Things Hidden

Catholic

[MrCasey @MrCasey62]

“God is more anxious to bestow His blessings on us than we are to receive them.”

~ St. Augustine

[Father V @father_rmv]

The Virginal Purity of Mary

1. It is a dogma of faith that Mary was always a virgin in body and in soul. According to the teaching of the holy Fathers, Mary would have renounced her dignity as Mother of God rather than lose her virginity. When the Archangel Gabriel appeared with the news of the great privilege which she was about to receive, Mary was afraid and asked meekly how she could become the Mother of God since she had promised to remain always a virgin. The Angel assured her that it was through the power of the Holy Spirit that the eternal Word of God would take human flesh in her and become her son. Only then did she bow her head and reply: "Be it done to me according to thy word." Mary's perpetual virginity is complemented by her purity and absolute immunity from sin. When we consider sin of any kind, says St. Augustine, Mary must always be the one exception to it. (Cf. De natura et gratia, c. 36) She was preserved free from original sin and possessed the fullness of grace. The devil never had any power over her spotless soul. Not even the slightest tarnish marred her virginal splendour. Free from the concupiscence which has disturbed our human nature, she was like a snow-white lily sparkling in the sunlight. Her mortal life was a continuous ascent towards the highest peak of holiness. It would be wrong to believe that the extraordinary privileges which God had granted her from her conception remained fixed and static like an acquired inheritance. On the contrary, her daily correspondence with God's gifts was as remarkable as her dignity. The most chaste Virgin Mary is a model for our imitation. We cannot obtain her privileges, but we should try and imitate her heroic and constant co-operation with the gifts of God.

2. Purity is the most beautiful of the virtues. It is a virtue which is admired by God and by men, even by the most corrupt. It is often said that it makes us like the angels, but in fact, looking at it in a particular way, it makes us superior to the angels. Since they have no bodies, the angels cannot sin against purity, while we have to fight many battles and overcome many temptations in order to preserve our chastity. Jesus had a very special love for this virtue. He chose to be born of a virgin and showed a particular affection for St. John, who was a dedicated celibate. On one occasion He placed His hands on the head of a little child and said: “Unless you turn and become like little children, you will not enter into the kingdom of heaven.” (Mt. 18:3)

Unfortunately, the virtue of purity is as fragile as it is beautiful. It can be lost in a single moment of weakness. We must love this virtue as Mary loved it. We must be prepared to make any sacrifice, even the most heroic, rather than lose it. Worldly charm and beauty attract us and the devil works hard to control our imagination and our affections. On account of the disturbance of original sin, the flesh is like a terrible weight retarding our spiritual advancement. Sometimes it seems as if it is irresistibly drawing us towards the abyss of impurity. But we need not be dragged down if we are prepared to fly from the occasions of sin and to pray to God and to our heavenly Mother for her intercession. We must always act at once, for there is no time to dally. It is fatal to remain inactive and allow temptation to make its way into our soul. This kind of battle, said St. Francis de Sales, is won only by soldiers who flee. We must fly from the occasion of sin, no matter what sacrifice this entails. Jesus has warned us that it is better to enter Heaven without a hand or a foot than to be cast into hell. We know the remedies��instant flight, heroic sacrifice, and constant prayer. We can leave the rest to the grace of God and to the maternal protection of Mary.

3. O Mary, my heavenly Mother, I am so weak, yet the danger in which I find myself is so great. Turn your eyes of mercy upon me and come to my assistance. Most of all, do not allow the demon of impurity to seduce my soul. Grant that I may never yield to the temptations of the flesh. Protect for me the flower of my chastity until I can deliver it unsullied into the hands of Jesus in Heaven. Amen. (Antonio Cardinal Bacci)

[Peter Hitchens @ClarkeMicah]

PETER HITCHENS: Reopen the Letby case NOW, for the Love of God. She has been locked up now for 2,000 days. If she is innocent there is no time to lose or waste. https://t.co/GglJJfo63v via @DailyMail

[Father V @father_rmv]

Today on which the Church commemorates the English and Welsh martyrs, I highly recommend The Stripping of the Altars, Eamon Duffy’s history of the English Reformation. It argues that traditional Catholic religion in late medieval England was vibrant, deeply popular, and thoroughly integrated into everyday life through a rich calendar of feasts, saints’ cults, pilgrimages, images, prayers for the dead, and elaborate liturgy. Far from a corrupt or decaying faith ripe for reform, this “traditional religion” commanded broad lay enthusiasm right up to the 1530s. The book then traces how Henry VIII’s and Edward VI’s regimes systematically dismantled it: dissolving monasteries, banning images and shrines, rewriting or suppressing service books, closing chantries, and enforcing new Protestant doctrines and worship.

Duffy shows this as a top-down cultural revolution that met significant passive and sometimes active resistance, especially in the countryside, and left ordinary people bereft of familiar rituals and communal devotions. The title refers both to the literal removal of altars and to the broader cultural “stripping” of a whole religious world.

[Things Hidden @ThingsHidden2]

https://t.co/XkQYZIvY5N

[Things Hidden @ThingsHidden2]

https://t.co/PTZYCPWJfT

[Things Hidden @ThingsHidden2]

https://t.co/cyckXUNpCO

[Anna K. Winters @tenshi_anna]

Depraved behavior is always more saliently visible than holy behavior precisely because less humble, so if you put too much stock in measuring human holiness by saliently visible behavior, you will inevitably fall into despair about its possibility… the real challenge seems to be inverting this order of priority within yourself, so that the overlooked tendencies towards holiness can shine through the veil of pride which falsely tempts us to think it’s all there is

[Things Hidden @ThingsHidden2]

“A straight nose is God’s gift to a woman; most of the rest can be faked.”

John Updike
Roger’s Version

[Father V @father_rmv]

In his work A Fortresse of the Faith (1565), the English Catholic theologian Fr. Thomas Stapleton delivers a sharp polemic against the validity of Anglican holy orders. He argues that the Protestant hierarchy lacks apostolic succession, proper sacramental form, and legitimate authority.
https://t.co/FW54pBOn0Z

[Father V @father_rmv]

The Nicene Creed is not merely a summary of belief but a precise theological weapon forged against error — particularly the Arian denial of Christ’s full divinity — while beautifully articulating the mystery of the Incarnate Word. By embedding the truths of faith in a weekly, public, liturgical profession of faith, the Church ensures that every generation confesses the orthodox Christology established at Nicaea (325) and Constantinople (381). The Creed remains an enduring bulwark against any diminution of Christ’s divinity or humanity.

ERRORS CONCERNING THE SECOND PERSON OF THE TRINITY AND HOW THE CREED RESPONDS

GROUP I: ERRORS AS TO HOW CHRIST IS DIVINE

ERROR: Some held that Christ was not the true Son of God, not altogether divine.
TRUE FAITH: Creed answers this by stating that Jesus is the “only begotten Son of God.”

ERROR: Some held that Christ was begotten, but only in time. He was not the pre-existent Son of God, coeternal with the Father.
TRUE FAITH: Creed answers this by stating, “born of the Father before all ages.”

ERROR: Some people held that Christ existed before He was conceived by the Virgin Mary, but that Jesus was the same Person as God the Father.
TRUE FAITH: Creed answers this by stating that Jesus is “God from God, light from light” to show that there is a distinction in Persons, but a unity of nature within the Trinity.

ERROR: Some people held that Jesus existed before His conception by the Virgin Mary, and is different from the Father, but that He is created.
TRUE FAITH: Creed answers this by way of the expression, “true God from true God.” This means that Christ is altogether God from He Who is also altogether God, to express the fact that Jesus has one divine nature with the Father.

ERROR: Some people said that the Lord did descend from heaven, but did not take flesh from Mary. He was like a ghost or spirit. Jesus only had an apparent human body, not a real one. He only appeared to die on the Cross, because it is unfitting for a God to die.
TRUE FAITH: Creed answers this by stating that He not only came down from heaven, but was “incarnate" (taking flesh).

ERROR: Some people said that Jesus was born of the Blessed Virgin Mary, but He was born of a union of human seed. He had a human father and mother. The Blessed Virgin Mary was not a virgin in the conception of Christ.
TRUE FAITH: Creed answers this by stating that “By the Holy Spirit was incarnate of the Virgin Mary.”

ERROR: Some held that the Lord took flesh from Mary, but not in His human nature, but rather He passed through Her like water through a channel.
TRUE FAITH: Creed answers this by stating that He was “was incarnate of the Virgin Mary and became man.”

ERROR: Some said that Christ was the Word born of the Blessed Virgin Mary, but that He did not have a true human soul. This would make Him not really a man.
TRUE FAITH: Creed answers this by stating that Christ “became man.” The Creed wants to emphasize that Christ was truly human, with a human soul, and a human body.

ERROR: Some people said that Christ was like a demigod, very high, but created. To say that He was ‘begotten’ meant that He was created.
TRUE FAITH: Creed answers this by stating that Christ was “begotten, not made.”

ERROR: Some people said that Jesus was like God, but not of the same divine nature as the Father.
TRUE FAITH: Creed answers this by stating that Jesus is “one in being with the Father.” The term used in the Latin is ‘consubstantial.’ Christ shares the very nature of the Father, though He is a distinct Person.

GROUP II: ERRORS CONCERNING THE HUMAN NATURE OF CHRIST

ERROR: Some people said that Christ was born to save demons. This was a variation of the Docetist heresy which taught that Jesus did not take real human flesh, but only apparently so. Posits that the Lord somehow came for other people other than human beings and their salvation.
TRUE FAITH: Creed answers this by stating that “for us men and for our salvation,” expressing that Christ’s coming was to remedy for human sin, as a cure for human sin, to atone for human sin.

ERROR: Some people said that Jesus was born of the Blessed Virgin Mary but did not come down from heaven. This is the Adoptionist heresy. They said that Jesus only went up to heaven. In other words, the Lord is just like any other saint. His grace would only be one of adoption.
TRUE FAITH: Creed answers this by stating, “He came down from heaven.”

[Traditional Catholic Education @TradCathEd]

Bishop Sanborn slams Catholic Bishops for approving sex education in schools.
"Frankly, I don't think kids need sex education. They know it probably more than their parents do. What these children need and what they are desperate for is the education in morality." - Bp. Sanborn

[Things Hidden @ThingsHidden2]

“Art has been defined as the disposition of physical material to an aesthetic end. This begs a fundamental question. What do we mean by ‘aesthetic’? Etymology doesn’t help. The Greek aisthánesthai means merely to perceive, and it is perception, not pain, that is wiped out by an anaesthetic. Art is concerned with the creation of beautiful objects, but this is only one aspect of aesthetics, which finds beauty in nature and gets terribly mixed up with biology. For the beauty of a woman, or any other kind of animal, cannot be separated from biological utility. When nature is beautiful, we know that its beauty is attached to its own brand of utility. Even when we find beauty in human artefacts like aircraft, sailing ships or intercontinental ballistic missiles, we’re uneasily aware that a purely aesthetic judgment is out of place. Art is concerned with the creation of beauty for its own sake. Oscar Wilde’s last words in that preamble to Dorian Gray are: ‘All art is perfectly useless.’ When art wants to be useful, then we’re probably justified in saying that it’s not art.”

— The Ink Trade: Selected Journalism 1961-1993 by Anthony Burgess
https://t.co/83fSXdzlKn

[Things Hidden @ThingsHidden2]

Long term asset management by St Augustine:

[MotherMary @Mothermary0012]

“Make your home a church, a place of prayer.”

St. John Chrysostom

[Father V @father_rmv]

The Only Remedy For All Our Ills

1. Life is a continual battle. “Is not man's life on earth a drudgery?” (Job 7:1) If we consider only the material aspect of this battle, we are all among the vanquished. Admittedly, there is some joy and some victory. But our pleasures are as short-lived as the flowers of the field; they are soon “withered and dried up like grass.” (Cf. Ps. 101:5) Our conquests are also very insignificant; they can inflate us for a while, but they do not last long and cannot satisfy us. After death only our triumphs in virtue will persist. Moreover, whereas the joys of this life are few and fleeting, the physical and moral sufferings are innumerable. Sometimes they are so heavy and overwhelming that they cause us to despair. But surely there is a remedy for all the evils which afflict us? God is infinitely good, and He has permitted suffering. Will He not give us the means of enduring it and the medicine to cure it? In fact, Our Lord has given us a remedy for all our ills, even for the most distressing. It is a bitter medicine, but it will heal anyone who has the courage to swallow it, and it will give him perfect peace of soul. The treatment consists of three stages: (1) Doing the will of God in all things with complete resignation. (2) Doing everything for the love of God. (3) Doing everything and enduring everything for the love of God alone. When a man reaches this highest peak of the spiritual life, he acquires that perfect peace of soul which the Saints possessed.

2. The first stage consists in doing God's will generously on all occasions. Will God give us a little happiness and satisfaction in the present life? Let us accept whatever He allows us without becoming excessively attracted by it. Let us never lose our hearts in earthly pleasures, but let us preserve them intact for Jesus. Then the joys and honours of this world will not disturb our souls nor keep them apart from God. Will God send us suffering and privation? Let us accept these with resignation to His holy will. Our final end, which is eternal life, can be achieved equally well by means of joy or sorrow as long as we accept everything from God's hands and offer it to Him in accordance with His will. Let us remember that we have to do the will of God in any case, whether willingly or unwillingly. The only difference is that if we do it willingly we shall gain peace and merit in the sight of God. If we do it unwillingly, we can expect no reward and shall increase the weight of sin upon our shoulders.

3. We should not stop short at doing the will of God with resignation, but should aim at doing it from the motive of love. We should perform all our most ordinary actions and accept physical and moral suffering purely for the love of God. Then we shall have peace both in joy and in sorrow, and we shall be happy. Only the Saints fully understood this great principle of doing and enduring everything for the love of God alone. They made it their basic rule of life. If Jesus granted them consolation and favours, they thanked Him. If He sent them severe sufferings and spiritual desolation, they were equally grateful. “To me to live is Christ,” (Phil. 1:21) said St. Paul. Jesus Christ must reign supreme in my will and in my heart and in all my actions. Then sorrow and suffering will be all the same to me and I shall possess the peace and happiness of the Saints. (Antonio Cardinal Bacci)

[Things Hidden @ThingsHidden2]

“When I say more boldly what I’ve already implied, that Joyce is a Catholic writer, I mean it less in the narrow sectarian sense (if the Catholic church can be diminished to a sect) than in the wider sense of a civilisation, a massive culture from which the Reformation wantonly separated itself. The novel is usually considered to be a Protestant form, despite its beginning and its fulfilment in Cervantes. Certainly, the English novel, from Richardson to E.M. Forster and beyond, celebrates the Protestant virtues of individuality, pragmatism and middle-class morality. Joyce can, and does, parody this tradition, but he is far closer to the Catholic Middle Ages than to the revolutionary epoch of Protestant mercantilism. He attempted to drown his Irishry in Europe, producing finally an international language that can be called Eurish, but the mere fact of his being an Irish Catholic, impervious however to the siren songs of Irish nationalism, automatically made him a European.”

— The Ink Trade: Selected Journalism 1961-1993 by Anthony Burgess
https://t.co/UwzpisEipW

[Things Hidden @ThingsHidden2]

@tenshi_anna

[Anna K. Winters @tenshi_anna]

Some Thoughts on the Meaning of Prayer, inspired by my study of St. Augustine and Marion:

We are predestined to love, a love that precedes even our being, and leads us alternately towards our divinely willed *extended* being, the *distended* non-being of sin, or across non-being, through our being, in a cruciform trial of manifesting for us the supernatural *intention* in which we are predestined and which we also in ourselves recapitulate. (Is modernity not itself such a collective cruciform trial?)

But this predestination to love does not determine us as if it were a cause, because it is a predestination that takes hold of us in our will. Our will is free enough for us to direct and to guide the horizon of this supersensible field of love we have been granted as a divine gift, by acting back upon this field of its destiny as ourselves predestined to agency within it. Through this recognition, the full practical and poetic meaning of prayer is made intimately manifest: it is a form of acting back upon our will to pull our love out of and through the distention of non-being, and set it back towards its horizon in God as guide and ultimate giver of its true blessedness.

And so, a Prayer to the Sacred Heart of Jesus:

O most holy heart of Jesus,
fountain of every blessing,
I adore you, I love you, and
with lively sorrow for my sins,
I offer you this poor heart of mine.
Make me humble, patient, pure
and wholly obedient to your will.
Grant, good Jesus,
that I may live in you and for you.
Protect me in the midst of danger.
Comfort me in my afflictions.
Give me health of body,
assistance in my temporal needs,
your blessing on all that I do,
and the grace of a holy death.
Amen.

[Edward Feser @FeserEdward]

Sexual sins are not the worst sins, but the common opinion that they are “no big deal” is idiotic. They are a very big deal and we need to recover the courage to say so, precisely because so many don’t want to hear it. I defended the traditional view about their gravity in a two-part article “What’s the deal with sex?” Part I: https://t.co/UZezpwmbAC and Part II: https://t.co/MnUksA5Ytz