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a ligno Deus
HOLY CROSS SEMINARY
FATHERS OF THE SOCIETY OF SAINT PIUS X |
J.M.J.
August 4, 2004
Dear friends
and benefactors of Holy Cross Seminary,
I am happy to report that the discipline of serious study has characterized
the life of the Seminary over these last weeks of preparation for
our First Semester examinations, to take place next week. Over the
past couple of weeks work has finally advanced rapidly in the remodeling
of the St. Joseph House. Plumbers and electricians have been very
busy in the interior of the building, whilst carpenters and plasterers
have been busy with the exterior. The back roof is finished, as
well as the eaves all round, and most of the exterior concrete rendering
over the brickwork has now been completed. May God provide the means
to make at least some of these additional 22 rooms ready by next
February.
CATHOLIC ACTION
In his spiritual classic, The Soul of the Apostolate, Dom.
Chautard quotes the following exchange between St. Pius X and a
group of Cardinals (p.165):
“What
is the thing we most need, today, to save society?” the Pope
asked them.
“Build
Catholic schools”, one said. “No”, he replied.
“More
churches”, said another. “Still no”.
“Speed
up the recruiting of priests”, said a third.
“No
no”, said the Pope. “The most necessary thing of all, at
this time, is for every parish to possess a group of laymen who
will be at the same time virtuous, enlightened, resolute, and
truly apostolic”.
These words ring just as true in our entirely secularized society
as they did a century ago. In fact, they are but the expression
of the Pope’s determined will to promote Catholic Action among the
laity. He began this from his very first encyclical E supremi
apostolatus, in which he explained that organizations and associations
of the laity must “aim first and chiefly at the constant maintenance
of Christian life among those who belong to them…The times we live
in demand action – but action which consists entirely in the observing
with fidelity and zeal the divine laws and the precepts of the Church,
in the frank and open profession of religion, in the exercise of
every kind of charitable works, without regard to self-interest
or worldly advantage.” (§14)
THIRD ORDER
A more precise definition of the purpose of the Third Order of the
Society of Saint Pius X could scarcely be found. Some people say
that it is not at all necessary to join a Third Order, let alone
the Society’s Third Order, in order to save one’s soul. They are
perfectly correct. Nor could the Society insist that those faithful
who attend its churches, chapels and missions would become in any
way affiliated with the Society of Saint Pius X. They are simply
true Catholics, exercising their baptismal rights for the true sacraments,
Mass and integral preaching of Catholic doctrine. They are not members
of the Society as some people are wont, falsely, to state.
However, this does not mean that the faithful who attend our Masses
cannot become truly members of the Society, and that they cannot
derive much spiritual benefit from doing so. Much to the contrary.
The success of our churches, schools, missions and other apostolates
depends upon it. The one greatest secret to the pastoral success
of the priests of the Society is no different from that of the time
of St. Pius X: it is for the priest to form and surround himself
with a group of elite, shock troops as it were, determined to live
the Catholic life to the full. When this is done, the example of
their fervent lives will lead the other parishioners along, will
maintain unity in each chapel congregation, as well as in its organizations
and activities, will exclude liberal influences from undermining
the priests’ activity, and will enable the building up of an in-depth,
profoundly supernatural, altogether unworldly parish life.
It was the recognition of this crucial role of a nucleus of fervent
laymen that inspired Archbishop Lefebvre to found the Society’s
Third Order in 1980. For by this means he gave the laity the possibility
of not just assisting at the true Masses celebrated by the Society’s
priests, and receiving the sacraments, but of being closely affiliated
with them, members like the priests of a community committed to
restoring all things in Christ, truly an extension of the priests
by their spirituality as also by their outward activity. In this
way, by their prayers and sacrifices, the Third Order members support
and encourage their priests in a special way, earn many graces for
them, and contribute to the pool of merits that is shared amongst
the members of a community.
However, the extraordinary grace of a Third Order consists in the
possibility for the faithful to embrace the special spirituality,
graces and inspiration of the First (priests and brothers) and Second
(sisters) orders. In the Society this means the militant desire
to restore the Social Kingship of Our Lord Jesus Christ in a secularized
world, by the means of the attachment to the Magisterium of the
Roman Church, to Her unchanging Faith and to all of Her Tradition.
It is the living of the Mass, a true propitiatory sacrifice and
unbloody renewal of Calvary. It is the penetration into the mind
of the Church as manifested in Her teachings, and into Her spirit
through the liturgy. Here lies all our strength in overcoming the
modern liberal errors. Archbishop Lefebvre rightly considered that
we cannot sanctify ourselves in the present times without such a
well-informed, anti-liberal spirituality, one characterized by the
submission, fidelity and obedience that flow from the Cross, which
is why he wrote in the Third Order rule: “Sanctity today must
be attained in a world which opposes it by errors and subtle heresies,
introduced into all Catholic milieux under the name of Modernism.”
RULE
The key to any Third Order is the rule of life that binds the members
all together, that determines the spiritual duties. The Society’s
Third Order is no exception to this, and contains, amongst other
things, aspects that are necessary:
- for the
maintenance of a fervent, zealous Catholic life – daily meditation,
Rosary
and spiritual reading, assisting at additional Masses whenever
possible -
- for a frank
and open profession of the Faith – studying the catechism,combating
liberalism and modernism, abstaining from television and from
worldly recreations and vacations, promoting the Enthronement
of the Sacred Heart in the family.
The Third Order is not for everyone. However, if you would like
your retreats to be lasting in their effects, if you want to take
the means of maintaining the fervor of your interior life, if you
desire to publicly stand up and be counted for the Society’s doctrinal
positions, ask your priests about this extraordinary opportunity.
We would not be traditional Catholics if we were not able to think
for ourselves. However, we must also fight against the individualism
that is endemic in modern society, and that is one of the many consequences
of the liberal spirit. This becomes possible by the means of a real
contact with the visible mystical body of Our Lord Jesus Christ,
bringing with it the awareness of being a part of a much wider effort,
attaching us to the Church. Archbishop Lefebvre used to often repeat
it: “The spirit of the Society is the spirit of the Church, the
spirit of Faith in Our Lord Jesus Christ and in His work of Redemption.”
THE NEW ECCLESIOLOGY
If the present crisis is a crisis in the Church, it can readily
be understood how appropriate a remedy is a community that loves
the spirit of the Church. For if during the 40 years since Vatican
II we have been living a time of crisis, it is not just because
one or other aspect of the Faith is in question: it is not just
because the divinity of Christ is denied, or transsubstantiation
or the centrality of the Real Presence, or the unique power of Holy
Orders, or original sin, frequent Confession, or the necessity of
devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mediatrix of all graces, or
the authority of the Magisterium. Nor is it just the desacralization
of the liturgy of the sacraments and the Mass. Nor is it even just
the practice of ecumenism and the promotion of indifferentism. All
these things have certainly happened, and many more. However, underlying
all of these is one all embracing novelty, that is the fundamental
basis for all the changes, and that consequently is the root of
the crisis in the Church. It is the changing of the whole notion
of what the Church itself really is, it is the new ecclesiology.
This opposition is apparent in comparing the definition of Pope
Leo XIII’s 1896 encyclical on the unity of the Church (Satis
cognitum) with that of the Vatican II document on the Church
(Lumen gentium). Leo XIII describes the Church as a society
of men “divine in its origin, supernatural in its end and in
the means proximately adapted to the attainment of that end”,
and consequently defines it as “a duly constituted society, formed
out of the divided multitude of peoples, one in faith, one in end,
one in the participation of the means adapted to the attainment
of the end, and one as subject to one and the same authority”.
This is a vertical notion of a society that is supernatural because
it was founded by Christ, God Himself, giving to it as its principle
one common Faith, fixing one common goal, everlasting life, sharing
as the means of attaining this goal the same Mass and sacraments,
and subject to the one supreme authority, without which none of
these supernatural elements could be retained.
At the very opening of its document on the Church, Vatican II defines
the Church as being “in the nature of sacrament – a sign and
instrument, that is, of communion with God and of unity among all
men” (§1). At first glance this definition appears incomprehensible,
that is until its horizontal dimension becomes clear. The Church
is no longer defined from above by its founder and its supernatural
Faith, goal and means. It starts from below, from man. The Church
is henceforth considered a symbol of mankind’s oneness with the
Almighty, and its oneness in itself. The Church’s hierarchical structure,
teaching and sacraments are simply a part of that symbol. They are
a sign of the fundamental natural unity of mankind, and of man with
his Creator, and also an instrument to bring this about. Hence the
inclusion of all men – not many, nor just those who share the same
Faith or just who are united with Christ through baptism. It is
this horizontal, democratic conception that is essential to every
aspect of the changes in the post-conciliar church, and which has
produced a whole radically different way of thinking, even when
the exteriors have been retained.
Thus has been substituted a false, horizontal notion of community,
without any boundaries or limits from above – without any supernatural
characteristics – in the place of the vertical doctrine of the Church
as the mystical body of Christ. It is this notion that hides behind
the episcopal conferences, the liturgical ceremonies, the encyclicals,
the ceremonies of the post-conciliar church. It is the application
of the principles of liberty, fraternity and equality of the French
revolution, the overturning of the divinely established order by
which Christ governs the Church. It is the new teaching on Religious
Liberty that corresponds to liberty, that on Ecumenism that corresponds
to fraternity, and that on Collegiality that corresponds to equality.
However, underlying all is the belief that the church is a grassroots
level experience that the community of men has of God or of Christ.
Hence the teaching of the same document of Vatican II (Lumen
gentium, §8) that the church of Christ is not identical to the
Catholic Church, but only subsists in it, and that “many elements
of sanctification and truth are found outside its visible confines.
Since these are gifts belonging to the church of Christ, they are
forces impelling towards Catholic unity”. What could there be
about religious experience outside the Catholic Church that impels
towards unity, except the lowest common denominator natural experience
of community and vague oneness with God?
One could legitimately ask if such ideas are really that far removed
from this condemned opinion: “This, then, is the origin of all,
even of supernatural religion. For religions are mere developments
of this religious sense. Nor is the Catholic religion an exception;
it is quite on a level with the rest; for it was engendered, by
the process of vital immanence, and by no other way, in the consciousness
of Christ, who was a man of the choicest nature, whose like has
never been, nor will be.” (Pascendi, §10) Except that
this opinion was roundly condemned by Saint Pius X with the following
words: “In hearing these things we shudder indeed at so great
an audacity of assertion and so great a sacrilege. And yet, Venerable
Brethren, these are not merely the foolish babblings of unbelievers.
There are Catholics, yea, and priests too, who say these things
openly; and they boast that they are going to reform the Church
by these ravings!” A more prophetic statement on the future
concept of the church, product of religious experience, could hardly
be imagined.
THIRD ORDER: ANSWER TO THE NEW ECCLESIOLOGY
It is, then, our duty to oppose the modernist revolution in the
very nature of the Church, the crux of the crisis, with the vertical,
Catholic, hierarchical, submissive, obedient truth about the Catholic
Church. It is not enough for us to simply ridicule the false notion
of community. It is not sufficient for us to remain the individualists
that our secular, protestant, success-oriented society has made
us to be. For individualism is no less a product of liberalism than
unrestrained horizontal community experience. They share in common
the refusal of a hierarchically imposed consecration to the common
good. The only answer is the spirit of the Church, the divinely
constituted society, whose “end is as much higher than the end
of other societies as divine grace is above nature, as immortal
blessings are above the transitory things on the earth.” (Leo
XIII, Ib.)
It is here that the Third Order of the Society of Saint Pius X can
be a great help to those of our faithful who are determined to live
their whole lives penetrated by these supernatural principles, who
long to contribute to the combat not just as individuals but as
members of a hierarchically constituted society, who yearn to participate
with their priests in the solution. Our strength as priests is not
just in the Masses that we celebrate and the sacraments that we
administer, but in our unity, our submission to our superiors, our
dedication and commitment to the work of the Church, all of which
express what our Masses really mean: our offering of ourselves in
union with the divine victim for His Mystical Body, the Church,
and for the souls that make it up. Membership in the Third Order
allows the laity to share in this ideal, and make it their own,
to truly live each Mass, praying for their priests, and through
them for the Church, as a stepping stone towards eternity. It is
an embracing of the spirit of the Church; it is to be a part of
the answer to the crisis. It will be, furthermore, for our Society
the sure guarantee of future vocations, and the continuing growth
of our work for Holy Mother Church.
May the Immaculate Heart of Mary, Mother of Divine Grace, obtain
for all of us the enlightenment and inspiration, to pray for and
contribute as God wills to the work and life of Holy Mother Church,
Father Peter R. Scott
IGNATIAN
RETREAT DATES AT HOLY CROSS SEMINARY DURING THE UPCOMING MONTHS:
COME &
BRING YOUR FRIENDS!
Men’s 5
day: Sunday December 26 - Friday December 31, 2004
Monday January 10 – Saturday January 15,
2005
Women’s 5 day: Monday September 20 - Saturday September
25, 2004
Monday
January 3 – Saturday January 8, 2005
Monday
January 24 – Saturday January 29, 2005
FAMILY WEEKEND AT HOLY CROSS SEMINARY
All our friends
are invited to this weekend to celebrate our annual patronal feast
of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross:
• Saturday
September 11:
10:30 a.m. Solemn High Mass: Solemnity of Our Lady of Sorrows
Procession in honor of Our Lady, with renewal of the consecration
of Holy Cross Seminary to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
1:00 p.m. Light lunch provided by the Seminary: Everybody invited.
3:00 p.m. Conference on the Holy Shroud of Turin, given by Father
François Laisney.
5:00 p.m. Holy Hour, Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament and all
night adoration.
• Sunday
September 12: Solemnity of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross.
10:30 a.m. Procession with the relics of the true Cross, followed
by Solemn High Mass.
Bring your own picnic lunch.
2:00 p.m. Annual soccer tournament.
5:00 p.m. Sunday Vespers.
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