Ars orandi: the Art and Beauty of Traditional Catholicism

Collect of the Day: St. John Bosco

2012-01-31T00:01:00.002-05:00

St. John Bosco by Pietro Canonica, St. Peter Basilica, Rome, 1936

St. John Bosco
Confessor

God gave to him wisdom and understanding exceeding much, and largeness of heart as the sand that is on the sea shore.
(From the introit of the day's Mass, iii Kings, 4. 29)

Collect of the Day

Deus, qui sanctum Joánnem Confessórem tuum adolescéntium patrem et magístrum excitásti, ac per eum, auxiliatríce Vírgine María, novas in Ecclésia tua famílias floréscere voluísti: concéde, quæsumus; ut eódem caritátis igne succénsi, ánimas quærere, tibíque soli servíre valeámus. Per Dóminum...

O God, Who didst raise up saint John Thy Confessor to the father and teacher of youth, and by him, with the help of the Virgin Mary, didst promote new families in Thy Church: grant, we beseech Thee, that inflamed by the same fire of love, we may win souls and serve Thee alone. Through...

Epistle - Philippians, 4. 4-9 / Gospel - St. Matthew, 18. 1-5

From
The Roman Breviary

John Bosco, born in the poor town of Castelnuovo d'Asti, and having lost his father at the age of two, was raised by his mother in a most saintly manner, and from his earliest years gave evidence of an extraordinary future. Docile and pious, he had a remarkable influence over those of his own age, whose fights he soon began to settle, and whose indecent words and improper jokes he stopped. Then he busied himself with drawing them to him by good stories, by including prayers in their games, by repeating in an attractive way the complete sermons he had heard in church, and with persuading them to receive the sacraments of Penance and of the Holy Eucharist without delay and frequently. His unassuming manner, his affability, and his innocence drew everyone to him. Although pressed with difficulties at home, and forced to work hard in his youth, he ardently desired with trust in God to become a priest.

His wish was fulfilled, and he went first to Chieri, and then to Turin, where under the direction of Blessed Joseph Cafasso, he made rapid progress in the science of the Saints and in the learning of moral theology. There moved by divine grace and personal liking he began to take an interest in the youths, whom he taught the rudiments of the Christian religion. Their number increased day by day, and notwithstanding great and persistent difficulties, under divine inspiration he made a foundation for them in that section of the city called the Valdocco, on which he began to spend all his energy. Shortly after, with the help of the Blessed Virgin, who in a vision to him when a boy had revealed his future, John founded the Society of the Salesians, whose principal purpose was to be the saving of youthful souls for Christ. In like manner he founded a new family of nuns, who were called the daughters of St. Mary Auxiliatrix, and who would do for poor girls what the Salesians were doing for boys. To these he finally attached the Third Order of Salesian Cooperators, who by their piety and zeal were to assist in the educational work of the Salesians. And so in a short time he made great contributions both to the Church and to the State.

Filled with zeal for souls, he spared himself no labour and no expense to build recreational centres for the young, orphanages, schools for working children, schools and homes for the training of the young, and churches far and wide throughout the world. At the same time he did not stop spreading the Faith throughout the Subalpine country by word and by example, and throughout the whole of Italy, by writing and editing good books and by distributing the same, and in the foreign missions to which he sent numerous preachers. A simple and upright man, bent on every good work, he shone with all manner of virtue, which was fostered by his intense and ardent charity. With his mind always on God, and showered with heavenly gifts, this holy man of God was not disturbed by threats, nor tired by work, nor overwhelmed by care, nor upset by adversity. He recommended three works of piety to his followers : to receive as frequently as possible the sacraments of Penance and of Holy Eucharist, to cultivate a devotion to St. Mary Auxiliatrix, and to be the most loyal children of the Sovereign Pontiff. It should also be mentioned that John Bosco in very difficult circumstances went to the Pope more than once to console him in the evils coming from laws at that time passed against the Church. With a life of such accomplishments he died on the 31st day of January, 1888. Illustrious for his many miracles, the Supreme Pontiff, Pius XI, beatified him in 1929. Five years later, in the nineteenth centenary of the anniversary of our redemption, he was canonized among a vast gathering come to the Eternal City from every part of the world.

St. John Bosco, St. Benedict Catholic Church, Toronto, Canada

Collect of the Day: St. Martina

2012-01-30T00:01:00.007-05:00

St. Martina

Virgin, Martyr

I spoke of Thy testimonies before kings, and I was not ashamed: I meditated also on Thy commandments, which I loved.
(From the introit of the day's Mass, Ps. 118. 46-47)

Collect of the Day

Deus, qui inter cétera poténtiæ tuæ mirácula étiam in sexu frágili victóriam martyrii contulísti: concéde propítius; ut, qui beátæ Martínæ Vírginis et Mártyris tuæ natalítia cólimus, per ejus ad te exémpla gradiámur. Per Dóminum...

O God, who among the other marvels of Thy power, hast granted even to the weaker sex the victory of martyrdom: mercifully grant: that we who celebrate the heavenly brithday of blessed Martina, Thy Virgin and Martyr, may by her example draw nearer to Thee. Through...

Lesson - Ecclesiasticus, 51. 1-8, 12 / Gospel - St. Matthew, 25. 1-13

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

A fourth Roman Virgin, wearing on her brow a martyr's crown, comes today to share the honours of Agnes, Emerentiana, and Prisca, and offer her palm to the Lamb. Her name is Martina, which the pagans were wont to give to their daughters in honour of their god of war. Her sacred relics repose at the foot of the Capitoline hill, in the ancient temple of Mars, which has now become the beautiful Church of Saint Martina. The holy ambition to render herself worthy of him whom she had chosen as her divine Spouse, gave her courage to suffer torments and death for his sake; so that of her, as of the rest of the martyrs, we may say those words of the Liturgy, she washed her robes in the Blood of the Lamb. Our Emmanuel is the Mighty God, the Lord that is mighty in war, not, like the Mars of the pagans, needing the sword to win his battles. He vanquishes his enemies by meekness, patience, and innocence, as in the martyrdom of today's Saint, whose victory was grander than was ever won by Rome's boasted warriors.

This illustrious Virgin, who is one of the Patrons of the City of Rome, is honoured by having her praises sung by one of the Popes. It was Urban the Eighth who wrote the Hymns which are recited on her feast, and which we subjoin to the Lessons which recount the glorious combats of our Saint.

The Virgin and Child in Glory with Saints by Giovanni Battista Carlone, 1655

From
The Roman Breviary

Martina was a maiden of a most illustrious Roman family, daughter of a Consul. She lost her parents while still very young, and, being inflamed with Christian zeal, she distributed her wealth, whereof she had abundance, with great profusion among the poor. Under the Emperor Alexander, she was commanded to sacrifice to the imaginary gods, and refused with much boldness to commit this great wickedness. Upon this she was again and again scourged, and mangled with iron prongs and hooks, and pieces of broken pottery. Her limbs were cut piece by piece with sharp swords, and boiling tallow poured upon the living trunk. Lastly she was sent to be eaten publicly by the wild beasts in the amphitheatre, but by the will of God they would not touch her, and she was then thrown upon a burning pile, but still remained alive.

Some of her tormentors were so moved by the spectacle, that they repented, and, by the grace of God confessing the faith of Christ, through which she remained constant, were themselves tortured and beheaded. Martina herself lay praying, with a brightness on her face, while a matter like milk oozed from her body along with the blood, emitting a soft, sweet smell. She was as it were unconscious of an earthquake and most violent thunderstorm which arose and was raging, and while the lightning struck temples, and melted statues, she seemed in spirit rather to be seated above on a queenly throne, praising God in heaven among the Blessed.

The judge being infuriated at what had taken place, and chiefly at her unbending firmness, ordered the head of the martyr to be cut off. At the moment this was done, a peal which shook the city was heard, like a voice calling her home, and so great was the consternation, that it was made the means of conversion to many idolaters. The holy body of Martina wherein she had suffered in the Pontificate of Urban I, was discovered in the time of Urban VIII, in the very old Church called after her, situated at the foot of the Capitoline Hill, near the Mamertine Prison, along with the bodies of the holy martyrs Concordius, Epiphanius, and others. The Church was then altered and restored and handsomely decorated, and then the body was replaced in it, amid public rejoicings, with a solemn ceremony and procession.

The Sacrifice of Jesus Christ, Son of God, Gathering and Protecting all Mankind by Frans Floris, 1562

From the Desk of the Chaplain: Epiphany

2012-01-29T14:28:00.001-05:00

From the monthly email circular of the English-speaking Chaplain of the Confranterity of St. Peter, Rev. Fr. J. Fryar FSSP:

Dear Member of the Confraternity,

It has been a while since I was able to send out an email. This is the time of year that I travel to the corners of the vast boundaries of the FSSP apostolate in Florida to bless the homes of our parishioners with the Epiphany Blessing.

The Epiphany Blessing is truly inspiring and definitely one of the greatest protections we can provide for our homes. On the evening before Epiphany, the priest will spend 45 minutes blessing special Holy Water, that can only be blessed on that day, with a prolonged public chanted exorcism. Then incense and chalk is blessed with specific blessings.

After, the custom varies from parish to parish. Some priests, because of the distance and quantity of homes, bless them all at once from the church. But for those who are fortunate to have the priest come to their home, the ceremony is quite impressive. The priest arrives, begins to recite the Magnificat and the Antiphon from the Divine Office of the Feast of the Epiphany. Then he proceeds to douse the house with the specially exercised Holy Water, and spread incense throughout the house. That incense will linger in the house and can often be smelt several days later.

Then the prayers continue. What is beautiful about the blessing is that it is no longer asking to rid the home of evil spirits, as that was done when the Holy Water was blessed, but rather to fill the home with so many good petitions: health, chastity, the victory of virtue, humility, goodness, meekness. It asked God to grant that the Commandments be always followed, and that the blessing remain in the home forever.

Then the chalk is used to write an inscription on the door post, so that the home can be distinguished like the blood on the doorposts of the homes of the Israelites. This distinguishing mark is the initials of the Three Kings - Caspar, Melchior and Balthasar, framed with the year: 20+C+M+B+12. With a play on Latin words, the inscription can also read Christus Mansionem Benedicat - May Christ bless this home.

Finally a prayer may be included that is such a beautiful prayer: "May the door of this home be wide enough to receive all who need charity and companionship... narrow enough to shut out all envy, pride and strife... May its threshold be no stumbling block to children nor to straying feet... may it be rugged and strong enough to turn back the Tempter's power."

Our home is the sanctuary where we spend most of the time preparing for our future home, God willing, in Heaven. It is here that we learn virtue. It is here where we are tempted. It is here where we study our faith. It is here where we waste our time. The home is a sanctuary where the world should find no admittance, and where the angels and saints should be welcomed to teach us and guide us to our Heavenly Home. People invest in good locks to secure their home and alarm systems to protect from potential theft or violent intruders. But our homes should also be secured by blessing from the attacks of the Enemy who will break in to our home to steal our souls from Everlasting Life. The Enemy spends a lot of time in homes. In an occasional home he will haunt and make noise. But that is so rare that it's almost just a thing from the movies. Far more often he will be hidden in the home, not making noise, but seeding discontent, rebellion, hatred, anger, impurities, disobedience, pride, and the list goes on. If he makes noise we immediately panic. But we let him live under our roof tempting us at full volume and don't even notice, nor do we care.

I know, I should have sent this email before the Feast of the Epiphany, not after the fact. But if you have not had your house blessed, ever, maybe you should just give up locking your doors or something! Because the greatest Enemy of your family is finding himself quite welcome and comfortable. Or better, ask your priest, when he is able, to come and bless your home. There are other blessings beside the Epiphany Blessing that can be given to the home throughout the year, to protect you and make your home the sanctuary where your family can grow in the path to holiness and prepare for their true home in Heaven.

In the next few months I will be traveling to give conferences on the Confraternity of St. Peter. I will be in Atlanta GA, at the FSSP parish of St. Francis de Sales, on Sunday February 12th. Then on Saturday, March 31st I will be giving a Recollection at Our Lady of Fatima Chapel in Pequannock NJ. We will announce others as they are planned. If there are enough people in your area and you would like for me to come and give a Recollection or a Mission, ask your pastor if he will consider inviting me. I will be happy to come.

Collect of the Day: Fourth Sunday after the Epiphany

2012-01-29T00:01:00.003-05:00

Christ the Saviour by Jerómino de Bobadilla, circa 1660

Fourth Sunday after the Epiphany

The Lord hath reigned, let the earth rejoice: let many islands be glad.
(From the introit of the day's Mass, Ps. 96. 8)

Collect of the Day

Deus, qui nos in tantis perículis constitútos, pro humána scis fragilitáte non posse subsístere: da nobis salútem mentis et córporis; ut ea, quæ pro peccátis nostris pátimur, te adjuvánte vincámus. Per Dóminum...

O God, who knowest us to be set in the midst of so great dangers, that by reason of the frailty of our nture, we cannot stand fast: grant us health of mind and of body, that what we suffer for our sins, we may overcome by thy help. Through...

Epistle - Romans, 13. 8-10

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

During this holy season, when the very Son of God is giving so great a proof of his love for man, whose nature he has assumed, the Church is continually exhorting the Faithful, in the words of the Apostle, to practice charity towards each other. Emmanuel comes to us as our Lawgiver: now he has resumed his whole Law in the precept of Love; he is come in order to unite what sin had divided. Let us comply with his divine intentions, and accomplish with earnestness the Law he has imposed upon us.

Christ in the Storm on the Sea of Galilee by Jan Brueghel the Elder, circa 1596

Gospel - St. Matthew, 8. 23-27

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

Let us adore the power of our Emmanuel, who is come to calm the tempest which threatened the human race with death. In the midst of their danger, the successive generations of men had cried out: Lord! save us; we perish. When the fulness of time had come, he awoke from his rest; he had but to command, and the power of our enemies was destroyed. The malice of the devils, the darkness of idolatry, the corruption of paganism--all yielded. Nation after nation was converted to Jesus. They had said, when in their misery and blindness: "Who is this Jesus, whom no power can resist?" and then they embraced his Law. This power of Jesus to break down every obstacle, and that, too, at the very time when men were disquieted at his apparent slumbering, has often shown itself in the past ages of the Church. How many times has he not chosen for saving the world that period which seemed the least likely for rescue! The same happens in the life of each one among us. Oftentimes we are tossed to and fro by violent temptations; it would seem as though the billows must sink us; and yet our will is firmly anchored to God! And what is all this, if not Jesus sleeping in the storm-tossed boat, protecting us by this his sleeping? And if our cry for help at length awaken him, it is only to proclaim his own and our victory; for he has already conquered, and we have conquered in him.

The Virgin Adoring the Sleeping Child by Alvise Vivarini, circa 1500

From a Homily by St. Jerome

The fifth miraculous sign which the Lord wrought was on this wise : going on board the ship at Capernaum, he commanded the winds and the sea. The sixth was done in the country of the Gergesenes, when he gave the unclean spirits power over the swine. The seventh was upon entering into his own city, when he cured the second paralytic in his bed. For the former paralytic which he cured was the Centurion's servant.

But he was asleep, and his disciples came unto him, and awoke him, saying, Lord, save us, we perish. We can see a type of this sign in Jonah who, while the others were in danger, was himself secure, and was fast asleep, and was awakened ; which same ordered those who awakened him to throw him into the sea, whereby he delivered them by the mystery of suffering in his own person. The Gospel saith that our Lord arose, and rebuked the winds and the sea. Wherefrom we understand that all creatures give recognition to their Creator. For these things which he rebuked and commanded, felt the power of him that rebuked and commanded them. Now, these things (which pay no heed to us) obeyed him, not because (as heretics falsely suppose) all things have a rational soul, but because all things are subject to the Majesty of their Maker.

The men marvelled, saying, What manner of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey him? It was not the disciples but the sailors, and others who were in the ship, that were astonished. But if anyone had a desire to contend that it was the disciples who were astonished, we will reply that they are then justly called men, rather than disciples, if they did not yet know the Saviour's power.

-From the Roman Breviary

The Calming of the Storm at Sea by Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn

Walk For Life, San Francisco 2012

2012-01-28T07:51:00.002-05:00

Collect of the Day: St. Peter Nolasco

2012-01-28T00:01:00.000-05:00

The Vision of St. Peter Nolasco by Francisco de Zurbarán, 1629

St. Peter Nolasco
Confessor

The just shall flourish like the palm tree: he shall grow up like the cedar of Libanus: planted in the house of the Lord, in the courts of the house of our God.
(From the introit of the day's Mass, Ps. 91. 13, 14)

Collect of the Day

Deus, qui in tuæ caritátis exémplum, ad fidélium redemptiónem sanctum Petrum Ecclésiam tuam nova prole fœcundáre divínitus docuísti : ipsíus nobis intercessióne concéde; a peccáti servitúte solútis, in cælésti pátria perpétua libertáte gaudére: Qui vivis et regnas...

O God, who after the example of thine own love didst from heaven teach blessed Peter to enrich Thy Church with a new family founded to ransom the faithful: grant by his intercession that we may be set free from the bondage of sin, and may rejoice in lasting freedom in our heavenly home. Through...

Epistle - 1 Corinthians, 4. 9-14 / Gospel - St. Luke, 12. 32-34

The Apparition of the Apostle St. Peter to St. Peter of Nolasco by Francisco de Zurbaran, 1629

From

The Roman Breviary

Peter Nolasco was born of noble parents at Recaudun, near Carcassonne, in France, and is chiefly distinguished for his remarkable love towards his neighbour. It was considered a foreshadowing of this virtue, that when he was a little child in his cradle, a swarm of bees lighted upon him, and formed a honeycomb on his right hand. He lost his parents while still young, and in consequence of his horror of the Albigensian heresy, with which France was then plagued, he sold his estates there and withdrew into Spain. Here he first discharged a vow which he had taken long before, at the shrine of the Blessed Virgin of Montserrat, and afterwards went to Barcelona. Here he was so affected by the miserable state of the Christians who were in slavery to the Moors, that he expended his whole fortune in ransoming as many of them as possible, and used to say that he wished he could be sold himself to ransom more, or could himself change places with them.

It came to pass that God shewed how agreeable to him was the charitable zeal of Peter. One night when he was praying, and his mind was much exercised on the means of succouring the enslaved Christians, the Blessed Virgin appeared to him in a vision, and gave him to understand that it would be most pleasing to her Son and herself, if he would found in her honour an order of religious men, whose chief duty it should be to effect the redemption of Christian bondsmen out of the hand of the infidels. In conformity to this revelation, which had likewise on the same night been made to St. Raymund Pennaforte, and King James I of Aragon, he founded the Religious Order of the Blessed Mary of Ransom for the Redemption of Captives. The members add a fourth vow to the three essential ones of Poverty, Chastity, and Obedience, namely, that they will be ready if need be to remain as hostages in the hand of the infidels for the liberation of others.

After he took the vow of virginity he remained with his purity quite unsullied all his life, and was at the same time a bright pattern of long-suffering, lowliness, temperance, and other virtues. God was pleased to adorn him with the gift of Prophecy, whereby he foretold things to come. Among others, he prophesied to King James that he would take the city of Valencia from the Moors, which he afterwards did. He was refreshed by frequent apparitions of his Guardian Angel, and of the Virgin Mother of God. He had lived to a great age when being quite worn out, and falling into a grievous sickness, he perceived that his end was at hand. He then received the holy Sacraments, and gathering his brethren around him, exhorted them for the last time to shew pity to slaves. After this he began to repeat with great emotion the 110th Psalm : I will praise thee, O Lord, with my whole heart ; and when he had uttered the words : The Lord sent redemption unto his people ; he resigned his soul to God. This happened at midnight between the 23rd and 24th of December, in the year 1256. Alexander VII extended his feast to the universal Church.

The Heavenly Glory by Pierre Mignard, 1663

Ubi enim thesaurs vester est, ibi et cor vestrum erit.

For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

TradNews Roundup

2012-01-27T18:00:00.000-05:00

*Obama is an antichrist.

*But, Archbishop, we've all been betrayed by the Obamanation of Desolation. Maybe the next time the bishops will listen to the traditionalists when they say someone "is not the Antichrist, but he's definitely a Antichrist."

*Obama's personal attack on the Catholic Church has even the dissenters in a tizzy.

*Bishop Sample to President Obama: "We cannot—we will not—comply with this unjust law."

*Bishop Zubik: "On January 20, 2012, the Obama administration answered you and me. The response was very simple: 'To Hell with You.'"

*Archbishop Gregory Aymond calls the Obama Anti-Catholic mandate an "outrage".

*Bishop Jenky calls the Anti-Catholic mandate a "bigoted and blatant" attack on the First Amendment rights of Catholics.

*Archbishop Dolan's Wall Street Journal Op-Ed on the Obama Administration's direct and blatant attack on Catholics.

*Daily TLM started up on Greenville, South Carolina. Deo gratias!

*Rorati Cæli reports a practical approval of the Neo-Cat Way liturgical messes. Dóminus miserére nobis! However, Fr. John Zuhlsdorf strongly disagrees. At any rate, the whole thing is indicative of the modern Magisterium's impotence in dealing with liturgical and doctrinal dissent.

*Holy Father says America is "increasingly hostile to Christianity". His strong words are in response to the Obama Administration's contraceptive mandate that threatens to push Catholic institutions underground.

*Any Distrubitists or Trads out there still sympathetic to the "Occupy Movement"? The "Occupy Movement" once again reveals itself for the liberal thuggery that it is.

*Bishop Joseph McFadden of Harrisburg states that the public school system in America is the model system desired by totalitarian dictators such as Hitler and Mussolini.

Warren Buffet Is Anti-Catholic, by Bill Donohue

2012-01-27T14:47:00.003-05:00

This is from The Catholic League website. I'm reproducing it here in its entirety because it is critically important to get this information out.

Warren Buffet is probably one of the most powerful men in the United States, and during the Obama Administration he has become more and more cavalier in flaunting the influence he wields over the government in the USA and other governments worldwide.

Many people admire Buffet, they call him brilliant, savvy, extraordinary. However, what few people know is how radically pro-abortion and anti-Catholic he is, and how ruthless and diabolical are his tactics. I strongly suspect that he is the architect of many of the attacks on the Catholic Church from the Obama Administration and other politicians, the secular media, political action groups, and even organizations that call themselves Catholic.

Buffet's primary goal is not to make money, as many have quipped. His primary goal is to consolidate money and power in order to advance his anti-Catholic, anti-Life, Satanic agenda.

Why Warren Buffet Is Anti-Catholic
Written by: William Donohue

January 25, 2012

Warren Buffett’s comment that the rich should pay higher taxes, now enshrined by President Barack Obama as the “Buffett Rule,” is drawing much applause. What is not being discussed is the billionaire’s support for anti-Catholicism. First some background information.

Over several decades, Buffett has spent a fortune funding radical abortion organizations like NARAL and Planned Parenthood; he has lavishly given money to train a new generation of abortion physicians; he has spent millions to help RU-486 (the abortion-inducing drug) to win FDA approval; and he gave his pro-abortion, population-control friends at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation nearly $31 billion in 2006 for more of the same. There’s nothing anti-Catholic about any of this, but when he intentionally seeks to subvert Catholicism by dishonestly funding pro-abortion organizations that have hijacked the Catholic name, that’s another story.

To be specific, Buffett has given hundreds of millions over the years to anti-Catholic front groups like Catholics for Choice (formerly Catholics for a Free Choice) and its sister organization in Latin America, Catholics for the Right to Decide. In 2010, the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation alone gave $759,822 to the former, and almost $1.7 million to the latter. These letter-head organizations wouldn’t exist if they depended on donations from members—they don’t have any—they exist because of the likes of Warren Buffett.

If Buffett, or someone like him, were to throw millions upon millions funding Jews for Jesus, what would the Jewish community call him? Now you know why Warren Buffett has earned the tag anti-Catholic.

Collect of the Day: St. John Chrysostom

2012-01-27T00:01:00.004-05:00

St. John Chrysostom, mosaic, Hagia Sophia, 8th century

St. John Chrysostom
Bishop, Confessor, Doctor of the Church

In the midst of the Church he opened his mouth: and the Lord filled him with the spirit of wisdom and understanding: He clothed him with a robe of glory.
(From the introit of the day's Mass, Eccl. 15. 5)

Collect of the Day

Ecclésiam tuam, quæsumus, Dómine, grátia cæléstis amplíficet: quam beáti Joánnis Chrysóstomi Confessóris tui atque Pontíficis illustráre voluísti gloriósos méritis, et doctrínis. Per Dóminum...

We beseech Thee, O Lord, let Thy heavenly grace give increase to Thy Church, which Thou wast pleased to adorn with the glorious merits and teaching of blessed John Chrysostom Thy Confessor and Bishop. Through...

Epistle - 2 Timothy, 4. 1-8 / Gospel - St. Matthew, 5. 13-19

St. John Chrysostom, Ely Cathedral, Cambridgeshire, England

January 27.—ST. JOHN CHRYSOSTOM.

ST. JOHN was born at Antioch in 344. In order to break with a world which admired and courted him, he in 374 retired for six years to a neighboring mountain. Having thus acquired the art of Christian silence, he returned to Antioch, and there labored as priest, until he was ordained Bishop of Constantinople in 398. The effect of his sermons was everywhere marvellous. He was very urgent that his people should frequent the holy sacrifice, and in order to remove all excuse he abbreviated the long Liturgy until then in use. St. Nilus relates that St. John Chrysostom was wont to see, when the priest began the holy sacrifice, "many of the blessed ones coming down from heaven in shining garments, and with bare feet, eyes intent, and bowed heads, in utter stillness and silence, assisting at the consummation of the tremendous mystery." Beloved as he was in Constantinople, his denunciations of vice made him numerous enemies. In 403 these procured his banishment; and although he was almost immediately recalled, it was not more than a reprieve. In 404 he was banished to Cucusus in the deserts of Taurus. In 407 he was wearing out, but his enemies were impatient. They hurried him off to Pytius on the Euxine, a rough journey of nigh 400 miles. He was assiduously exposed to every hardship, cold, wet, and semi-starvation, but nothing could overcome his cheerfulness and his consideration for others. On the journey his sickness increased, and he was warned that his end was nigh. Thereupon, exchanging his travel-stained clothes for white garments, he received Viaticum, and with his customary words, "Glory be to God for all things. Amen," passed to Christ.

Reflection.—We should try to understand that the most productive work in the whole day, both for time and eternity, is that involved in hearing Mass. St. John Chrysostom felt this so keenly that he allowed no consideration of venerable usage to interfere with the easiness of hearing Mass.

From

The Roman Breviary

(Divino Afflatu)

John of Antioch, who, on account of the golden stream of his eloquence, is called by the Greeks Chrysostomos, or, the golden-mouthed, was a lawyer and man of the world of much eminence, before he turned his great intellect and wonderful industry to the study of things sacred. He took orders, and was ordained a priest of the Church of Antioch, in the year of our Lord 386, and after the death of Nectarius, was forced by the Emperor Arcadius to accept, though sorely against his own will, the Archbishopric of Constantinople. Having received the burden of a shepherd's office, (upon the 26th day of February,) in the year 398, he set himself zealously to do his duty, struggling against the degradation of public morality and the loose lives of the nobility, and thereby drew upon himself the ill-will of many enemies, especially the Empress Eudoxia, whom he had rebuked on account of the money of the widow Callitropa, and the land of another widow.

Come Bishops being assembled in a Council at Chalcedon, which Council the Saint held to be neither lawful, nor public, although he was commanded to go there, he refused. Whereupon Eudoxia, striving earnestly against him, caused him to be sent into exile. Soon after, however, the people of the city rose, and demanded his recall, and he was then brought back again amid great public rejoicings. Nevertheless he ceased not to war against vice, and absolutely forbade the celebration of public games round the silver statue of Eudoxia in the square outside the Church of the Eternal Wisdom. Upon this, a party of Bishops, who were enemies to him, banded together, and obtained that he should be banished again, which was done accordingly, on the 20th day of June, 404, amid the lamentations of widows and the poor, who felt as if they were being deprived of a common father. During this exile, it almost passeth belief how much Chrysostom suffered, and how many souls he turned to the faith which is in Christ Jesus.

At this time a Council was assembled at Rome, wherein Chrysostom's restoration to his See was decreed by Pope Innocent I., but meanwhile, he was suffering great hardships and cruelties on his journey at the hands of the soldiers who had him in charge. As he passed through Armenia he prayed in the Church of the holy martyr Basiliscus, and the same night that blessed conqueror appeared to him in a vision and said Brother John, to-morrow thou shalt be with me. On the next day, therefore, he received the Sacrament of the Eucharist, and, arming himself with the sign of the cross, resigned his soul to God, it being the 14th of September, in the year of salvation, 407. As soon as he was dead a furious hailstorm took place at Constantinople, and after four days the Empress died. The Emperor Theodosius, the son of Arcadius, brought the body of John Chrysostom to Constantinople with great state, and numerously attended, and on the 27th of January, 438, laid it with magnificent honours in the grave, beside which he prayed for the forgiveness of his own father and mother. The holy body was afterwards taken to Rome, and is now buried in the Vatican Basilica. The number, devoutness, and brilliance of St John Chrysostom's sermons and other writings, his acuteness in exposition, and the close aptness of his explanations of Holy Scripture, have been and are the object of universal wonder and admiration, and often seem not unworthy to have been dictated to him by the Apostle Paul, for whom he entertained a wonderful devotion.

St. Patrick Cathedral, New York

From

The Liturgical Year

by Dom Guéranger, O.S.B.

What a crown is thine, O Chrysostom! Oh! how glorious is thy name in the Church of both heaven and earth! Thou didst preach the Gospel in truth, thou didst fight the battle of thy Lord with courage, thou didst suffer for the cause of justice, and thou didst give up thy life in defence of the liberty of God's word. The applause of men did not make thee less stern in claiming the rights of God, and the gift of apostolic eloquence, wherewith the Holy Ghost had enriched thee, was but a feeble image of the divine fire which burned within thy heart, and which made thee love the Word Incarnate, Christ Jesus our Lord, more than thine own glory, or happiness, or life. Thou wast calumniated by wicked men; thy name was erased from the tablets of the holy altar; and, like thy divine Master, thou wast condemned as a criminal, and deposed from the episcopal throne. But as well might men strive to eclipse the sun, as efface thy loved name from the memory of the Christian world. Rome defended thee, and has ever honoured thy admirable virtues, just as she now venerates thy sacred relics, which repose near the tomb of the Prince of the Apostles. She and all her children throughout the world consider thee as one of the most faithful dispensers of divine Truth.

Recompense the devotion we have for thee, O Chrysostom! by watching over us from heaven; instruct us, convert us, make us earnest Christians. Like thy beloved master, St. Paul, thou didst care for no knowledge save that which would make thee know Christ Jesus: but is it not in Christ Jesus that are hidden all the treasures of knowledge and wisdom? Teach us to know this dear Saviour, who has come down to us with all his infinite perfections; teach us to know his spirit; tell us how we may please and imitate him; ask him to receive the offering of our faithful love. In one thing we resemble thee, great Saint! we are exiles; but, alas! we are so often tempted to love our exile as though it were our home. Oh! detach us from this earth and its vanities. May we long to be united with thee, as thou wast united with the holy Martyr Basiliscus, in order that we may be with Jesus.

Faithful Pastor! pray for our Pastors; obtain for them thine own spirit, and pray that their flocks may be docile to their teachings. Bless the Preachers of God's word, that so they may preach not themselves, but Jesus Christ. Ask our Lord to give them that Christian eloquence which comes from the study of the Sacred Volume, and from prayer; that thus, the faithful may be allured to virtue by the charm of an unearthly language, and may give glory to God. Protect the Roman Pontiff, whose predecessor was thy sole defender; may he ever be the protector of the Bishops of Church who are persecuted for justice's sake. Pray for thy Church of Constantinople, which as forgotten thy faith and thy virtues. May she be raised from the degradation in which she has been so long enslaved. May Jesus, the Eternal Wisdom, be appeased by thy prayers, and be mindful of his Church of Sancta Sophia, and purify it from profanation, and restore that altar whereon he was offered in sacrifice for so many ages. Show, too, thy love for the Western Church, which has ever revered and loved thee. Hasten the fall of the heresies which have so long laid waste large portions of her inheritance; dispel the dark clouds of incredulity, and obtain for us all, by thy powerful intercession, a lively faith and the fervent practice of every virtue.

Collect of the Day: St. Polycarp

2012-01-26T00:01:00.003-05:00

St. Polycarp

Bishop and Martyr

O ye priests fo the Lord, bless the Lord: O ye holy and humble of heart, praise God.
(From the introit of the day's Mass, Daniel 3. 84, 87)

Collect of the Day

Deus, qui nos beáti Polycárpi Mártyris tui atque Pontíficis ánnua solemnitáte lætíficas: concéde propítius; ut, cujus natalítia cólimus, de ejúsdem étiam protectióne gaudeámus. Per Dóminum...

O God, who dost gladden us by the annual feast of blessed Polycarp Thy Martyr and Bishop: mercifully grant that we, who celebrate his heavenly birthday, may also rejoice in his protection. Through...

Epistle - 1 John, 3. 10-16 / Gospel - St. Matthew, 10. 26-32

January 26.—ST. POLYCARP, Bishop, Martyr.

ST. POLYCARP, Bishop of Smyrna, was a disciple of St. John. He wrote to the Philippians, exhorting them to mutual love and to hatred of heresy. When the apostate Marcion met St. Polycarp at Rome, he asked the aged Saint if he knew him. "Yes," St. Polycarp answered, "I know you for the first-born of Satan." These were the words of a Saint most loving and most charitable, and specially noted for his compassion to sinners. He hated heresy, because he loved God and man so much. In 167, persecution broke out in Smyrna. When Polycarp heard that his pursuers were at the door, he said, "The will of God be done; " and meeting them, he begged to be left alone for a little time, which he spent in prayer for "the Catholic Church throughout the world." He was brought to Smyrna early on Holy Saturday; and, as he entered, a voice was heard from heaven, "Polycarp, be strong." When the proconsul besought him to curse Christ and go free, Polycarp answered, "Eighty-six years I have served Him, and He never did me wrong; how can I blaspheme my King and Saviour?" When he threatened him with fire, Polycarp told him this fire of his lasted but a little, while the fire prepared for the wicked lasted forever. At the stake he thanked God aloud for letting him drink of Christ's chalice. The fire was lighted, but it did him no hurt; so he was stabbed to the heart, and his dead body was burnt. "Then," say the writers of his acts, "we took up the bones, more precious than the richest jewels or gold, and deposited them in a fitting place, at which may God grant us to assemble with joy to celebrate the birthday of the martyr to his life in heaven!"

Reflection.—If we love Jesus Christ, we shall love the Church and hate heresy, which rends His mystical body, and destroys the souls for which He died. Like St. Polycarp, we shall maintain our constancy in the faith by loves of Jesus Christ, Who is its author and its finisher.

From

The Liturgical Year

by Dom Guéranger, O.S.B.

Amidst the sweetness he is enjoying from the contemplation of the Word made Flesh, John, the Beloved Disciple, beholds coming towards him, his dear Polycarp, the Angel of the Church of Smyrna, all resplendent with the glory of martyrdom. This venerable Saint has in his soul the fervent love that made him say in the amphitheatre, when asked by the Proconsul to curse his Divine Master: "Six-and-eighty years have I served Him, and he has never done me any wrong; nay, he has laden me with kindness. How could I blaspheme my King, who has saved me?" After having suffered fire and the sword, he was admitted into the presence of this King his Saviour, in reward for the eighty-six years of his faithful service, for the labours he had gone through in order to maintain faith and charity among his flock, and for the cruel death he endured.

He was a disciple of St. John the Evangelist, whom he imitated by zealously opposing the heretics, who were then striving to corrupt the faith. In obedience to the command of his holy Master, he refused to hold intercourse with Marcion, the heresiarch, whom he called the first-born of Satan. This energetic adversary of the proud sect that denied the mystery of the Incarnation, wrote an admirable Epistle to the Philippians, in which we find these words: Whosoever confesses not that Jesus Christ came in the flesh, is an Antichrist. Polycarp, then, had a right to the honour of standing near the Crib, in which the Son of God shows himself to us in all his loveliness, and clothed in flesh like unto our own. Let us honour this disciple of John, this friend of Ignatius, this Bishop of the Apostolic Age, whose praise was pronounced by Jesus Christ himself in the Revelations of Patmos. Our Saviour said to him by the mouth of Saint John: Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee the crown of life. Polycarp was faithful even unto death, and has received his crown; and whilst we are celebrating the coming of his King among us, he is one of the Saints who assist us to profit by the holy season.

The Church gives us a passage from St. Jerome's book, On Ecclesiastical Writers, in which there is contained the following short notice of our holy Martyr.

From

The Roman Breviary

(Divino Afflatu)

Polycarp was a disciple of the Apostle John, and was consecrated by him Bishop of Smyrna. He was reckoned the chief of all the Christians of Asia, because he had been taught by several of the Apostles, and other persons who had seen the Lord. During the reign of the Emperor Antoninus Pius, and while Anicetus presided over the Church of Rome, Polycarp came thither to discuss some questions regarding the time for observing Easter. He found some heretics at Rome, who had been led astray by the doctrine of Marcion and Valentine, and brought back many of them to the faith. One day Marcion met him by accident, and said to him Do you recognise me? whereto he replied I recognise the devil's eldest son. Some time after, in the reign of Mark Antonine and Lucius Aurelius Commodus, during the fourth persecution since Nero, when the Pro-consul was ruling in Smyrna, the whole population being assembled in the theatre, clamoured against Polycarp, and to please them he was burnt. He wrote an extremely useful Epistle to the Philippians, which is publicly read in the Churches of Asia even to this day.

Collect of the Day: The Conversion of St. Paul

2012-01-25T00:01:00.002-05:00

The Conversion of St. Paul by Fra Angelico, circa 1430

The Conversion of St. Paul

I know whom I have believed, and I am certain that He is able to keep that which I have committed to Him, against that day; being a just Judge.
(From the introit of the day's Mass, 2 Tim. 1. 12)

The Conversion of St. Paul by Michelangelo Buonarroti, 1545

Collect of the Day

Deus, qui univérsum mundum beáti Pauli Apóstoli prædicatióne docuísti: da nobis, quæsumus; ut, qui ejus hódie Conversiónem cólimus, per ejus ad te exémpla gradiámur. Per Dóminum...

O God, who has taught the whole world by the preaching of blessed Paul the Apostle; grant, we beseech Thee, that we who this day celebrate his Conversion, may through his example draw nearer to Thee.

Ss. Peter and Paul by El Greco, 1608

Commemoration of St. Peter

Deus, qui beáto Petro Apóstolo tuo, collátis clávibus regni cæléstis, ligándi atque solvéndi pontifícium tradidísti; concéde; ut intercessiónis ejus auxílio, a peccatórum nostrórum néxibus liberémur: Qui vivis...

O God, who didst bestow upon thy blessed Apostle Peter the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and didst appoint unto him the priesthood for the binding and loosing of sin: grant, we beseech thee; that by the help of his intercession we may be delivered from the bonds of all our iniquities. Who livest and reignest...

Lesson - Acts of the Apostles, 9. 1-22 / Gospel - St. Matthew, 19. 27-29

January 25.—THE CONVERSION OF ST. PAUL.

THE great apostle Paul, named Saul at his circumcision, was born at Tarsus, the capital of Silicia, and was by privilege a Roman citizen, to which quality a great distinction and several exemptions were granted by the laws of the empire. He was early instructed in the strict observance of the Mosaic law, and lived up to it in the most scrupulous manner. In his zeal for the Jewish law, which he thought the cause of God, he became a violent persecutor of the Christians. He was one of those who combined to murder St. Stephen, and in the violent persecution of the faithful which followed the martyrdom of the holy deacon, Saul signalized himself above others. By virtue of the power he had received from the high priest, he dragged the Christians out of their houses, loaded them with chains, and thrust them into prison. In the fury of his zeal he applied for a commission to take up all Jews at Damascus who confessed Jesus Christ, and bring them bound to Jerusalem, that they might serve as examples for the others. But God was pleased to show forth in him His patience and mercy. While on his way to Damascus, he and his party were surrounded by a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, and suddenly struck to the ground. And then a voice was heard saying, "Saul, Saul, why dost thou persecute Me?" And Saul answered, "Who art Thou, Lord?" and the voice replied, "I am Jesus, Whom thou dost persecute." This mild expostulation of Our Redeemer, accompanied with a powerful interior grace, cured Saul's pride, assuaged his rage, and wrought at once a total change in him. Wherefore, trembling and astonished, he cried out, "Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?" Our Lord ordered him to arise and to proceed on his way to the city, where he should be informed of what was expected from him. Saul, arising from the ground, found that, though his eyes were open, he saw nothing. He was led by hand into Damascus, where he was lodged in the house of a Jew named Judas. To this house came by divine appointment a holy man named Ananias, who, laying his hands on Saul, said, "Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, Who appeared to thee on thy journey, hath sent me that thou mayest receive thy sight and be filled with the Holy Ghost." Immediately something like scales fell from Saul's eyes, and he recovered his sight. Then he arose and was baptized; he stayed some few days with the disciples at Damascus, and began immediately to preach in the synagogues that Jesus was the Son of God. Thus a blasphemer and a persecutor was made an apostle, and chosen as one of God's principal instruments in the conversion of the world.

Reflection.—Listen to the words of the "Imitation of Christ," and let them sink into your heart: "He who would keep the grace of God, let him be grateful for grace when it is given, and patient when it is taken away. Let him pray that it may be given back to him, and be careful and humble, lest he lose it."

The Conversion of St. Paul by Hans Speckaert, 1577

Collect of the Day: St. Timothy

2012-01-24T00:01:00.004-05:00

St. Timothy

Bishop, Martyr

The Lord made to him a covenant of peace, and made him a prince; that the dignity of priesthood should be to him for ever.
(From the introit of the day's Mass, Eccles. 45. 30)

Collect of the Day

Infirmitátem nostram réspice, omnípotens Deus: et, quia pondus própriæ actiónis gravat, beáti Timóthei Mártyris tui atque Pontíficis intercéssio gloriósa nos prótegat. Per Dóminum...

Look down upon our weakness, almighty God; and since the weight of our own deeds bears us down, may the glorious intercession of Blessed Timothy Thy Bishop and Martyr, protect us. Through...

St. Paul with Siconius and Timothy, 13th Century Manuscript Illumination

Epistle - 1 Timothy, 6. 11-16 / Gospel - St. Luke, 14. 26-33

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

Before giving thanks to God for the miraculous Conversion of the Apostles of the Gentiles, the Church assembles us together for the feast of his favorite disciple. Timothy--the indefatigable companion of St. Paul--the friend to whom the great Apostle, a few days before shedding his blood for Christ, wrote his last Epistle--comes now to await his master's arrival at the Crib of the Emmanuel. He there meets John the Beloved Disciple, together with whom he bore the anxieties attendant on the government of the Church of Ephesus; Stephen too, and the other martyrs, welcome him, for he also bears a martyr's palm in his hand. He presents to the august Mother of the Divine Babe the respectful homage of the Church of Ephesus, which Mary had sanctified by her presence, and which shares with the Church of Jerusalem the honour of having had her as one of its number, who was not only, like the Apostles, the witness, but moreover, in her quality of Mother of God, the ineffable instrument of the salvation of mankind.

Let us now read, in the Office of the Church, the abridged account of the actions of this zealous disciple of the Apostles.

From
The Roman Breviary
(Divino Afflatu)

Timothy was a native of Lystra in Lycaonia, born of a Gentile father and a Jewish mother. He embraced the Christian religion when the Apostle Paul came into those parts. The holy Apostle was so struck with the fame of Timothy's sanctity, that he chose him to be the companion of his journeys, and caused him to be circumcised, in order to remove a stumbling-block from the way of those Jews who felt drawn to Christianity. When they came together to Ephesus, the Apostle consecrated him Bishop of that Church.

Two of the Apostle Paul's Epistles are addressed to this Saint, of which one was written from Laodicea, and the other from Rome. These sacred writings so stirred him up to the zealous discharge of his duties as a spiritual shepherd, that he strove to prevent the people of Ephesus from sacrificing to Artemis on her feastday, knowing that sacrifice is due to God alone. The heathens thereupon stoned him till he was well-nigh dead, and although he was rescued by the Christians, and carried to a mountain near the city, he then fell asleep in the Lord, on the 24th day of January.

The Young St. Timothy, Stained Glass Window, Westminster Cathedral

January 24.—ST. TIMOTHY, Bishop, Martyr.

TIMOTHY was a convert of St. Paul. He was born at Lystra in Asia Minor. His mother was a Jewess, but his father was a pagan; and though Timothy had read the Scriptures from his childhood, he had not been circumcised as a Jew. On the arrival of St. Paul at Lystra the youthful Timothy, with his mother and grandmother, eagerly embraced the faith. Seven years later, when the Apostle again visited the country, the boy had grown into manhood, while his good heart, his austerities and zeal had won the esteem of all around him; and holy men were prophesying great things of the fervent youth. St. Paul at once saw his fitness for the work of an evangelist. Timothy was forthwith ordained, and from that time became the constant and much-beloved fellow-worker of the Apostle. In company with St. Paul he visited the cities of Asia Minor and Greece—at one time hastening on in front as a trusted messenger, at another lingering behind to confirm in the faith some recently founded church. Finally, he was made the first Bishop of Ephesus; and here he received the two epistles which bear his name, the first written from Macedonia and the second from Rome, in which St. Paul from his prison gives vent to his longing desire to see his "dearly beloved son," if possible, once more before his death. St. Timothy himself not many years after the death of St. Paul, won his martyr's crown at Ephesus. As a child Timothy delighted in reading the sacred books, and to his last hour he would remember the parting words of his spiritual father, "Attende lectioni—Apply thyself to reading."

Reflection.—St. Paul, in writing to Timothy, a faithful and well-tried servant of God, and a bishop now getting on in years, addresses him as a child, and seems most anxious about his perseverance in faith and piety. The letters abound in minute personal instructions for this end. It is therefore remarkable what great stress the Apostle lays on the avoiding of idle talk, and on the application to holy reading. These are his chief topics. Over and over again he exhorts his son Timothy to "avoid tattlers and busybodies; to give no heed to novelties; to shun profane and vain babblings, but to hold the form of sound words; to be an example in word and conversation; to attend to reading, to exhortation, and to doctrine."

Collect of the Day: St. Raymond of Pennafort

2012-01-23T00:01:00.000-05:00

St. Raymond of Pennafort
Confessor

The mouth of the just shall meditate wisdom, and his tongue shall speak judgment: the law of his God is in his heart.

(From the introit of the day's Mass, Ps. 36. 30, 31)

Collect of the Day

Deus, qui beátum Raymúndum pœniténtiæ sacraménti insígnem minístrum elegísti, et per maris undas mirabíliter traduxísti: concéde; ut ejus intercessióne dignos pœniténtiæ fructus fácere, et ad ætérnæ salútis portum perveníre valeámus. Per Dóminum...

O God, who didst choose blessed Raymond to be eminent as a minister of the sacrament of penance and didst lead him in wondrous wise upon the waves of the sea: grant that by his intercession we may be able to bring forth worthy fruits of penance, and to reach the port of everlasting salvation. Through...

Lesson - Ecclesiasticus, 31. 8-11 / Gospel - St. Luke, 12. 35-40

January 23.—ST. RAYMUND OF PENNAFORT.

BORN A. D. 1175, of a noble Spanish family, Raymund, at the age of twenty, taught philosophy at Barcelona with marvelous success. Ten years later his rare abilities won for him the degree of Doctor in the University of Bologna, and many high dignities. A tender devotion to our blessed Lady, which had grown up with him from childhood, determined him in middle life to renounce all his honors and to enter her Order of St. Dominic. There, again, a vision of the Mother of Mercy instructed him to coöperate with his penitent St. Peter Nolasco, and with James, King of Aragon, in founding the Order of Our Lady of Ransom for the Redemption of Captives. He began this great work by preaching a crusade against the Moors, and rousing to penance the Christians, enslaved in both soul and body by the infidel. King James of Aragon, a man of great qualities, but held in bond by a ruling passion, was bidden by the Saint to put away the cause of his sin. On his delay, Raymund asked for leave to depart from Majorca, since he could not live with sin. The king refused, and forbade, under pain of death, his conveyance by others. Full of faith, Raymund spread his cloak upon the waters, and, tying one end to his staff as a sail, made the sign of the cross and fearlessly stepped upon it. In six hours he was borne to Barcelona, where, gathering up his cloak dry, he stole into his monastery. The king, overcome by this miracle, became a sincere penitent and the disciple of the Saint till his death. In 1230, Gregory IX summoned Raymund to Rome, made him his confessor and grand penitentiary, and directed him to compile "The Decretals," a collection of the scattered decisions of the Popes and Councils. Having refused the archbishopric of Tarragona, Raymund found himself in 1238 chosen third General of his Order; which post he again succeeded in resigning, on the score of his advanced age. His first act when set free was to resume his labors among the infidels, and in 1256 Raymund, then eighty-one, was able to report that ten thousand Saracens had received Baptism. He died A. D. 1275.

Reflection.—Ask St. Raymund to protect you from that fearful servitude, worse than any bodily slavery, which even one sinful habit tends to form.

The Anniversary of Roe v. Wade and the Republican Primary

2012-01-22T17:06:00.010-05:00

Notice: Comments are disabled for this post because I knew what the tone and tenor of the comments would be. I haven't been disappointed, as a number of people have left comments about this blog entry elsewhere, and almost every single one was disrespectful and rude both to me and to a man who has passed away! While comments are disabled here, if you use Facebook, you can comment on the Ars Orandi page.
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It is not my intention here to discuss politics, but there's one particular issue connected with the Republican primary race in the United States that has finally gotten on my last nerve. I would like to highlight something for my fellow American traditional Catholics on the 39th anniversary of the devastating Roe v. Wade decision. Many of you may disagree, and most of my closest friends, I know, definitely will disagree, but I have to in good conscience say what I have to say.

It seems to me that other agendas have gotten in the way of clear thinking on the Pro-Life and social issues in traditional Catholic circles, and this is extremely troubling to me. In the traditional Catholic world one Republican candidate seems to have gotten as close to an endorsement as a candidate can get, but I honestly believe for all the wrong reasons.

In regards to this candidate I have this to say: A Pro-Life, social conservative DOES NOT leave the abortion issue up to the state legislatures; DOES NOT support gay marriage as a personal choice; DOES NOT support the legalization of illegal narcotics. At the very heart of a civilization swept away by all manner of perversity, sensuality, immorality, and immodesty, are traditional Catholics really supporting a man who would leave the rule of law up to individual choice instead of the natural and divine law? Libertarianism is opposed to traditional Catholic social and moral teaching. How can traditional Catholics endorse Libertarianism when never before have individuals had such ill-informed consciences? Whatever agenda that you might think this candidate endorses, that agenda pales in comparison to the millions of innocent children that have been killed in the worst holocaust in human history.

Traditional Catholics do not have a candidate in this race. It's sad, but it's true. Therefore, we must set our priorities straight. There is only one issue that should take precedence in the voting booth for the traditional Catholic... and it isn't the Fed or foreign policy or the economy or some fantasy that a Libertarian will insure our little enclaves a measure of autonomy. We have to take a stand in this election for an end to legalized abortion, the safe-guarding of traditional marriage, and the rule of law. To do this we have to sacrifice other agendas and fears.

Morality can not be legislated; that is true. However, the government must legislate in such a way that is moral. Can we trust a Libertarian to do that? Will he legislate morally? or legislate as a libertine?

Joe Paterno

2012-01-22T14:03:00.006-05:00

Update: If you want to comment about the Penn State sex scandal, please go here, read the entry, and then you are welcome to post your comments there. This, however, is not the place for that subject.

Comments for the blog entry, The Anniversary of Roe v. Wade and the Republican Primary are disabled for a reason, so please do not comment about that subject here.

Despite the fact that I'm a lifelong Ohio State fan, I've always had the highest regard and respect for Mr. Joseph Vincent Paterno, a devout Roman Catholic, a World War II veteran, a faithful husband and father, and a successful football coach who always pursued the good of those put in his charge. For me and for most other sports fans of my generation the name, Joe Paterno, means respectability and nobility in sports, character, grit and honor.

He was also a thoughtful conservative and a caring person. His character and leadership is unquestioned among those who played for him, but his views and the manner in which he carried himself and coached was formed by the realities of nature as explicated by sport. It is amazing how all the ideological dogmas that are shoved down our throat by the liberal media, politicians and university professors disappear on the athletic field. In athletics there is no such thing as absolute egalitarianism; rather, unequal talents and abilities raise some to leadership and drive others to greater effort, just as nature intended. There is no strength in diversity; rather, strength comes from becoming a team, by putting the goals of the team and school before self-interest. No player is entitled to a place on the team or a win; rather, everything must be won by hard work, blood, sweat and tears. Joe Paterno understood this, understood its implications on and off the football field, and articulated it with intelligence and wit like few others have been capable.

Thankfully, for those of us who admired him from afar, Joe Paterno conveyed these principles to the wider world. I suppose most will look at his winning career and reduce his achievements to what he did on the field of play. These achievements, certainly, are laudable, but winning coaches come and go. For many of us, the greater share of Joe Paterno's legacy will be for what he stood for beyond the field of play, and for this I am thankful.

Réquiem ætérnam dona ei Dómine;
et lux perpétua lúceat ei. Requiéscat in pace. Amen.

Collect of the Day: Third Sunday After Epiphany

2012-01-22T00:01:00.018-05:00

Third Sunday After Epiphany

Adore God, all you His Angels: Sion heard, and was glad: and the daughters of Juda rejoiced.
(From the introit of the day's Mass, Ps. 96. 7.)

Collect of the Day

Omnipotens semptérne Deus, infirmitátem nostram propítius réspice: atque ad protegéndum nos, déxteram tuæ majestátis exténde. Per Dóminum nostrum Jesum Christum Fílium tuum...

O almighty and everlasting God, look mercifully upon our weakness: and stretch forth the right hand of Thy Majesty to protect us. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Thy Son who liveth and reigneth...

Epistle - Romans, 12. 16-21

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

This love of our neighbour, recommended to us by the Apostle, is a consequence of that universal brotherhood which our Saviour, by his Birth, brought us from heaven. He came to establish peace between heaven and earth; men, therefore, ought to be at peace one with another. Our Lord bids us not to be overcome by evil, but to overcome evil by good: -- and did not he first practise this by coming among us, who were children of wrath, that he might make us children of adoption by his humiliations and his sufferings?

Christ Healing the Paralytic by Giovanni Antonio Pellegrini, 1730

Gosepl - St. Matthew, 8. 1-13

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

The human race was infected with the leprosy of sin: the Son of God touches it by the mystery of the Incarnation, and restores it to health. But he requires that the sick man, now that he is healed, shall go and show himself to the priest, and comply with the ceremonies prescribed by the law; and this, to show that he allows a human priesthood to co-operate in the work of our salvation. The vocation of the Gentiles, of which the Magi were the first-fruits, is again brought before us in the faith of the centurion. A Roman soldier, and millions like him, shall be reputed as true children of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; while they who are the sons of this Patriarch according to the flesh, shall be cast out from the feast-chamber into the gloom of blindness; and their punishment shall be given as a spectacle to the whole earth.

Let man, then, saved as he has been by the coming of Emmanuel, sing a hymn of praise to the power of God, who has wrought our salvation by the strength of his almighty arm. Man had been sentenced to death; but now that he has God for a Brother, he shall not die: he will live: and could he spend his life better than in praising the works of this God that has saved him?

The Holy Family by Valerio Castello, 17th Century

From
A Homily by St Jerome, Priest

When the Lord was come down from the mountain, great multitudes followed Him. They were not able to follow Him when He went up. And first there came a leper. This poor creature's disease had prevented him from hearing the Saviour's long sermon on the Mount. Let it be noted that he is the first person specially named as being healed. The second was the Centurion's servant; the third was Peter's wife's mother, who was sick of a fever at Capernaum; the fourth were they who were brought unto Christ as being troubled with evil spirits, from whom He by His word cast out the evil spirits, at the same time that He healed all that were sick.

And, behold, there came a leper, and worshipped Him, saying properly after preaching and doctrine cometh occasion for a sign, that the power of the miracle might confirm in the hearers the truth of the teaching that had gone before. Lord, if Thou wilt, Thou canst make me clean. He that prayeth the Lord to have the will, doubteth not but that He hath the power. And Jesus put forth His hand, and touched him, saying I will; be thou clean. As soon as the Lord put forth His Hand the leprosy departed. Let us remark how lowly and unbragging is the Lord's language. The leper had said, If Thou wilt; the Lord answereth, I will. The leper, Thou canst make me clean, the Lord, Be thou clean. Most Latin readers, misled by the identity of form in that language between the Present Infinitive Active and the Second Person Singular Present Imperative Passive of the Verb, read Christ's answer as if it were, I will to make thee clean. This is wrong. The sentences are separate. First cometh the expression of volition, I will, then the command, Be thou clean.

And Jesus saith unto him See thou tell no man. What need was there to tell what his body showed? But go thy way, show thyself to the Priest. There were divers reasons why Christ should send him to the Priest. First, for humility's sake, that He might show reverence to God's Priest. Then there was a command in the law that they that were cleansed of leprosy should make an offering to the Priests. Moreover, that, when the Priests saw the leper cleansed, they might either believe in the Saviour, or refuse to believe; if they believed, that they might be saved, and, if they believed not, that they might have no excuse. Lastly, that He might give no ground for the accusation that was so often brought against Him, that He was unobservant of the law.

- From the Roman Breviary (Divino Afflatu)

Christ the King Cathedral Exterior

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Some exterior photos of Christ the King Cathedral, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. Enjoy!

Christ the King Cathedral

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Here are a couple of photos of one of the beautiful portals of Christ the King Cathedral in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. Note the words "Christus Regnat" (Christ Reigns) near the handles. This beautiful cathedral was dedicated in 1933.

Collect of the Day: St. Agnes

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click to enlarge St Agnes, detail from the Virgin and Child with Ss. Martina and Agnes by El Greco, 1599

St. Agnes
Virgin, Martyr

The wicked have waited for me to destroy me: but I have understood Thy testimonies, O Lord: I have seen the end of all achievement; Thy commandment is exceeding broad.
(From the introit of the day's Mass, Ps. 118. 95, 96)

click to enlarge

St. Agnes by Domenichino, 1620

Collect of the Day

Omnípotens sempitérne Deus, qui infírma mundi éligis, ut fórtia quæque confúndas: concéde propítius; ut, qui beátæ Agnétis Vírginis et Mártyris tuæ solémnia cólimus, ejus apud te patrocínia sentiámus. Per Dóminum...

Almighty and everlasting God, who dost choose the weak things of the world to confound the strong: mercifully grant, that we who keep the solemn feast of blessed Agnes, Thy Virgin and Martyr, may experience her advocacy with Thee. Through...

Lesson - Ecclesiasticus, 51. 1-8, 12 / Gospel - St. Matthew

click to enlarge

St. Agnes, detail from the St. Bartholomew Altar by an unknown master, circa 1510

January 21.—ST. AGNES, Virgin, Martyr.

ST. AGNES was but twelve years old when she was led to the altar of Minerva at Rome and commanded to obey the persecuting laws of Diocletian by offering incense. In the midst of the idolatrous rites she raised her hands to Christ, her Spouse, and made the sign of the life-giving cross. She did not shrink when she was bound hand and foot, though the gyves slipped from her young hands, and the heathens who stood around were moved to tears. The bonds were not needed for her, and she hastened gladly to the place of her torture. Next, when the judge saw that pain had no terrors for her, he inflicted an insult worse than death: her clothes were stripped off, and she had to stand in the street before a pagan crowd; yet even this did not daunt her. "Christ," she said, "will guard His own." So it was. Christ showed, by a miracle, the value which He sets upon the custody of the eyes. Whilst the crowd turned away their eyes from the spouse of Christ, as she stood exposed to view in the street, there was one young man who dared to gaze at the innocent child with immodest eyes. A flash of light struck him blind, and his companions bore him away half dead with pain and terror.

Lastly, her fidelity to Christ was proved by flattery and offers of marriage. But she answered, "Christ is my Spouse: He chose me first, and His I will be." At length the sentence of death was passed. For a moment she stood erect in prayer, and then bowed her neck to the sword. At one stroke her head was severed from her body, and the angels bore her pure soul to Paradise.

Reflection.—Her innocence endeared St. Agnes to Christ, as it has endeared her to His Church ever since. Even as penitents we may imitate this innocence of hers in our own degree. Let us strictly guard our eyes, and Christ, when He sees that we keep our hearts pure for love of Him, will renew our youth and give us back the years which the canker-worm has wasted.

TradNews Roundup

2012-01-20T18:00:00.004-05:00

*Is government enforced homosexual "marriage" coming to your parish hall?

*The editorial staff of Si Si No No responds to Fr. Cavalcoli's shrill and unreasonable attack.

*Pontifical Solemn Mass in the Archdiocese of Miami for Candlemas.

*New Hampshire votes to de-fund Planned Parenthood and exposes the Obama administration's Planned Parenthood related corruption.

*Corapi drops off the radar. He is no more.

Collect of the Day: Ss. Fabian and Sebastian

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St. Fabian
Pope and Martyr
St. Sebastian
Martyr

Let the sighing of the prisoners come in before Thee, O Lord; render to our neighbours sevenfold in their bosom; revenge the blood of Thy Saints, which hath been shed.
(From the introit of the day's Mass, Ps. 78. 11, 12, 10)

Ss. Fabian and Sebastian, the colonnade at St. Peter's basilica, Vatican City

Collect of the Day

Infirmitátem nostram réspice, omnípotens Deus: et, quia pondus própriæ actiónis gravat, beatórum Mártyrum tuórum Fabiáni et Sebastiáni intercéssio gloriósa nos prótegat. Per Dóminum...

O Almighty God, have regard to our weakness: and since the weight of our own evil deeds is oppressive, may the glorious intercession of Thy blessed Martyrs, Fabian and Sebastian, protect us. Through...

Epistle - Hebrews, 11. 33-39 / Gosplel - St. Luke, 6. 17-23

click to enlarge

St. Sebastian the Intercessor by Benozzo Gozzoli, 1464

From the Roman Breviary

Fabian was a Roman, and sat as Pope from the reign of the Emperor Maximian till that of Decius. He appointed a deacon to each of the seven districts of Rome to look after the poor. He likewise appointed the same number of subdeacons to collect the acts of the Martyrs from the records kept by the seven district notaries. It was by him that it was ordained that every Maundy Thursday the old Chrism should be burnt and new consecrated. He was crowned with martyrdom upon the 20th of January, in the persecution of Decius, and buried in the cemetery of St. Callistus on the Appian Way, having sat in the throne of Peter fifteen years and four days. He held five Advent ordinations, in which he ordained twenty-two priests, seven deacons, and eleven bishops for divers Sees.

The father of Sebastian was of Narbonne, and his mother a Milanese. He was a great favourite of the Emperor Diocletian, both on account of his noble birth and his personal bravery, and was by him appointed captain of the first company of the Praetorian Guards. He was in secret a Christian, and often supported the others both by good offices and money. When some shewed signs of yielding under persecution, he so successfully exhorted them, that, for Jesus Christ's sake, many offered themselves to the tormentors. Among these were the brothers Mark and Marcellian who were imprisoned at Rome in the house of Nicostratus. The wife of Nicostratus himself, named Zoe, had lost her voice, but it was restored to her at the prayer of Sebastian. These facts becoming known to Diocletian, he sent for Sebastian, and after violently rebuking him, used every means to turn him from his faith in Christ. But as neither promises nor threats availed, he ordered him to be tied to a post and shot to death with arrows.

click to enlarge

St. Sebastian by El Greco, 1614

The Purpose of the Reform of the Reform

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Roberto de Mattei on the "Reform of the Reform":

The "Reform of the Reform" which is mentioned makes sense and is worthy only as a "transition" of the "novus ordo" towards the traditional rite, and not as a pretext for the abandonment of the latter, that must be kept in its integrity and purity.

Well said.

Collect of the Day: Commemorations of Ss. Marius, Martha, Audifax and Abachum and St. Canute

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Feria

The Wedding Feast at Cana by Michael Pacher, 1481

Thursday in the Second Week after Epiphany

Shout with joy to God, all the earth: sing ye a psalm to His Name: come and hear, all ye that fear God, and I will tell you what great things the Lord hath done for my soul, alleluia.
(The Offertory verse of the day's Mass, Ps. 65. 1, 2, 16)

Collect of the Day

Omnípotens sempiterne Deus, qui cæléstia simul et terréna moderáris: supplicatiónes pópuli tui cleménter exáudi; et pacem tuam nostris concéde tempóribus. Per Dóminum...

O Almighty and everlasting God, who dost govern all things both in heaven and on earth: mercifully hear the prayers of Thy people, and grant us Thy peace in our time. Through...

Epistle - Romans, 12. 6-16 / Gospel - St. John, 2. 1-11

Adoration of the Holy Name of Jesus by Juan de las Roelas, 1605

________________

Commemoration of
Ss. Marius, Marth, Audifax and Abachum
Martyrs

Collect

Exaudi, Dómine, pópulum tuum cum Sanctórum tuórum patrocínio supplicántem: ut et temporális vitæ nos tríbuas pace gaudére; et ætérnæ reperíre subsídium. Per Dóminum nostrum...

Give ear, O Lord, to Thy people when with Thy Saints as advocates we humbly pray: that Thou wouldst grant us in our present life joy and peace and growth of life eternal. Through Our Lord...

From
The Roman Breviary
(Divino Afflatu)

Maris was a Persian of high rank, who came to Rome in the reign of the Emperor Claudius, with his wife Martha, who was equally noble, and their two sons Audifax and Abachum, to pray at the graves of the Martyrs. Here they comforted the Christians who were in prison, and whom they relieved by their ministrations and alms, and buried the bodies of the Saints. For these acts they were all arrested, but no threats or terrors could move them to sacrifice to idols. They were accordingly mangled with clubs, and drawn with ropes, after which they were burnt by applying plates of red-hot metal to their bodies, and their flesh partly torn off with metal hooks. Lastly their hands were all cut off, and they were fastened together by the neck, in which state they were driven through the city to the thirteenth mile-stone on the Cornelian Way, a place now called Santa Ninfa, where they were to die. Martha addressed a moving exhortation to her husband and sons to hold out bravely to the last, for the love of Jesus Christ; and was then herself drowned. The other three martyrs were next beheaded in the same sand-pit. Their bodies were thrown into a fire. The lady Felicity of Rome collected the half-burnt remains, and caused them to be buried at her own farm.

_________________

Commemoration of
St. Canute

Collect

Deus, qui ad illustrándam Ecclésiam tuam, beátum Canútum regem martyrii palma et gloriósis miráculis: concéde propítius; ut, sicut ipse Domínicæ passiónis imitátor fuit, ita nos per ejus vestígia sempitérna perveníre mereámur. Per eúmdem Dóminum...

O God, who, for the greater glory of Thy Church, wast pleased to adorn blessed Canute the king with the palm of martyrdom and with glorious miracles: mercifully grant that walking in the footsteps of him who followed our Lord in His sufferings, we may deserve to attain eternal joys. Through our Lord...

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

The Magi Kings, as we have already observed, have been followed to the Crib of Jesus by saintly Christian monarchs; and it was just that these should be represented on the Church's Calendar during the season which is consecrated to the Mystery of his Birth. The eleventh century is one of the most glorious of the Christian era, and gave, both to the Church and the various States of Europe, a great number of saintly Kings. Among them Canute the Fourth of Denmark stands pre-eminent by reason of the aureole of his martyrdom. He had every quality which forms a Christian prince: he was a zealous propagator of the faith of Christ, he was a brave warrior, he was pious, and he was charitable to the poor. His zeal for the Church (and in those days her rights were counted as the rights of the people) was made the pretext for putting him to death: he died in the midst of a sedition as a victim sacrificed for his people's sake. His offering to the new-born King was that of his blood; and in exchange for the perishable crown he lost, he received that which the Church gives to her Martyrs, and which can never be taken away. The history of Denmark in the eleventh century is scarce known by the rest of the world; but the glory of that country's having had one of her kings a Martyr is known throughout the whole Church, and the Church inhabits the whole earth. This power, possessed by the Spouse of Christ, of conferring honour on the name and actions of the servants and friends of God, is one of the grandest spectacles out of heaven; for when she holds up a name as worthy of honour, that name becomes immortalized, whether he who bore it were a powerful king or the poorest peasant.

Collect of the Day: Wednesday in the Second Week after Epiphany

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Pre-1962 Missal: St. Peter's Chair at Rome

The Offertory for the Second Sunday After Epiphany, Mode 1

Wednesday in the Second Week after Epiphany

The Wedding Feast at Cana by Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld, 1819

Collect of the Day

Epistle - Romans, 12. 6-16 / Gospel - St. John, 2. 1-11

From
The Roman Breviary
(Divino Afflatu)

From a Sermon by Pope St Leo the Great

When the twelve holy Apostles had received from the Holy Ghost the power to speak all languages, they divided the whole world into districts, which they severally allotted to themselves as fields for their Gospel labours. Then was Peter, the Prince of the Apostles, sent to the capital city of the Roman Empire, that he might cause the light to shine thence throughout the whole body of the civilized nations. At that time what nation was there that had no representative in Rome? When Rome had learnt, what people that did not learn too?

In Rome were the dreams of an unbelieving philosophy to be destroyed, in Rome were the empty utterances of earthly wisdom to be confuted, in Rome was idolatry to be overcome, in Rome profanity to be put down, even in Rome, where the activity of superstition had gathered together from the whole earth every error which it could find. O most blessed Apostle Peter! this was the city to which thou didst not shrink to come. The Apostle Paul, thy comrade in glory, was yet occupied in founding the Churches, and thou didst enter alone into that forest of wild beasts roaring furiously; thou didst commit thyself to that stormy ocean, more boldly than when thou walkest upon the waters to come to Jesus.

Thou hadst already taught them of the circumcision who were converted; thou hadst founded the Church of Antioch, the first that bore the noble name of Christian; thou hadst published the law of the Gospel throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia; and thou didst not fear for the hardness of thy work, nor turn back because of thine old age, but didst boldly set up the trophy of the cross of Christ upon those Roman walls, where the Providence of God had appointed the throne of thine honour, and the glorious -scene of thy passion.

The Martyrdom of St. Peter by Caravaggio, 1600

___________________

Commemoration of
St. Prisca
Virgin and Martyr

Collect

Da quaesumus omnipotens Deus: ut qui beatae Priscae Virginis et Martyris tuae
natalitia colimus, et annua solemnitate laetemur, et tantae fidei proficiamus
exemplo. Per Dóminum nostrum Jesum Christum...

Grant, we beseech thee, Almighty God, unto all thy servants who do here keep the
birthday of thy blessed Virgin and Martyr Prisca, and do year by year rejoice at
her solemn commemoration, that they may have grace to follow after the pattern of
her great faith. Through Jesus Christ...

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

Four Virgins grace the Christmas cycle with their presence; the brightness they cast around is interspersed with rays of a darker hue denoting that the aureola of martyrdom is theirs as well. Truly it is those who have washed their robes in the blood of the Lamb and who have likewise shed their own for him that have the double right to enter in by the gates to the city and be presented to the new-born King. Perhaps this is the thought of the Church in choosing for such an honour those only who have been twice crowned. They are the gift that Rome herself offers to the Emmanuel; each of this glorious band achieved her triumph within her walls. Today we have Prisca, but she will be followed by Agnes, Emerentiana, and Martina. The legend which is inserted in the Roman Office gives us all the details that can be known of the sufferings and martyrdom of Saint Prisca; her relics are preserved in the Church which bears her name.

From
The Roman Breviary
(Tridentine, 1910 Edition)

Prisca was a noble Roman maiden, who at thirteen years of age was accused of Christianity before the Emperor Claudius. By his command she was taken to the temple of Apollo to sacrifice there, and when she refused, was buffeted and sent to prison. She was taken out from thence again, but as she still held steadfastly to the faith, they flogged her, poured boiling tallow upon her, and sent her back a second time. She was at last thrown to a lion in the amphitheatre, but it quietly lay down at her feet. She was starved for three days in a slaves' prison house, and then tortured upon the rack. Pieces of flesh were next torn from her body with iron hooks, and she was thrown on a burning pile. She marvellously still remained alive, and was accordingly beheaded outside the city. Thus she added the crown of martyrdom to the palm of virginity. The Christians buried her body at the tenth milestone on the road from Rome to Ostia on the eighteenth of January.

Collect of the Day: St. Anthony of the Desert

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St. Anthony the Abbot by Francisco de Zurbarán, 1640

St. Anthony
Abbot

The mouth of the just shall meditate wisdom and his tongue shall speak judgment: the law of his God is in his heart.
(From the introit of the day's Mass, Ps. 36. 30-31)

Collect of the Day

Intercéssio nos, quæsumus, Dómine, beáti Antónii Abbátis comméndet: ut, quod nostris méritis non valémus, ejus patrocínio assequámur. Per Dóminum...

May the intercession of blessed Anthony the Abbot, commend us unto Thee, we beseech Thee, O Lord: so that what we cannot acquire by any merits of ours, we may obtain by his patronage. Through...

Lesson - Ecclesiasticus, 45. 1-6 / Gospel - St. Luke, 12. 35-40

The Temptation of St. Anthony by Marten de Vos, 1594

January 17—ST. ANTONY, Patriarch of Monks.

ST. ANTONY was born in the year 251, in Upper Egypt. Hearing at Mass the words, "If thou wilt be perfect, go, sell what thou hast, and give to the poor," he gave away all his vast possessions. He then begged an aged hermit to teach him the spiritual life. He also visited various solitaries, copying in himself the principal virtue of each. To serve God more perfectly, Antony entered the desert and immured himself in a ruin, building up the door so that none could enter. Here the devils assaulted him most furiously, appearing as various monsters, and even wounding him severely; but his courage never failed, and he overcame them all by confidence in God and by the sign of the cross. One night, whilst Antony was in his solitude, many devils scourged him so terribly that he lay as if dead. A friend found him thus, and believing him dead carried him home. But when Antony came to himself he persuaded his friend to carry him, in spite of his wounds, back to his solitude. Here, prostrate from weakness, he defied the devils, saying, "I fear you not; you cannot separate me from the love of Christ." After more vain assaults the devils fled, and Christ appeared to Antony in glory. His only food was bread and water, which he never tasted before sunset, and sometimes only once in two, three, or four days. He wore sackcloth and sheepskin, and he often knelt in prayer from sunset to sunrise. Many souls flocked to him for advice, and after twenty years of solitude he consented to guide them in holiness—thus founding the first monastery. His numerous miracles attracted such multitudes that he fled again into solitude, where he lived by manual labor. He expired peacefully at a very advanced age. St. Athanasius, his biographer, says that the mere knowledge of how St. Antony lived is a good guide to virtue.

Reflection.—The more violent were the assaults of temptation suffered by St. Antony, the more firmly did he grasp his weapons, namely, mortification and prayer. Let us imitate him in this if we wish to obtain victories like his.

The Temptation of St. Anthony by Annibale Carracci, 1598

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

The East and West unite, today, in honouring St. Antony, the Father of the Cenobites. The Monastic Life existed before his time, as we know from indisputable testimony; but he was the first Abbot, because he was the first to bring Monks under the permanent government of one Superior or Father.

Antony began with seeking solely his own sanctification; he was known only as the wonderful Solitary against whom the wicked spirits waged an almost continuous battle: but in course of time, men were attracted to him by his miracles and by the desire of their own perfection; this gave him disciples; he permitted them to cluster round his cell; and monasteries thus began to be built in the desert. The age of the Martyrs was near its close; the persecution under Diocletian, which was to be the last, was over as Antony entered on the second half of his course: and God chose this time for organizing a new force in the Church. The Monastic Life was brought to bear upon the Christian world; the Ascetics, as they were called, not even such of them as were consecrated, were not a sufficient element of power. Monasteries were built in every direction, in solitudes and in the very cities; and the Faithful had but to look at these communities living in the fervent and literal fulfillment of the Counsels of Christ, and they felt themselves encouraged to obey the Precepts. The apostolic traditions of continual prayer and penance were perpetuated by the monastic system; it secured the study of the Sacred Scriptures and Theology; and the Church herself would soon receive from these arsenals of intellect and piety her bravest defenders, her holiest Prelates, and her most zealous Apostles. Yes, the Monastic Life was to be and give all this to the Christian world, for the example of St. Antony had given her a bias of usefulness. If there ever were a monk to whom the charms of solitude and the sweetness of contemplation were dear, it was our Saint; and yet they could not keep him in his desert when he could save souls by a few days spent in a noisy city. Thus, we find him in the streets of Alexandria when the pagan persecution was at its height; he came to encourage the Christians in their martyrdom. Later on, when that still fiercer foe of Arianism was seducing the Faith of the people, we again meet the great Abbot in the same capital, this time preaching to its inhabitants that the Word is consubstantial with the Father, proclaiming the Nicene faith, and keeping up the Catholics in orthodoxy and resolution. There is another incident in the life of St. Antony which tells in the same direction, inasmuch as it shows how an intense interest in the Church must ever be where the Monastic Spirit is. We are alluding to our Saint's affection for the great St. Anthanasius, who on his part reverenced the Patriarch of the Desert, visited him, promoted the Monastic Life to the utmost of his power, used to say that he considered the great hope of the Church to be in the good discipline of monasticism, and wrote the Life of his dear St. Antony.

But to whom is the glory of the institution of monasticism due, with which the destinies of the Church were, from that time forward, to be so closely connected, that the period of her glory and power was to be when the monastic element flourished, and the days of her affliction were to be those of its decay? Who was it that put into the heart of Antony and his disciples the love of that poor and unknown, yet ever productive life? It is Jesus, the humble Babe of Bethlehem. To him, then, wrapt in his swaddling-clothes, and yet the omnipotent God, be all the glory!

It is time to hear the account of some of the virtues and actions of the great St. Antony, given by the Church in her Office of his Feast.

The Death of St. Anthony by Antonio Viladomat y Manalt, circa 1740

From
The Roman Breviary
(Divino Afflatu)

Anthony was an Egyptian, the child of noble and Christian parents, whom he lost while yet very young. On one occasion he entered a Church, and heard these words of the Gospel, Matth. xix. 21, If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor. He took these words as if they were addressed to himself personally, for this was the obedience which he thought every word of the Lord Christ should meet with. He therefore sold his whole possessions, and gave the price to the poor. Being thus delivered from worldly entanglements, he set himself to lead on earth the life of an angel. Finding himself, as it were, about to enter the field of battle against Satan, he thought it wisest to add to the shield of faith, which he already possessed, all the rest of the armour of God, wherefore he observed all those who were eminent for any grace, and strove to copy them.

He was excelled by none in watchfulness and self-restraint. He surpassed all in long-suffering, meekness, tenderness, lowliness, perseverance, and continual study of the Holy Scriptures. He had such a loathing of the company and conversation of heretics and schismatics, especially Arians, that he used to say that a faithful Christian ought as far as possible never to come near any such. He took the sleep which was needful for the body lying on the ground. Such was his devotion to fasting, that he took nothing with his bread but salt, and drank only water; he never ate or drank before sunset; he often abstained from food altogether for two days at a time; and very often passed whole nights in prayer. Being so valiant a soldier of God, Anthony was attacked by the devil with divers temptations, but he overcame them all by prayer and fasting. Nevertheless, these frequent triumphs over Satan did not lull Anthony into security, for he was well aware of the numberless arts of assault possessed by the evil one.

Then he betook himself into the vast deserts of Africa that lie near Egypt. Day by day he advanced on the path to perfection. Day by day the attacks of the fiends became more violent, but day by day his' strength grew greater to strive against them. At length he came to mock at the powerlessness of the devils, against whom he stirred up his disciples to fight, teaching them with what arms to combat. Believe me, my brethren, he used to say, Satan is afraid of good men's watchings, and prayers, and fasts, and voluntary poverty, and mercifulness, and lowliness, but above all, of their warm love for Christ our Lord, the mere sign of Whose most holy Cross is enough to undo him and put him to flight. He became such an object of dread to the devils, that many persons throughout Egypt who were tormented by them, were delivered by calling on his name moreover the fame of his holiness was so spread abroad, that Constantine the Great and his sons wrote to him to commend themselves to his prayers. In the hundred and fifth year of his age, and the fulness of his reputation for piety and miracles, having roused up great numbers to follow his example, he gathered his monks around him, and when he had exhorted them to strive after Christian perfection, he passed to heaven on the 17th day of January, in the year of our Lord 356.

Collect of the Day: St. Marcellus I

2012-01-16T00:01:00.007-05:00

St. Marcellus I
Pope, Martyr

Simon Peter, if thou lovest Me, feed My lambs, feed My sheep.
Alleluia, alleluia.
(From the introit of the day's Mass, John 21. 15-17)

Collect of the Day

Preces pópuli tui, quæsumus, Dómine, cleménter exáudi: ut beáti Marcélli Mártyris tui atque Pontíficis méritis adjuvémur, cujus passióne lætámur. Per Dóminum...

We beseech Thee, O Lord, mercifully hearken to Thy people praying for help through the merits of blessed Marcellus Thy Martyr and Pontiff, in whose martyrdom We rejoice. Through...

Epistle - 1 Peter, 5. 1-4, 10-11 / Gospel - St. Matthew, 16. 13-19

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

The name of Marcellus is brought before by the Calendar today: he was a successor of the glorious Hyginus in the papacy and in martyrdom, and their Feasts fall in the same season of the year. Each Chrstimastide shows us these two Pontiffs offering their Keys in homage to Jesus, the invisible Head of the Church they governed. In a few days hence, we shall find our Christmas list of Saints giving us the name of a third Pope and Martyr, Fabian. These three valiant Vicars of Christ are like the three generous Magi; they offered their richest presents to the Emmanuel, their blood and their lives.

Marcellus governed the Church at the close of the last general Persecution. A few months after his death, the tyrant Maxentius was vanquished by Constantine, and the Cross of Christ glittered in triumph on the Labarum of the Roman Legions. The time for martyrdom was, therefore, very short; but Marcellus was in time; he shed his blood for Christ, and won the honour of standing in Stephen's company over the Crib of the Divine Infant, with his palm-branch in his venerable hand. He withstood the tyrant Emperor, who bade him abdicate the majesty of the supreme Pontificate, and this in the very City of Rome; for Rome was to be the capital of another King--of Christ--who, in the person of his Vicar, would take possession of it, and her old masters, the Cæsars, would make Byzantium their Rome. It is three hundred years since the decree of Cæsar Augustus ordered the census of the world to be taken, which brought Mary to Bethlehem, where she gave birth to an humble Babe; and now the Empire of that Babe has outgrown the Empire of the Cæsars, and its victory is upon the point of being proclaimed. After Marcellus, we shall have Eusebius; after Eusebius, Melchiades, and Melchiades will see the triumph of the Church.

The Acts of Marcellus are thus given in the Lessons of his Feast.

The Handing Over of the Keys to St. Peter by Raffaello Sanzio, 1515

From

The Roman Breviary

This Marcellus was a Roman, and held the supreme Pontificate from the reign of Constantius and Galerius, till that of Maxentius. It was through his persuasion that the Roman lady Lucina left the whole of her property to the Church of God. As the believers increased, he instituted new titles in the City, which he divided after the manner of dioceses for their convenience, and for the baptism and penance of heathens converted to Christianity, and for the burial of the martyrs. These proceedings excited the wrath of Maxentius, who threatened Marcellus with the heaviest punishment, unless he would lay down the Popedom and sacrifice to idols.

The servant of God treated with contempt the mad cries of this man, who accordingly took him and sent him to a menagerie, to take care of the beasts which were fed at the public cost. Marcellus remained at this place for nine months, which he spent in continual fasting and prayer, and, as he could not visit the parishes in person, he wrote letters to them. Some clerks rescued him, and the blessed Lucina hospitably received him into her house, in which he dedicated a church, which is now known under the title of St. Marcellus. Here the Christians met to pray, and the blessed Marcellus himself preached.

These proceedings came to the knowledge of Maxentius, who thereupon had wild beasts brought from the menagerie and located in the church, where Marcellus was made to feed them. The noisomeness of the place and the filthiness of his occupation broke down a constitution already enfeebled by many ailments, and he fell asleep in the Lord. The blessed Lucina buried his body in the cemetery of Priscilla, on the Salarian Way, on the 16th of January. He sat on the throne of Peter for five years, one month, and twenty-five days. He wrote an epistle to the Bishops of the Patriárchate of Antioch on the primacy of the Roman Church, wherein he proveth the right of the same Church to be called the head of all the Churches. In the letter he likewise saith that no Council can be lawfully gathered together except by the authority of the Roman Pontiff. He ordained at Rome in the month of December twenty-five Priests, two Deacons, and twenty-one Bishops for divers Sees.

A Reasonable Criticism of "About this Blog"

2012-01-15T21:51:00.002-05:00

I received an email recently that had this say:

Thanks for your blog. It really is beautiful and spiritually enriching. I love the holy images, and I really enjoy reading the reflections from Dom Gueranger. However, I'm not sure your "About this Blog" page answers clearly and succinctly the question "what is this blog all about?"

I think the article on that page is very good, but I'm afraid that a drive-by visitor will be a bit overwhelmed by it, and probably won't read it. I didn't actually read the whole thesis until recently, and I've been visiting your blog for over a year. While you should definitely keep the thesis up, it might be good to put at the very top of that page a one-sentence explanation of the raison d'etre for the blog.

After giving this criticism some thought, I had to admit this seems like a pretty reasonable suggestion. Therefore, I added at the very top of the page the following:

In a nutshell, this blog is dedicated to rediscovering a traditional Catholic liturgical piety by fostering a greater knowledge and love for the traditional liturgical year and renewing an appreciation for methods of hearing the Mass.

I think that should do it.

I really appreciate all the help and support, and well intentioned criticisms, I receive from readers. I especially appreciate all those who send me edits.

Collect of the Day: Second Sunday after Epiphany

2012-01-15T00:01:00.004-05:00

The Offertory for the Second Sunday After Epiphany, Mode 1

Second Sunday after Epiphany

The Wedding Feast at Cana by Rutilio Manetti, 1620

Collect of the Day

Epistle - Romans, 12. 6-16 / Gospel - St. John, 2. 1-11

The Wedding Feast at Cana by Paolo Veronese, 1563

From a Homily by St. Augustine of Hippo

The fact that the Lord was pleased to be asked, and thereupon to go to the marriage, sheweth plainly enough (apart from any mystical significance in his act) that he is the Author and Blesser of marriage. For there were those of whom the Apostle hath warned us, who were yet to come, which same were to prohíbit marriage, and to say that matrimony is a bad thing in itself, and a work of the devil. As against any such teaching, we read in the Gospel that when the Lord was asked, Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for every cause? he answered that it was not lawful, saving for the cause of fornication. In which answer ye will remember that he used these words : What God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.

They who are well instructed in the Catholic religion know that God is the Author and Blesser of marriage ; and that, even as union in marriage is of God, so divorce is of the devil. But it is lawful for a man to put away his wife in case of fornication, because she herself hath refused to be a wife in that she keepeth not wedded-faith with her husband. They also who have made a vow of their virginity to God, and have thereby attained to a higher degree of holy honour in the Church, are not to be considered as unmarried, for they are a special part of the marriage of the whole Church, which is the Bride of Christ.

The Lord, being asked, went to the marriage, to strengthen the marriage bond, and to shed light on the hidden meaning of Holy Matrimony. In this marriage feast the bridegroom to whom it was said : Thou hast kept the good wine until now : was a figure of Christ, who hath kept until now the good wine, namely the Gospel.

From the Roman Breviary

click to enlarge

The Wedding Feast at Cana by Marten de Vos, 1597

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

The third Mystery of the Epiphany shows us the completion of the merciful designs of God upon the world, at the same time that it manifests to us, for the third time, the glory of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. The star has led the soul to faith; the sanctified Waters of the Jordan have conferred purity upon her; the Marriage-Feast unites her to her God. We have been considering, during this Octave, the Bridegroom revealing himself to the Spouse; we have heard him calling her to come to him from the heights of Libanus; and now, after having enlightened and purified her, he invites her to the heavenly feast, where she is to receive the Wine of his divine love.

A Feast is prepared; it is a Marriage-Feast; and the Mother of Jesus is present at it, for it is just that, having co-operated in the mystery of the Incarnation of the Word, she should take part in all that her Son does, and in all the favours he bestows on his elect. But, in the midst of the Feast, the Wine fails. Wine is the symbol of Charity or Love, and Charity had failed on the earth; for the Gentiles had never tasted its sweetness; and as to the Synagogue, what had it produced but wild grapes? The True Vine is our Jesus, and he calls himself by that name. He alone could give that Wine which gladdenth the heart of man; he alone could give us that Chalice which inebriateth, and of which the Royal Psalmist prophesied.

Mary said to Jesus: They have no Wine. It is the office of the Mother God to tell him of the wants of men, for she is also their Mother. But Jesus answers her in words which are apparently harsh: Woman! what is it to me and to thee? My hour is not yet come. The meaning of these words is, that, in this great Mystery, he was about to act, not as the Son of Mary, but as the Son of God. Later on, the hour will come when, dying upon the Cross, he will do a work, in the presence of his Mother, and he will do it as Man, that is, according to that human nature which he has received from her. Mary at once understands the words of her Son, and she says to the waiters of the Feast, what she is now ever saying to her children: Do whatsoever he shall say to you.

Now, there were six large waterpots of stone there, and they were empty. The world was then in its Sixth Age, as St. Augustine and other Holy Doctors tell us. During these six ages, the earth had been awaiting its Saviour, who was to instruct and redeem it. Jesus commands these waterpots to be filled with water; and yet water does not suit the Feast of the Spouse. The figures and the prophecies of the ancient world were this water, and until the opening of the Seventh Age, when Christ, who is the Vine, was to be given to the world, no man had contracted an alliance with the Divine Word.

But, when the Emmanuel came, he had but to say, Now draw out, and the waterpots were seen to be filled with the wine of the New Covenant, the Wine which had been kept to the end. When he assumed our human nature--a nature weak and unstable as water--he effected a change in it; he raised it up even to himself, by making us partakers of the divine nature; he gave us the power to love him, to be united to him, to form that one Body, of which he is the Head, that Church of which he is the Spouse, and which he loved from all eternity, and with such tender love, that he came down from heaven to celebrate his nuptials with her.

St. Matthew, the Evangelist of the Humanity of our Lord, has received from the Holy Ghost the commission to announce to us the Mystery of Faith by the star; St. Luke, the Evangelist of Jesus' Priesthood, has been selected, by the same Holy Spirit, to instruct us in the Mystery of the Baptism in the Jordan; but the Mystery of the Marriage-Feast was to be revealed to us by the Evangelist John, the Beloved Disciple. He suggests to the Church the object of this third Mystery, by this expression: This beginning of miracles did Jesus in Cana of Galilee, and he manifested his glory. At Bethlehem, the Gold of the Magi expressed the Divinity of the Babe; at the Jordan, the descent of the Holy Ghost and the voice of the Eternal Father proclaimed Jesus (known to the people as a carpenter of Nazareth) to be the Son of God; at Cana, it is Jesus himself that acts, and he acts as God, for, says St. Augustine, he who changed the water into wine in the waterpots could be no other than the same who, every year, works the same miracle in the vine. Hence it was that, from that day, as St. John tells us, his disciples believed in him, and the Apostolic College began to be formed.

The Wedding at Cana by Duccio di Buoninsegna, 1308

Collect of the Day: St. Hilary

2012-01-14T00:01:00.013-05:00

St. Hilary

Bishop, Doctor of the Church

In the midst of the Church he opened his mouth: and the Lord filled him with the spirit of wisdom and understanding: He clothed him with a robe of glory.
(From the introit of the day's Mass, Eccl. 15. 5)

Collect of the Day

Deus, qui pópulo tuo ætérnæ salútis beátum Hilárium minístrum tribuísti: præsta, quæsumus; ut, quem Doctórem vitæ habúimus in terris, intercessórem habére mereámur in cælis. Per Dóminum...

O God, who didst give blessed Hilary to Thy people as a minister of eternal salvation: grant, we beseech Thee, that we, who have had him for our teacher on earth, may deserve to have him for our advocate in heaven. Through...

Epistle - 2 Timothy, 4. 1-8 / Gospel - St. Matthew, 5. 13-19

January 14.—ST. HILARY OF POITIERS.

ST. HILARY was a native of Poitiers in Aquitaine. Born and educated a pagan, it was not till near middle age that he embraced Christianity, moved thereto mainly by the idea of God presented to him in the Holy Scriptures. He soon converted his wife and daughter, and separated himself rigidly from all un-Catholic company. In the beginning of his conversion St. Hilary would not eat with Jews or heretics, nor salute them by the way; but afterwards, for their sake, he relaxed this severity. He entered Holy Orders, and in 353 was chosen bishop of his native city. Arianism, under the protection of the Emperor Constantius, was just then in the height of its power, and St. Hilary found himself called upon to support the orthodox cause in several Gallic councils, in which Arian bishops formed an overwhelming majority. He was in consequence accused to the emperor, who banished him to Phrygia. He spent his three years and more of exile in composing his great works on the Trinity. In 359 he attended the Council of Seleucia, in which Arians, semi-Arians, and Catholics contended for the mastery. With the deputies of the council he proceeded to Constantinople, and there so dismayed the heads of the Arian party that they prevailed upon the emperor to let him return to Gaul. He traversed Gaul, Italy, and Illyria, wherever he came discomfiting the heretics and procuring triumph of orthodoxy. After seven or eight years of missionary travel he returned to Poitiers, where he died in peace in 368.

Reflection.—Like St. Hilary, we, too, are called to a lifelong contest with heretics; we shall succeed in proportion as we combine hatred of heresy, with compassion for its victims.

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

After having consecrated the joyous Octave of the Epiphany to the glory of the Emmanuel who was manifested to the earth, the Church--incessantly occupied with the Divine Child and his august Mother, during the whole time from Christmas Day to that whereon Mary will bring Jesus to the Temple, there to be offered to God, as the law prescribes--the Church, we say, has on her Calendar of this portion of the year the names of many glorious Saints, who shine like so many stars on the path which leads us, from the joys of the Nativity of our Lord, to the sacred mystery of our Lady's Purification.

And firstly there comes before us, on the very morrow of the day consecrated to the Baptism of Jesus, the faithful and courageous Hilary--the pride of the Churches of Gaul, and the worthy associate of Athanasius and Eusebius of Vercelli in the battle fought for the Divinity of our Emmanuel. Scarcely were the cruel persecutions of paganism over, when there commenced the fierce contest with Arianism, which had sworn to deprive of the glory and honours of his divinity that Jesus who had conquered, by his Martyrs, the violence and craft of the Roman Emperors. The Church had won her liberty by shedding her blood, and it was not likely that she would be less courageous on the new battlefield into which she was driven. Many were the Martyrs that were put to death by her new enemies--Christian, though heretical, Princes: it was for the Divinity of that Lord, who had mercifully appeared on the earth in the weakness of human flesh, that they shed their blood. Side by side with these stood those holy and illustrious Doctors, who, with the martyr-spirit within them, defended by their learning and eloquence the Nicene Faith, which was the Faith of the Apostles. In the foremost rank of these latter we behold the Saint of today, covered with the rich laurels of his brave confessorship, Hilary: who, as St. Jerome says of him, was brought up in the pompous school of Gaul, yet had culled the flowers of Grecian science, and became the Rhone of Latin eloquence. St. Augustine calls him the illustrious Doctor of the Churches.

Though gifted with the most extraordinary talents, and one of the most learned men of the age, yet St. Hilary's greatest glory is his intense love for the Incarnate Word, and his zeal for the liberty of the Church. His great soul thirsted after martyrdom, and, by the unflinching love of truth which such a spirit gave him, he was the brave champion of the Church in that trying period when Faith, that had stood the brunt of persecution, seemed to be on the point of being betrayed by the craft of Princes, and the cowardice of temporizing and unorthodox Pastors.

Let us listen to the short Life our Saint, contained in the Lessons of his Office.

From
The Roman Breviary
(Divino Afflatu)

This Hilary was born of a noble family in Acquitaine, and is distinguished as a divine and an orator. He was married in his earlier life, but even then lived the life of a monk and on account of his remarkable holiness, was ultimately made Bishop of Poitiers, about the year 353, in which office he did his duty so as to gain the universal praise of the faithful. At that time the Emperor Constantius was persecuting the Catholics by threats, by the plundering of their goods, by exile, and at length, by every species of cruelty, in order to force them to yield to the Arian heresy. Against the Arians Hilary set himself up as a brazen wall, and turned upon himself the fierceness of their anger. They assailed him by many artifices, and at last Saturnine, Bishop of Aries, at the Council of Beziers, in 356, procured his banishment to Phrygia. During this exile he raised a dead man to life, and wrote a work in twelve books on the Trinity, against the Arians.

In the year 359, the fourth of his exile, took place the Council of Seleucia in Isauria, at which Hilary was obliged to be present, but afterwards withdrew to Constantinople. Here he realised more sharply the awful nature of this crisis in the history of Christianity, published three pamphlets in the form of letters to the Emperor, and demanded from that Prince leave to hold a public disputation in his presence. The Arian Bishops Ursacius and Valens, whom Hilary had already confuted in writing, were afraid to meet him in debate, and therefore induced Constantius, under pretence of pardon, to send him back to his Bishoprick, (in 360.) His mother, the Church of Gaul, to use the language of Jerome, received him with open arms on his return from the battle with the heretics. He was followed to Poitiers by Martin, afterwards Bishop of Tours, whose after holiness was a fruit of his teaching.

Henceforth he ruled the Church of Poitiers in great peace. By his exertions the Church of Gaul was led to denounce the Arian blasphemy. His wonderful learning is seen in his numerous works, of which Jerome writes to Laeta that he deemeth them quite faultless. One can follow Hilary in his books, saith he, without tripping once. He passed from earth to heaven upon the thirteenth day of January, in the year of our Lord 369, in the reign of the Emperors Valentinian and Valens. He had already been called an illustrious Doctor of the Church, by many Fathers and Councils, and was so styled in the Liturgy in some Dioceses, when at length, in the year 1850, Pope Pius IX., at the prayer of the Synod of Bordeaux, and in accordance with a resolution of the Sacred Congregation of Rites, proclaimed and confirmed the title, and commanded that the Mass and Office of his Feast should be everywhere said as those of a Doctor.

The Holy Family and Trinity by Jacob de Wit, 1726

_____________

Commemoration of
St. Felix of Nola
Priest and Martyr

Collect

Concede, quæsumus, omnípotens Deus: ut ad meliórem vitam Sanctórum tuórum exémpla nos próvocent; quátenus, quórum solémnia ágimus, étiam actus imitémur. Per Dóminum nostrum...

Grant, we beseech Thee, O Almighty God, that the example of Thy Saints may stir us up to a better life, so that we may imitate the good deeds of those whose festivals we celebrate. Through...

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

Encircled by the radiant splendours of the Epiphany, there comes before us today, in company with Hilary of Poitiers, a humble lover of the virtues of the Crib of our Emmanuel. Though withdrawn by God himself from the fury of his persecutors, and thus from a martyr's death which would have crowned his cruel torments and imprisonment, Felix nevertheless has won the right to his palm by the invincible courage he showed amidst all his sufferings. In heaven he was already accounted worthy of his reward, but he was yet for a long time to gladden and strengthen the Church on earth by those examples of wonderful poverty, humility, and ardent charity, which now claim for him a place in the sacred cycle near to the lowly manger of the King of Peace.

The Infant God, in all his hidden lowliness, was to Felix his one love and exemplar, hence today this King of angels and men who is now manifested to the world and adored by kings, hastens to share with him the honours of his triumphant Epiphany. To him that shall overcome, I will give to sit with me in my throne, saith the Lord (Apoc. iii 21), and in whom, other than Felix, has the realization of this blessed promise of the Divine Head to his members been more apparent? A poor tomb received the mortal remains of the humble priest of Campania, and in its silence and obscurity, emblems of his earthly desires, he seemed destined to await the blast of the angel's trumpet at the final Resurrection. But miracles, many and great, suddenly rendered this tomb illustrious; the name of Felix was carried far and wide, and everywhere wrought the like prodigies of grace. Hardly had peace been given to the Church and world by the accession of Constantine to the throne, when on all sides the people were aroused, and in countless flocks thronged to the martyr's tomb; on certain days Rome herself seemed deserted, and the ancient Appian Road, the very soil of which was worn away by the tramp of the pilgrims, appeared to have other purpose than to carry to the feet of Felix the homage, gratitude, and love of the entire world. Five basilicas did not suffice for the immense concourse; a sixth was erected, and the lowly field where once the remains of the martyr lay hid was encircled by a new town. The fourth century, so rich in Christian developments, saw the beginning of pilgrimages, and the city of Nola in Campania was, after Rome, the principal centre of this devotion. "O happy city of Nola," cries a contemporary, eyewitness of these wonders, "O happy city which through the merits of blessed Felix has become second only to Rome herself, Rome ever the mistress, yesterday by her empire and victorious armies, today by the tombs of the Apostles!"

We have cited Paulinus, the illustrious consul whose mane is inseparably linked with that of Felix, Paulinus whom we shall find, in the time after Pentecost, through the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, giving also admirable examples of renunciation to the world. In the flower of a brilliant youth and already surrounded by honours and glory, Paulinus once found himself by the tomb of Felix--here it was give to him to understand true greatness, to realize the emptiness of human ambitions and glory. The Roman Senator, the consul, the descendant of Paulus Amelius and of the Scipios, here vowed himself to Felix who had conquered. Riches, honours, country, he sacrificed all and aspired only to dwell near to this tomb. A poet of no small merit, whose talents had already won applause in Rome, his inspiration now found expression in singing the praises of the blessed Felix on his feast day in proclaiming himself the slave and humble doorkeeper of the servant of Christ. Such then is the triumph of our Emmanuel in his saints, such is the glory of his members--does it not seem that the Divine Head, mindful of his promises, is desirous only of the glory which this feast of Manifestation brings, so that they, enthroned with him, may also receive the homage of peoples and kings?

TradNews Roundup

2012-01-13T18:30:00.010-05:00

*Fr. Alain Lorans of the SSPX gives some insight into the SSPX objections to the Doctrinal Preamble. As suspected, the difficulties were summed up by the response of Fr. Jean-Michel Gleize to Msgr. Fernando Ocariz's article that was published L’Osservatore Romano. Essentially the problems are in the "new doctrines" of the Second Vatican Council.

*Fr. Giovanni Cavalcoli, O.P. fires off a shrill attack on Italian traditionalists, and the SSPX in particular. Cavolcoli claims that the "new doctrines" of Vatican II are infallible (despite the fact that the reigning Pontiff at the close of the Council stated they were not). The councilarists, it appears, are circling the wagons.

*Pope says that gay marriage is a threat to "the future of humanity".

*The story of Ian Verrier, a seminarian for the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter.

*Yet another leftist bishop is at the center of a sex scandal.

*Catholics are welcome in the Obama Administration as long as they are Catholic in name only. This is a form of anti-Catholic bigotry.

*SCOTUS upholds ministerial exception despite pressure from the Obama Administration to allow the government to intervene in the internal affairs of religious organizations. (PDF of the full text of the SCOTUS decision)

*Rick Santorum's tax policy would reward marriage and large families.

*Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta is accused of defending a "pedophile priest". (The article actually admits that the priest was not a pedophile, but a homosexual who liked teen age boys... but why let things like the truth get in the way? The point in Frisco is to condemn the Catholic Church, not implicate active homosexuals as the depraved perverts they are.)

*Reason 411,987 to homeschool.

*The antichrist European Union will bend all its diabolical power on Hungary to purge its new constitution of any Christian values.

*Make'm pay!

Live Stream of Confraternity Monthly Recollection Tonight

2012-01-13T08:59:00.001-05:00

Just a reminder that tonight (Friday, January 13th) Fr. Fryar will stream live the monthly recollection for the Confraternity of St. Peter.

The live stream will begin at 6:30 PM EST. Please see the link for LiveMass.net in the side bar to the right.

Collect of the Day: Baptism of Our Lord Jesus Christ

2012-01-13T00:01:00.007-05:00

Pre-1962 Missal: Octave Day of the Epiphany

The Baptism of Christ by Annibale Carracci, 1584

Commemoration of
The Baptism of Our Lord Jesus Christ

Behold the Lord the Ruler is come: and the Kingdom is in His Hand, and power, and dominion.
(From the introit of the day's Mass, Malach. 3. 1; 1 Par. 29. 12)

Collect of the Day

Deus, cujus Unigénitus in substántia nostræ carnis appáruit: præsta, quæsumus; ut per eum, quem símilem nobis foris agnóvimus, intus reformári mereámur: Qui tecum vivit...

O God, whose Only-Begotten Son hath appeared in the substance of our flesh: grant, we beseech Thee, that by Him, in whom outwardly we recognise our likeness, we may deserve to be inwardly created anew: Who liveth and reigneth...

In the Collect, the Church prays that her children may have the grace of becoming like to Jesus, who appeared in the Jordan, filled, indeed, with the Holy Ghost, and the object of the Heavenly Father's love, but at the same time, truly Man like us, and faithful in the fulfillment of all justice.
--Dom Guéranger, O.S.B.

The Baptism of Christ by Tintoretto, circa 1570

Lesson - Isaias, 60. 1-6 / Gospel - St. John, 1. 29-34

From a Sermon by St. Gregory Nazianzus

I cannot restrain the outburst of my happiness on this occasion. Yea, I am uplifted in mind, and my heart is deeply moved. And thereby I am in danger of forgetting mine own meanness, in my longing for the office of the great John Baptist. Or rather, I should say, I am filled with desire to undertake the service which he performed. It is true that I am not, as was he, Christ's Forerunner ; but at least I come, as did he, from the desert. And like him, my joy is in Christ who was, as on this day, illuminated ; or I might better say, My joy is in Christ who now doth illuminate us, and that with his own splendour. For Christ is baptized! Therefore, let us go down together with him into the deep, that likewise together with him we may go up, enlightened with his splendour.

John is baptizing ; Jesus draweth nigh. And he is come thither that perchance he may sanctify the one that now acteth as the ministrant of Baptism ; and that he may beyond all doubt bury the Old Adam beneath the flood ; and that he may hallow the baptismal streams, such as of Jordan, above all other water. For he who is both Spirit and Flesh would open, to all that should ever be baptized, the power of grace, whereby we may be born again, of the water and the Spirit. But lo! the Baptist putteth him off ; nevertheless Jesus insisteth. I, saith John, have need to be baptized of thee! So speaketh the Candle to the Sun ; so saith the Voice to the Word.

Jesus cometh up from the waters! In the Second Adam all mankind hath been washed. The whole world, which had been submerged, is uplifted. And thereupon the heavens were opened unto him. Not cleft entirely, but set open wise! for those same heavens were, by the sin of the First Adam, closed to himself, and to us his posterity, what time the flaming swords of the Cherubim barred the gates of paradise. But the heavens were opened wide to the Second Adam. And then did the Holy Ghost himself bear witness. The Spirit beareth witness to one who is of the same substance as himself. For witness fitly cometh down from heaven unto one who is from thence.

From the Roman Breviary

The Jordan River

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

The thoughts of the Church today are fixed on the Baptism of our Lord int he Jordan, which is the second of the three Mysteries of the Epiphany. The Emmanuel manifested himself to the Magi, after having shown himself to the Shepherds; but this manifestation was made within the narrow space of a stable at Bethlehem, and the world knew nothing of it. In the Mystery of the Jordan, Christ manifested himself with greater publicity. His coming is proclaimed by the Precursor; the crowd that is flocking to the river for Baptism is witness of what happens; Jesus makes this the beginning of his public life. But who could worthily explain the glorious circumstances of this second Epiphany?

It resembles the first in this, that it is for the benefit and salvation of the human race. The star has led the Magi to Christ; they had long waited for his coming, they had hoped for it; now they believe. Faith in the Messias having come into the world is beginning to take root among the Gentiles. But faith is not sufficient for salvation; the stain of sin must be washed away by water. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved. The time is come, then, for a new manifestation of the Son of God, whereby there shall be inaugurated the great remedy, which is to give to Faith the power of producing life eternal.

Now the decrees of divine Wisdom had chosen Water as the instrument of this sublime regeneration of the human race. Hence, in the beginning of the world, we find the Spirit of God moving over the Waters, in order that they might "even then conceive a principle of sanctifying power," as the Church expresses it in her Office for Holy Saturday. But before being called to fulfill the designs of God's mercy, this element of Water had to be used by the Divine Justice for the chastisement of a sinful world. With the exception of one family, the whole human race perished, by the terrible judgement of God, in the Waters of the Deluge.

A fresh indication of the future supernatural power of this chosen element was given by the Dove, which Noe sent forth from the Ark; it returned to him, bearing in its beak an Olive-branch, the symbol that peace was given to the earth by its having been buried in Water. But this was only the announcement of the mystery; its accomplishment was not to be for long ages to come.

Meanwhile, God spoke to his people by many events, which were figurative of the future Mystery of Baptism. Thus, for example, it was by passing through the waters of the Red Sea that they entered into the Promised Land, and during the miraculous passage, a pillar of a cloud was seen covering both the Israelites and the Waters to which they owed their deliverance.

But in order that Water should have the power to purify man from his sins, it was necessary that it should be brought in contact with the Sacred Body of the Incarnate God. The Eternal Father had sent his son into the world, not only that he might be its Lawgiver, and Redeemer, and the Victim of its salvation, but that he might also be the Sanctifier of Water; and it was in this sacred element that he would divinely bear testimony to his being his Son, and manifest him to the world a second time.

Jesus, therefore, being now thirty years of age, comes to the Jordan, a river already celebrated for the prophetic miracles which had been wrought in its waters. The Jewish people, roused by the preaching of John the Baptist, were flocking thither in order to receive a Baptism which could indeed excite a sorrow for sin, but could not effect its forgiveness. Our divine King approaches the river, not, of course, to receive sanctification, for he himself is the author of all Justice--but to impart to Water the power of bringing forth, as the Church expresses the mystery, a new and heavenly progeny. He goes down into the stream, not, like Josue, to walk dry-shod through its bed, but to let its waters encompass him, and receive from him, both for itself and for the Waters of whole earth, the sanctifying power which they would retain for ever. The saintly Baptist places his trembling hand upon the sacred head of the Redeemer, and bends it beneath the water; the Sun of Justice vivifies this his creature; he imparts to it the glow of life-giving fruitfulness; and Water thus becomes the prolific source of supernatural life.

But in this the commencement of a new creation, we look for the intervention of the Three Persons of the Blessed Trinity. All Three are there. The heavens open; the Dove descends, not as a mere symbol, prophetic of some future grace, but as the sign of the actual presence of the Holy Ghost, the Spirit of love, who gives peace to men and changes their hearts. The Dove hovers above the head of Jesus, overshadowing at one and the same time the Humanity of the Incarnate Word and the water which bathed his sacred Body.

The manifestation is not complete; the Father's voice is still to be heard speaking over the Water, and moving by its power the entire element throughout the earth. Then was fulfilled the prophecy of David: The Voice of the Lord is upon the waters; the God of majesty hath thundered. The Voice of the Lord breaketh cedars, that is, the pride of the devils. The Voice of the Lord divideth the flame of fire, that is, the anger of God. The Voice of the Lord shaketh the desert, and maketh the flood to swell, that is, announces a new Deluge, the Deluge of divine Mercy. And what says this Voice of the Father? This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.

Thus was the Holiness of Emmanuel manifested by presence of the Dove and by the voice of the Father, as his kingly character had been previously manifested by the mute testimony of the star. The mystery is accomplished, the Waters are invested with a spiritual purifying power, and Jesus comes from the Jordan and ascends the bank, raising up with himself the world, regenerated and sanctified, with all its crimes and defilements drowned in the stream. Such is the interpretation and language of the Holy Fathers of the Church regarding this great event of our Lord's Life.

The Feast of the Epiphany celebrates this wonderful mystery of Jesus' Baptism; and we cannot be surprised at the Eastern Church having selected this day for one of the solemn administrations of the sacrament of Baptism. The same custom was observed, as we learn from the ancient documents, in certain Churches in the West. John Mosch tells us that, as regards the Oriental Church, the Font was more than once miraculously filled with water on the Feast of the Epiphany, and that immediately after having administered the Sacrament, the people saw the water disappear. The Roman Church, even so early as the time of St. Leo, decreed that Easter and Pentecost should be the only two days for the solemn administration of Baptism; but the custom of blessing the baptismal water with great solemnity on the Epiphany was still retained, and is observed even now in some parts of the West.

The Eastern Church has always religiously observed it. Amidst all the pomp of sacred rites, accompanied by his Priests and Ministers, who are clothed in the richest vestments, and followed by the whole people, the Bishop repairs to the banks of a river. After reciting certain beautiful prayers, which we regret not being able to offer to our readers, the Bishop plunges into the water a Cross richly adorned with precious stones; it represents our Lord being baptized by St. John. At St. Petersburg, the ceremony takes place on the River Neva, and it is through a hole made in the ice that the Metropolitan dips the Cross into the Water. This same ceremony is observed by those Churches in the West which have retained the custom of blessing the baptismal water on this Feast.

The faithful are very anxious to carry home with them the water of the stream thus sanctified; and St. John Chrysostom, in his twenty-fourth Homily, on the Baptism of Christ, speaks to his audience of the circumstance, which was well known by all of them, of this water never turning corrupt. The same has been often seen in the Western Church.

Let us honour our Lord in this second Manifestation of his divinity, and thank him, with the Church, for having given us both the Star of Faith which enlightens us, and the Water of Baptism which cleanses us from our iniquities. Let us lovingly appreciate the humility of our Jesus, who permits himself to be weighed down by the hand of a mortal man, in order, as he says himself, that he might fulfill all justice; for having taken on himself the likeness of sin, it was requisite that he should bear its humiliation, that so he might raise us from our debasement. Let us thank him for this grace of Baptism, which has opened to us the gates of the Church both of heaven and earth; and let us renew the engagements we made at the holy Font, for they were the terms on which we were regenerated to our new life in God.

The Baptism of Christ by Bartolome Esteban Murillo, 1655

Banality on the heels of displacing the Epiphany

2012-01-06T23:47:00.001-05:00

The calendar for the Ordinary Form of the Roman Rite, the novus ordo, is replete with mediocrity, but at least twice a year this mediocrity is brought to a crescendo: at the feasts of the Ascension of Our Blessed Lord and the Epiphany. Lost from the mentality and spiritual life of the average mainstream, novus ordo Catholic is the notion that Christmastide is a twelve day affair.

The lost notion of the twelve days of Christmas only helps to displace the whole season. The Protestants, along with the pagan secular world, feigning Christian symbolism and heritage, have already moved the celebration of Christmas to the time before December 25th. Most novus ordo Catholics are as ready as the pagans and Protestants to jettison the whole notion of Advent as a penitential season, and have already tossed their spent Christmas trees to the curb to be picked up by the garbage men. The denuding of the Christmas season by moving Epiphany to the Sunday nearest January 6th has done nothing but help facilitate this process among Catholics. Rushing the season away for some "pastoral" effort to make things easy has utterly failed to fix the Church's new liturgical calendar into the lives and daily habits of the faithful. Mainstream Catholics have no connection to a calendar, even the woefully inadequate novus ordo calendar, and thus have been denied that very fruitful and uniquely Catholic structure of a deeply spiritual life. The resulting banality is only too apparent.

I attend Mass at a mission apostolate of the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter, which means we share our parish with the novus ordo establishment. The bigger share, currently, belongs to this novus ordo establishment, thus we are often met each Sunday by the mundane, banal imagery of that iniquitous shadow of Catholicism on the cover of the parish bulletin. The cover for this Sunday's parish bulletin was the usual hodgepodge of amateurish impressionism, complete with stick figure wise men, and a background that strangely resembles something from an Aztec ziggurat.

The pastoral imprudence of making things easier translates into an immature spirituality that is reflected by this childish imagery that possesses only a marketing appeal devoid of any real effort or depth of thought. It's a commercial for the Epiphany, rather than something meant to inspire and raise the mind beyond the mundane. Forgotten is the rich heritage of Western Catholic art. The mindset of the modern mainstream, novus ordo establishment simply can not grasp an aesthetic principle that goes beyond sloganeering commercialism with subtle hints of ancient paganism.

This reality is corroding what is left of the Catholic foundations of the novus ordo edifice. Once the the last tethers of authentic Catholicism is corroded beyond repair, the novus ordo establishment will careen into the oblivion of Protestantism and secularism. It isn't a matter of "if", but "when". This is bad news for Western society that rests on the shoulders of the Church that built it.

However, in the wake of the novus ordo establishment are the ever growing Traditional Latin Mass communities. These communities are already working as the last lifelines for a Western world on the brink of slipping into complete cultural senility. However, these Traditional Latin Mass communities must constantly strive to incorporate the traditional calendar into the daily lives of the faithful. Let us pray that it is not too late.

TradNews Roundup

2012-01-06T18:00:00.000-05:00

*The Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter is established for the United States.

Epiphany rite of blessing for the house

2012-01-05T19:00:00.001-05:00

A common tradition for the feast day of the Epiphany is to bless your house with Epiphany water. Below is a short rite of blessing for the Epiphany from the ever helpful and informative Fisheaters website:

At today's Mass, there will be a blessing of gold, frankincense, myrrh, Epiphany Water, and, after Communion, a blessing of chalk. Bring small special items of gold to have with you during the Mass, and they will be blessed if they are exposed as you sit in your pew with them (wedding rings, rosaries, an heirloom piece of gold jewelry, for example).

When Mass is over, you will take some of the blessed chalk, frankincense, myrrh, and Epiphany Water home with you, so it's good to bring a container to transport Holy Water and one to put some grains of incense and a piece of chalk into. (Note: if you can, take and keep 5 pieces of blessed incense for your Paschal Candle this Easter.)

When you get home, sprinkle some Epiphany water (otherwise and afterwards used as regular Holy Water) in the rooms of your house to protect it and bring blessings. This Holy Water recalls the waters of the Jordan, and is a visible reminder of Christ's Divinity, of Jesus' revealing Himself as God at His Baptism, when were heard the words from the Father: "This is My beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased." This rite of blessing the home -- led by a priest, if possible, or the father of the house if no priest is available -- goes like this:

Upon entering the house:

Priest/Father: Peace be to this house.

All:And to all who dwell herein.

Priest:From the east came the Magi to Bethlehem to adore the Lord; and opening their treasures they offered precious gifts: gold for the great King, incense for the true God, and myrrh in symbol of His burial.

During the Magnificat, the room is sprinkled with holy water and incensed.

All:My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Savior. For He hath regarded the humility of His handmaiden. For behold, from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed. For He that is mighty hath done great things to me, and holy is His Name. And His Mercy is from generation unto generations upon them that fear Him. He hath shewed might in His arm, He hath scattered the proud in the conceit of their heart. He hath put down the mighty from their seat, and hath exalted the humble. He hath filled the hungry with good things, and the rich He hath sent empty away. He hath received Israel, His servant, being mindful of His mercy. As He spoke to our Fathers, Abraham and His seed forever.

After this is completed:

All: From the east came the Magi to Bethlehem to adore the Lord; and opening their treasures they offered precious gifts: gold for the great King, incense for the true God, and myrrh in symbol of His burial.

Priest: Our Father Who art in Heaven, hallowed be Thy Name. Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead and lead us not into temptation.
All: But deliver us from evil.

Priest: All they from Saba shall come

All: Bringing gold and frankincense.

Priest: O Lord, hear my prayer.

All: And let my cry come unto Thee.

Priest: Let us pray. O God, who by the guidance of a star didst on this day manifest Thine only-begotten Son to the Gentiles, mercifully grant that we who know Thee by faith may also attain the vision of Thy glorious majesty. Through Christ our Lord.

All: Amen.

Priest: Be enlightened, be enlightened, O Jerusalem, for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee-- Jesus Christ born of the Virgin Mary.

All: And the Gentiles shall walk in thy light and kings in the splendor of thy rising, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon thee.

Priest: Let us pray. Bless, O Lord God almighty, this home, that in it there may be health, purity, the strength of victory, humility, goodness and mercy, the fulfillment of Thy law, the thanksgiving to God the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit. And may this blessing remain upon this home and upon all who dwell herein. Through Christ our Lord.

All: Amen.

After the prayers of the blessing are recited, walk through the house and bless each room by sprinkling with Epiphany water and incensing it. Take the blessed chalk and first write the initials of the three Wise Men, connected with Crosses, over the inside of your front door (on the lintel, if possible). Then write the year, breaking up the numbers and the year so that they fall on both sides of the initials. It should look like this, for ex.:

20 C+M+B 12

with the "20 "being the millennium and century, the "C" standing for the first Wise Man, Caspar, the "M" standing for Melchior, the "B" standing for Balthasar, and the "12" standing for the decade and year. It is also popularly believed that the Kings' initials also stand for "Christus mansionem benedicat" ("Christ bless this house").

Fisheaters offers this in downloadable form here.

Guéranger: New Years Eve, Thougts of Mortality and Gratitude

2011-12-31T14:49:00.004-05:00

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..."

2011-12-31T11:31:00.003-05:00

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

2011-12-30T19:08:00.002-05:00

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

2011-12-30T18:00:00.010-05:00

*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.

2011-12-30T13:22:00.010-05:00

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!

2011-12-30T11:34:00.004-05:00

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

2011-12-23T18:00:00.002-05:00

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

Have a Blessed and Merry Christmas

Christmas Greetings 2011

2011-12-20T20:23:00.002-05:00

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

2011-12-17T19:08:00.003-05:00

*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

2011-12-12T20:47:00.007-05:00

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.

A Purgative Method of Hearing Mass During Advent

2011-12-12T12:05:00.000-05:00

A Purgative Method of Hearing Mass During Advent

To be used as a means of preparing for the Feast of Christmas in conjunction with the practice of frequent Confession.

Before Mass

Prepare for Mass by studying and praying the Propers for the day. Use whatever prayers you are accustomed to use in order to prepare for the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. However, now add to your usual preparations an examination of conscience. Examine your conscience to discover a particular sin, fault or weakness that you would like to conquer by means of hearing the Mass with devotion.

Place yourself, momentarily, on the banks of the river Jordan. St. John the Baptist looks at you and commands you: "Prepare the way of the Lord!"

When the Lord comes, do you want Him to find you wallowing in this sin, fault or weakness? Will you want this stain on your soul when your Master comes to take an accounting of your soul? It is time to rid yourself of this fault or weakness! Firmly resolve to be rid of it, for the Lord is near!

The Sign of the Cross and the prayers at the foot of the altar

Meditate on the longings of the patriarchs and prophets for the Advent of the Messiah. The world in which they lived was a constant flux toward and away from the keeping of God’s commandments. How lost would the Israelites have been if they could not look forward to the coming of the Messiah that would set aright their understanding of those holy Commandments and impart to them the power to live them in such a way as to be pleasing to God.

You, like them, must now find hope in looking forward to the Advent of Christ in your heart, so that He can heal your troubled conscience, and give you rest from your labors. Pray that Christ might reign in your heart, and thereby conquer the fault or weakness that troubles you. Beg mercy and forgiveness from God along with the priest and the other ministers at the altar.

The Priest ascends to the altar and the Kyrie

Meditate on your own weakness. Beg God to grant you a complete and honest distrust of yourself and your natural powers. By your own natural powers, have you been able to overcome this fault or weakness? Why after struggling with it do you return to it, like the dog that returns to its own vomit? How many times have you received the sacraments, but to no avail in this struggle? It is because of your secret pride. You still trust in your own powers. This will never do. You will never advance far in virtue or in this particular struggle if you stubbornly cling to your own methods and your own devises. Beg God to grant you a complete and honest distrust of yourself and your natural powers.

The Epistle, Gradual and Gospel

Meditate on the infinite power and majesty of God. He is capable of affecting anything and everything for you if you only ask. How deep and inscrutable is the wisdom of God. How unlimited is His love for His children. Jesus, Our Blessed and Adorable Lord, came as the Babe of Bethlehem to live as our Good Shepherd for thirty-three years. How He sought through all those thorn strewn ways for His lost sheep, even to the shedding the very last drop of His Precious Blood! What will this infinitely powerful and indelibly loving Lord not do for you if you at this moment cry out to Him for help? Will He not lift you up on His shoulders and carry you back to the flock? Pray that God might grant you an unquestioning trust in Him, and in Him alone.

The Offertory

So weak and small are you in your own devises, you can’t even hear this Mass without fruit or benefit if God should withhold His grace from you. But this God came to you as a mere Babe. He was a Child in His mother’s arms, a most adorable and lovely Child, mild, sweet, and kind. He who considered equality with God something not to be grasped at, now at this moment is about to stoop down again. He does so to visit you, and He does so to grant your desires. Having complete distrust in yourself, but total confidence in this all-powerful, yet loving, Lord, offer to Him the weakness or fault that troubles you. At His first coming, He came as a gentle Child, so as to draw all men of good will and humble heart to Him. Now He comes to you in the Mass as a gentle physician to make you whole.

The Sanctus and Canon

The night sky has not yet broken open with the joyous chorus of the angelic voices, nor has Gabriel visited the shepherds who keep their lonely watch in silence and sorrow. As the ringing of the sanctuary bells fades, and the last echo of the chanted Sanctus diminishes, this same silence, endured by the shepherds, now falls on your soul. How poor and destitute you are as you wait and watch. In your heart cry out for deliverance; cry out for your Messiah, just as the poor shepherds frequently did in their own hearts as they kept their silent watch.

At the Consecrations

Christ is born in the humble stable, wrapped in swaddling clothes, and laid in a manger filled with straw. The straw represents His coming sufferings on Calvary. Your Lord has come, pricked first by the straw in a manger, then later by the nails of the Cross, to deliver you! To heal you! To make you a son of God! What a gift this is! Adore Him under the appearances of bread and wine. Worship Him Who has come to you at this very moment. Is there any mercy He will hold back from you when He has given you His very own Flesh and Blood?

The Líbera nos and fraction and the commingling of the Sacred Body and Blood

The moment is quickly approaching for you to take the medicine of eternal life. Christ Our Lord has made of Himself a perfect offering for you and for your deliverance from what troubles you. Meditate on the price He paid. Think about the scourging, His crown of thorns, the nails that pierced His precious flesh, and the agony He endured for three hours on the Cross. He suffered for your salvation, and He suffered that you might live in Him and with Him.

The Agnus Dei

The divine plan was not completed in Our Blessed Lord’s first Advent. Rather the divine plan will be completed definitively at the end of time, when on that last and dreadful day Jesus Christ will return like the lightening that flashes from one end of the sky to the other. He will come in might and power, and His coming will bring joy for the elect, but dread for those who have forsaken Christ, ignored Christ, and disowned His gift of sanctifying and actual grace.

Christ comes to you now as a gentle and kind physician, and He will heal you of this weakness or fault if you but have total confidence in Him and distrust of yourself. However, man’s secret pride is always a force to be reckoned with. It insinuates itself, tricks the soul, and causes despair after it succeeds in leading you back into sin. You are about to receive the heavenly medicine for your soul, but stoke a fiery fear in your heart of returning once more to trust of self, and thereby fall again into this weakness or fault.

At Communion

Ask the Blessed Virgin Mary to lend you her Immaculate Heart, and then beg her to pray that you might be filled with the Holy Ghost. Receive the Lord actually or spiritually, and quiet your mind. It is Christ that acts in you so that you might be pleasing to God. He will shape your will and conscience. Allow Him to do so in peace. Place yourself before the manager, the manager from which you have fed on the Bread of Life, and listen to the Babe of Bethlehem.

The Prayers during the Ablutions

You now possess in your heart the Lord of the Universe who has come to you with all the power of the infinite God and all the love of the Good Shepherd. Beg Him to keep you in His graces, to open your mind and heart to the teachings of Holy Mother Church, and to order your life and circumstances to afford you a victory over this particular sin, fault or weakness.

The Dismissal, Blessing and Last Gospel

The combat is not now over. It will not be over until you breathe your last breath. However, that is not the end. There is an eternal reward for those who have fought well and eternal damnation for those who were cowards in the spiritual combat. If you have asked earnestly, God has certainly given you the graces necessary to be victorious. However, you must still cooperate with Him, and God endeavors to perfect you by trying you like gold is tried by fire.

Do not be discouraged if you should fall or give into weakness. God permits man to fall in proportion to his pride. If you commit this fault or fall into this weakness again, immediately probe your consciousness, entreat the Lord to enlighten you and encourage your distrust of self and increase your dependence on Him. God has allowed you to fall so that you might discover your hidden pride. Do not trouble yourself, but quickly and peacefully return to your former practice, seek the consolation of forgiveness in the Sacrament of Confession, and return with ardor and devotion to the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.

The first Advent of Christ was preceded by long wanderings in the desert, wars, dissension, and exiles. Why should you consider yourself entitled to anything else? Prepare yourself by the sustaining graces afforded to you by the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and frequent Confession. By steadily endeavoring on this path, walking it in unity with the sufferings of Christ, Who leads us by His own example, you will attain the victory.

Our Lady of Guadalupe, pray for us.

2011-12-12T03:00:00.001-05:00

Advent Embertide: Winter Ember Days

2011-12-11T18:00:00.002-05:00

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

2011-12-11T06:00:00.000-05:00

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.

click to enlarge

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.

click to enlarge

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.

Guéranger: The Advent Ember Days

2011-12-10T22:00:00.000-05:00

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

2011-12-09T18:00:00.004-05:00

*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!

2011-12-05T23:27:00.000-05:00

TradNews Roundup

2011-12-02T18:00:00.006-05:00

*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.

Reminder: The St. Andrew Christmas Novena Begins Today

2011-11-30T17:36:00.003-05:00

My family has recited the Christmas novena for a few years now, and I can personally attest to how efficacious and uplifting this novena is. It helps those who pray it grow in appreciation for the ineffable gift of the Incarnation, and the gentle humility of Our Blessed Lord. As a family prayer, it encompasses like no other personal devotion the spirit of Advent.

The St. Andrew Christmas Novena is named such because it begins on St. Andrew's day, and ends on Christmas Eve. The following prayer is said fifteen times daily. Using your rosary beads helps count out the prayers. Simply start with the bead right next to the crucifix and use the beads all the way through the first decade to count out the fifteen repetitions. One should always direct their mind toward He Whom the prayer addresses. The subject of the prayer is the moment in which Jesus Christ was born in the stable at Bethlehem, so the minds eye should picture this sweat and humble scene, the poverty Our Blessed Lord, the Virgin Mary and St. Joseph, and the indescribable love of God who would become like us in all things but sin in order to work our redemption.

Pray this prayer fifteen times:

Hail and blessed be the hour and moment in which the Son of God was born of the most pure Virgin Mary, at midnight, in Bethlehem, in piercing cold. In that hour, vouchsafe, O my God! to hear my prayer and grant my desires, [you may add a special intention here] through the merits of Our Saviour Jesus Christ, and of His Blessed Mother. Amen.

Breaking News regarding the SSPX

2011-11-29T20:29:00.002-05:00

A complete and close translation of Andrea Tornielli article can be read here. The interview with Bishop Fellay can be read here at Dici.

It appears that Bishop Fellay will ask for clarifications if not substantial changes to the Doctrinal Preamble. As Tornielli commented, the game is still on, and the ball is now in the Vatican's hands.

The Blessing of the Advent Wreath

2011-11-27T18:00:00.000-05:00

(From Catholic Tradition.)

For use in the Catholic home.

Father or Head of Household: Our help is in the name of the Lord.

All: Who hath made Heaven and earth.

Father: Let us pray. O God, by Whose word all things are sanctified, pour forth Thy blessing upon this wreath, and grant that we who use it may prepare our hearts for the coming of Christ and may receive from Thee abundant graces. Through Christ Our Lord.

All: Amen.

(Sprinkles wreath with holy water.)

The father reads the prayer or the chosen Scripture passage [usually the lesson from the corresponding Sunday of Advent] for the first week, then holds up the youngest child to light the first candle, which is also lighted all through the week when the family gathers in the room with the wreath.

Two candles are lit by the oldest child the second week, three the third by the mother, four the fourth by the father. You may select the Advent Sunday Collects from the traditional Roman Missal.

In families where there are many children it is impossible to satisfy all who want to light candles since there are only four Sundays in Advent. They can take turns lighting the candles during the week. They are never lighted unless an adult is present. Every week as another candle is lit, the light around the wreath grows bigger which means that the birthday of the Light of the World is coming soon. On Christmas Day many families place a white candle, for Christ, in the center of the wreath. [In my family, we call this the "Jesus Candle", and it is used after Christmas season as the center piece for our dinning room table.]
____________

Another Advent Wreath Ritual for the home from Fisheaters.

The Day Before Advent Blessing of the Wreath

Father: O God, by whose word all things are sanctified, pour forth Thy blessing upon this wreath, and grant that we who use it may prepare our hearts for the coming of Christ and may receive from Thee abundant graces. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

First Sunday of Advent

As Mother lights the 1st candle

Scripture (John 1:1-5; Psalm 49:2-5, 71:2-8, 8-15)

Father: In the beginning was the Word: and the Word was with God: and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him: and without him was made nothing that was made. In him was life: and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness: and the darkness did not comprehend it.

Out of Sion the loveliness of his beauty. God shall come manifestly: our God shall come, and shall not keep silence. A fire shall burn before him: and a mighty tempest shall be round about him. He shall call heaven from above, and the earth, to judge his people. Gather ye together his saints to him: who set his covenant before sacrifices.

Give to the king thy judgment, O God: and to the king's son thy justice: To judge thy people with justice, and thy poor with judgment. Let the mountains receive peace for the people: and the hills justice. He shall judge the poor of the people, and he shall save the children of the poor: and he shall humble the oppressor. And he shall continue with the sun, and before the moon, throughout all generations. He shall come down like rain upon the fleece; and as showers falling gently upon the earth. In his days shall justice spring up, and abundance of peace, till the moon be taken sway. And all kings of the earth shall adore him: all nations shall serve him. For he shall deliver the poor from the mighty: and the needy that had no helper. He shall spare the poor and needy: and he shall save the souls of the poor. He shall redeem their souls from usuries and iniquity: and their names shall be honourable in his sight. And he shall live, and to him shall be given of the gold of Arabia, for him they shall always adore: they shall bless him all the day.

Blessing

Father: Stir up Thy power, we beseech Thee, O Lord, and come: that from the threatening dangers of our sins we may deserve to be rescued by Thy protection, and to be saved by Thy deliverance. Who livest and reignest, with God the Father, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, world without end. R. Amen. Father: Alleluia, alleluia. Ostende nobis, Domine, misericordiam tuam, et salutare tuum da nobis. Amen. (Alleluia, alleluia. Show us, O Lord, Thy mercy; and grant us Thy salvation. Alleluia.)

Second Sunday of Advent

As Mother lights the 1st and 2nd candles in order

Scripture (Isaias 11:1-10)

Father: And there shall come forth a rod out of the root of Jesse, and a flower shall rise up out of his root. And the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him: the spirit of wisdom, and of understanding, the spirit of counsel, and of fortitude, the spirit of knowledge, and of godliness. And he shall be filled with the spirit of the fear of the Lord. He shall not judge according to the sight of the eyes, nor reprove according to the hearing of the ears. But he shall judge the poor with justice, and shall reprove with equity for the meek of the earth: land he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall slay the wicked. And justice shall be the girdle of his loins: and faith the girdle of his reins. The wolf shall dwell with the lamb: and the leopard shall lie down with the kid: the calf and the lion, and the sheep shall abide together, and a little child shall lead them. The calf and the bear shall feed: their young ones shall rest together: and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp: and the weaned child shall thrust his hand into the den of the basilisk. They shall not hurt, nor shall they kill in all my holy mountain, for the earth is filled with the knowledge of the Lord, as the covering waters of the sea. In that day the root of Jesse, who standeth for an ensign of the people, him the Gentiles shall beseech, and his sepulchre shall be glorious.

Blessing

Father: Stir up our hearts, O Lord, to prepare the way of Thine only-begotten Son: that through His coming we mat attain to serve Thee with purified minds. Who liveth and reigneth, with God the Father, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, world without end. R. Amen

Father: Alleluia, alleluia. Laetatus sum in his quae dicta sunt mihi: in domum Domini ibimus. Alleluia. (Alleluia, alleluia. I rejoiced at the things that were said to me: We shall go unto the house of the Lord. Alleluia.)

Third Sunday of Advent

As Mother lights the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd candles in order

Scripture (Isaias 9:2, 6-7, 40:3-5, 52:7, 7:14-15)

Father: The people that walked in darkness, have seen a great light: to them that dwelt in the region of the shadow of death, light is risen.

For a CHILD IS BORN to us, and a son is given to us, and the government is upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, God the Mighty, the Father of the world to come, the Prince of Peace. His empire shall be multiplied, and there shall be no end of peace: he shall sit upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom; to establish it and strengthen it with judgment and with justice, from henceforth and for ever: the zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this.

The voice of one crying in the desert: Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the wilderness the paths of our God. Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall become straight, and the rough ways plain. And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh together shall see, that the mouth of the Lord hath spoken.

How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, and that preacheth peace: of him that sheweth forth good, that preacheth salvation, that saith to Sion: Thy God shall reign! Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign. Behold a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and his name shall be called Emmanuel. He shall eat butter and honey, that he may know to refuse the evil, and to choose the good.

Blessing

Father: Incline Thine ear, we beseech Thee, O Lord, to our petitions: and, by the grace of Thy visitation, enlighten the darkness of our minds. Who livest and reignest, with God the Father, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, world without end. R. Amen.

Father: Alleluia, alleluia. Excita, Domine, potentiam tuam, et veni ut salvos facias nos. Alleluia. (Alleluia, alleluia. Stir up, O Lord, Thy might, and come to save us. Alleluia.)

Fourth Sunday of Advent

As Mother lights all the candles in order

Scripture (Luke 1:24-33, 2:1-6; Apocalypse 22:20)

Father: And in the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God into a city of Galilee, called Nazareth, To a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David: and the virgin's name was Mary. And the angel being come in, said unto her: Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women. Who having heard, was troubled at his saying and thought with herself what manner of salutation this should be. And the angel said to her: Fear not, Mary, for thou hast found grace with God. Behold thou shalt conceive in thy womb and shalt bring forth a son: and thou shalt call his name Jesus. He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the most High; and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of David his father; and he shall reign in the house of Jacob for ever. And of his kingdom there shall be no end.

And it came to pass that in those days there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus that the whole world should be enrolled. This enrolling was first made by Cyrinus, the governor of Syria. And all went to be enrolled, every one into his own city. And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem: because he was of the house and family of David. To be enrolled with Mary his espoused wife, who was with child. And it came to pass that when they were there, her days were accomplished that she should be delivered.

He that giveth testimony of these things, saith, Surely I come quickly: Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.

Blessing

Father: O Lord, we beseech Thee, stir up Thy power, and come, and with great might succor us: that by the help of Thy grace that which is hindered by our sins may be hastened by Thy merciful forgiveness: Who livest and reignest, with God the Father, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, world without end. R. Amen.

Father: Alleluia, alleluia. Veni, Domine, et noli tardare: relaxa facinora plebis tuae Israel. Alleluia. (Alleluia, alleluia. Come, O Lord, and tarry not: forgive the sins of Thy people Israel. Alleluia.)

Before and After

2011-11-27T07:11:00.001-05:00

I have before and after photos of another church to share. This is Saint Patrick's church, Dublin, Ontario, Canada. This church was built in 1900, and has a unique style for this area, as it was built in more of an Italianate style as compared to the more popular Gothic Revival of those days.

Here is a photo of the original interior

In the 1950's the sanctuary was changed. This is how a lot of churches were wrecked, bit by bit.

And here is a photo of Saint Patrick's as it appears today

Method of Hearing Low Mass during the Season of Advent

2011-11-26T09:45:00.001-05:00

The Last Judgment by Jacob van Campen, circa 1625

Preparations

Be sure to review and pray the Propers for the day’s Mass the night before or early in the morning before Mass, paying particular attention to the epistle or lesson and the Gospel. Jesus speaks to us through the Scriptures, and Holy Mother Church provides us important lessons for our spiritual growth in this season of Advent. Read the life of the saint of the day if it is a day commemorating a particular saint in the calendar. The more familiar we are with the lessons and prayers chosen for the day by Holy Mother Church, the more fruitful will be our mediations in this method.

Read through the method carefully before Mass so that during Mass you need only glance at it to remind you of the meditations contained herein.

Before Mass: Meditation on the Threefold Advent of Christ

In the season of Advent Our Blessed Lord through the agency of His Church draws our minds and hearts to contemplate His threefold coming or advent. Jesus comes to us in three different times and in three different ways. The first coming is in the flesh in all its human weakness except sin. This coming is commemorated in the Church calendar by the feasts of the Annunciation and the Nativity of the Lord on Christmas day. In the second coming, He comes to each one of us individually and personally in spirit and in the power of His grace. This coming is symbolized in a most special way by our observance of Christmas. His third coming is in His majesty, when His glory will be made manifest on that terrible day at the end of time. Advent is a time when we look back at Our Blessed Lord’s incarnation, prepare a place in our hearts for His coming in our daily lives, and look forward with holy fear to that terrible day that will come like a thief in the night.

At the Sign of the Cross

The Mass has begun in reverence and quiet solemnity. Notice that the priest is vested in violet, the color of sorrow and penance. However, in Advent the sorrow and penance is one born of expectation, like the expectant mother who when drawing close to her time, longs ardently for day she can finally hold and gaze lovingly into the eyes of her child. So is the expectation we have when we say the Holy Name of God, Father, Son and Holy Ghost, with the priest. We long for the time when we will possess and be possessed of the God of our desire.

Prayers at the foot of the altar

Call to mind the longing expectation of the Hebrew people for the Messiah. Recall how Abraham and the patriarchs and the prophets looked forward with steadfast faith to the day God would send the Anointed One to take possession of His people. Contemplate the travails of the Hebrew people, enslaved in Egypt, taken captive and led into exile. Make their prayers for deliverance your own, you who are enslaved by sin, captured by concupiscence and temptations, and are in exile from your native home with God. How you desire the advent of your Savior!

The Priest ascends to the altar

As the priest ascends to the altar and he recites the introit, call to mind how God tried his people in the desert. Think upon how the prophets were tried by the hardheartedness of the people in their times. Our lives are filled with trials and tribulations that God allows us to endure so that we might use them to prepare for His coming in our hearts and at the end of time. Offer up one these many trails in our life and ask God to sanctify it.

The Kyrie

At the Kyrie join the priest in supplications for mercy, the same as those of good will did on that night Christ was born Bethlehem. Many in Israel were looking forward with expectation to the coming of the Messiah. Join yourself spiritually with the expectations of Simeon and Anna, who prayed night and day for the coming of the Messiah, and soon, like them, God will grant your request at Communion.

The Collect

At the Collect recall the birth of Jesus in the stable of Bethlehem, and how he came in weakness and simplicity to converse with men. Recall the treasures He left behind that has been passed on by the Church’s Apostolic teaching and the Holy Scriptures which are about to be proclaimed and offered back to God in the Mass. Pray that God might increase your faith in the incarnation, and that He might stir up a fire your breast to cherish the ineffable gift of the Father, which is His very Son.

At the Epistle, Gradual and Gospel

The Church’s Apostolic teaching and the Holy Scriptures are the fruits of Jesus’s first Advent. Thus, they are precious treasures that demand our full attention if we are to love Christ as we desire. Especially blessed are you if the priest gives you some brief instruction about the day’s readings. However, as is often common during low Mass, there may not be a homily or sermon. Nevertheless, the fruit of the Holy Scriptures is not wasted if only each person reads them with faith and love. Recall what you read in preparation for today’s Mass. Contemplate one or two lessons contained in the readings for the day, and if there is a saint for the day, reflect on how that saint personified some one or two of these lessons. If the Gospel relates some episode from Our Blessed Lord’s life, it is always beneficial for one to use his imagination to place himself into the Gospel scene.

During the Offertory

The priest presents the bread and wine that will soon become the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ, Who desires to visit a well-disposed heart. This is the Second Advent, which He accomplishes in spirit and the power of grace. It is a quiet coming, a happy one, the visit of a devoted, trusted and loving friend. As the priest prepares the gifts, meditate upon how Our Blessed Lord stands at the door knocking. Prepare your soul to receive the Lord and Master who now comes to sup with you in friendship and happiness. Reflect on the gentle manner He took with His friends at His first Advent, especially His concern for the bride and groom in Cana that they should have enough wine for their joyous occasion. Meditate on the love He had for His friend Lazarus, a love that brought the Son of God, the Lord of Majesty, Power and Might, to shed tears for His friend.

The Preface

At the Preface the priest exclaims with the acclamations of the people, how fitting it is that we should give God thanksgiving and praise, to join our hearts and minds with the praise and adoration of the dominations and powers, with the choirs of angels in the heavenly throne room. How fitting it is that at this moment in the Mass we join the angels in heaven in giving thanks and adoration to the Father, Son and Holy Ghost. We are now approaching the consummation of the Sacrifice, the greatest of all fruits of Our Blessed Lord’s first Advent, which will soon come to us in the second.

At the Sanctus

Pray the words of the Sanctus either in Latin or in translation, and by doing so, make ready the way of the Lord to your soul.

Before and during the Consecration

Immediately after earnestly praying the Sanctus, turn your mind’s eye to the suffering of Jesus in the garden. In turns, paced by the prayers at the altar, meditate upon Jesus’s various travails: His sorrow at being betrayed by a friends and being abandoned by His companions; His mistreatment by His own people in the house of the High Priest; His mocking in the palace of the miscreant, Herod; His scourging and contemptible treatment at the hands of Pilate’s men; His sham of a trial; His anguish pain suffered under the weight of the Cross. Jesus needed not to be purged of sin, but rather He endured these sufferings at His first Advent to purge us of ours. Make His sufferings your own. Place yourself at this time as the one betrayed and abandoned, beaten and scourged, crowned with thorns, and tortured along the way of the Cross. These sufferings are what you deserve for your life of sin. Ardently ask Our Blessed Lord the grace to suffer in reparation for your sins so that you might make clean a place for Him to come and dwell.

At the Elevations

As the sanctuary bells ring and the priest lifts high the Consecrated Host, the Body of Christ, and the Chalice of His Precious Blood, see the Cross raised up by the soldiers, and Our Blessed Lord in anguish hung upon it. He suffered for you that you might be made clean by the shedding of His blood. Say as you adore Him Who now comes among us under the veil of an appearance of bread and wine, “My Lord and My God” and “Mercy on me, O Lord” and “May the Blood Christ wash me clean of all my iniquities.

During the Prayers after the Consecration, the Pater Noster and Agnus Dei

Now that the oblation of the victim has been accomplished, remain in mediation at the foot of Cross. Our adorable Jesus, now bloodied and suffering, looks down from the terrible throne of His first Advent, His throne, which is the cross, and He sets His gaze upon you. It is not the gaze of a judge, but of a physician who pierces your soul as though with a spiritual scalpel. Allow Him to reveal to you your inner most thoughts and desires. He knows you better than you know yourself. Depend on the Lord to reveal to you at this time what are your strengths and weaknesses, your failings and triumphs. If you ask Him with a childlike confidence to mend what is broken, Jesus will affect this, and make ready His second coming.

The Priest’s Communion

When the bells ring signifying the priest’s Communion, know that your time is at hand when the second Advent of our Lord will be accomplished in your person. It is a laudable practice that the second Confiteor is still often said at this point of the Mass. If it is, pray the Confiteor with the ministers at the altar. If it is not said, beg the Lord’s forgiveness and mercy in your own words.

The People’s Communion

It is a laudable and recommended practice to receive sacramental Communion at Mass. To receive Holy Communion while in a state of grace is the most perfect form of active participation. However, it should be desired even more so during this Season of Advent, as Holy Communion is the consummation of Christ’s second Advent in spirit. Ask the Blessed Virgin Mary to lend you her Immaculate Heart, and receive the Lord in Communion. Christ now reigns in your heart as King, but also as friend.

If you are not to receive Our Blessed Lord sacramentally, make a spiritual communion at this time.

At the Ablutions

Christ has come and dwells in your heart, but this second Advent is but a preparation for His third and final Advent. A type of this third Advent happens for each man at the time of death. At the moment of death everyone will stand before the Judge Who will make an account of the state of everyone’s soul. Take this opportunity after Communion to tremble before He who is mild and sweet in the Eucharist, but will be terrible at the end, and reveal to Him all that you are.

From the Post-Communion Prayers to the final Blessing

Meditate now upon that third Advent wherein Christ will come at the end of time as a Judge and Avenger. Then the earth will pass away in fire, and those who have been but lukewarm or have ignored the wills of God Almighty will be cast alive into the eternal flames that will burn their flesh and spirit in unquenchable flames. You have been blessed to receive the Lord in Holy Communion, to have been purified and made whole thereby, but no man is safe from the danger of falling. Since you know not the hour of Our Blessed Lord’s final coming, fear the Lord and fear your own weakness. It is good to fear the Lord, not as someone fears a tyrant, but as a child who fears to disappoint the father whom he loves. Pray that God will grant you a distrust of yourself and your frail human nature, and that God will grant you a complete trust in Him.

The Last Gospel

In the last Gospel we are told that when Jesus came the first time, His own received Him not. However, to those that do receive them, He will give them power to be made sons of God, born not of blood, nor of the flesh, but of God. Our Blessed Lord stands at the door of men’s hearts and knocks. Open wide the door of your heart to the Lord.

TradNews Roundup

2011-11-25T18:08:00.009-05:00

*TLM at Harvard on November 30th.

*Sign the petition asking the CDF to put a stop to the Medjugorje nonsense.

*FSSP Superior to evaluate the staffing needs for the new personal parish erected in the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend.

*Criticism of the Obama Administration's anti-Catholic policies heats up.

*Another Modernist to be made a cardinal. And the confusion just keeps swirling. Dear Holy Father, is it continuity or rupture? You say one thing, and then do the opposite. (Do you think this guy will wear clerical garb once he gets the purple piping?)

*Michael Matt on the new SSPX seminary in Virgina.

*Will a new Vatican Commission be just another example of the fox guarding the hen house?

*The Holy Father is suffering from a degenerative joint disease, arthrosis. Please continue to pray for the Holy Father.

*Nancy Pelosi tells lies about Catholics and Pro-Lifers.

*The company that made embryonic stem cell research what it is today gives up on it as the colossal scientific and business failure that it is.

*Are you a Neo-Cat? Well, the big picture of JPII in your living room is a dead give away.

Before and After

2011-11-25T10:10:00.002-05:00

Here is a comparison of Saint James church in Seaforth, Ontario, Canada before Vatican II and after the post Vatican II wreckovations. This church was built in 1869.

Here is a photo from the 1950's of the church interior

And here is a photo of the interior as it appears today

A Catholic Thanksgiving

2011-11-24T12:35:00.000-05:00

Duck instead of turkey.

Don Juan de Oñate

Happy Thanksgiving

Notre Dame Ottawa III

2011-11-22T09:45:00.001-05:00

I will now post some photos of the sanctuary, altars, and chancel of Notre Dame Cathedral-Basilica in Ottawa, Canada. The altars are the work of visionary artist, Canon Georges Bouillon.

First is the high altar and chancel:

Next is the altar of the Sacred Heart:

And finally, the altar of Our Lady:

Notre Dame Ottawa II

2011-11-22T09:28:00.001-05:00

I will now post some photos of the Interior of Notre Dame Cathedral-Basilica, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. As was previously mentioned, the interior is, in contrast to the more plain exterior, very beautiful and ornate.

Notre Dame Ottawa

2011-11-22T09:19:00.001-05:00

Notre Dame Cathedral-Basilica is one of the most beautiful and ornate Gotnic churches I have ever seen. The exterior is fairly simple, but the interior is dazzling. Notre Dame Ottawa was constructed between 1841 and 1865, with the interior decoration being completed between 1876 and 1885. The Cathedral is in the Gothic style, but was originally intended to be a Romanesque church, hence some of the lower windows are not of the Gothic style. Here are some exterior photos of this wonderful Cathedral:

Saint Cecilia

2011-11-22T00:37:00.001-05:00

Here are a couple of Traditional Catholic works of art from Canada pertaining to Saint Cecilia. The first photo is of a stained glass window depicting Saint Cecilia from Saint James' church in Seaforth, Ontario, Canada. This church was constructed in 1869, and the windows date from before 1925, as there is one of the North American Martyrs depicted as "Blessed" in one of the windows.

The second item is the high altar of Saint Cecilia's church in Toronto, Ontario. This church was built in 1911 and the Carrera white marble altars were sculpted in Italy in the 1920's and brought by boat over to Canada.

Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary

2011-11-21T13:21:00.001-05:00

For the feast of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, here is one of my favorite stained glass windows, this is Saint Anne and Our Lady from Saint Paul's Basilica, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

Should I Teach the Kids Medieval Sword Fighting?

2011-11-20T15:53:00.005-05:00

No, really! For a brief few moments I seriously considered the possibility.

We recently received one of those mail order catalogs filled with all manner of homeschooling paraphernalia, including a set of full sized, realistic looking medieval sparring swords made out of “unbreakable” polyurethane.

“Hey!” I thought. “That looks like fun, and it would help them with history too.” I have a penchant for medieval history, sports in general, but especially for the pugilistic arts. I looked at the price, did some rationalizing, and suggested that my wife make it my Christmas present. See how unselfish I’m being, using my Christmas present for homeschooling purposes?!

What is really amazing is that for a moment, but much briefer than my moment, my wife seriously considered it as well. Then, thankfully, sound reason and judgment took over. Why in the world would we need or want to teach our children medieval sword fighting? Furthermore, how could we teach our children medieval sword fighting when neither of us know anything about it? It would probably turn into another occasion for my wife to beat me with a stick. (Actually, don’t let her know that, or she might start to seriously reconsider the whole idea!)

However, judging from the fact that these sparring swords are in a homeschooling catalog it is obvious that some people, somewhere actually do purchase these swords. If they are teaching their children medieval sword fighting, well maybe they should take a step back and evaluate if the activity is really a beneficial educational experience, or just playing around with sticks.

This episode brings us to one of those perennial questions for homeschoolers: Am I doing too little or too much? I know homeschooling parents who struggle with both sides of the question, but most seem to be worried about doing too little, and because of this they end up doing too much.

The fear of doing too little comes from a tired old prejudice against homeschooling that rears its ugly head whenever a homeschooler mentions the subject to an acquaintance who knows nothing about it. A couple of years ago I was at a holiday luncheon at my company, and a co-worker asked me where my children went to school. At that time all my children were being homeschooled. When I told her this, she asked: “Can they read?” I smiled, and replied: “Well, they are struggling a bit with the Latin Vulgate.” She had no idea what I meant, but I decided to let it drop at that. There’s no use trying to overcome ignorant prejudices about homeschooling.

However, many homeschoolers still try to make an argument against this prejudice by over-compensating at home. They over-compensate by insisting that their children learn high school level chemistry by seventh grade, speak at least one ancient language and one modern language fluently, and take hand gliding lessons on Thursday nights right after their piano lesson… or is it Wednesday night after mandolin/guitar lessons? Their children are going to prove those ignorant people wrong by being perfect in every way imaginable, even if it kills both child and parent!

It is true that one of the better benefits of homeschooling is the freedom to make time for variety. I know one homeschooled child who got the opportunity to learn to pilot a plane. I know a homeschooled child who learned to be a master seamstress by the age of 16. I know of one homeschooled child who was able to devote a lot time to physical conditioning and playing football. He’s now the starting quarterback for the Denver Broncos. While institutional schooling provides many standard extras, there is room for more out of the ordinary extras that institutionalized schooling does not and can not provide.

On the other hand, there’s also a certain danger in homeschooling in placing too much emphasis on the extras, and not enough emphasis on the basics. Homeschooling becomes unfocused and chaotic without a sound grounding in these basics. While there might be more time for playing around with sticks in the backyard, that is play, and that kind of play doesn’t constitute the nuts and bolts of home education. It can become an unwelcomed distraction.

Staying focused has to be a daily priority for the homeschooler, and the best way for Catholic homeschoolers to stay focused is to return, time after time, to the reason they chose for homeschooling in the first place. This reason is often different for different homeschoolers, but for the traditional Catholic it usually always boils down to one over-riding, positive purpose: to teach the faith. When putting together the lesson plan, a good question to submit every curriculum or idea is: “How does this convey the truth of our Catholic faith?” In the study of the natural sciences, mathematics, literature, grammar, languages, music, history, etc. there are a plethora of ways to instill the basic tenants of our faith. Everything true and useful ultimately serves our faith.

Truth is something that traditional Catholic homeschoolers are used to evaluating and discussing, but what is useful is a question often ignored in the Catholic homeschooler’s quest to create the perfectly homeschooled child. Broaching the usefulness of a curiculum or idea needs to be just as important. If not addressed honestly the homeschooler runs the risk of exhausting both themselves and their children.

Face it! The violin lessons may not be all that useful for Junior who is tone deaf, and those basketball practices at the YMCA are just distracting for Martha who gets queasy at the thought of rubbing up against someone else’s sweat. Does William really need to memorize all the popes? And does your dream that Robert becomes an eagle scout make sense when Robert hates to go camping?

And really? Do you want to spend $100 for polyurethane sparring swords, when Teresa and Timmy can go out to the brush pile and grab two sticks to horse around with for free?

TradNews Roundup

2011-11-18T18:00:00.002-05:00

*Solemn Traditional Latin Mass in Brooklyn this Sunday.

*Fr. Laurent Demets, FSSP, is suspended for slapping a minor. Knowing Fr. Demets, the kid probably deserved it, but, Father, the times have changed, unfortunately. Just so everyone knows, no one (including the kid or the parents) filed any kind of complaint against Fr. Demets.

*Roberto de Mattei on atheists at Assisi III. "Atheists of the UAAR (Union of Rationalist Atheists and Agnostics) at least have something to teach Catholics: in defense of their truths they profess their errors with a militant spirit from which Catholics have totally abdicated."

*Huh? A Pontifical TLM in Miami? This marks quite a turn around.

*The Vatican Secretariat of State, in so many words, disavows the Pontifical Council for Peace and Justice document on the world economy. Cardinal Berone was not happy with a Vatican council advocating a global financial authority. Apparently not all Vatican officials are Freemasons.

*Medjugorje cultist and fanatics actually believe that Mary will bless "apparition" (because Ivan the Seer can conjure up an "apparition" whenever and wherever he pleases) viewers via the internet. Oh, Good Lord! How long will we have to put up with this novus ordo superstition?

*Ahlquist on the sin of usury.

*Shrine "coordinator" attempts to deny SSPX pilgrims access to the Shrine of Our Lady of Sorrows in Missouri.

*Tradition advances, the Modernist "church" continues to collapse in on itself.

Stained Glass of Notre Dame Ottawa

2011-11-18T02:33:00.001-05:00

Here are a few examples of the beautiful stained glass windows in Notre Dame Cathedral-Basilica, in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. These are actually newer windows made between 1956 and 1961 by the artist Guido Nincheri of Montreal.

Saint Patrick's Basilica, Montreal

2011-11-17T06:30:00.004-05:00

I wanted to share a few photos I took in one of the most beautiful Gothic churches that Canada has to offer, Saint Patrick's Basilica in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. This spectacular church was built in 1847 by Irish immigrants who were fleeing famine in Ireland.

Here is a photo of the facade of the church:

The stunning Gothic interior. The pillars are 25m high and are made of white oak encased in marble:

The beautiful high altar, the sanctuary lamp weighs 815 kg and was installed in 1896:

Our Lady's altar:

Saint Joseph's altar:

One of a number of altars along the sides of the nave:

One of the stained glass windows depicting Our Lady of the Holy Rosary:

A stained glass window depicting Saint Patrick preaching to the pagan Irish King:

Looking towards the rear of the nave:

Another view of the stained glass window of Our Lady of the Holy Rosary: