This issue includes memories of Christmas when horsedrawn sleighs used to bring the faithful to Mass. St. Stephen is looked at as an example of being an authentic witness to the truth, needed so much in these days of lukewarmness. An exerpt of Bishop Fellay's letter is given introducing the necessity of a new Rosary Crusade. We look back at an interview with Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre after the 1988 Episcopal Consecrations and give news on the recent Confirmations in the Maritimes.
A Word from the District Superior
In the Incarnation, God who is rich made himself poor for us. In his sublime divinity he is above all things, but he wanted to be close to man. His divine nature surpasses everything we can imagine, but he wanted to be understandable. His goodness is inexpressible, but he desired to make himself small and so to be loved.
The child in the crèche is God, yet the shepherds saw him with their own eyes, and the Holy Virgin held him in her arms. Jesus was made man as we are men; he manifested himself in the flesh so that we could learn the mystery that he lives in his depths.
Before this manifestation of the the incarnate Son the only appropriate attidue is that of silence and adoration. Jesus in the crèche is silent because he is a child, Mary and Joseph are silent because they adore. In silence we receive the light of the Faith. In keeping silence in prayer we oblige God to enlighten us. In keeping silence, we recognize our incapacity and we implore the divine light. By silence we exceed our human condition and can thus access the angelic mode of knowledge. Silence is for us the door of adoration and contemplation. Faced with the mystery of the Incarnation there is only silence and adoration.
The Magi following the star show us a second attitude indispensible for all who seek God: the desire to know the truth and the thirst for God. How can the sign of God be discovered, if there is not in us an abyss which awaits it? If we are all desire, the least parcel of light, the least sign will find in us welcome and intelligence.
Many images, many signs of God are prominent in Creation, in us, in others, in our relationships with others. We must but see them. This will be impossible without the love of God. The desire to capture something of God renders the spirit active, sharpens the curiousity, orients the mind.
But we must also know how to pass on to act. Mages do not content themselves with knowing: they come. In our lives if we do not put in practice what we see, it is useless to see. In effect, love makes us see, but if it is cut off from action it is but a mutilated love. Love is only satisfied when it accomplishes what it has seen.
May God manifest himself to all in this feast of Christmas,
Father Jurgen Wegner
Also inside:
Forgotten Christmas — St. Stephen — A New Rosary Crusade — Why I Refused to Put Myself in their Hands — Confirmations in the Maritimes
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