Catholic Saints, who have written on the Spiritual Life, suggest that a "remote preparation" is necessary in order to better understand the Word of God.  This includes being a lover of the Truth as well as the practice the Virtues of Humility, Meekness, and Docility to God the Holy Ghost.  "Proximate preparation" includes two prayers:

1) The Act of Contrition;
2) The Veni, Sancte Spiritus.

An Act of Contrition

O my God, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, I am heartily sorry for having offended Thee, because I love Thee above all things with my whole heart and soul.  I detest all of my sins because it was for them and His Love for me that Jesus Christ, the Second Person of the Most Blessed Trinity, my Lord and my God, suffered, was crucified, and died on the cross.  O my God, I am heartily sorry for having offended Thee by my sins, faults, imperfections, negligences and carelessness, Who art all good and deserving of all of my love.

I firmly resolve with the help of Thy Grace, to sin no more, to confess my sins, to do penance, to amend my life, to avoid all of the near occasions of sin, and always give to Thee freely, liberally and generously what is of supererogation and perfection, not only in greater things, but especially in lesser things, so that I may gain beforehand Thy efficacious, superabundant, particular and special Graces and Helps so that I will always be victorious in resisting and overcoming all temptations of the world, the flesh, and the devil and his followers.  Grant me those Graces and Helps needed so that my every thought, word and action may be done solely out of love for Thee, Who art Love.  Amen.

Saint John Chrysostom

It was the custom of Patriarch Saint John Chrysostom [b. Antioch, c. 347 A.D. - d. at Commana in Pontus on Friday, September 14, 407 A.D.], Patriarch of Constantinople [Thursday, February 26, 398 A.D. - Thursday, June 24, 404 A.D.], exiled from his See the 2nd time on Thursday, June 24, 404 A.D., Father and Doctor of the Catholic Church, to properly prepare himself and his Congregation before preaching. He taught that unless God the Holy Ghost prepares the minds and hearts of the Preacher and of the Congregation, the Preacher preaches in vain and the Congregation listens in vain.

Therefore, so as not to waste your time, please pray the Veni, Sancte Spiritus, remembering how one Holy Saint was of the opinion that a Sermon is a Sacramental.

Veni, Sancte Spiritus

Come, O Holy Ghost, fill the hearts of Thy faithful
And kindle in them the fire of Thy love.

V. Send forth Thy Spirit, and they shall be created;
R. And Thou shalt renew the face of the earth.

Let Us Pray

O God, who didst instruct the hearts of Thy faithful by the light of Thy Holy Spirit, grant us in the same Spirit to relish what is right and ever to rejoice in His consolation. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary; pray for us.
Saint Thomas Aquinas, Patron Saint of Catholic Schools, pray for us.

Epistle for the 16th Sunday After Pentecost

Ephesians 3:13-21.

The Epistle appointed to be read during the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass today is taken from Saint Paul's Epistle to the Ephesians, Chapter 3, Verses 13-21.

Brethren: Wherefore I pray you not to faint at my tribulations for you, which is your glory.  For this cause I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,  Of whom all paternity in heaven and earth is named,  That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened by his Spirit with might unto the inward man,  That Christ may dwell by faith in your hearts; that being rooted and founded in charity, You may be able to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth, and length, and height, and depth:  To know also the charity of Christ, which surpasseth all knowledge, that you may be filled unto all the fulness of God.  Now to him who is able to do all things more abundantly than we desire or understand, according to the power that worketh in us;  To him be glory in the church, and in Christ Jesus unto all generations, world without end. Amen.

Gospel for the 16th Sunday After Pentecost

Luke 14:1-11.

The Gospel for today is taken from the Holy Gospel of Saint Luke, Chapter 14, Verses 1-11.

At that time when Jesus went into the house of one of the chief of the Pharisees, on the sabbath day, to eat bread, that they watched Him.  And behold, there was a certain man before him that had the dropsy.  And Jesus answering, spoke to the lawyers and Pharisees, saying:  Is it lawful to heal on the sabbath day?  But they held their peace.  But he taking him, healed him, and sent him away.  And answering them, he said:  Which of you shall have an ass or an ox fall into a pit, and will not immediately draw him out, on the sabbath day?  And they could not answer him to these things.  And he spoke a parable also to them that were invited, marking how they chose the first seats at the table, saying to them:  When thou art invited to a wedding, sit not down in the first place, lest perhaps one more honourable than thou be invited by him:  And he that invited thee and him, come and say to thee, Give this man place:  and then thou begin with shame to take the lowest place.  But when thou art invited, go, sit down in the lowest place; that when he who invited thee, cometh, he may say to thee:  Friend, go up higher.  Then shalt thou have glory before them that sit at table with thee.  Because every one that exalteth himself, shall be humbled; and he that humbleth himself, shall be exalted.

Thus far are the words of today's Holy Gospel.

 

“When Jesus went into the house of one of the chief of the Pharisees, on the sabbath day, to eat bread, that they watched Him” (GOSPEL, Luke 14:1).

VIn the Name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost. Amen.

Monday, December 12, 1966 was not only the Feast Day of Our Lady of Guadalupe, it was also the day on which the premiere was held in New York City for the movie entitled “A Man for All Seasons”.

This excellent movie is about the courageous Saint, Sir Thomas More [b. in London, England on Thursday, February 7, 1478 A.D. - d. Martyred on Tower Hill in London, England at the age of 57 on Saturday, July 6, 1535 A.D.] who faithfully followed his Catholic conscience.  The Saint is portrayed by David Paul Scofield [b. at Hurstpierpoint, Sussex, UK on Saturday, January 21, 1922 A.D. - present], for which role he won an Oscar for Best Actor in a Leading Role.  This true story is from 16th Century England.

The movie focuses on the last 7 years of the life of Sir Thomas More, especially when he was Lord Chancellor of England from 1529 A.D. - 1532 A.D., and his struggle with King Henry VIII [b. at the Palace of Placentia in Greenwich, London, England on Sunday, June 28, 1491 A.D. - d. at the age of 55 at the Palace of Whitehall, London, England on Tuesday, January 28, 1547 A.D.], portrayed by actor Robert Shaw.

The screenplay was written by Robert Bolt who, although an agnostic and a socialist, admired Saint Thomas More, not because Mr. Bolt identified with the Saint’s Religious beliefs, but rather with the Saint’s refusal to be bullied by the king and who confounded his personal enemies who watched him like eager predatory wolves salivating in anticipation of any misspoken word or errant action!

Do you remember anyone trying to bully you, or trying to convince you, to accept something, or to do something, contrary to your Holy Catholic Faith?  Have you ever had an incident of someone trying to get you to deny your Catholic Faith and Catholic conscience?  IF so, you are in good company because these things have happened down the centuries to honest, sincere, loyal and faithful Catholics, including Sir Thomas More.

For example, in the movie there is a scene between Sir Thomas More and Thomas Howard, the 3rd Duke of Norfolk [1473 A.D. - 1554 A.D.], portrayed by Nigel Davenport, who holds a document which contains a long list of names and signatures recognizing the 2nd marriage of King Henry VIII to Anne Boleyn [2nd Wife of Henry VIII from 1533 A.D. - 1536 A.D.], despite the fact that the Pope, after a 7 year wait, had given King Henry VIII a dispensation to marry his first Wife, Katherine of Aragon [b. at Laredo Palace, Alcala de Henares, Spain on Wednesday, December 16, 1485 A.D. - d. at age 50 at Kimbolton Castle, Cambridgeshire, England on Tuesday, January 7, 1536 A.D.] - [1st Wife of Henry VIII from 1509 A.D. - 1533 A.D.], who was his older Brother Arthur’s Widow.

Here is the dialogue between Sir Thomas More and the Duke of Norfolk:

The Duke of Norfolk: “Oh confound all this. I'm not a scholar, I don't know whether the marriage was lawful or not but ******, Thomas, look at these names! Why can’t you do as I did and come with us, for fellowship!”

Sir Thomas More: “And when we die, and you are sent to Heaven for doing your conscience, and I am sent to Hell for not doing mine, will you come with me, for fellowship?”

How many times have people asked you:

“Aren’t you afraid of what people will think about you for going to that old Latin Mass?  Why don’t you come back to your old parish church?  Do you know better than the current Pope?”

The problem is usually that such people are insecure about your being secure in the knowledge of your Catholic Faith!

Perhaps such people might even be jealous of you because you have that peace of mind they do not have because they are really afraid that you are right and they are wrong!

Instead, you remember how a non-current Holy Pope revealed the infiltration of the Roman Catholic Church by Modernist Heretics (many of whom it seems were Freemasons, Zionists, Communists, secular humanists, etc.) who wanted to destroy the Roman Catholic Church:

"43. And here we have already some of the artifices employed by Modernists to exploit their wares. What efforts do they not make to win new recruits! They seize upon professorships in the seminaries and universities, and gradually make of them chairs of pestilence. In sermons from the pulpit they disseminate their doctrines, although possibly in utterances which are veiled. In congresses they express their teachings more openly. In their social gatherings they introduce them and commend them to others. Under their own names and under pseudonyms they publish numbers of books, newspapers, reviews, and sometimes one and the same writer adopts a variety of pseudonyms to trap the incautious reader into believing in a multitude of Modernist writers.

In short, with feverish activity they leave nothing untried in act, speech, and writing. And with what result? We have to deplore the spectacle of many young men, once full of promise and capable of rendering great services to the Church, now gone astray. It is also a subject of grief to Us that many others who, while they certainly do not go so far as the former, have yet been so infected by breathing a poisoned atmosphere, as to think, speak, and write with a degree of laxity which ill becomes a Catholic. They are to be found among the laity, and in the ranks of the clergy, and they are not wanting even in the last place where one might expect to meet them, in religious communities...” (Pope Saint Pius X, Giuseppe Sarto [Tuesday, August 4, 1903 - Thursday, August 20, 1914], Encyclical Pascendi Dominici Gregis - On the Doctrine of the Modernists, Sunday, September 8, 1907, paragraph # 43, emphasis added).

You also remember the Prophecies of Jesus Christ and the Blessed Virgin Mary about the changes in the Church.

Prophecies of Our Lord and
Our Blessed Mother on the New Mass,
the Novus Ordo Missae,
and the New Sacraments
Given to Marie-Julie Jahenny

WHO was Marie-Julie Jahenny?

Marie-Julie Jahenny, the mystic and Stigmatist of La Fraudais and perhaps the greatest mystic in the history of the Church, was born on Tuesday, February 12, 1850, in a little village in Brittany (in the West of France), called Blain.  She was the eldest of five children, she was brought up by her simple, good parents in that lively faith for which Bretons are renowned. Our Lord favored her with many graces from the time of her First Holy Communion, graces to which she corresponded with ever increasing devotion. She joined the Franciscan Third Order when she was in her early twenties in order  to better help to sanctify herself in the world.

In 1873 she received from Heaven that most remarkable mystic gift, the Stigmata. From the age of twenty-three until her death, some sixty years later, she bore in her body the Wounds of Our Lord to a more visible degree than had any other stigmatist in the Church's history.

In addition to the Five Wounds of the Sacred Hands, Feet and Side, Marie-Julie suffered the Wounds inflicted by the Crown of Thorns and the Cross on Our Lord's Sacred Head and Shoulder respectively, the Wounds of His Scourging, those caused by the ropes with which He was bound, as well as other Wounds of a more mystical nature.

Henceforth, Marie-Julie lived her life of co-redemptive suffering (as a victim soul) in a little cottage in the hamlet of La Fraudais, near Blain. She thus fulfilled Our Blessed Lord's desire for her to make reparation for the sins of France and the world.

She was favored with frequent visions of Jesus and Mary, as well as many prophecies. The truth of the Heavenly warnings of which she was to be the humble messenger was vindicated by her characteristic simplicity and honesty, her exemplary obedience to her spiritual directors and her Bishop, and of course, by the fulfillment of all she prophecized during her long life.

For example, with unfailing accuracy she foretold the two World Wars, the election of Pope Saint Pius X, the various persecutions of the Church, the chastisements and the fate of apostate France. Much more remains to unfold.

Her warnings should be read by all “who have ears.”

Marie-Julie was the wonder of the many scientists who examined her continually, the scorn of unbelievers and the proud, the admiration of her lifelong friend, Monsignor Fourier, Bishop of Nantes, and of the devoted circle of those who made the diffusion of her messages to an ungrateful and unheeding world their life's work. She went to her Heavenly reward on Tuesday, March 4, 1941.

Blind, deaf, dumb and crippled, she had subsisted miraculously on the Blessed Sacrament alone, for many of the last years of her life. Surely then, we will not pass over lightly what God has confided to her for the benefit of our own sad days.

Prophecies on the NovusOrdo Missae, the New Order of Mass - which is sealed with the words of the abyss

Here are Marie-Julies's prophecies concerning the Novus Ordo Missae, the New Order of Mass

On both Saturday, November 27, 1902 (N.B.  This date was the 72nd anniversary of the Miraculous Medal Apparition [Saturday, November 27, 1830]) and also again, on Tuesday, May 10, 1904, Our Lord warned of a NEW liturgy for the Mass which one day would be made up by evil people:

“I give you a warning. The disciples who are not of My Gospel are now working hard to remake according to their ideas, and under the influence of the enemy of souls [Satan], a Mass that contains words which are odious in My Sight. When the fatal hour arrives where the faith of My Priests are put to the test, it will be these texts that will be celebrated, in this second period.”

“The first period is the one of My Priesthood, existing since Me. The second [period] is the one of the persecution, when the enemies of the Faith and of Holy Religion will impose their formulas in the book of the second celebration. Many of My holy Priests will refuse this book, sealed with the words of the abyss. Unfortunately, amongst them are those who will accept it.”

On Tuesday, May 10, 1904, Our Lady described the New Clergy and their New liturgy:

“They will not stop on this hateful and sacrilegious road. They will go further to compromise all at once, and in one blow, the Holy Church, the Clergy, and the Faith of my children.”

The Blessed Virgin Mary also announced the “dispersion of the pastors” by the church herself; true Pastors, who will be replaced by others formed by Hell:

“...NEW preachers of NEW sacraments, NEW temples, NEW baptisms, NEW confraternities.”

These prophecies were made in 1902 and in 1904.  These prophecies were fulfilled by pope Paul 6 [Giovanni Battista Montini. Friday, June 21, 1963 - Sunday, August 6, 1978] in his MISSALIS ROMANI on Sunday, April 6, 1969 which promulgated the NEW Order of Mass - which is called the Novus Ordo Missae.

No wonder the Prefect for the Holy Office of the Roman Curia wrote:

“....the NOVUS ORDO [NEW ORDER] represents, both as a whole and in its details, a striking departure from the Catholic theology of the Mass as it was formulated in Session 22 of the Synod of Trent.  The Canons on the [Ancient Roman] Rite definitively fixed at that time provided an insurmountable barrier to any heresy directed against the integrity of the Mystery [i.e. the Mass]”  (Alfredo Cardinal Ottaviani [b. on Wednesday, October 29, 1890 - d. on Friday, August 3, 1979] was Secretary of the Holy Office of the Roman Curia from 1959 to 1966 when that dicastery was reorganized as the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, in which he served as Pro-Prefect, until 1968, LETTER TO POPE PAUL, Sept. 25, 1969.)

That the prophecies of Our Lord and Our Blessed Mother are true prophecies can be proven from the evil fruits of the NEW Order of Mass, the Novus Ordo Missae.  Here are some statistics and other data:

An index of Catholicism's decline

A Review by Pat Buchanan
(Emphasis Added)

As the Watergate scandal of 1973-1974 diverted attention from the far greater tragedy unfolding in Southeast Asia, so, too, the scandal of predator-priests now afflicting the Catholic Church may be covering up a far greater calamity.

Thirty-seven years after the end of the only church council of the 20th century, the jury has come in with its verdict:

Vatican II appears to have been an unrelieved disaster for Roman Catholicism.

Liars may figure, but figures do not lie. Kenneth C. Jones of St. Louis has pulled together a slim volume of statistics he has titled Index of Leading Catholic Indicators: The Church Since Vatican II.

His findings make prophets of Catholic traditionalists who warned that Vatican II would prove a blunder of historic dimensions, and those same findings expose as foolish and naive those who believed a council could reconcile Catholicism and modernity.

When Pope John XXIII threw open the windows of the church, all the poisonous vapors of modernity entered, along with the Devil himself.

Here are Jones's grim statistics of Catholicism's decline: