+ In Hoc Signo Vinces +

Mujahedeejit

2012-02-02T00:33:00.004Z

Apparently the Irish actor Liam Neeson is considering converting to Islam. Neeson was born in Ballymenaand raised in a devout Catholic family.

'The call to prayer happens five times a day, and for the first week,
it drives you crazy, and then it just gets into your spirit, and it's the most beautiful, beautiful thing,' he said.

So you never heard the Angelus rung at home? Or the bells in a French or an Italian town?

One must be charitable. The poor man lost his wife in a skiing accident a couple of years ago and I'm sure that does funny things to your head, but then again he's been coming out with all sorts of nonsense for a while, saying of Aslan:

"Aslan symbolises a Christlike figure, but he also symbolises for me
Mohammed, Buddha and all the great spiritual leaders and prophets over the centuries."

Which is not how CS Lewis saw Aslan. As he wrote ina letter in 1958:

“What might Christ become like, if there really were a world like Narnia and He chose to be incarnate and die and rise again in that world as He actually has done in ours?”

The aesthetics of the Mohammedan call to prayer, is one thing, but if Neeson walks the walk and makes his shahada, what of it.? Well, it's apostasy. He trades in the Living God, the Trinity, Father-Son-And-Holy-Ghost, a Saviour, Jesus Christ, Word-made-flesh, the infallible word of God and an unbroken line of tradition to the Apostles and the promise of Eternal Life for a false god (the moon-god Mohammed turned into Allah, is not the God of Israel, Isaac and Jacob) for an intemperate, incontinent warlord and for the Koran, the ravings of a madman and a false gospel.

And he risks his immortal soul in knowingly swallowing such falsehood.

Sorry to put it so starkly but he would trade the Truth for a lie.

Pray for him.

On foul-mouthed abuse

2012-01-28T04:19:00.006Z

My last post, gently asking a question of those homosexuals and their supporters who push the idea of same-sex unions on an equal footing with traditional marriage, elicited a single Anglo-Saxon word in capitals, generally ackowledged to be the most offensive in the English language. Until recently. it was not uttered at all in polite society, but has found its way into use in general parlance, on the alternative 'comedy' circuit and in areas of the internet. Ironically, I am aware of its use in Britsh radio broadcasting for the first time last year through the mouth of Sandi Toksvig, an advocate of same-sex unions. Coincidence?

If the user was trying to shock me, think again. I've played rugby at school and university. I've stood on football terraces in Leeds, Bristol and the hallowed East End of Glasgow. I have worked in some of the roughest A&E units in England and Scotland at all hours of the day and night. I've heard worse, especially from the mentally ill.

It merely confirms in my mind that advocates of same-sex unions are incapable of debating public policy rationally without resorting to scatological abuse.

Ooh-ooh-ooh! I wanna be like you-ooh-ooh!

2012-01-25T22:08:00.003Z

Given that the professional homosexual lobby puts so much effort (and public money) into proclaiming how different they are, how do they square that with now wanting to be just like the rest of us?

Just asking.

Ecumenism and Two Way Streets

2012-01-15T06:17:00.001Z

I'm sure many of you have heard Were You There When They Crucified My Lord? sung by a bunch of whiteys in a leafy, suburban parish on Good Friday. Yes, it made be tremble, tremble, TREEEEMMMMBBBBLE, too. I'm sure many of you, like me, have had that unpleasant feeling up the back of your neck when you see a band set-up (with amps and mikes) in or near the sanctuary when visiting an unfamiliar parish (even worse if they have an overhead projector) ready for the opening Worship Song.

I may be wrong here, but does anyone know if black churches in the Deep South (or Brixton or Chapeltown for that matter) ever sing plainchant? Or if they ever sing Byrd's Mass for Five Voices in happy-clappy evangelical churches?

No, thought not.

On appropriate headgear for ladies at Solemn Mass

2012-01-13T17:36:00.007Z

I liked the fact that the NLM featured (as a good example of liturgy in the OF) the First Mass of Christmas from St George's Cathedral, Southwark as it was featured on the BBC. It really was very good - plainchant, a dignified celebration according to the rubrics, the good Dr Macmillan's motet.

I couldn't help but notice this in the first few minutes of the broadcast. This single shot shows conflicting styles of wear for Mass - the traditional mantilla and the Santa Hat.

Now it is easy to get upset about this, when it might appear to be trifling. I suppose the important thing is that one is at Mass. My father used to attend 6am Mass in a bricklayer's overalls and I am sure the Lord was pleased with this. I have heard Mass in a hospital chapel wearing surgical blues when on-call. I'm not averse to wearing jeans and a hoodie if that is what I have on that day. To an extent, Catholics in the UK have been a bit less into 'dressing up for Church' in the way that their separated brethren might have been.

I guess for ladies, fashion matters. The tradition that women should have their heads covered during the Liturgy in Church is venerable, stretching back to apostolic times and abandoned, some might say rashly (as with so much else), a mere 40 years ago.

Now, I suppose men have it easy here. My boys like wearing hats (beanies, woolly hats, furry hats with earflaps at the moment in Canada and baseball caps).Both my boys know that at in Holy Places and on Solemn Occasions they should take them off (though they sometimes need a gentle reminder at the Church door). At the 2 minute's silence at Murrayfield on Remembrance Day a couple of years ago, they took off their hats. At hockey games and CFL games here, the announcer reminds fans to remove their caps for the singing of 'O, Canada!' and this is universally followed. Heck, most guys know to take off a hat when eating in a restaurant.

So the deliberate choice of a Santa Hat for Solemn Mass seems a little, erm, kooky to say the least.

Discuss.

The Pitfalls of Actuosa Participatio

2012-01-12T01:45:00.001Z

Faith and courage under fire

2012-01-07T07:33:00.003Z

Major (later Colonel) Julian Cook, U.S. 82nd Airborne Division.

The major, a devout Catholic was also praying out loud. Lieutenant Virgil Carmichael noticed that he had developed a kind of cadence with each line. "Hail Mary - full of grace. Hail Mary - full of grace", Cook chanted with every stroke of the paddle. Then in the midst of the confusion, the Germans opened up.
-Cornelius Ryan, A Bridge Too Far, p388

Merry Christmas, Mr Potter!

2011-12-24T08:17:00.001Z

The yoke of his burden

2011-12-24T00:21:00.005Z

For the yoke of his burden and the staff for his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, thou hast broken as on the day of Midian.

-Isaiah 9: 4 (From the First Reading for Midnight Mass, OF)

A priest friend emails his news. After months of being unable to celebrate the sacraments publically, he has been given a clean bill of health by his diocesan safeguarding committee after an investigation into (what turned out to be malicious) allegations about 'inappropriate behaviour' with a junior cleric.

When the allegation first came out, a friend who had been taught by said priest 30 years ago texted:

"If the allegation is the usual one levelled against the clergy, it is the most disgusting fabrication I have ever heard"

Thus it proved to be.

So he is cleared, but shunned by some former colleagues and facing an uncertain future in his 70s. Having travelled across Europe with him when I was a student, I could have told them he was a most unlikely candidate to lead young men astray. But such is the tenor of the times that such allegations are not merely taken seriously (when they are, as in this case, laughable) but that the presumption of innocence is turned upside down and an innocent (if naive) priest is cast out and tainted.

Why does the Church get it so hopelessly wrong at times? In the midst of the sexual chaos of the 60s/70s, known predatory paedophiles were shuffled around, allowing them to wreak havoc and molest children in pastures new. Now a ludicrous allegation is taken seriously and an investigation which could have taken minutes to sort out using common sense and a few deftly asked questions becomes dragged out over months by a bunch of curial bureaucrats.

My friend has borne his ordeal with admirable good humour, knowing the accusations to be untrue. But it has been mortifying to see his reputation and good name dragged through the mud.

Please pray for him.

Thy years shall not fail

2011-12-20T07:42:00.006Z

Peter Hitchens explains what Christmas means for him as a Prayer Book- traditionalist Anglican:

So for me the season is one of darkness illuminated with carols sung by lamplight, the sun low in the sky, and a promise, never entirely fulfilled on the day itself, of something wonderful to come. That sticks, when all else falls away.

It is only more recently, when it has become (as it wasn’t in my childhood home , though we got plenty of religion at school) an occasion for churchgoing that I have been captivated by the extraordinary, disturbing beauty of the Collect, Epistle and Gospel for ‘the Birth-day of Christ, commonly called Christmas Day’ as prescribed in the Church of England’s 1662 Book of Common Prayer. If you are really fortunate, you may be able to find a church where these passages are read at midnight on Christmas Eve. Listen carefully, if you do. It may not be long before this lovely ceremony is entirely stamped out by modernising fanatics. You could be one of the last to hear it.

The Gospel is the soaring, fiery declaration from the opening of St John’s Gospel – ending with ‘and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of his father, full of grace and truth’.

But the Epistle, that of St Paul to the Hebrews, borrows from something much older, the 102nd Psalm, when it draws itself up at the end to declare this promise :’And Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth; and the heavens are the works of Thine hands. They shall perish: but Thou remainest; and they all shall wax old as doth a garment: and as a vesture shalt Thou fold them up , and they shall be changed: but Thou art the same, and Thy years shall not fail’.

This is why the Holy Father has been so far-sighted, such a good shepherd, so open-hearted in wanting to welcome into the bosom of the Church those who hold fast to this patrimony.

Presumably Luke..

2011-12-08T07:02:00.001Z

...now says "And with your spirit"

Please, someone buy them...

2011-12-07T21:44:00.003Z

...if only to burn them.

The usually reliable Luzar Vestments is selling them for 175 GBP.

Curiously they have maniples going with them.

Mindboggling.

[Medical warning: the ophrey may induce migraines/epilepsy]

99%

2011-12-03T12:19:00.001Z

Listening to the commentariat imply that because one claims that one is part of a 99% majority, one should have one's way. surely implies that the BBC, The Guardian the LibDems etc will surely be putting all their efforts into stopping the proposals for 'gay marriage' (an oxymoron if ever there was one) in Scotland.

After all, gays comprise only 1% of the population, don't they?

Listen up: NO MORE EAGLE'S WINGS. OK?

2011-12-02T20:15:00.004Z

New Translation #2: Licit?

2011-12-01T00:05:00.001Z

Some parishes are threatening not to use the New English Translation of the Missal, such as this fellow in Australia.

Is Mass celebrated using the old Missal licit?

[Heh, heh. It feels good calling it the Old Missal. Do the hippies feel like recusants now?]

New Translation #1: Non sum dignus

2011-11-29T22:54:00.006Z

The New Translation came into use on Sunday in Canada (and the rest of North America). My kids didn't like the change, but then I guess they don't like any change (any more than they like me changing the things I cook for them).

Most striking for me immediately was the Domine non sum dignus. A couple of years ago I attended an EF Missa Cantata at St Mungo's in Glasgow. The power of the original (and the weakness of the new translation) impressed itself upon me and there after I would repeat the Latin three times before Communion as a private devotion.

We are used to saying ‘Lord I am not worthy to receive you’ ... This changed to: ‘Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof, but only say the word and my soul shall be healed’. This is almost exactly what the Roman Centurion said when he came and begged Jesus to heal his servant. When Jesus says he will come to the Centurion’s house, the man knows that Jesus doesn’t need to do that, that just his word will be enough. The Centurion says: ‘Lord I am not worthy to have you come under my roof, but only say the word and my servant will be healed’. Our new reply changes only one word of the Centurion’s speech - my servant became my soul will be healed.

I am becoming more and more cross at the 1970 translation. I've used it for 40 years of my life. I feel short-changed by it. It treated us, the laity, like a bunch of dumbass kindergarten kids who couldn't possibly spot a literary allusion. I also dislike the fact that they felt they knew better than the Holy See what the words of Mass should be. Who the heck did they think they were? And why did the Bishops' Conferences let them get away with? Not trained liturgists, probably.

Interestingly, the incident was the Gospel reading for Mass yesterday:

When he entered Capernaum, a centurion came to him, appealing to him and saying, "Lord, my servant is lying at home paralyzed, in terrible distress." And he said to him, "I will come and cure him." The centurion answered, "Lord, I am not worthy to have you come under my roof; but only speak the word, and my servant will be healed. For I also am a man under authority, with soldiers under me; and I say to one, 'Go,' and he goes, and to another, 'Come,' and he comes, and to my slave, 'Do this,' and the slave does it." When Jesus heard him, he was amazed and said to those who followed him, "Truly I tell you, in no one in Israel have I found such faith. I tell you, many will come from east and west and will eat with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, while the heirs of the kingdom will be thrown into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth." And to the centurion Jesus said, "Go; let it be done for you according to your faith." And the servant was healed in that hour.

My youngest has not been well recently but is getting better. It has been a worrying time with more visits to hospital etc. This reading has given me so much comfort.

Would that I had the faith of the Centurion.

Occupy London FAIL!

2011-11-09T21:42:00.004Z

Yeah, man. Those greedy multinational corporations, man. Down with 'em. Oh, yeah, er, a decaff caramel latte with some marshmallows on the top.

H/T Prison Planet

They'll know we are Christians by our love....

2011-11-08T18:49:00.003Z

Sad to hear that Ttony has hung up his mouse. Amazing the vitriol that comes from one commenter:

James P talking shi*e as usual. Truth is, one less traddie blog on the Internet is no bad thing! You will not be missed. The damage and insult you have caused to good Catholics in this country is beyond measurable.Go, don't hang about to be applauded by the sick freaks who follow you.What a bunch of absolute losers they are! Traditional Catholic blogger's are worse than Nazi's and just as destructive. They hate this church with a vengeance. The Guild are the worst of all. Ministered to by the His hermeneutic, who's ego is so big he needs to be followed around by his own personal phonographer in the guise of the weird Mulier Fortis, she of the 'monitor my cat poo blog'. Then of course we have the Taliban Catholics, Paul Priest, the best Canon Lawyer in the world, but he works in Asda . James Preece who's little girl was in hospital but he carried on blogging , after all sticking it to The Magic Circle is far more importantthan family. Man like that does not deserve children.Can't leave out the old Mossie bidie in France, another nutter! And we should not forget the fat Pharisee Reluctant Sinner who leads a double life. Subs Manager for Oremus by day, out cruising with his copy of the pink paper in his sticky little hand by dark. Oh yes, these are the people who should head this church, these really are the ones to show us the light, lead on Admiral we will follow, we will worship at your alter, not in a million years my friend.

How does that song go? Oh they'll know we are Christians by our love, by our love, yes they'll know we are Christians by our love....

Pray for him/her

Hircorum et caprarum more

2011-11-04T20:14:00.007Z

Some co-workers and I have taken up the Movember challenge. So I have a month to grow a 'tache. It's to raise funds and awareness of prostate cancer. Prostate cancer doesn't get the kind of attention AIDS used to get and breast cancer has had for some time. Old blokes aren't as glamorous as celebs with an affliction. Also, Catholic priests, it is supposed due to their celibacy, are at greater risk of this disease.

I've only ever had facial hair once before when as a student on elective in west Africa I ran out of razor blades. So far the facial hair is coming out as quite grey, which at my age should be no surprise, really. I can't decide on a Merv Hughes, a Freddie Mercury, a Tom Selleck or a Fu Manchu.

Are priests banned from moustaches? I understand they were frowned upon as inhibiting consuming the Precious Blood at Communion.The Catholic Encyclopaedia has a fascinating chapter on beards. It seems they may wear facial hair.The picture shows Bl John XXIII, I think when he was an army chaplain in WWI, with a 'tache.

I don't tend to trust priests with 'taches, which stems from one I knew who left and now lives with another chap. Fr Ronald Rolheiser OMI has a moustache. Hmmm. One of the Canadian bishops, Archbishop Smith of Edmonton has a 'tache.

V. suspicious.

Trouble ahead

2011-11-03T06:59:00.001Z

Looks like Mass on Sunday could be interesting.

Planned Disruption of Church Occupation Forces Postponement – Vancouver Group Names Provocateurs A Statement from Occupy the Vatican (Vancouver) and Indigenous members of Occupy Vancouver

Sunday, October 30, 2011 on sovereign ©Squamish / Skwxwú7mesh™ Government territory (“Vancouver, Canada”)
Today’s planned occupation of Holy Rosary Catholic Cathedral by our network has been postponed for one week because of our discovery of a plan by paid government provocateurs to incite violence at the event and bring discredit to our efforts and against Kevin Annett – Eagle Strong Voice.
Two of these provocateurs are paid agents of government-funded “Chief” Ed John of the collaborationist First Nations Summit. Their names are Frank Martin and Helen Michel, aka “Telquaa”.
Martin and Michel, assisted by undercover operatives, planned today to publicly condemn and malign Kevin Annett before the media, and incite occupiers to damage church property, causing the arrest of occupiers and the special detainment “for questioning” of Kevin Annett by police.
Our planned peaceful occupation of the Cathedral, and other Catholic church property, will proceed under strict security precautions next Sunday, November 6 at 10 am. This action will include the infiltration of our members into church services in several locations in Vancouver.
As the attached Notice of Eviction and Right of Entry describes, our occupation of this church has been authorized by Siyam ©Kiapilanoq/CAPILANO™ and by a Necessity Duty under Common Law caused by the murderous and genocidal actions of the Roman Catholic Church.

If our pastor wants a pair of hands ready to defend the Church with some muscular Christianity, I'm ready. Might take along my 'Justice For Isaasc Jogues' placard.

Occupy Shakedown

2011-11-02T07:28:00.001Z

So it begins.

There was a rather pathetic episode happened in Vancouver on Sunday. A group of ‘protestors’, decided to jump on the Occupy bandwagon and turned up at Holy Rosary Cathedral with the intention of disrputing Mass. Finding that hardly anyone had turned up (I think there were more Church ushers and cops than actual protestors) they went off to the Occupy Vancouver camp outside the Art Gallery. Even on a quiet Sunday morning with not much happening, they couldn’t drum up any support from the soapdodgers for their piece of street theatre, and so went back to the Cathedral. They shouted some slogans about Residential Schools (by no means a Catholic-only issue) and disappeared once they had got it out of their system.

Thankfully they didn’t disrupt Mass but I think the whole thing could be part of a more widespread anti-Catholic bandwagon thing, that could be jumped on in time. Lefties, after all, are not a above a bit of church burning and priest killing when the mood takes them.
See what comes up when you google 'Occupy the Vatican'

I notice they pick their targets. The also shouted about the Cathedral being on Squamish Land. If Holy Rosary is on Squamish land, then I'm pretty sure everywhere from Dunsmuir to the Waterfront is. Try going into Steamworks in the middle of a hockey game and shouting and bawling about the bar being built on their land and see the treatment you might get. The bum's rush and a swift kick up the arse might be the least you'd get for your trouble.

I was planning a counter-demonstration. Do you like my banner? After all, I searched in vain for an apology from the First Nations of North America for the appalling treatment of St Isaac Jogues and St John de Brebeuf and their companions. Historical apologies seem to be a one-way street.

I’m sick of these panhandlers, grievance-merchants and hustlers.

Ex ore infantium

2011-11-01T02:13:00.003Z

Eldest was boasting a bit at dinner on Sunday night, mostly about his sporting prowess. During a lull in his verbal vainglory, Paulinus Minor Minor pipes up:

“whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.”

Respect, young ‘un. You were listening.

Old chestnuts #94

2011-10-30T06:26:00.001Z

Honestly, if these guys could just marry, all this child abuse would never have happened.

Oh, wait...

We cannot have it all

2011-10-29T05:06:00.001+01:00

The wise Theodore Dalrymple on love and marriage:

At the root of the problem is our belief in the perfectibility of life, that it is possible in principle for all desiderata to be satisfied without remainder, and that anything less than perfection, including in relationships, not only is, but ought to be, rejected by us. We cannot accept that we might at some point have to forego the delirium of passion for the consolation of companionship, that Romeo and Juliet is fine as catharsis but not very realistic as a guide to married life at the age of 56. We cannot have it all.

Bastardi!

2011-10-28T07:35:00.001+01:00

Anyone who does this is evil. Simples.

Discipline

2011-10-27T19:27:00.002+01:00

My sister has had a difficult marital history and her current situation is, in the eyes of the Church, irregular. Yet she is very devout and a much better Christian than I will ever be. And despite being a reformed hippy, she sticks to the rules. She knows she may not receive Holy Communion until such a time that her marital status conforms to the mind of the Church (and therefore of Christ).

So I admire her forebearance given that when attending a service on Good Friday morning with her husband at their local Anglican Cathedral (he is an Anglican) which had an oecumenical element to it, she saw the Vicar General of her diocese in the north of England receiving the Anglican version of communion.

When senior clergy do not keep their own discipline with regard to the Eucharist and Holy Communion, is it any wonder the laity end up so lax?

What Would Che Wear?

2011-10-19T01:44:00.002+01:00

Via Cracked :

The Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate in Canada #1

2011-10-14T17:34:00.004+01:00

I was in Kelowna in the beautiful Okanagan Valley last weekend for the thanksgiving weekend. I did the BMO Okanagan Half Marathon. What was quite marked was the figure of Fr Pandosy, a Missionary Oblate of Mary Immaculate. There is a street named after him, his original mission has been preserved locally and a bronze statue of the man is planned for the city (it was the 150th anniversary of white settlement in the Valley). This was a priest who set up a modern city and evangelised the Native population.

There is a neat history HERE. Fr Pandosy strikes me as a remarkable man of many parts, perhaps a little eccentric and at times irascible in a rather unpriestly way. His legacy is remarkable - he recognised the fruitfulness of the Okanagan Valley and planted the first vines and orchards. The Okanagan Valley is now the prime producer of soft fruit in Canada and now a significant producer of wines (some a bit variable in quality, some very good).

What strikes one is the sheer poverty of the early mission:

Although an ordination was a solemn event, the vicissitudes of daily life in a Territorial stockade required improvisation. Father Ronald Young describes the scene in his Ph.D. dissertation on the Missionary Oblates:

“While attempting to maintain all the solemnity that the occasion required, but lacking some of the vestments, Brother Chirouse had to use one of Mr. McBean’s long nightshirt as an alb. [An alb is a long white robe worn by a priest at Mass.] As there had been no time to build any churches, they were ordained in the temporary residence of the Bishop. It was the same room that served as his chapel, refectory, recreation room, meeting hall, and dormitory” (p.75).

Similary the poverty was more than just symbolic and took its toll:

The bearded Pandosy was close to starving, his cassock was in tatters and he had been abandoned by all the natives. Although he had plenty of food, it became apparent that he was unable to take care of himself” (p. 93). Pandosy’s relations with the Indians had deteriorated to the point where one Walla Walla Indian threatened him with a knife during an argument. Chirouse nursed Pandosy back to health and in September 1849 took him to the Holy Cross Mission in the Yakima Valley.

Do read some of the links. I'll come back to the OMI's and their history, especially in Western Canada as there are some remarkable figures.

The order has a personal link to me in that I grew up in an Oblate parish. I'll cover, too, my thoughts about where the Oblates have gone awry.

When a penitential rite becomes psychobabble.

2011-10-03T03:47:00.003+01:00

From Mass yesterday:

Priest: "For the times when our affectivity causes pain and hurt for others - Lord have mercy"
People: "What the...?"

That's why you say the black, and nothing but the black; do the red and nothing but the red.

How we see the world. Apparently.

2011-09-30T18:22:00.004+01:00

I did like Fr Ray's Europe According To The Greeks. There is a whole series of these including Europe According To The Vatican. [H/T to the designer, alphadesigner]

Who is it that struck you?

2011-09-28T18:13:00.005+01:00

You will have heard about Fr Ray Blake's troubles at the hands of the Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement. I might add that this organisation are recipients of public largesse via the Charity Commission who might be interested in their cyber-bullying. Fr Ray illustrated the tale with the picture above from a confrontation at WYD this year. Then is struck me where I had seen that pose before.

There is nothing new under the sun.

God bless Fr Ray. He is in my prayers and yours, too, I am sure.

Spiritual reading for 10-12 year olds

2011-09-12T06:32:00.001+01:00

I have gone through the excellent Credo book with my boys as part of their ongoing catechesis at home.

Does anyone have any suggestions for spiritual works suitable for 10-12 year old boys that we could make use of in our home catechesis?

Suicide is not painless

2011-09-10T07:14:00.002+01:00

From the Catechism:
Suicide

2280 Everyone is responsible for his life before God who has given it to him. It is God who remains the sovereign Master of life. We are obliged to accept life gratefully and preserve it for his honor and the salvation of our souls. We are stewards, not owners, of the life God has entrusted to us. It is not ours to dispose of.

2281 Suicide contradicts the natural inclination of the human being to preserve and perpetuate his life. It is gravely contrary to the just love of self. It likewise offends love of neighbor because it unjustly breaks the ties of solidarity with family, nation, and other human societies to which we continue to have obligations. Suicide is contrary to love for the living God.

2282 If suicide is committed with the intention of setting an example, especially to the young, it also takes on the gravity of scandal. Voluntary co-operation in suicide is contrary to the moral law.

Grave psychological disturbances, anguish, or grave fear of hardship, suffering, or torture can diminish the responsibility of the one committing suicide.

2283 We should not despair of the eternal salvation of persons who have taken their own lives. By ways known to him alone, God can provide the opportunity for salutary repentance. The Church prays for persons who have taken their own lives.

Those of you who are old enough will remember the theme tune to the series M*A*S*H. At the time I thought nothing of it but the words have haunted me for twenty years now and have come into sharp focus in recent days. The father of a friend of my youngest son has committed suicide back home. He leaves two young children and a wife and a mother and a wider family. God grant him some peace and mercy and his family some consolation in their grief.

The theme tune to M*A*S*H includes the words:

Through early morning fog I see
visions of the things to be
the pains that are withheld for me
I realize and I can see...
that suicide is painless
It brings on many changes
And I can take or leave them if I please

Only suicide is not painless. It is not painless for the one committing it. I can only guess the despair that is required to bring about the end of one's life, especially in a violent manner. It certainly is not painless because it destroys families. It leaves a stain of guilt that never goes away, whatever the circumstances, a feeling of rejection, a sense of shame that one didn't do more and a loneliness and regret at the joy that the one who commits suicide has missed the blessings and pains of life and of the hours that could have been spent in their company in love and fellowship.

I know this because my brother killed himself nearly twenty years ago. As is so often the case he seemed to be getting over a bout of depression and was well supported by us, his family (I was phoning him daily from the other end of the country) and he was being seen regularly by the CPNs who were reporting the upturn in mood we thought we could see. He had gotten into financial difficulties that had put a strain on his married life.

Yet after going out for a lonely curry in his favourite restaurant he drove off into the night and killed himself alone in a country lane. I'm pretty sure it led to my mother's untimely death two years later. I was at home the weekend he killed himself and I can still hear the sound of my father sobbing alone in the bathroom every morning for the time I was there.

This appeared in one of the Canadian papers last week. Astounding. Over three thousand families in Canada dealing with this year on year. Countless friends and neighbours affected.

I am grateful for the fact that we able to give my brother a funeral in a Catholic Church, and the pastoral concern of those who cared for us - priests, religious and lay - will live with me until the day I die. God bless them for their kindness and courage (others crossed the street, literally, to avoid us). But the Church is right to maintain that suicide is gravely wrong and risks our immortal souls. The experience of suicide close to home has galvanised my own conviction of how utterly wrong and corrosive it is. We must do all we can to set our faces against such a grave wrong, however it disguises itself, whilst maintaining love and compassion for the despairing and their families left behind.

How pantsuits and apartments nearly destroyed religious life

2011-09-09T17:47:00.008+01:00

The wife of a patient of mine was a nun for some years in North America. The couple, as you might expect, are very devout. Her husband is dying and we spoke in the kitchen about their lives. I was surprised when she said she had been a religious for over a decade. Why did she leave?

"Oh, doctor, it was the 1970s, and they started telling us to ditch our habits and dress in our own clothes and move into apartments. I said 'I joined for community and the Eucharist and prayer in choir. Where has all that gone?'. But they didn't listen and I thought, I'm no different from any other lay woman. So I left. If it was like it was when I joined, I'd go back tomorrow. And do you know what, doctor? The orders thriving now are the ones with the habit and traditional religious life"

Indeed.

How to distribute Holy Communion in the Archdiocese of Glasgow.

2011-09-02T06:27:00.002+01:00

Pope Benedict gives a practical demonstration, 16th September 2010. That would be kneeling and on the tongue, Your Grace

Tendencies

2011-09-01T02:02:00.005+01:00

A commenter called 'Fr Ronan Kilgannon' pulls me up on my post about Eucharistic Prayer 2:

With due respect, what do you think is meant 'the church throughout the world' - if not all the faithful? He the prayer is moving from the General - all the disciples of our Lord in His Church - to the particular - pope, bishops and clergy who are called to minister. Are you owning up to a pre-Vatican Council tendency to us the word 'church' to refer only to its ministers. Shame on you.

Let's go through that in a Zuhlsdorf-stylee:

With due respect, [well, you know what's coming next...] what do you think is meant 'the church throughout the world' - if not all the faithful? [Got that, or are you calling me stupid?] He [sic] the prayer is moving from the General - all the disciples of our Lord in His Church - to the particular - pope, bishops and clergy who are called to minister. [Well yes, but I am comparing EP2 and the Roman Canon. Unless you missed it the Roman Canon also moves from the general to the particular, but is inclusive enough to mention all orthodox, Catholic Christians, rather than just the clergy, which would seem to fly in the face of your argument.] Are you owning up to a pre-Vatican Council tendency to us the word 'church' to refer only to its ministers. [owning up to a pre-Vatican Council tendency? What the heck is that supposed to mean? This is my blog. I'll have whatever tendencies, I like, thank you very much.My parents having been raised in the 1920s and 1930 had some pre-Vat 2 tendencies. They were better Christians than me and on the evidence of this comment, you too. What kind of Stalinism is this? 'Tendencies', indeed!] Shame on you. [No, Father, shame on you. Shame on you for having the bad grace to come onto someone else's blog, putting an argument that flies in the face of the facts and then crying 'Shame!'. I've seen this Loftusesque behaviour from post-Vat 2 clergy before and it reeks of clericalism. The very clericalism Traddie clergy are accused of. Indeed, the 'pre-Vatican Council tendency' clergy I know who blog tend very much to be reasonable people who can hold their own in an argument without accusing others of any sort of 'tendency']

Rioting and The Sound Of Silence

2011-08-13T06:49:00.003+01:00

Professor Richard Dawkins is a man who never lets an event pass without comment, usually blaming religion for anything bad that happens. We have had six days of riots in the UK; Parliament recalled; MPs returning from holidays; police leave cancelled, 24 hour new coverage; the commentariat in overdrive from Right, Left and Centre to explain it all in terms of their particular worldview. It made the front pages of most Canadian broadsheets and was the most prominent story of national TV news for three consecutive days .

Yet not a peep from the eloquent and opinionated Professor Dawkins. A man with such moral courage that he could rouse himself to the streets to protest the arrival of a gentle theologian who currently holds the office of Bishop of Rome, yet not a word on riots or rioting.

Try googling it. Try any search engine you like. Zip. Nothing. Nil. Nada. Silence.

Curious, no?

The Catholic Church as British Rail ca 1974. Discuss.

2011-08-08T02:17:00.006+01:00

In many ways I feel ashamed of this blog post. I live in a country where it is not illegal to practice the Faith, where I do not face persecution or even disapproval if I talk about the Faith in polite company. There are churches in abundance in the deanery and four Masses to cover my duty to attend within 400 yards of our house. I should be grateful but I'm fed up with it.

I'm fed up with bishops who didn't deal properly with paedophiles and others who invite dissenters against the teaching of the Church to speak in their cathedrals. I'm fed up with bishops who won't stand up for essentials of the Faith like the seal of the confessional.

I'm fed up with tawdry polyester vestments when there is no doubt a cupboard full of perfectly adequate or even beautiful preconcilar vestments somewhere about. I'm fed up with priests making it up as they go along when I know perfectly well what's written in the Missal. This is the worship of Almighty God, here, not a self-help seminar for neurotics.

I'm fed up with the fat choir mistress with her warbly voice singing at EVERY SINGLE SUNDAY MASS. I went to what I thought would be the nice quiet 8.30am and my heart sank when I saw her seated alone at her Yamaha piano, microphone poised at the ready. I'm fed up with the crappy sub-protestant cheesey 'worship-songs' she imposes on us. This was this morning's heap of horse manure:

And I, I'm desperate for you

Desperate. Yes, I know how you feel, matey. I'm Desperate Dan, me. Every Sunday morning.

All the aesthetic appeal of the music accompanying made for TV films that they show on Channel 5 in the afternoon.

I'm fed up with constant changing of the words of scripture so it fits with her psalm settings which are pitched so high and trilled so ornamentally that I can't join in, even if I wanted to. Actuosa participatio, eh? Not a chance.

I'm fed up with the crappy hymn books and their bowdlerised words. I searched through one and found about three that weren't written by Marty Haugen and his imitators. It was Faith Of Our Fathers. One verse went

Faith of our fathers, Mary’s prayers
Shall win our country back to Thee;
And through the truth that comes from God,
Mankind shall prosper and be free

As though Jean de Brebeuf died so that we could have a healthy GDP.

Even my 10 year old, who knows his Lady GaGa from his Beyonce came out disgusted when they had a group of spotty herberts in their teens banging drums and strumming guitars and crooning. "That was so cheesey" he said "I don't want to hear that at Church". Alienating 10-year olds. Nice one.

Sorry to witter on. I really don't want to go elsewhere. This should be my parish. I live here. It's supposed to be a Catholic Church - it says so on the front door. Why do they want me to go somewhere else.? There's one across town. They have an EF Low Mass on a Sunday morning and plainchant in Latin and English at the Sung OF Masses.

The Church is beginning to feel like Britsh Rail in the 1970s. Put up with the crap, because no-one else is going to take you. Stale sandwiches? Tough -that's all there is. Late service - hard lines, mate. That's just the way it is. Surly staff - like it or lump it.

The thing is I know it needn't be like this. I know there are priests out there who want a decent liturgy and are fed up with it. Priests who know the Faith and want to preach it in its fullness. I know they live in fear of Chancellors and other Curial bullies who would blight their lives. I just don't know what to do. The place feels like a desert on a Sunday morning and anyone who isn't a happy-clappy baby-boomer can p*** off.

There I've had my rant. Now have your say.

BC Day/Yorkshire Day

2011-08-01T06:12:00.001+01:00

It's BC Day here and we are on vacation (as they say in these parts) on Vancouver Island. It is also Yorkshire Day, so the flag of God's Own County flies outside our holiday home for the week. All this and Tim Bresnan has put the Indian cricketers to the sword.

Have a nice day, y'all.

Just guessing...

2011-07-18T01:58:00.003+01:00

...that Otto von Hapsburg didn't stipulate that 'Shine, Jesus, Shine' be sung at his Requiem Mass.

Oh, and a small point. Is the tide changing to such an extent that Cardinal Schonborn wore a pontifical dalmatic?

The Church of Misfits & Rejects

2011-07-17T08:05:00.002+01:00

Fr Finigan has pointed out before now that Catholic Churches are one of the few places one finds people with Down's Syndrome (everywhere else they tend to get aborted). But if you look around a Catholic parish there is a set of people you would not find in other places. Certainly not the dinner parties doctors get invited to in the suburbs.

There is the chap with a congenital condition which has lead to a developmental abnormality who wears his baseball cap the wrong way round and looks to have some sort of degenerative skin disorder. He is always enthusiastic at the kiss of peace. He's what my father would have called 'simple'. I glimpsed him when I walking to my seat after Communion last week. The intensity of his postcommunion devotions was striking and put my own limp efforts to shame.

In the past there was Tall Chris, now long dead, I suspect. Mercilessly bullied by kids in the street and called 'Frankenstein' - always at 7am Mass with his Mam and Dad (now long dead). There was the strange lady who always wore brown and wore a mantilla long after every other lady in the parish had stopped and had a pectoral cross the size of a bishop's. She was always muttering to herself. And the poor old Irish fella who had no family to speak of and was always at 8am Mass in front of us, the Macassar oil keeping his hair in place dripping down the back of his oversized stiff collars. And there's the working man who volunteers for everything and always has a rosary to hand and lives a blameless life but looks as though this might not always have been the case.

To the outside world, the cool kids, we are a freakshow. The people I mention above are how the world sees us, even the outwardly respectable doctors and accountants with our weird beliefs and inconvenient habits.

The people I mention above will be at higher places than me in the banquet of eternal life. I am, I suspect, not worthy to wipe their feet in the Kingdom.

What Is Wrong With People?

2011-07-04T01:29:00.002+01:00

Driving down the road the other day I saw a guy wearing the t shirt above. I don't know why I'm surprised given that wearing t shirts bearing the images of psychopathic killers has been fashionable in certain sections of society for about 40 years now. Interestingly enough there was a guy with an 'Ernesto' t shirt on the bus last night, but then again he was an apparently mentally ill, one-push-off-being-a -jakey/hobo kinda guy, which is forgivable I guess. But Charles Manson?

The Clericalism of Eucharistic Prayer 2

2011-06-22T21:40:00.002+01:00

Something struck me a wee while ago. When comparing the Roman Canon with Eucharistic Prayer 2 it is striking that the People of God ™ don’t get a look in in the post-conciliar prayer. Compare and contrast:

Eucharistic Prayer 2 (ICEL, 1970):
Lord, remember your Church throughout the world; make us grow in love, together with [Benedict] our Pope, {name of local bishop}, our bishop, and all the clergy.

Roman Canon (Eucharistic Prayer 1; ICEL, 1970)
We offer them for your Holy Catholic Church, watch over it, Lord, and guide it; grant it peace and unity throughout the world. We offer them for {Benedict} our Pope, for {name of Bishop in local diocese} our bishop, and for all who hold and teach the Catholic faith that comes to us from the apostles.

Get that? In the pre-Conciliar prayer, you and me and all good Christian folk, no matter what terrible sinners we are are remembered at the altar and commended to almighty God. In the post-Conciliar prayer, just the clergy get a look in. Now, I know a good priest at the altar will remember us in the memento. Some misguided priests change the text and add in something like: “and all religious and all your people” etc etc. Their intent is good - they want to to be inclusive, but they are changing the words of the text and that way lies danger, as we all know. I see where they are going but the ancient canon contains the wisdom of the ages and gathers all good Christians into the prayer of the church.

Another point about Eucharistic Prayer 2. A criticism leveled at the EF Low Mass is that it was mumbled away at top speed and occasionally finished in under 20 minutes. I have begun to actively dislike Eucharistic Prayer 2 in that it is curt to the point of rudeness and prosaic compared to the beauty of the language of the Roman Canon, even in the ICEL 1970 translation. Even Eucharistic Prayers 3 & 4 have some elegance to them by comparison.

The more I think about Eucharistic Prayer 2 the more it seems like a postcard to God bearing the words “THANKS FOR DINNER. Yrs etc, The Church”

Faith of our Fathers

2011-06-20T06:44:00.002+01:00

Last week the PP here quoted a statistic that about 30% of the children of Catholic parents end up practicing the Faith. He also said that this rises to something like 60-80% when the father of the family takes a leading role in passing on faith (prayer, catechesis etc. ). He said the research was commissioned in Switzerland.

Can anyone verify these stats?

Amazing if true.

Blonde moment (North Vancouver version)

2011-06-18T01:54:00.000+01:00

[To understand this story you must understand that North Vancouver (as which much of Greater Vancouver) is based on a grid system with avenues going north-south, streets numbered from the shore (at Lonsdale Quay) and the numbers of the streets increasing the further north you go up the main avenue (Lonsdale Avenue)]

We were going home from a night downtown and got on the 229 that goes up Lonsdale Avenue at Lonsdale Quay and a rather tipsy blonde girl and her giggly friend sat down near us. She spotted a good-looking guy nearby on the bus and began flirting with him:

Blonde: *giggles* Oh, er, can you help us. My friend and I are going to a party and we don’t know how far it is…

Guy: Where’s the party?

Blonde: *giggles* Errrr….corner of Lonsdale and 23rd Street

Guy (obviously unimpressed): About 23 blocks….

Blonde: Oh, right….

Reclaimimg identity

2011-06-17T01:15:00.002+01:00

I have noticed how the nature of the talks advertised through church bulletins have changed in recent years. Emblematic in recent weeks for me have ben those advertsised in the Catholic After Hours series in Vancouver. I blogged on the last one on The Black Legend.In the next couple of weeks there are more talks to come. A Short History of Thomism and The Galileo Case

Did you get that? Thomism; An expose of Protestant anti-Catholic propaganda and an exploration of the rights and wrongs of the Galileo Case.

What happened to New Dialogies between Buddhists and Catholic Christianity; What Islam can teach Christians; Whither Ecumenism and the like?

Down the toilet, one must hope. Catholicism is being reclaimed by Catholics. It is a good thing.

The details of the talks are below:

Catholic After Hours - Church
History in June
Sunday June 19th
A Brief History of Thomism
Dr. Christopher S. Morrissey -
Assistant Professor of Philosophy at
Redeemer Pacific College

Sunday June 26th
The Galileo Case--Behind the Conflict
Bayu Dharmasetia
Christian Education and Social Studies departments, Notre
Dame Regional Secondary School
Irish Heather pub, back room Shebeen.
212 Carrall Street in Gastown
6:30 to 8:30pm
$6/person

Smart kids and good catechesis

2011-06-14T01:18:00.000+01:00

We were sitting in Mass just in front of a family of three kids, Mum and Dad. The Mum (or is it Mom) was explaining all about the early Church to the 5 year old boy before Mass started.

Mom: So St Stephen was the first of the disciples to die...
Son: What about Judas? He was a disciple...
Mom: Uhhhhh....Oh.....Yeah. I forgot about him. St Stephen was the first disciple to be martyred...And he died after Jesus.
Son: OK. I get it.

Two points. The boy knew the story and the detail of the Passion narrative. He also put two and two together from what the Mom was saying.

As the Canadians would say: good job.

The Superstitions of the Sports Fan

2011-06-13T06:25:00.000+01:00

Nick Hornby mentions his superstition about throwing white (chocolate) mice into the road before a game. Sportsmen are notoriously superstitious (or have a form of OCD). So, I wore my lucky Canucks T shirt for games 1 and 2 of the Stanley Cup Final but then allowed Mrs P to wash it. Big mistake. We got humped by the Bruins. So I didn't let her wash it between games 4 & 5 and hey, presto! We won.

She is not allowed to touch the T shirt until the series is over. I may smell but it may mean we win.

Go, Canucks!

Hockey Night in Canada #4

2011-06-13T01:15:00.002+01:00

Lapierre......SCORES!

Tim Thomas no more infallible than Cory Crawford. Game 6 tomorrow night. Bring it on.

Go, Canucks, go.

"Spiritual Care Workers"

2011-06-09T05:27:00.004+01:00

If you ever encounter these creatures in hospital or elsewhere, shun them like the Black Death. I overheard the following conversation the other day:

Spiritual Care Worker: How was the wedding you went to at the weekend?
Nurse: Oh it was really nice..
SCW: Where was it held?
Nurse: Oh, in a golf club
SCW: Oh that's nice. Coz, like, church weddings can be, like, so exclusive of people who are not faith-believers...

WTF???? So, by the same logic are non-church weddings exclusive of believers?

My experience of SCWs has been usually lapsed Catholics/Christians with bad theology degrees from rubbish colleges or ex-priests or wannabe-womyn-priests. They speak a weird spiritual lingo which masks the vapid content of their speech and are all hugs. They have free access to your loved ones in hospitals and peddle their psychobabble with impunity and usually come with a state salary.

These people are vipers. Their spiritual mantras are greetings-card platitudes. In truth they are agents of state secularism. When I talked to one of them once about Truth she blithely stated "There is no such thing as objective truth" to which my reply was: "Then why should I believe a single word you say?"

The look on her face was priceless.

Hockey Night In Canada #3

2011-06-07T03:12:00.002+01:00

Alex Burrows scores after 10 freakin' seconds of OT! The Bruins didn't know what hit them.

2-0 up in the Finals. Go Canucks!

Hockey Night In Canada #2

2011-06-06T03:07:00.001+01:00

Remember kids - Dec 25th is Baby Jesus' birthday.

Gotta love Don Cherry.

Hockey Night In Canada #1

2011-06-05T00:52:00.002+01:00

Why ten year old boys (and fortysomething men) love hockey:

Bieksa beats the tar out of Viktor Stalberg.

Prayer to our Lady, Help of Christians

2011-06-04T05:34:00.002+01:00

Most Holy Virgin Mary, Help of Christian,
how sweet it is to come to your feet imploring your perpetual help.
If earthly mothers cease not to remember their children,
how can you, the most loving of all mothers forget me?
Grant then to me, I implore you, your perpetual help in all my necessities,
in every sorrow, and especially in all my temptations.
I ask for your unceasing help for all who are now suffering.
Help the weak, cure the sick, convert sinners.
Grant through your intercessions many vocations to the religious life.
Obtain for us, O Mary, Help of Christians, that having invoked you
on earth we may love and eternally thank you in heaven. Amen.

-St. John Bosco

In Downtown Vancouver - Sunday Night

2011-06-02T17:11:00.002+01:00

Catholic After Hours (OK, strange name, I know).
Sunday June 5th:
"The Black Myth and the Inquisition"
Peter Nation,
religion Dept Head,
St Thomas Aquinas High School
At the Irish Heather Pub, back room Shebeen (I'm sure it's not, like, a proper shebeen)
212, Carrall Street in Gastown
$6 per person

I'll try to get to that....

Mgr Owen Gallagher

2011-05-30T16:27:00.002+01:00

Of your charity please pray for the repose of the soul of the Rt Rev Mgr Owen Gallagher, parish priest of St Ninian's, Glasgow who died at the weekend.

He was always kind to me and mine, solicitous about our welfare and always had a kindly word for the boys. He was pretty much 'in harness' until a couple of months before his death. He would always refer in his sermons to the religious mood of the 16th century as "the so-called reformation".

Requiescat in pace.

Pepe le Pew

2011-05-27T00:44:00.005+01:00

I had an adventure at the weekend. Mrs P saw a skunk in the garden last week and was a bit spooked by it. Then on Monday my youngest shouted "The skunk's in the garden with something on his head!" Sure enough Pepe le Pew had his head stuck in a beer can. He was getting distressed and disoriented. I was reluctant to go and rescue him. We rang the animal rescue people and the SPCA and they basically told us to get it off him ourselves. So I changed clothes into scruffs (in case I got sprayed) and put on the marigolds and went to get it off. A neighbour held his tail down with a stick so he wouldn't spray. After a bit of twisting we got it off his head (his little claws were gripping away at it) and he ran off without creating a stink.

Eldest boy got a picture of the event.

Who says Canada is dull?

Victoria Day

2011-05-23T18:46:00.004+01:00

I attended Low Mass (1962) at St Jude's yesterday - about which, more later. The bulletin drew my attention. Today is Victoria Day - a public holiday in Canada marking Queen Victoria's birthday (24th May - the holiday is the nearest Monday). It's the official birthday of the monarch in Canada. The following was announcing it in the parish bulletin. Not sure the same would be said in Scotland .

HAPPY VICTORIA DAY!

As a symbol of our country and as a symbol of our unity, the Crown
and the Monarchy play a unique role in Canada. We pause to ask God’s blessing and graces on this holiday for the Queen, as well as the Royal Family, the Governor General and the leaders in our country.

Special Prayer for the Queen from the Sacramentary

God our Father, all earthly powers must serve you. Help your servant, our Queen Elizabeth to fulfill her responsibilities worthily and well. By honouring and striving to please you at all times, may she secure peace and freedom for the people entrusted to her.
Amen!

BTW were prayers for the King said before the Second Vatican Council after High Mass in Scotland? I would have thought there might be priests there, especially in the West, who would have to say them through gritted teeth.

True Grit

2011-05-22T03:11:00.002+01:00

I saw the new film of True grit on the plane over and read the book when I got here. the book is a wee gem of the genre. I liked this line in it:

"On his deathbed he asked for a priest and became a Catholic. That was his wife's religion. It was his own business and none of mine. If you had sentenced one hundred and sixty men to death and seen around eighty of them swing, then maybe at the last minute you would feel the need for some stronger medicine than the Methodists could make."

— Charles Portis (True Grit)

Respect

2011-05-14T06:52:00.003+01:00

I have some minor gripes with my new parish - mostly musical. The choir tends to go for the slightly showy, pitched-too-high numbers not in the spirit of plainchant. Marty Haugen 'hymns' feature. There are too many lay ministers around. (i.e. greater than or equal to 1)

That said, they've crowned Our Lady's statue for May, the catechesis seems good and they are genuinely welcoming to new parishioners and solicitous for our welfare. The sanctuary is in order and the priest seems to stick to the rubrics. They have an ambitious programme of charitable work. There is a monument outside the church on prominent display (it's on a major bus route) for the victims of abortion.

My admiration is for the unbroken Perpetual Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament they have had for the past fifteen years. Over 200 volunteers from within and outwith the parish keep watch in prayer 24 hours a day before the Blessed Sacrament in the adoration chapel attached to the church.

As young people say: respect.

On Novenas etc

2011-05-11T07:13:00.003+01:00

My parents used to go week in, week out to church, come rain or shine on a Wednesday night to attend the Perpetual Novena to Our Lady of Perpetual Succour. You can imagine reading that as a non-Catholic. "Novena" "Perpetual" "Succour". I'm sure the whole thing looks absolutely bizarre. I have not been a great user of Novenas. I'm sure there are many Spirit-of-Vatican-2ers who thought that Novenas were a thing of the past, just like indulgences.

Having faced some adversity recently, I found myself in need of help and fell back on a Novena to St Jude. I used the Novena twice over the course of weeks when all my efforts seemed to be going nowhere and I needed help where there was no human help that seemed to be able come to my aid. It could be seen as a comfort blanket or a means to redouble my efforts to achieve certain ends. I have prayed in the past when my children have been seriously unwell that they may be saved but I have never been a great one for intercessory prayer. It almost seemed impolite to be on God's back. I suspect I had imbibed a weird version on things in which prayer was some sort of consciousness-expanding attempt to communicate with God. It ignored the traditional aspects of prayer as contrition, adoration, thanksgiving and intercession. I was deeply, fundamentally wrong and it was a form of pride that saw myself above asking God for anything.

Novenas are as explicit as they can be in asking for a specific object. I was interested to read the Catholic Encyclopaedia article about Novenas. The significance of the nine days, the types of Novenas and so on.

In fact, Novenas hit to the heart of our faith. If we really believe then surely we should be able to ask for anything temporal or spiritual that is in accord with His Holy Will, whether or not through the intercession of His saints, in manners hallowed by custom and time.

Dressing up

2011-05-04T01:52:00.003+01:00

I quite like getting dressed up for weddings. I guess it's the only time one gets to wear a morning suit (the only time I have anyway). We (adoptive in my case) Scots get away with wearing kilts and Prince Charlie jackets for formal occasions. I go to a couple of black tie dinners a year at one or other of the Royal Colleges, and it's usually a dinner suit then (M&S). It's nice seeing colleagues in their best bib and the junior girlie doctors in posh frocks.

The Royal Wedding was covered well here. There's still a bit of residual love of the Old Country.

The choice of uniforms for the young royals was great. I was pleased by the choice of the Irish Guards. I think the Blues and Royals tunic just edged it though. I know a couple of folk in the army and it's the only time (along with investitures) that they get to wear No 1 uniform (the Brigade of Guards is slightly different because of their ceremonial duties). All very Ruritanian, but, still..

But I was a bit disappointed by Cardinals Murphy-O'Connor and O'Brien and Archbishop Nichols. Surely this was the perfect opporunity for a ferriola and violet or scarlet biretta?

[Cue torrent of tut-tutting from humourless hippies.....]

Crux fidelis

2011-04-26T06:02:00.000+01:00

This crucifix is probably over 100 years old and belonged to Uncle B and Aunty M, who died within a week of each other. I think it belonged to Uncle B's mother. I daresay it gets some funny looks from the person scanning hand luggage at Glasgow Airport but I don't care.

If I'm in hotels overnight, the crucifix is kept on the bedside table. One of the most touching things that ever happened was when I stayed in a hotel in London for a two-day conference. I returned to the room in the early evening after the meeting to find the cleaner had placed a single flower at Our Lord's feet.

Good Friday nostalgia

2011-04-25T06:40:00.000+01:00

I have a recollection about the Good Fridays of my childhood. It always seemed sunny, if a little fresh, and the daffodils were out. We'd go to the Liturgy for Good Friday and walk home and my mother cooked home-made fish and chips as our only full meal of the day (she made them in a chip-pan).

There always seemed to be either "King of Kings", "Ben Hur", "The Greatest Story Ever Told" or "The Robe" on the telly in the afternoon.

Canadian telly had all three "Spiderman" films on, one after the other.

Strange country.

Lapis revolutus est, Alleluia! Ab osteo monumenti, Alleluia! Alleluia!

2011-04-24T07:59:00.003+01:00

Freed from death.

Joy to you and yours.

Grateful thanks - St Jude

2011-04-21T05:18:00.004+01:00

Sleepless nights were initially due to jetlag but that was replaced by angst about a roof over our heads, missing money from a wire transfer, a place in schools and registration to start work, etc, etc. I started a novena to St Jude. By Day 8, it was all solved. I finished the novena. I had made a novena to St Jude before when my parents were abroad that my grandmother would survive her stroke until their return. She did. Cause and effect? Would it have happened anyway? Superstitious attempts to strongarm God through His saints or proper acts of devotion by the desperate?

As Martin Kelly said, it will all be fine. Thus far, so good.

More thoughts about novenas to follow. I would welcome yours.

How on earth can I thank the good saint?

Our Lady of Canada

2011-04-05T06:57:00.000+01:00

Ora Pro Nobis!

In manus tuas, Domine

2011-04-04T06:19:00.000+01:00

We fly to Canada for a year today. Please pray for us.

Blogging may be light for a while.

Mater amabilis

2011-04-03T15:52:00.003+01:00

After Mass today the boys and I went to Our Lady's altar to offer a prayer of thanks for her ongoing prtection, and an entreaty to watch over us on our forthcoming Canadian adventure.

Every single place on the votive candle stand was taken with candles. I'm pleased that the parishioners love their Mother as well as their Mums. Since we couldn't light a candle we said a prayer for Mrs P and for my dear mother, God rest her soul.

Happy Mothering Sunday to any mothers who may read this.

Illustrating Liturgical Chaos

2011-04-02T00:42:00.003+01:00

The illustrations in the New Missal look handsome. I hope similar illustrations will grace the versions for the use of the laity. I was given a Sunday Missal when I was confirmed in 1976. The illustrations are shown. They explain much. When a book carries the Imprimatur of ++John Carmel Heenan, it seems to an impressionable and pious young boy to validate all that is in the Missal. Is it any wonder, then, that my generation of anglophone Catholics thought the Mass was some sort of meal and not a sacrifice because we are shown like a bunch of demented diners around the kitchen table with the elements of Mass (and no identifiable priest)? Is it any wonder that liturgical chaos ensued when the incorrectly vested priest was shown in his multi-striped Magic Stole (TM)? Or that the non-Christian menorah is given equal prominence to the Paschal Candle (bizarrely held by a squatting punter)? Or that the strummers won favour over traditional chant (whether in Latin or the vernacular) when they are shown so prominently, a-croonin' over their guitars? These images have wormed their way into the consciousness of a generation of Catholics. It will take a heck of an effort to win back our Catholic culture when it was felt acceptable to fill Missals with images that look like T-shirt designs for Woodstock cooked up by Hans Kung on acid.

The very scriptural nature of Catholic worship

2011-03-29T06:53:00.001+01:00

I seem to remember having lots of arguments with (evangelical) Protestant students at university about how 'unbiblical' Catholicism was, especially Holy Mass.

It strikes me, that had I been better equipped I could have swatted away their arguments like so many bothersome flies. Think about it. When properly celebrated (i.e. using the texts rather than the four-hymn pattern that is usual at Sunday Mass) Holy Mass, (EF or OF) consists of the following:

Introit antiphon (Biblical text)
Confiteor
Kyrie (Derived from phrases in the gospels)
Gloria (A hymn of praise based on the hymn of the angels at Christmas)
Liturgy of the Word (OT, NT and psalms)
Creed (formula based on the bible)
Offertory antiphon (Biblical text)
Sanctus (derived in large part from OT & NT)
Eucharist prayer/Roman Canon(a long prayer of ancient proveneance with Christ's words at the Last Supper at its core, full of allusion to the bible)

Rite of Communion (a largly biblical prayer based around the Pater Noster)
Communion Antiphon (Biblical text)
Dismissal

How biblical do they want it to be?

Likewise the Office, essentially just the psalms and biblical readings (with some gems from the Fathers at Vigils/Office of Readings). The rosary? Prayers all based on scripture (the Angelic Salutation, the Pater Noster, the doxology).

My Baptist former colleague just came back from a holiday in the West Indies. She attended a Protestant service there that lasted 3 and a half hours - most of which was preaching by the pastor. Now, compare that with a Low Mass where the worship is of Almighty God - directed solely at Him, and composed largely of words from the bible. Which then is biblical Christianity? Which then is more reliant on a mediator between God and man - the one where a chap barks at his audience for hours on end or where God's own words are addressed to him by a priest on behalf of his people after the biblical pattern of worship in the Temple by a priest secundum ordinem Melchisedech.

Why do we let Protestants criticise Catholic worship on scriptural grounds?

Hoots Mon(signor)!

2011-03-28T06:53:00.000+01:00

Damian Thompson has blogged about birettas recently. The PP of our parish wears his biretta for Mass, though I doubt even he, as a proud Scots-Irishman would want to wear one of these....

H/T and © to Mr Philippi, where there are even more mind-boggling tartan examples.

Out of context

2011-03-26T09:53:00.006Z

I found it disconcerting recently to hear that Byrd's Mass for Five Voices is to be sung in the "atmospheric surroundings of St Peter's"[Partick].

If they are going to sing a Mass in a Catholic Church, why not sing it as a Mass. Or does the Archdiocese see plainchant and polyphony as a museum piece rather than living liturgy?

So it's Byrd for the well-heeled, West End bien-pensants and 'If-I-Were-A-Fuzzy-Wuzzy-Bear-I'd-Thank-You-Lord-For-My-Fuzzy-Wuzzy-Hair' for the punters on a Sunday morning.

Great.

A bit like Psalm 50 sung in an art gallery without the slightest belief, I hazard to guess, that the Almighty blot out their iniquities (but I may be being presumptious there).

Form without content. The decay of the West writ large.

We'll check this parish out.

2011-03-22T22:21:00.002Z

Well, this parish, St Jude's, could be alright. It'll be a bit of a trek from where we're likely to be living, but it's about 2 blocks from my work. The 'Good Confession Guide' on the sidebar is an indication of the tone of the parish. as is the Benedictine altar arrangement. This parish is clearly onside.

I'm a bit torn. Should one go to the nearest parish, or drive twenty minutes to get to Mass? Thoughts, please.

SUNDAY SCHEDULE

HOLY MASS

•5 PM – Saturday Mass of Anticipation in English

•7:45 AM – Latin (1962 Roman Missal)

•9 AM – English with Gregorian Chant
•11 AM – English with Gregorian Chant

•5 PM – English

SUNG VESPERS & BENEDICTION

4 PM

Silence

2011-03-14T17:06:00.002Z

I have given up listening to the radio for Lent. I like to listen to Radio 5 whilst shaving, Radio 2 on the way home (Simon Mayo) and Radio 4 on a Thursday morning on the way to my 9.30 meeting (In Our Time - it justifies the licence fee on its own).

This penance has been worth it, thus far. The silence leads to prayer, or rather in the car listening to Allegri's Miserere and learning to sing and pray it.

Give up the aural wallpaper. You'll not regret it.

Something is sticking

2011-03-10T06:08:00.001Z

Kitchen, yesterday morning:

(The Pagan) Mrs P: What do you want in your roll?
Paulinus Minor Minor: No meat
Mrs P: Why?
Paulinus Minor Minor: Ash Wednesday.
Mrs P: Oh. Yes. Cheese and tomato?
Paulinus Minor Minor: Fine.

It's a start.

Minor miracle...

2011-03-09T19:06:00.003Z

...BBC gives as much prominence to Lent as it does to Ramadan.

A Holy Lent to you.

Telling it like it is

2011-03-08T14:40:00.001Z

Unenthusiastic & underconfident

2011-03-04T20:21:00.001Z

I heard today about an advert that had to be edited to remove the words 'enthusiastic' and 'confident' in relation to potential candidates. What do they want? Unenthusiastic and underconfident doctors?

Offski

2011-03-01T14:27:00.005Z

Should I find a locum to do my job for the year, we are away to Vancouver for 12 months, Deo volente.

4 weeks next Monday. *gulp*.

Any info on life & Catholicism in Vancouver/BC/Canada greatly appreciated. We'll probably be living in North Vancouver.

Deo gratias for the opportunity the Lord has given us.

Please pray for us.

Tarred With The Same Brush

2011-03-01T07:14:00.000Z

You'd never guess who was putting this stuff up, would you? On FiveLive last week even the normally emollient Nicky Campbell had to ask "Do you think there might be a clue in the phrase 'Verily Allah is severe in punishment'?" His interviewee weaseled about and seemed to imply that Christians and Jews might be just as likely to be using their faith to promote hatred.

Love is all around, eh?

Pre-Conciliar Overseas Development Aid

2011-02-28T06:46:00.001Z

There used to be a very Catholic means of measuring the effectiveness of aid given to foreign countries.

That's where yer bawbees go, ya numpties.

2011-02-26T06:29:00.002Z

Anyone have any idea why CAFOD gave £295,970 to Islamic Relief in 2009?

Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?

From the attic

2011-02-24T17:47:00.003Z

Literally. A picture of John Carmel Heenan when Bishop of Leeds (1951-7) visiting his priests. I can't identify the parish from the parochial house, but since the photo is by Uncle Billy it must be in East Leeds. It's not St Pat's or Corpus Christi.

Still, in them days a bishop looked like a bishop. Could you guess what these three do/are? Civil servants on an away day? Test umpires? VAT inspectors?

Direct Line

2011-02-21T18:41:00.002Z

ICEL (1970) Renditions #2: Portia's speech from The Merchant of Venice

2011-02-18T07:07:00.000Z

The quality of mercy is not strained.
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven,
Upon the place beneath. It is twice blest:
It blesseth him that gives and him that takes.
The Merchant Of Venice Act 4, scene 1, 180–187

ICEL:

Please don't be a meanie, it's horrid. Everyone likes you when you're nice to people, yeah?

ICEL (1970) Renditions #1: Requiem by Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–1894)

2011-02-17T06:51:00.003Z

Original:

UNDER the wide and starry sky
Dig the grave and let me lie:
Glad did I live and gladly die,
And I laid me down with a will.

This be the verse you 'grave for me:
Here he lies where he long'd to be;
Home is the sailor, home from the sea,
And the hunter home from the hill.

ICEL:
I'd like to be buried in the countryside. I had a nice life.
It's says "I'm happy now" on my tombstone. Which is nice.

Episcopabile

2011-02-16T06:42:00.000Z

The Herald reports that Cardinal O'Brien, Archbishop Conti and Bishop Moran will hang up their mitres in the next wee while.

It's a straight fight between the good guys:

Contenders for the soon-to-be-vacant posts include Monsignor Gerard Tartalgia, brother of the Bishop of Paisley, Monsignor Peter Magee, Fr John Keenan and Fr Patrick Burke, all very broadly seen as more orthodox, intellectual and closer to the teachings of Pope Benedict.

and the, *ahem*, rest, apparently

Others include Monsignor Peter Smith, Fr Paul Conroy and Fr Gero McLoughlin, generally seen as more representative of modernist face of the Church.

Modernist? Time to bring The Oath, methinks.....

Chantastic, pop pickers!

2011-02-15T20:36:00.002Z

The BBC have a programme on tonight about the unlikely (Ha! You think?) success of recordings of Gregorian Chant. It's called Nuns Aloud (*winces*) and is on at 23.20 tonight in England.

We can't get it in Scotland, presumably because Mgr Peter Smith had a quiet word with someone at BBC Scotland (only kidding, it's on tomorrow night in Scotland)

Honey & syrup

2011-02-08T21:08:00.005Z

Fr PF quite rightly points out that in my encounter with the young Irish doctor who regards himself as a recovering Catholic, I was perhaps guilty of offering him vinegar rather than honey. I think he's probably got me there. I become more curmudgeonly as the years go by, but perhaps my jolt (quipping that I thought the Holy Father a bit relaxed and accomodating about things) by the grace of God, might get the young doctor to question his assumptions. I hope so.

I am bemused when I encounter virulently anti-religious types who will portray the Catholic Church as purveyors of a cross between the Magdalene Sisters and Angela's Ashes. I grew up in the aftermath of the end of the Second Vatican Council and I can say hand on heart I have never heard a Catholic priest utter a condemnatory phrase towards anyone - indivdual or group. Seriously, I have never heard a Catholic priest preach about anything other than the love of God made manifest in one way or another. I have heard exhortations to charity, to chastity, to prayer and deeper discipleship - but to hatred or condemnation of anyone, never, nor the propagation of narrow-mindedness or bigotry. I was taught in primary school by nuns who were kindly and gentle. The priests who taught me at grammar school were thoughtful and meek academic types.

My experience of Irish Catholicism, in the parish where I grwe up in the North of England whch was served by a missionary order of (largely) Irish priests, in Ireland itself and when in Lourdes over the course of 10 years was one of a joyous, if rather ill-defined faith. There was a lot of lurrrve there, but in many ways (especially liturgically) I found it cloying and I wonder if in turning away from the vinegar of a bitter past, as it was perceived, the JP2 generation plumped for syrup rather than honey, which as Fr Aidan Nichols OP pointed out, is a big mistake.

“Cardinal Ratzinger’s image in the secular media, and even or especially sections of the Catholic press, was almost entirely negative. Could it be redeemed by pouring over us a warm, fragrant, bubbly cascade of “luv”? That would be an understandable strategy. It would also be a mistake. At least in the Western world, the Church is drowning in syrup already.

Perusal of the document largely sets these fears to rest. Part the First shows that the Petrine charism has not extinguished the cardinal’s forceful philosophical and theological mind. Part the Second which was, it seems, in preparation under his predecessor shows a willingness to leave (temporarily) the exalted heights of doctrine for more hands-on involvement with possibly malfunctioning elements in present-day ecclesial culture.”
-The Pope Throws A Lifebelt To A Church Drowning In Syrup.
The Catholic Herald
3rd February 2006 .

Comments and discussion very welcome.

For those of us with Star Wars obsessed kids

2011-02-05T09:15:00.000Z

Poorly

2011-02-01T16:23:00.001Z

Please pray for the godmother of Paulinus Minor Major, a wife and mother of two (one of whom is our godson) who is on ICU with pneumonia.

Outing oneself

2011-02-01T15:48:00.003Z

The following conversation took place on one of the wards the other day:

Junior Doctor: I'm really interested in your specialty Dr P.

Me: That's good to hear

Junior Doctor: My only problem is that it seems to be very religious people who do it. I did a placement in a hospice and Dr H was a very committed Christian. Does that explain why you are all opposed to euthanasia?

Me: Well in that hospice Dr H is indeed a very committed Christian and the Matron Sr M is also a very committed Catholic. Of interest most of the higher trainees in the specialty, to my knowledge are not religious, but they all seem uniformly opposed to euthanasia.

Junior Doctor: Well (*sniggers*) I'm a recovering Roman Catholic.

Me: Well, I may not be the most unbiased observer then, in that I tend to be of the view that the Holy Father is a bit on the liberal side of things, you know, a bit too accomodating. But that's his job I suppose.

Junior Doctor: *Stops sniggering* *Looks nervous* Oh.

I suspect I'm now to have the reputation as a bit of a Catholic nutter. I hope I have at least challenged his lazy view that has in some way been harmed by a Catholic upbringing. I suspect he's about 22-23 so born 1988-9. He's Irish - Free State from his accent. My recollection of the time (and I was there a lot in those years) is that Catholicism there and then was pretty easy-going in a JP2-Hug-a-Dalai-Lama-Our-God-Reigns-Wave-Ya-Hands-In-The-Air kinda way. Maybe that's what he meant, but I doubt it.

Recovering Roman Catholic, indeed.

Pray for the poor boy.

Britain's got condoms.

2011-01-29T15:32:00.002Z

Time was when boy bands used to hawk Kellog's Rice Krispies and Pizza Hut. Now they are reduced to selling johnnies.

A Mess of Potage

2011-01-19T06:59:00.001Z

I read recently of a funeral where the coffin left the church to the hymn Walk With Me O My Lord. Don't get me wrong I know the celebrant is a good man on the right side of the GIRM and the Benedictine reforms, but it's symptomatic of giving the punters a liturgical smorgasbord, especially in death.

Catholics used to leave the chapel with In Paradisum ringing in their ears - a song of joyful hope if ever there was one.

Personally I blame the My Way culture of funerals of recent years, exemplified in this advert. Two ironies: Francis Albert Sinatra was a Catholic (though of a rather, ahem, irregular lifestyle); everyone wants My Way. Kinda undermines the concept, no?

We seem to have sold our birthright for a mess of potage.

Week of Prayer for Christian Unity

2011-01-18T06:53:00.000Z

Here's one for our separated brethren in Lanarkshire.

How....

2011-01-17T06:50:00.000Z

..exactly is this image supposed to represent Scotland?

What exactly does it say about us?

Congratulate me

2011-01-16T14:39:00.004Z

I think I just got a few years off purgatory. After all I sat (or stood) through Our God Reigns and Here I Am Lord (as the responsorial psalm).

There were two other execrable ditties I've blotted out of my mind, the hand-clapping Gloria (without the hand-clapping) and a really bad, over-augmented translation of the Sanctus set to The Skye Boat Song.

Bulletin FAIL

2011-01-10T06:22:00.000Z

One other thing that won't happen in 2011

2011-01-09T06:50:00.000Z

Fr Finigan has a list of Things That Will Not Happen In 2011. Let me lay another one on you. I would wager Fr Finigan will not pick up a guitar and sing this song from the ambo as a post-communion song.