl was dating a Christian boy led to the burning of multiple churches, and the imposition of a curfew on a local Christian population. Illiterate children were held in police custody for urinating in a trash heap, because an imam claimed that pages quoting the Koran were in the pile and had been desecrated. Again, the persecution resulted in Christian families leaving their homes behind.

In Syria, the situation is even worse. In June 2013, a cluster of Christian villages was totally destroyed. Friar Pierbattista Pizzaballa reported that "of the 4,000 inhabitants of the village of Ghassanieh... no more than 10 people remain."

Two Syrian bishops have been kidnapped by rebel groups. Militants expelled 90 percent of the Christians in the city of Homs. Patriarch Gregorios III of Antioch says that out of a population of 1.75 million, 450,000 Syrian Christians have simply fled their homes in fear.

In Iraq, the story is the same but more dramatic. According to West, between 2004 and 2011 the population of Chaldo-Assyrian Christians fell from over a million to as few as 150,000. In 2006, Isoh Majeed, who advocated the creation of a safe haven for Christians around Nineveh, was murdered in his home. The number of churches in Iraq has declined to just 57, from 300 before the invasion. The decline of Iraq's Christian population since the first Gulf War is roughly 90 percent, with most of the drop occurring since the 2003 invasion.

The U.S. and the U.K. bear some responsibility in this catastrophe, since they oversaw the creation of Iraq's postwar government and did little to protect minority faiths.

West's book touches on the clueless and callous behavior of Western governments in these episodes. U.S. reconstruction aid to Iraq is distributed according to Iraqi laws that discriminate against Christian Iraqis. The U.S. pours billions of foreign aid into Egypt, and yet the Christians in that country are not allowed to build churches (or even so much as repair toilets in them) without explicit permission from the head of state, almost never granted. Last September, the U.S and Britain attempted to make their support of Syrian rebel groups explicit and overt, but at the same time some of these militias were executing a pogrom against Christians.

A Christian shopkeeper in Ma'loula summed it up in a quote to the BBC: "Tell the EU and the Americans that we sent you Saint Paul 2,000 years ago to take you from the darkness, and you sent us terrorists to kill us."

In an email to The Week, Ed West says there are things America and its allies can and should do to aid persecuted Christians:

Western countries should make clear that our friendship, cooperation, aid, and help depends on: 1) Religious freedom, which includes the right to change or leave religions; 2) A secular law that treats all people the same. That was not the case in Mubarak's Egypt, which the U.S. helped to prop up with $500 million a year. That is not the case in Iraq, which under U.S. control instigated sharia into its constitution. That shouldn't be acceptable. In 2022, Qatar will host the World Cup, a country where death for apostasy is still on the statute books. Why aren't we all boycotting it?

The last request does put the plight of Middle Eastern Christians in global context. Western activists and media have focused considerable outrage at Russia's laws against "homosexual propaganda" in the lead-up to the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics. It would only seem fitting that Westerners would also protest (or at the very least notice) laws that punish people with death for converting to Christianity.

December 25, 2008: Iraqi Christians attend Christmas mass at the Virgin Mary church in Baghdad. | (Wathiq Khuzaie/Getty Images)

And yet the Western world is largely ignorant of or untroubled by programmatic violence against Christians. Ed West, citing the French philosopher Regis Debray, distils the problem thusly: "The victims are 'too Christian' to excite the Left, and 'too foreign' to excite the Right."

Church leaders outside the Middle East are afraid to speak out, partly because they fear precipitating more violence. (Seven churches were fire-bombed in Iraq after Pope Benedict XVI quoted an ancient criticism of Islam in an academic speech in Germany.) Oddly, unlike Iran, Saudi Arabia, Israel, and Russia, the U.S. and the U.K. are the only powers acting in the Middle East that do not take any special interest in the safety of those with whom they have a historical religious affinity.

These are the lands in which Jesus' apostles and their disciples made some of the first Christian converts. In an interview, West pointed out that these communities "were Christian when our ancestors were worshipping trees and stones." Now they are in danger of imminent extinction.

In 2013, Raphael I Sako, the Chaldean Patriarch of Baghdad, said the following at his installation homily, "Still the shadow of fear, anxiety, and death is hanging over our people." He warned: "If emigration continues, God forbid, there will be no more Christians in the Middle East. It will be no more than a distant memory." West's book is a sobering reminder that Western policy has helped shape this grim fate for Middle Eastern Christians — and Western silence allows it to continue.

Priest from Nineveh:

'Christianity is finished in Iraq'

Catholic News Agency (CNA)

catholicnewsagency.com/news/priest-from-nineveh-christianity-is-finished-in-iraq-70940/

A man leaves his car and packs his bag at the Khazair checkpoint after fleeing from Mosul, Iraq on June 11, 2014. Credit: R. Nuri UNHCR/ACNUR via Flickr (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0).

Rome, Italy, Aug 8, 2014 / 04:30 pm (CNA/EWTN News)

.- A priest hailing from what used to be Iraq’s largest Christian city has lamented the exodus of over 100,000 Christians from the city, many of whom are fleeing on foot with no food, money or water.

“Today the story of Christianity is finished in Iraq,” said a priest who identified himself as Fr. Nawar.

“People can’t stay in Iraq because there is death for whoever stays,” told CNA Aug. 8.

A priest who has been living and studying in Rome for the last three years, Fr. Nawar is originally from the Iraqi city of Qaraqosh (Bakhdida) on the plains of Nineveh, which was considered the Christian capital of the country until the Kurdish military forces known as the Peshmerga withdrew from it.

The city then fell to forces of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant – known as ISIS – on Wednesday night. Since then more than 100,000 Christians have fled the city, many taking with them nothing but the clothes on their backs.

According to reports from BBC News, the Islamic State militants have taken down crosses and burned religious manuscripts.

“It’s a very difficult life,” Fr. Nawar said, “very, very difficult.”

Noting how there are many families now “who are dying because of the temperatures, dying because they can’t eat, dying because of fear, and also because of war, of bombs,” the priest emphasized the importance of giving “a voice to all of these sick people.”

“Christian people need peace in order to live. They don’t live from war. They don’t need people, or even the president, no, they need peace to live. This is important.”

Qaraqosh is about 19 miles southeast of Mosul, which Islamic State forces captured in June, giving an ultimatum to Christians and other minorities demanding that they convert, pay the jizya tax or be killed.

Speaking of Wednesday’s attack on Qaraqosh, Fr. Nawar expressed his gratitude and relief that his family escaped beforehand and is currently safe in the northern city of Armota, about an hour and a half from Qaraqosh by car.

“My family is well because they are rich, they can rent a house,” he said, “But other families, poor, where do they go? There isn’t money.”

It can cost up to 2-3,000 dollars to rent a house in Iraq, the priest explained, and often in the house, “there is no food, there is no oven, there is nothing.”

“There are so many families who can’t eat, they can’t get bread,” he lamented.

Of all the families currently fleeing to Kurdistan, about 70 percent of them are staying in Ankawa, Irbil and other Christian cities in the area, Fr. Nawar said.

“Today many families are in Ankawa, more or less 200,000 people. But it’s difficult. All these people right now are sleeping on the street, in the garden, in the car. There aren’t any available spaces.”

The priest recalled a phone conversation he had with his brother after his family left Qaraqosh, using one of their family’s two cars to help another family escape.

“My family has two cars. When they escaped, there were many people who didn’t have a car, and my brother helped a family with his car. He took them in his car and they escaped with my brother.”

However, “there are many people escaping on foot,” he said. “There are no cars and there is no money. There is not mercy today in this life.”

“When ISIS arrives, the Christians must change religion or escape. There is no other option. Change religions, become Muslim, and those who don’t convert leave.”

Rafal Cordova, an Iraqi woman originally from city of Alqush, roughly an hour from Qaraqosh, spoke with told CNA Aug. 8. She said it is the first time in history that “people are leaving Alqush.”

Cordova, who has been living in the U.S. for several years, explained that yesterday evening, “people started going into the street asking for help.” While citizens from the nearby city of Dhouk helped them, “a lot of them were sleeping in the street.”

She added that many of the Iraqis she knows in the United States are “happy that the U.S. is helping and sending airstrikes.”

The Obama administration announced late Thursday night that it had authorized “targeted airstrikes” to prevent a humanitarian catastrophe and defend U.S. military advisors in the Iraqi capital of Irbil. It is also airdropping humanitarian aid to a Yazidi group trapped in the mountains of Sinjar without access to food or water.

In addition, Pope Francis has appointed Cardinal Fernando Filoni as his personal envoy to Iraq. Cordova said she is “glad and pleased to hear of the appointment,” adding that she recently spoke to her family members, who are also happy to hear of the news.

“Now they feel that the Christians in Iraq are not alone,” she said.

The Litany of Humility

O Jesus, meek and humble of heart,
Hear me.
From the desire of being esteemed,
Deliver me, O Jesus.
From the desire of being loved,
Deliver me, O Jesus.
From the desire of being extolled, etc.
From the desire of being honored,
From the desire of being praised,
From the desire of being preferred to others,
From the desire of being consulted,
From the desire of being approved,
From the fear of being humiliated,
From the fear of being despised,
From the fear of suffering rebukes,
From the fear of being calumniated,
From the fear of being forgotten,
From the fear of being ridiculed,
From the fear of being wronged,
From the fear of being suspected,
Deliver me, O Jesus.

That others may be loved more than I,
Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.
That others may be esteemed more than I,
Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.
That, in the opinion of the world, others may increase
and I may decrease, etc.
That others may be chosen and I set aside,
That others may be praised and I go unnoticed,
That others may be preferred to me in everything,
That others may become holier than I,
provided that I may become as holy as I should,
Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.

Composed by Rafael, Cardinal Merry del Val,
Secretary of State under Pope St. Pius X and
Secretary of the Supreme Sacred Congregation of the Holy Office under Pope Benedict XV

Explanation of the First Friday Sacred Heart of Jesus Devotion

From the writings of St. Margaret Mary:

"On Friday during Holy Communion, He said these words to His unworthy slave, if I mistake not: I promise you in the excessive mercy of my Heart that its all-powerful love will grant to all those who receive Holy Communion on nine first Fridays of consecutive months the grace of final repentance; they will not die under my displeasure or without receiving their sacraments, my divine Heart making itself their assured refuge at the last moment."

With regard to this promise it may be remarked:

(1) that our Lord required Communion to be received on a particular day chosen by Him;

(2) that the nine Fridays must be consecutive;

(3) that they must be made in honor of His Sacred Heart, which means that those who make the nine Fridays must practice the devotion and must have a great love for our Lord;

(4) that our Lord does not say that those who make the nine Fridays will be dispensed from any of their obligations or from exercising the vigilance necessary to lead a good life and overcome temptation; rather He implicitly promises abundant graces to those who make the nine Fridays to help them to carry out these obligations and persevere to the end;

(5) that perseverance in receiving Holy Communion for nine consecutive First Firdays helps the faithful to acquire the habit of frequent Communion, which our Lord eagerly desires; and

(6) that the practice of the nine Fridays is very pleasing to our Lord since He promises such great reward, and that all Catholics should endeavor to make the nine Fridays.

Prayer Source: Enthronement of the Sacred Heart by Rev. Francis Larkin, SS.CC., St. Paul Editions, 1978

The 12 Promises of Our Lord to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque Regarding Those Who Receive Communion on Nine First Fridays:

I will give them all the graces necessary in their state of life.
I will establish peace in their houses.
I will comfort them in all their afflictions.
I will be their strength during life and above all during death.
I will bestow a large blessing upon all their undertakings.
Sinners shall find in My Heart the source and the infinite ocean of mercy.
Tepid souls shall grow fervent.
Fervent souls shall quickly mount to high perfection.
I will bless every place where a picture of My Heart shall be set up and honored.
I will give to priests the gift of touching the most hardened hearts.
Those who shall promote this devotion shall have their names written in My Heart, never to be blotted out.
I promise you in the excessive mercy of My Heart that My all-powerful love will grant to all those who communicate on the First Friday in nine consecutive months the grace of final penitence; they shall not die in My disgrace nor without receiving their Sacraments; My Divine Heart shall be their safe refuge in this last moment.

Consecration of the Human Race to the Sacred Heart of Jesus

Most sweet Jesus, Redeemer of the human race, look down upon us humbly prostrate before Thine altar. We are Thine, and Thine we wish to be; but, to be more surely united with Thee, behold each one of us freely consecrates himself today to Thy most Sacred Heart.

Many indeed have never known Thee; many too, despising Thy precepts, have rejected Thee. Have mercy on them all, most merciful Jesus, and draw them to Thy sacred Heart. Be Thou King, O Lord, not only of the faithful who have never forsaken Thee, but also of the prodigal children who have abandoned Thee; grant that they may quickly return to Thy Father's house lest they die of wretchedness and hunger.

Be Thou King of those who are deceived by erroneous opinions, or whom discord keeps aloof, and call them back to the harbor of truth and unity of faith, so that there may be but one flock and one Shepherd.

Be Thou King of all those who are still involved in the darkness of idolatry or of Islamism, and refuse not to draw them into the light and kingdom of God. Turn Thine eyes of mercy towards the children of the race, once Thy chosen people: of old they called down upon themselves the Blood of the Savior; may it now descend upon them a laver of redemption and of life.

Grant, O Lord, to Thy Church assurance of freedom and immunity from harm; give peace and order to all nations, and make the earth resound from pole to pole with one cry: "Praise be to the divine Heart that wrought our salvation; to it be glory and honor for ever." Amen.

Novena Presently Being Said at the Shrine for the Following Intentions:

(began Sun., June 29 and ends Mon., July 7)

1) For the revitalization of the spiritual life of all members of the

Shrine of Christ the King;

2) For God's special assistance in the formation of all of the

Shrine's Catechumens in the knowledge and acceptance of

Sacred Doctrine and the joyful practice of the Christian life

of virtue

Novena to the Sacred Heart

(Say once a day for 9 days, especially beginning on the Feast of Corpus Christi and ending on the Feast of the Sacred Heart)

O most holy Heart of Jesus, fountain of every blessing, I adore Thee, I love Thee and with a lively sorrow for my sins, I offer Thee this poor heart of mine. Make me humble, patient, pure and wholly obedient to Thy will. Grant, good Jesus, that I may live in Thee and for Thee. Protect me in the midst of danger; comfort me in my afflictions; give me health of body, assistance in my temporal needs, Thy blessing on all that I do, and the grace of a holy death. Within Thy Heart I place my every care. In every need let me come to Thee with humble trust saying, Heart of Jesus help me. Amen.

Litany of the Sacred Heart of Jesus

Lord, have mercy on us.
Christe, have mercy on us.
Lord, have mercy on us.
Christ, hear us.
Christ, graciously hear us. God, the Father of Heaven,
God, the Son, Redeemer of the World,
God, the Holy Ghost,
Holy Trinity, one God,

Heart of Jesus, Son of the Eternal Father,
Heart of Jesus, formed in the womb of the Virgin Mother by the Holy Ghost,
Heart of Jesus, united substantially with the word of God,
Heart of Jesus, of infinite majesty,
Heart of Jesus, holy temple of God,
Heart of Jesus, tabernacle of the Most High,
Heart of Jesus, house of God and gate of heaven,
Heart of Jesus, glowing furnace of charity,
Heart of Jesus, vessel of justice and love,
Heart of Jesus, full of goodness and love,
Heart of Jesus, abyss of all virtues,
Heart of Jesus, most worthy of all praise,
Heart of Jesus, king and center of all hearts,
Heart of Jesus, in whom are all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge,
Heart of Jesus, in whom dwelleth all the fullness of the Divinity,
Heart of Jesus, in whom the Father is well pleased,
Heart of Jesus, of whose fullness we have all received,
Heart of Jesus, desire of the everlasting hills,
Heart of Jesus, patient and rich in mercy,
Heart of Jesus, rich to all who invoke Thee,
Heart of Jesus, fount of life and holiness,
Heart of Jesus, propitiation for our sins,
Heart of Jesus, saturated with revilings,
Heart of Jesus, crushed for our iniquities,
Heart of Jesus, made obedient unto death,
Heart of Jesus, pierced with a lance,
Heart of Jesus, source of all consolation,
Heart of Jesus, our life and resurrection,
Heart of Jesus, our peace and reconciliation,
Heart of Jesus, victim for our sins,
Heart of Jesus, salvation of those who hope in Thee,
Heart of Jesus, hope of those who die in Thee,
Heart of Jesus, delight of all saints,

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Lamb of God, who takest away the sins of the world, (spare us, O Lord.)
Lamb of God, who takest away the sins of the world, (graciously hear us, O Lord.)
Lamb of God who takest away the sins of the world, (have mercy on us.)
Jesus, meek and humble of Heart. (Make our hearts like unto Thine.)

Let us pray. Almighty and everlasting God, look upon the Heart of Thy well-beloved Son and upon the acts of praise and satisfaction which He renders unto Thee in the name of sinners; and do Thou, in Thy great goodness, grant pardon to them who seek Thy mercy, in the name of the same Thy Son, Jesus Christ, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee, world without end.

Amen.

ACT OF REPENTANCE (To be said 1st, each day of the novena)

I believe in Thee, O my God.
Strengthen, O Lord, my faith.
I hope in Thee, O my God.
Affirm, O Lord, my hope.
I love Thee, O my God.
Increase, O Lord, my love.
I repent of having offended Thee.
O my God, help me to have contrition,
So that I may, with the help of Thy grace
And the powerful patronage of
Holy Mary of Good Success,
Never sin again.
O Lord, have pity and mercy on me.
Amen.

OPENING PRAYER

O most Excellent and Immaculate Queen of Heaven,
Holy Mary of Good Success,
Most favored Daughter of the Eternal Father,
Most beloved Mother of the Divine Son,
Most cherished Spouse of the Holy Ghost,
Sublime throne of the Divine Majesty,
August Temple of the Holy Trinity,
In whom the Three Divine Persons
Have placed the treasures of
Their Power, Wisdom, and Love!

Remember, Virgin Mary of Good Success,
Whom God has made so great
So that thou canst give succor to miserable sinners;
Remember that thou has often promised to show thyself
A merciful Mother to those who have recourse to thee.
I come to thee then, Mother most merciful,
And I beg thee, for thy love of the Most High,
That thou shouldst obtain for me from God the Father
A lively Faith that never loses sight of the eternal truths;
From the Son, a firm Hope that always aspires to reach that glory
That He won for me with His Blood;
And from the Holy Ghost,
A charity so inflamed that I will always live
Loving the Supreme Goodness and thee,
Most Holy Virgin, until, through thy intervention,
I should love and enjoy thee eternally in glory.
Amen.

We salute thee Mary, as the Favored Daughter of God the Father.

Hail Mary....

We salute thee Mary, as the Chosen Mother of the Divine Son .

Hail Mary...

We salute thee Mary, as the Singular Spouse of the Holy Ghost.

Hail Mary...

Glory be to the Father...

(Go to the Day of the Novena)

Act of Thanksgiving to the Blessed Virgin

O Virgin blessed among all women! We lack the words to give thee thanks for the innumerable blessings that we have received from thy hand. The day of thy birth can be called the day of thanksgiving, happiness, and consolation. Thou art the honor of mankind, the joy of Paradise, the beloved gift of God, and the well being of our country. What merit do we have, Blessed Virgin of Good Success, to deserve to have thee as our Mother? May God be forever blessed Who has desired it so! Blessed also art thou, Virgin Mary, because, despite our ingratitude, thou showest us thy propitious favor.

Thus art thou, most clement Mother, our consolation on earth, our refuge, our help and our protection in both our public and private needs. Safeguard us from war, pestilence, hunger, storms, earthquakes and all the calamities, which we merit by our guilt.. Pray for the Holy Church and for her visible head. Hear the supplications of those who invoke thee. Be thou our Advocate, our Mother, for as thus do we place our confidence in thee. To thee do we have recourse, and through thy intercession we hope to achieve from thy Son pardon for our sins and perseverance in grace until death.
Amen.

(Here, each one raising up his heart to God, should ask, through the intercession of Blessed Mary of Good Success, that grace or favor which he desires to receive.)

Praises to the Holy Virgin

O Virgin Mary, our Mother preeminent above all on earth.
Response: Come to our assistance and show us mercy, because thou art our Mother.

Above all others, thou were attentive to the Word of the Father, who does great things in thy honor.
Response: Come to our assistance and show us mercy, because thou art our Mother.

Thou art the most worthy temple of the Most Holy Trinity.
Response: Come to our assistance and show us mercy, because thou art our Mother.

In thee is that same purity the Angels enjoy.
Response: Come to our assistance and show us mercy, because thou art our Mother.

The Christian world proclaims that thou doth reign on the right side of the King of Kings.
Response: Come to our assistance and show us mercy, because thou art our Mother.

O Mother of Grace! O our hope! Port for the shipwrecked and star of the sea.
Response: Come to our assistance and show us mercy, because thou art our Mother.

Gate of Heaven, health of the sick, light in the darkness.
Response: Come to our assistance and show us mercy, because thou art our Mother.

Through thee, we will find ourselves before God in the court of the Saints, where He lives and reigns.
Response: Come to our assistance and show us mercy, because thou art our Mother.

Guide our steps and help us, O sweet Mary, in our last hours.
Response: Come to our assistance and show us mercy, because thou art our Mother.

Receive this praise from our tender lips, which cannot express thy singular grandeur.
Response: Come to our assistance and show us mercy, because thou art our Mother.

Antiphon: Holy Mary save the miserable, help the weak, intercede for the afflicted, plead for the people, intercede for the Clergy, petition for the faithful. Permit all those who celebrate thy holy memory to experience thy favor and assistance.

V. Pray for us, O Virgin of Good Success!

R. So that we may be made worthy to receive the promises of Christ.

Final Prayer

We ask thee, Our Lord and God, that Thou grant us health of soul and body through the intercession of the glorious Virgin Mary. Through her merits and those of her sovereign Child Jesus, we hope to be freed from the present evils and to attain eternal happiness.
Amen

First Day

(Act of Repentance and Opening Prayer....)

Consider how great and incomparable are t he wonders of God Omnipotent, manifesting the treasures of His Mercy in favor of those He redeemed. Therefore, if we admire the excesses of His Goodness in the many benefits with which he has enriched us, how much more should we marvel at and be filled with gratitude for the greatest blessing of His Right Hand, that most excellent and privileged creature, Mary most holy, whom He gave us for our consolation, especially for those who serve and love Him with all their hearts, and inspired the diverse titles and invocations that honor her. Through these devotions, we receive great favors by means of her succor and protection. This has been the experience of true devotees of the Mother of God, and especially of those who have recourse to her by means of the marvelous Statue of Good Success, which is placed in the Church of the Royal Hospital in the City of Madrid, miraculous from the beginning in the special and unexpected way that this Treasure was found in the wilderness. As God said to the Prophet Isaiah, He would seek out those who had not come seeking for Him, and would set aside those who had not believed in His goodness and largesse. Thus also did the Most High made clear His Will that His Holy Mother be honored and venerated under the avocation of Good Success.

Prayer:

O Lord of infinite goodness, by the miraculous making of this image of Mary Most Holy, Thou hath given us a powerful intercessor to whom we might have recourse with total confidence in her amiable protection in our necessity. Grant us the assistance that we are asking with fervor and confidence so that we might know, honor and serve the Blessed Virgin, and so that, by her intercession, we may achieve on this earth our sanctification and afterwards, be happy with her in Heaven.
Amen.

(Act of Thanksgiving Prayer and Praises to the Holy Virgin...)

Second Day

(Act of Repentance and Opening Prayer....)

Consider how the providence of the Most High desired to so favor mankind by manifesting the hidden treasure of the precious statue of Holy Mary under the avocation of Good Success. After the death of Brother Bernandine de Obrego n, founder of the Brotherhood of the (Friar) Minors for the Service of the Sick (the Order of St. Francis of Paola), Gabriel de Fontaned was elected to replace him. Accompanied by Guillermo Rigosa, he traveled to Rome to ask the Supreme Pontiff for his official approval of the Institute and the habit with the purple cross that distinguishes the order.

As they were passing through the town of Traigueras (under the jurisdiction of Tortosa in the Principate of Cataluna), they were caught in a terrifying hailstorm with lightening and thunder so strong that their hearts were filled with terror.. They begged God to provide them with a shelter where they could take refuge so that they might prepare to die in peace, for the unrelenting rigor of the storm had persuaded them that they would not survive it. But God in His Divine Mercy so disposed that this search for shelter should be a presage of a good fortune. In a burst of lightning, they were able to discern a turnoff in the path. Following it, they could see the contours of a cave set far up in the hill above them. Even from the distance, they could see a bright light illuminating its interior and smell a sweet and heavenly aroma, more intense than anything on earth. Their souls were inundated with a great happiness as well as a sentiment of reverent admiration. At the same time, they felt an interior impulse to know the cause of such wonders.

Prayer:

O God, admirable in all Thy works! May Thou always convert the most hazardous occurrences of life into proofs of Thy mercy, and in the most desperate storms may Thou show the preludes of Thy prodigies in our favor, just as Thou did with the Minorite brothers by means of that terrifying storm. Grant to us, through the intercession of the Queen of Good Success, the virtue of patience, to suffer with a resigned spirit the trials sent us by Thy Divine Will, because at any moment Thou can change them to consolations in this life and afterwards grant us Thy eternal reward in Heaven, where we will always sing Thy praise and the praise of Holy Mary.
Amen

(Act of Thanksgiving Prayer and Praises to the Holy Virgin...)

Third Day

(Act of Repentance and Opening Prayer....)

Consider how the travelers, impelled by grace and attracted by curiosity to examine such surprising wonders, set out for the site offering them refuge. Taking off their shoes, they climbed the hill with great difficulty, helping each other over large boulders and sharp cliffs. When they reached the cave, which they were able to see in the flashes of lightening, how great was their surprise of joy and admiration! For they saw that this cave had been delicately carved by nature as a spacious temple. It protected a beautiful Statue of the Holy Virgin holding the Christ Child in her left arm, and carrying a scepter in her right hand. A precious crown rested on her forehead. Her dress, like that of the Infant, was simple but elegant, and both were made in the same material and style.

The site was adorned with various types of flowers that carpeted the floor and climbed on the walls, filling the air with an exquisite fragrance for the Queen of Heaven. Set in the rock was a lamp so expertly craft ed that it gave off the illumination of many lights. Such beauty and delight to honor such an admirable Lady! Such surprise and admiration for the overwhelmed travelers! The ecstatic pair contemplated this little part of Heaven and calmed their overwrought hearts in the presence of their Mother, who, after the terrible storm, had come to them so unexpectedly, radiant with beauty and tender of feature, to provide them with refuge and consolation in that desperate and difficult juncture.

So also my soul is calmed before the image of Mary. When the burdens of life and its imminent dangers bring us close to despair, let us go, then, to her with tranquility and confidence, thanking God Who in His Omnipotence permitted that portentous statue to be miraculously found in that hidden place for the honor of the Immaculate Virgin and so that all might venerate Her under that precious avocation of Good Success.

Prayer:

O God of Mercy, Who never abandons in desolation one who faithfully and fervently serves Thee amid the misfortunes and dangers of life, and Who leads us to find our Mother and advocate as a refuge in our adversities, grant us a tender and fervent heart to search for Mary and find her, always loving and protective, so that we might serve her and merit, through Thy intercession, to lead a good and Christian life and afterwards be with her forever in Heaven.
Amen.

(Act of Thanksgiving Prayer and Praises to the Holy Virgin...)

Fourth Day

(Act of Repentance and Opening Prayer...)

Consider the indescribable joy of the good Minorite brothers upon contemplating these prodigies. The Statue of our beloved Mother shone before them like a resplendent star, and they reverently prostrated themselves before her to praise and thank her for a gift so unique and an event so extraordinary. Their thoughts and sentiments were raised to heavenly considerations and they believe themselves favored by something supernatural. For everything they saw and felt within those walls of rock in such an inaccessible place so far from any other houses seemed made by more than human hands. They repeated their prayers of thanksgiving with fervor.

Then, asking light and grace from Heaven to know what they should do, they decided to try to discover the origin of that sanctuary and Statue by seeking the pious persons or community who were caring so prodigiously for this cult. Even though it seemed impossible to them that such magnificence was the work of men in a place so retired and inaccessible, prudence and piety cautioned them to first make a cautious investigation about the matter. They inquired at the hamlets nearest the cave, which were more than three leagues in distance, but found no one who could give them the least information about the Statue. Not even the persons they questioned who were 80 and 100 years old had ever heard about the statue or any such devotion in those outlying woods or any other place near the region.

Consider, then, the astonishment and holy joy of the Brothers, now the owners of the extraordinary finding, as they humbled themselves again before the Holy Statue, offering her their warmest thanks with embraces and warm emotion, choosing her as their special patron and mediatrix under the very significant title of Mother of Good Success. The heart is moved by sentiments of pious gratitude and admiration for such a prodigious favor as this that was granted to the Holy Brothers.

Let us unite with them in their tender embraces of Mary, loving her and lavishing her with generous resolutions, because we also have mercifully found her on the dangerous pathway of life amid the horror of the storm of our passions.

Prayer:

O God of infinite love! Thou hath given us in our Mother a precious shelter and consolation, placing her in the pathway of our hazardous lives so that she might be a shield to defend us in persecutions and dangers as Our Mother of Good Success. Thankful for Thy goodness, may we correspond with the practice of virtue and a tender and constant devotion to Mary Most Holy, so that through her intercession we might find Heaven.
Amen.

(Act of Thanksgiving Prayer and Praises to the Holy Virgin...)

Fifth Day

(Act of Repentance and Opening Prayer....)

Consider how the holy travelers, now convinced that their precious discovery belonged to them, placed the Statue in a basket, and with this so amiable and powerful companion they continued easily and happily on their trip to Rome, where they were graciously received by His Holiness Paul V, a very chaste and pious man. They informed him of how they had found the Statue of the Virgin. Seeing her so precious and radiating with a supernatural presence, he prostrated himself before her and hung his precious gold and enamel pectoral around the neck of the Statue, granting graces and indulgences to all who venerated her.

He charged the fortunate religious who had found the image in such a marvelous way to honor the statue and zealously spread her devotion everywhere. They saw in this, and even in the name of Our Lady of Good Success that the Pope gave her, all the signs that this was a supernatural discovery. This prodigious gift soon became an inexhaustible source of graces and wonders which were experienced by the inhabitants of the city of Valencia where the religious brothers took her. Later the Statue was transferred with solemn splendor to the magnificent Church of Madrid, the capitol of Spain, where the venerated Statue continues to work wonders, her cult extending throughout Europe and even to the farthest regions of our America.

Animate yourself, my soul, in the presence of Mary, that this encounter might carry you through the most difficult junctures of life, consoling you with her sweet and smiling visage. See, then, the Holy Father of the faithful prostrate in her presence, offering you this most priceless treasure and charging you to be devout and faithful in the service of Mary. Be content with the state in which God has placed you, because you have Mary, who serves you as companion and protectress. Praise her, bless her, and present her with the pectoral of your love, placing at her feet your dominant passion, offering your efforts to overcome yourself with determination and constancy in order to obtain the exceptional favors that so many pious people have received from this Holy Statue of Good Success.

Prayer:

O Sovereign God! Thou hath given us Thy highest counsel, the Most Holy Virgin of Good Success, as a companion to accompany us in our pilgrimage, so that she might serve us as guide, guard and protectress amid its conflicts. We go, then, to her, filled with confidence and finding the way easily on the journey to the dwelling place of our Eternal Father, where all that we desire will be granted. Enflame our hearts with love for the Most Holy Virgin of Good Success so that we might offer them to Our Holy Mother, with the gift of gratitude, a firm and constant love, and the conquering of our passions by means of the great graces received from Thy Merciful Hands. Thus might we always have her favor in this life and her sweet assistance at death, so that we might merit eternal salvation. Amen.

(Act of Thanksgiving Prayer and Praises to the Holy Virgin...)

Sixth Day

(Act of Repentance and Opening Prayer...)

Consider how the city of Quito and its oldest Convent, the Convent of the Conceptionists, also experienced the special favor of the glorious Mother of Good Success, who appeared prodigiously to Mother Mariana de Jesus Torres, a Spaniard and one of the Founding Mothers of this Convent, in the year 1610, after the Convent had already been founded for 33 years. This fortunate and pious sister was praying alone with tender devotion, imploring the help of Mary under the avocation of Good Success for the needs of her own soul, for her sisters in the cloister, and for all mankind. In the fervor of her pleas, made with such profound faith and confidence, she raised her eager eyes to Heaven, calling on her Mother to come and save her and grant what she humbly asked with sincere interest for the good of her Convent and for all the Catholic Church.

Suddenly a refulgent light flooded the church, and the good sister fell into ecstasy. Her mind was overcome by a sudden astonishment and her heart was moved by an inexplicable joy. Her faith grew and her devotion increased as the light diffused itself before her astonished and dazzled gaze. A singular joy entered her heart, and she redoubled her pleas in an ecstasy of unlimited confidence.

Thus is the soul invited to leave the mean Earth and look to Heaven with the eyes of a lively and penetrating faith. Heaven opens for it a path to the light of divine clarity and inundates it with the splendors of divinity. "The just live by faith." So indeed do the Just make their Heaven here on the lowly earth, attracting by their faith the light that does nothing to diminish the morning stars.

Let us also strengthen our faith in the revealed mysteries. Let us see with the eyes of intelligence, following the example of true religious souls, all the actions of our lives, leaving aside all thoughts of this lowly material life and focusing our understanding with efforts of faith on the ways of Divine Providence. It is principally by prayer that we leave this earth and transfer our thinking to matters of Heaven, where the Omnipotent God and Mary, his Daughter, Mother, and Spouse, dwell, awaiting our humble entreaties as pilgrims who, prostrate at their feet, implore the graces that we need.

Prayer:

O, inaccessible light of supernatural truth that illuminates our being with its celestial splendor and leads us to Thee, illuminate our minds with the light of the firm and living faith. It was such a faith that moved Our Mother of Good Success to show herself to the eyes of that blessed Conceptionist religious Mother Mariana de Jesus Torres.. Because we are anxious to enjoy the supernatural goods, help us to be less concerned about the things of this earth. With the protection of Holy Mary and a constant and sure faith in the revealed mysteries, help us to live contemplating the brilliance of our final end and anticipating the joy of seeing Thee and Mary Most Holy for all eternity.
Amen.

(Act of Thanksgiving Prayer and Praises to the Holy Virgin...)

Seventh Day

(Act of Repentance and Opening Prayer....)

Consider how the fortunate religious, in the fervor of her pleas and illuminated by that bright light that inundated her, fixed her eyes upon the source of that brilliance, finding before her a Lady of extraordinary beauty and kindness of face. As the light dissolved, she saw that the Lady was carrying in her left arm a Child, shining and bright like a morning star, full of grace and goodness, His features tender and kind. In her right hand she held a beautiful l scepter of shining gold and precious stones, and around her forehead was a magnificent crown with dazzling stones. She wore a garment similar to the that of the Statue (in Spain) of Mary of Good Success, whose miraculous discovery was recounted earlier and to whom the pious Conceptionist sister had been praying when she received the favor of this vision.

The good religious was at the same time transported with joy and confused to be thus visited by her Celestial Mother. Her soul was filled with a joy and gratitude without limit, and her heart flooded by holy sentiments. As thoughts of lively faith and valiant love and confidence overwhelmed her being, she asked: "Who art thou? And what dost thou desire?"

Then, O marvel of goodness! In a sweet and suave voice, the Lady responded:

"I am Mary of Good Success whom you invoked with such tender affection. Your prayer has pleased me very much. Your faith has brought me here. You love has invited me to visit you."

Ponder, O my soul, the singular privilege of this blessed sister, who merited by her faith, devotion, and fervor in prayer to attract the presence of Mary Most Holy and to thus contemplate her so lovely, so pure, and so beautiful, to be dazzled by her splendors, to enjoy her intimacies, and to hear her most amiable voice. Ah! Fortunate creature! How great your love for your Celestial Mother! How strong your inclination to humble yourself and bless her! How ardent your desire to be with her! How continuous, attentive, and devout your prayers!

This goodness of Mary should thus encourage us to invoke her with deep faith under the title of Good Success and to pray always with attention and confidence, considering that only a living faith and vigilant attention in prayer will make us deserve to be heard and favored by the Holy Virgin, who will respond not with privileged visions, but with other gifts of grace that will help us triumph over our passions and the enemies of religion.

Prayer:

O God of goodness, Who doth deign to reward the faith and zealous sentiments of piety of Thy chosen souls with visits of Mary Most Holy, hear also our prayers that the presence of this Statue of Good Success might illuminate our faith and increase our confidence that she will benignly hear our prayers. Grant us a never increasing faith in Thy paternal goodness, make us ever more confident that we will receive what we ask for. Make us also ever more fervent in our prayers, so that, supported by the great valor of our powerful Patroness, we might be freed from the dangers that threaten us, serve Thee better, and win the honor of being in Thy company and that of Mary Most Holy in Heaven for all eternity.
Amen.

(Act of Thanksgiving Prayer and Praises to the Holy Virgin...)

Eighth Day

(Act of Repentance and Opening Prayer....)

Consider that the Holy Virgin, on appearing to the sister, did not desire to favor her alone with a single transitory grace, for God does not bestow His special gifts except with the providential plan of increasing the piety, stimulating the moral progress, and improving the religious discipline of all the members of a community, a country, or the whole Church. For this reason Mary Most Holy of Good Success told the Conceptionist sister, "It is the Will of God that I command you to have a statue made that would represent this apparition in all its details, so that it might be placed in the choir where all the religious pray directly above the Abbess' chair, so that they might consider this memorable Statue as their principal Abbess." Thus would this Statue stimulate perpetual gratitude, special attentiveness in prayer, perfect obedience, a firm faith, a confident hope, and an ardent love for Mary Most Holy who thus offered herself to preside over and govern this Convent.

Ah, if we had a living faith! With what veneration and respect would we place ourselves before that Statue! How keenly we would recall her apparition so full of goodness and her promises and favors! How confident would we be in our supplications, how attentive in our prayers, how fervent in our devotions, how spontaneous in our obedience, how regular in our observance of the Commandments and the duties of our state of life!

Enliven, O my soul, your faith and if you are lacking in it, ask God and Mary of Good Success to grant it to you. Thus, by taking advantage of the special gift and singular privilege of having Mary of Good Success as our intercessor, we may not be responsible for a disdain or lack of appreciation for the gift that Providence has given us to increase our piety and encourage us in the practice of the virtues of faith, confidence, charity, obedience, and the fulfillment of all our duties and obligations.

Prayer:

O God, loving guardian of pious persons, families, and Communities, Who in Thy Providence doth guard and protect them because of their attention to prayer and fulfillment of their duties of life, hear now our prayers. Be attentive to our cries, enflame the light of our faith in Thy powerful protection, so that we fear not our enemies. For if Thou doth assist us, nothing can harm us. G r ant us unlimited confidence in Mary Most Holy of Good Success and the grace of obedience to and observance of our Rule (or to the fulfillment of the duties of our particular state of life), so that we might be worthy of a Mother so holy and a Protectress so powerful. May we always be Thy grateful and docile subjects so that one day we may sing with glory Thy praises in Heaven, Thou Who hath favored Mary as Daughter, Mother and Spouse of the Most Holy Trinity, the one God who lives forever and ever.
Amen.

(Act of Thanksgiving Prayer and Praises to the Holy Virgin...)

Ninth Day

(Act of Repentance and Opening Prayer....)

Consider how the humble sister felt on hearing the command of Holy Mary to have a statue made of the same size and appearance as the apparition. She excused herself saying that it would be impossible, that no sculptor could reproduce such rare beauty or render with precision its proper proportions. The beautiful Lady, with most amiable forbearance, replied to her: " Do not fear for this reason. Take off the cord around your waist and measure my height."

Since, from a natural fear, the religious did not dare to touch Mary with her hands, the Heavenly Queen herself took the end of the cord and held it to her head, while the sister touched it to her feet to measure the exact height of the marvelous vision. Then Holy Mary said: " Here, as I told you, you have the height for the statue that you should order to be made, and the rest of the measurements should be in proportion to it. Place the statue in the place I have indicated with a crosier and the keys of the cloister in my right hand, for I desire to be Advocate and Protectress of this Convent." Having said this, the vision disappeared.

The heart of the sister who had just received so signal a favor and so pleasing a mission was penetrated, filled with gratitude and warm sentiments for Mary Most Holy! Ah! Search, o my soul, in your heart for those sentiments, and be dissolved in gratitude for Mary of Good Success, our Advocate and Protectress. Let me venerate her Image with the most tender gratitude and the vehement desire of corresponding to such singular graces by leading a life that is holy, obedient, and observant of all the duties of my state of life.

Then the holy sister who had been favored with this vision sent for a capable sculptor to begin the work on this statue that Mary herself had ordered to be made. And thus this statue, full of sweetness and majesty, will last until the end of time. Venerated in the upper choir of this Convent, the religious there always have recourse to her in their most grave conflicts. So also has she been the refuge of all the people who come to her in their necessities, and through her intercession many portentous favors and special graces have been obtained.

The measurements given by Mary symbolize the measure of her humility, obedience, and love of God and neighbor, which she gives to us so that we might strive to reproduce them. Imitate her, and you will also carry an image of the Virgin Most Holy in your heart. Strive like that holy sister to make the moral image of your Virgin Mother in your customs and sentiments, in your bearing and way of acting, in your fidelity to the rule and your prayers, in your meekness and your candor, in your purity and your detachment from earthly things, thus aspiring only to heavenly goods.

Prayer:

Oh God! Tender Father of Thy creatures Who in every manner demonstrates Thy paternal care and guidance for us, principally by giving us Mary Most Holy as our Advocate, Protectress and model ideal of virtue, infuse our hearts with a constant desire to imitate our Mother and Queen, modeling our thoughts, desires, and actions after those of Mary Most Holy so that we might be like Her in all that our fragile nature permits. Assisted by Thy Divine Grace , may we conquer our passions and receive the choicest graces that our Mother grants to her children who confidently come to her as Advocate in their pressing needs. May we find her ready to assist us in the last difficult moment of life, and afterward enjoy the pleasure of her company in Heaven forever and ever.
Amen

(Act of Thanksgiving Prayer and Praises to the Holy Virgin...)

Novena for the Nativity of Our Lady

Nihil Obstat: Iacobus P. King, I.C.D. Censor Deputatus.

Imprimatur: Bryan Iosephus McEntegart, D.D., LL.D. Episcopus Bruklyniensis.

The prayer of each day is preceded by the following:

V. O God, come to my assistance

R. O Lord, make haste to help me

V. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost

R. As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

First Day:

Heavenly Child, lovable Mary, the Eternal Father delights in thy birth, for He beholds in thy coming into this world one of His creatures who is so perfect that she will become the worthy Mother of His Divine Son. May thy birth give joy to my soul also, by obtaining for me from the heavenly Father, the pardon of my sins, and an abiding sorrow for them.

Hail Mary...

(go to Ending Prayer)

Second Day:

O Chosen One among the daughters of Adam, admirable Mary, the Son of God delights in thy birth, for He beholds the one chosen to be His Mother, and oh! such a beloved Mother. May thy birth give joy to my soul also, by obtaining from thy Divine Son the grace to be born again spiritually to a holy life, perfectly conformed to thine, so that I may merit to obtain eternal glory.

Hail Mary...

(go to Ending Prayer)

Third Day:

O Chosen One among the daughters of Adam, lovable Mary, the Eternal Word takes delight in thy birth, for He sees the source of His Immaculate Blood. May thy birth give joy to my soul also, by obtaining for me from the Word made Flesh, the grace to find in this Divine Blood the eternal happiness of my soul.

Hail Mary...

(go to Ending Prayer)

Fourth Day:

O Chosen One among the daughters of Adam, admirable Mary, the Redeemer, promised to mankind from the beginning of the world, takes delight in thy birth, for He sees the one who is destined to become the co-Redemptrix of souls by uniting her tears to the Blood shed on the Cross to save mankind.

Hail Mary...

(go to Ending Prayer)

Fifth Day:

Resplendent Lily of Paradise, lovable Mary, the Holy Ghost takes delight in thee for He sees in thee the soul never stained by sin, which would forever be His worthy Temple. May thy birth give joy to my soul also, by obtaining for me from the Holy Ghost His Divine love and final perseverance.

Hail Mary...

(go to Ending Prayer)

Sixth Day:

Most Beautiful Branch of the tree of David, most admirable Mary, whose birth was such a consolation to St. Joachim and St. Anne who were delighted to be the parents of so holy a child, may thy birth be the consolation of my soul, by obtaining for me from God, victory over the world and detachment from all the things of this Earth.

Hail Mary...

(go to Ending Prayer)

Seventh Day:

Resplendent Morning Star, lovable Mary, thy birth was the cause of great joy to the Angels, for they beheld in thee the Mother of the Redeemer of the world, who by His Death would repair the loss sustained by the fall of rebellious Angels in paradise. May thy birth give joy to my soul also, by obtaining for me from God, victory over the infernal enemy, deliverance from all his snares, and the grace to be associated in glory with the Angels in Heaven.

Hail Mary...

(go to Ending Prayer)

Eighth Day:

Brilliant Aurora of Heaven, lovable Mary, thy birth brought great consolation to the souls of the Saints detained in Limbo, for it announced the approach of the Sun of Justice, Jesus Christ, Who would enlighten their darkness and then conduct them to Paradise. May thy birth give joy to my soul also, and obtain for me from God, patience in all adversities, a perfect and constant conformity to His most holy Will.

Hail Mary...

(go to Ending Prayer)

Ninth Day:

Mediatrix between God and mankind, admirable Mary, by thy birth thou didst perfect the joy of all the children of Adam, who, through thee, have received the Author of Grace, for He has made thee the treasurer of all the graces which are imparted to us. May thy birth be a special cause of joy to my soul by obtaining for me from God, eternal salvation and all the graces necessary to obtain it.

Hail Mary...

(go to Ending Prayer)

The prayer of each day is ended by the following:

Antiphon: Thy Nativity, O Virgin Mother of God, was the herald of joy to the whole world; since from thee arose the Sun of Justice, Christ our God, Who, destroying the curse, bestowed the blessing, and confounding death, rewarded us with life everlasting.

V: Let us celebrate with joy the birth of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

R: That she may intercede for us with Our Lord Jesus Christ.

Let us pray,

Grant to us Thy servants, we beseech Thee, O Lord, the gift of Thy heavenly grace, that as our salvation was begun in the Child-bearing of the Blessed Virgin, so from this solemn festival of her Nativity may we obtain an increase of peace. Through Our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

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Pope St. Pius X:
Modern Defender of the Catholic Faith

St Augustine on Baptism of Desire

“Right is right even if no one is doing it; wrong is wrong even if everyone is doing it.”

“What think you, my hearers, how many of the inhabitants of this city may perhaps be saved? Out of this thickly populated city with its thousands of inhabitants not a hundred will be saved; I even doubt whether there will be as many as that.”

“If anyone abide not in me, he shall be cast forth as a branch, and shall wither, and they shall gather him up, and cast him into the fire, and he burneth.”

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Home

Pope St. Pius X:Modern Defender of the Catholic Faith

St Augustine on Baptism of Desire

“Right is right even if no one is doing it; wrong is wrong even if everyone is doing it.”

“What think you, my hearers, how many of the inhabitants of this city may perhaps be saved? Out of this thickly populated city with its thousands of inhabitants not a hundred will be saved; I even doubt whether there will be as many as that.”

“If anyone abide not in me, he shall be cast forth as a branch, and shall wither, and they shall gather him up, and cast him into the fire, and he burneth.”

Rome's War Against the

Traditional Catholic Mass and Religion

Friday, December 6, 2013

Katholisches.info, Original source in German

"Absolute War" Against the Franciscans of the Immaculata? The Unspeakable "Blemish"

Young, Poor, Missionary and Evangelizing, but with a "Blemish" ...

The Order Followed Benedict XVI. and discovered the Old Rite

Letter from a layman who is close to the Franciscans of the Immaculate

Priest from Nineveh:

'Christianity is finished in Iraq'

Catholic News Agency (CNA)

Consecration of the Human Race to the Sacred Heart of Jesus

Litany of the Sacred Heart of Jesus

Pope St. Pius X:
Modern Defender of the Catholic Faith