Our hearts are filled with joy this time of year as we recall the glory of Christ’s resurrection. Our faith is not in vain. Throughout this week we read of the many appearances of the risen Christ, and just as His appearances confirmed and strengthened the disciples, so do they confirm and strengthen us.

It has been a very trying time for all those who love God this previous season. In recalling the rejection, suffering and death of Jesus we been brought to tears -- realizing that it is our sins that have cause Him so much suffering. We have also found many occasions to take up our own crosses with patience and love and unite our difficulties with Jesus’ sufferings. It appears that the greater our love becomes, the greater must be our sufferings and sorrows.

Our faithfulness in these crosses and burdens has given us an insight into the love of God for us and our own love (or lack of love) for Him, but most importantly allows us to experience with ever increasing felicity the joys of the Resurrection.

With the passing of Lent we have put off the old man and the old leaven as St. Paul says in today’s Epistle. We are to feast not with the old leaven of malice and wickedness, but rather with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. We have confessed our sins and made firm resolutions not to return to them anymore; we have done penance and now receive Our Lord in the Holy Eucharist and have (at least) sufficient grace to continue in this direction of sanctification.

Now is the time for us to rejoice. It is a time of celebration, but it is not to be a celebration in sin or of the worldly ways, but rather a celebration in the new life of virtue and grace. Very often the very opportunities for us to celebrate in a true Christ like manner degenerate into occasions to offend God and drag our souls down into the mire. We do not cleanse our souls only to dirty them up again. Our hope and goal is to keep them cleansed and to ever purify them more and more. In this manner we are to draw closer and closer to Christ and our eternal happiness with Him in Heaven.

Easter and the many other great feasts of the Church that we celebrate are a foretaste of the joys that await us for a true and faithful following of Christ. The joys of heaven are unspeakable and far beyond anything that we can even hope for or imagine. Easter, if we have properly prepared ourselves, is likewise filled with unspeakable joys, and yet, this is only a very small portion of what awaits the faithful in eternity.

As the holy women in today’s Gospel approached the tomb of Jesus, they must have been filled with sorrow, expecting to find His beaten, bruised, and tortured Body so that they might anoint It and bestow on His Body somewhat of the dignity and respect that He deserves in a proper burial. What range of emotions must have filled their souls as they left this sorrow behind when they discovered the tomb open and then to see the angel! What transports of joy to hear that Jesus is risen and that He is going before them into Galilee!

These transports of joy are meant to be ours also. They too often are not because of the hardness and coldness of our own hearts. Frequently we fail to experience these joys because we have not properly entered into the sorrow and suffering of Lent. Without the proper preparation of the Cross, there is no proper celebration in Easter.

In seeing somewhat of the joy of heaven in our Easter celebration let us never lose sight of the value of the Cross of Jesus and of our own. Let us never forget the price that has been paid for this joy and seek that we should never again return to that sad state of soul that we have just arisen from.

Our Lord has come for both the Israelite and the Gentile. Both the ass that was tethered and her colt that had never been ridden before were taken for Jesus to use. The one and the other represent to us the Israelites who were bound by the law and the Gentiles who were free from the law.

In both cases it is the Apostles that Jesus sent to free the one and bring them both to Him. It does not matter whether we consider the one bound by the Mosaic Law or bound in sin. Both the sinner who is bound in sin and the just man come to Jesus through the Apostles. Whatever state we find ourselves in – the only way to Jesus is through His Apostles. Without the Apostles there is no Church and there are no Sacraments or Sacrifice.

It is upon the backs of sinners and the just that Jesus is taken into the city. All of mankind has brought Jesus to this city where He is to suffer and die. On this day though, it is with great joy and celebration. Jesus is welcomed as the King. There is cause for us all to rejoice as our salvation is at hand. But, there is reason to weep also because we have set in motion by our sins the very necessity of Jesus’ death upon the cross.

The liturgy for this week brings before our eyes very vividly the events leading up to the Crucifixion. Just as the people turned out in Jerusalem for these days so should we make ourselves present, as much as possible, for the Lenten ceremonies that will take place this week. Let us follow Jesus spiritually through this most emotionally wrenching few days, in the hopes that we will increase our love for Him and bravely take up our daily cross to follow Him in this love.

All too often our love for God is as fleeting as we see in these people of Jerusalem. Today we acclaim our undying love welcoming Him as our King and then a little while later we cry out for His blood by our sins. How fickle we truly are. We should be begging God for the grace to persevere in the love of Him.

Now in the midst of the joy and celebration of welcoming our King we should be preparing ourselves with greater acts of penance and mortifications. We should be renewing our acts of: Faith, Hope, Love, and Contrition. We need to impress upon our hearts and minds a most vivid and indelible image of Jesus and what it has cost Him to save us from our sins. He came to us when we had no means of helping ourselves or even of hoping for the assistance of anyone. We were completely lost and in His mercy and love He picked us up and placed our sins upon His own shoulders.

It is not enough to have a crucifix hanging on our walls or hidden away in a pocket or a dresser drawer, we must have this image seared into our hearts and minds so that it may never leave there. God thinks of us all the time. He has thought of us from all of eternity. Jesus came to this earth with the thought of us; He went into Jerusalem to suffer and die with the thought of us in His mind. He gave everything for us. He lived and died for us. Considering all this, it is not too much to ask us to always think of Him. It is not too much to ask us to do all for the greater honor and glory of God. It is not too much to ask us to love Him with our whole being. Our reason tells us that we owe at least this much to Him and even much more than we could ever hope to be able to offer Him.

As we take our blessed palms in hand today and recount Our Lord’s triumphant entry into Jerusalem, let us also recount with our Holy Mother the Church the terrible Passion and death of Our Lord Jesus Christ. The joy and the sadness go hand in hand. Love has its joy then comes the sacrifice and suffering only to be rewarded later on with greater joy and happiness. This was the path taken by Jesus and this is the path He invites us to take with Him. Let us stir up our love for Him today so that we may not shy away tomorrow when there is sadness, pain and suffering to be endured. If we can persevere in this love through all the sufferings with Christ in our daily lives then we will find an eternal happiness with Him in Heaven.

ST MARY’S SHRINE
Buttermarket Street, Warrington WA1 2NS, Cheshire

Palm Sunday, 25 March
11:00am Solemn Mass: With blessing of Palms and Procession
6:00pm Low Mass


Spy Wednesday, 28 March
7:30pm Recital of music for Passiontide: Stabat Mater Gregorian ; O vos omnes P Casals ; Tristis est anima mea P de Cristo ; Ad dominum dum tribularer A Scarlatti; Justitiae Domine A Scarlatti ; Attende Domine Gregorian ; Ne irascaris Domine W Byrd Ingrediente Domine G Malcolm ; Christus factus est A Bruckner ; Vigilate et orate C de Morales Ubi Caritas M Duruflé ; Crucifixus a 8 A Lotti


Maundy Thursday, 29 March
10am-11:30am Tenebrӕ: Gregorian chant
11:30am-1pm Confessions
8:00pm Solemn Mass:
9:30pm-midnight: Eucharistic adoration


Good Friday, 30 March
10am-11:30am Tenebrӕ: Gregorian chant
11:30am-1pm Confessions
12noon Solemn Stations of the Cross
3:00pm Solemn Liturgy


Holy Saturday, 31 March
10am-11:30am Tenebrӕ: Gregorian chant
2pm-4pm Confessions
10:00pm Solemn Easter Vigil followed by Solemn Mass

Easter Sunday, 1 April
10:30am Confessions
11.00am Solemn Mass:
[No 6pm Sunday Mass. Normal daily schedule resumes on Monday 2 April.]

The Royal College of Nurses (RCN) are now consulting their members about whether or not the organisation should support the ‘decriminalisation’ of abortion.

The RCN are trying to maintain that this consultation is not about the time limit for abortions nor is it about conscientious refusals. To state this is either wholly ignorant of what ‘decriminalisation’ means or is disingenuous.

The Abortion Act 1967 is based on exemptions from prosecution under section 58 of the Offences Against The Person Act 1861 (which otherwise prohibits abortion throughout pregnancy), and the Infant Life (Preservation) Act 1929 (which prohibits ‘child destruction’ beyond 28 weeks). If abortion is removed from criminal law, then this must entail either repealing section 58 of the 1861 Act, or also repealing the 1929 Act.

If the former, then abortion would be legalised up to 28 weeks, and the regulations of the Abortion Act voided up to that point in pregnancy. If the latter, then abortion would be legalised up to birth, and the Abortion Act would become a dead letter (which would, amongst other things, void the conscience protections it contains).

To be clear: if abortion is ‘decriminalised’ completely, no abortion would be subject to criminal law, which means that an abortion performed by a doctor and assisted by a nurse (or even performed by a nurse) at any stage of pregnancy would be legally permitted. In which case, the RCN are considering whether to campaign for abortion on demand, for any reason, at any stage of pregnancy. This would include sex-selective abortion and abortion of babies with disabilities up until the moment they are born.

The British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS) is one of Britain's largest abortion providers and one of the main lobby groups pushing for the "decriminalisation" of abortion. The head of BPAS, Ann Furedi, has confirmed that decriminalisation means that “there should be absolutely no grounds for abortion whatsoever… there should be no legal upper limit, that is what taking it out of the criminal law means".

Abortion up to birth for any reason: the RCN is now considering backing the extremist position of campaigning for the legalisation of abortion up until birth for any reason whatsoever. This would include sex-selective abortion and abortion of babies with disabilities up until the moment they are born.

Only China, North Korea (hardly beacons of human rights and dignity), Vietnam and Canada have such permissive abortions laws. The Canadian Medical Association Journal had this to say about the situation in Canada: “Easy access to abortion and advances in prenatal sex determination have combined to make Canada a haven for parents who would terminate female fetuses in favour of having sons.”

Needless to say these countries and their abhorrent practices are hardly the kind of thing which should be imitated in the UK.

Women do not want abortion ‘decriminalisation’: Not only are the RCN advancing this extreme position, but their doing so is completely out of touch with what most women want.

A ComRes poll commissioned by Where Do They Stand in 2017 showed that only 1% of the population want the abortion limit raised until birth and in fact a full 70% of women would like the current time limit for abortion to be lowered. Importantly, 91% of women want a sex-selective abortion ban, but decriminalisation would permit abortion on these grounds.

Please sign this petition urging the RCN to reject this extremist abortion proposal

Today a new attitude is taken by our Holy Mother the Church. We see the statues and decorations covered in the Church to remind us of the impending suffering of our God and Savior Jesus Christ. We see in the last few lines of today’s Gospel that Jesus has hidden Himself from the Jews who have taken up stones to cast at Him.

We likewise, often experience this apparent loss of God’s presence. Men take up stones to throw at Jesus when they find fault with the ways of God. In response to this God often withholds graces and effectively hides His presence from them. It seems strange but rather than wake these people up and spur them on to return to God, it seems only to confirm them in their self-centered rejection of God.

Jesus poses the same question to us today: “Which of you shall convince Me of sin? If I say the truth to you, why do you not believe Me? He that is of God heareth the words of God. Therefore you hear them not, because you are not of God.”

The difficulties and/or crosses in our lives are not proof of sin in Jesus, but rather of sin in ourselves. The world and sadly many “Christians” seem to find fault with God because God does not obey them and do everything that they want. It sounds petty, selfish, and very childish because it is. Jesus is hidden from such souls, not so much because He has removed Himself and His graces from them but rather because they have blinded themselves and removed themselves from His presence.

The sin is not found in Jesus but rather in ourselves. We can’t see or accept the truth because, in our sins, we are “not of God.” This blindness on the part of sinners brings the work of God’s grace to a screeching halt, as God and His graces are rejected. The sinners of today become just as guilty as the Jews that we read of in today’s Gospel. Our sins are the same cause for the rejecting of Christ and for crucifying Him, as are the sins of fallen away sons of Abraham.

What is the remedy for us? (The remedy for them is over they have already had their chance of repentance, and are already judged.) We must first begin to see the burdens and crosses of this life not as evils to be avoided, but rather as precious gifts from God to be treasured and loved. God chastises those whom He loves. If we have difficulties it is not because God doesn’t love us or has forgotten us, but it is rather because He loves us. This concept is hard for self-centered children to understand, but it is perfectly clear to the honest and objective searcher for the Truth. The father who truly loves his son, corrects, admonishes, and yes even punishes him, but all because he loves him and wishes only that which is best for him. The father who does not truly love cares little what the son does and often gives in to his every whim just to avoid his presence. Sadly, this is too often looked upon as “good parenting.” It is truly the bane of families and society.

Today we are called upon not to turn away from God. If the sight of Him is not within our reach we must go looking for Him. He is never far off, and is very easy to find once we become humble and honest. We must first admit our own faults and failings humbly and honestly and then with true repentance and sorrow for our sins ask of Him to return and give us grace and light once more. It may be that we must follow Him to Calvary, but that should not be a deterrent to us, but rather an encouragement. We can then rejoice with the apostles when they were found worthy to suffer these things for Christ.

Let us reject all our sins; accept all our crosses as something good for us, given to us by a loving Father; call out to God so that we might see Him in everything and at all times; and offer our lives (joys and sorrows) with Jesus as we follow Him to sacrifice everything to our loving Father in Heaven. He is not far off or hard to find if we will only reject our sins and truly seek Him and follow Him wherever it may please Him to lead us.

The Latin Mass Society will be holding a residential training conference for priests, deacons, seminarians and laymen wishing to learn to celebrate or serve Mass in the Extraordinary Form. It will be held at Prior Park College near Bath from Monday 9th April to Thursday 12th April 2018.

Tuition will be in small groups. For clergy and seminarians, this will be provided by priests experienced in the Extraordinary Form, for servers this will be provided by laymen with years of experience in the Extraordinary Form.Low Mass, Missa Cantata and Solemn Mass will be covered, although participants will be expected to be proficient at Low Mass before progressing to the more complicated forms.

No previous experience is necessary, and participants will be divided into groups, according to their abilities.
There will be daily Mass intended to be an example of best practice.

The conference will start after lunch on the Monday and conclude before lunch on the Thursday.Full board and lodging is provided in basic single rooms (not en suite).

Lunch on the Monday and the Thursday can be booked at extra cost, £5 per lunch for all participants.

The fee for attending is: £120.00
Full-time students: £60
Seminarians: FREE OF CHARGE

To book your place on the Training Conference, please complete the form below and submit your payment using the paypal buttons; credit and debit cards are accepted through paypal.

The main liturgies, all of which will take place in the school chapel, will be open for anyone to attend:#

Monday 9th April (Annunciation)
5pm High Mass    
9pm Compline

Tuesday 10th April
11am High Mass
5pm Vespers and Benediction

Wednesday 11th April (St Leo)
11am High Mass

Thursday 12th April
11am High Mass

ABOUT PRIOR PARK

Prior Park, which currently houses an independent Catholic school, is set in 28 acres of parkland, and was built in the 1730s as a country mansion for a local quarry owner named Ralph Allen.  Its architect, John Wood, used Bath stone from Ralph Allen’s quarries to create a building in the Paladian style on a hillside site that overlooks the city.  The grounds contain several impressive features, including an ornamental bridge, also in the Paladian style, over an artificial lake.After the death of Ralph Allen, the property passed through a number of owners, and in 1828 was purchased by Bishop Baines, the Vicar Apostolic for the Western District.  His intention was to establish a seminary on the site, which he eventually did, along with a school.  It was also his intention to build a cathedral at Prior Park, but this never happened, due to the ever present shortage of money. However, a fine chapel was added.

The seminary closed in 1856, when the students transferred to Oscott College.  The school continued until the buildings were occupied by troops during the First World War. A fresh attempt was made to establish a boy’s boarding school at Prior Park in 1925, which is the fore-runner of the present school.

Prior Park College is very suitable for the needs of the LMS training conference.  There is plenty of sleeping accommodation in single rooms, and common rooms will be available for relaxation at the end of each day.  Also, Prior Park has a reputation for serving excellent food. The chapel is particularly beautiful, and retains its original High Altar and reredos in a spacious sanctuary very suitable for the traditional liturgy.  It also has four side altars, which will be used to give tuition to small groups.

To book visit the main LMS site here.

Resposted from Rorate Caeli:

This Sunday is called Laetare Sunday after the first word of the Introit.

It is  the midpoint of  Lent and the Church wants us to consider the joy that will be ours with the  Easter Mysteries.

This can be seen in the readings the Church has selected for the Epistle (Galatians 4:22-31) and the Gospel (John 6:1-15).  In the Epistle to the Galatians, St. Paul reminds the Jewish converts in Galatia that they have been freed from the bondage of the Old Law by Jesus Christ in the New Covenant made with the sacrifice of  His own Body and Blood on Mt. Calvary.  This New Covenant of God’s love is foreshadowed in today’s gospel about Jesus’ miracle of The Multiplication of the Loaves and Fishes.  As Jesus feeds “five thousand men not counting the women and children,” (Mt. 14:21) so He will feed all His followers in the Holy Eucharist with His Body and Blood: the Sacrament “of the New and Eternal Testament: the mystery of faith which shall be shed for you and for many unto the remission of  sins.” (Consecration of the Blood at Mass)   While we rejoice at this midpoint of our Lenten time of penance, we should rejoice even more because  we are children of God who have been called to eternal life in the New Jerusalem of heaven.
 
In today’s Epistle to the Galatians, St. Paul resolves the controversy raging among the Jews about the need for circumcision in obedience to the Mosaic Law before becoming Christians.  St. Paul shows the Jews their error by using an example from Hebrew history, specifically the story of  Abraham’s two sons, Ishmael by the slave girl Agar, and  the other son, Isaac, by his wife Sara: “And the son of the slave-girl was born according to the flesh, but the son of free woman in virtue of the promise. This is said by way of allegory. For these are two covenants; one indeed from Mount Sinai, bringing forth children unto bondage, which is  Agar... But that Jerusalem which is above is free, which is our mother...Now we brethren, are the children of promise as Isaac was.” Gal. 4:23-28.

The revived quarterly magazine of the Foederatio Internationalis Una Voce, has been released. The magazine was launched in 2012 but for various reasons, there has been a break - but now it is back and hopefully for good!

I'm pleased that a few of my photos have been used.

This edition of Gregorius Magnus can be downloaded here: Gregorius Magnus 4

This issue contains:

• Position Paper 32: The Extraordinary Form and Islam
• UV General Assembly in Rome, Nov 2017
• Book Review: History of the FIUV
• Irish Abortion Referendum
• Una Voce in England, Canada, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand and Nigeria

"Blessed are they who hear the word of God and keep it.” These words of Our Lord in today’s Gospel put into perspective all the rest of its lessons.

The devils who were cast out cannot return where the word of God is kept. The devils return (with seven others worse than themselves) only into souls that have not kept the word of God. Their souls were swept clean and made empty, they were adorned with the things of this world and not with the words of God. Souls left in this state are open prey to the devils.

The devil cannot cast out himself because he cannot be against himself; it is illogical. His kingdom would fall. We can also see that it takes the word of God to cast out devils. Only those who possess the world of God are capable of casting out devils. The devils themselves do not keep the word of God and therefore cannot cast out any other devils.
The strong man’s property cannot be overcome unless he is first bound and is rendered unable to defend himself. The devils first seek to bind those who have the word of God, by driving out the word of God so that they can then go in and take over all the person’s possessions. The strong man is only strong while he has the word of God. He becomes weak and helpless without the word of God.

These and many other things all point out to us the necessity of not only hearing the words of God, but more importantly keeping them. The devils are all around us attempting to enter into our hearts and taking them over. They are expelled by the word of God, but if this word is not kept the demonic vermin return with many more of themselves to re-infest the poor soul. That poor soul ends up even worse than it was in the beginning with only one devil.

Keeping the word of God is synonymous with loving God, for we are told, “He who loves Me, keeps my word”. So, we can seek security in loving God. While we are on this earth we never have an absolute certainty of our love of God – our weakness constantly humbles us and reminds us that we have much further to go before we can truly say we love God with our whole being.

If we are truly to be blessed we must ever strive to love God more and more, and this is clearly manifested in keeping His word. If we are always living in humble obedience and submission to the word of God, we are in turn growing constantly in love.

This ever-increasing love and devotedness to the word of God does not keep from us all difficulties, trials or tribulations, but it does prevent its ultimate loss. We see the example of Job in the old testament, where the devil was given permission by God to attack Job, but despite all the attacks the devil was never able to penetrate and take his soul. This we must remember and not become disheartened when we become subject to difficulties in our lives.

It is necessary that we each have a cross every day so that we may be found worthy to take it up and follow Christ. Keeping His word is at odds with the mores of the society in which we live; and cause a lot of hardships for those who love Him, but in the end, it will prove to have been all very worthwhile.

We must strive never to let go of the Word of God or the Love of God, realising that doing so is the only means by which we can keep the devils at bay. They may howl all around us but they cannot enter unless they first get us to throw the word of God out or if they can twist our minds with pride and/or vanity and thus allow ourselves to become bound and then allow them to destroy any good that may have remained.

The latest paper prepared by Dr. Joseph Shaw for the FIUV is about the Sanctoral Cycle: saints days.

Dr Shaw points out that there are some striking contrasts between the Traditional and the Novus Ordo calendars in relation to saints days, both in detail (dates being changes) and in the fundamental principles behind them.

The paper can be downloaded here.
All 33 papers can be downloaded here.