The Marks Of The True Church

Are You In It?

As all who are familiar with the Nicene Creed know, Holy Mother Church has Four Marks. She is One, Holy, Universal (This Wolf will avoid using the word "Catholic" which simply means universal, but which has taken on a life of its own especially now that Rome has obviously become the Seat of the Antichrist, with Pope Frantic more or less Squatting in the Holy Seat.) and Apostolic, containing within her Bosom the Faith "Once For All Delivered to the Saints". But, as Ray Coniff and the gang sing in their rendition of "Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire"- where those have not been banned by local regulations and statutes in the Communist Police States of America (but I digress)- "There are other little things too."
One of the Marks of the True Church is it does Penance! Not the little namby pamby penances of Paul VI or Pius XII or even Pius X, but real penance, such as fasting on bread and water during the Ember Days, or making a Ten Mile Pilgrimage while praying decade after decade of the Most Holy Rosary- the real Rosary, not the "Luminous" or the "Hopeful" Mysteries. (For the Record, all the "Luminous" Mysteries are contained in the Finding of the Child Jesus in the Temple, the Fifth Joyful Mystery, where any meditation on the teaching ministry of Our Lord Jesus Christ is appropriate, while the "Hopeful" Mysteries are contained in the First Joyful Mystery, the Annunciation, which is the culmination of the entire Old Testament. Apparently, both JP2 and Bishop Wack never got past those pretty picture books for spiritual beginners, and the state of the proverbial "Newborn Babes" of Low Sunday.) Unless people do penance until it hurts, they will likewise perish in "The Wrath to Come". Our Lord Jesus Christ insisted we must "pick up our Cross" if we are to be His disciple.

The Next Mark of the True Church is it upholds the Sanctity of Holy Matrimony, and, in tandem to it, all the marks of True Purity. The True Church understands the consequences of the Fall of Man, and the full import of the Concupiscence of the Flesh, which is why she ever insists, like the proverbial broken vinyl record, on perfect modesty or dress and action, continency, celibacy, and that the Marital Embrace always be performed with conception as its one and only purpose, and never for "the mutual union of the spouses" which can be better accomplished at the dinner table, and absolutely never as a recreational activity. This is what St Paul meant when he exhorted "they also who have wives, be as if they had none ". And, sorry Christine Niles and Miss Happy Catholic, but true modesty does mean being "frumpy". It means dressing "like the Amish". Especially for women, it means hiding, not showcasing, the form. It forbids tattoos, piercings, and excessive jewelry and makeup, realizing that the body is the Temple of the Holy Ghost, hopefully containing the Indwelling of the Holy Trinity.
The Next Mark of the True Church is it is Supernatural. Just a few short sentences after his exhortation to men in his First Letter to Corinth, St Paul says "And they that use this world, as if they used it not: for the fashion of this world passeth away." (The modernists, humanists, progressives, and philanthropists need to meditate long and hard on this passage.) The True Church lives in Eternity. It does have its feet on the Ground, but its head is in the Clouds. The styles and fashions of the world are never its styles, and most certainly do not affect its worship. The True Church has no need to adapt to "Modern Man". Its prayers, rituals, and ceremonies are as much as home amid a Tribe of Aborigines as it is on an Aircraft Carrier. They come from the Apostles, and will persist unchanged until the Second Coming of Our Lord Jesus Christ.

The Next Mark of the True Church is it is Visible, and, being visible, has a center of unity. Over the centuries, that center of unity has been identified as the Chair of Peter, Prince of the Apostles. "Where Peter Is", they proclaim, "There is the Church". And they are absolutely correct. And every priest, even if he be Sedevacantist, needs to understand that he can only act with an Apostolic Mandate. His Vocation is a calling from God. Certain Sedevacantist priests and bishops- if they are such, resorting as they do to dubious prelates for their "consecrations", which are often in secret- having taken it upon themselves to be ordained and consecrated, have no Apostolic Mandate. They are nothing but the thieves and robbers whom Our Lord Jesus Christ said "enter the sheepfold by another gate". Archbishop Lefebvre did have an Apostolic Mandate to set up his SSPX, but it can only operate within a certain supplied jurisdiction, and cannot act as a parallel magisterium, providing exorcisms and marriage tribunals, for example. Meanwhile, Our Lady of Fatima foresaw the crisis in the Papacy foretold by Canon Roca when he said in so many words that the Papacy Would Die by the Hallowed Knife Forged by the Next Council. [Well, it took two councils- Vatican I and Vatican II (and that is a very long story, to be told subsequently)] And so she proposes herself as the New Center of Unity as the Barque of Peter navigates through the stormy and uncharted waters of the 21st Century.

Which brings us to the Next Mark of the True Church. It is absolutely Marian, and understands the place of the August Mother of God in the Divine Economy, as the Daughter of the Father, the Mother of the Son, and the Spouse of the Holy Ghost. Nobody can have God for his Father who does not have Our Lady for his Mother, as several of the Church Fathers have put it. Our Lady is our Co-Redemptrix through her Fiat to the Angel Gabriel, her Station-where She remains- at the Foot of the Cross, and her perseverance in the Cenacle especially after the Ascension when she led the First Novena that culminated in the Descent of the Holy Ghost on Pentecost Sunday, the Birthday of Our Holy Mother the Church. She is also the Mediatrix of every Grace, for the Church Militant, the Church Suffering, and the Church Triumphant. Whether we pray to any member of the Communion of the Saints or to the Sacred Heart, rest assured the grace comes through her. Any Protestant or Orthodox, should he enter Heaven by virtue of Holy Baptism and lead a pure and holy life supplied by Actual Grace, will understand he was saved through the prayers and travails of Our Lady, and will thank her profusely for all eternity.

The next mark of the True Church is it rails firmly against all forms of usury, realizing that this is the tool Satan will ultimately use to construct the infrastructure for the coming Empire of the Antichrist. Holy Mother Church abhors both profiting from debt and its child, the Welfare State. Holy Mother Church moreover upholds the absolute right of a man to his estate, a right he does not lose even if he commits a grave crime. She also upholds the rights both to inheritance and to defense, which the civil authorities may not infringe in any way, being outside their proper jurisdiction. Only by vows of Holy Obedience and Holy poverty may a man voluntarily transfer those rights to another institution, which then has the solemn obligation to provide for both his temporal and spiritual welfare.

And finally the True Church is Holy, without blemish or stain. Especially its ministers are without scandal, and worthily Celebrate the Eternal Sacrifice and give an example as an "Alter Christus". Their virtues are exemplary and impeccable. They demonstrate an erudite and studied knowledge of the Holy Mysteries, and, as Archbishop Lefebvre put it, pass on what they have received, without addition or subtraction. (Please note, this is not an endorsement of The Bearded One, which this Wolf believes was a Cleverly disguised Liberal, and his organization a "honeypot" designed to attract people searching for the truth, while excoriating those priests and layman standing for the complete truth, and honestly conveying the gravity of The Great Apostasy that occurred after Vatican II.)

As we continue toward the Reign of the Antichrist, it becomes increasingly more important to live in continual prayer, so to speak, to cultivate devotion to the recitation of the Holy Rosary and the Immaculate Heart. Our Lady of Fatima is not a "Private Revelation" but rather Our Life, Our Sweetness, and Our Hope. There is nothing private about the Miracle of the Sun nor her Universal Requests.

We ignore them at our eternal peril.