Thursday: St Mary Major's

Today we make our pilgrimage to the Basilica of St Mary Major, a pilgrimage in honour of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, the primary Patron of our Fraternity.

Consecrated to the Immaculate Heart, we in the Fraternity seek to serve her and to do what we can to bring about the triumph of her Heart.  This triumph is actually the triumph of Christ, since he is the one who occupies her Maternal Heart.  Everything she does, she does for her Son.  Mary always brings people to Christ, for he is her whole life and her joy.  Learning from her, we see that Christ must be all to us.  Everything we do must be for him, and though our efforts may seem meagre, when channelled through the Heart of Our Lady, they become great heroic works.

O Holy Mother of God, to your Immaculate Heart we commend our Fraternity.  Dedicated to your service, accept our work and our prayer and bring to the Heart of your Son the men and women of the theatrical and cinematic arts who are your children.   Take them to your Immaculate Heart and there form them according to the Heart of your Son.

Loving Father, in your mercy you give us a loving Mother in Mary.  In her Immaculate Heart we find the maternal tenderness and motherly zeal which inspires us to serve your Son with greater joy and effort.  Hear the prayers we commend to this Beautiful Mother, the Ornament of Grace.  Amen.

Wednesday: Papal Audience And Tomb of St Paul

In the morning we attend the Papal Audience, and in the afternoon go on pilgrimage to the Basilica of St Paul Outside-the-Walls to venerate the remains of St Paul the Apostle.

Our union with Peter is important.  On him is build the Church, and so we look to his successor, Benedict, as the one who unites us.  He is the Vicar of Christ on earth - the one chosen to lead the Church in these times.  As our Holy Father, he deserves our prayer and our obedience.  St Catherine of Siena gives us a profound insight into who the Pope is when she calls him "our Christ on earth".

Lord God, bless Benedict our Pope, and give him every grace so he may fulfil the office you have entrusted to him.  May he always have the guidance of your Holy Spirit and the maternal care of the Blessed Virgin Mary, our Mother.  And when you call him from this life, grant to him a place among your Saints.  Amen.

St Paul is also important for our Fraternity - he is our theologian.  As we form this family of prayer, we draw on his teaching on the Mystical Body of Christ.  Where is the Fraternity to be found in this Body?  In the heart, of course!  We are in the Heart of the Church, praying, offering our sacrifices, loving.  This is where Our Lady is, and as we dedicated to her mission for her Son, we stand beside her, obedient to her.  St Paul encourages us, then, is fulfilling our duties here.  He reassures us that the cross we carry and offer to Christ for our brothers and sisters brings the grace and power of God upon those we pray for.

St Paul, Apostle to the Gentiles, hear our prayer.  Preach to us, the children of God, the Gospel of Christ, so we may be immersed in the Word and follow him each day of our lives.  Guide us into the heart of the Church where we may offer ourselves in service to God for the sake of our brothers and sisters.  As you were happy to shed your blood for love of Christ, our Redeemer, obtain from the Lord that grace which will make us as generous in our sacrifices.

Heavenly Father, bless our family of prayer.  Give to each of us the zeal with which you endowed your Apostle Paul.  As he was compelled to proclaim the love and sacrifice of Christ, may we be filled with that same zeal to make Christ known to the people of our time.  Amen.

Tuesday: Tomb of St Genesius

Solemn Mass of St Genesius in the Church of Santa Susanna, Termini, Rome, near the tomb of the martyr.  The relics of St Genesius were translated here in 1591 at the request of Princess Camilla Peretti, sister of the late Pope Sixtus V.  She was building a chapel in his memory, and though dedicated to St Laurence, the relics of the actor-martyr and Pope St Elutherius, also a martyr, were transfered here from the Church of San Giovanni della Pigna, near the Minerva.

Spiritual Exercise:

St Genesius, as we come in spirit to venerate your holy remains, we commend to you our prayers and our needs.  Give us a deep love for Jesus Christ, and a desire to change our hearts so to love him more.  Bless those who work in the theatrical and cinematic arts, intercede for their needs.  Those who far from God, touch their hearts and bring them to vision of the One who loved them into life.  O Blessed Genesius, as our brothers and sister come to your tomb to honour you, count us among them.  As we unite ourselves with the Holy Sacrifice offered in your church, come near to us and be our constant companion.  Amen.

Almighty Father, bless your children who today honour your martyr Genesius.  As he responded to grace and proclaimed your mercies for all the world to hear, bless them also with your merciful love.  Hear their prayers and grant them their needs.  Through the intercession of St Genesius, make their hearts a place where you may dwell.  We ask this through Christ our Lord.  Amen

Bags Packed

It has been a very busy week, occupied with preparations for the pilgrimage.  We leave tomorrow morning at 7am.  Today the painting we are giving the Pope arrived from the framer's - the artist brought it directly.  It is a lovely piece - a basic portrait of St Genesius with the cross and masks from the Fraternity seal.  I do not have a picture of yet - one has been taken, but I do not have a copy yet.  I do, however, have a copy of the rough sketch, so I am posting it here to give you an idea of what the painting looks like.

Preliminary sketch of the Papal portrait of St Genesius:

Richard Moore, watercolour

Our itinerary is up on my blog, here, so to all of you who want to do the pilgrimage with us in spirit you can do so.  I will be remembering all the Fraternity members in our Masses; the Solemn Mass at the tomb of St Genesius on Tuesday afternoon - the heart of our pilgrimage, will be offered for all our members' intentions.  It takes place at 4pm Roman Time (3pm GMT; 10am US/Canadian Eastern; 9am Central; 8am Pacific).  

The blog will not be live, but I will schedule the daily events of the pilgrimage (if the scheduling facility works - sometimes it goes on strike here on blogger). 

Time To Say NO!

The committee charged with examining patronage of primary schools has issued its report, and, surprise surprise, it is nothing more than another attack on the Catholic Church and her patronage of schools.  In its recommendations, the report says that religious education should not be conducted in schools, prayer should be changed so as to be more inclusive ie not Catholic prayers, and religious symbols of all faiths should be on display rather than Catholic religious symbols.  Now remember they are not talking about state schools here - they are talking about Catholic schools. 

So to sum it up: the report is recommending that Catholic schools should not be allowed to be Catholic, but rather conform to a secularist, left-wing, relativist agenda.  That's objective for you in modern Ireland. 

Well, the Church's response to this should be very simple: No way, and then just get on as per normal and ignore any efforts the Minister for Education makes to force Catholic schools to conform.  But will the hierarchy and Catholic parents do that?  Certainly the parents of Ashbourne, Co. Meath, will not be impressed.  They are up in arms because the government told them they cannot have a Catholic education for their children. 

This, my friends, is actually unconstitutional in Ireland.  The constitution states that parents are the primary educators of their children and they have the constitutional right to decide what type of education they want for their children and the government is bound by the constitution to support and provide for this.  We have a very liberal constitution when it comes to education here in Ireland, and that's the best way.  Our government and their left-wing secularist allies want to de-liberalise this and force all parents of all religious traditions and none to send their children to the same types of schools - schools which will only cater for secularists and atheists.

 A friend of mine said this morning that the report is deliberately extreme so as to force the Church to compromise.  I do realise that there has been a tendency in the Church here to compromise even when she does not have to.  She relinquishes certain rights in order to reach out.  That may be noble at times, but in the present age with the attack of radical secularism, this is not the time to reach out and compromise - now is the time to fight, and fight hard.   Now is the time to stick by our constitutional rights and tell the government that we will not allow them to take away our liberty here.  The government already has plans for a constitutional convention which will aim at giving Ireland a new constitution - you can bet that the creature they bring to life will be worse than the Frankenstein monster, and the liberties people of faith enjoy in this country will be significantly diminished.  Religious schools will be high on agenda.

Is it not time for the Catholic Church to form alliances with other faith groups?  I have said this before. In Ireland in the past the Church was strong, she had power and could wield that power in the face of governments and politicians.  That was not always a good thing.  Now she has no power, and certainly not with an agressive secularist government headed by a man who wants to break the country's ancient relationship with the Holy See.  Is it not time, then, for the Cardinal, the other Archbishops and Bishops to get talking with other Christian leaders, the new evangelicals among them, with the Chief Rabbi and the Muslims, to form a grand alliance to defy the government?  The Taoiseach and Minister for Education will fob off a delegation from the Bishops, but they will not fob off a delegation of Catholics, other Christians, Jews, Muslims and other religious groups united in a defiant stand against the radical secularist agenda that wants to prevent us passing on the "faith of our fathers and mothers" to our children. 

Catholics, much to the chagrin of radical secularists, are the majority in this country.  United with other Christians, Jews, Muslims and people of other faiths, we are the overwhelming majority, and we all want to keep our schools and their individual faith ethos.  If we got together, the government would be very foolish to defy us.  Yes, I'm sure they would try, but by God, if they do not listen to us, come the next election not only can we boot them out of office, but we can wipe their parties off the political landscape.  It was almost done to Fianna Fail in the last election, it can be done again.

Easter Greetings

Every blessing for this holy Solemnity, and for the Easter Season.

Holy Saturday: Awaiting The Resurrection

Today is Our Lady's day: with her we watch and pray, awaiting the Resurrection of her Son.  To be honest, in a parish there is very little waiting, things are very busy as we prepare for the Great Vigil this evening.  My parishioners have been doing various jobs to ensure the liturgy this evening is beautiful and fitting to greet the Risen Lord.  As I write, the parish church is being decorated with flowers.  I have just finished my homilies for tonight and tomorrow after running around like a headless chicken all day.  Guilty that I have not written a decent post, I'm taking a few minutes to drop you a line for Easter.   Next week will be as busy as we prepare for the pilgrimage to Rome, Assisi and Loreto.

There is a real sense of anticipation this year - Easter is a perfect time to begin the renewal of the Church in Ireland - many of us are hopeful.  There are great signs of renewal - the first shoots. We will pray that these shoots will grow.  Recent developments are reassuring, particularly the Holy See's beginning to deal with those who have been undermining faith here for decades - this is good.  For too long faithful priests in this country have tried to teach the fullness of the Catholic faith only to be undermined by those who reject it.  We must pray for conversion of hearts.  The usual suspects, I see, are reacting badly and attacking the Holy Father. 

In other news Cardinal O'Brien is encouraging Christians to wear crosses as a symbol of their faith.  As attempts to drive Christianity from the public square continue apace, we must not hide away.  True.  May the grace of this holy season give us all the grace and courage to proclaim our faith in these times.

Right, back to work.  Every blessing for Easter.  Pray for me this Easter, as I remember you all in my prayers.

Laudetur Iesus Christus!

Good Friday

O Blessed Lord,
crucified for our sake,
look upon us and grant us your grace.
Help us to overcome our sinfulness
and conquer our pride;
give us a share in your cross
so we may embrace that same humility
which made you obedient to the will of the Father.
All praise and honour to you,
Lord Jesus,
for your going to the cross for our salvation,
may you blessed and praised forever.
Amen

Holy Thursday

"The holiest of nights" - this is one phrase which describes Holy Thursday.  As we gather for the Mass of the Lord's Supper, follow the procession to the Altar of Repose, and spend the rest of the evening in vigil and adoration, the events which we commemorate are truly present: we are indeed with the Lord on this night.  I can almost imagine a child asking the ritual question: "Why is this night different?" It is indeed the Passover, the new Passover.

In the diocese of Meath we celebrated the Chrism Mass on Wednesday evening.  This year we had a large number of priests renewing their commitment to their ministry.  In this time of renewal we need to look to a renewal of the priesthood as well as that of the Church in Ireland.  Our priests need to rediscover who they are.  Priesthood is not a job, a priest is not a mere pastoral assistant or a facilitator or management.  It is a calling bound up in the mystery of Christ himself and in the Fatherhood of God. 

The Holy Father's Chrism Mass grabbed the headlines around the world - RTE here were quick to report his remarks on women priests and dissent - I'm sure they were not happen - the language they used was quite negative.  They said the Pope was reiterating the "ban" on women priests: they fail to understand that there is no "ban" on women priests in the Catholic Church - rather, as Blessed John Paul II reminded us, the Church has no authority to ordain women - after careful enquiry the Church believes that it is not the will of God. 

The world operates under the erroneous belief that if we can do something, then we should.  We can create human beings through artificial scientific processes, so if we can do it, we do it - morality does not enter into it.  So with the ordination of women - if it is conceivable, then we do it - we do not need to ask God whether he wants it: he too, it seems, is bound by secular equality laws.  However in this case if God does not want it it does not happen.  As one of my students said to me a few years ago when I was teaching: "If God doesn't want women priests, it doesn't matter if you go through an "ordination" for them, they're still not priests" - the student was a girl and it made perfect sense to her.  After all, priesthood was not a human invention, nor governed by equality laws, it is a gift from God to be governed by his will.

The Catholic priesthood, among other things, is a manifestation of fatherhood: every man is called to be a father - how he exercises that fatherhood will depend on his individual vocation.  It is easy to see this fatherhood in the men who marry and have children.  But those who do not marry nor have children, their fatherhood is expressed in different ways.  A priest is a father to those in his care: priesthood and fatherhood are inextricably linked.  Today, on Holy Thursday, priests are reminded that they are called to be fathers, to make the sacrifice that fathers must make for their children, to govern the household of God as fathers do.

This year many people will be remembering those who died in the Titanic disaster.  We all know the stories of some of the passengers - the "unsinkable" Molly Brown who was heroic in her efforts to save people - she was a Catholic, by the way, and after the disaster went on to do a lot of good work for the Church and society.  But among the silent heroes are a number of priests who refused offers of seats on the lifeboats to stay and minister to the people who were going to die.  The one scene that struck me from the movie Titanic (which I hated by the way, A Night To Remember is much better), was that of the priest absolving sins as the ship was going down.  It really happened.

We know of three priests who ministered heroically in preparing passengers for their deaths: Fr Joseph Benedikt Peruschitz, a German Benedictine.  He was on his way to take up a teaching position in Collegeville.  He was a second class passenger, who was offered a place in the lifeboats - he refused.  He went about the sinking ship giving absolution, consoling the passengers and leading them in prayer.  He was mocked by some passengers as he was going about his work preparing people to meet their God.  He went down in the midst of the faithful praying the rosary: he was 41 years old.

Fr Juozas Montvila was only 27, a Lithuanian. He had endured much persecution from the Russians in his native Lithuania.  He had been ministering to Ukrainian Catholics against the wishes of the Tsar.  Fr Juozas was prohibited from exercising his priestly ministry and eventually driven out of Lithuania.  He was on his way to the US to take up a position ministering to Lithuanian Catholics.  He too refused a place in the lifeboats and exercised his priestly fatherhood in consoling those about to die.

Fr Thomas Byles, 42, was an English priest, a convert from Anglicanism - his story is very like Blessed John Henry Newman's.  He had been a Congregationalist, but at Oxford converted to the Church of England and began preparing to enter the Anglican ministry.  However his studies led him to Catholicism, and he was ordained a priest in 1902.  He was on his way to a family wedding in Brooklyn.  He was ministering to the Catholics on the voyage, most of whom were third class, so he knew his way around the lower decks.  When the iceberg hit he refused a seat in the lifeboats and made his way down to third class, which was quickly sealed up to prevent the immigrants making for the lifeboats - the upper classes, it seems, had the right to the few lifeboats, the poor could go down with the ship.  He spent his last hours hearing confessions and praying with the passengers trapped in the ship. 

Frs Joseph Benedikt Peruschitz, Juozas Montvila and Thomas Byles

None of these priests were ever found, like hundreds of others, their bodies perished in the waters.  In these three men we see the fatherhood of the priesthood at work - a father does not abandon his children - these priests knew where they had to be as the ship went down.

What is interesting is that these three men seemed almost prepared for this final sacrifice. Each of them had been formed in heroism in their lives so when it came to the disaster, they were ready to respond as Christ would respond.  This reminds us that a priest is a man chosen even before was born, consecrated in the womb, as the prophet says.  That is consoling for us priests -God has chosen us and he will help us carry out the mission he has entrusted to us.

I'm not sure if the possibility of beatification has been mooted for these three priests, but it may be worth considering.  What wonderful examples for us priests - these men who laid down their lives for their flock, literally.

Spy Wednesday

Traditionally this is the day when we reflect on Judas and his betrayal of the Lord.  For this he received the grand price of thirty pieces of silver, forever the price of treachery. 

Pope Benedict has something very interesting to say about Judas.  "Judas was neither a master of evil nor the figure of a demoniacal power of darkness but rather a sycophant who bows down before the anonymous power of changing moods and current fashions".

What an insight - Judas wanted to keep up with the crowd.  When Jesus was popular, he was in with him, at the centre of things, an Apostle.  But when the powers that be, the movers and shakers of Jewish society, had turned against Jesus, then Judas was conflicted, that conflict lead to betrayal, but one in which Judas would fill his pockets with ill gotten gains.

This has always been a problem in the Church.  The Judas in our midst is not the one who consorts with evil, but the ones who sell their souls to the prevailing fashions of the age and seek to make a name for themselves.   They may put forward all sorts of noble reasons for doing so, but a lot of the time, they are merely trying to satisfy a hunger to be liked by the world, even to be famous. 

Many Christians fall into this trap, including many clergy and religious who dilute, deny or rebel against Church teaching in order to keep in with the elite.  They may convince themselves that what they do is blessed by God, a worthy dissent for the sake of the people, or the most lame excuse of all: for pastoral reasons.

The example of Judas is a timely one for us.  We must resist the lure of those who want us to go their way in opposition to Christ, those who want people "on the inside" to help them bring the Church down.  Jesus is, and never was, popular with the elite.  He was always an outsider, and those who follow him tend to be outsiders most of the time.  We have to come to accept that and get used to it.

That said, we must continue to engage with the world, proclaim the Gospel, challenge and live in it as so as to be the salt of the earth and light of the world.

Is Judas saved?  I do not know.  The Church has never given an opinon, officially.  We do not know what happened in his heart as the rope tightened around his neck.  We shall not speculate: but rather pray and learn from his mistake.