Æthelwulf of Wessex | The Forgotten King Who Made Alfred “Great”

From thehistorysquad

Travel back to Anglo-Saxon England and meet the man history forgot. In this episode, Kevin Hicks reveals the remarkable life of Æthelwulf of Wessex – warrior king, reformer, pilgrim to Rome, and the father who laid the foundations for Alfred “the Great.” Discover how Æthelwulf fought the Vikings, reshaped kingship, and put Wessex on the international stage. Without him, there would have been no Alfred, and perhaps no England as we know it.

Traditional Catholic Morning Prayers in English | February

Traditional Catholic morning prayers -- an excellent way to start your day off strong! The month of February is devoted to the Holy Family -- Jesus, Mary, and St. Joseph. It is my hope that these prayers increase your devotion to Our Lord and His Holy Family. Begin each day with morning prayer! This video is a compilation of many traditional morning prayers Catholics say, and should not be considered a replacement for those who have an obligation to pray the Divine Office morning prayers.

The Salvation Lie: Why Orthodoxy Gets It Wrong

From Totus Catholica

They Lied To You About Salvation (The Orthodox Formula That Fails) Most people assume Eastern Orthodoxy and Catholicism teach the same path to salvation—after all, both honor the early Church, celebrate the sacraments, and speak of theosis: becoming “partakers of the divine nature” (2 Peter 1;4). But beneath the surface, a popular Orthodox formulation—faith + sacraments = theosis—quietly omits a critical element the Apostles never left out. And that omission changes everything. In this video, we don’t attack Orthodoxy. We affirm its beauty—but also expose where a common modern presentation of salvation misses the full biblical and patristic picture. Because salvation isn’t just mystical transformation. It’s covenantal: it includes justification, sanctification, moral perseverance, and the real danger of losing grace through mortal sin. 📌 If you’ve ever heard that “as long as you’re in the Church and receive the sacraments, you’re on the path to theosis,” this video will challenge that assumption with Scripture, the Fathers, and Catholic doctrine. ✨ What You’ll Learn in This Video: 📖 Why theosis must flow from justification by grace, not replace it 🌟 How mortal sin severs union with God—even for the baptized 👑 Why the sacraments are necessary but not automatic (CCC 1128–1129) 🙏 The indispensable role of Confession in restoring sanctifying grace ⚖️ How modern Orthodox theology sometimes softens moral absolutes and redefines sin as “brokenness” rather than rebellion ⏳ Chapters: 0:00 – The Hidden Flaw in the Orthodox Salvation Formula 1:28 – What Is Theosis? (And What It’s Not) 2:39 – Justification Comes First: Romans 3;28 & CCC 1992 3:38 – Sacraments Require Right Disposition (1 Corinthians 11;27–29) 4:46 – The Real Danger of Mortal Sin (Hebrews 10;26–27) 5:57 – When Sin Becomes “Therapeutic” Instead of Deadly 6:50 – Daily Tools for Staying in Grace (Soul Search App) 7:20 – Salvation as Covenant: Obedience, Not Just Mysticism 8:12 – What Trent and Augustine Teach About Cooperation 9:06 – Where Catholics and Orthodox Agree—and Where We Must Be Clear 📖 Key Scripture & References: Genesis to Revelation – Salvation as covenant fidelity Isaiah 59;2 – “Your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God.” John 15;6 – “If anyone does not abide in me… he is thrown away.” Romans 6;16 – “You are slaves of the one whom you obey.” 2 Peter 1;4 – “Partakers of the divine nature.” Hebrews 10;26–27 – No sacrifice remains for deliberate sin after grace CCC 1992 – Justification as infusion of sanctifying grace CCC 1128–1129 – Sacraments require proper disposition CCC 2001 – Human freedom must cooperate with grace Council of Trent, Decree on Justification, Canon 24 – Good works preserve and increase justice 🔗 Additional Resources: 📖 St. Athanasius, On the Incarnation 54.3 – “God became man so that man might become God.” 📖 St. Augustine, Sermon 169.13 – “He who created you without you will not justify you without you.” 📖 Soul Search – Our private web app for daily examination of conscience, guided reflections, and spiritual journaling (scan the QR code in-video!) 💬 Reflection Question: Have you ever assumed that regular sacramental participation guarantees salvation? How does the reality of mortal sin and the need for Confession change your approach to the spiritual life?

The False Miracles Of Antichrist

The Traditional Pre-Lenten Season Begins With Septuagesima

Today is Septuagesima Sunday, the beginning of pre-Lent. It is the 3rd Sunday before Ash Wednesday and approximately 70 days before Easter, hence the name.

From Aleteia

By Philip Kosloski

For many centuries, Catholics celebrated a special penitential season with a specific spiritual focus. 

In addition to Lent, which begins 40 days before Easter, Catholics traditionally observed a “pre-Lenten” season that begins with what’s called Septuagesima.

This liturgical tradition is named for the Latin word meaning “70th” (as in 70 days before Easter), and it begins on the ninth Sunday before Easter. It is classified as a “pre-Lenten” season and is included in the Easter Cycle in the liturgical calendar used by the Traditional Latin Mass and Ordinariate communities.

The seasonal practice dates back at least to the 8th century, and is celebrated on the three Sundays that precede the beginning of Lent. These Sundays are named Septuagesima, Sexagesima, and Quinquagesima, from the Latin for the 70th, 60th, and 50th days before Easter, in the ancient custom of counting a week as 10 days.

According to the medieval devotional classic The Golden Legend, one of the reasons for Septuagesima is to commemorate “the seventy years the children of Israel spent in captivity in Babylon, when they hung up their lyres and said: ‘How shall we sing the Lord’s song in a foreign land?'”

Furthermore, “The time of captivity and exile of the children of Israel also represents the time of our own pilgrimage …”

It is the duty of the soul during this time to “labor in the vineyard of the soul, pruning away vices and sins; in the race of the present life she must run by doing the works of penance; and then she must fight staunchly in the struggle against all the devil’s trials. If she follows this prescription, she will receive a threefold reward, because to the laborer the day’s wages will be given, to the runner the prize, and to the fighter the crown.”

While this special pre-Lenten season is no longer on the general calendar of the Ordinary Form, it should act as a warning signal, alerting us to the coming season of Lent, urging us to prepare our hearts for this great season of the Church’s liturgical year.

In this world we still remain in spiritual exile, and Lent calls us to put forth all of our energy to return to God with all of our hearts.

Mormon Accidentally Proves Catholicism

From Brian Holdsworth

Reducing the argument to ‘if not Catholicism, therefore the Great Apostasy’ is a textbook non-sequitur. In this video, I analyse the recent debate between Catholic apologist Joe Heschmeyer and Mormon apologist Jacob Hansen, and show how his central LDS argument for a “Great Apostasy” commits a fatal logical fallacy: if not Catholicism, then Mormonism. I explain why this reasoning collapses, why the burden of proof is on the one claiming the Church disappeared, and how the historical record actually ends up pointing straight back to Catholicism. Timestamps 00:00 – Why I watched the Heschmeyer vs. Hansen debate 02:17 – Shifting the burden of proof: Great Apostasy 03:11 – The “new revelation” argument and why it backfires 04:00 – Jesus as the fullness of revelation in Scripture 05:51 – The bank-teller analogy: proving something stopped existing 07:19 – Why Jacob’s argument is a textbook non-sequitur 08:29 – Accidentally providing evidence for Catholicism 09:24 – What evidence a real Great Apostasy would require 10:34 – Why the historical record looks overwhelmingly Catholic 11:39 – Presupposing Mormonism 12:49 – The dilemma that accidentally proves Catholicism

The Life of St Ignatius of Antioch, Bishop & Martyr

From The Golden Legend of Blessed Jacobus Voragine, translated by William Caxton in 1483.

HERE FOLLOWETH THE LIFE OF ST. IGNATIUS, BISHOP

St Ignatius was disciple of St. John Evangelist, and was bishop of Antioch. And after that, as some say, he sent a letter unto our Lady or an epistle in this wise: Unto Mary the Virgin, that bare Jesu Christ in her body, I, humble Ignatius, her servant, send greeting, I, that am yet a novice in the faith and disciple to Jesu Christ and to John thy dear friend, desire to have of thee some comfort and consolation of some good enseignment and teaching. For of Jesus thy Son I have heard say many marvels, of which I am enjoyed to hear only of thee, which hast been always in his company. Thou knowest well the secret desires of him, thou hast been plainly informed, and they that be yet young in the faith with me trust much to be endoctrined of thee, and informed in their creance and belief: Lady, God salute thee.

And to this letter answered the glorious Virgin Mary in this manner:

Ignatius, good disciple of Jesus and his special friend, the humble handmaid of Jesu Christ sendeth to thee greeting. I do thee to wit that all that John hath said to thee of Jesu Christ and all that thou hast learned of him is true doctrine and thing certain. Go alway in good creance, and believe and keep firmly the promise of thy Christian faith, and do thy works according to the same. I shall come with St. John for to visit thee and other Christian men with thee. Hold thee always well in the faith and in good works, and let no persecution ne adversity that thou shalt suffer move thee from thy faith ne from thy creance, but have solace and affiance in Jesu Christ thy Saviour.

This was the answer of his letter.

The Martyrdom of St. Ignatius

St. Ignatius was a man right well learned, and the third bishop after St. Peter the apostle of the church of Antioch, and much desired to be a martyr for the faith of Jesu Christ. It happed that Trajan, which was emperor of Rome, passed by Antioch, to whom Ignatius showed to him and blamed of this, that he persecuted Christian men, wherefor the emperor did him to be taken and put in irons, and in that wise by ten knights to be led to Rome. There he was presented tofore the emperor and all the senators of Rome, and was constrained by promises, by menaces, and by torments, many and great an horrible, for to adore the idols. St. Ignatius showed to them clearly that their gods had been thieves, ribalds, and men of abominable and evil life, and that they were damned in hell, and that they had been in great error in this, that of so cursed men they made their gods and worshipped devils, and had forsaken God which had made and created all the world, and his blessed Son which in human nature had redeemed and saved the world.

Finably, after this, that he had been tormented by fire, and by beating and prison, the emperor did send for the Romans in a place and there did do set St. Ignatius, and did do bring thither two lions for to devour him. But he had never dread for death ne for other torments, of which he had suffered many, but was always comforted for to die for the love of Jesu Christ. And he said at the last: I am wheat of Jesu Christ, which ought to be grounden between the teeth of these beasts, by which I may be pure bread for to be presented to my Lord.

And anon the lions came and strangled him without tearing of his flesh, or anything hurting it, wherefor Trajan had great marvel and departed from the place.

The Miracle of His Heart

It is read that St. Ignatius in all his torments and all the pains of martyrdom that he suffered, that his tongue never ceased to name the name of Jesus, and when they that tormented him demanded him wherefore he named this name so oft, he answered: Know ye for certain that I have in my heart this name written, and therefore I may not leave to name this name oft.

And because hereof, when he was dead, they that heard these words opened his body and drew out his heart and cut it open, and they found within the name of Jesus written with fair letters of gold, for which miracle many received the faith of Jesu Christ.

St. Bernard’s Remarks on St. Ignatius

Of this saint saith St. Bernard upon the psalm, Qui habitat [Psalm 15]: St. Ignatius, martyr of God glorious, is of great merit, which was minister to the disciple that Jesus so much loved, and in his epistles, the which he sent to the glorious Virgin Mary, he saluted her as mother that had borne Jesu Christ and she resaluted him again, in sign that he was a person of great honour, of great dignity, and of great authority. The body of whom was honorably buried of Christian men, to the worship of Jesu Christ which is blessed in secula seculorum. Amen.

Forgotten Customs of Septuagesima

Today is Septuagesima, so here is Matthew Plese, a Dominican Tertiary, with a look at some forgotten or discarded pre-Lenten customs.

From One Peter Five

By Matthew Plese, TOP

Brethren: Know you not that they that run in the race, all run indeed, but one receiveth the prize. So run that you may obtain. And every one that striveth for the mastery refraineth himself from all things. And they indeed that they may receive a corruptible crown: but we an incorruptible one. I therefore so run, not as at an uncertainty: I so fight, not as one beating the air. But I chastise my body and bring it into subjection: lest perhaps, when I have preached to others, I myself should become a castaway (1 Cor. 9:24-27 as taken from the Epistle on Septuagesima Sunday).

Septuagesima is the ancient period of time observed for two and a half weeks before the start of Lent. Celebrated on the Third Sunday before the First Sunday in Lent, Septuagesima is both the name of this third Sunday before Lent’s beginning as well as the season itself that runs from this day up until Ash Wednesday. The season of Septuagesima comprises the Sundays of Septuagesima, Sexagesima, and Quinquagesima. The Fourth Council of Orleans in 541 AD documents the existence of this season.

This time, informally called “Pre-Lent,” is a time for us to focus on the need for a Savior. It is a time to prepare a Lenten prayer schedule so that we can determine which extra devotions and Masses we will go to in Lent. It is a time to begin weaning ourselves from food so that we may more easily observe the strictest fast during Lent.

A Season of Penance Before Lent Shown in the Church’s Liturgy

Starting with First Vespers of Septuagesima, which is prayed on the Saturday evening before Septuagesima Sunday, the Alleluia ceases to be said until we proclaim our Lord’s resurrection. There is no exception. At first Vespers of Septuagesima Sunday, two alleluias are added to the closing verse of Benedicamus Domino and its response, Deo gratias, as during the Easter Octave. Starting with Compline, the word Alleluia is no longer said until the Easter Vigil and the proclamation of the Lord’s Resurrection. As a result, many monasteries and some parishes began the custom of physically burying a banner with the word alleluia and only unearthing it on Easter. Some places also adopted rather elaborate farewell to alleluia ceremonies. Fr. Scott Haynes from the Archdiocese of Chicago writes on this custom:

Pope Alexander II decreed that the dismissal of the Alleluia be solemnly marked on the eve of Septuagesima Sunday (i.e., three Sundays before Ash Wednesday) in the chanting of the Divine Office by inserting Alleluias in the sacred text. This custom also inspired the creation of new hymns sung at Vespers honouring the Alleluia… This burial of the Alleluia was nicknamed the deposition (i.e., “the giving on deposit”). Curiously enough, gravestones in Catholic cemeteries traditionally had the inscription Depositus, or simply “D,” to indicate a Christian’s burial. When this term indicates the burial of the Alleluia or of the faithful departed, the Christian belief in resurrection is clear. As we bury those who have been “marked with the sign of faith,” (Roman Canon), and as we enter into the fasting of Lent, we do not silence our tongues because of despair or permanent loss. Rather, we do so with confidence that what has been deposited into the earth—our dead, our Alleluia—will rise again.

There are other noticeable changes in the Church’s liturgy with the beginning of Septuagesima. Violet vestments are worn, except on feasts, from Septuagesima Sunday until Holy Thursday. As during Advent and Lent, the Gloria and Te Deum are no longer said on Sundays. The readings at Matins for the first week of Septuagesima are the first few chapters of Genesis, telling of the creation of the world, of Adam and Eve, the fall of man and resulting expulsion from the Garden of Eden, and the story of Cain and Abel. In the following weeks before and during Lent, the readings continue to Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Moses. The Gospel reading for Septuagesima Sunday is the parable of the Workers in the Vineyard (Matthew 20:1-16).

On the connection of this ancient season with Lent, the great Liturgist and author of The Liturgical Year, Dom Gueranger observed:

The season upon which we are now entering is expressive of several profound mysteries. But these mysteries belong not only to the three weeks which are preparatory to Lent: they continue throughout the whole period of time which separates us from the great feast of Easter.

 Pre-Lenten Fasting

Septuagesima is also an appropriate time for us to begin preparing our bodies for the upcoming Lenten fast by incorporating some fasting into our routine. In some places a custom of observing a fast of devotion, in anticipation of and in preparation for the Great Lenten fast, was observed as Father Weiser mentions in his “Handbook of Christian Feasts and Customs”:

This preparatory time of pre-Lent in the Latin Church was suggested by the practice of the Byzantine Church, which started its great fast earlier, because their ‘forty days’ did not include Saturdays. Saint Maximum (465 AD), Bishop of Turin, mentioned the practice in one of his sermons. It is a pious custom, he said, to keep a fast of devotion (not of obligation) before the start of Lent.

As we are on the threshold of the beginning of the holy season of Lent, we should in a special way recall the importance of observing some penance even in the days before Lent. To this end, the 13-minute video on the importance of penance in Septuagesima via Sensus Fidelium would be worthwhile to reflect upon.

Paczkis, Pancakes, & Carnival on Shrove Tuesday

For those who plan to keep the true Lenten fast (i.e., fasting for all forty weekdays of Lent and abstaining from all meat and all animal products all forty days of Lent and on all Sundays), Fat Tuesday represents one last day of merriment. Unfortunately, this day has grown into a debaucherous celebration by many who hardly fast at all during Lent. For this reason, while we can observe Fat Tuesday by enjoying food – including Polish paczkis which are customarily eaten on this day – we should ensure that our merriment never turns to gluttony. Some cultures – like the English – adopted the custom of eating pancakes on Fat Tuesday – earning it the nickname of “Pancake Tuesday.” This custom, like the Polish one, was observed because for centuries the use of any lacticinia (i.e., animal byproducts like cheese, butter, milk or eggs) was forbidden for the entirety of Lent. We should consider adopting a similar observance this year with our Lenten fast.

The practice of observing Carnival celebrations was based on the approaching Lenten fast. The word “carnival” comes from the Latin words “carnis” (meaning meat or flesh) and “vale” (the Latin word for farewell). Carnival then became the last farewell to meat since meat was never permitted at all during Lent until the liberalizing changes of Pope Benedict XIV in 1741. Lent was always a season of complete abstinence for centuries.

The name “Shrove Tuesday” also expresses the ancient practice of the faithful to go to Confession on the day before Ash Wednesday. Ælfric of Eynsham’s “Ecclesiastical Institutes” from c. 1000 AD states: “In the week immediately before Lent everyone shall go to his confessor and confess his deeds and the confessor shall so shrive him as he then may hear by his deeds what he is to do [in the way of penance].” Father Weiser similarly remarks, “In preparation for Lent the faithful in medieval times used to go to confession on Tuesday before Ash Wednesday. From this practice, that day became known as ‘Shrove Tuesday’ (the day on which people are shriven from sins).”

Make it a resolution to go to Confession on Shrove Tuesday or the weekend before. Since none of our penance done in the state of mortal sin earns merit for us, starting our Lenten penance in the state of sanctifying grace is of the utmost importance.

40 Hours Devotion & Reparation to the Holy Face

Unfortunately, Carnival season over time grew to that of excess. Dom Guaranger wrote of the excesses and sinfulness of Mardi Gras in his own time.  And how much worse it is in our own times than his, who lived from 1805 to 1875:

How far from being true children of Abraham are those so-called Christians who spend Quinquagesima and the two following days in intemperance and dissipation, because Lent is soon to be upon us! We can easily understand how the simple manners of our Catholic forefathers could keep a leave-taking of the ordinary way of living, which Lent was to interrupt, and reconcile their innocent carnival with Christian gravity; just as we can understand how their rigorous observance of the laws of the Church for Lent would inspire certain festive customs at Easter.

Even in our times, a joyous carnival is not to be altogether reprobated, provided the Christian sentiment of the approaching holy season of Lent be strong enough to check the evil tendency of corrupt nature; otherwise the original intention of an innocent custom would be perverted, and the forethought of penance could in no sense be considered as the prompter of our joyous farewell to ease and comforts.

While admitting all this, we would ask, what right or title have they to share in these carnival rejoicings, whose Lent will pass and find them out of the Church? And they, too, who claim dispensations from fasting during Lent and, for one reason or another, evade every penitential exercise during the solemn forty days of penance, and will find themselves at Easter as weighed down by the guilt and debt of their sins as they were on Ash Wednesday ‒ what meaning, we would ask, can there possibly be in their feasting at ‘Mardi Gras.’

As a result of the excesses of Fat Tuesday and the carnival season, the Church instituted the practice of observing the 40 Hours Devotion. Father Weiser remarks:

In order to encourage the faithful to atone in prayer and penance for the many excesses and scandals committed at carnival time, Pope Benedict XIV, in 1748, instituted a special devotion for the three days preceding Lent, called ‘Forty Hours of Carnival,’ which is held in many churches of Europe and America, in places where carnival frolies are of general and long-standing tradition. The Blessed Sacrament is exposed all day Monday and Tuesday, and devotions are held in the evening, followed by the Eucharistic benediction.

The Church also instituted the Votive Feast of the Holy Face of Our Lord Jesus Christ Deformed in the Passion for the Tuesday after Quinquagesima (i.e., Fat Tuesday) as a means of making reparation for the sins of Marti Gras. In fact, our Blessed Lord Himself asked for such reparation to His Holy Face in apparition to Mother Pierina in 1938:

See how I suffer. Nevertheless, I am understood by so few. What gratitude on the part of those who say they love me. I have given My Heart as a sensible object of My great love for man and I give My Face as a sensible object of My Sorrow for the sins of man. I desire that it be honored by a special feast on Tuesday in Quinquagesima (Shrove Tuesday – the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday). The feast will be preceded by novena in which the faithful make reparation with Me uniting themselves with my sorrow.

To this end, the praying of the Golden Arrow prayer during Septuagesima has become an annual custom for some families.

Prepare a Lenten Resolution Plan During Septuagesima

Lent, with its three-fold foundation of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, provides Catholics a grace-filled opportunity to atone for sin. To this end, Lent has been called the “tithe of the year.” Preparing for Lent requires a plan for Lenten penance with all three pillars. To start your preparation see a list of 20 Pious Practices for Lent and consider adopting some of them. Commit to your resolutions by writing them down on a Lenten preparation guide, ensuring you cover prayer, fasting, and almsgiving to a greater degree that required by Church law.

In a follow up article on the forgotten customs of Lent, we will highlight various customs and traditions – including those of ecclesiastical law regarding fasting – that have been virtually forgotten even by priests.