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Way of the Cross

Way of the Cross
           Way of the Cross

The Way of the Cross… So needed for our times:

  For a Catholic, this is where the essentials of our faith is so based upon.

This is where we come to know intimately how deep and wide and sacrificial Our Lord’s love is for each and every one of us.

It is not an easy thing to think about; how much Jesus and His Blessed Mother had to suffer in order to redeem mankind.

Not easy, but necessary.

Dear friends, This is why I want to offer you the chance to order Way of the Cross which come with a CD.

It has everything we could think of to help you through the Way of the Cross:

—soul-stirring music
—meditations by Prof. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira,

• Click here to order your Way of the Cross + CD

Just remember—everything Jesus and Mary suffered, they did out of love for you and for me.

“Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” John 15:13

So, dear friend of Jesus and Mary, please pray for me as I will for you.
Together we will join Our Saviour and His Blessed Mother as we take up our crosses in this life, in the hope of being with Them in the next.

In Jesus and Mary,  Jean Goyard

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Novenas

Novena to Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal

Novena to Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal

First Day:

The First Apparition

During the night of July 18-19, 1830, the Most Holy Virgin appeared for the first time to Saint Catherine Labouré, who had been awakened and led from the dormitory to the chapel by her guardian angel.

In the sanctuary, Saint Catherine later wrote:

“I heard something like the rustling of a silk dress, coming from the side of the tribune, close to Saint Joseph’s picture. She alighted on the steps of the altar on the Gospel side, in an arm chair like Saint Anne’s… As I looked up at Our Lady I flung myself close to her, falling on my knees on the altar steps, my hands resting in her knees. That was the sweetest moment of my life.” Let us pray: O Most Holy Virgin, O my Mother, look on my soul with mercy, obtain for me a spirit of prayer that leads me always to have recourse to thee. Obtain for me the graces that I implore of thee and, above all, inspire me to pray for the graces that thou most wants to grant me.

Our Father, Hail Mary & Glory Be…

O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee!

Though the Miraculous Medal was given to Saint Catherine Laboure in 1830, Our Lady continues to give immense graces through it in our times.

  Second Day:
Protection of Mary in Times of Trial

“The times are very evil, misfortunes are going to befall France, the throne will be overthrown, the whole world will be overwhelmed with misfortunes of every kind”. The Holy Virgin looked very distressed as she said this. “But come to the foot of this altar. Here graces will be bestowed on anyone, great or small, who asks for them with confidence and fervour… A moment will come of such great danger that all will seem lost. But I shall be with you”.
Let us pray: O Most Holy Virgin, O my Mother, amidst the great desolation in the world and the Church, obtain for me the graces I ask of thee and inspire me, above all, to request the graces that thou most wants to grant me.

Our Father, Hail Mary & Glory Be…

O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee!

 

Third Day:

The Cross will be despised:

“The Cross will be despised and hurled to the ground, blood will run in the streets, the Side of Our Lord will be opened again. The archbishop will be stripped of his garments”. Here the Holy Virgin, her face filled with sadness, could no longer speak. “My child, the whole world will be plunged in sorrow”, she said to me.

Let us pray: O Most Holy Virgin, O my Mother, obtain for me the grace to live in union with thee, with thy Divine Son and the Church at this crucial moment in history, as tragic as the Passion, when all humanity is about to choose sides for or against Christ! Obtain for me the graces I implore, especially the grace of requesting that which thou most wants to grant me.

Our Father, Hail Mary & Glory Be…

O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee!

 

Five First Saturday Devotion

  Fourth Day:

Mary Crushes the Head of the Serpent

At 5:30 on the evening of November 27, 1830, as Saint Catherine was praying in the chapel, the Holy Virgin appeared to her for the second time, standing as high as Saint Joseph’s picture to the right of the main altar.

“Her face was so beautiful that it would be impossible for me to describe it. Her robe was white as the glow of dawn… Her head was covered with a white veil that extended to her feet which rested on a half sphere, with her heel crushing the head of a serpent”.
Let us pray: O Most Holy Virgin, O my Mother, be my protection against the assaults of the infernal enemy. Obtain for me the graces I am asking of thee and, above all, inspire me to request the graces that thou most wants to grant me.

Our Father, Hail Mary & Glory Be…

O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee!

Three Reasons Why Enemies of the Church Hate the Immaculate Conception

Fifth Day:

The Virgin of the Globe

The Holy Virgin holds a globe in her hands representing the whole world, and each person in particular, and offers it to God, imploring His mercy.

She wears rings on her fingers, bearing precious stones that shed rays, one more beautiful than the next, symbolising the graces that the Holy Virgin pours out on those who ask for them.

Let us pray: O Most Holy Virgin, O my Mother, obtain for me the graces I am asking of thee and inspire me, above all, to request the graces that thou most wants to grant me.

Our Father, Hail Mary & Glory Be…

O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee!

Sixth Day:

The Invocation on the Medal

During the second apparition, Our Blessed Mother explained to Saint Catherine “how pleased she is when people pray to her and how generous she is with them; how she gives special graces to those who ask; and what a great joy she takes in granting them”.

At that point “a frame formed around Our Lady, like an oval, bearing the following words in gold letters: ‘O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee’”.

Let us pray: O Most Holy Virgin, O my Mother, obtain for me the graces I am asking of thee and inspire me, above all, to request the graces that thou most wants to grant me.

Our Father, Hail Mary & Glory Be…

O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee,

 Seventh Day:

Revelation of the Medal

Then a voice was heard, saying, “Have a medal struck after this model. Those who wear it, blessed, around their neck will receive great graces. The graces will be abundant for those who wear it with confidence”.

Let us pray: O Most Holy Virgin, O my Mother, obtain for me the graces that I ask of thee and inspire me, above all, to pray for the graces that thou most wants to grant me.

Our Father, Hail Mary & Glory Be…

O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee!

 Eighth Day:

 The Hearts of Jesus and Mary

After contemplating the picture on the medal, Saint Catherine saw it turn to display the back. There she saw an “M,” the monogram of Mary, surmounted by a small cross and, below it, the hearts of Jesus and Mary, the first surrounded with thorns and the latter pierced with a sword.

  Let us pray: O Immaculate Heart of Mary, make my heart like unto thine. Obtain for me the graces I am asking of thee and, above all, inspire me to ask of thee the graces thou most wants to grant me.

Our Father, Hail Mary & Glory Be…

O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee!

 Ninth Day:

Mary will be Proclaimed:

Confirming the predictions of Saint Louis Grignion de Montfort, Saint Catherine says that the Most Holy Virgin will be proclaimed Queen of the Universe: “Oh! how beautiful it will be to hear: Mary is the Queen of the Universe. The children and everyone will cry with joy and rapture.

That will be a lasting era of peace and happiness. She will be displayed on standards and paraded all over the world”.

Let us pray: O Most Holy Virgin, O my Mother, obtain for me the graces I am asking of thee and inspire me, above all, to pray for the graces that thou most wants to grant me.

Our Father, Hail Mary & Glory Be…

O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee!

About the Miraculous Medal

In 1830, during the apparitions in the chapel on Rue du Bac in Paris, the Holy Virgin presented the Miraculous Medal to Saint Catherine Labouré: “Those who wear it, blessed, around their neck will receive great graces. The graces will be abundant for those who wear it with confidence”.

In the time of Saint Catherine Labouré’s death, the distribution of the medal in the world had surpassed the one billion mark. The innumerable conversions, cures and cases of extraordinary protection, quickly lead to its being called the “Miraculous Medal”.

Wearing and disseminating the Miraculous Medal means placing oneself under the protection of the Most Holy Virgin. It means placing oneself under the sign of the Immaculate and taking a stand in face of the troubles and indifference affecting the modern world.

“The whole world will be overwhelmed by misfortunes of all kinds… All will seem lost, but I shall be with you”, the Holy Virgin promised Saint Catherine, who repeated this prophecy till the end of her life. The rays coming from Our Lady’s hands symbolize the graces she obtains for everyone who prays to her with confidence.

 

 

 

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Articles Des Articles Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira

An Urgent Appeal to Resist the Betrayal and Ruin of the West, Flower of Christian Civilization

An Urgent Appeal to Resist the Betrayal and Ruin of the West, Flower of Christian Civilization

The triple crisis of COVID-19, civil unrest, and economic disaster is now shaking the West’s spiritual and material foundations and the world. This is no ordinary crisis since it questions our time-worn certainties, changes our daily lives, and restricts Church freedom. In the face of this crisis, many are stunned and wonder what went wrong. Where is the West headed? Is it possible to avoid the approaching chaos?

Amidst the West’s great peril, as lay Catholics who have long defended Christian civilization against the errors of communism and socialism, the Canadian Society for the Defence of Christian Civilization and its autonomous sister organizations on five continents throughout the world, offer you their analysis of the danger and their message of hopeful restoration.

 

  1. The Current Situation

The current crisis manifests itself in multiple ways. However, all of them present a unity of purpose that aims to destroy Western Christian civilization’s remaining structures. We might divide them into three major categories.

  1. A Health Crisis That Impacts all Aspects of Life

The world is dealing with a viral epidemic whose origin and spread point suspiciously to China. This virus has affected, above all, the Christian nations of Europe and the Americas, in both its serious health risks and the profound economic, social, and psychological impact of the draconian health and lockdown measures.

The so-called new normal is also affecting the lives of hundreds of millions by restricting freedom of movement, interrupting work and education, banning or limiting gatherings and cultural events, and, finally, restricting access to Sunday Mass and the Sacraments.

People are told to get used to a world of sadness, isolation, and sub consumerism controlled by technocrats, not unlike the dystopian nightmare in George Orwell’s 1984 novel.

  1. The Pandemic Exposed Structural Weaknesses in our Globalized World

With massive political, social, cultural, and psychological consequences, a serious economic crisis knocks at the door. World-class analysts predict it will be much worse than the Great Depression that started in 1929.

The pandemic revealed the West’s monumental economic dependence—the rotten fruit of the reckless offshoring of its manufacturing base, above all, to China.

The result is a great political weakness in the West. It finds itself much degraded in a “multipolar” world in which Communist China is taking on the role of a dragon. Many authors denounce the gradual and inevitable decline of the West’s political, military, and diplomatic power on the international stage. The world, as we knew it, seems to be ending.

  1. Unrest Further Weakens the West

The West is weakened by focal points of unrest that have arisen simultaneously worldwide as if triggered by a common direction. These points include:

  1. a) An imported evil is uncontrolled immigration, which favours the formation of foreign enclaves within nations. Many newcomers (especially Muslim migrants) refuse integration and assimilation, which creates a de facto internal separatism. This turns the West into a multi-ethnic, multi-religious and multi-cultural “open space” without a common identity or purpose.
  2. b) Another focal point is the rise of identity politics and leftist ideologies that seek to wipe away all remnants and structures of the Christian past—these social “deconstructionist” ideals target capitalist bourgeois society. Many leftists have taken advantage of racial and cultural differences to promote class struggle through street violence and urban destruction. The rioting promoted by the Black Lives Matter movement in the United States is a typical example.

A consequence of the unrest is that it leads to a radicalism that, with help from the media, frightens and paralyzes the silent majority. In countries where the majority reacts, the consequent ideological polarization leads to a paralysis of the democratic institutions, and many voices even mention the risk of civil war.

 

  1. Western Man in the Face of This Picture

The West is unprepared to face this triple crisis. Its foundations are eroded by the terrible structural weakness of a massive cultural revolution as seen, for example, with the crisis in the family, the culture of death represented by procured abortion, and an aggressive LGBT ideology imposing itself on all society, even innocent children.

Above all, the West is weakened by a spiritual crisis. Untold numbers abandon the Faith and live without God or His Law, no longer seeking God’s grace and sacramental life. Our moral decadence has weakened us, and we have forgotten our Christian roots.

Deprived of spiritual and social support, many people’s reaction to our triple crisis is disbelief and shock. Many psychologists call it a “collective trauma.” Powerful, solid, technologically perfect, and self-assured, our world was shaken to its foundations by a novel coronavirus.

In a few months, together with the Western economy, many certainties collapsed. These certainties had fuelled the optimism of the masses in indefinite progress. Today, the crisis has eroded confidence in the media, science, political authorities, and even religious leaders.

Optimism, the characteristic feature of our time, is disappearing. The optimism that two world wars could not shake is fading, leading to growing anxiety for the future.

Within this apprehensive context, many begin to question the West’s premises. They ask: What went wrong? Is there a solution? Is there a light that can guide us during this storm, comforting us and restoring confidence in the future?

These questions carry the seed of remorse and a distant longing for the abandoned path of virtue.

 

III. An Immense Spiritual Orphanhood

Amidst the crisis, we would do well to repair to the wellspring of Christian culture to rediscover the spiritual values that made us. From this spiritual source come the Christian order, institutions, and graces that will lead us out of the present triple crisis. Only such a return of prodigals to the Father’s house can regenerate society on the scale and scope that is needed.

However, our inability to deal with the triple crisis stems from the fact that a parallel crisis within the Church undermines our certainties, principles, and values. This spiritual crisis is far more destructive since it deprives us of the means that help us find solutions.

In this supreme hour of Christianity, the faithful would naturally lift their gaze to the Chair of Peter, the Supreme Authority of the Catholic Church, seeking a word of comfort and guidance. Instead of being the West’s bulwark, however, the Holy See seems indifferent to its fate. At times it even seems to favour those attacking the West with unparalleled intensity. The West’s immense spiritual orphanhood is the current situation’s most terrible aspect.

Consider these recent facts (among many that could be listed) that undermine the foundations of the Faith:

  1. While the Catechism of the Catholic Church reiterated that homosexual acts “are contrary to natural law” and “in no case can they be approved” (no. 2357), and a later 2003 Vatican declaration condemns “the legal recognition of homosexual unions,” a recently released statement by Pope Francis affirms that “homosexual people are entitled to have a family. . . . We have to pass a law on civil unions, so they will be covered legally.”
  2. Intent on building a multipolar “new world,” Pope Francis launched Fratelli Tutti, an encyclical which, from a religious point of view, puts the Catholic Church and Sacred Scripture on par with other religions and their foundational books. In the name of a universal naturalist fraternity and its corresponding “social friendship,” Fratelli Tutti provides the doctrinal and psychological bases for an “open world” without principles or borders, with no defined religion, where resources are available to all, equally, and in which conflicts are to be resolved through “dialogue.”
  3. The encyclical favours the West’s uncontrolled invasion by migrants (in the case of Europe, this means mostly Muslims). It calls for the submission of countries to international organizations like the United Nations, which would solve global problems, especially those related to climate and the environment.
  4. Furthermore, and contradicting Church social doctrine, Fratelli Tutti restricts private property and the free market economy so extensively that, in practice, it denies the moral legitimacy of these two foundations of the Western economy. Other points in the encyclical concern. Pope Francis has repeated them throughout his pontificate and is probably about to reiterate in the Global Compact on Education and Economy of Francesco events. For example, “sustainable degrowth,” carbon-free energy savings (that is, pauperism as a standard for consumption), and the communal ownership and management practiced by leftist popular movements.
  5. To this must be added the indigenous horizons proposed in the encyclical Laudato Si’ and the Apostolic Exhortation Querida Amazonia, which present the tribal way of life as a model of sustainable living and community. Here we might mention Pachamama. Both tragically confirm Prof. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira’s predictions of pauperism and tribalist tendencies in the Church, made in the third part of his 1976 book Revolution and Counter-Revolution, and in his 1977 work Indian Tribalism: The Communist-Missionary Ideal for Brazil in the Twenty-First Century.
  6. The Hierarchy’s passivity during the health crisis was evident when many religious authorities went beyond political ones, prohibited the celebration of Masses, and imposed Communion in the hand. For the first time in history, the Catholic clergy celebrated Easter without the faithful. Many among the latter are not returning to Church, aggravating a growing apostasy.

 

  1. Is There a Right to Resist a Pope Who Abandons the Christian West?

The Catholic Church is universal—its name says it. Its mission is to baptize all nations, teaching them to observe what Christ commanded (See Matt. 28:19–20). In that sense, it does not identify with this or that geographical area, ethnicity, or culture. However, during these two thousand years, Western Christian civilization has been the most visible and enduring fruit of the Church’s apostolate. Its holiness, evangelizing spirit, philosophical and theological depth, hospitals, universities, works of charity, economic vigour, and flourishing effects in the arts and sciences led Pope Leo XIII to write: “There was a time when the philosophy of the Gospel governed the states” (encyclical Immortale Dei, no. 28).

Until Pope Francis, the Sovereign Pontiffs recognized Western Christian civilization as the Church’s firstborn daughter and sought to defend it. What an unnatural Mother the Church would be if, in a situation in which this eldest child is in the danger of dying, She would turn Her back or, worse still, help Her enemies attack this firstborn until she perished! The Church would be acting like a false shepherd who turns the flock over to the voracious wolves wanting to devour it. However, this is the attitude shown by many of our highest ecclesiastical authorities.

In the face of this apocalyptic scenario, a piercing question wells up in the souls of innumerable Catholics: Is it lawful to react and proudly defend Christian civilization, its religious and temporal traditions, even when this implies opposing certain guidelines issued by these high authorities? Is it lawful to resist, to the fullest extent permitted by Canon Law, the policies pursued by Pope Francis that threaten the West’s integrity, security, and cultural identities?

We are not afraid to assume this state of resistance because its moral licitness was implicitly acknowledged by the silence of Pope Paul VI and numerous other ecclesiastical authorities to the TFP statement on the Vatican’s policy of détente with communist regimes. The 1974 document, written by Prof. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira, was signed and published by all TFPs then existing. In it, we read:

In this filial act, we say to the Pastor of Pastors: Our soul is yours, our life is yours. Order us to do whatever you wish. Only do not order us to do nothing in the face of the assailing Red wolf. To this, our conscience is opposed.

Yes, Holy Father, Saint Peter teaches us that it is necessary “to obey God rather than men” (Acts 5:29). You are assisted by the Holy Ghost and supported—under the conditions defined by Vatican I—by the privilege of infallibility. But this does not mean that in certain matters or circumstances the weakness to which all men are subject cannot influence and even determine your conduct. One of these fields where your action is subject to error—perhaps par excellence—is diplomacy. And this is precisely where your policy of détente with the communist governments is situated.

What, then, should we do? The limits of this declaration do not permit us to list all the Church Fathers, Doctors, moralists, and canonists—many of them raised to the honor of the altar—who have affirmed the legitimacy of resistance. This genre of resistance is not separation, it is not revolt, it is not acrimony, it is not irreverence. On the contrary, it is fidelity, it is union, it is love, it is submission.

 

  1. Resistance

To resist means that we will encourage Catholics to reaffirm their love for Western Christian civilization and their willingness to defend its remnants and culture. Furthermore, we will promote their restoration with greater brilliance and solidity, so the West regains the world leadership it deserves not because it is Western but because it is Catholic. Western Christian civilization builds on a bimillennial past and the fact that it has Rome, the See of Peter, at its centre.

To resist means to invite Western leaders and peoples to study the deep reasons for their decline, as analysed in Revolution and Counter-Revolution, Prof. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira’s masterpiece, and implement the remedies it suggests to extricate the West from this existential crisis.

To resist means that the West’s demise is not a foregone conclusion for as we are reminded by the late Brazilian Catholic leader in that same book: “When men resolve to cooperate with the grace of God, the marvels of history are worked: the conversion of the Roman Empire; the formation of the Middle Ages; the reconquest of Spain, starting from Covadonga; all the events that result from the great resurrections of soul of which peoples are also capable. These resurrections are invincible, because nothing can defeat a people that is virtuous and truly loves God.”

To resist means to respectfully publish our analysis and judgment in situations such as the encyclical Fratelli Tutti or Pope Francis’s endorsement of the legal recognition of homosexual unions—a death blow to what remains of Western Christian civilization.

To resist means to denounce with filial and respectful frankness the dangerous contradiction between the privileged treatment accorded by the Holy See to Red China (whose communist regime it does not condemn) and Pope Francis’s disdain for the great countries of Europe and the Americas, for he mercilessly attacks their sovereignties and economic system based on free enterprise and private property. Nevertheless, this system is broadly aligned with natural law, the Ten Commandments, and the popes’ bimillennial teaching, as found in the Supreme Magisterium of Holy Mother Church.

King Henry II performs penance at St. Thomas’ Becket’s tomb. Becket Window 1 (n. VII) in the north aisle of the Trinity Chapel, Canterbury Cathedral.

To resist means to proclaim with indomitable confidence that beyond the spiritual storms, material challenges, and every attack by their enemies, the West and Christian civilization will rise again, fulfilling Our Lady’s prophetic words in Fatima, “finally, my Immaculate Heart will triumph!”

 

October 30, 2020

 

 

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