The Exterior Reveals The Interior Part Two

People, just going to the traditional Latin Mass weekly is not a guarantee of either final perseverance or the growth in holiness.

I see more and more a dangerous ideal creeping into some traditional groupings with which I am familiar.

Plain and simple-the problem is legalism.

Following the rules, going to the Mass of the Ages, saying all the great pre-Vatican II prayers cannot equal the daily metanoia, the daily repentance and the seeking out of purification necessary for union with God.

Recently, I have had to reflect on some of the serious signs of a lack of the interior life among some trads I know. I had to consult a priest in the past about the problem of knowing people in serious sin going weekly and even daily to the TLM while sinning publicly.

I could not understand how some I knew who were into the occult, letting their children live extremely secular and even compromised lives while living at home, and even some people caught up in what only could be called mafia-life business deals, common knowledge in the community, and going to the TLM without repentance.

This good FSSP priest explained to me that one can receive the sacraments and not receive grace. That the TLM makes many people feel like they are on the right track and this can lead to self-deception. This priest explained to me the evil of legalism.

This good priest noted that sometimes those in the deepest sinful patterns think they are saved merely by going to the TLM. He told me some people live in self-deceit.

Working out one's salvation in fear and trembling means hard work on a day to day basis.

What I cannot understand is why the men in the TLM communities do not reach out and bring their brothers in sin back to conversion and repentance. Why do men avoid confrontation?

Many women in one Traditional Mass group were terrified of a violent man, who exhibited this violence during the week in a work situation in which some of the women were employed. And, yet, none of the men in the community addressed this violence. Even after some women bravely brought this up to members of the TLM community, nothing was done in that community.

Many of the women left the TLM rather than deal with the serious denial of reality.

Some of the women left the workplace where this man also worked, and yet, no man in the TLM community protected these women. Moses defended the Daughters of Jethro, yet these single women had no champions.

In another case, some TLMers saw that a man was involved in something occultic. Yet, no one said anything. Some men were in denial about the situation.

In yet a third case, some financially comfortable families were sending their children to state schools and not teaching religion in the home. No one said that this was a breaking of the baptismal promises of those parents, and the promises made at marriage to raise the children Catholic.

Going to Mass on Sunday was not a substitute for daily virtue training.



In all of these cases, I was either one of the few ladies to bring things up to the leaders, or the only one to do so. I tried to protect the single women. I tried to point out the occult dangers. I tried to show that Catholic education was a duty, not an option, for parents.

Why are men so complacent and accepting of serious imperfections?

Why? Where is the sense of community? Where is the sense of brotherly correction?

Just going to Mass is not enough. In fact, going to the TLM may cause some people to hide in sin.

Think about this.

The Mass is the culmination of one's worship, and should be a reflection of the interior life, not a substitute for the interior life.

We can all become merely "whitewashed sepulchers".

Matthew 23:27-28

Douay-Rheims 

27 Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites; because you are like to whited sepulchres, which outwardly appear to men beautiful, but within are full of dead men's bones, and of all filthiness.

28 So you also outwardly indeed appear to men just; but inwardly you are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.

The TLM should change one forever. The TLM should change families. I have seen this happen. I have seen large families becoming holy because the father incorporated the grace of the TLM and brought that grace home.

Daily life began to reflect the deep mysteries of the Mass of the Ages.

I have seen five vocations come out of one TLM community, in a city where there had been no vocations for forty years.

Those young men incorporated the grace of the TLM. They changed. They absorbed the graces of the most perfect type of worship known to humans.

This should be happening. 

I speak of the "women at the well". In ancient times, women would gather at wells to discuss family problems and to get advice from the elderly wise women. For centuries, the elders led the young ones to wisdom and grace. The younger women trusted those who were older and wiser. 

If this is not happening in a TLM community, that community is bogged down by legalism. Sharing leads to growth, and the younger women should have humility to seek out the old saints. I have met some of these older saintly women who have so much to offer the young ones. But, the younger ones are closed, caught up in secularism, missing the opportunity to sit at the feet of those in the Illuminative State. I know one women who is ignored by the community and every time I speak with her, I am drawn closer to God and His Mother. What a gift she is.

But, too many of the younger ones cannot see beyond their own egos. They have a little bit of knowledge and have grown proud.

I have seen this in two communities, and one has shrunken to one-fourth of its original size.

Legalism kills the soul and deadens the community.

Only repentance and the search for humility can create a vibrant community wherein the exterior reflects the interior.