The Litany of the Holy Name - handwriting practice. 
                                                                 "JESUS"
"For which cause God also hath exalted Him, and hath given Him a Name which is above all names: That in the Name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those that are in heaven, on earth, and under the earth." Phil 2: 9-10

This handwriting book can be found here. 

Is the faith of the Roman Catholic divine or human ?

The faith of the Roman Catholic is divine, for, to believe the Catholic Church is to believe God himself. The Roman Catholic Church is the heir to the rights of Jesus Christ. She is the faithful depository of the spiritual treasures of Jesus Christ. She is the infallible teacher of the doctrines of Jesus Christ. She wields the authority of Jesus Christ. She lives by the life and spirit of Jesus Christ. She enjoys the guidance and help of Jesus Christ. She speaks, orders, commands, concedes, prohibits, defines, looses and binds, in the name of Jesus Christ.

The Catholic believes in this divine authority of the Church, and therefore believes and obeys her; and in believing and obeying her, he believes and obeys Almighty God himself, who said to the apostles and their lawful successors in the Catholic Church : "He that heareth you heareth me, and he that despiseth you despiseth me." (Luke x, 16). His faith, therefore, is divine, because it is based on divine authority; it gives peace to his soul, and contentment to his heart, it is for him, as it were, a perpetual spring of happiness and joy.

Do Protestant sects teach divine faith on divine authority?

No, the faith of Protestants is based upon human authority, because their founders were not sent by God, nor did they receive any mission from his Church. The aim of Protestantism was to declare every man independent of the divine authority of the Catholic Church, and to substitute for this divine authority that of the Bible, as interpreted by himself. Protestants, therefore, hold that man is himself his own teacher and his own law giver, that it is each one's business to find out his own religion, that is to say, that every one must judge for himself what doctrines are most consistent with reason and the holy Scriptures; or that he must follow the teaching of the clergyman whose views best commend themselves to his judgment. He does not acknowledge that God has a right to teach him, or, if he acknowledges this right, he does not feel himself bound to believe all that God teaches him through those whom God appointed to teach mankind. He says to God: If thou teachest me, I reserve to myself the right to examine thy words, to explain them as I choose, and admit only what appears to me true, consistent, and useful. Hence, St. Augustine says : "You who believe what you please, and reject what you please, believe yourselves or your own fancy, rather than the Gospel." The faith of the Protestant, then, is based upon his private judgment alone ; it is human. As his judgment is alterable, he naturally holds that his faith and doctrine is alterable at will, and is therefore continually changing it. Evidently, then, he does not hold it to be the truth, for truth never changes. Nor does he hold it to be the law of God, which he is bound to obey, for; if the law of God be alterable at all, it can only be altered by God himself, never by man, any body of men, or any creature of God.

But some Protestants, for instance, the Anglicans, think that they approach very near to the Catholic Church, They will tell you that their prayers and ceremonies are like many prayers and ceremonies of the Catholic Church, that their creed is the Apostles Creed. But, in principle, they are all equally far off. Thus they profess to believe in one Church, which has, unfortunately, become half a dozen; in unity, which ceased to exist long ago, for want of a centre; in authority, which nobody needs obey, because it has lost the power to teach in God's presence with the Church, which does not keep her from stupid errors, in divine promises, which were only made to be broken; in a divine constitution, which needs to be periodically reformed, in a mission to teach all nations, while she is unable to teach even herself; in saints, to whom Anglicans would be objects of horror and aversion ; and in the sanctity of truths which their own sect has always defiled, and which are profanely mocked at this hour by its bishops, clergy, and people, all around them. The world has had occasion to admire, in various ages, many curious products of human imbecility, but at no time, and among no people, has it seen anything which could be matched with this. Compared with Anglicanism and its myriad contradictions, the wildest phantom which ever mocked the credulity of dis tempered fanaticism was a form of truth and beauty, a model of exact reasoning and logical symmetry.
Even an untutored Indian chief, by the aid of his rude common-sense, and the mere intuition of natural truth, does not fail to see the folly of Protestant belief, and confounds and ridicules it before those Protestant missionaries who come to convert his tribe to Protestantism. Elder Alexander Campbell, in a lecture before the American Christian Missionary Association, relates the following : "Sectarian missionaries had gone among the Indians to disseminate religious sentiments. A council was called, and the missionaries explained the object of their visit. "Is not all the religion of a white man in a book?" quoth a chief. "Yes" replied the missionaries. Do not all white men read the book ?" continued the chief. Another affirmative response. "Do they all agree upon what it says?" inquired the chief, categorically. There was a dead silence for some moments. At last one of the missionaries replied : "Not exactly; they differ upon some doctrinal points. "Go home, white man" said the chief, 1 call a council, and, when the white men all agree, then come teach the red men." The absurdity of Protestantism being so easily perceived by the rude child of the forest, Protestantism has never been able to convert a heathen nation, although it has very human means in its power. It has a vast number of ministers, plenty of ships to carry these ministers to every country, boundless wealth, and great armies and navies to terrify the heathen, also its merchants scattered through every quarter of the globe; with all this, Protestantism has not converted a nation, nor even a city or tribe, of heathens to Christianity, after three hundred years existence. It has been ascertained that, during the last fifty years, Protestantism, in Europe and America, has collected and spent over one hundred and twenty-five millions of dollars, for the purpose of converting the heathens. One hundred millions of Bibles, Testaments, and tracts, have been printed in various languages, and scattered throughout the world for the same purpose. Five thousand missionaries, with large salaries, varying from a hundred to five hundred pounds each, and also an additional allowance for their wives and families, are kept annually employed in the work, and yet all to no purpose. No result whatever can be shown. During every month of May, the various sects of Protestants hold their anniversary meetings in London and New York. At these gatherings speeches are made and reports read, in which the people are told of the wonderful conversions that are just going to take place; of a great door opened for the Gospel, of fields white for the harvest, of bright anticipations,  of missionaries who now enjoy the confidence of the natives, of Pagans stretching, or who are about to stretch, forth their hands to God immediately; of printing-presses which are in constant operation ; of schools to be opened; of sums spent in Bibles; of Bibles, Testaments, and tracts distributed. Every promise is made for the future, but nothing what ever is shown for the past. The meetings are ended, votes of thanks are given to the various chairmen, prayers said, subscriptions received, and the huge delusion lives on from year to year. Some of the missionaries give up the work in despair, others in disgust. Some run away from the first appearance of danger, others fly from persecution, being terrified at the very idea of martyrdom. One missionary comes back to his native country, because of the sudden death of his wife; another, to bury his youngest daughter in her mother's grave, another leaves the field of his missionary labors, to console his dear mother on her death-bed ; another comes home to look after some small property left him by his father, who recently died, one comes home to preserve the life of a delicate child, who did not seem to thrive in the place where he was stationed, another left to attend to the education of his children, whom he could not feel in his heart to rear up amongst Pagans ; another comes home, because his wife has quarreled with the wives of some of the other missionaries, another, to be present at his eldest daughter's marriage. Many Protestant missionaries give up the work of saving souls for more lucrative pursuits, such as, good commercial or government situations, or to become merchants on their own account, whilst a few, possessed of sufficient ability, have become newspaper correspondents; and more than one, instead of converting the Pagans, have themselves become converts to the Jewish and Mohammedan religions, having got rich wives of these persuasions.

Protestant travelers and writers who have visited the fields of Protestant missionary labor, have themselves furnished the world with these details. They tell of a few converts here and there, who relapse into paganism when ever the missionaries withdraw. They tell us that the missionaries become tyrants, and persecute the people when they get the chance ; that they drive the natives into the Protestant meeting-houses by force, and make them more brutal, profligate, crafty, treacherous, impure, and disgusting, than they were before. One writer states how he found, in the Sandwich Islands, that the Protestant missionaries had civilized the people into draught-horses, and evangelized them into beasts of burden ; that they were literally broken into the traces; and harnessed to the vehicles of their spiritual instructors, like so many beasts of burden. The poor natives are compelled to draw their pastors, as well as their wives and daughters, to church, to market, or for pleasure, and are whipped like horses. The same writer says, the missionaries destroy heathenism, and the heathens also, that they extirpate Paganism and the people at the same time, that the natives are robbed of their land, in the name of religion, and that disease, vice, and premature death, make their appearance together with Protestantism. The missionaries are dwelling in picturesque and prettily furnished coral-rock villas, while the miserable natives are committing all sorts of crime and immorality around them. The depopulated land is recruited from the rapacious hordes of enlightened individuals who settle within its borders, and clamorously announce the progress of the truth. Neat villas, trim gardens, shaven lawns, spires, and cupolas arise, while the poor savage soon finds himself an interloper in the country of his fathers, arid that, too, on the very site of the hut where he was born.

When will Protestants learn wisdom from the rude child of the forest ? When will they see the absurdity of their teaching? It is strange how men will put their reason in their pocket, and prefer darkness to light, error to truth, folly to wisdom. That man might know what to believe, Christ, who alone could tell him, founded the Roman Catholic Church, to be "forever the pillar and ground of truth." Whoever declines to follow this guide, must live without any sure guide. There is. no other, because God has given no other. Hence Pius IX spoke lately of Protestantism, in all its forms, as "revolt against God," it being an attempt to substitute a human for a divine authority, and a declaration of the creature s independence of the Creator
The creed of the apostate has only one article. If God, it proclaims, chose to found a church without consulting man, it is quite open to man to abolish the church with out consulting God.
A body which has lost the principle of its animation becomes dust. Hence it is an axiom that the change or perversion of the principles by which anything was produced, is the destruction of that very thing : if you can change or pervert the principles from which anything springs, you destroy it. For instance, one single foreign element introduced into the blood produces death, one false assumption admitted into science destroys its certainty; one false principle admitted into faith and morals is fatal. The Reformers started wrong. They would reform the Church, by placing her under human control. Their successors have, in each generation, found they did not go far enough, and have, each in turn, struggled to push it further and further, till they find themselves without any church life, without faith, without religion, and beginning to doubt if there be even a God.

It is a well-known fact that, before the Reformation, infidels were scarcely known in the Christian world. Since that event they have come forth in swarms. It is from the writings of Herbert, Hobbes, Bloum, Shaftesbury, Bolingbroke, and Boyle, that Voltaire and his party drew the objections and errors which they have brought so generally into fashion in the world. According to Diderot and d Alembert, the first step that the untractable Catholic takes is to adopt the Protestant principle of private judgment. He establishes himself judge of his religion leaves and joins the reform. Dissatisfied with the incoherent doctrines he there discovers, he passes over to the Socinians, whose inconsequences soon drive him into Deism. Still pursued by unexpected difficulties, he finds refuge in universal doubt; but still haunted by uneasiness, he at length resolves to take the last step, and proceeds to terminate the long chain of his errors in infidelity. Let us not forget that the first link of this chain is attached to the fundamental maxim of private judgment. They judged of religion as they did of their breakfast and dinner. A religion was good or bad, true or false, just as it suited their tastes, their likings; their religious devotion varied like the weather, they must feel it as they felt the heat and cold.

New fashions of belief sprang up, and changed, and disappeared, as rapidly as the new fashions of dress. Men judged not only of every revealed doctrine, but they also judged of the Bible itself. Protestantism, having no authority, could not check this headlong tendency to unbelief. Its ministers dare no longer preach or teach any doctrine which is displeasing to the people. Every Protestant preacher who wishes to be heard, and to retain his salary, must first feel the pulse of his hearers ; he must make himself the slave of their opinions and likings. It is, therefore, historically correct that the same principle that created Protestantism three centuries ago has never ceased, since that time, to spin it out into a thousand different sects, and has concluded by covering Europe and America with that multitude of free-thinkers and infidels who place these countries on the verge of ruin.

What is the spiritual life of Protestants? They seem to have lost all spiritual conceptions, and no longer to possess any spiritual aspiration. Lacking, as they do, the light, the warmth, arid the life-giving power of the sun of the Catholic Church, they seem to have become, or to be near becoming, what our world would be if there were no sun in the heavens. For this reason it is that Protestants are so completely absorbed in temporal interests, in the things that fall under their senses, that their whole life is only materialism put in action. Lucre is the sole object on which their eyes are constantly fixed. A burning thirst to realize some profit, great or small, absorbs all their faculties, the whole energy of their being. They never pursue anything with ardor but riches and enjoyments. God, the soul, a future life, they believe in none of them; or rather, they never think about them at all. If they ever take up a moral or a religious book, or go to a meeting-house, it is only by way of amusement to pass the time away. It is a less serious occupation than smoking a pipe, or drinking a cup of tea. If you speak to them about the foundations of faith, of the principles of Christianity, of the importance of salvation, the certainty of a life beyond the grave, all these truths which so powerfully impress a mind susceptible of religious feeling, they listen with a certain pleasure; for it amuses them, and piques their curiosity. In their inference they carry so far, religious sensibility is so entirely withered or dead within them, that they care not a straw whether a doctrine is true or false, good or bad. Religion is to them simply a fashion, which those may follow who have a taste for it. "By and by, all in good time," they say; "one should never be precipitate; it is not good to be too enthusiastic. No doubt the Catholic religion is beautiful and sublime; its doctrine explains, with method and clearness, all that is necessary for man to know. Whoever has any sense will see that, and will adopt it in his heart in all sincerity; but after all, one must not think too much of these things, and increase the cares of life. Now, just consider we have a body: how many cares it demands! It must be clothed, fed, and sheltered from the injuries of
the weather; its infirmities are great, and its maladies are numerous, It is agreed on all hands that health is our most precious good. This body that we see, that we touch, must be taken care of every day, and every moment of the day. Is not this enough, without troubling ourselves about a soul that we never see? The life of man is short arid full of misery, it is made up of a succession of important concerns, that follow one another without interruption.

Our hearts and our minds are scarcely sufficient for the solicitudes of the present life: is it wise, then, to torment one's self about the future? Is it not far better to live in blessed ignorance? "Ask them, what would you think of a traveler who, on finding himself at a dilapidated inn, open to all the winds, and deficient in the necessaries of life, should spend all his time in trying how he could make himself most comfortable in it, without ever thinking of preparing himself for his departure, and his return into the bosom of his family ? Would this traveler be acting in a wise and reasonable manner? "No," they will reply; "one must not travel in that way. But man, nevertheless, must confine himself within proper limits. How can he provide for two lives at the same time I take care of this life, and the care of the other I leave to God. If a traveller ought not regularly to take up his abode at an inn, neither ought he to travel on two roads at the same time. When one wishes to cross a river, it will not do to have two boats, and set a foot in each : such a proceeding would involve the risk of a tumble into the water, and drowning one's self. Such is the deep abyss of religious indifferentism into which so many Protestants of our day have fallen, and from which they naturally fall into one deeper still: infidelity. 

To be continued . . . . . . .

                                                                     

Why is this Sunday called Septuagesima?'

BECAUSE in accordance with the words of the First Council of Orleans, some pious Christian congregations in the earliest ages of the Church, especially the clergy, began to fast seventy days before Easter, on this Sunday, which was therefore called "Septuagesima" the seventieth day. The same is the case with the Sundays following, which are called Sexagesima, Quinquagesima, Quad- ragesima, (This is actually the First Sunday of Lent now) because some Christians commenced to fast sixty days, others fifty, others forty days before Easter, until finally, to make it properly uniform, Popes Gregory and Gelasius arranged that all Christians should fast forty days before Easter, commencing with Ash-Wednesday.

Why, from this day until Easter, does the Church omit in her service all joyful canticles, alleluias and the Gloria in excelsis, etc.?
Gradually to prepare the minds of the faithful for the serious time of penance and sorrow; to remind the sinner of the grievousness of his errors, and to exhort him to penance. So the priest appears at the altar in violet, the color of penance, and the front of the altar is covered with a violet curtain. To arouse our sorrow for our sins, and show the need of repentance, the Church in the name of all mankind at the Introit cries with David: The groans of death surrounded me, the sorrows of hell encompassed me: and in my affliction I called upon the Lord, and he heard my voice from his holy temple. (Ps. xvii. 5-7.) I will love thee, O Lord, my strength; the Lord is my firmament, and my refuge, and my deliverer, (Ps. xvii. 2-3.) Glory be to the Father, &c.

PRAYER OF THE CHURCH. O Lord, we beseech Thee graciously hear the prayers of Thy people; that we who are justly afflicted for our sins may, for the glory of Thy name, mercifully be delivered. Through our Lord, Jesus Christ &c.

EPISTLE, (i. Cor. ix.. 24-27.,to x. 1-5.) BRETHREN, know you not that they that run in the race, all run indeed, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that you may obtain. And every one that striveth for the mastery, refraineth himself from all things: and they indeed that they may receive a corruptible crown, but we an incorruptible one. I therefore so run, not as at an uncertainty; I so fight, not as one beating the air; but I chastise my body, and bring it into subjection; lest perhaps, when I have preached to others, I myself should become a castaway. For I would not have you ignorant, brethren, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea and all in Moses were baptized, in the cloud and in the sea; and did all eat the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink (and they drank of the spiritual rock that followed them: and the rock was Christ); but with the most of them God was not well pleased.

EXPLANATION. Having exhorted us to penance in the Introit of the Mass, the Church desires to indicate to us, by reading this epistle, the effort we should make to reach the kingdom of heaven by the narrow path (Matt. vii. 13.) of penance and mortification. This St. Paul illustrates by three different examples. By the example of those who in a race run to one point, or in a prize-fight practice and prepare themselves for the victor's reward by the strongest exercise, and by the strictest abstinence from everything that might weaken the physical powers. If to win a laurel crown that passes away, these will subject themselves to the severest trials and deprivations, how much more should we, tor the sake of the heavenly crown of eternal happiness,abstain from those improper desires, by which the soul is weakened, and practice those holy virtues, such as prayer, love of God and our neighbor, patience, to which the crown is promised! Next, by his own example, bringing himself before them as one running a race, and fighting for an eternal crown, but not as one running blindly not knowing whither, or fighting as one who strikes not his antagonist, but the air; on the contrary, with his eyes firmly fixed on the eternal crown, certain to be his who lives by the precepts of the gospel, who chastises his spirit and his body as a valiant champion, with a strong hand, that is, by severest mortification, by fasting and prayer. If St. Paul, notwithstanding the extraordinary graces which he received, thought it necessary to chastise his body that he might not be cast away, how does the sinner expect to be saved, living an effeminate and luxurious life without penance and mortification? St. Paul's third example is that of the Jews who all perished on their journey to the Promised Land, even though God had granted them so many graces; He shielded them from their enemies by a cloud which served as a light to them at night, and a cooling shade by day; He divided the waters of the sea, thus preparing for them a dry passage; He caused manna to fall from heaven to be their food, and water to gush from the rock for their drink. These temporal benefits which God bestowed upon the Jews in the wilderness had a spiritual meaning; the cloud and the sea was a figure of baptism which enlightens the soul, tames the concupiscence of the flesh, and purifies from sin; the manna was a type of the most holy Sacrament of the Altar, the soul's true bread from heaven ; the water from the rock, the blood flowing from Christ's wound in the side; and yet with all these temporal benefits which God bestowed upon them, and with all the spiritual graces they were to receive by faith from the coming Redeemer, of the six hundred thousand men who left Egypt, only two, Joshua and Caleb, entered the Promised Land. Why? Because they were fickle, murmured so often against God, and desired the pleasures of the flesh. How much, then, have we need to fear lest we be excluded from the true, happy land, Heaven, if we do not continuously struggle for it, by penance and mortification!

ASPIRATION. Assist me, O Jesus, with Thy grace that, following St. Paul's example, I may be anxious, by the constant pious practice of virtue and prayer, to arrive at perfection and to enter heaven.

GOSPEL. (Matt. xx. i 1-6.) AT THAT TIME, Jesus spoke to his disciples this parable: The kingdom of heaven is like to a householder, who went out early in the morning to hire laborers into his vineyard. And having agreed with the laborers for a penny a day, he sent them into his vineyard. And going out about the third hour, he saw others standing in the marketplace idle, and he said to them: Go you also into my vineyard, and I will give you what shall be just. And they went their way. And again he went out about the sixth and the ninth hour, and did in like manner. But about the eleventh hour, he went out, and found others standing; and he saith to them: Why stand you here all the day idle? They say to him: Because no man hath hired us. He saith to them: Go you also into my vineyard. And when evening was come, the Lord of the vineyard saith to his steward: Call the laborers, and pay them their hire, beginning from the last even to the first. When therefore they were come that came about the eleventh hour, they received every man a penny. But when the first also came, they thought that they should receive more; and they also received every man a penny. And receiving it, they murmured against the master of the house, saying : These last have worked but one hour, and thou hast made them equal to us that have borne the burden of the day and the heats. But he answering said to one of them: Friend, I do thee no wrong; didst thou not agree with me for a penny? Take what is thine, and go thy way: I will also give to this last even as to thee. Or, is it not lawful for me to do what I will? Is thy eye evil, because I am good ? So shall the last be first, and the first last. For many are called, but few are chosen.

In this parable, what is to be understood by the household? the vineyard? the laborers, and the penny?
The householder represents God, who in different ages of the world, in the days of Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, and finally, in the days of Christ and the apostles, has sought to call men as workmen into His vineyard, the true Church, that they might labor there industriously, and receive the penny of eternal glory.

How and when does God call people ?
By inward inspiration, by preachers, confessors, spiritual books , and conversations, &c., in flourishing youth and in advanced age, which periods of life may be understood
by the different hours of the day.
 
What is meant by working in the vineyard?
It means laboring, fighting, suffering for God and, His honor, for our own and the salvation of others. As in a vineyard we spade, dig, root out weeds, cut off all that is useless and noxious, manure, plant, and bind up, so in the spiritual vineyard of our soul we must, by frequent meditation on death and hell, by examination of conscience dig up the evil inclinations by their roots, and by true repentance eradicate the weeds of vice, and by mortification, especially by prayer and fasting  cut away concupiscence; by the recollection of our sins we must humble ourselves, and amend our life; in place of the bad habits we must plant the opposite virtues and bind our unsteady will to the trellis of the fear of God and of His judgment, that we may continue firm.

How is a vice or bad habit to be rooted up?
A great hatred of sin nust be aroused; a fervent desire of destroying sin must be produced in our hearts; the grace of God must be implored without which nothing can be accomplished. It is useful also to read some spiritual book which speaks against the vice. The Sacraments of Penance and of holy Communion should often be received, and some saint who in life had committed the same sin, and afterwards by the grace of God conquered it, should be honored, as Mary Magdalen and St. Augustine who each had the habit of impurity, but with the help of God resisted and destroyed it in themselves; there should be fasting, alms-deeds, or other good works, performed for the same object, and it is of great importance, even necessary, that the conscience should be carefully examined in this regard.

Who are standing idle in the market-place?
In the market-place, that is the world, they are standing idle who, however much business they attend to, do not work for God and for their own salvation; for the only necessary employment is the service of God and the working out of our salvation. There are three ways of being idle: doing nothing whatever; doing evil; doing other things than the duties of our position in life and its office require, or if this work is done without a good intention, or not from the love of God. This threefold idleness deprives us of our salvation, as the servant loses his wages if he works not at all, or not according to the will of his master. We are all servants of God, and none of us can say with for God; when He created us, hired us at great wages, and we must serve Him always, as He cares for us at all times; and if, in the gospel, the householder reproaches the workmen, whom no man had hired, for their idleness, what will God one day say to those Christians whom He has placed to work in His vineyard, the Church, if they have remained idle?

Why do the last comers receive as much as those who worked all day?
Because God rewards not the time or length of the work, but the industry and diligence with which it has been performed. It may indeed happen, that many a one who has served God but for a short time, excels in merits another who has lived long, but has not labored as diligently. (Wisd. iv. 8-13.)

What is signified by the murmurs of the first workmen when the wages were paid?
As the Jews were the first who were called by God, Christ intended to show that the Gentiles, who were called last, should one day receive the heavenly reward, and that the Jews have no reason to murmur, because God acted not unjustly in fulfilling His promises to them, and at the same time calling others to the eternal reward. In heaven envy, malevolence and murmuring will find no place. On the contrary, the saints who have long served God wonder at His goodness in converting sinners, and those who have served Him but a short time, for these also there will be the same penny, that is, the vision, the enjoyment, and possession of God and His kingdom. Only in the heavenly
glory there will be a difference, because the divine lips have assured us that each one shall be rewarded according to his works. The murmurs of the workmen and the answer of the householder serve to teach us, that we should not murmur against the merciful proceedings of God towards our neighbor, nor envy him; for envy and jealousy are abominable, devilish vices, hated by God. By the envy of the devil, death came into the world. (Wisd. ii. 24.) The envious, therefore, imitate Lucifer, but they hurt only themselves, because they are consumed by their envy. "Envy," says St. Basil, "is an institution of the serpent, an invention of the devils, an obstacle to piety, a road to hell, the depriver of the heavenly kingdom."
 
What is meant by: The first shall be last, and the last shall be first?
This again is properly to be understood of the Jews; for they were the first called, but will be the last in order, as in time, because they responded not to Christ's invitation, received not His doctrine, and will enter the Church only at the end of the world; while, on the contrary, the Gentiles who where not called until after the Jews, will be the first in number as in merit, because the greater part responded and are still responding to the call. Christ, indeed, called all the Jews, but few of them answered, therefore few were chosen. Would that this might not also come true with regard to Christians whom God has also called, and whom He wishes to save. (i. Tim. ii. 4.) Alas! very few live in accordance with their vocation of working in the vineyard of the Lord, and, consequently, do not receive the penny of eternal bliss.

PRAYER. O most benign God, who, out of pure grace, without any merit of ours, hast called us, Thy unworthy servants, to the true faith, into the vineyard of the holy Catholic Church, and dost require us to work in it for the sanctification of our souls, grant, we beseech Thee, that we may never be idle but be found always faithful workmen, and that that which in past years we have failed to do, we may make up for in future by greater zeal and persevering industry, and, the work being done, may receive the promised reward in heaven, through Jesus Christ, Thy Son our Lord. Amen
                                   -Goffine's Devout Instruction, Imprimatur 1880-

We have finally been able to put together another issue of our Gazette.  You can find it here. As always, if you have any suggestions as to the content you might like to see in them please feel free to let us know.  We welcome any suggestions. 
Thank you and God bless you all.                          
The Willson Family

For the feast of Saint Agnes we would like to share with you some printables we have on the site.  A coloring/storybook of Saint Agnes and some coloring pictures.  You can find them below.

If, then, only the Roman Church is one, holy, Catholic and Apostolic, what follows?

It follows that the Roman Catholic Church alone is the one true Church of Christ.
There are men foolish enough to talk of Protestantism as if it were a name for some religious faith, system, or organization! They even speak of the Protestant religion, or the Protestant Church! There is nothing of the kind. There is, and there can be, but one true religion. The word  "religion," says St. Augustine, is derived from the Latin word re-eligendo (to reelect), because, after having lost our Lord by sin, we ought to reelect, or choose him again, as our true and only Lord and sovereign Master. But, according to the same saint, the word "religion" is derived from religando (to reunite), because, it reunites man with God, with whom he was primitively united, but from whom he voluntarily separated by sin. Hence, according to St. Thomas Aquinas, religion is a virtue which teaches us to live in union with God. Now, to live in union with God is to keep our will united to his; in other words, it is to do the will of God. Religion, therefore, is the knowing and doing of God's will. He alone who knows and does the will of God has religion is a truly religious man. Hence religion has always been one and the same:
1:   in its Author, who is God, who taught man his will, either in person or through those to whom he made his will known;
2.  in its doctrine.

As God has always taught man the same truths concerning himself, man, the world, morality, divine worship, grace, the object of religion, and the means to preserve and spread it, it is clear that religion must always have been one and the same from the beginning of the world. As to himself, God has always taught, from the beginning of the world, that he alone is the only one God, infinitely perfect, the Creator and Redeemer of all things; that the Redeemer would save the world, and that we would be sanctified by his Spirit. These truths, however, are more fully known to Christians than they were to the Jews. Concerning man, God has always taught that he created him to his likeness, being composed of a body, and a soul which is spiritual, free, and immortal; that man fell through his own fault; that all men are born in a state of sin and degradation; that they will all rise at the last day, and that there will be eternal rewards for the just, and eternal punishments for the wicked. With regard to the world, God has always taught that he created it out of nothing, that, by his infinite power and wisdom, he governed and preserved it, that he will purify it by fire, and that there will be a new heaven and  a new earth.

As to morality, God has always taught the same laws, the same distinction between good and evil; always commended the same virtues, and condemned the same vices. As to his worship, God has always taught the same two essential acts of worship, viz. : prayer and sacrifice.

As to grace, God has always taught that it was necessary for every man to be saved, that he would give it, on account of the Redeemer, to all those who would use those means through which he wished to bestow it.

As to the object of religion, God has always taught that it was to destroy sin, and to lead men to true happiness.

As to the means of preserving and spreading it, God has always used the same means, choosing certain men, and investing them with his own authority, to teach his religion authoritatively, and with divine certainty. So that to hear and believe the infallible teachers chosen and sent by God, is to hear and to believe God himself. Such infallible teachers were, as we have seen, the patriarchs and Moses and the prophets, before the coming of the Redeemer; and Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and his teaching Church, St. Peter and the other apostles, and their lawful successors, in the New Law. As religion has always been one and the same from the beginning of the world, because the same God has always taught one and the same religion, in like manner the teaching authority has always been the same, which is God's own infallible authority, invested in those of whom he said: "He who heareth you heareth me." There has, therefore, always been but one and the same religion, but one and the same Church. As man, by passing through the different stages of life, does not cease to be the same man, so religion has never ceased to be the same, though it has not at all times been taught as fully as it is at the present day; and the Christian religion, as taught by Christ in the Roman Catholic Church, is far more perfect, and is far richer in graces, than it was before the coming of the Redeemer.

It is, therefore, quite absurd to speak of Protestantism as of a religion or church; the truth is one, errors are many; the Church, the pillar and ground of truth, is one, sects are many that deny the truth and the Church's infallible authority to teach truth. Every sensible man, then, seeing a class of men drawn into a whirlpool of end less religious variations and dissensions, is forced to say: "This is only an ephemeral sect, without substance and without any divine authority, it is a plant not planted by the hand of Almighty God, and therefore it will be rooted
up, it is a kingdom divided against itself, and therefore it will be made desolate; it is a house built on sand, and therefore it cannot stand, it is a cloud without water, which is carried about by the winds, a tree of autumn, unfruitful, twice dead, by the want of faith and morality, and therefore it will be plucked up by the roots; a raging wave of the sea, foaming out its own confusion, a wandering star, to which the storm and darkness are reserved forever, a withered branch, cut off from the body of Christ, the One Holy Roman Catholic and Apostolic Church, which alone is established by Christ on earth as his pillar and ground of truth in one fold, watched over by his one chief shepherd, ever immovable amid the storms of hell; with unshaken faith, amid the variations of philosophical systems, the infernal persecutions of the wicked, the revolutions of empires, the attacks of interest, of prejudice, of passion, the dissolving labors of criticism, the progress of physical, historical, and other sciences, the unrestrained love of novelty, the abuses which sooner or later undermine the most firmly-established human institutions. The faith of this Church alone is divine, because she alone teaches with divine authority.  "This is clear to every unprejudiced and well-reflecting mind."  Mr. T. W. M. Marshall relates the following, in one of his lectures: "A young English lady, with whom I became subsequently acquainted, and from whose lips I heard the tale, informed her parents that she felt constrained to embrace the Catholic faith. Hereupon arose much agitation in the parental councils, and a reluctant promise was extorted from the daughter that she would not communicate with any Catholic priest till she had first listened to the convincing arguments with which certain clerical friends of the family would easily dissipate her unreasonable doubts. These ministers were three in number and we will call them Messrs. A, B and C. The appointed day arrived for the solemn discussion, which one of the ministers was about to commence, when the young lady opened it abruptly with the following remark: 'I am too young and uninstructed to dispute with gentlemen of your age and experience, but perhaps you will allow me to ask you a few questions?  Anticipating an easy triumph over the poor girl, the three ministers acceded with encouraging smiles to her request. 'Then I will ask you,' she said to Mr. A, 'whether regeneration always accompanies the sacrament of baptism?' 'Undoubtedly' was the prompt reply 'that is the plain doctrine of our Church.' 'And you, Mr. B' she continued, 'do you teach that doctrine?'  'God forbid, my young friend' was his indignant answer, 'that I should teach such soul-destroying error ! Baptism is a formal rite, which' etc., etc. 'And you, Mr. C' she asked the third, 'what is your opinion?'  'I regret,' he replied with a bland voice, for he began to suspect they were making a mess of it, 'that my reverend friends should have expressed themselves a little incautiously. The true doctrine lies between these extremes and he was going to develop it, when the young lady, rising from her chair, said:  'I thank you, gentlemen; you have taught me all that I expected to learn from you. You are all ministers of the same church, yet you each contradict the other, even upon a doctrine which St. Paul calls one of the foundations of Christianity. You have only confirmed me in my resolution to enter a Church whose ministers all teach the same thing.' And then they went out of the room, one by one, and probably continued their battle in the street. But the parents of the young lady turned her out of doors the next day, to get her bread as she could. They sometimes do that sort of thing in England.

Another friend of mine, also a lady, and one of the most intelligent of her sex, was for several years the disciple of the distinguished minister who has given a name to a certain religious school in England. Becoming disaffected toward the Episcopalian Church, which appeared to her more redolent of earth, in proportion as she aspired more ardently toward heaven, she was persuaded to assist at a certain Ritualistic festival, which it was hoped would have a soothing effect upon her mind. A new church was to be opened, and the ceremonies were to be prolonged through an entire week. All the Ritualistic celebrities of the day were expected to be present. Her lodging was judiciously provided in a house in which were five of the most transcendental members of the High Church party. It was hoped that they would speedily convince her of their apostolic unity, but, unfortunately, they only succeeded in proving to her that no two of them were of the same mind. One recommended her privately to pray to the Blessed Virgin, which another condemned as, at best, a poetical superstition. One told her that the pope was, by divine appointment, the head of the Universal Church ; another, that he was a usurper and a schismatic. One maintained that the Reformers were profane scoundrels and apostates ; another, that they had at all events good intentions. But I need not trouble you with an account of their various creeds. Painfully affected by this diversity, where she had been taught to expect complete uniformity, her doubts were naturally confirmed. During the week she was invited to take a walk with the eminent person whom she had hitherto regarded as a trustworthy teacher. To him she revealed her growing disquietude, and presumed to lament the conflict of opinions which she had lately witnessed, but only to be rewarded by a stern rebuke; for it is a singular fact that men who are prepared at any moment to judge all the saints and doctors, will not tolerate any judgment which reflects upon themselves. It was midwinter, and the lady's companion, pointing to the leafless trees by the roadside, said, with appropriate solemnity of voice and manner: "They are stripped of their foliage now, but wait for the spring, and you will see them once more wake to life. So shall it be with the Church of England, which now seems to you dead."  "It may be so" she replied, "but what sort of a spring can we expect after a winter which has lasted three hundred years?"  You will not be surprised to hear that this lady soon after became a member of a Church which knows nothing of winter, but within whose peaceful borders reigns eternal spring. And why do we see an eternal spring within the peaceful borders of the Catholic Church ?

The reason is contained in the answer to the question :
 To be continued . . . . . . . .

We are finally getting around to making another gazette.  We  hope to have it available to download by the end of this week.  So keep checking back.  Have a blessed Sunday!

 "And the Child grew and waxed strong, full of wisdom, and the grace of God was in Him."

I. THOUGH Our Lord, in His boyhood and His infancy, was just as much God as He was in His mature age, and as He is now, seated in glory at the right hand of the Eternal Father, yet He chose to seem unto men like any other child. The shepherds who hung over Him as He lay in the manger saw but a helpless, wailing infant. The Magi, who bent their knees before Him, and presented their typical gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh, perceived no look of intelligence in the eyes which gazed so wonderingly upon them. Like other children, he grew up and became strong; like other children, His reason seemed to develop with His years. Yet all this time the plenitude of Divine wisdom and grace dwelt in Him. There can be no doubt that God ordained this apparently slow and gradual advance in reason and in virtue, on the part of His Son, to teach boys that they too must advance in virtue and in intelligence as they advance in age. He wills them to keep the boy Jesus before their eyes as their model. Imagine, then, to yourselves a boy whose soul is without spot or stain; who is obedient and submissive ; who ever thinks of others before himself; who is open, truthful, humble, sweet tempered, affable, and mild. Picture to yourself one adorned with all these virtues, and yet in a way not to attract an extraordinary amount of attention looked upon, indeed, with a feeling of veneration and love, but yet exciting no more of these sentiments than an upright and holy boy always excites in the hearts of those who know how to appreciate and cherish so priceless a treasure. Such a one was Our Lord Jesus Christ in His boyhood.

II. Such also ought each of you to be. Your progress in virtue and in favour with God, ought to correspond with your growth in years and in wisdom. But this is not always the case. Too many boys, alas ! decrease in virtue in proportion as they advance in age. By their sins they lose the favour of God, while by their sharpness and their wit they gain the applause of men. Their early years give promise of a youth rich in virtues. We watch them expanding before our eyes like beautiful flowers, increasing every day in fragrance and in loveliness; but, unhappily, the cankerworm of vice sometimes creeps into those childish hearts, and eats away the very substance of their virtue, leaving behind nothing but the fair exterior. All that made them lovable and beautiful is withered and dead; and while in the eyes of men they appear worthy of praise and commendation, they are unto God and His Angels objects of detestation and of loathing. They grow and wax strong, and, it may be, display a brilliancy of parts which dazzles and astonishes their friends and their professors ; but they are as weak as infants before an assault of the devil, and, like cowards, throw down their arms, and open wide their gates, when he first summons them to surrender. Alas ! when that evil spirit enters their hearts, he not unfrequently enters them to take up there his permanent abode. Hence it is that boys whom we have known to be pure and innocent of all evil become, as they grow older, prodigies of vice. Instead of being open and frank, submissive and humble, mild and unselfish, they become cunning and deceitful, rebellious and proud, vain and jealous, passionate and selfish. There is in them no thought about God, or about the purpose for which He sent them into the world. They begin to loathe virtue and the practice of piety; they shun the society of the good ; they neglect the Sacraments ; and thus their hearts, which were once the tabernacles of God, are changed into the abodes of the devil.

III. This must not be your case. It need not be the case of any boy, how weak soever he may be. For the devil is like the bully of a School he masters only those who are afraid to show fight. From those who face him like men, and who are prepared to strike out in self-defense, he flees
away with all speed. Besides, if you feel afraid, you have always near you the boy Jesus. He is your friend nay, He wishes you ever to look upon Him as your brother. When, therefore, the devil comes to attack you, if you fear your own weakness, run at once to your loving brother. His arm is strong. His blow will make your enemy and tormentor reel and stagger, like a man who has been stunned ; and then your arm, feeble though it be, will easily prostrate and defeat him. But you must go to Jesus not only when the devil attacks you, but when anything troubles you. You wish to make progress both in virtue and in learning, and you find that there are many obstacles in the way, many difficulties to be overcome. Jesus, your brother, is ever at hand. Go to the silent chapel, where the lamp burns so softly before His altar-throne, and there speak to Him, and lay open the sorrows of your heart before Him your weaknesses, your fears, your defects. Tell Him of your difficulties in study, and ask His help. Do this not once or twice, but regularly every day. What, think you, will be the result ? You will, like the child Jesus, advance both in heavenly and in earthly wisdom, and the grace of God will be in you.

Source: Lectures for Boys, Imprimatur 1896

 11. Can Protestant sects claim to be One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic ?
By no means;
1. Because they have no infallible head and teacher, and every Protestant believes that he chooses to believe.
2. Because the founders of the sects were all wicked men, who taught impious doctrines.
3. Because they sprang up only long after Christ had founded his Church.

At the beginning of the sixteenth century, with the exception of the Greek schismatics, a few Lollards in England, some Waldenses in Piedmont, scattered Albigenses or Manicheans, and a few followers of Huss and Zisca among the Bohemians, all Europe was Roman Catholic. England, Scotland, Ireland. Spain, Portugal, France, Italy, Germany, Switzerland, Hungary, Poland, Holland, Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, every civilized nation was in the unity of the Catholic faith* Many of these nations were at the height of their power and prosperity. Portugal was pushing her discoveries beyond the Cape of Good Hope, and forming Catholic settlements in the East Indies. Christopher Columbus, a Roman Catholic, had discovered America, under the patronage of the Catholic Isabella of Spain. England was in a state of great prosperity. Her two Catholic Universities of Oxford and Cambridge contained, at one time, more than fifty thousand students. The country was covered with noble churches, abbeys, and monasteries, and with hospitals, where the poor were fed, clothed, and instructed. However, the progress of civilization tended to foster a spirit of pride, and encourage the lust of novelties. The prosperity of the Church led to luxury, and in many cases to a relaxation of discipline. There were, as there always have been, in every period of the Church, the days of the apostles not excepted, bad men in the Church. The wheat and tares grow together until the harvest. The net of the Church encloses good and bad. The writings of Wycliffe, Huss, and their followers, had unsettled the minds of many. Princes were restive under the check held by the Church upon their rapacity and lusts. A Henry VIII, for example, wanted to divorce a wife to whom he had been married twenty years, that he might marry a young and pretty one. He could not do this, so long as he acknowledged the spiritual supremacy of the pope. Philip, Landgrave of Hesse, wanted two wives. No pope would give him a dispensation to marry and live with two women at once. Then there were multitudes of wicked and avaricious nobles, who wanted but an excuse to plunder the churches, abbeys, and monasteries, whose property was held in trust for the education of the people, and the care of the poor, aged, and sick, all over Europe. Then there were priests and monks eager to embrace a relaxed discipline  and many people who, incited by the cry of liberty, were ready to rush into license, and make war upon every principle of religion and social order, as soon as circumstances would favor the outbreak of this rebel spirit in individuals and masses. Now when God, says St. Gregory, sees in the Church many reveling in their vices, and, as St. Paul observes, believing in God, confessing the truth of his mysteries, but belying their faith by their works, he punishes them by permitting that, after having lost grace, they also lose the holy knowledge which they had of his mysteries, and that, without any other persecution than that of their vices, they deny the faith. It is of these David speaks, when he says: "Destroy Jerusalem to its foundations" (Ps. cxxxvi, 7) ; leave not a stone upon a stone. When the wicked spirits have
ruined in a soul the edifice of virtue, they sap its foundation, which is faith. St. Cyprian, therefore, said : "Let no one think that virtuous men and good Christians ever leave the bosom of the Church, it is not the wheat that the winds lift, but the chaff ; trees deeply rooted are not blown down by the breeze, but those which have no roots. It is rotten fruits that fall off the trees, not sound ones; bad Catholics become heretics, as sickness is engendered by bad humors. At first, faith languishes in them, because of their vices; then it becomes sick, next it dies, because since sin is essentially a blindness of spirit, the more a man sins, the more he is blinded; his faith grows weaker and weaker; the light of this divine torch decreases, and soon the least wind of temptation or doubt suffices to extinguish it. "Witness the great defection from faith in the sixteenth century, when God permitted heresies to arise, in order to exercise his justice against those who were ready to abandon the truth, and his mercy toward those who remained attached to it to prove, by trials, those who were firm in the faith, and to separate them from those who loved error; to exercise, the patience and charity of the Church, and to sanctify the elect; to give occasion for the illustration of religious truth and the holy Scripture; to make pastors more vigilant, and value more the sacred deposit of faith, in fine, to render the authority of tradition more clear and incontestable. Heresy arose in all its strength, Martin Luther was its ringleader and its spokesman.reforming, as well in faith as discipline. Thus this new evangelist commenced that fatal defection from the ancient faith, which was styled a Reformation." The new doctrines, being calculated to gratify the vicious inclinations of the human heart, spread with the rapidity of an inundation.

Frederick, Elector of Saxony, John Frederick, his successor, and Philip, Landgrave of Hesse, became Luther's disciples. Gustavus Ericus, King of Sweden, and Christian III, King of Denmark, also declared in favor of Lutheranism. It secured a footing in Hungary. Poland, after tasting a great variety of doctrines, left to every individual the liberty of choosing for himself. Muncer, a disciple of Luther, set up for doctor himself, and, with Nicholas Stark, gave birth to the sect of Anabaptists, which was propagated in Suabia, and other provinces of Germany, in the Low Countries. Calvin, a man of bold, obstinate spirit, and indefatigable in his labors, in imitation of Luther, turned Reformer also. He contrived to have his new tenets received at Geneva, in 1541. After his death, Beza preached the same doctrine. It insinuated itself into some parts of Germany, Hungary, and Bohemia, and became the religion of Holland. It was imported by John Knox, an apostate priest, into Scotland, where, under the name of Presbyterianism, it took deep root, and spread over the kingdom.

But, among the deluded nations, none drank more deeply of the cup of error than England. For many centuries this country had been conspicuous in the Christian world for the orthodoxy of its belief, as also for the number of its saints. But by a misfortune never to be sufficiently lamented, and by unfathomable judgment from above, its Church shared a fate which seemed the least to threaten it. The lust and avarice of one despotic sovereign threw down the fair edifice, and tore it off from the rock on which it had hitherto stood. Henry VIII, at first a valiant asserter of the Catholic faith against Luther, giving way to the violent passions which he had not sufficient courage to curb, renounced the supreme jurisdiction which the pope had always held in the Church, presumed to arrogate to himself that power in his own dominions, and thus gave a deadly blow to religion. He then forced his subjects into the same fatal defection. Once introduced, it soon overspread the land. Being, from its nature, limited by no fixed principle, it has since taken a hundred different shapes, under different names, such as: the Calvinists, Arminians, Antinomians, Independents, Kilhamites, Glassites, Haldanites, Bereans, Swedenborgians, New-Jerusalemites, Orthodox Quakers, Hicksites, Shakers, Panters, Seekers, Jumpers, Reformed Methodists, German Methodists, Albright Methodists, Episcopal Methodists, Wesleyan Methodists, Methodists North, Methodists South, Protestant Methodists, Episcopalians, High Church Episcopalians, Low Church Episcopalians, Ritualists, Puseyites, Dutch Reformed, Dutch non-Reformed, Christian Israelites, Baptists, Particular Baptists, Seventh-day Baptists, Hard shell Baptists, Softshell Baptists, Forty Gallon Baptists, Sixty Gallon Baptists, African Baptists, Free-will Baptists, Church of God Baptists, Regular Baptists, Anti-mission Baptists, Six Principle Baptists, River Brethren, Winebremarians, Menonites, Second Adventists, Millerites, Christian Baptists, Universalists, Orthodox Congregationalists, Campbellites, Presbyterians, Old School and New School Presbyterians, Cumberland Presbyterians, United Presbyterians, The Only True Church of Christ etc.
 
Martin Luther, an Augustinian friar, a bold man and a vehement declaimer, having imbibed erroneous sentiments from the heretical writings of John Huss of Bohemia, took occasion, from the publication of indulgences promulgated by Pope Leo X, to break with the Catholic Church, and to propagate his new errors, in 1517, at Wirtemberg, in Saxony. He first inveighed against the abuse of indulgences; then he called in question their efficacy, and at last totally rejected them. He declaimed against the supremacy of the See of Rome, and condemned the whole Church, pretending that Christ had abandoned it, and that it wanted Restorationists, Schwentfelders, Spiritualists, Mormons, Christian Perfectionists, etc., etc., etc. All these sects
called Protestants, because they all unite in protesting are against their mother, the Roman Catholic Church. .

Some time after, when the reforming spirit had reached its full growth, Dudithius, a learned Protestant divine, in his epistle to Beza, wrote : "What sort of people are our Protestants, straggling to and fro, and carried about by every wind of doctrine, sometimes to this side, sometimes to that ? You may, perhaps, know what their sentiments in matters of religion are today, but you can never tell precisely what they will be tomorrow. In what article of religion do these churches agree which have cast off the Bishop of Rome? Examine all from top to bottom, and you will scarce find one thing affirmed by one, which was not immediately condemned by another for wicked doctrine." The same confusion of opinions was described by an English Protestant, the learned Dr. Walton, about the middle of the last century, in his preface to his Polyglot, where he says : "Aristarchus heretofore could scarce find seven wise men in Greece; but with us, scarce are to be found so many idiots. For all are doctors, all are divinely learned; there is not so much as the meanest fanatic who does not give you his own dreams for the word of God. The bottomless pit seems to have been opened, from whence a smoke has arisen which has darkened the heaven and the stars, and locusts have come out with stings, a numerous race of sectaries and heretics, who have renewed all the ancient heresies, and invented many monstrous opinions of their own. These have filled our cities, villages, camps, houses, nay, our pulpits, too, and lead the poor deluded people with them to the pit of perdition." "Yes," writes another author, "every ten years, or nearly so, the Protestant theological literature undergoes a complete revolution. What was admired during the one decennial period is rejected in the next, and the image which they adored is burnt, to make way for new divinities, the dogmas which were held in honor, fall into discredit; the classical treatise of morality is banished among the old books out of date, criticism overturns criticism ;
the commentary of yesterday ridicules that of the previous day, and what was clearly proved in 1840, is not less clearly disproved in 1850. The theological systems of Protestantism are as numerous as the political constitutions of France one revolution only awaits another." (Le Semeur, June, 1850.) It is indeed utterly impossible to keep the various members of one single sect from perpetual disputes, even about the essential truths of revealed religion. And those religious differences exist not only in the same sect, not only in the same country and town, but even in the same family. Nay, the self-same individual, at different periods of his life, is often in flagrant contradiction with himself. Today he avow opinions which yesterday he abhorred, and tomorrow he will exchange these again for new ones. At last, after belonging, successively, to various new-fangled sects, he generally ends by professing unmitigated contempt for them all. By their continual disputes and bickerings, and dividing and subdividing, the various Protestant sects have made themselves the scorn of honest minds, the laughing-stock of the pagan and the infidel.

These human sects, the "works of the flesh," as St. Paul calls them, alter their shape, like clouds, but feel no blow, says Mr. Marshall, because they have no substance. They fight a good deal with one another, but nobody minds it, not even themselves, nor cares what becomes of them. If one human sect perishes, it is always easy to make another, or half a dozen. They have the life of worms, and propagate by corruption. Their life is so like death that, except by the putridity which they exhale in both stages, it is impossible to tell which is which, and when they are buried, nobody can find their grave. They have simply disappeared. The spirit of Protestantism, or the spirit of revolt against God and his Church, sprung up from the Reformers spirit of incontinency, obstinacy and covetousness. Luther, in despite of the vow he had solemnly made to God of keeping continency, married a nun, Equally bound as himself to that sacred religious promise ; but, as St. Jerome says, "it is rare to find a heretic that loves chastity." Luther s example had indeed been anticipated by Carlostadtius, a priest and ringleader of the Sacramentarians, who had married a little before ; and it was followed by most of the heads of the Reformation. Zwihglius, a priest and chief of the sect that bore his name, took a wife. Bucer, a member of the order of St. Dominic, became a Lutheran, left his cloister, and married a nun. Ecolampadius, a Brigittin monk, became a Zwinglian, and also married. Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury, had also his wife. Peter Martyr, a canon-regular, embraced the doctrine of Calvin, but followed the example of Luther, and married a nun. Ochin, General of the Capuchins, became a Lutheran, and also married. Thus the principal leaders in the Reformation went forth preaching the new gospel, with two marks upon them: apostasy from faith, and open violation of the most sacred vows.

The passion of lust, as has been already said, hurried also Henry VIII of England into a separation from the Catholic Church, and ranked him among the Reformers. Those wicked men could not be expected to teach a holy doctrine, they preached up a hitherto unheard-of evangelical liberty," as they styled it. They told their fellow-men that they were no longer obliged to subject their understanding to the mysteries of faith, and to regulate their actions according to the laws of Christian morality ; they told that every one was free to model his belief and practice as it suited his inclinations. In pursuance of this accommodating doctrine, they dissected the Catholic faith till they reduced it to a mere skeleton; they lopped off the reality of the body and blood of Christ, in the Holy Eucharist, the divine Christian sacrifice offered in the Mass, confession of sins, most of the sacraments, penitential exercises, several of the canonical books of Scripture, the invocation of saints, celibacy, most of the General Councils of the Church, and all present Church authority, they perverted the nature of justification, asserting that faith alone suffices to justify man ; they made God the author of sin, and maintained the observance of the commandments to be impossible.
As a few specimens of Luther s doctrine, take the following :
"God's commandments are all equally impossible." (De Lib. Christ., t. ii, fol. 4.)
"No sins can damn a man, but only unbelief." (De Captio. Bab., t. ii, fol. 171.)
"God is just, though by his own will he lays us under the necessity of being damned, and though he damns those who have not deserved it." (Tom. ii, foil. 434, 436.)
"God works in us both good and evil." (Toni. ii, fol. 444.)
"Christ's body is in every place, no less than the divinity itself." (Tom. iv, fol. 37.)
Then for his darling principle of justification by faith, in his eleventh article against Pope Leo, he says : "Believe strongly that you are absolved, and absolved you will be, whether you have contrition or no."
Again, in his sixth article :
"The contrition which is acquired by examining, recollecting, and detesting one's sins, whereby a man calls to mind his life past, in the bitterness of his soul, reflecting on the heinousness and multitude of his offences, the loss of eternal bliss, and condemnation to eternal woe, this contrition, I say, makes a man a hypocrite, nay, even a greater sinner than he was before." Thus, after the most immoral life, a man has a compendious method of saving himself, by simply believing that his sins are remitted through the merits of Christ. As Luther foresaw the scandal that would arise from his own and such like sacrilegious marriages, he prepared the world for it, by writing against the celibacy of the clergy and all religious vows, and all the way up, since his time, he has had imitators. He proclaimed that all such vows  "were contrary to faith, to the commandments of God, and to evangelical liberty." (De Votis Monast.) He said again : "God disapproves of such a vow of living in continency, equally as if I should vow to become the mother of God, or to create a new world." (Epist. ad Wolfgang Reisemb.) And again: "To attempt to live unmarried, is plainly to fight against God." Now, when men give a loose rein to the depravity of nature, what wonder if the most scandalous practices ensue? Accordingly, a striking instance of this kind appeared in the license granted in 1539 to Philip, Landgrave of Hesse, to have two wives at once, which license was signed by Luther, Melanchthon, Bucer, and five other Protestant divines.

On the Other hand, a wide door was laid open to another species of scandal : the doctrine of the Reformation admitted divorces in the marriage state in certain cases, contrary to the doctrine of the Gospel, and even allowed the parties thus separated to marry other wives and other husbands.

To enumerate the errors of all the Reformers would exceed the limits of this work. I shall therefore only add the principal heads of the doctrine of Calvin and the Calvinists:
1. that baptism is not necessary for salvation;
2. good works are not necessary;
3. man has no free will;
4. Adam could not avoid his fall;
5. a great part of mankind are created to be damned, independently of their demerits:
6. man is justified by faith alone, and that justification, once obtained, cannot be lost, even by the most atrocious crimes;
7. the true faithful are also infallibly certain of their salvation;
8. the Eucharist is no more than a figure of the body and blood of Christ.

Thus was the whole system of faith and morality over turned. Tradition they totally abolished; and, though they could not reject the whole of the Scripture, as being universally acknowledged to be the word of God, they had, however, the presumption to expunge some books of it that did not coincide with their own opinions, and the rest they assumed a right to explain as they saw fit. To pious souls, they promised a return to the fervor of primitive Christianity; to the proud, the liberty of private judgment; to the enemies of the clergy, they promised the division of their spoils; to priests and monks who were tired of the yoke of continence, the abolition of a law which they said was contrary to nature; to libertines of all classes, the suppression of fasting, abstinence, and confession. They said to kings who wished to place themselves at the head of the Church as well as the State, that they would be freed from the spiritual authority of the Church; to nobles, that they would see a rival order humbled and impoverished; to the middle classes, and the vassals of the Church, that they would be emancipated from all dues and forced services. Several princes of Germany and of the Swiss cantons supported by arms the preachers of the new doctrines.Henry VIII imposed his doctrine on his subjects. The King of Sweden drew his people into apostasy. The Court of Navarre welcomed the Calvinists; the Court of France secretly favored them. At length Pope Paul III convoked a General Council at Trent, in 1545, to which the heresiarchs had appealed. Not only all the Catholic bishops, but also all Christian princes, even Protestants, were invited to come. But now the spirit of pride and obstinacy became most apparent. Henry VIII replied to the pope that he would never entrust the work of reforming religion in his kingdom to any one except to himself. The apostate princes of Germany told the papal legate that they recognized only the emperor as their sovereign; the Viceroy of Naples allowed but four bishops to go to the council; the King of France sent only three prelates, whom he soon after recalled. Charles V created difficulties, and put obstacles in the way. Gustavus Vasa allowed no one to go to the council. The heresiarchs also refused to appear.

The council, however, was held, in spite of these difficulties. It lasted over eighteen years, because it was often interrupted by the plague, by war, and by the deaths of those who had to preside over it. The doctrines of the innovators were examined and condemned by the council, at the last session of which there were more than three hundred bishops present; among whom were nine cardinals, -three patriarchs, thirty-three archbishops, not to mention sixteen abbots or generals of religious orders, and one hundred and forty-eight theologians. All the decrees published from the commencement were read over, and  were again approved and subscribed by the Fathers. Accordingly, Pius IV, in a consistory held on the 26th of January, 1564, approved and confirmed the council in a book which was signed by all the cardinals. He drew up, the same year, a profession of faith conformable in all respects with the definitions of the council, in which it is declared that its authority is accepted and since that time, not only all bishops of the Catholic Church, but all priests who are called to teach the way of salvation even to children, nay, all non-Catholics, on abjuring their errors, and returning to the bosom of the Church, have sworn that they had no other faith than that of this holy council. The new heresiarchs, however, continued to obscure and disfigure the face of religion. As to Luther's sentiments in regard to the pope, bishops, councils, etc.he says, in the preface to his book, "De Abroganda Missa Privata:"  "With how many powerful remedies and most evident Scriptures have I scarce been able to fortify my conscience so as to dare alone to contradict the pope, and to believe him to be Antichrist, the bishops his apostles, and the universities his brothel-houses;" and in his book, "De Judicio Ecdesice de Gram Doctrina" he says : "Christ takes from the bishops, doctors and councils, both the right and power of judging controversies, and gives them to all Christians in general." His censure on the Council of Constance, and those that compose it, is as follows: "All John Huss's articles were condemned at Constance by Antichrist and his apostles" (meaning the pope and bishops), "in that synod of Satan, made up of most wicked sophisters ; and you, most holy Vicar of Christ, I tell you plainly to your face, that all John Huss"s condemned doctrines are evangelical and Christian, but all yours are impious and diabolical. I now declare,"; says he, speaking to the bishops, "that for the future I will not vouchsafe you so much honor as to submit myself or doctrine to your judgment, or to that of an angel from heaven." (Preface to his book, "Adversus
falso nominatum ordinem Episcoporum.") Such was his spirit of pride that he made open profession of contempt for the authority of the Church, councils, and Fathers, saying: "All those who will venture their lives, their estates, their honor, and their blood, in so Christian a work as to root out all bishoprics and bishops, who are the ministers of Satan, and to pluck by the roots all their authority and jurisdiction in the world, these persons are the true children of God, and obey his commandments." ("Contra Statum Ecdesice et falso nominatum ordinem Episcoporum.")

This spirit of pride and of obstinacy is also most apparent from the fact that Protestantism has never been ashamed  to make use of any arguments, though ever so frivolous, inconsistent, or absurd, to defend its errors, and to slander and misrepresent the Catholic religion in every way possible. It shows itself again in the wars which Protestantism has waged to introduce and maintain itself. The apostate princes of Germany entered into a league, offensive and defensive, against the Emperor Charles V, and rose up in arms to establish Protestantism. Luther had preached licentiousness, and reviled the emperor, the princes, and the bishops. The peasants lost no time in freeing themselves from their masters. They overran the country in lawless bands, burnt down castles and monasteries, and committed the most barbarous cruelties against the nobility and clergy. Germany became at last the scene of desolation and most cruel atrocities during the Thirty Years War (1618-1648). More than one hundred thousand men fell in battle, seven cities were dismantled, one thousand religious houses were razed to the ground, three hundred churches, and immense treasures of statuary, paintings, books, etc. were destroyed. But what is more apparent and better known than the spirit of covetousness of Protestantism? Wherever Protestantism secured a footing, it pillaged churches, seized Church property, destroyed monasteries and appropriated to itself their revenues.

In France, the Calvinists destroyed twenty thousand Catholic churches, they murdered, in Dauphin alone, two hundred and fifty-five priests, one hundred and twelve monks, and burned nine hundred towns and villages. In England, Henry VIII confiscated to the crown, or distributed among his favorites, the property of six hundred and forty-five monasteries and ninety colleges, one hundred and ten hospitals, and two thousand three hundred and seventy-four free-chapels and chantries. They even dared to profane, with sacrilegious hands, the remains of the martyrs and confessors of God. In many places they forcibly took up the saints bodies from the repositories where they were kept, burned them, and scattered their ashes abroad. What more atrocious indignity can be conceived? Are parricides or the most flagitious men ever worse treated ? Among other instances,in 1562, the Calvinists broke open the shrine of St. Francis of Paula, at Plessis-Lestours ; and finding his body uncorrupted fifty-five years after his death, they dragged it about the streets, and burned it in a fire which they had made with the wood of a large crucifix, as Billet and other historians relate. Thus at Lyons, in the same year, the Calvinists seized upon the shrine of St. Bonaventure, stripped it of its riches, burned the saint's relics in the market-place, and threw his ashes into the river Saone, as is related by the learned Possevinus, who was in Lyons at the time. The bodies, also, of St. Irenseus, St. Hilary, and St. Martin, as Surius asserts, were treated in the same ignominious manner. Such, also, was the treatment offered to the remains of St. Thomas, Archbishop of Canterbury, whose rich shrine, according to the words of Stowe, in his Annals, "was taken to the king's use, and the bones of St. Thomas, by the command of Lord Cromwell, were burnt to ashes in September, 1538.

The Catholic religion has covered the world with its superb monuments. Protestantism has now lasted three hundred years; it was powerful in England, in Germany, in America. What has it raised ? It will show us the ruins which it has made, amidst which it has planted some gardens, or established some factories. The Catholic religion is essentially a creative power, built up, not to destroy, because it is under the immediate influence of that Holy Spirit which the Church invokes as the creative Spirit, "Creator Spiritus." The Protestant, or modern philosophical spirit, is a principle of destruction, of perpetual decomposition and disunion.

Under the dominion of English Protestant power, for four hundred years, Ireland was rapidly becoming as naked and void of ancient memorials as the wilds of Africa. The Reformers themselves were so ashamed of the progress of immorality among their proselytes, that they could not help complaining against it. Thus spoke Luther: "Men are now more revengeful, covetous, and licentious, than they were ever in the Papacy." (Postil. super Evang. Dom. i, Advent.) Then again: "Heretofore, when we were seduced by the pope, every man willingly performed good works, but now no man says or knows anything else than how to get all to himself by exactions, pillage, theft, lying, usury." (Postil. super Evang. Dom. xxvi, p. Trinit.)
Calvin wrote in the same strain: "Of so many thousands," said he, "who, renouncing Popery, seemed eagerly to embrace the Gospel, how few have amended their lives ! Nay, what else did the greater part pretend to, than, by shaking off the yoke of superstition, to give themselves more liberty to follow all kinds of licentiousness?" "Liber de Scandalis") Dr. Heylin, in his History of the Reformation, complains also of "the great increase, of viciousness"  in England, in the reforming reign of Edward VI. Erasmus says : "Take a view of this evangelical people, the Protestants. Perhaps tis my misfortune, but I never yet met with one who does not appear changed for the worse." (Epist. ad Vultur. Neoc.) And again : "Some persons" says he, "whom I knew formerly innocent, harmless, and without deceit, no sooner have I seen them joined to that sect (the Protestants), than they began to talk of wenches, to play at dice, to leave off prayers, being grown extremely worldly, most impatient, revengeful, vain, like vipers, tearing one another. I speak by experience." ("Ep. ad Fratres Infer. Germanise")
M. Scherer, the principal of a Protestant school in France, wrote, in 1844, that he beholds in his reformed church, the ruin of all truth, the weakness of infinite division, the scattering of flocks, ecclesiastical anarchy, Socinianism ashamed of itself, Rationalism coated like a pill, without doctrine, without consistency. This Church, deprived alike of its corporate and its dogmatic character, of its form and of its doctrine, deprived of all that constituted it a Christian church, has in truth ceased to exist in the ranks of religious communities. Its name continues, but it represents only a corpse, a phantom, or, if you will, a memory or a hope. For want of dogmatic authority, unbelief has made its way into three-fourths of our pupils." (
a L'Etat Actual de l' Eglise Reformee en France, 1844.)

Such has been Protestantism from the beginning. It is written in blood and fire upon the pages of history. Whether it takes the form of Lutheranism in Germany, Denmark, and Sweden Anglicanism in Great Britain, or Calvinism and Presbyterianism in Switzerland, France, Holland, Scotland, and America, it has been everywhere the same. It has risen by tumult and violence, propagated itself by force and persecution, enriched itself by plunder, and has never ceased, by open force, persecuting laws or slander, its attempt to exterminate the Catholic faith, and destroy the Church of Christ, which the fathers of Protestantism left from the spirit of lust, pride, and covetousness, a spirit which induced so many of their countrymen to follow their wicked example, a spirit, on account of which they would have been lost anyhow, even if they had not left their mother, the One Holy Roman Catholic and Apostolic Church. Having seen the total absence of unity in Protestantism, total absence of holiness in its authors and their principles, total absence of catholicity for want of truth, which alone can rule and enforce obedience everywhere throughout the world, and total absence of apostolicity, because it arose only three hundred years, ago, and no honest man will say that the apostles were Protestants, it is easy to answer the question:

To be continued . . . . .
Source: God the Teacher of Mankind, Vol I, The Church and Her Enemies

Links for two sermons for this feast can be found below.  May the Holy Family bless you and yours today and always.
http://www.crusaders-for-christ.com/blog/-the-first-sunday-after-the-epiphany
http://www.crusaders-for-christ.com/sermons-for-children/-first-sunday-after-epiphany

OF all the names which have been given to the children of men, the most august and the most . . . lovable is the name of Jesus. It contains in itself all that the prophets announced as greatest, all that the patriarchs have dreamed of as most gracious; it recalls at once what is most amiable in virtue, what is most tender in love, and what is most august in religion. Besides, it is an angel that has brought this name from heaven to earth; and St. Bernard says that the name of Jesus is. at the same time a light, a nourishment, and a remedy.

First Point.—The name of Jesus is a light. It enlightens the mind of the priest when preaching to the people. It is by the name of Jesus that the universe has been converted; at this divine name the darkness of idolatry gave place to the light of the Gospel. St. Peter, at his first preaching, converted three thousand persons by the power of Jesus' name. St. Paul, on his way to Damascus, experienced its happy effects; he was struck, as if by a thunderbolt, while he was hastening to put the Christians to death. He heard a voice which said to him: "Why do you persecute Me?" "And who are you?" he answered. The voice replied: "I am Jesus." At the sound of this name an unknown light shone before his eyes, and he understood the meaning of it all. "Lord," says the persecutor, now become a vessel of election, "what wilt Thou have me to do? Speak, for I am ready." St. Paul, convinced by his own experience of the power of this holy name, made it his support in his apostolic journeys, and without other arms than this divine name he converted the world. Rome, Athens, and Corinth experienced, each in turn, the power of his word. He confounded the learned, astonished the Areopagus, and caused the proconsul to tremble in his tribunal; but it was not by his credit nor by his eloquence that he triumphed ; he admitted that he was not skillful in the art of speaking well, but he knew Jesus crucified, and it was to this sacred name he owed all his success.

The effects of the name of Jesus are still the same. What light it sheds on the soul ! Is it necessary to detach the hearts of the rich from their earthly goods? Reason fails against cupidity, but let the name of Jesus be pronounced and it shall recall Him who became poor through love, and soon love shall lead to a contempt for riches. Is it necessary to instil resignation in the heart of the poor man ? The name of Jesus shall remind him of the poor Infant in the manger, and will make his poverty precious. Do you strive to stifle vengeance in the depth of some outraged heart by reasoning? Then all your efforts shall be in vain ; but let the name of Jesus be mentioned, and the vindictive one shall remember the amiable Victim, who, although outraged and insulted, not only pardoned His executioners but excused them. His heart is open to mercy.

St. John Gualbert had resolved to avenge his brother, who had been cruelly assassinated. It was on Good Friday he met the murderer, and, "taking his sword in hand, he prepared to strike him, when the murderer fell at his feet and asked his life in the name of Jesus crucified. At once John felt the sword fall from his grasp; he lifted his enemy from the ground, embraced him, and pardoned him. In all your doubts, in all your temptations, pronounce the Holy Name of Jesus with faith, and the most precious lights shall dissipate your doubts, and shall show you the way you should walk to find your Saviour and your God.

Second Point.—The name of Jesus is a nourishment. There is in this blessed name some hidden virtue which goes to the very soul, penetrates it and warms it, and like some mysterious substance spreads throughout our whole being a certain strength and joy. Who has not experienced this wonderful effect? In the maladies of the soul, when temptations increase to violence, when the sources of holy consolations seem closed, when we feel ourselves growing weak, the heart without strength and the will without energy: everything in the service of God and in the practice of duty is tasteless, insipid, loathsome ; then let us come to the foot of the altar, or before a crucifix, and meditate on the name of Jesus. At once confidence shall be born in us again, and our forces shall revive.

What is the source of this fervor which is experienced at the foot of a crucifix or before an altar? The lover of Jesus is occupied in repeating His name or reflecting on its sweetness. He does not know how to formulate sublime prayers; he only knows how to repeat the name of Jesus, and he repeats it a thousand times without wearying at the repetition, and this adorable name, as some burning flame, warms his heart and consoles him. "I do not know," said St. Bernard, "if you understand the marvellous effects of the name of Jesus, but as for me, everything, without this divine name, is insipid and wearisome. I must tell you, a book has no attractions for me if I do not find the name of Jesus in it; a conference or instruction cannot please me if Jesus is not mentioned in it. Jesus is honey to my mouth, melody to my ears, and a joyful song to my heart." If you look for the secret of this unspeakable sweetness which the loving heart discovers in the Holy Name of Jesus, you shall find it is born of a mysterious perfume attached to everything which comes from heaven. But should it not come also from the memories which this name awakens in the heart ? See what sweet thoughts are grouped about this amiable name, as delicious fruits lie about the tree which produces them! The neglects and the adoration in the manger, the memory of virtues hidden during thirty years in the house of Joseph, the lessons and the blessings of a life which St. Peter sums up in two words, " He went about doing good;" the opprobrium and sorrows of Calvary—all this recalls the name of Jesus. How, then, shall we not feel stirred while meditating on it?

O Holy Name of Jesus, sacred and penetrating oil, whose unction has been poured out from the beginning, and only asks to be still poured out, pour Thyself with profusion in my heart, fill it with the infinite sweetness and the charms of Thy love, that, being purified by Thee, united to Thee, and satiated by the happiness of loving Thee, I may see verified in me these words of the Holy Spirit: "Thy name is as oil poured out, and it is why Thy servants have loved Thee exceedingly."

Third Point.—The name of Jesus is a remedy. It heals every malady. First, the maladies of the body. The innumerable cures wrought by the apostles are so many consequences of the power of Jesus' name. There is nothing which can resist this divine name. Jesus Himself has proclaimed this truth. "He that shall believe in Me, shall work miracles greater than mine. In My name he shall expel demons. He shall have nothing to fear, neither the serpent's bite nor the effect of poisons. He shall impose hands on the sick and they shall be healed."

The name of Jesus heals maladies of the heart. There are in life some cruel moments, when the
wearied soul implores death as the only resource. In this sadness the name of Jesus shall remind you of the sadness of the amiable Victim in the Garden of Olives, and it shall reanimate and strengthen you. If ever you are the victim of ingratitude or of the injustice of men, the name of Jesus shall console you, and strengthen you by recalling the treason of Judas, the abandonment by the apostles, and the unworthy preference given to Barabbas. If despair threatens to invade your soul, then recall the name of Jesus ; it is, says St. Ambrose, a name of hope, a name full of sweetness, a name which gives joy. The name of Jesus heals the maladies of the soul.

The great malady of the soul, that which must be especially feared, because it attacks the very sources of supernatural life, is sin. The name of Jesus is a sovereign remedy for it. And why? Because it makes us detest sin by recalling its malice ; because it makes us avoid sin by giving us strength in temptations; because it makes us weep for sin, by reminding us of the love of Him whom we offend. Learn then to pronounce this blessed name with respect—it is the name of your God ; with love—it is the name of your Benefactor; and with confidence-- it is the name of your Saviour.

O Name of Jesus, holy and adorable name, how much I love to speak and think of it! Be also honey for my lips, and melody for my heart. In dying, may my lips still murmur this name, and may I never cease to repeat it here on earth, until the moment when with the angels I may forever bless it.
Source:  Short Instructions for Every Sunday of the Year and Principal Feasts, Imprimatur 1897