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Showing posts with label Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite. Show all posts

Sunday 17 March 2024

But Jesus Hid Himself

Originally published in 2016.
Today is the Fifth Sunday of Lent which begins Passiontide. If one attends Mass strictly in the Ordinary Form of the Roman Rite it is not generally apparent having been done away with as a time within Lent. In the traditional calendar, it is called the First Sunday of the Passion with the colloquial Palm Sunday being the Second Sunday of the Passion. There is a further stripping away of liturgical elements and embellishments which began at Septuagesima, 

From First Vespers last night until the Paschal Vigil, the Gloria Patri is not said after the Asperges on Passion Sunday or the Prayers at the Foot of the Altar, Introit, Lavabo, and Communion Antiphonal Psalms. In the Office, it is eliminated from some of the Verses and Short Responsories. Jesus is losing his earthly glory. The readings and psalm antiphons reflect this in the Mass and Office. Those who hate him are now plentiful, as plentiful now, as when he walked. Those who seek his death are now coming to the fore. Those who seek the death of His Church are coming to the fore and are also within Her. Lent now takes a change in focus; -- while our penance continues, we now shift towards the passion of Our Blessed Lord and his saving work of redemption.

Abbot Gueranger writes:
"During the preceding four weeks, we have noticed how the malice of Jesus' enemies has been gradually increasing. His very presence irritates them; and it is evident that any little circumstance will suffice to bring the deep and long-nurtured hatred to a head."
His passion then has begun. His glory, as at Mount Tabor, is no longer apparent.

There is one element that remains in the modernist liturgy depending on the parish's own tradition. While it was once obligatory it is now optional and that is the veiling of the Crucifix and statues, though not Stations of the Cross or the imagery in windows. 

Veiling of ImagesBut why? From whence does this tradition come? 

It is thought to have begun around the 9th century in Germany. When Lent began (which in most languages is a derivative of Quadregesimae, the Latin for forty days), a cloth called a hungertuch, or hunger cloth, was used to cover the altar. It was removed on the Tuesday of Holy Week during the reading of the Passion according to St. Mark when “The curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom.” The Gospels in the three-year cycle in the New Lectionary do not reflect the symbolism and beauty of Passiontide and the veiling. They are all from St. John’s Gospel and are in sequence – “I am the Resurrection and the Life;” … “If a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it bears much fruit;” and, “He who is without sin among you, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.”

The change from the one-year Lectionary, in place from St. Gregory the Great, was a grievous error. The desires of the Fathers of the Second Vatican Council could have been achieved without the assault on the whole Church tradition of readings. A Lesson could have been added to the Sunday liturgy. Weekdays could have had their own Mass texts whilst still acknowledging the Sanctoral cycle. Interestingly, the Advent readings in the new Lectionary are beautiful and are the one thing that perhaps, one day, be inserted into the old Lectionary.  could have had its own lectionary as in Lent in the traditional rite. The three-year Lectionary remains a problem. Mass is not a bible study and what is lost in the reading below is quite profound, as you will soon comprehend.

For the Mass on the Fifth Sunday of Lent according to the ancient use Roman Missal, the Gospel for no less than 1600 years until 1969 has been the following and it explains the veiling and why they killed Him.

GOSPEL ¤ John 8. 46-59 † A continuation of the holy Gospel according to St. John.
At that time Jesus said to the multitudes of the Jews: Which of you shall convince Me of sin? If I say the truth to you, why do you not believe Me? He that is of God heareth the words of God. Therefore you hear them not, because you are not of God. The Jews therefore answered and said to Him: Do not we say well, that Thou art a Samaritan, and hast a devil? Jesus answered: I have not a devil: but I honor My Father, and you have dishonored Me. But I seek not My own glory: there is One that seeketh and judgeth. Amen, amen, I say to you: If any man keep My word, he shall not see death for ever. The Jews therefore said: Now we know that Thou hast a devil. Abraham is dead, and the Prophets: and Thou sayest: If any man keep My word, he shall not taste death for ever. Art Thou greater than our father Abraham, who is dead? and the prophets are dead. Whom dost Thou make Thyself? Jesus answered: If I glorify Myself, My glory is nothing: it is My Father that glorifieth Me, of whom you say that He is your God, and you have not known Him: but I know Him: and if I shall say that I know Him not, I shall be like to you, a liar. But I do know Him, and do keep His word. Abraham your father rejoiced that he might see My day: he saw it and was glad. The Jews therefore said to Him: Thou art not yet fifty years old: and hast Thou seen Abraham? Jesus said to them: Amen, amen, I say to you, before Abraham was made, I am. They took up stones therefore to cast at Him: but Jesus hid Himself, and went out of the temple.

“But Jesus hid Himself.”

St. Augustine said that at this moment by virtue of His divine nature, Jesus became literally invisible.
“He hides not himself in a corner of the temple as if afraid or running into a cottage or turning aside behind a wall or column; but by His Divine Power making Himself invisible he passed through their midst.”

In the Catechism of the Catholic Church, we read the following:
205 God calls Moses from the midst of a bush that burns without being consumed: "I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob."9 God is the God of the fathers, the One who had called and guided the patriarchs in their wanderings. He is the faithful and compassionate God who remembers them and his promises; he comes to free their descendants from slavery. He is the God who, from beyond space and time, can do this and wills to do it, the God who will put his almighty power to work for this plan.
"I Am who Am"
Moses said to God, "If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, 'The God of your fathers has sent me to you', and they ask me, 'What is his name?' what shall I say to them?" God said to Moses, "I AM WHO AM." And he said, "Say this to the people of Israel, 'I AM has sent me to you'. . . this is my name for ever, and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations."

Moses and the Burning Bush DBouts.jpg

CCC 206 In revealing his mysterious name, YHWH ("I AM HE WHO IS", "I AM WHO AM" or "I AM WHO I AM"), God says who he is and by what name he is to be called. This divine name is mysterious just as God is mystery. It is at once a name revealed and something like the refusal of a name, and hence it better expresses God as what he is - infinitely above everything that we can understand or say: he is the "hidden God", his name is ineffable, and he is the God who makes himself close to men.
CCC 207 By revealing his name God at the same time reveals his faithfulness which is from everlasting to everlasting, valid for the past ("I am the God of your father"), as for the future ("I will be with you").12 God, who reveals his name as "I AM", reveals himself as the God who is always there, present to his people in order to save them.
CCC 208 Faced with God's fascinating and mysterious presence, man discovers his own insignificance. Before the burning bush, Moses takes off his sandals and veils his face in the presence of God's holiness.13 Before the glory of the thrice-holy God, Isaiah cries out: "Woe is me! I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips."14 Before the divine signs wrought by Jesus, Peter exclaims: "Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord."15 But because God is holy, he can forgive the man who realizes that he is a sinner before him: "I will not execute my fierce anger. . . for I am God and not man, the Holy One in your midst."16 The apostle John says likewise: "We shall. . . reassure our hearts before him whenever our hearts condemn us; for God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything."

Jesus revealed to the Temple authorities, the leadership of Israel, who He was. He knew Abraham and did so in such a way that they would know with absolute clarity who He was. He had done it before, seven times.

1. I Am the Bread of Life: (John 6). 

2. I Am the Light of the World: (John 8). 

3. I Am the Gate of the Sheepfold: (John 10). 

4. I Am the Good Shepherd: (John 10). 

5. I Am the Resurrection and the Life: (John 11). 

6. I Am the Way, Truth, and Life: (John 14). 

7. I Am the True Vine: (John 15).

Note that Jesus, when the Jews questioned his age and Abraham, he did not say, "Before Abraham was made, I was made." Had he said this, they would have just thought him delusional. Rather, He said, "Before Abraham was made, I AM." They knew exactly what He meant. 

Now, he is hidden in our churches and chapels only to be unveiled when we recall His Crucifixion -- "Ecce lignum Crucis," -- "Behold the wood of the Cross on which hung the Saviour of the world, come let us adore him." If we hide Him we cannot abide the glory of His saints, therefore, they are also hidden. Christ is shamed. He is humiliated by those whom he came to save. The Jewish "deep state" betrayed Him, and we continue to betray Him today.

He declared Himself before all Israel to be the I AM of the Burning Bush; and for this, they would kill Him. They knew what He said, they knew what He meant. He confessed to them that he was the very Son of God, the very God Himself come to earth.

In the sermon below from 1846, we find an incredible dissertation on Jesus hiding Himself.  
It is a sermon by an Anglican, but one would be hard-pressed to find a better sermon or homily said today on the subject from a typical Catholic pulpit. This was a period that led Saint John-Henry Newman home.

Would that we could hear preaching like this today.


Vox.

+ + +

SERMONS FOR SUNDAYS AND OTHER LITURGICAL OCCASIONS

CONTRIBUTED BY
BISHOPS AND OTHER CLERGY OF THE CHURCH.
EDITED BY THE REV. ALEXANDER WATSON, M.A., 
CURATE OF ST. JOHN'S, CHELTENHAM.
Second Series.  VOL. I.
OXFORD: J. H. PARKER. CAMBRIDGE: T. GREEN.
MDCCCXLVI. (1846)

Then took they up stones to cast at Him."

Thus are we brought down from the whole Gospel for the day to that portion of it which will engage our chief attention during the brief remainder of this morning's service. "But Jesus hid Himself, and went out of the Temple, going through the midst of them, and so passed by."

1. Jesus "hid Himself," as man, in prudence: according to the will of His Heavenly Father. As He had been born in "the fullness of time," so it was at an appointed hour that He was to die. But "His hour was not yet come ": and He therefore avoided whatever might unduly quicken the course of events, or put forward the grand horologe of time. And this He did in obedience to the Will of His Heavenly Father. This obedience was the mainspring of His conduct throughout His earthly sojourn. "Lo I come to do Thy will, O God," was His motto from first to last; and never was it more fully translated into action than in all He did with regard to His final suffering and departure.

When that hour of mingled humiliation and glory, which compressed eternal interests within the compass of a few passing minutes; when that everlasting hour arrived, the holy and obedient Jesus yielded Himself at once into the power of His enemies. Thus, when Satan had entered into Judas Iscariot, Jesus said to the traitor, "What thou doest, do quickly." When Judas came to Him in the garden with men and officers from the chief priests and Pharisees, "Jesus, knowing all things that should come upon Him, went forth and said unto them, Whom seek ye? They answered Him, Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus said unto them, I am He." And when the impetuous Peter—the first to defend, the first to deny his Master—drew his sword and cut oft" the right ear of Malchus, the High Priest's servant, "then said Jesus unto him, Put up again thy sword into his place: thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to My Father, and He shall presently give Me more than twelve legions of angels? But how then shall the Scriptures be fulfilled, that thus it must be?" When Pilate would fain have released Him, and sought for some pretext for so doing in the replies of Jesus to his interrogatories, "Jesus gave him no answer." And at the last, when He saw that all was "finished,"—prophecy fulfilled, types realised, the preparations for His sacrificial Death complete, His Father's will wrought out,—He bowed His head, and gave up the ghost."

But until the arrival of that hour, His conduct was marked throughout by unexampled prudence. While He wrought His miracles before the multitude, and taught openly in the Temple, and in secret did nothing; while He boldly confuted and reproved the Pharisee, the Sadducee, and the Herodian, regardless of the enmity He thereby incurred; He carefully shunned the precipitation of His end. He had a mission of vast pregnancy and moment to discharge; and until this was done, He would not lay down that life which the Father had put into His power. Whenever danger became imminent, He withdrew Himself from the presence of those who sought to lay hands on Him and destroy Him. Thus, on the occasion immediately before us, when the infuriated Jews took up stones to cast at Him, "Jesus hid Himself, and went out of the Temple, going through the midst of them, and so passed by." 

On a previous occasion, when the Pharisees held a council how they might destroy Him, Jesus “withdrew Himself from thence." On a subsequent occasion, similar to that of the text, when the Jews again sought to take Him, "he escaped out of their hand, and went away again beyond Jordan." When the Sanhedrim, after the official prophecy of the unconscious Caiaphas, took counsel together to put Him to death, "Jesus walked no more openly among the Jews; but went thence unto a country near to the wilderness, into a city called Ephraim, and there continued with His disciples." Thus, throughout His whole earthly career, our Blessed Lord exercised a prudence of the highest order; enforcing by His own example the precepts He gave to His first disciples: "Be ye wise as serpents, and harmless as doves ;"—" When they persecute you in this city, flee ye into another ." And these precepts, supported by this supreme example, and adapted to the exigencies of Christians at the present day, apply also to us. "As men may not be too tenacious, so neither may they be too profuse and lavish of life and the comforts of it," says Dean Stanhope; "lest, besides their present hardships, they find at last an indiscreet zeal returned, with a 'Who hath required these things at your hands?' Love indeed is apt and desirous to give over-measure, where it can: but still this must not be the effect of passion alone. Prudence should temper and direct it." 

"It is an office of prudence," says Bishop Taylor, "to serve God So that we may at the same time preserve our lives and our estates, our interest and reputation, for ourselves and our relations, so far as they can consist together. For Christian religion, carrying us to heaven, does it by the ways of a man; and by the body it serves the soul, as by the soul it serves God; and therefore it endeavours to secure the body and its interest, that it may continue the opportunities of a crown, and prolong the stage in which we are to run for the mighty prize of our salvation; and this is that part of prudence which is the defensative and guard of a Christian in the time of persecution: and it hath in it much of duty."

Thus far we have endeavoured to consider the conduct of our Blessed Lord, on the occasion under review, on its human side; as an exhibition of prudence and discretion. But it has a sublimer aspect than this; to which we now with reverence will turn.

Jesus “hid Himself," as God, in majesty; the majesty of displeasure. "He did not hide Himself," says St. Augustine, "in a corner of the Temple, as if He were afraid; or take refuge in a house, or run behind a wall, or a pillar; but, by His heavenly power making Himself invisible to His enemies, He went through the midst of them." Just before, He had said, "Before Abraham was I Am"; with evident reference to the Name revealed by the Lord to Moses, as recorded in the First Lesson for this morning's service; when He appeared to him in the burning but unconsumed bush, as he was keeping the flock of Jethro, the Priest of Midian, near the base of Mount Horeb. On that occasion, when Moses would have drawn nigh to see that great sight, the Lord forbad his nearer approach, and commanded him to unsandal his feet, because they were standing on holy ground. He, who required this reverence towards an inferior manifestation of Himself, would not permit the rude hand of violence to invade His incarnate glory. He "hid Himself" in the secret depths of His invisible Godhead.

There is, doubtless, a mystery in this; and we cannot fully understand why He, who submitted on so many occasions to endure the contradiction of sinners against Himself, refused on other occasions to undergo the indignities that wicked hands would have put upon Him. But a like mystery invested the whole of His earthly career. The darkest shades of humiliation were never permitted altogether to obscure His glory; while yet, that glory was so far hidden, that men despised Him and esteemed Him not. Great, however, as was the mystery of His commingling of glory and shame, the mystery of the manifestation of His glory alone was greater. He might have flashed forth devouring lightnings from the dark and surcharged cloud. He might have kindled into supernatural and overwhelming brightness the splendours of His Divine and resistless Presence. But He did none of these things. He manifested forth His glory by hiding Himself. When the Lord, in the days of old, would preserve righteous Lot and His prophet Elisha from the hand of violence, He smote their enemies with blindness; and so He might have done on this occasion: but, as the threatened indignity was greater, so was the punishment wherewith He visited it. "He hid Himself."

Awful are the exhibitions of Divine glory, when the Lord is raised up out of His holy habitation, and comes forth from His unseen depths to punish the ungodly. But these are as nothing when compared with the hidings of His face. When the Lord would denounce the severest judgments against Israel of old, He said to Moses, "Mine anger shall be kindled against them in that day, and I will forsake them, and I will hide My face from them, and they shall be devoured, and many evils and troubles shall befall them; so that they will say in that day, Are not these evils come upon us, because our God is not among us?" And when, on the other hand, He would confer upon His repentant people the greatest possible blessing, He said by the mouth of Ezekiel, "Neither will I hide My face from them any more: for I have poured out My Spirit upon the house of Israel."

The hidings of Jesus, in the days of His flesh, were yet more majestic and awful. He came into the world for the express purpose, among others, of manifesting the glory and the grace of God: so that to hide Himself was, as it were, to revoke His mission with regard to those from whom He thus withdrew. He abandoned them to the evil of their own hardened and unbelieving hearts, and left them to be filled with their own ways.

It is impossible to conceive anything more dreadful than the condition of the man from whom Jesus has hid Himself. Such a man sinks at once into a state of moral stupidity: he sins on without aim or purpose. Until Jesus hid Himself, the unbelieving Jews had an object against which to direct their malignant attacks; but when He could be no longer seen, their malice, though as virulent as ever, became wholly impotent and senseless. And so, when Jesus hides Himself from sinners of the present day,—who insult His majesty because it is concealed to the-eye of sense or mere reason (though not to the eye of faith), beneath mean and simple accidents,—He leaves them to perish as brute beasts. The force of argument and moral suasion having been tried upon them in vain, together with all other manifestations of the true and holy Jesus, He will no longer expose Himself to the rash temerity and blinded insolence of their invasions, but hides Himself, going through the midst of them, and so passes by.

The abstract contemplation of such a subject is too awful for man to dwell upon at any length; and we will therefore now consider it, (so hastening to a conclusion,) under its practical aspects and bearings.

But is it possible, men may ask, for persons at the present day to commit acts of insult and injury towards the Divine Jesus, akin to that of the blaspheming Jews when they took up stones to cast at Him? Alas, it is but too possible. "Certainly we cannot commit such open blasphemy; but it is another matter whether we cannot commit as great. For, often sins are greater, which are less startling; insults more bitter, which are not so loud; and evils deeper, which are more subtle." Although Christ is no longer on earth in bodily presence, He is here by His Spirit: and it is quite possible for men to repeat the offence of the blaspheming Jews by casting stones, so to speak, against either the Church, which is His Body; or the Sacraments, which are His Presence; or the Poor, who are His Brethren.

The Church is the Body of Christ, "the fullness of Him That filleth all in all:" and they who resist or blaspheme or persecute Her, do in effect resist and blaspheme and persecute Him. And such are not only, nor even chiefly, the openly wicked and profane; whose offences are of a different description: but those who deny the Divine authority of the Church, rejecting her principles for the opinions of men and the maxims of the world; those who deny her Apostolicity, treating her as a merely human and secular institution; those who invade her constitution, legislating for her on grounds of political expediency, and not according to the laws of Christ. "Verily, I say unto you, they have their reward." They refuse to acknowledge the Body of Christ in His corporate members; and He hides it from them. They are no longer permitted to behold the tokens of her presence. She becomes to them what they would have her be. In their eyes she has no form nor comeliness, although she is all-glorious within. But with these hidings of her beauty and this withdrawal of her presence, there comes not only an apparent abdication of her authority; leaving men to live as they list, according to the broad measures of the world, instead of the straight and narrow lines of eternity: but also the utter loss of her intercession and benediction. She no longer stands between the living and the dead. A silent curse spreads over the land she has abandoned to itself. The rulers have forsaken Christ, and Christ has forsaken them. The people would have it so, and their house is left unto them desolate.

"Be wise now, therefore, O ye kings:
Be learned, ye that judges of the earth.
Kiss the Son, lest He be angry,
And so ye perish from the right way,
If His wrath be kindled, yea but a little.
Blessed are all they that put their trust in Him."

Again, the Sacraments are the Presence of Christ. In the Sacrament of Holy Baptism, He is present by His Spirit, Who, in answer to the prayers of the congregation, is given by our Heavenly Father to infants, when baptized, that they may be born again and be made heirs of everlasting salvation. In the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist, He is really and spiritually present, being taken and received by the faithful as their heavenly food and divine life. 

Whoever, therefore, despises the Sacraments, despises Christ. Whoever denies their saving power, denies the Presence of the Saviour in them. Whoever in effect casts stones at these, as by cavils or contumely or neglect, does in reality thus cast stones at Christ. And then does the Son of God hide Himself from them in the majesty of displeasure; and Sacraments become to these persons what, in their rationalistic unbelief, they would have them be. 

Baptism, when administered by schismatics and pretenders to Holy Orders, fails to regenerate; and their own theory, that Baptism admits only to an outward union with a nominal church, is, in their own case, verified. The Communion is reduced to a formal commemoration of an absent Saviour. In both cases, as regards their own mere outward show of Sacraments, they are right. They have taken up stones to cast at the spiritually-present Jesus; and He has hidden Himself, going through the midst of them, and so passing by.

Lastly: the Poor are the Brethren of Jesus. They are so even in respect of their mere poverty; although it must not be concealed that the poor man who is a wilful sinner is severed from this communion and fellowship. But he, who is at once poor in this world and poor in spirit, is united by the closest bonds to the lowly Son of Mary. This is strikingly shown in the parable of the Sheep and the Goats, wherein the Judge declares that whatsoever is done unto the least of the Hungry, the Thirsty, the Stranger, the Naked, the Sick, the Imprisoned,—being "the poor of this world," but " rich in faith and heirs of the Kingdom," —is done unto Himself. Now, we all know how apt men are to "despise the poor." "There are kinds of distress founded on the passions, which, if not applauded, are at least admired in their excess, as implying a peculiar refinement of sensibility in the mind of the sufferer. 

Embellished by taste, and wrought by the magic of genius into innumerable forms, they turn grief into a luxury, and draw from the eyes of millions delicious tears. But no muse ever ventured to adorn the distresses of poverty or the sorrows of hunger. Disgusting taste and delicacy, and presenting nothing pleasing to the imagination, they are mere misery in all its nakedness and deformity." And therefore the many "despise the Poor." But in so doing, they despise Christ; and what is their punishment in consequence? Jesus might rend aside the veil of His humanity, and reveal Himself as God. He might put off the sordid dress of poverty, and clothe Himself with light as with a garment. But He inflicts a severer punishment than this—He hides Himself. The Poor no longer visibly bear upon them "the marks of the Lord Jesus "; and secular legislation, at once blind and self-confident, sets itself to relieve their distress by increasing their degradation. It brands the Poor Man as a Pauper, and consigns him to contempt and shame. Jesus has hidden Himself in majestic displeasure: and men of the world little dream that He will reveal Himself again at the Last Day, and avenge the cause of the poor and the oppressed!

"Oh, how much are they to be pitied, in whatever sphere they move, who live to themselves, unmindful of the coming of their Lord. When He shall come, and shall not keep silence; when a fire shall devour before Him, and it shall be very tempestuous round about Him; every thing, it is true, will combine to fill them with consternation: yet, methinks, neither the voice of the Archangel, nor the trump of God, nor the dissolution of the elements, nor the face of the Judge itself, from which the heavens will flee away, will be so dismaying and terrible to these men as the sight of the poor members of Christ; whom, having spurned and neglected in the days of their humiliation, they will then behold with amazement united to their Lord, covered with His glory, and seated on His throne! How will they be astonished to see them surrounded with so much majesty! How will they cast down their eyes in their presence! How will they curse that gold, which will then eat their flesh as with fire, and that avarice, that indolence, that voluptuousness, which will entitle them to so much misery! You will then learn that the imitation of Christ is the only wisdom: you will then be convinced it is better to be endeared to the cottage than admired in the palace; when to have wiped the tears of the afflicted, and inherited the prayers of the widow and the fatherless, shall be found a richer patrimony than the favour of princes."

H. H.

Tuesday 7 February 2023

Bishop Schneider on Crisis, Disobedience, & the SSPX | A Michael Matt I...

Listen carefully to the good Bishop's words. He has words here for priests who must disobey and yet, must also fall under the authority of a bishop. I expect if the worst happens, the Society of St. Pius X will need to develop a system of affiliation. Bishop Schneider also indicates other, perhaps retired bishops. May God guide us all.

Saturday 17 December 2022

The beauty and holiness of the sung Advent Ember Saturday

Today is the Advent Ember Saturday. It also happens to be the day, when at Vespers, we sing the great "O" Antiphons at the Magnificat. At noon today, I will chant the Advent Ember liturgy in a small country church. A friend will vest and chant the lections from the sanctuary and I will sing the great Graduals looking down from the small loft. Vox will be joined by Fox (a name coined by the dearly missed Kinkora priest). We will sing the simple Advent ferial Mass, Veni, Veni Emmanuel, Rorate Caeli, Conditor Alme Siderum, and the Alma Redemptoris. Simple and beautiful chants preparing in our hearts and minds for the Nativity of the Lord.

"Today is Ember Saturday in Advent. It is a day of Fast and Partial Abstinence as we prepare for one week from today the coming of the Lord. Today is a Major Feria, not Privileged Station at St. Peter‘s. In the first ages ordinations took place in Rome only in the month of December usually at the tomb of St. Peter. The Pope alone inherits the plenitude of St. Peter’s primacy, and in the Twelfth Century it came to be the rule that the papal consecration alone was carried out at the altar over the tomb of the Apostle. The long Mass contains the traces of the fast which began after supper on Friday and lasted until the dawn of Sunday; in that period there was no Mass on Saturday. St. Gregory shortened the primitive vigil and the Mass assumed the form in which we have it today. The Mass includes the great canticle of the Blessings which, in the earlier rite formed the morning doxology. According to the Pontifical now in use, Tonsure is conferred after the Kyrie Eleison; the ordination of Porters follows the first lesson; of Readers, the second; of Exorcists, the third; of Acolytes, the fourth; of sub-deacons, the fifth. Deaconship is conferred at the end of the Epistle; the priesthood is conferred after the first versicle of the Tract. Christianity came into a world in which events were carefully noted; the oriental religions arose in a primitive world lost in the haze of primitive barbarism. It is for this reason that St. Luke begins the narrative of the Gospel of Jesus with chronological notes concerning the rulers who were then controlling the destinies of Palestine. The Messias assumes the consoling name of Emmanuel, God with us. The Word Himself will soon come to make, His dwellIng-place amongst us and to redeem us, and in order to show by His very name all this merciful plan of salvation, He will be called Emmanuel and Jesus– that is, Saviour."

Dr. Peter Kwasniewski writes of The Demanding Glory of Advent’s Ember Saturday - OnePeterFive. He recalls his first time attending and singing the great hymn from the Book of Daniel - Benedictus es. My first Ember was not the first time I had sung that hymn. When the Toronto Oratory offered the Ordinary Form of the Roman Rite in Latin, we sang it on Trinity Sunday. It is actually an option in the new Missal to substitute it for the Gradual in the new Latin missal and it does show up as Responsory Psalm every three years. 

I recall. my own first experience with the full Advent Ember Saturday. At the time, I was the cantor at a lovely church in the bucolic hamlet of Kinkora, 2 hours west of Toronto where each Sunday the diocesan priest offered the Mass in the extraordinary form. We scheduled a Rorate Mass for the early morning. It was December 22, 2012, ten years ago. I began to sing at St. Patrick's Kinkora in January 2011. Admittedly, Father and I were both not as acquainted with the calendar as we should have been, it was, yes, even for Vox Cantoris, a learning process. I received a call from Father on Thursday in a panic. He had just spoken with a priest from the Fraternity of St. Peter and mentioned the Rorate. To his horror, the Fraternity priest issued a rebuke! "It's Ember Saturday, it outranks, you cannot do a Rorate!" A simple solution I advised was to simply keep the schedule. The people are coming, we light the candles, and have the Ember Saturday at 5:30 A.M. I went the night before and we reviewed the Lessons which he would sing and the glorious Graduals which I would sing. From that point, the only time I have not sung the Advent Ember Saturday was when it was outranked by the Feast of St. Thomas or the tyrannical challenges of 2020 and 2021. In the 1962 Roman Missal, the Ember Saturday is stripped, having just one Lesson. Embers were to be part of the new calendar as determined by national bishop conferences. They all determined the four Ember Weeks should be discarded. 

Here is what was lost and which we have reclaimed and having done so, will never let go.

INTROIT Ps 79:4, 2.

Come, O Lord, from Your throne upon the Cherubim; if Your face shine upon us, then we shall be safe. Ps 79:2 O Shepherd of Israel, hearken, O Guide of the flock of Joseph! V. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost. R. As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen. Come, O Lord, from Your throne upon the Cherubim; if Your face shine upon us, then we shall be saved.
Collect
Let us pray.
V. Let us kneel.
R. Arise.
O God, You Who see how we are troubled by our evil tendencies, mercifully grant that we may find consolation in Your coming. Who livest and reignest with God the Father, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, world without end. R. Amen

Lesson  Isa 19:20-22
Lesson from the book of Isaias: In those days, they shall cry out to the Lord against their oppressors, and He shall send them a Savior to defend and deliver them. The Lord shall make Himself known to Egypt, and the Egyptians shall know the Lord in that day; they shall offer sacrifices and oblations, and fulfill the vows they make to the Lord. Although the Lord shall smite Egypt severely, He shall heal them; they shall turn to the Lord and He shall be won over, and the Lord, our God, shall heal them.
Gradual Ps 18:7, 2.
At one end of the heavens, He comes forth, and His course is to their other end. V. The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament proclaims His handiwork.
Collect
Let us pray.
V. Let us kneel.
R. Arise.
Grant, we beseech You, almighty God, that we who are heavy-laden under the yoke of sin may be delivered from the bondage of old by the long-awaited new birth of Your only-begotten Son. Who livest and reignest with God the Father, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, world without end. R. Amen

Lesson  Isa 35:1-7
Lesson from the book of Isaias: Thus says the Lord: The desert and the parched land will exult; the steppe will rejoice and bloom. They will bloom with abundant flowers, and rejoice with joyful song. The glory of Lebanon will be given to them, the splendor of Carmel and Saron; they will see the glory of the Lord, the splendor of our God. Strengthen the hands that are feeble, make firm the knees that are weak, say to those whose hearts are frightened: ‘Be strong, fear not! Here is your God, He comes with vindication; with divine recompense, He comes to save you.’ Then will the eyes of the blind be opened, the ears of the deaf be cleared; then will the lame leap like a stag, then the tongue of the dumb will sing. Streams will burst forth in the desert, and rivers in the steppe. The burning sands will become pools, and the thirsty ground, springs of water, says the Lord almighty.
Gradual Ps 18:6-7
He has pitched His tent in the sun, and He comes forth like the groom from his bridal chamber. V. At one end of the heavens He comes forth, and His course is to their other end.
Collect
Let us pray.
V. Let us kneel.
R. Arise.
Saddened by the guilt of our deeds, we, Your unworthy servants, beseech You, O Lord, to gladden us by the coming of Your only-begotten Son. Who livest and reignest with God the Father, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, world without end. R. Amen

Lesson Isa 40:9-11
Lesson from the book of Isaias: Thus says the Lord: Go up onto a high mountain, Sion, herald of glad tidings; cry out at the top of your voice, Jerusalem, herald of good news! Fear not to cry out and say to the cities of Juda: ‘Here is your God! Here comes with power the Lord God, Who rules by His strong arm; here is His reward with Him, His recompense before Him. Like a shepherd He feeds His flock; in His arms He gathers the lambs, carrying them in His bosom, the Lord, our God.’
Gradual Ps 79:20; 79:3
O Lord God of Hosts, restore us; if Your face shine upon us, then we shall be safe.
V. Rouse Your power, O Lord, and come to save us.
Collect
Let us pray.
V. Let us kneel.
R. Arise.
Grant, we beseech You, almighty God, that the coming festival of Your Son may bring us healing today and rewards eternal. Through the same Jesus Christ, thy Son, Our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with thee in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God, world without end. R. Amen.

Lesson  Isa. 45:1-8
Lesson from the book of Isaias: Thus says the Lord to His anointed, Cyrus, whose right hand I grasp, subduing nations before him, and disarming kings, opening doors before him and leaving the gates unbarred: I will go before you and level the mountains; bronze doors I will shatter, and iron bars I will snap. I will give you treasures out of the darkness, and riches that have been hidden away, that you may know that I am the Lord, the God of Israel, Who calls you by your name. For the sake of Jacob, My servant, of Israel. My chosen one, I have called you by your name, giving you a title, though you knew Me not. I am the Lord and there is no other, there is no God besides Me. It is I Who arm you, though you know Me not, so that toward the rising and the setting of the sun men may know that there is none besides Me. I am the Lord, there is no other; I form the light, and create the darkness, I make well-being and create woe; I, the Lord, do all these things. Let the Just One descend, O heavens, like dew from above, like gentle rain let the skies drop Him down. Let the earth open and a Savior bud forth; let justice also spring up! I, the Lord, have created this.
Gradual Ps 79:3, 2, 3.
Rouse Your power, O Lord, and come to save us. V. O Shepherd of Israel, hearken, O Guide of the flock of Joseph! From Your throne upon the Cherubim, shine forth before Ephraim, Benjamin, and Manasse.
Collect
Let us pray.
V. Let us kneel.
R. Arise.
Heed in Your mercy, we beseech You, O Lord, the prayers of Your people, that we, who are justly chastised for our sins, may be consoled by the coming of Your goodness. Who livest and reignest with God the Father, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, world without end. R. Amen

Lesson  Dan. 3:47-51
Lesson from the book of Daniel: In those days, the Angel of the Lord went down into the furnace with Azaria and his companions, drove the fiery flames out of the furnace, and made the inside of the furnace as though a dew-laden breeze were blowing through it. And the flames rose forty-nine cubits above the furnace, and spread out, burning the Chaldeans nearby, the king’s men who were stoking the furnace. And the fire in no way touched them or caused them pain or harm. Then these three in the furnace with one voice sang, glorifying and blessing God:

HYMN Dan. 3:52-56
Blessed are You, O Lord, the God of our fathers, praiseworthy and exalted above all forever. And blessed is Your holy and glorious name, praiseworthy and exalted above all for all ages. Blessed are You in the temple of Your holy glory, praiseworthy and glorious above all forever. Blessed are You on the holy throne of Your kingdom, praiseworthy and exalted above all forever. Blessed are You upon the sceptre of Your divinity, praiseworthy and exalted above all forever. Blessed are You Who look into the depths from Your throne upon the Cherubim, praiseworthy and exalted above all forever. Blessed are You Who walk upon the wings of the wind, and on the waves of the sea, praiseworthy and exalted above all forever. Let all Your Angels and Saints bless You, and praise You and exalt You above all forever. Let the heavens, the earth, the sea and all the things that are in them bless You, and praise You and exalt You above all forever. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, praiseworthy and exalted above all forever. As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen. Praiseworthy and exalted above all forever. Blessed are You, O Lord, the God of our father, praiseworthy and exalted above all forever.
Collect
V. The Lord be with you.
R. And with thy spirit.
Let us pray.
O God, You Who tempered the flames of fire for the three young men, mercifully grant that the flames of sin may not burn us, Your servants. Through Jesus Christ, thy Son our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. R. Amen.

EPISTLE 2 Thess. 2:1-8
Lesson from the second letter of St Paul the Apostle to the Thessalonians: We beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered together unto Him, not to be hastily shaken from your right mind, nor terrified, whether by spirit, or by utterance, or by letter attributed to us, as though the day of the Lord were near at hand. Let no one deceive you in any way, for the day of the Lord will not come unless the apostasy comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition, who opposes and is exalted above all that is called God, or that is worshipped, so that he sits in the temple of God and gives himself out as if he were God. Do you not remember that when I was still with you, I used to tell you these things? And now you know what restrains him, that he may be revealed in his proper time. For the mystery of iniquity is already at work; provided only that he who is at present restraining it, does still restrain, until he is gotten out of the way. And then the wicked one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will slay with the breath of His mouth and will destroy with the brightness of His coming. R. Thanks be to God.

GRADUAL Ps 79:2-3
O Shepherd of Israel, hearken, O Guide of the flock of Joseph! V. From Your throne upon the Cherubim, shine forth before Ephraim, Benjamin and Manasse. V. Rouse Your power, O Lord, and come to save us.

GOSPEL St Luke 3:1-6
Now in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, when Pontius Pilate was procurator of Judea, and Herod tetrarch of Galilee, and Philip his brother tetrarch of the district of Abilene, during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiphas, the word of God came to John, the son of Zachary, in the desert. And he went into all the region about the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, as it is written in the book of the words of Isaias the prophet. The voice of one crying in the desert, ‘Make ready the way of the Lord, make straight His paths. Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be brought low, and the crooked ways shall be made straight, and the rough ways smooth; and all mankind shall see the salvation of God.’

OFFERTORY Zach 9:9
Rejoice heartily, O daughter of Sion, shout for joy, O daughter of Jerusalem! See, your King shall come to you, a just Savior is He.

SECRET
Look with favor, we beseech You, O Lord, upon the offerings here before You, that they may be beneficial for our devotion and for our salvation. Through Jesus Christ, thy Son our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. R. Amen.

PREFACE of the Common
It is truly meet and just, and profitable unto salvation, that we should at all times, and in all places, give thanks to thee, O Holy Lord, Father Almighty, eternal God, through Christ, our Lord. Though whom the angels praise thy majesty, the dominions adore it, the powers are in awe. Which the heavens and the hosts of heaven together with the blessed seraphim joyfully do magnify. And do thou command that it be permitted to us join with them in confessing thee, while we say with lowly praise:

COMMUNION ANTIPHON Ps 18:6-7
He has rejoiced as a giant to run the way: at one end of the heavens He comes forth, and His course is to their other end.

POSTCOMMUNION
We beseech You, O Lord our God, that the sacrament You have given as the bulwark of our atonement may be made a saving remedy for us in this life and in the life to come. Through Jesus Christ, thy Son our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. R. Amen.

Thursday 15 September 2022

Paix Liturgique With Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò

 


In Dr. Moynihan's latest letter, he features Archbishop Viganò's interview with Paix Liturgique. A comment from Pope Francis was made that Moynihan highlights.

    And Pope Francis himself, in 2013, when he had been Pope just four months, on the airplane flight back to Rome from World Youth Day in Brazil, had this to say about the eastern liturgy, which breathes the same sense of reverence and solemnity that distinguishes the old Latin liturgy:

    "In the Orthodox Churches," Francis said, "they have retained that pristine liturgy, which is so beautiful. We have lost some of the sense of adoration. The Orthodox preserved it; they praise God, they adore God, they sing, time does not matter. God is at the centre, and I would like to say, as you ask me this question, that this is a richness. Once, speaking of the Western Church, of Western Europe, especially the older Church, they said this phrase to me: Lux ex oriente, ex occidente luxus. Consumerism, comfort, they have done such harm. Instead, you retain this beauty of God in the centre, the reference point. When reading Dostoevsky – I believe that for all of us he is an author that we must read and reread due to his wisdom – one senses what the Russian soul is, what the eastern soul is. It is something that does us much good. We need this renewal, this fresh air from the East, this light from the East. John Paul II wrote about this in his Letter. But many times the luxus of the West makes us lose this horizon. I don’t know, but these are the thoughts that come to me. Thank you."Press Conference of the Holy Father during the flight back (28 July 2013) | Francis (vatican.va)


What happened? What happened in the mind of Jorge Mario Bergoglio that he revoked this pattern of thinking? Is this just typical Jesuitical doublespeak? How much more cruelty are simple faithful Catholics to endure from this man and those whom he has appointed? 

INTERVIEW

by Paix Liturgique
With Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò
Tuesday, September 13, 2022

 1. Your Excellency, why, after Vatican II, is the question of the liturgy such a burning question?

Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò: The liturgical question is of great importance because, the sacred action of the Mass contains the doctrine, morality, spirituality and discipline of the ecclesial body that celebrates the Liturgy. Thus, just as the Catholic Mass is a perfect and coherent expression of the Catholic Magisterium, the reformed liturgy [the Novus Ordo] is an expression of conciliar deviations; indeed it reveals and confirms its heterodox essence without the ambiguities and verbiage of the Vatican II texts. We could say, to use a simile, that the healthy blood of the Gospel flows in the veins of the Tridentine Mass, while the new rite flows with the infected blood of heresy and the spirit of the world.

 2. Does Pope Francis, who is not deeply interested in the liturgy, not at least have the merit of raising the real problem when he says that the two liturgical forms, the old and the new, reflect two different ecclesiologies?

Archbishop Viganò: This is exactly what I have just said, and it is exactly what (in 1968) Cardinals Ottaviani and Bacci denounced in their "Breve esame critico” (Brief Critical Examination), and also Archbishop Lefebvre in his many interventions, and has also been denounced by other bishops and liturgists. What you called the "two liturgical forms" of a single rite are actually two different rites, one fully Catholic and one that is silent about Catholic truths and insinuates errors of a Protestant and modernist matrix. In this Bergoglio is perfectly right: whoever embraces Vatican II and its heretical developments cannot find those errors expressed in the traditional liturgy, which, due to its clarity in the profession of the Faith, represents a condemnation and a negation of the mens [the mindset or outlook] of those who conceived the Novus Ordo.

 3. Several documents of the offensive against the Traditional Rite have followed one after another in the past year, beginning with Traditionis Custodes (July 16, 2021), then the “Response to Dubia” (issued December 4, 2021, by Arthur Roche, Prefect of the CCD), and then the Apostolic Letter Desiderio Desideravi (June 29, 2022). Can we still have hope that the attempted offensive has failed and that the ancient liturgy will not die?

Archbishop Viganò: The first deception we must not fall into is being deceived by the subversive use of acts of government and the Magisterium. In this case, we have documents that have not been promulgated in order to confirm our brothers in the faith, but rather in order to distance them from it, in clear contradiction to Benedict XVI's Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificum, which instead recognized full rights to the Tridentine Liturgy. Secondly, the intemperance of an authoritarian tyrant, consumed by hatred for the Church of Christ, is opening the eyes of even the most moderate, showing them that the whole conciliar fraud is based on aversion to the truths expressed by the Tridentine Mass, while the official narration claims that the liturgical reform was only meant to make these truths more accessible to the faithful by translating them.

 4. The way in which Traditionis Custodes is applied varies considerably from country to country and from bishop to bishop. Some have approved the Pope's document, but in reality they have not changed anything in their dioceses. Is there no feeling, especially in Italy, that whoever will succeed Francis will not be able to maintain this repressive line?

Archbishop Viganò: The Church is not a society governed by an absolute monarch, free from any higher authority, who can impose his whim on his subjects. The Head of the Church is Christ, and Christ is its only true King and Lord, of whom the Roman Pontiff is the Vicar, just as he is the Successor of the Prince of the Apostles. Abusing the vicarious power of Christ and placing oneself outside the succession by proposing heterodox doctrines, or by imposing norms that refer to them, makes this intrinsic link with Christ the Head and with His Mystical Body, the Church, disappear. In fact, the Pope's vicarious power enjoys all the prerogatives of absolute, immediate and direct authority over the Church only to the extent that it conforms to its main purpose, which is the salus animarum, always following in the wake of Tradition and fidelity to Our Lord. Furthermore, in the exercise of this authority, the Pope enjoys the special graces of state always within the very specific boundaries of this purpose; these graces have no effect where he acts against Christ and the Church. This is why Bergoglio's furious attempts, however violent and destructive, are inexorably destined to break and one day will certainly be declared null and void.

 5. What do you recommend to lay people who are upset by this situation?

Archbishop Viganò: The laity are living members of the Mystical Body, and as such they have the native right to demand that its visible authority act and legislate in conformity with the mandate it has received from Christ. When this earthly authority, by the permission of Providence, acts and legislates against the will of Christ, the faithful must first understand that this test is a means permitted by Providence in order to open their eyes after decades of deviations and hypocrisy by which they have been overwhelmed, and to which many have adhered in good faith – precisely because they are obedient to the Hierarchy and unaware of the fraud perpetrated against them. When they understand this, they will notice the treasure they have been robbed of by those who should have kept it and handed it over to future generations, instead of hiding it after devaluing it in order to replace it with a bad counterfeit. At that point, they will implore the Majesty of God to shorten the time of the trial and grant the Church a Supreme Shepherd who obeys Christ, who belongs to Him, who loves Him and who renders Him perfect worship.

 6. Diocesan priests seem to be the targets and main victims of Roman measures against the traditional liturgy: what advice would you give them?

Archbishop Viganò: In the decades preceding the Council, the leaders of the Church were well aware of the growing threat represented by the sedition of the modernist infiltrators. Because of this, Pius XII had to centralize power, but his decision - however understandable - had the consequence of instilling in the clergy the idea that the authority in the Church is indisputable regardless of what it may order, while doctrine teaches us that the uncritical acceptance of any order is servility, not true obedience. Strengthened by this approach which the Bishops and priests felt at the time of Vatican II, whoever carried out the coup made use of this obedience to impose what would never have been conceivable until then. At the same time, the post-conciliar work of indoctrination and the merciless purge of the few dissenters did the rest.

Today's situation allows us to look at the post-conciliar events with greater objectivity, also because the results of the "conciliar spring" are now there for all to see, from the crisis of both diocesan and religious vocations to the collapse of attendance at the Sacraments by the faithful. The liberalization of the availability of the ancient Mass by Benedict XVI has made many priests discover the priceless treasures of the true liturgy who were previously completely unaware of them, and who in that Mass have rediscovered the sacrificial dimension of their priesthood, which makes the celebrant alter Christus and transforms him intimately. Those who have experienced this "miracle" of grace are no longer willing to give it up. This is why I invite all my brother priests to celebrate the Mass of Saint Pius V and to let Christ, Priest and Victim, act in their priestly souls and give a solid, supernatural meaning to their ministry.

My advice to these priests is to resist and show firmness in the face of a series of abuses that have been going on for too long now. It would help them understand that it is not possible to put the Apostolic Mass on the same level as the one invented by Bugnini, because in the first the Truth is affirmed unequivocally in order to give glory to God and save souls, while in the second the Truth is fraudulently silenced and often denied in order to please the spirit of the world and leave souls in error and sin. Having understood this, the choice between the two rites does not even arise, since reason and faith animated by charity show us which of them conforms to God's will and which is not in accord with it. A soul in love with the Lord does not tolerate compromises, and is willing to give her life to remain faithful to the divine Spouse.

 7. Some think we should take advantage of this crisis to ask a future Pope not to return to Summorum Pontificum but instead to give full freedom to the traditional liturgy? Is this possible?

Archbishop Viganò: The traditional liturgy already enjoys de iure full freedom and full rights by virtue of its venerable antiquity, the Bull Quo Primum of Saint Pius V, and its ratification by the ecclesial body for two thousand years. The fact that this freedom is not exercised is due to the "prudence" of the Ministers of God, who have shown themselves uncritically obedient to any decision of the authority of the Church by the sin of servility, rather than obedience to God who is the origin and ultimate end of that authority. Full freedom for the traditional liturgy will certainly be restored de facto as well, but together with this restoration it will be necessary to abolish the new rite, which has amply proved itself as the origin of the doctrinal, moral and liturgical dissolution of the People of God. The time will come when the misunderstandings and errors of the Council will be condemned, and with them, their cultic expression.

 8. What do you think is the main flaw of the new Mass?

Archbishop Viganò: I believe that there are three critical issues that must be mentioned, attributable to the single problem of understanding the Catholic liturgy.

The first defect of the new rite is that it was drawn up with the cynical coldness of a bureaucrat, while the authentic Liturgy is a harmonious corpus that has developed organically over the centuries, adapting its immune system -- so to speak -- in order to fight the viruses of every age. Believing that one is able to "restore the original simplicity" to an adult body, forcing it to return to childhood, is an unnatural operation, which reveals the willful intention of those who traveled this path with the sole intent of making the Church more vulnerable to the assaults of the Enemy. And whoever plotted this fraud knew very well that he could only convey his errors by eliminating that Mass which alone condemns them and disavows them at every gesture, every ceremony, and every word. There is no good intention in whoever gave birth to this liturgical monstrum, designed to act as a sort of tent or canvas under which to give free rein to the most aberrant and sacrilegious deviations.

The second flaw is represented by the deception with which the Novus Ordo was presented and imposed on the Church, alleging that it was a simple translation of the ancient Rite. In Sacrosanctum Concilium, the Council Fathers authorized the translation into the vernacular of the readings and didactic parts of the Mass, prescribing that the Canon be left intact, said in Latin and spoken in a whisper (here). What has been prepared for us by the Consilium ad exsequendam is something else, a rite that seems to have been slavishly copied from Cranmer's Book of Common Prayer of 1549 and which corresponds perfectly to the ideological approach of its writers.

The third flaw is the deliberate substitution of the main object of worship – the Holy Trinity – who has been replaced by the assembly gathered together with the celebrant, which is now the fulcrum around which the whole liturgy revolves, the point of reference for the sacred action. The vision of the priest as "president of the assembly," the loss of sacredness in order to encourage improvisation, the replacement of the sacrificial altar with a convivial table – these are all consequences of a doctrinal error that denies the essence of the Mass, in which Christ's sacrifice on the Cross is offered in a bloodless form to the Father.

 A rite born of lies and fraud, conceived by a modernist Freemason, imposed by force through the abolition of a two-thousand-year-old rite, does not even deserve to be analyzed in all its specific points: it must simply be canceled.

 9. Why is the Pope so hostile to the American episcopate?

 Archbishop Viganò: More than just to the American Episcopate, Bergoglio is particularly hostile to the faithful of the United States. This finds its reason in the mentality of this nation, which is essentially liberal but in which – precisely because of the coexistence of different and heterogeneous religions and cultures -– a voice is also given to conservatives and traditionalists, who in fact constitute a numerically important component that is fervent and committed. Parishes, movements, and traditional American groups show how much the Tridentine liturgy and integral Catholic doctrine are the object of a rediscovery and great appreciation by the faithful, while the churches in which the Montinian rite is celebrated are inexorably losing congregants, vocations and – something not to be underestimated – they are also losing financial support.

The simple possibility that one can "with impunity" go to the Tridentine Mass without any social stigma is for Bergoglio unheard of and unacceptable, because the evidence of the success of the so-called "traditional option" undermines decades of proclamations and self-incensing on the part of progressives. To see thousands of faithful, young people, families with children, gathered at the ancient Mass and living their Baptism coherently – while on the other hand the financial and sexual scandals of the clergy and self-styled Catholic politicians empty the churches and lose credibility in civil society – constitutes that annoying "control group" which in the medical field demonstrates the ineffectiveness of a treatment precisely because those who have not been subjected to it enjoy health. Just as the vaccination of an experimental gene serum must be imposed on everyone so that people will not see that the adverse effects and deaths affect only the vaccinated, so also, in the liturgical context, there must be no group or community that shows the failure of that mass inoculation with modernism that was Vatican II.

The welcome and warm openness of some American Bishops towards the traditional communities and their interventions seeking the moral consistency of Catholics engaged in politics sends Bergoglio into a rage, leading him to impulsive behavior and intemperate reactions that reveal his bad faith and the total deceptiveness of his appeals to parrhesia (“bold truth-telling”), to mercy, to inclusivity. On the other hand, after decades of ecumenical appeals to "seek what unites rather than what divides" and to "build bridges, not walls," it seems to me that the accusations of the newly-created Cardinal Roche – who was just awarded the red hat [in the recent consistory on August 27, 2022] due to his loyalty to the satrap – accusations in which Roche defined traditional Catholics as "Protestants," reveal a fundamental hypocrisy, because while Catholic churches are now open to Protestants – they are granted communicatio in sacris [Holy Communion] even in the presence of prelates and cardinals, traditional Catholics are now treated by modernists as excommunicated vitandi – people to be avoided. It seems obvious to me that the assessment of the intellectual dishonesty of the proponents of the recent restrictions on liturgical matters – all of whom are emissaries of Bergoglio – is inexorably negative, even if only starting from the human aspect, so to speak: they are not sincere people, nor willing to understand the reasoning of their interlocutors. They demonstrate a ruthless authoritarianism, a pharisaic formalism, and an inclination to dissimulation and lies that cannot be the premise for any equitable solution.

10. Washington, Chicago, Arlington, Savannah: why have the bishops of these four [American] dioceses declared war on the traditional Mass?

 Archbishop Viganò: These dioceses – certainly Washington and Chicago, without omitting San Diego and Newark – are run by bishops who are part of Bergoglio's magic circle and McCarrick's lavender mafia. Their relations of mutual complicity, their action to cover up scandals, their relations with the deep state and with the Democratic Party, find their significant encapsulation in the esteem they enjoy on the part of Bergoglio, who promotes them and ratifies their declarations and their disastrous government actions.

 11. Behind all these apparently disjointed decisions (the Pachamama, the war against lace and traditional liturgy, the retreat on moral issues, etc.) do you see the implementation of a precise and coherent strategy or plan?

 Archbishop Viganó: It is evident that this relentless action of war against traditional Catholics includes a strategy and a tactic, and that it corresponds to a plan devised for decades to destroy the Church of Christ and replace it with its ecumenical, globalist and apostate counterfeit. It would be foolish to think that they act without a purpose and without organizing themselves. Bergoglio's election in the Conclave of 2013 was also planned: let's not forget the emails between John Podesta and Hillary Clinton about the need to promote a "springtime of the Church" in which a progressive Pope modifies its doctrine and morals by enslaving them to New World Order ideology. Action against Benedict XVI was planned to push him to resign. The subversive work of the innovators at the Council was planned. The action of progressives loyal to Bergoglio was planned in the Synods, in the meetings of the Curia Dicasteries, in the Consistories. On the other hand, behind the enemies of Christ and the Church Satan always hides, with his plots, his deceptions, his lies.

 12. How do you see the future of the Church?

Archbishop Viganó: I believe that, in the short term, the Church will have to deal with the disasters caused by Bergoglio and his little circle of corrupt associates. The damages of this "pontificate" are incalculable, and are now understood even by simple people, to whom the sensus fidei makes evident the absolute incompatibility of the current Hierarchy with the ecclesial body. The tension and opposition that we see in the civil sphere between the political class and citizens is a mirror image of the increasingly profound one between ecclesiastical authorities and the faithful.

In the long term, however, I believe that the Church will find precisely from this profound crisis of Faith a spur to renew itself and purify itself, definitively abandoning that intrinsically liberal attitude that has so far brought together God and Mammon, Christ and Belial, St. Pius V and Bergoglio. We saw the deformed and gruesome face of the Enemy, who could infiltrate as far as the sancta sanctorum relying on the willingness to compromise, on the mediocrity of the clerics, on human respect and on the timidity of the Hierarchy. We have before our eyes the holiness and humility of so many good priests, religious and faithful who are awakening from their slumber and understand the epochal battle in progress. At the same time, we see the corruption, dishonesty, immorality and rebellion against God of those who present themselves as the true custodians of Christ's authority, who instead usurp that authority with cunning and exercise it with violence. Even a child understands which side to stand on, who to listen to and who to distance himself from. This is why the words of Our Lord are as valid today as ever: Unless you be converted and become like little children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven (Mt 18: 3).