FEAST OF THE HOLY PARENTS OF OUR BLESSED PATRON

We wish to all our Readers a happy feast of Saints Elizabeth and Zachary, holy parents of Saint John the Baptist. The painting above, of the second holy family, is by Louis-Jean-François Lagrenée, 1724 to 1805.

Saint John the Baptist, pray for us.

Saint Zachariah, pray for us.

Saint Elizabeth, pray for us.

Saint Linus, pray for us.

Saint Thecla, pray for us.

INTERNATIONAL BUY A PRIEST A BEER DAY

O most esteemed, charitable and generous Reader!

Today is "International Buy a Priest a Beer Day". Much salutary information may be found on the website of "The Catholic Gentleman" HERE.

As this is rather short notice, and this Feast is of an hospitaller rather than purely doctrinal nature, the Grand Priory of England of the Order of Malta feels itself entitled to establish an Octave, applicable to the entire English-speaking world within the Order, its Members, Companions and Associates.

We are deeply indebted for this liturgical intelligence to a Companion of Malta who may one day be a beneficiary of this Feast.

Go out and do your hospitaller duty!

Please note the photograph is from some time ago, from when some of us were, indeed, very young, and modern priests may nowadays quite properly, as may girls, be offered pints.

St Hopswald of Aleyard, opn!

UPDATE - A kindly Knight has volunteered the following photograph - pour encourager les autres.  And enlarge to see what he is drinking!

BLESSED ADRIAN FORTESCUE - TUITIO FIDEI - COME DRINK AT THE FOUNTAIN

It is very fitting that within the week of the Feast of Our Blessed Lady of Philermo, the reverend compilers of the little volume "Mementoes of the Martyrs" (Burns and Oates, 1961) should have chosen to include the text of Blessed Adrian Fortescue's maxims, this day and tomorrow, written in his manuscript within his Book of Hours. As many members of the Order will know, this treasured volume,  the only relic of our martyr saint, the property by inheritance of the Constable Maxwell family, is on loan to the Grand Priory, and one of our most treasured artefacts. Third-class relics are available for the devotion of the faithful, by gracious courtesy of former Grand Master Fra' Matthew Festing.

It gives us much pleasure to offer to our dear Readers the published Maxims of Blessed Adrian, which have never before appeared on this blog, and which are as apposite for our day as they clearly were in his. It shows how little changes, and for all the claims of development and increased 'sophistication' which our liberal friends would have you believe we have achieved, we actually change very little, and are still just as guilty of the same foolishness as our 'unsophisticated' 16th Century ancestors. Much comfort therein. These admonitions are for every layman; take heed, beloved Confrere, dear Companion!

MAXIMS OF BLESSED ADRIAN FORTESCUE, Martyr, ON.

ABOVE all things love God with all thy heart.

Desire His honour more than the health of thine own soul.

Take heed often with all diligence to purge and cleanse thy mind with Confession, and raise thy desire
or longing from earthly things.

Be thou houseled [receive Communion] with entire devotion.

Repute not thyself better than any other person, be they never so great sinners, but rather judge and esteem thyself most simplest.

Judge the best.

Use much silence, but when thou needs must, speak.

Delight not in familiarity of persons unknown to thee.

Be solitary as much as is convenient with thine estate.

Banish from thee all judging and detraction, and especially from thy tongue.

Pray often.

Also enforce thee to set thy house at quietness.

Resort to God every hour.

Advance not thy words or deeds by any pride.

Be not too much familiar, but show a serious and prudent countenance with gentleness.

Show before all people a good example of virtues.

Be not partial for favour, lucre or malice, but according to truth, equity, justice and reason.

Be pitiful to poor folk and help them to thy power, for then thou shalt greatly please God.

Give fair language to all persons, and especially to the poor and needy.

Also be diligent in giving of alms.

In prosperity be meek of heart, and in adversity patient.

And pray continually to God that thou may do what is His pleasure.

Also apply diligently the co-operations of the Holy Ghost whatever thou hast therein to do.

Pray for perseverance.

Continue in awe of God, and ever have Him before thine eyes.

Renew every day thy good purpose.

What thou hast to do, do it diligently.

'Stablish thyself always in well-doing.

If by chance thou fall into sin, despair not; and if thou keep these precepts, the Holy Ghost will strengthen thee in all other things necessary, and, thus doing, thou shalt be with Christ in Heaven, to whom be glory, laud, honour and praise everlasting. Amen.

The picture at the head of this post shows Bl. Adrian Fortescue, a copy of the painting at the College of San Paolo, Rabat, Malta, by the Grand Master's brother, the renowned painter, Andrew Festing.

RELIGIOUS TOLERANCE?

We are invited to support a petition against the decision of Barclays Bank to deny banking facilities to a charity, which happens to be Christian, on idealogical grounds. See HERE.

It matter not whether we agree with everything this charity states, the greater point of being allowed legally to practice one's beliefs freely in a free society must override any subjective opinion. Or so we should like to think. You may read about the Core Issues Trust HERE.

This subject calls to mind a recent deeply ironic blogpost from our dear friend Fr John Hunwicke, HERE. There is much truth in irony, which is why it is so hated.

To say the world is a messy place is an understatement.

Our Lady of Philermo, pray for us!

TUITIO FIDEI ET OBSEQUIUM PAUPERUM

Gnädige Readers are directed to the PREVIOUS POST as a pleasant corrective antidote! But not as an opiate.

AND MANLY HEARTS TO GUARD THE FAIR!

 A happy end to the Summer for all our readers!

With the great Constance Shacklock, remembered by all too few of us; the BBC Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Sir Malcolm Sargent.

HOMILY FOR THE VICTORY MASS

The Victory Mass took place in some splendour at St James's Spanish Place, with polyphonic choir, on Tuesday, Our Lady's Nativity, and the celebration of the victorious outcome of the Siege of Malta by our Blessed Mother's powerful intercession. This victory should give us confidence in our own troubled times to ask Our Lady for Her aid, in the firm confidence that our prayers will be answered; as God wills, not necessarily as we do.

Holy Mass was celebrated by Fr Richard Biggerstaff. Many Knights, Dames and Companions attended, a good return after the long absence of Lockdown. We give below the homily preached at the Mass by Monsignor John Armitage, newly appointed Chaplain of the Grand Priory. Please pray for the soul of Monsignor Antony Conlon, his late predecessor, may he rest in peace.

THE NATIVITY OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY

Homily; Mgr John Armitage

This year we celebrate the 900th anniversary of the death of our founder, Blessed Gerard, through his example the charism of our Order has guided us along the centuries. We do not know very much of Gerard, but there is a possible record of an epitaph written, which gives us a picture. “Here lies Gerard, the humblest man in the East, the servant of the poor, hospitable to strangers, meek of countenance but with a noble heart. One can see in these walls how good he was. He was provident and active. Exerting himself in all sorts of ways, he stretched forth his arms into many lands to obtain what he needed to feed his own.” 

His humility was the true fount of his nobility, and his humility was inspired by the one who God called Mother, our Blessed Lady. In today’s first reading from the prophet Micha, we hear; The Lord says this, “But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, the least of the clans of Judah, out of you will be born for me the one who is to rule over Israel.”
 
At the heart of our Order, is the one who is “the least of the clans of Judah”, the woman who would rejoice and glorify the Lord, for He who is Almighty had worked great marvels in her life. The humility of our Lady arises from her recognition of God's great work in her life, for humility is the recognition that all I have, is freely given to me, by the God who loves me.  The nobility of Blessed Gerard was born of a graciousness that comes from being a servant, walking in the footsteps of the one who washed the feet of the apostles, and said to Peter, “unless you let me wash your feet, you can have nothing to do with me”. Like Our Lady, Gerard had recognised in his own life that the Lord had done great things for him, and because of these great things he was able to do great things in the service of others, especially the Poor and Our Lords the Sick. Gerard had a noble heart, a great heart, because he was humble, not counting on his worldly status, for he had experienced the wonders of God's love in his life. It was in serving the Sick and the Poor that he discovered his strength, it was in the challenges of his times, faced with violence, disease and injustice that he gained the strength to serve others and not to count the cost to himself. 

Whether it was in the growing needs of sick pilgrims in Jerusalem, or the courageous stand of the Siege of Malta that we remember today, or the challenges that we face in today’s pandemic, our Order needs men and women of great heart, whose nobility is firmly rooted in the humility of Our Lady and the example of Blessed Gerard. 
 
During the Second Word War Pope Pius XII addressed the Order in 1941 “In these poor, these orphans, these wounded, these lepers, you own the title deeds of nobility received at Bethlehem from the King of Kings, who being rich, became poor, that by his poverty you might be rich. Nor are you content with aiding them by your gifts; you love and honour them as the privileged courtiers of our common king."
 
These profound words of the Pope, remind us that the title deeds of our nobility, as members of our Order lie in the service of the poor, the wounded and the lepers, and that they were given to us in Bethlehem by the King of Kings, who “being rich, became poor”.
 
From the moment of her Conception, Mary was blessed by God, blessed in order that salvation could come to the “people who walked in darkness”, it was through Mary’s yes, that these “people saw a great light” in her son, Jesus Christ. 

Our world still walks in darkness, for so many of our brothers and sisters have not seen the great light. The birth of Mary, and the yes of Mary enabled that light to shine upon us. This light is known through a human encounter, for the Word became flesh and lived among us. Therefore, the world waits for women and men, who have said yes to God in their lives, to be beacons of light to those who live in darkness. 

Each moment in history demands great sacrifices, acts of love and kindness, acts of graciousness and radical generosity to address the darkness that so besets our world. The challenge of renewal within our beloved Order, is not about administration, it is about a renewal of the personal and generous response in the lives of its members to say yes as Mary said yes, to say yes as Gerard said yes, to say yes in the footsteps of the thousands of members of our Order who over the centuries have served the Poor and the Sick and protected the Church by their example and loving service, always at a cost to themselves, and sometimes at the cost of their very lives!
 
At the Annunciation, the message of the Angel “greatly troubled” Mary, but he said to her “Do not be afraid, for the power of the most high will come upon you”. The feast we celebrate today reminds us of what is to come in Our Lady’s life, and what is to come in our life. Like her we may be afraid, afraid of what is happening in the world, what is happening in our family and country. Like Mary we may be afraid of what God may be asking of us to be a “light in the darkness”. Yet the Archangel reassures us, as he reassured Mary, for “Nothing is impossible for God” and so we join with Mary Our Mother and say “Behold the handmaid, (the servant) of the Lord, let it be done to me according to Gods word.”

The painting shows the Lifting of the Siege of Malta, by Charles-Philippe Lariviere. Salle des Croisades, Versailles.

 

OUR LADY'S INFLUENCE

As the page turns, and August move into the autumn, we should keep in mind, most notably in these troubled and Godless times, the promise of Our Lady to be with us in all our troubles, as in our joys; a role She was given from the Cross, but which was Hers from Eternity.

These words are from His Eminence Charles Cardinal Journet, "Entretiens sur Marie - Éditions Parole et Silence, 2001"

"The mystery of the Virgin is the first repercussion of the mystery of the Incarnation. The mystery of the Virgin is like when a stone is thrown into water: a first ripple is produced which will be the cause of all the others.

"This first concentric circle is the Virgin Mary in relation to the Incarnation. And the ripples will continue until the end of time, and they will be the Church."

Our Holy Father Pope Francis spoke of ripples from a stone early in his pontificate, but his ripples seemed to be going the other way.

Which sort of ripple are we?

Translation: Grand Priory of England