The Feast of Our Lady in Spring

Today is known in the Irish Language as Lá Fhéile Muire san Earrach (the Feast Day of Our Lady in Spring) or Lá Theachtaireacht an Aingil (the Day of the Coming of the Angel).

The unequalled love of the Gaelic Race for the Mother of God is woven into the very words of everyday language. Even as the Anglophone will speak of Mary-down-the-street and Mary-the-Ever-Virgin-Mother-of-God by means of the same word, the Gael will call his neighbour Máire and the Immaculate Queen of Heaven Muire.

The Mother of God was a practical part of everyday life, as shown in the traditional Gaelic Milking Song or Cronan Bleoghan:

Thig, a Mhuire, ’s bligh a bhó,
Thig, a Bhride, ’s comraig í,
Thig, a Choluim-chille chaoimh,
’S iadh do dhá laimh mo m’ bhóin.

Thig, a Mhuire, dh’ fhios mo bhó,
Thig, a Bhride, mhór na loin,
Thig, a bhanachaig Íosa Críost,
’S cur do lámh a níos fo m’ bhóin.

This roughly translates as:

Come, O Mary, and milk my cow,
Come, St. Brigid, and attend her,
Come, St. Columba, the kind one,
And in thy two hands cradle my cow.

Come, O Mary, to meet my cow,
Come, St. Brigid, great of beauty,
Come, O milking woman of Jesus Christ,
And put thy hand beneath my cow.

*The image of the Annunciation on this post is the Cestello Annunciation on tempera by Sandro Botticelli c. 1490 in the Uffizi Gallery, Florence.

Pilgrimage to Kilcock

A spring mist still clung to the village of Kilcock as 39 members and friends of St. Conleth's Catholic Heritage Association came together for the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass celebrated in the Gregorian Rite in honour of the Holy Year of Saint Paul by Revd. Fr. David Jones, D.D. They received the warmest of welcomes from the Parish Priest and his staff.


St. Coca (orse Ercnait), foundress of Kilcock, whose feast is 6th June, was the sister of St. Kevin of Glendalough. The Beautiful Church of St. Coca was built in 1867. Its 131 feet of length beheld, for the first time in 40 years, the Rite of Mass for which it was constructed. Sensitive 'reordering' permitted the Gregorian Rite to be celebrated again on the main Altar of the Church.


The next pilgrimage in honour of the Holy Year of St. Paul will be to the Church of the Assumption, Vicarstown, Co. Laois, Ireland, on Saturday, 25th April, 2009.
The Diocese of Kildare and Leighlin has announced that the next Latin Mass in Newbridge will take place on 19th April and not on the second Sunday, which is usual.

St. Coca of Kilcock, pray for us!

Son of Saint Louis...

As reported, His Royal Highness the Grand Duke of Luxembourg has refused to give his assent to a law legalising euthanasia in the predominantly Catholic Grand Duchy, which now has the dubious distinction of being the third European Country, after the Netherlands and Belgium, to do so.

However, the 'Christian' 'Democrat' Government has decided not to permit the Grand Duke's conscience to prevent the legalised murder of the old.

Rather than adhere to the Constitution of the Grand Duchy, which required the Grand Duke to assent to laws passed by parliament before they came into force, they have decided to change Article 34 of that Constitution, stripping His Royal Highness of that function. His Royal Highness will now be required to promulgate laws, even if they are repugnant to his own conscience .

His Royal Highness' paternal Grand Aunt, the Grand Duchess Marie-Adélaïde was forced to abdicate in 1919 for having defended the rights of the Church in education, after which she entered a Convent for the remainder of her life. His Royal Highness' maternal Uncle, Baudoin, King of the Belgians, was forced to abdicate in 1990 rather than sign a law legalising abortion in Belgium.

St. Joseph, Patron of the Dying, pray for Luxembourg and its Grand Duke!

Saint Patrick's Day

Most glorious Saint Patrick, Bishop and Confessor, chosen by the Almighty to be the Apostle of Ireland, we, the children of those to whom you preached the Faith of Christ, never to be renounced, hail you as the wonderful instrument of God’s mercy for the obtaining of our eternal salvation. Most glorious Apostle and Patron of our island, submit to the Almighty our every temporal and spiritual want, that through your intercession, we may be relieved, in all our necessities through life, and when called from this world to the glory of God, we may, to your honour, be found worthy of the Faith that is within us, and of eternal salvation. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

(Let us, once again, pray for copyright holders!)

Holy Year for Priests

The Vatican Information Service states that, this morning, in the course of an address the members of the Congregation for the Clergy, the Holy Father announced: "In order to favour this tendency of priests towards spiritual perfection, upon which the effectiveness of their ministry principally depends, I have decided to call a special 'Year for Priests' which will run from 19 June 2009 to 19 June 2010". This year marks "the 150th anniversary of the death of the saintly 'Cure of Ars', St. Jean Marie Vianney, a true example of a pastor at the service of Christ's flock..."

St. Jean Marie Vianney, pray for our Priests!

Let us pray for our Holy Father the Pope!

"I was saddened by the fact that even Catholics... thought they had to attack me with open hostility." Pope Benedict XVI, today, 12th March, 2009, Feast of St. Gregory the Great.

Oremus pro Pontifice nostro Benedicto!

Dominus conservet eum,

et vivificet eum,

et beatum faciat eum in terra,

et non tradat eum in animam inimicorum eius. (Ps. xl:3)

"Pro cuius amore in eius eloquio nec mihi parco" St. Gregory the Great

Pope Benedict XVI to the Bishops of the Catholic Church

This morning, the Holy See issued a letter from His Holiness the Pope to the Bishops of the Catholic Church concerning the remission of the excommunication of the four Bishops consecrated by Archbishop Lefebvre.

Some extracts:

"I was saddened by the fact that even Catholics who, after all, might have had a better knowledge of the situation, thought they had to attack me with open hostility."

"The Church’s teaching authority cannot be frozen in the year 1962 – this must be quite clear to the Society [of St. Pius X]. But some of those who put themselves forward as great defenders of the Council also need to be reminded that Vatican II embraces the entire doctrinal history of the Church. Anyone who wishes to be obedient to the Council has to accept the faith professed over the centuries, and cannot sever the roots from which the tree draws its life."

""Do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love be servants of one another. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself’. But if you bite and devour one another, take heed that you are not consumed by one another." [Galatians 5:13-15] I am always tempted to see these words as another of the rhetorical excesses which we occasionally find in Saint Paul. To some extent that may also be the case. But sad to say, this "biting and devouring" also exists in the Church today, as expression of a poorly understood freedom. Should we be surprised that we too are no better than the Galatians?"

Long live the Shepherd of the Flock! Long live the Pope of Rome!

Saint Colman's Society for Catholic Liturgy

Saint Colman's Society for Catholic Liturgy, established in 2007, organisers of an excellent International Liturgical Conference last July, have launched a new website.

Their first International Liturgical Conference had the theme: Benedict XVI and The Sacred Liturgy. In their own words: "St. Colman’s Society for Catholic Liturgy encourages and promotes among its members full active and conscious participation in Catholic Liturgy in accordance with the authentic tradition of the Church especially as expressed in Sacrosanctum Concilium and subsequent liturgical legislation."

The Felire of St. Aengus names two Sts. Colman on 24th November. He of Cloyne is Colman MacLenine. He is described thus:

Mac Lenine the most excellent
With Colman of Duth-chuilleann.

O'Cleary's Calendar gives the following entry for St. Colman for 24th November: "Colman Mac Lenine of Cluain Uamahd in Ui Leathan in Munster of the race of Oilioll Olum son of Mogha Nuadhat or of the race of Lughaidh Lagha his brother was this Colman."

The great Irish Ecclesiastical historian Colgan cites St. Colman's Latin style in the metrical life of St. Senan: "Hujus vitae fragmentum stylo vetusto et pereleganti Patrie sermone conscriptae habitur in predicto Codice Vitae S Sinani Domini Gulielmi Derodani in Lagenia." A Latin poem on St. Brendan is also attributed to St. Colman.

St. Colman's Society for Catholic Liturgy are to be congratulated upon their new website. All Catholics are to be encouraged to take a greater interest in their activities. St. Conleth's Catholic Heritage Association wishes them the choicest blessings for the future.

St. Colman of Cloyne, pray for us!

Sixth Monthly Mass in the Diocese of Kildare and Leighlin

Fr. Simon Leworthy, FSSP, returned to Ireland to celebrate the Sixth of their Monthly Masses in the Diocese of Kildare and Leighlin. A congregation that came close to two dozen was also in attendance (even without taking into account the members of the Parish Staff in the Sacristy), an increase of 150% on last month.


Although last month's congregation was the smallest so far and this month's congregation failed to exceed the previous all-time low of December, the average monthly attendance is a creditable 29. While the local attendance remains steady, people travelled in, this month, from as far away as Kilkenny, as well as the usual contingent from Dublin, to increase numbers.

Both in the notices and in his sermon, Fr. Leworthy asked for prayers for a Fr. Brady who is ill.


Fr. Leworthy also announced that there would be no Latin Mass on the second Sunday in April due to his being committed elsewhere on that Sunday, which is Easter Sunday, and he was unable to announce any resheduled dates.

It is worth remarking that both Chalice Veil and Maniple were in evidence at Mass today. The congregation was invited to tea and biscuits after Mass immediately through the glass door just to the left of the Tabernacle.

The liturgical vision of Vatican II

It is reported that the Secretary of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, Archbishop Malcolm Ranjith, has written a forward to a book based upon the diaries and notes of Cardinal Fernando Antonelli, O.F.M. (1896-1993). In the forward, Archbishop Ranjith is quoted as saying:

"Some practices which Sacrosanctum Concilium had never even contemplated were allowed into the Liturgy, like Mass versus populum, Holy Communion in the hand, altogether giving up on the Latin and Gregorian Chant in favor of the vernacular and songs and hymns without much space for God, and extension beyond any reasonable limits of the faculty to concelebrate at Holy Mass. There was also the gross misinterpretation of the principle of 'active participation'."

"Basic concepts and themes like Sacrifice and Redemption, Mission, Proclamation and Conversion, Adoration as an integral element of Communion, and the need of the Church for salvation--all were sidelined, while Dialogue, Inculturation, Ecumenism, Eucharist-as-Banquet, Evangelization-as-Witness, etc., became more important. Absolute values were disdained."

"An exaggerated sense of antiquarianism, anthopologism, confusion of roles between the ordained and the non-ordained, a limitless provision of space for experimentation-- and indeed, the tendency to look down upon some aspects of the development of the Liturgy in the second millennium-- were increasingly visible among certain liturgical schools."

The book, in its English edition, is entitled True Development of the Liturgy and is written by Msgr. Nicola Giampietro, O.F.M. Cap. who is on the staff of the Congregation of Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments. Msgr. Giampietro has previously published Il Card. Ferdinando Antonelli a gli sviluppi della riforma liturgica dal 1948 al 1970 in Italian.

[The full text is now available on the blog New Liturgical Movement. 9th March, 2009]

Golden with Hope

As already noted, the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass will be celebrated according to the Missal of Blessed John XXIII in St. Coca's Parish Church, Kilcock, at 11 a.m., on Saturday, 21st March, 2009, to honour the Holy Year of Saint Paul.

The Parish of Kilcock was, for many years, under the Pastorate of the saintly Fr. John McWey, from whose notebooks a collection of reflections, thoughts and prayers was published last year under the title Golden with Hope.

St. Farnan of Downings

Most Rev. Dr. Comerford, in his entry for the Parish of Caragh and Downings in his historical work on the Diocese of Kildare and Leighlin, gives us the following information on St. Farnan of Downings:

"Here are the ruins of an old Church, measuring, according to Father O’ Hanlon (Lives I.S.S. 2, p. 564.) 42 ½ feet by 16. Tradition states that this Church occupies the site of the cell of St. Farnan, whose feast occurs in the Irish Calendar on the 15th of February. This Saint flourished in the sixth century, and was descended from King Niall of the Nine Hostages. Beside the ancient cemetery is the Well of St. Farnan; and it possesses - so the local story goes - the valuable property, imparted to it by the blessing of the Saint, that those who drank of it never afterwards have any relish for intoxicating drinks. The Dun from which this place probably takes its name (Dooneens, “the little fort,”) may still be seen a short distance from the village of Prosperous, on the left of the road to Caragh. The only doubt about its being so arises from the fact that, instead of being small, it, on the contrary, is one of considerable dimensions."

St. Farnan of Downings, pray for us!

Fifth Monthly Mass in the Diocese of Kildare and Leighlin

After last month's visit by the Bishop, February's monthly Mass would always struggle to exceed its immediate predecessor. The presence of a new celebrant, Fr. Simon Leworthy, FSSP, might have created a flutter of interest. The switching on of the main lights and the flood of sunlight at the beginning of Mass certainly created a different atmosphere in the Church.

A view from the pews at the Prayers at the Foot of the Altar

A sprinkling of snow earlier in the morning may well account for the smaller congregation. Besides Celebrant and server, 13 people were present for the Mass, not quite half the size of last month's congregation, although that number could be increased to 15, if the Parish's Sacristy Staff were to be counted. On the positive side, the local people attending were in a clear majority (as were the members of St. Conleth's Catholic Heritage Association, if that is noteworthy).

Fr. Leworthy celebrated the Mass of Septuagesima and, in his sermon, said that these are two-and-an-half weeks to prepare to receive the ashes of repentence.

Fr. Leworthy reads the Epistle at the Ambo

Happily, the use of the Maniple has been restored, although, unfortunately, at the loss of the Chalice Veil. However, a complete and most welcome innovation was the use of an Altar Crucifix, which had been absent for the first four months.

The Sanctuary flooded with light at the Offertory

The Hallowing of Time

The Catholic Church, both in its wisdom and in its understanding of humanity, has many means of sanctifying time. Today, set between Candlemas, which brought Christmastide to a close, and Septuagesima, which opens the long period of preparation for Easter, is an excellent moment to consider the lesser cycles that sanctify time which are blessed by the Church.

Liturgically, we have Ember Days, seasonal periods of prayer and fasting, or Rogations, the twice-yearly occasions for rogating or imploring the mercy and goodness of God.

We also have the dedication of days and months to particular devotions. One traditional method, for example, dedicates Monday to the Holy Ghost, Tuesday to the Holy Angels, Wednesday to St. Joseph, Thursday to the Blessed Sacrament, Friday to the Sacred Passion, Saturday to Our Lady and Sunday to the Most Holy Trinity. The cycle of Votive Masses in the Missal varies from this formula slightly, dedicating Monday to the Most Holy Trinity and including the Holy Ghost on Thursday, while including the Holy Apostles in the dedication of Wednesday.

Of the days dedicated, the most familiar and the most commonly practised, even in our own day, is the dedication of Saturday to Our Lady. The visions of Simon Stock and the children of Fatima would seem to be confirmation from Heaven of this venerable tradition. However, the origin of the dedication of Saturday seems to originate in the Court of Charles the Great (742-814) with the monk Alcuin of York, who composed two Masses in honour of Our Lady for Saturdays. By the 11th Century, the devotion was well established in the Universal Church when St. Peter Damien famously promoted the devotion and Pope Urban II prescribed prayers to Our Lady on Saturdays for the success of the first Crusade.

The dedication of months is also very traditional and frequently enriched with Indulgences. One traditional method devotes January to the Holy Name of Jesus, March to St. Joseph, May to Our Lady, June to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, July to His Precious Blood, September to the Seven Sorrows of Our Lady, October to the Holy Rosary, November to the Holy Souls, and December to the Holy Infancy. Most of these are derived from liturgical feasts ocurring during the month.

The tradition of special devotions to Our Lady during the month of May can certainly be traced to the High Middle Ages, the Cantigas de Santa Maria of Alfonso X of Castille being frequently cited. The dedication of the entire month to Our Lady may have taken until the 17th Century to be widespread. However, to Pope Clement VIII we owe the custom of the Crowning of Images of Our Lady, now strongly associated with May.

The origin of the dedication of June to the Sacred Heart is less clouded in the mists of history. We owe it to Angéle de Saint Croix, a Parisienne schoolgirl of the 1830s, who was inspired to propose it to the Superioress, not because the feast of the Sacred Heart falls in June, since it is a movable feast dependent upon the timing of Easter, but because Angéle felt that, if Our Lady had a whole month of May, the Sacred Heart should have a whole month of June.

The Superioress recommended her to make the suggestion to the Archbishop when he visited the school the following week. This she did and the Archbishop responded immediately, dedicating the month of June to the Sacred Heart of Jesus throughout the Archdiocese for the joint intentions of the conversion of sinners and the return of France to the practice of the faith. The devotion soon spread and became universal throughout the Church.

In such ways, the Church recommends to the Faithful to dedicate each moment of time to God and to His Angels and Saints, to sanctify time and, by doing so, to sanctify ourselves.

Let us pray for our Pope!

Oremus pro Pontifice nostro Benedicto!

Dominus conservet eum,

et vivificet eum,

et beatum faciat eum in terra,

et non tradat eum in animam inimicorum eius. (Ps. xl:3)

The Purification of Our Lady

Today is the feast of the Purification of Our Lady and the Presentation of Our Lord in the Temple or Candlemas. It marks the fortieth day after the Birth of Our Lord and the end of the Season of Christmastide.

Risë Stevens, seen here singing with Bing Crosby in Going My Way, was one of the great voices of the New York Metropolitan Opera. This clip captures a sense of that time when popular culture deferred to Catholic Culture, a time when Catholics deferred to Catholic Culture, a time when men were men and Popes were Pius.

Going My Way starred Bing Crosby as Fr. O'Mally and Barry Fitzgerald as Fr. Fitzgibbon. It won the Oscars for Best Picture, Best Actor in a Leading Role, Best Actor in a Supporting Role, Best Director, Best Original Song, Best Original Story and Best Screenplay and three further nominations in 1945. It was followed by The Bells of St. Mary's, starring Bing Crosby again as Fr. O'Mally and Ingrid Bergman as St. M. Benedict. The Bells of St. Mary's won one Oscar and seven nominations in 1946. Going My Way was reprised as a television series in 1962-3 starring Gene Kelly in the Crosby role and Leo G. Carroll in Fitzgerald's.

Leo McCarey, the writer and director on both films, was one of the outstanding Catholics of the so-called 'golden age' of Hollywood, amassing 3 Oscars and a further 10 nominations.

Pilgrimage to Kildare

Pilgrimage to honour St. Brigid of Kildare on Saturday 14th February 2009 commencing with a procession to St. Brigid's Well departing from St. Brigid's Parish Church Kildare Town at 12.30 pm.

Holy Mass in the Traditional Latin Rite in St. Brigid's Parish Church Kildare Town at 2.30 pm followed by Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament.

Catholic Heritage in Popular Culture

A staple of modern popular culture is the television game show. This video shows an early example of the genre, What's My Line. The original show What's My Line ran from 1950 to 1967. The premise was that the panel attempts to guess the avocation of the guests through a series of questions - or in the final round, attempts to guess the mystery celebrity guest while blind-folded, as in this clip.

The mystery guest in this clip is Bishop, as he then was, Fulton Sheen, a staple of popular American Catholic Culture for decades. Archbishop Sheen, whose cause for canonisation began in 2002, was best known for television shows that essentially took the form of illustrated sermons. He presented The Catholic Hour on radio from 1930 to 1950, and, on television, Life is Worth Living from 1951 to 1955 and later The Fulton Sheen Program from 1961 to 1968.

From a Catholic heritage point-of-view, the most interesting element of this clip from What's My Line is not the presence of Bishop Sheen, however illustrative, but the reaction of the panel as he leaves.

Those familiar with the show will also notice that, uniquely, both the ladies, Arlene Francis and Dorothy Kilgallen, stand to take leave of this guest, but the real 'gravy moment' is the gesture of panelist and journalist (and Catholic) Dorothy Kilgallen towards 'uncle Fultie.' Take a look and you'll see how Catholic culture inhabited the public sphere in the days when men were men and Popes were Pius.

Excommunications remitted

CONGREGATIO PRO EPISCOPIS

By a decree of the Congregation of Bishops dated 21st January, and effective from that date, the Holy See has remitted the excommunications of Bishops Bernard Fellay, Bernard Tissier de Mallerais, Richard Williamson and Alfonso de Galarreta, members of the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Pius the Tenth, who were consecrated by the late Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre and the late Bishop Antonio Castro de Mayer. An unofficial translation is also available.

Cardinal Re, Prefect of the Congregation of Bishops, wrote in Italian: 'It is hoped that this step is followed by the prompt accomplishment of full communion with the Church of the entire Fraternity of St. Pius X, thereby demonstrating true fidelity and true recognition of the Magisterium and the authority of the Pope by the proof of visible unity.'

The statement of the Foederatio Internationalis Una Voce can be found here.

Pilgrimage to Dublin

The series of pilgrimages for the Holy Year of Saint Paul resumed this morning with Mass and devotions in the Saint Paul's @ Smithfield. While tomorrow is a feast of Saint Paul, today being the feast of his disciple, St. Timothy, wasn't an inappropriate day to celebrate either.

Fr. Flanagan preaches at Saint Paul's

Fr. Desmond Flanagan, O.Carm., celebrated Mass for a congregation of 49 members and friends of St. Conleth's Catholic Heritage Group. In his sermon, Fr. Flanagan emphasised the missionary faith of Saint Paul, urging those present not to be ashamed to stand up for their faith in today's world.

The Sanctuary of Saint Paul's during the Mass

Of particular note is the fresco of the conversion of

Saint Paul on the Sanctuary wall

Following Mass, some of the pilgrims made their way to Queen St., the nearby birthplace of Blessed Columba Marmion, O.S.B., who was baptised in Saint Paul's Church.