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Tradition.

by Filed Under: Holy Mass, Lent, Pre-Lent Leave a Comment

Let’s talk about returning to TRADITION.  First it’s helpful to define terms.   Here I’m not speaking about fleeting preferences, opinions, or nostalgias. I’m speaking directly to the heart of the faith — the true Mass.  

“The Sacrifice of the Mass is the Sacrifice of the Cross itself; and in it we must see our Lord nailed to the Cross; and offering up his Blood for our sins, to his Eternal Father.” – Dom Prosper Gueranger

Archbishop Lefebvre explained…without sacrifice there is no love; without love, no Christianity nor Catholic society. The reduction or obliteration of the notion of sacrifice breaks up both. For this reason we see the decline in those assisting at Mass, the breakup of marriages and families, the disappearance of Catholic politics. The traditional rite of Mass means submission, obedience, love of God and neighbor. The new rite places humanity and its supposed rights in the center. The old rite means self-denial, giving, and service; the new rite means self-realization.

The following list is not meant to be a list of  “must-dos” but suggestions on how to go deeper into the riches of the traditions of the Faith.  

Start where you can, ideally start with attending the Tridentine Mass (TLM), and work from there as you discern best.  

  • Attend the TLM.  Make all the sacrifices necessary to attend the TLM at a traditonal parish where it is exclusively offered.   Do not be put off by your perception of the people or any other possible barriers. Keep your focus on Christ and but be renewed by the true sacrifice being offered as it has been offered for centuries.  If you already attend, attend the TLM exclusively.  If you already attend the TLM exclusively, work on the following.  
  • Study the Holy Mass
  • Pray the Divine Office — start with Prime & Compline, add other hours as you’re able.  
  • Read from a traditional Catechism such as the Catechism Council of Trent, Baltimore Catechism, and My Catholic Faith.  
  • Read the daily readings from your 1962 (or earlier) Daily Missal and use the Douay–Rheims Bible. Read it from cover to cover.   It is truly all one needs to live the liturgical year, well.  Read the daily readings. 
  • Follow the Traditional Calendar of the Church and read the lives of the saints, daily.  
  • Perform at least 15 minutes of spiritual reading, daily.  Make your selections from the great saints, Fathers, and Doctors of the Church.  

May we work & pray for a full restoration of the Latin Mass. May Christ the King reign! 

Grow in Devotion to Our Blessed Mother

by Filed Under: Brown Scapular, Consecration, Immaculate Heart of Mary, Lent, Pre-Lent, Seven Sorrows of the Blessed Virgin Mary Leave a Comment

This one devotion was a catalyst for so many of our graces and refinements. It transformed us and brought us closer to Our Lord in ways that we never imagined possible. It also brought us to the traditions of the Faith & the Tridentine Mass.

It is why I placed it #1 on my list — devotion to the Blessed Mother. St. Louis de Montfort tells us the following.

“If, then, we establish solid devotion to our Blessed Lady, it is only to establish more perfectly devotion to Jesus Christ, and to provide an easy and secure means for finding Jesus Christ. If devotion to Our Lady removed us from Jesus Christ, we should have to reject it as an illusion of the devil; but so far from this being the case, devotion to Our Lady is, on the contrary, necessary for us…as a means of finding Jesus Christ perfectly, of loving Him tenderly, of serving Him faithfully.”

Here are some ways that you can grow to know, love, and honor Our Blessed Mother.

💙Make a Total Consecration as prescribed by St. Louis de Montfort — Do it as a family if possible.

💙Pray the Holy Rosary daily — If you already pray 5 decades, pray the entire 15 decades. Pray as a family.

💙Consecrate you’re Children to the BVM — We consecrate them in utero and renew at their baptism. They make their Total Consecration when they are old enough as we renew as a family.

💙Begin First Saturday Devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary – Our Lady of Fatima said, “I shall come to ask… that on the First Saturday of every month, Communions of reparation be made in atonement for the sins of the world.”

💙Learn about & Enroll in the Brown Scapular and/or the Miraculous Medal – Both are sacramentals given you us by Our Lady, a means of disposing one’s soul to receive grace.

💙Meditate on the Seven Sorrows of Mary – The devotion consists in praying seven Hail Mary’s while meditating on the Seven Sorrows of Mary.

The BVM willingly suffered alongside her Divine Son as he gave his life to save the world, and she felt the bitterness of his passion as only a mother can. This devotion is especially remembered during September, the Month of Our Lady of Sorrows and during the season of Lent, with a specific observance on the Friday of Passion Week.

Our Blessed Mother will take us straight to the heart of Jesus!

AD JESUM PER MARIAM

All for Jesus through Mary

Embrace Tradition in Lent (and always)

by Filed Under: Lent, Pre-Lent, Septuagesima Leave a Comment

Some of the most transformative Lents for my family’s spiritual lives have been the times when we made a move towards the traditions of the Church.  

They have not been easy by any means.  Most of the time they have been met with attacks from the enemy.  We do not question that our Heavenly Father allowed them to try us and refine us.

Lent ‘07 was one of those years for us.  My husband and I believe it was a pivotal point in our lives — filled with immense grace, stripping, heavy crosses, true joy, and refinement that led us closer to Our Lord. 

So, when I’m asked, “where is the best place to start” or what I suggest for a family Lenten plan, I most always refer back to that Lent.  It included all that has been traditionally prescribed for Lent – penance, prayer, fasting, almsgiving, and a separation form the world.

The following is a list of what I suggest for anyone desiring to make a fervent Lent.  It’s the basis of what we followed then/now.  I invite you to use it and join me and others in #comingtotradition 

Pick one item in each category or just pick one category.  Do do it right-ordered — with prayer & discernment, approval of your husband, and with spiritual direction from a solid traditional priest  (especially if it could be considered outside of the norm or extreme).  

  1. Grow in Devotion to Our Blessed Mother 
  2. Return to the traditions of the Church
  3. Offer mortification as reparation for your offenses against modesty or any other sin
  4. Create, refine, or more vigorously live out your Rule of Life 

This list is general so it can be used for all.  For example, the second category could be to attend the TLM or pray the DO if you already attend the TLM, or observe traditional requirements of fasting. One must take into account their current spiritual lives (personal and familial), physical state, duties, and the like.  

I have expanded on all of the above recently and over the years — on my site, posts, or stories.  I’m happy to answer any questions or expand further.  


You can also check out #comingtotradition on Instragram to see how other mamas have journeyed to the Tridentine Mass.  We invite you to share your own journey towards the traditions of the Church or join us in any way.  ALL FOR!

I’ll  leave you with the words of Dom Prosper Gueranger as you continue to discern your Lenten plan or go further enter into your Lenten plan.  

“The institution of Lent is thus brought before us with everything that can impress the mind with its solemn character and with its power to appease God and purify our souls. Look beyond the little world that surrounds us and see how the entire Christian universe is, at this very time, offering forty days’ penance as a sacrifice of propitiation to the offended Majesty of God. Let us hope that, as in the case of the Ninivites, He will mercifully accept this year’s offering of our atonement and pardon us our sins.”


Season of Septuagesima

by Filed Under: Pre-Lent, Septuagesima Leave a Comment

Dom Guéranger offers the following instruction on Septuagesima.

SATURDAY BEFORE SEPTUAGESIMA SUNDAY

The calendar of the liturgical year will soon bring us to the commemoration of the Passion and Resurrection of our Redeemer; we are but nine weeks from these great solemnities. It is time for the Christian to be preparing his soul for a fresh visit from his Saviour; a visit even more sacred and more important than that He so mercifully paid us at His Birth.

Our holy mother the Church knows how necessary it is for her to rouse our hearts from their lethargy, and give them an active tendency towards the things of God…She takes the song of heaven away from us: she forbids our further uttering that Alleluia, which is so dear to us, as giving us a fellowship with the choirs of angels, who are for ever repeating it. 

How is it that we poor mortals, sinners, and exiles on earth, have dared to become so familiar with this hymn of a better land?

It is true, our Emmanuel, who established peace between God and men, brought it us from heaven on the glad night of His Birth; and we have had the courage to repeat it after the angels, and shall chant it with renewed enthusiasm when we reach our Easter.

But to sing the Alleluia worthily, we must have our hearts set on the country whence it came. It is not a mere word, nor a profane unmeaning melody; it is the song that recalls the land we are banished from, it is the sweet sigh of the soul longing to be at home.

The word Alleluia signifies praise God: but it says much more than this, and says it as no other word or words could. The Church is not going to interrupt her giving praise to God during these nine weeks. She will replace this heaven-lent word by a formula also expressive of praise: 

Laus tibi, Domine, Rex æternæ gloriæ! 

Praise be to Thee, O Lord, King of eternal glory! 

But this is the language of earth; whereas Alleluia was sent us from heaven. ‘…the word Alleluia has not been translated; it has been left in its original Hebrew, as a stranger to tell us that there is a joy in his native land, which could not dwell in ours: he has come among us to signify, rather than to express that joy.’

During this season of Septuagesima, we have to gain a clear knowledge of the miseries of our banishment, under pain of being left for ever in this tyrant Babylon. It was, therefore, necessary that we should be put on our guard against the allurements of our place of exile. It is with this view that the Church, taking pity on our blindness and our dangers, gives us this solemn warning. 

By taking from us our Alleluia, she virtually tells us that our lips must first be cleansed, before they again be permitted to utter this word of angels and saints; and that our hearts, defiled as they are by sin and attachment to earthly things, must be purified by repentance. 

She is going to put before our eyes the sad spectacle of the fall of our first parents, that dire event whence came all our woes, and our need of Redemption. This tender mother weeps over us, and would have us weep with her.

Let us, then, comply with the law she thus imposes upon us. If spiritual joy is thus taken away from us, what are we to think of the frivolous amusements of the world? 

And if vanities and follies are insults to the spirit of Septuagesima, would not sin be an intolerable outrage on that same spirit? We have been too long the slaves of this tyrant. 

Our Saviour is soon to appear, bearing His cross; and His sacrifice is to restore fallen man to all his rights. Surely, we can never allow that precious Blood to fall uselessly on our souls, as the morning dew that rains on the parched sands of a desert! 

Let us with humble hearts confess that we are sinners, and, like the publican of the Gospel, who dared not so much as to raise up his eyes, let us acknowledge that it is only right that we should be forbidden, at least for a few weeks, those divine songs of joy, with which our guilty lips had become too familiar; and that we should interrupt those sentiments of presumptuous confidence which prevented our hearts from having the holy fear of God.

That indifference for the liturgy of the Church, which is the strongest indication of a weak faith, and which now reigns so universally in the world, is the reason why so many, even practical Catholics, can witness this yearly suspension of the Alleluia, without profiting by the lesson it conveys. A passing remark, or a chance thought, is the most they give to it, for they care for no other devotions but such as are private; the spirit of the Church, in her various seasons, is quite beneath their notice. If these lines should meet their eye, we would beg of them to reflect for a moment that the Church is their mother; that her authority is the highest on earth; that her wisdom enables her to know what is best for her children. Why, then, keep aloof from her spirit, as though there were some other to be found, that could better lead them to their God? Why be indifferent in this present instance? Why deem of no interest to piety this suspension of the Alleluia, which she, the Church, considers as one of the principal and most solemn incidents in her liturgical year? Perhaps we shall be doing them a service, by showing them how keenly this interruption of the word of heavenly joy was felt by the Christians of those ages, when faith was the grand ruling principle, not only with society at large, but with each individual.

The farewell to Alleluia, in the Middle Ages, varied in the different Churches. Here, it was an affectionate enthusiasm, speaking the beauty of the celestial word; there, it was a heart-felt regret at the departure of the much-loved companion of all their prayers.

SEPTUAGESIMA SUNDAY

The holy Church calls us together to-day in order that we may hear from her lips the sad history of the fall of our first parents. This awful event implies the Passion and cruel Death of the Son of God made Man, who has mercifully taken upon Himself to expiate this and every subsequent sin committed by Adam and us his children. It is of the utmost importance that we should understand the greatness of the remedy; we must, therefore, consider the grievousness of the wound inflicted. For this purpose, we will spend the present week in meditating on the nature and consequences of the sin of our first parents.

Formerly, the Church used to read in her Matins of to-day that passage of the Book of Genesis, where Moses relates to all future generations, but in words of most impressive and sublime simplicity, how the first sin was brought into the world. In the present form of the liturgy, the reading of this history of the fall is deferred till Wednesday, and the preceding days give us the account of the six days of creation. We will anticipate the great instruction, and begin it at once, inasmuch as it forms the basis of the whole week’s teaching.

Instruction on Quinquagesima Sunday

by Filed Under: Lent, Pre-Lent, Quinquagesima Sunday, Septuagesima Sunday Leave a Comment

This is the  last preparatory Sunday before the start of Lent (on Ash Wednesday).  

Fr. Goffine provides as with an important spiritual lesson on the Quinquagesima Sunday propers. Her also gives an instruction about the Lenten Season in preparation for the great feast of our redemption, Easter.

The Introit of this day’s Mass is the sigh of an afflicted soul confiding in God:

INTROIT Be thou unto me a God, a protector, and a place of refuge, to save me: for thou art my strength and my refuge: and for thy name’s sake thou wilt be my leader, and wilt nourish me. (Ps. 30:3, 4) In thee, O Lord, I have hoped, let me never be confounded: deliver me in thy justice, and set me free. (Ps. 30:2)

COLLECT O Lord, we beseech Thee, graciously hear our prayers, and unloosing the bonds of our sins, guard us from all adversity. Through our Lord, etc.

EPISTLE (I Cor. 13:1-13) Brethren, if I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal. And if I should have prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I should have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. And if I should distribute all my goods to feed the poor, and if I should deliver my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.

Charity is patient, is kind: charity envieth not; dealeth not perversely; is not puffed up; is not ambitious; seeketh not her own; is not provoked to anger; thinketh no evil; rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. Charity never falleth away: whether prophecies shall be made void, or tongues shall cease, or knowledge shall be destroyed. For we know in part, and we prophesy in part: but when that which is perfect is come, that which is in part shall be done away.

When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away the things of a child. We see now through a glass in a dark manner; but then face to face. Now I know in part; but then I shall know even as I am known. And now there remain faith, hope, charity, these three: but the greatest of these is charity.

EXPLANATION In this epistle St. Paul speaks of the necessity, the excellence and the nature of true charity. He says that all natural and supernatural gifts, all good works, even martyrdom, cannot save us if we have not charity; because love alone can render our works pleasing to God. Without charity, therefore, though ever so many prayers be recited, fasts observed, and good deeds performed, nothing will be acceptable to God, or merit eternal life. Strive then, O Christian soul, to lead a pious life in love, and to remain always in the state of grace.

Can faith alone, as the so-called Reformers assert, render man just and save him?

Faith alone, however strong, though it could move mountains, without love, that is, without good works performed for love of God and our neighbor, can never justify or save us. For, when St. Paul says, that man is justified by faith without works, (Rom. 3:28; 11:6; Eph. 2:8, 9) he means to refer to those works which were performed by command of the law of Moses, and which, as they were external and without true charity, were of no avail; he did not refer to those works which are performed in a state of grace with a lively, love-inspired faith.

Therefore the same Apostle writes to the Galatians: (Gal. 5:6) Faith only availeth which worketh by charity; to Titus: (Tit. 3:8) It is a faithful saying: and these things I will have thee affirm constantly: that they who believe in God, may be careful to excel in good works. These things are good and profitable unto men; and he exhorts the Colossians (Colos. 1:10) to be fruitful in every good work.

St. James confirms the same by saying: (James 2:17-24) So faith if it have not works, is dead in itself; by works man is justified and not by faith only. That this is the true doctrine of Christ is evident from His own words, when He says: “Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit, shall be cut down and shall be cast into the fire.” (Matt. 7:19) At the day of judgment Christ will demand good works from all men, (Matt. 25:35) and will not judge them only according to their faith, but by their good works, which true faith must always produce. (Apoc. 20:12)

Would Christ and His apostles demand good works, if faith alone be sufficient? “The devil’s also believe and tremble,” (James 2:19) they believe, but they are not saved, and their faith but increases their torments. Therefore, the assertion that faith without good works is sufficient for justification and salvation, is plainly against the doctrine of Christ and His Church, and must of necessity lead man to vice and misery, as shown by the history of the unhappy separation of the sixteenth century.

Are good works available when performed in the state of mortal sin?

Good works performed while in a state of mortal sin avail nothing in regard to eternal life, writes St. Lawrence Justinian, but aid in moderating the punishment imposed for disobedience and the transgression of God’s commandments. They bring temporal goods, such as honor, long life, health, earthly happiness, etc.; they prevent us from falling deeper into sin, and prepare the heart for the reception of grace; so the pious person writes: “Do as much good as you can, even though in the state of mortal sin, that God may give light to your heart.”

ASPIRATION O God of love, pour the spirit of true charity into my heart that, according to the spirit of St. Paul, I may endeavor to be always in a state of grace; that all my works may be pleasing to Thee, and meritorious for me.

GOSPEL (Luke 18:31-43) At that time, Jesus took unto him the twelve, and said to them Behold, we go up to Jerusalem, and all things shall be accomplished which were written by the prophets concerning the Son of Man. For he shall be delivered to the Gentiles, and shall be mocked, and scourged, and spit upon; and after they have scourged him, they will put him to death; and the third day he shall rise again. And they understood none of these things, and this word was hid from them, and they understood not the things that were said.

Now it came to pass, when he drew nigh to Jericho, that a certain blind man sat by the wayside, begging. And when he heard the multitude passing by, he asked what this meant. And they told him that Jesus of Nazareth was passing by. And he cried out, saying: Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me. And they that went before rebuked him, that he should hold his peace. But he cried out much more: Son of David, have mercy on me. And Jesus standing, commanded him to be brought unto him. And when he was come near, he asked him, saying: What wilt thou that I do to thee? But he said: Lord, that I may see. And Jesus said to him: Receive thy sight; thy faith hath made thee whole. And immediately he saw, and followed him, glorifying God: and all the people, when they saw it, gave praise to God.

Why did Christ so often foretell His passion to His disciples?

Because He wanted to show how great was His desire to suffer for us, for we speak often of that which we crave; and because He wished His disciples when they should see Him treated as a criminal and martyred, not to think evil of Him, or imagine themselves deceived, but remember that He had foretold all minutely that all happened of His own will.

Did not the disciples understand anything of what He predicted in regard to His future sufferings?

They may, certainly, have well understood He was to suffer, for which reason Peter tried to dissuade Him from it; (Matt. 16:22) but they did not comprehend why or for what He would suffer, or how He would rise again. All this the Holy Ghost gave them to understand, after it had come to pass. (John 14:26) The light of the Holy Ghost is of so much value, that without it even the clearest doctrines of faith are not understood.

Why does Christ so often call Himself the Son of Man?

He wished to show, in the Jewish way of speaking, He was also man, a descendant of Adam, and that we should be humble, and not seek or desire high titles.

Why did the blind man call Christ the Son of David?

Because, like all the Jews, he believed that the Messiah, according to humanity, would be of the house of David, as was promised. (Ps. 131:11)

Why did Christ ask the blind man: What wilt thou that I do to thee?

This He asked, not because He was unaware of the blind man’s wish, but to enable him the better to prove his faith and hope that through Christ he would receive his sight; and to teach us how willing He is to help us, and how it pleases Him if we confidingly place our wants before Him. We should learn from this blind man, who would not be restrained by the passing crowd in his ardent and reiterated request, not to pay attention, in the work we have commenced, to human respect, or human judgment, but to persevere, and not allow ourselves to be led astray by the world’s mockery or contempt. We should also learn to be grateful to God, and faithfully cling to Him, if He has once opened the eyes of our mind, and healed our spiritual blindness, which is far more deplorable than physical blindness, for nothing can be more miserable than not to see and understand God, not to know what is necessary for our salvation, and what is pernicious.

Why is this gospel read on this Sunday?

The Church wishes to remind us of the painful passion and death of Jesus, and to move us by the contemplation of those mysteries to avoid and despise the wicked, heathenish amusements of carnival, sinful pleasures which she has always condemned, because they come from dark paganism, and, to avert the people from them, commands that during the three days of carnival the Blessed Sacrament shall be exposed for public adoration, sermons given, and the faithful exhorted to have recourse at this time to the Sacraments of Penance and the Blessed Sacrament of the Altar, with the reception of which Pope Clement XIII. (Breve, June 23, 1765) connected a plenary indulgence. A true Catholic will conform to the desire of his holy Church, considering the words which St. Augustine spoke, at this time, to the faithful:

The heathens (as also the worldly people of our days) shout songs of love and merriment, but you should delight in the preaching of the word of God; they rush to the dramatic plays, but you should hasten to Church; they are intoxicated, but you should fast and be sober.”

PRAYER O most benign Jesus! who didst so desire to suffer for us, grant, that we may willingly suffer for love of Thee; that we may hate and flee from the detestable pleasures of the world and the flesh, and practice penance and mortification, that by so doing we may merit to be released from our spiritual blindness to love Thee more and more ardently, and finally possess Thee forever.

Instruction on Lent

Who instituted Lent?

According to the fathers of the Church, Justin and Irenaeus, the fast before Easter was instituted and sanctified by Christ Himself; according to the saints Leo and Jerome, the holy apostles ordained it given by Jesus.

Why has the Church instituted this fast forty days before Easter?

To imitate Christ who fasted forty days; to participate in His merits and sufferings; to subject our flesh by voluntary mortification to the spirit, and to mortify our evil desires as did St. Paul; (Col. 1:24) to enable us to lead a pure life, and thus prepare for the holy festival of Easter, and the reception of the divine Lamb, Jesus: and, finally, to render God satisfaction for our sins, and do penance, as Pope Gregory says, for the sins of one whole year by one short fast, lasting only the tenth part of a year.

Was the fast of Lent observed in early times as in the present?

Yes, but more strictly; for the people of the early ages not only abstained from meat, but also from all that which is connected with it, such as eggs, butter, cheese, etc., even from wine and fish, although this was not the general command of the Church; they fasted all day, and only ate in the evening after vespers, in remembrance of which, vespers are now said before dinner time, because the Church, as a kind mother, now permits the supper to be changed into a dinner, and also allows something to be taken in the evening, that the body may not be too much weakened, and become unfit for labor.

How much does this ancient custom put to shame the Christians of today who think the fast in our times too severe! “But,” asks St. Ambrose, “what sort of Christians are they? Christ, who never sinned fasted for our sins, and we will not fast for our own great and numerous offences?”

How should the holy season of Lent be spent?

As according to the teaching of St. Leo, the main thing in fasting is not that the body be deprived of food, but that the mind at the same time be withdrawn from wickedness, we should endeavor during Lent, not only to be temperate in eating and drinking, but especially to lead a modest life, sanctifying the days by persevering prayer and devoutly attending church.

Prayer at the beginning of Lent

Almighty God! I unite myself at the beginning of this holy season of penance with the Church militant, endeavoring to make these days of real sorrow for my sins and crucifixion of the sensual man. O Lord Jesus! in union with Thy fasting and passion, I offer Thee my fasting in obedience to the Church, for Thy honor, and in thanksgiving for the many favors I have received, in satisfaction for my sins and the sins of others, and that I may receive the grace to avoid such and such a sin, N. N. and to practice such and such a virtue, N. N.

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