Clericalism is Alive and Well and Begins at the Top!

This is NOT clericalism!

If you're going to talk about something, you better define it. What exactly is clericalism? Modernists would have you believe that it relates to the laity giving the priests too much honor and respect merely because they are priests, when they are really just like the rest of us, just "one of the boys." Their antidote to clericalism is to drag them off the "high altar," call them Fr. Bob or Fr. Joe or drop the "Father" altogether and engage in back slapping camaraderie. They don't stop there, however. The next move is to divide up the priestly functions among the laity. After all, priests are nothing but "presiders" at the communal meal where the Eucharist can be distributed like appetizers by the lay wait staff. "Joe" can help if he likes or sit in the "presider's" chair until Communion is finished.

The Fullness of the Faith the Apostles Knew

I looked and I looked but I never found,
In the bricks and mortar of a church in the round,
The fullness of the Faith the Apostles knew,
Peter and James, John and Andrew.
 
I sighed and I sighed and in despair,
Frustrated and tired I searched for You,
While time slid by and the decades flew,
The heresies heard burned my eyes with tears,
While my heart was torn and trampled upon,
And my Faith shriveled until it was nearly gone.
 
Oh, I looked and I sighed but could never find,
The depth of the Faith I knew God had designed.
I searched and I searched for the pearl of great price
In the pablum-laced modern Church of nice.
 
And I in my longing, my face turned to the sun,
Spiritually bedraggled, worn and rundown,
With tears in my eyes, asked God where He’d gone.
Silly in the sunlight crying like that…
Was it silly to cry for a vanished Faith,
Ripped from the world, now with no grace?
 
I looked with gloom at the bleak rot and decay,
And saw one church still waiting to try,
Though for years I’d always believed in the lie.
“They’re in schism", I had been warned away.
“What? More in schism than Covid churches with no Mass?”
So I marched into the SSPX and never looked back.
 
The longing is over, the Faith is still there,
The Old Mass in its glory almost too beautiful to bear.
Never changing the Faith since the years of Our Lord’s call,
The SSPX, through God’s mercy, thankfully kept it all -
The fullness of the Faith the Apostles knew,
Peter and James, John and Andrew.

Got Logic? Part II: Listen to the Praxis of Pope Francis -- "Make a Mess!"

Must we return to the catacombs?

 See Part I here. This post continues the commentary on Fr. Laurent-Marie Pocquet's article, “Very Instructive Paradoxes” about the suppression of the Traditional Latin Mass (TLM) using the motu proprio Traditionis Custodes and the Responsa Ad Dubia.

The fourth paradox is an ecclesial paradox:

Pastors are invited to develop a pastoral care of “accompaniment,” open to all moral and psychological situations. They must practice an unconditional welcome—but there is a part of the people of God to whom this benevolent welcome is obstinately refused. The setting up of a real liturgical apartheid (no traditional Masses in the parish churches, no doubt for fear of contagion or bad example!) shows the face of a suspicious, stepmotherly Church, to which one must present one’s papers under penalty of being excluded. The traditional faithful must look for a cave, since there is no room for them in the inn... In short, what a merry Christmas!

Got Logic? Part 1: Two Things that are Diametrically Opposed Cannot Both Be True....

Fr. Laurent-Marie Pocquet

 ....They can both be false, but they cannot both be true. 

Which brings me to an excellent article posted at Rorate Caeli by Dr. Peter Kwasniewski. Written by Reverend Fr. Laurent-Marie Pocquet du Haut Jussé, former superior of the Servants of Jesus and Mary (SJM), it discusses paradoxes raised by the problematic motu proprio Traditionis Custodes and the response to the dubious dubia. 

The first is a moral paradox:

Fr. Z Calls for an Association of Prayer for the Reversal of Traditionis Custodes!

Those who join make a simple commitment to make these two offering to the Blessed mother for the reversal of Traditionis Custodes and the draconian crackdown on the Latin Mass associated with it:

• recite the beautiful and powerful Memorare prayer DAILY;
• make an act of physical or material penance for the two intentions ONCE A WEEK.

Monday Morning Musing: Good Questions from The Soul of the Apostolate

In my morning prayer time today I came across this paragraph from The Soul of the Apostolate which stopped me in my tracks:

When we see the repeated victories of our infernal foes, we
well wonder, in our anxiety, where to look for the salvation of our society. When will it be the Church's turn to win a few battles?

Sunday Meditation: Never Be Discouraged at the State of the World or the Church!

Let us rejoice during this Christmas season and never ever lose hope!

Take courage and hear these words of advice from Dom Benedict Baur, German theologian and spiritual writer:

God does indeed give Satan and evil men a certain power over the Church and her virtuous children. The evil they inflict on the Church is taken into account in the plans of God's providence. Godless men and their leader, Satan are made to serve the ends of almighty God. We are at all times under the powerful protection of God, even though it may appear that we have been delivered into the hands of our enemies.

Unto Us a Child Is Born; Unto Us a Son is Given!

Merry Christmas from Les Femmes! 

As Midnight Mass Lights Up Our Dark World, Welcome Him with The First Noel

 

Pray for Bishop Burbidge: He is Obviously Not Going to Question or Challenge the Right of the Pope to Abuse Us!

Virginia diocese announces massive restrictions on traditional
sacraments following Vatican crackdown

From the article:

Thu Dec 23, 2021 - 10:15 am EST

ARLINGTON, Virginia (LifeSiteNews) – A bishop in a U.S. diocese recognized for its ample provision of the traditional liturgy (Latin Mass) has become one of the first prelates to announce a ban on certain sacraments in the Old Rite, following the Vatican’s latest restrictions on the Latin Mass.

Bishop Michael Burbidge, 64, of the Diocese of Arlington sent an email to priests of the diocese December 21, in which he outlined his implementation of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments’ (CDW) December 18 document.