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akacatholicism · 9 months
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A Nation Must be Religious
6. There must, then, be a return to Christian principles if we are to establish a society that is strong, just, and equitable. It is a harmful and reckless policy to do battle with Christianity, for God guarantees, and history testifies, that she shall exist forever. Everyone should realize that a nation cannot be well organized or well ordered without religion.
Pope Pius XII, Meminisse Iuvat, 1958
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akacatholicism · 1 year
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Lent Distinguishes Us As Christians
“At the same time, purified by fasting in the body and in the soul, we prepare to commemorate in a manner more worthy of the sacred Mysteries of our Redemption through remembrance of the Passion and the Resurrection, which are celebrated with the greatest solemnity, especially in the Lenten season.
The observance of Lent is the bond of union in our army; by it we are distinguished from the enemies of the Cross of Christ; by it we turn aside the chastisements of God’s wrath; by its means, being guarded by heavenly support during the day, we fortify ourselves against the prince of darkness. If this observance comes to be relaxed, it is to the detriment of God’s glory, to the dishonor of the Catholic religion and to the peril of souls, nor can it be doubted that such negligence will become a source of misfortune to nations, of disaster in public affairs and of adversity to individuals.”
– Pope Benedict XIV, Non ambigimus May 30, 1741
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akacatholicism · 1 year
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The Times We Live in Demand Action
Pope Pius X, 1903, E Supremi: On the Restoration of All Things in Christ:
14. For truly it is of little avail to discuss questions with nice subtlety, or to discourse eloquently of rights and duties, when all this is unconnected with practice. The times we live in demand action — but action which consists entirely in observing with fidelity and zeal the divine laws and the precepts of the Church, in the frank and open profession of religion, in the exercise of every kind of charitable works, without regard to self-interest or worldly advantage.
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akacatholicism · 1 year
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The Church is the Mystical Body of Christ
Pope Pius XI, Lux Veritatis, 1931:
37. We spoke more fully, indeed, on this unity of the Catholic religion, a few years ago, in Our Encyclical letter Mortalium animos; still it may be useful to recall the matter briefly here; for the hypostatic union of Christ, solemnly confirmed in the Synod of Ephesus, bears and sets before us the image of that unity with which our Redeemer willed that His mystical body, that is to say the Church, should be adorned; “one body” (I Corinthians xii. 12) “compacted and fitly joined together” (Ephesians iv. 16). For if the personal unity of Christ is the mystical exemplar to which He Himself willed that the union of Christian society should be conformed, every wise man will see that this can only arise, not from any pretended conjunction of many disagreeing among themselves, but from one hierarchy, from one supreme teaching authority, from one law of believing, and from one faith of Christians.
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akacatholicism · 1 year
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Against "liberty of conscience"
Pope Gregory XVI, Mirari Vos, 1832:
14. This shameful font of indifferentism gives rise to that absurd and erroneous proposition which claims that liberty of conscience must be maintained for everyone. It spreads ruin in sacred and civil affairs, though some repeat over and over again with the greatest impudence that some advantage accrues to religion from it. “But the death of the soul is worse than freedom of error,” as Augustine was wont to say. When all restraints are removed by which men are kept on the narrow path of truth, their nature, which is already inclined to evil, propels them to ruin.
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akacatholicism · 1 year
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The Faithful's Chief Duty and Supreme Dignity
Pope Pius XII, Mediator Dei, 1947:
79. The august sacrifice of the altar is, as it were, the supreme instrument whereby the merits won by the divine Redeemer upon the cross are distributed to the faithful: “as often as this commemorative sacrifice is offered, there is wrought the work of our Redemption.”[76] This, however, so far from lessening the dignity of the actual sacrifice on Calvary, rather proclaims and renders more manifest its greatness and its necessity, as the Council of Trent declares.[77] Its daily immolation reminds us that there is no salvation except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ[78] and that God Himself wishes that there should be a continuation of this sacrifice “from the rising of the sun till the going down thereof,”[79] so that there may be no cessation of the hymn of praise and thanksgiving which man owes to God, seeing that he required His help continually and has need of the blood of the Redeemer to remit sin which challenges God’s justice.
80. It is, therefore, desirable, Venerable Brethren, that all the faithful should be aware that to participate in the eucharistic sacrifice is their chief duty and supreme dignity, and that not in an inert and negligent fashion, giving way to distractions and day-dreaming, but with such earnestness and concentration that they may be united as closely as possible with the High Priest, according to the Apostle, “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus.”[80] And together with Him and through Him let them make their oblation, and in union with Him let them offer up themselves.
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akacatholicism · 1 year
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Holy Mass Is "No Mere Empty Commemoration"
Pope Pius XII, Mediator Dei (1947):
68. The august sacrifice of the altar, then, is no mere empty commemoration of the passion and death of Jesus Christ, but a true and proper act of sacrifice, whereby the High Priest by an unbloody immolation offers Himself a most acceptable victim to the Eternal Father, as He did upon the cross. “It is one and the same victim; the same person now offers it by the ministry of His priests, who then offered Himself on the cross, the manner of offering alone being different.”[59]
[59] Council of Trent, Sess. 22, c. 1.
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akacatholicism · 1 year
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The Culmination and the Center
Pope Pius XII, Mediator Dei (1947):
66. The mystery of the most Holy Eucharist which Christ, the High Priest instituted, and which He commands to be continually renewed in the Church by His ministers, is the culmination and center, as it were, of the Christian religion.
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akacatholicism · 1 year
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Against Antiquariansim
Pope Pius XII, Mediator Dei, 1947:
63. Clearly no sincere Catholic can refuse to accept the formulation of Christian doctrine more recently elaborated and proclaimed as dogmas by the Church, under the inspiration and guidance of the Holy Spirit with abundant fruit for souls, because it pleases him to hark back to the old formulas. No more can any Catholic in his right senses repudiate existing legislation of the Church to revert to prescriptions based on the earliest sources of canon law. Just as obviously unwise and mistaken is the zeal of one who in matters liturgical would go back to the rites and usage of antiquity, discarding the new patterns introduced by disposition of divine Providence to meet the changes of circumstances and situation.
64. This way of acting bids fair to revive the exaggerated and senseless antiquarianism to which the illegal Council of Pistoia gave rise. It likewise attempts to reinstate a series of errors which were responsible for the calling of that meeting as well as for those resulting from it, with grievous harm to souls, and which the Church, the ever watchful guardian of the “deposit of faith” committed to her charge by her divine Founder, had every right and reason to condemn.[53] For perverse designs and ventures of this sort tend to paralyze and weaken that process of sanctification by which the sacred liturgy directs the sons of adoption to their Heavenly Father of their souls’ salvation.
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akacatholicism · 1 year
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Christ Acts to Save Us and We Must Act With Him
29. It is an unquestionable fact that the work of our redemption is continued, and that its fruits are imparted to us, during the celebration of the liturgy, notable in the august sacrifice of the altar. Christ acts each day to save us, in the sacraments and in His holy sacrifice. By means of them He is constantly atoning for the sins of mankind, constantly consecrating it to God. Sacraments and sacrifice do, then, possess that “objective” power to make us really and personally sharers in the divine life of Jesus Christ. Not from any ability of our own, but by the power of God, are they endowed with the capacity to unite the piety of members with that of the head, and to make this, in a sense, the action of the whole community. [...]
31. Very truly, the sacraments and the sacrifice of the altar, being Christ’s own actions, must be held to be capable in themselves of conveying and dispensing grace from the divine Head to the members of the Mystical Body. But if they are to produce their proper effect, it is absolutely necessary that our hearts be properly disposed to receive them. Hence the warning of Paul the Apostle with reference to holy communion, “But let a man first prove himself; and then let him eat of this bread and drink of the chalice.”[30] This explains why the Church in a brief and significant phrase calls the various acts of mortification, especially those practiced during the season of Lent, “the Christian army’s defenses.”[31] They represent, in fact, the personal effort and activity of members who desire, as grace urges and aids them, to join forces with their Captain — “that we may discover . . . in our Captain,” to borrow St. Augustine’s words, “the fountain of grace itself.”[32] But observe that these members are alive, endowed and equipped with an intelligence and will of their own. It follows that they are strictly required to put their own lips to the fountain, imbibe and absorb for themselves the life-giving water, and rid themselves personally of anything that might hinder its nutritive effect in their souls. Emphatically, therefore, the work of redemption, which in itself is independent of our will, requires a serious interior effort on our part if we are to achieve eternal salvation.
Pope Pius XII, Mediator Dei, 1947.
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akacatholicism · 1 year
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The Fundamental Duty of Man
Pope Pius XII: Mediator Dei, "On the Sacred Liturgy," 1947:
13. It is unquestionably the fundamental duty of man to orientate his person and his life towards God. “For He it is to whom we must first be bound, as to an unfailing principle; to whom even our free choice must be directed as to an ultimate objective. It is He, too, whom we lose when carelessly we sin. It is He whom we must recover by our faith and trust.”[10] But man turns properly to God when he acknowledges His Supreme majesty and supreme authority; when he accepts divinely revealed truths with a submissive mind; when he scrupulously obeys divine law, centering in God his every act and aspiration; when he accords, in short, due worship to the One True God by practicing the virtue of religion .
14. This duty is incumbent, first of all, on men as individuals. But it also binds the whole community of human beings, grouped together by mutual social ties: mankind, too, depends on the sovereign authority of God.
15. It should be noted, moreover, that men are bound by his obligation in a special way in virtue of the fact that God has raised them to the supernatural order.
[10] Saint Thomas, Summa Theologica, lla llae .q. 81, art. 1.
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akacatholicism · 2 years
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God Rewards Perseverance in Prayer
If it pleases His Divine Majesty to speak with us, to hold converse with us by His holy inspirations and inward consolations, it is doubtless a great honor and unspeakable delight; but if He vouchsafes not so to favor us, neither speaking, nor even appearing to perceive us, as though were not in His Presence; yet we must not therefore leave it: on the contrary, we must remain devoutly and meekly before His sovereign goodness, and then He will assuredly accept our patience, and observe our assiduity and perseverance, so that when we again come before Him, He will look favorably on us, and reward us with His consolations, bidding us taste the sweetness of devout prayer. But if not, let us rest contented, remembering that we are unworthy even of the honor of standing before Him and in His sight.
- St. Francis de Sales, Introduction to the Devout Life, Part 2: Counsels Concerning the Soul's Approach to God in Prayer and the Sacraments, Chapter 9: The Dryness Which May Trouble Meditation. (TAN, 2010).
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akacatholicism · 2 years
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Pray Purely to Do Homage to God
Should you find neither delight nor consolation in meditation, do not be disheartened [...] However great your dryness, only continue to present yourself devoutly before God. How many courtiers daily appear before their sovereign without a hope of speaking with him, content to be seen by him, and offer their homage? So, Philothea, we must pray purely and simply in order to do homage to God, and show our faithfulness.
- St. Francis de Sales, Introduction to the Devout Life, Part 2: Counsels Concerning the Soul's Approach to God in Prayer and the Sacraments, Chapter 9: The Dryness Which May Trouble Meditation. (TAN, 2010).
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akacatholicism · 2 years
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What To Do About Dryness in Prayer
Should you find neither delight nor consolation in meditation, do not be disheartened, but have recourse occasionally to vocal prayer, tell your trouble to the Lord, confess your unworthiness, and say with Jacob, "I will not let thee go except thou bless me"; or with the Canaaitish woman, "Yea, Lord, yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their master's table."
- St. Francis de Sales, Introduction to the Devout Life, Part 2: Counsels Concerning the Soul's Approach to God in Prayer and the Sacraments, Chapter 9: The Dryness Which May Trouble Meditation. (TAN, 2010).
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akacatholicism · 2 years
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Transitioning from Meditation to Daily Duties
You must accustom yourself to go from prayer to whatever occupations may be involved by your station or profession, even though they may seem far distant from the feelings excited in you by that prayer. Thus the lawyer must go from prayer to his pleadings, the merchant to his trade, the wife to her conjugal and household duties, with perfect calm and tranquility; for since these duties as well as that of prayer are imposed on us by God, we must pass from one to the other in a devout and humble spirit.
- St. Francis de Sales, Introduction to the Devout Life, Part 2: Counsels Concerning the Soul's Approach f God in Prayer and the Sacraments, Chapter 8: Further Rules for Meditation
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akacatholicism · 2 years
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Transition From Meditation Gently
A man who has received a costly vessel full of some precious cordial would carry it most carefully. He would walk slowly, and not look idly about him, but keep his now on the road before him for fear some stone or false step should endanger him, now at his vase for fear he should spill its contents. Do the like when you cease your meditation: do not at once plunge into distractions, but merely look straight before you; if you must of necessity enter into worldly conversation, you cannot help yourself, but you can be on the watch, and mount guard over your heart, so that yo may lose as little as possible of the precious cordial you have obtained in prayer.
- St. Francis de Sales, Introduction to the Devout Life, Part 2: Counsels Concerning the Soul's Approach f God in Prayer and the Sacraments, Chapter 8: Further Rules for Meditation
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akacatholicism · 2 years
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Leaving Meditation
On leaving this fervent prayer, you must beware of giving your heart any sudden jar, which might spill the precious balm with which devotion has filled it. I mean that if possible you should remain some brief season in quietness, and gradually pass from prayer to your needful occupation, seeking to retain as long as possible the holy thoughts and inclinations you have been exercising.
- St. Francis de Sales, Introduction to the Devout Life, Part 2: Counsels Concerning the Soul's Approach f God in Prayer and the Sacraments, Chapter 8: Further Rules for Meditation
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