“De parentis protoplasti fraude Factor condolens, quando pomi noxialis in necem morsu ruit; ipse lignum tunc notavit, damn ligni ut solveret.”
“Eating of the tree forbidden, Man had sunk in Satan’s snare. When his pitying Creator did this second tree prepare; destined many ages later, that first evil to repair.”
***Writing a postage at night is great… except when you make a very obvious mistake. The Station below is clearly the SECOND Station and not the First. Not only should I have caught my own mistake but the Roman numeral “II” in the picture should have guided me. Lord Jesus, meek and humble of heart, have mercy on me!”***
I have used the following picture before. It is the first Station of the Cross in mosaic as found in my home parish growing up.
As we enter into the Sacred Triduum, consider the joy with which Our Lord embraced the cross. Emerich tells us that at several moments in the Passion He was overjoyed at what lay before Him for through the cross He would save His people.
Take up your cross and follow Him…
I have harped about fasting these past six weeks. I am sure it is tiresome to some. But please indulge me one more time. It is Holy Week, after all. Sidenote: this is the week where our fasting should take on extra urgency and our desire to be as generous to God as possible should cause our hearts to burn. Step it up, brethren.
I remember in the days when I foolishly believed I was helping to form young men and women for God by teaching the Catholic faith in “Catholic” schools. Please God, at least some of those I taught actually learned something. Owing to my own theological training which itself sprang from an imbued love of the faith, I would voraciously devour what we now refer to so blandly as “content”. Whereas today I scan through favorited websites and watch hours of YouTube videos (I also read books too), back then I would get a hold of every new encyclical and exhortation. That was when we had a pope to write them.
I remember reading one such document of Benedict XVI (the name of which I cannot recall at the moment) and being struck by two things. The first was a line that said something to the effect of “Our first prayer should always be a plea for a god’s mercy.” I never forgot that. The second was the notion that the faith should be taught from the Mass. In other words, in order to teach the Catholic faith, we need only immerse ourselves in the sacred rites of the Church. You will find all you need to know therein. This seems to me nothing more than a play on “lex orandi, lex credendi “.
So this brings us to the great Lenten fast. As I have mentioned, I have made the effort this year to truly embrace the fast for all that it is worth. Over the past 4-5 years (corresponding to my time “in tradition”) I have come to learn much from the ancient Mass – much that was hidden from me during the previous 40 years in the Novus Ordo. Ask yourself, if the Mass teaches us the faith and I was going every day and didn’t know things I should have known, why is that? We know the answer. The Bugnini rite stripped away the beauty of the fundamentals. Apostolic teaching like fasting got reduced to something akin to a suggestion on a couple of days a year. I am angry when I think about it. Things necessary to the salvation of my soul were kept from me. I’m sure some will argue that one doesn’t, strictly speaking, need to fast to attain heaven like one doesn’t need to pray the rosary. The same people would accuse me of legalism for wanting to adhere to rubrics.
But now I see it. It is clear to me. Fasting is fundamental. Fasting is salutary. Fasting is an imitation of Christ! It takes our wills and curbs our vices to surrender the desires of the appetites to God. It keeps demons at bay (much as the rosary does). It allows us full, conscious, and active participation in our salvation by uniting ourselves with the Crucified Savior!
Today, for the first time in a long time, I was unable to attend the Holy Mass. My daughter had a doctor’s appointment that I had forgotten about and it overlapped with the Mass time. So this evening, in the quiet setting of my front porch, I took out my missal and prayed the prayers of the Mass to myself. I read Mark’s account of the Passion. I read the Offertory prayers. I prayed the Leonine prayers. But I also found another hidden gem.
And here, with just two days until the most austere fast of all (Holy Thursday until the Vigil), the ancient teaching words of our loving Mother the Church hit me like a hammer.
“May our vices be cured, O Almighty God, by Thy holy mysteries, and may we receive everlasting healing. Per Dominum Nostrum Jesum Christum…”
Postcommunion, Tuesday of Holy Week
Fasting is a gift from God as is the free and undeserved grace to fast and He gives it to us to purify us by curbing our vices and heal us forever.
That oration, in the noble simplicity of ancient Roman oratory, is your crib sheet. That is why we fast.
I so love the rites of Holy Week and I desire the more to lay myself at the foot of His Cross and mourn for my sins and for the wasted time. The fasting this year has increased that love. It has indeed strengthened me. It has shielded me. It has, dare I say it, made me more of a man. But thanks be to God for giving me this grace now and May He bless each of you to fast generously during the Triduum!
Our Lady of Revelation, pray for us!
Tagged fasting, lent, TLM, traditional catholic
Recently I had a conversation with a young man in the parish. We had just met moments earlier through a mutual friend. Off the bat I must forgive this lad. In the customary exchange of pleasantries that takes place when guys gather, he had incorrectly pegged my age as “50’s, I guess?” “No worries, smartass,” I said. “You too will one day have premature white hair in your beard… But first you have to have a beard.” The guy’s 23. Poor fella’.
It seems my new friend is unsure of his future but “kind of wants to get married and have a family.” Hey, I understand that. I was young(er) once. And from my perspective there’s nothing better than the holy sacrament of matrimony. Being a husband and father has been the greatest joy of my life. And I told him so.
As we continued talking, he sought out my advice. I began by advising him to check his food labels for soy content and also to start lifting weights. “Those whiskers will come in one day, son.” The question of what to look for in a wife came up. I indulged him with sentiments from my own charmed life.
“Looks are important but they will fade.” I said that and realized that my wife has only grown more radiant in the years we’ve been together. Being a mother has that effect on a woman. It certainly isn’t from being around me this whole time.
“A sense of adventure and openness to whatever God sends your way is also important.” I said that and remembered that, for all of our adventures – and they have been plenty and fun – my favorite times are when we’re gathered as a family in the living room at night watching a movie.
“Savoring the joy in life is key.” I said that and thought about some of the challenges we’ve faced – family deaths, health concerns, etc. – that were less than joyful but also strengthened us together and drew us closer to each other and to God.
“Anything else, o wise one?” he asked. Falsely sensing he was trying to be sarcastic, I replied, “Knock it off Gen Z. I may be old but I can snap you like a twig.”
There was an awkward silence for a moment. But then it hit me.
“Sorry,” I said. I’m from up north and that’s just how we talk.”
“The most important thing, really the only thing is this. Faith.” I said this and it was clear why I love my wife so much. I have never been at odds with her when it comes to our Catholic faith. She has taught our son the beauty and dignity of womanhood by her warmth. She has taught our daughter the virtue of modesty by her bearing. She has allowed me to experience the strength and humility of fatherhood. She is a woman of virtue. She is a woman of devotion. And she is a woman of deep faith. Our children see it when she drops everything to make the priests a meal. They see it when she joins me in a strict Lenten fast. They see a beautiful Catholic mother and I see a beautiful Catholic wife in every true sense of those words.
Today we all wish Mrs. Harvey a happy birthday. And Mr. Harvey thanks her for being who she is and sharing her life with me.
St. Maria Goretti, pray for us!
Tagged advice, marriage, TLM, traditional catholic
Maybe it’s the fasting this Lent. Maybe it’s the pre-1955 liturgies. I don’t know. But I have this overwhelming desire to practically camp out at my parish the next seven days. I’m actually eager to enter into this most solemn week. I am thankful, above all, to my parish priests – good men all who are going above and beyond for the salvation of my soul. Monday may bring bad news but I am not bothered. Our Lady already told us that in the end, we would have only the rosary and the sign of her Son. We are not owed the Mass, though I would be devastated to be without it again. So I am making an extra effort to pray my fifteen decades every day with love and devotion. I am taking a pointer from my mother-in-law and trying to go to two Masses each day this week as I am able. I am dispensing my kids from their book learning in such ways as to be able to teach them what is truly important. I was struck with the thought today at Mass: what if this was the last time I ever received Our Lord’s Body and Blood? I knelt in stunned adoration contemplating that thought. But I believe He is true to His word and He will make it possible – as I ask Him every day at Communion – for me and my family to “ever have access to the daily Latin Mass.”
Over this coming week I will be thinking of and praying for each of you. Those who have been kind enough to write to me over the past several months; I will remember you by name before Our Lord. When they take Him away on Friday, I will spend all night near His tabernacle. I will eat nothing from Holy Thursday Mass until the end of the Sacred Vigil. I will do these things because He has given me to grow in love for Him and I desire nothing more than to give Him my will.
Pray for me, please. I always pray for you.
Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on us!
Tagged holy week, TLM, traditional catholic
Palm Sunday is upon us! The looming question for many is whether or not your trad parish will…
If you don’t follow what I’m saying, check out the link above. Fascinating stuff. My parish did this two years ago, then did the ‘55 last year, and now seems to be reverting back to the ‘54. I couldn’t be happier.
And now for something completely different…
Jorge Bergoglio is out of the hospital. This is good news as it hopefully affords him more time on this earth to repent before he dies – which he inevitably will. My dad was an actuary, folks. Trust me. But the real cause for concern at this moment is that dreaded “document” that may still drop on Monday.
It is all in God’s hands now. Maybe nothing will happen. Maybe the whole thing comes crashing down. Pray. Continue to fast. Offer your good works to God. Sacrifice your will to Him. It is the one thing He wants from each of us anyway.
God bless us and the Virgin protect us!
One of the things I love about writing this blog is the ability to share with others beautiful things that I come across. Shortly before noon as I drove to Mass I was preparing myself mentally for the Sacrifice. I had on my mind and in my heart feelings of failure. Over the past week I had a family member in town and had also had to engage in some travel and a business luncheon. All of these things contributed to me “fudging” with my Lenten fast a little bit. What had until that time been a miraculous thing for me – the ability to subsist on literally bread and water for four weeks – now felt like a drag as I attempted to recover that spirit. Shortly before leaving the house I had come across a video on Youtube from the Norbertine Fathers in California. When I stopped at a red light I decided to play the video, listening to the audio as I continued my drive.
Here is that video. It is simply put one of the most edifying explanations of why we fast and how we ought to fast. I will not comment further. PLEASE watch this video.
Fr. Nortbert’s words lifted my soul and gave me hope. I pray now for the grace to go harder, as he says, and to be as generous as possible in this gift I will offer God. I pray that you who read this might also embrace the ancient fast of the Church in preparation for the great feast of Easter.
But Fr. Norbert continued. Fasting throughout the year should also be a part of our life as Catholics. True, he says, the grace to fast is more abundant to us during the season of Lent but that shouldn’t mean we abandon the practice for 9/10ths of the year. The early Christians would fast – man, woman, and child – on Wednesdays and Fridays all year. I believe I will try this myself. Our Lord certainly knows better than I do that I have much to atone for, much like Fr.’s example of St Norbert who fasted every day after his conversion.
Then I got to Mass and prayed the Missal as is my custom, silently mouthing along through the ancient prayers. Again, I was reassured that this is Our Lord’s intention for us – to offer to Him our sacrifice, to chasten our bodies, curb our vices, give our wills over to Him, and ultimately, detaching ourselves from the things of this world, to LOVE Him with purity of heart and body.
The Collect:
Grant, we beseech Thee, almighty God, that the dignity of human nature, weakened by excessive self-indulgence, may be restored by the earnest practice of healing self-denial.
Divinum Officium
The Post-Communion (which is also one of the Ablution prayers at every Mass):
May we receive with pure mind, O Lord, what we have taken by mouth, and as a gift in time, may it become for us a remedy for eternity.
Divinum Officium
This is not my favorite translation of this prayer but it works. What I see in this is a deeper reference to the Eucharist as the only food we truly need.
And finally, the Gospel of the Mass was taken from St. Luke 7:36-50:
At that time, one of the Pharisees asked Jesus to dine with him; so He went into the house of the Pharisee and reclined at table. And behold, a woman in the town who was a sinner, upon learning that He was at table in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster jar of ointment; and standing behind Him at His feet, she began to bathe His feet with her tears, and wiped them with the hair of her head, and kissed His feet, and anointed them with ointment. Now when the Pharisee, who had invited Him, saw it, he said to himself, This man, were He a prophet, would surely know who and what manner of woman this is who is touching Him, for she is a sinner. And Jesus answered and said to him, Simon, I have something to say to you. And he said, Master, speak. A certain money-lender had two debtors; the one owed five hundred denarii, the other fifty. As they had no means of paying, he forgave them both. Which of them, therefore, will love him more? Simon answered and said, He, I suppose, to whom he forgave more. And He said to him, You have judged rightly. And turning to the woman, He said to Simon, Do you see this woman? I came into your house; you gave Me no water for My feet; but she has bathed My feet with tears, and has wiped them with her hair. You gave Me no kiss; but she, from the moment she entered, has not ceased to kiss My feet. You did not anoint my head with oil; but she has anointed My feet with ointment. Wherefore I say to you, her sins, many as they are, shall be forgiven her, because she has loved much. But he to whom little is forgiven, loves little. And He said to her, Your sins are forgiven. And they who were at table with Him began to say within themselves, Who is this man, who even forgives sins? But He said to the woman, Your faith has saved you; go in peace.
About eighteen months ago I had some time during several cross-country drives and I decided to “catch up” by listening to every Barnhardt Podcast. She still sounds great at 1.5X speed. Sidenote: If ever I meet Miss B. in person I’m not sure I’ll know it’s really her if she suddenly starts speaking in a slower tempo. But I digress. In one episode linked below, Ann and Supernerd discuss Mary Magdalene and how she did not simply live the rest of her life after the Ascension as she had before nor even as if nothing was different. Instead, she practiced austere penance. Think about that. She who had been forgiven directly by Christ (as in the Gospel above), who had wept at the foot of His cross, and to whom He had appeared after His resurrection, did not slack as a penitent. Rather she carried the Gospel to France with her brother and sister, Martha and Lazarus, and lived in a cave, fasting and praying for decades until the same Lord called her to Himself.
This evening, a friend stopped by and I showed him the Norbertine video. We talked about Magdalene. He reminded me that he had traveled through France this past summer and then showed me the following pictures.
Again, Our Lord saw fit to humble me today and to give me new hope. If you have done no fasting this Lent, I pray you will follow the example of Magdalene. I pray you will heed the words of Fr. Norbert. I pray you will make a generous gift of your fasting to Our Lord. We have one week left.
St. Norbert, pray for us!
St. Mary Magdalene, pray for us!
Barnhardt Podcast Episode #16 – Mary Magdalene…
Harvey Millican's Blog: Musings of a Trad Dad 