St Mark and St Fidelis

Martyrdom and Eastertide go together: the Victory of Christ is the Triumph of the Martyrs.

Apostles and Evangelists in Eastertide, and Martyrs, too, have a special Common in the Breviary; for this reason, yesterday St Fidelis and to-day St Mark share the same versicle and Benedictus antiphon at Lauds; firstly, "Precious in the sight of the Lord, alleluia, is the death of His saints, alleluia" (Ps 115:6), then:

Filiæ Jerusalem, venite et videte Martyres cum coronis, quibus coronavit eos Dominus in die solemnitatis et lætitiæ, alleluia, alleluia.

(Ye daughters of Jerusalem, come and behold the Martyrs with the crowns with which the Lord crowned them on the day of solemnity and joy, alleluia, alleluia.)

- an exhortation to the Church militant and triumphant to rejoice in the endless victory the Martyrs have won by the grace of Christ, Who in crowning the Saints, does but crown His own gifts; an exhortation which mirrors and alludes to this text (Cant. iii, 11):

Egredimini et videte, filiæ Sion, regem Salomonem in diademate quo coronavit illum mater sua in die desponsationis illius, et in die lætitiæ cordis ejus.

(Go forth, ye daughters of Sion, and see king Solomon in the diadem, wherewith his mother crowned him in the day of his espousals, and in the day of the joy of his heart.)

- which is held prophetically to refer to Christ, the true Solomon, that is, the King of Peace, and calls upon the Church to behold Him incarnate to save us, and risen again in victory on Easter morn.

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While this day we pray in his Collect that St Mark's erudition may profit us - for his Gospel teaches us the doctrine of Christ our God - and his prayer ever defend us, yesterday's Collect is if anything more urgent and striking in its Counter-reformation stedfastness against Protestant evils, begging that, by the merits and intercession of so blessed a son of the Seraphic St Francis, having been graced with the beauteous palm of martyrdom and with the working of great wonders in the service of the propagation of the Faith, we too may by grace be strengthened in faith, yes, and in charity too, that we may merit to be found faithful servants of the Lord unto death:

O God, Who didst deign to beautify blessed Fidelis, his spirit on fire with ardor Seraphic, in the propagation of the true Faith with the palm of martyrdom and glorious miracles, we beg, by his merits and intercession so to be confirmed in faith and charity by Thy grace, that in Thy service we may deserve to be found faithful unto death.  Through...

Creed of St Irenæus

I meant to blog this yesterday: in the Divine Office, for the Feast of St Mark (transferred, in Australia, to the 26th of April because of ANZAC Day), the second reading in the Office of Readings is taken from St Irenæus of Lyons' Against the Heresies, Book I, Chapter x, 1-3. I was struck some years back by the creedal quality of the start of this passage (Adv. Hær. I, x, 1.), and I give it here in full; somewhat wryly I note that the part from the asterisk * onwards is omitted from the reading in the Office, tho' I have pencilled it in:

The Church, though dispersed through our the whole world, even to the ends of the earth, has received from the apostles and their disciples this faith:

[She believes] in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all things that are in them; and in one Christ Jesus, the Son of God, who became incarnate for our salvation; and in the Holy Spirit, who proclaimed through the prophets the dispensations of God, and the advents, and the birth from a virgin, and the passion, and the resurrection from the dead, and the ascension into heaven in the flesh of the beloved Christ Jesus, our Lord, and His [future] manifestation from heaven in the glory of the Father “to gather all things in one,” [Eph. i. 10.] and to raise up anew all flesh of the whole human race, in order that to Christ Jesus, our Lord, and God, and Saviour, and King, according to the will of the invisible Father, “every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth, and that every tongue should confess” [Phil. ii. 10, 11.] to Him, and that He should execute just judgment towards all; * that He may send “spiritual wickednesses,” [Eph. vi. 12.] and the angels who transgressed and became apostates, together with the ungodly, and unrighteous, and wicked, and profane among men, into everlasting fire; but may, in the exercise of His grace, confer immortality on the righteous, and holy, and those who have kept His commandments, and have persevered in His love, some from the beginning [of their Christian course], and others from [the date of] their repentance, and may surround them with everlasting glory.

Lest We Forget

Pete ("bell") and I ("book") served Fr's 9 am Low Mass for the Feast of St Mark, with commemorations of the Greater Litanies and All the Faithful Departed. I said Lauds of the Dead after Mass.

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It was nearly 10 o'clock by when I finished, but I made it down a few blocks and caught a good part of the already-begun ANZAC Day parade, which finished about 10.50 am.

The very large crowds [a record, apparently - and some 40,000, could you imagine it, attended the Dawn Service at the WA War Memorial in King's Park!] enthusiastically applauded the returned servicemen, who marched together with the descendents of deceased Diggers. It was good to see the Vietnam Vets well respected.

One banner got me: that of one of the Western Australian regiments, which first fought for the Empire in the Sudan in 1885, to crush the fanatic hordes of the Mahdi, and restore Queen Victoria's civilizing rule. Over 120 years later, Australia again combats the same forces of perverted misbelief.


I was amazed to see, marching among the Allies, about two dozen Rhodesian veterans, behind a proud "Rhodesia" banner bearing such campaign names as Matabeleland 1893 and Rhodesia itself, 1965-1980. How I wish one of them had rid the world of Mugabe! There was also a sizeable contingent of former members of the South Vietnamese armed forces, behind flags and banners of the former Republic of Vietnam. Lest we forget.

Furthermore, as well as many Brits, there was a very small contingent of combined North American veterans, marching behind side-by-side U.S. and Canadian flags. I suppose some of the half dozen Normandy D-Day veterans that marched separately may also have been such - how astounding to see men who had faced that hell, and lived!

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At the foreshore reserve we all gathered for the 11 am Commemorative Service, His Excellency the Governor taking first place at the ceremony.

I think the Order of Service instructive and moving:

The WA State President of the Returned and Services League welcomed all and gave an address; then all stood for some verses of the Kipling hymn -

God of our fathers, known of old,
Lord of our far flung battle line,
Beneath whose awful hand we hold
Dominion over palm and pine—
Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,
Lest we forget—lest we forget!

The tumult and the shouting dies;
The captains and the kings depart:
Still stands Thine ancient sacrifice,
An humble and a contrite heart.
Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,
Lest we forget—lest we forget!

(This was first written for the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria: now it is we Aussies who rule "over palm and pine", but must remember that the price of freedom is eternal vigilance, and the will to defend what our ancestors won.)

An Anglican chaplain next read a prayer for The Queen and those who govern us under her. Following that, we sang the opening of the Royal Anthem -

God save our gracious Queen,
Long live our noble Queen,
God save the Queen!
Send her victorious,
Happy and glorious,
Long to reign over us;
God save the Queen!

The same chaplain then read prayers for our armed forces, and for those who suffer because of warfare.

The massed choir followed this with "In Memoriam" by Summers -

Greater love hath no man than this,
that a man lay down his life for his friends. (St John xv, 13)

They shall not grow old as we who are left grow old,
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.

At the going down of the sun, and in the morning,
we will remember them - lest we forget.

An army bugler played the Last Post, followed by a minute's silence in honour of the fallen, and then the Rouse; I always use the silence to say a private De Profundis for the dead.

Next, the Ode -

They shall not grow old as we who are left grow old,
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn,
At the going down of the sun, and in the morning,
we will remember them -
(all repeated:) we will remember them.
Lest we forget -
(all repeated:) lest we forget

After that, part of the traditional hymn of Isaac Watts -

Our God, our help in ages past,
Our hope for years to come,
Our shelter from the stormy blast,
And our eternal home.

Under the shadow of Thy throne
Thy saints have dwelt secure;
Sufficient is Thine arm alone,
And our defence is sure.

Before the hills in order stood,
Or earth received her frame,
From everlasting Thou art God,
To endless years the same.

Our God, our help in ages past,
Our hope for years to come,
Be Thou our guard while troubles last,
And our eternal home.

The hymn concluded, there was a special address from a young lady, who last year was selected to go on the WA Premier's tour of the W.W.I battlefields; she spoke well, as did the Governor who next addressed us. We must remember the ANZAC's, and practise their virtues, lest we forget.

The choir then sang part of the patriotic "My Country" by Dorothea MacKellar:

I love a sunburnt country,
A land of sweeping plains,
Of ragged mountain ranges,
Of drought and flooding rains,

I love her far horizons,
I love her jewel sea,
Her beauty and her terror -
The wide brown land for me.

Though Earth holds many splendours,
Wherever I may die,
I know to what brown Country
My homing thoughts will fly.

Core of my heart, my country!
Land of the Rainbow Gold,
For flood and fire and famine,
She pays us back threefold;

I love her far horizons,
I love her jewel sea,
Her beauty and her terror -
The wide brown land for me.

Though Earth holds many splendours,
Wherever I may die,
I know to what brown Country
My homing thoughts will fly.

To conclude, there was a prayer of remembrance of the fallen by the chaplain, and finally the first verse of the National Anthem, Advance Australia Fair:

Australians all let us rejoice,
For we are young and free;
We've golden soil and wealth for toil,
Our home is girt by sea;
Our land abounds in Nature's gifts
Of beauty rich and rare;
In history's page, let every stage
Advance Australia fair!
In joyful strains then let us sing,
"Advance Australia fair!

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The Service being ended just before noon, I made my way to a pub as the custom is, and where to go but the Belgian beer hall? My forefathers died for Belgium and France. The large numbers of navy personnel in the pub must have agreed! Two beers and some pommes frites later, sufficit for me.

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ANZAC Day always moves me to tears: over 102,000 Australians have given their lives in war, most of them younger than I am. As our P.M. Billy Hughes reminded President Wilson at the Versailles peace conference, "I speak for 60,000 dead".



I regard ANZAC Day as one of the closest approaches our civil society makes to pietas, to the praise and inculcation of virtue, true manly valour, and sacrifice, and to religion. It is a sign that the old tried and tested character of Australia is not yet dead. The ever-larger crowds of recent years seem to agree: people are searching and reaching out for something, something to aspire to amid so many distractions from the good.

Please remember in your prayers and at Mass those fallen in war, and especially my great-uncle Neil, who died for King and Country in World War II; he was sent to the Dominion of Canada as part of the Empire Air Training Scheme, and perished there in the crash of an aircraft he and and a trainee were in.

Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine, et lux perpetua luceat eis: requiescant in pace. Amen.

ANZAC Day

ANZAC Day... The long Parade of ever-thinning out, ever-older returned servicemen... The marching bands, some in Scottish kilts with bagpipes, playing "Waltzing Matilda"... The Last Post... The Ode... The old hymns they sing every time... You used to see the very last of the WWI Diggers being driven by slowly in special cars, but I think all have died*, and the WWII veterans are in their eighties now; the Vietnam Vets are middle-aged and older; Australian troops fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan must not be forgotten. Lest we forget.

* No - I was wrong: there is one still living: Jack Ross, 109, of Ballarat.

I had planned to get up long before dawn, and drive into town to go to the Dawn Service at King's Park, but a combination of factors forced a change of plan. We have Mass for St Mark's Day at 9am at the Pro., and I hope the road closures for the Parade won't block me from getting in and parking close by! After Mass, I'll go to the Parade and the late morning Service down by the foreshore.

Fr Rowe told me that he had the option (! - in the old rite! yes: by special decree of the Sacred Congregation of Rites, 23rd June 1961) to say a Requiem today rather than the festal Mass, and in the new rite in Australia (and N.Z. I suppose) the feast of St Mark is moved to tomorrow, so that a Requiem with proper texts and prayers can be fitted in today, in memory of all those fallen in war, "who gave their tomorrow so we could have our today". As I use the modern Office, today I'll do the Office of the Dead, and keep St Mark for tomorrow.

As for the Litanies, I can only assume Fr plans to say them privately.

I append some pictures sent me that were taken by Fr Bernard, when he came with me to the ANZAC Day Parade in Melbourne, back in 2006; it took 4 hours for all the marchers to pass by...