19 April 2022

Vulpium Combustio

Fr H has his tongue firmly in cheek as he proposes an RSPCA ... a Rigid Society for the  Preservation of the Customs of Antiquity. I'm in!

From Fr Hunwicke's Mutual Enrichment

Such is the dear old title for today on the dear old Roman Calendar .... I mean, the pagan, pre-Christian Roman Calendar. Ovidium videOvidium omnes cognostis videndum esse.

Catch your fox; tie a brand to its tail; ignite the brand ... and Off It Goes. The Fox is trying to get away from the fire without realising that, the faster he runs, the faster the fire follows him. Poor primitive animal! What a jape!

So, as the spring evening darkens into night ... albeit, night illumined and sanctified by the Passover Moon ... one watches the fires spreading and merging in the distance ... one senses on the fragrantly romantic air the perfume of burning fox ... and wasn't there once a Franciscan priest called Father Volpi, a collaborator of our Holy Father ... I can't remember now quite how he comes into the story ... or how igneous he was ... but it all sounds so reassuringly Franciscan ...

Of course, Tradition is everywhere nowadays so very much under threat. I am starting RSPCA ... The Rigid Society for the  Preservation of the Customs of Antiquity.

For short, it will be referred to as Lore Enforcement. You may already have heard that phrase on excited lips. How quickly things do get around!

I expect warm endorsements from Prince Charles and HRH the Duchess of Sussex and the Ecumenical Patriarch and the Honourable the Earl of Oystermouth and Greta Wozname ...

And there is scope here too for Ecumenical Progress. I would expect this beautiful old ritual ... so in harmony with all our old instincts for entering into the Mother-Earth-based rhythms of the countryside ... to create new and fruitful harmonies between ourselves and Wicca ... and the Druids ... Pachamama ... Cardinal Madariaga ... Amazonian villagers ... the sacral purlieus of the Vatican Gardens ...

It may even be given a footnote in a revised edition of Laudato Si.

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