Hope not Fear

Θλῖψις, thlipsis - "distress" (hardship, suffering, trouble, being hard-pressed): what a great word, rolling tripping off the tongue... it pops up in the readings at ordinary Mass this Sunday, the penultimate of the Church's Year of grace.

"Deliver us from all anxiety," as the priest prays at the altar!

The world will come to an end, we know not when; but this knowledge, combined with our apprehension of all the stupidities, cruelties, tragedies and violence in this and every age, ought not drive us to despair: for God the Lord holds all of man's broken history in His hand, and - being so powerful as to draw good even out of evil - is silently, secretly directing all things toward their fulfilment in Christ. Of ourselves, we would indeed succumb to despair if we were without faith (as Vatican II in one of its wiser passages affirms); but because as believers we are in Christ, we know that in Him is our only hope, a hope unshakeable - we must not be as the pagans who have no hope, and so wallow in every form of distraction to dull their sense of futility and ineluctable doom. Therefore, we ought live godly, sober and righteous lives, serving God above all and loving our neighbour for His sake, "alert not alarmed", keeping watch and vigil, not in dread but in the joyful expectation of the return of Christ in glory and power almighty.

(Some thoughts based upon Fr Greg's sermon this morning at Carmel.)

******

The music at Carmel was much as it always is: a (rather slow) hymn to start and end with; the Ordinary sung in Gregorian chant (but the Creed said by all); the nuns' singing the Responsorial Psalm, Alleluia verse, and Communion verse to some simple tone (Gelineau?); the Memorial Acclamation (that unfortunate innovation), "Great" Amen and Lord's Prayer sung also, and the rest of the liturgy said.

As is the custom, the chant for the Ordinary was taken from different Masses: the opening Kyrie and Gloria were short and syllabic settings, presumably for ease of singing and to avoid too much delay - as the nuns sing very slowly - while the Sanctus and Agnus Dei were more melismatic, being shorter texts able to be sung out with more complexity:

• Kyrie from Mass XVI (for ferias);
• Gloria from Mass XV (Dominator Deus, for simple feasts);
• Sanctus from Mass IX (Cum jubilo, for feasts of Our Lady);
• Agnus Dei from Mass IX also;
• O sacrum convivium, in a simplified chant setting (I must get a copy!), sung after Communion - it made an excellent spur for meditation on the ineffable benefits of receiving Our Lord.

(These settings of the chants of the Mass I learnt first by ear through attendance at Mass at Carmel - only later, having to sing from a book at a Traditional Latin Mass, did I discover which Masses they came from.)

******

Yesterday was the feast of All Saints of Carmel, and to-morrow, All Carmelite Souls (transferred from to-day); next Saturday will be the Feast of the Presentation of Our Lady, and is Pro Orantibus day, when we all should pray for cloistered contemplatives. From the modern Carmelite Missal:

I will bring them to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer; for my house is a house of prayer for all the peoples. (Is 56:7a,c)

Lord, may the patronage of the Blessed Virgin Mary, our Mother, and the prayers of all the Saints of Carmel help us to walk steadfastly in their footsteps, and by our prayers and good works ever further the cause of your Church. Through...

Lord, you are the glory of those who serve you. Look lovingly on our departed brothers and sisters, united in following Christ and his Mother by the waters of baptism and the bonds of Carmel. In your mercy grant them everlasting sight of you, their Creator and Redeemer. Through...

Monday Pilgrimage to Colebrook

To-day, being The Queen's Birthday holiday here in Tasmania (N.Z. and W.A. had it last week), there was the leisure to spend the day in devotion: young Tristan having been baptized last evening, his parents wished to dedicate him to Our Lady, and so events had been set in train that led to a pilgrimage being held...

How appropriate indeed!  The lessons at Matins this morning (I Kings, or I Samuel, i, 1-11) - the first ferial day after the great seasons of Septuagesimatide, Lent, Eastertide and Whitsuntide, as I noticed so forcibly while reading Matins and Lauds this morn before arising (wot, no Alleluia?) - were about Anna promising her hoped-for child to the Lord, since to-day the Church begins to read the four Books of Kings (or I & II Samuel and I&II Kings if you prefer), from the origins of Samuel, devoted to the Lord and the one to anoint first Saul, then David as King, to the destruction of faithless Jerusalem after her kings failed to keep fidelity with God.  (All this is to be understood as signifying Christ, the Promised One, the True King of Salem, the True Priest in the line of Melchisedech King of Salem, the Faithful and True, the One Israel longed for in the knowledge that mere man has no power of himself to save himself or to keep faith with God: only the Mediator between God and man can bridge the gap and establish the True Faith, to keep which by His grace is our salvation, to enter into which is by Baptism into His death, to consecrate ourselves to Him is the goal of this life and of eternal life.)

It had been decided that to begin with all would assemble by 10.30 am at Richmond, about 25 km from Hobart, and progress to St John's church there, the oldest extant church in the Commonwealth, praying the Rosary in honour of Our Lady Help of Christians, Patroness of Australia, begging her aid for all the pressing needs of our Nation and State, of the Catholic Church in Australia and in this archdiocese.  Despite the weather being cloudy and showery, twenty of us arrived and processed - singing the Rosary in Latin and the vernacular after the custom of the Christus Rex and Chartres pilgrimages - up to St John's, wherein Fr Tattersall and Steven led us in singing the prayer for our Pope Benedict, and then the Litanies of Loreto.  It was I suspect the first time since the Council that the Litanies were sung there in Latin... though back in 1995 I and others sang Vespers of the Ascension according to the Monastic Rite there.  We concluded after processing back to our cars about 11.15 am, and drove on the remaining 20 km or so to the tiny historic settlement of Colebrook...

At Colebrook, the beautiful and historic church of St Patrick, designed by Pugin, and built under Bishop Willson, has been restored (in an ongoing programme) by the Pugin Foundation; the latest addition is a devout shrine and statue of Our Lady of Colebrook, carved by French contemplative nuns and blessed by the local parish priest in 2008.  To Our Lady of Colebrook our pilgrimage had made its way...

First, at the heavenly call of the Angelus bell we knelt at Our Lady's feet and prayed that prayer in union with the whole Church Militant; and there we then concluded our Rosary, singing through to the final Salve Regina and prayer.

Next, the new Puginesque freestanding altar carefully moved to one side, and a portable organ brought into the chancel - separated from the nave by the restored rood screen, the only one of seven rood screens still preserved in a Pugin church - the old carven high altar was dressed for the Mass of the Ages, Mass as not celebrated there for forty years - and it was to be a Missa cantata, which records shew not to have been celebrated at Colebrook for more like seventy years.  How long, Lord, how long, cry the saints beneath the altar...

Just after twelve thirty Mass began.  Several of the choir were paratus, and in the chancel; it was great to be able to assist them by singing the Proper and Ordinary together with several others in the front pews, as I was kindly lent a Liber as I had been yesterday.  The Liturgy was a Votive of Our Lady, using the Common Salve sancta parens, with Mass IX (Cum jubilo) - Our Lady's Mass - and Offertory hymn Virgo Dei Genetrix, the Communion antiphon extended with the Magnificat, Our Lady's own song of humble worship, and after Mass that marching song of the Australian Church Militant, "Help of Christians, guard this land".  In consonance with the last item, the orations of the Mass were those of Our Lady Help of Christians.  (Piously, it transpired, on the few occasions the local priest is able to come and say Mass in this village, he chooses feasts of Our Lady: there had last been Mass here on the 24th of May, Our Lady Help of Christians, and before that perhaps for St Patrick, or else back in December for the Immaculate Conception.)

There were about twenty-five at Mass all told, including some who had travelled far to reach this church, this shrine and this Mass.  Fr Tattersall preached with reference to the Gospel, Blessed those who hear the Word of God and keep it, pointing out how supremely this was fulfilled by the Blessed Virgin herself, conceiving the Word in her heart by faith ere she conceived Him in her womb by the Holy Ghost (as Augustine saith), and remaining constant in her faith and Fiat through the events of Christ's childhood, passion and resurrection, until she prayed perseveringly in the Cenacle with the apostles and disciples for the promised Paraclete Who would energise the nascent Church.  How appropriate it was that Colebrook was formerly named Jerusalem!  Rightly could we triple name Our Lady as Help of Christians, Our Lady of Colebrook, yea, Our Lady of Jerusalem.  

Faith is the key, he continued: the church of St Patrick, Colebrook, is not merely an example of technical proficiency, but a testimony to faith, the faith of Pugin, the faith of Bishop Willson, the faith of our fathers (and, one may add, in its restoration this church witnesses to the faith still smouldering beneath the ashes).  In the face of the great needs of our time, we turn as Pope Pius VII did to Our Lady Help of Christians; as he returned to Rome in triumph after the defeat of his captor, the terrible Napoleon, whenas in men's eyes the Church and Papacy had seemed overthrown and finally doomed, he ascribed such unexpected deliverance to the maternal intercession of the Mother of God; thus likewise did the first bishops of Australasia, shepherding a poor convict flock in the face of oppression and bigotry, turn to the Blessed Virgin for aid under this hope-filled title.  By entrusting all our cares and affairs to her, we do but renew and bring to mind the consequences of Christ's committal of all men, in the person of the Beloved Disciple, to His Mother at Calvary; by dedicating ourselves to her, who is the First Disciple, Model of all believers, we find a sure path to rededicate ourselves and all ours to God, to Whom and by Whom we were forever consecrated at our Baptism.  Pray for us, O Holy Mother of God: that we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.

The Holy Sacrifice completed, soon afterward the final ceremonies of the day transpired: Tristan's mother was churched - there's a beaut service, the churching of women, their thanksgiving after childbirth - and Tristan dedicated to Our Lady at her shrine, whereupon we sang Sub tuum præsidium, that oldest extant prayer to the Mother of God: "We fly to thy patronage, O Holy Mother of God: despise not our petitions in our necessities, but ever deliver us from all dangers,  O glorious and blessed Virgin."

We concluded the festivities with picnic lunch in the park at Colebrook - did I mention that before Mass the clouds had rolled back and the sun shone bright, though it remained cold, our breath visible as we sang? - and a good time was had by all.  (After reading None in the church, I left for home about 3.45 pm, and reached Launceston at 5.30.)

Holy Hour, Mass, and Dinner

The Brethren of the Oratory met for their devotions this evening, followed by sung Mass of the Immaculate Conception.  For a change, yours truly was one of the acolytes (along with Aaron; Peter was M.C. and Troy, thurifer - all adults), which meant I had a good spot in the sanctuary - though my knees were aching, and by Communion time all I could do was accept this as penance, looking at the Corpus on the altar Crucifix and thanking Our Lord for suffering so much more...

******

We again had a visiting priest celebrate Mass for us, although Fr Rowe preached the sermon (he had said the lunchtime Low Mass, and ran both Holy Hours).   His theme was that just over 150 years ago this happy dogma of the Immaculate Conception was decreed, for the glory of Our Lady, the rebuke of the world, and the strengthening of cowardly Catholics.  

The Blessed Virgin's glories all redound to her Son, on Whose account she is the Immaculate Conception - for the Trinity could not ally Itself to aught of sin; the Word could not take flesh in a sin-stained womb, nor could He Who was to deliver us from Satan's bondage take manhood from a fallen woman; the angels could not hail as their Queen one who was not as unstained as they are, nor could she assume the rank once held by Lucifer if she had ever been under his fell dominion.  

The smugly ignorant misbelieving world, scoffing at holy things, things that could alone save it from utter destruction if only it knew, must needs be boldly faced with the truth that all generations had held inchoately by calling her blessed, calling her the Panagia, the All-Holy, the sinless Virgin.  

The quailing Catholic, uncertain and afraid, must be given strength to stand firm in the fight against the enemies of our most holy Faith, and given the banner of her who is like to the morning rising, fair as the moon, beautiful as the sun, splendid as an army in battle array: and the cry of victory must be, 

O Mary conceived without sin, 

pray for us who have recourse to thee.  

Far from making her more distant from or distainful of us poor sinstained men, her freedom from sin makes Our Lady yet more cognizant of its great sadness, and of the depth of our need to be won from it, that we may be made holy and perfect in love, for this is the will of God - our sanctification.  She delights to hear her children's cries for help, and with her puissant humility she finds in the Lord a ready ear and an all-embracing Divine charity that rains down saving graces upon our dry and weary earth.  As the Memorare reminds us, no one who has sought her patronage has ever been left unaided.

******

While I was in the sanctuary, Andrew, Greg, and Fadi sang the chant: we had Mass IX (cum jubilo) - whose Sanctus and Agnus Dei are very familiar to me from their use at the Launceston Carmel - and Credo I, plus the Gregorian Propers, which are good to hear.  I was glad to join in the singing of the Ordinary at least!  A little bit of organ sounded, the Communion was sung with the Magnificat, and at the end of the liturgy we processed out to "Mary Immaculate, star of the morning", that fine hymn, sung to "Liebster Immanuel":

Mary Immaculate, star of the morning,
Chosen before the creation began,
Chosen to bring, for thy bridal adorning,
Woe to the serpent and rescue to man.

Here, in an orbit of shadow and sadness,
Veiling thy splendour, thy course thou hast run;
Now thou art throned in all glory and gladness,
Crowned by the hand of thy Saviour and Son.

Sinners, we worship thy sinless perfection;
Fallen and weak for thy pity we plead;
Grant us the shield of thy sovereign protection,
Measure thine aid by the depth of our need.

Frail is our nature, and strict our probation,
watchful the foe that would lure us to wrong;
succour our souls in the hour of temptation,
Mary Immaculate, tender and strong.

See how the wiles of the serpent assail us,
see how we waver and flinch in the fight;
let thine immaculate merit avail us,
make of our weakness a proof of thy might.

Bend from thy throne at the voice of our crying,
Bend to this earth which thy footsteps have trod;
Stretch out thine arms to us, living and dying,
Mary Immaculate, Mother of God.

After packing up, there was just time for Vespers in thanksgiving.

******

Fr Rowe had his fellow priest and six of us (various of the servers and singers) to dinner, which was a prodigious affair; since it was Our Lady's feast, and in consideration of the other priest present, we had Leffe beer and a large bottle of Chimay as well.

An amazing thing to see this evening: I was shewn an Agnus Dei (that sacramental consisting of a waxen medallion) blessed by Pope Benedict XIII, in 1725!  It stonkered me to think that this seemingly fragile item has survived for nearly three hundred years, and was made and prayed over in Rome before Australia ever was.

Of your charity, please pray for priests: they need our prayers, their ministry is a high and graced calling, but also very much a straiter road and one bestrewn with crosses.

℣ Sacerdotes tui induantur justitiam.

℟ Et sancti tui exsultent.