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My mum forced me to clean my teeth

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I am heartily sick of the protest "I don't go to Mass because my parents forced me to go when I was young." OK Son, what else did your parents force you to do? Your parents forced you to wash before you went out in the morning. Those cruel tyrants made sure that you cleaned your teeth before you went to bed. They dragged you kicking and screaming to school so that you could learn to read - and the teachers collaborated by forcing you to learn the alphabet and put the words together. To top it all, after looking after your physical needs, they had the temerity to exercise their authority by looking after your spiritual needs and taking you to Mass on Sunday. If they had neglected to see that you were clean, had suitable clothes, ate some sort of nourishing food, got some education and crossed the road safely, they would have been visited by social services and given a care plan so that you could be healthy and safe. And you are complaining because they took r...
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Marini wars

This video came my way by a correspondent. I know that some of you will roll about laughing while others will feel it is a little disrespectful. I think it is meant in fun so I thought it would be a good thing to post in the Christmas season.
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Happy Christmas

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I wish you all a very happy Christmas. May God bless you, your families and loved ones on this holy feast. I am writing this after having prepared things for the Midnight Mass which is always such a lovely celebration in the parish. A lot of people have helped to get things ready so please say a prayer for them in thanksgiving for their generosity. I'll time this post to go up just after midnight and tomorrow after the parish Masses, I will be with my sister and her family.
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"Of Gods and Men" - worth seeing

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Yesterday I went to see " Of God's and Men " which was screened at the Greenwich Picturehouse. The film tells of a Trappist monastery in Algeria in the time before seven of the community were beheaded in 1996 by Muslim extremists. The performance of Michael Lonsdale as "Father Luc" was outstanding. He was the doctor who looked after local people with patience and kindness, and attended to the bullet wound of one of the terrorists, remarking to the Prior that he had also treated Nazis in his time. The heroism of the monks is shown against the backdrop of uncertainty in the community. The decision to remain despite the growing menace is only reached gradually but once they are agreed, there is a wonderful scene in which Father Luc brings a couple of bottles of wine to supper the night before they are all taken. He puts on a tape of the dying swan from Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake and the characters of the individual monks are shown in their faces. The 15 ce...
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Pope on "Thought for the Day"

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The Holy Father is doing the BBC's "Thought for the day" tomorrow at 7.30am (it will be on the website for a few days afterwards.) Damian Thompson has a fun post on the secularists' reactions:  Christmas hilarity as National Secular Society goes nuts over Pope's Thought for the Day UPDATE : Here is the link to the message . UPDATE 2 : Also on the bollettino with the unusual title MESSAGGIO NATALIZIO DEL SANTO PADRE REGISTRATO PER IL PROGRAMMA "THOUGHT FOR THE DAY" DELLA BBC
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Blog dog

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Having been traumatised by dogs biting me in my early childhood I have never been at ease with them. However there are a few exceptions and Oscar is one of them. A better-natured dog you could not find. Here he is in Greenwich Park submitting with holy resignation not only to the snow but to a Father Christmas costume. Happy Christmas old chap. UPDATE : thanks for information that this is in fact not Greenwich Park but St Paul's, Deptford.
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Backbone award: Bishop Olmsted

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Bishop Olmsted of Phoenix, Arizona has revoked consent for St John's Hospital and medical center in Phoenix to use the name "Catholic" or to be identified as Catholic. The reason for this decision is set out in a separate notice, mentioning particularly the hospital's being responsible for contraception, sterilisation and abortion. At the Diocese of Phoenix website , there is the video featured above in which Bishop Olmsted makes a statement and answers questions. Several people have pointed to the answer he gives at about 23'30" on the reactions to him in the Catholic blogosphere. His answer drew applause: I really don't read the blogospheres. I try to pray each day to find my identity in Jesus Christ. I start my day every day with an hour of adoration. I celebrate the Eucharist. I pray morning prayer, midday prayer, evening prayer and night prayer. My identity comes from Christ. Christ is present in his living body, the Church: that's my iden...
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A better digital nativity

There has been a clever digital nativity doing the rounds. I didn't post it because some of it was not respectful. The great guys at Igniter Media have done a much better one ( see above ). I don't go along with every detail (as Protestants, they naturally go along slightly with the hermeneutic of suspicion re. St Joseph) but it is basically a good presentation of the nativity and so I am happy to post it here.
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CDF clarifies the Pope's comments

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The CDF has issued a note On the trivilization of sexuality; Regarding certain interpretations of "Light of the World" Eschewing the proposition that condoms may be considered as a lesser evil, the CDF states: The response of the entire Christian tradition – and indeed not only of the Christian tradition – to the practice of prostitution can be summed up in the words of St. Paul: "Flee from fornication" (1 Cor 6:18). Indeedy doody. I also agree with Fr Z : I think the main point of this CDF Note should have been published before the book was released. But… spilled milk and all.
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IDS holds up St Joseph as a role model

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Iain Duncan Smith, the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions has written an article about St Joseph for the Daily Mail today. See: History's greatest male role model and a humbling lesson for feckless fathers today Let me first say that this is a most encouraging article and it is great that IDS has chosen to write on this theme. I agree with much of what he says and my pedantic quibbles should not overshadow the service that he has done. So let us get the quibbles out of the way. IDS says "I am not a churchman and I am not given to commenting on Christian theology" Since I am and I am, I suppose it is not too surprising that I would take issue with one or two of the comments in the article. I don't hold to the hermeneutic of suspicion in the story of Joseph - the idea that he suspected Our Lady of adultery and that he put her away quietly to save her being stoned to death. As an upright and just man in the culture of his time, he would have been more likely to ...
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Good sense on marriage

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Robert George is one of the three authors of a paper titled " What is Marriage? " for the Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy. I haven't time to read it at the moment but looking at the abstract, I though it would be worth passing on to you: In the article, we argue that as a moral reality, marriage is the union of a man and a woman who make a permanent and exclusive commitment to each other of the type that is naturally fulfilled by bearing and rearing children together, and renewed by acts that constitute the behavioral part of the process of reproduction. We further argue that there are decisive principled as well as prudential reasons for the state to enshrine this understanding of marriage in its positive law, and to resist the call to recognize as marriages the sexual unions of same-sex partners. Besides making this positive argument for our position and raising several objections to the view that same-sex unions should be recognized, we address what we con...
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Popular posts from this blog

Plenary indulgences not impossible

Dilexit Prior in Letters from a Young Catholic asked some useful questions today about indulgences. I thought it would be best to do a post here especially to cover the controversial question of detachment from venial sin. But first the other questions: The conditions for gaining a plenary indulgence Pope Paul VI set down a number of norms relating to indulgences at the end of Indulgentiarum Doctrina . Norm 7 states: To acquire a plenary indulgence it is necessary to perform the work to which the indulgence is attached and to fulfil three conditions: sacramental confession, Eucharistic Communion and prayer for the intentions of the Supreme Pontiff. It is further required that all attachment to sin, even to venial sin, be absent. If this disposition is in any way less than complete, or if the prescribed three conditions are not fulfilled, the indulgence will be only partial, except for the provisions contained in n.11 for those who are “impeded.” It is worth reading the other norms bec...
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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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The eternal truths and the threefold remorse of the damned

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CZAS UCIEKA WIECZNOŚĆ CZEKA (Time flies. Eternity waits.) Left footer reports on this  text on a sign near the sanctuary where he attended Mass. (H/T Mundabor ) The photo above is from the Cathedral at Trier - the inscription says "You do not know at what hour the Lord will come" and applies both to the second coming and to our own death. St Alphonsus Liguori used to quote St Augustine "God promises us His grace, He does not promise us tomorrow." At this time of year I devote four Sunday sermons to the four last things. It is easy to gloss over the eternal truths even though they are an obviously major part of the teaching of Jesus Christ in the gospels. St Alphonsus, in his Sermons for every Sunday of the year focussed mainly on the four last things. His sermons were what we would today call "talks" or "conferences" - they were not given during Mass but at a separate devotional service. His aim was to bring people back to the practice of...
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Responding to the Tablet

CENSORED! The Tablet have asked me to remove this post because it is a breach of copyright for me to quote their article in full while commenting on it. A new copyright-compliant version is available at the post: Responding to the Tablet - legally compliant version It is hilarious to see the Tablet failing utterly to grasp the concept of publishing on the internet.
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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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