These Last Days News - December 11, 2023
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Pope St. Damasus Shows Us What a Roman Synod Should Really Be...
"YOU HAVE BROUGHT SCANDAL"
"I do not intend to act as a hammer upon the heretics who have entered My Church, the deceivers, those not of the Faith who entered to destroy. My Mother shall direct this battle. Lucifer and his agents are in Rome now. Do you not know what this means? Are you so blinded that you do not know of the power of Lucifer? My children, My pastors, awaken from your slumber! While you sleep the sheep have run away. Awaken and save your own souls, for you have brought scandal into My Church."
- The Bayside Prophecies
Jesus, September 13, 1978
"You must instruct and bring to your children the knowledge of your saints. Their example is in the light, My children. Those you have set up to idolize upon earth now are the creations of satan. You must accept and follow the example of your saints, those who have been given this honor by your holy Church. They, too, My child, did not win their crowns without trial, rejection, and often, martyrdom."
- The Bayside Prophecies
Jesus, June 5, 1975
The above Messages from Our Lady were given to Veronica Lueken at Bayside, New York.
LifeSiteNews.com reported on December 11, 2023:
by Matthew McCusker
The crisis facing the Church today requires us to examine carefully the Church’s teachings on the papacy. The science of theology is the primary source to which we must refer to find solutions to the crisis. But the theological science is supported by a number of other disciplines. One of the most important of these is history.
The life of Pope St. Damasus I, whose feast the Church celebrates today, helps us to see what the role of the Supreme Pontiff is within the Church.
St. Damasus is an historically important figure. In him we see the emergence of the papacy as a major institution in Roman civic and political life. When Damasus was born around the year 304, the Church was suffering under the persecution of Emperor Diocletian – the greatest persecution so far in the Church’s history. Yet when he died, in 384, Christianity was the official religion of the Roman Empire. A few years earlier, Emperor Theodosius the Great, through the edict “De fide Catholica,” had made Catholicism the official religion of the Roman state.
In this decree Theodosius specifies that the authentic Christian religion is that delivered to St. Peter, preserved by faithful tradition, and taught by Pope St Damasus I:
It is our desire that all the various nations which are subject to our Clemency and Moderation, should continue to profess that religion which was delivered to the Romans by the divine Apostle Peter, as it has been preserved by faithful tradition, and which is now professed by the Pontiff Damasus and by Peter, Bishop of Alexandria, a man of apostolic holiness.
Election to the Roman Pontificate
Damasus was probably born and grew up in Rome. He was elected pope in 366 and reigned until his death in 384. His election was marked by a schism, with a minority faction backing an alternative candidate called Ursinus. The party of this antipope, who later publicly professed the Arian heresy, tried to undermine Damasus by making false accusations against him, including of adultery. The Emperor Gratian investigated the matter and declared the charge against him baseless. A synod of 44 bishops met to examine the accusations, found the saint to be innocent, and excommunicated his accusers.
St. Jerome thought very highly of Pope Damasus, calling him “a man of the greatest worth; a man whose equal could not be found, well versed in the holy Scriptures, and a virgin Doctor of the virgin Church.”1
St. Damasus used synods in Rome to condemn heresies
St. Damasus defended and preserved Catholic doctrine against the heresies sweeping through the Church at that time. A primary means of doing so was by holding synods in Rome. Through multiple synods, such as those held in the years 368, 369, 377, 381, and 382, he condemned heresies and taught the Catholic faith. In particular, he condemned a sequence of Christological heresies, which in different ways denied Catholic doctrine on the manner in which the divine and human are united in Christ. For example, at the Roman synod of 382 he anathematised 24 heretical propositions relating to the nature of Christ.
In 381 he sent his legates to Council of Constantinople, and approved its decrees, making it the Fourth Ecumenical Council of the Church. Constantinople I promulgated the Nicene-Constantinopolitan creed to expand the Nicene creed in order to safeguard it from heretical interpretations.
In 382, again through a synod held in Rome, he defined which books of scripture were canonical. He commissioned St. Jerome to produce a new translation of these books into Latin. This translation, the Vulgate, is still used by the Church today.
A letter from St. Jerome to St. Damasus from Egypt, at a time when heresies were multiplying, gives a beautiful account of the status of the Roman Church as supreme teacher of the faith, itself unstained by heresy.
St. Jerome wrote:
I think it my duty to consult the chair of Peter, and to turn to a church whose faith has been praised by Paul. I appeal for spiritual food to the church whence I have received the garb of Christ. The wide space of sea and land that lies between us cannot deter me from searching for “the pearl of great price.” “Wheresoever the body is, there will the eagles be gathered together.” Evil children have squandered their patrimony; you alone keep your heritage intact. The fruitful soil of Rome, when it receives the pure seed of the Lord, bears fruit an hundredfold; but here the seed grain is choked in the furrows and nothing grows but darnel or oats. In the West the Sun of righteousness is even now rising; in the East, Lucifer, who fell from heaven, has once more set his throne above the stars. “You are the light of the world,” “you are the salt of the earth,” you are “vessels of gold and of silver.” Here are vessels of wood or of earth, which wait for the rod of iron, and eternal fire.
He continued:
Yet, though your greatness terrifies me, your kindness attracts me. From the priest I demand the safe-keeping of the victim, from the shepherd the protection due to the sheep. Away with all that is overweening; let the state of Roman majesty withdraw. My words are spoken to the successor of the fisherman, to the disciple of the cross. As I follow no leader save Christ, so I communicate with none but your blessedness, that is with the chair of Peter. For this, I know, is the rock on which the church is built! This is the house where alone the paschal lamb can be rightly eaten. This is the Ark of Noah, and he who is not found in it shall perish when the flood prevails… He that gathers not with you scatters; he that is not of Christ is of Antichrist.2
This then is the Roman Church known by Catholics for centuries: supreme and unsullied by heresy or heretics. As Pope St. Damasus I himself taught in a decree of 382:
[T]he holy Roman Church has been placed at the forefront not by the conciliar decisions of other churches, but has received the primacy by the evangelic voice of our Lord and Savior, who says: ‘You are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it; and I will give to you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you shall have bound on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you shall have loosed on earth shall be loosed in heaven’ [Mt 16:18–19]. The first see, therefore, is that of Peter the apostle, that of the Roman Church, which has neither stain nor blemish nor anything like it.3
Footnotes:
1. Quoted by Dom Gueranger, in The Liturgical Year: Volume I.
2. Letter of Jerome to Pope St Damasus, 376.
3. Decree of St Damasus, 328.
"My child, you will make it known that Our children upon earth must speak often in the spirit with the good souls who are waiting to join them. Ask and they shall receive guidance.
"In human understanding, My child, it must be made known to mankind that your saints who are now in the heavens, in the Kingdom of your Father, they have full knowledge of the trials of earth and mankind, and therefore will be of great solace to you. Learn by their example. They did not seek the treasures of the world, but they truly sought to store these graces of treasures in the Kingdom.”
- The Bayside Prophecies
Our Lady of the Roses, November 1, 1975
"PLACE MORE ATTENTION UPON THE HOLY SACRIFICE"
Veronica - Padre Pio is present with us now. He is speaking in a tongue I don't understand. I know it must be Italian. I don't understand. Now I hear the words being repeated:
St. Padre Pio - "My spiritual children, you must unite in a common cause.
"Your world shall be chastised soon. Many shall die in the great flame of the Ball of Redemption. You have been given an extension of time to gather the souls, my children. Do not expect to follow my road and the road of the Savior without suffering. It is truly the way of the cross.
"Use more time in daily prayer. Not enough pray, my children.
"Place more attention upon the Holy Sacrifice. It is being celebrated in a manner that is not approved of by the Eternal Father. Take the time to honor your God with your heart. My brothers and sisters, the Holy Sacrifice cannot be done in thirty minutes, or even in sixty minutes, properly. There is no time in Heaven, and you shall not place a time upon the Holy Sacrifice on your earth."
Veronica - Oh, he's, he's also--the good Father, Padre, has injuries on his hands, too. He's holding them up now, but he's smiling.
Oh, I can see him so clearly. He's much clearer; even the light is not so bright that I can't see his face. He has grayish, dark hair with gray, mostly gray, and a nice beard. And he has a very sweet smile. Oh!
St. Padre Pio - "Receive your Savior often, My child, and you will be comforted."
- The Bayside Prophecies
April 5, 1975
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