THE FORSAKEN - Beyond Redemption Full Album
Italy's Malfeitor play ferocious Black Metal with a Death Metal sense of brutality, rarely letting up from the stream of suffocating riffs and only sometimes halting the great, organic-sounding blast beats of drummer/workhorse Atum. Impressively, atmosphere is not forsaken in this approach. This is not Panzer Division Marduk. Some say their first album is better, but I haven't heard it and can't comment.
THE FORSAKEN - Beyond Redemption Full Album
Our Blessed Lord then, in answering the murmurs of the Pharisees, sets before us the strong claim which sinners, however sunk in iniquity, had upon His love. He could not but love them and be merciful unto them, even when their fellow men had cast them off: because they were His members, His own flesh and blood; because in the very worst estate of a sinner there is so much to lament over and to pity; so great the loss of his own good, so much blindness to his own happiness, so much real wretchedness, so much barter of that which is inestimable for the mere husks and garbage of the world, his own precious, glorious, immortal soul--pawned as it were to the devil, for a grovelling short-lived pleasure, which after all in the very enjoyment of it makes him only the more wretched! At the very sight then of the wretchedness and misery of fallen man, our Lord could not but have compassion on him. And the greater the loss, the more intense the pity and compassion which He feels. Thus it is, O most wondrous love! though man strays as far as he will, that he never can stray beyond the reach of God's mercy or of Christ's desire to save him: though he wander like a sheep in the wilderness, and leaves the fold, yet rather than that he should be entirely lost, our Lord searches diligently, early and late, until He find it. Nay, He speaks of that loss as His own personal loss. "What man of you, says He, having an hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost until he find it?" And when through its manifold wanderings it is faint and weary, as men are wont, who have trodden in the paths of sin, have worn themselves out with their own folly, wishing yet having no heart, no courage, to return, He layeth it on His shoulders like the good shepherd, and carries it back to the flock rejoicing; not grudging His own toil and suffering, Himself afflicted in all our afflictions, and joying in our Redemption, making His Sufferings our glory and joy, and our Redemption the satisfaction of His Soul, although all the gain was ours, all the suffering and the love His. And when He cometh home, and that home which He left for us was heaven, He calleth together His friends and His neighbours, saying unto them, "Rejoice with Me, for I have found My sheep which was lost." And who are these friends and neighbours, but the Angels and the Hosts of Heaven? They rejoice because He does, and His joy is the joy of them all. They rejoice because one more is added to their number, because of him who is brought back to God's fold, the repentant sinner, who has washed away his sins by penitential tears. There is greater joy over that one penitent, than over ninety-nine just persons which need no repentance--greater joy over one fallen man brought back to God's Bosom, than over Angels themselves who have never fallen; not because God loves the pure and innocent less, but because for sinful men Christ has undergone greater labour and suffering. And so the joy is greater, because that Blood which He shed is not all shed in vain, because He came to seek and to save that which was lost; and, behold! that lost is found! "Come unto Me, saith Christ, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." O, brethren, "no word of comfort," writes St. Augustine, "such as this in all the wisest systems of Philosophy. In the writings of the sages of old you will find many clever things acutely said, many things to warm the surface of the heart, but no where will you find such as this." Here then, O Christian, is thy Hope; if thou art sick, here is thy Physician; if thou art thirsty, here is thy Fountain; if thou needest help, here is thy Strength; if thou fearest death, here is thy Life; if thou desirest heaven, here is thy Way; if thou art sorrowful, here is thy Joy. It may be thou hast forsaken thy Father's house, and squandered away His goods and the talents which He entrusted to thy keeping; thou hast, it may be, given to the world thy heart, thy affections, thy time, thy zeal, thy service. And how has the world requited thee? Did it not send thee to live amongst its off-scourings and impurities? But now perchance thou art sick at heart, and loathest the world; thou rememberest the happy days of thy home, the time when thou wast innocent and light-hearted, and so thou longest to retrace thy steps. Well! there is hope for thee. But by the path of penitence must thou come back: by confession of thy sins must thou be restored to favour: like the son in the parable, thou must confess to thy Father, and say unto Him, "Father, I have sinned against heaven and before Thee, and am no more worthy to be called Thy son." He feared the loss of sonship, and he was restored to his dignity; he dreaded reproach, and he was received with rejoicings; he was afraid of punishment, and his father fell on his neck and kissed him. And what this father was in the parable, such is our Father which is in heaven. Even so, brethren; not disdaining the name of Father from the lips of us His disobedient, wayward, and polluted children, not withholding His Fatherly affection even from him who had forsaken his home, who had given his all to the World, and who was brought at first to repentance by no higher or nobler motive than the sense of his own extreme wretchedness.
Venerable Brethren: Health and Apostolic Benediction. 1. "You shall draw waters with joy out of the Savior's fountain."[1] These words by which the prophet Isaias, using highly significant imagery, foretold the manifold and abundant gifts of God which the Christian era was to bring forth, come naturally to Our mind when We reflect on the centenary of that year when Our predecessor of immortal memory, Pius IX, gladly yielding to the prayers from the whole Catholic world, ordered the celebration of the feast of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus in the Universal Church. 2. It is altogether impossible to enumerate the heavenly gifts which devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus has poured out on the souls of the faithful, purifying them, offering them heavenly strength, rousing them to the attainment of all virtues. Therefore, recalling those wise words of the Apostle St. James, "Every best gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of Lights,"[2] We are perfectly justified in seeing in this same devotion, which flourishes with increasing fervor throughout the world, a gift without price which our divine Savior the Incarnate Word, as the one Mediator of grace and truth between the heavenly Father and the human race imparted to the Church, His mystical Spouse, in recent centuries when she had to endure such trials and surmount so many difficulties. 3. The Church, rejoicing in this inestimable gift, can show forth a more ardent love of her divine Founder, and can, in a more generous and effective manner, respond to that invitation which St. John the Evangelist relates as having come from Christ Himself: "And on the last and great day of the festivity, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, 'If any man thirst, let him come to Me, and let him drink that believeth in Me. As the Scripture saith: Out of his heart there shall flow rivers of living waters.' Now this He said of the Spirit which they should receive who believed in Him."[3] 4. For those who were listening to Jesus speaking, it certainly was not difficult to relate these words by which He promised the fountain of "living water" destined to spring from His own side, to the words of sacred prophecy of Isaias, Ezechiel and Zacharias, foretelling the Messianic Kingdom, and likewise to the symbolic rock from which, when struck by Moses, water flowed forth in a miraculous manner.[4] 5. Divine Love first takes its origin from the Holy Spirit, Who is the Love in Person of the Father and the Son in the bosom of the most Holy Trinity. Most aptly then does the Apostle of the Gentiles echo, as it were, the words of Jesus Christ, when he ascribes the pouring forth of love in the hearts of believers to this Spirit of Love: "The charity of God is poured forth in our hearts by the Holy Spirit Who is given to us."[5] 6. Holy Writ declares that between divine charity, which must burn in the souls of Christians, and the Holy Spirit, Who is certainly Love Itself, there exists the closest bond, which clearly shows all of us, venerable brethren, the intimate nature of that worship which must be paid to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus Christ. If we consider its special nature it is beyond question that this devotion is an act of religion of high order; it demands of us a complete and unreserved determination to devote and consecrate ourselves to the love of the divine Redeemer, Whose wounded Heart is its living token and symbol. It is equally clear, but at a higher level, that this same devotion provides us with a most powerful means of repaying the divine Lord by our own. 7. Indeed it follows that it is only under the impulse of love that the minds of men obey fully and perfectly the rule of the Supreme Being, since the influence of our love draws us close to the divine Will that it becomes as it were completely one with it, according to the saying, "He who is joined to the Lord, is one spirit."[6] 8. The Church has always valued, and still does, the devotion to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus so highly that she provides for the spread of it among Christian peoples everywhere and by every means. At the same time she uses every effort to protect it against the charges of so-called "naturalism" and "sentimentalism." In spite of this it is much to be regretted that, both in the past and in our own times, this most noble devotion does not find a place of honor and esteem among certain Christians and even occasionally not among those who profess themselves moved by zeal for the Catholic religion and the attainment of holiness. 9. "If you but knew the gift of God."[7] With these words, venerable brethren, We who in the secret designs of God have been elected as the guardians and stewards of the sacred treasures of faith and piety which the divine Redeemer has entrusted to His Church, prompted by Our sense of duty, admonish them all. 10. For even though the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus has triumphed so to speak, over the errors and the neglect of men, and has penetrated entirely His Mystical Body; still there are some of Our children who, led astray by prejudices, sometimes go so far as to consider this devotion ill-adapted, not to say detrimental, to the more pressing spiritual needs of the Church and humanity in this present age. There are some who, confusing and confounding the primary nature of this devotion with various individual forms of piety which the Church approves and encourages but does not command, regard this as a kind of additional practice which each one may take up or not according to his own inclination. 11. There are others who reckon this same devotion burdensome and of little or no use to men who are fighting in the army of the divine King and who are inspired mainly by the thought of laboring with their own strength, their own resources and expenditures of their own time, to defend Catholic truth, to teach and spread it, to instill Christian social teachings, to promote those acts of religion and those undertakings which they consider much more necessary today. 12. Again, there are those who so far from considering this devotion a strong support for the right ordering and renewal of Christian morals both in the individual's private life and in the home circle, see it rather a type of piety nourished not by the soul and mind but by the senses and consequently more suited to the use of women, since it seems to them something not quite suitable for educated men. 13. Moreover there are those who consider a devotion of this kind as primarily demanding penance, expiation and the other virtues which they call "passive," meaning thereby that they produce no external results. Hence they do not think it suitable to re-enkindle the spirit of piety in modern times. Rather, this should aim at open and vigorous action, at the triumph of the Catholic faith, at a strong defense of Christian morals. Christian morality today, as everyone knows, is easily contaminated by the sophistries of those who are indifferent to any form of religion, and who, discarding all distinctions between truth and falsehood, whether in thought or in practice, accept even the most ignoble corruptions of materialistic atheism, or as they call it, secularism. 14. Who does not see, venerable brethren, that opinions of this kind are in entire disagreement with the teachings which Our predecessors officially proclaimed from this seat of truth when approving the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.? Who would be so bold as to call that devotion useless and inappropriate to our age which Our predecessor of immortal memory, Leo XIII, declared to be "the most acceptable form of piety?" He had no doubt that in it there was a powerful remedy for the healing of those very evils which today also, and beyond question in a wider and more serious way, bring distress and disquiet to individuals and to the whole human race. "This devotion," he said, "which We recommend to all, will be profitable to all." And he added this counsel and encouragement with reference to the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus: ". . .hence those forces of evil which have now for so long a time been taking root and which so fiercely compel us to seek help from Him by Whose strength alone they can be driven away. Who can He be but Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God? 'For there is no other name under heaven given to men whereby we must be saved.'[8] We must have recourse to Him Who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life."[9] 15. No less to be approved, no less suitable for the fostering of Christian piety was this devotion declared to be by Our predecessor of happy memory, Pius XI. In an encyclical letter he wrote: "Is not a summary of all our religion and, moreover, a guide to a more perfect life contained in this one devotion? Indeed, it more easily leads our minds to know Christ the Lord intimately and more effectively turns our hearts to love Him more ardently and to imitate Him more perfectly."[10] 16. To Us, no less than to Our predecessors, these capital truths are clear and certain. When We took up Our office of Supreme Pontiff and saw, in full accord with Our prayers and desires, that the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus had increased and was actually, so to speak, making triumphal progress among Christian peoples, We rejoiced that from it were flowing through the whole Church innumerable and salutary results. This We were pleased to point out in Our first encyclical letter.[11] 17. Through the years of Our pontificate--years filled not only with bitter hardships but also with ineffable consolations these effects have not diminished in number or power or beauty, but on the contrary have increased. Indeed, happily there has begun a variety of projects which are conducive to a rekindling of this devotion. We refer to the formation of cultural associations for the advancement of religion and of charitable works; publications setting forth the true historical, ascetical and mystical doctrine concerning this entire subject; pious works of atonement; and in particular those manifestations of most ardent piety which the Apostleship of Prayer has brought about, under whose auspices and direction local gatherings -- families, colleges, institutions -- and sometimes nations have been consecrated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. To all these We have offered paternal congratulations on many occasions, whether in letters written on the subject, in personal addresses, or even in messages delivered over the radio.[12] 18. Therefore when We perceive so fruitful an abundance of healing waters, that is, heavenly gifts of divine love, issuing from the Sacred Heart of our Redeemer, spreading among countless children of the Catholic Church by the inspiration and action of the divine Spirit; We can only exhort you, venerable brethren, with fatherly affection to join Us in giving tribute of praise and heartfelt thanks to God, the Giver of all good gifts. We make Our own these words of the Apostle of the Gentiles: "Now to Him Who is able to do all things more abundantly than we desire or understand, according to the power that worketh in us, to Him be glory in the Church and in Christ Jesus unto all generations world without end. Amen."[13] 19. But after We have paid Our debt of thanks to the Eternal God, We wish to urge on you and on all Our beloved children of the Church a more earnest consideration of those principles which take their origin from Scripture and the teaching of the Fathers and theologians and on which, as on solid foundations, the worship of the Sacred Heart of Jesus rests. We are absolutely convinced that not until we have made a profound study of the primary and loftier nature of this devotion with the aid of the light of the divinely revealed truth, can we rightly and fully appreciate its incomparable excellence and the inexhaustible abundance of its heavenly favors. Likewise by devout meditation and contemplation of the innumerable benefits produced from it, we will be able to celebrate worthily the completion of the first hundred years since the observance of the feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus was extended to the Universal Church. 20. Moved therefore by this consideration, to the end that the minds of the faithful may have from Our hands salutary food and consequently after such nourishment be able more easily to arrive at a deeper understanding of the true nature of this devotion and possess its rich fruits, We will undertake to explain those pages of the Old and New Testament in which the infinite love of God for the human race (which we shall never be able adequately to contemplate) is revealed and set before us. Then, as occasion offers, We shall touch upon the main lines of the commentaries which the Fathers and Doctors of the Church have handed down to us. And finally, We shall strive to set in its true light the very close connection which exists between the form of devotion paid to the Heart of the divine Redeemer and the worship we owe to His love and to the love of the Most Holy Trinity for all men. For We think if only the main elements on which the most excellent form of devotion rests are clarified in the light of Sacred Scripture and the teachings of tradition, Christians can more easily "draw waters with joy out of the Savior's fountains."[14] By this We mean they can appreciate more fully the full weight of the special importance which devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus enjoys in the liturgy of the Church and in its internal and external life and action, and can also gather those fruits of salvation by which each one can bring about a healthy reform in his own conduct, as the bishops of the Christian flock desire. 21. That all may understand more exactly the teachings which the selected texts of the Old and New Testament furnish concerning this devotion, they must clearly understand the reasons why the Church gives the highest form of worship to the Heart of the divine Redeemer. As you well know, venerable brethren, the reasons are two in number. The first, which applies also to the other sacred members of the Body of Jesus Christ, rests on that principle whereby we recognize tha
