Mese: Novembre 2021
Sankt Pieter Kanijs, olandese di nascita, e’ stato il primo gesuita della provincia germanica. Fu proclamato beato nel 1869 da papa Pio IX e canonizzato nel 1925 da papa Pio XI che lo nominò pure dottore della Chiesa. Peraltro già papa Leone XIII lo aveva definito il secondo apostolo della Germania dopo san Bonifacio.
ISTRUZIONE
Ricevette la prima istituzione umanistica in patria; ma ancora adolescente fu inviato nel 1535 all’Università di Colonia dove studiò retorica, filosofia e diritto civile e canonico, laureandosi nel 1540 magister artium, o dottore in filosofia. Durante il suo soggiorno a Colonia Canisio subì l’influenza del mistico brabantino Nicolaus van Esch e quella del compagno di Ignazio di Loyola Pierre Favre; accompagnò Favre a Magonza nel 1543 e, dopo aver seguito un corso di esercizi spirituali, entrò nella Compagnia di Gesù, approvata appena tre anni prima: diventò così il primo gesuita tedesco.
LA PREGHIERA PREFERITA DI PAPA BENEDETTO XVI
Nel libro intervista “Ultime conversazioni” rilasciato a Peter Seewald da Papa Benedetto XVI, c’è una piccola e quanto mai bellissima “chicca” di tipo spirituale. La preghiera preferita da Joseph Ratzinger: la «Preghiera comune» di san Pietro Canisio, «secondo Apostolo della Germania» che recita così:
«Dio onnipotente ed eterno, Signore, Padre celeste! Rivolgi i tuoi occhi misericordiosi ai nostri lamenti, alla nostra miseria e alle nostre pene. Abbi pietà di tutti i cristiani per i quali il tuo figlio unigenito, il nostro amato Signore e Salvatore, Gesù Cristo, si è consegnato di sua volontà nelle mani dei peccatori e ha versato il suo preziosissimo sangue sulla santa croce. Per il Signore Gesù, allontana da noi le meritate punizioni, i pericoli presenti e futuri, il risentimento, le guerre e le armi, la carestia, i tempi di afflizione e di miseria. Nella tua bontà, illumina e fortifica i nostri superiori e i nostri governanti religiosi e mondani, affinché con le loro azioni possano giovare alla tua gloria divina, alla nostra salvezza, alla pace e al bene della cristianità intera. «Concedici, o Signore della pace, una giusta unità nella fede, senza divisioni e separazioni; converti i nostri cuori alla vera penitenza e all’edificazione della nostra vita; accendi in noi il fuoco del tuo amore; fai che abbiamo fame e sete di giustizia affinché, come figli obbedienti, possiamo esserti graditi e compiacerti nella vita e nella morte. Noi ti preghiamo anche, o Dio, come tu desideri che noi preghiamo, per i nostri amici e i nostri nemici, per i sani e gli ammalati, per tutti i cristiani afflitti e sofferenti, per i vivi e i morti, per le nostre attività e i nostri commerci, la nostra vita e la nostra morte. Fa’ che noi possiamo godere della tua grazia in questo mondo e che giungiamo là dove sono tutti gli eletti per lodarti, onorarti e magnificarti insieme a loro! Concedilo, o Signore, Padre celeste! Per il tuo Figlio Gesù Cristo, che vive e regna con te nell’unità dello Spirito Santo per tutti i secoli dei secoli. Amen».
In inglese
«Almighty and eternal God, Lord, Heavenly Father! Turn your merciful eyes to our complaints, our misery and our pains. Have mercy on all Christians for whom your only begotten son, our beloved Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, willingly delivered himself into the hands of sinners and shed his most precious blood on the holy cross. For the Lord Jesus, remove from us deserved punishments, present and future dangers, resentment, wars and weapons, famine, times of affliction and misery. In your goodness, enlighten and strengthen our superiors and our religious and worldly rulers, so that with their actions they can benefit your divine glory, our salvation, peace and the good of all Christianity. «Grant us, O Lord of Peace, a just unity in faith, without divisions and separations; convert our hearts to true penance and the edification of our life; kindle the fire of your love in us; make us hungry and thirsty for justice so that, as obedient children, we may please you and please you in life and in death. We also pray to you, O God, as you wish us to pray, for our friends and enemies, for the healthy and the sick, for all afflicted and suffering Christians, for the living and the dead, for our activities and our trade, our life and our death. Grant that we can enjoy your grace in this world and that we reach where all the elect are to praise, honor and magnify you together with them! Grant it, O Lord, Heavenly Father! For your Son Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit for ever and ever. Amen“.
In olandese
«Almachtige en eeuwige God, Heer, Hemelse Vader! Richt uw barmhartige ogen op onze klachten, onze ellende en onze pijnen. Heb medelijden met alle christenen voor wie uw eniggeboren zoon, onze geliefde Heer en Heiland, Jezus Christus, zichzelf gewillig in de handen van zondaars heeft overgegeven en zijn kostbaarste bloed aan het heilige kruis heeft vergoten. Voor de Heer Jezus, verwijder van ons verdiende straffen, huidige en toekomstige gevaren, wrok, oorlogen en wapens, hongersnood, tijden van verdrukking en ellende. Verlicht en versterk in uw goedheid onze superieuren en onze religieuze en wereldse heersers, zodat zij met hun daden uw goddelijke glorie, ons heart tot ware boetedoening en de opbouw van ons leven; ontsteek het vuur van uw liefde in ons; maak ons hongerig en dorstig naar gerechtigheid, zodat wij, als gehoorzame kinderen, u kunnen behagen en behagen in leven en dood. Wij bidden ook tot u, o God, zoals u wilt dat wij bidden, voor onze vrienden en vijanden, voor de gezonde en de zieken, voor alle gekwelde en lijdende christenen, voor de levenden en de doden, voor onze activiteiten en onze handel, ons leven en onze dood. Geef dat we in deze wereld van uw genade mogen genieten en dat we komen waar alle uitverkorenen zijn om u samen met hen te loven, te eren en groot te maken! Sta het toe, o Heer, hemelse Vader! Voor uw Zoon Jezus Christus, die voor eeuwig en altijd met u leeft en regeert in de eenheid van de Heilige Geest. Amen“.
Opere principali
- (LA) Pietro Canisio, Summa doctrinae christianae, 1555.
- (LA) Pietro Canisio, Catechismus minimus, 1556.
- (LA) Pietro Canisio, Parvus Catechismus Catholicorum, Coloniae, Maternus Cholinus, 1558.
- (LA) Pietro Canisio, De verbi Dei corruptelis, Dilingae, excudebat Sebaldus Mayer, 1571.
- (LA) Pietro Canisio, De Maria Virgine incomparabili, et Dei Genitrice Sacrosancta libri quinque, Ingolstadii, excudebat David Sartorius, 1577.
- (LA) Pietro Canisio, Notae in evangelicas lectiones, 1ª ed., Friburgi Helvetiorum, ex officina typographica Abrahami Gemperlini, 1591.
- (LA) Pietro Canisio, Notae in evangelicas lectiones, 2ª ed., Friburgi Helvetiorum, ex officina typographica Abrahami Gemperlini, 1593.
Penso possiamo tutti condividere queste parole dell’ Arcivescovo Vigano’. Specialmente riguardo alla guida maligna dei falsi pastori che porta fuori strada i cristiani smarriti!
Nella drammatica crisi che ormai da 60 anni affligge la Chiesa di Cristo, e che oggi si manifesta in tutta la sua gravità, un pusillus grex [piccolo gregge=piccolo resto] chiede al suo Signore di salvare l’umanità smarrita, quando la corruzione e l’apostasia hanno penetrò anche nel sacro recinto e fino al sommo Trono. Ed è pusillus [piccolo] perché la maggioranza di coloro che sono stati rigenerati nel Battesimo e hanno così meritato di essere chiamati “figli di Dio” negano ogni giorno le promesse di quel Battesimo, sotto la guida di mercenari e falsi pastori.
In the dramatic crisis that now for 60 years has afflicted the Church of Christ, and which today is showing itself in all its gravity, a pusillus grex [little flock] asks their Lord to save humanity that has gone astray, when corruption and apostasy have penetrated even the sacred enclosure and unto the highest Throne. And it is pusillus [little] because the majority of those who have been regenerated in Baptism and have thus deserved to be called “sons of God” daily deny the promises of that Baptism, under the leadership of hirelings and false shepherds.
DALL’OMELIA DI DON ENRICO RONCAGLIA (*)
Matt 4:18-22
In illo témpore: Ambulans Iesus iuxta mare Galilǽæ, vidit duos fratres, Simónem, qui vocátur Petrus, et Andréam fratrem eius, mitténtes rete in mare – erant enim piscatóres – et ait illis: Veníte post me, et fáciam vos fíeri piscatóres hóminum.
In questi primi giorni la liturgia ci fa festeggiare Sant’Andrea, uno dei primi apostoli.
Che segui’ subito Gesu’ non appena chiamato (1). Per diventare predicatore della Parola. Anche noi dobbiamo seguire l’esempio degli apostoli. Verra’ il tempo in cui il Signore ci chiedera’ conto della Parola del Vangelo.
Molto spesso il Vangelo viene tradito anche da sacerdoti indegni.
Che gli apostoli ci proteggano affinche’ possiamo essere fedeli alla Parola di Gesu’ Cristo!
Sia lodato Gesu’ Cristo! Sempre sia lodato!
__________________________
(1) Sant’Andrea (in lingua greca: Ἀνδρέας; denominato secondo la tradizione ortodossa Protocleto o il Primo chiamato; Betsaida, 6 a.C. – Patrasso, 30 novembre 60) è stato un apostolo di Gesù Cristo. Fratello di Pietro, è venerato come santo dalla Chiesa cattolica e da quella ortodossa. Viene considerato un santo miroblita.
(*) Questo commento e’ scritto in tempo reale durante l’omelia. Mi scuso per l’eventuale misinterpretazione delle parole di Don Enrico.
FROM THE HOMILY BY DON ENRICO RONCAGLIA (**)
Matt 4:18-22
At that time, as Jesus was walking by the sea of Galilee, He saw two brothers, Simon, who is called Peter, and his brother Andrew, casting a net into the sea – for they were fishermen -. And He said to them, Come, follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.
In these first days, the liturgy makes us celebrate Saint Andrew, one of the first apostles.
Who immediately followed Jesus as soon as he was called (1). To become a preacher of the Word.
We too must follow the example of the apostles. The time will come when the Lord will make us aware of the Word of the Gospel.
Very often the Gospel is betrayed even by unworthy priests.
May the apostles protect us so that we can be faithful to the Word of Jesus Christ!
Praised be Jesus Christ! Always be praised!
__________________________
(1) Saint Andrew (in Greek: Ἀνδρέας; referred to according to the Orthodox tradition as Protocleto or the First Called; Bethsaida, 6 BC – Patras, 30 November 60) was an apostle of Jesus Christ. Brother of Peter, he is venerated as a saint by the Catholic and Orthodox Churches. He is considered a miroblite saint.
(*) This comment is written in real time during the homily. I apologize for any misinterpretation of Don Enrico’s words.
‘Come therefore, Lord Jesus, seek Thy servant, seek Thy weary sheep,’ wrote St. Ambrose of Milan
Mon Nov 29, 2021 – 9:54 am EST
(Catholic Family News) – “Quaere, inquit, servum tuum, quoniam mandata tua non sum oblitus. Veni ergo, Domine Jesu, quaere servum tuum, quaere lassam ovem tuam; veni, pastor, quaere sicut oves Joseph. Erravit ovis tua, dum tu moraris, dum tu versaris in montibus. Dimitte nonaginta novem oves tuas, et veni unam ovem quaerere quae erravit. Veni sine canibus, veni sine malis operariis, veni sine mercenario, qui per januam introire non noverit. Veni sine adjutore, sine nuntio, jam dudum te expecto venturum; scio enim venturum, quoniam mandata tua non sum oblitus. Veni non cum virga, sed cum caritate spirituque mansuetudinis.”[1]
The sacred time of Advent is of ancient institution and we find mention of it from around the fifth century, as a moment of the Liturgical Year destined for the preparation of the Nativity of Our Lord Jesus Christ secundum carnem. Indeed, Advent marks the beginning of the Liturgical Year, allowing us to seize this opportunity to follow, with holy resolutions, the voice of the Church.
The discipline of penance and fasting during Lent in preparation for Easter is certainly of apostolic origin, whereas that in expectatione Domini comes after and inspired by the former, becoming less rigid with the passage of centuries to only abstinence on certain days of the week. “It is true that Saint Peter Damian, in the eleventh century, still supposes that the fast of Advent was of forty days, and that Saint Louis, two centuries later, continued to observe it in this measure; but perhaps this holy king practiced it in this way out of a transport of particular devotion.”[2] The softness of modern generations has induced the maternal wisdom of the Church to mitigate the rigorous disciplines of former times, without preventing them from being practiced voluntarily; but maybe the present situation leads us to consider as opportune — precisely because they are not imposed — the privations practiced by our ancestors in obedience of an ecclesiastical precept.
The liturgy of the Advent season is indebted to the labors of St Gregory the Great, not only for the texts of the Office and the Mass, but also for the very plainchant compositions. The ancient trope Sanctissimus namque, which introduces the Introit Ad te levavi of the first Sunday of Advent, recalls the inspiration of the Holy Pontiff by the Holy Ghost, Who appeared in the form of a dove.[3] Initially consisting of six weeks and then five, the weeks of preparation for the Holy Nativity were reduced to four between the end of the ninth century and the beginning of the tenth, which means the current use is at least a thousand years old. The Ambrosian Church still maintains six weeks, for a total of forty-two days, modelled after Lent.
Amongst the first authors of homilies on the subject of Advent, we find Saint Ambrose, Doctor and Father of the Church. It is with a prayer that we find in the Commentary on Psalm 118 that I would like to begin this meditation. The incipit of the prayer is Quaere, inquit, servum tuum. As you yourselves can see [note 1, below], the entire text is punctuated with quotations from Sacred Scripture: not in order to show off a biblical expertise, which the Holy Bishop of Milan certainly possessed, but because of that understanding of the Word of God which is the fruit of an intimate and vital assiduity for the soul, just as air is indispensable for breathing. This led Saint Ambrose to speak and write himself using the words of the sacred Author, not with an intent to plagiarize divine Wisdom, but because he had made them so much his own and repeated them in turn almost unaware.
When we approach the writings of the Saints, we can in some way feel disoriented or confused, like laymen; but if we have the grace to unite ourselves to the liturgical prayer by attending Holy Mass and with the recitation of the Divine Office in the traditional form, we find that it is the voice of the Church Herself that accompanies us in this meditation on the Scriptures, right from the Invitatory at Matins. And this is true also for the Advent liturgy: Regem venturum Dominum, venite adoremus, the singing of the first prayer, intoned in the middle of the night in anticipation of the rising of the true Unconquered Sun. Following this solemn invitation to adore the divine King is the beginning of the book of the Prophet Isaiah, ringing forth as a severe rebuke to His people:
“Hear, O ye heavens, and give ear, O earth, for the Lord hath spoken. I have brought up children, and exalted them: but they have despised me. The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master’s crib: but Israel hath not known me, and my people hath not understood. Woe to the sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a wicked seed, ungracious children: they have forsaken the Lord, they have blasphemed the Holy One of Israel, they are gone away backwards. For what shall I strike you any more, you that increase transgression? the whole head is sick, and the whole heart is sad. From the sole of the foot unto the top of the head, there is no soundness therein: wounds and bruises and swelling sores: they are not bound up, nor dressed, nor fomented with oil.” (Is 1:2-6)
The Prophet’s revelation shows the Lord’s indignation at the unfaithfulness of His people, obstinate in their rebellion against His holy Law. But the literal or historical[4] sense of Isaiah’s passage concerning the Jews is accompanied by the moral sense, that is, concerning what we must do. It is therefore to us that the Majesty of God turns: “For the Lord hath spoken” (ibid., 2) once again to admonish us, to show us our betrayals, to spur us to conversion.
Thus, while we ask the Lord to deliver us de ore leonis et de profundo lacu, we realize how little we deserve God’s mercy, how unworthy of His pity and how deserving we are of His punishments. Deus, qui culpa offenderis, pœnitentia placaris… The prostitutions — as Scripture calls them — into which the Jews fell are now joined by new and far worse prostitutions, not by a people to whom the Redeemer was promised, but a people which was born of His side, the Mystical Body of the Redeemer Himself; or rather, of that ilk who call themselves Catholics, but who by their unfaithfulness dishonor the Bride of the Lamb, as members both of the learning and teaching Church.
The new Israel has shown itself no less rebellious than the old, and the new Roman Sanhedrin is no less guilty than those who made the golden calf and offered it for the adoration of the Jews. If therefore the Prophet threatens terrible scourges upon those who disobeyed the Lord without having seen the coming Messiah, how much greater must be the words of a Prophet “of the end times” in light of the rebellion of humanity redeemed by the Blood of that divine Messiah, having been able to see the fulfilment of the Prophecies and the Incarnation of the Second Person of the Most Holy Trinity?
In the dramatic crisis that now for 60 years has afflicted the Church of Christ, and which today is showing itself in all its gravity, a pusillus grex [little flock] asks their Lord to save humanity that has gone astray, when corruption and apostasy have penetrated even the sacred enclosure and unto the highest Throne. And it is pusillus [little] because the majority of those who have been regenerated in Baptism and have thus deserved to be called “sons of God” daily deny the promises of that Baptism, under the leadership of hirelings and false shepherds.
Think of how many believers, raised in absolute ignorance of the fundamentals of the Faith despite having attended Catechism, are steeped in heretical philosophical and theological doctrines, convinced that all religions are equivalent; that man is not wounded by original sin but naturally good; that the State must ignore the true Religion and tolerate error; that the mission of the Church is not the eternal salvation of souls and their conversion to Christ, but the protection of the environment and the indiscriminate welcoming of migrants. Think of those who, even though they fulfil their Sunday obligation, do not know that the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Our Lord are contained in the Holy Host, and think it is only a symbol; think of those who are convinced that repenting to themselves is sufficient to approach Communion, without calling to mind the torments that hang over those who receive the Lord’s Body and Blood unworthily. Think of how many priests, how many professed religious, all the sisters and monks who believe that the Council had brought a breath of renewal in the Church, or fostered a knowledge of Sacred Scripture, or enabled the laity to understand the liturgy, hitherto ignored by the masses and jealously guarded by a caste of rigid and intolerant ecclesiastics. Think of those who saw in it an indestructible beacon against the darkness of the world, a concrete and impregnable fortress in the face of the assaults of the ‘modern’ mentality, of widespread immorality, of the defence of life from its conception to its natural end.
SUBSCRIBE TO OUR DAILY HEADLINES US Canada Catholic
Finally, think of the irrepressible satisfaction of the enemies of Christ to see the prostration of His Church before the world, with ideologies of death, the idolatry of the state, of power, of money, of the myths of false science; a Church willing to deny her glorious heritage, to adulterate the Faith and Morals taught to her by Our Lord, to corrupt her liturgy to please heretics and sectarians: not even the most delirious ravings of the worst Freemason could have hoped to see the fulfilment of Voltaire’s cry: Écrasez l’infame! [Crush the loathsome thing!]
In Advent we find ourselves symbolically at the gates of the temple, like Ash Wednesday in Lent, and watch from afar what happens at the altar: here is the Birth of the King of Israel, and there His Passion, Death and Resurrection. Let us imagine that we have to make an examination of conscience before we can be admitted to the holy place, as individual believers and as part of the ecclesial body. We can only come close to worshipping the King of kings, the Lord of lords, if we understand, on the one hand, the infinite Good that is offered to us in swaddling clothes in the manger; and on the other hand, our absolute unworthiness, which must necessarily be accompanied by the horror of our sins, the pain of having infinitely offended God and the desire to make reparation for the evil done through penance and good works.
And we must further understand that, as living members of the Church, we also have a collective responsibility for the faults of the other faithful and of our Pastors; and as citizens, we have a responsibility for the public faults of the nations. For the Communion of Saints enables us to share with the purifying souls and the merits of those of the blessed souls in Heaven, in order to balance in an incomparably more effective way than that “communion of the wicked” which makes the effects of their evil deeds fall upon their neighbors, particularly upon other people who are enemies of God.
“Come to me, those who are tormented by the attack of dangerous wolves,” Saint Ambrose exclaims. “Come to me, those who have been driven out of paradise and whose sores have long since been penetrated by the serpent’s poisons, those who have wandered far from Thy flocks in those mountains.”
We are beginning to realize that we are being besieged by ravenous wolves: by those who sow error, by those who corrupt morals, by those who propagate death and despair, by those who want to kill us in our souls even before they kill us in our bodies. We come to understand how shallow and foolish and proud we have been to allow ourselves to be deceived by the false promises of the world, of the flesh, and of the devil; how untrue were the words of those who, since the expulsion of our First Parents, continue to repeat the same temptations, to exploit our weaknesses, to exploit our pride and our vices in order to bring us down and drag us with them to Hell. We have forgotten that we have been cast out of the earthly paradise, that we bear the marks of the venomous sting of the serpent, that we have sinned by abandoning the secure pasture of the true Faith to let ourselves be seduced by the world, by the flesh, by the devil.
For if we were to live conscious of our primordial sin — which is also a collective and hereditary guilt — and of all the evil we commit and that we allow; if we were to meditate on our inability to save ourselves except through the supernatural help that God grants us through Grace; if we would not persuade ourselves that many of our actions are grave offences against the Majesty of God and that we would deserve to be wiped off the face of the earth in a way far worse than what happened to the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah, then we would not even need the Good Shepherd to come looking for us, to abandon the ninety-nine sheep safely in the mountains, where “ravenous wolves cannot attack them.”
The saintly Bishop adds: “Come without dogs, come without evil doers, come without the hireling, who does not know how to pass through the door. Come without a helper, without a messenger,” because the dogs, the evil doers and the hireling are transient figures, destined to perish, to disperse at the breath that breathes forth from God’s mouth, even if at this moment it seems that the world belongs to them. “Come, then, and seek Your sheep, not by servants, not by hirelings, but by You in person”: the unfaithful servants invite us to be “resilient” and “inclusive,” to listen to the “cry of Mother Earth,”[5] to subject ourselves to vaccination with a serum made with aborted foetuses; the hireling, “cujus non sunt oves propriæ” (…) scatters us, abandons us, does not drive away the ferocious wolves and does not punish the wicked, but rather encourages them.
Why then should the Lord come? Why can we ask Him, “Come Thou in person”? St. Ambrose answers in prayer by quoting the Psalmist: “For I have not forgotten Thy commandments” (Ps 118:176). Our obedience to God’s will finds perfect correspondence — and a divine example — in the obedience of the eternal Son of the Father from all eternity, accepting to incarnate Himself, suffer and die for our salvation: “Then said I: Behold I come: in the head of the book it is written of Me: that I should do Thy will, O God”(Heb 10:7). The Lord comes in obedience to the Father and we must await His coming by being obedient to the will of the Holy Trinity, “for I have not forgotten Thy commandments.”
The reason why we can be sure that the Lord will come after us, delivering us from the onslaught of wolves and the nefarious influence of evil doers and hirelings, is that we must not forget what He has commanded us; we must not take His place by deciding what is good and what is evil; we must not follow the multitude into the abyss for human respect or because of cowardice or complicity, but remain like the ninety-nine sheep in the secure pastures of the Holy Church, “for the ravenous wolves cannot attack them as long as they are on the mountains,” closer to God by being detached from earthly things.
In addition, we must exercise Holy Humility, recognising ourselves as sinners: “come and seek out the one sheep that has erred,” for “Thou alone art able to turn back the errant sheep and You will not grieve those from whom You have strayed,” that is, the Catholics of all times, who have remained faithful, safe from the wolves in the high pastures. “And they too will rejoice at the return of the sinner.”
The prayer of Saint Ambrose continues with a very profound and meaningful expression: “Receive me in the flesh that fell in Adam. Receive me, not from Sarah, but from Mary, so that I may be not only a virgin untouched, but a virgin immune, through the effect of grace, from every stain of sin.” In Holy Mary, Sancta Virgo virginum, we find the Mediatrix of all graces; in Her, most pure creature, is incarnated the Eternal Word of God, from Her the Savior is born to the world; through Her we are presented to Her divine Son, and by His merits we may be received “in the flesh that fell in Adam,” by virtue of the Grace that restores us in friendship with God. A most fitting inspiration for meditation as we prepare ourselves for the Holy Nativity.
But there is another very important consideration that St. Ambrose leaves at the end of his oration: “Bring me by the Cross that gives salvation to the wanderers, in which alone there is rest for the weary, in which alone shall all who die live.” Everything revolves around the Cross of Christ, it rises in time and eternity as a sign of contradiction, by which we remember that it is an instrument of Redemption, salvation for the wandering, rest for the weary, life for those who are dying.
A 14th-century miniature by Pacino di Buonaguida [6] presents a very rare and highly symbolic image: the Lord climbing up the Cross with a ladder — the scala virtutum — to emphasize the willingness of His sacrifice and the “paradox” of His dual Nature. In 17th-century iconography we find a recurring image of the Child Jesus sleeping on the Cross,[7] an explicit allusion to divine love and the sacrifice of Christ. Christmas and Easter are intrinsically linked; thus, in preparation for the Birth of the Savior, we must always contemplate the centrality and veritable fulcrum of the Cross, on which rests the Child Jesus, and on which ascends, by way of a mystical ladder, the Immaculate Lamb. It is there that we also have to arrive, because it is only on the Cross that we find salvation, in pursuit of the Lord: “And He said to all: If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me” (Lk 9:23).
“Veni, ut facias salutem in terris, in coelo gaudium”: “Come and accomplish salvation on earth, joy in heaven.” Let this be our invocation during the sacred time of Advent, to prepare ourselves spiritually for the trials that await us.
+ Carlo Maria Viganò, Archbishop
November 28, 2021
Dominica I Adventus
Footnotes
[1] “Seek, he says, Thy servant, because I have not forgotten Thy commandments [Ps 118:176]. Come therefore, Lord Jesus, seek Thy servant, seek Thy weary sheep; come, Shepherd, seek, as Joseph sought the sheep [Gen 37:14]. Thy sheep hast wandered while Thou didst tarry, while Thou hast been about in the mountains. Leave behind Thy ninety-nine sheep, and come seek the one which hath wandered [Mt 18:12 ff; Lk 15:4]. Come without dogs, come without evil doers, come without the hireling, who does not know how to pass through the door [Jn 10:1-7]. Come without a helper, without a messenger. I have been waiting for Thy coming for a long time. For I know that Thou wilt come, for I have not forgotten Thy commandments [Ps 118:176]. Come not with a rod, but with charity and in the spirit of meekness [1 Cor 4:21].” — Saint Ambrose, Expositio Psalmi CXVIII, 22, 28.
[2] Dom Prosper Guéranger, L’Anno liturgico, I. Avvento — Natale — Quaresima — Passione, trad. it. P. Graziani, Alba, 1959, pp. 21-26.
[3] “Sanctissimus namque Gregorius cum preces effunderet ad Dominum ut musicum donum ei desuper in carminibus dedisset, tunc descendit Spiritus Sanctus super eum, in specie columbæ, et illustravit cor ejus, et sic demum exortus est canere, ita dicendo: Ad te levavi…” Trope to the Introit of the First Sunday of Advent — Cfr. https://gregobase.selapa.net/chant.php?id=4654.
[4] Littera gesta docet, quid credas allegoria, moralis quid agas, quo tendas anagogia (The letter teaches what has happened, the allegory what you have to believe, the moral what you have to do, the anagogy the goal you have to aim for) — Nicola di Lyra, Postilla in Gal., 4:3.
[5] Cfr. https://www.vaticannews.va/it/papa/news/2021-10/ebook-papa-francesco-laudato-si.html and https://www.avvenire.it/opinioni/pagine/il-grido-della-terra-e-dei-poveri.
[6] Cfr. https://scriptoriumdaily.com/ladder-at-the-cross — A painting of the Giotto school with an identical subject is in the Monastery of Sant’Antonio in Polesine, Ferrara. See also by Anna Eörsi, Haec scala significat ascensum virtutum. Remarks on the iconography of Christ Mounting the Cross on a Ladder — https://arthist.elte.hu/Tanarok/EorsiA/Fulltexts/Idegen/l%E9tra_a.htm.
[7] See, for example, Guido Reni’s painting, Gesù Bambino addormentato sulla Croce, oil on canvas, c. 1625.
Reprinted (with permission pending) from Catholic Family News
_5-810x500.jpg)
Dr. Robert Malone said in an interview with Steve Bannon last Monday that Austria ‘is the most egregious example’ of ‘the deployment of a totalitarian approach to this whole thing.’
“The future of global totalitarianism is here, it’s just not evenly distributed,” said Dr. Robert Malone, an immunologist and virologist who researched the use of messenger RNA in vaccines at the Salk Institute in the 1980s.
He said in an interview Monday with Steve Bannon’s “War Room” that Austria — the first country to require that every citizen be vaccinated — is “the most egregious example” of “the deployment of a totalitarian approach to this whole thing.”
The European nation and others, Malone said, are using what professor Mattias Desmet of Ghent University in Belgium calls “mass formation psychosis.”
“Basically, it’s the madness of crowds,” Malone said. “And a lot of these governments have been overtaken by this form of psychosis or hypnosis.
“They believe that these vaccines are effective. They clearly are not.”
Meanwhile, in Australia’s Northern Territory, the army is transferring positive COVID-19 cases and contacts by army truck to “quarantine centers.”
The chief minister of Northern Territory said Monday that more residents were being transferred to the camps, including 38 people who were in “close contact” with others who were infected with the novel coronavirus.
Gunner said at a news conference that he spoke with Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison and is “grateful for the support of about 20 [Australian Defence Force) personnel as well as army trucks to assist with the transfer of positive cases and close contacts.”
The Northern Territory chief also announced the imposition of a “hard lockdown” on two communities, meaning people can leave their homes only for medical treatment or in case of a medical emergency.
At the news conference Monday, angrily jabbing his finger repeatedly for emphasis, Gunner declared that anyone who opposes vaccine mandates, even if vaccinated, will be regarded by the government as an “anti-vaxxer.”
‘Impervious’ to ‘actual facts’
Malone told Bannon in the interview Monday that many government leaders and public health officials are “impervious to data” and “actual facts.”
Bannon stopped Malone at that point, telling his audience he wanted to make sure it’s clear what is meant by “effective.”
White House coronavirus adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci, vaccine funder Bill Gates, and others now are conceding that the COVID-19 vaccines do not prevent infection and transmission, Bannon noted.
Their pitch now is that the vaccines prevent serious disease and death. Bannon asked Malone to spell out the case Fauci is making for that benefit.
Malone said there’s no doubt that both the vaccines and natural immunity from a previous infection are very effective at preventing serious illness and death. He cited what he described as a “very large and well-constructed” Israeli study concluding that both the vaccines and natural immunity protect against death. But the Israelis also found that natural immunity confers 20-fold better protection from disease than the vaccine.
Fauci and other public officials are neglecting the effectiveness of natural infection, Malone said.
“They are obsessed with the potential mortality risk and hospitalization risk,” he said. “But that is all in the high-risk cohort, the elderly, and that can almost completely be mitigated through early intervention with a wide range of drugs, not the least of which is the monoclonal antibodies.”
Malone charged that public officials are insisting the vaccine is “somehow the only way out.”
“It is absolutely not; it is clearly not effective,” he said.
In fact, Fauci said in a New York Times podcast interview last week that the vaccines are even “waning to the point that you’re seeing more and more people getting breakthrough infections, and more and more of those people who are getting breakthrough infections are winding up in the hospital.”
Fauci: Boosters will be ‘essential’
Last week, Bill Gates acknowledged in an interview with Jeremy Hunt at London’s Policy Exchange that the vaccines are losing effectiveness and “we need a new way of doing the vaccines.”
Days later, Fauci acknowledged in the Times podcast that the COVID vaccine’s effectiveness against infection, hospitalization and death is waning for all age groups, meaning everyone will need to get a booster.
“I think the boosting is going to be an absolutely essential component of our response, not a bonus, not a luxury, but an absolute essential part of the program,” he said.
Reproduction from World News Daily (permission pending)
Mon Nov 29, 2021 – 4:56 pm EST
LONDON (LifeSiteNews) – U.K. reports on child deaths from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show that, in the weeks since the COVID shot has been administered to children between ages 12 and 15, recorded deaths have risen by 44 percent above the 2015-2019 average for the same time period.
According to the ONS’ “five-year average weekly deaths by sex and age group” figures between 2015 and 2019 among children ages 10-14, there were 41 deaths recorded from week 38 (late September) to week 45 (early November). Within the same time period, the weekly figures recorded for the year 2021 show that 59 children died, representing a 43.9 percent rise in deaths over the five-year average.
A report from The Exposé notes that deaths among 10-14-year-olds have been consistently above that of the national five-year average since the shots started being administered to children, save for one week, week 42. Week 38 saw more than double the deaths among the young age group, going from a five-year average of three deaths to eight deaths in 2021.
The single largest weekly death count was observed in week 40, about two weeks after the jab had been rolled out, at which point 11 children died in 2021 compared with the five-year average of four, representing a 175 percent rise in deaths.
Breaking down the data into male and female categories, The Exposé showed that although more boys’ deaths were recorded, 2021 has marked a greater percentage of increase in deaths for girls.
Overall, 24 boys died between weeks 38 and 45 on the five-year average scale, whereas 34 died in 2021, marking a 41.7 percent increase in deaths. The greatest number of boys’ deaths were recorded in Week 40, during which time seven boys died, up 250 percent from the five-year average.
Among girls age 10–14, ONS records show an average increase of 47 percent in weeks 38 to 45 of 2021 over the five-year average, going from 17 deaths to 25. The greatest weekly record was in week 40, in which four girls ages 10-14 died, up 100 percent from the five-year average.
While the quantities might appear low, the sudden change in recorded deaths is stark. For the 16 weeks before the COVID jab rollout, for example, an increase in deaths of only around 3.9 percent is observed, a factor of 10 less than the weeks thereafter. The highest increase in deaths recorded during the prior 16 weeks was in week 28, in which a 200 percent increase from the five-year average occurred, going from two to six deaths.
Unlike the time after the shots started being administered to 12-year-olds, the earlier period saw some large drops in deaths from the five-year average to now, with the largest decrease in deaths observed in week 23, during which time deaths dropped by 55.6 percent, down to four deaths from nine.
Though there is a pattern of increased deaths since the shots began being used in children, the causes of the deaths were not published.
The push to vaccinate young children comes despite the fact that children face extremely low risk from COVID-19. This combined with the thousands of reports of serious adverse events and deaths after the jabs has led numerous experts to criticize the push to inject children with the experimental shots.
This summer, researchers with Johns Hopkins School of Medicine found a “mortality rate of zero among children without a pre-existing medical condition such as leukemia” when they “analyze[d] approximately 48,000 children under 18 diagnosed with COVID in health-insurance data from April to August 2020.”
In response to the finding, lead researcher Dr. Marty Makary accused the CDC of basing its advocacy of school COVID vaccination on “flimsy data.”
On September 13, 2021, England Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty advised that the government roll out its COVID-19 vaccination program to children ages 12 and over, with the National Health Service (NHS) deploying a children’s vaccination scheme nationwide by the following Monday, September 20.
Britain Health Secretary Sajid Javid suggested at the time that parents’ wishes could be overruled regarding jabbing their children against COVID, saying “as long as we believe the child is competent enough to make that decision, then the child will prevail.”
The government quickly acted on Whitty’s advice despite weeks earlier receiving contrary advice from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI), which declared against both the necessity and safety of implementing the jabs for children.
The JCVI, an independent adviser to the U.K. government on immunization programs, determined in a September 3 statement that the “available evidence indicates that the individual health benefits from COVID-19 vaccination are small in those aged 12 to 15 years.” They added that the any benefit granted by the abortion-tainted shots are only “marginally greater than the potential known harms,” while acknowledging that “there is considerable uncertainty regarding the magnitude of the potential harms.”
Given the uncertainty of risks involved with the COVID shots, the JCVI considered the benefits “too small to support advice on a universal programme of vaccination of otherwise healthy 12- to 15-year-old children at this time.”
Mon Nov 29, 2021 – 8:22 pm EST
(LifeSiteNews) — Austrians who refuse to take the experimental COVID-19 jab could face a monthly tax if one medical expert’s recommendation is implemented, Breitbart reported Thursday.
According to the outlet, Gerrit Loibl, the vice president of the Lower Austrian Medical Association, suggested that the Austrian government ought to tax unvaccinated Austrians a monthly surcharge of up to €100 for refusing to comply with the diktats of the government.
Loibl explained that his proposed tax, which could range from €90 to €100 (or roughly $90-$113 USD) per month, is based upon Austria’s current tax on tobacco products.
It’s unclear how refusing to take an experimental injection with limited safety data that may cause injury or death and choosing to use tobacco products are alike.
The suggestion to financially penalize unvaccinated citizens comes after the Austrian government announced November 19 that it would require all citizens to be vaccinated against COVID-19 beginning February 2022, becoming the first western nation to make the shots compulsory for all citizens.
And He said to them, Come, follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men
ORARI S.MESSA DI OGGI MARTEDI 30 NOVEMBRE ORE 8.00 – S. Andreæ Apostoli ~ II. classis
Commemoratio: Feria III infra Hebdomadam I Adventus
S.MESSA ONLINE DI DON ENRICO RONCAGLIA, su youtube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYYDj4O4e11cE7XNtngkoJA
e qui:
LITURGIA IN LATINO\ENGLISH:
https://divinumofficium.com/cgi-bin/missa/missa.pl
COMMUNIO PREGHIERE\PRAYERS:
https://www.proselitismodellascienza.it/2021/10/25/communio-e-comunione-spirituale/
EVANGELIUM E OMELIA\GOSPEL AND HOMILY:
Evangelium Matt 4:18-22
In illo témpore: Ambulans Iesus iuxta mare Galilǽæ, vidit duos fratres, Simónem, qui vocátur Petrus, et Andréam fratrem eius, mitténtes rete in mare – erant enim piscatóres – et ait illis: Veníte post me, et fáciam vos fíeri piscatóres hóminum. At illi contínuo, relíctis rétibus, secúti sunt eum. Et procédens inde, vidit álios duos fratres, Iacóbum Zebedæi et Ioánnem, fratrem eius, in navi cum Zebedæo patre eórum reficiéntes rétia sua: et vocávit eos. Illi autem statim, relíctis rétibus et patre, secúti sunt eum.
Gospel Matt 4:18-22
At that time, as Jesus was walking by the sea of Galilee, He saw two brothers, Simon, who is called Peter, and his brother Andrew, casting a net into the sea – for they were fishermen -. And He said to them, Come, follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men. And at once they left the nets, and followed Him. And going farther on, He saw two other brothers, James the son of Zebedee, and his brother John, in a boat with Zebedee their father, mending their nets; and He called them. And immediately they left their nets and their father, and followed him.
DALL’OMELIA DI (FROM THE HOMILY BY) DON ENRICO RONCAGLIA – MARTEDI 30 NOVEMBRE, S.MESSA ORE 8.00
DALL’OMELIA DI DON ENRICO RONCAGLIA (*)
Matt 4:18-22
In illo témpore: Ambulans Iesus iuxta mare Galilǽæ, vidit duos fratres, Simónem, qui vocátur Petrus, et Andréam fratrem eius, mitténtes rete in mare – erant enim piscatóres – et ait illis: Veníte post me, et fáciam vos fíeri piscatóres hóminum.
In questi primi giorni la liturgia ci fa festeggiare Sant’Andrea, uno dei primi apostoli.
Che segui’ subito Gesu’ non appena chiamato (1). Per diventare predicatore della Parola. Anche noi dobbiamo seguire l’esempio degli apostoli. Verra’ il tempo in cui il Signore ci chiedera’ conto della Parola del Vangelo.
Molto spesso il Vangelo viene tradito anche da sacerdoti indegni.
Che gli apostoli ci proteggano affinche’ possiamo essere fedeli alla Parola di Gesu’ Cristo!
Sia lodato Gesu’ Cristo! Sempre sia lodato!
__________________________
(1) Sant’Andrea (in lingua greca: Ἀνδρέας; denominato secondo la tradizione ortodossa Protocleto o il Primo chiamato; Betsaida, 6 a.C. – Patrasso, 30 novembre 60) è stato un apostolo di Gesù Cristo. Fratello di Pietro, è venerato come santo dalla Chiesa cattolica e da quella ortodossa. Viene considerato un santo miroblita.
(*) Questo commento e’ scritto in tempo reale durante l’omelia. Mi scuso per l’eventuale misinterpretazione delle parole di Don Enrico.
FROM THE HOMILY BY DON ENRICO RONCAGLIA (**)
Matt 4:18-22
At that time, as Jesus was walking by the sea of Galilee, He saw two brothers, Simon, who is called Peter, and his brother Andrew, casting a net into the sea – for they were fishermen -. And He said to them, Come, follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.
In these first days, the liturgy makes us celebrate Saint Andrew, one of the first apostles.
Who immediately followed Jesus as soon as he was called (1). To become a preacher of the Word.
We too must follow the example of the apostles. The time will come when the Lord will make us aware of the Word of the Gospel.
Very often the Gospel is betrayed even by unworthy priests.
May the apostles protect us so that we can be faithful to the Word of Jesus Christ!
Praised be Jesus Christ! Always be praised!
__________________________
(1) Saint Andrew (in Greek: Ἀνδρέας; referred to according to the Orthodox tradition as Protocleto or the First Called; Bethsaida, 6 BC – Patras, 30 November 60) was an apostle of Jesus Christ. Brother of Peter, he is venerated as a saint by the Catholic and Orthodox Churches. He is considered a miroblite saint.
(*) This comment is written in real time during the homily. I apologize for any misinterpretation of Don Enrico’s words.
