The Bellarmine Forum Podcast

Holy Week: Holy Monday

Meditations and Spiritual Readings for each day of Holy Week compiled by Fr. Richard F. Clarke SJ.   

See the text here:  https://bellarmineforum.org/devotional/holy-week/monday-in-holy-week/

Holy Week: Palm Sunday

Meditations and Spiritual Readings for each day of Holy Week compiled by Fr. Richard F. Clarke SJ.   

See the text here: https://bellarmineforum.org/devotional/holy-week/palm-sunday/

BFP Women Priests? "No Jesuit Sources, please," says China

Women Priests,

Inclusive Language was from the US Bishops (ICEL)

Selecting Pronouns

Nat. Cath Reporter is the epitome of all insanity

Fordham University advertising to women priests

announcements

China wants to stop the destruction of their young boys

China appears to have removed the role of the Pope in selected bishops for China

 

BFP 2020 Year of Judas... 2021? Judgment

What stands out in your mind from 2020?  Did you find it "baffling and reprehensible"?

The chickens have come home to roost for the US Catholic Church.  We've jumped the shark and the bus to fantasyland has run off the cliff.  Reality and the fantasy of American Catholicism have finally diverged so far that no reasonable mind can hold it.  

It all seems to be based on the most fraudulent vote, ever.  

Judas was a Marxist, just like those today.  

It's all plain to see now, though -- the wheat and the chaff are grown and ready to be plucked.  Lord, have mercy on us!

BFP: Without Your Guardian Angel, You Will Fail

When Our Lord was in the garden, He experienced what we call the agony.  It was the agony in the Garden.  In the last blog post on Bellarmine Forum, we learn that a chief point of St. Raphael’s speech is to tell us: “God tries those who love Him.”   His Son Jesus was no exception.  Jesus was tried in the Garden and He prayed.  He sweat blood.  Here is Jesus, the God-Man.  He’s God!  And yet He needed help.  Why do I say that?   The Gospels tell us that an angel came to strengthen Him.

If Jesus needed His angel, who are you?

If you aren’t using and befriending the angel God gave to you, you’re going to fail.  

October 2 — Feast of the Guardian angels.  Also, First Friday! Last year we introduced a prayer that many listeners had never heard, but they memorized it, learned it, and pray it now.  Last year, we focused on the tenderness and the principal ways your angel helps you. 

Holy angel, guardian mine, 
Given me by love divine; 
Day and night watch over me, 
From harm, from sin, let me be free. 
By a pious life I fain 
Would eternal joys attain.  Amen

If you haven’t heard that episode, visit the blog post for this episode and click this link and go listen — you’ll want to be friends with your angel.

This year, I want to bring some heat — heat given to us by Mother Church.  And I will bring you a new prayer.

In the fourth century – St. Hilary – doctor of the Church mind you, tells us:

“In the warfare we carry on we remain strong against the evil powers through the angels who are our helpers”

Helpers — that quote is nice, but it doesn’t explain how you will fail if you ignore your angel.  St. Hilary makes it clearer here:

“There are angels of little children who look upon the face of God every day. These spirits have been sent to aid the human race. Our weakness is such that, if the guardian angels had not been given to us, we would not be able to resist the many and powerful attacks of the evil spirits. “

Without our guardian angel, we would not be able to resist…  the many and powerful attacks of the evil spirits.  In other words, without our angel, we will fail.  

He expands this teaching even further!

That is why we need a higher nature (to protect us). We know this from the words with which the Lord strengthened Moses trembling in his fear, “My angel will go before you.” That is why God has taken out these spirits from among His treasures and has given through them the help we need in our human weakness. By this divine assistance we are able to resist the powers of this world of darkness to obtain the heritage of heaven!

St. Hillary

If you want to get to Heaven, you need your angel!  Without your angel, you will fail to get to Heaven!

Make you a little afraid yet?  I’ve dipped into the old liturgies — way back in Mother Church’s rich tradition and found some gems for you.  Let’s look at the prayer to the Guardian Angel popularized in monasteries during the so called “dark ages”.  This prayer is essentially the same as the Eastern Churches use today and it is part of a Service that includes the Akathist prayer to the Mother of God.  

If you want to get to Heaven, you need your angel!  Without your angel, you will fail to get to Heaven!  This prayer makes that very clear!

Holy Angel of the Lord, my Guardian, pray to God for me.

Deliver me from every misfortune and save me from sorrow, I pray, O holy Angel, given to me as my good guardian by God.

Holy Angel of the Lord, my Guardian, pray to God for me.

Enlighten my mind, O good one, and illumine me, I pray thee, O holy Angel, and teach me to think always profitably.

Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit:

Calm my heart from present disturbance, and strengthen me to be vigilant in good, O my guardian, and guide me miraculously in quietness of life.

Both now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.

Without your angel, you will fail.  Talk to your angel.  Thank God for you guardian angel.  Do it now — tell him you want to be friends!

From the love of my soul I cry to thee, O guardian of my soul, my most holy Angel! Protect and guard me always from the hunting of the evil one, and guide me to the heavenly life, teaching and enlightening and strengthening me.

Finally, this prayer says it all:

O Holy Angel of Christ, I fall down and pray to thee, my holy Guardian, given me from holy Baptism for the protection of my sinful body and soul. By my laziness and bad habits, I have angered thy most pure light, and have driven thee away from me by all my shameful deeds, lies, slander, envy, condemnation, scorn, disobedience, hatred of brother, grudges, avarice, adultery, anger, meanness, greed, gluttony, drunkenness, loquacity, negative and evil thoughts, proud ways, having self-will in all the desires of the flesh. O my evil will, which even the dumb animals do not follow! How canst thou look at me or approach me! With what eyes, O Angel of Christ, wilt thou look at me so badly snared in vile deeds? How can I ask forgiveness for my bitter, evil and wicked deeds, into which I fall every day and night, and every hour? But falling down, I pray to thee, O my holy Guardian: pity me, thy sinful and unworthy servant (Name) . Be my helper and protector against my wicked enemy, by thy holy prayers, and make me a partaker of the Kingdom of God with all the Saints, always, now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.

When St. Peter was imprisoned, it was his angel that came and released him.  When Moses was to go, Our Lord told him, “I will send my angel before thee.”  When Our Lord agonized in the Garden, His angel came to strengthen Him and comfort him.

Your angel is a gift from God to you.  Without your angel, you will fail.

Fr. Hardon taught that we are to expect miracles, and our guardian angel can work them.  St. Peter’s escape from prison is just one of millions of examples.  Says Fr. Hardon, “The more devoted we are to them and the more fervently we invoke their aid, the more of God’s blessings they will obtain for us who are still living in the shadows of faith.”

Finally – we head into the fall and the time of year when Mother Church reminds us of the four last things.  We cannot forget death and judgment.  Our Guardian angel is there to help us and will be with us at final judgement.  The Canon to the Guardian Angels include a plea for his help then:

O gracious Angel, sent by God, strengthen the life of thy servant and forsake me not unto the ages. […] Be my veil and visor in the Judgment Day of all men, when all deeds, good and evil, will be tried by fire.

You angel will be with you until the last.  The last trial of all is final judgment.  Without your angel, you will fail.

Pray and talk to your angel!  Be his friend, and he will be yours!   I promise!  Not just promise!   I guarantee it!

Leo XIII, October 13th, and the Feast of St. Michael

Today, September 29th, is the Feast of the Archangels, and in particular, the feast of St. Michael the Archangel.

 

The Roman Breviary describes him thus:

O Jesu!  Life-spring of the soul!

The Father’s power and glory bright!

Thee with the angels we extol;

From Thee they draw their life and light.

Thy thousand hosts are spread

Embattled over the azure sky;

But Michael bears Thy standard dread,

And lift the mighty cross on high!

• Roman Breviary, Feast (Sep. 29), hymn Te splendor et virtus Patris at vespers.  (attr. to Bl. Rabanus Maurus 9th century)

 

St. Michael, you see, was charged with the task of leading the heavenly army of angels, and the first task was to evict Satan and the other evil angels to hell.  So much for Hell being empty.

 

It’s tragic today that many people have this soft, puny, chubby toddler image of angels.  pffft.  

 

When Our Lord was before Pilate, Jesus referred to the heavenly host as an army.  He told Pilate that had the Father not given Him up to Pilate, then His subjects would be there fighting to free Our Lord.

 

Recently, I made a comment on this in the “Lest the angels take stock.”  It seems times are changing, and we may be seeing more direct intervention of the Heavenly Army.

 

In the last episode, I mentioned that the wound on the right hand of Our Lady’s statue in Akita would stop bleeding on September 29th.  56 years years earlier, the Children at Fatima would see that same right hand of Our Lady stop the fiery flames issuing forth from St. Michael’s sword.  

 

Just a year before the Miracle of the Sun at Fatima, either in late September, or mid October — Lucia was never sure because she did not write the date down, St. Michael came to the children and taught them about the Blessed Sacrament.  1916.  

Lucia described it like this:

After we had repeated this prayer I don't know how many time we saw the shining over us a strange light. We lifted our heads to see what was happening. the Angel was holding in his left hand a chalice and over it, in the air, was a host from which drops of blood fell into the chalice. The Angel leaves the chalice in the air, kneels near us and tells us to repeat three times:

Most Holy Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, I adore You profoundly, and I offer You the Most Precious Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ, present in all the tabernacles of the world, in reparation for the outrages, sacrileges and indifferences by which He is offended. And by the infinite merits of His most Sacred Heart and the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I beg the conversion of poor sinners.

After that he rose, took again in his hand the chalice and the host. The host he gave to me and the contents of the chalice he gave to Jacinta and Francisco, saying at the same time,

| Eat and drink the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ terribly outraged by the ingratitude of men. Offer reparation for their sakes and console God.

Once more he bowed to the ground repeating with us the same prayer thrice:

Most Holy Trinity,…

and disappeared. Overwhelmed by the supernatural atmosphere that involved us, we imitated the Angel in everything, kneeling prostrate as he did and repeating the prayers he said.

 

Did you catch something?  Last episode, we discussed our Lady;’s hand bleeding …   The children saw the precious blood dripping from the Host in St. Michael’s hand.  All of it happening this time of year, around his feast.

 

More curious though, on October 13th.  There’s that data again, 33 years before the Miracle of the Son…  Pope Leo XIII was finishing Mass.  

Wait — do you remember last week’s episode when we discussoed the events at Akita? During Mass.

The date was October 13th, 1884.  Witnesses described the Pope Leo stopped in front of the altar.  The described his face as showing horror and wonder at the same time.  They did not know what happened but the Pope immediately ran to his study and wrote something down.  After writing the St. Michael Prayer, he gave the prayer to his secretary and ordered him to have copies of it made and send it to all the bishops of the world ordering them to say the prayer after every Mass.

 

Pope Leo would describe the vision.  He said he had seen a chilling vision of “legions of demons” attacking the Church.  So fierce was the attack that they almost destroyed it. Then he saw St Michael intervening decisively to defend the Church – not immediately, but much later, and only after the faithful had multiplied their fervent prayers to the Archangel.

 

The children saw St. Michael, and they saw Our Lady halt the fire from Heaven so that we could pray and offer reparation.

 

St. Michael is not a chubby faced toddler.  He’s powerful!  Fr. Hardon would say that at a minimum we should invoke his protection twice daily, morning and night.  

Let’s pray Leo XIII’s prayer together:

Saint Michael the archangel, defend us in battle, 

be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil.  May God rebuke him, we humbly pray, and do thou, O prince of the Heavenly hosts!:  by the power of God cast into Hell Satan, and all the evil spirits, who prowl throughout the world seeking the ruin of souls.  Amen.

 

BFP Our Lady's Bloody Hand 47 Years Ago

Communion in the Hand?  Perfectly Legal?  Not an outrage to Our Lady?

Take a trip to events 47 years ago...

And then compare it to seeing some nuns in habit at Mass go to the "Communion in the Hand" line, instead of the Communion on the tongue line.

Think Coronavirus is an excuse?

This episode will change your mind, or at least make you think more about it.

BFP: An Empty Hell Means No Triumph of the Cross

An Empty Hell Means there is No Triumph of the Cross

 

What people say and what they really believe are often different.   There was the famous English free-thinker, Hobbes.  He used to stridently assert his whole life that there was neither God nor angel, still less was there a devil or hell.  Despite all his strident insistence, however, he had the greatest dread of evil spirits; even in his old age he was afraid of sleeping alone in a room.  What he openly denied, he secretly believed.

 

So it is with Hell.  Some, starting with people interpreting Hans Urs von Balthasar, began to comment that we can hope Hell will be empty.  Many people run from that supposition and think Hell will be empty.  That thinking is not too far from thinking there is no Hell.

 

We know better.

 

The index of the Writings of St. Maximillian Kolbe have very few mentions of hell, however, he said that the Buddhists taught that there is a heaven and hell, but their teachers do not believe it.

 

St. Kolbe reported in his letter that he told the teachers who said this that they were deceiving people to teach in something they don’t believe in.

 

The buddhists replied, “nothing can be done about that.”

 

I agree with Kolbe:  “It is not right to teach about things that are untrue.  If Heaven and Hell do not exist, everyone should know the truth.  But if they do exist, then they must apply to everyone, because before God all men are equal..”

 

Similarly, Fr. McBrien, the late theologian priest of Notre Dame University and author of the book Catholicism, wrote in that title that the Church never taught anyone went to Hell.  Countless people, festered by McBrien’s short talk ran with the notion that Hell is but a scare tactic, and no one goes there.

 

We should have no sympathy for these liars who would diminish the reality of Hell.  The possibility of death.  Our Lady warned us at Fatima that hell was real and showed the little children the vision of people tormented there.

 

The saints have constantly warned us.  Indeed, if you have been in a state of mortal sin before, you know… hell is real because you began to experience it here.

 

What good is it to prevaricate on this?  

 

Fr. Hardon would reply to these inane quips, with “If Hell is empty after all these years, then we must ask what crime does it take to go there?”

 

“No Catholic theologian in the United States has made a larger contribution to the reception of Vatican II than Richard McBrien did,” the Rev. Charles E. Curran, a professor of human values at Southern Methodist University in Dallas.

 

Curran…  who was a Catholic priest and was active on the board of the National Catholic Reporter would of course praise the likes of such stench.

 

But let’s get deeper here — let’s assume that the Hell is just a “scare tactic” for a moment..   Maybe these people are right, right?

 

Maybe those people who criticized St. Alphonsus Ligouri’s terrifying sermons on sin and punishment were right — scare tactics not needed and he was being “Dramatic”….

 

Maybe Bishop Barron’s response that when Our Lady showed the vision of Hell to the little children at Fatima, that it was just a private revelation.  Meaning, I suppose in my opinion on reading that response back then, was that Our Lady’s revelation was not a definitive teaching.  Indeed, people interpreting his response took it to mean that the vision of Hell with people in it was not authoritative.  (Refer back to the last episode on the angels...  I don’t want the bloody nose for that implication...  fools rush in)

 

Of course there are people in Hell.  

 

Our Lady of Fatima was right, however, and I can prove to you why.

 

She told us to pray and repent, and do penance.

 

Today is the feast of the Triumph of the Cross.  September 14.  

 

It celebrates the day St. Helen’s quest to find and recover the true cross.  The year was 326.  The temple to Jupiter in Palestine was demolished.  Three crosses and the titulus (“I.N.R.I.) were found.  The problem was which was the true cross?  A woman with chronic illness touched each.  She was healed upon touching the third.  A funeral passing by, they touched the cross to the deceased.  He rose from the dead.

 

The Birth of Jesus, Cross, His death and His Resurrection are real…

 

But ask yourself…  if there was no Hell, why would Jesus do that?  Why suffer the Cross?

 

St. Robert Bellarmine was apt to say that the trouble with Calvin is that he could not admit how much God loves each of us.

 

The trouble with these moderns and weak teachers is that they love none of us…   Jesus Christ endured the Cross to rescue you, me, and everyone from Hell… It’s real, and people can go there.

 

Glory to His Cross and Resurrection!   Glory to Jesus Christ, Our Savior!

 

Now, if there is some “hope that hell would be empty”, it was expressed by John the Baptist, right?  John the Baptist proclaimed the coming of the redeemer, the savior.  He told us “repent, and make straight the path” and be baptized.

 

Why did he do that is hell was just a scare tactic?

 

Why did Jesus suffer death if Hell is empty?  

 

And why would Our Lady chose to scare such little children if it were not true that people go to Hell?

 

The vision of Hell given by Our Lady to the children at Fatima was real — she loves us and wants us to avail ourselves of salvation.  The salvation merited by Her Son.  

 

What von Balthasar was trying to say is that the Crucifixion was adequate to expiate all sin, everywhere — if people availed themselves of salvation, repent, and turn to Our Lord, they can be saved — every one of them.

 

But it takes conversion, and not everyone will do that.

 

Don’t be tempted to think Hell is empty.  And if you want to hope in an empty hell, then do as John the Baptist did and speak of repentance, even to Herod.

 

Here is a clip of Fr. Micelli describing private revelation and what we must believe of it:

-Fr. Micelli Clip -

I love what he says about the “private revelation”

 

But let’s tackle this question directly:  is Hell empty, and does the Church say so?

 

No, the Church teaches there is a Hell, it is eternal, and we know that the devil, and many angels who followed the devil are in Hell.

 

So, it’s not empty.  But let’s take this one step further. Fr. Hardon commented frequently on the “empty hell” hope advanced around.

- Fr. Hardon Clip -

 

 

 

 

BFP Aug 15 Hagia Sophia Closed Lest The Angels Take Stock

On the Feast of the Assumption (Dormition)... 

Mary leads the way to the promises of her son, Jesus.  She was also taken body and soul to Heaven by Jesus after she fell asleep.

Angels protect things precious to Our Lord.  The Hagia Sophia was closed this week after attempts to turn it into a militant islamic outpost...  

Our Lord does not always think it is time for the sword, but when it is, His angels are fast to use it.  The events at the Hagia Sophia seem to indicate time is up.  Buckle up.

___  next episode:  what does this all mean for prelates who ignore and dissuade the faithful from heeding her warnings at Fatima, especially that Hell is real?

BFP: The Praxis of Liberation

Join in to a discussion where we talk about the refined front of Gramsci's Marxist transformation of the Church into a liberator of the poor and social action committee ready to help liberate the oppressed everywhere.

Was the apostasy of the 60s, now refined into a less awkward and more smooth scholarly sounding charade of charity, nothing more than a clever way to move people away from God?

Why don't we send troublemakers (like poor Fr. Rothrock) to Siberia anymore?  What has replaced the disappearing of dissenters? 

Judas balked at the Worship of Our Lord, and countered that instead of giving to God, it could have been given to the poor.  Fr. Hardon said one of the major reasons the devil is so strong today is Judases in the Church.

We review some of Frank Morriss's excellent points about the modernist activists in the Church (Fr. McBrien) and how Antonio Gramsci's method of transforming the Church into a Marxist machine (replacing worship of God with business of liberation).

We cheer the removal of the hymns by one of the several awful hymnists of the modern American lay-led "experience" liturgy...  David Haas...  as well as no sign of peace...   let's make that prohibition permanent.

Finally, if you want to know how the Church SHOULD BE ANSWERING THE OPPRESSION AND SYSTEMATIC EVILS TODAY, listen in!