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Sunday 5 February 2017

They have sown weeds

Image result for wheat and tares

Today, according to the most proper and meet Roman Calendar it is the Fifth Sunday after Epiphany. The gospel today is the "wheat and tares," from the Holy Gospel of Our Lord Jesus Christ, according to Saint Matthew, beginning at chapter 13: 24-30.

At that time, Jesus spake this parable unto the crowds, saying: The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his field:  but while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way.  But when the blade was sprung up, and brought forth fruit, then appeared the tares also.  So the servants of the householder came and said unto him, Sir, didst not thou sow good seed in thy field? from whence then hath it tares?  He said unto them, An enemy hath done this. The servants said unto him, Wilt thou then that we go and gather them up?  But he said, Nay; lest while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them.  Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn.

From the very codification of the Mass itself by St. Gregory the Great, Pope from 590-604, until Annibale Bugnini and Giovanni Montini in 1969, this is the Gospel that you would have heard on this Sunday, (unless transferred to November due to the movable date of Easter). Who were these men to deny you what the Church has always read and prayed on this day?

Who were these men to deny the priests and religious and lay faithful who pray the Office the following? From the very foundation of the monastic life and the compilation of the venerable and proper Office of Matins; for over one thousand years, - one thousand years on this day, the readings reflecting on the Gospel above were chosen from St. Augustine of Hippo. Again, Bugnini and Montini knew better than those who prayed more than a millennium of Catholic prayer since the early Benedictine offices most likely structured by St. Benedict of Norcia. 

Perhaps if our Shepherds today, including the Bishop of Rome, read this today, they would be struck with fear of death and judgement, or perhaps not.

In this parable the Lord hath reference to the time when the Shepherds of the Church should begin to wax careless, (or, it may be, to the time when the Apostles should fall asleep in the sleep of death,) at which time, the devil would come and sow that which the Lord calleth a seed of evil-doers.  Now, is this seed of evil-doers a reference to hereticks or to Catholics of bad lives?  It certainly is not unjust to call the hereticks a seed of evil-doers, seeing that they have sprung up from the seed of the Gospel, and have been begotten in the Name of Christ, and afterwards have turned into crooked ways and lying doctrines. 
But since it is written that this seed was sown in the midst of the wheat, we ought perhaps to understand thereby a reference to such as are of one Communion with the righteous.  However, inasmuch as the Lord saith: The field is the world: and doth not thereby directly speak of the Church, we may with good reason understand the seed of evil-doers to be the hereticks, since in this world they are mingled together with the good, not in one common Communion, but only under one common name of Christian.  And Catholics of bad lives, which nevertheless are of one Faith with the good seed, and yet are themselves worthless, may more fitly be likened to straw than to tares, since the straw springeth from one soil and one root with the good grain-bearing ear of corn. 
However, as touching the net cast into the sea, and enclosing a great multitude of fishes, both bad and good, we may well understand that by the bad are meant Catholics of bad lives.  For the sea is one thing whereby we may understand to be signified the world; and the net another, which seemeth to signify our Faith, or the Communion of one Church.  Between hereticks and sinful Catholics there is this difference: hereticks believe a lie: sinful Catholics believe the truth, but live not what they believe.

The importance cannot be stressed enough. Leave the Novus Ordo Missae and get thyself to the Mass of the Ages, Diocesan, FSSP, ICK and if no other choice, the SSPX. Pray the Office according to the proper form, http://divinumofficium.com/ or http://www.breviary.mobi/ and leave the decapitated and debased Liturgy of the Hours behind. Strengthen yourself and your family for what is coming.

If you must stay within the Novus Ordo, then go to the quietest Mass you can find, early on a Sunday morning with no music and no shenanigans. Pray it with the Roman Missal of 1962 or earlier, receive the Blessed Sacrament only on the tongue and kneeling if you can. 

The time has come to grow strong against the weeds.

8 comments:

philipjohnson said...

Fantastic Vox.My sentiments entirely.My own view is that i attend the Tridentine Mass weekly and Novus Ordo when i have too.Part of my reason is at the Latin Mass the sermon IS a sermon and not the social do good rag bag of light and dark etc ,etc which doesn't talk about sin,Redemption ,or the Four Last Things -frankly i have had enough of the Novus Ordo babble!I feel that we were robbed of our patronage and Catholic inheritance by the Destroyers in the sixties.There is no hope with the Novus Ordo ,they won't ever change,and quiet frankly i think that most of them hate the Real Catholic Church with a vengence.

Osusanna said...

I am always sad at the novus ordo because I think we could do so much better. Vox, are priests required to sing? Some can't seem to carry a tune, or seems like they are improvising a melody. It's cringe worthy. I keep telling myself that Jesus is there - where two or three are gathered in My name I am there, He said. Mt 18-20.

Don't forget livemass.net where you can watch TLM with FSSP.

Ana Milan said...

The four Cardinals have the obligation to inform us of their position in regard to calling an Imperfect Council if they are not to lose the faithful Traditional Catholic support. The longer this mess is allowed to proceed un-confronted the likelihood of the faithful having to take public action becomes more necessary. False obedience to a pope who is clearly trying to disband Christ's Word & change His Church into a godless institution run by Marxist/Masonic/Modernists is not to be condoned. Never in our history has there been such heresy abounding at the very top (as Our Lady predicted) & never has there been such complicit silence from those shepherds who should be protecting the sheep. If we are to regain our title of a Catholic/Universal Church then all episcopates must sing from the same hymn sheet. There can be no anomalies. Cannot Cardinal Müller join with the four Cardinals & their supporters & give the lead as to whether or not PF is to be followed. Traditional Catholics don't believe so!

TLM said...

EXCELLENT VOX!!!! JUST EXCELLENT!!! Such sound and practical advice for preparing for what is to come. We are doing this now. There is an older gentleman at our Parish who says that an approved seer he has followed says that in this time of upheaval and chaos in the Church it may come to the point that some will not be able to find a legitimate Mass at all. She suggests then to set up and Altar in your home with a Blessed picture of the Holy Face of Jesus, candles, the Blessed Mother and a Crucifix, and pray the Holy Face Novena and other devotionals daily. Also, if you can find a faithful priest to come into your home to celebrate a real Mass, do everything you can to find one. The Lord Himself will help you find one. It may get very very bad indeed. The faithful may have to hang on with fingernails before it's all over.

Anonymous said...

Vox, I can only dream.
Once again we had to suffer through a 'liturgy of the word - with Communion'... Believe it or not it took an hour. They have turned it into a mini-Mass of sorts where I live, with most of the order of Mass incorporated into the service...agonizing to sit through it. We live in a small town and there were no other viable options for today. Again, I can only dream...sorry for venting.

Ever mindful said...

Why I still go to the Novus Ordo Mass....

" At the consecration something similar occurs to that which occurred when Elias offered sacrifice on Mount Carmel, when the fire of the Lord fell, and consumed the holocaust (3 Kings xviii.); in that case however the agent was natural fire, whereas at Mass it is the supernatural fire of the Holy Ghost. As natural fire changes wood into glowing embers, so the Holy Spirit effects the transubstantiation of the oblation by words of fire. "

Catechism Explained
Spirago

Anonymous said...

I have been lucky to find a small, out-of-the-way parish where the priest says the English Mass *according to the actual rubrics of the Roman Missal* which includes "ad orientem" from the offertory until communion. It's serious, devout, and prayerful. The English Mass need not necessarily be done badly.

Mark said...

Vox - Why your comment "and if no other choice, the SSPX"?