Thirty Years in the Church of Rome

Veni, Sancte Spiritus! Today being Pentecost Sunday, I will drive down to Hobart and M.C. the Missa cantata at Sacred Heart. Today being Pentecost Sunday, I mark the thirtieth anniversary of my Baptism, Confirmation and first Communion on this same beloved feast in 1987, albeit that Pentecost fell on the 7th of June that year (I keep the anniversary on the feast itself, but will also celebrate on Whit Wednesday of this week, being the exact date). In all but a few words, I repeat what I wrote last year: while I have very little to show for thirty years as a Catholic Christian, that is because of my sins and backsliding; but grace is greater than all, so I must give all glory to God for having blessed me so abundantly with the grace of the Holy Spirit in Christ Jesus our Lord. Te Deum laudamus!

Twenty-Nine Years in the Church of Rome

Today being Pentecost Sunday, I motored down to Hobart (as I usually do each first day of the week) and M.C.'d the Missa cantata at Sacred Heart. Today being Pentecost Sunday, I mark the anniversary of my Baptism, Confirmation and first Communion on this same beloved feast in 1987. While I have perhaps little to show for twenty-nine years in the Church of Rome, that is because of my sins and backsliding: but grace is greater than all, so I must give all glory to God for having blessed me so abundantly with the grace of the Holy Spirit in Christ Jesus our Lord. Te Deum laudamus!

Pentecost Missa Cantata

To-day, for our Latin Mass in Hobart, we were back where it all began, at Sacred Heart, New Town, where Fr (now Bp) Jarrett began the monthly Missæ cantatæ in the nineties. It was my parish at the time, and I have fond memories of my time there.

I remember "catching the bug" of the Traditional Latin Mass at Sacred Heart, when on the first Sunday of November in 1994 he celebrated the first "Extraordinary Form" Mass, with the choir singing Byrd's Mass for three voices; and when, exactly a year later, he sang High Mass (with Frs Oppenheimer and Parsons assisting), the choir rendering Victoria's Mass O quam gloriosum.

In February 1996, this time with yours truly in the choir, singing a far more modest all-Gregorian repertoire, Fr Jarrett began regular first Sunday sung Masses. He continued for five years, until he was promoted to Bishop of Lismore; I sang with the choir until I moved to Melbourne in 1999.

Fr John Wall, then based at St Canice in Lower Sandy Bay, took over the celebration of the first Sunday sung Masses until his untimely death; since then, for the last decade, the much-loved Fr Gerard Quinn, CP (easily the hardest working, humblest and holiest priest of the Archdiocese), has done so.

I returned to Tasmania five years ago, first resuming singing in the choir, and then promoting myself (completely untrained) to M.C., as it seemed to help expedite matters. And since February this year – with all thanks going to His Grace for blessing our endeavours – we have had Latin Mass at least twice a month, including the full Easter Triduum for the first time.  I have grown used to forever driving to and from Hobart!

Repairs to the roof at St Canice made us decide to move some of the June and July Masses to New Town. To-day, we had a visiting priest as celebrant: Fr Suresh from Tamworth. His visit we pray will prove fruitful; he certainly sings Mass with great care and attention (during the chanting of the Alleluia verses I suddenly realised he was singing along from memory), and is a great preacher, too.

Just as in the nineties, we had a community "pot-luck" lunch afterwards – I kept on expecting Fr Jarrett to walk into the parish centre and chat happily with us all, beneath the great painting of the Sacred Heart that hangs in pride of place. It was a marvellous occasion and made me realise how well set out Sacred Heart is for our needs: the church is a good size, very well appointed and cared for, with room outdoors for children to play afterwards and a place for all to meet and eat in the parish centre.

It was great to chat with the sacristan, too, whom I hadn't seen for years. It always was a most welcoming and Catholic parish, and evidently maintains that spirit, even if now part of the Cathedral parish; again, how kind of His Grace to allow us to use the church and facilities.

Winter remains curiously warm and sunny; it was lovely driving home this afternoon.

Next Sunday, Trinity Sunday the 15th of June, a sung Traditional Latin Mass will again be celebrated at 10:30 am at Sacred Heart, New Town. (I will be in Melbourne; I daresay all will go well.)

The next Mass after that, the "traditional" first Sunday Missa cantata, will be at St Canice at 11:30 am as usual; but on the following two Sundays, the 13th and 20th of July, Latin Mass will again be sung at Sacred Heart at 10:30 am.

With all this shuttling to and fro for Mass, I must admit to feeling relief at the prospect of the last two Sundays in June at home without having to drive three hours each way...

Credo in Spiritum Sanctum

I believe in the Holy Ghost – He is the uncreated, perfect, animating, vivifying, enlivening Lord, Who moved upon the waters at Creation, Who is sent forth and makes and creates, Who is the spirit and ‘soul’ of the Holy Catholic Church; He is the Communion between the Father and the Son, proceeding from Them Both as from a single principle, worshipped and glorified together with Them in the Unity of the Trinity; He Who is true God with Them, equal in glory and majesty, eternal, infinite, almighty; He spoke in many and divers ways of old through the prophets, in the Law, in the Gospels and through the preaching and teaching of the Apostles and their rightful successors in the Church; He is the communion, the true bond of fellowship, between all the Saints, those elected and made holy by His divine indwelling grace, first imparted at Holy Baptism (the water thereof made holy by the secret admixture of His grace, as once He sanctified Jordan); He is invoked to illapse upon Holy Church's offerings, sanctifying and blessing them, transsubstantiating the elements into the Holy Gifts (for what is wonderfully accomplished by the words of the Second Person is at one and the same time accomplished by the blessing of the First and the epicletic overshadowing of the Third, since all works external to the Trinity are the common work of all Three), just as He by His overshadowing joined once for all Body and Blood to the Eternal Word, the very sacramental Gifts that are now in this time of grace given to make holy those who receive them, that they may become what they are (the second marvellous conversion, the sacred commerce of the sacrament), imparting the Fire of the Spirit to those christified by the Body and the Blood; He is Himself the Forgiveness of Sins (as one of the Whitsuntide Collects prays); He guarantees (as was shewn to the prophet Ezechiel) the resurrection of the flesh, and thus He imparts to this mortal flesh immortal vigour, that it may endure unto life eternal, world without end. Amen.

(From a synthesis of the Apostles’, Athanasian and Nicene Creeds, with respect also to the Armenian version of the Nicene: “We believe in the Holy Spirit, in the uncreated and the perfect; Who spoke through the Law, prophets, and Gospels; Who came down upon the Jordan, preached through the apostles, and lived in the saints.”)

Pentecost Sunday is the anniversary of my baptism, confirmation and first Communion, now just over a quarter century ago – how strange that sounds... I suppose that Sunday Mass in my parish was at nine o'clock in the morning, the same time as it still is (though this year I have instead been to the vigil Mass at six in the evening, where I assisted with the singing of the Ordinary, appropriate hymns and the Latin Sequence): how appropriate, just as on that Whitsun morn 1,980 years ago St Peter's preaching drew the first harvest of souls to the waters of rebirth.

God the Holy Ghost, save and sanctify me a most unworthy sinner.

Pentecost Last Year

Last year, I began Pentecost Sunday, the 25th anniversary of my baptism &c., by serving Fr Rowe's Low Mass at a very early hour, alongside many other priests and servers saying Masses at temporary altars, in a tent in a field somewhere in France (for an image of a like scene from 2005, see this photo): for I was on the Chartres Pilgrimage. Having found the pace and the heat and the burden of the first day's march too much (nearly 40 km), I had resolved to cease and desist, realizing I wasn't up to the standard; so after Mass, I packed up and watched the great pilgrim host depart, before arranging to get to the local train station (thanks to the kindness of the French volunteers), and then heading on to Chartres via Paris (again, given directions thanks to a fellow pilgrim who was also unable to continue). Having arrived at Chartres somewhat after midday, I dragged myself to my accommodation, booked an extra night, at last had a shower! said my prayers, ate some of the rations I'd shouldered in my day pack, and turned in: I think I slept for eighteen hours. That was my Pentecost in 2012.

Being a little tired, and having this evening attended the vigil Mass, I think I shall sleep in tomorrow, as seems fitting...

Pray for the Chartres pilgrims: it is a very tough slog, and I can but salute them in their fervour and commitment. Pray too for France, once more cutting off her nose to spite her face. Christendom, awake!

24th Anniversary

I was baptized, confirmed and houselled on Pentecost Sunday, 1987.

Each year, I keep the anniversary on the feast day rather than the actual date (which was the 7th of June); and I pray the Father, Son and Holy Ghost to have mercy on me a sinner and fill me full of gifts and graces, that I may be saved.  What a backslider I've been!  Thank God for confession.

For all God's goodness, unmeritable and unrepayable, I say a heartfelt Gloria Patri; for that most precious gift of divine faith infused into my soul, whereby I cannot but believe, I repeat the Apostles' Creed; for all needful petitions, Kyrie eleïson, Pater and Ave.

I implore, too, the intercessions of St Joshua (my namesake), of St Stephen (my confirmation saint) and of St Sabbas (patron of this blog).

To-day I served Mass at my local parish (looking across from the north side of the sanctuary toward the southern, where the font stands in which I was made a Christian).  By order of the Bishops, the new translations of the Eucharistic Prayers have now come into use from this day onwards, so we were treated to the Roman Canon in a faithful, reverent version – and the sermon was all about the Canon too, as a gift of the Spirit itself, re-gifted us in this form!

Very kindly, Father made mention of this significance of this feast for me; of your charity, dear reader, I beg you to spare a pray for me.

Three Byzantine Prayers to the Holy Ghost

These three prayers to the Holy Ghost, originally special to the feast of Pentecost, are treasures of the Byzantine Rite.  The first troparion is sung as part of the customary devotions at the start of any liturgical act or prayer; the second troparion is sung at Communion at almost every Divine Liturgy (its reference to Trinitarian worship reflects the Eastern emphasis on Pentecost as the complete revelation of the Trinity with the coming of the promised Paraclete); the third is the special refrain for the second antiphon at the Liturgy on the feast itself.

Heavenly King, Paraclete, Spirit of Truth, present everywhere, filling all things, Treasury of blessings and Giver of life; come and dwell in us, cleanse us from every stain, and, O Good One, save our souls.

We have seen the true light, we have received the heavenly Spirit, we have found the true faith, as we worship the undivided Trinity, for the same has saved us.

Good Paraclete, save us who sing to you: Alleluia.

23rd Anniversary

Pentecost Sunday morning 2010, marks the 23rd anniversary of my Baptism, Confirmation and first Communion.  Glory be to Father, Son, and Holy Ghost!

(To be accurate, I received the Sacraments of Initiation on Pentecost Sunday, 7th of June 1987, but I think it more fitting to keep the anniversary on the feast day rather than on the actual date.)

May He Who began the good work in me bring it to completion.  Amen.

Ken on the Holy Ghost

I must admit to a soft spot for many Anglican divines, such as the pious Thomas Ken (1637-1711), sometime Bishop of Bath and Wells in the Church of England, which see he gave up rather than forswear his rightful allegiance to King James II.  He was author of many spiritual tracts; just this morning I bought a pocket edition (cost in 1876 when new: 1 shilling; cost in 2010 when old: $25) of his Manual of Prayers, bound up with his Exposition of the Church Catechism and Directions for Prayer.  All contain valuable passages breathing a warm love of God; I quote now from the middle work, from the devout and loving paraphrase of the Apostles' Creed that it contains, which he wrote for the benefit of souls, "that your faith might work through love" (cf. Galatians v, 6):

"I BELIEVE IN THE HOLY GHOST."

The Third Person in the Trinity.

I believe in Thee, O Thou Spirit of God, the third Person in the most adorable Trinity; I believe, O blessed Spirit, that Thou art the Lord, (2 Cor. iii. 17. 18.) that Thou art God, (John iv. 24; Acts v. 3.) Eternal, (Heb. ix. 14.) and Omniscient, (1 Cor. ii. 10.) a Person distinct from both the Father and the Son, eternally proceeding from both, (Matt. x. 20; Rom. viii. 9.) and equally sent by both, (John xiv. 26; xvi. 7.) and joint Author with both of our salvation; and therefore, all love, all glory, be to Thee.

I believe, O blessed Spirit, that Thou art holy, essentially holy, (1 Pet. i. 15.) in respect of Thy divine Nature; and being essentially holy, art infinitely amiable; and therefore, all love, all glory, be to Thee.

I believe, O blessed Spirit, that Thou art personally holy, that Thou art the Author of all internal holiness, and of all internal and sanctifying grace; (Gal. v. 22.) that Thou art the principle of all spiritual life in us; (John iii. 5.) and therefore, all love, all glory, be to Thee.

Glory be to Thee, O Love Incarnate, for sending the Spirit in Thy stead, and for promising it to our prayers: (Luke xi. 13.) all love, all glory, be to Thee.

Glory be to Thee, O Spirit of Love, for "shedding the love of God abroad in our hearts," (Rom. v. 5.) for filling all that love Thee with exuberance of joy and consolation: all love, all glory be to Thee.

O Thou blessed Spirit the Comforter, purify my soul, and infuse Thy love into it, and consecrate it to be Thy temple, (1 Cor. vi. 19.) and fix Thy throne immoveably there, and set all my affections on fire, that my heart may be a continual sacrifice of love offered up to Thee and the flame may be ever aspiring towards Thee.

See what devotion is!  No wonder his Exposition of the Church Catechism was subtitled The Practice of Divine Love.  "All love, all glory, be to Thee."

First Vespers of Pentecost, O.P.

Using a nice mediæval Office has its pleasing surprises – such as tonight (it's but six o'clock and dark, for winter is here in Tasmania already, at the end of a sunny but freezing cold day of -1 to 12°C), when I first lit up the six candles atop the little book case before my prie-dieu, and readied myself to read First Vespers of this greatest feast, the Advent of the Holy Ghost: for it transpires that in the Dominican Breviary, both Vespers of Pentecost (and throughout its Octave) have but three psalms, not the usual five.  

In this, Whitsuntide parallels Easter Week according to the Rite of the Friars Preachers, when from Easter Sunday evening to Easter Friday evening, for those six days of the New Creation in Christ our Risen Lord, Psalms 109, 110 and 111 are read daily.  Just so, as I now discover, first this night we begin Pentecost with Psalms 145, 146 and 147 – for all these are Laudate psalms, and the Dominicans keep the common mediæval practice of singing only such psalms for first Vespers of all feasts (but including Psalms 112 and 116 first, to make up the usual five) – and then for the six Vespers of Whit Sunday through to Whit Friday evening, Psalms 109, 110 and 111 are sung each night.  Again we celebrate six days of the New Creation in God's Spirit!

I was very taken by certain significant lines in this Hour.  For a start, I give due thanks to the Holy Ghost for enlightening me (as I humbly hope He did) as to the deeper sense of the Little Chapter, Factus est repente (Acts ii, 2): for when we read that the Spirit "filled the whole house where the Apostles were sitting", do we not see that this "house" is the Church of the Living God, and that house only wherein sit "the Apostles" and their successors, the Pope and his brother bishops?  (The Breviary supplies the word Apostoli, "[the] Apostles", to make sense of this single verse; in the original, it simply says "they", evidently referring back two verses to Acts i, 26, which mentions the Apostles.)

Secondly, in the Vesper hymn Beata nobis gaudia, the Church sings in supplication, Te nunc, Deus piissime, Vultu precamur cernuo, Illapsa nobis cælitus Largire dona Spiritus – "Thee now, most kindly God, we pray Thee, bowing [Thy] Face down [to us], to grant unto us the infalling Gift of the heavenly Spirit" (or so I roughly read it).  Be it so!

Whitsuntide Sequence

The inimitable Fr Z has provided an excellent podcazt about the Sequence Veni Sancte Spiritus which is sung throughout Pentecost and its Octave; he points out what I had not previously noted - the chiastic structure of the Sequence, which I will now summarize:

1. & 2.  Veni... Veni... Veni... Veni... (once in the former, thrice in the latter stanza)

3. & 4.  Six titles of the Holy Ghost (three in each stanza)

5. & 6.  Transition and summary

7. & 8.  Six petitions to the Holy Ghost (three in each stanza)

9. & 10.  Da... Da... Da... Da... (once in the former, thrice in the latter stanza)

In each pair of stanzas, the same tune is repeated, of course, so grouping them into five strophes.  The Sequence many times contrasts positives and negatives: the presence of the Spirit, or His absence; what He does in us, and what we are without Him; fulness and emptiness.  

(I had myself previously noted how this Sequence expands upon the words of the preceding Alleluia verse, Veni, Sancte Spiritus, reple tuorum corda fidelium... and in fact repeats many of its words: Veni, Sancte Spiritus... Veni... Veni... Veni... cordium... Reple cordis... Tuorum fidelium...)

The last pair of stanzas is particularly important, in that in the first of the two we ask for the sevenfold gifts of the Holy Spirit, which we need in this present life, while in the second we ask for the reward of virtue, a happy end, and eternal joy - that is, for eternal life.  I recall Pope John Paul II in one of his writings repeated this closing line:

Da virtutis meritum, 

Da salutis exitum, 

Da perenne gaudium.  

Amen.  Alleluia.

Psallite Sapienter in Christchurch

Fr Clement was kind enough to thank me for singing at his Pentecost Missa cantata this morning, referring to the motto of this blog: "Sing wisely".   I replied that I was sorry to have instead inflicted a dose of psallite insaniter upon the congregation - for, apart from a very competent organist, I alone was the choir this morning! For the record, I psalm-toned the propers (more or less) a capella, sang the Sequence, the Missa de Angelis and Credo III all accompanied on the organ (the people, about 30 being present, joining in), and beforehand we had the Pentecost Vesper hymn Veni Creator, while at the Offertory I sang the Ave maris stella and Regina caeli, and for Communion the Adoro te and the Ave verum (the last being accompanied). For a recessional there was a very nice setting of the Veni Creator in English, but one wholly unknown to me.  (I should add that Br Paul, Fr Clement's fellow Son of the Most Holy Redeemer, was the M.C. at the Mass.)

Fr's preaching was very clear and very helpful, starting from the observation that in the Old Testament the Feast of Pentecost, fifty days after the Passover commemorating the Exodus from Egypt, commemorated the giving of the Law to Moses on Mt Sinai. But the Old Law, being a list of rules without the grace to keep them, was a ministry of death as the Apostle says; for the law came by Moses, but grace and truth through Jesus Christ (St John i). It was for Christ to establish the New Law, written in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, Who gives us the grace to keep the commandments with love, not with servile fear as of old. Hence Augustine could boldly say, Ama, et fac quod vis - "Love, and do what you will": because if we truly love God then we will only ever freely choose to do good, virtuous things. 

To serve the Lord out of fear alone may seem a secure way, but in fact it is very insecure, and oft leads to slips into sin and finally hypocrisy: for we did not receive a Spirit of timidity, as St Paul says, and to turn from love to fear is to lapse into Old Testament ways, when things were tough and even cruel. Fr Clement very importantly noted that such a lapse into Old Testament law-keeping in fear is probably the spiritual reason behind such terrible abuses of children as have been revealed to have taken place in Ireland in the early to mid-twentieth century: the fault was not liberalism or moralism (they didn't even have the dialogue Mass then, after all!) but what would be termed rigorism and Jansenism, issuing in cruelty and hypocrisy that covered up shameful deeds completely at odds with the sweet yoke and light burden of Jesus Christ.

Pentecost Sunday

Mass this morning should again find me at 10am at the chapel of the Sons of the Most Holy Redeemer in Christchurch, N.Z. (though I may have already heard Mass last evening) - but this afternoon I'll be doing the long drive north to Blenheim, via Kaikoura, which promises to be a most scenic excursion.

To-day is a good day to consecrate oneself to the Holy Ghost, Who is God together with the Father and the Son: for this is but reminding oneself and recollecting that one was forever consecrated to God in Baptism, so this is a renewal of such holy vows:

Act of Consecration to the Holy Spirit

O HOLY SPIRIT, Divine Spirit of light and love, I consecrate to Thee my understanding, heart and will, my whole being for time and eternity.  May my understanding be always submissive to Thy heavenly inspirations, and to the teaching of the Catholic Church, of which Thou art the infallible Guide; may my heart be ever inflamed with love of God and of my neighbour, may my will be ever conformed to the Divine Will, and may my whole life be a faithful imitation of the life and virtues of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, to whom with the Father and Thee be honour and glory forever. Amen.

Nihil obstat

MALACHY P. FOLEY, L.L.D., Lit.D. (Censor Librorum)

Imprimatur

SAMUEL A. STRITCH, D.D. (Archbishop, Chicago)

Church of the Good Shepherd, Tekapo

My Aotearoa peregrination continued to-day, with a wonderful morning at the Hermitage, Mt Cook - looking out from my table at breakfast straight toward Mt Cook, shining white in the brilliant sun and clear sky, only 12 km away and still 3km higher above sea level than my vantage point (at 720m). Unfortunately the glacier tours have just finished for the season, and I didn't think I should linger longer than late morning, though I could have taken a few hours' walk to see the nearest of them...

Instead, I motored off down Lake Pukaki, to strike another strange New Zealand fog patch (I could only see a couple of roadside guideposts ahead of the car) that lasted from before the lake outlet to the crossing of the Pukaki-Tekapo canal, whereupon the cloudless sky and bright sunshine returned as abruptly as it had departed. At Lake Tekapo itself, I stopped at the Anglican-owned Church of the Good Shepherd, where Anglican and Presbyterian services are held, as well as the Catholic Mass; the church thus having the seal of approval, as it were, I did what heedless tourists rarely do and prayed there (Prime, Terce and Sext). I must say the scenery around is utterly magnificent - long ranges of snowcovered mountains up both sides of the lake and south of it also.

Driving on, I took the inland scenic route (what a superfluous term in N.Z., where everywhere has a million-dollar view), after coming through Burke's Pass and Fairlie (where travellers to Mt Cook in the olden days alighted from their train and took the two-day horsedrawn coach trip to the original Hermitage - tourism started there 125 years ago, and in fact my visit to Mt Cook coincided with their anniversary celebrations). The weather to-day, to repeat myself, was magnificent; on the road through to Geraldine I had a late lunch at a very picturesque spot, with again great snowy mountain ranges forming the backdrop to rolling hills and rich farmland. Then, on and on across the fertile Canterbury plains, not turning off to the ski fields at Mt Hutt but continuing on to Christchurch, twisting down and up again through the Rakaia gorge, praying I'd arrive in time...

And I did, arriving (thanks to a quick prayer to Our Lady for guidance) back at Bl Sacrament Cathedral just after the start of the dialogue Mass, enabling me to join in with the Confiteor as soon as I arranged the hassock on the floor and knelt down. I would estimate the congregation as numbering about 55. This being a Sunday Mass, Fr Rizzo celebrated (assisted by two servers) at the high altar, which looked beautiful, being properly dressed with crucifix, candles, altar cards, missal and the rest: it seemed so right. The Counter-reformation style of the basilica almost made me imagine I was in Rome of the late 16th C. - especially when, after the Gospel, Fr Rizzo went up a concealed staircase to the pulpit on the Epistle side, looking for all the world a contemporary of St Philip Neri as he preached there in his biretta!

His sermon (which I paraphrase, with my own explications) concerned Divine Revelation, beginning in Paradise with God the Father initially revealing His merciful love to our first parents, created as they were in His image and likeness, in the state of original justice that wonderfully figured forth a facet of His justice. But the sin that Satan lured them into so damaged them and all the human race that God perforce cast them forth, revealing thereby His justice, the justice they no longer represented in their fallen state. Down the long ages He revealed to man what He desired: sacrifice. This was his command, this was his covenant with Abraham, and with Moses. Man's sacrifices being, however, unable in principle to achieve that atonement which they represented, in due time God the Son took on our mortal nature, revealed Himself to men and walked among them, being seen on earth, testifying to His divinity and authority by miracles - and He established the New and Eternal Covenant, which perfectly teaches mercy and justice in His Sacrifice that takes our sins away; and having won our redemption, He is pleased to apply it to us by perpetuating its presence and fruits in the Mass, which is one sacrifice with Calvary. But Divine Revelation was not yet complete, not till the death of the last Apostle: for it was expedient that Christ should die, rise again and then return to heaven, since He promised to send the Holy Ghost the Paraclete, Third Person of the Trinity, to establish the Church, lead the Apostles into all truth, enable them to complete the process of Revealation by their writing (of the Scriptures) and their preaching (which oral teaching became Tradition), and Who would so strengthen our intellects that we could grasp the truths thus presented to us of God's plan of our salvation, and so inflame our hearts that we would wish willingly to live out our faith in hope and charity. Truth does not change - a changing truth is no true at all, but a falsehood, a lie. The expression of the truths of our Faith may, of course, vary from generation to generation, but it is the responsibility of the unchanging Catholic Church, guided by the Holy Spirit whose Soul He Is, to guard against any heretical mispresentations of doctrine and morals, since, being indefectible and infallible, she can never fall into grievous error. Fr ended his sermon by noting that the pretended "gift of tongues" that beguile some are quite other than that recorded in the Acts of the Apostles at Pentecost - for then the gift of tongues was for understanding, giving the Apostles and their hearers the wonderful benefit of transmitting and receiving the Good News of salvation in Christ; whereas in many contemporary settings what is called the gift of tongues seems rather to be an emotional high than an intellectual enlightenment; for Catholics, faith and reason go together, the mind illumined by the Holy Ghost being able to grasp our Holy Faith, and communication of such supernatural truths is the hoped-for goal, whereas artless (or artful?) glossolalia seems to provide no such benefit. As he justly remarked, it is poor to speak of being "slain in the Spirit" - for if we have supernatural life, the life of grace, we live in the Spirit!

Mass, having begun at 5.30pm, ended at 6.30 pm with the Regina caeli.

Hodie

Having just prayed Vespers in our chapel - Trad. Vespers, from the '62 Breviary, to make a festive end to a holy day - I must blog at least on the magnificent Magnificat antiphon:

Hodie completi sunt dies Pentecostes, alleluja:
hodie Spiritus Sanctus in igne discipulis apparuit,
et tribuit eis charismatum dona;
misit eos in universum mundum praedicare, et testificari:
Qui crediderit et baptizatus fuerit,
salvus erit, alleluia.

This is one of several antiphons in the Roman Rite that betray, by their style and their very beginning with the word Hodie, 'this very day', translating Σημερον, their origin in the Byzantine Greek Liturgy. They offer a synthesis of the mystery of each feast, as it affects us men and effects our salvation. Today, sings the Church, with this, the fiftieth day of Eastertide, the Paschal Mystery of Man's Redemption was brought to its intended completion, for - this very day - the Holy Ghost appeared in fire and bestowed charismatic gifts, sending forth the disciples to preach to and teach the whole world, that whosoever believe and is baptized shall be saved, praise God!

Other examples include:

• the Epiphany antiphons Hodie cælesti Sponso juncta est Ecclesia and Tribus miraculis ornatum diem sanctum colimus;
• the Christmas Vesper antiphon Hodie Christus natus est, plus the first two Matins responsories of that great feast, and its Day Mass Alleluia verse;
• the Vesper anthem Hodie Simon Petrus ascendit crucis patibulum for the 29th of June, SS Peter and Paul;
• the Magnificat anthem Hodie beata Virgo Maria puerum Jesum præsentavit for the Purification of Our Lady and Presentation of Our Lord, on the 2nd of February; and
• the Marian anthems for the Magnificat - the latter possibly new compositions, or adapted from earlier sources - Hodie Maria Virgo cælos ascendit, Hodie egressa est virga de radice Jesse, and Hodie gloriosa cæli Regina in terris apparuit for the 15th of August, 8th of December and 11th of February.

******

The Holy Ghost has a twofold mission: to teach, govern and sanctify the Church, which is Holy because He, her Inspiration, is Holy; and to strengthen, comfort, console and sanctify each faithful soul, that He may save each one. (This was the theme of Fr Rowe's sermon today.)

After sleeping in, I arrived at the Pro. after the sung Mass, took the chance to say Office of Readings plus Lauds and go to confession for the first time in three weeks, then decided to skip the impending Low Mass and instead go sing at Fr's 2pm Missa cantata at Good Shepherd, Kelmscott. This gave me a chance to catch up with my friends who gather for coffee &c. after my usual Mass!

I did indeed reach Kelmscott, and was glad to join their new Latin choir, to sing with them at their first Mass. I really love Pentecost, and the Mass is superb - it is such a solemn moment when all kneel, priest, servers, choir and people, as the cantor sings Veni sancte Spiritus, reple tuorum corda fidelium, et tui amoris in eis ignem accende -

- and then all rise and the Golden Sequence Veni sancte Spiritus rolls forth, amplifying the cry of the Alleluia verse preceding it (Veni sancte Spiritus... Reple cordis... tuorum fidelium...). For Communion, we sang that vigorous chant, Factus est repente de cælo sonus with psalm verses. Before the Vidi aquam, "O breathe on me, Breath of God"; at Offertory, Veni Creator Spiritus (to gain today's plenary indulgence for its public recitation); and after Mass, one of my most favourite hymns, "Come down, O Love Divine".

Justin invited me to join him and his Dad for dinner, so I gave him a lift home, and had a good conversation about all manner of things, including much about St Gregory Nazianzen, whom he has studied in the past and hopes to study some more, when he can resume his postgraduate researches soon.

He told me the following odd tale: while living in Melbourne in 2004, he and his sister Isabel, going for an evening stroll in Elwood, saw a broken refrigerator awaiting the rubbish collectors on the kerb; they saw it had some fridge magnets on it, which on a whim they took home. But these magnets each bore a word, and after much discussion and rearrangement they found that these could only spell out one sentence, and that an unusual and most religious one:

Gorgeous elaborate worship, you have true produce above.

What do you make of that?

And now, a Hoegaarden beer and then to bed.