We need meat not milk

(A side note on the works of Garrigou-Lagrange.

The power of this priest’s insights partly comes from his mastery of the works of St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, as well as other Doctors of the Church.

How much has been lost in modern times because priests no longer read or study the great minds of our faith. How many priests do not even know Latin, and cannot read the texts in the original.

We need priests who can bring the jewels of the writings of these great saints back into the pulpit, back into retreats.

Pray that seminaries in the United States and in Europe renew the love of Augustine, Aquinas, Catherine of Siena, Teresa of Avila, John of the Cross,  as well as the Scriptures.

We need meat, not milk, from our priests.)

I sincerely hope readers have enjoyed this partial unpacking of Garrigou-Lagrange’s Providence. There is so much more, but I need to move on to other topics.  One of my good priest friends just gave me a fantastic gift, the biography by Robert Gray of Cardinal Manning. I feel like a kid on Christmas Day, as I also have Garrigou-Lagrange’s Predestination, a book I read years and years ago but did not finish because of the annus horribilis of 2009.

One of the things I learned from Garrigou-Lagrange was a reference in Tobias 13:2 to the Harrowing of Hell.  Interesting. And, I want to, again, quote this beautiful section on us uniting our selves with the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.

“United then with the sacrifice of Christ perpetuated in substance upon the altar, our death will itself be a sacrifice of adoration both of God’s supreme dominion, who is master of life and death, of the majesty of Him ‘leadeth down to hell and bringeth up again’ (Tob. 13:2) It will be a sacrifice of supplication to obtain the final grace both for ourselves and for those who are to die in the same hour. It will also be a sacrifice of reparation for the sins of our life, and a sacrifice of thanksgiving for all the favors we have received since our baptism.”

If anyone can find any books by Adolphe Rette or Pere Gardeil or Bede Rose, O.S.B, please let me know.

I am going to segue into a complaint at this point. Garrigou-Lagrange wrote this beautiful passage, quoting the old prayer at death.

“Go forth from this world, O Christian soul, in the name of God the Father Almighty, who created thee; in the name of Jesus Christ, Son of the living God, who suffered for thee; in the name of the Holy Ghost, who was poured out upon thee; in the name of the holy and glorious Virgin Mary, Mother of God; in the name of Blessed Joseph, predestined spouse of the Virgin; in the name of the angels and archangels…; in the name of the patriarchs and prophets; in the name of the Apostles and the Evangelists; in the name of the holy martyrs and confessors; and of all the saints of God. May thy place be this day in peace and thy abode in holy Sion, through Our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Here is my complaint. Realizing that there are only 69 active priests in this diocese of 100,000 Catholics, I still think it is absolutely disgraceful that those elderly Catholics who are dying in hospitals, in hospices and at home cannot get a priest to come and anoint them, giving them the sacrament at the end of the dutiful lives.

Many of these old people, and I know many, tithed all their lives, gave to all the bishops’ appeals, even some went to daily Mass. Some wanted to convert or revert at the end and could not get a priest to bring them into the Church or here their confessions.

Why? Because I know at least two priests who refuse to make hospital visits and who refuse to hear confessions. There may be more. And, I also know that at one conference for priestly formation for sems in this diocese, the main speaker said it was more important to go to a high school football game and evangelize the young rather than go to the rest homes and bring Communions.

Why the “either-or”? Why ignore those who all their lives lived in accordance with the laws and love of Holy Mother Church and are now abandoned at the end.

I know two families, which phoned for three days for a priest, any priest, to come and hear the last confession of their grandfather and another of their uncle.

I know of a two people who were very faithful to the Church and even gave large amounts to their local parishes, whose families could not get a priest to come and bless the graves at burial, and the lay people had to say prayers themselves.

Why? Why? I know some priests in this diocese who will do nothing in the evening, after five, as if life and death stopped at office hours.

I beg God for a priest at my bedside in my last hours. May God grant me this gift.  I pray this priest is my own son.