That The Bones You Have Crushed May Thrill

I found this on Gloria TV. I think the interview could be quite old. He speaks very beautifully on the matter of Holy Communion.

When you're Pectoral Cross falls into a 'hiding place' accidentally...at the exact moment when you are in an 'interfaith' setting. This is an embarrassment that many Bishops can attest to.


It clearly took His Holiness a long time to realise that his Pectoral Cross had accidentally been hidden.



Why did nobody point it out to the Holy Father?


 Why does it always happen at just the wrong moment! Thankfully, we can rest assured that this was not a 'gesture', authentic or otherwise, and that these things just happen, because it seems obvious to me that any Bishop who hides Christ meeting anyone is some kind of, well, I am not sure quite what!



The mysterious disapperance of the Cross was also a phenomenom that affected others in attendance.





Ah well, there's always next time, Your Holiness. An unplanned gesture that could happen to anyone, or, even, everyone! Quick, put your Crosses away lads, its only polite!

The Father of Zionism



Apparently Theodore Herzl, …

This image is beautiful. It sends out a clear signal - and I believe it is an authentic gesture - more authentic than your average authentic gesture - that the Pope can carry and does carry a black bag. I don't know about you but I respect anyone who carries a bag. Yet, I do wonder whether this black bag lark is a little 'outdated'.

The Supreme Pontiff, in making a clear gesture that he is one of the ordinary folk who walk on a red carpet, need not use a black, leather bag. The red carpet, obviously, isn't anything fancy for Pope Francis himself, but symbolises the Blood of Christ that trailed through the street in that land made Holy by His Life, Death and Resurrection. For the Pope to give a sign of Our Lord's Passion and Death, as well as the blood of the martyrs is just beautiful. Beautiful.



Why a black bag though? Why not something like a Sainsbury's bag, or a 'bag for life' Sainbury's bag at that, or the Italian equivalent. This would send a c…

Courtesy of The Catholic Herald...

Regarding his dramatic gestures during the visit, when he prayed at the controversial Israeli-built separation barrier in the West Bank and kissed the hands of Holocaust survivors, the Pope said the....
“...most authentic gestures are those you don’t think about… mine were not planned gestures, it just occurs to me to do something spontaneously that way.”
Ahem.

Is it just me, or is the Holy Father suggesting that there are times, even as Pope, in which His Holiness has engaged in what could be called 'inauthentic gestures' but that these 'unplanned' authentic gestures in the Holy Land were 'genuinely authentic'?

Or is His Holiness saying that 'the most authentic gestures' are those that people in general do not think about? It is very kind of His Holiness to explain to us what differentiates an authentic gesture from a 'less authentic gesture'.

Are there degrees of authenticity in gestures? The 'most&…

A commenter called Alison Muir left a comment on my blog after my glowing report on Bishop Athansius Schneider.

The comment, at which I burst out laughing, read...

'He's only an auxillary bishop - so hardly one at all really. He's certainly never going to get promoted.'

Where to begin with this appalling understanding of Catholicism?

St Catherine of Siena was only a nun.

St Therese of Lisieux was a Carmelite nun.

St Francis of Assisi was only a layman and then friar.

St Dominic was only a priest and preacher.

St Anthony of Padua was only a priest and friar.

St Athanasius was a Bishop. While heresy swept the Catholic Church like wildfire, among Bishops, he alone held out against Arianism and stood up for Christ. How many of the other Bishops of his day have their own feast days?

How much time have you got, 'Alison'? I haven't got all day, but I would need quite a few in order to list the highly influential Catholics who have changed the course of the Church…

I just booked a nine-seater vehicle today to go to Ramsgate to the Shrine of St Augustine tomorrow.

Unfortunately, the car rental place is closed tomorrow because its a bank holiday. Anyone have any ideas other than the train?

I don't suppose there is anyone living near (or even not that near) Brighton who has a vehicle (it doesn't have to be a nine-seater!) who fancies driving to Ramsgate to pay a duel visit to the Shrine of St Augustine and to go to Mass celebrated, I think, by Bishop Athansius? If so, drop me an email while I start praying. I'd be happy to pay! However, if that's a no go...

Bishop Schneider will not be celebrating Mass but will be preaching at the 6pm Mass at the London Oratory for St Philip’s Day.

Unless a Miracle happens, I expect that, God willing, I'll see you there.

Update: I can hire a car from Gatwick. Pray for us!

H/T Roy 'Get out of the water!' Schneider
Analogous to the precarious situation of Holy Mother Church?



Warning: Graphic scenes of shark-related horror are in the video above.

Heresy is like a great white shark in the water, seeking to devour the truth and with it the children of Mary and Jesus, encouraging people to embrace falsehood!

Lord, grant that Your Church may enjoy true liberty and exaltation,
and that the shark of heresy may be kept at bay, or speared and then blown up!

One of the best lines in a movie ever.

This is how to deal with heresy when it seeks to devour the barque! Go, Schneider, go!

What efforts men will go to, to proclaim their humility!
I have not been so impressed and excited by the words and example of a Bishop as I am about Bishop Athanasius Schneider for a long time. That said, there are not many Bishops who one can get excited about unless it is to be in a rather negative sense.


In England and Wales, everything is rather negative, Bishops seem so embarrassed of our Faith. I was expecting to work today, so I could not go up to London, but it rained so I was not called in. That's the world of catering for you but that means I was unable to get up to the one day LMS Conference with Bishop Athanasius today.

However, with the humble Bishop still gathering crowds, all is not lost, as he will be at the Shrine of St Augustine in Ramsgate on Monday. Guess who is considering hiring a car. There's a plenary indulgence waiting for the man who does, assuming I don't crash on the way.

Bishops take note: Clothes maketh not the man!
What is refreshing about B…

Imagine stepping into a Catholic Church and hearing this. Music breaks down walls. Music like this can break down thick walls of prejudice against the Church. At the Church I attended last week, this sublime music was sung during the Offertory. Why is it not sung in all Churches at its proper time in the liturgical year? Any era in the Church that rejects this music is positively insane. Only a Church that wanted to kill itself would do so.

...until he's done the 12-step programme. In order to lead the country you have to be sober at least some of the time. Still, they say it never did Churchill much harm.

All joking aside, I expect that the IPA will be flowing for the next few days for UKIP. Good for them, they have made politics exciting again. The people have spoken (well, 34% of the people have spoken, some of whom voted UKIP) and the overwhelming opinion seems to be one of contempt for the political figures who show such contempt for those who have placed them in authority over them through the ballot box.

I'm not sure whether Nigel Farage is really a 'man of the people' because most people can't afford to drink in pubs anymore. Mine's a San Miguel or two from the corner shop. I think Catholics should join UKIP now, so that they get a place at the table when Nigel starts formulating policy. If nutters are welcome in the party, then why can't we be welcomed too! UKIP are a 'broad chur…

I have written an absurdly long blog post on the Bible and slavery following conversations with an atheist over Facebook.

If you would like to read it, visit The Guild of Blessed Titus Brandsma.

Say a prayer for this 20-year-old who committed suicide after a short period of unemployment. That a young man should commit suicide due to lack of work is truly terrible and saddening.

Is a statement I can generally agree with. Since this is, in a simplistic way, what the Church teaches.
The Church does not teach anything so blithe and meaningless as:
'We are all equal'.
Nor is equality in human dignity even the focus of so many 'equality campaigners'. Our Lord Jesus Christ did not teach equality and if you can find me a passage of Scripture in which the doctrine of 'equality' is expounded, I will be very surprised indeed.

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Yet, I see that even the statement, 'we're all equal in our human dignity' is problematic, since we believe that the dignity conferred on us by right of our humanity - given to us by the Creator - is not the same as the supernatural dignity -given to us by the Creator - conferred on us through Baptism, as adopted sons and daughters of God, nor does it account for the loss of dignity we suffer from mortal sin, or its restor…

Be a religion known for intransigence and even violent defence of its own interests rather than a religion known for its tolerance and subservience to the State?

It will be interesting to see how Ofsted react to being shown the door at a Luton Muslim school.

Why has no Bishop tried that, I wonder?

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If you would like to contribute to the Guild's blog, if you are a member, a registered author, please feel free to write something and post it up. If you are not a member but would like to contribute something to be considered for publication, send something over to me at englandsgardens@googlemail.com.

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If you are a Catholic blogger and have not yet joined the Guild, contact me if you wish to do so, we are always happy to consider new members. We are stronger together, then we are alone. If you wish to write for a blog but would like to be anonymous, for your own reasons, do not worry, …

The Guild of Blessed Titus Brandsma

‘Equality’ is not a true law, nor can it justly be called a right. It’s dominance of popular culture has rendered it worse than a myth. If people are caught up in the notion of equality today it is because man easily becomes caught up in superstition.

What has given the word ‘equality’ – a word that has never lost its emotive power since the dawn of the Enlightenment - the power and force that it has in today’s society?

We now hear this word, particularly in the realm of gender and sexuality so much and it so dominates the public forum that for anybody to contradict the very notion of equality is to have committed a formal and public act of heresy that warrants public exclusion, potential loss of employment and perhaps worse.

The fear and hatred generated against those who have contradicted the concept of equality is visceral and powerful. Why? What has made rejection of this belief so highly charged? The simple truth would appear to b…

'For the sorrows of those who run to alien gods are many.'  - Psalm 15

Oh joy! Diego Maradona, the unrepentant cheat from Argentina, unlike that nice Gary Lineker, is rather taken by Pope Francis. Perhaps, we should not be too surprised. I do not wish to revel in the vices of others, but the unrepentant cheat, whose comeback in another world cup was ruined because of his habitual cocaine use, claims to have found something of a Supreme Pontiff after his own heart in the Pope from the New World.
“The Vatican, for me, is a lie because instead of giving to people it takes away. All popes have done this and I don’t want him to do it,” Maradona said during an interview with a Naples TV station, according to Reuters.

“I am disappointed with the Vatican but I believe in you because you are making changes and pointing us towards more human things, things that I would like to see in the Church,” he added. As England supporters will know and appreciate, Diego Maradona has ever been a rebellious child of Argentina who turns his nose up at any sense of playing by …

I am so excited about Bishop Athansius Schneider's coming the the UK.

As part of the tour, the Bishop will be coming to West Grinsted on Saturday for a Pontifical High Mass.

Full details of the Mass in the Extraordinary Form are here, along with full details of his whistlestop tour of the UK.

May this good Bishop continue to give witness to the Lord, most especially to the reverence with which we should honour the Blessed Sacrament. Deo gratias!

Fatima supporters are widely regarded as being a bit 'out there' in the Catholic Church. I think that, in a way, the Fatima children gave Catholics who promote the message of Fatima a good preparation for rejection since they, also, were widely rejected until evidence of the supernatural became more extended, for instance, during the Miracle of the Sun. Still, even after that, a lot of Bishops would say that Fatima is not important. I really doubt that Fatima is not important. The message of Fatima, essentially, is 'repent for the Kingdom of God is near at hand'. If that's not important, then what is?

However, it is kind of to be expected that the Feast of Our Lady of Fatima should become regarded by some - or even many - in the Church - as something of a feast for the fruitloops, because within the Fatima camp are some ideas that are truly 'out there'. I don't know whether Pope Francis celebrated the Feast today - after all, it was an option.

What!? Di…