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Our Easter Faith: Not a Pious Crème Fraiche

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In public life, some basically well-meaning figures have the graciousness to wish us well at Easter and to recognise the importance of the Christian feast day. Perhaps they might assure us that their thoughts are with us at this time. That is kind of them and in Christian charity we should thank them for their kindness, but Easter should be a great deal more than that for us. We must believe that Our Lord Jesus Christ is risen from the grave, in the flesh, and lives for eternity. We cannot treat Easter as a jolly holiday that heralds spring, or the remembrance of a significant event from the past. It must change us today and every day, change who we are and what we do. The Christian faith cannot be a mild custard or blancmange of religiosity. (I am showing my age. Nowadays, I should say that it cannot be reduced to a pious crème fraiche .) We bow down and adore the King of Kings, risen from the tomb, who, “[…] continues for ever,
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Christ the Divine Embryo, the Turning-Point of History

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The angels are immeasurably more powerful and holy than any of us. We would quake in terror were we to meet an angel face-to-face. Yet the Holy Gabriel bows down in humility before the Blessed Virgin to acknowledge his Queen. When we repeat his words in the Rosary, the Angelus, the Liturgy of the Church, and on many other occasions, we should try to make that salutation in the same spirit of humility before the one who was chosen to be the vessel of honour who carried the living God in her womb. The Archangel Gabriel continues by addressing her as “ gratia plena ”, that is, full of grace as a past, existing, and enduring state. As we know from the teaching of the Church, Our Lady was conceived immaculate, so she was full of grace from the first moment of her life. She was also able to grow in grace throughout her life, because a person’s capacity can grow if that person is, like Our Lady, actively holy and virtuous in complete accord
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The Day of Reflection: The Traditional Prayer for the Living and the Dead

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The end-of-life charity Marie Curie , has proposed that today be a day of reflection. It is the first anniversary of the beginning of lockdown last year. (I remember the date, because I moved to Lewisham the following day, when the regulations took effect.) Marie Curie ’s summary is as follows, "Join Marie Curie for this moment of reflection, as guests share their thoughts, words and songs. Together, we’ll honour loved ones who have died and reflect on the challenges we have overcome. During this session we’ll pause to observe the national minute of silence at 12 noon." The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales has supported this initiative , emphasising that we should make it a day of prayer. They suggest joining in with the minute of silence at midday, and taking some time in the day to pray before the Blessed Sacrament. Where I live, there is the joy of hearing the Angelus bell at 12noon and
Read more

Saint Patrick, an Example and Intercessor for those on the Threshold of Cultural Change

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The popular image of Saint Patrick has suffered a fate similar to that of Saint Nicholas. His image has degenerated into a soft toy character, with notes of condescending “oirishness”, associated with the colour green, leprechauns, Guinness, and silly hats. Each year, priests and laity who love him as a saint and respect the great cultural influence that he had in his time, and which lasted for centuries in the land he evangelised, try to put the record straight. I hope to do my bit. Saint Patrick is justly credited with a major role in the conversion of Ireland from Celtic Polytheism to Christian truth. This may seem remote from our present concerns, but we need only consider the rise of new age spirituality, often indeed garnished with the popular adjective association of "Celtic", to see that the problem has resurfaced. Nowadays it is not so much that many gods are worshipped, as that a gnostic, supposedly supe
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Psalm 121 and longing for the house of the Lord

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The Jewish people naturally hated their seventy years’ captivity in Babylon. Essentially, they had been ethnically cleansed from Jerusalem and taken to Iraq. In Psalm 121 we can feel their joy and expectation at being set free and finally making their way back to Jerusalem. Their joy was focussed particularly on being able to go to the Temple and worship God once again according to their ancient rites. The psalm verse of the Introit on Laetare Sunday is, “I rejoiced at the things that were said to me: We shall go into the house of the Lord.” (Ps 121:1) It was not a happy-clappy jaunt to meet friends, share the good news and have a cup of coffee afterwards. The ritual celebration of the sacred liturgy was everything. It had been torn from them and they longed to worship once again in the way God had given them. The young people who had never experienced it were excited to take part for the first time in their lives; we can only imagi
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The Majestic Wisdom of Christ in Answering the Pharisees

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Our Lord took the Pharisees to task many times over their application of the law to particular circumstances. For example, He criticised them for ruling that if someone sets aside the money that should they should have spent on their parents in need, and promises it to the Temple treasury, they no longer have an obligation to support their parents. He says that they have effectively broken the solemn duty that the owe to their parents before God. (Matt 15:3-6) Our Lord explicitly goes further than correcting the Pharisaical interpretation of the law. In the sermon on the mount He claims to have authority over the law itself when He says, “You have heard it said of old … But I say to you.” Our Lord does this because He is the Word made flesh. The Word can also stand for the Torah , the law given by God in His infinite wisdom. Our Lord is the Torah made flesh. When God gave the law to Moses on Mount Sinai, it was a terrifying
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Mass of the Most Holy Shroud of Our Lord, and Preparation for Holy Communion

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In the older Roman Missal in the section of Missae pro Aliquibus Locis , there are texts of a Mass of the Holy Shroud of Our Lord, to be said on the Friday after the second Sunday of Lent. In the Collect, we thank God for leaving us the vestigia or vestiges of the passion of Christ. We have such vestiges in the holy shroud itself preserved at Turin. Despite the amazing photograph-like image for which there is no evidence of forgery, it is still doubted. Were it any human discovery with evidence of this sort, there would be general public agreement about its authenticity. It is only because people do not want to believe in a miracle that they have to doubt it. We need not ourselves have any scruple in treating it as a genuine relic of Christ. The Latin word vestigium means first of all a track or footprint. The shroud is a “footprint” left on earth, of Christ, crucified for our sins to win us heaven. Our part is to follow in the footstep
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Our Lord's Glorious Humanity, His Temptations, the Transfiguration, and the Reverence We Owe Him

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Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ is truly God and truly man. He is the second person of the Blessed Trinity, made flesh. His humanity was true humanity. He was indeed made a man like us in all things apart from sin, but we should remember that being without sin also makes Him very different from us in some respects. Being truly God, Our Lord did not have original sin, did not have disordered desires, never committed a sin, and could never commit a sin. When the devil tempted Him, Our Lord responded in peremptory fashion, and with absolute authority. Hebrews 4:15 is sometimes erroneously translated to imply that Our Lord was subjected to all the temptations that we have, though he tried awfully hard and managed to resist. This gives the quite false impression that Our Lord might have actually sinned. In fact, the world for “temptation” in Greek also means a test or trial. Our Lord was not subject to disordered desires or past habi
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St Matthias, the Cursing Psalms, and the Universal Mission of the Church

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When chanting the epistle at Mass for the feast of St Matthias, I must confess to being amused at the part where Saint Peter says, “Let their habitation become desolate, and let there be none to dwell therein. And his bishopric let another take.” (Acts 1:20) The prince of the Apostles first quotes verse 26 of Psalm 69 which is one of the many verses of various psalms that were omitted in the modern Liturgy of the Hours , and secondly verse 8 of Psalm 108, which is one of the three psalms that were omitted in their entirety. The General Instruction on the Liturgy of the Hour s explains that “Such omissions are made because of certain psychological difficulties” (n.131) I hope that you did not become depressed or neurotic during the epistle. St Peter applies these verses to Judas because He betrayed Our Lord. He then explains to the 120 or so men and women, including the apostles and Our Lady, that they must choose someone to tak
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Recommended Basic Spiritual Reading for Lent

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Someone asked if I would recommend some reading for Lent. Here goes! On such matters I generally try not to be original and instead to introduce good Catholics to classic spiritual works in case they have not come across them. If you have read all the below, you are probably in a good position to find other worthwhile reading yourself. But if these are books that you haven’t read, then any one of them would be a potential life changer. And if you have read them all, you will probably know that they are all worth reading again. Most of these books are readily available as books with paper and glue, books that go on your e-reader, web pages, and pdf versions. I don’t have so much experience of audio books but my guess would be that they are now all around in that format too. Over the past couple of years I have gravitated more and more to the Internet Archive  which I now use in lieu of a library, with the help of a Kindle Fire 10 which makes pdfs readable. And do not forget the excel
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On the Attempted Cancellation of Father Zuhlsdorf

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Since the US election, Fr Zuhlsdorf has been subjected to a concerted attack from some liberal catholic publications. This would not be noteworthy except for the fact that as a result, he has been asked to move from the diocese where he currently works and has now to find accommodation. It is therefore reasonable to speak of an attempt to “cancel” him as the saying is nowadays. The Character of Fr Z’s Blog As an outspoken blogger, Fr Z is accustomed to opposition from Catholics who object to his promotion of the traditional Latin Mass, gays who object to his unequivocal defence of Catholic moral teaching, and modernist priests and theologians whose theology he criticises for being contrary to the magisterial teaching of the Church. In the online “wild west” of the blogosphere, he is happy to give as good as he gets. This makes his blog enjoyable for his followers and probably annoying for his opponents. At the same time, of
Read more

Popular posts from this blog

Our Easter Faith: Not a Pious Crème Fraiche

Image
In public life, some basically well-meaning figures have the graciousness to wish us well at Easter and to recognise the importance of the Christian feast day. Perhaps they might assure us that their thoughts are with us at this time. That is kind of them and in Christian charity we should thank them for their kindness, but Easter should be a great deal more than that for us. We must believe that Our Lord Jesus Christ is risen from the grave, in the flesh, and lives for eternity. We cannot treat Easter as a jolly holiday that heralds spring, or the remembrance of a significant event from the past. It must change us today and every day, change who we are and what we do. The Christian faith cannot be a mild custard or blancmange of religiosity. (I am showing my age. Nowadays, I should say that it cannot be reduced to a pious crème fraiche .) We bow down and adore the King of Kings, risen from the tomb, who, “[…] continues for ever,
Read more

Saint Patrick, an Example and Intercessor for those on the Threshold of Cultural Change

Image
The popular image of Saint Patrick has suffered a fate similar to that of Saint Nicholas. His image has degenerated into a soft toy character, with notes of condescending “oirishness”, associated with the colour green, leprechauns, Guinness, and silly hats. Each year, priests and laity who love him as a saint and respect the great cultural influence that he had in his time, and which lasted for centuries in the land he evangelised, try to put the record straight. I hope to do my bit. Saint Patrick is justly credited with a major role in the conversion of Ireland from Celtic Polytheism to Christian truth. This may seem remote from our present concerns, but we need only consider the rise of new age spirituality, often indeed garnished with the popular adjective association of "Celtic", to see that the problem has resurfaced. Nowadays it is not so much that many gods are worshipped, as that a gnostic, supposedly supe
Read more

Christ the Divine Embryo, the Turning-Point of History

Image
The angels are immeasurably more powerful and holy than any of us. We would quake in terror were we to meet an angel face-to-face. Yet the Holy Gabriel bows down in humility before the Blessed Virgin to acknowledge his Queen. When we repeat his words in the Rosary, the Angelus, the Liturgy of the Church, and on many other occasions, we should try to make that salutation in the same spirit of humility before the one who was chosen to be the vessel of honour who carried the living God in her womb. The Archangel Gabriel continues by addressing her as “ gratia plena ”, that is, full of grace as a past, existing, and enduring state. As we know from the teaching of the Church, Our Lady was conceived immaculate, so she was full of grace from the first moment of her life. She was also able to grow in grace throughout her life, because a person’s capacity can grow if that person is, like Our Lady, actively holy and virtuous in complete accord
Read more

The Day of Reflection: The Traditional Prayer for the Living and the Dead

Image
The end-of-life charity Marie Curie , has proposed that today be a day of reflection. It is the first anniversary of the beginning of lockdown last year. (I remember the date, because I moved to Lewisham the following day, when the regulations took effect.) Marie Curie ’s summary is as follows, "Join Marie Curie for this moment of reflection, as guests share their thoughts, words and songs. Together, we’ll honour loved ones who have died and reflect on the challenges we have overcome. During this session we’ll pause to observe the national minute of silence at 12 noon." The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales has supported this initiative , emphasising that we should make it a day of prayer. They suggest joining in with the minute of silence at midday, and taking some time in the day to pray before the Blessed Sacrament. Where I live, there is the joy of hearing the Angelus bell at 12noon and
Read more

On the Attempted Cancellation of Father Zuhlsdorf

Image
Since the US election, Fr Zuhlsdorf has been subjected to a concerted attack from some liberal catholic publications. This would not be noteworthy except for the fact that as a result, he has been asked to move from the diocese where he currently works and has now to find accommodation. It is therefore reasonable to speak of an attempt to “cancel” him as the saying is nowadays. The Character of Fr Z’s Blog As an outspoken blogger, Fr Z is accustomed to opposition from Catholics who object to his promotion of the traditional Latin Mass, gays who object to his unequivocal defence of Catholic moral teaching, and modernist priests and theologians whose theology he criticises for being contrary to the magisterial teaching of the Church. In the online “wild west” of the blogosphere, he is happy to give as good as he gets. This makes his blog enjoyable for his followers and probably annoying for his opponents. At the same time, of
Read more