Yes, We Need to Know if the Pope Believes in the Divinity of Christ. But First, We Need to Know if the Pope Was the Guy Who Spoke to Scalfari.

Posted at Rorate Caeli, Roberto de Mattei rightly and with appropriate indignation demands from the man called Francis a public profession of faith.

We have reached the point of having to ask the Pope for a public profession of the Catholic Faith. May he do it clearly with no duplicity.

We need to know with absolute certainty whether the Pope believes or  not that Jesus Christ is True God and True Man. 

But of course, the Vatican heresy machine will continue to foul the waters of faith until the very serious and unexplained doubts about the validity of Pope Benedict’s putative abdication are investigated and publicly resolved by Churchmen of credibility, few though the number may be.

Is Benedict still pope– that is the primary question that must be answered. Once done, we will know precisely how to deal with the monster squatting on the throne of Peter.

Our Human Nature’s Solitary Boast

A Little Daydream of Winter on the Camino

On this feast of Our Lady of the Snows. And Happy Birthday to my little Isabel!

“My Chalice Indeed You Shall Drink”: The Feast of Santiago

The quote in the title is by Our Lord to Saint James and his brother, from today’s Gospel; it is followed by the admission that to sit on His right or left is not His decision to make.  In short, yes, you will suffer for Me, but do it for love of Me and not for any reward.

In fact, this exchange reminds me of the poignant interview between the Mother of God and King Alfred in Chesterton’s Ballad of the White Horse:

“The gates of heaven are lightly locked,
We do not guard our gold,
Men may uproot where worlds begin,
Or read the name of the nameless sin;
But if he fail or if he win
To no good man is told.

“But you and all the kind of Christ
Are ignorant and brave,
And you have wars you hardly win
And souls you hardly save.

“I tell you naught for your comfort,
Yea, naught for your desire,
Save that the sky grows darker yet
And the sea rises higher.”

“Night shall be thrice night over you,
And heaven an iron cope.
Do you have joy without a cause,
Yea, faith without a hope?”

In this vein, St. Paul speaks so beautifully about the mission of the apostles in today’s epistle from First Corinthians:

[9] For I think that God hath set forth us apostles, the last, as it were men appointed to death: we are made a spectacle to the world, and to angels, and to men. [10] We are fools for Christ’s sake, but you are wise in Christ; we are weak, but you are strong; you are honourable, but we without honour.

[11] Even unto this hour we both hunger and thirst, and are naked, and are buffeted, and have no fixed abode; [12] And we labour, working with our own hands: we are reviled, and we bless; we are persecuted, and we suffer it. [13]We are blasphemed, and we entreat; we are made as the refuse of this world, the offscouring of all even until now. [14] I write not these things to confound you; but I admonish you as my dearest children. [15] For if you have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet not many fathers. For in Christ Jesus, by the gospel, I have begotten you.

Dear Readers, in these days of woe, we are all called to the same task as the apostles, as Santiago himself, as King Alfred: Do we love and labor manfully, without (worldy-speaking) hope of success, as the waves grow higher?

Santiago Matamoros, ora pro nobis!

Feast of the Visitation

Ex quo facta est vox salutatiónis tuæ in áuribus meis, exsultávit infans in útero meo, allelúia.

__________________________

O gloriósa vírginum,
Sublímis inter sídera,
Qui te creávit, párvulum
Lacténte nutris úbere.

Quod Heva tristis ábstulit,
Tu reddis almo gérmine:
Intrent ut astra flébiles,
Cæli reclúdis cárdines.

Tu Regis alti iánua
Et aula lucis fúlgida:
Vitam datam per Vírginem,
Gentes redémptæ, pláudite.

Iesu tibi sit glória,
Qui natus es de Vírgine,
Cum Patre, et almo Spiritu,
In sempitérna sǽcula.
Amen.

Blessed feast day!

I’m on His Side

My Lord Jesus Christ, Bread of Life, grant me the grace to never abandon you! May my courage not fail, may I be given a share in Your Wisdom. I desire to remain in Your Mystical Body and submit to Your Vicar on earth.

Mary, my Mother and Mistress, guide me!

Praise God in Heaven and His Holy Mother

A small thing, cosmically speaking. But huge for this city. Thank you, Mary!

P.S. stock up on rice and bottled water. The end is near.

The Man Is a Menace

Headline:

‘Let’s not wait for the theologians,’ says Pope Francis about sharing the Eucharist

How long before somebody does something?

I’ve Begun the Socci Book on the Question of Benedict’s Abdication

Thanks to the little drama over Dr. Kwasniewski’s review– and subsequent, brow-beaten, backpedalled editing of that review–of Antonio Socci’s book, “The Secret of Benedict XVI, I have ordered and have now begun to read this book.

One-and-a-half chapters in, I’m hooked.

More to come.

Feast of the Queenship of Mary

Salve, Regina, mater misericordiae;

vita, dulcedo et spes nostra, salve.

Ad te clamamus exsules filii Hevae.

Ad te suspiramus gementes et flentes

in hac lacrimarum valle.

Eia ergo, advocata nostra,

illos tuos misericordes oculos ad nos converte.

Et Iesum, benedictum fructum ventris tui,

nobis post hoc exsilium ostende.

O clemens, o pia, o dulcis Virgo Maria.

V. Ora pro nobis, sancta Dei Genitrix.

R. Ut digni efficamur promissionibus Christi.

Oremus. Omnipotens sempiterne Deus, qui gloriosae Virginis Matris Mariae corpus et animam, ut dignum Filii tui habitaculum effici mereretur, Spiritu Sancto cooperante, praeparasti, da, ut cuius commemoratione laetamur; eius pia intercessione, ab instantibus malis et a morte perpetua liberemur. Per eundem Christum Dominum nostrum. Amen.