Traddies ... rightly ... complain that 'mainstrtream' Catholics have usually never been taught about Transsubstantiation.
The poor things are even less likely to have been told about the Mass as a ... er ... the Sacrifice. Once a well-meaning proof-reader corrected, in a ms of mine, "Sacrifice" to "Sacrament", convinced that I had simply made a typo!
Here is Dom Gregory Dix.
"For the primitive Church the doctrine of the Sacrifice of the Mass was of primary importance. Today Church-people make the Sacrifice to depend on the Sacrament. The Primitive Church made the Sacrament to depend on the Sacrifice. I am speaking of something which is the essence of all religion - the attempt of the creature to achieve union with the creator, to leap the chasm between God and man; to ascend above its derived creaturely being to the self-existent being of God Himself. It must contain two things: (1) the attempt to leave behind the status of being a creature; and (2) the attempt to ascend from its own natural being and rise to God.
"Here we meet with tragedy. Man, being a sinner, cannot make that leap. That supreme act of religion is for him impossible. Death is the penalty which God has imposed on sinners. The acceptance of death is the supremely moral act of human existence. We have sinned but accepted the consequence of our sin. That is one half - the negative side of the act of religion. But obviously, if there is to be sacrifice, it cannot be done by sinful people as an act of suicide.
" It is here that we have the New Testament doctrine of our Saviour as the Second Adam. He is very Man - He accepted death, sinless though he was, as the penalty of sin. His death is the representative act of death of all mankind, as Head of the human race. As S Paul said, 'To recapitulate in Christ all things'. His death is His entrance into the glory of God. So that His death has the full character of Sacrifice; and it is a representative act on behalf of all mankind. It is the Sacrifice, par excellence."
Delivered to the CBS June 3 1947 and summarised in the CBS Newsletter.To be continued.
3 November 2018
2 November 2018
Antisemitisms in the Novus Ordo
All Saints; and that marvellous Reading from the Apocalypse [Chapter 7] of S John the Divine. Except that ...
... you have to go to the Old Mass if you want to hear it unbowdlerised. If you go to Hannibal Bugnini's Mass on All Saints' Day, you will find that the superb drum-roll of the Twelve Tribes of the people of Israel, each tribe mentioned by name with the reassurance that their Twelve Thousand will be, are being, have been, sealed ... is missed out [verses 5-8]. Indeed, if you are unwise enough to worship only ever according the corrupted liturgy of the 1960s, you will never hear these verses ... not even on a weekday. You will never hear the emphatic thump ... thump ... thump as the importance of the People of the Twelve Tribes is maintained. Often, in the decatholicised rites of the 1960s and 1970s, we are offered a shorter and a longer version of a reading; but here, not even that choice is permitted.
Different as the two books are, there is a striking identity of teaching between the Apocalypse and S Paul's Epistle to the Romans. In both you find the eschatological conviction that both Jew and Gentile, on the Day, will be redeemed. In both you will hear the biblical theme of the Faithful Remnant, reminding us of the importance of those Jews who have received the Gospel or will do so. They are a living, visible guarantee that God is faithful; that what he promises, he will fulfill.
Even if one does not share a naive conviction that 'Liturgical Reform' implies returning to a tabula rasa and then starting all over again, one can see why the revisers of the 1960s decided to introduce Romans, which is not much heard in the Old Mass, to the Catholic Sunday congregation (once every three years). But this is pretty pointless if crucial doctrines are deliberately excised ... such as the Faithful Remnant (11:5) and the Deliverance of Israel (11:25-28).
There are times when More is Less.
Not, I suppose, that all this matters. My impression of the preaching in the Mainstream Church is that very few clergy have or communicate any interest in Scripture. The readings are got, unenthusiastically, out of the way. One never senses that sudden stir as if of a congregation that has just heard something startling.
They might as well be read in Latin or Swahili.
... you have to go to the Old Mass if you want to hear it unbowdlerised. If you go to Hannibal Bugnini's Mass on All Saints' Day, you will find that the superb drum-roll of the Twelve Tribes of the people of Israel, each tribe mentioned by name with the reassurance that their Twelve Thousand will be, are being, have been, sealed ... is missed out [verses 5-8]. Indeed, if you are unwise enough to worship only ever according the corrupted liturgy of the 1960s, you will never hear these verses ... not even on a weekday. You will never hear the emphatic thump ... thump ... thump as the importance of the People of the Twelve Tribes is maintained. Often, in the decatholicised rites of the 1960s and 1970s, we are offered a shorter and a longer version of a reading; but here, not even that choice is permitted.
Different as the two books are, there is a striking identity of teaching between the Apocalypse and S Paul's Epistle to the Romans. In both you find the eschatological conviction that both Jew and Gentile, on the Day, will be redeemed. In both you will hear the biblical theme of the Faithful Remnant, reminding us of the importance of those Jews who have received the Gospel or will do so. They are a living, visible guarantee that God is faithful; that what he promises, he will fulfill.
Even if one does not share a naive conviction that 'Liturgical Reform' implies returning to a tabula rasa and then starting all over again, one can see why the revisers of the 1960s decided to introduce Romans, which is not much heard in the Old Mass, to the Catholic Sunday congregation (once every three years). But this is pretty pointless if crucial doctrines are deliberately excised ... such as the Faithful Remnant (11:5) and the Deliverance of Israel (11:25-28).
There are times when More is Less.
Not, I suppose, that all this matters. My impression of the preaching in the Mainstream Church is that very few clergy have or communicate any interest in Scripture. The readings are got, unenthusiastically, out of the way. One never senses that sudden stir as if of a congregation that has just heard something startling.
They might as well be read in Latin or Swahili.
1 November 2018
Brilliant!
The much-admired Dr Peter Kwasniewski was in Oxford on Friday evening to give a lecture at the Church of SS Gregory and Augustine; he spoke with crisp and elegant decision about the dogmatic teaching of the Canon of the Mass. But that makes his lecture sound pompously dry. It was anything but. Don't miss the opportunity to go and hear him, if the chance presents itself to you during his lecture tour of Blighty. And buy the book!
The lecture was preceded by a High Mass. As the incense rose in generously thick clouds above the oblata at the Offertory, my mind wandered ... I'm afraid ... but I had said my own Mass, of course, earlier in the day, and in such circumstances I don't feel the same sort of necessity to discipline my distractions. And yesterday, on All Hallows' Day, images of the Whole Company of Heaven dimly seen through excessive clouds of incense seemed absolutely on message.
Evening Incense ... sicut incensum in conspectu tuo ... it ought to be commoner in our churches than it is. Long before Evening Masses became popular, we had Vespers, and the smoke rose above the Altar as we sang Mary's Song. And two millennia ago, incense rose in the Temple at Jerusalem from the Golden Altar by the curtain shielding the Holy of Holies.
I bet they were generous with it. Not spoonfulls, but shovels full. I picture sacks of the stuff on creaking wagons drawn by oxen up the Temple Hill. Did our ancestors look knowingly on as the wheels groaned on the cobbles?
How suitable, during Solemn Vespers, that incense accompanies the Canticle of the Daughter of Sion.
How appropriate, as we remember All Souls, that we should think of the great pillar of sacrificial smoke that rose from the Temple Mount, as our Fathers prayed for all the People, for all their kin.
The lecture was preceded by a High Mass. As the incense rose in generously thick clouds above the oblata at the Offertory, my mind wandered ... I'm afraid ... but I had said my own Mass, of course, earlier in the day, and in such circumstances I don't feel the same sort of necessity to discipline my distractions. And yesterday, on All Hallows' Day, images of the Whole Company of Heaven dimly seen through excessive clouds of incense seemed absolutely on message.
Evening Incense ... sicut incensum in conspectu tuo ... it ought to be commoner in our churches than it is. Long before Evening Masses became popular, we had Vespers, and the smoke rose above the Altar as we sang Mary's Song. And two millennia ago, incense rose in the Temple at Jerusalem from the Golden Altar by the curtain shielding the Holy of Holies.
I bet they were generous with it. Not spoonfulls, but shovels full. I picture sacks of the stuff on creaking wagons drawn by oxen up the Temple Hill. Did our ancestors look knowingly on as the wheels groaned on the cobbles?
How suitable, during Solemn Vespers, that incense accompanies the Canticle of the Daughter of Sion.
How appropriate, as we remember All Souls, that we should think of the great pillar of sacrificial smoke that rose from the Temple Mount, as our Fathers prayed for all the People, for all their kin.
31 October 2018
More on the Anglican Cult of the Beevy Emm
Isis had, as one of her Names, polyonumos (there ought to be a special term for words which help to validate themselves), and it occurs to me that manynamed appears to be true also of our blessed Lady, the Theotokos ... and I'm not just thinking of the Akathist Hymn or the Litany of Loretto.
I recall, a few decades ago, we put a statue of our Lady up in Lancing College Chapel. Somehow or other, somebody contrived that a little plaque was set into the side of the plinth explaining that This statue of the Madonna was given by etc..
I know Italians do refer to the Mother of God as La Madonna, but am I alone in finding the English phrase with the definite article a little odd?
My theory is that the usage carries a subliminal message of "This object is to be seen as merely an expression of a convention within Art History. On no account should you jump to the the conclusion that you should or might or could have a relationship with the person to whom this artefact relates."
Some readers will recall the Great Chesterton Compromise.
I recall, a few decades ago, we put a statue of our Lady up in Lancing College Chapel. Somehow or other, somebody contrived that a little plaque was set into the side of the plinth explaining that This statue of the Madonna was given by etc..
I know Italians do refer to the Mother of God as La Madonna, but am I alone in finding the English phrase with the definite article a little odd?
My theory is that the usage carries a subliminal message of "This object is to be seen as merely an expression of a convention within Art History. On no account should you jump to the the conclusion that you should or might or could have a relationship with the person to whom this artefact relates."
Some readers will recall the Great Chesterton Compromise.
30 October 2018
Cardinal Baldisseri ...
... is rumoured to have turned nasty when someone complained about the manipulation of the Synod. The complainant wondered how participants without much Italian could be deemed to have assented to texts which they had only heard hurriedly recited ... in Italian. B is said to have threatened that he would run the next Synod in Latin. (Interesting that he is so convinced that he will still be alive and still in post.)
That will be the day. Using Latin would in fact have the practical advantage of putting all the linguistic and national groupings on to the same level; the Italians, and those who had spent years working in the Curia, would no longer be unfairly advantaged.
Since, however, that is unlikely, perhaps the Synodal language should be English. English had more circoli than any other language-group. Or perhaps the main World languages should take it in turn to be the Language of the Synod. I am not joking.
When I was young, the Catholic Church in England was often sneered at as being "the Italian Mission". Now, with the de facto demise of the Church's international language, the sneer looks almost true.
I have little doubt that Blessed John Henry Newman would have considered that the proceedings at Synod2018 were simply invalidated by the unscrupulous way they were managed. His formula "practised upon" springs to my mind (I am recalling the letter printed at LDxxv164sqq.).
Most worrying of all is the smuggling-in of topics which you and I might have thought irrelevant to the published themes of a Synod. Such as having a "Youth Synod" slipping into its texts the need for the censorship of Catholics on the Internet.
These people have reached such a degree of confident arrogance that they do not even care when their motives and devices are transparently and indecently obvious.
Archbishop Chaput sensibly suggested that the Synod should, as a matter of urgency, deal with the homosexuality crisis in the upper clergy.
That's not how they work, though, is it?
In fact it's the exact opposite ...
That will be the day. Using Latin would in fact have the practical advantage of putting all the linguistic and national groupings on to the same level; the Italians, and those who had spent years working in the Curia, would no longer be unfairly advantaged.
Since, however, that is unlikely, perhaps the Synodal language should be English. English had more circoli than any other language-group. Or perhaps the main World languages should take it in turn to be the Language of the Synod. I am not joking.
When I was young, the Catholic Church in England was often sneered at as being "the Italian Mission". Now, with the de facto demise of the Church's international language, the sneer looks almost true.
I have little doubt that Blessed John Henry Newman would have considered that the proceedings at Synod2018 were simply invalidated by the unscrupulous way they were managed. His formula "practised upon" springs to my mind (I am recalling the letter printed at LDxxv164sqq.).
Most worrying of all is the smuggling-in of topics which you and I might have thought irrelevant to the published themes of a Synod. Such as having a "Youth Synod" slipping into its texts the need for the censorship of Catholics on the Internet.
These people have reached such a degree of confident arrogance that they do not even care when their motives and devices are transparently and indecently obvious.
Archbishop Chaput sensibly suggested that the Synod should, as a matter of urgency, deal with the homosexuality crisis in the upper clergy.
That's not how they work, though, is it?
In fact it's the exact opposite ...
28 October 2018
Fromthecardinalsdesk
"I am afraid that the tyrant majority is still aiming at enlarging the province of infallibility."
Synodalitas asynodica
There is a delicious, delightful, glorious anomaly revealed by Cardinal Gracias, Archbishop of Bombay, who was one of the Synod's drafters (report in Crux).
He has revealed that the stuff in the Synod's final document about 'synodality' and 'discernment' did not represent the thinking and deliberations of the Synod Fathers, but was bunged in by a couple of PF-appointed secretaries.
Synodality, that is, was interpolated into the account of the Synod's deliberations ... by ... a highly unsynodical manoeuvre.
You couldn't make that up, could you?
Cardinal Gracias, God bless him, went on to point out that you simply can't go around claiming that such a document is 'Magisterium', because Magisterial documents need to be drafted with painstaking care. He's dead right. And every person who reads his words owes a debt of gratitude to His Eminence for his clarity of expression. This is a highly welcome development: clarity has not been left solely to Cardinals Mueller and Burke.
'Magisterium' is not some amusing little political game to help PF to advance his dodgy agenda. It is something that relates to binding the consciences of the People of God. It says a lot about what is so terribly wrong with this pontificate and with this pontiff that he can treat serious matters, relating to the souls of the Faithful, with such unbecoming levity.
As I've written before, some of us have experienced all this sort of nonsense within Anglicanism. Lambeth Conferences used to issue their 'Encyclicals' together with the Conference's 'Resolutions'. Back in the 1960s, we had a theologian called Eric Mascall. Unlike most Anglican theologians, his academic background was in Higher Mathemarics. He was a decisive and ruthless logician, and to this he added a widely respected competence in Thomism.
After Lambeth, Eric wrote crisp and beautifully entertaining little pamphlets (published by the Church Literature Association, 4d) exposing the logical absurdities in the pompous and woffly bishoptalk in which these fatuous documents were couched.
Bergoglianity will do nothing to enhance the reputation of Synods, Synodality, Discernment, Accompaniment, Magisterium, or the Petrine Ministry. It will, if it gets the chance, simply reduce Christ's Church Militant to what Anglicanism already is ... a laughing stock among the ... er ... discerning.
He has revealed that the stuff in the Synod's final document about 'synodality' and 'discernment' did not represent the thinking and deliberations of the Synod Fathers, but was bunged in by a couple of PF-appointed secretaries.
Synodality, that is, was interpolated into the account of the Synod's deliberations ... by ... a highly unsynodical manoeuvre.
You couldn't make that up, could you?
Cardinal Gracias, God bless him, went on to point out that you simply can't go around claiming that such a document is 'Magisterium', because Magisterial documents need to be drafted with painstaking care. He's dead right. And every person who reads his words owes a debt of gratitude to His Eminence for his clarity of expression. This is a highly welcome development: clarity has not been left solely to Cardinals Mueller and Burke.
'Magisterium' is not some amusing little political game to help PF to advance his dodgy agenda. It is something that relates to binding the consciences of the People of God. It says a lot about what is so terribly wrong with this pontificate and with this pontiff that he can treat serious matters, relating to the souls of the Faithful, with such unbecoming levity.
As I've written before, some of us have experienced all this sort of nonsense within Anglicanism. Lambeth Conferences used to issue their 'Encyclicals' together with the Conference's 'Resolutions'. Back in the 1960s, we had a theologian called Eric Mascall. Unlike most Anglican theologians, his academic background was in Higher Mathemarics. He was a decisive and ruthless logician, and to this he added a widely respected competence in Thomism.
After Lambeth, Eric wrote crisp and beautifully entertaining little pamphlets (published by the Church Literature Association, 4d) exposing the logical absurdities in the pompous and woffly bishoptalk in which these fatuous documents were couched.
Bergoglianity will do nothing to enhance the reputation of Synods, Synodality, Discernment, Accompaniment, Magisterium, or the Petrine Ministry. It will, if it gets the chance, simply reduce Christ's Church Militant to what Anglicanism already is ... a laughing stock among the ... er ... discerning.
27 October 2018
Why is Anglicanism so gloriously ephemeral? Some pertinent questions.
The Estates Commissioner whose responsibility it is to look after the Cathedrals of the Church of England, a Dr Eve Poole, has explained that people like to go to Anglican Cathedrals because they "are drawn to their ephemeral music and liturgy".
I think I have read somewhere that mayflies share this extremely brief life-span.
I very much wish that the Novus Ordo liturgical culture found in the English Catholic 'mainstream' could become as ephemeral as that in Anglican cathedrals.
What is it that the Anglicans, dear ephemeral poppets, have got which we lack? Could they give us some hints? I'm sure many members of the CBCEW would value advice on the ephemeralisation, not only of their cathedrals, but of their entire dioceses.
Would it be philologically improper to pray that the remainder of this pontificate may be "literally ephemeral"?
I wonder what La Poole's doctorate is in.
Probably not Greek.
Footnotes: (1) I believe it was in the 1970s that the Church Commissioners mislaid £700,000,000 or so, which in those days was real (if, clearly, somewhat ephemeral) money.
(2) Wikipedia reveals that Eve has skills honed in the Redundant Churches business.
I think I have read somewhere that mayflies share this extremely brief life-span.
I very much wish that the Novus Ordo liturgical culture found in the English Catholic 'mainstream' could become as ephemeral as that in Anglican cathedrals.
What is it that the Anglicans, dear ephemeral poppets, have got which we lack? Could they give us some hints? I'm sure many members of the CBCEW would value advice on the ephemeralisation, not only of their cathedrals, but of their entire dioceses.
Would it be philologically improper to pray that the remainder of this pontificate may be "literally ephemeral"?
I wonder what La Poole's doctorate is in.
Probably not Greek.
Footnotes: (1) I believe it was in the 1970s that the Church Commissioners mislaid £700,000,000 or so, which in those days was real (if, clearly, somewhat ephemeral) money.
(2) Wikipedia reveals that Eve has skills honed in the Redundant Churches business.
26 October 2018
Newman's Daily Blog
Realitywise, there are people who look at a blog, some blogs, often the same blogs, regularly every day. Own up ... well, I do it myself. It occurs to me that a similar experience can be had by dipping daily into the letters of a diligent and acute letter-writer. Of course, it is not the same as reading a blog, because, obviously and obviously, Blessed John Henry Newman is not writing for the Internet but for particular individual correspondents. But ... you see what I mean.
Yes, I have been dipping into the Blessed's correspondence, at the moment LDXXV (Letters and Diaries Volume 25). In this, the 1870-1871 volume, our Ordinariate's Patron is often found dealing with the problems thrown up for ordinary devout Catholics by the persecuting hyperueberultrapapalists of his own day. His was a profound and loving ministry towards those whose faith and membership of the Church was sorely tried by the dominant clique ("the violent and reckless party") in Rome, and their associates in England ... not least, the then Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster, who relentlessly muddied the waters of sound doctrine with his grossly exaggerated accounts of the nature and powers of the Papal Office. (Newman's own relieved reaction to the text of the Definition of Papal Infallibility was "Nothing has been passed of consequence". He reminded the troubled that no account had been given of what the term ex cathedra meant and that by defining the Papal Ministry the Council had in fact limited it.)
I may spring upon you some Newman snippets from time to time. If I remember, I may label them Fromthecardinalsdesk.
Here's a starter:
Fromthecardinalsdesk: "A pope is not inspired. I know you will find flatterers and partizzani such as those whom St Francis de Sales calls 'the Pope's lackies' ... "
I wonder what S Francis' French for 'lackies' was. We stand much in need of such specialised vocabulary nowadays. The Italian 'partizzani' is a good start.
Interesting that JHN selected a particular Italian dialect form of this rather 'international' word. Is there a story here?
Yes, I have been dipping into the Blessed's correspondence, at the moment LDXXV (Letters and Diaries Volume 25). In this, the 1870-1871 volume, our Ordinariate's Patron is often found dealing with the problems thrown up for ordinary devout Catholics by the persecuting hyperueberultrapapalists of his own day. His was a profound and loving ministry towards those whose faith and membership of the Church was sorely tried by the dominant clique ("the violent and reckless party") in Rome, and their associates in England ... not least, the then Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster, who relentlessly muddied the waters of sound doctrine with his grossly exaggerated accounts of the nature and powers of the Papal Office. (Newman's own relieved reaction to the text of the Definition of Papal Infallibility was "Nothing has been passed of consequence". He reminded the troubled that no account had been given of what the term ex cathedra meant and that by defining the Papal Ministry the Council had in fact limited it.)
I may spring upon you some Newman snippets from time to time. If I remember, I may label them Fromthecardinalsdesk.
Here's a starter:
Fromthecardinalsdesk: "A pope is not inspired. I know you will find flatterers and partizzani such as those whom St Francis de Sales calls 'the Pope's lackies' ... "
I wonder what S Francis' French for 'lackies' was. We stand much in need of such specialised vocabulary nowadays. The Italian 'partizzani' is a good start.
Interesting that JHN selected a particular Italian dialect form of this rather 'international' word. Is there a story here?
25 October 2018
.... or ...
... should I have perceived that PF has devised another of those beautiful Irregular Verbs:
I use strong and violent language just as Jesus and the prophets did, because I am at least a prophet;
You are as bad as a murderer because you use strong language, especially against me;
He/She/It ....?
I use strong and violent language just as Jesus and the prophets did, because I am at least a prophet;
You are as bad as a murderer because you use strong language, especially against me;
He/She/It ....?
I am not often speechless, but ...
... I have just read ... Holy Coprophilia!!! ... that PF has condemned those who insult others!!!!
More eloquent pens than mine had better conclude this post.
More eloquent pens than mine had better conclude this post.
24 October 2018
Voces, vestes ... O flebile flumen!
I dropped into the Quod for a quick lunch ... I find a starter and a pud (with tapwater) set me up nicely for an afternoon; they don't give me that terribly heavy feeling in the legs which I suffer after a main course and a glass of wine.
It was full of youthful Americans (this was the second week of term).
I knew they were Americans, even before I tuned into their idiolect, because of their garb. I think you might know what I mean about their clothing: elaborately casual, in a way that says "I'm not pompous; you won't catch me formally dressed", but also says "I'm sure you are not so ill-bred as to fail to observe how expensively I'm dressed."
Some of them may well have been descended (collaterally, of course) from the Oover who so memorably brought his national taciturnity to the last Dinner of the Junta during that disastrously parthenolatreutic Eights Week.
Their youthful charm greatly enhanced the Foie Gras and the Fig Pavlova with which I restored my aged frame.
I wonder if they've found out where the river is yet.
It was full of youthful Americans (this was the second week of term).
I knew they were Americans, even before I tuned into their idiolect, because of their garb. I think you might know what I mean about their clothing: elaborately casual, in a way that says "I'm not pompous; you won't catch me formally dressed", but also says "I'm sure you are not so ill-bred as to fail to observe how expensively I'm dressed."
Some of them may well have been descended (collaterally, of course) from the Oover who so memorably brought his national taciturnity to the last Dinner of the Junta during that disastrously parthenolatreutic Eights Week.
Their youthful charm greatly enhanced the Foie Gras and the Fig Pavlova with which I restored my aged frame.
I wonder if they've found out where the river is yet.
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