Saturday, 3 May 2014
The Sins of The Fathers
The Church in some areas is imploding for one reason. This reason may be labeled "teenage rebellion". A teen rebels for two main reasons. The first is that he realizes for the first time the sins of the father and mother. He becomes hyper-critical in his new view of the imperfections of his parents. He resolves never to be like them.
Secondly, in that resolution, he decides to be his own person and become an "ideal" adult.
These two factors of rebellion are natural and good stages in growth necessary for maturation. However, when the teen grows up and begins to blame his parents for all his own faults and failures, that becomes a serious psychological problem. I know people in their 60s who still blame their parents for unhappiness. As long as those people do not take responsibility for their own lives, they will remain psychological and spiritual teenagers. They have not moved on to the second step-resolving to be the ideal adult.
Growth demands a humility of one looking honestly at one's own faults and takes responsibility for changing those sins and failings. To concentrate on the sins of the father is not only self-deceit, but pride. Anger and hurt must be faced and healed for one to move on into holiness.
Today, across the Western world, bloggers and other media personages demonize the spiritual fathers in the Church. Over and over again, lay people recall the sins of the priests, whether sexual sins of a horrible nature, such as pedophilia, or liturgical abuses, or ideological disagreements with the Teaching Magisterium.
As long as the laity merely have temper tantrums against the sins of the fathers and do not take responsibility for their own sins, nothing will change. In fact, the Church will be destroyed by the rancor within. A person can be brought to hell by nursing hatreds and creating factions.
This is what St. Paul meant:
Secondly, in that resolution, he decides to be his own person and become an "ideal" adult.
These two factors of rebellion are natural and good stages in growth necessary for maturation. However, when the teen grows up and begins to blame his parents for all his own faults and failures, that becomes a serious psychological problem. I know people in their 60s who still blame their parents for unhappiness. As long as those people do not take responsibility for their own lives, they will remain psychological and spiritual teenagers. They have not moved on to the second step-resolving to be the ideal adult.
Growth demands a humility of one looking honestly at one's own faults and takes responsibility for changing those sins and failings. To concentrate on the sins of the father is not only self-deceit, but pride. Anger and hurt must be faced and healed for one to move on into holiness.
Today, across the Western world, bloggers and other media personages demonize the spiritual fathers in the Church. Over and over again, lay people recall the sins of the priests, whether sexual sins of a horrible nature, such as pedophilia, or liturgical abuses, or ideological disagreements with the Teaching Magisterium.
As long as the laity merely have temper tantrums against the sins of the fathers and do not take responsibility for their own sins, nothing will change. In fact, the Church will be destroyed by the rancor within. A person can be brought to hell by nursing hatreds and creating factions.
This is what St. Paul meant:
1 Corinthians 1:10
Douay-Rheims
10 Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing, and that there be no schisms among you; but that you be perfect in the same mind, and in the same judgment.
Constantly demonizing certain clerics or keeping on about the sins of the fathers will not make one holy. I have written many posts on the spirit of division and judgment.
Remember, how you judge is how you will be judged.
Pray for the fathers, and stop blaming them for all the present problems. God can change hearts overnight. The laity avoid the work men and women are called to do by concentrating on the faults of others.
The Church would be renewed by a holy laity. A holy laity would bring forth more vocations and saints who would change the world.
The Church would be renewed by a holy laity. A holy laity would bring forth more vocations and saints who would change the world.
Complaining and whinging are the sins of the teen. When I face Christ in my particular judgement, I do not want Him to send me to hell, or even purgatory, for undermining the fathers by constantly repeating their sins.
Christ did correct the Sadducees and Pharisees, but He did much more. He healed and preached the Gospel. And, He is Perfect.
I think Christ's advice to the crowd who was determined to kill the adulterous woman may apply to those who continually refer to the sins of the fathers.
Happy Name Day to All Named Philip and James Across The World
John from The Douay-Rheims
part of today's Gospel.
14 Let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in me.
2 In my Father's house there are many mansions. If not, I would have told you: because I go to prepare a place for you.
3 And if I shall go, and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and will take you to myself; that where I am, you also may be.
4 And whither I go you know, and the way you know.
5 Thomas saith to him: Lord, we know not whither thou goest; and how can we know the way?
6 Jesus saith to him: I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No man cometh to the Father, but by me.
7 If you had known me, you would without doubt have known my Father also: and from henceforth you shall know him, and you have seen him.
8 Philip saith to him: Lord, shew us the Father, and it is enough for us.
9 Jesus saith to him: Have I been so long a time with you; and have you not known me? Philip, he that seeth me seeth the Father also. How sayest thou, shew us the Father?
10 Do you not believe, that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? The words that I speak to you, I speak not of myself. But the Father who abideth in me, he doth the works.
11 Believe you not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me?
12 Otherwise believe for the very works' sake. Amen, amen I say to you, he that believeth in me, the works that I do, he also shall do; and greater than these shall he do.
13 Because I go to the Father: and whatsoever you shall ask the Father in my name, that will I do: that the Father may be glorified in the Son.
14 If you shall ask me any thing in my name, that I will do.
More, More from St. Catherine of Siena and St.Therese, the Little Flower
You ought to despise and hate the ministers’ sins and try to dress them in the clothes of charity and holy prayer and wash away their filth with your tears...Indeed, I have appointed them and given them to you to be angels on earth and suns, as I have told you. When they are less than that you ought to pray for them. But you are not to judge them. Leave the judging to me, and I, because of your prayers and my own desire, will be merciful to them. from St.Catherine's Dialogues
Pray for lukewarm priests to be good priests, and pray for good priests to be holy priests.
Pray for lukewarm priests to be good priests, and pray for good priests to be holy priests.
A Prayer for Priests
By St. Therese of Lisieux
O Jesus, eternal Priest,
keep your priests within the shelter of Your Sacred Heart,
where none may touch them.
Keep unstained their anointed hands,
which daily touch Your Sacred Body.
Keep unsullied their lips,
daily purpled with your Precious Blood.
Keep pure and unearthly their hearts,
sealed with the sublime mark of the priesthood.
Let Your holy love surround them and
shield them from the world's contagion.
Bless their labors with abundant fruit and
may the souls to whom they minister be their joy and consolation here and in heaven their beautiful and
everlasting crown. Amen.
More from St. Catherine of Siena, A Lay Person
Most of the Doctors of the Church are clergy. Not this lady....
How the truly obedient receive a hundredfold for one, and also eternal lift; and what is meant by this one, and this hundredfold.
“In them is fulfilled the saying of the sweet and amorous Word, My only-begotten Son, in the gospel when He replied to Peter’s demand, ’Master, we have left everything for your love’s sake, and have followed You, what will you give us?’ My Truth replied, ’I will give you a hundredfold for one, and you shall possess eternal life.’ As if My Truth had wished to say, ‘You have done well, Peter, for in no other way could you follow Me. And I, in this life, will give you a hundredfold for one.’ And what is this hundredfold, beloved daughter, besides which the apostle obtained eternal life? To what did My Truth refer? To temporal substance?
“Properly speaking, no. Do I not, however, often cause one who gives alms to multiply in temporal goods? In return for what do I this? In return for the gift of his own will. This is the one for which I repay him a hundredfold. What is the meaning of the number a hundred? A hundred is a perfect number, and cannot be added to except by recommencing from the first. So charity is the most perfect of all the virtues, so perfect that no higher virtue can be attained except by recommencing at the beginning of self-knowledge, and thus increasing many hundredfold in merit; but you always necessarily arrive at the number one hundred. This is that hundredfold which is given to those who have given Me the unit of their own will, both in general obedience, and in the particular obedience of the religious life. And in addition to this hundred you also possess eternal life, for charity alone enters into eternal life, like a mistress bringing with her the fruit of all the other virtues, while they remain outside, bringing their fruit, I say, into Me, the eternal life, in whom the obedient taste eternal life. It is not by faith that they taste eternal life, for they experience in its essence that which they have believed through faith; nor by hope, for they possess that for which they had hoped, and so with all the other virtues, Queen Charity alone enters and possesses Me, her possessor. See, therefore, that these little ones receive a hundredfold for one, and also eternal life, for here they receive the fire of divine charity figured by the number of a hundred (as has been said). And because they have received this hundredfold from Me, they possess a wonderful and hearty joy, for there is no sadness in charity, but the joy of it makes the heart large and generous, not narrow or double. A soul wounded by this sweet arrow does not appear one thing in face and tongue while her heart is different. She does not serve, or act towards her neighbor with dissembling and ambition, because charity is an open book to be read by all. Wherefore the soul who possesses charity never falls into trouble, or the affliction of sadness, or jars with obedience, remains obedient until death.”
I would take them all if I had my own place!
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Catholic Dems, watch this video
http://www.breitbart.com/Breitbart-TV/2014/05/01/Emotional-Intelligence-Director-Confirms-Hillary-Did-Not-Tell-The-Truth-To-Benghazi-Families
If you cannot agree with the Right on abortion, you can agree on this cover-up.
If you cannot agree with the Right on abortion, you can agree on this cover-up.
Brave New World Coming to GB?
I was harangued by FIVE doctors in 1988, when I, as an older mom-to-be, was told to have an amniocentesis, (which can cause miscarriages), which I was refused. I was literally screamed at by five doctors in a room, after the first one, exasperated with my no and my saying I did not care if I had a Down Syndrome Child (which I did not) went and got four more doctors, who ended up yelling at me.
I told them that I would love whatever child came to me. And, I walked out. Of course, I have a beautiful son and these doctors were brainwashed by the utilitarian society. Indeed, one of the doctors told me I had "no right to have a child" and "it would be a burden to the state" if disabled.
Pay attention to politician talking like this. A report from two years ago is circulating, but I am sure there are other news items pertaining to this lately. Would like feedback from Brits, please.
When governments are in charge of health, this is what happens.
Connected to my January, 2015 note the other day-Is Google going to be BB?
Just last week in my post, Say Goodbye to “Net Neutrality” – New FCC Proposal Will Permit Discrimination of Web Content, I mused that in so-called “first world” countries like the U.S. the illusion of freedom must be maintained even as civil liberties are eroded. Thus censorship must be administered surreptitiously and slowly. The following plan to implement an “Internet ID” will initially only be rolled out as a pilot program in two states (Michigan and Pennsylvania), and will only deal with government services. That said, we can see where all of this is ultimately headed, and the program, called the National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace, should be monitored closely going forward.
Vice reported on this a few days ago:
A few years back, the White House had a brilliant idea: Why not create a single, secure online ID that Americans could use to verify their identity across multiple websites, starting with local government services. The New York Times described it at the time as a “driver’s license for the internet.”
Sound convenient? It is. Sound scary? It is.
See more here
http://libertyblitzkrieg.com/2014/05/02/obama-administration-launches-plan-to-make-an-internet-id-a-reality/
http://supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.com/2014/05/prophecy-time.html
http://supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.com/2014/05/prophecy-time.html
If I get to Spain
I would like to do the short walk to St. James Compostela. Have any readers done the Camino de Santiago?
Father Palau Part Three
Blessed Francisco Palau had a great devotion to Our Lady of Virtues. This title of Mary is not well-known in America. The site of the original shrine outside of Lisbon is in ruins, as far as I could ascertain. But, this name of Mary and her shrine was popular in the Medieval period.
A list of her virtues and an explanation of these may be found here. Someone may want to translate those around Mary in the painting.
A list of her virtues and an explanation of these may be found here. Someone may want to translate those around Mary in the painting.
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Father Palau Part Two
Blessed Francisco Palau worked in the world of spiritual warfare. His battles were with both the horrible, anti-Catholic tyrants of the time and with the demons of the air.
Here is a section of his writings. It is interesting that the enemies of the Church know more about this Blessed than we do.
...from the air the princes and powers with his king Belzebuth, presented armed with an order of men, who have a covenant with him, and like a mysterious network extending over all the earth , having their centers, schools, teachers in all the capitals of the world; and his work is authorized and supported by the laws of free worship and pagan authorities, presented in the form of some Catholics and other declared enemies of Catholicism.
The fight has been moved to another field accordingly, that is, against these evil spirits, in a thousand ways that poison the air, produce fever, cholera, typhus, fevers strange arm a people against another people, one nation against another, inventing machines of death against man, always new, chairing the meetings, and all political and religious meetings aimed at the destruction of Catholicism, and hold in their thrones and kings antisocial governments, thwarting all plans designed by true Catholic Church to save the human society..."The Hermit", Year IV, No. 121, March 2, 1871
Blessed Francisco Palau had traveled to Rome to speak with Pope Pius X about setting up an order of exorcists. Now, this in finally happening.
To be continued....
Meet A Relatively Unknown Saint of The Way of Perfection Part One
The day Blessed Francisco Palau was beatified, April 24, 1988, I was in Hayward's Heath getting ready to have my new baby. This blessed's day passed me by until this week, when I was introduced to Francisco Palau.
The Carmelite shows us that this world and the spiritual world of perfection can be balanced in order to serve both God and man.
His life seems exciting, but all he wanted to be was a hermit seeking God in perfection. But, God called him to love the Church and be active in the Church, the Mystical Body of Christ. Here is one prayer from the first link below.
My good Jesus, encouraged by your promises, I
am going to explain to you my need, and to present to you
my request. But we cannot pray, and do not know how to
pray, or to understand what we must pray for, nor how nor
when. We can only pray well and rightly and with the
necessary faith when the Holy Spirit, who knows all our
needs, and with unspeakable groans, prays in our hearts,
and moves us to pray, teaches us what we have to ask, and
makes us ask [Rom 8,26]. So my dear Lord, in order to think
of what I should ask, and to pray for it properly, and thus fulfil
the command you have given me to pray to you, I need the
help of the Holy Spirit. Send this divine Spirit into my heart,
and he will pray in me, he will teach me what I have to ask,
how and when I must pray, and he will give me strength to
persevere in my request until I have obtained what I wanted.
I ask you for this grace now so that afterwards I may know
how to pray properly for what your Holy Spirit teaches me.
Remember your promise that you would send him to us to
inspire us and teach us to do all that you command us. You
said: “The Paraclete, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will
send in my name will instruct you in everything.
Here are some links for more information on Bl. Francisco Palau.
http://www.carmelitasmisioneras.org/images/Palau/Palau-English.pdf
http://www.carmelite.org.uk/stfrancis.html
http://www.ourgardenofcarmel.org/palau.html
On the link on the above page, one reads this:
In prayer you shall find faith, hope and love. You are sufficiently instructed and experienced in the exercise of these virtues and the main preoccupations and errors you had have been eradicated. This is why you find the acts of union easy, sweet and satisfying, and without recognizing nor seeing the union, you feel it, you are at east with God, you deal easily and amicably with him and readily make friends with him. Well, I have nothing to tell you about this at present except that you must keep on and taking advantage of this interior ease with God, you must ask for graces, confirm and strengthen your moral virtues, and making yourself strong in this interior castle, you must fight your moods of sadness and their causes, uproot your unfounded sorrows aand get ready (My paper got over for hand not planned to write so extensively. But since I am at it I will go on) on the dreadful battles that the three enemies wage against this divine union. Live united with God and see to it that nothing, whether hunger or thirs, the sword, fortune or misfortune, nothing wahtever disturbs your heart. Live united with God and everything else vanish like smoke.
When you examine your conscience (attention to what I am going to tell you) do not go too far; look at it as we look at the seashore from the top of the Alps or the Pyrenees, lightly, without going into details. If you do not see anything clearly and certainly wrong, go ahead and be at peace with your God. Mind this, I repeat, anad do tell me how you are faring, because the devil could trick you and do you serious hard with his false doctrine and suggestions. This union produces peace of mind; then search for peace. Let nothing disturb you, be it good or bad. Give up everything else except your peace of mind. Wheny ou feel restless, sad, sorrowful and embittered, look for the cause, and ifi it is not worth being sorrying about (and nothing that does not offend God is worth being sorry about), get rid of your anxiety; if you do not see the causes but feel restless and dissatisfied all the same, put up with it, arm yourself with patience, let the storm pass, and your inner peace will return.
This union, my sister, demands a heart at peace, calm, unalterable, like some place in heaven, and we can and must acquire it fighting hard whatever threatens if from outside ourselves.
Friday, 2 May 2014
From The Bishop of Lancaster
PRESS RELEASE FROM THE BISHOP OF LANCASTER
Bishop Campbell did not close down Protect the Pope
BEGINS:
‘Back in 2010 Deacon Nick Donnelly set up the Protect the Pope website/blog, as a
direct response to the campaign of hostility and ridicule from sections of the media and
lobby groups against Pope (Emeritus) Benedict XVI’s historic visit to the UK in
September of that year.
Protect the Pope was particularly successful at this time in articulating a strong defence
of the Petrine Office, the Catholic Church, and its teachings against certain secularist
and anti-Catholic activists. In the last couple of years, however, Protect the Pope
appears to have shifted its objective from a defence of Church teaching from those
outside the Church to alleged internal dissent within the Church. With this shift, Protect
the Pope has come to see itself as a ‘doctrinal watchdog’ over the writings and sayings
of individuals, that is, of bishops, clergy and theologians in England & Wales and
throughout the Catholic world.
Protect the Pope makes it clear that the site is a private initiative and is in no way
officially affiliated with the Diocese of Lancaster. The fact, however, that its creator and
author is a permanent deacon of the Diocese of Lancaster and holding some
responsibility here fosters in the minds of some people that Deacon Nick Donnelly is
somehow reporting the views of the Diocese.
It is my view that bishops, priests and deacons of the Church – ordained and ‘public’
persons – are free to express themselves and their personal views, but never in a way
that divides the community of the Church i.e. through ad hominem and personal
challenges. Increasingly I have felt that Protect the Pope, authored as it is by a public
person holding ecclesiastical office (an ordained deacon), has, at times, taken this
approach its own posts - but has also allowed for this by facilitating those who comment
online.
I note that Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York, speaking at a media conference in
Rome on 29 April, said: “We adhere to the best and highest standards”—indicating that
this doesn’t only pertain to the latest in technological advancements which are “critically
important,” but also to “the way we use that technology,” because “how we say
something is just as important as what we say.”
Cardinal Dolan also noted the importance of never caricaturing or stereotyping those
who oppose the Magisterium. He exhorted that even when confronted with those who
attempt to distort what the Church says, or who issue “mean, vicious, and outward
attacks,” we must “always respond in charity and love.”
On several occasions, I asked Deacon Nick, through my staff, for Protect the Pope to
continue its good work in promoting and teaching the Catholic Faith, but to be careful
not to take on individuals in the Church of opposing views through ad hominem and
personal challenges. Unfortunately, this was not taken on board. Consequently, as a
last resort, on 3 March 2014 and in a personal meeting with Deacon Nick Donnelly, I
requested, as his Diocesan Ordinary, that Deacon Nick ‘pause’ all posting on the
Protect the Pope website so as to allow for a period of prayer and reflection upon his
position as an ordained cleric with regards to Protect the Pope and his own duties
towards unity, truth and charity. The fact that this decision and our personal dialogue
was made public on the Protect the Pope site and then misinterpreted by third parties is
a matter of great regret. In fact, new posts continued on the site after this date – the
site being handed over and administered/moderated in this period by Deacon Nick’s
wife Martina.
On 13 April 2014 Deacon Nick requested in writing that he be allowed to resume
posting again from the date: Monday 21 April 2014. I did not accept this request as the
period of discernment had not yet concluded. Again, the fact that this decision was
forced, misinterpreted and then released publicly on the site – and miscommunicated by
certain media outlets and blogs – claiming that I had effectively ‘closed’, ‘suppressed’ or
‘gagged’ Protect the Pope was regrettable and does not represent the truth of this
situation. To be clear: I have not closed down Protect the Pope.
I am certainly aware of the need of the Church and the Diocese of Lancaster to engage
positively with the new media, social media, blogs, and the internet for the sake of
spreading the Gospel to the people of our age. Indeed, our Diocese has a good track
record of such engagement in reaching out to a much wider audience through our active
use of the new communication technologies. I have a weekly blog myself.
I am, of course, also conscious, that no bishop can ever ‘close down’ or supress blogs
and websites – such a claim would be absurd. Bishops can and must, however, be
faithful to their apostolic duty to preserve the unity of the Church in the service of the
Truth. They must ensure that ordained clergy under their care serve that unity in close
communion with them and through the gift of their public office: preaching the Truth
always - but always in love.’
ENDS
There will be no further comment from the Diocese of Lancaster on this matter.
+Michael G Campbell OSA
Bishop of Lancaster 2 May 2014
www.lancasterdiocese.org.uk
Bishop Campbell did not close down Protect the Pope
BEGINS:
‘Back in 2010 Deacon Nick Donnelly set up the Protect the Pope website/blog, as a
direct response to the campaign of hostility and ridicule from sections of the media and
lobby groups against Pope (Emeritus) Benedict XVI’s historic visit to the UK in
September of that year.
Protect the Pope was particularly successful at this time in articulating a strong defence
of the Petrine Office, the Catholic Church, and its teachings against certain secularist
and anti-Catholic activists. In the last couple of years, however, Protect the Pope
appears to have shifted its objective from a defence of Church teaching from those
outside the Church to alleged internal dissent within the Church. With this shift, Protect
the Pope has come to see itself as a ‘doctrinal watchdog’ over the writings and sayings
of individuals, that is, of bishops, clergy and theologians in England & Wales and
throughout the Catholic world.
Protect the Pope makes it clear that the site is a private initiative and is in no way
officially affiliated with the Diocese of Lancaster. The fact, however, that its creator and
author is a permanent deacon of the Diocese of Lancaster and holding some
responsibility here fosters in the minds of some people that Deacon Nick Donnelly is
somehow reporting the views of the Diocese.
It is my view that bishops, priests and deacons of the Church – ordained and ‘public’
persons – are free to express themselves and their personal views, but never in a way
that divides the community of the Church i.e. through ad hominem and personal
challenges. Increasingly I have felt that Protect the Pope, authored as it is by a public
person holding ecclesiastical office (an ordained deacon), has, at times, taken this
approach its own posts - but has also allowed for this by facilitating those who comment
online.
I note that Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York, speaking at a media conference in
Rome on 29 April, said: “We adhere to the best and highest standards”—indicating that
this doesn’t only pertain to the latest in technological advancements which are “critically
important,” but also to “the way we use that technology,” because “how we say
something is just as important as what we say.”
Cardinal Dolan also noted the importance of never caricaturing or stereotyping those
who oppose the Magisterium. He exhorted that even when confronted with those who
attempt to distort what the Church says, or who issue “mean, vicious, and outward
attacks,” we must “always respond in charity and love.”
On several occasions, I asked Deacon Nick, through my staff, for Protect the Pope to
continue its good work in promoting and teaching the Catholic Faith, but to be careful
not to take on individuals in the Church of opposing views through ad hominem and
personal challenges. Unfortunately, this was not taken on board. Consequently, as a
last resort, on 3 March 2014 and in a personal meeting with Deacon Nick Donnelly, I
requested, as his Diocesan Ordinary, that Deacon Nick ‘pause’ all posting on the
Protect the Pope website so as to allow for a period of prayer and reflection upon his
position as an ordained cleric with regards to Protect the Pope and his own duties
towards unity, truth and charity. The fact that this decision and our personal dialogue
was made public on the Protect the Pope site and then misinterpreted by third parties is
a matter of great regret. In fact, new posts continued on the site after this date – the
site being handed over and administered/moderated in this period by Deacon Nick’s
wife Martina.
On 13 April 2014 Deacon Nick requested in writing that he be allowed to resume
posting again from the date: Monday 21 April 2014. I did not accept this request as the
period of discernment had not yet concluded. Again, the fact that this decision was
forced, misinterpreted and then released publicly on the site – and miscommunicated by
certain media outlets and blogs – claiming that I had effectively ‘closed’, ‘suppressed’ or
‘gagged’ Protect the Pope was regrettable and does not represent the truth of this
situation. To be clear: I have not closed down Protect the Pope.
I am certainly aware of the need of the Church and the Diocese of Lancaster to engage
positively with the new media, social media, blogs, and the internet for the sake of
spreading the Gospel to the people of our age. Indeed, our Diocese has a good track
record of such engagement in reaching out to a much wider audience through our active
use of the new communication technologies. I have a weekly blog myself.
I am, of course, also conscious, that no bishop can ever ‘close down’ or supress blogs
and websites – such a claim would be absurd. Bishops can and must, however, be
faithful to their apostolic duty to preserve the unity of the Church in the service of the
Truth. They must ensure that ordained clergy under their care serve that unity in close
communion with them and through the gift of their public office: preaching the Truth
always - but always in love.’
ENDS
There will be no further comment from the Diocese of Lancaster on this matter.
+Michael G Campbell OSA
Bishop of Lancaster 2 May 2014
www.lancasterdiocese.org.uk
A Difficult Reminder And A Short Drama
Please pray for me as the hardest things for me to have to give up where I am in nowhere-land are daily Mass and several times of Adoration a week. As I am living far away from a Catholic Church, this denial of the Sacrament and of Adoration is a real penance.
I offer up this denial of graces to me for D, R. E, Z, G, B, J and other who have asked for my prayers.
However, what I am experiencing in grief will be the experience of the majority of Catholic in the not-so-far future.
The remnant may not have Mass and Adoration. I have wanted for a long time to live in a house with the Holy Eucharist, and being in Tyburn last year was such a gift.
I could see my Lord frequently.
Tyburn opened in France last Autumn. Wonderful. And, this is another sign of the holiness of the foundress.
http://www.catholicsentinel.org/main.asp?SectionID=2&SubSectionID=34&ArticleID=22539
As you know, the nuns are already in Nigeria.
http://www.cam.org.au/News-and-Events/Features/Vocations/Article/15224/Tyburn-Sisters-invited-to-Nigeria#.U2PKZ4FdXlM
Here is a play I wrote for the nuns last year.
This play is written as a half-hour voice-over
for a DVD format. Quotations marks are
on the exact words of Mother Marie Adele.
The voice is that of Mother Marie Adele
Garnier, Mother Mary of St. Peter. One must have a French accent for this play.
Title: Mother Marie Adele Garnier,
Mother Mary of St. Peter, Foundress of Tyburn
All in One Act with Ten Scenes: Scene One
First Act: Scene One, London overlooking Hyde
Park
Mother Adele as a very old nun is saying
goodbye to the world and waiting for the Bridegroom
She has asked her nuns to come around her but
they are not there yet. The room is grey but peaceful, like a black and white dream.
She is sitting in a half bed, half chair. She is old but peaceful. It is
1924.
Mother Marie Adele is thinking these thoughts:
Voice-over
Mother Marie Adele: The
day is dark for June. But, the day mirrors the darkness of Calvary, when the
storms blew across Golgotha at the death of My Lord. I have left notes and
letters, like clues for my dear daughters, hoping they will understand the path
I had to follow all these years. My dear daughters have been called to come to
me for a blessing.
I hope my life has
taught my children here that Love is All.
I hope the Love of my Savior and King has led them to accept the Cross.
What does this mean to them? What does this mean to the hundreds of people who
pass by Tyburn on this street daily in London? What do they understand of
sacrificial love?
But, I have prayed and
suffered for each one of them, and for my confreres in France. Ah, France, you
have left your throne to false gods, to the silly pursuits of these modern
times. I shall never see your blue skies and roses again.
Mother picks up a book and a rosary…she is
pensive.
The day is gloomy and
reminds me of a day long ago in France, when I wrote a letter to dear Father
Lemius, I was in Villeneuve-sure-Yonne.
How can I share with
all these in my care the necessity of perseverance? I wrote to Father on that day? I pray I have
been an example of the way of penance, all for the Bridegroom, Who I await.
Scene Two, younger Adele in French room at a
writing desk. She is in a simple habit,
not the Benedictine one of her first scene. She is very animated and eager in
her face and demeanor.
Mother Marie Adele Voice-over reads letter, and
she writes and stops, and writes again.
“But, I think of
heaven-I think of the work and the suffering which is absolutely necessary for
us. That night I felt this call, always more forcible, more pressing, to a
total renunciation, to a complete
abnegation, to the acceptance, loving, eager, without regret or bitterness, of
all possible sacrifices for the glory and the consolation of His divine
heart…..
They must know that
they themselves count for nothing. And, that if they wish to work perseveringly
and seriously for the sanctification of their souls, they must sacrifice
themselves in everything and always for the glory of God, immolate themselves
absolutely for the Sacred Heart, in order to win souls for Him. For our dear France, so guilty, but above all
so deeply to be pitied; for England, whither the Sacred Heart calls us; for the
Church, the beloved Bride of Christ; for His vicar, our beloved Father. For the
honour and the cult of Mary Immaculate….to live a life of suffering out of
love…”
We are at the mercy of
the French Government with the Associations Law, an infamous attempt to stop
new orders and seize land…we had to wait to declare ourselves a religious
community and all I had worked for under the guidance of my excellent spiritual
advisors, all, seemed to be coming to naught.
I thought perhaps we would go to 40 rue de la Barre, or Belgium, but to
England, land of martyrs.
But, leave we must,
and Monsieur Audollent is sent from our dear Cardinal de la Vergne, the Father
of this order, to Cardinal Vaughan. I must be ever patient, resting in the
Sacred Heart. Ah, poor Archbishop Guibert, buried in the Basilica, we must
leave him and all our memories. Such is
the Dark Night of the Soul, when God strips all. And yet, my Beloved knows I
belong to Him and all my daughters belong to Him. And, I recall the day the Cardinal said “This
is from God”, ratifying my vision of permanent Adoration, and unity two great
devotions, that of the Eucharist and that of the Sacred Heart. “This if from
God.”
(A monstrance on an altar appears in the French
room and the sun begins to shine everywhere.)
Over and over again, I
faced this anxiety and pain. But, few knew why. The call of the nun is the call
of the Bridegroom and yes, I am a Bride, but unlike so many called before, the
Teresas, the Catherines, I had ecstasy
and then pain. Most are called to
the unitive state of being one with God after the Dark Night. But, for me,
there was another dimension, another working of God’s grace in the world. I
shall try and explain.
Scene Three:
The room in Tyburn with the dying Mother Marie Adele.
Mother Marie
Adele: Montmarte, how we loved the hill
of the martyrs, and yet, God called us, through His Eucharistic Heart to this
country, this place of martyrs, this Tyburn.
Montmarte, now filled with the beautiful Basilica, which I perhaps will
never see again.
That perhaps was the
second lowest time in the growth of our dear community. I cannot speak of the worst, the attacks of
the evil one directly on my young nuns.
We endured and would have stayed in the shadow of Montmarte. We, like the children of the Diaspora, were
forced out. But, I did not want us to be separated. Remember, Dear Lord, how my
heart ached. How I did not want to leave my beloved France, where in secret we
had our little clothing ceremony, at Levallois-Perret, with dear Father Balme,
who called us the la graine de moutarde. We were so small, so small.
But, God sent me good
advisors, as He always did, to guide us across the Sleeve to this place.
A few nuns with suitcases appear in the
background at a port like Dover. They are greeted by other nuns.
But, I trusted,
trusted in the darkness that this monstrous law would not touch us. Cardinal
Vaughan responded to our request to come here…so long ago it seems…to adore The
Eucharistic Heart of Jesus in the heart of London.
I shall never forget
my Alice Andrade…soon to be my Mother Mary Agnes, as God will make her superior
for a while… la graine de moutarde.
Scene Four:
Again, at Vllenueve-sur-Yonne, they are in a rose garden by the house-but
earlier and Marie Adele is in French 19th century middle-class civilian
clothes. Alice is much younger. They meet and embrace, soul sisters for life.
She was with me from
1896, and when we saw each other, she cried out to me “My Mother”. And I cried “My
Daughter.” So we were bound in the love
of the Eucharistic Heart of Jesus. She
was 23 and I was 58. How odd that I thought I was old. Now, I am old. But, the
journey of my life of perfection seems so short, so short.
Would we have started
out knowing all the hardships? Does a married couple in love and happy think of
the cruelties of life to come? No, we only think and feel love. Mother Agnes and I wrote almost daily when
apart, and she has kept all of those letters.
Someday, my daughters will read and wonder at the boldness of our
undertaking in such a hostile environment as the Eldest Daughter of France had
become…so sad, so melancholy. But, we
are the mustard seed in England, in this soil made fertile with the blood of
Edmund Campion, Robert Southwell, Anne Line Oliver Plunkett and so many others.
Scene Five:
The room in Tyburn again.
The Tyburn Gallows, the Tyburn Tree, appears
behind her and stays until all the nuns are gone.
She is interrupted by the nuns coming in and
she blesses them. They all bow their heads in prayer but leave again, each
bowing to her as they leave.
Mother Marie Adele
continues: What I could not tell Mother Agnes for a long time was that the
Bridal Love ended in a call to become a Victim Soul. How does one explain a call to be a victim
for others, for England, for France, for the clergy, even for my nuns? Can they
see the love through the willing suffering of a soul which gives up all comfort
for the sake of others?
I have another memory,
one of my times of trying so hard to listen to the Will of God in my life, as
that is all I ever wanted was His Will. How many long years, when I was a
governess, did I beg my Bridegroom that only His Perfect Will would be done in
my life? All for love.
I was in the Convent
of Marie Reparatrice, in Paris, and I was in torment. I think it was 1876, so long ago. Staying in the community for eight days, in a
little Nazareth, I was trying to understand how I could fulfill the Will of my
Beloved. How could I, no one in the world, show the world His love in the
Eucharistic Heart?
Scene Six: The room fades away and it is a
little, simple nun’s cell in France, with one wooden chair, one bed, a crucifix.
On the way, I had seen
close by, a house, and my heart started to pump wildly. It stood out from the rest and I had the
great sensation that I would be returning to Montmarte. And, I remember the
number, 42.
Marie Adele is sitting in a plain chair when a
nun bursts in and the scene continues in these words….nun does all the things
Mother Adele describes in this passage from one of her letters.
But, on the way back,
I stopped at LeMans and stayed again with the Reparatrices. The nuns gave me a little room in which to
rest, when suddenly, an old nun came into the room. Then, she surprised me greatly. She came over
to me and embraced me, saying, “Oh, it is you! I had begged Our Lord so much to
let me see you again. I have something to tell you, but I could not have
suspected that you were here! I mistook the door, I ought to have visited the
retreatant who is in the next room. But, since it is Jesus who has led me here,
I must speak to you on his behalf.”
“Taken aback, I made
her sit down. Then I could not contain myself any longer. I threw myself into
her arms, sobbing, and said to her, My Mother, oh my Mother, I beg you, tell me
if it is Jesus who is calling. Yes, she replied, it is Jesus who will you to be
a victim of His Eucharistic Heart. He wishes me to tell you this. Bewildered,
overwhelmed, I no longer knew what was to become of me. The kind Mother said to
me, Be happy, calm yourself, Jesus is calling you, have no doubt about
this….Some time ago, a holy Religious from the south of France…wrote to me that
Jesus was asking for victims consecrated to His Eucharistic Heart, that He
thirsted for them, that He marked them out in the world and that they must be
brought to Him…On reading her letter, your image then rose before me with such
clarity and with so great an assurance of the Will of Jesus for you, that no
doubt remained in my mind. From that moment, I have been begging Jesus day and
night to make us meet again. It is He who allowed me to come to the wrong
door.”
Her words created a
brilliant light in my heart and mind. No longer could I doubt. I knew I was
destined to return to Montmarte. Amazingly,
for my timidity was gone completely, I had no fear, no fear of the future to
which God was calling me.
Scene Seven: Back in the room at Tyburn. Mother Adele is in bed, with a nun beside
her. Mother is very ill.
Her thoughts continue:
But, I did not know, when the Dear Lord of my heart called me that day to be,
first His fiancé and then, His bride, what suffering this would mean.
How could I understand
the Passion of Christ without experiencing it and how could I be joined in love
to Him unless He led me to Calvary.
My way has not been
easy, as I have had an independent spirit.
This is a gift from God which must be crushed by love and love alone,
but when Christ asked me to join Him in suffering, how could I say no.
As a younger person, I
had ecstasies of love and contemplation, His gifts to His Bride, but now, I
must rest in “grace that comes from the torture of Christ”.
The young nun wipes the head of Mother Adele
and lifts her up to give her water. Mother Adele looks at her deeply and
blesses her. A large crucifix, like the one at Tyburn on the stairs going up in
the enclosure, appears behind her bed. Then, she sees all the nuns going about
their work, cleaning, cooking, gardening, keeping watch in front of the
Monstrance.
Her thoughts continue: When the
torture of the Cross passes, I am calm again, but how can I explain all this
love to these young ones? I have told
them that if they follow the Rule of St. Benedict and allow themselves to be
perfected, they will be led by Christ, through His Eucharistic Heart into the
Unitive State. Now, on my death bed, I
await this last movement into unity. I
offered myself by the Vow of Victim in 1893 on March 31st, Good
Friday, at three, with my spiritual director l’Abbe Courtois’ approval, and
now, 31 years later, I am finally coming to the consummation of that love.
“Jesus….showed me that
for this I had to attain very great purity of heart, soul, mind and body, so
that the victim—who would also be priest with Jesus, would be not
defiled”.
Such abandonment is
barely understood, but our Father Benedict knew this and his Rule shows us the
way.
Jesus finally told me
that He was calling me to the interior
priesthood, offering up daily, constantly all for and in and through Him.
There is a mystery here I cannot explain. Do they know? Can they see? How can I
explain suffering for others? How can anyone explain what happened on Calvary?
Some think kneeling in
front of the Eucharist in the Monstrance must be a peaceful experience. It is
not. It is joining with the moment of the death of God.
Mother puts her hand on the arm of the young
nun and looks at her intensely.
So like the martyrs of
Montmarte and Tyburn, I agreed so long ago to martyrdom. But, I did not know it
would last so long. Such sanctification is in the daily, little things, as well
as the great suffering of illness. How
long, oh Lord, how long? “Pray for me so that I might be faithful to love the
Cross always and not desire to be freed from it.”
I have one more, dear,
dear memory.
Scene Eight: Mother Adele is in full habit and
writing to her new spiritual director. She is very happy, and serene. The day
is bright, as it is August, and she is sitting in a garden with a writing desk
on her lap. She looks at the ring on her
finger. She is smiling and looks beautiful in her face.
It was many years
since I had been asked by Christ to make the mystical marriage, but I had been
called to sacrifice myself and was reminded of the words of St. Paul in
Romans. I wrote to my new spiritual
father Abbot Marmion, our guide in so many things to come. In this letter, I told him of my double life,
“It is as if in me there are two persons, one who is suffering terribly, who
believes that everything is finished and that it cannot bear for long the
torment of its anxieties and responsibility. And then, another that is
sustained by God, by faith, accepting everything, who abandons herself to all,
who, seeing with certainty that she can do nothing except rely on God and pray
to Him, dwelling in peace adoring and blessing with all her heart and all her
soul with an immense love and intense joy, the Lord her God, the Master
infinitely great, powerful and wise…It is difficult to give an account of a
state so complex, as a double life, one life natural, physical and moral, also
sensitive to a certain extent, it is really pitiable, but at the same time a
supernatural life, high, living of love, of conformity and of abandonment to
divine Good Pleasure…”
A light covers Mother Adele and the entire room
is bleached with this light. Her habit turns into a wedding dress for a moment
and then back to her habit. At the end of the scene, a sun appears over a
picture on the wall of the Tridentine Mass, Mother Adele’s Mass. But, she gets
up and kisses the picture of the sun.
As I told Abbe
Courtois years ago, God approaches me as light, a penetrating, gentle light,
but that is gone now, as I am back in the darkness of Golgotha, but not for
long.
How many other souls
are there who are called to this bridal love and who may not answer? They do
not because they know not love. But, if they would only come to the Eucharist,
to Adoration, to Tyburn, these gentle souls would find love, as He is here.
I tell my daughters
that “The Mass has become like the sun of my life.” This is the Sun of the
Eucharistic Heart of Jesus. But, there are many mysteries in the world, and my
acceptance of suffering for others is one.
I am sure there are many called to this type of existence. How many answer yes? Even the apostles fell asleep in Gethsemane.
I cannot fall asleep into mediocrity or complacency. For the sake of my Lord, my God, my All.
Scene 9:
All the nuns are with Mother Marie Adele as she is dying. They are
singing the Salve Regina, and the room is full of the same white light as in the
last scene.
Mother Adele thoughts
again: It is June 17th, my last day on this earth, in this place. I
have just told Mother Agnes that I am happy. On this same day, in 1887, 37
years ago, I wrote out my first complete sacrifice to the Divine Will.
Nuns sing and the room is filled with
light. The Tyburn Altar to the Martyrs
is seen and then the Eucharist at Tyburn, and finally, the Eucharist on all the
altars of Tyburn around the world, Columbia, Peru, Scotland, Ireland, Rome,
Nigeria, New Zealand, Australia,
Ecuador…. All the faces of the multicultural order are seen. And, then, the grave of Mother Marie Adele at
Tyburn with follows…with a young nun kneeling in front…fade out.
Mother Marie Adele’s
thoughts continue: There were others
before me who understood this mysterious of love-St. Teresa of Avila, whose
Spanish passion is so different yet like my own. St. Rita, St. Francis, St.
Therese, our newest flower, and more who are being called. Did I succeed in sharing love? Will they
continue in this love? Will more come?
Mother Marie Adele repeats the opening lines: The day is dark for June. But, the day
mirrors the darkness of Calvary, when the storms blew across Golgotha at the
death of My Lord. I have left notes and letters, like clues for my dear daughters,
hoping they will understand the path I had to follow all these years. My dear
daughters have been called to come to me for a blessing.
Scene Ten: Mother
Agnes is in the garden of Tyburn. The
voice of her and Mother Marie Adele are in her mind;
Mother, are you
happy? Oh, yes, I am so happy with
God!...and with my children.”
Then, Mother Agnes reads this prayer:
Father, all powerful and ever-living God, we
give you glory, praise and thanks for the life and virtue of your beloved
daughter, Marie-Adele Garnier. Filled with the riches of your grace, and
preferring nothing to the love of the Heart of Jesus Christ, she devoted her
whole life to the adoration, praise and glory of your Name: she sacrificed
herself by prayer and penance for the unity and holiness of your Church; she
loved her neighbor with a charity full of humility and compassion. Above all, she found the Sun of her life in
the Holy Mass, and so was consumed with zeal for liturgical worship and Eucharistic
Adoration, and abandoned herself with all her heart to your most Holy Will is
all things.
In your mercy Lord,
hearken to our prayer: “Glorify your Servant Mother Marie-Adele Garnier, that
your Servant may glorify You.”
We ask this through
Our Lord, Jesus Christ, Your Son, Who lives and reign with you in the unity of
the Holy Spirit, One God, world without end. Amen.
(Bibliography on
request.)
Another repost on Athanasius
Tuesday, 19 March 2013
Part 93: DoC and Perfection: Athanasius "The Apostle"
I hate to leave the great Athanasius, but I must move on to the last two groups of the Doctors.
We owe Athanasius honor above many saints, as he upheld and explained the Truth in an age of confusion.
He understood the need for catechesis, which is so lacking in our parishes, (to the point where most Catholics no longer know the Faith). There is no excuse for this problem.
If one does not know the Faith, one cannot begin to know Christ. Here is Athanasius again, in Chapter Three.
(16) When, then, the minds of men had fallen finally to the level of sensible things, the Word submitted to appear in a body, in order that He, as Man, might center their senses on Himself, and convince them through His human acts that He Himself is not man only but also God, the Word and Wisdom of the true God. This is what Paul wants to tell us when he says: "That ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be strong to apprehend with all the saints what is the length and breadth and height and depth, and to know the love of God that surpasses knowledge, so that ye may be filled unto all the fullness of God."[6] The Self- revealing of the Word is in every dimension—above, in creation; below, in the Incarnation; in the depth, in Hades; in the breadth, throughout the world. All things have been filled with the knowledge of God.
We are surrounded by atheists and skeptics, cynics, and those fallen into grave depravity.
We are also surrounded by the knowledge of God, as the entire world has been redeemed by Christ.
God is, as Athanasius notes here, "Self-revealing". He wants us to know Him. He is not a hidden God, or a God who has not clarified the type of relationship He desires for us.
He wants to be known and He woes us, like a lover, who want to be known and understood by his beloved.
Do not turn away from the love.
On to another Doctor tomorrow...I hope you are as excited as I am about these writings.
We owe Athanasius honor above many saints, as he upheld and explained the Truth in an age of confusion.
If one does not know the Faith, one cannot begin to know Christ. Here is Athanasius again, in Chapter Three.
(16) When, then, the minds of men had fallen finally to the level of sensible things, the Word submitted to appear in a body, in order that He, as Man, might center their senses on Himself, and convince them through His human acts that He Himself is not man only but also God, the Word and Wisdom of the true God. This is what Paul wants to tell us when he says: "That ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be strong to apprehend with all the saints what is the length and breadth and height and depth, and to know the love of God that surpasses knowledge, so that ye may be filled unto all the fullness of God."[6] The Self- revealing of the Word is in every dimension—above, in creation; below, in the Incarnation; in the depth, in Hades; in the breadth, throughout the world. All things have been filled with the knowledge of God.We are surrounded by atheists and skeptics, cynics, and those fallen into grave depravity.
We are also surrounded by the knowledge of God, as the entire world has been redeemed by Christ.
God is, as Athanasius notes here, "Self-revealing". He wants us to know Him. He is not a hidden God, or a God who has not clarified the type of relationship He desires for us.
He wants to be known and He woes us, like a lover, who want to be known and understood by his beloved.
Do not turn away from the love.
On to another Doctor tomorrow...I hope you are as excited as I am about these writings.
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