Virgo Potens

2 of 2 Month of the Precious Blood of Jesus ~ July 10th (2) Because the other vices are to be feared only when we are disposed to evil; but pride, says St. Augustine, insinuates itself even when we are trying to do good. “Other vices are to be feared in sins, pride is to be feared even in good deeds.” [Epist. cxviii] And Saint Isidore says: “Pride is worse than every other vice from the fact that it springs even from virtue and its guilt is less felt.” [Lib. de Summ. Bono] (continued) ~ Fr. Cajetan Mary da Bergamo (1660-1753), Humility of Heart. Tr. Herbert Cardinal Vaughan (1903).

Month of the Precious Blood of Jesus ~ July 10th 139. Let us now consider wherein lies the terrible danger of this vice. (1) Because while all other vices destroy only their opposite virtues, as wantonness destroys chastity, greediness temperance, and anger gentleness, etc., pride destroys all virtue, and is according to St. Gregory like a cancer which not only eats away one limb but attacks the whole body: “Like a widespread pestilential disease.” [lib. xxxiv, Mor., cap. 18] (continued)

Je suis Le Bon Pasteur I am The Good Shepherd Month of the Precious Blood ~ July 10th The Mystery of the Precious Blood Why are our hearts so cold? Why is our love so faithless, and our faith so unloving? We try, and still we do not love as we wish to love. We try again, and love more; and yet it is sadly short of the love we ought to have. We strive and strive, and still we only languish when we ought to burn. He longs for our love, sweet covetous lover of souls as He is. He longs for our love; and we long for nothing so much as to love Him. Surely there must be a time and a place, when both He and we shall be satisfied: but the place will be heaven, and the time nothing else than the great timeless eternity. ~ Frederick William Faber, D.D., The Precious Blood: or, The Price of Our Salvation (1860)

2 of 2 Month of the Precious Blood of Jesus ~ July 9th Job speaks thus of the sinner: “He hath strengthened himself against the Almighty,” [Job xv, 25] and in this sense one can also say of pride that it is the greatest of all sins, because the proud rebel against God, setting themselves in opposition to God, nor do they mind displeasing God in order to please themselves, leaving the All to attach themselves to their own nothingness, as St. Augustine says: “Abandoning God, he seeks his own will, and by so doing draws near to nothingness, hence the proud according to Scripture are called doers of their own will,” [Lib. IV, De Civ. Dei, cap. xiv] which is to say with St. Paul: “Lovers of themselves.” And the same holy father makes this reflection, that even venial sins committed more from frailty than from malice may become mortal if they are aggravated by pride. “Sins creep in through human weakness, and although small they become great and heavy if pride adds to their weight and measure.” [Lib. de Sancta Virginit. cap. ii] But since God has sworn to detect this vice: “The Lord God hath sworn by His Own Soul, I detest the pride of Jacob,” [Amos vi, 8] what wonder is it that He should punish it more than all vices? St. Augustine remarks with singular force that amongst all the sins by which sinners fall, none is so great, so ruinous, or so grave as that of pride. “Amongst all the falls of sinners none is so great as that of the proud.” [Ps. xxxv] ~ Fr. Cajetan Mary da Bergamo (1660-1753), Humility of Heart. Tr. Herbert Cardinal Vaughan (1903).

Month of the Precious Blood of Jesus ~ July 9th 138. Pride holds the first place among the deadly sins, and St. Thomas not only places it amongst the deadly sins, but above them, as transcending them all, the king of vices which includes in his cortège all the other vices, therefore it is called in Holy Scripture: “The root of all evil,” [Tim. vi, 10] “The beginning of all sin.” [Ecclus x, 15] because as the root of the tree is hidden under the earth and sends all its strength up into the branches, so pride remains hidden in the heart and secretly influences every sin through its action. Therefore whenever we commit a mortal sin, we are in reality opposing and directing our own will against the will of God. (continued)

Month of the Precious Blood ~ July 9th The Mystery of the Precious Blood What depths there are in Jesus, and how wonderfully He lights them up with the splendours of His eternal love! Do we not feel every day more and more strongly, that we must be more for Jesus than we are, that of all growing things divine love is the most growing, that all idea of a limit to our love of Jesus, or of moderation in our service of Him, is a folly as well as a disloyalty? He was the brightness of innumerable lives and the sweetness of innumerable sorrows, when He was but the expectation of longing Israel. What must He be now, when He has come, when He has lived, and shed His Blood, and died, and risen, and ascended, and then come back again in all the unutterable endearments of the Blessed Sacrament? ~ Frederick William Faber, D.D., The Precious Blood: or, The Price of Our Salvation (1860)

2 of 2 Month of the Precious Blood of Jesus ~ July 8th This is the explanation which St. Paul gives to it, and as St. Augustine observes, “All these evils flow from the source which he first mentions–—self-love,” [tr. 123 in Jo. lib. iv, De Civ. Dei, c. xiii] and as the same Saint says, “This excess of self-love is only pride.” Therefore we can conclude from this that whoever overcomes pride overcomes a whole host of sins; according to the explanation given by St. Gregory [Lib. 31, Mor. c. xvii] of this text of Job: “He smelleth the battle afar off, and the shouting of the army.” [Job xxxix, 25] ~ Fr. Cajetan Mary da Bergamo (1660-1753), Humility of Heart. Tr. Herbert Cardinal Vaughan (1903).

Month of the Precious Blood of Jesus ~ July 8th 137. Pride is placed among the deadly sins, because it is from pride that so many other sins are derived, and that is why St. Paul, seeing the innumerable wickednesses of the world, called them to the notice of his disciple Timothy, saying: “Look how many are haughty, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents,” [Tim. iii, 2] without love for their neighbour or for God. From whence do you suppose all these vices derive their origin? This is the source: the inordinate love which everyone has for himself. “Men are lovers of themselves.” (continued)

Month of the Precious Blood ~ July 8th We care for no science, but the science of redeeming grace. The cross of Christ is our single wisdom. Once we wished for many things, and aimed at many things. But we are changed now. Our lives are amazingly simplified, simplified by the fear of sin and by the love of God. Our anxiety now is, that all this may remain. We fear another change, especially a change back again. We can think calmly of no change except from little love to much love, and from much love to more love. The right of Jesus to our love, to our best love, to all our love, is becoming plainer and plainer to us. His exceeding loveliness is growing more and more attractive, because it is revealing itself to us every day like a new revelation. ~ Frederick William Faber, D.D., The Precious Blood: or, The Price of Our Salvation (1860)

Month of the Precious Blood ~ July 8th The Mystery of the Precious Blood But we claim no share in any foolish happiness of sin. We are on God's side. We belong to Jesus. Sin is our great enemy, as well as our great evil. We desire to break with it altogether. We are ashamed of our past subjection to it. We are uneasy under our present imperfect separation from it. Our uppermost thought, no! not merely our uppermost thought, our only thought is our salvation. (continued)

July 7th Moral Doctrine On the Vice of Pride, and the Best Use to be Made of the Practical Examen SAINT THOMAS [2a 2æ, qu. clxii, art. 1] defines pride as an inordinate affection against right reason, by which man esteems himself and desires to be esteemed by others above that which he really is; and as this affection is opposed to right reasoning, it is certainly a sin which partakes of the gravity of a mortal sin, because it is in direct opposition to the virtue of humility, and Saint Paul puts the proud in the same category as those whom “God delivered up to a reprobate sense and are worthy of death,” [Rom. i, 28, 32] although sometimes it is only a venial sin, when the reason is not sufficiently enlightened or there is not full consent of the will. [D. Th., loc. cit., art 5] ~ Fr. Cajetan Mary da Bergamo (1660-1753), Humility of Heart. Tr. Herbert Cardinal Vaughan (1903).

The Broad and Narrow Way Month of the Precious Blood ~ July 7th The Mystery of the Precious Blood But there are some who do not feel that sin is such a horror or captivity. They say it lays no weight upon their hearts. They say their lives are full of sunshine and that time flows with them, as the merry rivulet runs in summer, with a soothing brawl over its coloured stones, and its waters glancing in the sun. . . Yet even if the sinner could go through life with the gay indifference to which he pretends, he is not to be envied. It is only a sleep, a lethargy, or a madness, one or other of these according to his natural disposition. For there must be an awakening at last; and when and where will it be? What if the sinner’s awakening should be from the first touch of the fire that burns beyond the grave? ~ Frederick William Faber, D.D., The Precious Blood: or, The Price of Our Salvation (1860)

NOVENA to OUR LADY of Mt. CARMEL Begins July 7th at Christus Regnat ~ https://t.me/RexUniversi Our Lady of Mt. Carmel, pray for us.

NOVENA to OUR LADY of Mt. CARMEL Begins July 7th at Christus Regnat ~ https://t.me/RexUniversi Our Lady of Mt. Carmel, pray for us.

2 of 2 Month of the Precious Blood of Jesus ~ July 6th I am perfectly certain that you will never attain to this humility if you neglect these means which are the most appropriate by which to acquire it; and if you have not been humble of heart, how can you ever justify yourself before the tribunal of God?” Impress upon your mind this beautiful passage which St. Augustine left to his friend Dioscurus: “Do not depart, O Dioscurus, from the royal way of humility which was taught by Christ; although many other virtues are commanded by the Christian religion, study to give humility the highest place, because all virtues are acquired and maintained by humility, and without humility they vanish away.” [Epist. cxiii] ~ Fr. Cajetan Mary da Bergamo (1660-1753), Humility of Heart. Tr. Herbert Cardinal Vaughan (1903).

Month of the Precious Blood of Jesus ~ July 6th [135. continued] If therefore you believe in this dogma of humility, how do you apply it to yourself, and what measures do you take in order to be humble? Do you ask it of God? Do you have recourse to the intercession of the Blessed Virgin and of the Saints? Do you make yourself familiar with those thoughts which are most efficacious to teach you this humility–—the thoughts of death, judgement, Hell, Paradise and eternity, the grievousness of sin and, above all, the Passion of Jesus Christ? (continued)

I am the Way, the Truth and the Life. Month of the Precious Blood ~ July 6th The Mystery of the Precious Blood How hideous the difference of that first moment after death, if we had not been saved! It turns us cold to think of it. But oh joy of joys! We have seen the Face of Jesus; and the light in His eyes, and the smile upon His Face, and the words upon His lips, were salvation. ~ Frederick William Faber, D.D., The Precious Blood: or, The Price of Our Salvation (1860)

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2 of 2 Month of the Precious Blood of Jesus ~ July 5th This is why I wish you to apply yourself with all diligence to this examen. What conception and esteem have you of the virtue of humility? Do you really believe that humility of heart is necessary for your eternal salvation? You know that it is necessary to believe firmly in the mystery of the Holy Trinity, and that whoever doubts it is a heretic; but you must know that it is also necessary to believe with equal firmness the doctrine of humility taught by Jesus Christ in His gospel, because we cannot affirm that in the gospel one doctrine is more true than another, nor that one must believe one more than another, because they all proceed equally from the mouth of Jesus Christ, Who is the very Truth. (continued) ~ Fr. Cajetan Mary da Bergamo (1660-1753), Humility of Heart. Tr. Herbert Cardinal Vaughan (1903).

Month of the Precious Blood of Jesus ~ July 5th 135. As to certain exterior actions, indifferent in themselves, but which if done with a good intention can tend to make us virtuous, the one necessary thing is to have a care that they be performed with humility, as Christ teaches us: “I will be little in my own eyes.” [2 Kings vi, 22] This is what each of us should say to himself, with holy King David, and it helps us greatly to form this good habit of humility towards ourselves, in order that we may also be humble to others. (continued)