Inaugural Prayers

As the leader of the free world will be sworn in today, it is most needful that we pray for him, to whom the greatest earthly authority is entrusted; and I turn to the words of the classical Anglican and Episcopalian liturgies to do so:

PSALM 46. Deus noster refugium.

GOD is our hope and strength : a very present  help in trouble.

2 Therefore will we not fear, though the earth be moved : and though the hills be carried into the midst of the sea;

3 Though the waters thereof rage and swell : and though the mountains shake at the tempest of the same.

4 The rivers of the flood thereof shall make glad the city of God : the holy place of the tabernacle of the most Highest.

5 God is in the midst of her, therefore shall she not be removed : God shall help her, and that right early.

6 The heathen make much ado, and the kingdoms are moved : but God hath shewed his voice, and the earth shall melt away.

7 The Lord of hosts is with us : the God of Jacob is our refuge.

8 O come hither, and behold the works of the Lord : what destruction he hath brought upon the earth.

9 He maketh wars to cease in all the world : he breaketh the bow, and knappeth the spear in sunder, and burneth the chariots in the fire.

10 Be still then, and know that I am God : I will be exalted among the heathen, and I will be exalted in the earth.

11 The Lord of hosts is with us : the God of Jacob is our refuge.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son : and to the Holy Ghost;

As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be : world without end. Amen.

Let us pray.

Lord, have mercy upon us.

Christ, have mercy upon us.

Lord, have mercy upon us.

OUR Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy Name, Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, in earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread; And forgive us our trespasses, As we forgive them that trespass against us; And lead us not into temptation, But deliver us from evil. Amen.

A Prayer for The President of the United States, and all in Civil Authority. 

O LORD, our heavenly Father, the high and mighty Ruler of the universe, who dost from thy throne behold all the dwellers upon earth; Most heartily we beseech thee, with thy favour to behold and bless thy servant THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, and all others in authority; and so replenish them with the grace of thy Holy Spirit, that they may always incline to thy will, and walk in thy way. Endue them plenteously with heavenly gifts; grant them in health and prosperity long to live; and finally, after this life, to attain everlasting joy and felicity; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

2 Corinthians 13. 14.

THE grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Ghost, be with us all evermore. Amen.

The Three Bishops' Appeal in Seven Languages

I assume that the Appeal for Prayer was written by Bishop Schneider in German originally, but I have no knowledge of either language. If anyone can leave a comment as to which version sounds the most idiomatic, natural and untranslated, so to speak, I would be interested. According to an Italian site, these are the seven languages in which the Appeal has been released – again, if there are others, please leave a comment and link thereto.

Update: as Bishop Schneider speaks German, Russian, Italian and Portuguese, and also knows English and French, not to mention Latin and Greek, he may well have written each of these different versions, except for the Polish and Spanish ones.

French:

Un appel urgent à la prière : pour que le Pape François confirme la praxis immuable de l’Église à l’égard de la vérité et de l’indissolubilité du mariage.

http://www.hommenouveau.fr/1895/religion/un-appel-urgent-a-la-priere.htm

English:

Appeal to prayer: That Pope Francis may confirm the unchanging praxis of the Church with regard to the truth of the indissolubility of marriage.

http://www.onepeterfive.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/AppealPrayer-Pope-FrancisEngl.pdf

Italian:

Appello alla preghiera: perché Papa Francesco confermi la prassi immutabile della Chiesa riguardo alla verità dell’indissolubilità del matrimonio

http://www.corrispondenzaromana.it/appello-di-tre-vescovi-cattolici-a-papa-francesco-in-difesa-del-matrimonio/?refresh_cens

Polish:

Wezwanie do modlitwy: Aby Papież Franciszek potwierdził niezmienną praktykę Kościoła względem prawdy o nierozerwalności małżeństwa.

http://www.pch24.pl/biskupi-z-kazachstanu-w-obronie-chrystusowego-nauczania-newsletter-spec,48812,i.html

Portuguese:

Apelo universal à oração para que o Santo Padre confirme a imutável prática da Igreja relativa à verdade sobre a indissolubilidade do matrimónio.

http://ipco.org.br/ipco/apelo-a-oracao-para-que-o-papa-francisco-confirme-a-imutavel-pratica-da-igreja-relativa-a-verdade-sobre-a-indissolubilidade-do-matrimonio/#.WIB8zenDOJo

Spanish:

Llamada a la oración: para que el Papa Francisco confirme la práctica invariable de la Iglesia sobre la verdad de la indisolubilidad del Matrimonio

http://infocatolica.com/?t=ic&cod=28327

German:

Aufruf zum Gebet: damit Papst Franziskus die unveränderliche Praxis der Kirche von der Wahrheit der Unauflöslichkeit der Ehe bekräftige

http://www.katholisches.info/2017/01/18/gebetsaufruf-aus-der-peripherie-damit-papst-franziskus-die-unveraenderliche-praxis-der-kirche-von-der-wahrheit-der-unaufloeslichkeit-der-ehe-bekraeftige/

Kazakh Bishops Appeal for Prayer

In Malta, it is easy to be a cultural Catholic: everyone there is Catholic, and everyone goes to church – or rather, they were and did. The temptation in Malta is to go with the flow, to live an increasingly secular life, while remaining nominally Catholic, like almost everyone else.

In Kazakhstan, to be a Catholic is countercultural (only 1.6% of the population is Catholic), and to go to church, to live as a practising Catholic, is profoundly countercultural.

It thus is unsurprising that, while the Archbishop of Malta and the Bishop of Gozo have fallen away grievously from the Faith, by wickedly teaching lies to their people – since anyone who says an unrepentant practising adulterer can worthily receive Communion is a heretic who promotes schism – the Archbishop of Maria Sanctissima in Astana, his well-known auxiliary Bishop, and the Archbishop-Emeritus of nearby Karaganda have instead most worthily and definitely reaffirmed the teachings of the Catholic Apostolic Faith regarding this very issue, denouncing attempts of others to do as the feckless Maltese episcopate has done, and appealing to the Supreme Pontiff for his decisive intervention against such false teachings: ‘that Pope Francis may revoke in an unequivocal manner those pastoral guidelines, which permit the divorced and so-called “remarried” to receive the sacraments of Penance and Eucharist without asking them to fulfil the obligation of a life in continence.’

They ask all the faithful – throughout the Universal Church – to join in prayer for this intention, especially as previous appeals to the Holy Father have so far gone nowhere. The daily prayers suggested are either part of the Rosary or the following traditional petition for the Pope, and acclamation of his God-given role, as drawn from Sacred Scripture:

Oremus pro Pontifice nostro Francisco: 

Dominus conservet eum, et vivificet eum, et beatum faciat eum in terra, et non tradat eum in animam inimicorum ejus. (Ps. xl, 3) 

Tu es Petrus, et super hanc petram ædificabo Ecclesiam meam, et portæ inferi non prævalebunt adversus eam. (Matt. xvi, 18) 

(Let us pray for Francis our Pope: 

(The Lord preserve him and give him life, and make him blessed upon the earth, and deliver him not up to the will of his enemies. 

(Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.)

Anathema

...there are some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ. But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach a gospel to you besides that which we have preached to you, let him be anathema. As we said before, so now I say again: If any one preach to you a gospel, besides that which you have received, let him be anathema. (Galatians i, 7-9)

The Archbishop of Malta and the Bishop of Gozo have issued a scandalous document which pretends to authorise vile deviations from the moral law. They even dare to assert that living in actual adultery may be acceptable, even somehow necessary (!), and compatible with receiving Holy Communion, to be judged by such adulterers themselves according to the imagined criterion of feeling at peace with God (how blasphemous). 

To thus lead astray their flocks, by having their priests teach such sinful lies from the pulpit (one hopes they were disobeyed), is to put their own souls at grave risk of damnation. Such men are unworthy of the episcopate. I am outraged by their actions!

As the Apostle sadly wrote to the Church at Corinth: “there are schisms among you; and in part I believe it. For there must be also heresies”, that those who are faithful may be distinguished from the unfaithful (1 Cor. xi, 18f). A simple consideration of the Scriptures, the unbroken teachings of the Church, the Catechism, the Code of Canon Law, all indicate quite clearly where the distinctions lie.

St Paul had earlier reminded those Corinthians, and, through them, all Christians in all ages (for the deposit of faith cannot change): “Do not err: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers… shall possess the kingdom of God. … Know you not that your bodies are the members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ, and make them the members of an harlot? God forbid. Or know you not, that he who is joined to a harlot, is made one body? For they shall be, saith he, two in one flesh.” (I Cor. vi, 9. 10. 15-16) 

Adultery, fornication and all other such sins are devilish distortions of the true good of marriage, whereby two become one in truth. In sacramental marriage, two are united in one indissoluble bond in Christ; in adulterous unions, this is mocked. But God is not mocked.

God forbid that the members of Christ be united to the members of a harlot! Yet that is what the reception, unworthily and damnably, of Holy Communion by an unrepentant adulterer signifies. No wonder that the Apostle to the Gentiles had solemnly to warn that “whosoever shall eat this bread, or drink the chalice of the Lord unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and of the blood of the Lord… he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh judgment to himself” (I Cor. xi, 27 & 29).

If those bishops cared for sinners, really cared about their souls, they would advise them to “Fly fornication”, that they might repent, and live, and receive the Blessed Sacrament worthily, to their endless comfort.

St Paul was bitten by a snake in Malta, after being shipwrecked there; the Scriptures thus prophesy concerning the abysmal state of the Church in that unhappy island.

The Council of Trent infallibly taught that “If anyone says that the commandments of God are, even for one that is justified and constituted in grace, impossible to observe, let him be anathema.” Yet the Maltese bishops have dared to assert the opposite!

To quote Cardinal Brandmüller: “Whoever thinks that persistent adultery and the reception of Holy Communion are compatible is a heretic and promotes schism.”

Anathema!