In this false church within the True Church, the cancer within the Mystical Body of Christ, there is a loss of the sense of the sacred. Which is why Fr. Miceli wrote that, "Much of the new liturgy has been drained of the numinous and the sacred. The new forms are without splendor, flattened, undifferentiated. Why was kneeling replaced by standing? Jesus himself fell on his knees and on his face as he prayed to his heavenly Father. Satan too knows the meaning of worship and man's need for it. He tried to get Jesus to fall down and worship him. Why has the liturgical year and the Mass been so unfortunately mutilated against the wishes of the faithful? In fact, the faithful are now confused about the Mass, the feast of the saints, the holy seasons. Why was the Gloria, that prayer of total consecration on God's Majesty and Goodness, restricted practically to Sundays alone, and only to those Sundays outside of Lent? Moreover, is the faith really renewed and vivified by by obscuring our sense of community with the Christians of apostolic and ancient times? The new liturgy no longer draws us into the true experience of reliving the Life of Christ. We are deprived of this experience through the elimination of the hierarchy of feasts and the at random changing of the dates of famous feasts. Then too, the new forms are the result of experimentation. But one experiments with things, with objects that one wants to analyze. Experimentation is the method of science. The wretched idolatry and vulgarity of tinkering with sacred realities has, unfortunately, penetrated the Church and produced a mediocrity-ridden liturgy, a show for spectators that distracts from the holy, frustrates intimate communion with God and trivializes, where it does not suppress, sacred actions, symbols, music and words. In reality, such diminished liturgies have renewed nothing. Rather these innovations have emptied churches, dried up vocations to the priesthood and sisterhood, driven off converts and opened the doors wide to a flood of renegades. Even though valid in its essence, such a new liturgy cannot inspire for it is colorless, artificial, banal, without the odor and flavor of sanctity. A humanized and popularized, man-oriented liturgy will never produce saints. Only a divinized, God-oriented liturgy can accomplish that miracle. One suspects that many priests realize the banality of the new liturgy. That is why they often become, during the Mass and other ceremonies, actors and entertainers. They put on a show in order to gain the attention of the congregation. These comedians in chasubles preach a utopian Christianity rather than the true Christianity. Their treasure is man rather than God; their emphasis this-worldly rather than other-worldly; their goal progress rather than sanctity; their apostolate is immanent rather than transcendent; their means to their goal is the way of revolution rather than the way of the cross; they preach a secular Church instead of the Sacred Church founded by Christ; the essence of their morality is self-assertion rather than self-denial; the Christ they present to the congregation is the Humanist Christ rather than the God-Man crucified Christ...they genuflect before the world and stand before Christ...they are moved by resentment and envy instead of radiating the joy of Christ.."
These comedians in chasubles, these actors on a stage erected to celebrate the Cult of Man, prefer the tabernacle off to the side and the celebrant's chair in the center. The idea of a crucified Christ is repugnant to these propagandists for a man-centered religion. And those who maintain an authentic devotion to the Mother of God and her Holy Rosary, those who fall to their knees in prayer, are considered "out-of-date" and "immature" in faith.
In the 1980s I had a "pastor," and I use this word loosely for this man was not a pastor of souls as was the Cure of Ars, who would denigrate a member of the congregation (a devout woman who prayed the Rosary every day) for kneeling to receive Holy Communion. This devout woman, whom I greatly admire for her courage, is still praying her daily Rosary and adores the Eucharist. She has led an exemplary life. The priest in question has been charged with molesting numerous altar boys and playing with their genitalia.
I pray the Holy Rosary before each and every Mass. To that end, I always arrive roughly 45 minutes to an hour before Mass to pray the mysteries devoutly. There is seldom a Sunday when someone isn't attempting to distract me from the august mysteries of the Holy Rosary. Just a few days ago it was a Deacon who insisted upon disrupting my prayer. Why is this? St. Louis de Montfort explains in The Secret of the Rosary (Ninth Rose) that, "Even though God has set His seal of approval on the Holy Rosary by many miracles, and in spite of the Papal Bulls that have been written approving it, there are only too many people who are against the Holy Rosary today. These freethinkers and those who scorn religion either condemn the Rosary or try to turn others away from it.
It is easy to see that they have absorbed the poison of hell and that they are inspired by the devil - for nobody can condemn devotion to the Holy Rosary without condemning all that is most holy in the Catholic Faith, such as the Lord's Prayer, the Angelic Salutation and the mysteries of the life, death, and glory of Jesus Christ and of His Holy Mother.
These freethinkers who cannot bear others to say the Rosary often fall into a really heretical state of mind without even realizing it and some to hate the Rosary and its holy mysteries.
To have a loathing for confraternities is to fall away from God and true piety, for Our Lord Himself has told us that He is always in the midst of those who are gathered together in His name. No good Catholic should forget the many great indulgences which Holy Mother Church has granted to Confraternities. Finally, to dissuade others from joining the Rosary Confraternity is to be an enemy of souls because the Rosary is a sure means of curing oneself of sin and of embracing a Christian Life.
Saint Bonaventure said (in his Psalter) that whoever neglected Our Lady would perish in his sins and would be damned: "He who neglects her will die in his sins." If such is the penalty for neglecting her, what must be the punishment in store for those who actually turn others away from their devotions!"
Continue to pray the Holy Rosary. Continue to focus on the Lord Jesus while ignoring those clerics who have become actors on a stage. The Church will be renewed. If we refuse to do it, the Lord Jesus will continue to cleanse His Church through chastisement.
And things are just getting worse. Has your priest spoken out against the repeal of DADT? Or is he strangely silent as the Vice President says that sodomite "marriage" is inevitable?
ReplyDeleteThat was the most penetrating blog post that I have ever read. It reflects my own feelings/observations/experiences. Usually I can only manage a few sentences.
ReplyDeleteYour struggle is enviable and that woman is most blessed but I'm weak, my batteries are low. I've dragged myself into the Tridentine Mass at various times in the past as a form of spiritual emergency trauma center.
Time to get back on my Rosary and start the healing process, too.
Thanks for the kind note Thomas. The spiritual war has definitely escalated. And at the same time many of our "pastors" have grown silent. Our Lady told Fr. Gobbi they have become like "mute dogs."
ReplyDeleteThings will only get worse as the darkness continues to spread. More and more Christians have succumbed to fear and apathy. We need to pick up the Rosary like a sling and use this powerful sacramental to bring down the New Goliath: the Socialist State of Antichrist which is being erected; the New Tower of Babel within and without the Church.
The Rosary will bring us victory. Daily consecration to Our Lady's Immaculate Heart will keep us from despair and discouragement.
Immaculata, pray for us!