The Hermeneutic of Continuity

Seeing on Fr Ray Blake's blog that he is back from Downside, I followed his link to have a look at the photos in LMS Chairman, Joseph Shaw's flickr set: LMS Priest Training Conference at Downside . The conference was put on by the Latin Mass Society to train priests to celebrate Mass according to the usus antiquior . this year, the guest speaker was Bishop Athanasius Schneider, the author of Dominus Est. A couple of years ago, I posted a video of bishop Schneider, and some helpful links . I expect that his address will be available soon at the Latin Mass Society website. Here is a photo of Bishop Schneider giving Holy Communion in the way in which he advocates in his book, with the communicant kneeling and receiving on the tongue: And here is a photo of the whole gathering, after Pontifical High Mass on the feast of St Clare: There may be an anti-baroque reader or two who will particularly appreciate this fine conical chasuble from the Downside sacristy. I don...

Photo © Mazur/catholicchurch.org.uk (from Invocation Flickr set ) Catholic with Attitude has written an enthusiastic personal account of the recent Invocation weekend. (See: Invocation 2010 = Brilliant! ) He notes particularly that the heart of the weekend was the communal prayer of the Sacred Liturgy in the Divine Office and Mass, and that there was also plenty of time for private prayer before the Blessed Sacrament. The weekend also offered young people the opportunity to talk informally with priests and religious about their vocation. Congratulations to Fr Langridge and the team for organising this first National Vocations Discernment weekend. May it be the first of many.

The above video is a report from Rome Reports on a new website set up to support priests. EncouragePriests.org is to be launched this Sunday, Fathers' Day. It is an initiative of Catholics Come Home . As a priest, I do find this a great encouragement and I am very grateful to the organisers of this site and to all its users for their prayers and kind wishes.

Good Father Ray Blake has been in the papers recently. First of all he made mention of the "hedonistic gay lobby" which resulted in coverage in the Brighton Argus. His response Anger in the Lobby is well worth reading for an insight into the work of a compassionate and pastoral priest in Brighton. Then he wrote about Feeling Sorry for Jon Venables which created something of a media frenzy with a BBC cameraman sent down on a doorstep mission (unsuccessful since Father was doing some pastoral work at the time.) Laurence "Bones" England has an account of this in which he has a photo of the local paper's bill for that day. (Do read Fr Ray's actual post before jumping to conclusions.) I did enjoy one of Laurence's suggestions for a future billboard:

PICTURE stands for "Priests’ ICT Use in their Religious Experience" and studies the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), and of the internet in particular, by the priests of Christian Catholic Church. The project has been endorsed by the Congregation for the Clergy. It is run by NewMinE (New Media in Education) at the the Università della Svizzera italiana (USI, Lugano, Switzerland - pictured) in collaboration with the School of Institutional Social Communications of the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross. There is an online questionnaire - it doesn't take too long to fill in, so I recommend it to brother priests. This is a sensible project aiming to find out useful information, not an attempt to generate silly headlines about confession on the internet and suchlike..

Today I have set myself the task of giving a short presentation to the priests of the Bexley Deanery on the subject of "New media and the priest" with reference to Pope Benedict's message for World Communications Day . The Holy Father mentioned in particular "images, videos, animated features, blogs, websites" so I will select just a few examples of these. For images, there is the collection at The Work of God's Children's Educational Project that I mentioned the other day, and L'Osservatore Romano's photo site which give resources for priests. The use of images is also well implemented in such videos as "Why I am a Catholic" This video is by by Katerina Marie Cabello whose blog is Evangelical Catholicism . The video slideshow gives six reasons for being Catholic: 1) the Eucharist, 2) the Church, 3) the Sacraments, 4) Mary, 5) Marriage (actual and spiritual), and 6) Communion of Saints. The song for the video is "Jesus Ch...

Many thanks to the Catholic Herald which has spoken very kindly about me in the leader article of this week's paper. May I take this opportunity to draw your attention to the list of blogs by priests and religious in the sidebar. They represent a wide variety of styles and interests within orthodox Catholicism. As soon as this post is published, I will add to that list a new blog: Let the Welkin Ring , which is written by Fr Wilfrid Elkin of the Diocese of Hexham and Newcastle.

Often in the past, when I have told parishioners that I am going to Rome, they have asked me "Are you staying at the Vatican?" I have answered avuncularly that it is not possible to stay at the Vatican itself but that I will be staying at a priests' residence in Rome. Tomorrow, however, I will indeed be staying at the Vatican: the Domus Sanctae Marthae which was built in 1996 to provide accommodation for the Cardinals who are taking part in a conclave. Fr Briggs and I will be flying from Heathrow T5 tomorrow to take part in the Clergy Conference organised by the Australian and American Confraternities of Catholic Clergy. I am especially looking forward to the talk by Mgr Guido Marini and the Pontifical Mass in the extraordinary form celebrated by Cardinal Canizares Llovera, although the whole of the programme is of great interest. We will both be bringing large, half-empty suitcases since we intend to do some shopping for clerical "gaaaarb". My parishioners ha...

Yesterday marked the 30th anniversary of the death of Archbishop Fulton Sheen. Various celebrations were held in Churches associated with him: in New York, Archbishop Dolan celebrated mass at St Patrick's Cathedral. In Louvain, at the American College of the Immaculate Conception, Bishop Shelton Fabre, Auxiliary Bishop of New Orleans, celebrated Mass. I am grateful to a correspondent for information about this Mass and the above photo. In his sermon, Bishop Fabre spoke of Archbishop Sheen's use of the media to spread the word of God: By constructive use of what at the time could still be considered the 'modern' media of television communication, Archbishop Sheen was able both to evangelise Catholics to embrace fully an understanding of their faith and to evangelise non-Catholics, bringing them an appreciation of Catholic teaching and leading many to conversion. We could consider him to be, in every positive sense of the term, the first televangelist. His effective use o...

Fr Tim Moyle, parish priest of St Anne's in Mattawa, Ontario (Canada), a bilingual parish in the Diocese of Pembroke, has recently started a blog called Where the Rubber Hits the Road . He posts an interesting mix of articles on various subjects with the intention of evangelisation and the relationship between faith and society.

Today under the auspices of the Society of St Catherine of Siena, I hosted a Study Day for Priests at Blackfen. We had a most fascinating and informative lecture from "Rubricarius" on the reform of the breviary that was undertaken from 1911-1913 under Pope St Pius X. You can see download the powerpoint file at the website of St Lawrence Press. We heard in some detail about the cursus of the psalms in the Roman breviary, in comparison with the monastic breviary, the changes to this cursus under St Pius X, and the effect of the changes in the precendence of feasts, especially the raising of the rank of the Sunday so that feasts of double rank were no longer allowed to "outrank" the Sunday. We looked at the way in which various celebrations were at one time allowed to interweave, creating a liturgical complex that allowed the recognition of feasts, of the temporal cycle, and of the penitential days. There was, I think, a consensus that liturgical reform, whether of th...

The Society of St Catherine of Siena is holding a study day for priests on Tuesday 6 October at Our Lady of the Rosary, Blackfen. The 1911-1913 Liturgical Reform By Paul Cavendish The lecture will consider the pre-1911 breviary and various questions relating to the arrangement of the psalms, the Dominical, festal and ferial offices and the offices of Lent and Advent. The problem of the calendar will be considered, particularly the ferial and Dominical cycles being swamped by the disproportionate number of doubles and the prominence given to Sundays in the 1911-1913 reform as well as the change to the cursus of the psalter and the implications for choral celebration. The day is open to all clergy. Seminarians who are free to come are also welcome. There is no charge for the day but if clergy are able to make a contribution from an allowance for “Ministry to Priests” or similar, that would be appreciated. Programme 11.00am Arrival (tea and coffee available) 11.30am Lecture “The 1911-1913...

The Association of Priests for the Gospel of Life are holding a Conference on Wednesday 30 September 2009 at St Wilfrid’s Hall at the London Oratory (Brompton Road, SW7 2RP). The Conference is open to all priests. Deacons and seminarians are also welcome. The Keynote lecture will be given by Dr Thomas Pink (Professor of Philosophy at King’s College London) on the subject of Morality and Human Nature The afternoon will also see the launch of "Proclaiming the Gospel of Life", a collection of essays produced in association with the Catholic Truth Society. The book, which normally retails at £4.95, will be available at the special price of £3.50 on this occasion only. It is also hoped that the day will offer the opportunity for priestly fellowship and mutual support during this ‘Year of Priesthood’ called by Pope Benedict XVI. Programme 11.30am Arrival and registration at St Wilfrid’s Hall Tea and coffee available 12noon Guest Speaker: Dr Tom Pink ‘Morality and Human Nature’ 12.4...

A while back, I mentioned the Rome Conference for English-speaking clergy which takes place from 4-8 January 2010. The Conference is run by the Australian Conference of Catholic Clergy together with the US Confraternity of Catholic Clergy and it is sure to be a great international gathering of like-minded priests. I'll be going myself and I would recommend the Conference. There is an "early bird discount" for those who register before next Friday 25 September. You can register at the dedicated Year for Priests Conference site. It is possible to pay online via paypal or you can download the Conference brochure and send your credit card details by post.

Regular commenter Red Maria sends the sad news of the death of Fr Edward Houghton. Please pray for the repose of his soul. The following announcement comes via Independent Catholic News : From the Vicar General of Westminster Diocese : It is with a profound sense of shock and sadness that we announce that Fr Ed Houghton was fatally injured in a road accident in North Yorkshire yesterday, Friday 21 August. He was forty years of age and had been a priest for just over one year. May he rest in peace. Our thoughts and prayers are with Fr Ed's immediate family - his sisters and brother, at this time. We remember also the parish communities at Chiswick where he was Assistant Priest, and the Cathedral where he served his year as a Deacon. Fr Ed was born in Preston and prior to studying for the priesthood worked as an English and Religious Education teacher at St Charles Sixth Form College in Ladbroke Grove. He had been a resident at Newman House when he was a student. Our prayers are with...

Fr John Boyle has returned to blogging. He has picked up the excellent blog name Caritas in Veritate . He has written an excellent article " Does there exist an ‘internal forum’ solution for the divorced and remarried? " which was published in the newsletter of the Canon Law Society of England and Wales and was recommended to us the recent Ad Clerum notice from Archbishop McDonald.

Stringfellows is a well-known London strip club ... sorry, did I say that? I meant "high-class entertainment venue" which, in addition to "a mouth watering range of dishes from our A La Carte menu", offers: Hundreds of beautiful Angels - fully nude, dancing alongside your table, and at the various stages dotted around the club. Actually, I just checked the mouth watering range of dishes - the range of main courses under "meat" is: Lamb, rib-eye steak, sirloin steak, fillet steak, butterfly steak or ribeye steak with lobster (that's for if yer goin' real posh.) Now you might perfectly well ask why I should be writing about a strip club. Primarily it is in order to answer the assertion of Fr David Gilmore, Anglican priest in Soho who recently got up on stage "(next to the "pole") and told the punters: "if Jesus was alive today he would be at Stingfellows bar having a drink and chatting to the girls" It all sounds like a vint...

Fr Briggs and I were undecided on the plan for today. If it had been raining, we would have returned early to London and lunched before taking suburban trains home. Thanks be to God, today was an absolutely glorious day so we took a couple of long walks along the seafront and had a sandwich at the hotel before taking an early afternoon train back to London. I realised this morning how much I had needed a couple of days' rest and was grateful to Our Lord for His providence, and my parishioners for their generosity which enables me to get away from time to time. Last night's dinner was a great success with Frs John Zuhlsdorf, Ray Blake, and Stephen Boyle bringing great insights and experience to the conversation. Ecce quam bonum et quam iucundum . ( Wiki ) The above photo is from Westminster Cathedral which was a staging-point for our trip. It shows a mosaic of John Henry Newman that was installed last September.

As you can see from Fr Ray Blake's post " Visitors ", Fr Charles Briggs and I have taken a couple of days by the seaside, at Eastbourne, joined by Fr Stephen Boyle of Good Shepherd, New Addington. This morning we took the train to Brighton and said Mass at St Mary Magdalen's. Laurence of That the bones you have crushed may thrill , kindly served my Mass. This evening, Fr Ray Blake and Fr Zuhlsdorf will be joining us for dinner so we will have a party of five. Tomorrow is the feast of St Mary Magdalen and so the statue in the Parish Church has been decorated specially:

My good friend, Fr Stephen Boyle, is parish priest of the Good Shepherd Church in New Addington. Last Sunday he published a pastoral letter for his parishioners on the subject "Sex is for family in a state of loving" - the "state" of loving being marriage, of course. He gives a sympathetic, encouraging and well-argued account of the Church's teaching on marriage, the marriage act, contraception, chastity and related topics. The context is his prayer for the Confirmation candidates that they may bear that fruit of the Holy Spirit which is chastity. Read the pastoral letter here .