Countercultural Illumination ... "a new and liberating truth"

 The Sixth of the Twelve Old Roman Vigil Lections which I am inviting you to consider (six before Easter; six in Easter Week) seems to me particularly important; and the Nineteen Fifties Anglican Catholic Note which I have reproduced today seems to me particularly inspired and massively relevant. 

The writer, who might or might not have been Canon Arthur Couratin, very prophetically observed that what he called "the Church of tomorrow" would have a problem: a gigantic gap would have opened up between the "standards" of the World and "the Christian way of looking at things". In the 1950s, they were still "in the fag end of a Christian society"; the Christian might well see her duty as striving, with the aid of Divine Grace, to live up to standards to which the wider society at least paid lip-service. But now, not only have the old Christian no-nos (No divorce ... no contraception ... no pre-marital sex ... ...) almost entirely disappeared from view, but a whole new set of precepts, inimical to Christian morality, have taken their place: inclusivity ... liceity of homosexual genital activity ... all the 'trans' nonsenses ... .... and, pray note, most of these Ten Dozen Commandments are not take-it-or-leave it; they are as compulsory as the land-blood-and-race nonsense was under Hitler.

In this context, the Christian is distinguished from the non-Christian by an enormous ethical chasm. 

And, in this context, the Christian is "illuminated" by possessing a Wisdom which the World does not know or (if it has heard of it) violently and angrily demands should be given up. This Wisdom of ours includes the mores which the three millennia of our culture have inculcated.

BTW: in the early fifties, this Reading from Baruch was ejected from the Vigil by Papa Pacelli, Pius XII, as part of his violent assault upon Tradition ... I presume, therefore, that the 1962 missal fails to include it. After the Council, Baruch was to a degree reprieved by being reincluded as an option. But I doubt if there are very many places where it can be heard. Its message is that of Quinquagesima: the Christian neophyte is to be one who can See as others cannot See; the man who possesses a Wisdom radically alien from that of the Zeitgeist and its blasphemous parody of Wisdom.

Canon Couratin? (6)

Lesson VI. Baruch praises Wisdom (Baruch 3:9-15&32-4:4) 

1. Baruch is addressing the Old Israel and is talking to them about the wisdom that is from above. The Old Israel possessed that wisdom in virtue of the divine revelation in the Law and the Prophets. And all the disasters that befell the Old Israel were due to their forsaking that wisdom and the God who was the fountain of that wisdom.

2. The Church reads Baruch in the Baptismal Vigil to remind the newly baptised, and all baptised Christians, that they possess a greater measure of the supernatual wisdom than was given to the members of the Old Israel. If ever as individuals or as a Church they forsake that wisdom and its author, the same fate will overtake them as overtook the Old Israel. They will grow old in a strange country, a place where they don't really belong; they will be defiled with the dead, the company of those who are not spiritually alive; they will be counted with them that go down into the grave, for they will themselves be spiritually dead.

3. Being brought up in the fag end of a Christian society, we think it strange that the Baptismal Gift should be thought of primarily as wisdom, and that the baptised should be thought of as the Illuminated. Grace seems to us to be primarily a gift of strength to live up to the standards that everyone accepts. But in the early Church, -- and it will be equally true in the Church of tomorrow -- the Christian way of looking at things was so different from that of this world that it appeared as a new and liberating truth and Christians were seen to be people illuminated with new wisdom.

S John Henry Newman in Hungary

 I have received a perfectly charming communication from Hungary, about a church dedicated to S John Henry Newman! I wonder if it is the first such church in the world?

Here you can see Mass in the Usus Authenticus being celebrated there:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=grrMExxhUMA

Or is the g a q?

How JHN would have loved it!

Canon Couratin? (5)

Lesson V. Isaiah describes Salvation. (Isaiah 54:5-14 & 55: 1-11) 

1. God in Christ is offering an everlasting covenant to man. Through him, as the true David, the true King of Israel, God is ready to give more abundant gifts to men than the human mind can conceive. In the Paschal Sacraments he is preparing to bestow upon men the very life of God himself.

2. God gives away this incomprehensible gift freely -- "without money and without price". He lavishes salvation upon men and demands nothing in return, nothing except repentance -- "Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts" -- and faith "Ho everyone that thirsteth, come ye to the waters".

3. Note that the Christian in the early Church really longed for salvation in a way that we ought to long for it, but don't. The hart desiring the water brooks was a constant subject of painting and carving. The procession to the font in the traditional rite is still made to the Sicut cervus desiderat ad fontes aquarum. Early Christians would inevitably understand Isaiah's allusions to God's bounty under the images of water and bread and wine and milk as being hidden allusions to the Christian rites through which salvation was conveyed, -- the water of Baptism, the bread and wine of the Eucharist, and the cup of milk and honey that was given to the new Christian as a token that he had entered the Promised Land.

Canon Couratin? (4)

Lesson IV. Moses and the Red Sea. (Exodus 14:24-31 & 15:1)

1. Israel, the seed of Abraham, was pursued by the wicked Pharaoh, and only escaped by plunging into the Red Sea. God delivered him supernaturally from drowning, and carried him safely over into the Promised Land, while at the same time overthrowing the hosts of the Egyptians.

2. Christ, the true seed of Abraham, is persecuted by the devil and his angels, and by their human agents, the wicked Jews, and only escapes by plunging into the waters of death. God delivers him supernaturally from death by raising him up on the third day, and carries him safely over into the heavenly places, while at the same time breaking the power of the evil one.

3. The Christian, who becomes a true son of Abrahan by sharing in Abraham's faith in God, is persecuted by the powers of evil, and by his own past sins and his present sinful habits, and only escapes by plunging into the waters of Baptism and there dying with Christ. God delivers him supernaturally by raising him up in Christ, and makes him sit already in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, while at the same time withdrawing him from the reach of Satan.

Greedy Personal Appeal

Readers will recall my writing in previous years about the 

ROMAN FORUM GARDONE CONFERENCE

which, each July, takes place on the shores of Lake Garda ... near where Reginald Cardinal Pole, Queen Mary's Archbishop of Canterbury, once lurked in safety from the hired assassins of Henry VIII.

The Worship at the Conference is totally traditional, lectures are given, discussion takes place. Traditional scholars from all parts of the world take part. ... fellowsip ... music ... wine ...

For some years, I have been privileged to be invited to be ... in the American phrase ... "one of the Faculty". I would very much like to do the same this year.

Because of the pandemic interruptions of the last couple of years, Professor Rao is cautiously building up this year's Faculty as the necessary finance is promised to him.

Each lecturer costs the Conference $2,900.

If any reader feels he/she would like to do me a good turn, and has the money to do so, I would be grateful if he/she could inform Dr Rao how much they are prepared to sponsor me for. I will, of course, show my gratitude by saying Masses for my benefactors.

drjcrao@aol.com 

Canon Couratin? (3)

 Lesson III. Abraham and Isaac. (Genesis 22:1-19)

1. God founded the Church in Abraham. He founded it upon Abraham's faith. He promised on two occasions to bring life from the dead, and demanded that Abraham should believe in his power to do so. He promised that Sarah should have a child when she was past age and Abraham himself as good as dead. Abraham believed that God was able to perform this miracle, and in due course Isaac as born. Again God promised that Abraham's posterity should be as many as the stars of the sky in multitude, and at the same time demanded the sacrifice of his only son. Abraham believed in God's power to effect this, and proceeded to offer up Isaac in Sacrifice, receiving him back from death in a figure.

2. The same faith that God demanded of Abraham is demanded of a Christian, faith in God's power to bring life from the dead. The Christian at his baptism makes the act of faith in Christ natum et passum, conceived supernaturally of a virgin by the Holy Ghost, and raised from death supernaturally on the third day.

3. Christ is the true seed of Abraham; by faith men become members of Christ, and therefore sons of Abraham and members of the true Israel. God's promise to Abraham that in his seed all the nations of the earth should be blessed is fulfilled in the continual increase of the church.

Dr Kwasniewski

 Peter Kwasniewski has produced a pocket-sized book which I regard as both important and well-conceived. True Obedience in the Church A Guide to Discernment in Challenging Times. 

As we say in this country, it is precisely what it says on the label.

Catholics naturally desire to act in obedience to the Catholic Church. So when the levers of power in the Church seem to fall into the hands of operators who appear determined to undermine what, as far as we can judge, are the fundamental structures of our Faith, well, we end up with something of a problem!

I commend this extremely helpful contribution.

Sophia Institute Press Manchester New Hampshire.

Canon Couratin? (2)

Lesson II. The Flood (Genesis 5,6,7,8.)

1. In the beginning darkness was upon the face of the deep. The primaeval waters stand for darkness and for nothingness. But once the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters, then there was light, and the act of creation was begun. Water, the symbol of destruction, is transformed into the symbol of fruitfulness and life.

2. After the fall of man and the corruption of the human race, God saw that the wickedness of man was great upon the earth and it repented the Lord that he had created man on the earth: and the Lord said, "I will destroy man whom I have created."And he let loose once more the destructiveness of the primaeval deep, which in the beginning he had transformed into the lifegiving waters of creation by the power of the Spirit of God. But the same waters, which destroy the wicked by drowning, save righteous Noah and his posterity, by causing the Ark to ride high above the destruction of the world.

3. So in the redemption God lets loose again the destructive waters upon the human race in the Sacrament of Baptism, whereby the sins of men are washed away and the old man is utterly destroyed. But because the Spirit of God has moved upon the Baptismal waters, they are also the life-giving means by which we are new-created unto God. 

Canon Couratin? (1)

 At S Stephen's House, in the Sixties, those who attended the Holy Week Retreat were given a series of succinct typewritten Notes on the Twelve Readings of the Traditional Easter Vigil. Since the Pacelli era was to include a lamentable onslaught upon that series of lections, I presume that the Notes preceded the sixties: therefore, that they are more likely to have been drafted by the legendary Canon Arthur Couratin (Principal 1936-1962) than by his successor, poor Derek. But I may be wrong in this assumption: if anybody has knowledge of the genesis of these pieces, I would be grateful to be enabled to share it.

These Notes seem to me redolent of all that was best in our Anglican Catholic spirituality; they are profoundly biblical and patristic; simple, direct, and unpompous. There are a few infelicities in the drafting, reminiscent of the days of typewriters, when one could not just hop back a few places by the touch of a finger and tidy things up. But I have 'improved' or 'corrected' nothing.

I propose to reproduce them on the blog: the first six before Easter, and the other half-dozen after the Pasch. So here I go with the first of the twelve.

[Incidentally, the corresponding Service in the Byzantine Rite has fifteen lessons; of these, six (=Roman I, III, IV, IX, X, XII) correspond loosely to our readings.]

Lesson 1. The Creation (Genesis 1:1-2:2)

1. In the beginning God created all things through his word and by his spirit. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made." "And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters, and God said: 'Let there be light', and there was light." And God created man after the pattern of the Word, 'Who is the image of the invisible God, the first begotten before all creation." He "formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the spirit of life, and man became a living soul."

2. So also in the last days God redeems all mankind through his Word and by his Spirit. "The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee; therefore that holy thing which shall be 'created' shall be called the Son of God." "That which was created in him was life, and the life was the light of men", because it was "the brightness of God's glory and the express image of his person". And when his time was come, Christ "throgh the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God". 

3. And in the last days God sanctifies the elect people of God by recreating them through his Word and by his Spirit. They ae washed and sanctified and justified in the name of our Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God. They are born again of Water and the Spirit, and if any man is in Christ he is a new creation, part of the new creation of God, who is saying"Behold I make all things new."

 

DDWIL gets to work ... UPDATED UPDATED UPDATED UPDATED

I am immensely grateful to those of you who have troubled to respond to my plea; both on account of your erudition and of your wit. I am aware of the good fortune I enjoy in having such a readership!

There is, of course, the school-boy howler at the end. The output of that Dicastery ... I am not exaggerating ... more often has such a Howler than not! It is yet another example of the malaise at the heart of Bergoglianity, that the Worship of the Latin Churches should be so helplessly at the mercy of a poor thing like Roche and his associated illiterates.

But I also share the views of those of you who dislike victimis. 

When one is inducting students into the art of Latin Prose Compo, the first thing one has to cure them of is the assumption that they can take the English words one by one and look them up in an English-into-Latin Dictionary. They need to know that you have to put the sense of the English into an innate idiom of Latin. Thus, Meissner/Auden, via its index, tells you that if you need to render some such English phrase as victims of calamity, you will probably need a construction like calamitatibus affligi, 'to be afflicted by calamities'. 

The usage in modern languages of 'victims of' to mean 'those gravely disadvantaged by' would, I think, have puzzled readers even a couple of generations ago. Sister Doctor Ellebracht's learned Remarks (1963) know nothing of the idiom.

FINALLY ... using the word impiorum to mean Russian reaches new depths. Does anybody have contact with Metropolitan Hilarion? I think he should know about this detail so that, the next time PF goes angling for an invitation to Moscow, such a very striking lexical refinement can be taken into account in framing the reply! 

ORIGINAL POST:

The CDW ... oops ... the Dicastery for Divine Worship and Innovative Latinity ... have issued the following optional addition to the Solemn Prayers for Good Friday. The addition, of course relates only to what PF has delightfully termed The Unicus Usus of the Roman Rite.

At least, I hope it does!

LATIN

Deus pacis et misericordiae, qui humilium pauperumque misereris et oppressores eorum deprimis, praesta quaesumus, omnibus victimis violentiae belli salutem; ut, a te corde mutato impiorum, tuam praevaleat pacem.

ENGLISH

God of peace and mercy, who take pity on the poor and lowly and put down their oppressors, grant, we pray, deliverance to all victims of war and violence, that as you change the heart of the aggressor, so your peace will prevail. 

The old English Diocesan Calendars

Before the 1960s, each English Catholic Diocese had its own Calendar of local celebrations. These were all granted by that indefatigable organisation, the Sacred Congregation of Rites. All through World War Two those diligent functionaries kept hard at work; I wonder how, in, say, 1943, Cardinal Salotti managed to smuggle his Decretum Approbationis ( ... hodiernus episcopus Hogglestockiensis Sanctissimo Domino Nostro Pio XII Proprium dioecesanum rite concinnatum pro debita approbatione humillime subiecit. Sacra porro Rituum Congregatio, utendo facultatibus sibi specialiter ab ipso Sanctissimo Domino Nostro tributis ...) through War-stricken Europe to the Western English County of Barsetshire. Was there some arrangement with neutral Portugal? Do the Enigma machines come into the story?

Miraculously, the Decrees, and their accompanying Officia Propria, somehow managed to arrive safely, undamaged by doodlebugs and without a single typo or grammatical error! Why is it that the very definitely Unsacred and minimally sacral Congregation for Divine Worship, current proprietor Arthur Roche, despite ... as far as Italy is concerned ... working in peace time, is now so incapable of achieving this simple result? (Readers probably saw Fr Zed's withering post last December on Our Lady of Loreto and her new grossly ungrammatical Collect.) Does Uncle Arthur disagree in principle with employing competent latinists? Or was he personally humiliated when he was a tiny boy by a Classics Master? Or is the corrupt Latin that emerges nowadays from that dicastery designed specifically as a Bergoglian plot to subvert the Christian Tradition? Like saying "So you like Latin? Let me show you what garbage I can turn it into ..."

I have been totally unable to secure a complete copy of the old Hogglestock Diocesan Propers. When I sought permission to look in the diocesan archives, the Bishop asked why and, when I explained, promptly denied that he had any archives. All I know ... information via Mgr Ronald Knox, Protonotary Apostolic ... is that it contained a 'local' Saint, S Ewold of Barchester, Episcopi et Confessoris, with the rank of a Double, on June 31; and that this late Saxon Saint had squashed down to the rank of a mere commemoration the much older 'Gregorian' observance of Ss Promiscuus and Miscellaneus in the liturgical books of S Pius V. 

Incidentally,what a nuisance it has been to a couple of millennia of rubricists that the Holy Roman Church produced such an unnecessary and excessive abundance of martyrs. Thank goodness the Punic radix et ramus ... always the Elephant in the Room! ... Hannibal abolished most of them.

Can anybody provide any additional information?