Lost Lambs

Fr. Ernie Davis  Pastor at St. Therese and the Our Lady of Hope Society In Kansas City Mo. Will begin offering an Anglican use Liturgy to their Sunday Mass Schedule. I will also be assisting them in this task.

Below is the current schedule, check out their websites for more info:

Fr. Ernie’s Blog Our Lady of Hope Society

Presentation Schedule – St. Therese Little Flower Anglican Use Community Fall 2008

September 7

Topic: Anglicans and Episcopalians in the Catholic Church: The Pastoral Provision

Presenter: Fr. Ernie Davis, Pastor of St. Therese Little Flower Catholic Church and former Episcopal Priest.

September 14

Topic: The Church, Authority, Pope, Bishops, and Magisterium

Presenter: Matt Teel, former Episcopal priest and professor of philosophy

September 21

Topic: Catholic Liturgy then and now

Presenter: Grayson Warren Brown – noted author, speaker, and performer

September 28

Topic: Believing with the Church

Presenter: Matt Teel – former Episcopal priest and philosophy professor

Also don’t forget about my effort to bring the Traditional Mass to Johnson County - The Society of St. Gregory the Great - http://www.gregorythegreat.org

Today I bought a traditional Sick call box, growing up my grandmother had one that had been passed down to her from her father, that looks EXACTLY like this one. Her’s was not as complete as the one I purchased today.

Below are some photos of this wonderful item, The only item I added to the kit so far has been the small Crucifix, that I had got earlier this week at the Goodwill for $0.50

I suggest every Catholic have a sick call kit for their home, it could be as simple as a few items stored in a shoe box for when the priest comes, Fisheaters has some great info on this:

For a regular sick call (i.e., one that doesn’t include Unction), call your priest and, when he comes, remember that he will be bringing the Blessed Sacrament, the very Body of Christ. Men should remove any headcoverings, while women should cover their heads, and the house should be prepared accordingly. Now prepare the sick room itself:

• Set up a table near the bed in a place where the sick person can see it, and cover it with a white cloth.
• Place on the table the crucifix with a lit blessed candle on each side, a dish of holy water, a piece of palm (if you have some) that the priest can use to spinkle the holy water, and a dish of regular water. Some families include a small bell that the priest or sick person rings after Confession is complete (if Confession is received) to summon the family back into the room.
• Lay a linen cloth across the breast of the sick person.

This came across the Email Wires today:

Cardinal George in Special Ceremony at the Shrine of Christ the King Sovereign Priest

(Chicago, November 26, 2007) A historic landmark church in Chicago, once on the road to demolition, will be the site of a rare ceremony following Christmas, on December 29^th. During the course of a Solemn High Mass in the traditional Latin form, Francis Cardinal George will solemnly crown a statue of the Infant Jesus at the Shrine of Christ the King Sovereign Priest, formerly known as St. Gelasius Church in south side Woodlawn. The antique wooden sculpture from southern Spain will be the central piece above the future high altar of the church that is now being restored. The event will also mark the beginning of regular use of the once shuttered church for Sunday Mass.

The magnificent church building, designed by revivalist architect Henry Schlacks in the 1920s, was the center of much controversy when in 2003 it was slated to be razed but eventually was made a historic landmark of Chicago. Originally known as “St. Clara Carmelite Church,” it had been commissioned by Carmelite Friars of the Old Observance to replace a smaller structure of this parish founded by German immigrants in 1894. The church had the distinction of being the National Shrine of St. Therese of Lisieux, where weekly novena prayers were held beginning on the very day of her canonization in 1925 until the mid 1980s. Vicissitudes affecting the neighborhood, a fire in the 1970s, disrepair and a dwindling congregation eventually led to the church’s closure in 2002.

However, after its near brush with destruction, St. Clara/St. Gelasius Church was given new life when Cardinal George invited the Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest to take charge of it. The Institute is a society of priests established in 1990 in Florence, Italy, under the Ecclesia Dei indult. Priests of the Institute of Christ the King celebrate Mass and all the sacraments according to the 1962 liturgical books — the traditional form of the Latin Rite recently given new impetus by Pope Benedict XVI in his motu proprio Summorum Pontificum. The group’s experience in reforming and restoring church buildings to their former beauty, coupled with the track record of growth in the “Latin Mass” milieu, made the Institute of Christ the King a good fit for the task of transforming the gutted former St. Gelasius into a living church.

Indeed, since the Institute began regularly offering Mass in 2005 at their Chicago location using a provisional chapel in the adjacent rectory, the congregation has increased from not a single person to an ever growing group of faithful, which required that a second Mass be added on Sundays for lack of space. In June 2006, the church received its decree of erection as the Shrine of Christ the King Sovereign Priest.

The Cardinal’s ceremonial crowning of the Infant Jesus during Christmastide this year is of special significance for the church. The first Mass ever offered inside the building was on Christmas 1924, a few years prior to its completion. And 2007 marks the 80^th anniversary of the dedication of the church, on May 15, 1927. Those who attend the Solemn High Mass at 1:30 pm on Saturday, December 29^th, will be treated to what many describe as the “transcendent beauty” of the Latin Mass, with its ancient prayers chanted in Latin, studied and choreographed movements, moments of silent prayer, incense, traditional vessels and vestments, and timeless music. Members of the Chicago Chorale will sing William Byrd’s four-voice polyphonic setting of the Mass, as well as motets by Tomás Luis de Victoria and Josquin de Près. The Gregorian Chant will be provided by the Shrine’s own schola.

This Christmas season, the ever-growing congregation at the Shrine of Christ the King will be moved from the basement-chapel in the rectory to the historic church when regular Sunday Mass again returns to the once-shuttered building. On Christmas Eve, Mass will be at 11:00 pm. On Christmas Day there will be the traditional “Mass at Dawn” at 8:00 am (Low Mass) and the “Mass during the Day” at 10:00 am (High Mass). For more information call 773-363-7409.

I have found some additional information regarding the Solemn High Mass in the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite that will be televised on December 15th at 8:00 am EST from the FSSP website here is the LINK and here is the info:

RORATE CÆLI:Pope wishes to “extend the possible use of the 1962 books to all Latin Church”:

Full Discussion at Rorate Caeli, but this is another sign that this motu proprio, is coming and possibly sheds some light on what else might be included, now just like anything else it poses more questions, either way I still see it as a step in the right Direction The Letter is as follows:

Cardinal Castrillón Hoyos, President of the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei and a member of the Fifth General Conference of Latin American Bishops, delivered the following address yesterday in Aparecida (in Spanish):

Card. Darío Castrillón Hoyos
President Ecclesia Dei
Aparecida, May 14, 2007

[Delivered in Aparecida, May 16, 2007]

Dear and Venerable Brothers,

I allow myself to present a brief information on the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei and on the state of the pastoral reality which the Holy Father has placed under its competence.

This Commission was created by the Servant of God John Paul II in 1988, when a notable group of priests, religious, and faithful, who had made manifest their discontent with the Conciliar liturgical reform and who had congregated themselves under the leadership of French Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, separated themselves from him because they were not in agreement with the schismatic action of the ordination of Bishops without the appropriate pontifical mandate. They preferred, therefore, to stay in full union with the Church. The Holy Father, by way of the Motu Proprio Ecclesia Dei Adflicta, entrusted the pastoral care of these Traditionalist faithful to this Commission.

Nowadays, the activity of the Commission is not limited to the service of those faithful who, at that time, wished to remain in full communion with the Church, nor to the efforts made to put an end to the painful schismatic situation and to attain the return of these brothers of the Saint Pius X fraternity to full communion. By the will of the Holy Father, this Dicastery extends its service, moreover, to satisfy the just aspirations of those who, due to a particular sensibility, and not having kept links to the above-mentioned groups, wish to keep alive the ancient Latin Liturgy in the celebration of the Eucharist and of the other Sacraments.

Undoubtedly, the most important effort, which concerns the entire Church, is the search for an end to the schismatic action and to rebuild the full communion, without ambiguities. The Holy Father, who was for some years a member of this Commission, wishes it to become an organ of the Holy See with the proper and distinct end of preserving and maintaining the worth of the Traditional Latin Liturgy. Yet it must be said with all clarity that it is not a turning back, a return to the time before the 1970 reform. It is, instead, a generous offer of the Vicar of Christ who, as an expression of his pastoral will, wishes to put at the disposal of the whole Church all the treasures of the Latin Liturgy which for centuries has nourished the spiritual life of so many generations of Catholic faithful.The Holy Father wishes to preserve the immense spiritual, cultural, and aesthetic treasures linked to the Ancient Liturgy. The retrieval of this wealth is linked to the no less precious one of the current Liturgy of the Church.

For these reasons, the Holy Father has the intention of extending to the entire Latin Church the possibility of celebrating Holy Mass and the Sacraments according to the liturgical books promulgated by Blessed John XXIII in 1962. There is today a new and renewed interest for this liturgy, which has never been abolished and which, as we have said, is considered a treasure, and also for this reason [the interest] the Holy Father believes that the time has come to ease, as the first Cardinalatial Commission of 1986 had wished to do, the access to this liturgy, making it an extraordinary form of the one Roman Rite.

There are good experiences of communities of religious or apostolic life recently erected by the Holy See which celebrate this liturgy in peace and serenity. Groups of faithful who attend these celebrations with joy and gratitude assemble around them. The most recent establishments are the Institute of Saint Philip Neri, in Berlin, which functions as an Oratory, and which is also present, and well received, in the Diocese of Trier; the Institute of the Good Shepherd, of Bordeaux, which gathers together priests, seminarians, and faithful, some of them from the Fraternity of Saint Pius X. The proceedings for the recognition of a contemplative community, the Oasis of Jesus Priest, of Barcelona, are well advanced.

In Latin America, as is well known, we must thank the Lord for the return of a whole diocese, that of Campos, Lefebvrian in the past, which now, after five years, presents good fruits. It was a peaceful return and the faithful who have enrolled themselves in the Apostolic Administration are glad to be able to live in peace in their parochial communities; furthermore, in effect, some Brazilian dioceses have made contacts with the Campos Apostolic Administration, which has placed priests at their disposal for the pastoral care of the Traditionalist faithful in their local churches. The Holy Father’s project has been partly proved in Campos, where the peaceful cohabitation of the forms of the only Roman Rite in the Church is a beautiful reality. We have the hope that this model will yield good fruits, also in other places of the Church where Catholic faithful with diverse liturgical sensibilities live together. And we hope, furthermore, that this way of living together will also attract those Traditionalists which still remain far away.

The current members of the Commission are Cardinals Julián Herranz, Jean-Pierre Ricard, William Joseph Levada, Antonio Cañizares, and Franc Rodé. Its consultants are the Undersecretaries of some Dicasteries.

Several communities spread throughout the world have been up to now under Ecclesia Dei. 300 priests, 79 religious men, 300 religious women, 200 seminarians, and several hundreds of thousands of faithful. The interest of the young curiously increases in France, the United States, Brazil, Italy, Scandinavia, Australia, and China. At the moment of its return, 50 priests, around 50 seminarians, 100 religious women, and 25,000 faithful came from Campos.

Today, the group of the Lefebvrians includes 4 Bishops who were ordained by Mons. Lefebvre, 500 priests, and 600,000 faithful. Several contemplative monasteries, and some male and female religious groups have joined the group, which has parishes (they call them priories), seminaries, and associations. They are present in 26 countries.

Let us ask the Lord that this project of the Holy Father may soon be accomplished for the unity of the Church.

“Solemn Pontifical Mass: May 19, 2007, 1:30 P.M., Conception Abbey Church, Conception, MO.

For those who plan to attend, it would be wise to arrive early. Celebrant of the Solemn Pontifical High Mass: Most Reverend James C. Timlin, D.D., Bishop Emeritus of Scranton. Deacon: Rev. Fr. Christopher Henderson, CPM, current chaplain. Subdeacon: Rev. Michel Berger. Most Rev. Robert W. Finn, D.D., homilist, and presiding over the Profession ceremony. The Right Reverend Gregory Polan, OSB, Abbot of Conception, presiding over the Investiture of the new novices. (Sister Kaylynne Dunne, from our community, will be finishing her postulancy and receiving her name in religion.)”SOURCE

This is a pretty rare event as I understand it..

If you cant make it to this one the next one that I am aware of is in St. Louis on July 16 per the ICRSS St Louis website.

Philip Blosser - Scripture and Catholic Tradition: “The Missal of 1962 - A Rock of Stability”

I stumbled upon this GREAT post by Dr. Philip Blosser on his Catholic Tradition Blog,

The First Article on the page is a lengthy,detailed, and informative summery and account of the move from the 1962 to the 1965 Roman Missal, how the 1965 Missal was to prepare the Faithful for the New Order.

A Quick Excerpt:

In 1969 a new rite of Mass was promulgated in which, to paraphrase the bishops of the province of Westminster, prayers and ceremonies in previous use were subtracted, and the existing rite was remodeled in the most drastic manner. It was proclaimed triumphantly that this reform, better termed a revolution, would initiate a second Pentecost within the Church, but from the very beginning it initiated an unprecedented collapse in Mass attendance and Catholic life in general throughout the Western world

Also after the first post there is another that is just as good, another excerpt:

A Rite Histrionic and Disoriented

By Nicholas Postgate

The old rite stresses the unworthiness of the priest himself, and continually asks that he, and the rest of us, be made worthy by a divine initiative of mercy. The priest may well be vain or egoistic himself and that may affect his entire ministry, especially outside of liturgical functions; yet the classical order of Mass goes constantly against the grain of fallen nature, it constantly asks of the priest a self-abnegation out of obedience to the aw of the liturgy, it almost forces him to enter its rhythm and the lilt of its language, so dominating is the ceremonial aura. It would take a fairly corrupt priest to ignore, trifle with, or undermine the old ordo Missae.

Just a few articles I found that I thought others might enjoy. Please click the Link up top to Read the entire texts.

Stopped in a local traditional Catholic book store picked up a few things here and there my wife was needing a good mantilla as well but one of my unplanned purchases turned out to be my favorite.
It is a CD Titled “24 Catholic Songs For Children”

I Highly recommend it I have also decided to take it to work and listen to it there.. the Songs are so wholesome and pure as they speak the truths of our faith that I feel may be lacking to this generation.

Some Track titles include :

• The Works Of Mercy
• Why Did Go Make Us
• Jesus, Our Redeemer
• Look Out Little One
• Daniel In the Lions Den

Not sure if its available online, but if you come across it I’d suggest picking up a copy.
(if you are in the KC area and have trouble locating a copy get in touch with me and I will point you to where I found it)