Find Mass boring?

"You don't get anything out of the Mass because you don’t bring anything to it.

  If you want to enhance the fruitfulness of your participation in Mass, just bring a generous sacrifice."
Archbishop Fulton Sheen

 

How to stay positive and keep the Faith

Look, life as we know it could end tomorrow if North Korea kicks off or Iran, Israel, Russia, India, Pakistan and so on.

Our Catholic life is also uncertain;the new Holy Father is in the process of taking over the reins and, judging from yesterday's Mass at St Paul's Without the Walls in Rome, things are a bit muddled at present.

Note the mix up over reception of Holy Communion.

Some priests indicated only by mouth while others happily placed the Host in the hand. There can only be one right way so let's have some clarity please HF. Let's have leadership as well as humility, please.

As always, I turn to Archbishop Fulton Sheen at times of trial and tribulation.

He has an excellent series on world crisis, and personal suffering; physical and mental.

We can look forward to our tears being wiped from our eyes....nothing can harm us.....God is our Father.

SPAKTF!

The joy of suffering

Yet another case is going forward for judgement on one man's right to commission his own death. The person in question is 58 years old and suffering from "locked in syndrome" following a severe stroke.

When such tragic cases hit the headlines it seems to me that the benefits of suffering are never raised, never recognised even.

Can there be benefits attached to an existence that forces you to be reliant on other people for every personal need?

"The vertical bar pointing to the heavens is God's will. The horizontal bar contradicting it is our will. When our will is in conflict with God's will we have a cross. A cross in the mind is fear, anxiety, unhappiness. A cross in the body is pain" (Archbishop Fulton Sheen)

As Catholics we know that there are indeed profound benefits to be gained if we can approach suffering in the right way.
 I am reminded me of a talk given by Archbishop Sheen on the subject of suffering. He met with a woman who was in what we used to call an 'iron lung' - she had been subject to this treatment for some years and was due to spend the rest of her life inanimate in all but speech.

The Archbishop asked her if she knew what suffering was and she replied "No".
He then wrote to her daily over a long period of time and I have no doubt that his letters would have been a lifeline for her.

Archbishop Fulton Sheen had a great insight into suffering and, in later life, he actually experienced it himself following complicated heart surgery.

But, more than that, he wrote about it and it is a constant thread running through most of his books and talks.

Here is what he has to say on the issue of what he calls "wasted pain" -

"One of the greatest tragedies in the world is wasted pain. Pain without relation to the Cross is like an unsigned cheque - without value.
But once we have countersigned with the signature of the Saviour on the Cross, it takes on an infinite value.

A feverish brow that never throbs in unison with a Head crowned with thorns, or an aching hand never borne in patience with a hand on the Cross, is sheer waste.
The world is worse for that pain when it might have been much better.

All the sickbeds of the world therefore, are either on the right side of the Cross or on the left; they ask to be taken down, or like the thief on the right, they ask to be taken up.

It is not so much what people suffer that makes the world mysterious: it is rather how much they miss when they suffer.
They seem to forget that even as children they made obstacles in their games in order to have something to overcome. Why then, when they grow into man's estate, should there not be prizes won by effort and struggle?

Cannot the spirit of man rise with adversity as the bird rises against the resistance of the wind? Do not the game fish swim upstream? Must not the alabaster box be broken to fill the house with ointment?.......................Why then cannot pain be made redemption? Why under the alchemy of Divine Love cannot crosses be turned into crucifixes?........."

Those words say it all really. The negative processes of suffering can be re-directed to positives.

How?

By offering pain and humiliation to the Holy Trinity

By allowing your own suffering to be a platform for others to show their love and care and charity

By resigning oneself to God's will and offering up the pain for the release of the Holy Souls

By bearing the pain and indignity in reparation for blasphemies against the Holy Name and Our Lady

Blessed Miguel Pro wrote a most moving prayer on suffering; it is not an easy prayer to say. It is even harder to abide by the sentiments in the prayer:-

Does our life become from day to day more painful, more oppressive, more replete with afflictions? Blessed be he a thousand times who desires it so.

 If life be harder, love makes it also stronger and, only this love, grounded on suffering, can carry the cross of my Lord  Jesus Christ.

Love without egotism, without relying on self but enkindling in the depth of the heart an ardent thirst to love and suffer for all those around us: a thirst that neither misfortune nor contempt can extinguish…..I believe, O Lord; but strengthen my faith….Heart of Jesus, I trust in Thee; but give greater vigour to my confidence.

Heart of Jesus, I give my heart to Thee; but, so enclose it in Thee that it may never be separated from Thee.

Heart of Jesus, I am all Thine; but take care of my promise so that I may be able to put it in practice even unto the complete sacrifice of my life.

In case you didn't realise it....I'm paradoxically intent!

After many years in the traditional pew I no longer experience angst or even anger when I come under attack, although, I admit to being a bit ratty when I receive silly invective in the comments box at times.

Perhaps peace of mind is an age thing but, I also find that by attempting to laugh at myself and  at the inanity of both the world and the Catholic Church authorities in England and  Wales, life becomes worth living.

My blogging is a release of the pent up frustrations 23 years of fighting Bishops, teachers, nuns, priests and laity who have all done their damnedest to baulk the attempts of my wife and myself to bring our children up within the teachings of Holy Mother Church.

So it is good to be able to laugh a great deal of the time or, as Archbishop Sheen described it: "Be paradoxically intentioned"

How to treat a chalice that has been an issue of sacrilege.

There is only one way to treat a sacred vessel (I am thinking ahead here of the final stages of what is becoming the Ramsgate Benedictine Scandal) where it  has been subject to sacriligious use.

Archbishop Sheen gave the example of a chalice that had been sold and subsequently used as a cocktail 'glass' or beer cup in a night club.

According to the great man one must take the cup and return it to the furnace, melting it down so that the sin of its desecration would be cleansed by fire, just as you might, in a case of emergency, apply a red hot iron to an infected wound.

Then and only then, it can be recast and shaped and annealed so that it returns with its old substance but cleansed and in a new form.

And, then, of course, it must be consecrated anew by a Bishop.

Picture: Fr Z

Would someone please tell the Benedictines of Chilworth that please?

There's a frog in my bucket!

La grenouille est morte!

The late Archbishop Fulton Sheen used to tell this tale and, whilst it is very well known in the world of Catholic bloggers, I felt it was worth a re-run.

The Archbishop used this little  parable to illustrate, very graphically, how those in the modern Church have drifted off into oblivion, forgetting the vital facts about the Church's teachings on faith and morals because they have absorbed the deadly warmth of a secular, material society.

It is a simple story and, from memory, I will relate it as the great man once did:

"...you take a frog from its wild environment and you place it in a bucket of water where it swims around happily.


Then you slowly, very gradually, begin to heat the water.


Not by much, a degree or half a degree a day until quite some time later the day comes when you look in the bucket and the frog is dead.


It was not aware of any increase in temperature, so gradual was the increase.
And then, it died!"

So it is with our Faith. If we remove ourselves, for whatever reason, from the mainstream of the Church, and become distracted by earthly things, we don't notice the increase in temperature that occurs until, one day, it is too late for us and we are dead!"

This is the case with so many Catholics inasmuch that they attend Mass on a Sunday but totally disregard most teachings of the Church and all guidance of the Holy Father.

The temperature has risen and, to all intents and purposes, they are spiritually dead.

This might be a good starting point for the Bishops when they come to put into place Pope Benedict's call for an evangelisation programme in October this year.

Re-evangelisation should be Phase One!

It did not happen with Mohammed, or with Buddha or with any other religious leader.....

...only the coming of Christ was foretold.

Today is the anniversary of the death of that great Priest, Archbishop Fulton Sheen who, one day will be canonised.

This clip features his voice as he talks about the one (the only one) whose coming was prophesied....Christ the Saviour of the world!

If you want a Christmas present with a difference, buy a CD set of the Archbishop's retreats and sermons - they are just so very good.

They are available from St Anthony Communications http://www.saintant.com/



       Prayer for the Canonization of Archbishop Fulton Sheen

Heavenly Father, source of all holiness, You raise up within the Church in every age men and women who serve with heroic love and dedication.
You have blessed Your Church through the life and ministry of Your faithful servant, Archbishop Fulton J Sheen.

He has written and spoken well of Your Divine Son, Jesus Christ, and was a true instrument of the Holy Spirit in touching the hearts of countless people.
If it be according to Your Will, for the honour and glory of the Most Holy Trinity and for the salvation of souls, we ask You to move the Church to proclaim him a saint.

We ask this prayer through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.

The actress and the bishop!

Be honest, your thoughts raced down all sorts of corridors when you read that headline, and most of them were pretty murky - correct?

But it is an honest headline, so please let me explain (and many thanks to Liz for reminding me of this true story).

                                    The young Fulton Sheen - future saint!

It concerns the great priest, Bishop and, finally, Archbishop, Fulton Sheen - soon, Deo volente, to be canonised.

It was London in the late 1920s and Father Sheen, as he then was, had been seconded to teach at the seminary at St Edmond's Ware.
In addition to those duties he became an unofficial curate at St Patrick's Church, Soho Square.

 November in London in those days meant being immersed in a dense and foul fog (I don't remember that, by the way, but it was the same in the Fifties).

Fr Sheen went to open the church one foggy morning only to find a young woman of uncertain sobriety in the doorway.

To cut to the point, the good Father engaged her in conversation and made her a cup of strong coffee. It transpired that she was a Catholic and the star of a musical then on the London stage and that she was involved with three men and life had become unbearable for her.

Drink had become her refuge and her friend.

Fr Sheen then asked her to come back the following day when he would show her a painting by Rembrandt and talk with her further.

She agreed to return on one condition; that Father Sheen would not ask her to go to confession.

This he agreed to. but that was not enough. "Promise me that you will not ask me to go to confession" pleaded the actress.

"OK, I promise that I will not ask you to go to confession" said the priest.

That satisfied the woman and the next day, sure enough, she did return.

As they walked up the church towards the sanctuary they passed a confessional and without further ado, Father Sheen pushed her into it!

She made a full confession, the first for many years and, a short time later she entered the community of enclosed nuns at Tyburn and she was still there forty years later when the then Bishop Sheen related the story to his television audience.

As Archbishop Sheen said to his audience: "I didn't ask her to go to confession, I pushed her in"

Many years ago St Patrick's was my parish church and I have a great affection for it, most especially as it has been restored and renovated to a very high standard by the PP, Fr Sherbrooke.

.
The anniversary of his death is 9th November.

May God have mercy on his soul and may Archbishop Fulton Sheen come to the aid of the Catholic Church today.

ARCHBISHOP FULTON JOHN SHEEN RIP

 8 MAY 1895 - 9 NOVEMBER 1979

Sin - on four wheels!

A couple of Sundays ago I was reminded of the old saying when life deals you a bitter blow - "What has fairness got to do with it?"




The Road to Perdition


I was returning from a distant Mass and enjoying the spiritual afterglow as well as the beautiful North Pembrokeshire countryside and my mind, admittedly, was on a higher plane level. The roads were clear and free of traffic as only the  roads of Baptist country can be at 5 o'clock on a Sunday afternoon.

Suddenly, as I rounded a bend, there was a police speed trap. I did not falter one iota; I kept on at my steady pace, confident in the belief that I was a law abiding citizen; ahead of me stretched a half mile of visibly open road - dim problem as they say in those parts.

And then, ten days later I received a speeding summons. For driving at 35 miles per hour in a 30 mile limit area! Is there no justice, Lord?

The episode reminded me of how the great Archbishop Fulton Sheen used to address priests attending one of his retreats.

He would begin by saying:

"Who amongst you is with sin?"  There would be an uncomfortable silence and a 'no show' of hands.

"Alright" the Archbishop would say, "who amongst you broke the speed limit on the way here?" Red faces all  round.

It is a fact that we so often take everyday offences for granted and forget to tag them with the 'sin' label.

Breaking the reasonable law of the land is a sin; driving beyond the capacity of road conditions is a sin.
Not maintaining the service level of your car is a sin, maybe a small one of the venial variety but, if you injured someone in a car that you had deliberately or negligently not kept at the correct levels of safety, it would be a much more serious sin, possibly of the mortal variety.

Now comes the part that Protestant readers of this blog (if they exist, which I doubt) will throw their hands in the air and say: "I told you so".

Did I confess my 'transgression?' No. Why?

Well I thought about it long and hard and reasoned that my speeding was a result of human error and ignorance.
All had looked good on the road; I was in a 30 mile zone on the outward road from a small village and, within the next hundred yards it switched to being a 60 mph zone (I had thought all along that I was in a 60 mph zone).

I had not wilfully broken the law.

That has no currency in man's court, but, in God's, it does.

Of what use is an empty cross?

None, really. It is just a piece of wood, or two pieces of wood, it signifies a hollow, sanitised Protestant version of.......what?.......certainly not the sacrifice of the Son of God on Calvary...... no sign of the redemptive power of suffering and God's love for us in allowing His Son to be shamed, humiliated, beaten and executed as a common criminal.

Archbishop Fulton Sheen called it a symbol of totalitarian regimes, a cross without the saving Victim has no sacrificial element, it has no saving grace.

Bland, meaningless, insulting!

A number of comments have been made following my post regarding the ten things you would not find in a Catholic home; my tenth item was a wooden cross.

This may have been puzzling to some people so I set about finding Archbishop Sheen's famous talk on the value of the crucifix as opposed to the cross.

I recalled that I gave my CD set to my terminally ill sister in the hope that it would bring her some comfort in coping with her suffering. I do not know if it did. She died some six months later with no acknowledgement, not that I was looking for any.

My next step was to Google the matter and, much to my chagrin, I found that Mundabor had beaten me to it with a post in July. I cannot improve on that post. I wish I knew some Italian swear words.

So, straight from Mundabor's Blog comes part of ++ Sheen's sermon on the cross....

Re-browsing the exceedingly beautiful “Life of Christ” from the great Fulton Sheen (a book that, if you ask me, should be obligatory reading in every RCIA, or confirmation class) I stumbled upon this very beautiful concept which, once again, made on me a profound impression (emphases always mine).

“The modern world, which denies personal guilt and admits only social crimes, which has no place for personal repentance but only public reforms, has divorced Christ from His Cross; the Bridegroom and Bride have been pulled apart. What God hath joined together, men have torn asunder. As a result, to the left is the Cross; to the right is the Christ”. [...] Communism comes along and picks up the meaningless Cross; Western post-Christian civilization chooses the unscarred Christ.”

“Communism has chosen the Cross in the sense that it has brought back to an egotistic world a sense of discipline, self-abnegation, surrender, hard work, study, and dedication to supraindividual goals. But the Cross without Christ is sacrifice without love. Hence, Communism has produced a society that is authoritarian, cruel, oppressive of human freedom, filled with concentrantion camps, firing squads, and brain-washings”

“The Western post-Christian civilization has picked up the Christ without His Cross. But a Christ without a sacrifice that reconciles the world to God is a cheap, feminized, colorless, itinerant preacher who deserves to be popular for His great Sermon on the Mount, but also merits unpopularity for what He said about His Divinity on the one hand, and divorce, judgment, and hell on the other. This sentimental Christ is patched together with a thousand commonplaces. [...] Without His Cross, He becomes nothing more than a sultry precursor of democracy or a humanitarian who taught brotherhood without tears”.

Ben Trovato of Countercultural Father pointed out that Opus Dei members keep an 'empty' cross to remind them that they must be prepared to shoulder it throughout their lives, some religious orders also display a cross for the same purpose. All  that is good and fine.

 But, for those Catholics who put a cross rather than a crucifix on their wall they might like to consider the implications. Is it a denial of Christ? Is it just a euphemistic symbol? Is it a means to avoid meditating upon the shame and the agony associated with the crucifixion? ( Some Protestants believe that we Catholics enjoy keeping Christ permanently crucified without realising that the sacrifice on Calvary was not a one off and that the same sacrifice is made in an unbloody fashion at every Mass celebrated every day throughout the world).

Reflective, saving, poignant and fulfilling!

It is a scandal that, at one of the churches that I travel to for Sunday Mass, a large empty wooden cross hangs over the altar - the ultimate insult to one who made His sacrificial offering on our behalf.

WHY IS THE HUMAN RACE SO SCARED OF THE CROSS?

No cross no crown!

The cross is the prime symbol of all time and will remain so until the end of time but it seems to be an object of fear among the secular world.

The latest incident involves a group of atheists who are campaigning to have a cross that was erected on the site of the Twin Towers 9/11 atrocity, removed. The cross was constructed from two of the steel girders salvaged from the debris and found already fused into a cross formation.

There have been many incidents of nurses or others wearing  a cross worn on a chain or as a brooch in the workplace and even of a van driver who displayed a Palm cross in his vehicle. All of them were subject to dismissal type procedures.

There has been agitation in Italy and other mainland European countries, to have the crucifix removed from classrooms and public sector offices. What is eating at these people?

If the humanists or atheists wanted to put a logo on their advertising and poster hoardings I wouldn't bat an eyelid; if they wanted to erect 3 dimensional logos on their own land that would be fine provided that it complied with planning regulations.

So why does the material world throw a hissy fit when a cross is displayed?

Of course, we know that a cross without Christ is a contradiction anyway; you can't have the cross without the victim. You cannot have Easter Sunday without first having Good Friday. The bare unadorned cross is really a Protestant emblem but, sadly, there are quite a few Catholic churches who have also opted for the sanitised version - no saving victim.

Archbishop Sheen called the bare cross "effeminate" and so it is. Take away the Man and you are left with two cross sections of wood.

There is an old but good story of a woman who walked into a jewellers store and asked to be shown a chain with a cross on. "Certainly" Said the jeweller. "Would you like a plain one or one with the little man on?"

We have moved so far away from knowledge of the truth, in another twenty years most of the educated world will not even know who Jesus Christ is.

The world is drifting away from the reality of the crucified Christ and adopting a format that does not challenge or require thoughts of redemption, suffering and sacrifice.

That is what the American atheists are scared of......the reality of God's kingdom made apparent through the ordeal, humiliation and torture of His sacrificial Son. And that is why the world fears the cross. The world wants success, triumph, self promotion: it does not want to be reminded of the Good Friday element of redemptive pain, suffering and humiliation.

The New Translation is welcome but will it change things?

It might. It just might, especially where there is a celebrant who has the gravitas to say the Mass with reverence and invoke respect for the Body and Blood of Christ.

But, in the majority of cases we are still facing an intransigent laity who refuse to listen to the messages emanating from Rome; who are so bound up in their own secular pleasures of guitar music, happy clappy singing, hand holding and kiss of peace embracing that the sensitivities of language, reverence and content will pass them by.



Photo: Rorate Coeli
Sorry, but I have nothing in common with these people!

 They will be aided and abetted, of course, by Father Smirk and his wonderful way of starting the Mass by turning his back on the Almighty in order to grin inanely and say: "Good morning everybody."

That is why, regretfully, I shall not be beating a path to the Ordinary Form of Mass. I do believe that, over the past 50 years or so, some people (priests and laity) have lost sight of what the Mass is about. There is a belief that now the Mass is about "ME"........and what "I" can get out of it. A jolly good sing song. A bit of "look at me, I'm on the sanctuary" or, worse, "I'm a special minister" (Ministerium Extraordinarium more like). A feeling that the worship of God and the re-enactment of the sacrifice on Calvary have been overlooked in the rush to 'modernise' and tailor the liturgy to suit one's own ego.
The great Archbishop Sheen, when speaking of how young people described attending Mass as "not getting anything out of it" used to say to them: "But you're not bringing anything to the Mass!" And that is true today. Congregations have forgotten to 'bring' anything with them. They have forgotten that they are there to witness a sacrifice, not a celebratory meal; they have forgotten that the Mass should be a complete and unchanging means of bearing testimony to Christ and His teachings; an opportunity for us to have a more intimate dialogue with the Holy Trinity so that we may confide our fears and make our requests in more august surroundings than the living room or kitchen. And they have forgotten that they are there to worship, love and revere God, and you cannot do that effectively by singing "I wish I was a wiggly worm" or dancing around the sanctuary in flowing robes.

So it is not the New Translation that I have issue with. It is the fact that human pride will continue to reveal itself by those who refuse to kneel to receive the Body of Christ, those who distort the liturgy and those who chatter both before and after Mass. I have nothing in common with them; I am a Catholic!

Two poems, did one inspire the other?

Archbishop Fulton Sheen made the poem 'Lovely Lady dressed in blue'  popular and well loved at the height of his television fame in the 1950s.
It was written by an American, Mary Dixon Thayer, born in 1896.

Some may find it a shade over sentimental and some may find it uncannily similar to a poem written by Francis Thompson.

Here is the Mary Dixon Thayer poem, 'Lovely Lady dressed in blue'

Lovely Lady dressed in blue ----
Teach me how to pray!
God was just your little boy,
Tell me what to say!

Did you lift Him up, sometimes,
Gently on your knee?
Did you sing to Him the way
Mother does to me?

Did you hold His hand at night?
Did you ever try
Telling stories of the world?
O! And did He cry?

Do you really think He cares
If I tell Him things-
Little things that happen? And
Do the Angels' wings

Make a noise? And can He hear
Me if I speak low?
Does He understand me now?
Tell me ---- for you know?

Lovely Lady dressed in blue ----
Teach me how to pray!
God was just your little boy,
And you know the way.

And now for Little Jesus by Francis Thompson (1859-1907)

Little Jesus, was Thou shy
Once, and just so small as I?
And what did it feel like to be
Out of Heaven, and just like me?
Didst Thou sometimes think of there,
And ask where all the angels were?

I should think that I would cry
For my house all made of sky;
I would look about the air,
And wonder where my angels were;
And at waking twould distress me
Not an angel there to dress me!
Hadst Thou ever any toys,
Like us little girls and boys?
And didst Thou play in Heaven with all
The angels that were not too tall,
With stars for marbles? Did the things
Play Can you see me? through their wings?
And did Thy Mother let Thee spoil
Thy robes, with playing on our soil?
How nice to have them always new In Heaven, because twas quite clean blue!

Didst Thou kneel at night to pray,
And didst Thou join Thy hands, this way?
And did they tire sometimes, being young,
And make the prayer seem very long?
And dost Thou like it best, that we
Should join our hands to pray to Thee?
I used to think, before I knew,
The prayer not said unless we do.
And did Thy Mother at the night
Kiss Thee, and fold the clothes in right?
And didst Thou feel quite good in bed,
Kissed, and sweet, and Thy prayers said?

Thou canst not have forgotten all
That it feels like to be small:
And Thou knowst I cannot pray
To Thee in my fathers way
When Thou was so little, say,
Couldst Thou talk Thy Fathers way?
So, a little Child, come down
And hear a childs tongue like Thy own;
Take me by the hand and walk,
And listen to my baby-talk.
To Thy Father show my prayer
(He will look, Thou art so fair),
And say: O Father, I, Thy Son,
Bring the prayer of a little one.

And He will smile, that childrens tongue
Has not changed since Thou wast young!

THE BISHOPS....AGAIN!

Archbishop Fulton Sheen

I make no apologies for bringing up the subject of our Bishops yet again.
Ecumenical Diablog carries a post in which he, very charitably, calls for restraint in offering up criticism lest we fall into the trap of heresy.
I agree that Catholics should always be charitable in their grouses but it is quite legitimate to grouse if the cause exists. If a Bishop goes against the teachings of the Church or disobeys the Holy Father, we are obliged, according to St Paul, to admonish. I see very little that one could describe as being of good quality or excellence in the Bishops of England and Wales. We have the appalling Cardinal Vaughan hijacking by Westminster Diocese, the establishment of a secular school in direct competition with a Catholic school, actually being built in the grounds of the Catholic school in Middlesborough Diocese, Bishop Burns in Menevia kicking off about sexism because women are not allowed as altar servers in the EF, pretty grim performances for Education Sunday under the control of Bishop McMahon OP, Wrexham Diocese in meltdown and Liverpool Diocese more protestant than Dr Ian Paisley by all accounts.

Not exactly a picture of light and happiness is it?

And so Archbishop Fulton Sheen's words ring in my ears..........

"WHO IS GOING TO SAVE OUR CHURCH? NOT OUR BISHOPS, NOT OUR PRIESTS AND RELIGIOUS.

IT IS UP TO YOU, THE PEOPLE. YOU HAVE THE MINDS, THE EYES, THE EARS TO SAVE THE CHURCH.

YOUR MISSION IS TO SEE THAT YOUR PRIESTS ACT LIKE PRIESTS, YOUR BISHOPS LIKE BISHOPS AND YOUR RELIGIOUS LIKE RELIGIOUS!

BLOGGING SEEMS A GOOD PLACE TO BEGIN!

Mgr Charles Pope on the Fifth and Sixth marks of the Church

Writing on the Archdiocese of Washington site, Mgr Pope makes some very interesting comments on what he perceives as being the 'new' marks of the Church, on top of the one, holy, Catholic and apostolic marks.

The Monsignor's two extra marks I find particularly poignant and a sad indictment of the times we live in today.
Many people will state that evil and persecution have been with us throughout the centuries and I would not dispute that. But I would state that we are witnessing today what Our Lord called "a recrudescence of evil", that is, evil on a scale and intensity not experienced before. Now I am not talking about the end of the world per se, the phrase "recrudescence of evil" does refer to the end of time. However, my belief is that, whilst we may be in the last of days, the world still has got a long way to go (but don't blame me if I'm wrong).
Mgr Pope's new marks are 'Hated' and 'Perduring' meaning to endure permanently and here is his rationale:-

The 5th Mark of the Church: Hated. Jesus consistently taught us to expect the hatred of the world if we were true disciples.

If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. Remember the words I spoke to you: ‘No servant is greater than his master.’If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also. (John 15:18-20).

Or Again: All men will hate you because of me, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved. A student is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master. It is enough for the student to be like his teacher, and the servant like his master. If the head of the house has been called Beelzebub,how much more the members of his household! (Matt 10:22-24)

Or yet again, Woe to you when all men speak well of you, for that is how their fathers treated the false prophets. (Luke 6:26)

One of the more painful aspects of Church life, yet also one of the aspects of which I am most “proud” is that we are hated especially by the world. It is true that some of the Evangelicals are ridiculed but few can deny that a very special and intense hatred for the Catholic Church and is widely on display. It’s never OK in our society (nor should it be) to scorn Jews or Muslims and to mock or attack their faith traditions. Most of the other Christian denominations (except the Evangelicals) also escape much hatred. But the Catholic Church, ah the Catholic Church, now it seems open season on her. We are scorned, badly portrayed in movies, our history is misrepresented, our sins (and we do have them) are exaggerated, our teachings called bigoted, backward, unrealistic, and out of date. And no matter how ugly, bigoted and inaccurate the world’s hatred is, very few if any express any outrage at how were are treated and misrepresented. Try any of this on the Muslims, Jews, Buddhists, et al. and the outrage and claims of bigotry are echoed by the media (and well they should be). Meanwhile Dan Brownet al. get to go on and on about “evil” priests and bishops, a crucifix can be submerged in urine or the Blessed Mother smeared with dung and this is praised as “art” and funded by government grants.

I am not complaining (though these things are wrong). I am actually quite hopeful that this means we are doing something right. We are a sign of contradiction to the world and we are hated for it. We speak the truth to a world gone mad and we hold on to that “old time religion.” That we are hated puts us in good company with Jesus and the prophets and martyrs who stood with him. If we are really doing what we should be doing, the Church ought to experience significant hatred from the world. So hatred by the world is an essential mark of the Church if you ask me. We do not look to be hated. Neither do we look for conflict. But in preaching Christ crucified, in preaching the whole counsel of God and not some watered down version of it we surely do find hatred and conflict comes to us. Some people and denominations try to fit in with the world. They accept its ways and comprise the clear teaching of Christ. But the True Church speaks the whole truth of God in love and does not cave to the world’s demands. The true Church, by Christ’s promise, is hated by the world and those allied and wedded to it. But no need to fear…the sixth “mark” is here!

The Sixth Mark of the Church – Perduring – To perdure means to permanently endure. Here too Christ firmly established this principle and promise to the true Church:

And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of Hell will not prevail against it(Matt 16:18).

There are no governments or nations that have lasted 2000 years. Very little else in this world can claim such antiquity and even if it does can it claim to have remained essentially unchanged in its dogma or teaching? The Catholic Church is one, even after 2000 years. An unbroken line of Popes back to Peter and an unbroken line of succession for all the Bishops back to the Apostles through the laying on of hands. Not bad. Now consider that this is a miracle! If the Church were depending on human beings to exist and stay unified how long do think she would have lasted? Probably about twenty minutes, max. Our history is not without some pretty questionable moments, in terms of the human elements of the Church. That the gates of hell would never prevail against the Church certainly suggests they would try again and again. But here we are, a miracle. Still standing after all these years. Christ is true to his promise to remain with us all days unto the consummation of the world. We, the human elements of the Church may not live teachings of Christ perfectly, but the Church has never failed to teach what Christ taught even (as now) when the world hated us for it. At times we are tepid and struggle to find our voice, but Christ still speaks and ministers even in our weakness. Yes the Catholic Church is a miracle, the Work of Jesus Christ. And thus the sixth Mark of the Church is that she perdures. By God’s grace we exhibit this sixth mark. Nations have come and gone, empires risen and fallen, eras opened and closed, but through it all we perdure.

So there it is, I believe in one, holy, catholic, apostolic, (and if you don’t mind me saying), hated and perduring Church.

Look around the world at the countries where Christians are suffering (perduring) and being hated to the point of being martyred; Iraq, Nigeria, Sudan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, India and so on. Or, look more closely at home and listen to some of Peter Tatchell's speeches, or Richard Dawkins scribblings and many others besides.

Observe the decadence of Italian governance and you must believe that Signor B must also hate the Holy Father and all that he stands for.

We are surrounded by hate and must count ourselves blessed to live in these times when, in the words of Archbishop Fulton Sheen, "It really means something to stand up and say that you are a Catholic".

If you want your children to keep the faith - don't send them to a Catholic school!

Not my words but those of Archbishop Sheen, uttered, I guess, in the mid seventies, a year or two before his death.
He went on to explain that, at a Catholic School they would probably receive a bland sort of grounding in the faith but that, if they went to a non Catholic School, they would have to stick up for their faith and become stronger and more knowledgeable as a result.
There are a few, very few, good Catholic Schools in Great Britain today, Cardinal Vaughan is one; the vast majority fall into the mindless liberal category. Archbishop Sheen's advice is sound overall,  except that, today I would add a caveat. Send your child to a non Catholic School only if both parents are strong Catholics. Children need the primary ethos of Catholicism to come from the home. Then they can stand up to the barracking they will receive at a non Catholic School.
If the home faith element is not so strong then, at least a Catholic School will give a base to be built on and, equally importantly, a network of Catholic friends.
As parents we had very bad experiences of our local Catholic Convent School. By the age of eleven, most, if not all of the school children knew nothing about the Sacraments or transubstantiation. They did know how to colour in pictures of the parables and stick them up round the walls.

All too often, RE becomes an art class rather than an instruction in catechetics

Sadly, the worst influences can come from embittered or disenfranchised Catholics, either teachers, family members or friends. And if one of the Catholic parents is weak or ignorant in the faith, it can cause friction and even apostasy. Couple this with a wishy washy school experience and you have young men and women who, in all probability, may never go to Church again in their lives and whose salvation, as a result is in grave doubt.

"We are never far from the demonic"

So said the highly talented and gifted speaker, Archbishop Fulton Sheen. He was speaking of his experiences giving retreats for priests, of which he gave many.



Archbishop Fulton Sheen



According to ++Sheen, there would, inevitably be one or two priests in the audience

who would become agitated whenever the crucifixion or Christ's sacrifice for man or the issue of transubstantiation, (belief in the changing of the bread and wine into the actual body and blood of Our Lord at the Consecration during Holy Mass) was mentioned. Often, the priest(s) concerned would start to heckle and agitate and (so the Archbishop predicted) would leave the retreat, and the Church within a few hours.
Belief in transubstantiation is critical but how many priests and Bishops believe today?
Is this (if I am correct in my hypothesis) one of the main reasons for the falling away of holiness in the Church today? Does the overwhelming desire to make the liturgical experience and sacramental  life as banal and as trivial as possible arise from the loss of belief in the Sacred Species?
It would be interesting to test this out. I believe that a rough poll count was taken in the early 80s and showed only 52% of parish priests believed. I cannot verify this, it is lost in antiquity but I have witnessed many post Vatican II priests who carry all the hallmarks of unbelief. By this I mean that they have a poor grasp of theological issues, appear slovenly and untidy in their dress and in the manner of carrying out their priestly duties, do not appear to actually work at anything other than celebrating two Masses on a Sunday and, in short, behave as if they were secular laymen rather than 'other Christs'.
Is this the reason why objections to the re-establishement of the EF Mass are so strong? Does this account for the lack of spine in our Bishops in standing up for the faith? We only have to look at a few of the issues facing the British Catholic Church in the past 12 months to find an answer. Adoption by homosexuals, homosexual Masses at Warwick Street, Sex education in Catholic Schools, celibacy of the clergy, women priests - the list goes on.
You could count on the fingers of one hand the number of Bishops who have stepped up to the mark on these and many other issues.
I am not claiming anything other than influence of the demonic but that is serious enough. The 'Judas' factor of one in twelve is perhaps not too far from the truth.

ADDENDUM: Further evidence has come, today from Fr Longenecker's blog Standing on my head

And even more from Stella Maris who carries a damning report on our Bishop!