The Sorrowful Mysteries of the Rosary - A Model for the Crisis of the Church

JMJ

One advantage of having a 50km+ commute to work is that I have time almost 2hrs to say my rosary and think.

This past week I started thinking about parallels between the Sorrowful Mysteries and this Crisis.

The parallels that I drew stem from the thought that the Mystical Body of Christ (i.e. the Catholic Church) emulates the path of Her Spouse - Our Lord Jesus Christ.

Sorrowful Mystery - Parallels to the Crisis

Agony In the Garden

Our Lord foresaw the future of His Church, sweat blood and was betrayed by one of his own bishops.
The pre-conciliar Pope saw the crisis coming, suffered and were finally betrayed by their bishops.

Scourging at the Pillar

Our Lord underwent this suffering for the sins of impurity.
Post council indiscipline and sins of impurity became rampant. The extent of it is only recently percolating to the surface.

Crowning with Thorns

Our Lord underwent this humiliation to teach us humility.
The Church has been undergoing significant humiliations at the hands of its Popes (think Assisi). That self abasement wasn't enough for those who harbour a hatred for God and His Church. We are now starting to see the humiliation of the Church by Her enemies accelerating in too many ways to number.

Carrying of the Cross

Our Lord carried His cross (weighed down by our sins) to Calvary to show us the path to Heaven.
I believe that the parallel here will be some sort of persecution of the Church. It may have already started with various members of the Mystical Body of Christ undergoing physical persecution around the world. Perhaps in the Neo-Agnostic West a persecution will develop.

Crucifixion and Death

Our Lord completed the work of redemption by His crucifixion and death on the cross.
That the life-cycle of the Church is punctuated by one crisis after another is fairly obvious to see in a historical sense. So perhaps there will be a climax (ish) that parallels the Crucifixion and Death of Our Lord Jesus Christ. This will of course be followed by a 'resurrection' of the Church.

It isn't a perfect model, but there is a strong correlation between the life-cycle of crises such as this.

P^3

Comments

A Look Back: A short history of the SSPX

+ JMJ I started a timeline a while back but never finished it. Fortunately, here's one that brings us up to 1994!!! P^3 http://archives.sspx.org/SSPX_FAQs/a_short_history_of_the_sspx-part-1.htm A short history of the SSPX A presentation given by Fr. Ramon Angles in Kansas City, MO, on the 25th Anniversary of the founding of the SSPX and reprinted from the January 1996 issue of The Angelus . Part 1 The history of the Society of St. Pius X begins, of course, in the mind of God. But do not believe that its temporal origin is to be found solely at the time of the post-conciliar crisis. The Society of St. Pius X was made possible ...

Hermeneutic of the Hermeneutic of Continuity - sspx.org

+ JMJ Since I'm looking at the 'four things', I thought this article would be good. Unfortunately, with the new SSPX.org website, I've been unable to locate the original article. This is a copy the I emailed to myself. This is an article that, I believe, was written in response to a conference given by Msgr. Pozzo. P^3

SSPX and the Resistance - A Comparison Of Ecclesiology

Shining the light of Church Teaching on the doctrinal positions of the SSPX and the Resistance. Principles are guides used to aid in decision making. It stands to reason that bad principles will lead to bad decisions. The recent interactions between Rome and the SSPX has challenged a number of closely held cultural assumptions of people in both sides of the disagreement. This has resulted in cultural skirmishes in both Rome and the SSPX. Since it is the smaller of the two, the skirmishes have been more evident within the SSPX. The cultural fault-line that Bishop Fellay crossed appears to be linked to two points of Catholic Doctrine: Ecclesiology and Obedience. The cultural difference of view points is strong enough that it has resulted in the expulsion of a number of members. It should also be noted that some other priests expelled since the beginning of the latest interactions (starting in 2000) held the same view points and have joined with the l...

Morning and Evening and other sundry Prayers

+ JMJ Along the theme of P^3 (Prayer, Penance, Patience), and for my own reference ... here is a collection of Morning and Evening prayers from the Ideal Daily Missal along with some additional prayers. In this crisis of the Church, I do not think it is possible to do too much prayer, penance and have patience. P^3

Dogmas of the Catholic Faith (de fide) - Expanded Listing: Answer for Reader

+ JMJ A reader asked the following question in the 2015 version of the article on the Dogmas of the Catholic Faith (link) : 117: "In the state of fallen nature it is morally impossible for man without Supernatural Revelation, to know easily, with absolute certainty and without admixture of error, all religious and moral truths of the natural order." Where can you find this in the documents of the Church? ( Link to comment ) Here's the reference from Ott: The citation that Ott provided was Denzinger 1786 and the source document is Dogmatic Consitution Concerning the Faith from the First Vatican Council (Papal Encyclicals - link) : Chapter 2 On Revelation, Article 3: It is indeed thanks to this divine revelation , that those matters concerning God, which are not of themselves beyond the scope of human reason, can, even in the present state of the human race, be known by everyone, without difficulty, with firm certitude and with no intermingling of error. Here's ...

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