The Stuff Priests Are Made Of

I bet it wasn't in English either, pity the soldiers couldn't get anything out of it ;>)

The Egyptian

defend us in battle... from the Crescat

...With a canvas tarpaulin for a church and packing cases for an altar, a Navy chaplain holds mass for Marines at Saipan. The service was held in memory of the brave men who lost their lives in the initial landings. Photo by Sgt. Steele, June 1944. Source: US Marines.

This is Church Music

Wouldn't this be beautiful instead of the eagles wings dreck, it would really make a choir work

New Catholic Music by Kevin Allen

Like the "Second Spring" we've been seeing in church architecture, there is also something of a renewal of church music these days... and one of its bright lights is Chicago composer and conductor Kevin Allen. We are fortunate that he will return to the Mundelein Liturgical Institute's Sacred Music Retreat in June of 2010 as schola director. His web site tells that he has "developed a unique reputation as a composer of church music for the Roman Rite" and that his "works, sacred and secular, have been performed in churches and concert halls throughout the United States and Europe." Click the video below to enjoy a beautiful setting of "Desidero mi, Jesu" ("I desire, oh my Jesus, that you would refresh me on this, the food of angels") sung by soloists from the Lincoln Chamber Chorale in Chicago, directed by Timothy Woods. Imagine hearing this during your communion meditation... then realizing it is new music. Sing a new song unto the Lord, indeed.

Total Faith In GOD

forgot where I got this but the bravery and FAITH of the priests in WWII is beyond compare, really people are so soft today

The Egyptian

Once there was a time...

I told this story at dinner the other night. The family liked it, and Puff told me I should write it out on the blog. Like most of my best stories, it isn't my story at all, but my father's, and like many of his best stories, it's from the war.

Dad was at or near the front lines in Italy one day when an officer came down the line. "Any Catholics here," he began. "There's a priest about to say Mass in the next field." Dad took his helmet and rifle and headed over to the next field, as did several other Catholics.

He was appalled when he arrived. The field was wide open, easily visible from the Germans, and exposed to any kind of enemy fire. The men immediately looked for a hill, a shell hole, a rock, a furrow- anything that might give them any sort of cover. Meanwhile, in the middle of the field stood the priest, carefully setting up his Mass kit on a big rock, taking his time and doing it properly, appearing as if he had no concern in the world other than this, and going about it as if he were in a parish back home, and there was no war to trouble anyone or anything.

If there was ever a time for a Tridentine speed Mass, this could have been it. But, to Dad's horror, (and he knew, because he used to be an altar boy at a Cathedral) the priest said the Mass slowly and carefully, doing every movement as prescribed, omitting no prayer, while gunfire raged around them.

At last the priest turned, holding the consecrated host. "Come to Communion!" he shouted out to the men hiding in the field. "I grant you all full absolution. Come!"

Dad's reaction was: "He's got to be kidding." But then he saw it: the soldiers making their way forward to receive communion. Granted, they approached the priest at a dead run, and left at a dead run as soon as it was received. But still they came. Dad, emboldened by the other men, came forward himself, received, thanked God, and raced away.

He stayed in his furrow watching as the priest put away his Mass kit as properly as he set it out, and, when finished and having said his final prayers, the priest snapped his case shut and walked away.

That's the story. Not the best punch line, but the family liked it. I like it for it reminds of a good man I once knew and shall never see again in the flesh. It reminds me that there were other good men like him, once upon a time. Men who believed there were things to stand for, things to fight for, things that were worth risking your life for. And on that list of things worth risking your life over was Mass, and the chance for Communion.

THIS IS LIFE

my first granddaughter, baptized today, this is what life is all about

The Egyptian

Ben Stein, I Only hope we find GOD again before it is too late ! !

This is ecumenicalism that is real and from the heart, not some dressed up crap put on by "Religious Leaders for show" Ben has always been a class act

The Egyptian

Remarks from CBS Sunday Morning - Ben Stein
I Only hope we find GOD again before it is too late ! !

The following was written by Ben Stein and recited by him on CBS Sunday
Morning Commentary.

My confession:

I am a Jew, and every single one of my ancestors was Jewish. And it does
not bother me even a little bit when people
call those beautiful lit up, bejeweled trees, Christmas trees. I don't
feel threatened... I don't feel discriminated
against.. That's what they are, Christmas trees.

It doesn't bother me a bit when people say, 'Merry Christmas' to me. I
don't think they are slighting me or getting
ready to put me in a ghetto. In fact, I kind of like it.

It shows that we are all brothers and sisters celebrating this happy time
of year. It doesn't bother me at all that
there is a manger scene on display at a key intersection near my beach
house in Malibu . If people want a creche,
it's just as fine with me as is the Menorah a few hundred yards away.

I don't like getting pushed around for being a Jew, and I don't think
Christians like getting pushed around for being
Christians. I think people who believe in God are sick and tired of
getting pushed around, period. I have no idea
where the concept came from, that America is an explicitly atheist country.
I can't find it in the Constitution and I
don't like it being shoved down my throat.

Or maybe I can put it another way: where did the idea come from that we
should worship celebrities and we aren't
allowed to worship God as we understand Him? I guess that's a sign that
I'm getting old, too. But there are a lot of
us who are wondering where these celebrities came from and where the
America we knew went to.

In light of the many jokes we send to one another for a laugh, this is a
little different: This is not intended to be
a joke; it's not funny, it's intended to get you thinking.

Billy Graham's daughter was interviewed on the Early Show and Jane Clayson
asked her 'How could God let something like
this happen?' (regarding Hurricane Katrina). Anne Graham gave an extremely
profound and insightful response. She
said, 'I believe God is deeply saddened by this, just as we are, but for
years we've been telling God to get out of
our schools, to get out of our government and to get out of our lives. And
being the gentleman He is, I believe He
has calmly backed out. How can we expect God to give us His blessing and
His protection if we demand He leave us
alone?'

In light of recent events... terrorists attack, school shootings, etc.. I
think it started when Madeleine Murray
O'Hare (she was murdered, her body found a few years ago) complained she
didn't want prayer in our schools, and we
said OK. Then someone said you better not read the Bible in school. The
Bible says thou shalt not kill; thou shalt
not steal, and love your neighbor as yourself... And we said OK.

Then Dr. Benjamin Spock said we shouldn't spank our children when they
misbehave, because their little personalities
would be warped and we might damage their self-esteem (Dr. Spock's son
committed suicide). We said an expert should
know what he's talking about. And we said okay..

Now we're asking ourselves why our children have no conscience, why they
don't know right from wrong, and why it
doesn't bother them to kill strangers, their classmates, and themselves.

Probably, if we think about it long and hard enough, we can figure it out.
I think it has a great deal to do with 'WE
REAP WHAT WE SOW.'

Funny how simple it is for people to trash God and then wonder why the
world's going to hell. Funny how we believe
what the newspapers say, but question what the Bible says. Funny how you
can send 'jokes' through e-mail and they
spread like wildfire, but when you start sending messages regarding the
Lord, people think twice about sharing. Funny
how lewd, crude, vulgar and obscene articles pass freely through
cyberspace, but public discussion of God is
suppressed in the school and workplace.

Are you laughing yet?

Funny how when you forward this message, you will not send it to many on
your address list because you're not sure
what they believe, or what they will think of you for sending it...

Funny how we can be more worried about what other people think of us than
what God thinks of us.

Pass it on if you think it has merit.

If not, then just discard it... no one will know you did. But, if you
discard this thought process, don't sit back
and complain about what bad shape the world is in.


My Best Regards, Honestly and respectfully,

Ben Stein

New Motu Proprio on the SSPX this summer?

If this is true the left will be screaming from the bell towers, I can hardly wait
Let me know what you think, I love comments, so have at it guys and gals

The Egyptian

Thursday, June 25, 2009

from Catholic Church Conservation

From the paleo-left-liberal, more Tablet than the Tablet, French magazine Golias

According to our information, and on the eve of the SSPX ordinations on 27 June in Germany, the Pope wishes to write a second motu proprio in the coming months. The document to be issued this time is not only about the liturgy in Latin, but a more comprehensive reintegration of the SSPX into the Church. This will mean demanding, of course, conditions, but also by engaging the whole Church in this process. Serious!

In other words, the bishops will no longer be entitled to express in a too overt manner open reluctantance and even less to slow the return of the traditionalists. One should understand that representatives of these currents regularly complain to the Pope posed about the obstacles placed to their reinstatement by the bishops and their entourage. Until now, Rome and the Ecclesia Dei commission have been bypassing bishops without, however, in general, openly disavow their views.

Thus, in 1988, the Commission regularised very quickly and in a very caring manner the Benedictine abbey of Barroux, without informing or consulting the Archbishop of Avignon at the time, Archbishop Raymond Bouchex. More recently, Rome proceeded in the same way with respect to the Institut du Bon Pasteur, without informing the Archbishop of Bordeaux, in whose Diocese it was located. Recently, another signal was given by the Vatican when restoring a traditional parish priest in dissent with his bishop in Calvados, just so as to remind the bishops. Following this Motu proprio, a bishop considered too reluctant to welcome the fundamentalists will certainly have his knuckles rapped.

The bishops will no longer be able to express their reservations

Benedict XVI and his advisers intend to enjoy the quiet summer to advance along the path of reconciliation. After the authorisation allowing celebration according to all the old liturgical books (Motu proprio of 2007), after the lifting of the excommunication of the four schismatic bishops ordained by Archbishop Lefebvre, a new stage is opening up, more delicate however: one on divisive theological ground in particular with regard to Vatican II and the Magisterium of the recent Popes. One should know that the Pope has chosen the new secretary of the International Theological Commission, the Dominican Father Charles Morerod, precisely because of his sensitivity towards traditionalist interlocutors. In fact Morerod is the author of a doctoral thesis submitted to the faculty of theology at the University of Freiburg, Switzerland, on the master general of the Dominicans, commentator on St Thomas Aquinas, Thomas de Vio Cajetan (1469-1534) and his polemic debate with Luther.

Father Morerod for theological agreement

But Father Morerod is especially noted for his work Tradition and Christian unity. Dogma is made a condition for the possibility of ecumenism (Word and Silence, Paris, 2005), and he kicks hard against more liberal ecumenism (fron theologians such as Fries, Rahner or Tillard) in emphasizing the essential nature of a true Catholic thought, which must be truly theological and philosophical.

Hence, it accentuates the difference between Catholicism and Protestantism in a way that does not displease the most "tradi" circles. The same Father Morerod sought to comb the thought of a British Liberal Protestant, John Hick and in which work he specifically attacks the relativist spirit. Oh, this reminds us of someone else ... the choice of Father Morerod is therefore not by chance! In very concrete terms, the Ecclesia Dei commission will report to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (cf. Golias Hebdo n ° 85). There was a question at one time of whether it should be joined to the Congregation for Divine Worship, but this would be to forget that the problem is not solely or primarily liturgical. The new Motu Proprio to come, which will be prepared by the principal drafter of the Motu proprio of 2007, Monsignor Nicola Bux, professor of theology at Bari and advisor of Joseph Ratzinger will justifies the importance accorded to the doctrine of the fundamentalist controversy. The role of Don Nicola cannot be stressed enough.

The Italian prelate Nicola Bux for the new Motu Proprio

Consultor to the Congregation for the doctrine of the faith and waiting for a promotion strategy, Msgr Bux, an Italian priest of 63 years is friendly and discreet, but frighteningly conservative and accurate in his argument, being the determined and tireless craftsman not only of moving towards the integrists but of a restoration of traditional Catholicism as a whole. He drafted the 2007 Motu Proprio on the Mass in Latin. In his latest book, released last October in Italy, The Reform of Benedict XVI, prefaced by Vittorio Messori, Msgr Bux said that rebuilding the essence of the "sacred and divine liturgy”, will not be done with the hands of humanity. Otherwise, it "would serve no purpose other than to represent himself and specifially it does not save the man or the world, it does not sanctify it." He is convinced that the Liturgy of Saint Pius V honours to a greater degree the sense of the sacred than that of Pope Paul VI. He criticizes also quite fiercely the reform named after the Montini, a true "decomposition" of the liturgy according to him, and exacerbating what the theologian Louis Bouyer called the "decomposition of Catholicism."

Indeed, Msgr Bux is not confined solely to the liturgical domain. He denounced the opening to the world that defiles the Christian mystery and censures the relaxed life of priests in particular with regard to private life (célibat. ..). He is also against the fundamental deviance according to him of contemporary theology, which uses an "anthropological turn" (which he also denounced, following Cornelio Fabro, in Karl Rahner). He counter-poses a new turning towards the theocentric and Christocentric as symbolized by the celebration back to the East, his back turned to the faithful. It is easy to imagine the content and tone of the Motu Proprio of the near future with such a writer. Cardinal William Levada, Prefect of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, who besides health problems is distressed, frustrated and demoralized, no longer has the power to oppose such an ultra-conservative regression. Far from appearing as a defence of the Council, the Motu Proprio will propose a minimalist reading, erasing the new and challenging spirit. In sum, a council "in the spirit of tradition" as Archbishop Lefebvre recognized can be accepted! Is this still the Council whose importance Paul VI proclaimed in 1976 in the face of traditionalist dissent? Nothing is less certain.

What we are Missing

After the last post with the pita bread in a barbecue tongs benediction farce I thought this was appropriate, swiped with love and admiration, from the Cavemen, crap you guys are great!!!

Vatican II "Springtime" Update: True Mass or New Mass?

I know that this post will truly piss off many Conservative "John Paul II-We love you" type Catholics. But I figured, what the heck? Why not start the week off right!

TRUE MASS

NEW MASS

CHRIST THE LORD IS RISIN TODAY

Happy Easter everyone, god bless you and yours and may your day be enjoyed with family and friends

The Egyptian

We Keep Hoping

This guy gets it, He just expresses it better than me, by the way he is too young to be "too stubborn to change" Cardinal Mahoney

quote

Cardinal Mahony: The Tridentine Mass was meant for those who could not make the transition from Latin to English [or other languages] after the Council. But there is no participation by the people, and I don’t believe that instills the spirit of Christ among us.

May we all be availed of this option locally and soon, of all the masses available in a 10 mile radius would it kill anyone to have ONE Extraordinary Form of the Mass available ? Sure seems to be the case

The Egyptian

St. Kunigunda

St. Kunigunda

there was a discussion on Fr Z's blog WDTPRS over a saint protrayed in stained glass, St. Kunigunda was brought up, happended to run across this picture on Russ Martin's
crosstippedchurches.blog as I said she is usually pictured with a cathedral in her arms. Visit his blog, he is one excellent photographer, I am in awe

The Egyptian

St. Kunegunda

Feastday: June 24

St. Kunegunda (1224-1292) Daughter of King Bela IV and niece of St. Elizabeth of Hungary, she married King Boleslaus V of Poland at sixteen. On his death in 1279 she became a Poore Clare at the Convent of Sandeck, which she had founded. She also built churches and hospitals, ransomed Christians captured by the Turks, and served the poor and ill. She is also known as St. Kinga. Her cult was confirmed in 1690. Feast day July 24.

All Images copyright Russ Martin
There are four stained glass windows in the Relic Chapel, located at the Shrine of the Holy Relics. The windows were imported form Munich Germany.