The Inn at the End of the World

Beannachtai na Feile Padraig a dhuibh

2012-03-17T08:19:00.002-07:00

Well, here it is St Patrick's Day and I haven't a decent post for the day that's in it. And no time to put one up. I'm off as soon as I finish this to play for a wedding in Fallbrook. This should be about an hour and a half away. But as it's supposed to be lashing down with rain, I suspect closer to two and half hour since no one in this half of the state knows how to drive in the rain.

If I can remember how to do it and I get a minute I'll see if I can thumb type a post from the phone.

In the meantime, here's Catholic.org's post for St Patrick.

And a collect:

Deus qui ad prædicandam gentibus gloriam tuam beatum Patritium Confessorem atque Pontificem mittere dignatus es: ejus meritis et intercessione concede; ut, quæ nobis agenda præcipis, te miserante adimplere possimus. Per Dominum. Amen.

O God Who wast pleased to send the blessed Patrick, Thy confessor and bishop, to preach Thy glory to the heathen, grant, through his merits and intercesion, that by Thy mercy we may be enabled to accomplish the tasks Thou settest us: through or Lord. Amen.

Another one:

O Almighty God, who in thy providence didst choose thy servant Patrick to be the apostle of the Irish people, that he might bring those who were wandering in darkness and error to the true light and knowledge of thee; Grant us so to walk in that light, that we may come at last to the light of everlasting life; through the merits of Jesus Christ thy Son our Lord. Amen

This site says you can watch a video of the New York parade in honour of St Patrick.

Scenes of Rome

2012-03-14T19:33:00.002-07:00

The Holy Father's celebration of Vespers with the Archbishop of Canterbury made the news last week. (Here, f'rinstance.)

And my friend Eloise sent me a link to a webpage with some gorgeous pictures of the Camaldolese monastery where the celebration occurred. You can find it here. It appears you could also tour a good part of Rome following the links on that page.

Encyclopædia Britannica: R.I.P.

2012-03-14T15:46:00.006-07:00

Perhaps you saw it in this morning's paper: The Encyclopædia Britannica has published its last edition. I saw it in the WSJ (the online version is here) but it must have been in all the dailies. It seems they can't sell them in the two-dozen-hefty-volumes format any more, so it'll be cds, online and tablet "apps" from now on.

The Britannica was the foundation of many a student paper in my school days. There were others; I remember Compton's and Colliers and wasn't there an Americana? Do any of them exist any more? (It occurs to me I could, ahem, look them up online. So I did. Collier's is no more but Compton's and the Encyclopædia Americana are hanging on. So says {{sigh}} Wikipedia.)

But never mind the others. The Britannica was the gold standard. I'm not sure why I thought that. I certainly had no scholarly discernment in high school. Maybe it was because the binding was classier and the articles were longer. Or perhaps it was just more fun to browse in. Did you ever get lost in the encyclopædia? You went to look up one thing and ran across an article on something you'd never heard of or something you'd always wanted to know more about and here were ten pages on the very topic. It was even easier to get lost in the encyclopædia than the dictionary. Only the internet seems to be better at leading the curious mind off on an unintended vagary, which Hilary was writing about just the other day but which I can't cite you to because she's gone on hiatus. Again. I wish she wouldn't do that. Some writers become addictive and she's one of them. I'm having mild withdrawal symptoms.

Where was I?

Oh, yes, the Encyclopædia Britannica. Alan Massie has a lament for the Britannica and a short history here that's worth a read.

Some Piping for the Weekend

2012-03-10T18:50:00.004-08:00

We haven't had a pipe band up for the weekend piping in a while now. This is the Bushmill Irish Pipers of San Francisco playing their medley last year at the Pleasanton Highland Games. They won their grade with this one. Keep listening for the march off and a nice rendition of The Dawning of the Day.

St John Ogilvie, S.J.

2012-03-10T18:39:00.001-08:00

Today is the feast of St John Ogilvie,S.J., the first canonized Scot since 1250. He was martyred for the faith in Glasgow in 1615. His grave is on the north side of the cathedral in a felon's plot, the exactly location of which is unknown.

Fr John Hardon gives a fine life of and spiritual meditation on his fellow Jesuit here.

There's a more nuts-and-bolts life here.

The miracle that led to St John's canonization.

Oooooh! Solar Flares!

2012-03-08T14:01:00.002-08:00

You saw the headlines in the papers this morning about the solar flare that was supposed to occur this morning.

It did.

And NASA has a nifty video showing it here. It's worth clicking the full-screen button for this one.

Always assuming the said solar flare left you with internet access.

How To Make the Republican Primary Race Interesting

2012-03-07T18:47:00.002-08:00

Report it like this.

Not encouraging, of course, or joyful. Nothing that would fill one with optimism. Just interesting. Good writing will do that for a lot of things.

"His Blood Cries Out"

2012-03-06T09:54:00.003-08:00

"I know the meaning of Cross." -- Shabaz Bhatti

The General Assembly of the Catholic Bishops Conference of Pakistan, held from 20 to 25 March last year in Multan, Punjab, unanimously approved the proposal of Bishop Andrew Francis to submit to the Holy See a formal request to declare the Catholic Minister Shahbaz Bhatti a “martyr”. Cardinal Keith O'Brien has publicly given his support to the cause.

Details at The hermeneutic of continuity.

The Knox Bible Back in Print

2012-02-27T16:44:00.004-08:00

According to the Baronius Press website, their edition of Msgr Knox's translation of the Bible goes to press today. So by May or June my favourite translation of the scriptures will be available for the first time in thirty or forty years. My old hardback edition - "Student Edition" it said on the now long-gone dust jacket - is in now tatters with the cover held on by a few threads only.

You can find the Knox Bible page on the Baronius Press website here.

Found While Looking for Something Else

2012-02-27T12:59:00.003-08:00

Eugene Lambe busking with the uilleann pipes in Galway . . .and that's all I know about it. (Except I should know the name of the first tune but it won't come to mind.)

Note his beautiful use of the regulators.

Quinquagesima Sunday. . .

2012-02-19T21:55:00.000-08:00

. . .means two days until Shrove Tuesday and three days until Ash Wednesday and Lent begins.

More on Quinquagesima Sunday itself can be found here.

Some Piping for the Weekend

2012-02-17T15:06:00.000-08:00

The Seven Pipers Band out of Arizona play "Mozart on the Rampage" and "Pumpkin's Fancy" for their Highland dancers.

Catholic Prophecy. . .maybe?

2012-02-16T13:56:00.000-08:00

Well, it's certainly looking more like it every day.

From Pope Benedict XVI:

“The church will become small and will have to start afresh more or less from the beginning. She will no longer be able to inhabit many of the edifices she built in prosperity. As the number of her adherents diminishes . . . she will lose many of her social privileges. . . As a small society, [the Church] will make much bigger demands on the initiative of her individual members.”

More at The Anchoress' site here.

Not Found In This Morning's Wall Street Journal

2012-02-16T12:11:00.000-08:00

Pope Benedict XVI:

“The world of finance, while necessary, no longer represents an instrument that favours our wellbeing or the life of mankind, instead it has become an oppressive power, that almost demands our adoration, mammon, the false divinity that truly dominates the world”.

And:

“Faced with conformity and submission to this power, we [Christians-ed] are non-conformists: it is not having, but being that counts! We do not submit to this, we use it as a means, but with the freedom of the children of God”.

From Vatican Radio's website

St Valentine's Day

2012-02-14T16:24:00.000-08:00

You've heard it before on St Valentine's Day. And I am once again amazed (appalled? depressed? all of the above?) to realize that the ecclesiastical calendar mavens of the western rites thought it a good idea to drop one of the only two saints universally recognized by most of the known world, regardless of religion, and replace him with . . . Ss Cyril and Methodius.

Great saints, to be sure. Universally honored in the eastern churches and pillars of Christianity. But ask the man in the street in most of English-speaking world about Ss Cyril and Methodius Day and be prepared for a blank look. And what was wrong with their old feast day on July 7 anyway?

Fortunately, St Valentine is still in the traditional Roman calendar of 1962 which may still be used by those who will.

Here's a bit about him and his day from the old Anglican Breviary:

On this day is commemorated blessed Valentine, a priest of Rome who was martyred for Christ, probably in the persecution of Claudius the Goth, about the year 269. He was buried on the Flaminian Way; and about 350 a church was built over his tomb, and later a catacomb was constructed thereunder, wherein were buried the remains of many Martyrs. This church, with its cemetery, was the first to greet the eyes of pilgrims coming to Rome to visit the sepulchres of the ancient heroes of the Faith, and therefore his cultus grew, and spread through the world. But in the early years of the ninth century, his body was transferred to the basilica of St Praxedes lest, being outside the walls of the City, it should be desecrated by the Saracens. The popular story is that holy Valentine was cajoled with promises in order to wean him from Christ; and than when these failed, he was beaten with clubs, and finally beheaded.

In England, from the time of Chaucer onwards, there was a belief that on his feast-day the birds began to choose their mates. From which arose the custom of arranging betrothals in Saint Valentine's Tide; and in honour of the fidelity of this servant of God, those who were betrothed called each other Valentine, as a pledge of their mutual fidelity, in token that those who wed are united together in Christ, of whose unbreakable union with humanity in his Church the Sacrament of marriage is ever an outward and visible sign.

One Step at a Time. . . .

2012-02-13T13:11:00.000-08:00

On January 1st of this year the Ordinariate of the Chair of St Peter (in North America) officially came into being and Fr Jeffrey Steenson, was named as the Ordinary. Yesterday, the Rev Msgr Jeffrey Steenson was officially installed as the Ordinary at a ceremony in Houston.

Whispers in the Loggia has the story here.

Msgr Steenson's installation homily, text and video.

The event in pictures here and here.

(The links were pilfered, with thanks, from Fr Bartus's very agreeable Anglican Patrimony.)

Some Piping for the Weekend

2012-02-12T19:04:00.000-08:00

Gary West - Vermont Bellows Pipe School Instructor from nate banton on Vimeo.

It's the very end of the weekend but not too late for some first class smallpiping from Gary West who finishes up with a rendition of The Mason's Apron that's right up there with the 78th Frasers' version on the Live in Ireland recording.

Ron Paul; No Longer a Non-Person?

2012-02-08T16:34:00.000-08:00

Christopher Manion on Ron Paul in the 2 February 2012 number of The Wanderer:

In 2007, Joe Sobran observed that, “ until now, the GOP has been able to contain [ Cong. Ron] Paul by pretending he wasn’t there. But the silent treatment can no longer stifle this soft- spoken man. He has been proved right too often.” It’s seldom that the liberal media work hand in glove with the GOP establishment, but for the past five years, they’ve teamed up to keep the good doctor under wraps. But now all that has changed.

Suddenly the GOP is all smiles about Ron Paul. Pundits who scorned him or ignored him are now singing his praises. It’s a matter of necessity, compelled by fear: National Review, which has strayed far from its traditional conservative roots since Bill Buckley’s day, now offers online polls that begin, “ Apart from Ron Paul, who won the debate?” — because Paul kept winning the polls. Once a firm believer in ramming Paul down the Memory Hole, NR now reaches for its crystal ball as it struggles to explain its silence. . . . .

Why the sudden change? Unadulterated fear. Without Dr. Paul’s supporters this fall, the GOP is a dead duck. But the Tea Party is getting short shrift too, sidelined in the cat- fight that seems to be consuming the “ front runners.” Right now, alas, November is Obama’s to lose.

There's more in the paper and it's online also but, wouldn't you know, behind a subscription wall and can't be linked to directly. But you can subscribe at the link above.

Quiet

2012-02-08T12:36:00.000-08:00

The book review in this morning's WSJ resulted in another volume in the growing want list: Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking.

Yes, we live in a world where brassy men and women who can work a room and run a meeting and look good on television seem to dominate. But, writes Ms. Cain, there is still room for introverts. In fact, she argues, there should be more room, because introverts are great. They think more, they are less reckless and they focus on what really matters—relationships and meaningful work—rather than on the glittering but empty prizes of financial reward and job title. Introverts are Rosa Parks and Gandhi. Extroverts are economy-busting Wall Street CEOs. . . . .

The Papal States

2012-02-08T09:24:00.001-08:00

Vatican Radio this morning has a lecture on the end of the Papal States. It's in two parts and takes about half an hour.

Part I

Part II

There are some fascinating stories here.

1st Amendment? What 1st Amendment?

2012-02-07T11:54:00.000-08:00

The Obama administration's anti-Catholicism has been much more out in the open of late. You've read about the contraceptive and abortifacient mandate recently no doubt. There has been a lot of interesting commentary. Here's some of it:

First from Peggy Noonan in the Wall Street Journal: “His decision on Catholic charities makes Romney’s big gaffe look trivial. What a faux pas, how inept, how removed from the essential realities of America.” The rest is here.

Michael Gerson in the Washington Post

This one is from the Catholic Bishops' own USCCB, bluntly entitled “White House Misrepresents Its Own Contraceptive Mandate”.

Many individual bishops have had something to say. Here's Bishop Carlson of St Louis

The bishops of Alabama

The Catholic News Agency thinks about the political ramifications.

And note this one from the Telegraph in England citing an anodyne rationale for the decision. I don't think so, and not least because the BO administration doesn't impress me as all that technocratic.

Bl William Richardson

2012-02-07T10:56:00.000-08:00

On 7 February some English dioceses keep the feast of Blessed William Richardson who was the last priest martyred under Elizabeth I. The good old Catholic Encyclopædia has a brief summary of his life here.

According to one account he was arrested at Clement's Inn on 12 Feb., but another says he had been kept a close prisoner in Newgate for a week before he was condemned at the Old Bailey on the 15 Feb., under stat. 27 Eliz., c. 2, for being a priest and coming into the realm. He was betrayed by one of his trusted friends to the Lord Chief Justice, who expedited his trial and execution with unseemly haste, and seems to have acted more as a public prosecutor than as a judge. At his execution he showed great courage and constancy, dying most cheerfully, to the edification of all beholders. One of his last utterances was a prayer for the queen.

Frozen Roma

2012-02-05T15:02:00.000-08:00

We're having a little rain here in the Athens of the southeast corner of the county this morning. So no practicing in the park today.

But Hilary reports that, although hell has not yet frozen over, Rome has. See here , here, and here. Oh, and here, too.

A portent, no doubt.

But probably not of global warming.

February 4 -- St Gilbert of Sempringham

2012-02-04T20:30:00.000-08:00

Today is the feast of St Gilbert of Sempringham in some of the English calendars. He is the founder of the only English religious order to come out of the middle ages. He never really intended to found an order. He originally gathered a group of women to be enclosed nuns and looked for some priests to look after them. When St Bernard refused to take them under the care of the Cistercians, he founded an order of canons regular to do so.

The good old Catholic Encyclopædia has a short life of St Gilbert here.

And as long as we're mentioning English saints, today is also the feast of St John Stone who was martyred on this day in 1539. He denied that Henry VIII could be head of the church or married to Anne Boleyn while his first wife still lived.

"Behold I close my apostolate in my blood, In my death I shall find life, for I die for a holy cause, the defence of the Church of God, infallible and immaculate" he said as the executioners prepared to do their work. Stone was hanged, drawn and quartered. . . .

His life can be found here.

The absolute, final, last day of anything at all like Christmas

2012-02-04T20:08:00.000-08:00

That's today, the last day of Epiphanytide. The "daft days", so called in ancient Scotland due to all the merry-making, ended with Hogmanay. The 12 days of Christmas ended on 6 January, the proper feast of the Epiphany. The Pauline Rite ends Christmas and Epiphany on 13 January, the feast of the Baptism of the Lord. And the last real liturgical day counted from Christmas is Candlemas which is 2 February. Everything else in the traditional Roman Rite is counted as weeks after Epiphany until Septuagesima.

And tomorrow is Septuagesima Sunday, which makes today the very last day of Epiphanytide.

Septuagesima begins the pre-Lenten period. We won't hear the Alleluia in the traditional rite again until the Easter vigil. A farewell to the Alleluia hymn used to be sung at Vespers on this Saturday but nothing so florid remains even in the traditional rite. Here's one of those hymns taken from Dom Gueranger's The Liturgical Year with the translation of Dom Laurence Shephard, O.S.B.

And from 13th century France:

Alleluia dulce carmen,
Vox perennis gaudii,
Alleluia laus suavis
Est choris coelestibus,
Quam canunt Dei manentes
In domo per saecula.

Alleluia laeta mater
Concivis Jerusalem :
Alleluia vox tuorum
Civium gaudentium :
Exsules nos flere cogunt
Babylonis flumina.

Alleluia non meremur
In perenne psallere ;
Alleluia vo reatus
Cogit intermittere ;
Tempus instat quo peracta
Lugeamus crimina.

Unde laudando precamur
Te beata Trinitas,
Ut tuum nobis videre
Pascha des in aethere,
Quo tibi laeti canamus
Alleluia perpetim.
Amen

The sweet Alleluia-song, the
word of endless joy, is the melody
of heaven's choir, chanted by them
that dwell for ever in the house
of God.

O joyful mother, O Jerusalem our
city, Alleluia is the language of thy
happy citizens. The rivers of
Babylon, where we poor exiles live,
force us to weep.

We are unworthy to sing a ceaseless
Alleluia. Our sins bid us interrupt our
Alleluia. They time is at hand when
it behoves us to bewail our crimes.

We, therefore, beseech thee whilst
we praise thee, O blessed Trinity!
that thou grant us to come to that
Easter of heaven, where we shall
sing to thee our joyful everlasting
Alleluia. Amen.

Some Piping for the Weekend

2012-02-03T12:18:00.000-08:00

Koady, Ellen and Ward at MPF Fall 2010 from nate banton on Vimeo.

Dr Ellen McPhee on Scottish smallpipes plays some knockout reels with a couple of friends.

Some Piping for the Weekend

2012-01-28T10:14:00.000-08:00

Not the best recording - it seems to have been filmed by a cell phone in the distance and in a crowd. But I really like the tune. Hence, the above.

Feeding the Habit

2012-01-28T10:05:00.000-08:00

As a self-confessed smartphone addict (cf. crackberry.com), this sort of thing is intensely interesting. And aggravating. She's right about AT&T, and VZ, too, if it comes to that: rivals in greed, and both of them sitting on a mountain of cash.

She's right about Sprint, too.

At the moment.

I suppose it's only a matter of time, though.

Security Theatre

2012-01-24T12:45:00.000-08:00

Now playing at an airport near you.

St Maimbod

2012-01-23T17:55:00.000-08:00

Today is the feast of St Maimbod in some of the old Irish calendars. He was a 9th century Irish missionary monk in northern Italy and parts of Germany and France. Anna gives some of his life in her weblog here.

Mrs D'Arcy tells something of what happened after his murder in her The Saints of Ireland:

He was buried at the church in which he had so lately prayed. When miracles began to occur at his tomb, Count Aszo of Montbeliard requested Bishop Berengarius of Besançon for the removal of the remains to Montbeliard. Berengarius granted the request, but because he had lost his eyesight, he delegated to his coadjutor, Bishop Stephen, the ceremony of the Translation. During the solemnities, the blind Berengarius was miraculously cured. His own cure and many other wonders prompted Berengarius to institute a festival in honor of Maimbod on January 23, the day of his death.

Maimbod's relics were destroyed in the 16th century, but observance of his feast day continued. His name is inscribed in the diptych of the Besançon church.

Collapse of the West Dept

2012-01-23T15:50:00.000-08:00

Mark Steyn's column this week.

Depressingly accurate. And if you needed further proof, the mewling and puking commenters should put the tin lid on it.

Today is. . . .

2012-01-20T19:08:00.000-08:00

. . . .National Media Ignores the March for Life Day! [Proclamation stolen shamelessly from @AmericanPapist's twitter feed.]

(If you're on Twitter, you might want to follow @March_for_Life - or maybe post a little something - and make it a little bit harder for Twitter to ignore the March for Life in D.C. Is it intentional?)

Some Piping for the Weekend

2012-01-07T17:21:00.000-08:00

Peter Stewart plays some Christmas music for the Scottish smallpipes.

Here's what he says about this set:

Three seasonal tunes; A wren-hunt song from Pembrokeshire, Wales; I Wish You' A Merry New Year' from one of Aird's collections of Airs published in the 1780's, and 'Dont Stop the Cavalry' the only Christmas song I can bear being played in shops.

Twelfth Night -- The Epiphany of the Lord

2012-01-06T08:21:00.000-08:00

In the traditional calendar today is the 12th day of Christmas, the Epiphany of the Lord. When I was a boy we also called it Little Christmas or Women's Christmas. I used to think those terms were exclusive to our family but apparently they are old Irish terms for the feast that survived in my family's North American sojourn.

The long quotation that follows is the Blessed Cardinal Schuster's history of the feast taken from his Liber Sacramentorum - The Sacramentary:

Epiphany means “appearance” or “manifestation,” and among the Eastern Christians had originally the same significance as Christmas in Rome. It was the festival of the eternal Word, clothed in the flesh, revealing himself to mankind. Three different phases of this historical manifestation were especially venerated – viz., the adoration of the Magi at Bethlehem, the changing of the water into wine at Cana, and the baptism of Jesus in the Jordan.

In the East special emphasis was laid on the scene at the Jordan, when the Holy Ghost overshadowed the Saviour in the form of a dove, and the eternal Father proclaimed him from heaven as his beloved Son. From the time of St John, the Gnostic heresy attributed great importance to this episode on account of its christology, maintaining that only then was the divine nature united to the human nature of Jesus, to leave it again at the moment of his Crucifixion. That baptism was, therefore, according to the Gnostics, the true divine birth of Jesus; consequently it was celebrated by them with the greatest splendour. It was against this doctrine that St John wrote in his first Epistle: Hic venit (Jesus Christ) per aquam et sanguinem, non in aqua solum, sed in aqua et sanguine; – that is to say, Jesus came into the world as the Saviour and as the Son of God, and this not merely in the waters of the Jordan, but from the very moment of his Incarnation, when he took upon himself our human body and blood.

In all probability the Catholics, following the example of the Evangelist, wished from the first to set against the Gnostic baptismal manifestation the temporal birth at Bethlehem; hence the feast had a very complex signification, inasmuch as it was desired to retain also the Gospel dates of the baptism and of the marriage at Cana, relegating them, however, to a secondary place as being similar solemn and authentic manifestations of the divine nature of Jesus. At Rome, in an atmosphere extremely practical and altogether foreign to the mystic etherealism of the Eastern world, the historical recurrence of the Nativity of our Lord came to occupy so prominent a place in the popular mind that it is still the predominating idea throughout the whole of the Christmas Liturgy.

There was, it is true, some uncertainty regarding its date, which led to a partition of the festival. On the banks of the Tiber the feast of January 6 was anticipated by two weeks, to the greater honour of the Nativity; but the ancient Theophania retained its place, although deprived of its full significance, since the crib of Bethlehem, by its power of attraction, gave greater prominence to the Adoration of the Magi, at the expense of the original idea of the baptism in the Jordan.

It is probable that in the third century Rome was still faithfully following the primitive Eastern tradition and administering solemn baptism on the day of the Theophania . Hippolytus, in fact, delivered an address to the neophytes (Είς τά αγία Θεοφάνεια) just as in the very ancient Coptic Calendar in which today's feast is called dies baptismi sanctificati. In the time of St Gregory Nazianzen the Greeks named it the Feast of the Holy Lights – In Sancta Lumina-- because baptism constitutes the supernatural illumination of the soul.

The third commemoration assigned to today's feast is of the first miracle performed by our Lord at the marriage at Cana. It is reckoned among the manifestation of Christ because the Gospel miracles supply the visible proof of the divine nature of Jesus. St Paulinus of Nola and St Maximus of Turin draw attention to the three-fold aspect of the feast of the Epiphany in terms exactly similar to those which the Roman Church employs in the grand antiphon of the Office at dawn. Hodia coelesti Sponso juncta est ecclesia-- mystical nuptials typified by those of Cana-- quoniam in Jordano lavit Christus ejus crimina-- baptism for the remission of sins--currunt cum muneribus magi ad regales nuptias-- the Adoration of the divine Infant-- et ex aqua facto vino laetantur convivae-- the miracle of Cana.

That which surprises us is that these primitive features of the Eastern Epiphany feast are found to have penetrated more or less in Rome into the festival of December 25 itself, so much so that Pope Liberius (325-366), in a sermon delivered at St Peter's on Christmas Day, on the occasion when Marcellina, sister of St Ambrose, received from his hands the virginal veil, said to her, among other things: “Thou, O daughter, hast desired an excellent marriage. Thou seest what a multitude of people is here assembled for the birthday of thy Spouse, and no one of them all goes away unsatisfied. He indeed it is who, being invited to the wedding feast, changed the water into wine, and who with five loaves and two fishes fed four thousand men in the desert.”

The station at St Peter's is inspired by the same thought as that of Christmas Day. In Rome the greater festivals – always excepting the very lengthy ceremonies of the Easter baptism – are celebrated at the Pastor Ecclesiae whose basilica is the sheepfold of the Roman flock. The Ordines Romani prescribed down to the thirteenth century that after Mass the Pope should put on his tiara and return on horse-back to the Lateran. Later on, however, the Pontiffs preferred to remain at the Vatican for the second Vespers also, at which they were present in a scarlet cope and wearing a golden mitre. The custom of the Pope himself celebrating the stational Mass on this day is witnessed to, down to the end of the fourteenth century, in the Ordo of Bishop Pietro Amelio of Sinigaglia, in which the sole exception to the rule is in the case of the Pontiff being prevented from officiating either by some malady or by the rigour of winter weather.

There is more on the Mass liturgy of the day but it largely repeats what you can find in your Missal. This is his final paragraph on the day:

The interior life of a Christian is the reproduction of the life of Jesus; thus the object of the Church in placing before us the annual cycle of feasts is not merely to commemorate the great historical epochs in the history of our redemption, but also to reproduce in our souls their spiritual teaching. Hence in the Night Office of this feast of the Epiphany we do not so much adore the Christ who showed himself twenty centuries ago to the Magi, but rather the Christ who has revealed himself to us, too, who are now living. In a word, it is not alone the historical Epiphany which we desire to celebrate, but we associate ourselves also with that other subjective and personal Epiphany which is manifested in the soul of every believer to whom Jesus appears by means of our holy Faith.

Housekeeping

2012-01-04T12:19:00.000-08:00

I've been messing about with the Left-Hand Column the past few days. Since poor old VillagePhotos shuffled off its mortal coil and took so many of my picture with it, the LHC has needed some re-decorating. And as of 1 January 2012 the Anglican Use section needed to be, ahem, converted to the Anglican Ordinariate section with a few added attractions. The inevitable dead links else where in the column had to be carted off and given a decent burial also. No doubt there are more still there.

Finally, a little poster for Ron Paul has been tacked up. There were only a couple of complaints about the one I put up for the 2008 election. We'll see who objects this time. Oh, as we mentioned 4 years ago, The Inn is not a libertarian stronghold. To say the least. There's a pretty good chance we will agree with some of your objections to Dr Paul's policies. But considering what else is on offer, we're sticking with Dr Paul.

The First Official Statement by the Ordinary

2012-01-02T17:42:00.001-08:00

Fr Jeffrey Steenson:

January 2, 2012

On behalf of so many pilgrims of Catholic unity who have looked forward to this day, I wish to thank His Holiness, Pope Benedict XVI, for this priceless gift, the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter under the patronage of Our Lady of Walsingham. I pray that we who will come into full communion through this Ordinariate will bring the Holy Father much joy through our love and faithful service to the Catholic Church. To His Eminence Donald Cardinal Wuerl and His Excellencies Kevin Vann of Fort Worth and Robert McManus of Worcester: thank you for laying this good foundation for the Ordinariate. To His Eminence Daniel Cardinal DiNardo-thank you for your generous hospitality in providing for our principal church and a place in the University of St. Thomas and St. Mary’s Seminary for the formation of our future clergy. And, personally, to His Excellency, Archbishop Michael Sheehan of Santa Fe, who brought me into the Church and ordained me: my wife and I love you dearly. You all represent so many people who have worked so hard to bring the Holy Father’s vision to reality!

More. . . .

Brussels Sprouts? Really?

2012-01-02T13:09:00.000-08:00

Fr Longenecker tells us what constitutes an English Christmas here.

Some of these items are indispensable for anybody's Christmas (mince pie! Christmas pudding!). Some things are truly wonderful but we never have them here -- like church bells. I last heard a city full of church bells on Christmas day in Dublin twenty or so years ago. It was magic. I hope they still do that.

And some things I will never understand, i.e., the necessity for brussels sprouts. Mary has always insisted on them for the Christmas dinner. I always thought it was a peculiarity of hers. Apparently not.

Brussels sprouts.

Huh.

Who knew?

The "North" American Ordinariate

2012-01-01T16:02:00.000-08:00

Rocco Palmo reports that Canada will be part of the Ordinariate of the Chair of St Peter.

Happy New Year

2012-01-01T15:55:00.000-08:00

A beautiful new year's prayer and meditation from the Transalpine Redemptorists.

The Ordinariate of the Chair of St Peter

2012-01-01T13:09:00.000-08:00

The American Ordinariate is now a reality. No, not just because we have our own website - which you can find here - although, in 2012 that's a pretty good guess. But as of this morning, we have our own Ordinary: Fr Jeffrey Steenson.

There's lots more on the web but I'm short on time at the moment.

More here later.

ADDENDUM: Here's a comprehensive article on the North American Ordinariate as it stands on the first of January.

A Prophecy on Prophets

2011-12-30T15:24:00.000-08:00

From time to time, as we all know, a sect appears in our midst announcing that the world will very soon come to an end. Generally, by some slight confusion or miscalculation, it is the sect that comes to an end.

-GK Chesterton, via the G. K. Chesterton twitter feed at @G_K_Chesterton

It's Supposed to be a Novena. . . .

2011-12-30T14:43:00.000-08:00

. . . .but, as usual, I'm a bit late posting it here at The Inn. So we're reduced to praying a triduum.

But if you click here you'll find a prayer in honour of St Thomas Becket, a.k.a., St Thomas of Canterbury, that God will provide for the new Catholic Anglican Ordinariate in America.

Mayans in Georgia

2011-12-30T14:37:00.001-08:00

I knew about the Vikings who may or may not have toured Wisconsin a thousand years or so ago. But Mayans in Georgia: that's brand new.

Mrs Vidal has the jist of the story here with links. Apparently, this one involves reputable archæologists.

I wonder: did the Georgian Mayans bring their calendar with them?

For Ziggy

2011-12-28T10:27:00.000-08:00

Enjoy the day. . . .

The Barbarian

2011-12-27T18:29:00.000-08:00

We sit by and watch the Barbarian, we tolerate him; in the long stretches of peace we are not afraid. We are tickled by his irreverence, his comic inversion of our old certitudes and our fixed creeds refreshes us; we laugh. But as we laugh we are watched by large and awful faces from beyond: and on these faces there is no smile.

-Short Talks with the Dead, Hilaire Belloc (1926)

Catholic men who live upon wine -- can get it blessed today.

2011-12-27T09:45:00.000-08:00

Today is wine blessing day.

The particulars.

In the Bleak Midwinter. . . .

2011-12-25T21:04:00.000-08:00

Angels and archangels may have gathered there,
Cherubim and seraphim thronged the air;
But only His mother, in her maiden bliss,
Worshipped the beloved with a kiss.

Says the YouTube :
"The choir of Kings College Chapel, Cambridge sing the lovely Christmas carol, In The Bleak Midwinter. The wonderful words of Christina Georgina Rossetti are sung to a beautiful setting by Gustav Holst.".

H/t to The Pittsford Perennialist.

The Christmas Truce

2011-12-24T14:52:00.000-08:00

From the film Joyeux Noel the World War I Christmas truce of 1914.

Some Piping for the Weekend

2011-12-24T14:30:00.000-08:00

The Duncan MacCall Pipe Band

Christmas Eve

2011-12-23T12:42:00.000-08:00

Well, we don't really have a church of our own to decorate as these folks are doing. Some day. Soon we hope; I'm not getting any younger. But we have made our Christmas confession and are ready to travel. So this year it will probably be the traditional Mass at St Mary by the Sea in the OC or maybe St Therese in Alhambra, with much better music but rather too late in the afternoon. (If you're looking for a traditional Mass somewhere in the southern California area, here is most of what's available. For some reason it doesn't mention the Orange Diocese's early Mass at the Polish Center. You can find that information here.)

Here at the ancestral manse things are pretty much as decorated as they're going to get. We are still (still!) waiting for the final work on the floors to be done. So not much has been put up, as we don't know when we'll have to take it all down again. Otherwise, the turkey is in the fridge, along with the traditional fixin's, a few bottles of beer, a couple of wine, and one of sherry, which wasn't quite what I was looking for but it's all they had and I was in a hurry. After some searching, there is also a mince pie for dessert.

A very Merry Christmas tide to all who have visited The Inn this year.

Hot Off The Press. . . .

2011-12-22T15:10:00.000-08:00

Well, not hot, precisely. It is a monthly after all and it has been out for a couple of weeks now. But. . .

Our little clutch of Catholic Anglicans has made the Orange County Catholic, the monthly newspaper of the diocese of Orange, California. A nice half page article appears on page 14 of the December issue. If your copy has been delayed in the Christmas rush, you can find the article on-line here in pdf format.

A couple of minor inaccuracies, but we're pretty pleased.

An Advent Hymn and a little about St Marianus Scotus, the Chronicler

2011-12-22T10:24:00.000-08:00

The hymn is a translation of Veni Redemptor Gentium, which Pope Paul's Liturgia Horarum, prescribes as the proper hymn for the Officium Lectionum of the last nine days of Advent.

Not only is it Thursday in the 4th week of Advent, but it's the feast day of the 11th century Irish saint, Marianus Scotus, the Chronicler. Marianus took that name in Germany. His name in Irish was Maelbrigte, meaning the One devoted to St Brigid. The good old Catholic Encyclopædia gives his intellectual history here. His title "The Chronicler" comes from his principal remaining work, which is a history of the world, year-by-year, from creation down to the present. The present, in this instance, being anno domini 1082. Mrs D'Arcy's The Saints of Ireland spends more time on his religious history, which like so many of the Irish saints of the time involved wandering far from home and extraordinary penances. St Marianus's journey included entering the monastery at Fulda in Germany and being ordained at Würzburg near the tomb of that other great Irish missionary to Germany, St Killian.

"Marianus's habitation at Fulda", says Mrs D'Arcy, "was a little cell, twelve by twelve, his schedule a life of prayer, penance, study and writing, walled off from the world but with access to his books. Every day for ten years he offered the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass over the tomb of his countryman, Anmchadh from Iniscaltra."

When his abbot, Sigfried, was made Archbishop of Mainz, he took Marianus with him and it was in Mainz that his Chronicle was written. St Marianus died in 1082.

Advent - the Fourth Week

2011-12-19T18:30:00.000-08:00

This version of “O Come O Come Emmanuel” was set by Fr. James J. Moore, O.P. of the Western Dominican Province and sung by the Schola Cantorum of the Dominican House of Studies.

Discovered this afternoon here, at the bog of The Dominican Province of St Joseph.

A Hymn

2011-12-17T23:10:00.000-08:00

O God of earth and altar,
Bow down and hear our cry,
Our earthly rulers falter,
Our people drift and die;
The walls of gold entomb us,
The swords of scorn divide,
Take not thy thunder from us,
But take away our pride.

From all that terror teaches,
From lies of tongue and pen,
From all the easy speeches
That comfort cruel men,
For sale and profanation
Of honour and the sword,
From sleep and from damnation,
Deliver us, good Lord.

Tie in a living tether
The prince and priest and thrall,
Bind all our lives together,
Smite us and save us all;
In ire and exultation
Aflame with faith, and free,
Lift up a living nation,
A single sword to thee.

-GK Chesterton (1907)

Some Piping for the Weekend

2011-12-17T11:15:00.000-08:00

We're off to our last SCD class for the year in a little while. This will be the Christmas party and I'll bring along the smallpipes, the playing of which will only resemble Allan MacDonald's aspirationally. We will both be in tune; after that. . . . .

Yes, the clip does cut off before the tune ends. Very annoying, but well worth the listen up to that point.

The Magnificat during Solemn Vespers

2011-12-15T11:27:00.000-08:00

I was rooting around YouTube looking for something Advent-ish, maybe even from Gaudete Sunday, which was last Sunday and which I missed mentioning altogether. I ran into this instead. It's been posted here and there on several sites that I visit regularly so you've probably seen it before,too. But it's lovely and worth a re-post.

Here's what the original poster had to say about it:

Fr. Lang and Dr. Laurence Hemming assist in the Incensation of the Altar at the Magnificat in the Solemn Vespers of the Exultation of the Cross. Merton College Chapel, Oxford University. CIEL 2006 Conference.

It brings back good memories of solemn vespers each Sunday when I was at school.

As for Advent and Gaudete Sunday there are all sorts of good things. But I rather liked this one, just called Gaudete but which isn't really about Gaudete Sunday. I first heard it on a recording Steeleye Span did waaaay back in the last century. They had a wonderful, strong bass line. . .even I could find the note to sing along. I still have that recording around here somewhere. The video below is a more refined version and still a joy to listen to.

St Fingar

2011-12-14T14:20:00.001-08:00

There is also a 5th century Irish saint commemorated today, although his commmemoration seems to be limited to Cornwall and Brittany.

Herewith Mrs D'Arcy's summary of his life:

Fingar, a prince of Connaught and one of Patrick's converts, is described as a pilgrim saint who went first to Armorica (northwestern France) where he is commemorated at Vannes in Brittany. Soon after landing at the mouth of the Hayle in Cornwall, he and his sister Piala and a number of companions were put to death. They are named in the British Martyrology.

St John of the Cross

2011-12-14T13:39:00.001-08:00

Today is the feast of St John of the Cross - Patris nostri, confessoris, atque Ecclesiæ Doctoris - in the Carmelite Order. He is considered one of the co-founders of the Discalced Carmelite Order.

There is a short collection of essays and articles here on St John that has much of interest. Did you know that he was apprenticed as a carpenter and stone-mason? He kept in practice throughout his monastic career and "spent more time building monasteries for the friars, and helping the nuns set up a wall here or a room there, than he did writing books. He spent more hours serving the poor souls who came to him than he did in the library."

The old Catholic Encyclopædia, as usual, has a fine life of St John here.

The old Matins hymn for his feast:

O John, rejoice this hallowed day
The triumpoh of the Cross to hail,
Whereon with Christ 'twas thine to stay,
Transfixed with pang of spear and nail!

Nor insults, scorn, nor cruel scourge,
Bondage, nor hunger can restrain
The love thy panting soul doth urge
To taste the bitter draught of pain.

Thine only joy, thy sole reward,
The boon for which thy spirit sighed,
To mirror here thy suffering Lord,
Like Him in anguish crucified.

While thou dost search the mystic night,
Through darkness gleams a radiant star,
And Carmel's camp is all alight,
With flame that leads to heights afar.

Let them that dwell in bliss above
Praise Thee, O Christ, with joyful lay,
Let them that run to Thee in love
Pursue, like John, the thorn-strewn way.
[-from Saints of Carmel: Proper Offices of the Saints Granted to the Barefooted Carmelites, Boston, 1896]

And the collect for his feast:

Deus, qui sanctum Ioannem Confessorem tuum atque Doctorem, Patrem nostrum, perfectæ sui abnegationis, et crucis amatorem eximium effecisti: concede; ut, eius imitationi iugiter inhærentes, gloriam assequamur æternam. Per Dominum nostrum. Amen.

O God, who didst give to blessed John, thy Confessor and Doctor, grace to shew forth a singular love of perfect self-denial and of bearing thy Cross: grant, we beseech thee; that we, cleaving stedfastly to his pattern, may attain to everlasting glory. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Note to Pipers

2011-12-12T12:04:00.001-08:00

Nobody seems to mention it when lists are being made of Christmas tunes that fit the pipe scale, but "God Rest Ye Merry" fits a treat on the pipes -- no re-arranging needed. Play it in B and see what you think.

Some Piping for the Weekend

2011-12-10T18:10:00.000-08:00

Three friends on the Northumbrian small pipes play a few tunes after dinner. Don't know the tunes and YouTube doesn't say either.

Duly Chastised

2011-12-10T16:55:00.000-08:00

I have been remonstrated with this very afternoon for neglecting The Inn. And so I have been.

We are still in house-renewal mode. I tried my best to convince Herself how wonderful bare wood flooring is. And in particular the distressed wood look: think 18th century Irish country house. I overshot the mark. She used to live in an 18th century Irish country house and was freezing cold most of the time. So we've had people in to choose rugs and area carpeting which will be "warmer". (Yes, I know this is southern California. But we still apparently want "warmer".) Some of the wood will, indeed, show so we've also had people in to sand and clean and varnish the bits that will be on display. Which bits will actually be on display have changed since the first exercize in wood prep, so more people will soon be in to sand and clean and varnish again. Then more people to actually intall the rugs and carpets.

To fill in the time between people coming in to mess about with the floors, we've been trying to put things back where they belong in the places where they won't have to be moved again. This takes longer - a lot longer - than dumping them in boxes and hauling them out to the garage and the patio, which we did oh, so very long ago. (Was it only last summer? It seems longer.)

And for the first time in almost four decades I am again in a choir. SATB this time and not TTBB so I can't rest comfortably in my gentleman's baritone range. I'm happier pretending to be a bass even though I can't reach as far down into the cellar as is ideal but once in a while I get to pretend to be a tenor, and it's a pretty squeaky tenor without much in the way of harmonics. But it's been great fun and we've been practicing quite a lot for Christmas and the lessons and carols.

So that's where the time's gone. (I probably should also have been practicing the pipes. That, alas, didn't happen. And now I have some Christmas stuff to play for and the Christmas carols are, ahem, not quite as smooth as I would like. And speaking of Christmas, I have to get ready for the RSCDS-OC's Christmas ball in one hour and five minutes.)

Housekeeping

2011-11-23T19:38:00.000-08:00

Well, the picture-hosting site is no longer showing the "temporarily out of service" sign. It's now showing the "Who? Never heard of him" sign.

Marvelous.

So, we are back to searching for a hosting site and/or an updated Blogger template.

I have a little hand Missal for the Carmelite rite. I got it in a used book shop next to White Friar Street Church in Dublin. Cost me one (1) whole euro. But alas someone had carefully razored out all the illustrations before giving up the book. The Inn is starting to look a bit like my old missal.

Choral Evensong at St Mary's

2011-11-23T19:20:00.000-08:00

It took place last Sunday and was mentioned in The Inn here and cited to you here and even here.

I went. It was wonderful. I was hoping there would be some pictures to cite you to but I don't see anything up yet. Even better would be something with sound. The Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis were by Orlando Gibbons, the psalms in 4 part Anglican chant, and an interesting piece called "Fragrant the Prayer" translated from an Irish text.

Oh yes, and a complete lack of Marty Haugen.

November 23 - St Columbanus

2011-11-23T19:10:00.000-08:00

Today is the feast of the great Irish monastic missionary, St Columbanus. He's been mentioned in The Inn before, not only because he was a traditionalist in his day, but because of this wonderful incident in the Rev Sabine Baring-Gould's Lives of the Saints:

He [St Columbanus] received a good classical education, and resolved early to embrace an ascetic life. But the good looks and winning ways of the Irish girls were a snare to him. He tried to forget their bright eyes by toiling (desudavit) at grammar, rhetoric, and geometry, but found that at least syntax and the problems of Euclid were a less attractive study than pretty faces, and that the dry rules of rhetoric failed altogether before the winsome prattle of light- hearted maidens. He consulted an old woman who lived as a recluse. She warned him that if he wished to maintain his purpose of self-conquest he must fly to a region where girls are less beautiful and seductive than Ireland. "Save thyself, young man, and fly!" His resolution was formed; he decided on going away.

You can find the Rev Baring-Gould's complete life of St Columbanus here.

As for me, I'm going to ask the Irish lass in the other room if she wants to go for a walk.

Actually, I assumed it was worse

2011-11-23T19:02:00.000-08:00

Interesting paragraph in yesterday's WSJ:

U.S.-based multinational corporations added 1.5 million workers to their payrolls in Asia and the Pacific region during the 2000s, and 477, 500 workers in Latin America, while cutting payrolls at home by 864,000, the Commerce Department reported.

This is copied from the print edition. No link as I can never find articles in previous editions. You probably can - everybody can but me - if you look up "U.S. Firms Eager to Add Foreign Jobs".

17 November - St Hilda of Whitby

2011-11-17T19:27:00.000-08:00

In some of the old diocesan calendars of England, today is the feast of St Hilda, the abbess of the double monastery of Whitby.

From the old Catholic Encyclopædia:

Abbess, born 614; died 680. Practically speaking, all our knowledge of St. Hilda is derived from the pages of Bede. She was the daughter of Hereric, the nephew of King Edwin of Northumbria, and she seems like her great-uncle to have become a Christian through the preaching of St. Paulinus about the year 627, when she was thirteen years old.

Moved by the example of her sister Hereswith, who, after marrying Ethelhere of East Anglia, became a nun at Chelles in Gaul, Hilda also journeyed to East Anglia, intending to follow her sister abroad. But St. Aidan recalled her to her own country, and after leading a monastic life for a while on the north bank of the Wear and afterwards at Hartlepool, where she ruled a double monastery of monks and nuns with great success, Hilda eventually undertook to set in order a monastery at Streaneshalch, a place to which the Danes a century or two later gave the name of Whitby.

Under the rule of St. Hilda the monastery at Whitby became very famous. The Sacred Scriptures were specially studied there, and no less than five of the inmates became bishops, St. John, Bishop of Hexham, and still more St. Wilfrid, Bishop of York, rendering untold service to the Anglo-Saxon Church at this critical period of the struggle with paganism. Here, in 664, was held the important synod at which King Oswy, convinced by the arguments of St. Wilfrid, decided the observance of Easter and other moot points. St. Hilda herself later on seems to have sided with Theodore against Wilfrid. The fame of St. Hilda's wisdom was so great that from far and near monks and even royal personages came to consult her.

Seven years before her death the saint was stricken down with a grievous fever which never left her till she breathed her last, but, in spite of this, she neglected none of her duties to God or to her subjects. She passed away most peacefully after receiving the Holy Viaticum, and the tolling of the monastery bell was heard miraculously at Hackness thirteen miles away, where also a devout nun named Begu saw the soul of St. Hilda borne to heaven by angels.

With St. Hilda is intimately connected the story of Caedmon, the sacred bard. When he was brought before St. Hilda she admitted him to take monastic vows in her monastery, where he most piously died.

The Unillustrated Inn

2011-11-17T19:01:00.000-08:00

Well, this turned out to be an exercise in unwarranted optimism.

The picture-hosting website seems to be missing in action. If you go to where they used to be hosted you get this. That's not encouraging. A few of those pictures don't exist anywhere else any more.

I suppose I shall have to redecorate The Inn from another hosting site. Or maybe even update the template. (Although updating is not really in my nature; cf. the post below but one.)

Another Step Forward for the Anglican Catholic Ordinariate in the U.S.

2011-11-17T18:46:00.000-08:00

You may have seen this announcement last week from the USCCB annual meeting:

Cardinal Donald Wuerl of Washington announced November 15 that the new ordinariate for former Anglicans in the United States will be established January 1, the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God.

The full statement with a few more details can be found at the bishop's conference website here.

And you may have seen this elsewhere on the web:

It was planned before the announcement was made but by happy co-incidence the timing is right for a celebration of the upcoming Ordinariate. As some of you know, I have been helping as best I can with the Bl John Henry Newman Anglican Use Society in the Orange Diocese. God willing, I plan to be there on Sunday.

Everyone Needs a Role Model

2011-11-17T18:16:00.000-08:00

I may have found mine:

When someone quoted the Bible to the third Duke of Norfolk, His Grace retorted: "I never read the Scripture nor ever will read it; it was merry in England afore the New Learning came up; yea, I would all things were as hath been in times past." That was in 1540, when New Learning included the notion that a gentleman of rank ought to be literate. The Duke, a true reactionary, was having none of it. It may not be possible to be as reactionary as that nowadays, but that's the gold standard.

Indeed. When one is addicted to reading -- the Bible to be sure, and newspapers, books, magazines, blogs, the backs of cereal boxes -- it is sadly a standard too far. But one does one's best.

(Oh, the quote. That's from the latest number of The American Conservative wherein John Derbyshire reviews "The Reactionary Mind: Conservatism from Edmund Burke to Sarah Palin" by one Corey Robin. He didn't like it.)

Lights Out?

2011-11-06T17:02:00.000-08:00

Some of us may be off the web for good and not just for a couple of weeks with a bug.

This is from the 13 October 2011 number of The Wanderer:

Major Internet media platforms and service providers have policies that hinder Christian evangelization and censor speech on controversial issues of the day like abortion and marriage, a new report says.

“ Christian ideas and other religious content face a clear and present danger of censorship on web- based communication platforms,” said the National Religious Broadcasters’ report, “ True Liberty in a New Media Age,” dated September 15. If Christian content is “ censored” by new media platforms like the iTunes App Store, Facebook, Google, or Internet service providers, “ the Good News of the Gospel could become one more casualty of institutionalized religious discrimination,” the broadcaster organization’s president, Frank Wright, said in the report’s foreword.

The National Religious Broadcasters was founded in 1944 to oppose government regulations and policy decisions by major broadcast networks which impeded the ability of evangelical min-isters to buy radio airtime.

Some new media companies have banned Christian content, while others have public positions that make censorship “ all but inevitable.”

Except for the micro- blogging service Twitter, all the new media platforms and services examined have policies “ clearly inconsistent with the free speech values of the U. S. Constitution,” the report said.

New media companies are responsive to “ market forces” and the demands by “ pressure groups calling for censorship” of otherwise lawful viewpoints.

As examples of “ anti- Christian censorship,” the report cited the Apple iTunes App Store’s removal of the Manhattan Declaration app that defended traditional marriage. The store also removed an app from Exodus International that said that homosexuality is inappropriate conduct which can be changed through a spiritual transformation.

Internet search engine giant Google refused to accept a pro-life advertisement from a Christian organization in England, and its China- based Internet service has blacklisted some religious terminology. The company’s advertising guidelines explicitly bar the phrase “ abortion is murder” on the grounds it is “gruesome language.” The report also cited Facebook and other outlets for a policy that bars ads for “ politically religious agendas.”

Meanwhile, Facebook has partnered with “ gay rights” advocates to halt “ anti- homosexual” content and it is participating in “ gayawareness” programs. This suggests that Christian content critical of homosexuality, “ gay marriage,” or other practices will be at risk of censorship.

Apple, Facebook, MySpace, Google, Comcast, AT& T, and Verizon all prohibit “ hate speech,” which the National Religious Broadcasters report called a “ dangerously undefined and politically correct term” that is often applied to “ stifle” Christian communicators.

“ The ongoing technological convergence of these various new media platforms suggests that these free speech- inhibiting practices and unconscionable policies will be further entrenched unless corrective action is taken immediately,” the report said.

The report suggested that companies should follow a “ free speech paradigm” guided by the basic First Amendment rules, even where those do not strictly apply to private businesses. It also suggested federal legislation or regulation to forbid “ viewpoint censorship.”

“ When we started our John Milton Project for Religious Free Speech, I sensed a gathering storm building, with ‘ new media’ companies like Apple, Facebook, and Google considering the option of censoring Christian content off their sites,” National Religious Broadcasters’ senior vice president, Craig Parshall, said on September 13. “ Now, a little more than a year later, after finishing our extensive study, I am convinced that religious free speech rights will face a First Amendment hurricane if action is not taken immediately.”

And since Blogspot is now owned by the aforesaid Google, can we assume the same policies will be applied?

The website's format doesn't allow the article to be cited directly but The Wanderer's entry site is here. You could get a back issue from them and I'm sure they'd be delighted to let you subscribe.

Checking In

2011-11-06T16:05:00.000-08:00

"So, where have you been?" I hear you ask. (No, really. . . a couple of you actually did ask. I am duly chuffed; it's nice to be missed.)

For a start, Southern California Edison announced that they were going to turn our power off for a day so they could mess about with their local electricity conducting equipment. You know, those mystery boxes that hang off the power poles at the end of the street. So they did that and the PC remained unplugged for a day.

And then as the (please God!) final phase of the house aggiornamento, we had the ancestral manse tented for termites. This entailed spending 4 days in a local hotel where the Memsahib and I got deathly ill after eating in a local restaurant. The details of this you do not wish to know. Suffice to say, I learned that one can lose ten pounds in two days and, although I can certainly afford to do so, I don't recommend the method.

That was week one. The second week's excuse is largely, well, lack of interest. And energy. I think it's that ten pounds in two days thing. It takes the starch out of one. The urge to berate political silliness, cultural devastation, and liturgical numpties didn't survive the trip to the desk where the PC lives. An extra nap even trumped posting a piping video.

So here we are on a Sunday afternoon, feeling pretty good, mostly, and filling in the time until evensong. ("Evensong"? Yes. I'll tell you more about that another time.)

And before you ask, yes, Herself is better now, too. In fact, somewhat embarrassingly, she recovered much faster than I. I mean, after all, I'm the guy. I'm supposed to do the heavy lifting and take care of her. Instead, I was still in bed dead-to-the-world and she was out buying me bananas and juice. Proverbs 31:10 et seq is not inappropriate. No, I do not exaggerate.

Housekeeping

2011-10-24T09:08:00.000-07:00

I learned this this morning from the folks who run the site where my pictures are hosted:

We apologize that we are experiencing a temporary system-wide outage. We are moving to a new internet provider, hoping early this week.

And that's why The Inn has been looking a little spare lately.

From the sublime to the. . . .

2011-10-24T08:53:00.001-07:00

. . .well, not ridiculous precisely. Astonishingly bad taste, certainly.

What do you think:

A Night at the Mausoleum.

And "Tales from the Crypt".

In the cathedral.

I suppose we can hope it's just the advertisement that appalls and that the "tour" itself is. . .different.

More Vespers

2011-10-24T08:43:00.000-07:00

As good as this vesper service looked, it was just on the wrong continent for commuting purposes. But this one is definitely on the calendar. So if you're in the Orange County CA area this All Hallows Eve and not in the mood for dressing up as Nancy Pelosi and scaring small children, you could do worse than a trip down the freeway to San Juan Capistrano.

Some Piping for the Weekend

2011-10-22T17:56:00.001-07:00

This time the Pipes and Drums of the 1st Battalion Scots Guards playing some good old standards. Mostly. (Hey, Richard: except for "Clumsy Lover", haven't we played every tune in this set at one time or another?)

The Occupy Wall Street Phenomenon on the left = The Tea Party on the right?

2011-10-22T17:16:00.000-07:00

Not quite.

We turn briefly to Occupy Wall Street, because people, including the president, continue to compare it to the tea party. It is not the tea party. The tea party was a middle-class uprising that was only too happy to funnel its energy into the democratic process. They took their central concerns—spending, taxes and regulation—and followed the prescription of Joe Hill: Don't mourn, organize. They did. They entered politics and helped win elections. They did the Republicans a big favor by not going third-party but working within the GOP—at least for now.

Occupy Wall Street is completely different. They mean to gain power and sway by going outside the political system. They are a critique of the political system. They went to the streets and stayed there.

They are not funneling their energy into the democratic process because there is no market for what they are selling: Capitalism should be overturned, I am angry that my college loan bills are so big, the government is bad, and the answer is more government. You can't win elections in America with that kind of message. So they will stay in the streets, where they can have an impact by stopping traffic, inconveniencing people going to and coming from work, and appearing to be an amorphous force that must be bowed to.

The difference between the occupiers and the tea party is the difference between acting out and taking part.

From Peggy Noonan's column in this morning's WSJ.

And her final paragraph is too good to leave out:

Where is Mr. Obama in all this? He has made sympathetic sounds about Occupy Wall Street, probably seeing it as ultimately part of his base. Beyond that, he's out campaigning. Sometimes he is snarky about Congress: He's giving them "another chance" at voting on his jobs bill. Sometimes he is self-justifying. He told ABC's Jake Tapper that "all the choices we've made have been the right ones." Sometimes he lectures America. But he doesn't buck it up, and he must know in his heart that it's coming for the keys.

Belloc on Tradition

2011-10-22T17:06:00.000-07:00

Men forget that tradition, though it gets warped with time and tends to be diverse and vague, is commonly sincere; whereas a document may be, and, if official, commonly is, deliberately false.

-quoted from "The Crisis of Civilisation" in "The Essential Belloc", pg 2.

Ad Orientem in the Ordinariate?

2011-10-22T16:52:00.001-07:00

Rumour and whatnot about the coming Anglican Ordinariate liturgy is very promising. And now a public statement from a very well-informed source:

From the Tablet:

Masses celebrated by priests in the ordinariate are likely to be ad orientem, according to one of its leaders. While the liturgy for the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham has yet to be approved by the Holy See, Mgr Andrew Burnham said the Congregation for Divine Worship “is likely to commend eastward celebration, when the dynamic of the building suggests it”. Mgr Burnham also said that it may also recommend kneeling at mention of the Incarnation during the Creed.

Quoted here in The Ordinariate Portal.

Some Piping for the Weekend

2011-10-14T17:51:00.000-07:00

Another set by Windy Gyle. Only one piper this time, Alice Burn on NSPs, and she's a little overwhelmed by all the fiddles, but it's a great set of Northumbrian rants.

Choral Evensong at Oxford

2011-10-14T12:10:00.000-07:00

When first published back in October of 2011, there was a lovely poster here advertizing a Choral Evensong in the Blackfriars chapel at Oxford put on by the local Ordinariate group. Several weeks ago, the site hosting a copy of that poster (and a great many of my other pictures) vanished into the night taking with them my only copy of that poster. And that's why this blog-post has looked something of a puzzler for a while now.

Some pictures from the last celebration can be found here.

Not a chance in the world that I'll be there this time either. But doesn't it look wonderful?

"The trouble with France is that there is no king. . . ."

2011-10-05T11:29:00.000-07:00

Britain had its Distressed Gentlefolks Aid Association. In this morning's WSJ we find that France has taken that a step further with the Association for the Mutual Assistance of the French Nobility. And the web version has a video, too.

October 2 - The Holy Guardian Angels

2011-10-02T22:28:00.000-07:00

From the Bl Cardinal Schuster's Liber Sacramentorum:

The Roman feast of September 29 included, indeed, together with St Michael, the whole of the heavenly armies, and the Collect of that Mass declares that the special Office entrusted by God to the Angels is that of watching faithfully over us. This profound teaching of the Doctors of the Church establishes a wonderful unity between the visible and the invisible world, and between mortal and angelic beings. The higher orders of creatures are in close communion with the lower orders, whom they enlighten and protect. . . . .

. . . Paul V in a decree of September 27, 1608, declared the feast of the Guardian Angels duplex ad libitum, and ordered that it should be kept on the first vacant date after the feast of St Michael. Clement X assigned it, later, to October 2.

. . . . .

The guardianship of the faithful is given by God into the hands of the angels, not only for the sake of the unity and harmony which bind together the orders of creation, but also on account of the duty owed by the angels to Christ. It is from Christ that they receive their glory, therefore out of gratitude to him who is caput hominum et angelorum these blessed spirits watch over the Church, the chosen Bride of the Saviour, and over the faithful who are the members of his mystical body.

The epistle [for this feast] is taken from Exodus xxiii, 20-23, in which the Lord promises to the people of Israel journeying towards Palestine the guidance and help of his angel.

The angel represents God himself; he is overshadowed by his ineffable name, wherefore the children of Israel cannot offend him with impunity. He is also the avenger of the outraged sanctity of God, and has power to punish that carnal people and bring them to obedience and fear of him.

In many stories of the saints we notice the same severity shown towards them by their guardian angels, who punished the slightest imperfection of which those chosen souls were guilty.

The motive of this loving discipline may be sought, perhaps, not only the wise counsels of Providence aiming at the purification of certain predestined souls who were inspired to attain extraordinary sanctity through the ministry of the angels, but also in the exquisite perfection of the angelic nature itself, which is less able to understand human nature than are Jesus Christ and his Blessed Mother, having no personal experience of human weakness. "Non habemus Pontificem qui non possit compati infirmitatibus nostris, probatus per omnia, absque peccato."

. . . .

The Gospel is that of May 8. The Saviour's words clearly reveal the wonderful mystery of his mercy, which forms the object of to-day's festival. Every Christian, no matter how small or humble he may be, has an Angel to guard and watch over him.

This great truth should fill us with love and respect for our neighbours, and more especially for the weak and for the little ones, who cannot rely upon their own powers and influence. Let us be careful not to grieve our neighbour, lest the anger of his angel by aroused against us.

. . . .

We should have a great veneration for the holy angels, to whom God has assigned the care and government of creation. St Paul had so great a feeling of reverence for the angels, that when he directed that Christian women should cover their heads in church, as a sign of modesty, he desired that this should be done propter angelos, that is to say out of respect for the blessed spirits.

An old Anglo-Saxon prayer to the guardian angel first recorded by a monk of Hyde Abbey, Winchester some time in the mid 11th century, translated and published by Abbot Gasquet in his "Ancestral Prayers":

I believe, O holy Angel, that thou art appointed by God Almighty to be my guardian, Wherefore through Him who has set thee to this task, I, who am so miserable, so weak, and so unworthy, humbly ask that thou wilt ever and always in this life watch over me; that thou wilt guard me from all evils and ever shield me. And when God shall bid my spirit depart hence, let not the devils have power over it, but do thou gently receive my soul from my body and lovingly bear it into Abraham's bosom, at the biddng and by the help of my Creator, my Saviour, and my God, who is blessed for ever and ever. Amen.

St Therese of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face

2011-10-01T18:00:00.000-07:00

The Carmelite calendar honours St Therese today.

Though we must needs be pure indeed to appear in the presence of the God of all Holiness, yet I know too that He is infinitely just; and this justice which affrights so many souls is the ground of my joy and my confidence. Justice not merely exercises severity towards the offender; it moreover recognizes a right intention, and awards to virtue its recompense. I hope as much from the Justice of the good God as from His Mercy; it is because He is just, that "He is compassionate and merciful, long-suffering and plenteous in mercy. For He knoweth our frame. He remembereth that we are but dust. As a father hath compassion on his children, so hath the Lord compassion on us!". . .(Ps. 102:8, 13, 14).

Listening to these beautiful and consoling words of the Royal Prophet, how can we doubt but that the good God will open the portals of His Kingdom to His children who have loved Him even unto sacrificing all for Him, who have not only left their kindred and their country, for the sake of making Him known and loved, but, still further, desire to give their life for Him?. . . . .Most truly has Jesus said that there is no greater love than this! How then could He suffer Himself to be outdone in generosity? How could He purify in the flames of Purgatory souls consumed by the fire of Divine Love?. . . .

That is what I think of the justice of the good God; my way is all confidence and love, I do not understand those souls who fear so tender a Friend.

VI Letter to Her missionary "Brothers".
Thoughts of St Therese, pg 85

September 25 - St Finbarr

2011-09-25T10:52:00.000-07:00

Today is the feast of St Finbarr, the patron saint of Cork, monk and missionary, and possibly bishop. The isle of Barra in the Hebrides may have been the site of one or more of his missionary journeys and be named for him.

Wikipedia has a little life of him here.

And that's St Finbarr's Pipe Band from Cork up at the top of this post playing their championship medley in 2010.

"'When I use a word,' Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, 'it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.'"

2011-09-24T17:25:00.000-07:00

E.g., "hatred".

Cf: "Through the Looking Glass"

September 24 - Our Lady of Walsingham

2011-09-24T16:48:00.000-07:00

Today is the feast of Our Lady of Walsingham, the patroness of England and of the Catholic Ordinariate of the Anglican Use in England. There is a good history of the medieval shrine and the 20th century Anglican restoration here. There is a short history of the Catholic shrine based at the old Slipper Chapel, here. A portal to the websites of both shrines can be found here.

It's very much worth mentioning that there is now an American shrine to Our Lady of Walsingham in Texas. You can find the website here. It's attached to the Anglican Use parish of Our Lady of Walsingham. (Take a look at their website; it's what Catholic churches ought to look like.)

A collect for Our Lady of Walsingham:

O God, who through the mystery of the Word made flesh didst in thy mercy sanctify the house of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and wondrously place it in the bosom of thy Church: Grant that being made separate from the tabernacles of sinners, we may become worthy to dwell in thy holy house; through the same Jesus Christ thy Son our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. Amen.

Bl William Way

2011-09-23T10:39:00.000-07:00

The English priest and martyr William Way was "hanged, bowelled, and quartered" on this day in 1588 in Kingston-on-Thames for the crime of being a priest. He is one of the blessed English martyrs. The good old Catholic Encyclopædia - which still lists him as venerable - has this to say about him:

Our martyr William Way received the first tonsure in the Cathedral of Reims from the Cardinal of Guise on 31 March, 1584, and was ordained subdeacon, 22 March, deacon 5 April, and priest 18 September, 1586, at Laon, probably by Bishop Valentine Douglas, O.S.B. He set out for England 9 December, 1586, and in June 1587, had been committed to the Clink. He was indicted at Newgate in September, 1588, merely for being a priest. He declined to be tried by a secular judge, whereupon the Bishop of London was sent for; but the martyr, refusing to acknowledge him as a bishop or the queen as head of the Church, was immediately condemned. He was much given to abstinence and austerity. When he was not among the first of those to be tried at the Sessions in August, he wept and, fearing he had offended God, went at once to confession, "but when he himself was sent for, he had so much joy that he seemed past himself".

It's interesting to see how short his clerical career was. There were four and a half years from tonsure to martyrdom.

His CE page can be found here.

Some Piping for the Weekend

2011-09-23T10:11:00.000-07:00

Mirabile dictu: the piping for the weekend clip is actually up in time for the weekend this week.This is the RAF Halton Pipes & Drums playing their medley in the second heat at the world's last August.

Some Reels

2011-09-20T18:13:00.001-07:00

Not a bagpipe to be seen in the entire clip. . . just some knock out reels on box and fiddle for what has turned out to be a fairly lazy Tuesday.

This was to be the day the carpenter and the painters finished up and we could start getting everything back in order. Alas, in the event, it was not to be. The painter-in-chief had a serious illness in the family so nobody came. Next week. They've promised. Cross their hearts and hope to die.

We shall see.

It's also our wedding anniversary. (The 31st, since you ask. No, I can't believe it either. It seems like maybe 5 or 6 years.) We were going to spend it minding the carpenters and painters. Instead, with no one to oversee, we went out to a restaurant we can't really afford. Herself had the rainbow trout and I had the swordfish which they do so well. It's like the tenderest filet mignon, only not as heavy. Lovely stuff.

And now we should be getting more things put away in the areas that the painters have finished with. But instead herself is having a nap and I am puttering around on the internet and listening to traditional Irish music.

Oh, yes. Irish music. The first tune in the clip above is familiar but I haven't the slightest idea what the name might be. But the second is the tune usually called Finnegan's Wake, although it was around under another name before it acquired the Finnegan's Wake words. The third one seems to be Back of the Haggard, although it's not a familiar arrangement. I could easily be wrong about that. The players are Roisín Ryan and Padraig O Sé.

Ireland beats Australia

2011-09-17T16:58:00.000-07:00

Yes.

15 points to 6.

In rugby.

This is not a typo.

A bird in hand

2011-09-17T16:51:00.000-07:00

Someone sent this collection of pictures and videos to Mary this morning. It may not be to everyone's taste but I quite enjoyed it.

A hummingbird family comes of age.

Some Piping for the Weekend

2011-09-17T16:46:00.000-07:00

I put this up Friday evening but the Google/Blogger/Youtube Conglomerate seems to have eaten it.

So we shall try again. The original poster on Youtube had this to say: Bill Telfer and Matt Seattle play Noble Squire Dacre, All The Night I Lay With Jackey In My Arms, and Christenmiss Day In The Morning, three classic pipe tunes known on both sides of the Border. Bill Telfer composed parts 3 & 4 of Christenmiss Day.

Yesterday evening I had some no doubt brilliant insight into the music or the piping that is now lost to posterity. But they're good tunes even without my commentary.

The Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross

2011-09-14T14:15:00.000-07:00

Today is the feast of the finding of the true Cross by St Helena. Here are two related posts from Vultus Christi:

Fr Mark has a beautiful piece on "the life-giving and glorious Cross of Christ" here. There are scriptural and liturgical analogies, festal customs, and more.

The second post is here. I had no idea that

The aromatic herb, basil (Ocimum basilicum) has long been associated with the Holy Cross. . . .According to a pious legend, the Empress Saint Helena found the location of the True Cross by digging for it under a colony of basil.

There is more and the text of the blessing here.

The September 14th Meeting - 1st Report

2011-09-14T09:38:00.000-07:00

It happened.

Rorate Cæli has the preliminary report here.

A proper blogger would give an analysis here. I would, too, if I knew what it meant. It sounds very diplomatic and respectful and conciliatory. Other than that. . . .quien sabe?

Obviously, there will be more.

ADDENDUM: The report from Vatican Radio.

Friday the 13th. . . .

2011-09-13T16:37:00.000-07:00

. . . comes on a Tuesday this month. All the usual precautions apply.

Fun with Insurance

2011-09-13T14:10:00.000-07:00

Something called Smart Money was bundled in with this morning's paper. It's a magazine for people with pots of money to learn how (a) to hang on to the said pots of money and (b) to get even more pots of money.

Even though your servant does not, in fact, have even the requisite starter pot of money, I did page through it. It was, after all, free. And I came across a fascinating piece on all the remarkable things you can be insured for. (Or is it insured against?) I was reminded of that landlord in San Jose who insisted we have volcano insurance. We tried to talk him out of it. Who would sell us volcano insurance? Not a problem in the event. The risk management folks didn't bat an eye. "You want both ash and lava coverage?"

According to this article there is a policy available for whatever gives you the willies. You can be insured for/against "identity theft, gadget obsolescence, having twins, kidnapping and divorce." There is wedding insurance. And this: ". . . a contract with the Zombie Apocalypse Insurance Co. ($15 a year) provides peace of mind, not to mention postattack [sic] car repair, home reconstruction and, if necessary, relocation to a zombie-free locale." 15 bucks. Hmmm. One is almost tempted. . . which is probably why I don't have even the starter pot of money.

Saving the best for last, though, as did the author, you have to know about this one:

Bart Centre, the retired New Hampshire retail executive behind Eternal Earth-Bound Pets, says he's sold 263 pet-care contracts to Christians concerned about dogs and kitties left behind in the upcoming rapture. For $135, clients can count on pet-rescue services provided by one of 46 atheists who are guaranteed to remain on earth after the Second Coming. The only factor suppressing sales, he says, is the notion that the rapture will be followed by Armageddon. Who wants a policy for Fido, he says, "when the word's going to end 20 minutes later?"

Smart Money has a website here but this piece doesn't seem to be up. For those who don't believe a word of this post - which is probably everyone since the whole thing sounds preposterous to me - you can probably pick up a copy of the October number of Smart Money somewhere around town and take a look at page 95. I assure you in the immortal words of Dave Barry, "I don't make this stuff up."

The September 14th Meeting

2011-09-06T10:57:00.000-07:00

You know the meeting: the one between Bishop Fellay and Cardinal Levada of the CDF that's coming up in about a week.

I said this:

I hope it comes to something. Full communion with the See of Peter is not an optional extra.

about that here.

Was that a relevant comment?

Chris Ferrara doesn't think so. As usual, he's pretty convincing.

Still. Whatever you want to call it canonically, official Vaticandom and the Priestly Fraternity of St Pius X aren't on the best of terms. It would be nice to have that sorted out.

Some Piping for the Weekend

2011-09-03T14:16:00.000-07:00

More from the World Pipe Band Championships for 2011. This is the Inverary and District Pipe Band who made the finals and captured 4th place with this performance.

Not Quite Latin

2011-09-02T20:33:00.000-07:00

"One of the last living relics of the Latin language" fights for its life in Switzerland.

More Saints: The September Martyrs

2011-09-02T10:52:00.000-07:00

From Catholic Online:

A group of 190 martyrs who were massacred on September 2 and 3, during the French Revolution. The most prominent martyrs of this group were John Mary du Lau, the archbishop of ArIes; Francis de la Rochefoucauld, bishop of Beauvais; Louis de la Rochefoucauld, bishop of Saintes; Benedictine Augustine Chevreux, last superior general of the Maurists; Charles de la Calmette, the count of Valfons; Julian Massey: Louis de la Touche; and Carmes. One hundred twenty were martyred at the Carmelite Church on the rue de Rennes in Paris. They were all beatified in 1926.

I hadn't known of these martyrs. I mean, I surely knew of the massacres perpetrated by the revolutionaries but not that these in particular had been beatified. Thanks to Mrs Vidal, you can learn about them here. And do follow her links for more of the story.