Saint John Gualbert: Reconciling Enemies One to Another, July 12, 2026

Forgiveness of one’s enemies is a necessity if we want to save our immortal souls. There is, as I have noted so frequently on this site, no place in the heart of a Catholic for holding or nursing grudges or wishing ill for those we believe have injured us in some way or another. We must forgive as we are forgiven in the Sacred Tribunal of Penance, and we must seek to do good to those who have injured us, recognizing that there is nothing we can suffer from others that is the equal of what one of our least Venial Sins caused Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ to suffer in His Sacred Humanity during His Passion and Death and caused His Most Blessed Mother to suffer as those Seven Swords of Sorrow were plunged through and through her Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart.

The Gospel reading for Holy Mass on the Feast of Saint John Gualbert (and a Commemoration of Saints Nabor and Felix) that is read in years when the feast does not fall on a Sunday as it does this year reminds us that the very Second Person of the Most Blessed Trinity made Man in the Virginal and Immaculate Womb of Mary by the power of the Third Person of the Most Blessed Trinity, God the Holy Ghost, at the Annunciation, Christ the King Himself, taught us to forgive our enemies and to do good to those who persecute us:

You have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbor, and hate thy enemy. But I say to you, Love your enemies, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them that persecute and calumniate you: that you may be the children of your Father Who is in Heaven, Who maketh His sun to rise upon the good and bad, and raineth upon the just and the unjust. For if you love them that love you, what reward shall you have; do not even the publicans this? And if you salute your brethren only, what do you more? do not also the heathens this? Be you therefore perfect, as also your Heavenly Father is perfect.” (Matthew 5: 43-48.)

We must be perfect as Our Heavenly Father is perfect. We must forgive others. We cannot go about exacting vengeance or engaging in petty acts of vindictiveness against others. We must forgive as we are forgiven. It is that simple. Each of us deserves to be chastised for our sins. We should be grateful to the ever merciful God that He sends us others to calumniate us and to speak ill of us just moments after they may have spoken feigned words of greetings to us through gritted teeth and pretended smiles that betrayed a spirit of inner contempt.

So what?

So what?

Our sins deserve far, far worse than anything we are asked to suffer in this passing, mortal vale of tears. None of us or our supposed “reputations,” which exist more in our own imaginations than they do in the objective order of things, are so important as to become arrogant and full of self-righteous sanctimony when our “pride” is wounded and especially when things we would rather not hear about ourselves become more widely known in this life as a preparation for the revelation of each of our private thoughts, words and actions on the Last Day at the General Judgment of the living and the dead. It will only be on that Last Day that the totality of our lives will be seen by others as we saw it at the Particular Judgment, which is ratified and made known to all at the General Judgment to manifest both the justice and mercy of God.

So many people plot and scheme and whisper behind closed doors (or endlessly on their cellular phones) to “protect” their nonexistent “reputations,” fearful that some ill word, whether true or not, will be spoken against them. Meetings are held where tales full of half-truth and lots of positivism are spun to seek reaffirmation from others for a “plan of action” to proactively attack those who know the truth about them and their constant self-seeking. To what end? To what good end? Doesn’t everything get revealed on the Last Day? Why all of the efforts to avoid a little chastisement in this life?

Indeed, much of the chastisement that comes our way could be avoided entirely if we only had more humility to say, “You know what? Boy, I’ve messed up a whole lot. I’ve done some very bad things. I’ve treated people badly. I’ve attempted to make others look guilty in a given situation when I’m the one at fault. You know what? I’m a stinker. Please forgive me.”

Saint John Gualbert, whose feast we celebrate today, was confronted with a plea for forgiveness from the murderer of his own brother. The reading from the Divine Office for this day, as found in Dom Prosper Gueranger’s The Liturgical Year, tells of this plea and how it changed our Saint’s life:

Saint John Gualbert was born at Florence of a noble family. While, in compliance with his father’s wishes, he was following the career of arms, it happened that his only brother Hugh was slain by a kinsman. On Good Friday, John, at the head of an armed band, met the murderer alone and unarmed, in a spot where they could not avoid each other. Seeing death imminent, the murderer, with arms outstretched in the form of a cross, begged for mercy, and John, through reverence for the sacred sign, graciously spared him. Having thus changed his enemy into a brother, he went to pray in the church of San Miniato, which was near at hand; and as he was adoring the image of Christ crucified, he saw it bend its head towards him. John was deeply touched by this miracle, and determined thereafter to fight for God alone, even against his father’s wish; so on the spot he cut off his own hair and put on the monastic habit. Very soon his pious and religious manner of life shed abroad so great a lustre that he became to many a living rule and pattern of perfection. Hence on the death of the Abbot of the place he was unanimously chosen superior. But the servant of God, preferring obedience to superiority, and moreover being reserved by the divine will for greater things, bestook himself to Romuald, who was then living in the desert of Camaldoli, and who, inspired by heaven, announced to him that the institute he was to form; whereupon he laid the foundations of his Order under the Rule of St. Benedict of Vallombrosa. (The Roman Breviary, as found in Dom Prosper Gueranger, The Liturgical Year, Volume XIII, Time After Pentecost: Book IV, pp. 79-80.)

Saint John Gualbert’s entire life was changed by extending forgiveness to the man who had killed his brother because he had seen his brother’s murderer plead for his life with a sign of the Holy Cross. He forgave. He laid down his arms of battle to take up arms for Christ the King.

Saint John Gualbert’s show of mercy to his brother’s murderer, however, did not mean that he was, to quote the words used so frequently by the late John Joseph Jackie Boy or “Sully” Sullivan, a “wimp, a fairy, a pansy.” Not at all. Saint John Gualbert hated what God hated, and he was as fierce as a soldier in the Army of Christ the King as he had been as a soldier with the arms of this world. Although he wanted to show mercy to all others, he was fearless in opposing the abuse of ecclesiastical power as he exposed the plots and schemes of clergymen who were interested in their own money and power and privileges rather than serving the souls for whom Christ the King had shed every single drop of His Most Precious Blood on the wood of the Holy Cross.

If we think we have problems today in, consider the hatred directed at Saint John Gualbert as he opposed the simony (the buying and selling of ecclesiastical offices and privileges) that was so very widespread in his day and as he showed himself to be a tireless foe of heresy:

Soon afterwards, many attracted by the renown of his sanctity, flocked to him from all sides. He received them into his society, and together with them he zealously devoted himself to rooting out heresy and simony and promoting the apostolic faith; on account of which devotedness both he and his disciples suffered innumerable injuries. Thus, his enemies in their eagerness to destroy him and his brethren, suddenly attacked the monastery of San Salvi by night, burned the church, demolished the buildings, and morally wounded all the monks. The man of God, however, restored them all forthwith to health by a single sign of the cross. Peter, one of his monks, miraculously walked unhurt through a huge blazing fire, and thus John obtained for himself and his sons the peace they so much desired. From that time forward every stain of simony disappeared from Tuscany: and faith, throughout all Italy, was restored to its former purity.

John built many entirely new monasteries, and restored many others both as to their material buildings and as to regular observance, strengthening them all with the bulwark of holy regulations. In order to feed the poor he sold the sacred vessels of the altar. The elements were obedient to his will when he sought to check evil-doers; and the sign of the cross was the sword he used whereby to conquer the devils. (The Roman Breviary, as found in Dom Prosper Gueranger, The Liturgical Year, Volume XIII, Time After Pentecost: Book IV, pp. 80-81.)

Saint John Gualbert, man of mercy but also of justice, was dauntless in his effort to expose treachery and to unmask evildoers in shepherds’ clothing, living at the same time as that foe of the pestilence of sodomy then extant in ecclesiastical circles, Saint Peter Damian. Dom Prosper Gueranger explained the holy zeal for truth that consumed Saint John Gualbert, so much so that he had come into conflict with Saint Peter Damian, who had thought that Saint John Gualbert was wrong to have deposed a local bishop because of the latter’s self-seeking and practice of simony:

Never, from the day when Simon Magus was baptized at Samaria, had hell seemed so near to conquering the Church as at the period brought before us by to-day’s feast. Rejected and anathematized by Peter, the new Simon had said to the princes, as the former had said to the apostles: ‘Sell me this power, that upon whomsoever I shall lay hands, he may receive the Holy Ghost.’ And the princes, ready enough to supplant Peter and fill their coffers at the same time, had taken upon themselves to invest men of their own choice with the government of the churches; the bishops in their turn had sold to the highest bidders the various orders of the hierarchy; and sensuality, ever in the wake of covetousness, had filled the sanctuary with defilement.

The tenth century had witnessed the humiliation of the supreme pontificate itself; early in the eleventh, simony was rife among the clergy. The work of salvation was going on in the silence of the cloister; but Peter Damian had not yet come forth from the desert; nor had Hugh of Cluny, Leo IX, and Hildebrand [Pope Gregory VII] brought their united efforts to bear upon the evil. A single voice was heard to utter the cry of alarm and rouse the people from their lethargy; it was the voice of a monk, who had once been a valiant soldier, and to whom the crucifix had bowed its head in recognition of his generous forgiveness of an enemy. John Gualbert, seeing simony introduced into his own monastery of San Miniato, left it and entered Florence, only to find the pastoral staff in the hands of a hireling. The zeal of God’s House was devouring his heart; and going into the public squares, he denounced the bishop and his own abbot, that thus he might, at least, deliver his own soul.

At the sight of this monk confronting single-handed the universal corruption, the multitude was for a moment seized with stupefaction; but soon surprise was turned into rage, and John with difficulty escaped death. From this day John his special vocation was determined: the just, who had never despaired, hailed him as an avenger of Israel, and their hope was not to be confounded. But like all who are chosen for a divine work, he was to spend a long time under training of the Holy Spirit. The athlete had challenged the powers of this world; the holy war was declared: one would naturally have expected it to wage without ceasing until the enemy was entirely defeated. And yet, the chosen soldier of Christ hastened into solitude to ‘amend his life,’ according to the truly Christian expression used in the foundation-charter of Vallombrosa. The promoters of the disorder, startled at the suddenness of the attack, and then seeing the aggressor as suddenly disappear, would laugh at the false alarm; but cost what it might to the once brilliant soldier, he knew how to be abide, in humility and submission, the hour of God’s good pleasure.

Little by little other souls, disgusted with the state of society, came to join him; and soon the army of prayer and penance spread throughout Tuscany. It was destined to extend all over Italy, and even to cross the mountains. Settimo, seven miles from Florence, and San Salvi, at the gates of the city, were the strongholds whence the hold war was to recommence in 1063. Another simoniac, Peter of Pavia, had purchased the succession to the episcopal see. John, with all his monks, was resolved rather to die than to witness in silence this new insult offered to the Church of God. His reception this time was to be very different from the former, for the fame of his sanctity and miracles had caused him to be looked upon by the people as an oracle. No sooner was his voice heard once more in Florence that the whole flock was so stirred that the unworthy pastor, seeing he could no longer dissemble, cast off his disguise and showed what he really was: a thief who had come only to rob and kill and destroy. By his orders a body of armed men descended upon San Salvi, set fire to the monastery, fell upon the brethren in the midst of the Night Office, and put them all to the sword; each monk continuing to chant till he received the final stroke. John Gualbert, hearing at Vallambrosa of the martyrdom of his sons, intoned a canticle of triumph. Florence was seized with horror, and refused to communicate with the assassin bishop. Nevertheless, four years had yet to elapse before deliverance could come; and the trials of St. John had scarcely begun.

St. Peter Damian, invested with full authority by the Sovereign Pontiff, had just arrived from the Eternal City. All expected that no quarter would be given to simony by its sworn enemy, and that peace would be restored to the afflicted Church. The very contrary took place. The greatest saints may be mistaken, and so become to one another the cause of sufferings by so much the bitter as their will, less subject to caprice than that of other men, remains more firmly set upon the course they have adopted for the interests of God and His Church. Perhaps the great bishop of Ostia [Saint Peter Damian] did not take into consideration the exceptional position in which the Florentines were placed by the notorious simony of Peter of Pavia, and the violent manner in which he put to death, without form of trial, all who dared to withstand him. Starting from the indisputable principle that inferiors have no right to depose their superiors, the legate reprehended the conduct of the monks, and of all who had separated themselves from the bishop. There was but one refuge for them, the Apostolic See, to which they fearlessly appealed, a proceeding which no one could call uncanonical. But there, says the historian,. many who feared for themselves, rose up against them, declaring that these monks were worthy of death for having dared to attack the prelates of the Church; while Peter Damian severely reproached them before the whole Roman Council. The holy and glorious Pope Alexander II took the monks under his own protection, and praised the uprightness of their intention. Yet he dared not comply with their request and proceed further, because the greater number of the bishops sided with Peter of Pavia; the archdeacon Hildebrand [the future Pope Gregory VII] alone was entirely in favour of the Abbot of Vallambrosa [Saint John Gualbert].

Nevertheless, the hour was at hand when God Himself would pronounce the judgment refused them by men. While overwhelmed with threats and treated as lambs amongst wolves, John Gualbert and his sons cried to heaven with the Psalmist: ‘Arise, O Lord, and help us; arise, why dost Thou sleep, O Lord? Arise, O God, and judge our cause.’ At Florence the storm continued to rage. St. Saviour’s at Settimo became the refuge of such of the clergy as were banished from the town by the persecution; the holy founder, who was then residing in the monastery, multiplied in their behalf the resources of his charity. At length the situation became so critical that one day in Lent of the year 1067 the rest of the clergy and whole population left the simoniac alone in his deserted palace and fled to Settimo. Neither the length of the road, deep in mud from the rain, nor the rigorous fast observed by all, says the narrative written at that very time to the Sovereign Pontiff by the clergy of the people of Florence, could stay the most delicate matrons, women about to become mothers, or even children. Evidently the Holy Ghost was actuating the crowd; they called for the judgment of God. John Gualbert, under the inspiration of the same Holy Spirit, gave his consent to the trial; and in testimony of the truth of the accusation brought by him against the Bishop of Florence, Peter, one of his monks, since known as Peter Igneus, walked slowly before the eyes of the multitude through an immense fire, without receiving the smallest injury. Heaven had spoken: the bishop was deposed by Rome, and ended his days, a happy penitent, in that very monastery of Settimo.

In 1073, the year in which his friend Hildebrand was raised to the Apostolic See, John was called to God. His influence against simony had reached far beyond Tuscany. The Republic of Florence ordered his feast to be kept as a holiday, and the following words were engraved upon his tombstone: To John Gualbert, Citizen of Florence, Deliverer of Italy. (Dom Prosper Gueranger, The Liturgical Year, Volume XIII, Time After Pentecost: Book IV, pp. 75-79.)

Yes, there are precedents for a priest to denounce self-seekers. There are precedents for such a priest to be hated by many for his doing so as the self-seekers wrap themselves up in sanctimony and claim that they are the victims, not those whom they have abused or whose abuse they have suborned time and time again. There are precedents for a priest to be misunderstood and calumniated and abandoned by those who should be supporting him because they prefer not to see the truth of a given matter as this would mean upsetting an established order that has not been in the interest of the sanctification and salvation of souls or, obviously, to the honor and glory of God. 

Truth comes out sooner or later despite all efforts to hide it, to deny it, to misrepresent it, to attack those who speak out in its holy defense. Truth comes out sooner or later.

Saint John Gualbert forgave the man who murdered his brother.

He forgave the simoniac bishop, Peter of Pavia, whose reconciliation to Christ the King was so near and dear to his own deeply pastoral heart, which was conformed to that of the Most Sacred Heart of the Good Shepherd Himself.

There can be no compromise on any matter of Faith. There can be no compromise on any matter of Morals. There can be no compromise in any situation when souls are being abused by those who believe that they are to be served by the sheep rather than to minister unto the sheep who are in such need of succor and encouragement from their shepherds.

This is a point that Dom Prosper Gueranger made in his closing prayer in honor of Saint John Gualbert:

O true disciple of the New Law, who didst know how to spare an enemy for the love of the Holy Cross! teach us to practise, as thou didst, the lessons conveyed by the instrument of our salvation, which will then become to us, as to thee, a weapon ever victorious over the powers of hell. Could we look upon the Cross, and then refuse to forgive our brother an injury, when God Himself not only forgets our heinous offenses against His sovereign Majesty, but even died upon the Tree to expiate them? The most generous pardon a creature can grant is but a feeble shadow of the pardon we daily obtain from our Father in heaven. Still, the Gospel which the Church sings in thy honour may well teach us that the love of our enemies is the nearest resemblance we can have to our heavenly Father, and the sign that we are truly His children.

Thou hadst, O John, this grand trait of resemblance. He, who in virtue of His eternal generation is the true Son of God by nature, recognized in thee the mark of nobility which made thee His brother. When He bowed His sacred Head to thee, He saluted in thee the character of a child of God, which thou hadst just so beautifully maintained: a title a thousand times more glorious than those of noble ancestry. What a powerful germ was the Holy Ghost planting at that moment in thy heart! And how richly does God recompense a single generous act! Thy sanctification, the glorious share thou didst take in the Church’s victory, the fecundity whereby thou livest still in the Order sprung up from thee: all these choice graces for thy own soul and for so many others hung upon that critical moment. Fate, or the justice of God, as they contemporaries would have said, had brought thy enemy within thy power: how wouldst thou treat him? he was deserving of death; and in those days every man was his own avenger. Hadst thou then inflicted due punishment upon him, thy reputation would have rather increased than diminished. Thou wouldst have obtained the esteem of thy comrades; but only the glory which is of any worth before God, indeed the only glory which lasts long even in the sight of men, would never have been thine. Who would have known thee at the present day? Who would have felt the admiration and gratitude with which thy very name now inspires the children of the Church?

The Son of God, seeing that thy dispositions were conformable to those of His Sacred Heart, filled thee with His own jealous love of the holy City for whose redemption He shed His Blood. O thou that wert zealous for the beauty of the Bride, watch over her still; deliver her from hirelings who would fain receive from men the right of holding the place of the Bridegroom. In our days venality is less to be feared than compromise. Simony would take another form; there is not so much danger of bribery as of fawning, paying homage, making advances, entering into implicit contracts; all which proceedings are as contrary to the holy canons as are pecuniary transactions. And after all, is the evil any less for taking a milder form, if it enables princes to bind the Church again in fetters such as thou didst labour to break? Suffer not, O John Gualbert, such a misfortune, which would be the forerunner of terrible disasters. Continue to support with thy powerful arm the common Mother of men. Save thy fatherland a second time, seven in spite of itself. Protect, in these sad times, the Order of which thou art the glory and the father; give it strength to outlive the confiscations and the cruelties it has suffered from that same Italy which once hailed thee as its deliverer. Obtain for Christians of every condition the courage required for the warfare in which are all bound to engage. (Dom Prosper Gueranger, The Liturgical Year, Volume XIII, Time After Pentecost: Book IV, pp. 75-79.)

Father Francis X. Weninger's own tribute to Saint John Guablert emphsasizes that our Saint's path to holiness began, as noted above, when he forgave his brother's murderer:

The great holiness of John Gualbert began with one single act of self-denial. He was born at Florence, of noble parents, and although brought up in the Christian faith, he was but little instructed in the way of living a Christian life. When, in riper years, he entered the army, he learned still less of Christian virtue. When Hugh, his only brother, was assassinated by a young nobleman for unknown reasons, his father vowed to search everywhere for the murderer, and to kill him without mercy; commanding his son, Gualbert, to do the same if an opportunity should be offered to avenge the death of his brother. John showed himself as willing to obey the command, as his father had been willing to give it. On Good Friday, when John was returning from the country to Florence, he met the one on whom he was so eager to take revenge. The road where they met was so narrow, that the murderer saw no chance of escape; and as he had no weapons to defend himself, he fell on his knees and cried: "For the love of our Lord Jesus Christ, who died today, have pity and spare my life."

John, who had immediately drawn his sword on seeing him, was about to rush on him; but when he heard these words spoken by the murderer, he suddenly stopped. Pondering how Christ had not only forgiven His enemies for greater crimes, but had also prayed for them to His heavenly Father, his heart softened, and all desire for revenge fled in one moment.Casting aside his sword, he raised the assassin from the ground, embraced him and said: "What you ask for the love of our Lord, I cannot refuse. I will spare your life and forgive your crime." After having so heroically conquered himself, and reconciled himself with his bitterest enemy, John went into the first church to which he came, and kneeling down before the image of the crucified Saviour, prayed that Christ might, in mercy and grace, release him also from his offences. The image upon the cross bowed its head towards him as a sign that his prayer had been graciously received. This unexpected miracle made so deep an impression upon John, and the divine grace operated so strongly upon him, that he instantly resolved henceforth to serve God alone. Repairing to the monastery of St. Minias, he begged to be admitted among the number of the religious.

His father was at first violently opposed to it, but when he saw that John had cut off his hair, to indicate that he was in earnest, he not only relented, but praised his perseverance, and admonished him to remain firm in his resolution. John, however, needed not this admonition; he remained firm, and aspired with such zeal to spiritual perfection, that, after a very short time, he deserved to be placed as a model for all religious, in true devotion, humility and obedience. The zeal he manifested in the service of God at the beginning of his conversion, never decreased, but continued unaltered until his end. After the death of the Abbot, he was unanimously chosen as his successor. But nothing could induce him to accept the dignity offered to him, and to escape further persuasion, and to serve God more perfectly, he went, with several virtuous ecclesiastics to St. Romuald, at the hermitage of Camaldoli, where he remained for some time. As, however, this holy man informed him that he was chosen by God to become the founder of a new order, he repaired to a place, a few miles from Florence, which, on account of the many trees that shaded it, was called Vallis Umbrosa, or the shaded valley. There he met two hermits with whom he and his companions resolved to remain. The life he led while there was very holy, his occupation consisting of praying, fasting, watching and pious contemplations.

When this became known in the surrounding country, several men and youths came to him, desiring to lead a pious life under his direction. As the number of these daily increased, he erected a monastery and founded an order, which soon became famous in all Italy. He became its first Abbot, but governed those under him more by his example than by precept and admonitions. It was a commen saying, that if any one wished to know who was the Abbot of the monastery, he had only to observe who was the most humble, zealous, devout and patient among the brotherhood. Before he died, he had the comfort to count twelve monasteries founded by him, all filled with zealous servants of the Almighty. Towards others he was compassionate and kind, but towards himself, extremely austere.

The poor he assisted in every possible manner, not even sparing the sacred vessels of the Church, if he had no other means to aid them. He fasted most rigorously, and although he was a great sufferer, he refused to be exempted from the obligation of fasting. He prepared himself most devoutly for his end when he felt it approaching; and after having received the Holy Sacrament, he called all the religious to him and gave them his last exhortation to live in love and unity: to maintain strictly the regulations of the order, and to meditate frequently on death and the last judgment. His fervent desire to see God he expressed in the often repeated words of the Psalmist: "My soul thirsteth after God. When shall I go and appear before the Lord!"

At last, God granted the desire of his holy servant, and called him to eternal life, in the year of our Lord 1073, and the 74th of his life. The inscription on his tomb, which he himself composed, was as follows: "I, John, believe and confess the faith which the Apostles preached, and the holy Fathers professed in the four councils of the Church." St. John was honored during his life with the gifts of reading the innermost thoughts of the heart, curing the sick and the possessed by making the sign of the holy cross over them. After his death his tomb became an universal refuge for the oppressed and forsaken, on account of the graces which were there bestowed upon them, through his intercession.

PRACTICAL CONSIDERATIONS

I. Out of his love for Christ, St. John pardoned his enemy from the depth of his heart. Are you willing to do the same? Has not Jesus done the same for you? Has He not already often pardoned the many and great offences with which you had offended Him? Yet you consider so long whether you shall pardon your neighbor who has offended you only by a few words, or otherwise done you a trifling wrong. Oh shame! How dare you call yourself a Christian when you, as such, ought to follow the example of Christ? How can you expect that Christ will pardon your sins? Do you not know that He has very clearly said in the Gospel, that He will not pardon you, if you do not forgive your neighbor? If your neighbor does not deserve it, you still owe it to Christ. For love of Him, pardon the offences others have done to you. "God ordains it," writes St. Thomas of Villanova, "God commands it, and hence it should be agreeable to us." What will not we do to please the friend we love? If our friends ask for those who offended us, we again receive them into favor and restore them to our friendship. Christian reader who actest thus for love of thy friend, wilt thou not do the same out of love to Christ, who does not ask it of thee, but commands it? What is your answer? Do not hesitate, but prostrating say, with lips and heart, "Yes, my crucified Lord, for love of Thee, and because Thou commandest it, I pardon every wrong that has ever been done to me by men, and I hope Thou also wilt forgive my iniquities."

II. St. John never allowed himself to grow sluggish in the service of the Most High and in his solicitude for his salvation. How is it with you in this respect? You have often begun to serve God, and work for your salvation with great fervor because you were convinced that this is required to obtain eternal life. But how long did it last? Ah! sometimes a few days had hardly passed when you returned to your former sluggishness. You desire to serve God, but only so far as it is convenient to you, only so far as not to offend Him by a mortal sin. Lesser offences you do not mind. You think of the salvation of your soul, but not seriously and without forcing yourself to do all that you know is required of you. How do you suppose the Almighty regards your indolence? Can you imagine that He will reward with eternal life such coldness in His service?

If you had a servant who was so lazy, so careless in his duties, or who performed the work you gave him to do so negligently, as you attend to the service of God and the work of your salvation, would you be pleased with him or reward him richly at the end of the year? I do not believe it. And just as little ought you to imagine that God is pleased with your indolence, or that He will bestow on you an eternal reward at the end of your life. To good, faithful and fervent servants He has promised heaven; but one who is indolent cannot expect this reward. "Let nobody expect," says St. Chrysostom, "that after leading a tepid, idle life, he will enter heaven." This may not be. "Because thou art lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold I will begin to vomit thee out of my mouth." (Apoc. iii.) This is the divine menace. Sluggishness leads slowly to great sin and finally to destruction. If you desire to avoid this, begin anew to serve God with fervor and to work diligently for your salvation. But continue in it until your end; otherwise you will repent of it, but unavailingly, in your last hours, and still more in eternity. "When your last hour arrives, you will judge quite differently from what you did in life, and will bitterly repent that you have been so tepid and so negligent," says Thomas a Kempis. (Father Francis X. Weninger, S.J., Reflection on the Feast of Saint John Gualbert.)

We live at a time when so many men who know better, including priests and presbyters within the counterfeit church of conciliarism, make one compromise after another with their own consciences, violating their very integrity as they do so, to fawn over and pay homage to a false “pope” who is a blasphemer and thus a murderer of souls. They are always ready to play The Let’s Pretend Game, proving themselves to be self-seeking hirelings afraid to speak out in defense of the truths of the Sacred Faith.

Truth be told, of course, we really don’t deserve a better situation than this, especially if we consider how our sins have helped to bring on and to perpetuate the chastisements that are now upon us. We are very responsible for the state of the world-at-large and for the state of the Church Militant on earth, which is why we must plead with the Mother of God to help us to be reconciled unto her Divine Son, Christ the King, in the Sacred Tribunal of Penance by making a good, sincere, integral Confession on a regular basis, if at all possible in these times, and to cooperate with the graces received therein to amend our lives and to do penance for our sins, living more and more penitentially as we withdraw from the world, assist more regularly at Holy Mass, spend time before Our King’s Real Presence in the Most Blessed Sacrament, if this is at all possible in your area, and pray as many Rosaries each day as our state-in-life permits.

Let us keep close to the Divine Redeemer’s Most Sacred Heart through the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of His Most Blessed Mother in this month of the Most Precious Blood of Jesus that was shed for our sanctification and salvation. If Our Lord shed His Most Precious Blood to atone for our sins, we had better be ready to forgive each other even in the midst of circumstances that find us on opposing sides of those with whom we should desire to spend all eternity in Heaven.

Vivat Christus Rex!

Viva Cristo Rey!

Our Lady of the Rosary, pray for us.

Saint Joseph, pray for us.

Saints Peter and Paul, pray for us.

Saint John the Baptist, pray for us.

Saint John the Evangelist, pray for us.

Saint Michael the Archangel, pray for us.

Saint Gabriel the Archangel, pray for us.

Saint Raphael the Archangel, pray for us.

Saints Joachim and Anne, pray for us.

Saints Caspar, Melchior and Balthasar, pray for us.

Saint John Gualbert, pray for us.

Saints Nabor and Felix, pray for us.

Appendix

Father Francis X. Weninger's Three Sermons for the Seventh Sunday after Pentecost

First Sermon

"By their fruits you shall know them."--Matt. 7.

The world is full of deception, and this deception is the more dangerous, because no one is secure from it. The Apostle assures us that Satan at times changes himself into an angel of light in order to corrupt souls under the appearance of good. Christ Himself speaks in today's Gospel of false prophets, who inwardly are wolves, but who have clothed themselves in sheep's skins.

There is one kind of deception especially which is often practised by those having the happiness of being children of the Catholic Church, namely: the belief that their salvation is secured because they are children of that holy Church, and also because they really perform many of the duties imposed by Christianity. This apparently Catholic life is the sheep-skin with which they clothe themselves, while they secretly indulge in the most abominable vices, and are like rapacious wolves in the corruption of others.

The enormity of the deception of a person who is satisfied with living only nominally a Catholic life, becomes clear to us from the parable of the good and bad tree. A good tree brings forth good fruit, an evil tree brings forth evil fruit; and by the fruits will we recognize whether a man walks really upon the path of salvation or not.

Let us earnestly consider today this parable of Christ, for what would it avail us to be Catholics if we nevertheless went to eternal perdition? O Mary, thou tree of life, who hast borne for the blessing of all nations Jesus, the fruit of thy womb and of thy virtuous life, pray for us that His grace may bear fruit within us. I speak in the most holy name of Jesus, to the greater glory of God!

"A good tree," says Jesus, "brings forth good fruit." Certainly, but it does not follow from this that every bough or seed of a good tree must bring forth fruit. That this may happen several conditions must be fulfilled which have all a spiritual signification. A short reflection on these conditions will be not a little beneficial to our soul, to the end that the fruit-tree of our life may not wither, or stand barren, and without fruit.

That a tree may bring forth fruit, it is necessary, first, that the roots have good soil, such as can give them nourishment and strength. The ground for the tree of a good life is faith-- instruction in religion, reflections on the truths of revelation, according to St. Paul, who says : "The just man lives by faith."

What an important admonition, especially for parents ! How often is it not the case that they themselves are only nominal Christians, imperfectly instructed in their faith, and hence but little concerned about the instruction of their children! This is particularly so here in America. What is the consequence? The sapling of life withers before it has grown up. The sand and rubbish of temporal cares is the earth in which such people place the shoot of their tree of life. It draws no sap from the earth, and soon dies.

Secondly, that a fruit-tree may grow, it must be watered, and the dews of heaven must refresh it. The water, the dew, is an emblem of prayer. How much this watering process is neglected in the education of the young! The parents frequently pray neither at morning nor at night, and thus accustom their children to live without having recourse to God. Hence no growth, no progress in virtue. Yes, even on Sundays and festivals of obligation, many parents neglect to hear Mass; and their children, following their example, do not go to Church either. Perhaps the parents even work on holydays, and in this the children also soon imitate their elders.

There is, above all, among Christians a neglect of spiritual reading, and of the frequentation of the Sacraments. They have recourse to the Sacraments only when the weeds and brambles of sin have outgrown the sapling of virtue. What is worse, even when at last they approach these fountains of graces, they commit sacrileges, and the young tree is poisoned and destroyed to the very roots.

Thirdly, if a sapling is to grow up and bear fruit, its trunk must be carefully watched, that it may not fork and throw out saplings, but grow up straight towards heaven; otherwise it becomes a bush, and perhaps instead of fruit bears thorns. What does this signify? It signifies that our will, our character, should be one and undivided, that we be resolved not to live for that which is earthly, but for that which is eternal for God, for heaven; to raise eye and heart continually upward, as the priest daily tells the children of the Church from the altar. This aim is the trunk of the tree of life.

But that this aim may be practical the trunk must spread out branches; we must namely make resolutions to live according to our station in life. Our life must be well regulated, our duties must stand clearly defined before our inner eye, and we must be determined to fulfill them from love to God. This desire makes the tree blossom, and brings out the buds of good resolutions. But that these blossoms may not wither and die, that they may develop into fruit, the tree needs light, as also that inner flow of the sap which the root diffuses through the trunk into the branches.

The light exemplifies our good intentions, our continual remembrance of the presence of God, which, like the sun, sends light and warmth through our interior life. The inner sap exemplifies sanctifying grace, which has to dwell within us if the virtues of life shall not be mere semblances, but be real solid fruit brought to maturity and ripeness. If this is the case fruit will not be wanting, especially if the disposition of the heart is such that it secures the ripening, and does not allow the fruit to fall and be lost before its time. This is the work of holy patience. How vigorously, how encouragingly this virtue acts upon the growth, the ripening of the fruit!

A fruit-tree does not stand in a conservatory, but in the open field, and is exposed to all the inclemency of the weather to rains and chilly winds, and the fiery rays of the midsummer sun. The branches are tossed by the storm, and the trunk sways under its violence. It is change of temperature and variations in the weather that develop the bud and mature the fruit.

"Heaven suffers violence." This admonition of Christ should be constantly before our eyes if we desire to grow up like a good fruit-tree, and not only bear some, but abundant fruit in accordance with the measure of divine grace which God has given us.

This is the parable that Christ proposed to us. May we carefully consider it, and make use of the lessons it points out to us, in order that our life may become fruitful, and bear a rich crop for eternal life, through Jesus Christ our Lord, the heavenly gardener! Amen! (Father Francis X. Weninger, S.J., First Sermon for the Seventh Sunday after Pentecost.)

Second Sermon

"Every tree that bringth not forth good fruit shall be cut down,
and shall be cast into the fire."--Matt. 7.

How earnest and solemn is the Lord's menace in today's Gospel: " Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit shall be cut down, and shall be cast into the fire!" And mark well, not only every tree that bringeth forth bad fruit is threatened with this dreadful punishment, but also such trees as do not bring forth good fruit.

For, if we wish to be numbered amongst the children of God, we must, as our Lord Himself declares in today's Gospel, fulfill the will of our heavenly Father, according to the spirit of our vocation and in conformity with the duties of our state of life. The neglect of this obligation is an evil in itself, and brings down upon us the sentence of condemnation.

Unless we strive with all earnestness to advance in the way to perfection, we shall, even in this life, be deprived of many consolations, without which we easily fall a prey to despondency and despair. Thus, through a neglect of our spiritual welfare, we shall never know the joy and happiness which flow from a peaceful conscience; nor shall we ever experience the complete security and cheerful hope with which the fervent, earnest Christian may look forward to the day of retribution.

But certainly the most awful punishment with which the negligent Christian is threatened in today's Gospel, is his eternal banishment to the flames of hell! For, "Every tree," says the Lord, "that bringeth not forth good fruit shall be cut down, and shall be cast into the fire."

Mary, our refuge and hope, obtain for us, thy children, the grace, that we may live in such a manner as one day to be found worthy of being united to thee for all eternity in heaven ! I speak in the most holy name of Jesus, to the greater glory of God!

The first thing with which the tree that bringeth not forth frood fruit is threatened, signifies the chief punishment of the damned, "it shall be cut down." If we have fulfilled the will of God during our earthly life, if we have brought forth good fruit for eternity, we shall then be transplanted as good trees from the paradise of the Church into that of heaven. But should we have been careless in the service of the Almighty, should we have slighted His commandments and neglected our duties towards His holy Church, we should then be cut down like a tree that has brought forth bad and worthless fruit, and which is good for nothing but the fire!

What do we mean by the words "cut down"? It will be easy to understand the signification of this expression, if we but consider the joys of heaven as they are revealed to us by the light of faith. Holy Writ calls heaven a paradise; i.e., a world of wonders, created by God for the recompense of His faithful servants. And now, though no man can divine the beauty and splendor and grandeur of the paradise of God, still it does not surpass a mortal's comprehension to understand that a God, who is infinite beauty, infinite splendor, infinite might and glory, that such a God, I say, should be able, and is able, to call into being creations grander and nobler than the greatest beauties of the earth.

What a beautiful fairy world can the imagination of man conjure up, by recombining and rearranging the elements of the visible world about us! What grand and wondrous things, then, must not God, the almighty Creator, be able to design and execute!

And now, dear Christians, if you fulfill the holy will of God as it has been taught you by your pastors; that is, if, as good trees in the paradise of the Church, you bring forth good works for eternity, you will then soon be admitted into the heavenly paradise; where, rejoicing with great joy, you will exclaim: "I see the good things of the Lord in the land of the living;" heaven is mine, all is mine! If, on the contrary, you have not performed good works, or have done evil deeds, you will hear the voice of the Judge, saying: "Cut down the tree, and throw it into the fire." Far from tasting the indescribable joys of heaven, you will, O horror! be condemned to the everlasting torments of hell!

Holy Writ calls heaven the kingdom of joy. Indeed, nothing but joy, infinite joy, reigns in heaven! "I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice from the throne, saying: Behold the tabernacle of God with men, and He will dwell with them. And they shall be His people: and God Himself with them shall be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes: and death shall be no more, nor mourning, nor weeping, nor sorrow."

Yes, dear Christians, nothing but everlasting joy is the inheritance of the blessed in the kingdom of God. There is not a moment of care, not a moment of sadness or sorrow. Such will be your reward, if, during your life here below, you will treasure up good works for the life to come. But if you have not brought forth good fruit, you will, like a dead tree, be cut down, and never, never taste of those pure joys, of which St. Paul tells us: "Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man, what things God hath prepared for those who love Him." Never, unless you be a tree productive of good fruit in the paradise of the Church of God, will you, even for one single moment, through all the ages of eternity, enjoy this heavenly bliss, this all-surpassing beauty!

What a loss! The tree is cut down and cast away. What a dreadful evil! Holy Writ calls heaven the place of reward for the good works which we have performed, and the sufferings which we have patiently borne for the love of God. Nay, not even a glass of water given to the least of our neighbors for the love of Jesus, shall remain without its reward. And what will be this reward? Ah, dear Christians, its beauty and splendor will surpass all imaginable magnificence in this world; not the richest crowns, not the grandest princely pomp, will bear comparison to the things which God has prepared for the reward of those who show themselves His faithful and devoted children!

Happy you, God-loving soul, who, as a good tree, have brought forth good fruit by a faithful observance of the Divine law, and by the patient endurance of your daily trials! Indeed, the day will come, when you will exclaim in astonishment: Too great, O Lord, too great is Thy bounty towards me; never have I deserved, O Lord, the good things Thou hast given to me!

But woe to you, O sinner, who have not brought forth good fruit! You will be cut down, and will for evermore lament your miserable lot in the flames of hell! The menace of the Lord will be fulfilled in you: "He shall die in his sin, and his justices which he hath done, shall not be remembered." What a loss! what a terrible punishment!

Holy Writ calls heaven the communion with angels and saints in all their bliss. Who can imagine what a flood of joy and happiness awaits the soul of the just in such an assembly! Happy you, who, during life, have endeavored to imitate the saints your departed brethren, and have, as good trees, brought forth good fruit in abundance! The bliss of angels and archangels will soon be your own.

But if you have not performed good works, or even have done evil deeds, then will your Judge pronounce the terrible sentence of condemnation against you: "Cut down the tree." And instead of enjoying the community of angels and saints, you will be most unmercifully tormented by the evil spirits and by the damned, especially by those souls to whom you have given scandal by your dissolute manner of life.

Instead of partaking of the beatitude of Christ and His blessed mother, the Lord will say to you: "Depart from Me, you cursed!"

But allow me once more to ask you : What is heaven? Holy Writ again answers for you, saying: "It is God!" "I Myself," says the Lord, "shall be thine inheritance." And what is God? God is infinite beauty, infinite bliss, infinite love. The possession of a God who is infinite beauty itself, did this possession last but for a single moment, would be, as St. Augustine says, an overwhelming recompense for a life-long martyrdom.

If our life has been full of good works, we will then be united with God, and will, through this union, be made partakers of His beatitude. If, however, our life has not been fruitful of good works, and even has been sullied with many a sinful deed and thought, then the terrible sentence, " Cut down the tree," will be unmercifully hurled against us. Our loss, in this case, will be God and His infinite glory. And this loss will be irreparable; it will last for all eternity! What a terrible loss!

Let us then, dear Christians, according to the counsel of St. Peter, secure our salvation by leading a truly edifying life, a life full of good and holy actions! Amen! (Father Francis X. Weninger, S.J., Second Sermon for the Seventh Sunday after Pentecost.)

Third Sermon

"Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit shall be cut down,
and shall be cast into the fire."--Matt. 7.

The cutting down of the tree that does not bear good fruit reminds us of the first part of the punishment in hell, namely, the loss of eternal beatitude, of eternal delight, of eternal union with God in His glory, and in the enjoyment of all created bliss. The last words of the menace of Christ: "and shall be cast into the fire," recalls to our mind the second part of the punishment in hell, namely, the torment which the sinner is forced to endure there, if he has led a life barren of good deeds, if he has not brought forth good fruit, but, on the contrary, evil fruit.

Christ, in today's Gospel, speaks only of fire; but, in several passages of Holy Writ, mention is made of other torments. Meditation on the pains of hell, strengthens the soul in her resolution, rather to forego every temporary pleasure, and to bear every transient affliction, than to expose herself to the danger of enduring the eternal sufferings of the damned.

We shall today consider, in order, these torments of hell. O Mary, mother, we beg thee, by thy maternal heart, not to permit even a single one of thy children here present to be subjected to the torments of the damned! I speak in the most holy name of Jesus, to the greater glory of God!

"Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit shall be cast into the fire." Our divine Saviour here mentions the punishment by fire as the greatest and most painful torment that the damned suffer; but it is not the only one. Christ speaks also of other torments ; and He has revealed to us, through His Prophets and Apostles, that in hell the sinner shall have to endure hunger, eternal hunger; thirst, eternal thirst; the most profound darkness, the worm that never dies, gnashing of teeth and bowlings of despair, fire, eternal fire!

Holy Writ speaks first of the hunger of the condemned: "They shall suffer hunger like dogs." What a dreadful torment is hunger, even when endured but a few days! Josephus Flavius, in his description of the siege of Jerusalem, says that the pangs of hunger were so dire as to cause mothers to eat their own children!

In hell this hunger reigns forever! What distress that is, sinner, you will experience in hell! There, too, unrelenting thirst is experienced for ever! The torment of thirst is greater than that of hunger, as all those inform us who have traveled in deserts. But what is their thirst compared to that of the rich man in hell, who, as Christ tells us, thus called to Abraham: "Send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water to cool my tongue, for I am tormented in these flames."

Christ further assures us that hell is the place where the worm never dies, and by this worm He signifies the remorse of conscience: It is your own fault; it was not the will of God; it was so easy to save your soul; God bestowed so many divine graces upon you; you neglected them, set no store by them.

Bitter as these complaints may be, more bitter still will be the anguish of those who had during life so many opportunities of saving their souls; and such is the case with all the children of the Church. Woe to me, cries the unfortunate Catholic who has lost his soul! I had so many graces; I was a Catholic; God gave me good parents, teachers, confessors and priests; and I am damned! I had so many means of securing my salvation: Catholic instruction from my youth, sermons, Holy Mass, confession, communion; and I am damned!

But these are not all the torments which the sinner suffers in hell. Let us try to conceive all the pain of the manifold maladies to which flesh is heir, all the tortures the martyrs endured, the very thought of which causes us to shudder, and yet all these are as naught, compared with the sufferings of the damned in hell; for there, gnashing of teeth, howling, despair, fire, prevail!

That such is really the punishment of the damned, no one can doubt who considers what the Old and New Testament, the Apostles, the Holy Fathers, and Christ Himself have said concerning it. Isaias and all the Prophets expressly state this punishment of fire. They call hell, the pit of death,--the soil of curses,--the pool of brimstone,--the fire. Isaias says, emphatically: "Which of you shall dwell with everlasting burnings? " "He will," says St. John the Baptist, "burn the chaff with unquenchable fire." St. Peter and St. Thaddaeus exclaim: They will suffer the punishment of fire, which God has prepared for the devil and his followers. "And the smoke of the pit arose," says St. John, "as the smoke of a great furnace;" and Christ Himself assures us that those to whom He says depart, "shall go into eternal fire!"

The Holy Fathers, whose commentaries on Holy Writ we have to follow according to the laws of the Church, give their testimony with the same precision. What can be more explicit than what the Holy Fathers say of the torments of Hell? St. Cyprian writes thus: "There are various pains in hell, where, through the utmost darkness, the flames of eternal fire break forth." Before him St. Justin wrote : "They will suffer eternal fire for their crimes." Ignatius, a disciple of the Apostles, tells us: "Those to whom He says, Depart from me into eternal fire, are condemned to remain forever in the same." St. Cyril, of Jerusalem, teaches: "The sinner receives an immortal body in order that, though burning for evermore, he may yet never be consumed." "There even spirits are tormented by material fire," writes St. Augustine.

What torture! How is it possible that any one, who, as a child of the Church possesses the grace of faith, should not be willing to endure anything in this world, rather than expose himself to the danger of suffering such torments for all eternity!

The only means of guarding ourselves against so dreadful a future, is to make use of the divine graces and talents God has bestowed upon us, to avoid all sin, to overcome all temptations; and thus by bringing forth fruits of life, by fulfilling the most holy will of God, follow in the footsteps of our Lord and Redeemer Jesus Christ.

In addition to this our reason alone should tell us that, if God created rational and, hence, immortal beings; if He endowed them with freedom to fulfill or transgress His laws, He was also obliged to support these laws with endless punishment, if these immortal beings dared to violate them. I say endless punishment, because, for an immortal being, no sanction of a law is adequate unless it be eternal; for the contemptuous sinner might brave God, and choose to undergo any temporary punishment rather than be deprived of the present satisfaction of his passions. In that case the punishment would, in time, pass, and all would be over. But if the punishment is eternal without end even the devil must tremble at it, and the eternal laws of God have a sufficient sanction; otherwise, not.

Deign then, O Lord, to protect us from the transgression of Thy law, and from the everlasting evil of hell! Amen! (Father Francis X. Weninger, S.J., Third Sermon for the Seventh Sunday after Pentecost.)