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The Exterior Reveals The Interior Part Two

People, just going to the traditional Latin Mass weekly is not a guarantee of either final perseverance or the growth in holiness.

I see more and more a dangerous ideal creeping into some traditional groupings with which I am familiar.

Plain and simple-the problem is legalism.

Following the rules, going to the Mass of the Ages, saying all the great pre-Vatican II prayers cannot equal the daily metanoia, the daily repentance and the seeking out of purification necessary for union with God.

Recently, I have had to reflect on some of the serious signs of a lack of the interior life among some trads I know. I had to consult a priest in the past about the problem of knowing people in serious sin going weekly and even daily to the TLM while sinning publicly.

I could not understand how some I knew who were into the occult, letting their children live extremely secular and even compromised lives while living at home, and even some people caught up in what only could be called mafia-life business deals, common knowledge in the community, and going to the TLM without repentance.

This good FSSP priest explained to me that one can receive the sacraments and not receive grace. That the TLM makes many people feel like they are on the right track and this can lead to self-deception. This priest explained to me the evil of legalism.

This good priest noted that sometimes those in the deepest sinful patterns think they are saved merely by going to the TLM. He told me some people live in self-deceit.

Working out one's salvation in fear and trembling means hard work on a day to day basis.

What I cannot understand is why the men in the TLM communities do not reach out and bring their brothers in sin back to conversion and repentance. Why do men avoid confrontation?

Many women in one Traditional Mass group were terrified of a violent man, who exhibited this violence during the week in a work situation in which some of the women were employed. And, yet, none of the men in the community addressed this violence. Even after some women bravely brought this up to members of the TLM community, nothing was done in that community.

Many of the women left the TLM rather than deal with the serious denial of reality.

Some of the women left the workplace where this man also worked, and yet, no man in the TLM community protected these women. Moses defended the Daughters of Jethro, yet these single women had no champions.

In another case, some TLMers saw that a man was involved in something occultic. Yet, no one said anything. Some men were in denial about the situation.

In yet a third case, some financially comfortable families were sending their children to state schools and not teaching religion in the home. No one said that this was a breaking of the baptismal promises of those parents, and the promises made at marriage to raise the children Catholic.

Going to Mass on Sunday was not a substitute for daily virtue training.



In all of these cases, I was either one of the few ladies to bring things up to the leaders, or the only one to do so. I tried to protect the single women. I tried to point out the occult dangers. I tried to show that Catholic education was a duty, not an option, for parents.

Why are men so complacent and accepting of serious imperfections?

Why? Where is the sense of community? Where is the sense of brotherly correction?

Just going to Mass is not enough. In fact, going to the TLM may cause some people to hide in sin.

Think about this.

The Mass is the culmination of one's worship, and should be a reflection of the interior life, not a substitute for the interior life.

We can all become merely "whitewashed sepulchers".

Matthew 23:27-28

Douay-Rheims 

27 Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites; because you are like to whited sepulchres, which outwardly appear to men beautiful, but within are full of dead men's bones, and of all filthiness.

28 So you also outwardly indeed appear to men just; but inwardly you are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.

The TLM should change one forever. The TLM should change families. I have seen this happen. I have seen large families becoming holy because the father incorporated the grace of the TLM and brought that grace home.

Daily life began to reflect the deep mysteries of the Mass of the Ages.

I have seen five vocations come out of one TLM community, in a city where there had been no vocations for forty years.

Those young men incorporated the grace of the TLM. They changed. They absorbed the graces of the most perfect type of worship known to humans.

This should be happening. 

I speak of the "women at the well". In ancient times, women would gather at wells to discuss family problems and to get advice from the elderly wise women. For centuries, the elders led the young ones to wisdom and grace. The younger women trusted those who were older and wiser. 

If this is not happening in a TLM community, that community is bogged down by legalism. Sharing leads to growth, and the younger women should have humility to seek out the old saints. I have met some of these older saintly women who have so much to offer the young ones. But, the younger ones are closed, caught up in secularism, missing the opportunity to sit at the feet of those in the Illuminative State. I know one women who is ignored by the community and every time I speak with her, I am drawn closer to God and His Mother. What a gift she is.

But, too many of the younger ones cannot see beyond their own egos. They have a little bit of knowledge and have grown proud.

I have seen this in two communities, and one has shrunken to one-fourth of its original size.

Legalism kills the soul and deadens the community.

Only repentance and the search for humility can create a vibrant community wherein the exterior reflects the interior.

The Exterior Reveals The Interior Life Part One

The traditional communities are much weaker than seven years ago. I have several observations as to why. Part of the problem is that the older TLM communities included many of us pre-Vatican II types, who remember what the EF was actually like and could lead the congregations in proper lay responses and deportment.

Part of the problem, therefore, is the rupture of continuity taking its toll on the younger members who simply have no record, no memory and no way of knowing how to think or act as a Catholic.

The second huge problem has been the number of converts who either have been trained properly, or brought in by priests who verge on being on the margins of the Church. This leaves a small proportion of trads with idiosyncratic ideas and habits.

A third part of the problem is the lack of appropriateness in the lives of the younger Gen Xers. On Sunday, at a TLM, people applauded in the Church for a reason some saw as appropriate. Now, we have guidelines from Rome concerning the need for absolutely no applause in the Church before, during or after Mass.

I was glad I was not at this particular Mass, as I would have had words with those who applauded.

A fourth problem is the unwillingness to learn proper lay deportment, because society no longer requires certain rules of deportment. Unless people travel and see the wide-world of the Latin Mass, people will not see the real need for behavioral changes in the Mass.

I am not referring to modesty of dress or mantillas, but a sense of decorum.

Can this be changed, I wonder?

Deportment comes from a sense of the virtues of religion, piety and temperance. We are given these virtues in baptism and these virtues get a boost of spiritual energy and insight in confirmation.

So, what is needed may be simply the realization that religion, piety and temperance change our behavior, if one cooperates with grace.

to be continued...

In reply to questions from a reader

A faithful reader has sent me three questions which I shall attempt to answer here concerning the liturgy. Let me take a few moments to put these in question and answer format, a la Socratic and Classical methods. Now, I cannot read minds, but from the consequences of what we have seen in the past decades.

ABUSE

1) What did the Church leaders really want to do through Sacrosanctum Concilium?

To begin with, one merely needs to look at the document for some hints on the intention of, at least, Pope Paul VI.  Here is one snippet to look at first: what is obvious is that the Pope wanted more participation of the Faithful in the Mass, but notice the emphasis here on the clergy, who are to be "imbued with the spirit and power of the litugy" and, therefore, be able to teach the people. 

What the power and the spirit of the liturgy may be could be open to discussion, but I would hope it would primarily be to all who read this the public worship of God in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, in reverence and in Truth.


In the restoration and promotion of the sacred liturgy, this full and active participation by all the people is the aim to be considered before all else; for it is the primary and indispensable source from which the faithful are to derive the true Christian spirit; and therefore pastors of souls must zealously strive to achieve it, by means of the necessary instruction, in all their pastoral work.
Yet it would be futile to entertain any hopes of realizing this unless the pastors themselves, in the first place, become thoroughly imbued with the spirit and power of the liturgy, and undertake to give instruction about it. A prime need, therefore, is that attention be directed, first of all, to the liturgical instruction of the clergy. 

Liturgical instruction does not mean that the clergy is free to do what they want. As I have highlighted recently, too many clergy here abuse the Eucharist in Adoration with novelties, such as healing Adoration services, which violate rules of GIRM. Of course, we are all too aware of liturgical abuses in the Mass. One knows that where there is disobedience to the norms and a lack of respect for the Mass and the Eucharist, there is sin, not merely ignorance. Sin, not ignorance...

ABUSE

The complete revision, in the document called "restoration" was specifically stated in this document. This is the problem with many who want to defend the great changes, as the question may and should be asked, why was such a revision or "restoration" necessary?

Again, a snippet from the norms:


A) General norms
22. 1. Regulation of the sacred liturgy depends solely on the authority of the Church, that is, on the Apostolic See and, as laws may determine, on the bishop.
2. In virtue of power conceded by the law, the regulation of the liturgy within certain defined limits belongs also to various kinds of competent territorial bodies of bishops legitimately established.
3. Therefore no other person, even if he be a priest, may add, remove, or change anything in the liturgy on his own authority.
23. That sound tradition may be retained, and yet the way remain open to legitimate progress careful investigation is always to be made into each part of the liturgy which is to be revised. This investigation should be theological, historical, and pastoral. Also the general laws governing the structure and meaning of the liturgy must be studied in conjunction with the experience derived from recent liturgical reforms and from the indults conceded to various places. Finally, there must be no innovations unless the good of the Church genuinely and certainly requires them; and care must be taken that any new forms adopted should in some way grow organically from forms already existing.
As far as possible, notable differences between the rites used in adjacent regions must be carefully avoided.
24. Sacred scripture is of the greatest importance in the celebration of the liturgy. For it is from scripture that lessons are read and explained in the homily, and psalms are sung; the prayers, collects, and liturgical songs are scriptural in their inspiration and their force, and it is from the scriptures that actions and signs derive their meaning. Thus to achieve the restoration, progress, and adaptation of the sacred liturgy, it is essential to promote that warm and living love for scripture to which the venerable tradition of both eastern and western rites gives testimony.
25. The liturgical books are to be revised as soon as possible; experts are to be employed on the task, and bishops are to be consulted, from various parts of the world.
B) Norms drawn from the hierarchic and communal nature of the Liturgy
26. Liturgical services are not private functions, but are celebrations of the Church, which is the "sacrament of unity," namely, the holy people united and ordered under their bishops [33]
Therefore liturgical services pertain to the whole body of the Church; they manifest it and have effects upon it; but they concern the individual members of the Church in different ways, according to their differing rank, office, and actual participation.
27. It is to be stressed that whenever rites, according to their specific nature, make provision for communal celebration involving the presence and active participation of the faithful, this way of celebrating them is to be preferred, so far as possible, to a celebration that is individual and quasi-private.
This applies with especial force to the celebration of Mass and the administration of the sacraments, even though every Mass has of itself a public and social nature.
28. In liturgical celebrations each person, minister or layman, who has an office to perform, should do all of, but only, those parts which pertain to his office by the nature of the rite and the principles of liturgy.
29. Servers, lectors commentators, and members of the choir also exercise a genuine liturgical function. They ought, therefore, to discharge their office with the sincere piety and decorum demanded by so exalted a ministry and rightly expected of them by God's people.
Consequently they must all be deeply imbued with the spirit of the liturgy, each in his own measure, and they must be trained to perform their functions in a correct and orderly manner.
30. To promote active participation, the people should be encouraged to take part by means of acclamations, responses, psalmody, antiphons, and songs, as well as by actions, gestures, and bodily attitudes. And at the proper times all should observe a reverent silence.
31. The revision of the liturgical books must carefully attend to the provision of rubrics also for the people's parts.
32. The liturgy makes distinctions between persons according to their liturgical function and sacred Orders, and there are liturgical laws providing for due honors to be given to civil authorities. Apart from these instances, no special honors are to be paid in the liturgy to any private persons or classes of persons, whether in the ceremonies or by external display

......

ABUSE

D) Norms for adapting the Liturgy to the culture and traditions of peoples
37. Even in the liturgy, the Church has no wish to impose a rigid uniformity in matters which do not implicate the faith or the good of the whole community; rather does she respect and foster the genius and talents of the various races and peoples. Anything in these peoples' way of life which is not indissolubly bound up with superstition and error she studies with sympathy and, if possible, preserves intact. Sometimes in fact she admits such things into the liturgy itself, so long as they harmonize with its true and authentic spirit.
38. Provisions shall also be made, when revising the liturgical books, for legitimate variations and adaptations to different groups, regions, and peoples, especially in mission lands, provided that the substantial unity of the Roman rite is preserved; and this should be borne in mind when drawing up the rites and devising rubrics.


There is more, but one can clearly see the huge departures from the TLM, although the Latin Participatory Mass had been in effect for many years before this 1963 document.

So, as to "intent", I think it is clear that the NO must be seen as a departure from the hermenuetic of continuity.


I suggest reading the rest of the norms here. http://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat-ii_const_19631204_sacrosanctum-concilium_en.html

Remember, however, that Latin was and is the official language of the Church and the Liturgy of the Church and the TLM was never abrogated.

ABUSE

One more note fits in this answer. Trent is invoked here.

The dogmatic principles which were laid down by the Council of Trent remaining intact [40], communion under both kinds may be granted when the bishops think fit, not only to clerics and religious, but also to the laity, in cases to be determined by the Apostolic See, as, for instance, to the newly ordained in the Mass of their sacred ordination, to the newly professed in the Mass of their religious profession, and to the newly baptized in the Mass which follows their baptism.

.....

Thanks to WikiCommons--Ancient Beauty

Note as well, the pride of place given to Gregorian Chant and THIS has been ignored in most parishes and even in many cathedrals.


116. The Church acknowledges Gregorian chant as specially suited to the Roman liturgy: therefore, other things being equal, it should be given pride of place in liturgical services.
But other kinds of sacred music, especially polyphony, are by no means excluded from liturgical celebrations, so long as they accord with the spirit of the liturgical action, as laid down in Art. 30.
117. The typical edition of the books of Gregorian chant is to be completed; and a more critical edition is to be prepared of those books already published since the restoration by St. Pius X.
It is desirable also that an edition be prepared containing simpler melodies, for use in small churches.
118. Religious singing by the people is to be intelligently fostered so that in devotions and sacred exercises, as also during liturgical services, the voices of the faithful may ring out according to the norms and requirements of the rubrics.





2) How could the liturgy as it stood, as the TLM, been "tweaked" to help Catholics who were wanting the Mass in the venancular?

I cannot see that anything needed tweaking. As one who grew up in a TLM time and when more converts were coming into the Church with the TLM in place, I am mystified by the changes, which IMO, were never necessary. The Latin Mass had been changed to allow for the participation of the people in the singing and answering of certain parts-again, what was called the Participatory Mass. 

The TLM is the Mass of the Ages

3) Why can't bishops see the exodus from the Church and the lack of converts as connected to the NO?

I have come to the conclusion that a lack of discernment in any Catholic is owing to hidden sin and the refusal to allow God to purify one. Discernment is totally lacking in so many "leaders", we are spoiled for choice for examples of minds and hearts caught in a spiritual darkness.  I cannot add to that.

From the New Liturgical Movement-Pope Francis and the TLM

http://www.newliturgicalmovement.org/index.html#5523658895863409510

Supertradmum, the sinner, with saints

Here I am in Dublin with two saintly men, I feel so fortunate to have met. Of course, you recognize Bishop Athanasius Schneider  auxiliary bishop of Astana, Kazakhstan.  As I am writing today and tomorrow on the Mass and the Eucharist, I can appeal to his work and his life of defending the Eucharist. His main work is Dominus est.

I shall refer to this tomorrow. 

Lying about vocations

Why are so many Catholics in the pew lying to themselves about the future of their own parishes and access to the sacraments?

When I hear that in my home diocese in 2015, only 15 priests will be available to minister to 110,000 Catholics or so, I am concerned. When I hear that some dioceses in England and Wales have only two to four seminarians in the process of becoming priests, I am concerned. When I see hundreds of parishes closing in the States and know that such a plan to close parishes is underway in Europe, I am concerned.

Those who suffer most will be the elderly, who now walk to Mass or take a bus, or somehow get to the closest church weekly. Those who have been most faithful will suffer most.

But, here is my dilemma, my question--why are their not vocations coming out of the Traditional Latin Mass congregations? I know of several groups of TLM parishes where perhaps one young man is considering the FSSPs or the Institute of Christ the King. I know of several where there are no young men considering vocations. None. Why do not the TLM young men consider the diocesan priesthood, where the TLM is becoming more accessible and where they will be able to say such a sublime Mass?

Why? Why is it that the TLM is not calling forth the numbers of priests one would expect from such parishes or chaplaincies?

Reader feedback, please.....

An Example of the Lassus Scholars

Today, I met several members of the Dublin Choral Foundation-the Lassus Scholars- at breakfast. This very talented group of singers have sung at the TLM in St. Kevin's for a long time. Today, they did the Palestrina, Missa Aeterna Christi Munera  and the website is connected there. They are available for tours, even to the US, by the way.

I must say it was a joy to meet up with humble choristers. Those in the business will know what I mean. The leader is a personal friend of Cardinal Burke, who has said a high Mass at St. Kevin's for the past two years and hopefully will come this summer again. I am so glad to be back at the TLM after such a long time.

Another chance to attend a Tridentine Mass in Ireland

I am in Trad Heaven. I went this morning to a beautiful Latin Mass in a church built just after the Penal Times, in 1806. St. Michael's is near Kells, in the middle of green countryside and hedgerows. The Church of St. Michael the Archangel, Staholmog, Co. Meath is a small gem in the middle of nowhere, as we would say in the States. And here, Ireland is all it should be with green hills, a pub in the distance, black and white cows, handsome Celtic people and adorable Celtic altar boys. The Mass was sung by Father David Jones, a hermit of the Premonstratensian Order. The world is so small, as he actually knows a friend or two of mine. He has a website here.


People here ask me why I would leave sunny and friendly Malta for cold, wet, and, well, cold and wet Ireland. The lack of the Latin Mass is on my list of five major reasons. One other being no birds, except pigeons, (see post from the 2nd). The Church is "so cute" as we would say in the States, but being in a place, where a century or more ago, people were going to Catholic Mass under a shadow, I felt keenly the reality of St. Michael's today. 


What I love about the Latin Mass is not merely the reverence, but the true simplicity, in the sense of purity and grace. It is the simplicity of the Incarnation.  Here is the schedule for those who may not know it.


Sunday: 1pm, 
First Friday: 11am and 
Holy Days announced: 1pm or 11am where no conflict with parish celebrations.

Open Letter to Some of My Traditional Seminarian Friends in America and on the Continent of Europe

I write to you in the States and to those on the Continent of Europe. I do not write to those in Great Britain as there is more of an acceptance of individual talents and interests which allows for a healthier seminary experience. But, for those who are upset 24/7, here is some maternal advice.

The reason why you feel emotional about the Latin Mass and cannot be peaceful, is that you are in an adversarial climate.  It is very unhealthy to be in battle mode all the time. In an atmosphere of liberalism and modernism in the Catholic Church in the seminary or even in your parish, it would be too easy to fall into a mind-set of being against and anti-authoritarian all the time. This becomes a habit of mind, which is very unhealthy.

One does not need to be in a mode of defense or even of apologetics all the time. If one is constantly in a "fight or flight" mode, one cannot be creative, cannot learn, and most importantly, cannot love.

Yes, some of us are called to be prophets, like Jeremiah or John the Baptist, but they knew the love, the piercing, cleansing love of God in their lives which kept them grounded. This is what you need, to focus on the Love of Christ and His Mother and less on the evils in the Church. You are called to the Order of Melchizedek, not to the order of prophets. One in a million priests are called to public prophecy. Melchizedek was the King of Salem, the King of Peace.

You will not grow into the loving, kind and prudent gentleman and priest God wants you to be if you are constantly fighting. Even soldiers get battle fatigue and emotional problems because they are on guard against the enemy all the time. I do not mean merely "r and r" , a vacation, but a presence of mind which is positive and living in the grace of God, which always reaches out to those who need Him. The presence of mind is living in the Present Moment of Brother Lawrence, in that simple book, The Practice of the Presence of God. I recommend this.

I am not advocating false, nicey nicey love or a false tolerance of evil. No, I am talking about you finding that still center of your soul where you can work out of peace instead of turmoil and the adversarial mode. One must live and work in peace and not in turmoil.

All of this is in the Will. If you decide to follow peace, the emotions will follow.

I have learned not to live in this mindset and here are some tips from my experience, which is like others.

Number one, be absolutely honest with yourself and others at all times. Never allow deceit of any kind into your life. If you are clear, you will avoid turmoil. Deceit divides. Honesty unites. 

Number two, look for the common ground even with your "opponents". There is always some place where we can start a discussion rather than have an argument if we can find that common ground. If this seems totally impossible, we pray for insight.

Number three, respect yourself, me, others, all men and women, even if they seem like they do not deserve respect. All of us are sinners and all men and women have the dignity as sons and daughters of God, even if we cannot see this. St. Paul's admonition that we have all fallen short of the glory of God should be in our minds constantly.

Number four, pray to see the suffering Christ in those who oppose the Latin Mass. Christ is suffering in that person who hates the Mass, either through serious sin, bad teaching, ignorance, or corruption of mind. Pray and fast. Do not judge.

Number five, realize that the adversarial mode is unhealthy not only for you but for your opponents. You make them more obstinate if you pursue Truth without Love. Love and Truth, even tough love, go together. Tough love is real love, love with honesty. If someone starts an argument, defuse the situation gently but firmly. 

Number six, pray about your role in the Church. Very few priests are called to hard prophecy. I think that is the role of the laity. John the Baptist was not called to be a priest. A priest is called to minister to those whom God loves, His People. If you have a vocation to the priesthood, do not follow the way of the prophet at this time during your studies, but be more humble and wait. Prudence is knowing when and where to speak a truth, even about the Latin Mass.

Number seven, focus on what you are supposed to be doing now, your duty. I think you must actively and strenuously pursue your vocation. Do not get sidetracked. Go back to Latin studies, read the Doctors of the Church and the Early Church Fathers. You have many years of preparation and that is what your focus should be. Learn to learn on your own and not rely on false teaching. Make sure you match everything up to the glorious teaching of the Catholic Church. Rejoice in the beauty of these teachings. Say your Office, say your rosary. Live in the now.

Number eight, pick your battles. Wisdom is knowing when to speak and when to be silent. We do not have to be seen as being "right" all the time. That is intellectual pride. If something is important enough to fight, fine, but this should be the exception rather than the rule. 

Number nine, learn boundaries. Your generation does not know psychological boundaries because of the public sharing of information and because of the lack of manners. Not everyone has to know everything about you and your life. Boundaries protect your soul and mind, and create healthy relationships.

Number ten, remember your First Love. The reason why you are pursuing the priesthood is because God has called you and you have answered "yes". You are in a relationship with the Living God, who is your First Love. All else flows from that.

Number eleven, be patient. I know that it is in the nature of youth to be impatient for change. Learn patience.

Number twelve, be more patient. 

God bless you.

Thoughts on Beauty and the Tridentine Mass

Scholars argue, even today, on Thomas Aquinas' idea of Beauty as an Attribute of God. It depends on whether one sees him as primarily Platonic, Aristotelian or Dionysian, or a combination of these, in his approach to beauty. I am not going to get into those philosophical divisions at this point, but as an Aristotelian by nature, I would be inclined to come down on the side of the form and sense of beauty starting in the perception of what is pleasing around us, rather than an ideal which is mostly super-sensible. That is not the topic of this post.

What is the topic is the idea of Beauty Himself, as God is Beauty, as He is Truth, Love, the Good. The motto of my undergraduate college was Beauty, Truth, Goodness, as in the pursuit of through study. This is a good Benedictine approach to learning, as one becomes closer to God through study. The purification of the intellect, heart and will can happen through study and prayer aimed at Beauty, Truth and Goodness, that is God Himself.

Now, in Aquinas, God is so beyond what we see as Beautiful, as He Himself created all that is beautiful, that we must refer to Him as "super-beautiful". The Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, existing from all time, was revealed to us at a particular time in history, but His Beauty is beyond time.

Before I switched degrees, I was pursuing "fine art" as a degree. I write poetry and I paint. In college, my strengths in painting were nature scenes, such as water, trees, flowers, in oils , acrylics, or water color. Surprising even to myself, I actually had some talent in this small area of the fine arts. I gave up the art degree for others, such as philosophy and theology, history and English, etc. However, as with others in my immediate family, a sense of the Beautiful haunted me.

In 2009, I began to paint again after many, many years of setting this aside. I had cancer and needed some creativity other than writing prose and poetry. What I found was the same connection to Beauty Himself in the pursuit of art, which can be all-consuming, all attention being needed for at least a period of time. The pursuit of Beauty is lost in our world. Art has become political or cultural statement art. It reveals the ugly and the individualistic, rather than the sublime. A young woman being interviewed a few years ago at the Toronto Art Expo stated that all art was based on how an individual felt on a certain day and expressed that individual feeling. Yuck, stuff and nonsense. She said that, and I wish I were making this up, if she took mud and smeared in on a board, that was art.

No, dear, it is not. Art has rules and is a discipline. It has order. Mimesis, the imitation of the great work of the Creator, God Himself, who gives us this gift, has Order, the Order of the Universe. And, this Order is Love. Like Julian of Norwich's who saw all creation cared for by God and sustained by God, God is the Center of all that is, and He invites us into that creativity, by the fact that we are made in His Image and Likeness.

And in þis he shewed me a lytil thyng þe quantite of a hasyl nott. lyeng in þe pawme of my hand as it had semed. and it was as rownde as eny ball. I loked þer upon wt þe eye of my vnderstondyng. and I þought what may þis be. and it was answered generally thus. It is all þat is made. I merueled howe it myght laste. for me þought it myght sodenly haue fall to nought for lytyllhed. & I was answered in my vnderstondyng. It lastyth & euer shall for god louyth it. and so hath all thyng his begynning by þe loue of god. In this lytyll thyng I sawe thre propertees. The fyrst is. þt god made it. þe secunde is þet god louyth it. & þe þrid is. þat god kepith it.

I believe it is the duty of the Catholic to reintroduce Beauty to the world before it is lost forever to barbarism. Of course, the most beautiful thing in the world is the Tridentine Mass. There is a start in the re-education of men and women to the sensibility of the acceptance of Beauty Himself. We only need to fall in love with Love Himself to perceive the Beauty which is around us. And, the Tridentine Mass opens our hearts and our minds to this Beauty.

Late have I loved you, O Beauty ever ancient, ever new, late have I loved you!  You were within me, but I was outside, and it was there that I searched for you.  In my unloveliness I plunged into the lovely things which you created.  You were with me, but I was not with you.  Created things kept me from you; yet if they had not been in you they would not have been at all.  You called, you shouted, and you broke through my deafness.  You flashed, you shone, and you dispelled my blindness.  You breathed your fragrance on me; I drew in breath and now I pant for you.  I have tasted you, now I hunger and thirst for more.  You touched me, and I burned for your peace.

                      St. Augustine, The Confessions