Naughty Brits

I am more and more staggered by the way news outlets these days but mouth elite propaganda. Apparently, to paraphrase my betters, the Brits (well, the English and Welsh, or more particularly of those persons all ignorant peasants and poor fools, not the nice and rich overlords amongst them) have been very naughty to vote Leave, and now Nanny Reichskanzler will have to spank them. Let that be a warning not to permit referenda nor plebiscites, as they only lead to hate speech.

On a more positive note, the Scots, having voted throughout their realm to Remain, look likely to press for independence (in order to remain in the EU and give the English a bloody nose), and as I support both Brexit and an independent Scotland, I am happy. All I need now is for Scotland to pass a law whereby all those of Scottish descent can apply for a Scottish passport and I'll be content.

My predictions? In five years' time, England and Wales, possibly still referred to as the United Kingdom (but UKEW not UK), possibly still united to some or all of Northern Ireland, will be perfectly well-off and won't have slid into the sea. And the Kingdom of Scotland will also be quite content as a member of the EU.

Farewell Christmas, Arise Scotland

Farewell, Christmastide, till next year! – or so I thought, having done with the last of the Christmastide Offices (that of the Octave of the Epiphany, and the Lord's Baptism), and now this morning reading Lauds of St Hilary; but of course Candlemas, due in a few weeks, is the last echo of Christmas, 40 days after...

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On a political note, I am delighted to read that a referendum on independence for Scotland will be held within the next few years; being of Scottish descent, I would counsel voters to say "aye".  Whatever benefits being part of the U.K. has brought will still be provided by the membership of both in the E.U.; I read that Scotland would remain part of the Queen's dominions, and that they would keep the pound (the Euro being about to collapse, as all men know), while of course free trade would be assured.

The current position of Scotland (and, in a sense, of Wales and Northern Ireland), with a devolved legislature still subordinate to the national Parliament, a Parliament whose primary concern is with, and whose vast majority of Members represent, a country – England – with no legislature of its own, and in which therefore the strange spectacle exists of Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish M.P.'s having a vote on bills governing English affairs only, since in their own countries local legislatures deal with such questions instead (famously termed the "West Lothian question"), is anomalous: such a lopsided quasi-federal structure is inherently unstable.  Devolution – granting legislatures to Scotland and Wales (N. Ireland already having had one, on and off, for most complex reasons) – far from killing nationalism, has enlivened it; when the United Kingdom had but one Parliament to legislate for all parts, due consideration given to the differing arrangements in each, matters were stable; now they are not.  The logical alternatives are independence or unitary government; devolution is a half-way house at best.

The reason Australia works as a federation is that no one State contains a majority of the population, each State has its own Parliament and powers, and the federal Parliament legislates on national affairs equally for all.  If, say, Victoria and Queensland had never seceded from New South Wales, and as a result Australia consisted of only four States, one of which contained three-quarters of the population, and furthermore the Australian Parliament was simply the N.S.W. Parliament supplemented by a few extra Members from the other three smaller States, then there would be just such a strange quasi-federal imbalance: the three smaller States would legislate for some of their own affairs, but would chafe at the fact that "national" laws were made by a body in which their representatives were a perpetual minority; while the people of such a greater N.S.W. would find it irritating that their State laws were made by the national Parliament, a body in which numbers of "foreigners" had a say.  Or to look at matters in another light, it is unlikely that New Zealand would ever take up the standing offer in the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Australia to join as a State: though New Zealanders and Australians are very close in so many ways, they are distinct peoples, and it would seem to Kiwis that to join a federation in which they would be the minority, to be dominated by Aussies for ever, perceiving the other six States as one foreign land as they would, would be repellent.

To point the moral further: the Federation of the West Indies collapsed because Jamaica, by far the largest of its members by population, withdrew rather than be dominated by a congeries of small island states, in a move rather the reverse of what is now contemplated in the U.K. – it was as if England left the Union!  And, if Québec should ever secede from Canada, the remainder would be both geographically divided, and dominated by Ontario (which would have a majority of the remaining population) – so it seems all too likely that the other provinces would choose to break with confederation themselves, even going so far as to look south...

Lopsided federations or quasi-federal bodies do not last: Nigeria barely survived the Biafran bid for independence, and has hardly been a beacon of democracy or of federalism; the Federation of Central Africa collapsed in the lead up to the Rhodesian U.D.I; examples could be multiplied.  Only in the case of very lopsided quasi-federal arrangements, such as that permitting autonomy from Finland to the Åland Islands, or the autonomy afforded the few remaining British colonies such as Bermuda, do the interests of the metropolitan power and its associated autonomous region(s) coincide.   It is indeed staggering that the Union has lasted so long between Scotland and England, and now that Scotland has had a Parliament again for more than a decade, the centrifugal forces are ineluctably building: Scotland is neither so small by comparison to the rest of the U.K. (in other words, to England, the other parts being really negligible) that it will be for ever content to be a specially autonomous outlier, nor of rough equality with the other parts of the Union so as to permit a true federal arrangement (as if England were not so much more populous than all the rest combined).

All that said, Scottish independence is still not a foregone conclusion, but the mere fact that what once was but a fantasy of a few in that land is now the settled policy of the party with an absolute majority in its Parliament seems to suggest that the momentum of history is with Salmond – as he, canny man, never ceases to imply.  I read that the First Minister is a keen and talented gambler on the horses: may his pick romp home!  

UK: New Name Needed?

Assuming, for the sake of argument, that Scotland chooses her own path and makes her own way in the future (an episode of Doctor Who presaged this not too long ago), what should the remainder of the United Kingdom – currently denominated, "of Great Britain and Northern Ireland" – be called?  Before Eire won her freedom, it was the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland; and before Ireland was incorporated fully, it was the Kingdom of Great Britain, once the old Parliament of Scotland had voted for union, and her own dissolution, back in 1707.

How about the United Kingdom of England, Wales, (Cornwall*) and Northern Ireland?  Or, perhaps, the United Kingdom of 2/3 of Britain and 1/6 of Ireland?

In any case, Her Majesty would still rule over both this successor state, and the restored Kingdom of Scotland; this would be but the latest division of the Crown, just as she rules as Queen of (the Dominion of) Canada, of the Commonwealth of Australia, and so forth.

* Some assert that Cornwall was never fully incorporated into England.

Scottish Landslide

Being of Scottish descent myself, I have been delighted to monitor the news coming in of the election of the new Scottish Parliament, in which the Scottish National Party, which presses for the restoration of independence to Scotland (most unwisely given away in 1707), has won a great victory, and an absolute majority of seats for the first time.  Expect a referendum sooner rather than later.

Edinburgh Alive

I'm watching the live webcast of Pope Benedict in Edinburgh – first, of his speech at Holyroodhouse in reply to Her Majesty; and second, right now, of his motorcade through the streets of the city.

I am amazed – in the eight months since I was in Edinburgh, the place has turned from monochromatic grey, black and white to a delightful palette of stone and slate against living green!  Honestly, as an Australian unused to such extreme seasonal changes, Edinburgh seems to have returned to life again after a fell and most drear winter.  It was odd to see the Popemobile (and occupant) driving along the self-same main roads whose footpaths I walked with such trepidation, snow-covered as they were, and to see the same footpaths filled with cheering onlookers, with, not snowcovered, but verdant parks behind them.

What a blessing for Scotland and the Scots indeed.

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100,000 people turned out to see the Pope, report Scottish police (are you there, Mark?) – and only sixty protesters.  So much for the attempt of the media to whip up bigotry.

God Protect Pope Benedict

As I write, His Holiness ought have arrived in Scotland half-an-hour ago, and be being welcomed by Her Majesty at Holyroodhouse, Edinburgh.

The relentless anti-Catholic propaganda directed against him is a device of the enemy of mankind – who well knows, in his rage and frustration, that the Vicar of Christ is the emissary of an infinitely greater, and truly philanthropic Power: Benedict, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.  

But it is God's will to test and try His servants; let us pray therefore for the Pope:

The Lord preserve him, and give him life, and make him blessed upon the earth, and deliver him not up to the will of his enemies.  (Ps 40(41):3)

St Ninian, pray for him.

Orate fratres

As I mentioned a week or more ago, I was quite surprised to find that in Scotland, when at the Ordinary Form of Mass, I went to stand at the Orate fratres, as here in Australia we have all been catechised to do (pursuant to the rubricks of the latest edition of the Roman Missal), instead everybody knelt!  They remained kneeling till after the Amen concluding the Eucharistic Prayer.

In other parts of the world, at the modern Mass, the people stand for the Orate fratres, or at least after it has concluded (as was the practice here until the last few years), and likewise for the Prayer over the Gifts (Oratio super oblata), and for the Sursum corda dialogue, and for the Preface and Sanctus.  Only then do the people kneel: in English-speaking countries, for the whole of the Eucharistic Prayer, as our bishops ruled at the time of the liturgical reform; according to the universal norms, for the Consecration alone.

Compare these variants to the practices at the Extraordinary Form of Mass, according to the customs I am familiar with: at High Mass, the people, having sat during the Offertory (except in Bavaria, where they knelt) stand at the ecphonesis of the Secret (the Oratio super oblata, which in the Traditional Mass is said sotto voce until its end), remain standing for the ensuing dialogue and the Preface, then kneel as soon as the Sanctus is begun; while instead, at Low Mass, the people remain sitting, then kneel at the Sanctus.

Now, whatever of the older form of the liturgy, I return to the Institutio Generalis Missalis Romani, according to the 3rd typical edition of 2002, and quote from n. 43:

Fideles stent ab initio cantus ad introitum, vel dum sacerdos accedit ad altare, usque ad collectam inclusive; ad cantum Allelúia ante Evangelium; dum ipsum Evangelium proclamatur; dum professio fidei et oratio universalis fiunt; necnon ab invitatorio Oráte fratres ante orationem super oblata usque ad finem Missae, praeter ea quae infra dicuntur.

Sedeant autem dum proferuntur lectiones ante Evangelium et psalmus responsorius; ad homiliam et dum fit praeparatio donorum ad offertorium; atque, pro opportunitate, dum sacrum silentium post Communionem servatur.

Genuflectant vero, nisi valetudinis causa, vel ob angustiam loci vel frequentiorem numerum adstantium aliasve rationabiles causas impediantur, ad consecrationem. Hi vero qui non genuflectunt ad consecrationem, inclinationem profundam peragant dum sacerdos genuflectit post consecrationem.

Est tamen Conferentiae Episcoporum, gestus et corporis habitus in Ordine Missae descriptos ingenio et rationabilibus populorum traditionibus ad normam iuris aptare. Attendendum tamen erit, ut sensui et indoli cuiusque partis celebrationis respondeant. Ubi mos est, populum ab acclamatione Sanctus expleta usque ad finem Precis eucharisticae genuflexum manere, hic laudabiliter retinetur.

Ad uniformitatem in gestibus et corporis habitibus in una eadem celebratione obtinendam, fideles monitionibus obtemperent, quas diaconus, vel minister laicus, vel sacerdos durante celebratione proferunt, iuxta ea quae in libris liturgicis statuuntur.

The first paragraph tells us, inter alia, that the people stand from the Orate fratres until the end of Mass, except at those parts noted further on - which the second and third paragraphs explain to be two places: at the consecration, all kneel, unless unable to do so by some reasonable cause (in which case one bows profoundly); and during the silence after communion, one may sit.

The fourth paragraph explains that bishops' conferences may adapt these rules to fit the customs of their people - in particular, the Instruction notes that "Where it is the custom for the people to remain kneeling from the Sanctus acclamation until the end of the Eucharistic Prayer, this may praiseworthily be retained": in other words, if it is the norm to kneel for the whole of the Eucharistic Prayer, what a laudable and admirable rule to maintain!  (This is the case, so far as I know, throughout the Anglosphere.)

The fifth and last paragraph notes that, when the priest, deacon or lay minister tells the people to stand, sit or kneel according to the rules laid down, it is for the people to follow their bidding.  But note that they should obey only when they are told to do what they should!  (Obviously if they are told to stand on their heads during the Canon, this would be a foolish violation of the rubricks, to be laughed off.)

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But why this change in the modern Mass, from standing after the Orate fratres to standing at the Orate fratres?  I was told (by a bishop, if I recall correctly) that the reason is that some dissenting Catholics in Germany were entirely omitting the Orate fratres, so as to further downplay the doctrine of the Sacrifice of the Mass; and that to re-affirm both the phrase and its important declaration of true teaching, the Vatican decided to forcibly emphasise it by having the people stand at this versicle and response, which is such an urgent plea - not just Oremus, "Let us pray", but Orate fratres, "Pray, brethren!" - that so concisely reiterates the doctrine of the Mass as a Sacrifice acceptable to God the Father, offered by the priest, the people assisting and co-offering at his hands, not merely for God's glory, but to obtain all benefits for ourselves and Holy Church:

Orate, fratres, ut meum ac vestrum sacrificium acceptabile fiat apud Deum Patrem omnipotentem.

Suscipiat Dominus sacrificium de manibus tuis, ad laudem et gloriam nominis sui, ad utilitate quoque nostram, totiusque Ecclesiæ suæ sanctæ.

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So, why is it that in Australia, in the United States, and in England too (as I have observed personally), that this new rule of standing at the Orate fratres has been brought in, whereas in Scotland the people kneel instead, and in Italy they keep the slightly older practice of standing after the Orate fratres?

The Scottish posture at the modern Mass at this point must surely be one of those local adaptations permitted in the fourth paragraph mentioned above - I would be interested to have confirmation of this...

It seems to me that it is a question of due catechesis and instruction having been undertaken in the first three countries mentioned, informing the people of this modification; whereas in Italy, despite eight years having passed, no one seems aware of this - even in St Peter's itself, where I was amazed to see, at a Papal Mass I attended back in September, that this rule was even now not yet observed!

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The annoying thing about the post-Conciliar Church is that there is a great spirit of sloppiness and neglect of any and all instructions.

Edinburgh

Inattention to matters financial meant I hadn't realized that using my mobile phone outside Australia involves quite some extra costs - including paying for incoming calls as well as outgoing ones!  Ah well.

I find Scotland snowbound but friendly; my contact here has treated me royally.

(And you get decent snacks like hot slices of black pudding in a soft bread roll!  I've yet to have haggis, though I've been taken numerous times already to Starbucks, and once to an Italian restaurant...)

Yesterday I rugged up and set off long before dawn to walk (very circumspectly) the frozen streets to Mass.  It must have been about a mile and half or more, and in this weather it took me over three-quarters of an hour - you can't stride out when in the snow you might go head over tails.  I arrived at the Orate fratres...

Later in the day, Mark and I heard another Mass, at the Jesuit church; Father had evidently mislaid his glasses, since he had difficulty reading the missal and got a bit mixed up.  But far more curious than this was the fact that, when I went to arise at the Orate fratres (as the latest command for the Novus Ordo is, as observed in Australia and in England and elsewhere), the congregation knelt instead, for the Preface and Sanctus and all, whereas back home we stand.  Similarly, no one stood for the Prayer after Communion and Blessing: no, they knelt right through to the dismissal.

I asked Mark afterward and he seemed surprised I was surprised: apparently this is just what one does at the Ordinary Form Mass here in Scotland.  (I don't object, just register this to-me-unknown "contrary custom".)

I see out the window that it's snowing again (it's dawn, about 9 am).

From the weather reports, I'm lucky to have come North when I did: all England is snowed under, with roads snarled and many unable to get to work or school.  Apparently it may be the coldest winter in thirty years...

Winter

Watching the television news, I see that Europe and North America are suffering severe snowstorms – climate change is upon us: the Ice Age cometh. ;-)

I do hope that, by the time my flight comes to Heathrow on New Year's Eve, this gridlock has eased! And on New Year's Day I need to travel to Oxford. Goodness knows how Edinburgh will be the next week...

Perhaps this poem by William Dunbar, writing just before the end of mediæval Catholic Scotland in foul dark Reformation, may strike a chord with frozen northern hemispherians, whom I'll soon be joining for some weeks:

MEDITATIOUN IN WYNTIR

In to thir dirk and drublie dayis,

Quhone sabill all the hevin arrayis

With mystie vapouris, cluddis, and skyis,

Nature all curage me denyis

Off sangis, ballattis, and of playis.

[Into these dark and wet days,

When sable all the heaven arrays

With misty vapours, clouds, and skies,

Nature all courage me denies

Of songs, ballads, and of plays.]

Quhone that the nycht dois lenthin houris,

With wind, with haill, and havy schouris,

My dule spreit dois lurk for schoir,

My hairt for languor dois forloir

For laik of symmer with his flouris.

[When that the night does lengthen hours,

With wind, with hail, and heavy showers,

My sad spirit does lurk threatened

My heart for languor does weaken

For lack of summer with his flowers.]

I walk, I turn, sleip may I nocht,

I vexit am with havie thocht;

This warld all ouir I cast about,

And ay the mair I am in dout,

The mair that I remeid have socht.

[I walk, I turn, sleep may I not,

I vexed am with heavy thought;

This world all over I cast about,

And e'er the more I am in doubt,

The more that I remedy have sought.]

I am assayit on everie syde:

Dispair sayis ay, "In tyme provyde

And get sum thing quhairon to leif,

Or with grit trouble and mischeif

Thow sall in to this court abyd."

[I am assailed on every side:

Despair says e'er, "In time provide

And get some thing whereon to live

Or with great trouble and mischief

Thou shall into this court abide."]

Than Patience sayis, "Be not agast:

Hald Hoip and Treuthe within the fast,

And lat Fortoun wirk furthe hir rage,

Quhome that no rasoun may assuage,

Quhill that hir glas be run and past."

[Then Patience says, "Be not aghast:

Hold Hope and Truth within thee fast,

And let Fortune work forth her rage,

Whom that no reason may assuage,

Till that her glass be run and past."]

And Prudence in my eir sayis ay,

"Quhy wald thow hald that will away?

Or craif that thow may have no space,

Thow tending to ane uther place,

A journay going everie day?"

[And Prudence in my ear says e'er,

"Why would thou hold that will [go] away?

Or crave that thou may have now space,

Though tending to another place,

A journey going every day?]

And than sayis Age, "My freind, cum neir,

And be not strange, I the requeir,

Cum, brodir, by the hand me tak,

Remember thow hes compt to mak

Off all thi tyme thow spendit heir."

[And then says Age, "My friend, come near,

And be not strange, I thee require,

Come, brother, by the hand me take,

Remember thou hast [ac]count to make

Of all thy time thou [hast] spent here."]

Syne Deid castis upe his yettis wyd,

Saying, "Thir oppin sall the abyd;

Albeid that thow wer never sa stout,

Undir this lyntall sall thow lowt:

Thair is nane uther way besyde."

[Then Death casts ope his gates wide,

Saying, "These within shall thee abide;

Albeit that thou were never so stout,

Under this lintel shall thou bow down:

There is no other way beside."]

For feir of this all day I drowp;

No gold in kist, nor wyne in cowp,

No ladeis bewtie, nor luiffis blys,

May lat me to remember this,

How glaid that ever I dyne or sowp.

[For fear of this all day I droop;

No gold in chest, nor wine in cup,

No ladies' beauty, nor lovers' bliss,

May hinder me to remember this,

How glad that ever I dine or sup.]

Yit, quhone the nycht begynnis to schort,

It dois my spreit sum pair comfort,

Off thocht oppressit with the schowris.

Cum, lustie symmer! with thi flowris,

That I may leif in sum disport.

[Yet, when the night begins to shorten,

It does my spirit some poor comfort,

Of thought oppressed with the showers.

Come, lusty summer! with thy flowers,

That I may live in some disport.]

Finalizing Holiday Plans

Persevering readers of this blog (if there are any) will know that I am heading to England, Scotland and Italy for a holiday at the very end of this year and the start of next - which is quite typical of me, being so contrary as to head to the far north in mid-winter! I know Traddies like to be climate change deniers out of a general sense of contrariety, but I for one wouldn't mind some warming coming up very soon...

While I have to sort out the English leg of my holiday, it will be spent in London and Oxford; but for the benefit of my Scottish contacts, my very distant relatives, I can confirm that I'll fly up to Edinburgh on Monday the 4th of January, and stay in the Athens of the North over three nights, before departing for Florence on Thursday: so I'll keep Epiphany in Scotland.

Firenze - città bellissima! I can't wait to get back there - I'll stay at my usual hotel on the banks of the Arno for two nights, and then take the train to Rome on the morning of Saturday January 9th. The local Carmelites tell me I simply must make it to the shrine of one of their incorruptibles, St Teresa Margaret of the Sacred Heart, of their Order...

Once in the Eternal City, I will catch up with several other Aussies, and we should have a pleasant time, hopefully at last including a day-trip to Assisi, before I have to leave for Australia on Thursday the 14th: I will have the weekend in Melbourne before finally getting home on Sunday afternoon.

Burns reminds me that best-laid plans gang aft agley... I trust the Lord will preserve and guide me, as He ever has.

Mass and Office in Advent

As my Advent intensification of vigilance, I have turned back to the Roman Breviary (since 1st Vespers on Saturday), and am planning to go to daily Mass (which entails the OF for the most part; shikata ga nai, it cannot be helped; I find it isn't as mediocre on weekdays, though still the EF is far preferable for its richness of expression and reverence).

This morning already I've read the (very long three Nocturn) Matins, and heard Mass of St Andrew at Carmel, and fittingly, in the recessional hymn, we sang a prayer for Scotland, my ancestral homeland:

The faith that Andrew taught once shone

O'er all this kingdom fair;

The cross that Jesus died upon

Was honoured everywhere.

But evil men that faith beat down,

Reviling Andrew's name;

The cross, though set in kingly crown,

Became a sign of shame.

Saint Andrew, now in bliss above,

Thy fervent prayers renew

That Scotland yet again may love

The faith, entire and true...