But Bishop - Arundel and Brighton needs you!

How selfish are we?

We take a Bishop from his own diocese and plonk him down in the wilds of west Wales (Carmarthen) and ask him to be guest speaker at a seminar on 'The Year of Faith and the New Evangelisation'.

Yes, there seem to be no bounds to our greed to have Bishop Kieran Conry of Arundel & Brighton Diocese, come and speak to us here in Menevia Diocese (Carmarthen).

We care not that Laurence England and others will be deprived of Bishop Conry's steadying hand for a few days or that his charitable and kind comments on the Holy Father will not resound along the eastern boundaries of England in his absence.

There will be crying in Crawley, weeping in Worthing and unseemly bawling in Brighton.

How can this much loved shepherd leave his flock with such apparent gay abandon?

And can Menevia Diocese cope with the anticipated influx of pilgrims from all points of the compass, anxious to hear words of wisdom from +KC?

The event of the year is due to take place at St Mary's Church Hall, Carmarthen next Tuesday and all are welcome, light refreshments are provided and the day is free. Heady stuff for us west Walians who are starved of any intellectual, theological discourse (let alone egg and cress sandwiches).

Shall I be going?

Sadly, no.

I have already committed myself to washing the car that day.

It is the real thing

Last week, whilst with Catholic friends our discussion touched on the SSPX. 

I was surprised to find our friends making a statement that, up until then, I had only believed in myself in a very private way.

They stated that it was only really when attending an SSPX Mass that they felt that all was right - all was perfect and complete.

I perfectly understand this view and find it refreshing that others believe it also.

That is not to show any disrespect whatsoever to our great priests who struggle in their parishes, offering both the old and the new in an effort to hold all together, to abide by the orders of their Bishop and to the guidance of the Holy Father.

But an SSPX priest, when he celebrates Mass, does so in an environment that is wholly Catholic, wholly at one with Christ.

And he is completely dedicated to the Mass of all Time as is the church where he celebrates Mass.

The air is not defiled by echoes of guitars and tambourines, there has never been any inane pre Mass chatter in the church, no one has ever walked across the path of the tabernacle and bowed instead of genuflecting.

No lay person has ever laid hands on the Blessed Sacrament, the ambience evokes totally the hermeneutic of continuity; when you attend Mass there you are back in the time of Christ. The basic elements of the liturgy that materialised over the first three or four hundred years of Christianity are palpable - Christ lives, God is present!

That is one reason why we so badly need the SSPX back within the fold. They provide the gold standard against which, others may set their benchmark.

When the continuity of tradition has been fractured, and to a large degree lost, it is invaluable to be able to take that missing gem and restore it to its rightful place in the crown that is Christ's.

A Mass untainted by modernism

The man in the Vatican who never sleeps....

.....perchance to have nightmares. He walks around St Peter's always looking into the distance but, at the same time, alert for any untoward movement within closer range.

 He never scowls, neither does he smile very often. He is impassive; he commands his team with a stare.

Even Swiss Guard officers quail before his advance.

He looks and is powerful in a physical and mental sense; he has the hopes and fears of 1.2 billion Catholics on his shoulders; one slip, one split second's loss of concentration and he could fail in his prime role.

He works long hours, he travels across time zones but cannot afford the luxury of jet lag, neither can he relax with a lunch time Punt e Mes.

Nothing phases this man but his mind is constantly in overdrive, always expecting the unexpected.

Who is he?

Domenico Giani, Inspector General of the Corpa della Gendarmeria at the Vatican, Head of the Holy Father's personal security team and whose only reward is his salary and his loyalty and affection for Pope Benedict - and ulcers!

Besides the Pope Domenico Giani is the most
photographed man in Rome

Pray for Pope Benedict to celebrate the EF Mass

In this month of the Feast of the Assumption please join the prayer petition by the act of consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary asking for her intercession for the Holy Father to celebrate, in public, the Tridentine Latin Mass.

A good date would be the Feast of the Holy Cross, 14th September and the anniversary of Summorum Pontificum....but really any time soon would be good.

Here is the petition, please pass it to other bloggers and feature it on your blog.......

Act of Consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary

O Mary, Virgin most powerful and Mother of mercy, Queen of Heaven and Refuge of sinners, we consecrate ourselves to thine immaculate heart.

We consecrate to thee our very being and our whole life; all that we have, all that we love, all that we are. To thee we give our bodies, our hearts, and our souls; to thee we give our homes, our families, our country. We desire that all that is in us and around us may belong to thee, and may share in the benefits of thy motherly benediction. And that this act of consecration may be truly efficacious and lasting, we renew this day at thy feet the promises of our Baptism and our first Holy Communion. We pledge ourselves to profess courageously and at all times the truths of our holy Faith, and to live as befits Catholics who are duly submissive to all the directions of the Pope and the Bishops in communions with him. We pledge ourselves to keep the commandments of God and His Church, in particular to keep holy the Lord's Day. We likewise pledge ourselves to make the consoling practices of the Christian religion, and above all, Holy Communion, an integral part of our lives, insofar as we shall be able so to do. Finally, we promise thee, O glorious Mother of God and loving Mother of men, to devote ourselves wholeheartedly to the service of thy blessed cult, in order to hasten and assure, through the sovereignty of thine immaculate heart, the coming of the kingdom of the Sacred Heart of thine adorable Son, in our own hearts and in those of all men, in our country and in all the world, as in heaven, so on earth. Amen.

A DOUBLE CELEBRATION!

60 years ago today, the Feast of St Peter and St Paul and the ordination, in Germany, of a young man, Joseph Ratzinger, later, much later, Cardinal Ratzinger and, finally, Vicar of Rome, Successor to St Peter, Pope Benedict XVI.


Here is some grainy footage of his ordination at Freising Cathedral on 29th June 1951, young Father Ratzinger may be seen by the sharp eyed during the reception of the sacrament of Holy Orders but is very clearly visible after five minutes as the priests process from the Cathedral.

                               Ss Peter & Paul Ora pro nobis!  

                          AD MULTO ANNOS SANCTE PATER!

Please note: Since writing this post I see that A Reluctant Sinner has an excellent piece covering the ordination to be seen here
And many thanks to Caroline Whatley for the link

BROTHER HORSE - REMIND YOU OF ANYONE?



Photo: BBC
Brother Horse "His look was turned towards God"


Some readers have been kind enough to comment on my first post about The Animals of St Gregory by Brian (Brendan) O'Malley. They have picked up on animal characteristics that either they or those close to them have observed but, in almost every case, the character alluded to is a human or animal trait whereas, what St Gregory and Brendan O'Malley have in mind are spiritual marks that may also be associated with an animal.

So, today I have selected Brother Horse for a little closer scrutiny and it would be interesting to see if you agree with my identification of  the living person who closely resembles O'Malley's assessment. Here is a precis of his character.

Brother Horse, above all else, is an animal who with every ounce of his body and soul has surrendered himself to God and become totally absorbed in God's love as a result.
He is, of course, beautifully proportioned 'with supple, rippling muscles and a high prancing action' (keep thinking spiritual, not temporal).

Through the medium of prayer and meditation he knows his innermost self well and is able to rein in any earthly tendencies towards sin by chastity and continence.
These gird him well and he is, as a result, able to enter any arena without fear. He responds to the 'hidden word' of his Master and is confident in his humility and charity so that he can cope calmly with the uproar that often surrounds him.

O'Malley writes: "The immediate fruit of the horse's prayer was tranquillity gained through constant attention to the presence of God. His pasture was prayer, the nourishment and inward refreshment of his soul. He gazed on lofty heights gained through travelling long in the valley of tears".

As Brother Horse draws ever closer to God so his white body becomes more luminous, brilliant with the light of righteousness and the burning fire of chastity. Truly, he is the very essence of goodness and authority.
Through prayer and mortification he is able to accomodate a series of hurdles and, at the same time, place all his energy into one concerted leap
 '..through being co-centred with Christ into Being itself'.

The book, The Animals of St Gregory by Brian O'Malley is beautifully illustrated with exceptional wood engravings by Simon Brett.

Click on the Lions Head for his website.

Oh, and the person whom I most closely associate Brother Horse with is, of course, The Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI - but then you knew that already!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY HOLY FATHER!

Wass?

Wirklich?

Sie bedouten...



Sie scherzen!







Was heute?

                           

Fantastische!

AD MULTOS ANNOS SANCTE PATER!

         Grateful ackowledgments to Babelfish!

Welcome to Archbishop Mennini, Papal Nuncio

                                                       

The new Papal Nuncio, Archbishop Antonio Mennini, has been received by HM The Queen and met with Archbishop Vincent Nichols. He is warmly welcomed to Great Britain and I wish him God's grace in the work that lies before him.

We do know, of course, that some of us (at least) are far from impressed with the performance of the English and Welsh Bishops. In fact, it would be quite hard to imagine a worse scenario of disarray; few vocations (and the good applicants all turned away), Priests totally demoralised due to lack of leadership and an abysmal surrender to the secular forces, the laity, for the most part woefully ignorant of anything coming out of Rome (most will not have heard of the Motu Proprio) and Catholic Schools bullied and badgered for some highly dubious motives.

Come, Holy Ghost, Creator come, to Thy bright heavenly throne. Come take possession of our souls and make them all Thine own.

We need to say that prayer (or sing it) right now. Our Bishops may be failing us but they still are in dire need of our prayers. If prayer can move moutains it can surely bring the graces of the Holy Spirit down upon the Bishops to enlighten and embolden them so that they shine out as beacons of Christ's Faith.

Now, it would be a good and proper thing for Catholics to write a few words of welcome to His Grace and, if the mood takes you, to add a few words as to your perceived state of the Church in E & W today. It is vital that ++ Mennini is made aware of the temperature of the Faith today and is not sucked in to believing all the sound bites that are going to be posted in his direction by the magic circlers.

Here is his address:

Archbishop A Mennini
Papal Nunciate
54 Parkside
Wimbledon
London
SE19 5NE

10,000 SIGN PETITION FOR THE EF MASS!

Picture: Daily Telegraph

H/T to Holy Smoke for the update on progress of the petition designed to make Rome aware of Traditionalist concerns that the EF Mass developments as a result of Summorum Pontificum are about to be tampered with.

I am not so certain that the Holy Father is likely to try and put the toothpaste back in the tube, although the darker forces within the Vatican are capable of who knows what?

But I've signed the petition on the basis of better safe than sorry.

However, the best form of petition as we all know, is prayer...and then...more prayer!

So here is a prayer that may be added after saying the Rosary:

Prayers for the Holy Father

V. Let us pray for our Pontiff, Pope Benedict.
R. The Lord preserve him, and give him life, and make him to be blessed upon the earth, and deliver him not up to the will of his enemies

Our Father. Hail Mary.

Let us pray.
Almighty and everlasting God, have mercy upon Thy servant, Benedict, our Supreme Pontiff, and direct him, according to Thy loving-kindness, in the way of eternal salvation; that, of thy gift, he may ever desire that which is pleasing unto thee and may accomplish it with all his might. Through Christ Our Lord. Amen.
(From the old Raccolta: An indulgence of three years, a plenary indulgence once a month on the usual conditions, for the daily devout recitation of this prayer

Is your Parish loyal to Pope Benedict XVI?

I have a disturbing habit of rummaging through old press cuttings just to remind myself how far we have come (or not, as the case may be) over the last twenty years or so. That is approximately when I started my collection of articles and cuttings; in those days the press was full of headlines such as "Rebel Archbishop" meaning ++ Lefebvre and also "the outlawed Mass" meaning the EF Mass.

But today I only returned in my time machine to the year 2006, just months into the reign of Pope Benedict XVI. He whom, when plain Cardinal Ratzinger, was dubbed "the only man more Catholic than the Pope".

My eyes fell on a cutting from The Daily Telegraph (the only British paper to consistently report fairly evenly on Catholic goings on over the past 25 years).
The journalist, Malcolm Moore, now the DT's man in Shanghai wrote a piece headed:

"Silence modern music in church, says Pope". Here is an introductory extract:

The Pope has demanded an end to electric guitars and modern music in church and a return to traditional choirs.

The Catholic Church has been experimenting with new ways of holding Mass to try to attract more people. The recital of Mass set to guitars has grown in popularity in Italy; in Spain it has been set to flamenco music; and in the United States the Electric Prunes produced a "psychedelic" album called Mass in F Minor.

The guitar is an instrument of the
streets and should remain there

However, the use of guitars and tambourines has irritated the Pope, who loves classical music. "It is possible to modernise holy music," the Pope said, at a concert conducted by Domenico Bartolucci the director of music at the Sistine Chapel. "But it should not happen outside the
traditional path of Gregorian chants or sacred polyphonic choral music."


I am not particularly au fait with the goings on at new Masses these days so I'm more than happy to be corrected but, is that not a guitar I see before me, coming out of church after the 10am Mass? And, do my eyes deceive me or are those round things not tambourines? Aaaagh! not tambourines! And, yet again, some primary school aged children clutching the devil's own instrument, the recorder!!!! Help! Plus ca change methinks.
Nothing has changed. The Holy Father's "demands" are ignored by Bishops, Priests and laity alike. How can that be? They are all good Catholics aren't they?
No, they are not! Anyone who ignores the teachings of the Holy Father places his or her immortal soul in peril.



Das ist verboten!



Meanwhile, those pew warmers, those parish councillors, those mindless masses, sit happily absorbing music that has not progressed much further than Kum-bay-yah.



Oh, I am being judgmental, I know but we all are obliged by an unspoken vow of obedience and it does fire me up when faced with a bland and fatuous congregation who accept willy nilly, the froth that is put in front of them.

Are they incapable of seeing that what they do is actually wrong? Not just misguided, wrong! Time they were given the Byrd!

Holy Father "sacks" Bishop - Could it happen here (please God)

Last Papist Standing has a good report of a certain Bishop Ricard who has consistently and vehemently denied the orthodox faithful in his Diocese and has done a great deal to suppress Summorum Pontificum and the celebration of the Extraordinary form of Mass.

I will only post a short extract as Robert Kumpel deserves a great deal of credit for a good report....here it is.....

"According to the same trusted sources, Bishop Ricard will probably resign under the pretext of ill-health. Ricard suffered a stroke in December 2009, and although he has been recuperating he is reported to be "not fully himself," and to have relinquished all substantive governance of the Diocese to curial bureaucrats. However, these same sources insist that Ricard (who at 69 years of age is a good five to six years away from the mandatory and typical retirement age) did not wish to resign, and desired to hold the reins of ecclesiastical power for as long as he could; Pope Benedict had demanded his resignation in response to several disturbing matters relating to episcopal maladministration that have come to the Vatican's attention.

The way the Catholic liturgy is celebrated in the Diocese reportedly leaves much to be desired, with nearly all of the clergy (Ricard included) strongly opposed to any and all manifestations of traditional liturgical expression, and overtly hostile to the Catholic liturgical "reform of the reform" promoted by the current Pope, including the revival of the traditional Latin (i.e., "Tridentine") Mass and the reform of the normative Mass (the so-called "Novus Ordo") in a way that brings it closer, in appearance and in ambiance, to the way Catholics have historically worshipped. (Liturgical abuse and banality are the norm: in one widely-publicized incident, a pastor in Dentin interrupted the Mass to promote his favorite brand of dog shampoo, while during the liturgy he left his pet canine free to roam the nave, and presumably the sanctuary.)"
There is a parish not far from me where the priest's labrador wanders at will across the sanctuary - maybe the end is in sight.

Most encouraging of all is the allegation that Pope Benedict has 'compelled' this Bishop to resign.......when will Archbishop Mennini arrive? I'll bet his in tray is full already.

Read Robert's piece and go to bed a happy Catholic!
(unless you're a Bishop of E & W) God bless our Pope!