ÑContra MundumÑ Volume VIII, Issue 12 July 2006 The Congregation of St. Athanasius A Congregation of the Pastoral Provision of John Paul II for the Anglican Usage of the Roman Rite http://www.locutor.net the observance of proper forms. It NOTES is a character trait of fallen human nature for those who deny the power FROM THE and presence of godliness to insist upon their own form, and to cast CHAPLAIN aspersions at anyone who does not follow these forms. This works in OME of you have heard me political ideology, and it also works Ssay that St. Mark’s Gospel was in religion. written in a hurry and expects to be So the business about the Sab- read in a hurry. The evangelist had bath in Mark, Chapter Two is a case his fi rst readers very much in mind The Raising of Jairus’ in point. The basic commandment when he was gathering and prepar- about the Sabbath had a positive ing his narrative. The Church was daughter (Mark 5:21-43) and a negative component. On the being persecuted, and St. Mark was is the gospel for Sunday, July positive side were all the rules and in a hurry to tell Christians about 2nd. "It would have been easy regulations to assist the people in the passion and death of God’s Own for Jairus to say to Jesus: 'sorry, keeping a holy day pleasing to the Son for the sins of the world and the Lord, but it’s too late. I know you Lord. On the negative side was the promise of eternal life. When those have other things to do. I guess I fact that the observance meant giving early Christians were facing the bru- had better go bury my daughter.' up “all manner of work” on that day. tality of prison and a barbaric death, But that’s not what happened!" And in the course of ancient Israel’s their immediate requirement was to from a sermon by Fr. Bradford long history it had always been easier know that their religion was true and to enforce the negative than promote that God loved them. So St. Mark’s Lord question the disciples about the positive. But did the negative gospel was written at a fast pace in not fasting. Earlier they questioned approach help souls become holy? order to get to the good news that the Lord’s right to forgive sins. And The by-product of all this negativism would be a comfort and strength to in this gospel passage they are at was an unworthy conception of the the suffering Church. it again: observing the twelve dis- nature of God Who appeared to be We don’t get very far into Mark’s ciples in violation of the Sabbath more interested in how far you could Gospel before the gauntlet is thrown law against reaping, threshing, and walk to synagogue than in what you down and the Cross looms on the grinding corn. And on the next Sab- did when you got there. bath, or at least a subsequent one, horizon. By Chapter Three we are The true meaning of the Sabbath, the Pharisees are seen questioning told the Pharisees left the synagogue after all those centuries of misappli- the Lord when He is about to heal a with murder in their hearts. And all of cation, came to a head in the confron- man with a withered hand. Chapter Two documents this grow- tation between the Pharisees and the ing challenge to Christ’s authority We can note that those oppos- Son of God in Mark, Chapter Two. and teaching. Those opposing the ing Christ had an obsession with Our Lord Jesus gave an astonishing Page 86 Contra Mundum reply. “The Son of Man is Lord of There are many possibilities. And the supremely lovable life. the Sabbath.” most of them are not bad or evil but No matter how scarred and Now you and I might wish that good and healthy in and of them- bloody His body got at Calvary, you the Lord had stopped the whole world selves. But the One Who created us could never separate Him from His and said something like, “Look, I warns us that if we neglect the Sab- body until His death. That deathlike made the Ten Commandments, I bath as He gave it to us we do so to separation was the essence of the made the Sabbath, and I made you, our own eternal peril. Gnostic heresy, the most destructive so don’t you tell me!” Instead, He The question Jesus put to the heresy in history, the heresy that still reminded His hearers that man was Pharisees was the one that con- fuels liberalism, modernism, and not made for the Sabbath because he demned their twisted thinking about postmodernism, as well as books like was created a day before the Sabbath the Sabbath. It came down to this, The Da Vinci Code, which incorpo- was instituted. By His teaching and “Which is more acceptable to God, to rate all three of those isms. healings, Our Lord was reminding help someone or destroy him?" And And no matter how scarred and people that the Sabbath is a privilege when the Pharisees could not answer, wicked His Body the Church be- and a benefi t, not a task and an im- Jesus, with supreme self-confi dence, comes, you still cannot separate the position. After all, in another place said to the man “now stretch out your Head from the Body. That visible God’s Son assured us that He had hand” and it was made whole. What Body, the Church, “the extension come that we might have life, and a wonderful Master we have in Our of the Incarnation,” often appears have it more abundantly. Lord Jesus Christ! All His institu- wicked, sometimes spectacularly So the truth is that man was made tions and provisions are for our own and scandalously wicked. In fact, for God, and the Sabbath was made benefi t. And in His service there is until Heaven, its members are always to be an advantage to us in living for nothing but gain for you and me. more or less wicked. (Its best, the God’s honor and service. It was made FATHER BRADFORD , are the fi rst to confess this.) for our benefi t, not our misery. It was It appeared as quite spectacularly made for our life, for our sustenance wicked in the time of , and wholeness. Almighty God has a Why I Attend an in different ways than the ways it regard for you and me, body and soul, Anglican Use Liturgy appears wicked in our time. (Our and He had that in mind in instituting priests and bishops are pederasts, the Sabbath. As our creator He knows not inquisitors. We do not destroy that it was good for our bodies to HERE are three reasons to be a adults’ bodies by burning them, we have physical rest and a respite from TCatholic: because of “the good, destroy children’s souls by scandal the week’s work. He also knew that the true, and the beautiful”; because and their bodies by abortion.) But one day a week it was good for our there is on earth nothing truer, noth- when Joan was confused about souls to especially apply ourselves ing better, and nothing more beauti- the relation between Christ and the to the holy work of our relationship ful than the . Church by the wicked bishops who with God, to have an appointed time And the reason why that is true were trying to get her burnt at the of praise and thanksgiving, and that is simple: because the Church is the stake for heresy and witchcraft, she we come to this holy work both in Body of Christ, and Christ is the su- replied, with saintly simplicity, “All public and in private as a necessary preme goodness, truth, and beauty; I know is that Christ and the Church part of equipping ourselves body “the Way, the Truth, and the Life.” are just one thing, that’s all.” and soul for God’s service. Our late He is the Way to love, to will, to Beauty is as much a part of the Holy Father Pope John Paul II once choose, and to act, the Way that is Church’s life as goodness and truth. wrote about the Sabbath and how divine goodness, divine agape incar- This beauty is not mere ornament, its observance is being eclipsed by nate. He is the very Word of God, the attached to her life as clothing, but it the encroachments of a lifestyle that eternal Logos, Truth incarnate. And inheres in the very life of Christ that “lives for the weekend.” It is easy His is the most beautiful face, and the the Church proclaims in her creeds, to have lots of fun on the weekend. most beautiful life, the abundant life, lives in her saints, and celebrates in Contra Mundum Page 87

The illustration shows a parish church on a Sunday hear Mass, abstain from servile work, and devote morning. The people are hastening to church, to the day to pious works. Wholesome recreation and obey the precept of hearing Mass. It is a mortal sin innocent amusements which do not interfere with to fail to sanctify Sundays and holydays through our religious obligations are allowed; too often, our own fault. To keep these days holy, we must however, “fun” appears to be the main feature. her liturgy and her sacraments. to emotion, and to the emotions of entranced by the liturgy of the “old Even when the liturgy becomes supernatural adoration and worship, Mass” celebrated by the Society banal, boring, and ugly, as it often of supernatural, and not just natural, of St. Pius X, by the liturgy of the does in our age of “do your own “fellowship” and “community,” Eastern Orthodox, and by that of thing” humanism and individualism, when the music sounds more like Anglo-Catholic Episcopalians. But it is still beautiful because Christ is angels and less like a children’s tele- they are all in schism, if not heresy. really present in every valid Mass. vision show, when their sounds were So I am in a dilemma: I must choose But the spirit of the worshipper is inspired by and which in turn inspire either a beautiful, reverent, inspiring, lifted into that beauty far more pow- a love that is agape and not just eros, but schismatic and illegal Mass or erfully when that essential beauty, a love that is stronger than death, not a valid, legal Mass that sounds like which is always present in every weaker than water. something halfway down the road valid Mass, is presented in beautiful Like most Catholics old enough to those Baptist “praise choruses” words, words that stem from and to have experienced the “old Mass” that make me want to shrink into communicate the historic, orthodox as well as the “new Mass,” and the fl oorboards in embarrassment or Catholic faith, words that appeal who appreciates good poetry, good else something composed by ’s to human intelligence and not just theology, and good music, I am three friends to bore me to sleep Page 88 Contra Mundum or to condition me to sheepishly are), but because they communicate “The Value of Conversion Stories” accept the limp-wristed spiritual much more of that theological truth in November, 2005. androgyny that obviously inspired than the boring little “feelgood” dit- their composition. ties of modem psychology disguised SAINT OF THE as theology. And the life of agape The best way I know out of this that is the heart of Catholic moral spiritual dilemma is the Anglican MONTH goodness is intrinsically beautiful: Use liturgy. It is a perfectly valid, nothing is more winsome than a Vatican-approved Roman Catholic saint. That is why the old liturgy and Mass, but its English is “the King’s the old hymns are beautiful: because English.” In fact much of it comes they communicate the life of a saint from the old (1928) Book of Com- much more than the boring little mon Prayer, the second greatest “feelgood” ditties of modem psy- achievement of the history of the chology disguised as morality. English language, after the King James Bible. And its hymns are the There are some modern Western great old English hymns (we do Masses that are reverent and beauti- speak English, after all!), the ones ful. But they are hard to fi nd. There that have power, conviction, theol- are also some dioceses where the ogy, and passion, four ingredients bishop, following the orders from missing from most Catholic music Rome, has allowed and even publi- Benedict of Nursia of the 20th century, especially since cized, the old Latin Mass. But these the sixties. too are hard to fi nd. There are also (Italy) Catholic Eastern-Rite congregations, I do not believe God designed ca. 480 - ca. 550 and their liturgies that are as beautiful the Church to be a test and a temp- (March 21, July 11) as their Orthodox counterparts. But tation to us, a place where truth these too are hard to fi nd. Anglican and goodness had to be chosen at Use congregations are even fewer, AINT Benedict is known the expense of beauty. But it often and harder to fi nd, than these three. Sthroughout Christendom as the feels like that. Two jokes make this But the search is worth it. We hunt founder of Western monasticism. point: (1) “God in His wisdom saw the perfect beauty of His face wher- His Rule Book (part of the syllabus that the Church in the West lacked ever we go; why should we relax the in this writer’s European history persecutors, so He gave her litur- hunt on Sunday? course in college) set a way of life gists.” (2) “How can you tell the for monastics that continues to this difference between a liturgist and a You can have it all. Demand it all. day. A well known Catholic retreat terrorist? You can negotiate with a Get it all. Get the best of both worlds: center, St. Benedict Abbey, in Still terrorist.” attend a legal, valid Mass that is River, Massachusetts continues to inspiring, tasteful, and beautiful. At- It is much harder to love anyone attract Catholics and others “on the tend an Anglican Use liturgy. or anything—a person, an institu- journey.” tion, a work of art, a way of life, a PETER KREEFT The little that we know of his theology, a building, even a food—if Dr. Peter Kreeft is Professor of early life comes from Pope Gregory it is ugly, even if it is true and good. Philosophy in Boston College and a the Great’s Dialogues. Benedict Truth and goodness have a natural, much-published Catholic writer of was born in Nursia, Italy. He was intrinsic beauty of their own. The international renown. He was our educated for some time in Rome, truths of the Catholic faith are intrin- after-supper speaker on All Saints’ and eventually settled in Subiaco (in sically beautiful; that is why the old Day in 1998, and contributed “Raft central Italy) ca. 500. He submit- liturgy and the old hymns are beauti- Books for Tiber Crossings” to our ted to instruction from Romanus, a ful, not just because they are good January, 1999 parish paper. His most monk, and chose to become a hermit poetry and good music (which they recent article in Contra Mundum is Contra Mundum Page 89 for several years. Solitude was not to There are some other unusual to drown him in a river. Alessan- be his for long. things about St. Benedict. He was dro grew up quickly working on a Even before his move to Monte brother to St. Scholastica, next to commercial fishing boat. Italy in Cassino ca. 525, he had attracted whom he was buried in the Oratory 1900 was not much different from followers and had organized them of the St. at Monte the USA in 2000. There always has into deaneries, or monasteries, each Cassino. His feast day has two dates: been plenty of trouble available for headed by a prior. March 21st is known to have been those who lack guidance and love, the anniversary of his death, and July self-restraint, and inner discipline. While at Monte Cassino he fi n- 11th, the anniversary of the day that Nowadays the ingredients for spon- ished crafting his famous Rule (Re- his remains were transferred from taneous combustion include: gula Monachorum), which contained one part of the monastery to another. elements borrowed from earlier ¶ soft pornography in our daily However since March 21st often falls religious writers: Basil, John Cas- newspapers during Lent, the other day is often sian, Augustine, and others. His Rule ¶ sex and violence on television celebrated as well. proved to be an adaptable instrument and the movies in continental Europe. For example, The Order of St. Benedict (ap- ¶ abortion “clinics” that send the it was chosen by Charlemagne and parently the oldest monastic order message that human life is dis- his successors for reforming monas- in the West) includes a 20th-century posable. teries in the 8th and 9th centuries. By “Apostle of Life,” Fr. Paul Marx It is a recipe for disaster. the tenth century a marked Benedic- (O.S.B., PhD), who in 1989 founded But ’s story is not a tine infl uence on liturgy in England the Population Research Institute tale of sexual crime. That is inciden- was evident. (www.pop.org), “a review and analy- tal to her sainthood. More to the point sis of worldwide population control is that she forgave Alessandro on her The Rule centered around pray- activity.” Not long ago the Institute death bed, saying she wanted him to ing the Divine Offi ce from the Bre- distributed to its supporters prayer be with her in Paradise. Eight years viary, including the reading of sacred cards of St. Benedict. into his 30 year prison sentence, Ales- texts, and regular manual labor; ora sandro had a vision of Maria handing et labora became a Benedictine In 1964 Pope Paul VI declared him 14 lilies, one for each of the stab motto. From the Rule: “Listen read- St. Benedict a patron saint of Europe. wounds she had endured. That was ily to holy reading, and devote your- St. Benedict’s very name means the start of his conversion. And when self often to prayer.” Monks were to blessed”: what a gift. his prison term was fi nished, Ales- read, memorize, and meditate upon sandro went right to Maria’s mother, portions of scripture, allowing the Assunta and begged her forgiveness, words to become part of heart and A SAINT FOR OUR which was given. Maria’s story is as mind, through The Word of God. The TIMES much about Alessandro’s repentance Rule for monastics also covered a ARIA GorettiGoretti waswas bornborn inin and Assunta’s forgiveness because probationary year, obedience to one’s 1890 and died a martyr for this pious girl became a powerful abbot or abbess, and some degree of M Christian chastity at the age of 12. intercessor in heaven. But the story asceticism. But she was declared a saint not is also a warning to us that our deca- Familiar advice about anger because of how she died but how dent society and culture continues to comes from his Rule: “If you have a she lived, and in a wonderful way lead people astray from the pursuit of dispute with someone, make peace the awful violence of her death was holiness of life. with that person before the sun goes what put into the spotlight a life so In 1947 when Maria Goretti was down.” He also wrote this about ho- simple and quiet that we would have beatifi ed, her 82 year old mother and liness: “Your way of acting should otherwise missed it. her siblings stood with Pope Pius XII be different from the world’s way; The would-be rapist, Alessandro on the balcony of St. Peter’s, and the love of Christ must come before Serenelli, had a rough up-bringing. three years later at Maria’s canoniza- all else ... speak the truth with heart His deranged mother had once tried tion, Alessandro Serenelli knelt with and tongue.” Page 90 Contra Mundum the 250,000 in the square and cried of the Assumption of the Blessed tears of joy. Mary is Tuesday, August 15th. THE BRITISH Holy Maria, pray for A holy day of obligation. Anglican MARTYRS us. Use Mass is at 7:30pm in the convent chapel. VER the years 200 men and a sermon preached by Father Brad- Owomen have been beatifi ed for ford in St. Theresa of Avila Parish their heroic witness to the Catholic July 6, 2000 Faith in the British Isles during and after the Protestant Reformation. Here we continue brief mention of SHORT NOTES some of these individual martyrs. The condolences of the parish family go to Steve Cavanaugh and his family on the death of his father BLESSED EDWARD THWING Ronald on June 3rd. Mr. Cavanaugh (THWENG) was 71 years old. May he rest in Priest and Martyr (c. 1565-1600) peace. A native of Yorkshire, England, Anglican Use Mass will be of- Edward Thwing journeyed to Reims, fered on St. Thomas Day, Monday, Father Christopher Palladino France, in the summer of 1583 to July 3rd, at 10am. was among the fi ve ordinands to the begin studying for the priesthood Thanks to those who read the Acts Sacred Priesthood in the Cathedral at the city’s English College. Soon 2:1-11 Lesson in foreign languages of the Holy Cross on May 27th. Fr. afterward, he transferred from Reims on the Solemnity of Pentecost: Palladino celebrated his fi rst Mass to the Jesuit community at Pont- Bro. Jerry Dowsky, F.M.S., Molly at St. Theresa of Ávila Church the à-Mousson, evidently intending to Cavanaugh, Majongyar, following day at Noon. Sixteen enter the order. But within two years, Wilfred Veldkamp, Eva Murphy, Dr. priests concelebrated on this happy he was back at the English College. Terry Maltsberger, C. Burt, Dr. occasion. Fr. Palladino will serve as After completing his studies with a Philip Crotty, Stephen Cavanaugh, parochial vicar in St. Paul Parish, stay in Rome, he returned to France and Rosalie Hall. A digital recording Hingham. Congratulations and very for his ordination in Laon on De- of these readings will be available on best wishes. cember 20, 1590. As a student, he had acquired a profi ciency in logic, the parish website http://www.locu- SUMMER ALTAR FLOWERS tor.net/ for a short period of time. rhetoric, Greek, and Hebrew. Father Thwing's early years as a priest were A betrothal ceremony for Frank troubled by an ulcer in one knee. In Doyle and his fi ancee Marcy Thoman 1597, he was fi nally able to embark was held in the convent chapel in late for England to serve in his own coun- May. This brief but lovely service try, but immediately upon his arrival, solemnizes the engagement. The he was captured by the Elizabethan couple plan to marry in the autumn. Please sign up to bring fl owers for authorities. He and a fellow priest, Deacon Connolly assisted one or more of the Sundays during (Blessed) , managed to Fr. Bradford at the ceremony. Con- the growing season. You may bring escape from their prison, and eluded gratulations and blessings to this fi ne an arrangement from your own yard, arrest for the next three years. In May couple. a planter, or a store-bought bouquet. of 1600, they were recaptured. On In August: Solemn Evensong & There are various sized vases in the July 26,1600, Father Thwing was Benediction on the Solemnity of the sacristy if needed. You may take your executed in Lancaster by drawing Transfi guration, Sunday, August 6 at fl owers home with you after Mass. and quartering, together with Father 5:00pm. In the chapel of St Theresa We will all enjoy the extra color in Nutter. of Avila Church. And the Solemnity the Chapel Contra Mundum Page 91

Reprinted from MAGNIFICAT, Issue: July, 2005, or Web site: www.magnifi cat.com. All rights ideas offi cial state policy. It was a Vol. 7, No.5, and Page 159 With permission of reserved. failure in Indiana where it was vol- MAGNIFICAT® USA, LLC, P.O. Box 822, Yonkers, New York 10702. To order call 1-866-273-5215 untary, and a failure in Russia where or Web site: www.magnifi cat.com. All rights it was obligatory. Just listen to the reserved. SPEAKING OF left-leaning crowd in America at the PREACHING present time! They try to drive reli- SAINT OLIVER PLUNKETT gion into privacy, they try to redefi ne Bishop and Martyr (1629-1681) marriage, and they are struggling for earlier and earlier childcare. This Irish bishop grew up in the days of Ireland’s rebellion against VERY REVD. MYRON EFFING, C.J.D. England and the anti-Catholic laws. Father Effi ng is pastor of Most Holy His priestly vocation was encouraged Mother of God Catholic Church by the Benedictine abbot of Saint in Vladivostok, Russia. His parish Mary’s in Dublin and later by Pope paper, Vladivostok Sunrise, is pub- Urban VIII’s delegate, Father Pier- lished in the United States. francesco Scarampi, who arranged “No one goes to Church to hear for him to come to Rome. Oliver someone’s personal opinions. I am The Current issue of Anglican Em- was ordained a priest in 1654 and re- not interested in what this or that bers has three of the talks given at mained twelve further years in Rome individual priest may have spun for the recent Anglican Use Conference as a professor of theology. He was himself regarding questions of Chris- in Scranton, PA. Please contact the consecrated a bishop in Ghent and tian faith. Anyone who preaches him- Anglican Use Society to obtain your arrived in London in March 1670, self in this way overrates himself and copy http://anglicanuse.org/. The whence he passed secretly into Ire- attributes to himself an importance talks are also available on a CD from land. There he found a discouraged he does not have. Only by letting the St. Society. http:// Church and a scattered clergy. In himself become unimportant can the www.stthomasmoresociety.org/ three months, however, he succeeded priest make himself truly important in confi rming ten thousand of the because, in that way, he becomes faithful, holding a provincial synod, the gateway of the Lord into this The Con gre ga tion of and presiding over two priestly ordi- world.” nations. For two years his activities Saint Athanasius, POPE BENEDICT XVI were shielded by the friendship of The Revd. Richard Sterling Brad ford, powerful Protestant bishops and Chap lain administrators and the viceroy, Lord Berkeley, who suspended the Penal A VIEW FROM Sunday Mass 10:30am Laws. The truce ceased with the ABROAD St. Theresa Convent Chap el nomination of a new viceroy, how- While I was in Indiana I visited 10 St. Theresa Ave. ever. Persecution began again, and the city of New Harmony, a very West Roxbury, Mass. Oliver had to go into hiding. He was famous city for Russians because Fellowship and Coffee in arrested in Dublin at the bedside of it is where Robert Owen did his his dying friend, the bishop of Meath. (in)famous social experiments which the Lounge after Mass Falsely accused of taking part in the laid the groundwork for the Com- Rectory: “Oates Plot,” he was condemned to munists. It was he who said that both death and martyred at Tyburn on July revealed religion and marriage where 767 West Roxbury Pkwy. 1, 1681. things of the past, and that children Boston, MA 02132-2121 Reprinted from MAGNIFICAT, Issue: July, 1999, should be raised by the group, not by No.8 and Page 38 With permission of MAG- Tel/Fax: (617) 325-5232 NIFICAT® USA, LLC, P.O. Box 822, Yonkers, parents. Of course the Soviet Com- New York 10702. To order call 1-866-273-5215 munists tried to make all of these http://www.locutor.net Page 92 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 traffi c light at Centre Street in sight of the church. At this light bear left onto Centre St.. and imme di ately 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 Station, but no Sunday service is available.

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