Our Father, Who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy Name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Amen.
PATER NOSTER, qui es in caelis, sanctificetur nomen tuum. Adveniat regnum tuum. Fiat voluntas tua, sicut in caelo et in terra. Panem nostrum quotidianum da nobis hodie, et dimitte nobis debita nostra sicut et nos dimittimus debitoribus nostris. Et ne nos inducas in tentationem, sed libera nos a malo. Amen.
St. Peter Damian (far right) with St. Augustine, St. Anne and St. Elizabeth, Ercole de’ Roberti, ARSH 1481, Milan.
Today is the feast of St. Peter Damian, one of the truly great Doctors of the Church. Why? Why do I say that? Read these twelve quotes…
“Tell us, you unmanly and effeminate man, what do you seek in another male that you do not find in yourself?”
“For God’s sake, why do you damnable sodomites pursue the heights of ecclesiastical dignity with such fiery ambition?”
“By what right or by what law can one bind or loose the other when he is constrained by the bonds of evil deeds common to them both?”
“Who can expect the flock to prosper when its shepherd has sunk so deep into the bowels of the devil?”
“Who, by his lust, will consign a son whom he spiritually begotten for God to slavery under the iron law of Satanic tyranny?”
“This utterly diseased queen of Sodom renders him who obeys the laws of her tyranny infamous to men and odious to God.”
“Without fail, [the vice of sodomy] brings death to the body and destruction to the soul. It pollutes the flesh, extinguishes the light of the mind, expels the Holy Spirit from the temple of the human heart, and gives entrance to the devil, the stimulator of lust.”
”[The vice of sodomy] leads to error, totally removes truth from the deluded mind . . . It opens up Hell and closes the gates of Paradise.”
”[The vice of sodomy] is this vice that violates temperance, slays modesty, strangles chastity, and slaughters virginity.”
[The vice of sodomy] defiles all things, sullies all things, pollutes all things.”
“Who will make a mistress of a cleric, or a woman of a man?”
“It is not sinners, but the wicked who should despair; it is not the magnitude of one’s crime, but contempt of God that dashes one’s hopes.”
Collect of the Mass of St. Peter Damian:
COLLECT
O Almighty God, grant that we may follow the teaching and example of Your blessed confessor bishop Peter, and turn away from the things of earth that we may attain the joys of heaven.
St. Peter Damian, pray for us. Please.