These Last Days News - June 19, 2015
23 Reasons Why A Priest Should Wear His Collar…
“I send to My clergy, those whom I have given the grace to represent Heaven upon earth, this warning: You must now return to your traditional rites! You must restore My House from its crumbling exterior and rotting interior. You must rebuild what you seek to destroy--now!
"Many who call themselves My chosen ones have set themselves to destroy from within. Your actions have not gone by unnoticed by the Eternal Father. Error, deception, deceit, in the guise of sanctity and piousness! You are unmasked before the Eternal Father. You shall start little by little and repair the foundation, or you shall be within and destroy.
"I look upon all manner of abominations being committed in My House. Do you think you will go much longer without chastisement? Awaken from your slumber, My clergy! You deceive no one!”
- The Bayside Prophecies
Jesus, November 22, 1975
"This evil has penetrated far into the very heart of My House. You must now turn back and restore My House. I, your God, give you this command for the salvation of your own soul."
- Jesus, August 21, 1976
CristianesimoCattolico.wordpress.com reported on May 25, 2015:
by Msgr. Charles M. Mangan & Father Gerald E. Murray
1. The Roman collar is a sign of priestly consecration to the Lord. As a wedding ring distinguishes husband and wife and symbolizes the union they enjoy, so the Roman collar identifies bishops and priests (and often deacons and seminarians) and manifests their proximity to the Divine Master by virtue of their free consent to the ordained ministry to which they have been (or may be) called.
2. By wearing clerical clothing and not possessing excess clothes, the priest demonstrates adherence to the Lord’s example of material poverty. The priest does not choose his clothes – the Church has, thanks to her accumulated wisdom over the past two millennia. Humble acceptance of the Church’s desire that the priest wear the Roman collar illustrates a healthy submission to authority and conformity to the will of Christ as expressed through his Church.
3. Church Law requires clerics to wear clerical clothing. We have cited above number 66 of the Directory for priests, which itself quotes canon 284.
4. The wearing of the Roman collar is the repeated, ardent desire of Pope John Paul II. The Holy Father’s wish in this regard cannot be summarily dismissed; he speaks with a special charism. He frequently reminds priests of the value of wearing the Roman collar.In a September 8, 1982 letter to Ugo Cardinal Poletti, his Vicar for the Diocese of Rome, instructing him to promulgate norms concerning the use of the Roman collar and religious habit, the Pontiff observed that clerical dress is valuable “not only because it contributes to the propriety of the priest in his external behavior or in the exercise of his ministry, but above all because it gives evidence within the ecclesiastical community of the public witness that each priest is held to give of his own identity and special belonging to God.”In a homily on November 8, 1982 the Pope addressed a group of transitional deacons whom he was about to ordain to the priesthood. He said that if they tried to be just like everyone else in their “style of life” and “manner of dress,” then their mission as priests of Jesus Christ would not be fully realized.
5. The Roman collar prevents “mixed messages”; other people will recognize the priest’s intentions when he finds himself in what might appear to be compromising circumstances. Let’s suppose that a priest is required to make pastoral visits to different apartment houses in an area where drug dealing or prostitution is prevalent. The Roman collar sends a clear message to everyone that the priest has come to minister to the sick and needy in Christ’s name. Idle speculation might be triggered by a priest known to neighborhood residents visiting various apartment houses dressed as a layman.
6. The Roman collar inspires others to avoid immodesty in dress, words and actions and reminds them of the need for public decorum. A cheerful but diligent and serious priest can compel others to take stock of the manner in which they conduct themselves. The Roman collar serves as a necessary challenge to an age drowning in impurity, exhibited by suggestive dress, blasphemous speech and scandalous actions.
7. The Roman collar is a protection for one’s vocation when dealing with young, attractive women. A priest out of his collar (and, naturally, not wearing a wedding ring) can appear to be an attractive target for the affections of an unmarried woman looking for a husband, or for a married woman tempted to infidelity.
8. The Roman collar offers a kind of “safeguard “for oneself. The Roman collar provides a reminder to the priest himself of his mission and identity: to witness to Jesus Christ, the Great High Priest, as one of his brother-priests.
9. A priest in a Roman collar is an inspiration to others who think: “Here is a modern disciple of Jesus.” The Roman collar speaks of the possibility of making a sincere, lasting commitment to God. Believers of diverse ages, nationalities and temperaments will note the virtuous, other-centered life of the man who gladly and proudly wears the garb of a Catholic priest, and perhaps will realize that they too can consecrate themselves anew, or for the first time, to the loving Good Shepherd.
10. The Roman collar is a source of beneficial intrigue to non-Catholics. Most non- Catholics do not have experience with ministers who wear clerical garb. Therefore, Catholic priests by virtue of their dress can cause them to reflect – even if only a cursory fashion – on the Church and what she entails.
11. A priest dressed as the Church wants is a reminder of God and of the sacred. The prevailing secular morass is not kind to images which connote the Almighty, the Church, etc. When one wears the Roman collar, the hearts and minds of others are refreshingly raised to the “Higher Being” who is usually relegated to a tiny footnote in the agenda of contemporary culture.
12. The Roman collar is also a reminder to the priest that he is “never not a priest.” With so much confusion prevalent today, the Roman collar can help the priest avoid internal doubt as to who he is. Two wardrobes can easily lead – and often does – to two lifestyles, or even two personalities.
13. A priest in a Roman collar is a walking vocation message. The sight of a cheerful, happy priest confidently walking down the street can be a magnet drawing young men to consider the possibility that God is calling them to the priesthood. God does the calling; the priest is simply a visible sign God will use to draw men unto himself.
14. The Roman collar makes the priest available for the Sacraments, especially Confession and the Anointing of the Sick, and for crisis situations. Because the Roman collar gives instant recognition, priests who wear it make themselves more apt to be approached, particularly when seriously needed. The authors can testify to being asked for the Sacraments and summoned for assistance in airports, crowded cities and isolated villages because they were immediately recognized as Catholic priests.
15. The Roman collar is a sign that the priest is striving to become holy by living out his vocation always. It is a sacrifice to make oneself constantly available to souls by being publicly identifiable as a priest, but a sacrifice pleasing to Our Divine Lord. We are reminded of how the people came to him, and how he never turned them away. There are so many people who will benefit by our sacrifice of striving to be holy priests without interruption.
16. The Roman collar serves as a reminder to “alienated” Catholics not to forget their irregular situation and their responsibilities to the Lord. The priest is a witness – for good or ill – to Christ and his Holy Church. When a “fallen-away” sees a priest, he is encouraged to recall that the Church continues to exist. A cheerful priest provides a salutary reminder of the Church.
17. The wearing of clerical clothing is a sacrifice at times, especially in hot weather. The best mortifications are the ones we do not look for. Putting up with the discomforts of heat and humidity can be a wonderful reparation for our own sins, and a means of obtaining graces for our parishioners.
18. The Roman collar serves as a “sign of contradiction” to a world lost in sin and rebellion against the Creator. The Roman collar makes a powerful statement: the priest as an alter Christus has accepted the Redeemer’s mandate to take the Gospel into the public square, regardless of personal cost.
19. The Roman collar helps priests to avoid the on duty/off duty mentality of priestly service. The numbers 24 and 7 should be our special numbers: we are priests 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. We are priests, not men who engage in the “priest profession.” On or off duty, we should be available to whomever God may send our way. The “lost sheep” do not make appointments.
20. The “officers” in Christ’s army should be identifiable as such. Traditionally, we have remarked that those who receive the Sacrament of Confirmation become “soldiers” of Christ, adult Catholics ready and willing to defend his name and his Church. Those who are ordained as deacons, priests and bishops must also be prepared – whatever the stakes – to shepherd the flock of the Lord. Those priests who wear the Roman collar show forth their role unmistakably as leaders in the Church.
21. The saints have never approved of a lackadaisical approach concerning priestly vesture. For example, Saint Alphonsus Liguori (1696-1787), Patron Saint of Moral Theologians and Confessors, in his esteemed treatise The Dignity and Duties of the Priest, urges the wearing of the appropriate clerical dress, asserting that the Roman collar helps both priest and faithful to recall the sublime splendor of the sacerdotal state instituted by the God-Man.
22. Most Catholics expect their priests to dress accordingly. Priests have long provided a great measure of comfort and security to their people. As youths, Catholics are taught that the priest is God’s representative – someone they can trust. Hence, the People of God want to know who these representatives are and what they stand for. The cherished custom of wearing distinguishable dress has been for centuries sanctioned by the Church; it is not an arbitrary imposition. Catholics expect their priests to dress as priests and to behave in harmony with Church teaching and practice. As we have painfully observed over the last few years, the faithful are especially bothered and harmed when priests defy the legitimate authority of the Church, and teach and act in inappropriate and even sinful ways.
23. Your life is not your own; you belong to God in a special way, you are sent out to serve him with your life. When we wake each morning, we should turn our thoughts to our loving God, and ask for the grace to serve him well that day. We remind ourselves of our status as His chosen servants by putting on the attire that proclaims for all to see that God is still working in this world through the ministry of poor and sinful men.
THE AUTHORs
Msgr. Charles M. Mangan has been appointed by His Holiness, Pope John Paul II, to a position serving the Vatican’s Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life. Ordained in 1989, Msgr. Mangan formerly served the Diocese of Sioux Falls in several parishes.
Father Gerald E. Murray is a priest of the Archdiocese of New York. He is a graduate of Dartmouth College and was ordained in 1984 after completing studies at St. Joseph’s Seminary in Dunwoodie, N. Y. Currently he is studying canon law at the Gregorian University in Rome.
"Many now rebel against their leader, their God-given leader, your Vicar. In matters of faith and morals, man must not change the God-given laws, coming from the seat of Peter, and established through tradition upon earth through My Son's Church."
- The Bayside Prophecies
Our Lady of the Roses, October 6, 1979
"Because of the fall in Babylon, many new languages were given because of the sin of Babylon. Therefore, as a member of one country, My children, with a universal language, you carried with you your own country's translation, and were you to visit abroad, you could enter upon any foreign edifice, Church of My Son, and feel comfortable and in one with the man, the priest, the one chosen by My Son to represent Him in His House.
"If you were, My child, to go from your United States to France, could you understand the words in French? But, My child, you would recognize the words in Latin and you would have your book with you to read in your American language, just as those in France could read in their French language, bringing upon the world a beautiful and common bond of language among all who have been given the grace to be called to the Roman Catholic Church of My Son.
"Do not leave My Son's Church though, My children, because they have taken this language from among you. You must wait and persevere and weep with My Son for this defilement by man."
- The Bayside Prophecies
Our Lady of the Roses, April 10, 1976
Our Lady of the Roses' Awesome Bayside Prophecies…
These prophecies came from Jesus, Mary, and the saints to Veronica Lueken at Bayside, NY, from 1968 to 1995:
YOU WILL STOP EXPERIMENTING
"My child and My children, I come once more with an urgent and pleading message to the hierarchy in the Church, My Church upon earth. I want you to know now that We look upon you and find many that do not fall into grace. They are falling out of grace and misleading many of Our sheep.
"Therefore, I warn you now as your God: You will stop your intricacies within My Church. You will stop experimenting. I gave you the rules to follow many years ago, two thousand years approximately. And why now, two thousand years later, do you deem it necessary to change My Church upon earth? I, your God, say to you, you will be judged accordingly. You will return My Church to its former glory, and in that manner you will have more vocations and more entering the seminaries, and not fleeing from them as they hear the heresies and all other innovations that are going on within My Church. This is My last and final word to My clergy: Change now or suffer a just punishment and banishment."
- Jesus, June 18, 1986
RETURN TO YOUR TRADITIONAL RITES
”I send to My clergy, those whom I have given the grace to represent Heaven upon earth, this warning: You must now return to your traditional rites! You must restore My House from its crumbling exterior and rotting interior. You must rebuild what you seek to destroy--now!
"Many who call themselves My chosen ones have set themselves to destroy from within. Your actions have not gone by unnoticed by the Eternal Father. Error, deception, deceit, in the guise of sanctity and piousness! You are unmasked before the Eternal Father. You shall start little by little and repair the foundation, or you shall be within and destroy.
"I look upon all manner of abominations being committed in My House. Do you think you will go much longer without chastisement? Awaken from your slumber, My clergy! You deceive no one!”
- Jesus, November 22, 1975
CHANGING THE CONSTRUCTION
“You will not bring about a conversion of those who are presently apostate by compromising your Faith or changing the construction of the exterior lines of My Church; and by that I mean the physical appearance and the manner in which you conduct the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.
“Many are giving My Body in a manner that can only be called blasphemy. Many are accepting My Body in the Eucharist in a manner that defames the Divinity, and also promotes unholiness, paganism, and impurity of heart and actions during the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.”
- Jesus, May 26, 1979
CHANGES MUST BE STOPPED AND REVERSED
"There is no excuse accepted now by the Eternal Father among the clergy, who now offend the Eternal Father by misleading the children of God upon earth. The experimentation and changes must be stopped and reversed! There is no other course.”
- Our Lady of the Roses, August 4, 1979
“RESTORE MY HOUSE!”
"My Mother has given you My way. It is a simple road that must be followed. The rules have been given to you that must not be changed, as you cater to the basic carnal nature of man, a generation that has fallen! You will not make changes within My House, for you have dispersed My sheep. You will restore My House to its former glory. Strip you hearts of your pride! Recognize your errors and restore My House!
"I say this to you for your Creator, as your God: Restore My House, or I shall come down and restore it Myself with a firm hand! And shall you stand before Me, O pastors, and say that your teachings have been pure in My sight? I shall take you and spit you out as spittle into the fires of eternal damnation! Vermin that came out of the flowers!”
- Jesus, December 28, 1976
STOP CHANGE AND NOVELTY
"My child and My children, make it known to all that the road to Heaven was never easy, but you can make it much easier upon yourselves and your families if you follow the rules, if you follow the Commandments from the Eternal Father. The changes that We see taking place in My House and upon earth are not good, for many, many souls are falling into hell. And a great measure of responsibility now is with those who have been called to the holy orders, who have given themselves to represent Me upon earth. Shall I say that I have found many Judases now within My House? Cannot this situation be changed?
"There is only one way that this can be stopped, this evil that has seeped into My House and into the hearts of all mankind. You must stop now your seeking for change and novelty. You must restore My Church to its former glory. Admit your error. Do not conceal this with pride and arrogance.
"Remember there was the time when it was necessary to cast Luciel and his followers from Heaven--Lucifer, who now goads you on to hell with him, upon earth. He had to be cast from Heaven because he, too, became prideful and arrogant, seeking to make himself another living god. This cannot be done. You cannot be above your Creator.”
- Jesus, September 7, 1978
DO NOT ACCEPT
"My children, you must retain Tradition; you must retain a firm foundation of your faith by keeping all of the good publications. Do not accept the changes that have been made by satan to seduce your souls.”
- Jesus, November 19, 1977
INDOCTRINATED
Veronica - The books are being changed to cover the evil being perpetrated now. The young are being indoctrinated to accept changes which will take away Tradition and even doctrine. Our Lady said we must all pray a constant vigilance of prayer. It has a great power over the demons.
- November 19, 1977
NOT FROM HOLY SPIRIT
"I must, My child, make it known at this time that you must go back in the immediate years and bring the knowledge to mankind that these changes, the changes that have given bad fruits, have not been given to you through the Holy Spirit and through your Vicar, Pope Paul VI. It is the web of satan reaching out. Many are now, My child, puppets. The strings are being pulled by Benelli, Villot, and Casaroli and their followers.”
- Our Lady of the Roses, September 27, 1975
YOU HAVE STRAYED
"O My children, how far you have strayed from the truth! The knowledge given to you by your prophets were written down in truth to guide you, but now you change the words to suit your basic carnal human natures. Go back and read, My children, the true words of your prophets. But do not accept changes in the Book, for these changes have been promoted by satan. Heresy, O mournful heresy, whatever shall become of you!
"Parents, I caution you anew to guard the souls of your children by your teaching and example. You cannot save your children's souls by giving them to false teachers and the world, for the world has now been given to satan.”
- Our Lady of the Roses, June 5, 1976
“WE DO NOT CONDONE VARIATIONS AND CHANGES"
"It has grieved Me much in the past, as it grieves Me now, that mankind is making changes to My words. I assure you, My children and pastors within My houses, My Church upon earth, there is no necessity to change My words. Heaven, hell, purgatory, and especially, My children, the word 'hell' must be retained in your prayers.
"Repeat, My child, the confessional prayer.
O my God, I am heartily sorry for having offended Thee, and I confess to all my sins, because I dread the loss of Heaven and the pains of hell, but most of all because I love Thee, my God, Who are all-good and deserving of all my love. I firmly resolve, with the help of Thy grace, to confess my sins, to do penance, and to amend my life. Amen.
"Yes, My child, We do not condone variations and changes. It is the enemies of your God that have set themselves to promote change upon My words. The word of your God is eternal and must not be changed.”
- Jesus, February 10, 1977
ONLY SATAN SEEKS CHANGE
"We ask--the Eternal Father speaks, and demands that all bishops in the houses of God throughout your world must turn back to prayer. They must turn back from the road they have chosen, a road filled with error, corruption, and sin. Man will not make changes in the House of God to please the basic carnal nature of mankind! But man in the House of God--the leaders, the clergy chosen by the Eternal Father, shall turn man from his path of destruction and bring him into the House of God. This he will not accomplish by lowering the rule or standards. Man must change his ways and follow the ways of God.
"You are, My children, living in the era of Antichrist. Recognize the signs of your times, and you will not fall into error. Read the Book, My children. You read books of corruption and vile debauchery. Restore the truth in your heart, into your children and homes. Open the good Book, the Bible, and read it in your homes.
"My Son has already set up the rule for the houses throughout the world, the churches. They are written in the Book of love and life, the Bible. Read and learn, and follow the truth!
"There is no time or change in Heaven. The Father never changes. It is only satan who seeks change to disturb, corrupt, and degrade. Satan roams wherever there is darkness of spirit. He will debase mankind in a manner so foul that you will know that no human could conceive of such vileness of sin.”
- Our Lady of the Roses, March 22, 1975
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