The Death and Resurrection of Tradition

The SG Dom Prosper Guéranger's Cause for Canonisation has been introduced. There is a prayer for his beatification linked in the sidebar.

From Crisis

By Joseph Pearce

This is the twenty-eighth instalment of Mr Pearce's series on the Unsung Heroes of Christendom. The other parts are, from previous to first, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.

Dom Prosper Guéranger's tireless promotion of Gregorian chant bore great cultural fruit and helped with the Catholic revival in France.

In an earlier essay in this series, we remarked how dispassionate or despondent observers at the beginning of the 19th century might have considered that the Catholic Church was terminally ill and on its deathbed. The previous century had seen the rise of despotic and absolutist monarchs who had usurped the rights of the Church as a means of subjecting religion to the power of the state. 

This weakened Church was then subject to the terrors of the French Revolution which had sought to destroy the Church, replacing it with an atheistic secularist tyranny. In 1799 the imposition of a military dictatorship under Napoleon completed the metamorphosis of the Revolution from militant atheism to militaristic imperialism. In the same year, Pope Pius VI died as a prisoner of Napoleon, who had brought him to France following the French invasion of Italy. And so ended a century in which philosophical error had resluted in a reign of terror and the death in prison of a weak and politically powerless pope. 

It was at this time that Napoleon is said to have threatened to destroy the Church, telling Cardinal Consalvi that he had the power to do so. “For 1,800 years, the rest of us have been trying to do it,” the Cardinal told the despot, “and we haven’t succeeded!” 

The quick-witted quip cut to the very truth of the matter. In every century, the Catholic Church had been threatened by the secular ambitions of Caesar, the enemy without, and had been betrayed by the heresy and corruption of Judas, the enemy within. Neither Caesar nor Judas had succeeded in destroying the Mystical Body of Christ. Why should Napoleon be any more successful than the legion of others who had preceded him in the passage of the centuries?

Perhaps only those with eyes of faith could have predicted the astonishing Catholic revival which would revivify France in the century following its bloody revolution. Much was due to François-René de Chateaubriand, whose praises we sang in an earlier essay. His powerful defense of the Church published in 1802, The Genius of Christianity, would rekindle the faith of a generation which was either disgusted with the terror of the revolution or disillusioned with its discredited ideals.

Among those whose faith was fortified by Chateaubriand’s work was Prosper Guéranger who read The Genius of Christianity frequently during his boyhood. Born in 1805, he felt the call of the priesthood as a teenager and entered the minor seminary in Tours in 1822. During his time in seminary, he developed a keen interest in the history of the Church, the monastic life, and the liturgy. Ordained in 1827, the young priest began to use the Roman Missal and the Divine Office in contradistinction to the diocesan editions of the liturgical texts commonly used by the clergy in France.

 Guéranger began to write and publish works on the liturgy defending tradition, which gained him much support from his fellow clergy but met opposition from many of the French bishops. 

In 1831, the young priest secured enough funds from generous benefactors to purchase the derelict Priory of Solesmes, which, when renovated and restored to its former glory, would become the catalyst for the resurrection of monastic life and traditional liturgical practices in France and beyond. Five priests declared their intention of consecrating their lives to the re-establishment of the Benedictine Order in the restored priory, and in 1837, Pope Gregory XVI, himself a Benedictine, raised the rank of the former priory to that of an abbey and appointed Guéranger as the abbot of Solesmes and Superior General of the Benedictine congregation in France. 

As a spiritual writer, Guéranger’s greatest achievement is the compendious fifteen-volume L’Année Liturgique (The Liturgical Year), a magisterial work which has been called the “Summa” of the liturgy of the Catholic Church. It remains a major reference work for Catholics, particularly those concerned with preserving and protecting the Traditional Latin Mass.

As for the Catholic revival in France, Guéranger’s tireless promotion of Gregorian chant bore great cultural fruit. As discussed in a previous essay in this series, many of the great French composers of the 19th and 20th centuries were influenced by him. Charles Tournemire’s most celebrated work, L’orgue mystique, has been described by musicologist Susan Treacy as “a kind of Liturgical Year for the Organ,” expressive of the composer’s indebtedness to Guéranger’s L’Année Liturgique. 

Dom Prosper Guéranger died peacefully in 1875 in the Abbey which he had restored. Within a few years of his death, Caesar would once again seek to destroy the resurrected Church in France. Solesmes Abbey was dissolved by the French Government no fewer than four times. In 1880, 1882, and 1883 the monks were ejected by force. Each time, with the support of the local Catholics who had sheltered them, they returned. Then, between 1901 and 1922, the monks were forced into exile in England, establishing Quarr Abbey on the Isle of Wight, which prospers to this day. 

Eventually returning to France, the vibrant and traditional community at Solesmes has been at the heart and the hub of the monastic revival and the revival of Gregorian chant and the Traditional liturgy. It has served as the mother house of some twenty-five other monastic foundations, including Clear Creek Abbey in Oklahoma, which has itself been at the heart and hub of the restoration of the Traditional Liturgy in the United States. Beginning in 1999 with thirteen monks, Clear Creek now has sixty monks in its dynamically orthodox congregation. 

Let’s conclude by comparing Dom Prosper Guéranger with the once mighty Napoleon. 

Napoleon Bonaparte would meet his Waterloo in 1815, dying in lonely exile six years later. He was reconciled on his deathbed with the Church that he once claimed to have the power to destroy. May he rest in peace. 

Dom Prosper Guéranger lived to see the resurrection of liturgical tradition. He died as a hero of Christendom whose praises should be sung. He has been declared a Servant of God and the cause for his beatification was opened in 2005. In a few weeks, on January 30, 2025, we will celebrate the 150th anniversary of his death. We may dare to hope that, in the fullness of time, this date will also be the feast day of a saint.

Dom Prosper Guéranger, champion of chant and liturgical tradition, pray for us!

Mordor in England

The Scouring of England would begin by getting rid of Saruman, oops, I mean Starmer, and restoring the Constitution to pre-Red Tony. 

From The European Conservative

By Michael Locke

Tolkien can teach the English a lot about how to make their country their home again.

One of the most surprising things about reading The Lord of the Rings for the first time is the ending. After spending many hundreds of pages fighting terrifying monsters and vast armies, the protagonists return to their home to find it overrun with a nondescript band of ruffians. The penultimate chapter is spent recounting the struggle to return the Shire to its previous condition, a process that involves rousing the demoralised hobbits to overthrow the rabble who have taken control of their land. 

On the face of it, the small-scale episode is something of a comedown from the sweeping drama that occupies most of the novel, and many readers have found it a puzzling or anticlimactic resolution to the story. Tolkien himself claimed that it was integral to the plot, foreseen from the very start. As this reader gets older and returns to the book from time to time, I find myself in agreement: far from being an unsatisfying addendum to the real action, the Scouring of the Shire is the very heart of the book, and it offers a sobering insight both into the post-War country Tolkien inhabited, as well as the deep corruption of contemporary England.

Some themes are particularly resonant. Rather than being occupied by a foreign army, the Shire’s corruption is sustained mainly from within. Although we discover that the origin of the rot lies in the meddling of the wizard Saruman, it is primarily the hobbits who operate the institutions of the revolution, something that appals the returning heroes. “You ought to be ashamed of yourself,” says Sam to a hobbit working for the regime. “You can give it up, if it has stopped being a respectable job.” “We’re not allowed to,” comes the miserable answer. A kind of madness has descended over the land, compelling ordinary people to engage in organised oppression of their own kind. Some of this is due to fear, but perhaps the greater motivation is simply a kind of numb shock: no one knows precisely why or how the Shire has changed, but suddenly it has, and once all the light and song has drained out of it there is no resisting the new dispensation.

The most obvious imposition of the regime comes in the form of the Rules. The previous governance of the Shire, we understand, was organised around informal social convention—the archetypal ‘high trust’ society. The New Shire overflows with written, formal Rules, pinned to the wall of every building, which are enforced by the office of Sheriffs. Many of the Rules are vague or petty and are thus able to be interpreted arbitrarily by the new policing institutions. In a typical instance of anarcho-tyranny, serious crimes such as murders of officials and the destruction of the environment go unpunished whereas trivial infractions are heavily punished: “There’s no longer even any bad sense to it,” says Farmer Cotton. “They cut down trees and let ’em lie, they burn houses and build no more.”

And that is the other main pillar of the regime: the destruction of the old. Trees are uprooted, ancient buildings are demolished, festivals are abolished. Pride or attachment to the familiar, the settled and the customary is erased. The things that replace them are mean and cheap, partly because much of the wealth of the old Shire has been exported abroad: “Everything except the Rules got shorter and shorter, unless you could hide a bit of one’s own when the ruffians went round gathering stuff up for ‘fair distribution,’” Cotton laments. A few individuals become very rich from this trade, but the bulk of the populace is impoverished. As a counterpart to this, the boundaries of the Shire are no longer enforced—more ruffians arrive and naturally become the most enthusiastic foot soldiers of the new dispensation: “And more came. And before we knew where we were they were planted here and there all over the Shire, and were felling trees and digging and building themselves sheds and houses just as they liked.”

The target of the satire is of course the post-war austerity Britain of Tolkien’s own time, in which the administrative state is born, and the institutions of the socialist New Jerusalem are founded. The rebuilding programmes of the 1950s and 1960s in particular are very consciously echoed here, the scars of which still lie across every cathedral city and market town in the land. More deeply, though, the pain of the older Great War resonates in these passages. Tolkien wrote consistently of his pain at the way the countryside of his youth was being “shabbily destroyed” even before the brutalist post-Blitz remaking of Gloucester, Coventry, and Exeter. The New Shire is the land of Beeching cuts, of rationing boards, of planning inspectorates, and the demolition of the country houses.

Seen thus, the Scouring of the Shire assumes its importance to the greater story, since it shows what the protagonists were fighting for. The great conflict in The Lord of the Rings is not simply that of rival powers squabbling over resources and prestige (as it is, say, in the contemporary fantasy epic Game of Thrones); it is rather the struggle of free peoples to maintain their own way of life in their own place. As Scruton observed of the English, “When your fundamental loyalty is to a place and its genius loci … loss of sovereignty bring a crisis of identity. The land loses its history and its personal face; the institutions become administrative centres, operated by anonymous bureaucrats who are not us but them.” The hobbits go to war not for riches or glory, but to save the land, the little place they till and cultivate. To return from their journeys to discover that it has all been thrown away is therefore the bitterest of poisons. “It comes home to you, they say,” says Sam, “because it is home, and you remember it before it was ruined.”

The soldier’s instinctive sympathy with the land is no invention of Tolkien’s. The contemporary writer John Lewis-Stempel in Where Poppies Blow has chronicled how common a sentiment it was with those fighting in the Great War, the love of nature and the wildlife-rich English field proving both a motivation to enlist as well as a comfort during the hell of the trenches. The poet Edward Thomas, when asked why he signed up, produced a handful of English soil and said “literally, for this.” The composers of the Great War era, Vaughan-Williams, Holst, and Butterworth (who died at the Somme) were all avid collectors of rural music and folk songs. England, for the men of this generation, was more than a random political unit; it was a place of cultivation, of attachment, intimately tied to the farmed earth and its settled rhythms.

But if Tolkien was dismayed by the erosion of this sentiment in his own time, we have it much worse now. All the grim aspects of the New Shire are evident in our own age, most notably the obsession with detached, formal Rules at the expense of informal social custom, the deliberate and unrelenting war on the old in favour of the new, the erasure of boundaries, the purposeful forgetting of place. Just as in the New Shire, our economies are dominated by the removal of assets overseas. Borders are thrown open, and attempts to enforce immigration laws are stymied. The recent jailing of a young mother in the UK for expressing intemperate opinions over a brutal child murder is set against the virtually legalised theft in our cities. Praying silently in proximity to an abortion clinic incurs harsh penalties while celebrating genocidal attacks by Islamists incurs only mild official disapproval. Officials relentlessly enforce rules over window-sizes in newbuilds and diversity targets in company employment while ignoring the demolition of the border controls by organised criminal gangs. We are ruled over by our own Shirriffs and ruffians, some of whom are deeply wicked, and others who are simply cowed.

It is no accident that, under these conditions, the countryside itself has become the target of deliberate attack. Numerous recent reports produced by activist NGOs and think-tanks have concluded that rural England is racist and requires decolonisation. The priceless jewel of England’s cultivated landscape, the very environment that inspired the Shire, is under assault both from industrial-scale farming and environmental activists, neither of whom (for different reasons) sees any value in the ancient human patterns of settlement and maintenance that Thomas and Butterworth were willing to die to protect. So vigorous is the barrage that Tolkien himself has been identified as a radicalising influence by the UK’s anti-terrorist Prevent programme, a state of affairs that ought to discredit the entire exercise but is somehow merely emblematic of the moral and intellectual poverty at the heart of the State.

In the fictional account, the Shire’s corruption is overcome and the rightful order reestablished. In the real world, such an outcome is far from certain. It is encouraging, perhaps, that the intellectual energy in contemporary conservatism is far closer to Tolkien than it is to the neoliberal consensus that has appropriated the movement since Thatcher and Reagan. For the first time in a generation, notable figures in the political Right are beginning to articulate coherent opposition to the programme of national self-abnegation that has dominated European discourse since the War. Italian premier Giorgia Meloni, of course, is a fan of both Tolkien and Scruton, as is U.S. Vice-President Elect J.D. Vance. It is unclear if any contemporary British politician shares similar instincts.

And this is a problem, for the hour is late. The state of England is already far more wretched than that of the Shire under Saruman, with far more formidable institutional obstacles to overcome before genuine national revival is possible. As Frodo says of his shattered home, “Yes, this is Mordor.” The governing classes of this country have created Mordor in England, too, and it remains to be seen whether its people have the moral courage to scour them from the land and begin anew.

Bishop Challoner's Meditations ~ December 1st

ON THE TIME OF ADVENT

Consider first, that the time of Advent, (so called from being set aside by the church for worthily celebrating the advent, that is, the coming of Christ,) is a penitential time, and a time of devotion, in which we are every day called upon by the church of God to prepare the way of the Lord, to make straight his paths; to enter into the like dispositions of those which St. John the Baptist required of the people when he was sent to preach to them conversion and penance, in order to prepare them for their Messias; that so we also, by turning away from our sins, by sorrow and repentance, and turning ourselves to the Lord our God with our whole heart, by love and affection, may dispose our souls to welcome our Saviour whose birth we are about to celebrate, and to embrace in such manner the mercy and grace which he brings with him at his first coming as to escape hereafter those dreadful judgments which his justice shall execute upon impenitent sinners at his second coming. See then, my soul that thou dedicate this holy time to suitable exercise of devotion and penance, that thou mayest answer the end of this institution.

Consider 2ndly, in what manner we are all summoned by the church, at the beginning of this holy time, (in the words of St. Paul, Rom xiii. 11, read in the epistle of the First Sunday in Advent,) to dispose ourselves now for Christ. 'Knowing the time,' says the apostle, 'that it is now the hour for us to rise from sleep; for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed. The night is passed, (or far spent,) the day is at hand; let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and put on the armour of light; let us walk decently, as in the day,' &c. O! my soul, let us consider these words as particularly addressed to us, in order to awaken us, and to stir us up to begin now a new life. Alas! have we not hitherto been quite asleep as to the greatest of all our concerns? Are not far the greatest part of Christians quite asleep by their unaccountable indolence in the great business of the salvation of their souls and of a happy eternity? Are they not sleeping too, which is worse, in the very midst of dangers and of mortal enemies, who are continually plotting their destruction, an even upon the very brink of a precipice, which if they fall down will let them in a moment into hell? O let us then all hearken seriously to this summons, and rouse ourselves now, whilst we have time, out of this unhappy lethargy, and from this hour begin to apply ourselves in good earnest to that only business for which we came into this world. O let us cast off now and for ever the works of darkness, and put on Jesus Christ.

Consider 3rdly, that on the First Sunday of Advent, the terrors also of God's justice are set before our eyes, in the description given in the gospel of the great accounting day; to the end, that they that will not correspond with the sweet invitations of God's mercy, and awake from sleep at the summons addressed to them in the epistle, may be roused at least by the thunder of his justice, denounced in the gospel; and be induced by the wholesome fear of the dreadful judgments that are continually hanging over the heads of impenitent sinners, to make good use of this present time of mercy, lest hereafter there should be neither time nor mercy for them. Ah! sinners, if this day you hear the voice of the Lord, either sweetly inviting you with the allurements of his mercy, or terrifying you with the threats of his judgments, see you harden not your hearts. For now is your time. Sleep on no longer, lest you come to sleep in death, as it happened to them of old, who by refusing to hearken to God's voice, provoked him so far, that he swore to them in his wrath, that they should never enter into his rest. O remember that 'the day of the Lord and his judgments shall come as a snare upon all them that will not watch,' Luke xxi. 55.

Conclude to enter now into the true spirit of this holy time - which is a penitential spirit - and to prepare the way of the Lord, by putting away all thy sins, and purifying thy soul for him; thus shalt thou welcome him at his coming, and shalt be welcome to him.

1 December, Antonio, Cardinal Bacci: Meditations For Each Day

The Blessedness of the Peacemakers

1. The spirit of peace pervades the Gospel. When Jesus is born, choirs of Angels sing above the stable in Bethlehem: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among men of good will.” (Luke 2:14) When our Saviour has risen gloriously from the dead, He appears to His disciples and greets them with the words: “Peace be to you.” Finally, when He is departing from this earth He leaves His peace to His followers as their inheritance. “Peace I leave with you,” He says to them, “my peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, or be afraid.” (John 14:27)

Exactly what is the peace of Jesus Christ? It is much different from worldly peace, presuming that the world can give some kind of peace. St. Paul says of the Saviour that “he himself is our peace.” (Eph. 2:14) How are we to understand what is meant by this? The Apostle himself explains when he writes: “Having been justified by faith, let us have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
(Rom. 5:1) 

Jesus Christ, therefore, is our peacemaker. He has shouldered our iniquities and has offered Himself to the Father as a victim of expiation and of reconciliation. It is at the price of Christ's precious blood that we have regained peace with God and freedom from our sins. This is the peace which our Lord has given us. Let us remember, however, that if we return to the slavery of sin we shall lose at once the jewel of peace which Jesus Christ has bestowed on us. “There is no peace to the wicked.” (Is. 48:22) We have experienced on many occasions how true this is. Sin destroys peace of soul because it deprives us of Jesus, without Whom peace cannot survive. Let us resolve, therefore, to remain always close to our Lord and far from sin. Then only shall we be able to preserve our peace of mind in the midst of temptations and of earthly sorrows.

2. We should not imagine, however, that the peace which Jesus brought to us is a lifeless peace like that of a cemetery. On the contrary, it is the peace of conquest, a living peace. It cannot be attained by the sluggard who is aiming at an easy and comfortable existence, but by the generous warrior who is always prepared to throw himself into the fight for virtue, for the glory of God, and for the salvation of souls.

The peace of Jesus Christ is a victory over the evil which is rampant within us and around us. It demands vigilance, strife, and perseverance in fidelity to our Lord. It requires the spirit of sacrifice, the love of God, and dedication to the welfare of our fellow-men. It is the fruit of internal and external combat. It excludes all rancour, envy, detraction, and malice, which is why it costs so much hardship and conflict. When a man has gained the victory, however, he experiences that wonderful spiritual tranquillity which God alone can give.

3.”Blessed are the peacemakers,” said Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount, “for they shall be called children of God.”(Mt. 5:9)

True Christian peace, which accompanies the perfect control of the passions and complete dedication to God's cause, makes us like God and enables us by His grace to become His adopted children. He is the God of peace, in Whom there is no conflict, but only perfect order and harmony. Since He is pure act, He understands Himself fully in all His beauty and perfection, and knowing Himself He loves Himself. He is peace, in an active and not in a passive sense. For this reason the peacemakers are singled out in a special way as the children of God. In other words, they become like God when they acquire that interior tranquillity which is the fruit of virtue and of victory over the flesh. With the help of divine grace, we should do our utmost to gain this peace.

Eastern Rite ~ Feasts of 1 December AM 7533

Today is the Third Sunday of St Philip's Fast and the Feast of the Holy Prophet Nahum.

✠✠✠✠✠

The Holy Prophet Nahum, whose name means “God consoles,” was from the village of Elkosh (Galilee). He lived during the seventh century B.C. The Prophet Naum prophesies the ruin of the Assyrian city of Nineveh because of its iniquity, the destruction of the Israelite kingdom, and the blasphemy of King Sennacherib against God. The Assyrian king Ashurbanipal died in 632 B.C., and over the next two decades, his empire began to crumble. Nineveh fell in 612 B.C.

Nahum differs from most of the prophets in as much as he does not issue any call to repentance, nor does he denounce Israel for infidelity to God.

Details of the prophet’s life are unknown. He died at the age of forty-five and was buried in his native region. He is the seventh of the Twelve Minor Prophets

The Prophet Nahum is invoked for people with mental disorders.

Troparion — Tone 4

We celebrate the memory / of Your prophet Nahum, O Lord; / through him, we entreat You, / save our souls.

Kontakion — Tone 2

(Podoben: “Today You have shown forth...”)
Enlightened by the Spirit, your pure heart became the dwelling place of most splendid prophecy; / for you saw things far off as if they were near. / Therefore, we honor you, blessed and glorious Prophet Nahum.

IN LUMINE FIDEI: THE HISTORY, MYSTERY AND PRACTICE OF ADVENT

IN LUMINE FIDEI: THE HISTORY, MYSTERY AND PRACTICE OF ADVENT: Dom Prosper Gueranger The History of Advent The name Advent 1 is applied in the Latin Church to that period of the year, du...

IN LUMINE FIDEI: 1 DECEMBER – FIRST SUNDAY OF ADVENT

IN LUMINE FIDEI: 1 DECEMBER – FIRST SUNDAY OF ADVENT:   Dom Prosper Guéranger: This Sunday, the first of the ecclesiastical year, is called in the chronicles and charts of the Middle Ag...

1 December, The Chesterton Calendar

DECEMBER 1st

In this world of ours we do not so much go on and discover small things: rather we go on and discover big things. It is the detail that we see first; it is the design that we only see very slowly, and some men die never having seen it at all. We see certain squadrons in certain uniforms gallop past; we take an arbitrary fancy to this or that colour, to this or that plume. But it often takes us a long time to realize what the fight is about or even who is fighting whom.

So in the modern intellectual world we can see flags of many colours, deeds of manifold interest; the one thing we cannot see is the map. We cannot see the simplified statement which tells us what is the origin of all the trouble.

'William Blake.'

1 December, The Holy Rule of St Benedict, Patriarch of Western Monasticism

CHAPTER L. Of the Brethren who are working at a distance from the Oratory, or are on a journey

1 Apr. 1 Aug. 1 Dec.

Let the brethren who are at work at a great distance, or on a journey, and cannot come to the Oratory at the proper time (the Abbot judging such to be the case) perform the Work of God there where they are labouring, in godly fear, and on bended knees. In like manner, let not those who are sent on a journey allow the appointed Hours to pass by; but, as far as they can, observe them by themselves, and not neglect to fulfil their obligation of divine service.

2 December, The Roman Martyrology

Quarto Nonas Decémbris Luna prima Anno Dómini 2024

December 2nd 2024, the 1st day of the Moon, were born into the better life:

At Rome, (about the year 363,) the holy Virgin and martyr Bibiana, who under, the profane Emperor Julian was for Christ's sake flogged to death with scourges loaded with lead.
There likewise, the holy martyrs the Priest Eusebius, the Deacon Marcellus, Hippolytus, Maximus, Adria, Paulina, Neo, Mary, Martana, and Aurelia, who suffered martyrdom under the judge Secundian, in the persecution under the Emperor Valerian, (in the year 256.)
Likewise at Rome, (at the end of the 2nd century,) the holy martyr Pontian and four others.
In Africa, the holy martyrs Severus, Securus, Januarius, and Victorinus, who were there crowned with martyrdom, (about the year of Christ 300.) At Aquileia, (about the year 409,) the holy Confessor Chromatius, Bishop (of that see.)
At Imola, (in the year 450,) holy Peter, Bishop of Ravenna, styled Chrysologus, (or him of the golden words,) famous for his teaching and holiness, whose feast we keep upon the 4th day of this present month.
At Verona, (in the sixth century,) the holy Confessor Lupus, Bishop (of that see.)
At Edessa, (about the year 468,) holy Nonnus, Bishop (first of that see, and afterwards of Heliopolis in Syria,) through whose prayers Pelagia the penitent was converted to Christ.
At Troas, in Phrygia, holy Bishop Silvanus, famous for miracles.
At Brescia, holy Bishop Evasius.
℣. And elsewhere many other holy martyrs, confessors, and holy virgins.
℟. Thanks be to God.

Meme of the Moment

I call it the"Deformation".

The Modernists Wrecked Notre Dame Cathedral's Renovation

Compline

From St Thomas Aquinas Seminary. You may follow the Office at Divinum Officium.

1st Vespers of the 1st Sunday in Advent

From the Canons Regular of the New Jerusalem. You may follow the Office at Divinum Officium.

Alberta Minister Blasts Province’s NDP Leader for Seeming To Mock Christians

'"Imagine if it was a conservative minister making fun of Mohammed on an important religious feast day," he said.' Edmonton would burn!

From LifeSiteNews

By Anthony Murdoch

'Yesterday, right here in the legislature, Naheed Nenshi, the leader of the NDP, mocked Christians along with the media. They laughed at us,' charged Alberta's Minister of Mental Health and Addictions Dan Williams.

The leader of Alberta’s socialist New Democratic Party (NDP) has been taken to task by the ruling United Conservative Party for appearing to mock Christians in a moment caught by a hot mic at a press conference in the province’s legislature.  

On Wednesday, NDP leader and former mayor of Calgary, Naheed Nenshi, who does not hold a seat in the legislature despite being leader of the opposition, drew the ire of UCP Minister of Mental Health and Addictions Dan Williams for appearing to mock Jesus Christ. 

“Yesterday, right here in the legislature, Naheed Nenshi, the leader of the NDP, mocked Christians along with the media. They laughed at us,” said Williams in an X post video Thursday. 

In the video, Williams shows a clip of Nenshi walking away after Wednesday’s press conference saying, “I wanted to say the UCP hates baby Jesus.” Immediately afterward, members of the media burst into laughter. 

It is not clear what Nenshi was asked by the legacy media, or why he made the response he did, but it was perceived by Williams and others to be a mockery of Christians who support the UCP. 

Williams took issue with Nenshi’s comments, saying that what he said was “deeply inappropriate anywhere, especially here in our legislature, and it’s so deeply inappropriate for anyone to say, especially someone who believes that they should be the leader of our province.” 

Not done yet, Williams accused Nenshi of making “fun of the majority of faith holders in this province.” 

“To do it here, of all places, in the Rotunda. Friends imagine if the roles were switched. Imagine if it was a conservative minister making fun of Mohammed on an important religious feast day,” he said. 

Williams demanded that Nenshi apologize for his “offhand joke.” 

“He might not have intended it, but it is offensive and I hope Mr. Nenshi rises to the occasion and apologizes because I don’t think Christians want to stand for being made fun of by Mr. Nenshi or by anyone, and not in the house and seat of our democracy here in the legislature,” he said.  

Nenshi is no stranger to advocating for the woke agenda that often stands in opposition to Christian values. 

In 2021, Nenshi called COVID protesters, many of whom were Christians, “white supremacists,” and said last year that Canadian politicians should use their positions in parliament to combat the “radicalization of white people.”

It was also during Nenshi’s time as mayor of Calgary that the city’s council banned businesses from offering help to those with unwanted same-sex attraction, meaning that even if someone who suffered from such attraction wanted help in dealing with those feelings, offering such help was not permitted. 

Pictured: Naheed Nenshi, Leader of the Alberta NDP and woke activist.

Byzantine Saints: Apostle Andrew, the Holy and All-Praised First-Called

St Simeon, Bishop of Ctesiphon & his Companions: Butler's Lives of the Saints

The Holy Rosary

Saturday, the Glorious Mysteries, in Latin with Cardinal Burke.

The Execution of Lady Jane Grey ~ Tower of London

Lady Jane Grey, Nine Days Queen of England.

Lady Jane Grey was Queen of England for 9 days. She was never officially crowned. Mary I didn't recognize this act and rode into London with 800 nobles and her sister Elizabeth by her side to take the throne of England as her own. Lady Jane Grey was executed for treason at the Tower of London on February 12th, 1554.

Evo-Devo and the Form of Causation: An(other) Aristotelian View

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Did St Andrew the Apostle Erect a Cross in Kyiv?

Since tradition is all we have to go on for the lives of the Apostles after Pentecost I for one, am happy to believe that St Andrew raised a Cross in Kyiv.

From Aleteia

By Philip Kosloski

According to local tradition, St. Andrew the Apostle traveled to Ukraine and erected a cross in what would become Kyiv.

Little is known about the travels of the apostles after Jesus' ascension into Heaven, but local tradition claims that St. Andrew the Apostle traveled to Ukraine and erected a cross near Kyiv.

The 1917 book, The Conversion of Europe, gives a brief summary of this tradition.

When St. Andrew the Apostle of Scythia, ascending the river Dnieper on his way from Sinope to Rome, beheld the heights of Kiev [Kyiv] he exclaimed, "See you those hills? The grace of God shall enlighten them. There shall be a great city, and God shall cause many churches there to be built." Then he climbed these heights and blessed them and set up a cross and prayed to God.

There is little evidence that supports this story, but it is believed that the Cathedral of St. Andrew in Kyiv was built on the site of St. Andrew's cross.

St. Andrew has been a patron saint of both Ukraine and Russia for many centuries, and the church built there is regarded as an essential part of the history of Christianity in that region of the world.

In the Western Church, other traditions point to Andrew as the Apostle to the Greeks. It is believed that he preached to Greek communities and was martyred at Patras on a cross in the shape of an X. His relics were eventually transferred to the Duomo Cathedral in Amalfi, Italy.

Pictured: St Andrew's Church, Kyiv, built on the site of the Cross the Saint erected

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Forgotten History: The 'Good Americans' Who Stayed Loyal to the King

The men who knew right from wrong and respected their King.

Today we are talking about the “Good Americans” - those who stayed loyal to the crown during the American Revolution. Lieutenant General James Robertson, a senior British general in America said that it was always his intention to subdue the bad Americans with the “Good Americans.” Well, he was referring to those brave loyalists - the men who knew right from wrong and respected their King.