We share resources here to help you grow in the Catholic Faith and defend it against schism and heresy.
A good life makes a man wise according to God and gives him experience in many things. For the humbler he is and the more subject to God, the wiser and the more at peace he will be in all things.
The Imitation of Christ 1:4.
The Voice of Christ: When the priest celebrates Mass, he honors God, gladdens the angels, strengthens the Church, helps the living, brings rest to the departed, and wins for himself a share in all good things.
Quoted from The Imitation of Christ, Book 4, Ch. 5.
If this most holy Sacrament were celebrated in only one place and consecrated by only one priest in the whole world, with what great desire, do you think, would men be attracted to that place, to that priest of God, in order to witness the celebration of the divine Mysteries!
Quoted from The Imitation of Christ, Book 4, Ch. 1.
Catholic Candle note: With so very few uncompromising Tridentine Masses, offered by uncompromising priests, it is easy to see why there is a crisis in the human element of the Church and in the world.
Our Lord separates the wheat from the chaff. Who is the wheat and who is the chaff?
There is no better means of distinguishing the chaff from the wheat in the Church of God than the suffering of contradictions, trials, and contempt. He who stands firm through these is the grain. He who recoils from them is the chaff. The further he recoils, that is, the more upset and arrogant he becomes, the more worthless he is.
St. Augustine, Doctor of the Church, quoted in Spiritual Diary, p.86, St. Paul’s Editions ©1962, Boston, MA.
If men used as much care in uprooting vices and implanting virtues as they do in discussing problems, there would not be so much evil and scandal in the world, or such laxity in religious organizations.
Quoted from The Imitation of Christ, Book 1, Chapter 3.
He who loves God with all his heart does not fear death or punishment or judgment or hell, because perfect love assures access to God.
My Imitation of Christ, by Thomas à Kempis, Book 1, Chapter 24.
All things work together unto the good for those who love God.
Let us place our confidence in God and set ourselves in complete dependence upon His Providence. Then we need not worry about what others say of us or do to us, for it will all turn out to our advantage.
If thou wouldst be certain of being in the number of the elect, strive to be one of the few, not of the many. And if thou wouldst be quite sure of thy salvation, strive to be among the fewest of the few ... who never relax their efforts by day or by nightSt. Anselm, quoted from The Four Last Things, by Fr. Martin von Cochem, TAN Books, Rockford, IL, 1987, p.221 (emphasis added).
Even if Catholics faithful to Tradition are reduced to a handful, they are the ones who are the true Church of Jesus Christ.St. Athanasius, Letter to his Flock, Coll. Selecta SS.Eccl.Patrum, Caillau and Guillou, Vol. 32, pp. 411-412 (emphasis added).
It is characteristic of a humble soul always to do good and to think little of itself. It is a mark of great purity and deep faith to look for no consolation in created things. The man who desires no justification from without has clearly entrusted himself to God.
The Imitation of Christ, Book 2, Chapter 6.
Pride is the beginning of all sin.
—Ecclesiasticus, 10:15.
The most powerful weapon with which to overcome the devil is humility; because, not knowing how to use it [viz., the weapon of humility], he does not even know how to defend himself from it.
St. Vincent de Paul, quoted in Spiritual Diary, Daughters of St. Paul Press, Boston, © 1962, p.37.
Why God draws one person, and another He draws not, seek not to judge, if thou dost not wish to err.St. Augustine, Tract. xxvi on St. John’s Gospel, quoted at Summa, Ia, Q.23, a.5, ad 3.
The Voice of Christ: My child, beware of discussing high matters and God’s hidden judgments—why this person is so forsaken and why that one is favored with so great a grace, or why one man is so afflicted and another so highly exalted. Such things are beyond all human ken and no reason or disputation can fathom the judgments of God.The Imitation of Christ, Book 3, Chapter 58.
We can see the wisdom of this advice, because these matters depend only upon God’s holy and incomprehensible will. Here is how St. Thomas Aquinas explains this truth:
Why God chooses some for glory, and reprobates others [i.e., allows them to damn themselves], has no reason, except the Divine Will.St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa, Ia, Q.23, a.5, ad 3 (bracketed words added).
A good life makes a man wise according to God and gives him experience in many things. For the humbler he is and the more subject to God, the wiser and the more at peace he will be in all things.
The Imitation of Christ 1:4.
We frequently judge that things are as we wish them to be, for through personal feeling, true perspective is easily lost.
My Imitation of Christ, by Thomas a Kempis, Book I, Chapter 14.
Here is the way St. John of the Cross, Mystical Doctor of the Catholic Church, laments how self-centered people are, even in the spiritual life:
Ah, my God and Lord! How many are there that go to seek in Thee their own consolation and pleasure, and desire Thee to grant them favors and gifts; but those who long to do Thee pleasure and to give Thee something at their cost, setting their own interests last, are very few!
Dark Night of the Soul, St. John of the Cross, bk.2, ch.19.
The wisdom from St. Jerome, Doctor of the Church, regarding the value of persecutions:
Would to God that all the infidels would rise up together against me, for having defended the glory and the name of the Lord! I wish that the whole world would conspire in blaming my conduct, that I may, by this means, obtain the approbation of Jesus Christ. You are deceived if you think that a Christian can live without persecution. He suffers the greatest who lives under none. Nothing is more to be feared than too long a peace. A storm puts a man upon his guard, and obliges him to exert his utmost efforts to escape shipwreck.
Quoted from Butler?s Lives of the Saints, vol. 3, feast of St. Jerome (Sept. 30th).
Disciple: Nothing happens in the world without Thy design and providence, and without cause. It is well for me, O Lord, that Thou hast humbled me, that I may learn the justice of Thy judgments and cast away all presumption and haughtiness of heart.
Man draws nearer to God in proportion as he withdraws further from all earthly comfort.
Imitation of Christ, Thomas à Kempis; Book III, Ch. 42.
(The Voice of Christ:) My Child, do not let the labors which you have taken up for My sake break you, and do not let troubles, from whatever source, cast you down; but in everything let My promise strengthen and console you. I am able to reward you beyond all means and measure. Work faithfully in My vineyard. I will be your reward.
Imitation of Christ, Thomas à Kempis; Book III, Ch. 47.
(The Voice of Christ:) Already you desire the delights of the eternal home, the heavenly land that is full of joy. But that hour is not yet come. There remains yet another hour, a time of war, of labor, and of trial.
Imitation of Christ, Thomas à Kempis, Book III, Ch. 49.
It is good for us sometimes to suffer contradiction, to be misjudged by men even though we do well and mean well. These things help us to be humble and shield us from vainglory. When to all outward appearances, men give us no credit, when they do not think well of us, then we are more inclined to seek God Who sees our hearts. Therefore, a man ought to root himself so firmly in God that he will not need the consolations of men.
My Imitation of Christ by Thomas a Kempis, © 1982, Confraternity of the Precious Blood 5300 Fort Hamilton Parkway, Brooklyn, N.Y. 11219, Book 1 ch. 12.
[H]e that makes a pilgrimage does well if he makes it at a time when no others are doing so, even though the time be unusual. I should never advise him to make a pilgrimage when a great multitude is doing so; for, as a rule, on these occasions, people return in a state of greater distraction than when they went. And many set out on these pilgrimages and make them for recreation rather than for devotion.
St. John of the Cross, Mystical Doctor of the Church, Ascent of Mount Carmel, Book III, ch. 36, #3 (emphasis added).
Sister Lucy, seer at Fatima, revealed to Fr. Fuentes:
God is giving two last remedies to the world: the Holy Rosary and devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. ... Prayer and sacrifice are the two means to save the world. As for the Holy Rosary, Father, in these last times in which we are living, the Blessed Virgin has given a new efficacy to the praying of the Holy Rosary. This in such a way that there is no problem that cannot be resolved by praying the Rosary, no matter how difficult it is—be it temporal or above all spiritual ....note
Words of Sister Lucy seer at Fatima, from her December 26, 1957 interview by Fr. Augustin Fuentes, vice-postulator of the cause of beatification for Francisco and Jacinta. (Emphasis added.)
SSPX seminary rector, Fr. Yves LeRoux, wrote:
It is indeed essential for the priest to be rooted in the Church, whether through his diocese or through a religious congregation ....
Fr. LeRoux promotes the local dioceses as a way to be “rooted in the Church”, even though they are all occupied by the enemy, viz., anti-Catholic conciliar church.
Along with Fr. Wegner’s usual monthly plea for donations (dated July 18, 2019), the preprinted donation return slip has his donors brag about their generosity:
Fr. Wegner, ... I want to make a generous gift .... My contribution is
enclosed.
Although the Pharisee bragged about his own generosity (Luke 18:9-14), a Christlike Catholic would never want to call himself “generous”! Our Lord telling us that, when we give alms, “let not thy left hand know what thy right hand does” (Matt. 6:1-3).
In his usual monthly letter pleading for funds (dated July 18, 2019), Fr. Wegner reports that one of the major aims of the working document for the upcoming Amazonian Synod (which was called by Pope Francis), is:
the abolishment of (priestly) celibacy and the introduction of a female priesthood—starting first with female deacons.
Fr. Wegner silently passed up the opportunity to strongly condemn modernist Rome for even considering such an abomination. Despite his constant claims of “Defending Catholic Tradition”, his silence is deafening.
The words of the “new” liberal SSPX in Florida, in 2019:
Thursday is Ascension of the Lord. In Florida, this Thursday is not a day of obligation. The day of obligation is reported on Sunday. Nevertheless, you are of course more than invited to come to Mass and to celebrate as best as you can this ascension of the Lord ....
What will the “new” SSPX not emphasize to accustom its followers to the lax conciliar way of living?
In an article about the false “apparitions” in Medjugorje, Bosnia, the “new” liberal SSPX says that, in Medjugorje: “there is undoubtedly some good—Masses ....”
Here the N-SSPX implies that the new mass is good because those “Masses” are all (or at least mostly) the sacrilegious, anti-Catholic new masses!
This is only the latest of the many occasions on which the “new” SSPX has promoted or approved of the new mass. Read, e.g., the evidence in this article: