Happy New Year!

Orthfully Catholic would like to wish all their readers a very Happy New Year and prays that 2008 will bring you every happiness and blessing.

God Bless you all,

The Seminarians

Merry Christmas!!!

Orthfully Catholic would like to wish all their readers a Happy and Holy Christmas. May the Christ-child bless you all and His Holy Mother hold you in Her loving arms this Christmastide and throughout the New Year.

The Seminarians

Down to Earth

I was brought down to earth with a bump today when a Filipino priest who is staying at the presbytery at the moment asked me, 'What is the Church's stance on abortion in England?' I didn't quite understand what he meant, surely he knows the Church's stance on abortion worldwide. He explained that because abortion is legal in this country he thought maybe the English bishops were in favour of it. I replied that as with the rest of the Magisterium they are most certainly not in favour of abortion in any form.

This shocked me; how many other people in countries where abortion is illegal because of the Catholic status of that country think that the Church in countries where abortion is legal is pro-choice? It made me realise that while we do a lot to try and change the policy in our own country we clearly aren't doing enough to make our voices heard abroad!

Pray for England and her conversion.

Thoughts

While I was not the only (nor indeed the most fervent) supporter of Same Difference in the seminary, I am a fan. I must regester my shock and sorrow at their loss. I feel it, deep in my heart, and a tear comes to my eye whenever I hear one of the songs they covered "Don't Feel Like Dancing" and especially "Never had a dream come true". It is sad, because they probably don't feel like dancing, and this dream, for them, has not come true. So, if they do read this seminarians blog, I wish them joy and hope and that I'll buy their album, if they release one.

Today I have been buying presents for a party, it was stressful in the big city, full of bustling people, I constantly had my eye on my wallet, such is modern life. By the end of the day, i.e. today, I was shattered, my feet were aching and my head was spinning, and my arms were tired after carrying around 24 presents for various people. I was expressing my discomfort (not that I'm a complaining type, you understand, merely that to express emotion is a basic psycological neccesity) and my friend, a brother semianrian, reminded me that the people surrounding us were, in the majority, only doing it as slaves of materialism, we, at least, were performing a service. We had the great O antiphon to look forward to at evening prayer. This both saddened and perked my spirit.

Anyway, I have written enough, not enough, beloved brothers and sisters, chiao for now.

Congratulations Leon

Every Saturday night over the last term our Seminary has seen a flourishing tradition whereby supper is taken in the common room and we all sit around the Sky+ box and watch X-Factor. Last night was the final and while we were unable to be together to celebrate the occasion we were all in contact throughout the night by text.

One of the brethren was a big fan of Same Difference (Get in) so we all commiserated with him when they were the first to be removed from the competition. It was all down to Leon, the kid who can't sing but managed to ride through on the votes of teenage girls, and Rhydian, the Welsh opera singer who will, we're sure, have a huge career in Opera and the West End.

Eventually Leon won, no surprises there, and as much as none of us wanted him to win he was incredible last night. He's a natural bass, a fantastic crooner, but he actually hit a descant note at one point with no struggle at all.

Orthfully Catholic would like to congratulate Leon and wish him all the best for his future career.

Home again, home again, jiggety jig

The retreat finished yesterday evening, thank you all for your prayers. We have now broken up for Christmas, but fear not, I'm sure this will not stop us from updating you on parish life over the Christmas vacation.

God Bless

The Seminarians

Seminarians on Retreat

Please keep us in your prayers over the next few days as we will be on retreat in order to wind down from a busy term and prepare for the Nativity of Our Lord.

God bless you all

The Seminarians

Immaculate Conception

It's a little belated but Orthfully Catholic would like to wish all our readers a very Happy Feast and hope it was celebrated with due pomp.

As I said earlier not all of us went to St George's (the Hermit did so hopefully he will give a report at a later date) but some of us went to Farnborough Abbey. Unfortunately due to a misunderstanding we arrived 2 hours late for Mass but the Abbot kindly showed us round the Monsastery, including those parts currently being renovated. He then took us to the guesthouse for tea and coffee and we had a long discussion about how monastic and seminary life has changed in the last 30 odd years and how it is slowly returning to the way it once was. He also spoke to us about how the lebvevrists are all young but as a result don't truly understand how things should be and didn't realise that an Abbot has certain privileges not given the monks such as eating breakfast sitting down.

We returned to the seminary and found a member of staff who thankfully said Mass for us in the Lady Chapel! Our thanks go out to him, especially as he was quite unwell at the time.

High Mass at St George's

Many of you may have heard that High Mass in the Extraordinary Form will be celebrated at the Metropolitan Cathedral of St George and the English Martyrs for the first time since 1969 to celebrate the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception. Some Seminarians will be there, other will be attending Mass at Farnborough Abbey - just to see which Form the Abbot will decide to say Mass in.

Happy New Year

Well, here we are. All essays have been handed in, the sound of heavy breathing is travelling through the seminary corridors, the word 'Retreat' is being thrown around carelessly everywhere we go - it must be the end of term.

We celebrated the new liturgical year last weekend with First Vespers and a New Year's Party. We had an Open Day at the seminary on Advent Sunday, a very successful occasion, well attended, which ended with a beautiful Advent Service based on Second Vespers and including an incredible 4-part Magnificat, written by the Musical Director while a student here, sung by the Schola.

We are now all incredibly tired and looking forward to our Retreat beginning on Monday evening.

As you may have seen Orthfully Catholic are celebrating the Season with a new picture on the left.

God Bless you all this Advent!

The Seminarians

Spe Salvi Nos

First came Love ...

Now he has Hope ...

The long awaited second Encyclical Letter of Pope Benedict XVI was published earlier today and here it is:

http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/encyclicals/documents/hf_ben-xvi_enc_20071130_spe-salvi_en.html

Enjoy!

The Seminarians

Update on the Carthusian Nun thing

Thank you to all of you who left comments under that post, I am deeply grateful. I received an e-mail from a friend on the issue and as well as forwarding it to my friend in Oxford I would like to copy and paste it here.

It seems that the ceremony for establishing "deaconesses" was in many ways similar to the ordination of deacons. According to the 19th canon of the First Council of Nicaea says that they did not receive the imposition of hands and are therefore to be considered laity, albeit that they were sometimes numbered among the clergy. On the other hand, .there was some form of laying on of hands in at least some cases - the 4th century Apostolic Constitutions include a laying on of hands for establishing deaconesses. Of course, laying on hands does not imply the conferral of the sacrament of orders: all manner of liturgical actions include the laying on of hands (including simple blessings). On the whole subject of deaconesses, Aime George Martimort's book is useful.

Anyway, it is noted in the 1917 Catholic encyclopedia that "[t]he only surviving relic of the ordination of deaconesses in the West seems to be the delivery by the bishop of a stole and maniple to Carthusian nuns in the ceremony of their profession." More detail is found in the article on the Carthusian Order:

"The Carthusian nuns have retained the privilege of the consecration of virgins, which they have inherited from the nuns of Prébayon. The consecration, which is given four years after the vows are taken, can only be conferred by the diocesan. The rite differs but slightly from that given in the Pontifical. The nun is invested with a crown, ring, stole and maniple, the last being worn on the right arm. These ornaments the nun only wears again on the day of her monastic jubilee, and after her death on her bier. It is a consecrated nun who sings the Epistle at the conventual Mass, though without wearing the manible. At Matins, if no priest be present, a nun assumes the stole and reads the Gospel. There are also lay sisters, Données, and Saeurs Touricres. Famous among Carthusian nuns have been St. Roseline of Villeneuve and Bl. Beatrix of Ornacieus."

Note that, in this description, they do not customarily vest as deacons and, while they do certain things usually reserved to deacons, they do not do anything that requires the power of orders. They also do not sing the Gospel at Mass.

I have no idea whether these privileges remain in force following the reforms of the 1960s and 1970s. It is entirely possible that they do. Even back in 1917, the writers of the Catholic Encyclopedia could note that these nuns "have never been numerous", I doubt that there are many today.

Facebook ... the world is smaller than we think.

Being in touch with the youth, as I am, and being a youth myself (that is, youthful, rather than yoof, note the 'f') I am a member of facebook, the on-line networking site, where one can share photographs, messages and e-mails, Where one can tell the world one's mood by updating the 'status'. In brief, as a priest friend of mine says, an invention to save friends and aquaintences actually speaking to each other.

On this website one can find many different groups to join, some of these are fun, others political, others religious, a whole mish-mash, but it's always interesting to see ones friend's groups, to see their political or religious affliations.

For example, a friend of mine recently joined the group named "I'm a bleeding heart liberal and proud of it". Another friend, from the other side of the politcal perspective joined the group "I support Francisco Franco in the Spanish civil war" (I find this interesting given most members of facebook were born after 1938).

Then we move on to some of the more ecclesiastical groups, for example the fun "pick-up lines for Catholics", including 'you must be the third secret of Fatima' and 'you've got stunning scapular-brown eyes'. As a seminarian my membership of this group is purely academic.

"Bring back the biretta", "liturgical snobs anonymous" and "say the black do the red" are a few of the more popular groups concerned with the extra-ordinary rite, of which there are a plethora. I'm sure many of our readers have heard of the group "everytime a priest says Mass without a maniple God kills a kitten", although I'm not entirely sure He does.

I'd encourage all our readers, who are members of facebook, to join the group "Vocations group" which is, as the name suggests, a group for promoting vocations in the Catholic Church.

Catch up

We're in between essays at the moment so find below a couple of posts catching our readers up with recent events in the life of the Seminarians!

A Weekend in Oxford

I spent last weekend in Oxford. And what a beautiful weekend it was. I was visiting a friend who was celebrating his birthday and we attended Mass and Exposition/Benediction at St Aloysius. The liturgies there were as beautiful as one could imagine, it was hard to imagine that it is just an ordinary parish church. Holy Mass on Christ the King was particularly grand, the first Mass in the Ordinary Form I have ever attended with a Deacon and Sub-Deacon. The choir was incredible, the singing of 'Christus Vincit' was remarkable.

My friend and I attended the Ordination of Br Joseph to the Diaconate, which was quite impressive in itself - the Bishop sang the prayer of Ordination. The Litany was gorgeous. We were slightly late (arrived at the homily) and there were no seats so my friend wanted to leave, I convinced him to stay until after the ordination itself - we left after the Credo. Fr Anton told us the next day that there was a grand bun-fight afterwards, which I was sorry to miss as I recognised the Bishop's Deacon and hoped to have a chat with him but the Birthday Boy's needs prevailed. I know he's reading this so I'll say 'Hello' now!

There is so much more to do there, I must go again soon!

Female Deacons of St Bruno

While in Oxford I was confronted with a very interesting situation. My friend told me about a community of Carthusian Nuns soe of whom are ordained Deacons and are the onlt women in the world given this unique privilege. I suggested that perhaps they are Biblical style Deaconesses, but no he insisted they are ordained by the Local Ordinary, wear the stole, proclaim the Gospel and preach.

Has anyone heard of these? I haven't even heard of Carthusian Nuns never mind Deacon Nuns!

Pontifical Requiem Mass

I know its been a while and you've probably all seen and read reviews elsewhere but this was our first experience of such a Mass so we would like to express our wonder and awe to you dear readers.

The atmosphere in Westminster Cathedral was wonderful, everyone dressed in black, women wearing black mantillas. The choir was incredible, we had always thought all Requiem Masses had to be simple chant but this Mass was polyphonic. The Bishop did a very good job considering the pressure he was under as the first Bishop of England and Wales to say Mass in the Extraordinary Form since 1969.

There were so many rituals we have never seen before that intrigued us and roused many questions such as:

Why does the Bishop wear a chalice veil on his lap?
Why are there two Deacons and a Priest wearing a cope? (One of the Deacons may have been a Sub-Deacon wearing a Dalmatic instead of a Tunicle and the priest may have been a Deacon wearing a Priest's Biretta of course)
Why couldn't the Bishop remove and replace his own Mitre?
What is with the conference of clerics surrounding the Bishop everytime he returns to the faldstool?

It was a wonderful experience nad one I hope to have again. Unfortunately the Absolutions at the Catafalque were cancelled at the last minute but hopefully that will be restored next year.

The only thing that ruined the day for us was after Mass outside the Cathedral when we overheard some dreadful 'ecclesial bitchiness' criticising the Bishop's homily, his Mitre and the mistakes he made. His homily was good, he spoke about the importance of preparing for one's own death and how we shouldn't take that important time of life away from a person who is dying, as well as the importance of praying for the dead.

Many prayers were said for Bishop Arnold among the Seminarians and we hope that is not the last time we see him or indeed any other Bishop in such an important and privileged position.

Hello!

We haven't logged on for a while (2 more essays to go) so it was nice to see so many comments asking after us. Well, the flu (sorry Mac ... cold) season is over for another year and we are all returning this eveing from our Free Weekend. Unfortunately we haven't toime to post any more than this but we will catch you up ASAP!

God Bless

The Seminarians

Pontifical Requiem Mass at the Faldstool

Don't forget this Mass followed by Absolutions at the Catafalque tomorrow at Westminster Cathedral, 2pm. Hope to see some of you there!

Archbishop Maurice Couvre de Murville RIP

Some of our brethren are attending the funeral of the Archbishop today so we keep the repose of his soul firmly in our prayers.

May his soul and the souls of all the faithful departed rest in peace. Amen.

It's been too long

Seminary life is somewhat busy at the moment, essay deadlines are coming up (one every two weeks), its also flu season - ladies if you think your husbands and sons have bad man-flu try living with 30 celibate men with it, you'd think the plague had hit! Thus Orthfully Catholic has been somewhat quiet of late. I shall therefore take this opportunity to try and keep you updated on our activities of late.

Wednesday evening was an absolute delight. The new men wanted to thank the house for helping them to settle in so quickly and accept them as par of the community so easily and so they cooked supper for us all. We had a four course meal consisting of Bruschetta, Smokers Sorbet, Chicken in a Basket and Chocolate Cheesecake. The most wonderful meal I think I have ever had here! We at Orthfully Catholic would like to take this opportunity to thank the cooks for their hard work and delicious meal.

The November festivals were kept with due ceremony of course. All Saints was a marvel, First Class Relics were put on display around the chapel for veneration. Lauds and Mass were celebrated beautifully. On All Souls we all received our indulgence by celebrating Sext in the graveyard followed by prayers for the dead and blessing of the graves. After a major debate among staff and students as to whether or not the Gloria should be removed from the liturgy we had a Requiem Mass for the War Dead on Remembrance Sunday followed by a laying of the wreath at the Memorial Plaque for those Seminarians who died in World War I and their names and ages were read out after the 2 minute silence - all of them were in their early 20's. The Gloria was removed after the organist refused to play it.

I think that is all we have done other than write essays, study hard and try to stay alive during the flu invasion.

God Bless

The Seminarians

Hollywood goes Pro-Life

Our official blog advisor who refuses to join Orthfully Catholic because he has no time but spends all his free time checking out the blogosphere and telling us whats going on to keep us up to date when we are snowed under with work has pointed us in the direction of a new film called Bella. The American blogosphere is apparently already raving about it. It is about a young single woman in New York who finds herself pregnant and decides to have an abortion. That is until she meets a young Mexican man who is about to become big in Football (I assume that's American Football and not Socca) who puts his dreams on hold to help her out.

This is receiving mixed reviews in the States, it won the People's Choice Award at the Toronto Film Festival but is being slated by the Hillary Clinton camp for trying to undermine the importance of choice for the American woman. Its Executive Producer is Steve McEveety, the Executive Producer for The Passion of the Christ. To find out more check out the following links:

The Official Site
The IMDB Review
An interesting story on Yahoo News about the film
Zenit News
Review by the Archiocese of St Louis

Let's hope this actually comes across the Pond and we are not found in the same position as Fr Tim over Therese!

What's EPR?

Mrs Parkes left a comment in a previous post inviting me to look at a Sex Education Programme for a Primary School. I published the comment and had a look. Basically the programme runs throughout the entire school first looking at animals and then humans. 'Animals?' I hear you ask. Well, of course because 'You and me baby we ain't nothing but mammals so lets do it like they do on the Discovery Channel'! Its amazing how many people actually think Natural Law means doing whatever the animals do.

But back to the programme, its NOT a Sex Education programme, its a Life Education programme to teach the children how to understand their bodies. This gives license to ask 7 year olds to labels all the parts of the body. Call me old-fashioned but when I was 7 (and that was less than 20 years ago) I asked my Mum, not my teacher. This programme is a scandal, and as Mrs Parkes correctly points out the fact that secular schools want it shows just how un-Catholic it is.

So here it is:

http://www.st-edwards.oldham.sch.uk/epr/epr.html

Faith Article on Catholic Sex Education

Half Terms and holidays gives me an opportunity to read my regular Catholic mags and journals (and burn past copies of the Pill) so today I read an excellent article in Faith Magazine on the Archdiocese of Birmingham's Sex Education programme. I have been reliably informed that the link previously in this post was unobtainable, so check out the article on the Faith website

Old Fashioned Catholicism

Its Half Term so I am back in my Half Term parish. The Parish Priest is on pilgrimage so I took advantage of his absence and had a snoop around the presbytery last night and found some notebooks containing the minutes of Legion of Mary meetings from the 1940's. In one I found some letters, many official from the SVP approving funding for a parishioner's medical bill and one personal from a parishioner thanking a legionary for her visits while she was in hospital. As I read it I was astounded by the language she used speaking about the importance of suffering andf offering it up for the Holy Souls, saying she had received a visit from Our Lady of the Slipper Chapel at her bedside comforting her. I thought maybe this should be sent to Rome to prove a private apparition but realised it was normal for a sick Catholic at this time to speak about the comfort she reveives from Our Lady and in England especially Our Lady of Walsingham. How many sick people would write a letter like that today?

Also among these papers were flyers for public events including a public meeting at the Town Hall for all Christians in the town to meet a panel of all the local clergy of the various denominations represented in the area (Catholic, Anglican and Free Church) to discuss issues that affect them and how each would deal with it according to the rules of their particular denomination- that would put a sock in the mouths of liberals who claim that not only did ecumenism begin after the Council but that true ecumenism means everyone doing it the Protestant way.

Other flyers detailed regular meetings for non-Catholics to find out about the Catholic faith with statistics like, '80% of those who attended the last session were received into the Church'. This kind of 'propaganda' would be illegal now as incitement to hatred. Today we are expected to sit back and wait for people to come to us and then tell them the Catholic Church is no different to any other Christian 'Church' or religion.

Its amazing what has changed in only 60 years!

NOE Study Day

Nurses Opposed to Euthnasia are holding a National Study Day entitled 'Understanding the Mental Capacity Act' on Tuesday 20th November, 9:30-5:00 at Guys Hospital. If you would like to attend send a letter detailing your name, address, telephone number(s) and dietary requirements with a cheque for £60 made payable to Ms Teresa Lynch to:

Ms Teresa Lynch (Nurses Opposed to Euthanasia)
168 Earls Court Road
Earls Court
London
SW5 9QQ

The Act came into effect on 1st October and it is very important that we understand exactly what its implications are for anyone in hospital with a serious illness. The government have allowed euthanasia in the back door with this Act and we must not let those who are supposed to be healing us kill us with the government's blessing.

Never Mind England

We broke up for Half Term on Friday but a number of the brethren stayed on to watch the Rugby on Saturday. I have no interest in sport but am very proud of my country so of course like to know how we're doing at any World Cup be it Rugby, Football or Cricket. Therefore while the lads watched the game in our common room I watched a film in my own room and popped down at half time to buy a Twix. The score was 12-6 to South Africa, the room was in absolute silence, you'd have thought the Blessed Sacrament was exposed. I came back down at the end of the game. I have never seen a group of grown men in tears before, and that was just the team! We stayed to watch the teams receive their medals; a loud 'aaahhhhh' was released when the little boy burst into tears and all the uncles said together, 'Poor thing, he's tired'. We all laughed as the cup broke knowing as one that if England had won that would never happen.

Orthfully Catholic would like to pass on their commiserations to the England squad and their fans and hope they have more luck in 2011.

St. Teresa

Given the recent feast day of St. Teresa of Avila, I thought I’d make a little post about how great she is!
When I was studying in Castile (which is an affected and archaic way of saying the part of Spain just north of Madrid), which is the saint’s home and area of work, I was moved by the presence of Discalced Carmelite nunneries in every town. She was born and entered the convent in Avila, where she began to receive revelations and locutions from Our Lord, Jesus Christ (biretta tip). So, having read the lives of the early Carmelite hermits, she decided, with some willing sisters, to return to the primitive rule in the centre of Avila. And so (forgive me for starting a sentence with the word “and” but this a blog, if you want grammar read Jane Austen) began her years of foundations and growth in love and prayer.
There are some funny stories about her locutions, for example, once she met a child on the stairs of her convent, she introduced herself “I’m Sr. Teresa of Jesus”, the reply came “I’m Jesus, of Sr. Teresa”.
For further reading of this glorious saint (a women libber, one of the first women doctors of the Church), read her “Interior Castle”, or the book which the Archbishop of Canterbury wrote about her.
“Keep me from sour faced saints” she once wrote. AMEN!

Comments of worrying note

In two different places I have heard two different friends tell me two different things but I can't be bothered to make two different posts so I am lumping them into one.

The first was from a female friend of mine who was speaking of an experience she had walking through a department store. She was in the cosmetic section and despite trying to get through at break-neck speed she was caught by a lady with a pot of face cream and asked if she would like to try it. When my friend asked what its effects were she was told it was the latest and most effective anti-wrinkle cream on the market and the secret to its power is the secret ingredient. What is that secret ingredient? The amniotic fluid collected after an abortion.

The second was from a friend who said he had complained to his local Sainsbury's because on the top shelf was some school stationery with 50% off stickers all over it. Immediately below that filling four shelves were contraceptive products. Clearly this was not a mistake by a shelf stacker, it was a deliberate ploy by the supermarket to encourage teenagers to by their condoms with their pencil cases and maths sets.

Shopping is no longer the relaxing past-time it once was.

To Russia with love

After the Rosary Crusade on Saturday I went with a friend to the Russian Orthodox Cathedral in Ennismore Gardens. Naturally we went to the shop first and the first section I looked at was the icons (mainly because the books were all in Russian) and was intrigued to see the design. We in the West are so used to seeing Greek icons that we assume all Eastern iconic art is of that style, so when I saw icons with Western imagery I had to buy one of Our Lord. I later discovered that this is actually common of Slavic icons.

Then we went into the church. The only Eastern church I had ever been in before was the Ukrainian Catholic Cathedral off Oxford Street and that had pews in it like a Catholic church. I remember being told at school that Eastern churches don't have seats so after seeing the Ukrainian church I thought they had brought them back, but clearly that is just because they are incommunion with Rome and have possibly taken on Latin ideas - they also have confessionals. The Russian church had no seats but was full of icons, including one of all the Saints of the British Isles. The Royal Doors weren't as impressive as those in the Ukrainian Rite church but they were still glorious as one would expect them to be.
As you walk back to Cromwell Road you see the dome of the Oratory poking above the houses and you are remined of Rome. I noted on the way back how ironic it is that we move from Rome, past the heretics to arrive at the schismatics. Pray for the unity between East and West.

God Bless.

Welcoming the Hermit

Orthfully Catholic would like to take this opportunity to welcome Hermit in the World to the blog. He is a first year of our seminary and we look forward to reading what he has to say on certain issues.

Two weeks in Westminster

The staff are away for a day so the students are finding themselves free for a period or two this morning so I thought I would take the opportunity to do some long awaited posting.

Two Saturdays ago, as you know, we attended the Solemn High Mass in Westminster Cathedral to celebrate the Holy Father's Motu Proprio. It was a joyous occasion, the Cathedral was packed and we counted at least five seminarians in the congregation. The Mass was Mozart's Coronation Mass (a favourite of many) and the homily was magnificent, comparing Servant of God Pope John Paul II to Moses and Pope Benedict XVI to Joshua. I was particularly impressed that the homily was given from the pulpit rather than the ambo/lectern. The people all participated well and the Te Deum brought a tear to many an eye. The only criticism I would have is that prior to Mass Julian Chadwick gave some notices on behalf of the Latin Mass Society, which included the next celebration of Confirmation at St James, Spanish place in the 'Traditional Form'. The Motu Proprio clearly states there are no longer two rites of Mass but two forms of the same rite, therefore we must all adjust our language to meet this significant change, otherwise people will continue to shun the Extraordinary Rite.

Last Saturday was the Rosary Crusade of Reparation beginning with a procession of the statue of Our Lady from Westminster Cathedral to Brompton Oratory, where we had hymns to Our Lady, blessing and clothing with the Brown Scapular, a marvellous sermon given by Fr Julian Large Cong Orat in which he stated that if the Rosary can win wars and bring about world peace imagine what it can do for the individual. The day ended with the most beautiful Benediction I have ever received.

All in all the last two weekends have been fantastic and we are looking forward to the LMS Requiem Mass in November.

A Happy Saturday with Our Lady

My dear friends, I’m quite touched to have been invited by my friends at Orthfully Catholic to post on his blog. I’ll spare you introductions, I’m sure that in my ranting posts you will see more of the real ‘me’ than any introduction will show.
I went, last Saturday, to the Rosary Crusade of Reparation. Well, to be honest, I didn’t do the crusade, I arrived late and was only present for the closing hymns etc at the Brompton Oratory.
The crusade, I hear, was wonderful, gloriously devotional, rosaries and scapulars, medals and statues wherever one looked. The closing few minutes which I saw, were lovely, really prayerful, which was powerful given the full church. Before benediction of the most Blessed Sacrament, Our Lady was processed down the nave, with the congregation singing and waving handkerchiefs and fliers (I particularly appreciated this touching, almost Mediterranean show of piety).
A jar in the day, however, was being confronted by a leaflet wielding member of the SSPX, encouraging me to read a pamphlet titled “The time bomb of Vatican II”. I’ve seen this leaflet being handed out at other Catholic event and it riles me. The procession was not a traditionalist event, it was a traditionally Catholic event, it was not a schismatic event, it was a procession between two faithful Catholic churches in London, it was not a partisan event, it will have united liberals and conservatives in love of Our Lady, so, why were the SSPX present, bringing scandal and disunity to this gathering of the faithful.
I took this man to task, asking if he thought it appropriate, while the Holy Father was working to bring about the healing of the Lefevrist schism, to hand out vile tracts which blaspheme the Holy Spirit and make a mockery of the Church’s on-going tradition. Unfortunately this man was unable to answer.
Despite this meeting, the day was fun and eventful. I think the father of the Oratory, who encouraged people not to clap Our Lady, has won the “phrase of the day” saying “Don’t clap Our Lady, as she knows you love her, and it’s not our custom in this country”. It had me laughing all the way home.

Rosary Crusade

This time of year is rife with traddy events in Westminster, the latest of these is this Saturday with the Rosary Crusdade meeting at the Cathedral at 1:45 and walking to the Oratory for the sermon. Look forward to seeing you there.

Anti-Abortion Rally

See Mulier Fortis for information of an anti-abortion act rally in Parliament Square on 27th October.

Are there hand motions in Heaven?

Chatting after breakfast a small group of Seminarians were discussing Liturgical Abuse - as we do - and we reached that ever exciting topic, hymns. One of our brethren answered that ever looming question - Why do charismatics wave their hands around while singing? Simple - they're waving goodbye to Jesus!

Solemn High Mass

This Saturday at 2pm there will be Solemn High Mass at Westminster Cathedral to celebrate the publication of Summorum Pontificum, hope to see you there.

1920's Cinema and Catholicism

Last weekend I fulfilled a lifelong ambition by watching the 1925 silent version of Ben-Hur immediately after having seen the 1959 epic. It was a brilliant film with very Catholic undertones. It begins with the Nativity of Our Lord and what makes it so Catholic for me is the portrayal of Our Lady, She is beautiful, and it is all black and white until Our Lord is born when it suddenly goes into the most glorious colour with incredible light effects. Light rises from the manger and Our Lady has a very bright halo. Later on Our Lord is referred to as Son of God and Son of Mary, you wouldn't find these titles used in Hollywood films today. The 1959 version obviously retained to religious imagery but with a more Protestant twang and it got me thinking what a modern version would be like, it would probably remove all Christian references completely for fear of offending the Muslims.

Time Magazine's (Suicidal) Man of the Year

Read this article from Fox News refuting Time Magazine's claim that Servant of God Pope John Paul II refused to have a feeding tube inserted, claim made by an Italian based on what she saw on television. The link is as follows:

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,297975,00.html

New Blog

Our apologies to Karen, we did not know you had a blog and have only just seen it through your last comment. It has now been added to our blogroll.

Catholic Soul trapped in a Baptist Body

In our Doctrine class today we were introduced to a Baptist author with an orthodox Catholic theology. His name is David Pawson and the book we looked at today is called Once Saved, Always Saved? It basically says that this particular piece of fundamentalist Protestant theology was invented by Luther and has absolutely no Scriptural basis whatsoever.

Apparently he is despised by the members of his own Ecclesial Community and has been banned from Protestant Theology Conferences but is regularly invited to speak at Catholic ones.

I'd love to meet him and ask why he hasn't come home yet!

Catholic Feminism

A website has been brought to our attention. It is based on the chapter in The Ratzinger Report entitled 'Feminism in the Convent'. It basically offers a bibliography to enhance the orthodox argument against feminist theology and could prove a good resource.

The link is as follows:

http://www.catholic-feminism.co.uk

Apology

It has been brought to our attention that a previous post has caused offence to some of our brethren. We have therefore decided to remove the post and any posts connected with it. We do not know who raised the complaint and would therefore like to make a public apology for the offence and assure everyone that no such offence was intended.

God Bless

The Seminarians

Hi Ho, Hi Ho, its back to work we go

We have been back at seminary for a week and a half now, nothing terribly exciting has happened (hence the lack of posting recently) but we are busy as ever - this is the first time I have been on the internet since Wednesday. We still have nothing to report but just wanted to let you know we are still alive!

Wanted: Young Catholic Women

All members of the Post Faith Conference Pro-Life Support Group received a message on Facebook yesterday regarding the Marie Stopes Global Safe Abortion Conference on 23rd October 2007.
We are looking for at least 300 young (aged between 19 and 35) women to go to the conference in protest. The details are as follows:

They are to arrive at the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre, Parliament Sqaure, London by 8:30am dressed smart but trendy (the trendier the better) for a 60-90 minute protest. If you are interested please send your name, number, e-mail and how you heard about it (ie Orthfully Catholic) to club1935@hotmail.co.uk and spread the word. Men need not apply but must tell as many young women as poss!!

If you are going you are in our prayers, may God and His Holy Mother be with you!!

St Cuthbert

According to my VG St Cuthbert is the Patron Saint of drivers and driving. What better day then to pass my driving test! Yes people, no more am I reliant on lifts and public transport, I am a legal driver!! I forgot the power I had behind me until my Parish Priest told me when I got back that he had said St Cuthbert's Mass for my intentions, and boy did it work!

We need to get stricter

I went with my Parish Priest to the home of an Indian family the other night and we entered into an interesting discussion about the state of British Society today. The father mentioned that when the children of Indian families in Britain leave primary school their parents send them back to India for their secondary education because something happens when they get to secondary school in Britain. They lose their Indian culture completely and become average British yobs, being rude to their parents, hanging around the streets, drinking, sleeping around etc. When Father asked what they think the Church's role should be in children's lives he replied, 'The Church needs to get stricter. If the priests keep the parents in line they will keep their children in line. We are fed up with hearing the priests tell us we should just let our children get on with it, its only a phase, they'll grow up and mature sooner or later.' I found this very interesting, especially when he later asked Father why he allows people who lead this kind of lifestyle to Communion and Father had no answer.

The people are actually demanding an end to liberalism, why aren't we giving it to them? Why do people insist on saying a liberal Church is the Church of the future? Priests must keep preaching orthodoxy from the pulpits and barring from Comunion those who should be barred!

Another wish fulfilled

On Monday I went to visit Fr Tim in Blackfen and to attend his Private Mass in the Extraordinary Form. Mac picked me up from the station and I followed her into the church. I knelt down to prepare for Mass then sat down to wait patiently for Mass to begin. About 15 minutes before, however, Fr Finigan came out of the sacristy to prepare the altar, spotted me and walked over. I said, 'Morning Father.' And he replied, 'My server hasn't turned up, can you serve?' I have never served a Classical Rite Mass before, I told him so and he replied, 'Don't worry take a server's card on with you.' I pointed out that I was wearing trainers. 'That's alright, that's better than having no server.' So I followed him into the sacristy thinking, 'Please don't have a cassock that fits me ...' but no such luck - a parish prepared for every situation! So on I went bearing my server's card and wearing my grey Nike trainers. Apart from missing out an 'Amen' because I was too busy reading the rubrics for my next job and tripping over my cassock at Communion it went really well I think - at least, Fr Tim didn't say anything to the contrary. It was funny though, as Father was saying Mass every now and then he would turn to me and whisper 'Kneel' or 'move the Missal'.

I would like to thank Fr Tim, again, for giving me this opportunity and hope it will not be the last before I am ordained!

And of course I am available to step in whenever a server does not turn up for Mass!!

Bubs Waring

Calling all members of Facebook! I have discovered the name of the unborn child on this prestigious site and have invited him/her to be my friend. I suggest other members do the same, it would be a fantastic act for pro-life (I think I said that before). Simply search 'Bubs Waring' and only one profile will pop up so click on 'Add to Friends'.

Abortion is the cure?

Its official pregnancy is an illness that can only be cured by abortion apparently.
See Fr Justin's blog for more details.
I heard something interesting the other day, that more Bitons are emigrating and the only factors that are contributing to the increasing population in this country are immigrants and the rising number of births. Abortion is becoming more and more unpopular, which rather affects the governments response in Fr Justin's post.

Back from Pluscarden

I had an amazing week in the most northerly Latin Monastery in the world. I normally go with a couple of friends making it more of a holiday than a retreat, but this year I went alone and decided to make it a silent retreat. Luckily the other retreatants were in need of the same thing so I didn't feel I had to be in the Parlour drinking endless cups of tea and chatting. Instead I read through St John's Gospel (the best of the four in my opinion) as well as St Faustina's Diary (my current Spiritual Reading).

For those who are interested Br Aelred has now made his Simple Vows and Fr Giles is back on what I assume to be a permanent basis as he was immediately re-instated as Sub-Prior. This now boosts the community up to 22 monks, all in white, though they need prayers for more vocations as they still don't have enough servers for High Mass due to the number of priests they now have. Gosh, I wonder why there are so many!?!

I made two incredible purchases up there. One was a book I have wanted to read since childhood, Blessed Pope John XXIII's Il Giornale dell'Anima. I remember there was a copy of it in my school library and I would always make a b-line for it but the librarian wouldn't let me read it, 'That is far too advanced for you boy' and I would be forced to read another pointless children's detective novel. But I found this second hand in the gift shop for 3.50 - BARGAIN! The other was the Abbot's new book, Unfolding the Mystery: Monastic Conferences on the Liturgical Year. I cannot recommend this book more highly! It is incredible! I have only read 8 conferences so far and my mind is blown out of all proportion. The third conference is on the attitude of the priest when saying Mass, the opening line being St Ambrose, 'Ille in praesaepibus, ut tu in altaribus' - 'He lay in a crib that you may stand at the altar'. Wow! By the end of it I was convinced that either God had got the wrong man or I had got someone elses's message because there is no way I can do that! The 5th Conference is the best meditation on Christmas I have ever read. It took the end of I Cor 13 and said Christmas revives our Faith, our Hope and our Love. The book constantly refers to the life of the monk but the word Monk can easily be replaced with Seminarian, Priest, Nun, Man, Woman or Child. Buy it today!!!!!

The highlight of the week for me though was Mass of the Assumption. All their liturgies are in Latin Gregorian Chant (as Vatican II expected the average parish's liturgy to be) and for the Solemnity we had Mass IX Mode VII (at least that is what is written on the 'Order of Service' - all of which also bear the note, 'The English translations given below are our own; they are not intended for public use in the liturgy'. No second hand ICEL rubbish for them then!

The lowlight of the week was probably the Deeside Choristers singing Evensong on Sunday afternoon. My Anglican half (half my family are Anglican) was shuddering, no Evensong would include 'Lord of the Dance' or the intercessions spoken over a Taize chant (Bless the Lord my soul). I was relieved to note we are not the only people plagued by left wing liturgists!

I highly recommend Pluscarden as a place to go for retreat. Thank you for all your prayers. God Bless.

This week's Catholic papers

There are two stories we would like to draw our attention to in this week's Catholic press.

One is a photo on the back of the Catholic Times of the Dominican Sisters of St Cecilia in Nashville, Tennessee (sorry, can't find picture on net). It is during Mass in a beautiful chapel filled with goodness knows how many fully habited nuns. Beautiful! Will we ever see that in Briatain again?

The other is a story in The Universe, 'Facebook fuels online Catholic evangelisation'. We at Orthfully Catholic have just discovered Facebook and have been deeply impressed by the Catholic community formed on it. Each of the seminarians has his own profile (see if you can find us - there's a prize) and we are thinking about giving the anonymous blog an anonymous profile so you can make us your friend, but we're not sure how tacky that idea is!

Talking about Facebook while on my way to Pluscarden I got reading one of the now many free London papers on the tube to Heathrow and in it saw a story of an unborn child whose parents have given a Facebook profile. I read it and thought 'What a great act for the pro-life cause, I must make him/her a friend when I get back' and now can't remember his/her name. Did anyone else read that story and remember the name?

Letters to Seminarians Part Deux

Fr John Boyle has left a comment on an earlier post which I had linked to his post of the same title to inform me that not all dioceses publish the names of their Seminarians in their directories. If this is the case in your directory find the name of the Vocations Director of your diocese and contact him asking for the names of his Seminarians and where they are studying. We will be getting in contact with Fr John to look into how to publicise an 'Adopt a Seminarian' scheme.

Off for a well deserved retreat

I am leaving the hustle and bustle of parish life tomorrow for a well deserved retreat at Pluscarden Abbey. Seven days of Gregorian Chant and The Assumption Mass done properly. Please keep me in your prayers you are all in mine.

God Bless

The prayers are working

Today at Mass we had Sweet Sacrament Divine at Communion, played on an electric keyboard and during Communion but 1 out of three ain't bad. The recessional hymn though was Faith of our Fathers played on the organ! Alleluia!!!

Sancta Missa

We have just been in formed of a website offering an online tutorial of the rubrics of the 1962 Mass. It must be a brand new site as it promises a tutorial of how to serve the Extraordinary form of the Mass and will open a bookstore offering missals etc. We will certainly be adding this to our favourites. The link is as follows:

http://www.sanctamissa.org/EN/index.html

Mrs Satan of Portugal

In thanks for Fr John Boyle's flattery here is a link to an excellent post on his blog . Yes, this woman is responsible for the earthquake the country of Our Lady suffered a short while ago.

Don't upset the Muslims, that's what Christians are for

Fr Tim has an excellent post concerning reaction to the Dispatches programme, 'Undercover Mosque'. He and Fr Justin also share another interesting post well worth reading.

Malcolm and Barbara: Love's Farewell

Another documentary on mental illness (this time Alzheimer's Disease) was shown last night on ITV. This one was atrocious. The whole thing was edited to show that living with a spouse who suffers from this form of dementia is terrible and the best thing to do is put them out of their misery. Interviews with Barbara concerned their deteriorating sex life, whether she considered having an affair as Malcolm couldn't satisfy her sexually anymore, suggesting she had a drinking problem because she likes a gin & tonic after she has put Malcolm to bed. Interviews with Malcolm made him out to be a gibbering idiot, removed all dignity from him by showing pictures of him in his underwear, his wife dressing and undressing him and on the lavatory. The worst pictures were at the end of his life when he had lost so much weight you could see every bone in his body and they filmed him in quite inappropriate states of undress. At one point all I could think was, 'When we see pictures like this of Jews in Nazi Labour Camps we are appalled yet I am supposed to be thinking "Oh, how terrible, if only Euthanasia were legal."'

This programme was propaganda material for the legalisation of Euthanasia, in fact I'm not convinced Malcolm died naturally. These two people were in love with eachother 'to the bitter end' (to quote Barbara herself) but the film showed nothing but hatred and resentment for the terrible life they were both forced to live due to this disease which can be dealt with with one simple injection. I wonder if someone were to make a similar documentary portraying the opposite views it would be given air time.

Richard is my Boyfriend

Did anyone see this incredible documentary late last night on Channel 4? It dealt very sensitively with the most difficult issue in Bioethics - how to deal with a mentally disabled person who has desires to be or has become sexually active. It took the case (I'm not sure if it was real or scripted) of a 24 year old woman with the mental age of 5 (Anna) who is dating a Down's Syndrome man (Richard). Anna, Richard and Anna's parents were played by actors but everyone else was real and had to work with the situation as if it were real life.

Basically Anna and Richard attend a day centre where they are given a dreadful sex education programme which includes teaching them how to put a condom on a banana so as not to catch any diseases. When Anna and Richard have sex they put a condom on a banana as they were told to do. Anna becomes pregnant so her mother buys an abortifacient pill on the internet using her ex-husbands credit card telling him she is buying a holiday in Spain for her and their daughter. When Anna takes the pill she is rushed to hospital because it has rather more dangerous consequences than her mother thought. The consultant suggests the best thing to do is get Anna sterilised but that will have to go through the courts as she cannot give consent. The father says yes, the mother no. So begins a long court battle. Thankfully the judge says sterilisation without consent would be unlawful.

I hope Channel 4 plan to show more insightful documentaries such as this and move them to a more convenient time slot. People need to understand the importance of Bioethics in today's world.

Letters to Seminarians

Fr John Boyle has a wonderful post on the report in L'Osservatore Romano about the laity in America writing to Seminarians encouraging them in their vocation. Wouldn't it be a wonderful idea to do that here. Simply find out who is studying for your diocese and what seminary they are in (this information should be in your Diocesan Directory) and write to them.

Faith Summer Session 2007

As promised here is Orthfully Catholic's official report of the greatest Catholic Conference.

The People

There were 238 people at the Conference this year, including 20% of the seminarians on England & Wales and Scotland. Those in the know knew who we were straight away so we were introduced to other faithful bloggers such as, the East Anglian Seminarians, Northampton Seminarian and Mulier Fortis . It was great meeting other seminarians and hearing about Faith seminarians of the past who are now priests and meeting seminarians of the future, we met a few men who are joining our seminary in September so hopefully you will meet them when they join Orthfully Catholic.

The Liturgy

As I'm sure you can imagine the Masses were perfect, it was a little difficult finding good hymns as the school hymn book was as bad as the typical parish hymn book but they were their. Some of the traditional hymns had been Politically Corrected but the entire congregation sang the proper words. And yes, the entire congregation (made mainly of teenagers) sang because they weren't expected to do silly actions or sing heresies.
The greatest liturgy was the Reconciliation Service. The Blessed Sacrament was exposed, a penitential Gospel was proclaimed and a homily on the importance of Confession given. Then the invitation for individual confessions was made and the chapel emptied. In my cynicism I thought, 'Here we go, they're all off to their rooms or to muck around outside' but no, they all went to confession.
The final Mass was said by Fr Roger Nesbitt and at the end of Mass he gave a passionate thank you to the priests, religious and seminarians present. He had to struggle to keep the tears back and so did we. It isn't very often Seminarians are thanked for what they are doing for Jesus Christ and His flock. The Seminarians at Orthfully Catholic would like to return their thanks to Fr Nesbitt and all priests who have inspired us and are supporting us in all that we do.

The Talks

All the talks were well done and frankly inspiring. Fr Dominic Rolls' talk was especially important for me because I have never understood the whole Jesus would have come anyway argument and have always proudly proclaimed my Thomistic views because whenever I ask a Scotist why Jesus would have come anyway the answer is always, 'To bring us closer to God.' And I always reply, 'Rubbish' because if we were perfect we would be perfectly close to God, after all did not Adam and Eve not walk in the cool of the evening with the Lord. However, Fr Dominic said we would not be perfectly close to God because to do so we would have to have perfect communication with Him and to do that He would have to take on flesh. Therefore even if sin had not come into the world the Incarnation would still have taken place. Besides, to quote Fr Dominic, 'Even Thomas was a Scotist'.
The most awe-inspiring Talk for me though was Sr Roseann Reddy's. Sr Andrea gave the same talk at the Winter Conference and I wasn't at all convinced by it. I thought the Sisters of the Gospel of Life should not exist and if it didn't die out in their lifetime it would die with them. I even refused to link their blog to this one, despite my brothers' pleading with me. When Sr Roseann spoke about her own journey to pro-life campaigning having started as a pro-choicer I was so incredibly moved that my views changed. I now pray hard for more vocations to the Sisters of the Gospel of Life and have linked their blog. At the end of the talk the priest sitting next to me asked, 'I know you support pro-life but do you do anything active?' And I don't, I support those who do and get others to join them but don't do anything myself. So we at Orthfully Catholic have decided that we are going to put forward a motion at the seminary to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Humanae Vitae and mourn the same anniversary of the Abortion Act by founding a Pro-Life initiative, which will include prayer vigils outside the local abortion clinic, counselling women with crisis pregnancies, letter writing campaigns etc. Please, dear readers, pray for this initiative. It will have to go forward for a house vote and sadly not all members of the house will support it so we need a clear majority.

How Famous is this Blog?

Two events happened at Woldingham which made us realise just how many people read Orthfully Catholic.

1. The first was upon our arrival when we bumped into an Oscotian and introduced ourselves to him and he asked the inevitable question, 'Which seminary are you at?' No sooner had the answer left our lips than he exclaimed, 'Orthfully!?' I was just about to feign ignorance or just deny it outright when my brother in the Lord confirmed it. By the end of the day we had been introduced to every seminarian and blogger there as 'Orthfully Catholic'.

2. We were informed that Fr Z had a post on 22nd July supporting my parish in our fight for proper Liturgical music. We were amazed that the world's greatest Catholic blogger not only reads our blog but has been inspired by it. That moment was almost as exciting as the moment we discovered Fr John Trigilio reads Orthfully. I would like to thank Fr Z for bringing this to the attention of the orthodox Catholic world, all my readers and his readers for their prayers for the parish. Prayers are very urgently needed for the musical side of the parish especially when we have Masses like Saturday's where the organist thought it would be nice to play 'Panis Angelicum' over the Intercessions until the 'Hail Mary' when it changed into Schubert's 'Ave Maria'. Beautiful music and played on the correct instrument but at completely the wrong moment.

Whatever Happened to Baby Ambrose?

Seeing Fiorella Nash at the Conference reminded me that the current edition of Faith Magazine is missing one of my favourite columns, 'A Mother's Diary'. I'm not sure how to cope for two months without knowing How Little Ambrose is getting on.

We're back!!!!!!

Yes, we have returned from a wonderful 5 days in Woldingham where we met up with many wonderful orthodox youth, priests, seminarians and most importantly bloggers. I think every British Catholic blogger was there this week.

We will tell you more when we have time, which looking at our diary will probably be Monday.

God Bless

Faith Summer Session 2007

The Seminarians are all off to Woldingham tomorrow for the Faith Summer Conference. We will of course share all that we have learned upon our return. In the meantime keep us and all the participants in your prayers.

God Bless

Catholicism and Nazism

Fr Tim has an interesting post comparing the Catholic/Protestant divide in Germany with the Nazi/Democratic divide in the 1932 election. It interested me because I am often told Catholicism is bad because it produced people like Hitler (and a list of other 20th/21st century dictators)!

Ecumenism in Sacred Scripture

Today's Office of Readings offered an interesting insight into how Christians should work with non-Christians and indeed eachother. The first reading was taken from 2 Corinthians 6:1-7:1 and one paragraph ran thus:

'Do not try to work together as equals with unbelievers, for it cannot be done. How can right and wrong be partners? How can light and darkness live together? How can Christ and the Devil agree? What does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? How can God's temple come to terms with pagan idols? For we are the temple of the living God!'

This seems to suggest that ecumenical and inter-faith relations should be kept to a formal standard, not treating eachother as equals because obviously we are right and they are wrong and right and wrong cannot be partners. My favourite portrait of Martin Luther is where he is preaching and the Devil is speaking to him through an ear-trumpet. If Christ and the Devil cannot agree how can the Vicar of Christ and the followers of a religion formed by the devil agree?

In today's Gospel (Matthew 13:24-30) Jesus tells the parable of the farmer who's crop falls foul to the work of his enemy. The farmer (the Father) tells his servants (us) not to weed the crop in case any wheat comes with the weeds. Instead at the harvest (the Apocalyse) the reapers (the angels) will prepare the weeds for burning (Hell) before gathering the wheat.

Thus God permits all religions and those of no faith to live together until the end when he will sort the wheat from the weeds. Therefore it is dangerous for the wheat to equate themselves with the weeds.

I wonder how others might interpret those readings.

Prayers for a dead baby

Dear Readers,

A friend of mine received her first Grandson in February, unfortunately he was born with all his organs, bar his heart and kidneys, outside his body. This was expected as his Mother had regular check-ups while he was in the womb to follow his progress. While his Grandmother was at Mass today where the priest prayed for him he died in his Mother's arms in hospital, three days before he was due to undergo a major operation to place the organs back inside his little body. Obviously the little fella is in Heaven praying for his parents and Grandmother but I would be grateful if you could all add your prayers to his for the comfort of the family during this time.

Thank you and God Bless

Good Catholic Jokes

See Fr Justin's Blog for two of my favourite Catholic Jokes. Does anyone know any others?

High Mass/Low Mass

Today I served the RCIA Reunion Mass, which was a very interesting experience. As it was attended by people who had come home through the RCIA programme the priest and catechists decided we should show them what home they had come to by having a Latin High Mass (Ordinary Form obviously) but the Music Directress didn't like this idea. When she was told the Gloria, Sanctus and Agnus Dei were going to be in Latin plainchant she shouted, 'Oh, shut up' and stormed out of the sacristy. She then jumped in at each of those times accompanying Paul Inwood style tunes on the electric keyboard. The only thing she couldn't put a stop to was the professional singer we had got in to sing 'Panis Angelicum' at Communion, however she did fight back by singing some happy clappy song straight afterwards.

One of our Lay Pastoral Assistants suggested to the priest that we mke that Mass our regular Traditional High Mass and Father agreed as long as he has enough people to help him keep it going, ie a Thurifer (that's usually me and obviously I can't be there every week), musicians who like Gregorian Chant. So keep my parish in your prayers that this will happen and will make a difference.

Exposition of Our Lord and God

See Fr John Boyle's blog for a beautiful post on Exposition and Adoration. It is mind-blowing, tear-jerking, and absolutely true. My favourite part is when it is said we should be nervous and tongue-tied before Him, as we would before the President, the Queen or the Pope, but we are not. Why is that? Why when I kneel before my God physically present in the monstrance do I not feel my hands clam up but rather pray and keep silence able to look at nothing else? Will I do the same at the Parousia when I stand before the Judgement Throne? Wow! I love my faith! I love my God! Jesus, I love you!

Missionary Priesthood

Many people often ask me if I'd like to join a missionary order and I simply answer, 'I am, England is most definitley mission territory.'

Today however I was chatting with my PP and he gave me another reason to realise I am studying for the missions. He said priests should spend no more than 3 years in a parish and if he were Bishop he would ensure that. I found this very interesting because it would solve a few complications such as the parish getting together to sign a petition when it comes to the time for Father to move on after 20 years or whatever. It would stop the parishioners seeing the priest as their mate and more as their priest, addressing him as 'Father' rather than their Christian name or even a shortened version of their Christian name. It reminded me of a conversation I had with my brothers at seminary when someone mentioned how the queue for confession shrinks dramatically when John becomes everybody's friend rather than the Parish Priest. I have actually seen this happen, a priest has been in the parish for 12 years or so, is invited to a parishioners house every night, calls them his friends and confessions are offered 15 minutes before Mass on Saturday evening because no one goes.

When my last Parish Priest was moved he told the people not to abandon the parish as a result because it was all part of the mission. At the time I laughed but now realise it is true, Jesus didn't send the apostles out and tell them to stay in the villages for 10 years, they went in to prepare the people for His coming and left again.

The only reason priests stay in parishes for so long, I think, is because there simply aren't enough of them to go around. This is another reason we must pray to the Lord of the Harvest to send labourers into the Harvest so that we can keep the mission going.

Such wide readership

I have today discovered readers of this blog come from wide and varied cultures. I received a couple of comments under 'Altar Boys v Altar Girls' calling me a sexist pig from a new blogger who is actively homosexual and uses their blog to tell the world about it. Interesting that nothing was said about my complete condemnation of homosexuality in another post.

New Blog

If you look to your left you will see a new link to a new blog by Michael who is discerning his vocation. Take a look and add him to your favourites!

Apology

I'm sorry I've been away for a while but life has been quite busy, on Saturday I was at the CTS Conference, a Mass celebrated in the extraordinary form and at the seminary. On Sunday I went to visit my Grandparents. On Monday I was so busy I can't remember what I did now. Yesterday I went to visit a priest friend for lunch. Today I went to visit my old school for their prizegiving ceremony. I have written all that I thought might interest you below.

CTS Conference 2007

On Saturday I attended this historical event (the first CTS Conference in a long time and the first of many). The speaker was Prof John Haldane of St Andrew's University (btw can anyone tell me if St Andrew's is a Catholic University?) and he spoke on Christianity in Britain today.

He said Christianity faces four main problems in Britain today:
Atheism
Secularism
Liberalism
Ignorance

This is the reason there is such a negative reaction in the secular press concerning the CDF's latest document Responses to some questions regarding certain aspects of the Doctrine on the Church.

He also spent some time speaking about relations between Rome, Constantinople and Canterbury. He reminded us that Rome and Constantinople have told Canterbury that unless they give up ordaining women and active homosexuals their is no place for them at the table of ecumenical dialogue. He also said it is very important that Anglicans who want to be Catholic without joining Rome, stop, and Catholics who want to be Anglicans without joining Canterbury, stop. You cannot be both, you must choose one or the other!

It was a very good day and I look forward to next year.

Altar Boys vs Altar Girls

On Sunday I served two Masses (neither of which were my usual) because I had to visit my Grandparents during my usual and we had three new servers at the evening Mass with no experienced servers turning up.

At the early morning Mass were three girls, two relatively new and the third in the Guild. I have never seen such atrocious serving in my 18 years as an Altar Boy. They sat chatting during the Homily and Communion, the book bearer couldn't hold the book still, one of the acolytes during the Gospel held the candle with one hand and picked wax with the other, there was no respect for the MC - at one point I had a fight over the Baptism Oil with one of them because she would give it to me when I asked her to. All that with wandering aimlessly around the Sanctuary I wondered what they get up to when there's no adult with them. I had to give them a quick training session after Mass.

At the evening Mass three boys came to the Sacristy asking to serve as they had received their First Holy Communion a couple of weeks before. They were as good as gold, perfect, angels!!

Is this because of their gender? Is it just because the boys were so new? What is the secret behind the whole Boys v Girls on the sanctuary thing?

40 years of legal sin

Channel 4 are about to start a Gay Season to celebrate 40 years since the legalisation of Homosexuality. That's interesting, we're about to 'celebrate' 40 years since something else was legalised - Abortion! Could there be a link here? Was the devil wandering the corridors of the Houses of Parliament in 1967? Was he sitting in comfort at Number 10? I think so!

Elijah and the Ecclesial Communities

Inspired by Monday's Office of Readings my Parish Priest had a great idea to solve the problems with ecumenical dialogue, he suggested the Princes of the Church set up an altar and representatives of all the Protestant Ecclesial Communities set up an altar and each of them pray that God will set their altar alight, obviously the Catholics would call on the help of Our Lady and all the Angels and Saints and the Protestants would 'go straight to Jesus'. Whoever's altar is supernaturally lit is the one true Church and slaughters the opposing team.

What do you think?

I've been in Soapland again!

But then what else is there to do when the only other alternative on a Friday night is the parish Charismatic Prayer Group?

I watched this evening's episode of Hollyoaks. It was the double wedding of two sisters from the only Catholic family in the village. You can tell they are a Catholic soap family because all the women are, shall we say, generous with their love (the mother has 6 children by 6 men), the boy is homosexual and there is a tacky statue of the Sacred Heart in their living room.

Why am I devoting precious blog space to this? Because of the liturgical and canonical mishaps in the script. The priest was wearing a surplus and stole (Church of England vestments) and must have said Mass wearing this as well because after the vows they shot to Communion where two non-Catholics and two non-practicing Catholics received Communion on the tongue. Don't you just love half-hearted research? I can see the meeting now:

'Caflicks eat ve bread in veir mouvs don't they?'

'Yeah, I 'eard the vicar puts in straight in'

'Righ', that's what we gotta do they innit?'

'Yeah, alrigh''

God preserve us from the rich and ignorant!

Farnborough and the Motu Proprio

The Abbey Shop have a page dedicated to what every parish, priest and seminarian will need to celebrate, serve and attend Mass in the Extraordinary Form.

Parish Plans

I have just finished speaking to my Parish Priest about the Motu Proprio, he was away when it was published and so has only just read it (in Latin). He has decided to prepare the parish for 14th September by introducing regular Novus Ordo Masses in the Latin language, in the meantime he will learn to say the Tridentine Rite and so by the Feast of the Triumph of the Holy Cross he will be able to introduce the parish to the Rite of Mass in the Extraordinary Form!

Deo Gratias!

Happy Feast Day!

Today is a big day for many people.

Happy Feast to the Order of St Benedict.
Happy Feast to all Europeans.
Happy Feast to the Holy Father.
Happy Feast to all called Benedict.

St Benedict, Pray for us!

Fr Benedict at Balham

Were you there last night? I was, and many of my brothers were too (these are great excusues for reunions).

What am I talking about? Fr Benedict Groeschel CFR was speaking at Holy Ghost, Balham again last night. It was incredible. He spoke on Psychology saying Britain has the highest rate of depression in the world and the most affected part of the British Isles is Ireland (my apologies to the Irish, I know Ireland isn't in Britain but our geography is quite confusing to some). The least affected country in the world is Nigeria. The reason for this? Faith! Britain is a pagan country, we are a Godless society. A society without God can only have the devil for its guide and the devil only brings depression with his lies. It is the truth that sets you free. My favourite quote of the entire evening had to be Fr Benedict's diagnosis of Henry VIII as completely mad.

After Vespers and Benediction led by Fr Stephen Langridge I took the opportunity to purchase some of Fr Benedict's wares, his new book 'The Virtue Driven Life', his booklet 'You are not Alone: Prayers in Dark Times' and his tape 'A Reason to Believe'.

Please keep Fr Benedict in your prayers, he is a very frail old man who has done so much to renew the faith and evangelise the youth. God Bless him!

CofE greater than Christ (apparently)

I was flicking through the channels while waiting for the 9:30 Mass to end so I could set up for the 11:15 and caught a section of 'The Heaven and Earth Show'. On it was a man in a dingy bar with crazy hair and a ring through his nose telling the viewers that churches and traditional liturgies are old fashioned and should have gone out with the ark. We should now be worshipping God in pubs, clubs and on the beach because that's where the people are now. Why should we give up valuable drinking time or surfing time to go to some boring church service when we can do it all where we are? That is why the Archbishop of Canterbury has allowed services to happen in bars and clubs and surf shacks for the evangelisation of the youth.

Yes, and that's also why Anglican churches are empty! The Catholic Press lately has been discussing the use of The Simpsons as a tool for evangelisation - well that's nothing compared to this. The problem with Christianity today is that people are so focussed on Jesus being their best friend that they forget He is God. Thus Protestant denominations think He should work around us rather than the other way around. We should give up drinking time for Him, we should give up our leisure activities for Him, HE IS GOD!!!!!

Motu Proprio Blog

A new blog has been created to help those who have any questions about the recent Motu Proprio, it is called Summorum Pontificum, surprisingly enough.

The aftermath

First of all thank you to everyone who has pointed our readers in the direction of the unofficial English translations. I only want to publish the official translation if an when it comes out.

I'm sure my Brother Seminarians and Father Priests have been put under the same spotlight as I have today concerning my opinion of 'the Pope bringing back the Latin Mass'. And I am sure they gave the same answer as I did. The Pope has not 'brought back' the Latin Mass as it never went away to begin with, and I am completely on the Holy Father's side in this matter.

The most interesting thing I have found is that the only complaint my parishioners had is the use of Latin, there was no, 'Why does the priest have his back to the congregation?' or 'Why is it silent?' but simply, 'Why Latin?' And I explained that the Second Vatican Council stated Latin is to remain the language of the liturgy but the vernacular may be used for ease of the laity and that this means ordinary parish Masses should be in Latin - even in the New Rite - but weddings, funerals etc, which might be attended by non-Catholics should be in the vernacular so that the guests understand what is going on. I also pointed out that the most important parts of the Mass such as the Liturgy of the Word must be in the vernacular (I was especially interested to note that Pope Benedict has included this rule in the Extraordinary Form of the Mass) for the ease of the laity. Their reply to this every time was, 'Oh, I didn't know that.' They all thought the Council had banned Latin (as indeed I did once upon a time)! I even had this conversation at the table of a parishioner with the missionary priest saying our Masses today and they all - including the priest - gave the same reply.

A lot of catechesis is going to have to be provided in parishes concerning the Motu Proprio.

How's your Latin?

Typically there is no English translation as yet but here is the Motu Proprio in the language of God Himself!

http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/motu_proprio/documents/hf_ben-xvi_motu-proprio_20070707_summorum-pontificum_lt.html

Re: Certain Complaints

I have received a number of angry comments from a lady in America regarding the fact that I gave a reflection at the Eucharistic Service I led a few days ago. I have not published these comments because they are very bitter and quite frankly extremely right wing for this blog (she included a rant against the Permanent Deaconate, men who are validly ordained by Holy Mother Church to help priests with their pastoral ministry). Her last comment asked me to explain myself or she would report me to my superiors. So here goes ...

First of all may I say my superiors are aware of the existence of this blog and will inform me if anything I put on it is inappropriate.

The lady's complaint is that I preached without faculties. It is indeed true that I do not have faculties to preach. However, I do have permission from Holy Mother Church, as a Lector, to give a reflection during the Liturgy of the Word outside the Mass, and that is exactly what I did. Extraordinary Ministers of the Eucharist can give a reflection when they take Communion to the sick.

Her second complaint is that I 'ad lib'ed the Rite by missing out the Kiss of Peace. Well, if you know your liturgy the Peace is actually a voluntary part of the Rite that the priest can miss out if he feels it is appropriate (I know perfectly orthodox priests who never use it - in fact it tends to be liberal priests who over use it) and the reason I left it out is because I made a mistake due to the ambiguity of the rubrics in the Rite I used and to include it would complicate matters for the people, especially those with disabilities. I would never ad lib a Rite, I hate it when people do, 'Say the Black Do the Red' will be written on my gravestone!

Another complaint the lady had was my use of the title Auxiliary Minister of the Eucharist. My Theology Professor could not be more orthodox if he tried. I have been in classes where he has gone red in the face defending the teaching of Holy Mother Church against the liberal students. He is equally orthodox to the Canon Law Professor yet they disagree over one minor thing and I happen to agree with the Theology Professor due to my status as a Seminarian. This is an arguable point which possibly doesn't have an answer, or if it does, can only be answered by the Holy Father himself.

I would like to remind all our readers that we at Orthfully Catholic are orthodox to the core, this is the reason we called our blog 'Orthfully'. Liberalism is on its way out and we are here to bury it at sea! As was written in an earlier post and as it says in the title of another widely read blog, we are neither more nor less Catholic than the Pope!

Part I of II

Here is a link to the Pope's letter to the Bishops explaining the Motu Proprio:

http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/letters/2007/documents/hf_ben-xvi_let_20070707_lettera-vescovi_en.html

The MP itself is due to be published at 12 noon and I am going out for the day before then so other blogs will have to publish it before me but it will be on these pages before the day is out!

The Final Countdown

I've got you all doing the da-da-da-da-da's so I don't need to type them.

Whoops!

Anyhoo, the long awaited (how long has he been Pope now?) Motu Proprio is out tomorrow folks!!!

MPC

1615hrs + Thursday 5th July = 2 days to go!!!

What a busy day!

Yes, today was the day. At 12:15 this afternoon I led my first ever Eucharistic Service - one former Seminarian and member of this blog labelled me a 'raving lib' when I called him this afternoon to tell him then I told him I left out the peace and he suddenly became 'so proud' of me.

I went to Mass at Nazareth House this morning as usual (I can't get enough of those veiled nuns). The service was well attended, even by those who had been to Mass with me - is it any wonder I'm so Trad having grown up in this parish! I decided I should show the people where their money was going and preached. I did a fantastic reflection showing that today's first reading proves the faithlessness of Islam because they claim their descent from Abraham through Ishmael his illegitimate son and we claim descent through Isaac his legitimate son and promised heir. I then went on to explain that today's Gospel shows that even the devil has faith because he used to be an angel and knows God as well as any other angel but his jealousy causes his so called faith to become hatred of God. God created us because He loves us and so we must have faith in our creator and love him as well. That's how it went in my head, when I opened my mouth all sorts of rubbish came out - including some heresy at one point when I think I said God loves us because He created us rather than the other way around, but I'm not sure.

Anyway, once I had recovered from that I prepared the altar for the Communion Rite. The rubric told me to transfer the Blessed Sacrament from the Tabernacle to the Altar so I told the congregation to sit while I did so. I got to the altar and discovered to my horror that I had to lead the 'Pater Noster' followed by the sign of peace - they were kneeling! So, I did the 'Pater Noster' and skipped the peace going straight to the 'Ecce Agnus Dei...' which had been translated literally from the Latin so while I was surprised I didn't argue.

After that I exposed the Blessed Sacrament, led the Holy Rosary, did an hour's Adoration, came back an hour later led the Divine Mercy Chaplet and reposed the Blessed Sacrament.

Its days like this when I truly believe God is calling me to priesthood. Please keep the prayers up for me and all Seminarians as well as for more vocations.

God Bless!

APGL Conference

There will be a conference hosted vy the Association of Priests for the Gospel of Life on Wednesday 11th July given by Fr Aidan Nichols OP at the London Oratory. See Fr Tim's blog for more details (after all he is the founder).

The Countdown continues

It is 1725hrs on Wednesday 4th July and there are 3 days left!

MP Countdown

Its 1655hrs on Tuesday 3rd July, which means there are 4 days to go!!

Pray for me dear

While the Parish Priest is away and we can't get a replacement daily Masses are being said at Nazareth House. The Nuns still wear the veil and the chapel wasn't severely butchered at their re-ordering - in case you were wondering. After Mass I stood holding the door open for the wheelchairs to leave and the lady in the last chair, quite out of the blue, said to me, 'Pray for me dear'. Now, that is quite a responsibility, she didn't know me from Adam and yet something must have moved her to make that request.

Its moments like that which make me realise just what I'm taking on at seminary and what exactly God is asking of me. It was an absolute privilege to pray for that lady this evening and offer up my Rosary for her intentions.

Dear readers, please pray for her too.

Life as an Acolyte

Since receiving the Ministry of Acolyte I have been having some rather beautiful experiences. I first exercised my Ministry the night I received it by exposing the Blessed Sacrament for the first time. Usually I sit in the chapel glancing at the monstrance every now and them but spending most of the time looking at anything else but. That evening, however, I could not take my eyes off the Sacred Host spending the entire hour in disbelief of what I had just done. When I reposed the Blessed Sacrament I went into the sacristy trying to hold back the tears.

Since coming back to the parish I have been busy because the Parish Priest is away at the moment so I have been doing everything but say Mass. This has included exposing and reposing the Blessed Sacrament, leading the Chaplet of Divine Mercy, Sacristy duties, opening and closing the church, answering the phone and door and on Wednesday I will have my first Eucharistic Service under my belt (I swore I would never do this but it was either me or a Pastoral Lay Assistant - tough choice). The most beautiful experience I have had was today when I took Communion to a man in his home. Apparently he had wanted someone to take Communion to him for ages but word hadn't got to the parish until last week so I said I would take it to him. When I got there I was greeted so warmly both by him and his non-Catholic wife. I went through the Rite hoping I wasn't going too fast or getting anything wrong and he spent the entire time looking at the pyx and the smile that appeared on his face when I opened it up was incredible. Afterwards he thanked me over and over and over again. I went home thanking God for this wonderful opportunity to bring Him into that man's home and give him the Communion he had been wanting for so long. That was the first time I had ever done that without shadowing a priest, what a beautiful first time it was.

What has happened to the Redemptorists?

Check out Nova et Vetera for a post on Reality Magazine. I also had a copy come through the Presbytery door this week (well alright the Parish Priest did but he's away at the moment and I'm doing all his work so I'll open his post). Flicking through it - I daren't read it, it might affect me in some horrific way - titles of stories jump out at me such as:

Goodbye to all that: Why young Catholics are leaving the church and how the church is fighting back. Well, we'll leave the double use of the word 'church' with lower case c's for now and simply ask, are young Catholics leaving the Church? Everywhere I go I see young people, the Church is getting younger and younger with each passing year. Young men are filling the seminaries again, monasteries and convents (where they wear the veil of course) are getting younger vocations. Perhaps the young people are leaving Fr Moloney's (or Gerard as he'd rather be addressed) parish because he's not giving them what they're looking for - good, solid, orthodox teaching.

Shackled by clericalism: The Catholic Church has become so dependent on the ordained ministry that lay people have been largely sidelined. Well two things Fr Flannery, sorry, Tony, why are you a priest if you have a problem with the ordained ministry? And, of course the Church is dependent on the ordained ministry, we can't receive the Sacraments without it and we can't obtain Salvation without the Sacraments!

And the best of them all ...

Let's get in touch with God's feminine side: To use only male imagery to describe God, as the church does, is to devalue women, who are just as much God's creation as men. This doesn't even merit comment!

Motu Proprio Countdown

In order to get some regular posts and because I think it'd be really cool I am going to lead an official countdown to Saturday and try to be the first blog to post a link to the Vatican's website with the long awaited document whether it be in Latin, English or any other language.

So at 1955hrs on 2nd July 2007 we officially have 5 days to go!

07/07/07

Please find below a link to the Catholic News Agency reporting a story in 'Die Welt' concerning the release date of the long awaited Motu Proprio!

As one correspondent said plainly and simply in an e-mail with this link:

'Thanks be to God' or 'Deo Gratias' as we will be able to say again after 7th July!!

http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/new.php?n=9745

Don't Panic, we're still here

Yes, after 24 days we at last have time to update our readers on our activities. Term ended yesterday after an incredible silent retreat given by a marvelous priest whose meditations on Orthodox Catholicism aroused a mixed response from, 'Two hours a day having to listen to some middle aged bloke ranting about the state of society and the Church today and blaming it on the 60's and 70's. What a waste of my time' to, 'Wow! What an incredible man, we need more priests like him in the Church today'.

After that came the three busiest days of the year when we saw the commissioning of two men to Candidacy, 6 men to the Lectorate, 4 men to the Acolytate and the ordination of 3 men to the Diaconate. These were done in three beautiful Masses, and followed by three fantastic festal meals. As I was Sacristan for the Candidacy Mass, receiving the Ministry of Acolyte at the Ministries Mass and Thurifer at the Ordination Mass (yes, that does mean no one could see their hand in front of their face) I was rushed off my feet for three days solid and have had a thumping headache since so it is a real joy to be doing absolutely nothing at the moment!!

Please keep all those who received Candidacy, Ministries and Sacred Orders in your prayers.

God Bless

Farewell Orthfully Catholic 1

Another Seminarian has left the blog but do not fear it will continue to run, although with less input than usual. Those of you who were confused about the seemingly schizophrenic blogger 'Orthfully Catholic' no longer need be as there is only one person who blogs under that name now.

Though things are going to be rather quiet round here from now on you can continue to expect the usual high quality writing there has always been at Orthfully Catholic.

God Bless.

Medjugorje Message

Message of May 25, 2007

“Dear children! Pray with me to the Holy Spirit for Him to lead you in the search of God’s will on the way of your holiness. And you, who are far from prayer, convert and, in the silence of your heart, seek salvation for your soul and nurture it with prayer. I bless you all individually with my motherly blessing. Thank you for having responded to my call.”

Dear friends, farewell!

Dear Friends of Orthfully Catholic,
The previous post is my last contribution to this blog. I, like Gildas, have reached a stage where I feel that it is best to dedicate myself to other things. This doesn't mean that you, our readers, aren't important to me. It means that certain areas of my life (especially prayer) need greater attention than I am currently giving them.

I will miss the blog alot. I have enjoyed it, even some of the more frustrating moments! Blogging is great fun, hard work at times, frustrating at others but totally rewarding.

I have enjoyed being in contact with so many Catholics who really care about the Faith. I have shared their joys and their pains. But I do leave here completely confident that things in the Church are on the up.

It's going to be a long haul but in the end the uncorrupted, orthodox faith of our beautiful Catholic Church will win through. Truth does, indeed, set us free.

Dear friends stay strong. Stay in love with the Blessed Sacrament, Our Lady, the Sacraments, the Magisterium, Tradition, prayer, contemplation and orthodoxy. It's the only way that we and the Church will survive. And it's the future.

You all have such a love for the Church. Thank you for that. Thank you also for the tremendous support that you give this blog and its writers. It's not easy being a young, orthodox Cartholic and seminarian today. So many older Catholics give us a rough time.

This blog will continue with the other seminarian contributers.

Please keep me and the other seminarians in your prayers. You are ALL in mine.
May God bless you all and may Our Blessed Lady keep you under Her Immaculate Mantle!

Beauty will save the world

I have been spending the last few days in one of the most beautiful and precious places I know: St. Michael's Abbey, Farnborough.

This Abbey is a centre for liturgical excellence. All of the Mass are Novus Ordo. Please, if you are not a fan of the Novus Ordo read on. Sunday Mass is in Latin, sung to Gregorian Chant and takes nearly two hours. All Masses are facing East.
Truly Farnborough Abbey is a treasure unknown in these isles.

I have been to quite a number of Tridentine Masses and Masses in Westminster Cathedral but the Sunday Masses here are THE MOST BEAUTIFUL I have ever seen. This is what Vatican II wanted. This is a true organic development of the Classical rite. Indeed I would say that the Mass, as celebrated at Farnborough, is the Classical Rite of today's Church.
Communion is received kneeling. People participate in the parts of the Mass (Sanctus, Agnus Dei etc) in exquisite Gregorian Chant.

It truly permits the participation that Vatican II requested but leads the people into the mystical and the contemplative

As I stood there singing the Creed I realised that this is the future of the Catholic Church's liturgy. We can't go back on what Vatican II wanted. We can't deny it. But at Farnborough one can see genuine organic development. They too realised this. That is why in 1995 they removed the forward facing altar and began the Genuine Renewal that is taking place.

I spoke to one of the monks who told me that a few years ago the CDF telephoned from Rome. Naturally the monk who answered the phone was, at first, a little worried. The CDF siad "Don't worry. We're just phoning to say that we know what you are trying to do there and we know of your printing press and WE THOROUGHLY APPROVE!". That was when Ratzinger was heading it.

If you can, go to Farnborough Abbey for Sunday Mass. You won't regret it. They also have an excellent bookshop and Abbey shop (which sells honey, beef, pork and eggs etc).

Visit their website: www.farnboroughabbey.org

It's a truly wonderful place. There I realised that, indeed, BEAUTY WILL SAVE THE WORLD!!!

What in the name of sanity?!?!?!?!?!?

I have just read on Father Tim Finigan's blog, the Hermeneutic of Continuity, that the "Ninety nine names of Allah" are going to be sung in Westminster Cathedral.
Well I have had enough! In the words of Mother Angelica: "Liberals, you want a war, you've got one"

You tear down our faith, destroy our sanctuaries. You shove God in to some tacky shoebox in a side aisle. You feed our children the poison of your liberal and heretical rubbish. You lead souls down the path of perdition with your wishy washy, mamby pamby nonsense. You fill your own minds with useless psychobabble and encourage others to be "creative" (ie if your gay or like a pathetic liturgy go ahead, knock yourself out). You corrupt our young with your perveted teachings on the Human Body. You refuse to let the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass be the sublime worship of God and become Peoplolaters, stuck in the 1970's. You worship the community instead of God. IDOLATERS! You don't allow others to come into contact with the mystical. Whited sepulchres!

And now you, whoever you are, permit non Christians to chant the name of Allah NINETY NINE times in the Holy of Holies!!! Blasphemy!
Desist from watering down our precious faith!
Look inside of yourselves. If a Catholic wanted a Tridentine Mass or a Novus Ordo done beautifully with Gregorian Chant, wouldn't you huff and puff?

No! You make your own brothers and sisters suffer by refusing to follow the teachings of the Church or allowing them to in peace.

And you permit a sacrilege of desolation in the Most Holy Dwelling place of the Ineffable and All Holy Trinity.

Let Islam do what it likes in its own Mosques. LEAVE OUR CHURCHES ALONE.
This is ecumenism gone too far and is in COMPLETE defiance of what Vatican II wanted.

The tide is turning, dear liberal ecumenists. In 2o years time you are going to be a minority. Pandering to the world and its ideas you will lapse from the faith. We, the Catholics who desire to be faithful to orthodoxy and the Magisterium, won't take your persecution any longer.

You want a war? YOU'VE GOT ONE!