January 2020
Christmastide
Dear Devotees of Our Lady,
Saluting the Blessed Virgin Mary with the greatest veneration and esteem, St. Anthony of Padua speaks on verse five in Psalm 64: “
We shall be filled with the good things of thy house!
” He applies it to Our Lady, saying: “To you, O Blessed Virgin, be praise and glory, for today we are filled with the goodness of your house, that is, of your womb! We who were
empty
before, are full; we who were
sick,
are healthy; we who were
cursed
are blessed, because as Canticles IV says: ‘Thy fruits are are paradise!’ (Canticles IV, 13).”
How are we
empty
? The Devil left us born empty by original sin and mortal sin leaves the soul devastatingly empty! But the Sacred Heart of Jesus fills the contrite and penitent soul with His sanctifying grace, the virtues, Gifts of the Holy Ghost, actual graces and immeasurable blessings!
Yet He urges us to hunger more and more for that happy Vision of the Most Holy Trinity, Who alone can fill the souls of men. “Lord, our hearts are restless until they rest in Thee!” exclaimed St. Augustine. The Holy Ghost speaks of Our Lady actively increasing this desire in us by saying: “They that eat me (i.e. by contemplation), shall yet hunger (i.e. desire to see God); and they that drink me (i.e. by imitation of my virtues) shall yet thirst (i.e. grow in union with the Heart of Jesus)” (Ecclus. 24:29).
How are we
sick
? We are sick and crippled by sin. “Christ is the Doctor, let us go to Him!” (St. Augustine). Health of the soul is the result of sanctifying grace, ever driven towards good works. “The charity of Christ urges us!” (II Cor. 5:14).
How are we
cursed
? We are cursed by sin. Mortal sin brings us the horrible curse of eternal damnation and separation from God forever. But with Our Lady, we become filled with blessings because She draws Her devotees to get up again and again, by Confession, lending Her helping hand by the Rosary and Scapular, to strive relentlessly for Heaven!
So, there follows the next point by St. Anthony: “‘
And She brought forth Her firstborn Son.
’ (St. Luke 2:7). What goodness! What a paradise! Run, then, you famished, you avaricious and usurious people, to whom money is dearer than God, and ‘buy without money and without price’ (Isaias 55:1), [buy] the Grain of Wheat (i.e. Christ Himself!) which the Virgin has brought forth this Christmas day, from the storehouse of Her womb! She brought forth a son. What son? God, the Son of God. ‘O happiest of the happy, who has given a Son to God the Father!’ (St. Bernard of Clairvaux). ‘The Father gave Deity, the Mother humanity; the Father gave majesty, the Mother weakness. (St. Augustine).” Indeed, “Thy fruits are paradise,” for “Blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus!”
Run, then, to be filled with the good things of
Her house
! But we are equally to flee and run away from the toxic bread of heresy, error, and compromise of the Holy Faith! These are not from
Her house
! Hold the line, like soldiers of the last flank in Battle, hold the line of Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre!
“
My dear friends, we have been betrayed. Betrayed by all those who ought to be giving us the Truth
, who out to be teaching the Ten Commandments, who ought to be teaching us the true catechism, who ought to be giving us the true Mass – the one that the Church has always loved; the one that was said by the saints; the one that has sanctified generations and generations! Likewise, they must give us all the
Sacraments, without any doubt concerning their validity. Sacraments which are certainly valid
. It is a duty for us to ask them for these things and they have a duty to give them to us. […] We have the duty
not
to collaborate in the Church’s destruction! But on the contrary, to work – to work ardently, calmly, serenely, for the Church’s construction,
for the reconstruction of the Church, for the preservation of the Church
! Each one of you can do your duty in this regard – in your villages, in your parishes, in your institutions, in your professions - wherever you are! Set up true parishes. And let these Catholic parishes be confided to true priests!” (Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre,
Sermon
– Ordinations, June 29, 1978).
These is the marching orders for the True Catholic Resistance, until Rome, at last, converts to Tradition! Then souls will be filled again “with good things of thy house!”
In Christ the Infant King,
Fr. David Hewko
