(LifeSiteNews) — The following is the full text of a homily by Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò on the major litanies, or rogations.
FIRMAMENTUM MEUM
Homily on the Major Litanies, or Rogations
Pozzolatico (Florence)
April 25, 2024
Dominus firmamentum meum, et refugium meum, et liberator meus.
The Lord is my rock, my fortress, and my deliverer.
Ps 17: 3
The Rogations take many of us back to ancient times, when the twenty-fifth day of April was dedicated to the Blessing of the Fields. And it was in the countryside, once not too far from the cities, that we saw processions of the faithful and people following the priest, accompanied by the singing of the Litanies. Ut fructus terræ dare et conservate digneris… Peasants in festive attire processed with our parish priests to their farms, where his prayer echoed in a silence broken only by the singing of birds. The fruit trees were in bloom and poplar seeds flew through the air. And it was known, in the depths of a conscience that still spoke, that the Lord rewards the just and punishes the wicked: not only because this was what was preached in church, but also because this justice, simple in understanding and divine in its manifestations, sent locusts into the field of those who worked on Sundays and made the crops fruitful and the flanks of the cows and sheep ample for those who lived in the grace of God.
Our deeply Catholic upbringing showed itself to be embedded in a very elaborate design of Providence; and even if creation was hostile to us after the expulsion from Eden, we were nevertheless helped by the serene rhythm of the seasons and the comforting rhythm of religious celebrations to lead a life still corresponding to the harmony willed by the Creator.
Praised be You, my Lord, with all Your creatures,
especially Brother Sun,
Who is the day, and You illuminate us through him.
And beautiful and radiant with great splendor…
In those days we could still admire the dawn, in this season, the sky that cleared and shone in its radiant blue: today we have become accustomed to the gray blanket of artificially sprayed skies. And we understand, only today, how much we have taken for granted the light of day, which some self-proclaimed philanthropist would like to block:
of Thee, Most High, he bears signification.
Let us consider: the hatred of the enemy seems to show itself progressively with more and more arrogance, and to deprive mankind of the light of the sun is a disturbing figure of the obscuring of Christ, Sol Iustitiæ, by the servants of the Adversary.
Praised be You, my Lord, by Brother Wind
And by air and cloud and serene and every weather,
by which Thou givest sustenance to Thy creatures.
That society that was still Catholic, although undermined by the errors of liberalism or atheistic materialism, managed to survive until the 1960s because it was kept alive by the sanctifying work of the Church and by a generation of priests formed according to the traditional approach. To make these good parish priests and religious swallow the indigestible morsel of Vatican II took years and years of reeducation and purges, but in the meantime – even where the Reformed rite had replaced the Catholic Mass – the Faith of Christ was still being preached from the pulpits. For this reason alone, modern errors could not take root everywhere: the fear of God, respect for the sanctity of life, recognition of the social role of the family, and the will for good remained in souls. In the meantime, the conciliar cancer was spreading in the pontifical universities, in the seminaries, in the convents, in the Catholic associations.
READ: Rogation Days during Easter remind us of God’s desire to answer our prayers of perseverance
It was then that the Catholic hierarchy dropped the Rogations, considering them a forbidden manifestation of quasi-superstitious fideism. The proud and haughty minds of the innovators could not tolerate the Christian people asking forgiveness for their sins, invoking the Lord’s mercy, and propitiating His blessings in the fields. It was a “medieval” vision, unworthy of the high and grown-up consciences of the modernists. It was an obstacle to religious dialogue, because it recognized the Divine Majesty as having a centrality that modern man claimed for himself and his dignitas infinita – intelligenti pauca. Thus Providence was banished both in its intervention in history and in our ability to invoke it. Vatican II, with its horizontal vision, precluded us from that consoling awareness of being part of a cosmos in which our individual existence is irreplaceable because it is the fruit of the Provident Love of God the Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier.
The voice of the “conciliar church” made us believe that we were all saved by the mere fact that Christ was a man like us; and therefore that there could be no punishment because there was no fault to be punished; therefore there was no longer a God to implore to hold back the arm of His righteous wrath upon us sinners. This meant – and we see it confirmed today – that not even a Redeemer was needed and that the Sacrifice of the Cross was useless. But if everyone is saved, what is the use of the Church? If there is no flood, what good is the Ark? If the world can live in peace and harmony without God, why should we pray to Him? If we want rain, we drop it, and if the fields dry up, we grow GMO plants in hydroculture, we create synthetic meat, we replace wheat with cockroaches, nature with solar panels, and life with its grotesque replica in a test tube.
The soul of the Catholic people is summed up in the Rogations, because in invoking God’s mercy and blessing on the fruits of the earth that are ripening in the fields and along the rows, that people recognized themselves with humble realism as sinners, capable of amending, of doing penance, of defending their faith with the generous and sincere impetus of Peter: Lord, with you I am ready to go to prison and to death (Lk 22:33).
That Christian world, dear brothers, has been obliterated: in many nations it is considered a crime to follow its principles. But if it is humanly difficult to think that it is possible to reconstruct that model on the ruins of a brutalized and rebellious humanity, we nevertheless have the possibility of forming small communities in which the Catholic Faith is guarded and preserved according to that ancient and sacred way of life, in the awareness that perhaps we should also adapt to clandestinity and guerilla fighting. It will be then that our children will discover with amazement and disbelief how preferable it is to plough a field, till a vegetable garden, grow fruit, raise livestock, graze sheep, know how to make cheese and bake bread. Because that blessed sweat of the brow brings us back to the concreteness of our condition as exsules filii Hevæ but frees us from the servitude of call centers, from usury, from the need to buy and eat what others have decided.
Returning to the Faith is possible by creating small traditional communities, in which to confront the elements, follow the rhythms of the seasons, the fatigue of summer and the rest of winter, with constant prayer punctuating the days; days when we rise with the light of the sun and the sign of the Cross, and at the end of which we lie down with the names of Jesus and Mary on our lips; Days when the hail is driven off by means of a short, fervent prayer and lighting the blessed candle, when the agony of a soul is accompanied by the tolling of the bell, and not by the arrogance of corrupt doctors and heartless nurses.
That is why we pray today: that there may be farmers in the fields, vinedressers in the vineyards, shepherds for the flocks, tireless workers in times of both serenity and storm, both in the heat and with the hoarfrost. And this is true for crops and livestock, but also and above all for the Lord’s field, for His vineyard, for His flock: it is the reason why in the Litany we make invocation to be spared from flood and storm, from plague, hunger, and war, but also for which we pray ut domnum Apostolicum et omnes ecclesiasticos ordines in sancta religione conservare digneris. This is what the ministers of the Most High are for: to till and sow the Word of God by preaching; to multiply the clusters of the one vine; to feed the sheep that the Lord has entrusted to them.
The anniversary of the priestly ordination of Father Lorenzo and Father Emanuele and of my own episcopal consecration remind us of the importance of the Catholic priesthood, especially at a time when there are fewer and fewer ministers who have remained faithful to Christ. The Collegium Traditionis is precisely a seminarium, a place – and this will be well understood by those who know country life – where the seed of the vocation is made to grow and brought to development, before the plant can be planted and strengthened and bear fruit. Let us also ask, following the example and through the intercession of the glorious Apostle and Evangelist Mark, to see the supernatural fruits of this nursery of future priests blessed: for the glory of God, the honor of the Church, and the salvation of souls. And so may it be.
+ Carlo Maria Viganò, Archbishop
25 April 2024
S.cti Marci Ev.
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