It's the First Friday here, I have been thinking about something one of the Pius Popes (I believe it was either Pius XI or Pius XII) said about the Sacred. The Pope identified five works of the Sacred Heart: His establishment of the Sacrament of the Most Holy Eucharist; His most painful suffering of His Passion on the Cross; His giving of His Blessed Mother to us to be Our Most Holy Mother; His founding of Holy Mother Church; and His sending forth of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost. All five of these Works of the Sacred Heart were attacked during the Amazon Synod.
I was reading some of the arguments infavour of Idol Worship. Including from a lady Protestant Minister. I will not rehearsethem here, God forbid. But it strikes me they are really very brilliant and attractive. They remind me so much of Genesis; the argumetns the snake used to win over Eve in the Garden ofEden. they appeal to the pride. They are so Diabolically brilliant they scould only have come from Satan himself. Another thing about them ,when Ir ead and heard them I felt a great inner drawing and attraction to them. It seems to me this is part of some Great Plan from Hell to draw people in. In other words it is not only the brilliant arguments themselves but part of some Great Strategy. We are to be fooled by some False Angel of Light. I would not be in the least surprised if these people started to work false miracles and prodigies soon. It is all very,very, very deceptive.
Thanks for sharing Paradig. I understand your hesitation to share but I am curious about what these arguments could be as I end up in a decent number of apologetic related discussions. I must say I expected most of society to drift into agnosticism or atheism so seeing a resurgence of paganism is very surprising to me. I think it shows that people are hard wired to seek God.
Padraig, Exactly, "Thank God for EWTN." Here is the whole episode for those who may be interested in Father Gerald Murray and Robert Royal's discussion with Raymond Arroyo also. I also read your other post about the arguments being put forth for paganism. I can only imagine that this may sound good if the focus is on only our earthly life not our eternal life, not on our salvation and therefore, not on the Truth, Christ himself. *** For those who are shocked by all that is occurring now, I am posting the following excerpt from Venerable Fr. Bartholomew Holzhauser: THE FIFTH EPOCH, which commences with the birth of Protestantism, and wherein we still live, is the state of “TRIBULATION,” (status afflictionis.) [The Protestant movement… is popularly considered to have begun in 1517 when Luther published The Ninety-Five Theses. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protestantism] “This,” says Holzhauser, “is a state of trouble, desolation, humiliation, and poverty for the church. We may with just reason call it a state of purification, in which the Lord Jesus Christ has sifted His wheat, and will sift it again by wars, by seditions, by famines, by epidemics, and other scourges, by the tribulation and the poverty which He will suffer to weigh on the Latin church, by means of heretics and bad Christians, who will take from her the greater part of her bishoprics and countless monasteries, especially the wealthier ones. She is oppressed even by Catholic princes, and despoiled by means of taxes, imposts, and other extortions; so that we may say, in groaning with the prophet Jeremiah, ‘The queen of nations hath been placed under the yoke.’ The church is (Beykirch, p. 138) become poor and miserable, because she hath been calumniated by heretics, because her ministers are despised by bad Christians, who render them neither honor nor respect. By all these means God will sift His wheat; He will cast the chaff away to be burnt, and will gather the wheat into His barns. This fifth state of the church is the state of tribulation, the state of apostasy, full of miseries of every kind. Few will be spared by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence. We shall see kingdom rise against kingdom; empires will be divided in themselves, and brought to desolation; principalities and monarchies will be overturned, and almost the whole world will sink into poverty. The greatest desolation will reign over the earth. All this hath in part been already accomplished (1656 AD); a part remains yet to be accomplished. These things will come to pass by the very just judgment of God, because of the accumulated mass of our iniquities, whereof our fathers and ourselves have filled up the measure, at the moment when the mercy of Almighty God awaited our doing penance. The fifth day of creation, on which the earth brought forth birds, fishes, and beasts of the field, is a type of this epoch, wherein men, like to the birds of the air and the fishes of the water, give themselves up to license, sink to the level of the brute, and wallow in lust. In this lamentable state of the church divine and human laws are without force, and made of light account; the doctrines and precepts of the church are despised; ecclesiastical discipline is not better observed by the priests, than political order is maintained by the people. Every one, like the beasts of the field, believes what he pleases, and doth what he wills. [Emphasis added.] [Here is the kicker, if the above was not.] “The correspondence of this period with the fifth age of the ancient world, from Solomon down to the Babylonian captivity, is extremely striking. Then Israel fell into idolatry, and Judah and Benjamin were alone true to the covenant. So in the times we speak of, a large portion of the Catholic population has fallen away from the true church; while a small number only of good Christians has survived. The Jewish state was then ruined, and was harassed and oppressed by heathens; so also has the holy Roman empire of Germany been ravaged and dismembered by the neighboring nations. [Emphasis added.] “To this [fifth] age has been accorded the [SPIRITUAL] GIFT OF COUNSEL; for counsel did the church need in order to counteract such fearful calamities, and to uphold the Catholic faith. This gift of counsel was revealed in the Council of Trent, in the institution of the Society of Jesus, by whose exertions, learning, and sanctity, the Catholic faith and the church throughout Europe, were rescued from destruction. “A type of this epoch is the Church of Sardis—a word that signifies the beginning of beauty; for the calamities of this period will be the beginning of a better time. Divine providence hath wisely ordained that the church which He will cause to endure unto the end of the world, should be moistened from time to time (Beykirch, p. 139) with the waters of tribulation, as the gardener watered his garden in the time of drought.”(Beykirch, pp. 21-23). In the next passage we leave what the Indians call the Caliyuga, or present age of misery and perturbation, and soar with the prophet into those pure serene times, which will witness the complete and glorious triumph of Christ’s Church upon earth. As these different epochs are not separated one from the other by any harsh dissonance; but the concluding tones of the succeeding period; so the conclusion of the fifth age will be marked by great conquests of the church. And of these conquests we think we already discern the beginning. [The good news is that it ends with Triumph of Our Lady's Immaculate Heart] “THE SIXTH PERIOD of the church the (status consolationis)—time of “CONSOLATION” begins with the HOLY POPE and the POWERFUL EMPEROR, and terminates with the birth of Anti-christ. (Revelations, 3: 7, 10.) “This will be an age of solace, wherein God will console His church after the many mortifications and afflictions she had endured in the fifth period. For all nations will be brought to the unity of the true Catholic faith. “A type of this period was the sixth age of the old world, from the deliverance of the Israelites out of the Babylonian captivity, ... All nations will come, and will worship the Lord in the one true Catholic Faith. Many righteous men will (Beykirch, p. 140) flourish, and many learned men will arise. Men will love justice and righteousness, and peace will dwell on the whole earth. For the Omnipotent will bind Satan for many years, until the advent of him who is to come,–the son of perdition. ... https://www.latinritemass.org/bartholomew-holzhauser/apocalypse/
Bishop Sheen predicted this in his talk Signs of the Times". Incredibly accurate to our times right now though he spoke in 1947.
Wonderful post Carol. I wish ever Catholic in the World, could read this quote. I wil read it again and again. I must look up the Gift of Counsel.
Many of us here will surely remember parts of the speech that Archbishop Georg Ganswein gave in 2016, when speaking at the presentation of a new book by Roberto Regoli entitled Beyond the Crisis of the Church — The Pontificate of Benedict XVI. "Since the election of his successor Francis, on March 13, 2013, there are not therefore two popes, but de facto an expanded ministry — with an active member and a contemplative member. This is why Benedict XVI has not given up either his name, or the white cassock. This is why the correct name by which to address him even today is “Your Holiness”; and this is also why he has not retired to a secluded monastery, but within the Vatican — as if he had only taken a step to the side to make room for his successor and a new stage in the history of the papacy which he, by that step, enriched with the “power station” of his prayer and his compassion located in the Vatican Gardens. It was “the least expected step in contemporary Catholicism,” Regoli writes, and yet a possibility which Cardinal Ratzinger had already pondered publicly on August 10, 1978 in Munich, in a homily on the occasion of the death of Paul VI. Thirty-five years later, he has not abandoned the Office of Peter — something which would have been entirely impossible for him after his irrevocable acceptance of the office in April 2005. By an act of extraordinary courage, he has instead renewed this office (even against the opinion of well-meaning and undoubtedly competent advisers), and with a final effort he has strengthened it (as I hope). Of course only history will prove this. But in the history of the Church it shall remain true that, in the year 2013, the famous theologian on the throne of Peter became history’s first “pope emeritus.” Since then, his role — allow me to repeat it once again — is entirely different from that, for example, of the holy Pope Celestine V, who after his resignation in 1294 would have liked to return to being a hermit, becoming instead a prisoner of his successor, Boniface VIII (to whom today in the Church we owe the establishment of jubilee years). To date, in fact, there has never been a step like that taken by Benedict XVI. So it is not surprising that it has been seen by some as revolutionary, or to the contrary as entirely consistent with the Gospel; while still others see the papacy in this way secularized as never before, and thus more collegial and functional or even simply more human and less sacred. And still others are of the opinion that Benedict XVI, with this step, has almost — speaking in theological and historical-critical terms — demythologized the papacy." I am aware that subsequent to that speech, after a furore arose, Abp Ganswein seemed to downplay or retract his statements. But think about it - why did he say what he did, if there was no truth in it? I am convinced that Pope Benedict XVI never gave up the Petrine munus. He only resigned the ministry. Why? My belief is that: i) He was threatened, and ii) God asked him to do it. Because he was threatened, and that threat must still be hanging over him even to this day, he is not at liberty to proclaim that his resignation was forced. God has a plan, and in this plan, He did not break His promise of giving His Church a 'rock' who would defend the true Faith. He did not leave the Church in the hands of an apostate. Benedict XVI remains the true Pope. "He was very clear in his conversation with Peter Seewald, several years before the renunciation: “When there are wolves, when there is danger, the shepherd must not leave his flock.” He didn’t do so then, and he has never done so; his was not a flight. This is the truth and it is the only explanation of the reason for his renunciation." +
In the evening of Pope Benedict's 'renunciation', a bolt of lightning with an incredible roar struck the tip of St. Peter’s dome positioned just over the tomb of the Prince of the Apostles. +
Thank you SgC for reminding us of this explanation of Benedict's role in the papacy as enunciated by Abp Ganswein. This is very interesting in the light of where we now find ourselves. The apostates are in charge but their defeat is around the corner.
A bifurcated papacy is not a Papacy in the Traditional Church. It’s erroneous. There is no such thing. It’s PEB’s own invention. I would not be proud of it as a holy accomplishment. That’s what I gather. I doubt very much that it flies.
This is, I think most would agree, a sign of disapproval. What we might not all be in agreement about is to identify its object. There are a few options I can think of: 1. Disapproval of Benedict's decision to resign 2. Disapproval of the forces that led him to make the decision 3. Disapproval of the general state of the official Church, of which we are now more aware. 4. Disapproval of the choice of successor that the College of Cardinals was about to make The answer may include more than one or perhaps all four, but I don't think that 'none of the above' is a likely one.
Sg, I agree that God has a plan but I do not agree with the following statements of yours, "He did not break His promise of giving His Church a 'rock' who would defend the true Faith. He did not leave the Church in the hands of an apostate. Benedict XVI remains the true Pope." Imho those statements question God's plan. In addition of all of the clergymen who are defending the orthodoxy of the Faith and speaking up against the heterodox statements and actions of the Vatican and Pope Francis, I do not believe that any of them have stated that "Benedict XVI remains the true Pope." for if they did I might consider this to be true. I do believe that Our Lord will act soon at the request of Our Lady but I am willing to wait mainly in prayer until this occurs. It might help you and others here to watch this wonderful video Dolours posted yesterday - May God bless Bishop Athanasius Schneider and all MOG members and their families that we may stay the course. +
Carol, did Bishop Schneider name a member of the hierarchy who was also a freemason? It's at about the 16:40 mark in the video and he put his hand over his mouth as he said something but I can't figure out what he said.
Yes it is lovely. To my Irish ears, it actually sounds nicer when sung in Irish although I know only a few basic words in Irish:
