The Hermeneutic of Continuity

The first time I travelled to St Andrews was about 20 years ago, I think, when a priest friend of mine known to many readers of this blog was a student there. Arriving at Leuchars Station (an hour from Edinburgh) in the dark, I was frightened out of my wits by a low flying fighter jet which went past just after I stepped off the train. We were treated to a similar free air show today. The second flypast I managed to catch on my camera:

The Woolwich ferry is certainly an experience but not worth trying at 7.30am. I had to wait in the marshalling yard for about 45 minutes so the trip across the Thames took about an hour. I could have driven to Gatwick or Stansted in the time. (Coming back was not quite so bad at 4pm today - only took about 40 minutes.) The other piece of advice is: don't do what I did and nochanlantly drive to City Airport thinking to leave you car there overnight. I am not even going to tell you how much it cost - suffice it to say that I would probably have saved money by being chauffered there in a stretch limo. But the rest of the journey was OK. I especially recommend Scot Airways. It sounds like a mickey-mouse company but was really good. They fly Dornier 328 turbo props which have a passenger capacity of 31 and cruise at a maximum of 325 knots. This means that you get a pleasant uncrowded flight which gets to Edinburgh in about an hour. The students pointed out to me that Dundee airport is n...

People use various routes to get from London to St Andrew's or other places in Scotland. This is the route I plan on taking tomorrow morning after saying Mass (Classical Rite) at 6.30am. Drive to Woolwich (15 minutes - fingers crossed). Ferry to the north side of the Thames (5 minutes loading, 5 minutes crossing, 5 minutes unloading). Drive to London City Airport and park there (10 minutes). Aeroplane to Edinburgh airport (check in, waiting, flying, getting off - several hours.) Bus to Edinburgh City Centre (20 minutes). Train to Leuchars (1 hour). Student car to St Andrew's (15 minutes). The airline (can't remember which one) "rescheduled" the flight so I have to leave from City Airport at 10am instead of 12noon. This means I have to get someone to supply my parish morning Mass. It also means that I will be travelling to the airport in the rush hour and Lord knows how long it will take me to get on the Woolwich Ferry. Never mind. I will have my breviary with me a...

In case I don't get time later on, I thought I had better do a WIWBT post. Tomorrow, I will be travelling up to St Andrew's University in Scotland, to speak to the Catholic Society at its home " Canmore ". I expect to meet one or two other bloggers and to view some spectacularly creative liturgy from the students after a few drinks afterwards. It is quite a long journey. The AA says it is 475 miles from me and would take 8 hours and 34 minutes to drive. Needless to say, I will not be driving as it is only an overnight trip. More about the journey in another post. This trip, I will be speaking on "The Church: Man's living link with God". On previous visits over the years, I have had some more testing assignments. Many years ago, I was invited to debate the question of women priests with a priest from the Columban Fathers. Ten years ago, terrifyingly, I was invited to give a talk on St Andrew. I will post some notes from that talk later. St Andrews is a be...

On 7 December at 6.30pm at St Wilfrid's Hall, the London Oratory, there will be a presentation of the English version of Martin Mosebach's book "Heresy of Formlessness" ( Further details ) Martin Mosebach, who will be present, is a well-known and award-winning German author who has published novels, stories, and collections of poems; he has also written scripts for several films, opera libretti, theatre, and radio plays. He is a regular contributor to the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , and also writes on art and literature for other newspapers and journals. After Pope Benedict's election, he wrote about him for the New York Times. ( See this article .) Most recently, Mosebach has been awarded the Großer Literaturpreis der Bayerischen Akademie der Schönen Künste . His book "Heresy of Formlessness" is a collection of essays on the liturgy and its recent reform not from the perspective of a theologian, but from the perspective of a literary writer. The bo...

OK, American readers, after that doleful rant about the stamps, I have some good news for you: Ma Beck's Pound Cakes . They sound absolutely delicious so get over there and show some interest. I've asked if they will ship to the UK and will let all you fellow Brits know as soon as I do. (If you're from these parts and not sure what a Pound Cake is, there's some information here: Wikipedia: Pound Cake .)

I had decided to close up for the night and looked at one last comment. I wish I hadn't. It has sent me into a deep "John Cleese" style depression over the utter, banal, poverty of culture into which we are plunged here in England. So I'm afraid I'll just have to rant a bit. In response to my Stamp Wars post, some helpful Anonymous person gently pointed out to me: According to the US Postal Service web site, a Madonna & Child stamp will be sold this Christmas. Then Ma Beck, hoping perhaps to spare me tears of anguish, asks, in a very kindly "did you realise that I was only kidding" sort of way, Does the UK also have a Madonna and Child stamp as well or just the ones you blogged? [ Beats head on desk ] There's no stamp war at all! The knitted snowman was just a sideline - a pre-Christmas warm-up released for an American Stamp Dealers' exhibition in New York. Oh, that's not THE Christmas stamp. Over there, of course, they have THIS!!! Oh,...

I just read the article on Cardinal Bona in the Catholic Encyclopaedia. He was a Cistercian who had to go to Rome as Abbot General. He declined the bishopric of Asti and was hoping to go back to his monastery after the end of his third term of office. However, Pope Alexander VII made him a Consultor to the Congregation for Indulgences and the Congregation of the Holy Inquisition. Clement IX made him a consultor to the new Congregation of Indulgences and Relics ( Pope Benedict, if you want to revive any of those jobs, can I send you my CV? ) He was created Cardinal in 1669 and was noted for his continued poverty and simplicity of life. He wrote a number of devotional and ascetical works and an important book on the Liturgy. I particularly liked the way that the Catholic Encyclopaedia speaks of [...] the classic purity, the manly vigour, and the charming simplicity of the Latin style I second that! Here is a picture of the great man. He is an important figure for the Baroque Ressourceme...

Prayer to be said by the priest after celebrating Mass (Sunday) O most loving Jesus, my Redeemer and my God, I adore you, present in my breast under the appearances of bread and wine, by which you have become the food and drink of my soul. May your advent to my soul, O my God, be infinitely blessed; I give you thanks from the depth of my heart for such a great gift, and I lament that I have not the power to pour out worthy thanks to you. And what worthy thanks could a humble peasant offer, if he were to see himself visited in his rustic home by the king himself, except to cast himself down at his feet and silently to admire and praise such appreciation? Therefore I fall down before you, O divine King, O most sweet Jesus, and I adore you from the abyss of my vileness. I join my adoration to the adoration which the most blessed Virgin Mary offered to you when she received you into her most sacred womb, and I would like to show you the love with which she loved you. O lovable Redeemer, to...

The Roman Missal (classical) contained a set collection of prayers for the priest to say before and after Mass. The Novus Ordo missal contains some of these. The full set can be found in any old Altar Missal and most missals produced for the faithful contain them with a translation. In my little treasure of a book, Clericus Devotus , there are three schemes of preparation and thanksgiving for Mass. The first is that from the Roman Missal. The third is another collection of prayers. I knew that the second scheme was composed of prayers by Cardinal Bona. I now realise that they are from his ascetical treatise on the sacrifice of the Mass that I found in the Wonersh library. However, there is another gem added in this prayer book to the traditional scheme. After the prayers given in the Missal, there is another prayer, composed by St Alphonsus, and divided into seven days in the same way as the prayer of St Ambrose before Mass. I find these prayers to be a very moving reminder of the...

Second instalment of Cardinal Bona's " Qua reverentia celebrandum sit " (Here is the First instalment ) Then, to obtain the same reverence, the Priest should carefully meditate beforehand how wisely and exactly Holy Church, divinely taught, has instituted and prescribed the order, regulation and adornment of the whole sacrifice. For first of all, he confesses his sins, asking forgiveness; then he praises and adores God, and gives him thanks for the benefits he has received; he implores divine assistance for himself and others: and he does not omit any kind of office which mortals can exercise in holiness before God. He joins with these things an external conformity, a deportment of the body which is in the highest degree fitting and religious: he stands or he kneels, always with his head uncovered, his hands are at one time joined, at another extended, and lifted up to heaven: all these things are most suitable for bringing about reverence in the celebrant himself and in ...