New Superiors, Same Tactics
Nov 15, 2018 23:12:45 GMT
Post by Deleted on Nov 15, 2018 23:12:45 GMT
Even though the superiors of the SSPX have changed, the tactics remain the same. One of them is to keep everyone in line and following the SSPX leaders back to Rome through obedience.
(Father de Jorna is the new District Superior of France)
Source: laportelatine.org/publications/presse/2018/fideliter2018/de_jorna_revue_fideliter_245.php
(translated with DeepL)
_____________________________________________
To find obedience again,
by Father Benoît de Jorna
In The Little Prince, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry had the King ask the hero this question: "If I ordered a general to fly around flowers like a butterfly, or to write a tragedy or to change into a seabird, if the general did not carry out the order, would it be his fault or mine? "One can guess that today the prince would answer: "If you ordered your fellow citizens to throw themselves into the sea, they would make a revolution. "For men know how to obey less and less.
Where does it come from that we obey less? If we go back to the root causes, it is because we live in an era of quantity and yet quality should guide our lives. But by nature our intelligence tends to simplify. It is easier to add up figures than to slowly develop a qualitative progression of our souls. And virtues are qualities. We know the four cardinal virtues and we know that they are mothers of many daughters. Who is the mother of obedience? That's justice. And Saint Thomas tells us that the latter is the "quality by which we give everyone their right with a firm and perpetual will". Let us admit that today neither firmness nor perpetuity characterize morals any more. Flickering and superficiality are evident in all areas.
The will, far too much subject to passions, has great difficulty in keeping the empire it should have over them. Like butterflies, we fly from one flower to another according to the pleasure it brings, always momentary. Moreover, there is no longer any perpetuity except in the movement. Old theory still valid today. It's the all-too-famous continuity in change!
So if the mother - justice - fails like her daughter - obedience - could the latter still continue to exist? And yet no man on earth can claim to reach his last end without this virtue. For our last end is Christian perfection and this requires all virtues. No one can claim holiness without obedience. But to be obedient, however, it would still be necessary for the superior to command a just and legitimate precept. We know, and perhaps too much so, that "the divine will is the supreme rule and that all reasonable wills are - or should be - regulated by it, more or less directly, according to the order established by God". This is the teaching of Saint Thomas, the angelic doctor who should be the common doctor of the Church.
It is true that we are living in the usual disorder. The precepts enjoined in the Church by the supreme authorities are increasingly unjust and illegitimate. Many of them are clearly contrary to the divine will; it is therefore our duty not to subscribe to them. As a result, obedience simply becomes impossible. And this poor girl, no longer having an object and therefore no opportunity to practice, becomes very small, disappears and disappears. For Saint Thomas takes care to specify: "The precise object of obedience is indeed the precept or expression of a will that is not ours, but that ours by obedience is hastened to accomplish. "We therefore get used to living without obedience and, very quickly, we will even lose the spirit of obedience, this willingness to conform to the will of the superior. That is where the problem lies. We finally claim to live like blessed people: in Heaven, no more precepts! This is not only a dream, but a mistake. All the perfection acquired here on earth cannot be lost in Heaven. The facial vision of God of which Saint Paul speaks does not destroy any virtue!
Obedience is respect for superiors; and to different superiors, different obedience. Thus, says St. Thomas, children are not obliged to obey their parents when it comes to, for example, vocation. "But for the conduct of his life and domestic work, the child must obey his father"! Obedience is a virtue on earth as it is in Heaven; it was already a virtue in heaven on earth, although the practice of obedience differs in these three situations.
Today we no longer obey, we negotiate. The common life becomes the agglomeration of men's search for their own interests. Either we exaggerate unity, as communism and Islam do, and obedience becomes servility; or we kill obedience under the pretext of freedom, and we divide in diversity as the Second Vatican Council intended; a look at the conciliar parishes shows it over and over again, as shown in the file in this issue of Fideliter.
Only the Church can maintain the right balance of diversity in unity. And it's not an oxymoron. It is obvious that God himself sets an example: he became obedient until death. Our Lord obeys his Father's commandment and gives his life to save us. It is up to us to imitate him without waiting for martyrdom or an extraordinary trial, but by giving all day long this obedience that we owe to his immediate superior. But also that superiors know how to ask and even demand by reasonable precepts this obedience that grows man since it makes him another Christ.
Saint Gregory has these beautiful words: "To humbly submit to the voice of a superior is to elevate ourselves inwardly above ourselves".
Father Benedict of Jorna†, Superior of the District of France of the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Pius X
Sources: Fideliter n° 245 of September-October 2018 - La Porte Latine of 15 November 2018
(Father de Jorna is the new District Superior of France)
Source: laportelatine.org/publications/presse/2018/fideliter2018/de_jorna_revue_fideliter_245.php
(translated with DeepL)
_____________________________________________
To find obedience again,
by Father Benoît de Jorna
In The Little Prince, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry had the King ask the hero this question: "If I ordered a general to fly around flowers like a butterfly, or to write a tragedy or to change into a seabird, if the general did not carry out the order, would it be his fault or mine? "One can guess that today the prince would answer: "If you ordered your fellow citizens to throw themselves into the sea, they would make a revolution. "For men know how to obey less and less.
Where does it come from that we obey less? If we go back to the root causes, it is because we live in an era of quantity and yet quality should guide our lives. But by nature our intelligence tends to simplify. It is easier to add up figures than to slowly develop a qualitative progression of our souls. And virtues are qualities. We know the four cardinal virtues and we know that they are mothers of many daughters. Who is the mother of obedience? That's justice. And Saint Thomas tells us that the latter is the "quality by which we give everyone their right with a firm and perpetual will". Let us admit that today neither firmness nor perpetuity characterize morals any more. Flickering and superficiality are evident in all areas.
The will, far too much subject to passions, has great difficulty in keeping the empire it should have over them. Like butterflies, we fly from one flower to another according to the pleasure it brings, always momentary. Moreover, there is no longer any perpetuity except in the movement. Old theory still valid today. It's the all-too-famous continuity in change!
So if the mother - justice - fails like her daughter - obedience - could the latter still continue to exist? And yet no man on earth can claim to reach his last end without this virtue. For our last end is Christian perfection and this requires all virtues. No one can claim holiness without obedience. But to be obedient, however, it would still be necessary for the superior to command a just and legitimate precept. We know, and perhaps too much so, that "the divine will is the supreme rule and that all reasonable wills are - or should be - regulated by it, more or less directly, according to the order established by God". This is the teaching of Saint Thomas, the angelic doctor who should be the common doctor of the Church.
It is true that we are living in the usual disorder. The precepts enjoined in the Church by the supreme authorities are increasingly unjust and illegitimate. Many of them are clearly contrary to the divine will; it is therefore our duty not to subscribe to them. As a result, obedience simply becomes impossible. And this poor girl, no longer having an object and therefore no opportunity to practice, becomes very small, disappears and disappears. For Saint Thomas takes care to specify: "The precise object of obedience is indeed the precept or expression of a will that is not ours, but that ours by obedience is hastened to accomplish. "We therefore get used to living without obedience and, very quickly, we will even lose the spirit of obedience, this willingness to conform to the will of the superior. That is where the problem lies. We finally claim to live like blessed people: in Heaven, no more precepts! This is not only a dream, but a mistake. All the perfection acquired here on earth cannot be lost in Heaven. The facial vision of God of which Saint Paul speaks does not destroy any virtue!
Obedience is respect for superiors; and to different superiors, different obedience. Thus, says St. Thomas, children are not obliged to obey their parents when it comes to, for example, vocation. "But for the conduct of his life and domestic work, the child must obey his father"! Obedience is a virtue on earth as it is in Heaven; it was already a virtue in heaven on earth, although the practice of obedience differs in these three situations.
Today we no longer obey, we negotiate. The common life becomes the agglomeration of men's search for their own interests. Either we exaggerate unity, as communism and Islam do, and obedience becomes servility; or we kill obedience under the pretext of freedom, and we divide in diversity as the Second Vatican Council intended; a look at the conciliar parishes shows it over and over again, as shown in the file in this issue of Fideliter.
Only the Church can maintain the right balance of diversity in unity. And it's not an oxymoron. It is obvious that God himself sets an example: he became obedient until death. Our Lord obeys his Father's commandment and gives his life to save us. It is up to us to imitate him without waiting for martyrdom or an extraordinary trial, but by giving all day long this obedience that we owe to his immediate superior. But also that superiors know how to ask and even demand by reasonable precepts this obedience that grows man since it makes him another Christ.
Saint Gregory has these beautiful words: "To humbly submit to the voice of a superior is to elevate ourselves inwardly above ourselves".
Father Benedict of Jorna†, Superior of the District of France of the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Pius X
Sources: Fideliter n° 245 of September-October 2018 - La Porte Latine of 15 November 2018
