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In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, Amen.

Dear Fathers, dear Seminarians, dear Friends, the time of year again for the ordinations to the first five steps towards the priesthood. If we leave out tonsure, which is like a prelude, or an entry arch, there are then seven steps in which the priesthood is the seventh, and five of those steps are minor, the four minor orders, and the first major order, which is the subdiaconate, and all those five orders are conferred today.

We are always delighted to see a number of visitors coming, some of you, from quite far away. We are sorry we can't provide better weather, but as they say of Minnesota, there are three seasons, July, August, and winter. So it's never foreseeable when Minnesota is going to be kind. It was kind a few days ago, and now it's not so kind. You can never tell. The weather changes rapidly. But that obviously doesn't stop yourselves coming, and it doesn't stop Mother Church moving ahead.

We are glad in particular to see a number of young men visiting. It's possible that the trickle of vocations will increase over the next few years. It's possible. Only God knows.

What is certain is that the religion of yesterday, the Catholicism of yesterday, is the only Catholicism that's going to work tomorrow.

Well, with the war in Iraq, we may think that a whole order of things, which has, if you like, largely prevailed since the Second World War, and that's 50 years, if you like, over 50 years, this order of things is on the point of breaking down, and a great shift in events may easily take place. As it does, or if it does, or as soon as it does, then a lot of houses built on sand are going to be washed away, and a Catholicism, a supposed Catholicism, a pseudo-Catholicism built on the sand is also going to be washed away. And only the real Catholicism is going to come through. At this point in time, dear seminarians, dear young friends, it may look as though we haven't much future. We who stay with the old religion, let's call it that, you know what I mean, the religion of all time, that we who stay with the old religion don't have much future. The devil is giving us to think with the way people react, the way people are thinking, the way people are hoping, the way the great mass of people are moving. It may look as though there's not much future for the old religion. But, it's only the old religion that has any future, tomorrow and the day after. As a great many, I said, houses on sand are going to crumble. And so, today, it's not a question of rebuilding, or building in function, so to speak, of today. It's a question of building in function of tomorrow. Seminarians have been listening in the refectory to the Archbishop's, Archbishop Lefebvre's, letter to confuse Catholics, and you've heard it very well put when the Archbishop said that these modernists who have changed the church and who've changed Catholicism, who've tried to change the Catholic religion, they behave as though Jesus Christ did not foresee modern times, as though Jesus Christ did not build his church sufficient for modern times. Let's suppose sufficient for 1900 years, but not sufficient for the 20th and 21st centuries, which is why Vatican II had to change the church in order to fit in with modern times. Again, as though our Lord had not foreseen modern times. It's a very neat and very common sense, at the same time, common sense way of saying it. Jesus Christ is God. It's ridiculous that he can't have foreseen modern times. And it's ridiculous to suppose that he laid the foundations and the structure of the constitution of his church down in such a way that they would not fit modern times, that there would ever come an age which this church would not fit. It's the age that's out of shape and not our Lord's church. And even if the age makes itself very out of shape, even within the next few years, if it succeeds in making itself even more out of shape, without still crumbling, even if the modern world succeeds in that and there will be a wonder wrought by the devil if it does. It's surely on the brink of crumbling. But if it does survive a little longer, if it gets even more out of shape, even further from God, it's simply still more doomed to collapse and to ruin. It can't survive. It's against nature, let alone grace. And as has been well said, God will pardon always, man will pardon sometimes, nature will pardon never. And when one constructs a whole way of life, a whole world, so in defiance of nature as this crazy ʝʊdɛօ-Masonic world of today is trying to construct itself, it cannot survive. It has collapse written all over it as we are now, I think, seeing.

And our Lord's Church fits even this crazy and crumbling world precisely because it is crumbling and it will crumble. And so, what will survive will be that church, those priests, those sisters, those churchmen who have concerned themselves with souls and who have looked after souls like good shepherds, the churchmen who have looked after souls with the means that our Lord gave us to look after them.

As Archbishop Lefebvre says, how can the Holy Eucharist, how can the Sacrament of Confession, how can the sacraments, as our Lord instituted them, go out of date? It's ridiculous. Of course, one may say, the new church has not completely corrupted them, there remains something of the sacraments of our Lord beneath the changes with which they've attempted to shift them in synchronization with the times, and that is, of course, to some extent, the guarantee of indefectibility of the church in a way. But, at the same time, they've been trying to change their nature, and that is impossible.

And so, dear young men, the future, if you stay with our Lord of yesterday, tomorrow belongs to you. If you try to move with the church of today, you are going to collapse with the world of today.

So, as Archbishop Lefebvre would have, as he taught in his seminaries, and as he most certainly would wish today for his seminaries as they continue, stay with what the church has always done. stay with what he learned, with what he faithfully handed down.

It's not a question of numbers. It's not a question of democracy, of votes, of the majority. It may be a very small flock, but the question is a question of truth, and not a question of numbers. And numbers never made truth. Never, never, never. Numbers as such. Truth is from somewhere else than from numbers. And so, have great courage, and see beyond the apparently discouraging appearances, apparently the discouraging appearances of today.

Today, the order is exactly as always, as the, these five first steps to the priesthood laid by Mother Church like building blocks, solid building blocks, so that a young man step by step climbs towards the altar. And the steps are solid, and they do not need to be changed. And the ritual, the words which will be pronounced in the ceremony today, go back possibly 1800 years, I don't know, the experts in liturgy would have an idea. It may be, surely, more than 1500 years, one and a half millennia, these words go back and possibly more. And each ceremony, each little ceremony, is rich in the ideas that it evokes, in the prayers that it utters for the ordination of these young men.

The first of the minor orders is porter, or door keeper, we would say today, we might say today. And he will ring the bell, you will see him ringing the bell at the doorway, and there will be significant of his being entrusted with keeping the door. Interesting in the ceremony is that he is told to keep out the unfaithful. That's a very unmodern idea, exclusion, discrimination, but there it is, and it's in the text. Admit, allow the faithful in, and keep the unfaithful out.

Our Lord said, don't throw pearls in front of swine, meaning you've got to discriminate between those who are swine and those who aren't. Our Lord calls upon us to discriminate. Our Lord is a practitioner of discrimination.

Yes, he is. Not of liberalisms, admitting everybody, loving everybody, treating everybody as though they're exactly the same, as though they make no difference between themselves amongst one another with the use that they make of their free will. As though good and evil are of no importance. That's what liberalism is. Good and evil are not important. It's a completely new goodness. Goodness from now consists in ignoring good and evil of yesterday and loving, loving, loving everybody, everybody, everybody. And evil consists in setting up the least kind of distaste or opposition to anyone at all. Well, the porter is told by Mother Church exclude the unfaithful.

The next order, the next minor order is lector or reader. And the reader is told by the ceremony amongst other things to stand in a high place in order to be able to be heard clearly, to speak clearly, and to be heard clearly. Not to hide his light behind a bushel, not to mutter beneath his breath, because he's going to tell the truth. He's going to read from scriptures. He's going to read the truth. He has something to say. And it needs to be said.

Mother Church teaches. The modern world doesn't teach. The modern world un-teaches. The modern world pretends that no ideas are of any value or importance except in things material. In things spiritual, everything is up for grabs. I have got no idea to teach anybody else. We're all going to sit down on the floor and hold hands in democratic fashion and have a rap session. That is not Mother Church and that is not the lector.

The lector is going to stand there. He's going to speak clearly and he's going to tell the truth of God. He's going to read the truth of God.

The third minor order is the exorcist. The exorcist, as you can know by his name, is a one who will be appointed to drive out devils. Of course, the full power of driving out devils will come with the priesthood. Nevertheless, this power of the priest is expressed and undoubtedly partly bestowed with this third minor order.

Notice how, dear young men, notice how the ceremonial tells you, no doubt you have been following the retreat, the recollection of the last day or so, you have suddenly been reminded that the ceremony tells you to throw the devil firstly out of yourselves. Doctor, cure thyself. Know thyself, said Socrates. Doctor, cure thyself, said some wicked men, but the principle is true to our Lord on the cross. The principle is nevertheless true, especially in the spiritual life. Young men, throw the devil out of yourselves firstly.

And then the fourth order will be acolyte. The acolyte is the candle carrier at mass. I'm sure many of you are already familiar with the word from a mass center or a chapel where you come from. Acolytes are the technical name for those, for the mass servants. Well, actually the mass service, it is actually probably the fourth, the highest of the minor orders because he is approaching, the young man is by his orders approaching ever closer to the altar. And so ideally, ideally all mass service would be ordained acolytes. Of course, that's in all the circuмstances, that's not possible. Nevertheless, the acolyte is a light bearer. He is a candle carrier and therefore a light bearer and therefore the ceremonial asks him that his light should shine before men. He must start giving that example which our Lord wants of his servants, an example for all men to see.

Seek luciat lux vestra coram hominibus, let your light shine before men. They carry the candle, but they will carry above all the light of their example and of their virtues as they live with God and against the world instead of with the world and against God. There is an opposition.

There is an opposition which the modern world pretends there isn't. The modern world has put God in its pocket and therefore there's no opposition between this pocketed God and the world. But the God in anybody's pocket, it stands to reason, it's the most elementary common sense that a God whom I can put on a leash or whom I can put in my pocket is absolutely not the real God.

The real God who appeared with thunder and lightning on Mount Sinai so as to shake the Israelites with fear and who will again so appear in today's world. Surely. Because what else will bring men to their knees? Will bring any men to their knees? And not even that will bring many to their knees. They will simply stand there and defy him. But he will shake our world of today. And when he shakes us, we shall all of us be frightened. We shall have deserved it. How many of us today can say we have in us a real fear of God? And I don't mean, I don't, how many of us can say, there is of course a distinction between the fear of the slave who is afraid of a whipping from his master and the fear of a son, which is a respectful fear of his father, a respectful and loving fear. How many of us can boast that we have no need in any degree of that servile fear? How many of us can boast that our filial fear is as it should be?

And lastly, to subdiaconate, which is most certainly in the ceremonial as you will follow today. Since it's a major order, it's the first of the major orders, it's the major order at which a young man takes the vow of chastity, which he commits himself after, as it is with us, four and a half years of seminary, four and a half years of examining his vocation, four and a half years of study. At last he steps forward and engages himself, commits himself, this tremendous commitment of celibacy. And the ceremonial will tell him, it will tell the subdeacon many things. Let me just pick out one, which is not the question of celibacy, grand though that is. And Catholics have no problem understanding it. Of course, the world has all kinds of problems understanding celibacy. But the Archbishop used to say, always used to say, since it was needed a blessed virgin for the incarnation, within whom the incarnation could fittingly take place, so it needs a priest, free from all such earthly attachments, free from all family attachments, down in whose hands at each mass the re-incarnation or the renewal of the incarnation is to take place, the real presence by the consecration. The priest needs to be, the priest needs in this way to correspond to the blessed virgin Mary. That's the highest view. That's taking the question of celibacy from the very highest angle, and it's the truest, no doubt.

And then, the other detail I was going to pick out, the subdeacon is instructed in the ceremonial to wash the Pauls and corporals. The Pauls and corporals are two of those linens very closely associated to the chalice at mass. And that these linens should not be washed or looked after by anyone other than somebody in major orders is, of course, just one more indication in the ceremonial of the church of the dignity and glory of the mass. But the ceremonial goes further. These Pauls and corporals that are to be looked after by the subdeacon represent the faithful, the ordinary Catholics represent the people. And as the subdeacon in major orders must look after the Pauls and corporals on the altar, so he must look after the faithful and minister to the faithful and wash them of their sins. It's not a question yet of hearing confessions. He's on the path towards that. The subdeacon in major orders must already contribute to helping the people out of their worldly ways to help them to wash themselves of the world, like he washes the Pauls and corporals, to cleanse themselves of the world, and to make themselves fit to become citizens of the kingdom of heaven.

Ideas, words, a ceremonial, going back, I guess, 1800 years, unchanged. These ceremonies were worked out in Latin, in Rome undoubtedly, from the very earliest times. Christians, they've stayed unchanged down all of the centuries. This is where tomorrow's church will be. This is where tomorrow's church, the church tomorrow will stand. It's not apparently where the church is standing, is taking its stand today, but it must be where the church will come back to tomorrow.

And so, my dear friends, my dear young friends, dear visitors, dear fathers, let us pray to the Blessed Virgin Mother of God, within whom the Incarnation took place, within whom our Lord came down, the Jesus High Priest, within whom the High Priest began, because the High Priest, Jesus High Priest, began at the very first moment of his conception, as the human, his human nature was united to the divine person and the divine nature within the womb of the Virgin Mary, and from that moment he was High Priest, from that moment he was interceding, already interceding for all of our sins, it's difficult to imagine you and I think of an ordinary human baby, and of course the poor little, the dear little thing doesn't start thinking or talking until several years after it's issued from its mother's womb. This is not the case with our Lord. With our Lord, there's no such hindrance, there's no such slowness. From that very first moment, the Jesus High Priest, let us pray today to the mother of our Lord High Priest, that she look after these vocations, and that she obtain from her son many more, many more for tomorrow and the day after.

Buildings are a secondary question, but priests are a primary question. what use of buildings without priests, what are priests without buildings, the buildings can easily be got together, what are buildings without priests as nothing, useless, how many magnificent buildings today all over the United States, built for the faith, by Catholics, for the Catholic faith, and now in effect empty of the faith.

we will pray today to the blessed, through the blessed Virgin Mary, to her, that she obtain, we hope, many more brave young men who think not of today's appearances, but of today's reality and tomorrow's reality, in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost, Amen.