Fine tribute to a brilliant convert

Fr Ashley Beck, himself a former Anglican clergyman, now a Catholic priest of my diocese, has written an excellent and enjoyable booklet on Ronald Knox, published by the CTS.

Knox was a brilliant man in every way. He had the benefit of a classical education at Eton and Balliol and made the most of it. A friend to Harold MacMillan, Evelyn Waugh and G K Chesterton, fellow of Trinity, and later a chaplain to the Catholic students, always an "Oxford character", his bon mots were still being recycled when I was an undergraduate and probably still are today.

His love for the scriptures led him to undertake single-handedly the translation of the entire bible - a tragic project in that he met opposition while undertaking it and within a decade the restrictions placed upon him were lifted to allow the immensely inferior versions that we are today using in the Sacred Liturgy.

Although Fr Beck is keen to moderate the record concerning Knox's difficulty with the hierarchy over his translation, I have never forgotten his 1944 letter to Archbishop Griffin which expresses his frustration at the time, with characteristic wit. Griffin had offered to be a patron for him. Knox said:
"Is not a Patron, my Lord, one who looks with unconcern on a man struggling for life in the water and when he reaches ground, encumbers him with help?"
Three major streets in centre of Oxford are the High Street, joined to Broad Street by Turl Street: known to students as "The High", "The Broad", and "The Turl". Turl Street is home to Lincoln College, Exeter College and Jesus College. One of Knox's famous quips at the Oxford Union (of which he was President) was to say, without needing the above geographical explanation:
The Anglican Church is like The Turl: it runs from the Broad to the High, passing Jesus on the way.
This was an older kind of ecumenism in which such ribbing was taken in good part.

Knox was an inspiration to me as a student and I greatly enjoyed his work and the folklore about him. Only recently, I read his book "The Mass in Slow Motion" which captures the experience of the priest saying the older form of the Mass and offers many helpful insights for prayerful participation at Mass. I was delighted to find that there is a website for The Ronald Knox Society of North America which is a wonderful resource for Knox enthusiasts. Fr Beck reports that at the end of his life, Knox said that he no longer recalled how much he had written and that he doubted whether the recording angel would know either. Nevertheless, the Ronald Knox Society have attempted a list.

Fr Beck has written a very fine tribute to Knox and it is a most valuable introduction to the man and his work. Let me quote a last anecdote from it - one that I had not heard before:
He received Holy Communion for the last time on 11th August [1957]; on the 20th he was asked if he would like extracts read to him from the New Testament. He declined and said, 'Awfully jolly of you to suggest it, though' which were his last words.

Popular posts from this blog

1962 Missal pdf online

The Church Music Association of America and Jeffrey Tucker of the New Liturgical Movement have made available the 1962 Missal online in pdf format (72Mb). The file is hosted at Musica Sacra , the website of the CMAA, thanks to a generous gift from Fr Robert Skeris While you are at it, take a look at the articles clarifying the rules for music at Low Mass and music at High Mass .
Read more

Request for Novena to Blessed Pius IX

Image
A priest friend of mine is ill in hospital. He has a special devotion to Blessed Pius IX. Could I ask you, of your charity, to say a Novena for his speedy recovery. Novena In Honour of Blessed Pius IX Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, hear our prayers and glorify your servant Pius IX, who consecrated the Universal Church to you. (Our Father...) O Mary conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to you, hear our prayer and glorify your servant Pius IX who declared you Immaculate. (Hail Mary...) Saint Joseph, spouse of the most pure Virgin Mary, hear our prayer and glorify your servant Pius IX who declared you the Patron of the Universal Church. (Glory be...) Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, Immaculate Mary, our Hope, and Saint Joseph hear our prayers and glorify your servant Pius IX , granting to us through his merits and intercessions the graces which we ardently desire: that the glory of God be revealed through Father's illness. (Our Father..., Hail Mary..., Glory be...
Read more

Saint Gabriel

Image
The angels call for our veneration and awe as part of God’s creation. Part of the destructive modernism of the 1970s included advice to Catholic school teachers that they should not talk to children about angels. This wrought lasting damage which continues to need rectifying. We should include in our prayers a heartfelt recourse to our own Guardian Angels. The Archangel Gabriel “God is my strength” would be terrifying were he to appear to any of us. Our Lady was “troubled” at the word of Saint Gabriel and wondered at the manner of the salutation. Immediately, according to his mission, the awesome messenger explained himself. Modern retelling of the event is often reduced to the jejune “Mary said Yes to God”. In fact, she said “Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it done to me according to thy word”. This conveys more accurately the flawless faith and trust of the Immaculata. In the infinitely wise providence of the Father, we now know the structure of the event in even more detai...
Read more

Saint Ignatius on heresy, and the capsizing boat

Image
On the feast of St Ignatius, I offer my prayers and good wishes to some great Jesuits. Just off the top of my head, I think of Fr Joseph Fessio SJ the founder of Ignatius Press which has not only published the English translations of various works of Cardinal Ratzinger/Pope Benedict, but has also given a break for good Catholic authors both of theology and of Catholic fiction. Then there is Fr Bob Spitzer SJ, with whom I studied in Rome many years ago, and Fr Paul Mankowski SJ who has written some superb articles over the years. Here in England, I recall Fr Anthony Meredith SJ, the great fatherly commentator on the Fathers of Cappadocia and in Rome, there is Fr Gilles Pelland SJ, the fierce French-Canadian patristics scholar was a bit harsh when I first arrived in the Holy City, but seemed to soften a bit when after 5 years he seeme satisfied that, though English, I was not a modernist. Many of my Jesuit priest friends and mentors have now reached “that night when no man can work”...
Read more

Downloadable booklets for Vespers

Image
Gregorian Chant Hymns is a most helpful website that I mentioned in a post just over a year ago. As I said then, the site "[...] promotes the learning of Gregorian Chant by making sheet music, recordings, translations, and instructions. There is a short guide to Gregorian Notation (those square notes) and to Latin pronunciation. Everything is available free of charge, in line with other great traditional music websites." Work has continued at the site and there is now a section which makes available pdf (or .docx format) booklets for Vespers for every Sunday of the Year and a few major feasts. There is the basic booklet for ordinary Sunday Vespers which is supplemented by separate files for the Sundays after Pentecost which contain the Magnificat and Collect. Then there are booklets, for example for Advent and Lent, where the office is different from the regular Sunday Vespers with its antiphons. All of the booklets have texts and notation for Benediction and the Maria...
Read more