The anniversary of the foundation of a religious congregation gives occasion to reflect on the spirit of its founder; the spirit that he intended to communicate to the members of his religious community.
Dear faithful,
The anniversary of the foundation of a religious congregation gives occasion to reflect on the spirit of its founder; the spirit that he intended to communicate to the members of his religious community.
As for us, the spirit the Society of St. Pius X has been clearly established by its founder, Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre (1905-1991). Here are some excerpts from a letter addressed to the members of the Society, in which the founder precises what he meant by the “Spirit of the Society”.
“The Spirit of the Society is the spirit of the Church, the spirit of faith in Our Lord Jesus Christ and in His redemptive work. The entire history of the Church, over the last twenty centuries, reveals the fundamental principles of the Church as inspired by the Holy Spirit, the spirit of Our Lord.
The priest is at the heart of this divine work of the renaissance of souls and their divinization in preparation for their future glory. All his thoughts, ambitions, and actions must be inspired by this spirit of faith. This spirit of faith is essentially a spirit contemplating the crucified and glorified Jesus. The Faith is the seed of the beatific vision, which is an eternally blessed contemplation.”
Now, looking at the past fifty years, we must thank God, who in His infinite goodness and mercy has kept the members of the Society of St. Pius X faithful to the spirit of their founder. This was achieved despite the weakness of the human element, and of the crosses that they had to carry on the way. What allowed the Society to keep going and to grow in a wonderful way despite the persecution that often afflicted her? It is what Archbishop Lefebvre used to call the special grace of the Society.
It is that special grace of the Society that should be animating all our undertakings, in particular the one that concerns us more directly, namely the search of a new church to accommodate our faithful from the Toronto area. Not only do we need to gather the ‘bricks’, in other words the material means by which Divine Providence will allow us to get that project off the ground. But, as much as we need them, material ‘bricks’ are useless if they are not sustained by ‘spiritual bricks’, that we will gather by prayers and sacrifice. So, on the occasion of the celebration of the fifty years of the SSPX, and of the week of the poor souls, I would like to launch a novena to St. Joseph, patron of the departing souls, to get a new church (see below).
As we express our thanksgiving for the past fifty years, let us pray for all the members of the SSPX, so that they remain faithful to the special grace of the Society, dear to the founder. May they contribute to the restoration of all things in Christ and to the triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
Fr. Dominique Boulet