.
Tomorrow would once have been the Feast of the Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ. the Collect would have been:
O almighty and eternal God, who didst cause our Saviour to take upon him our flesh, and to suffer the death of the cross, that all mankind should follow the example of his humility; mercifully grant that as we keep the solemn commemoration of his passion, we may deserve both to keep in mind the lessons of his patience, and also to be made partakers of his resurrection.
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27 February 2014
24 February 2014
Litany Of The Dying For Fr Amorth
Fr Amorth, the exorcist, is reported to have received the Last Rites. Of all holy priests, he will be the target for the enemy. Please pray for him at this time.
Lord, have mercy on us.
Christ, have mercy on us. Lord, have mercy on us. Christ, hear us. Christ, graciously hear us. God the Father of Heaven. have mercy on us. God the Son, Redeemer of the world. have mercy on us. God the Holy Ghost. have mercy on us. Holy Trinity, One God. have mercy on us.
R. Pray for Him
Holy Mary... All you holy Angels and Archangels...
Holy Abel... All the choirs of the just... Holy Abraham... St. John the Baptist... St. Joseph... All you holy Patriarchs and Prophets... St. Peter... St. Paul... St. Andrew... St. John... All you holy apostles and evangelists... All you holy disciples of the Lord... All you holy innocents... St. Stephen... St. Lawrence... All you holy martyrs... St. Sylvester... St. Gregory... St. Augustine... All you holy bishops and confessors... St. Benedict... St. Francis... St. Camillus... St. John of God... All you holy monks and hermits... St. Mary Magdalene... St. Lucy... All you holy virgins and widows...
All you holy saints of God
intercede for him
Be merciful, spare him, O Lord!
R. Deliver Him, O Lord
From sudden death...
From violent death... From the pains of hell... From all evil... From the power of the devil... Through Your birth... Through Your cross and passion... Through Your death and burial... Through Your glorious resurrection... Through Your admirable ascension... Through the grace of the Holy Spirit, the Comforter... In the day of judgment...
R. We beseech You, hear us.
That You spare him
R. We beseech You, hear us.
Lord, have mercy. Christ, have mercy. Lord, have mercy. |
22 February 2014
Changed Feast
.
Today is the Feast of the Chair of St Peter in the modern calendar, but until Bugnini, it was the Feast of the Chair of St Peter at Antioch. As it used exactly the same Mass as the Chair of St Peter at Rome, celebrated on 18 January, it was clear to the ordering mind of the Archbishop that these were feasts ripe to be merged, like the separate feasts of the three Archangels.
The problem is that they used to commemorate two separate things: the Chair at Antioch celebrates Episcopacy, the role of the Bishop in relation to his local Church; the Chair of St Peter celebrates Papacy, the primacy of the Bishop of Rome, and the possibility of the translation of Bishops from other local Churches to assume this role.
It must have seemed so mediaeval!
.
Today is the Feast of the Chair of St Peter in the modern calendar, but until Bugnini, it was the Feast of the Chair of St Peter at Antioch. As it used exactly the same Mass as the Chair of St Peter at Rome, celebrated on 18 January, it was clear to the ordering mind of the Archbishop that these were feasts ripe to be merged, like the separate feasts of the three Archangels.
The problem is that they used to commemorate two separate things: the Chair at Antioch celebrates Episcopacy, the role of the Bishop in relation to his local Church; the Chair of St Peter celebrates Papacy, the primacy of the Bishop of Rome, and the possibility of the translation of Bishops from other local Churches to assume this role.
It must have seemed so mediaeval!
.
16 February 2014
Another Lost Feast
.
Tomorrow, 17 February, we should be celebrating the Feast of the Flight into Egypt, but it appears to have been suppressed during the Pius X calendar reform.
It is a great pity: apart from the relevance in our time of this feast to political refugees, to the Catholics in biblical lands who are having to flee their homes, we also have the example of St Joseph, both in his obedience to the message of an angel and in his acceptance of his role of father and protector of his family.
The Collect is as follows: O God, the protector of those that hope in Thee, who didst will to deliver thy only-begotten Son, our Redeemer, from the sword of Herod, by the flight into Egypt; grant to us, thy servants, through the intercession of his most blessed mother, Mary, ever virgin, that being freed from all dangers of mind and body, we may deserve to arrive at our heavenly country.
.
Tomorrow, 17 February, we should be celebrating the Feast of the Flight into Egypt, but it appears to have been suppressed during the Pius X calendar reform.
It is a great pity: apart from the relevance in our time of this feast to political refugees, to the Catholics in biblical lands who are having to flee their homes, we also have the example of St Joseph, both in his obedience to the message of an angel and in his acceptance of his role of father and protector of his family.
The Collect is as follows: O God, the protector of those that hope in Thee, who didst will to deliver thy only-begotten Son, our Redeemer, from the sword of Herod, by the flight into Egypt; grant to us, thy servants, through the intercession of his most blessed mother, Mary, ever virgin, that being freed from all dangers of mind and body, we may deserve to arrive at our heavenly country.
.
15 February 2014
Help Identify The Prelates!
.
In the Missal which arrived yesterday, there are two pictures of prelates. Who are they?
The Missal received approval from Bishops Walsh and Wiseman in Birmingham in September 1845. They were Vicar Apostolic and Coadjutor Vicar Apostolic for the Central District at the time.
I could convince myself that the lower one could be Pope Gregory XVI, then gloriously reigning, but who could the higher one be? I don't think either is Wiseman, and I haven't got a clue what Bishop Walsh looked like. The caption to the first picture simply records that it was engraved by H Adlard after a sketch by H W Phillips Esq.
All help gratefully received.
.
In the Missal which arrived yesterday, there are two pictures of prelates. Who are they?
The Missal received approval from Bishops Walsh and Wiseman in Birmingham in September 1845. They were Vicar Apostolic and Coadjutor Vicar Apostolic for the Central District at the time.
I could convince myself that the lower one could be Pope Gregory XVI, then gloriously reigning, but who could the higher one be? I don't think either is Wiseman, and I haven't got a clue what Bishop Walsh looked like. The caption to the first picture simply records that it was engraved by H Adlard after a sketch by H W Phillips Esq.
All help gratefully received.
.
10 February 2014
Lord Of The World
.
.
You know what it's like when someone goes on at you a bit to read a book. It can easily become something you'll say you'll do, while putting off for as long as possible actually doing it.
I don't know when OTSOTA began to talk about Lord Of The World, by Mgr R H Benson, and about Pope Francis' reading of it. I just knew I'd read it a while ago and it was nowhere near top of my "books to be reread" list. But Paul kept dropping it into posts and tweets, not saying anything about me reading it again, but, consciously or unconsciously, doing a Chinese water torture on me so that, faced with a transatlantic flight, and the long, long, afternoon of the London to the East Coast flight, I resolved to reread it.
The first thing to shock me was how long ago it must be since I read it, probably at the time when I read much of RHB's works. The second was that, insofar as I had remembered it, it was as a science fiction novel in the style of HG Wells. It isn't.
It is a prophetic novel: it is written about the Last Things, the End of the World, the final attempt by the Devil to defeat God and become Lord of this world. That's not to say that the time is nigh: nobody knows the day or the hour. But what he describes in prophetic detail is the manner in which the Devil would twist the social impulses of the beginning of the democratic age into a world fit for him, and not for God.
The surrender of non-Catholic churches to the Zeitgeist; the increasing hostility, and then the militant opposition of atheists to all that the Church represents; the corrosion of the Church from within; the apathy of Catholics which leads to loss of Faith: RHB describes our world.
It continues to disturb me, as, obviously, it does the Pope. When the focus of Humanism becomes Man, instead of man formed in God's image and likeness; when the subjective "what suits me" replaces "what is my duty"; when loyalty to the Church and its beliefs can be portrayed as treason towards what the majority of people believe in, and therefore what is right to believe; this is the work of the Lord of the World.
The attack by the UN on the Church, made possible by very bad people allowing the Devil to penetrate the Church itself, is a call to arms, as well as a call to prayer, fasting and repentance. These may or may not be the Last Times: prepare as though they are; prepare as though they aren't. But the Devil is making great strides, in the Old World at least, and it is hard to see how in the rest of my life I am not going to see the Church, as I have known Her, disappear from any part of the life of nearly everybody I will meet. And it is our duty to fight it, whatever the cost.
The book won't be for everyone, but I'm glad OTSOTA nagged me to rereading it. Have a think about the last time you had heard a cleric below the rank of Pope refer, in your hearing, and not during a recital of the baptismal promises, to the Devil; and wonder why.
.
.
You know what it's like when someone goes on at you a bit to read a book. It can easily become something you'll say you'll do, while putting off for as long as possible actually doing it.
I don't know when OTSOTA began to talk about Lord Of The World, by Mgr R H Benson, and about Pope Francis' reading of it. I just knew I'd read it a while ago and it was nowhere near top of my "books to be reread" list. But Paul kept dropping it into posts and tweets, not saying anything about me reading it again, but, consciously or unconsciously, doing a Chinese water torture on me so that, faced with a transatlantic flight, and the long, long, afternoon of the London to the East Coast flight, I resolved to reread it.
The first thing to shock me was how long ago it must be since I read it, probably at the time when I read much of RHB's works. The second was that, insofar as I had remembered it, it was as a science fiction novel in the style of HG Wells. It isn't.
It is a prophetic novel: it is written about the Last Things, the End of the World, the final attempt by the Devil to defeat God and become Lord of this world. That's not to say that the time is nigh: nobody knows the day or the hour. But what he describes in prophetic detail is the manner in which the Devil would twist the social impulses of the beginning of the democratic age into a world fit for him, and not for God.
The surrender of non-Catholic churches to the Zeitgeist; the increasing hostility, and then the militant opposition of atheists to all that the Church represents; the corrosion of the Church from within; the apathy of Catholics which leads to loss of Faith: RHB describes our world.
It continues to disturb me, as, obviously, it does the Pope. When the focus of Humanism becomes Man, instead of man formed in God's image and likeness; when the subjective "what suits me" replaces "what is my duty"; when loyalty to the Church and its beliefs can be portrayed as treason towards what the majority of people believe in, and therefore what is right to believe; this is the work of the Lord of the World.
The attack by the UN on the Church, made possible by very bad people allowing the Devil to penetrate the Church itself, is a call to arms, as well as a call to prayer, fasting and repentance. These may or may not be the Last Times: prepare as though they are; prepare as though they aren't. But the Devil is making great strides, in the Old World at least, and it is hard to see how in the rest of my life I am not going to see the Church, as I have known Her, disappear from any part of the life of nearly everybody I will meet. And it is our duty to fight it, whatever the cost.
The book won't be for everyone, but I'm glad OTSOTA nagged me to rereading it. Have a think about the last time you had heard a cleric below the rank of Pope refer, in your hearing, and not during a recital of the baptismal promises, to the Devil; and wonder why.
.
01 February 2014
Neo-Cats
.
It probably won't surprise anybody who reads this to learn that I am not a follower of the Neocatechuminal Way, but I have always recognised that those who are followers are good people who like to practice their faith in a different way from me. You can tell how centred in the Church a movement is by watching its attitude to the maxim "sentire cum ecclesia": when the neo-cats were told to change the way they celebrated Mass within their community they did so, and without complaining; in exactly the same way that the FFI are doing exactly what the competent authority is telling them to do.
What stands out with them, and was particularly manifest in their meeting with the Pope today is their complete openness to the Gospel of Life. This is a young movement, full of children, young priests, young seminarians; with children with Downs Syndrome, with handicapped children; and all united and happy around their Pope.
Neither the Pope nor Abp Gänswein looked particularly at home when Kiko Argüello took up his guitar and sang, but the joy of those present was the joy of praise which the Pope spoke of at his daily Mass this week: not some sort of mass produced, let's make our music sound like the radio, look how clever I am as a song writer; but the joyful sound of God being praised.
Most important was the missionary dimension: here are families who, with their priests are going out in partibus infidelium to bring the Good News to those who are not part of the Church, with no thought for how they will live because of their certainty that God will provide.
This is a real example of where the Church can go, and how.
I very deliberately compared the kikos to the FFI: both new movements are frightening to those who think they know what Church organisations should look like. Even at the Vatican the neo-Cats were reminded that they had to be part of diocesan structures, must not be a separate sect. (And how much more, as an Order, the FFI must be integrated in the life of the Church.)
But whatever the worries, whatever the jealousies, the difficulties they have undergone have been resolved simply because of their obedience. Sooner or later, the most zealous prosecutor has to recognise that there is no case, and that is the point where the young shoot can grow vigorously, flower and begin to propagate itself.
The Neo-Cats aren't for me, as the charismatics aren't, and as the LMS isn't. We are allowed a lot of leeway in how we practice our faith. But the thing that unites all of the young movements in the Church is their loyalty to Peter; their fidelity to the Magisterium. Imagine that it is the Ordinariate that has been given a particular mandate for evangelisation in England and Wales.
The reason that the heretics and heterodox in the Church are so vocal and fighting so hard at the moment is that they have realised that their day has passed. The future is in full view and while bits of it are uncomfortable for some of us, it is God's.
It probably won't surprise anybody who reads this to learn that I am not a follower of the Neocatechuminal Way, but I have always recognised that those who are followers are good people who like to practice their faith in a different way from me. You can tell how centred in the Church a movement is by watching its attitude to the maxim "sentire cum ecclesia": when the neo-cats were told to change the way they celebrated Mass within their community they did so, and without complaining; in exactly the same way that the FFI are doing exactly what the competent authority is telling them to do.
What stands out with them, and was particularly manifest in their meeting with the Pope today is their complete openness to the Gospel of Life. This is a young movement, full of children, young priests, young seminarians; with children with Downs Syndrome, with handicapped children; and all united and happy around their Pope.
Neither the Pope nor Abp Gänswein looked particularly at home when Kiko Argüello took up his guitar and sang, but the joy of those present was the joy of praise which the Pope spoke of at his daily Mass this week: not some sort of mass produced, let's make our music sound like the radio, look how clever I am as a song writer; but the joyful sound of God being praised.
Most important was the missionary dimension: here are families who, with their priests are going out in partibus infidelium to bring the Good News to those who are not part of the Church, with no thought for how they will live because of their certainty that God will provide.
This is a real example of where the Church can go, and how.
I very deliberately compared the kikos to the FFI: both new movements are frightening to those who think they know what Church organisations should look like. Even at the Vatican the neo-Cats were reminded that they had to be part of diocesan structures, must not be a separate sect. (And how much more, as an Order, the FFI must be integrated in the life of the Church.)
But whatever the worries, whatever the jealousies, the difficulties they have undergone have been resolved simply because of their obedience. Sooner or later, the most zealous prosecutor has to recognise that there is no case, and that is the point where the young shoot can grow vigorously, flower and begin to propagate itself.
The Neo-Cats aren't for me, as the charismatics aren't, and as the LMS isn't. We are allowed a lot of leeway in how we practice our faith. But the thing that unites all of the young movements in the Church is their loyalty to Peter; their fidelity to the Magisterium. Imagine that it is the Ordinariate that has been given a particular mandate for evangelisation in England and Wales.
The reason that the heretics and heterodox in the Church are so vocal and fighting so hard at the moment is that they have realised that their day has passed. The future is in full view and while bits of it are uncomfortable for some of us, it is God's.
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