|
Sermon
given by His Grace, Archbishop Lefebvre, 'All
these were perservering with one mind in prayer, with the women
and Mary
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost Amen. I would like to bring to your attention an aspect of Our Blessed Lady. Yesterday, [13th May] was the anniversary of the apparitions of Our Lady of Fatima and we had the procession and renewed the consecration of the seminary to fulfill the wishes of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Concerning the apostles, we read in the bible, 'Acceperunt Spiritum sanctum et COEPERUNT LOQUI," "After having received the Holy Ghost, THEY STARTED TO SPEAK." The Spirit of Truth, the Spirit of Holiness with which they were filled pushed them to announce what they had received. SPIRITUS SANCTUS SUPERVENIET IN TE Scripture does not mention Our Blessed Lady, but we know that she was there when the Holy Ghost came. We should remember that it was through Mary that the apostles received this Spirit of Truth and Holiness. She was the channel through which the Holy Ghost descended onto the apostles and disciples of Our Lord who were there at the Cenacle. The Popes declare it explicitly, since Mary was filled with the Holy Ghost long before the apostles, long before Pentecost. The simple
fact that when the Angel Gabriel came and announced to Mary, the
glorious news of her divine maternity, he said to her, 'Ave Maria,
Gratia plena"- full of grace, full of the Holy Ghost, and he
added, "Spiritus Sanctus superveniet in te"- by
the assistance of the Holy Ghost you will become the mother of Jesus.
Thus the Blessed Virgin Mary had her Pentecost and she also spoke.
.. ET COEPIT LOQUI No sooner had she received the Holy Ghost and became the mother of Jesus, than she went and visited Saint Elisabeth, and by her intermediation her cousin and Saint John the Baptist, received the Holy Ghost. From that very moment Mary started to give the graces of the Holy Ghost to those with whom she came into contact. Et coepit loqui ...and she left for us the vibrant words of the Magnificat, her Magnificat, which is the Gospel of Mary. In the first four verses Mary, filled with the Holy Ghost, sings praise to God. God deigned to acknowledge her humility and because she was humble she was elevated to such a high dignity. "Magnificat anima mea. ..exsultavit spiritus meus ..."- my spirit exults with joy, my soul sings the praises of God. Mary gives thanks to God for what she received from the Holy Ghost and for the fact that she had become the mother of God. In the next four verses, the Blessed Virgin Mary gave to us what Our Lord would later explain in His sermon on the mountain. It is almost a short resume of the sermon of the Beatitudes and in particular: blessed are the humble, the "humiles," the "timentes," the "esurientes" and she even used the same term "esurientes" ..."beati qui esuriunt" blessed are they that hunger. But Our Blessed Lady gave a warning to those 'full of themselves,' proud of their riches and power, the "potentes, divites, superbi." She gave them this warning: take care you who are proud, you who comfort yourselves with your power and your money, you have not the spirit of poverty, nor of humility, and God is not with you. In
the last two verses, Our Blessed Lady makes a kind of prophecy "Suscepit
Israel puerum suum" God will look after Israel. But, you
might ask, wasn't Israel already under God's protection, as is seen
in the Old Testament? Well, it is actually here that the New Testament
begins, and Mary sees already the foundation of the Church, with
which she will have an efficacious role to play on Pentecost Sunday,
since she is the channel through which the Holy Ghost came to the
apostles. The Blessed Virgin Mary already saw the New Israel, the
Israel of the New Testament, it is the Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ,
the blood of the New Testament, NOVI et AETERNI TESTAMENTI. Hic
est calix sanguinis mei, novi et aeterni testamenti. Here is
the Blood of the New Alliance, the New Testament. Mary saw all of
it, she saw the foundation of the Church. UBI MARIA IBI ECCLESIA And since, she participated in the foundation of the Church, she has the needs of the Church at heart. She who was filled with the Spirit of Truth and Holiness, she wanted the apostles also, to be filled with this same Spirit and we know that they were filled with this Spirit since they started to talk and they converted thousands of souls and they even gave their life rather than deny the truths that they preached. I'd like to take this opportunity to make a few practical conclusions considering the situation in which we find ourselves today. People who don't really understand our position and our attitude towards Vatican II, they like to say, and to remind us constantly, that "Where the Pope is, there is the Church;" therefore, to oppose the Pope is to separate yourself from the Church. But isn't it better to say, with a more profound truth, "Where Mary is, there is the Church." Because it is through Mary that the Apostles were made founders of the Church. And Mary cannot err, Mary is infallible. Mary cannot sin, she is immaculate, conceived without sin. She is holy, perfect and she is the light of truth, and that is what she communicated to the Apostles. Therefore, as far as the Apostles and St. Peter continued to be united to Mary in the Spirit of Truth, in the Spirit of Holiness, YES, O YES, we are with the Popes, we are with the Church because She continues her holy work. But, if, by some incredible circumstances, the successor of Peter decided no longer to follow Mary, no longer to preach the Spirit of Truth and Holiness. What would we do? Whom would we turn to? Quite simply, we would stay with Mary. We would surround her as the apostles did on Pentecost Sunday. And we would remain with her in the Spirit of Truth and Holiness. You should all know from history, that Mary didn't want to have influence over the Church, only during it's first fifteen years, while she was still on this earth. She has, throughout the centuries, watched over her Church and watched over her apostles, she has appeared again and again reminding us of the Spirit of Truth. The last time she did this was at Fatima, and she gave a secret which she wanted to be published in 1960 ...Why have the Popes continued to refuse to publish this secret? NON ERAT EIS LOCUS IN DIVERSORIO When there was the ecumenical meeting at Assisi, a group of Catholics, who were not traditionalists, wanted Our Lady of Fatima to be present at Assisi for this meeting. There was a large procession of Italian Catholics who accompanied the Statue of Our Lady of Fatima towards Assisi, but they were turned back. Our Blessed Lady was not wanted at Assisi. Mary also asked that the Pope and all the bishops of the world should consecrate the world, and in particular Russia, to her Immaculate Heart, but they haven't done it. They refuse to do what Mary asks them. There is a strong opposition towards Mary, since Mary isn't ecumenical. The Blessed Virgin Mary only recognizes Jesus Christ and the Spirit of Jesus Christ, the Spirit of Truth and of Holiness. The spirit which founded the Church, which is the Spirit of the Church itself. And thus, when people say that we oppose the Pope, it is not true. We oppose the Pope only when he no longer makes himself the echo of the Holy Ghost in the Spirit of Truth and of Holiness. But we are not against the Pope, successor of Peter, when he is faithful to his function. This is how we should reply to their question. Let us pray to Our Blessed Mother that we will remain faithful, that we will always remain faithful to her. It is through her protection and through devotion to her that we will keep the faith and remain part of the Catholic Church. Yes, she is the Mother of the Catholic Church, she is not the mother of a church which 'brings together all religions.' As His Excellency, Bishop Tissier de Mallerais, said yesterday (Vigil of Pentecost, ordinations to the diaconate)] "Mary is the Mother of the unique Catholic Church, the unique Divine Church." Therefore ask our Blessed Lady to help us to remain faithful despite all the difficulties, despite all the ordeals we have to suffer. Beg of her to intervene with the Church authorities, with the Pope and the bishops so that they will return to the true devotion to Mary and that they will remain in the spirit of Truth and Holiness, the Spirit of Faith. {Monseigneur then made reference to the new profession of Faith which the Holy See imposes on Catholics, which includes a total acceptance of the teachings of the Second Vatican Council.) ...We must be clear headed, strong and we must not hesitate, we want to remain with the Blessed Virgin Mary. We want to be with the Apostles at Pentecost and with the Blessed Virgin Mary, in the Spirit of Truth and Holiness, which is the Spirit of the Church and we do not want that to change. It doesn't matter which authorities want to separate us from that Spirit, we will refuse because we want to remain Catholic we do not want to become liberals, modernists or protestant. INIMICITIAS PONAM INTER TE ET MULIEREM And the Blessed Virgin Mary will help us, because she is allergic to error. She has a severe allergy towards error and a profound horror of sin, she finds all sin repugnant. Mary favors truth, she despises error, by her nature she is against anything which opposes truth or holiness, regardless of what kind of sin it is, even if it is only a venial sin or just a minor negligence. She is allergic to them because she wants to remain in the Spirit of Holiness and Truth. Let us ask her to transmit to us her allergy. IPSA CONTERET Father Garrigou-Lagrange calls her "Our Lady of Horror." What does he mean by that? The Blessed Virgin Mary has a horror of error and a horror of sin, this horror is part of her nature. She cannot accept sin or error, because error is sin, it is the devil's work and we all know well that Our Blessed Lady was born to trample on the head of the serpent, to bring to naught Satan and all his works. Let us therefore unite ourselves to her and remain always united to her. Thus she will preserve us from sin and all errors and she will keep us in the spirit of truth and holiness. In
the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost.
Courtesy of the Angelus
Press, Regina Coeli House |
