Bishop unhappy about situation in Anglican Church

Biretta tip to titusonenine.

Touching on the theme for the conference, he said the laity had to be effectively empowered to contribute constructively to the activities of the church, and also expressed concern that although liturgy was congregational and participatory, there was currently, "a worrying situation", in the church whereby, the majority of the laity "have become more or less spectators, expecting the priests to do everything".

He emphasized that there could be no effective worship without lay participation, and that the church's liturgy should be "contextualised and in cultured", by having it reviewed and translated into local languages, such as Ewe, Ga-Dangbe, Twi and Hausa, to facilitate the participation of the entire congregation.

Read it all here

Rubric blindness

Via The Curt Jester. A small example of a very serious problem:

Rubric blindness, or rubric vision deficiency, in humans is the inability to perceive rubrics. It is some times of genetic nature, but may also occur because of eye, nerve, or brain damage, or due to exposure to certain liturgist and heterodox theologians. What normally happens is that this condition is not caught in seminary before they are ordained. The priest knows he is suppose to do something at these points but does not want to embarrass himself by saying he can't see them. They go on like people who are functionally illiterate and cope with the world around them. Unfortunately when they look around at other Masses to see what other priests are doing at these points in the liturgy they find no standards.

Coming to a parish near you ...

Carthusian Cell.

There are some great pictures (and tour) of a Carthusian Cell at The hermeneutic of continuity.

Something interesting ... maybe

From Catholic Church Conservation comes a most interesting article, Iconoclasm and Liturgy, by Martin Mosebach. The rest of the blog is worth a look too as it looks very interesting.

Please pray for ...

... Milly Telford-Sharp (our goddaughter-to-be) who is in hospital with Broncialitis. She is only a week away from her baptism. Please also remember her parents, sisters and brother.

Feeling sick ...

I am feeling very sick today and have cancelled all my appointments. I will do some work (well, try) on the computer and have a little relax. (Maybe I can watch some more Sopranos or the Godfather!)

Since I have not slept much (only a couple of hours) I surfed the net this morning looking for inspiration. (ok, before you say anything: yes, I will say the Office and my daily Rosary soon and get some divine inspiration). I found this website: The Sectarian Strand. I had emailed the Mild Colonial Boy, Esq., from Brisbane preciously as he has a link to this blog and my other blog. Well, today I noticed the Intents & Purposes on the blog. The third worries me:

Intemperate tirades against Godlessness, Popery, Heresy, Sodomy, Fornication, Immorality, Foreign Riff-Raff, Vulgar Oafishness, a Regnant Commonwealth Government, Treasonous Balderdash, Multiculturalism, Republicanism, Radicalism, Feminism and the Monstrous Regiment of Drunken, Swearing, and Tattooed Women, and other Blights on Western Civilization.

I have not seen the word popery used in that context for sometime. Interesting how it follows on from Godlessness! Is there a logic progression?? I should not be surprised: all sorts of people have blogs - even me!

Society of Mary

A couple of links to the oldest devotional society within Anglicanism:
Society of Mary (note the new website address) and a very interesting Wikipedia article.

Chelsea miracle

From the Herald Sun: The Miracle of Chelsea

COULD God be living in Chelsea?

That's the question the locals are asking after a fire ripped through St Joseph's Catholic church, leaving behind some bizarre symbols.

Firefighters and demolition workers were shocked to find images of four crosses on the wall behind the church's altar.

The crosses -- two each side of the crucifix -- have many wondering whether it's a strange coincidence or an act of God.

Some parishioners are already referring to them as the "Chelsea miracle".

The blaze broke out early on Wednesday and demolition supervisor Mark Barrett first noticed the crosses later that day.

"It's a little bit freaky," he said. "I just noticed on the wall there were four metal plaques and around the plaques there were crosses surrounding them.

"It's heat deflection, I have no doubt about that, but there are other plaques around the church and there's nothing around them."

CFA fire officer Ken Evans, of Patterson River fire brigade, was also shocked when he inspected the church yesterday.

"It's very weird and spooky," he said.

Mr Evans said firefighters had commented they had never seen anything like it.

"For the smoke to form in definite shapes is very unusual," he said. "It's supernatural or something. Someone's trying to tell us something."

The papacy

There is an interesting post at A conservative blog for peace, Fr Peter Robinson on the papacy.

I am always interested in how people see and understand the papal office in the wider working of the Church. So send me any links, thoughts, etc.

FSSP Ordination in Adelaide

There are some photos of the recent FSSP Ordination in Adelaide on the The Liturgical Movement blog.

Benedict says ...

This is too funny to pass by.

I made this at Say it ...:

Blessed Mary of the Cross

For those in Australia who use the 1962 Calendar this coming Tuesday is Blessed Mary of the Cross, Virgin:

2nd Class, white
Gloria, No Creed
Common Preface
Mass: At choice from the Common of Virgins
Commemoration of S. John Vianney, at Low Mass and Lauds
NO Commemoration of S. Cyriack, Largus and Smaragdus, martyrs.

BTW: For those who use the 1970 Calendar (yeah, you'd be reading this for sure!): the Texts for the Mass and Liturgy of the Hours for this coming Tuesday, Mary MacKillop, religious,

The Solution: Missale Anglicanum

I have been going through SACROSANCTUM CONCILIUM, Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy by Second Vatican Council. Very interesting document. It reads at times like a schizophrenic document: points being praised just to be destroyed a paragraph later.

This struck me when I reading through:

23. That sound tradition may be retained, ... care must be taken that any new forms adopted should in some way grow organically from forms already existing.

CONCLUSION: Vatican II has not yet been meaningfully put into action. The Missale Anglicanum, updated in line with the 1962 Missale Romanum, is the Missal of Vatican II.

The ‘disaster’ of the Reformation

How do we take our own sinfulness? How seriously do we take sin?

I was reflecting today before Mass about post-Reformation Christianity, especially within the broader English Catholic tradition (ie Anglicanism). As I looked around the very beautiful church of Loxton I noticed the missing Confessionals. We have been here four years and I knew that there were no Confessionals in the church but today it really hit me. In fact, I doubt I have ever seen Confessionals in any Anglican Church (nor, for that matter, in a modern Roman Church). Yes, I hear Confessions (occasionally) but there is no physical permanent reminder of the Sacrament of Penance in the church building.

The simple truth is that the greatest single disaster of the Reformation is the removal of the obligation to at least a yearly sacramental confession. Hot on the heals of this is the use of a public general absolution at Mass.

Going to Confession forces me to be serious about my sins, about my ‘offences committed against God’. It forces me to scrutinize my life in the light of God’s will and be open with my father-in-God. Have we removed the impact of our sin and thereby made Jesus’ death less important?

Here is the Canon from the Fourth Lateran Council (1215):

All the faithful of either sex, after they have reached the age of discernment, should individually confess all their sins in a faithful manner to their own priest at least once a year, and let them take care to do what they can to perform the penance imposed on them. ... If any persons wish, for good reasons, to confess their sins to another priest let them first ask and obtain the permission of their own priest; for otherwise the other priest will not have the power to absolve or to bind them. The priest shall be discerning and prudent, so that like a skilled doctor he may pour wine and oil over the wounds of the injured one. Let him carefully inquire about the circumstances of both the sinner and the sin, so that he may prudently discern what sort of advice he ought to give and what remedy to apply, using various means to heal the sick person. Let him take the utmost care, however, not to betray the sinner at all by word or sign or in any other way. If the priest needs wise advice, let him seek it cautiously without any mention of the person concerned. For if anyone presumes to reveal a sin disclosed to him in confession, we decree that he is not only to be deposed from his priestly office but also to be confined to a strict monastery to do perpetual penance.

While recently reading the Catholic Catechism, I came across this great part on sin:

Only the light of divine Revelation clarifies the reality of sin and particularly of the sin committed at mankind's origins. Without the knowledge Revelation gives of God we cannot recognize sin clearly and are tempted to explain it as merely a developmental flaw, a psychological weakness, a mistake, or the necessary consequence of an inadequate social structure, etc. Only in the knowledge of God's plan for man can we grasp that sin is an abuse of the freedom that God gives to created persons so that they are capable of loving him and loving one another.

Have we made sin 'merely a developmental flaw, a psychological weakness, a mistake, or the necessary consequence of an inadequate social structure' by removing the duty to confession once a year?

More Vatican II

It always makes my day when this blog (or my other) gets a mention A conservative blog for peace. So to move the discussion on Vatican II along (and out of the comments section), I offer this quote from Fr Richard Neuhaus:

The party of continuity is the center. From the Council of Jerusalem to Vatican II, from Peter to John Paul II, there is—the variations, deviations, and ambiguities of history notwithstanding—a continuing and identifiable community that is the Catholic Church. There have over the centuries been much more powerful parties of discontinuity than we have experienced these past forty years. But it is to the continuing community that Jesus promised he would send the Spirit to lead us into and keep us in the truth. Even if one does not believe that promise, can anyone really believe that the likes of Garry Wills or the Society of St. Pius X are the future of the Catholic Church? The extreme discontinuants of the left are angry because their understanding of Vatican II’s promise of a preferred future, a promise that was never made, has been broken. The extreme discontinuants of the right are angry because they believe Vatican II broke a promise with a preferred past. Both live off their anger; both live off the Church that they condemn. As for the Laodicean moderates such as Mr. B and his counterparts on the right, they will, in their broadly middle way, continue to grumble incoherently about this and that. But I expect they are secretly grateful for the people who—inspired by the Second Vatican Council and in continuing communion with Peter—see visions and dream dreams for the renewal of the one Church that was, is, and will be until Our Lord returns in glory. Parties of discontinuity we will have with us always, but the center holds.

From The Public Square by Richard John Neuhaus, First Things 132 (April 2003): 72-92.

A cautionary tale

I was emailed the following by a fellow priest who has given premission for it to be published.

The cautionary tale involves my attendance at a High Mass on S Peter's day at which the celebrant was a newly-ordained priest of The Priestly Fraternity of Saint Peter - the Latin Mass chaplains to the Archdiocese of Melbourne. A beautiful Mass with a small but expert choir which chanted the Propers according to the Liber Usualis and led the congregation in the chant of the Kyrie, Gloria, and Credo.

At Communion, I was happily on my knees amongst the empty pews distracted by the detritus abandoned by the communicants queuing in the central aisle.

Suddenly, the Subdeacon (Fr Carl Gismondi FSSP) leaped from the altar step and chased a communicant along the Epistle side aisle. He was aided and abetted by two laymen (both of Marine stature if not training) who blocked the path of the fleeing young man. Fr Carl immobilized him until the younger of the other two had him in a headlock and the trio marched him out to the narthex.

Such undignified behaviour! The cause?? Fr Gismondi had noticed that the young man, having received Communion in his mouth - the FSSP adheres to the 1962 RULES as well as the RITES - put his hand to his mouth and, seeing Fr Carl looking at him, feigned a cough. Fr Carl looked away and then straight back to see the fellow removing the Host from his mouth. Then the chase was on!

No one is quite sure what the full motive behind the action was, but we may be fairly sure that he wasn't taking the Sacrament home to his sick mum.

The Host was retrieved but whether any action was taken was not announced.

There were several comments about the behaviour and the vulnerability of the Blessed Sacrament to sacrilege and blasphemy especially in a modern setting such as surrounds the 'novus ordo' with the myriad of 'Eucharistic Ministers' at points around large churches, dispensing the Blessed Sacrament rather like handing out lollies - in the hand with the hope that it is consumed 'on the run'.

Fortunately in our Anglican heritage, there is the potential for an assistant priest or a deacon to be following with the Chalice. But in an age where agnostic, athiestic, antagonistic individuals or groups are warring on any semblance of orthodoxy or Tradition, There is ALWAYS a need for vigilance.

Perhaps it may take a cumulative few minutes more to pray "The Body of our Lord Jesus Christ which is given for thee, preserve thy body and soul unto everlasting life" whilst dispensing the Host to one communicant rather than communicating three in the space of that short sentence.

None of the faithful is likely to feel intimidated by our 'hovering' whilst they reverently consume the Host, nor will a genuine stranger mind a whispered "eat it" as the priest is on the spot - it happens with relatives and friends who just follow rather than ask - it is a small price to pay for the satisfaction of knowing that our Blessed Lord is not being subjected to further insult and indignity.

Some random thoughts on the Church and SSPX

I often read and ponder the items that are periodically published by the Society of Saint Pius X. Let me preface the random thoughts below by saying that I have the greatest of sympathy for the Society’s fight for a place for the traditional rite within the western Latin Church but I instinctively feel they are heading in the wrong direction.

After the recent Chapter, SSPX issued a Declaration from the General Chapter on its relationship with the Holy See. In this Declaration are these words from Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre:

We adhere with all our heart and all our soul to Catholic Rome, guardian of the Catholic Faith and of the traditions necessary for the maintaining of that Faith, to eternal Rome, mistress of wisdom and of truth. On the contrary, we refuse, and we have always refused, to follow the Rome of neo-modernist and neo-protestant tendencies, which showed itself clearly in the Second Vatican Council and in the reforms that issued from it.

At first these words struck me as powerful words that call for action! I am not a great fan of the reforms that issued from Vatican II, especially in the area of liturgy. However I do belief that God has worked through Vatican II. On further reflection I wonder if these words do not, in some way, deny the living reality of the Church. Does the Holy Spirit guard the deposit of faith and guide the magisterium of the Church?

A quote from Adrian Fortescue, The Early Papacy, came to mind:

The position is this: There are two kinds of proof for any dogma. The main proof, the most efficient in every way, the proof which is the real motive for every Catholic, is simply that this dogma is taught now by the Church of Christ, that Christ has given to his Church his own authority, so that we can trust the Church as we trust Christ himself.

The issue is quite simple whether Christ today speaks with a living voice to the people whom he has gathered into his Body. I think that the problem lies not with Vatican II but with the reforms that issued from it. We need to be aware that the problems on the left are mirrored on the right. The call to replace the voice of the Spirit with the social norms of the 21st century is mirrored in the endeavour to place empty traditionalism at the heart of the Church. At no cost should we, in our haste to reclaim the living tradition of western Catholicism, forget that the Church that is founded by Our Lord is a living reality today: a Body with a living voice that requires of me absolute obedience.

Sancte Petre, ora pro nobis.

More pictures ...

Also via The New Liturgical Movement some really cool pictures of the ordination at The Abbey of Le Barroux.

Just one small teaser with a small liturgical point:Concelebration as it should be done!!

Vestments.

There are two really good post (Part I and Part II) about the origin and devlopment of vestments on The New Liturgical Movement blog. Some of the pictures look almost Anglican (of the Sarum school of liturgy).

BTW: the blog is worth a read - add it to your RSS feeds!