Blog by-the-Sea

Pope Pius X: "A Cyclone of Reform"

Sandro Magister today posted an article titled "Pope Pius X a Backward Pope? No, an Unprecedented Cyclone of Reform."  It is based on a new two-volume study of the papacy of Pope Pius X, written by Carlo Fantappiè and recently reviewed in "L'Osservatore Romano" by historian Gianpaolo Romanato.  The new study shows Pius X's work in canon law in the context of changes brought about by the French Revolution and the Napoleonic wars, as well as the philosophical modernism that was emerging in the early 20th century.  As those changes in the secular world, Pope Pius X took what had been a Church, described by Magister's review, "regulated by an immense and disordered profusion of laws" and brought it into a more global consistency.  Without that new Code of Canon Law, promulgated in 1917 and revised by Pope John XXIII in 1959 (now in effect in its second edition), together with Vatican II, "it would have been impossible to imagine a global role for the papacy like the one embodied by John Paul II, and, today, by Benedict XVI."

Pope Pius X's encyclicals are available in English online at the Vatican website.  Magister particularly mentions an encyclical titled Pascendi Dominici Gregis.  Among its discussions is one regarding the development of agnostic, modernist philosophical perspectives that were largely existentialist in form and originated in the late 19th century, and the impact of those perspectives on the study of Church history and an agnostic psychological view of faith. 

Magister's article was of interest to me partly because I recently skimmed over several of the encyclicals of Pope Pius X looking for comments about his support for missionary efforts in Asia.  Last week, I mentioned his connection to missions to Burma in a post on a saint and a blessed with ties to that country, following the cyclone there.  Also, having posted about international missions this past week, I was looking for quotes from the popes related to such missions for Pentecost (see this post) and thought I might find one in the encyclicals of Pope Pius X.  I did not find what I was looking for.  However, I found the extent of his discussions of philosophical developments surprising, and that in a pope I had previously known for his importance to the Asian Church and his importance to liturgical traditionalists. 

Without claiming to have any more knowledge of Pope Pius X than that, I would like to offer a couple of examples.  Here is one example taken from the encyclical cited by Sandro Magister, showing Pope Pius X's grasp of the theological effect of existentialist thinking if incorporated into Christianity.  His understanding of its implications was clear, as can be seen today in the impact in liberal Anglican thinking and the thinking of Protestant denominations that have begun to rely on experience from an existentialist perspective in deciding issues of faith and morality (Pascendi Dominic Gregis, 15):

"But this doctrine of experience is also under another aspect entirely contrary to Catholic truth. It is extended and applied to tradition, as hitherto understood by the Church, and destroys it. By the Modernists, tradition is understood as a communication to others, through preaching by means of the intellectual formula, of an original experience. To this formula, in addition to its representative value, they attribute a species of suggestive efficacy which acts both in the person who believes, to stimulate the religious sentiment should it happen to have grown sluggish and to renew the experience once acquired, and in those who do not yet believe, to awake for the first time the religious sentiment in them and to produce the experience. In this way is religious experience propagated among the peoples; and not merely among contemporaries by preaching, but among future generations both by books and by oral transmission from one to another. Sometimes this communication of religious experience takes root and thrives, at other times it withers at once and dies. For the Modernists, to live is a proof of truth, since for them life and truth are one and the same thing. Hence again it is given to us to infer that all existing religions are equally true, for otherwise they would not live."

In another encyclical Communium Rerum, about St. Anselm of Aosta/Canterbury, he again addressed the effects of modernism on the Church and the need for a global unity and understanding of authority to address it (39, 40):

"But, venerable brethren, it behooves us to strive by all means to preserve this divine union and render it ever more intimate and cordial, fixing our gaze not on human considerations but on those that are divine, in order that we may be all one thing alone in Christ. By developing this noble effort we shall fulfill ever better our sublime mission which is that of continuing and propagating the work of Christ, and of His Kingdom on earth. This, indeed, is why the Church throughout the ages continues to repeat the loving prayer, which is also the warmest aspiration of Our heart: "Holy Father, keep them in thy name, whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we also are" (Ioan. xvii. 11).

"This effort is necessary not only to oppose the assaults from without of those who fight openly against the liberty and the rights of the Church, but also in order to meet the dangers from within, arising from that second kind of war which We deplored above when We made mention of those misguided persons who are trying by their cunning systems to overthrow from the foundations the very constitution and essence of the Church, to stain the purity of her doctrine, and destroy her entire discipline. For even still there continues to circulate that poison which has been inoculated into many even among the clergy, and especially the young clergy, who have, as We have said, become infected by the pestilential atmosphere, in their unbridled craving for novelty which is drawing them to the abyss and drowning them."

A Saint and a Blessed with Burmese Connections

I thought perhaps I would use the "search" feature at the Patron Saint Index to look for saints or blesseds with a Burmese connection, for myself and anyone else to seek their intercession for cyclone victims and relief workers at this time.  Here are the two I found, also with links to information about them on the Vatican website:

Pope/St. Pius X - 19th/20th century priest, bishop and pope who sent missionaries to Asian countries including Burma.  Vatican page.

Blessed Paolo Manna - 19th and early 20th century Italian missionary to Toungoo in Eastern Burma.  Vatican page.

150 Years of Lourdes in Photos

From La-Croix, 60 photographs from the 150 years since the apparitions at Lourdes.  Click on any of the 60 images to enlarge it.

Saint Days from September 1 to 3

In the U.S., we are celebrating Labor Day Week-End today through Monday.  In addition to that, there are memorials of several saints of interest to Carmelites (one way or another) on these three days.

Today is the new feast day of St. Teresa Margaret Redi in the Carmelite calendar.  There is a website devoted to her, and there is also information about her and this feast day at a few other websites here, here, and here.  Her feast day used to be in March.  An English translation of the proper for her feast day is provided at The Inn at the End of the World.  Born in Tuscany, she died in 1770 at the age of 23.  Her apostolate was one of silent love, suffering and prayer.

September 2 and 3 are the memorials of the 191 Martyrs of September.  Although those saints were from other religious orders -- not Carmelites -- most of them were imprisoned in the historic Carmelite convent in Paris before they were killed during the French Revolution.  They were among 1400 people killed in a bloody September massacre in the name of liberty.  The Patron Saints Index offers the following short explanation:

"A group of 191 martyrs who died in the French Revolution. They were imprisoned in the Carmelite house in the rue de Rennes, Paris by the Legislative Assembly for refusing to take the oath to support the civil constitution of the clergy. This act placed priests under the control of the state, and had been condemned by the Vatican."

On August 11, 1792, the church of that Discalced Carmelite convent (the Chapelle Saint-Joseph-des-Carmes) was converted into a prison for 160 people, including aristocrats and priests who refused to take the oath accepting state control of the clergy.  On September 2, 116 of them were killed there by mob violence.  Their skulls are still displayed in the crypt of that chapel (photo -- scroll down), which is now the church of the Institut Catholique de Paris and its university seminary known as the Séminaire des Carmes. 

Elena Maria Vidal has a tribute to the Martyrs of September at Tea at Trianon. 

Tomorrow in Paris, there will be a Mass in their honor, in the  Latin Extraordinary Form.  The Gregorian chant Schola Sainte Cécile will participate.  That schola was mentioned earlier this week for their contribution to a training conference  at Merton College, Oxford, for the Extraordinary Form of the Mass.

The Paris Carmelite convent and its Chapelle Saint-Joseph-des-Carmes were first built by Carmelite friars from 1611 to 1613 and remained a house of Carmelite friars until 1790.  It then became a place of importance in the French Revolution, primarily as a notorious prison, evacuated in 1794 after the death of Robespierre.  From 1797 to 1841, it became a convent for Carmelite nuns.  Unable to support the historic structure, the Carmelites sold it to the Archbishop of Paris in 1841.  Beginning in 1845,  it became an ecclesiastical school.  At the end of World War I, it became a seminary, as seminarians from the occupied zones increased the number of students.  Known as the Séminaire des Carmes, it is now the university seminary of the Institut Catholique de Paris.  (Source)

The Carmelites best known for their deaths in the aftermath of the French Revolution are the Martyrs of Compiègne, 16 Carmelite nuns from a monastery near Paris who were guillotined in Paris in mid-July, 1794.  The memorial of the beatified Carmelite Martyrs of Compiègne is July 17.  They are mentioned in the Catholic Encyclopedia.

Christian Forgiveness and Howls of Anger

Every one says forgiveness is a lovely idea, until they have something to forgive, as we had during [World War II].  And then, to mention the subject at all is to be greeted with howls of anger.  It is not that people think this too high and difficult a virtue: it is that they think it hateful and contemptible.  'That sort of talk makes them sick,' they say.  And half of you already want to ask me, 'I wonder how you'd feel about forgiving the Gestapo if you were a Pole or a Jew?'

So do I.  I wonder very much.  Just as when Christianity tells me that I must not deny my religion even to save myself from death by torture, I wonder very much what I should do when it came to the point.  I am not trying to tell you in this book what I could do -- I can do precious little -- I am telling you what Christianity is.  I did not invent it.  And there, right in the middle of it, I find 'Forgive us our sins as we forgive those that sin against us.'  There is no slightest suggestion that we are offered forgiveness on any other terms.  It is made perfectly clear that if we do not forgive we shall not be forgiven.  There are no two ways about it.  What are we to do?

It is going to be hard enough, anyway, but I think there are two things we can do to make it easier.  When you start mathematics you do not begin with the calculus; you begin with simple addition.  In the same way, if we really want (but all depends on really wanting) to learn to forgive, perhaps we had better start with something easier than the Gestapo.  One might start with forgiving one's husband or wife, or parents or children, or the nearest N.C.O., for something they have done or said in the last week.  That will probably keep us busy for the moment.

- C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, 1952.

Looking for a Renaissance

From Image, an Editorial Statement: Looking for a Renaissance, hat tip Fred at La Nouvelle Théologie (Fred's response to the editorial is here), here is a taste:

"That a group of medieval theologians ushered modernity into the world is an irony that should not go unnoticed. But for those who love the Middle Ages and the patristic East, these cultures represent an integrated sensibility prior to the onset of anthropocentric modernity and the long withdrawal of God from western culture. That people of faith should drink deeply from these wells is hardly objectionable.

"Here’s the problem. Modernity happened. There can be no going back. What is needed is a new synthesis, a vision that can encompass the subjective individual with divine being."

Dwell upon the thought of our Lord

"Dwell upon the thought of our Lord, Who in His Ascended Humanity looks down upon all men, but most particularly on all Christians, because they are His children; above all, on those who pray, over whose doings He keeps watch. Nor is this any mere imagination, it is very truth, and although we see Him not, He is looking down upon us. It was given to S. Stephen in the hour of martyrdom thus to behold Him, and we may well say with the Bride of the Canticles, 'He looketh forth at the windows, shewing Himself through the lattice.'[Song of Songs 2:9]"

- St. Frances de Sales, Introduction to the Devout Life.

Bound by These Chains: Thoughts on the Links from St. Paul's Chains

On Thursday of this week, His Beatitude Christodoulos, the Archbishop of Athens and All Greece, was presented with two links from the chain that is traditionally thought to have been the chain that bound St. Paul.  This post is made up of a few Scriptures, and a meditation from the late Lutheran Pastor Richard Wurmbrand whose organization The Voice of the Martyrs works with persecuted Christians, mentioning the bond of Christians today with the chains of past martyrs, as if bound with them, and quoting St. Thomas Aquinas.

Remember those who are in prison, as though in prison with them; and those who are ill-treated, since you also are in the body. (Heb. 13:3)

May the Lord grant mercy to the household of Onesiph'orus, for he often refreshed me; he was not ashamed of my chains, but when he arrived in Rome he searched for me eagerly and found me--may the Lord grant him to find mercy from the Lord on that Day--and you well know all the service he rendered at Ephesus. (II Tim. 1:16-18)

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted.  In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. . . . Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed.  Strive for peace with all men, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.  (Heb. 12:1-4, 12-14)

By Richard Wurmbrand:

"We also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses." 
(Hebrews 12:1)

A Christian prisoner in Cuba was asked to sign a statement containing accusations against brethren, which would have led to their arrest.  He said, "The chain keeps me from signing this."

The Red officer replied, "But you are not in chains."

"I am," said the Christian; "I am bound by the chains of witnesses who throughout the centuries gave their lives for Christ.  I am a link in this chain.  I will not break it."

Thomas Aquinas, after having called martyrdom the greatest proof of perfect love, adds: "Words pronounced by the martyrs before authorities are not human words, the simple expression of a human conviction, but words pronounced by the Holy Spirit through the confessors of Jesus."

Learn from the martyrs.  You too are a link in this chain.  Remain faithful!

Nijole Sadunaite, a young Christian lady, said before the court in  Lituania when she was sentenced for her faith: "This is the happiest day of my life.  I am tried for the cause of truth and love toward men. . . I have enviable fate, a glorious destiny.  My condemnation will be my triumph.  I regret only to have done so little for men. . . . Let us love each other and we will be happy.  Only the one who loves not is unhappy. . . .  We must condemn evil, but we must love the man, even the one in error.  This you can learn only at the school of Jesus Christ."

This is the teaching which the Holy Spirit gives you through a sufferer for Christ.  Apply it in your own life.

- Richard Wurmbrand, Reaching Toward the Heights, Living Sacrifice Books, Bartlesville, Oklahoma, 6th ed. 1992, daily devotion for April 25 (ellipses in Wurmbrand's original).

The Oral History Project

Dr. Robert Moynihan spoke last night at Our Lady of the Rosary Parish in San Diego, together with Francesca Tomassetti.  I was able to sit through the first part of it but had to leave around 8:00 p.m. to catch my train home.  Dr. Moynihan is the founding editor of Inside the Vatican Magazine.  Francesca Tomassetti is Director of the Oral History Project.

Dr. Moynihan had offered to make his presentation without compensation, except for a collection that was taken up at the end of an hour.  After the hour, we took a half hour break for the Rosary that was prayed at 7:30 in the church, downstairs from the meeting, because a number of people wanted to participate in that.  I suppose he stayed for at least another hour after 8:00 p.m.  The topics mentioned in the announcement for the evening included the vision of Pope Benedict, relations between the Russian Orthodox and the Roman Catholic Church, and the launch of the Oral History Project.  The hour I was able to attend was devoted to discussing the Oral History Project, so unfortunately I missed the other topics except to the extent that they were briefly mentioned at the beginning of the presentation.

The Oral History Project presentation was fascinating, despite technical difficulties with the video.  You can watch a trailer for the video, giving the gist of the project, here.

On October 16, 1943, German soldiers were told to find and arrest Rome's 10,000 Jews for deportation.  They could only find 1,000 of them.  The others are thought to have been hidden in Catholic religious houses, schools, and private homes.  The Oral History Project is trying to locate those people who are still living who were among the Roman Jews who survived that era, and to videotape their stories for archives. 

The stories of those people's lives are expected to help to present a fair and accurate history of the role of the Catholic Church in Europe during the war.  According to Dr. Moynihan and Francesca Tomassetti, there were Jewish men hidden by nuns and Jewish women hidden by monks, as there was no restriction requiring the men's religious houses to hide only men, and no restriction requiring the women's religious houses to hide only women.  This could not have happened without papal approval.  The efforts quietly undertaken by Pope Pius XII during the war can be seen in such efforts, quietly undertaken.

The U.S.C. Shoa Foundation Institute already has an archive of 49,000 visual records at the University of Southern California.  Clips of the testimony of survivors of the Shoah can be watched online at their website.  Other archives are kept at Rice University, Yale University and the University of Michigan.  Steven Spielberg established the Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation in 1994 to videotape and preserve the stories of Holocaust survivors and witnesses to document the holocaust for future generations to learn from it.  The importance of keeping an accurate history of these events is shown from the fact that some people have tried to deny that it really happened.

The Oral History Project launched by Dr. Moynihan and Francesca Tomassetti is intended to provide additional records of those Jews who were assisted by Catholics, and particularly those in Rome.  The time frame in question would be from 1943 to 1944, and people alive today who would have been there to witness these events would now be about 70 years old and older.  It is  important to collect as many of their memories on videotape now while that is still possible.

To offer financial assistance, to offer assistance in taking the videos, and to contact the Oral History Project if you or someone you know is one of the people whose testimony they are seeking, the e-mail addresses to reach them are:

frantomass@libero.it and vatican@bellatlantic.net.

Like a good father

"Always make your way before God and before yourself.  God takes pleasure to see you take your little steps; and like a good father who holds his child by the hand.  He will accommodate you.  Why do you worry? . . .

"Walk joyously, my daughter, with a tremendous confidence in the mercy of your Spouse, and believe that He will lead you well; but let Him do it."

- St. Francis de Sales, letter to Jane de Chantal, from Thy Will Be Done: Letters to Persons in the World.

August 18 is the U.S. memorial of St. Jeanne ("Jane") de Chantal (transferred from December 12).  St. Jane de Chantal was left a widow with four children at the age of 28.  St. Francis de Sales became her spiritual director.  She founded the Congregation of the Visitation.

Clips Ahoy clipart

"I say to Thee whatever they say."

August 4 is the memorial of St. Jean-Baptiste Vianney, the Cure d'Ars, the patron saint of parish priests.  Among his writings is this story about St. Ignatius of Loyola, with a lesson on prayer:

"Saint Ignatius was once travelling with several of his companions; they each carried on their shoulders a little bag, containing what was most necessary for them on the journey. A good Christian, seeing that they were fatigued, was interiorly excited to relieve them; he asked them as a favour to let him help them to carry their burdens. They yielded to his entreaties. When they had arrived at the inn, this man who had followed them, seeing that the Fathers knelt down at a little distance from each other to pray, knelt down also. When the Fathers rose again, they were astonished to see that this man had remained prostrate all the time they were praying: they expressed to him their surprise, and asked him what he had been doing. His answer edified them very much, for he said: "I did nothing but say, Those who pray so devoutly are saints: I am their beast of burden: O Lord! I have the intention of doing what they do: I say to Thee whatever they say. " These were afterwards his ordinary words, and he arrived by means of this at a sublime degree of prayer. Thus, my children, you see that there is no one who cannot pray--and pray at all times, and in all places; by night or by day; amid the most severe labours, or in repose; in the country, at home, in travelling. The good God is everywhere ready to hear your prayers, provided you address them to Him with faith and humility." 

An article in Homiletics & Pastoral Review last year, titled St. John Vianney's Pastoral Plan, by John Cihak, speaks of the saint's ministry as a blueprint for a present day pastoral plan.

Give me Thy love and Thy grace

"Take, O Lord,
and receive all my liberty,
my memory,
my understanding,
and my entire will,
all that I have and possess.
Thou hast given all to me,
to Thee O Lord,
I return it. 
All is Thine,
dispose of it
according to Thy will. 
Give me Thy love
and Thy grace,
for that is enough
for me."

- St. Ignatius of Loyola, Spiritual Exercises

Picture: Crucifix from Church of the Nativity, Rancho Santa Fe, California (bronze Spanish corpus on a cross designed by Renzo Zecchetto).

Prayer in a Time of Heresy

Moved up from June 13:

Often, when countering heretical views around us, our first reaction is a defense of the faith.  Certainly, that is worthwhile, but often we should spend more time praying.  Argument is not enough to stop the spread of bad ideas, as much as it is helpful in showing them to be logically what they are: bad ideas.  Those who are insistent upon carrying them out will do them anyway.  It has happened in the past, when the person in the room or in the office or on the committee who knew that others were making the wrong decision has said so and has had nothing to show for it but the right to say "I told you so."  It has happened in wars too, when the feeble ability to have said "I knew it was the wrong thing to do" is a helpless cry while others are left to ask, "Then why couldn't you convince us at the time?"

In times of concern over truth, the way of victory is often the way of St. Teresa of Avila, of turning inward within that interior fortress where victory is more certain, and even by starvation we cannot be forced to surrender: "to die, yes; but not to surrender."  (The Way of Perfection, Chapter 3)

This week, the Episcopal Church USA has its General Convention 2006, and decisions they will make will impact the future of the Anglican Communion and the future of Catholic-Anglican dialogue.  The dialogue, it seems sure, is no longer to be one of two similar forms of Christianity moving toward reunion, but rather two walking side by side in discussion of ideas but without the expectation of ever becoming one again.  That is so not only because of events in the United States but also because of events in England, as Cardinal Kasper mentioned last week in connection with the Church of England's expected vote to have women bishops.

What those Catholic-minded among them may do may be of greatest concern for Catholics now.  We can all pray for them in their search and in their reflections over what should be their future path.  It is not our only concern.  The move of secular society and bodies such as the Episcopal Church in a direction opposed to truth and opposed to orthodoxy, opposed to those things always understood to be holy, is another.  Ultimately, we pray for God's will to be done on earth as in heaven.

According to the Madre, we should pray for two main things in the Church's response to heretical views affecting the course of our world:

    1.   For holiness (perfection) for priests, nuns and monks, so that they will be best prepared to fight for truth; and

    2.    For the Lord to protect those who are fighting for truth from the temptations of the world, "and stop their ears in order not to hear the siren's song on this dangerous sea."

And near the end of Chapter 3 of The Way of Perfection, she offered this portion of prayer:

"But behold, my Lord, that You are a God of mercy; have mercy on this little sinner, this little worm that is so bold with You.  Behold, my God, my desires and the tears with which I beg this of You; forget my deeds because of who You are; have pity on so many souls that are being lost, and help Your Church.  Don't allow any more harm to come to Christianity, Lord.  Give light now to these darknesses."

Her words in that Chapter were directed to rumors then in Spain about the Huguenots in France, probably without much accurate detailed knowledge.  The understanding she had of the Reformation (churches being destroyed, the sacrament taken away, and some priests lost) are not overstatements of what is wrong with some of the true heresies of our own time. 

Surely, we pray for many detailed things in this environment.  Among them, surely, should be those things in St. Teresa's 2-item list.

The Evening of the Visitation

Go, roads, to the four quarters of our quiet distance,
While you, full moon, wise queen,
Begin your evening journey to the hills of heaven,
And travel no less stately in the summer sky
Than Mary, going to the house of Zachary.

The woods are silent with the sleep of doves,
The valleys with the sleep of streams,
And all our barns are happy with peace of cattle gone to rest.
Still wakeful, in the fields, the shocks of wheat
Preach and say prayers:
You sheaves, make all your evensongs as sweet as ours,
Whose summer world, all ready for the granary and barn,
Seems to have seen, this day,
Into the secret of the Lord's Nativity.

Now at the fall of night, you shocks,
Still bend your heads like kind and humble kings
The way you did this golden morning when you saw God's
Mother passing,
While all our windows fill and sweeten
With the mild vespers of the hay and barley.

You moon and rising stars, pour on our barns and houses
Your gentle benedictions.
Remind us how our Mother, with far subtler and more holy
influence,
Blesses our rooves and eaves,
Our shutters, lattices and sills,
Our doors, and floors, and stairs, and rooms, and bedrooms,
Smiling by night upon her sleeping children:
O gentle Mary! Our lovely Mother in heaven!

"The Evening of the Visitation," by Thomas Merton, from The Marian Library/University of Dayton - page on the Marian poetry of Thomas Merton.

Picture: "The Visitation," by Mariotto Albertinelli (1474-1515), from Chemin d'amour vers le père.

Historical Foundations of a Frederick Faber Hymn

Faith of our fathers, living still
In spite of dungeon, fire, and sword,
O how our hearts beat high with joy
When-e'er we hear that glorious word!

Our fathers, chained in prisons dark
Were still in heart and conscience free;
And truly blest would be our fate
If we, like them, should die for thee.

Faith of our fathers! Mary's prayers
Shall win our country back to thee;
And through the truth that comes from God
England shall then indeed be free.

Faith of our fathers, we will love
Both friend and foe in all our strife,
And preach thee too as love knows how,
By kindly words and virtuous life.

- Frederick W. Faber, “Faith of Our Fathers” from Jesus and Mary; or Catholic Hymns for Singing and Reading, 1849

About Father Frederick Faber and "Faith of Our Fathers":

Frederick W. Faber was born in England, June 28, 1814.  His father is thought to have been a strictly Calvinist English clergyman.  Faber became an Anglican priest, during a time when many Anglican clergy were involved in the Catholic-leaning Oxford Movement.  Faber converted to Roman Catholicism three years after his ordination.  In so doing, he joined a number of other Oxford Movement Anglicans who either became Catholic (such as Cardinal John Henry Newman) or who pursued a more Anglo-Catholic form of Anglican worship.

The intensity of Father Faber's faith was recognized both within and outside of the Catholic Church. The Evangelical author A.W. Tozer wrote of Faber, "His love for the Person of Christ was so intense that it threatened to consume him.  It burned within him as a sweet and holy madness and flowed from his lips like molten gold." (A.W. Tozer, The Pursuit of God)

As a Catholic priest, Faber became known as "Father Wilfrid."  However, he regretted that the Catholics had no collection of hymns comparable to those he had found to be influential in Anglican churches.  He made it his life's mission to write hymns to promote Roman Catholicism.  He wrote 150 such hymns, including “Faith of our Fathers.”

Faber did not actually write "Faith of our Fathers" about the Church Fathers of the Early Church, about the "fathers" of Psalm 22:3-5, the "fathers" of Exodus 3, or the cloud of witnesses of Hebrews 12:1-2.  Rather, he wrote it about the Catholics who were killed during the reign of Henry VIII during the early days of the creation of the Church of England.  The verse about Mary's prayer has to do with his hope that England would eventually return to reunite with the Roman Catholic Church.

The refrain to the hymn, as it is now commonly sung, was added by James G. Walton for Watson’s arrangement of it, published in 1874 in Plain Song Music for the Holy Communion Office.  The third verse has been altered in several different texts, and the second verse often omitted.  The Protestant adaptation of the hymn offers the following verse in place of the third verse:

Faith of our fathers, God's great power
Shall win all nations unto thee,
And through the truth that comes from God
Mankind shall then indeed be free.

Not only are Protestants more familiar with an adaptation of the second verse, but there are one or two Irish adaptations sung in Catholic churches and other variations on the lyrics.

Reflections:

This is a hymn to keep in mind now as we may feel the Church under various new kinds of attacks ("Faith of our fathers, living still . . .").  Sometimes the hymn, with the Protestant second verse, is sung in U.S. churches with thoughts of our American "founding fathers", and it might turn up here and there this coming week-end as we celebrate Memorial Day.  Knowing something of the hymn's real history could be a conversation starter!

The poem, as given here, is as close as I could get to the original by drawing from sources online.  However, I have not had access to an actual 1849 edition of Father Faber's book Jesus and Mary, and thus cannot be sure that I have the hymn exactly as it was originally written.  If someone else has access to an actual 1849 edition of "Jesus and Mary", I would appreciate your sending me corrections.

Here are a few websites with information about the hymn:

Truth in History Ministries

Cyberhymnal midi file

Cybrerhymnal Bio

Variations

Adoremus Bulletin: What Happened to My Hymn?

The Blessed Anna Katharina Emmerick

February 9 is the feast day of the Blessed Anna Katharina Emmerick, who was beatified on October 3, 2004.  A few photographs from that beatification are near the bottom of the right column of this blog.  Her visions were among the inspirations for Mel Gibson's film The Passion of the Christ.

Information about Bl. Anna Katharina's life, beatification, and writings, can be found online, including the following sites:

Vatican biographical page here.

Patron Saints Index page here.

ZENIT article about her beatification here.

Her book The Dolorous Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ is available for a free download at The Catholic Primer - Library here.  It is also available from amazon.com here.

Her book The Life of the Blessed Virgin Mary available from amazon.com here.

St. Frances de Sales: The Truth Inspired by Love

January 24 is the feast day of St. Francis de Sales.  The Catholic Encyclopedia article about his life is here.  Ignatius Press published an English translation of a biography written by Andre Ravier, S.J, which may be out of print but can be found used here.  The Classics of Western Spirituality Series of Paulist Press has a collection of letters of St. Francis de Sales and Jane de Chantal entitled Letters of Spiritual Direction.  More resources can be found from De Sales Resources and Ministries here.

This is from Francis de Sales: Sage and Saint, page 108 (also available in the original French from Amazon Canada here):

"He was also not unaware that -- either through curiosity or politics -- some Protestants had slipped into his audience.  Such a one was this Dame de Predreauville, so well informed about her Calvinism that the most learned elite had failed to convert her.  However, after having heard Francis in the pulpit and in private conversation, she abjured to the stupefaction of 'the whole city of Paris'.  And her family soon followed her example.  Francis, however, had said nothing in his sermons against Calvinism.  This experience confirmed him in his conviction that the solution of religious conflict resulted less from learned discussions than by the explanation of the truth, totally inspired by love.  He said: 'Since I have always said that whoever preaches with love preaches enough against the heretics, even though he does not say a single word against them . . .'  And du Perron acknowledged it in an echo: 'If it is a question of convincing the Calvinists, I could go to the limit with them; if it is a question of converting them, lead them to Monsieur de Genève [i.e., St. Francis de Sales]."

The Ever Necessary Renewal of the Church

In the post immediately below this one is an excerpt from the Holy Father's Christmas Speech to the Roman Curia. In that excerpt, after he discussed his thoughts about events of the past year, he moved toward thoughts of the future and the renewal of the Church in the modern age.  In so doing, he spoke of how the Early Church, in response to Scripture, had to interact with and relate to Greek culture.  As we move into the coming year, we should be thinking of how we might better interact with and relate the true Gospel message to our own culture in the modern age.  This is different from changing the Gospel message to better suit our culture, as is made clear from another portion of the Pope's same Christmas speech.

He then spoke of the challenges of the thirteenth century, and of how St. Thomas Aquinas was able to find a new synthesis between faith and Aristotelian philosophy.  St. Thomas is another example of how the Church adapts to culture, to reason, and to scientific knowledge, while proclaiming the truth. Again, as we move into the coming year, we should be thinking of how we might better live and think as Catholics in the context of present day science and reason.

He spoke of how the dialogue between faith and reason, in our present age, has found its expression in Vatican II, and how it "must now be developed with the open-mindedness and clear understanding that the world rightly expects from us at this point in time".  Elsewhere in the same speech, he spoke of how Vatican II has been misinterpreted and, as a result, has been seen as divisive within the Church.  He spoke of the need for properly understanding Vatican II.

I chose that excerpt because I thought it best expressed Pope Benedict XVI's thoughts as we approach the new year, and because it also touches on themes mentioned regularly in this blog.  Here are links to some of the earlier postings here on those themes, which hopefully you will find to be consistent with the Holy Father's message and productive toward the Church's thinking as we move toward the beginning of a new year:

On the Early Church, Transitions and the  Modern Age:

Reflections on St. Clement of Alexandria and St. John of Damascus

About St. Clement of Alexandria

St. Teresa of Avila and St. Jerome

On the Thirteenth Century and the Aristotle Revival:

St. Albert the Great and the Arab and Jewish Aristotle Revival

Gerbert of Aurillac, St. Albert the Great and Aristotle
 
About St. Albert the Great

Pope Benedict XVI on Vatican II:

On Gaudium et Spes: Alpha and Omega

On Gaudium et Spes: Our Hope Rooted in the Fullness of Time

Christmas Speech to the Roman Curia

Asia News - Italy has posted a translation of the entire transcript of Pope Benedict XVI's Christmas speech to the Roman Curia given today.  In that speech, he looked over the events of 2005, including the suffering and death of Pope John Paul II, the World Youth Day in Cologne, the Synod of the Eucharist, and the 40th anniversary of the Vatican II Council. 

Speaking on Vatican II and the Church in the modern age, the Holy Father gave the Roman Curia this interesting analysis of the Early Church, St. Thomas Aquinas, and the Church in the modern age in considering faith and reason:

"Undoubtedly, the Council faced situations that existed before. In his first Epistle, St Peter urged Christians to be ready to answer (apo-logia) anyone who asked them the logos, the reason for their faith (cf 3: 15).

This meant that biblical faith had to interact with and relate to Greek culture, learning how to recognise, by interpreting distinctions as well as through contact and affinity with the latter, the one God-given reason.

When Medieval Christianity, largely schooled in the Platonic tradition, came into contact with Aristotle’s ideas via Jewish and Arab philosophers in the 13th century, faith and reason almost became irreconcilable.  But St Thomas Aquinas was especially able to find a new synthesis between faith and Aristotelian philosophy. Faith could relate in a positive manner with the dominant notions of reason of the time.

The exacting disputes between modern reason and Christian faith, which started off on the wrong foot with Galileo’s trial, went through several phases. But by the time the Second Vatican Council was convened new thinking was possible.

The new approach found in the conciliar papers sets out guidelines but also the essential direction so that the dialogue between faith and reason, very important nowadays, has found its orientation in Vatican II. This dialogue must now be developed with the open-mindedness and clear understanding that the world rightly expects from us at this point in time.

We can look back with gratitude to the Second Vatican Council. If we read and accept it guided by a correct interpretation, it can become a great force in the ever necessary renewal of the Church."

Christ, Alpha and Omega

Asia News - Italy has posted Pope Benedict XVI's Angelus message  for today.  Here are a couple of excerpts, continuing a series of messages about the documents from Vatican II:

“Christ, alpha and omega” is the title of the paragraph that ends the first part of the Second Vatican Council pastoral constitution Gaudium et Spes  promulgated 40 years ago.

In that beautiful page, which quotes some of the words of God’s servant, Pope Paul VI, we read: “[The] Lord is the goal of human history, the focal point of the longings of history and of civilisation, the centre of the human race, the joy of every heart and the answer to all its yearnings.” . . .

Yesterday as today, and forever, this is the mission of the Church: To announce and bear witness to Christ, because man, every man, may fully realise his vocation."

My Thoughts:

Church history stands between Christ's promise that the gates of hell would not prevail against his Church, and the fulfillment of that promise being unfolded in time.  In addition to the Scripture mentioned in the Holy Father's Angelus message, and the excerpt he mentioned from Gaudium et Spes, here are two more Scriptures that come to mind:

"And I tell you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the powers of death shall not prevail against it.

- Matt. 16:18

"And lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age."

- Matt. 28:20b

19th Century French Churches in Le Mans and at the Musée d'Orsay

Photographs from La Chapelle Saint Joseph, Le Mans, France; 10-22-05.

How I Happened upon the 19th Century Chapelle Saint Joseph, Le Mans

One of the fun things about my trip to France week before last was that some of my plans were based on places other people recommended. An organist with a love for Gregorian chant suggested Solesmes. When I asked my priest if he wanted me to bring anything back from France for him, he asked me to bring him an experience, and suggested the impressionist paintings at the Musée d’Orsay in Paris. 

When Bud suggested Solesmes, I was already planning to spend a day in Chartres, which entailed a train ride an hour or so from Versailles.  An hour or so further beyond Chartres is Le Mans, where I had about 2-1/2 hours before another local train would take me the last 23 minutes of my journey to a small town in rural France, still 3 km. From Solesmes.

My two hour layover in Le Mans was an unplanned adventure.  I thought I saw the cathedral from the train nearing the station, and thought it might be within walking distance.  With no map, I simply started walking up the hill from the station.  A few blocks up, there was a map along the sidewalk showing that I was walking toward old Le Mans, and that there was a church straight ahead called Chapelle Saint Joseph, next to a government building.  I found the church and spent an hour there before heading back down the hill to catch my train.  It gave me time to pray and time to take a few pictures.  On my way out the door, a French woman said “Bonjour!” just being friendly to another person at church on a Saturday morning. 

The pictures I have of Chapelle Saint Joseph look as if they were taken in a centuries old church.  Not so.  It is a 19th century building that might have been torn down if not for the intervention of people who recognized its beauty and wanted to raise the money to preserve it.  The fund raising is still ongoing.  The difficulty arises from the shortage of priests in the diocese, whose bishop has explained (I have read) that the number of priests had dropped by 1/4 in only 7 years, and that many of those who remained were over 70 years old.  The diocese has more churches than it can staff, but the city does not want to lose its church.

The church was built in 1864 in Romanesque style.  The stained glass windows were designed in the early 20th century by Maurice Rocher, the same artist who designed stained glass windows for Solesmes.  

19th Century French Churches and Russian Artists at the Musée d’Orsay

Earlier in the week, I had spent much of a day at the Musée d’Orsay in Paris, the museum my priest had recommended.  Besides the floor of impressionist paintings, there were two special exhibits that caught my attention. 

One of the exhibits was about the architecture of 19th century French churches, influenced by both Eastern and Western church architecture.  The exhibit runs through January 8, 2006, and is called “Eglises: Orient ou Occident?”  After the French Revolution, the French Church suffered persecution for a time, and many churches were lost.  Then, between 1801 and the separation of Church and State in 1905, thousands of churches were built in France.  Nineteenth century French architects had a wide variety of ideas about church design, borrowing ideas from Byzantine churches as well as ideas from other western Church architects.  The small exhibit showed a variety of such designs.

The other special exhibit I saw, also available until January 8, 2006, was an exhibit of art from late 19th century Russia.  Some of the Russian art on display reflected the Orthodox faith of nineteenth century Russia.  It was the first exhibit of Russian art shown in Paris and was quite large, occupying three different areas of the museum.  The museum’s website announces “A Russian Season at the Musée d’Orsay!” 

Along with that, so many of my favorite impressionist paintings were there.  The horses and ballet dancers from Edgar Degas that I loved so much as an undergraduate are there in abundance, including all the ones that I remembered particularly admiring from pictures in books.  The paintings by Gaugin that I learned about later were there.  It was quite a fine way to spend a day in Paris, followed by dinner and a night at the opera that I wrote about in an earlier post. 

Usually in Europe, I look for the oldest buildings.  This trip, I enjoyed a lot from the nineteenth century that is also well worth seeing.

Musée d'Orsay  

(Post updated 3/25/06 with additional photos taken in October 2005.  Please disregard the erroneous dates showing on some of the photos from my old camera.)

He Holds in His Hands the Tiny Ship that Is Your Soul

Here one of the letters by St. Paul of the Cross that lends part of the symbolism to "Blog by-the-Sea".  I will post a few of these entries and some things I wrote myself from the old Blog by the Sea site so that they won't be lost when, eventually, the old site is deleted.

"A letter to Mother Colomba Gertrude Gandolfi (43)

San Angelo
June 24, 1760

Reverend Mother,

I received your letter yesterday afternoon and, believe me, I have not abandoned your soul as you say, but since you have not given me any account of your soul, what can I do?  I am not wanting, nor will I be wanting, to share my poor prayers with you.  I read that you are in heavy fights and storms, but you do not explain these.  I do not know what to say, except that this is not a bad sign, but very good, since I suppose that your will is always strong toward God, even though at times, because of the great violence of the storms, it will appear that you are suffering shipwreck.  Have no doubts, Sister, have no doubts.  God is in the midst of your heart and loves you, and, if he permits these storms, he does so for your greater good so that you may come to true humility of heart and annihilation of self.

The sure path that you need to follow in such battles, even though I do not know what they are, is to remain submissive to the Will of God and allow oneself to be scourged by that loving hand that permits such tribulations.  I have at times observed that the faithful dog, when it is beaten by its master, lies on the ground, bows its head and ears, and allows itself to be beaten, showing meekness.  You must act in this way.  Keep your higher soul strong in fidelity to God and suffer the blows with meekness and don't allow your soul to be embittered.  Do not ever say: "For me it is over; God has abandoned me."  No, daughter, never say that, but with humility, and obedience to the great master allow yourself to be beaten, for it is a truth of faith that whom God loves the more he scourges.

No matter how horrible these storms may be, do not ever abandon the support of hope in God, for you will never flounder, and although at times the storm is so great and the sea so enraged, and it seems your ship is being sunk, it is not so. All this is on the outside, that is, in the lower part of your soul, but within no salty sea water has come in.  The pilot who is guiding the ship is Jesus Christ, and he holds in his omnipotent arms, even in the middle of his divine Heart, the tiny ship that is your poor soul.

So be of good cheer and continue your practices with fidelity and be recollected in your interior as much as you can.  In the confessional hold back a bit, except for what is necessary, and that briefly, for that will help you much, and you will confess to me since present circumstances demand this. 

I have written more than I believed I would, since you gave me no information.  I hope what I have written will help you.  Pray much for me, and I am in Jesus Christ,

Your unworthy servant in the Lord,

Paul of the Cross

I add that with lively hope in God, after the fierce storm that you are undergoing, there will come a very great peace and serenity.  Alleluia."

The Letters of St. Paul of the Cross