First Saturday

Today, being the First Saturday, we honour the Immaculate Heart of Mary.  It is a good day to consecrate oneself to Jesus through Our Lady's Heart.  Given the times we are in, is it time, perhaps, for the bishops of Ireland to formally consecrate Ireland to the Immaculate Heart of Mary?  A ceremony which could take place in Knock with all the bishops and as many clergy, religious and laity possible, present.   What do you think? 

We start with a person consecration.  Here is the text of the Fraternity's act of consecration to the Immaculate Heart, our Dedicated Members pray it every day.

To you, Immaculate Heart of Mary,
we consecrate ourselves –
our hearts, minds, will and lives
and all those works we undertake
so they may be for the glory of God,
for the sake of the Gospel
and the salvation of souls.
Holy Mother, our Queen and our Joy,
give to our hearts the dimensions of yours
and form us in the image of your beloved Son.

The Call To Arms

Gandalf leads the armies against the orcs at Helm's Deep

As I expected, David Quinn has responded to The Irish Times editorial yesterday. In his weekly column in the Irish Independent today, David argues against the proposed law and the Times's attack.  Excellent article, follow the link and read it.  

David points out that when US states tried to enact similiar laws they were defeated by a backlash of Catholic voters urged on by their bishops, and also by wiser heads in legislatures prevailing.  Well, we can only hope there is someone with common sense in the present coalition.  But we Catholics also need to get the forces ready, and time for our bishops to start rallying the troops. 

The Irish Times may not like the idea that, regardless of how we feel about our bishops and the scandals, we still want the state to respect our religious freedom and, yes, we will defend our sacred sacraments - we do have the right, under God and under the Constitution of this (once great) Republic to defend our Catholic faith.  This is something our secularist masters have forgotten - time to remind them. 

Feast of The Organiser

St Brocard receives the Carmelite Rule from St Albert of Jerusalem

According to the old Carmelite calendar, today is the feast of St Brocard, second prior of the hermits on Mount Carmel.   No longer appearing on our calendar, which is a shame to be honest, we can still celebrate his feast day, as I do today.

St Brocard was born in France, and came to the Holy Land at some point, ending up among the hermits of Mount Carmel who were organised under the first prior, St Berthold.  The first Carmelites were originally Crusaders who, after the many battles having won the Holy Land back for Christendom, sought a deeper life.  A group of them made their way to Mount Carmel to live a life in spirit of Elijah and St John the Baptist putting themselves under the patronage of Our Lady.  St Berthold was their leader who governed the community for about forty years.  On his death, the hermits chose Brocard as Berthold's successor, and he would govern the community until his death.

It was Brocard who went to St Albert, the Patriarch of Jerusalem, seeking a Rule under which the community might formalise the life they had been living.  The bishop obliged and gave the hermits what is the basis of our life in Carmel - the Rule of St Albert.  Brocard, then, has an important place in the Order as the one who sought to establish the loose grouping of hermits into an Order, turning to his local bishop to guide them.

Brocard governed the community for thirty-five years, dying around the year 1231.  He was renowned for his holiness, prudence and goodness.  He was venerated by many during his lifetime including Muslims with whom Brocard nurtured an affectionate relationship.  He did a great deal to foster bonds with the Muslim community while still remaining true to his Catholic faith.

So today, in Carmel, we can celebrate the life and ingenuity of one who, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, sought to organise our Order and, in a sense, prepare it for its great apostolic mission in the Church.  Without Brocard, St Albert would not have given us a Rule, and that Rule has helped form Saints and holy men and women.  We might also invoke him in these difficult times so we might foster peace with Muslims, particularly those intent on violence, and through his intercession, may the Lord Jesus bring them to see Christ as he really is: their Lord and Saviour. Indeed, may we all be renewed in that vision.

O Lord,
sanctify your servants who humbly beseech you
on the feast of Blessed Brocard,
hermit of Mount Carmel and your Confessor:
that, by his salutary patronage,
our life may be everywhere guided through adversities.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son
Who lives and reigns with You
in the unity of the Holy Spirit
one God, forever and ever.  Amen.

St Brocard, dear brother in Carmel, pray for us

Here We Go.....

Just copy and paste, and spread it abroad!

I was wondering when the Irish media would start the serious assault on the Sacrament of Confession, well The Irish Times is off the starting block today. 

The paper's editorial relates the story of a priest who abused numerous young people who confessed his sin 1,500 times in confession and all he got for penance was prayer.  The paper claims he said he confessed to thirty individual priests.  Now to be honest I find it hard to believe that not one out of the thirty priests imposed a harsher penance or told him to confess to his superiors.  But if it is the case those confessors need a course in moral theology (Orthodox Catholic school, not Curran/McBrien school).  The whole scenario is disgraceful, I accept that.

The point of the editorial, as you will see, is that the Seal allows abuse to continue, and so Cardinal Sean Brady is wrong, "unfair and disproportionate" in his defence of the Seal.  Ministers Shatter and Fitzgerald, no doubt heartened by this example, are intent on following their course.  Well then, the State and the Church are on course for one hell of a battle.  It may need to be said: we priests do not condone abuse, we are following government guidelines to the letter, we abhor the crime of violating innocent children and will do all in our power to protect them.   But we will not break the Seal. 

I only hope our bishops hold their nerve on this - we must pray for them.  They must also turn to the Holy See for support, help and advice.  I hope they have the wisdom to know they will not be able to face this alone, but will need the universal Church's historical experience to get around the legislation, if the government goes through with it. 

By the way, remember what I said about the government using child protection to push aside religious freedom: well, the last paragraph of the editorial confirms my fears: 

"Freedom of religion is an important principle in a pluralist society but all should remind themselves that the most important issue here is the protection of children. Other jurisdictions deal with the issue of priest-penitent privilege in various ways. With goodwill, it ought to be possible here to negotiate through conflicting rights and freedoms in the primary interest of children."

That's the soft sell, the hard sell is on the way. 

So now, Catholic bloggers and readers, are you with us in this struggle?   Are you just reading and passing on to another website, or are you interested in helping the faithful Catholics of Ireland??  If so let us know, pray for us, display the "Protect the Seal" on your site with a word to pray for Ireland!   Come on now!!

The Way To Go

Fr Mark over at Vultus Christi blog has a lovely post on Blessed Ildefonso Schuster, former Cardinal Archbishop of Milan.  During our pilgrimage to the Exposition of the Holy Shroud of Turin last year, we visited the duomo in Milan and paid our respects at the tomb of Blessed Ildefonso.  Yesterday was the Blessed Cardinal's feast day and as a Benedictine, Fr Mark's new congregation were celebrating the man, his life and his example. 

I was struck by one of the Cardinal's sayings, one which is very appropriate for these times and for priests in parish ministry.  He speaks about the importance of holiness.  Too often those of us in parishes forget about the first item on our ministerial agenda - to form the people in holiness and prepare them for heaven.  We have so many other pressing concerns - running the parish plant, administering the sacraments, visitation, getting involved in various local activities, and we tend to run around like Marthas all day, every day.  And yet, as the Lord reminds us, "only one thing is necessary": holiness.   Here is what Blessed Ildefonso has to say (from a talk he gave to his seminarians just a few days before he died): 

"I have no memento to give you apart from an invitation to holiness. It would seem that people are no longer convinced by our preaching; but faced with holiness, they still believe, they still fall to their knees and pray. People seem to live ignorant of supernatural realities, indifferent to the problems of salvation. But when an authentic saint, living or dead passes by, all run to be there. Do not forget that the devil is not afraid of our [parish] sports fields and of our movie halls: he is afraid, on the other hand, of our holiness."

Good advice.  If there is one thing we need to do now, especially here in Ireland, and that is to put the fear of God into the devil and his minions. 

I am reminded of that joke which Fr Z posted on his blog: the one about the various religious and the parish priest during Vespers when the light went out: 

During a Eucharistic Congress, a number of priests from different orders are gathered in a church for Vespers. While they are praying, a fuse blows and all the lights went out.

The Benedictines continue praying from memory, without missing a beat.

The Jesuits begin to discuss whether the blown fuse means they are dispensed from the obligation to pray Vespers.

The Franciscans compose a song of praise for God’s gift of darkness.

The Dominicans revisit their ongoing debate on light as a signification of the transmission of divine knowledge.

The Carmelites fall into silence and slow, steady breathing.

The parish priest, who is hosting the others, walks down the stairs to the basement and replaces the fuse.

I love it, and I get the point.  But perhaps it might have been no harm for the parish priest to sit in the darkness for a while and keep praying, and then replace the fuse.

*  *  *

PS  For those of you interested in relics, Blessed Ildefonso's body was found completely incorrupt when it was exhumed as part of the beatification process.  Below is a photograph of his face as found when exhumed. 

St Teresa Margaret

The 1st September!  Autumn has come, the schools are open, the countdown to Hallowe'en and Christmas has started for the shops.  I hear the Christmas shops have already started opening.  Brown Thomas, one of Dublin's most exclusive department stores, opened its Christmas shop yesterday.  God help us all.

But today in Discalced Carmel, we celebrate the feast of one of our canonised saints, a great devotee of the Sacred Heart of Jesus: St Teresa Margart Redi, or in religion, St Teresa Margaret of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. 

St Teresa Margaret is one of lesser known Saints, and yet she has progressed to canonisation where other more popular ones like Blessed Elizabeth of the Trinity still await the honours - although word in the Order is we may have a miracle for her, so expect a canonisation soon, we pray.

Teresa Margaret was born Anna Maria Redi in Arezzo in Italy in 1747 and died at the young age of 23 in 1770.  Yet, despite her youth, like St Therese, she achieved great sanctity and became an important teacher in the Carmelite tradition, bringing a Carmelite dimension to the devotion to the Sacred Heart.    Here is a short biography.

Teresa Margaret is of great interest to me because we share the same birthday - 15th July, and the same baptismal day - 16th July, feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel.  She came to Carmel as a result of a locution in which she heard the voice of our Holy Mother, St Teresa who said to her: "I am Teresa of Jesus, and I want you among my daughters."  Can't be any clearer than that.  So off Anna Maria went, entered Carmel in Florence at the age of seventeen.  As one would expect she did not have it easy, but suffered a great deal, but for all of it she never lost her serenity or her joy, but rather entrusted herself more and more to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. 

To celebrate her feast day, a few quotes to munch on:

“Lord, I shall be yours, whatever the cost, despite all repugnance.”

“Always receive with equal contentment from God’s hand either consolations or sufferings, peace or distress, health or illness. Ask nothing, refuse nothing, but always be ready to do and to suffer anything that comes from His Providence.”

“I propose to have no other purpose in all my activities, either interior or ex­terior, than the motive of love alone, by constantly asking myself: ‘Now what am I doing in this action? Do I love God?’ If I should notice any obstacle to pure love, I shall take myself in hand and recall that I must seek to return my love for His love.”

Her body is incorrupt, and lies in the Carmel in Florence.

 

New Arrival

"Speak of the devil and he will appear" - perhaps not the most appropriate expression, but it fits: having posted on the arrival of the new Missal down with Fr Burke in Cloyne, it has also made its appearance in Rathkenny. 

As I was having breakfast after Mass the doorbell rings and a young courier is standing smiling at the front door with three brown boxes: "I'm visitin' all the priests today," he says.  The Tertio Ed en Anglais has come.  

Structurally not as bad as I thought, functional though with a nod in the direction of beauty, but the four colour plates are not good.  At first glance CTS is still far superior.  I will get some time later for a better look.  But at least I am happy to finally have the new translation: it has been a difficult birth, and I fear the difficulties may not be over.  Come the 11th September Pere Hogan will be ready.

But....what to do with the old Missals??  Fr Z (peace be upon him), has a few ideas.  

Changes

Two interesting posts to which I would like to draw to your attention.  The first from Christopher McCamley on his Catholicus blog concerning possible changes to the structure of Irish dioceses.  He says he has heard that the aim will be to reorganise the Church in Ireland into two metropolitan provinces: Armagh and Dublin, and eleven dioceses - five in the province of Armagh, six in the province of Dublin.  I presume Armagh will remain the primatial See.  If this is true then that is good, I think this is the way to go.  I had thought of twelve dioceses in two provinces, but eleven is even slimmer. 

The second post is from Fr Gabriel Burke on the new Missal - his arrived yesterday.   I have to say my heart dropped when I read what he had to say and plummeted to the depths when I saw the pictures.  I feared that Veritas would make a dog's dinner of the Missal and I think my fears may have become a reality.  Those pictures look ghastly - the quality deplorable.  A real 60's-70's production Fr Gabriel says: why should I be surprised!   I saw the CTS Missal when over in London and it is a beautiful volume - beautiful art, good quality - a book designed with great care for a sacred purpose.  

I am a good customer of Veritas; over the years I have, perhaps, spent too much of my money on books - I am addicted to books.  I know some of the staff there and a finer group of people you will not meet.  But the quality of Veritas publications is very poor.  They seem to be stuck in a cheap 60's/70's mode and cannot get out of it.  I'm sure it can't be that they can't afford better quality books - they publish the national catechetical programme (the dismal Alive-O), so they are making lots of dosh on that.  I don't know....

I have ordered three Missals for the parish - we have three churches, but I think I will buy a CTS version (chapel edition) for my own personal use.  I know some have waited to see the quality of the Irish version, I think they are going to opt for the CTS and hold on to their green A4 paperback supplement to cover the Proper of Irish Saints.  That said I find myself asking the question once again: when will we ever get to grips with beauty in the Church in Ireland?  Must we forever labour under the ugly and purely functional? 

Art from the Irish Missal: the Resurrection???

Art from the Irish Missal: the Crucifixion

Art from the CTS Missal: The Crucifxion

Art from the CTS Missal: the Annunication

Battle Lines Being Drawn

Cardinal Sean Brady made a spirited defence of the Seal of the Confessional in Knock on Sunday, correctly pointing out that any legislation requiring priests to break the Seal will challenge religious freedom in this country.  The government, however, is determined to go ahead, and Alan Shatter, the Minister of Justice, has responded to the Cardinal's defence by insisting that priests will not be exempt.

Indeed such legislation would contravene our Constitutional rights with regard to the practice of our Catholic faith, that is why I think this legislation may be a non-runner, unless of course the present government seeks to change the Constitution and limit religious freedom in certain circumstances.  Now having spoken to some friends on this they all said that if such a referendum is presented to the people they would reject it.  They might, I say, if they know about it.  But then there are other ways of getting the consent of the people.

There is due to be a referendum on children's rights in the next few months - seeking a change in the Constitution which may introduce particularly worrying developments. This proposed amendment to the Constitution may dissolve certain parental rights, transferring them to the state, in order to protect children and give them more rights as citizens.  What is stopping the government from including a clause, a nice ambiguous clause, into the wording of the amendment which will state that certain religious rights may be suspended or overlooked in certain cases in order to protect the life, health or welfare of the child?  Nothing. Groups will argue about the amendment, its supporters roll out the hard cases and try to win the assent of the people.  Is this what the goverment intends to do? 

My Hero!

I think I said a few months ago that I was going to write a post on St Edmund Arrowsmith.  With so much going on I did not get the chance, but today being his feast day, I cannot let it go any longer.  St Edmund Arrowsmith is one of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales and when I was a teenager I was fascinated by his life and example, and indeed I was brought to seriously consider priesthood because of him.  St Edmund was a Jesuit, and a fine example of the nobility of the sons of St Ignatius.

A biography.  Edmund was born Brian Arrowsmith near Haydock, Lancashire in 1585.  His father, Robert Arrowsmith was a yeoman farmer, and his mother, Margery Gerard, was a member of a notable family in the area.  Coming from Catholic stock on both sides, young Brian had numerous examples of witness to the Catholic faith in Reformation England.  Both of his grandfathers, Nicholas Gerard and Thurston Arrowsmith had been regulars at the local clink: indeed Nicholas had once being carried forcibly to a Protestant service: he started singing the psalms in Latin and got himself thrown out for disturbing the service. Brian's own parents did not escape - a number of times the family was hauled out of bed at night, Robert and Margery brought off to jail and the children left on the side of the road shivering in their night clothes.  Thanks to fines which were imposed for refusing to attend the services of the established church, the family was impoverished, and Robert had to emigrate to mainland Europe with his brother Peter where they served as mercenaries to earn money to send home.  Peter died in battle, Robert managed to come home eventually, but did not live long after returning.

Brian discerned a vocation to the priesthood and after many difficulties, when he was twenty, he was able to leave England for the seminary in Douai.  His uncle Edmund Arrowsmith was working there, and after Brian had failed to get a place in a Spanish seminary which would have been safer, his uncle managed to get him into Douai.  There Brian received the sacrament of Confirmation, taking the name Edmund in honour of the martyr Edmund Campion, and that was the name he used for the rest of his life. 

Not the most robust, Edmund suffered from bouts of ill health and had to be sent home at one point: he almost died at one stage.  However, he pulled through and was finally ordained on the 9th December 1612, travelling to Arras cathedral for the ceremony.  The following June he boarded a ship, and in disguise made his way back to England, eventually making his way up north to his native Lancashire.  It was here that he would spend the rest of his life ministering in secret and at the risk of his life to faithful Catholics.  We know little about his ministry apart from a few local traditions and the general experience of priests on the English mission at time.  Secrecy and disguise were the order of the day, and like many other priests, Edmund had a number of aliases - Mr Ridley being one of them.

His character, however, is known to us, and he was very much a John the Baptist.  He had humility and people would pass him without even noticing him - handy for the job at time.  Some took him for a fool, but whenever they got in conversation with him, or into a debate, it quickly became apparent that Edmund was no fool.  He was well able to debate, and he had sharp wits and even a sharp tongue.  One of this friends once advised him to keep salt in his pocket to season his words!  That said, he had a deep love for his people and was one with them in their sufferings.  We have a portrait of him, painted by a member of Holbein's school during one of Edmund's visits to the continent for respite.  

In 1622 or 1623 he was arrested and charged with being a priest.  He was brought before the Anglican bishop of Chester to be examined.  It was during Lent and he was ushered in to the bishop as he was having his dinner with a number of his ministers.  Though separated from Rome, Anglicans then still observed the penance of abstinence from meat during Lent, but the bishop and his ministers were tucking in to a lunch of roast beef.  To give him his due the bishop apologised to Edmund for eating meat, pointing out that due to his bad health he had been exempt from the rule.  "But what about these dogs?" responded Edmund, thus starting a row with the ministers and leading to right foray (you get the quib about the salt in the pocket now!).  Edmund escaped execution this time, the king, James I, was trying to arrange a marriage for his son Charles with the Catholic princess Henrietta Maria of France, so England could not be seen executing Catholic priests.  As soon as the marriage was agreed upon and solemnised in 1625, however, they got right back to executing Catholics, as per normal.

In 1624, Edmund entered the Jesuits.  With his devotion to Edmund Campion, and having seen the heroism of Jesuit priests on the mission he wanted to be one of them.  For the last four years of his life he was a member of the "college of St Aloysius", the community of Jesuits in Lancashire which met regularly at the Blue Anchor Inn in Brindle.   It was in this inn that Edmund would meet his fate.

The owners of the inn were the Holdens, a Catholic family well used to priests coming and going secretly.  In the summer of 1628 the son had married his cousin in a Protestant ceremony and when the couple came to Edmund to regularise their union in the Catholic Church, Edmund was happy to do so.  However, he told them, as the Church did not recognise their marriage, they would have to live apart until the marriage and dispensations could be organised and the union regularised.  This touched a raw nerve - it seems young Holden did not want the Church interfering in his sex life, and so a row ensued and Edmund left the inn.  That, however, was not the end of the matter.  Offended by what Edmund had told them, the young man and his mother wanted revenge.  They went to the priest hunters and informed them that they would  find a Jesuit priest at the inn on such and such a day - the day Edmund was due back, probably with the dispensations.

When Mr Holden senior discovered what his wife and son had done he was furious. On the expected day Edmund arrived back at the inn, the father told the priest that he had been betrayed and so to flee.  Edmund made an attempt to escape - an exciting chase across the fields of Lancashire followed, but he was caught, jailed and brought to trial on the 26th August 1628.   The judge was a bigoted Puritan called Yelverton, who conducted the trial himself, not allowing any real defence, and so without surprise, Edmund was condemned to death for treason - being a Catholic priest and remaining in England was an act of treason according to the law.  On the 28th August 1628, Edmund was hanged, drawn and quartered in Lancaster.  All that remains of his body is his right hand which was stolen during the butchering of his body and later given to his mother; it is now preserved in the Church of SS Oswald and Edmund Arrowsmith in Ashton-In-Makerfield, outside Liverpool.

Following his execution there followed an interestig event. One of Edmund's priest friends was the Benedictine Dom Ambrose Barlow who was also serving on the English mission. On the night of the 28th August 1628, when he had retired for the night, Dom Ambrose was awoken by a bright light.  In the heart of the light was his friend, Edmund.  The martyred priest told him that he had died that day and foretold that Ambrose would too suffer for the faith.  This prophecy came true in 1641 when he was hanged, drawn and quartered for his priesthood in Lancaster.  Another friend of St Edmund, Fr John Southworth who gave him last absolution as he was going out for execution, was also martyred in 1654 at Tyburn.  In 1970 the three friends were canonised together.  A relation of St Edmund was also martyred, Blessed Miles Gerard, and another relation was the famous Fr John Gerard the author of an exciting and accurate account of life as a Catholic in the penal era in England.

Box containing St Edmund's vestments and Mass kit, preserved at Stonyhurst College