Certamen | Traditional Catholic Faith

The Catholic Faith, simply explained. News, doctrine, and the saints, faithful to Tradition. A German apostolate, now in English.

[Certamen | Traditional Catholic Faith @certamen_int]

Take this away and the Creed loses its ground. “I believe in God, Creator of heaven and earth” means it is really so, not that many find it beautiful.

[Certamen | Traditional Catholic Faith @certamen_int]

“My truth, your truth” sounds tolerant. It does not survive the first question. Before anything can be said about tolerance, one thing has to be settled: what we mean by calling something true. 🧵

[Certamen | Traditional Catholic Faith @certamen_int]

If something is true, it is true for everyone. A whole tribe may feel safe from lions while one man warns them. When the lions come, the one man was right.

[Certamen | Traditional Catholic Faith @certamen_int]

He used to say that obedience led him about like a blind man, and that he would rather die than disobey. The ecstasies did not make him a saint. That sentence did.

[Certamen | Traditional Catholic Faith @certamen_int]

Joseph of Cupertino was lifted off the ground by ecstasy so often that for thirty five years he was kept out of choir. 🧵

[Certamen | Traditional Catholic Faith @certamen_int]

One thing reached him: the voice of his superior. That he obeyed at once.

[Certamen | Traditional Catholic Faith @certamen_int]

Bonaventure, Doctor of the Church: Francis carried the image of the Crucified down from the mountain, not painted by an artist's hand, but written into his flesh by the finger of the living God.

[Certamen | Traditional Catholic Faith @certamen_int]

In September 1224 Francis of Assisi climbed Mount Alverna to keep a fast of forty days. He came back down with the wounds of Christ in his hands, feet and side. 🧵

[Certamen | Traditional Catholic Faith @certamen_int]

One morning near the feast of the Exaltation of the Cross he saw a seraph with six shining wings descend, and between the wings the Crucified. Joy and grief struck him at once.

[Certamen | Traditional Catholic Faith @certamen_int]

Three strokes of the bell tell the people the Lord is coming. A bell has something glad in its sound. In a moment He will be present to renew His Sacrifice.

[Certamen | Traditional Catholic Faith @certamen_int]

At the start of the Canon the priest bows low, and seconds later he stands upright again. Bowed he prays the Sanctus; at the Benedictus he straightens and signs himself. Two postures, one act. 🧵

[Certamen | Traditional Catholic Faith @certamen_int]

The Benedictus greeted Jesus as He entered Jerusalem. Hosanna is properly salvum fac: help, bring salvation. The same cry now greets Him who is about to come to the altar.

[Certamen | Traditional Catholic Faith @certamen_int]

“Christianus sum, et episcopus,” I am a Christian and a bishop. So he confessed before the proconsul. He was beheaded on September 14, 258, and the traditional calendar keeps his feast on the 16th with Pope Cornelius.

[Certamen | Traditional Catholic Faith @certamen_int]

At the place of execution outside Carthage, Bishop Cyprian gave his executioner five gold pieces, bound his own eyes and bowed his head. 🧵

[Certamen | Traditional Catholic Faith @certamen_int]

Three years after his baptism Carthage elected him bishop. When persecution broke out under Valerian, friends urged him to flee. He stayed, saying a bishop should die in his own city.