Thursday, February 28, 2013

Over 100,000 Catholics send prayerful petition to the next Pope – Sign up today!

Even before the new Successor of Saint Peter is known, we wish to address him a plea.  What we ask for transcends the personal characteristics of whoever will be elected.

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The Primacy of Peter

Here is our reverent and filial message to the next Pope:

Holy Father, were it not for the promise of Our Lord Jesus Christ that “the gates of hell shall not prevail” against the Church (Matt. 16:18), we could affirm, with sorrow in our hearts, that throughout history, never has the Barque of Peter been tossed around in such a dramatic and universal storm as today’s.

Indeed, the “silent apostasy” of millions within the Church is obvious—as a recent Synod of Bishops verified.

Fundamental truths of the faith such as the resurrection of Christ, the virginity of Mary, the real presence of Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament, the existence of Hell, etc. are frivolously challenged even by high-ranking members of the Church hierarchy.

Basic moral principles such as the indissolubility of marriage (and the consequent unlawfulness of remarriage for divorcees), the grave moral deformity of homosexual acts, the monstrous crime of abortion, the stunning cruelty of euthanasia, the immorality of contraceptive devices, etc. are all deemed passé, with many clamoring for their review in light of the new social customs.

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The gravity of this picture is compounded by the crisis in the clergy and religious congregations and their vertiginous drop in vocations. This crisis was accentuated by the rebellion of Austrian parish priests—which echoed among priests the world over—and the scandalous revolt of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (U.S.A.) against a just and necessary intervention by Vatican authorities.

Added to the drama of this internal crisis is the aggression of external enemies. 

1.  The spread of the “secularist tsunami” in Western nations, where governments try to force the Church and Catholic institutions to become accomplices in countless violations of God’s Law, under the pretext that the State recognizes no law to be above the people’s sovereignty.

2.  The merciless persecution of Christians in many Muslim countries and in those still groaning under communism, such as China, Vietnam, North Korea and Cuba.

In face of this total opposition to God and His Law in public and private life, can anyone imagine what the world will be like in 20 or 30 years?  It will probably be more tragic than the state of mankind at the end of the Roman Empire.

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But just as in the middle of those ruins, a St. Gregory and a St. Leo the Great were able to convert the barbarians and lay the foundations for the most beautiful and refined civilization ever known in history—Christian civilization—Your Holiness too can victoriously confront the present and dramatic religious, moral, and social crisis, with the charisma proper to the Vicar of Christ and with the help of Heaven.

That heavenly help and the final victory have already been announced by Our Lady at Fatima when she warned that the world would suffer great punishments and Holy Church would undergo much persecution, while promising that “Finally, my Immaculate Heart will triumph.”

Kneeling before Your Holiness, we implore: Do not become enmeshed in the snares of atheist or agnostic secularism. Fight them with confidence in divine assistance, and millions upon millions of souls will be led back to the right path! Say but a word with your authority as Successor of Saint Peter and the smoke of Satan will be banished from the world and from within Holy Church, as Our Lady promised!

This is the appeal that we, the undersigned Roman Catholic faithful, make to Your Holiness, our still unknown Holy Father, kneeling in spirit before You as our sweet Christ on earth.

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Equilibrium and the medieval soul

The virtue of equilibrium was the cornerstone of happiness in the Middle Ages. In this equilibrium, all licit states of soul were balanced and lived side by side in harmony. As a result, the soul felt secure, calm, and grounded. The soul had the psychological distance to consider beautiful things, ultimately reaching the consideration of Our Lady and God.

Forest Chapel. Painting by Karl Friedrich Lessing

This equilibrium was the starting point for all the great joy, heroism and sanctity of the Middle Ages. It is this equilibrium, therefore, that Catholics should strive for more than anything else. Search for this equilibrium and you will have the happiness of the Middle Ages and of the Holy Catholic Church.

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by Plinio Correa de Oliveira

“The Dragon-Slayer” Knight of Rhodes

Dieudonné de GozonTwo years after the Knights had occupied Rhodes a battle took place which was quite unconnected with the Moslem enemy. It has passed, if not into history, at least into legend. A Provençal knight, Dieudonné de Gozon, slew a dragon…

Dieudonné de Gozon slaying the dragon.

Dieudonné de Gozon slaying the dragon.

In a valley below Mount St. Stephen, a little south of the city of Rhodes, a dragon had established its lair and, in the manner of its kind, was given to preying upon the peasantry—particularly country maidens. A number of Knights at one time or another had gone out to give battle to the dragon but all had lost their lives, with the result that orders had been issued by the Grand Master that the beast should be left severely alone.

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Dieudonné de Gozon, however, was determined to free Rhodes from the menace, and had a model built conforming to the descriptions of the dragon given by those who had seen it. He then trained dogs to attack it, with the intention of killing it himself while it was engaged by the dogs. When he felt that the training period was over, Dieudonné rode out to the valley. He found the dragon in its lair and slew it.

For his disobedience he was dismissed from the Order. So great was the public outcry, however, that the Grand Master was forced to reinstate him. Whatever the truth of the story (and it is possible that some large snake or even a Nile crocodile had established itself near a lake in the valley) the existence of Dieudonné de Gozon cannot be doubted. He is ever afterwards referred to in the Order’s archives as “The Dragon-Slayer.” He went on, undoubtedly assisted by his popular fame, to become Grand Master in 1346.

Ernle Bradford, The Shield and the Sword (New York: E. P. Dutton & Co., Inc., 1973), 68.

Short Stories on Honor, Chivalry, and the World of Nobility—no. 260

How a Good Lent Can Help Fix a Bad Economy


To those who see no link between Lent and our failing economy, it might be the case to look again.

Economics is about people. It cannot be reduced to numbers, formulae and analyses. “The subject matter of economics,” observes economic historian Odd Langholm, “is properly the habits, customs, and ways of thinking of producers, consumers, buyers, sellers, borrowers, lenders, and all who engage in economic transactions.”

That means our moral habits can have a definite effect on determining if our economy grows—or fails.

In my new book, Return to Order: From a Frenzied Economy to an Organic Christian Society—Where We’ve Been, How We Got Here, and Where We Need to Go, I show how our present economic crisis is being caused by what I call “frenetic intemperance.”

Frenetic intemperance can be defined as a restless spirit inside certain sectors of modern economy that foments a drive inside men to throw off legitimate restraints and gratify disordered passions. It is not a specifically economic problem but a moral and psychological vice that throws everything out of balance.

When frenetic intemperance dominates, it often sends the whole system into convulsions—as we saw during the 2008 subprime mortgage crisis. And, unless addressed, it is virulent enough to crash the entire financial system.

In our daily lives, we see frenetic intemperance in the tendency to desire everything, right away, regardless of the consequences. Everyone must have the latest gadget even though they do not need it and really cannot afford it. The mad lack of restraint leads to an unstable economy laden with boom and bust, debt and stress. It creates a cold mechanistic economy where money rules. It gives rise to a materialistic culture which values quantity and utility over quality and beauty. The long and short of it is that a frenzied economy comes from frenzied lifestyles.

And that brings us to Lent. Fighting bad moral habits and practicing restraint is what Lent is all about. More than giving up a box of chocolates, how about giving up habits that foster frenetic intemperance, which is the real root cause of our economic decline? Besides the personal benefits of interior peace, detachment, and greater spiritual freedom, a good Lent can also help save our economy.

Here are some suggestions on how this might be done.

1. Avoid speculative investments that promise huge returns on investment in little time. Such offers usually do not deliver what they promise and always feed frenetic desires that create anxiety and stress.

2. Stay away from business relationships that are cold and mechanical. Treat workers like family. Respect those for whom you work.

3. Avoid trendy business gurus and books that call for radical changes that will “revolutionize” a company or keep people in a constant state of change.

4. Eschew work schedules that are inhuman and stressful. Learn to appreciate leisure.

5. Avoid compulsive buying especially during those sales frenzies around the holidays.

6. Shun the abuse of credit cards and especially the temptation to pay only the minimal monthly amount. Avoid consumer debt as you would the plague (i.e. borrowing to buy things for your immediate consumption, e.g. that new laptop, games, cars, fashion clothing, etc. that you cannot afford, as opposed to investment debt , e.g. your home mortgage).

7. Learn not to have everything right now. The culture of instant gratification creates a frenzied lifestyle—and economy.

8. Do not take as role models those who have money as the central axis of their lives. Admire character not a person’s bottom line.

9. Resist the temptation of seeing only quantity and cheapness. Learn to appreciate the beauty of quality and good taste.

10. Avoid lavish display, especially of fancy gadgetry that leads to a desire to keep up with the e-Joneses with the latest version.
As Lent progresses, we would do well to do something that has an impact beyond our own spiritual lives. It would be good to practice charity toward our neighbor by looking at the big picture. Giving up frenetic intemperance is a good start.

by John Horvat II

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John Horvat II is a scholar, researcher, educator, international speaker, and author. His book Return to Order: From a Frenzied Economy to an Organic Christian Society—Where We’ve Been, How We Got Here, and Where We Need to Go will be published February 19.

Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Princess who followed the strict rule of the Poor Clares – St. Isabel of France

St. Isabel of France

St. Isabel of France

Daughter of Louis VIII and of his wife, Blanche of Castille, born in March, 1225; died at Longchamp, 23 February, 1270. St. Louis IX, King of France (1226-70), was her brother. When still a child at court, Isabel, or Elizabeth, showed an extraordinary devotion to exercises of piety, modesty, and other virtues. By Bull of 26 May, 1254, Innocent IV allowed her to retain some Franciscan fathers as her special confessors. She was even more devoted to the Franciscan Order than her royal brother.

She not only broke off her engagement with a count, but moreover refused the hand of Conrad, son of the German Emperor Frederick II, although pressed to accept him by everyone, even by Pope Innocent IV, who however did not hesitate subsequently (1254) to praise her fixed determination to remain a virgin. As Isabel wished to found a convent of the Order of St. Clare, Louis IX began in 1255 to acquire the necessary land in the Forest of Rouvray, not far from the Seine and in the neighbourhood of Paris.

On 10 June, 1256, the first stone of the convent church was laid. The building appears to have been completed about the beginning of 1259, because Alexander IV gave his sanction on 2 February, 1259, to the new rule which Isabel had had compiled by the Franciscan Mansuetus on the basis of the Rule of the Order of St. Clare. These rules were drawn up solely for this convent, which was named the Monastery of the Humility of the Blessed Virgin (Monasterium Humilitatis B. Mariæ Virginis).

The sisters were called in the rule the “Sorores Ordinis humilium ancillarum Beatissimf Marif Virginis”. The fast was not so strict as in the Rule of St. Clare; the community was allowed to hold property, and the sisters were subject to the Minorites. The first sisters came from the convent of the Poor Clares at Reims. Isabel herself never entered the cloister, but from 1260 (or 1263) she followed the rules in her own home near by.

Isabel was not altogether satisfied with the first rule drawn up, and therefore submitted through the agency of her brother Louis IX, who had also secured the confirmation of the first rule, a revised rule to Urban IV. Urban approved this new constitution on 27 July, 1263.

Painting of St. Isabel of France by Roger de Gaignières

Painting of St. Isabel of France by Roger de Gaignières

The difference between the two rules consisted for the most part in outward observances and minor alterations. This new rule was also adopted by other French and Italian convents of the Order of St. Clare, but one can by no means say that a distinct congregation was formed on the basis Isabella’s rule. In the new rule Urban IV gives the nuns of Longchamp the official title of “Sorores Minores inclusæ, which was doubtlessly intended to emphasize closer union with the Order of Friars Minor. After a life of mortification and virtue, Isabella died in her house at Longchamp on 23 February, 1270, and was buried in the convent church. After nine days her body was exhumed, when it showed no signs of decay, and many miracles were wrought at her grave.

In 1521 Leo X allowed the Abbey of Longchamp to celebrate her feast with a special Office. On 4 June, 1637, a second exhumation took place. On 25 January, 1688, the nuns obtained permission to celebrate her feast with an octave, and in 1696 the celebration of the feast on 31 August was permitted to the whole Franciscan Order. They now keep it on 1 September. The history of the Abbey of Longchamp had many vicissitudes. The Revolution closed it, and in 1794 the empty and dilapidated building was offered for sale, but as no one wished to purchase it, it was destroyed. In 1857 the walls were pulled down except one tower, and the grounds were added to the Bois de Boulogne.

 

AGNES D’HARCOURT, third Prioress of Longchamp (1263-70), wrote the saint’s life, Vie de Madame Isabelle, which may be found in the Archives Nationales L. 1021 MSS. (Paris). A Latin translation of this book is given in Acta SS., VII, Aug., 798-808; cf. ibid., 787-98. See also ROULLIARD, La sainte mère, ou vie de Madame Saincte Isabel (Paris, 1619); ANDRÉ, Histoire de Ste Isabelle (Carpentras, 1885); DANIÉLO, Vie de Madame Ste Isabelle (Paris, 1840); BERGUIN, La Bienheureuse Isabelle de France (Grenoble, 1899); DUCHESNE, Histoire de l’abbaye royale de Longchamp, 1255-1789 (2nd ed., Paris, 1904); SBARA-LEA, Bull. Franc., III (Rome, 1765), 64-9; II (1761). 477-86.

MICHAEL BIHL (Catholic Encyclopedia)

Obama to Supreme Court: Denying homosexuals special rights, quotas is 'discrimination'

by Ben Johnson

WASHINGTON, D.C., February 26, 2013, (LifeSiteNews.com) – The fact that Americans have regularly voted against such pillars of the homosexual agenda as granting homosexuals special rights in hiring or college admission quotas is proof that gays and lesbians face discrimination, according to the Obama administration's amicus curiae brief seeking to overturn the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA).

Under the section “Gay and lesbian people have been subject to a history of discrimination,” the administration cites a number of laws, most of them repealed decades ago, as well as the results of “voter referenda.”

The Justice Department document notes that attempts to add sexual preference to civil rights ordinances have “engendered significant political backlash, as evidenced by a series of successful state and local ballot initiatives, starting in the 1970s, repealing [an] anti-discrimination...law or executive order.”

“In 15 of these 21 cases, a majority voted to repeal the law or executive order,” it states.

However, even these facts may be inaccurate. The Williams Institute, a pro-homosexual think tank at the UCLA School of Law, puts the number of such voter initiatives at 115, most of them in the early to mid-1990s. “Of the ballot measures that were initiated, 58 passed, or 50% of those attempted,” it states. Its high estimate is that pro-family voters have won two-thirds of such elections

Many of these were aimed at denying homosexuals special rights based on their intimate behavior. For example, in 1993 voters in Cincinnati amended the city charter to state that “homosexual, lesbian, or bisexual orientation, status, conduct, or relationship” does not entitle anyone to “any claim of minority of protected status, quota preference, or other preferential treatment.”

Adding homosexuals to anti-discrimination laws could entitle them to the same hiring preferences and other beneficial government treatement given to minorities, something opposed by most blacks.

Polls have consistently shown the majority of Americans oppose Affirmative Action and quotas for any group. For years, pollsters have found that 55 percent of Americans would like to abolish Affirmative Action, particularly for college admissions.

Even more – 65 percent of respondents – oppose preferences for homosexuals in hiring, promotions and college admissions.

A number of commentators see public universities in Iowa and California taking preparatory steps to add sexual preference to their Affirmative Action programs – a preference system more strongly rejected by millennials than by their parents.

The administration argues, in effect, that since voters resisted liberal measures on homosexuality at the ballot box, the court should impose its definition of marriage on the federal government.

However unpopular reverse discrimination may be to the American public, it has its partisans both inside the administration and on the High Court.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who has admitted she would not have been admitted to the Ivy League without racial and sexual preferences, has told 60 Minutes, “Look, I have publicly said that I'm the very best that Affirmative Action has produced.”

The president has filed another amicus curiae brief on an Affirmative Action case now pending before the Supreme Court, Fisher v. University of Texas. Despite her good grades and extracurricular activities, Abigail Fisher said she was not admitted to the university because she is white. A Justice Department brief lauds the race-based admissions programs for giving students “the educational benefits of diversity.”

The president chose as his vote director Buffy Wicks, a woman who joined a lawsuit to keep an underprivileged white woman out of the University of Washington Law School.

Attorney General Eric Holder has likewise asked, “When do people of color truly get the benefits to which they are entitled?”

The administration has made clear sexual orientation and, at times, “gender identity,” make up its criteria of diversity, often imposing such special rights by executive order or through the federal rule-making process.

The brief attempts to portray homosexuals as a politically powerless and besieged minority so that laws such as DOMA will be considered with higher legal scrutiny. Without such a standard, the brief admits, the administration will lose its case.

- See more at: http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/obama-to-supreme-court-denying-homosexuals-special-rights-quotas-is-discrim#sthash.if1igKho.dpuf

Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Will you join this historic March for Marriage on March 26?

By John Ritchie

March for Marriage 2013

On March 26, the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in the Hollingsworth v. Perry case, which will determine if Proposition 8 – the 2008 ballot initiative protecting marriage in California – is constitutional or not.

The outcome of the Supreme Court's decision will impact the future of marriage not only in California, but also nationwide. So much hangs in the balance because it will be like the Roe v. Wade moment of marriage in America. For that reason, it is important for pro-family Americans everywhere to join the March for Marriage in Washington, D.C.

Get more information here:

On Capitol Hill, in front of the Supreme Court, we will proclaim the truth loud and clear: that God-ordained marriage between husband and wife is sacred and must not be redefined. We will rally to demonstrate how a growing number of Americans are uniting to defend the sanctity of marriage.

The march is being organized by the National Organization for Marriage (NOM) alongside a broad coalition of pro-family organizations and leaders, including the TFP.

"No one has ever organized a national march for marriage before in this country," stated Brian Brown, president of the National Organization for Marriage.

"This year, you have a chance to be part of history," he said, "because we are not waiting for the Supreme Court to trample on marriage or our rights to vote for marriage before taking action! Now is our time to make history happen!"
Visit the March for Marriage web site for updates and more information.

March for Marriage on March 26, 2013
Washington, D.C.
8:30am – Gather at National Mall location between 10th Street and 12th Street NW & between Madison Drive NW and Jefferson Drive SW

9:30am – March to Supreme Court and then return to the National Mall location
11:00am to 1:00pm – Rally at National Mall location
TFP resources:

Monday, February 25, 2013

Rev. John Trigilio likes America Needs Fatima’s new book

In Return to Order, John Horvat succinctly describes the condition, history, diagnosis and prognosis of our current economic crisis.

Order a copy of Return to Order

moral-solution-to-economic-crisis

The economic chaos or peril is only symptomatic of the bigger and more crucial issue of a CULTURAL CRISIS. His terminology of FRENETIC INTEMPERANCE is brilliant.

This is not an apologia to retreat from the world nor is it an attempt to turn back the clock, so to speak. It is a coherent explanation of the sitz-im-leben we find ourselves. Only an ORGANIC CHRISTIAN SOCIETY can save Europe and America from the same oblivion that doomed the Egyptian, Greek and Roman civilizations. Western Civilization is rooted in the JUDAEO-CHRISTIAN ethos.

No philosophical or economic theory can provide what an organic Christian society alone creates and supports. Not Socialism, not Communism, not Fascism and not unbridled, unrestricted and unlimited Consumeristic Capitalism.

Horvat, like Fr. Sirico, shows that a Free Market makes sense and conforms to the Natural Moral Law but must also be constrained and governed by it as well. I highly recommend this book.

 

— Rev. Dr. John Trigilio
Author and President, Confraternity of Catholic Clergy

Two Iowa Planned Parenthood facilities to close

by Ben Johnson

WASHINGTON, D.C., February 22, 2013, (LifeSiteNews.com) – Planned Parenthood is closing two of its facilities in the state of Iowa next month, one of which performs surgical abortions.

The locations are in the towns of Spencer and Fort Madison. The abortion provider did not immediately announce why the buildings will be closed.

Spencer Health Center performs “abortion services,” according to the Planned Parenthood website. Fort Madison Health Center provides abortion referral. Both locations dispense the abortifacient morning-after pill and offer “LGBT services.”

Fort Madison will be consolidated with facilities in Burlington and Keokuk on March 15.

Spencer is itself the product of a consolidation. After Planned Parenthood of the Heartland (formerly Planned Parenthood of Greater Iowa) closed its branch in Storm Lake, Iowa, it merged operations with Spencer.

The Iowa closures come after Planned Parenthood announced it would close four facilities in Wisconsin that provide the morning-after pill.

The Wisconsin closures were due to reductions in government funding put into law by Governor Scott Walker, a Republican.

PPGI operates 16 additional locations in the state of Iowa.

The franchise also has locations in Arkansas, Illinois, Iowa, Oklahoma, and Nebraska.

St. Walburga – Princess, Abbess, Miracle Worker

St. Walburga

Born in Devonshire, about 710; died at Heidenheim, 25 Feb., 777. She is the patroness of Eichstadt, Oudenarde, Furnes, Antwerp, Gronigen, Weilburg, and Zutphen, and is invoked as special patroness against hydrophobia, and in storms, and also by sailors. She was the daughter of St. Richard, one of the under-kings of the West Saxons, and of Winna, sister of St. Boniface, Apostle of Germany, and had two brothers, St. Willibald and St. Winibald.

St. Richard, when starting with his two sons on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, entrusted Walburga, then eleven years old, to the abbess of Wimborne. In the claustral school and as a member of the community, she spent twenty-six years preparing for the great work she was to accomplish in Germany. The monastery was famous for holiness and austere discipline. There was a high standard at Wimborne, and the child was trained in solid learning, and in accomplishments suitable to her rank. Thanks to this she was later able to write St. Winibald’s Life and an account in Latin of St. Willibald’s travels in Palestine. She is thus looked upon by many as the first female author of England and Germany. Scarcely a year after her arrival, Walburga received tidings of her father’s death at Lucca.

During this period St. Boniface was laying the foundations of the Church in Germany. He saw that for the most part scattered efforts would be futile, or would exert but a passing influence. He, therefore, determined to bring the whole country under an organized system. As he advanced in his spiritual conquests he established monasteries which, like fortresses, should hold the conquered regions, and from whose watch-towers the light of faith and learning should radiate far and near.

Statue of Saint Walpurga in the church of Contern, Luxembourg.

Boniface was the first missionary to call women to his aid. In 748, in response to his appeal, Abbess Tetta sent over to Germany St. Lioba and St. Walburga, with many other nuns. They sailed with fair weather, but before long a terrible storm arose. Hereupon Walburga prayed, kneeling on the deck, and at once the sea became calm. On landing, the sailors proclaimed the miracle they had witnessed, so that Walburga was everywhere received with joy and veneration. There is a tradition in the Church of Antwerp that, on her way to Germany, Walburga made some stay there; and in that city’s most ancient church, which now bears the title of St. Walburga, there is pointed out a grotto in which she was wont to pray. This same church, before adopting the Roman Office, was accustomed to celebrate the feast of St. Walburga four times a year. At Mainz she was welcomed by her uncle, St. Boniface, and by her brother, St. Willibald.

After living some time under the rule of St. Lioba at Bischofsheim, she was appointed abbess of Heidenheim, and was thus placed near her favourite brother, St. Winibald, who governed an abbey there. After his death she ruled over the monks’ monastery as well as her own. Her virtue, sweetness, and prudence, added to the gifts of grace and nature with which she was endowed, as well as the many miracles she wrought, endeared her to all. It was of these nuns that Ozanam wrote: “Silence and humility have veiled the labours of the nuns from the eyes of the world, but history has assigned them their place at the very beginning of German civilization: Providence has placed women at ever cradleside.” On 23 Sept., 776, she assisted at the translation of her brother St. Winibald’s body by St. Willibald, when it was found that time had left no trace upon the sacred remains. Shortly after this she fell ill, and, having been assisted in her last moments by St. Willibald, she expired.

St. Walburga

St. Willibald laid her to rest beside St. Winibald, and many wonders were wrought at both tombs. St. Willibald survived till 786, and after his death devotion to St. Walburga gradually declined, and her tomb was neglected. About 870, Otkar, then Bishop of Eichstadt, determined to restore the church and monastery of Heidenheim, which were falling to ruin. The workmen having desecrated St. Walburga’s grave, she one night appeared to the bishop, reproaching and threatening him. This led to the solemn translation of the remains to Eichstadt on 21 Sept. of the same year.

They were placed in the Church of Holy Cross, now called St. Walburga’s. In 893 Bishop Erchanbold, Otkar’s successor, opened the shrine to take out a portion of the relics for Liubula, Abbess of Monheim, and it was then that the body was first discovered to be immersed in a precious oil or dew, which from that day to this (save during a period when Eichstadt was laid under interdict, and when blood was shed in the church by robbers who seriously wounded the bell-ringer) has continued to flow from the sacred remains, especially the breast. This fact has caused St. Walburga to be reckoned among the Elaephori, or oil-yielding saints. Portions of St. Walburga’s relics have been taken to Cologne, Antwerp, Furnes, and elsewhere, whilst her oil has been carried to all quarters of the globe.

The various translations of St. Walburga’s relics have led to a diversity of feasts in her honour. In the Roman Martyrology she is commemorated on 1 May, her name being linked with St. Asaph’s, on which day her chief festival is celebrated in Belgium and Bavaria. In the Benedictine Breviary her feast is assigned to 25 (in leap year 26) Feb.

She is represented in the Benedictine habit with a little phial or bottle; as an abbess with a crozier, a crown at her feet, denoting her royal birth; sometimes she is represented in a group with St. Philip and St. James the Less, and St. Sigismund, King of Burgundy, because she is said to have been canonized by Pope Adrian II on 1 May, the festival of these saints. If, however, as some maintain, she was canonized during the episcopate of Erchanbold, not in Otkar’s, then it could not have been during the pontificate of Adrian II. The Benedictine community of Eichstadt is flourishing, and the nuns have care of the saint’s shrine; that of Heidenheim was ruthlessly expelled in 1538, but the church is now in Catholic hands.

GERTRUDE CASANOVA (Catholic Encyclopedia)

A living example of organic society as the solution for our economic problems; an essential part of such a plan is a healthy regionalism

off_the_beaten_path
Since reading Return to Order by John Horvat, I was inspired to apply the principles he so clearly lays out for the reader
He gives organic society as the solution for our economic problems and an essential part of such a plan is a healthy regionalism. Although it might be hard to believe, America as Europe has a myriad of examples of such a thing.
It is for this reason that I decided, on a recent trip to North Carolina, to avoid chain restaurants in favor of more local flavors.
This not only helps to support regional businesses, but it gives the traveler a chance to really appreciate and subsequently understand the area they are visiting. My efforts were paid off today when I had lunch at The Pit in downtown Raleigh, North Carolina’s warehouse district. It was recommended by locals as a good place to sample a bit of barbeque, for which this state is most known.
Carolina ribs - Copy
What struck me first was the excellence of the food; every dish was a culinary masterpiece one would only expect to find in grandma’s kitchen. Add to this the quantity and you can be assured that you will leave The Pit completely satisfied. This is due as much to the excellence of the food as from the fact that what you eat is largely produced by local people.
Michael Woods is the Assistant Chef and he took time out of his busy schedule to share some of the secrets of their success. The conversation with him was nearly as enjoyable as the lunch I had just enjoyed. He explained the history of the restaurant.
One of the secrets of their success is the authenticity of the barbeque which began with a legendary “pit-master” and co-founder Ed Mitchell, a black gentleman who put them on the map in Raleigh. Mr. Mitchell’s picturesque bushy white beard and frayed overalls might have deceived some of the early patrons, but they quickly made The Pit their favorite watering hole in town. Mitchell is no longer with them, but Mr. Woods explained how the trademark flavors crafted by him continue.
Their website boasts of having “the freshest of the state’s bountiful produce.” The meat they serve, for example, is as homegrown as the founder. The pigs used to produce their world class ribs are obtained exclusively from farmers barely an hour away from the restaurant and are raised with free-range farming practices. Even more interesting is the pedigree of their sweet potatoes.
They are purchased from another local farmer who proudly boasts of the fact that the seeds used to grow them are from the same line that dates back to the turn of the century. Their delicious heirloom cabbage collards also enjoy a long tradition of satisfying the palate of customers; their seed line is several generations old. The farmer they buy them from “had to plant fifteen extra acres just to keep up with our demand,” Mr. Woods explained. Such is the case with a catfish company that supplies them with their fish. It is appropriately named “Locals.”
All of the spirits at The Pit have been handpicked to enhance the smoked and sometimes spicy fare cooked off the pit, as well as with some of the more traditional entrees.
Exterior The Pit small copy
Although they have been in business for only four years they enjoy an enormous popularity with the locals… and those who take the time to get off the beaten path. Fridays and Saturdays are their busiest days as they serve 3,000 people.
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Yes it does pay to get off the beaten path and discover what makes a particular region of the United States special. Yes there is an alternative to the mass-produced, artificially re-created country-store-atmosphere in such places like Cracker Barrel. Today I was able to say NO to this lack of authenticity and the fabricated flavors dished up by chain stores in favor of something truly unique.

Sunday, February 24, 2013

How we carry out all our actions “in Mary”

We continue our series with Prof. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira’s commentary on paragraph no. 261 from St. Louis de Montfort’s famous book Treatise on True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin. In the first part of the series we discussed doing all our actions “with Mary” and now we will discuss “in Mary”.

St. Louis de Montfort says:

We must do everything in Mary. To understand this we must realise that the Blessed Virgin is the true earthly paradise of the new Adam and that the ancient paradise was only a symbol of her.

There are in this earthly paradise untold riches, beauties, rarities and delights, which the new Adam, Jesus Christ, has left there. It is in this paradise that he "took his delights" for nine months, worked his wonders and displayed his riches with the magnificence of God himself.

This most holy place consists of only virgin and immaculate soil from which the new Adam was formed with neither spot nor stain by the operation of the Holy Spirit who dwells there. In this earthly paradise grows the real Tree of Life which bore our Lord, the fruit of Life, the tree of knowledge of good and evil, which bore the Light of the world.

In other words, Adam, our first father, was created in paradise which was a place full of marvels, splendours and happiness. But he sinned and both he and Eve were expelled from paradise. But this was the paradise of the first Adam.

Our Lord Jesus Christ is rightly considered the new Adam. In other words, He came to restore humanity, to save it from the shadow of death and to restore it to the state of grace through His redemption, through is sacrifice of Himself on the height of the Cross. He is considered the new Adam and just as the first Adam was created in paradise, the new Adam should be created in paradise also.

So what was this paradise, this second paradise of the second Adam? It was Our Lady. That is, everything the first paradise—earthly paradise—had that was beautiful, splendid in its material reality, Our Lady also had what was beautiful and splendid in the spiritual realm. In fact it was even more splendid and beautiful that the first paradise.

While Our Lord Jesus Christ lived in Our Lady, He not only had all the joy and all the contentment that Adam had in paradise, but much more because, just as He is incomparably and infinitely superior to Adam, the second paradise of the second Adam was unfathomably superior to the first paradise of the first Adam.

Our Lady is then the Paradise of Our Lord Jesus Christ. This is the thought St. Louis is developing here. And the next considerations are based on this idea.

“There are in this earthly paradise untold riches, beauties, rarities and delights, which the new Adam, Jesus Christ, has left there.”

It is important to note that every St. Louis de Montfort says here is very precise. He makes a distinction between “riches, beauties, rarities and delights”. They are all different.

Riches is the abundance of useful things. This is different from beauty. Something can be of great beauty, but not represent richness. A good example is water. We can have a stream of crystalline water that has a great beauty. This water may even be—and certainly is—incomparably more beautiful that any tractor, which is something ugly. Nonetheless a tractor is a richness and water is a beauty.

In this new paradise, therefore, existed riches and beauties in the spiritual sense of the word. There were also rarities. You could say: “But what is rare is expensive”. This is true in our money-obsessed society where everything has a price, but not in a society without such an obsession, not everything that is rare is expensive.

For example, a true friend is becoming a rarity; but not because it is hard to find for sale. If a friendship needs to be bought or sold, it has ceased to exist.

Rarity is therefore different from the first two elements of beauty and riches. St. Louis made a calculation. He made an exact inventory of the various ways in which something could be worth something for man.

Then comes delights. A delight makes something amenable, pleasant to deal with, soft to the touch. To have an idea let us consider (I do not know if scientists have now been able to explain what I am about to say. But at least when I was a boy, they had no explanation) the well-being we feel when seated in the shade of certain trees.

Near the town of Amparo [in the state of São Paulo, Brazil] along the road there is a beautifully developed and rounded tree—it looks like a ball—that touches the ground. If I were younger, I would have stopped the car and stayed a while underneath the trees branches because I am sure one would feel a delight that is different from richness and beauty. This well-being comes from a cosiness, a harmony, a suavity that is different from other things. One can also feel this when next to water such as a beautiful lake, a stream or the sea. One need not even be touching the water. Indeed the sea has a sweetness—depending on the moment of course, because the sea also has moments of magnificent wildness. Everything in the sea is magnificent, except when it has been dirtied by the petrol of a passing ship. Otherwise, the sea is a marvel!

“… which the new Adam, Jesus Christ, has left there.”

Here we have the idea that Our Lord Jesus Christ, during the time He lived in Our Lady’s maternal womb, left all sorts of marvels within her. Then whilst He lived with her from His birth to His Ascension, He left even more marvels. In paradise Adam was a consumer—it is not written that he embellished anything—although it probably would have been his task, along with his descendants, to build a civilisation that would embellish paradise even more.

But Our Lord Jesus Christ embellished His paradise. In other words, he adorned Our Lady with indescribable graces. This is where we get the idea that the new Adam embellished substantially His paradise just as the human race, if it had not fallen into sin, would have embellished earthly paradise.

“…It is in this paradise that he "took his delights" for nine months, worked his wonders and displayed his riches with the magnificence of God himself.”

The magnificence of a God is total magnificence. St. Louis, with one phrase, reminds us how no one can do things as magnificently as God. And if this is true, then it is also true that the paradise of the new Adam was more splendid than the paradise of the first Adam. Hence Our Lady, spiritually speaking, was incomparably more beautiful that the whole universe.

In other words the stars, sun, moon, water, lilies of the field—whatever you like—cannot be compared to the beauty of Our Lady. Nor can these things be compared to her physical beauty either, because her physical beauty was a reflection of her transcendental moral beauty.

“… This most holy place consists of only virgin and immaculate soil from which the new Adam was formed with neither spot nor stain by the operation of the Holy Spirit who dwells there.”

Here we have another beautiful comparison. Just as Adam was formed from the earth by God Who then breathed in a soul, so also the new Adam was formed from the virginal flesh of Our Lady through the work of the Holy Ghost.

“… In this earthly paradise grows the real Tree of Life which bore our Lord…”

There was a tree of life in earthly paradise. But in the new paradise there is another tree that produces even more precious fruits: Jesus Christ. This is a fruit of the virginal fecundity of Our Lady.

to be continued...


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The Nobility of the Holy Family & Prayer to Saint Joseph

The Nobility of the Holy Family & Prayer to Saint Joseph

Mary, Joseph, and Therefore Jesus,
Were Born of Royal Stock

From a sermon of Saint Bernardine of Siena (1380-1444) about Saint Joseph:

Firstly, let us consider the nobility of the bride the Most Holy Virgin. The Blessed Virgin was nobler than any other creature that had been born in human form that could be or could have been begotten. For Saint Matthew in his first chapter, thrice enumerating fourteen generations from Abraham to Jesus Christ inclusive, shows that she descends from fourteen Patriarchs, fourteen Kings, and fourteen Princes…. Saint Luke also, writing on her nobility in his third chapter, proceeds in his genealogy from Adam and Eve until Christ God….

Secondly, let us consider the nobility of the bridegroom Saint Joseph. He was born of Patriarchal, Royal and Princely stock in a direct line as has been said. For Saint Matthew in his first chapter established a direct line with all the aforementioned fathers from Abraham to the spouse of the Virgin, clearly demonstrating that all patriarchal, royal and princely dignity come together in him….

Thirdly, let us examine the nobility of Christ. He was, as follows from what has been said, a Patriarch, King, and Prince, for He received just as much from His mother as others from father and mother…. From what has been said above, it is clear that the nobility of the Virgin and of Joseph is described by the aforementioned Evangelists so that the nobility of Christ be manifest. For Joseph, therefore, was of such nobility that, in a certain way, if it be permitted to say, he gave temporal nobility to God in Our Lord Jesus Christ.

Sancti Bernardini Senensis Sermones Eximii (Venice: in Aedibus Andreae Poletti, 1745), Vol. 4, p. 232, in Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira, Nobility and Analogous Traditional Elites in the Allocutions of Pius XII: A Theme Illuminating American Social History(York, Penn.: The American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family, and Property, 1993), Documents IV, pp. 471-472.

Prayer to Saint Joseph

by Pope Leo XIII

To Thee, O blessed Saint Joseph, we have recourse in our afflictions, and after imploring the help of thy most holy Spouse, we confidently invoke thy patronage. By that affection which united thee to the Immaculate Virgin Mother of God, and by the fatherly love with which thou didst embrace the Infant Jesus, look down, we beseech thee with gracious eyes on the precious inheritance, which Jesus Christ purchased by His blood and help us in our necessities by thy power and aid. Protect, O most provident guardian of the Holy Family, the elect children of Jesus Christ; ward off from us, O most loving father, all plagues of errors and depravity; be propitious to us from heaven, O most powerful protector, in this our struggle with the powers of darkness; and as thou didst once rescue the Child Jesus from the greatest peril to His life, so now defend God’s holy Church from the snares of the enemy and all adversity. Finally, shield every one of us with thy patronage, that by imitating thy example and strengthened by thy help, we may live a holy life, die a happy death and attain to everlasting happiness in heaven. Amen.

Pope Leo XIII, September 21, 1887. An Indulgence of 300 days, applicable to the souls in Purgatory, seven years and seven quarantines for each public recital during the month of October.

Saturday, February 23, 2013

Massachusetts forces schools to let 'transgender' boys use girls' restrooms, lockers

by Kirsten Andersen

BOSTON, February 19, 2013, (LifeSiteNews.com) – Massachusetts Commissioner of Education Mitchell Chester has issued orders to the state’s K-12 public schools requiring them to permit “transgender” boys and girls to use the opposite sex’s locker rooms, bathrooms, and changing facilities as long as they claim to identify with that gender.

Many elementary schools in smaller Massachusetts towns include children from kindergarten through eighth grade, making it possible for boys as old as 14 to share toilet facilities with girls as young as five.

Under Chester's leadership, the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) released an 11-page document on Friday outlining this and other new guidelines giving “transgender” students special status and privileges in Massachusetts schools. Some family advocates are calling the document, which was prepared with assistance from homosexual and transgender advocacy groups, “the most thorough, invasive, and radical transgender initiative ever seen on a statewide level.”

The policy does not require a doctor’s note or even parental permission for a child to switch sexes in the eyes of Massachusetts schools. Only the student’s word is needed: If a boy says he’s a girl, as far as the schools are concerned, he’s a girl.

“The responsibility for determining a student’s gender identity rests with the student,” the statement says. “A school should accept a student’s assertion of his or her gender identity when there is … ‘evidence that the gender-related identity is sincerely held as part of a person’s core identity.’” That evidence, according to the document, can be as simple as a statement given by a friend.

That means, according to the newly issued school policies, that boys who say they identify as girls must be addressed by the feminine pronoun and be listed as girls on official transcripts.

They must also be allowed access to girls’ facilities and be allowed to play on girls’ athletic and club teams. The same is true for girls who say they are boys.

The document was issued to clarify the schools’ obligations in light of “An Act Relative to Gender Identity,” a law that went into effect last July. That bill amended Massachusetts law “to establish that no person shall be excluded from or discriminated against in admission to a public school of any town, or in obtaining the advantages, privileges and courses of study of such public school on account of gender identity.”

However, Brian Camenker, spokesman for government watchdog group MassResistance, told LifeSiteNews the DESE’s new directives go far beyond what the law requires.

Camenker pointed out that the only requirement the Gender Identity bill imposed on schools was to add “gender identity” to their non-discrimination policies, alongside other protected groups such as religious or ethnic minorities. Under the DESE’s policy, however, self-identified transgendered students will have more rights than other students, including the right to access bathroom and changing facilities of the opposite sex and play on the opposite sex’s sports teams.

Not only that, but students who object may be subject to punishment under the state’s new “anti-bullying” law, which, like the new school policy, was written with the help of homosexual and transgender activist groups.

Under that law, any outwardly negative reaction against transgenderism can now be considered bullying, and subject to discipline and punishment, according to Camenker.

“The directive is clear that there is to be no tolerance for students who become uncomfortable or upset at these situations being pushed on them,” Camenker wrote. “The school's approach is to be unyielding to any such discomfort, and to re-educate those students to have more ‘acceptable’ reactions and values.”

“[It] is completely natural for a child to feel very uncomfortable using a female name for an individual they know to be male, seeing a boy in girl’s clothing, or feeling it’s unfair that a boy is competing athletically as a girl,” Camenker added. “These feelings are now considered by the school to be backwards and disruptive.”

Andrew Beckwith, attorney for Massachusetts Family Institute, called the document’s definition of transgender “extremely broad.”

“If a male student tells his teacher he feels like a girl on the inside, the school has to treat him in every way as if he actually is a girl,” Beckwith said. “School personnel may be forbidden from informing the parents of their child’s gender decisions, and students can even decide to be one gender at home and another at school.”

Kris Mineau, president of the Massachusetts Family Institute, worries that the new policy could put girls at particular risk for violations ranging from privacy invasions to sexual assault.

“The School Commissioner’s first duty is to protect all students, from kindergarten to grade 12, not endanger them,” Mineau said in a statement. “The overriding issue with this new policy is that opening girls’ bathrooms to boys is an invasion of privacy and a threat to all students’ safety.”

The DESE expressed awareness that parents and students would likely have concerns, but they dismissed such feelings as invalid.

“Some students may feel uncomfortable with a transgender student using the same sex-segregated restroom, locker room or changing facility,” the document concedes, but then admonishes administrators, “this discomfort is not a reason to deny access to the transgender student.”

The Massachusetts Family Institute reminded the public that during debate, the gender identity law that led to this new policy had been called the “Stealth Bathroom Bill” by critics. At the time, the part of the law explicitly opening all public bathrooms to self-identified transgender people was removed in response to concerns about safety and privacy.

In schools, however, the bathroom provisions will now effectively be put back in.

Democratic State Rep. Colleen Garry has introduced amending legislation to the current law intended to force people to use restrooms and locker room facilities consistent with their anatomical sex.

“Like many of my colleagues, I am very concerned about Commissioner Chester’s directive to open public school bathrooms to all genders,” said Garry. “This was not the intent of the Legislature, and we need to pass legislation that clearly defines the use of such facilities.”

Friday, February 22, 2013

Saint Robert Southwell was hung for the faith

Saint Robert Southwell -- Poet, Jesuit, martyr; born at Horsham St. Faith’s, Norfolk, England, in 1561; hanged and quartered at Tyburn, 21 February, 1595.

St. Robert

His grandfather, Sir Richard Southwell, had been a wealthy man and a prominent courtier in the reign of Henry VIII. It was Richard Southwell who in 1547 had brought the poet Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, to the block, and Surrey had vainly begged to be allowed to “fight him in his shirt”. Curiously enough their respective grandsons, Father Southwell and Philip, Earl of Arundel, were to be the most devoted of friends and fellow-prisoners for the Faith. On his mother’s side the Jesuit was descended from the Copley and Shelley families, whence a remote connection may be established between him and the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley.

Robert Southwell was brought up a Catholic, and at a very early age was sent to be educated at Douai, where he was the pupil in philosophy of a Jesuit of extraordinary austerity of life, the famous Leonard Lessius. After spending a short time in Paris he begged for admission into the Society of Jesus—a boon at first denied. This disappointment elicited from the boy of seventeen some passionate laments, the first of his verses of which we have record. On 17 Oct., 1578, however, he was admitted at Rome, and made his simple vows in 1580. Shortly after his noviceship, during which he was sent to Tournai, he returned to Rome to finish his studies, was ordained priest in 1584, and became prefect of studies in the English College. In 1586 he was sent on the English mission with Father Henry Garnett, found his first refuge with Lord Vaux of Harrowden, and was known under the name of Cotton.

St. Robert SouthwellTwo years afterwards he became chaplain to the Countess of Arundel and thus established relations with her imprisoned husband, Philip, Earl of Arundel, the ancestor of the present ducal house of Norfolk, as well as with Lady Margaret Sackville, the earl’s half-sister. Father Southwell’s prose elegy, “Triumphs over Death”, was addressed to the earl to console him for this sister’s premature death, and his “Hundred Meditations on the Love of God”, originally written for her use, were ultimately transcribed by another hand, to present to her daughter Lady Beauchamp.

Some six years were spent in zealous and successful missionary work, during which Father Southwell lay hidden in London, or passed under various disguises from one Catholic house to another. For his better protection he affected an interest in the pursuits of the country gentlemen of his day (metaphors taken from hawking are common in his writings), but his attire was always sober and his tastes simple. His character was singularly gentle, and he has never been accused of taking any part either in political intrigues or in religious disputes of a more domestic kind.

In 1592 Father Southwell was arrested at Uxendon Hall, Harrow, through the treachery of an unfortunate Catholic girl, Anne Bellamy, the daughter of the owner of the house. The notorious Topcliffe, who effected the capture, wrote exultingly to the queen: “I never did take so weighty a man, if he be rightly used”. But the atrocious cruelties to which Southwell was subjected did not shake his fortitude. He was examined thirteen times under torture by members of the Council, and was long confined in a dungeon swarming with vermin. After nearly three years in prison he was brought to trial and the usual punishment of hanging and quartering was inflicted.

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Father Southwell’s writings, both in prose and verse, were extremely popular with his contemporaries, and his religious pieces were sold openly by the booksellers though their authorship was known. Imitations abounded, and Ben Jonson declared of one of Southwell’s pieces, “The Burning Babe”, that to have written it he would readily forfeit many of his own poems. “Mary Magdalene’s Tears“, the Jesuit’s earliest work, licensed in 1591, probably represents a deliberate attempt to employ in the cause of piety the euphuistic prose style, then so popular. “Triumphs over Death”, also in prose, exhibits the same characteristics; but this artificiality of structure is not so marked in the “Short Rule of Good Life”, the “Letter to His Father”, the “Humble Supplication to Her Majesty”, the “Epistle of Comfort” and the “Hundred Meditations”. Southwell’s longest poem, “St. Peter’s Complaint” (132 six-line stanzas), is imitated, though not closely, from the Italian “Lagrime di S. Pietro” of Luigi Tansillo. This with some other smaller pieces was printed, with license, in 1595, the year of his death. Another volume of short poems appeared later in the same year under the title of “Maeoniae”. The early editions of these are scarce, and some of them command high prices. A poem called “A Foure-fold Meditation”, which was printed as Southwell’s in 1606, is not his, but was written by his friend the Earl of Arundel. Perhaps no higher testimony can be found of the esteem in which Southwell’s verse was held by his contemporaries than the fact that, while it is probable that Southwell had read Shakespeare, it is practically certain that Shakespeare had read Southwell and imitated him.

[Ed. note: St. Robert Southwell was canonized in 1970 by Pope Paul VI.]

HERBERT THURSTON (1913 Catholic Encyclopedia)

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The Burning Babe, by Saint Robert Southwell

As I in hoary winter’s night stood shivering in the snow,
Surprised I was with sudden heat which made my heart to glow;
And lifting up a fearful eye to view what fire was near,
A pretty babe all burning bright did in the air appear;

Who, scorched with excessive heat, such floods of tears did shed
As though his floods should quench his flames which with his tears were fed.
Alas, quoth he, but newly born in fiery heats I fry,
Yet none approach to warm their hearts or feel my fire but I!

My faultless breast the furnace is, the fuel wounding thorns,
Love is the fire, and sighs the smoke, the ashes shame and scorns;
The fuel justice layeth on, and mercy blows the coals,
The metal in this furnace wrought are men’s defiled souls,

For which, as now on fire I am to work them to their good,
So will I melt into a bath to wash them in my blood.
With this he vanished out of sight and swiftly shrunk away,
And straight I called unto mind that it was Christmas day.

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New Heaven, New War, by Saint Robert Southwell

Come to your heaven, you heavenly quires!
Earth hath the heaven of your desires;
Remove your dwelling to your God,
A stall is now His best abode;
Sith men their homage do deny,
Come, angels, all their faults supply.

His chilling cold doth heat require,
Come, seraphim, in lieu of fire;
This little ark no cover hath,
Let cherubs’ wings his body swathe;
Come, Raphael, this babe must eat,
Provide our little Toby meat.

Let Gabriel be now His groom,
That first took up His earthly room;
Let Michael stand in His defence,
Whom love hath link’d to feeble sense;
Let graces rock when He doth cry,
And angels sing this lullaby.

The same you saw in heavenly seat,
Is He that now sucks Mary’s teat;
Agnize your King a mortal wight,
His borrow’d weed lets not your sight;
Come, kiss the manger where He lies;
That is your bliss above the skies.

This little babe so few days old,
Is come to rifle Satan’s fold;
All hell doth at His presence quake,
Though He Himself for cold do shake;
For in this weak unarmèd wise
The gates of hell He will surprise.

With tears He fights and wins the field,
His naked breast stands for a shield,
His battering shot are babish cries,
His arrows, looks of weeping eyes,
His martial ensigns, cold and need,
And feeble flesh His warrior’s steed.

His camp is pitchèd in a stall,
His bulwark but a broken wall,
The crib His trench, hay-stalks His stakes,
Of shepherds He His muster makes;
And thus, as sure His foe to wound,
The angels’ trumps alarum sound.

My soul, with Christ join thou in fight;
Stick to the tents that He hath pight;
Within His crib is surest ward,
This little babe will be thy guard;
If thou wilt foil thy foes with joy,
Then flit not from this heavenly boy.

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Man’s Civil War, by Saint Robert Southwell
My hovering thoughts would fly to heaven
And quiet nestle in the sky,
Fain would my ship in Virtue’s shore
Without remove at anchor lie.

But mounting thoughts are halèd down
With heavy poise of mortal load,
And blustring storms deny my ship
In Virtue’s haven secure abode.

When inward eye to heavenly sights
Doth draw my longing heart’s desire,
The world with jesses of delights
Would to her perch my thoughts retire,

Fon Fancy trains to Pleasure’s lure,
Though Reason stiffly do repine ;
Though Wisdom woo me to the saint,
Yet Sense would win me to the shrine.

Where Reason loathes, there Fancy loves,
And overrules the captive will ;
Foes senses are to Virtue’s lore,
They draw the wit their wish to fill.

Need craves consent of soul to sense,
Yet divers bents breed civil fray ;
Hard hap where halves must disagree,
Or truce halves the whole betray !

O cruel fight ! where fighting friend
With love doth kill a favoring foe,
Where peace with sense is war with God,
And self-delight the seed of woe !

Dame Pleasure’s drugs are steeped in sin,
Their sugared taste doth breed annoy ;
O fickle sense ! beware her gin,
Sell not thy soul to brittle joy !

Thursday, February 21, 2013

How a Good Lent Can Help Fix a Bad Economy

To those who see no link between Lent and our failing economy, it might be the case to look again.

File:Sandro Botticelli, The Temptation of Christ (detail 5).jpg

Economics is about people. It cannot be reduced to numbers, formulae and analyses. “The subject matter of economics,” observes economic historian Odd Langholm, “is properly the habits, customs, and ways of thinking of producers, consumers, buyers, sellers, borrowers, lenders, and all who engage in economic transactions.”

That means our moral habits can have a definite effect on determining if our economy grows—or fails.

In my new book, Return to Order: From a Frenzied Economy to an Organic Christian Society—Where We’ve Been, How We Got Here, and Where We Need to Go, I show how our present economic crisis is being caused by what I call “frenetic intemperance.”

Frenetic intemperance can be defined as a restless spirit inside certain sectors of modern economy that foments a drive inside men to throw off legitimate restraints and gratify disordered passions. It is not a specifically economic problem but a moral and psychological vice that throws everything out of balance. When frenetic intemperance dominates, it often sends the whole system into convulsions—as we saw during the 2008 subprime mortgage crisis. And, unless addressed, it is virulent enough to crash the entire financial system.

In our daily lives, we see frenetic intemperance in the tendency to desire everything, right away, regardless of the consequences. Everyone must have the latest gadget even though they do not need it and really cannot afford it. The mad lack of restraint leads to an unstable economy laden with boom and bust, debt and stress. It creates a cold mechanistic economy where money rules. It gives rise to a materialistic culture which values quantity and utility over quality and beauty. The long and short of it is that a frenzied economy comes from frenzied lifestyles.

And that brings us to Lent. Fighting bad moral habits and practicing restraint is what Lent is all about. More than giving up a box of chocolates, how about giving up habits that foster frenetic intemperance, which is the real root cause of our economic decline? Besides the personal benefits of interior peace, detachment, and greater spiritual freedom, a good Lent can also help save our economy.

Here are some suggestions on how this might be done.

1. Avoid speculative investments that promise huge returns on investment in little time. Such offers usually do not deliver what they promise and always feed frenetic desires that create anxiety and stress.

2. Stay away from business relationships that are cold and mechanical. Treat workers like family. Respect those for whom you work.

3. Avoid trendy business gurus and books that call for radical changes that will “revolutionize” a company or keep people in a constant state of change.

4. Eschew work schedules that are inhuman and stressful. Learn to appreciate leisure.

5. Avoid compulsive buying especially during those sales frenzies around the holidays.

6. Shun the abuse of credit cards and especially the temptation to pay only the minimal monthly amount. Avoid consumer debt as you would the plague (i.e. borrowing to buy things for your immediate consumption, e.g. that new laptop, games, cars, fashion clothing, etc. that you cannot afford, as opposed to investment debt , e.g. your home mortgage).

7. Learn not to have everything right now. The culture of instant gratification creates a frenzied lifestyle—and economy.

8. Do not take as role models those who have money as the central axis of their lives. Admire character not a person’s bottom line.

9. Resist the temptation of seeing only quantity and cheapness. Learn to appreciate the beauty of quality and good taste.

10. Avoid lavish display, especially of fancy gadgetry that leads to a desire to keep up with the e-Joneses with the latest version.

As Lent progresses, we would do well to do something that has an impact beyond our own spiritual lives. It would be good to practice charity toward our neighbor by looking at the big picture. Giving up frenetic intemperance is a good start.

By John Horvat II

Taking Advantage of the Pope’s Resignation

“Have Confidence, I Have Overcome the World”

by Luiz Sérgio Solimeo

An abyss separates the world (understood here not in its cosmological but moral sense) from the Church founded by Our Lord Jesus Christ. The world neither accepts being guided by, nor comprehends the Light that came to illuminate it.[1] The world does not live for God or for life eternal, but for itself. Closed off in its naturalist egoism, it divinizes the present, the passing moment.

The World’s New Emperor: the Media
That is why the world wastes no chance to attack the Church by distorting facts or taking advantage of the weakness of Her members, to come up with sophisms and mockeries that echo Voltaire’s sardonic laughter.

Not only does the world not accept being guided by the truth of which the Church is the custodian, but, through its emperors (as in the times of old) or the media (the new powers that be) it even wants to rule over the Mystical Spouse of Christ.

Benedict XVI arrives at Andrews Air Force Base April 2008

The secularist agenda would like future Vicars of Christ to
be as transitional as mere CEOs of a company, and not the representative of Our Lord Jesus Christ, the invisible head of His Mystical Body, the Holy, Roman, Catholic and Apostolic Church.

Taking Advantage of the Pope’s Resignation
Thus, the way the media is taking advantage of Benedict XVI’s resignation from the Papacy to force the Church to accept its secular agenda is not surprising in the least.

By this agenda, his resignation should become standard procedure in the Church, making future Popes as transitional as heads of government in present-day democracies, who govern for a few years and are replaced. From this secularist agenda’s perspective, the Popes should be elected not just by the cardinals, but also by the bishops, and even by the faithful. Last but not least, they want the new Pope to change Church teaching, making fornication, adultery, homosexual practice, divorce and abortion normal and morally acceptable.

False Theologians, Worldly Catholics
Catholics identified with the spirit of the world, as well as “liberal” or “progressive” theologians and lay leaders who have long abandoned the dictates of Revelation and the Magisterium, echo this agenda and invent sophisms which they present as theological arguments.

There is no doubt that His Holiness’ resignation was unexpected and thereby shocking. Even truly Catholic commentators have emphasized how this resignation can, at the present time, convey the impression of creating a new paradigm for the exercise of the Papacy.


Let Us Have Confidence
In this situation, the most important thing that we, the Catholic faithful, must do is not to allow ourselves to be carried away by the media harping on one issue or another, with its spinning of hypotheses and counter-hypotheses, or burying us beneath an avalanche of known and unknown facts, which can leave us stunned, uncertain, and discouraged.

No matter what happens — and we should be prepared for huge surprises — it is essential that we hold fast to the promise of our Divine Savior that the Church is immortal and that the gates of hell will not prevail against Her.[2]

Our Lord Jesus Christ entering Jerusalem on Palm Sunday

As Our Lord entered Jerusalem, welcomed and acclaimed by the populace, He alone saw the Passion ahead,
and how these same people would clamor for His Crucifixion and Death. But He was not perturbed.

In the titanic struggle between the world’s naturalist mentality and the Church, we may suffer setbacks, we may be tempted, but we must never allow ourselves to become discouraged, as this fight has already been won: “Have confidence, I have overcome the world.”[3]


Confidence: Not a Fruit of Optimism, But of Faith
The confidence that comes from these words of the Savior does not mean optimism, superficiality, or willful ignorance of threats and danger. Above all, it does not mean giving up the fight. It means that amid confusion, disinformation, and the fleeting victories of liberal Catholics and of the world, in the end, the Church will always triumph.

The Church Will Remain Faithful to Her Divine Foundation
By divine institution, the Church is a monarchy whose visible head is the Pope. He represents — but does not replace — the true monarch of Whom he is the Vicar on earth: Our Lord Jesus Christ, the invisible head of His Mystical Body, the Holy, Roman, Catholic and Apostolic Church.

Saint Peter on the throne and holding the keys

“Thou art Peter; and upon this rock I will build My Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” [Matthew 16:18]
Amid the confusion, disinformation, chaos or fleeting victories
of liberal Catholics and of the world, we have the promise of Our Lord, and His words shall not pass away.

The Church’s institutional form cannot change, nor can Her doctrine or morals. By natural law and by Revelation — interpreted consistently in the same way for two thousand years by the Magisterium — adultery, fornication, homosexual practices, divorce and abortion will never be made good and acceptable. And no Pope has the power to change the sinfulness of such practices because, as the First Vatican Council reaffirmed, upon promulgating the dogma of Papal Infallibility, “the Holy Spirit was not promised to the successors of Peter that by His revelation they might disclose new doctrine, but that by His help they might guard sacredly the revelation transmitted through the apostles and the deposit of faith, and might faithfully set it forth.”[4]
Fidelity to the Church
Let us therefore have confidence. Let us pray and ask God that He protect His Church. Let us have recourse to the intercession of the Blessed Virgin, Mother of the Church, asking that these times of trial be abbreviated, and begging Her to help us remain faithful to the One, Holy, Roman, Catholic and Apostolic Church, “the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God,”[5] the Mystical Spouse of Christ, “without spot or wrinkle.”[6]

1.

John 1:1-9.

2.

Cf. Matt. 16:18.

3.

John 16:33.

4.

Pastor Aeternus, Chap. IV, Denzinger, no. 1836 [translated by Roy J. Deferrari].

5.

Apoc. 21:2.

6.

Eph. 5:27.

Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Learn About Blesseds Francisco (1908-1919) and Jacinta Marto (1910-1920) - February 20

Blesseds Francisco (1908-1919) and Jacinta Marto (1910-1920) - February 20

Francisco and Jacinta Marto, brother and sister, were born in the tiny town of Aljustrel, Portugal, two years apart in a family of ten siblings.

Francisco was a handsome boy with light hair and dark eyes and a retiring disposition. Jacinta was a beautiful girl, also light haired and dark eyed but of a spritely temperament. With their cousin, Lucia dos Santos, brother and sister pastured their families’ sheep.

In 1916 their calm, rural life was changed forever by the apparition of an angel in a field near Aljustrel. The angel, calling himself “The Angel of Portugal”, prepared them spiritually for a series of apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

On May 13, 1917 the Mother of God appeared to the three children atop of a holm oak near the village of Fatima. The Virgin asked the children to return another five times and promised to work a miracle at the last apparition so that all would believe, which she did by making the sun “dance” before 70,000 in October of 1917. At that time she also called herself, “Lady of the Rosary.”

Throughout the apparitions, the Mother of God made prophecies about the advent of Communism and its spread throughout the world, about the coming of World War II, spoke of the sinfulness of the humanity, and asked for prayer (specially the daily recitation of the Rosary), penance and conversion of life as a means of obtaining peace for the world.

She also asked the children if they were willing to pray and sacrifice to help save the souls of poor sinners. She assured Francisco and Jacinta that she would take them soon to heaven but that Lucia would stay on earth longer.

Francisco and Jacinta convinced that they were not long for this world, and interiorly transformed by great mystical graces as well as a terrifying vision of hell, accepted a type of “spiritual victimhood” for the sake of offering reparation to God and saving the souls of sinners.

Francisco spent hours on end in prayer, and contemplation even giving up his games and play time. Jacinta embarked on a life of prayer and penance, offering many small sacrifices for the salvation of sinners.

In 1918 both fell victims to the influenza ripping through Portugal, gladly embracing their illness and all its suffering.

Francisco died with a smile on his face on April 3, 1919 at his home in Aljustrel. And Jacinta died in a hospital in Lisbon on February 20, 1920 which day she had predicted.

Brother and sister were beatified in Fatima by Pope John Paul II on May 13, 2000.

Fatima Seers Help You To Have Your Best Lent Ever

Why America Needs a Return to Order


Interview with John Horvat II, Author of Return to Order

John Horvat II is a scholar, researcher, educator, international speaker, author and regular contributor to Crusade Magazine. His writings have appeared worldwide in numerous publications and websites.

For more than two decades, he has been researching and writing about the socio-economic crisis inside the United States that has culminated in the ground-breaking release of his new book Return to Order: From a Frenzied Economy to an Organic Christian Order—Where We’ve Been, How We Got Here, and Where We Need to Go.

Recognized as one of the most important books on the subject to be published in the past ten years, Mr. Horvat describes what went wrong in our economic model and what can now be done to put us back on course. He lives in Spring Grove, Pennsylvania where he heads the Tradition, Family, and Property Commission on American Studies.

Mr. Horvat talks about his book in an interview with Crusade Magazine.

Crusade: What is new about Return to Order’s solution?
Mr. John Horvat: Most people, when they think of solutions, they think of systems. They think, “What system can I put in place that will resolve all the problems?” They try to find a one-size-fits-all solution and then impose it upon society.

Our solutions are different in that we want what we call an organic Christian society. Organic solutions take a framework of very basic principles from which solutions can naturally develop and adapt to situations and human qualities.

It is not a rigid system or socialist program that imposes a whole set of rules and regulations upon society. It is not a one-size-fits-all solution.

What we propose is having recourse to those timeless Christian principles that are wonderfully in accordance with man’s nature and result in a world of applications. These principles are extremely stable since they are guided by natural law which is the same for all peoples and all times. However, they also can give origin to a refreshingly rich and diverse culture and a vibrant economy.

This is what is new (and old) about our solutions. We do not favor those one-size-fits-all systems that never really resolve problems. We favor those adaptive solutions that favor virtue and consider the human side of things.

Crusade: Could you give an example of an organic Christian society?
Mr. John Horvat: An example of how things in an organic Christian society work brings to mind the family. You can’t simply invent a brand new kind of family and then impose it upon a people by saying a family must be exactly this way or that.

A true idea of the family is established when in accordance with a few general principles based on natural law.

No. A true idea of the family is established when in accordance with a few general principles based on natural law and the nature of the family. Using these notions as a foundation, you leave it up to the family to adapt and to develop its own way of being, its own way of operating and its own way of living. From this comes an authentic culture where society develops a very rich life full of spontaneity, vitality and beauty.

This is an organic solution. It’s not a mechanical solution or a rigid system that imposes itself upon people and stifles culture. It does not let government get involved in areas where it should not be involved. Best of all, this organic Christian society is the foundation and properly speaking the heart and soul of a balanced economy that we so need.

Crusade: What’s wrong with our current economy?
Mr. John Horvat: We have an economy that is constantly working itself into a frenzy—what we call frenetic intemperance.
Frenetic intemperance is a term coined to describe a restless and reckless spirit inside certain sectors of modern economy that fabricates a drive to throw off all legitimate restraints and to gratify disordered passions.

Frenetic intemperance is not just greed and ambition, but an explosive expansion of human desires beyond traditional and moral bounds. It leads to economic activities where people resent the very idea of restraint and scorn the spiritual, religious, moral and cultural values that normally serve to order and temper economic activity. It creates an almost irrational element that enters into the economy and leads to frantic dealings, speculation and exaggerated risks.

You can’t solve this economic problem by legislation, regulation and planning. It’s a problem deep inside the soul of modern man. The only real response to frenetic intemperance is a corresponding return to temperance.

Crusade: What is an example of frenetic intemperance?
Mr. John Horvat: You need only look back to the 2008 subprime mortgage crisis. It’s a textbook example of frenetic intemperance. Here you have a case of home buyers who took out loans without the means to pay for them. You have bankers who extended loans to people knowing that many of these were risky. You have brokers who took all these bad mortgages and put them into securities. Then investors came and snatched up these securities, many of them knowing that these mortgages were not the best mortgages. Everyone threw caution to the wind and as a result the whole system almost came down.

As an example of this crisis, one only needs to look back at the 2008 subprime mortgage crisis.

One of the aspects of frenetic intemperance is that it is a reckless drive to throw off restraints and to gratify desires. These restraints normally temper economy and make it human by keeping it within bounds. With this frenetic intemperance, we see the quickening of the pace of life, the erasing of the human element from economy so that we’re always talking to machines and keeping up a machine-like pace in life. People have been reduced to cogs, so to speak, in a giant economy.

Frenetic intemperance takes the warmth of human interactions out of economy. It makes life brutal by taking out the moral aspects. It is part of the reason why communities have broken down. When people communicate more on their cell phones and not face-to-face, you don’t have those relationships you had once before. It takes away what economists call “social capital.” That is to say, we are losing the idea of community where people are linked together with the bonds of confidence and trust that allow an economy to work in a very smooth and human way.

Crusade: What is the “rule of money”?
Mr. John Horvat: When frenetic intemperance dominates, money tends to rule. Men put aside cultural and moral values and adopt a different set of values that attaches undue importance to quantity over quality, utility over beauty, and matter over spirit.
The tragic effect of all this is that modern economy has become cold and impersonal, fast and frantic, mechanical and inflexible.
We need to put the human element back into the economy and society in general. We need a return to order—a Christian order.

Crusade: What is the best response to the “rule of money”?
Mr. John Horvat: The best response to the rule of money is what we call a “rule of honor.”

The "rule of honor" and not the rule of money.

Honor conveys the idea of values that cannot be bought and sold. It supposes an appreciation of things that have quality. It spreads an atmosphere of tranquility and temperance over the marketplace.

The rule of honor naturally leads men to esteem and seek after those things that are excellent. It introduces into the marketplace a set of values that includes quality, beauty, goodness, and charity. We find the calming influence of the cardinal virtues.
The greatest product of the rule of honor is not capital but character.
Someone might ask, “How do you implement a rule of honor?” I would say fill society with principles, ideas, and moral values and the influence of the rule of money will greatly diminish. One of the goals of the book is to introduce these ideas into society and the marketplace.

Crusade: How do we resolve our current economic problems?
Mr. John Horvat: First, we don’t need reams of government legislation. This is something much more profound. We need to refocus our priorities, reorder our lives and practice temperance and the cardinal virtues.

We need a return to organic Christian society. Such a society is termed “organic” because this order does not treat people like parts of a machine, but like the living human beings that we are.
By organic society, we mean a society that reconnects with the human element that has been lost in modern society. It allows the natural restraining influence of customs, morals, family or community to rebuild social networks, calm markets and prevent frenetic intemperance.
By a Christian society, we mean a society anchored in virtue, especially the cardinal virtues. It is a society guided by natural law and a social order that takes our fallen nature into consideration. It is oriented toward the common good and facilitates virtuous life together in community. It is a society full of nuance and meaning, poetry and passion.

Crusade: How does one implement this return to order?
Mr. John Horvat: Organic solutions cannot be forced upon a people. They must be developed naturally.
In our book, we show how the present socio-economic model is collapsing. And when this happens, we will need to adopt a model that will bring us through the crisis.
That is to say by force of circumstance, we will be looking for models to implement. We will need to avoid socialist and liberal models that will be proposed.
There’s nothing better than to return to the roots of our Christian order that are already part of our heritage and tradition. It’s tried and true. This book puts this option on the table and shows how we can already start moving in this direction.

Crusade: What makes these principles “tried and true”?
Mr. John Horvat: The testimony of history comes to the defense of these principles. Their track records are excellent. People tend to think that civilization before the Industrial Revolution was primitive and backwards. This is far from the case—Christian civilization actually prepared the way for true progress.

The principles that gave rise to Christendom helped usher in a period of incredible dynamism and enormous technological advances.

The principles that gave rise to Christendom helped usher in a period of incredible dynamism and enormous technological advances. Historian Samuel Lilley reports that the technological changes of the Middle Ages were greater in scale—by a very large factor—and more radical in kind than any since the start of civilization.

This was a society that didn’t make an enemy of technology. Men in medieval times introduced machinery into Europe on a scale no civilization had previously known. Some historians claim that the Industrial Revolution was actually an extension of processes that began in the Middle Ages. Historian Lynn White states that Christendom was the first complex civilization in history that was not built on the backs of slaves. This dynamic progress was not something limited to technology but also extended to advances in law, education, medicine, economics and government.
If you don’t trust the history books, then at least visit the monuments, cathedrals, universities, and castles that still stand in Europe. They give some idea of what was accomplished.

Crusade: What can the average American do?
Mr. John Horvat: We are part of the culture of frenetic intemperance. And so in Return to Order, we discuss how in our personal lives, we can all find ways to disengage ourselves from the frenzied, fast-paced lifestyles that we have created for ourselves.
We can reject what we call the rule of money and the mass markets that feed frenetic intemperance. In our personal lives, we can reconnect with that missing human element of society and economy. Any measure that strengthens the family, community and parish is a positive measure we can take to return to order. Any measure that increases our appreciation for reflection, beauty, duty and virtue is a positive measure by which we can return to what we call the rule of honor.
Much more important, we need to understand the crisis and engage in the debate over the future of our nation. Return to Order invites everyone to join the debate over these issues which we believe will be gaining ever great importance as the present crisis deepens.

Crusade: Why is a return to order necessary now?
Mr. John Horvat: One of the most compelling reasons why Return to Order is necessary is because the present American model, which sustained us over generations, is now unraveling. Our American way of life is not what it used to be. Our industrial production is diminishing. We have difficulty getting along with others in society. The polarization of the country is pushing people into irreconcilable camps. These developments make a return to order essential.

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People already need to have in mind that certain options are available. You already have some options being proposed by people on the right and on the left that are vague and simplistic. When the time of reckoning comes, when the time of crisis comes, I fear that people will simply take the first thing that’s presented out there. And sometimes those things are socialist plans or rehashed notions of past errors.
We must already have something in mind. A return to order is what is needed. It isn’t a socialist five-year plan. It isn’t something vague or theoretical. We are proposing ideas and principles that have served us well in the past. These same timeless principles can be applied to the new circumstances and result in refreshing and novel solutions that are so much needed.
Of course, a return to order does not make sense without a return to God, the Blessed Mother and the Church. The message of Fatima is essentially a warning, calling upon us to either return to order or face the consequences. An orderly society is a virtuous society that confides in Providence and leads us to love God. Such a society is possible and it is to this society that we must return.