Monday 8 December 2014

Thank God for Clarity

Our Blessed Lady didn't give interviews but if she did her message would be crystal clear. At a time when we are bombarded with so many words from Pope Francis, words that still leave me in confusion, it is reassuring to go back to the New Eve, Mary Immaculate, to hear once more the answer to the initiative of Almighty God in His plan for our Salvation...

'I am the handmaid of the Lord. Be it done to me, according to thy word.'
Or later...

'Do whatever He tells you.'

What is truly remarkable about Pope Francis is the sheer wealth of opportunities that are presented to him to teach the Catholic Faith in his interviews. The last week alone has produced reams and reams of the thought of Jorge Bergoglio but next to nothing of the Catholic Faith. When Francis was elected, I was hopeful that what the Church would have would be a clear-speaking evangelist, someone who could explain the Catholic Faith to 'the man on the street'. What we received instead was a Pope who speaks so much, who talks so frequently and yet at the end of the day says next to nothing that teaches the Faith.

The continuity I expected to see between Francis and Benedict was perhaps not one evidenced by liturgical style, but Catholicity, sound and orthodox teaching and it really hasn't happened. I expected, and I think others hoped, that Francis would be the great evangelist who having promised to take the Church 'out of herself' and shine the light of Christ onto the World would do just that. Yet the very opposite seems to have taken place. Doubt is the new faith. The strange new agenda has made the Church more introverted and self-absorbed than I could have imagined, something exemplified at the Synod.

Instead of sowing the Faith, the Francis pontificate seems to be more marked by doubt and uncertainty than by anything else, that nothing we have received is trustworthy or solid. Petrine Authority? His Holiness seems to doubt it. Infallible doctrine? His Holiness seems to doubt it or seems to place the Church on the brink of promoting the idea that belief and 'real life' should be separated. I feel like we are being prepared for a 'great leap forward' - a project of some kind - but to where? It remains unclear.

The only 'great leap forward' the Church has to offer us is holiness and the promise of the Beatific Vision offered to all of mankind, if we will accept, not resist, the grace poured out upon us. Today the Church puts before us the Immaculate Woman who crushes the head of the serpent, whose light is the Light, the Lord Jesus Christ. The Blessed Virgin Mary radiates with purity, courage, fortitude, fidelity, faith, hope and love, with every possible virtue.

She is not the woman of doubt, she is not the daughter of uncertainty, doubt and confusion. Neither is her Divine Son the Author of such things. Everything about Mary is pure and clear. She is the spotless maid. She is the handmaid of the Lord. Even in the midst of the storm, should even the light of Faith grow darkened across the whole world, if we ask her for her maternal intercession, she will be there to guide us towards the Sun of Justice, Jesus Christ. She will never lead us astray.

The Blessed Virgin Mary, while she was on earth, believed everything that her Son taught and everything that His Apostles taught. So, if any man thinks he or any Church minister can be more humble, compassionate, kind, merciful and loving than Our Lord Jesus Christ and the Blessed Virgin Mary, then, indeed, that man is in for a big surprise. We may never be able to believe with the perfect faith of the Blessed Virgin Mary but if we don't believe what Mary believed, then we do not believe.

A happy Feast to everyone.

11 comments:

Lepanto said...

(With apologies to Stevie Wonder)
"Isn't She Lovely"

Isn't She lovely
Isn't She wonderful
Isn't She precious
more than silver and gold
How can we thank our God that He
Gave us one as sweet as She
But isn't she lovely made for love

Isn't she matchless
Truly the Lord God’s best
Oh, I'm so happy
We have been heaven blessed
I can't believe what God has done
To have given life to one
Who is so lovely made for love

Isn't she lovely
No sin nor any blame
Mary, oh Mary
How lovely is Her name
Mary, it could not have been done,
Without you who conceived the One
Who came to save us, thank you Sweet Dove


Elizabeth said...

In case you haven't seen this, check out this Protestant pastor's excellenet YouTube video (with 28,000 Likes) expressing his shock and anger at the Pope's words about agnostics and atheists can get to Heaven if they're really nice, regardless if they believe in Jesus. Priceless. It takes a Protestant pastor's outrage to get some attention. It's great.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MSB25hxBAi0

Savonarola said...

You are quite good at pumping out reams of stuff yourself, Bones. Pope Francis seems ok to me, but I do find it odd that whenever a certain type of Catholic thinks about Our Lady he (it is usually a he) goes haywire.
You say that Our Lady believed everything that Christ taught. There may be a tradition to that effect, but how can anyone know? In fact we know virtually nothing about Mary, the sort of person she was, what she believed or did not believe. There are just one or two pointers in Scripture on which a huge amount of pious speculation is made to depend, but that is all it is - speculation. If I could be bothered I might speculate about the psychology of those who need to do this, but I find God far too interesting and engrossing to waste time on such things. Try it for yourself and see.

The Bones said...

There may be a tradition to that effect, but how can anyone know?

With the certainty of Faith, Savaronola.

Why would Our Blessed Lady believe anything different to what God the Son taught, or what His Apostles taught, a teaching which was and remains His own?

Andrew said...

Francis surrounds himself with the enemies of Christ: atheists, talmudists, and Msgr. Ricca.

It would take a will of steel not to be influenced into hatred of the Church when you dine with those types.

Deacon Augustine said...

Savonarola, it is a matter of divine and Catholic Faith that Our Lady was not only conceived without the stain of original sin, but that she remained sinless throughout her earthly sojourn.

Therefore, she believed everything that her Son taught because to do otherwise would be to commit the sin of heresy. She might not have fully understood everything He taught - being limited by her human nature - but she would have believed it on the grounds of the authority of the One who taught it - as indeed she believed the archangel Gabriel.

Jacobi said...

If you want to hear good clear Catholic teaching try Voris!

Anonymous said...

Amen. It is heretical to bring Our Lady's fidelity to the Faith into doubt. Blessed Michael, the Archangel, defend us in battle . . .

Anonymous said...

Pope Francis's continuity is with his opposition to Faith and morals prior to becoming pope.

Nicolas Bellord said...

I suspect Savonarola hopes that Our Lady only believed half of it so that he can feel justified in being selective as to what he believes. But no doubt he will correct me on this assessment as to his psychological state!

Andrew said...

The enemies of Christ hate the fact that the first person we Catholics pray to is Mary. And She is the first. It was mandated by Jesus as he lay dying on the Cross.

"Behold thy mother. And from that hour, the disciple took her to his own."

I'm loathe to name a respondent on this good blog, simply for fear of undue slander, but the individual who flaunts their arrogance underneath the nom de plume of that Holy priest Savonarola should surely be unmasked. They utter snide untruths against the Ever Virgin merely to further their own perverted theology. Disorder lived as order is their ultimate heresy.

Pray for the infiltrators.

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