Roman Extraordinary (Tridentine)

“The powers of heaven will be moved.” What does the Lord mean by the powers of heaven if not the angels and archangels, Thrones, Dominations, Rulers and Powers? (Col 1,6). At the coming of the severe Judge they will appear visibly before our eyes… “Then they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds with great authority and majesty”. In other words, they are going to see in power and majesty him whom they chose not to hear in a state of humility… He said these things about the condemned; words of consolation for the elect follow at once: “When these things begin to take place, look up and lift up your heads because your redemption is drawing near.” Truth is exhorting his elect by saying: “When the disasters of the world become more frequent… let your hearts exult! While the world which is not your friend is coming to an end, the redemption you have sought is coming near.” Those who love God are ordered to rejoice and be merry at the world’s end. They will soon find him whom they love, while what they have not loved is passing away. It should be far from the hearts of all the faithful who long to see God to grieve over the disasters of a world they know these very disasters are to end. It is written that: “Whoever wishes to be Q friend of this world makes himself an enemy of God (Jas 4,4). Someone who does not rejoice as the end of the world approaches testifies that he is its friend, and this convicts him of being God’s enemy. Let this be far from the hearts of the faithful, let it be far from those who believe by their faith that there is another life, and who love it by their activities… What is our mortal life except a way? Consider carefully, my friends, what sort of thing it is to grow weary with the exertions of the way, and yet to be unwilling that the way be ended!… Therefore, my friends, do not love what you see cannot long exist.

Roman Extraordinary (Tridentine) Daily Readings – rosary,team

You are one of the virgins who illumine the beauty of your body with the light of the mind, you are all the more fit to be compared with the Church. In the hours of the night think always on Christ and hope for his coming at every moment. (…) Christ enters at the open door. He will not fail to do so for he has promised to enter. Embrace him whom you have sought. Approach him and be illumined. Hold him and ask him not to go away quickly. Beg him not to depart. For “His Word runs swiftly” (Ps 147:15) and will not be held by the slothful or negligent soul. Let your soul run to his call and follow closely the sound of his heavenly voice, for his passing is swift. (…) With what ties is Christ to be held? Not by force, not by chains, but rather by the bonds of charity. He is kept and held by the ties of the mind, by the love of the heart. So if you want to hold Christ, seek him continually and fear no fatigue. It is often in pain of body, amid the very hands of the persecutors, that Christ may really be found. (…) In a little while, in a brief moment, when you have escaped the hands of your persecutors and have not succumbed to the powers of the world, Christ will meet you and will not allow you to be tempted further.

Roman Extraordinary (Tridentine) Daily Readings – rosary,team

The Law contains natural prescriptions that already administer justice, and even before the gift of the Law to Moses, people observed these prescriptions and were justified by their faith and were pleasing to God. The Lord has not abolished those prescriptions but developed and fulfilled them as the following words testify: “You have heard that it was said: ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you, everyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” (Mt 5:27-28). And again: “It was said: ‘ You shall not kill.’ But I say to you: whoever is angry with his brother without reason will be answerable to the court” (cf. Mt 5:21f.)… And so on. None of these prescriptions imply either the contradiction nor the abolition of those that preceded them, but their fulfilment and development. As the Lord himself says: “Unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter into the kingdom of heaven” (Mt 5:20). What does this development consist in? In the first place, no longer believing only in the Father but also in his Son who, from now on, has been manifested. For it is he who leads us to communion and union with God. Then, not in speaking only but in doing – for “they preach but do not practice” (Mt 23:3) – and in preserving ourselves not just from evil deeds but even from the desire of them. By teaching this he was not replacing the Law but fulfilling the Law and rooting the precepts of the Law more deeply within us… To ordain the abstention not only of acts forbidden by the Law but even of desire for them is not the actions of someone who contradicts and abolishes the Law; it is the action of someone who fulfils and extends it.

Roman Extraordinary (Tridentine) Daily Readings – rosary,team

This was the perplexity of believers in the old time, as we read in the Psalms and Prophets, viz. that the wicked should prosper, while God’s servants seemed to fail: and so in Gospel times. Not that the Church has not this peculiar prerogative with it, which no other religious body has, that as it began with Christ’s first coming, so it will never fail till He comes again. Nevertheless, for a time, in the course of single generations, nay, I may say in every age and at all times, it seems to be failing, and its enemies to be prevailing. It is the peculiarity of the warfare between the Church and the world, that the world seems ever gaining on the Church, yet the Church is really ever gaining on the world… Kingdoms rise and fall; nations expand and contract; dynasties begin and end; princes are born and die; confederacies are made and unmade, and parties, and companies, and crafts, and guilds, and establishments, and philosophies, and sects, and heresies. They have their day, but the Church is eternal; yet in their day they seem of much account… Much there is to try our faith at this moment, who cannot see the future, and therefore cannot see the short duration of what shows proudly and successfully now. We at this day see a number of philosophies, sects, and parties, thriving and extending, and the Church seems poor and helpless… Let us pray God to teach us: we need His teaching; we are very blind. The Apostles on one occasion said to Christ, when His words tried them, “Increase our faith” (Lk 17:5). Let us come to Him honestly: we cannot help ourselves; we do not know ourselves; we need His grace. Whatever perplexity the world gives us… let us come to Him with pure and sincere minds; imploring Him to reveal to us what we know not, to incline our hearts when they are stubborn, and to make us love and obey Him honestly while we seek.

Roman Extraordinary (Tridentine) Daily Readings – rosary,team

May Christ help you, dearest brethren, always to welcome with an eager and thirsting heart the reading of God’s word; then your faithful obedience will fill you with spiritual joy. But if you wish Holy Scripture to bring you sweetness and the divine precepts to profit you as much as they should, then relax from your material preoccupations for a few hours. Read God’s words over again in your house, dedicate yourselves entirely to his mercy. Thus you will succeed in realizing within yourself what is written of the man who is blessed: “meditating on the Law of the Lord day and night” (Ps 1:2) and “Happy are they who observe his decrees, who seek him with all their heart” (Ps 118[119]:2). Merchants don’t seek to make a profit on one single product but on several. Cultivators seek a better return by sowing different kinds of seed. You who look for spiritual gains don’t be satisfied just with listening to the sacred texts in church. Read them at home. When days are short, profit by the long evenings. Thus you will be able to gather spiritual grain into your heart’s storehouse and lay out in the treasure house of your souls the precious pearls of Scripture.

Roman Extraordinary (Tridentine) Daily Readings – rosary,team