Gaudete! rejoice! The comforting message on the 3rd Sunday of Advent

JMJ

Even though we are living in a great crisis, there is still cause to rejoice!

P^3

We Christians must rejoice, we even have all kinds of reasons to be joyful: this is the Church's comforting message on the third Sunday of Advent.

Until now, it has always been believed that joy and cheerfulness were the lot of people without piety, bad subjects who do all kinds of tricks. But that all Christians, young or old, poor or rich, sick or well, must be joyful people, that is what many people did not know, and those who knew lived it as if they did not know it. Today the Church tells us this expressly and it cannot be repeated enough. From the door of the sanctuary, she announces to us: "Rejoice in the Lord. I tell you again, rejoice.
But, holy Church our mother, don't you see the misery of those thousands of unfortunate people who don't have a piece of bread? don't you see the misery of souls that gives such great worries? don't you see the persecution of Christians in so many countries? can we then rejoice?

The Church answers us: My dear children, I see all this, I know all the miseries better than you do. My maternal heart feels all the suffering that is inflicted on my children and that my children are preparing for me. Yet I have the right to rejoice and I call you to joy. Why? Because you are the children of God, because Jesus Christ is your brother, because heaven is your homeland. How long does earthly life last? It passes like a bad dream. Because, in heaven, we will be rich, happy, beautiful, healthy and that this heavenly life will last forever.

Ah ! Holy Mother Church, are we tempted to say, earthly life is very painful and it lasts so long and heaven is so far away. Who knows?..... Here we are caught and the Church can answer us: Do you know, my children, why you cannot achieve the true joy of Christianity? it is because you do not have a strong, deep, full and living faith. Believing is risky, I'll give you that. The dove of eternal life is placed on the roof of heaven, the sparrow of poor earthly life is in your hand. Faith consists in letting this sparrow escape from your hand to find the dove on the roof. Only the living Christianity, the one who is conscious of divine life, who has enough faith to abandon earthly well-being and exchange it for eternal life, can achieve a true and authentic state of joy. It is to this Christian joy and faith that our Mother the Church calls us today: Rejoice without ceasing, I tell you once again: Rejoice.

Source : Pius Parsch, Le guide de l'année liturgique, tome 1 / La Porte Latine du 13 décembre 2019

Comments

Comparision of the Tridentine, Cranmer and Novus Ordo Masses

+ JMJ I downloaded the comparison that was linked in the previous article on the mass (here) . ... a very good reference! P^3 From: Whispers of Restoration (available at this link) . CHARTING LITURGICAL CHANGE Comparing the 1962 Ordinary of the Roman Mass to changes made during the Anglican Schism; Compared in turn to changes adopted in the creation of Pope Paul VI’s Mass in 1969 The chart on the reverse is a concise comparison of certain ritual differences between three historical rites for the celebration of the Catholic Mass Vetus Ordo: “Old Order,” the Roman Rite of Mass as contained in the 1962 Missal, often referred to as the “Traditional Latin Mass.”The Ordinary of this Mass is that of Pope St. Pius V (1570) following the Council of Trent (1545-63), hence the occasional moniker “Tridentine Mass.” However, Trent only consolidated and codified the Roman Rite already in use at that time; its essential form dates to Pope St. Gregory the Great (+604), in whose time the R...

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...

If Pope Francis is bad - what about Pope St. John Paul II et al?

+ JMJ So here we are on the apparent cusp of yet another post conciliar Papal canonization. This time we have Pope's John-Paul I and Paul VI canonizations to 'look forward' to. This follows, obviously, on the heels of Pope St. John Paul II's canonization? So the first question that I usually encounter is: How is it possible, keeping in mind the doctrine on infallibility of canonizations (note doctrine not dogma), that Pope St. John Paul II is a Saint? First, what does it mean??? According to the doctrine of dogmatic facts - it is the universal opinion of Theologians that canonizations are infallible. It means that they enjoy the beatific vision. ... that's it. That is the doctrine and it is at the level of universal opinion of theologians. It is called a 'dogmatic fact'. That they made mistakes is obvious. That the miracles seem to not be very miraculous is also a bit of an issue. Here's something to consider: The rush that surrou...

Spiritual Journey Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre - Extracts

+ JMJ I have posted these two chapters to provide context for the quote of: It is, therefore, a strict duty for every priest wanting to remain Catholic to separate himself from this Conciliar Church for as long as it does not rediscover the Tradition of the Church and of the Catholic Faith. P^3 Courtesy of SSPX.ca Chapter II The Perfections of God We ought to remember during this entire contemplation of God that we must apply all that is said of God to Our Lord Jesus Christ, Who is God. We cannot separate Jesus Christ from God. We cannot separate the Christian religion from Jesus Christ, Who is God, and we must affirm and believe that only the Catholic religion is the Christian religion. These affirmations have, as a result, inescapable conclusions that no ecclesiastic authority can contest: outside of Jesus Christ and the Catholic religion, that is, outsi...

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 ...

Tradicat

Search This Blog