Professor Rao Book Launch In London

Professor Rao will be launching his latest ground breaking book 'Black Legends and the Light of the World: The War of Words with the Incarnate Word', in England, at the Morpeth Arms, 58 Millbank, Westminster, London *. SW1P 4RP on Friday the 8th of June at 7.30PM (food is available at the pub). [I have just been told that to buy a copy of the book you will need to be at The Conference on Saturday]

Below is a summary of the book’s material:

Black Legends and the Light of the World is a thematic discussion of the whole of Church History. It has three purposes. The first is to explain the successes of Catholic Christendom as the product of faithfulness to the fullness of the message of the Incarnate Word regarding the individual and society. A second is to connect its failures to an all too frequent clerical and lay Catholic willingness to believe and follow the guidance of rhetorical “word merchants” who either falsely blacken Christ’s teaching or emasculate it, rendering it incapable of changing fallen men and nature. The third is to demonstrate the essential unity of such destructive rhetorical game playing in its perennial war of words against the substantive natural and supernatural correction and transformation of man and society through the Word—from the age of the Sophists to that of Global Pluralism.

The Remnant has posted an interview with the author regarding this work: http://www.remnantnewspaper.com/Archives/2012-0229-rao-interview-black-legends.htm

Click here to view a video of Dr Rao talking about his lecture series at Lake Garda:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=orIA-NyXuL0

* Please note the change of venue.

But the real challenge is, can you get from the end of the 6.30pm Old Rite Mass at Corpus Christi, offered for Good Counsel, (http://www.goodcounselnet.co.uk/Mass--Adoration-and-Prayer.html) in time for the above, easy! Professor Rao will also be speaking at The Conference; http://ecumenicaldiablog.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/self-publicists-really-make-me-cross.html.

Professor John C. Rao, D. Phil. Oxon., is Associate Professor of History at St. John's University and a Director of the Roman Forum as well as the Dietrich von Hildebrand Institute. A well-regarded speaker, as well as writer, Dr. Rao presents a lecture series on Church history in New York and as part of the Roman Forum's Summer Symposium, Lake Garda in Italy.

Mass Tonight For Good Counsel

"Everyday, Jesus humbles himself just as He did when He came from His heavenly throne into the Virgin’s womb; everyday He comes to us and lets us see Him in abjection, when He descends from the bosom of the Father into the hands of the priest at the altar."~ Saint Francis of Assisi

Join Juventutem London for Mass this Friday, 18th May, the feast of Saint Peter Cansius. Friday, 18th May, 6.45pm

Saint Mary Moorfields Catholic Church, 4-5 Eldon Street, London, EC2M 7LS

Music will be provided by Cantus Magnus and the Juventutem London Schola.
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Mass for Three Voices Byrd
Communion motet: Panis angelicus Casciolini
Marian antiphon: Regina Caeli Cavalli
Gregorian chant propers
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After Mass there will be a social downstairs for those aged 18-35 with an exception for Priests and Religious.

The Mass is, of course, open to anyone of any age. It is only the social events that are designed for 18-35 year olds.

This Mass and all our monthly Masses are offered for the work of The Good Counsel Network, a pro-life pregnancy centre that reaches out to mothers in desperate need of support, who would otherwise feel they have no other option than to have an abortion. Their work is founded on prayer and the teachings of the Catholic Church.

If you plan on coming to the social please RSVP by clicking 'Attending' on our Facebook event page.

Please let others know about this Mass.

Self-Publicists Really Make Me Cross

Self-publicists really make me cross! Therefore, let me just say that there will be a great one day Catholic Conference in London, on Saturday 9th June organised by The Latin Mass Society.

VENUE: Regent Hall, 275 Oxford Street, London W1C 2DJ (opposite BHS, less than 5 minutes’ walk from Oxford Circus)

Conference Theme: 'The Traditional Liturgy and the Catholic Life'

This is the first time the LMS has organised a one-day conference, and we have some excellent speakers lined up for you. The conference is aimed principally at ordinary LMS members, although non-members are very welcome to join us. The Conference timetable is as follows:

9am Low Mass at St James's, Spanish Place.

10am Doors open.

10am -11am Registration. Stalls in the Conference Hall will be available to browse

11am - 11.50am 1st talk: Dr John Rao (Roman Forum): ‘From Darkness Into Light: Contemporary Barbarism, the Traditional Liturgy, and the Construction of a Civilized Society’

12 noon - 12.50pm 2nd talk: Stuart McCullough (Good Counsel Network): ‘Spiritual Warfare and the End of Abortion’ followed by Lunch.

2pm - 2.50pm 3rd talk: Fr John Zuhlsdorf (Fr Z): (Title of talk to be confirmed)

3pm - 3.50pm 4th talk: Fr Tim Finigan (columnist and blogger): 'Traditional Liturgy in the Modern Parish’

4pm - 4.50pm 5th talk: John Hunwicke (of the Ordinariate): ‘Education without Religion a pure Evil?’

5pm - 6pm Panel discussion

6pm Close

BOOKING INFORMATION: Admission is by ticket only. Ticket prices: LMS Members £15 Non-LMS Members £20 (includes morning and afternoon refreshments) Optional: Buffet lunch including drinks £9 supplement.

You can buy your ticket by phoning the LMS office on 020 7404 7284, sending a cheque (payable to 'LMS') to LMS, 11-13 Macklin Street, London WC2B 5NH or online here.

Photo, Father Finigan giving Benediction in the small Good Counsel Network's chapel and the Server seems to be doing a good job.

"I'm Spartacus!" Says Fr Finigan

When I read this on Fr Finigan's blog, I thought 'Steady on, I've seen that film. Everyone who said I'm Spartacus, gets crucified'. Then I thought, 'That's very good of Father to take the blame, but I'm Spartacus!'
Many thanks to Father Finigan, as it was his, "I'm Spartacus!" that got me to put this add here, do see his blog and links for more details.

GK's Weekly, The Resurrection

“The historical case for the Resurrection is that everybody else, except the Apostles, had every possible motive to declare what they had done with the body, if anything had been done with it. The Apostles might have hidden it in order to announce a sham miracle, but it is very difficult to imagine men being tortured and killed for the truth of a miracle which they knew to be a sham.”

GK Chesterton in As I Was Saying

GK's Weekly, Turning Back The Clock

There is one metaphor of which the moderns are very fond; they are always saying, "You can't put the clock back." The simple and obvious answer is "You can." A clock, being a piece of human construction, can be restored by the human finger to any figure or hour. In the same way society, being a piece of human construction, can be reconstructed upon any plan that has ever existed.

There is another proverb, "As you have made your bed, so you must lie on it"; which again is simply a lie. If I have made my bed uncomfortable, please God I will make it again.

GK Chesterton, What's Wrong with the World (1910)

Deerstalker Tip: http://wp.me/p37WZ-eH

Yes, It's Time To Pray For My Dead Nan Again

I'm pleased to say that a number of people have prayed for my Nan since I put up the following on this day last year.

Today is the 2nd anniversary of the death of Sarah Ward, my Grandmother (Nan). She was an Ulster (Northern Ireland) protestant, a methodist in fact. She had quite a hard life, moving a number of times as a small child, as her Father went in search of work.

I remember wondering how to tell her, at Christmas 1996, that I had just been Baptised as a Catholic the week before! I was not expecting it to go down too well, but while sitting in her flat in Cardiff thinking of what to say, she told me the most amazing thing. "I remember the Priest (Catholic) trying to come to our house in Kent when your Great Grandfather, my Dad, died. We told him to get back on his bike or we would throw a bucket of water at him!" I asked her why would the Catholic Priest come? And she told me that, "It was very sad, but Dad became a Catholic six months before he died, but he didn't have the chance to get the rest of us though!" I laughed, as I was so happy with the start of the story, and my Nan 'knew' then. She had spent 29 years telling me that I was just like my Great Grandfather! So I just said, "And me last week!" She replied, "I know, you're just like him".

She had mellowed over the years and was fine about it, to the point that when her Bible was stolen while in hospital, she asked me to get her a new one, knowing beyond doubt that it would be a Catholic Bible, and it was.

One of the last memories I have of my Nan, was arriving at the hospital a week or two before she died when no one else was there. Although she was 'totally out of it' I told her I was going to pray the Divine Mercy Chaplet for her, she said just two words after me at one point, 'Our Father'. Well I cried and carried on.

It is one of the hard things about being a convert, when someone dies on your side of the Family, very few Masses & prayers will be offered for the repose of their souls.

So do say a prayer for my Nan. Thanks.

One Million Rosaries, One Weekend, Countless Unborn Babies

The Saint Michael the Archangel Organisation, based in Memphis, Tennessee, CSA, has launched a drive for one million rosaries for unborn babies between this Friday 4th May and this Sunday 6th May, from people all around the world. I urge all Catholics to join this wonderful pro-life campaign and spread the word among their contacts. For more details visit http://www.saintmichaelthearchangelorganization.org/

HT John Smeaton