At today’s General Audience, Francis continued his “catechesis” on the Mass and it’s a doozy.
As of this writing, the complete text is available only in Italian, but an English translation should be posted on the Holy See website at some point tomorrow.
Those looking for a mortification opportunity may wish to read it; offering up the suffering for the freedom and exaltation of Holy Mother, the Church; that she may soon be freed of the Bergoglian scourge.
Perhaps the best way to give readers a sense for today’s discourse is to being by offering certain quotes wherein “Mass, Eucharist, Eucharistic celebration, etc.” are replaced by the words “Protestant Service.”
If Francis were actually teaching the Catholic faith, what we end up with should make little to no sense, but alas, that’s not the case!
Francis introduces the theme at the outset: the liturgy as “prayer” and “encounter”:
To understand the beauty of the Protestant Service, I want to begin with a very simple aspect: The Protestant Service is prayer, indeed, it is the praying par excellence, the highest, the most sublime, and at the same time the most “concrete” prayer. For it is the encounter of love with God through His Word and the Body and Blood of Jesus. It is an encounter with the Lord.
Don’t let the reference to “the Body and Blood of Jesus” fool you.
As you will see, the focus is very much on us – Mass is where we go to have an experience of meeting the Lord.
Is the Mass prayer par excellence?
Indeed it is, and the reason is because it is first and foremost an action of Jesus Christ; something missing entirely from today’s audience. We’ll return to the Mass as prayer momentarily, but for now let’s continue with our exercise.
Christ, when he calls his disciples, calls them to be with Him. This is therefore the greatest grace: to be able to experience that the Protestant Service is the privileged moment to be with Jesus and through Him with God and his brothers.
Here the anthropocentric view of the liturgy is more explicit; it’s about the “experience” of the encounter; that which makes it a “privileged moment.”
In essence, this view of the Mass is little more than an example of the Lord’s promise, Where two or three are gathered in my name…
Based on what Francis has said thus far, one might well ask:
What is the liturgy if the people aren’t there to ‘experience’ the ‘privileged moment’?
As we know, the Protestant Service without any people is worthless. The Mass, by contrast, remains a storehouse of infinite graces and the very work of redemption whether the people are present or not.
Francis went on to develop further the notion of Mass as prayer, saying:
Praying, like any real dialogue, it is also possible to remain silent – in the dialogues there are moments of silence – in silence together with Jesus. And when we go to Protestant Service, maybe we come five minutes before and we start to chat with those next to us. But it is not time to talk, it is the moment of silence to prepare for dialogue.
Ah, yes, dialogue – the post-conciliar substitute for authentic evangelization.
Is the Mass as prayer also in some way dialogue?
Yes, it is, and we’ll come back to this in a moment.
Francis goes on to say:
What is prayer really? It is first and foremost dialogue, personal relationship with God.
Ah, yes, personal relationship with God – the quintessential Protestant slogan.
Did Francis invoke it by coincidence, or is he deliberately – in typical Novus Ordo fashion – attempting to convince the heretics that this is their liturgy too? This is something to keep an eye on as the series unfolds in weeks to come.
Francis went on to say that the first disposition necessary for the “encounter” is childlike humility. Fair enough.
He then suggested that those who “dialogue” with God at Mass should be prepared for… wait for it… a surprise!
The second predisposition, which is also childlike, is to be surprised … Are we surprised by God who is always the God of surprises?
So, I suppose that a Lutheran who comes to Holy Mass in order to dialogue with God (and why wouldn’t she feel welcome) shouldn’t be surprised if He tells her to take Holy Communion! (Recall His Humbleness saying as much during a public Q&A with Lutherans in Rome.)
Later, Francis took aim, albeit in the sneaky, thinly veiled, underhanded fashion one has come to expect, at the Traditional Roman Rite and its adherents.
Because meeting with the Lord is always a live encounter, it is not a museum meeting. It is a living meeting and we go to the Protestant Service not to a museum. Let’s go to a living encounter with the Lord.
So-called traditionalists (aka Catholics) expect the Mass to be formal, structured, consistent, and timeless. The heretic expects his Protestant Service to be rather different.
Now you tell me, to whom is Francis speaking?
If it’s not obvious just yet, he goes on to say:
In the Gospel we talk of a certain Nicodemus (Jn 3: 1-2), a senior man, an authority in Israel, who goes to Jesus to know him; and the Lord speaks to him of the need to “reborn from above” (cf. v. 3). But what does it mean? Can one be “reborn”?
The Catholic answer to this question is: Yes, absolutely – in the waters of Baptism!
Francis, after going to great lengths to paint the Mass as a meeting place, has another idea in mind; implying that this is where one is reborn.
Each of us wants to be born again always to meet the Lord?
He then asks yet one more rhetorical question, this one designed to provide his listeners with a definition of what it means to be “reborn”:
Going back to having the flavor, the joy, and the wonder of life; is it possible even in the face of so many tragedies?
What Francis has laid out is an apt description of what motivates the Protestant to go to a Sunday service – he goes in order, not to partake of the fruits of redemption as poured by the Lord through His Church, but to “meet the Lord” and to be “born again” and to regain a little enthusiasm for life!
With all of this Protestantism as the foundation for his “catechesis,” Francis, toward the end of his audience, offers another Catholic-sounding proposition:
“Jesus Christ […] is the victim of atonement for our sins; not only for ours but also for those around the world “(1 Jn 2: 2). This gift, a source of true consolation – but the Lord always pardons us – this consolation is a true consolation, it is a gift given to us through the Eucharist, the bridal banquet where the Bridegroom meets our fragility.
Again, don’t be fooled by the familiar Catholic words as it is more fitting to say that the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is offered in atonement; i.e., it is a true propitiatory sacrifice.
In closing, I can do no better than to offer some excerpts from a very fine article that comes to us from the Society of St. Pius X that treats of the Mass as prayer:
All prayer has a double aspect—a primary, ascending aspect by which the adoration, thanksgiving, petition, and expiation of man is offered to God and a secondary, descending aspect by which the gifts and blessings of God are poured out upon man. Having acknowledged God for Who He is and giving Him the recognition which is unique to Him, Man humbly but confidently expects to receive from God those things which He alone can give.
This is the true nature of prayer, and Holy Mass, as a sort of dialogue.
The article defines the primary aspect of prayer as: Adoration, Praise, Thanksgiving, Petition, and Contrition (seeking God’s pardon).
The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is prayer par excellence in its primary aspect because only Jesus Christ can adore, praise, thank, and petition God as He should be in that only Christ knows the Father as He is.
Being the One True Sacrifice of the Cross, the Mass is the work of Christ that alone merits pardon and thus is efficacious in facilitating the secondary aspect of prayer by which the gifts and blessings of God are poured out upon man.
At Mass, we don’t just meet the Lord, we join our own prayers and sacrifices to His; that they may become an acceptable offering to the Almighty.
Not surprisingly, just as with the understanding of the Mass as the work of Christ (along with the role of the Church and the priest), the word “sacrifice” appears nowhere in the Bergoglian lesson of today.
Thus far, Francis’ “catechesis” is just as expected – it is essentially Protestant; with a few Catholic tidbits thrown in for good measure (or better stated, good deception).
We’ll see what next week brings.
This new movement of the pope in question at this time in this pontificate, what he’s doing is going one step further to suspend in the Catholic Church ,,,,the sacrifice of grain or in another term the sacrifice of praise, who do he think he is ?.. only the antichrist will do that as told by Almighty God. Is Francis preparing for the antichrist ?… Is this one of the elements in Our Lady’s Message, Sr Lucy found to be most dreadful ? … and caused John XXIII to go white?….
Look at those imposters! They are actually taking pictures of what they think is a mass. That is all the cathecesis one needs to see to tell me what those imposters believe about their “mass.” No thanks, I’ll pass.
“At Mass, we don’t just meet the Lord, we join our own prayers and sacrifices to His; that they may become an acceptable offering to the Almighty.”
This Bergoglian approach strikes me as being much, much too “linear”.
This entire bishopric of Rome is “linear”
And “rigid” too!
Papa Fiasco has long passed the point of shock and apostasy. He is the first Protestant Pope bent on exacting Luther’s Revenge. He is no more Catholic than Louie is a Buddhist Monk. The more PF’s antics continue with his Sodomite Sycophants the more Ann Barnhardt’s take on PF vs PB16 makes sense. No serious opposition to the destruction of Church. Pope Francis is not crazy. He’s the face of evil and apostasy in the Church. Make no mistake. He has been spectacularly successful so far. He is the human face of ..”Evil Triumphs When Good Men Do Nothing”. What has been Done? NOTHING! The effeminates have empowered him. It’s going to get a whole lot worse. He will keep ramping up the outrages until he is stopped. At this point it looks doubtful that Cdl Burke et al will do anything meaningful beyond talking. In essence Bergoglio has turned the entire Church hierarchy into “Empty Barrels” to borrow General Kelly’s description for Florida Congresswoman, Fredricka Wilson (D). God help us.
The name “Francis” and the word “catechesis” should never be in the same sentence.
I’ll say this for Pope Francis–he works hard. He is essentially doing his job as Pope to pass on the Faith, albeit using Vatican II liturgy and theology. Would that the pre-Vatican ii popes done the same, the church would have been better prepared for the modernist assault after Vatican II.
I’m specifically referring to the lack of instruction in the meaning and mystery of the liturgy, especially for the clergy. This goes way back to the Protestant revolt, as the Counter Reformation did not go far enough. Pius XII was particularly bad here as He brought in Bugnini and began implementing changes. We could learn from the east in this regard. They seem to appreciate the mystery of the divine liturgy as it is bound up in Tradition.
A very holy person once told me Bergoglio was the little horn
Respectfully, you have a very confused view as to what is happening and what has happened in the Catholic Church. To suggest that Pope Francis is doing what he should be doing to “pass on the faith” is almost beyond comment. The Modernist assault against the Church did not occur “after” Vatican II––it was Vatican II!
You apparently fail to understand that the Modernist influences that had been greatly suppressed by St Pope Pius X and his predecessor, Leo XIII and Pius IX, began to re-emerge almost immediately after his death in 1914. There are many who see no coincidence that the Blessed Mother appears a short 3 years later to warn of the impending crises.
The three popes that followed St Pope Pius X were certainly decent men and have never been accused of being Modernists. But if you study their history you will also find that they were weak men and allowed the Modernist influence to grow over the next half century.
Thus, when Vatican II came about, the Modernists were very much in the driver’s seat. They were not in the majority, but they were extremely well organized, so when the a Council was called, they went to battle. The non-Modernists were like deer caught in the headlights. Read Michael Davies and Fr Ralph Wiltgen on the Council and you will be better able to see how the Modernists simply took it completely over.
Nevertheless, the Modernists were in charge thereafter, and it has been the Modernists since that time that has been running the Catholic Church. So for you to suggest that the current pope is doing a good job in “passing on the faith”, is to claim that the Satanically-inspired heresy of Modernism is our faith! Nothing could be further from the truth. All that hogwash about the “spirit of the Council” is pure balderdash.
Now maybe you are simply unaware as to just how pernicious a heresy Modernism actually is, but it is the very evil that is now undermining the Church. Arguing that this pope is doing a good job at what is doing (which is promoting Modernism) is breathtaking. You would do well to read all of the Papal Encyclicals that Louie suggested a while back––especially St Pope Pius X’s encyclicals Pascendi Dominici Gregis, and Lamentabili; as well as Pope Pius IX’s Syllabus of Errors.
I think you misunderstood the bit of sarcasm, Irish. I believe John314 was saying that Bergolio is doing a good job of promoting the V2 NO false religion and that if Pius XII, XI, and Benedict XV had done as good a job at promoting the true Catholic faith as Bergolio is doing promoting the false V2 anti-faith, then we may not be in this mess.
All of us trads should really applaud Bergolio. He has done more in 4 years to help the trad cause then decades of Michael Matts and SSPX “resisting.”
Thank you, Tom, and in that case I sincerely apologize. I certainly meant no offense to John314 or anyone. I obviously did not read his comment as sarcasm. Now that you “splained” it to me it does make sense. Unfortunately, some of us Irish are every bit as thick-headed as we are often accused.
Tom A–would you also say that Bergoglio has helped the sede cause. This is not an indictment of the sedes. It is an indictment of Bergoglio and the V2 “church”.
Yes , I would say Bergolio has helped many people see the false V2 religion for what it is, a false religion. Bergolio has also convincedmany trads that Benedict is still Pope so that when Benedict dies, these folks will have to accept the sede position by default. I myself was not a sede until Bergolio forced me to examine the Catholic faith even more than I had under JP2 and B16. Now I see that the whole organization that we thought was the Catholic Church apostasized at Vatican II. Only a small remnant remained true to the Catholic faith. Even now, that remnant is falling from the true faith because they are accepting a false teaching on the Papacy in order to keep their “pope” and resist him too. In the Catholic Church, it is the Pope who is the final word on matters of faith and morals, not a dubia cardinal. But oh so many semi trads have enviscerated the Papacy to justify themselves in thinking they have to be in union with a heretic.
kellyann – you nailed it! I couldn’t have put it better myself. This man will not rest until he has led millions more gullible lukewarm Catholics to Hell.
Look at their “altar”…………his next step is to remove the words of the most sacred Consecration of the Mass and replace it with silence where man can contemplate his own “greatness” – NOT that of Christ. He is indeed paving the way for the antichrist.
All we can do is pray that Bergoglio may be converted to Catholicism.
O Sacrament most holy; O Sacrament divine; all praise and all thanksgiving be every moment thine.
Our Lady of Fatima pray for us.
St Padre Pio pray for us.
Holy Spirit be our guide, our loyalty and our strength.
Tom, has the Vatican II revolutionary juggernaut, led by Pope Francis, helped the sedes accept, forgive and extend true charity towards each other?
Read Fr. Luigi Villa’s life story on Chiesa Viva. You’ll see that Freemasonry is the root cause of all today’s problems. John XXIII was a freemason who called Vatican II at his masonic friends’ command; Paul VI was also a freemason who put the masonic set square on his mother’s gravestone and demanded that NO Christian symbol [ even a cross ] was to be put on his own coffin/memorial slab!
When he was dying, St Padre Pio handpicked Fr Villa to be his successor in fighting Freemasonry and Pope Pius XII endorsed St Pio’s choice.
Thanks to Pius XII – Fr Villa spent his life “outing” the very top freemasons which was something no-one had ever done before. During his life he survived 7, possibly 8 assassination attempts.
Pius XII also openly opposed the Nazis before and after he became Pope. He faced them in side and outside Germany and was responsible for saving 700,000 Jews and allied military personnel and escaped POWs.
His encyclicals show strong warnings on the perils to the Church of the scourge of modernism.
Please don’t fall into the trap of looking for Popes to blame BEFORE the freemason’s choice of John XXIII and the puppet Paul VI! We now know we have the worst pope for centuries who wallows in heresy and apostasy. Why not concentrate on that?
God bless all here.
Tom – you are right. When St Bernadette was asked what she felt was the greatest danger to the Faith, she replied: “Lukewarm Catholics.”
Our Lady of Fatima told us that millions of souls are hurtling to Hell because of “bad pastors” and that the great Apostasy in the Church would start at the top.
The next step is for Bergoglio to erase the Sacred Consecration of the Mass. That will issue forth the Abomination of Desolation when all we will have left is the Holy Rosary, the miraculous medal, the brown scapula, the Holy Spirit and prayers to Our Blessed Lady to take us under the protection of her mantle.
Now is the time to make regular confessions and receive the Holy Eucharist in preparation for the Chastisement.
Yes, for the highest form of charity is Truth. If I have to offend someone in order to get that person to look at the situation objectively instead of from their own weak emotional perspective, then I have acted charitably.