Hymn for a Creationist

St. Peter of Verona receives the Triple Crown: as virgin, martyr, and doctor.

In the twenty-seventh year of Thomas of Aquino's life, his fellow Dominican Peter of Verona was murdered by Milanese Cathars, against whom he had vociferously preached for years. The great contention between Peter and the Cathars was the creation of the world by God instead of the Devil or some Devil-like deity. The orthodox Peter contended that the world was good, the heretics that it was evil or thoroughly corrupted.

Eleven years after this gruesome martyrdom, Thomas made a pilgrimage to the saint's tomb—for Peter had been canonized less than a year after his death—and composed the following eulogy. It would later be engraved in a slab near the sepulcher.

Praeco, lucerna, pugil Christi, populi, fideique,

Hic silet, hic tegitur, jacet hic mactatus inique.

Vox ovibus dulcis, gratissima lux animorum.

Et verbi gladius gladiis cecidit Catharorum.

Christus mirificat, populus devotus adorat,

Martyrioque fides sanctum servata decorat.

Sed Christus nova signa loqui facit, ac nova turbae

Lux datur, atque fides vulgata refulget in urbe.

Loosely Englished by Msgr. H.T. Henry:

Here silent is Christ’s Herald;

Here quenched, the People’s Light;

Here lies the martyred Champion

Who fought Faith’s holy fight.

The Voice the sheep heard gladly,

The light they loved to see

He fell beneath the weapons

Of graceless Cathari.

The Saviour crowns His Soldier;

His praise the people psalm.

The Faith he kept adorns him

With martyr’s fadeless palm.

His praise new marvels utter,

New light he spreads abroad

And now the whole wide city

Knows well the path to God.

St. Peter's killer, the hired assassin Carino of Balsamo, soon repented of his crime and fled to a Dominican monastery at Forlì. He performed penance, became a lay brother, and lived a religious life until the end of his days, having taken the name Peter.

Saint Vitalis of Milan

Next month will mark the 563rd anniversary of the fall of the Roman Empire, when the city walls which protected the scant remainder of ancient civilization crumbled under the canonnade of Renaissance paganism. It was the proper end of classic culture in one part of the world and the return of it to another. Greek art and literature returned to the West, as did an interest in philosophy and architecture. The Constantinopolitan Church would remain indefinitely alienated from the Roman Church, forced by the new masters of the land into permanent decline. Centuries later we would speak of Eastern and Western Churches, as though they have little to do with each other, a creeping brand of orientalism. 

source: Oberlin College

There are many churches in Italy built during the late Byzantine rule over Italy which seemingly blur the boundaries between what are now denominated East and West, but at the time of their constructions was simply the Empire. Among these is the basilica of San Vitale in the former Exarchate of Ravenna, the remote administrative center of Italy for the Empire now based in Byzantium. The church is octagonal in shape, recounting to us that the Sacrament of greatest importance in earlier days was Baptism, which incorporated one into the Church. St. Augustine simply calls Baptism "the Sacrament" in his Confessions. Images of the occasionally notorious and often effective Justinian and his wife, Theodora, grace the opposite sides of the apse, at the center of which is a beardless image of Our Lord Jesus Christ; the earthly court anticipates the heavenly court. The people of the region likely depicted Christ without facial hair because of the Roman custom of men to shave; they showed Christ as they knew him, even if inaccurately. The arch over the apse holds the images of the Twelve Apostles, through whom we have received the Church and come to know Christ.

A church similar in antiquity but different in both execution (Roman basilica rather than Greek dome) and intention (communal church rather than political metaphor) is Santa Maria Assunta in Torcello. The Mother and Child look down the apse in Greek fashion, but the apse with an episcopal throne and forward facing altar are purely Latin. The imagery on the Rood screen echoes what developed into the iconostasis in Byzantine Christianity. The seemingly Greek Last Judgment on the back wall dates to the 12th century, before the Venetians sacked Constantinople.

St. Vitalis, whose patronal church is more renown on earth, pray for the Church in heaven, where you enjoy fitting repute!

Explaining Concepts

The Rite of Arlington, TX (Bishop Jerry Jones)

Holy Noah, what a storm we are enjoying here in Texas! 

I had the pleasure of feasting with a friend from a mixed-denominational protestant background who is asking questions about Apostolic Christianity, mainly about the significance of the liturgy, something quite foreign to Bible Belt Megachurchdom (and Texas is the belt buckle). It occurred to me that the liturgy is less something requiring a theological explanation than the simplest explanation of the Church's theology. I encourage readers to re-consider this old post on the Liturgy & Tradition: Sensus Fidelium.

We have not touched on things like Apostolic succession or why some Holy Orders are recognized while others are considered invalid. Rather than dive into the specifics of form, matter and intention, would it not be easier to consider the liturgy itself? Leo XIII wrote that if Jesus Christ is the head of the Church, the Holy Spirit is the soul of the Church. Every Sacrament involves the presence of Christ accomplished in the Holy Spirit. Every bishop gains the power to ordain through the reception of the Holy Spirit. Christ became incarnate of the Holy Spirit. Where One acts the Other becomes present. 

In this context it would not be hard to understand the liturgy as the manifestation of the adage "do what the Church does." Traditionalists have spilled considerable ink on this topic since 1968 debating Paul VI's rite of ordination. While sedevacantists presume the invalidity of the rite and mainstream Catholics its validity, we see the strange phenomenon of men like both HJA Sire and Bishop Richard Williamson holding mild doubts because of the rite could be left to the orthodoxy of the ordaining bishop. Unfortunately orthodoxy in this sense means doctrinal soundness, it means whether or not the bishop intends to pass on the sacrificial priesthood as understood in certain manuals and writings. Historically the antithesis of orthodoxy is not heresy but heterodoxy, not erroneous personal beliefs but false worship. Apostolicae Curae could have been considerably shorter if Papa Pecci (the best pope of the 20th century) had asked whether or not the Edwardian ordinal could be interpreted as an honest prayer of episcopal consecration in any way that would have been recognizable five centuries or fifteen centuries ago, whether or not it could be received in accordance with how the Church prays.

When I served Mass years ago I used to meditate on psalm 84 before vesting: Quam dilecta tabernacula tua.

source: lmschairman.org

An April Miscellany

Church Militant

While Mr. Grump has no particular opinion on the unfolding drama of the Wigged Warrior coming out about his sordid past, he does admit to having binge watched the bulk of RCTV’s free videos back when he discovered them. I realized even then that the St. Michael’s Media-produced videos were basically vlogs with a modest budget, but their fairly solid content was appreciated. It would not be at all surprising if the man’s claims about the NY archdiocese are true, although for the sake of the Church I hope they are not. Voris has made many enemies over the years, many of them unnecessarily. Maybe he does not know who his real friends are, and maybe this crisis will make him reconsider some of his policies.

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St. Mark

Today is the feast of the Evangelist Mark, the little-known disciple and companion of St. Peter. He is believed to have founded the Church in Alexandria, and to have written the second Gospel under the direction of Peter himself. This Gospel has been endlessly deconstructed and reconstruction by biblical scholars for over a century, but it remains potent in its brevity and directness. Tradition says he was martyred by being dragged through the streets of Alexandria. Allegorically he is depicted as a winged lion in sacred art.

~~~

City of God

My reading of Augustine’s City of God continues steadily if slowly. I wish I were the sort of writer who could comment on it as I go, but I cannot do much more than admire the building of Augustine’s literary edifice as he puts it together brick-by-brick. Between the City of God and the Confessions, it is easy to see why his was considered the standard style for spiritual writing in the West for so many centuries. One wishes that style would make a return in earnest.

~~

On Preaching

It was disappointing that the feast of St. George last Saturday was commemorated by a sermon about the Holy Family, rather than a sermon about the great dragon killer. (Did you know that Joseph and Mary didn’t have any children together after Jesus was born? Thank goodness we finally cleared that up.) This is especially surprising since Mr. Grump’s parish hosts a boy’s group dedicated to St. George as their patron. The Sunday sermon also featured a sermon about Mary, originally meant for the month of May, but given early because the priest in question was going out of town for a while. Is it really so impossible to preach on the current feast or season?

~

Et in Arcadia Ego

There is a Japanese Garden attached to the Fort Worth Botanic Garden. During the annual Spring Festival it becomes uncomfortably crowded and noisy, but I have no doubt it would feel calm and cozy at normal times. The garden features structures built in traditional Japanese style, a pond inhabited with large ethnic fish, a narrowly winding walking path, and a small bamboo forest that clicks pleasantly in the wind. Places like these serve as reminders that man was made originally to live in a garden.

An Episode in Clericalism

(Alfred Weber)

Location: Local Tradistani Parish

Occasion: Monthly Men’s Group Meeting During Lent

Mr. B: Any other suggestions for Lenten reading?

Mr. C: I haven’t had the time to read much, unfortunately.

Mr. J (Me): I’ve been reading Dante’s Divine Comedy. It was recommended by the pope! (Polite laughter from the others.) Augustine’s Confessions would make for good Lenten reading, I think.

Mr. B: Well, I have been reading this collection of devotions to St. Joseph. It has a lot of good prayers and novenas you can use.

Mr. J: (Twitching noises.)

Mr. D: Oh yeah, St. Joseph is great! He’s really helped me out with finding a job after I had to leave my last one.

Mr. B: There are some interesting biographical things about St. Joseph in here I had never heard of before. Like how he was from the royal line of David—

Mr. J: (More twitching noises.)

Mr. B: —and how he was actually pretty young when he and the Blessed Virgin were married.

Mr. J: Ahem. Actually, the oldest traditions about St. Joseph were that he was older and widowed at that time.

Mr. B: You know, that’s what I always thought. I don’t know where this writer got his information. He also says that there’s good reason to believe that Joseph was assumed bodily into Heaven, but I can’t figure out where he gets those beliefs.

Mr. J: They were made up in the late Middle Ages, just as the Renaissance was kicking in.

Mr. B: Huh. I was not aware of that. It’s good to know. Oh well, it’s still a decent book if you just stick to the prayers.

Mr. J: (Sigh of relief.)

Mr. D: We should definitely pray to St. Joseph. His intercession is very powerful.

Mr. B: No doubt. Well, unless anybody else has reading suggestions, I suppose we can break for toni—

(He is interrupted as Fr. M walks in. This is the first time Mr. J has ever seen one of the parish priests show up in a Men’s Group meeting.)

Fr. M: I hope I’m not interrupting. I thought I’d pop in since I was done with confessions.

Mr. B: Not at all, Father! We were just talking about reading suggestions for Lent.

Fr. M: Oh, you should all read about Fatima! We’re coming up on the centennial, after all. Our Lady has many important messages for our time.

Mr. B: I was also talking about this St. Joseph book I’ve been reading.

Fr. M: Oh, if you want to read about St. Joseph, you should read The Life and Glories of St. Joseph, by— oh, I can’t remember who the author is.

Mr. J: (Twitching noises.)

Fr. M: But you can find the whole thing online. Joseph is a great saint. He’s the patron of the universal Church! The Life and Glories has lots of great information about St. Joseph, and all the wonderful graces given to him in accordance with his state in life.

Mr. B: Wow, I’ll have to get my hands on that.

Fr. M: You should! It’s very well researched, with many quotes from the Doctors and Fathers of the Church. He even received the grace of sinlessness and of being assumed bodily into Heaven with Our Lady!

Mr. J: I’ve read a lot of Mr. Healey’s book. I can’t say I was very impressed with his scholarship. In fact, he includes some patristic quotes nobody has ever been able to verify.

Fr. M: Oh, I don’t know. He quotes many Doctors of the Church, including St. Francis de Sales!

Mr. B: Well, if it’s online, I’ll have to find it. Maybe we’ll talk about that book in the next meeting.

Fr. M: Oh, that would be wonderful.

Mr. B: All right, let’s break for tonight. Have a good rest of Lent, everybody.

Mr. J: (The twitching noises become eerily calm.)

For Love of God

source: oberlin.edu

St. Gregory the Great wrote that the altar is the where the flesh of Christ "is distributed for the salvation of the people," where the "quires of angels are present in the mystery of Jesus Christ", and where things "earthly [are] joined with the heavenly". Today I look at parishes, regularly diocesan or "traditional" and see something lacking since Gregory penned his Dialogues.

The Byzantine liturgy helped this writer, and maybe others, understand his native Roman rite, not just textually and historically, but also in the heart, which is where the Christian must live. Starting with a new rite taught me to pray what the prayers said rather than to take them purely as proclamations of intentions or instances of pedagogy. What I discovered was that the liturgy was, in a very person way (in the sense of speaking to a person, not in the sense of privacy), all about God. I knew if factually from the old rite Roman high Mass, but when I first heard the Great Doxology in my own tongue the remaining scales fell from my eyes:

"Glory to You, O Giver of Light! Glory to God in the highest...."

I heard this any number of times in the Roman liturgy without this simple connection, that the hymn directly addresses God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The Eucharist is offered for the adoration of the Holy Trinity and for the forgiveness of sins. Whatever we ask we ask in our own littleness and out of God's great goodness, not out of expectation for reward of our own righteousness. The Roman Canon begins Te igitur, clementissime Pater.... supplices rogamus, ac petimus, uti accepta habeas, et benedicas, not "You gather your people so that a perfect offering may be made, implicitly by us." Prayer always ascends; the Greek litany before Communion petitions "For the precious gifts here offered and sanctified, let us pray to the Lord.... That Our God, Who loves mankind, having received them on His holy and mystical altar in heaven as a sweet spiritual fragrance, may send down in return His divine grace and the gift of the Holy Spirit, let us ask."

By contrast the prevailing modern notion—traditionalist Romans are no different—is that we attend Mass to meet an obligation and to get something out of it ("the graces"—from gratis, suggesting something freely given). This blog often caterwauls the difficulty of getting the faithful into churches for a service that does not include Communion (something for me rather than something God gives), unless it is Stations of the Cross on Good Friday. If I do XYZ (go to Mass on Sundays, go to Confession, practice certain devotions that guarantee my ticket upstairs) then I am saved. Does it really work that way?

Many of the more successful Reform of the Reform parishes during the Benedictine era taught good theology from the pulpit, did not make a further shambles of the Pauline Mass, and had a Christocentric outlook. In the several parishes of this sort I visited during the Ratzingerian papacy I noticed none of them preached "If you only do this, you will be saved" or that the liturgy was a welfare state amenity: file your paperwork and get a piece of the action. Christ gives Himself in the Eucharist out of His own goodness, not owing to our worthy expectation. His sacrifice makes us worthy to partake.

"Since under the former Testament, according to the testimony of the Apostle Paul, there was no perfection because of the weakness of the Levitical priesthood, there was need, God the Father of mercies so ordaining, that another priest should rise according to the order of Melchisedech, our Lord Jesus Christ, who might perfect and lead to perfection as many as were to be sanctified. He, therefore, our God and Lord, though He was by His death about to offer Himself once upon the altar of the cross to God the Father that He might there accomplish an eternal redemption, nevertheless, that His priesthood might not come to an end with His death, at the last supper, on the night He was betrayed, that He might leave to His beloved spouse the Church a visible sacrifice, such as the nature of man requires, whereby that bloody sacrifice once to be accomplished on the cross might be represented, the memory thereof remain even to the end of the world, and its salutary effects applied to the remission of those sins which we daily commit, declaring Himself constituted a priest forever according to the order of Melchisedech, offered up to God the Father His own body and blood under the form of bread and wine...." Council of Trent, Session 22, Ch.1 (before the stuff everyone usually reads)

Geoffrey Hull quotes Aidan Kavanagh's words about the tendency to reduce the liturgy to personal value and rational structure, decrying that "Sacraments diminish as unsettling encounters between presences divine and human in the here and now, to become a rather abstract ritual expression of a pattern set by Christ to give scope to the universal kingdom" (p43).

Apollonius the Compassionate Apologist

Today marks the traditional commemoration of a certain St. Apollonius (one of many bearing that name), a Roman senator sentenced to death under the Emperor Commodus in the late second century after he had been betrayed by a servant. St. Jerome writes a brief hagiography in his De Viris Illustribus:

Apollonius, a Roman senator under the emperor Commodus, having been denounced by a slave as a Christian, gained permission to give a reason for his faith and wrote a remarkable volume which he read in the senate, yet none the less, by the will of the senate, he was beheaded for Christ by virtue of an ancient law among them, that Christians who had once been brought before their judgment seat should not be dismissed unless they recanted. (ch. 42)

Eusebius also has a slightly longer entry in his Ecclesiastical History (V.21). While Apollonius’ Apologia was apparently lost after the patristic age, an account of his martyrdom purporting to be original was discovered and published in the 19th century. It can be read below.



Apollonius is a patron saint, presumably, of apologetics. The Apologia recounted above shows his deep love for Christ, the Faith, and even for his opponents. His accusations against paganism would be echoed later in Augustine’s City of God, as are his more benevolent references to that greatest of pagan thinkers, Socrates. The exchange at the very end also shows his willingness to let go of the argument once his opponent becomes obstinate:

The magistrate said—“I thought that thou wast changed in the night from that mind of thine.”

Apollonius said—“And I expected that thy thoughts would be changed in the night and the eyes of thy spirit be opened by my answer: and that thy heart would bear fruit, and that thou wouldst worship God, the Creator of all, and unto Him continually offer thy prayers by means of compassion; for compassion shown to men by men is a bloodless sacrifice and holy unto God.” (43-44)

There is a wide gulf between the Christian defense of Apollonius and the bloodlessly logical approach to apologetics in today’s Anglosphere. The Randian “A is A” will convert no one but heartless pedants, and them only in the most shallow manner.

Unrelated image.