Category Archives: Faith

Editorials, Faith

Signs of being “Brain Dead”, metaphorically speaking

17 Comments

Editorial by Br. Alexis Bugnolo

I am not a doctor of medicine nor a doctor of psychiatry. But I think I can still recognize when I am speaking with a fellow Catholic who is brain dead. And alas, it seems to be a pandemic disorder in the Church today, just as it was in the Holy Land in the days of Christ.

Recall how often in the Gospels, Christ Jesus rebukes His contemporaries, by saying, “Let him who has eyes to see, see”.?  Why did He say that so often?

Because to believe in Jesus in 30 A. D., was to be called a heretic and cast out of the Synagogue.

And  we know that Jesus had something like 500 disciples in all of the Holy Land. But historians tell us that there were about 1 million Jews living in that land in those days.

That means that 1/20th of 1 percent of all Jews believed in Jesus. Even after Pentecost, only 5 thousand believed. And that was was only 1/2 of 1 percent of all Jews.

Think about that for a minute.

Christ Jesus raised 3 people from the dead, fed 15+ thousand people and healed everyone who asked Him for healing, like the entire town of Capharnum.

Miracles, which caused His Name to be known in all of the Roman Province of Syria, according to Josephus Flavius, the Jewish Historian.

But only 1/20th of 1 percent believed in Him, and when it came to Good Friday, that was barely 5 people, or 1/100th of 1/20th of 1 percent.

But all of those who stood with Our Lord on Calvary, we know were saved and are in Heaven. Even the Centurion and Good Thief made it!

But 99.995% of the Jews who heard Jesus preach in person and work miracles, did not believe in Him. They wanted a King to deliver them from the Romans, not the Son of God to save them from Hell. In other words, they preferred political liberty with eternal damnation, to eternal salvation.

For most of my life I could scarcely understand how hard-hearted and brain-dead the Jews of old were. But since the Resignation of Pope Benedict XVI, I have begun to understand it.

The power of the desire to prefer to be accepted by your peers and by the elites who rule the world in your day, is the predominant force for thought-control in 99.995% of people.

But the Jewish people of Old did not have grace. So if Catholics who actually want to know the truth, about who is the true pope or not, are just as few, that means that most Catholics are living in mortal sin and are enemies of God.

When I say, that I have learned to recognize a “brain-dead” Catholic, I am obviously using a metaphor, for spiritually dead. But if I said “spiritually dead”, I would surely be attacked by someone who was “brain-dead”, metaphorically, because speaking the truth is the only thing really offensive left.

I know dozens of traditionalists, priests, bishops and religious, who would prefer to eat lunch with a Jew, than eat lunch with someone who said the truth about Benedict XVI remaining the Pope until death. And that should shock everyone, even the “brain-dead”.

But I do not know of but 2 priests personally and a few Catholics, who would sit down with someone who held that Cardinal Prevost is a heretic and antipope, rather than sit down with a Muslim who believes all Catholics should have their heads cut off.

This is the result of being “brain-dead”. It is a metaphor, in the way I use it, but it’s much worse than being dead.

In fact, since Pope Boniface VIII infallibly taught, in his Bull, Unam Sanctam, that you cannot be saved unless you submit to the TRUE Roman Pontiff, these “brain dead” Catholics are truly reckless, believing that so long as they show obedience to anyone pretending to be the pope, that they are fulfilling this most grave duty.

And only a corpse would be so stupid….

This is why the Saints say, that on the Last Day, God will raise up the Faithful with immortally living and perfect bodies, but the wicked with immortally dead and grotesque bodies, to show, just what kind of life they lived before death, when they could have changed, but refused.

Editorials, Faith

Anti-Faith: Sentiment of Resistance, without the Hope of Victory

4 Comments

+ + +

An Editorial by Br. Alexis Bugnolo

Here, above, in the linked image, is a fine example of about the only mainstream “Catholic” “resistance” to the illegal installation of the heretic Robert Prevost in the Vatican as Leo XIV. — Father Nix once again expresses the Catholic sentiment.

However, the Faith does not end in sentiments. Yes, holy zeal which is the true first born of a living Faith, urges us with such sentiments to never succumb and to stand firm in the Faith.

But Holy Zeal is not satisfied with mere resistance.

And in this, we can see what is fundamentally wrong with “Trad Inc.”‘s approach to the problems in the Church since March 13, 2013.  They only can muster sentiments, but sentiments devoid of the motive of Holy Zeal. Sentiments which end in virtue signalling, without any action.

In fact, if in a comment or email you suggest to any of the members of Trad Inc. that we should take action, they will immediately erase your email and consign you and your suggestion into a pit worse than the heretics they recognize their “superiors” to be.

And in this we can see that they DO NOT have holy zeal. Rather, they are virtue signalling to keep the grift going, to keep people listening to them, which results in nothing more than complacency and sloth.

For 13 years they have been doing this, and the most “virtuous” among them can only muster a petition now or then, so long as the petition collects emails, address or money, to keep their appeals going, appeals for your support, without any regard for solutions.

Father Nix’s article above does well to point out one of the psychological game used to drive Catholics to despair, but it is half-hearted, like those writers who will say, “Pope Leo is a heretic”, but insist on calling him the pope.  They are willing to say anything against the man EXCEPT question his legitimacy to claim the office.

All of this seems to be nothing other than a long game played by experts in psychological warfare. And maybe for some of them it is. But for most of them it is cowardice, because they not only DO NOT want to know the truth, but they DO NOT even want to know how to win against their enemies!

It is as if, winning is the worst possible sin for these “conservatives”!

This is what I call the “Catholicism” of victim-hood. A religion perfect to guarantee millions of future victims of a pedophile cult or a satanic conspiracy.

And this is why they will always talk about Catholics who lost, such as the Carlists, the Vendee or the Cristeros. But, in their twisted minds, “God forbid, you mention the Crusades!” or Reconquista!

True Catholics do not act this way, because if they did not have parents or grandparents to give the the proper example of how to fight for righteousness, they know to seek these examples in the Saints and Martyrs of old. That is why here from Rome, I share with my readers my quests into the laws of the Church to understand better not only our own rights to resist, but how to use the laws of the Church against the enemies of Christ.

The Save Rome Project, thus, is something outside of the limits of their self imposed psychological no-go zones, because it is based on the truth, they hate, on the laws, they ignore, and on the virtues they despise.

So do not fret if they ignore you when you share this action item with them, but be more zealous yourself in supporting it. If you actually believe in Jesus Christ, that won’t be a problem.

Biblical Exegesis

The Mark of Those who follow the Antichrist

23 Comments

by Br. Alexis Bugnolo

There are many who write about the Antichrist, the apocalyptic figure spoken of by the Apostle Saint Paul, in his Second Letter to the Thessalonians, that is to the Church in Thessaly, northern Greece. But rarely do you hear anything said about who are the followers of the Antichrist.

Yet, Saint Paul, one of the “co-founders” of the Church at Rome describes them well in 2 Thessalonians 2:10.

First, the Greek:

.. ἀνθ’ ὧν τὴν ἀγάπην τῆς ἀληθείας οὐκ ἐδέξαντο εἰς τὸ σωθῆναι αὐτούς·

Then, my Latin:

eo quod dilectionem veritatis non receperunt ut salvi fierent.

Then, my English translation:

for this, that they had not received the love of the truth, so that they might be saved.

While the Vulgate of Jerome has, “caritatem” for “dilectionem”, that is “love”, I believe this is an error, because as can be seen from the Greek, the word here is “ἀγάπην“, or the love which arises from a free choice, which is the word used in the New Testament, every time Jesus Christ speaks of His love for us (e. g. John 15:9, καθὼς ἠγάπησέν με ὁ πατήρ, κἀγὼ ὑμᾶς ἠγάπησα· μείνατε ἐν τῇ ἀγάπῃ τῇ ἐμῇ.), to emphasize that He was not constrained by passion or necessity, but acted in pure liberty when He chose to save us, not on the basis of our foreseen merits, but simply because He chose to love us first before the foundation of the world.

Thus, what Saint Paul refers to here is very profound, for he identifies the followers of the Antichrist with those who refused to receive from God the Holy Spirit that infused grace so that they might freely chose to love the truth, and thus be saved.

From this we see how important from an eternal perspective it is for every Catholic to chose to love the truth. This is what distinguishes us who are working out our salvation from those who are being destroyed by the spirit of the Antichrist, who is the Man of Lawlessness.

The most authoritative ancient manuscripts of the New Testament, the Codices preserved at Mt. Sinai and in the library of the Vatican. In these two manuscripts, the man described here by Saint Paul is not called, as in all other manuscripts, “the man of sin” (ὁ ἄνθρωπος τῆς ἁμαρτίας), but “the man of lawlessness” ( ὁ ἄνθρωπος τῆς ἀνομίας). And it is this latter reading which scholars believe is the original.

Holding to their authority, we can thus say that the principal characteristic of the Antichrist will be to be violate law, to be a law breaker. The Greek term literally means “without laws” or “without morals”.

Now, if we reflect on this, and want to be very precise in what we say, let us ask ourselves the question, “How does one know, when a man is lawless?”

The answer, of course,  is that he transgresses law. But to demonstrate that, we have to find a law, and examine his behavior and show that he did (1) something which is forbidden by the law, or (2) something which is not sanctioned by the law.

And to prove that, we obviously must have recourse to the TEXT of the law, if it is a written law, or to the notion of the law, if it is unwritten law, such as Natural Law.

Thus, as a consequence, every lawless man is going to be discovered by this, that his actions do not concord with the words which express a specific law.

And all of this, now, should be clear to the regular readers of FromRome.Info, where for the past 12 years I have continually spoken of the laws of the Church and how they may or are being transgressed.

Because, if we learn what the laws of the Church are, then we can discern who are the law-breakers are, and who are those who are acting as lawless individuals.

Likewise, we also see, from the Apostle Saint Paul’s teaching in 2 Thess 2:10, that those who are led to destruction are precisely those who follow the spirit of lawlessness by submitting to those who are lead by the spirit of the Antichrist, BECAUSE THEY HAVE REFUSED TO LOVE THE TRUTH, which could have saved them: a love which would have recognized the discrepancy between the lawless’ behavior and the rule of law, and caused them to refuse to follow the lawless, simply because by loving the truth, they would have detested the breaking of the law.

So when you find that a loved one or friend refuses to accept the facts or laws of the Church regarding the scandals since 2013, I urge you to pray for them and share this teaching of Saint Paul, because it is a most terrible sign of following the Antichrist and of being headed to destruction, if someone refuses to love the truth.

This is why it is important to know what “munus” means, in Canon 332 §2, and what “ne excedat” means in Universi Dominic Gregis, the Papal Law on Conclaves, in paragraph n. 33, to cite just two examples, of two laws, which were transgressed by the College of Cardinals when they in 2013 “elected” Jorge Mario Bergoglio, and in 2025, when they “elected” Robert Francis Riggitano Prevost Martinez.

For more about how the Conclave had no valid result, see HERE.

Faith, Videos

Pentecost APPEAL for “Save Rome” project

12 Comments

In this video, Br. Bugnolo asks all Catholics to pray this Feast of Pentecost, for the light to have the courage to help save the Papacy from the heretical Freemasons who have elected Prevost, invalidly.

For more information see the SAVE ROME page HERE. Which shows all the reasons and methods of support.

To make a quick donation, via PayPal:





Editorials, Faith

You are worshiping Satan when you practice Solidarity in a Lie

5 Comments

by Br. Alexis Bugnolo

Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life (Gospel of Saint John, 4:6).

We have probably heard these words hundreds of times, if we were born before the end of the Second Vatican Council.  But I cannot say that I have heard any priest preach them in recent memory.

And this is no coincidence, because if we are content with being part of a church which preaches and lives lies, we are already in the Church which worships Satan, which has left aside the Way, which has denied the Truth, and which has chosen death rather than the Life.

There is a spiritual reason, therefore, for why despite Prevost’s public profession before and after, of his loyalty to the daily liar and blasphemer, which was Jorge Mario Bergoglio, nearly all Catholics, liberals to sedevacantists, traditionalists and conservatives, have fallen silent, accepting “Leo” as their head and pastor.

So many are so deceived. So many prefer being deceived. So many, so eloquently with their silence, have manifested their eternal devotion to the Lie.

 

Faith

What is part of The Catholic Faith, “De Fide Catholica” that Prevost denies?

3 Comments

by Br. Alexis Bugnolo

We rarely hear terms defined clearly, since so much of Catholic Media today is a conversation about events and a reaction to them.

But there are terms which have a proper meaning, and which are often found in Church documents, that are poorly understood simply because no one has explained them.

One of these terms is “de fide Catholica”.  This is a Latin phrase which means “of” or “concerning” “the Catholic” “faith” or “Faith”.

The first thing you can see, is that the pithy Latin phrase can mean several things in English.

So let’s break it down.

What is Catholic faith?

Faith, in the sense of the supernatural virtue, also gives its name to truths which the supernatural virtue inclines us to believe.  Thus, it is with Catholic faith, that we believe in all the dogmas of the Catholic Faith.

So you see, capitalization is important in the English language, if we want to speak properly. And unfortunately correct use of capitalization in English is rarely found, even in theological books or Vatican Translations.

What do we have to believe by Catholic Faith?

INTERNATIONAL THEOLOGICAL COMMISSION, 1989

In 1989, Cardinal Ratzinger, as Prefect for the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, in his capacity as President of the International Theological Commission, authorized the publication of a document entitled, “The Interpretation of Dogma” (link HERE), which was prepared by Msgr. Walter Kasper, when he was a professor at the University of Tubingen, Germany.

This document, despite its non binding nature, reiterates the standard definition of what is “de fide Catholica” which is found in older manuals of theology:

According to the doctrine of the Church, “an act of divine and Catholic faith must be made in what is contained in Gods word, either as it is written in Scripture or handed on by tradition and proposed by the Church, whether that be by way of a solemn decision or by the ordinary Magisterium, and the obligation to believe is demanded because it is divine revelation” (DS 3011). This “credendum” includes the truths of faith (in the strict sense) and also those truths, witnessed to by revelation, which have a bearing on the moral life (DS 1501, 3074: “fides et mores“; LG 25: “fidem credendam et moribus applicandam“).

From this we can see that all that pertains to “de fide Catholica” in the sense of the virtue of faith — we can discern this sense by the texts use of “an act of” — namely, all which “is contained in God’s word, either as it is written in Scripture or handed on by tradition and proposed by the Church, whether that be by way of a solemn decision or by the ordinary magisterium, and the obligation to believe is demanded because it is divine revelation”.

DOGMATIC CONSTITUTION ON THE CATHOLIC FAITH, VATICAN I

And this recalls the infallible teaching of the First Vatican Council, in its Dogmatic Constitution on the Catholics Faith (Constitutio de Fide Catholica), which title is referring not to the virtue but the contents of what is believed by the virtue:

Now this supernatural revelation, according to the belief of the universal church, as declared by the sacred council of Trent, is contained in which were written books and unwritten traditions, received by the apostles from the lips of Christ himself, or came to the apostles by the dictation of the holy Spirit, and were passed on as it were from hand to hand until they reached us [16]. The complete books of the old and the new Testament with all their parts, as they are listed in the decree of the said council and as they are found in the old Latin Vulgate edition, are to be received as sacred and canonical. These books the church holds to be sacred and canonical not because she subsequently approved them by her authority after they had been composed by unaided human skill, nor simply because they contain revelation without error, but because, being written under the inspiration of the holy Spirit, they have God as their author, and were as such committed to the church. Now since the decree on the interpretation of holy scripture, profitably made by the council of Trent, with the intention of constraining rash speculation, has been wrongly interpreted by some, we renew that decree and declare its meaning to be as follows: that in matters of faith and morals, belonging as they do to the establishing of christian doctrine, that meaning of holy scripture must be held to be the true one, which holy mother church held and holds, since it is her right to judge of the true meaning and interpretation of holy scripture. In consequence, it is not permissible for anyone to interpret holy scripture in a sense contrary to this, or indeed against the unanimous consent of the fathers.

So, from this we can see, that all which God has revealed, from which the Church has always drawn Her teaching on faith and morals, pertains to the Catholic Faith and must be believed by divine and Catholic Faith.

THEOLOGICAL MANUALS BEFORE VATICAN II

And we see this said in the same way, but more organized format, in Sixtus Cartechini S. J., 1951 treatise, De Valore Notarum Theologicarum (On the Force of Theological Notes), under his remarks at the end of this quotation:

Theological note: Dogma.
Equivalent terms: Dogma of faith; de fide, de fide Catholica; de fide divina et Catholica.
Explanation: A truth proposed by the Church as revealed by God.
Examples: The Immaculate Conception; all the contents of the Athanasian Creed.
Censure attached to contradictory proposition: Heresy
Effects of denial: Mortal sin committed directly against the virtue of faith, and, if the heresy is outwardly professed, excommunication is automatically incurred and membership of the Church forfeited.
Remarks: A dogma can be proposed either by a solemn definition of pope or council, or by the Ordinary Magisterium, as in the case of the Athanasian Creed, to which the church has manifested her solemn commitment by its long-standing liturgical and practical use and commendation.

Thus, we must believe by Divine and Catholic Faith all the truths revealed by God in Sacred Scripture and Tradition, which regard theological and/or moral truths. Even though we must believe by divine faith everything in Scripture, not all of it pertains to Catholic Faith, because many things revealed by God do  not regard supernatural truths or regarded the Old Covenant, which has passed away.

For example, we must believe by divine faith that God ordered the Hebrews to circumcise their sons. But we do not believe in circumcision, today, since with Christ’s Resurrection the obligation has passed away, being replaced by Baptism.

‘Fiducia supplicans’ contains, teaches and promotes what is contrary to Catholic Faith on the Priesthood, on Blessings and on the use of the Divine Name

For the above reason, we can now see more clearly why Cardinal Mueller said that Fiducia suppplicans, which says Catholic priests can bless public sinners with a non-sacramental blessing, teaches contrary to Catholic doctrine, since the Church has never taught such a thing, rather She has taught the opposite, namely, that every blessing given by a validly ordained priest has a sacramental power.  We can also now see why it is rightly said, at the same time, that ‘Fiducia supplicans” contains or teaches heresy, because the Church has always taught that priests always bless with the authority of Jesus Christ, even if they do not use the Divine Name, since this authority is the perennial basis of all blessings given by the clergy in the history of Christianity.

For to say that a priest can bless but not in the name of Christ, is to say a priest of Christ can in a morally upright way give a blessing in the name of someone else, not Christ, even though he is the ambassador of Christ, as Saint Paul teaches infallibly, and consecrated to Jesus Christ by his ordination, according to the Tradition of the Church. What ‘Fiducia supplicans’ is trying to do is to teach that a priest can be faithful by not being faithful to Christ. And that is a heresy. Though Cardinal Mueller calls it a contradiction.

It also implicitly presents an entirely novel idea of the source of authority of the priesthood, which in Tradition has always been held to be Christ’s authority. Thus ‘Fiducia supplicans’ teaches that when a priest does NOT pronounce the Name of God in a blessing, though he is a priest of Christ, he is NOT invoking the Divine Name by using his authority as a priest. But this is exactly the opposite of what the Church has always believed and taught, namely, that every exercise of priestly power, calls upon the power and Name of Divine Majesty, since the priest is not merely a ritual functionary, but is ontologically, theologically and juridically made the representative of the Living God by his ordination.

Moreover, as Cardinal Mueller points out, there are two notions of blessing in ‘Fiducia supplicans’ which contradiction one another: the sacramental and the non-sacramental. If we strip away the sacramental, which is the kind Jesus Christ instituted and ordered the Sacred Heart to keep doing until the end of time, since they act in His Person as His representatives on Earth, to watch over His flock, a thing they do by imparting His Blessings: we are left with an entirely novel doctrine where it says a priest an impart a non-sacramental blessing.

The readers who support this document did not end up confused, however, because after the publication of the document the supporters of the document began using the Diving Name to bless public sinners, while at the same time arguing verbally, while forgetting in practice, that the part of the document did not teach this, whenever they attempted to defend the document. Thus the doctrine of ‘Fiducia supplicans’ as a whole contradicts Catholic Faith on the priesthood, on blessings and on the use of the Divine Name. And each contradiction is a heresy, even though in addition to this erroneous doctrine it fosters heresy and the worse possible Sacrileges, the misuse of the Divine Name to affirm and confirm sinners in their moral depravities.

This is why Catholic Bishops in Poland, Ukraine, the Mid-East and Africa and many other parts of the world rejected the teaching contained in this document. This was the first time in history that a pope signed a document which was rejected by a large part of the episcopacy precisely because it contradicted Catholic Faith. And this is why Cardinal Prevost, in affirming that he will continue to follow Pope Francis’s Magisterium, is reconfirming his own pertinacity in heresies against the Catholic Faith.

What all this has to do with Cardinal Prevost’s Election being invalid?

And as soon as a Catholic sees that Prevosts is doing this, he can have recourse to Pope Paul IV’s, “Cum ex apostolatus officio”, which says, in n. 6:

6. Adiicientes quod si ullo umquam tempore apparuerit aliquem Episcopum, etiam pro Archiepiscopo, seu Patriarcha, vel Primate se gerentem, aut praedictae Romanae Ecclesiae Cardinalem, etiam ut praefertur, Legatum, seu etiam Romanum Pontificem ante eius promotionem, vel in Cardinalem, seu Romanum Pontificem assumptionem a fide Catholica deviasse, aut in aliquam haeresim incidisse,

(i) promotio, seu assumptio de eo etiam in concordia, et de unanimi omnium Cardinalium assensu facta, nulla, irrita,

(ii) et inanis existat, nec per susceptionem muneris, consecrationis, aut subsecutam regiminis, et administrationis possessionem, seu quasi, vel ipsius Romani Pontificis inthronizationem, aut adorationem, seu ei praestitam ab omnibus obedientiam, et cuiusvis temporis in praemissis cursum, convaluisse dici, aut convalescere possit,

(iii) nec pro legitima in aliqua sui parte habeatur,

Which in my English translation (which is more accurate than the version at Daily Catholic, quoted here):

6. Adding, that if at any time it will have appeared that any Bishop, even if acting as an Archbishop or Patriarch, and/or Primate, or a Cardinal of the aforesaid Roman Church, even as has been aforesaid, Legate, or even a Roman Pontiff before his promotion, whether upon his assumption as a Cardinal, or as Roman Pontiff, has deviated from Catholic faith (a fide Catholica), or has fallen into any heresy (in aliquam haeresim):

(i) let his promotion or assumption, even with the agreement and unanimous consent of all the Cardinals, stand forth as null and irritus,

(ii) and void, nor be able to be convalidated or to be said to be convalidated through the susception of his munus, consecration, or subsequent rule, and possession of administration, nor even if through the enthronement as Roman Pontiff himself, or adoration, or proffering of obedience to him by all, nor through the passage of time in the same,

(iii) nor be held legitimate in any part thereof,

As can be seen, thus, that the precise conditions which we see after the Conclave of May 2025 are entirely fulfilled, because whether you already knew he spoke against the Catholic Faith before the Conclave, or recognize after the Conclave that he is speaking in the same way as before, the Bull of Paul IV, not only gives you the right to say his election was invalid, regardless of how many Catholics say otherwise, and no matter how long he claims to be the Pope, but his election and claim to office and powers, is legally rendered NULL, VOID, and IRRITUS, that is, invalid, empty of all just claim, and to be considered to have never existed in the sight of the Church and of God, since, being a Papal Bull, it falls under the precept of Jesus Christ, “Whatsoever you bound upon earth, shall be bound in Heaven; and whatever you lose upon earth, shall be loosed in heaven”, this Bull is going to be observed by Jesus Christ every time its conditions are met. (See here and here for my demonstration that this Bull is still in force of law).

In addition, Cardinal Prevost holds the heretical position that the use of Capital Punishment is always inadmissible, which contradicts the truth taught by Saint Paul and the Church, that the authority to impose this punishment was given by God to the State. For if its use was always evil, then God is evil for granting its use.  But it is of divine and Catholic Faith that God is good and all authority He grants is lawful to use, since Christ Himself approved of this when He said to Pilate: “You would have no authority over Me, if it had not been granted to you from above”.

Church History, Faith

Cardinal Sarah: ‘Fiducia supplicans’ is heretical!

Leave a comment

Editor’s Note: An honest man who meant what he said, and confronted with a Conclave result whereby his peers violated the rules and elected a supporter of Fiducia supplicans, would never accept any position in the new regime, without first demanding a public renunciation of the heresy he professed to support in October of 2024.

Catholics can try to bury their heads in the sands of artificial denials of reality. But the honest truth is that Cardinal Sarah is either a liar 8 months ago, or he is a liar now. Because he is not being consistent with what he has publicly professed.

Crazed persons, seeing this, lash out at Catholics who notice what is going on, and insist that we too gouge out our eyes and sell our souls to Satan by embracing the lie.

True Catholics don’t act like this. For it is common sense that when Sarah said last year, that the document taught heresy, he was telling the truth; and when he voted to violate the Papal Rule on 120 Cardinal Electors, maximum, he was not being honest. Nor is he being honest by accepting a position in the regime of Provost without have received a public denial of the heresy he denied.

Religion is not politics. In politics is may be dishonest to support one policy before an election and change your position afterwards to be part of the Government. But in matters of the true Faith, there is no “may be”, it is is called apostasy, because not only do you pretend the Sacred Name of God is not such an important thing to protect, but you pretend on a stage before the whole world, that the controversy is was never anything really important.

And for Cardinal Riggitano-Prevost to send Sarah, the compromised by grave and scandalous behavior of surrendering to a heretic, to the holiest shrine of Saint Anne, the mother of Our Lady, in all the world, is a way to mock the Catholic Faith in a manner most intimate, not to mention outrage the Blessed Virgin Herself. — So when anyone claims that Riggitano has a lot of devotion to Our Lady, ask him to confront the facts.

From a political point of view, Prevost, by this insignificant appointment, is also telling the French, that they have to accept Africans in their country, even at their most holiest of shrines.  Prevost, like all Mafia of St. Gallen members (who back in 2016 faulted the African Clergy on a racial basis, plus Here and Here), is also showing his racism (more on that here), because this appointment is like saying, “You stupid Africans who reject Gay Blessings! You still believe in such things as Saint Anne. So go ahead with your simple minded piety, and let us enlightened whites at the Vatican open up the Gates of Hell for the rest of the world!’

Faith, Spirituality

How to resist being Spiritually Terrorized & Manipulated by Corrupt Clergy

9 Comments

Editor’s Note: Over at OMC Radio TV, AJ has opened a discussion which has never been publicly talked about in the Catholic Church, ever, and which is vital for the survival of Catholics in the present age. I was honored to speak with him about these issues and describe from my 40 years of experience working with clergy and religious in the Catholic Church how to confront spiritual abuse at the hands of priests or religious, Cardinals, Bishops or even Popes.  This is a program which offers essential information for Catholics who are adults, especially parents, if you want to keep your faith in our age of scandals.

Faith

The Catechism of the Catholic Faith — Cardinal Peter Gasparri: Chapter 3.4

Leave a comment

The Creation and Origin of Mankind

In this series, Br. Bugnolo reads aloud and comments on the Catholic Catechism, written by Cardinal Peter Gasparri, and published in English translation in 1932 A. D.. (in PDF, Here)

This Catechetical series is directed to Adults and especially to Parents, each and every one of whom have the primary responsibility in teaching the Catholic Faith to their children. — It may also be very useful to non-Catholics who are studying the Catholic Faith prior to being received into the Catholic Church as members.

Finally, this series is being published by Br. Bugnolo to encourage Catholics with the best “Good News” possible: our Catholic Faith and what it includes, since here at FromRome.info for 12 years, there has been a lot of bad news reported, and human frailty can only take so much, without renewing one’s faith in the wonders God has given in the Catholic religion, which is the only true, consistent and complete form of Christianity since 33 A. D..

Editorials, Faith

Those not speaking of the Sutri Initiative are tacitly endorsing an Abomination

Leave a comment

An Editorial for Holy Week

IN MEMORIAM OF FATHER COUGHLIN, RADIO CRUSADER

It must be said clearly and without equivocation, that no man who identifies himself as a “homosexual” or who has a sexual preference for men, as well as no man who has had sexual relations with children, men, or animals, or who is having them with women or themselves by self abuse, shows the certain infallible and supernatural sign of being able to have a priestly vocation or a vocation to religious life: the spirit of chastity. For, the following of Christ and the ministry Christ handed down through the Apostles requires absolute abstinence from the use of the human powers of generation as well as the intention never to use them.

The above article, however, shows that Pope Francis is involved in mainstreaming impurity into the priesthood, so that these filthy impure men desecrate and crucify again the Child Jesus in the Eucharist, every time they say mass. For there is no such thing, in the Catholic Faith, such as “integrating your sexuality” into the priesthood! A holy priest is a totally mortified man, and mortification is the opposite of “integration”.

Indeed, it is a mortal sin of sacrilege to say the words of consecration, when one is in the state of mortal sin, and every sexual desire consented to, as well as every vice of impurity tolerated, place a man in the state of mortal sin.

All this is a nightmare of horrors on the spiritual level which fully merits the name of an Abomination: something which should be detested and hated with all the strength of our souls, just as God so hates it. Jesus never intended that any pervert or filthy man be a priest or exercise the priestly ministry or take the habit of a religious upon himself.

And that is why, all those “Catholic” voices who know of the Sutri Initiative, but refuse to call on the Bishops of the Roman Province to exercise their canonical rights to know whether Pope Francis is a catholic and has a rightful claim to the Apostolic See are involved in consenting to, nay, positively willing the consequence of this refusal of theirs: the spread of this Abomination.

And as such, they would do well this Holy Week by pausing their customary lamentations of problems in the Church, or in the state, such as their frequent demands that this or that politician not receive the Sacraments, because of not being pro this or that, and instead examine their own consciences which are stained with 12 years of cowardice and refusal to urge their readers to remove this arch-heretic from his claim to the Papacy.

They would do better than pretending that abstaining from the internet and fasting is going to rise to God as a pleasing sacrifice, when their own souls stink of wretched treachery to the Lord Jesus, in the hands of His enemies, the filthy priests tormenting Him by their horrid hypocrisy.

And if anyone be guilty of such mortal sins, let them take the golden opportunity of Holy Week to repent, make a good confession, and burn out the habits of such sins by fasting and abstinence, as long as needed, so that they might stand with the Risen Lord on Easter Sunday with a soul white and shinning and free of such disgusting stains.

As for all the souls not involved in these sins, I urge you to keep this Holy Week with many acts of love and reparation to the Sacred Heart, in union with Our Lady of Sorrows, praying for the conversion of these sinners. Let us immerse ourselves in the memory of their sufferings, so that we might at least obtain by humble acts of love, the repentance of some of these wayward souls. Let us walk with Christ to Calvary, in the company of Our Lady and St. Mary Magdalene and St. John the Evangelist. Let us stand with Christ asking Him again to let the power of His Most Sacred Passion pour out upon sinners again and renew the Church.  For He is our omnipotent Savior and without Him and His intervention we are lost!

Faith

The Catechism of the Catholic Faith — Cardinal Peter Gasparri: Chapter 3.2 – 3.3

2 Comments

The Creation, Divine Providence & the Angels

In this series, Br. Bugnolo reads aloud and comments on the Catholic Catechism, written by Cardinal Peter Gasparri, and published in English translation in 1932 A. D.. (in PDF, Here)

This Catechetical series is directed to Adults and especially to Parents, each and every one of whom have the primary responsibility in teaching the Catholic Faith to their children. — It may also be very useful to non-Catholics who are studying the Catholic Faith prior to being received into the Catholic Church as members.

Finally, this series is being published by Br. Bugnolo to encourage Catholics with the best “Good News” possible: our Catholic Faith and what it includes, since here at FromRome.info for 12 years, there has been a lot of bad news reported, and human frailty can only take so much, without renewing one’s faith in the wonders God has given in the Catholic religion, which is the only true, consistent and complete form of Christianity since 33 A. D..

In this Episode, Br. Bugnolo comments on corrects some of the errors in these chapter subpoints, which are mostly minor, but occasionally very grievous.

Regarding Guardian Angels: Cardinal Gasparri says that a guardian Angel is assigned to each of us “at birth”; but actually, there is an open debate on this, with some theologians holding that one is assigned at conception, others are birth, others at Baptism. This last opinion is the most certain, because since the holy Angels are servants of God’s Household, you have to become a member of His Household by baptism into Jesus Christ to receive the ministrations of His Angels.

Faith

The Catechism of the Catholic Faith — Cardinal Peter Gasparri: Chapter 3 – 3.1

5 Comments

The Apostles’ Creed: I believe in God…

In this series, Br. Bugnolo reads aloud and comments on the Catholic Catechism, written by Cardinal Peter Gasparri, and published in English translation in 1932 A. D.. (in PDF, Here)

This Catechetical series is directed to Adults and especially to Parents, each and every one of whom have the primary responsibility in teaching the Catholic Faith to their children. — It may also be very useful to non-Catholics who are studying the Catholic Faith prior to being received into the Catholic Church as members.

Finally, this series is being published by Br. Bugnolo to encourage Catholics with the best “Good News” possible: our Catholic Faith and what it includes, since here at FromRome.info for 12 years, there has been a lot of bad news reported, and human frailty can only take so much, without renewing one’s faith in the wonders God has given in the Catholic religion, which is the only true, consistent and complete form of Christianity since 33 A. D..

In this Episode, Br. Bugnolo comments on the Apostles’ Creed and corrects the many errors in this chapter, which are mostly minor, but occasionally very grievous.

Addendum: In this episode, Br. Bugnolo criticizes the use of the word “unmeasurable” in the English translation. This word is perhaps an erroneous translation of the Latin for “immense”, for God is said to be of infinite immensity, since the infinity of His perfections is beyond any metric of measure.

Faith

The Catechism of the Catholic Faith — Cardinal Peter Gasparri: Chapter 2

10 Comments

What is Divine Revelation?

In this series, Br. Bugnolo reads aloud and comments on the Catholic Catechism, written by Cardinal Peter Gasparri, and published in English translation in 1932 A. D.. (in PDF, Here)

This Catechetical series is directed to Adults and especially to Parents, each and every one of whom have the primary responsibility in teaching the Catholic Faith to their children. — It may also be very useful to non-Catholics who are studying the Catholic Faith prior to being received into the Catholic Church as members.

Finally, this series is being published by Br. Bugnolo to encourage Catholics with the best “Good News” possible: our Catholic Faith and what it includes, since here at FromRome.info for 12 years, there has been a lot of bad news reported, and human frailty can only take so much, without renewing one’s faith in the wonders God has given in the Catholic religion, which is the only true, consistent and complete form of Christianity since 33 A. D..

In this Episode, Br. Bugnolo explains how and why God has revealed Himself to mankind, and where we are to find these written and unwritten truths that we must believe to be saved.

Faith

The Catechism of the Catholic Faith — Cardinal Peter Gasparri: Chapter I

2 Comments

The Sign of the Cross

In this series, Br. Bugnolo reads aloud and comments on the Catechism of the Catholic Faith, written by Cardinal Peter Gasparri, and published in English translation in 1932 A. D., (in PDF, Here).

This Catechetical series is directed to Adults and especially to Parents, each and every one of whom have the primary responsibility in teaching the Catholic Faith to their children. — It may also be very useful to non-Catholics who are studying the Catholic Faith prior to being received into the Catholic Church as members.

Finally, this series is being published by Br. Bugnolo to encourage Catholics with the best “Good News” possible: our Catholic Faith and what it includes, since here at FromRome.info for 12 years, there has been a lot of bad news reported, and human frailty can only take so much, without renewing one’s faith in the wonders God has given in the Catholic religion, which is the only true, consistent and complete form of Christianity since 33 A. D..

Mis-spoken: In this video, Br. Bugnolo, who does not drink coffee, intends to say, “two natures”, when he says of Christ, “two divinities”.

Faith

The Best Friends Catholics have: The Communion of the Saints

9 Comments

This is a show for Catholics of all ages. If you are not plugging into the Communion of the Saints, you will fall victim to the control of the satanic Matrix of the Globalists, to which, as we saw in the Scamdemic, 90% of Catholics belong. — Break free by starting to have devotion to the Saints. This show explains what that is and how to do it. — This show will change your live forever, if you listen to the whole program and start living what it teaches.

Editorials, Faith

Jesus Christ has now checkmated Pope Francis

7 Comments

by Br. Alexis Bugnolo

Back on October 1, 2013, shortly after I began FromRome, I remarked that the Church had entered a moment when we would have to trust ever more in the High Priestly Prayer of Jesus Christ for His Vicar, on earth, the Pope. I recalled that profound truth after the Assembly by Apostolic Right, on January 30, 2023, when the Faithful to heal the de facto schism in the Church, between the Catholics in communion with Christ’s Vicar, Pope Benedict XVI, and those who were deceived by the mass apostasy from the truth, of the Cardinals in electing Jorge Mario Bergoglio, even when Pope Benedict XVI had not abdicated according to Canon 332, elected the latter, so that the man whom most of the hierarchy regarded as Christ’s Vicar might become Christ’s Vicar, and be entrusted to that very Prayer of the one and only true Priest in the Catholic Church, Jesus Christ.

And the whole Church, both the friends of Pope Francis and his enemies, saw that for the first months of his juridically valid papacy, he was a much better person and avoided heretical statements and destructive policies. But after he put his signature to “Fiducia supplicans”, thus turning his back entirely to Jesus Christ’s Gospel of repentance, Christ responded with lighting bolts, literally, and sent His Holy Spirit not only to stir up world-wide opposition to his blasphemous agenda, through the faithful Bishops, mostly of Africa and other nations not under U.S. Government influence, and to withdraw that same Live-Giving Spirit from him, so that his health began to definitively decline.

Within three months, he was in hospital for bronchitis, and his doctors told him to slow down, but he refused. So he began taking cortisone to keep going, such that by the first anniversary of his perverse apostasy from Christ he was seen gasping for breath in public. He evidently increased the cortisone dosage, abusing the drug, causing him to fall frequently and suffer massive bruises, and nearly died on several occasions by glycemic shock in February, and by choking to death in Gemelli Polyclinic, here at Rome.

Released from the hospital, on March 23, 2025, now, Pope Francis is a beaten defeated man: who cannot breathe without high level oxygen at night: and who thus, consequently, cannot speak because his throat is so dried out. He suffers from an incapacitated right arm — perhaps due to one of his many falls — such that he can no longer write with his right hand. And his immune system is so shot, that he cannot even meet with individuals, but it shielded by a small circle of supporters who are in fact now running the Vatican.

Has any of this brought this incredibly evil, malign, sick, perverted, corrupted, accused by an investigative reporter of national fame of being an informant against his own sheep during the Argentine dictatorship (in the March 2005 book El Silencio still in print in Italy *) — whence they were tortured or thrown from planes from 30,000 feet into the Atlantic to their deaths –, not to mention his betrayal of 30 million Catholics in China, to repentance, at last? I ask.  I do not think so. There are no signs of it.

But Christ has quite effectively checkmated this heretic in every possible physical way, patiently but inexorably, as a warning.

If he refuses this Divine Remonstration, there will come most certainly the two Last Things, which he has fully merited by his constancy in evil: Death and Damnation.

In the meantime, Our Lord has in a way, you could say, impeded his heretical hold on the Apostolic See. Bishops round the world know he is now totally moribund, and this will encourage the good to resist the final acts of perfidy he might attempt to perpetrate.

And these events are all the consequence of the High Priestly Prayer of Jesus Christ, before the Throne of God in the Empyrean Heaven, which mercy was conferred on Pope Francis, by the Faithful of Rome, meeting together on January 30, 2023, when they did the only thing they could do, for his sake and for the sake of us all, elect him the successor of Pope Benedict XVI.

Let us praise and glorify the Living God, Who remains true to His Faithful when even just a few of them continue to trust in His Promises. May His Justice and Mercies be swift!

Footnote: While the main stream media generally believed the accusations for 8 years prior to his “election” in 2013, and flipped and called them false afterwards, the mere fact that the book is still for sale in Italy argues that they were true, because in Italy libel suits are very easy to win, and the mere fact that the Vatican and Bergoglio have never taken action against the author for libel, argues more than 100 newspaper articles to the contrary.

Editorials, Faith, Spirituality

Make this Lent the event that will change your life forever…

2 Comments

REPRINT from Lent 2023

by Br. Alexis Bugnolo

The season of Lent is something so regular in its advent that it is easy to lose the proper sense of what we should be doing differently, and why this season is so important for our lives as Catholics.

Indeed, so scheduled and habitual are the events of modern life, that it is easy to let the season of Lent go by without ever making those changes necessary in our daily schedule, without which it is impossible to gather and taste the spiritual fruits of the season.

Lent is a Season for Good Works

First, let’s enumerate the many good works that can be done during Lent, which though salutary each in a different manner, do not comprise the essential act that we should be engaged in, frequently, during this season.

Thus, first, there is the Lenten resolution, which, even when I was a child, was still quite commonly practiced among Catholics — a sort of Catholic version of the New Year’s resolution, but us much more Christian.

While, yes, it is a good thing to resolve at the start of Lent, to undertake some work of charity or devotion, to sanctify this holy season.  That is not the essence of Lent.

Thus, it is a good and holy thing to resolve to go to Daily Mass, receive the Sacraments more frequently, give alms to the poor in the third world, purchase a book about spiritual things, and read some of it, or attend devotional exercises such as the Stations of the Cross, while not neglecting to keep Friday’s meatless, these things while they should never be omitted, are not precisely what Lent is about.

Preparation for Holy Week and Easter is only the Secondary purpose of Lent

Now frequently we hear that the purpose of Lent is to prepare us to celebrate worthily the Sacred Feasts of Holy Week and Easter.  This too, while true, is only a secondary purpose behind Lent.

True, Lent is a liturgical season, which originated to prepare converts to the Faith, for Baptism on Easter, in the early centuries of the Church.

But Lent, as a liturgical season, is not directed principally to preparing the individual or the local Catholic Community to celebrate liturgical ceremonies worthily.  Rather, it has a higher purpose, just as the ceremonies do not exists for themselves, but for a higher purpose.

There is a certain sort of error, which has quietly crept into the Catholic world in the last century, which conceives Catholic life to consist essentially in liturgical celebrations.  So widespread is this error, that you find Catholic laity reading out loud the entire rite of the Mass in Latin or in the vernacular, when the priest is absent, going so far as to say the priest’s parts; while thinking that on Sundays when there is no Mass in their area, that it would be a sin or fault or imperfection to omit the similitude of the liturgical celebration, so essential they believe that is to Catholic life.

Without a doubt the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is essential to the life of every Catholic and to the entire church.  But the liturgical ritual’s enactment is not the center of life.  It’s what that ceremony represents, which is the center of our life:  the Passion and Death of Our Lord Jesus Christ, through which, and without which, we cannot be saved and receive grace.

And hence the scope or role of the liturgical functions is not to be an end in themselves, but to be instruments and occasions for us to do those acts which are essential to Christian life:  the practice of the theological virtues of Faith, Hope and Charity; the contemplation of God and of Heavenly things, and the consideration of the present state of our souls in the light of God.

The Primary Purpose of Lent

Lent, essentially, is for this:  to be an occasion in which we consider profoundly and anew, the state of our souls in the light of God, and in considering this, weighing the immense travesty of our sins against the dire and extreme eternal punishment, which we most certainly merited for them.

This most sober of considerations is what Lent is about.  Without that consideration and that done frequently in this holy Season, we miss the whole importance of Lent.

Death, Judgment, Heaven and Hell:  these are the 4 Last Things, and these should be the objects of our frequent consideration, in Church, and out of Church.

The Saints made the consideration of the state of their soul in the light of God their habitual, daily reflection and habit of mind.  It was for this reason that the Saints did so many things which startle the mind and stir the soul of whomsoever hears or reads of them.

Essential Practices for Lent

We will soon enter into the season of Lent.  It will therefore, be very useful for us, now to consider its essential practice, ordering all the other customary practices of Lent towards this one essential thing:  our own repentance.

The mere consideration that we have sinned, is necessary, but this is not the only step we need to take.

We need to examine the causes of our sinfulness:  in which things or places are have we most sinned:  with whom, about what things, during which activities.

A wise Catholic who actually wants to save his soul, does not take lightly the consideration of such things.  This is so, because he is a prudent Christian who realizes that unless he corrects a minor spiritual problem, it can easily grow into a greater one.

A humble Catholic too, realizes that, in the reconsideration of one’s past sins, one can often find that one’s past confessions were much too superficial, and that in failing to remove one’s self from the occasions of those sins, that the vice which bore their deadly fruit has grown deeper still in one’s soul.

Let’s consider, therefore, the motives we should have in examining our conscience during Lent.  I do not mean “examining one’s conscience” in the perfunctory and quick manner in which we are accustomed, rightly, to do prior to receiving the Sacrament of Penance.

I mean this in the sense of the habit of meditation we should have to do this, whenever we do this, but especially throughout every day of the season of Lent.

Just as one’s house will soon be filthy as a pig-sty, if one does not regularly clean every corner of it; so the soul gathers moral filth through very tiny and unnoticed daily sins.

These grow the vices in our soul; and when these vices are strong enough they give birth to the evil fruit of mortal sin.  And since one mortal sin, unrepentant of, is sufficient to lose eternal life, and merit the everlasting and unimaginably excruciating fires of Hell, the prudent Catholic will not take lightly the importance of cleaning the house of his soul.

The first difficulty in this work that we find is that venial sins, each of them, reduce quite unnoticeably the ability of our souls to recognize sin and its effects.

Thus, unless we have a strong habit of examining our soul, when it comes time to think of our sinfulness, we cannot find anything to convict ourselves of!

If this is the case, with yourself; then you have found the first thing to confess and the first thing you must investigate with prayer and meditation:  the fact that you do not recognize yourself to have sinned.

As the Psalms say, even the holiest of men sins seven times a day.  If you are not a Saint, you surely sin more than 7 times a day; if you are a Saint you will already be convinced that you sin much more than this.

However, to counter super-scrupulosity, which is the spiritual disease of those who are convinced that certain things are sins, and that they have committed these quite frequently, even though their real sins are much greater, and by this too anxious of self-accusations they omit the consideration of their vices of pride or despair in the power of God’s grace to forgive them in the Sacrament of Penance; nevertheless for the majority of us, we have not this fault, we just don’t see our sins; we do not suffer from a preoccupation of believing we have sinned when we have not; we suffer from the opposite spiritual fault, of considering we have not sinned, when we have!

One rule of thumb is, that if you do not consider you have committed any sins in the last year, you probably have the habit of committing many mortal sins:  it’s just that since the effect of sin is the darkening of the mind, you have been so blinded by your sins that you can’t see it.

Lent is a prosperous spiritual time to seek the cure of such a blindness.  And one must seek it, to escape from the dire punishment of Hell which would surely engulf such a blinded soul!

Practical Remedies to Cure one’s own Impenitence

There are some practical remedies to obtain this cure, which need to be mentioned, because they are never preached.

The first is that for most of us, a direct attack upon this blindness does not convince of anything.  Even a very moving sermon, has little or no effect beyond recognizing that it was such.

The actual change of heart, which is the goal of repentance evades the sinner.

A direct attack upon this spiritual insensitivity to sin does not work, because one can only recognize sin, inasmuch as one opens one’s mind to the ability to see it and fear it.

Spiritual blindness is accompanied by a lack of fear of sin; a certain habit of easily excusing major sins, as if they were light faults; and venial sins as imperfections.  There is a certain distortion of judgment in the soul, which has resulted by ignoring the immorality of sin for so long.  And it is, admittedly, a very evil consequence of sin, to free one’s self from.

And to be absolutely frank, its is very rare that a single confession will be sufficient.  Just as those with cancer are not cured by taking just one pill, but often have to endure very painful procedures and months and years of treatment; so this kind of insensitivity to sin requires a long and protracted treatment.

The key to progressing against this awful spiritual disability, is to take tiny steps towards weakening and conquering this disability.

Regaining one’s ability to see one’s own sins, is not some mysterious spiritual practice.  It begins with the recognition of one sin which our conscience still can see is a sin.  Perhaps, however, we only think it is an imperfection or venial sin; but if we consider its causes or nature or occasion, it is certain, in a soul which does not consider itself to be a great sinner, that he has overlooked something which conceals the fact that he is in reality a great sinner.

I won’t speak about the fact that it is already a mortal sin of pride to consider that you are not a sinner: because such a declaration for such a soul is usually too much to understand.  Pride is a very spiritual sin, and one who has lost the sense of morality, has lost the sense of what is spiritual.

However, at the start it is always useful to consider and recognize intellectually that this is true; even if affectively and effectively we do not understand how this can be the case, because of our blindness.

How to dispose one’s self to the great Grace of Repentance

So, uprooting spiritual blindness begins with considering the one thing we can still see as a sin or imperfection.  This is the first step, because the very nature of spiritual progress is a re-capacitation of the power of the mind to consider spiritual things.  And like dominoes which when aligned properly, cause the next one to fall, when they themselves are toppled, so sins, when recognized and repented of, are the occasion to open our minds to the recognition of other sins.

In each step of the process, the recognition of one sin is the work of the conscience in its present state.  But this recognition cannot enable us to make the second step, which is repenting of the sin, because this second step is the work of prayer, devout and persistent to obtain the grace to repent of it.  And this can only be obtained by humble supplication.

All kinds of fasts, prayers, liturgies, meditations, pilgrimages, spiritual readings, alms, etc., are not going to assist your soul, if you do not use them as accompaniments to the work of earnestly begging for the grace of repentance, and disposing yourself to it by acts of self humiliation before God, in private, in the recesses of your heart and mind, wherein you declare, decide and resolve, that God is God, and that you are just a poor sinner, who in no manner deserves anything but judgment and damnation!

Humility is the key here:  how often a sinner might struggle to overcome one vice all his life, but fail to do so, simply because he never got down on his knees in private, and admitted to God and to himself that he was incapable of virtue by himself, and that he could only be virtuous and good, by the gift of God, earnestly begging Him for it on such an occasion!

This humble prayer and devout, secret supplication for grace, is the key step and the essential prerequisite for repentance, though, it can in fact be done in the secret of one’s heart, even in public places, while driving, or traveling, or even during other occupations, when the soul is properly disposed and God in His Mercy bestows the actual grace for it to occur.

During this essential step of humble recognition, a sorrow is engendered in the soul, along with a fear and realization of the danger of damnation, that the heart and mind turns vivaciously towards God and stirs it to ardently appeal for grace.

During such times it sometimes happens that this movement is responsive to grace sufficiently to receive the gift of tears, and during such a gracious movement, the dispositions of the soul can be cleansed and purged from years and years of distorted affections; leaving the heart with a new and healthy sense of sin and its gravity, and a new and healthy vivacity for things spiritual and heavenly.

The Proper Place and Role of Self-mortification

Essential to preparing the soul for such a humble recognition is the practice of mortification.

Mortification consists corporeally with fasting from beverages and food, abstaining from meat and rich foods; use of cold showers, and the endurance of sensations which are painful or sacrificial.

Mortification of the body does not work, when such activities are undertaken by a spirit of self-sufficiency, a kind of presumption that without God one can work his own repentance, or that in doing such things, one proves that he is not a sinner or is some sort of spiritual giant or athlete.

Such a spirit makes such corporal mortifications sinful!

Rather such practices should be undertaken only with the motivation to humble oneself, detach oneself from such a spirit of self sufficiency, and open the door of the spiritual world to the virtue of humility.

This desire to seek spiritual enlightenment, to leave aside one’s pride, to change one’s life at its root, to gain a sense of spiritual things and to loose one’s carnal view of things, should be the motivation of spiritual mortifications, which are very helpful to dispose our souls to the grace of repentance:  such as all those customary acts of Lent, which were mentioned at the beginning of this essay, as not being the principal purpose of Lent.

Repentance is the principal purpose of Lent, and all other things must be ordered to that.  But repentance has as its goal the reuniting of the soul with God and the resumption of the path toward perfection in the pursuit of eternal salvation. Lent thus finds it glory, not in preparing us for liturgical celebrations in time, but in being an occasion to return to the quest for eternal salvation in eternity.

_________

CREDITS: When Jesus was condemned to death and had to carry The Cross for the salvation of us all, an honest man, Simon of Cyrene volunteered to help Him. In all our troubles and concerns, Christ is still there carrying the bulk of the burden of our own personal cross, but as you can see in the Featured Image, He awaits each one of us, to join with Him in this work of our salvation, carrying the foot of the cross, which as you can see in the image, has not yet been grasped by Simon of Cyrene.