NOVENA TO OUR LADY OF GOOD COUNSEL APRIL 18 - APRIL 26

(Say for 9 consecutive days)

 

Holy Virgin, moved by the painful uncertainty we experience in seeking and acquiring the true and the good, we cast ourselves at thy feet and invoke thee under the sweet title of  Mother of Good Counsel.  We beseech thee: come to our aid at this moment in our worldly sojourn when the twin darknesses of error and of evil that plots our ruin by leading minds and hearts astray.

Seat of Wisdom and Star of the Sea, enlighten the victims of doubt and of error so that they may not be seduced by evil masquerading as good; strengthen them against the hostile and corrupting forces of passion and of sin.

Mother of Good Counsel, obtain for us from thy Divine Son the love of virtue and the strength to choose, in doubtful and difficult situations, the course agreeable to our salvation. Supported by thy hand we shall thus journey without harm along the paths taught us by the word and example of Jesus our Savior, following the Sun of Truth and Justice in freedom and safety across the battlefield of life under the guidance of thy maternal Star, until we come at length to the harbor of salvation to enjoy with thee unalloyed and everlasting peace. 

Amen.

(By Pope Pius XII, 23 January 1953)

LITANY OUR LADY OF GOOD COUNSEL

PATRIARCH KIRILL OF THE RUSSIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH SPEAKS WORDS OF WISDOM ON THE DANGERS OF FEMINISM

Patriarch Kirill of the Russian Orthodox Church speaks in a forthright criticism of feminism which he warns with its' propaganda seeks to destroy marriage, families and ultimately society:

"I consider the phenomenon called feminism very dangerous," said the powerful Patriarch Kirill in a speech delivered Tuesday and posted Wednesday on the official Russian Orthodox Church website.

"Feminist organisations proclaim a pseudo-freedom of women, which should be manifested outside marriage and family."

But he argued: "The man should be focussed on matters outside (of the house), he must work and earn money, but the woman is always directed to the inside, towards her children and her home."

"If that very important function of the woman is broken, then this is followed by the breaking of everything else: family, and in a larger sense, the motherland."

"We know how false propaganda of false values really works," said Kirill.

"An opinion is forced down that the woman's mission to be a mother is degrading," he told an organisation of Ukrainian Orthodox women.

"It's not an accident that most feminist leaders are unmarried," he said, adding that there is nothing wrong with a woman having a career if she "correctly sets priorities" and "serves her duty as a wife and mother" as well as "bringing public good".

"Birth rates fall when values are shifted and broken, when satisfying one's personal needs, one's egoism becomes the priority," he said.

PATRIARCH KIRILL TO UKRAINIAN ORTHODOX WOMEN

Please Pray for the Repose of the Soul of Fr. Charles Schoenbaechler, C.R

Praesta, quaesumus, Domine, ut anima famuli tui Caroli sacerdotis, quem in hoc saeculo commorantem sacrismuneribus decorasti, in coelesti sede gloriosa semper exsultet. Per Dominum nostrum Jesum Christum...

Grant, we beseech Thee, O Lord, that the soul of Thy servant Charles, Priest, which whilst he was sojourning in this world, Thou didst adorn with the graces proper to the sacred ministry, may evermore rejoice in the glory of heaven. Through our Lord...

Fr Charles Schoenbaechler, CR a holy priest at whose daily Masses I participated for some years has passed away in his late 90s.  He was my confessor for years on early Saturday mornings (615 am) at St Martin of Tours Church in Louisville, Kentucky.  He would always kindly reassure me when making my weekly confession that the sacrifce of rising early and coming daily to Holy Mass and confession "covered a multitude of sins".  He related to me that his parents who emigrated to America from Switzerland often wished that they had stayed. He shall be greatly missed. He wrote the following letter to the editor of the New Oxford Review some years back. It shows his dedication to the traditional Latin Mass:

I began serving the “old Mass” as an altar boy in 1927. I am now 88 years old, 62 years as a priest. As a lad, knowing the perfect recitations of all the Latin Mass responses, I dealt with priests of every age and devotion and I do not recall any who deliberately mumbled their prayers. The churches were not air-conditioned in those days and in the hot summer days it was not uncommon to omit the sermon; Low Mass might last for only 20 minutes, and Communions were much fewer in those days. Now with the Novus Ordo, I have attended Mass in 10 minutes. A possible scandal.

The only scandal I can recall in the old days was people sleeping during the sermon. Nobody complained about the Eucharistic fast from midnight; nobody complained about Communion on the tongue or about the Latin. In fact, we were proud of the Latin we knew. Non-Catholics marveled at the piety and the reverence of the congregation and the head-coverings of the women. Those were the glory days of the Church when our Catholic faith was a family thing, a treasure we prized. Our faith was so much a part of our life that it colored our moods, shaped our social activities, influenced our style of dress, and flavored our conversation. How many families can make the same claim today?

Last Sunday I experienced what perhaps was the greatest joy of my priesthood. I could scarcely contain myself. Indeed, my cup runneth over. I celebrated the Tridentine Latin Mass with a congregation of two hundred people. It was like a repetition of my First Holy Mass 56 years ago. It was a Missa Cantata — those sacred Gregorian melodies so fitting for worship: the solemn Trinity Preface, the solemn Pater Noster, the Holy Gospel, and the Orations.

My daily vernacular Mass has been a joy in my life, but there was always something about this Tridentine Latin Mass that went beyond all telling. I’ve found something that I had lost some 35 years ago. All those years my heart ached for the Latin Mass that I had lost, always hoping that some day, please God, I would find it. Last Sunday I found it. And like the widow of the Gospel who found her lost coin and who called in her neighbors to rejoice with her, now I was the one who wanted to call in the whole world to share in my joy. It was like being away from home all these years and always hoping that some day the permission for me would arrive to return home and share again with my dear ones the joys of long ago. It was home sweet home again. My joy knows no bounds.

My humble and ineffable thanks to our good Holy Father, Pope John Paul II, the Good Shepherd who went out looking for all those abandoned sheep to lead us back home again — to Rome, sweet home.

Would I go back to the new Mass? No way!

Rev. Charles Schoenbaechler, C.R.
Louisville, Kentucky

FATHER CHARLES SCHOENBAECHLER NEW OXFORD REVIEW

JUST WHAT EXACTLY DID VATICAN II DEFINE AS BINDING?

Papa Francesco this morning at his daily Holy Mass at Domus Marthae Sanctae to commemorate the 86th birthday of Benedict XVI said in his homily, " The Council was a beautiful work of the Holy Spirit. Think of Pope John: he looked like a good parish priest, and he was obedient to the Holy Spirit, and he did that. But, after 50 years, have we done everything that the Holy Spirit told us in the Council? In the continuity of the growth of the Church that the Council was? No. We celebrate this anniversary, we make a monument, but do not bother. We do not want to change. And there is more: there are calls [voci, also 'voices'] wanting to move back. This is called being stubborn, this is called wanting to tame the Holy Spirit, this is called becoming fools and slow of heart." as reported by RORATE CAELI

I do not know whether it is being so much 'stubborn' or wanting to 'move back' as much as seeking clarification once and for all in the form of a "New Syllabus of Errors" as to what exactly Vatican II wishes to define as binding. As a traditionalist, I grow weary of hearing constantly that I am 'anti Vatican II'  when there is no official teaching as to what that actually means.  Is it referring to a vague, ambiguous "spirit of the council" that one hears so often about?  When Vatican II appears to be at odds with what the Church has always taught what then? As Bishop Athanasius Schneider has stated:

“In recent decades there existed, and still exist today, groupings within the Church that are perpetrating an enormous abuse of the pastoral character of the Council and its texts… Keeping in mind the now decades-long experience of interpretations that are doctrinally and pastorally mistaken and contrary to the bimillennial continuity of the doctrine and prayer of the faith, there thus arises the necessity and urgency of …  a sort of “Syllabus” of the errors in the interpretation of Vatican Council II.

“There is the need for a new Syllabus, this time directed not so much against the errors coming from outside of the Church, but against the errors circulated within the Church by supporters of the thesis of discontinuity and rupture, with its doctrinal, liturgical, and pastoral application.

“Such a Syllabus should consist of two parts: the part that points out the errors, and the positive part with proposals for clarification, completion, and doctrinal clarification.”

POPE FRANCIS: HARDHEADED THOSE WHO WANT TO 'GO BACK' FROM VATICAN II

FROM THE BLOG "SANCRUCENCIS" ONE CAN ONLY MARVEL AND PRAISE GOD FOR THE GREAT GRACE OF SUCH A PARISH LIFE:

PATER JOHANNES PAUL’S HOMECOMING MASS IN THE VIENNA ORATORY

Posted on April 15, 2013 by sancrucensis under The Opalescent Parrot

One of the best parishes in Austria is St Rochus, the parish of the Vienna Oratory. In a time when many in Austria are trying to find “new” pastoral strategies, the Oratorians do basically what the Redemptorists did in the 19th century under St Clemens Maria Hofbauer, “Apostle of Vienna,” but with something of the mischievous humor of the Oratory’s founder, St Philip Neri. They have glorious liturgy; simple and down to earth preaching and catechesis; perpetual eucharistic adoration; confessionals in which the lights burn most of the day; very effective, unpretentious programs for children, youth, and young mothers, and for the disabled, the poor of Vienna’s third district etc. And their Church is full, they have lots of families with young children, lots of altar servers, and so on. And there have been a good number of vocations to the religious life and to the priesthood from their parish in recent years.

The latest Pfarrkind of St Rochus to be ordained to the priesthood is  my confrère Pater Johannes Paul.  On Sunday he celebrated a homecoming Mass there with all the solemnity with which the Primizmesse is traditionally attended here in Austria. He celebrated Mass in the Ordinary Use of the Roman Rite, in Latin save for the readings and intercessions, and (as is usual in St Rochus) ad orientem. He wore a neo-baroque chasuble, sewn for him by the Cistercian nuns of Marienfeld. Here are some photos (all copyright cross-press.net except for the one of the sermon, which is from St Rochus’s facebook page).

THE NOVUS ORDO MISSAE AND SUNDAY MASS OBLIGATION

Pictured above the Novus Ordo Missae at the Carmel of Cristo Rey in San Francisco, CA



Many of us who call ourselves traditionalists have found ourselves in less than ideal circumstances with regard to fulfilling our Sunday Mass obligation in the past 40+ years. I being born in 1966, did not have the luxury of a traditional Catholic childhood. This is something I still lament... I knew only the Novus Ordo Missae as a boy. We were mercifully spared (for the most part) some of excesses of the post 1970 liturgical aberrations. Though it was obvious to me as a boy that something had gone terribly wrong.  I like many others have spent most of my life grasping at straws in hope of making sense of the chaos and malaise afflicting the Church in the past 50 years. I have had limited success in doing so.  I needn't remind anyone reading this blog that we live in perilous times. The spiritual darkness in which we have found ourselves in the past 40+ years is all enveloping.  Sister Lucy of Fatima's description of our situation as being "diabolical disorientation" come as close as any to realistically grasping the seriousness of the situation in which we live. Sister Lucy warned us that  “People must recite the Rosary every day. Our Lady repeated this in all Her apparitions, as if to arm us in advance against these times of diabolical disorientation, so that we would not let ourselves be fooled by false doctrines, and that through prayers, the elevation of our soul to God would not be diminished.” I can attest that the rosary has been my own light in times of darkness and confusion. It continues to be my own solace and hope in the spiritual confusion in which we find ourselves.  

There are many of us who Summorum Pontificum aside do not have the luxury and grace of having a traditional Catholic parish life. There are many isolated traditional Catholics who do not have access to the traditional Mass and sacraments daily (or even weekly and monthly). Some of us go for long periods (perhaps years) without the refreshing Oasis of the traditional Mass.  Often we truly find ourselves quite literally in a desert.  It is precisely in these times (and places) where God has placed us that we must become like desert flowers blossoming in our dedication to the most Holy Rosary.  We must cling to Our Lady's Holy Rosary as to a lifeline lest we too become lost in the "diabolical disorientation" in which we live. 

Because my present circumstances do not permit me to assist daily (or even weekly) at the traditional Latin Mass, I fulfill my Sunday obligation by assisting at the Novus Ordo locally. I have done this now on and off for a few years. I am the first to say that this situation is less than ideal. It is however a personal decision that I have made in order to make the best of a very difficult situation. I am working toward the goal of living once more near a traditional chapel or parish. I have in my 47 years gone through different stages in regard to the Novus Ordo. This ran the gamut over the years from sometimes questioning the validity of the Novus Ordo to accepting it's validity. I  find the Novus Ordo problematic insofar that it is not an organic liturgical development of the Roman Rite. I personally believe that the 1965 Ordo Missae was sufficiently an embodiment of the liturgical reform called for by Sacrosanctum Concilium. I therefore believe that the Novus Ordo was an unnecessary step beyond what Vatican II envisioned. Mgr Lefebvre (who I greatly admire and who I believe we have to thank indirectly for the rehabilitation if you will of the traditional Mass) warned that regular attendance at the Novus Ordo leads to a "Protestant Spirit".  All of us can vouch for this among family and friends. We have seen how people who were reared in devoutly Catholic homes have through the years become heterodox or worse lost their faith entirely. I have come to believe that Mgr Lefebvre was most correct in 99% of celebrations of the Novus Ordo. The great majority of Novus Ordo Masses are offered in a spirit of liturgical rupture with the liturgical tradition of the Church.  I have however come to the conclusion that however deficient the Novus Ordo is, all celebrations of the Novus Ordo are not equal. My experience has been that where the Novus Ordo is offered in as close a a fashion with the Vetus Ordo (Traditional Rite), ie versus Deum, Latin, Gregorian Chant, incense, communion railing, solidly orthodox sermons etc, the more intact and imbued with a sensus catholicus are the piety, devotion and faith of the those assisting at such a Mass. Now, to be sure such liturgies have been offered in only a handful of places since 1970. Nevertheless, they have existed and served as Oases (alongside Byzantine parishes) for liturgical refugees for the past 40+ years.  The great majority of Catholics assist at liturgies as I stated that are celebrated in rupture with the tradition of the Church ie versus populum, vernacular, banal music, hand communion, proliferation of lay ministers, heterodox feel good preaching and normally lack of piety, reverence, decorum and recollection.  Added to the fact that the great majority of generations of Catholics lack even basic catechesis this spells disaster. Therefore it is no wonder that the great majority of Catholics are imbued with a "Protestant spirit".   

The great majority of Catholics assist at celebrations of the Novus Ordo of this second kind. Short of a Pope abrogating the 1970 Missal of Paul VI and/or a miracle, this situation shall continue unabated. Therefore, I believe that the solution for an authentic restoration of the Catholic liturgy lies in a proliferation of the celebrations of the Novus Ordo in continuity with tradition alongside a much wider use of the traditional Mass. 

I would agree with what the Abbe de Nantes said regarding the Novus Ordo Missae:

"The entire Church could never have accepted, even out of obedience to the Pope, a mere simulacrum of the sacrifice. It is because this new liturgy, however ambiguous, was still capable of expressing the true faith and bringing about the authentic holy sacrifice that the churches have all accepted it. This argument is categorical: if today, all over the world the mass of Catholic priests were celebrating an invalid liturgy, giving the faithful nothing but bread and wine to adore and consume in place of the adorable Body and Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ, and if the whole Catholic community were taking part in the deception in a mistaken faith, then the promises of Christ to His Church would be void, the gates of hell would have prevailed against her and there would no longer exist a Church of God!"

Time Out of Joint: Excerpt: The Abbe de Nantes on the Novus Ordo Miss...: Excerpt: The Abbe de Nantes on the Novus Ordo Missae and "Schism" Note: I think the Abbe de Nantes judgments on the SSPX are ...

No traditional Catholic worthy of the name could excuse himself or herself lightly from assisting at Holy Mass on Sundays and Holy Days. The question is whether one is bound to assist at a valid Mass which under certain circumstances might present a danger to one's Catholic faith? Obviously, it would be prudent to avoid those celebrations of the Novus Ordo  imbued with a "Protestant spirit". The key point is when to do so would be to endanger one's Catholic faith. I think it all too easy for many of us to develop a rather "schismatic" way thinking that says that the true Catholic faith is only to be found in traditional Mass chapels or when one cares little about jurisdiction matters in regards to confession and matrimony or when one decides for himself or herself to simply stay home, pray the missal and the rosary together. I believe there is a very real danger when we excuse ourselves from assisting at Mass on Sundays and Holy Days simply because the Novus Ordo offends our sensibilities. We needn't "participate" in or condone those things which our sensus Catholicus tell is contrary to our Catholic faith or be partisan to sacrilege.  We aren't even obliged to receive Holy Communion.  It is a very, very great trial for me to assist at Novus Ordo liturgies celebrated in rupture with Catholic tradition.  I have often very great difficulty with it.  I do so currently because I have no other choice. 

FATIMA IS THE ANSWER!

"Our Lady of Fatima foretold a coming "diabolical disorientation":

Sister Lucy, the last of the three seers of Fatima, in responding to a militantly orthodox priest states: "There is a diabolical disorientation invading the world and misleading souls! It is necessary to stand up to it; . . . and, staying in my place, I pray for you and for all those who work with you."

Sister Lucy deplores the fact that so many pastors: "let themselves be dominated by the diabolical wave invading the world," and are "blind men leading other blind men."

WHY IS THERE A CONFUSION OF BELIEFS AROUND ME AND WHAT DO I DO AND WHOM DO I BELIEVE? A THREE PART EXPOSITION BY PETER FONGEMIE

Hungary Hands Over Public Schools to Religious Institutions

Hungary Hands Over Public Schools to Religious Institutions

I am edified by the light which continues to come from the nation of Hungary.  This new development as well as the Hungarian constitution are the fruit of the prayers and many sacrifices of Joszef Cardinal Mindszenty and the intercession of Our Lady Queen of Hungary!

József Mindszenty was the Prince Primate, Archbishop of Esztergom, Cardinal, and leader of the Catholic Church in Hungary from 2 October 1945 to 18 December 1973

                                      THE CARDINAL MINDSZENTY FOUNDATION



                                    Magna Domina Hungarorum

                                      ORA PRO NOBIS!

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Pontificate of Pope Francisco is to be consecrated to Our Lady of Fatima

This is most encouraging news that the Holy Father will consecrate his papacy to Our Lady of Fatima! I do not need to tell you how important this is for the Church and the world. We must pray many rosaries for the Holy Father and for the triumph of the Immaculate Heart in the world. As has been posted on Kankakee Latin Mass Blog see also the Fatima Shrine webpage: FROM SANTUARIO DE FATIMA: News

Pontificate of Pope Francisco is to be consecrated to Our Lady of Fatima 2013-04-11 On May 13, at Fatima, during celebration to which all the people of God are invited As an answer to the request of the Pope to the Patriarch of Lisbon, Cardinal José Policarpo, asking that he consecrate the Pope’s Pontificate to Our Lady of Fatima, the Bishops of Portugal have just decided that this consecration be made next May 13. The consecration will be included in the program of the International Pilgrimage of May 12/13 and will be made on the 13th at a time to be announced later. May’s International Anniversary Pilgrimage, on the 96th anniversary of the first apparition of Our Lady to seers Lucia, Francisco and Jacinta, will be presided over by Mons. Orani Tempesta, Archbishop of Rio de Janeiro. Let us remind you that, during the opening speech of the 181st Plenary Assembly of the Bishops Conference of Portugal, Cardinal Policarpo said that he could very well fulfill the request all alone, “in silent prayer”, but that “it would be nice if the entire Bishops Conference joined him in fulfilling the Pope’s request”.