The month of August marks an important celebration for the Church and especially for our little Society of St Pius X. The 20th of August will mark the centennial anniversary of the death of our patron Pope St. Pius X.
Dear friends and benefactors of the Society of St. Pius X
The month of August marks an important celebration for the Church and especially for our little Society of St Pius X. The 20th of August will mark the centennial anniversary of the death of our patron Pope St. Pius X.
St. Pius X had a great impact on the church and on the modern society of his time. Pope Pius XII gives expression to the thoughts of many as he revealed the impact this great Pope had in his allocution given at the Canonization. In it he lays out the saint’s recipe for holiness and thereby the means to restore all things in Christ. A large part of this allocution is quoted below for your reflection and inspiration to work towards the same.
“Sanctity which was the inspiration and direction force of the undertakings of Pius X, is still more clearly discernible in his personal life. Before applying it to others, he put into practice in his own life his program of unifying all things in Christ.
First as a humble parish priest then as a Bishop, and finally as Supreme Pontiff he was intimately convinced that the sanctity to which God called him was priestly sanctity. For what sanctity is more pleasing to God in a priest of the New Law than that which belongs to him as representative of Jesus Christ, Eternal High Priest, Who left to His Church in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass a memorial for all time and a perpetual renovation of His Sacrifice on the Cross, until He shall come for the Last Judgment; and Who in the Sacrament of the Blessed Eucharist has given Himself as the food of the soul: “He who eats this bread shall live forever”?
A priest above all in the Eucharistic ministry, this is the most faithful portrayal of St. Pius X. To serve the mystery of the Blessed Eucharist as a priest, and to fulfill the command of Our Savior, “Do this in remembrance of Me”, was his goal. From the day of his sacred ordination until his death as Pope, he knew no other faith than this in order to arrive at heroism in his love for God and to make a wholehearted return to that Redeemer of the world, Who by means of the Blessed Eucharist “poured out the wealth of His Divine Love on men.”
One of the most expressive proofs of his consciousness of his priesthood was the extreme care he took to renew the dignity of divine worship. Overcoming the prejudices springing from an erroneous practice, he resolutely promoted frequent and even daily Communion of the faithful, and unhesitatingly led the children to the banquet of the Lord, and offered them to the embrace of the God hidden on the altars. Then the spouse of Christ experienced a new springtime of the Eucharistic life. In the profound vision which he had of the Church as a Society, Pius X recognized that it was the Blessed Eucharist which had the power to nourish its intimate life substantially and to raise it high above all other human societies. Only the Eucharist, in which God gives Himself to man, is capable of laying the foundations of a social life worthy of those who live it, cemented more by love than by authority, rich in activity and aimed at the perfection of the individual, a life that is hidden with Christ in God. What a providential example for the world of today, where earthly society is becoming more and more a mystery to itself, and is feverishly trying to rediscover its soul! Let it look, then, for its model at the Church, gathered around its altars. There in the Sacrament of the Eucharist mankind really discovers and recognizes that his past, present and future are a unity in Christ. Conscious of and strong in his solidarity with Christ and his fellowmen, each member of either society, the earthly and the supernatural one, will be enabled to draw from the altar an interior life of personal worth, such as today is almost lost through insistence on technology and by the excessive organization of existence, of work and even of play.
Only in the Church, the Holy Pontiff seems to repeat, the Universal Church, which is “life hidden with Christ in God”, is to be found the secret and source of renewed social life. Hence follows the grave responsibility of ministers of the altar, whose duty it is to disclose to souls the saving treasure of the Eucharist. Many indeed are the activities which a priest can exercise for the salvation of the modern world. One of them, and undoubtedly one of the most efficacious and the most lasting in its effects, is to act as dispenser of the Holy Eucharist, after first nourishing himself abundantly with It. His work would cease to be sacerdotal if, even through zeal for souls, he were to put his Eucharistic vocation in a secondary place. Let priests conform their outlook to the inspired wisdom of Pius X, and let them confidently exercise their whole apostolate under the sign of the Blessed Eucharist. Similarly, let religious men and women, those who live under the same roof as Jesus Christ and are daily nourished with His Body, take as a safe norm in the pursuit of the sanctity proper to their state what the Holy Pontiff once declared on an important occasion, namely, that the bonds through which their vows and community life link them with God are not to be subordinated to any other activity, however legitimate for the good of their neighbor.
In the Blessed Eucharist the soul should strike the roots for nourishing the interior life, which is not only a fundamental treasure of all souls consecrated to the Lord, but also a necessity for every Christian whom God calls to be saved. Without interior life, any activity, however praiseworthy, is debased and becomes purely mechanical in action, without any vitalizing effect. The Holy Eucharist and the interior life: this is the supreme and universal lesson which Pius X, from the height of glory, teaches in this hour to all souls. As apostle of the interior life, he becomes, in the age of the machine, of technology and of organization, the saint and guide of men of our time.”
To restore all things in Christ by restoring the priesthood and all that concerns it is just the continuation of St. Pius X’s work into our own times. It is no accident that Archbishop Lefebvre chose St. Pius X as the heavenly patron to guide the work of our society.
In honor of this centennial of our patron and to seek his intercession for the Church, our own nations and the restoration of the priesthood I propose that a prayer, taken from the same allocution of Pope Pius XII (found on the back of the enclosed holy card**), be recited for one month beginning July 20th and ending on the anniversary of his death August 20th.
For those interested in doing some travelling, there is also a pilgrimage being organized by Fr. Belisle from Corpus Christi Church in Tynong (tel: 03 5629 1045). The pilgrimage will visit many of the important places from the life of St. Pius X during the month of October and end in Lourdes where the Society plans to celebrate the Feast of Christ the King and the centenary in a grand manner with a Solemn Pontifical Mass and conferences over a three day period.
On another note, it is the time of year when some changes are made in priest assignments. The district will see several changes that should take place by the end of July. Fr. Todd Stephens has been nominated as professor at Holy Cross Seminary in Goulburn. Replacing him in Hampton will be one of our priests from Tynong, Fr. Raphael du Chazaud. Fr. Christopher Polley will move to Tynong and be replaced in Brisbane by Fr. Benjamin Campbell who will be coming to us from St. Mary’s Kansas. Many Australians already know Fr. Campbell as he did his seminary studies at Holy Cross Seminary.
As always I thank you for your continued spiritual and material support especially for our priests.
Sincerely yours in the Precious Body and Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ,
Fr. John Fullerton
District Superior
** Holy card will be available at all chapels soon
Prayer to St Pius X
Saint Pius X, glory of the priesthood, light and honour of the Christian people, you in whom lowliness seemed blended with greatness, severity with mildness, simple piety with profound learning; you, Pope of the Holy Eucharist and of the catechism, of unsullied faith and fearless strength, turn your gaze on holy Church, which you so loved and to which you consecrated the choicest of those treasures with which the lavish hand of the Divine Bounty had enriched your soul; obtain for her safety and steadfastness amid the difficulties and persecutions of our times; sustain this poor human race, whose sufferings you shared in so largely, those sufferings which at the end stilled the beating of your great heart; bring it about that this troubled world may witness the triumph of that peace which should mean harmony among nations, brotherly accord and sincere collaboration among individual men, so that thus those ardent desires which consumed your apostolic life may become by your intercession a blessed reality, to the glory of Our Lord Jesus Christ, Who with the Father and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns forever and ever, Amen!
Society of St. Pius X
District of Australia and New Zealand