Happy feast day to all fellow-devotees of St Philomena. The Saturday morning Mass at Blackfen is according to the
usus antiquior so we had the Saturday Mass of the Blessed Virgin Mary with commemoration of Sts Tiburtius and Susanna. To make up the odd number of collects, I added a commemoration of St Philomena. In honour of her feast day, here is a Novena prayer that you might like to use:
O faithful virgin and glorious martyr, St Philomena, who works so many miracles on behalf of the poor and sorrowful, have pity on me, Thou knowest the multitude and diversity of my needs, Behold me at thy feet, full of misery, but full of hope. I entreat thy charity O great Saint. Graciously hear me and obtain from God a favourable answer to the request which I now humbly lay before you (here specify your petition.) I am firmly convinced that through thy merits, through the scorn, the sufferings and the death thou didst endure, united to the merits of the Passion and Death of Jesus thy Spouse, I shall obtain what I ask of thee and in the joy of my heart I will bless God, who is admirable in His saints. Amen.
Happy feast day to all fellow-devotees of St Philomena. The Saturday morning Mass at Blackfen is according to the usus antiquior so we had the Saturday Mass of the Blessed Virgin Mary with commemoration of Sts Tiburtius and Susanna. To make up the odd number of collects, I added a commemoration of St Philomena. In honour of her feast day, here is a Novena prayer that you might like to use:
17 comments:
Father, I'm afraid it has really not very much to do with this post, so if you feel it inappropriate, please delete, but I wanted to ask you about something I read today: on this blog which you also link to, http://obnoxiouslypious.wordpress.com/2007/08/11/devotions-condemned/ it is said today that the Divine Mercy chaplet has been condemned by the Holy Office, and it conveys the impression that this suppression is still in force. Now, since Sr. Faustina was since canonized, Divine Mercy Sunday introduced for the whole Church etc. I don't think that is the case, but perhaps you could explain? Thank you very much, and a blessed feast day, and Sunday tomorrow.
No, the suppression is not still in force. Pope John Paul canonised St Faustina, promoted the devotion and (controversially) named the Octave Sunday of Easter "Divine Mercy Sunday".
The interesting question about the Divine Mercy devotion is the extent to which it has been "watered down". I have seen some claims to the effect that references to purgatory etc. have been removed. Some time, I'll try and hunt down some information on this.
My my Fr. Tim doing pre-62 rules! Very very bad! ;p
With regards to the Divine Mercy prayers, here is a perfect example of how the ecumaniacs think they are in charge of prayers - my mother's Divine Mercy handbook has the following:
FOURTH DAY
"Today bring to Me THOSE WHO DO NOT BELIEVE IN GOD* AND THOSE WHO DO NOT YET KNOW ME.
*Our Lord's original words here were "the pagans." Since the pontificate of Pope John XXIII, the Church has seen fit to replace this term with clearer and more appropriate terminology."
FIFTH DAY
"Today bring to Me THE SOULS OF THOSE WHO HAVE SEPARATED THEMSELVES FROM MY CHURCH,*
*Our Lord's original words here were "heretics and schismatics," since He spoke to Saint Faustina within the context of her times. As of the Second Vatican Council, Church authorities have seen fit not to use those designations in accordance with the explanation given in the Council's Decree on Ecumenism (n.3).
As is typical of the springtime "renewal" of Vatican II, even Our Lord would be corrected by the likes of Kasper for being un-ecumenical.
Fr. Tim, I had occasion to remember your blog this week and feel really proud of the good work for our Catholic faith that is coming out of it. I chanced upon a copy of the Economist, a magazine I had not read in a long time, in an office I visited. I was delighted to see in this issue of June 30th – July 6th, 2007, a mention of the protests over the 99 names of Allah concert in Westminster Cathedral. It said, “On the pavement outside the Cathedral, a few Catholics staged a peaceful protest, arguing that because Islam rejected basic Christian doctrines – such as the Trinity and the divinity of Christ – it had no place in a church.” And “The Cathedral authorities insisted that what had taken place was an artistic performance, not an act of worship.”
That’s right, force our bishops on the defensive, so they will think long and hard before they do it a second time. That mention was in a rather favourable review of the Pope’s Jesus of Nazareth. So here’s to the few – today’s equivalent of the small band of early Christians among hostile pagans who conquered for Christ. Having read previously about the protest and your role in it on your blog, I felt immensely proud of you and happy to be a Catholic of the non-liberal mindset. Congrats on the use of the technology to clean up our church and promote our faith. Keep at it Father, unleash the power of the blogs as you say a few posts down. Even though I am on the other side of the Atlantic, I will write a letter, having seen first hand the spiritual and intellectual damage caused by the church liberals like those of your CARFODS and World Council of Churches etc in the developing world.
I was wondering if you can use your powerful blog to unleash two more movements. You had a post on Oscar Romero and Opus Dei. Was he really that sold on Opus Dei or was he being shown a way out of left wing radicalism by an arm of the church genuinely concerned for his soul, which touched him in the way that truth does? I know I must read more of and about the man to get a handle on what he stood for but I can’t shake off my unease with the cause for canonization of Romero. The reason is that I am suspicious of any thing embraced by secular leftists, church liberals and gay activists: people who always seem able to advance their hidden agendas because they know something the rest of us who trust them do not. If Romero were truly an Opus Dei devotee, can you help reclaim him for the true Church by helping to publicize what he must have stood on church moral teachings etc and not just the social justice stuff as hijacked by revolutionaries?
The second movement is about Latin. Everyday I realize that in spite of the recent MP liberalizing the Latin mass, few Catholics know Latin. Even on the British blogs it hits me that some of the strongest advocates of the Old Rite mass appear to know the language by rote or sparse phrases here and there. This does not feel right. In an age where all kinds of ethnic and cultural groups or newly formed “minorities” are going back centuries to unearth their roots and cultural heritage, can a case be made for the preservation of the cultural identity of Catholics via the propagation of Latin? We cannot completely ignore the voice of those who had argued for mass in the vernacular – God is best served and attention better focused if people understand the language of their acts of worship. But can’t this be achieved with universal Latin instead of a Babel of rites? In the developing world where people embrace their faith more wholeheartedly and in the developed world where many born after Vatican II have never known a Latin mass, wouldn’t you say the onus is on trads to promote the learning of Latin? I know a lot of these people who instinctly recognize the beauty of the Latin mass but are timid about participating because they feel like idiots. It is not fair for them to be second class citizens of the church, shut out of enjoying the fullness of its treasures because of a language barrier.
What country in the world has so much of its history locked up in a language that most of its modern day leaders and citizens are illiterate in? What nation, except Vatican State, has a “national tongue” or “official language” that its people don’t know how to speak? We have heard from science about the benefits to the brain of learning a foreign language and we know how children pick up languages easily. Shouldn’t we be having a massive campaign to teach Catholics Latin? Divert our Sunday collections away from faith destroying CAFODS and Caritas’ and liberal no-longer-recognizably-Catholic religious orders and put it into the education of Catholics in their “mother tongue”. Make it a requirement to learn some Latin as one has to do the catechism for first communion, confirmation, or classes for marriage and RCIA. No one should be forced to, but I am sure people will feel buoyed and more empowered when they acquire this new skill. It might be the modern day equivalent of the “fish” symbol for persecuted Catholics to recognize each other. I don’t think the cause of the faith will be served by simply asking people to memorize some prayers and hymns. Maybe the catholic blogs, led by yours, can make this a fashionable movement with St. Philomena's intercession.
Is anyone composing a list of NEWLY instituted Masses according to the extraordinary form, announced since the Motu Proprio?
Fr. Tim,
Just staying off-topic for an instant, a possible source of confusion about the "re-baptizmal" effects of the devotions around Divine Mercy Sunday was Pope John Paul's award of a plenary indulgence to those who practice them (sorry for the poor technical terminology). I think it made people wonder what in fact they were getting - complete remission of punishment due to sin as the devotional pamphlets originally indicated, or a more difficult to obtain plenary indulgence.
Do you have a view here?
According to the Diary of St Faustina (para. 1226) The Eighth Day of the Novena of Divine Mercy is for the souls who are in the prison of Purgatory.
However the Novena as contained in the CTS publication "The Divine Mercy and St Faustina" (p. 81) contains the identical wording, so I don't know what version you have seen which has omitted them.
The Diary version of the Chaplet is identical with that used today and makes no mention of Purgatory.
OHC - many thanks. I saw that article online and was pleased that the protest was so firmly a part of the "story". Thank you for your suggestions for the blog. I will be looking out for more information on Romero. As to Latin, I would always encourage people to learn Latin. It is sad that it is now taught in very few schools. In some ways, Latin is inimical to the current educational project. You can't "get by" in Latin, you can't "get the general sense". As Fr Reggie Foster used to yell at us "Either you know it or you don't." It takes hard work.
Dear Father,
I've often seen reference to the proper Mass and Office of St Philomena (formerly) conceded to various dioceses, including Rome - would you happen to have access to text of the proper Mass at least? Devotees of St Philomena would thank you!
At my local TLM, on Saturday we had Low Mass of SS Tiburtius and Susanna, with second Collect of St Philomena from the Common - and then Exposition and devotions to St Philomena, concluding with Benediction. (Am I an unwitting Modernist, or do prayers to saints coram Sanctissimo seem a little odd?)
It struck me how little devotion we tend to have to most saints these days, excepting current 'favourites': the holy prayers in honour of St Philomena would have been entirely appropriate if offered in honour of SS Tiburtius and Susanna (who I'm sure didn't mind being pushed aside as it were, esp. as most Roman Rite people were busy honouring St Clare), or indeed (a day earlier) in honour of the great martyr St Lawrence.
People these days have their favourite one or two - e.g. St Faustina - but what of the old medieval style popular devotions, with Prymers full of prayers to a whole gaggle of saints? Ditto for churches: modern ones will have some image of Our Lady, rarely of anyone else, and even early 20th C churches usually only have statues of the Little Flower and other then-popular figures; yet older churches were once full of many different saints' images.
It reminds me how Catholic a work Dom Gueranger's "Liturgical Year" is, with its prayers and devotions for each and every saint.
Joshua - no I haven't got the text of the proper for St Philomena. It was suppressed in 1961 (I think) but Bishops who enquired about existing custom were told to carry on as before.
Am I an unwitting Modernist, or do prayers to saints coram Sanctissimo seem a little odd?
Er... Unwitting modernist actually LOL. The CDW has made it clear that prayers to Our Lady are perfectly OK coram sanctissimo. The best way I heard it explained was that if you shouldn't pray to Our Lady (or the saints) before Our Lord, you shouldn't pray to them anywhere else.
The multiplication of images in churches were abolished by the Council of Trent, as were non-biblical representations above altars. Surely it is not suggested that even Trent was tainted by 'modernism'.?
If St Faustina had not been a Pole her bizarre devotions, which are simply a more exaggerated version of devotion to the Sacred Heart, would still lie suppressed and would now be forgotten. The Divine Mercy devotion is little better than a free insurance premium for a claustrophobic heaven, as the ambulance cases who take part in it prove. It is also crazy having it in the Easter octave. Why, for instance, go to confession on Low Sunday when all present will presumably have made their Easter duties already? It's soul-cramping stuff and hardly gives God a chance to exercise his real mercy towards the mess he created in making mankind in the first place.
[...] hardly gives God a chance to exercise his real mercy towards the mess he created in making mankind in the first place.
If that is what you believe about God and creation, it is hardly surprising that you do not like such devotions. They are based on the doctrine that God is infinitely good and powerful, that creation is good and that man is good but fallen.
The multiplication of images in churches were abolished by the Council of Trent
Really? I thought that the Council of Trent said that "the images of Christ, of the Virgin Mother of God, and of the other saints, are to be had and retained particularly in temples, and that due honour and veneration are to be given them"
Trent did speak against anything disorderly, unbecoming, superstitious etc. and against the use of images for the gain of filthy lucre.
If God is infinitely good and powerful and man is made in his image why are the majority of the human race so despicable? There is something odd about the classic doctrine of the fall. If the propensity for evil is so pronounced God must have made it in the first place for it to have come into being. Nothing comes from nothing.
gretel - I am sorry that you have such a negative experience of human people. I do not think that the majority of the human race is despicable. Blessed Teresa of Calcutta found great inspiration from the kindness and generosity of the poor. I would say that some people are despicable, some are saints, and the majority of us are middling along - sadly fallen but often trying to do our best.
Nothing comes from nothing
True - but evil is not a positive force in itself. Evil is the privation of good. Otherwise you will have to end up with two gods: a good one and a bad one. People usually make the good one responsible for the spirit and the bad one responsible for the flesh. Then you have to accept that birth is bad and death is good. Many examples of this way of thinking throughout history. The results are not pretty.
Father,
Since the words of some of the Divine Mercy Prayers have been changed, where can I find a faithful copy of them?
-sheila
Actually, Gretel, though the Divine Mercy devotion isn't my favorite (mainly because of how some of it's fanatical followers push it dogmatically)...the Easter duty objection isn't true. The Easter duty must be completed sometime during Paschaltide. The communion doesn't need to be taken on Easter Sunday itself. If anything, then, Divine Mercy is an impetus for some people to actually complete their Easter Duty, rather than a redundancy.
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