From: The Smoke of Satan in the Temple of God

A regular observance throughout my years as a Catholic educator has been that when Mass is celebrated on major Liturgical Feasts and Holy Days, the reaction of the student body at large is never generally one of excitement at the possibility of their sanctification and a chance to draw yet even closer to Our Lord. Furthermore, many students do not attend Mass regularly on Sundays, and many who do attend do so at the insistence of their parents. The Son of God Himself is present at Mass in the person of the priest, but especially in the Eucharist, body, blood, soul and divinity. Think on it for awhile — if Catholics really had faith that Jesus Himself was present at Mass, wouldn’t attendance be more competitive than securing Super Bowl tickets?

Reflection on this brings us back to the crisis of faith we have been discussing, nearing apostasy on the part of many Catholics. Dr. Peter Kreeft of Boston College has written that since the time of the European Enlightenment and the genesis of modernism, and particularly following Vatican II, there has been a gradual departure from the orthodox Catholic faith now bordering on outright apostasy. Much as did Paul VI, Dr. Kreeft examines this reality in the context of a spiritual battle between the forces of light and the forces of darkness. This development resulted from the failure of those bishops who, perhaps because they felt intimidated by the liturgical “experts,” allowed them to propagate teachings at odds with Sacrosanctum Concilium, the Council’s document on the Sacred Liturgy. In effect, the bishops allowed the imposition of newfangled liturgical “reforms” on their flocks, resulting in a liturgy which has proven “spiritually destabilizing” in many cases. The question which continues to puzzle is, why such poor shepherding? If the maxim lex orendi, lex credendi is true, and it is, then the lack of resemblance between what the Church teaches concerning the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and the reality of what is taking place in its celebration in parishes in the United States today warrants that we come to understand those developments in the Liturgical Movement under the influence of modernist thinking, and their impact on the Church….

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Dancing With Mr. D: Grooming the Little Children

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