"The dignity, usefulness, and majesty of Scripture are so great that is surpasses the books of all philosophers and theologians, both Hebrew, Greek, and Latin, as much as Divine surpasses human wisdom. For Scripture is the Word of God. It is the very utterance of God, by means of which God enunciates His wisdom to us, and points out to us the way to virtue, health, and eternal happiness."
from The Great Commentary by Cornelius a Lapide
Friday, May 28, 2010
blindness of the Jews
"Wisely does S. Gregory say (Hom. 10) - 'All the elements testified that their Creator was come. The heavens acknowledged Him to be God, and so they sent the star. The sea knew Him, for it suffered HIm to walk upon it. The earth knew Him, for, when He died, it trembled. The sun knew Him, for he hid his rays. The rocks and stones knew Him, for they were rent asunder. Hell knew Him, for it gave up the dead that were in it. And yet Him, whom all the senseless elements felt to be the Lord, the hearts of the unbelieving Jews even yet acknowledge not by any means to be God, and, harder than the flint-stones, they will not be broken by repentence.'"
from The Great Commentary (Part I) by Cornelius a Lapide
from The Great Commentary (Part I) by Cornelius a Lapide
Thursday, May 27, 2010
a river of tears
"Is. xxii. It is the day of slaughter, and of treading down, and of weeping to the Lord God of hosts."
"There is in hell a sound like that of many waters. It is as if all the rivers and oceans of the world were pouring themselves with a great splash down on the floor of hell. It is then really the sound of waters? It is. Are the rivers and oceans of the earth pouring themselves into hell? No. What is it then? It is the sound of oceans of tears running from the countless millions of eyes. They cry night and day. They cry forever and ever. They cry because the sulfurous smoke torments their eyes. They cry because they are in darkness. They cry because they have lost the beautiful heaven. They cry because the sharp fire burns them."
"Little child, it is better to cry one tear of repentance now than to cry millions of tears in hell."
from The Sight of Hell by Fr. John Furniss
"There is in hell a sound like that of many waters. It is as if all the rivers and oceans of the world were pouring themselves with a great splash down on the floor of hell. It is then really the sound of waters? It is. Are the rivers and oceans of the earth pouring themselves into hell? No. What is it then? It is the sound of oceans of tears running from the countless millions of eyes. They cry night and day. They cry forever and ever. They cry because the sulfurous smoke torments their eyes. They cry because they are in darkness. They cry because they have lost the beautiful heaven. They cry because the sharp fire burns them."
"Little child, it is better to cry one tear of repentance now than to cry millions of tears in hell."
from The Sight of Hell by Fr. John Furniss
wasting time
"...hence, Saint Francis Borgia was careful to employ every moment of his time for God. When others spoke of useless things, he conversed with God by holy affections: and so recollected was he, that, when asked his opinion on the subject of a conversation, he knew not what answer to make. Being corrected for this, he said: I am content to be considered stupid, rather than lose my time in vanities."
"Saint Bernardine weeps over the blindness of those negligent Christians, who squander the days of salvation, and never consider that a day once lost shall never return. "Transeunt dies, salutis et nemo recogitat sibi perire diem et nunquam rediturum" - Serm. ad Scholar. At the hour of death they shall wish for another year, or for another day; but they shall not have it: they shall then be told that time shall be no more. What price would they not then give for another week, for a day, or even for an hour, to prepare the account which they must then render to God?"
from sermon XXIV for the third Sunday after Easter by Saint Alphonsus Maria de Liguori
"Saint Bernardine weeps over the blindness of those negligent Christians, who squander the days of salvation, and never consider that a day once lost shall never return. "Transeunt dies, salutis et nemo recogitat sibi perire diem et nunquam rediturum" - Serm. ad Scholar. At the hour of death they shall wish for another year, or for another day; but they shall not have it: they shall then be told that time shall be no more. What price would they not then give for another week, for a day, or even for an hour, to prepare the account which they must then render to God?"
from sermon XXIV for the third Sunday after Easter by Saint Alphonsus Maria de Liguori
resisting temptation
"As long as we live in this world we cannot be without tribulation and temptation. Hence it is written in Job: 'The life of man upon earth is a warfare.' (Job 7:1)."
"Yet temptations are often very profitable to a man, although they be troublesome and grievous, for in them a man is humbled, purified, and instructed. All the saints have passed through many tribulations and temptations, and have profited by them; and they who could not support temptations have become reprobates, and fallen away."
"A man is never entirely secure from temptations as long as he lives, because we have within us the source of temptation, having been born in concupiscence...Many seek to fly temptations, and fall more grievously into them. By flight alone we cannot overcome; but by patience and true humility we are made stronger than our enemies. He who only declines them outwardly, and does not pluck out the root, will profit little; nay, temptations will sooner return to him, and he will find himself in worse condition."
"Inconstancy of mind, and small confidence in God, is the beginning of all evil temptations. For a ship without a rudder is tossed to and fro by the waves, so the man who is remiss, and who quits his resolution, is many ways tempted. Fire tries iron, and temptation tries a just man...However, we must be watchful, especially in the beginning of temptation, because then the enemy is easier overcome, if he is not suffered to come in at all at the door of the soul, but it is kept out and resisted at his first knock...For first a bare thought comes to the mind; then a strong imagination; afterwards delight, and evil motion and consent. And thus, by little and little, the wicked enemy gets full entrance, when he is not resisted in the beginning. And the longer a man is negligent in resisting, so much the weaker does he daily become in himself, and the enemy becomes stronger against him."
"We must not, therefore, despair when we are tempted, but pray to God with so much the more fervour that He may vouchsafe to help us in all tribulations; who, no doubt, according to the saying of St. Paul, will 'make such issue with the temptation, that you may be able to bear it' (7 Cor. 10:13). Let us, therefore, humble our souls under the hand of God in all temptations and tribulations: for the humble in spirit He will save and exalt."
from The Imitation of Christ, Book I by Thomas a Kempis
Fruits of the Hail Mary
"Blessed Alan de la Roche who was so deeply devoted to the Blessed Virgin had many revelations from her...Three of them stand out with special emphasis: the first, that if people fail to say the Hail Mary (the Angelic Salutation that has saved the world) out of carelessness, or because they are lukewarm, or because they hate it, this is a sign that they will probably and indeed shortly be condemned to eternal punishment."
"The second truth is that those who love this divine salutation bear the very special stamp of predestination."
"The third is that those to whom God has given the signal grace of loving Our Lady and of serving her out of love must take very great care to continue to love and serve her until the time when she shall have had them placed in Heaven by her divine Son in the degree of glory which they have earned. (Blessed Alan, chapter XI, paragraph 2)."
"The heretics, all of whom are children of the devil and clearly bear the sign of God's reprobation, have a horror of the Hail Mary. They still say the Our Father but never the Hail Mary; they would rather wear a poisonous snake around their necks than wear a scapular or carry a rosary."
"Among Catholics those who bear the mark of God's reprobation think but little of the Rosary (whether five decades or fifteen). They either fail to say it or only say it very quickly and in a lukewarm manner"
"Even if I did not believe that which has been revealed to Blessed Alan de la Roche, even then my own experience would be enough to convince me of this terrible but consoling truth. I do not know, nor do I see clearly, how it can be that a devotion which seems to be so small can be the infallible sign of eternal salvation and how its absence can be the sign of God's eternal displeasure...My Hail Mary, my Rosary of fifteen or five decades, is the prayer and infallible touchstone by which I can tell those who are led by the Spirit of God from those who are deceived by the devil."
"The Hail Mary is a blessed dew that falls from heaven upon the souls of the predestinate. It gives them a marvelous spiritual fertility so that they can grow in all virtues. The more the garden of the soul is watered by this prayer the more enlightened one's intellect becomes, the more zealous his heart, the stronger his armor against his spiritual enemies."
from The Secret of the Rosary by Saint Louis de Montfort
"The second truth is that those who love this divine salutation bear the very special stamp of predestination."
"The third is that those to whom God has given the signal grace of loving Our Lady and of serving her out of love must take very great care to continue to love and serve her until the time when she shall have had them placed in Heaven by her divine Son in the degree of glory which they have earned. (Blessed Alan, chapter XI, paragraph 2)."
"The heretics, all of whom are children of the devil and clearly bear the sign of God's reprobation, have a horror of the Hail Mary. They still say the Our Father but never the Hail Mary; they would rather wear a poisonous snake around their necks than wear a scapular or carry a rosary."
"Among Catholics those who bear the mark of God's reprobation think but little of the Rosary (whether five decades or fifteen). They either fail to say it or only say it very quickly and in a lukewarm manner"
"Even if I did not believe that which has been revealed to Blessed Alan de la Roche, even then my own experience would be enough to convince me of this terrible but consoling truth. I do not know, nor do I see clearly, how it can be that a devotion which seems to be so small can be the infallible sign of eternal salvation and how its absence can be the sign of God's eternal displeasure...My Hail Mary, my Rosary of fifteen or five decades, is the prayer and infallible touchstone by which I can tell those who are led by the Spirit of God from those who are deceived by the devil."
"The Hail Mary is a blessed dew that falls from heaven upon the souls of the predestinate. It gives them a marvelous spiritual fertility so that they can grow in all virtues. The more the garden of the soul is watered by this prayer the more enlightened one's intellect becomes, the more zealous his heart, the stronger his armor against his spiritual enemies."
from The Secret of the Rosary by Saint Louis de Montfort
the prayers of heretics are abominations
"This is the glory, the joy, and assurance of a Catholic man, that Jesus Christ is in him the chief agent, the which for his reverence is heard of God in him: and this is the true firmament of the Catholics, more firm than heaven itself. It is not so in heretics, all that which of heretics is accursed and [an] abomination before God: their faith, their preaching, their prayers, their fasting, their alms, all acts of Religion coming from them are nothing else, but cursed sacrilege and pollution. If they should raise up the dead, if they should be more wise than Angels, if they should have their faith as great as to move mountains, if they should distribute all their goods to the cherishing of the poor, if they should keep heroically continual virginity, if they should sing with an Angelical holiness, all this serveth them for nothing, being divided from the body of the Church: All this would not anything appease of the rigour of the eternal ire of God upon them."
"Core, Dathan, and Abiron did sacrifice to the same God that Moses did, yea to the only true and almighty God, but for it was done in division from the body of the Church, the earth did open and swallow them up alive..."
from The Firme Foundation of the Catholic Religion by Jean de Caumont
"Core, Dathan, and Abiron did sacrifice to the same God that Moses did, yea to the only true and almighty God, but for it was done in division from the body of the Church, the earth did open and swallow them up alive..."
from The Firme Foundation of the Catholic Religion by Jean de Caumont
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