Thursdays- dedicated to the Honour of the Blessed Sacrament

Visits To the Blessed Sacrament

By this devotional practice, which is of comparatively modern development, the presence of Jesus Christ in the Blessed Eucharist is regarded in the same light and honoured with the same ceremonial observance as would be paid to a sovereign who favoured any place in his dominions by taking up his abode there. The conception is that in the tabernacle Jesus Christ, as it were, holds His court, and is prepared to grant audience to all who draw near to Him, though other prefer to regard Him as a prisoner bound to this earth and to existence in a confined space, by the fetters of His love for mankind. In this latter case the visits paid to the Blessed Sacrament assumed the special character of a work of mercy intended to console the Sacred Heart of Jesus for the indifference and ingratitude shown Him by the majority of Christians, for whose sake He remains in the sacramental species. It must be plain that this devotional exercise of "visiting" the Blessed Sacrament is essentially dependent upon the practice of ceremonial reservation.

As has already been pointed out in this latter article, the attempts formerly made to demonstrate the existence of a custom in the early Church of showing special and external veneration to the Sacred Species when reserved for the sick break down upon closer investigation. To this day in the Greek Church no practice of genuflecting to the Blessed Sacrament is known and in fact it may be said that, though it is treated respectfully, as the Book of the Gospels or the sacred vessels would be treated respectfully, still no cultus is shown it outside of the Liturgy. During the first ten or twelve centuries after Christ the attitude of the Western Church seems to have been very similar. We may conjecture that the faithful concentrated their attention upon the two main purposes for which the Blessed Eucharist was instituted, viz. to be offered in sacrifice and to become the food of the soul in Holy Communion. It was only by degrees that men awoke to the lawfulness of honouring the abiding presence of Christ outside of the sacred mysteries, much as we may conceive that if a monarch chose to dress in mufti and to lay aside all marks of rank, people might doubt of showing him demonstrations of respect which he seemed purposely to exclude. In any case the fact is certain that we meet with no clear examples of a desire to honour the presence of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament reserved upon the altar before the twelfth century.

Perhaps one of the earliest indications of a new feeling in this regard is revealed in a direction given to the anchoresses in the "Ancren Riwle": "When ye are quite dressed...think upon God's Flesh and on His Blood which is over the high altar and fall on your knees towards it with this salutation "Hail thou author of or Creation, etc.". So again, in one of his letters St. Thomas of Canterbury writes: "If you do not harken to me who have been wont to pray for you in an abundance of tears and with groanings not a few before the Majesty of the Body of Christ" (Materials, Rolls Series, V, 27). This example, perhaps, is not quite certain but we know from instances in the Holy Grail romances, that the idea of praying before the Blessed Sacrament was growing familiar about this period, i.e. the end of the twelfth century. The English mystic Richard Rolle of Hampole, at the beginning of the fourteenth century, explicitly exhorts Christians to visit the church in preference to praying in their own houses, for he says "In the church is most devotion to pray, for there is God upon the altar to hear those that pray to Him and to grant them what they ask and what is best for them" ("Works", ed. Horstman, I, 145). But in the course of the same century the practice of visiting the Blessed Sacrament became fairly common, as we see particularly in the case of Blessed Henry Suso and Blessed Mary de Malliaco (A.D. 1331-1414), who, we are told, "on solemn feasts kept vigil before the most holy Sacrament". It was often at this period joined with an intense desire of looking upon the Blessed Sacrament exposed, a most striking example of which will be found in the "Septiliilium" of Blessed Dorothea, a holy recluse of Pomerania who died in 1394. But the practice of compiling volumes of devotions for visits to the Blessed Sacrament, one of the best known of which is the "Visits" of St. Alphonsus Ligouri, was of still later date.

We modern pilgrims see no journey's end

The opening and closing of the great modern rendering of the Canterbury Tales by Powell and Pressburger.




There is no journey's end in Canterbury since Henry VIII destroyed the tomb of Becket- the whole history of Henry II and Becket ending in Henry II's public penance must have much troubled his conscience. The empty space where the shrine once stood is the hole at the very heart of England.

An artist's impression of the original

And now the Anglicans organise clog dancing in front of the High Altar behind which the shrine once stood.



At the Altar of the Martydom itself, there used to me a realistic depiction of the murder. Now there is an abstract piece of modern art. Reality is clearly too much for the Anglicans, as it was for King Henry VIII when he tried to destroy the cult of that most glorious of English saints.

Criminous clerks

Constitutions of Clarendon

The Constitutions of Clarendon were a set of legislative procedures passed by Henry II of England in 1164. The Constitutions were composed of 16 articles and represent an attempt to restrict ecclesiastical privileges and curb the power of the Church courts and the extent of Papal authority in England. In the anarchic conditions of Henry II's predecessor, Stephen, the church had extended its jurisdiction in the void. The Constitutions were claimed to restore the judicial customs observed during the reign of Henry I (1100–35), while in fact they were a part of Henry II's larger expansion of royal jurisdiction into the Church and civil law, which was the defining aspect of his reign.

The Constitutions' primary goal was to deal with the controversial issue of "criminous clerks," or clergy who had committed a serious crime but escaped justice via ecclesiastical courts by "benefit of Clergy". Unlike royal courts, ecclesiastical courts were more sympathetic to clergy. An ecclesiastical case of murder often ended with the defendant being defrocked (dismissed from the priesthood). In a royal court, murder was often punished with mutilation or death.

The Constitutions of Clarendon were Henry II's attempts to rein in the problem by claiming that once the ecclesiastical courts had tried and defrocked clergymen, the Church could no longer protect the individual, and convicted former clergy could be further punished under the jurisdiction of secular courts. Thomas Becket, then the Archbishop of Canterbury (1162–1170), resisted Henry II's Constitutions, especially the clause concerning "criminous clerks." Becket claimed no man should be placed in double jeopardy. As a result, Henry II exiled Becket and his family. Bishops were in agreement over the articles until the Pope disapproved and then Becket repudiated his arguments. A bitter quarrel resulted, leading to Becket being murdered on 29 December 1170. After this Henry felt compelled to revoke the two controversial clauses which went against canon law. However, the rest stayed in effect as law of the land.

Cathcon comments
Henry II used the controversy to extend his jurisdiction over the Church- the moderns would side with the Church over the use of the death penalty.

Te Deum- the Pope is to visit England.

Spectacularly good news from The Times. 


St Anselm of Canterbury - Pope at the the General Audience

The game is up for the Anglicans

Rome riding to the rescue of the Anglo-Catholics. A new dawn for them, sunset over Canterbury.

Anglo-Catholics know what to do liturgically.

Cardinal Coligny, the highest ranking apostate ever

Buried in Canterbury Cathedral. To be buried in England is probably the most humiliating fate imaginable for a Frenchman- but he got the reward he deserved.

And here is Mrs Cardinal as she was known!

Feast of St Plegmund

Hagiography of the saintly Archbishop of Canterbury.

Our Catholic heritage before the Conquest.

St Plegmund's Well near Chester

The Dominican Priory in Canterbury. 1315 to 1538

 

Close by, that ultimate expression of bourgeois religion, the Friends Meeting House. The notice board asks "What is truth?" - which is exactly the question Pilate asked. "I am the Way, the Truth and the Life" said Our Lord and not one of the Dominicans would ever have thought of repeating Pilate's question.

Real Ale in the Thomas Becket Pub in Canterbury

Sadly, no real religion left in Canterbury Cathedral.

 

Archbishop Vincent Nichols is the new leader of Catholics in England and Wales, sources confirm

from Holy Smoke.

Cathcon has decided to spend more time in Canterbury. Should also place an ex-voto in the Hospital of St Peter (sadly, now in Anglican posssession)- "Prayers answered for the happy delivery of the Archdiocese of Westminster from a Northern Bishop"

On Pilgrimage to Canterbury tomorrow

To pray for the Westminster succession.

Bishop Roche- just say no!

Is Westminster walking towards a disaster or is a disaster walking towards Westminster?

It would be interesting to construct a table of the Diocesan Bishops of England and Wales showing what percentage of their Churches have they closed A few notes maybe attached to each on the degree to which the laity were consulted when coming to these decisions.

At the bottom of the table would come one Arthur Roche, who for reasons beyond the comprehension of rational humanity, is the front runner for the Archdiocese of Westminster with its associated red hat.

I have a German book at home about the lives of the Renaissance cardinals, “In pursuit of the Red Hat”. For all their extreme worldliness not one of them would have dared to do it over the ruins of murdered parishes and shuttered churches in contempt of the faithful who worshiped in those places week by week.

The very name of Arthur Roche is bringing terror to the clergy of Westminster, whether (using the categories taken from secular politics) of left or right. Cathcon has heard from his contacts on the left (yes, Cathcon, the son of a trade union leader does have them!) that Bishop Roche allegedly indulged in quasi- mafia bullying in Leeds. He has surrounded himself by a praetorian guard of trusties, but the parish clergy don’t get consulted rather are more likely to be on the receiving on of a bullying visit when it is considered necessary to bring them into line. Money flows not to the benefit of the parishes but to provide the Bishop with personal staff.

Cathcon has learnt that the Vicar General is abusive and short-tempered; letters from parishioners complaining about the closure of their churches went unanswered. Not even a standard form of reply.

A clergy in fear will never be united around their bishop. And even among my true comrades at the Oratory, that sacrosanct bastion of all the good that is preserved from traditional English Catholicism, whose deep faith and practice is entirely concurrent with that of the present Pope, are fearful that Bishop Roche will try to make an example out of them.

Bishop Roche believes that the use of Episcopal power should be unfettered. Clergy in Leeds do not see him however as their bishop but as a control freak. Revealingly, a fortune has been spent on a new Episcopal throne.

The divisions in the Church which the post-conciliar age has made visible have been felt in Westminster as much if not more than in the rest of the Catholic world. Cardinal Hume for all his expensive taste in shoes (1000 pounds a pair for one monk) and his desire to be numbered (and buried!) among the English saints and Cardinal Cormac who studied disloyalty to the Benedictine reforms has surely been noticed in Rome, at least kept the show on the road. The appointment of Roche will spark two simultaneous rebellions who will almost certainly join forces, both from the progressive and conservative ranks of the Church.

Bishop Roche is aged only 59: if appointed, he will set about closing and merging parishes with a vengeance. And this could go on for almost 20 years! The other dioceses will follow his “leadership”- he will lead the Catholic Church in this country away from the promised land and into the desert.

Some advice to the Vatican, “Google Arthur Roche”. No holocaust denier, but just to show how much he is out of tune with the intentions of the Pope on liturgical reform, take a look at the chapel of his Episcopal residence- and such a Bishop is to be entrusted with the glory of Westminster Cathedral.

No liturgical sense- font in front of tabernacle

Round table for the Magic Circle Candidate

Is this an altar of sacrifice?

English and Welsh Catholicism need and deserve an Archbishop of much higher quality to prepare them for the challenges of the coming century. Catholics will emerge triumphant but not under the leadership of Bishop Roche. The Bishop's motto is "Launch out into the deep " (a quote from Luke 5:4), which can be taken in a variety of ways.

St Augustine of Canterbury, pray for us!
St Dominic Barberi, pray for us!

True ecumenism

ZENIT - Moscow Patriarchate Backs Pope's Stance on Condoms:

A message on the French official Web site of the Church stated, 'The Patriarchate of Moscow is in solidarity with Pope Benedict XVI's position on the means in the fight against AIDS, and on the fact that condoms cannot be considered as a remedy against this sickness.'

This statement came as a response to the Pope's words to journalists on his flight to Africa, in which he affirmed: 'This problem of AIDS cannot be overcome only with publicity slogans.

'If there is not the soul, if the Africans are not helped, the scourge cannot be resolved

Where;s the Archbishop of Canterbury on this issue? probably all over the place.

The Lambeth Conference were the first ecclesiastical outfit to back the use of contraception in 1930.

May God forbid error to enter the University of Oxford

Medieval Sourcebook: Condemnation of Wycliffe, 1382

Bull of Pope Gregory XI, Against John Wycliffe
Gregory, bishop, servus servorum dei, to his beloved sons the Chancellor and University of Oxford, in the diocese of Lincoln, grace and apostolic benediction.

We are compelled to wonder and grieve that you, who, in consideration of the favors and privileges conceded to your University of Oxford by the apostolic see, and on account of your familiarity with the Scriptures, in whose sea you navigate, by the gift of God, with auspicious oar, you, who ought to be, as it were, warriors and champions of the orthodox faith, without which there is no salvation of souls, ---that you through a certain sloth and neglect allow tares to spring up amidst the pure wheat in the fields of your glorious University aforesaid; and what is still more pernicious, even continue to grow to maturity. And you are quite careless, as has been lately reported to us, as to the extirpation of these tares; with no little clouding of a bright name, danger to your souls, contempt of the Roman Church, and injury to the faith above mentioned. And what pains us the more, is that this increase of the tares aforesaid is known in Rome before the remedy of extirpation has been applied in England where they sprang up. By the insinuation of many, if they are indeed worthy of belief, deploring it deeply, it has come to our ears that John de Wycliffe, rector of the church of Lutterworth, in the diocese of Lincoln, Professor of the Sacred Scriptures (would that he were not also Master of Errors), has fallen into such a detestable madness that he does not hesitate to dogmatize and publicly preach, or rather vomit forth from the recesses of his breast, certain propositions and conclusions which are erroneous and false. He has cast himself also into the depravity of preaching heretical dogmas which strive to subvert and weaken the state of the whole church and even secular polity, some of which doctrines, in changed terms, it is true, seem to express the perverse opinions and unlearned learning of Marsilio of Padua of cursed memory, and of John of Jandun, whose book is extant, rejected and cursed by our predecessor, Pope John XXII, of happy memory. This he has done in the kingdom of England, lately glorious in its power and in the abundance of its resources, but more glorious still in the glistening piety of its faith, and in the distinction of its sacred learning; producing also many men illustrious for their exact knowledge of the Holy Scriptures, mature in the gravity of their character, conspicuous in devotion, defenders of the Catholic Church. He has polluted certain of the faithful of Christ by sprinkling them with these doctrines, and led them away from the right paths of the aforesaid faith to the brink of perdition.

Wherefore, since we are not willing, nay, indeed, ought not to be willing, that so deadly a pestilence should continue to exist with our connivance, a pestilence which, if it is not opposed in its beginnings, and torn out by the roots in its entirety, will be reached too late by medicines when it has infected very many with its contagion; we command your University with strict admonition, by the apostolic authority, in virtue of your sacred obedience, and under penalty of the deprivation of all the favors, indulgences, and privileges granted to you and your University by the said see, for the future not to permit to be asserted or proposed to any extent whatever, the opinions, conclusions, and propositions which are in variance with good morals and faith, even when those proposing strive to defend them under a certain fanciful wresting of words or of terms. Moreover, you are on our authority to arrest the said John, or cause him to be arrested and to send him under a trustworthy guard to our venerable brother, the Archbishop of Canterbury, and the Bishop of London, or to one of them.

Besides, if there should be, which God forbid, in your University, subject to your jurisdiction, opponents stained with these errors, and if they should obstinately persist in them, proceed vigorously and earnestly to a similar arrest and removal of them, and otherwise as shall seem good to you. Be vigilant to repair your negligence which you have hitherto shown in the premises, and so obtain our gratitude and favor, and that of the said see, besides the honor and reward of the divine recompense.

Given at Rome, at Santa Maria Maggiore, on the 31st of May, the sixth year of our pontificate.

The Condemned Conclusions of John Wycliffe
1. That the material substance of bread and of wine remains, after the consecration, in the sacrament of the altar.
2. That the accidents do not remain without the subject, after the consecration, in the same sacrament.
3. That Christ is not in the sacrament of the altar identically, truly and really in his proper corporeal presence.
4. That if a bishop or priest lives in mortal sin he does not ordain, or consecrate, or baptize.
5. That if a man has been truly repentant, all external confession is superfluous to him or useless.
6. That it is not founded in the gospel that Christ instituted the mass.
7. That God ought to be obedient to the devil.
8. That if the pope is fore-ordained to destruction and a wicked man, and therefore a member of the devil, no power has been given to him over the faithful of Christ by any one, unless perhaps by the Emperor.
9. That since Urban VI, no one is to be acknowledged as pope; but all are to live, in the way of the Greeks, under their own laws.
10. To assert that it is against sacred scripture that men of the Church should have temporal possessions.
11. That no prelate ought to excommunicate any one unless he first knows that the man is excommunicated by God.
12. That a prelate thus excommunicating is thereby a heretic or excommunicate.
13. That a prelate excommunicating a clerk who has appealed to the king, or to a council of the kingdom, on that very account is a traitor to God, the king and the kingdom.
14. That those who neglect to preach, or to hear the word of God, or the gospel that is preached, because of the excommunication of men, are excommunicate, and in the day of judgment will be considered as traitors to God.
15. To assert that it is allowed to any one, whether a deacon or a priest, to preach the word of God, without the authority of the apostolic see, or of a Catholic bishop, or of some other which is sufficiently acknowledged.
16. To assert that no one is a civil lord, no one is a bishop, no one is a prelate, so long as he is in mortal sin.
17. That temporal lords may, at their own judgment, take away temporal goods from churchmen who are habitually delinquent; or that the people may, at their own judgment, correct delinquent lords.
18. That tithes are purely charity, and that parishoners may, on account of the sins of their curates, detain these and confer them on others at their will.
19. That special prayers applied to one person by prelates or religious persons, are of no more value to the same person than general prayers for others in a like position are to him.
20. That the very fact that any one enters upon any private religion whatever, renders him more unfitted and more incapable of observing the commandments of God.
21. That saints who have instituted any private religions whatever, as well of those having possessions as of mendicants, have sinned in thus instituting them.
22. That religious persons living in private religions are not of the Christian religion.
23. That friars should be required to gain their living by the labor of their hands and not by mendicancy.
24. That a person giving alms to friars, or to a preaching friar, is excommunicate; also the one receiving.

Of your charity, pray for the repose of the soul of

Cardinal Pole- a Requiem was held in Oxford yesterday.

On 17 November 1558, Reginald Cardinal Pole, the last Catholic Archbishop of Canterbury passed from this world, just hours after Queen Mary Tudor, arguably the last pre-Protestant Reformation Catholic monarch of England. So too died their attempts to restore Mary's Dowry to her ancient Catholic Faith, and for almost three hundred years, England was without a Catholic hierarchy, the Mass was outlawed, and hundreds of priests were martyred for bringing the sacraments to the recusant Catholics of this land.

Feast of St Alfrick, Archbishop of Canterbury

Clearly, a hero and a saint but sadly forgotten now, even in his own land.

Archbishop of Canterbury who faced the Norse invasion of England. Alfrick was a monk in the Benedictine Abbey of Abingdon, England, noted for his holiness. He was appointed the bishop of Wilton, England, in 990, worked in the area, and was known for his charity. In 995 he became the archbishop of Canterbury and faced the devastating results of one of the invasions of England.

See especially page 91 following

Goodnight Canterbury

If the Episcopal Church didn't exist, the Catholics would have to invent us. Oops, I forgot, they already did.

The Catholics must be happy that Henry VIII broke with the Vatican back in 1534 and created his own Protestant church. Thank heavens we Episcopalians exist, otherwise Pope Benedict would be heading up the world's only openly dysfunctional Christian sect.


Things must be bad- two articles about Anglicans in the IHT on the same day. Today the bishops have a choice- listening to Cardinal Kasper or a spot of gay theatre

"The teaching of the Catholic Church on human sexuality and in particular on homosexuality, said Kasper, is “firmly based on the Old and New Testament,” and what is “at stake is fidelity to Holy Scripture and to the apostolic tradition.”"

Here's how they voted between the Chief Rabbi and the Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster.

Cathcon was briefly at the Lambeth Conference last week. Striking was the aspirituality of it all. They are preaching themselves and not Our Lord and Him crucified. The Church of England- a warning to Christendom from history.

Never again!

Goodnight Canterbury

Church of England splinters at the Lambeth Conference.

Good morning, Perth

Goodnight Canterbury.

Good morning Australia

Goodnight Canterbury