ÑContra MundumÑ Volume VI, Issue 12 July 2004 The Congregation of St. Athanasius A Congregation of the Pastoral Provision of Pope John Paul II for the Anglican Usage of the Roman Rite http://www.locutor.net God such as Christ willed and by NOTES the means which He wills. It is the Catholic thing to do. FROM THE Beginning in the 1930s, Père Cou- turier became well-known through- out the Christian world, because of CHAPLAIN his work and prayer for unity, and N remarks I made at Anglican Use by the end of his life his personal IMasses in Springfield, Massachu- contacts and correspondence were setts and in New York City this past world-wide. He perceived that God spring, I mentioned the pioneering unites Christians in the same Love Catholic ecumenist Paul Couturier. before uniting them in the same faith. Reading those remarks, some of you Yet he also knew that the practice of asked about this French priest who the faith of the Church is what cul- is called “the apostle of Christian tivates the virtues, chief of which is unity.” charity. And so these people world- Paul Couturier (1881-1953) was wide who were living by a desire for certainly not the inventor of ecumeni- the holiness of Christ Père Couturier cal relations. But he understood how called “the invisible monastery.” Christians who conscientiously hold In this sense, Paul Couturier was beliefs that divide them from others clearly seeing into our own time, could nevertheless join together with Feast day of Joachim and Anne, when the principal lines of disagree- those others in discussions of those parents of the Blessed Virgin ment run through the communions as same beliefs without it becoming Mary, is July 26th. much as between them, and a man’s a combative atmosphere. Because theological opponents may often be Père Couturier was a parish priest, order to know each other we must those of his own household. At such he was not drawn in to the sorting meet each other.” a time as this the need for a primacy out of the knotty problems facing Père Paul Couturier had, by all becomes clearer. The old words professional theologians. And for accounts, a loving and open-hearted provide the way forward. “Thou art the first forty or even fifty years of spirit. And so he insisted that Chris- Peter, and upon this rock I will build his life, Couturier had little contact tians must pray not that others may my church.” with anybody who wasn’t Catholic. be converted to us, but that we all We have descriptions of the ora- But he certainly knew of the work may be drawn nearer to Christ. Be- tory where Père Paul Couturier said of the great Cardinal Mercier who ing loyal to the Church as we know Mass towards the end of his life. wrote “in order to be united we must it to be true does not prevent us from There were three crosses over the love each other, in order to love each praying with fellow Christians, for altar. One was a plain cross from other we must know each other, in the visible unity of the Kingdom of Protestant friends, one was an Ortho- Page 82 Contra Mundum

dox cross from an Anglican, and in ing was our good friend Fr. Carleton When the Roman Emperor Dio- the center was the Catholic crucifix. Jones, OP. Deacon Connolly assisted cletian mounted a great persecution Fr. Donald Allchin wrote “The abbé at Mass and David Burt served as against Christians in 303, a traitor in had found that it is in the moments cantor. the community denounced Phocas, when we are most closely united with Please consider bringing sum- and the authorities sent a group of God that we are also most closely mer flowers to adorn our chapel for soldiers to search him out and put united to our fellow man. Here was Sunday Mass. You may take the ar- him to death. As the search party ap- the heart of his prayer for unity.” rangement home with you after Mass proached Sinope they passed by his FATHER BRADFORD if you wish. Schedule a Sunday with house without knowing to whom it the chaplain. Thanks. belonged. There they found the old gardener, and asked them where they There are no regular weekday might find Phocas. Without reveal- SHORT NOTES Anglican Use Masses scheduled ing himself, he invited the soldiers during July. In early August, the An- in, invited them to stay the night, fed glican Use Mass will be offered on Congratulations to Fr. James them, and otherwise offered them the Friday, August 6th at 7:30pm, being O’Driscoll on the observance of his generous hospitality for which he the Feast of the Transfiguration. silver sacerdotal jubilee, June 13th. was known far and wide. Members of all of Father’s former At supper he told them he knew congregations were present at the Saint of the the man Phocas, and that he would afternoon Mass, and members of St. help them find him the next morning. Clement’s Church, Somerville, host- Month When the soldiers had gone to bed, ed a wonderful reception. Deacon Phocas dug his grave and prepared Michael Connolly assisted at Mass everything for his burial, spending and Bruce Rand was the thurifer. Fr. the rest of the night in prayer, pre- Bradford and David Burt assisted at paring to die. At dawn he greeted the service and Judie Bradford and his guests and told them Phocas was Marcia Rand were also in the congre- found and that they could arrest him gation, so we were well represented. whenever they pleased. Glad at the It was a happy day. news, they asked where he was. “He Our next service of Evensong is here present,” said the old man. “I & Benediction will be July 25th at myself am the man.” 5:00pm. The service is in the St. St. Phocas The soldiers were stunned. How Theresa of Ávila Chapel, which is the Gardener could they take the life of this kind old air-conditioned. martyred 303 man who had treated them so well? Archbishop Sean O’Malley re- They shrank from killing him, but ceived the pallium from Pope John Feast Day 14 July feared what would happen to them if Paul II on the feast of SS. Peter and they disobeyed their orders. Phocas Paul, June 29th. Msgr. Helmick was AINT Phocas the Gardener lived reassured them, telling them that as among those travelling from Boston Son the Black Sea in Sinope, a far as he was concerned, such a death to Rome in support of our arch- gate of the city of Pontus, and culti- would be a great favor. Recovering bishop. Please refer to the story on vated a splendid garden the produce from their shock and resolving to do the pallium in the June issue of the of which he gave away to feed the their duty, a duty Phocas made easy, parish paper. poor and hungry. Known by all for they struck off his head. Father Bradford celebrated an his generous charity and kindness, His relics were preserved and Anglican Use Mass at St. Vincent no traveler was ever refused shelter the church dedicated to his name Ferrer Church, New York City, on and refreshment when calling at in Sinope became a much visited Pentecost, May 30th. Con-celebrat- Phocas’s door. pilgrimage. Because of its proxim- Contra Mundum Page 83

ity to the Black Sea, Phocas soon so that the texts chosen may either BLESSED THOMAS REYNOLDS became a popular saint with sailors; emphasize an individual’s awareness Martyr (†1642) his patronage may be connected to of his own sinfulness or the human This English priest, whose real the resemblance of his name to the condition throughout the world. name was Green, died a martyr at Greek word for a seal (phoke). In Also, the attention you gave to Tyburn, where he was hung at the the Church he is recognized as the the glorious and magnificent celebra- age of eighty. Born in Oxford, he patron of gardeners and sailors. For tion of two major feast days lifted us had crossed the Channel to study in many years it was customary to set up in the midst of Lent’s somberness, Reims, and later in Valladolid and aside a share of the profit from each as we recall that even in a season of Seville, in preparation for ordination sea voyage to give to the poor; this penance the joyfulness of Christian to the priesthood. After his ordina- share was called “Phocas’s part”. life is still just behind the curtain. tion in 1592, Thomas returned to Here is the catechesis, here is England and gave of himself unstint- the ritual of liturgical and devotional ingly for fifty years on the English A KIND NOTE FROM prayer which fills the mind and stirs mission. FATHER HIGGINS the heart, both to consider and to will, Reprinted from Magnificat, Jan. 2000, No.14, Page 291 With permission of Magnificat® what must be done in the on-going USA, LLC, Dunwoodie - 201 Seminary Avenue, struggle of conversion to Christ. Yonkers, New York 10704 or Web site: www. Dear Fr. Bradford, magnificat.net. All rights reserved. It is not the numbers that attend I want to take this opportunity to that make for successful Lenten express my heartfelt thanks to you programs so much as the authentic BLESSEDS , ED- and the Community of St. Athanasius Christian content of what is offered. WARD POWELL, AND RICHARD for having made a series of Lenten Well done, good and faithful ser- FETHERSTON Priests and Martyrs devotions and Solemn Feast Day vants! (†1540) Masses available to our wider par- ish of St. Theresa of Ávila this year. Sincerely in the Lord, Fathers and For me, the preached Stations of the FR. CHARLES HIGGINS Richard Fetherston were two of nineteen English theologians who at Cross on Friday nights and the two Father Charles Higgins is Parochial a Canterbury convocation in 1529, Masses for St. Joseph’s Day and for Vicar of St Theresa of Ávila Parish in which assessed the validity of King the Annunciation “made” my Lent of West Roxbury. He not only attends Henry VIII’s marriage to Queen 2004, so to speak. many of our special services but is , spoke in the As anyone familiar with dioc- also a much valued guest as cel- queen’s favor. Previously, Father esan shop talk knows, there is great ebrant and preacher at our Masses Powell had written a book defending concern with mounting something and Evensongs. the seven sacraments and the papacy extra in parishes during Lent but the against the heresies of Martin Luther. content of so many contemporary In 1532 the Oxford scholar Father programs is —to put it charita- Thomas Abel completed a book in bly— characterless and dull. If only THE BRITISH which he too spoke against King they could turn to the Anglican-use Henry’s proposed divorce. By 1534 community’s program as a model. MARTYRS VER the years 200 men and all three men had been arrested. Fa- There is nothing quite like the women have been beatified for ther Powell’s courageous preaching public Stations of the Cross, with a O their heroic witness to the Catholic in support of the Church’s teaching meditation read out loud at each Sta- Faith in the British Isles during and and disciplinary authority was used tion, to help both an individual Chris- after the Protestant Reformation. as a pretext for his arrest. During his tian and a community grow in loving Here we continue brief mention of imprisonment, Father Abel wrote to awareness of what Christ’s Act of some of these individual martyrs. a fellow prisoner and future martyr, Redemption meant. The devotion Blessed John Forest, “Let us die, I admits of a variety of expression pray, that we may live with him, the Page 84 Contra Mundum

in heaven. But the veneration strictly called “worship,” or latria, that is, the spe- cial homage belonging only to the divinity, is something we give and teach others to give to God alone. The offering of a sacrifice belongs to worship in this sense (that is why those who sacrifice to idols are called idol-worshipers), and we neither make nor tell others to make any such offering to any martyr, any holy soul, or any angel. If anyone among us falls into this error, he is corrected with words of sound doctrine and must then either mend his ways or Crowds of people used to come and hear Jesus, and they used to follow else be shunned. Him from place to place. Sometimes He taught them in Parables —those The saints themselves forbid wonderful earthly stories with Heavenly meanings— and He made better anyone to offer them the worship many people who were ill, and also forgave many people their sins. they know is reserved for God, as is

martyr of all martyrs, to whom I com- an altar where these holy bodies rest, clear from the case of Paul and Barn- mend you earnestly in my prayers.” has ever said, “Peter, we make this abas. When the Lycaonians were so Fathers Abel, Powell, and Fetherston offering to you,” or “Paul, to you,” amazed by their miracles that they were put to death on July 30, 1540, or “Cyprian, to you.” No, what is wanted to sacrifice to them as gods, charged with having “most traitor- offered is offered always to God, who the apostles tore their garments, ously adhered themselves unto the crowned the martyrs. We offer in the declared that they were not gods, Bishop of Rome.” chapels where the bodies of those he urged the people to believe them, and Reprinted from Magnificat, July 2003, Vol. 5, crowned rest, so the memories that forbade them to worship them. No. 5, Page 408 With permission of Magnificat® cling to those places will stir our USA, LLC, Dunwoodie - 201 Seminary Avenue, Yet the truths we teach are one Yonkers, New York 10704 or Web site: www. emotions and encourage us to greater thing, the abuses thrust upon us are magnificat.net. All rights reserved. love both for the martyrs whom we another. There are commandments can imitate and for God whose grace that we are bound to give; there are enables us to do so. breaches of them that we are com- VENERATION OF So we venerate the martyrs with manded to correct, but until we cor- SAINTS the same veneration of love and rect them we must of necessity put fellowship that we give to the holy up with them. men of God still with us. We sense From a treatise against Faustus by E, the Christian commu- that the hearts of these latter are just Saint Augustine, bishop Wnity, assemble to celebrate the as ready to suffer death for the sake memory of the martyrs with ritual of the Gospel, and yet we feel more solemnity because we want to be in- devotion toward those who have OUR PILGRIMAGE spired to follow their example, share already emerged victorious from in their merits, and be helped by their the struggle. We honor those who Trinity IV prayers. Yet we erect no altars to any are fighting on the battlefield of this of the martyrs, even in the martyrs’ life here below, but we honor more GOD, the protector of all burial chapels themselves. confidently those who have already O that trust in thee, without No bishop, when celebrating at achieved the victor’s crown and live whom nothing is strong, nothing is Contra Mundum Page 85

are not properly interpreting the Christian teaching. When God cre- ated the world, we are told, he saw that it was good, and we know that even now his mercy is over all his works. We dare not despise what he has made for our use. To belittle the gift is to insult the Giver. In fact, that is really what the collect implies. The Latin on which it is based, when literally translat- ed, means "Let us so pass through the good things of this life that we lose not those of eternal life." "Sic transeamus per bona temporalia ut non amittamus aeterna." God commands us to love ourselves. Care for the body includes taking Such a thought should have a We must thus care for both our body proper treatment and medicine when special meaning for us today in an and our soul. Since the soul is far more we are ill. Anything against health age which, as far at least as stan- violates the duty to love ourselves. precious than the body, we should give dards of living are concerned, and it more careful attention. Every day as we have often been reminded, we must pray for grace to live accord- ing to God’s most holy will. "has never had it so good." The Christian recognizes the privileges holy: Increase and multiply upon us home country: here we are merely he enjoys at this stage in the his- thy mercy; that, thou being our ruler strangers, visitors, tourists, or, as tory of human society. He has not and guide, we may so pass through perhaps we might better say, people the least intention of running down things temporal, that we finally lose engaged on a business trip. Moffatt the achievements of his contem- not the things eternal: Grant this, O was constrained to translate "We poraries. Nevertheless, he knows Heavenly Father, for Jesus Christ’s are colonists from heaven," while that the finest longings of the hu- sake our Lord. Amen. the New English Bible puts it quite man soul cannot be satisfied with The conception of life as a jour- simply "We are citizens of heaven," gadgets. He will not therefore sub- ney, a pilgrimage, is very common leaving us to supply the corollary mit to the standards of a secularized in Christian writing. Readers of St. that we are therefore only travellers, society. He knows that the good Augustine’s City of God will re- temporary residents on earth. things of this life are intended to member how throughout the length But the most famous passage of help him to a still better country. of that vast work he speaks of a "pil- this type is in Hebrews, where the But he also knows that the journey grim city"— not the easiest of im- writer, in the middle of describing is dangerous and he trusts to the in- ages to conjure up in the mind, but how all the great patriarchs lived spiring leadership of his Guide. one that he feels so important to his and died in faith, breaks off to ex- J.W.C. WAND thought that he can never let it go. plain that they regarded themselves In any case he gets it from St. as strangers and pilgrims on earth The Congregation of Paul. The phrase "our conversation looking forward to a better country is in heaven" as we have it in the where God had prepared for them Saint Athanasius, Authorized Version tends to obscure a city. Rectory: 192 Foster Street, the meaning of the Greek, which is All this, of course, does not Brighton, MA 02135-4620 that our true citizenship is not of this mean that we are to despair of this world but of heaven. That is our real world. People who affect to do so Tel/Fax: (617) 787-0553 Page 86 Contra Mundum

St.. Theresa Church and Convent Chapel, West Roxbury, MA 02132 Pine Lodge Road (off St.. Theresa Avenue) Park either in the church parking lot or on Pine Lodge Road. The side door of the convent is open during the time of our services. Directions by Car: From the North: Route 128 to Route 109, which becomes Spring Street in West Roxbury. Spring Street ends at a traffic light at Centre Street in sight of the church. At this light bear left onto Centre St.. and immediately turn right at the next light onto St.. Theresa Ave. From the South: Route 1 north through Dedham to Spring Street. Turn right onto Spring Street then follow the directions above. From Dorchester and Mattapan: Cummins High- way to Belgrade Avenue to Centre Street left on St.. Theresa Ave. From Boston: VFW Parkway to LaGrange Street. Turn left onto LaGrange Street, crossing Centre Street and turn right onto Landseer Street. Turn left into the church parking lot. Directions by Public Transportation: Orange line to Forest Hills terminal. Bus to West Roxbury. #35 bus to Dedham Mall. #36, #37, and #38 also stop at St.. Theresa’s. Commuter train to West Roxbury Station is a short walk to St.. Theresa’s. Departs from South Sta- tion, but no Sunday service is available.

Contra Mundum The Congregation of St. Athanasius 10 St.. Theresa Avenue West Roxbury, MA 02132