|
Chapter 7
Father La Praz had been able to write two short “Notes” for the monthly “Controverses” under the pen name “Sacerdos”. 1.
HAIL, O CROSS Do you know, my friend, that I too went about wounded, the heart ulcerated and the soul flinching when I saw the Cross of my Saviour blazing with light. I saw it shining in space with a radiance of hope, of love and of faith and I understood that it was my only hope, the pledge of my salvation and the sign by which God will recognise His own, those who will have kept the Faith. Yes, I salute that Cross of my Jesus, which is the sign of predestination and I desire it as the necessary weapon for me to win Heaven and I love it more because without it, it is impossible to appear in the Heavenly Fatherland. Hail, O Cross! Yes, that Cross of Jesus who is my companion, if sometimes its weight oppresses and crushes me, a look cast towards the crucified Master, a sigh of my soul to Him, Who has said “ask and you shall receive” fills me with strength, courage and consolation. Hail, O Cross! Yes, my friend, that Cross of Jesus which the world rejects, may you have knowledge of it because it can only be in the sacrifice of self, that you will find resignation and reverence. Be fearless, my friend, take courage, for only the ardent soul receives the grace of exclaiming: Hail, O Cross! Sacerdos
Father
La Praz with Archbishop Lefebvre and the team of Tradiffusion -
2.
AUTUMN LEAVES It is while the leaves of autumn litter the paths and the wind blows loudly that I take up my pen again for you my friend that the knelling of the November bells throws into melancholy. Sorrowful reminiscences of a past forever blown away, tarnished joys which will never again elate your soul, holy tendernesses, the kiss of a child, the month of the holy souls speaks to you of all that which no longer exists! One by one you have seen the green branches of your hopes shed their leaves; one by one those whom you have known have been laid in the tomb. Ah! If everything finished with the earth, what is left for him who alone remains? But the procession of the departed is not over and done with; each one of them in passing near us murmurs a word of hope and we will meet again in the heavenly home. Ravishing delights of an eternal reunion; the union of souls in peace truly is an immeasurable bliss. Holy effusion of an earthly love purified and hence- forth without tribulations, all is ennobled in an unchangeable love. Those who query the next world, have they ever loved? Painful experience when death has appeared. It has stricken violently and you were left without thought as stunned by the shock, the mind refusing to reflect, the heart feeling the awful abandonments and you ask why continue to live, why talk again… Why? At times when certain souls are no longer sufficiently Christian, it is the silent complaint, it is the desolation when it is not indifference or despondency. All these sorrows are some of the great pitfalls of the Christian life. And yet, who has not lived these troubled hours when suddenly the irreparable rises up before your eyes, when one touches the emptiness of human affections? Get up, afflicted soul, look up high! Heaven, yes, there only should you direct your gaze, your sighs, your hopes and above all you must pray for those deceased who have also passed from this earth, they too have navigated on the river of time. The world which Christ has cursed, shows them its grandeurs, its riches, its voluptuous pleasures and thrown suddenly, they see nothing but eternity. Death will be their last transition. They await you in the beyond, they ardently hope for your prayers and sacrifices because you alone can still do something for them. You have a family there- above where one is loved with a pure love because selfishness is no longer which can lessen the affections, no more frailty or inconstancy to discourage. No more ambition or pride to overcome or to sadden the soul seeking fidelity. The bond of that family intensifies unceasingly in the adoration and the love of God, of God who is the hearth where the eternal affections are kindled. Unite your strength and your prayers in an intercourse with Heaven and it is then that your soul will find again peace, in the expectation of eternal repose. Sacerdos
|
