VERBUM SERAPHICUM
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PAX ET BONUM ! |
MAY + 2007 A. D. |
AVE MARIA ! |
"If thou wilt be perfect, go,
sell what thou hast, and give to the poor,
. . . and come follow Me." Matthew 19:21
Week I
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The Faith to See
If there is lack of faith in 1 dogma of the Church which lies most closely at the heart of the cause of the lack of religious vocations, of the spiritual abortion of religious vocations in the hearts of men and women, of the indifference of the laity, religious, clergy and hierarchy towards religious life, it is this:
The Lack of Faith in the Dogma of Original Sin
This dogma is in practice denied by a greater number of Catholics each year, and whether they notice it or not, as soon as they deny it, they not only cease to be Catholic in the sight of God, but also cease to act like Catholics in heart and mind and in the sight of men.
Our Holy Catholic Faith, which alone contains all the revealed truth about ourselves and the world and God, which alone is guaranteed by the Resurrection and Miracles of Christ, of Our Lady, of the 12 Apostles, of the Saints teaches us that at the beginning of the Human Race, our first Parents, Adam and Eve, existed, were just as human as we are, and the same as we are in all things, but that they were created directly by God: Adam from the slime of the earth, and Even from Adam’s side while he was sleeping. But that Adam, having been given the Divine command not to eat of a certain tree, ate of it, at the instigation of Eve, who took this ill counsel from Lucifer, who spoke to Eve through what the Fathers of the Church describe as something like a Komodo dragon.
On account of this mortal sin of disobedience Adam lost the spiritual inheritance that God gave Him for each and every human who would ever been conceived. On account of Adam’s sin the Human Race rebelled against God, was reckoned subject to the Devil, and came under his empire and rule. And because of this, the greatest tragedy, the Human Race fell down into spiritual darkness, malice and lusts of every kind.
And the consequences of Adam’s personal sin in each of us is what the Faith calls “Original Sin”, which in us is |
not a personal sin, but the deprivation of the right to be conceived in sanctifying grace, which was not a strict right, but a right which God wanted to bestow upon us through Adam, by procreation, but which Adam lost.
We live now in a Shipwrecked World, doomed to death, and beholden by the powers of darkness from the moment of our conception, sensitive to and moved by evil spirits who prowl about the world in vast numbers, inciting men and women and children ever hour of the day to merit all the more eternal damnation in the fires of Hell with them, so that out of pure malice, they may have their own desolation in eternity increased by ruling over the vast hordes of damned men.
To save the Elect and to merit the forgiveness of the sins of all, of the Elect and of those to be damned, the Son of God became man and died on the Cross, paying in His Blood the price of our redemption.
And the sign of the Father’s eternal forgiveness, which Christ won, is the Resurrection. Christ’s Apostolic Mandate to the 12 and all the disciples on the Day of the Ascension was His promulgation of the law of freedom, that is of the Catholic Religion, which alone can free all men from the power and slavery of the Devil, by remitting original sin in Baptism and by sanctifying and forgiving men’s sins in the Sacraments.
But religious life too was promulgated by Christ to liberate men from Original Sin, not in itself, but in its effects, and thus only in the Catholic Church does there efficaciously exist the possibility of institutions which are spiritually aligned with Christ’s work of redemption in the sanctification of men and women, which institutions have the specific goal of not only assisting in the salvation of souls, but of sanctifying them according to the image of Christ, of Our Lady, and of the Saints.
Those who love Christ’s Redemption are emboldened by a zeal and love which incites them to become religious, so as to live every fully this freedom from Original Sin and its consequences, and to propagate this freedom among all men. It is thus not only very good, and honorable to enlist in this spiritual army, but the also the most prudent and decisive course of action. |
Week II
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The Charity to Do Something
If one judges by appearances he may be apt to think that the modern world is a very charitable place: we have a form of government that is liberal, cares for the poor and the elderly, provides for the economic prosperity of the nation and allows us the freedom to live the way we choose.
In comparison with our age it is often said, similarly, that the Middle Ages were dark and dreary, were ruled over by cruel and greedy men, who tormented the people with such restrictions on their way of life that it was an insufferable burden.
This view of the world, however, is not a Catholic one; it is rather the view of the world popularized by the Masonic Lodge it its attempt to overthrow Catholic Civilization. It has convinced many because it is formulated according to the logic of what Adolf Hitler called the Big Lie: that is, a monstrous mendacity which is so outrageous that the common man would not even consider that it was a lie, because he would suppose no one had the gall to lie so baldly.
The truth rather about Civilization is this: as St. Augustine says, the civilization of the Devil is founded upon libido, which is a Latin word meaning caprice, or a violent, inordinate desire without any basis in truth or goodness.
But Catholic Civilization is founded upon this: the desire to consent and assent in all things to the Will of Jesus Christ, in which is manifest truthfully the Will of God Eternal, and through which alone can man find salvation, blessedness and the consummation of all good.
But since the civilization of the Devil is founded upon caprice, the Civilization of Christendom is organized to stop up, block, obstruct, curtail, repress and restrain caprice in all its forms.
And this is why, if one examines modern civilization closely, he will find that it is in its fundamental principles and in its day to day manifestation furiously opposed to Catholic civilization. |
From the very foundation of Catholic Civilization, upon the Will of Christ, we can see that the nature Catholic Civilization is Charity for the salvation of souls, in which consists the highest purpose and goal of every human collectivity, whether civil or political or ecclesiastical.
And Catholic Civilization is for this reason, precisely, the solution and the medicine for the modern world, because it alone can do something about the shipwreck of this world, about original sin and its effects.
A Catholic Civilization therefore requires morality and moral restraint; thus it requires men and institutions who are moral and upright, and who promote the development of human society in morality and moral restraint.
And for this reason St. Francis of Assisi stands as one of the chief pillars not only in the Catholic Church but in the history of world civilization, because of his outstanding virtue, morality, moral leadership, and his zeal to promote this throughout the world by means of the order which he founded, the Order of Friars Minor.
In our own day, we would be remiss, if we failed to take note and act accordingly, to the fact that these fundamental truths of Catholic Civilization and St. Francis’ role in it have been forgotten, not only in the world, not only throughout so many members of the Catholic Church, but among far, far too many of the Sons of St. Francis. For today there is such immorality and dissent and heresy in the Franciscan communities, recognized by the Apostolic See, that even if one had a Saint upon the throne of St. Peter, there is little that can be done.
It is for this reason that all who love St. Francis of Assisi in truth, and not just in words or affection, have the grave obligation of doing something about the shipwreck of this world by promoting Catholic Civilization, especially by helping those of his sons who want to restore the observance of his Rule, and live in authentic virtue and faith, continuing his work of preaching penance and faith.
If we merely lament the evils of our age, while doing nothing ourselves to promote what is truly good, we can truly say that we have been faithful to the Devil in doing his work, if not by our actions, then by our inaction. |
Ascension to Pentecost
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The Humility to Veer Away
As we celebrate and recall the glorious Ascension of Our Most High Lord Jesus Christ into Heaven, where, exalted above all Principalities and Powers, Angels and Archangels, Virtues, Dominations, Thrones, above all the Cherubim, upon the wings of the Seraphim, to intercede before the August Throne of the Eternal Father, on our behalf, we must necessarily recognize that the path out of the shipwreck of this world is not through our own glorification, but rather through our abasement. For there is but One Lord, the Most Holy Trinity, and but One Messiah, Jesus Christ. And we are not God, nor necessarily loved by God; but rather, by our sins are worthy of God’s hatred and eternal punishment.
It says in the Psalms, of the wicked: They have set their mouths in the heavens, and their tongues dictate to the earth. How true this is of the leaders of so many peoples today, in every society: they set themselves up as the rule by which God’s Will is established, that is, they dictate to the earth their own perverse desires as if they had the force and importance more than God’s Laws and precepts.
And this sin, which is pre-eminently the sin of Lucifer and of the Antichrist to come, is the Sin of our age, because so, so many have set themselves up as the one who has the right to define what is good and evil, right and wrong. You can quote them all the day long the scientific evidence against their perversities, and they will respond, “That’s what you believe; I believe differently!” Those predestined to eternal damnation are easily recognized by this mark: they glibly set themselves up as the one who has the right to establish the ways and means and goals of eternal destiny. They care not what the Church has always taught, it is enough that they say something is so, that is the basis of their religion, and that is the basis of the religion they demand of you and me.
But such a spirit and attitude is a very, great abomination in the sight of God. Satan and Adam sinned the less, and see what they suffered and merited! |
St. Bonaventure, the Seraphic Doctor of the Franciscan Order states this so eloquently in his Commentary on the Second Book of Sentences of Master Peter Lombard, d. 6, a. 1, q. 1, ad 4. Replying to those who say that the most noble Angel (Lucifer) would never have been allowed by God to commit a sin, because being so perfect God could not, not love him, he responds:
To that which is objected last, that it seems incredible, that God would send his own, most noble creature down to perish thus; it must be said, that in this the wonderful Justice of God is shown, which only serves justice, so that It in no manner infringes upon the instituted order of the universe; which hates sin so much, that on account of sin It casts away those whom It reputed most dear. Wherefore I believe, that God has placed before us infirm men and shown us the strange wonder of the Divine Severity in the most noble Angel and the first man — each of which He formed and decorated with His own Hands — to be looked at to such a degree, that we may learn, how great God hates sin, and most of all pride, on which account for one movement of heart the most noble of all creatures was eternally and without hope of pardon damned, and for one bite of the apple even Adam himself and his whole posterity unto the end of the world was subjected to mortality and a manifold penalty; and unless the Lord had left us a seed, we would have been as Sodom.6 From these considerations there is left a most efficacious argument, that it is a terrible thing to fall into the Hands of the Living God. For if God did not spare the most noble Angel when he was proud, what will become of the most vile and most abject ashes (i.e. we sinners), when it extols itself on high, when it ought (rather) to lie down in ashes and a cilice, nay in a dung-heap itself?
This is the pride which would make of the gifts of God’s graces, a vocation to our own liking; an observance according to our own conveniences. And this is why St. Francis merited, as was revealed by God to one of his disciples, to inherit the throne which Lucifer lost, because the Poverello invented not his own way, but followed Christ according to the letter of the Gospel, in all things. Let us, who are nothing, act similarly. |
February 2007 Edition : March 2007 Edition : April 2007 Edition