What Does The Prayer Really Say?
W D T P R S

From a reader:

Hello Fr.,

Just thought you might like to hear that our Pastor gave all our altar boys "Say the Black, Do the Red" mugs for Christmas. The MC’s received the bigger mugs.   The boys really loved them, and they actually knew what it meant without being told.  Deo Gratias!

What wonderful news!

 

 

In your charity will you please stop now and say a prayer, perhaps a Memorare or (and) and Hail Mary for a friend of mine, Fr. "Paul".

He is undergoing tests to see if he has pulmonary fibrosis.

From the Latin Mass Society:

British Catholic Newspapers Recognise the Extraordinary Form (Traditional Latin Rite) Calendar

After prompting from the Latin Mass Society of England and Wales, two leading British Catholic journals now publish weekly information on the Liturgical Calendar for the Extraordinary Form.

The Catholic Herald, the main ‘conservative’ Catholic paper, publishes the full weekly calendar for the Extraordinary Form alongside that for the Ordinary Form. This is provided for them each week by Gordon Dimon, the LMS’s Senior MC, who also compiles the LMS’s annual Ordo [which someone really ought to send me, btw] which is used by priests worldwide.

More surprisingly, The Tablet – the main British journal of ‘liberal’ Catholicism – also runs a weekly link to the Latin Mass Society’s website (www.latin-mass-society.org) where the full Ordo can be consulted (along with much else of interest to enquiring Catholics).

John Medlin, LMS General Manager, said: “I was pleased at how responsive both The Catholic Herald and The Tablet were to my suggestion that they acknowledge the calendar for the Extraordinary Form. It shows that the Extraordinary Form is becoming accepted for what it is – a rite of equal standing with the Ordinary Form. The other two main British Catholic newspapers – The Universe and The Catholic Times – have yet to catch up with the Herald and Tablet. I will keep prodding them!”

It seems to me that these other Catholic papers, and all the papers in the USA, and L’Osservatore Romano should post weekly TLM information as well!

Why don’t they?

From a reader:

I have been reading and enjoying your blog over the past year while by God’s grace He has restored me to the Church. (Most of my adult life I spent in the wilderness until He worked a conversion in my heart in 2002 and I landed in the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod (LCMS).  There I served in lay ministry and attend seminary classes in theology until the need for a more developed interior life led me to pray the Chaplet of St. Michael.  That’s when all the trouble began….  :)
 
All this is to say that this prodigal daughter has come home to the Church with a distinctly conservative hermeneutic. There are many beautiful parishes and devoted clergy in my area and I pray for those who pour themselves out in vocation for God.

But I have been surprised to encounter "centering" prayers, the not so subtle blurring of women’s roles in liturgy and leadership, some forms of higher criticism that the LCMS itself purged in the 1970’s, syncretism, the rewriting of the Hours to use gender inclusive pronouns and… if it could be worse…. the dulcet sounds of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young and James Taylor lyrics emanating from ordained clergy at the lectern. 
 
Meanwhile me and all my books by Pope Benedict and 4 volume Liturgy of the Hours are in hiding, not sure what to make of all this.
 
In the LCMS, pastors would urge the faithful to "flee to orthodoxy" under such circumstances.  I want to spend the rest of my life loving God as best a sinner can, and I recognize that I have much to (re)learn and judgmentalism is a sin.  But is a layman, respecting authority, able to flee to orthodoxy in the Church, and how does one find it?

Yours is a story many converts and reverts can share, as well as many who have never fallen away from the Church but have rather suffered these long decades of the post-Conciliar silly season… now happily coming to a close.

So much depends on where you live, that I cannot give any precise answer.  But I must say that as a revert you need a stable period to get used to yourself as being Catholic. 

Find yourself the best possible parish and then hunker down and do your best there. 

It seems to me that you can "flee to orthodoxy" in some simple steps. 

First, say your prayers.  I don’t mean that to be flippant.  Say your daily prayers regularly.  When you rise and when you retire.  When you eat and when you have finished.  The Angelus at noon and 6 pm.   Say your Rosary.

Examine your conscience in the evening before sleep. 

Read some Scripture for a few minutes (if your volumes of the LOTH are still in hiding). 

Use sacramentals, such as Holy Water in your home. 

Use the Sacrament of Penance, regularly.

Be conscious of what you can do to gain indulgences for the poor souls even as you ask the saints to intercede for you.

We are all connected.  We are in this together.  They are on your side.

At Holy Mass put all your cares and aspirations, your sacrifices and petitions and thanks on the altar with the host and into the chalice with the wine.  Seek that encounter with mystery even when it is being obscured.

Just be a Catholic for a while.  Settle in.

When you see an abuse or catch a whiff of some something not right, don’t fret.  Remember that Satan hates the Church and priests with a savagery we humans cannot fathom.  Priests and those close to them in ministry will be the Enemy’s most urgent target.  It must not surprise us when we see things that are wrong or weird in the Church or during Mass, sad as that is. 

Be sober and alert about these things and do not allow them to be a drag on your spirit, for Old Scratch will use them if possible to erode your faith.

Also, when you consider a "flight to orthodoxy" consider that you have already arrived.  Holy Catholic Church is the spotless bride of Christ.  Her members are flawed, but she without error and hell’s minions can never prevail.

Finally, I don’t know whether or not you have ever received the sacrament of Confirmation, but this is an important tool of your spiritual life.  Confirmation strengthens the Christian in the trials of his or her life.  We can call upon the grace of that great sacrament in time of testing.

In the meantime, I sense that good changes are picking up speed in the Church.  The biological solution is taking care of the aging-hippies.  Young people don’t have the baggage of the previous generations.  Summorum Pontificum and the Holy Father’s other initiatives are exerting their "gravitational pull" on many spheres of the Church’s life.  Catholics are waking up to their identity, just as you are.

You have many resources at your fingertips, books, internet, church.

You have the sacraments.

You have lots and lots of company.

A question from a reader:

Why do we say "rose again" in the Creed when Christ only rose from death once.

In the Creed of the Mass we say resurrexit.  This is translated "rose again".

One can see the confusion.  If you "rise again" you must have already previously. But we know our Lord rose only once.  Right?

In the Creed, Latin resurrexit is from re- and surgo. The prefix re- conveys “again”.

In English "again" can mean more than repetition. Check a good dictionary of English and you will find a nuance of “again” as “anew” without the concept of repetition.

“He rose again” means “He rose anew".

So, resurrexit does not mean Jesus rose twice. He returned to life “anew”.

“Rose again” for resurrexit is acceptable. It is also proper to use simply surgo, surrexit for the Lord “rose”.  At Easter and in the Octave Holy Church sings “Surrexit Christus spes mea” in the sequence Victimae paschali laudes.

Today in the 2005 Roman Martyrology:

9. Philadelphiae in Pennsilvania e Civitatibus Foederatis Americae Septemtrionalis, santi Ioannis Nepomuceni Neumann, episcopi, e Congregatione Sanctissimi Redemptoris, qui migrantes paupertatis causa ope, consilio et caritate adiuvit et de puerorum christiana institutione summopere sollicitus fuit.

You readers can give us your perfect English renderings.

A question is to be raised, however. 

Can his feast be celebrated today using the 1962MR?

Today I used the Mass for 1 January with a commemoration of St. Telesphorus.  I suppose a commemoration of St. John Neumann would have been proper in the USA.  But I don’t have this year’s FSSP Ordo, which indicates feasts in the USA. 

More calendar questions.

Today is also the feast of Edward the Confessor.

From up close or from afar many of you know about the story being told that a Benedictine Abbot in England declined to become or postponed becoming the next Archbishop of Westminster, which is normally brings a red hat.

My friend Fr. Ray Blake, of St. Mary Magdalen in Brighton, has some pointed comments about the whole scenario to which any man who thinks he should be a bishop might pay close attention.

As you go in, remember that there is a strong current of hearsay going on in the background.  But certain rumors have that ineffable….sorry… that’s a hard word for some enemies of Liturgiam authenticam... an ineffable quality of being true.

My emphases and comments.

I am not too sure I believe the rumour about Dom Hugh Gilbert, Abbot of Pluscarden being offered then turning down or delaying taking the diocese of Westminster, because of problems in the monastery.

If the story has a basis in truth then the implications are pretty radical. I do not know much about Abbot Hugh, except he is known for his holiness and Pluscarden has a reputation even amongst monastics as being ascetic and contemplative and conservative. It has no school, no parish, the community is small, less than thirty. There is really no comparison here with the appointment of Basil Hume. Ampleforth with its school and dependent parishes is comparable to a small diocese, Pluscarden is more like a small isolated country parish.

If this story has a basis in truth, [and here is the meat of the nut] then the Pope has passed over our present bishops, therefore he is not looking to administrative ability, or to those who have "proved" themselves in the present narrow and narrowing system.  [What Damian of Holy Smoke and others have dubbed "the Magic Circle"]

He is looking to a radical commitment to Christ and holiness, and a rootedness in Tradition, and from what I have heard of Dom Hugh an ability to draw people to Christ.  [Which one might consider a good quality in a bishop.]

Like many priests I have become increasingly concerned by the way in which bishops have been appointed in England and Wales. This is apparently the questionnaire that is sent by the nuncio to gather information on candidates. [It is sent out confidentially] Amongst other things it asks about Orthodoxy:


    6- ORTHODOXY
    Doctrinal orientation. Loyalty to the Doctrine and Magisterium of the Church. In particular: the attitude of the candidate to the Documents of the Holy See on the Ministerial Priesthood, on the Priestly Ordination of Women, on marriage, on sexual Ethics and on Social Justice. Fidelity to the genuine Tradition of the Church and commitment to the authentic renewal promoted by Vatican 11, and adherence to the "Statement of Conclusions, 1998".

but nowhere does it ask if the candidate actually believes in God or can communicate that belief. [Not an idle question.  Though if a man adheres to the "Doctrine and Magisterium" I suppose it can be assumed that he adheres to the Creed.] Some readers might be scandalised by this suggestion that a bishop might not believe but today the Church needs bishops whose belief in God transforms them and their priests and [here it is…] is immediately evident.

It is not unusual to sit through a sermon preached by a few of our bishops, which never mention God or refer to the scriptures, [But may in fact mention "fair trade" and "global warming"] which not only fail to inspire, but leave one wondering if the preacher believes anything at all. Nor is it unusual to attend a confirmation that seems more like a rather shoddy graduation ceremony rather than the completion of Christian Initiation and bestowing of the Seal of the Holy Spirit. [Well done, Father.]

England and Wales desperately needs evangelisation, evangelisation isn’t about clever techniques or sociology, it is certainly not about cunning schemes, [Amen and amen.] small groups or large groups, it is about holiness which comes from living faith and a deep personal desire for Christ, and a firm hope in Divine Providence. I pray that I am wrong about the Abbot, and he really will be the next Archbishop of Westminster. If it is true, then his appointment will be criticised for his lack worldliness and of administrative experience, but quite frankly I suspect holiness trumps administrative ability, and we all know about worldly bank managers nowadays.

If His Hermeneuticalness can’t be the next Archbishop… then maybe … after this Abbot?

Good work, Fr. Blake.  WDTPRS kudos to you.

It was announced this morning that Allen Vigneron, lately Bishop of Oakland in California, has been named as successor to Cardinal Maida. Archbishop Vigneron takes possession of the see on January 28.

You might be interested to know that Archbishop Vigneron is a good friend of men such as Archbishop Burke.

As I said the other day, I would on Monday bring with me to Mass the names of those who have been benefactors through this blog and in other ways.

It’s Monday.

I will remember you at Mass!

Join your intentions to the Holy Sacrifice wherever you are.  Remember that your angel can be present and that where there is charity there are no distances.