Catholic Family NewsFor all of our Canadian readers, we are happy to post this announcement from Fr. Michael McMahon, Prior of St. Dennis Church in Calgary. If you are in or near Calgary, try to come out to publicly honor Our Lady on the Feast of her glorious Assumption!
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Public Profession of Faith
August 15, 2020
Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary
“According to the measure given to each, (we must) exert ourselves to hasten the work of God…by affirming both in word and deed and in the light of day, God’s supreme dominion over man and all things, so that His right to command and His authority may be fully realized and respected.” — Pope Saint Pius X
Dear Friends of Christ,
In honor of the most holy Mother of God—by whom the Blessed and August Trinity is most perfectly praised and through whom all graces from that Eternal Throne are mercifully and plentifully distributed to mankind—the Holy Rosary will be prayed on Saturday, August 15th at the Municipal Complex Plaza in downtown Calgary at 11 AM, along with the public renewal of our baptismal promises. All men and women of good will are strongly encouraged to attend this important profession of our holy Faith.
These times of sin and sickness, error and unrest, demand that the children of God publicly cry out and witness to the greater honor of Almighty God and for the salvation of immortal souls that there is but one Way, one Truth and one Life (cf. John 14:6); “one Lord, one Faith, one Baptism” (Eph. 4:5). As the great saint quoted above sadly lamented:
“For who can fail to see that society is at the present time, more than in any past age, suffering from a terrible and deep-rooted malady which, developing every day and eating into its inmost being, is dragging it to destruction? … [T]his disease is apostasy from God…. And as might be expected, we find extinguished among the majority of men all respect for the Eternal God, and no regard paid in the manifestations of public and private life to the Supreme Will — nay, every effort and every artifice is used to destroy utterly the memory and the knowledge of God.” (Encyclical E Supremi, nn. 3, 4)
As dire as things may seem, as daunting today that task of defending, restoring and spreading the Kingdom of God upon earth, we must courageously, dear friends, follow the heroic pope’s admonition to “take courage in Him who strengthens us; and setting ourselves to work, relying on the power of God, proclaim that we have no other program than ‘of restoring all things in Christ’ (Eph. 1:10), so that ‘Christ may be all in all things’ (Col. 3:2). The interests of God shall be Our interest, and for these We are resolved to spend all Our strength and Our very life” (ibid., n. 4).
As St. Paul so perfectly attests: “No one can lay other foundation than that which has been laid, which is Jesus Christ” (1 Cor. 3:11). It is Christ alone “whom the Father sanctified and sent into this world” (John 10:36), “the splendor of the Father and the image of His substance” (Heb. 1:3), true God and true man: without whom no one can know God with the knowledge for salvation, “neither doth anyone know the Father but the Son, and he to whom it shall please the Son to reveal Him” (Matt. 11:27). Hence, it follows that to restore all things in Christ and to lead men back to submission to God is one and the same aim.
Let us, confirmed soldiers of Christ, generously answer the clarion call to this much-needed public profession, by wielding the great spiritual weapon of the Queen of Heaven’s Holy Rosary, and sally forth since, “The times we live in demand action — but action which consists entirely in observing with fidelity and zeal the divine laws and the precepts of the Church, in the frank and open profession of religion, in the exercise of every kind of charitable works, without regard to self-interest or worldly advantage. Such luminous examples given by the great army of soldiers of Christ will be of much greater avail in moving and drawing men than words and sublime dissertations; and it will easily come about that when human respect has been driven out, and prejudices and doubting laid aside, large numbers will be won to Christ, becoming in their turn promoters of His knowledge and love which are the road to true and solid happiness” (E Supremi, n. 14). AMEN.
Yours in Christ the King,
Fr. Michael McMahon
“If it be just in the sight of God, to hear you rather than God, judge ye. For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard.”— Acts 4:19-20
Saturday, August 15, 2020
Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary
11:00 AM
Rosary in the Square in Front of City Hall
City of Calgary City Hall (PLAZA)
800 Macleod Trail SE, Calgary, AB T2P 2M5
Matt Gaspers
