While trying to derive some wisdom from St. Basil, I came upon one sentence of his that seemed to strongly parallel our circumstances today. As the Saint wrote, "even though liberty be granted us," it made me think of the liberty granted the Mass in Summorum Pontificum. Was St. Basil's conclusion that liberty would signal the end of the crisis? Unfortunately, no. St. Basil, Pray for Us!
"Only one offense is now vigorously punished, an accurate observance of our fathers' traditions. For this cause the pious are driven from their countries and transported into the deserts. The people are in lamentation.... Joy and spiritual cheerfulness are no more; our feasts are turned into mourning; our houses of prayer are shut up; our altars are deprived of spiritual worship. No longer are there Christians assembling, teachers presiding, saving instructions, celebrations, hymns by night, or that blessed exultation of souls, which arises from communion and fellowship of spiritual gifts.... The ears of the simple are led astray, and have become accustomed to heretical profaneness. The infants of the Church are fed on the words of impiety. For what can they do? Baptisms are in Arian hands; the care of travelers, visitation of the sick, consolation of mourners; succors of the distressed.... Which all, being performed by them, become a bond to the people... so that in a little while, even though liberty be granted us, no hope will remain that they, who are encompassed by so lasting a deceit, should be brought back again to the acknowledgment of the truth."
Should a priest be required to use the new missal, or more, to concelebrate the Novus Ordo with his bishop? Does it go against charity and respect for the Holy Father for a priest, or anyone, for that matter, to avoid the new Mass entirely (assuming that one fulfills his Sunday obligation)?
Cardinal Castrillon Hoyos wants to see concelebration, but doesn't say it is the law. Fr. Berg says it has never been required of FSSP priests. Finally, Cardinal Ottaviani reminds us of the theological note of the new missal.
Continue reading "The Concelebration Conundrum" »
It was my joy to scan-in the life of St. Hyacinth as the Saint of the Day for August 17. It was the first time I had read about this miracle worker from Poland who received the habit from St. Dominic. He entered into glory in 1257 at age 72 after walking across Asia to win souls! He converted multitudes, walked on water and raised the dead.
Here are a few excerpts from the account of his life. Notice how St. Hyacinth was beholden to the old theology. He actually believed that souls would perish for not knowing about Jesus Christ. His mortifications are unheard of today. And his grasp of ecumenism and the "seeds of truth" concept were greatly lacking, as he simply destroyed idols. Today, we know better. We no longer send the missionaries to convert the lost. We no longer fast but 2 days a year, and we join in dialogue with idolators. What happened? St. Hyacinth, pray for us.
"His zeal was too active for him to allow himself any rest whilst he saw souls perishing eternally in the ignorance of the true God;"
"His fasts were almost perpetual, and on all Fridays and vigils on bread and water; the bare ground was his bed, and sometimes in the open fields; neither hunger, thirst, weariness, rains, extreme cold, or dangers could ever abate his ardor to gain a soul to Christ."
"Seeing one day an assembly of idolaters on their knees before a great tree in an island in the river Boristhenes, commonly called the Nieper, he walked over the water to them, and easily prevailed with them, after the sight of such a miracle, to destoy their idols, fell the great oak, and embrace the faith."
On this vigil of the Assumption of Our Lady, I thought I'd publish a beautiful prayer to Her that nobody says anymore - probably because nobody believes it anymore. It's taken from the 1957 Raccolta, possibly composed by Pope Pius IX (readers help me on this).
O Mary, Mother of Mercy and Refuge of Sinners! We beseech thee to look with pitying eyes on poor heretics and schismatics. Do thou, who art the Seat of Wisdom, enlighten the minds wretchedly enfolded in the darkness of ignorance and sin, that they may clearly recognize the Holy, Catholic, Apostolic, Roman Church to be the only true Church of Jesus Christ, outside of which neither sanctity nor salvation can be found. Call them to the unity of the one fold, granting them the grace to believe every truth of our holy faith and to submit themselves to the Supreme Roman Pontiff, the Vicar of Jesus Christ on earth, that, thus being united with us by the sweet chains divine charity, there may soon be but one fold under one and the same Shepherd; and may we all thus, O Glorious Virgin, exultantly sing forever: “Rejoice, O Virgin Mary! Thou alone hast destroyed all heresies in the whole world!” Amen.
[His Excellency Bishop Matano, of Vermont, sayng the First Latin Mass in 40 years there on the Feast of the Assumption August 2007, with my 2 favorite altar boys seen on either end.]
We've had a couple of inquiries about learning to serve and after canvassing all my friends and checking the internet this is what I came up with. We invite more resources in the com boxes.
1. Altar Boy Responses, written and verbal.
I just stumbled upon this and really like this- for one thing it is free and for another you can book mark it and your son can study it a little bit at a time. There is a Real Player recording of the response that your son can listen to.
I have absolutely no idea who the website owner is so I'm not endorsing everything on what looks like an extensive website but this looked like a nice set up to me.
2. Learning to Serve by Fr. Charles Carmody. This hardcover book looks wonderful and like it would make a very nice gift for a young man learning to serve at Mass. And the price is a very reasonable $11.95
3. The always excellent Fraternity of St Peter has a 40 minute video about learning to serve the Latin Mass.
4. By Angelus Press: Learning to Serve Low Mass by Fr. William O'Brien and serving Low Mass is always a good place to start.
5. Also by Angelus Press the reprinted: "Know Your Mass" in a comic book format which I understand is excellent.
We'll try to make this and any incoming information available on the website in a permanent format so send in your suggestions.
Thanks,
Mary
This sounds like so much fun!
Received the following invitation:
We would also like to inform you that St. Mary Church, Norwalk, CT, is offering a chant camp for children of all ages to learn about singing and reading music, and in particular Gregorian chant. The camp will take place from Monday August 18 to Friday August 22, from 10:00 am to 3:00 pm each day. No prior musical experience is required, and there is no charge for the camp. For further information and to register for the chant camp, please contact David Hughes, St. Mary's organist and choirmaster: 203-866-5546 x 115 or music@stmarynorwalk.net.
St Hugh of Cluny Blogspot kindly sent us this information and is so helpful in keeping us up to date about developments in the Latin Mass Community.
(Latin Mass Network, in defense of Tradition, publishes articles critical of modern thinking, some of which may have given the impression that we are leading an attack against the Papacy. This is most definitely untrue. And while we could settle this with a defense of the doctrines regarding the papacy, it seemed better to present and affirm these words from the heart of a great pastor of souls.)
“To love the Pope, it is sufficient to reflect who he is. The Pope is the guardian of dogma and morals; he is the depository of the principles which ensure the integrity of the family, the grandeur of nations, the sanctity of souls. He is the councilor of princes and peoples; he is the chief under whose sway none feels tyrannized, because he represents God Himself. He is par excellence the father who unites in himself all that is loving, tender and divine. It seems incredible, and yet it is a sad fact, that there are priests to whom this recommendation must be made, but We are nonetheless in Our times under the hard, the unhappy necessity to say to priests: Love the Pope!
“And how must the Pope be loved? Not in word alone, but in deed and truth. When we love someone, we seek to conform ourselves in everything to his thoughts, to execute his will, to interpret his desires. And if Our Lord Jesus Christ Himself said, ‘If anyone love me, he will keep my word,’ to show our love for the Pope we must obey him.
“And this is why, when we love the Pope, we do not dispute whether he commands or requires a thing, or seek to know where the strict obligation of obedience lies, or in what matter we must obey; when we love the Pope we do not say that he has not yet spoken clearly - as if he were required to speak his will in every man’s ear, and to utter it not only by word of mouth but in letters and other public documents as well. Nor do we cast doubt on his orders, alleging the pretext which comes easily to the man who does not want to obey, that it is not the Pope who is commanding, but some one in his entourage. We do not limit the field in which he can and ought to exercise his authority; we do not oppose to the Pope’s authority that of other persons - no matter how learned - who differ from the Pope. For whatever may be their learning, they are not holy, for where there is holiness there cannot be disagreement with the Pope.”
From The Little Catechism of the Curé of Ars (Tan Books)
All good works together are not of equal value with the sacrifice of the Mass, because they are the works of men, and the holy Mass is the work of God. Martyrdom is nothing in comparison; it is the sacrifice that man makes of his life to God; the Mass is the sacrifice that God makes to man of His Body and of His Blood. Oh, how great is a priest! if he understood himself he would die. God obeys him; he speaks two words, and Our Lord comes down from Heaven at his voice, and shuts Himself up in a little Host. God looks upon the altar. “That is My well- beloved Son’ He says, “in whom I am well- pleased.” He can refuse nothing to the merits of the offering of this Victim. If we had faith, we should see God hidden in the priest like a light behind a glass, like wine mingled with water.
...If someone said to us, “At such an hour a dead person is to be raised to life,” we should run very quickly to see it. But is not the Consecration, which changes bread and wine into the Body and Blood of God, a much greater miracle than to raise a dead person to life? We ought always to devote at least a quarter of an hour to preparing ourselves to hear Mass well; we ought to annihilate ourselves before God, after the example of His profound annihilation in the Sacrament of the Eucharist; and we should make our examination of conscience, for we must be in a state of grace to be able to assist properly at Mass. If we knew the value of the holy Sacrifice of the Mass, or rather if we had faith, we should be much more zealous to assist at it.
Does the return of the Latin Mass signal a return to Tradition? No, according to Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, there can be no return. Below is an excerpt from his 1987 book Principles of Catholic Theology (Ignatius Press, pp. 390-391), in which he advocates, not a return, but a "demolition of the bastions."
Does this mean that the Council itself must be revoked? Certainly not. It means only that the real reception of the Council has not yet even begun. What devastated the Church in the decade after the Council was not the Council but the refusal to accept it. This becomes clear precisely in the history of the influence of Gaudium et spes. What was identified with the Council was, for the most part, the expression of an attitude that did not coincide with the statements to be found in the text itself, although it is recognizable as a tendency in its development and in some of its individual formulations. The task is not, therefore, to suppress the Council but to discover the real Council and to deepen its true intention in the light of present experience. That means that there can be no return to the Syllabus, which may have marked the first stage in the confrontation with liberalism and a newly conceived Marxism but cannot be the last stage. In the long run, neither embrace nor ghetto can solve for Christians the problem of the modern world. The fact is, as Hans Urs von Balthasar pointed out as early as 1952, that the "demolition of the bastions" is a long-overdue task.
Continue reading "Demolition of the Bastions" »
It is good to remember on the feast of the great St. Dominic, August 4, how he preached the Holy Rosary and offered penances for the conversion of sinners (earlier article). Here is another excerpt from The Secret of the Rosary by St. Louis Marie de Montfort.
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One day [St. Dominic] had to preach at Notre Dame in Paris, and it happened to be the feast of St. John the Evangelist. He was in a little chapel behind the high alter prayerfully preparing his sermon by saying the Rosary, as he always did, when Our Lady appeared to him and said:
"Dominic, even though what you have planned to say may be very good, I am bringing you a much better sermon."
Saint Dominic took in his hands the book Our Lady proffered, read the sermon carefully and when he had understood it and meditated on it, he gave thanks to the Blessed Mother.
When the time came, he went up into the pulpit and, in spite of the feast day, made no mention of Saint John other than to say that he had been found worthy to be the guardian of the Queen of Heaven. The congregation was made up of theologians and other eminent people who were used to hearing unusual and polished discourses; but Saint Dominic told them that it was not his wish to give them a learned discourse, wise in the eyes of the world, but that he would speak in the simplicity of the Holy Spirit and with His forcefulness.
So he began preaching the Holy Rosary and explained the Hail Mary word by word as he would to a group of children and used the very simple illustrations which were in the book Our Lady had given him.
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