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The great joys of being Catholic is that we're not just here alone."
While many may be more familiar with the life story of St. Aloysius Bl. John Rigby 9 yrs later died on June 21st.
Fr. Hewko tells the heroic stories of these 2 saints.
The first half of the sermon is of the life of St. Aloysius the second half is the story of Bl. John Rigby.
about Bl. John Rigby:
@11 min. His family had gone protestant with the new religion. He himself was Catholic and he never went with the new religion but out of weakness he would sometimes go to the church of the new religion with the new mass. This was the Anglicans, it wasn't even mass facing the people yet. Some of them faced the people, some didn't but most of the Eng. churches they didn't turn around immediately to face the people. We could equate this to like the indult mass or the motu propio mass where it's still in Latin. In many cases in England it was still in Latin, they just dropped the offertory and there were only a few changes and it was put in English. It was your real hybrid mass which is being pushed today. He realized it was wrong and it was a weakness. Blessed John Rigby made his confession to a priest in prison, in the Clink Prison and from that time led an irreproachable life. He also won back many lapsed Catholics by his good words and his example. Finally he was accused of being a Catholic because of course everyone was was spying on each other in England and they noticed that he didn't go often to the Anglican service anymore and he blamed it on being sick. He was accuse and brought before the commissioners to question him about his religion. He honestly said I am a Catholic and he refused to go the church of the new service under the Queen's nor to acknowledge the Queen's supremacy which was under Elizabeth I. They had to acknowledge her as head of the church. He refused to do this like many martyrs so they arrested him and imprisoned him, sending him to the Newgate Prison where many martyrs were sentenced.
An interesting account which he wrote of his trials and prison experiences was preserved by a friend. It is clear that some of the judges, notable Mr. Justice Gaudy were very favorably impressed by his bearing and his sincerity and really would have like to have released him. He was told in so many words that if he would go to church his case would be dropped.
Does that remind you of Rome telling Archbp. Lefebvre just say the new Mass once and all this trouble will be dropped? Just say the new mass once so we can say you're in, you're in with the rest of the gang in modernism. He refused. Archbishop Lefebvre refused absolutely when he saw the evils of the new mass. This is how they tricked St. Peter's groups and many traditional groups and now the SSPX, 'Just accept the new mass as legitimately promulgated, that's all. Bishop Fellay should've absolutely refused but he signed on to it on the Doctrinal Declaration. He should've held strong but he's not dead yet. Bp. Fellay can still reject all this and die a holy death and become a saint of our time if he would just reject these doctrinal errors and compromises.
So we have to follow this example of Blessed John Rigby. All he was told was just go to the Anglican service like you used to do before you repented and no problem you can go free. Here's what Blessed John Rigby answered, "If that be all the offense I have committed, as I know it is, and if there be no other way but going to church to help it I would not wish your lordship to think I had, as I hope, risen this many steps towards heaven and now willfully let my foot slip and and fall into the bottomless pit of hell. I hope in Jesus. He will strengthen me rather to suffer a thousand deaths if I had so many lives to lose. Let your law take its course.
He saw
the gravity of compromise on faith. That's the greatest sin. In our modern world we lose sight of this. We think the biggest sins are of drunkenness, lust or stealing. It's not. The greatest sins are ecumenism against the First Commandment, the Assisi meetings, any compromise with the new mass, with Vat II, the whole compromise position of St. Peters (FSSP) and now the new SSPX, so sadly. These are the biggest sins. And look at what he said, 'I'd rather die a thousand deaths than fall to the bottomless pit of hell by compromising on Faith.' Only after much discussion amongst themselves did the judges decide to finally condemn him. Mr. Justice Gaudy was deeply affected but Rigby himself heard it with the utmost composure. So on June 21 when he was told he was to die that very day he said joyfully, "
Deo gratias, it is the best tidings that ever were brought to me since I was born." The English way of saying, that's the best news I've ever heard in my life. Even as he was being dragged on a hurdle to St. Thomas' watering, the place of his execution, he was urged by the Earl of Rutland and Captain Whitlock to do as the Queen would have him and conform. In other words they were trying to tell him just sign this act of supremacy. Save your life.
On the scaffold he gave the executioner a gold piece, (some money, a tip) saying take this in token that I freely forgive you and all others that have been accessory to my death.His executioners carried out with great barbarity for he was cut down and disemboweled while still quite conscious. His last words were, "
God forgive you. Jesus receive my soul." He was 30 yrs old. St. Aloysius was 23. Both died young, both died June 21st nine years apart.
Let's pray to these great saints and this is one of the great joys of being Catholic is that we're not just here alone. We're not the mystical finger of Christ trying just to find our way to heaven. We have all our brothers and big sisters in heaven who really intercede for us and they really listen to our prayers. And they really are attentive to us. So let's turn to them these great saints. It is so great to have recourse to this help in heaven. Even on earth when we see these poor families that never had brothers or sisters and sadly most of it's because of the modern twistings of contraception. Many of these brothers and sisters when they're in tragedy they have no one to help them, they're all alone. Even the Holy Ghost says: Woe to the man who stands alone for when he falls he will have no one to pick him up. Our Lord of course is always a friend and the saints but materially speaking on this earth many people are alone. That's protestantism. With the saints, with the Catholic Church we belong to the mystical Body of Christ. It's called the communion of saints. And all these saints in heaven they're not there forgetting us. St. John Chrysostom actually says their like the stadium around a huge football field or a hockey arena and they're cheering us on from heaven. They're cheering us on, Keep the Faith, Keep the fight, get up and make an Act of Contrition, keep going, grow in the love of God, do good works, read, pray, study, stay close to the Mother of God, wear the scapular, pray the Rosary. They're cheering us on always and they want us in heaven, more than we do even.
So we must not forget these realities of the communion of saints.
Let's turn to St. Aloysius today and Bl. John Rigby, these great saints who died today asking them for ourselves a great purity, a great spirit of penance and a renunciation to this world and a strong faith so we don't compromise in the least as Bl. John Rigby understood.
O Mary conceived without sin. Pray for us who have recourse to thee.
O Mary conceived without sin. Pray for us who have recourse to thee.
O Mary conceived without sin. Pray for us who have recourse to thee.