Joseph Pohle > Quotes

“the whole substance of the bread has been converted into the Body and the whole sub stance of the wine into the Blood of Christ. What, then, remains ? The Council tells us that it is " the species of”
― Joseph Pohle, The sacraments: A Dogmatic Treatise, Vol. 2

“Origen says: " The Church hath received it as a tradition from the Apostles that infants, too, ought to be baptized." 21”
― Joseph Pohle, The sacraments : a dogmatic treatise, Vol. 1

“8) The fourth period in the history of indul gences, from the Council of Clermont (1095) to the Second Council of Lyons (1274), coincides with the crusades, during which the practice as sumed a new form. At Clermont, for the first time, participation in a crusade was suggested as a ransom from all penance. The Council decreed as follows: " Whoever, out of pure devotion, and not for the purpose of gaining honor or money, shall go to Jerusalem to liberate the Church of God, let that journey be counted in lieu of all penance." 27 Pope Urban II, who personally attended this council, said in a sermon: " But we, trusting in the mercy of God and the authority of the blessed Apostles Peter and Paul, remit to the faithful who take up arms against the Sara cens and assume the burden of this pilgrimage [to Jeru salem], the unmeasured penalties of their sins. Those who shall die there with a truly contrite heart, may rest as sured that they will obtain forgiveness of their sins and the fruit of eternal reward." 28 Urban's example was followed by Callistus II (1123), Eugene III (1146), Alexander III (1179), and other popes. At about the same time the Schoolmen, notably St. Thomas Aquinas (+ I 2 74)> turned their attention to”
― Joseph Pohle, The sacraments: A Dogmatic Treatise, Vol. 3

“efficacy of perfect contrition be reconciled with the dogma that the power of the keys is necessary for the forgiveness of sins? Why have recourse to the Church if mortal sin can be forgiven by perfect contrition? The answer is: As Baptism of desire (baptismus flammis) justifies only when it includes a desire to receive the Sacrament (votum baptismi), 13 so perfect contrition effects justification only when accompanied by a desire to receive the Sacrament of Penance (votum sacramenti poenitentiae)”
― Joseph Pohle, The sacraments: A Dogmatic Treatise, Vol. 3

“Baptism is a Sacra ment instituted by Christ, in which, by the out ward washing of the body with water, with in vocation of the Three Persons of the Most Holy Trinity, man is spiritually reborn and sanctified unto life everlasting.”
― Joseph Pohle, The sacraments : a dogmatic treatise, Vol. 1

“minister begins with an actual intention, but is distracted while administering the Sacrament, he has a virtual in tention. Thirdly, an habitual intention is one that once actually existed, but of the present continuance of which there is no positive trace. The most that can be said of it is that it has never been retracted. A priest subject to somnam bulism, who would administer Baptism in his sleep, might be said to act with an habitual intention. Fourthly, an interpretative intention is an intention that would be conceived if one thought of it, but which for want of thinking of it, is not elicited. It is simply the purpose which it is assumed a man would have had in a given contingency, had he given thought to the matter. There has been and is no actual movement of the will. 42 An intention of some sort is necessary in the min ister for the valid administration of a Sacrament. It need not be actual. Distractions cannot always be avoided. A virtual intention is sufficient. Not so, however, an habitual or interpretative intention, which is really not in existence while the action is performed, and consequently can have no effect upon it.”
― Joseph Pohle, The sacraments : a dogmatic treatise, Vol. 1

“The amount of sanctifying and special grace bestowed by a Sacrament depends chiefly on the disposition of the recipient.”
― Joseph Pohle, The sacraments : a dogmatic treatise, Vol. 1

“heretics can validly administer all the other Sacraments, with the sole exception of Penance, 30 which cannot, barring cases of urgent necessity, be validly conferred by heretical and schismatic priests;—not on account of their lack of ortho doxy, but because they have no ecclesiastical juris diction.”
― Joseph Pohle, The sacraments : a dogmatic treatise, Vol. 1

“shedding of blood for sacrificial purposes,— the one real and physical, the other sacramental and mystical. The former took place in the bloody sacrifices of the Old Testament, and also in the Crucifixion, when the Precious Blood of our Saviour actually flowed from His veins and was separated from the Body. When we speak of the sacramental shedding of blood (effusio sanguinis sacra-mentalis s. mystica) we mean that Christ offers His Blood for us in so far as it is represented as mystically separated from His Body. This mystic slaying of the Eucharistic Lamb is an imitation and sacramental representation of the physical killing on the Cross. It is in this sense that we must understand the famous saying that the double Consecration is a mystic sword which separates the Blood of Christ from His Body and thereby graphically repre sents His death on the Cross.”
― Joseph Pohle, The sacraments: A Dogmatic Treatise, Vol. 2

“The Council warns confessors not to " connive at sins and deal too indulgently with penitents by enjoining certain very light works for very grievous crimes." * 2 The present practice seems to be at variance with this injunction. But it must be regarded not so much from the first of the two points of view mentioned above (the grievousness and specific character of the sins committed), as from the second, i. e. the ability of the penitent. At the present time too great severity would repel rather than benefit the faithful.”
― Joseph Pohle, The sacraments: A Dogmatic Treatise, Vol. 3

“St. Au gustine draws a distinction between habere and utiliter habere 6 and asks: " What does it avail a man to be baptized if he is not justified?”
― Joseph Pohle, The sacraments : a dogmatic treatise, Vol. 1

“Christ, in whom godhead and manhood are so inti mately united, is as it were a living Sacrament — the personal and visible embodiment of uncreated grace. Similarly His Church, as the mystical image of the Hypostatic Union, is the visible medium of supernatural life, and therefore preeminently a sacramental institu tion.”
― Joseph Pohle, The sacraments : a dogmatic treatise, Vol. 1

“St. Chrysostom says: "What is worse than hell? But nothing is more profitable than the fear thereof. For the fear of hell ob tains for us the crown of Heaven. 13 ... If fear were not a good thing, Christ would not have de livered numerous and lengthy discourses on the future punishment and torments/' 14 St. Augus tine, in particular, was a herald, as of divine love, so likewise of the fear of God. "This fear," he says in his homilies on the Psalms, "is not yet chaste. . . . He fears punishments. Whatever good he does, he does out of fear, moved not by fear of losing good, but by fear of suffering evil. He does not fear to lose the affection of the most beautiful Spouse, but he fears to be cast into hell. This fear is good and useful." 15”
― Joseph Pohle, The sacraments: A Dogmatic Treatise, Vol. 3

“If the desire for Baptism is accompanied by perfect con trition, we have the so-called baptismus ftaminis, which forthwith justifies the sinner, provided, of course, that the desire is a true votum sacramenti, i. e. y that it implies a firm resolve to receive the Sacrament as soon as opportunity offers.”
― Joseph Pohle, The sacraments : a dogmatic treatise, Vol. 1

“the amount of grace conferred by a Sacrament in each instance depends (i) on the eternal decree of God, who has endowed each Sacrament with a definite measure of grace, and (2) on the disposition and co-operation of the recipient. Note, however, that the Sacraments are efficacious ex opere operate, and con sequently the disposition of the recipient is not the cause of grace, but merely a condition of a richer outpouring of the same, just as the dryness of a stick of wood is not the cause of its burning, but a condition of its being more rapidly consumed by the flames.”
― Joseph Pohle, The sacraments : a dogmatic treatise, Vol. 1

“If his contrition is not perfect, the unworthily received Sacrament of Baptism can re cover its effects only in connection with Penance, which blots out mortal sin ex opere operato, and removes the obstacle that prevented the infusion of grace.”
― Joseph Pohle, The sacraments : a dogmatic treatise, Vol. 1

“St. Augustine says: " Baptism does not consist in the merits of those by whom it is ad ministered, nor in the merits of those to whom it is ad ministered, but in its own sanctity and truth, on account of Him by whom it has been instituted, [it is] for the perdition of those who use it badly and for the salvation of those who use it well." 30”
― Joseph Pohle, The sacraments : a dogmatic treatise, Vol. 1

“more common opinion holds that the votum implicitum is all that is required. This " implicit desire " may be defined as " a state of mind in which a man would ardently long for Baptism if he knew that it is necessary for salva tion.”
― Joseph Pohle, The sacraments : a dogmatic treatise, Vol. 1

“Gutberlet rightly observes: " It were mere quibbling to try to disprove the idea of a mystically real separation by saying that the words of Consecration do not result in a separation of the Blood from the Body, and to contend that they have not this exclusive sense. . . . This is true to a certain extent,— if but one element were consecrated, especially if that one element were the bread, no separation would ensue. . . . But since the Blood is consecrated apart from the Body of Christ, the Blood must be conceived as existing without the Body, and the Body without the Blood; and as the words of Consecration are calculated, to effect this double repres entation, they are calculated to exclude the Body from”
― Joseph Pohle, The sacraments: A Dogmatic Treatise, Vol. 2

“St. Augustine observes in one of his Sermons: " There were those who said that certain sins must not be forgiven. They were excluded from the Church and became heretics. Our kind Mother the Church never”
― Joseph Pohle, The sacraments: A Dogmatic Treatise, Vol. 3

“declares: "If anyone saith that in min isters, when they effect and confer the Sacra ments, there is not required the intention at least of doing what the Church does, let him be ana thema/”
― Joseph Pohle, The sacraments : a dogmatic treatise, Vol. 1

“tity of her priesthood; 20 but she has never condi tioned the validity of a Sacrament on the moral worthiness of the minister. Her early teaching on the subject is clearly apparent from the writ ings of St. Optatus of Mileve and St. Augustine against the Donatists.”
― Joseph Pohle, The sacraments : a dogmatic treatise, Vol. 1

“Confirmation, the Holy Eucharist, Extreme Unction, Matrimony, and Holy Orders presuppose the state of sancti fying grace, which they merely increase (iusti-ficatio secunda). Hence the only requisite of a worthy reception of these Sacraments is the state of grace.”
― Joseph Pohle, The sacraments : a dogmatic treatise, Vol. 1

“Our Lord Jesus Christ is a wise and just lawgiver who must demand that the power of for giving or retaining sins be exercised not arbitrar ily but according to objective norms and in a just manner. Now this is impossible without an ac curate knowledge, on the part of the judge, of the exact number, the nature, and the specific circum stances of the sins upon which he is asked to pro nounce sentence. This information, in the nature of things, can be supplied only by the penitent, who is defendant, prosecutor, and witness all in one person. Consequently, the penitent himself must reveal to the priest all his mortal sins, to gether with their number, nature, and necessary circumstances,—in other words, he must "go to confession." The major premise of this syllogism requires no proof. A judge who would proceed arbitrarily would not be applying the law but committing a wrong.”
― Joseph Pohle, The sacraments: A Dogmatic Treatise, Vol. 3

“The minister need not be in the state of grace, nor need he have the faith (negative disposi tion), but he must have the right intention (pos itive disposition).”
― Joseph Pohle, The sacraments : a dogmatic treatise, Vol. 1

“The dogma of Transub-stantiation implies that the entire substance of the bread and the entire substance of the wine are converted, respectively, into the substances of the Body and Blood of Christ, and that the con version takes place in such a way that "only the appearances of bread and wine remain.”
― Joseph Pohle, The sacraments: A Dogmatic Treatise, Vol. 2

“Merits are not physical but purely moral entities. They live and are revived in the knowledge and accepta tion of God, which cannot be destroyed, though it may be temporarily interfered with by mortal sin. The Sac rament of Penance admittedly removes the interfering obstacle, and there is no reason to assume that the merits are not revived after the obstacle has been removed. Mortal sin is purely an obstacle (obex), which Penance removes, thereby reviving the merits previously acquired by the penitent.”
― Joseph Pohle, The sacraments: A Dogmatic Treatise, Vol. 3

“We are compelled to concur in another view of Cardinal De Lugo, namely, that the value of the Mass is dependent on the greater or lesser holiness of the reigning pope, the”
― Joseph Pohle, The sacraments: A Dogmatic Treatise, Vol. 2

“The Council of Trent declares: " If anyone saith that the Sacrifice of the Mass casts a blasphemy upon the most holy Sacrifice of Christ consummated on the Cross, or that it derogates from it, let him be anathema." 13 The Mass is not independent of the Sacrifice of the Cross; nor does it pretend to add new power or efficacy to that Sacri fice. The two Sacrifices are essentially identical, 14 and the Mass derives its entire virtue from the Sacrifice of the Cross. The infinite value of the latter can be neither increased nor diminished. The Sacrifice of the Cross, to employ a metaphor, filled the infinite reser voirs to overflowing with healing waters, from which the Mass merely draws for the purpose of distributing copi ous draughts to the faithful. The Protestant view of the Mass as " a denial of the one Sacrifice of Christ" is wrong; for the Mass does, and can do, no more than convey the merits of Christ to mankind by means of a sac rifice (applicatio per modum sacrificii), and hence is no independent sacrifice superadded to that of the Cross, whereby the latter would be completed or enhanced in value.”
― Joseph Pohle, The sacraments: A Dogmatic Treatise, Vol. 2

“—With the sole exception of Penance, which demands certain supernatural acts (faith, contrition, etc.) either as quasi-matter, or at least as a necessary condition, the possession of the true faith is not an indispensable requisite for the valid reception of the Sacraments on the part of the subject.”
― Joseph Pohle, The sacraments : a dogmatic treatise, Vol. 1