LUCIUS ANNAEUS SENECA
Nothing is more honorable than a grateful heart.
Bishop Lopes' Visit to Victoria: FBJHN Website update.
The website of the Fellowship of Blessed John Henry Newman (Victoria, BC) has photos of the recent Confirmation Mass with His Excellency Steven J. Lopes, Bishop of the Ordinariate of the Chair of Saint Peter.
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Team Thick versus Team Thin On 4 December 1963, following the last vote at the Second Vatican Council, Paul VI promulgated the Apostolic Constitution Sacrosanctum Concilium on the Sacred Liturgy. Later, with the Apostolic Letter Motu proprio data Sacram Liturgiam dated 25 January 1964, Pope St. Paul VI established a Special Commission, called Consilium ad exsequendam Constitutionem de sacra Liturgia (Council for the Implementation of the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy). https://www.cultodivino.va/en/chi-siamo/storia/il-consilium-ad-exsequendam-constitutionem-de-sacra-liturgia.html The Consilium consisted of 48 members (11 Cardinals, 36 Bishops and 1 Abbot) and more than 200 international consultors and advisors, spread across 40 study groups (coetus a studiis). The internal debates within the Consilium ad exsequendam Constitutionem de Sacra Liturgia were intense, often revealing two competing visions of liturgical reform. Primary Axes of Disagreement 1. Continuity vs. Reconstructi...
St. John the Baptist Catholic Church, Bridgeport, PA In 2023, Monsignor Keith Newton, then head of the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham, coined the term “realized ecumenism” to describe how the Ordinariates created by the Apostolic constitution Anglicanorum Coetibus offer a welcoming path for those seeking the fullness of the Faith. https://ewtn.co.uk/article-the-head-of-the-ordinariate-for-former-anglicans-in-england-and-wales-assesses-its-past-present-and-future/ The Personal Ordinariates represent one of the most quietly remarkable ecumenical achievements of the last century: a form of unity that does not require amnesia. They embody a model of reconciliation in which distinct traditions are not dissolved but transfigured — brought into full communion without losing the theological, liturgical, and pastoral instincts that shaped them. The Personal Ordinariates are a quiet work of the Holy Spirit, gathering what was once separated and transforming it into communion. Th...
The Ordinariate’s Liturgy Shapes the Soul Through Beauty, Order, and Sacramental Realism Divine Worship, the liturgical expression entrusted to the Ordinariates, is far more than a beautiful way of praying. It is a formative environment — a spiritual architecture that shapes the worshipper’s imagination, posture, and self‑understanding. In a culture marked by distraction, fragility, and self‑invention, Divine Worship quietly trains the believer to stand firm, to speak truthfully, and to live faithfully. Its beauty is not ornamental; its order is not rigid; its language is not nostalgic. All of it works together to cultivate resilience and responsibility as lived habits of Christian maturity. The Gravity That Strengthens the Soul One of the most striking features of Divine Worship is its gravity. The Liturgy carries a seriousness that is neither severe nor distant, but deeply dignified. The worshipper is confronted with the reality that he stands before the living God. The Collects, the...
Envy doesn’t just distort individual judgment — it reconfigures whole political parties and conversations by shifting motives from common good to status competition, from policy reasoning to resentment‑management, and from deliberation to punitive comparison. Political psychology treats envy as a relational toxin: it warps how groups see themselves, their rivals, and even their own members. Envy reshapes political parties. Envy in politics is seldom acknowledged directly, instead showing up through indirect behaviors like moralizing, scapegoating, enforcing purity tests, and fostering factionalism. Here’s a breakdown of how envy can mutate party dynamics. Status mimicry. Parties begin imitating the rhetorical style, emotional tone, or organizational tactics of rivals they resent. Envy drives copycat radicalization: “If they mobilize outrage, we must mobilize more.” Internal purging. Envy of rising figures inside the party produces loyalty tests, ideological policing, and factional pu...
Mass - Bloodless Synonym for Christ's Eternal Sacrifice for the Salvation of Souls The first offertory prayer of Divine Worship discloses the sacrifice of the Mass as an act in which Christ’s once‑for‑all oblation is made present and lovingly offered to the Father through the Church’s hands. Its language emphasizes that the gifts set upon the altar—“holy bread” and “chalice of salvation”—are not merely symbolic tokens but the very matter through which the faithful join themselves to Christ’s self‑giving. The prayer frames the offering as both propitiatory and participatory: propitiatory, because it looks to the Cross as the singular source of reconciliation; participatory, because the faithful unite their intentions, labours, and lives to Christ’s perfect sacrifice. This offertory thus reveals the Mass as a living movement of ascent, in which earthly gifts are taken up into the heavenly worship. It also underscores the priest’s mediating role, asking that the sacrifice be accepted ...
SJHN Divine Worship I. The Wound The altar groans beneath a fractured rite, When hands forget the holiness they hold; For once the sacred slips from earnest sight, Its fire grows thin, its embers faint and cold. The Church stands bruised when reverence is lost, And Christ is met with casual, hurried breath; Such wounds, though quiet, carry weight and cost, For they unteach the way that leads from death. II. Identity Unmade The Church forgets the grammar of her grace When gestures stray from what the Fathers knew; Her ancient voice grows strange within this place, And borrowed forms obscure what once rang true. For liturgy is language of the Bride, The shape of love made visible and clear; When this is blurred, her heart is pushed aside, And mission falters where it should draw near. III. The Mission Dimmed A people formed by rites malformed will fade, Uncertain of the gift they bear within; For worship teaches how the world is made, And how the Cross unmakes the power of sin. If rites ...
POPE LEO XIV Magnifica Humanitas
Even in the darkest nights, the Lord raises up men and women who refuse to give up, who persevere in doing good, who protect the vulnerable and open pathways to reconciliation. The memory of the saints, righteous people and the oft-forgotten peacemakers, show us that grace does not magically eliminate conflict, but instead it inspires active resistance to evil and an astonishing creativity in doing good” (paragraph 211).
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
I doubt not then but innocence shall make false accusation blush, and tyranny tremble at patience.
WORDS TO THE WHYS
You cannot subsidize irresponsibility and expect people to become more responsible. Thomas Sowell
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