Friday 30 December 2011
Feast of the Holy Family
Just click on the image to enlarge and read it.
Thursday 29 December 2011
"The St. Austin Review (StAR) is the premier international journal of Catholic culture, literature, and ideas. In its pages, printed every two months, some of the brightest and most vigorous minds around meet to explore the people, ideas, movements, and events that shape and misshape our world.
Contributors to StAR are poets, philosophers, artists, theologians, historians, and journalists, together giving StAR the breadth and depth necessary for its “unique and worthwhile project” (Karl Keating). Its editors are Joseph Pearce (Literary Converts, Wisdom and Innocence) and Robert Asch."
This came about by chance through being in touch with Joseph Pearce again over Christmas. Joseph is is the author of numerous acclaimed biographies of major Catholic literary figures. He is also Writer in Residence and Professor of Literature at Ave Maria University in Florida, Editor-in-Chief of Ave Maria University Communications and Sapientia Press, as well as Co-Editor of the The Saint Austin Review (or StAR). That's from the official blurb but he also has a fascinating history in the story of his conversion from being an active member of the National Front to becoming a Catholic through the inspiration of G.K. Chesterton. He's also just the sort of committed Catholic the Church could do with more of and, perhaps even more importantly, a great guy to go for a pint with!
Wednesday 28 December 2011
Be courageous in working for a return to the true liturgy of the Church
He is certainly correct in saying that one would need to be courageous. From my own experience and from speaking with priests who try to celebrate the Ordinary Form in continuity with the tradition of the Church and in ways that highlight a connection with what we are at the moment calling the Extraordinary Form, it is precisely this that seems to raise so many liberal hackles. In other words, including what the Ordinary Form and in particular the new translation takes for granted is often received as and caricatured as obsolete and old-fashioned. I'm speaking of such things as:
taking up legitimate options (for example, to do with the exchange of the sign of peace),
- the use of any Latin at all
- and a general effort not to become over casual or chatty during the Mass
All this IN CARRYING OUT ALREADY LEGITIMATE OPTIONS let alone trying to find other legitimate ways of celebrating the Mass in conformity with our historical Catholic culture. When individual instances cannot be directly criticised - for example, if you celebrate ad orientem; this can't be forbidden because it is always a legitimate option but the whole manner in which such a Mass might be celebrated is what causes the offence. Such a manner points to:
- a God-centered instead of a community centered liturgy,
- an acceptance of the divine and supernatural interjecting into human life in the Mass (which
liberal thought presumes is so off-putting to the "world out there"),
- the implication that ALL the Church's teachings on Faith and morals might be held up and
- taught without embarrassment.
I wish to express first of all, my gratitude to all of you for the zeal and enthusiasm with which you promote the cause of the restoration of the true liturgical traditions of the Church. As you know, it is worship that enhances faith and its heroic realization in life. It is the means with which human beings are lifted up to the level of the transcendent and eternal: the place of a profound encounter between God and man.
May God bless your efforts with success.
Monday 26 December 2011
Christmas
Friday 23 December 2011
Deacon Nick over at Protect the Pope draws atention to a lecture given at Stubenville University by Peter Kreeft,
‘How to Win the Culture War: A Christian Battle Plan for a Culture in Crisis’
Kreeft delivered his talk in the person of Screwtape,C.S. Lewis’ advisorial senior demon,who instructs Wormwood on how they (i.e.,the powers of hell) can win the culture war through particular and deadly temptations:
- Politicization –the tendency Americans have to confuse politics for religion. He drew awareness to the trend of defining oneself by politics instead of religion,saying,‘We have persuaded many of them to judge their faith by the standard of ‘political correctness’ rather than vice versa.’
- Happy Talk –the principle of happy talk raised the ante on the average ignorance-is-bliss mentality. He pointed out that Catholics must first return to being Catholic,and correct their own practices before projecting to non-Catholics. “Catholics abort, contracept, sodomize, fornicate, divorce, and sexually abuse,” he said,“at almost exactly the same rate as non-Catholics. Amid this devastation, keep them happy talking. Keep them saying ‘Peace,Peace,’ when there is no peace.”He wants Catholics to take responsibility for their behavior, make a conscious effort to change it,and to acknowledge that blame can’t be placed entirely on the secular world.
- Organizationalism - Catholics suffer from organizationalism, causing them to regard everything—including the Church—as business ventures. This is especially bad,he noted,because people have lost sight of the role of the Church,and instead focused on the goals of business. “They must worship success,not sanctity,” he said,“and fear failure,not sin.”
- Neo-worship - or worship of things new at the expense of the old, in particular the rejection of things “pre-Vatican II”.
- Egalitarianism –Describing society’s misguided translation of egalitarianism, Kreeft pointed out that “sexism” has persuaded men and women to perceive each other as equal,when they should instead be considered beautifully inferior to each other. He believes in the importance of regarding men and women as separate and unequal,and in acknowledging the positive impact of the differences that define each. According to Kreeft, society’s deterioration of egalitarianism fosters “the difference between the beauty of black and the beauty of white reduced to a boring grey.”
- Yuppydom - which is essentially selling out to the fads of the times rather than holding God as God. Yuppydom is a generation that prides itself on not being prideful, saying, “Let them feel superior about not feeling superior, judgmental about not being judgmental.”
- Spirituality - in which Christians seek salvation, or at least affirmation,while recoiling at the thought of suffering—they want Christ without the cross.
Ending his lecture with a short phrase that holds the potential to defeat the culture war, Kreeft said, “Simply put, be real. Don’t be a PHONEY. Be a saint.”
Christmas Masses
Monday 19 December 2011
Silent Mass, Holy Mass
No singing from me, obviously, but with the aid of whispering hoarsely down a turned up microphone for the collects and Communion, I asked indulgence to have a sotto voce Canon as well. No one seemed to mind and I left the microphone on so that it could be heard that I was saying something (the rubrics are clear that in the Ordinary Form the Canon should be heard - although I have posted on an eminent Cardinal who seems, on occasion, to experiment with this). It led to an unusual and hopefully thought provoking experience for the congregation, especially as I was unable to preach. Instead I printed out copies of the Pastoral Letter from Bishop Hugh Gilbert of Aberdeen on the importance of cultivating silence - in our lives and especially in church - which we read in silence together at the point the Homily would have been preached ( a fortuitous example of form and function in perfect harmony).
I'm in full agreement with Bishop Gilbert about the powerful experience of large numbers of people being able to pray together in silence - often experienced in the Traditional Form of Mass but rarely in the New. The difficulty with the silences indicated in the Ordinary Form is that the congregation and the priest are encouraged to stop and "do nothing" (well, pray, of course) and then the action of the Mass continues. My experience in trying to do this, for example after the "Let us pray" or in the Bidding Prayers, is that it feels very artificial and each moment seems like an age. The silence in the Traditional Form of Mass happens while action is taking place - it doesn't feel like stopping and "doing nothing" before the business of the Mass resumes. Perhaps I might describe it as more "user friendly". People can associate themselves with the action that is taking place at any particular time and during the Canon (even if there is chant / singing going on) there is an extended time for that personal yet communal prayer. Instead of focusing on the priest, there is space for each person brings their own concerns and joys before the altar, all doing this together with the priest's action at he altar - "my sacrifice and yours" is offered to God the Father.
As to the people taking up Bishop Hugh Gilbert's injunction to keep quiet before and after Mass (and for some people this needs to be extended to encouragement to not talking during Mass as well), I had the same experience as Fr Michael Brown, reported over at Forest Murmurs, it hasn't been taken on board just yet!
Anyway, here is the Bishop's excellent letter:
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
We live in a noisy world. Our towns and cities are full of noise. There is noise in the skies and on the roads. There is noise in our homes, and even in our churches. And most of all there is noise in our minds and hearts.
The Danish philosopher Kierkegaard once wrote: ‘The present state of the world and the whole of life is diseased. If I were a doctor and I were asked for my advice, I should reply: “Create silence! Bring people to silence!” The Word of God cannot be heard in the noisy world of today. And even if it were trumpeted forth with all the panoply of noise so that it could be heard in the midst of all the other noise, then it would no longer be the Word of God. Therefore, create silence!’
‘Create silence!’ There’s a challenge here. Surely speaking is a good and healthy thing? Yes indeed. Surely there are bad kinds of silence? Yes again. But still Kierkegaard is on to something.
There is a simple truth at stake. There can be no real relationship with God, there can be no real meeting with God, without silence. Silence prepares for that meeting and silence follows it. An early Christian wrote, ‘To someone who has experienced Christ himself, silence is more precious than anything else.’ For us God has the first word, and our silence opens our hearts to hear him. Only then will our own words really be words, echoes of God’s, and not just more litter on the rubbish dump of noise.
‘How silently, how silently, the wondrous gift is given.’ So the carol goes. For all the noise, rush and rowdiness of contemporary Christmasses, we all know there is a link between Advent and silence, Christmas and silence. Our cribs are silent places. Who can imagine Mary as a noisy person? In the Gospels, St Joseph never says a word; he simply obeys the words brought him by angels. And when John the Baptist later comes out with words of fire, it is after years of silence in the desert. Add to this the silence of our long northern nights, and the silence that follows the snow. Isn’t all this asking us to still ourselves?
A passage from the Old Testament Book of Wisdom describes the night of Israel’s Exodus from Egypt as a night full of silence. It is used by the liturgy of the night of Jesus’ birth:
‘When a deep silence covered all things and night was in the middle of its course, your all-powerful Word, O Lord, leapt from heaven’s royal throne’ (Wis 18:14-15).
‘Holy night, silent night!’ So we sing. The outward silence of Christmas night invites us to make silence within us. Then the Word can leap into us as well, as a wise man wrote: ‘If deep silence has a hold on what is inside us, then into us too the all-powerful Word will slip quietly from the Father’s throne.’
This is the Word who proceeds from the silence of the Father. He became an infant, and ‘infant’ means literally ‘one who doesn’t speak.’ The child Jesus would have cried – for air and drink and food – but he didn’t speak. ‘Let him who has ears to hear, hear what this loving and mysterious silence of the eternal Word says to us.’ We need to listen to this quietness of Jesus, and allow it to make its home in our minds and hearts.
‘Create silence!’ How much we need this! The world needs places, oases, sanctuaries, of silence.
And here comes a difficult question: what has happened to silence in our churches? Many people ask this. When the late Canon Duncan Stone, as a young priest in the 1940s, visited a parish in the Highlands, he was struck to often find thirty or forty people kneeling there in silent prayer. Now often there is talking up to the very beginning of Mass, and it starts again immediately afterwards. But what is a church for, and why do we go there? We go to meet the Lord and the Lord comes to meet us. ‘The Lord is in his holy temple. Let all the earth keep silence before him!’ said the prophet Habakkuk. Surely the silent sacramental presence of the Lord in the tabernacle should lead us to silence? We need to focus ourselves and put aside distractions before the Mass begins. We want to prepare to hear the word of the Lord in the readings and homily. Surely we need a quiet mind to connect to the great Eucharistic Prayer? And when we receive Holy Communion, surely we want to listen to what the Lord God has to say, ‘the voice that speaks of peace’? Being together in this way can make us one – the Body of Christ – quite as effectively as words.
A wise elderly priest of the diocese said recently, ‘Two people talking stop forty people praying.’
‘Create silence!’ I don’t want to be misunderstood. We all understand about babies. Nor are we meant to come and go from church as cold isolated individuals, uninterested in one another. We want our parishes to be warm and welcoming places. We want to meet and greet and speak with one another. There are arrangements to be made, items of news to be shared, messages to be passed. A good word is above the best gift, says the Bible. But it is a question of where and when. Better in the porch than at the back of the church. Better after the Mass in a hall or a room. There is a time and place for speaking and a time and place for silence. In the church itself, so far as possible, silence should prevail. It should be the norm before and after Mass, and at other times as well. When there is a real need to say something, let it be done as quietly as can be. At the very least, such silence is a courtesy towards those who want to pray. It signals our reverence for the Blessed Sacrament. It respects the longing of the Holy Spirit to prepare us to celebrate the sacred mysteries. And then the Mass, with its words and music and movement and its own moments of silence, will become more real. It will unite us at a deeper level, and those who visit our churches will sense the Holy One amongst us.
‘Create silence!’ It is an imperative. May the Word coming forth from silence find our silence waiting for him like a crib! ‘The devil’, said St Ambrose, ‘loves noise; Christ looks for silence.’
Yours sincerely in Him,
+ Hugh, O. S. B.
Bishop of Aberdeen
7 December 2011
Sunday 18 December 2011
Carol Concert
We also raised close to £450 for those suffering from leprosy in Sri Lanka - the charity adopted by the Order of St Lazarus, under whose auspices the event was arranged.
I was particularly pleased to welcome Fr Oeconomos Christodoulos Fyles of the Greek Orthodox Church in Leyland.
with HE Matthew Jackson, Grand Secretary to the Order
and Confrere Anthony Dickinson, conductor of the Elizabethan Singers.
Friday 16 December 2011
Carol Concert
There will be mulled wine and mince pies afterwards in the Pope John Paul Room and a collection for the Order of St Lazarus' work contributing to a leper hospice in Sri Lanka under the care of Cardinal Ranjith).
Anyway, all are welcome - so this is in the way of an invitation to anyone who might be able to get here. Our visiting choir - the Elizabethan Singers - raise money for a good cause each Christmas and have very generously given their time and talents to us this year. Thank you to them.
Wednesday 14 December 2011
Traditional Vespers in Loughborough
Thursday 8 December 2011
Our "Catholic" Schools are in a terrible state
In twenty years of Priesthood, three spent in full-time school chaplaincy work, I have always had involvement in schools. I forebear to make any further comment, as I'm not sure I could hold myself in check.
However, on another topic completely...
I've just been re-reading Pope St Pius X's encyclical "Pascendi" attacking modernism, that synthesis of all heresies that he saw attacking the Church from without and within (which you can read here on the Vatican website). In regard to education one quote will suffice:
43. And here we have already some of the artifices employed by Modernists to exploit their wares. What efforts they make to win new recruits! They seize upon chairs in the seminaries and universities, and gradually make of them chairs of pestilence. From these sacred chairs they scatter, though not always openly, the seeds of their doctrines; they proclaim their teachings without disguise in congresses; they introduce them and make them the vogue in social institutions.
I have also been reading a book that has been sitting on my shelf for a number of years but that I'm only now getting around to reading, Hans Urs von Balthasar's "A Short Primer for Unsettled Laymen" (from 1980 but still available from Ignatius Press.) (Balthasar was highly thought of by Pope John Paul II, who raised him to the rank of Cardinal, although he died two days before the ceremony was due to take place).
Although the tone of this and "Pascendi" are very different and speak to their times, it struck me how very similar the themes are and how both authors identify similar attacks upon the Church, going through philosophy, dogma, faith and science, Scripture and identifying what is going wrong in these areas; how they are being mis-interpreted as tools of the Faith. Both see the necessity of subjecting all things connected with our belief to the teaching office of the Church and to judging the what can certainly be the fruitful discernments of various disciplines by the traditional understanding of the Faith - as mediated to us by the authentic teaching Office of the Church - Peter.
Balthasar says:
One thing will never be possible: namely that some human science should lift itself above the fullness of God and sit in judgement upon it from above.
Aggiornamento does not mean assimilating oneself to the atheist Enlightenment, instead it means being abreast of the times in order to give that Enlightenment an authentic response.
Feast of the Immaculate Conception
Wednesday 7 December 2011
Mr Derrick Taylor, R.I.P.
May he rest in peace. Amen.
Although I have offered Requiem Mass on All Souls Day for a number of years now, this will be my first actual funeral. We will be blest to have chant, so it will be Missa Cantata (without the need to try and tease out a decent sound from our little electric organ - although some organists do indeed manage to get a very decent sound out of it.
Tuesday 6 December 2011
St Birinus Day
In 634, St. Birinus, a Benedictine monk in Rome, was sent by Pope Honorius I to Wessex to spread the Catholic Faith. In 635 he reached the Thames Valley and achieved his greatest missionary success, the conversion of Cynegils, King of the West Saxons. The King's conversion was a boost to the spread of Christianity throughout the South of England. According to tradition, St. Birinus and Cynegils met on Churn Knob near Blewbury, and Birinus was given “the city of Doric” (Dorchester) as his Cathedral. Following his death in 650 St. Birinus was buried at Dorchester. In about 680 his remains were moved to Winchester by St. Headda, Bishop of Winchester. Finally on 4th. September, 972 Bishop Etholwold enshrined them in gold and silver. From Dorchester were founded the sees of Winchester and Lincoln.
Thursday 1 December 2011
Small World
I must say, I was very well looked after, especially by Dawn Johnson, the Headmaster's wife, who met me and showed me around. My thanks for the photos she sent.
I've not met the Nuncio before but he is a very genial and gracious man, going out of his way to take an interest. It struck me what a small place our world-wide Church is. It turned out in conversation that an America friend of mine who works as an Advocate on the Roman Rota knows the Archbishop's brother (although he has thirteen siblings!) and that an Italian friend of mine who is in the Diplomatic Service for the Vatican in the Nunciature in the Central African Republic (where he tells me that the poverty is appalling) is also a great friend of his.
I often find that the Church is indeed a small place - as when visiting Rome, I never fail to run into someone I know, usually from next door back home!
A glimpse of the newly restored St Peter's chapel