THE GREAT POWER OF THE HOLY ROSARY

 

IT IS NECESSARY TO BE WHOLLY GOD'S.

I. The means we must employ to be totally the Lord's is detachment from the world. If your position does not allow you to share your possessions with the poor, at least detach your heart from riches and worldly vanities. You cannot serve two masters at once; you cannot be both God's and the world's at the same time. Choose, of these two paths, the one that is more advantageous to you. Is it necessary to think too much when it comes to giving yourself to You, O my God?

II. Consider the rewards the world bestows on those who serve it. Solomon was showered with all the goods of the earth, and yet he declared that everything is vanity. Ask yourself: Is it not true that you are already dissatisfied with the goods of the world as soon as you possess them; that your spirit has never been fully content and that something has always been lacking in your happiness?  Deceitful world, why do you promise us so many things you cannot give?

III. If you truly wish to confess the truth, you will agree with me that you have never been happier or more content than after performing some act of virtue. If Jesus Christ rewards you so generously in this world, what will He not reserve for you in the next? If the pleasures the devil offers are tinged with such bitterness, what torments await you! Surrender yourself to God, and you will see that there is no pleasure comparable to that which is found in the service of this most loving Lord.

FEBRUARY 2: THE PURIFICATION OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN AND THE PRESENTATION OF THE CHILD JESUS ​​IN THE TEMPLE

Adorn, Zion, your dwelling, and receive Christ the King; embrace Mary, who is the heavenly gate, for she brings the King of glory, of the new light. The Virgin pauses, holding in her hands the Son conceived before the dawn; and Simeon, taking him in his arms, proclaims to the nations that he is the Lord of life and death, and the Savior of the world.

January 31: Saint John Bosco

 

CONCUBINAGE

Concubinage is the state in which a man and a woman live as if married without having received the Sacrament of Matrimony.

Concubinage is a crime (OF FORNICATION) before God, an abomination before the Church, and a public scandal before society.

CIVIL MARRIAGE

Since marriage is a Sacrament, its celebration among Christians lies completely outside civil jurisdiction.

In marriage between Christians, the contract cannot be separated from the Sacrament, because marriage is the very natural contract raised by Jesus Christ to the dignity of a Sacrament.

Therefore, for a Christian there can be no true marriage that is not a Sacrament.

For Christians, only religious marriage is valid, and whoever does not marry through the Church is not married. Consequently, for a Christian, so-called civil marriage is not a valid marriage and is null even when considered as a mere contract.

If one were to enter into it because it is obligatory or civilly necessary, it would be solely in order to give effect to its civil consequences.

The Vicar of Jesus Christ on earth, Pope Pius IX, stated this very clearly in an Allocution with these words:

“Every other union of man and woman, outside the Sacrament, entered into by virtue of any civil law whatsoever, is not marriage among Christians and is absolutely condemned.”

Therefore, Christians who are united ONLY civilly (in reality, in concubinage) and live as husband and wife live in a continual state of mortal sin. The same applies to those who, having contracted a religious marriage, resort to the INVALID civil divorce and supposedly “remarry” civilly. Those who live in concubinage must either marry through the Church or separate. Those who were religiously married, divorced, and then united “conjugally,” whether by “civil marriage” or otherwise, must separate from that false conjugal union. In both cases, if death overtakes them in that state, their souls will be condemned to hell for all eternity.

The children of Christians united only civilly are illegitimate before God, before the Church, and before persons of upright conscience.

Where the law so requires, the marriage must be registered in the civil registry in order to grant and secure civil effects for the married couple and their offspring.

But the Christian who is instructed in matters of religion, when registering in the civil registry, does not intend to truly contract marriage, but merely to fulfill a formality imposed by law for civil effects.

The law of civil marriage, in the form established in some nations as a substitute for true sacramental marriage, is contrary and offensive to the Catholic Religion.

It is an affront to Catholics to oblige them to perform a civil marriage as a substitute for the religious one, since they can recognize no true marriage other than the religious marriage.

Only an ignorant or impious Catholic (the impious person is no longer Catholic, but a renegade) can recognize civil marriage as a true marriage. The state could, with reason, require that once the religious marriage has been celebrated, it be immediately registered in the Civil Registry.

But the state cannot in any way, without offending the religious sentiments of conscientious Catholics, consider the act of civil registration as the celebration of marriage. Evidently, in secular—indeed atheistic—governments, civil marriage is considered true marriage even for believers.

Even in non-Catholic nations, if freedom of conscience were respected, the state should have no other requirement for Catholics than the registration of the marriage in the Civil Registry.

"Do not be afraid of those who kill the body, but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the one who can destroy both soul and body in hell." Matthew 10:28

 

MEDITATION ON THE THREE EFFECTS OF ZEAL FOR SOULS

Preach the word of God; be prepared in season and out of season; reprove, plead, and exhort with all patience and teaching. (2 Timothy 4:2)

I. Although not all Christians are apostles, they should nevertheless have zeal for the salvation of their neighbor. But in order for this zeal to be well ordered, each one must begin by converting himself. You have zeal for the conversion of your relatives, your friends, your servants; you charitably point out their faults; this zeal is praiseworthy; but if you do not examine yourself, it is indiscreet; see if you do not have the faults that you reproach in others.

II. Contribute as much as you can, with your words, to the salvation of others. Jesus Christ did not hesitate to converse with little children, nor with the Samaritan woman, to show them the way to heaven.  A kind word spoken to that relative, that friend, that servant, will win their soul for God. Jesus Christ shed all His blood to redeem that soul, and you refuse to say a word to prevent their damnation? Where is your charity?

III. Do you want to be a true apostle? Preach by your actions. Live an exemplary life; you will move people more when they see you than by listening to the most famous preacher; your modesty will restrain even the most libertine. How many opportunities to work for your neighbor do you let slip by? It is certain, says St. Gregory, that God will hold you accountable for the soul of your neighbor if you neglect to work for their salvation to the best of your ability.

Zeal for souls.
Pray for the clergy.