Time to invest in action?

If you have read this blog over the last week or so you will have noticed a certain preoccupation with the frustration of not moving forward fast enough.

In the last five years, since Summorum Pontificum we have seen some improvements but they, for the most part, fall into the "rearranging the deckchairs on the Titanic" category.

In fact, I did notice a statistic on someone's blog (sorry, can't recall whose it was) recently that, according to Fr Z, something like only 470 EF Masses are celebrated each Sunday, globally. I hope I have got that right, please correct me if I'm wrong.

470 Masses is nothing. It is a statistic that would barely merit a mention on the final print-out.

Average is not good enough!

In England and Wales we have one bishop (out of about 26) who has shown courage and responsiveness in answering the Holy Father's call.

And what of the Holy Father? How does he feel about the response to SP so far?

I can fantasise about a meeting with some of the key Cardinals and the Holy Father during which Pope Benedict says:

"Could someone please give me a quick breakdown as to how things have changed since 2007?"

Silence.

Holy Father: "Anyone  please?"

Shuffling of feet and clearing of throats and then:

"Well, your Holiness, not much has changed in fact; there are one or two more Latin Masses in Europe, possibly a few more in the USA, not much happening outside of Campos in South America and the rest, well, you know its a nul pointer really"

Holy Father: "Hmmm......seems I was wrong in my thought processes but, at least we have given them the chance. So, from now on it's full steam ahead on the Ordinary Form, pity but no one seems to have smelt the incense" (sigh)

There has been comment made on Una Voce and their role in hosting, if that is the correct word, a forthcoming traditional pilgrimage this Autumn. Now, I do not know much about this organisation so it would be wrong to take it to task but it has had 45 years in which to increase the spread of the 1962 Missal throughout the world. EF Pastor has asked that I remember the good works of this group and, I am sure they are there but, in 45 years a potent group should have a better success rate, if that is how success is quantified.

But, enough of carping about others, what positive action could be started to get things moving, not just on the Latin Mass front but also on Education, Morals and Social teachings - what can be done to inform and educate the largely misinformed laity?

Well, I do believe that we are blessed with an astute and holy man in our Papal Nuncio, Archbishop Mennini.

For a start, and it is only a start, I would hope that perhaps we could look at developing a Rosary Bouquet to be presented to him, say early in 2013.
Why so long? Because, it would be good if we could present as many as possible to him and, if 500 of us could pledge five Rosaries a week between now and then, it would result in a bouquet of over 50,000.

And, to accompany the bouquet, a polite request for Rome to consider the four points placed before the Archbishop.

That is:-

Catholic Education
Moral Guidance - IVF, Euthanasia, Abortion, Contraception etc
Catholic Social Teaching
Response by Diocese to the faithful's requests following Summorum Pontificum

There is much, much more to be done but, it's a start (perhaps I should state that several notable Catholics have emailed me to say that they would be prepared to join a suitable initiative. It could work and if you think that the concept has legs, please let me know either via the comment box or by email to: r.collinsassoc@btinternet.com

Alternatively, if you think that I am barking mad, please offer up an Ave on my behalf.

If you've got a problem - Ask Auntie

Our Father's last will and New Testament

Dear Auntie

My Father left me and my brothers and sisters a rich legacy in His will, and I am very grateful for it.

The trouble is, He specified very clearly how He wanted His children to spend the inheritance and, whilst I try to do what he wanted, (but am far from perfect), most of the rest of the family just do more or less as they please with all that He left them.

To make matters worse, as time has gone on, they have more or less forgotten all that our Father asked of us; they genuinely think they are doing what is right, but, in reality, they are very wide of the mark.

They have distorted and perverted all that He left them and when I challenge them they tell me that I'm an old fashioned fundamentalist - an extremist even.
They accuse me of being disloyal and right wing, some even go so far as to call me snide names like 'Taliban Catholic'.

They ignore all of our Father's directives regarding music, liturgy, the sacraments, women priests, homosexuality, birth control, Extraordinary Eucharistic Ministers, abortion, married clergy, reverence, and many more besides.

I know that this will have hurt my Father's feelings and I want to do something to help them understand precisely what His words in the will meant, there is no way that there could or should be any diversity of opinion as to their meaning but they have weaselled out different versions so that the original will is barely recognisable.

So what should I do?

Disheartened of Tonbridge Wells




Dear Disheartened of Tonbridge Wells

This is quite a common problem and one that is rapidly increasing in magnitude.
It is always upsetting when families fall out.
There are several things that you can do.

Firstly, you should pray for them and offer up your Masses on their behalf. Your Father will hear your prayers in Heaven and will respond to them.

Secondly, do not go down the route of arguing matters of faith and morals with them. No one has ever been won over to the true course of the faith by arguing.

Thirdly, become a Catholic blogger. It may take some time but your family will start to read your blogs and some of them (not all) will begin to realise just how far they have drifted from your Father's wishes as expressed in His will.

With much affection

Auntie (no, not that Auntie!)

The story of a convent school

This brief series of facts plot how, over the course of 10 years, a Catholic Convent School went from being fairly orthodox in its approach to education and the faith to being over the top modernist.

 By that I mean that it travelled from the margins of being a reasonably good school teaching the faith well and achieving good academic results to being a dung heap of secular, politically correct and religiously effete garbage.

For the sake of brevity I have placed this information as bullet points....

• 1986 - The school has a population of 80% Catholic pupils and 20% non Catholics. It enjoys a good academic reputation and the children, when they progress to secondary school, are regarded as exceptionally well behaved by their new teachers. The headteacher is a nun who wears a wimple and habit and she has two other teaching nuns as well as Catholic laypeople on the staff.

• 1989 - by now all four of our children are at this school and doing reasonably well. We have concerns about the teaching of RE as it seems to comprise solely of learning the parables (and doing paintings of scenes from the parables). Each Christmas the school produces a nativity play which involves all of the pupils. School Sports Day in the summer period is popular with parents and there is a standard prize structure for those coming first, second and third.

• 1990 - School Masses have become so crass and banal that we withdraw our children from receiving the sacraments at them. School Sports Day now comprises of races where all participants receive a prize; there is no first, second and third prize structure. At Christmas the nativity play has been replaced by a semi comical musical about Herod and the nativity.

• 1992 - A group of Baptist ministers are given access to the children and catechise them in the course of one day. The first we know about it is when the children bring leaflets home with them describing how Jesus had brothers and sisters and that he was 'just a prophet'. Complaining just means that our children receive even greater discrimination from the teaching staff. By now the nativity play and the semi religious musical have gone and in their place is a panto type production, no mention of the Christmas story whatsoever.

• 1994 - The nuns have discarded their habits and wear the mandatory M&S outfits, their hair is permed. The RE element has not changed; the classroom walls are still plastered with pictures of Zacchaeus up a tree. The only element of change is that the older classes have more realistic pictures. Several of the teachers are now non Catholics and have no appreciation of our concerns. It is hard to spot a crucifix in the school now.

• 1996 - The only nun on the staff is the headteacher. 80% of the pupils are non Catholic and only 20% Catholic. School Masses are a debacle with pottery chalices and many interuptions with wisecracks from the priest. When asked if he would go into the non Catholic secondary school to catechise the children the priest replied: "What's the point they are only going to lose the faith anyway."

Zacchaeus seemed to spend at least
ten academic years up that tree!

So when people say to me "But we are all the same, we are all Catholics" I beg to differ. The modernist Catholic element is not deserving of any respect whatsoever, it has done enormous harm to the Church and probably lost many souls in the process. And the souls that it has lost are, in the main, those of children, too young to rationalise their faith but old enough to see that what they were being offered in the guise of RE was pure pap.
That is an awful holocaust of young souls; we grieve for the three thousand physical losses of 9/11 but modernism has many, many millions of spiritual losses to its eternal shame.

Just as a footnote to the above bullet points. The Parish Priest of such laxity had to leave the country overnight after being apprehended for soliciting in a public lavatory. His Curate, who had denounced my family as being 'heretics' and had turned many of his parish against us, ran off with a divorcee with four children.
I mention these points to illustrate that invariably there is a link between a decline in teaching the faith and the morals of those charged with the teaching.

Old but good - my version of 'Shine Jesus, shine'

For some obscure reason I found myself singing this beautiful hymn this morning and, much to my surprise then found that the excellent blogger Laodicea had posted the words. It is a great hymn that encapsulates all that we believe regarding receiving the Body of Christ at Holy Communion or worshipping Him at Benediction.

See also, Fr Z's post on Cardinal Canizares Llovera's sermon on how we should receive the Sacrament - kneeling and on the tongue!

I could only find this sung version of the hymn on Youtube, it is a little lacking in oomph and numbers and, what is more, the antics of the altar servers are most off-putting as they prepare the altar for Benediction, strolling on and off, arms by their sides and only the occasional genuflection.

But, it's still a beautiful hymn! -

O Jesus Christ remember when Thou shalt come again.......

Needs to be sung sans piano and with a bit more verve and gusto!

A new addition to my blog list

Those bloggers who feature on my blog list are all excellent; I only place blogs on the list that are good and true to the Catholic Faith.

I do not normally highlight any one particular blog but today I am making an exception. Mundabor's Blog is, in my opinion, one of the very best in terms of dry humour, traditional clarity and topicality.

So there. Please visit Mundabor...he is Italian...but not in the Berlusconi mould!

An informal insight into the new translation

I am guilty of not following, in any detail, the development and launch of the new translation. Not because I am not interested it's just that I think I am on the right bus (is this a good analogy?) and so tend not to look at the other routes.

I welcome the fact that the old and banal translation is out the door but that's as far as my knowledge goes until I met an old priest friend recently. He has his feet pretty firmly in the 'Ordinary' camp although, he does, at times celebrate the Extraordinary Mass.

He explained to me that he had been, in his words, "trying out the new translation". He went on to say how it had immediately begun to transform the atmosphere in the church.
"We have silence again, it is returning to reverence, the congregation is quiet"

He waxed lyrical; welcoming the return of the word 'soul' as in 'Lord I am not worthy to receive you, say but the word and (I) my soul shall be healed'.
Without using the word soul, he said, people forget that they possess one.
And the saints have returned; if their names are not present in the Mass then we forget to pray to them!

And then he changed tack and said: "What is it with the Bishops?" Now I try to tread a diplomatic line (believe it or not) when it comes to upsetting wise old priests so I looked blank (not hard) and said: "What about the Bishops?"
Then he, of course, went into how Friday abstinence was coming back and also how they were re-thinking some of the Holy Days ("and they only made that decision two years ago"). "Just what is going on?" He asked.
"I think that the Holy Father has been doing great work" Says I, meaning every word of it.
"Yes" he responded "but what else?"

"I believe that we are witnessing the  Holy Spirit  at work"

"Come Holy Ghost, Creator come..."

"Precisely!" said he and his whole face lit up with great joy that was wonderful to see.

I found his comments interesting to say the least and I shall pay much more attention to how the new translation is introduced and how it develops. I do not think that I will ever budge from my EF seat but I might, just might, be tempted to see what a "new new" Mass is like at some stage in the future.
I say that without any intent of sounding patronising.

It's not the Latin - no really, it isn't!

This may come as a shock to some but, much as I love the Tridentine Latin Mass or EF Mass if you will, I could live without the Latin bit.
Heresy! You exclaim but hear me out.

Would English be acceptable?

The language of the English translation straight from the pre 1962 missal is extraordinarily beautiful; it rolls off the tongue: "I will go in unto the Altar of God. To God who giveth joy to my youth". It is comprehensible (although some passages need a little bringing up to speed). Trouble is, the English varies from missal edition to missal edition, not big variances but enough to throw you out if you are following the Mass (I won't even mention that aberration known as a dialogue Mass).

Now what would make me pronounce such a thing. One thing and one thing only and that is, if the Bishops of England and Wales agreed to make provision for 20% of their parish churches to celebrate the "English" EF Mass every Sunday, morning, that is, not 15.45 in the afternoon!

We would lose very little and gain a great deal. Of course, the full rubrics and content of the EF Mass would have to be observed, rigidly. There would be no booming out the words of the consecration, the host would be held by the celebrant betwixt index finger and thumb, all the minutiae of actions and inflections would still be there - it would just be in English!
Would it work I wonder? Would those who only attend the TLM accept the version a la Anglaise?
And would those who only attend the English Ordinary Form of Mass feel comfortable with an English Extraordinary Form?

Or, do we see in the actions of the Holy Father an inexorable grind towards a bringing together of both forms which, still leaving them distinct, makes them more like Low Tea and High Tea rather than Ordinary and Extraordinary?

And what would become of the Latin Mass Society? Would they morph to the "EMS"?

In the name of the Father,
and of the Son,
and of the Holy Spirit. I will go in unto the Altar of God.
To God who gives joy to my youth.
Judge me, O God,
and take up my cause against the nation that is not holy.
Free me from the unjust and deceitful man.
For You, O God, are my strength,
why have You cast me off?
And why do I walk in sorrow,
while the enemy troubles me?
Send forth Your light and Your truth,
they have led me,
and brought me to Your holy hill,
and to Your dwelling.
I will go in  unto the Altar of God,
to God who gives joy to my youth.
To You, O God, my God,
I will give praise upon the harp,
why are you sad, O my soul?
And why do you trouble me?
Hope in God, for I will still praise Him,
the salvation of my countenance and my God.



The identity of the mystery writer is revealed....

Did you guess correctly? No? Well, it's hardly surprising really because the style and direction of this writer appears to have changed over the years and morphed from a semi traditional Catholic viewpoint to an all embracing liberal one...I hope I am not being unfair to.....you know who!

Well, I shall put you out of your misery and whisper in hushed tones the name of our mystery guest, it is none other than......Joanna Bogle!

Did you catch that?


No? Well here it is a little louder....JOANNA BOGLE!

Mrs Bogle appears to fall into the same category as Marmite, she is either loved or less loved but generally today she is loved by the liberal lobby and avoided by those who love the tradition of the faith.

Mind you, the article that I posted yesterday does reveal a much more orthodox woman than we perhaps see today.

And now, I have received some gentle criticism for the way that I have treated Mrs Bogle in the past so I would like to put my feelings on record.
She is not my cup of tea and I have criticised the way in which she appears to only select glowing comments to feature on her blog...I may be doing her an injustice but I think that to do such a thing is, shall we say, a little not quite correct (I am choosing my words carefully).
I also believe that Mrs Bogle is a professional journalist and is used to accepting both good and bad comments without sobbing into her pillow every night. She certainly will not be losing any sleep over any remarks that I have made, she is much too sensible for that.
One critic claims that my attitude to her is because she is a woman and I am a man...hmm, that does not really deserve a response so I shall only state that such a thing is risible!

Of one thing I am certain, Mrs Bogle will continue unimpeded by her critics and more power to her elbow. The world would be a duller place without a little dissent.
There is quite a full debate on her on James Preece's blog.

Where are You, Lord?

Where are you, lord?

ARE YOU THERE LORD? WHERE ARE YOU?

Are you on the altar Lord,

Where have they placed you now?

Are you in a side chapel

Or, perhaps, near the door?

Or at the entrance porch?

I have searched for you in vain

But you are not to be found.

Are you at the back of the Church

Why have they placed you there?

You are the Church Lord, so why the back seat?

Was it the parish council

Deciding at their last meet?

Or was it the Canon in his wisdom

And his faith that’s rather odd

Who thought the sanctuary too grand a place

For the Son of the living God?

                     Unknown

Ah, there You are!