SAINT HUGH, RELIGIOUS OF OUR ORDER

Today is the Feast of Saint Hugh, who was born about 1168 at Alessandria, Italy. As a young man he became a knight of the Order of Saint John of Jerusalem. After lengthy service with the Order in the Holy Land, he was elected Master of the Commandery of San Giovanni di Prè in Genoa (Italy), where he worked in the infirmary nearby.  He was renowned for miraculous powers over the natural elements.  He is believed to have died in 1233.

He is regarded in the Order as having particular care of those involved actively in Hospitaller work, and in Britain may be seen as patron of the Companions of Malta.

St Hugh's name is inscribed in a panel of the outer wall of the Conventual Church of St John of Jerusalem in St John's Wood in London.

From the Collect

Saint Hugh,

God gave you the power to heal the sick by the sign of the cross.

Pray that God will give all our members

the spirit which inspired your own love

to serve God in our sick brothers and sisters.

St Hugh, pray for us.

HYMN FOR THE HOLY ROSARY

The Grand Priory of England wishes to all our Readers a very happy and blessed Feast of the Most Holy Rosary. In the Extraordinary Form today, though being Sunday, is celebrated as the Feast. In the Novus Ordo, the Mass is of the Sunday, but the Divine Office may be that of the Feast, logic in such matters being set to one side.

The Holy Rosary is the foremost weapon of the Order's armoury in her battle of Tuitio Fidei through her long history. Not of course since the very beginning, as the Rosary in its currently know form was developed only in the 15th century, when we were already over 300 years old, but we have held it faithfully in our calloused hands during the long years of the naval battles in the Mediterranean, and there is good ground to assume that the more primitive version of this prayer, as preached by Saint Dominic following Our Lady's apparition to him in 1214, was early adopted by our crusader knights, whose devotion to Our Blessed Lady is aboriginal.

The Feast of the Most Holy Rosary was instituted by Pope S Pius V in 1571. In 1757 Father Augustino Tomasso Ricchini O.P. (1695-1779) composed this hymn, in four sections, for the Dominican Breviary. It was added to the Roman Breviary for the universal Church in 1888 by Pope Leo XIII, the 'Pope of the Holy Rosary'.

The hymn is based upon the Fifteen Mysteries, and it is to this end that we offer it to our gentle Readers, as an aid to meditation and prayer. The first three parts, for I Vespers, Matins and Lauds of the Feast, adopt each of the 15 mysteries for each successive verse. The last five verses, for II Vespers, is a sort of recapitulation and summary, and this may fruitfully be used as a thanksgiving at the end of the recitation.  Each section of the hymn recited liturgically concludes with the doxology "All honor, laud, and glory be." given here at the end, though this may be omitted in private recitation and simply replaced by the final "Gloria Patri" of the last decade.

UPDATE There has been a request for the tune on the Facebook page. The correct chant tune is appended at the end of the post, giving the first two verses. This is the tune members of the Order know as the Lauds and Compline hymn from the Little Office of Our Lady. It may nevertheless be sung to the well-known Roman tune for Advent Vespers, Creator alme siderum,  known also by its English title 'Creator of the stars of night'.

The translation is by Monsignor Hugh Thomas Henry (1862-1946).

THE JOYFUL MYSTERIES  CAELESTIS aulae Nuncius. 

THE Messenger from God's high throne
His secret counsel making known
Hails Mary, child of David's race,
God's Virgin Mother, full of grace. 

The Mother Maid with joyous feet
Her friend, John's mother, goes to greet;
He, stirring in the enclosing womb,
Declares that Christ his Lord has come. 

The Word, who ere the worlds began,
From God the Father's thought forth ran,
Of Mary, Virgin undefiled,
For us is born a mortal child. 

Christ to the Temple courts they bring;
The King's own law subjects the King;
The world's Redeemer for a price
Is there redeemed, our sacrifice. 

The joyful Mother finds once more
The Son she mourned as lost before;
While doctors by His speech were shown
The mysteries they had never known. 

THE SORROWFUL MYSTERIES  IN monte olivis consito.

THE Mount of Olives witnesseth
The awful agony of God:
His soul is sorrowful to death,
His sweat of blood bedews the sod. 

And now the traitor's work is done:
The clamorous crowds around Him surge;
Bound to pillar, God the Son
Quivers beneath the blood-red scourge. 

Lo! clad in purple soiled and worn,
Meekly the Savior waiteth now
While wretches plait the cruel thorn
To crown with shame His royal brow. 

Sweating and sighing, faint with loss
Of what hath flowed from life's red fount,
He bears the exceeding heavy Cross
Up the verge of Calvary's mount. 

Nailed to the wood of ancient curse,
Between two thieves the Sinless One
Still praying for His murderers,
Breathes forth His soul, and all is done! 

THE GLORIOUS MYSTERIES   IAM morte, victor, obruta.

NOW Hell is vanquished; every chain
Of sin is broken; Christ again
Returning, victor over death,
The gates of heaven openeth. 

We mortals saw Him, till He passed
Into the heavens, where at last,
Partaker of God's glory bright,
He sitteth on the Father's right. 

From thence He sheds the promised boon,
The Holy Spirit, on His own
In fiery tongues of love, o'erspread
Above each sad disciple's head. 

The Virgin, from the flesh set free,
Is borne beyond the stars; where she
Receives from heaven's joyous throngs
The welcome of angelic songs. 

Twice six the stars that crown her brow;
The gracious Mother reigneth now
Beside her Son's eternal throne
O'er all creation as her own. 

TE gestientem gaudiis.

THE gladness of thy Motherhood,
The anguish of thy suffering,
The glory now that crowns thy brow,
O Virgin Mother, we would sing. 

Hail, blessed Mother, full of joy
In thy consent, thy visit too;
Joy in the birth of Christ on earth,
Joy in Him lost and found anew. 

Hail, sorrowing in His agony
The blows, the thorns that pierced His brow;
The heavy wood, the shameful Rood
Yea! Queen and chief of Martyrs thou. 

Hail, in the triumph of thy Son,
The quickening flames of Pentecost;
Shining a Queen in light serene,
When all the world is tempest-tost. 

O come, ye nations, roses bring,
Culled from these mysteries divine,
And for the Mother of your King
With loving hands your chaplets twine. 

All honor, laud, and glory be,
O Jesu, Virgin-born to Thee;
All glory, as is ever meet,
To Father and to Paraclete. Amen.

Our Lady Queen of the Most Holy Rosary, pray for us. 

THE SCOURGE OF ABORTION - AN UPDATE ON YOUR GENEROSITY!

Following our earlier post, HERE, on the Be Here for Me Campaign, we are delighted to be be able to give this update from Alina, on her legal battle with the powers of darkness who promote abortion.

She writes:

EXCITING UPDATE: we have reached our target goal of £50,000!! Thank you all so much for your incredible support and for making the appeal possible! 

As I mentioned in my last update, we still are waiting to hear back from the Court of Appeal, but I will let you know as soon as I hear any news. 

Thank you again! 

Alina

The Report, and an opportunity to continue to support this legal effort, may be seen HERE.

Many thanks to all our readers who have helped Alina and made this possible, you will be rewarded in Heaven.

Our Lady of Philermo, pray for us and for all unborn children.

"COMMANDERIES" BOOK LAUNCH - NEXT WEDNESDAY

The Grand Priory is thrilled to announce the publication of THE KNIGHTS HOSPITALLER IN GREAT BRITAIN IN 1540, written and illustrated by Michael Hodges, Chancellor of the British Association.

The launch will be held at St Wilfred’s Hall at the Brompton Oratory, SW7 2RP, on Wednesday 10th October, from 6.30 to 8pm. 

This volume is a wonderfully pictorial gazetteer of the Commanderies, churches, and other properties of the Order of Saint John in Britain in the centuries leading up to the Reformation. Each property is photographed in its present condition, and people will be truly amazed at how much survives dotted around the country, notwithstanding the dreadful devastation and plundering of religious houses under Henry VIII. The book is entertaining and colourful, as well as having a seriously academic underlying thesis.  This is the first ever published major collection of the Order's properties.

It is an invaluable work for members of our Order to learn more about an important subject upon which we have all been a little hazy (one cannot fully serve the future without learning of the past), and constitutes at the same time a very attractive and informative present for our friends. 

Michael Hodges is a well-known author of books on churches, including the recent "Parish Churches of Greater London : A Guide", and "The Urns and Sepulchres of Mortality – The Church Monuments of Wiltshire". He is also a fine photographer.

Please inform Caroline de la Force if you propose to attend the launch, by telephone on 020 7286 1414 or at basmom(AT)btconnect.com, substituting @ in the usual way.

Copies may be ordered by post, for those justly impatient or unable to come, by printing out and using the form below and sending a cheque, a suitably historical way of paying.

DON CAMILLO SHOWS THE WAY!

This well-known and charming video rather speaks for itself in the current turbulent climate. It might be observed, nonetheless, that in this clip, though very short, there are sketches of many characters whom we know in our Church today. Perhaps we see ourselves here?

PRAYER FOR THE SOVEREIGN PONTIFF

V. Let us pray for Francis, our Pope. 
R. May the Lord preserve him, give him long life, make him blessed upon the earth, and may the Lord not hand him over to the power of his enemies.  

V. May thy hand be upon thy holy servant. 
R. And upon thy son whom thou hast anointed. 

O GOD, the Pastor and Ruler of all the faithful, look down, in thy mercy, upon thy servant Francis, whom thou hast appointed to preside over thy Church; and grant, we beseech thee, that both by word and example, he may edify all those under his charge; so that, with the flock entrusted to him, he may arrive at length unto life everlasting. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

A PRAYER FOR BISHOPS AND PRIESTS 

O GOD, who hast appointed Thine only-begotten Son to be the eternal High Priest for the glory of Thy Majesty and the salvation of mankind; grant that they whom He hath chosen to be His ministers and the stewards of His mysteries, may be found faithful in the fulfillment of the ministry which they have received. Through the same Christ Our Lord. Amen.

O Lord, give us priests.

O Lord, give us many priests.

O Lord, give us many good and holy priests.

Today is also the feast of Blessed Peter Pattarini de Imola, religious of our Order, a 13th century lawyer, and Prior of Rome. He served Our Lords the Poor with diligence in Florence, where he died this day in 1320.

Blessed Peter, pray for us.

SCOTLAND THE BRAVE!!!

Some may say, with certain justification, that our beloved Order has not alway treated Scotland fairly. Nevertheless, never ones to hold a grudge, the sons of St Columba, of St Ninian, St Mungo, St Aidan and Saint Margaret, among whom, no doubt some sons of Torphichen, have put us all, not for the first time, to shame. The fine Catholic Herald has excellent coverage (with full list of the signatories, HERE), as do several sound blogs, with fruitful comment.

Over 100 young people, aged 18 to 35, have written to our august confrere, Archbishop Leo Cushley, expressing their concerns about the upcoming Synod for the Young People, and the foolishness of downplaying orthodox teaching in the interest of some short-term appeal. Such a shying away from traditional apologetics has become the mark of our age.

Will the young of England, of our universities, indeed of our own Order, follow this lead?

We print below the full text of this excellent initiative. People of a certain age – that covers the hierarchy of Holy Mother Church, of our Order, and most probably the editors of this Blog, really have to get to grips with the fact that Young People do not think the way we feel they should think, nor the way perhaps we thought when we ourselves were young. Thank God for that. The young are their own, and surprisingly sound, loyal, traditional and right-minded. We should do well to listen... we are never too old to learn. This, then, is their text:

Your Grace, 

We write to you in advance of the upcoming Synod of Bishops on “Young People, the Faith and Vocational Discernment”. As young Catholics across Scotland, we would like to express our hopes and concerns for the future of the Church in this country. 

In some of the discourse surrounding the synod, we have noted a trend of suggesting that difficult aspects of the Church’s teaching, in matters of morals and matters of faith, need to be downplayed, or even put aside, in order to be relevant to people’s lives and sensitive to their difficulties. Some even imply that priests who hold to orthodox teaching are out of touch with the lives of lay people, and of young people especially. However, it is in fact this line of thought that is utterly in contradiction to our lived experience. What made us become and/or remain Catholic, against ever increasing cultural pressure, are those aspects of the faith that are uniquely Catholic, not things that can be found in social clubs, in NGOs, or in political parties. What matters is precisely the Church’s claim to truth; Her liturgy and Sacraments; Her transcendent doctrine, communicated in teaching but also through beauty and goodness; Her understanding of the human person, laid out so powerfully for the modern world by St John Paul II; and Her moral teaching, that while so very challenging, also offers the only path to true joy and human flourishing as we see in the lives of the saints. These are the things that convince us that here is something worth the sacrifice, something good for us and for every human being. 

Young Catholics are inspired by the heroic virtue espoused by the Church, in opposition to the cynicism and pessimism of postmodern culture. A faith that merely legitimises the habits we would otherwise have anyway is simply not worth it. Far from being “out of touch”, it is those priests who proclaim orthodox teaching in its fullness with joy and courage who have brought the light of Christ into our lives, and really offered us His Mercy – the remedy for a broken world, which does not pretend human brokenness is irremediable, but truly heals and gives the grace we need to live new lives of virtue. To those priests, we are unendingly grateful. 

Sadly, far too few young people have encountered this fullness of the faith lived out visibly and confidently. A young Catholic father in America recently wrote to Archbishop Chaput that “The disastrous effect that Beige Catholicism (as Bishop Robert Barron aptly describes it) has had on my generation can’t be overstated.” (“From the Heart of a Young Father”, Charles Chaput, First Things, 18^th  April 2018). God has, in His mysterious ways, providentially and gratuitously blessed us with encounters, pastors, and formation that many of our peers have not had. We desperately want to share this great gift with so many lapsed and non-Catholics among our family, friends, and colleagues, who have not rejected Catholicism but a poorly-understood shadow of it. If the synod is to bear fruit, it is with this task that it must help us. 

We need to ensure that our local Catholic communities are permeated with a Catholic worldview, and unashamed that such an orientation is very different from the prevailing cultural trends. The sacramental life, beyond just Sunday Mass, needs to be obviously and visibly the foundation of Catholic existence. We must draw on our rich heritage to ensure the liturgy is celebrated with beauty and splendour so as to reveal and draw us into the profound mysteries taking place. We need to see the various vocations lived out fully and joyfully, with parishes and dioceses forming a living iconography of faith, so that we can discern God’s will for our own lives, not in isolation but in an ecclesial context. 

Young people need the chance to get to know our priests as priests – not just as administrators, nor presiders rushing from church to church, nor again merely as pals, but as fathers, whose fatherhood is rooted in their sacramental identity as men called and set apart to absolve and to offer the Holy Sacrifice. Young Catholics find priests who live their vocation to celibacy faithfully and joyfully to be highly credible witnesses to the joys and challenges of life in Christ. 

The Church must be proactive and not merely reactive in facing the crisis affecting marriage and the family. To a large extent, Catholic married life has come to be treated as little different from secular relationships. Our economic and social structures are based almost entirely around a presumption of contraception, and this makes it extremely difficult for any couples who live faithfully according to God’s commandments. So many of our generation are living with the consequences of broken families, and this has engendered a cynicism about marriage. However, these young people have never been shown an alternative and therefore the Church has a great opportunity and obligation to clearly, confidently, and joyfully proclaim the truth about marriage. Young Catholics have a right to hear these truths at a local level so that our parishes are consciously supportive of the vocation to holiness in married life. This is vital since it is firstly in the family that vocations are fostered and it is on this foundation that an authentic renewal of Catholic culture and the life of the Church will be built. 

There is no doubt that discovering and living out one’s vocation is very difficult in the modern world, as indeed it has been in every age. However, we know that God’s grace is enough for us and we hope and pray that a renewed faith and confidence in this will suffuse the Church and inspire young people to discern and live out their vocations faithfully. 

Entrusting the synod to the intercession of St John, youngest of the Apostles, we assure you of our prayers. 

Yours sincerely in Christ,

(100+ signatures) 

Our Lady, Queen of the Family, pray for the young. 

Our Lady of Philermo, pray for our Order.
St John the Evangelist, pray for the Synod.
All Holy Saints of Scotland, pray for the Church.

MICHAELMAS RECOLLECTION - SECOND TALK

All Saints Chapel hiding behind the palladian facades of the Castle

There follows Father Rupert Allen's afternoon paper.  The Day then closed with Benediction of the Most Blessed Sacrament.

Our sincere thanks to Lord Talbot of Malahide and the Trustees of Wardour Chapel for their generous hospitality at the altar once again.

Let us invoke anew the aid of our heavenly patron. Holy Michael the Archangel …..

I hope that this morning I brought home to you the reality of the spiritual fight in which we are engaged as Christians and the great encouragement God gives us in such enormous generosity for every moment of our battle with darkness. Saint Michael offers each of us such guidance, protection and ready help in the age-old battle between good and evil, between God and Satan. The war waged by Michael and the heavenly host is of course not simply a far off moment in sacred history, but an ongoing battle for our souls and those of all. Quite simply St. Michael’s war is our war too. 

 Throughout all ages the Christian people have, in popular piety and heartfelt devotion, sought to unite their own struggles to the protection of our Heavenly standard-bearer. I recall a few years ago visiting a little village church just outside of Brussels. There was a great window of St. Michael which especially caught my eye. In it Saint Michael was depicted wearing a Belgian soldier’s helmet and his face was familiar if rather out of place; the serpent writhing at his feet sported a Prussian helmet and sported a large handle-bar moustache. The artist had so identified the struggle of his people at a particular moment in history with the spiritual battle that St. Michael had been transformed into King Albert of the Belgians crushing the Emperor Wilhelm. Such a depiction is obviously very much of its time and place, but recalls the truth that our battles for goodness, beauty, and truth – for the Truth – must be seen in the context of Heaven’s war too.

MICHAELMAS RECOLLECTION - FIRST TALK

Fra' Richard renewing his vows before the Lieutenant, Fra' Max Rumney,
with his witnesses, Patricia Lady Talbot of Malahide and Fra' Julian Chadwick,
watched by his family.

This is the text of the first paper given by Father Rupert Allen at Wardour Castle last Saturday. For those who were present it merits careful rereading, and equally we are sure it will be of spiritual benefit to our wider readership. Fr Allen touches upon the areas of grave concern to all Catholics in the Church today, but particularly to knights committed to the defense of the Faith, as well as our perennial goal to get ourselves, and each other, into Heaven.

Fr Allen is a priest of the Diocese of Clifton, and Catholic Chaplain to Bristol University. 

The second paper will be published tomorrow.

There has long been a tradition amongst Catholics in this land to say one Hail Mary each day for the conversion of our country and so to make us mindful of all our quest and aim let us now so petition the Holy Mother of God, Patroness of the Order, Our Lady of Mount Phileremos as we say; Hail Mary …. 

I must begin by thanking you for the kind invitation to come and lead you in your recollection today. This place is of course permeated with the prayers and devotions of so many of the faithful and has such a particular place in the history and life of our diocese of Clifton, and it is all the more splendid to be here with all of you. Members of your Order have always played a part in my own Christian life; I see before me already a good number of old friends and so too in other parts of the world where I have had occasion to live and work the knights have been amongst my most loyal and loving of friends. It is good therefore to see you all ‘en masse’ today. 

            This is not the first time I have been asked to perform a service for the Order of Malta (and I hope it will not be the last!). Very many years ago I was in Rome to visit some saints and Fr. Ronald asked me to come and answer Mass on the Via dei Condotti. I dutifully took a cab from the nuns I was staying with but the driver could only take me so far. It was the day of the Rome marathon and the only way I would make it to the Magistral Palace in time for Mass was by running the course of the marathon. Onlookers encouraged me by their cheers as, cassock and surplice flying, I sped through the streets of the Eternal City. I did make it in time for Mass, albeit exhausted and even more red-faced than usual, but I am glad you will never require a marathon of me again.

There is a point to that little story – when faced with trails, as all Christians are if we truly live the Faith, we need encouragement to help us reach our Heavenly home.

PRAY TO YOUR GUARDIAN ANGELS

The Guardian Angel and his soul, with
St Ursula and St Thomas, by
Caravaggio, in the collection of the Prado

Today is the Feast of the Holy Guardian Angels. Our Angels are given to us by Almighty God to protect us from our own foolishness and from others. They have no other interest but to look after us; think about it, we do not make their life easy! It is good to get into the habit of speaking to them regularly, to treat them as the friends they are, to thank them for their care, and to ask them to walk with us through the trials of life, to walk with us in Death, and to lead us to the step of the Throne of Grace. The Church is silent about how many Angels each of us has to guard us, some say one, the Dominican tradition teaches two, one to protect us and one to protect other people from us. Others say we may each have four.

The following prayer, originally composed as a Novena, may fruitfully be used as a daily prayer to our Guardian Angels.

O HOLY ANGELS, whom God, 

by the effect of His goodness 

and His tender regard for my welfare, 

has charged with the care of my conduct, 

and who assist me in all my wants 

and comfort me in all my afflictions, 

who support me when I am discouraged 

and continually obtain for me new favours, 

I return you profound thanks, 

and I earnestly beseech you, 

O most amiable protectors, 

to continue your charitable care and defense of me 

against the malignant attacks of all my enemies. 

Keep me away from all occasions of sin. 

Obtain for me the grace of listening attentively 

to your holy inspirations 

and of faithfully putting them into practice. 

In particular, I implore you to obtain for me 

the favour for which I ask. 

[Here mention your need.]

Protect me in all the temptations and trials of this life, 

but more especially at the hour of my death, 

and do not leave me until you have conducted me 

into the presence of my Creator  

in the mansions of everlasting happiness. Amen.

Holy Guardian Angels, protect us.

HOLY MICHAEL THE ARCHANGEL! (Updated)

Today is the feast of the Dedication of the Church of Saint Michael the Archangel, in some places celebrated as the feast of the Archangels Michael, Gabriel and Raphael, and indeed in others in our land as Saint Michael and All Angels.

Saint Michael wields his flaming sword to cut through the sin of lies and corruption in the Church. No-one can escape his avenging power, if he does not cut us off from our sins in this world, he will cut us off from eternal bliss in the next.  No-one can escape, not pope, bishop, priest, king, knight, monk, dame, nor any other man nor woman.

Today members of the Grand Priory are at All Saint Chapel at Wardour for a day of recollection, no doubt privately and publicly many prayers will be offered for Holy Mother Church in this age of trial. Remember She is always our Mother, given to us for all time by the Son; even mothers can appear to err, and it is, in such sad cases, the duty of their children to pray for them. In the case of the Church, of course, She only seems to err in the person of her human members, in her divine Nature She is free from error, but the tangle of sin may obscure this from view, as with our own souls. She needs our prayers. May this be a time of glorious renewal in the Church and conversion of those countless souls yet outside the Church who inwardly and unknowing long for Her maternal embrace.

Sin is like a garden, the flowers bloom most abundantly on the branches which have been most rigorously pruned. Pray to Saint Michael to prune violently the sin from our souls and from the Church, that we may be seen as we really are, as God's Creation.

Holy Michael, the Archangel, defend us in the day of battle. Be our safeguard against the wickedness and snares of the devil. May God rebuke him, we humbly pray; and do thou, O Prince of the Heavenly Host, by the power of God, cast down into hell Satan and all the wicked spirits who wander through the world for the ruin of souls. Amen. 

Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on us.
Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on us.
Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on us.

Our Lady of Philermo, pray for us.

Saint Michael the Archangel, pray for us.

All Holy Saint, pray for us.

UPDATE! For those interested in the historical and liturigcal background of this feast, NLM has a very interesting arctle HERE.

Fr Rupert Allen has agreed to send the texts of his wonderful papers delivered yesterday on St Michael, Sin and the Church, which we shall publish here is due course. We are deeply indebted to him for his kindness and erudition, as to all those who worked so hard to make yesterday's Recollection a great success.

FEAST OF SAINT WENCESLAUS, MARTYR

Today is the feast of Saint Wenceslaus Duke of Bohemia, who had so nobly served to liberate his people from poverty and bondage, and who was martyred in church in Prague by his brother, at their mother's urging. Pray for all those who strive to uphold the teaching of the Gospels in our world, and for those souls who resist them.

Since there is no connexion between this great saint and our Order, we offer two drawings of the conventual buildings of our Priory in Clerkenwell by his spiritual child, Wenceslaus Holler.

Saint Wenceslaus, pray for the Church.

St John the Baptist, pray for our Order.

NO ROOM WITH A VIEW FOR THE HOUNDS OF THE LORD?

The very sad new is announced of the departure of the Dominicans from their convent at San Marco in Florence, the home of the Fra' Angelicos, as every schoolboy knows. The news is reported HERE by the New York Times.

For many centuries the Dominicans, whose Order is a mere century younger than our own, have maintained two great houses in Florence, San Marco and Santa Maria Novella, the present great church of the latter begin in 1247, and at San Marco since 1436, when Pope Eugenius IV allowed the Dominicans of Fiesole to take over the church of St Mark. A year later Cosimo de Medici began the building of the new church, incorporating much of the structure of the old, designed by Michelozzo. The nave was later adapted by Vasari. Now, unless a solution can be found, the church is to pass to secular care.

Fra' Angelico was, of course, a Dominican, and the museum which is associated principally with his work has been here for centuries.  He was part of the Fiesole community who first came here, so many of these works were painted for this church. 

To quote  Father Sbaffoni, one of the four friars left, in the NYT: 'Mendicant orders — those like the Dominicans and the Franciscans that embrace lives of poverty — “have lost much of their original spirit, which is no longer possible to reactivate, the world has changed too drastically for that.” In Italy, “we are very few,” he said. “Increasingly fewer, and with fewer young people. There’s the famous point of no return, and for me these historic orders have reached it. There’s no going back.”'

This is an image of the Church of today, feeble and emasculated! If they were to restore the liturgy and reassert their traditional discipline and charism, as the Dominicans in England, at Blackfriars, at Haverstock Hill have done, put their habits back on, then they too would have vocations. How absurd, this cry we hear from so many high up in the Church today "The world has changed too drastically"! "No going back"! Madness.

Pray for them.

The world of course had not changed at all when St Dominic preached the Albigensian Crusade against the Cathars, or he too would have packed up and gone home.

In the meantime, we post some sketches of San Marco done by a knight of Malta long ago.

Our Lady of the Holy Rosary, pray for us.

Saint Dominic, pray for us.

Saint Mark, pray for us.

FEAST OF OUR LADY OF WALSINGHAM

Feasts are coming thick and fast, this week. Tomorrow is the Feast of Our Lady of Walsingham, the principal shrine of England, and one dear to the heart of the Order of Malta, being our second oldest regular annual pilgrimage accompanied by Malades – Our Lords the Sick. This day was previously the feast of Our Lady of Ransom, established in the 13th century (with the Order of Mercedarians) to free captives from the Turks, another apostolate close to the hearts of our own Order. This feast is, in England, effectively subsumed into the Walsingham devotion. Our Lady of Walsingham frees souls captured in sin and error, with our prayers.

In a spirit of oecumenism, we give below the Collect of the Mass as authorised by Pope Francis for use in the Ordinariate Missal, which is based upon that authorised for the Shrine of the Holy House of Loreto by Pope Innocent XII, and adapted for Anglican use by the great liturgist and anglo-papalist (Fr) Henry Fynes-Clinton, guardian and benefactor of the Anglican shrine.

O GOD, who, through the mystery of the Word made flesh, didst in thy mercy sanctify the house of the Blessed Virgin Mary: do thou grant that we may keep aloof from the tabernacle of sinners, and become worthy indwellers of thy house, through Jesus Christ thy Son our Lord who liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, every one God, world without end. Amen.

The photograph above shows the Westminster diocesan shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham at Corpus Christi Maiden Lane. This is itself a loose copy of the altar of the Holy House of Loreto, and was designed by a member of our Order.

Our Lady of Walsingham, pray for us.

Our Lady of Ransom, pray for us.

Our Lady of Philermo, pray for us.

FEAST OF SS ELIZABETH AND ZACHARY, PARENTS OF OUR HOLY PATRON

The Virgin and Child, with Saints Elizabeth and Zachary,
and the Infant Baptist, by Andrea Mantegna, 1490

Tomorrow, Sunday 23rd September, is the feast of the parents of Saint John the Baptist. They will, of course, be ignored this years by the sacred liturgy, but hopefully not by us in our prayers!

The date of today's feast is interesting. Holy Mother Church has no knowledge of the date of the death, the heavenly birthday, of these two confessors, so today is in fact the day of the conception of Saint John, nine months to the day before his nativity on 23rd June. Pray today particularly for Christian Motherhood.

Mantegna's painting is wonderful also in showing Elizabeth and Zachary as so very elderly, compared to the youthful Mary. They both appear to have lost their teeth! Nothing is impossible to God. Pray for all parents who are struggling to have children.

COLLECT

O GOD, by whose grace Zachary and Elizabeth became the parents of the herald of your Son, grant us though their intercession the grace to love you above all things, and so inherit what you have promised. Through our Lord Jesus Christ you Son, who live and reign with you and the Holy Spirit, one God for ever and ever. Amen.

Our Lady of Philermo, pray for us.

Saint John the Baptist, pray for us.

Blessed Zachary and Elizabeth, pray for us.

SPIRITUAL MEDITATION 4 - EMBER SATURDAY

This is the last in the series of Dr Cullinan's four papers give to the Professed at Farnborough Abbey in August. Please see the notes preceding the first post on Wednesday. Today is the last of the autumn Ember Days. 

Our sincere thanks to Dr Cullinan for his wisdom and guidance. If you wish to write to thank him, he is at the Maryville Institute, HERE.

Our thanks too to Father Abbot, Dom Cuthbert Brogan OSB, for his kind welcome and hospitality to the Brethren.

Please pray for the Church and for the Order during this period of rampant Evil, of gross immodesty and of shameless lies, that, in the words of the Grand Master, Fra' Giacomo Dalla Torre del Tempio di Sanguinetto, "the Church will come out of this storm purified as the shining bride of Christ our Lord." 

Our Lady of Philermo, pray for us!

THE DISMISSAL

We’ve reached the smallest room. Not in the house, in the Mass. The Dismissal. The end. The Way Out after the banquet. 

In the Old Rite it’s positively tiny. ‘Ite, missa est’, whatever that meant originally. ‘Out you go!’ might be as good a translation as anything. The blessing by a priest that follows only came in at Trent. And Last Gospels and Prayers for Russia are not really part of the Mass. 

In the New Rite the Concluding Rites, as they are called, are a bit longer. There may be ‘brief announcements’, in the hope that you’ll remember them better if they come at the end. Then a longer or shorter blessing. Then the words of dismissal. Added to by Pope Benedict XVI. You can now be invited to ‘go in peace’, or told to ‘glorify the Lord by your life’ or to ‘announce the gospel of the Lord’. 

So why are we here at all? Why are we bothering with this tiny rite? 

Small rooms aren’t always useless. They can be very important indeed. Holy Mass is very important indeed, but what happens in the rest of your day, or the rest of your week, is very important indeed too.

So I’m going to devote this last talk to the rest of your day, or the rest of your week, or the rest of your year after this retreat. 

SPIRITUAL MEDITATION 3 - EMBER FRIDAY

This is the third of Dr Cullinan's talks. Today is Friday, so a day of abstinance, even if you have not been able to take up the bishops' invitation to fasting for these Ember Days!

THE BANQUETING CHAMBER 

And on the day called Sunday, all who live in cities or in the country gather together to one place, and the memoirs of the apostles or the writings of the prophets are read, as long as time permits; then, when the reader has ceased, the president verbally instructs, and exhorts to the imitation of these good things. Then we all rise together and pray, and, as we before said, when our prayer is ended, bread and wine and water are brought, and the president in like manner offers prayers and thanksgivings, according to his ability, and the people assent, saying Amen; and there is a distribution to each, and a participation of that over which thanks have been given, and to those who are absent a portion is sent by the deacons. And they who are well to do, and willing, give what each thinks fit; and what is collected is deposited with the president, who succours the orphans and widows and those who, through sickness or any other cause, are in want, and those who are in bonds and the strangers sojourning among us, and in a word takes care of all who are in need.

I think that’s the earliest description of a Mass. From the Apology of St Justin around AD 150. I hope it sounds familiar. 

Of course the mysteries were kept secret then. Only the baptized were allowed in. Rather like the Warrant Officers allowed into the anteroom for a glass of sherry, but not into the Officers’ Mess, the catechumens were kept out. Even St Gregory the Great is reluctant to speak to another bishop of the Mass of the Faithful. 

But it’s time for us to go into the Chamber now. 

The newly baptized would have been robed in white. To show their sinlessness and their priestly state. We should be reconciled by now, not only to God but to each other. 

When they put the Creed into the Roman Rite, at the end of the first millennium, it was put before the beginning of the Offertory, but I think it belongs in the chamber because it is a prayer only the faithful can make. 

In the Old Rite the priest sings Dominus vobiscum and Oremus, but no prayer follows it, as it usually does. This was where the Prayer of the Faithful used to be, until it was removed around AD 500. They’ve brought it back in the New Rite, not always very felicitously, and sometimes burdening us with a torrent of words, but it has a right to be there because it belongs to our common baptismal priesthood to intercede, and it makes us think of wider needs than those of our own selves or our own group. 

So it won’t do any harm this retreat to pray for others as well as ourselves.