As Cardinal Mercier said : "When prudence is everywhere, courage is nowhere."                                                                                  From Cardinal Sarah : "In order to avoid hearing God's music, we have chosen to use all the devices of this world. But heaven's instruments will not stop playing just because some people are deaf."                                                                                              Saint John-Paul II wrote: "The fact that one can die for the faith shows that other demands of the faith can also be met."                                                 Cardinal Müller says, “For the real danger to today’s humanity is the greenhouse gases of sin and the global warming of unbelief and the decay of morality when no one knows and teaches the difference between good and evil.”                                                  St Catherine of Siena said, “We've had enough exhortations to be silent. Cry out with a thousand tongues - I see the world is rotten because of silence.”                                                  Chesterton said, “The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult; and left untried.”                                                Brethren, Wake up!

CHRISTMAS GREETINGS

We have, in the last post, already conveyed the Christmas greetings of the Grand Prior, who is recovering well from his illness in Edinburgh, and who holds all those who participate in the life of the Conventual Church, and the readers of this blog, especially in his prayers at this Holy Season.

We could not now do better than to pass on (in common, it seems, with most traditional English language blogs, but it is possible some of our international readership may not have seen it elsewhere) the Holy Father's Christmas broadcast to the people of these islands, given in the BBC's Radio 4 "Thought for the Day."  This is a development which would have been unthinkable only a short while ago, and an extraordinary testimony to the humility and faithfulness with which Pope Benedict exercises his sacred office.

In it he presents the Christmas message in all its theological clarity and joy, and ends, as we must too, with a prayer for the sick and those who suffer, the elderly and the dying - Our Lords the Poor and the Sick. May God grant them the joys of his eternal Salvation, brought by the Child in the manger.


Hodie scietis, quia veniet Dominus,
et salvabit nos: et mane videbitis gloriam eius.