Monday, September 28, 2015

ENCOURAGEMENT FROM ST. ATHANASIUS (296-373)

May God console you! ...What saddens you ...is the fact that others have occupied the churches by violence, while during this time you are on the outside. It is a fact that they have the premises─but you have the apostolic Faith. 

They can occupy our churches, but they are outside the true Faith. You remain outside the places of worship, but the Faith dwells within you. Let us consider: what is more important, the place or the Faith? The true Faith, obviously. Who has lost and who has won in this struggle-the one who keeps the premises or the one who keeps the Faith?

True, the premises are good when the apostolic Faith is preached there; they are holy if everything takes place there in a holy way ...You are the ones who are happy: you who remain within the church by your faith, who hold firmly to the foundations of the Faith which has come down to you from apostolic Tradition. And if an execrable jealousy has tried to shake it on a number of occasions, it has not succeeded. They are the ones who have broken away from it in the present crisis.

No one, ever, will prevail against your faith, beloved brothers. And we believe that God will give us our churches back some day.

Thus, the more violently they try to occupy the places of worship, the more they separate themselves from the Church. They claim that they represent the Church; but in reality, they are the ones who are expelling themselves from it and going astray.

Even if Catholics faithful to Tradition are reduced to a handful, they are the ones who are the true Church of Jesus Christ.

4 comments:

  1. The words of the early Church Fathers, although in a different milieau, held true then and holds true now. How comforting indeed that ncw takeovers, both subtly introduced and aggressively enforced, will not long prevail. Those who hold fast to the True Faith are encouraged to remain true to the fight and not to accept compromise. The pretender archbishop will be held accountable for foisting uninvited and unnecessary division in a vibrant Catholic Community. This pretender archbishop gloats now with all his empty gestures of conciliation with Guam Catholics and public mooching with real hardworking bishops in the public arena but people see his hypocrisy and desperate desire to be legitimately accepted. Sad for Guam to endure this person.

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  2. Do not lose faith! A day might come - God forbid, not soon - when we could possibly lose our physical churches, or see them desecrated so horribly as in the picture, but one thing they cannot take away from us - our faith in the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church. So stay the course, my friends. We may be in for some stormy weather, and as in physical disasters suffer come horrific losses, but trust that the Phoenix will rise again! Trust the words of the Founder of our Church when He promised Peter (the Rock) that the gates of hell will not prevail against It. NCW will eventually pass away, but My (Christ's) word will not pass away! Hold hands in prayer and support, and let's just keep moving on! - jrsa (9/29/2015)

    St. Athanasius (defender against Arianism), pray for us.

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  3. According to Susan you have been commenting on the other blog, TIm?


    DianaSeptember 29, 2015 at 11:59 PM

    Dear Tim Rohr at 9:31 pm and at 11:46 pm,

    I am not here to entertain your questions when I know that you have already made up your mind to destroy the NCW. Yes, I know you are Tim because of what you stated here (Capitalization is mine):

    "That you weren't putting down the Church outside of the NCW BECAUSE... WAIT FOR IT... it brought you the NCW!!"

    I have read enough of your blog to recognize your language and writing style. And no, J. Bautista did not say that the Catechists is the Word of God. This is what J. Bautista stated, which you deliberately left out (parenthesis is mine):

    " they (Catechists) bear witness to the power of the living Word of God;"

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    1. LOL. Nice to know how much time "she" spend on my blog. I spend a BIG ZERO on hers. People send me stuff all the time, like this, which I find amusing, but that's all. Too funny.

      And what's this about J. Bautista. The only post I did on him other than the one where I told him to call me (he hasn't) was here and I and said nothing about "catechists," only his calling the archbishop "Tony." http://www.junglewatch.info/2015/09/tony.html

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