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| The Station Churches of the Christmas Season |
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Posted by: Stone - 12-28-2024, 08:34 AM - Forum: The Liturgical Year
- Replies (2)
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The Station Churches of the Christmas Season
(Part 1)
Gregory DiPippo - NLM [slightly adapted - not all hyperlinks included from original] | December 27, 2024
The Station Churches of Rome are nowadays perhaps thought of as a particular feature of Lent, since that season is the only one that has a station for every day, and the Lenten stations are the only ones which are still kept in Rome itself. However, the Missal of St Pius V, preserving the ancient traditions of the Roman Church, lists stations for several other periods of the liturgical year, such as the Sundays and Ember days of Advent, the pre-Lenten Sundays, and the octaves of both Easter and Pentecost. Prior to the 70-year long removal of the Papacy to Avignon, it was still the custom for the Pope to personally celebrate the principal liturgies at the stations, although one safely assume that this was kept more assiduously by some and less so by others. The following article in three parts will examine the station churches of the Christmas season, from the vigil of Christmas to the feast of the Epiphany.
Christmas Eve and Christmas Day
According to a very ancient custom of the Church of Rome, Christmas Day is celebrated with three Masses: one at midnight, preceded by Matins and followed by Lauds; one at dawn, after the hour of Prime; and a third during the day, to be celebrated, as on all major feasts, after Terce. In the Roman Breviary, we still read a homily of St Gregory the Great (590-604) at Christmas Matins, which begins with the words “Because, by the Lord’s bounty, we are to celebrate Mass three times today…” Like most of the great solemnities, Christmas is also preceded by a vigil day, particularly dedicated to fasting and penance in preparation for the feast. Thus, there are in fact four Masses on the twenty-fourth and twenty-fifth of December.
Of these four Masses, three currently have the same station listed, the great Basilica of Saint Mary Major. This is, of course, the oldest church in the world dedicated to the Blessed Virgin, and the most important of the many Marian churches in Rome. It was built by Pope St Sixtus III (432-440) to honor Her after the third Ecumenical Council at Ephesus had rejected the heresy of Nestorius, and formally defined Her title “Mother of God.” It is the traditional home of the famous icon known as the “Salus Populi Romani – Salvation of the Roman people”, one of the oldest icons in existence. Almost directly above the main altar of the church, the great arch still preserves the original mosaics of Pope Sixtus’ time, depicting events from the life of the Virgin. The Nativity of Christ, however, is not shown among them; it seems that the Annunciation and Epiphany, prominently depicted one above the other on the left side, were felt to contain between them the whole of the Nativity story.
![[Image: Santa+Maria+Maggiore.jpg]](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXV3Uj6xwmbvgACiOxcFXGUIsZz9O8TeFgRbwS0RE4dFmG8AtXKKqL2SF-d4MaHABfgXyLggJJVzYGcH0Dbc0Ac82RrkYQWyDpl8Jd5BHRFdGgBjsdAaiAsot-VZNDw5-3gmMpZQ/s400-rw/Santa+Maria+Maggiore.jpg)
Santa Maria Maggiore in an 18th century engraving by Giuseppe Vasi.
It is almost certain that already in St Gregory’s time, on the twenty-fourth of December, the canonical hour of None and the vigil Mass of the Nativity were both celebrated by the Pope and his court in the main basilica of Mary Major, to be followed by solemn First Vespers of Christmas. After a rest of some hours, the Pope and clergy would arise in the early part of the night for Matins, the first Mass of Christmas, and Lauds; thus, the Church kept watch for the Nativity of the Lord alongside the Virgin Mary in the stable at Bethlehem. By the middle of the seventh century, however, a small oratory had been built on the right side of the basilica, called “Sancta Maria ad Praesepe”, that is, Saint Mary at the Crib. This chapel was for many centuries the home of the relics reputed to be those of the Lord’s Crib, first attested in Rome in the reign of Pope Theodore (640-49). From roughly that time, the station of the Midnight Mass was kept in the chapel, while the services properly belonging to the Vigil of Christmas remained in the main basilica.
![[Image: St.+Anastasia+of+Sirmium.jpg]](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKFhC6-ipzdJQCCk9aZZo3FSdLOTm7CmAlmfuQbjGCBNsktHrzBuZ_FbgKJLWGFiDYpl-RIMpqFS7cDtGFXyTpjjrI9SNw1W15HrREozgzVG-tIR2m7qgs6OCRXJgQUcH9j1zElQ/s400-rw/St.+Anastasia+of+Sirmium.jpg)
St. Anastasia
The second Mass is kept at the church of St Anastasia, located at the base of the Palatine hill, very close to the site of the great chariot racing stadium of Rome, the Circus Maximus. The standard opinion among liturgical scholars has long been that this was originally not part of the celebration of Christmas at all, but a Mass in honor of the church’s titular Saint, who was martyred during the persecution of Diocletian in the city of Sirmium, the modern Mitrovica in Serbia. (See the article on St Anastasia by J.P. Kirsch in the Dictionnaire d’archéologie chrétienne et de liturgie, vol. 1.2, col. 1923, and Bl. Ildephonse Schuster’s The Sacramentary, vol. 1, p. 368.) This strikes me as extremely improbable, since her feast is not included in the oldest liturgical books of the Roman Rite. The so-called Leonine Sacramentary gives her name last among a group of seven martyrs whose feast is on December 25th, but there is no mention of her (or any of the others) in any of the nine different Mass formulae for Christmas that follow; she is completely absent from the Gelasian Sacramentary. The lectionary of Wurzburg, the oldest of the Roman Rite (ca. 650 AD) lists the Gospel for the second Mass as Luke 2, 15-20, the account of the shepherds coming to Bethlehem, which continues the Gospel of the first Mass, Luke 2, 1-14. This does not exclude the possibility that the station was chosen because the day was also St Anastasia’s feast; in the later Gregorian Sacramentary, her Mass and that of Christmas are given together, with the proper texts of the martyr first. In the Missal of St Pius V and its late medieval predecessors, she is kept as a commemoration at this second Mass.
The third Mass of Christmas was originally celebrated not at Mary Major, but at Saint Peter’s in the Vatican. This would certainly be because the sheer size of the church, just over 100 meters long, would allow for a greater crowd to attend the most solemn of the three Nativity Masses, that which commemorates the eternal birth of God the Son from God the Eternal Father. St Ambrose tells us in the De Virginibus that his sister Marcellina was veiled as a nun by Pope Liberius in St Peter’s on Christmas Day; it is also known that Pope St Celestine I (422-32) read the decisions of the Council of Ephesus to the faithful on the same occasion. One of the most important events in the history Christendom is also connected with this stational observance; on Christmas Day, 800 A.D., Charlemagne was crowned as the Emperor of Rome by Pope St Leo III, before the celebration of the Mass.
![[Image: Sacre+de+Charlemagne.jpg]](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhh89kLlsYj7WUhL8z9ptoFlVHFiQVVQnipO0rSGwcF2KAq7YizGkwi70_qhZ0S2HdHdTxpFX2iX9OlRPkNl9iT_VwcXTdDMd4cIlj9OHY3MDXycemJQqOMHXN5jDTtOZu1wHIUBw/s400-rw/Sacre+de+Charlemagne.jpg)
The Coronation of Charlemagne, from the Grand Chronique de France, ca. 1455
In about 1140, a canon of St Peter’s Basilica named Benedict records in his account of the ceremonies held in his church, now known as the eleventh Ordo Romanus, that the station of this third Mass was still kept there, but a half a century later, the twelfth Ordo tells us that it is at Mary Major. For most of the Middle Ages, the population of Rome was roughly 20,000 people, living in a city built for a million and a half, and a large church was no longer necessary for the papal Mass of Christmas. Furthermore, for much of the period, the city was ruled by military strongmen, and the Pope, though nominally temporal sovereign of the city, had little or no control over it. For these practical reasons, the station was sometimes kept in the 12th century at Mary Major, which is very much closer than St Peter’s to the Pope’s residence at the Lateran Basilica, and would have been easier and safer for the Papal court to reach. There were in fact several such “double stations” at various periods, and the definitive transfer of this one was probably not made until the later 14th century. The liturgical writer Sicard of Cremona still speaks of the station at St Peter’s in roughly 1200, and explains that “in the Communion of this Mass… ‘All the ends of the earth (have seen the salvation of our God.’); and because the blessed Peter saw this, and confessed it more than the others, as the Father that is in Heaven revealed it to him, therefore the station is at St Peter.”
On the mosaic arch over the altar of Mary Major, the lowest part of the right side depicts the city of Bethlehem, and the left side the city of Jerusalem; this pairing of the two holy cities is a common motif in early Christian art. It is interesting to note that the oratory of the Crib was also frequently called “Sancta Maria in Bethlehem”, and represented, as it were, the city of Christ’s Birth within the Eternal City. For this reason, when the relics of Saint Jerome were moved to Rome from the real Bethlehem, where he died, they were placed once again “in Bethlehem.” In like manner, the church which housed the relics of the True Cross was called “Holy Cross in Jerusalem.” The union of the two holy cities was further shown by the fact that the relics of the Crib of Christ, who was born in this world so that He might die for our sakes, were formerly arranged in the shape of a cross.
![[Image: Sacra+culla+S.+Maria+Maggiore.jpg]](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3eecNG2lv9Dx2-1tqDiW8UlDcGcGfkQiJiPPEa9Vb5WjiOehgMOI6Alk2L_z9XzpfdmNHZZ7I3rTxpOAEi28rE9lPerljqLQoGPNtRSs7RW7TxeUgvUI_rspw_gplwztSGync6w/s320-rw/Sacra+culla+S.+Maria+Maggiore.jpg)
The relics of the Lord's Crib in a reliquary of 1830.
This chapel also has a special connection with two of the great Saints of the Counter-reformation. St Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Company of Jesus, celebrated his first Mass on the principal altar of the Crib chapel; so great was his devotion to the Mass that he deemed a full year necessary to prepare himself properly to celebrate it. In the same place, St Cajetan of Thiene, founder of the first order of Clerks Regular, was graced on Christmas Eve with a vision, in which the Blessed Virgin appeared to him and handed him the Infant Jesus to hold. Both of these events are still commemorated by marble plaques near the altar of the now rebuilt Sancta Maria ad Praesepe.
The chapel was severely damaged during the sack of Rome in 1527, and almost entirely rebuilt in the later 16th-century; it is now often called “the other Sistine Chapel” in honor of the Franciscan Pope Sixtus V (1585-90), under whose auspices the rebuilding was carried out. Like many of the Popes of this era, he was not buried at St Peter’s, which was still under construction during his pontificate. The place which he chose for his monument, therefore, was the great chapel of the Crib, placing opposite himself the monument of his now sainted predecessor, Pius V. To this day, their spiritual brothers are still present in the Virgin Mary’s most ancient church; Dominican friars hear confessions in several languages through most of the day, and Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate serve as sacristans and chaplains. The relics of the Crib have long since been moved to the main altar, so that they may be seen more easily by the many pilgrims who come to church each day.
The second part of this article will discuss the Station churches of the feast days within the Christmas Octave.
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| Just How Different Are the Pre-1955, 1962, and 1969 Calendars Around Christmas and Epiphany? |
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Posted by: Stone - 12-28-2024, 08:24 AM - Forum: In Defense of Tradition
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Just How Different Are the Pre-1955, 1962, and 1969 Calendars Around Christmas and Epiphany?
(2024 Edition)
![[Image: CALENDAR%20-%20Just%20How%20Different%20...ition).jpg]](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghouXJnWFMz6nN60LMXkfRHInFM364BuO6RT8iDRiX-IVAv5IR55RwFTiC8VpvTCfKonGjlYwIwTpSNXGLA6-pi5I30lb_Cb6_wkWw_4yZyhlJqTm6-0ZjV1KBjnQglHam3sHsW5vL9zS6P5cTiCiRjeQaJ7Zo0wbEUuFuT4POvsfgZI8vecNl/s6600/CALENDAR%20-%20Just%20How%20Different%20Are%20the%20Pre-55,%2062,%20and%2069%20Calendars%20(2024%20edition).jpg)
By Peter Kwasniewski - Rorate Caeli [adapted - not all hyperlinks included from original] | December 27, 2024
More and more Catholics are waking up to the huge differences between the old and new Roman liturgical calendars—the one, a product of two millennia of organic development; the other, brainchild of a 1960s committee. A subcategory of these folks are waking up to the significant differences between the calendar of the pre-1955 Missale Romanum and the one observed with the 1962 Missale Romanum. The chart above compares all three for the period from December 25th to January 19th.
In the period from Christmas to Epiphany, one can see at a glance the variations in logic and emphasis. The old calendars place great emphasis on Christmas, which is commemorated throughout the Octave, with the daily use not only of the Gloria but also of the Creed. Even more, the old calendars place massive emphasis on Epiphany, which is a feastday older than Christmas and of loftier pedigree—although one would never know that from how it was demoted in recent decades, shoved to a nearby Sunday for convenience, and shorn of its octave. In the old calendars, the Most Holy Name of Jesus (an 18th-century addition) is an obligatory Sunday celebration, but in the new, an optional weekday celebration for January 3, which is impeded in 2021.
In terms of the “psychology” of the season, one notes that the more modern feast of the Holy Family is not permitted to “intrude” until the great event of the Nativity in all its facets—including its cluster of special companion saints who, as it were, surround the cradle of the infant King—has been given plenty of room to shine. Our gaze is intently focused on the mystery of the Incarnate Word: Christmas for eight days, the Circumcision when the Redeemer first shed His blood, the Holy Name He was given and by which we are saved, the Epiphany or revelation of God as savior of the Gentiles. Only after this do we turn expressly to the family in which Our Lord grew up, His baptism in the Jordan, His first miracle at Cana (Second Sunday after Epiphany: see my article “Basking in the glow of Epiphany: The wedding feast at Cana”), and the start of His preaching and miracles (subsequent Sundays).
It’s not that Our Lady and St. Joseph are neglected, for they are always present in the readings, prayers, and antiphons, especially those of January 1st. Besides, they have their own major feastdays elsewhere in the liturgical year. It’s a matter, rather, of allowing the central mystery of the Incarnation of the Eternal Son of the Father to “breathe,” to occupy center stage. In the new calendar, on the other hand, there is a bureaucratic breathlessness by which we efficiently rush from one thing to the next, almost as if we’d like to get back to “Ordinary Time” as quickly as possible—and with as little interruption of our workaday schedule as possible.
An attentive study of these three columns indicates how the 1962 calendar is transitional to the new calendar of 1969. For example, the Sunday of the Octave of Christmas, instead of being transferred when it collides with one of the feasts of the great saints of the octave, supplants it; the beautiful contrast between the original day and the octave day of the Holy Innocents is lost (“useless repetition”?); the once-universal proper celebrations of the beloved bishop St. Thomas Becket and of the pivotal Roman pontiff Silvester are stifled. More gravely, the feast of the Circumcision is no longer given that title, but simply called the Octave of Christmas; the Vigil of the Epiphany is gone; the full-scale octave of Epiphany is gone, although the ferias continue to use the Epiphany Mass in a vestigial or placeholding way, which made the later introduction of “Ordinary Time” that much easier.
Although the 1962 calendar of the Pacellian-Roncallian Roman Rite is far superior to the 1969 calendar of the modern rite of Paul VI, the pre-1955 classical Roman Rite is superior to both. As with Holy Week, as with Pentecost, so too with Christmastide: this chart gives us yet another angle from which to see the importance of a principled return to the liturgical books prior to the hasty modernizations and clumsy simplifications of Pius XII and John XXIII. It is the next great step in the ongoing restoration of Catholic tradition. And there is no better time than now to take up the pre-55 rites and calendar: we can see how little we can and should rely on the “guidance” (such as it is) of churchmen who are supposedly in charge but who have announced their intention to liquidate all memory of tradition. (And need I add that the concept of official “permission” has received its coup de grâce in our times?)
Now all we need is a good republication of a pre-55 altar missal . . .
(Originally posted 2021, updated in 2022, now updated for 2024. If anyone sees any errors, please contact me. -PK)
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| Francis Tells Methodists That He Professes Their Faith |
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Posted by: Stone - 12-26-2024, 06:28 AM - Forum: Pope Francis
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Francis Tells Methodists That He Professes Their Faith
![[Image: b777a09d352b16a52af288cda2537345_L.jpg]](https://remnantnewspaper.com/web/media/k2/items/cache/b777a09d352b16a52af288cda2537345_L.jpg)
Robert Morrison, Remnant Columnist | December 18, 2024
During his December 16, 2024c audience with a delegation from the World Methodist Council, Francis falsely suggested that Catholics profess the same faith as Methodists:
Quote:“Next year, Christians around the world will celebrate the 1700th anniversary of the First Ecumenical Council: Nicaea. This occasion reminds us that we profess the same faith, and thus have the same responsibility of offering signs of hope that bear witness to God’s presence in the world.”
While it is true that Methodists and other Protestants accept the Nicene Creed, it is obviously incorrect to suggest that Catholics and Methodists “profess the same faith.” Pope Leo XIII provided a thorough refutation of Francis’s false claim in his 1896 encyclical on Christian unity, Satis Cognitum:
Quote:“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. ‘In many things they are with me, in a few things not with me; but in those few things in which they are not with me the many things in which they are will not profit them’ (S. Augustinus in Psal. liv., n. 19). And this indeed most deservedly; for they, who take from Christian doctrine what they please, lean on their own judgments, not on faith; and not ‘bringing into captivity every understanding unto the obedience of Christ’ (2 Cor. x., 5), they more truly obey themselves than God.”
Thus, anyone who rejects even a single point of divinely revealed truth rejects the entire Faith. Because Methodists (like other Protestants) reject multiple points of divinely revealed truth, they reject the true Faith, relying instead on their own judgments. As such, Methodists obviously do not “profess the same faith” as Catholics.remnant christmas shop ad narrow
Unfortunately, none of this is a surprise coming from Francis. But we should also recognize that this plays into the entire movement of false ecumenism that has dominated Vatican theology for the past sixty years. Francis alluded to this in his audience with the Methodists:
Quote:“For a long period of time Methodists and Catholics were estranged and also wary of each other. Today, however, we can thank God that, for almost sixty years, we have been progressing together in reciprocal knowledge, understanding and, above all, love. This helps to deepen our mutual communion.”
What happened sixty years ago that changed how Catholic and Methodists approach each other? The answer is clear to anyone who has studied the crisis in the Church: Vatican II happened. And, as we can see from Evelyn Waugh’s letter to Archbishop John Heenan from November 25, 1962 (less than two months after the Council opened), the “Protestantization” was evident from the beginning to those with eyes to see:
Quote:“The real difficulty (I think) is that Continentals are twisting themselves inside out to make us look as like as possible to the Protestants. How I wish we could persuade them (a large majority I fear) that to be at home with our Mass and ceremonies is far more important than being right according to the books of liturgical antiquities.”
Waugh was absolutely correct, and Michael Davies confirmed the existence of this “Protetantization” process in his Pope John’s Council:
Quote:“The story of the ecumenical dialogue which the Council initiated has been one of continual concessions by the Catholic Church to Protestantism — without any reciprocation. . . . [T]he most serious instance of this has been the modification of the Roman Mass to make it as acceptable as possible to those who reject Catholic teaching on sacrifice and transubstantiation.” (p. 154)
What, though, is being “Protestantized”? There is no real sense in which the actual Catholic Church could be “Protestantized” because the Catholic Church cannot change in that way. Anything resembling the Catholic Church that could be “Protestantized” would necessarily be a counterfeit church.
Francis’s Synodal Church has helped us better understand what it is that has been Protestantized. As more Catholics are realizing, this Synodal Church is essentially a more advanced and official version of the so-called “Conciliar church,” which in many ways represented a counterfeit of the Catholic Church. Whereas good Catholics might have disagreed on the meaning or legitimacy of the term “Conciliar church,” Francis and his collaborators routinely emphasize the realities that their church (a) is now called the “Synodal Church,” and (b) has little overlap with the Catholic Church doctrinally.
In this light, Francis was generally correct that his church has the same faith as the Methodist Church. However, in this particular audience with the Methodists he mistakenly referred to his church as the Catholic Church rather than the Synodal Church. Whether this was through ignorance or malice, it is the type of error that true Catholics should be vigilant to correct. If Francis does not have the understanding or decency to properly identify his counterfeit church, we have a real obligation to correct him to minimize the chances that others will mistakenly believe that he is speaking about the Catholic Church in such instances.
This obligation to defend the true Catholic Church extends to the need for us to cooperate with God’s grace to overcome the false ecumenism that has plagued the Mystical Body of Christ for decades. Even though false ecumenism is alien to the Church because it is heretical, this erroneous notion about Christian unity harms Catholics in countless ways. God has allowed these harms to become increasingly clear in 2024, with the Bishop of Rome document and the Synod on Synodality. For those who love the Catholic Church, this calls for us to do more than ever in 2025 to charitably counteract the scourge of false ecumenism.
Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us!
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| The Catholic Trumpet: We Must Have No Rest Until Our Lord’s Reign Is Established |
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Posted by: Stone - 12-26-2024, 06:20 AM - Forum: The Catholic Trumpet
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We Must Have No Rest Until Our Lord’s Reign Is Established
![[Image: rs=w:1280]](https://img1.wsimg.com/isteam/ip/df55e1a9-c854-4d0b-a2a9-94177954436c/IMG_3042.png/:/cr=t:0%25,l:0%25,w:100%25,h:100%25/rs=w:1280)
The Catholic Trumpet [slightly adapted and reformatted]| December 24, 2024
The words of +Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre remain as urgent and prophetic today as they were decades ago. His unwavering defense of the Catholic faith serves as a warning against compromising with the modernist forces infiltrating the Church. +Archbishop Lefebvre spoke plainly and forcefully, rejecting any alignment with liberalism or those who propagate its errors.
Quote:“There will be possibly other manifestations of putting the brakes on by the Vatican; and it is very, very dangerous for us to ‘rally’ ourselves now. No rallying, no rallying to the liberals; no rallying to the ecclesiastics who are governing in the Church now and who are liberals; there is no rallying to these people. From the moment when we rally ourselves, this rallying will be the acceptance of the liberal principles. We cannot do this, even if certain appeasements are given us on the Mass of St. Pius V - certain satisfactions, certain recognitions, certain incardinations, which could even be offered to you eventually...”
+Archbishop Lefebvre recognized that modern ecclesiastical authorities, aligned with liberalism, cannot be trusted until they fully reject their errors and return to the perennial truths of the Church. He warned of the dangers of accepting superficial concessions, which would inevitably lead to a slow erosion of faith and principles:
Quote:“They must give us back everything. They must give up their liberalism, they must come back to the real truth of the Church, to the faith of the Church, to the basic principles of the Church, of this total dependence of society, of families, of individuals on Our Lord Jesus Christ!... But as long as one is dealing with people who have made this agreement with the Devil, with liberal ideas, we cannot have any confidence. They will string us along little by little; they will try to catch us in their traps, as long as they have not let go of these false ideas.”
The Mission: Christ’s Reign on Earth
Resistance to liberalism is not enough; Catholics must actively labor for the establishment of Christ’s reign in every aspect of life. For Archbishop Lefebvre, this mission was not optional but essential to being Catholic. Drawing from the words of the Our Father, he insisted:
Quote:“His reign must be established on earth as it is in heaven. It is He himself who said so in the prayer that he taught us, the Our Father: ‘Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.’ And this must be the object of our prayers, the intention of our sufferings, and the purpose of our life. We must have no rest until Our Lord’s reign is established. A Catholic whose heart is not animated by this profound desire is not a Catholic. He is not one of the faithful of Our Lord Jesus Christ.”
This profound desire for the Kingship of Christ is not a sentiment but a command of God. St. Paul reminds us:
“He must reign, until He hath put all His enemies under His feet.” (1 Corinthians 15:25)
Our Lord’s Kingship extends not only to individuals but to families, societies, and nations. Archbishop Lefebvre emphasized that only when this reign is universally recognized will the Church have true peace.
The Danger of Compromise
The Archbishop’s warning about rallying with modernist Rome is particularly relevant in today’s context. Many Catholics, tempted by promises of recognition or concessions, fail to see the traps inherent in aligning with liberal principles. As he declared:
Quote:“Even if certain appeasements are given us on the Mass of St. Pius V… they will string us along little by little; they will try to catch us in their traps, as long as they have not let go of these false ideas.”
Compromise is not merely dangerous—it is a betrayal of the faith. The modernists governing the Church cannot be trusted until they renounce liberalism entirely and return to the immutable truths of the Catholic Church. This includes the total dependence of society, families, and individuals on Our Lord Jesus Christ.
The Duty of Catholics Today
Catholics must reject all temptations to rally with liberalism or modernism, no matter how appealing the offers of recognition or appeasement may seem. As Archbishop Lefebvre proclaimed, “We must have no rest until Our Lord’s reign is established.”
To achieve this:
- Pray the Rosary Daily: Invoke Our Lady’s intercession for the triumph of the Immaculate Heart and the Kingship of Christ.
- Remain Faithful to Tradition: Attend only uncompromised Traditional Latin Masses and reject all modernist influences.
- Make Reparation: Offer prayers and sacrifices for the sins of the Church and the world, especially for blasphemies against the Kingship of Christ.
Finally, Catholics must cultivate the spirit of apostolic zeal. As +Archbishop Lefebvre reminded us, a Catholic who lacks the profound desire for Christ’s reign is no true Catholic. Let us labor tirelessly for His glory, knowing that Our Lord will triumph in the end.
The words of +Archbishop Lefebvre remain a guiding light of clarity in an age of confusion. His warnings against rallying to liberalism and his call to establish Christ’s reign on earth are more relevant than ever. Let us heed his counsel, remaining steadfast in the faith and unwavering in our commitment to the Kingship of Christ.
As St. Paul exhorts: “Jesus Christ, yesterday, and today; and the same forever.” (Hebrews 13:8)
May Our Lady, Queen of Heaven and Earth, guide us in this battle for truth, and may her Immaculate Heart triumph.
No Compromise, No Retreat!
— The ☩ Trumpet
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| Archbishop Viganò: Homily on the Most Holy Nativity of Our Lord Jesus Christ |
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Posted by: Stone - 12-26-2024, 06:15 AM - Forum: Archbishop Viganò
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Lux fulgebit hodie super nos: quia natus est nobis Dominus:
et vocabitur Admirabilis, Deus, Princeps pacis,
Pater futuri sæculi: cujus regni non erit finis.
- Intr. ad Missam in Aurora
Dixit Dominus Domino meo: Sede a dextris meis; donec ponam inimicos tuos scabellum peduum tuorum (Ps 109:1). The Church repeats this Psalm at Vespers on every Sunday and feast day: The Lord said to my Lord: Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool. The Eternal Father, in the eternity of time, addresses the Eternal Incarnate Word, sanctioning His Eternal Lordship – Sit at my right hand – and His definitive victory over Satan and his servants. And this victory is Dominical, it is accomplished on the day quam fecit Dominus, when with the Resurrection from hell Our Lord brings to completion the Redemption of the human race by defeating death, suffered in the Passion to redeem us from sin and from the infernal yoke of the Adversary.
In the eternity of time, according to some of the Church Fathers, the Angels were put to the test by showing them the Mystery of the Incarnation, decreed by the Holy Trinity to repair the temptation to which our Progenitors would succumb when tempted by the Serpent. It was before this prodigy of infinite and divine Charity and Mercy, before the Word who becomes flesh and assumes our human nature, that the pride of Satan and the apostate angels refused to bow to the will of God, and launched their cry “Non serviam” in response to the “Ecce, venio” of Incarnate Wisdom, to the “Fiat mihi secundum verbum tuum” of the Mother of God, to the “Quis ut Deus?” of the Archangel Michael and the faithful Angels. Obedience and disobedience. Humility and pride. Adoring gratitude and arrogant rebellion.
In the eternity of time the Eternal Son responds to the Eternal Father and descends into History, bursts into the flow of days, into the changing of seasons, into the cycle of years and centuries, to restore the Divine Order that our Progenitors had broken. And this enmity between God and Satan, between the lineage of the Woman and the progeny of the Serpent, is announced in the Protoevangelium of Genesis, almost to show us the meaning of our earthly life, the reasons for our wandering, the goal that awaits us. Felix culpa: the fall of Adam and Eve merited us, along with expulsion from the earthly Paradise, the promise of a new Adam and a new Eve, of the Second Person of the Most Holy Trinity who becomes man and of an Immaculate Virgin who, through the working of the Holy Spirit, is made the Tabernacle of the Most High, the Ark of the Covenant, the Palace of the King, Mother of God.
The Church celebrates the Birth of Our Lord Jesus Christ secundum carnem because on this day two thousand and twenty-four years ago, as announced by the Prophets, the Divine Majesty descends upon the earth, the Light shines in the darkness, the Word resounds in order to be heard, the grain of wheat is thrown into the ground in order to sprout. And that promise made to our Progenitors, renewed to our fathers as they journeyed to the Promised Land, begins with the cry of a King, wrapped in swaddling clothes, laid in a manger, exposed to the harsh cold of a Palestinian night. The shepherds are allowed to glimpse a reflection of His Divinity in the song of the Angels, while the Magi recognize Him as God by scrutinizing the heavens and following the star from the East.
The cosmos is Christocentric: omnia per ipsum facta sunt, et sine ipso factum est nihil, quod factum est (Jn 1:3). Everything was made through Him. Per ipsum, cum ipso, et in ipso. Through him, with him and in him. Ut in nomine Jesu omne genu flectatur cœlestium, terrestrium, et infernorum (Phil 2:10). History itself also recognizes the distinction between a before and an after, marking the computation of the years starting from the Birth of Christ. And the Holy Church, which is the Mystical Body of Christ the Head, is the new Jerusalem, the new Israel, the people of the eternal Covenant that guards on its altars Emmanuel, God-With-Us, in the Most Holy Sacrament, until the end of time.
The Divine Order – the κόσμος, precisely – sees Christ as Alpha and Omega, Beginning and End: and this is true for nature, for every man, for civil societies, for the Church: sine ipso factum est nihil, quod factum est. Our Lord himself taught us: Adveniat regnum tuum; fiat voluntas tua, sicut in cœlo et in terra. It is not the world, therefore, that must conform to its own idols, but rather heaven that reveals God to men and gives them the model to conform to. The Angels repeat it: Gloria in excelsis Deo, et in terra pax hominibus bonæ voluntatis.
Everything refers to Christ; everything announces His coming, His Incarnation, His Birth, His Preaching, His Passion and Death, His Resurrection. Everything prepares for His Triumphal Return on the Day of Judgment: et iterum venturus est cum gloria, judicare vivos et mortuos; cujus regni non erit finis. Everything is accomplished in Christ, King and High Priest, donec ponam inimicos tuos scabellum peduum tuorum, until the Father has humbled the pride of the enemies of the Son by placing them under His feet. Dominare in medio inimicorum tuorum.
There are therefore enemies of Christ, and we know this well. Spiritual enemies – the apostate spirits cast into the abyss by Saint Michael – and enemies of flesh and blood, beginning with Herod, who out of fear of losing power goes so far as to have the innocent lives of newborns massacred. And there are the Pharisees and the scribes of the people, who plot to kill that Galilean who with His preaching and His miracles contradicts their political plans of rebellion against the Roman invader. And there are the High Priests, illegitimate in their authority given to them by imperial appointment, eager to maintain the prestige of their office. And then there are the pagans, ferocious persecutors of Christians; and also the heretics of all times, the barbarians, the adherents of the Lodges and the Freemasons, the revolutionaries, the socialists and the communists, the liberals, the globalists, the supporters of the Great Reset and the New World Order
What do those whom Sacred Scripture calls “workers of iniquity,” that is, the wicked of all times, share in common? Hatred of Christ: an implacable, ferocious, merciless, blind, mad, proud hatred. Hatred of the Holy Child just born in Bethlehem: Crudelis Herodes Deum Regem venire quid times?, asks the prose of the Epiphany hymn. Cruel Herod, why do you fear that God the King will come? And yet non eripit mortalia, qui regna dat cœlestia, he who gives spiritual kingdoms does not take away earthly things. But it is precisely for this reason that Christ is feared by His enemies, from Herod to Klaus Schwab, from Caiaphas to Bergoglio: because those earthly things, those economic and political powers, those riches and worldly success all claim to replace and eclipse the regna cœlestia, the powers of heaven, first and foremost among them the Universal Kingship of the Infant King, who opens His little arms in the cold of the manger already preluding the Cross that awaits Him: regnavit a ligno Deus, from that throne of pain and humiliation, a scandal for the Jews and foolishness for the pagans (1 Cor 1:23). And that Divine Kingship is intrinsically priestly, because the Kingdom of Christ is conquered in His Blood through his Immolation of Himself, and the Royal and Priestly Anointing of the Immaculate Victim is one of Blood.
We could say that the first to confirm the centrality of Our Lord Jesus Christ are precisely His enemies, who hurl themselves only and always against Christ, against the disciples of Christ, against those who bear the blessed sign of salvation, against the members of His Mystical Body. There is no other religion, nor superstition, nor idolatry, nor pagan cult that is the object of hatred of the wicked, who recognize in them the mark of their master, the fraud of the Prince of lies.
The hatred of the enemies of Christ is born of pride, that Luciferian pride which refuses to recognize in the Man-God He who is per quem omnia facta sunt, and to Whom the Divine Order necessarily imposes one to bow and kneel, because it cannot be otherwise, and because by not recognizing Christ as Lord one ends up erecting the creature as an idol, as a simulacrum, in that blasphemous subversion of the κόσμος which is the χάος, that is, the Revolution, the infernal soul of the rebellion against God.
Non eripit mortalia qui regna dat cœlestia: but mortal, earthly things are not taken away from us and are rather given to us in superabundance and a hundredfold only if we recognize Our Lord Jesus Christ as our Beginning, our End and our Means: He Whom the Father wanted to exalt supremely, and to Whom he wanted to give a name that is above every name (Phil 2:9). This ontological and indefectible necessity finds its reason in the obedience and humility of Christ, factus obœdiens usque ad mortem, mortem autem crucis (Phil 2:8), and in the evangelical precept: Si quis vult venire post me, abneget semetipsum et tollat crucem suam quotidie, et sequatur me (Lk 9:22). And Christ was the first, both in the eternity of time as the Word of the Father and in history as the God-Man, to give the example of this self-denial, this obedience, this humility. In capite libri scriptum est de me, ut facerem voluntatem tuam (Ps 39:8).
But if this humility and this obedience are the mark, so to speak, of the Redemptive work of Our Lord; if the Incarnation and the Birth of Christ mark the incipit of the great rite of Sacrifice with which God reconciles us to God; there is another Coming that will complete the Eternal Liturgy. It is the Second Coming of the Lord, at the end of the world, when that glimpse of glory that the Shepherds contemplated on the Holy Night will burst forth fully in the Triumph of Victory and in the restoration of the Universal Lordship of Christ the King, High Priest, and Judge. We will no longer see the Puer wrapped in swaddling clothes, nor the Man of Sorrows disfigured by the torments of the Passion, but rather the Rex tremendæ majestatis, He to Whom the Father will return the temporal scepter: Dominabit in nationibus, implebit ruinas, conquassabit capita in terra multorum… confregit in die iræ suæ reges. The terrible words of the Psalmist, divinely inspired, must sound like a severe warning to all of us, but especially to those who in this rebellious world – and in this Church tormented by her own Passion in conformity to the image of Her Head – still today refuse to adore Our Lord, to recognize Him as Divine King and to conform their will to His Holy Law. The emasculated and cowardly pacifism of the present times does not want to hear of a God who asserts His Dominion over the nations, who destroys and sows ruin, who crushes the proud heads, who destroys the powerful on the day of His wrath. But this is the ineluctable destiny of the wicked, the proud, of those who believe themselves to be gods and claim to decide what is good and what is evil, of those who refuse to welcome the Light that has come in the darkness. The Virgin Mother also recalled this in the Magnificat: Fecit potentiam in brachio suo, dispersit superbos mente cordis sui; deposuit potentes de sede, et exaltavit humiles; esurientes implevit bonis, et divites dimisit inanes.
Let us follow the example of the Shepherds and the Magi, dear brothers and sisters: let us kneel in adoration before the Infant King, in Whose gaze we can see the tenderness and sweetness of Emmanuel. Let us kneel at the foot of the Cross, contemplating the suffering and tormented gaze of the High Priest who sacrifices Himself for us to the Father. Let us kneel at the foot of the altar, on which the Sacrifice of Calvary is renewed for the salvation of many. Because to all who have welcomed Him, the Lord has given power to become children of God, to those who believe in His name, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God (Jn 1:12-13). Thus we will see the words of the Most Holy Mary fulfilled: misericordia ejus a progenie in progenies timentibus eum, his mercy extends from generation to generation to those who fear him.
Dear brothers and sisters, on this Most Holy Christmas Day, allow me to address to all of you the words of the Lord to His Disciples: Take courage, it is I; do not be afraid! (Mt 14:27). Make your heart the manger in which the Most Holy Virgin places the Newborn Jesus: the more bare and poor it is, the more the Divine Guest and His August Mother will shine in it. Do not let your heart be troubled (Jn 14:1), despite the apparent triumph of the Enemy and his servants, despite the betrayal of the Hierarchy. When these things begin to happen, says the Scripture, stand up, lift up your heads, because your redemption is near (Lk 21:28). And so may it be.
+ Carlo Maria Viganò, Archbishop
25 December 2024
Nativitas D.N.J.C.
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| The Catholic Trumpet: In the Battle for Christ’s Reign, We Cannot Change Our Conduct |
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Posted by: Stone - 12-24-2024, 08:30 AM - Forum: The Catholic Trumpet
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In the Battle for Christ’s Reign, We Cannot Change Our Conduct
![[Image: rs=w:1280]](https://img1.wsimg.com/isteam/ip/df55e1a9-c854-4d0b-a2a9-94177954436c/IMG_2983.png/:/cr=t:0%25,l:0%25,w:100%25,h:100%25/rs=w:1280)
The Catholic Trumpet [slightly adapted and reformatted] | December 23, 2024
In this era of widespread confusion and apostasy, where the Kingship of Christ is increasingly denied, we find ourselves at a crucial crossroads. Christ must first reign in our hearts, and we can achieve this through the Immaculate Heart of Mary. +Archbishop Lefebvre’s words ring louder than ever:
Quote:“We want to remain united to Jesus Christ, as the Vatican has dethroned the Lord. We want to remain faithful to our Lord King, Prince, and Ruler of the world. We cannot change anything in this line of conduct.”
— Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, Flavigny, Conference, Dec. 1988
We are not merely facing an ideological battle but a spiritual war for the soul of the Church and the world. AI-Talmudic Secularism and Postmodern Neo-modernism relentlessly attempt to undermine Christ’s reign over creation. As Catholics, we are bound to stand firm and unwavering in defense of Christ’s sovereignty—His Mass, His sacraments, and His reign must be preserved, or we risk losing everything.
As we conclude, take a moment to reflect on Archbishop Lefebvre’s sobering insight into modern man’s rejection of Christ’s authority:
Quote:“What is this modern man? Who is he? What does he represent, if not the man who refuses to believe in Our Lord Jesus Christ… who refuses His reign, His grace? Men no longer wish to believe in the supernatural, but in man, whose science seeks to govern the world in the place of God. As for us, we affirm the contrary: the reign of Our Lord Jesus Christ.”
— Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, They Have Uncrowned Him, Kansas City: Angelus Press, 1988, p. 101
Let these words penetrate your soul. Renew your commitment to uphold Christ’s reign—today, in your life, at work, in your family, and in the world.
Quote:"...True friends of the people are neither revolutionaries nor innovators, but the men of tradition.”
— Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, Letter to Friends and Benefactors, April 1980
No Compromise, No Retreat!
-The ☩ Trumpet
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