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Showing posts from August, 2020

Fr Charles Briggs RIP

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Of your charity, pray for the repose of the soul of Father Charles Briggs who died in the early hours of this morning at St Christopher’s Hospice, fortified by all the rites of Holy Mother Church.  Anima eius et animae omnium fidelium defunctorum, per misericordiam Dei, requiescat in pace. Amen. May his soul and the souls of all the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen.
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Fr Charles Briggs – an update

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Fr Briggs is very grateful to you all for your Masses, prayers, cards and kind wishes. Please continue to keep him in your prayers. As expected, Father’s health has continued to worsen because of the cancer that he has, along with his existing health problems. Following medical advice, his family today agreed to transfer him for the time being, to St Christopher’s Hospice in Sydenham where additional support is on hand.  In the current circumstances, St Christopher’s has told us that they cannot allow visitors apart from two named people. Father Charles has asked his brother Matt Briggs and his priest friend, Father Finigan to take on this role. Cards and letters can be sent to Father Charles care of: St Christopher’s Hospice 51-59 Lawrie Park Road London SE26 6DZ Emails can be sent to him care of the parish email address: chislehurst@rcaos.org.uk  Thank you for your support and concern, and especially your prayers. Fr Tim Finigan Matt Briggs 23 August 2020
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The Good Samaritan: an ancient tradition of interpretation

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The parable of the good Samaritan presents us with a moral lesson, and the saints who have commented on it do refer to this lesson. However the parable is also remarkable for the way in which the Fathers of the Church consistently understood it as an allegory in which the traveller is the fallen human person, Jericho is the world, Jerusalem is heaven, and the good Samaritan is Our Lord. This kind of interpretation is found in St Irenaeus, Clement of Alexandria, Origen, St Ambrose and St Augustine.  This line of tradition is such that a scholar like Jean Danielou could suggest that it goes back to the first Christian community. If that is the case, it is probable that it goes back to Our Lord himself, in the “many other things” that Our Lord said. (Jn 21.25) This is why the Fathers of the Church are so important; they preserve for us the apostolic tradition, the lessons which the apostles themselves learned from Christ but are not written down. St Basil, for example, speaks of th...
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St Gaspar del Bufalo and the Precious Blood

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Saint Gaspar del Bufalo (1786-1837) was an apostle of devotion to the Precious Blood. Imprisoned for refusing to take the oath of allegiance to Napoleon, and notable in charitable works, he preached with such power that the banditti came to lay down their weapons at his feet. Devotion to the Precious Blood is of fundamental importance. The talk quotes from St Gaspar, St John XXIII and our great English priest, Father Faber. (While you are on YouTube, I would be most grateful if you were to click or tap on the button to "Subscribe" to my channel .) Here is the text if you prefer just to read it: **************************** [Text] St Gaspar del Bufalo and the Precious Blood St Gaspar del Bufalo was born on the feast of the Epiphany in 1786, so his mother named him Gaspar, Melchior Balthasar when he was baptised (on the same day). His family worked in service and lived opposite the Church of the Gesù in Rome, so the young Gaspar would have known the painting there of the...
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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 .
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Request for Novena to Blessed Pius IX

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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...
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Saint Gabriel

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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...
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Downloadable booklets for Vespers

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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...
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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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