Censorship

Fr Humwicke offers some thoughts on censorship. 'Censorship tries to cut us off from our cultural past. It attempts to slam shut the doors into other human worlds.

From Fr Hunwicke's Mutual Enrichment

Those who, very kindly and indulgently, read even the more ephemeral of the ephemera I publish will have noticed that I recently took an interest in the Just William stories of Richmal Crompton, especially a short story William and the Nasties. 

I have learned an important lesson. And I thank all of you who helped me to find this text for your part in advancing my very limited education! Here is the Lesson you have taught me:

Never jump to conclusions. Never assume the obvious.

That story, written in 1935, shows William proposing to imitate 'Him Hitler' and the 'Nasties' and the Storm Troopers; to drive out of their English village a Jewish shopkeeper and to ransack his vast supply of sweets. In fact, the subtext of the story is elegantly anti-Nazi; it is made clear that, in England, Hitler's treatment of the Jews would be illegal. One would go to prison! William and his associates gradually realise this and lose all confidence in their plans of exspoliation. (In a somewhat mannered twist of the plot, all ends happily with a real 'thief' dragged off to prison by the police, while William and Mr Isaacs join together in happy amity.)

I assumed ... mea maxima culpa ... that the story was expunged from the canon at the time of WW2. 

I was very wrong.

It wasn't. It was expunged in 1986.

It appeared, in reprint after reprint, throughout the testing years of the War. But it was meat far too strong for the sensitivies of (what Vatican II called) hodiernum tempus.

What did 1986 find so objectionable? 

Possibly, the typecasting of the Jew; he is an entrepreneur; he speaks in an English in which W becomes V. Possibly, the presentation of something as vile as Hitlerism as a mere joke (cf also the tribulations of P G Wodehouse ... "the German Army ... a fine body of men ...").

Richmal Crompton, the author(ess), was the daughter of a clergyman who was also a Classics Master. She herself read Classics at the Royal Holloway, and went on to teach it. She was a sophisticated ironist and stylist. Her Narrator's English is literate and highly latinate; it sets off the naive illiteracy in the dialogue of the small boys whose words and exploits she presents as objects of satire. Indeed, a real 'William' would not be able to understand most of her texts at all! 

I suspect that she began by intending what she wrote to amuse literate and latinate adults. She offers us a comfortable and amused viewpoint, sitting at her own side, chuckling when she chuckles. 

Readers will recall that C S Lewis explained that he did not set out, as he visited Narnia, to write stories for children ... but what he did want to write presented itself in the genre of Children's Stories. How many child-readers would fully appreciate, for example, the passage where Lewis argues that abominable should be etymologically derived, not from abominabile, but from ab homine?

Wozzat you say? In Middle English, and in the Shakespearean folios, abominable is indeed spelt abhominable? (Holoferne favente scribo.)

Exactly. This gets us to the heart of the matter. Censorship tries to cut us off from our cultural past. It attempts to slam shut the doors into other human worlds. Writers of the 1930s, or 1430s, were not always right, but they were not always wrong. And writers of our own time are not always wrong ... but they are most certainly not always right. And, in a generation's time, this will be embarrassingly clear.

Lewis (On reading Old Books) recommended that we should never read something new until we had (re)read a couple of old books.

I suggest that the many volumes of Just William deserve to be added to the Official Canon of Old Books which need to be reread. William and the Nasties is a good starting point.

Saints Make the Nation

An appropriate essay for All Saints Day. The ways in which a nation's Saints form its character, using England and her Saints as an example.

From Crisis

By Casey Chalk

It’s not hard to be depressed if you’re a conservative Catholic in 2021 America. That’s especially the case if, like me, you marvel at a country that seems to have radically changed in just a single generation. If a drag queen had shown up at my public elementary school in suburban Northern Virginia in the early 1990s, my teachers would have run him (her? zher?) out on a rail. Now teachers are the ones inviting drag queens to school (or perhaps they play the role themselves!). I knew a socially outcast kid in sixth grade who bragged about his collection of porn magazines—now every sixth grader with a phone can have a digital porn collection. And how many of those old schoolmates of mine, now in their late 30s, even have kids? Not many.

Raising a family of four children in that same suburban Northern Virginia—even with a great homeschooling co-op, an excellent Catholic diocese, and strong publicly-funded infrastructure (thank God for public libraries)—can seem, given the broader cultural currents, like King Cnut trying to stop the ocean tide. Given the odds stacked against people like me, will my little domestic church make any ultimate difference? The story of England, over which Cnut reigned in the eleventh century, is instructive in understanding why my pessimism is perhaps premature.

For it was England, after all, that over the course of the last fifteen hundred years, produced some of the most remarkable exemplars of sanctity, many of whom are beautifully described in The English Way: Studies in English Sanctity from Bede to Newman, recently reprinted by Cluny Media. And, as much as it is fashionable to bad-mouth colonialism and imperialism, it is England that enabled the spread of so much good across the globe, bringing to peoples who until only a few hundred years ago were remote and unknown such goods as modern medicine, representative government, and yes, the Christian faith.

One might cite, for example, the early Anglo-Saxon clerics Bede, Boniface, and Alcuin, who all lived before A.D. 800, a period during which the island suffered regular warfare and foreign invasions. Bede, the monk of remote northern England who became a doctor of the Church, made the Church Fathers accessible to the English people and bequeathed to posterity the Ecclesiastical History of the English People. The missionary Boniface, the “Apostle to the Germans,” converted many from the unruly Germanic tribes when he felled the pagan shrine of Donar’s Oak. Alcuin, in turn, spread Christian education at Charlemagne’s court during the Carolingian Renaissance in what is now France, Belgium, and western Germany.

In effect, in an age of violence and paganism, English clerics helped lay the foundation for the glories of medieval Christianity, not only in their native land, but across Western Europe. But it was not only clerics who did so. King Alfred (c. 848-899) protected and preserved the English Catholic faith from Viking intruders. As G.K. Chesterton notes in his chapter on the brave monarch: “The Christian system was already coming within a century of its first thousand years; and many doubted whether it was not dying, as they do now, within a century of its two thousand years.” Like Charlemagne, Alfred labored to restore and expand Christian civilization in his kingdom, including distributing his translation of Gregory the Great’s Pastoral Care to his bishops.

Similarly influential is the influence of St. Thomas Becket (d. 1170), who resisted the overreach of his one-time friend Henry II when the monarch sought to extend his political control over the English church. Readers are no doubt aware of Becket’s courageous death at Canterbury, but what did martyrdom at the hands of bloodthirsty Norman knights actually accomplish? Hilaire Belloc explains: “His heroic resistance prevented the assault of the temporal power against the eternal from being fatal at the moment when, precisely, it might have been fatal.” To put it bluntly, “he saved the Church,” checking secularization for another four-hundred years.

That “four-hundred year” comment refers to the English Reformation, during which Henry VIII and his daughter Elizabeth I martyred some of the most well-known English saints: John Fisher, Thomas More, and Edmund Campion. Fisher, a cardinal and theologian, rejected Henry’s self-proclaimed title as head of the English Church and was beheaded. More, says Chesterton, “wanted England to continue to exist; and especially the England that he loved,” which was, namely, Catholic. Yet he, too, died defending not only the pope, but, argues Chesterton, “defying the sort of man who wants to be Pope.” Campion, considered perhaps the most brilliant Englishman of his day, impressed two different queens with his intellect and public speaking. When, many years later, he was martyred for his covert actions as a priest, some of his blood spilled on a young Henry Walpole, who would in turn also become a priest and martyr.

Of course, the England that would come to rule the seas (and about one-quarter of the world’s population and landmass in 1921) was not a Catholic one—the martyrdoms of English recusants earned many converts, but not enough to overturn the English Protestant church. Nevertheless, it was an England indelibly marked by her Catholic history and saints. It is impossible to imagine a British Empire without the influence of Bede or Becket, whose moral character and passion for Christ and Christian civilization was embodied, however inchoately, in the Protestant British who conquered and governed as the world’s first truly global superpower.

Or, in some cases, not so Protestant British. Sir Alan Burns, who at different times governed the British colonies of the Bahamas, British Honduras (Belize), Nigeria, and the Gold Coast, was himself a devout Catholic. “The Last Imperialist,” as Bruce Gilley calls him in his book of the same title, was both an ardent defender of British imperialism and an outspoken critic of racism, or what Burns called “color prejudice.” Indeed, as Gilley notes, many of the empire’s colonies in the Americas, Africa, and Asia were far better governed in the decades leading up to independence than they were in the post-independence period, which was (and often still is) defined by corruption, nepotism, and violent instability. Yet, says Gilley, the universalizing ethos of British imperialism “created its own demise by asserting the centrality of human dignity, rights, and national identity that must lead to self-government.”

Understood another way, the missionary impulse propelled many brave Brits to traverse the seas seeking to communicate Christian civilization to distant peoples (less-noble motives like greed and power-hunger, of course, motivated many other Brits). Sadly, as secularizing trends increasingly de-Christianized the British people, its empire had less and less to offer the world. As Patricia Snow has recently observed, “separated from the Church, like a branch broken off from a vine, the ascendant Protestant culture that formed the character of the English-speaking world for generations finally came to an end.”

Yet who, if anyone, could have predicted the longevity of Britain’s remarkable spiritual journey? She seemed, at so many junctures, to be a land finally deprived of her Christian soul: in the eighth and ninth centuries, when pagan Vikings descended upon her; in the twelfth century, when an English king sought to usurp the authority of the Church; and in the sixteenth century, when a different English king by the same name achieved exactly that. Through it all, the English saints spoke and acted with a singular clarity in favor of Christ and His Church, and their influence was felt even into the twentieth century, in places and among peoples those saints didn’t even know existed. There is now a Church of St. Thomas More in Malaysia, a former British colony.

In other words, the decision of an English government official in 1534 to stand his ground now results, almost five centuries later, in Catholic conversions in Malaysia. “Each man who has achieved, has achieved something other than he intended,” writes Hilaire Belloc in his reflection on St. Thomas of Canterbury. The witness of the English saints thus gives hope that we simply cannot predict what remarkable effects will follow from virtuous, faith-driven choices we make today. In the case of the English saints, their lives preserved and expanded a nation…for centuries. Perhaps, then, there is still reason for hope if we ourselves are willing to do our part, however seemingly insignificant. As Chesterton said almost one hundred years ago: “the final triumph of heathenism is not so near to us now as it was to him [Alfred] then. As he weathered the storm then, we have every reason to hope that we shall weather it now.”

Why the Nazi Analogy is Overused

Dr B. points out that the left uses the accusation 'Nazi' for anything they don't like, but never for what is truly 'Nazi', the abortion holocaust.

From The Underground Thomist

By J. Budziszewski, PhD

Why is the Nazi analogy so overused that it loses its force?

To understand the reason, consider first that almost all of the overuse is on the Left. Opposing critical race theory is like Naziism. Believing that there are two sexes is like Naziism. Disapproving riots is like Naziism. Supporting anyone who isn’t Woke is like Naziism. Practicing faith in God is like Naziism.

The fact that the analogy loses its force by being used for so many things that are not in the least like Naziism doesn’t matter to the Left. For in the long run, the analogy cannot be allowed to retain force.

For if it were used only for things that really were like Naziism, then it would certainly be used most of all for our own equivalent of the Nazi genocide, the genocide of babies, the Left’s most sacred cause.

In the meantime, using the analogy for everything but what is really like Naziism is a pretty good distraction.

Schismatic? Excommunicated? Irregular? What's the Status of the SSPX?

Light on a very confusing and oft argued subject!

Today we’ll dive into a question that is very confusing for a lot of faithful – and as you’ll see, it’s confusing for some within the Church itself – what is the official status of the Society of Saint Pius X within the Catholic Church? There are accusations that it is schismatic. Or at the least, that it has a “spirit of schism.” Another common accusation is that the Society is not part of the Catholic Church, since the Vatican has used the phrase “not in full Communion.” Let’s look at what that phrase means, and whether or not it’s even possible to be “not in full Communion. And finally, are the priests and bishops of the SSPX excommunicated?

There’s a lot of misinformation out there – let’s try to clear it up!

Word of the Day: All Saints

ALL SAINTS. A feast now celebrated on November 1 as a holy day of obligation. It originated in the West in 609, when Pope Boniface IV dedicated the Pantheon to the Blessed Virgin Mary. At first celebrated in Rome on May 13, Pope Gregory III (731-41) changed the date to November 1, when he dedicated a chapel in honor of All Saints in the Vatican Basilica. Gregory IV later extended the feast to the whole Church.

A Letter to Francis on CRT

This letter was written by a Facebook acquaintance of mine, Christina Camping.

Google translate:

"Your Holiness! Holy Father, I pray for you. I am concerned, Your Holiness. Critical Race Theory (CRT) reformulates the old Marxist dichotomy of what is wrong (white people/ oppressors) and what is right (oppressed people/everyone else).

Our Lady of Fatima told us that Marxism is very bad.

The conclusion of the theory is like this: Society must be significantly reformed - it is according to the demands of the theorists and not according to scripture. There must be a "moral," economic and political revolution.

Racism is a problem all over the world. "Homo homini lupus." albicolores et nigricolores sunt "lupi," because "all have sinned and are deprived of the glory of God."

Racism is a problem, but the theorists' solution is not holy. "Graviora quaedam sunt remedia periculis." His solution is "divide et impera." What they say to divide us is not true.

Who wants to divide humanity? Your Holiness, you know the answer. Your Holiness, please help us.

The Bible says, "Therefore, there is no longer Jew or pagan, slave or free man, male or female because you are all but one in Christ Jesus."

The solution to racism is in the Bible, not in popular theories.

The most obedient and humble servant of His Holiness. I pray for you every day.

Christina Camping "

Facebook translate:

Holy Father, I pray for you.

I am worried, His Holiness.

Critical Race Theory (CRT) reforms the old Marxist dichotomy of what is wrong (white people/oppressors) and what is right (oppressed people/everyone else).

Our Lady of Fatima told us that Marxism is very bad.

The conclusion of the theory is this: Society must be significantly reformed--it is in accordance with the demands of the theorists and not in accordance with scripture. There must be a "moral," economic and political revolution.

Racism is a worldwide problem. “my homies lupus. " albicolores et nigricolores sunt "lupi," because "all have sinned and are deprived of the glory of God. "

Racism is a problem, but the solution to the theorists is not holy. "graviora quaedam is the periculis remedy. “Your solution is “divide and empire.” ”What they say to divide us is not true.

Who wants to divide the humanity? Your Holiness, you know the answer. His Holiness, please help us.

The Bible says, “Therefore, there is no longer Jew or pagan, slave or free man, male or female, for all of you are but one in Christ Jesus.” "

The solution to racism is in the Bible, not in popular theories.

The most obedient and humble servant of His Holiness. I pray for you every day.

Christina Camping"

A Very Liturgical Home Oratory

All I can say is WOW!!!

From New Liturgical Movement

By Gregory DiPippo

After seeing our recent photoposts of home altars and prayer corners (part 1 and part 2), reader John Ryan Debil sent us these pictures of his home oratory, a project into which he has put a great deal of time and effort, with truly wonderful results. You can see more about it on Facebook page ;“The Home Oratory and YouTube channel of the same name. Mr Debil also very kindly asked me to mention that much of his inspiration for this project came from reading both New Liturgical Movement and Liturgical Arts Journal. Our thanks to him for sharing these pictures and the write-up with us.

I started this project in 2018, and having this “home oratory” space became very useful, especially during the first lockdown at the beginning of the pandemic. I had a carpenter friend build a “gradine” that I could put on top of an Ikea bookcase that I have, while I personally rendered the faux marble effect on it. Here is how it initially looked:

I found the wooden statue of Our Lady of Bavaria on eBay, and the resin statues of the Apostles, Evangelists and other saints (called Veronese Statues) on various online shops. I then decided to transform my prayer space to the next level by trying to make a miniature version of the high altars seen in many Italian Baroque churches. My main inspirations were the altars of Santissima Trinità Dei Pellegrini, the FSSP church in Rome, and various high altars in Malta.

I hid the storage area of the bookshelf with a 10mm thick foam sheet, on which a painted a faux marble effect.

Here’s the final result:

Then I decided to create a faux “mensa”, which is made out of an Ikea TV-unit.

I use the previous bookshelf as a storage area for statues, candlesticks and reliquaries, until such time that it is appropriate for those articles to be placed on the home altar (e.g., All Saints’ Day). It is my main goal to ensure that my home altar aligns as closely as possible to the liturgical calendar, changing its arrangement throughout the year. Here is how I store my statues and other religious articles.

I have personally crafted some of the ornaments on my home altar, such as the portapalme. For this, I used some 5mm thick foam sheets, sandwiched between thermoplastic sheets called “worbla” to create the leaf shape; then I glued onto it various brass stampings found on eBay.

For Requiem candlesticks. I found some sober looking (but rose-coloured) ones on eBay, which I spray-painted in black, and added some gold highlights on them. Before...

and after:

I also crafted my own antependia using MDF wood sheets as my base; and various damask fabrics, galloons and trims found on over eBay and Etsy.

I mounted all these boards on a custom-size wooden photo frame which I ordered from Frames.co.uk.
At present, this is how my personal home oratory looks.

And here is how I set it up for various feasts.

St Lawrence

Saint Augustine

I was very much inspired by the oval frames with pictures of Saints which I have seen a lot in various churches in Rome, so I decided to look for a nice gold oval frame on eBay, and collected various images of Saints from Google.

Saint John Henry Newman

Corpus Christi

My “Requiem” set-up, in memory of my late grandmother. I have created a black vestment to put on the statue of Our Lady.

A close-up of the black antependium

Our Lady of the Holy Rosary of La Naval de Manila, a special Marian feast held on the second Sunday of October in the Philippines.

I have recently finished making the gold antependium:

Passion Sunday

Easter Vigil

Candlemas (before the antependia were made)

And finally, this is how I pray before my home altar:

The faux mensa (altar table) where my prayer book stand rests serves as the structure on which I lean and rest my arms as I kneel before it. The altar is built rather low since I’m not a priest, and hence it is more appropriate that I kneel when I say my prayers. This reflects something that I read somewhere, that the altar rails in our churches where the faithful kneel to receive the Blessed Sacrament in the Traditional Latin Mass is called “the altar of the laity”, and altar rails are of course rather low.

You will notice that I pray on the right-hand side of the mensa (ad orientem), the equivalent of the Epistle side of the actual altars of our churches; this is because the Little Office of the BMV contains mostly Psalms from the Old Testament. I only move and change my position to the other side of the mensa (i.e., the Gospel side) when there is a passage or reading from one of the Gospels. This concept of praying on the different sides of my altar mimics the movement of the missal in the traditional Mass. However, if I’m praying a regular prayer book (say, the Little Hymnodic Office of Saint Philip Neri, or any other devotional prayer to a Saint), then I place myself at the center.

Royal News Roundup

Royal news from all around the world the first week of October 2013.

From The Mad Monarchist (7 October 2013)

Starting, for a change, in the British Isles, HRH the Prince of Wales visited a new cancer research facility in Scotland, great, but for some reason some papers thought it necessary to point out that he was wearing a kilt. Is this news? He was in Scotland, his grandmother was Scottish, he does have Scottish titles and I would not have thought it newsworthy to point out that he was wearing a kilt. In Scotland. Would these people be shocked to know that the Prince of Wales has often worn a kilt even when in England? Sorry, but the fact that this was actually pointed out got to me. Better news is that Prince Philip (one of my heroes) is back on the job again and in good health. Three cheers for him, he’s one of the best things about Britain today. The Duchess of York said something unimportant, HM the Queen opened an emergency care center (or centre) in Aberdeen (wasn’t that where Scotty was from?), The Princess Royal adopted an orphan -horse, the Duke of York is being criticized for stopping in New York to have dinner with his daughter Princess Eugenie (I mean, the very idea!) but the really big news was happening far from British shores in the Land Down Under where Prince Harry arrived for an official visit. When the Australians get together with their royals, greatness always ensues. Crowds flocked to see the Prince in Sidney at an International Fleet Review and there are many more events planned for the days ahead.

Meanwhile on the continent, the rain in Spain fell mainly on the republican protestors in the street calling for an end to the monarchy -proving once again that God is a monarchist. While recovering in the hospital His Catholic Majesty had the treat of a visit from two of his adorable granddaughters Infantas Leonor and Sofia. The cute factor must have done the trick as not long after the King was released after this latest hip surgery. As usual there was lots of glamour and dazzle for the Princely Family of Monaco this week but the big event was an official visit by Prince Albert II and Princess Charlene to the Russian Federation. The Sovereign Prince met with President Vladimir Putin and the couple both met with the Russian Patriarch to talk about closer cultural relations between the biggest country in the world and one of the smallest. In the Netherlands it was announced that if, God forbid, anything should happen to King Willem-Alexander, royal business will be conducted by the capable Queen Maxima as regent. Good to be prepared I suppose. The Dutch King and Queen also visited Norway, warmly welcomed by the King and Queen there and in Belgium King Philippe is set to have a new coin commemorating his accession. Also, after the shameful display in Antwerp we talked about last time, the new King and Queen of the Belgians were given a rousing welcome in Namur. Good to see.

On the far northern front, the Queen and Crown Princess of Sweden attended the General Synod of the Church of Sweden (which is Lutheran) this week and the Queen also teamed up with her younger daughter Princess Madeleine for a World Childhood Meeting. Crown Princess Victoria became patron of the Pink Ribbon campaign (that’s cancer for those having trouble keeping up with all the ribbon campaigns) and Prince Carl Philip opened a race track for the disabled. The Crown Princess also visited the United Nations in New York and Prince Daniel visited the Swedish Companies Registration Office (and you know that was an action-packed event!). The King and Queen of Norway, as mentioned, were showing proper Norwegian hospitality to the Dutch King and Queen and in the Kingdom of Denmark the princesses Mary and Marie (it must get confusing) attended the opening of the Danish parliament. In the Middle East last week there was nothing too earth shattering, most stories seemed to involve accusations and legal cases that I have not the patience to go into detailing.

Over in the Far East, HM the Sultan of Brunei visited the remote United state and former Kingdom of Hawaii though it was unclear if the (possibly) richest monarch in the world was there for business or pleasure. Moving to the Kingdom of Thailand a political activist, the founder of the royalist “yellow shirt” movement that helped oust the corrupt PM Thaksin Shinawatra (leader of the “red shirts”) from power was put in jail for insulting the King. Odd for such a pro-monarchy man but this is an odd case as the remarks that landed him in trouble were actually those of his primary political opponent whom he was quoting in a speech. The Red Shirt activist being quoted was earlier sentenced to 15-years for the original comments. The next day a woman was sentenced to 5 years for insulting remarks posted on a website some years ago (the case has had its ups and downs between then and now), however, on Friday an activist of the Red Siam group was released from prison after serving 5 years of a 12 and a half year sentence for insulting the monarchy thanks to a royal pardon from the King himself. The real news is that this is always the only news. Of all the countries in all the world with speech restrictions, I swear the media around the world is just obsessed with the fact that you can get in trouble in Thailand for saying nasty things about the King. I am rather tired of hearing about it. And, finally, in the Land of the Rising Sun, signs are going up around the Imperial Palace in Tokyo urging joggers to display better manners (they have been getting a reputation for rudeness -at least by Japanese standards as it is a very polite country) and in a touching occasion, Their Majesties the Emperor and Empress attended the 60th anniversary of the founding of the Japanese Disabled Veterans Association. His Majesty made some short remarks and I am sure there was hardly ever an audience that listened more intently or appreciated such words more than these men who have sacrificed so much out of loyalty to the Emperor. God bless them.

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

The Feast of All Saints

1. Today's feast should inspire in us a burning desire to become holy. Men long for many things in this world, things which are often useless and even sinful. They desire riches, pleasure, honours, success and material comfort. These things may be lawful, but they cannot satisfy the human heart which is made for God. Whenever we achieve any of our ambitions in this world, are we in fact happy or even perfectly satisfied? The truth is that we are not, because the soul is greater than the objects which surround us. God alone can fill and satisfy it.
Sanctity should be our principal ambition. We should yearn to be more closely united to God so that His Divinity may be reflected in our thoughts and in our actions. If we enjoy God's friendship, we shall become more like God and shall be lifted up above petty mundane considerations. Perhaps we doubt our ability to reach such a high spiritual level? Even so, we should nevertheless desire to reach it, and not just, in a passing and indifferent manner, but constantly and actively. We should keep our desire alive by repeating it to ourselves and by continually praying for God's grace to fulfil it. "I intend to become holy," said little Dominic Savio, and he kept the promise which he had made to God. Many people have formed the same resolution, both desert hermits and University professors, both humble workmen and rulers of nations. Since we ought to have the same intention, what is there to prevent us? Let us make this resolution now and put it into effect with the help of God.

2. God addressed the same command to all of us. “You shall make and keep yourselves holy, because I am holy.” (Lev. 11:44; Peter 1:16) “You are to be perfect, even as your heavenly Father is perfect." (Mt. 5:48)

We are all obliged to strive to become holy, to work hard towards this  end, and to ask for the grace to sustain us in our efforts. We should not say that sanctity is impossible for us, because everything is possible with God's help. Let us imagine that we are in Heaven and can behold the innumerable choirs of the Blessed enjoying the unlimited and unending happiness of God's company. Nevertheless, they were once people like ourselves, with the same passions, failings, and temptations. They fought valiantly, supported by the grace of God; they conquered and were awarded the palm of victory. Now they enjoy everlasting happiness. Let us remember the words of St. Augustine: "If others, why not I?" If they succeeded in becoming holy, why cannot I do likewise?

3. In these days when the Church is so anxious to foster devotion to the Saints, let us fervently invoke their patronage. They arc our brothers and they reach out lovingly to assist us, because they desire us to share in their glory.

As we know, the Church is threefold. There is the Church militant, to which we belong; there is the Church suffering, which consists of the souls in Purgatory; and there is the Church triumphant, which is made up of the Blessed in Heaven. The bond of charity unites all three divisions. We who are still on earth have brothers and sisters in eternal glory who love us and intercede for us. Let us pray to them fervently and constantly. Above all, let us seek to imitate the sanctity which won such glory for them.

Eastern Rite - Feasts of 1 November AM 7530

Today is the Feasts of the Holy Wonderworkers and Unmercenaries Cosmas and Damian, of the Passing into Eternal Life of Blessed Theodore Romzha, Bishop of Mukachevo, and Martyr, and the Commemoration of the Passing into Eternal Life of the Venerable Metropolitan Andrei Sheptytsky.

✠✠✠✠✠

The Holy Wonderworkers and Unmercenary Physicians Cosmas and Damian and their mother Saint Theodota were natives of Asia Minor (some sources say Mesopotamia). Their pagan father died while they were still quite small children. Their mother raised them in Christian piety. Through her own example, and by reading holy books to them, Saint Theodota preserved her children in purity of life according to the command of the Lord, and Cosmas and Damian grew up into righteous and virtuous men.

Trained and skilled as physicians, they received from the Holy Spirit the gift of healing people’s illnesses of body and soul by the power of prayer. They even treated animals. With fervent love for both God and neighbour, they never took payment for their services. They strictly observed the command of our Lord Jesus Christ, “Freely have you received, freely give.” (Mt. 10:8). The fame of Saints Cosmas and Damian spread throughout all the surrounding region, and people called them unmercenary physicians.

Once, the saints were summoned to a grievously ill woman named Palladia, whom all the doctors had refused to treat because of her seemingly hopeless condition. Through faith and through the fervent prayer of the holy brothers, the Lord healed the deadly disease and Palladia got up from her bed perfectly healthy and giving praise to God. In gratitude for being healed and wishing to give them a small gift, Palladia went quietly to Damian. She presented him with three eggs and said, “Take this small gift in the Name of the Holy Life-Creating Trinity, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.” Hearing the Name of the Holy Trinity, the unmercenary one did not dare to refuse.

When Saint Cosmas learned what had happened, became very sad, for he thought that his brother had broken their strict vow. On his deathbed, he gave instructions that his brother should not be buried beside him. Saint Damian also died shortly afterwards, and everyone wondered where Saint Damian’s grave should be. But through the will of God, a miracle occurred. A camel, which the saints had treated for its wildness, spoke with a human voice saying that they should have no doubts about whether to place Damian beside Cosmas because Damian did not accept the eggs from the woman as payment, but out of respect for the Name of God. The venerable relics of the holy brothers were buried together at Thereman (Mesopotamia).

Many miracles were worked after the death of the holy unmercenaries. There lived at Thereman, near the church of Cosmas and Damian, a certain man by the name of Malchus. One day he went on a journey, leaving his wife all alone for what would be a long time. He prayerfully entrusted her to the heavenly protection of the holy brothers. But the Enemy of the race of mankind took on the appearance of one of Malchus’ friends and planned to kill the woman. A certain time went by, and this man went to her at home and said that Malchus had sent him to bring her to him. The woman believed him and went along. He led her to a solitary place intending to kill her. The woman, seeing that disaster threatened her, called upon God with deep faith.

Two fiercesome men then appeared, and the devil let go of the woman and fled, falling off a cliff. The two men led the woman home. At her own home, bowing to them deeply she asked, “My rescuers, to whom I shall be grateful to the end of my days, what are your names?”

They replied, “We are the servants of Christ, Cosmas and Damian,” and became invisible. The woman with trembling and with joy told everyone about what had happened to her. Glorifying God, she went up to the icon of the holy brothers and tearfully offered prayers of thanksgiving for her deliverance. And from that time the holy brothers were venerated as protectors of the holiness and inviolability of Christian marriage, and as givers of harmony to conjugal life. From ancient times, their veneration spread also to Russia.

The Unmercenary Saints Cosmas and Damian of Asia Minor should not be confused with the Unmercenary Saints Cosmas and Damian of Rome (July 1), or the Unmercenary Saints Cosmas and Damian of Arabia (October 17).

Troparion — Tone 8

Holy unmercenaries and wonderworkers, Cosmas and Damian, / heal our infirmities. / Freely you have received; freely you give to us.

Kontakion — Tone 2

Having received the grace of healing, / you grant healing to those in need. / Glorious wonder-workers and healers, Cosmas and Damian, / visit us and put down the insolence of our enemies, / and bring healing to the world through your miracles.

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I love you, O Lord, my strength; You are my stronghold and my refuge! (Psalm 18:2-3)

These were the words which Bishop Theodore G. Romzha, the Apostolic Administrator of the Mukachevo Eparchy (1944-1947) 
chose as the motto for his episcopal ministry. At the age of 33, he faced one of the most brutal and bloody persecutions of a Christian community in modern times, ultimately making the ultimate sacrifice for his flock and his faith.

Bishop Theodore G. Romzha was born of humble parentage on April 14, 1911, in Velikij Bychkiv, in the heart of the colourful district of Maramorosh, Subcarpathian Ruthenia. He was a pious and gifted young boy, and his only ambition was to become a priest. He received his secondary education at the gymnasium (high school) in Chust. Due to his friendly disposition and scholastic achievements he became one of the most popular students. His popularity increased, even more, when he proved himself as an all-around athlete, excelling in soccer. At his graduation, he took everybody by surprise when he announced his intention of becoming a priest; and was sent to Rome for his priestly formation.

He lived at the German-Hungarian College in Rome for the first two years of his studies; then, in 1932, he moved to the Russian Pontifical Seminary, known as the "Russicum," in order to prepare himself for missionary work in Soviet Russia. It was indeed a providential step since at the "Russicum" he was expected to study communist atheism and its ideology; unwittingly preparing himself for the Soviet occupation of his native land. He was ordained to the priesthood in Rome on Christmas Day, December 25, 1936.

In the summer of the following year, he came home to celebrate his first Divine Liturgy in his own country with the intention of returning to finish his doctoral dissertation. But instead of returning to Rome, he was drafted into military service and sent to protect his country against the German invasion. To his friend in Rome, he confided: "I am going to the front with a deep conviction of doing the will of God. Therefore, I do not fear what will happen to me."

After Father Romzha's discharge from the army in August 1938, the danger of another approaching war remained. For this reason, Bishop Alexander Stojka (1932-1943) did not permit him to leave the country but appointed him to a forgotten parish in Berezovo, Maramorosh District, where the young Father Romzha became a poor pastor among poor people. There were times when he could afford only one meal a day while donating from his own purse to help his needy parishioners. To a curious friend in Rome he wrote: "I live here as a pauper and yet I feel happy and satisfied." Father Romzha was a good and dedicated priest, teaching his parishioners to know and live their Faith by his own example.

In March 1939, the Hungarians occupied Subcarpathian Ruthenia by force, precipitating both political and ecclesiastical changes. Bishop Stojka was forced by the Hungarian government to reorganize the seminary; and in the fall of 1939, Father Romzha was appointed Spiritual Director and Professor of Philosophy at the Eparchial Seminary in Uzhorod. One of his students later recalled: "He was strict and demanding as a Professor, but as a Spiritual Director he was fatherly and kind. He knew how to inspire us and bring out the best in us. Staying in close contact with us, his students, he was able to transplant into our hearts the main features of his strong priestly character: his dedication, genuine piety and generosity of heart."

Even at the seminary, Father Romzha found time for pastoral work by assisting in neighbouring parishes and conducting missions and retreats for young students. Every penny he earned he generously distributed to the poor. To the mentioned friend in Rome, he wrote: "I am living very unpretentiously, and yet my pockets are always empty. But I am not discouraged, since I am working not for the money but to please God." Bishop Stojka greatly appreciated the dedicated work of Father Romzha, and in 1942 obtained for him Papal honours. Even so, he remained a humble and dedicated priest, inspiring and winning the admiration and respect of all those who met him.

On May 31, 1943, during a critical time during the war, Bishop Alexander Stojka suddenly died. In view of the uncertainties of the time, the Holy See appointed Bishop Nicholas Dudash, OSBM, of Hajdudorog, as the temporary administrator of the Mukachevo Eparchy. While the Soviet army was rapidly approaching the Carpathian Mountains, the Holy See promptly appointed Archpriest Theodore G. Romzha to succeed Bishop Dudash as the Apostolic Administrator of Mukachevo; and his episcopal consecration took place in Uzhorod, September 24, 1944. A month later, the entire territory of the Mukachevo Eparchy was occupied by the Red Army. Bishop Romzha was informed that Subcarpathian Ruthenia would be incorporated into postwar Czechoslovakia as an autonomous province; however, it soon became evident that the Soviets would not relinquish this politically strategic region. Consequently, on June 29, 1945, Subcarpathian Ruthenia was officially incorporated into Soviet Ukraine; and the young and inexperienced Bishop Romzha found himself and his flock under Soviet rule.

At first, Bishop Romzha tried not to antagonize the Soviet authorities, in spite of abusive and violent actions committed by the Soviet soldiers against the clergy; but when the Soviet authorities started to expel priests from their parishes at random and confiscate church property, he was forced to protest. The Soviets had a ready answer: to ensure the continuance of his ministry and the safety of his clergy, Bishop Romzha must renounce all allegiance to the Holy See, place himself under the jurisdiction of the Patriarch of Moscow and encourage his flock to do the same. Bishop Romzha immediately replied: "I would rather die than betray my Church!" Thus began the open persecution of the Byzantine Catholic Church in Subcarpathia. In the fall of 1945, Patriarch Alexis of Moscow appointed Bishop Nestor Sydoruk of Umany to head the Orthodox Eparchy of Mukachevo. Nestor was announced by the Soviet press to be the only legally appointed bishop and received full support from the Soviet authorities. Intimidation and imprisonment of Byzantine Catholic priests followed, and the official liquidation of the Byzantine Catholic Eparchy of Mukachevo was underway.

Rather than flee, Bishop Romzha decided to fight. Although the Soviet authorities confiscated his car, he travelled long distances by horse and buggy, just to reassure his faithful and to encourage them to persevere until death, saying, "They are taking from us our own priests and churches, but they will never be able to take away our faith from us." During these extensive and dangerous visitations, Bishop Romzha tried to sustain the faith of the weak, to reassure the wavering, and to plead with those intimidated: "Faith is our greatest treasure on this earth. To preserve our faith we must even be ready to lay down our life. If we must die, then let us die as true martyrs, defending our faith. One thing is sure: that we never will abandon our faith nor betray our Church." The faithful, supported by dedicated clergy, responded enthusiastically and stood united behind their fearless shepherd. Even some Orthodox parishes, seeing the violence and injustice perpetrated by the Soviets, asked Bishop Romzha to accept them back into the Catholic fold.

During these days of violence and open persecution, Bishop Romzha offered his prayers and sufferings for the perseverance of his clergy and the faithful he risked so much to serve. He was sustained by his unshakable confidence in God's Providence; and down deep in his courageous heart he vividly felt the protection of the Theotokos, the Mother of God. There was no power that could shake his loyalty to the Holy See; in his mind, there was only "one, holy, Catholic and apostolic Church," established by our Lord on the rock of Peter and governed by His Vicar on the earth. For this truth, Bishop Romzha was ready to sacrifice his own life.

Unable to intimidate Bishop Romzha, the Soviets decided to liquidate him and staged a highway accident. The horse-drawn carriage in which the Bishop was returning home from the rededication of the parish church of Lavki, near Mukachevo, was rammed by a military truck. Bishop Romzha was badly injured, but survived; and passersby took him to the hospital in Mukachevo where, after a few days, he began to regain his strength. Then suddenly, early on the morning of November 1, 1947, he was found dead.

The night before Bishop Romzha's death, the director of the hospital and a strange nurse, who had disappeared the next day, were seen entering the Bishop's room about midnight. The Soviet authorities announced that Bishop Romzha died from injuries suffered in his highway accident; but a later investigation showed that he had, in fact, been poisoned.

Blessed Theodore Romzha was beatified by Pope John Paul II on June 27, 2001. His relics are enshrined in Holy Cross Cathedral in Uzhorod, Transcarpathia.

His Grace, Bishop John Kudrick of Parma, has compiled a devotional booklet entitled A Prayer Journey Through the Great Lenten Fast and Great and Holy Week, Inspired by Blessed Theodore Romzha. For more information, please contact the Eparchy of Parma Office of Evangelization, 1900 Carlton Road., Parma, Ohio 44134.

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Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky was born Count Roman Alexander Maria Sheptytsky in 1865 in the Ukrainian village of Prylbychi. The son of a Polonized (and therefore Latinized) Ukrainian Aristocrat, Jan Sheptytsky and Sophia Fredro (daughter of the Polish literary figure), he was conscious of the fact that his ancestors included some notable bishops and Metropolitans of the Greco-Catholic Church of Kyiv. After many obstacles created by his father, the young Count Sheptytsky was able to enter the Ukrainian monastery of the Order of Saint Basil the Great (OSBM) in 1891 and accepted the monastic name, Andrey. In 1900 he was made Bishop of Stanyslaviv and shortly afterwards, at the age of 36, became the Metropolitan, i.e. the ranking hierarch of the Ukrainian Greco-Catholic Church. He remained at this post until his death on 1 November 1944.

His life was an example of heroic virtue. An extremely active pastor, who used his personal wealth to fund thousands of philanthropic projects, he was also a man of deep prayer. A gifted preacher and prolific writer, he reached out to his people constantly, teaching uneducated peasants the basics of hygiene and agricultural techniques, and dialoguing with the intelligentsia among his own people and the cultured classes of all Europe. He travelled widely, visiting his flock in Western Europe, North and South America, and seeing to it that they would have bishops of their own to take care of them. Never of good health, his last fifteen years were a constant agony of pain and paralysis. Even so, he valiantly led his Church through extremely difficult and oppressive times.

His two great passions in life were the restoration of authentic Eastern Christian Monasticism in his Church, (which he achieved through the creation of monasteries following the Studite Typicon) and the union of Churches. He specifically laboured at Orthodox-Catholic reconciliation, decades before this became fashionable. For this he was often looked upon as dangerous and insufficiently loyal to Rome. He was, however, a firm believer in a strong papacy, which caused many Orthodox to mistrust this saintly man as well, even though he loved them dearly and stood up for them when they were persecuted. He valued education (having the equivalent of three doctorates himself) and founded the L’viv Theological Academy in 1929, naming Fr. Josyf Slipyj as its rector. This same man would later be Metropolitan Andrey’s coadjutor and successor, and a direct heir to many of Metropolitan Andrey’s great dreams and aspirations.

Metropolitan Andrey led his flock of some five million faithful through two world wars. He was arrested by the Czarist forces in World War I. Polish and Nazi German authorities would keep him under house arrest in later years. He courageously saved many Jews from the Nazis during World War II. Metropolitan Andrey died as the Red Army occupied his city of L’viv once again in 1944. Before his death, he predicted the annihilation of the Ukrainian Greco-Catholic Church and its eventual resurrection. Both his predictions came true. In 1946 the Soviet Secret Police, with the assistance of the Moscow Patriarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church staged a pseudo-council of the Ukrainian Church, during which a small group of frightened clergy voted to liquidate their Church and join the Moscow Patriarchate. No Ukrainian Greco-Catholic bishop ever agreed to this. For almost half a century, the Ukrainian Greco-Catholic Church was the world’s largest outlawed religious body. As the Soviet Union crumbled, this Church came out of the Catacombs with over five million faithful, thousands of priests and over three thousand parishes. Many believe this survival of the Church in Ukraine to be a miracle worked by Metropolitan Andrey. The cause for his beatification and canonization is underway.

Metropolitan Andrey believed in the necessity of the Union of Churches, to be achieved through mutual understanding and sacrificial love, as well as a return to the sources of the faith. He enjoined all people to pray for God’s Wisdom. His life and his legacy are an inspiration to the staff and students of the Institute that bears his name.

IN LUMINE FIDEI: 1 NOVEMBER – ALL SAINTS

IN LUMINE FIDEI: 1 NOVEMBER – ALL SAINTS: Dom Prosper Guéranger: The bells ring out as joyously as on the brightest days. They announce the great solemnity of the closing Cycle...

1 November, A Chesterton Calendar (Especially for All Saints Day)

NOVEMBER 1st

ALL SAINTS' DAY

You cannot deny that it is perfectly possible that to-morrow morning in Ireland or in Italy there might appear a man not only as good but good in exactly the same way as St. Francis of Assisi. Very well; now take the other types of human virtue: many of them splendid. The English gentleman of Elizabeth was chivalrous and idealistic. But can you stand still in this meadow and be an English gentleman of Elizabeth? The austere republican of the eighteenth century, with his stern patriotism and his simple life, was a fine fellow. But have you ever seen him? Have you ever seen an austere republican? Only a hundred years have passed and that volcano of revolutionary truth and valour is as cold as the mountains of the moon. And so it will be with the ethics which are buzzing down Fleet Street at this instant as I speak. What phrase would inspire a London clerk or workman just now? Perhaps that he is a son of the British Empire on which the sun never sets; perhaps that he is a prop of his Trades Union, or a class-conscious proletarian something or other; perhaps merely that he is a gentleman, when he obviously is not. Those names and notions are all honourable, but how long will they last? Empires break; industrial conditions change; the suburbs will not last for ever. What will remain? I will tell you: the Catholic saint will remain.

'The Ball and the Cross.'

1 November, The Holy Rule of St Benedict, Father of Western Monks

CHAPTER XXV. Of Graver Faults

2 Mar. 2 July. 1 Nov.

Let that brother who is found guilty of a more grievous offence be excluded both  from the table and from the Oratory, and let none of the brethren consort with him or speak to him. Let him be alone at the work enjoined him, and continue in penance and sorrow, remembering that dreadful sentence of the Apostle, “That such a one is delivered over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord.” Let him take his portion of food alone, in the measure and at the time that the Abbot shall think best for him. Let none of those who pass by bless him, nor the food that is given him.

2 November, The Roman Martrology

Quarto Nonas Novémbris Luna vicésima séptima Anno Dómini 2021

On the morrow is made the Commemoration of all the faithful departed.

November 2nd 2021, the 27th day of the Moon, were born into the better life:

Holy Victorinus, Bishop of Poitiers, who, after publishing many writings, as witnesseth holy Jerome, was crowned with martyrdom in the persecution under the Emperor Diocletian.
At Trieste, blessed Justus, who, in the same persecution, was martyred under the President Manatius.
At Sebaste, under the Emperor Licinius, the holy martyrs Carterius, Styriacus, Tobias, Eudoxius, Agapius, and their Companions.
In Persia, the holy martyrs Acindynus, Pegasius, Aphthonius, Elpidephorus, and Anempodistus, with many others their Companions.
In Africa, the holy martyrs Publius, Victor, Hermes, and Papias.
At Tarsus, in Cilicia, under the Emperor Julian the Apostate, the holy Virgin and martyr Eustochium, who, after grievous torments, gave up her soul in prayer to God.
At Laodicea, in Syria, (in the year 334) holy Theodotus, Bishop (of that see,) who excelled not in word only, but in deed and in power.
At Vienne, (in the seventh century,) holy George, Bishop (of that see.)
In the monastery of St. Moritz, in Switzerland, (in the sixth century,) the holy Abbot Ambrose.
At Cyrus, in Syria, the holy Confessor Marcian, (fourth century.)
V. And elsewhere many other holy martyrs, confessors, and holy virgins.
R. Thanks be to God.

Memes of the Day