Overheard in the Sacristy

The “Spirit of V2″ has placed an innumerable number of souls in danger of damnation. Liberté, Egalité and Fraternité –Religious Freedom. Oecumenism and Collegiality–have failed miserably!

See Call To Action @ Saint Bubba’s

Vatican Scientist Says OK to Believe in Aliens and God

In the Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano an article entitled, “The Extraterrestrial Is My Brother,” the Rev. Jose Gabriel Funes said the expansiveness of the universe means there could be life on planets other than Earth.

The conclusion of Michael J. Matt’s Look Back at Pope Benedict’s Missionary Journey to the US

As the magnificent Christus Vincit soared to the heights of St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York during the papal procession, I longed with all my heart for the Pope to ascend the altar of God and commence his Mass with “introibo ad altare Dei!” Though I have no doubt this will happen one day, it didn’t happen in America. The Holy Father’s visit made it clear that this is all going to take some time, and that, while the Church is slowly beginning to steer a course back toward Tradition, the ship is still haunted and the captain still hounded by the spirit of Vatican II. There’s much work to be done before we return safe to harbor.

What’s certain, however, is that Benedict sees a restored liturgy as an integral part of the restoration of Catholic identity and influence throughout this prison that is the modern world. Summorum Pontificum can be seen as a papal cry for help in carrying out the monumental task of undoing forty years of liturgical abomination by restoring the Roman Rite to the altars of the Catholic Church. That’s the crusade Benedict has called, and we must answer his call!

On July 7, 2007, our aged pontiff—the virtual prisoner of a relativist regime whose effects on the Church are called the “spirit of Vatican II”—handed his loyal subjects a standard and asked them to march it out into the world for him. Wolves both within and without the Church will try to stop us at every step of the way, but so be it! Let the word go forth that Roman Catholic Traditionalists stand with the Holy Father, and that they are willing to help him drive the wolves all the way to Armageddon in this fight for the soul of Holy Church.

For when all is said and done, Benedict XVI is Christ’s vicar on earth, and on balance his pontificate is not proving to be the world-pleasing spectacle provided by “John Paul the Great.” The wolves know this as well as we do, which is precisely why, as this article goes to press, Time magazine has conspicuously omitted Benedict from its annual list of the world’s 100 most influential people—an omission as ludicrous as it is telling.

The coming months may well prove to be very interesting. Pray for the Holy Father!

I just ran across a brilliant post from Father John Speekman (the image is his also.) Please pay him a visit for keen insight into his ministry in Australia.

Jesus shared with his disciples,

“I am the Nice Shepherd.

I never say no to my sheep. They love me and I love them and I do anything they want. When the wolf comes I smile and say hello and welcome him into the flock because my flock is inclusive and welcoming.

Other shepherds are not nice. They are divisive and bullying. They have rules for the sheep. They do not accept the wolf and do not let the sheep play with him.

I am the Nice Shepherd. I lay down for the sheep and the wolf. They love me lots and call me by my first name. We love ourselves and we form community. We do not like those other sheep who will not play with the wolf. We do not have them in our flock. We call them names and show them they are unwelcome because they are not welcoming like us.”

“apse-backward inculturation”

Fr. Zuhlsdorf’s What Does the Prayer Really Say? Blog

Historical Argument Favors Communion on the Tongue

Apr. 22, 2008 (CWNews.com) - The American magazine Catholic Response has published an English translation of a provocative article, originally published in the official Vatican newspaper, calling for an end to the practice of receiving Communion in the hand.

The article by Bishop Athanasius Schneider of Karaganda, Kazakhstan, originally printed in L’Osservatore Romano, examines the historical record of Catholic practice, concluding that the early Church quickly developed the practice in which lay people Communion on the tongue while kneeling. Only ordained ministers were allowed to touch the consecrated Host with their hands.

By the 6th century, Bishop Schneider writes, the Church had formed a consensus that Communion should be received on the tongue, of reverence for the Eucharistic Lord. Pope Gregory the Great chastised priests who resisted that consensus, and it was become an “almost universal practice” in the early Church, the author says.

Kneeling to receive Communion was also a pattern established early in Church history, Bishop Schneider reports. That posture, too, was seen as a means of expressing reverence for Jesus in the Eucharist, and “the most typical gesture of adoration is the biblical one of kneeling.”

By administering Communion on the tongue, priests were able to foster greater devotion to the Eucharist; Bishop Schneider remarks that that form is “an impressive sign of the profession of faith the in the Real Presence.”

He adds the argument that this form of distributing Communion can prevent accidents. The author cites St. Cyril of Jerusalem, who exhorted priests to use extra caution “so that no even a crumb of the Lord’s Body could fall to the ground.”

The article published in L’Osservatore Romano, and now translated in Catholic Response, summarizes the more complete argument that Bishop Schneider put forward in his book, Dominus Est. That book, released in Italy earlier this year, drew special notice for two reasons. It was published by the official Vatican press, and a preface was contributed by Archbishop Macolm Ranjith, the secretary of the Congregation for Divine Worship, who said it was “high time to review” the policy of allowing laymen to receive Communion in the hand.

After Assimilation: The Pope Works To Bring Back Catholic Culture

by David Gibson

Call Pope Benedict XVI a “cultural Catholic” and you’re likely to get puzzled looks if not angry rejoinders. Cultural Catholics rank right down there with “cafeteria Catholics” in the opinion of those who argue that only a deep experience of Christian faith and a tight embrace of church teachings can make one authentically Catholic…

The Wall Street Journal | Houses of Worship

“Saint James the Moorslayer, one of the most valiant saints and knights the world ever had … has been given by God to Spain for its patron and protection. ” — Cervantes, Don Quixote