The LMS of England gives their Rorschach Option

In the movie Watchmen, the character Rorschach gives an excellent opening monologue which I think plays well with the current situation:


"Dog carcass in alley this morning, tire tread on burst stomach. This city is afraid of me. I have seen it's true face. The streets are extended gutters and the gutters are full of blood and when the drains finally scab over, all the vermin will drown. The accumulated filth of all their sex and murder will foam up about their waists and all the whores and politicians will look up and shout "Save us!"... ...and I'll look down, and whisper "no."'

If the spats with the FFI and the Order of Malta have shown us anything, it should make us recognize the time and prep for likely ends.  The Latin Mass Society of England has put out a series of how the ancient liturgy can be a true bulwurk against the modern nominalists and modernists alike:


"The advantages the Traditional movement has in the current crisis are both tactical and strategic; I shall give two examples of each. Consider the tactical ones first.


"The recent history of the FFI and the Order of Malta illustrate two important tactical realities. One is that the Traditional Mass is a de facto rallying point for orthodoxy on a wide range of issues. (This has been the fear of opponents of the ancient Mass from the beginning.) The other is that internal divisions, including divisions about the liturgy, provide both an excuse and a point of leverage for attacks on an organisation (/ group / parish). It follows from these two undeniable facts that the Traditional movement has an obvious advantage. It is by definition united around this banner of orthodoxy.

...


The second tactical advantage is that the Traditional movement is not dominated by any one organisation: the blogs, priestly Institutes, lay groups, periodicals and so forth all exist among a good number of others of their kind. The suppression of one or another would not be the same kind of disaster as is the suppression of the FFI or the Order of Malta, because resources and support can be transferred between them far more easily than between non-traddie conservative organisations. Traditional groups are not interchangeable, but the fact that they support the Traditional Mass is a decisive reason for nearly everyone who supports them, to support them, and these supporters are, normally, already very familiar and friendly with other Traditional Catholic groups and organisations, and would be highly likely to find another group to support instead, were their current favourite to disappear. The orthodox Catholics who support the Order of Malta (as with other worthy conservative bodies) do so for all sorts of complex reasons, and if the Order were, for practical purposes, to disappear, they would be scattered to the four winds. As a force for good the Order would be gone, and no similar organisations would be proportionally strengthened. This is not a criticism of the Order, but in the current crisis it is a disadvantage.

...

The first strategic reason is this. As the cases of the FFI and the Order of Malta illustrate, internal struggles over teaching and liturgy are endemic within conservative Catholic organisations, and within the broadly understood ‘conservative Catholic movement’, if we want to call it that. The tactical consequence, of offering an opening to the enemy, has already been noted. The strategic consequence is that this makes them a terrible front in the war in which to invest resources, not just because of this tactical vulnerability, but because so much of one’s efforts will be spent on internal, organisational conflict. You might say: these internal battles need to be fought. Well, that is a judgement each person needs to make on the spot. The organisation at issue may be in a great position to make a valuable contribution to the struggle if only X, Y, and Z internal battles are won by the good guys, and that may be a realistic prospect. In my experience such prospects are never as rosy as one imagines. Nevertheless, if you really judge that to be so, good luck to you, but remember this: while this battle is going on, the efforts going into the internal battle are not going into the apostolate. They are not doing the work the organisation is supposed to be doing. In the meantime, you are helping to keep an organisation afloat which may be doing bad things as well as good ones. And finally, in my experience internal battles are disproportionately exhausting and demoralising, whereas work ad extra can be very rewarding and energising...."

You can read the rest of this rest of this series HERE

Breaking Luther: Martin was a Manichean, teaching both an evil Jesus and a good Jesus

 

The idea that Martin Luther just wanted to restore the early Church is laughable, but he did personally teach the early heresy of Manicheanism as his own.

 

"For most of post-Reformation history, it has been axiomatic in theological histories of the controversy to propose Martin Luther as a devoted follower of the theology St. Augustine of Hippo, the great opponent of the Manichees. This is not surprising, given that Augustine is often invoked by the Reformers against Catholic dogma, that heretics such as Calvin and Cornelius Jansen have made a corrupted Augustinianism the center of their doctrines, that Augustine's bold stance in favor of grace against the Pelagians lent itself to a certain degree of use by Reformers arguing in favor of sola fide and double-predestination, and that Luther himself was an Augustinian monk. Contemporary scholarship, however, reveals quite a contrary picture of Luther. Far from invoking Augustine against Rome, Martin Luther shows himself disdainful of the great doctor of Hippo, and in fact an advocate of the dualist theology of the Manichees.

…

How could these important elements of Luther's thought get lost? Theobald Beer points out that what we now know as "Lutheranism" is really the thinking of Luther's successor, Philipp Melanchthon, who was Luther's interpreter and advocate, who nevertheless diverged from Luther on several important points. Unlike Luther, Melanchthon held the Church Fathers, especially Augustine, in a certain level or reverence, admitted the usefulness of philosophy in theological studies, and tended towards a certain irenicism that Luther found troubling. Melanchthon brought these characteristics into the Lutheran cause and served to moderate the Lutheranism of the latter 16th century against some of Luther's more extreme positions.

…

In Luther's glosses, he refers to Christ not as a person, but as a compositum, a composition; this is necessary, since he asserts that divinity and the diabolical are co-existing within Him; Christ is a composition of humanity and divinity. Here Luther is opposing the traditional concept of a single, personal hypostasis, which he will argue against his entire life. This was a huge point of divergence between Luther and Melanchthon; after Luther's death, Melanchthon stated, "The formulas to be rejected are: 'Christ is composed of two natures' and 'Christ is the fruit of creation.'" The former is obviously an attempt to move the Lutheran movement away from Luther's heretical compositum view, and thus Lutheranism would maintain the the traditional formula of hypostasis. Here Luther is especially against Augustine, which we will say more on shortly.

Beer stresses that Luther fixates much more on the role of Christ rather than on His identity; what Christ does is more important than who He is. For Luther, Christ has two functions. "The first," says Theobald Beer, "is the function of shielding us from divine wrath and the second that of giving us an example. This is twofold justification." [4] The human nature of Christ, because it adopts the sinful disposition of fallen man, in fact becomes sin. This is where a Gnostic-Manichaean dualism enters into Luther's thought. There could be no reconciliation between sinful flesh and the divine nature. This is why Christ is compositum but not hypostasis. "

You can read the whole of the article HERE

Ryan Grant on the reliability of Canon Hesse's teachings

I figured there was so little out there to directly challenge Hesse at this point but Ryan Grant did call him out recently

On the Gaffigans’ and a good question on the Malta situation

File this in the same stack as Stephen Colbert catholics.

As much as I enjoy most of Jim Gaffigan’s material, I am utterly frustrated by how these folks can fall into the dumbest of traps. Now many people will say, “But, they don’t use contraception”. As if that was the sole distinguishing mark of a Catholic. No, what he has been shown to push is of grave concern, and that so many Catholics have been silent on this – I’m looking at all of you that push Gaffigan stuff on Catholic Blogs, news sources and at official Catholic gatherings – is a grave disgrace. There was not a single show where he did not try to use his platform to normalize sodomidic behavior. For crying out loud they made one of the family helpers/advisors a sodomite and never, ever attempted a plea to the individual to change. They brought him into the home to influence the kids, and effectively normalized his disorder by making him a regular on the show. And in case you need more that same actor decided he needed to act up the other day.

Woke budget cutter pic.twitter.com/QoaVqGpFNk

— Michael B Dougherty🍃 (@michaelbd) January 13, 2017

----------------

The other thing worth touching on is this Malta bishop’s situation. CCC, on their Twitter feed made a good observation (which could be applied to many things):

Why was ad orientem SUGGESTION shot down immediately, while Maltese bishops' DIRECTIVE--violating Church teaching--is left uncorrected?

— Cream City Catholic (@CCityCatholic) January 16, 2017

It is a fair question to ask I believe…

I can’t believe every woman I know is marching in the streets and CNN is showing Trump pretending to believe in God. #WomensMarch

— Jim Gaffigan (@JimGaffigan) January 21, 2017

+JMJ+

St. Bridget of Sweden: Christ's words to the five men of this world

Taken from "The Prophecies and Revelations of Saint Bridget (Birgitta) of Sweden: Volume 1"


“I am the Creator of all things. I was born of the Father before Lucifer. I am inseparably in the Father and the Father in me and one Spirit in us both. Accordingly, there is one God – Father, Son and Holy Ghost – and not three gods. I am the one who promised the eternal inheritance to Abraham and led my people out of Egypt through Moses. I am the one who spoke through the prophets. The Father sent me to the womb of the Virgin without separating himself from me but remaining inseparably with me so that mankind who had abandoned God, would return to God through my love

But now, in your presence, my heavenly host, although you see and know all things in me, yet for the sake of the knowledge and teaching of my bridge standing here, who cannot understand spiritual things except through a corporal parable, I make a complaint before you over these five men who are standing here, for they provoke me to wrath in many ways. Just as I, once, in the Law, with the name of Israel, signified the whole Israelite nation, so now by these five men I signify every man in the world.

The first man signifies the leader of the Church and his priests; the second, the evil laity; the third, the Jews; the fourth, the heathens; and the fifth, my friends. But from you, Jew I exclude all the Jews who are Christians in secret and who serve me secretly in a pure love, a right faith, and a perfect deed. And from you, heathen, I exclude all those who would gladly walk in the way of my commandments, if they only knew and were taught how they should walk and live, and who with their deeds do as much as they know and are able. These shall by means be judged with you.

I now complain over you, o head of my Church, who sit on my seat which I gave to Peter and his successors to sit on with a threefold dignity and power: First so that they would have the power of binding and loosing souls from their sins. Second, so that they would open Heaven for the penitent. Third, so that they would close heaven to the damned and to those who despise my Law. But you who should be healing souls and presenting them to me, you are in truth a murderer of souls. I appointed Peter as shepherd and guardian of my sheep. But you, however, scatter and wound them, You are worse than Lucifer. For he was envious of me and desired to kill none but me so that he could rule in my place. But you are so much worse, for you do not only kill me by driving me off from yourself by your bad deeds, but you also kill souls by your bad example. I redeemed the souls with my blood and entrusted them to you as to a faithful friend, but you deliver them back again to the enemy from whom I redeemed them. You are more unrighteous than Pilate. He judged no one else but me to death, but you not only judge me as if I were a powerless lord and worthy of no good thing. No, you also judge and condemn the souls of the innocent and let the guilty go free without rebuke. You are more cruel than Judas who only sold me, but you not only sell me, but also the souls of my chosen men for your own shameful profit and vain name’s sake. You are more despicable than the Jews, for they only crucified my body, but you crucify and torture the souls of my chosen men for whom your malice and your sins are more bitter than from any wound from a sword. And so, since you are like Lucifer and more unrighteous than Pilate and more cruel than Judas and more despicable than the Jews, I complain over you with justice.

To the second man, that is, to the laity, our Lord said; “I created all things for your benefit, You gave your consent to me and I to you. You gave me your faith and promised by oath that you would serve me. But now, you have deserted me like a man who does not know his God. You hold my words for a lie and my deeds as vanity, and you say that my will and my commandments are too heavy. You have violated the faith you promised me. You have broken your oath and abandoned my name. You have separated yourself from the number of the saints and have come to belong to the number of the devils and you have become their friend. You think that no one is worthy of praise and honor but yourself. Everything that belongs to me and that you are bound to do for me appears heavy and bitter for you, but the things that please yourself are very easy for you. Therefore, I complain over you with right for you have broken the faith you gave me in baptism and later; and for the love I have shown you in word and deed, you mock me and call me a liar, and for my suffering you call me a fool.

To the third man, that is, to the Jews, he said: “I began my deed of love and you and I chose you as my people. I led you out of slavery, I gave you my law, I brought you into the land I had promised your fathers, and I sent you prophets to console you. Thereafter, I chose a virgin for myself from among you from which I assumed Manhood. But now I complain over you since you do not want to believe in me, but say: “The Christ has not yet come; he is still to be expected’”.

Our Lord said to the fourth man, that is to the heathens: “I created and redeemed you like the Christian man, and I created all good things for your sake. But you are like a man out of his senses, because you do not know what you are doing. You are also like a blind man, because you do not see where you are going. You honor and worship the created things instead of the Creator and the false instead of the true, and you bend your knee before things that have less worth than yourself. That is why I complain about you.”

To the fifth man, he said: “My friend, come closer!” And he directly said to the heavenly host: “My beloved friends, I have a friend with which I signify and mean many friends, he is like a man trapped among evil people and harshly shackled in captivity. If he speaks the truth, they beat his mouth with stones. If he does something good, they thrust a spear into his breast. Alas, my friends and saints, how long shall I endure such men, and how long shall I tolerate such contempt?”

Saint John the Baptist answered: “You are like the most pure mirror, for we see and know all things in you as in a mirror without any help of words and speech. You are the sweetness that no one can describe in which we taste all good things. You are like the sharpest of swords for you judge in righteousness.”

Our Lord answered him: “Indeed, my friend, you said the truth, for my chosen men see all goodness and righteousness in me, and even the evil spirits see it in their own conscience but not in the light. Just like a man placed in a dark prison, who had earlier learned the letters, knows that which he had learned before even though he is in darkness and currently cannot see, so it is with the devils. Even though they do not see my righteousness in the light of my clarity, they still know and see it in their conscience. I am also like a sword that separates things into two parts. In this way I give each and every person what they deserve.”

Then Our Lord said to Saint Peter: “You are the founder and defender of the faith and of my Church. While my host is listening state the sentence of the five men!” Peter answered: “O Lord, all praise and honor to you, for the love you have shown to your earth. Blessed be you by all your host, for you allow us to see and know all things in you that have been and will be, and that is why we see and know all things in you. It is true justice that the first man who sits upon your seat, while having the deeds of Lucifer, should shamefully lose the seat he dared to sit on and become a partaker in the torment of Lucifer. The right judgment of the second man is that he , who has fallen away from your faith, should fall down to hell with his head down and feet up, for he loved himself and despised you who should have been his head. The right judgment of the third man is that he will not see your face and that he should be tormented for his malice and greed, since unbelievers do not deserve to see your glory and beauty. The right judgment of the fourth is that he should be locked up like a man out of his senses and banished to the city of darkness. The right judgment of the fifth is that help should be sent to him.”

Then our Lord answered: “I swear by God the Father, whose voice John the Baptist heard in the Jordan; I swear by the body which John baptize, saw, and touched in the Jordan; I swear by the Holy Ghost who revealed himself in the form of a dove at the Jordan, that I shall do justice with these five men.”

Then our Lord said to the first of these five men: “The sword of my severity will go into your body; it shall enter at the top of your head and penetrate you so deeply and violently that it can never be drawn out. Your chair will sink like a heavy stone and never stop before it comes to the lowest depth. Your fingers, that is, your assistants and advisers, will burn in the inextinguishable sulfurous fire. Your arms that is your office-holders, who should have reached out for the help and benefit of souls but instead reached out for worldly honor and profit, will be judged to the torment and suffering of which David speaks: “His sons shall be fatherless and his wife a widow and others shall take his property.’ Who is ‘his wife’ if not the soul which shall be excluded from the glory of Heaven and be widowed and lose God? ‘Their property’, that is the virtues they appeared to have, and my simple and humble men who were under them, shall be separated from them, their honor and property will be given to others, and they will inherit eternal shame instead of their dignity and glory. Their headgear will sink down into the filth of hell, and they will never be able to get up out of it. Just as they rose above others through their honor and pride, so in hell they will sink so much deeper than others so that it will be impossible for them to ever stand up again. Their limbs, that is, all the priests who followed and helped them in wickedness, will be cut off from them and severed just like the wall that is torn down where not a single stone is left upon another stone and the cement no longer adheres to the stones. No mercy will come to them for my love will never warm them nor restore or build them up into an eternal house in Heaven, but instead they shall be excluded from all good and endlessly tormented with their headmen and leaders.

But to the second I say: “ Since you do not want to keep the faith you promised me and have love toward me, I shall send an animal to you that will rise from the surging torrent, and it shall swallow you. Like the torrent always flows downward, so this animal will drag you down to the lowest hell, and just like it is impossible for you to travel upstream against the surging torrent, it will be just as hard for you to ever ascend from hell.

 To the third I say: “Since you, Jew, do not want to believe that I have come, you will see me when I come on judgment day, but not in my glory but in your conscience, and you will come to know that all the things I said were true. Then there is nothing left for you, but to be tormented as you deserve. To the fourth I say “Since you do not care to believe and do not want to know me, your darkness will be light for you, and your heart will be enlightened so that you may know that my judgments are true, but you will still not come to the light.

To the fourth I say: "Since you do not care to believe and do not want to know me, your darkness will become light for you, and your heart will be enlightened so that you may know that my judgments' are true, but you will still not come to the light."

To the fifth I say: “I shall do three things to you. First, I shall fill you inwardly with my fervor. Second, I shall make your mouth harder and firmer than any stone, so that the stones turn back to the ones throwing them at you. Third, I shall arm you with my weapons so well that no spear will harm you, but instead everything will melt before you like wax in the heat of the fire. Be therefore made strong and stand like a man. For just like a knight in battle who hopes for help of his lord and continues fighting as long as he still has some life-force in him, so may you too stand firm and fight like a man; for the Lord your God, who none are able to withstand will give you help. And since your number is small, I will honor you and multiply you greatly. Behold my friends, you see these things and know them in me, and in this way they stand before me.

The words I have now spoken will be fulfilled. But these other men shall never enter my kingdom, as long as I am King, unless they better themselves. For Heaven will only be given to those who humble themselves and to those who mourn over their sins with penance.” Then all the host answered: Praise be to you, Lord God, who are without beginning and without end.”

1/15: Chili Cook-off at St. Stans

Its open to all to come and you can still register to have your Chili featured and enter into the contest.

You dont need to be a parishioner btw

The dignity of the body in life and death

The dignity of the body in life and death There seems to be a type of indifference (perhaps a veiled fear) towards the body of a person who has died. Just speaking from experience, at a funeral people will actively avoid viewing the body even of loved ones. They will often say that the body laying there is inconsequential, that the spirit has flown and the body means nothing at this time. It is worth revealing the dignity of the body in life and death:

The Body is not inconsequential even in death. We know that the Body is a Temple of the Holy Spirit, this does not cease when our souls are stripped from their natural place of rest. What was Holy remains Holy. The modern fascination with incineration of the body is quite a tell in how little we actually believe the body is a temple. Rather then allowing God to naturally process this temple to its end, we feel the need to speed it up, because we are an efficient people (#Murica) and cannot be bothered with seeing something that was, remain in existence while not doing anything.

The modern man thinks the morbid reminder of the dead body an unnecessary temptation. My own cousin who professed that the body was inconsequential went out of her way to justify her lack of desire to see the body that was laid in the vestibule for final respects. She did this unsolicited, almost in a similar manner to how people engaged in disordered behavior will go out of their way to try to justify their degeneracy to others so they don’t have to feel awkward.

The body is not inconsequential even in death. In 2 Kings 13:21, we see the bones of Elisha are an instrument to restore a dead man to life. So too, when Christ died on the cross, the Evangelist tells us that the tombs were broken open and the bodies of many holy men appeared in the city (Matthew 27:52). These actions of using the bodies of those dead were not inconsequential. So too when one gazes upon the body of a loved one who has passed it is not pointless. The saints tell us daily to prepare for our own deaths, to tell ourselves daily that “tomorrow I will die”, therefore we are always to remember and live this day, this moment for our ultimate end in God, both in body and spirit. Our purpose, even with the body, does not end with the casket closing, for if the realization of the reality of death brings just one soul back, what could be a greater miracle?

The body is a temple in life and death, and it, that very body that exists, will be raised and glorified. That specific body will be reanimated in glory or shame. Treat the body with the dignity that God created it with.

+JMJ+