St Catherine's prayer against invalid consecration

No Catholic should have to wonder if the consecration at Mass was valid. since intent is as important as form and matter, no priest should give rise to questions regarding his intent. Should a priest through his preaching put forth that he does not believe in either the priesthood or the hierarchy are of divine origin, then it follows that he also believes communion is a memorial meal in the protestant sense rather than the sacrifice of Calvary in the Catholic sense. For if Christ did not ordain those first apostles at the last supper, but rather this was the work of the primitive church... Then "this is my body..." really isn't any more than a metaphor.

Here are some of St Catherine's thoughts on the subject of invalid consecration (although in a different context) and a prayer.


CHAPTER CXXVI II.

How pride reigns among these ministers, by which they lose their knowledge; and how, having lost their knowledge, they fall into the sin of seeming to consecrate, while they do not really do so.

“I WILL now speak to thee of the third column—that of pride—which I have placed last, for it is both last and first, for all the vices are flavored with pride, as the virtues all receive life from charity. Pride is born and nourished from sensual self-love, of which I said to thee, that it was the foundation of these three columns, and of all the evils which are committed by creatures, for he who loves himself with disordinate love, is deprived of My love. and not loving Me he offends Me, because he does not observe the commandment of the law, which is to love Me above everything, and one's neighbour as one's self. This is the reason why those who love themselves with a sensual love neither serve nor love Me, but the world; for neither sensual love nor the world have conformity with Me. There being no conformity between Me and the world, it must needs be that he who loves and serves the world with sensual love, should hate Me; while he who loves Me truly hates the world. For this reason My Truth said : ‘No one can serve two masters, for if he serve the one, he will not content the other.’ See then how self-love deprives the soul of My love, and clothes it with the vice of pride, whence through the principle of self-love is borne every kind of sin. I grieve over this in all My rational creatures, but particularly in My anointed ones, who ought to be humble, not only because every one should possess the virtue of humility, which nourishes charity, but also because they have become the ministers of the humble and immaculate Lamb, My only-begotten Son. Are they not ashamed, and for that matter should not the whole human race be ashamed, when they see Me, God, humbled to man, giving you the Word, My Son, in your own flesh? They see My Word eagerly humbling Himself to the shameful an extent that they sometimes fall into a sin of which I will speak to thee. Some of them are such incarnate devils 'that they often appear to consecrate, when they do not in reality, through fear of My judgment, and to free themselves from any bridle and fear of sin. Such a man rises in the morning from impurity, having passed the preceding evening in disordinate banqueting, he is obliged to satisfy the people, and considering his own iniquities, sees that he cannot celebrate with a good conscience ; wherefore he fears My judgment, not through hatred of vice, but through self-love. See, dearest daughter, how blind he is; he does not have recourse to contrition, with hatred of sin and a firm purpose of amendment ; he takes the alternative remedy of not consecrating. And the blind man does not see that his error and sin is greater than before, for he makes the congregation commit idolatry, causing them to adore an unconsecrated host, as if it were the body and blood of Christ, My only ‘begotten Son, wholly God and wholly man. No; the Host is indeed this when it is consecrated, but otherwise it is only bread.

“ See, now, how great is this abomination, and how great the patience with which I endure it. But if they do not correct themselves, every grace of their state will turn to their perdition. What should the congregation do in order not to fall into such a snare? They should pray under condition in this wise:

‘If this minister has said that which he ought to say, I truly believe that Thou art Christ the Son of the living God, given to me as food by the fire of Thine inestimable charity; and in memory of Thy most sweet passion, and the great benefit of the blood which Thou didst shed with such fire of love to wash away our iniquities.’

By this means the blindness of the priest will not bring them into darkness, causing them to adore one thing for another, the guilt will attach to the miserable minister alone, the congregation will only commit a material mistake.


**By the way, this is from the 1896 edition of Algar Thorold's translation of The Dialogue. The TAN book reprint is from a highly abridged version, so get the whole thing from Google Books!

Feast of the Nativity of Mary - taking the cloak off the prayer?

In a few days we will observe the Feast of the Nativity of Mary. In searching the internet for a prayer for the occasion, we found a nice one:

Vouchsafe that I may praise thee, O sacred Virgin; 
give me strength against thine enemies, 
and against the enemy of the whole human race. 
Give me strength humbly to pray to thee. 
Give me strength to praise thee in prayer with all my powers, 
through the merits of thy most sacred nativity, 
which for the entire Christian world was a birth of joy, 
the hope and solace of its life. 

When thou wast born, 
O most holy Virgin, 
then was the world made light. 

Happy is thy stock, holy thy root, 
and blessed thy fruit, 
for thou alone as a virgin, 
filled with the Holy Spirit, 
didst merit to conceive thy God, 
as a virgin to bear Thy God, 
as a virgin to bring Him forth, 
and after His birth to remain a virgin. 

Have mercy therefore upon me a sinner, 
and give me aid, O Lady, 
so that just as thy nativity, 
glorious from the seed of Abraham, 
sprung from the tribe of Juda, 
illustrious from the stock of David, 
didst announce joy to the entire world, 
so may it fill me with true joy 
and cleanse me from every sin. 

Pray for me, O Virgin most prudent, 
that the gladsome joys of thy most helpful nativity 
may put a cloak over all my sins. 

O holy Mother of God, 
flowering as the lily, 
pray to thy sweet Son for me, 
a wretched sinner.

Amen. 

This prayer is on a number of sites, Catholic and non-Catholic, either unattributed or attributed to either St Anselm of Canterbury or St Ambrose. Catholic sites range from Fisheaters to Communion and Liberation.

The opening line, "Vouchsafe that I may praise thee, O Sacred Virgin" is the first line from the Ave Regina Caelorum but not the rest of it. A cursory internet search does not find this prayer (or any portion of it) in the works of Anselm or Ambrose.

In point of fact, I don't find this prayer prior to 2010.

So why was I looking? Well, it is because this prayer contains a phrase which caused my proddy-sense to tingle; that phrase is "put a cloak over all my sins." - say what? does that not seem more appropriate for Martin Luther? This prayer also shows up primarily off the mainstream Catholic path.

Given that I failed to find any connection of this prayer with the purported source(s) or even anything of antiquity, I began to wonder if this prayer is akin to the so-called "Prayer of St Francis" - you know, the Make me a channel of your peace one that is so popular and usually attributed to St Frances even though it was first written during World War I. St Francis; not only the stigmata, but time travel! He's so cool.

Anyway, I did think of another search; instead of starting with this prayer and looking back, why not look back and see what was the prayer for the Nativity of Mary.

Bingo!

The Raccolta, replaced in 1968 by the Enchridion Indulgentiarum, contained the prayers that carry indulgences - remember indulgences? The remission of the temporal punishment for sin that has been already forgiven? uh-huh, of course.

Well, it turns out there is (oops) were a number of indulgenced prayers for Marian feasts (including her Nativity). This one is just a little different than what appears above.

Has a cloak over tradition been surreptitiously introduced? If anyone can point to a source in Anselm or Ambrose or otherwise in tradition for the first prayer, I'll put my suspicions to rest.

For now, here's a sweet one, formerly indulgenced, for not only the Marian feasts, but for all days:

Heart of Mary, Mother of God, our Mother, Heart most amiable, on which the Adorable Trinity ever looks with complacency, worthy of all the veneration and tenderness of angels and of men; Heart most like the Heart of Jesus, whose most perfect image thou art; heart full of goodness, ever compassionate towards our miseries, - vouchsafe to thaw our icy hearts, that they may be changed entirely to the likeness of the heart of Jesus. Infuse into them the love of thy virtues, inflame them with that blessed fire with which thou dost ever burn. In thee let the Holy Church find safe shelter; protect it, and be its sweet asylum, its tower of strength, impregnable against every inroad of its enemies. Be thou the road leading to Jesus; be thou the channel whereby we receive all graces needful for our salvation. Be thou our help in need, our comfort in trouble, our strength in temptation, our refuge in persecution, our aid in all dangers; but especially in the last struggle of our life, at the moment of our death, when all hell will be unchained against us to snatch away our souls, -  in that dread moment, that hour so terrible, whereon our eternity depends, and, yes, most tender Virgin, do thou then make us feel how great is the sweetness of thy motherly Heart, and the strength of thy power with the Heart of Jesus, by opening for us a safe refuge in the very fount of mercy itself, whereby we too may one day join with thee in Paradise in praising that same Heart of Jesus for ever and for ever. Amen.

#1) Absolution for Abortion; #2) SSPX valid confession; #3) got overlooked...

Recently the Holy Father announced that during the year of mercy all priests would be granted the faculty of absolving the sin of abortion, and priests of the Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX) would be granted the faculty to hear confession, rendering confession to these priests valid. (Link)

These two items have grabbed the spotlight, and there is some interesting commentary out there on the subject; I found Ed Peter’s (In the Light of the Law) article most informative on the abortion faculty, and I certainly learned from that. The second concession seems sad in that most bishops haven’t already done this, and I applaud the Holy Father for doing the obvious.

But the Holy Father did something else which seems to have fallen through the media cracks, but which is actually rather huge and represents an opening of rather grand proportions. He spoke of the Jubilee indulgence; remember those? The remission of the punishment due for sins already forgiven? Yes, move over Martin Luther’s children, we still have Indulgences.

Well, speaking of how those who are sick, infirm, or otherwise homebound could participate in the spiritual benefits of the Year of Mercy, he said by ...

...attending Holy Mass and community prayer, even through the various means of communication, will be for them the means of obtaining the Jubilee Indulgence.

The Church has answered in the negative to the question of the sacrament of reconciliation over the telephone or other electronic means. This is different, it appears that now it will be possible to use electronic media to obtain an indulgence, in this case, the Jubilee Indulgence.

So in both the cases which have received the media attention, something irregular is regularized for the good of those involved. For this I give thanks. But in the case of using electronic media to obtain an indulgence, something truly new and broadening has been proposed, and that wide opening of the treasury of the Graces of the Church is a mark of generous mercy that puts me on my knees in gratitude.

11th annual Mary Magdalene Retreat in July

The Blessed Margaret of Castello Chapter of the Third Order of St Dominic is pleased to announce that Fr Vincent Kelber OP will be retreat master for the 11th annual Mary Magdalene Retreat at Chapter House in Homedale. The retreat will start Friday evening and conclude on Sunday mid-day. Mass in the Dominican Rite will be offered each day. Further details will be posted as the schedule firms up.


Guests are invited to attend the retreat, or just the Masses. The Mass (tentative) schedule is:

7PM Friday, low Mass (followed by dinner)
5PM Saturday, low Mass (followed by dinner)
11AM Sunday, Missa Cantata (followed by lunch)

for directions, click  Map to Chapter House on the sidebar.


**NOTE: If you are interested in the Traditional Latin Mass, and would like to help, participate, or to stay informed on activities, please visit the Dominican Rite Council page, and sign up. Support Liturgical Diversity!

 



***Breaking! Fr Gabriel Mosher OP will be here for the retreat!! Fr Gabriel was ordained this year and this is a wonderful blessing for us. We will miss Fr Kelber, but warmly welcome Fr Mosher!

Idaho Dominicans form group to promote the Traditional Mass in the Dominican Rite

The Blessed Margaret of Castello Chapter has established the Dominican Rite Council, the mission of which is:

To promote traditional Catholic worship, with an emphasis on the Dominican Rite of the Mass.

Participation is open to anyone interested in promoting the Traditional Mass. Please visit the Dominican Rite Council page and sign up.

Is the Church seen as "unbearably preachy, merciless and pettily puritanical"?

The extract that follows is a rather interesting observation; it is from:

The Liturgy as a Window to another World
Martin Mosebach
(Address Given at Holy Innocents Parish, New York, May 12, 2015)

The rejection of the traditional liturgy has certainly unexpectedly resulted in one particular problem for the contemporary Church. To outsiders, including many Catholics, the Catholic Church today is mainly embodied in the morality it teaches and demands of its faithful, which, manifest in prohibitions and commandments, are contrary to the beliefs of the secular world. In a church centered mainly on the immediate liturgical encounter with God, these moral demands were related not only to life choices, but were specifically conceived as preparation for full participation in the liturgy.

It was the liturgy that specified the goal of morality. The question was: what must I do to attain full communion with the Eucharistic Christ in the liturgy? What makes me only able to observe this Christ from a distance? That which is morally forbidden appeared not simply as the incarnation of evil, but as something to be avoided for the sake of a specific objective. And when the commandment that excludes us from communion was transgressed, the sacrament of confession stood ready to heal the damage and prepare us for communion. Surprisingly, it turned out that the Catholic Church of the past, which focused on the liturgy, seemed scandalously morally lax to outsiders, while to contemporaries and not only the unchurched, the present Church seems unbearably preachy, merciless and pettily puritanical.

The rest of the article can be found here.
The article is long, but well worth reading.

The Colloquium is coming!

Change of venue

After due consideration and a vote by the chapter, we have moved the location of our meetings to St Mark Catholic Church in Boise.  The time and format remain the same.


The Chapter wishes to extend all thanks and gratitude for the welcome and support from Our Lady of the Valley. In particular, Fr  Flores for his tireless support and encouragement, and for the list of wonderful parochial vicars who have also given us such wonderful support; Fr Arnold Miller, Fr Adrian Vasquez, Fr Eladio Vieyra.Fr Carlos Camargo.


To Fr Ben Uhlenkott and Fr Bruno Mgaya at St Mark we offer our thanks for being welcomed, and to our new Bishop Peter Christensen and all the faithful priest of our diocese, we also extend our thanks!