Newsletter #50 – Our Lady of Mount Carmel USA

Dear Friends and Benefactors, 03/24/2021

The 30th Anniversary of the death of Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre occurs on March 25, 2021. When a beloved father departs from this life, a common question is “What were his last words?” The Archbishop’s last words are especially found in “Spiritual Journey”, his last published work. Indeed, it was not until after the Archbishop had completed this little, but precious, book that he said, “Now my work is finished.” Why? Because “Spiritual Journey” is not another book on spirituality; rather, it is the Last Will & Testament of Archbishop Lefebvre addressed to the priests and seminarians of the Priestly Society of Saint Pius X, it is a call to arms for the defense of the Faith, it is a Thomistic treatise on Catholic spirituality with a special focus on the current apostasy within the Church. The Archbishop summarizes the situation: “The current Pope and bishops no longer hand down Our Lord Jesus Christ, but rather a sentimental, superficial, charismatic religiosity, through which, as a general rule, the true grace of the Holy Ghost no longer passes. This new religion is not the Catholic religion; it is sterile, incapable of sanctifying society and the family”. The following are more excerpts from “Spiritual Journey”.

PREFACE
The pages which follow are addressed especially to you, priests and seminarians of the Priestly Society of St. Pius X, to you who, on this day, will renew your promises in this Catholic and Roman society, officially approved by the Ordinary and by the Roman authorities.
If the Holy Ghost permits me to put in writing the spiritual thoughts which follow, before entering—if it please God—into the bosom of the Holy Trinity, I will be allowed to realize the dream of which He gave me a glimpse one day in the Cathedral of Dakar. In the face of the progressive degradation of the priestly ideal, my dream was to transmit the Catholic Priesthood of Our Lord Jesus Christ in all its doctrinal purity and in all its missionary charity, just as He conferred it on His Apostles, just as the Roman Church always transmitted it until the middle of the twentieth century.
How should I carry out what appeared then to me as the sole solution to revive the Church and Christianity? It was still a dream, but there appeared to me already the need, not only to confer the authentic priesthood, to teach not only the ‘sana doctrina’ approved by the Church, but also to transmit the profound and unchanging spirit of the Catholic priesthood and of the Christian spirit, essentially bound to the great prayer of Our Lord which His Sacrifice on the Cross expresses eternally.
The priestly truth is totally dependent upon this prayer; that is why I have always been haunted by the desire to show the means for true priestly sanctification according to the fundamental principles of Catholic doctrine concerning Christian and priestly sanctification. Gladly, I borrow the ever so expressive words of St. Paul:
“For we preach not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves merely as your servants in Jesus” (II Cor. 4:5).
“Remember your prelates, who have spoken the word of God to you. Consider how they ended their lives, and imitate their faith. Jesus Christ is the same, yesterday and today, yes, and forever. Jesus Christus heri, hodie, et in sæcula.” (Heb. 13:7-8).
Behold their faith!
It is because the reign of Our Lord is no longer the center of attention and of activity for those who are our ‘præpositi’ [our prelates], that they lose the sense of God and of the Catholic Priesthood, and that we can no longer follow them.
O Immaculate Virgin, who, by the extraordinary privilege of your Immaculate Conception, dost teach us all of the fundamental truths of our Faith and hast merited to be the Mother of the Eternal Priest, form in us the Priest of Jesus Christ and make us less unworthy to participate in this Divine Priesthood!

PROLOGUE
At the close of a long life (for I was born in 1905 and I now see the year 1990), I can say that it has been marked by exceptional world events: three world wars, that which took place from 1914 to 1918, that which took place from 1939 to 1945, and that of the Second Vatican Council from 1962 to 1965.
The disasters caused by these three wars, and especially by the last of them, are incalculable in the domain of material ruins, but even more so in the spiritual realm. The first two paved the way for the war inside the Church, by facilitating the ruin of Christian institutions and the domination of Freemasonry, which has become so powerful that it has deeply infiltrated the governing body of the Church with its Liberal, Modernist doctrine.
By the grace of God, instructed as early as my seminary days in Rome of the mortal danger of these influences by the Rector of the French Seminary, the venerated Father Le Floch, and by the professors, Reverend Fathers Voetgli, Frey and Le Rohellec, I was able to verify, during my entire priestly life, how their calls to vigilance, based on the teachings of the Popes and, above all, of St. Pius X, were justified. I was able to verify at my own expense how this vigilance was justified, not only doctrinally, but also by the hatred which it provoked in the Liberal laity and clerics – a diabolical hatred.
The innumerable contacts, brought upon me by the duties conferred upon me, with the highest civil and ecclesiastical authorities in numerous countries, particularly in France and in Rome, have preciously confirmed for me that opinion was generally favorable to all those who were disposed to compromising with the Liberal, Masonic ideas, and unfavorable towards those determined to remain firm in traditional doctrine.
I believe I can say that few persons in the Church have been able to become as well informed as I have been able myself, not by my own will, but by the will of Providence.
As a missionary in Gabon, contact with civil authorities was obviously more frequent than as Vicar at Le Marais-de-Lomme in the Diocese of Lille. This time of mission was marked by the Gaullist invasion; we were able to witness the victory of Freemasonry against the Catholic order of Petain. It was the invasion of the barbarians without faith or law!
Perhaps one day, my memoirs will give some details on these years from 1945 to 1960, and will illustrate this war inside the Church. Read the books of M. Marteaux on this period; they are revealing. The rupture between Liberalism and the doctrine of the Church was growing both in Rome, and outside Rome.
The Liberals were able to choose Popes like John XXIII and Paul VI, causing their doctrine to triumph in the Council, a marvelous means to obligate all of the Church to adopt their errors.
Having assisted at the dramatic contest between Cardinal Bea, representing Liberalism, and Cardinal Ottaviani, representing the doctrine of the Church, it was clear after the vote of the seventy cardinals that the rupture was consummated. One could think, without fooling oneself, that the support of the Pope would go to the Liberals. But henceforth this problem was in broad daylight! What would the bishops do, aware of the danger which threatened the Church? All could see the triumph, within the Church, of new ideas, born of the Revolution and the Lodges: 250 cardinals and bishops rejoiced at their victory, 250 were horror-stricken, 1,750 tried not to ask questions, but simply followed the Pope: “… we shall see to it later!”
The Council proceeds and the reforms multiply as quickly as possible. The persecution of traditional Cardinals and Bishops begins, and soon after of priests and religious everywhere who attempt to preserve Tradition. It is an open war against the Church’s past and Her institutions: “Aggiornamento, aggiornamento!”
The result of this Council is much worse than that of the Revolution; the executions and the martyrdoms are silent; tens of thousands of priests and religious abandon their vows; others leave the religious life; cloisters disappear; vandalism invades the churches; altars are destroyed; crosses disappear; the seminaries and novitiates are emptied.
The civil societies that are still Catholic become secular under pressure from Roman authorities: Our Lord should no longer reign here below!
Catholic teaching becomes ecumenical and liberal. Catechisms are changed and are no longer Catholic. The Gregorian University in Rome has become coeducational, with St. Thomas no longer the basis of the teaching.
In face of this universal and public state of affairs, what is the duty of bishops who are officially responsible for the institution which is the Church? What will they do? Many consider this institution to be untouchable, even if it no longer conforms to the end for which it was instituted! Those who occupy the seat of Peter and the bishops are responsible. They are the ones who said that the Church had to adapt to the times, that the excesses would pass, that it is easier to accept the Revolution in their diocese – lead it rather than resist it.
Among traditionalists, a good number, henceforward despised by Rome, handed in their resignations. Some, like Archbishop Morcillo of Madrid and Archbishop MacQuaid of Dublin, would die of sadness, as well as many good priests.
It is obvious that if many bishops had acted like Mgr. de Castro-Mayer, Bishop of Campos in Brazil, the ideological revolution within the Church could have been limited, because we must not be afraid to affirm that the current Roman authorities, since John XXIII and Paul VI, have made themselves active collaborators of international Jewish Freemasonry and of world socialism. John Paul II is above all a communist-loving politician at the service of a world communism retaining a hint of religion. He openly attacks all of the anti-communist governments and does not bring, by his travels, any Catholic revival.
These conciliar Roman authorities cannot but oppose savagely and violently any reaffirmation of the traditional Magisterium. The errors of the Council and its reforms remain the official standard consecrated by the Profession of Faith of Cardinal Ratzinger in March 1989.
No one denied that I was recognized as an official member of the episcopal corps. The ‘Annuario Pontificio’ confirmed it until the moment of the episcopal consecration in 1988, presenting me as Archbishop-Bishop Emeritus of the Diocese of Tulle.
It is under this title of Catholic Archbishop that I have rendered service to the Church, ravaged by its own, in founding a Society for the formation of true Catholic priests, the Priestly Society of St. Pius X, duly approved by Mgr. Charriere, Bishop of Fribourg, Switzerland, and endowed with a letter of commendation by Cardinal Wright, Prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy.
I could rightly think that this Society – which wanted to be attached to all the traditions of the Church: doctrinal, disciplinary, liturgical, etc. – would not remain for very long approved by the liberal destroyers of the Church.
But the mystery is that there were not fifty or a hundred bishops to act as Bishop de Castro Mayer and myself did, as true successors of the Apostles against impostors!
It is not pride and self-importance to say that God in His merciful wisdom saved the heritage of His priesthood, of His grace, of His revelation, through these two bishops. It is not we who chose ourselves, but God has guided us in the upholding of all the riches of His Incarnation and of His Redemption. Those who feel they must minimize these riches and deny them can only condemn us. This can only confirm their schism with Our Lord and His Kingdom, by means of their secularism and their apostate ecumenism.
I can hear them say: “You exaggerate! There are many good bishops who pray, who have the Faith, who are edifying…” Were they saints, as soon as they accept the false religious liberty, hence the secular State; false ecumenism, and hence the admission of many ways of salvation; of liturgical reform, and hence of the practical negation of the Sacrifice of the Mass; of the new catechisms with all their errors and heresies, they officially contribute to the revolution within the Church and to its destruction!
The current Pope and bishops no longer hand down Our Lord Jesus Christ, but rather a sentimental, superficial, charismatic religiosity, through which, as a general rule, the true grace of the Holy Ghost no longer passes. This new religion is not the Catholic religion; it is sterile, incapable of sanctifying society and the family.
One single thing is necessary for the continuation of the Catholic Church: fully Catholic bishops, who make no compromise with error, who found Catholic seminaries, where young candidates for the priesthood can nourish themselves with the milk of true doctrine, placing Our Lord Jesus Christ at the center of their intellects, of their wills, of their hearts; who have a living faith, profound charity, a devotion without bounds, uniting them to Our Lord. They will ask, as did St. Paul, that we pray for them, that they advance in understanding and wisdom of the ‘Mysterium Christi’, of the mystery of Christ, where they will discover all of the divine treasures.
Let them prepare themselves to preach Jesus Christ, and Jesus Christ Crucified… “importune, opportune,” – “in season, out of season…” (II Tim 4:2).
Let us be Christians! That even all of the human, rational sciences may be enlightened by the light of Christ, Who is the Light of the World and Who gives to each man his intelligence when he comes into the world.
The evil of the Council is the ignorance of Jesus Christ and of His Kingdom. It is the evil of the bad angels, the evil which is the way to Hell.
It is because St. Thomas had an exceptional knowledge of the Mystery of Christ that the Church chose him as Her Doctor. Let us love to read and re-read the papal encyclicals on St. Thomas and the necessity of following him in the formation of priests, in order to not hesitate an instant in proclaiming the richness of his writings and, above all, of his ‘Summa Theologica’, to communicate to us an unchanging faith and the surest means to arrive in prayer and contemplation, at the celestial shores which will then no longer abandon our souls inflamed by the spirit of Jesus, regardless of the ups and downs of this earthly life…
THE PERFECTIONS OF GOD
We ought to remember during this entire contemplation of God that we must apply all that is said of God to Our Lord Jesus Christ, Who is God. We cannot separate Jesus Christ from God. We cannot separate the Christian religion from Jesus Christ, Who is God, and we must affirm and believe that only the Catholic religion is the Christian religion. These affirmations have, as a result, inescapable conclusions that no ecclesiastic authority can contest: outside of Jesus Christ and the Catholic religion, that is, outside of the Church, there is no salvation, no eternal life. Whoever is saved attains to everlasting life by his adhesion to the Mystical Body of Our Lord.
Another consequence: all of the societies that Our Lord created must necessarily concur, in their finality to make souls become Catholic and to keep them Catholic, in order to procure their eternal salvation, which is the end of all Creation, of the Incarnation and of the Redemption.
These conclusions are timeless and unchangeable. They are the expression of the whole Revelation, and were the directive principles of the entire Church until the Second Vatican Council.
This “Conciliar Church” is imbued with the principles of 1789. These are Masonic principles with respect to religion and religions in general and with respect to civil society. Its foundation was an imposture inspired by Hell for the destruction of the Catholic religion, of its Magisterium, of its priesthood, and of the Sacrifice of Our Lord.
This new Church can no longer sing the praises of Jesus Christ, universal King of nations, can no longer have the thoughts of Our Lord with respect to the world. That is why the whole spirit of the liturgy has been modified by the changing of a multitude of details, in texts and in gestures.
Contemplation of the Word Incarnate as it is sung in all the liturgical feasts is henceforward rendered impossible for the new Church. We must, at any price, remain faithful to the spirit of the Catholic Church if we wish to devote ourselves to contemplation of the Divine mysteries, of the mystery of the Incarnate Word and the mystery of the Holy Trinity.
Divine perfections are distinguished from divine operations, although nothing can be separated in God. It is the weakness of our mind which constrains us to study God in a human manner.
God is Truth, Goodness and Beauty. These are the attributes of the Being that God is. God, possessing all being in Himself, possesses therefore truth, goodness and beauty in their complete perfection. The more beings participate in the Divine Being, the more they participate in His Truth, His Goodness and His Beauty.
Our knowledge of God is quite imperfect here below, and it will still be so in Heaven, because one would have to be God to comprehend Him in all His Perfection and His Being. It is thus that the Three Divine Persons know one another.
One way towards a greater knowledge of God consists of denying with respect to Him the limitations of creatures (which otherwise serve to prove the existence of God). We thereby refuse any imperfection in God; God is perfect. We deny any limitation; He is infinite. We deny any limit in space; He is everywhere, omnipresent. We deny any limit in time; He is eternal. We deny any change; He is unchanging.
One should cite at this instance numerous texts of Holy Scripture. It can be said that the entire Old Testament is a hymn to the infinite perfection of God. We marvel at the spirit of adoration of the grandeur and omnipotence of God, of His Providence in the history of humanity, and especially in the history of Israel, preparing for the Messiah.
Then the New Testament follows as the manifestation, as the epiphany of the Holy Trinity, of His Infinite Charity, of His unfathomable mercy for the sinners that we are.
With what profound conviction should we pronounce the liturgical prayers which remind us, unceasingly, of these divine perfections. Then humility, silence and everything which distances us from the world would come to us naturally. We would live in God, in the Holy Trinity, in Jesus Christ and by Jesus Christ, in this ocean of goodness, mercy and omnipotence.
Then Jesus Christ will take more and more the true place in us which is due to Him as God Incarnate. Then His Eucharist, Sacrifice and Sacrament, will become the center of our lives and of our thoughts, through which we will penetrate into the immense reality of the Holy Trinity.

THE DIVINE LIFE
After the marvels of infinite grandeur of the Divine Being, considered in a rather static manner, let us try to begin the meditation and contemplation of God in His dynamism, in His life, and in His operations, both internal and external. It is a marvelous world that we enter, as Moses approaching the burning bush. Let us purify our hearts and our souls in order to ask the Spirit of God for a ray of light, as will be the light of glory in Heaven, to discover a little of the burning light, Who is the Divine Light of which St. John spoke with such eloquence and conviction in his Gospel and his Epistles: “The message we have heard from Him and announce to you is this: that God is light, and in Him is no darkness” (I John 1: 5). “He that loved not knoweth not God; for God is Charity. By this hath the Charity of God appeared towards us, because God hath sent His only-begotten Son into the world that we may live by Him.” (I John 4: 8-9).
“Deus caritas est – God is Charity”. These are without doubt the words which most perfectly enlightens the divine operations, internal and external.
One may say in truth that God is Trinity because He is Charity. How could He be Charity if there were only one person in God? God is then a burning furnace of charity in which the Three Divine Persons know and love one another eternally.
The office of the Holy Trinity crowns the entire liturgical year. The Holy Trinity is the great mystery by which all of God’s plans are accomplished. Everything proceeds from the Holy Trinity, and everything returns to the Holy Trinity.
Nothing is explained, nothing is understood, nothing exists without the Holy Trinity, the inexhaustible and eternal source of Charity, and this both within the mystery itself of the Triune God and outside the Trinity.
“Caritas Pater est, gratia Filius, communicatio Spiritus Sanctus, O Beata Trinitas !– The Father is Charity, the Son is Grace, the Holy Ghost is their communication: O Blessed Trinity!” “Ex quo omnia, per quem omnia, in quo omnia, ipsi gloria in saecula – From Whom are all things, by Whom are all things, in Whom are all things, to Him be glory forever” (Antiphons from the Feast of the Holy Trinity).
“Now as the burning sun sets, do Thou, O everlasting Unity, O Blessed Trinity, our Light, pour forth love into our hearts” (Hymn of Vespers, Trinity Sunday).
How this meditation on the Triune Charity and Charity – Trinity is comforting and encouraging, as it is also a source of unity!

CREATION
If we pass from this eternal Charity to the diffusion of this Charity in God’s creatures, we will soon discover in every creature the mark of Divine Charity. God being Charity, can He communicate anything other than Charity?
The mark of charity in creatures is manifest in their order towards their end. Each creature is constituted in view of his end. His end is written in the nature and in the supernatural elevation of spiritual creatures and in the nature of corporeal beings. An “ordo ad finem – ordering towards an end”, is written in each creature. It is in this order that we find the dynamism of charity, which draws each creature towards its end. Clearly this dynamism is fully conscious in spiritual creatures and unconscious in the animal, vegetable and mineral orders.
“Homo ad Deum ordinatur – man is ordered to God”, says St. Thomas. The final end of man, and moreover of the angels, is God.
The Church teaches in our Catholic catechisms: “Why did God create man? God created man to know Him, to love Him, and to serve Him so that by this means he might attain eternal Life.”
This response is but the synthesis of that which Our Lord teaches in the Gospel: “Haec est autem vita aeterna, ut cognoscant te solum Deum verum et quem misisti, Jesum Christum – Now this is eternal life, that they may know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, Whom Thou hast sent” (John 17: 3).
This principle of finalization, according to which Charity is poured forth, is the driving force of all activity in creation. It is in accordance with it that even the intelligence and will of spiritual beings must cooperate together for the obtaining of their end by free acts. This is because even freedom is dependent on the end. Free acts must therefore contribute meritoriously to the attaining of this goal. Liberty is not independent from the final end, but is given so that the spiritual creature can choose the different means which lead to the end. Thus, it cannot, without causing a disorder, choose a means which turns away from this end.
These principles are elementary for the realization of the divine plan: to pour forth charity, which is nothing else than union with God. All of Divine Providence has been, and will always be, oriented in this sense.
The true meaning of intellect, of will, and of liberty, can only be grasped through this light coming from God “which enlightened every man who cometh into the world” (John 1: 9), through the living, burning Light of divine Charity. God is free and communicates freedom in view of the first commandment of love, which contains all the law: “One only God shalt thou adore, and thou shalt love Him perfectly.”
All creation depends on this First Commandment and all persons and all societies, creatures of God, must submit to it, even civil societies. Everything must converge and lead to this love and nothing should be opposed to it. The reign of God that Our Lord has come to re-establish is nothing else than this reign of Love.
It is at the level of these fundamental principles of Divine Providence and of His Infinite Wisdom that the error of Liberalism rests. This Liberalism tends to ignore the finalization of liberty, giving it a realm outside of the final end that it does not have in the divine plan, to the detriment of divine Law and of the duties of diverse societies. These societies thereby allow sin and scandals to proliferate. This error destroys individual and social morals; it opposes the reign of Love of God and of Our Lord.
Let us contemplate the act of love that creation was, and let us strive to bring about in and around ourselves this reign of God and of Our Lord, for the reestablishment of which God accepted a death on the Cross, manifesting anew His infinite love for disorderly and sinful creatures. “O admirabile commercium … – O admirable Exchange …”
How we ought to delight in rereading the extraordinary passage of the Epistle of St. Paul to the Ephesians (3: 8ff), which the liturgy presents to us on the day of the Feast of the Sacred Heart. The creation of this new human family of Christians is in truth a new creation which prepares the predestined and the elect of God: “Quotquot autem receperunt eum, dedit eis potestatem filios Dei fieri – To as many as received Him, He gave the power of becoming sons of God” (John 1: 12). It is the creation of the Mystical Body of Jesus, to which we adhere by a valid and fruitful baptism. “Euntes docete omnes gentes, baptizantes eos in nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti – Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost” (Matth. 28: 19). This family is the Catholic family, and it is it exclusively, because it alone possesses the entire faith in Jesus Christ and in His work: the Church.
Vatican II’s desire to integrate in the Church non-Catholics, such as they are, is a scandalous and adulterous desire. The Secretariat for the Unity of Christians by favoring the granting of mutual concessions – dialogue – leads to the destruction of the Catholic Faith, the destruction of the Catholic priesthood, and the elimination of the power of Peter and of the bishops. The missionary spirit of the apostles, the martyrs and the saints is eliminated. For as long as this Secretariat keeps the false ecumenism as its orientation and Roman ecclesiastical authorities approve it, we can affirm that they remain in open, official rupture with all the past of the Church and with its official Magisterium. It is, therefore, a strict duty for every priest wanting to remain Catholic to separate himself from this Conciliar Church for as long as it does not rediscover the Tradition of the Church and of the Catholic Faith.
As a conclusion from these few considerations on Divine Wisdom in the plan of creation, let us recall that the work of sanctification of souls here below, that the exercise of charity by the practice of the commandments of love against the spirit of the flesh, the spirit of the world and of the devil, is attributed particularly to the Holy Ghost, Spirit of Love. St. Gregory, in the lessons of the Feast of Pentecost, eloquently and forcefully expresses this link between the love of God and the observance of the Commandments, relying on the words of Our Lord Himself: “Si quis diligit me, sermonem meum servabit, et Pater meus diliget eum et ad eum veniemus et mansionem apud eum faciemus – If anyone love Me, he will keep My word, and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and will make our abode with him” (John 14: 23), and of the words of St. John in his epistles: “Qui dicit se Deum nosse et mandata ejus non custodit, mendax est – He who saith that he knoweth God and keepth not His Commandments, is a liar” (I John 2: 4).
O Jesus, O Mary, help us to accomplish this request of the Our Father, “Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven”, so that our souls might become the temple of the Holy Trinity today, and for eternity!
Let us, priests or future priests of the Lord, live in the active presence of the omnipresent and all-powerful God. May we be able to see in the Eucharist, God, Creator and Redeemer, the Jesus of the crib, the Jesus of Nazareth, the Jesus Prophet, Priest and King, teaching His future priests and ordaining them before ascending the Cross, the Jesus Who rises from the dead, Who ascends to Heaven and sends the Spirit of Love to found His Church, His Spouse, His Mystical Body and draw its members to Heaven!
May we acquire a missionary spirit, transmitting this Divine Fire to souls by the example of a living faith which returns everything to God and to Jesus Christ, enlightening souls on the infinite wisdom of God, His goodness, His mercy, accustoming souls to humility before God, to adore His will, to totally depend upon Him, associating souls with the conquest of the reign of Our Lord, of His Sacred Heart and of the reign of the Immaculate Heart of Mary… THE CHURCH
St. Thomas did not write a treatise on the Church “ex professo,” but wrote on it on the occasion of the “gratia capitis – capital grace,” i.e., the grace of Christ as Head of the Church, which grace is the source of all sanctifying grace, and from which the Mystical Body of the Church benefits. He asks who are the members of this Mystical Body, of which Our Lord is the Head. His response is very instructive: he distinguishes between those who are members in potency only, from those who are actually members, be it definitively – this is the Church Suffering, and the Church Triumphant, including the angels – be it those who are actually members, but “in via – on the way,” by faith and charity in this world – or be it the sinners who have the faith, but are dried up members, not having charity.
The Church considered as Mystical Body is a spiritual reality comprising all the souls and angels who live of the divine life communicated by Our Lord. They are as living branches attached to the vine. During this earthly life, alas, many can detach themselves from the vine and perish. Others, to the contrary, are grafted onto the vine by a valid and fruitful baptism, and then live by it. At the same time this Body, which is mystical and invisible for us, presents itself here below as a visible, hierarchical society founded by Our Lord for the purpose of augmenting the Mystical Body according the command given to the apostles by Our Lord: “Going therefore, teach ye all nations; baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost” (Mt 28:19). “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be condemned” (Mk 16:16).
The final goal of salvation is linked to the Faith. The whole hierarchy was instituted by Our Lord in service of the Faith, which Faith then permits the faithful to drink from the sources of charity, of the Holy Ghost and of His grace. The entire history of the primitive Church is an illustration, instructing us of the importance of the commands given by Our Lord.
The Church is born in its vitality with the effusion of the Holy Ghost at Pentecost. She can then, instructed by Our Lord, institute a sacramental liturgy for its baptized members, comprising prayers, preaching, the divine Office, the celebration of the mysteries of the Cross and of the Eucharist. She multiplied rapidly bishops, priests and others in Holy Orders, for the multiplication and sanctification of those who have the Faith.
From the Israel of the Old Testament is born the New Israel of the New Testament, of which the Incarnate Work is the Head, directing and instructing His people across the desert of this life to lead them to the Promised Land, which is none other than the Holy Trinity itself.
Just as the Israel of the Old Testament had a troubled history because of continuous infidelities towards God, which were often the works of its leaders and its Levites, so does the Church Militant in this world know without end periods of trial on account of the infidelity of its clerics and their compromises with world.
The higher they come from, the more scandals provoke disasters. Certainly, the Church itself guards its sanctity and its sources of sanctification, but the control of its institutions by unfaithful popes and apostate bishops ruins the faith of the faithful and the clergy, sterilizes the instruments of grace, and favors the assault of all the powers of Hell which seem to triumph.
This apostasy makes its members adulterers, schismatics opposed to all Tradition, separated from the past of the Church, and separated from the Church of today, in the measure that it remains faithful to the Church of Our Lord. Everyone who remains faithful to the true Church is the object of savage and continuous persecution.
But we are not the first to be persecuted by false brothers for having kept the Faith and Tradition. The Martyrology teaches us this every day. The more Holy Church is insulted, the more we must cling to Her, body and soul, the more we must force ourselves to defend Her and to assure Her continuity by drawing from Her treasures of sanctity to reconstruct Christianity.

THE VIRGIN MARY
St. Thomas evokes the great privileges of the Virgin Mary when he speaks of the sending of the Word into this world by His Incarnation. (IIIa q. 27 to 30)
Mary holds such a place in realization of the work of salvation of humanity by the Word Incarnate, that she merits to be evoked in a very particular manner.
If Mary, by her ‘fiat’, miraculously became the Mother of God, the Mother of the Savior, she became by the very fact the Mother of His Mystical Body, that is to say of all those who live of the life of Jesus here below and will do so for eternity. She became Queen of Angels, and the terrible enemy of the devils.
Consequently, we have become her children by Baptism, and we nourish ourselves of her Son in the Eucharist. She is truly our spiritual Mother.
This divine Motherhood procured for her unique privileges and, first of all, her Immaculate Conception and fullness of grace from the instant of her conception. She is the sole human creature to be exempt from the results of original sin.
Another extraordinary privilege is that she is the Mother of Jesus, and remained Virgin, before, during and after her Childbirth. Nothing is impossible with God, as she was told by the Angel Gabriel. The Infant Jesus left the womb of the Virgin ‘januis clausis’, without destroying her hymen. She did not suffer the pains of motherhood. How many errors do we find on this subject in modern catechisms!
She was thus made exempt from the slightest sin and every sickness, for they are the consequences of original sin.
Finally, her body, not being susceptible to corruption, was raised up and assumed into Heaven. This is the privilege of her glorious Assumption. She is henceforward the Queen of Heaven and earth.
She is also, thanks to her divine Motherhood, the Mediatrix of all the graces which we are given. Her spiritual Motherhood is universal. If Jesus is the Head of the Mystical Body, Mary is the neck, as the Fathers of the Church say.
Mary, being the Mother of the Eternal Priest, exercises a particular motherhood with respect to all those who participate in Jesus’ priesthood. May the Virgin Mary deign to form us into priests in the image of her Divine Son! May devotion to Mary be honored in every house and chapel of the Society, and in all the hearts of all its members! Mary will keep us in the Catholic Faith. She is neither Liberal, nor Modernist, nor ecumenical. She is impervious to all errors and with even greater reason to heresies and apostasy…
Let us keep the Faith above all else. It is for this that Our Lord died, because He affirmed His divinity. It is for this that all the martyrs died. It is by this that all the elect are sanctified. Let us flee from those who make us lose the Faith or diminish it.
“O Timothee, depositum custodi, devitans profanas vocum novitates … Certa bonum certamen fidei, apprehende vitam aeternam – O Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding the profane novelties of words … Fight the good fight of Faith: lay hold on eternal life.” (I Tim 6:20,12).

AVE MARIA!
Father Joseph Poisson

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Consecration of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel to Immaculate Heart of Mary
http://ourladyofmountcarmelusa.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Consecration-to-Immaculate-Heart-by-Our-Lady-of-Mt.-Carmel-SSPX-Marian-Corps.pdf

Featured Sermon
Given By His Excellency Bishop Pfeiffer

https://youtu.be/6zIqblR26u8?t=3992

Featured Sermon
Given By His Excellency Bishop Pfeiffer

Posted in Newsletters and tagged Father Joseph Poisson