So our Mass goes back, without essential change, to the age when it first developed out of the oldest liturgy of all. It is still redolent of that liturgy, of the days when Cæsar ruled the world and thought he could stamp out the faith of Christ, when our fathers met together before dawn and sang a hymn to Christ as to a God. The final result of our enquiry is that, in spite of unsolved problems, in spite of later changes, there is not in Christendom another rite so venerable as ours. ~Fortescue
The best English language vaticanista today is Edward Pentin. He has an interview with Bp. Athanasius Schneider today at the National Catholic Register (that’s the good one that begins with “National”). HERE
The whole thing is worth reading. However, I want to emphasize one part which caught my eye for two reasons.
First, it is Patristic. Bp. Schneider is a student of the Fathers of the Church, as am I. We need to return to the Fathers. It is amazing how many things they treated in their day which apply to our own.
Next, because it concerns a figure I’ve long been interested in, the late Archbp. Marcel Lefebvre. He was a great churchman and missionary in Africa who went on to found the SSPX. Since I once worked for the PCED I remain interested – and hopeful – for a wonderful result.
Here is Schneider on Lefebvre:
PENTIN:
What are your views on the Society of St. Pius X? Do you have sympathy for their position?
SCHNEIDER:
Pope Benedict XVI and Pope Francis on various occasions spoke with understanding towards the SSPX. It was particularly at his time, as Cardinal of Buenos Aires, that Pope Francis helped the SSPX in some administrative issues. Pope Benedict XVI once said about Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre: “He was a great bishop of the Catholic Church.” Pope Francis considers the SSPX as Catholic, and has expressed this publicly several times. Therefore, he seeks a pastoral solution, and he made the generous pastoral provisions of granting to the priests of the SSPX the ordinary faculty to hear confessions and conditional faculties to celebrate canonically marriage. The more the doctrinal, moral and liturgical confusion grows in the life of the Church, the more one will understand the prophetic mission of Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre in an extraordinary dark time of a generalized crisis of the Church.
Maybe one day History will apply the following words of Saint Augustine to him:
“Often, too, divine providence permits even good men to be driven from the congregation of Christ by the turbulent seditions of carnal men. When for the sake of the peace of the Church they patiently endure that insult or injury, and attempt no novelties in the way of heresy or schism, they will teach men how God is to be served with a true disposition and with great and sincere charity. The intention of such men is to return when the tumult has subsided. But if that is not permitted because the storm continues or because a fiercer one might be stirred up by their return, they hold fast to their purpose to look to the good even of those responsible for the tumults and commotions that drove them out. They form no separate conventicles of their own, but defend to the death and assist by their testimony the faith which they know is preached in the Catholic Church” (De vera religione 6, 11).
The Carthusian Horse: Horse of Kings, Thief of Hearts
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*
*
*
*
*
“They have such a heart and they are so generous. They will give you
even what they don’t have, [that] they will try [to] give to you.” –
Mercedes Gonzalez Cort
“When a man
mounts a Carthusian Horse, he imagines himself in heaven, without leaving earth.”– Juan Llamas Perdigo
From ancient times, the important role of
horses in cultures has been demonstrated through numerous pictorial
testimonies. In the Iberian Peninsula in particular, it is known that horses
already formed part of the everyday life activities in the earliest civilizations.
These activities were to gain importance in parallel to the rise of the large
cities that spread across the land and whose main writers were to praise the
magnificence of the horse.
The Arabs organized their armies to include a
light cavalry, which was almost exclusively formed by Andalusian horses. From
their first contact with the breed, the invaders admired the virtues of the
Andalusian horse and their great triumph lay in conserving and strengthening
the characteristics of the Spanish race itself. This led to the creation
of several important breeding centres and horses were even sent as gifts to
Constantinople, Baghdad and other major cities throughout the Islamic Empire.
The importance that Arabs gave to horses during
their reign in Spain can be reflected in the Spanish words "caballero" (gentleman/knight/horseman)
and "caballerosidad"
(gentlemanliness/chivalry), which originated in the Middle Ages to classify
with honor the owners of these prized animals and their virtues, respectively.
*
*
The internal struggles of the Muslim rulers and
the long years of reconquest decimated the horse population. The considerable
increase in agriculture and farming activities from the end of the reconquest,
in addition to the low demand for the use of horses for purposes of war, saw
horses being replaced by mules, which were much more practical for hard
work. Horses had to be protected from undesirable crossbreeding through
various government decrees, along with the intervention of Religious Orders,
which protected horses within their monasteries, as was the case of the
Carthusian monasteries.
From its foundation towards the end of the XV
century, the Monastery of La Cartuja has been converted into the cornerstone of
the Jerezano thoroughbred horses. In the mid 1400’s, the production of armor
for horse and rider was mastered. This meant the addition of 350lbs to the
weight carried into battle. A decree was issued by the Spanish military
authority, directing the Spanish breeders to blend their pure Andalusian mares
with Neopolitan drafts. A small group of family breeders refused to do so, and selected
their best horses and hid them away in the Carthusian monastery, donated by a
wealthy patron, Don Alvaro Obertos de Valeto.
*
*
For almost 400 years, which coincided with the
centuries of greatest splendor of the kingdom of Spain, the Carthusian monks
established a breeding stock (and kept detailed breeding records) which,
through time, would be converted into one of the most celebrated and
appreciated stocks in the world. Around the year 1835, the government
dissolved the church’s ownership of lands, which led to horses being carefully
passed on and treasured by a small handful of families beginning with Pedro
José Zapata, who diligently preserved the original lines. He used the brand of
the bit, called “Bocado.” Today we
still refer to the horses as ‘Bocado’
or Cartujano. The Carthusian horse originated
in Spain; it is also known as the Carthusian-Andalusian or Cartujano.
The Zamora brothers, who had mares of this
breeding, purchased an old horse named El
Soldado. They bred him to two mares. The resultant offspring were a colt
and a filly; the former was Esclavo,
the foundation sire of the Carthusian strain. Esclavo was dark gray, considered to be a perfect horse. He
produced many outstanding offsprings, which were purchased by the breeders of
Jerez. Esclavo produced a group of
mares that about the year 1736 were sold to Don Pedro Picado, who gave some
excellent specimens to the Carthusian monks to settle a debt he had incurred.
The rest of the stock belonging to Don Pedro Picado went to Antonio Abad Romero
and were eventually absorbed into the Andalusian breed. The Esclavo
stock at the monastery was integrated into a special line and came to be known
as Zamoranos.
The stallion Esclavo is said to have had warts under his tail, and his
characteristics were passed on to his offspring. Some breeders felt that
without the warts, a horse could not be of the Esclavo bloodline. Another characteristic sometimes seen in the
Carthusian horse is the evidence of “horns”, actually frontal bosses thought to
be inherited from Asian ancestors. Unlike the warts beneath the tail, the horns
were not considered proof of Esclavo
descent.
*
*
Throughout the centuries that followed, the
Carthusian monks guarded their bloodlines with fervor, even defying
a royal order to introduce Neapolitan and central European blood into
their stock.
Don Pedro and Juan Jose Zapata bought a good
number of mares from the Carthusians. In 1854, Don Vincent Romero y Garcia, a
Jerez landlord, purchased what he could of the excellent group of horses. Don
Vincent lived to be ninety-two years old and because of his knowledge of
breeding, greatly improved the quality of the horses without using any outside
blood.
Without
the dedication of the Carthusian monks, the Zapata family, and a few other breeders
who refused to cross their horses with other breeds, the purest line of Andalusian blood would have been lost to the world.
Today Carthusian horses are raised in
state-owned studs around Cordoba, Jerez de la Frontera, and Badajoz. The
predominant color is gray,
attributed to the important influence of two stallions of this color early in
the twentieth century. Some Carthusian horses are chestnut or black. Nearly all
of the modern Carthusian horses are descended from the stallion Esclavo.
*
*
The Carthusian horse’s head is light and
elegant with a slightly convex profile, broad forehead, small ears, and large,
lively eyes. The neck is well proportioned and arched; the chest is broad and
deep; the shoulder sloping; the back short and broad; the croup sloped; and the
legs are sturdy with broad, clean joints.
What horse has such proud and lofty action? A
showy and rhythmical walk? Or a high stepping trot full of impulsion? Where can
you find a horse with a smooth rocking canter, natural balance, agility, and
fire? Combine these spectacular paces with a docile temperament and you have a
breed of horse well suited for any horse owner.
The
Carthusian horse is not a separate breed from the Andalusian, but rather a distinct side branch that is usually
considered the purest remaining strain with one of the oldest studbooks in the world.
Roughly 82% of the Pura Raza Española
(PRE = Pure Spanish Breed) population in Spain contains Cartujano blood, but there are less than 3% pure Cartujano horses within the PRE
population and only 500 pure Cartujanos
in existence in Spain today.
*
*
The French invasion and the
subsequent War of Independence nearly devastated the breed as the monks were
expelled more than once from their monastery. In 1810, the horses were saved
when “Zapata, founder of the Hospital de
Arcos de la Frontera, bought 60 mares and 3 stallions of the best calibre and
hid them in ‘Breña del Agua,’ sending the Carthusian monks in Cluny the amount
for the established price. From these horses was formed what is at present
known as the Yeguada de la Cartuja - Hierro
del Bocado.”
For a horse to be considered “pure Cartujano”
he must be validated by the Association of Cartujano
Breeders in cooperation with the University of Cordoba. Horses receive a
certificate such as the one pictured here which acknowledges their genetic
purity.
*
*
The Carthusian horse “is the most appropriate one for a king on his day of victory. … It is
the aristocracy of horses of pure Spanish blood. … It is the noblest animal in
the world.”
“[The Carthusian
horse] is a beautiful and loyal animal with a big heart … eyes that did not
blink when the arrow grazed his neck and caught the ancient meaning in a
fleeting, burning glance … ears that heard the cannons’ roar, the whispered
words of love ... skin of shot silk that knew the summer’s heat, the winder’s
frost … hooves that traced new paths to lands unknown to man … a heart whose
beat would quicken keeping pace with the wishes of his master … tireless vigor,
proving no demand for him so great … his spirit showed the cheers and hopes of
Old Spain’s men of iron, while at his proud feet the conquered nations lay … he’ll
forgive like no other your omissions, errors, thoughtless handling … his back,
a throne of feathers, will bear you smoothly with the trot and gallop … he’ll
go where others dare not … he’ll stand firm where others flee in terror … And
at the last, you’ll understand why [the Carthusian horse] was the chosen one of
kings.”
Catholic integralism (sometimes referred to as
“integrism”) is today dismissed as a relic of a bygone era which received its
final chance at life through a number of ostensibly misguided socio-political
movements during the early decades of the last century. Though the term
“integralism” would be appropriated and reworked by several prominent 20th
Century theologians, it is largely associated with hyper-traditionalist
reactionaries who refuse to recognize the ideological realignment of the
Catholic Church following the Second Vatican Council. Whether or not this
ideological realignment has been either prudent or wise remains a vexing
question. Serious inquiry into this matter is too often taken as a sign of
flagrant disobedience, and there remain forces within the Church which wish to
uphold that the ideological realignment toward liberalism is the direct result
of, or coeval with, authentic doctrinal development. That thesis has come under
significant and sustained scrutiny in recent years, as evidenced by Pater
Edmund Waldstein’s four-part article, “Religious Liberty and Tradition”
(available here, here, here, and here) and theologian John
Lamont’s paper, “Catholic
Teaching on Religion and the State.” Some, naturally, remain
unconvinced, including those who believe that Vatican II’s document on
religious liberty, Dignitatis Humanae, not only conflicts with pre-conciliar
magisterial statements, but has had the practical effect of obscuring the
social rights of Christ the King. That the Kingship of Christ has become, for
many Catholics now living, a “lost doctrine” is almost beyond dispute.
Nevertheless, as the Dominican theologian Fr. Aidan Nichols recently opined,
“[P]ublicly recognising divine revelation is an entailment of the Kingship of
Christ on which, despite its difficulties in a post-Enlightenment society, we
must not renege.” It is for the restoration of this public recognition that
Catholic integralism continues to strive.
*
*
Contrary to popular belief, Catholic
integralism—or what I shall refer to simply as “integralism” for the duration
of this essay—is not first and foremost a political program. For the integral
understanding of Christianity begins first with the supernatural society
established by our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, namely the Corpus Mysticum,
the Holy Catholic Church, which transcends the temporal sphere and has for its
end the salvation of souls. By carrying out its mission in the world, the
Catholic Church possesses indirect power over the temporal sphere which is
exercised for the good of souls. This indirect power in no way sullies the
Church’s divine mission nor dilutes it by way of overextension since the civil
authority retains at all times direct power over temporal matters.
*
*
Sitting at the head of both the ecclesiastical
and civil authorities is Christ the King. Contrary to distortions which entered
the Church’s liturgy nearly a half-century ago, the Kingship of Christ is not
exclusively spiritual. Although Christ’s spiritual rule in this world began
2,000 years ago and can in no way be abrogated, the temporal acceptance of this
rule, that is, the recognition of Christ’s reign in its full integrity and
truth only came about after the course of centuries whereby the civil rulers,
whose authority was never their own and always from God, accepted the divine
mission of the Church and her supernatural constitution. While the nations of
this world have drifted far from accepting this reality, their denial cannot
with any true effect “uncrown” or “dethrone” Christ. His social reign may,
through ignorance or sin, be unrecognized and unimplemented by the present
civil authorities, but they possess no right to do so. As Pope Pius XI made
clear in his great encyclical Quas Primas, “It would be a grave error, on the
other hand, to say that Christ has no authority whatever in civil affairs,
since, by virtue of the absolute empire over all creatures committed to him by
the Father, all things are in his power.”
*
*
Integralism follows this reminder of Pius XI
with the utmost degree of seriousness. Even in the absence of states and more
localized political communities which are fully permeated with the teachings of
the Catholic Church, integralists live out their public lives, be it in the
workplace or the voting booth, under the reign of Christ. That is, there is no
separation between private “religious life” and public “citizen life”; the
obligations in justice which should bind all nations at all times continues to
bind all Catholics, regardless of what the civil authority recommends. While
prudential considerations will affect application, no Catholic businessman, for
instance, holds the right to pay his workers unjust wages simply because
liberal economic ideology equates “justness” with the prevailing market wage.
Similarly, no Catholic politician, regardless of which level of office he holds
(municipal, state, or national), has the right to support immoral laws
legalization, inter alia, abortion, same-sex unions, narcotics, prostitution,
and pornography. Integralism recognizes no right to abscond from moral duty in
the name of temporal convenience.
Here it is important to
stress that integralism is neither romantic nor utopian. On the charge of
romanticism or the accusation that integralists simply want to “turn back the
clock” on human history, it must be said that while there may be some
integralists who believe that something like that should occur, such a
fantastical belief is not intrinsic to integralism. Indeed, a brief glance back
over the last several centuries of papal teachings on religion and society
reveals, at least up until 50 years ago, a desire to maintain an integral
approach to political and economic affairs in the modern world. Given the rapid
pace of change that occurred between the 19th and 20th centuries, the great
popes of the past sometimes felt compelled to address the same topic in a
relatively short time span. For example, it only took 40 years since the
promulgation of Leo XIII’s Rerum Novarum for Pius XI to issue Quadragesimo Anno
which both deepened the former’s economic prescriptions while extending them to
a world reeling from the effects of unbridled capitalism and economic
depression. Neither Leo XIII nor Pius XI called for dismantling the modern
industrial machine, intentionally retarding scientific and technological
progress, nor restoring the older system of social safeguards, such as guilds,
in isolation from the economic revolution which had occurred over the course of
the previous two centuries. Integralism embraces timeless principles, but not
without two eyes fixed firmly on the concrete situation which the world finds
itself in.
*
*
As for the claim that integralists are
utopians, nothing could be further from the truth. While an integral relationship
between Church and State reached its high point during the Middle Ages,
integralists acknowledge that this relationship was never perfect and that the
sinfulness and shortcomings of man often undermined the ability of the Church
to fully furnish the world with her treasures. At the same time, integralists
recognize that plethora of non-Catholic forces which continue to conspire
against the Church and the social rights of Christ the King. While these forces
have changed over the centuries, taking on new platforms upheld with fresh
lies, they remain a grave challenge to the restoration of a truly Catholic
culture and a society which radiates with the splendor of truth. It must also
be stressed that a disturbing number of modern errors have made their way into Corpus
Mysticum, infecting both clerics and laity with the virus of liberalism which
leads to the disastrous syndromes of indifferentism and relativism. Integralism
is dedicated to combatting these errors, first for the good of the Church and
her divine mission and, second, for the common good of society which can never
be divorced rightly from man’s intended supernatural end.
*
*
The future of integralism as a significant
force within the life of the Church and the nations of the world is unwritten,
but the principles of integralism, which are bound to the truth of Christ’s
rightful rule in the spiritual and temporal spheres, will survive with the
Church until the Second Coming. The defeatist mindset which holds that the days
of integralism have passed and that a “new order” or “new relationship” must be
established between the Church and the world remains a prevalent temptation;
and like all temptations, which are from the devil, must be resisted. Equally
tempting to integralists is despair. Have the affairs of the Church and society
not become so corrupted with error and moral rot that there is no longer any
hope or, if there is hope, it is in trying to escape the world and pray for the
eschaton? Ah, but no Catholic has any right to despair. None! The integral
Catholic must remain fortified by the messages of light which God, in His love
and compassion for his frail, fallen, and fearful creatures has delivered
through the Church. And above all the integralist repairs to the words of their
savior and king: “These things I have spoken to you, that in me you may have
peace. In the world you shall have distress: but have confidence, I have
overcome the world” (John 16:33).
Thursday, January 18, 2018
THE MERCY OF CHRIST
The All-Merciful Christ
*
How will our Divine Lord welcome a heart
returning to Him contrite for past disorders and humbled at the prospects of
His Justice? With a Compassion befitting the great and merciful God that He is.
When the Son of God came down to earth –tanquam
sponsus procédens de thálamo suo– from the brightness of His Glory to the
obscurity of the Virgin’s Womb, His Divine Immensity “dwindled to human infancy,” He seems to be in a hurry to divest
Himself before our eyes of the mantle of His Sovereign Majesty. He speeds to
earth, not with thunder and lightnings, not to open the sluices of the ocean—for
Sinai and the Deluge were not so effective!... He comes to earth in search, not
of the pure and noble remnant of our race, not to a hidden Noe or a persecuted
Elias; He comes in search of sinners: “I
came not to call the just, but sinners to repentance” (Luke 5:32); “Christ came
into the world to save sinners” (1 Tim. 1:15).
*
*
*
John
the Baptist, the last of the prophets of the Old Covenant, was a second Elias
filled with the idea that the Messiah was to come to avenge; One whose axe was
put to the root of the tree, Whose winnowing-fan was ready to purge the
threshing-floor clean in order to gather the wheat and consume the chaff in
unquenchable fire. But no sooner does he set eyes on Jesus than his mind seems
to undergo an abrupt change. Who would have imagined that those very lips,
which had been preaching punishment and austere penance, would suddenly break
out into an expression of the utmost tenderness?
*
*
*
*
“Behold
the Lamb of God! Behold Him Who taketh away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29) – From the
rock flowed honey …
The idea launched by the Precursor
was well confirmed by Jesus in His actions, His sayings, and His parables. Why
not search for them by reading the Gospel? What repentant sinner ever went to
Him and was not welcomed with a thrill of fatherly emotion?
*
*
*
*
Now
it is a woman caught in the act of adultery whom His Mercy shields from the
shower of stones prescribed by the implacable Law, and on whom He imposes no
other penalty than to allow her penitential future to be steeped in the
ineffable sweetness of His parting words: “Neither
will I condemn thee; go, and now sin no more” (John 8:2). Now it is the
woman notorious for her light conduct, who in anxious fear takes refuge under
the shadow of His compassion, and finds herself rehabilitation, and is defended
from her accusers by the irresistible eloquence of the Divine Word. Now it is
the publican, a public swindler, whom Jesus goes out of His way to meet and
welcome an invitation from; the man who receives Jesus with the fragrant kiss of
fourfold restitution for any ill-gotten gains.
*
*
*
Now it is the good
thief, who with three words from a cross next to Thine, O Jesus, steals away
Thy very Heart, Thy Forgiveness, and Thy Father’s Kingdom… closed until then
even to the Just! Prodigious Mercy Thine that would be accompanied, on Thy
entry into the Kingdom, by a criminal executed on the public gallows, as if he
were Thy knight-companion!
*
*
*
*
“I say to
you that even so there shall be joy in heaven upon one sinner that doth
penance”
(Luke 15:7).
The sweetness of these words could melt a heart
of stone. They are, dear Lord, the refrain closing those three magnificent
stanzas of Chapter 15 of Saint Luke –the
sinner’s chapter– wherein, O Sovereign Troubadour of Heaven, Thou hast sung
the praises of Thy Eternal Pity!
How could I so much as dream that my poor
soul’s return to Thee had power to move Thee so deeply, to produce in Thee such
intense delight, as to rally all Heaven together to join with Thee in festive
thrill and cheer?
*
*
How shall I, who have given Thee so much
displeasure throughout my long sinful life, refuse Thee at least this moment of
delight? My sincere conversion will be a festive occasion not only for Thee,
but for all Thy Angels and Saints as well!
Have words ever
sprung from Christ’s lips so revealing of His Love for us? Do I not grasp their
meaning? Or do I fail to understand what it is to love?
*
*
Taken
from The Priest at Prayerby Fr. Eugenio
Escribano (1954)
The
word ceremonies… signify the laws to
be observed in public worship… contained in the Rubrics. Theologians it is true
distinguish between preceptive and
merely directive Rubrics. But it must
be admitted that even the latter impose some kind of obligation. For,
undoubtedly, everyone who has a share in public worship is bound by the very
nature and end of worship to perform his part, not only with recollection of
mind, but with grace and composure of manner.
The
rites with which God was worshipped under the Mosaic Dispensation were, in the
words of St. Paul, but “weak and beggarly
elements,” compared with those with which he is now worshipped;…
nevertheless God was pleased to command the exact observance of those
ceremonies, and to threaten with maledictions all who would neglect them, “But if thou will not hear the voice of the
Lord thy God to keep and to do all His commandments and ceremonies … all these
curses shall come upon thee, and overtake thee…” etc.
*
*
*
From
this solemn command and threat, and from the infinite superiorityof our worship over that of the Jews,
we are justified in inferring that to neglect the ceremonies in discharging any
sacred function, or to make light of them, would be a great insult to God.
We should never regard anything pertaining to the worship of the Almighty as of
little moment, or beneath our notice. … Even Pagan priests would lose their
lives rather than omit or hurry over any part of the ceremonies which regulate
their superstitious and degrading cult.
*
*
*
The Old Papal Mass
*
Surely
the Christian priest or cleric [server], whose high privilege it is to
worship the true God in the truest and most perfect manner, will not
consider himself less bound to the exact observance of everything which the
solemnity and decorum of his sacred functions demand than did those priests,
who either worshipped mere idols, or offered but a very imperfect worship [the
mere blood of an animal] to the true God, consider themselves bound not to omit
one jot or tittle of all that they were commanded to observe in the discharge
of their office.
Taken from:
THE IRISH ECCLESIASTICAL RECORD. Third series. VOLUME X. –
1889
