Father, help us keep in mind that Christ our Savior lives with you in glory and promised to remain with us until the end of time. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. (NOM, Collect)

    We see quite a banality in the Novus Ordo. It is also a prayer that simply isn't asking for much. It's asking us to remember that Christ lives in glory, and will always remain with us. I guess when you look at Churches that don't even resemble Catholicism, emptying pews, doctrinally suspect translations, and scandal after scandal, perhaps it is a good thing to remind those in the Novus Ordo "Don't worry about how horrible things have gotten under our watch, Christ is still with us." Furthermore, the Novus Ordo certainly doesn't ask the Father that the prayer not only help us remember, but actually live that promise. It simply asks that we remember. Yet St. James says even the demons have faith, in that they remember God exists, but that certainly won't help them. No, the Christian is to always remember and focus on these majestic promises, but also to have them work in his own life. To be an example that Christ is still with His Church by caring for the faithful, opposing error, and leading Catholics against corruption and abuse.

    On the other hand, the Traditional Proper calls to mind one of service, as we serve the Divine Majesty. If there is one thing that the Novus Ordo doesn't like to talk about today, it is that of service and submission. They don't preach the joys of willfully submitting to God's will, because to "modern man", he can't handle the idea of servitude to others, for he is fiercely independent. Oh, they're all for peace and justice type service in humanistic endeavors, but not the spiritual. Furthermore, in serving the divine majesty, this prayer beseeches God that our service may always be that of a devoted will and a pure heart. We are not just remembering pieces of information in the Traditional Rite, but we are living these pieces. We don't just remember that we serve the Divine Majesty, we are in constant service of the Divine Majesty, and this prayer asks that our service be strengthened. It is the difference between "Talking the talk" and "walking the walk", which many have noticed is one of the largest problems in the Church today.

Stephen, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked up intently to heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God, and Stephen said, "Behold, I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God." But they cried out in a loud voice, covered their ears, and rushed upon him together. They threw him out of the city, and began to stone him. The witnesses laid down their cloaks at the feet of a young man named Saul. As they were stoning Stephen, he called out, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." Then he fell to his knees and cried out in a loud voice, "Lord, do not hold this sin against them;" and when he said this, he fell asleep. (NOM, First Reading, Acts 7:55-60)

    The Novus Ordo finally actually has some consistency between its opening prayers and its readings, as does the Traditional Rite, as always. Therefore, the problems in the changes remain, because of the problems we noticed back in the Collects. The Novus Ordo recounts the stoning of St. Stephen, at the hands of the Sanhedrin, oversaw by none other than Saul of Tarsus, known to us at St. Paul. (Ok, maybe you won't get that information from the Novus Ordo, since they only start at verse 55, and leave out the parts where Stephen condemns the Sanhedrin.) The Epistle in the Traditional Rite for this Sunday focuses on again taking what we learn on Sundays, and applying it to our everyday lives.

    Next shall be an examination of the responsorial Psalm that the Novus Ordo chooses. First allow us to give a little background. The Psalms were majestic hymns the Jews of the Old Testament had written, praising God for his mercy, and also his justice. Indeed, the majority of Psalms that speak of God's mercy do so also speaking of God's justice. The two are inseparable. That is until the Novus Ordo came along, under the guise of "liturgical reform" decided to do some clever omissions to the Psalms. Let us look at the Psalm the Novus Ordo chooses today. The Responsorial part of the Psalm is the very first verse "The Lord is King" and the first part of verse 9 "most high over All the Earth…" In bold will be the areas that the Novus Ordo has omitted.

The LORD is king; let the earth rejoice; let the many islands be glad. Cloud and darkness surround the Lord; justice and right are the foundation of his throne. Fire goes before him; everywhere it consumes the foes. Lightning illumines the world; the earth sees and trembles. The mountains melt like wax before the LORD, before the Lord of all the earth. The heavens proclaim God's justice; all peoples see his glory. All who serve idols are put to shame, who glory in worthless things; all gods bow down before you. Zion hears and is glad, and the cities of Judah rejoice because of your judgments, O LORD. You, LORD, are the Most High over all the earth, exalted far above all gods. (Psalm 97, 1-9)

    Let us examine what the omissions are, and perhaps why they are omitted. In today's Church, dialogue is the entire buzz. Everything is dialogue with people in good-faith. The Church is no longer "Judgmental" but engages everyone in "fraternal dialogue", whatever that means. The idea of a God Who has vengeance and justice is a truth many don't see the need for today. "God is love", "God is mercy", yet you never hear God is also just. This Psalm presents an entirely different story. It talks about fire consuming the foes of God, and that the world trembles before His judgments. It furthermore states that all who serve idols are shamed, and that they glory in worthless things. Why do they do this? Because in reality, "All gods bow down before you." The Psalmist of course is not saying God in the sense that they are true deities, but since they are false gods, they ultimately bow down before the True God. Yet the idea that those who live in error are put to shame by God, and take glory in that which is worthless we can't talk about, since today the Novus Ordo admires all the spiritual traditions of pagan religions, to the point where we invite Buddhists to give talks about their great spirituality in Catholic basilicas. It also talks of the joy of Zion in God's judgments of the false errors of the world. The Church is of this group of Zion, we are glad that God is on our side, fighting evil. Yet in today's Church we do not combat evil, we "dialogue with evil." Let us now move onto the Second Reading.

I, John, heard a voice saying to me: "Behold, I am coming soon. I bring with me the recompense I will give to each according to his deeds. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end." Blessed are they who wash their robes so as to have the right to the tree of life and enter the city through its gates. "I, Jesus, sent my angel to give you this testimony for the churches. I am the root and offspring of David, the bright morning star." The Spirit and the bride say, "Come." Let the hearer say, "Come." Let the one who thirsts come forward, and the one who wants it receive the gift of life-giving water. The one who gives this testimony says, "Yes, I am coming soon." Amen! Come, Lord Jesus! ("Revelation 22:12-14, 16, 17, 20)

    We have seen how in Past Sundays, the Novus Ordo has engaged in some very selective editing with this specific book of the Inspired Word of God, that which we know as the Apocalypse of St. John. This Sunday is no exception. Allow me to quote the entire passage again, this time including in bold that which is omitted.

"Behold, I am coming soon. I bring with me the recompense I will give to each according to his deeds. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end." Blessed are they who wash their robes so as to have the right to the tree of life and enter the city through its gates. Outside are the dogs, the sorcerers, the unchaste, the murderers, the idol-worshipers, and all who love and practice deceit. "I, Jesus, sent my angel to give you this testimony for the churches. I am the root and offspring of David, the bright morning star." The Spirit and the bride say, "Come." Let the hearer say, "Come." Let the one who thirsts come forward, and the one who wants it receive the gift of life-giving water. I warn everyone who hears the prophetic words in this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book, and if anyone takes away from the words in this prophetic book, God will take away his share in the tree of life and in the holy city described in this book. The one who gives this testimony says, "Yes, I am coming soon." Amen! Come, Lord Jesus!

    What a difference casual editing makes! Thanks to a little bit of creative control, we no longer know that there will indeed be people outside the city. (This makes it quite easy to believe the lunacy that hell may be empty.) Who are the people outside the city? Well those who practice magic, those who murder, those who worship false gods, and practice evil. I believe we sadly know people who do all these things. Yet in order for the theory of Hell may be empty to work, there has to be some gymnastics performed in Scripture, which presents hell as quite a reality, and it is anything but empty. Faced with such clear evidence, the modernists and liberals who believe hell could be empty (who are the very ones behind the "liturgical reform" many times) decided to get rid of "useless repetitions" I guess in omitting these passages from Scripture. One day perhaps the myth of "more Scripture" will be put to rest by those who defend the Novus Ordo. While in terms of quantity this could be the case, it certainly isn't in quality, as has been demonstrated time and time again in this column, and in Jacob Michael's work "Gutting the Gospels." And speaking of gutting the Gospels, let us compare the intention of the two Gospels for today.

Lifting up his eyes to heaven, Jesus prayed saying: "Holy Father, I pray not only for them, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, so that they may all be one, as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they also may be in us, that the world may believe that you sent me. And I have given them the glory you gave me, so that they may be one, as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may be brought to perfection as one, that the world may know that you sent me, and that you loved them even as you loved me. Father, they are your gift to me. I wish that where I am they also may be with me, that they may see my glory that you gave me, because you loved me before the foundation of the world. Righteous Father, the world also does not know you, but I know you, and they know that you sent me. I made known to them your name and I will make it known, that the love with which you loved me may be in them and I in them." (NOM, Gospel, John 17:20-26)

    One finds it curious why this prayer is mentioned in the Novus Ordo, as the Gospel recounts The Son's magnificent prayer to the Father for perfect unity of His Body, the Church. Given what we already know, to many, this prayer still needs to be fulfilled, something condemned by Pope Pius XI when he condemned the ecumenical movement in his encyclical Mortalium animos. The Traditional Gospel gives us words of promise, but also that we be vigilant. When Christ ascended, the enemies of God went into full gear. Christ Himself said that those people who would slay the Apostles would think they are doing God's service. Obviously they are not. Yet we are told time and time again by the liberals that all religions are just different manifestations of the One True God. Yet since the Novus Ordo omitted any idea that the idolaters and evil will be punished by being cast outside the Heavenly City in today's readings, the choice of reading over the Traditional one sounds quite right to the manipulators. Let us now advance to the Secret.