The Apostlate Of Prayer For Priests:

 

PLEASE PRAY THE LITANY OF THE SACRED HEART IN THE MONTH OF JUNE FOR YOUR PERMANENT PRIEST. God bless you all – Teresa Smith, Co-Ordinator, The Apostolate of Prayers for Priests.      Email -pray4priests@sspx.com  

-      Conference by Fr Elias on a book of conferences given by Archbishop M Lefebvre.

PER DOMINUM NOSTRUM JESUM CHRISTUM

In addition to the Common of the Mass, the Church has composed the propers, which always contain a lesson related to the day’s feast. These prayers, very short yet so beautiful, offer us on every occasion a thought-provoking subject of meditation. One is surprised to notice the profundity with which the Church has thought out these prayers, thus putting at our disposition each day a truth of the Faith. One marvels at the richness of the liturgy, whether considering the Introits or the Graduals. What profound and moving thoughts are found there: appeals to the mercy and goodness of God, to His praise!

In all these prayers one always finds the four ends of the holy sacrifice of the Mass. The first end is the offering of latria, the worship of adoration and praise due to God alone. The second, the Eucharistic end, is thanksgiving, the giving of thanks for all the graces with which the good Lord blesses us. Then comes the propitiatory or expiatory end, which from the Catholic point of view is essential. It is this end that is denied by the Protestants. They refuse to believe that the sacrifice of the Mass is really an expiatory sacrifice. At the limit they will grant that it is a sacrifice of thanksgiving. They do not deny the expression, but they absolutely deny the character of “expiatory sacrifice.” They claim that everything was accomplished at Calvary, and there is nothing more to do afterwards. There is no individual application of the sacrifice, except by an interior sentiment of confidence in God.

The faith of Protestants is not at all the faith of Catholics. It consists in a natural sentiment of confidence in God. It is not the adherence of the intelligence to revealed truths because of the authority of God who reveals them. Yet such is the definition of Catholic faith: it is the submission of our understanding to objective truths that are given to us by divine revelation. For the Protestants, it is merely a sentiment of confidence in our Lord. One need not be worried about one’s salvation, it will come of itself. And so they reject the propitiatory end of sacrifice.

In the new Mass, all the texts that had the purpose of affirming in a very clear and precise manner the propitiatory end of the holy sacrifice of the Mass were erased. Only one or two allusions remain.

Lastly, the fourth end of sacrifice is petition, that is, the expression of the different requests we address to God for our spiritual welfare and that of our neighbour, and even for the temporal graces that we need.

These four ends of the holy sacrifice of the Mass are essential for Catholics: latria, thanksgiving, propitiation and petition. And one notices that all the texts of the liturgy, all of them, can be assigned to one or the other of these four ends. Sometimes adoration predominates, sometimes thanksgiving, sometimes it is the admission of our sins and miseries and an appeal to the mercy of the good Lord, and then finally the request for the goods that we need. All of this is accomplished with such an art and with such a maternal concern of the Church to awaken in our hearts the same sentiments towards our Lord, that the liturgy is truly a wonder.

We have seen the solicitude of Dom Guéranger to preserve, by all he did, the extraordinary source of graces which is the liturgy; the fundamental source of the life of the Church. With all the deviations which, alas! Have been introduced everywhere, the faithful no longer receive the graces which they have a right to and which they need.

Throughout the liturgy, the conclusion of our prayers is always: “By our Lord Jesus Christ,” “With our Lord Jesus Christ,” “In our Lord Jesus Christ.. The Church avoids giving a purely theistic religion in which our Lord would not intervene. For her, our Lord is All. He is her mystical Spouse and the Church never forgets it. She always prays per Christum Dominum nostrum, “by our Lord Jesus Christ.” There is no question of obtaining any grace without Him.

In the new Canon of the Mass, they suppressed “per Christum Dominum nostrum”! How was such a thing possible? By what aberration or malignity were the reformers able to erase these words at the end of the prayers of the Canon? One really wonders. On the contrary, the Church makes a point of insisting that every grace comes to us by our Lord; all must return to God by our Lord. He is truly the Mediator. There is no other. We are obliged to go by way of Him whether to receive or to give, if we have anything we can give to God: our praises, our oblation, our thanks. This is only possible through our Lord Jesus Christ.

And this is how our faith is continually deepened, by the insistence of the Church on the mediation of our Lord Jesus Christ. He is our only Savior. He is our salvation. This is the major, the essential truth of faith.

Were we to put our Lord Jesus Christ to the side, our life would no longer have any meaning. And this applies not only to our personal spiritual life, our interior life, but also to our whole life, professional, familial, civic. The life of men has no more meaning if Jesus Christ is put aside. The liturgy justly accustoms us to ask for everything through our Lord Jesus Christ, even for the blessings and temporal goods we need in the city.

After having expressed the importance that our Lord Jesus Christ must have in our life, and after the affirmations of the Church concerning His divinity; the liturgy shows us our Lord as the center, the object and the end of our prayers.

It used to be that when in Rome one felt these convictions. Rome was truly a school of the Faith, just as the liturgy is a school of the Faith. More than fifty years ago, this city exuded faith in our Lord. In St. Peter’s Basilica, where I had the joy of attending the canonizations of St. Theresa of the Child Jesus and of the Curé of Ars, it really felt like no longer being on this earth. Everything respired faith in our Lord, faith in God, in the Holy Trinity. It was really the living Church singing the praises of God, magnifying our Lord Jesus Christ in His saints. Someone staying at Rome who failed to increase the intensity, firmness and fervor of his Catholic faith would have understood nothing of the city of Rome in which he was living.

Now, unfortunately, that has changed; diplomatic questions and human problems have taken precedence over matters of faith. It is an immense pity for the Church and the faithful, but now the Church lives according to this all too human manner. She isn’t dead. She cannot die. The true face of the Church still remains in the Rome that keeps the faith, even if it is no longer as apparent as it used to be. In Rome, the Church may really descend into the catacombs, but the Church, after all, is not just Rome, it is also all those who are attached to our Lord, who serve Him, who live by Him and who belong to the Mystical Body of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Our Lord is a veritable reality: He lives, He must live; He must reign, everyone must be at His service so that His reign come. And for this, it is necessary to have a profound faith in our Lord, especially in His divinity.

A Very Powerful Daily Prayer:

My God, I offer this action of mine, and every action of my whole life, in union with the Precious Blood in all the Masses this hour being offered all over the world, or that will-be offered for all time – to Thine own    everlasting praise and glory - to Thine infinite rejoicing and delight.

To the glory of the Sacred Heart and in thanksgiving for all the graces bestowed on the Sacred Humanity of Our Lord Jesus Christ - I offer Thee the Precious Blood O My God!

To the honour of Our Blessed Lady, and in thanksgiving for the graces bestowed on Her, especially in  Her Immaculate Conception, Divine Maternity, and Glorious Assumption, I offer Thee the Precious Blood,

O My God! In honour of St. Joseph, my Angel Guardian, my Patron Saint and all the Saints, St. Michael, and all the nine choirs of angels - I offer Thee Precious Blood, O my God!

For all interest of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament - I offer Thee the Precious Blood, O My God! For the conversion of sinners, the prevention of sin, help for those in their last or those who die today – I offer Thee the Precious Blood, O My God!

For special graces for all whom I love, for friends and relatives, for all who have asked my prayers or whom I have promised to pray for, or who have any claim on my prayers, I offer Thee the Precious   blood, O My Cod!

For all whom I have injured or disedified - I offer Thee the Precious Blood, O My God!

For the souls in Purgatory, especially my own relatives and friends, all who I have promised to pray  for, all whom I have been asked to pray for, or who want my prayers – I offer Thee the Precious Blood, O My God!

For my enemies, for all who have unkind hearts for me, I offer Thee the Precious Blood, O My God!

For all my intentions and wants, spiritual and temporal-I offer Thee the Precious Blood, O My God!

In atonement for my sins, for the sins of the whole world, for all the wants of Holy Church - I offer Thee the Precious Blood, O My God!