“Instaurare omnia in Christo” Hope Final Impenitence and Hope Nietzsche and Hope Heaven: Where the Morning Lies November - December 2016 Faith makes us know God: we believe in Him with all our strength but we do not see Him. Our faith, therefore, needs to be supported by the certitude that some day we will see our God, that we will possess Him and willl be united to Him forever. The virtue of hope gives us this certitude by presenting God to us as our infinite good and our eternal reward. Fresco of the five prudent virgins, St. Godehard, Hildesheim, Germany Letter from the Publisher Dear readers, Who has not heard of Pandora’s box? The Greek legend tells us that Pandora, the first woman created by Zeus, received many gifts—beauty, charm, wit, artistry, and lastly, curiosity. Included with the gifts was a box, which she was told never to open. But curiosity got the best of her. She lifted the lid, and out flew all the evils of the world, such as toil, illness, and despair. But at the bottom of the box lay Hope. Pandora’s last words were “Hope is what makes us strong. It is why we are here. It is what we fight with when all else is lost.” This story is the first thing which came to mind as I read over E Supremi, the first encyclical of our Patron Saint, St. Pius X. “In the midst of a progress in civilization which is justly extolled, who can avoid being appalled and afflicted when he beholds the greater part of mankind fighting among themselves so savagely as to make it seem as though strife were universal? The desire for peace is certainly harbored in every breast.” And the Pope goes on to explain that the peace of the godless is founded on sand. To face the present evils, he proposes the exalted war cry of St. Paul: “To restore all things in Christ.” And, so, the present magazine offers you an array of topics ranging from impenitence to Limbo and Purgatory, and from Halloween to Christian Hope and Heaven. A place of honor is reserved for the study of the Dominican Order, celebrating its 800th anniversary this year. You may also notice a rather formidable critique of the Apostolic Exhortation on the family, Amoris Laetitia, which seeks clarification on the document’s errors and ambiguities. Everything we do to promote God’s Kingdom and to lessen the enemy’s power is written in Heaven. The victory is God’s, ours is the struggle. Age viriliter—Act manfully! Fr. Jürgen Wegner Publisher November - December 2016 Volume XXXIX, Number 6 Contents Letter from the Publisher U.S. Foreign Countries Publisher Fr. Jürgen Wegner Editor-in-Chief Mr. James Vogel Managing Editor Fr. Dominique Bourmaud Copy Editor Mrs. Suzanne Hazan Design and Layout credo.creatie (Eindhoven, The Netherlands) Mr. Simon Townshend Director of Operations Mr. Brent Klaske ––Latins and Greeks on Purgatory ––A Reflection on Celebrating Halloween ––Nietzsche and Hope ––Heaven: Where the Morning Lies Subscription Rates 1 year 2 years 3 years $45.00 $85.00 $120.00 $65.00 $125.00 $180.00 Spirituality (inc. Canada and Mexico) All payments must be in U.S. funds only. Online subscriptions: $20.00/year. To subscribe visit: www.angelusonline.org. Register for free to access back issues 14 months and older. All subscribers to the print version of the magazine have full access to the online version. Theme: Hope - Final Impenitence and Hope 4 6 10 16 20 24 Faith and Morals ––The Advent Liturgy ––Hope Amidst Trouble ––The Monster of Thomism ––Lights of the Church ––Never Despair of God’s Mercy 30 34 37 42 46 Christian Culture ––Progress in Sacred Art ––See How Hopeless 49 54 “Instaurare omnia in Christo” The Angelus (ISSN 10735003) is published bi-monthly under the patronage of St. Pius X and Mary, Queen of Angels. Publication office is located at PO Box 217, St. Marys, KS 66536. PH (816) 753-3150; FAX (816) 753-3557. Periodicals Postage Rates paid at Kansas City, MO. Manuscripts and letters to the editor are welcome and will be used at the discretion of the editors. The authors of the articles presented here are solely responsible for their judgments and opinions. Postmaster sends address changes to the address above. ©2016 BY ANGELUS PRESS. OFFICIAL PUBLICATION OF THE PRIESTLY SOCIETY OF SAINT PIUS X FOR THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA ––“Thou Shalt Not Lie” ––Celebrating the Nativity with the Redemptorists ––Questions and Answers 61 63 68 News from Tradition ––Church and World ––The Apostolic Exhortation Amoris Laetitia: ––The Last Word 70 75 87 Theme Hope Final Impenitence and Hope Parallel Scenes in Dante’s Inferno and Purgatorio by Andrew J. Clarendon 6 1 Pope Benedict XV, In praeclara summorum at https://w2.vatican.va/ content/benedict-xv/en/ encyclicals/documents/hf_ ben-xv_enc_30041921_inpraeclara-summorum.html, accessed August 2, 2016, §11. 2 Ibid., §4. 3 Dante, The Divine Comedy, trans. Mark Musa, three vols. (New York: Penguin Classics), Para. III, 85. The Angelus Nothing in literature matches Dante’s bold poetic depiction of the state of souls after death, stories that show impenitence fixed in hell, hope assured in Purgatory, and both eclipsed by charity in Heaven. As Pope Benedict XV writes in his 1921 encyclical for the sixth centenary of Dante’s death, this “most eloquent singer of the Christian idea”1 glorifies in his poem “the justice and providence of God, who rules the world through time and all eternity.”2 While the poem contains much theology and philosophy—a compendium, it can be said, of the whole of medieval Catholic thought—the most memorable parts of the work as literature are the various descriptions of souls who have chosen to either reject or embrace the will of God, in which “is our peace.”3 With the hand of a master, Dante not only tells great stories with compelling characters to illustrate his themes, but also populates later parts of the poem with figures that recall previous episodes. The effect is to show the conclusiveness of the final act of the will before death; although man has the free will to definitively refuse his Creator, God in His goodness will go to great lengths to redeem the creation He so loves. November - December 2016 4 Inf. XXVII, 113. A Tale of Two Souls 5 Dorothy Sayers, notes to The Divine Comedy 1: Hell, trans. Dorothy Sayers (New York: Penguin Classics, 1949), 237. 6 Inf. XXVII, 74-76. 7 Inf. XXVII, 83. 8 Inf. XXVII, 83-84. 9 Inf. XXVII, 71. 10 Inf. XXVII, 114-120. 11 Inf. XXVII, 122-123. The life and death of two men—a father and a son, the first damned and the second saved—beautifully illustrates this point. The father is Guido da Montefeltro, a soldier from the region directly east of Dante’s hometown of Florence who fought in the political wars that gripped northern Italy in the thirteenth century. He is in the eighth part of the eighth circle of hell. The eighth circle itself is for various malicious acts of fraud and is divided into ten pits or pouches; in Italian they are called Malebolge—the “evil ditches”—a word coined by Dante himself. The eighth pit, where Guido is wrapped in flame—an infernal parody of the fire of Pentecost—is for the sort of fraud that persuades and enables others to do evil; the black Cherubim who takes Guido’s soul mentions his “false counsel”4 while Dorothy Sayers notes that these sinners “are spiritual thieves, who rob men of their integrity.”5 It is interesting that the two main representatives of this bolgia— Guido and Ulysses—were military men. In fact, as Guido tells his story to the Pilgrim and Virgil, the damned soul mentions that for most of his life he was a military strategist and tactician: “all my actions were / not those of a lion, but those of a fox; / the wiles and covert paths, I knew them all.”6 Toward the end of his life, Guido tries to make one more crafty deal: to become a Franciscan friar in a last minute attempt to win heaven. Claiming to have been “repentant and confessed,”7 Guido laments the failure of his scheme: “I took the vows / a monk takes. And, oh, to think it could have worked!”8 Alas, it is the pope himself who puts him “back among [his] early sins”9 involving deceit and the destruction of enemies, even promising him absolution in advance, but Dante’s point is clear: Guido deceives himself into thinking that repentance is some sort of transaction, a deal that doesn’t require actual sorrow and amendment. The end of Guido’s story is chillingly appropriate. Since he joined the Friars Minor, the charitable St. Francis comes to his deathbed, but one of the fallen Cherubim—ironically the choir associated with knowledge—is waiting and says to the Seraphic Father: Don’t touch him, don’t cheat me of what is mine! He must come down to join my other servants for the false counsel he gave. From then to now I have been ready at his hair, because one cannot be absolved unless repentant, nor can one both repent and will a thing at once—the one is canceled by the other!10 As a parting shot, the demon turns to Guido and says, “Perhaps you never stopped to think / that I might be somewhat of a logician!”11 For his final impenitence and false hope, Guido is lost, never having really repented of his sins but clinging to them eternally, the deceiver deceived. True Repentance and Attending Hope Guido’s son, Buonconte da Montefeltro, a military man like his father, nearly joins him among the damned. To illustrate how God’s mercy—via 7 Theme Hope 12 Purg. V, 42. 13 Purg. V, 98-102. 14 Purg. V, 103-108. 15 Inf. I, 8-9. the intercession of the Blessed Mother—is available even at the last moment, Buonconte is not eternally lost, but is in a lower section of Purgatory that Dante invented to make this point about repentance. Dante pictures Purgatory as a great, seven-storey mountain—each level corresponding to one of the capital sins—in the southern hemisphere with Earthly Paradise at the summit. Below a gate on the mountainside that leads to the main part of Purgatory are a number of levels of ante-Purgatory where those who were excommunicated, those who put off their salvation until the moment of death, those who died violently without the last sacraments, and the like have to wait still longer. They are saved; their salvation is sure, but there is a recognition that there is something extra that must be purged before they join the main group of Holy Souls and eventually the Blest in Paradise. Among a rush of souls—compared by the poet to a “fullcharging cavalry”12—begging for Dante the Pilgrim’s intercession is Buonconte who quickly tells his story in terms that recall the details of his father’s damnation. Like his father, Buonconte fought in the political wars in northern Italy, dying at the Battle of Campaldino in 1289, nine years before Guido. He goes on to describe his violent death: I made my way, my throat an open wound, fleeing on foot, and bloodying the plain. There I went blind. I could no longer speak, but as I died, I murmured Mary’s name, and there I fell and left my empty flesh.13 As Guido describes his Particular Judgment, including the words of the black Cherubim who claimed his soul, Buonconte recounts the devil’s reaction to his salvation at the moment of death: Now hear the truth. Tell it to living men: God’s angel took me up, and Hell’s fiend cried: “O you from Heaven, why steal what is mine? You may be getting his immortal part— And won it for a measly tear, at that, But for his body I have other plans!”14 In an act of malignant futility, the demon causes rain to fall, the nearby river to overflow its banks, and Buonconte’s body to be swept away; but the soldier doesn’t care about what happens to his corpse: he is saved and will get his body back in the General Resurrection anyway. The lesson Dante draws by including these two scenes illustrates the nature of true repentance and the attending hope. While Guido tries to hoodwink God’s justice with false repentance and is lost, Buonconte, who sheds tears of true repentance, is saved, thanks to God’s grace and calling on the Immaculate. 8 The Angelus November - December 2016 16 Sayers, 50. Hope and Love 17 Cf. Purg. XXXIII, 145. 18 Para. XXXIII, 145. It is unfortunate that among those who study the Divine Comedy at all— usually in a college survey class—often only the Inferno is covered; Dante becomes the poet of the horror film whose severe, old-fashioned morality has been rejected by enlightened modern man. Over two-thirds of the poem, however, concerns the realms of hope and love; the longest section of the epic is the Paradiso. Dorothy Sayers once quipped that to read only the Inferno is like visiting a great city and only touring the sewers. Although, as he writes in the beginning of the Inferno, “if I would show the good . . . / I must [first] talk about things other than the good,”15 Dante is “the supreme poet of joy. No one has ever sung the rapture of eternal fulfillment like him who has first ‘gone down quick into Hell’ and looked upon the face of eternal loss.”16 Balanced against the sorrowful lot of those who conclusively reject the love of God are the many examples of flawed men and women who reach out to this same love and are saved, their faith making them whole, their wills becoming truly free, ready to leap to the stars and beyond.17 Dante entitled the poem La Commedia precisely for this reason; the happy ending is there for everyone who wants it. It is this central Catholic idea that draws the reader back to the great epic again and again, filling us all with the hope that we too might one day reside with the “Love that moves the sun and other stars.”18 Andrew J. Clarendon, M.A., holds a M.A. in English Literature from the Catholic University of America. In addition to being one of the founding faculty members of Notre Dame de La Salette Academy, he is now a professor at St. Mary’s Academy and College. 9 Theme Hope Latins and Greeks on Purgatory by Gabriel S. Sanchez The doctrine of Purgatory has long been a vexing—and unnecessary—source of controversy between Latin Catholics and the Greek East. (For the purposes of this article, “Greek” will refer to all Eastern Christians—Catholic and Orthodox—whose theological, spiritual, and liturgical heritage is drawn from the Byzantine tradition.) For Latin Catholics, Purgatory is held to be a place or condition of temporal punishment or purification due to those who have either died in God’s grace with venial faults or failed to pay satisfaction for their sins. Today, however, many Christians who are members of the Eastern Orthodox Church believe that Purgatory represents a “Catholic innovation” or “heresy.” This is unfortunate since the doctrine itself has clear roots in the Greek theological tradition and is accepted—with permissible nuance—by 10 The Angelus November - December 2016 Greek Catholics in full communion with the See of Rome. Purgatory and Lyons Without rehearing the millennium of theological reflection on the state of the soul after death, it is enough to say that by the time of the 1274 Council of Lyons, the Catholic Church was prepared to formally define the doctrine of Purgatory with the following statement. “If those who are truly repentant die in charity before they have done sufficient penance for their sins of omission and commission, their souls are cleansed after death in purgatorial or cleansing punishment. . . . The suffrages of the faithful on earth can be of great help in relieving these punishments, as, for instance, the Sacrifice of the Mass, prayers, almsgiving, and other religious deeds which, in the manner of the Church, the faithful are accustomed to offer for others of the faithful.” This definition, which relies heavily on the on the teachings of Pope Innocent IV (124354), was not issued in isolation from the Greek tradition. For it was Innocent IV himself who reached out to the Greek Church after centuries of ecclesiastical estrangement in the hopes that the common witness of East and West to the necessity of praying for souls after death could aid in overcoming their theological differences. The Pope recognized that while the Greeks had not promulgated an official declaration for the place or condition of purification most holy souls must endure before reaching Heaven, that did not mean their thinking was at odds with the doctrine of Purgatory that the Latins had clarified over the course of centuries. Avoiding Universalism Why the Greek Church had avoided settling on a clear understanding of Purgatory is not perfectly clear, though some contemporary scholars hold that it may have been due to concerns over “Origenism,” that is, the belief that all souls—including those in hell—will eventually be saved after undergoing a period of cleansing. This belief, which is sometimes referred to as Universalism or by the Greek term Apocatastasis, eventually became attributed to the 2nd/3rd century theologian Origen of Alexandria, though a number of Eastern theologians, including Clement of Alexandria and St. Gregory Nyssa, speculated that the punishment due in the afterlife was not an eternal state but a time of purification. Following the Fifth Ecumenical Council in 553, “Origenism” had been condemned and Eastern theologians had moved away from exploring in depth about the afterlife even though the Greeks, no less than the Latins, held firm to praying for departed souls. Had the churches of Rome and Constantinople not mutually excommunicated each other in 1054, it is entirely possible, even likely, that the Latin and Greek traditions would have coalesced around a uniform doctrine of Purgatory—one that allowed for a range of permissible opinions on the nature of purgation itself with perhaps less emphasis situated on Purgatory being so much a “place” as a “condition.” At both the aforementioned Council of Lyons and the 1439 Council of Florence, where Rome and Constantinople pursued full ecclesiastical reunion, a definition of Purgatory was put forth which wisely left to the side the fraught question of whether souls in fact endured literal “purgatorial fire” or if theological speculations on such fire were to be taken as symbolic. Regrettably, this attempt at a theological compromise came to naught as Florence was soon after repudiated in the East, not just among the Greeks at Constantinople, but among the Eastern Slavic churches as well. A Shared Understanding Thankfully, by God’s grace, the failure of Florence to secure communion between East and West did not mark the end of all reunification efforts. In 1596, at the Union of Brest, the hierarchy of the Church of Kyiv (modern-day Ukraine) united again with the Church of Rome. The fifth paragraph of the Articles of Union prudently states the following: “We shall not debate about purgatory, but we entrust ourselves to the teaching of the Holy Church.” In other words, Brest (and all subsequent reunionist efforts between Rome and Eastern Christians) left open the question not of the doctrine of Purgatory generally, but of its precise interpretation. Here, for instance, is the definition of Purgatory contained in the official catechism of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (UGCC) (Christ Our Pascha, paragraph 251). “If a person has fallen asleep in God, having repented of all sins, but has not yet achieved spiritual maturity—the fullness of life in Christ—then that person enters the king of God ‘as through fire’ (I Cor. 3:15). After death, such a person is still in need of spiritual healing and cleaning of all stain, in order to dwell ‘in a 11 Theme Hope place of light . . . where there is no pain, sorrow, or mourning’ [Rite of Burial for a Layperson]. In the Church, this healing condition of the dead is referred to as ‘purgatory.’” In support of this definition, the UGCC catechism offers two Eastern Patristic quotes, the first of which comes from the Doctor of the Church, St. Gregory of Nazianzus (referred to in the East as “The Theologian”): “Every fair and God-beloved soul, once it has been set free from the bonds of the body, departs hence, and immediately enjoys a sense and perception of the blessings which await it, inasmuch as that which darkened it has been purged away, or laid aside—I know not how else to term it. It then feels a wondrous pleasure and exultation, and goes rejoicing to meet its Lord.” The second quote, which comes from another Doctor of the Church, St. John Chrysostom, makes clear why the faithful pray for the dead. “Let us then give them [i.e., the departed] aid and perform commemorations for them. For if the children of Job were purged by the sacrifice of their father, why do you doubt that when we too offer for the departed, some consolation arises to them? Since God is wont to grant the petitions of those who ask for others.” Eastern Orthodox Errors Today, after centuries of separation from the Holy Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox remain conflicted about the doctrine of Purgatory and the state of the soul after death. In an apparent effort to compensate for its lack of clear teaching on these matters, some Orthodox have resorted to proposing that a soul must first pass through so-called “aerial toll-houses,” where it is taunted and tormented by demons, before possibly finding its way to Heaven. This gross, neo-Gnostic idea was popularized by the late Fr. Seraphim Rose, a convert to Russian Orthodoxy who had previously dabbled in Buddhism and other Eastern philosophies and religions. More recently, Metropolitan Hilarion Alfeyev, one of the leading hierarchs in the Russian Orthodox Church, has attempted to reinvigorate a certain strand of Eastern theological 12 The Angelus November - December 2016 speculation into the afterlife in his book Christ the Conqueror of Hell by suggesting that even those in Hell may still find Salvation. This has prompted some Orthodox to promote the controversial notion that the (Latin) Catholic doctrine of Purgatory is roughly akin to the (Greek) Orthodox doctrine of Hell, and that the prayers of the faithful on earth can change the destiny of a soul after the body reposes, regardless of whether it is in a state of grace or mortal sin. Other Orthodox contest such claims by holding to the classic understanding of the eternity of Hell while refraining from committing to any particular view of Purgatory. More than an abstract concept or topic for theological disputation, the doctrine of Purgatory is an essential part of the living faith of all Catholics. Over the 2,000 year history of the Catholic Church, Christians have dutifully prayed for the dead, offering sacrifices in the hope of relieving their time of purgation so that they might soon enjoy the Beatific Vision. Although during the early centuries of the Church, Latin and Greek Christians developed different ways of understanding the afterlife and the condition of souls following death, today all faithful Catholics hold fast to the doctrine of Purgatory, even if their respective traditions differ at the margins with respect to interpreting and articulating that doctrine. This is no cause for alarm, but rather a beautiful example of particularity within the universality of the Church which, regardless of geography and history, has as its supreme law the Salvation of souls. Gabriel S. Sanchez is an attorney and Assistant Editor of Angelus Press who resides with his family in Grand Rapids, MI. 13-month calendar – 12" x 12" – STK# CAL2017Q – $12.95 The Life of Christ Through the Liturgical Year P Sunday The Life, Death, Resurrection, and Heavenly Glory of Our Lord Jesus Christ is the central focus of every liturgical year. And so it is fitting that the 2017 Liturgical Calendar should assist the faithful in following the yearly liturgical cycle through some of Christendom’s most splendid depictions of Christ’s earthly ilate therefore said to him: Art thou a king then? Jesus answered: Thou sayest that I am a king. For this was I born, and for this came I into the world; that I should give testimony to the truth. Every one that is of the truth, heareth my voice. (Jn. 18:37) Tuesday Monday 2 3 4 5 6 7 Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost–G (II) The Holy Guardian Angels–W (III) St. Therese of the Child Jesus Virgin–W (III) St. Francis of Assisi Confessor–W (III) Ferial–G (IV) St. Placid & Companions Martyrs–R (Comm.) First Friday St. Bruno Confessor–W (III) First Saturday Blessed Virgin Mary of the Rosary–W (II) St. Mark I Pope, Confessor–W (Comm.) 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost–G (II) St. Bridget of Sweden, Widow St. John Leonard Confessor–W (III) Sts. Denis, Rusticus & Eleutherius Martyrs–R (Comm.) St. Francis Borgia Confessor–W (III) The Maternity of the Blessed Virgin Mary–W (II) Ferial–G (IV) St. Edward, King, Confessor–W (III) St. Callistus I Pope, Martyr–R (III) 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost–G (II) St. Teresa of Avila, Virgin St. Hedwig Widow–W (III) St. Margaret Mary Alacoque Virgin–W (III) St. Luke Evangelist–R (II) St. Peter of Alcantara Confessor–W (III) St. John Cantius Confessor–W (III) Our Lady on Saturdays–W (IV) St. Hilarion Abbot–W (Comm.) St. Ursula & Companions Virgins, Martyrs–R (Comm.) 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost–G (II) St. Anthony Mary Claret Bishop, Confessor–W (III) St. Raphael the Archangel–W (III) Ferial–G (IV) St. Evaristus Pope, Martyr–R (Comm.) Ferial–G (IV) Sts. Simon & Jude Apostles–R (II) 29 30 31 In USA: of meditation throughout each month. St. Isidore the Farmer Confessor–W (III) Ferial–G (Comm.) Sts. Chrysanthus & Daria Martyrs–R (Comm.) Obligatory day of fast and abstinence. Traditional day of abstinence. Traditional day of fast and abstinence. ministry and heavenly reign. These images are captioned by appropriate Scriptural quotations which can serve as sources Saturday Friday Thursday Wednesday 1 Traditional day of fast and partial abstinence. THE FEAST OF CHRIST THE KING–W (I) September 2017 S M T W T F S 1 2 3 8 9 4 5 6 7 Ferial–G (IV) Ferial–G (IV) November 2017 S M T W T 5 6 7 F S 1 2 3 8 9 10 11 4 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 26 27 28 29 30 Obligatory day of abstinence. Traditional day of fast. October Mosaic 8th century, Apse of Cathedral of Aachen, Germany Visit www.angeluspress.org — 1-800-966-7337 Please visit our website to see our entire selection of books and music. Think, kind Jesu! – my salvation Caused Thy wondrous Incarnation; Leave me not to reprobation. Faint and weary, Thou hast sought me, On the Cross of suffering bought me. Shall such grace be vainly brought me? Righteous Judge, for sin’s pollution Grant Thy gift of absolution, Ere the day of retribution. Guilty, now I pour my moaning, All my shame with anguish owning; Spare, O God, Thy suppliant groaning! Through the sinful woman shriven, Through the dying thief forgiven, Thou to me a hope hast given. “Dies Irae” (Day of Wrath) is a Latin hymn attributed to either Thomas of Celano of the Franciscan Order (1200 – c. 1265) or to Latino Malabranca Orsini (†1294), lector at the Dominican studium at Santa Sabina, the forerunner of the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas, Angelicum in Rome. The hymn dates from at least the thirteenth century, though it is possible that it is much older, with some sources ascribing its origin to St. Gregory the Great (d. 604), St. Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153), or St. Bonaventure (1221-1274). Shrine of Our Lady of Sorrows, Starkenburg, MO Theme Hope A Reflection on Celebrating Halloween by Beatrice Freccia As summer draws to a close in the United States, the arrival of autumn is heralded by the appearance of Halloween merchandise and decorations. American enthusiasm for Halloween is tremendous, and its observance seems near-universal. (In recent years, Halloween spending in the United States has hovered in the $7-8 billion dollar range.) Confronted with the typically American display of excess in his neighborhood and while shopping, the traditional Catholic might well find himself rolling his eyes at the garish materialism. (Why waste money on a 6’ high inflatable pumpkin for the front lawn? Why buy pounds of candy for the already wound up neighborhood children?) Or perhaps he has graver concerns about Halloween—perhaps he associates it with paganism, Satanism, and the occult, and believes it to be spiritually dangerous 16 The Angelus November - December 2016 territory. Is Halloween an inherently dangerous holiday, from which the devout Catholic should shield his children? A Personal Reflection I was raised in a Catholic family, and I have wonderful childhood memories of celebrating Halloween with my younger siblings and other neighborhood children. We would spend months before Halloween considering and planning our costumes, which my parents often made for us. We would pick out pumpkins at the pumpkin patch and sketch different designs for carving them, before settling on the best option. And finally, on Halloween night, we would don our costumes and disguise ourselves as animals, as historical figures, in international costumes, or as characters from books or movies. We hosted a neighborhood Halloween party, played oldfashioned games, and at the end of the evening trick-or-treated together. The emphasis was entirely on autumn, dressing up, eating sweets, and the excitement of being out after dark. We had no interest in the occult or paganism; in fact, we wanted to give anything of that nature a wide berth. The costumes and decorations at our party—which my mother held to carry on her own fondly remembered Halloween traditions—were never gory or gruesome. If there was the faintest hint of a spooky feeling as we wove our way through the neighborhood in the dark, it came only from that natural human fear of the night, the unknown, and the (very real) supernatural. I am inclined to think that Halloween is, for the overwhelming majority of those who celebrate it with young children, a wholly innocent occasion for merriment and revelry. When I became a mother myself, I found myself more interested in the relationship between Halloween, All Saints’ Day, and All Souls’ Day. And I was surprised to find that modern Halloween traditions, even those that appear wholly secular, have more to do with Christianity than with paganism. History of Halloween The term Halloween (from Hallowe’en, or All Hallows’ Eve), which dates back to the 18th century, indicates simply that the celebration is the vigil of the Feast of All Hallows, or All Saints’ Day. Halloween is popularly believed to be the modern descendant of an ancient Celtic festival called Samhain (meaning “Summer’s End”), which was observed in Ireland and Scotland on October 31-November 1, and marked the beginning of winter. (Similar festivals were held in Wales, Cornwall, and Brittany.) Very little is known about how Samhain was celebrated. There are no contemporary written records; nothing was written about Samhain until the tenth century, well after the Christianization of Ireland, which began in the fifth century. What was written down was transcribed by Catholic monks and based on surviving Celtic sagas, which were an oral tradition. What we know is that Samhain was the time when cattle were brought down from the summer pastures and slaughtered for the winter (presumably because the weather was now cold enough that the meat would not spoil quickly), and bonfires were lit. There has been much modern speculation (from the eighteenth century onwards) about the purpose and significance of these bonfires, and what religious ceremonies were involved in marking the change of the seasons. But there does not appear to be reliable evidence that Samhain was specifically a religious holiday; if there were religious ceremonies held on the feast, we do not know what they were. Sir James Frazer, a nineteenth century Scottish anthropologist and an expert on myth and religion, is largely responsible for the belief that Samhain was the pagan Celtic festival of the dead. Frazer’s monumental work of mythological anthropology, The Golden Bough, popularized this unfounded assumption by arguing that since the Catholic Church had “baptized” pagan traditions for other holidays (perfectly true), the proximity of Samhain to All Saints’ and All Souls’ meant that Samhain was the forebear of Halloween. This has since become accepted as fact. In fact, though the early Christians always took an interest in honoring their holy dead, it wasn’t until the early seventh century that Pope Boniface consecrated the Pantheon in honor of the Virgin and Holy Martyrs, and ordered that the anniversary of the consecration was to be commemorated on May 13. (This date may actually have been chosen as part of a conscious effort by that pontiff to supplant a Roman holiday called Lemuralia, which was a day set aside for placating the malevolent restless dead.) In the eighth century, Pope Gregory III founded an oratory “of the holy apostles and of all saints, martyrs and confessors, of all the just made perfect who are at rest throughout the world,” and the date of the feast was set as November 1. In 835 Gregory IV made it a feast of the universal church, and the May feast was suppressed. Both of these feasts arose in Rome, and there is no indication that either of them had anything to 17 Theme Hope do with ancient Celtic fall festivals. Throughout the Church’s first millennium, European churches set aside various dates to pray for the repose of the souls of the dead (as distinct from the veneration of the saints). It was St. Odilo of Cluny, an eleventh century Benedictine abbot, who chose November 2 as a day to pray particularly for the poor souls languishing in Purgatory, barred from the Beatific Vision. This observance spread to other Benedictine monasteries and then to the Church as a whole. With All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day falling on consecutive days, there was now a triduum: Allhallowtide. This triduum, of All Hallows’ Eve, All Saints’ Day, and All Souls’ Day, highlights an aspect of Church teaching which has come to be ignored by many Catholics and reviled by Protestants. The Church—the Body of Christ—is often thought to be merely the faithful on earth, but in fact, She is divided into three parts: the Church Militant, the Church Suffering, and the Church Triumphant. The Church Militant are those faithful still on earth; the Church Suffering, those in Purgatory, atoning for their sins; and the Church Triumphant, the blessed in Heaven, enjoying the glory of the Beatific Vision. The interconnectedness of these three groups is a beautiful teaching of the Church: those on earth pray for the souls in Purgatory, and can ease their suffering and speed their journey to Heaven by their sacrifices and prayers (especially the Mass). At the same time, the faithful on earth ask for the intercession of the Saints in Heaven, who delight in aiding us in our struggles. Allhallowtide presents an important opportunity for contemplating the relationship between these three parts. Revelry and Solemnity The Medievals, in developing customs around this triduum, combined revelry with solemnity in their unique way, and gave special attention to Purgatory and the reality of evil. Many of these customs, later brought to the United States by immigrants, are “ancestors” to our modern Halloween traditions. In Britain and Ireland, 18 The Angelus November - December 2016 “soul cakes” were baked and given to “soulers” who went door-to-door, offering prayers for the dead in exchange for the cakes. (In other parts of Europe, similar customs arose, like baking breads which were left out as symbolic offerings for the restless souls in Purgatory.) Candles and bonfires were lit to guide wayward souls on their journey to Heaven, or to ward off the devil. “Mumming” and “guising,” a medieval British tradition where costumed revelers went door to door putting on plays, was another precursor to trick-or-treating. Beginning in the nineteenth century, the soulers and guisers often carried carved, illuminated turnips or other vegetables (“jack-o-lanterns”), to frighten their benefactors and hosts, or to ward off the devil. Folk tales and superstitions arose, too, many of them involving personifications of death and ghosts, which stemmed from the focus on Purgatory. Medieval Europeans on the continent (especially in France), popularized the allegory of the danse macabre, which became an important motif in church decoration. This churchyard “dance,” with a personified figure of death, united all men, whatever their station; it represented a memento mori which later was sometimes associated with Halloween, and influenced the spooky imagery of modern Halloween. With the advent of the Protestant Reformation, the Feast of All Souls was in many places suppressed or combined (explicitly or essentially) with the Feast of All Saints, since Protestant reformers rejected the doctrine of Purgatory. Their doctrine of “faith alone” makes justification an all-or-nothing proposition: faith alone, in isolation from good works, would suffice to provide a justification that is merely imputed to the believer. The Catholic doctrine of Purgatory, which is intimately linked to the Church’s understanding of justification and sanctifying grace, is inimical to the Protestants’ perverse understanding of faith. Unsurprisingly, then, for many Protestants Halloween has always been incompatible with their understanding of Christianity. Indeed, many modern concerns about Halloween can be traced to fundamentalist Protestant Jack Chick’s attacks on the holiday in the 1980s. Chick, who is vehemently anti-Catholic, employed his signature comic book-style “tracts” (often handed out on Halloween in lieu of candy) to try to convince Americans that Halloween was: related to Babylonian mystery cults (and that the Catholic Church was the modern Babylon); that Halloween was when druids would offer children as human sacrifices; and that, perhaps the most laughable of all, Halloween is Satan’s birthday. He also preyed on parents’ fears about candy being tampered with, although this concern (which was widespread at the time) was later completely debunked. Keeping the Spirit of the Feast Oddly enough, some modern pagans and Satanists (whose “beliefs” have nothing to do with ancient Celtic religions, and date back merely to the 19th century) have in recent years taken a great interest in Halloween, perhaps because of the efforts of people like Jack Chick. And, it is true that American Halloween has lately come to involve, for some, a fascination with the ghoulish and the gory. (Perhaps this also has to do with the Protestant backlash against Halloween.) Modern man is as fascinated by death as the ancients were—death is a mystery, and man instinctively recognizes the immortality of the soul and wonders about what happens when the soul separates from the body. But sadly, with the loss of his Christian heritage, modern man’s interest in death has become misdirected to things like horror films, true crime books, and TV specials, which focus on the grotesque bodily aspects of violent death but fail to provide satisfactory answers about the reality of the supernatural. These recent unsavory tendencies in a small minority do not mean there’s anything inherently wrong with the holiday as innocently celebrated by millions of Americans. Catholics who are serious about religious observance needn’t think of Halloween as a replacement for, or an alternative to, devout observance of All Saint’s Day and All Soul’s Day. On the contrary, for devout Catholics, its traditions, when closely examined, can serve as a prelude to the All Saint’s Day and All Soul’s Day and be a reminder of man’s immortality and our pious duties towards the departed. Yes, the secular culture has become increasingly enthusiastic about Halloween in recent decades (and about the merchandising opportunities it provides); it has largely forgotten about the two great solemn feasts it anticipates. But there is no reason the traditional Catholic family shouldn’t be able to observe Allhallowtide in its entirety. The key is not to let the vigil celebration of Halloween grow disproportionately important and overwhelm the two feasts. Have lighthearted fun on Halloween, and enjoy simple pleasures like carving pumpkins with your family and trick-or-treating in costume with your neighbors. Talk to your children about Halloween traditions and how many of them are Christian in origin. Show them that in the spooky or eerie are opportunities to contemplate their own mortality, just as they were for Medieval Christians, but that contemplation should be tempered with the hope of salvation and resolve against evil. Then attend Mass on All Saint’s Day (and perhaps an All Saint’s Day party as well), and attend Mass again on All Soul’s Day, followed by a visit to the cemetery. Ask for the intercession of the saints, pray for the repose of the souls of the dead, and marvel at how man continues to combine the playful and the solemn, as he has always done. Beatrice Freccia is the pen name of a traditional Catholic mother of three living with her husband outside of Washington, D.C. Her previous work includes an examination of Aristotle’s account of the household for The Josias. 19 Theme Hope Nietzsche and Hope by Fr. Jonathan Loop, SSPX Friedrich Nietzsche and St. Pius X—although they were contemporaries—rarely agreed on any matter of major importance. Nevertheless, they were of one mind about the state of modern man in his relation to God. In his first encyclical, E Supremi, the first pope to be declared a saint in several centuries wrote, “For who can fail to see that society is at the present time, more than in any past age, suffering from a terrible and deeprooted malady which, developing every day and eating into its inmost being, is dragging it to destruction? You understand, Venerable Brethren, what this disease is—apostasy from God.” Nodding approvingly at this diagnosis of the modern spirit, Nietzsche describes it from another point of view in his “Parable of a Madman”: “Whither is God?” [the madman] cried; “I will tell you. We have killed him—you and I. 20 The Angelus November - December 2016 All of us are his murderers. . . . It has been related further that on the same day the madman forced his way into several churches and there struck up his requiem aeternam deo, [saying]: “What after all are these churches now if they are not the tombs and sepulchers of God?” In describing churches as the “tombs and sepulchers of God,” Nietzsche intended to convey the reality that modern man has turned his back on a divinity greater than himself. In the mind of the eminent atheist, the great architectural monuments from ages past of a lively faith in God now do nothing more than manifest the indifference of modern man to any supernatural realities. As a necessary consequence, Nietzsche—like St. Pius X—believed that the world as a whole had rejected at a deep level a belief in—and therefore, desire for—the eternal goods promised by this God. Ever the poet, Nietzsche described this phenomena as follows: “What were we doing when we unchained this earth from its sun? Whither is it moving now? Whither are we moving? Away from all suns? Are we not plunging continually? Backward, sideward, forward, in all directions? Is there still any up or down? Are we not straying, as through an infinite nothing? Do we not feel the breath of empty space?” In other words, Nietzsche saw that the loss of a belief in God—or any objective highest good—as profoundly disorienting. There is no longer a fixed standard from which man can take his bearing as he strives to make sense of the world in which he finds himself. There is no longer any “up or down” good or evil, noble or base, by nature. To speak of a goal or end of human life, such as St. Thomas Aquinas does at the beginning of the Summa Theologica, no longer has any meaning. Man is adrift in an abyss of nothingness. 21 Theme Hope Is Despair Good? Nevertheless, Nietzsche believed this was a necessary disorientation which would free man from an unreasonable turn away from the noblest goods available to man For him, Christianity “was from the beginning, essentially and fundamentally, life’s nausea and disgust with life, merely concealed behind, masked by, dressed up as, faith in ‘another’ or ‘better’ life.” One of the real evils of Christianity, in his eyes, was the virtue of hope, which caused man to long for an imaginary happiness beyond the grave and, therefore, to turn his back on true life in this world. He would have detested the words of The Imitation of Christ—so deeply admired and praised by Archbishop Lefebvre—which praise the man who is able “to despise earthly goods and love heavenly things and to disregard the world and desire heavenly things day and night” (Book III, Chapter 4). For Nietzsche, this is nothing more than to hate human life as such, rejecting what it means to be human for the sake of some imaginary alternative life. In the Anti Christ, he writes: “Pity is one of the main tools used to increase decadence—pity wins people over to nothingness! …You do not say ‘nothingness’ : instead you say ‘the beyond’; or ‘God’; or ‘the true life’; or nirvana, salvation, blessedness….This innocent rhetoric from the realm of religiousmoral idiosyncrasy suddenly appears much less innocent when you see precisely which tendencies are wrapped up inside these sublime words: tendencies hostile to life.” As can be seen, Nietzsche effectively believed that Christian hope represented a form of nihilism. One looks at the struggle of life and turns one’s back on it by looking to an imaginary world. Communism & the Opium of the Masses To an extent, he agreed with Karl Marx. Both Marx and Nietzsche believed Christian hope— and the religious sentiment more generally— was a reaction to and rejection of the suffering involved in human life. They disagreed in their 22 The Angelus November - December 2016 assessment of the proper reaction to suffering: to speak generally, Nietzsche believed suffering and struggle should be embraced so as to produce human excellence, while Marx believed it should be eradicated by means of revolutionary communism. For Nietzsche, Marx was afflicted by the worst of all maladies: pity of the human condition. Marx is famous for making the assertion that “religion is the opium of the people.” However, most people do not deeply realize what he was saying. His point was not merely that religion is some bad habit which robbed men of their rationality, but rather that religion, like opium (we might even say alcohol or any other drug), is employed by miserable people as a means of escape from the harsh reality of their actual lives. In his mind, there is neither God nor life after death, and the promises of religion in general— and Christianity in particular—of a blessed eternity with a make-believe Creator is a great lie. He continues: “Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people. The abolition of religion as the illusory happiness of the people is the demand for their real happiness. To call on them to give up their illusions about their condition is to call on them to give up a condition that requires illusions.” Once again, religion is essentially nothing other than a reaction to the sufferings of life which nevertheless offers a solution to them wholly divorced from reality. The real world is this material universe in which we human beings dwell and true freedom comes not via a deliverance from sin and death, but rather from a conquest of nature. Christian hope is therefore a radically evil quality because it turns men away from this world, which is the only place of human action. From the point of view of Marx and other Communists, Christian hope furthermore causes men to ignore what they must do in order to rid themselves of suffering in this life: namely, revolution. Archbishop Lefebvre lamented in the 1970s the growth of what came to be known as “Liberation Theology”—a doctrine particularly popular in Central America which was influenced by Marxist theory—precisely because it taught the poor not to endure their hardships for love of God and the hope of greater rewards in Heaven, but rather to agitate for justice—which inevitably meant a forcible redistribution of wealth and resources. To understand this spirit, one need to turn only to the most faithful advocate of Communism. Vladimir Lenin, the determined acolyte of Marx who brought about the October 1917 Revolution in Russia, echoed the sentiments of Marx with his characteristically dismissive style: “Those who toil and live in want all their lives are taught by religion to be submissive and patient while here on earth, and to take comfort in the hope of a heavenly reward. . . . Religion is a sort of spiritual booze, in which the slaves of capital drown their human image, their demand for a life more or less worthy of man.” The evident implication of Lenin’s words is that religion in general—and Christianity in particular—must be destroyed in order to lead men to begin making the demand of a life worthy of man. Above all, from Lenin’s point of view, it is the pernicious hope for a better life than serves to deaden men to the call of revolution. as the term used by St. Augustine to designate the world. It is the city founded upon a “love of self even to the contempt of God” as opposed to the “city of God, . . . which is founded upon a love of God even to the contempt of self.” If the city of man is capable of fulfilling not only the needs of the body, but also the needs of the soul, then there is logically no longer any need for any higher spiritual reality, of God or His heaven. It is partially in this spirit that a recent presidential candidate was quoted dismissing those people who “cling to their guns and religion.” This spirit is also behind the near universal denigration of religion and God in our elite and popular culture today. The malady—this apostasy from God—which St. Pius X diagnosed over a century ago has so deeply permeated the society in which we live that it is truly abnormal for the average citizen to think seriously about God or heaven, or to make decisions in life based on the desire for anything above his immediate self-comfort. We Christians must deeply reject this attitude and culture which surrounds us and turn our eyes to heaven. We must keep in mind the words of St. Paul, that “we are not as those who have no hope” (I Thess. 4:13) and who can no longer despise themselves nor long for anything beyond the world. Modern American Liberalism’s Despair Nietzsche, Marx, and Lenin represented the more thoughtful and coherent and violent rejection of God. But—at a deep level—their principles were not limited to the violent and revolutionary regimes based on communism or National Socialism. The turn away from eternal life has deeply permeated our own western liberal culture. This can be most easily seen, perhaps, in a speech given by Democratic president Lyndon B. Johnson about the “Great Society” which he desired to bring about in the United States. In this address, he states that “[The Great Society] is a place where the city of man serves not only the needs of the body and the demands of commerce but the desire for beauty and the hunger for community.” It is not without reason that he specifically mentions the “city of man” which Christians recognize Fr. Jonathan Loop was born and raised an Episcopalian. He attended college at the University of Dallas, where he received the grace to convert through the intermediary of several of his fellow students, some of whom later went on to become religious with the Dominicans of Fanjeaux. After graduating with a bachelor’s degree in political philosophy, he enrolled in St. Thomas Aquinas Seminary, where he was ordained in June 2011. 23 Theme Hope Heaven: Where the Morning Lies by Pater Senior Emily Dickenson, one of America’s greatest poets, often wrote about the Four Last Things. She had been briefly schooled at Mount Holyoke Female Seminary and so, for example, themes concerning death and judgment can be found in her poems “Ample Make This Bed,” and “Will There Really Be A Morning,” in which she clearly writes about heaven. Here, we hope to answer her question about where heaven is, then guide her pilgrimage toward it, and finally describe what it will be like. Will there really be a morning? Is there such a thing as day? Could I see it from the mountains If I were as tall as they? Has it feet like water-lilies? Has it feathers like a bird? 24 The Angelus November - December 2016 Is it brought from famous countries Of which I have never heard? Oh, some scholar! Oh, some sailor! Oh, some wise man from the skies! Please to tell a little pilgrim Where the place called morning lies! Heaven’s Location “The place called morning”: Dickenson is correct in thinking that “morning” or heaven is a place. The fact that recent popes have denied the spatial dimension of heaven should not cause her too much concern. If one were to have influences from Personalism or Idealism, it would make sense that one’s ultimate destiny would not be conceived in spatial or physical categories. Instead, recall that Our Lord said He would prepare “a place” for us (Jn 14:3). Furthermore, Holy Mother Church affirms that morning (Heaven) is a place by her dogmatic assertions that there are two physical bodies in Heaven: the Assumed Body of Our Blessed Mother, and the Ascended Body of Our Lord. Since bodies only exist in space, Heaven must also not only be a state of eternal happiness but a physical place as well. Fr. Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange writes: “Heaven means this place, and especially this condition, of supreme beatitude. Had God created no bodies, but only pure spirits, heaven would not need to be a place; it would signify merely the state of the angels who rejoice in the possession of God. But in fact heaven is also a place. There we find the humanity of Jesus, the Blessed Virgin Mary, the angels, and the souls of the saints. Though we cannot say with certitude where this place is to be found, or what its relation is to the whole universe, revelation does not allow us to doubt of its existence” (From Life Everlasting). Where might Heaven be then if it is a place? Since Christ was taken up to heaven, we can certainly say heaven is not on earth. The heavens literally mean what is, up above the skies. Exactly where heaven is up there, has not been revealed to us, but what we do know is that it is above, and not on, or below the earth. Had Dickenson been a traditional Catholic, she would have known this because of the liturgical requirement that the altar be three steps above the nave. One must go up to altare Dei, which is on God’s “holy mountain.” Thus, to find heaven, Dickenson will need to find help from above—in other words, she must receive supra (above)-natural grace. She is also correct to associate Heaven with the morning. Our Lord rose from the dead in the morning and He will come again from the east, where the morning begins. As St. Peter teaches, “[Y]ou do well to attend, as to a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts” (2 Pet. 1:19). And this is the reason why the bodies of the faithful have their heads, during their funeral Mass, facing towards the East. They are waiting for Christ, the Orient from on High (Luke 1:78), to call them to the Resurrection unto Eternal Life in Heaven. How to Get to Heaven “Please tell a little pilgrim where the place . . .lies”: To get to Heaven, Dickenson is on the right track to consider herself a little pilgrim. As St. Therese paved the way for heaven by her “Little Way,” so Our Lord insists we become “as little children” if we are to enter heaven (Mt. 18:3). Being a pilgrim is also the way the scholar, St. Thomas Aquinas, understood man in this life on the road of a yet unfinished journey. The “wayfarer,” as he called him, will ultimately end his pilgrim journey in either Heaven or Hell. Thus, a pilgrim is heading somewhere as opposed to the atheist, where life begins and ends on earth. So, Dickenson rightly understands herself as a pilgrim undertaking a journey toward Heaven. St. Paul supports this conclusion: “If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable” (I Cor. 15:19). But what prompts Dickenson, the “little pilgrim,” on her quest for morning? In the apparent absence of being led by supernatural revelation, to find “morning” we may suppose that Dickenson is exercising her “natural desire for happiness” which everyman has (Summa Theologiae, I-II, Q.5, Art. 8). Since, as Aristotle wrote, “nature does nothing in vain,” the fulfillment of this natural desire must really exist. But only the perfect good, which “entirely satisfies” every desire, can be the object of true happiness: “God alone constitutes man’s happiness” (ST, Q.II-I, Art.1,8). By nature, we are directed to created finite substances but the divine nature, where our true happiness lies, is infinitely beyond such human capacities. Though Dickenson has a natural desire for happiness, she cannot satisfy this desire by relying upon her own natural powers. St Paul explained it like this: “For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him that made it subject, in hope: Because the creature also itself shall be delivered from the servitude of corruption, into the liberty of the glory of the children of God” (Rom. 8:20-21). Therefore, our natural state, subject to corruption, will require the supernatural power of God to enable it, through the supernatural virtue of hope, to share in “the glory of the children of God.” When we look more closely at what motivates Dickenson to seek for “morning” 25 Theme Hope we find that it is frequently different than what motivates people today. The “little pilgrim,” who wrote in the relatively stable mid-19th century commences her search with a positive evaluation of creation (birds and feathers) that draws her upward to Heaven. People living in the bloody of the disorder they find in themselves. They are coming to God through an inner disgust, a despair that maybe called creative. And so in Ps. 129 we find that it is “out of the depths” that we “cry out to Thee, O Lord” (A Priest is Not His Own). Basilica of Our Lady, Maastricht Netherlands 20th century often took a different path in attempting to arrive at the same end. In 1908, G.K. Chesterton wrote in Orthodoxy, that the “desire for heaven often begins with some kind of dissatisfaction with earth.” Venerable Fulton Sheen had come to a similar conclusion in 1963: “Today, people are looking for God not because of the order they find in the universe [i.e., Dickenson’s path to heaven] but because 26 The Angelus November - December 2016 Having already consulted a scholar in how to get to heaven, Dickenson does well to also ask a sailor. The sailor, St. Peter, will insist that she must enter his Catholic Church (the Barque of St. Peter), prefigured by Noah’s ark, which alone saves from the flood (Cf. I Pet. 3:20-21). Archbishop Lefebvre put it like this: “There will not be any Protestants in Heaven, there will not be any Buddhists….There will only be Catholics. [While they might have been] in Buddhism, they will be in heaven because they will be members of the Catholic Church. Being Buddhist, and yet wanting to do the will of God, they made an act of charity, of submission to God which gave them baptism of desire and made them implicitly Catholic” (The Spiritual Life, pp. 478-79). What Will Heaven Be Like? “Wisdom from the skies”: Let us now employ wisdom from above to describe what St. Paul says is beyond description: “for eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man, what things God hath prepared for them that love him” (I Cor. 2:9). Or as Archbishop Lefebvre wrote in The Spiritual Life, “What we [shall] see in God is going to surpass in beauty, in goodness, in splendor, anything we can imagine.” But not only shall we see God, we shall also see the Most Glorious Queen of Heaven. “For I reckon that the sufferings of this time are not worthy to be compared with the glory to come, that shall be revealed in us” (Rom 8:18). For those who are blessed, not only to seek where Heaven lies, but also to arrive there, there will be unspeakable bliss. In the Catechism, Our Catholic Faith, we read: “The Beatific Vision will satisfy completely and supremely all of our desires.” Having God, we shall never wish for anything else. In Heaven there is eternal enjoyment of God’s goodness and beauty. There is no evil in heaven because “God will wipe away all tears from their eyes and death shall be no more…for the former things have passed away” (Apoc. 21:4). What we do know about Heaven comes from Divine Revelation. For we need someone who has been there to tell us what it is like—and only the Son of Man has descended from there to do so (Jn. 3:13). Pope Benedict XII definitively taught that “the blessed in Heaven possess an immediate intuitive knowledge of the divine essence.” He based this teaching upon I Cor 13:12, “We see now through a glass in a dark place, but then face to face” and I Jn. 3:2, “We shall be like to Him: because we shall see Him as He is.” Once in Heaven, the Blessed are covered in God’s light and their spiritual bodies become glorious. These heavenly bodies have the properties of impassibility, subtlety, agility, and clarity. Being impassible, these bodies are free from every kind of physical evil. They are impassable because they are incapable of suffering. The bodily emotions now perfectly comply with the directives of the soul. These bodies are also subtle or perfectly perfected by the soul, so they will have a spiritualized nature. As St. Paul writes, “[I]t is sown a corruptible body, it shall rise a spiritual body” (I Cor. 15:44). These bodies are also agile or submissive to the spirit as they move through space with the speed of thought. And finally, these bodies in heaven have clarity. They are free from every deformity and filled with resplendent radiance and beauty. Saints Peter, James, and John received a foresight of such a heavenly body when they witnessed Our Lord’s Transfigured Body on Mount Tabor. For creatures, each person’s clarity will vary according to the degree of glory in their soul, and this degree of glory will depend upon their merit before God. Pertaining to our relations to other creatures, Aquinas taught the blessed know all things that pertain to them (ST, III, Q.10, Art.2). All of the blessed in Heaven are united to the members of the Kingdom of God on earth in sharing a common supernatural life with the Head of the Church and with one another. In Heaven, we shall be reunited with those we have loved on earth, and we shall love them more intensely. There will be no more separation. Whatever we have legitimately desired to know here on earth, we shall learn in heaven. All the mysteries of the faith and science will be revealed in heaven. And this, Miss Dickenson, is the testimony that God has given to us concerning the eternal morning of heavenly life. And this life is only to be found in his Son (I Jn. 5:11). 27 Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted. Mourning is sorrow arising from the loss of things held dear; but those who are converted to God lose those things which they were accustomed to embrace as dear in this world: for they do not rejoice in those things in which they formerly rejoiced; and until the love of eternal things be in them, they are wounded by some measure of grief. Therefore they will be comforted by the Holy Spirit, who on this account chiefly is called the Paraclete, i.e. the Comforter, in order that, while losing the temporal joy, they may enjoy to the full that which is eternal. Ceiling fresco, Cathedral Freiburg, Germnay Faith and Morals The Advent Liturgy by Fr. Christopher Danel The entire ecclesiastical and liturgical year— with all of its solemnity, all of its festal seasons and feasts, all of its penitential times and stirring vigils—has as its threshold, imbued with the nobility and elegance characteristic of the Roman Rite, the poignant season of Advent. The Commencement of the Liturgical Year The Missal and the Breviary open their annual cycle with the First Sunday of Advent, which is especially fitting, because with the advent of Christ, everything in the Church has its new beginning. In earlier centuries, though, the year opened in the spring, both ecclesiastically and civilly. The first month of the civil year was 30 The Angelus November - December 2016 March, the time of the vernal equinox, which was then reckoned as being March 25. It is not so much the solar cycle that gave the date importance in the Church, but more so the fact that the equinoctial date coincides with the principal stages of the history of creation and redemption. March 25 is identified historically with the creation of the world, the Incarnation of the Son, and His crucifixion on the Cross. In the works of Tertullian, St. Ambrose, and others there is still reference to the Church year beginning near Easter. But in the sixth to eighth centuries the shift was made to precede Christmas. One motivation was the transfer of the feast of the Annunciation into Advent in some places due to the rigors of Lent (only a shadow of this transfer remains, as will be seen), so the liturgical year’s incipit, long since tied to the Incarnation of the Son, was also transferred to precede Christmas. The liturgical books from the sixth to eighth centuries open with the Vigil of the Nativity, such as the Gelasian and Gregorian Sacramentaries, as do the Comes of St. Victor of Capua (a cómes being a listing of Epistles and Gospels to be sung at Mass), the Lectionary of Luxeuil, the Missale Gothicum, and the Evangeliarium of Würzburg. Some liturgical books from the eighth to tenth centuries place the commencement of the Church year at the beginning of Advent, and the practice became uniform by the end of the tenth century. The Formation of Advent The term “Advent” refers to the coming of Our Lord Jesus Christ at his Nativity, of course, but there is a second meaning which is highlighted quite clearly in the sacred liturgy, that being the second coming of Christ. In the earliest centuries of the Church, and before Advent began to “crystallize” as a liturgical season of its own, the primary emphasis at the end of one year and the beginning of the next was on the spiritual preparation for the second coming and Last Judgment. This is clearly seen in the texts found at the end of the Sundays after Pentecost and those inaugurating Advent. Advent experienced a retrograde development from the feast of its destination. Initially Christmas was prepared for with a vigil, like the other great feasts of the liturgical year, and the vigil still remains. In the days and weeks before the vigil, a time of liturgical and spiritual preparation began to take shape which led to the full formation of Advent. In the East, a preparation was initially made with the introduction of two commemoration-Masses in the weeks immediately preceding the vigil of Christmas, one of Our Lady, considering her divine maternity, and the other of St. John the Baptist, the precursor of the Messias. In Spain and Gaul, there begin to be references in the fifth century to a three-week preparatory liturgical season at this time of the year, although in those regions the preparation was oriented more to Epiphany than to Christmas due to their use Faith and Morals of solemnly conferring baptisms on that date. (This history is perhaps the reason why Epiphany is celebrated with much greater ceremony and sentiment in those cultures Christianized by Spain, even to this day.) In the sixth century, Gallican references begin to appear regarding this period being extended all the way back to the feast of St. Martin of Tours on November 11, thus forming a close parallel to Lent, and even being called “St. Martin’s Lent.” That extension became the custom in the Gallican and Ambrosian liturgies, as well as in Spain and England at least by the time of St. Cuthbert (+687), and the Ambrosian liturgy still maintains six weeks of Advent. Advent in the Roman Rite While the observance of Epiphany as a baptismal day was a motivating factor for the extension of Advent in those places marked by the Gallican use, such was not the case at Rome. There, the preparation of December would lead only to Christmas, not to Epiphany, and its development was later. At the time of St. Leo the Great (+461) there is no reference to a developed Advent season, and St. Leo himself remains silent on the topic. Many liturgical scholars place the development of Advent in Rome, and thus in the Roman Rite, in the sixth century. It is a natural consequence of the Christological controversies which required so much of the Church’s attention in that era. Therefore, as often occurs in the wake of crises, a renewed focus and expression were given to the liturgical celebration of the mysteries impugned. The feasts of the Incarnation of the Divine Word and of the Nativity of the Savior thus took even more profound significance and the preparatory period before Christmas began to quickly develop. Sixth century references point to the establishment of a six-week Advent in Rome as well, including the vacant Sunday (Dominica vacat) which followed Ember Saturday. It was St. Gregory the Great at the dawn of the seventh century who drew upon the custom being used in Capua at that time in order to restructure Advent into the four Sundays presently used. As 32 The Angelus November - December 2016 the Dominica vacat had no Mass formulary of its own, there were in consequence five texts that had been composed for the Sunday Masses of Advent up to that time. St. Gregory assigned the first of them to the Last Sunday after Pentecost, and the remaining four of them to the four Sundays of Advent. The Mass formulary for the Last Sunday after Pentecost bears such a resemblance in tone and theme to the Mass of the First Sunday of Advent for this reason. Penitential Practice in Advent For a period of time, Advent was also marked by fast and abstinence. St. Gregory of Tours (+594) claimed that his fifth-century predecessor Perpetuus instituted the fast there: “He instituted the fast, which is ordered thus… From the deposition of Saint Martin until the Nativity of Our Lord, fasting is thrice per week.” The Council of Tours in 597 and the first Council of Maçon in 581 codified further that these days would be held uniformly as the Monday, Wednesday, and Friday of those weeks. However, these rigors never passed into the Roman Rite in any uniform way. Ratherius of Verona (+974) refers to abstinence at his time, while Pope Innocent III (+1216) refers also to the fast. Some centuries later, in 1370, Pope Urban V imposed only a general abstinence on his clergy. Unlike that of Lent, the fast and abstinence practiced in Advent was never uniformly practiced and was never fully harmonized with the liturgy. That is to say, the texts of Lent are explicitly penitential and make copious references to the Lenten fast, but that is a theme which was never adopted by the Advent liturgy. Before long these Lenten rigors began to fade out of Advent, leaving the season with its particular quietly subdued character and a simple charm all of its own. Part of the penance, albeit a “joyful penance,” characteristic of Advent is seen in the liturgy by way of the violet vestments used, the suppression of the Gloria in excelsis in the Mass and the Te Deum in the Office, the silence of the organ, and the altars no longer adorned with floral décor. In most places the standing reliquaries are removed as well, and the golden altarware yields to silver. In some places in centuries past, the holy images were covered as in Lent, and black vestments were even used. These uses did not correspond to the primitive character of Advent in the Roman Rite, however, and soon faded out. The Mass texts can be seen to emphasize a holy and intense longing for the coming of the Redeemer, both at the end of time and at His Nativity in time (as the sacred liturgy makes this mystery present to us), and the entreaty that He may deign to assist us in making our spiritual preparation, through purification from sin, for His entrance. Thus the liturgical simplicity of Advent also bears its marks of joy, which can be seen especially in the presence of the Alleluia in the Mass, and even of its increased use in the antiphons of the Divine Office. Highlights of the Advent Liturgy The lessons for the whole Advent season are taken from the prophet Isaias, who “speaks more openly about the advent [of the Messias] than any other prophet,” as Durandus observes. The bulk of the antiphons and responsories for the season are taken from the same prophetic source. The First Sunday of Advent, also known as Dominica ad te levavi from its Introit, “To Thee have I lifted up my soul, O my God…,” sets the tone for the whole season, as the Church mystically raises up her eyes to the horizon as if to spot her Divine Bridegroom coming hither. The first Matins responsory of Advent is a glimpse into the liturgical past, as it maintains an ancient form with four parts: “I look from afar, and behold I see the Power of God, coming like as a cloud to cover the land with the hosts of his People: * Go ye out to meet Him and say: * Tell us if Thou art He, * That shalt reign over God’s people Israel.” Among other salient features, there is the presence of Gaudete Sunday near mid-Advent, which took its cue from Laetare Sunday in Lent. Rose-colored vestments, in reality a mitigation of violet, are worn, the organ plays, the flowers reappear. The Wednesday Mass of Gaudete week, besides being the Ember Wednesday, is the day on which the Annunciation is commemorated in a way (hearkening back to the transfer of the feast to Advent in some places in centuries past). The Introit is Rorate coeli, and the Gospel is that of the Annunciation. From December 17 onward, Advent preparation becomes more intense, and the Greater Antiphons appear, beautifully adorning the Vespers hour with a series which spells out, in reverse, ero cras (tomorrow I shall be). They form a glorious panegyric to the coming King of Kings: O Wisdom, O Adonai, O Root of Jesse, O Key of David, O Dawn of the East, O King, O Emmanuel! Conclusion Advent prepares us for the coming of the Holy Redeemer not only at the end of time, but for the liturgical re-living of the mystery of his Nativity longed for and awaited by every faithful soul since the great Fall. As the Martyrology’s proclamation of Christmas Eve makes so clear, it is an advent mercifully prepared over time by the hand of God, and of which we are the privileged recipients: “In the 5,199th year from the creation of the world, when in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth, in the 2,959th year from the flood, in the 2,015th year from the birth of Abraham, in the 1,510th year from the going forth of the people of Israel out of Egypt under Moses, in the 1,032th year from the anointing of David as King, in the 65th week according to the prophecy of Daniel, in the 194th Olympiad, in the 752nd from the foundation of the city of Rome, in the 42nd year of the reign of the Emperor Octavian Augustus, in the 6th age of the world, while the whole earth was at peace, Jesus Christ, Himself Eternal God and Son of the Eternal Father, being pleased to hallow the world by His most gracious coming, having been conceived of the Holy Ghost, and when nine months were passed after His conception, was born of the Virgin Mary at Bethlehem of Juda, made Man.” Fr. Christopher Danel was ordained in 2000. After completing the philosophical and theological curriculum, he took up specialization in the study of sacred liturgy, and is stationed in Atlanta, Georgia. 33 Faith and Morals Hope Amidst Trouble Extracts from E Supremi Apostolatu by St. Pius X In his first encyclical, St. Pius X explains his fears at being confronted with an impious world at the start of the 20th century. To counteract the onslaught of evil powers, he provides the sublime motto of “Restoring all things in Christ.” What means can be used for this? His answer is simple: good priests, Christian instruction, and the lay apostolate. A Troubled World . . . . We were terrified beyond all else by the disastrous state of human society today. For who can fail to see that society is at the present time, more than in any past age, suffering from a terrible and deep rooted malady which, developing every day and eating into its inmost being, is dragging it to destruction? 34 The Angelus November - December 2016 You understand, Venerable Brethren, what this disease is— apostasy from God, that which in truth nothing is more allied with ruin, according to the word of the Prophet: “For behold they that go far from Thee shall perish” (Ps. 72:27). We saw therefore that, in virtue of the ministry of the Pontificate, which was to be entrusted to Us, We must hasten to find a remedy for this great evil, considering as addressed to Us that Divine command: “Lo, I have set thee this day over the nations and over kingdoms, to root up, and to pull down, and to waste, and to destroy, and to build, and to plant” (Jer. 1:10). But, cognizant of Our weakness, We recoiled in terror from a task as urgent as it is arduous. Since, however, it has been pleasing to the Divine Will to raise Our lowliness to such sublimity of power, We take courage in Him who strengthens Us; and setting Ourselves to work, relying on the power of God, We proclaim that We have no other program in the Supreme Pontificate but that “of restoring all things in Christ” (Eph. 1:10), so that “Christ may be all and in all” (I Cor. 15:28). . . . The interests of God shall be Our interest, and for these We are resolved to spend all Our strength and Our very life. Hence, should anyone ask Us for a symbol as the expression of Our will, We will give this and no other: “To renew all things in Christ.” In undertaking this glorious task, We are greatly quickened by the certainty that We shall have all of you, Venerable Brethren, as generous cooperators. Did We doubt it We should have to regard you, unjustly, as either unconscious or heedless of that sacrilegious war which is now, almost everywhere, stirred up and fomented against God. For in truth, “The nations have raged and the peoples imagined vain things” (Ps. 2:1). against their Creator, so frequent is the cry of the enemies of God: “Depart from us” (Job. 21:14). And as might be expected we find extinguished among the majority of men all respect for the Eternal God, and no regard paid in the manifestations of public and private life to the Supreme Will—nay, every effort and every artifice is used to destroy utterly the memory and the knowledge of God. When all this is considered there is good reason to fear lest this great perversity may be as it were a foretaste, and perhaps the beginning of those evils which are reserved for the last days; and that there may be already in the world the “Son of Perdition” of whom the Apostle speaks (II Thess. 2:3). Such, in truth, is the audacity and the wrath employed everywhere in persecuting religion, in combating the dogmas of the faith, in brazen effort to uproot and destroy all relations between man and the Divinity! For, Venerable Brethren, who can avoid being appalled and afflicted when he beholds, in the midst of a progress in civilization which is justly extolled, the greater part of mankind fighting among themselves so savagely as to make it seem as though strife were universal? The desire for peace is certainly harbored in every breast, and there is no one who does not ardently invoke it. But to want peace without God is an absurdity, seeing that where God is absent thence too justice flies, and when justice is taken away it is vain to cherish the hope of peace. “Peace is the work of justice” (Is. 32:17). There are many, We are well aware, who, in their yearning for peace, that is for the tranquility of order, band themselves into societies and parties, which they style parties of order. Hope and labor lost. For there is but one party of order capable of 35 Faith and Morals restoring peace in the midst of all this turmoil, and that is the party of God. It is this party, therefore, that we must advance, and to it attract as many as possible, if we are really urged by the love of peace. The Solution and the Means But, Venerable Brethren, we shall never, however much we exert ourselves, succeed in calling men back to the majesty and empire of God, except by means of Jesus Christ. “No one,” the Apostle admonishes us, “can lay other foundation than that which has been laid, which is Jesus Christ.” (I Cor. 3:11)… Now the way to reach Christ is not hard to find: it is the Church. Rightly does Chrysostom inculcate: “The Church is thy hope, the Church is thy salvation, the Church is thy refuge” (Hom. de capto Euthropio, n. 6). It was for this that Christ founded it, gaining it at the price of His blood, and made it the depositary of His doctrine and His laws, bestowing upon it at the same time an inexhaustible treasury of graces for the sanctification and salvation of men. You see, then, Venerable Brethren, the duty that has been imposed alike upon Us and upon you of bringing back to the discipline of the Church human society, now estranged from the wisdom of Christ; the Church will then subject it to Christ, and Christ to God. If We, through the goodness of God Himself, bring this task to a happy issue, We shall be rejoiced to see evil giving place to good, and hear, for our gladness, “ a loud voice from heaven saying: Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God and the power of his Christ” (Apoc. 12:10). As to the means to be employed in attaining this great end, it seems superfluous to name them, for they are obvious of themselves. Let your first care be to form Christ in those who are destined from the duty of their vocation to form Him in others. We speak of the priests, Venerable Brethren. For all who bear the seal of the priesthood must know that they have the same mission to the people in the midst of whom they live as that which Paul proclaimed that he received in these tender words: “My little 36 The Angelus November - December 2016 children, of whom I am in labor again until Christ be formed in you” (Gal. 4:19). Yet who can fail to see, Venerable Brethren, that while men are led by reason and liberty, the principal way to restore the empire of God in their souls is religious instruction? How many there are who mimic Christ and abhor the Church and the Gospel more through ignorance than through badness of mind, of whom it may well be said: “They blaspheme whatever things they know not” (Jude 1:10) It is true, Venerable Brethren, that in this arduous task of the restoration of the human race in Christ neither you nor your clergy should exclude all assistance. We know that God recommended everyone to have a care for his neighbor (Eccles. 17:12). . . . Our predecessors have long since approved and blessed those Catholics who have banded together in societies of various kinds, but always religious in their aim. We, too, have no hesitation in awarding Our praise to this great idea, and We earnestly desire to see it propagated and flourish in town and country. But We wish that all such associations aim first and chiefly at the constant maintenance of Christian life, among those who belong to them… The times we live in demand action—but action which consists entirely in observing with fidelity and zeal the divine laws and the precepts of the Church, in the frank and open profession of religion, in the exercise of every kind of charitable works, without regard to self interest or worldly advantage. Such luminous examples given by the great army of soldiers of Christ will be of much greater avail in moving and drawing men than words and sublime dissertations; and it will easily come about that when human respect has been driven out, and prejudices and doubting laid aside, large numbers will be won to Christ, becoming in their turn promoters of His knowledge and love which are the road to true and solid happiness. Oh! when in every city and village the law of the Lord is faithfully observed, when respect is shown for sacred things, when the Sacraments are frequented, and the ordinances of Christian life fulfilled, there will certainly be no more need for us to labor further to see all things restored in Christ. The Monster of Thomism by Fr. Dominique Bourmaud, SSPX Fr. Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange (18771964) was born in Southern France but moved frequently following his father’s numerous posts as tax collector. After studying medicine, he heard the divine call and joined the Dominican province of Paris, and studied at Flavigny (presently the SSPX French seminary). His studies led him to pursue philosophical studies at the Sorbonne, Paris and to study the modern writers. His academic pursuits allowed him to be formed by his meetings with first class minds, like Fr. Ambrose Gardeil, Fr. Norberto del Prado, and Juan Arintero. His Intellectual Achievements Such powerful preparation allowed him to be chosen to take over the course on apologetics at the Angelicum of Rome at age 32, a course which would be gathered in a Latin book of two volumes entitled De revelatione. Soon after, he was elevated to teaching courses on dogma, and some on philosophy, but he also held a popular class of ascetical and mystical theology. From 1909 until 1960, past his 80 years of age yet full of zest, he gave various courses to the enchantment of the student body. His theology courses were remarkable in that he opened up broad vistas to his hearers and knew how to connect the masters of speculative sciences with those of spirituality. His was a living demonstration of the harmony between the three wisdoms: philosophical, theological, and mystical. Fr. Garrigou was named consulter of the Holy Office in 1955. This was no sinecure since, 37 Spirituality weekly, he would be pouring over the secret files provided him by the Congregation on doctrinal questions. He enjoyed the mastery of Cardinal Ottaviani, particularly his art of conducting the discussion, of summing up questions, theses, and arguments. A friend of great French authors, like Jacques Maritain and Henri Ghéon, Fr. Garrigou was a prolific writer and the quality of his teaching was certainly on a par with the quantity. Besides constant articles for the Revue Thomiste and the Angelicum of Rome, he wrote 23 substantial volumes. A Spiritual Writer Besides the Latin works which compile his formal courses of philosophy and theology, given at the Angelicum, readers may be surprised to see many titles on purely spiritual topics. Most famous are The Three Ages of the Interior Life, The Mother of the Savior, The Love of God and the Cross of Jesus, and a lesser known work entitled On the Sanctification of the Priest According to the Needs of Our Times. It was at the Angelicum in 1909-1910 that he met Juan Gonzalez-Arintero, OP, and read his Evolución mística. Arintero was one of the most prominent figures in Spain and part of the early 20th century attempt to restore the contemplative life to its former glory. Along with him, Garrigou played a central role in putting a spotlight on the nature of contemplation and our universal, albeit remote, call to it. On a more controversial point, dealing with the nature of contemplation, his position was very clear. Contemplation meant infused contemplation, a loving knowledge or wisdom that comes from God. It is a gift of the loving presence of God that is expressed so clearly by St. John of the Cross, St. Teresa of Avila, and in other mystics. One may say about all his works what he wrote in the preface to his De Christo Salvatore: that his only goal was to shed light from the principles formulated by St. Thomas Aquinas. He had good reasons to maintain this conservative method: “Here, like everywhere, we must move from the most certain and known to the least known, from the easy to the difficult. Otherwise, if we 38 The Angelus November - December 2016 studied too quickly the difficult topics by their antinomies under a dramatic and captivating form, we might end up, as it has happened to many a Protestant, by denying the easiest and most certain truths. The history of philosophy and of theology shows that this has been often the case. We must remark also that, if in human things, where true and false, good and evil are mixed, the simplicity is superficial and exposes us to err; in things divine on the contrary, where there is only true and good, simplicity is perfectly united to depth and elevation, and even, it alone call lead to this elevation.” Garrigou and Maritain The Dominicans sent Garrigou to Paris to study at the Sorbonne; it was at Henri Bergson’s course in philosophy, probably at the Collège de France, that he made the acquaintance of Jacques Maritain. Maritain is unique among Thomists because he is a convert; he was an existentialist philosopher in his youth and his encounter with Thomism attracted him towards the Church. Maritain, by and large, was a sound Thomistic philosopher. Even Garrigou, who was unquestionably one of the best Thomists of the last century, and also Maritain’s spiritual director at some point in time, commends Maritain for his philosophical works. It is not clear when the friendship that had united these men started to break up. The division over the condemnation of Action Française in 1929 was probably a starting point. Maritain, who had indulged in socialism in his youth, had leanings towards the Spanish revolutionaries against Franco and for de Gaulle rather than Pétain in France. And these opposite political views added to the friction. When he understood his friend’s liberal position, Garrigou advised him to leave political issues aside and dedicate himself to his field of expertise, Thomistic philosophy. At the time of Integral Humanism, in which Maritain defended religious liberty as a natural human right, the friendship was over. It is said that when Maritain the convert tried to persuade the super-traditional Garrigou-Lagrange about democracy, Garrigou felt indignant and said something to the effect: “You are now going to lecture us, who have been Catholic for centuries, on a new Catholic social doctrine?!?” Maritain expected Garrigou to apologize, but he never did. A book was written which sums up the relationship between the two famous Thomists, called The Sacred Monster of Thomism by Richard Peddicord, although it needs to be read with discretion as the author is rather Maritainian in his political approach. Fighting Neo-Modernism Throughout his long life, Fr. Garrigou looked upon Modernism as the Number One enemy. L’Ami du Clergé explains that: “He took it a matter of conscience to refute modernism and all its applications. It would be false to believe that he was naturally belligerent . . . but he had such a love for the Truth that he could not see it threatened without going to the fight with all his courage and his talent.” This is what prompted him to write a book in defense of the Faith and of perennial philosophy, Le Sens Commun (not available in English), and also God, His Existence and His Nature. Marcel de Corte, the great 20th century Belgian philosopher, was saved from modernist nonsense by Garrigou writings: “I have continued to believe because I saw that it was impossible for me to flee from the Faith without denying altogether this realism which my race had deposited in the innermost depth of my being.” De Corte continues with a severe diagnosis of modern thought. 39 Spirituality “The time is coming when the only philosophy which will be excluded from the Christian society will be that which commanded, for more than a thousand years, the intellectual development. The philosophy of Christian intellectuals today is anything you want but Greek and Thomist: it seems as if the pamphlets relative to the immanent ‘philosophy’ and the mythology of universal evolution have submerged almost all minds. One needs a soul of iron to walk alone on the ancient royal trail of the traditional Christian thought. Today, it is realism, the metaphysics of common sense, the firm adhesion to the evidence and the first principles of beings and thought which are foreign bodies, inassimilable, even dangerous, in the social structures of the present day Catholicism. Let us not be surprised. Cardinal de Retz said that ‘It is constant that everybody wants to be deceived.’” Dealing with neo-Modernism, Garrigou was placed under the spotlight when he wrote A Synthesis of Thomistic Thought, with an appendix, “Where is the New Theology Leading Us?,” which concluded with these strong statements: “We do not consider that the writers just described have abandoned the doctrine of St. Thomas; they have never adhered to it, having never really understood it. The observation is painful and worrisome. How could such a manner of teaching form anything but skeptics? Indeed, they propose no viable alternative to the doctrine of St. Thomas. Where is the new theology taking us? Where but down the path of skepticism, fantasy and heresy?” After it appeared in the magazine Angelicum, this article was received with sarcasm and insults which reveal that the author had hit the bull’s eye. He wrote other articles in his defense, like “The Immutability of the Defined Truths and the Supernatural” and “Is Monogenism in No Way Revealed, Not Even Implicitly?” As one can see, they were going to form the basis for the encyclical of Pius XII, Humani Generis, which was a syllabus of neo-Modernist errors. He was esteemed by Pius XII who wrote on the occasion of Fr. Garrigou’s 80th birthday: “A stronger reason prompts us to offer our congratulations and consolations to those 40 The Angelus November - December 2016 who, by their talents and science, illustrate the Catholic name and enjoy a well deserved favor with us… We are well aware of the eminent piety with which you fulfill your religious duties, what renown you have acquired at the service of Thomistic philosophy and sacred theology, this theology which you have taught for fifty years, forty eight of which you have professed in this Roman asylum of the sacred doctrine which has for name the Angelicum. And We have often been witness of the talent and zeal with which you have, by word and pen, defended and safeguarded the integrity of the Christian dogma.” Fr. Dominique Bourmaud has spent the past 26 years teaching at the Society seminaries in America, Argentina, and Australia. He is presently stationed at St. Vincent’s Priory, Kansas City, where he is in charge of the priests’ training program. The Blessed Virgin Mary appeared three separate times in the year 1830. The first of these apparitions occurred 18 July, the second 27 November, and the third a short time later. At the second and third of these visions a command was given to have a medal struck after the model revealed, and a promise of great graces was made to those who wear it when blessed. Rue du Bac, Paris Spirituality Lights of the Church by Fr. Albert, O,P. The Order of St. Dominic is celebrating this year the eighth centenary of this solemn decree of Pope Honorius III, December 22, 1216, by which it was officially approved by the Church. This approbation, as Fr. de Paredes, a MasterGeneral of the Order in the early 20th century, remarks, was something entirely new, and was to give the Order it distinguishing mark: “By a privilege until then unheard of in the history of the Church, the Vicar of Jesus Christ delegated to our blessed Father and to his Order the power, reserved solely to bishops, the successors of the Apostles, to teach sacred doctrine in an habitual, permanent manner, in such a way that this power exercised in the chairs of churches or schools gives to the Order its specific difference, its distinctive character and, as it were, the reason for its existence” (Quoted 42 The Angelus November - December 2016 in Langlais, Emile-Alphonse, O.P., Le Père Maître des novices et des frères étudiants dans l’Ordre des Frères-Prêcheurs, Rome, 1958, pp. 25-26). A History of the Order This extraordinary new power of what was called the “universal predication” had its historical reasons. On the one hand, there was a growing awareness of the existence of the direct jurisdiction of the Sovereign Pontiff over the entire Church, which allowed him to give this immediate power to preach in every diocese in the world. At the same time there was a pressing need for such a universal predication because of the alarming outspread of heresy in the south of France and in northern Italy, which the bishops seemed unable to stop. “Friar Dominic” had already been preaching against this heresy for over ten years and for this end had formed a little community of itinerant preachers in the diocese of Toulouse. Having now received this power from the pope, however, the mission of his friars would no longer be limited to this region, and on the feast of the Assumption 1217 he scatters them to the four corners of Europe, a daring manoeuvre obviously inspired by God, for it succeeded so well that three years later the first general chapter of the Order assembles hundreds of religious from all over Christendom. What exactly was this new sort of religious Order that suddenly appeared and so quickly spread? Fr. Emile-Alphonse Langlais, in an authoritative instruction manual for Dominican novice masters written just before Vatican II entitled Le Père Maître des novices et des frères étudiants dans l’Ordre des Frères-Prêcheurs, explains (pp. 32-33): “The genius of St. Dominic was to be at the same time a man of tradition and a veritable innovator. He takes the different institutions established in the Church at his time and, far from destroying them, he unites them, orders them and adapts them to the apostolic life. The innovation will be to revive the evangelical predication of the first centuries of the Church by the union of the religious life and the apostolate of souls, according to the very institution of Our Lord Himself.” Origin of Religious Life Indeed, according to Tradition, the origin of religious life, that is, the three vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience, is Our Lord Himself, who was the first to lead this life and who taught His apostles, whom He sent to preach the Gospel, to lead it as well in imitation of Himself. Through the centuries, however, these two things, religious life and apostolate, had come to be separated, to the point where many considered them incompatible: monks were to stay in their monasteries and pray, leaving preaching to the bishops and the priests whom they ordained to assist them. The originality of St. Dominic was to unite the two again and institute a religious Order whose very purpose would be to preach the Gospel in imitation of Our Lord and the Apostles and so, as is said in the special preface in his honour, “renew the apostolic form of life.” Thus one of the friars of this first generation of Dominicans explained their ideal simply saying: “I haven’t read that Our Lord Jesus Christ was a monk, neither black nor white, but a preacher in poverty” (M.H. Vicaire, O.P., Histoire de saint Dominique, In Medio Ecclesiae, p. 142). There is, then, a certain complexity involved in the Dominican life, since it combines in a delicate balance several diverse elements, which find their unity in their direction toward their end, as again Fr. Langlais explains (pp. 32-33): “The Dominican is not a simple religious, nor simply a canon regular, or a monk vowed to penitential observances, nor a man of study. He is all of that together and more than that ; he is an apostle vowed to the salvation of souls by the preaching of sacred doctrine. His apostolic end is added to the rest and is his soul, his principle of unity and life.” In spite of this diversity then, there is a profound unity in the Dominican life, as Fr. Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange writes (La Spiritualité dominicaine, pp. 80-81): “In such a life there is no dualism or opposition between liturgical piety and monastic observances on the one hand, and study and apostolate on the other. Everything is harmonised, as long as one sees clearly that the cult and the austerity of the observances are ordered, like the study, to this divine contemplation which itself is ordered to a greater charity which must overflow upon souls. This is all summed up perfectly in the motto: Contemplate and give to others what one has contemplated.” The Four Cornerstones Thence come what are called the four “means” of Dominican life, its essential elements which cannot be changed because they are all necessary to attain its end. Fr. Langlais enumerates them saying (pp. 35-37): 43 Spirituality “These are the four cornerstones upon which the Order is based and on which depend its stability, equilibrium and strength: . . . 1) the religious vows; 2) the canonical, regular life according to the Rule of St. Augustine ; 3) the monastic observances ; 4) study. These primary institutions, or four constitutive elements of the Order were ordered by Saint Dominic to its apostolic end: the salvation of souls by preaching.” This delicate balance of diverse elements is why another Dominican, Fr. Clérissac, speaks of what he calls the “complexity” of Dominican life (L’Esprit de saint Dominique, pp. 2-4). “St. Dominic is a complex personality. He is at the same time a man of study, of prayer and of action. . . . Dominican life is absorbing and exclusive; it allows neither the indiscreet interventions of affectivity nor the tumult and noise of exterior activity. But in St. Dominic’s Order, intellectual life needs to be completed, at the same time, by a profound interior life and by apostolic activity. . . . Thence the characteristics of our Order: we are coenobites, we are doctors, we are apostles.” Study, Prayer, and Action We see these three characteristics of study, prayer and action, first of all in the life of St. Dominic himself. He first spends ten years at the schools of Palencia studying intensely, forming and furnishing his intelligence for the battles he would later have to wage against error. Then he passes ten years as a canon at the cathedral in Osma where, as Blessed Jordan of Saxony, his first biographer, puts it: “Night and day he wore out the floor of the church, giving himself up unceasingly to prayer and appearing practically never outside the enclosure of the monastery.” This prayer however, far from closing him in on himself, enflames his heart with a burning zeal for the salvation of souls. Blessed Jordan writes: One of his frequent and particular petitions to God was that he give him a veritable charity which would make him effectively cultivate and procure the salvation of men : for he thought that he would only truly be a member of Christ the 44 The Angelus November - December 2016 day when he could give himself completely, with all his strength, to saving souls, just as the Lord Jesus, Saviour of all men, consecrated himself entirely to our salvation. And God heard this prayer, as Blessed Jordan witnesses: “He had in his heart a surprising and almost incredible ambition for the salvation of all men.” Thus after this time of study and prayer follows the time of action for the salvation of souls: first ten years of hard, often sterile, apostolic labor in the south of France preaching against the heretics and laying the foundations of his Order, and then, finally, five brief, brilliant years before his death when he implanted his Order all over Europe. These three characteristics of study, prayer and action, or rather their combination under the unifying influence of the ultimate end of saving souls by preaching, are found equally in the members of the Order St. Dominic founded. St. Thomas Aquinas was a man of study, certainly, but he claimed to have learned more at the foot of his crucifix than in all the books he had ever read. His intellectual efforts were always directed towards saving souls by combating error, from the false interpretations of Aristotle in his commentaries on his works as well as to the anti-Christian dogmas of Islam in his Summa Contra Gentiles. St. Catherine of Siena was certainly one of the greatest mystics in the history of the Church, but her writings often read like a theological treatise and her influence on the political and ecclesiastical history of her age was immense. St. Vincent Ferrer was one of the greatest apostles the church has ever known, converting thousands of Jews and Muslims and preaching from one town to another every day for over twenty years all over Europe. But if he spent his days working miracles and haranguing cities, curious spectators could see him passing the greater part of his nights in prayer. He also composed a treatise on logic against nominalism, which he considered a public danger because of its corrosive effect on society. Along with these and the other some twenty saints canonized by the Church, there are the myriads of Dominican friars and nuns who down through the ages have studied and taught and prayed and preached and governed with this same spirit. From the four popes and thousands of bishops who ruled in the Church to the humblest of lay brothers, from the great schools of theologians to the crowds of missionaries and martyrs, from the hundreds of convents of contemplative nuns to the legions of teaching sisters: down through the ages one can always discern this same distinctive spirit. We read that Blessed Joanna, St. Dominic’s mother, saw a star on the forehead of her son, and this same star seems to appear in the souls of all those who are called to his Order, a star that symbolizes the calm, imperturbable, celestial light which leads their souls, guiding them in the steps of their founder towards heaven. Decadence and Hope Like all the great religious Orders in the Church, the Dominican Order has not been spared the problems which have troubled the Church since the convening of the Second Vatican Council; in keeping with its eminent place, the Order was even, unfortunately, eminently responsible for a lot of this trouble. Several of its members were key figures at Vatican II, in particular Yves Congar, Marie-Dominique Chenu, and Edward Schillebeeckx. At the same time, however, other Dominicans were in the vanguard of the reaction against this new spirit, starting with Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange, whose famous article “The New Theology, Where is it going?” refuted the errors of Vatican II already in 1946. As well, his disciple, Marie-Rosaire Gagnebet, was a member on the theological commission during the Council and fought valiantly, although in vain, against the novelties it introduced. In 1968 the decadence which was already well underway in the Order was officially adopted and put into legislation by a special Chapter held in Chicago. This legislation profoundly disturbed the delicate balance of the different elements of Dominican life we have mentioned, especially with regard to the practice of the vows and monastic observances. The attempts made to reestablish the traditional rule have been thus far refused any official recognition, and there seems to be no hope for the immediate future of any change in that position. It is said, however, that St. Theresa of Avila predicted that the Order of St. Dominic would last till the end of the world. At some time the Order will come back to its senses and continue to play the role Providence assigned to it, expressed very simply in the antiphon sung to St. Dominic every night at the end of Compline which salutes him saying: “O Lumen Ecclesiae: O Light of the Church!” This is not just filial pride but is based on a passage of the Dialogues, Chapter V of St. Catherine of Siena where God the Father Himself says to her: Now look at the ship of your father Dominic, My beloved son: he ordered it most perfectly, wishing that his sons should apply themselves only to My honour and the salvation of souls, with the light of science, which light he laid as his principal foundation (…) to extirpate the errors which had arisen in his time, thus taking on him the office of My only-begotten Son, the Word. Rightly he appeared as an apostle in the world, and sowed the seed of My Word with much truth and light, dissipating darkness and giving light. He was a light which I gave the world by means of Mary, placed in the mystical body of the Holy Church as an extirpator of heresies. 45 Spirituality Never Despair of God’s Mercy by a Benedictine monk In chapter four of the Rule of St. Benedict, we find Our Holy Father comparing the sanctification of the soul to a monastic workshop. The last tool listed in this workshop is “Never to despair of God’s mercy.” It is almost as if St. Benedict is saying: “If everything else has failed, try this one.” This powerful tool is the theological virtue of hope. Hope exists on the natural level and we use it daily like a reflex. While traveling, we hope to arrive at our destination. We hope to have a decent meal when we are hungry. It is simply a desire of a future good that we are capable of attaining. Supernatural hope is similar, but quite different because its object is God Himself. Relying upon our own natural strength, we could never fulfill our desire of God. So God, on the day of our baptism, infused into our soul the capacity 46 The Angelus November - December 2016 to hope. It is the desire of eternally contemplating the beauty of God without the possibility of ever losing His friendship, the desire of becoming a citizen of the Kingdom of God. This desire makes the soul capable of great sacrifice while striving after union with God. In the Catholic soul, suffering and hope are closely related. When the soul is suffering from the consequences of its own sin, the virtue of hope is very necessary. Like a prisoner seated in darkness and covered with the shadow of death, it is bound by its own fault. Grave sin has already banished Charity and the presence of God’s grace has been replaced by a terrible void. The creature has willfully abandoned its Creator; nevertheless, it can still have hope and say with St. Benedict, “Never despair of God’s mercy!” On the day of Our Lord’s death, the Good Thief was in this exact position, nailed to a cross, dying without the grace of God in his soul. He could have despaired of his salvation and given up, but he did not. He hoped in God’s mercy. As he was agonizing on his cross, he spoke to the agonizing Christ. Although his hands and feet were bound to the wood of his cross, his heart was not bound because he hoped in the goodness of God. Against all human logic and in spite of his wicked crimes and his wretched past, he cries out with hope to the Man dying next to him: “Remember me, Lord, when Thou comest into thy kingdom.” In the midst of their common suffering he receives a reply from the incarnate God: “Today you shall be with Me in Paradise.” This is the theological virtue of supernatural hope that we are all called to practice in order to enter heaven. In our own sufferings and trials and even in the state of sin, we too are called to hope in God’s mercy without fear. There was another man dying in their company, the bad thief, who despaired. He was materially in the same condition as his fellow thief, but instead of asking forgiveness, he blasphemed Our Lord and in a certain way blamed God for this terrible punishment. Despair often blinds us of who we really are. In our “hi-tech” society, modern man has replaced God by science, seeking to find heaven on earth by means of the ever-new discoveries of a comfort-enhancing technology. He is essentially turning his soul over to sloth and lust, paving the way to the bitter embrace of despair. Having lost faith, there is no place for hope, and brute strength takes the place of God’s justice. His life undergoes a dreadful division. The despairing soul, first of all declares war on God, then upon neighbor, only to continue with a blind war of self-destruction. Without hope, charity vanishes altogether. The poor soul becomes very bitter, unjust, and rebellious toward those who love him the most, that is to say: God and his family. Since man was created for happiness, the despairing soul still seeks it, but in a distorted way. He often turns towards sensual pleasures as the sole object of his desire and becomes their slave. By rejecting goodness and love, falsehood and hatred have become his continual companions. They have destroyed his union with God and neighbor and have caused him to live a self-seeking life of frustration, never to achieve his ultimate goal of beatitude. We have before us the choice of either the good or the bad thief: hope or despair. The only solution is to return to the love of God through faith and hope. Faith will open our eyes to the light of God’s truth, and hope will give us the audacity to desire true happiness in spite of our failures and weaknesses. For the past fifteen centuries, St. Benedict has been crying out in his Rule to our discouraged world: “Never despair of God’s mercy.” 47 192 pp. – Softcover – STK# 8616 – $12.95 Meditations for Advent Keep Christ in Christmas this year by turning to this slim volume of daily Advent meditations by Bishop Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet, one of the greatest homilists in the history of the Church. Carefully selected to lift your soul to God in those hectic days that stretch from Thanksgiving to Christmas, these forty daily meditations will keep you mindful of the real meaning of Christmas while affording you an admirable distillation of the doctrines and piety of our Holy Catholic Church. Love Does Such Things 136 pp. – Softcover – STK# 6729 – $8.50 Fr. Raymond shares his reflections on the beautiful mysteries of Christmastide. God Himself calls out to us at Christmas, greeting us with the gift of His own Son, Jesus, the Saviour of men. Taking the word S-A-V-I-O-U-R, Fr. Raymond fashions a chapter for each letter, each representing an event of the Christmas season. He probes and proves God's love for each and every one of us. In meditations on various mysteries from the Annunciation to the Hidden Life, he draws lessons for daily living that are timely and touching. A book bursting with the boundless joy God wills for those who love Him, Fr. Raymond demonstrates that we cannot "put Christ back into Christmas" unless we put the Mass back in ChristMASS, for it is by the Mass that Christ actually became our Saviour. Love Does Such Things is the perfect book for Christmas and for every day of the year. 118 pp. – Softcover – STK# 8225 – $10.95 Searching for and Maintaining Peace Small treatise on peace of heart Fr. Jacques Philippe What must we do to overcome the moments of fear and distress? How can we learn to place all our confidence in God and abandon ourselves into His loving care? This is what is taught in this simple, yet profound treatise on peace of heart. Taking concrete examples from everyday life, the author invites all to respond in a Christ-like manner. Seeds of the Kingdom 272 pp. – Hardcover – STK# 8668 – $20.00 Taken from the works of Rev. Almire Pichon, the spiritual director of St. Therese of Lisieux. In Seeds of the Kingdom: Notes from Conferences, Spiritual Directions, and Meditations, one will find simple truths and profound treasures of our Catholic Faith. Referring to himself as “God’s travelling salesman,” this saintly priest was unjustly criticized for his constant emphasis on “love, joy and peace.” But it was this saintly spiritual direction from Fr. Pichon which aided St. Therese in her daily life and Carmel and helped her to eventually reach such heights in the spiritual life through the Little Way. This book will serve the reader for years and years with rich spiritual guidance and insight. A real Catholic treasure. Visit www.angeluspress.org — 1-800-966-7337 Please visit our website to see our entire selection of books and music. Progress in Sacred Art by Daniel Mitsui In 787 A.D., the Seventh Ecumenical Council of the Catholic Church was convoked at Nicæa. The task of the Council was to condemn the heresy of iconoclasm, and to reverse a heretical council that had been convoked at Hieria in 754. During the sixth session of Second Council of Nicæa, the decrees of the robber council were read; orthodox answers were then given by a deacon and an imperial chamberlain named Epiphanius. One of Epiphanius’s answers stated the indispensability of tradition in sacred art: “The composition of religious imagery is not the painter’s invention, but is approved by the law and tradition of the Catholic Church. The tradition does not belong to the painter; the art alone is his. True arrangement and disposition belong to the holy fathers, who established it.” Truly religious imagery requires more than the good faith of the artist, more than the nobility of his material and the excellence of his craftsmanship. Simply put: if it is not traditional, it is not sacred art. The Council stated this principle beautifully, but it did not leave artists detailed instructions for the arrangement and disposition of pictures. Presumably, the Council Fathers believed that the artistic tradition itself was a sufficient guide. Sacred Art and Tradition The Council of Trent also addressed the subject of religious art, but it did not leave artists detailed instructions either. Its decrees merely forbade within churches any doctrinally false, misleading, or lascivious pictures and statues; 49 Christian Culture they required episcopal approval before the display of any unusual image. The censorship undertaken by the influential Bishop John Molanus in the late 16th century went far beyond these short and unspecific instructions and subjected the whole tradition of sacred art to his critical judgment. Molanus was blind to the symbolic order in medieval art; he condemned every traditional composition that he did not understand, which amounted to nearly all of them. Even greater æsthetic and religious upheavals occurred in the following centuries, leaving a bewildering variety of religious art, its arrangement, and disposition seldom the same from one picture to another. Beholding this, it is tempting to say that all these different ways of composing religious imagery are good in their own way, and that an artist may choose whichever he likes to imitate, so long as he does so with pious intention. But to hold this view is to oppose the Fathers of the Second Council of Nicæa. To attempt to reconstruct a pure artistic tradition from the early Church, or even one from the time of the Second Council of Nicæa, would be dangerous and impossible given the incompleteness of surviving artistic evidence. During the centuries of Roman persecution, Christian art was necessarily cryptic. The vast majority of religious imagery made over the next five centuries was destroyed in the two iconoclast crises. More yet was lost to war and revolution, theft and vandalism, rust and moth, and misguided renovation. The Sacred Artist Today How, then, is an artist working in the present day to proceed, if he wishes to uphold the teaching of the Second Council of Nicæa? As a professional artist myself whose specialty is religious drawing, this is not an abstract question but a practical one that I must answer in my everyday work. I believe that my first duty is to follow an ancient and enduring composition whenever it is apparent; one example is the association of the 50 The Angelus November - December 2016 four Evangelists with the four winged creatures that appeared to the prophet Ezekiel and later to St. John. The man represents St. Matthew, the ox St. Luke, the lion St. Mark, and the eagle St. John. In art, the man and the eagle are usually given higher position, for the Evangelists they represent received their knowledge from direct witness rather than hearsay. Commonly, I am required to choose between different models of composition without knowing for certain which is more authentic. Commonly, I am required to draw things that have no exact precedent in Christian art. Then, I must appeal to the law of worship and the writings of the Church Fathers to guide my decisions. Artistic tradition has the same source as patristic tradition and liturgical tradition; while artistic tradition does not have so exalted a place, it ought to corroborate them and operate with the same principles. Prefigurement The arrangement and disposition of sacred art belong to the Holy Fathers when they say the same things as the Holy Fathers in the same manner. Symbolism pervades Patristic language, whether written or painted; this is nowhere clearer than in its juxtaposition of scenes from the New Testament with their Old Testament prefigurements. To quote the French art historian Emile Mâle: “God who sees all things under the aspect of eternity willed that the Old and New Testaments should form a complete and harmonious whole; the Old is but an adumbration of the New... In the Old Testament truth is veiled, but the death of Christ rent that mystic veil and that is why we are told in the Gospel that the veil of the Temple was rent in twain at the time of the Crucifixion... This doctrine, always held by the Church, is taught in the Gospels by the Savior Himself: As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up.” By the height of the Middle Ages, encyclopedic compilations of Patristic wisdom expounded the symbolic meaning of every scriptural passage. For my own art, I rely on two late 51 Christian Culture medieval summaries of the exegetical tradition, composed more of pictures than words: The Biblia Pauperum and the Speculum Humanæ Salvationis. These match the most important events in the life of Jesus Christ with their appropriate prefigurements. It is from these that I know to associate the Crucifixion not only with Moses and the brazen serpent, but also with the sacrifice of Isaac and the death of Eleazar Maccabee beneath a war elephant. As far as I can tell, this last prefigurement was mentioned in no work earlier than the Speculum Humanæ Salvationis. But the Speculum’s author did not contradict the ancient exegetical tradition; rather, he progressed it according to the established and most beautiful order of growth. The symbol was latent in the event from its occurrence; the manner of thought that revealed it was taught by Jesus Christ Himself. The Crucifixion scene, as traditionally arranged, is full of symbolic meaning. Jesus Christ is the new Adam, whose death on the Cross redeems humanity. Just as Eve, the bride of Adam, came forth from his side while he slept, so the Church, the bride of Christ, came forth from his side while he slept in death on the Cross. The blood and water that pour from the opening in the new Adam’s side represent the two most important sacraments: Eucharist and Baptism. The wound is almost invariably depicted on Christ’s right side, for it was from the right side that Adam’s rib was taken. To the right side of the Cross (from Christ’s perspective) appears the symbols of the new covenant: The Virgin Mary, St. Dismas the Good Thief, and the sun. The moon, whose indirect light represents the old covenant, is to the left. This is a theological lesson, not a record of the day’s astronomical positions. A similar lesson is taught in images of the Resurrection. Before the 13th century, the Resurrection rarely appeared in sacred art. The older practice was to depict the holy women visiting the tomb, for this is the story read at the Mass of Easter Sunday. The image of the Resurrection itself might be denounced as a novelty did it not illustrate an ancient exegetical tradition, one that is revealed by a curious detail. Emile Mâle explains: 52 The Angelus November - December 2016 “In contrast to the Gospel narrative which tells how, after the Resurrection, the stone was rolled away by an angel on the morning after the sabbath, Christ is almost invariably shown rising from a tomb from which the stone has already been removed. The old masters, ordinarily so scrupulous and so faithful to the letter, had a reason for thus uniting two distinct events. There is not the least doubt that they wished to recall the deep significance which was attached by the Fathers to the removal of the stone. The stone before the tomb was in fact a symbol. It is, says the Glossa Ordinaria, the table of stone on which was written the Ancient Law—it is the Ancient Law itself. As in the Old Testament the spirit was hidden beneath the letter, so Christ was hidden beneath the stone.” When sacred art is considered symbolically, in light of the Church Fathers and the law of worship, its eternal meaning appears. At least through the Middle Ages, religious artists followed the true and legitimate rule of progress articulated by St. Vincent of Lerins: Mature age ever develops in the man those parts and forms which the wisdom of the Creator had already framed beforehand in the infant. 96pp – Softcover – STK# 8559 – $5.95 Confession Deepen your love and appreciation for this beautiful sacrament with our booklet on Confession! This comprehensive book will help Catholics understand and prepare for the great sacrament of Penance. Contains: - A Catechism on the Sacrament of Penance - A General, Short Examination of Conscience - A More Comprehensive Examination Specifically for Adults for Monthly Spiritual Growth The last section is a month-by-month examination to help adults work on a specific virtue and root out a specific vice for each month of the year. It is sure to help you focus your efforts at spiritual growth! Visit www.angeluspress.org — 1-800-966-7337 Please visit our website to see our entire selection of books and music. Christian Culture See How Hopeless These Christians are. . . by Dr. John Rao I doubt that there is anyone inside the traditionalist camp who has not frequently succumbed to the temptation to long for the Apocalypse, shouting “bring it on!” when progressive secularization suggests that “the day of the Lord” is nigh. And probably all of us know at least a few members of our little band who are so forlorn over an admittedly depressing contemporary environment that they pass each day dedicated to their apocalyptic expectations. So unceasing can the understandable cries of woe emerging from traditionalist tents become that one can picture even neutral observers of our ranks turning Tertullian’s statement on its head, remarking to one another: “See how hopeless these Christians are.” Yes, it is true that we are told to “watch,” since the Lord will come like a thief in the night; 54 The Angelus November - December 2016 but that command to “watch” is valid for each of us as individuals, since our personal apocalypse may arrive at any moment…while the rest of the world continues seemingly undisturbed on its path to perdition. As we watch, we should take the injunction of the Acts of the Apostles seriously, and ask ourselves: “Ye men of Galilee, why stand you looking up to heaven (Acts 1:11)?” Not knowing the time or the hour, both for the world as well as for each of us individually, our task is to go about our particular work with faith, with charity…and, perhaps most importantly in our current situation, with hope. Hope and the Enlightenment It is always useful to keep tabs on what our successful secularist opponents have done to gain their wretched contemporary victory, and, à propos of our argument here, learn how they maintained their hope when the going was rough. An excellent example, offering valuable information regarding what we Catholics should be doing in this rather endless winter of our discontent, comes from the second half of the eighteenth century and the ranks of the supporters of the Radical Enlightenment: particularly the trio of Denis Diderot (1713-1784), Paul-Henri Thiry, the Baron d’Holbac (1723-1789), and Claude Adrien Helvétius (1715-1771). Allow me to begin by specifying what historians mean when they distinguish the Radical from the Moderate Enlightenment. While both of these movements favor the focusing of man’s attention on the natural world and the earthly wisdom and tools needed to develop it, Radical Enlightenment thinkers do so out of clearly atheist beliefs and generally foster a direct attack upon supernatural religion as the most destructive force in human history. Their “founding father” is Baruch Spinoza (16321677), whose totally naturalistic outlook was vigorously opposed, among others, by the socalled “physico-theological” school of Moderate Enlightenment thinkers such as Robert Boyle (1627-1691), Isaac Newton (1643-1727), John Locke (1632-1704), and Samuel Clarke (1675-1729). These Moderates wanted to preserve belief in a Creator God and the immortality of the soul, both of which they deemed essential for that practical work with an ordered and purposeful world, whose successful development they believed to be the sole, truly pious way of worshipping a Divinity concerned for the earthly happiness of mankind. Despite the fact that physico-theology could just as easily work with a Deist as opposed to a Trinitarian God, dismissing all dogmatic speculation as a divisive invitation to successful atheist ridicule of warring “Creationists,” its approach was looked upon with almost universal favor by the 1740’s, in religious as well as more secular minded circles alike. With Voltaire (16941778)—before his open confession of his Deism— as its chief conduit into the Catholic camp, and Pope Benedict XIV (1740-1758) opening doors to its supporters in Rome itself, western Church and State seemed unified in promoting physicotheology as the sole response to the atheism of the Radical Enlightenment, whose organs of expression were vigorously suppressed by all social authorities. By 1759 this suppression appeared to be irresistible. It was at that moment that public opinion, shocked by Helvétius’ disturbingly naturalist work, De l’Esprit (1758), pressed the normally divided organs of the French government jointly to prohibit his book, along with further work on the Encyclopedia. This was a long term project, most closely associated with Helvétius’ friend Diderot since 1747. Critics hostile to Helvétius and Diderot convinced the authorities that the Encyclopedia was being used to spread radical ideas, mixed together with unobjectionable material, and under the false banner of promoting the physico-theology that it was undermining. Deist contributors to the Encyclopedia like Jean-Jacques Rousseau (17121778) now became open enemies of the atheists, denouncing them at every turn, while many convinced radicals, fearful of the consequences of continued cooperation, retreated into private studies, urging Diderot to do the same. The dream of a total naturalist transformation of society seemed to be doomed forever. But instead of abandoning hope, the dwindling number of radical activists “retired” to their parlors merely to organize their battle plan more efficiently, both on the practical as well as the intellectual level. The spirits of the remaining band of radicals were maintained, and their network of collaborators increased, through systematic planning sessions and discussions at the home of d’Holbach and the renowned salon of Helvétius’ beautiful wife, Anne-Catherine de Ligniville (1722-1800), who continued to serve as a magnet for the true believers even after her husband’s death in 1771. On the practical level, this involved a much more deliberate cultivation and exploitation of the means of publishing and distributing prohibited works clandestinely. This had been the chief tool for spreading radical ideas since the late 1600’s, and one which now, from 1760 onwards, was developed to a degree that 55 Christian Culture eventually overwhelmed the ability of the authorities to control. And on the intellectual plane, work on the Encyclopedia continued to take place underground—with significant aid from important fellow-travellers in the government sympathetic to the cause. Moderates like Voltaire chose the “no enemies on a nevertheless horribly abhorrent Left” option rather than see “the infamous thing” win out. Others, like Edward Gibbon (1737-1794), rejoiced in every “common sense” filled destruction of the wild men. Against the Existing Order Meanwhile, the parlor “conspirators” produced a number of books that both summarized the whole of the radical position and also demonstrated just how much this required a complete overturning of the apparently irresistible existing order, united in its opposition to atheistic change. These included d’Holbach’s Le Système de la Nature and the Histoire Philosophique des Deux Indes. This latter work, attributed publically to the Abbé Guillaume Raynal (1713-1796), was actually a group project, whose various editions were more and more shaped by Diderot. More than any other work, it demonstrated how the coming revolutionary overturning of the social order had to be global in character. The advantage possessed by these hopeful men in a seemingly hopeless situation was a logical point of view, systematically presented, in both high and low brow fashion—something which they knew that their opponents from the physico-theological camp could never enjoy. Moderate Enlightenment thinkers were trapped by the fact that their basic obsession with serving God through a focus on successful development of nature alone led them, step-by-step, to religious indifferentism and what we would call a “practical atheism” which they did not want to accept but which they could not really logically or psychologically refute. This placed them in the awkward position of either defending the radicals to prevent a full-scale anti-naturalist attack dangerous to both camps, or making an appeal to crush the Diderot-d’Holbach-Helvétius wing of the secular-minded movement on the basis of an unsubstantiated “common sense” position reflecting nothing other than the personal “will” of the Moderates alone; a repression requiring the aid of the existing political authorities. 56 The Angelus November - December 2016 Denis Diderot (October 5, 1713 - July 31, 1784) was a French philosopher, art critic, and writer. He was a prominent figure during the Enlightenment and is best known for serving as co-founder, chief editor, and contributor to the Encyclopédie along with Jean le Rond d’Alembert. Alas, the bulk of the believing Catholic camp, having sided with the Moderate, physicotheological position, as the sole effective means of destroying Radicalism, was forced into the same logical and psychological dead end. Some Catholic thinkers, committed to a “God” served only by the cultivation of nature and natural happiness, embraced the Radical cause. Most, clinging to a Faith that they did not know how to defend intellectually, tended to retreat to fideism and appeals to ecclesiastical and state authority alone to stop the floodtide of clandestine texts appearing seemingly everywhere. The result was, that when the French financial disaster, building since the War of the Austrian Succession (1740-1748), finally reached a breaking point in 1788-1789, and the State’s confidence in dealing with the problem cracked, the only camp possessing a logical argument regarding what to do next was that of the radicals. They used their advantage immediately to take control of the political rhetoric in a way that left their moderate opponents, stripped of their authoritative State backing, literally speechless. The Catholic Response Thankfully, not all Catholics were speechless. There were a few apologists who were beginning to do what the nineteenth Catholic Movement would build on so brilliantly; namely, shedding their commitment to the halfway house to total naturalism of the Moderate Enlightenment, and finding their way back to the fullness of the orthodox position. This was a Catholicism rooted in Christology, in the Incarnation, and in the doctrine of the Mystical Body of Christ; one that understood that nature could not be used properly by men unless corrected and transformed by Revelation and grace; one that recognized that there could not be any “practical” opposition to the logic of naturalism purely on an appeal to unelaborated fideism and authoritative State suppression of the enemy. Those engaged in such activity before the revolutionary era were a tiny band of circles of priests and laymen whose arguments would eventually come to create a powerful network of intellectual and activist groups showing their greatest strength after the Revolutions of 1848. In the final days of the Second World War, my father served as a military policeman. He often had to deal with an incredible amount of traffic that he seemed utterly incapable of extricating from mammoth traffic jams. His instructions, when such situations arose, were not to abandon hope, but simply to leave the field of action, sit in a field, and smoke a cigarette until he felt that a better moment for effective control emerged. It is this, in effect, what the Encyclopedists did, the exception being that instead of simply lighting up a smoke, they hunkered down to study and to write and to organize privately. And it is this, I would argue, that we traditionalist Catholics, commanded by God to cultivate not some silly optimism but realistic hope, must also do. Yes, the real Apocalypse may “solve” our naturalist problem. But we cannot know the day and the hour. In the meantime, our job is to do what the Radicals did: to organize more efficiently our means of spreading our “argument,” and, much more importantly, to know what that argument really is. If we cannot “win” at this moment in time, the least we can do is to utilize our unwanted political and social impotence to understand more fully what it is that our desired victory is truly based upon—Scripture, the Church Fathers, the scholastic achievement, the whole of the Catholic mystical, devotional, liturgical, and cultural tradition—and how best to explain it to all types of men, the world over. None of this is easy. Encyclopedists like Diderot were not thrilled to know that most of the clandestine network that they cultivated was used for spreading pornography dressed up in revolutionary language. Mutatis mutandis, we suffer from an Internet spewing out destructive “catholic” experts by the hundreds. Many—perhaps most—of these endorse on the intellectual level the same dead end approach as our pre-revolutionary forbears: the need to support the Moderate Anglo-American Enlightenment and its vision of natural “freedom” and a fideist appeal to the “common sense” of the average man as the sole means of defending Catholicism from the Radicals. Theirs is a hopeless path. Our hope is in the name of the Lord alone, and the glorious union of Faith and Reason, the supernatural and the natural, that an understanding of and dedication to the meaning of His Incarnation assures us. John Rao, Ph.D., is a professor of history at St. John’s University in New York, New York. He is the author of Removing the Blindfold, in addition to articles written for The Angelus, The Remnant, and other periodicals. 57 O Radiant Dawn, splendor of eternal light, sun of justice: Come, shine on those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death. Church in the middle of the fields, Bavaria 236 pp. – Softcover – STK# 8453 – $14.95 The Biblical Basis for Purgatory by John Salza Jesus taught us about it, and for centuries the Church has faithfully defined and defended it. Protestants deny it even exists, while many Catholics fundamentally misunderstand it. It is Purgatory: that place of purifying penance where souls saved by Christ are made perfect and acceptable to spend life eternal in heaven. Author and apologist John Salza (Why Catholics Cannot Be Masons) offers the definitive scriptural explanation of this distinctively Catholic doctrine. Building on the teachings of Christ and St. Paul, he shows how the existence of a place of temporal punishment after death is not only a logical extension of what we know about the reality of sin and God's justice, but is also a supreme expression of God's love and mercy. 343 pp. – Softcover – Larger type – STK# 8128✱ – $19.95 Christ in the Home Fr. Raoul Plus A guidebook to finding a happy marriage, keeping a happy marriage, and raising happy children, it is full of practical and spiritual advice in a series of four meditations: Courtship, Marriage, the Home, and the Training of Children. 95 pp. – Softcover – STK# 8012✱ – $7.95 From the Rose Garden of Our Lady Rosary Meditations Meditations while praying the Rosary to help you stay recollected on the mysteries. Contains a beautiful line illustration of each mystery, several paragraphs from the Gospels (or a Father of the Church) pertaining to each mystery, followed by ten profound mini-meditations—one for each Hail Mary. An indispensable book for anyone who wants to pray the Rosary well. 360 pp. – Softcover – STK 9180 – $14.95 Introduction to the Devout Life St. Francis de Sales No better guide to Heaven exists than An Introduction to the Devout Life by St. Francis de Sales, Doctor of the Church. It is laid out in short chapters, yet thorough, authoritative, reliable, and kind. It is a book, moreover, for all, because all are called to the devout life. True devotion to God, the author points out, adorns every vocation. Visit www.angeluspress.org — 1-800-966-7337 Please visit our website to see our entire selection of books and music. “Thou Shalt Not Lie” by SSPX Sisters “Mom, Luke pushed me!” “Teacher, Patrick’s copying off me!” “Mom, John took my book!” How should we respond to this sort of tale bearing? Should we encourage it by approving? Or even use the information thus offered to us? Is the talebearer acting out of a sense of justice, or the desire for the good and the true to triumph? Is not this sort of behavior inspired rather by selfishness and pride? Alas, such is all too often the case. If we were to complete the talebearer’s sentence, would we not hear, “Luke pushed me by accident and I do not want to forgive him for being inconsiderate even if it wasn’t on purpose.” “Patrick is copying, and since I don’t like him, I want him to be punished.” “John took my book because I was selfish and didn’t want to lend it to him.” So in most cases, we can answer the talebearer curtly: “I don’t listen to tale bearing.” The child understands that it is not good and it puts an end to this sort of behavior. But if the tale bearing continues or becomes a habit, we absolutely must take the time to stop and help our child realize the morality of his acts. “You just said Cecilia is cheating at the game. Cheating? Really? What did she do?” With a few more questions, their mother realizes that Cecilia actually did not cheat. “Just a little bit; she blew in the die so it would land on six so she could get her little horse out…” “But that’s not cheating and you know it! So you are actually accusing Cecilia of cheating when it’s not true. Do you know what it’s called when you say things that are not true?” “A lie…” “So you have to admit you lied. Would Cecilia be winning by any chance?” 61 Christian Culture “Well, yes, Mom…” “And were you maybe a little jealous of her and you wanted to get her back?” “A little…” “Then that’s a lie that’s called calumny. Calumny is telling a lie about someone to harm them, to get them in trouble for example. And that’s a sin.” And most severely, their mother concludes: “Do not ever say things like that again.” Then she adds more gently: “Now go finish playing with Cecilia charitably and with a big smile.” Here is another story. Alice comes home very excited: “Mom, Mary doesn’t have her pink pen anymore; Anne took it, all the girls are sure it was her because she loves pink pens!” “Oh my,” thinks Mom to herself, “a theft at school now…and what if it’s true?” Prudently, she simply answers: “I don’t like tale bearing.” But she goes to see the teaching sister, who knows her students well and easily sheds light on the matter: “Mary probably lost her pen somewhere; it would not be the first time she has lost her things. As for Anne, she is a little girl in the middle of a growth spurt; she is clumsy, and so the other girls do not like her much. But she is not a thief. I’m afraid your Alice needs a lesson on respecting the reputations of others.” That evening Mom takes Alice aside: 62 The Angelus November - December 2016 “Yesterday you told me Anne stole Mary’s pen. Did you see her do it?” “No, Mom, but Anne loves pink pens.” “That’s no reason! You like pink pens, too, but that doesn’t make you steal them. You accused Anne of stealing for no reason. Do you know what that’s called?” “No, Mom.” “It’s a rash judgment, and it is very wrong. And now all the girls at school are saying that Anne is a thief. Would you like everyone to say you are a thief when it’s not true?” “I’m not a thief!” “Well neither is Anne. You acted wrongly. Tomorrow, to make up for it, you will tell your friends that you know Anne did not steal, and you will play with her at recess.” The eighth commandment forbids revealing uselessly the evil committed by another. But according to Luce Quenette there are four cases in which a child not only may, but must speak if he has witnessed another’s sin. They are four serious cases in which it is not “useless” to reveal the sin but rather it helps the authority to put a speedy end to the serious scandal caused: blasphemy, cruelty, sabotage and impurity. Alan comes home from boarding school. “Mom, I’m disgusted: Louis manages to keep his cell phone at school and he uses it to go on certain websites in secret in the dormitory with his friends. I won’t say what websites, but they aren’t clean…” A few questions (the minimum) allow his mother to convince herself of the truth and the seriousness of the facts. “Alan, you were right to tell me, because it is serious and it is a scandal because it leads others to sin. Now that you have told me, you have done your duty, do not think about it any more and do not speak about it to anyone else. But in the meantime, stay far away from bad friends.” And now Alan’s mother has the unpleasant duty of going without her son to see the director of the school and revealing the matter to him and to him alone, and then leaving it up to him to take care of the problem. The tongue is a small member, but it can start a terrible fire! St. James tells us in his epistle that “if any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man.” That is the perfection we desire for our children. Celebrating the Nativity with the Redemptorists by Gabriel S. Sanchez The Crib, the Cross, and the Blessed Sacrament—these constitute the principal subjects of meditation in the Redemptorist (Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer) tradition established under the great Doctor of the Church, St. Alphonsus Liguori. While many Catholics can recall with ease St. Alphonsus’s classic works on the Stations of the Cross and Eucharistic Adoration, along with his meditations on death, few today realize the centrality of the Nativity in Liguori’s spiritual writings. This is no doubt due to the fact that his excellent collection of meditations and prayers, The Incarnation, Birth, and Infancy of Jesus Christ, has fallen into relative obscurity in recent decades. This is a great shame given the singular importance the Saint ascribed to the Nativity of Our Lord. Consider these words. “Consider that after so many centuries, after so many prayers and sighs, the Messiah, whom the holy patriarchs and prophets were not worthy to see, whom the nations sighed for, ‘the desire of the everlasting hills,’ our Savior, has come; he is already born, and has given himself entirely to us: ‘A child is born to us, and a son is given to us.’ The Son of God has made himself little, in order to make us great. He has given himself to us, in order that we may give ourselves to him. He has come to show us his love, in order that we may respond to it by giving him ours. Let us, therefore, receive him with affection. Let us love him, and have recourse to him in all our necessities.” 63 Christian Culture Today, many faithful Catholics are accustomed to keeping Our Lord’s Passion firmly in mind throughout the year, particularly on Fridays which were traditionally kept as days of abstinence. So, too, is Christ’s Resurrection never far from sight, both on Sundays throughout the liturgical year and during visits to the Blessed Sacrament. Strange, then, that Christ’s Incarnation often remains relegated to a once-a-year commemoration, one too often overshadowed by rank consumerism, boozefilled office parties, and other social obligations. Considering how poorly many Christians— including Catholics—keep the season of Advent and the celebration of Christmas, it should come as a consolation, indeed a source of joy, that the Redemptorist tradition honors the Birth of Jesus not once, but twelve times a year through a devotion known as the Little Christmas. In this way the Redemptorists and those who follow their spiritual way overcome the coopting of one of the most astonishing events in human history. Keeping the Little Christmas Outside of December 25, the Redemptorists historically kept the Little Christmas on the 25th of every month. Though certain practices varied from region to region, Redemptorist priests enjoyed the privilege of saying the Mass of Christmas on this day along with directing their daily meditation toward one of the virtues of the infant Jesus. Additionally, specific decorations, such as setting out a statue of Christ in the manger, were also included as part of the Little Christmas celebration. More than just a change of pace, keeping the Little Christmas was an integral part of the Redemptorist vocation, one bound up with imitating the entire life of Christ, from birth to self-giving death. The Little Christmas devotion also provided the Congregation a monthly opportunity to thank God for the unimaginable gift of sending His Son into the world to save mankind. Despite the fact that large swathes of the Redemptorist Order gave up their time-honored spiritual practices in the wake of the Second Vatican Council, it is still possible for individual 64 The Angelus November - December 2016 Catholics and their families to keep the Little Christmas devotion alive. For instance, in the nine days preceding the 25th of each month, a small novena might be made honoring Our Lord’s Infancy or particular care might be given to at least recite each day the Joyful Mystery of the Nativity when praying the Rosary. On the 25th, perhaps, as part of family prayers, a reverent Christmas carol might be sung or prayers and hymns from the Christmas liturgical cycle be integrated into the daily prayers. And, if possible, Catholics looking to keep this devotion alive should make a point to visit the Blessed Sacrament on these days and meditate on some aspect of Christ’s early life on earth. Regardless of what form the Little Christmas devotion takes, it should be taken in both a spirit of thanksgiving for the Coming of the Lord and reparation for the innumerable instances where Catholics fail to give due honor to Jesus on Christmas Day proper. In maintaining this pious practice in their lives, Catholics, in continuity with the Redemptorists of old and other devotees to Liguorian spirituality, will be able to draw closer to our Lord and deepen their understanding of his earthly ministry. It is one thing to reflect on Our Lord’s Passion and the anguish of the Blessed Virgin Marty at seeing her Christ crucified on their own; it is something altogether more impacting to do so with an eye always toward that tender and unspeakable moment when dear Mary reclined in the cave holding in her arms a little child, God Incarnate, the creator and king of the universe. Sailing to Byzantium Beyond keeping the Little Christmas, those wishing to honor Our Lord’s Nativity with the Redemptorist tradition should use that devotion as a firm foundation for Advent. One way of doing this is to join the Congregation’s Western traditions with their Eastern ones as well. For over a century, the Redemptorists have played an important role in the life of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, which draws its liturgy, spirituality, and theology from the Byzantine or Greek tradition. Unlike Latin Catholics, Greek Catholics historically kept the Advent season as a period of fasting beginning on November 15, the day after the feast of St. Phillip. This is why, prior to adopting the Latin term Advent, Christians following the Byzantine Rite refer to this period of the liturgical year as St. Phillip’s Fast. Although some may find the practice of fasting for 40 days prior to Christmas to be too arduous, especially in light of the social events many are expected to tend to starting with Thanksgiving, Catholics can still take Advent as a time to offer up particular pleasures as a way of staying outof-step with a holy day season dominated by material interests. While certain conventions may dictate the necessity of attending various holiday parties even before Christmas Day, Catholics can make a pledge to refrain from alcohol before December 25 or, at the very least, designate a particular day each week to fast. The point of such practices is not to make the Advent season miserable but to properly prepare for the Nativity. For example, in the days leading up to Christmas, the Byzantine Rite appoints special odes and troparia (short liturgical hymns) anticipating the Nativity to be chanted at Compline. On Christmas Eve, the small hours (Prime, Terce, Sext, and None) are replaced with what are known as Royal Hours, a service of seasonally appropriate Psalms and Scriptural readings. Later in the morning, an anticipatory Vesperal Liturgy is celebrated with extensive prophetic readings drawn from the Old Testament that point toward the Incarnation. Finally, a special All-Night Vigil, comprised of a lengthier night service called Great Compline along with the Matins of Christmas, is held to usher in the Birth of Jesus. A similar structure of services is only found two other times in the Byzantine liturgical year, during the lead-up to Theophany (Epiphany) and Pascha (Easter). It shouldn’t be difficult to see why the Redemptorist Order, with its traditional focus on the Crib, should have meshed so well with the Byzantine Rite despite the Congregation’s Latin origins. Instead of building a pointless wall between East and West, the Redemptorists came to embrace a larger vision of the Church and her spiritual treasures. This is why it is wholly appropriate for those desiring to keep the Advent and Christmas cycles with the Redemptorists to make an extra effort to ramp-up their prayer lives during these times and forego worldly 65 Christian Culture distractions in order to spend more time with the Infant King. Sweet Jesus, I would die for love of Thee, For Thou didst not disdain to die for me. Returning to Redemptorist Roots I leave Thee, faithless world,—farewell! depart! This lovely Babe has loved and won my heart. I love Thee, loving God, Who from above Didst come on earth, a Babe, to gain my love. The point of turning toward the Redemptorist tradition in order to give greater honor to the Nativity of Christ is not for laymen to take on the full rigors of religious life but to make their devotion to Our Lord more three-dimensional. As any close study reveals, the Congregation’s great fathers and saints lived highly austere lives with near-singular dedication to imitating Jesus. Moreover, Redemptorists wedded their strict religious practices with a powerful missionary spirit. Promoting devotion to the Crib was not merely a tool of personal sanctity; it was one of the means by which the Congregation brought lost souls back onto the long and narrow pathway to Heaven. By instilling a true love for Jesus’ earthly life, including His infancy, in the hearts and minds of the faithful, the Redemptorists brought them closer to enjoying eternal life with the Risen Christ in the Kingdom of Heaven. In a world lost to liberalism, relativism, indifferentism, and godless capitalism, Catholics must endeavor to maintain the great spiritual traditions of the Church. The Redemptorist tradition, with its beautiful dedication to the whole life of Christ, furnishes the faithful of today with numerous opportunities to draw closer to Him. Whether one chooses to keep the Little Christmas, amplify their Advent devotions, or both, calling to mind Christ’s Birth should deepen their love for Jesus which, in turn, will strengthen their resolve to amend their lives, do penance, and avoid the occasions of sin. In closing, it is fitting to quote a hymn composed by St. Alphonsus entitled “To the Infant Jesus in the Crib.” May it serve as a gateway to the larger tradition of Redemptorist spirituality and a starting point for giving greater honor and praise to the Incarnation of our Lord, God, and Savior Jesus Christ. “Oh, how I love Thee, Lord of Heaven above! Too well hast Thou deserved to gain my love; 66 The Angelus November - December 2016 Thou tremblest, darling Child, and yet I see Thy heart is all on fire with love for me: Love makes Thee thus a Child, my Savior dear; Love only brought Thee down to suffer here; Love conquered Thee, Great God, love tied Thy hands, A captive here for me, in swathing-bands; And love, strong love, awaits Thy latest breath, To make Thee die for me a cruel death.” by Fr. Dominique Bourmaud, SSPX What are the places in the hereafter? Are we talking about states of the souls or of real places? St. Augustine says: “We can answer without hesitation that the soul is not conveyed to corporeal places, except with a body.” Besides Heaven and Hell, there is Purgatory and Limbo. These are real places since, after the resurrection of human bodies, only local places can host bodies. We have often heard of the three first places. What is the meaning of limbo? The term limbo, which signifies the edge or border (of Hell), was coined in the Middle Ages to designate the place of children who died without baptism. Did not the International Commission of Theologians (ITC), in 2007, issue a statement about Limbo which says that it is only a 67 Christian Culture hypothesis and not a Church teaching? This is what this Commission says. The truth, however, is that Pope Innocent I, in the year 417, already taught that “[i]t is the height of folly to affirm that children can obtain the reward of eternal life even without the grace of baptism.” St. Augustine at the same time adds: “If you wish to be Catholic, do not believe, do not say, and do not teach that children who die without baptism can obtain the remission of original sin.” In the 16th Century, the Council of Trent taught that it is not possible to pass from the state of sin to the state of grace without baptism or the desire for it (Denzinger 791), and that “by reason of this rule of faith . . . even infants . . . are truly baptized for the remission of sins.” Does this prove the existence of Limbo? Yes, Indeed! Two Greek Fathers, St. Gregory of Nazianzen and St. Gregory of Nyssa, were the first to deduce from a truth of faith (the necessity of baptism) and from a truth of reason (the justice of God) that children who die without baptism have a destiny very different from that of the damned in hell. So, this middle place or Limbo is the place assigned to them. How do the theologians understand the pains of these children? The children who die unbaptized know the cause of their privation but suffer no anguish because of it. Indeed, one must not be afflicted 68 The Angelus November - December 2016 for lacking something that surpasses one’s own condition. The infants who died without having been baptized were not capable of the supernatural order or eternal life, being deprived of the habitual grace (grace comes from gratuitous) which is the beginning of heaven. Grace surpasses nature; it is not owed to man. Thus these children do not experience grief or anguish because of this privation; they even possess a natural well-being that results from their participation in God’s goodness and the perfections of nature. Does not the Church grant a funeral Mass for unbaptized infants? This is a liturgical innovation that began in the 1960s. This change does not constitute a true, homogeneous “liturgical development,” but rather a liturgical corruption because it is in contradiction of the millennium-old doctrine and tradition of the Church. If the Church never allowed a Mass for infants who die without baptism until 1969, it was because the Church professed that these souls do not benefit from the fruits of the sacrifice of the Mass insofar as they lack the capacity for the supernatural order. Was that ritual change of 1970 the prelude to doctrinal changes in the teaching about Limbo? In reality, by changing the lex orandi— law of prayer—for unbaptized infants, they sought to change the lex credendi—law of the faith—by effacing the existence of limbo. In 1984, Joseph Ratzinger, while Cardinal Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, affirmed explicitly that limbo was only a “theological opinion.” And in 2007, the Church’s hierarchy has virtually done away with Limbo. What are the underlying implications behind virtually shutting up Limbo? The “new theology,” following Henri de Lubac, opines that the supernatural order is something due to human nature and thus is not gratuitous. On these lines, Gaudium et Spes of Vatican II pretended that, “By his Incarnation, the Son of God has united himself in some way with every human being.” This ambiguous sentence would serve as a wedge to introduce novelty into the Church’s teaching on Limbo. This is what the ITC said in 2007: “A major weakness of the traditional view of Limbo is that it is unclear whether the souls there have any relationship to Christ.” The problem is that the denial of Limbo will always be a leveling down of God or the self-divinization of man. We are finally getting close to the ancient and obscure heresy of the apocatastasis, the final and universal salvation of all things under Christ, including Satan. Now, we are moving closer and closer to the strange “cosmic Christ” of Teilhard de Chardin. Why is it important to hold on to the teaching of Limbo? With the Faith all things hang together. Limbo is connected with the universality of original sin, the need of the Redeemer, and the gratuity of grace and Heaven. Besides, Limbo will always be a reminder of the supreme grandeur and the gratuity of supernatural life. No human being as such can claim to have a “right” to heaven. God is God and He is perfectly free to deal with creatures at will and, because He loves, He is discriminatory in his choice of Peter as Pope over the other Apostles, in his predilection for John, and his rejection of Judas. 344 pp–Hardcover–STK# 8343✱–$25.55 The Best of Questions and Answers The best questions and the best answers of 30 years of The Angelus. This will be a family’s heirloom reference book for everyday Catholic living to match the Catholic Faith we believe and the Latin Mass we attend. Over 300 answers classified under 30 subtitles. –– Marriage, Parenting, Family Life and Rearing Children –– Science and Medical Matters –– Bible and Biblical Matters –– Trinity, Jesus Christ, Virgin Mary, Angels, and Saints –– Life After Death –– Mass and the Liturgy –– Church Practices and Customs –– SSPX and the Crisis –– The Papacy and the Church Teachings Therefore the Word of God, Himself God, the Son of God who in the beginning was with God, through whom all things were made and without whom was nothing made (John 1:1-3), with the purpose of delivering man from eternal death, became man: so bending Himself to take on Him our humility without decrease in His own majesty, that remaining what He was and assuming what He was not, He might unite the true form of a slave to that form in which He is equal to God the Father, and join both natures together by such a compact that the lower should not be swallowed up in its exaltation nor the higher impaired by its new associate. Without detriment therefore to the properties of either substance which then came together in one person, majesty took on humility, strength weakness, eternity mortality: and for the paying off of the debt, belonging to our condition, inviolable nature was united with possible nature, and true God and true man were combined to form one Lord, so that, as suited the needs of our case, one and the same Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus, could both die with the one and rise again with the other. Pope Leo I, Sermon nr. 21 for the Nativity News from Tradition New Vatican Communications Director is an American Pope Francis has appointed an American, Mr. Greg Burke, as the new Vatican spokesman, replacing Jesuit Fr. Frederico Lombardi, who has retired at the age of 73 after 10 years in the position. Mr. Burke was brought to the Vatican Press Office four years ago as a consultant to help resolve the “Vatileaks” scandal which was then coming to a head. Burke is a member of Opus Dei and is only the second layman to hold the position. The other layman was Dr. Joaquín Navarro-Valls, a Spaniard who was also a member of Opus Dei. Before coming to the Vatican, Mr. Burke worked for Fox News and the National Catholic Reporter. Mr. Burke received his degree from Columbia University in New York, majoring in Journalism. At the time of the announcement of Burke’s appointment, it was also revealed that his assistant would be Ms. Paoloma Garcia Ovejero, a Spanish radio reporter who served as the Vatican correspondent for her radio station. She is the first woman to hold any senior position in the Vatican Press Office. Earthquake near Norcia, Italy—the Birthplace of St. Benedict The August earthquake, which had its epicenter in the small town of Amatrice, Italy and killed some 300 of the town’s inhabitants, also caused serious damage to the town of Norcia, the birthplace of St. Benedict, as well as to the Benedictine Monastery located there. The monastery, whose prior is Fr. Cassian Folsom, an American, opened the doors in Norcia on December 2, 2000 after receiving approval from the Benedictine Order and the Holy See the previous year. In 2009, the monastery was especially assigned the apostolate of offering the Traditional Mass along with the Novus Ordo. In order to support themselves, the monks began brewing and selling Birra Norcia (Beer of Norcia) and have recently begun selling their brew in the United States. 72 The Angelus November - December 2016 Word coming from the monks immediately following the earthquake was that all of them were safe and sound, but that the monastery and the adjoining church suffered structural damage that will take some time and significant expense to repair. More information about the monastery can be found at the monks website: en.nursia. com Pope Francis Continues the Reorganization of the Roman Curia On 31 August Pope Francis issued a very short Motu Proprio in which he reorganized and abolished a number of Dicasteries and Councils of the Roman Curia, creating the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development. The Holy Father wrote: In all her being and actions, the Church is called to promote the integral development of the human person in the light of the Gospel. This development takes place by attending to the inestimable goods of justice, peace, and the care of creation. The Successor of the Apostle Peter, in his work of affirming these values, is continuously adapting the institutions which collaborate with him, so that they may better meet the needs of the men and women whom they are called to serve. So that the Holy See may be solicitous in these areas, as well as in those regarding health and charitable works, I institute the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development. This Dicastery will be competent particularly in issues regarding migrants, those in need, the sick, the excluded and marginalized, the imprisoned and the unemployed, as well as victims of armed conflict, natural disasters, and all forms of slavery and torture. In the new Dicastery, governed by the Statutes that today I approve ad experimentum, the competences of the following Pontifical Councils will be merged, as of 1 January 2017: the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, the Pontifical Council Cor Unum, the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People, and the Pontifical Council for Health Care Workers. On that date these four Dicasteries will cease exercising their functions and will be suppressed, and articles 142-153 of the Apostolic Constitution Pastor Bonus will be abrogated. I decree that what has been set out in this Apostolic Letter issued Motu Proprio have the force of law, notwithstanding anything to the contrary, even if worthy of special mention, and that it be promulgated by publication in L’Osservatore Romano, therefore published in the Acta Apostolicae Sedis, entering into force on 1 January 2017. Given in Rome, at Saint Peter’s, on 17 August 2016, the Jubilee Year of Mercy, the Fourth Year of my Pontificate. It is worth noting that nowhere in the entire text is there any mention of Almighty God. The closest Pope Francis came to even acknowledging the divine nature of the work of the Church is by mentioning the “light of the Gospel.” 73 News from Tradition Burial Crypt in New York’s Old St. Patrick Cathedral Available The Archdiocese of New York announced in August that it would once again open the burial crypt beneath Old St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Lower Manhattan for new internments. Space in the crypt is extremely limited, with only one full vault prepared for six internments available and is priced at the rather weighty sum of seven million dollars. For this price, a family can be buried close to some of the illustrious Catholic families from the early 19th Century, such as the Delmonicos (the proprietors of the famous New York restaurant bearing their name), as well as the first Bishop of New York, Richard Luke Concanen. Bishop Concanen never arrived in New York after his consecration as bishop due to the Napoleonic Wars, which prevented him from leaving Italy. His body was later taken to New York and placed in the crypt. Another former occupant of a vault in the old cathedral was Venerable Pierre Toussaint, a former Haitian slave who, after purchasing his freedom, cared for the widow of his former owner when the woman was left destitute following her husband’s death. Pierre Toussaint attended Holy Mass daily in the old cathedral until his death in 1853. He was also known for his charity. When a yellow fever epidemic broke out in New York, he spent much time caring for the victims. When his cause for canonization was opened in 1991 by John Cardinal O’Connor, the Archbishop of New York, and Toussaint’s remains were moved to the crypt of St. Patrick’s Cathedral on 5th Avenue and 50th Street. Further information about the history of Old St. Patrick’s Cathedral as well as the early history of the Church in New York can be found here: www. oldcathedral.org. The Father Abbot and the Cardinal Two books came out this fall: one by Cardinal Robert Sarah, prefect of the Congregation for the Divine Cult and the Discipline of the Sacraments; the other by the Benedictine Martin Werlen, former father abbot of Einsiedeln (Switzerland). The former is entitled The Strength of Silence, and its author claims that “it is high time to enter into this liturgical silence.” “How can man truly be in the image of God?” asked the Guinean prelate, before answering: “He must enter into silence,” for “the garrulous man cannot help being far from God, incapable of any profound spiritual activity.” The other book, written in German, is entitled Wo kämen wir hin? (Where would we go?). Fr. Werlen, 74 The Angelus November - December 2016 known for his intemperate progressivism, fights for a greater integration of women in the Church, and thinks it would be “grandiose” for the Benedictines to elect a woman as primate of the Order. The monk presented his book to journalists in a pizzeria… as he believed it was the ideal place to make unexpected encounters. Two books, two visions. The troubled gaze of the European Benedictine and the clear eye of the African prelate. The fearful will say there is need to clarify, that things are not so simple: black or white. Allow us to rejoice at seeing the sense of the sacred and the importance of silence recalled clearly. Black on white. www.dici.org The Apostolic Exhortation Amoris Laetitia: A Theological Critique by 45 Theologians On June 29, 2016, 45 theologians from all over the world addressed to the Dean of the College of Cardinals, Cardinal Angelo Sodano, a critical analysis of the post-synodal exhortation Amoris Laetitia, in which they condemn 19 statements in this Papal document. Their critique has appeared on a number of English-language websites. Here is the English version of the letter to Cardinal Sodano, the names of the 45 signatories, and the full text of the critical analysis. The apostolic exhortation Amoris Laetitia, issued by Pope Francis on March 19, 2016, and addressed to bishops, priests, deacons, consecrated persons, Christian married couples, and all the lay faithful, has caused grief and confusion to many Catholics on account of its apparent disagreement with a number of teachings of the Catholic Church on faith and morals. This situation poses a grave danger to souls. Since, as St. Thomas Aquinas teaches, inferiors are bound to correct their superiors publicly when there is an imminent danger to the faith (Summa Theologiae, IIa IIae, Q. 33, art. 4 ad 2; a. 7 co.), and the Catholic faithful have the right and at times the duty, in keeping with their knowledge, competence, and position, to make known their views on matters which concern the good of the Church (Latin Code of Canon Law, Can. 212, §3), Catholic theologians have a strict duty to speak out against the apparent errors in the document. This statement on Amoris Laetitia is intended to fulfil that duty, and to assist the hierarchy of the Church in addressing this situation. The authority of Amoris Laetitia The official character of Amoris Laetitia enables 75 Theological Studies it to pose a grave danger to the faith and morals of Catholics. Although an apostolic exhortation pertains normally or principally to the purely pastoral governing power, nevertheless, on account of the inter-connection of the powers of teaching and of government, it also pertains indirectly to the magisterial power. It can also contain directly magisterial passages, which are then clearly indicated as being such. This was the case for previous apostolic exhortations such as Evangelii nuntiandi, Familiaris consortio, and Reconciliatio et paenitentia. There is no obstacle as such to the Pope’s using an apostolic exhortation to teach infallibly on faith and morals, but no infallible teaching is contained in Amoris Laetitia, since none of its statements satisfy the strict requirements for an infallible definition. It is thus a non-infallible exercise of the papal magisterium. Some commentators have asserted that the document does not contain magisterial teaching as such, but only the personal reflections of the Pope on the subjects it addresses. This assertion if true would not remove the danger to faith and morals posed by the document. If the Supreme Pontiff expresses a personal opinion in a magisterial document, this expression of opinion implicitly presents the opinion in question as one that it is legitimate for Catholics to hold. As a result, many Catholics will come to believe that the opinion is indeed compatible with Catholic faith and morals. Some Catholics out of respect for a judgment expressed by the Supreme Pontiff will come to believe that the opinion is not only permissible but true. If the opinion in question is not in fact compatible with Catholic faith or morals, these Catholics will thus reject the faith and moral teaching of the Catholic Church as it applies to this opinion. If the opinion relates to questions of morals, the practical result for the actions of Catholics will be the same whether they come to hold that the opinion is legitimate or actually true. An opinion on moral questions that is in truth legitimate for the Supreme Pontiff to hold is one that it is legitimate for Catholics to follow. Belief in the legitimacy of a moral position will thus lead Catholics to believe that it is legitimate to act as if it is true. If there is a strong motivation to act in this way, as there is with the questions being addressed here for the faithful to whose situations these questions are pertinent, most Catholics will act accord76 The Angelus November - December 2016 ingly. This is an important factor in an evaluation of Amoris Laetitia, because that document addresses concrete moral questions. It is however not the case that Amoris Laetitia is intended to do no more than express the personal views of the Pope. The document contains statements about the personal positions of the current Holy Father, but such statements are not incompatible with these positions being presented as teachings of the Church by the document. Much of the document consists of straightforward assertoric and imperative statements that make no reference to the personal views of the Holy Father, and that thus have the form of magisterial teachings. This form will cause Catholics to believe that these statements are not simply permissible, but are teachings of the authentic magisterium which call for religious submission of mind and will; teachings to which they must yield not a respectful silence accompanied by inner disagreement, but actual inner assent.1 The dangers of Amoris Laetitia The following analysis does not deny or question the personal faith of Pope Francis. It is not justifiable or legitimate to deny the faith of any author on the basis of a single text, and this is especially true in the case of the Supreme Pontiff. There are further reasons why the text of Amoris Laetitia cannot be used as a sufficient reason for holding that the Pope has fallen into heresy. The document is extremely long, and it is probable that much of its original text was produced by an author or authors who are not Pope Francis, as is normal with papal documents. Those statements in it that on the face of them contradict the faith could be due to simple error on Pope Francis’s part, rather than to a voluntary rejection of the faith. When it comes to the document itself, however, there is no doubt that it constitutes a grave danger to Catholic faith and morals. It contains many statements whose vagueness or ambiguity permit interpretations that are contrary to faith or morals, or that suggest a claim that is contrary to faith and morals without actually stating it. It also contains statements whose natural meaning would seem to be contrary to faith or morals. The statements made by Amoris Laetitia are not expressed with scientific accuracy. This can be advantageous for the very small proportion of Catholics who have a scientific training in theology, because such Catholics will be able to discern that the assertions of Amoris Laetitia do not demand their religious submission of mind and will, or even a respectful silence in regard to them. Accurate formulation and proper legal form are needed in order to make a magisterial utterance binding in this fashion, and these are for the most part lacking in the document. It is however harmful for the vast majority of Catholics who do not have a theological training and are not well informed about Catholic teachings on the topics that the apostolic exhortation discusses. The lack of precision in the document’s statements makes it easier to interpret them as contradicting the real teachings of the Catholic Church and of divine revelation, and as justifying or requiring the abandonment of these teachings by Catholics in theory and in practice. Some cardinals, bishops, and priests, betraying their duty to Jesus Christ and to the care of souls, are already offering interpretations of this sort. The problem with Amoris Laetitia is not that it has imposed legally binding rules that are intrinsically unjust or authoritatively taught binding teachings that are false. The document does not have the authority to promulgate unjust laws or to require assent to false teachings, because the Pope does not have the power to do these things. The problem with the document is that it can mislead Catholics into believing what is false and doing what is forbidden by divine law. The document is formulated in terms that are not legally or theologically exact, but this does not matter for the evaluation of its contents, because the most precise formulation cannot give legal and doctrinal status to decrees that are contrary to divine law and divine revelation. What is important about the document is the damaging effect it can have on the belief and moral life of Catholics. The character of this effect will be determined by the meaning that most Catholics will take it to have, not by its meaning when evaluated by precise theological criteria, and it is this meaning that will be addressed here. The propositions of Amoris Laetitia that require censure must thus be condemned in the sense that the average reader is liable to attribute to their words. The average reader here is understood to be one who is not trying to twist the words of the document in any direction, but who will take the natural or the immediate impression of the meaning of the words to be correct. It is acknowledged that some of the censured propositions are contradicted elsewhere in the document, and that Amoris Laetitia contains many valuable teachings. Some of the passages of Amoris Laetitia make an important contribution to the defence and preaching of the faith. The criticism of Amoris Laetitia offered here permits these valuable elements to have their true effect, by distinguishing them from the problematic elements in the document and neutralising the threat to the faith posed by them. For the sake of theological clarity and justice, this criticism of the harmful parts of Amoris Laetitia will take the form of a theological censure of the individual passages that are deficient. These censures are to be understood in the sense traditionally held by the Church,2 and are applied to the passages prout iacent, as they lie. The propositions censured are so damaging that a complete listing of the censures that apply to them is not attempted. Most if not all of them fall under the censures of aequivoca, ambigua, obscura, praesumptuosa, anxia, dubia, captiosa, male sonans, piarum aurium offensiva, as well as the ones listed. The censures list i) the censures that bear upon the content of the statements censured, and ii) those that bear upon the damaging effects of the statements. The censures are not intended to be an exhaustive list of the errors that Amoris Laetitia on a plausible reading contains; they seek to identify the worst threats to Catholic faith and morals in the document. The propositions censured are divided into those that are heretical and those that fall under a lesser censure. Heretical propositions, censured as ‘haeretica,’ are ones that contradict propositions that are contained in divine revelation and are defined with a solemn judgment as divinely revealed truths either by the Roman Pontiff when he speaks ‘ex cathedra,’ or by the College of Bishops gathered in council, or infallibly proposed for belief by the ordinary and universal Magisterium. The propositions that fall under a lesser censure than heresy are included as posing an especially grave danger to faith and morals. The censures of these propositions are not censures of administrative, legislative, or doctrinal acts of the Supreme Pontiff, since the propositions censured do not and cannot constitute such acts. The censures are the subject of a filial request to the 77 Theological Studies Supreme Pontiff, which asks him to make a definitive and final juridical and doctrinal act condemning the propositions censured. Finally, some of the theologians who are signatories to this letter reserve the right to make minor adjustments to some of the censures attached to some of the propositions: their signatures should be taken as indicating their belief that all the propositions should be censured, and a general agreement with the censures here proposed. Theological censures of propositions drawn from the Apostolic Exhortation Amoris Laetitia Heretical propositions. A. AL 83 : ‘The Church … firmly rejects the death penalty’. If understood as meaning that the death penalty is always and everywhere unjust in itself and therefore cannot ever be rightly inflicted by the state: 1. Haeretica, sacrae Scripturae contraria. 2. Perniciosa. Gen. 9:63: “Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed; for God made man in his own image.” B. AL 156 : ‘Every form of sexual submission must be clearly rejected.’ If understood not simply as denying that a wife owes servile obedience to her husband or that the husband has authority over his wife that is the same as parental authority, but as also denying that the husband has any form of authority over his wife, or as denying that the wife has any duty to obey the legitimate commands of her husband in virtue of his authority as husband: 1. Haeretica, sacrae Scripturae contraria. 2. Prava, perniciosa. Eph. 5:24: “As the Church is subject to Christ, so also let wives be to their husbands in all things.” C. AL 159 : ‘Saint Paul recommended virginity because he expected Jesus’ imminent return and he wanted everyone to concentrate only on spreading the Gospel: “the appointed time has grown very short” (1 Cor 7:29). . . . Rather than speak absolutely of the superiority of virginity, it 78 The Angelus November - December 2016 should be enough to point out that the different states of life complement one another, and consequently that some can be more perfect in one way and others in another.’ Understood as denying that a virginal state of life consecrated to Christ is superior considered in itself to the state of Christian marriage: 1. Haeretica, sacrae Scripturae contraria. 2. Perniciosa, suspensiva gravis resolutionis. Council of Trent, Session 24, canon 10: “If anyone says that the married state surpasses that of virginity or celibacy, and that it is not better and more blessed to remain in virginity or celibacy than to be united in matrimony, let him be anathema” (DH 1810). D. AL 295 : ‘Saint John Paul II proposed the socalled “law of gradualness” in the knowledge that the human being “knows, loves and accomplishes moral good by different stages of growth.” This is not a “gradualness of law” but rather a gradualness in the prudential exercise of free acts on the part of subjects who are not in a position to understand, appreciate, or fully carry out the objective demands of the law.’ AL 301: ‘It is [sic] can no longer simply be said that all those in any “irregular” situation are living in a state of mortal sin and are deprived of sanctifying grace. More is involved here than mere ignorance of the rule. A subject may know full well the rule, yet have great difficulty in understanding “its inherent values,” or be in a concrete situation which does not allow him or her to act differently and decide otherwise without further sin.’ Understood as meaning that a justified person has not the strength with God’s grace to carry out the objective demands of the divine law, as though any of the commandments of God are impossible for the justified; or as meaning that God’s grace, when it produces justification in an individual, does not invariably and of its nature produce conversion from all serious sin, or is not sufficient for conversion from all serious sin: 1. Haeretica, sacrae Scripturae contraria. 2. Impia, blasphema. Council of Trent, session 6, canon 18: “If anyone says that the commandments of God are impossible to observe even for a man who is justified and established in grace, let him be anathema” (DH 1568). E. AL 297 : ‘No one can be condemned for ever, because that is not the logic of the Gospel!’ If understood as meaning that no human being can or will be condemned to eternal punishment in hell: 1. Haeretica, sacrae Scripturae contraria. 2. Scandalosa, perniciosa. Matt. 25: 46: “These shall go into everlasting punishment: but the just, into life everlasting” F. AL 299 : ‘I am in agreement with the many Synod Fathers who observed that “the baptized who are divorced and civilly remarried need to be more fully integrated into Christian communities in the variety of ways possible, while avoiding any occasion of scandal. The logic of integration is the key to their pastoral care, a care which would allow them not only to realize that they belong to the Church as the body of Christ, but also to know that they can have a joyful and fruitful experience in it. They are baptized; they are brothers and sisters; the Holy Spirit pours into their hearts gifts and talents for the good of all. … Such persons need to feel not as excommunicated members of the Church, but instead as living members, able to live and grow in the Church and experience her as a mother who welcomes them always, who takes care of them with affection and encourages them along the path of life and the Gospel”.’ If understood as meaning that the divorced and civilly remarried who choose their situation with full knowledge and full consent of the will are not in a state of serious sin, and that they can receive sanctifying grace and grow in charity: 1. Haeretica, sacrae Scripturae contraria. 2. Scandalosa, prava, perversa. Mk. 10:11-12: “Whosoever shall put away his wife and marry another, committeth adultery against her. And if the wife shall put away her husband, and be married to another, she committeth adultery.” G. AL 301 : ‘It is [sic] can no longer simply be said that all those in any “irregular” situation are living in a state of mortal sin and are deprived of sanctifying grace. More is involved here than mere ignorance of the rule. A subject may know full well the rule, yet have great difficulty in understanding “its inherent values,” or be in a concrete situation which does not allow him or her to act differently and decide otherwise without further sin.’ Understood as meaning that a Catholic believer can have full knowledge of a divine law and voluntarily choose to break it in a serious matter, but not be in a state of mortal sin as a result of this action: 1. Haeretica, sacrae Scripturae contraria. 2. Prava, perversa. Council of Trent, session 6, canon 20: “If anyone says that a justified man, however perfect he may be, is not bound to observe the commandments of God and of the Church but is bound only to believe, as if the Gospel were merely an absolute promise of eternal life without the condition that the commandments be observed, let him be anathema” (DH 1570). H. AL 301 : ‘It is [sic] can no longer simply be said that all those in any “irregular” situation are living in a state of mortal sin and are deprived of sanctifying grace. More is involved here than mere ignorance of the rule. A subject may know full well the rule, yet have great difficulty in understanding its inherent values, or be in a concrete situation which does not allow him or her to act differently and decide otherwise without further sin.’ Understood as saying that a person with full knowledge of a divine law can sin by choosing to obey that law: 1. Haeretica, sacrae Scripturae contraria. 2. Prava, perversa. Ps. 18:8: “The law of the Lord is unspotted, converting souls.” I. AL 303 : ‘Conscience can do more than recognize that a given situation does not correspond objectively to the overall demands of the Gospel. It can also recognize with sincerity and honesty what for now is the most generous response which can be given to God, and come to see with a certain moral security that it is what God himself is asking amid the concrete complexity of one’s limits, while yet not fully the objective ideal.’ Understood as meaning that conscience can truly judge that actions condemned by the Gospel, and in particular, sexual acts between Catholics who have civilly remarried following divorce, can sometimes be morally right or requested or commanded by God: 1. Haeretica, sacrae Scripturae contraria. 79 Theological Studies 2. Scandalosa, prava, perversa, perniciosa, impia, blasphema. Council of Trent, session 6, canon 21: “If anyone says that Jesus Christ was given by God to men as a redeemer in whom they are to trust but not also as a lawgiver whom they are bound to obey, let him be anathema” (DH 1571). Council of Trent, session 24, canon 2: “If anyone says that it is lawful for Christians to have several wives at the same time, and that this is not forbidden by any divine law, let him be anathema” (DH 1802). Council of Trent, session 24, canon 5: “If anyone says that the marriage bond can be dissolved because of heresy or difficulties in cohabitation or because of the wilful absence of one of the spouses, let him be anathema” (DH 1805) Council of Trent, session 24, canon 7: “If anyone says that the Church is in error for having taught and for still teaching that in accordance with the evangelical and apostolic doctrine, the marriage bond cannot be dissolved because of adultery on the part of one of the spouses and that neither of the two, not even the innocent one who has given no cause for infidelity, can contract another marriage during the lifetime of the other, and that the husband who dismisses an adulterous wife and marries again and the wife who dismisses and adulterous husband and married again are both guilty of adultery, let him be anathema” (DH 1807). J. AL 304 : ‘I earnestly ask that we always recall a teaching of Saint Thomas Aquinas and learn to incorporate it in our pastoral discernment: “Although there is necessity in the general principles, the more we descend to matters of detail, the more frequently we encounter defects… In matters of action, truth or practical rectitude is not the same for all, as to matters of detail, but only as to the general principles; and where there is the same rectitude in matters of detail, it is not equally known to all… The principle will be found to fail, according as we descend further into detail.” It is true that general rules set forth a good which can never be disregarded or neglected, but in their formulation they cannot provide absolutely for all particular situations.’ Understood as meaning that moral principles and moral truths contained in divine revelation and 80 The Angelus November - December 2016 in the natural law do not include negative prohibitions that absolutely forbid particular kinds of action under any and all circumstances: 1. Haeretica, sacrae Scripturae contraria. 2. Scandalosa, prava, perversa. John Paul II, Veritatis splendor 115: “Each of us knows how important is the teaching which represents the central theme of this Encyclical and which is today being restated with the authority of the Successor of Peter. Each of us can see the seriousness of what is involved, not only for individuals but also for the whole of society, with the reaffirmation of the universality and immutability of the moral commandments, particularly those which prohibit always and without exception intrinsically evil acts” (DH 4971). K. AL 308 : ‘I understand those who prefer a more rigorous pastoral care which leaves no room for confusion. But I sincerely believe that Jesus wants a Church attentive to the goodness which the Holy Spirit sows in the midst of human weakness, a Mother who, while clearly expressing her objective teaching, “always does what good she can, even if in the process, her shoes get soiled by the mud of the street”.’ If understood as meaning that Our Lord Jesus Christ wills that the Church abandon her perennial discipline of refusing the Eucharist to the divorced and remarried and of refusing absolution to the divorced and remarried who do not express contrition for their state of life and a firm purpose of amendment with regard to it: 1. Haeretica, sacrae Scripturae contraria. 2. Scandalosa, prava, perversa, impia, blasphema. I Cor. 11:27: “Whosoever shall eat this bread, or drink the chalice of the Lord unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and of the blood of the Lord.” Familiaris consortio, 84: “Reconciliation in the sacrament of Penance, which would open the way to the Eucharist, can only be granted to those who, repenting of having broken the sign of the Covenant and of fidelity to Christ, are sincerely ready to undertake a way of life that is no longer in contradiction to the indissolubility of marriage. This means, in practice, that when, for serious reasons, such as for example the children’s upbringing, a man and a woman cannot satisfy the obligation to separate, they ‘take on themselves the duty to live in complete continence, that is, by abstinence from the acts proper to married couples’.” 2nd Lateran Council, canon 20: “Because there is one thing that conspicuously causes great disturbance to holy Church, namely false penance, we warn our brothers in the episcopate, and priests, not to allow the souls of the laity to be deceived or dragged off to hell by false penances. It is certain that a penance is false when many sins are disregarded and a penance is performed for one only, or when it is done for one sin in such a way that the penitent does not renounce another” (DH 717). Propositions falling under lesser censures A. AL 295 : ‘Saint John Paul II proposed the socalled “law of gradualness” in the knowledge that the human being “knows, loves and accomplishes moral good by different stages of growth.” This is not a “gradualness of law” but rather a gradualness in the prudential exercise of free acts on the part of subjects who are not in a position to understand, appreciate, or fully carry out the objective demands of the law.’ If understood as meaning that free acts that do not fully carry out the objective demands of divine law can be morally good: 1. Erronea in fide. 2. Scandalosa, prava. I Jn. 3: 4: “Whosoever committeth sin, committeth also iniquity; and sin is iniquity.” B. AL 296 : “There are two ways of thinking which recur throughout the Church’s history: casting off and reinstating. The Church’s way, from the time of the Council of Jerusalem, has always been the way of Jesus, the way of mercy and reinstatement. The way of the Church is not to condemn anyone for ever.” AL 297: ‘No one can be condemned for ever, because that is not the logic of the Gospel!’ Understood as meaning that in circumstances where an offender does not cease to commit an offence the Church does not have the power or the right to inflict punishments or condemnations without later remitting them or lifting them, or that the Church does not have the power or the right to condemn and anathematise individuals after their death: 1. Erronea in fide. 2. Scandalosa, perniciosa, derogans praxi sive usui et disciplinae Ecclesiae. 1983 Code of Canon Law, can. 1358: “The remission of a censure cannot be granted except to an offender whose contempt has been purged.” 3rd Council of Constantinople, Condemnation of the Monothelites and of Pope Honorius I: “As to these self-same men whose impious teachings we have rejected, we have also judged it necessary to banish their names from the holy Church of God, that is, the name of Sergius, who began to write about this impious doctrine, of Cyrus of Alexandria, of Pyrrhus, of Paul and of Peter and of those who have presided on the throne of this God-protected city, and the same for those who have been like-minded. Then also (the name) of Theodore who was bishop of Pharan. All these aforenamed persons were mentioned by Agatho, the most holy and thrice-blessed pope of elder Rome, in his letter to the . . . emperor, and rejected by him as having thought in a way contrary to our orthodox faith; and we determine that they are also subject to anathema. Along with these we have seen fit to banish from the holy Church of God and to anathematize also Honorius, the former pope of the elder Rome” (DH 550). C. AL 298 : ‘The divorced who have entered a new union, for example, can find themselves in a variety of situations, which should not be pigeonholed or fit into overly rigid classifications leaving no room for a suitable personal and pastoral discernment. One thing is a second union consolidated over time, with new children, proven fidelity, generous self-giving, Christian commitment, a consciousness of its irregularity and of the great difficulty of going back without feeling in conscience that one would fall into new sins.’ If understood as meaning that persons who are civilly married to someone other than their true spouse can show Christian virtue by being sexually faithful to their civil partner: 1. Erronea in fide. 2. Scandalosa. I Cor. 7:10-11: “To them that are married, not I but the Lord commandeth, that the wife depart not from her husband; and if she depart, that she remain 81 Theological Studies unmarried, or be reconciled to her husband. And let not the husband put away his wife.” D. AL 298 : ‘The Church acknowledges situations “where, for serious reasons, such as the children’s upbringing, a man and woman cannot satisfy the obligation to separate”. [footnote 329] In such situations, many people, knowing and accepting the possibility of living “as brothers and sisters” which the Church offers them, point out that if certain expressions of intimacy are lacking, “it often happens that faithfulness is endangered and the good of the children suffers”.’ {N.B. The last clause in double quotation marks misleadingly applies to divorced and civilly married couples a statement of Vatican Council II, Gaudium et Spes, 51, that refers only to validly married couples.} Understood as endorsing claims that divorced and civilly remarried couples have an obligation of sexual faithfulness to each other rather than to their true spouses, or that their living ‘as brother and sister’ could be either a culpable occasion of sin against that supposed obligation, or a culpable cause of harm to their children: 1. Erronea in fide. 2. Scandalosa, prava, perversa. Ecclesiasticus 15:21: “He hath commanded no man to do wickedly, and he hath given no man licence to sin.” E. AL 300 : ‘Since “the degree of responsibility is not equal in all cases,” the consequences or effects of a rule need not necessarily always be the same. [footnote 336] This is also the case with regard to sacramental discipline, since discernment can recognize that in a particular situation no grave fault exists.’ AL 305: ‘Because of forms of conditioning and mitigating factors, it is possible that in an objective situation of sin—which may not be subjectively culpable, or fully such—a person can be living in God’s grace, can love and can also grow in the life of grace and charity, while receiving the Church’s help to this end. [footnote 351] In certain cases, this can include the help of the sacraments. Hence, “I want to remind priests that the confessional must not be a torture chamber, but rather an encounter with the Lord’s mercy.” I would also point out that the Eucharist “is not a prize for the perfect, but a power82 The Angelus November - December 2016 ful medicine and nourishment for the weak”’.’ Understood as saying that absence of grave fault due to diminished responsibility can permit admission to the Eucharist in the cases of divorced and civilly remarried persons who do not separate, nor undertake to live in perfect continence, but remain in an objective state of adultery and bigamy: 1. Erronea in fide, falsa. 2. Scandalosa. John Paul II, Familiaris consortio 84: “The Church reaffirms her practice, which is based upon Sacred Scripture, of not admitting to Eucharistic Communion divorced persons who have remarried. They are unable to be admitted thereto from the fact that their state and condition of life objectively contradict that union of love between Christ and the Church which is signified and effected by the Eucharist. Besides this, there is another special pastoral reason: if these people were admitted to the Eucharist, the faithful would be led into error and confusion regarding the Church’s teaching about the indissolubility of marriage. Reconciliation in the sacrament of Penance, which would open the way to the Eucharist, can only be granted to those who, repenting of having broken the sign of the Covenant and of fidelity to Christ, are sincerely ready to undertake a way of life that is no longer in contradiction to the indissolubility of marriage. This means, in practice, that when, for serious reasons, such as for example the children’s upbringing, a man and a woman cannot satisfy the obligation to separate, they ‘take on themselves the duty to live in complete continence, that is, by abstinence from the acts proper to married couples’.” 1 Jn. 2:20: “You have the unction from the Holy One, and know all things”. F. AL 298 : ‘The divorced who have entered a new union, for example, can find themselves in a variety of situations, which should not be pigeonholed or fit into overly rigid classifications leaving no room for a suitable personal and pastoral discernment. One thing is a second union consolidated over time, with new children, proven fidelity, generous self-giving, Christian commitment, a consciousness of its irregularity and of the great difficulty of going back without feeling in conscience that one would fall into new sins.’ If understood as meaning that the divorced and remarried can either sin or culpably expose themselves to the occasion of sin by abstaining from sexual relations in accordance with the perennial teaching and discipline of the Church: 1. Temeraria, falsa. 2. Scandalosa, prava, derogans praxi et disciplinae Ecclesiae. Ecclesiasticus 15:16: “If thou wilt keep the commandments and perform acceptable fidelity for ever, they shall preserve thee.” G. AL 298 : ‘There are also the cases of those who made every effort to save their first marriage and were unjustly abandoned, or of “those who have entered into a second union for the sake of the children’s upbringing, and are sometimes subjectively certain in conscience that their previous and irreparably broken marriage had never been valid”.’ If understood as meaning that subjective certainty in conscience about the invalidity of a previous marriage is sufficient on its own to excuse from guilt or legal penalty those who contract a new marriage when their previous marriage is recognised as valid by the Church: 1. Temeraria, falsa. 2. Scandalosa. Council of Trent, Session 24, canon 12: “If anyone says that matrimonial cases do not belong to ecclesiastical judges, let him be anathema” (DH 1812). that Amoris Laetitia does not require any of them to be believed or considered as possibly true. (Source: onepeterfive—DICI du 09/08/16) Read also: Letter of 45 theologians to the Dean of the College of Cardinals 1 Cf. Lucien Choupin, Valeur des décisions doctrinales et disciplinaires du Saint-Siège, 2nd ed. (Paris: Beauchesne, 1913), pp. 52-55; and A.-M. Aubry, Obéir ou assentir ? De la “soumission religieuse” au magistère simplement authentique, Paris, DDB, collection “Sed Contra,” 2015. 2 See H. Quilliet, Censures doctrinales, DTC II, 2101-2113, and the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, “Doctrinal commentary on the concluding formula of the Professio fidei,” June 29, 1998. 3 All references are taken from the Vulgate or Neo-Vulgate. H. AL 311 : ‘The teaching of moral theology should not fail to incorporate these considerations.’ Understood as meaning that the teaching of moral theology in the Catholic Church should present as probable or true any of the propositions censured above: 1. Falsa. 2. Scandalosa, prava, perversa, perniciosa. Matt. 5:19: “He therefore that shall break one of these least commandments, and shall so teach men, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven.” The propositions censured above have been condemned in many previous magisterial documents. It is urgently necessary that their condemnation be repeated by the Supreme Pontiff in a definitive and final manner and that it be authoritatively stated 83 706 pp. – Flexible imitation leather cover with gold foil stamping and rounded corners – Sewn binding – 2 Ribbons – STK# 8680 – $39.95 A Young Catholic’s Daily Missal The Young Catholic’s Daily Missal is designed to open up the spiritual treasures of the Mass for young Catholics from the time of their First Communion up through their preteen years. This missal conforms to the rubrics and norms of the 1962 Missale Romanum and includes the full Ordinary of the Mass in Latin and English; the Masses for Sundays and Holydays in English with paraphrases of the Propers. For all the other days of the year there are explanations, printed in smaller type, of the Introit, Epistle and Gospel. These, along with the Common of Saints, make this missal ideal for daily use. Finally, this missal contains morning and evening prayers; instructions on the meaning of the Mass; and an array of traditional devotions. Illustrated throughout. 42 ORDINARY OF THE MASS INTROIT 43 280 PROPeR OF The SeASON FIRST SUNDAy OF LeNT 281 LITANy OF The hOLy NAMe must love your enemies and pray for those who do you harm. Only then will you be the children of God; for you will do as God does. You know that God does good even to sinners. God makes His sun shine upon the good and the bad. Be good like the good God. SATURDAY AFTER ASH WEDNESDAY INTROIT THE PRIEST KISSES THE ALTAR M y God, the Priest walks up the steps to the altar, and kisses it with respect. I cannot do that; but yet I should like to assist him. So while he prays aloud and in Latin, I will say the very same thing to myself in English. My God, Thou hast pardoned the Priest his sins; pardon me mine, because I am sorry that I ever did them. I know that I do not deserve Thy pardon; for I always begin again to offend Thee. Do not think of me, but of the Saints whose relics are inside the altar, and of all the Saints in glory. For their sakes pardon me all my sins. Read this lntroit, if you have not one marked in your little missal. It belongs to the feast of the Sacred Heart. T he divine Heart of Jesus loves us; He has delivered us from the sin that kills the souls, and He gives us His graces. You must not think any more of yourself: think of Him Who is about to come as a victim on the altar. If you wish God to be very much pleased with you, promise Him that you will do everything as well as you can; so that when He comes you may be able to say to Him: My God, I intend to work for Thee, in order to please Thee. Whatever I do will be done for Thee. My Jesus, I give Thee this day. I NTROIT. God has heard Me and has had pity on Me, says Jesus, upon the cross. With Jesus let us say: I thank Thee, O God, because Thou hast delivered me from my enemies. COLLeCT. O God, hear our prayer, and help us to keep all the days of fasting well, by making many sacrifices, to cure our soul made sick by sin. ePISTLe. If you are good to your neighbor, if you are charitable, says Isaias, God will reward you. He brought Jesus back to life after He was dead, and placed Him in heaven; He will give life to your soul, and give you heaven, if you do all you should to honor God, specially on Sundays. Tract of Ash Wednesday, p. 277. G OSPeL . It was dark at night; the Apostles were in a boat upon the lake, and had great difficulty in rowing, for the wind was high. Jesus came to them, walking upon the water, when it was broad daylight. The Apostles thought they saw a ghost and were afraid. He stepped into the boat and the wind dropped. When they came ashore, people brought the sick to Him and He healed them. Always have confidence in Jesus, and He will always help you. FIRST SUNDAY OF LENT I N the city of Rome the Mass is said today in the church of Saint John Lateran. The patrons of this church are Jesus the Savior and Saint John the Baptist. Jesus, who was baptized by Saint John saves us through baptism. And Lent is to prepare those who are not yet Christians for the sacrament of baptism after the font is blessed on Holy Saturday; and also Christians for their confession, through which Jesus saves souls that have fallen into great sins after their baptism. I NTROIT. With Jesus in the desert we pray to God, for He has promised to help us if we say our prayers well. PRAyeRS. O God, every year we begin the holy season of Lent on this day as the Church wishes us to do. Grant that we may be really good, and make our little sacrifices generously. ePISTLe. Saint Paul repeats what the prophet Isaias said: Now is the right time to do penance; do not let the chance slip away. Now is the right time to correct our VARIOUS DEVOTIONS DEVOTIONS TO OUR LORD Litany of the Holy Name L ORD, have mercy on us. Christ, have mercy on us. Lord, have mercy on us. Jesus, hear us. Jesus, graciously hear us. God the Father of heaven, have mercy on us. God, the Son, Redeemer of the world, God the Holy Ghost, Holy Trinity, one God, Jesus, Son of the living God, 662 663 Jesus, splendor of the Father, have mercy on us. Jesus, brightness of eternal light, Jesus, King of glory, Jesus, sun of justice, Jesus, Son of the Virgin Mary, Jesus, most lovable, Jesus, most admirable, Jesus, mighty God, Jesus, Father of the world to come, Jesus, Angel of great counsel, Jesus, most powerful, Jesus, most patient, Jesus, most obedient, Jesus, meek and humble of heart, Jesus, lover of chastity, Jesus, lover of us, Jesus, God of peace, Jesus, author of life, Jesus, example of virtues, Jesus, zealous lover of souls, Jesus, our God, Jesus, our refuge, Jesus, Father of the poor, Jesus, treasure of the faithful, Jesus, Good Shepherd, Jesus, true light, Jesus, eternal wisdom, Jesus, infinite goodness, Jesus, our way and our life, 336 pp. – Hardcover with gold foil stamping and rounded corners – Sewn binding – 2 Ribbons – STK# 8679 – $39.95 Vespers Common of Sunday VeSperS Common of Sunday VeSperS 7d===5p==-’54C=-’45P.==|===3p==-45P=’5p===’5p==’5p==5p===-’ 5p==5p=-5pi5H==+===5p=====-5p=6b’4p5q6P===5p=-5p===’54C===-45P.==|===3p=-’45P==’5p=-’5p==5p=====’5p===5p==-’5p=-5pi5H==+'' ' ' ' 5u Common of Sunday Vespers festí-na. Gló-ri-a Patri, et Fí-li-o, Festal Tone = D 5d===5p=-’5pi5H==+===5p===-5p===’5p==-’56P==-5p=-5p=======-5p=-’5pi5H====-5p==-’45P===-’5p.==||====-’5p===5p==-’ 5pi5H==+===5p====’5p===5p===’5p====5p======’5pi5H==-’5u E-us in adju-tó-ri-um me-um inténde. + Dómi-ne, ad adju-vándum me 5d===5p=-’45P==-’5p.==|===5p==-5p=-5p====5p==-5p==-’5p====-’5p==’5p=’5pi5H==+===5p======5p==’5p==-5p=-5p===-’45P====-’5p.==|===5p===5p===’5p==-’5p==-’ 5p======’5p==-’ 5p==-’5p' ' ' 5u festí-na. Gló-ri-a Patri, et Fí-li-o, et Spi-rí-tu-i Sancto. Si-cut e-rat in princí-pi - 5d===5p==-5p=-’==5p=====-5p====-5p====-5p.==+===5p=-’5p=====5p==-’5p==-’5p===5p==-5p==-5p===5p=====45P===-5p.==;===5p==-’6p==-’35X5L4l==’4p.==||' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' o, et nunc, et semper, et in saécu-la sæcu-ló-rum. Amen. Alle-lú-ia. = Deus, in adjutórium meum inténde. + Dómine, ad adjuvándum me festína. Glória Patri. Sicut erat. Allelúia. =. O God, come to my assistance. + O Lord, make haste to help me. Glory be to the Father. As it was in the beginning. Alleluia. et nunc, et semper, 5d===5p=====-5p==-5p====-5p==-’5p=-’5pi5H====-5p====-5p=-5p===-’6p=====’5pi==-5p=-’4p.==||' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' et in saécu-la sæcu-ló-rum. Amen. Alle-lú-ia. or: Laus ti-bi Dó - 7d===5p=-’5pi5H===-5p===-5p==-’5p==-6b’6p====’5pi==-4p=-’4p.==||' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' mine Rex æ-térnæ gló-ri-æ. = Deus, in adjutórium meum inténde. + Dómine, ad adjuvándum me festína. Glória Patri. Sicut erat. Allelúia. =. O God, come to my assistance. + O Lord, make haste to help me. Glory be to the Father. As it was in the beginning. Alleluia. Paschal Time All five Psalms are sung under the following Antiphon. The Cantor repeats the Intonation for the first verse of each Psalm. Ant. 7C2 From Septuagesima to Wednesday in Holy Week, the following is said instead of Allelúia: et Spi-rí - tu-i Sancto. Sicut erat in princí-pi-o, 7d===5p====4p5q6P====’5p====54C===’45P.==;===5p==5p====-’5p==-’ 5p==-5p===5p==’5p==-’5p==6b’6p====-’ 5p===’4p.==;===5p=-6b’6p==-5L35X 4l==’4p.==||=======5p====’5p==-’ 5p===’5p' ' ' ' 5u A 5d===4p===5p==-’67P6h==6p.==+===56X6pH5p==’35P==-’4p34X H3p=2pi2H==-’3p==’3p35X5p4p-’2p.==’2p.==||' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' - lle-lú-ia, a-lle-lú-ia, alle-lú-ia. Ant. [1] Allelúia, allelúia, allelúia. Ant. [1] Allelúia, allelúia, allelúia. Laus ti-bi Dómine Rex ætérnæ gló-ri-æ. Praise be to Thee, O Lord, King of everlasting glory. Laus tibi Dómine Rex ætérnæ glóriæ. At Vespers of Solemn Feasts, the following chant may be used: = 7d===3p=-’45P4h==+===5p==-’5p===5p==-’5p==-’5p=-5p=====6b’4p5q6P==-5p===-’5p===’54C==’45P.==||====-’3p==-’ 45P==-’ 5pi5H==+===5p===5p===’5p===’5p====5p=====’6b’4p5q6P===-5u E-us in adju-tó-ri-um me - um inténde. + Dómi-ne, Ant. [1] 7C2 D Solemn Tone D During the Year 5d===4p==-’5p====-6pi====7p==-’ 6p.==+===56X6pH5p==’’3p===5p====-4p34X H3p==2p.==;===-’3p===’3pi=-1p===35P=====4p=====2p.===2p.==||=========================The Officiant The Cantor I-xit Dó-mi-nus Dó-mi-no me - o: * Se-de a dex-tris me - is. Ant. [1] Dixit Dóminus Dómino meo: * Sede a dextris meis. 8 9 CyCle of ChriStmaS the epiphany of our lord 5f===4p==23P=-3p3h4p42X2p’ 02X2p0p02X .====-’23P2h===-5p=’=4p===-2p=-’4p=-3p.==||======-2p=-’3p====’5p===5p==5p=====5p===5p=-’ 5p====6p=-’5p.==|====5p==5p=-5p===’5p====4p====-’ 2p=’3p.==||' ' The Epiphany of Our Lord hódi-e I Class (5 January) As a II Vespers except the 5th Psalm and the Magnificat Antiphon: M 7d===3p45P4i==’4p==+===45P==’5v5H’4n3n==’45P====-’5p==’4p4iH==+===’4p==47P’7p=-5p6p5p==’43C=-’45P===’5p=-’4p.==;====47PH8I====8p===-6pi======-’7p===’5p===-’76C=-’54C' ' ' 4u A-gi * vidén-tes stellam, dixé-runt ad ínvicem: Hoc signum magni Re-gis 7d===4p.==|===1p=-3p45P4i==’4p4iH==+===4p==4p====-’4p==-56P2H===45P===4p=-3p.==;===5p==’3p===57P=’7p===’6p===76C=-’5p===-=67P==-5p==-4p5H5p5H4p5H.==+===2pi===’3p=======-45P===5p' ' ' ' ' ' ' 4u est: e-ámus et inqui-rámus e-um, et offerámus e - i múne-ra, aurum, thus et 7d===4p.====-4p.==||============’4p===-’54C=’47P==-’7p.==|===7p==7p==-’7p===-’ 6p=’ 7p===-’5p===4p=-’4p.==||' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' myrrham. Cant. Magní-fi-cat * anima mé-a Dóminum. Cant. Magníficat. 8 G, p. 309 or p. 315. Ant. [Magnif.] Magi * vidéntes stellam, dixérunt ad ínvicem: Hoc signum magni Regis est: eámus et inquirámus eum, et offerámus ei múnera, aurum, thus et myrrham, allelúia. D Ant. [Magnif.] When the Wise Men saw the star, they said one to another: This is the sign of the great King: let us go and search for Him, and offer Him gifts, gold, frankincense, and myrrh, alleluia. O God, Who on this day didst manifest Thine only-begotten Son to the Gentiles by the guidance of a star: graciously grant, that we, who know Thee now by faith, may be led even to contemplate the beauty of Thy Majesty. Through the same our Lord. II VESPERS A Ant. [1] Ante lucíferum génitus, * et ante sǽcula, Dóminus Salvátor noster hódie mundo appáruit. Ant. [2] 1g2 V Ant. [1] (Ps. 109:3) Begotten before the day star, and before the ages, the Lord our Savior was this day made manifest to the world. 7d===3p==’4p5L4l=-’ 5p===-43C==-’4p=-’3p.==+=====-’3p4p3p==-’1p01X 4h0p=-’1p2q3v6h’2n1ni’2p==--21C.==;===1p=====’1p14X4p3p’45P=’ 43C=-’3p===-’4p54R5P==-’5p=-4p5p4p4iH==+===3p==’4p5L4l' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' 5u Enit lumen tu-um, * Je - rú-sa - lem, 5f===34P3h=-’2p==-3p==3336PI7v===’5p=-’4L34X 34X2l=====-45P=-’ 3p=’3p.==;===-32C==5p==-’6p===7pi==-’6p==-5p.==;===5p===5v5H’4n3n==-’-34X4pH3p===3pi===’5p=-4p4i====’5p==-’ 3pi6h==;========-4u Nte lucí - ferum génitus, * et ante sǽcu-la, Dómi - nus Salvátor noster 58 et gló - ri - a Dó - mini super 7d===35X5p5H4p=’45P4h’4n2n4i =-3p4q54R5P=’54C.==|===4p==’4p=====43C=’4p==-32C====-1p===’3p4p3pi6h==+===3p===-’3p===’32C=-’0pi==’’1p=-’0p.==+===1p2q3P==-3v6h’2n1n==--12X2L1l==1p.==||======’’3p==-’45P====-’ 5u te or-ta est: et ambu-lábunt gentes in lúmi-ne tu-o, al-le - lú-ia. Ps. Confi - 7d===5p==5p===-5p==-5p===-’5p==-’5p=-’5p==’5p===-5p==-’5p==6b’6p===’5p====’4p=-’5p.==|===5p====-5p===’5p==5p=-5p==-5p===5p=-’5p====5p===-’5p=====5p==’’4p==’3p=’4p===-4p5p4p.==|| tébor tí-bi Dómine in tó-to córde mé-o: * in consí-li-o justórum et congrega-ti-ó-ne. Ps. Confitébor. 1 g2, p. 259. Ant. [2] Venit lumen tuum, * Jerúsalem, et glória Dómini super te orta est: et ambulábunt gentes in lúmine tuo, allelúia. Ant. [2] (Is. 60:1,3) Thy light is come, O Jerusalem, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee, and the Gentiles shall walk in thy light, alleluia. Collect eus, qui hodiérna die Unigénitum tuum géntibus stella duce revelásti: concéde propítius; ut, qui jam te ex fide cognóvimus, usque ad contemplándam spéciem tuæ celsitúdinis perducámur. Per eúmdem Dóminum nostrum. Ant. [1] 2D mundo appáru-it. Ps. Díxit Dóminus Dómino mé-o: * Séde a dextris mé-is. Ps. Díxit Dóminus. 2 D, p. 255. I VESPERS At Magnif. Ant. 8 G Ant. [1] The Lord said to my Lord: Sit thou at my right hand. ad adju-vándum me Ant. [3] 1g2 A 7d===3p==5pi==’4p=====5pi==-’4p==’3pi===-’4p=-1p.==;===56P2H’5n4ni ==’5p==-’78PH==-’7p8p7p=====’76C=-’4p===-67P6h==-’ 65C==5p.==;===35X5L5H4l==’35X5p5H4p======-2p===-’3p====-’45P4h=====-’ 4u -pértis thesáuris su-is, * ob-tu-lé-runt Ma-gi Dómi-no aurum, thus, et myrr - 7d===4p4iH==+===5p=’3p42R3P==’’1p.==1p.==||======-3p===-45P=-5p====’5p=====’5p=-6b’6p==-’5p====-’4p==-’5p=-’ 5p.==|====’’5p=====’5p===-’5p==’5p==-5p==-5p====-4p===3p' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' 4u ham, alle - lú-ia. Ps. Be - átus vir qui tímet Dóminum: * in mandá-tis é-jus vó-let 7d===4p===-’4p5p4p.==||' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ní-mis. Ps. Beátus vir. 1 g2, p. 264. 59 Vespers, the traditional evening prayer of the Church, has spiritually sustained the faithful for nearly two millennia. Although painfully absent from parish life since the liturgical reforms of the last century, this newly typeset and edited volume provides everything a parish or individual needs to recite the evening office for Sundays and major feast days according to the rubrics of the 1962 Breviarium Romanum. In addition to being printed with a dual-column Latin/English text, the book includes the Gregorian melodies necessary for singing Vespers in common; prayers to be said before and after the office; and an extensive introduction on the history of the breviary. www.angeluspress.org — 1-800-966-7337 Please visit our website to see our entire selection of books and music. 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Everyone has FREE access to every article from issues of The Angelus over two years old, and selected articles from recent issues. All magazine subscribers have full access to the online version of the magazine (a $20 Value)! The Last Word Dear readers, Only one thing is necessary . . . Frank Duff, the founder of the Legion of Mary, relying on the famous words of St. Augustine—“Our heart is made for Thee, O Lord, and finds no rest until it rests in Thee”— urges us never to hesitate to speak of God to those we meet. Only God, the infinite Truth and infinite Good, can fill our mind and our heart. That is true for everyone on the planet. Our big problem during our life here below is that we get distracted from our last end. So many things get in God’s way that we forget the one and only necessary: God. These distractions will surely be the cause of the passage of so many through the terrible fire of Purgatory. Here is how the Angelic Doctor proves it. He inquires about the intensity of the sufferings of Purgatory and asks whether the pains of Purgatory surpass all the temporal pains of this life? “The least pain of Purgatory, he writes, surpasses the greatest pain of this life. For the more a thing is desired the more painful is its absence. And since after this life the holy souls desire the Sovereign Good with the most intense longing (intensissimus)—both because their longing is not held back by the weight of the body, and because, had there been no obstacle, they would already be enjoying the Sovereign Good—it follows that they grieve exceedingly for their delay” (Suppl. 71 bis, a.3). “The more a thing is desired the more painful is its absence.” Try to remember the moment you had the greatest desire in your life: it can be the morning of one’s wedding, the thought of having lost one’s child in a crowd, or watching firemen trying to save a beloved one in a burning house. “The weight of the body”—that is a reference to all the distractions of life. Purgatory and computers: The inventors of the internet openly admitted that its purpose was to de-concentrate, to distract its users, to reject “the intellectual tradition of solitary single-minded concentration” (Nicholas G. Carr, The Shallows, p. 114). He could have added that it was “to interfere with the one necessary thing.” When we see the madness of the world around us, the example, the latest craze of the Pokemon Go users (we have them daily around our Montreal priory!), we can only deplore that they are being led by the nose like blind beasts, missing the only one thing necessary. The day we will die, all these distractions will also vanish, and we will see that we were made for that one necessary thing: “to rest in Thee.” Let us be wise and say like St. Francis of Assisi: “My God and my all!” Fr. Daniel Couture The Society of St. Pius X is an international priestly society of common life without vows, whose purpose is the priesthood and that which pertains to it. The main goal of the Priestly Society of Saint Pius X is to preserve the Catholic faith in its fullness and purity, to teach its truths, and to diffuse its virtues. Authentic spiritual life, the sacraments, and the traditional liturgy are its primary means of bringing this life of grace to souls. The Angelus aims at forming the whole man: we aspire to help deepen your spiritual life, nourish your studies, understand the history of Christendom, and restore Christian culture in every aspect. $ 9.00 RETURN UNDELIVERABLE CANADIAN ADDRESSES TO: THE ANGELUS, 480 MCKENZIE STREET, WINNIPEG, MB, R2W 5B9