Pro Eligendo Mass - praying humbly and in tears for God's mercy


This morning at Blackfen we celebrated Missa Cantata Pro Eligendo Summo Pontifice with Mass IV and Credo VI. Here is the text of my sermon for the Mass:
I will not leave you orphans (Jn 14.18)

Arguing against the Donatists, St Augustine explained that in this world, the Church is composed of saints and sinners and that the Church tries to correct the sinners:
“Therefore it is the same Church also which within the Lord’s net is swimming along with the bad fishes, but is in heart and in life separated from them, and departs from them, that she may be presented to her Lord a glorious Church, not having spot or wrinkle. But the actual visible separation she looks for only on the sea-shore, that is, at the end of the world—meanwhile correcting as many as she can, and bearing with those whom she cannot correct; but she does not abandon the unity of the good because of the wickedness of those whom she finds incorrigible.” (Epistulae 93.9.34)
The Pope Emeritus, Benedict XVI alluded to this expression of St Augustine last October in an impromptu address:
“In these years, we have seen that there is discord in the vineyard of the Lord, we have seen that in the net of Peter (St Peter, the first apostle) there are bad fish, that human fragility exists even in the Church.”
The Church is both human and divine. It is divine because it is founded by Christ, and because it is the mystical body of Christ who is its Head. The Church is holy because it gives us the sacraments, the great and powerful channels of grace, and because it is preserved by Christ in the truth which, in her universal ordinary magisterium, in the definitions of her General Councils, and in the extraordinary magisterium of the Roman Pontiff, she teaches with the assistance of Christ and without admixture of error.

In her government, the Church is not preserved from error as many historical examples show. Nor does the Lord promise that all ecclesiastical appointments will be chosen by the Holy Spirit. Sometimes there are very bad appointments.

Hence we pray earnestly today and for the forthcoming indefinite period, for the appointment of a good Pope. Specifically we pray in the Collect of the Mass for a Pope who will be always pleasing to God by his zeal for us, and that he will be honoured by us for his salubre regimen. This is often translated as “good government” but the word salubris has a richer meaning. Lewis and Short give the definition as follows:
Salubris: health-giving, promoting health, healthful, wholesome, salubrious; salutary, serviceable, advantageous, beneficial
We plead before God for a Pope who will give us such government. It is not necessary that he be filled with all the necessary qualities now as Cardinal. We also pray that whatever his human shortcomings, God will give the chosen man the grace of state that he needs, and that the Church needs at this time.

We do not pray presumptuously. God permits evil to happen and sometimes (if we are not to dismiss large chunks of the writing of the saints and spiritual masters) we must accept that this is for our punishment. We richly deserve it for our sins, negligence and sloth. Therefore we must pray humbly and in tears, begging God to have mercy on us. If He does see fit, in His inscrutable providence, to send us the great Pope that we long for, our hearts must be filled not simply with joy and triumph but also with humble and sincere thanksgiving that God has favoured us once more.

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