A Treasure To Be Shared

Moral laxity among the faithful. Abuse of authority by bishops and priests seeking personal gain. Is there a link between the moral failings of man and the current manner in which the (Ordinary Form of the) Mass is commonly celebrated? More and more cradle Catholics and converts attend our local Ordinariate liturgies who are making the connection between the way the Mass is celebrated, the kind of Mass celebrated, and the positive effects in their lives and families when the Mass is celebrated reverently. Turned-off by priestly showmanship and by pretentious lay folk who rule the Liturgy in ways that make the Mass into a buffet of personal preferences, people are reaching out to traditional communities such as our Ordinariate mission to find liturgical sanity, a space whereby they can encounter God and worship Him on God's terms. These same concerned citizens confess that they have been withering spiritually, distracted by sentimental homilies that neither challenge them nor a...

... get beautiful. Let's face it, there's plenty of bad news in the news right now. And, in this day of instant everything, the flood of information is torrential and caustic, a toxic tsunami that can easily overwhelm even the most stalwart citizen of the Church. To respond with bland indifference, or some Pollyanna-esque slogan, or even white hot anger at the abominable misdeeds of prelates, doctrinal monkey business or the slithery sophistry of Catholic politicians whose mastery of doublespeak is enough to induce seasickness in the most seasoned of sea-dogs, is to drift away from the company of Jesus by allowing oneself to flop into the comfy chair of doubt and despair. Let us not forget: God is in charge! Our job is to remind our brothers and sisters, Catholics and non-Catholics, that actions have eternal consequences. There's Beauty in the Cross If ever there was a contradiction in terms, its the idea that the crucified body of Jesus—battered, torn, cru...

Two articles that may interest transcendental-ists. St Alphonsus on the Need for Reverence in the Liturgy http://www.newliturgicalmovement.org/2018/08/st-alphonsus-on-need-for-reverence-in.html#.W2M0aSMrLpQ More Reflections on the Importance of Liturgical Beauty https://www.liturgicalartsjournal.com/2018/08/more-reflections-on-importance-of.html

Our Lady of Walsingham Cathedral photo by Gilbert An excerpt of an interview between Nicholas LaBanca (Catholic World Report) and Dr. Denis McNamara, associate professor and academic director at the Liturgical Institute, University of Saint Mary of the Lake/Mundelein Seminary. https://www.catholicworldreport.com/2018/08/01/every-architectural-decision-in-church-is-a-theological-decision-as-well/ CWR: Throughout many of your lectures, which are available online, you’ve often mentioned the concept of “architectural theology,” and made the point that churches themselves are “sacramental buildings.” What do you mean by such terms? (Dr.) McNamara: I was trying to rescue church architecture from the idea that a church is merely a theologically neutral thing, a “skin for liturgical action” as people frequently said in the 80s and 90s. We would say today that the texts at Mass are composed of theological words – they’re to God, they’re from God, they’re about ...

Those familiar with the struggle to find a welcoming host will readily understand the many challenges associated with actually finding a temporary home in which a community-in-formation can meet and grow until it is able to afford its own structure, its own home. The Fellowship of Blessed John Henry Newman , Victoria, is soon going to be homeless. The parish council of the parish currently hosting the Fellowship, a Catholic parish struggling to meet its financial obligations, recently informed the Fellowship that it must move out by September 1st of this year, a short month away. The Fellowship, since it arrived some 30 months ago at its current location, has been paying a signifcant portion of the salary of the pastor of the host parish. The Fellowship has enjoyed the support of most of the host parish's members. The Fellowship has approached another Catholic parish with a plan that included appropriate financial compensation and a complete willingness to fit into the exi...

Those of us privileged to attend Divine Worship, the Mass of the Ordinariate, are able to appreciate the necessity of receiving Holy Communion on the tongue. The state of affairs in the wider Church, in diocesan circles for starters, is of a kind that merits the witness of Ordinariate Catholics who kneel to receive communion on the tongue. The Ordinariate can help restore to the wider Church due reverence for the Holy Eucharist. Along with our Extraordinary Form brethren who hold to the same practice, we can help others recover a sense of profound adoration and reverence for the Holy Eucharist. Let us call to mind the (near universally ignored) teaching which sought to uphold, if even in a limp manner, the practice of communion on the tongue. It is a brief document worth quoting in its entirety. - - - MEMORIALE DOMINI Instruction on the Manner of Distributing Holy Communion Sacred Congregation for Divine Worship Issued on May 29, 1969. When the Church cel...

The Catholic Herald has the following article: http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/commentandblogs/2018/07/27/what-is-it-actually-like-to-be-ordained-a-priest/ What is it actually like to be ordained a priest?  by Fr Michael Ward Fr Michael Ward shares his experience on being ordained as the Ordinariate's 100th priest (Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham) [...] We’re to be ordained within the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham, whose patron is . . . Blessed John Henry Newman. Our Ordinary, Mgr Keith Newton, being a married man, isn’t technically a bishop, so he has arranged for Archbishop Bernard Longley of Birmingham to ordain us on his behalf. [...] A young oratorian hastens from a doorway, carrying what the archbishop has agreed to use. Like wildfire the news runs round: it’s Newman’s crozier! My heart lifts. Newman’s crozier. How often is a precious relic actually pressed into present-day use? But here is the very shepherd’s crook N...

7th Nationwide Juried Catholic Arts Competiton and Exhibition Summer/Fall 2018 Elizabeth Lev, Ph.D. Juror http://gallery.stvincent.edu/upcoming_exhibitions

Malebolge Inferno xviii When courts get decisions wrong, time can be a hideous companion. The time it takes, that is, until an unjust decision is reversed or nullified. The suffering visited upon a nation and its people by a court can be a sobering reminder that, without the grace of God to elevate minds to the Truth, evil of a magnitude hardly imaginable can spread like wildfire to practically consume a nation. An unjust decision by a court can poison the minds of an entire nation and render that nation insensitive to the Truth, and because the Truth cannot then be seen nor followed, people are dehumanized and destroyed on an unimaginable scale. One only has to look at the former Soviet Union at its height, that is, at the depth of its depravity to find an example of man's capacity for extreme violence. Socialism, communism and fascism are idolatrous systems which crush the human spirit and consume millions of lives to fuel their power to prop up themselves. The ...

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