The Chapel Veil is a beautiful tradition still followed in Latin Mass Catholic Churches. I, myself, wear one to Latin Mass.
The tradition is a sign of dignity and grace. It was a sign of the reverence of a woman. The call to respect a woman. Just as the Tabernacle veils the body of Christ, so the Chapel Veil (or Mantilla) veils a woman in dignity. It is a sign that Woman is unique in her femininity. Unlike a man, God made woman close to his heart because they are the ones who can create life in the unique way that God designed, and influence life, whether spiritually as a child of God, as a mother to an actual life she brought into the world, or both.
A woman veils herself in church just like a priest is veiled in his vestments, just like the Body of Christ is veiled in the Tabernacle. It is a sign of reverence rather than oppression as some believe.
Despite what people desire to believe, there are only 2 true sexes, and God created them in different ways. Man from his image, and woman from the side of Man. Just as blood and water rushed from the side of Jesus after he was lanced on the cross, and purified those who were touched by it, and purifies us all even today... so woman was created from the side of Man, Adam. How wonderful is it truly with you see how the church looks at a woman. She is the tabernacle of life, whether physically by bearing a child, or spiritually by uplifting souls and bringing them back to God. Because woman was created from Adam's rib, she is likened to the GIFT of Christ's blood that flowed from HIS side.
God created a hierarchy. Woman to be an obedient spouse to her husband, a husband to lay down his life for his bride like Christ sacrificed himself for his bride, the Holy Church. A great act of love. It's not oppressive or abusive, it's a hierarchy with a perfect design.
And so women, to CELEBRATE their unique dignity in femininity... they wear a veil in the presence of God in the church.
The end of wearing Chapel Veils is one of many examples of why the Church has been in so much turmoil since the modernization of Vatican II, why women think they have the right to be priests, why people are gender confused, it all starts with the loss of dignity and grace and respect shown in church. Feminism and modernization removed gender roles, it removed the dignity of being feminine as if femininity is some sort of chain around a woman's neck, rather than a source of pride.
I think this video explains it far better than I ever could. it's over an hour long, but well worth the watch if you truly want to understand the Chapel Veil and how it is a tradition that should return to the church rather than be suppressed or mocked.
The words "Lead us Not Into Temptation" From the Lord's prayer, presents trouble for Pope Francis. He states that the translation makes it sound as if God is the one leading us into temptation. I've said this prayer since I was knee high to a tadpole and I never looked at it this way. However, here are a few excerpts from the story according to World Catholic Report Pope Francis said that “lead us not into temptation” is a poorly translated line of the Our Father. “This is not a good translation,” the Pope said in the video,
published Dec. 6. “I am the one who falls, it’s not (God) who pushes me
toward temptation to see how I fall. A father doesn’t do this, a father
helps us to get up right away.” He noted that this line was recently re-translated in the French
version of the prayer to read “do not let me fall into temptation.” The Latin version of the prayer, the authoritative version in the Catholic Church, reads “ne nos inducas in tentationem.” The Pope said that the one who leads people into temptation “is
Satan; that is the work of Satan.” He said that the essence of that line
in the prayer is like telling God: “when Satan leads me into
temptation, please, give me your hand. Give me your hand." It further states... "According to the French episcopal conference, the decision to make
the change was accepted by the Congregation for Divine Worship and the
Discipline of the Sacraments in June 2013.
The new translation, released Dec. 3 to mark the first day of Advent
and the beginning of the new liturgical year, now reads “ne nous laisse
pas entrer en tentation,” meaning, “do not let us fall into temptation,”
versus the former “ne nous soumets pas à la tentation,” or “lead us not
into temptation.” I take issue with this. I get what he's trying to say, but I think he's wrong. We are going by our Church's Mother tongue which use to be Latin before Vatican II decided every church had their own tongue which was to be spoken in their own language and we no longer focused on the teaching of Latin. The translations of the Lord's Prayer were translated from Greek (which was translated from Christ's language of Aramaic) to Latin. Some say the translation is faulty and the Greek translation (which is "And let us not be led into temptation" should be the replacement.
I
respectfully disagree that it was a misleading translation. Great care
was taken with The translation process. et ne nos inducas in
tentationem (Lead us not into temptation) is a literal translation of
the Greek version, given to us by St. Jerome. (click the name to learn more about this Saint)
To understand the translation, let us understand St. Jerome. He was highly intelligent, a historian, and a trilinguistic. He was a holy man and the father of the standard Latin translation of the bible that has held for 1600 years. He, in fact, is the patron saint of archeologists, bible scholars, librarians and translators. He studied himself under the renowned theologian, St. Gregory. St. Jerome could understand Greek, Hebrew and Latin. He could also read Aramaic, but could not speak it well.
There were early translations from Greek to Latin, before St. Jerome, but they missed the mark. Since Latin was becoming far more widely spoken and understood than Greek, they needed a proper, and accurate translation, and that is when St. Jerome came into the picture. He also took it upon himself to translate the old Testament from Hebrew into Latin.
St Jerome is credited with RESTORING the New Testament to it's original Greek state in his Latin Translation from the Old Latin translations which were deemed inadequate. In fact, many have stated you can see the Greek influences in the Latin Vulgate.
So
the actual translation is not misleading or faulty. The accepted Latin translation is as close as literal as the language can get. St. Jerome worked on the thought of, "not word for word, but sense for sense". This is now called the Dynamic equivalent. The DE is used when the readability of the translation is more important than the preservation of the originalgrammatical structure. Meaning, the words may not translate exactly grammatically, but the spirit is the same. So "Lead us not into temptation" is the same as "let us not be led into temptation".
I never grew up thinking God led me to sin. But I understood there'd be
trials, tribulations and tests (which would include temptations from the
evil one). We were taught to understand that we are praying for
deliverance from those tribulations and tests.
We
must also consider that languages evolve and temptation may have had a different meaning that it does now, or (more likely) may have had more than one meaning. Most Apologists
believe that temptation meant "Test" or tribulation in this sense. Thus making it
"please do not put us to the test, instead deliver us from evil."
Just like Adam and Eve, God sometimes puts our faith and obedience to the test, and the evil one takes advantage. So the translation in Greek (let us not be led) and Latin (Lead us not into) are both valid in this sense when you understand the meaning behind it.
A lot of people accuse this of being an English translation problem since many languages use a form of "Let us not be led." That is not true.
The 1600 year old Lord's Prayer in the St. Jerome Latin is the first known use of the phrase "Lead us not", and all Roman Catholic churches used it, all across the world.
That is until Vatican II when the masses began to be said in the tongue of whatever country. Even then, many used a translation of the Latin prayer in their own language until modern times. Like the French who only this month changed the words from "lead us not" to "let us not be led".
So it is not an "English" problem... it is a lack of proper theological education problem.
Whichever
the Pope chooses, I will continue to pray it as it's always been
prayed, only I prefer to pray it in Latin. There used to be a time when
every Catholic church in every country across the world spoke one
language in Mass, Latin. Prayed as one unit, spoke with one voice. All around the world we prayed the same words, together.
Now
we speak in thousands of different languages, some of whom do their own translations. It is no longer a single unified Church in Christ. I don't feel we need a better translation, we need better teachers to explain these questions. We should also return to a unified, one Church way again, where we are all speaking the same language with the same translation and interpretations, in one voice. I will always prefer the
Traditional Latin Mass for this reason.
We need to stop dumbing down our religion and smartening up the Faithful. Instead of watering things down so people don't have to actually LEARN something, make them educate, make them get involved. TEACH them. If Catholicism was being properly taught to our children, not only at Catholic schools or CCD, but at home... this wouldn't be an issue now.
When I taught CCD, the kids told me they weren't even going to church. The parents were using CCD as daycare. Other than that, they never went to church, never talked about God at home. The parents felt it was our responsibility to impart thousands of years of theology on kids 1x a week for a few months a year. Parents hold responsibility for their child's eternal soul and it's just not being done and now we have this. Changing prayers because the Pope can't answer the simple question as to "why it is this way". instead of teaching, change it... right? (sarcasm)
I again blame Vatican II for trying to water the religion down. When we lose our traditions, when we move to the modern, we put our own conveniences before God, and this is what you get. That's a blog for another time however.
I've had a few people ask if I could give the gist of something I talked about in a previous post on Fatima, because they are unable to access the documentary I linked because of bandwidth issues on their end. (it's over 2 hours long, so some servers may not be able to handle it, especially if you're on your phone using data.) Basically, here's the general idea. We all know about Mary appearing to the three children - Lucia, Jacinta and Francisco. We Traditional Catholics with whole hearts believe in these little visionaries. They lived in a time when Catholics were being persecuted in Portugal, churches were being shut down. These three children were illiterate, they couldn't read or write, and they weren't raised in the church as it was not easy for them to attend church because of the government. Being such little children, (10, 9 and 7) they probably didn't get a full education in Catholic theology at the time. Yet these little children had such a spiritual knowledge, and were so full of love for God and Mother Mary, it could be nothing short of a miracle. Mary also explained things about Russia, things they didn't understand. They thought Russia was the name of a girl at first. So it wasn't like the children made something up about current events. These were events that had not yet come to pass about things they didn't understand. They told some of what Mary had told them, such as the two little saints Jacinta and Francisco would soon go to heaven... and Mary was proven to be true to her word. Complications from influenza would claim the two little children 10 months apart from each other at ages 10 and then 9. So we believe in the vision of Fatima. We believe whole heartedly in these little visionaries. But here is where it gets a little off. At one point in the late 50's, Lucia became ill with the same influenza that claimed her cousins in 1919 and 1920, and she gave the third secret in writing saying clearly, it must be released upon her death, or in 1960. Which ever came first. Some believe this to mean, she thought she was nearing her death. Things had come to pass as the Blessed Mother said. The young children left her alone, and she lived as sole keeper of the secrets over 30 years after the passing of Jacinta in 1920. Once she wrote down the secret, her lonely life as sole survivor was now over, and she could go to heaven as Mother Mary promised. When asked why she thought they should wait, she said, "In 1960 it would become clear". Then they believe she died. In 1960 when Vatican II just happened to be coming to be... and they announced they would NOT release the secret of Fatima given by Lucia. This was completely contradictory to what Lucia desired, so there were people asking questions. Then came "Vatican II" Lucia who started touting the Vatican II Papacy's argument. "It was never meant to be released". She said one time. Completely contradictory to what she stated when she wrote it in the first place. (It must be made known in 1960 or upon my death, whichever came first.) How did an imposter so easily fake people out? Because back in that day, Carmelite nuns were not easily visible. they lived out of the public eye. Lucia's own family would rarely see her. And since the internet did not exist, you couldn't pull up and compare photos like we can do now. in Fact, her family probably had so few photos of her, especially after she entered the convent, it would be easy to not recognize her after years apart. Here are a few photos. Click on them to enlarge them if you can not read the captions.
That woman is not the same as Lucia, unless Lucia had plastic surgery and dental work. So now we have a woman who doesn't even resemble herself physically... and is denouncing the release of the secret that she once insisted MUST be released in 1960 or upon her death, whichever came first. There is also, in the documentary, evidence laid out by handwriting experts that show the two Lucia's had different ways of writing. Then there is what was finally released about the third secret. It describes a vision where a pope is martyred on a mountain of martyrs. (Killed by guns and arrows by a band of soldiers). The Vatican interpreted this as the assassination attempt of Pope John Paul II which they said brought the prophecy to a conclusion. But there is a problem. Lucia said that it would be clear come 1960. What would be made clear in 1960 about a 1981 assassination attempt? There was another concerning thing, Mary always explained the visions the children had so they'd understand. Not a single word from the Mother accompanies this secret. Could it be that even those who faked this secret were afraid that putting words into the Blessed Mother's mouth was one step too far? Then, the most glaring error, the pope was NOT martyred by a band of soldiers. JPII was wounded by a lone gun man, and there was no mountain of martyrs. He was the only one attacked. Things our Mother Mary said to the children were always truthful, accurate, and came to pass without fail. Either we have to say she was wrong about how this vision would end, or this vision is a fake. So it is believed by those who do not trust Vatican II, that the real secret was about a great apostasy coming to the church, which could be interpreted as Vatican II itself being the apostasy (Thus why Lucia said it would become clear in 1960 which is when Vatican II was enacted). And because they found it would embarrass the church... they have gone to great lengths to keep it from ever being released. And you only have to look at what has been happening in modern times that has come from Vatican II. We'll talk about that in future blogs. But let me cover a few.
1. Liturgical changes. The Liturgy has become more watered down.
2. The Removal of the exorcism prayer of St. Michael the Archangel... still used by Traditional Catholics and exorcists.
3. The removal of the tabernacle from the center of the church and replaced with the throne of man.
4. in 2004 a Hindu ceremony was allowed to be performed a the Shrine of Fatima, the Bishop even allowing himself to be draped in Hindu robes embroidered with pagan mythological passages
5. Many modern priests deny the existence of demons claiming they are personal evils and not actual entities.
6. There is a call to not convert other religions as all gods lead to the same God, despite Christ himself saying NO ONE will go to the Father BUT THROUGH HIM. The church's stance is in contradiction to what Christ said himself.
7. Sin is being accepted. There is a call to focus on social agendas such as Global warming over abortions, homosexuality and the breakdown of the sanctity of marriage.
8. (This is important) No Pope in Vatican II has consecrated Russia to the Immaculate Heart. Pope JPII consecrated the world, but neglected to mention Russia specifically. He did not do as the Lady asked, thus the consecration has not come to be, and Our Lady said there would come a time when they would fulfill her desire, but it would come too late. The church has denied our Lady's request. It is said, Pope JPII was forced to not mention Russia specifically. The Church stopped him from doing so, which is why he consecrated the world, rather than do as Mary requested.
This is just a short list. Could that be the true secret? And if it is, what other part of the secret do we not know?
Mary's messages have always come to pass. One day, that which is hidden will come to the light. If we are wrong, God forgive us our folly... But even as a child I always found that two plus two equaled six in the modern church... much of what I learned through Catholic School, then CCD, never seemed to add up to what the bible itself said. When I learned about Traditional Catholics who followed the old traditions of the Church and learned about what the church was prior to Vatican II... It seemed to make more sense to me.
May God open our eyes to the message he sent with our Blessed Mother, that we may defend His church.
It's a Joyous occasion in deed. We are coming on the 100th anniversary of when God sent Mary to three innocent children who would be willing and open to hear God's messages and warnings.
This event was not only investigated thoroughly by the church and proven to be true in the eyes of the church, but over 70,000 witnessed the miracle of the sun which occurred in October of 1917. (To learn about the apparitions of Mary, read my blog HERE and Part 2 HERE if you haven't already.)
The apparitions first happened May 13th, 1917 by three children, Lucia with her two cousins Francisco and Jacinta. (ages 10, 9 an 7). On May 13th of 2017, we will not only mark the 100th anniversary of Fatima... but Francisco and Jacinta will be canonized (officially recognized as saints by the Catholic Church), since the church has been able to agree that miracles attested to the intercessions of the young visionaries from heaven, were true.
Lucia has not yet been canonized, but Pope Benedict waved the 5 year waiting period required by ecclesiastical law to start her beautification process.
About the Fatima apparitions:
Our blessed mother appeared the three visionaries with messages from God. She was a beautiful woman with a kind but sad smile. She was dressed in white and had a rosary hanging from her arm, her hands folded in prayer.
When asked where she came from by Lucia, the woman replied "I come from heaven" and asked if they would offer themselves to God and accept sufferings in reparation for the numberless sins which offend him, and if they would suffer if it would convert souls back to God. Lucia replied yes.
When the children brought the events that happened back to their family, they were not believed. Lucia's mother beat her with a broomstick for lying out of fear of what the police may do to her as the government were prosecuting those of faith who didn't bow to them. She was also afraid this lie was a mortal sin. The children promised they would accept any suffering to help convert people back to God, so they prayed and fasted despite the hardships they faced by those who did not believe them.
Every month on the same day, the beautiful woman would appear to the children at the same time. She gave the children three secrets that were to be released to the Vatican at specific times. Curiosity got the best of even those who did not believe the children, and each time they went to meet the Lady, more and more people followed them. While they could not see the Blessed Mother as her message were for the children, they saw a cloud disappear in the direction the children were speaking when the visitation ended. When Lucia's mother witnessed this, she finally believed and stopped beating Lucia for lying.
During one of the visits, the Blessed Mother told the children something that would shake their families. Jacinta and Francisco would not live much longer. Both were destined for heaven very soon.
In October of 1917, upon the children announcing that there would be a miracle that would occur so all could believe, 70,000 people came to the place they said it would happen. There was a heavy rainstorm that had been going on all day. At the exact time promised, the clouds cleared and the sun was seen spinning in the sky, many beautiful colors coming from it. One writer who witnessed the event described the sun as 'dancing'.
Suddenly, it started to fall from the sky, then zig-zagged back into place when people fell to their knees in fear and awe. While some did not witness these events, they did say that the thick, wet mud became instantly dry, as did their rain soaked clothing.
In April of 1919 young Francisco passed away at the young age of 11. Jacinta would follow her brother a year later. Both suffered greatly, but accepted the sufferings as the blessed Mother asked, for the conversion of souls back to God, and as reparation for the sins that made their Lord sorrowful.
It came to pass as Mary said, when she told the children that Francisco and Jacinta would not be long for the world. They accepted their fate with faith and praise for God, even at so young an age. The undertaker who assisted in Jacinta's burial testified that in all his years, he had never seen anything like the child. Her cheeks were still rosy and her lips colorful. There was a pleasant, flowery aroma that came from the body, he couldn't explain, especially considering she had passed 3 days prior.
In 1935, her body was exhumed so it could be placed in a special grave that was set up for her and her brother. When they opened her casket, she was found to be perfectly incorrupt. She was exhumed again in 1951,31 years after her passing. Her body was still incorrupt.
In later years after the passing of the two visionaries, A lay member of the Franciscan order suffered full body paralysis for over 20 years. for over a decade she prayed for the intercessions of the young visionaries. Then after her usual prayers and intercession requests one night in 1987, she heard a voice telling her "Sit up, you are able to." and she regained use of her upper body. 2 years later the same voice told her to walk, and she was healed.
Her miraculous ability to walk was tested by many doctors including doctors appointed by the Vatican. It defied medical explanation and was thus approved by the church as a miracle. This miracle lifted the main obstacle that held up the children's bid for official sainthood.
Lucia, the third visionary who became a nun when she reached adulthood, allegedly died at the age of 96 in 2005. (I say allegedly, which I will explain in a bit.)
There were three secrets that the Blessed Mother gave the children that needed to come out in specified times.
The first secret was revealed in the 40's. It was a vision of hell. Lucia stated that the vision was so horrible that if the Lady hadn't promised to take them to heaven, they'd have died from terror. After seeing hell, the lady asked the children to consecrate devotion to her miraculous heart.
The second secret was said to be about the consecration of Russia back to God. That if Russia didn't turn to her immaculate heart, the errors of sin would continue to corrupt and spread. From the end of the first world war, there would be a greater, more devastating war as well as the spread of communism.
Lucia's plea to the Pope went unheeded. At the time, the pope received alleged visions, prophecies and revelations, most of which were usually delusions. Because Russia remained unconsecrated to her sacred heart, as the Blessed Mother predicted, Word War II occurred.
The third secret is far more controversial. Something never truly seemed right about it, nor about Lucia. Vatican II had started to overcome the church, and things began to change drastically. Those of us who practice traditional Catholicism (Pre Vatican II), see some of the dangers of the "new thinking" of the church and the Novus Ordo (new order) mass.
It has led many to believe that Vatican II hid the true 3rd secret. It is believed the true secret was about a great apostasy coming to the church. Fearing it would humiliate the church and stop the changes... they faked the third secret decades after it was suppose to be released. It is also believed by many that the real Lucia passed in the late 50s and was replaced by an imposter who the 2nd Vatican Counsel used to explain why they weren't releasing the 3rd secret as Lucia originally demanded. (Lucia became ill with the same influenza that claimed both of her cousins. She wrote the secret down believing her death was coming soon, stating it MUST be revealed in 1960 or upon her death, whichever came first.)
The Lucia most of us grew up knowing didn't even resemble the real Lucia. She looked the same from childhood to adulthood, then suddenly she looked unrecognizable.
This documentary was very eye opening for me, as someone who originally accepted the third secret that was eventually released after the attempted murder of Pope John Paul II. The documentary is 2 hours long, but well worth the watch. If nothing else, it will show you a bit of why many of us Traditional Catholics reject the 2nd Vatican Counsel.
In the video they walk you through the reasons they believe the real secret has been hidden, and why they believe Sister Lucia was replaced by a fake. They show photos that prove their cause as well as give a handwriting analysis of the two Lucia(s). On this 100th anniversary, let us pray that our minds and hearts are open to the true third secret, and pray for our Church and that one day we will no longer be divided. - I say Amen -
You may recognize some information that will be coming to this blog. That is because I use to run a blog called Catholic Talk also here on blogger. My mind isn't as sharp as it use to be, and with multiple emails, passwords, for various websites, blogs, social media accounts... I forgot the email and password used, and thus I have lost access to that account. *Sigh* So for those returning from that blog, Welcome back. For those seeing this for the first time, Welcome. And God bless you all. This is a Traditional Catholic blog (Pre-Vatican II) what you can expect to find in coming days: 1. Discussions about why there are Catholics who practice Pre-Vatican II Catholicism 2. What issues we have found in Vatican II, and the heresy we feel is being taught. 3. Discussions for our protestant and non-Christian friends to clear up misconceptions they have about the Catholic church and what we actually believe. Some facts may surprise you as they are completely different from what many have been taught about us Catholics. (For example: We do NOT worship statues, saints are NOT demi-gods to us, we do NOT worship our Blessed Mother nor place her on the same level as God.) And there will be discussions about a variety of faith related issues, as well as editorials on current events in the Catholic world. I am not an apologetic, I am simply a woman who has studied theology, the bible and had many discussions with Novus Ordo priests as well as Traditional Catholic priests. I am sharing my beliefs, my thoughts, and things I have learned on my journey. I welcome loving debate. Please also note: This blog runs in ascending order, meaning the newest blog will always be at the top. So please make sure you go back and read previous blogs, especially if the new blog is in relation to something already discussed. All that said, I simply want to speak about God, and his divine love and mercy.
So
welcome one and all no matter your race or religion (or lack there of).
I welcome you all with love for being willing to open your hearts to
what I have to say. I am not here to convert, merely speak what I've come to believe is the truth. If anything I say brings someone closer to God and a better understanding and appreciation of the Catholic faith, then Glory be God's name. Bookmark this page for updates! May the Peace of God be with you, and with your spirit. - I Say Amen
