The Holy Mass places before us the Christian’s use or abuse of “goods,” either of human nature or of Divine Grace. The Introit recalls that as we now receive “Mercy,” yet one day we must stand before “Justice.” How necessary, then, the “Prayer” for “doing and thinking” what is right.
 
Active participation in the Mass, advises Pope St. Pius X, is the indispensable source of the true Christian spirit, how to pray and how to live. The Epistle bids us reflect, who you are, “not debtors to the flesh,” by which “you shall die,” but “sons of God, joint heirs with Christ” by Whom you shall live.
 
The Gospel dramatizes this dignity and duty in the parable of the Steward, the meaning of which is “be wise,” you children of God. Use material treasures so as to make eternal friends. Exercise your talents in the spiritual and corporal works of mercy, and those whom you help to save, will help save you.
 
Finally, the Offertory assures salvation to the humble, warns the proud of their final humbling. Christianity is not so much a “giving up” but rather an “exchange” of “gifts” (Secret), the human for the Divine, to bring healing to “ soul and body” (Postcommunion).
 
Today is Feast of SS Abdon and Sennen Mm, probably Persians, who arrived in Rome and were martyred for the Faith during the reign of Decius about 250. Although not commemorated in the Mass using the newer rubrics, we ought pray to the martyrs to sustain our faith.

Cardinal Sarah, Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments has put the cat amongst the pigeons with his suggestion of a liturgical reconciliation between the Ordinary Form (OF) and the Extraordinary Form (EF).

I wonder if his view has been arrived at after persuasion? Indeed, the contents of an address His Eminence gave to the Colloquium “The Source of the Future” (“Quelle der Zukunft”) in Herzogenrath, near Aachen (Germany) at the end of March refers to mutual enrichment but by my reading, his words are more weighted towards restoration of tradition. Are we pressing the panic button prematurely or has he developed his views?

For example, the suggested superiority of the OF lectionary over that used in the EF is rather like comparing apples with pears. It was formulated from the Canon of Sacred Scripture for the purpose of the new (OF) Mass. The OF Mass being a complete departure from what had gone before it.

The new OF Mass was about participation and less about sacrifice and what better way of keeping the laity engaged than by the Liturgy of the Word in the vernacular!

The EF Mass is in keeping with the Catholic theology of the Holy Mass as decided at Trent (Session XXII), the OF Mass was a move toward the belief that the hierarchic priesthood of the sacred ministers that had hitherto existed, was to be displaced by a common priesthood inclusive of faithful - dare I say, a nod in the direction of what is in essence Protestant belief.

The OF Mass is about choice, look at the pluralism in the order of the Mass with options at many points. The OF lectionary also allows some choice on occasions for example take a look at the multiple choices for a Requiem Mass.

And, if this fusion was to be sought, it would require a re-write of the Breviarium Romanum. The readings Ad Matutinum are often co-dependent on the Gospel in the Mass. This would be an extremely long process to reconstruct – and that is before one factors in new Saints and Blesseds also proposed as part of a unification. Incidentally, I also point out that the Paul VI Office is in need of an overhaul and that is still in the Vatican pipeline and has been for some time, so I expect no overnight change in any event, Vatican time is not speedy.

In my view, there is simply no need to conflate the two rites – the commonality and central point ought to be the Eucharist, Our Most Blessed Lord, who is present in both. So surely, they can co-exist?

It is also worthy to mention that are a several other rites within the church that co-exist with the OF and EF with no problem at all.

There is no criticism in this blog of the OF Mass - merely an opinion advocated that it was designed to cater for a 'perceived' need and that the church ought to learn by history that followed the creation that perhaps the sacred should be left well alone.

During July and August there are some changes to the usual schedule of Masses in the Diocese of Wrexham.

In summary, the changes are:

There is no 4th Sunday Mass (23rd July) at St Winefride's, Holywell during July.

However, there will be a Sung Mass on the Sunday 23rd July at St David's, Monastery Road, Pantasaph, CH8 8PE. This will be at 5.15pm.

Then, in the week that follows, Mass in the Extraordinary Form will be celebrated each day at St David's. This will be at 11.30am - except Saturday 28th July. A Sunday Mass will also be celebrated at 11.30am on Sunday 29th July.

Finally, there is no Second Sunday Mass at St Francis of Assisi, Llay in August due to Canon Lordan being away on annual leave.

The first Saturday Mass at Buckley on the 5th August is scheduled to take place as usual.

The Pentecostal Season is well on its way with the twelve “fruits” of the Holy Spirit. Hence, as summer also advances toward the harvest, today’s Holy Mass has a timely lesson, observed by Jesus from fruit trees. The Introit is a call to prayer, yes, but a call to prayer followed by Catholic Action. It bespeaks “the voice of joy,” yes, but also counsels “clap your hands,” which in ancient times signified not only to praise a person by the tongue but to work for him with the hands.
 
Since if all the tree’s life goes into the wagging tongues of waving leaves, how can there be any fruit? Deeds, not mere words, are acceptable to God and are the best kind of example to neighbour. “The fruit” of sin is shame and death (Epistle), while the fruit of sanctity is life everlasting. “By their fruits” shall you know false teachers of false Christians (Gospel).

All that God has created is good. Actually, when we look at all things we must likewise see that they are good. Somehow, we also see much evil in the world today. This presents a dilemma for us, as we try to discern the moral from the immoral.

The Gospel for the VII Sunday after Pentecost presents us with a key to aid us in unraveling this dilemma. “By their fruits you will know them.” Everything is good, but what makes some things sinful is the disordered will of men. When we take something good and use it badly or for an evil purpose, then we produce evil fruit. The fault does not lie within the material object itself, but rather in the will of man.
 
Not so much what one “says” about the Lord, but he who “does” His Will, brings forth good fruit. The Holy Eucharist Is the “health giving” (Postcommunion) fruit of Calvary, to counteract the poison laden “Dead Sea” fruit of the world.
 
Today is Feast of St. Apollinaris E. M., first Bishop of Ravenna, who was a missionary to that region in about 200. In the Martyr’s Mass commemoration of St. Liborius E. C. is made, who died in 397 and played a big role in establishing Christianity in Gaul. Although the Saints are not commemorated in the 1962 rubrics of the Mass, pray to the Saints to fight evil in our times and convert others to the Church.

Does anyone know where Angeline and Alan over at Touch of the Faith are?

Their website, almost updated daily, was last updated on Friday 12th May. I had seen them the previous week at our 2nd Sunday Mass at Llay.

I do hope all is well, they are good people and they may be assured of my prayers.

Young Catholic Adults National weekend at Douai Abbey 20th-22nd October 2017. Featuring Fr. Lawrence Lew OP., and Canon Canon Vianney Poucin de Wouilt ICKSP.

To book see:- https://v1.bookwhen.com/youngcatholicadults-douai2017

For updates see:- http://youngcatholicadults-latestnews.blogspot.co.uk/

YCA's aims are

• To foster authentic Catholic teaching and spirituality.
  
• Promote a spirit of charity as practiced by the great saints of the Church such as St. John Vianney, St. Francis de Sales and the English Martyrs 
• Aim to promote a spirit of beauty and reverence in the Sacred Liturgy

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The Fraternitas Sacerdotalis Sancti Petri (FSSP) is 29-Years-Old on today.

The Fraternity was formed on the 18th July 1988 at the Abbey of Hauterive in Switzerland by a 12 priests and a score of seminarians. Shortly afterwards, thanks to a request by Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, the Fraternity was granted a home in Wigratzbad.

Wigratzbad, a Marian shrine, was the FSSP's first seminary established canonically and is the site of its General House. It is situated on the ancient frontier of Bavaria and Swabia, a short distance from Germany’s borders with neighbouring Austria and Switzerland.

In these challenging times, it is reassuring that sound traditional priests are available to help steer our course in the right direction as we navigate this world.

“I have compassion on the multitude.” This sentiment of the Divine and Human Heart (Gospel), so endearing to us, inspires our pleas to God in the Introit, that He save us because we belong to Him.

The Prayer, alluding to our Baptism, when He implanted in us a love of His Name (which means “to save”) beseeches God to foster and then to protect “what is good.” What is “good"? It is to “foster” the “new life” in Christ Jesus begun at Baptism (Epistle); “dead to sin” is its negative side; “alive to God” is its positive. To “protect” and to nourish this Life is the object of the Eucharist, which is its food.

A hunger for the Divine Life and “Goodness” is universal to all times and places, as prefigured in the Gospel, “Can anyone fill them in the wilderness” of life, where the mind hungers for Truth, the will and heart hunger for Love? At the altar of sacrifice God will not “allow the hopes of anyone to be in vain” (Secret). Only at the altar of the Sacrament are we really “filled” (Postcommunion).

Sunday 16th July is the Feast of Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel honouring  the appearance of Our Lady to St. Simon Stock on this day in 1251, the English General of the Carmelites. Our Lady promised many spiritual blessings to those who clothed themselves in the brown habit. For the laity, it was necessary only to wear the brown scapular.

Under the newer rubrics of the Missale Romanum, the Feast is not commemorated in the Sunday
Mass. Yet, the faithful may honour Our Lady by wearing the brown scapular!

A mini pilgrimage to Chester took place this afternoon. It was organised in chief by Mrs Maria Haynes and the Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest.

Low Mass at 2pm in St Francis of Assisi Church near to Chester Racecourse was followed by a brief interlude for tea and coffee before a procession through the historic streets of Chester to the obelisk in Boughton which marks the point where St John Plessington, one of the 40 martyrs of England and Wales shed his blood for the Catholic faith in 1679

By the kind permission of the Bishop of Shrewsbury and the parish of St Winefride, Neston - the celebrant, Canon Cyprien Parant wore the chasuble that was once used by St John himself!

More on St John can be read in the original advert promoting the event here.

I can hardly keep up with all the positive news in the traditional world at the moment.

The ICKSP are to open a House of Discernment at Preston (see below), which will without doubt encourage more young men from these isles to realise a calling.

About St John Plessington (c.1637-1679)

John Plessington was born at Dimples Hall, near Garstang, Lancashire, the son of Robert Plessington and Alice Rawstone, into a family at odds with the authorities for both their religious and political beliefs. Educated by Jesuits at Scarisbrick Hall, at Saint Omer’s in France, and then at the College of Saint Alban at Valladolid, Spain, he was ordained in Segovia on 25 March 1662.

He returned to England in 1663 ministering to Catholics in the areas of Holywell and Cheshire, often hiding under the name William Scarisbrick. He was also tutor at Puddington Hall near Chester.

Upon arrest in Chester during the Popish Plot scare caused by Titus Oates, he was imprisoned for two months, and then hanged, drawn and quartered for the crime of being a Catholic priest. His speech from the scaffold at Gallow’s Hill in Boughton, Cheshire was printed and distributed: He said: “I know it will be said that a priest ordayned by authority derived from the See of Rome is, by the Law of the Nation, to die as a Traytor, but if that be so what must become of all the Clergymen of the Church of England, for the first Church of England Bishops had their Ordination from those of the Church of Rome, or not at all, as appears by their own writers so that Ordination comes derivatively from those now living.”

He was beatified in 1929 by Pope Pius XI, and canonized as one of the Forty Martyrs on 25 October 1970 by Pope Paul VI.

Designed by Edward Pugin and extended and furnished by Pugin and Pugin, St Thomas of Canterbury & the English Martyrs on Garstang Road in Preston was completed in 1888.

It will become the second church in the Diocese of Lancaster to be assigned to the Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest (ICKSP) whose celebrate Mass exclusively according to the Extraordinary Form.

The ICKSP already have responsibility for St Walburge's in the city and Bishop Campbell of Lancaster said “We are very grateful for the Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest and the dedication they have to evangelizing through use of the extraordinary form,”

Bishop Campbell continued “The Institute has shown tremendous energy in conveying a sense of the sacred through their proven ministry at St Walburge’s and around the world. We are especially encouraged that their care and ministry in large and historic churches may also be instrumental in preserving English Martyrs church now and going forward.”

For the Institute, Canon Amaury Montjean said “We are deeply grateful to Bishop Campbell for his gracious invitation. Our entire Institute family is very glad for this new apostolate at English Martyrs. Like St Walburge’s, it will be a unique spiritual home offering Masses with sacred music, daily confessions, days of recollection, classes in spirituality and doctrine etc”.

Also in Preston, the ICKSP are making progress towards the estabilishment of an Independent School under the patronage of St Benedict. This will be located adjacent to St Walburge's at Weston Street.

This Sunday could well be called the Sunday of Fraternal Charity, a virtue so necessary to preserve proper relations with our neighbour. “Be ye all of one mind,” says St. Peter in his first Epistle (3, 8-15), “having compassion one of another, being lovers of the brotherhood, merciful, modest, humble.” The Apostle speaks to us in a very practical and realistic way. He realises that with our weakness and frailty we cannot preserve peace if we have no compassion for the faults of others, if we do not know how to be kind to those who displease us, and if we cannot bear blame with humility. Anyone who pretends that in achieving a life of perfect harmony with others, he need never suffer any annoyance or displeasure, and that he need never be contradicted or upset, has very little experience of the reality of life and forgets that, far from being pure spirits, we are limited by matter; he forgets that “we are mortal, frail, and weak, bearing about our bodies like vessels of clay, a source of friction for one another” (St. Augustine), even as clay jars carried in the same vehicle strike against and jostle each other. By reason of our limitations we have mentalities, tastes, desires, and interests that differ from those of others, and thus we do not always succeed in understanding one another.
 
It even happens that sometimes, without wishing it and without even the shadow of a bad intention, we work against one another. The remedy for these inevitable failures, when the limitations of our nature are the cause of mutual distress, is that suggested by St. Augustine: “dilatentur spatia caritatis,” let more room be given to charity. In other words, let us enlarge our hearts by greater love, in order that we may better understand and sympathize with one another. Let us likewise practice greater humility, in order to overcome the resentments of our self-love. Even if someone does act against us with ill will, we should know how to forgive him, according to the words of the Apostle: “Not rendering evil for evil, nor railing for railing, but contrariwise, blessing... But if also you suffer anything for justice’ sake, blessed are ye... Sanctify the Lord Christ in your hearts.”

The Gospel (Mt 5,20-24) repeats and intensifies the same instruction. First of all Jesus tells us: “Unless your justice abound more than that of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.” This is a clear allusion to the new law, the law of love, given to us by Jesus Himself and far surpassing the simple law of justice. We cannot content ourselves, as the Pharisees did, with simply not doing harm to our neighbour; we must practice toward him a positive, fraternal charity. It is not enough “not to kill” in order to escape “the judgment,” the Master teaches, but “whosoever is angry with his brother, shall be in danger of the judgment.” Another aspect of the new law proposed by Jesus concerns our interior dispositions. It is useless to make an exterior display of goodness if this does not proceed from a good conscience, a sincere heart. It does not suffice to avoid giving outward offense to our neighbour; we must avoid, or rather, repress our inner resentment. The Pharisees, with their materialistic interpretation of the law, had completely lost its spirit; they had forgotten that the eyes of the Lord are always upon us and that He sees our intentions as well as our acts. Anger and resentment that smoulder in our heart do not escape Him. At the same time, Jesus asks great delicacy of us in all our exterior dealings with our neighbour. He demands that we avoid not only offensive acts but even words that might hurt another. Charity and fraternal harmony meant so much to Him that He did not hesitate to tell us: “If therefore thou offer thy gift at the altar, and there thou remember that thy brother hath anything against thee, leave there thy offering before the altar, and go first to be reconciled to thy brother.” How much Our Lord loves us! St. John Chrysostom remarks very aptly: “He does not take account of His own honour, when He requires us to love our neighbour. ‘Let My worship be interrupted,’ He says, ‘but re-establish your charity.’” Indeed, how can our prayers and sacrifices be pleasing to God when something interferes with perfect harmony between ourselves and our neighbour?