Tradition

"But what is Tradition? It seems to me that the word is often imperfectly understood. It is equated to the “traditions” that exist in trades, in families and in civic life: the “bouquet” fixed to the roof of a house when the last tile is laid, the ribbon that is cut to open a monument, etc. That is not what I am referring to: Tradition does not consist of the customs inherited from the past and preserved out of loyalty to the past even where there are no clear reasons for them. Tradition is defined as the Deposit of Faith transmitted by the Magisterium down through the centuries. This deposit is what has been given to us by Revelation; that is to say, the Word of God entrusted to the Apostles and transmitted unfailingly by their successors.

But now they want to get everyone inquiring, searching, as if we had not been given the Creed, or as if Our Lord had not come to bring us the Truth once and for all.  What do they claim to discover with all this inquiry? Catholics upon whom they would impose these “questionings,” after having made them “abandon their certainties,” should remember this: the deposit of Revelation concluded at the death of the last Apostle. It is finished and it cannot be touched until the end of time.  Revelation is irreformable.  The First Vatican Council re-stated this explicitly: “for the doctrine of faith which God has revealed has not been proposed, like a philosophical invention, to be perfected by human ingenuity; but has been delivered as a divine deposit to the Spouse of Christ (the Church) to be faithfully kept and infallibly declared.""

-Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, Open Letter to Confused Catholics

What is going on at Arsenal Football Club?

Oh my.

Memento Mori

“I wish you many years — but not for them to be too happy, because happiness in the world isn’t really so healthy. When a man is too happy in this world, he forgets God and forgets death.”

-St. Paisios of Mount Athos

Interesting read

Driving down a street near the Vatican about two hours ago, late Monday afternoon, as the shadows had just begun to lengthen, I saw someone I recognized, standing by a light, waiting to walk across the street.

A cardinal.

I knew him. We had spoken together on occasion in the past.

“I’ll get out and go up to him,” I said to myself. “Maybe he’ll talk to me.”

Continue the read here.


Pray for Holy Mother Church in these fearful times.

To be silent

"It is best to learn to silence the faculties and to cause them to be still, so that God may speak."

-St. John Of The Cross

Rest in Peace

May the over 700 people who died today in Makkah have eternal rest and may God be merciful to them. 

"Firstly, my greetings as they celebrate the Feast of Sacrifice.  I would have wished my greeting to be warmer, my sentiments of closeness.  My sentiments of closeness in the face of tragedy, tragedy they suffered in Makkah.  In this moment, I give assurances of my prayers.  I unite myself with you all.  A prayer to Almighty God, All Merciful."

-His Holiness, Pope Francis


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I have been reading some really diabolical and harsh things written by people about these deaths.  As Catholics, that is not our way.  Of course we do not believe in Islam, however, because we love Christ, we should love our neighbors as well.  Whenever one dies, they face Our Lord Jesus Christ for judgment and they need all the prayers they can get....regardless of their religious beliefs here on earth.

On Latin

"For the Church, precisely because it embraces all nations and is destined to endure until the end of time … of its very nature requires a language that is universal, immutable, and non-vernacular."

-Pope Pius XI 

Never Lose Hope

"The other Evangelists, out of tenderness towards the reputation and honour of Matthew, have abstained from speaking of him as a publican by his ordinary name, and have called him Levi. Both names were his. But Matthew himself, according to what Solomon saith: The just man is the first to accuse himself, (Prov. xviii. 17), and again, in another place: Declare thou thy sins that thou mayest be justified, doth plainly call himself Matthew the publican, to show unto his readers that none need be hopeless of salvation if he will but strive to do better, since he himself had been all of a sudden changed from a publican into an Apostle."

-Reading 7, Matins, Feast of St. Matthew.

On the lack of silence

GO TO CONFESSION!

Oh dear reader, please go to Confession!  Go as soon as you can!  No man knows the hour or day. 

How many more Fridays/Saturdays will we have left until our final hour? 

When you look at pictures like these

How can we complain of our small pains?  The Vietnamese Martyrs and others who have died for Christ show us the greatest defense of the Faith that no words can describe.

Mistake

I was having a peaceful evening watching some baseball (Pirates v. Cubs) and for some stupid reason I decided to put on CNN during the commercial break.  On CNN, there was some sort of a debate with a bunch of men and one woman competing for something called the Republican Nominee.  I listened to this garbage for a short while and most of what I heard was just mudslinging.  The issues were avoided yet character attacks were high in number. 

I was thinking that none of this is the way of God.  There is no charity on these debates and no one is really listening to what the other is saying.  As a Catholic, I do not think that the Democrats or the Republicans accurately protray us so I have never been keen of voting.  At the end of the day, the politicans will not be able to save us, only Christ can do that. 

Let us keep working on our salvation with fear and trembling.

16 September 2015

Fr. Hugh Thwaites

 

I believe once the great Father was asked about creation and he replied that it was created to make Our Lady happy.  Profound yet simple.

Pray for us, Father Hugh Thwaites!

Sixteenth Sunday After Pentecost

"Have mercy on me, O Lord, for I have cried to Thee all the day; for Thou, O Lord, art sweet and mild, and plenteous in mercy to all that call up Thee.  Incline Thine ear to me, O Lord, and hear me; for I am needy and poor.  Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.  Have mercy on me, O Lord, for I have cried to Thee all the day; for Thou O Lord, art sweet and mild, and plenteous in mercy to all that call upon Thee."

-Introit for Today's Mass

49-0.

Floyd Mayweather.  Pugilistic Genius.


Take a bow, champ.

How To Live

"For if you live according to the flesh, you shall die: but if by the Spirit you mortify the deeds of the flesh, you shall live."

Romans 8:13

Good Bye, Washington, it was nice to know you

A wonderful write up on fangraphs which explores the horror filled inning for the Washington Nationals last night.

and to think they were favorites to win the World Series...

The Inning That Ended The Nationals' Season by Owen Watson 

"I went to a baseball game in Oakland last night. This wouldn’t have any bearing on this article if not for this: I drove to the game, and in that 30-minute drive to the stadium, the Washington Nationals went from clawing their way back into some sort of contention in the NL East by beating the Mets to looking up October beachfront condo rentals. When I got in the car, there was the prospect of an interesting September division race. When I got out of the car, poof — that was all but gone. One inning, three pitchers, six walks, and six runs after the start of the top of the seventh, the score of the game was tied at 7-7, and all it took was a home run off the bat of Kirk Nieuwenhuis in the eighth to finally sink the Nationals. 

If you follow either or both of these teams, yesterday’s seventh inning was an encapsulation of how the season has unfolded. The Mets have been one of the best stories in baseball; the Nats have been 2015’s poster child for the biggest gap between performance and preseason expectations. One of the most alluring things about baseball is how large season trends can play out in the microcosm of a single inning, and so the seventh inning saw a shift in win expectancy inline with the arc of the Nationals’ season, from spring training to today:"

9 September 2015
Feast of St. Peter Claver

Prayer

On this Feast Day of the Nativity of The Blessed Virgin Mary, let us all keep in mind our Priests and Bishops.  Our Lady is the Queen of the Clergy and we must remember that they need a great amount of prayer because Satan looks to strike the Clergy at every moment.

Our Lady, please protect and guide the Clergy.  

Happy Birthday to The Theotokos!

You cannot be too gentle....

“You cannot be too gentle, too kind. Shun even to appear harsh in your treatment of each other. Joy, radiant joy, streams from the face of one who gives and kindles joy in the heart of one who receives. All condemnation is from the devil. Never condemn each other, not even those whom you catch committing an evil deed. We condemn others only because we shun knowing ourselves. When we gaze at our own failings, we see such a morass of filth that nothing in another can equal it. That is why we turn away, and make much of the faults of others. Keep away from the spilling of speech. Instead of condemning others, strive to reach inner peace. Keep silent, refrain from judgement. This will raise you above the deadly arrows of slander, insult, outrage, and will shield your glowing hearts against the evil that creeps around.”

-St. Seraphim of Sarov


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I am taking a break from the blog for a little while.  May Our Lord protect us and make us Saints!