Reflection on the Mosaic Law and the Sacraments

The Law of Old could only signify and foretell the grace in the bosom of the Father that was to be conferred unto sanctification by the Passion of the Incarnate Logos. 

Reflection on the Mother of God

The honouring and exaltation of the Mother of God is the surest safeguarding of the dignity and unity of the Person of Christ. 

Reflection on Egalitarianism

A nation that permits its peasants to hang their king would happily hang a thousand peasants more. 

Reflection on Family Life

The homophiles and the gender theorists have merely progressed the decay of family life that the divorced and the selfish began to pervert many years before. The radical cause of all division is the prideful separation of man from God. 

Reflection on Gratia Christi

There is no grace which may make man pleasing to God or to increase him in holiness that does not proceed from the merits of Christ and His Passion. There can no be just community of mankind before God other than through Christ our Lord. 

Reflection on Deism

The apparently rational proposition of Deism is fundamentally opposed to the simple and necessary philosophical principle of a real distinction between act and potency. Deism may account for a being's production but not its conservation in being. Without the latter, all logical force of the former is incoherent. 

Reflection on the Evangelization of Pope Francis

A faithful and fruitful approach to evangelization is to bring man to his knees. It appears that the method of the current Sovereign Pontiff is to drag God to His knees in the interests of accommodation to obstinate man. The majesty of God is contemptible to the sinner who wishes to remain so, we must therefore dethrone our Lord to placate our bristling conscience. 

The Divine Trinity as the Summit and Source of Beauty

I leave the following for your fruitful meditation without further comment.

''The Divine Beauty, however, is not the result of the harmony of parts or of anything that presupposes composition. God's Beauty resides in the absolute simplicity of His perfection, in virtue of which each element of it is refulgent with the beauty of all.

The Divine Beauty shines most perfectly and sublimely in the Blessed Trinity, which is the highest development of Divine perfection; in It we can easily detect all the elements of beauty, viz, unity and multiplicity, the splendour of perfection and life, the resemblance of the image to the ideal or prototype. In fact, there is no greater unity in multiplicity than the perfect identity of the Three Divine Persons; no more perfect unfolding of essential perfection and life than the trinity fecundity in God, wherein the whole Divine Essence is communicated - the whole wisdom of the Father uttered in His Word, the whole love of the Father and the Son poured forth in the Holy Ghost; and there is no greater resemblance of any image to its prototype, than the resemblance of the Divine Word to the Eternal Father. By appropriation, beauty is especially attributed to God the Son, because He is the splendour of the glory of the Father, the perfect expression of the Divine perfection.'' A Manual of Catholic Theology, Volume I, Based on Scheeben's ''Dogmatik''

Reflection on Divine Faith

A multitude of natural acts, whether they form empires or shake them, whether they produce fruit of enduring and laudable proportions or whether they obtain the progression of all mankind are to be regarded as straw in comparison with one supernatural act of Faith. 

On Christ Our Saviour

''The only begotten Son of God...''whom God made our wisdom, our righteousness and sanctification and redemption (1 Cor 1:30), ''entered once for all into the Holy Place, taking not the blood of goats and calves but His own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption'' (Heb 9:12). For ''you were ransomed...,, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot'' (1 Pet 1:18f). Immolated on the altar of the Cross though He was innocent, He shed not merely a drop of His blood - although this would have sufficed for the redemption of the whole human race because of the union of the Word - but a copious flood, like a stream, so that ''from the sole of the foot even to the head, there was no soundness in Him'' (Is 1:6).
What a great treasure, then, has the good Father acquired for the Church Militant, if the merciful shedding of blood is not to be empty, meaningless, and superfluous. He wanted to lay it up for His children, so that there might be ''an unfailing treasure for men; those who get it obtain friendship with God'' (Wis 7:14) - Pope Clement VI, Unigenitus Dei Filius.

Here follows Scholasticism without the expected systematisation.

It is from this bull of 1343 that I proceed on a short theological treatise consistent with the mind of the Angelic Doctor on De Christo Salvatore. The bull itself is a justification of the legitimacy of the offering of indulgences, but let it not be thought that this point of departure is a an opportune twisting of the sense of the document. The treasury of merits belongs to the Body of Christ due to the abundant satisfaction of Christ the Head and only from that. Incidentally I have elected to comment upon this text due to my recent study of the popes residing in Avignon. Clement VI was probably the most interesting of the seven, vivacious, pleasure loving, a connoisseur of fine wine, admirer of sublime architecture and the man who bought Avignon for 80,000 gold florins from Queen Joanna of Naples.

 The suppositum is the ultimate subject of attribution. The person, the hypostasis, is the foundation of all activities which proceed from it as from an agent. It is from this principle that we can appreciate the sufficiency and superabundance of Christ's atonement for man's sins. The importance of the Chalcedonian definition manifests itself clearly in the necessity for a ''hypostatic union'', that is, an union in the Person.As regards a moral union as posited by such as Nestorius, there would be no true unified act whereby the divine would supply the defect and the human would contribute to its own restoration. The intrinsic efficacy and validity of the sacrificial act of Christ depends essentially on the hypostatic union, whereby the divine Word assumed to Himself, a particular human nature to terminate it and grant it existence. There was never a time when this human nature possessed a personality of its own, even though with a fully formed soul and physical body nothing was lacking for it. Rather in this singular case, this human nature found its highest perfection in being taking up into the divine personality. It is good to exist according to one's own nature; it is more excellent to be elevated to what is superior. As per Cajetan, personality is a substantial mode which terminates a singular nature so that it may become the immediately capable of existence.

 The human nature of Christ is not to be overlooked as though He only took on the semblance of humanity or rather that the created nature was swallowed up in the divinity. Such would be contrary to the decree of Chalcedon and the tome of Leo. The human nature truly belongs to Chirst (and remains so at the right hand of the Father) and is the highest degree of predestination that God has decreed by His ordinary power. If it were not for the assumed nature, man would not be redeemed. As St. Athanasius never tired of proclaimed, what is not assumed is not healed. The Divine Person certainly is the agent of all acts, yet He performs vitally human acts in virtue of His humanity. Man is saved due to being consubstantial with the Word who offers Himself as a ransom for the debt incurred by His brothers.

 Let us now more explicitly consider why this act of sacrifice was more than sufficient for our salvation. The Father's love for His only begotten Son is exceedingly spontaneous and loves Him who proceeded from Him with an ineffable love. The Son is the perfect image and likeness of the Father and is begotten by means of intellectual generation. Since it was through the Word that the world was brought into being, so it is eminently fitting that it should be through the Word that the world be restored to God. The offering of Christ, which is ultimately the sacrifice of the Divine Son who subsists in this assumed human nature is abundantly pleasing to the Father who possesses the numerically identical divine nature. Merit proceeds from charity, and there is no greater charity than that which proceeds from the divine Person. Christ's human will in intimate subjection to the divine will, never wavered in its assent to the mission of redemption. The dignity of the one making reparation is essential to its acceptance by the one offender. In this case, our High Priest offers His charity for the Father and for mankind to that same Father who is pleased to accept it as sufficient (and more than sufficient on our behalf). The merit of Christ is condign which is a strict equivalence between the act and the reward to be bestowed. The merits of any creature, even of the Blessed Virgin, are to be no more than congruous which is consequence upon (at least the foreseeing) of the satisfaction of Christ, proceeding from the friendship or liberality of God.

 It is to be stated that mortal sin is an infinite offence against God. Some may consider this troublesome as surely a created act can in no way be viewed as infinite. On the part of the act itself subjectively, I concede, on the part of the offended, I deny. An absolute negation is a greater offence than a truth stated inadequately. A genuflection to the emperor is his due and is of slight note compared to his dignity, a boxing of his ears is an outrage. To deny God His due majesty is a most grave sin and is infinitely greater than a thousand praises when many more are demanded because of His glory.

 In man, an intellectual conception of himself is always accidental, insufficient and usually provisional. In God, the divine word is the adequate and substantial conception of the godhead. The divine nature is fully generated without diminution or numeral division. From this eternal begetting of the Son proceeds the future merits of the Incarnate Christ. Due to this, no creature, however elevated (outwith the hypostatic union) could possibly perform an act which is proportionate to the offence to be atoned for.

 The merest suffering of Christ would be sufficient for our redemption as it is a true theandric act, that is, an offering made by the divine Word. It was not absolutely necessary for Christ to undergo death but such was His great love for us that He did not shun the ignominy of the Cross. Christ could not increase in virtue, merit or perfection as though His final act were intrinsically of greater sufficiency than the first moment of His conception. Merit proceeding from charity, becomes satisfaction when combined with suffering. Infinite charity in suffering satisfies infinitely. 

Reflection on the Necessity of the Church

As the revelation of Christ was to be public and enduring it is eminently fitting that He should institute a visible teaching authority to maintain His mission until the consummation of the world. His guarantees to the Apostolate prevents His life giving blood from decaying on the barren wood. 

Reflection on the Renaissance Papacy

If one could reproach the Renaissance papacy it would not be for it being too medieval but rather for being too modern. The overwhelming interest in secular pursuits, sex, reputation, greed and good food, what else would be needed to make the modernist mind merry?

Note: As I am reading about the papal self-imposed dwelling at Avignon, I considered that this deserved a repost. I had originally written it about Borgia and company, yet it equally applies to Bertrand Got and his hapless successors, perhaps excepting Jacques Fournier (of decent memory).

Reflection on Progress and Capitalism

An accumulation of commodities makes neither a community nor a civilisation. 

Reflection on Social Justice

Too many wish to sanctify the world while remaining devils themselves.

Latin Doctor Quote of the Day - Our Redemption in the Thought of St Anselm of Canterbury

St Anselm of Canterbury.

''On the basis of these considerations it is easy to recognise, that with regard to the nature of mankind, there are two alternatives; either God will complete what He has begun, or it was to no avail that He created this life-form - so sublime a life-form, and with such great good as its purpose. But, if it is recognised that God has made nothing more precious than rational nature, whose intended purpose is that it should rejoice in Him, it is utterly foreign to Him to allow any rational type of creature to perish utterly.'' - Cur Deus Homo (Why God Became Man)


Comment:

We are here discussing the fittingness of our redemption in lieu of its necessity. God is under no obligation, whether metaphysical or moral to effect our salvation. He would be neither less wise or less good if He abandoned man to his own willing guilt. His proffering of salvation is entirely gratuitousness and is based solely on His own good pleasure and mercy. For certain, He would have remained the Supreme Good even it He had never uttered the creative words, ''Fiat Lux''.

 The only 'necessity' that God incurs in His (logical) relation to creation is the binding He freely undertakes by promising to man His forgiveness which is assured for all eternity. He has bound Himself to man by His own decree of mercy.

 It is with this in mind that we acknowledge the fittingness of God redeeming man, the microcosm of creation. Man may be said to be, pardon any excess, the summation of creation, inasmuch as he unites matter which does not remain dumb but is almost ''deified'' by its assumption by the intellectual soul which informs it. As we know adequate species of the angels were confirmed in good and attained their beatitude. The mineral and animal kingdoms are to give glory by their existence. What could we say of man if he was permitted to remain in his own guilt, far from salvation, with a rational will utterly enslaved to a perverse sensual appetite? It could be said that the condemned human race would present an unseemly obstacle to the integrity of the hierarchy of creation.

 In addition, our redemption is not merely the resumption of a just order, but more gloriously, the elevation of human nature to the divine. God's nature is the radical principle of His knowledge and love and in accordance with this, by our formal and actual participation in the divine nature, we come to know and love God as He is in Himself as the Author of grace which surpasses the realm of what is due to nature.

Reflection on Freedom

You must liberate yourself from the notion that freedom positively presupposes the necessary capacity to sin.  It is true, however, that psychological freedom is the sine qua non condition of sin. Otherwise the impeccability of God would eternally determine Him to be an unhappy slave to His nature.

Latin Doctor Quote of the Day - St Bonaventure on the Beauty of Creation

Whoever wishes to ascend to God must first avoid sin, which deforms our nature, then exercise his natural powers mentioned above: by praying, to receive restoring grace; by a good life, to receive purifying grace; my meditating, to receive illuminating knowledge; and by contemplating, to receive perfecting wisdom. Just as no one comes to wisdom except through grace, justice and knowledge, so no one comes to contemplation except by penetrating meditation, a holy life and devout prayer. Since grace is the foundation of the rectitude of the will and of the penetrating light of reason, we must first pray, then live holy lives and thirdly concentrate our attention upon the reflections of truth. By concentrating there, we must ascend step by step until we reach the height of the mountain where the God of gods is seen in Sion (PS 83:8).
 Since we must ascend Jacob's ladder before we descend it, let us place our first step in the ascent at the bottom, presenting to ourselves the whole material world as a mirror through which we may pass over to God, the supreme Craftsman. Thus we shall be true Hebrews passing over from Egypt to the land promised to their fathers (Exod. 13:3ff); we shall be also be Christians passing over with Christ from this world to the Father (John 13:1); we shall be lovers of wisdom, which calls to us says: Pass over to me all who long for me and be filled with my fruits (Ecclus. 24:26). For from the greatness and beauty of created things, their Creator can be seen and known. - St Bonaventure, ''The Soul's Journey into God''


Comment:

What is creation other than the external and often physical manifestation of the inherent beauty and majesty of the Godhead? Consider the divers beings of various orders that exist, move, breath, speak, sing or shine. A single creature could not adequately manifest the plenitude of perfection that God is, and even a whole universe of beings could not exhaust His greatness. Considering even natural beauty should be enough to cause us to marvel at the goodness of God expressed in created reality in even such a finite way. All are glimmers and reflections of that infinite glory that is entirely sufficient and self-subsisting. The sinner who is enthralled by pleasures proceeding from nature does not love nature enough. He does not glimpse the Author and Sustainer who is infinitely fecund in His being and goodness. All may be dust before Him but all is gold because of Him. The saint does not consider creation to be a threat to his soul if all he sees is the divine traces of love and mercy in all that is visible.

On Criticising the Pope - The Remnant and Church Militant TV

I wade into this apparently dangerous territory to take sides and offer a brief set of thoughts. As our Lord informs us to whom much is given, much is demanded (not requested) in return. To the one who receives universal and immediate jurisdiction, that same one must render an account for all under his care. In such an instance, the Holy Father should dread to hear the pronouncement of Christ on His Throne of Judgement. To Peter was given the whole world and all that is contained within. Such an immense responsibility lies heavy on the shoulders of the bishop of Rome, successor of that poor Galilean. We must admit that a great grace of state is, without doubt, conferred upon this fisher of men, but a greater degree of holiness is demanded without any possibility of appeal.

 It will not do to confer universal dominion on the Vicar of Christ and deny him responsibility for anything. The episcopal order is of divine origin and must not be considered to be mere delegates of a neglectful pope. He can not dispense with them, in justice, at his leisure, be vindictive in suppressing them, nor can he shelter himself from criticism at their expense. This latter point appears to be the methodology of Michael Voris, where he is conscious of it or not. Our Church Militant TV friend may rightly blast the bishops of being faithless, effeminate, cowardly, enamoured of the media spotlight, but they are merely in the mould of the former Jorge Mario Bergoglio. I would certainly like to discover Voris' opinion of that former cardinal archbishop of Buenos Aires and the sham of a Catholic territory he left behind.

With such visibility that modern technology provides, foolish, unguarded words by a pope can cause immense damage and confusion, particularly when they are recklessly uttered by a man who appears to have arrived in the Eternal City unscathed by any notion of sound theology. Doesn't Voris ridicule Cardinal Dolan, who plays the buffoon before Meet the Press? Yet, who has greater popularity among the media and metropolitan elite than the pope himself? Who has prostituted themselves more to opinion formers and hack activist journalists? It is an act of great injustice to bypass the pope and lay blistering blame on the Cardinal Archbishop of New York for doing what would please the soul of Francis. He will no judged no more harshly than Bergoglio.

Let the Faith be upheld, preserved and handed on. Let God be glorified and the pope will save his soul and a multitude of his children.

 Perhaps it was better when technology was as limited as the lifespan of the pontiffs? Perhaps we were more fortunate when the popes wouldn't travel much further than St Paul Outside the Walls? 

Let the pope be the pope. Let him speak like the pope, dress like the pope, teach like the pope, sanctify and govern like the pope. His personality is no more than straw.

Latin Doctor Quote of the Day - St. Ambrose on Confession

''They affirm that they are showing great reverence for God, to Whom alone they reserve the power of forgiving sins. But in truth none do Him greater injury than they who choose to prune His commandments and reject the office entrusted to them. For inasmuch as the Lord Jesus Himself said in the Gospel: Receive the Holy Spirit: whosesoever sins you forgive they are forgiven unto them, and whosesoeversins you retain, they are retained, John 20:22-23 who is it that honours Him most, he who obeys His bidding or he who rejects it?'' (On Repentence 6)


Gloss: It pertains to the Church of Christ to perpetuate the Incarnation of her divine founder. Our Lord descended as Saviour, the formal motive of which was mercy for miserable man in view of the ultimate end of manifesting the goodness of God. If man were to remain just and in the state of innocence, the Word would not have become flesh. Jesus did not constitute a community to merely call to mind His deeds but rather to apply the merit of those deeds to divers men throughout all nations. Satisfaction and reconciliation were the purpose of the Incarnation and this end is to be pursued in the Catholic Church until the Day of Judgement. The infinitely worthy sacrifice of the altar and the reconciliation of penitents are the two chiefs functions of the priests of our Lord, all else is secondary. The divine sending of the Apostles and their successors and collaborators is urgent and admits of no delay. Who are we to deny the commission of our Lord to men and consider this to uphold the divine majesty? What great power and dignity He has conferred upon His priests to apply to needful man today what Christ obtained for us under the sentence of Pilate?

Reflection on the Papal Tiara

The day Paul VI abdicated the tiara, he crowned the papal personality. The Vicar of Christ is no longer a force inasmuch as he is the Vicar of Christ but inasmuch as he is a captivating figure of seeming modernity. And this will always be perched uneasily upon the head of Peter.

Cajetan on the Hypostatic Union

Considering the mode of union in the Person instead of in the nature

''The reply is confirmed by the reason of the fact...that the union of the human nature in the mystery of the Incarnation does not add anything to the meaning of nature, but it does indeed add something to the notion of person, because it adds the notion of subsisting in the human nature...Just as it is nobler for the sensitive life to have its complete specific nature by a form of a nobler order, namely, by the rational soul, so a greater dignity was bestowed upon the human nature of Christ from the fact that it was assumed by the divine personality'' - Cardinal Thomas Cajetan

Reflection on the Church and the Modern World

Even if the Church were to be reduced to a single low Mass she would still triumph over the "modern" world.

Reflection on the Synod on the Family

The Church has all too often abandoned dogmatic certainly in favour of a waffling and banal "spirituality" as a self-conceited profundity. When a synod makes no attempt to unite itself with Scripture, the Fathers, the Doctors and the General Council, you are confronted with a modernist sham. Contempt of Tradition is the hallmark of all wreckers of order and justice. 

Reflection on Forgiveness and the Cross of Christ

Even if a flood of sins were to obtain incessantly throughout a lifetime comparable to that of Methusalah, it still would not be worth the smallest drop of blood shed by Christ on Calvary. 

Reflection on ISIS and Beheadings

It belongs to a shallow mind to use "medieval" as a pejorative. Parliaments are medieval. The universities are medieval. The Magna Carta is medieval. On the other hand, beheadings are very much modern. After all it was from the guillotine that the "civilised" and "enlightened" world sprang. 

Reflection on Celibacy

Sacerdotal celibacy is founded on no mere expediency of availability but rather from a worthiness to stand in the Person of the High Priest to offer the unblemished Victim. The offering is heavenly and so much be his delight. 

Reflection on History

The Catholic can have no contempt for history and tradition as his worldview should be essentially sacramental. The action of God pervades the material and communicates meaning to it. He has overseen the course of all human history with as fatherly care in less "refined" ages as He continues to bestow now. He is the same yesterday, today and forever.

Reflection on Equality and Autocracy

The abolition of all social and economic distinctions can only be obtained through a totalitarian regime that would assume in itself all the former privileges, in the interests of fairness after all. 

On Naturalism and Moral Matters: Against the National Catholic Reporter

http://ncronline.org/blogs/grace-margins/synod-family-and-grace-self-doubt

Such people are insufferable. More tolerance would be afforded these shallow thinkers if they did not possess the audacity to consider themselves Catholics. The death of Catholicism in the public square is quickened by this naturalism posing as mercy and acceptance of every and any deviance that would astonish their own master. A fundamental principle of Catholic theology is the distinction between nature and what is owed to it, and grace which is essentially of the supernatural order. These self-proclaimed saviours of Catholicism are not even capable of grasping the necessity of such a differentiation. On the contrary, they mesh the two realities together in confused fashion, polluting their integrity and perverting man's ends. When one is unable to discern what pertains to man as his due, one is liable to claim that salvation is his right.

 There is a primordial error in their attitude towards the Faith whose only existence is to serve as a cultural inheritance or to grant a mushy feeling of goodness or the obligatory niceness. Their faith is a pride in themselves and their ability to overcome the bonds of history, tradition and objectivity. The faith is there to serve as the guarantor of their fabricated reality, a reality sown together by discordant threads of unconscious prejudices, fears and the need for a good fame among the 'respectable'. For them the Faith originates within man (or person, for they hate such ''exclusivity'' of expression), fulfilling his needs and projecting his confused hopes of reassurance and happiness. It is a great wonder that the word most on their lips is ''mercy''. For what do they ask mercy? They proclaim no wrong-doing. A hypocritical superficiality can only request mercy when sin is a construct of history and goodness is a feeling. Surely for someone with a Masters in Divinity, these basic premises of Sacred Theology should be rooted deep in her intellect. Alas, this would be a threat to her security as a happy sinner. 

 For these people nothing of substance is ever serious,  is never urgent. They ascribe transcendental importance to the interpretation of words which would embarrass the worst caricatures of a dialectician of the Schools.Self-doubt in matters of theology is more than heresy, it is utter madness. A desire to consider one's faith as provisional leads to the obvious conclusion that one should never die or sacrifice for this pleasing fantasy. It is for this reason that they only wish to consider the 'diverse experiences' of groups that they have pinned together without any realisation that they are individuals with no more in common than the labels relentlessly applied to them. The love of God is cold in them, it never surpasses a natural and inefficacious complacency in the benevolence of the Lord as manifested in creation and His general providence. God is made in the likeness of man and as man is never settled in his nature, the divine being is infinitely fertile for manipulation. 

 Man can only obtain a true understanding of moral theology after he has mastered the treatises of De Deo Uno and De Trinitate and de Deo Creatore. All too often moral theology has been reduced to the most banal presentation of civic ethics imaginable. Without a knowledge a man's end, how can he attain to this end? What steps should he take? How will he know when he has reached it? De Christo Salvatore and De Gratia provide the means. However these are intrusions into his secularism, where Faith can only embarrass him among his contemporaries. A hindrance to be snubbed until the all too necessary cliche is required to be recited as evidence of piety and niceness. Your ''own moral discernment'' is founded on nothing other than your progressive acquiescence in sin. 

 The aim of man is sanctity, not accommodation, nor tolerance nor diversity. If the formal motive for faith is the authority of God revealing, the rejection of elements of it is self-belief and self-deception. Have you noticed that the reasons for abandoning the fullness of faith pertain to the moral? Who leaves the Church for Monothelitism nowadays? But how many will depart for the sake of ''LGBT issues''? This shows the falsity of their position which they claim to be intellectual and rational. The effect of original sin is stronger on those who do not believe in it.

 I converted to Catholicism when I was 17 after going through the expected teenage upheavals in matters sexual. A conversion that lead to the bemusement of friends and family, a suspicious respect from some and ridicule of others. Such upheavals were hindrance to my embrace of Catholicism and if I am to abandon my Faith it will be due to that. It is all or nothing. Sanctity or returning to where I was those few years ago. Purity or normalcy. Heaven or Hell. There is no in-between, no accommodation, no middle ground for dialogue. God or Satan. 

 It is for this reason that Mason and her ilk disgust me. Doesn't the ''average sinner'' deserve to hear the call to holiness or are we to be so condescending to snatch away hope from such unworthy and incapable beings?

My Thoughts on Scottish Independence

This article has been wandering around lost in my mind for quite a few months. In fact I have just taken a few minutes pause after writing that first line to consider what to write next. To be entirely honest, I have no clue how I am going to vote, if at all, on September 18th. The ''arguments'' wielded by either side have left me as they found me, entirely indifferent and sceptical. Maybe I will make the Yes box, maybe I will tick the No box, with good probability I will do nothing and remain at home and channel surf.

 I have been rather intrigued about my passivity towards this referendum. If anyone had asked me prior to the bombardment of this cliche ridden campaign, I would have labelled myself a Scottish nationalist. Although to be honest I still do. I have never considered myself British and have only ever felt disgust and irritation at selecting ''Great Britain'' while filling out online registration forms. Yet, my Scottish patriotism does not extend much beyond a general suspicion of the English. It is true that I fought a few times for Scotland as a martial artist however there is no strong feeling either way other than the usual annoyances living in a culture dominated by English and American television and attitudes. I believed that I would have been energised by the campaigns, involving myself in the debates and attempting to convince my friends and colleagues to see the issues as I do. Alas that has not occurred.

Like most matters I consider, they exist entirely as a concept. For someone so pessimistic my idealism, especially of the past, governs my principles of how the world should be. It is for this reason that you may observe to the right of my blog the Cross of Burgundy. My social and political tenets find a natural home in the Carlist movement but my contribution to such initiatives is the odd aphorism and grumbling infront of the television. I am content to scribble down some thoughts and express briefly my mild exasperation at the idiocy of a social commentator who has trotted out the latest platitude in vogue.

 The world is certainly wicked and the transformation, nay restoration, is not to be. Original sin has reached its zenith in this generation. The terms of the debate do not appeal to me at all. It is a matter of complete indifference to me if the NHS should be privatised at all. Or if income inequality has breached a tolerable distance. The irascible comments on social media and on television debates show a superficiality that should be mocked. It has not occurred to these stalwarts of the NHS whether such an institution needs scrapped or reworked. Whether the system actually works has not strayed across their radar. They only consider preservation, they are the traditionalists of short memory. What issue is it to me whether London is prosperous as thought by levelling the City to the condition of a sink estate to match our own would be to increase happiness across the board. Yet the cliches and ill judged assumptions will be proclaimed as though the mere mention of them is enough to clinch the debate provided compassionate and socially aware men are present.

Will Scotland prosper outwith the Union of Parliaments? Who knows. That is not the issue. As I saw recently it does appear that as the economic strength of a nation increases so does their degeneracy. I will provide you with one thought to consider. I truly do fear that there will be some socialist takeover of this nation. The influence of the socialist movement is far more than latent in Scotland. In many places it is considered the mark of good taste and compassion. However much I may dislike the political union of this island I will always detest socialism, the plague that ravages the rights of God, of the family and property. It can only promote economic misery and a progressive degeneration of our morals. Such men will seek to enshrine their vices as constitutional principles. We shall see the deification of rights of sodomy, ''marital'' perversity and the removal of all mention of the Faith in the public square. The mush that our archbishops have written betray their all too naturalistic conception of society. They have disgraced their episcopal orders by their promotion of democracy in the 21st century where Catholicism in public is banished. The revolution does eat its own after all. The misery of socialism, the paralysis of trade unionism and the perversity of the sexually uninhibited will rule this land. A wasteland. A land which cries freedom but will soon kowtow to Brussells and Strasbourg.

What is to become of the monarchy? In its current state it is worth no more than a tourist trinket.

 Yet how long can we rely on back bench Tory MPs to uphold even vestiges of Christendom when they will abandon all moral principle if they get a whiff of a promise by Cameron of a free vote on fox hunting? In or out, the decline will be steep and the brakes will be cut.

After all what chance will there be of the King over the Water taking any notice?

Reflection on Poetry

Poetry can spring from either wonder or frivolity. It is the directing influence of the intellect that distinguishes the former from the idle giddiness of the latter. 

Reflection on Inclusion

Inclusion into the household of God is only for those who wish to be like God, abandoning what they known and loved. Without conversion they may exist with believers but will not be of them. 

Reflection on God and Creation

God is no more wise or good in creating than if He did not create. The principle that the good is self-diffusive is preserved in the two immanent notional acts of the Blessed Trinity and does not lead necessarily to acts which terminate outside the divine essence.

Reflection on Forgiveness

The decisive movement of the human will to repentance can not occur without mercy already being offered to man. God does not efficaciously move the will to contrition if forgiveness is not already decreed. 

Reflection on Charity and Debate

Charity should never signify indifference to truth or distinction in order to preserve a fictitious unity.

Reflection on State Intervention

The benign neglect of the aristocracy in early modern Europe should be more preferable to the common man than the interventionist compulsions of the self-described compassion metropolitan elite. 

Reflection on Theological Principles

The entire dogmatic treatise "De Deo Uno" is drawn necessarily from the principle that the essence and existence in God are identical. 

Reflection on Experience and Wisdom

Lucid understanding of the principles of a matter unexperienced contributes more to wisdom than the mere presence at a chain of occurrences. 

Reflection on Opposing the Death Penalty

To oppose the death penalty as an intrinsic evil is to transgress the bounds of Catholic probity. It is to consider falsely that natural death justly deserved is an unsufferable end in itself. This stems from pure naturalism and is a perversion of charity. 

Reflection on Human Thought and Act

Human activity should be luminous in its principles and substantial in its execution.

Reflection on the Christian in the Modern World

No longer is the Christian tolerated as a well-meaning but fussy moral nuisance but is explicitly regarded as a serious threat to the stability of society. There must be no doubt about the opposition of the reign of Christ to the prince of this world. 

Reflection on Political Correctness and Individualism

The lumping of human beings into contained groups to fight some perceived ill is the very opposite of individualism. The persons concerned have no more in common than the label slapped upon them by some elite do gooder. 

Reflection on True Charity

Charity stems from the harmony of the soul with God which then spills out to our relations with others. It is fatuous to assume charity is the mere disposal of material items that have lived beyond their usefulness. 

On Three Persons, One Substance

                                                                FSSP Church in Rome

''That in the Trinity there is no diversity or singleness or solitude, but unity and Trinity, and distinction and identity''

The Sentences of Peter Lombard,Book One, Distinction XXIII, Chapter 5.

As previously stated the proper object of the human intellect is the essences of material creatures. This must be humbly borne in mind as we attempt to climb to a knowledge of the divine essence. This is most particularly so when we are discoursing about the intimate life of the Blessed Trinity. Unless this were revealed to us, man could never have reached a sure knowledge of this, other than by the flights of fancy of certain creative poets and vain philosophers. As St Paul teaches in Romans and as upheld by the First Vatican Council, man comes to an objective knowledge of God by the ladder of created things, in which he apprehends the divine traces in the universe brought into being ex nihilo. As all things outside of God pertain to divine operation ad extra, it ''proceeds'' (in the order of freely willed creation) from the divine power which is common to all Three Persons. Therefore man in contemplating the world is only able to grasp the one God as the efficient and final cause of all.  In addition, our notions of God are utterly incapable of circumscribing the infinite perfection of the Godhead but as our Faith is of an objective character and our intellects have been given to us for profit, let us not indulge in mediocre complacency. The concepts of  ''person'', ''hypostasis'', ''essence'', ''nature'' and ''subsistence'' are grounded in the reality of our God, One and Three, however as we can only attain to an analogical grasp of the divine being we are constrained to recognise that the Lord as He is in Himself is vastly superior to our notions of Him. But let no Catholic contend that these nouns are misleading as they have been sanctified by the Tradition of the Church and utilised in the General Councils.
 The oneness and the threeness in God are irreducible realities that must never be abandoned. The vocabulary developed in the 4th and 5th centuries presented Catholic truth that far surpassed the various heretical options expressed in those days. By asserting the oneness  (or consubstantiality) of the Persons, the doctrine of Arius is done away with. By proclaiming the threeness, Sabellianism is countered. Neither ''aspect'' of the divinity can be prioritised as through the other were merely a human imposition on It in order to communicate some mystery more effectively to man. The Blessed Trinity would have remained so even if no other being had been brought into existence. The Trinity would have existed if man had only come to know his creator as one.
 He hold God to be sufficient in Himself, containing all absolute perfections in the higher reality of the Godhead. Yet, it is impermissible for us to consider the Divine Persons as somehow contained in this higher perfection. Each Person is not the Other Person but is what They are. This is what we allege when we speak of the irreducible nature of the oneness and threeness. There is nothing accidental in God.

 Furthermore as Cajetan teaches, the divine reason is neither absolutely incommunicable nor absolutely communicable. No Person can exist without the Other as a real mutual relation exists between Them which can never be diminished nor altered. The notional acts form the Divine Persons Who are subsisting realities and more than simple relations. We hold to a virtual minor distinction between the Person and the essence so that there is no confusion between the Hypostaseis. In God, there is the most pure communion (circumincessio) between the Three, without division, separation or mixing. The Son is begotten of the Father (''neither necessarily nor freely'') without ever departing from the bosom of the First Person. The Holy Ghost proceeds from Both, from the one spirating principle without transgressing the divine essence. The Father does not exist alone as He is the eternal Father. The Son could not exist in solitude as He is the eternal Son of the Father. The Holy Ghost proceeds from the love of the First and Second Persons and ''seals'' Their perfect society. Solitude is therefore excluded from this communion of love.

Neither can diversity be used as correct terminology to describe the threeness of the One God. Each Person fully possesses by right the Divine Essence which can never be lost. On earth, in the mirror of faith, the Father is only implicitly included in our understanding of the divine being, but when we see face to face, directly and without mediation, He will be completely identified with the Divine essence.

 Let us conclude with the wise words of St Hilary:

 ''The Lord says: Whoever has seen Me, has seen the Father (Jn 14:9). With these words, an understanding of singleness and aloneness is excluded. Indeed, the passage signifies that God is not solitary, and yet the statement teaches that His nature is undifferentiated. Indeed, the Father is seen in the Son by a united likeness of nature. For the begotten and the begetter are one; they are one, but one person. And so the Son is neither solitary nor single nor different''.

Reflection on Gender Theory

If gender is a mere social construct is it certainly impossible for anyone to be objectively "gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender". Such denominations are therefore simply labels of fancy and reflect nothing more than a confused mind. You are incapable of loving another of the same sex if all gender  stems from only restricted cultural mores.

Reflection on Writing

A writer should always aspire to be a faithful commentator rather than a muddled author. Truth serenely repeated is worth far more than straying creativity.

Some Theological Conclusions on Grace and Nature according to St Thomas Aquinas

The following theological conclusions have been recently learned by myself

Whether it is possible for man to love God, the author of nature, above all things by natural powers alone?

1) In the state of pure nature (which never existed) God is capable of attaining to an elicited love of God as the Creator by human powers alone.
2) In the state of integral nature such that Adam originally experienced, humanity also had the above capacity.
3) These two states presuppose the activity of natural concurrence on humanity to reduce potentiality to the relevant actuality.
4) In all states (possible or real) it is utterly impossible for man to obtain a love of God above all things as the author of grace.
5) This is so as each act is specified by its formal object. It is not sufficient for us to state that a supernatural object may be loved by natural powers even if there be a supernatural mode to bring it about.
6) In fallen creation man is unable to produce an affectively efficacious love for God above all things. This is so as a weak man is incapable of performing a work that pertains to the healthy.
7) Man subject to the dictates of concupiscence prefers private immediate goods to his true and lasting end. Human nature is more corrupted in respect of the appetite for good than for the attainment of knowledge. A sin against the eternal law is indirectly an offence against the natural law.
8) As human nature is not destroyed by the fall and the disappearance of integral nature, there remains in him a natural inclination towards God as creator.
9) There also exists in man a natural love for happiness which is present necessarily and can never be effaced from human nature. God here is considered as insufficiently indistinct from multifarious good objects.
10) In addition, man can possess an affective love for God as the creator by human powers alone. There is nothing more than a complacency in God's goodness and general providence according to the natural order.
11) Healing grace is absolutely necessary in fallen creation for man to fulfil evens the precepts of the natural law.

This is the doctrine of classical Thomism which contains the authentic teaching of Saint Augustine as developed by St Thomas and his devoted followers.These conclusions are supported by the Councils of Trent, Second of Orange and Milevum among others.The preceding conclusions have been taken from the Theological Summa of the Angelic Doctor, I II, q 109-114 as expounded by Rev. Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange in his treatise ''Grace''.

Reflection on the Purpose of this Blog

However many articles I write all effort spent would be worth it if only one soul were to convert upon reading this blog. After all, a single soul in the state of grace is objectively greater than all of the marvels of nature combined. 

On the Eternal Procession of the Holy Ghost

A Short Lecture on Book One of the Sentences, Distinction XII, Chapter 1.

Whether the Holy Spirit proceeds first or more fully from the Father than from the Son

The following explanation is of divine faith and must be upheld by all Catholics. The very question hinges on an impermissible lack of sound understanding of the Holy Trinity, where an all too creaturely perception has undermined true comprehension (in as far as we are able) of the immanent processions.
 Saint Augustine did teach that the Holy Ghost proceeds ''principaliter'' from the Father and it is well known that the Greek Fathers preferred to stress that the Third Person proceeds per filium.Yet these profound explanations of the notional acts are not to be held as contrary to the faith as dogmatically defined by the Catholic Church.


 The Council of Florence in Laetentur Caeli (1439) decrees:

''Therefore, in the Name of the Holy Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, with the approval of this sacred universal Council of Florence, we define that this truth of faith must be believed and received by all Christians, and so all must profess that the Holy Spirit is eternally from the Father and the Son, and He has his essence and His subsistent being at once from the Father and the Son, and He proceeds eternally from both as from one principle and one spiration''.

 The careful observer will notice that the present tense is used which will enable us to cast off any notions that are based upon a creaturely mode of signification. We are not to hold that the Holy Ghost has proceeded and now remains dormant as though there was a once when He began to proceed and an instant when He received His rest. The argument raised by Peter Lombard attributed to the heretic is based on such a flawed understanding. The human mind has its proper object in the essences of created things and therefore in order to reach higher we must use analogies and similitudes in our attempts to grasp the hem of the sacred mysteries. The crux of the heretic's logic is that the Son must first proceed in order for the Holy Ghost to proceed. This needs further distinction. If we are to assert that the Son is dependent on His Father for the possession of His subsisting divine essence so that He may spirate the Holy Ghost in union as one principle with Him, we may concede. In explanation, we are not to hold any temporal notion or sense of locomotion in this immanent notional act. The Son receives the entire Divine Essence from the Father not in the passage of time but as the eternal now. There is no transition of the Son's entering into possession of the divine nature and the second notional act of spiration. It is beyond our understanding to contemplate how this marvellous generating of the Word can ''occur'' in the eternal instant but this is to be accepted in faith and love.

An impure human understanding of this will lead to the following line of argumentation. In order for the traveller to pass from milestone B to milestone C he is required to journey from A to B. We can see here that not only in there a transition in time but one that is imperfect and dependent on other factors for the man to proceed from one stage to the next. The two notional acts of generation and spiration are never to be considered thus. There is no lapse of time, there is no ''becoming'', there is no before so that there may be an after. If we are to declare a priority, this is to be held as a ''principium'' or ''arche'' at most. There can be no priority of time so that potentiality and restriction pollutes the pure act of the deity. The Father is the source of the Trinity and the Holy Ghost can only proceed from the Son because the Latter has received the perfect and complete divine nature but we are forbidden to admit of a pause. In Their possession of eternity, there is no before and after. All is sublime enjoyment of Their glory and goodness, without decay, increase or mutation.

 In conclusion, let us note the words of the Doctor of Grace:

 ''In that highest Trinity, which is God, there are no intervals of time by which it may be shown, or at least asked, whether the Son was first born of the Father, and afterwards the Holy Spirit proceeded from both of Them...Can we therefore ask whether the Holy Spirit had already proceeded from the Father when the Son was born, or whether the Spirit had not yet proceeded and, after the birth of the Son, proceeded from both? It is absolutely impossible to raise such questions where nothing is begun in time in order to be completed at a later time. And so let him who can understand the begetting of the Son from the Father outside time also understand the procession of the Holy Spirit from both outside time.''

Is God the Cause of Evil?

A Short Lecture on the Sentences - Book One, Distinction XLVI, Chapter 3
''Whether evils things are done by God's will or against His will''

It is of divine faith that we assert that nothing can come to pass unless God positively ordains it or at least permits it. One may marvel at God's providence concerning both the lowliest creature to the structuring of the galaxy but the matter of evil and God's acceptance at least of it is an opaque mystery in itself and is much more challenging for the mind to grasp.
 Like many theological issues, the Church has set out for us clear parameters to guide the study of special dogmatics to a deeper comprehension of the sacred mysteries. Our two bounderies are the following:

1) All is under the dominion of God. Nothing can escape His providence
2) God can in no way be considered the author of evil.

These two articles are irreducible and it is forbidden for the Catholic theologian of sound mind to go beyond these parameters.

All that occurs in creation can not be contrary to the will of God
Evil is evidently present in creation
Therefore God is in some way responsible for evil.

I distinguish the major. If we are to assert that nothing created can violate the decrees of divine providence, I concede. If we are to state that deficient actions as regards the deficiency are proximately caused by divine premotion, then I deny.
 Let the minor be granted.
 The conclusion is invalid due to the distinction given in the major.

 As the motor power in an animal is not responsible for the weakness in the leg causing it to limp, then neither is God responsible for the malice in the human will. It is out with the proper and adequate object of God's will to love and cause evil. The ''physical'' and ''positive'' act must be caused by God, otherwise the human will would remain totally indifferent and paralysed in potentiality. All thoughts and actions, however great or small, are subject to the divine will. God not only creates and upholds but He turns each intellect and will however He decrees. The most excellent part of man, created in the image of God, is entirely subject to Him. This is a universal truth admitting of no exception. It is also true that God can convert all wills unto Himself, purifying all deficiencies and overcoming all obstacles by His efficacious will. As the Divine Apostle says, ''Who  shall resist His will?'' (Romans, 9:9)There is no simultaneous concurrence as the Molinists assert, where God is dependent on the consent of His creatures and His will is practically equal in weight to theirs. The human will is subordinated to the divine decree which moves man to his natural end (which He intimately knows as He is the author of human nature) sweetly, powerfully and yet without violence.Why this does not occur in the majority of instances is a mystery to be revealed only to the blessed in their glory. For now, let us state with St. Augustine of Hippo, that God saw it more fitting that evil should exist so that good may come out of than that no evil should exist at all.

 God must not be seen as a benevolent passive player in the drama of human existence. We must proclaim His lordship over all creatures and all acts, instead of relegating Him to some helpful but limited anthropomorphized agent. It is in some sense good that evils are done, not in themselves as they grievously offend God, but rather they are conducive to the perseverance of the saints and the greater humility of the penitents. The experience of wickedness may turn man to God in pursuit of justice and holiness.

 In conclusion:

1) God is the Creator and sustainer of all that is.
2) All is subject to His providence and none can resist His will.
3) All that is good is positively ordained by Him.
4) What is evil, in its physical aspect is willed by Him
5) What is evil, in its deficient aspect is permitted by God for a higher purpose.

On The Seventh Sunday After Pentecost

Being, movement and perfection are all under the dominion of the providence of God. No creature, however lowly or however magnificent can remove itself from the intimate and steady hand of Divine Providence.
 The Aristotelian philosophical principle of the real distinction between act and potency is of immense value to us and serves as a great aid to elucidating the divine motion upon all created being. No act, however insignificant can be performed without at least the natural concurrence of God. No agent is unable to rouse itself to movement without the exercise of God's motion upon their natures. Ignoring this truth would reduce all action and change to absurdity where no sufficient external causality could account for an outbreak of direction less transition without purpose. This natural concurrence is due to man's nature  and God owes it to Himself to assist nature as a whole to attain to its purpose as designed and implemented by His liberality in creating everything ex nihilo. This demonstrates that all thought, willing and acting can only be actualised by the consent and motion of God. Let us not confuse this with the higher inspiration of the Holy Ghost, or the formal participation in the divine nature of habitual grace or the transient participation in the same that is actual grace. Grave theological errors have been committed by the lack of due distinction between the orders of grace and nature. Yet gratitude should be shown for both.

 If we were to imagine the possibility of a completely natural state of creation, where Adam has no higher gift of divine life in his soul where his end is the purely nature knowledge and love of God above all things, he would still be utterly dependent upon his Creator for his being and movement. He would have all his faculties untainted by sin and the loss of original justice in grace, where these powers would be directed with rectitude to goodness. Yet after all this he would still require the assistance of God for any movement whatsoever.

 Let us then consider how much more imperative is the grace that is given for man in a fallen world to attain to holiness. We speak here not of general divine motion upon nature to reduce its potentiality to act but grace that is substantially supernatural not just modally. Without grace, the sinner may still be orientated towards universal good as his human nature is not destroyed, and he may attain to knowledge concerning the material world around him, but he is utterly incapable of raising himself beyond this. This is not to say that unfallen Adam could have elevated himself by pure will and discipline to the domain of the supernatural. The human soul has an obediential capacity to participation in the divine life which far excels the proper objects of its faculties yet is not entirely repugnant to its nature.

Oh happy fault that merited us so great a redeemer! With the School of Salamanca, I state sin was permitted by God for the greater good of the Incarnation. Slaves are to become sons and heirs too. Where sin abounded, grace abounded even more. Mercy and justice were the wounds of our Lord. Although the baptised may have entered into a formal participation in divine life (baptism being the seed of glory whose culmination is the beatific vision), the intellect is still darkened and the will remains vitiated. However, in this redeemed world, even greater helps are given to man than was available to Adam. The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is greater than the worship in Eden. The Incarnation is far superior to when God 'walked' in the garden with our first parents. Striving through pain and vicious temptation with these magnificent supernatural graces man can attain to greater holiness than Adam possessed before his sin.Through these actual graces and the possession of sanctifying grace man comes to know his subjection to God in both the natural and the supernatural spheres and he is glad of it. He recognises the mercy and bountiful goodness that has been shown to him. He marvels not that some are damned but that any at all have been elected for glory.

 His faculties and his body are understood now to be in the service of his Redeemer and Lord. Of his own, belongs sin. To God, belongs his virtue. Even when he was astray from God, the latter was near to him. To echo Saint Augustine, that doctor of grace, God was nearer to him than he was to himself! His thoughts although at least generally moved by God was not concerned with God. By the infusion of the theological virtue of faith, he begins to view matters not in the shadow of practicality but in the light of eternity. He comes to acknowledge humbly his vast plans and triumphs are as straw being blown towards the pit.

As he journeys along the path of spirituality, he can only respond with gratitude to the saving mercy of Jesus Christ on the Cross. His labours of sanctity can never now be seen as burdensome but rather as a joy and a free offering to almighty God. O clap your hands, all ye nations: shout unto God with the voice of joy!Who is God but our Father and Protector? His past deeds disgust him and by continual actual graces he resists the curiosity to consider what his life could now be like etsi Deus non daretur. No more will he be enclosed within himself but will deny himself and serve as Christ served according to the will of the Father.

 He shall live for God as Jesus died for him. 

Reflection on the Reception of Holy Communion

A well disposed reception of Holy Communion is sufficient to attain to great sanctity. One receives not a salutary instrument on the way to holiness but the end Who is Holiness Himself. 

Reflection on Inequality

Inequality is the root of every natural and participated supernatural order and goodness. It is a metaphysical truth that all that exists outwith the Divine Trinity. 

Reflection on Fascism

Fascism being of a revolutionary character is more in keeping with a "progressive" mentality than that of the traditionalist who is often derided as being an adherent of the former. 

An Early Witness to Clerical Celibacy

Pope Siricius, 384-399.

Directa ad decessorem to Bishop Himerius of Tarragona. (10th February 385)

''For We have learned that many priests of Christ and deacons, long after their consecrations, have begotten offspring either from their own marriages or from shameful unions, and they defend their offense under the pretext that one reads in the Old Testament that the authority to procreate was accorded to the priests and ministers...Why was it also required that the priests live in the temple away from their homes during the year of their service? Evidently, so they could not have carnal intercourse with their wives, in order that they might render an offering acceptable to God, resplendent with purity of conscience.
 Whence, the Lord Jesus, when He had enlightened us by His coming, also testifies in the Gospel that He came to fulfill the law, not to destroy it (Mt 5:17). And so He wished the form of the Church, who is His spouse, to shine with the splendor of chastity, so that, on the Day of Judgement, when He comes again, He may be able...to find  her ''without spot or wrinkle'' (Eph 5:27). By the indissoluble law of these rules we are all bound, priests and deacons, in order that, from the day of our ordination, we may hand over both our hearts and our bodies to temperance and chastity, so that we may be pleasing to the Lord our God in these sacrifices that we daily offer''

Reflection on Euthanasia

In polite society we are expected to oppose suicide but promote assisted suicide, as though the presence of a pillow would sanctity the latter. 

Reflection on Forming Civilisation

Egalitarianism could never create a civilisation to be proud of. Any spark of genius or profound originality, in the true sense, with its attendant notion of superiority, can only be regarded as suspicious or threatening. 

Reflection on Big Brother

Welfarism is the benign mask of a modern big brother state. 

Reflection on Christendom

Christendom is to be defined analogously as the perpetuation of the Incarnation in the socio-political order. It is nothing other than to live under the ever present reign of Christ. 

Reflection on the Value of History

It is preferable to be a medieval accretion than a modern concoction. 

Reflection on the Hermeneutic of Continuity

If we are to assert that the Second Vatican Council is in complete harmony with the pre-conciliar magisterium, I must be free to simply ignore its significance. 

Reflection on the Counter Revolution

It is not sufficient to aim to convert isolated hearts and minds when as soon as they breach the threshold of their household they are overpowered by the enemies of Christ. A counter-revolution that extends not only to private thoughts but rather to literature, music, entertainment of all stripes, education and the market place is urgently required. No sphere of human activity should ever be entirely "profane". 

Reflection on Transubstantiation and Redemption

Transubstantiation not only re-presents the mystery of our redemption but is also in some analogous way reminiscent of how created man is united and graciously raised to the divine nature. 

Reflection on Gratitude

Gratitude is the most fitting sort of praise. When united to the Eucharistic sacrifice, man is unable not to be saved. 

Reflection on Active Participation

Active particulation at Holy Mass is nothing other than the beating of the believer's heart in time with the Sacred Heart of the slain and risen Lord enthroned upon the Altar. 

Reflection on Celibacy

The two bulwarks against the naturalisation of the priesthood are the Sacred Liturgy and mandatory celibacy. In the West the first has already fallen, let us therefore cherish and guard zealously the second. If the priest is not all for Christ, he exists all for nothing. 

The Rito Antiguo Returns to Valladolid

http://unavocevalladolid.blogspot.co.uk/

Photos and the original short article available through the above link.

Translation of Castilian article:

On the 17th May the first Traditional Mass according to the immemorial rite of the Roman Church, codified by Saint Pius V, was celebrated thanks to Canon Raúl Olazábal in the city of Valladolid, the first in many decades. Not in the province however, because on the 13th May, Don Francisco García had celebrated the Traditional Mass in the parish of Torrecilla de la Orden. We give thanks to all those who have made possible the celebration; as much our archbishop Don Ricardo Blázquez, as the Cistercian community of Saints Joachim and Anne.

The next Mass will be celebrated on the 15th June, the third Sunday of the month, at 7pm in the same place.

What the Youth Needs to Learn

Our Faith is of an essentially objective nature. This pertains to both its intellectuality and its historicity.

How are we to attract and retain the young in our Church? For some the solution is almost self-evident, it is the attempt to remould the Church in the image of ''modern youth''. It is to bend the Church to the expectations, likes, preferences and demands of the young. Only in this way, they allege, will Catholicism have any hope of progressing somewhat in the 21st century.

 I reply serenely: ''What has the past 100 years taught us other than that we are supremely capable of killing one another more efficiently?'' The fashioning of the perennial teaching of the Faith to the vicissitudes of a passing and frivolous age is bizarre to anyone who is half awake. Who has not considered the fact that men are castigated and regarded as dangerous extremists, bigots and wicked for holding views a merely five years ago were taken for granted? An institution, whether divine or human, perverted by a reshaping by every alterable wind will end up going mad or completely irrelevant. After all, who is God but subsisting intellect and unchanging goodness, holiness and justice?

I present to you what the Church and her shepherds must instil in the young: intelligence and truth. The Orthodox and Catholic Faith has nothing in common with the legends of the Romans, Greeks or any other pagan grouping whose stories are there to illustrate some moral at best or to fabricate an origin story at worst. Such stories are liable to be refashioned according to the tastes of the latest group of hearers and this constant re-forming is necessary to avoid boredom and impart new meaning from the source material ever malleable to the dictates of the poet. The particular facts are of themselves unimportant. Fertile matter for the fertile imagination.

Our Faith is not of such a character. Man has no more right to insert a new aspect onto the personality of Christ or His teaching than God has of denying His own goodness. What the Father taught Christ, Christ taught the Apostles who in turn taught their successors. We are to hold what the Church has always and everywhere taught, in the same sense as it was taught. This historicity of ''tradition'' in the most fundamental sense is of primordial importance for the survival of the Christian mind.If Our Lord did not take flesh, if He did not suffer truly and die truly, if He did not rise in the flesh, our faith is in vain and we only deserve the mockery of unbelievers. The Catholic who is tempted to say that it is only fitting for ancient man to assert such ''facts''' in order to console his ignorance has gone far astray from the Faith. He believes himself to have attained a ''higher consciousness'' of what God ''really meant''. Evolution of dogma is utterly devastating to the Catholic Church and to validity of thought. The Faith in its radical nature embarrasses him and he has no time for such embarrassment before his fellow man. He does not realise that by denying the historicity of the Incarnation and Resurrection of our Lord, he attributes no value whatsoever to the reality and necessity of it. The whole purpose of his unreasoning exercise is to make the Faith appear of ''value'' to modern man.Yet when intellectuality and historicity flee what is there of value left? It is a man made product of dubious quality.

 A more concrete solution I must urge. The young must be taught to think. They must be taught how to make distinctions. They must be taught how to define. The youth have particularly strong urges to overcome what they consider to be injustices and they possess a certain energy to make themselves noticed. Unfortunately they cleave to a mirage of thought that can be compressed on a placard. They think in slogans, clichés and parrot buzz phrases without considering the full implications of what they are actually spouting. Let us consider the matter of ''love is love'' on the basis of what they nebulously term ''marriage equality''. Such proponents of ''progress'' will assert that this is based on the simple notion of ''you can marry whoever you want''. Rather often I have retorted, ''even my sister?'', to which I am greeted with a sneering condescension and disgust.With the easy availability of contraception and abortion on demand such a state of affairs would not be of great import. In fact I found myself in temporary possession of the former on my very first day of university. It came with the welcome pack. It appears that they have their own prejudices and notions of boundaries. All would be well if they were cognizant of such a truth.

 The youth must be taught sound philosophy and a valid system of metaphysics. With the great degree of specialization that we have obtained so rapidly in the past century or so, why are these sciences neglected when they form a foundational edifice for truly understanding the multiplicity of our created reality? Such teaching will form their minds in discipline to seek what is truly lasting and valuable to man. If this training is to be neglected what will the youth base their practical judgements on, other than what appears to be good and appealing? Without sober judgement, rationality is impossible. Sainthood even more so. Some may respond that this is too scholastic an undertaking and some souls are to be treated to a ''mystic'' approach. Faith may be beyond our reason but reason is to be perfected by revealed truths. It is to mould our thought processes and eliminate errors of judgements and reason. Young Catholic souls are constantly attacked for their faith, so how are they to elucidate their interlocutors on the Divine Trinity and the mystery of grace if they are unable to progress past the preambula fidei? If the very notion of the rationality of God is being questioned, where the young Catholic soul is entirely helpless beyond the barrage of questions, what use is urging their friends to trust in Jesus and His Cross? The latter two are fundamentally dependant on the truth of God which has few true defenders. What will that young soul respond but ''I have my belief and you have yours''? If the Faith is to be of such a nature, arising from the subjective need of a spirit in search of consolation, it would be better to be without it. The militancy of the faithful has evaporated and so has their realization that the Faith can be intelligently defended and explained systematically.

 It is only in this way that we can do our duty towards the young. Give the young man a love of truth and a love of sacrifice. In this way he will save his own soul, as well as those of his wife and children.

Reflection on "Love is Love"

If love is love and you are unable to help who you "fall in love with", such an experience should hold no more sovereignty than an itch or any other involuntary physical reaction. 

Reflection on the Failure of the Second Vatican Council

In the old faithful nations of Europe and the New World, Catholicism has been reduced to an architectural curiosity. To blindly assert the fundamental goodness of the reforms of the Second Vatican Council is paramount to spiritual slaughter. As the last soul plunges into Hell, the Neo Catholic will still cry out "but the Council, the Council!?!"

One may retort that the disaster of the French Revolution occurred before 1962. It is just as well. We are well aware that the post-conciliar pontiffs would consider that nightmare as an "awakening of the consciousness of the rights of man and of his pre-eminent dignity as human beings".

Reflection on the Implementation of Vatican II

The Neo-Catholic would prefer that the whole episcopacy had apostosied rather than consider the merest criticism of the Roman Pontiffs for the implementation of the Second Vatican Council. 

On The Canonizations - Neo-Catholic Triumphalism

It has been announced that Pope Paul VI, of unhappy memory, is to be beatified at the close of the Synod of the Family in October. One may ask why the rush to canonize three recent popes, is it the case that their value of models of holiness will diminish with the passing of the ages? Or is it that with the sober judgement of time these men will appear to be no more than adequate as Roman Pontiffs and more probably, less than suitable for the heroic task of the papacy?

I will say rather clearly that this set of ill-thought out and rushed canonizations has nothing at all to do with the men themselves. Apart from the case of Pope John Paul II, there has been little attempt to highlight and proclaim the great holiness of either John XXIII or Paul VI. Who has relate their heroic virtues? Are they worthy models of imitation for Christians? Who could possibly know as even the proponents of their raising to the altars are at a loss to explain exactly why they are deserving of this great honour. I set aside consideration of John Paul II as at least his firm faith and hope during tremendous suffering could be imputed to him as great virtue combined with his lively sense of piety.

These canonizations have nothing to do with the men themselves. They are pawns in the defense of a crumbling council. The council needs defenders. It needs canonization. What fruit of the Council can be detected? A vernacular liturgy that few attends? A new priesthood that men shy away from? A theology that is no more than sentimental mush that ill prepares even the keenest of intellect to defend the Faith against even the dullest of detractors? Point out to me a fruit of the Council and I will reply that it is laced with poison. The Roman Rite? Trivialised. Theology? Sentimentalised and no more than sentimental anthropology. Vocations? Few. Catholic nations? Just as atheistic and socialist as any other land. The popes travel, the popes wave, the crowd cheers...the crowd return home and live etsi Deus non daretur.

Would not one expect the Church to have canonized the various popes that were involved in the Council of Trent and those who strove to implement it? Frankly speaking, few of them were worth it. If we are to ascribe to the Bishop of Rome, supreme, universal and immediate jurisdiction over the whole Bride of Christ are we not to demand great holiness, wisdom and fortitude in exercising the petrine ministry? The faithful of those ages should have been even more triumphalistic about their Pontiffs considering the danger of the Reformation and the Protestants attack on the institution of the papacy. Yet, they wisely avoided this further danger. The vast majority of Roman Pontiffs have been no more than adequate. Plenty have been utter scoundrels and rascals who divided the garments of Christ among them for their own personal good. The traditionalist is not embarrassed by these scandals. Our Blessed Lord did not promise that Peter himself would never fall. All too often the popes have occupied the throne of Satan instead. On the other hand, great men have been chosen to succeed Peter and have dutifully carried out their mission with rectitude and courage. Where is the clamouring for the canonization of the superb Leo XIII? Or the much forgotten Benedict XV? The fate of souls was too pressing a matter for those involved in the Counter Reformation to divinize the Council of Trent and avert their eyes to the misery of heresy and schism. At least this sixteenth century Council produced great art and architecture? The Second Vatican Council? No more than the modernistic Scandinavian ''spaceship'' that is my local parish.

We are to raise three men to the altars, yet where have the men gone? The Faith proclaimed by these men has proven so ineffective to the evangelization and retention of young Catholic men who have therefore found solace in practical agnosticism at best. Where are the young men who will offer the Holy Sacrifice, who will raise families in the face of hostile secularism, who will teach boys to be men? These three pontiffs were more than negligent in presenting the Catholic Faith of the ages to these souls. The militancy of the baptised soul was to be purged in favour of a spirit of vain dialogue that has only created indifferentism and has made secular humanism the pinacle of moral consciousness. The Church seeks only a place at the table of discussion. She seeks fairest and an opportunity to speak in her turn. What a pathetic institution that these men have presided over! The bishops may be criticised but the popes? The popes who are of the same mould as their brother bishops are to be immune from criticism even when the same guilt belongs to them for the same acts and omissions!

Paul VI, a wretched, indecisive figure, divested himself of the papal tiara and in turn abrogated the kingship of Christ. Where in our Lord acknowledged? In the inter religious meetings? At Assisi? Certainly not before journalists where Francis refused to bless them in the Name of the Trinity, 'respectando la conciencia de cada uno''. Even a third rate sociologist appraising the numbers of the faithful who attend Mass, who can articulate a modicum of the Faith, the size and health of families and the state of such Catholic nations as Spain, Italy, Portugal and Brazil, can see that the Council failed in almost every aspect. 

The Neo-Catholic can only demand fidelity and ''obedience''. He is entirely incapable of defending the Faith in the light of tradition. It is contrary to the spirit and greatness of the Fathers and Doctors to angrily assert ''The magisterium holds such and such, believe it or you're disobedient!'' Did not these great men of old labour earnestly to explain the Faith suitably so that the doubters and deniers could reach an understanding of the mysteries of faith or the philosophical underpinnings of it? No such effort is considered by these apologists. Threats of suspension, excommunication and of being ''uncharitable'' are their stock in trade.

I await eagerly a true explanation of the the continuity of the Council with immemorial tradition, especially in the areas of religious liberty and ecumenism. There is nothing to be triumphalistic about in these matters. Millions of souls have perished due to the effects of the Council, whether the 'real' one or the virtual Council that Benedict XVI recently spoke about.

When facts are of little use, cries of ''disobedience!'' resound. Let the Neo-Catholic consider why we need a New Evangelization if the Council were not a complete failure? To them, it appears the New Evangelization is nothing more than a new buzz phrase which allows them to consider themselves faithful to the latest pontiff.

It is urgent that we realise the damage of the Council. Even if we are to hold that the Council has not been implemented correctly, are we to state that the Pontiffs were not involved in this ''bastardization'' of the Council? Were they not the ones who promoted and tolerated every novelty, heresy and extravagance? It is their Council and their implementation, their souls must mirror it.