ad majorem Dei gloriam - the Jesuit motto.

Greetings one and all!.. ah!, the title of this little post is AMDG, meaning, for the greater glory of God! It's the Jesuit motto and certainly a very interesting one. Everything for the GREATER glory of God, not just for the glory of God, but the GREATER glory of God. It's certainly very inspiring and encouraging. It makes me remember something that I chanced upon one day while reading the Imitation of Christ (which I must say is a MUST read, top-ten book!). Here it is:

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"Lord, I believe, but make me believe more deeply; I hope in You, but make me hope more firmly; I love You, but make me love more ardently; I am sorry for my sins, but make me repent more sincerely."

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It makes me wonder =) ... The epitome of spiritual life is to want to do MORE for God, everything MORE for God. Many saints have certainly succeeded in doing that. But, you do not just do MORE. You have to look into yourself, change your life and you can just do MORE by doing that. You don't have to do great things, just do things everything that you always do, with love, with great simplicity of heart, with all purity of thought and heart.

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We serve God by conquering our temptations and by resigning ourselves in sufferings.

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To do our everday actions with the right intention is to serve God.

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"All these actions, performed with diligence, bear fruit a hundredfold; but performed negligently, they do not render even tenfold" - Rev. Timothy Giaccardo

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"Let us put great intentions even in our slightest actions, and they will multiply our merits by the hundreds." - Very Rev. James Alberione

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Come, O Holy Ghost, come and make me a saint!

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Which reminds me, here is the novena said for the intention of the general chapter:

It starts with the Veni Creator.

Novena for the General Chapter
Sunday July 2 - Monday July 10

COME, Holy Ghost,

Creator blest,

and in our souls take up Thy rest;

come with Thy grace and heavenly aid

to fill the hearts which Thou hast made.

O comforter,

to Thee we cry,

O heavenly gift of God Most High,

O fount of life and fire of love,

and sweet anointing from above.

Thou in Thy sevenfold gifts are known;

Thou, finger of God's hand we own;

Thou, promise of the Father,

Thou Who dost the tongue with power imbue.

Kindle our sense from above,

and make our hearts o'erflow with love;

with patience firm and virtue high

the weakness of our flesh supply.

Far from us drive the foe we dread,

and grant us Thy peace instead;

so shall we not,

with Thee for guide,

turn from the path of life aside.

Oh, may Thy grace on us bestow

the Father and the Son to know;

and Thee, through endless times confessed,

of both the eternal Spirit blest.

Now to the Father and the Son,

Who rose from death,

be glory given,

with Thou, O Holy Comforter,

henceforth by all in earth and heaven.Amen.

V. Send forth Thy Spirit and they shall be created

R. And Thou shall renew the face of the earth

Let us pray:

O God, Who didst instruct the hearts of Thy faithful by the Light of the Holy Ghost; grant us in the same Spirit to be truly wise and ever to rejoice in His consolation. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us

Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us

Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us

Saint Pius X, pray for us

Fast on Friday July 7
Every priest of the SSPX will celebrate a Mass before July 10 for the intentions of the General Chapter

Here's also the Superior General's letter for you to read:

SUPERIOR GENERAL’S LETTER TO FRIENDS & BENEFACTORS NO. 69

Dear Faithful and Benefactors,
“By celebrating the old Mass, I discovered what the priest is.”
Several times lately we have received this moving testimony from priests who are getting to know us. This short
sentence sums up the essence of the profound mystery that has struck the Church:
1. The Church has been in a crisis since Vatican II because the priesthood has been slighted. This is one of the
fundamental elements of this crisis.
2. One of the most decisive points for the Church’s restoration is and will be the priesthood. Of all the churchmen of
the 20th century, Archbishop Lefebvre was probably the one who understood this most clearly.
3. In founding the Priestly Society of Saint Pius X, he sought nothing but the restoration of the priesthood for the sake
of restoring the entire Church, and
4. to do this by re-establishing the intimate, unsuspectedly profound link that exists between the priest and the Mass.
The priest was the forgotten man of Vatican II, as Fathers of the Council have frankly admitted. In the Constitution on
the Church, Lumen Gentium, while entire chapters were dedicated to the bishops and especially to the laity, one of the great
“discoveries” of Vatican II, only a few paragraphs refer to the priest, and when they do it is to subordinate him to the bishops
or to the universal priesthood of the baptized.
As early as 1971, the International Theological Commission would say: “Vatican II modified the image of the priest in
two regards. The Council treated of the common priesthood of all the faithful before treating of the ministerial priesthood....
Moreover, it highlighted the place of the bishop, the center of each particular Church and member of the universal
college of bishops. The place of the priest in the Church became blurred.”1
Loss of identity, an uncertain place in the Church...and yet the decree Presbyterorum Ordinis gives the same definition
of the priesthood as the Council of Trent! But the context is such that another idea is put forward, that of the priest
as preacher, as Martin Luther would have it, and not the priest as the one who offers the Sacrifice. This would lead Fr.
Olivier, a recognized expert on the subject, to say about the crisis that befell the priesthood after the Council: “The real
problem is so unusual in Catholicism that one can easily understand the instinctive blindness that has allowed a
perception of the cause to be avoided: the will to be faithful to two Councils that completely diverge from each other
is simply impossible.” 2
To this new presentation of the priesthood, a new Mass with an intentionally Protestant savor corresponds perfectly...
The conjunction of these two elements, the definition of the priesthood and the new Mass, have sufficed to provoke the most
severe crisis touching the priesthood in the Church’s entire history.
Let us say it quite simply: the priesthood has been cleverly denatured. The “president” (præesse), the “preacher”
(prædicare) are indeed sacerdotal roles, but they are not the essential: this belongs to the “sacrificare” (the “sacrificer”).
Insofar as the priest has not understood that his reason for being is sacrifice, that his ordination ordains him for the
offering of sacrifice, the sacrifice of Our Lord on the cross, the priest will not truly know what he is or who he is. The priest
without the Mass, without sacrifice, is an eye that sees not, an ear that hears not, feet that do not walk.
The Church’s enemy will never better succeed in striking her heart, for the heart of the Church, that which communicates
supernatural life to the entire Mystical Body, that which diffuses life throughout the whole organism, is the Holy
Sacrifice of the Mass. For a Mass protestantized in the name of ecumenism, according to Bugnini’s very words, a corresponding
priesthood was required...
The priests we quoted at the beginning of this letter have understood this in a lightening flash when they came in contact
with the traditional Mass. And then, they tell me, they are both frustrated and happy. Frustrated, because “they” hid from
them this treasure, they deprived them of it. Happy, inundated with happiness at understanding the extraordinary grandeur
of their vocation, the thrilling reality of their participation in the priesthood of Our Lord Jesus Christ “in persona Christi.”
The priest is associated, immersed even, in the sacrificial act of Our Lord, Sovereign Priest, and he thus participates with his
whole being, which he surrenders to Jesus, priest and victim, for the salvation of souls, for the redemptive act. All of this was
made away with in the New Mass.
Poor priests who know not what they are!
Very dear faithful, we do not doubt that you rejoice with us when priests discover what they are. These are beautiful
victories over the crisis in the Church, strongholds and citadels reconquered for Church Militant, joining ranks with the new
priests Divine Providence gives us every year. This year there will be seventeen, ten in this month of June, and seven in
December. In such occurrences, we see accomplished in a tangible way one of the goals of our Society, whose end is the
priesthood and everything related to it.
It should be the constant concern of the superiors to maintain among the members a lively will to accomplish and to
reach this end. As in every society, from time to time it is necessary to stop and examine the road traveled, to verify if and
how the end of the society is being pursued, and to consider the state of its members. This work is done particularly during
the course of the “Chapter,” an assembly which for us, the SSPX, meets every twelve years. It is also on this occasion that
the capitulants, numbering forty, elect the Superior General, who will lead the Society, assisted by his council, for the next
twelve years.
We have no need to insist upon the importance of such an event for our Society. During the six months preceding the
Chapter, our Statutes command us to offer prayers to obtain from Divine Mercy His grace, His light, and the help of the
Holy Ghost.
We invite you to join our prayers and sacrifices by a novena, and if you can, by a day of fasting. The novena will
commence on July 2. It consists of the prayer of the Veni Creator, three invocations to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, and
one to St. Pius X. The day of fasting has been set for Friday, July 7.
Please receive our warmest thanks for your most touching and faithful generosity, without which the Society would not
have the means to develop and to grow, a growth that is somewhat miraculous... We count on your prayers, and ask Our
Lady to obtain for you by her intercession all the graces and spiritual support you need.
May God bless you abundantly.
The Feast of Pentecost
4 June 2006
+ Bernard Fellay

Footnotes
1The Priestly Ministry [French] (Paris: Cerf, 1971).
2Daniel Olivier, The Two Faces of the Priest [French] (Paris: Fayard, 1971), p. 106.

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Alrighty guys.. time to go off now. Till the next time then!

In Christo et Mariae et Joseph et Anna et Thérèse!

PAX

In Christo et Maria,

-rachanne-