In the midst of the current crisis, both secular and ecclesiastical, Catholics must have an ongoing crusading spirit for the Faith, and to that end, here are some encouraging words about the SSPX's Rosary Crusade.
In relation to the 5-million Rosary Crusade underway since January 1st, the SSPX's General House (located in Menzingen, Switzerland) gives some encouraging words.
The 2014 Rosary Crusade
The Society of St. Pius X seeks to obtain a spiritual bouquet of at least 5 million rosaries between January 1, 2014 and June 8, 2014 (Feast of Pentecost). Here is what Bishop Fellay wrote in his Letter to Friends and Benefactors No. 81:
We know that there is something superhuman in what is demanded of a Christian today. The traditional support that one used to find in the Christian organization of temporal society no longer exists. Everywhere we see an unfurling of errors in the area of faith (to the point of heresy), a relaxation of morality (particularly the abandonment of the laws of marriage and family), and an increasing lukewarmness in Christian life that is unprecedented. The new liturgy leaves many souls anemic…
In this dramatic context, it seems to us essential to launch a new crusade in the same spirit as the preceding ones, keeping in mind the requests and promises of the Immaculate Heart of Mary as they were expressed at Fatima, but insisting more this time on its universal character. We have to put our whole heart, our whole soul into this new crusade: not just being content with the daily recitation of the Rosary, but carefully carrying out Our Lady’s second request, which is penance. Prayer and penance. Penance, obviously understood as the acceptance of certain forms of self-denial, but especially in the diligent fulfillment of our duties of state.
This is why this fourth crusade will be based on the one desired by Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre in 1979. A crusade centered on the Holy Mass, which is the source of all grace, of all virtue. In the sermon at his priestly jubilee in Paris, he forcefully called us to a threefold crusade: a crusade of youth, a crusade of families, and a crusade of heads of families for Christian civilization.
In that sermon, our venerable founder declared:
'I think I can say that we should have a crusade based on the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, on the Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ, on that invincible rock, that inexhaustible source of grace which is the Mass.... We must undertake a crusade, a crusade which is based specifically on this idea of sacrifice, in order to recreate Christendom, to re-establish a Christendom such as the Church desires, such as she has always done, with the same principles, the same Sacrifice of the Mass, the same sacraments, the same catechism, the same Sacred Scripture.'
We must recreate this Christendom! It is to you, my dear brethren, you who are the salt of the earth and the light of the world, you to whom Our Lord Jesus Christ addressed Himself in saying: “Do not waste the fruit of My Blood, do not abandon My Calvary, do not abandon My Sacrifice.” And the Virgin Mary, who stands beneath the Cross, tells you the this as well; she, whose heart is pierced, full of sufferings and sorrows, and yet filled with the joy of uniting herself to the Sacrifice of her divine Son, she too says it to you: 'Let us be Christians, let us be Catholics! '”
Encouraged by these stirring words of our founder, all members of the Society form with you, dear faithful, a great crusade to Our Lord and His kingdom, to Our Lady and the triumph of her Immaculate Heart. When the enemy is declared—in the words of the Apocalypse, we must respond to his attacks in a proportionate manner. Deus vult!
We encourage you to a permanent crusading spirit, though, because of human needs, we will officially begin this new Rosary Crusade on January 1, 2014, finishing on the feast of Pentecost (June 8, 2014), with the objective to gather a bouquet of 5 million rosaries in reparation for the outrages inflicted upon the honor of Our Lady and in the Virgin heart of the Mother of God.
