Nihil Innovatur

The strangest things are happening to the rubrics of the Mass!
Old men like me don’t understand we thought our days would pass
Without disturbance of the way we learnt to celebrate.
Now worship, like the world itself, is in a dreadful state.

Some time ago the priest was sure of what was his to say,
And also that the altar-boys would answer up his way:
Now anything can happen from a hold up to a strike,
Or someone making comments through a nuisance-making mike.

The people used to keep their place, and did not interfere,
Except perhaps to cough or sneeze or snore, But only in the rear:
They wouldn’t dream of singing out or butting in with noise,
Or talking up in Latin like the Clerk and altar-boys.

Young Curates now don’t seem to mind if Mass is started late,
Provided that the people who are there “participate”:
And some would like motets, and psalms and hymns and chants
Distracting to the celebrant and pious maiden aunts.

A plague upon those liturgists and all their fussy ways.
There’s nothing solid in them, ’tis a passing whim or craze:
Old men like we have battled for our faith and fatherland
With nothing but the Scripture and the Sacraments in hand.

Of course we had the Liturgy, a makeshift to be sure,
And more or less a native growth, but still Tradition pure;
We said the Mass and let the people pray as best they could.
That was the way in Penal times, and surely it was good.

"The world is moving on, no doubt, and times have changed a lot.
The Church of Christ must follow - if her net is in a knot.
She’ll never catch the fishes that are milling round the boat:
She needs a change of tackle, sweeter bait and lighter float."

So say professors and divines, who ought to know a lot:
Perhaps old trowlers like myself should try to change our trot:
I’ll read that journal “Worship” and some book on Liturgy,
And maybe when I understand ‘twont seem bizarre to me.

Father Fennelly, circa 1956

1956! Imagine what shock it must have been to this Father - and to whoever who had read this prophetic poem - when all that it contains came to pass 10 years later!

咩！

meh! meh! meh!

A friend of mine commented: "Why do you like to meh so much? Is it because God is your Shepherd, and you are His sheep?"

I have never thought of that!

As Catholics, we are the sheep and lambs in His fold. We ourselves are called to give all our heart, mind and soul - to offer our entire being - to our Lord God, Who sent His Only-Begotten Son, the Lamb of God, to be sacrificed for our sake on the Tree of the Cross.

Being the Second Sunday after Easter, or more commonly known as Good Shepherd Sunday, after the theme of the Epistle and Gospel of the Holy Mass celebrated today, Holy Mother Church reminds her children of the importance of true ecumenism - the calling of all men into the Catholic Church, in the flock of our Lord Jesus Christ, of Whom our Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, is His current Vicar on earth.

The shepherd stave, or crosier, borne by the Good Shepherd in the image above, is similar to the ones carried by prelates of the Church. From the Catholic Encyclopedia, the learned Durandus and Barbosa tell us of the significance of these ecclesiastical ornaments conferred on bishops during their consecration:

(They) signify their authority to correct vices, stimulate piety, administer punishment, and thus rule and govern with a gentleness that is tempered with severity. (...) As the rod of Moses was the seal and emblem of his Divine commission as well as the instrument of the miracles he wrought, so is the episcopal staff the symbol of that doctrinal and disciplinary power of bishops in virtue of which they may sustain the weak and faltering, confirm the wavering in faith, and lead back the erring ones into the true fold. (...) The end is sharp and pointed wherewith to prick and goad the slothful, the middle is straight to signify righteous rule, while the head is bent or crooked in order to draw in and attract souls to the ways of God.

Throughout the history of Christianity, holy images or statues of Our Lord as the Good Shepherd can be found in many hallowed grounds, from dark catacombs to glorious Gothic cathedrals. It is indeed one of the most well-loved titles of our Blessed Lord.

God, Church and Soul

Instaurare Omnia in Christo!

How can the saints, particularly those bathed in the blood of martyrdom, who have suffered and died for the propagation of the Holy Faith ever imagine the cancerous concepts of Modernism ravaging through so many members of the Mystical Body of Christ, nay, even the very heart - the Magisterium, in the present years?

United with the spirit and intention of the late Archbishop (felicis memoriae), we are bound by our moral obligations to echo the Declaration that he had made publicly, and courageously, back in 1974.

Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, Defender of the Catholic Faith

Declaration of November 21, 1974:

“We adhere with all our heart and all our soul to Catholic Rome, guardian of the Catholic Faith and of the traditions necessary for the maintaining of that Faith, to eternal Rome, mistress of wisdom and of truth. On the contrary, we refuse, and we have always refused, to follow the Rome of neo-Modernist and neo-Protestant tendencies, which showed itself clearly in the Second Vatican Council and in the reforms that issued from it.”

Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre

And also, this:

The Oath Against Modernism

I, (...), firmly embrace and accept each and every definition that has been set forth and declared by the unerring teaching authority of the Church, especially those principal truths which are directly opposed to the errors of this day. And first of all, I profess that God, the origin and end of all things, can be known with certainty by the natural light of reason from the created world (see Rom. 1:90), that is, from the visible works of creation, as a cause from its effects, and that, therefore, his existence can also be demonstrated: Secondly, I accept and acknowledge the external proofs of revelation, that is, divine acts and especially miracles and prophecies as the surest signs of the divine origin of the Christian religion and I hold that these same proofs are well adapted to the understanding of all eras and all men, even of this time. Thirdly, I believe with equally firm faith that the Church, the guardian and teacher of the revealed word, was personally instituted by the real and historical Christ when he lived among us, and that the Church was built upon Peter, the prince of the apostolic hierarchy, and his successors for the duration of time. Fourthly, I sincerely hold that the doctrine of faith was handed down to us from the apostles through the orthodox Fathers in exactly the same meaning and always in the same purport. Therefore, I entirely reject the heretical' misrepresentation that dogmas evolve and change from one meaning to another different from the one which the Church held previously. I also condemn every error according to which, in place of the divine deposit which has been given to the spouse of Christ to be carefully guarded by her, there is put a philosophical figment or product of a human conscience that has gradually been developed by human effort and will continue to develop indefinitely. Fifthly, I hold with certainty and sincerely confess that faith is not a blind sentiment of religion welling up from the depths of the subconscious under the impulse of the heart and the motion of a will trained to morality; but faith is a genuine assent of the intellect to truth received by hearing from an external source. By this assent, because of the authority of the supremely truthful God, we believe to be true that which has been revealed and attested to by a personal God, our Creator and Lord.

Furthermore, with due reverence, I submit and adhere with my whole heart to the condemnations, declarations, and all the prescripts contained in the encyclical Pascendi and in the decree Lamentabili, especially those concerning what is known as the history of dogmas. I also reject the error of those who say that the faith held by the Church can contradict history, and that Catholic dogmas, in the sense in which they are now understood, are irreconcilable with a more realistic view of the origins of the Christian religion. I also condemn and reject the opinion of those who say that a well-educated Christian assumes a dual personality-that of a believer and at the same time of a historian, as if it were permissible for a historian to hold things that contradict the faith of the believer, or to establish premises which, provided there be no direct denial of dogmas, would lead to the conclusion that dogmas are either false or doubtful. Likewise, I reject that method of judging and interpreting Sacred Scripture which, departing from the tradition of the Church, the analogy of faith, and the norms of the Apostolic See, embraces the misrepresentations of the rationalists and with no prudence or restraint adopts textual criticism as the one and supreme norm. Furthermore, I reject the opinion of those who hold that a professor lecturing or writing on a historico-theological subject should first put aside any preconceived opinion about the supernatural origin of Catholic tradition or about the divine promise of help to preserve all revealed truth forever; and that they should then interpret the writings of each of the Fathers solely by scientific principles, excluding all sacred authority, and with the same liberty of judgment that is common in the investigation of all ordinary historical documents.

Finally, I declare that I am completely opposed to the error of the modernists who hold that there is nothing divine in sacred tradition; or what is far worse, say that there is, but in a pantheistic sense, with the result that there would remain nothing but this plain simple fact-one to be put on a par with the ordinary facts of history-the fact, namely, that a group of men by their own labor, skill, and talent have continued through subsequent ages a school begun by Christ and his apostles. I firmly hold, then, and shall hold to my dying breath the belief of the Fathers in the charism of truth, which certainly is, was, and always will be in the succession of the episcopacy from the apostles. The purpose of this is, then, not that dogma may be tailored according to what seems better and more suited to the culture of each age; rather, that the absolute and immutable truth preached by the apostles from the beginning may never be believed to be different, may never be understood in any other way.

I promise that I shall keep all these articles faithfully, entirely, and sincerely, and guard them inviolate, in no way deviating from them in teaching or in any way in word or in writing. Thus I promise, this I swear, so help me God...

Given by His Holiness St. Pius X September 1, 1910.

Most unfortunately, this Oath, which is to be sworn to by all clergy, pastors, confessors, preachers, religious superiors, and professors in philosophical-theological seminaries, has lost its use in the Post-Conciliar church.

So help us God...

Attention: Due to some technical errors, I am no longer able to maintain my previous blog. With this new blog up and running, the legacy of un roi, une loi, une foi continues.