mancipia jan/feb 2013

8/12/2019 Mancipia Jan/Feb 2013

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THEREPORTOFTHECRUSADEOFSAINTBENEDICTCENTER

MANCIPIAJanuary/February 2012

In fulllment of a promise to Saints Josephand Andr, the brothers made a pilgrimage

to Montreal's Oratory of Saint Joseph inOctober. Here Brother Andr

pays homage to ... Brother Andr


2/162 MANCIPIA The Report of the Crusade of Saint Benedict Center January/February 2013

he Gospel of Our Lord

Jesus Christ is the GoodNews that our King

and High Priest ordered to bepreached to every creature.

Not exclusively for one tribe,nation, or continent, it wasintended to go to all thenations. As holy Simeon will

tell us on Candlemas Day, Jesus is A light to the revelation ofthe Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel (Luke 2:32).

Holy Simeons words would have scandalized any Phariseesor Zealots within earshot, for these men hated the Gentilesand wanted to retain their monopoly on the true religion. ButSimeon only reiterated what the Old estament had statedabout the Gentiles coming into the true Church, as we arereminded by the Churchs liturgy during Epiphanytide.

While our Creed is the Good News, Catholicism is not areligion of optimismor a religion ofpessimism . It is a religionof conformity to reality. In fact it is the only religionthatconforms our minds to reality. And this reality includes notonly good, but also bad things.

Tere are various ways of denying the Gospel. One waywould deny that it is eithertrue or good which sadlydescribes what most ofhumanity think of it, if theythink of it at all. Another is todilute its goodness by denying

the Bad News that forms thenecessary background to theGospel. If all the news of ourrace is good, then the Gospeldoes not stand out. Not only

would it not stand out, itwould not be necessary.

But the Gospel must standout as uniquely true, good,and beautiful and necessary.

Among the contents ofthis Bad News that must

be accepted to appreciate theGood News are the following:the Fall, Original Sin, theevil tendencies in all of us,our actual sins, the horriblereligious and moral state of thepagans during the time beforeChrist, the unimpressivehistory of Gods own people inthe Old estament, and the fewness of the saved.

I will here consider only one article of this Bad News: the

sad spiritual state of the pagans. Saint Paul tells his EphesianGentile converts, Tat you were at that time without Christ,being aliens from the conversation of Israel and strangers tothe testament, having no hope of the promise and withoutGod in this world (Eph. 2:12).

Bleak indeed.Christ is truly the Light of the Gentiles, the corollary

to this being that the pagans were the people that sat indarkness (Matt. 4:16). Teir darkness was caused by the factthat they had abandoned the true religion. Every member ofour race being the offspring of Adam, and also of Noe, weshould all be in possession of the supernatural revelation that

was given to our fathers. Te Gentiles were in possession ofsome of it, or else the Magi (likely from Iraq) would not haveunderstood the significance of the star that was mentioned

way back in the book of Numbers (24:17). So many thingsconfirm that the nations long possessed some more-or-less

corrupted portion of that primeval revelation: the cult ofsacrifice common to so many world religions, the idea of afall, the expectation of a deliverer, the monotheism whichanthropologists know antedates polytheism, the historyof a cataclysmic flood, and the story of creation itself. Butthese truths came to be mixed with so much error, so much

immorality, so much genuinediabolism, that the pristineprimordial revelation wasstripped of its holiness.

As an example, Saint Johnde Brebeuf thought that

he could detect the faintremnants of our commonrevelation even in the decrepitreligion of the American tribes

whom he evangelized.urning from the lower

culture of the American Indianto a higher and undeniablygreat civilization, we canconsider the Greeks, who builtso much of the intellectualand artistic culture of Western

Man, so much of what theevangelists of Europe wouldbuild on. Even these bestof pagans had a miserablereligiosity. Zeus, the headof the Pantheon, was aphilanderer who endangeredthe lives of his mortal loversby putting them in harms

way; for Hera, his jealous wife, might kill them or torturethem with a stinging gadfly as she did to poor Io, whom Zeus

Br. Andre Mari, M.I.C.M.,Prior

TOFRIENDSOFTHECRUSADE:THEBADNEWS

Holy Simeon


3/163MANCIPIA The Report of the Crusade of Saint Benedict Center January/February 2013

turned into a cow in an unsuccessful attempt to protect herfrom Heras revenge. Apollo, the very god of wisdom himself,raped the poor mortal, Creusa (as Zeus had Leta), and lefther bereft of help when she conceived his son, Ion. Te godsthemselves went to war, taking sides against each other whenGreece and roy fought for ten years. And the demigod,Hercules, was little more than a dumb jock, roughly on apar with the inhabitants of our modern athletic Pantheon.(Like the linebacker Jovan Belcher, who recently killed

himself after murdering his girlfriend, Hercules would havecommitted suicide after killing his wife and children during afit of insanity, had not his friend and much wiser fellow jock,Teseus, prevented him.)

Euripedes (480-406 BC), one of the three great tragediansof classical Athens, was bold enough to announce these wordsto his audience: Look at your Apollo, the sun-bright Lord

of the Lyre, the pure God of ruth. Tis is what he did. Hebrutally forced a helpless young girl and then abandoned her.

Tis skepticism about the received religion of Athens wasechoed by Euripedes younger contemporary, Socrates. InPlatos dialogue, Phaedrus, the young man, Phaedrus, asksSocrates about the story of Boreas (the god of the north wind)abducting Orithyia from the banks of the Ilissus river, wherethe two philosophers were walking as they conversed.

I beseech you to tell me, Socrates, do you believe this tale?Phaedrus asked.

Te wise are doubtful, and I should not be singular if, likethem, I, too, doubted, answered Socrates.

Socrates believed in one God, like Plato and Aristotle afterhim. Tis, by the way, is why the state killed him for beingan atheist. He did not reject God; he rejected the godsofOlympus.

Te religious condition of even the best of the Gentileswas such that the true wisdom, which the philosopherssought, would have to reject the official religion of the state.

And they that pursued wisdom were few.But what of the capacity of mans natural reason?Vatican I taught us about mans unaided reason: Our holy

mother, the Church, holds and teaches that God, the firstprinciple and last end of all things, can be known withcertainty from the created world by the natural light ofhuman reason.

But hear what Pope Pius XII taught in Humani Generis,echoing the Churchs traditional wisdom on this point,so evocative of the Bad News we have considered here:

Tough human reason is, strictly speaking, truly capable byits own natural power and light of attaining to a true andcertain knowledge of the one personal God, who watches overand controls the world by his providence, and of the natural

law written in our hearts by the Creator; yet there are manyobstacles which prevent reason from the effective and fruitfuluse of this inborn faculty. For the truths that concern therelations between God and man wholly transcend the visibleorder of things, and, if they are translated into human actionand influence it, they call for self-surrender and abnegation.Te human mind, in its turn, is hampered in the attainingof such truths, not only by the impact of the senses and theimagination, but also by disordered appetites which are the

consequences of original sin. So it happens that men in suchmatters easily persuade themselves that what they would notlike to be true is false or at least doubtful.

Terefore, the Holy Father continues, man stands in needof supernatural revelation, not only in order to know aboutsuch doctrines as the rinity and the Incarnation, but alsoto know about those religious and moral truths which ofthemselves are not beyond the grasp of human reason, so thateven in the present condition of the human race, they can beknown by all men with ease, with firm certainty and with noadmixture of error.

How necessary is the Good News that has been entrusted to

the Catholic Church! What a grace, what a mercy to mankind!News, as Father Feeney reminded us, is meant to be told. Let ustell it loudly and clearly by our words and by our deeds.

How necessary is the Good Newsthat has been entrusted to the

Catholic Church!

Socrates and Plato



Dear Reader, we arenow thinking of wisemen, kings, gifts, and

adoration in this season ofEpiphany. What is a word that

could encompass all of thesemysteries? For me, the wordthat comes to mindis appreciation.

I would like to share with you a light I receivedrecently about gratitude and appreciation: they are notsynonymous. hink about it. If they were, then you couldonly legitimately appreciate someone when they have donesomething that benefits you personally in some

way. And, you could only appreciate persons, sinceinanimate objects and irrational animals are not capable ofreceiving gratitude.

But, the word gratitude is frequently used inter-changeably with the word appreciation in a correct way.his consideration will give you a little bit of light onappreciation itself which is oursubject. he relationship betweenthe two is that gratitude is a formof appreciation.

So, what is appreciation, anyway?Appreciation is a form of knowledge.Te more someone knows aboutsomeone or something, the moreone appreciates it. Contrariwise,

the less one knows, the less oneappreciates things and persons.Hence, a lack of appreciationbetrays ignorance. As you know, alittle child will treat a diamondnecklace with the same roughplay as he will a string of woodenbeads. An adult will enslave anotherhuman being and treat him withthe same dignity as a donkey.Tese are obviously forms of lackof appreciation resulting from

ignorance.A very common way thatadults demonstrate a lack ofappreciation is in the way humanbeings generally treat other humanbeings. Each human being is madein the image and likeness of Godand destined at least in potency tobecome a child of God and an heir to the kingdom of Heaven.Each human being is made for divine union and kingly royalty.Each human being will exist forever. Do we treat each person

with the dignity befitting such an identity? Or, do we ratherdespise them and use them in so many ways to try to build upour own pathetic lack of esteem by knocking them down? Yes,our own pathetic lack of self-appreciation.

Brother Francis personified appreciation. Because of his

great scientific and philosophical knowledge of creation, heextolled trees, cows, stars, and water. Even a grain of sandbecame an object worthy of a pedestal when he showered upon

it his appreciation. But when another human being became theobject of his consideration, his delight and reverent attentionfor even the tiniest baby betrayed his deep knowledge. Tose

of us who knew Brother have no hesitation about saying thathe appreciated us. His appreciation was so deep that, thoughhe never had to say it, we knew that he loved us more than

anyone else on earth ever did,except, perhaps, our ownloving parents.

Brother Francis often expressedthat we are royalty by virtue of ourbaptism. As such, we should alwaysbehave like princes and princesses.More, he said that before a mancan be taught to serve others well,

he must first be treated like royaltyand value himself as royalty. Tose

who are in positions of authoritymust serve those under their care,not treat them as inferior creatures.o do this well, authority figuresmust be educated to appreciation ofthemselves and others. Good leadersinspire others to rise by reverentlyinstructing them and by treatingthem as the royalty they are (orpotentially are) by virtue of baptism

Te three kings were the livingideals of kingly appreciation.Beginning with their appreciationof material creation, they were ableto recognize the new Star whichappeared in the heavens. Becausethey appreciated the prophecies,they were willing to leave their

kingdoms to set out in search of what that Star was leadingto. And what was the Star leading them to? A poor baby withHis poor parents, who had just been born in a barn. Is that an

CONVENTCORNERNOBLESSEOBLIGE

Sr. Marie Thrse, M.I.C.M.,Prioress

We should always behave like princesand princesses

Adoration of the Magi



object worthy of the treasure hunt of kings? Tey thought so.But the three kings had added humility to their knowledge

and so their appreciation pierced the appearances of materialthings and discovered there what was divine. Where is Hethat is born king? We are come to adore Him. Every directivethat led to that Child was cause for them to rejoice with ex-ceeding great joy no matter the material conditionssurrounding Him.

Ah! Gratitude. Te kings had that form of appreciation

as well! After their long journey of nine months, they finallyfound Him. Tey knew who He was, and bowing down,adored Him. Tey offered gifts; so much nothingness to

Him who Is. Tey gave their all: their prayer (incense), theirsacrifice (myrrh), and their love (gold).

Returning to their kingdoms, they strove to maketheir subjects appreciate Him as well, serving them with

wisdom and charity. Ten, finally, they proved the depth oftheir appreciation by joyfully giving their lives for Him inmartrydom. Such is the life-sketch of a royal person worthy ofthe title king.

And so, Dear Reader, child of God, my prayer for you (and

me) is that you become a prince or a princess worthy of thename. Never deny that you are of royal descent. Never givecause for others to question it. Noblesse oblige.

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(Jeremias 31:22)

(Taken from the Crusader,issue

number fve, June 1986)

I

t has been our privilegeand our delight toencourage you to prepare

yourselves to become vassalsof our Immaculate Mother byconsecrating your heart, soul, and

body as an active member in her spiritual militia.In anticipation of this act of holy surrender a surrender

that mustbring the victim to final victory we stronglysuggested that you read patiently Saint Alphonsus Marianmasterpiece, Te Glories of Mary.

Tis book is quite lengthy. Terefore, it requires somediscipline to complete the task of reading it cover to cover.However, if we were not totally convinced that, in so doing,your love for Mary and your trust in her would multiply onehundredfold, we would not have given you such a tough (butdelightful) assignment.

Allow us to give you another assignment an easierone. It involves the taking of the second step in joining OurLadys militia. Another book is needed to prepare you for yourconsecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary as her veryslaves of love. Tis book is Saint Louis Marie de Montforts rueDevotion to Mary.

Tis work, written by the saint who really ushered in thisAge of Mary one might call him the John the Baptist of theMarian age has an even more profound and direct purposethan Saint Alphonsus longer masterpiece. Tis book, which

the forces of hell were able to hide for two hundred years (SaintLouis had prophesied that this would happen), was written inorder to form, in the latter days, apostles of Mary who wouldbe consecrated as her very slaves. Te saint demonstrates thata slave of Jesus Christ must also necessarily be consciously orunconsciously a slave of His holy Mother.

And we must remember, too, that the enslavement ofour wills to Jesus and Mary is the holiest and most elevatingsubmission possible. Even with our natural parents ourobedience is conditional; for at times it may be necessary todisobey human superiors in order to obey God. Tis is whyit is wrong for children to be slaves of their parents. Tey are

subject to their parents by the natural law and, of course, bythe Fourth Commandment, but this subjection does not applywhen a command is given contrary to the will of God. But,with Mary, the obedience cannot be conditional, for her willis totally divinized. Terefore, not only are we her children, weare also her slaves, slaves of love, as Saint Louis Marie explainsin his writings. Saint Louis Marie beautifully expresses this inhis prayer for Marian apostles when he quotes holy Anna, themother of Samuel the prophet, who cried out prophetically, as afigure of Mary, Give me children, or I shall die!

Our own Brother Hugh, a devoted Slave of Our Lord andOur Lady, went to meet them on July 11, 1979. Before he left,he often shared with us an insight pertaining to this sublimemystery, which he found hidden in the Gospel of Saint Luke.

In the evangelists account of the Saviors childhood (whichinformation was given to him by Our Lady), Saint Luke relatessimply the story of Our Lords sojourn at the age of twelve forthree days in the temple. Unless the Divine Child was deceivingus in His words, which is inconceivable, He was prepared atthat time actually to commence His public life. Did you notknow, He said to His parents, that I must be about My Fathersbusiness?

o understand this mystery we must not lose sight of thefullness of the human nature that Our Savior possessed. Itwas by means of the Flesh given Him by Mary that He was toprocure our redemption as the Son of Man. So, we see Him as atrue Child anxious to begin His work. And, at the same time, wemust also remember that the Person acting as a man was God.Terefore, He knew, while lost in the temple, exactly what wasabout to happen with His finding and what tremendous lessonHe had in store for our consideration.

Mary and Joseph discover the Holy Child instructing thescribes. His Mother and foster father express sorrow at Hispremature separation, and we are told by Saint Luke that theChild Jesus returned with His parents to Nazareth and wassubject to them. Eighteen years of this wonderful subjection

would follow.Ten, at the wedding feast of Cana, we see that it was His

Mother who sent Him on His sacrificial mission, knowing fullwell what that would imply. Tere is here an awesome mystery!Sent by His Father in Eternity, He wished also to be sent by HisMother in time. He did not perform that first miracle whichlaunched His public life until Mary, we might say, permittedHim to do so. Do you see the humility of our Emmanuel? TeEternal God, born among us, rendered more glory to His Fatherby those eighteen years of sweet obedience to His ImmaculateMother and Saint Joseph, than He would have rendered Himhad He spent that time preaching to and converting the entire

world. Indeed Gods ways are not our ways!Now if He, the Almighty God, was subject to Mary, are we

to tread a different path? Did He not tell us to follow Him? In allthings? Tis is why there can be no true slavery to Jesus Christwithout a holy slavery to Mary. Let her then prepare us to do theworks of God if we are to do them humbly and well.

Much more could be said on this subject, but space will notpermit it now. However, you will read explanations of many,many more wonderful truths, hidden in the Scriptures andrevealed by Saint Louis Marie in his rue Devotion.

A WOMANSHALLCOMPASSA MANFOUNDERS COLUMN

Brother Francis, M.I.C.M.

We, her children, are also her slaves.



Our Saint AugustineInstitute of CatholicStudies (SAI) awarded

diplomas to two more adultstudents at the SBC Annual

Conference in October. BrotherJoseph Mary, M.I.C.M., ofour First Order and SisterMary Jerome, M.I.C.M., ert.,(Elijhata Jahn) of our Tird Order

completed their studies and were awarded diplomas of GeneralCatholic Education.

In April of 2007, Brother Joseph Mary began his studies,before entering the order in November 2007 that year. Brother

wrote, I took my time with the book reports, though not somuch with the memory items as I was trying to finish in timefor the conference. I did the majority of the memory items

start to finish in four months. My favorite books includeSincerely Seelosby Blessed Francis Xavier Seelos and Te Life ofSaint Philip Neriby Antonio Gallonio. Writing a summary andevaluation about the books was a good exercise in reviewing

what I got out of them and an opportunity to explain the booksto others. Please note: we do not grade the book reports. Teyare very simple and require only two pages including narrativeand quotes.

Sister Mary Jerome, M.I.C.M., ert. told me, I am seventy-six years old, retired from a management position at sixty-eight. I became a tertiary in 2008. It took about two years tocomplete my SAI studies. Reading some of the Catholic classics,

she found an appreciation for Dante, Saint Bede, and SaintAugustines wonderful City of God. Reading Saint Augustinewas like finding a lost friend! I wouldencourage every Catholic to read therequired books that cover the start ofSaint Benedict Center. It was shockingto learn of the sacrifices endured in thedefense of the dogma extra Ecclesiamnulla salusand for our beloved CatholicChurch. I feel I am blessed in being partof Saint Benedict Center.

So now you see, from the wordsof our latest graduates, that it is not adifficult labor, but a labor of love tostudy the Faith according to BrotherFrancis prescription: SAI. Brother JosephMary was in a circle of studies for onlya small part of his program, while SisterMary Jerome, ert. was a circle of onethroughout her studies. In fact, manyof our latest students are studying alone. You do not have tobe a religious or a tertiary to follow the SAI program, whichis essentially a home study program. Tere is no tuition, no

registration fee, or the like. Just read the books (some are online)and memorize the items. Altogether, the Syllabus has nineprayers, twelve memory items, and twenty-four books to readand report on. Tat is all there is to it.

If you went searching the world for something like SAI,

could you find a course of study today where the teachers werethe popes, the councils of the Church, the saints, the Fathersand Doctors of the Church, and, most especially, God Himselfin Holy Scripture and Catholic radition? Tis is unchangeablebasic instruction that helps us stay fixed on that narrow pathto heaven, no matter what distractions and barriers the worldplaces in our path.

Brother Francis gave us an important reason we shouldfollow the SAI program. He had a charism that few otherspossess. As the commercial used to say: when he spoke,everybody listened. In fact, you did not want anything to distractyou when he was giving a talk. People would pull out notebooks

and pay careful attention to his words. He would immediatelycaptivate his audience and always left you wanting more. Terewas wisdom in his words.

Fortuitously, I happened upon a recording of one of hisopening remarks before an annual conference. He had a greatlove for the same thing we should have a great love for: our Holy

Church. He gave us our assignment. He said this shouldbe the part of every Catholic heart, that the Catholic Churchis the only thing, and I mean the onlything, that has been given to this worldby God Almighty. Its the only thing. Weknow it has its human side. God knows

we contribute to that by our sins. We allrecognize that. We are all Catholic and

we say the Hail Mary and we say prayfor us sinners. I know many people whoare our fellow countrymen that cannotsay the Hail Mary and that is one of thereasons they cant say it. Tey dont thinkthey are sinners ... Tis is the only thingof this earth that was given to the worldby God Himself, God, Our Lord. Andthe price He paid for it on the Cross issomething beyond description. And He isunique. Tere is nobody to be mentioned

with Him. If He had not come and diedfor our sins, the Gate of Heaven would never be opened. Andnobody would go to Heaven. Nobody. We have no right to it.

PREFECTCOLUMNCONGRATUATIONSTOTHEGRADUATES!

Bother John Marie Vianney,

M.I.C.M., Tert., Prefect

"Writing a summary and evaluationabout the books was a good exercise"

Sister Mary Jerome, M.I.C.M., Tert.

continued on page 13



CUPOLA& BELLCHAPELUPDATE

Sr. Maria Philomena, M.I.C.M.

During the month ofDecember, the ChapelProject made lots of

progress. Te rough framing,plumbing, heating, and electric

are all done; the new septicsystem is complete and soon to goon-line; the windows are here(and will hopefully be installed by

the time you read this!); and an overwhelming amount of designdetail is getting worked out. All this is tremendous progress, buthard to show in pictures. Te most visually exciting developmentis the memorialization and installation of the new bell.

We are working on putting together a completememorialization packet (the next step in fund-raising), but thebell was an immediate concern since the cupola had to be builtaround it. Tanks to the generosity of two of our local Tird

Order tertiaries, the bell was ordered before Tanksgiving fromBrosamers Bells (a bell-salvage company in Michigan). A 23"

diameter bronze bell, cast in roy, NY, in 1869 (the opening yearof Vatican I), the Villarrubia-Delery Memorial Bell has a beautifumellow tone. Arriving on the feast of Saint Barbara (December4), it was blessed (baptized) on the feast of the ImmaculateConception in honor of King Saint Louis IX. Te cupola was

built in the first part of the month, roofed on December 19, andraised to the top of the chapel building (right above the futurealtar) on the feast of Saint Tomas. Te louvers and the bellrope are still to be installed, but what a wonderful additon to thechapel in time for Christmas!

Te lovely filigree cast-iron crosses that another benefactorfound for us at auction have turned out to be priceless. Weknew that they were lovely and unusual, but the gentleman whosandblasted them (the owner of a foundry) sent word that hehad never seen such casting, guessing that it would cost over$10,000 to cast one today! One of the crosses is on the cupola;the other will go above the main entrance. It is so exciting to see

treasures given to us according to Divine Providence and personalgenerosity. Tank you all for being a part of this project!


9/16



Virtue is nothing without thetrial of temptation, for there isno conflict without an enemy, novictory without strife Pope

Saint Leo the Great.

Attila, the great Khan ofthe Huns, trained hismobile soldiers to sleep

on their horses. It has been alleged by some historians thatthis tactical feat led some of his superstitious victims tothink that the Huns were centaurs.

hat, I think, is highly imaginative; the fact is, however,that, even dismounted, he and his men must have lookedhideously freakish. In order to appear as ferocious as they

were, they scraped the first layer of skin off their faces,preferring this grotesque appearance to plucky beards.

At the request of the emperor, Valentinian III , thecourageous Bishop of Rome made his way north, with twolocal magistrates for aides, to confront the rampaging Attilanear the city of Mantua on the bank of the River Po. PopeLeo walked calmly into the camp of the king of the Huns.he year was 452, the twelfth of his glorious reign as Vicarof Christ. Attila came out of his tent to meet the leaderof Christians. But he saw more than Leo. What he did seecaused him to agree immediately to the two demands thatthe Roman Pontiff delivered in the name of the King ofkings: 1) to stay away from Rome and 2) leave Italy. Abovethe head of the Pope, the Mongol Khan saw the figure

of a stern-looking man with a sword raised so to strikehim. Saint Prosper of Aquitaine, Pope Leos secretary andbiographer, surmised that the sword - wielding man wasSaint Peter.

Historical record first introduces Leo as an archdeaconin the service of Pope Saint Celestine I (422-432), the samepontiff who sent Saint Patrick to Ireland. Archdeacon Leomust have been well-known outside of Rome as well, for

we find that one of the ear ly Church fathers, Cassianusof Gaul, wrote a treatise against the heretic Nestorius atLeos request. hat work, On the Incarnation of Our Lord,was dedicated to Leo the deacon. he able cleric was also

employed on diplomatic missions. It was while Leo was onone such mission that he was informed of the death of PopeSixtus III and his own election to the papacy. he year was440. Kneeling in church he prayed: Lord, I have heardyour voice calling me, and I was afraid; I considered thework that was commanded of me, and I trembled, for whatproportion is there between the burden assigned to me andmy weakness, this elevation and my nothingness?

After returning to Rome, he was ordained a priest,consecrated a bishop, and formally invested with theauthority of the keys of Saint Peter. Pope Leo the Great

took the helm of Peters bark at a time when Christendom,having emerged from the dark cruelty of the paganpersecutions with Constantines Edict Of Milan (313), wasunder siege on nearly every frontier. Foremost among the

restless invaders were the barbarians (i.e., bearded ones)to the north. hese were Germanic (Gothic) tribes, somepagan, some Arian heretics, whose armies were movingsouth, east, and west.

hen, to add more pandemonium, there were the Huns,already introduced. Spreading terror from the East, thismobile confederation of Mongolian tribes had crossed theUral mountains and the Danube river into what was tobecome Europe. For a time, after conquering Pannoniaancient Hungary), Attila, their Khan, could not be stopped.His scar-faced cavalry scoured the countrysides, pillaging,raping, slaying the resistant, and leaving behind nothing but

carnage and ashes.Finally, there were the barbarian Vandals, another

Germanic Arian tribe, who had moved south into Spain,southern Italy, and North Africa. heir name has gonedown in infamy as synonymous with malicious destructionof property. Only thirty-s ix more years remained fromthe time of Leos elevation to the papacy before the RomanEmpire in the West would be his tory.

Add to these onslaughts the profusion of numerousChristological heresies, as well as a re-emergence in Romeof gnostic Manichaeanism, a dualistic sort of spiritism

originally bred in Zoroastrian Persia. Manes, its founder,rejected the goodness of God in the Old estament andof His whole material creation. It boasted of a secretillumination of knowledge for those whom higher celestialpowers liberated from the oppression of their bodies. Leo

was dauntless in uncovering their adherents. Many of Manesdevotees converted from their errors because of the soundpreaching of the pope and of the Roman clergy. Leo himself

received many of these into the Church, taking time topersonally instruct them.urning his attention to Spain, the Pope worked in

tandem with Bishop uribius of Astorga to eradicate thenoxious doctrines of Priscillianism from among some ofthe bishops and priests of that country. his was a bizarreform of Manichaeanism.

Unworthy candidates for the priesthood were also aproblem in Pope Leos time. Our saint himself, for a time,

was a bit lax in scrutinizing all of those upon whom he laidhands. It was related by Amos, one of the early patriarchs of

KELLYFORUMPOPESAINTLEOTHEGREAT: THELIONINTHECHAIR

Mr. Brian Kelly

...the sword - wielding man wasSaint Peter.



Jerusalem, that during a forty-day retreat, while Pope Leowas praying before the tomb of Saint Peter, he heard thevoice of the Apostle issuing him a sobering remonstrance forthis negligence. his revelation would explain why this greatpope issued so many disciplinary canons dealing with theproper education and formation of the clergy.

Although the heresy of Nestorianism had beencondemned at the general Council of Ephesus in 431,

Leo found it necessary to write his own refutation ofthat Christological aberration. Nestorius, as Bishop ofConstantinople, had denied the title of heotokos(God-bearer) to the Blessed Virgin Mary. Mary was the mother ofthe Son of Man, the heresiarch contended, but not the Sonof God. o justify his error, Nestorius maintained that there

were two persons in Christ, a divine and a human, eachwith their own proper nature. In order to understand thecomplete opposite heresy of Abbot Eutyches whichour Pope, Saint Leo, had to directly confront a generationlater one must at least know what the Nestorian heresyconsisted of.

he abbot, Eutyches, an unlearned archimandrite, hadearned a good reputation for uniting the Asian monasteriesagainst Nestorius. he problem was, however, that inrefuting one heresy he had expounded another. hisheresiarch insisted that there was only a divine nature inChrist. According to him, there was no human soul in

Jesus, only His body was a created substance. Nestorius haddenied that Our Lady was the Mother of God; Eutyches,by implication, denied that she was even a mother. hiserror might have been easily put to rest had Eutyches beenmore humble. However, having gained the support ofDioscorus, the ambitious Patriarch of Alexandria, prestigeenhanced his platform.

his is enough history for the reader to know in orderto appreciate the magnificent Christological contributionthat our great pope bequeathed to the universal Church in

its deeper understanding of the reality of the great mysteryof the Incarnation. hat contribution is the Letter, theome, that Pope Leo wrote to Saint Flavian, Bishop ofConstantinople, in 449. he pope wrote to the bishop inorder to support him in his excommunication of Eutyches.he following two paragraphs taken from the heart of thattreatise will give the reader a taste of its brilliance:

Tis birth in time in no way detracted from, in no way

added to, that divine and everlasting birth; but expendeditself wholly in the work of restoring man, who had beendeceived; so that it might both overcome death, and by itspower destroy the devil who had the power of death. For

we could not have overcome the author of sin and of death,unless he, who could neither be contaminated by sin, nordetained by death, had taken upon himself our nature, andmade it his own.

Accordingly, the Son of God, descending from his seatin heaven, and not departing from the glory of the Father,enters this lower world, born after a new order, by a newmode of birth. After a new order; because he who in his ownsphere is invisible, became visible in ours; He who could notbe enclosed in space, willed to be enclosed; continuing tobe before times, he began to exist in time; the Lord of theuniverse allowed his infinite majesty to be overshadowed, andtook upon him the form of a servant; the impassible God didnot disdain to be passible Man and the immortal One to besubjected to the laws of death.wo years later, in 451, the Council of Chalcedon, the

fourth such general synod, was called to deal with EutychesMonophysite (one nature) heresy. Six hundred and thirty-six bishops attended. he motivating force that launchedthe cause for the convocation was the Catholic zeal ofthe eastern Roman Empress, Saint Pulcheria. When the

complete ome of Leo was read before the august as sembly,all of the fathers stood up and cried out: Apostles! Peter hasspoken by Leo!

Saint Leo the Great meets Attila the Hun

continued on page 13



My wife Teresa and Ihave been traditionalCatholics since the

mid-1990s after having had

unfavorable experiences with thenew liturgy at our local parish.From her middle school days(1955) Teresa harbored a fondmemory of a certain sister whospent an unusual amount of

time explaining to the class the importance of the Sacrifice ofthe Mass, which, back then, of course, was the Latin Mass. Itturns out the good sister was prophetic, as she seemed to knowthat huge liturgical changes were coming. As a result of herexperiences, Teresa began to realize that we needed to returnto the Mass of our childhood. I fully agreed. When she asked

a priest friends advice, he told her that there was a Latin Massat the Benedictine convent in Bedford, New Hampshire. Wewere delighted, as this convent was just around the corner fromour home. While attending this Mass, Teresa grew very fondof the nuns and helped them with their various physical needsas they were all over eighty years old. Tis continued for a yearor so until the convent was disbanded by higher superiors inthat order. Our friend Bob Boehm, who also attended someof the Masses at the convent, told us the good news that there

was another ridentine Mass in Lawrence, Massachusetts, thatwas offered by Father John Keane. We attended this Mass untilFather died. We attended other independent Masses as theywere made available and then, thanks again to Bob Boehm, weended up soon enough at Saint Benedict Center in Richmond,New Hampshire. Tus began our affiliation with SBC and,about the same time, with Father Gruners Fatima apostolate.

We also joined Bob Carbones study circle.As we progressed under the direction of Our Lady, we were

witnesses to two and possibly three miraculous events. Let meexplain:

In early November 2005, ten days before Tanksgiving, weattended a party at Teresas brothers home. Lenny, her brother,told us then that his wife, Mary Margaret, had been diagnosedat Roswell Cancer Center, in Buffalo, with terminal cancer inher back. Te prognosis was bad as the cancer had metastasized

and so the doctors referred her to Sloan-Kittery in NYC to seeif she qualified for a new, possibly more effective, treatment.

As we were all devastated at this news, Teresa suddenly saidLets bring her to Lourdes. Being dedicated to Our Lady ofFatima, we decided to go there first and then drive to Lourdes. Iimmediately bought tickets and proceeded to the bank to pickup some euros. It was there that I experienced something veryunusual.

A middle-aged male bank teller, to make conversation, askedwhere I was going in Europe. I told him Lourdes and brieflyexplained about Mary Margaret. At this point the man literally

beamed with enthusiasm. He then said to me: I had terminalcancer one year ago and was given only six months to live. Myfamily insisted I take the treatments and I said, No, I will dienaturally. His niece, however, had some Lourdes holy water

and she asked him to drink it and he did so. Ten, he toldme that shortly afterwards, he went for tests and his doctorsinformed him that the cancer was completely gone. Chills wererunning down my spine. Looking at me with compassion, hesaid: Believe it, as I have never felt better.

Te next day, November 13, we flew to Lisbon, drove tothe Cova at Fatima, prayed the Rosary to Our Lady and drankspring water from a spout which Mary (a helper of FatherGruner) had told us to drink from and not the one most touristsare led to. We then proceeded to Avila, Spain, to visit the shrineof Saint eresa. We prayed a Rosary there, and proceeded north

to the Pillar of Zaragosa to see the Virgin of the Pillar. Tisis where, in the year 40, Our Lady bi-located, appearing on apillar with angels surrounding her, in order to encourage Saint

James the Greater in his missionary efforts. We venerated thepillar and spent the day at this massive shrine. We left earlymorning for our journey through the Pyrenees mountains toLourdes some eight hours north. As I was driving a six-speedvan, shifting up and down on the winding roads was giving ourpatient excruciating pain. We finally reached the shrine at 11:30p.m. Fortunately it was open. We went immediately to the Cova

where Our Lady appeared in 1858 and knelt down on the samespot as Saint Bernadette had and, through the cold drizzle ofrain, we prayed the Rosary in Latin.

Te next morning we attended Mass and got in line for thebaths. Te lines were short as it was quite cold in November.

While waiting another unusual experience took place. A boywith very advanced ourette Syndrome could not stop talkingand hollering. After coming out of the bath he was silent,relaxed, and seemed quite normal. Now it was our turn to gointo the baths and when asked by the attendants to mentally

pray to Our Lady for our request, we were all in unison forMargaret Marys cure. We came out of the ice cold bath waterdry (no towel), prayed another Rosary, and went on our way.

We returned home two days before Tanksgiving and keptMargaret Mary in our daily Rosary.

In early March of 2006, Lenny called and informed us thathis wife had been through all of the testing for her entranceto Sloan-Kittery and all PE scans showed the cancer haddisappeared. No further care necessary.

Our Lady of Miracles, pray for us.

GUESTCOLUMNATOURLADYSDIRECTION!

We went immediately to the Covawhere Our Lady appeared

Mr. Joseph Dizillo



Hundreds of letters and sermons issued from the penand tongue of this prolific Roman Pontiff. Considerthese profound reflections that he wrote concerning theEucharistic Christ: For what is the fruit of our partakingof the body and blood of Christ, but that we may passinto that which we receive; and that in whom we are dead,and buried, and raised anew (in the newness of our spiritand life) we may bear him both in spirit and in our fleshthrough all things.

And, on the primacy of the pope, the fol lowing wordsare perhaps more relevant than ever:

In the universal Church, it is Peter that still says everyday, hou art the Christ, the Son of the living God, andevery tongue which confesses that Jesus is Lord is taughtthat confession by the teaching of Peter. his is the Faiththat overcomes the devil and looses the hands of hisprisoners. his is the Faith that makes men free of the

world and brings them to heaven, and the gates of hel l areimpotent to prevail against it.

No matter where problems arose, if they involvedthe spiritual domain and the peace of Christendom,

Leo exerted his Petrine authority. He was not alwayssuccessful, but he was always a force to be reckoned

wit h.Speaking of which, we left off at the start with Pope Leo

putting the brakes on Attila the Huns rampaging advanceupon Rome. After taking Pannonia, Attila devastated the

Adriat ic seaport city of Aqui leia, the See of Saint Mark,in Northern Italy. hose few survivors, who were able toescape the slaughter, fled in their boats to a small island

just off shore. (he city of Venice would replace Aquileia,rising phoenix-like from the swampy ground of that tinyisle.) Unable to pursue the remnant who sailed off, Attila

contented himself with razing the one-time imperial havento the ground.

Emperor Valentinian was on the verge of despair. herewas one man, he thought, that could save Italy. It was theVicar of Christ. Leo means lion. And the pope is theVicar of Christ, who is the Lion of Juda. Surely, Leowould act in the Name of that Lion. And, as related atthe start of this tribute, Leo did.

What happened to the scourge of God? He died,within a year, on his wedding night, in a drunken stupor,choking on his own vomit.

Pope Leos services, as protector of the Roman people,

would be required again in 455 when the Vandal s invadedItaly under their Arian king, Genseric. All that Leo coulddo this time was win a promise from the invader that histroops would not burn the city nor do violence to theRoman people.

On the tenth of November, in the year 461, Pope SaintLeo the Great went to his eternal reward. he remains ofthis doctor of the Church rest today in Saint Peters basilicabeneath an altar specially dedicated to him.

Saint Leo the Great, pray for us!

We dont have a title.Tat reality, that we call the Holy Catholic Church, should

remain exactly what Our Lord Jesus Christ intended. It shouldcontinue to have and to fulfill the one assignment on this earththat is truly from God. He could not have made it clearer.

Tere are no other words that could have put it more clearly:Go and teach all nations baptizing them in the name of theFather and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. He that believethand is baptized shall be saved. He that believeth not shall becondemned. Unless a man is born of water and the Holy Ghost,

he will not enter the kingdom of heaven. Nothing could beclearer.

As long as the Church was living by this assignment,[although] it was never popular, it was always respected and it ismade to be a challenge to the whole world and everybody lookedup to the Church as the rock on which you can always count.

Te situation when the Center was started was nowhere nearas bad as the picture we just heard described, and we all knowhow true it is. But through what I might call prophetic insighton the part of the founders of the Saint Benedict Center Crusade,they saw in cause, in principle, what was going to happen andthats why Saint Benedict Center was started. And when I came

to the Center in 1942, I recognized something that I knew wasabsolutely unique in the whole world, such faith, such heroism,such a charity, such concern; and its purpose was, and I hope

we have still kept it, the same tonight, and thats why you are allwith us here: we want to convert America and we want to keepthe Catholic Faith as it was given to the world by Our Lord andSavior Jesus Christ, under the protection of the Mother of God.

Tat is our aim. Tat is our assignment. wo more havecompleted the training and are better prepared for theassignment. Will you join them?

Br. Joseph Mary, M.I.C.M. receives his diploma

Prefect's Column continued Kelly Forum continued



October 22, at 5:00 p.m., Rev. Michael AlexanderJarecki went to his reward, aged ninety-five. FatherJarecki was a priest of the Ogdensburg, N.Y., diocese,

an ardent apostle of Our Lady of Fatima, along-time chaplain to Saint Benedict Center,devoted friend and ally of Father Feeney andBrother Francis, and an indefatigable laborerin the vineyard of Our Lord Jesus Christ.A priest loyal to the traditional Latin Mass(when it cost dearlyto be so), and a patientconfessor who comforted many, he is muchloved and lamented. His life as that of an alterChristuswas spent as a ministering Slave of theImmaculate Heart who fought bravely for theonly causes worth fighting for the enduringCatholic causes.

Brother Louis Marie and I were at his side praying when

he breathed his last. He had received the last rites two nightspreviously. Te brothers and sisters gathered in his room for a longtime after his death, praying and singing hymns and Gregorianmelodies, including some of his favorites.

His obituary will follow, for the writing of which I haveliberally borrowed from information provided to me from FatherJay Seymour of the Ogdensburg, NY, diocese. However, I wouldlike to reproduce a sentence from Father Jareckis will first, forthe edification of readers: May my funeral be simple and a causeof joy to all who knew me. I hope that no words are spoken thatmake people think I have gone straight to Heaven while my soullanguishes in Purgatory because no one was having Masses or

prayers said for me.So, please pray for Father!Rev. Michael A. Jarecki died on October 22, 2012, at the St.

Benedict Center in Richmond, New Hampshire. He had been infailing health for some time.

Father Jarecki was waked at St. Stanislaus Church inWinchester, New Hampshire on Tursday, October 25, where atraditional-rite Requiem Mass was offered for him at 10:00 a.m.the day following. His body was then transported for additionalobsequies in Lewis County, New York, where he was buried in agrave next to his parents.

Michael Alexander Jarecki was born in urin, New York,

on October 6, 1917, to Vincent and Irene (Black) Jarecki inurin, NY. He attended the Martinsburg District Schools andLowville Academy until his graduation. In 1936, Michael enteredWadhams Hall Seminary in Ogdensburg, NY, for his minorseminary training. Upon completing his course there, he enrolledin St. Bernards Major Seminary in Rochester, NY. Father Jareckiwas ordained by Bishop Bryan J. McEntegart in the old St.Marys Cathedral on June 3, 1944, and offered his first Mass thenext day, rinity Sunday.

After ordination, Father was a summer assistant at St. Agnes,Lake Placid, then assistant pastor at Sacred Heart, Massena.

In 1954, Fr. Jarecki was made pastor of St. Anns, St. Regis Falls,and St. Peters in Santa Clara. In 1963, he was named pastorof St. Marys in Constableville and then, in 1968 pastor of St.

Michaels in Witherbee. In 1973, he was namedto the College of Consultors and pastor of St.Martins, Port Leyden and St. Johns in LyonsFalls. In 1975, he was appointed Dean of LewisDeanery. In 1980, prior to his retirement,Father Jarecki was associate pastor in St.Marys, iconderoga.

After his retirement in 1987, Father Jareckilived in residence in Brushton and then inConstable, NY. During that time, he wasalso helping groups of Catholics loyal to theraditional Latin Mass in various locales inNew York and New England. Eventually, he

devoted much of his time and labor to two apostolates that were

dear to his heart: Saint Benedict Center in Richmond, NewHampshire, and the Fatima Center in Constable, NY.

Since 1997, Father Jarecki lived full time in Richmond,NH, with the Slaves of the Immaculate Heart of Mary at SaintBenedict Center. When Father was no longer able to take careof the spiritual needs of this community, they felt honored totake care of his physical needs. Te current chaplain of thecommunity, Father David Phillipson, administered the Churchslast rites to Father Jarecki in the traditional form two days beforehis death.

Father Jarecki is survived by his brother, Vincent John Jarecki,of Rome, New York, and numerous nieces and nephews.

REMEMBERINGFATHERMICHAELJARCKIREQUIESCATINPACE

Tis fund will be for threepurposes only. Te primaryand immediate purpose

will be to help meet thesacramental and liturgicalneeds of the Slaves of theImmaculate Heart of Mary ofRichmond, New Hampshire.Secondarily and moreremotely, the funds will gotoward the priestly formationof our First Order members,

when the day comes thatHoly Orders are available tothem. At present, the funds

will go toward the materialsupport of our chaplain. Eachof these purposes was dear toFather Jareckis priestly heart.

Rev. Michael A. Jarecki Memorial Fund



THEANNUALHALLOWEENPARADEOFSAINTS

EACHYEAR, THECHILDRENATSAINTBENEDICTCENTERDRESSUPASTHEIRFAVORITESAINTANDAPANELOFRELIGIOUSTRYTOGUESSWHOTHEYARE. CANYOU?

THEIHMSCHOOLCHRISTMASPAGEANT

CHILDRENANDYOUNGADULTSCOMETOGETHERTORE-ENACTTHENATIVITY


16/16

OURCRUSADE:

Te propagation and defenseof Catholic dogma espe-cially Extra Ecclesiam nullasalus and the conversion

of America to the one, trueChurch.

For more information, visit:catholicism.organd our bookstore website:store.catholicism.org

Slaves of the ImmaculateHeart of Mary

Saint Benedict CenterPost Office Box 627

Richmond, NH 03470

[email protected](603) 239-6485

Referrals are a great way to be apostolic.Please help us reach more people by sendingus names of friends, relatives, clergy, or religious whom you think would be interested in

reading our newsletter,Mancipia. Email names to our bookstore manager Russell LaPlumeat [email protected], call him at (603) 239-6485, or snail mail him at the address to theright. Tank you!

EXTRAECCLESIAMNULLASALUSEx Cathedra:here is but one universal Church of the faithful, outside which no

one at all is saved (Pope Innocent III, Fourth Lateran Council, 1215).Ex Cathedra:We declare, say, define, and pronounce that it is absolutely necessary

for the salvation of every human creature to be subject to the Roman Pontiff (PopeBoniface VIII, the Bull Unam Sanctam,1302).

Ex Cathedra:he most Holy Roman Church firmly believes, professes, and preachesthat none of those existing outside the Catholic Church, not only pagans, but also Jews

and heretics and schismatics, can have a share in life eternal; but that they will go intothe eternal fire which was prepared for the devil and his angels, unless before deaththey are joined with Her; and that so important is the unity of this ecclesiastical bodythat only those remaining within this unity can profit by the sacraments of the Churchunto salvation, and they alone can receive an eternal recompense for their fasts, theiralmsgivings, their other works of Christian piety and the duties of a Christian soldier.No one, let his almsgiving be as great as it may, no one, even if he pour out his blood forthe Name of Christ, can be saved, unless he remain within the bosom and the unity ofthe Catholic Church (Pope Eugene IV, the Bull Cantate Domino,1441).

Free Gift Now Offered forNew Queens Tribute Donors!Brother Francis Sunday Talks on MP3 CDs for any

donation of $20 or more per month. You will receiveeither a set of 12 talks at a $45 value or

a set of 16 talks at a $59 value.

You can assist the Slaves of the Immaculate Heart ofMary by becoming part of our ongoing Queens ributeprogram. Instituted over twenty years ago, it has helped us toerect our buildings, purchase equipment used for evangeliza-tion, produce our publications, and to support the continualeducation, formation, and daily sustenance of our religiousbrothers and sisters, as well as the life needs and expenses ofour resident chaplain.

Widows mites are most welcome, and all donations aretax-deductible. For your convenience, we can arrange auto-matic monthly donations via credit card or e-check, giving

you one less thing to remember. Tank you!

Call our bookkeeper, Russell LaPlume, at (603)239-6485, or email him at [email protected] formore information.

mancipia jan/feb 2013

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