A Treasure To Be Shared

There have likely been times when one has liked or loathed the behaviour of pastors. These days, it seems, there is a widening gap between priests one could described as by-the-book and reverent, and those who, for whatever reason, enjoy acting in a manner that is practically comedic and strange. Strange, as in: 1) habitually oriented to serving someone and something other than Jesus Christ and His Sacred Liturgy; and 2) liturgically inappropriate. The following list might contain content that is familiar to you, dear Reader. Depending on your own experience(s), you might wince or wink. Father Morpheus... whose monotone voice could put even a college student jacked up on energy drinks into a coma for a week. Father Bakkenforth... who often brings his dog to Mass and wanders about the nave during the sermon so he can play fetch with his dog... for reasons known only to dog lovers. Father Juan A.B. Celebrity... sees himself as the centre of the universe, the Mass, the parish, the city, p...

Holy Communion | Photo by D. Duchesne [ 7 minute read ] Who or what is Liturgical Man? Man's soul is fashioned in the image of God. The angels who love God love us, too! Baltimore Catechism  Q. Why did God make us? A. God made us to show forth His goodness and to share with us His everlasting happiness in heaven. Eye has not seen nor ear heard, nor has it entered into the heart of man, what things God has prepared for those who love him. 1 Corinthians 2:9 The angels desire our good, our well being, because God loves us. The angels love God and love all that God loves. What about evil spirits? Do they will our good? No, not at all. Liturgical Man, i.e., male and female, in the Age of the Holy Spirit, prays for and lives by the grace that God offers to live according to the New Commandment in the furtherance of the Kingdom of God: St John 13:34-35 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will...

Evil works... . to create familiarity, and by subtly exploiting weaknesses  stirs up temptations ( see below ), raises doubts and undermines trust in others and in oneself, then capitalizes on confusion by offering a cheap sympathy through false allies to coax dependence,  fueling crisis and chaos, meanwhile feeding despair and fomenting self destruction and death. Before the start of His mission, the Lord Jesus faced the devil in the wilderness. The devil, i.e., Satan, sought to appropriate the very identity, power, and mission of Jesus by assaulting Him with three temptations. Satan challenged Jesus to: turn stones into bread to satisfy his hunger jump from the temple and misuse his power seize the kingdoms of the world by force The devil's temptations follow three approaches: The first temptation of Jesus is the lust of the flesh (St Matthew 4:3–4). Our Lord is hungry, and the devil tempts Him to turn stones into bread, but Jesus responds with Scripture from Deuteronomy 8:3...

What is the mark of a Christian? It is to watch daily and hourly and to stand prepared in that state of total responsiveness pleasing to God, knowing that the Lord will come at an hour that he does not expect. -  St. Basil A true Christian is vigilant, meaning he is ready to hear God’s word and to respond accordingly. - Carl E. Olson (CWR) You are a faithful Catholic when... . You can recognize truth and live by the truth . You are capable of discerning between fact and fiction by constantly relying on Church teaching to inform your thinking (Zechariah 8:16) and to form your conscience. Furthermore, you know that the phrase 'my truth' is a mental evasion and a lie. You know that love is defined by the example of Jesus , not by the strange words and actions of an errant teacher or some misguided social media influencer (St John 13:34-35; 2 Timothy 4:3). You pray often - every day, morning, noon and night - and pray with a sincere heart to intercede for others, and to dispose y...

Coypel, Charles-Antoine | Fury of Achilles Richard John Neuhaus In the absence of truth, power is the only game in town.  Robert B. Greving, The Good News About Fiducia Supplicans, Crisis Magazine You see, both sides of the fence agree about what (Fiducia Supplicans) says. Whether you are Cardinal Müller or Fr. Martin, whether you’re the bishops in Germany or the bishops in Africa, you see the document as granting some form of Church approval of those living in “irregular situations,” and by “irregular situations” it means what had been called sinful. It has become the latest and most telling Rorschach test of the Catholic Faith.  Richard John Neuhaus Socialism is the religion people get when they lose their religion.  Barbara Nicolosi, NCRegister In storytelling, the theme is the unifying principle of the whole narrative. This goes back to Aristotle’s Poetics, where the greatest of the philosophers asserted that it is a big idea about life that gives a story a unive...

After truth, love is probably the most abused word in the English language. Well, maybe it's a tie between those two words for the title of 'Word Most Wounded'. When truth suffers, so also love. What is truth? Pontius Pilate asked Jesus this question as Jesus stood before him falsely accused. What Pontius Pilate didn't realize is that the answer to his question stood right before his eyes. Anagram St John 18:38 Pontius Pilate puts Jesus on trial and asks him, "Quid est veritas?" "What is truth?" Jesus does not respond, nor does he need to speak. He is the Eternal Word, the Logos. The question already contains the answer. "Est vir qui adest." "It is the man who stands (is) before you." The Answer was standing right in front of Pontius Pilate.  Ordinariate Treasure TwitterX Most faithful Catholics are more than likely aware that the word 'truth' can mean anything you want it to nowadays; love, too. Consequently, both words h...

The Lesson [ Read time 8 minutes ] To many diocesan Catholics the idea of praying the Mass with 'thees' and 'thous' is somewhat silly. Yet, they harbour no such attitude when praying the Our Father of the Mass, or the Hail! Mary  of the Rosary. The information that follows is intended to give reason for the hope that is within those of us in the Ordinariate who are so very content to be immersed in a multitude of blessings given by the Lord for our salvation and joy. Sacral English From the OLSC Ordinariate, ed. by Gilbert. The Book of Common Prayer as written by Thomas Cranmer remains a literary masterpiece. It developed a beautiful poetic way of conversing with God in the vernacular at a time when the western Church spoke only Latin. Yet Cranmer’s English was never vulgar or banal.  We continue this tradition in the Ordinariate in the language we use in our liturgies. Since the liturgy is an encounter with God, the language we use should be appropriate to this encoun...

Los Angeles Cathedral | Ximo Michavila photo [ 5 minute read ] Pope Francis, i.e., to be Frank, has dug a very large hole and filled it with not an insignificant amount of silliness for the next pope - whoever that might be - to step into. The word of the season is, of course, the word 'confusion'. Here's another word which, by now, is entirely familiar to concerned Catholics: mess. Christmas 2023 was turned into Crassmess by that now infamous document issued by the DDF, written by Cardinal Tucho the eroticist. Eroticist, to put it politely. Here is another word: chaos. Chaos: the state of things wherein faithful Catholics are tempted to indulge a variety of useless distractions, emotions, and what-have-you, as a result of the introduction of the imprudent actions of hierarchs who should know better than to put souls at risk. Candy Not Candy We Catholics are not prudes. Witness the sublime Catholic art of Michelangelo, for starters, and his virtuosic respect for and renderi...

May this season of Epiphany - Epiphanytide - be filled with reminders of the joy of the Word among us. Soon it will be Gesimatide. For those using the newer terminology of Ordinary Time, or Tempus per Annum (time or season throughout the year), the expression 'Gesimatide' is likely unfamiliar. Gesimatide, the three Sundays preceding Lent (Quadragesima, 40 days before Easter), is also known as Pre-Lent: Septuagesima (70), Sexagesima (60), Quinquagesima (50). Gesimatide is also known as Shrovetide, and begins on Septuagesima Sunday and ends on Shrove Tuesday (Mardi Gras) before Ash Wednesday (40 days before Easter). Gesimatide or Shrovetide is preserved in the Ordinariate. The liturgical colour for Gesimatide is violet/purple. The "old" way of counting or identifying days in the calendar lends additional intimacy to the experience of immersion in God's time, i.e., God's way of relating to His creation. There is a character or personality retained in the names we...

People are drawn to a centre, the Mass, because Jesus, present in the Eucharistic Liturgy, is the heart of the community. Christ's Mass is the heart and centre of the Catholic Christian community. That fellowship nurtured during Mass extends into daily life. The Mass informs our lives and impels us to extend to others the invitation to " come and see " and be "eucharisted", grafted to Jesus and received into His fellowship, His Church. When we honour the Lord in the liturgical assembly, in the Eucharistic liturgy, through our humble acts that are born of the grace Jesus gives to us to celebrate His glory and announce His saving word, He showers His blessings upon us according to his will, for the salvation of souls. The genius of the Ordinariate established by the Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum Coetibus , the vessel of the Anglican patrimony, is a liturgical spiritual patrimony that sustains a generous cultural patrimony, a complex yet accessible family of ...