A Treasure To Be Shared

The headline at The Catholic Herald reads: Bishop Lopes: I don’t believe bishops who plead ignorance of McCarrick And, in addition to commenting on the current turmoil surrounding McCarrick, Bishop Lopes clarifies a matter that has also caused Catholics' guts to get tied, unnecessarily, in a knot. [CH]  Bishop Lopes also said there was a sense of “chaos and confusion” over the Pope’s change to the Catechism entry on the death penalty, and that his priests had communicated the refrain, “Not this again. Didn’t we just live through this in Anglicanism? Now we’re going to find it in Catholicism?” [ transcribed from video: 10:10 to 10:43 ] Because what's happening? We're being buffeted about by a blog and media culture that never bothers to read the details. And so, we have trumpeting headlines that (say) 'The Pope has changed the faith of the Church'. He has done no such thing. No such thing! If you read the modification of the Catechism, carefully,

You are a subordinate, an employee in a workplace marred by incompetent or hostile leadership. Hostile, as in the exercise of leadership in ways contrary to reason and good governance, in ways contrary to the common good. Give sentence with me, O God, and defend my cause against the ungodly people; O deliver me from the deceitful and wicked man. —Psalm 43 Business, and any service institution, like Mother Nature, abhors a vacuum. Consequently, into the void allowed by ineffective leadership pours egotism and envy. Power plays erupt which further marginalize an already depressed group of workers—junior staff, adjunct or part-time faculty, junior management—who fear loss of opportunity if they speak up for themselves and for those whom they serve. O send out thy light and thy truth, that they may lead me, and bring me unto thy holy hill, and to thy dwelling. —ibid. Despite the challenges, and they can be very serious and debilitating for those who labour in a toxic envir

Pugin, Rood Screen at St. Giles' Church Now, more than ever, the Ordinariate is needed to help Catholics orient themselves to God. We in the Ordinariate, a community born of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of UNity in the Truth, the Mover of former Anglicans and all people of goodwill to unity with the Church founded by Jesus Christ on Peter the Chief Apostle, understand well what it is to live in the midst of turmoil as one or more Anglican bodies have descended into conformity with the world and the ensuing doctrinal confusion that accompanies flirtation with insanity. For those such as yours truly, received into the Church in the 1980s, long before the Ordinarate was conceived, and having fairly recently discovered the Ordinariate and its beautiful form of the Mass, the Ordinariate offers a refuge from loose play with the Sacred Liturgy. Speaking as an outsider for a moment, communities of the Ordinariate offer disillusioned Catholics and those earnestly seeking revere

The manner in which the Holy Eucharist, i.e, the Mass, is celebrated speaks to the state of men's souls, the souls of men who by their care or lack thereof manifest their true intentions toward the Mass. The Mass is a mirror of our intentions, the canon (κανών) by which we measure all that we do. When the Mass is subject to carelessness, parody or another form of disrespect, one need only look to/at those who inflict abuse or permit the Eucharist to be so brutalized. If priests and bishops can subject Jesus, our Lord and Saviour, daily to the preaching of heterodoxy and by occupying the centre of attention in the Mass properly belonging to God, surely those same clergymen will see little harm in manipulating young boys and seminarians, to exploit them to whatever twisted end their insatiable lust for pleasure (and power) demands. Without requiring respect for the Eucharist by all who celebrate the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, any attempt to reform the priesthood, and to do

The Apostle Peter by Peter Paul Rubens The Holy Spirit was promised to the successors of Peter not so that they might, by his revelation, make known some new doctrine, but that, by his assistance, they might religiously guard and faithfully expound the revelation or deposit of faith transmitted by the apostles. Indeed, their apostolic teaching was embraced by all the venerable fathers and reverenced and followed by all the holy orthodox doctors, for they knew very well that this See of St. Peter always remains unblemished by any error, in accordance with the divine promise of our Lord and Savior to the prince of his disciples: "I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail; and when you have turned again, strengthen your brethren."— Pastor aeternus Neque enim Petri successoribus Spiritus Sanctus promissus est, ut eo revelante novam doctrinam patefacerent, sed ut eo assistente traditam per Apostolos revelationem seu fidei depositum sancte custodirent et fideli

The visual, aural, even olfactory elements of the Liturgy manifest the sacred realities being made present. They show forth the holy mysteries being celebrated. They convey to our senses the truth of what we are participating in. They are visible signs of the invisible grace at work. —from On Irreverence and Solemnity , Nicholas Senz at The Catholic Thing

Our Lady of Walsingham Cathedral, Houston TX photo by Gilbert So, yours is a community in formation. You have grand aspirations to build a beautiful house of prayer dedicated to the worthy celebration of the sacraments according to Divine Worship: the Missal. What's next? Feel free to add to the list. Start by praying; keep on praying. Never stop praying.  “Pray as though everything depended on God. Work as though everything depended on you." (St. Augustine) Ad maiorem Dei gloriam. Do all things for the greater glory of God. Give thanks to God always! Speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by every joint with which it is supplied, when each part is working properly, makes bodily growth and upbuilds itself in love. (Ephesians 4:15-17) Build community by celebrating Mass with due reverence. Defer to God's greater wisdom and seek His will in al

Many people are experiencing crushing suffering at the news of a severe lack of episcopal oversight, the news of episcopal malfeasance, the news of perversion in the priesthood, and news of the abuse wrought upon young people and seminarians by priests and bishops who committed abominable cruelties. Act One As mentioned here , the stage is set for a reckoning. Dioceses in which perversion, assaults and coverups occurred, deserve the full force of public condemnation and whatever legal settlements and sanctions the courts impose, not to mention the canonical sanctions which can and should be enforced against bishops, priests and laymen who enabled a culture of abuse either by their silence and inaction or by their active participation in criminal and immoral behaviour. It should be abundantly clear by now that decades of cafeteria (c)atholicism has led us to a state of ubiquitous decadence. Sin will not triumph, however, because Christ is the head of the Church, and we have J

The Fellowship of Blessed John Henry Newman leaves our former home, Our Lady of Fatima Parish, for another parish dedicated to our Lady. Deo gratias!  The Parish of Our Lady Queen of Peace (QoP), in Esquimalt , has offered to host the Fellowship. After feverish activity to find accommodation, the pastor of QoP, Fr. John, offered to take in the Fellowship. Laudetur Iesus Christus! The sanctuary of Queen of Peace is well suited to Divine Worship. The portable altar for the Ordinary Form is routinely moved aside for the EF Mass. There is a communion rail, restored a few years ago, and the high altar is, of course, ad orientem. A proper sacristy adjoins the sanctuary. The sanctuary, the only parish in the Diocese of Victoria that preserves an  ad orientem altar with central tabernacle), save the removal of the communion rail, was left mostly intact in the wake of the (unjustified) changes that occurred in the 1970s. There is an elevator between the street level and the second fl

As the Council recalls, the Church’s liturgical action is also part of her contribution to the work of civilization (cf.  Gaudium et Spes , n. 58). Indeed the liturgy is the celebration of the central event of human history, the redemptive sacrifice of Christ. Thus it bears witness to the love with which God loves humanity, to the fact that human life has a meaning and that it is through their vocation that men and women are called to share in the glorious life of the Trinity. Humanity needs this witness. People need to perceive, through the liturgical celebrations, that the Church is aware of the lordship of God and of dignity of the human being. She has the right to be able to discern, over and above the limitations that will always mark her rites and ceremonies, that Christ “is present in the sacrifice of Mass and in the person of the minister” (cf. Sacrosanctum Concilium , n. 7). Knowing the care with which you prepare your liturgical celebrations, I encourage you to cultivat

An excerpt from an article at Canticum Salomonis. https://sicutincensum.wordpress.com/2018/08/08/what-happened-to-french-rood-screens-fr-thiers-dissertation-ecclesiastique-sur-les-jubes/ Whatever Happened to French Rood Screens? Fr. Thiers’ Dissertation Ecclésiastique sur les Jubés On the heels of Monday’s post on the Jubé/Rood Screen , we now introduce a new translation, Fr. Jean-Baptiste Thiers’ Treatise on Jubés , a polemical treatise written in protest of the widespread destruction of rood screens and ambos led by the Gallican episcopacy and canonical chapters during the 17th century. Fr. Thiers’ treatise is one of the first systematic attempts to understand the origin, development, and use of the rood screen. Like his other works On Altars and On Choirs , its aim is to explain and defend the Gothic ecclesiastical architecture of France against an aggressive “Baroquification” that often destroyed the ancient elements that once separated the sanctuary and the na

Old Woman Saying Grace by Nicolaes Maes (Wikimedia) God is always present to us. Are we present to God? The Lord is closer to us than we are to ourselves: “interior intimo meo et superior summo meo” (“higher than my highest and more inward than my innermost self”). St Augustine,  Confessions  III, 6, 11. Make time to put God first in your life. Make time to pray, in silence, every day. Make time to ask God for wisdom, peace and understanding. Make time to ask God for the grace to do His will. Make time to rest with God in adoration (of the Blessed Sacrament). Make time to tell and show God that you love Him, that you trust Him. Make time to deepen your relationship with Jesus, to attend Mass more often. Make time to  examine your conscience  every day. Make time to confess your sins . Make time to read and meditate on Holy Scripture , to hear the voice of God . Make time to serve others who need your hands to help them hope. Make time to be with family, to love

Seven Ages of Man by William Mulready (1838) - Wikipedia All the world’s a stage,  And all the men and women merely players; They have their exits and their entrances, And one man in his time plays many parts,  His acts being seven ages. — Jaques to Duke Senior,   As You Like It by William Shakespeare: Act II, Scene VII. The stage is set for a reckoning. Nay, indeed, if you had your eyes, you might fail of the knowing me: it is a wise father that knows his own child. Well, old man, I will tell you news of your son: give me your blessing: truth will come to light; murder cannot be hid long; a man's son may, but at the length truth will out. —Launcelot, Merchant of Venice  by William Shakespeare:  Act 2 Scene 2. Professor Janet E. Smith , consecrated virgin and a moral theologian at Sacred Heart Major Seminary, has identified in no uncertain terms a serious concern long resonating among Catholics convinced that a deadly systemic illness exists among many curr

The Victorian Web: image scanned by George P. Landow An excerpt from an article by Harry Mount at the Catholic Herald on rood screens, that also mentions a new book by Richard Hayman, available at the link below: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Screens-Shire-Library-Richard-Hayman/dp/1784422940 - - - The screens – which divide chancel from nave, and were originally topped with a rood, the Anglo-Saxon word for a cross, with the crucified Christ flanked by Mary and John the Evangelist – are crucial to the layout of a church, to English church history and to the aesthetic understanding of our most important buildings, our parish churches. And Hayman, in his gentle, easy-going, unacademic prose, is the perfect rood-screen guide. [...] (P)lenty of pre-Reformation rood screens survive; the earliest, from the late 13th century, are at Stanton Harcourt, Oxfordshire, and Kirkstead, Lincolnshire. Most surviving screens are from the 15th and 16th centuries. In the remoter c

Sheffield and South Yorkshire Ordinariate "Too much change!" "Too little change!" Those are the poles to which proponents of the liturgical extremes tend to gravitate. Those are the basins on either side of a liturgical continental divide into which drains considerable energy, time and resources that could be better spent in service of the New Evangelization. On the one hand, we have those Catholics who are only content with the Mass celebrated entirely in Latin, save the homily, according to the liturgical books in use prior to the changes mandated by the Second Vatican Council. Can you blame them for valuing the retention of such a beautiful ritual? On the other, there are Catholics for whom the Mass is entirely malleable, permitted to be so by things imagined to be mandated by the same Council. For the former, the Extraordinary Form (EF) of the Mass is more a citadel; for the latter, the Ordinary Form (OF) of the Mass is (much) more a playpen.