Guéranger: New Years Eve, Thougts of Mortality and Gratitude

From
The Liturgical Year
by Dom Guéranger, O.S.B.

The Civil Year ends today. At Midnight, a New Year will begin, as the world counts time, and the present one will sink into the abyss of eternity. It is one step further on in our lives, and brings us nearer to that end of all things, which St. Peter says is at hand.

The Liturgy, which begins a new ecclesiastical year on the First Sunday of Advent, has no special prayers, in the Roman Church, for the beginning of the year on the First of January; but her spirit, which takes an interest in everything affecting the well-being of individuals or of society at large--her spirit is that we should, sometime in the course of this last day of the year, make a fervent act of thanksgiving to God for the blessings he has bestowed upon us during the past twelve months.

I would personally like to thank all those who visit and read Ars Orandi on a regular basis, and I especially thank you for your prayers and support during this past year. You are greatly appreciated.
Thank you so much, and may you have a blessed and happy New Year!

"The family is the first school of prayer..."

The Holy Family by Juan Simón Gutiérrez, circa 1700

From the General Audience of Pope Benedict XVI on December 28th, 2011:

The house of Nazareth is a school of prayer where we learn to listen, to meditate, to penetrate the deepest meaning of the manifestation of the Son of God, drawing our example from Mary, Joseph and Jesus. Mary is the peerless model for the contemplation of Christ. [She] lived with her eyes on Christ and treasured His every word... Luke the Evangelist makes Mary's heart known to us, her faith, her hope, her obedience, her interior life and prayer, her free adherence to Christ. All of these came from the gift of the Holy Spirit, which descended upon her just as it descended upon the Apostles according to Christ's promise. This image of Mary makes her a model for all believers. Mary's capacity to live by gazing upon God is contagious. The first to experience this was St. Joseph...

... With Mary, and later with Jesus, he began a new rapport with God, he began to accept Him into his life, to enter into His plan of salvation, to do His will. His is a silent but faithful presence, constant and active... Joseph fulfilled his paternal role in all aspects... Thus, in the rhythm of the days spent in Nazareth, between Joseph's humble dwelling and his workshop, Jesus learned to alternate pray and work, also offering up to God the fatigue by which they earned the bread the family needed...

The Holy Family is an icon of the domestic Church, which is called to pray together. The family is the first school of prayer where, from their infancy, children learn to perceive God thanks to the teaching and example of their parents. An authentically Christian education cannot neglect the experience of prayer. If we do not learn to pray in the family, it will be difficult to fill this gap later. I would, then, like to invite people to rediscover the beauty of praying together as a family, following the school of the Holy Family of Nazareth.

SSPX Response to Msgr. Ocariz

Dici has published a response to the editorial of Monsignor Ocáriz that appeared in the L’Osservatore Romano on December 2nd, 2011. Most in the traditional Catholic blogosphere and in traditional Catholic communities consider Ocáriz's editorial as an attack on the traditional critique of the Second Vatican Council, and specifically as an attack on the SSPX.

I think there is some merit to these perceptions, but there are some interesting points that Ocáriz makes that opens the door for a greater understanding of the traditional critique, especially his admission that the Second Vatican Council introduced, in his words, certain "innovations" that have caused "controversy"

These reservations, notwithstanding, the SSPX response to Ocáriz bears a careful and considerate reading, especially in regards to the philosophical differences between the Vatican establishment and traditionalists.

TradNews Roundup

*Scientists conclude that the supernatural event that left the Holy Image of Christ on the Shroud of Turin could not have been faked.

*Vatican Insider blows the lid off the growing Dutch Church scandal. Only the most liberal corners of the Church seem to have the greatest problems.

*Christmas is a time for art without meaning? Well... it could mean that modern Catholicism has been emptied of meaning... in an abstract way, of course.

*Cardinal George likens the gay-pride movement to the KKK. It's a good analogy. The Ku Klux Klan was a liberal organization subsidized by the Democratic Party at its inception, just like the gay-pride movement; it was perverted and demented from its very inception, just like the gay-pride movement; it hated the Catholic Church for speaking the truth about human dignity, just like the gay-pride movement. Perhaps we should just refer to the perverts as the Ku Klux Gay?

*Washington boy the subject of the Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha miracle. Blessed Kateri, pray for us.

*Local Cincinnati newspaper distorts story of the firing of a Catholic school teacher for violating her employment contract.

*More CofE defectors expected to swim the Tiber in 2012.

*The Violent Liberal of the Week Award goes to... Mark Pederson. Congratulations, Mark! and congratulations to the local mob you participate in.

*Speaking of the mob. Occupy schemes to disrupt the lawful process of the electoral process in Iowa. They should be arrested now for conspiring domestic terrorism.

*The Traditional Latin Mass in China. Deo gratias!

*The failure of the Vatican II Church slaps them in the face every day. This is the very epitome of perfidious.

*Another Pope Benedict XVI appointee promotes the married priesthood and calls women ordination "theologically difficult". Just another example of how, despite the rhetoric, this papacy gives us a lot more "hermeneutic" than it gives us "continuity".

*SNAP's shrill calls for transparency from the Church doesn't match its complete lack of transparency when it comes to how it does business. The answer, Jimmy, is YES! Those people always have been.

I wonder if they even realize how hypocritical they are.

We have this from Tom Roberts over at the heretical National Catholic Reporter about the origin of the new translation of the novus ordo:

But those who know the story in its fullest details know that the "new" translation, a reform of the reform, was actually commandeered by a group of men who met secretly and, in a matter of days, undid a process that had occurred under two popes and with the wide participation of bishops and professionals in the English-speaking world.

I really am of the "Whatever" crowd concerning this new translation of the novus ordo Mass. It means relatively little in the grand scheme of things since the novus ordo's problems are inherent in the Latin prayers, themselves. Yes the English translation was poor, but the Semi-Pelagianism that was planted by the Modernists is present in the Latin texts; the innovations that lead to wild liturgical abuses was planted by the Modernists in the General Instruction, itself; the creation of the cult of man was put into the heart of the novus ordo by the very structure of the new Mass. These things, which are the root of the problem, have nothing, in the end, to do with translation.

However, there is no end to the consternation of the liberals over the new translation, and the spirit of this festive season certainly isn't tempering that consternation. I really could have chosen any number of negative commentaries at the National Catholic Reporter to highlight the liberal disgust at what is in essence a simple endeavor to make more clear what Bugnini, the consummate liberal and Modernist himself, intended to convey. This quote from Roberts, though, makes clear how absolutely hypocritical these liberals are.

This reform of the reform was "commandeered by a group of men who met secretly" to undo a process that had taken place under two popes? That's this guy's complaint??

What about the cabal of men in the 1960s that met secretly to undo a process that had taken place under over 200 popes over the course of two millenia ?? That secret cabal brought us the novus ordo missae.

You would think liberals like Roberts would love secret cabals. Well, not all secret cabals, it turns out. They apparently only like secret cabals if the men meeting secretly agree with their liberal agenda and are interested in commandeering centuries old traditions and customs.

Roberts' dishonesty is clear when he makes the rather hyperbolic accusation that the secret cabal changed in a "matter of days" the English translation. Rather, Mr. Roberts, anyone who knows anything about this process, and you don't have to be a sacred liturgist to know this, knows that this translation was in the making for nearly ten years, and that the now lame-duck ICEL translation was considered merely temporary from the very beginning. What is Roberts trying to get across by being so blatantly dishonest?

It should be obvious to everyone. The point of Roberts' criticism isn't exclusively focused on the translation. The heart of his conviction is his belief that Vatican II created a new church, with a new kind of worship, and this ought to take the place of what came before. In Roberts new church there is no such thing as a distinction between priest and people. Everyone in the pew is now their own priest. To follow Roberts' logic, we must conclude that He Who before Vatican II was the same yesterday, today and forever, is now someone very different. And Tom Roberts likes it that way, and wants to call it Catholicism.

Hypocrisy and dishonesty is the only way to promote his new religion, and he knows it. So did Bugnini.

Wassail for the Octave of Christmas!

The Christmas Home Altar

For traditional Catholics, the celebration of Christmas is still in full swing, and really doesn't come to an end until the Feast of the Epiphany on January 6th. The decorations will still be hung and greatly appreciated until at least the 6th. We will keep our Christmas home altars and nativities throughout the whole season of Epiphany, until February 1st (the Feast of St. Ignatius), the day before the Feast of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

As superstition has it, it is bad luck to have Christmas decorations still out on February 2nd. I've been told by some old-timers, that for each Christmas decoration still out on February 2nd, an equal number of goblins will play havoc on the home throughout the year, so it is very important to look into every corner, into every nook and cranny of the home, to make sure there aren't some neglected decoration or piece of tinsel left behind.

Until then, however, we celebrate the Birth of our Saviour, who has come to set us free. This is truly a time of great celebration. This weekend we will celebrate the Octave of the Nativity. The crowning of the Christmas Octave is especially a time to spend with family and friends, spreading good cheer and the warmth of this blessed and wonderful season.

Nothing helps more in spreading the good cheer and warmth of the season like the Wassailing Bowl. Here's a very good recipe for Wassail that has brought me a lot of good cheer and a lot of warmth for many a Christmas Season. Enjoy!

Wassail:

In a large crock pot mix:
-4 quarts apple cider
-2 cups pinapple juice
-1 cup honey
Float on top:
-6 sticks cinnamon
-4 whole cloves
-2 unpeeled oranges, sliced into rings

Cook on low for 4 hours (or on high for 2 hours). When cooked, remove oranges, cloves and cinnamon sticks, strain, and then return to crock pot to keep warm on low. Keep the lid on the crock pot.

In a good wassailing glass or mug, pour one and a half ounces of brandy, and pour wassail in over the brandy. Garnish with a cinnamon stick (optional).

(One need not use brandy. It still tastes great without it.)

(For an extra treat, take the rinds of the oranges you don't use, a handful of pine needles from under the Christmas tree, a couple of cloves, some powered cinnamon or an extra cinnamon stick, a pinch of nutmeg, a drop each of vanilla, mint and lemon extract in a pot. Fill up with water, and simmer on the stove as a holiday potpourri.)

May the rest of your Christmastide be filled with the grace and love that comes only from Jesus Christ.

TradNews Roundup

*The things of this world are passing away. Why worry yourself?

Have a Blessed and Merry Christmas

Christmas Greetings 2011

One of my favorite things about the Christmas season is sending and receiving Christmas cards. With the blog going strong, I’ve gotten some Christmas greetings from some unexpected and new friends, and I thought it would be nice to share with you some of the Christmas (and Holiday) greetings I’ve gotten this year. (Actually that’s not true at all… but, oh well; I hope this helps to brighten your season, nonetheless.)

Pope Benedict XVI: “Please interpret this Christmas Season with the hermeneutic of reform in continuity, or you may consult an approved theologian or George Weigel, if he’s available. Thanks.”

Fr. John Zuhlsdorf: “Merry [from the Old English myrige, meaning ‘pleasing or agreeable’, it has nothing at all to do with wymyn priests] Christmas [the day we commemorate the birth of Jesus Christ; and no, National Catholic Fishwrap, it is not OK to drop the ‘Christmas’!]”

Roger Cardinal Mahoney: “May the Spirit of this Christmas Season liturgically dance its way into your heart.”

Michele Bachmann: “Have a very Merry Christmas and a very closed border.”

Mitt Romney: “Just because I’m not Christian doesn’t mean that I can’t be conservative or enjoy the Holidays too!”

Glenn Beck: “This is HUGE news. This quite possibly changes everything. (Pat: ‘yeah, big, big game changer, Glenn’) and you are going to hear it from me first… December 25th is Christmas Day! (Pat: ‘wow’)”

Jeffrey Tucker: “May this time of unbridled free market capitalism fill your heart with joy!”

“Diogenes” (from CatholicCulture.org, formerly Catholic World News): “Merry Christmas… Yes, I’m still around; it’s just that I’m presently out of sardonic remarks about the bishops.”

(Former Father) John Corapi: “The BlackSheepDog says: There’s more than one way to say ‘Merry Christmas’!”

Christopher Hitchens: “If you are reading this Christmas card from me, it means that I’m dead.”

President Barack Obama: “Redistribute the Seasonal Cheer this year!” (I thought that was pretty clever… the teleprompter must have come up with it.)

Some were, well… more negative than usual…

Michael Dimond: “You may NOT have a merry Christmas unless you read our website and agree with everything we say about Christmas.”

Bishop Williamson: “How can you have a merry Christmas if you think 2+2=5??”

Ron Paul: “Just because Jesus was born in modern day Palestine doesn’t mean we have to get involved over there.”

Bill Maher: “I hate your blog. I hate Christmas. I hate Christians. And I especially hate Catholics.”

Bill Donohue: “I hate everybody that hates Christmas and Catholics.”

Phil Lawler: “We’re trying to have a Merry Christmas in Boston, but it’s hard given the present Church leadership.”

Mark Shea: “Have a better Christmas than John Corapi, my little sycophants!”

Newt Gingrich: “Go get a job right after you take a bath… and have yourself a merry little Christmas then!”

I have to admit, these Christmas wishes seemed more like shameless self-promotions to me…

Laura Ingraham: “Brighten this Christmas Season by giving your friends and family copies of my new book, Of Thee I Zing!”

Raymond Arroyo: “What Laura said! And while you’re at it, buy them the book I wrote about Mother Angelica too!”

Bishop Taylor of Little Rock: “I hate your blog, but I don’t think that should stop you from buying a glossy of me. Why deny your home my charming smile? By the way, I speak Spanish.”

Jeff Mirus: “You can’t comment on this Christmas card unless you give me some money.”

Rod Blagojevich: “All I want for Christmas is my… third trial. Come on people? What did I do to get on the naughty list??”

The Carmelite Monks of Wyoming: “Celebrate Christmas this year with Mystic Monk Coffee.” (That was actually a real Christmas greeting from the Carmel of the Immaculate Heart of Mary in Wyoming.)

And finally this little gem:

Bishop Fellay: “Don’t worry… we rejected it.”

TradNews Roundup

*Only one news story bears mention this week, and it is the truth about Fr. Laurent Demets, FSSP, whose good name has been ran through the mud by an out of control, hateful man who happens to be a bishop.

Please hop over to The Remnant Newspaper to read what really happened to this good and holy priest, how the bishop not only railroaded Fr. Demets, but also the parents of and the child at the center of the controversy.

Bishop Taylor certainly has earned himself the title: Most Despicable Bishop of the Month (I may make that a regular post on Ars Orandi!)

What Sedevacantists have in common with Neo-Catholic Conservatives

Please take a few moments to read Fr. Gherardini's response to Monsignor Fernando Ocáriz Braña' article in L’Osservatore Romano.

Of particular note is his explanation of how modern's have "absolutized" the Magisterium of the Church:

One thing, nevertheless, is indisputable: nothing in the world, the container of created things, has the gift of absoluteness. Everything is in flux, in a circuit of reciprocal interdependencies, and therefore everything is contingent, everything has a beginning and will have an end: “Mutantur enim,” the great Augustine used to say, “ergo creata sunt.” [“For they change, and therefore they are created.”] The Church is no exception, not her Tradition, not her Magisterium. It is a matter of sublime realities at the top of the scale of all creaturely values, endowed with dizzying qualities, but always penultimate realities. The eschaton, the final reality, is God and Him alone.

Immersed in the Trinitarian moment of her design, the Church exists and operates in time as the sacrament of salvation. The theandric character that makes her a mysterious continuation of Christ is not disputed, nor her constitutive properties (unity, holiness, catholicity, and apostolicity), nor her structure and service, but all this is still within a this-worldly reality that is enabled to mediate the divine presence sacramentally, but always as a reality of this world, which by definition, therefore, excludes the absolute.

It must be said first of all that the Magisterium is not a super-Church that imposes judgments and guidelines on the Church itself; nor is it a privileged caste above the people of God, a sort of powerful authority that you have to obey and that’s that. It is a service, a diakonia. But also a task to be carried out, a munus, specifically the munus docendi [teaching office] that cannot and must not place itself above the Church from which and through which it comes into existence and operates. From the subjective point of view, it coincides with the teaching Church, the pope and the bishops united with the pope, insofar as she officially proposes the Faith. From the operative point of view, it is the instrument with which this function is carried out.

Here, I think, is where the Neo-Catholic Conservatives and the sedevacantists are surprisingly similar to each other. Both fall into the same error of making the Church's Magisterium into an absolute. Whatever the Magisterium says must be accepted, no matter the nature of the pronouncements.

The sedevacantist rightly sees the obvious contradictions between the modern Magisterium and the previous Magisterium and concludes that the seat is vacant and there are no validly ordained bishops. Because the sedevacantist insists that the Church's Magisterium is an absolute reality that is incapable of contradicting itself, they conclude it must no longer exist.

On the other hand, the Neo-Catholic Conservatives also notice the obvious contradictions, but unlike the sedevacantists, they refuse to deny the reality that is right before them, namely, that there is, in fact, a pope and bishops. In this way, their position is more reasonable. However, they also make the Magisterium into an absolute reality that must be obeyed down to the smallest letter, even in the face of the obvious contradictions. In order to reconcile the contradictions, the Neo-Catholic Conservative must rely on endlessly interpreting both the former Magisterium and the present Magisterium. The faith is, at best, reduced to doctrinal syllogisms, all the more ludicrous because these syllogisms completely ignore the law of non-contradiction. At worst, the faith is reduced to meaningless rhetorical sophistry, and there are many examples of this in the modern Church.

The traditionalist critique rightly avoids turning the Church's Magisterium into something it is not. In this way traditionalists avoid the pitfall occupied by both the Neo-Catholic Conservatives and the sedevacantists.

Our Lady of Guadalupe, pray for us.

Advent Embertide: Winter Ember Days

Wednesday, Friday and Saturday of this week are the Advent Ember Days. Ember Days are days of fasting and partial abstinence, now voluntary under the new code of canon law. I urge you to read this excellent presentation and explanation of Ember Days.

Ember Days are great ways to mark the change of the natural seasons, and to thank God for all that He has done for us, for the plenty of the earth, and the beauty of the world He created. It seems like everyone around us is so concerned about the earth, the ecosystem, the environment, and "going green", but so few even try to appreciate the Creator. It is a shame that Ember Days are now all but abandoned by the faithful. They provide the opportunity to appreciate and sacrifice for the God who has so graced us, and thus to see the real beauty and majesty of God’s good earth.

Advent Embertide is especially a time of reflection and silence, especially as in many places the weather has grown cold and we are forced inside close to the hearth. This time of reflection is the best way for us to make those final preparations in our hearts and souls for the Coming of Our Blessed Lord at Christmas. May these days be especially blessed for you and yours.

Our friends at Rorate Coeli have posted an excellent essay by Michael P. Foley concerning the meaning of ember days and their significance. Please take a moment to click over and read.

THE GLOW OF THE EMBER DAYS

"...My point is not to deny the validity of these anxieties, but to lament the neo-pagan framework into which they are more often than not put. Modern man is such a mess that when he finally recovers a love of nature, he does so in a most unnatural manner. Both the early modern antipathy to nature and the late modern idolatry of it stand in dire need of correction, a correction that the Church is well poised to provide. As Chesterton quipped, Christians can truly love nature because they will not worship her. The Church proclaims nature’s goodness because it was created by a good and loving God and because it sacramentally reflects the grandeur of God’s goodness and love.

"The Church does this liturgically with its observance of the “Four Seasons,” the Embertides. Celebrating the Ember days does not, of course, provide ready solutions to the world’s complicated ecological difficulties, but it is a good refresher course in basic first principles. The Ember days offer an intelligent alternative to pantheist environmentalism, and they do so without being contrived or pandering, as a new Catholic “Earth Day” or some such thing would undoubtedly be.

"It is a shame that the Church unwittingly let the glow of Embertide die at the precise moment in history when their witness was needed the most, but it is a great boon that Summorum Pontificum makes their celebration universally accessible once again. What remains is for a new generation to take up their practice with a reinvigorated appreciation of what they mean. At least then we’ll know why we are so furious."

Several Excellent Methods: Eleven

Several Excellent Methods of Hearing Mass
by Lady Lucy Herbert

A Manner of Hearing Mass,
In Honour of the Incarnation and Nativity of our Saviour; to be used on the 25th of each Month, that being the Day of the Month that Jesus Christ was incarnate, and born for Love us.

The Adoration of the Shepherds by Abraham Bloemaert, 1612

At the Beginning of the Mass

When the priest descends the steps of the altar, reflect how the world had been irrecoverably lost, if the Word of God had not been pleased to descend from heaven into the womb of the Blessed Virgin, and become man to redeem us from eternal misery.

Render thanks to the most Blessed Trinity, for being pleased to make use of so admirable a means to work our Salvation. Thank God the Father for loving the world so much as to give his only Son for it. Thank God the Son for abasing himself so far, as to clothe himself with our flesh, and subject himself to our miseries. Thank God the Holy Ghost for operating this so admirable a mystery; and for forming the Blessed Virgin's purest blood the body of Christ, which afterwards was to be nailed for us upon a Cross.

Detail from The Adoration of the Magi by Dominico Ghirlandaio, 1488

At the Gloria in Excelsis.

Reflect how all the Angels in heaven celebrated a feast at the moment the Word was incarnate; rejoicing that by that means men would fill up the vacant places, caused by the fall of Lucifer and his followers. What ought to be our joy who have so great an interest in it!

But this advantage, we must understand, regards only person of good will; that is, of a will conformable to God's will, docile to his voice, and who faithfully practice his law. Endeavour to be of that number.

At the Offertory.

Consider how Jesus Christ, from the first moment of his conception, clothed with human nature, as with sacerdotal vestments, begins his Sacrifice. My God, said he, you would have no more oblations nor victims, but you have formed me a body. Holocaust and Sacrifices are no more agreeable to you for sin; then, said I, behold I come, as it stands written at the beginning of the book. I come, my God, to do your will.

Since Jesus Christ is willing to be immolated for your sins, conceive a firm hope to obtain remission of them; beg him to offer himself again for those you have lately committed, that you may obtain pardon for them, and the grace of a sincere repentance and contrition.

Grieve that it was not in your power to consecrate yourself to Almighty God from the first moment that your soul animated your body. At least, offer yourself now to Jesus Christ, united to him as a member of his mystical body; and resolve to sacrifice the remainder of your life to the accomplishment of his divine will.

At the Canon of the Mass.

Call to mind the longing desires of the Patriarchs and Prophets, to see the Messiah, and the continual sighs sent up to heaven to beg him to hasten his coming. Join yours to theirs, and press our Saviour to descend upon the altar, saying with those holy souls, O heaven, grant us the just man we expect; he will be to us as a refreshing dew, and will render our souls fruitful of all good works.

At the Consecration.

At the very moment that the priest pronounces the words of Consecration, imagine how the angels in great numbers descend with the Lord King: We announce to you great joy, for this day your Saviour is born for you.

Acknowledge him and adore him under the appearance of bread and wine. It is the same God whom the Blessed Virgin held in her arms, wrapt in swaddling clothes and laid in a manger.

At the Division of the Host.

When the priest parts the Host, call to mind the painful circumcision of our Saviour. See how at the same moment that he takes the name Jesus, he does the office, shedding his blood for our salvation. Desire ardently to receive that Sacred Blood into your heart, one drop of it is capable to sanctify the whole world. Reflect what may be the reason why, after having so often received it, you remain still the same.

At the Agnus Dei.

Reflect that it is not without mystery that Jesus Christ is born in a stable, which is to signify that there is no heart, however poor and vile it be, which he disdains to enter, provided it desires his coming, and disposes itself for the same. Secondly, reflect that he is the Lamb of God who was sacrificed on the Cross for our sins, and is desirous, on the altar of our heart, to offer himself again to his Eternal Father for the same end.

Prepare yourself for this Divine Victim, that your soul may be fed with the Body and Blood of the Innocent Lamb.

At the End of Mass.

After having received him really or spiritually, entertain your Divine Saviour, and beg him to remain hidden in your heart as he was at Nazareth, that so he may help you to labour and work as he did his blessed parents; and work with you joining his hand to yours, without which, acknowledge that nothing will be done well.

Resolve as much as he shall, by his grace enable you, to be watchful, and careful to secure him from the persecutions which daily and hourly will be raised against him, attempting at his life: For sin, as well as Herod, seeks to destroy him. See how you may defend him, and arm yourself against that monster.









Lady Lucy Herbert_In Honour of the Incarnation and Nativity of Our Saviour

Guéranger: The Advent Ember Days

Below is the entry for Advent Ember days in Dom Guéranger's The Liturgical Year. He begins by writing: "Today the Church begins the fast of Quatuor Tempora..." If only this were true in our day and age!

The practice of the Ember days was for many years prior to the Second Vatican Council seldom, if ever, practiced, having fallen into disuse in many places. After the Second Vatican Council they were completely forgotten in a Church governed by the predominate attitudes of the day, and the various opinions of Modernism and liberalism that looked down on bodily mortification and anything that seemed disassociated with the new found "Jesus is my friend, not my Lord" spiritual and moral laxity. Worldly men, who had infiltrated the Church of Christ, wanted to bend religion into a system whose only objective was to justify sin, not forgive it, and bend man's mind to earthly things, instead of inspiring him to strive, by the grace of God, for otherworldly excellence.

The pastors of Holy Mother Church did the faithful a great disservice by watering down the Church's practices of fasting, abstinence, acts of reparation and other mortifications. It is a great injustice that, in a day and age that requires more than in any other man's resolve to war against the lusts of the flesh, the pastors of Holy Mother Church, with minds clouded by the delusions of Modernism and liberalism, have denied to the faithful sound teaching concerning those practices that are so efficacious in gaining the graces that triumph over concupiscence.

It is not just a mere coincidence that the proliferation of error and moral laxity, through which the Church has had to suffered for over a half century, came on the heels of a generation that failed to practice and hand down to their children the precious gift of the Ember days. This failure was part and parcel of a general disdain for all those methods supplied by Holy Mother Church throughout her history that, when practiced with the right interior dispositions, gain all the necessary graces for man to triumph over temptation and the weakness of the flesh. Has the world ever before suffered the degree of immodesty as it does today? Has the world ever before been plagued by the degree of impurity that it is now? Has there ever been such an absence of wise resolutions and salutary counsel as there is today in a world wherein men, women and children fiddle away their time, staring mindlessly into television sets, or chasing after one meaningless distraction after another?

As this past decade has demonstrated, painfully, the filth of the modern world has struck deeply into a Church left vulnerable by these negligent pastors. The priest sex abuse scandal is a constant reminder that the Church has fallen victim to liberalism and moral laxity. The December Ember days were traditionally linked with the ordinations that occurred on the Saturday, and these days of fast and abstinence were offered for the intention of obtaining worthy priests. However, the faithful have failed in this duty, and the affects of this failure are clearly evident in our modern Church!

Is there any time in history in which men and women of good will should embrace with zeal and enthusiasm the practice of the Ember days? Happily the ever growing interest in, and return to, traditional Catholicism has brought with it a new appreciation for the Ember days. In traditional homes and communities the Ember days have once again taken a prominent place in keeping the time of the year. Wherever they flourish, no doubt, grace will flourish for the peace and welfare of God's children.

Winter Landscape with a Church by Caspar David Friedrich, 1811

From
The Liturgical Year
by Dom Guéranger, O.S.B.

Today the Church begins the fast of Quatuor Tempora, or, as we call it, of Ember days: it includes also the Friday and Saturday of this same week. This observance is not peculiar to the Advent liturgy; it si one which has been fixed for each of the four seasons of the ecclesiastical year. We may consider it as one of those practices which the Church took from the Synagogue; for the prophet Zacharias speaks of the fasts of the fourth, fifth, seventh, and tenth months. Its introduction into the Christian Church would seem to have been made in the apostolic times; such, at least, is the opinion of St. Leo, of St. Isidore of Seville, of Rabanus Maurus, and of several other ancient Christian writers. It is remarkable, on the other hand, that the orientals do not observe this fast.

From the first ages the Quatuor Tempora were kept, in the Roman Church, at the same time of the year as at present. As to the expression, which is not infrequently used in the early writers, of the three times and not the four, we must remember that in the spring, these days always come in the first week of Lent, a period already consecrated to the most rigorous fasting and abstinence, and that consequently they could add nothing to the penitential exercises of that portion of the year.

The intentions, which the Church has in the fast of the Ember days, are the same as those of the Synagogue; namely, to consecrate to God by penance the four seasons of the year. The Ember days of Advent are known, in ecclesiastical antiquity, as the fast of the tenth month; and St. Leo, in one of his sermons on this fast, of which the Church has inserted a passage in the second nocturn of the third Sunday of Advent, tells us that a special fast was fixed for this time of the year, because the fruits of the earth had then all been gathered in, and that it behoved Christians to testify their gratitude to God by a sacrifice of abstinence, thus rendering themselves more worthy to approach to God, the more they were detached from the love of created things. "For fasting," adds the holy doctor, "has ever been the nourishment of virtue. Abstinence is the source of chaste thoughts, of wise resolutions, and of salutary counsel. By voluntary mortification, the flesh dies to its concupiscence, and the spirit is renewed in virtue. But since fasting alone is not sufficient whereby to secure the soul's salvation, let us add to it works of mercy towards the poor. Let us make that whihc we retrench from indulgence, serve unto the exercise of virtue. Let the abstinence of him that fasts, become the meal of the poor man."

Let us, the children of the Church practice what is in our power of these admonitions; and since the actual discipline of Advent is so very mild, let us be so much the more fervent in fulfilling the precept of the fast of the Ember days. By these few exercises which are now required of us, let us keep up within ourselves the zeal of our forefathers for this holy season of Advent. We must never forget that although the interior preparation is what is absolutely essential for our profiting by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, yet this preparation could scarcely be real unless it manifested itself by the exterior practices of religion and penance.

The fast of the Ember days has another object besides that of consecrating the four seasons of the year to God by an act of penance: it has also in view the ordination of the ministers of the Church, which takes place on the Saturday, and of which notice was formerly given to the people during the Mass of the Wednesday. In the Roman Church, the ordination held in the month of December was, for a long time, the most solemn of all; and it would appear, from teh ancient chronicles of the Popes, that, excepting very extraordinary cases, the tenth month was, for several ages, the only time for conferring Holy Orders in Rome. The faithful should unite with the Church in this her intention, and offer to God their fasting and abstinence for the purpose of obtaining worthy ministers of the word and of the Sacraments, and true pastors of the people.

TradNews Roundup

*Father Michael Rodriguez speaks about the transfer of Bishop Ochoa out of El Paso.

*The great liberal of Vatican II reveals himself as a racist? Say it isn't so! "He is black." Leave it to the "genius", Dossetti, to make such an astute observation of an African.

*Cardinal Marc Ouellet wants bishops to be theologians and apologists, but doesn't seem very concerned that they should be holy men of deep faith.

*The United States makes the promotion of homosexuality an integral part of that nation's foreign policy. Love it or leave it?

Bring it on, St. Nick!

TradNews Roundup

*Bishop Fellay announces that the SSPX will not accept the current "doctrinal preamble", but instead will request clarifications. His comments highlight the difficulties still incumbent.

*Archbishop Vincent Nichols never fails to disappoint. Is there any way to mistake him for nothing other than a consummate liberal? A TLM once or twice a year certainly does not make a bishop a traditionalist.

*Monsignor Fernando Ocáriz Braña takes aim at the SSPX, but does he hit the mark? He doesn't even come close in this stunning invitation to behold the emperor's fine new clothes.

*Bishop of Fr. Michael Rodriguez is given a promotion... err lateral promotion... ah, shucks! he's just been moved.