A Treasure To Be Shared

from the Catholic Herald http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/commentandblogs/2018/09/29/the-revival-of-ember-days/ The Ember Days recall an age when the rhythms of human life were still bound to the changing of the seasons. A corruption of the Latin Quatuor Tempora (“Four Times”), the Ember Days were an attempt by the ancient Church to preserve and sanctify the pagans’ observation of equinoxes and solstices. Our predecessors in the faith marked the cycles of Creation with fasting, prayer and acts of charity – giving thanks to “the Lord of the Harvest”, as Jesus called his Father. The Ember Days are seldom marked by Catholics today, when every fruit and vegetable is available in the supermarket all year round. Harvest festivals can mean little to the New Yorker who buys fresh pineapples in the middle of December to garnish his Christmas ham. - - - We in/of the Personal Ordinariate have retained the Ember Days. An article at this blog may help to bring other Catholics...

https://anglicanorumcoetibussociety.blog/2018/07/31/how-do-you-join-the-ordinariate/ Interested in joining the Ordinariate as a member? Follow the link above. Even if you are not from an ecclesial background that facilitates "membership", all are welcome to attend an Ordinariate parish. Most Ordinariate communities include cradle Catholics and converts from protestant and non-churched backgrounds. Parents of children who receive the sacraments in Ordinariate communities, typically, are active participants in said communities, regardless of whether or not they are former Anglicans eligible for "membership". Many cradle Catholics, seeking the Catholic Faith, attend Ordinariate parishes because they find in those communities a tenacious love for the Faith undefiled by theological compromise and false charity. They want to bring up their children among people of faith who are committed to handing on the Catholic Faith as taught and lived by the Saints. ...

https://www.liturgicalartsjournal.com/2018/09/compers-masterpiece-at-wymondham-norfolk.html Just as the Eucharist is the foretaste of the heavenly banquet, so Comper intended his altar screen to be a visual foretaste of heaven. — Dr. Allan Barton photo: Dr. Allan Barton

The National Catholic Register has the following article: http://www.ncregister.com/daily-news/passion-to-evangelize-drives-new-ordinariate-catholic-communities Passion to Evangelize Drives New Ordinariate Catholic Communities Young Catholics, invigorated by the ordinariate’s English-Catholic expressions of faith, are actively ‘church-planting’ and inviting people into their fledgling Catholic communities. (T)here is something about the way the faith was lived, celebrated and expressed in an English context that is actually an enrichment for the whole Church,” (Bishop Lopes) said. “It is something true, it is something good, and it is something beautiful.” He also added the ordinariate serves the mutual enrichment of the Church in a pastoral sense. Ordinariate communities, he said, have “a sense of parish as family” by not only worshipping at Mass together, but spending extensive time with each other in fellowship over coffee hour. “It is kind of expec...

You've seen the image. CNS/Vatican media How utterly incompetent were those who missed the incongruity between smiling prelates and the purpose of their gathering? Smiling prelates gathered to discuss decades of horrendous sexual abuse, assault and clergy managerial malfeasance is hardly the kind of image the Church should release for general consideration. If given half a chance, the secular media will, too often intentionally, sensationalize issues and use images to maximize impact and thus profits gained from selling the news. Given that the news is highly commodified and that the secular media, in particular, rely on adapting images to maximize impact to maximize market share to maximize financial gain, the Church cannot be so naive as to release images which have not received a thorough assessment to minimize exploitation. Thus, photographs should only be released after a two or three stage vetting process that should include the following considerations: th...

Suprarational transcending the rational based on or involving factors not to be comprehended by reason alone The Creed is a training ground saturated with realities far beyond what the mind, unaided by grace, can begin to apprehend. Apprehend, in the sense that the Faith is as much  caught  as  taught . With grace, i.e., God's gift, our thinking and understanding is transformed. Transformed, that is, if we cooperate with grace. Our hearts and minds are enabled to embrace the mysteries of the Faith by the grace that God chooses to freely give. Words are to a story like an island (or cloud) is to the horizon. An island punctuates or articulates the horizon. A word may entice our attention to it, but without the context the full phrase provides, we can easily miss the context and thus the full meaning, the direction toward which our hearts and minds should be directed. Words invite (cajole, entice, compel, impel...) us into the intention of the sentence, and the...

Instruct the Ignorant Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.—St. Matthew 28:19-20 Conversations of late have yielded reminders numerous and disappointing with regards to the loss of a Christian vocabulary among Christians. Extraordinary Form and Ordinariate Catholics, and Eastern rite Catholics, seem less prone to confusion, given a dedication to defending Tradition and celebrating the rich and sublime nuances of the Mass in its various traditional forms. The loss of a Catholic vernacular or idiom among diocesan Catholics, however, seems astonishingly complete. Many tradition-minded Catholics are exiles in their own parishes for honouring the Faith with a mind to handing on that which is and always has been Catholic, i.e., Tradition. "Progressive Catholics"—a contradiction in terms if ever there was one—are repelled by the liturgical...

Senate committee meetings have begun to assess Judge Kavanaugh's fitness to serve as a justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. Senate Democrats, and a host of irate attendees lobbing violent verbal attacks, revealed their inability to conduct themselves in a respectable manner. The New York Times captured the first meeting of the Senate Judiciary Committee. NYT https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/04/us/politics/kavanaugh-confirmation-supreme-court.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage (T)he hearings were dominated by Democratic theatrics and crackling protests. For more than an hour at the outset, irate Democrats and a frustrated Mr. Grassley parried back and forth. Senator Richard Blumenthal, Democrat of Connecticut, denounced the hearing as “a charade and a mockery” and repeatedly moved to adjourn, while Mr. Grassley ruled him out of order over and over again. At one point, Senator John Cornyn, Republican of Texas, accused Democ...

The Catholic Church is the family of God. With all the goings on regarding abuse, why is it that those who would sit in judgement of the Church—damning the righteous along with the unrighteous—ignore that, within any family, there can be the good or godly who love—but do not condone—those members of the family who, having behaved very badly, nevertheless merit our forgiveness? Let us be clear, forgiveness is not tolerance of wicked behaviour. Accountability for evil actions is required. What family, tested by addiction, hasn't had a moment or two or more when a well intentioned parent or sibling enables another son or daughter, addicted to drugs, by loaning him or her money for food or clothing or shelter, only to see that money used instead for the very thing contributing to a loved one's downfall? None are more appalled, shocked and angered by the horrendous behaviour of McCarrick and others, than the members of their family—the Church. Our abused brothers and sist...