Pro-Life Old Rite Mass

On the second Friday of each month The Latin Mass Society organise an Old Rite Mass for The Good Counsel Network at Corpus Christi Church, Maiden Lane, London, WC2E 7NB, at 6.30pm. Most months it is just a low Mass, but as the 2nd Friday of February happens to be the Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes, the 11th, there will be a High Mass. Numbers for this Mass were up this month, with about 30 or so people in attendance, this is in part due to a number of young Catholics who now attend this Mass each month and then go out for dinner together. For details of the meal see Juventutem.

Fr Hayward, the normal Celebrant is away, so Fr Armand de Malleray, FSSP will offer the Mass. Most of you will know of Father from his sermon which appeared on Maria Stops Abortion blog. Please attend this Mass if you can as it one of the few chances each month to go to a Mass offered for a Pro-Life group. Father has to travel to London from Reading to offer this Mass.
Photo from Fr Finigan.

Post Catholic World

Watching the BBC news a few days ago and reading the papers this week has made it very clear that we are now living in a post Christian World. In Italy we have the President accused of pre-Christian Roman style sex orgies. Even if he is not as guilty as the media would have us believe, still no one thinks that he was just trying to convert these poor women! The idea that laws do not rest on the Moral Rock that is Catholic teaching is the problem. They say he had sex with an 'under-age prostitute', but a government that says if a women is 'X' age you can pay her to commit fornication with you, has no moral foundation for it's laws and may well change the age limit for prostitution up or down tomorrow!

We then had the video of the adulterous couple being stoned to death by the Taliban in Afghanistan. Jesus dealt with this;

And the scribes and the Pharisees bring unto him a woman taken in adultery: and they set her in the midst, And said to him: Master, this woman was even now taken in adultery. Now Moses in the law commanded us to stone such a one. But what sayest thou?

And this they said tempting him, that they might accuse him. But Jesus bowing himself down, wrote with his finger on the ground. When therefore they continued asking him, he lifted up himself, and said to them: He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her. And again stooping down, he wrote on the ground. But they hearing this, went out one by one, beginning at the eldest. And Jesus alone remained, and the woman standing in the midst. Then Jesus lifting up himself, said to her: Woman, where are they that accused thee? Hath no man condemned thee?

Who said: No man, Lord. And Jesus said: Neither will I condemn thee. Go, and now sin no more.

We also had a judge in England tell a couple that the laws of this country are no longer based on Judeo-Christian principles and thus they would have to let homosexual couples stay in their Bed & Breakfast. Parliament in England says that it is okay to kill babies in the womb, up to and during birth for the disabled. Euthanasia by neglect was legalised on 5th April 2005.

It is almost amusing to look at the pre & post Christian World and see that they are much the same. But why say, 'Post Catholic World' in the title for this post and not just Post Christian? Because once you allow one error or sin you will be open to others, once Henry VIII split from God's Church the Devil knew that this Country was in his grip. Just look at England today and remember that but for that lustful King this could still be Merry Catholic England.

'Protestant' Attack On Crib!

I'm very sad to say it, but I think that our young cat, Blobs de Silmaril has abandoned the one True Faith. Why he could not wait until Confirmation, a more traditional age to jump ship is beyond me. Maybe he thought the wait would be too long as he is less that a year old at the moment or maybe he found out that cats don't get Confirmed.

Well whatever the reason, we came home to find Jesus, Mary & Joseph on the floor , St Joseph badly smashed, and Blobs about to jump down from next to the now empty stable! So unless CCTV footage shows some atheist, protestant or catholic who objects to our Crib staying up until the 2nd February - like the Holy Father's one - smashing the crib, then I'm very sorry to say that it was Blobs. We will have to get the cat-echism out and go through it with him.

Very Urgent Pro-Life Novena

On 28th January (New Rite Feast of St Thomas Aquinas) the BPAS will go to court to seek the right to have the abortion pill taken by women at home. For details see John Smeaton's blog.

Please therefore say the following prayers each day for the next nine days, for the intention that the BPAS will fail;

Tantum ergo Sacramentum
veneremur cernui:
et antiquum documentum
novo cedat ritui:
praestet fides supplementum
sensuum defectui.
Genitori, Genitoque
laus et iubilatio,
salus, honor, virtus quoque
sit et benedictio:
procedenti ab utroque
compar sit laudatio.
Amen.
Sancte Thoma, ora pro nobis

Or in English;
Down in adoration falling,
Lo! the sacred Host we hail;
Lo! o'er ancient forms departing,
newer rites of grace prevail;
faith for all defects supplying,
where the feeble sense fail.
To the everlasting Father,
and the Son who reigns on high,
with the Holy Ghost proceeding
forth from Each eternally,
be salvation, honor, blessing,
might and endless majesty.
Amen.
St Thomas, pray for us

Prayer for Wales

O Almighty God,
Who in Thine infinite goodness
has sent Thine only-begotten Son into this world
to open once more the gates of heaven,
and to teach us how to know, love and serve Thee,
have mercy on Thy people Who dwell in Wales.
Grant to them the precious gift of faith,
and unite them in the one true Church
founded by Thy Divine Son; that,
acknowledging her authority and obeying her voice,
they may serve Thee, love Thee, and worship Thee
as Thou desirest in this world,
and obtain for themselves everlasting happiness
in the world to come.
Through the same Christ our Lord.

R. Amen.

Or the Prayers for England or Scotland

'Light Of The World' Book, New Scandal!

Well I waited and waited, but a review copy just did not show up! Scandal or what! So then like a lowly member of the public I set off to the Catholic Truth Society (CTS) bookshop to buy a copy. The shame of it, I felt like Belloc walking around the Alps! Upon arrival I found the shop closed for stock taking! Could it get any worse?

A few days later, on other business I found myself at the CTS offices, so I asked if I could buy a copy. Where-upon I was told that they had sold out of ten thousand copies and would have no more copies until tomorrow!

And so, a few more days later, having been rightly told off for using my mobile phone in the CTS bookshop, I paid for a copy. I went home and gave this unsigned copy to my wonderful Wife who did so much to defend the Holy Father (do see her other posts in November 2010) when he was attacked over this book. Finally the Vatican did join in with my Wife's defence of the Holy Father.

Good Counsel On Television

Good Counsel on television, well almost. The Pro-Life work of The Good Counsel Network is based on the Chicago's Women Centre. The 30 minute documentary, Women's Centre; Where Miracles Happen, will be shown on EWTN on Monday 17th January at 2am, 10.30am & 7.30pm. You can watch it online at http://ewtn.co.uk/ or on Sky 589.

There are quite a few good Pro-Life programmes on EWTN this month so do check their Schedule.

Looking For The King, An Inklings Novel

I have just finished reading this great Catholic novel, which my wonderful Wife gave me for Christmas. Strange that a review copy did not show up in the post, but there we go. It is a great book for many reasons, but the great thing about it for me is that you could give a copy to anyone who likes Tolkien, Lewis etc. My Dad is unlikely to read a book by Scott Hahn or the like, but this one may go down quite well, and expose him to some Good Old Time Religion. Below is the blurb from the publishers (yes the ones that did not send me a review copy) Ignatius Press & you will also find a book trailer video on their website.

"It is 1940, and American Tom McCord, a 23-year-old aspiring doctoral candidate, is in England researching the historical evidence for the legendary King Arthur. There he meets perky and intuitive Laura Hartman, a fellow American staying with her aunt in Oxford, and the two of them team up for an even more ambitious and dangerous quest.

Aided by the Inklings-that illustrious circle of scholars and writers made famous by its two most prolific members, C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien-Tom and Laura begin to suspect that the fabled Spear of Destiny, the lance that pierced the side of Christ on the cross, is hidden somewhere in England.

Tom discovers that Laura has been having mysterious dreams, which seem to be related to the subject of his research, and, though doubtful of her visions, he hires her as an assistant. Heeding the insights and advice of the Inklings, while becoming aware of being shadowed by powerful and secretive foes who would claim the spear as their own, Tom and Laura end up on a thrilling treasure hunt that crisscrosses the English countryside and leads beyond a search for the elusive relics of Camelot into the depths of the human heart and soul.

Weaving his fast-paced narrative with conversation based on the works of the Inklings, author David Downing offers a vivid portrait of Oxford and draws a welcome glimpse into the personalities and ideas of Lewis and Tolkien, while never losing sight of his action-packed adventure story and its two very appealing main characters."

Aborted Baby Has Her Say!

Ever wondered what an aborted baby would say? Wonder no more. Paul Smeaton says that we should all watch this Pro-Life video and who am I to disagree.

I must say that his blog is very good .........after all he has said some nice things about mine and about Good Counsel!

In Communion With The Vicar Of Christ & Local Bishop

On the Second Sunday after Christmas I went to Mass where the Priest celebrated the Feast of The Epiphany a few days early, thus showing Communion with the local Bishop, who thinks this is a good idea.

Today, The Feast of The Epiphany, I went to an Old Rite Mass of The Epiphany thus showing that I am in Communion with the Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI, Christ's Vicar on Earth, as he offered Mass for the Epiphany today.

Solemnity Of The Epiphany Of The Lord

From St Peter's Basilica, Rome, Mass offered by Pope Benedict XVI on the Feast of The Epiphany (6th January) on EWTN online or Sky 589. It will be live at 9am, with an encore at 11pm and will last 2 hours.

Pope On Blessed Cardinal Newman

ADDRESS (in part) OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI ON THE OCCASION OF CHRISTMAS GREETINGS TO THE ROMAN CURIA
Monday, 20 December 2010

"I would willingly speak in some detail of my unforgettable journey to the United Kingdom, but I will limit myself to two points that are connected with the theme of the responsibility of Christians at this time and with the Church’s task to proclaim the Gospel. My thoughts go first of all to the encounter with the world of culture in Westminster Hall, an encounter in which awareness of shared responsibility at this moment in history created great attention which, in the final analysis, was directed to the question of truth and faith itself. It was evident to all that the Church has to make her own contribution to this debate. Alexis de Tocqueville, in his day, observed that democracy in America had become possible and had worked because there existed a fundamental moral consensus which, transcending individual denominations, united everyone. Only if there is such a consensus on the essentials can constitutions and law function. This fundamental consensus derived from the Christian heritage is at risk wherever its place, the place of moral reasoning, is taken by the purely instrumental rationality of which I spoke earlier. In reality, this makes reason blind to what is essential. To resist this eclipse of reason and to preserve its capacity for seeing the essential, for seeing God and man, for seeing what is good and what is true, is the common interest that must unite all people of good will. The very future of the world is at stake.

Finally I should like to recall once more the beatification of Cardinal John Henry Newman. Why was he beatified? What does he have to say to us? Many responses could be given to these questions, which were explored in the context of the beatification. I would like to highlight just two aspects which belong together and which, in the final analysis, express the same thing. The first is that we must learn from Newman’s three conversions, because they were steps along a spiritual path that concerns us all. Here I would like to emphasize just the first conversion: to faith in the living God. Until that moment, Newman thought like the average men of his time and indeed like the average men of today, who do not simply exclude the existence of God, but consider it as something uncertain, something with no essential role to play in their lives. What appeared genuinely real to him, as to the men of his and our day, is the empirical, matter that can be grasped. This is the “reality” according to which one finds one’s bearings. The “real” is what can be grasped, it is the things that can be calculated and taken in one’s hand. In his conversion, Newman recognized that it is exactly the other way round: that God and the soul, man’s spiritual identity, constitute what is genuinely real, what counts. These are much more real than objects that can be grasped. This conversion was a Copernican revolution. What had previously seemed unreal and secondary was now revealed to be the genuinely decisive element. Where such a conversion takes place, it is not just a person’s theory that changes: the fundamental shape of life changes. We are all in constant need of such conversion: then we are on the right path.

The driving force that impelled Newman along the path of conversion was conscience. But what does this mean? In modern thinking, the word “conscience” signifies that for moral and religious questions, it is the subjective dimension, the individual, that constitutes the final authority for decision. The world is divided into the realms of the objective and the subjective. To the objective realm belong things that can be calculated and verified by experiment. Religion and morals fall outside the scope of these methods and are therefore considered to lie within the subjective realm. Here, it is said, there are in the final analysis no objective criteria. The ultimate instance that can decide here is therefore the subject alone, and precisely this is what the word “conscience” expresses: in this realm only the individual, with his intuitions and experiences, can decide. Newman’s understanding of conscience is diametrically opposed to this. For him, “conscience” means man’s capacity for truth: the capacity to recognize precisely in the decision-making areas of his life – religion and morals – a truth, the truth. At the same time, conscience – man’s capacity to recognize truth – thereby imposes on him the obligation to set out along the path towards truth, to seek it and to submit to it wherever he finds it. Conscience is both capacity for truth and obedience to the truth which manifests itself to anyone who seeks it with an open heart. The path of Newman’s conversions is a path of conscience – not a path of self-asserting subjectivity but, on the contrary, a path of obedience to the truth that was gradually opening up to him. His third conversion, to Catholicism, required him to give up almost everything that was dear and precious to him: possessions, profession, academic rank, family ties and many friends. The sacrifice demanded of him by obedience to the truth, by his conscience, went further still. Newman had always been aware of having a mission for England. But in the Catholic theology of his time, his voice could hardly make itself heard. It was too foreign in the context of the prevailing form of theological thought and devotion. In January 1863 he wrote in his diary these distressing words: “As a Protestant, I felt my religion dreary, but not my life - but, as a Catholic, my life dreary, not my religion”. He had not yet arrived at the hour when he would be an influential figure. In the humility and darkness of obedience, he had to wait until his message was taken up and understood. In support of the claim that Newman’s concept of conscience matched the modern subjective understanding, people often quote a letter in which he said – should he have to propose a toast – that he would drink first to conscience and then to the Pope. But in this statement, “conscience” does not signify the ultimately binding quality of subjective intuition. It is an expression of the accessibility and the binding force of truth: on this its primacy is based. The second toast can be dedicated to the Pope because it is his task to demand obedience to the truth."

For full text see Good Counsel's blog