TheTrueSedevacantists

Thus spoke a woman in Poland when questioned by a reporter about the arrival of Pope Benedict XVI in the homeland of his late predecessor, Pope John Paul II. Her quote gives a whole new dimension to sedevacantism, dismissing the occupant of the Throne of Saint Peter solely on the grounds of ethnicity and one nation's grievances against another.

Actually, however, the true sedevacantists are the conciliar popes. What do I mean? Well, I demonstrated in an article, Creating Alternative Realities, last year that it is rarely the case that any of the conciliar popes make substantive references to pontiffs who served before the Second Vatican Council, especially from the time of Pope Gregory XVI, who began his reign in 1831, to Pope Pius XII, who died in 1958. For all intents and purposes, therefore, the words and actions of these popes, including the canonization of Saint Philomena by Pope Gregory XVI, mean very little to the popes of conciliarism, who act as though the only thing that matters is the Second Vatican Council and its Modernist use of ambiguity and complexity so as to break down our supernatural resistance to that which is not Catholic.

As much verbiage gets written and is forgotten almost as soon as it is read, let me paste here a good part of Creating Alternative Realities, which discussed the limited number of references to preconciliar popes that are to be found in the encyclical letters of the late Pope John Paul II. This material is again quite relevant, especially in light of Pope Benedict XVI's continued pushing of the revolutionary envelope during his pilgrimage to Poland:

What is true in the secular realm has become, sadly, true in the past forty years in the ecclesiastical realm. All manner of positivist statements were made by the late Pope John Paul II to discuss the 'springtime of the Church' and the 'civilization of love' that had been ushered in by the Second Vatican Council and its aftermath. When reporter Vittori Messori interviewed the late Holy Father in 2003 and asked him if anything had gone wrong with the Second Vatican Council, the Pope slammed his fist on the table and said, 'No, everything is fine!' The late Holy Father had indeed created a world that did not conform to the objective state of the Church in her human elements.

There is no need to review here the collection of positivist statements made by Pope John Paul II and curial officials, including Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, during his pontificate. Entire books have been written containing such statements.

For present purposes, though, I want to look at how the attempt to create an 'alternative ecclesiastical reality' has manifested itself in the footnotes of the late Pope John Paul II's encyclical letters. A contempt for the Church's Tradition, which requires each pope to proclaim the doctrines as they have been handed down and in the formulas used to define them, and a preference for the novelties of the Second Vatican Council permeated the writing of the late Holy Father.

Leaving aside Centesimus Annus, which was written in 1991 on the one hundredth anniversary of Pope Leo XIII's Rerum Novarum and thus contained numerous references to the encyclical being commemorated, Pope John Paul II rarely cited the works of the popes from the time of Gregory XVI to Pius XII. Here are the number of such references in the late Holy Father's encyclical letters (not including apostolic exhortations or Holy Thursday letters or post-synodal exhortations):

Redemptor Hominis, 1979: 8 of 205. (This includes multiple 'cf.'--confer--references within a single footnote. 'Confer' references are to cite the entire body of a particular work or speech without citing any one passage or statement. It is a standard referencing tool in scholarly work. Many of the late Holy Father's references to the pre-conciliar popes were of this nature.)

Dominum et Vivificantem, 1986: 2 of 297. (Admittedly, this encyclical letter on the Holy Ghost contained mostly Scriptural citations.)

Interestingly, the pre-conciliar pope who was least cited in the encyclical letters of Pope John II was Pope Saint Pius X, something that is very telling in and of itself as the Pope who inveighed against Modernism and against the very concept of the 'separation of Church and State' in France that was praised by Pope John Paul II seven months ago has been consigned largely to the Orwellian memory hole.

The areas in which the popes of the past forty years have been least willing to cite the works of their pre-conciliar predecessors are those of the liturgy and ecumenism. This has been but an extension of the anti-Traditional bias of the Second Vatican Council itself, which brushed aside Pope Pius XII's 1947 encyclical letter, Mediator Dei, which contained warnings about the liturgical revolution that was then brewing, with but one footnoted reference (at Paragraph 22) in Sacrosanctum Concilium (The Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy), issued on December 1, 1963. Novelties have, in se, no precedent. Thus, there can be no references to anything in the Church's living Tradition that are fundamentally opposed to novelties and synthetic concoctions.

This is why, for example, Pope John Paul II's Ut Unum Sint contained not one reference to any pre-conciliar pope. Ut Unum Sint and Pope Pius XI's Mortalium Animos are mutually irreconcilable. Indeed, footnote 50 of Ut Unum Sint contains a very important reference to a man praised recently by Pope Benedict XVI in his address to Protestants in Cologne, Germany, on August 19, 2005, the late Abbe Paul Courturier.

"Maria Sagheddu was born at Dorgali (Sardinia) in 1914. At twenty-one years of age she entered the Trappistine Monastery in Grottaferrata. Through the apostolic labours of Abbé Paul Couturier, she came to understand the need for prayers and spiritual sacrifices for the unity of Christians. In 1936, at the time of an Octave for Unity, she chose to offer her life for the unity of the Church. Following a grave illness, Sister Maria Gabriella died on 23 April 1939.'

Abbe Paul Couturier, though, did not believe that non-Catholic Christians had to be converted to the Catholic Church to be saved. He believed that Protestant denominations were instruments of God's saving plan. This from a website devoted to promoting his work:

"The power of prayer, and its potential for overcoming separation and the wounds of centuries, lay at the heart of all groups of Christian believers, and so he came to see that, as people grow in sanctity in their different traditions, they grow closer to Christ. If Christians could then be aware of each others' history, spirituality, traditions of faith and worship, their hurts and their glories, they could thus grow closer to each other. The foundations, he realised, would need to be humility, reparation and no little suffering. But if Christians could imitate each other - not just go to each others' services, but embrace each others' spirituality and traditions for their own - the path to holiness in one Church could be adopted and enhance the path to holiness in the others too. This 'emulation' has been described as 'vying with one another' to advance on the path to holiness and to Christ - not mutual admiration, not unfriendly rivalry. but a 'race that is set before us' in which we spur each other on beyond our own small worlds to fresh understanding, to new awareness of Christ and his Church, to a closer bond with him and his people. In the last fifty years we have seen the Abbé's prayer that Christians could all pray the Lord's Prayer together realised. Catholics have adopted many great Protestant and Anglican hymns and chorales. Anglicans and other non-Roman Catholics have taken to heart the Retreat movement, and also embraced the importance for the Orthodox of Icons. The Orthodox have become increasingly influential members of the World Council of Churches, and all now share in a renewed common love of the Scriptures. These are fruits of spiritual emulation."

Abbe Paul Courturier, cited, however obliquely, by Pope John Paul II and praised by Pope Benedict XVI, promoted a philosophy fundamentally at odds with the received teaching of the Divine Redeemer, summarized so succinctly by Pope Pius XI in Mortalium Animos, January 6, 1928:

"These pan-Christians who turn their minds to uniting the churches seem, indeed, to pursue the noblest of ideas in promoting charity among all Christians: nevertheless how does it happen that this charity tends to injure faith? Everyone knows that John himself, the Apostle of love, who seems to reveal in his Gospel the secrets of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, and who never ceased to impress on the memories of his followers the new commandment 'Love one another,' altogether forbade any intercourse with those who professed a mutilated and corrupt version of Christ's teaching: 'If any man come to you and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into the house nor say to him: God speed you.'[18] For which reason, since charity is based on a complete and sincere faith, the disciples of Christ must be united principally by the bond of one faith. Who then can conceive a Christian Federation, the members of which retain each his own opinions and private judgment, even in matters which concern the object of faith, even though they be repugnant to the opinions of the rest? And in what manner, We ask, can men who follow contrary opinions, belong to one and the same Federation of the faithful? For example, those who affirm, and those who deny that sacred Tradition is a true fount of divine Revelation; those who hold that an ecclesiastical hierarchy, made up of bishops, priests and ministers, has been divinely constituted, and those who assert that it has been brought in little by little in accordance with the conditions of the time; those who adore Christ really present in the Most Holy Eucharist through that marvelous conversion of the bread and wine, which is called transubstantiation, and those who affirm that Christ is present only by faith or by the signification and virtue of the Sacrament; those who in the Eucharist recognize the nature both of a sacrament and of a sacrifice, and those who say that it is nothing more than the memorial or commemoration of the Lord's Supper; those who believe it to be good and useful to invoke by prayer the Saints reigning with Christ, especially Mary the Mother of God, and to venerate their images, and those who urge that such a veneration is not to be made use of, for it is contrary to the honor due to Jesus Christ, 'the one mediator of God and men.' How so great a variety of opinions can make the way clear to effect the unity of the Church We know not; that unity can only arise from one teaching authority, one law of belief and one faith of Christians. But We do know that from this it is an easy step to the neglect of religion or indifferentism and to modernism, as they call it. Those, who are unhappily infected with these errors, hold that dogmatic truth is not absolute but relative, that is, it agrees with the varying necessities of time and place and with the varying tendencies of the mind, since it is not contained in immutable revelation, but is capable of being accommodated to human life. Besides this, in connection with things which must be believed, it is nowise licit to use that distinction which some have seen fit to introduce between those articles of faith which are fundamental and those which are not fundamental, as they say, as if the former are to be accepted by all, while the latter may be left to the free assent of the faithful: for the supernatural virtue of faith has a formal cause, namely the authority of God revealing, and this is patient of no such distinction. For this reason it is that all who are truly Christ's believe, for example, the Conception of the Mother of God without stain of original sin with the same faith as they believe the mystery of the August Trinity, and the Incarnation of Our Lord just as they do the infallible teaching authority of the Roman Pontiff, according to the sense in which it was defined by the Ecumenical Council of the Vatican. Are these truths not equally certain, or not equally to be believed, because the Church has solemnly sanctioned and defined them, some in one age and some in another, even in those times immediately before our own? Has not God revealed them all? For the teaching authority of the Church, which in the divine wisdom was constituted on earth in order that revealed doctrines might remain intact for ever, and that they might be brought with ease and security to the knowledge of men, and which is daily exercised through the Roman Pontiff and the Bishops who are in communion with him, has also the office of defining, when it sees fit, any truth with solemn rites and decrees, whenever this is necessary either to oppose the errors or the attacks of heretics, or more clearly and in greater detail to stamp the minds of the faithful with the articles of sacred doctrine which have been explained. But in the use of this extraordinary teaching authority no newly invented matter is brought in, nor is anything new added to the number of those truths which are at least implicitly contained in the deposit of Revelation, divinely handed down to the Church: only those which are made clear which perhaps may still seem obscure to some, or that which some have previously called into question is declared to be of faith.

Pope Pius XI was clearly condemning the work of men such as Abbe Paul Couturier. How can it be that one pope can condemn a philosophy as completely inconsistent with Catholic teaching and another can cite it favorably while a third praises it openly? I have no answer to that question. All I can do is to pose the question to lay the foundation for the conclusion of this commentary.

"A third influence on Couturier was Teilhard de Chardin. Both men were scientists, and Teilhard's vision of the unity of creation and humanity expressed in the unity of Christ and the life of the Church appealed both scientifically and spiritually to Couturier. A reasoned consequence for him was that the unity of Christians was the sign for the unity of humanity, and that praying for the sanctification of Jews, Muslims and Hindus, among many others, could not fail but to lead to a new spiritual understanding of God where Christ could at last be recognised and understood. Couturier felt this keenly as he was partly Jewish and had been raised among Muslims in North Africa. It is worth noting that among Couturier's voluminous correspondents were Jews, Muslims, and Hindus, as well as every kind of Christian, all caught up in the Abbé's spirit of prayer, realising the significance and dimensions of prayer for the unity of Christians. Coincidentally, years later Mother Theresa spoke of the considerable number of Muslims who volunteered and worked at her house in Calcutta: 'If you are a Christian, I want to make you a better Christian - if you are a Muslim, I want to make you a better Muslim'. It cannot be denied that what those Muslims were seeing in Mother Theresa was Jesus Christ himself, just as the Abbe attracted so many to prayer across previously unbridgeable divides by his humility, penitence, and joyful charity in the peace of Christ."

In other words, Abbe Paul Courturier promoted a syncretism that was a precursor to the work of the late Brother Roger Schutz, the founder of the Taize ecumenical community in France. Any papal embrace of such an error is creating an alternative reality that ignores entirely, without one footnote in an encyclical letter or public acknowledgment in an address to non-Catholics, of the Syllabus of Errors or Pope Leo XIII's Satis Cognitum or Pope Pius XI's Mortalium Animos. And it is precisely the papal embrace of such errors and the papal ignoring of the treasury of the Deposit of Faith as regards fostering true religious unity that poses the real stumbling block in efforts on the part of the Holy See to 'regularize' the Society of Saint Pius X. How can any Catholic who understands the Faith accept that which is erroneous in the name of a false sense of 'communion' and 'obedience' that is founded on a surrender to an alternative reality that denies wholesale the wisdom of the past?

How can it be that the work of Abbe Paul Courturier be praised while the words of Pope Leo XIII in Satis Cognitum (1896) are ignored utterly and entirely? Consider these words from Pope Leo's Satis Cognitum:

"For this reason the Fathers of the Vatican Council laid down nothing new, but followed divine revelation and the acknowledged and invariable teaching of the Church as to the very nature of faith, when they decreed as follows: 'All those things are to be believed by divine and Catholic faith which are contained in the written or unwritten word of God, and which are pro posed by the Church as divinely revealed, either by a solemn definition or in the exercise of its ordinary and universal Magisterium' (Sess. iii., cap. 3). Hence, as it is clear that God absolutely willed that there should be unity in His Church, and as it is evident what kind of unity He willed, and by means of what principle He ordained that this unity should be maintained, we may address the following words of St. Augustine to all who have not deliberately closed their minds to the truth: 'When we see the great help of God, such manifest progress and such abundant fruit, shall we hesitate to take refuge in the bosom of that Church, which, as is evident to all, possesses the supreme authority of the Apostolic See through the Episcopal succession? In vain do heretics rage round it; they are condemned partly by the judgment of the people themselves, partly by the weight of councils, partly by the splendid evidence of miracles. To refuse to the Church the primacy is most impious and above measure arrogant. And if all learning, no matter how easy and common it may be, in order to be fully understood requires a teacher and master, what can be greater evidence of pride and rashness than to be unwilling to learn about the books of the divine mysteries from the proper interpreter, and to wish to condemn them unknown?' (De Unitate Credendi, cap. xvii., n. 35).

"It is then undoubtedly the office of the church to guard Christian doctrine and to propagate it in its integrity and purity. But this is not all: the object for which the Church has been instituted is not wholly attained by the performance of this duty. For, since Jesus Christ delivered Himself up for the salvation of the human race, and to this end directed all His teaching and commands, so He ordered the Church to strive, by the truth of its doctrine, to sanctify and to save mankind. But faith alone cannot compass so great, excellent, and important an end. There must needs be also the fitting and devout worship of God, which is to be found chiefly in the divine Sacrifice and in the dispensation of the Sacraments, as well as salutary laws and discipline. All these must be found in the Church, since it continues the mission of the Saviour for ever. The Church alone offers to the human race that religion - that state of absolute perfection - which He wished, as it were, to be incorporated in it. And it alone supplies those means of salvation which accord with the ordinary counsels of Providence."

It is with this in mind, therefore, that the quote of an anonymous Vatican official to National Catholic Reporter reporter John Allen must be viewed as beyond the ludicrous. Commenting on the meeting that had taken place four days before between His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI and His Excellency Bishop Bernard Fellay, the Superior General of the Society of Saint Pius X, this Vatican official said: "They [traditionalists] need to be converted."

Let's get this straight, according to the statements and actions of recent popes and curial cardinals and diocesan bishops:

Jews are saved by their expectant waiting for the Messiah, by their adherence to the Old Covenant God made with the people of Israel (see particularly Walter Cardinal Kasper and Galveston-Houston Archbishop Joseph Fiorenza). They do not need to be converted to the Catholic Faith to save their souls.

The Orthodox do not need to be converted to the Catholic Faith. The late Pope John Paul II specifically forbade proselytizing of Catholics among the Russian Orthodox, a sure sign that Russia has not been consecrated to Our Lady's Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart and thus converted to the Catholic Faith.

Protestants do not need to be converted to the Catholic Faith. There is, as Pope Benedict XVI said in Cologne, Germany, on August 19, 2005, 'Unity in multiplicity, and multiplicity in unity' as though Mortalium Animos had never been written.

Japanese Buddhists are welcomed by Pope Benedict XVI in a General Audience (May 18, 2005) without one word of urging them to convert to the true Church.

No, the only ones who need to be 'converted' are those traditionalists who oppose openly the liturgical revolution and ecumenism and religious liberty, those 'backward' people who insist on the restoration of all things in Christ, the fruit of the Triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary in a world where the Social Reign of Christ the King is acknowledged by all men and their nations.

To an embrace of the Masonic ethos that peace among nations can be accomplished without a conversion of men and their nations to Christ the King, without the proper consecration of Russia to Our Lady's Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart by a pope in concert with all of the world's bishops?

To an acceptance of a synthetically created liturgy that enshrines the errors of Protestantism and thus offends God?

To an acceptance of the view that the very liturgy that was taught by Our Lord to the Apostles themselves is no longer pleasing to Him?

No, it is the scions of conciliarism who need to convert away from their novelties and errors. How can it be that all of the popes prior to 1958 were wrong and can be ignored with such utter impunity as an 'ecclesiogenesis,' to use the phrase of a priest in the Midwest, springs forth with hardly a tether to the past? They are living in a world of their own creation, one that has diabolical roots and is designed to confuse the minds of both the clergy and the lay faithful to such an extent that Catholicism is seen as simply one of many religions that can contribute 'in some way' to the building of a 'better' world.

Resistance to the errors of the past forty years is not a sign of schism or disloyalty. It is a manifest duty of those who understand that, to paraphrase Father Lawrence C. Smith, disobedience to those who are disobedient to the received teaching of Our Lord is truly obedience.

While we pray fervently for our Holy Father and his cardinals and our bishops, we must ever remain steadfastly loyal to that which has been handed down to us in the formulas proposed by the Church over time.

Pope Saint Pius X, whose feast day in the calendar of Tradition was Saturday, September 3, 2005, promulgated the Oath against Modernism, 1910, which included the following:

"Fourthly, I sincerely receive the teaching of faith as transmitted in the same sense and meaning right down to us; and, therefore, I wholly reject the heretical notion of the evolution of dogmas, which pass from one sense to another alien to that the Church held from the start; and I likewise condemn every error whereby is substituted for divine deposit, entrusted by Christ to His spouse and by her to be faithfully guarded, a philosophic system or a creation of the human conscience, gradually refined by the striving of men and finally to be perfected hereafter by indefinite progress.

No matter what names we are called and how 'disloyal' we are said to be to the ecumenical council and the synthetic liturgy that have devastated the Church in her human elements, we must continue steadfast in prayer, sacrifice, fasting, almsgiving and penances our adherence to the Deposit of Faith without any taint of the corruption of the past forty years. Doing so will not make us popular in this life. It will cost us much in terms of human respect and even the ability to make a living, possibly. It might be, please God and His Most Blessed Mother, the means by which we can make reparation for our sins, which wounded Our Lord once in time on the wood of the Holy Cross and wound His Mystical Body today, and thus to save our immortal souls.

Pledging to grieve Our Lady's Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart no more by means of sin, especially in this month devoted to the Sorrows of Our Lady, may we ever fly unto her patronage in these troubled times to remain completely un-converted by Modernist novelties that reaffirm people in the lie that there is salvation outside of the Catholic Church and that there is no immediate need to bring souls outside of her fold into her for their sanctification and salvation.

What I wrote eight and one-half months ago now has even greater relevance in light of Pope Benedict XVI's insistence on implementing a program of action that seeks to reach "modern man" in ways that were specifically condemned by Pope Pius XII in Humani Generis, 1950. Modern man needs the unchanging truth as it has been handed down without any any dilution or effort at Protestantizing the Catholic Faith. Alas, even a Polish magazine has picked up on what some recent converts to Catholicism are unwilling to accept: that Benedict XVI is the "Protestant Pope," intent on Protestantizing the Church so as to find some common ground with true heretics and schismatics in the fight against secularism in the world. Benedict, for example, cannot let go of the Novus Ordo Missae as it it one of the chief instruments of Protestantizing the Church.

Ratzinger, the “Panzerkardinal”, became known as the greatest conservative in John Paul II's circle, apparently incapable of initiating any liberalization, and even of allowing liberal thoughts. And, yet, now Ratzinger is on the new track - with the help of liberalization - of pressing on with the dialogue between the Church (including even the whole of Christianity) with the contemporary world. This is the strategy by which the Church would be able to hold its current position and regain lost territory. And a pillar of the strategy would appear to be acceptance of "protestantization" of the Catholic Church.

A Theologian Beloved of Protestants

For many years Josef Ratzinger has been known as one of the most progressive of today’s Catholic theologians. To be a Progressive is not to be a Liberal, but to to be a Modern. The fundamental question which Ratzinger has asked himself from the beginning sounds like this: How can faith in God be made to fit the realities of the contemporary world? Burning questions for journalists – contraception, divorce, married priests – for Ratzinger always remained in the background. Perhaps because of this he can regard such problems without emotion or dogmatism.

This is a far, far more accurate and honest assessment of the former Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger than that found in the work of some recent Protestant converts who have endeavored mightily to defend Ratzinger's condemned theological approach with Catholicism. Some have gone so far as to write that the Second Vatican Council and the theology of Joseph Ratzinger represent a legitimate development of doctrine, a remarkable claim since even John Henry Cardinal Newman, who wrote about the development of doctrine at length, noted that no authentic development of doctrine can contradict anything that has gone before it. Pope Benedict XVI just flat-out denies the necessity of the confessionally Catholic State, a doctrine that is part of the Ordinary Magisterium of the Catholic Church and thus protected by the charism of Infallibility. He believes that Protestant "churches" are analogous to the seven churches referred to by Saint John the Beloved in the Book of the Apocalypse, making this exact reference in his address to an "ecumenical" gathering in Poland on the day of his arrival, May 25. This is not a a legitimate development of doctrine. This is apostasy.

A former student of Christ the King College, Richard Nicoletti, wrote the following to me in the aftermath of Benedict's analogizing heretical and schismatic sects with churches of Apostolic origin:

The best hopes of a resurrected Catholic Poland are SSPX chapels, Radio Marya and the League of Polish Families. Ratzinger meeting a Lutheran archlayman and Orthodox Bishop in 95% Catholic Poland is ridiculous. He will denounce Radio Marja according to Chiesa. Scandalous.

Loreal, a French company with strong historical ties to Anti-Republican France, is now advertising the lewd to de-Christianize Poland.

The most Catholic areas on Earth maybe Malta (No abortion, period) and the area of Braga, Portugal, north of Fatima (Our Lady seems to hint this might be the last place with full Catholic dogma) near Celtic and Visigothic Galicia, Spain. Visigothic Galicia, Poland, has been betrayed with a Judas kiss.

Catholics should look for a Catholic land, somewhere.

Vivat Christus Rex,

Richard Nicoletti

Ladies and gentlemen, Protestants do not have "churches." Protestants do not have valid orders. They are in need of being exhorted to convert to the Catholic Church, something that is out of the question for Benedict XVI. These heretical and/or schismatic sects must be treated as legitimate dispensers of the mysteries of salvation--and the Church herself must find some way to exercise the "Petrine ministry" in a manner that makes a "fuller communion" with Rome more palatable for these heretics and schismatics (see Ut Unum Sint). This is one of the reasons why Pope Benedict XVI dispensed with the Papal Tiara on his Coat of Arms. The Tiara is symbolic of papal hegemony to Protestants and to the Orthodox--and a sign of papal monarchism to Catholic bishops, who have gotten used to the conciliarist novelty of collegiality, which is a euphemism for the Church's acceptance of the Protestant notion of egalitarianism.

Although I have quoted from Satis Cognitum recently (and did so in the article referenced above), it is useful once again to see what one of those "unimportant" and "irrelevant" preconciliar popes, Leo XIII, had to say on those who dare to recede in even the least degree from the Catholic Faith:

The Church, founded on these principles and mindful of her office, has done nothing with greater zeal and endeavour than she has displayed in guarding the integrity of the faith. Hence she regarded as rebels and expelled from the ranks of her children all who held beliefs on any point of doctrine different from her own. The Arians, the Montanists, the Novatians, the Quartodecimans, the Eutychians, did not certainly reject all Catholic doctrine: they abandoned only a certain portion of it. Still who does not know that they were declared heretics and banished from the bosom of the Church? In like manner were condemned all authors of heretical tenets who followed them in subsequent ages. "There can be nothing more dangerous than those heretics who admit nearly the whole cycle of doctrine, and yet by one word, as with a drop of poison, infect the real and simple faith taught by our Lord and handed down by Apostolic tradition" (Auctor Tract. de Fide Orthodoxa contra Arianos).

The practice of the Church has always been the same, as is shown by the unanimous teaching of the Fathers, who were wont to hold as outside Catholic communion, and alien to the Church, whoever would recede in the least degree from any point of doctrine proposed by her authoritative Magisterium. Epiphanius, Augustine, Theodore :, drew up a long list of the heresies of their times. St. Augustine notes that other heresies may spring up, to a single one of which, should any one give his assent, he is by the very fact cut off from Catholic unity. "No one who merely disbelieves in all (these heresies) can for that reason regard himself as a Catholic or call himself one. For there may be or may arise some other heresies, which are not set out in this work of ours, and, if any one holds to one single one of these he is not a Catholic" (S. Augustinus, De Haeresibus, n. 88).

Pope Benedict XVI continues to drop poison, bit by bit, with each passing day, praising the Modernist notion of separation of Church and State and analogizing heretical and/or schismatic sects with churches of Apostolic origin that were in full communion with the Successor of Saint Peter, some of which had been in communion with Saint Peter himself. As was the case with Father Martin Luther, Benedict XVI must reduce everything to "antiquity," preferring to believe, as the Preacher to the Papal Household, Father Raniero Cantalamessa, said on Good Friday in 2002, that Protestant "churches" exists because God wills them to exist, meaning, as John Vennari pointed out at the time, that God positively wills evil, that God positively wills for men to be saved in sects that He did not create and that were born out of a rebellion against the true Church that He did create, the Catholic Church.

Previous popes? Ignore them as much as possible even if they were merely reiterating that which had been handed down to them without any hint of dilution or change. Dogmatic councils? Ignore them where possible, distort them when necessary, which is what happened when the Joint Lutheran-Catholic Declaration on Justification in 1999 effectively dismissed the decrees of the Council of Trent, a dogmatic council guided by the infallible protection of the Third Person of the Blessed Trinity, the Holy Ghost, as irrelevant and incomplete. No, I am afraid that the only sort of sedevacantism that should be considered a "disease" is that practical sedevacantism of the popes of conciliarism that ignores and distorts the body of work of one pope after another to defend the Catholic Faith against the very forces that have infiltrated the Church in her human elements in the past forty-eight years since a supporter of the condemned Sillon, Angelo Cardinal Roncalli, began his work to "open up" the Church to the "world" and that supporter of Marxist thought, Giovanni Cardinal Montini, peppered the Church with his liked-minded brethren in the episcopate worldwide. As a diocesan priest noted to me on Palm Sunday in 1986, "Tom, the Saracens themselves could not have not a better done of destroying the Church in her human elements than these conciliar popes." Indeed.

The bottom line is this: God is immutable. He does not change. His truths do not change. He cannot contradict Himself. Ever. The former Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, a disciple of a man who believed that God could and did contradict himself, the late Father Hans Urs von Balthasar, does not accept this. His mind is Hegelian and thus of the belief that our understanding of God is in process of becoming something other than it was, which is why he feels free to reject previous dogmatic formulations as they have been understood traditionally, a belief anathematized by the First Vatican Council, and why he must attempt to redefine our understanding of Tradition in order to get us to accept novelty, a phenomenon the Church has always rejected, as a natural and normal part of everyday ecclesiastical and theological life.

As we continue our Novena to the Holy Ghost, therefore, and continue to petition the Mother of God, who prayed with the Apostles before the Holy Ghost descended upon them all in tongues of flame on Pentecost Sunday, the birthday of the Catholic Church, may we be aware of the dangers that face the Church in her human elements and flee to the catacombs to avoid even the possibility of being poisoned to death slowly by the drips that come from the words and acts of Pope Benedict XVI and his partners in theological and liturgical innovation. May we understand that we have the obligation to call him a wolf in shepherds' clothing, as none other than Saint Francis de Sales, who sought and effected, by God's graces, the conversion of Protestants, by the way, told us:

The declared enemies of God and His Church, heretics and schismatics, must be criticized as much as possible, as long as truth is not denied.

It is a work of charity to shout: "Here is the wolf!" when it enters the flock or anywhere else. (An Introduction to the Devout Life)

The wolf stands recognized as the pope. He is a wolf, though, nevertheless, doing and saying things that none of his predecessors prior to 1958 ever said and did, including the effort to canonize a predecessor who did things that no other pope had ever done, including worshiping with the non-ordained members of heretical and schismatic sects and participated in acts of the worship of false gods (which will be the subject of the next article on this site). We pray for the wolf, to be sure. We pray, though, to be protected from his cunning. For if ever a man fit the description given by Pope Leo XIII of one who has not fallen from the entire Faith but who drops bits of poison into the well of the Faith it is the former Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, yes, the Protestant Pope.

Mindful of the role our own sins have played in worsening the state of the Church in her human elements, may our own prayers and penances and sacrifices, offered freely to Our Lady's Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart, help to bring about the day when we will have a pope who will end this apostasy in a flash by consecrating Russia with all of the world's bishops to that same Immaculate Heart of Mary.

The Longer Version of the Saint Michael the Archangel Prayer, composed by Pope Leo XIII, 1888

O glorious Archangel Saint Michael, Prince of the heavenly host, be our defense in the terrible warfare which we carry on against principalities and powers, against the rulers of this world of darkness, spirits of evil. Come to the aid of man, whom God created immortal, made in His own image and likeness, and redeemed at a great price from the tyranny of the devil. Fight this day the battle of our Lord, together with the holy angels, as already thou hast fought the leader of the proud angels, Lucifer, and his apostate host, who were powerless to resist thee, nor was there place for them any longer in heaven. That cruel, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil or Satan who seduces the whole world, was cast into the abyss with his angels. Behold this primeval enemy and slayer of men has taken courage. Transformed into an angel of light, he wanders about with all the multitude of wicked spirits, invading the earth in order to blot out the Name of God and of His Christ, to seize upon, slay, and cast into eternal perdition, souls destined for the crown of eternal glory. That wicked dragon pours out. as a most impure flood, the venom of his malice on men of depraved mind and corrupt heart, the spirit of lying, of impiety, of blasphemy, and the pestilent breath of impurity, and of every vice and iniquity. These most crafty enemies have filled and inebriated with gall and bitterness the Church, the spouse of the Immaculate Lamb, and have laid impious hands on Her most sacred possessions. In the Holy Place itself, where has been set up the See of the most holy Peter and the Chair of Truth for the light of the world, they have raised the throne of their abominable impiety with the iniquitous design that when the Pastor has been struck the sheep may be scattered. Arise then, O invincible Prince, bring help against the attacks of the lost spirits to the people of God, and give them the victory. They venerate thee as their protector and patron; in thee holy Church glories as her defense against the malicious powers of hell; to thee has God entrusted the souls of men to be established in heavenly beatitude. Oh, pray to the God of peace that He may put Satan under our feet, so far conquered that he may no longer be able to hold men in captivity and harm the Church. Offer our prayers in the sight of the Most High, so that they may quickly conciliate the mercies of the Lord; and beating down the dragon, the ancient serpent, who is the devil and Satan, do thou again make him captive in the abyss, that he may no longer seduce the nations. Amen.

Verse: Let us pray. O God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, we call upon Thy holy Name, and as suppliants, we implore Thy clemency, that by the intercession of Mary, ever Virgin, immaculate and our Mother, and of the glorious Archangel Saint Michael, Thou wouldst deign to help us against Satan and all other unclean spirits, who wander about the world for the injury of the human race and the ruin of our souls.

TO THE HOLY GHOST: On my knees / before the great multitude of heavenly witnesses / I offer myself, soul and body / to Thee O Eternal Spirit of God. / I adore the brightness of Thy purity / the unerring keeness of Thy justice / and the might of Thy love. Thou art the Strength / and Light of my soul. / In Thee I live and move and am. / I desire never to grieve Thee / Mercifully guard my every thought / and grant that I may always watch for Thy light / and listen to Thy voice / and follow Thy gracious inspirations. / I cling to Thee / and give myself to Thee / and ask Thee / by Thy compassion / to watch over me in my weakness. / holding the pierced feet of Jesus / and looking at His five Wounds / and trusting in His Precious Blood / and adoring His opened side and stricken Heart / I implore Thee / Adorable Spirit / Helper of my infirmity, / so to keep me in Thy grace / that I may never sin against Thee. / Give me grace / O Holy Ghost, / Spirit of the Father and of the Son / to say to Thee always and everywhere / 'Speak, Lord / for Thy servant heareth.'

OF THE HOLY GHOST: O Lord Jesus Christ / Who, before ascending into heaven / did promise to send the Holy Ghost / to finish Thy work / in the souls of Thine Apostles and Disciples / deign to grant the same Holy Spirit to me / that He may perfect in my soul / the work of Thy grace and Thy love. / Grant me the Spirit of Wisdom / that I may despise the perishable things of his world / and aspire only after the things / that are eternal, / the Spirit of Counsel / that I may ever choose / the surest way of pleasing God / and gaining heaven, / the Spirit of Fortitude / that I may bear my cross with Thee / and that I may overcome with courage all the obstacles that oppose my salvation, / the Spirit of Knowledge that I may know God and know myself / and grow perfect in the science of the Saints, / the Spirit of Piety / that I may find the service of God sweet and amiable, / the Spirit of Fear of the Lord / that I may be filled with a loving reverence towards God, and may dread in any way to displease Him. / Mark me, dear Lord, / with the sign of Thy true disciples / and animate me in all things with Thy Spirit. / Amen.

Thou, of all consolers, best,
Visiting the troubled breast,
Dost refreshing peace bestow.

The Gift of Piety: The gift of Piety begets in our hearts a filial affection for God as our most loving Father. It inspires us to love and respect for His sake, persons and things consecrated to Him, as well as those who are vested with His authority: His Blessed Mother and the Saints, The Church and its visible Head, our parents and superiors, our country and its rulers. He who is filled with the gift of Piety finds the practice of his religion, not a burdensome duty, but a delightful service. Where there is love, there is no labor.

Prayer: Come, O Blessed Spirit of Piety, possess my heart. Enkindle therein such a love for God that I may find satisfaction only in His service, and for His sake, lovingly submit to all legitimate authority. Amen.

TO THE HOLY GHOST: On my knees / before the great multitude of heavenly witnesses / I offer myself, soul and body / to Thee O Eternal Spirit of God. / I adore the brightness of Thy purity / the unerring keeness of Thy justice / and the might of Thy love. Thou art the Strength / and Light of my soul. / In Thee I live and move and am. / I desire never to grieve Thee / Mercifully guard my every thought / and grant that I may always watch for Thy light / and listen to Thy voice / and follow Thy gracious inspirations. / I cling to Thee / and give myself to Thee / and ask Thee / by Thy compassion / to watch over me in my weakness. / Holding the pierced feet of Jesus / and looking at His five Wounds / and trusting in His Precious Blood / and adoring His opened side and stricken Heart / I implore Thee / Adorable Spirit / Helper of my infirmity, / so to keep me in Thy grace / that I may never sin against Thee. / Give me grace / O Holy Ghost, / Spirit of the Father and of the Son / to say to Thee always and everywhere / 'Speak, Lord / for Thy servant heareth.'

OF THE HOLY GHOST: O Lord Jesus Christ / Who, before ascending into heaven / did promise to send the Holy Ghost / to finish Thy work / in the souls of Thine Apostles and Disciples / deign to grant the same Holy Spirit to me / that He may perfect in my soul / the work of Thy grace and Thy love. / Grant me the Spirit of Wisdom / that I may despise the perishable things of this world / and aspire only after the things / that are eternal, / the Spirit of Counsel / that I may ever choose / the surest way of pleasing God / and gaining heaven, / the Spirit of Fortitude / that I may bear my cross with Thee / and that I may overcome with courage all the obstacles that oppose my salvation, / the Spirit of Knowledge that I may know God and know myself / and grow perfect in the science of the Saints, / the Spirit of Piety / that I may find the service of God sweet and amiable, / the Spirit of Fear of the Lord / that I may be filled with a loving reverence towards God, and may dread in any way to displease Him. / Mark me, dear Lord, / with the sign of Thy true disciples / and animate me in all things with Thy Spirit. / Amen.

Thou in toil art comfort sweet;
Pleasant coolness in the heat;
Solace in the midst of woe.

The Gift of Piety: By the gift of Fortitude the soul is strengthened against natural fear, and supported to the end in the performance of duty. Fortitude imparts to the will, an impulse and energy which move it to undertake without hesitancy, the most arduous tasks, to face dangers, to trample under foot, human respect, and to endure without complaint, the slow martyrdom of even lifelong tribulation. 'He that shall persevere unto the end, he shall be saved.'

Prayer: Come, O Blessed Spirit of Fortitude, uphold my soul in time of trouble and adversity, sustain my efforts after holiness, strengthen my weakness, give me courage against all the assaults of my enemies, that I may never be overcome, and separated from Thee, my God and greatest good. Amen.

TO THE HOLY GHOST: On my knees / before the great multitude of heavenly witnesses / I offer myself, soul and body / to Thee O Eternal Spirit of God. / I adore the brightness of Thy purity / the unerring keeness of Thy justice / and the might of Thy love. Thou art the Strength / and Light of my soul. / In Thee I live and move and am. / I desire never to grieve Thee / Mercifully guard my every thought / and grant that I may always watch for Thy light / and listen to Thy voice / and follow Thy gracious inspirations. / I cling to Thee / and give myself to Thee / and ask Thee / by Thy compassion / to watch over me in my weakness. / Holding the pierced feet of Jesus / and looking at His five Wounds / and trusting in His Precious Blood / and adoring His opened side and stricken Heart / I implore Thee / Adorable Spirit / Helper of my infirmity, / so to keep me in Thy grace / that I may never sin against Thee. / Give me grace / O Holy Ghost, / Spirit of the Father and of the Son / to say to Thee always and everywhere / 'Speak, Lord / for Thy servant heareth.'

OF THE HOLY GHOST: O Lord Jesus Christ / Who, before ascending into heaven / did promise to send the Holy Ghost / to finish Thy work / in the souls of Thine Apostles and Disciples / deign to grant the same Holy Spirit to me / that He may perfect in my soul / the work of Thy grace and Thy love. / Grant me the Spirit of Wisdom / that I may despise the perishable things of this world / and aspire only after the things / that are eternal, / the Spirit of Counsel / that I may ever choose / the surest way of pleasing God / and gaining heaven, / the Spirit of Fortitude / that I may bear my cross with Thee / and that I may overcome with courage all the obstacles that oppose my salvation, / the Spirit of Knowledge that I may know God and know myself / and grow perfect in the science of the Saints, / the Spirit of Piety / that I may find the service of God sweet and amiable, / the Spirit of Fear of the Lord / that I may be filled with a loving reverence towards God, and may dread in any way to displease Him. / Mark me, dear Lord, / with the sign of Thy true disciples / and animate me in all things with Thy Spirit. / Amen.

Light immortal! Light Divine!
Visit Thou these hearts of Thine,
And our inmost being fill!

The Gift of Knowledge: The gift of Knowledge enables the soul to evaluate created things at their true worth ~ in their relation to God. Knowledge unmasks the pretence of creatures, reveals their emptiness, and points out their only true purpose as instruments in the service of God. It shows us the loving care of God even in adversity, and directs us to glorify Him in every circumstance of life. Guided by its light, we put first things first, and prize the friendship of God beyond all else. 'Knowledge is a fountain of life to him that possesseth it.'

Prayer: Come, O Blessed Spirit of Knowledge, and grant that I may perceive the will of the Father; show me the nothingness of earthly things, that I may realize their vanity and use them only for Thy glory and my own salvation, looking ever beyond them to Thee, and Thy eternal rewards. Amen.

TO THE HOLY GHOST: On my knees / before the great multitude of heavenly witnesses / I offer myself, soul and body / to Thee O Eternal Spirit of God. / I adore the brightness of Thy purity / the unerring keeness of Thy justice / and the might of Thy love. Thou art the Strength / and Light of my soul. / In Thee I live and move and am. / I desire never to grieve Thee / Mercifully guard my every thought / and grant that I may always watch for Thy light / and listen to Thy voice / and follow Thy gracious inspirations. / I cling to Thee / and give myself to Thee / and ask Thee / by Thy compassion / to watch over me in my weakness. / Holding the pierced feet of Jesus / and looking at His five Wounds / and trusting in His Precious Blood / and adoring His opened side and stricken Heart / I implore Thee / Adorable Spirit / Helper of my infirmity, / so to keep me in Thy grace / that I may never sin against Thee. / Give me grace / O Holy Ghost, / Spirit of the Father and of the Son / to say to Thee always and everywhere / 'Speak, Lord / for Thy servant heareth.'

OF THE HOLY GHOST: O Lord Jesus Christ / Who, before ascending into heaven / did promise to send the Holy Ghost / to finish Thy work / in the souls of Thine Apostles and Disciples / deign to grant the same Holy Spirit to me / that He may perfect in my soul / the work of Thy grace and Thy love. / Grant me the Spirit of Wisdom / that I may despise the perishable things of this world / and aspire only after the things / that are eternal, / the Spirit of Counsel / that I may ever choose / the surest way of pleasing God / and gaining heaven, / the Spirit of Fortitude / that I may bear my cross with Thee / and that I may overcome with courage all the obstacles that oppose my salvation, / the Spirit of Knowledge that I may know God and know myself / and grow perfect in the science of the Saints, / the Spirit of Piety / that I may find the service of God sweet and amiable, / the Spirit of Fear of the Lord / that I may be filled with a loving reverence towards God, and may dread in any way to displease Him. / Mark me, dear Lord, / with the sign of Thy true disciples / and animate me in all things with Thy Spirit. / Amen.

If Thou take Thy grace away,
Nothing pure in man will stay,
All his good is turned to ill.

The Gift of Understanding: Understanding, as a gift of the Holy Ghost, helps us to grasp the meaning of the truths of our holy religion. By faith we know them, but by Understanding we learn to appreciate and relish them. It enables us to penetrate the inner meaning of revealed truths, and through them to be quickened to newness of life. Our faith ceases to be sterile and inactive, but inspires a mode of life that bears eloquent testimony to the faith that is in us; we begin to 'walk worthy of God, in all things pleasing, and increasing in the knowledge of God.'

Prayer: Come, O Spirit of Understanding, and enlighten our minds, that we may know and believe all the mysteries of salvation; and may merit at last to see the eternal light in Thy Light; and in the light of glory, to have a clear vision of Thee and the Father and the Son. Amen.

TO THE HOLY GHOST: On my knees / before the great multitude of heavenly witnesses / I offer myself, soul and body / to Thee O Eternal Spirit of God. / I adore the brightness of Thy purity / the unerring keeness of Thy justice / and the might of Thy love. Thou art the Strength / and Light of my soul. / In Thee I live and move and am. / I desire never to grieve Thee / Mercifully guard my every thought / and grant that I may always watch for Thy light / and listen to Thy voice / and follow Thy gracious inspirations. / I cling to Thee / and give myself to Thee / and ask Thee / by Thy compassion / to watch over me in my weakness. / Holding the pierced feet of Jesus / and looking at His five Wounds / and trusting in His Precious Blood / and adoring His opened side and stricken Heart / I implore Thee / Adorable Spirit / Helper of my infirmity, / so to keep me in Thy grace / that I may never sin against Thee. / Give me grace / O Holy Ghost, / Spirit of the Father and of the Son / to say to Thee always and everywhere / 'Speak, Lord / for Thy servant heareth.'

OF THE HOLY GHOST: O Lord Jesus Christ / Who, before ascending into heaven / did promise to send the Holy Ghost / to finish Thy work / in the souls of Thine Apostles and Disciples / deign to grant the same Holy Spirit to me / that He may perfect in my soul / the work of Thy grace and Thy love. / Grant me the Spirit of Wisdom / that I may despise the perishable things of this world / and aspire only after the things / that are eternal, / the Spirit of Counsel / that I may ever choose / the surest way of pleasing God / and gaining heaven, / the Spirit of Fortitude / that I may bear my cross with Thee / and that I may overcome with courage all the obstacles that oppose my salvation, / the Spirit of Knowledge that I may know God and know myself / and grow perfect in the science of the Saints, / the Spirit of Piety / that I may find the service of God sweet and amiable, / the Spirit of Fear of the Lord / that I may be filled with a loving reverence towards God, and may dread in any way to displease Him. / Mark me, dear Lord, / with the sign of Thy true disciples / and animate me in all things with Thy Spirit. / Amen.

Heal our wounds ~ our strength renew;
On our dryness pour Thy dew!
Wash the stains of guilt away!

The Gift of Counsel The gift of Counsel endows the soul with supernatural prudence, enabling it to judge promptly and rightly, what must be done, especially in difficult circumstances. Counsel applies the principles furnished by Knowledge and Understanding, to the innumerable concrete cases that confront us in the course of our daily duty as parents, teachers, public servants, and Christian citizens. Counsel is supernatural common sense, a priceless treasure in the quest of salvation. 'Above all these things, pray to the Most High, that He may direct thy way in truth.'

Prayer Come, O Spirit of Counsel, help and guide me in all my ways, that I may always do Thy holy will. Incline my heart to that which is good; turn it away from all that is evil, and direct me by the straight path of Thy commandments to that goal of eternal life for which I long. Amen.

TO THE HOLY GHOST: On my knees / before the great multitude of heavenly witnesses / I offer myself, soul and body / to Thee O Eternal Spirit of God. / I adore the brightness of Thy purity / the unerring keeness of Thy justice / and the might of Thy love. Thou art the Strength / and Light of my soul. / In Thee I live and move and am. / I desire never to grieve Thee / Mercifully guard my every thought / and grant that I may always watch for Thy light / and listen to Thy voice / and follow Thy gracious inspirations. / I cling to Thee / and give myself to Thee / and ask Thee / by Thy compassion / to watch over me in my weakness. / Holding the pierced feet of Jesus / and looking at His five Wounds / and trusting in His Precious Blood / and adoring His opened side and stricken Heart / I implore Thee / Adorable Spirit / Helper of my infirmity, / so to keep me in Thy grace / that I may never sin against Thee. / Give me grace / O Holy Ghost, / Spirit of the Father and of the Son / to say to Thee always and everywhere / 'Speak, Lord / for Thy servant heareth.'

OF THE HOLY GHOST: O Lord Jesus Christ / Who, before ascending into heaven / did promise to send the Holy Ghost / to finish Thy work / in the souls of Thine Apostles and Disciples / deign to grant the same Holy Spirit to me / that He may perfect in my soul / the work of Thy grace and Thy love. / Grant me the Spirit of Wisdom / that I may despise the perishable things of this world / and aspire only after the things / that are eternal, / the Spirit of Counsel / that I may ever choose / the surest way of pleasing God / and gaining heaven, / the Spirit of Fortitude / that I may bear my cross with Thee / and that I may overcome with courage all the obstacles that oppose my salvation, / the Spirit of Knowledge that I may know God and know myself / and grow perfect in the science of the Saints, / the Spirit of Piety / that I may find the service of God sweet and amiable, / the Spirit of Fear of the Lord / that I may be filled with a loving reverence towards God, and may dread in any way to displease Him. / Mark me, dear Lord, / with the sign of Thy true disciples / and animate me in all things with Thy Spirit. / Amen.

Bend the stubborn heart and will;
Melt the frozen, warm the chill;
Guide the steps that go astray!

The Gift of Wisdom: Embodying all the other gifts, as charity embraces all the other virtues, Wisdom is the most perfect of the gifts. Of Wisdom it is written, 'all good things come to me with her, and innumerable riches, through her hands.' It is the gift of Wisdom that strengthens our faith, fortifies hope, perfects charity, and promotes the practice of virtue in the highest degree. Wisdom enlightens the mind to discern and relish things divine, in the appreciation of which earthly joys lose their savor, whilst the Cross of Christ yields a divine sweetness according to the words of the Saviour: 'Take up thy cross and follow me, for my yoke is sweet and my burden light.'

Prayer: Come, O Spirit of Wisdom, and reveal to my soul the mysteries of heavenly things, their exceeding greatness, power, and beauty. Teach me to love them above and beyond all the passing joys and satisfactions of earth. Help me to attain them and possess them forever. Amen.

TO THE HOLY GHOST: On my knees / before the great multitude of heavenly witnesses / I offer myself, soul and body / to Thee O Eternal Spirit of God. / I adore the brightness of Thy purity / the unerring keeness of Thy justice / and the might of Thy love. Thou art the Strength / and Light of my soul. / In Thee I live and move and am. / I desire never to grieve Thee / Mercifully guard my every thought / and grant that I may always watch for Thy light / and listen to Thy voice / and follow Thy gracious inspirations. / I cling to Thee / and give myself to Thee / and ask Thee / by Thy compassion / to watch over me in my weakness. / Holding the pierced feet of Jesus / and looking at His five Wounds / and trusting in His Precious Blood / and adoring His opened side and stricken Heart / I implore Thee / Adorable Spirit / Helper of my infirmity, / so to keep me in Thy grace / that I may never sin against Thee. / Give me grace / O Holy Ghost, / Spirit of the Father and of the Son / to say to Thee always and everywhere / 'Speak, Lord / for Thy servant heareth.'

OF THE HOLY GHOST: O Lord Jesus Christ / Who, before ascending into heaven / did promise to send the Holy Ghost / to finish Thy work / in the souls of Thine Apostles and Disciples / deign to grant the same Holy Spirit to me / that He may perfect in my soul / the work of Thy grace and Thy love. / Grant me the Spirit of Wisdom / that I may despise the perishable things of this world / and aspire only after the things / that are eternal, / the Spirit of Counsel / that I may ever choose / the surest way of pleasing God / and gaining heaven, / the Spirit of Fortitude / that I may bear my cross with Thee / and that I may overcome with courage all the obstacles that oppose my salvation, / the Spirit of Knowledge that I may know God and know myself / and grow perfect in the science of the Saints, / the Spirit of Piety / that I may find the service of God sweet and amiable, / the Spirit of Fear of the Lord / that I may be filled with a loving reverence towards God, and may dread in any way to displease Him. / Mark me, dear Lord, / with the sign of Thy true disciples / and animate me in all things with Thy Spirit. / Amen.

Thou, on those who evermore
Thee confess, and Thee adore,
In Thy sevenfold gifts, descend:

Give them comfort when they die;
Give them life with Thee on high;
Give them joys which never end. Amen.

The Fruits of the Holy Ghost: The gifts of the Holy Ghost perfect the supernatural virtues by enabling us to practice them with greater docility to divine inspiration. As we grow in the knowledge and love of God under the direction of the Holy Ghost, our service becomes more sincere and generous, the practice of virtue, more perfect. Such acts of virtue leave the heart filled with joy and consolation, and are known as Fruits of the Holy Ghost. These Fruits in turn render the practice of virtue more attractive, and become a powerful incentive for still greater effort in the service of God, to serve Whom is to reign.

Prayer: Come, O Divine Spirit, fill my heart with Thy heavenly fruits: charity, joy, peace, patience, long-suffering, benignity goodness, faith, mildness, and modesty, continency and chastity, that I may never weary in the service of God, but by continued faithful submission to Thy inspiration, may merit to be united eternally with Thee in the love of the Father and the Son. Amen.

TO THE HOLY GHOST: On my knees / before the great multitude of heavenly witnesses / I offer myself, soul and body / to Thee O Eternal Spirit of God. / I adore the brightness of Thy purity / the unerring keeness of Thy justice / and the might of Thy love. Thou art the Strength / and Light of my soul. / In Thee I live and move and am. / I desire never to grieve Thee / Mercifully guard my every thought / and grant that I may always watch for Thy light / and listen to Thy voice / and follow Thy gracious inspirations. / I cling to Thee / and give myself to Thee / and ask Thee / by Thy compassion / to watch over me in my weakness. / Holding the pierced feet of Jesus / and looking at His five Wounds / and trusting in His Precious Blood / and adoring His opened side and stricken Heart / I implore Thee / Adorable Spirit / Helper of my infirmity, / so to keep me in Thy grace / that I may never sin against Thee. / Give me grace / O Holy Ghost, / Spirit of the Father and of the Son / to say to Thee always and everywhere / 'Speak, Lord / for Thy servant heareth.'

OF THE HOLY GHOST: O Lord Jesus Christ / Who, before ascending into heaven / did promise to send the Holy Ghost / to finish Thy work / in the souls of Thine Apostles and Disciples / deign to grant the same Holy Spirit to me / that He may perfect in my soul / the work of Thy grace and Thy love. / Grant me the Spirit of Wisdom / that I may despise the perishable things of this world / and aspire only after the things / that are eternal, / the Spirit of Counsel / that I may ever choose / the surest way of pleasing God / and gaining heaven, / the Spirit of Fortitude / that I may bear my cross with Thee / and that I may overcome with courage all the obstacles that oppose my salvation, / the Spirit of Knowledge that I may know God and know myself / and grow perfect in the science of the Saints, / the Spirit of Piety / that I may find the service of God sweet and amiable, / the Spirit of Fear of the Lord / that I may be filled with a loving reverence towards God, and may dread in any way to displease Him. / Mark me, dear Lord, / with the sign of Thy true disciples / and animate me in all things with Thy Spirit. / Amen.

The True Sedevacantists

by Thomas A. Droleskey


© Copyright 2006, Thomas A. Droleskey. All rights reserved.