Tuesday, August 13, 2019

St. Bridget Of Sweden on the mercy of the Mother Of God

I am the Mother Of Mercy, the joy of the just, and the gate of God for sinners. In the fire of Purgatory there is no suffering that through my intercession would not be more easily bearable than otherwise. No one is so damned that, as long as he lives, he will lack my mercy. No one is so far from God, if he is not completely accursed, that he may not come back from God and obtain mercy when he appeals to me.
- as given to St. Bridget from the Virgin Mary.

Saturday, August 3, 2019

Our Lady, Protectress of the Marines

With filial gratitude in our hearts to Mary Immaculate, Patroness of the United States, and not unmindful that as it was on the Eve of the Feast of her Immaculate Conception that our nation was plunged into war (1941), so it was on the Feast of her Assumption into Heaven (Pacific Time) that she transmitted to us her Divine Son's gift of peace (1945), we hereby request that the Virgin Mother of Our Holy Redeemer be enshrined in your hearts, as she is in ours, under the title of Our Lady Protectress of the Marines. Indeed, the Virgin Mother of Christ is so loved by our men that entire regiments were solemnly dedicated to her; and like the Christian knights of old, rugged, hardened warriors, with her medallions, rosary, or scapular around their necks, stormed into battle crying her name. Firm is our belief that Our Lady personally conducted to the throne of her Divine Son our many comrades who, signed with the Sign of the Cross and faithful in devotion to her, made the supreme sacrifice. If, indeed, chaplains have been amazed to find so ardent a love for Our Lady among the Marines, how much more gratifying should this fact be to you. Our first act of thanksgiving, therefore, is to Almighty God that He, in His infinite goodness and mercy, saw fit to honor us, the Marines, by sending His own Mother to lead us safely, physically and spiritually, through the valley of shadows.

   -Sgt. Louis J. Maloof, USMC: from a statement to American Catholics signed by enlisted men of the Sixth Marine Division, Veterans of Okinawa, and the Third Marine Division, Veterans of Iwo Jima, World War II, and presented to Abp. Spellman at Guam, 20 August 1945; given influx in Our Sunday Visitor, 9 Sept. 1945. 

Sunday, March 3, 2019

The Athanasian Creed

Whoever wishes to be saved must before all else adhere to the Catholic Faith.
He must preserve this faith whole and untarnished; otherwise he shall most certainly perish forever.
Now this is the Catholic faith: that we worship one God in Trinity, and Trinity in unity;
Neither confusing the Persons nor distinguishing the nature.
The Person of the Father is distinct; the Person of the Son is distinct; the Person of the Holy Ghost is distinct.
Yet the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost possess one Godhead, equal glory, and co-eternal majesty.
As the Father is, so is the Son, so also is the Holy Ghost.
The Father is uncreated, the Son is uncreated, the Holy Ghost is uncreated.
The Father is infinite, the Son is infinite, the Holy Ghost is infinite.
The Father is eternal, the Son is eternal, the Holy Ghost is eternal.
Nevertheless, they are not three eternals, but one Eternal;
Even as they are not three uncreateds, or three infinites, but one Uncreated, and one Infinite.
So likewise the Father is almighty, the Son is almighty, the Holy Ghost is almighty.
And yet they are not three almighties, but one Almighty.
So also the Father is God, the Son is God, the Holy Ghost is God.
And yet they are not three Gods, but only one God.
So too the Father is Lord, the Son is Lord, the Holy Ghost is Lord.
And still there are not three Lords, but only one Lord.
For just as we are compelled by Christian truth to profess that each Person is individually God and Lord, so also are we forbidden by the Catholic religion to hold that there are three Gods or Lords.
The Father was made by no one, being neither created nor begotten.
The Son is from the Father alone, though not created or made, but begotten.
The Holy Ghost is from the Father and the Son, though neither made nor created nor begotten, but proceeding.
Consequently there is one Father, not three Fathers; there is one Son, not three Sons; there is one Holy Ghost, not three Holy Ghosts.
Furthermore, in this Trinity there is no before or after, no greater or less: for all three Persons are co-eternal and co-equal.
In every respect, therefore, as has already been stated, unity must be worshipped in Trinity, and Trinity in unity.
This is what everyone who wishes to be saved must hold regarding the Blessed Trinity.
But, for his eternal salvation, he must also believe according to the true faith in the Incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Now the true faith requires us to believe and acknowledge that our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is both God and Man.
He is God, begotten of the substance of the Father before the world began; He is Man, born in the world of the substance of His Mother.
Perfect God, perfect Man, a substance composed of a rational soul and a human body.
Equal to the Father in divinity, less than the Father with respect to His humanity.
And, although He is God and Man, still he is only one Christ, not two.
One, not by any turning of the divinity into flesh, but by the taking up of humanity into God,
One only, not by any confusion of substance, but by the unity of His person.
For, just as the rational soul and the body form one man, so God and Man form one Christ.
He suffered for our salvation, descended into hell, rose from the dead on the third day.
Ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God the Father all-powerful, whence He shall come to judge the living and the dead.
At His coming, all men must rise with their bodies and must give an account of their own deeds.
And those who have done good shall go into eternal life, while those who have done evil shall go into eternal fire.
This is the Catholic faith, and anyone who does not believe it fully and firmly cannot be saved.
-from the Catholic Daily Missal, 1962.