The Mystical Bidy of Christ?

In my last post I originally mistyped "Mystical Bidy". It's one of the joys of using a new-fangled smart phone thingy. 

Anyway, Not sure who the Mystical Bidy is, but I dare say we all have our own contenders from the old ladies who attend Mass. 

Personally I've known some really lovely, charming and holy old ladies over the years. Family members (of course) then various matriarchs, old spinsters and even one who helped run a church bookstall who went off to become a nun. 

Then of course there's been the daughters of the 60s in various parishes who demand communion in both kinds and try to put various priests under so much pressure as to take over parish life.

So here's my opinion, for what it's worth. To be a true Mystical Bidy of Christ you have to love Our Lord in the Sacred Species and abide by Church teaching and traditions down the ages. 

That goes for Old Geezers too... Which I am rapidly becoming. 

Praise The Lord! (But not with a tambourine).

Hi, I'm a Eucharist Minister, Please Don't Punch Me in the Car Park.

These badges are everything that is wrong for the modern Catholic Church.

I mean really??? Do Altar Servers need to wear a badge? We can see them. And a Chorister? We can hear them.

But there's one that might be handy. Yes, the Eucharistic Minister badge. Just so we know who to punch in the car park! And no that's not a euphemism.

Still, small mercies. At least there's not a Priest badge. I think we can still recognise one of those on our own.

Mind you, the way some Jesuits dress... (and no-one mention the nuns OK?).

Now I want to see someone stood in Mass holding a large lollipop saying with the words "how may I help you?" emboldened on it (in liturgical colours of the season, natch!). The way some modern churches are built to resemble small branches of Tescos surely this is only a matter of time?

While we're at it, if there are a few queues for the Eucharistic Monsters, perhaps we should employ a Post Office style p.a. system: "position number three please" in numerous languages (inc Tagalog). But no Latin. No sirree.

Ite Missa Est...

"The Mass is over..." Doesn't mean get your daps* on and run for the door.


*This is a Welsh colloquial term for training shoes.

The Catholic Faith: Statues and Candles or Rattles and Drums?

Please click on this image and read the article. See what you think.

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Sometimes I wonder if certain Catholics have a self-destruct button. Not in the sense of doing themselves harm via drugs, corruption or similar (though that is bad enough) but in the way the attack or undermine Catholicism.

It may not seem it to the modern mind, but attacks that undermine our Faith (the Faith/Church left to us by Our Lord Jesus Christ, truly God and truly man) are worse than anything a person may do to him or herself.

Sins committed by Catholics are bad of course, but there is always Redemption, Forgiveness, Prayer, Sacrifice/Penance and Reparation. In the afterlife there is Purgatory. God will always give every soul all it needs to obtain Heaven. It is up to that soul (via free will) whether it accepts the Graces of God, especially those gained via the Sacrifice of Christ crucified and the Graces that flow through the Sacrifice of the Mass.

But when a Catholic attacks dogma, Catholicism, the Mass etc. it can have dire effects on others: it can make others lose their Faith, and lead to generations of families, communities and even nations losing the Faith, losing the Sacraments.

That is why leaders of society and religion (and families!) have such a heavy burden on their shoulders, because how they pass on the Faith and show a good example will have many more ramifications than how a lone individual might give in to sin and do damage to his own soul.

Perhaps this is why it always surprises or even shocks me when religious (priests, bishops, nuns etc.) undermine the Faith in others. The changes since Vatican 2 (the vast majority of which were not mandated by V2) are prime examples. Since the altar rails were ripped out, tabernacles placed in alcoves off to one side, statues removed, exquisite workmanship replaced with breeze blocks, and ancient beautiful chants replaced by sickly Kum By Ya style "hymns" - it is no accident that the pews have emptied.

Of course the world has changed since the 1960s, but why have some religious decided to chase after that world, moulding churches and liturgy to fit the world, rather than making the Church, the Mass and all therein an oasis of sanity, reflection, sanctity and prayer that everyone in the world could escape to?

That's why I was so gobsmacked on reading the above bulletin. The Catholic nun seems to celebrate creating an empty, Protestant--style "church" that was acceptable to Protestants, yet which some Catholics turned away from, not even believing that it was a Catholic Church (let us assume that the nun was dressed in Marks & Spencer's slacks rather than a recognisable habit) or at least that a Catholic Mass was celebrated there.

Look at the text again. No statues, no candles, no Stations of the Cross... can we assume a table rather than an altar? It seems Thomas Cromwell himself would have pinched himself with glee to imagine that a Catholic Church could appear as such, with the added joy of Zimbabweans "swaying to the rhythm of their traditional music."

One wonders if they ever pass around a collection plate for fear that a Catholic might vomit into it having to endure such an empty, faithless, vacuous place devoid of everything our Catholic forebears struggled in defence of, paid taxes and faced ruination to celebrate, or even faced the rack and the rope to witness for.

This nun thinks the Gypsy (whoops! Roma) ladies had no experience of the universal church... Oh boy. I am trying so very hard not to swear! The truth is that Catholic churches the world over were full of statues, Stations of the Cross, altars, Latin (but that's another story*) and people!

Watch the film The Mission (based in the South American jungles) now they were Catholic Churches. Go to the Italian Chapel created by Italian PoWs in WW2 on windswept Orkney. Even in Nissan huts and using basic materials those PoWs created a building of beauty, prayer, Sacrifice and Faith (in a protestant country).

What is this celebration of a Protestantised place? I don't want "different ways of worshipping" and if I do I will go out and discover thoroughly Catholic ways full of beauty and prayer (perhaps an Eastern Uniate Church, an ancient Monastic liturgy etc.).

I have been in Catholic Churches in many countries and there are always a wide range of Catholics, from the four corners of the world and of many social stratas. None seem to worry that their Catholic church is Catholic! Yet here we have a nun seemingly chuffed that she is able to point out the wrong attitude of these Catholic ladies!

As always, I must say that I am no expert in cannon law, or a liturgist and my knowledge of Catholicism isn't anywhere near as good as it ought to be. However, all I want -- and I suspect all that most Catholics have wanted, especially when the (spiritual) bulldozers were called into churches in the 70s and 80s -- is for us to have Catholic leaders who promote, protect, espouse and defend Catholicism!

I don't think that's too much to ask!

Many people ask "is the Pope Catholic?" (I won't mention what the bears do...) and we know the answer. Luckily they don't ask us so often about those a little further down the Church hierarchy, those who (as just one example) allow "homosexual Masses" which, in the official church hall afterwards, promote groups which endorse homosexual activity, promiscuity and general celebration of the Sodomitic worldview.

Please! Just let us have Catholic priests, Catholic bishops and Catholic religious and laity who are prepared to defend and espouse the Catholic Faith! So many of us Catholics are weak, frail and lukewarm (and I include myself) and this is why we need strong Catholic leaders to remind us what our duties are.

We don't need empty, Protestant rooms with drums and rattles (albeit hidden under a table).

The writer should be gently reminded that even at the Mass Rocks in Ireland, under the terror of the Elizabthan Protestant yoke, the Catholics gathered would know they were celebrating the Catholic Mass (methinks her idea of a Mass Rock would include guitars and drums). And there wouldn't have been a rattle in sight!



The Mass Rock - An Irish Poem

*I am reminded of Hilaire Belloc's book The Path to Rome. He details the pilgrimage taken through France to Rome. When he stopped to hear Mass he would recognise and be able to join in the Latin chants etc. When a friend followed Belloc's footsteps he found Churches in which he could not follow the Mass as it was in French or Italian... luckily no Tagalog, Esperanto or indeed Klingon! ;)

The Last Supper: The First Eucharist

I loved this woodcut when I came across it -- in an Anglican book no less, published in 1905 as part of the 'Church and Home' annual.

It seemed to be a collation of church newsletters.

The image of Christ instituting the Eucharist is very moving and reminds us that, if we are to attain our eternal reward, we should look to frequent Communion.

The words of Christ Himself are crystal clear on this, and reinforce (naturally!) the belief of all Catholics that the Consecrated Host is the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Our Lord Jesus Christ:

He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath everlasting life: and I will raise him up in the last day. 

John 6:54

Prayer Card: Little Nellie of Holy God

I came across the charming little card by chance.

I believe it dates from the 1950s - or earlier.

When I saw it my heart leaped as Eleanor (a derivation of Ellen) is a traditional name in our family (through the in-laws) and some years back at a family wedding I met a very old lady that everyone referred to as "Nellie" from my wife's maternal family (who I know have their roots in Redcar and are Catholic).

With a quote from St Pius X on the back promoting 'Little Nellie' as a means to advocate frequent Communion, what could be a better commendation? St Pius X was the greatest Pope of the 20th century and through his Syllabus confronted the kind of burrowing, secretive and insidious errors that would later flourish especially in the 1970s.

And with her connections to Cork, the homeland of my own grandfather, there seems to be so many reasons for me to start a devotion to this bravest and most devout of souls in preparation and thanksgiving for Mass.

When the Real Presence of Our Lord in the Eucharist is under attack from so many quarters, it would do us all well to recall the simple devotion of the suffering child Little Nellie of Holy God.


Link:
Little Nellie of Holy God

Prayer Card #1: Going to Mass

First off apologies for not posting regularly. Nothing exciting - just the whole family life, work commitments etc. left me with little spare time.

Now this post if part of what I hope will be an ongoing series.

I have collected many prayer cards over the years (better than football stickers!) including old ones I have found in books I've bought, or bundles of them in charity shops - and so on.

Of course I have my favourites that I use (when I don't forget them) at Mass, but just the other day I took out the leather folder I keep the prayer cards in. It's good to have a switch around every now and then.

Some of them are so beautiful and moving, I thought "why not put some online, perhaps as they are, maybe with a bit of blurb, but all so that my fellow "men of goodwill" can see these little reminders of Saintliness and Godliness as well as me.

So here we go. Here's the first one.

It really speaks for itself, and whereas many prayer cards tend to be a big pic with a little writing, or a prayer on the back, this one-sided gem is not so much a prayer but a reminder of what Mass is, how it helps us, and why we should attend in the correct manner and mindset.

In this age of chattering pews and people-centred gatherings, it does all of us well to remember the Sacrificial essence of the Mass, of exactly Whose Presence we are in, and exatcly What is being enacted on the Altar of God before us.

So please read this little card. By all means take copies and put them on your blog, web site, or other online page. Let's make good Catholics into excellent Catholics, bad Catholics into good Catholics, weak Catholics into strengthened Catholics, evil Catholics into repentant Catholics, and lapsed Catholics into Mass-going Catholics.

I will try and post more prayer cards when I can.

Back to the Future: More Tradition for a New Generation

Yes: DO Eat the Fish

There was a notice in our local parish newsletter, telling parishioners that the Church had revived the tradition of not eating meat on Fridays, in reparation - and boy do we as individuals, as communities and as a society need all the help we can get!

This is one of the good things Pope Benedict has done.


Why oh why was this ever stopped, sidelined or hushed up?

While we're at it let's look at some other totally Catholic traditions that we should have back PDQ:

• Mass on Sundays. The idea of Saturday evenings is a no-no. Dispensation can be given to hospital staff and emergency workers. But for 99% of us there is no excuse for not attending Mass on the Lord's Day. Of course we can go on Saturdays and any other days of the week we wish to as well.
• Altar rails. Please! This will help all of us realise that the Sanctuary is a sacred place, not somewhere we can amble up to, shuffle around in and plonk back in our seats as if we just changed channel on the telly. It may also lead to my next 'big ask:'
• Kneeling for Communion. The Holy Father insists on it at his Masses. It shows devotion and reminds us that we are receiving Our Lord and King in His Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity. 
• Communion on the Tongue. I know this is an optional today, but I (in all my horrible anti-liberal ways) would dearly love it to be the rule (again). My hands are not sanctified, I am not a priest, I and others have no need to touch the Sacred Species and risk Our Lord being dropped, sullied or (as can happen) slipped into a pocket for profane usage.
• Reintroduction of Altars. Please! No more tables. Let us have Altars. High Altars. With beautiful images, paintings, Crucifixes and statues. Altars that raise our hearts, minds and souls to their ultimate home in Heaven. When I see a table masquerading as an Altar in a Church I am reminded that during the reformation this was one of the first things the hate-filled protestants did: rip out Altars and put in tables. A table is for a meal. An Altar is for a SACRIFICE!

So now we have a great Catholic tradition back - fish on Fridays! - let's press, pray and hope for many more.

If we pay honour to Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament in these ways it can only bring many and great Graces to us all in Wales  (OK, and in England and elsewhere too).

Priest - Where is Thy Clerical Garb?

A fantastic post on Catholicism Pure and Simple:

One day a gentleman dressed smartly in a jacket, tie and pants was in the sacristy waiting for Padre Pio. When Padre Pio clapped eyes on this sophisticated man he said, ‘Father, you came in disguise, but you don’t have to be ashamed, next time come dressed as a priest.’

If our people saw priests, as priests, more often, it might jog their conscience and get them to make Confessions and return to Mass.

Btw - the above quote contains an Americanism. Pants means trousers. Not that the alternative would surprise me too much, especially in Soho...

Personally speaking I agree with CPandS (read the blog entry linked above), that men have as much of a duty as women - and I speak as a workingman and father who regularly wears working clothes, has a two-day stubble and regularly throws on jeans, a shirt and my DMs and think "that'll do".

All too often we see "men" in children's clothes and I especially detest clothing plastered in writing, especially if it includes barely disguised foul words.

It doesn't take much to polish one's shoes, but on a decent shirt and get to Mass.

I remember speaking to a priest many years ago when I was a little more than a bairn myself concerning a female friend (girlfriend of a best friend) who we were trying to get to "return" to Mass (her nan was a Catholic but there was little Faith in the family as far as I could tell).

I asked the priest if it would be OK to bring her to Mass because at the time she had a 'mohican' haircut, which would raise eyebrows on a man, let alone on a young lady, amidst mantilla wearing trad ladies. The priest replied "bring her to Mass, God will take care of the rest."

Communion in Both Kinds - two Bishops Speak Out

Good intentions? Paths? A Mass in Chicago

A super post by Fr. Z on WDTPRS. A timely reminder that Communion in both kinds gives rise to far too many abuses, and (I would argue) causes scandal to some Catholics (including me!)

I pray that Catholic Bishops would defend Our Lord, present on the Altars of our land, from abuses. I know it can seem a tad hypersensitive, but the idea that Our Lord might be dishonoured, even once, should have all Catholics very, very concerned - if not outright angry.

Baroness Scotland Blames Paedophilia on "Loneliness"

Catholic? Or Heretical?

I find The Universe pretty hit and miss, more miss than hit, I'm sad to say.

This is really sad as a thoroughly Catholic paper could be such a great source of Grace, of promoting Catholicism, of educating Catholics - of strengthening our Faith in so many ways.

The rare occasion when I've picked up a copy and  thought "wow" has invariably been when there has been a "retro" article on Chesterton or Belloc. They also produced some 'from the archives' photo magazines which had some beautifully moving images, which to be honest made my heart leap and sink, the former because it reminded me how beautiful Catholicism can be, the latter because it reminded me how much we have lost.

Put it this way, altar rails, the Kyrie Eleison, Communion on the tongue, the high altar with Tabernacle - none of this can be replaced by Kum By Ya, "Jesus 'hearts' U" tapestries, happy clappiness.

I am only a pew Catholic. I am no great theologian, thinker or great Defendant (like GKC), but I am convinced that there is a vacuum in 'modern' Catholicism, there is a gap and it could be argued that it has been caused by the modern world, or that the modern world has flooded in to fill the gap caused when so much our forefathers held dear for generation after generation, was ripped away.

Now I know much of it was window dressing, but as I've said before the Church historically was not idiotic. Outside of the supernaturally inspired things which moved men's hearts and helped them to worship and try to understand the great mysteries of the church, there were man-made things of great beauty, inspired by men of great Faith: popes, saints and others known and unknown, all codified and made Catholic (universal) by Holy Mother Church.

Despite the chaos and turmoil in this 'Vale of Tears,' a Catholic could enter a Church in London or Timbuktu, in Rome or Alice Springs, in India or Spain, and follow the Mass in all its beauty, having his eyes, mind, heart and soul filled with the sights, sounds and smells of the Mass, celebrated as it was hundreds of years before.

Now one can walk into a church in the same country, even in the same diocese, and have a different language, a different style, a different manner of distributing Communion, a very traditional Mass with great reverence, or a happy clappy Mass with guitars, a running commentary from the MC, Tabernacle hidden to one side, and so on.

Catholicism is not Catholic (universal) anymore. A kind of liturgical chaos reins, from nation to nation. If one is holidaying in Spain, what chance does one have of following the Mass in Spanish? Or in Portugal? France? Germany?

Or what of those of us who feel that Communion in both kinds should be reserved for religious? Who feel the Eucharistic monsters take over Mass in some parishes and don't wish to receive Communion from lay hands or a nun? Let's not mention the 'liturgy of the word' aka the priestless Mass. If travelling we play Russian roulette when we enter a church.

What has all this to do with The Universe? Well, I get the same Russian roulette feeling when I turn a page of The Universe. Will it raise my spirits, reinvigorate my Faith, or will it sap my morale and make me think Catholicism equates some effeminate mush?

I used to buy The Universe regularly in an old parish, but eventually gave up on it because the glimpses of Truth, tradition, genius and sound Catholicism just were washed away in a sea of Kum By Ya, wishy washy, afraid of its own shadow, happy clappy, social worker yuck.

One such piece brought up a serious issue, the loneliness and exclusion of priests in communities and using some awful logic supplied by Baroness Scotland, suggested that such loneliness could lead to paedophilia.

Excuse me? I see that not only as a pathetic way of excusing the very worst crimes in society, but it also airbrushes out the very real role viz the promotion of homosexuality and the spread of paedophilia, a role pushed not least by New Labour which went out of its way to promote homosexuality in schools, to close down Catholic adoption agencies and worse. Baroness Scotland was a New Labour appointee.

I well recall the horror of Catholics when New Labour repealed Section 28, which meant that homosexuality could be promoted in schools. Many Catholics were appalled and fought to keep the law, and felt betrayed by Catholic politicians who closed their eyes to Catholic teaching on morality and used bluff, half-truths, smoke and mirrors to justify their stance.

Not only does Baroness Scotland ignore the central role of (New Labour promoted) homosexuality in the growth of paedophilia, which is well documented in society at large, and should be seriously looked into re.clerical abuse, but to my mind this is a serious assault on faithful priests and the lonely in society.

Priests, Catholics and people in general could be lonely from now until doomsday and would never, ever even contemplate paedophilia. It is a great evil. Of the cases I know of from towns near and including my own, the paedophiles that have been in the media over recent years have been married, in the police, in the Sea Cadets, and similar. All have had families around them whether parents and siblings or spouses.

To state that loneliness can lead to paedophilia is equating paedophilia with drinking, long-term unemployment, playing computer games, or reading trash novels.

It is high time that we all stopped thinking of paedophilia as an aberration,a crime or a bad thing: it is much worse than that. It is an absolute evil. It is a sexual evil, which can only grow out of other sexual proclivities that are evil.

A person does not wake up one morning, make a cup of tea, have no social activities in their diary and so turn to paedophilia. I think we are in danger of both soft soaping the grade of sheer evil that is paedophilia to equate it with loneliness; and to disparage our priests that a lack of dinner invites, football matches or cream teas will make them turn into deranged monsters.

To put this story on the cover of The Universe shows that Catholics (or certain "experts") have lost the plot. These kind of stories paint all our priests as potential monsters (so playing into atheists' hands), whilst simultaneously whitewashing paedophilia to equate it with online gaming, drinking beer or sleeping-in till midday.

I want to pick up a Catholic newspaper to read articles on Catholic current affairs, liturgy, politics, morality, history, the Saints, and similar. The potential loneliness of priests - no problem. The evil and solution to paedophilia - no problem.

What I don't want to read is this kind of New Labour spin which seeks to separate true cause and effect of paedophilia from the people who let the homosexual genie out of the bottle.

Just yesterday I listened to the BBC Radio programme on exorcism. It mirrored what I had read in books on the subject, that one of the main causes of demonic possession (which Our Lord spoke of and commanded the first Bishops to expel) is homosexual activity.

If we accept the evidence of exorcists, who deal with this phenomenon, then there is little wonder that an act that is of such evil results can result in increased paedophilia - surely the most evil and debased act possible?

It may not be fashionable to treat such themes honestly. It may not be trendy. It may not be popular. It may not seem cool and cuddly. But it would ultimately be Charitable. We owe it to our own children. We owe it to society at large. We owe it to homosexuals and those teetering on the edge of a great evil and the innocents they will corrupt and whose lives they will destroy.

If Baroness Scotland wishes to do so from a Catholic viewpoint she might start by condemning homosexual activity and promotion; at least then those engaged in this dangerous activity would have no misconceptions about where their evil choices may lead.

What Makes a Catholic Church Catholic?

I was chatting to a friend the other day and we started discussing films and TV series, and we got onto those with Catholic themes: typically redemption, wages of sin, forgiveness and so on.

Of course there are some great Catholic films out there. And some less well known. Some of my favourites, for different reasons, are The Exorcism of Emily Rose, The Mission, and Braveheart. Others are famous for carrying Catholic messages such as The Exorcist and Clockwork Orange.

One thing that strikes me about films and TV series is that when they want to put across a truly spiritual feeling, whether it is someone needing a place of prayer and sanctuary, whether it is an exorcism, or whether it is a family funeral -- more often than not they will use "old school" Catholicism. You know - "smells and bells."

There will be statues of Our Lord, Our Lady and the Saints. There will be stained-glass windows. There will be lots of lit candles. There will be a high altar. If a priest is present he will have traditional vestments, or be all in black with dog collar.

Yesterday I watched a Spanish film called 'Rec 2' and it featured images of Our Lady, First Communions  etc. - all thoroughly traditional. And today I watched Stuart Little 2 and in it the eponymous hero flies a plane into a group of nuns - all in the "full regalia" with rosaries.

Why?

I have come to one conclusion and that is that producers, writers, directors and various execs are no fools. They know what sells and they know what carries an audience.

"Fr Bobby" in a Marks n Spencer's pullover singing Kum-by-ya in a hollowed-out Roller Disco with a modern art cross and a table with a chair behind it, does not convey religion, spirituality, grace and faith.

These people are not idiots. They may not be Catholics. They may even be vaguely or overtly anti-Catholic. But they know that when a film calls for a spiritual presence, for the power, presence and strength of 2000 years of Christ's Faith -- you cannot beat the feel, look, presence and ambiance of a traditional Catholic Church.

It's very look screams out faith, forgiveness, prayer, sacrifice.

We all know it. We all feel it. That is why film-makers use it to convey that inner feeling. If they used a roller-disco 'church' they would have to work harder elsewhere to make it feel 'spiritual' and even then could fail miserably.

So why, given this is self-evident and obvious, does the Church not recognise this?

Over 1,950 years the Church perfected its Churches. The altars. The statues. The windows. The very feel of a Church would immediately raise your mind and soul to Heaven. The feel of a roller-disco 'church' makes your mind wonder "is it fish fingers for tea?"

Why do you think the Protestants went out of their way to replace the altars, whitewash the murals, pull down the statues? They knew this was the way to undermine the Catholic Faith of the (ex-)faithful.

We are frail and failing humans -- even the very best of us (i.e. the Saints). That is why we need all the help we can get. The Church knew this. That is why they perfected their Churches. They helped us focus on the Sacrificial nature of the Mass, the Real Presence of Our Lord, the history of the Church, the Militant, Suffering and Triumphant parts of the Mystical Body of Christ, and so on.

Is it coincidence that so many people have fallen away from the Church since Altars were replaced by tables? No I don't mean at the 16th Century "Reformation" - I mean in the 1970s. And the Altar Rails removed? And roller-discos erected? And the Liturgy and Vestments changed? I don't think so.

Why is the Catholic hierarchy so slow to recognise what even Hollywood directors (and look at the circles they move in!) know to be true?

The "Spirit of Renewal" has emptied the pews and wrecked many churches.

How long before this lesson is learnt?

Churches Built on Sand: Without the Real Presence of Christ

I was thinking over the readings from last Sunday's Mass, especially the Bible passage about the fool who builds his house on sand.

Now I will be the first to acknowledge that whilst I find theology fascinating, I am no theologian. My Latin is dire, and my knowledge of Greek, Hebrew etc. non-existent.

I am one of those Catholics that does enjoy reading decent Catholic books when time permits, but has to rely on the certitude of the guidance put forth (over many centuries) by Holy Mother Church.

I can only read material, understand it, meditate on it, through the prism of Orthodox Catholicism. As I'm not a theologian, it's the only way I can be sure of being on absolutely solid ground.

That's one of the reasons I get so flummoxed and bamboozled when I read of "experts" or "Catholics" who deny transubstantiation, or who try and make out the Latin Mass is "divisive." After all, the Church has always been crystal clear for centuries that the Real Presence of Our Lord (Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity) is an absolute cornerstone of our Faith.

Likewise, the Popes said that the Tridentine Mass was eternally valid, and many Saints went to their deaths after celebrating it, attending it or defending it. How could such a treasure trove of graces, the very Church-decreed vehicle for Catholics to witness the Last Supper and the Passion of the Cross, and to bring about the Sacred Mystery of Transubstantiation itself ever be termed "divisive?"

I know sometimes it seems like hard-headedness and even a form of false piety, but in finding solace in the simple (!) facts of Catholicism can be like finding a port in the storm, the storm being this mad world (and anyone who raises a family, runs a business and lives a life trying to make ends meet to pay the bills knows that the world can be beautiful one moment and mad the next).

Thus it is that no matter what the world throws at us, as Catholics, we always have the certitude of Our Lord, in the Blessed Sacrament.

As well as being a hopeless Theologian I am also dire when it comes to quoting from the Bible. Our Lord said He would be with us until the end of the world (yes, I'm paraphrasing) and I take solace in that. I also think that when He said that, He had a special meaning: the Blessed Sacrament.

He was leaving this world as God-made-man, but He would be staying, in a quite literal sense, in the Blessed Sacrament, that we might all visit Him, adore Him, and place our worries before Him.

Now to return to last Sunday's readings and the house on sand and the house on rock.

I couldn't help but thinking that Our Lord again had a special meaning in this parable.

Aren't the false religions of this world like the houses built on sand? Think of the Protestant churches. Within mere years of the Reformation, Luther, Calvin and Zwingli were arguing and at each others' throats. Did the Disciples of Christ behave like this? The Protestants have the word of a man (they can chose which of the three here named) to be the founder of their church, to dictate their theology, their Sunday service.

We have the word of Jesus Christ, who made St Peter the very first Pope, who founded the Catholic Church, who instituted the Sacrifice of the Mass. This has not changed in 2000 years.

I do not think it was an accident that Our Lord referred to a house built on rock, for most of us know that when Christ made St Peter the first Pope and head of His Catholic Church, he said (I shall paraphrase again) 'You are Peter and on this rock I will build my Church.' As Catholics should know this history, we should also know that Peter means Rock.

Thus when Our Lord says build your house on rock, I believe He was reminding us that our homes, our families and our souls belong in the security, the sanctity and the surety that is His Holy Catholic Church.

Only there will we get the strength we need, in the Sacraments but most especially through the Real Presence and Holy Communion with Our Lord, to find security in this world. For as many wise men, living and dead, have said, the strength we need is not our own, but the strength of Our Lord Jesus Christ and where else can we hope to be near to Him, Body Blood Soul and Divinity but at the Altar of God?

Trads to the Back of the Bus

Another great piece from Linen on the Hedgerow which highlights the dreadful way the Tridentine Mass is treated in all too many dioceses, despite the Pope's wishes.

We are all, as Catholics, missing out on a wonderful gem from Heaven's treasury by sidelining the beautiful 'event' that is the Tridentine Mass.

Even non-Catholics like Agatha Christie recognised its beauty and cultural importance.

Of course for us Catholics it means so much more, raises our very minds, hearts and souls to Heaven and in its most profound form (solemn High Mass) in a traditional setting or in the ruins of a former Catholic shrine etc. it makes one realise, most profoundly, how connected we are to the rest of the Church (Militant, Suffering and Triumphant) and that, in that very real sense, we are just one small part of the Church which is much bigger and leads inexorably to heaven and the Beatific Vision, which calls all of us, despite our fallen nature, to be Saints.

Coming to Mass? Bring your Tambourine and copy of Socialist Worker

Please. Please dear God! Have mercy on us.

What is this? A roller-rink? A social workers' conference? An exhibition on whirling dervishes?

Where is Our Lord? Where is the deference to the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Our Lord in His Tabernacle? Where is the Tabernacle?

Who is the social worker condemning sexism, who talks over the priest as he declares Ite Missa est (I wish)?

I am scandalised by this! I do not wish to be presumptious, but the Holy Father must surely act to close down these monstrosities pretending to be Masses?

Are these the scandalous Masses the kind that gave rise to heresy, pride and division before Luther took advantage of them to promote his dreadful ideas, on the back of some geuine grievances?

If we do not act as the Church acted to codify the Mass at the Council of Trent, to stop the liturgical abuses (one cannot help but think of the Soho Masses) and other scandalous actions/inactions of Bishops and priests (albeit, as ever, a minority) then it is the Church itself that is damaged, and souls that are lost by falling away from Holy Mother Church.

Is this "Mass" really what the Saints and Martyrs lived and died for?

Do We Need a Second Counter Reformation?

No, no, no! Where Protestant ideas end: yuch.

One of my favourite books about the Reformation, possibly after Cobbett's History of the Protestant Reformation in England and Ireland, is Rev B. J. Kidd DD's The Counter-Reformation 1550-1600.

I would say to any decent (or half-decent) Catholic: it's a book you simply must read! Originally published by the SPCK in 1933, it tells the story of Saints called to defend the Catholic Faith across Europe, in the shadow of the Protestant Revolution against the Catholic Church.

The Protestants had already won over vast tracts of Germany, Bavaria, Hungary, Poland... much of Europe was under threat (even France and Italy!) Only Spain seemed to stand firm in the Faith, and it was that nation which gave the world the Jesuits, a Holy Order that won back so much of Europe for the Catholic Faith -- a role which Protestants and Freemasons have still not forgiven the many Saints and Martyrs of that Order for (hence all the ridiculous Jesuit conspiracies).

One aspect of the Counter Reformation was, of course, the Council of Trent. That heroic Council of the Church which codified (not invented!) the Mass of Centuries, to stop abuses (sound familiar?) and gave us the Tridentine Mass which was the Mass for another 400+ years until the experiments of the 70s, which have seen Churches half-empty out... but I digress.

The Council of Trent saw so many Holy Souls gather to defend Holy Mother Church from many abuses that had given fuel to the Protestants who (as with all false creeds) use justifiable qualms to push through their despicable aims, in their case undermining Tradition, ripping apart the Sacraments, and trying to make 'everyman a priest' (talk I heard recently from a Catholic priest) which I consider totally against what Christ established His Church for. We have a Holy Priesthood (even if some sadly fall short of what is expected) in order to enable us to receive the Sacraments.

I am a Catholic. I may be a Saint (I don't think I am, but the possibility is there for us all). But I am not a priest. I am a Catholic. I am a father and a husband. I have my vocation in life.

And this, in a kind of circuitous route (how atypical of me) brings me back to this wonderful book.

You see, at the Council of Trent, some Catholic laity and priests turned up with an agenda. Some were powerful men of the world (especially from the 'German' sphere of influence) and they wanted the Catholic Church to move partway towards the Protestant stance on certain things, as a way to 'heal the rift' and bring the two sides back together.

Would this have worked? Give them an inch and they'll want a yard? There is no doubt the Council overturned many abuses and that in and of itself should have pleased any genuine souls who were irked with the Church. Let's face it, genuine Catholics can take umbrage with some Church policies, especially if they are seen to harm the Church, turn souls away, make the Church look grasping or underhand. We only have to look at the recent paedophile scandal in the Church. If the Church had reacted correctly, nipped it in the bud, acted in the best interests of souls (priestly and laity), routed out homosexuals in the priesthood and much else besides - it would have spared the Church another scandal, and more injuries.

Yet the Council of Trent reacted to the Protestant Revolution not only by ending genuine abuses which gave genuine grievances, it acted to solidify the Traditional Latin-Rite Mass, it sent the Jesuits, Dominicans and others to fight back for the Faith in the heartlands of the "enemy" -- we know that full well with Saint Martyrs created right in here in Wales.

I remember seeing a plaque at the bottom end of Crwys Road, where Cathays and Roath meet in Cardiff, showing the spot where our beloved Saints Philip Evans and John Lloyd were martyred. To quote the Real Cardiff site about the spot:

Here, in a plot known as 'the Cut Throats', more or less where the Road has its junction with Albany, stood the town gibbet. Nearby were plots called Cae Budr (the defiled field), Plwcca Halog (the unhallowed plot), and Pwll Halog (the unhallowed pool). Today they've got side streets built across them and are happily called Strathnairn, Glenroy and Keppoch. 

So we have, today, the examples of so many Holy Saints and Martyrs from this time on which to call for help and intercession on, in these worried times.They came to Welsh soil to win souls back for Christ and His Church through the Sacraments.

One of the aspects of the Council of Trent, as I said earlier, was the attempt of some to get Protestant "demands" from the Church. One of these was Communion in both kinds for the laity. As usual with these demands, there was the Protestant propaganda that hitherto the priests had been keeping something to themselves, and (especially with the idea that "we are all priests") then why should we all not partake in Communion under both kinds?

This always stuck in my mind on reading the book, because in more and more Catholic parishes today, we are seeing Communion in both kinds to the laity, and it is something, I have to say, I feel deeply uncomfortable about.

Now I am not a theologian, not even a lukewarm one, so I do not know all the theological reasons for this, but common sense tells me that Communion in both kinds is open to so much abuse. We all know of accidents with Communion in the form of the wafer: dropped and spilled hosts etc. How much more worrying would it be to witness drops and spills of the Chalice?

The other aspect of Communion in both kinds is that it gives the impression - especially to the young, immature, gullible and foolish - that the Communion host is not the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Our Lord Jesus Christ in its entirety. That is, it gives/promotes the false idea that we have to receive the Body ("wafer") and Blood ("wine") together in order to have 'full communion' - i.e. that the Host in and of itself is somehow "not enough," and I think this comes back to the Protestant idea of "we are all priests" and therefore we all have the 'right' to Communion in both kinds, otherwise we are somehow 'cheated.'

My last bug-bear about Communion in both kinds is that it has given rise to what I personally consider one of the worst abuses of the post-Vatican 2 age (whether V2 instigated it is another matter). That is the appearance of the 'Eucharistic Minister.' Some non-priest given the green light to administer Communion to the laity. In many circles these have earned themselves the nomenclature Eucharistic Monsters for various reasons (and abuses).

For me personally the idea of someone who is not a priest administering Communion is an absolute sacrilege. And I mean that literally.

I do not like the idea - as I've outlined above - of the laity receiving Communion in both kinds, even at the hands of priests, but the idea that non-consecrated hands should administer Communion is just a non-starter. It seems such an abuse of the Holy Sacrament that I still find it difficult to believe that it is allowed and the idea of witnessing it fills me with dread and despair.

If Mother Teresa considered Communion in the hand the worst thing in the world, because it offends God for the Sacrament to be in unconsecrated hands, how much more might we say Eucharistic Ministers might do the same?

The Council of Trent did much to shore up the Catholic Faith, to reinvigorate a Faith which had been under attack for decades, with all the scandals (real and invented) used to attack the Church, with its enemies seeming to have the upper hand, with calls from within and without the Church for liberalisation in the Mass and the distribution of Communion... for some years we must have looked (from a worldly view) to be on the way out.

Does anyone else see the similarities with today?

Famous Welsh Catholics: Author Michael Davies

Michael Davies on pilgrimage to Chartres

In an effort to bolster the Faith of the Welsh and remind Catholics and non-Catholics alike of our heritage and roots in the Catholic Church, I thought I'd start an irregular series of posts on Welsh Catholic figures that will inspire, educate and enthral.

Just the other day I came across a booklet I hadn't seen/read for many years. The booklet is entitled The Barbarians Have Taken Over and is by the author Michael Davies.

I thought I'd check online to see if his other works are available and found a Wikipedia page on him, which states:

He was brought up in Yeovil, Somerset,^[3] although he was said to be proud of his Welsh descent.

I haven't read his weightier tomes, but my understanding is that Davies' outlook is that Vatican 2 did not mandate many of the changes in the liturgy and the layout of Churches -- rather it was the misinterpretation of Vatican 2, or vague and ambiguous texts used to justify what many have since called "the spirit of Vatican 2" -- spearheaded by Arbishop Bugnini.

One things is for sure, Michael Davies was a serious scholar and researcher, was a devout Catholic concerned at the loss of Faith by so many souls in our times, and his writings make for disturbing, but essential, reading.

Michael Davies, Catholic apologist, Defender of the Faith who when asked what he'd like to see before he died, in his last interview, replied:

"I want to see Wales win the Six Nations [rugby championship] once more."

Please pray for the repose of the soul of Michael Treharne Davies.

Link:
Michael Davies on Wikipedia
The Last Interview
The Catholic Sanctuary & The Second Vatican Council by Michael Davies
In Memoriam

Bears Still Go in the Woods, but are Peace Mala Catholic?

I was looking at an old Damian Thompson post about the Cardinal Vaughan School 'argument' and this comment - the first in reply to his post struck a chord:

The problem is that the Diocese of Westminster employs so many people who do not believe in the vision of the Church, that being the vision of Jesus our Lord and Saviour. They readily employ people who have a beef with the Church and its teachings on so many issues. You wonder why these people flock to the Church to a body that they seemingly hate so much. I know this is the case because I work in the Diocese in an influential department and only probably a few people believe in the Church teachings. And you wouldn’t believe how many souls these people get to effect with the rubbish they sprout. We need to good orthodox Catholics to apply for jobs with the Diocese. But also to box clever in the interview for such jobs and not come across as too rigid or not ‘mainstream’ enough, otherwise these left-wing trendies who interview will never employ you. Above all we must pray and pray and do penance, the Lord is punishing us for turning away from Him and apostasy is sadly rampant in the Church endangering many souls.
Andrew

The article and comments are here

When I consider recent articles I've read on the Diocese of Westminster allowing the homosexual "Soho Masses" and the uproar over the Catholic Education Service (plus the fact that the ex-head of CAFOD thinks he is "married" to the man who acts (or has acted) as an "Eucharistic minister" at the Soho Masses... it doesn't take a genius to work out that there are far too many homosexuals, atheists and (literally) God-knows-whats working in the Catholic Church in England & Wales.

As Andrew says above, "You wonder why these people flock to the Church to a body that they seemingly hate so much."

Today is apparently Epiphany (5 days early I make it) or as Catholic and Loving It blog says, How the Bishops Stole Christmas. We only get 12 Days of Christmas as it is and I'd like to celebrate all 12.

I am not Super Catholic. Far from it. I am just another miserable sinner who needs all the help that God gives us, especially through the auspices of His Church. That is why I feel betrayed when bits of the Church are taken away, when I hear that Catholic education is being whittled away.

You see when I enter a Catholic church with a High Altar, with a tabernacle smack bang in the centre, with the altar rail in place, with statues to the Saints, with stain glass windows, and the other 'essentials' to a Catholic Church it lifts my soul.It helps me pray. It helps me feel that I am in the presence of God (as I said I need all the help I can get).

But when I enter a Catholic church that looks like a roller-disco, with the tabernacle tucked out of the way, with "God 'hearts' U" tapestries etc. I find it does not lift my soul at all. I feel like I am in a waiting room to see a social worker, not in the presence of Almighty God.

All I want my Catholic church to be is... Catholic.

For millennia the Church fine tuned its ceremonies and buildings. Corruption could come and go. Heresies could come and go. Saints and sinners, empires and monarchies could all come and go - but the Church would stay, would raise up wonderful Cathedrals, churches and chapels, all designed to raise the minds of the faithful to the Holy Trinity and bring focus to Our Lord in the Tabernacle and the Holy Eucharist.

Countless Saints have told us of the many Angels present during Mass, when Our Lord comes to us in Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity. Do we envisage that when we are in a "roller-disco" church? I certainly do when I am in a beautiful Catholic church.

I know the Mass can take place in a back room as in Elizabethan England & Wales. I know it can take place on a rock in the wilderness as in Elizabethan and Cromwellian Ireland. But surely when we have the opportunity to do so, with a Church hierarchy in place, we should be making the church per se, from its altars, to its schools, to its orders as Catholic as possible?

Just today I picked up a copy of Menevia News from my own diocese and front page news was how a Catholic youth group was given a talk by a (Catholic?) group called Peace Mala which 'promotes friendship, respect and peace between people of all faiths and none, regardless of race, colour, religion, sexuality, size age or ability'

To quote their own website:

Peace Mala (The Peace Mala Youth Project for World Peace) is an award winning, non-political, non-religious charitable organisation. We do not support any political party, movement or belief system over any other.

Our aim is to contribute to education for global citizenship by inviting all people to treat each other with respect regardless of race, colour, religion, gender, sexuality, size, age or ability. Our compassionate wish is for people, animals and the environment to be at peace.

A Peace Mala is a symbolic bracelet that focuses on the Golden Rule. It promotes friendship, respect and peace between people of all faiths and none; all cultures and lifestyles. Its intention is to educate and remind everyone that this rule is recognised by many scholars, teachers and philosophers. It is also universal to all compassionate faiths.

I think the above speaks for itself and there are several aspects to the above that make me, as a simple, stumbling Catholic trying to lead a Catholic life and give good example to my own children, deeply uneasy.

It even has a Rainbow coloured logo. It's also supported, according to Menevia News, by "many national and international religious leaders" with many wonderful and exotic names (Anglican, Buddhist and Muslim included).

And we are celebrating this on the front page of our own Catholic newspaper?

What are we teaching Catholic Youth Groups? That Catholicism is one of a pick n mix group of religions? Or that the rights of homosexuals are to be defended?

Whatever it is - it's not Catholic

Can't we just teach them that they belong to the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church? That the ultimate charity is to bring homosexuals, Anglicans and Muslims into that fold and away from sin, heresy and idolatry, not to fawn to them or make them think their false ways are equal to or acceptable to the Church established by Jesus Christ.

My worry is that their are others out there like me: poor Catholics, ill-educated Catholics, Catholics who need help, struggling sinners trying their best and often failing. If there are, and I'm sure there are, then we need a Catholic church, with Catholic principles, with Catholic youth groups etc.

The Church should be the one dependable in this mad, materialist, all too atheist world. Sadly, in many instance it seems that the Church is not as dependable as we'd like.

From Westminster to Menevia, from the Soho Mass to Peace Mala.

Can I please just have a Catholic church that's Catholic?

Link:
Peace Mala (It's not Catholic!)

P.S.Among the links on the Peace Mala site (You know, Muslim, Buddhist, Jewish, Taoism and 101 other types -- what is Yungdrung Bon? Is it legal?) are the following "Earth Religions":

http://www.witchvox.com http://www.paganfed.org http://www.druidry.org http://www.druidnetwork.org http://www.darkforce.com/wicca/  

Should the Catholic Church be promoting such evil links to our own young folk, as well as on the front page of the Diocesan newsletter?

 

St Padre Pio and the Sacrifice of the Mass