The musings and meandering thoughts of a crotchety old man as he observes life in the world and in a small, rural town in South East Nebraska. My Pledge-Nulla dies sine linea-Not a day with out a line.
Stand Alone Pages on 'Musings of an Old Curmudgeon'
Fr Weinandy can hardly be considered a "Trad". He is a JPII, hermeneutic of continuity, 'conservative' Catholic. Ergo, his analysis is especially telling.
Pope Francis has made three seriously misleading statements recently. On September 13th, prior to leaving Singapore, he spoke to an interreligious group of young people at a Catholic junior college. He stated: “All religions are a path to arrive at God.” He elaborated: “I will use an analogy, they are like different languages that express the divine.”
He encouraged the young people of various religions to dialogue with one another. He noted: “There’s only one God, and each of us has a language to arrive at God. Some are Sikh, Muslim, Hindu, Christian, and they are different paths [to God].” Later, on September 17th, in a video message to an interreligious youth conference in Tirana, Albania, Pope Francis praised religious diversity as “a gift from God.”
More recently, on September 24th, the Vatican released a statement that Pope Francis sent to an interreligious gathering for peace in Paris sponsored by the Sant’Egidio Community. Here he wrote of the importance of divine inspiration. “We need to keep meeting, to weave bonds of fraternity, and to allow ourselves to be guided by the divine inspiration present in every faith.” The Italian renders it as the “divine inspiration [that] inhabits every faith.” Pope Francis wants to be pastoral and ecumenical. Nonetheless, as he is frequently wont to do, his statements are ambiguous, and can easily lead to confusion.
While Vatican II did note, in its Declaration on the Relationship of the Church to Non-Christian Religions (Nostra aetate), that “The Catholic Church rejects nothing of what is true and good in these religions,” the Council did not say that all religions were of equal salvific value. Moreover, except for Christianity and Judaism, other religions are, therefore, not inspired by the Holy Spirit. And thus, they contain error; error that locks those who hold such beliefs in darkness, a darkness from which it is difficult to escape.
Most importantly, to declare in an unnuanced way, that “all religions are a path to God,” and so inspired, is to give voice to the words of the Devil. Such assertions insult the singularity of Jesus as the Son of God incarnate, and that in him alone does one find salvation. The Devil rejoices when Jesus is degraded and demeaned, for he cannot tolerate the truth that Jesus is the universal Savior and definitive Lord.
Importantly, unlike Jesus, the founders of other religions do not save from sin and the curse of death. Nor do they provide an enhanced relationship with God. The founders of other religions, such as Mohammed and Buddha, as “prophets,” simply provide knowledge whereby one can relate to God “properly.” Except for Judaism and Christianity, all other religions are, therefore, gnostic by nature. They dispel ignorance by providing what is thought to be saving knowledge.The Triumph of St. Thomas Aquinas
by Benozzo Gozzoli, c. 1450-75 [Louvre Paris]. Aquinas, flanked by Aristotle and Plato, overthrows Muslim scholar Averroes (at his feet), whom he respected but ultimately rejected.
In its 2000 Declaration Dominus Iesus, the then-Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, wished to identify flawed misunderstandings and erroneous conceptions of Jesus in relation to other “religious traditions of the world,” which risked compromising “the evangelizing mission of the Church.” Thus, Dominus Iesus professed, in accordance with Sacred Scripture and the Magisterium of the Church, that Jesus, as the Father’s only begotten Son, is alone the fullness of divine revelation who singularly possesses the completeness of divine truth.
Likewise, being the Father’s Spirit-anointed Son, Jesus taught the Gospel of salvation and through his saving passion and sacrificial death reconciled all to his Father. The Father, in the love and power of the Holy Spirit, raised Jesus from the dead, thus liberating mankind from sin’s curse.
These conjoined saving acts on the part of Jesus and of his Father, both of whom acted in the Holy Spirit, established Jesus as the preeminent Savior of all, and the sole Lord of both Heaven and Earth. Consequently, Dominus Iesus declared that “Jesus Christ has a significance and a value for the human race and its history, which is unique and singular, proper to him alone, exclusive, universal, and absolute.”
The singularity of Jesus Christ, as the Father’s Son, is also made manifest in another way. Only in being personally united to Jesus, as the risen Savior and universal Lord, do men and women share in his holiness, the very life of the Holy Spirit, and so come to live in communion with his Father as the Father’s children.
Thus, not only does the death and the resurrection make Jesus unique in his manner of existence as Savior and Lord, but it also allows men and women to live, in a singular manner, in communion with him as their Savior and Lord. There is no relationship similar to the relationship between Christ and the believer. It is unique.
This mystery revealed by God the Father, both as to the uniqueness of Jesus his Son and as to mankind’s invitation to live in communion with Him, is therefore singularly Christian and distinguishes Christianity from all other religious traditions, which are not divinely inspired. The Father did not will all religions, nor did he inspire them. What He willed is the Incarnation of His Son, Jesus Christ, so that all might be saved through Him.
By saying that all religions are Spirit-inspired paths to God, Pope Francis not only insulted Jesus in whose name alone is found salvation, but he also contradicted St. Paul’s proclamation. God the Father has “bestowed on him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” (Philippians 2:9-11)
In his analysis of alienation in the modern world, Robert Nisbet recognized an important truth about the human person, which makes “The Quest for Community” timely even today: The individual cannot be understood except in relationship to other individuals in time and space. The abstract, autonomous individual does not exist nor can he ever exist.
When American sociologist Robert Nisbet wrote The Quest for Community in 1953, it was a success. The book quickly made Nisbet an icon of the conservative movement, and even in the year 2020, thinking conservatives and even libertarians consider this work a classic.
The main thesis of The Quest for Community is that the rise of individualism in the modern world was paralleled by the rise of unprecedented statism. Specifically, in the aftermath of the French Revolution, it was the goal of modern man to free himself from the shackles of “intermediate institutions”—such as parishes, monasteries, manors, villages, guilds, families, and other local bonds. But the consequences of this freedom from intermediate institutions was devastating. Alone and stripped from virtually all sources of human community, man was compelled to join the only community still available: the mythical “national community” offered by the central state.
It was shocking to many observers in the early twentieth century that the liberation of the individual had, in the end, coincided with the bloodiest and most brutal decades in the history of mankind. To be sure, the individual was freed from the shackles of traditional intermediate institutions, but all he got instead was the shackles of work camps, gulags, and atomic bombs. Take your pick, I guess.
I first encountered Robert Nisbet when I was an undergraduate and, upon learning about him, quickly picked up a copy of his conservative classic from my college library. I was fascinated by his central thesis about the two-fold rise of individualism and the central state in the modern world. Recently, I decided to pick up Nisbet again, purchasing for myself the new edition with a forward by Ross Douthat. This time, however, I noticed a related aspect of his argument found in an old preface.
In the preface to the 1970 edition of his book, Nisbet said that he made virtually no changes to the original text. Yet this does not mean that he would not make changes if rewriting the book again. “I do not mean to suggest that there are not changes I would make were I writing the book today,” said Nisbet. Indeed, factors such as time, circumstances, and development in Nisbet’s own thinking would contribute to some changes if rewriting the book again.
One such change that Nisbet would make if rewriting the book was his treatment of alienation in the modern world. Although the theme of alienation was certainly present in the original edition of The Quest for Community, Nisbet regretted that it did not receive greater emphasis. This is because he could not help but notice that alienation was becoming the prevailing reality of modern life, especially among youth. As the individual frees himself from intermediary institutions, he also grows more alienated. Nisbet wrote:
By alienation I mean the state of mind that can find a social order remote, incomprehensible, or fraudulent; beyond real hope or desire; inviting apathy, boredom, or even hostility. The individual not only does not feel a part of the social order; he has lost interest in being a part of it. For a constantly enlarging number of persons, including, significantly, young persons of high school and college age, this state of alienation has become profoundly influential in both behavior and thought. Not all the manufactured symbols of togetherness, the ever-ready programs of human relations, patio festivals in suburbia, and our quadrennial crusades for presidential candidates, hide the fact that for millions of persons such institutions as state, political party, business, church, labor union, and even family have become remote and increasingly difficult to give any part of one’s self to.[1]
Indeed, modern man finds himself in a social order that is remote, incomprehensible, and fraudulent. He has no religious roots, no connection to the past, and no people or place to call his own. Stripped of the traditional religious and social identities that gave meaning in past ages, modern man finds himself alone. Although Nisbet does not put it this way, we might say that modern man senses that something is wrong with the way things are, but he does not know what. He is proud of his autonomy and always seeks more of it, but at the same time he feels disconnected and lonely. He is torn in two by contradictory impulses.
According to Nisbet, there are three main types of alienation. The first is alienation from the past. The human person is a time-bound creature and needs a sense of the past in order to know his present identity. Hyper-individualism, however, wrenches man from his past, leaving him with no inherited wisdom or identity. And so, in the world today, if the lone individual wishes to have an identity, then he must create one for himself.
Nisbet then describes alienation from place. Since the Neolithic Revolution, man was born into a particular place where he grew and planted his roots. Today, however, for better or worse, man has unprecedented mobility. He is born in one place and then moves to another place for college or work—and then another, and then another, etc. As Nisbet concisely put it, “given the slow erosion of regions and localities in present-day mass culture, under the twin impact of nationalism and economism, it doesn’t really matter where one comes from.”[2] A man might have fond memories of his place of birth and upbringing, but these fond memories matter little to the practical realities of his life.
Nisbet does not cite Edmund Burke within the context of his discussion on alienation from past and place, but it is well-known that Nisbet is deeply influenced by Burke’s thought. Indeed, it was Edmund Burke who envisioned the “eternal society” of the dead, living, and unborn within a particular place. As Burke writes in Reflections on the Revolution in France:
As the ends of such a partnership cannot be obtained in many generations, it becomes a partnership not only between those who are living, but between those who are living, those who are dead, and those who are to be born. Each contract of each particular state is but a clause in the great primeval contract of eternal society, linking the lower with the higher nature, connecting the visible and invisible world, according to a fixed compact sanctioned by the inviolable oath which holds all physical and all moral natures, each in their appointed place.[3]
Again, Nisbet taught that the rise of hyper-individualism, which wrenches man from traditional sources of community, makes way for the rise of an increasingly powerful central state. Yet this is not the only problem with hyper-individualism. At the same time, it also leaves man alienated, lonely, and utterly wrenched from past and place. It leaves him without a human community to call his own. Yet it is human nature to desire community, to be a part of something bigger than oneself. And so, as hyper-individualism marches onward, so too will alienation along with it. Nisbet put it in the following way:
The historic triumph of secularism and individualism has presented a set of problems that loom large in contemporary thought. The modern release of the individual from traditional ties of class, religion, and kinship has made him free; but on the testimony of innumerable works in our age, this freedom is accomplished not by the sense of creative release but by the sense of disenchantment and alienation. The alienation of man from historic moral certitudes has been followed by the sense of man’s alienation from his fellow man.[4]
This leads us to the third type of alienation. This is, according to Nisbet, alienation from “thing.” In ages past, man was attached to hard property, the kind that can be touched and identified with. But today, man has shares and equities in something distant and impersonal. What Nisbet calls “impersonal abstractions” (think of credit cards and stocks, for instance) certainly have their benefit, believed Nisbet, but they have contributed to a desire for some form of tangible property.
Nisbet noticed that young people of a high school and college age are especially impacted by alienation. Alienated especially from past and place, young people are forced to create for themselves their own identities. Without any clear tie to the preceding generations and deprived of a heritage into which they can be initiated, young people have no clear image of adulthood provided to them. “These are ties which have become, like many others, weak and rootless in the present day,” wrote Nisbet. “And this, I suggest, is why alienation from the past so obviously affects youth, and helps make the problem of coming to adulthood so widely painful and baffling. How, apart from stable ties with preceding generations, can the image of adulthood be kept clear in a society?”[5] If Nisbet is correct, then it is no wonder that “coming of age” is so painful and confusing.
Alienation today is seen in the breakdown of the family. Armies of divorced fathers, single mothers, and confused children are found throughout America. It is worth noting that Nisbet predicted the coming demise of the traditional family and sexual revolution in 1953. “We are attempting to make [the family] perform psychological and symbol functions with a structure that has become fragile and an institutional importance that is almost totally unrelated to the economic and political realities of our society.”[6] Within a couple decades of the 1953 publication of The Quest for Community, divorce rates skyrocketed and the family structure as we know it eroded.
Evidence for Nisbet’s thesis seems to be everywhere. Many Americans—alienated from time, place, and thing—have a growing distrust of American history, symbols, and institutions. Rioting has become a new norm in recent months, and political movements have become increasingly ideological and authoritarian. The word “freedom” today is not understood in the classical sense of the term, but instead in the sense of a French Revolutionary. To ideologues, freedom means freedom from intermediate institutions. It is no wonder, then, that as the individual gains more “freedom” in modern America, government seems to get bigger and more centralized. And at the same time, in accordance with Nisbet’s thesis, alienation grows.
Readers of The Imaginative Conservative should find Nisbet’s book of interest. This is because the truly imaginative conservative knows that God created human beings to be in voluntary community. A conservative in the mold of Robert Nisbet knows that the human heart is today marked by two contradictory desires. On the one hand, modern man wants to be left alone, but on the other hand he suffers from isolation and wants to overcome his loneliness. Modern man wants autonomy, to be sure, but he also yearns for a community that he does not have.
Ultimately, in his analysis of alienation in the modern world, Robert Nisbet recognized an important truth about the human person, which makes The Quest for Community timely even today. That is, the individual cannot be understood except in relationship to other individuals in time and space. The abstract, autonomous individual does not exist, Nisbet understood, nor can he ever exist.
The featured image is a detail from “Village Feast” by David Teniers the Younger (1610–1690) and is in the public domain, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
Consider first, that by this commandment God forbids all manner of wrong to our neighbour, in his goods, rights, or worldly possessions; whether by open violence or by fraud; by stealing or by overreaching; by cheating in buying or in selling, or in any other bargain; by keeping from him what is his, or not giving him his dues, or not paying just debts; or by any extortion whatsoever, or any usury in the loan of money, or other things; or by putting him to any unjust charges; or by spoiling or damaging what belongs to him. In all these cases there is an injustice committed, which is not only condemned in this divine precept, but by the natural and eternal law, written from the beginning in the heart of man, and by that great principle of morality which forbids us to do to any other what we would not have done to us. And yet how many ways are poor mortals daily guilty of breaking through this divine and eternal law, for the sake of this wretched mammon of worldly interest, the great god of this world; and that in spite both of law and gospel, honour and honesty, conscience and religion. And how often do they affect to deceive themselves herein with vain pleas and pretexts, intended on purpose to cloak their guilt, and to hide it, if possible, not only from others, but also from their own consciences; that so they may go on without disturbance in the way that leads to death, by persuading themselves that all is right. But God is not to be deceived, who has declared that 'the unjust shall never possess his kingdom,' 1 Cor. vi.9. O! examine yourselves, Christians, impartially upon this head of justice in your dealing with your neighbours; for there is nothing more easy than for you to deceive yourselves herein; the consequences of which would be most dreadful to your souls.
Consider 2ndly, that every breach of this commandment, by any one of these ways of wronging one's neighbour, is always followed by the strict obligation of making restitution or reparation the crime will never be forgiven. And how few think of this! Alas! how many of these restitutions will be yet to be made when time shall be no more, and when that which has been neglected on earth shall be exacted in hell. Ah! sinners, what a load then have you charged upon your own shoulders by your injustices! And how is it possible you should think so little of discharging it! O do not be too easy in persuading yourselves you have it not in your power to make this restitution; you cannot deceive the all-seeing eye of him who clearly discerns how much you might do, if you would but retrench all superfluities in your expenses, would truly take to heart this necessary duty of satisfying justice in the first place, and would use all possible industry and labour for that end.
Consider 3rdly, that though all injustice in general be hateful in the sight of God, there are some branches of it in particular which more loudly cry to heaven for vengeance; and more especially such as tend to oppress the poor by usury or extortion, or by making a handle of their necessity, to raise to them the price of the things they want, or by defrauding them of their wages or hire; or otherwise taking or keeping from them that which belongs to them. O how heinous are all these sins in the eyes of him who is the Father of the poor! They are like murder in his sight. There is a curse entailed upon all such substance as is gathered together by oppressing his children. And so there is upon all sacrilegious rapines, by which the church or temple of God, or his ministers, are defrauded of what is their due; or by which pious foundations or donations are diverted from the purposes of religion to profane uses. In all such cases God looks upon the wrong as done to himself, and will certainly revenge it both here and hereafter. All that gold which is brought into the coffers by robbing either the poor or the church, shall not only moulder away itself, but shall consume all the rest it shall find there, together with the master of it.
Conclude to beware of all manner of injustice, and to keep off at the greatest distance possible from it, as a mortal enemy, both to thy temporal and eternal welfare. Take heed lest the love of that idol mammon should at any time impose upon thee in this regard - thou are never secure from danger, as long as that idol is not cast out of thy heart. For as the wise man assures us, Ecclus. x. 10. 'there is not a more wicked thing than to love money, for such a one setteth even his own soul to sale.'
1. We should say the Rosary devoutly every day. This beautiful prayer is very pleasing to Our Lady, and the church is particularly anxious that we should recite it during the month of October. Families which say the Holy Rosary together can hope for a special blessing from God and for the maternal protection of Mary.
If possible, every family should gather together in the evening and recite the Rosary before an image of our Blessed Mother. If the parents set an example, their children will join them. It is consoling to come together after the toil and trouble of the day in order to confide our cares and hopes to Mary.
Do you say the Rosary every day? If you have neglected this pious practice, begin today. Do not plead lack of time. There is time for so many other things, so surely there is time to pray and to entrust ourselves in a special way to the protection of our heavenly Mother. The practice of reciting the Holy Rosary will win for you the blessing of God and the patronage of the Blessed Virgin.
2. One of the main advantages of the Rosary is that it enables us to unite with our vocal prayer meditation on the principal mysteries of our faith. During each decade we should meditate briefly on one of these mysteries. In this way our faith will be enlivened and we shall be roused to imitate in our lives the example of Jesus and Mary.
The Rosary is composed of the Church’s most beautiful prayers – the Our Father, which Jesus Himself taught us to say when addressing our heavenly Father, and the Hail Mary, which consists of the Angel’s greeting to the Blessed Virgin when he came to announce to her that she was to be the Mother of God, of the inspired words of St. Elizabeth on the occasion of the Visitation, and of the moving plea for mercy, both now and at the hour of our death, which the Church places upon the lips of her sinful children. Each decade concludes with the short hymn of praise in honour of the Blessed Trinity: “Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.” This prayer expresses the two principal mysteries of our faith, namely, the unity and trinity of God, and, in an indirect fashion, the incarnation of the Second Divine Person. If we think of all this when we are fervently reciting the Rosary, it will prove to be a treasury of grace.
3. It is untrue to say that the Rosary is a monotonous prayer in that it necessitates a constant repetition of the same formulae. In the first place, recitation of these prayers should be accompanied by meditation on the principal mysteries of our religion. Secondly, if we are inspired by love, the repetition of the same words can draw from them each time a new significance. The Christian who loves God and His Divine Mother will be happy to call his heavenly Father with filial confidence and to pray to the Blessed Virgin with trust in her maternal protection. An affectionate son does not find it boring to speak with his own mother.
Today is the Feasts of the Protection of the Most Holy Mother of God of the Holy Apostle Ananias, One of the Seventy Disciples and of Our Venerable Father Roman Who Sang Sweetly.
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The Protection of the Most Holy Theotokos: “Today the Virgin stands in the midst of the Church, and with choirs of Saints she invisibly prays to God for us. Angels and Bishops venerate Her, Apostles and prophets rejoice together, Since for our sake she prays to the Eternal God!”
This miraculous appearance of the Mother of God occurred in the mid-tenth century in Constantinople, in the Blachernae church where her robe, veil, and part of her belt were preserved after being transferred from Palestine in the fifth century.
On Sunday, October 1, during the All-Night Vigil, when the church was overflowing with those at prayer, the Fool-for-Christ Saint Andrew (October 2), at the fourth hour, lifted up his eyes towards the heavens and beheld our most Holy Lady Theotokos coming through the air, resplendent with heavenly light and surrounded by an assembly of the Saints. Saint John the Baptist and the holy Apostle John the Theologian accompanied the Queen of Heaven. On bended knees, the Most Holy Virgin tearfully prayed for Christians for a long time. Then, coming near the Bishop’s Throne, she continued her prayer.
After completing her prayer she took her veil and spread it over the people praying in church, protecting them from enemies both visible and invisible. The Most Holy Lady Theotokos was resplendent with heavenly glory, and the protecting veil in her hands gleamed “more than the rays of the sun.” Saint Andrew gazed trembling at the miraculous vision and he asked his disciple, the blessed Epiphanius standing beside him, “Do you see, brother, the Holy Theotokos, praying for all the world?” Epiphanius answered, “I do see, holy Father, and I am in awe.”
The Ever-Blessed Mother of God implored the Lord Jesus Christ to accept the prayers of all the people calling on His Most Holy Name and to respond speedily to her intercession, “O Heavenly King, accept all those who pray to You and call on my name for help. Do not let them go away from my icon unheard.”
Saints Andrew and Epiphanius were worthy to see the Mother of God at prayer, and “for a long time observed the Protecting Veil spread over the people and shining with flashes of glory. As long as the Most Holy Theotokos was there, the Protecting Veil was also visible, but with her departure it also became invisible. After taking it with her, she left behind the grace of her visitation.”
At the Blachernae church, the memory of the miraculous appearance of the Mother of God was remembered. In the fourteenth century, the Russian pilgrim and clerk Alexander, saw in the church an icon of the Most Holy Theotokos praying for the world, depicting Saint Andrew in contemplation of her.
The Primary Chronicle of Saint Nestor reflects that the protective intercession of the Mother of God was needed because of an attack of a large pagan Russian fleet under the leadership of Askole and Dir. The feast celebrates the divine destruction of the fleet which threatened Constantinople itself, sometime in the years 864-867 or according to the Russian historian Vasiliev, on June 18, 860. Ironically, this Feast is considered important by the Slavic Churches but not by the Greeks.
The Primary Chronicle of Saint Nestor also notes the miraculous deliverance followed an all-night Vigil and the dipping of the garment of the Mother of God into the waters of the sea at the Blachernae church but does not mention Saints Andrew and Epiphanius and their vision of the Mother of God at prayer. These latter elements, and the beginnings of the celebration of the Feast of the Protection, seem to postdate Saint Nestor and the Chronicle. A further historical complication might be noted under (October 2) dating Saint Andrew’s death to the year 936.
The year of death might not be quite reliable, or the assertion that he survived to a ripe old age after the vision of his youth, or that his vision involved some later pagan Russian raid which met with the same fate. The suggestion that Saint Andrew was a Slav (or a Scythian according to other sources, such as S. V. Bulgakov) is interesting, but not necessarily accurate. The extent of Slavic expansion and repopulation into Greece is the topic of scholarly disputes.
In the PROLOGUE, a Russian book of the twelfth century, a description of the establishment of the special Feast marking this event states, “For when we heard, we realized how wondrous and merciful was the vision... and it transpired that Your holy Protection should not remain without festal celebration, O Ever-Blessed One!”
Therefore, in the festal celebration of the Protection of the Mother of God, the Russian Church sings, “With the choirs of the Angels, O Sovereign Lady, with the venerable and glorious prophets, with the First-Ranked Apostles and with the Hieromartyrs and Hierarchs, pray for us sinners, glorifying the Feast of your Protection in the Russian Land.” Moreover, it would seem that Saint Andrew, contemplating the miraculous vision was a Slav, was taken captive, and became the slave of the local inhabitant of Constantinople named Theognostus.
Churches in honour of the Protection of the Mother of God began to appear in Russia in the twelfth century. Widely known for its architectural merit is the temple of the Protection at Nerl, which was built in the year 1165 by holy Prince Andrew Bogoliubsky. The efforts of this holy prince also established in the Russian Church the Feast of the Protection of the Mother of God, about the year 1164.
At Novgorod in the twelfth century, there was a monastery of the Protection of the Most-Holy Theotokos (the so-called Zverin monastery) In Moscow also under Tsar Ivan the Terrible the cathedral of the Protection of the Mother of God was built at the church of the Holy Trinity (known as the church of Saint Basil the Blessed).
On the Feast of the Protection of the Most Holy Theotokos, we implore the defence and assistance of the Queen of Heaven, “Remember us in your prayers, O Lady Virgin Mother of God, that we do not perish by the increase of our sins. Protect us from every evil and from grievous woes, for in you do we hope, and venerating the Feast of your Protection, we magnify you.”
Troparion — Tone 4
Today the faithful celebrate the feast with joy / illumined by your coming, O Mother of God. / Beholding your pure image we fervently cry to you: / “Encompass us beneath the precious veil of your protection; / deliver us from every form of evil by entreating Christ, / your Son and our God that He may save our souls.”
Kontakion — Tone 3
Today the Virgin stands in the midst of the Church / and with choirs of saints she invisibly prays to God for us. / Angels and bishops worship, / apostles and prophets rejoice together, / since for our sake she prays to the pre-eternal God.
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The Holy Apostle Ananias of the Seventy was the first Bishop of Damascus. The Lord ordered him to restore the sight of Saul, the former persecutor of Christians, then baptize him (Acts 9:10-19, 22:12). Saul became the great preacher and Apostle Paul. Saint Ananias boldly and openly confessed Christianity before the Jews and the pagans, despite the danger.
From Damascus, he went to preach at Eleutheropolis, where he healed many of their infirmities. Lucian, the prefect of the city, tried to persuade the holy one to offer sacrifice to idols. Because of Ananias’ staunch and solid confession of Christ, Lucian ordered that he be tortured. Harsh torments did not sway the witness of Truth. Then the torturers led him out beyond the city, where they stoned him. The saint prayed for those who put him to death. His relics were later transferred to Constantinople.
Troparion — Tone 3
Holy Apostle Ananias, / entreat the merciful God, / to grant our souls forgiveness of transgressions.
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Saint Romanus the Melodist was born in the fifth century in the Syrian city of Emesa of Jewish parents. After moving to Constantinople, he became a church sacristan in the temple of Hagia Sophia. The monk spent his nights alone at prayer in a field or in the Blachernae church beyond the city.
Saint Romanus was not a talented reader or singer. Once, on the eve of the Nativity of Christ, he read the kathisma verses. He read so poorly that another reader had to take his place. The clergy ridiculed Romanus, which devastated him.
On the day of the Nativity, the Mother of God appeared to the grief-stricken youth in a vision while he was praying before her Kyriotissa icon. She gave him a scroll and commanded him to eat it. Thus was he given the gift of understanding, composition, and hymnography.
That evening at the all-night Vigil Saint Romanus sang, in a wondrous voice, his first Kontakion: “Today the Virgin gives birth to the Transcendent One...” All the hymns of Saint Romanus became known as kontakia, in reference to the Virgin’s scroll. Saint Romanus was also the first to write in the form of the Oikos, which he incorporated into the all-night Vigil at his places of residence (In Greek, “oikos”).
For his zealous service, Saint Romanus was ordained as a deacon and became a teacher of song. Until his death, which occurred about the year 556, the hierodeacon Romanus the Melodist composed nearly a thousand hymns, many of which are still used by Christians to glorify the Lord. About eighty survive.
Troparion — Tone 4
You gladdened Christ’s Church by your melodies / like an inspired heavenly trumpet. / You were enlightened by the Mother of God / and shone on the world as God’s poet. / We lovingly honor you, righteous Romanus.
Kontakion — Tone 8
You were adorned from childhood with the godly virtues of the Spirit; / you were a precious adornment of the Church of Christ, all-wise Romanus, / for you made it lovely with beautiful hymnody. / Therefore, we entreat you, grant your divine gift to those who desire it, / that we may cry out to you: “Rejoice, all-blessed Father, the beauty of the Church.”
IN LUMINE FIDEI: 1 OCTOBER – SAINT REMIGIUS (Bishop and Confessor): Saint Remigius baptising King Clovis of the Franks Remigius (also called Remedius) was born in about 435 AD at Laon of noble parents...
IN LUMINE FIDEI: OCTOBER – THE MONTH OF THE HOLY ROSARY: According to tradition the Rosary was revealed to Saint Dominic (1170 ‒ 1221), the founder of the Dominican Order (the Order of Fri...
Of all the tests by which the good citizen and strong reformer can be distinguished from the vague faddist or the inhuman sceptic, I know no better test than this—that the unreal reformer sees in front of him one certain future, the future of his fad; while the real reformer sees before him ten or twenty futures among which his country must choose, and may in some dreadful hour choose the wrong one. The true patriot is always doubtful of victory; because he knows that he is dealing with a living thing; a thing with free will. To be certain of free will is to be uncertain of success.
The third degree of humility is, that a man for the love of God submit himself to his superior in all obedience; imitating the Lord, of Whom the apostle saith: “He was made obedient even unto death.”
Sexto Nonas Octóbris Luna vicésima octáva Anno Dómini 2024
The morrow is the feast of the Holy Guardian Angels. October 2nd 2024, the 28th day of the Moon, were born into the better life:
At Nicomedia, the holy soldier Eleutherius, and an unnumbered multitude of others, all martyrs. When the palace of the Emperor Diocletian was burnt, they were falsely accused of the crime of setting it on fire and by the command of that most cruel Emperor they were slaughtered in crowds some were slain with the sword, some were burnt in the fire, and some were cast into the sea. But the first of them was Eleutherius, who was long tortured, but at every new torment seemed to grow more steadfast, like gold tried in the fire, and crowned his testimony with victory. In the country of Arras, the blessed Leodegar, Bishop of Autun, (in the year 678,) who was murdered by Ebroin, mayor of the palace to King Theodoric, after he had laid upon him diverse insults and sufferings for the truth's sake. Likewise the holy martyr Gerin, brother of the said blessed Leodegar, who was stoned to death at the same place. At Antioch, the holy martyrs Primus, Cyril, and Secondarius. At Constantinople, the holy Monk Theophilus, who was cruelly scourged and sent into exile, under the Emperor Leo the Isaurian, for defending holy images, and passed away to be ever with the Lord. At Hereford, in England, the holy Confessor Thomas, Bishop of that see, whose feast we keep upon the 3rd day of this present month of October. ℣. And elsewhere many other holy martyrs, confessors, and holy virgins. ℟. Thanks be to God.
Once again, Bishop Schneider simply states the Catholic Faith against Francis. I wholeheartedly endorse this Profession along with His Lordship and those attending the Catholic Identity Conference 2024.
By His Lordship Athanasius Schneider, Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of Mary Most Holy in Astana
We unshakably believe and profess what the ordinary and universal Magisterium of the Church has continuously and infallibly taught since the time of the Apostles, namely,
That faith in Jesus Christ, the Incarnate Son of God and only Savior of mankind, is the only religion willed by God.
After the institution of the new and everlasting Covenant in Jesus Christ, no one may be saved by adherence to the teachings and practices of non-Christian religions. Because “the prayer, which is directed to God, must be linked with Christ, the Lord of all people, the one Mediator (1 Tm 2:5; Heb 8:6; 9:15; 12:24) through whom alone we have access to God (Rom 5:2; Eph 2:18; 3:12).” (General Instruction of the Liturgy of the Hours, n. 6)
We firmly believe that “there is no other name under heaven given to men, whereby we must be saved” (Acts 4:12), except the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, who was crucified, whom God hath raised from the dead (cf. Acts 4:10).
We believe that it is “contrary to the Catholic faith to consider the Church as one way of salvation alongside those constituted by the other religions, seen as complementary to the Church or substantially equivalent to her, even if these are said to be converging with the Church toward the eschatological kingdom of God” (Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Declaration Dominus Iesus, 21).
We furthermore hold that Divine Revelation, faithfully transmitted by the Church’s perennial Magisterium, forbids affirming
That all religions are paths to God,
That the diversity of religious identities is a gift of God, and
That the diversity of religions is an expression of the wise will of God the Creator.
We hold, therefore, that Christians are not simply “travelling companions” along with adherents of false religions — which God forbids.
We fervently implore the help of Divine grace for all those churchmen today who, by their words and deeds, contradict the Divinely revealed truth about Jesus Christ and His Church as the only path by which men can reach God and eternal salvation. With the help of divine grace, may these churchmen be enabled to offer a public retraction, required for the good of their own soul and the souls of others. For “not accepting Christ is the greatest danger for the world!” (St. Hilary of Poitiers, In Matth. 18).
By the prayers, tears and sacrifices of all the true sons and daughters of the Church, and especially of the “little ones” in the Church, may the Shepherds of the Church, and first and foremost Pope Francis, receive the grace to emulate the Apostles, countless Martyrs, numerous Holy Roman Pontiffs and a multitude of Saints, especially St. Francis of Assisi, who “was a Catholic and an entirely apostolic man, who set about personally and commanded his disciples to occupy themselves before everything else with the conversion of the heathen to the Faith and Law of Christ.” (Pope Pius XI, Encyclical Rite Expiatis, 37)
We believe and, with God’s grace, are ready to give our lives for this Divine truth pronounced by Jesus Christ: “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6).
+ Athanasius Schneider, Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of Saint Mary in Astana with the Participants of the Catholic Identity Conference 2024
‘The crisis of this papacy has reached epic proportions outweighing all former crises in the Church's 2000-year history,’ John-Henry Westen said about Pope Francis’ pontificate.
Fans of The John-Henry Westen Show will not want to miss John-Henry’s presentation at the Rome Life Forum in October.
John-Henry is, of course, the Editor-in-Chief of LifeSiteNews as well as the 27-year-old media outlet’s co-founder, the founder of the Rome Life Forum, and a married Catholic father of eight. As a newsman, John-Henry has had his finger to the pulse of Church news for almost 30 years, and he says we have reached an unprecedented crisis.
“The crisis of this papacy has reached epic proportions outweighing all former crises in the Church’s 2000-year history,” he told LifeSiteNews.
“The latest focus of Francis on all religions being paths to God, which he has repeated several times despite public correction by several bishops, demonstrates both the gravity of the present crisis and the clear dawn of a false religion under the guise of the Catholic Church.”
The current emergency underscores the need for the Rome Life Forum, which provides an opportunity for faithful priests, prelates, and laity to gather, pray together, consult each other, and obtain spiritual and mental sustenance to continue to fight for orthodox Catholic belief and practice.
“The Rome Life Forum has, from its inception in 2014, been a clarion call warning about the crisis of the Francis papacy. It is the longest-standing consistent opposition to the Francis agenda to push a novel gospel,” Westen told LifeSiteNews.
The Francis papacy ushered in a new era for LifeSiteNews staff as much as for everyone else in the Church. Founded during the pontificate of St. John Paul II, who combined intellectual gifts with an unfailing loyalty to the Catholic faith and families and the weakest human beings, LifeSiteNews became a welcome guest in Rome and our articles were quoted in the loftiest circles of the hierarchy. Under the influence of Benedict XVI, a great theologian and apologist for the faith, LifeSiteNews followed the restoration of more traditional forms of worship and develop a greater appreciation for Catholic truths eclipsed during the post-Vatican II era. But then Benedict abdicated.
The shock of the contrast between the popes of the 1978–2013 era and Pope Francis, the former Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio, was intense. It was hard for LifeSiteNews staff, as well as readers, to come to grips with the fact that the news from the Vatican was suddenly very bad.
In May 2014, LifeSiteNews published a groundbreaking story on Pope Francis’ concelebration of Mass with a notorious clerical homosexual activist, whose hand the new pontiff kissed in reverence. Some readers were shocked by the article’s implied criticism of the papal action, and there was an immediate backlash, but LifeSiteNews must tell the truth in and out of season. History, unfortunately, showed that LifeSiteNews was correct to run the story. Pope Francis’ attempted erosion of the Church’s lifegiving doctrine on marriage and the family has only worsened over the past 10 years. To give only one early example, in 2016, the pontiff called abortion activist Emma Bonino, who herself committed abortions, one of Italy’s “forgotten greats.” To mention only one of the latest scandals, last week, the Bishop of Rome declared that “every religion is a way to arrive at God.”
The task of LifeSiteNews is to tell the truth; the task of the Rome Life Forum is to discuss what has been disclosed and to plan the way forward. The theme this year is “Recovering from Modernism,” And if there is anything we have learned last week, it’s that Modernism does not end with shopworn 1970s “hymns.”
Other speakers at this year’s Rome Life Forum in Exile will include Bishop Joseph Strickland; “Candace” podcast CEO George Farmer (the husband of Candace Owens); professor emeritus Janet E. Smith; author and Mariologist Xavier Reyes-Ayral; Jason Jones of the Vulnerable People Project; and Michael Haynes, LifeSiteNews’ Vatican correspondent. The Forum will take place on October 17 and 18 at the at the InterContinental Kansas City at the Plaza in Kansas City, Missouri.
Attendees are expected to take part fully in the discussions, particularly in the question-and-answer sessions. The Rome Life Forum attracts Catholics from all over the world, and everyone has a unique perspective to share. Doing what can humanly be done to steer the Church back on course is not the work of only a few but of as many of the faithful as are called to do it.
To buy tickets, and for more information about the Rome Life Forum, please visit our Rome Life Forum page here. But remember: the deadline to book your hotel room is quickly approaching. Book by October 3 to take advantage of the discounted hotel rate.
The rampage in Essen was more reminiscent of a terror attack than a ‘domestic dispute.’
A 41-year-old Syrian man set fire to two buildings, rammed his vehicle into a grocery store, and threatened passers-by with a machete in the western German city of Essen. While authorities and mainstream politicians are treating the case as an act of revenge by a mentally deranged man against his ex-wife’s new boyfriend, the attack bears the hallmarks of Islamist violence.
According to German media reports, the perpetrator set fire to two residential buildings on Saturday afternoon, injuring 31 people, including eight children who remain in critical condition. Photos circulating on social media show people clambering down ladders to try to escape one of the torched buildings.
The fire department said people stood at windows and on balconies for air because they could no longer escape through the smoke-filled stairwell.
The man continued his rampage by ramming his vehicle into a greengrocer’s shop, backing up, and then ramming it against the shop once again. The man then headed for another store where he got out of his van, and started wielding a machete and a combat knife, threatening passers-by who apparently kept him at a distance by throwing objects at him. Several men eventually detained the suspect, using shovels and iron bars, before police arrived to arrest him.
According to the police, “initial investigations revealed that the 41-year-old’s motive was that his wife had separated from him.” The perpetrator was already known to the police for threats, damage to property, and domestic violence. That’s allegedly why his wife left him.
Security sources told daily Die Welt that they are not treating the case as a terrorist attack. The perpetrator’s lawyer said there was no political motive, and Mayor Thomas Kufen emphasised that the attack was directed against a specific family, not random targets. According to the police, during the course of events, the Syrian man targeted only buildings where people who were somehow connected to his former wife’s new boyfriend lived or worked.
However, others pointed to the method of the attack and the extent of violence that bear the hallmarks of an Islamist ‘honour attack.’
The fact that he threatened ordinary passers-by with a machete and a knife, indicates that he tried to attack innocent people unrelated to his ex-wife. He was also wearing Islamist combat clothing when he committed the attack: he tied a Palestinian scarf around his forehead as a headband and was wearing pennants with the colours of the Palestinian flag on his clothing.
The danger posed by Islamist extremism in Germany, as well as many parts of Western Europe, has increased significantly following the Palestinian terror group Hamas’ attack on Israel last year.
There has been a spate of knife attacks in Germany in recent months committed by mostly Syrian and Afghan migrants. Among the most tragic incidents was the brutal killing of three festivalgoers by a 26-year-old Syrian failed asylum seeker in Solingen in August, and the murder of a policeman by a 25-year-old Afghan failed asylum seeker in Mannheim in May.
With the anti-immigration AfD party constantly increasing its popularity, and registering its first regional electoral victory at the beginning of September, the left-liberal government has decided to react, reinstalling temporary border checks at all of Germany’s borders, and announcing new measures to deport failed asylum seekers. But the opposition AfD and the centre-right CDU think this is not enough, and that illegal migrants should be pushed back at the border.
Reacting to the spree of violence committed in Essen, co-leader of the AfD Alice Weidel commented on her X social media account: “The question arises as to why not just this Syrian is still in Germany at all—instead of his safe country of origin.”
“Germany remains a safe country for Islamists. For everyone else, it remains a dangerous country,” commented conservative media outlet NiUS.de.
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