James asks you to read the Proposal which it contains and think over
whether you would like to be of additional help in furthering this
effort.
It would probably help if you read the Proposal first. The two websites
are independent of one another, and for obvious reasons it would seem
necessary to keep them separate. Please pray for the effort.
The Rosary to the Interior: For the Purification of the Church, scheduled to occur throughout our nation in parishes on February 2, 2018, now has its own website at:
The
meaning, structure, and organization of this Rosary campaign are
explained in the Proposal on the website linked above. But I think it
important also to examine why it is singularly appropriate and necessary
to be preparing for and promoting this event during the Advent season.
It
is during Advent that our hearts and minds, anticipating the birth of
Jesus, become most open to His saving Light. St. Louis de Montfort said
that the Incarnation is the most important of the mysteries of Christ’s
life because it contains the grace and intention of all the rest. It is
here where God’s saving Light and Grace are born into this world,
thereby making possible the Passion and Resurrection of Our Lord which
has earned the grace of salvation for all men. It therefore constitutes
an absolute line of demarcation in human history. It irrevocably
separates Darkness from Light, and Life from spiritual Death.
All
the modern errors which have penetrated into the Church, and into the
individual minds and hearts of the faithful, can therefore be seen as a
denial of the absolute uniqueness of the Advent and Incarnation of Our
Lord. They also constitute a denial of the absolutely necessary saving
mission of the Church. Christ is the Light of the World Who was born on
Christmas Day, and this Light made its Triumphal entrance into His
Temple the Church on the Feast of the Presentation of Our Lord and the
Purification of Mary. For this reason, February 2 is the last day of the
Christmas season, and represents its fulfillment and perfection within
Christ’s Church. It is this perfection which has now been obscured in
the darkness of sin and error.
All
Catholics possessing a good grasp of their faith understand, at least
intuitively, the breadth of dogmas which are intimately and integrally
connected to the Incarnation of Jesus Christ. Reaching backwards in
human history, we touch upon those dogmas concerning man’s origin – his
creation in a state of original justice, his initial possession of
sanctifying grace, his subsequent Fall through Original Sin, and the
promise of a future Redeemer. All of world history before the
Incarnation, in other words, must rightly be viewed as a period of
intense waiting and longing for the Advent of Jesus Christ.
With
the actual Coming of Jesus we encounter a whole new host of dogmas:
that which defines the union of the Divine and human natures in the One
Divine Person of Jesus Christ; that which defines the justification
achieved through Christ’s Passion and Resurrection ; those doctrines
concerning baptism and the taking away of original sin, reception of the
Holy Spirit, and the infusion of sanctifying grace into the soul in
order to effect that “New Creation” which is man restored to the life
and friendship of God; and, finally, that dogma concerning the founding
of the Church with its mission from Christ to preach these truths – this
Light – to the whole world, and to baptize, and to “bring into
captivity every understanding unto the obedience of Christ.” (2 Cor
10:5).
The
Advent of Christ, in other words, is the very center of all of human
history. It is impossible to devalue its absolute significance, and the
line of demarcation in human history which it represents, without at the
same time undermining every one of the above-mentioned dogmas. It is
this denial of the true meaning and significance of the Advent of Christ
which has now penetrated deeply into the Church, and is the cause of
the darkness now within. And this is precisely what Joseph Ratzinger did
in the passages quoted below from his book Being Christian (1970):
"This
week we celebrate with the Church the beginning of Advent. If we think
back to what we learned as children about Advent and its significance,
we will remember being told that the Advent wreath, with its candles, is
a reminder of the thousands of years (perhaps thousands of centuries)
of the history of mankind before Christ. It reminds all of us of the
time when an unredeemed mankind awaited salvation. It brings to our
minds the darkness of an as yet unredeemed history in which the light of
hope was only slowly kindled until, in the end, Christ, the light of
the world, came and freed mankind from the darkness of condemnation. We
learned also that those thousands of years before Christ were a time of
condemnation because of original sin, while the centuries after the
birth of our Lord are 'anni salutis reparatae,' years of restored
salvation. And finally, we will remember being told that, in Advent,
besides thinking back on the past to the period of condemnation and
expectation of mankind, the Church also fixes her attention on the
multitude of people who have not yet been baptized, and for whom it is
still Advent, since they wait and live in the darkness of the absence of
salvation.
If
we look at the ideas we learned as children through the eyes of
contemporary man and with the experiences of our age, we will see that
we can hardly accept them. The
idea that the years after Christ, compared with those before, are years
of salvation will seem to be a cruel irony if we remember such dates as
1914, 1918, 1933, 1939, 1945; dates which mark periods of world war in
which millions of men lost their lives, often in terrifying
circumstances; dates which bring back the memory of atrocities such as
humanity has never before experienced. One date (1933) reminds us of the
beginning of a regime [Nazi Germany] which achieved the most cruel
perfection in the practice of mass murder; and finally, we remember that
year in which the first atomic bomb exploded on an inhabited city,
hiding in its dazzling brilliance a new possibility of darkness for the
world.
"If
we think about these things, we will have difficulty in distinguishing
between a period of salvation and one of condemnation. And, extending
our vision even further, if we contemplate the works of destruction and
barbarity perpetrated in this and the preceding centuries by Christians
(that is to say by us who call ourselves 'redeemed'), we will be unable
to divide the nations of the world into the redeemed and the condemned.
If
we are sincere, we will no longer build up a theory which divides
history and geography into zones of redeemed and zones of condemned. Rather, we will see the whole of history as a gray mass in
which it is always possible to perceive the shining of a goodness which
has not completely disappeared, in which there can always be found in
men the desire to do good, but also in which breakdowns occur which lead
to the atrocities of evil." [all emphasis is mine]
All
of this, of course, is a profound denial of Catholic truths concerning
Christ's Redemption (especially as found in Galatians 3) and the meaning
of baptism. The Incarnation of Christ is an ontological event which
radically changed God’s relationship to man, man’s relationship to God,
and the course and nature of human history. It is Christ’s Advent which
altered the “gray mass” of human history into a choice between light and
darkness. It is Satan who wishes to obscure this radical demarcation in
history, and the choice which it requires of each one of us. “Gray
masses,” whether they are postulated in the realm of morality and
ethics, or in regard to the redemptive work of Christ, are the realm of
Satan. If there is not a truly significant historical effect of Christ’s
Advent and Passion, then we must also conclude that there has been no
real historical effects of baptism and sanctifying grace upon
individuals, and therefore upon the social order. This, of course, is
exactly what Joseph Ratzinger tried to establish as an historical fact
with his litany of atrocities applicable to the 20th century,
and also his reference to atrocities perpetrated by nominal Christians
in centuries past. It is immensely ironic and tragic that Joseph
Ratzinger did not realize that the 20th Century atrocities
which he lists in no way provide evidence against the traditional view
of Christ’s Advent, or against such doctrines as original sin,
sanctifying grace, or the necessity for implementing the Social Kingship
of Christ. Rather, they provide profound confirmation of the inevitable
consequences of the decay of traditional Christian orthodoxy and
civilization, and the resultant ascension to power of forces, ideas,
individuals, and movements (such as Communism, Nazism, secular-messianic
democracy, pluralism, and relativism) at total war with Christianity.
It is these forces and ideas which have now penetrated into the hearts
and minds of innumerable Catholics, including many in the hierarchy, and
have now darkened and obscured the Light which was ushered into the
Church almost 2,000 years ago upon the day of The Presentation of Our Lord and The Purification of Mary, and is absolutely necessary to overcome the darkness of this world.
So
now, during this Advent and Christmas season, let us turn our eyes away
from the darkness of the world and inward towards the saving Light of
Christ. And as part of this preparation and celebration, let us also
turn our hearts to what is necessary in order that this Light may once
again, for the salvation of all men, be restored to its virginal purity
in Christ’s Catholic Church.
We
ask all Catholics to journey to their churches of February 2, and,
through the praying of the Rosary, to beseech Our Blessed Mother to
intercede with her Son for the specific intention of the Purification of
the Church and the Triumph of the Light of Christ over the Darkness of
sin and error.
We
also ask all those who read these words, and take them to heart, to do
everything they can during this season of Christmas, and all through the
month of January, to convince their family, friends, and personal
contacts to do the same, and to also ask their priests and bishops to
open their churches for this Rosary To The Interior: For the Purification of the Church.