The helm has broken down and the ship, left to itself, is drifting as waves and currents dictate. As a frail raft lost in the middle of the sea, it is but a wisp of straw at the ocean’s mercy.
Like the drunken wandering of a boat adrift, man today staggers along, haggard and swept away by dark currents which use his passions in order to subject him to their dominion. Where does this deadly drunkenness come from, which leads man to the edge of the abyss without his being aware of it?
Dear Friends and Benefactors,
The helm has broken down and the ship, left to itself, is drifting as waves and currents dictate. As a frail raft lost in the middle of the sea, it is but a wisp of straw at the ocean’s mercy.
Like the drunken wandering of a boat adrift, man today staggers along, haggard and swept away by dark currents which use his passions in order to subject him to their dominion. Where does this deadly drunkenness come from, which leads man to the edge of the abyss without his being aware of it?
From the lack of principles.
Without principles, man is similar to a ship without a helm, for his intelligence and will are no longer fed by the direct contact with reality. Principles are not man’s artificial creation but reality, which is independent from him and imposes itself on him from the outside. They are the great laws of existence which govern man and enable him to stand in the midst of storms, or even to rise to his feet again if the gust, for a brief moment, made him sway and fall.
This greatness of principles stems from the fact that they are the expression of the divine intelligence and will, which awaken and form man’s intelligence and will, so as to lead him to the path of truth. Thus, they enable him to hold fast to it with all his soul. Man depends entirely on the principles that govern the world, and in no way do principles depend on man. They just are. They stand as safeguards against the erring of intelligence and the inconsistency of the will which find in them a reliable guide, a watchful sentinel of order, truth and good.
To stray away from principles and the rules they underlie is to accept to sail on the sea of infinite varieties of impressions, of subjectivism, of “it seems to me that…” or of “I feel that…,” etc. where man proclaims himself king and master in defiance of reality. The consequences of this proud drunkenness are well-known to us: the world today is the child of this permanent revolution of unbridled subjectivity which, after getting man intoxicated, leads him astray into perilous roads.
As a result, nothing is more urgent or relevant than to come back to principles and to hold fast to them. The world cannot get back on its feet but through this essential return. Unfortunately, few understand this, for our time is bewitched by the supremacy of technology and only seeks practical and concrete solutions. Principles, therefore, appear to our weakened minds as outmoded and idealistic. They require, moreover, a willful and intellectual submission that we are far from having, so soaked are we in this revolutionary spirit of absurd demands and simple-minded egalitarianism. This double submission clashes profoundly with the pride hidden in each one of us, which is flattered by the modern ease of materialistic pleasure.
To skeptics and hedonists, who mock the royal virtue of principles and prefer playing the role of revolutionary innovators, we can only put forward the example of Saint Pius X, luminous figure who enlightens with his majestic stature the whole 20th century. The celebration of the 100th anniversary of his pontifical election highly invites us to it.
This holy Pope disappeared completely behind his numerous and heavy functions, as he was a great servant of the principles he had to defend, regardless of all other considerations. He thus became a column of Holy Mother Church, defending with vigor the purity of her doctrine and profoundly reforming her discipline. He was a barrier against the sludge of Modernism and a light for our times. Only respect and faithfulness to principles can overcome the dogs who strive to bite the immaculate Spouse of Christ at the heel.
This faithful submission to principle is, after all, only the recognition of the Divine Majesty and its superior rights. The soul which devotes itself to it encounters peace and serenely goes through the trials that lay ahead the champion of the divine rights. This unfailing serenity seems surprising at first. Yet, it is the normal fruit stemming from the attitude of the soul used to walking on the peaks, breathing the pure air of the mountains and living in God’s presence, referring to Him to govern its conduct.
In the Society St. Pius X, we have the double grace of being under the heavenly and mighty patronage of Saint Pius X, and of having the honor to have Archbishop Lefebvre as our founder. The latter was the embodiment ? if there is one ? of the sentence pronounced one century before him by another noble and great figure: “My self is nothing, my principle is everything.” Our fidelity to this double grace answers for our fidelity to everything else. We count on your prayers for this intention; they will be your finest alms, and the most necessary of all.
We will thus be able to continue our task. A seminary is a school of nobility where a man, upon receiving a complete formation, prepares to receive the grace of priestly ordination which will make him an alter Christus, wholly ordained to defend God’s unalienable rights and divine paternity. Ordained! This shows all too clearly that the seminary is a school where principles are honored, for they alone can ordain (that is to say, to give order) and balance man. These principles enable man to receive a sufficient formation appropriate to the mission he embraces the day of his ordination and to the exigencies that it entails. The priest will thus be this man wholly dedicated to the defense of principles, which are the expressions of the divine will.
By doing so, we work towards the restoration of the world through the restoration of a genuinely catholic priesthood. There is no other way of extricating the world from this tragic and fatal pitfall in which it withers. It is a delicate task in a world plunged in darkness, yet the way is opened, royally, through the solid guides found in Saint Pius X and Archbishop Lefebvre. We do intend, through the aid of grace, to follow in their footsteps.
We will manage to do it all the easier by following Bishop Williamson’s work, and, like him, by fighting this abominable cancer of Liberalism which corrupts our time and succeeds in spreading its miasma in catholic minds and hearts. Thrown into universal chaos, we have the duty to turn to superior realities which have successfully endured the test of time. We will thus avoid being seized by the dizziness of the so-called modern thought that, on the pretext of success, strives to untangle us in its swamps.
Such success represents a deceiving pitfall: not only must we beware of modern thought itself, but also of its methods. Liberalism does not only consist in a purely speculative doctrine, it is – above all? – also a practice. Those who give themselves up to it insidiously risk catching the virus of liberal thought and waking up infected by it… if they ever wake up! For those who flirt with those too-attractive methods run the terrifying risk of not being able to realize their profound lethargy: the very nature of this virus is indeed to plunge those infested into a fatal slumber.
May God preserve us against it!
Keeping one hand on the helm in order not to depart from our path, and holding our course in order not to get stranded on the reefs, we therefore rest on these natural and supernatural principles which made Christendom, and which have – alone – the power to reconstruct it. We will not forget to pray for you with gratitude, dear friends and benefactors, who support us by your prayers, sacrifices and donations. Let us rest on Our Lord who possesses the promises of eternal light. Incarnate Principle, he conquered the world and invites us to do the same by uniting with Him through absolute fidelity found in respect and veneration of principles, which Holy Mother Church has passed onto us and that we want to pass on in turn – in full.
At the end of the month we will receive 27 new seminarians, an unquestionable sign that our Good Lord continues to bless the Society of St. Pius X, the daily work of its priests and the families that support it. In a world dominated by the craving for pleasure, each vocation is a particular miracle of grace. Then, let us not forget to pray for vocations and for their perseverance, because certainly the devil will not leave things as they are…
In Christo Sacerdote et Maria.
Fr. Yves le Roux