Post #88

Topics: Knowledge and Sanctity: Meditations for Each Day....Magdalene's Many Faces: the World Seen From Rome....God's Glory in Science: Humans Glow in Visible Light....Vietnam Government: Destroys Catholic Monasteries....Ancient Liturgy: The Sarum Rite....The Sarum Rite: The Cherubic Hymn....Dies Irae, Dies Illa: by Dr. R. Kenton Craven....Litany of the Week: Litany to the Holy Angel...Treasure Found: German Crucifix

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Busy Work

We here at Venite Missa Est! are aware of the increasing readership, email and RSS feed subscribers to our little corner of the blogosphere. Thank you!

For you folks who recieve us through email or RSS feeds please note that the blog does at times contain pictures and video that you may not be seeing...so at your convenience...navigate over to http://venite-missa-est.blogspot.com/ for complete contents.

That being said let us be clear that this blogs intention is to the greater glory of God and will at times feature local stories, parishioners, guest writers and artists from within Wichita, the Latin Mass (EFLR) community of Kansas at large as well as national and international news stories. Occasionally there may be some articles that some may find controversial. It is not our intention to cause harm or insult to any fellow Catholics, ordained or lay but to present information that pertains to the Catholic world at large.

And now the neccesary housework:
Please note: St. Anthony Catholic Church is the only local church celebrating the Traditional Latin Mass (EFLR) in the Wichita area. Though this blog is loosely centered around this parish and it's members, Venite Missa Est! is by no means, in any way an official voice of, or for, St. Anthony Parish or the Diocese of Wichita. Venite Missa Est is strictly a private layman's endeavor.

Enjoy this weeks post. We are always looking for contributers. Feel free to contribute thoughts, articles, poems, artwork or anything else for that matter to bumpy187@gmail.com for consideration for next weeks post.

Dominus Vobisum

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Knowledge and Sanctity
Meditations for Each Day, by Cardinal Bacci
Submitted by James B. Spencer

If there had been equal progress throughout the ages in sanctity and in science, men would now be very wise and very holy.

It is a well-known fact that science has made great strides, but it must be admitted, unfortunately, that it has often forgotten its beginning and final end, which is God alone. The object of knowledge is truth, and all truth comes from God, but it dwells in created things like a reflection of divine light. We must trace that reflected light back to its original source. If students had always done this, they could have become wise as well as learned. They would have gained from their studies and research a deeper knowledge of God, the author of all the marvels in the universe, and they would have discovered how to worship and obey Him.

When science goes astray or becomes and end in itself, it ceases to be of real service and can become an instrument of evil. When the history of philosophy was described as the history of human aberrations, this was not altogether an exaggeration. Moreover, the technical and practical sciences which are flourishing in this era have often become a means of human destruction. This is what happens when science turns away from God, Who is its origin.

There is a great deal of learning in the modern world, but very little holiness. As a result of their absorption in intellectual labor and scientific research, men have forgotten the most important thing in life, which is goodness.

It would seem that the intellect has stifled the impulses of the heart and the dictates of conscience. Do not let that happen in your case. By all means, have and promote learning, but more than anything else cultivate in your soul that sanctity which will be your greatest treasure in life.

We have no right to speak evil of human learning and industry, which are always a gift from God. But we must recognize that goodness is more important than knowledge. The devil’s intellect is superior to ours, but he has lost God and in losing God has lost everything which is good.

Knowledge puffs up, writes St. Paul. Pride and presumption can easily spring from a little learning, whereas the fruits of holiness are always beneficial to ourselves and to others.

Let us be humble in our scientific studies and use the results which we obtain four our own progress in sanctity. . . . .

END

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Magdalene's Many Faces
By Elizabeth Lev
Courtesy Zenit: the World Seen From Rome
http://www.zenit.org/article-26537?l=english

Six years after Dan Brown's infamous novel "The Da Vinci Code," let's hope it's safe to talk about Mary Magdalene again. The Apostle to the Apostles (as Magdalene was called before Brown's more tawdry references eclipsed this title) celebrates her feast day this week, July 22, and it seems a fitting honor to briefly discuss her important role in the history of art.

Mary Magdalene has had more costume changes and nuances to her saintly image than any martyr or apostle. Like the popstar Madonna, she has transformed many times through the ages, but instead of trying to upstage the exalted role of Christ's mother, or promote a self-serving, hedonistic lifestyle, Mary Magdalene has employed her many guises to urge men and women to love Christ, renounce worldly temptations and fulfill their vocations to sainthood.

In the Renaissance, Gentile da Fabriano, painting for the wealthy merchants of Florence, gave us a stately Magdalene, in elegant brocaded robes swathed with red velvet, an example of how the mighty and privileged could also serve Christ. A few years later Piero di Cosimo painted a prim, studious Magdalene, to appeal to the intellectuals of the era. As Mary Magdalene had a unique knowledge of Christ, his miracles and his resurrection, so her obligation to be a witness to Jesus was greater than that of others.

But Mary Magdalene's iconographic fame took off in post-Tridentine Italy, when the call to conversion was at its strongest. In every parish and home, she led the way to repentance and love of God. The greatest artists of the 17th century, Caravaggio, Guido Reni and GianLorenzo Bernini all bent their formidable genius to rendering Mary Magdalene as the model of penitence par excellence.

Caravaggio, the famed Milanese painter, would treat the subject of Mary Magdalene three times in his brief career.

His first effort was in 1596 with the "Penitent Magdalene", today in the Doria Pamphilj gallery. This unusual portrait has a seated Mary wearing an expensive brocade dress as her red hair escapes its pins and tumbles over her shoulder. A mustard color mantle engulfing her waist would have identified her to contemporaries as a prostitute, yet her posture belies the easy label. Her head bowed low, she encircles her arms around a void. The treasures of this world have ceased to please and she realizes that all her sins have left her with nothing. A strand of pearls and golden chains lie discarded on the ground, and seem ripped from her neck in disgust, while a glass jar filled with oil, reflects the crystalline tear falling from her eye. In this image, Caravaggio not only allows the viewer a glimpse the private world of a personal conversion, but gives us a novel, startling viewpoint as well. The oddly foreshortened chair and lower body of Mary Magdalene have often been put down to Caravaggio's artistic limitations, but if one realizes that the artist was painting his subject from a raised viewpoint, looking down on her, the work makes more sense. Caravaggio give us a " God's eye" view of conversion and the warm light that bathes her neck and shoulders indicates that in these darkest hours of self-examination, God's comforting presence is there.

Forty years later, Guido Reni approached the subject. Considered the greatest painter of his age, he was asked to produce an image of penitent Magdalene for a private patron. This work, now in the Barberini Gallery in Rome, uses the opposite palette of Caravaggio. Where the Milanese painter employed yellows and reds to hint at the passionate nature of Mary, Reni chose cooler blue tones to explore her role as penitent. Reni places his Magdalene in a cave, her lower body wedged between dark stones reminiscent of the tomb. She wears a mauve-colored robe echoing the purple shade of penitence. Roots lie by her side, symbolic of fasting, and her hand rests on a skull, a reminder of how soon death takes us. Despite her golden flowing hair, her skin tone has a greenish cast, and her face contains the only warm shades in the work. Rosy cheeked and framed by luminous curls, she contemplates the glory of the heavens through her vision of angels. In the hands of Reni, Mary Magdalene becomes the poster child of corporal mortification.

In 1661, the greatest of the Baroque artists, GianLorenzo Bernini, turned his considerable talents to the subject of Mary Magdalene. His was a papal commission, a gift of Pope Alexander VII for the cathedral of his hometown of Siena. Bernini, 63 years old at the time, was personally absorbed with the idea of repentance. He attended Mass daily and practiced the spiritual exercises of St. Ignatius. With this kind of spiritual preparation, Bernini was more than up to this task.

His Mary Magdalene has little of the earthy solidity of either Caravaggio or Guido Reni. In the hands of this master sculptor, Mary has become an elongated figure. Stripped of ornament and costly fabrics, her body twists and turns, drawing the eye upward like the serpentine flames of a votive candle. She stands upon her jar of ointment, but her face turns toward the heavens, and her hands are fervently clasped in prayer. Her deeply pleated robe falls from her like a discarded shroud, as her highly polished body seems to blend into the light pouring in from the overhead windows. Bernini's Magdalene has reached the end of her earthy struggles and becomes a beacon to Paradise for the rest of us.

This saint, so approachable in her passionate impetuousness, was held up for particular devotion by the Church in the 17th century. Adapting to many forms and personalities, she managed to make sacrifice and repentance chic, a miracle in and of itself.

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Elizabeth Lev teaches Christian art and architecture at Duquesne University's Italian campus and University of St. Thomas' Catholic studies program. She can be reached at lizlev@zenit.org

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Strange! Humans Glow in Visible Light
By Charles Q. Choi

Courtesy Live Science
http://www.livescience.com/health/090722-body-glow.html

The human body literally glows, emitting a visible light in extremely small quantities at levels that rise and fall with the day, scientists now reveal.

Past research has shown that the body emits visible light, 1,000 times less intense than the levels to which our naked eyes are sensitive. In fact, virtually all living creatures emit very weak light, which is thought to be a byproduct of biochemical reactions involving free radicals.

(This visible light differs from the infrared radiation — an invisible form of light — that comes from body heat.)

To learn more about this faint visible light, scientists in Japan employed extraordinarily sensitive cameras capable of detecting single photons. Five healthy male volunteers in their 20s were placed bare-chested in front of the cameras in complete darkness in light-tight rooms for 20 minutes every three hours from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. for three days.

The researchers found the body glow rose and fell over the day, with its lowest point at 10 a.m. and its peak at 4 p.m., dropping gradually after that. These findings suggest there is light emission linked to our body clocks, most likely due to how our metabolic rhythms fluctuate over the course of the day.

Faces glowed more than the rest of the body. This might be because faces are more tanned than the rest of the body, since they get more exposure to sunlight — the pigment behind skin color, melanin, has fluorescent components that could enhance the body's miniscule light production.

Since this faint light is linked with the body's metabolism, this finding suggests cameras that can spot the weak emissions could help spot medical conditions, said researcher Hitoshi Okamura, a circadian biologist at Kyoto University in Japan.

"If you can see the glimmer from the body's surface, you could see the whole body condition," said researcher Masaki Kobayashi, a biomedical photonics specialist at the Tohoku Institute of Technology in Sendai, Japan.

The scientists detailed their findings online July 16 in the journal PLoS ONE.

Schematic illustration of experimental setup that found the human body, especially the face, emits visible light in small quantities that vary during the day. B is one fo the test subjects. The other images show the weak emissions of visible light during totally dark conditions. The chart corresponds to the images and shows how the emissions varied during the day. The last image (I) is an infrared image of the subject showing heat emissions. Credit: Kyoto University; Tohoku Institute of Technology; PLoS ONE

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Vietnamese Government Destroys Catholic Monastery
Courtesy Remnant News Watch July 25, 2009
By Mark Alessio
Remnant Columnist, New York

Blogger's note: St Anthony parish, in Wichita, has many Vietnamese parishioners which is why this story is pertinent to this blog. Please pray for our fellow Catholics in this troubled part of our world.

(Posted 07/22/09 www.RemnantNewspaper.com) The Vietnamese government has renewed its seizures of Catholic Church properties in the country, demolishing “several monasteries to build hotels and tourist resorts. The move has generated fears that the government has adopted a new and ‘harsh’ approach to Catholics,” reports VietCatholic News (June 12, 2009):

Last week the government ordered the destruction of the monastery of the Congregation of the Brothers of the Holy Family in Long Xuyen, Vietnam. A spokesman for the diocese said the former two-story home of the priests and religious of the Holy Family Order was destroyed on June 4. The Sisters of St. Paul of Chartres’ monastery in Vinh Long was also recently destroyed.

The Brothers of the Holy Family monastery, built in 1971, was still in good condition and its destruction surprised Catholic officials, Fr. J.B. An Dang reports. The local government did not inform the diocese about its intention to tear down the building and has not announced its intention for the future use of the land.

The monastery’s altar and religious statues were all discarded in a garbage dump. Neither the diocese nor the religious order has been officially informed to go and retrieve the items.

The Congregation of the Brothers of The Holy Family of Banam was founded in 1931 by Bishop Valentin Herrgott, the Apostolic Vicar of Phnom-Penh, Cambodia. In 1970, the order moved to Long Xuyen, Vietnam, after a coup against Cambodian monarch Norodom Sihanouk resulted in the rise of the Khmer Republic. In 1984, the Congregation’s brothers were arrested on charges of “anti-revolutionary activities” and jailed without trial. Their monastery was also seized by the Vietnamese government.

Protests by the Congregation of the Brothers of the Holy Family over the unjust imprisonment of its members and seizure of its property have met with no success. On May 21, 2009, the government's deputy chief of religious affairs, Nguyen Thanh Xuan, declared that the state "has no intention of returning any property or goods to the Catholic Church or any other religious organization."
Fr. An Dang fears that the destruction of the Long Xuyen monastery and Xuan’s statement signal a “new, harsh policy on Church’s properties in which there would be no more dialogue .... as if the State is the true owner with full authority on Church assets.”

Comment: It was only last October (2008) that Vietnamese Prime minister Nguyen Tan Dung warned Catholics that his government would not tolerate protests over seized Church property. He made this statement after thousand of Catholics had gathered outside St. Joseph’s Cathedral, Hanoi’s largest church, to demand the return of two seized plots of church land, one located near Thai Ha Church, near the center of Hanoi, the other the site of the former Vatican Embassy, next to the Cathedral. During the previous August, Vietnamese police arrested four Catholics who had taken part in Masses and prayer vigils for the return of the seized land.

The Vietnamese government’s attacks on the Church are not limited to property only. On April 28, 2009 the Catholic News Service reported:

Vietnamese state media have “fiercely attacked” two Redemptorist priests, accusing them of critically damaging national unity and blocking the national construction and development process. In what some see as a preparation for a government crackdown, the media are accusing the priests of the capital crime of plotting to overthrow the Communist regime. The tactic is commonly practiced to target opponents whose leadership among ordinary citizens is perceived as a threat to the current regime, Fr. J.B. An Dang tells CNA.

The New Hanoi Newspaper, run by the Party Committee of Hanoi City, denounced Fr. Peter Nguyen Van Khai, spokesman of Thai Ha Redemptorist Monastery, for “instigating parishioners in order to cause divisions, inciting riots, falsely accusing the government, disrespecting the nation, breaking and ridiculing the law and instigating others to violate it.”

In addition, the Capital Security Newspaper accused Fr. Nguyen of teaching “false Church doctrine to incite violence against the government.” Fr. Nguyen has also been criticized for opposing construction at a 4.5 acre lakeside site which belongs to Thai Ha parish.

Another Redemptorist, Fr. Joseph Le Quang Uy of Saigon, was also attacked by New Hanoi for criticizing the government’s bauxite mining plans, and establishing a web site through which Catholics from all over the world could sign an electronic petition calling for the suspension of the mining in Vietnam’s Central Highlands. The newspaper accused Fr. Joseph Le of “stupidity,” “ignorance,” causing critical damage to national unity, and the serious charge of plotting to overthrow the communist regime. In fact, Fr. An Dang believes that the accusations of plotting to overthrow the government could signal “that the Vietnam government has been preparing public opinions for an imminent crackdown.” The New Hanoi Newspaper has called for the Vietnamese government to enact “immediate and severe punishment” against the two priests “before they go too far.”

These media attacks on Catholic priests are nothing new. Last year, state-controlled Vietnamese newspapers and television joined the government in attacking Archbishop Ngo Quang Kiet, accusing him of “illegal acts” and “instigating unrest” on account of the prayer-vigils taking place to protest the seizure of church property.

On September 19, 2009, Catholic World News reported on the Vietnamese government’s use of paid agitators masquerading as priests and lay Catholics in order to discredit the Church. On one occasion, a “Church dissident” was quoted speaking out against the protesters. It turns out that the quoted individual had already been dead for a few years at the time of his “interview.”

The Agence France-Presse news service reported that, last year (September 21, 2008), police stood by, doing nothing, as a gang attacked Thai Ha Church, which had organized protests against seizure of church property. The gang chanted slogans threatening to kill priests, religious, the faithful and the archbishop; they threw stones and destroyed every statue of the Virgin Mary they could find. According to Fr. Khoi Phung, “Everything happened clearly in front of a large number of officials, police, security personnel, anti-riot police, and mobile police – those who are in charge of keeping security and safety in the region. But they did nothing to protect us.”

The anti-Catholic campaigns launched by the Vietnamese government could be a blueprint for anti-Catholic campaigns in any country. It includes attacks on property, attacks on priests and attacks on the Church as a “dissident” entity, or an “enemy of unity.”

Can we travel that road in America?

- Look at “Bill S.B. 1098,” introduced in the Connecticut legislature on March 5, 2009. This bill would remove control of Catholic parishes from bishops and place it into the hands of a “lay” panel, which would give them legal control over church management. It’s not exactly the bulldozing of church property, but it’s a start.

- Look at “Resolution 168-08,” passed unanimously by the San Francisco Board of Supervisors (March 21, 2006), which claims that the Vatican “meddles with and attempts to negatively influence this great City's existing and established customs and traditions such as the right of same-sex couples to adopt and care for children in need.” It also describes the moral teachings of the Catholic Church as "insulting to all San Franciscans," “hateful and discriminatory,” "insulting and callous," and "insensitive and ignorant."

Interestingly, “Resolution 168-08” called upon Archbishop Niederauer and the Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of San Francisco to defy the directives of Cardinal Levada, head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, who said that "Catholic agencies should not place children for adoption in homosexual households.”

Now, last year in Vietnam, state-run newspapers quoted from a letter written by Hanoi Mayor Nguyen The Thao to Archbishop Ngo Quang Kiet. The mayor told the Archbishop, “You have a responsibility to persuade priests and parishioners to abide by the law.” Of course, “law” here meant denouncing prayer vigils against church land seizure. The City of San Francisco and the Vietnamese government – birds of a feather?

May Our Lady of La Vang, who first appeared to the Catholics of Vietnam in 1798, and has been their special protector in times of persecution, watch over them as their trials continue.

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The Sarum Rite
http://www.columbia.edu/cu/sarum/rite.html
http://www.orthodoxwiki.org/Sarum_Rite
Blogger's note: While surfing the world wide nets I stumbled across the Sarum Rite which I found to be very interesting (I love history). I particularly enjoyed the Cherubic Hymn (pasted after article). The entirety of the liturgy can be found here: http://www.orthodoxresurgence.com/petroc/sarum.htm

"Sarum Rite," or "Use of Sarum," refers to the body of liturgical ritual, text, and music used at the Cathedral of Salisbury, in southern England, in the later Middle Ages. That liturgy, in the 13th century, became the standard for many English non-monastic institutions -- cathedrals (e.g. Hereford), minsters (e.g. York, Lincoln), churches, chapels, and colleges -- up to the time of the Reformation in the 16th century. It differed from the Roman Rite of the time by having some of its own melodies and texts, and celebrating its own local feasts. Even where (as is mostly true) it used the same material as Rome, its melodies often had distinctive variants.

For example, one of the glories of the Sarum repertory is the Marian antiphon Salve regina celorum, in the special and unique form in which SARUM sings it from time to time at the Compline of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Not only does the melody of the antiphon vary strikingly from the Roman, but it has in addition a "trope" exclusive to England: five stanzas of devotional poetry, set to an exquisitely distinctive melody. These verses are interleaved with the final acclamations of the antiphon to produce a haunting effect in the closing minutes of Compline.

In 1066, the Normans invaded England. There were some abortive attempts at changing entirely to the related uses of northern France. However, monasteries particularly in the western parts of the island (especially Sherbourne Abbey and Glastonbury Abbey) proved intransigent. The Norman bishop of Sarum, Osmund, arranged the services for his new cathedral according to the practices that he saw around him—both Norman and Saxon/Celtic.


The Sarum Use was one of the first to be published on the new printing presses in the early days of the Reformation. The complete service books for the whole rite survive. The rite was legislated as the sole use of the English Church by the Convocation of Canterbury in 1544 and after the reversion to the papacy, it was commanded for the whole realm of England during the reign of Queen Mary. It was also the primary source text for the first edition of The Book of Common Prayer (1549) of the Church of England . After Elizabeth I took the throne, the Recusant Roman Catholics continued using Sarum in their chapels until the restoration of the Roman hierarchy in the nineteenth century.
19th Century Non-Orthodox Revival

The rite was revived particularly by the orthodox party of the Anglo-Catholic or Tractarian movement in the 19th c. Church of England. In the mid-19th c., the services were translated into English by such as G. H. Palmer, and became either the preferred liturgy or preferred liturgical model for the non-Romanizing part of the Anglo-Catholic movement (also called Orthodox Anglo-Catholic or Prayer Book Catholic). The ceremonial and customs of the rite were the major influence in the development of the English Use, partly through the efforts of Percy Dearmer, author of The Parson's Handbook. The old English Catholic Clergy Brotherhood also maintained a tradition of Sarum Use through the period of Catholic persecution in England.

Attempts to revive the Sarum rite amongst non-Orthodox groups have resulted in Roman Catholic proponents such as A. W. N. Pugin and Bishop Willson of Hobart. The Sarum rite was suggested, but rejected, for use in the new Westminster Cathedral in 1903. It is used by the "Milan Synod" in some parishes and has been used on several occasions in RCC churches and cathedrals in England and Scotland in recent years.

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The Cherubic Hymn
Excerpt from the Sarum Rite Liturgy

Let all mortal flesh keep silence
And with fear and trembling stand;
Ponder nothing earthly minded,
For with blessing in His hand;
Christ our God to earth descendeth,
Our full homage to command.

King of Kings, yet born of Mary,
As of old on earth He stood,
Lord of Lords, in human vesture,
In the Body and the Blood,
He will give to all the Faithful
His own self for Heavenly food.

Rank on rank the Host of Heaven,
Spreads its vanguard on the way,
As the Light of Lights descendeth
From the realm of endless day,
That the powers of hell may vanish
As the darkness clears away.

At His feet the six-winged Seraphs,
Cherubim with sleepless eye,
Veil their faces to the Presence,
As with ceaseless voice they cry
Alleluia, Alleluia,
Alleluia, Lord most High.

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Dies Irae, Dies Illa
by Dr. R. Kenton Craven
From True West:Night wanderings of a sinful Catholic pilgrim on The Way
http://truewester.blogspot.com/2009/07/dies-irae-dies-illa.html#comments

It may be because my cousin Ronnie died recently or because of thunderstorms in the night, but my mind is on the proper Christian response to death and on funeral liturgies and customs. I turned to Evelyn Waugh’s Sword of Honor trilogy, and in volume three, Unconditional Surrender, found the careful description of the Catholic funeral for Guy Crouchback’s father, Gervase, a man so good that Guy (a good guy himself) says he knew no better. I have read this masterpiece (chapter 3 of the novel) many times. It helps greatly if you have read the whole of Waugh’s magnificent trilogy, but even if not, and especially if you are young and have never heard a Requiem High Mass, I believe you will be deeply moved. If not, my advice is to start over with nursery rimes and much time on your knees or prostrate before the Blessed Sacrament. Warning: you may be entering true land here.

You may find it odd, but when I was a choir and altar boy, I used to look forward to funeral Masses. I didn’t know why then, but now I see it as proof that I had some taste for beauty, poetry, and great liturgy. When our child choir sang the Dies Irae Dies Illa or when I heard the adult choir sing it, I knew that something solemn was taking place, something beyond what we knew in everyday life. The closest thing I knew to it was the massive roll of a sixteen-wheel Mallet locomotive entering the passenger station, all thunder and lights and steam. When I returned to the Church in the 1980’s after a long absence that began with the introduction of the Novus Ordo and the theological Bolshevik revolution, what I found even more vulgar than the protestant communion service designed by the willful and pernicious Archbishop Bugnini and perfected in silliness by the American clergy was what passed as the funeral Mass, the exit of a Christian from this world and his passage to Judgment. In a number of parishes I attended, the exit had been reshaped as yet another party of celebration with rubrics designed by the same nidgets who came up with the banners and suburban architecture. It resembled a visit to a Mall. Despite its illegality even in the new rubrics, it is now a widespread practice for congregations to bob up and burble sentimentally about the deceased and utter fatuous certainties that he is now in heaven (purgatory and hell having been abolished by modernist fatwas). Unlike the liturgy I knew as a child, the goal of the Novus Ordo liturgy seemed to be exactly like everyday life. The funeral mass now resembled a town hall meeting with flowers and brunch. At the funeral mass for my uncle Buddy, the priest, wearing spiky high-heels, assured the parish that, since Buddy had been baptized a Catholic, he was surely in heaven. Then why, I wondered then, are we here? Why did my uncle have to go to Mass and Confession all those years and say all those rosaries? The treasury of merit and the entire mystery of sin, death, judgment, hell and heaven having been abolished, why are we here? Has God Himself been abolished?

No traditional culture on the earth has funereal customs less holy, less dignified, or less serious than these. Archbishop Bugnini expunged the Dies Irae, Dies Illa from the Roman funeral liturgy as “too negative” and Kurt Vonnegut hated this hymn so much he rewrote it in a humanist version, presumably to Bugnini’s applause

The Requiem High Mass celebrated before Vatican II always had black vestments and the rubrics required the choir to sing all the verses of the medieval hymn, Dies Irae Dies Illa. One of the internet addresses at the end of this article contains this part of the funeral Mass as sung, a capella, by a choir. Unless you listen to it and read the translation in the sites referenced below, you won’t have any idea of what I am talking about. The hymn is a medieval poem in medieval Latin, with trochaic meter in brilliant triplets. Sample:

Dies iræ! dies illa
Solvet sæclum in favilla
Teste David cum Sibylla

Translation:

Day of wrath! O day of mourning!
See fulfilled the prophets' warning,
Heaven and earth in ashes burning!

In Waugh’s description of his father’s funeral, when he hears the choir singing the hymn, he imagines his father joining his voice with that of the choir in:

Ingemisco, tamquam reus:
culpa rubet vultus meus:
supplicanti parce, Deus.

Which in English renders as:

Guilty, now I pour my moaning,
all my shame with anguish owning;
spare, O God, thy suppliant groaning!

Although Guy believes his father to be the best man he has ever known, a just man by any standard, he does not imagine him as assured of anything.

That would be his prayer, who saw, and had always seen, quite clearly the difference in kind between the goodness of the most innocent of humans and the blinding, ineffable goodness of God. ‘Quantitative judgments don’t apply,’ his father had written. As a reasoning man Mr. Crouchback had known that he was honourable, charitable and faithful; a man who by all the formularies of his faith should be confident of salvation; as a man of prayer he saw himself as totally unworthy of divine notice.

I suppose that this would not pass the liturgy committee of any parish today, sunk like most of our culture in ‘quantitative judgments,’ i.e., sociological vision, or the standard of the National Catholic Bishops, because it lacks the presumptive certainty that we know what God has in mind. The author of Dies Irae sees things as old Crouchback did, and as his ancestors Sir Roger Waybrook, the crusader, and Blessed Gervase must have:

Low I kneel, with heart submission,
see, like ashes, my contrition;
help me in my last condition.

Guy Crouchback comes to realize that he has lived much of his life in a spiritual paralysis because he has been unwilling to ask God for anything. From his father Gervase, he learns that even at the end, the soul must still be asking, because we are meant to always be asking.

The Crouchback funeral takes place in the middle of the second world war wherein the remnant of Christian civilization, although being torn apart by the Nazi socialists and the Marxist socialists for whom individual human lives are ciphers on charts, continued to treat human beings as destined for the four last things—Death, Judgment, Hell, Heaven. That treatment requires solemnity which, as C.S. Lewis observes, is public and has pomp and ceremony. I think of solemn things I have seen: the Solemn High Mass; the funeral of John F. Kennedy; the changing of the sentinels at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldiers; scenes in Tolkien, Shakespeare, Spenser, Lewis; burials in Arlington National Cemetery; and the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace. Solemnity, as Lewis observes, may include a great joy, but not the silly joy of the Novus Ordo Mass. There must be stillness and stateliness and sacredness at the heart of it to carry our grief. The Dies Irae, Dies Illa, this great medieval poem, brings that to death.

I wonder aloud why the “new church” cannot speak of death with the attitude of the eternal church, which sees each of our deaths in the proper context of the end of the world, or why the color black and genuine grief should be banned. Perhaps for the same reason that many priests dislike using the verse, “remember, man, that thou art dust and to dust, thou shalt return,” when they administer the ashes on Ash Wednesday. Or perhaps it lies deeper than that. Like Athanasius Contra Mundum on the web, I am deeply disturbed (but not surprised) that only one-third of the American Catholic bishops could even put pen to paper to protest the Obama fest at Notre Dame, and none could show up to join Alan Keyes and Joan Andrews to protest this honoring of a man who favors butchery over reverence for life. Our attitudes toward death and our attitudes toward life must correlate; they are revealed by our actions, including our liturgies. This correlation must exist in the spiritual realm, just as it is imitated in the physical actions we perform to evoke them, from the simplest to the most intricate. I had rather hear Australian aborigines on a didgeridoo and clacking wooden sticks than hear some silly, trivializing modern hymn. This is so frightening a chain of thought that I am reluctant to pursue it further.

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Litany of the Week

Litany to the Holy Angels

Blogger's note: Recently while visiting a cemetery I found, in my mother's old 1950's Marian Missal, a beautiful Litany for the Faithful Departed which I prayed for my parents, my relatives and all lying in repose. Note that the missal stated that this litany was for private use only (and is not a public litany). Ever since blog contributor Larry Bethel urged us to pray the Litany of Saints for Rogation Days (see Post #78) I have been fascinated with the different Litanies. I find them to be beautiful, meditative and edifying. Venite Missa Est! will feature the various litanies over the coming weeks. Enjoy (and pray!)

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Litany to the Holy Angels

Lord, have mercy. Lord, have mercy.
Christ, have mercy. Christ, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy. Lord, have mercy.

Christ, hear us. Christ, graciously hear us.
God, the Father of Heaven, Have mercy on us.
God, the Son, Redeemer of the world, Have mercy on us.
God, the Holy Ghost, Have mercy on us.
Holy Trinity, One God, Have mercy on us.


Holy Mary, Queen of Angels, pray for us
Holy Mother of God, pray for us
Holy Virgin of virgins, pray for us
Saint Michael, who was ever the defender of the people of God, pray for us
St. Michael, who did drive from Heaven Lucifer and his rebel crew, pray for us
St. Michael, who did cast down to Hell the accuser of our brethren, pray for us
Saint Gabriel, who did expound to Daniel the heavenly vision, pray for us
St. Gabriel, who did foretell to Zachary the birth and ministry of John the Baptist, pray for us
St. Gabriel, who did announce to Blessed Mary the Incarnation of the Divine Word, pray for us
Saint Raphael, who did lead Tobias safely through his journey to his home again, pray for us
St. Raphael, who did deliver Sara from the devil, pray for us
St. Raphael, who did restore his sight to Tobias the elder, pray for us
All ye holy Angels, who stand around the high and lofty throne of God, pray for us
Who cry to Him continually: Holy, Holy, Holy, pray for us
Who dispel the darkness of our minds and give us light, pray for us
Who are the messengers of heavenly things to men, pray for us
Who have been appointed by God to be our guardians, pray for us
Who always behold the Face of our Father Who is in Heaven, pray for us
Who rejoice over one sinner doing penance, pray for us
Who struck the Sodomites with blindness, pray for us
Who led Lot out of the midst of the ungodly, pray for us
Who ascended and descended on the ladder of Jacob, pray for us
Who delivered the Divine Law to Moses on Mount Sinai, pray for us
Who brought good tidings when Christ was born, pray for us
Who comforted Him in His agony, pray for us
Who sat in white garments at His sepulcher, pray for us
Who appeared to the disciples as He went up into Heaven, pray for us
Who shall go before Him bearing the standard of the Cross when He comes to judgment, pray for us
Who shall gather together the elect at the End of the World, pray for us
Who shall separate the wicked from among the just, pray for us
Who offer to God the prayers of those who pray, pray for us
Who assist us at the hour of death, pray for us
Who carried Lazarus into Abraham’s bosom, pray for us
Who conduct to Heaven the souls of the just, pray for us
Who perform signs and wonders by the power of God, pray for us
Who are sent to minister for those who shall receive the inheritance of salvation, pray for us
Who are set over kingdoms and provinces, pray for us
Who have often put to flight armies of enemies, pray for us
Who have often delivered God’s servants from prison and other perils of this life, pray for us
Who have often consoled the holy martyrs in their torments, pray for us
Who are wont to cherish with peculiar care the prelates and princes of the Church, pray for us
All ye holy orders of blessed spirits, pray for us

From all dangers, deliver us, O Lord.
From the snares of the devil, deliver us, O Lord.
From all heresy and schism, deliver us, O Lord.
From plague, famine and ware, deliver us, O Lord.
From sudden and unlooked-for death, deliver us, O Lord.
From everlasting death, deliver us, O Lord.


Through Thy holy Angels, we beseech Thee, hear us.
That Thou would spare us, we beseech Thee, hear us.
That Thou would pardon us, we beseech Thee, hear us.
That Thou would govern and preserve Thy Holy Church, we beseech Thee, hear us.
That Thou would protect our Apostolic Prelate and all ecclesiastical orders,we beseech Thee, hear us.
That Thou would grant peace and security to kings and all Christian princes, we beseech Thee, hear us.
That Thou would give and preserve the fruits of the earth, we beseech Thee, hear us.
That Thou would grant eternal rest to all the faithful departed, we beseech Thee, hear us.

Lamb of God, Who takes away the sins of the world, Spare us, O Lord.
Lamb of God, Who takes away the sins of the world, Graciously hear us, O Lord.
Lamb of God, Who takes away the sins of the world Have mercy on us.

Lord, have mercy. Christ, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.

Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory Be

Bless the Lord, all ye Angels: Ye who are mighty in strength, who fulfill His commandments, hearkening unto the voice of His words.

He hath given His Angels charge concerning thee, To keep thee in all thy ways.



Let Us Pray

O God, Who dost arrange the services of Angels and men in a wonderful order, mercifully grant that our life may be protected on earth by those who always do Thee service in Heaven, through Jesus Christ Thy Son, Who with Thee and the Holy Ghost are one God now and forever.

Amen.

O God, Who in Thine unspeakable Providence dost send Thine Angels to keep guard over us, grant unto Thy suppliants that we may be continually defended by their protection and may rejoice eternally in their society, through Jesus Christ Our Lord, Who lives and reigns with Thee, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, forever and ever.

Amen.

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Treasure Found
German Crucifix
By Mark Llamas

I love the flea market. One man's junk is another man's treasure.

While looking through old badges, campaign pins and ink pens I spied this old crucifix (see picture) looking forlorn and forgotten so I snatched it up for ten bucks.

The proprietor of the booth mentioned that it was old and German and after an internet search I found an almost exact duplicate (and yes it is old adn German).

This type of crucifix I have seen labeled as a "pillow crucifix", a crucifix worn by religious and/or a "coffin crucifix" placed on the lid of coffins. They come from the late 1800s and typically contain black wood inlaid in plated brass. The skull and crossbones at the foot of Christ represent victory over death or the skull of Adam since it was believed that Christ was crucified over the grave of Adam.

My crucifix is missing the INRI banner at top and the rosette medallion on the back. Had it been intact, an eBay search shows it's worth around $100.

I am guilty of buying a lot of junk but I just had to rescue this crucifix. I have actually seen a tabernacle door at the flea market but the $300 price was too much for me to spend.

Post #87

Topics: Litany of the Week: Litany of Loreto....Poem: By James Spencer....
Impovershed Landscape: For Whom the Bells Toll Not....Anti-Witchcraft Catholic:
May Become Saint....Picture of Holy Mass: His Excellency Bishop James D. Conley...It Just Makes Sense: Bishop Promulgates Norms for Tabernacle Placement

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Litany of the Week

Litany of Loreto ("Litany of the Blessed Virgin Mary") - Litaniae Lauretanae

Recently while visiting a cemetery I found, in my mother's old 1950's Marian Missal, a beautiful Litany for the Faithful Departed which I prayed for my parents, my relatives and all lying in repose. Note that the missal stated that this litany was for private use only (and is not one of the official litanies). Ever since blog contributor Larry Bethel urged us to pray the Litany of Saints for Rogation Days (see Post #78) I have been fascinated with the different Litanies. I find them to be beautiful, meditative and edifying. Venite Missa Est! will feature the various litanies over the coming weeks. Enjoy (and pray!)

Litany of Loreto

Lord, have mercy on us. (Christ have mercy on us.)

Lord, have mercy on us. Christ, hear us. (Christ graciously hear us.)

God, the Father of heaven, (have mercy on us.)
God the Son, Redeemer of the world, (have mercy on us.)

God the Holy Ghost, (have mercy on us.)

Holy Trinity, one God, (have mercy on us.)

Holy Mary, (pray for us).....response repeated until break below

Holy Mother of God,

Holy Virgin of virgins,

Mother of Christ,

Mother of the Church Mother of divine grace,

Mother most pure,

Mother most chaste,

Mother inviolate,

Mother undefiled,

Mother most amiable,

Mother most admirable,

Mother of good counsel,

Mother of our Creator,

Mother of our Savior,

Virgin most prudent,

Virgin most venerable,

Virgin most renouned,

Virgin most powerful,

Virgin most merciful,

Virgin most faithful,

Mirror of justice,
Seat of wisdom,

Cause of our joy,

Spiritual vessel,

Vessel of honor,

Singular vessel of devotion,

Mystical rose,

Tower of David,

Tower of ivory,

House of gold,

Ark of the covenant,

Gate of heaven,

Morning star,

Health of the sick,
Refuge of sinners,

Comforter of the afflicted,

help of Christians,

Queen of Angels,

Queen of Patriarchs,

Queen of Prophets,

Queen of Apostles,

Queen of Martyrs,

Queen of Confessors,
Queen of Virgins,

Queen of all Saints,

Queen conceived without original sin,

Queen assumed into heaven,

Queen of the most holy Rosary.

Queen of the family,

Queen of Peace,

Lamb of God, who takest away the sins of the world, (spare us, O Lord.)

Lamb of God, who takest away the sins of the world, (graciously hear us O Lord.)

Lamb of God, who takest away the sins of the world, (have mercy on us.)

Pray for us, O holy Mother of God. (That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.)

Let us pray.

Grant, we beseech Thee, O Lord God, unto us Thy servants, that we may rejoice in continual health of mind and body; and, by the glorious intercession of Blessed Mary ever Virgin, may be delivered from present sadness, and enter into the joy of Thine eternal gladness. Through Chrsit our Lord. (Amen.)

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By James Spencer

Plump little worm on your moistened clod,
Why do you so cower and cling, and fear a fall to that placid pool?
What but ignorance could hold you back? Let me speak to you:
Become a meal for that gaudy trout and you’ll be a part of him!
You might soon be a splash of white pure on his ventral fin,
Or a bright red spot, or a purple ring, there on his brilliant side.
But even if you’d never be more than one of his worm-like markings,
You’d still be raised unthinkably high up nature’s unscalable ladder.
So jump, little worm, and do jump quickly! What I say cannot be wrong,
For as I’m now urging you, so God once urged me.

--- James B. Spencer, 1951

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IMPOVERISHED LANDSCAPE

For Whom the Bells Toll Not
June 2009By R. Kenton Craven

The New Oxford Review
Dr. R. Kenton Craven describes himself as a scholar-in-exile in Sparta, Tennessee.

When I awoke as a boy, it was always to bells; first to the slow, dipodic clanging of the switch engine bells on the Norfolk and Western Line, the main yard of which ran past our house and carried millions of tons of freight and coal, troop and passenger trains, and shrouded armaments for war. No matter the time of day or night, the bells were there, a part of consciousness as sure as the fog and drizzle of the Appalachian valleys. Then, from the Spanish gothic bell tower of Sacred Heart, the lesser bell rang out the Angelus, serving notice to the world that the Word had become flesh and dwelt among us, calling us to kneel and pray.

At Mass the triple hand bells I rang insisted on the greatest happening in the universe, and they echoed in the stone of the sanctuary, a place where bells said, "Awake! Awake to these Mysteries!" At Easter, when the Gloria was sung for the first time since Ash Wednesday, we rose exulting as two bell-ringers were lifted off their feet, pulling hard on the bell ropes, and the great bells pealed out the news that He is risen.

On school mornings, Sister Innocentia stood in the school door and rang the large hand bell, which must have reminded her of school and her own youth in Germany. And, a special memory: One morning my mother and I were on the way to church when every train and church bell (and steam whistle) sounded together. I looked to her in fear and amazement; she explained through her tears, "The war is over!" Bells permeated my existence then: life meant bells; church meant bells; bells called me to the mystery of things.

A world without bells was unimaginable, but in the grim modern process of unimagining, the unimaginable happened when I wasn’t looking. The railroad locomotives and their bells disappeared, to be replaced by the rude blatting of diesel horns; and churches gave up their real bells for electronic chimes. Bell towers were abandoned as unsafe or primitive, and new suburban churches simply ignored 1,500 years of Church history, from the times when the monks of Ireland marked the liturgical hours first with hand bells and then with larger ones, which they had to bury when the Danes came. From something like cow bells — which have also mostly vanished, soon to be replaced by microchips — the monks’ hand bells developed into the great cast bells that began to define the sacred time of Europe and beyond. Then, for more than a thousand years, Europe was not only the Faith, it was the daily sense of the hours marked by prayer, and even the humblest of churches strove to have the best and most melodious of bells. Bells meant prayer; bells meant the holy; bells meant the Church universal; and more, to borrow a phrase from Belloc, they meant "the physical network upon which the soul depends."

Testimony to that need is ancient. Human beings have been striking wood and metal as far back as known, doubtless for various purposes, but most often in connection with religion. Some of the bells from the Orient seem clunky and have little tone. Apparently, the first hand bells used by Irish monks were little more than cow bells. But monasticism, as it came out of the desert and into Europe, required larger bells, and a proud art of great sophistication grew. At present in the West, only a few major church bell-makers exist, mostly in Poland and Russia, though Verdin’s and McShane continue the tradition in the U.S.

When one reads the history and literature of the Christian West from the sixth century onward, one is struck by the omnipresence of bells. As bell-making grew with Christian art and architecture, bells grew larger and the making of many great tones required both wizardry and tonnage, until the point that a bell commissioned by the Tsars weighed 220 tons, and required a warning before it was rung to keep the populace from thinking the apocalypse was upon them. (By comparison, the largest church bell in the West, in Cologne, weighs 27 tons; the great bell of St. Peter’s, nine tons). Simultaneously, through the cunning of metallurgists, bells were developed to exact tones, and groups of bells became veritable orchestras. Bell-ringers became prized as artists, and were even invested with the minor order of ostiarius. Today, here and there, the great bells ring out the monastic hours with soul-moving force, as at Abbaye Fontgombault, where the Benedictines keep the ancient rule and liturgy, prompting one visitor, then-Cardinal Ratzinger, to say, "Now that is the Catholic Church!"

Despite some silly controversies in the 16th century over the "baptism of the bells," instigated by those who hate "the physical network on which the soul depends," Catholics have felt the mystery of the bells to be tied up with the mysteries of the Faith, which gave rise to the practice of the blessing and even naming of bells, for one blesses and names what is beloved of the soul.

In 1991, I awoke in Kuwait to the sounds of a dozen mosques roaring that Allah is Awesome! and all must come to prayer. The shock ran up and down my spine. In several countries, I lived six years among the Muslims and daily felt the powerful presence of a serious religion that knows that the consciousness of man requires constant reminders of prayer. Even in the Arab countries that permit a few churches enclosed by walls, no bells are permitted. Islam instinctively understands the religious truth that time must be defined as sacred time, for their muezzins call their faithful to prayer five times a day, wailing away even during a sermon by Pope John Paul II. No phony ecumenism for them; they know that minarets and bells speak different and absolutely opposed languages.

The Protestant Reformers sensed it too, and so Zwingli and others were much exercised to ban them altogether from the bleak Protestant landscape. So, too, atheists and humanists. During the French Revolution, the ideologues who murdered thousands of priests and nuns and sacked the churches and convents did not neglect to melt nationalized church bells into metal for cannon. In the U.S., fellow ideologue Thomas Paine wanted to eliminate those Romish bells because they meant Europe — and Europe, of course, meant the Faith. Later, the rage of revolution would turn against the ten thousand bells of Russia — but about that, more anon.

After Vatican II, even the hand bells of the Mass disappeared from our sanctuaries, as the boundaries of the sanctuaries themselves dissolved into the misty Land of Nuance. I have heard of Catholic priests, the sort who like to be called Mister or Presider, telling their flocks to eschew the Sign of the Cross as potentially offensive to "those of other belief systems," and I suspect that they, too, would prefer the electronic chimes set to the Harry Potter theme or Buddhist gongs. Shall we call it the New Puritanism? As the New Oxford Review’s Michael S. Rose demonstrates with great clarity in Ugly as Sin: Why They Changed Our Churches from Sacred Places to Meeting Spaces and How We Can Change Them Back Again (re-released in paperback this year), American neo-Protestant theology translates churches into suburban meeting halls without aspiring bell towers or bells. No bells, no calling of souls to the highest.

Yet Christian bells do call to us. Dolefully, joyfully, peremptorily, insistently, grandly, slowly, powerfully, undeniably. A bell requires silence; it speaks out of the silence that surrounds it. A bell must be rung with human hands, and ring into something, and it depends on a landscape and a faithful body of hearers for its fulfillment. In a Catholic world, grace flows through God’s created things, not the least of which is sound.

Recently, I have been re-reading with great pleasure the careful fictions of Maurice Baring who, like all Catholic novelists of the 20th century, faced the problem of how to bring the reader into contact with a Catholic sense of reality without straying into didacticism. In one of his best novels, Cat’s Cradle, in which Providence and chance often seem to trade places unexpectedly, the very secular English woman Blanche Clifford marries into an Italian Catholic family, unfortunately to a cruel and despotic Count. The setting is not propitious for her awaking to grace. But early in the novel, the catholicized Roman landscape momentarily breaks in upon her selfish preoccupations: "All at once the church bells began to ring. She seemed to be in a crystal kingdom of ringing sound. The man behind the donkey stopped and took off his hat. It was the Ave Maria."

Suddenly, all around her, people are silent and immobile. And hardly had the Angelus ceased, when she heard the sound of another bell:

In the distance of the dark street she saw lighted torches waving and coming towards her...and then the sound of many voices.... People crying "Il San­tissimo! Il Santissimo!" Those who were indoors snatched lamps from the table — lamps as old in shape as those of the Vestal Virgins, or the Wise and Foolish Virgins — and the whole street was bright with a sudden spontaneous illumination. It was a priest bearing the Blessed Sacrament to a sick man to give him the Viaticum. Beside him was a boy ringing a bell....

The crowd follows, kneels, and breaks into a Te Deum at the sick man’s house. At the time, the scene seems to make only a brief, aesthetic impression on Blanche, but it heralds a great and long spiritual struggle as she resists grace time and again. Self-obsessed, worshipping her own beauty and charm, Blanche leaves the insanely jealous Guido and takes on the task of nursing her devoutly Catholic Uncle Charles in Spain. As Charles weakens and makes his peace with all around him, Blanche looks out the window. Above the sounds of the noisy street, she "heard the sound of a bell, and saw the priest walking in his white stole, and by his side was a boy carrying a taper; and the years rolled back for her, and she was once more in a narrow street near the Palazzo Fabrini, looking on a procession.... She was a different woman now — the ghost of the Blanche of those days...." Uncle Charles is "shriven, houseled, and annealed," and at the end smiles and says, Eccoti! — "There you are!" — quoting a moment of divine surprise from a play.

Finally, guided through more years by a holy priest, it is Blanche’s turn. Lying ill, she asks for the last sacraments, and "she thought of three things: the procession of the Viaticum she had seen years before in Rome, the death of her Uncle Charles in Seville, and his last words, and the evening when Rose Mary [her step-daughter] was given the last Sacraments in Mansfield Street.... The priest talked of a ‘sick call’; she felt that it was a call that had been sounding all her life: she was now answering it." The sounds of bells had been a grace that called her from one way of life to another, and through them Baring is able to preach more than a dozen sermons.

Years before he wrote his novels, but after his conversion, Baring had written his autobiography, The Puppet Show of Memory, a brilliant portrait of the years before the First World War and his life as a journalist in them. The concluding chapters give us priceless portraits of Russia before the revolution, one of which is the birth of a bell in a Christian culture. The full portrait requires reading to get the full flavor, but "on the day the bell was to be," Baring finds the entire village jammed into the bazaar for the ceremony, in which two priests and a deacon lead the crowd in a majestic procession from the church accompanied by plainsong in deep Russian bass voices.

They surround a giant open furnace where the molten metal is to be blessed with holy water and a Te Deum. At the climax of two hours of fervent prayer, the crowd asks Baring to toss in a piece of silver just as the flow of the metal begins in a sheet of flame. "The bell was born. I hoped the silver rouble which I threw into it, and which now formed part of it, would sweeten its utterance, and that it would never have to sound the alarm which signifies battle, murder, and sudden death. A vain hope — and idle wish."

In a few years, Baring’s suspicions were more than realized and, throughout Russia, churches were destroyed or turned to other uses, and the ten thousand bells of Rus silenced by the forces that hate God and truth. When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, already new bells were being cast, and old bells that had been hidden were brought back joyfully. In some places the bells had been buried, but when the people dug for them, they found the remains of murdered counter-revolutionaries, and left the bells with them.

Catholicism will not unashamedly live its full cultural life again until a Catholic people reclaims its ancient liberty in the building of church towers, and the making and hearing of bells that remember the monastic hours and the Angelus. In England and many European countries, the landscape rings not with bells, but with the raucous Islamic call to prayer. In America we have neither; we have an insidious modernist denial of the thunderous pealing our bodies and souls need.

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Anti-Witchcraft Catholic May Become Saint Posted
CISA (Catholic Information Service for Africa) News 14 July 2009 http://www.cisanewsafrica.org/story.asp?ID=4016

Pretoria — A Catholic who was killed 19 years ago for rejecting his people's belief in witchcraft could become South Africa's first saint.

The Diocese of Tzaneen has completed the first phase of the cause for beatification and canonization of the Servant of God Benedict Daswa. The phase took five years to complete.

The final documents addressed to Archbishop Angelo Amato SDB, Prefect of the Congregation for Causes of Saints, were signed on July 2 by Bishop Hugh Slattery MSC, Bishop of Tzaneen, Sr Sally Duigan OLSH, Daughter of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart and Chancellor of the Diocese, Fr Andre Bohas MSC, Postulator of the Cause and Fr Eddie O'Neill SDB, the Promoter of Justice.

The documents consist of over 850 pages of testimonies of reliable witnesses to the life and death of the Servant of God. The original copy, which was sealed first, remains in the archives of the Diocese of Tzaneen. The transcript copy and public copy were then sealed and are to be taken to the Congregation for the Causes of Saints in Rome, through the the Apostolic Nuncio, Archbishop James Green.

The Transcript and Public Copies will remain sealed until the Congregation for the Causes of Saints approves a Roman Postulator to proceed with the next phase of the process. Information about the Servant of God and the Cause may now be made known to the public.

It is thought that Benedict Daswa led a holy life and became a genuine martyr for the faith.
The next stage will be to prepare prayer cards and a novena to enable people to pray for favours through the intercession of the Servant of God.

A short biography and DVD will be produced to make Benedict Daswa more widely known here in South Africa and in other African countries, as a role model for all and a great witness to the faith.

According to a biographical note published by the Southern African Catholic Bishops' Conference, Benedict grew up in a traditionalist family who belonged to the small Lemba tribe who live mainly among the Venda people in the Limpopo Province. He became a Catholic while training to become a primary school teacher.

Benedict soon realized that witchcraft was against his Catholic faith. From then on in his private life and also in public he took a strong stand against witchcraft because he said it led to the killing of innocent people accused of witchcraft activities.

He also rejected the use of muti or medicines for protection against evil or for success in sport or other activities. It was this stand against witchcraft which eventually led to his death. A few days after refusing to give money for the purpose of smelling out witches, he was stoned and bludgeoned to death on February 2, 1990. He was just four months short of his 44th birthday.

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Picture:Holy Mass Celebrated by His Excellency Bishop James D. Conley
Submitted by Luke Headley

Bloggers note: The following picture is a photo of a photo but none the less shows the awesome beauty of Holy Mass. How fortunate we are...

Formerly of the Wichita diocese, His Excellency Bishop James D. Conley of Denver CO. celebrated Holy Mass at St. Anthony, Wichita, Sunday June 21 in the Extraordinary Form of the Latin Rite.

Previously as Monsignor, Bishop Conley served St. Anthony as both celebrant (alternating with Fr. Jarrod Lies) and as liaison for the EFLR community of St. Anthony to Bishop Jackels.

Denver Archbishop Charles J. Chaput, O.F.M Cap., ordained the Most Rev. James D. Conley as the new auxiliary bishop on May 30, 2008 the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart, at Denver’s Cathedral Basilica of the Immaculate Conception.

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Just for Fun

Burns and Allen

Though I was born in 1961, I have a fondness for the popular culture of America from the forties including such classic songs as I'm Beginning to See the Light by Kitty Kallen and the Harry James Orchestra, to the Burns and Allen comedy duo.

Burns and Allen, an American comedy duo consisting of George Burns and his wife, Gracie Allen, worked together as a comedy team in vaudeville, films, radio. and television and achieved substantial success over three decades from the mid twenties to the late 50's.

Enjoy this....just for fun.

Gracie Allen: "My mother said I used to be a twin."

George Burns: "Oh yeah?"

Gracie: "Yes......when I was two."

Gracie Allen: "When I was born I was so surprised I didn't talk for a year and a half.”

George: Stop![music stops]Gracie, how is your cousin?
Gracie: You mean the one who died?
George: Yeah.
Gracie: Oh, he's fine now.

Gracie Allen "They laughed at Joan of Arc, but she went right ahead and built it."

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Devotion to My Immaculate Heart

Excerpt: by Sr. Lucia dos Santos

http://www.ewtn.com/fatima/apparitions/third_secret/fatima.htm#3rd

Submitted by Micheal O'Neil

Our Lady showed us a great sea of fire which seemed to be under the earth. Plunged in this fire were demons and souls in human form, like transparent burning embers, all blackened or burnished bronze, floating about in the conflagration, now raised into the air by the flames that issued from within themselves together with great clouds of smoke, now falling back on every side like sparks in a huge fire, without weight or equilibrium, and amid shrieks and groans of pain and despair, which horrified us and made us tremble with fear.

The demons could be distinguished by their terrifying and repulsive likeness to frightful and unknown animals, all black and transparent. This vision lasted but an instant. How can we ever be grateful enough to our kind heavenly Mother, who had already prepared us by promising, in the first Apparition, to take us to Heaven. Otherwise, I think we would have died of fear and terror.
Sr. Lucia dos Santos

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It Just Makes Sense
Bishop Promulgates Norms for Tabernacle Placement
By Bishop John M. D’Arcy, Diocese of Fort Wayne- South Bend
http://www.diocesefwsb.org/COMMUNICATIONS/statements.htm

To Priests, Deacons, Religious, and to All the Faithful,
The presence of Jesus Christ in the Blessed Sacrament is at the center of our faith and of the devotional life of our Catholic people.

In recent years, the place of the tabernacle in our churches has become a source of controversy. This should not be. The Eucharist, whether we are referring to its celebration or to the place of reservation, should always be a means of unity and communion, and never of division.

The place of the tabernacle in our church should reflect our faith in the real presence of Christ, and should always be guided by church documents.

My experience is that our people, with their instinct of faith, have always desired that the tabernacle be central and visible. They find it confusing when the tabernacle in their churches is not visible, and if possible, central.

Because of my responsibility to foster the devotional life of our people, and to keep it sound, I have asked our Office of Worship to prepare norms for the placement and design of the tabernacle in this diocese. These norms were brought before the Presbyteral Council, the Liturgical Commission and the Environment and Arts Committee. Suitable refinements and improvements were prepared.

These norms are promulgated to the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend on June 14, 2009, the feast of Corpus Christi, the Body and Blood of the Lord. They will be effective on Aug. 4, 2009, the feast of St. John Mary Vianney, the patron saint of priests, in whose honor the present Year for Priests has been dedicated by the Holy Father Benedict XVI.

I urge all priests to follow these norms carefully and completely, and most importantly — to foster devotion to the Blessed Sacrament.

Sincerely yours in our Lord,

Most Reverend John M. D’Arcy

Post #86

Topics: Stumbled Upon: Catholic Gems...The Catechism: The Final Purification.....Motu Proprio: Ecclesiae Unitatem.....Being Poor Is: Pray for Those With Less....Video:Canadian Prime Minister Under Fire....Leonine Prayers: Repost from Post #47 ....Litany of the Week: St. Joseph

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Stumbled Upon on the Web

"I should not believe the Gospel except on the authority of the Catholic Church."--

Augustine of Hippo, convert, bishop, theologian, Father and Doctor of the Church, Saint; endorsing the position that the promulgation of Scripture, the preservation of its integrity and identity, and the explanation of its meaning flows from the authority of the Catholic Church

"Gregorian Chant has always been regarded as the supreme model for sacred music, so that it is fully legitimate to lay down the following rule: the more closely a composition for church approaches in its movement, inspiration and savor the Gregorian form, the more sacred and liturgical it becomes; and the more out of harmony it is with that supreme model, the less worthy it is of the temple. The ancient traditional Gregorian Chant must, therefore, in a large measure be restored to the functions of public worship, and the fact must be accepted by all that an ecclesiastical function loses none of its solemnity when accompanied by this music alone." Pope Pius X, Tra le Sollecitudini, 1903

"Finally, while respecting various styles and different and highly praiseworthy traditions, I desire, in accordance with the request advanced by the Synod Fathers, that Gregorian chant be suitably esteemed and employed as the chant proper to the Roman liturgy."Pope Benedict XVI, Sacramentum Caritatis, 2007

"Kindness is for fools! They want them to be treated with oil, soap, and caresses but they ought to be beaten with fists! In a duel you don't count or measure the blows, you strike as you can! War is not made with charity, it is a struggle a duel. If Our Lord were not terrible he would not have given an example in this too. See how he treated the Philistines, the sowers of error, the wolves in sheep's clothing, the traitors in the temple. He scourged them with whips!" Saint Pius X in response to someone who begged to "go soft" on the Modernists.

"The Holy Mass is a prayer itself, even the highest prayer that exists. It is the Sacrifice, dedicated by our Redeemer at the Cross, and repeated every day on the Altar. If you wish to hear Mass as it should be heard, you must follow with eye, heart, and mouth all that happens at the Altar. Further, you must pray with the Priest the holy words said by him. You have to associate your heart with the holy feelings which are contained in these words and in this manner you ought to follow all that happens on the Altar. When acting in this way, you have prayed Holy Mass." Pope St. Pius X

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The Catechism of The Catholic Church

The Final Purification or Purgatory

1030 All who die in God’s grace and friendship, but still imperfectly purified, are indeed assured of their eternal salvation; but after death they undergo purification, so as to achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of heaven.

1031 The Church gives the name Purgatory to this final purification of the elect, which is entirely different from the punishment of the damned. The Church formulated her doctrine of faith on Purgatory especially at the Councils of Florence and Trent. The tradition of the Church, by reference to certain texts of Scripture, speaks of a cleansing fire. As for certain lesser faults, we must believe that, beforethe Final Judgment, there is a purifying fire. He who is truth says that whoever utters blasphemy against the Holy Spirit will be pardoned neither in this age nor in the age to come. From this sentence we understand that certain offenses can be forgiven in this age, but certain others in the age to come.

1032 This teaching is also based on the practice of prayer for the dead, already mentioned in Sacred Scripture: “Therefore [Judas Maccabeus] made atonement for the dead, that they might be delivered from their sin.” From the beginning the Church has honored the memory of the dead and offered prayers in suffrage for them, above all the Eucharistic sacrifice, so that, thus purified, they may attain the beatific vision of God. The Church also commends almsgiving, indulgences, and works of penance undertaken on behalf of the dead: Let us help and commemorate them. If Job’s sons were purified by their father’s sacrifice, why would we doubt that our offerings for the dead bring them someconsolation? Let us not hesitate to help those who have died and to offer our prayers for them.

Pray for their Souls

O Lord Jesus Christ, King of glory, deliver the soulsof all the faithful departed from the pains of hell and from the deep pit; Deliver them from the lion’s mouth, that hell engulf them not, nor they fall into darkness, but let Michael, the holy standard bearer, bring them into the Holy Light which Thou once promised to Abraham and his descendants we offer Thee, O Lord, sacrifices and prayers of praise; Do Thou accept them for those souls whom we this day commemorate; Grant them, O Lord, to pass from death to the life which Thou once didst promise to Abraham and his descendants. — Anonymous

My Jesus, by the sorrows You suffered in Your agony in the Garden, In Your scourging and crowning with thorns, in Your journey to Calvary, and in Your crucifixion and death, have mercy on the souls in Purgatory, a d especially on those that are most forsaken; deliver them from the torments they endure; call them and admit them to Your most sweet embrace in Paradise, where You live with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever. Amen.

O Mary, my Immaculate Mother, I offer you all the Holy Souls in Purgatory enfold them in your Immaculate Heart and immerse their souls in the Most Precious Blood of the Immaculate Lamb of God, Jesus your Son and our Savior that cleansed from all stain of sin they soon may enter into heaven, all for the glory and joy of the Most Adorable Trinity. Amen.

Prayer of Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska

3 o’clock p.m. - Prayer for the Holy Souls

Most merciful Jesus, You yourself have said that You desire mercy; so I bring into the abode of your Most compassionate Heart the souls in Purgatory, souls who are very dear to You, and yet, who must make retribution to Your justice. May the streams of Blood and Water which gushed forth from Your Heart put out the flames of Purgatory, that there, too,t he power of Your Mercy may be celebrated.Eternal Father, turn Your merciful gaze upon souls suffering in Purgatory, who are enfolded in the Most Compassionate Heart of Jesus. I beg You, by the sorrowful Passion of Jesus Your Son, and by all the bitterness with which His Most Sacred Soul was flooded: Manifest Your Mercy to the Souls who are under Your just scrutiny. Look upon them in no other way but only through the Wounds of Jesus, Your dearly beloved Son; for we firmly believe that there is no limitto Your goodness and compassion.Amen.

Prayer of Saint Gertrude The Great

It was reveled to St. Gertrude the Great by Our Lord, and he promised to release 1000 souls from purgatory when it is recited with love and devotion.

Eternal Father, I offer You the Most Precious Blood of thy Divine Son, Jesus, in union with all the Masses being said throughout the world today for all the Holy Souls in Purgatory, for sinners everywhere, those in the Universal Church, in my home and within my family. Amen.Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord. And may Thy perpetual light shine upon them. Amen. May they and all the souls of the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen.

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Motu Proprio Ecclesiae Unitatem

His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI

FROM VATICAN INFORMATION SERVICE VIN TODAY JULY 08 2009 MOTU PROPRIO ECCLESIAE UNITATEM VATICAN CITY, 8 JUL 2009 (VIS) -

Given below is an English-language translation from the Italian of the Apostolic Letter "Motu Proprio data" of Pope Benedict XVI, "Ecclesiae unitatem". The document concerns the structure of the Pontifical Commission "Ecclesia Dei" which deals with questions involving the Society of Saint Pius X and which as of now becomes dependent upon the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

The original text of the Motu Proprio is written in Latin:

1. The duty to safeguard the unity of the Church, with the solicitude to offer everyone help in responding appropriately to this vocation and divine grace, is the particular responsibility of the Successor of the Apostle Peter, who is the perpetual and visible principle and foundation of the unity of both bishops and faithful. The supreme and fundamental priority of the Church in all times - to lead mankind to the meeting with God - must be supported by the commitment to achieve a shared witness of faith among all Christians.

2. Faithful to this mandate, following the act of 30 June 1988 by which Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre illicitly conferred episcopal ordination upon four priests, on 2 July 1988 Pope John Paul II of venerable memory established the Pontifical Commission "Ecclesia Dei" whose task it is "to collaborate with the bishops, with the departments of the Roman Curia and with the circles concerned, for the purpose of facilitating full ecclesial communion of priests, seminarians, religious communities or individuals until now linked in various ways to the Society founded by Msgr. Lefebvre, who may wish to remain united to the Successor Peter in the Catholic Church, while preserving their spiritual and liturgical traditions, in the light of the Protocol signed on 5 May last by Cardinal Ratzinger and Msgr. Lefebvre".

3. In keeping with this, faithfully adhering to that duty to serve the universal communion of the Church, also in her visible manifestation, and making every effort to ensure that those who truly desire unity have the possibility to remain in it or to rediscover it, I decided, with the Motu Proprio "Summorum Pontificum", to expand and update through more precise and detailed norms the general indications already contained in the Motu Proprio "Ecclesia Dei" concerning the possibility of using the 1962"Missale Romanum".

4. In the same spirit, and with the same commitment to favouring the repair of all fractures and divisions within the Church, and to healing a wound that is ever more painfully felt within the ecclesiastical structure, I decided to remit the excommunication of the four bishops illicitly ordained by Msgr. Lefebvre. In making that decision my intention was to remove an impediment that could hinder the opening of a door to dialogue and thus invite the four bishops and the Society of Saint Pius X to rediscover the path to full communion with the Church. As I explained in my Letter to Catholic bishops of 10 March this year, the remission of the excommunication was a measure taken in the field of ecclesiastical discipline, to free individuals from the burden of conscience constituted by the most serious of ecclesiastical penalties. However it is clear that the doctrinal questions remain, and until they are clarified the Society has no canonical status in the Church, and its ministers cannot legitimately exercise any ministry in the Church.

5. Precisely because the problems that now have to be examined with the Society are essentially doctrinal in nature, I have decided - twenty-one years after the Motu Proprio "Ecclesia Dei" and in keeping with what I had intended to do - to reconsider the structure of the Commission "Ecclesia Dei", joining it closely to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

6. The Pontifical Commission "Ecclesia Dei" will, then, have the following configuration: (a) The president of the Commission is the prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. (b) The Commission has its own staff, composed of the secretary and officials. (c) It will be the task of the president, with the assistance of the secretary, to submit the principal cases and questions of a doctrinal nature for study and discernment according to the ordinary requirements of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, and to submit the results thereof to the superior dispositions of the Supreme Pontiff.

7. With this decision I wish in particular to show paternal solicitude towards the Society of Saint Pius X, with the aim of rediscovering the full communion of the Church. To everyone I address a pressing invitation to pray ceaselessly to the Lord, by the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, "ut unum sint". From Rome, at St. Peter's, 2 July 2009, fifth year of Our Pontificate.MP/ECCLESIAE UNITATEM/... VIS 090708

(800) OTHER PONTIFICAL ACTS VATICAN CITY, 8 JUL 2009 (VIS) - The Holy Father: -

Appointed Cardinal William Joseph Levada, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, to the additional office of president of the Pontifical Commission "Ecclesia Dei". He succeeds Cardinal Dario Castrillon Hoyos, whom the Holy Father thanked at the end of his service as president of the same commission. -

Appointed Msgr. Guido Pozzo, adjunct secretary of the International Theological Commission and official of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, as secretary of the Pontifical Commission "Ecclesia Dei".

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Being Poor is....

Pray for those With Less

I am not well off. It's not because of crushing poverty, ignorance or being born into a social class that abandoned me to a life of repressive circumstances. I live a humble life because I am a student and work part time as a janitor and that is ok. I am truly blessed.

But I know people who are poor beyond our collective comprehension or, who have been poor. I know people who are shackled in life by cruel circumstance. Yes, these people really exist. Yes, some will escape...no, not all do and no, not all have the means to rise above, not all hold the knowledge of transcendence and self awareness.

I just passed through a wealthy part of Wichita and my companion said that she could not imagine that people actually lived in such a luxurious manner. most of us cannot fathom what it feels like to be really poor.

For those of us lucky enough to have food, shelter, security and above this love, relationships and social worth we may have never thought of the following. Tonight while your thanking God for you meal and family please think of those without.....

Being poor is knowing exactly how much everything costs.

Being poor is hoping the toothache goes away.

Being poor is off-brand toys.

Being poor is a heater in only one room of the house.

Being poor is Goodwill underwear.

Being poor is thinking $8 an hour is a really good deal.

Being poor is relying on people who don’t give a damn about you.

Being poor is an overnight shift under florescent lights.

Being poor is finding the letter your mom wrote to your dad, begging him for the child support.

Being poor is stopping the car to take a lamp from a stranger’s trash.

Being poor is six dollars short on the utility bill and no way to close the gap.

Being poor is crying when you drop the mac and cheese on the floor.

Being poor is knowing you work as hard as anyone, anywhere.

Being poor is people surprised to discover you’re not actually stupid.

Being poor is people surprised to discover you’re not actually lazy.

Being poor is a six-hour wait in an emergency room with a sick child asleep on your lap.

Being poor is never buying anything someone else hasn’t bought first.

Being poor is picking the 10 cent ramen instead of the 12 cent ramen because that’s two extra packages for every dollar.

Being poor is eating the 5 ounces of meat the nice lady you waited on left on her plate.

Being poor is having to live with choices you didn’t know you made when you were 14 years old.

Being poor is getting tired of people wanting you to be grateful.

Being poor is sphagetti without sauce.

Being poor is knowing you’re being judged.

Being poor is a box of crayons and a $1 coloring book from a community center Santa.

Being poor is checking the coin return slot of every soda machine you go by.

Being poor is deciding that it’s all right to base a relationship on shelter.

Being poor is a $200 paycheck advance from a company that takes $250 when the paycheck comes in.

Being poor is four years of night classes for an Associates of Art degree.

Being poor is knowing where the shelter is.

Being poor is people who have never been poor wondering why you choose to be so.

Being poor is knowing how hard it is to stop being poor.

Being poor is seeing how few options you have.

Being poor is running in place.

Being poor is people wondering why you didn’t leave.

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Video: Canadian Prime Minister Under Fire
For Pocketing a Communion Wafer






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Leonine Prayers After Low Mass

Repost from Post #47

By Guest Blogger Jim Spencer

Blogger's note: Mr. Jim Spencer was the original writer for Venite Missa Est! In fact the name of this blog was his idea since Jim speaks fluent Latin. Since Jim is an actual writer his wealth of knowledge is endless and his love of The Lord, Blessed Mother and Holy Catholic Church is boundless. This post was originally an email and Jim has been gracious to let us post it here.

In case you are curious about the slight variation Fr. Lies has introduced into the Leonine Prayers said after low Masses, here's what the 1962 edition of The Celebration of Mass by Fr. J. B. O'Connell has to say on the subject (Chapter 16, page 299): ". . . These are to be said . . . by the celebrant and the congregation, either alternatively, as is the practice in some places, or all together. They may be recited in Latin or in the vernacular . . . ." In other words, Fr. Lies exercises a legitimate option when he sings the third Ave in Latin and follows it by the Salve Regina in Latin. And the congregation may join him in both. Frankly, I rather like this variation he has introduced, and I'll like it a whole bunch more when I finally learn the music for the Ave some better. I wish he would say or sing the prayer immediately after the Salve Regina in Latin rather than English (Pray for us, Holy Mother of God), which in Latin is: "Ora pro nobis Sancta Dei Genetrix." We would answer "Ut digni efficiamur promissionibus Christi." Our rosary group does this every Monday evening. But all of this is entirely his option. Incidentally, if you've forgotten (as I had) the history of the Leonine Prayers, here's a brief version thereof taken from the same O'Connell book but on page 121:



"In 1884 & 1886 Leo XIII ordered special prayers -- the Ave thrice, the Salve Regina, and two other prayers -- to be recited after a private Mass in all churches for the needs of the Church. This prescription was renewed by St. Pius X (1903) and by Benedict XV (1915). Pius XI, in a Consistoral Allocution of June 30, 1930, ordered these prayers to be said for Russia . . . ." "To these Leonine Prayers, St. Pius X, in 1904, allowed the addition of the ejaculation "Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on us,' said three times . . . ."

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Litany of the Week

Litany of Saint Joseph

Recently while visiting a cemetery I found, in my mother's old 1950's Marian Missal, a beautiful Litany for the Faithful Departed which I prayed for my parents, my relatives and all lying in repose. Note that the missal stated that this litany was for private use only (and is not one of the official litanies). Ever since blog contributor Larry Bethel urged us to pray the Litany of Saints for Rogation Days (see Post #78) I have been fascinated with the different Litanies. I find them to be beautiful, meditative and edifying. Venite Missa Est! will feature the various litanies over the coming weeks. Enjoy (and pray!)


Lord, have mercy. Lord, have mercy.

Christ, have mercy. Christ, have mercy.

Lord, have mercy. Lord, have mercy.

Jesus, hear us. Jesus, graciously hear us.


God, the Father of Heaven, Have mercy on us.

God, the Son, Redeemer of the world, Have mercy on us.

God, the Holy Spirit, Have mercy on us.

Holy Trinity, One God, Have mercy on us.

Holy Mary,St. Joseph, Pray for us.

Renowned offspring of David, Pray for us.

Light of Patriarchs,Spouse of the Mother of God, Pray for us.

Chaste guardian of the Virgin, Pray for us.

Foster father of the Son of God, Pray for us.

Diligent protector of Christ, Pray for us.

Head of the Holy Family, Pray for us.

Joseph most just, Pray for us.

Joseph most chaste, Pray for us.

Joseph most prudent, Pray for us.

Joseph most strong, Pray for us.

Joseph most obedient, Pray for us.

Joseph most faithful, Pray for us.

Mirror of patience, Pray for us.

Lover of poverty, Pray for us.

Model of artisans, Pray for us.

Glory of home life, Pray for us.

Guardian of virgins, Pray for us.

Pillar of families, Pray for us.

Solace of the wretched, Pray for us.

Hope of the sick, Pray for us.

Patron of the dying, Pray for us.

Terror of demons, Pray for us.

Protector of Holy Church, Pray for us.


Lamb of God, who take away the sins of the world, Spare us, O Lord.

Lamb of God, who take away the sins of the world, Graciously hear us, O Lord.
Lamb of God, who take away the sins of the world. Have mercy on us.


He made him the lord of his household. And prince over all his possessions.


Let us pray, --- O God, in your ineffable providence you were pleased to choose Blessed Joseph to be the spouse of your most holy Mother; grant, we beg you, that we may be worthy to have him for our intercessor in heaven whom on earth we venerate as our Protector: You who live and reign forever and ever. Amen.