Three New Republications of Non-fiction Works by Msgr Robert Hugh Benson

On the heels of their excellent new editions of two of Msgr. Benson’s better-known historical novels, The Cenacle Press of Silverstream Priory has just released three more non-fiction titles by the same author: Confessions of a Convert, Papers of a Pariah, and The Friendship of Christ.

In his autobiographical Confessions of a Convert, Benson describes his journey to the Church, starting as an Anglican brought up in “the moderate High Church school of thought” and ending as a Catholic priest living under “the sunlight of Eternal Truth.”

Says Joseph Shaw: “Benson’s Confessions of a Convert are edifying and entertaining in equal measure, and a fascinating snapshot of the Anglican and Catholic scenes in his day. They remind us of the great soul-searching and also personal suffering undertaken by the generations of converts, from Newman up to the 1950s, who enriched the Catholic Church in the British Isles while the Church was subject to the soft persecution of prejudice and social exclusion.”

In Papers of a Pariah, Benson imagines the experiences of a fallen-away Protestant who returns to the practice of religion and then finds himself drawn to the Catholic Church. Under this literary device, Benson comments:

Even to me, Protestant as I am, it did seem completely suitable that an event so stupendous could scarcely be approached by any other process than that of a sacred dramatic dance, with an accompaniment of rigid and minute Court etiquette. To leave the conduct of such a thing to the individual personality and the private taste of a simple clergyman in a surplice, would be nothing else than bathos of the worst description; human outlines must be obliterated by some overpowering uniform, personal tastes and methods of behaving must be rigidly supplanted by set movements and gestures. In fact, for such a drama as this we need not clericalism, but the most emphatic sacerdotalism. Originality in the sanctuary, as has been well observed, is the grossest vulgarity known to men.

The relevance of these comments, made 60 years before the introduction into the Catholic liturgy of so many elements that render it casual, personal, and de-ritualized, hardly needs to be pointed out. It serves as a timely reminder that such liturgical fallacies existed and were recognized by Catholics long before they were being perpetrated within the sanctuaries of Catholic churches!
 

Speaking of Benson, Evelyn Waugh said: “He was a magnetic preacher, an excellent story-teller, a ready writer; he had enthusiasm and unremitting energy, a rich imagination, an exuberant curiosity about people and things. But he knew that there was only one relationship of absolute value, that of the soul to God.” In his book The Friendship of Christ, Benson addresses this question of the soul’s relationship with God.

“How to love an invisible God? For anyone who has asked themselves this question,” comments Melinda Nielsen of Baylor University, “Robert Hugh Benson weaves together the many strands of the Catholic faith to reveal the one thing needful—the radiant face of Christ. Here Benson unfolds the secret of the saints: that Christ is the truest of all friends, not metaphorically, but in reality.” A classic of “modern” spirituality, this work is perhaps the most essential of these three works to acquire for your Catholic bookshelf.
 

 Visit the Cenacle Press website to see all of their books and products.

A Beautiful Testimony to the Power of the Original Liturgical Movement

Newly released from Arouca Press in collaboration with Silverstream Priory, NLM followers will no doubt want to make a point of reading a book which combines fine art, hagiography, and sound spiritual advice: For Their Sake I Consecrate Myself. I greatly enjoyed and benefited from reading it and consider it to be one of those precious hidden gems, lost in a world of more superficial entertainment and NYT bestsellers, that readers will still be thinking about years after they read it.

The biography of a young Polish nun of the last century, it is a fascinating snapshot of the fruits of the 1950s Liturgical Movement at its finest. “There is a question of equilibrium, of balance, in the supernatural order, as in the physical universe,” writes Abbot Philip Anderson about this book. “It was the God-Man, Jesus Christ, who re-established this balance on the highest level, after sin had unleashed ruin upon mankind. But some souls are called to fill up those things that are wanting of the sufferings of Christ in their flesh for His Body, as Saint Paul tells us. How can this be? Let the story of Sister Maria Bernadette, who was surely one of those souls, lift a corner of the veil and draw you into the mystery. Maybe you too have a part to play.”

Known in the world as Róża Wolska, she was born in 1927. Reminiscent of Pier Giorgio Frassati in many ways, Róża was an avid athlete. In the early ’40s she was introduced to the monks of the Benedictine Abbey of Tyniec. At that time Tyniec was in the vanguard of the Liturgical Movement, in its healthy phase; under the monks’ guidance, Róża’s spiritual life flourished, as friendship, lectio divina, and the sacred liturgy revealed the beauty of God to her.
 

Somewhat of a surprise even to herself, Róża felt moved to enter the Benedictine Nuns of Perpetual Adoration in Warsaw after graduating from the Academy of Fine Arts in 1951. Those years were very difficult for the monastery, which was being rebuilt after the being bombed in World War II; the Communist yoke weighed heavily on the whole country. During these years, outwardly quiet but inwardly eventful, Sr. Maria Bernadette, as she was known in religion, struggled with how to overocome the old Adam and put on the new; in particular, her secular training in art had to be sublimated to monastic purposes, and in this regard she eventually produced many striking images of various sizes and for varied occasions.
 

After about ten years of living the monastic life, Sister Bernadette’s health began to fail, and in 1963 she was admitted into hospital for surgery. While there, she offered her life in reparation for the sins of apostate priests about whom she had read, particularly the so-called “Patriot Priests” who were supportive of the Communist government. Complications arose but doctors declared them normal symptoms of recovery; they were mistaken. “Both the sick and the doctors cannot get over the fact that a nun can be so cheerful,” she wrote to her parents shortly before her death. “I think that the glory of the Bridegroom grows through this, so I don’t even care anymore that my stitches hurt from laughing.”
 

A prayer card by Sr. Bernadette: "I to my beloved, and my beloved to me, [who feedeth among the lilies]" (Song 6:2)

As her strength failed, the wistful Gregorian melody for the Magnificat antiphon for the Ascension ran through her soul: “O King of glory, Lord of hosts, Who hast this day mounted in triumph above all the heavens, leave us not orphans: but send unto us the promise of the Father, the Spirit of truth, alleluia.” Sister Bernadette died on April 30th, 1963, surrendering her life into the hands of God.
 

Page from a Gospel book illuminated and calligraphed by Sr. Bernadette

Sally Read, poet and author of Night’s Bright Darkness, writes of this book: “The life of Sister Bernadette of the Cross is vividly detailed here. Her role as a child of God, in a world ravaged and abused by war and corruption, comes across as both heroic and ordinary.”

For Their Sake I Consecrate Myself is a new translation and revised edition of a Polish biography of Sister Bernadette. It contains numerous photographs and reproductions of her artwork, and extensive passages from her charming, humorous, and spiritually uplifting letters. “As we go through the pages,” Sally Read continues, “[Sister’s] very soul seems to be honed and polished before our eyes; she is both reduced and glorified by her pains. Her story is an illustration of what it means to suffer in Christ, and for the sins of others, and is given great immediacy and vitality by the examples of her beautiful art. Her words are meat for those who wonder about the role of suffering in life.” An epilogue in the book ponders the lessons of victim souls and how we are to make sense of this “scandal” in a world that has so much lost the understanding of the value of reparation and the practice of abandonment to the Father’s Providence.
 

A humorous drawing showing Sister's response to the psalm verse
"And he took me up from the deep waters"

Perhaps the strongest praise comes from Scott Hahn, who writes: “This book is a roadmap to true happiness, not only in the afterlife, but beginning here and now.” Drawing attention to the remarkable cheerfulness that suffused Sister Bernadette’s often difficult life, Dr. Hahn says: “Sister Bernadette was one of those souls who, while living with the Church, the liturgy, and the Scriptures, allow themselves to be led by the Spirit to pray and to suffer—generously and cheerfully. She made an offering of her life, and in these pages we can learn to do the same.”

For Their Sake I Consecrate Myself is available for purchase on Arouca Press’s website, on Silverstream Priory’s shop, as well as Amazon.com, Amazon UK, and other retailers. I hope that many will “take a chance” on this little-known story and find a special blessing in it.

A brief preview of the photos and artwork found in the book is available in a video released by Silverstream Priory: 

Elegant Reprints of Robert Hugh Benson Novels of the English Reformation

Back in January, we mentioned the Cenacle Press website of Silverstream Priory. Since that time, much has transpired! In addition to its hundreds of items of various sorts and provenances, Cenacle Press has now turned into a full-fledged publishing operation, specializing in reprints of old classics as well as new works.

Robert Hugh Benson needs no introduction here. Two of his best historical novels, The King’s Achievement (about Henry VIII, Thomas More, John Fisher, et al.) and By What Authority? (about Elizabeth, Edmund Campion, et al.) have just been released in new editions, which are distinguished by five features that set them apart from other versions available online: (1) they are unabridged, unlike the American editions; (2) they are newly typeset, with a very readable font; (3) they have newly-commissioned illustrations by a Polish artist ; (4) they contain interesting forewords by Joseph Pearce; (5) they support the monastic community.

When I first read those books years ago, they pierced me to the quick, and I still consider them among the most vivid windows into the English Reformation period. My wife and I used them for homeschool history & literature. In September 2021, I shared at NLM a poignant scene from By What Authority? in which a secret recusant Mass is described.

Quick summaries of the novels (from the Cenacle Press site):

The King’s Achievement: One of the most coldly calculated acts of Henry VIII during the Reformations was the dissolution of the monasteries. Monks and nuns were driven from their cloisters; the abbeys were plundered and turned over to greedy courtiers. From these ignoble proceedings came Robert Hugh Benson’s inspiration for this great historical novel, the story of a house divided against itself. The Torridon brothers are sworn to serve different masters; one is a monk, in love with the Mass and the Faith of Ages, the other an agent of Thomas Cromwell, in love with a protege of Sir Thomas More. Among the giant figures who move through the tale are those of St. John Fisher and St. Thomas More, the ruthless King Henry VIII, and the grasping Cromwell. Their actual deeds are carefully woven into this harrowingly romantic tale of the attempted destruction and resilience of the Catholic Faith in England.

By What Authority?: The fates of two young people caught in a conflict of ideals is the theme of this stirring and tragic novel, set in the England of Elizabeth I. At a time when following the Old Religion resulted in penalties stretching from heavy fines to imprisonment to death, Puritan-bred Anthony and Isabel Norris find themselves drawn to the Church of their forefathers. Underlying their heroism in their struggles and conflicts with Protestant England is the strength and vitality of Catholic Church supporting and drawing the characters into Her embrace. In a story which delves into the deepest reaches of the Catholic and Anglican dilemma, Benson weaves together the lives of his characters and their encounters with central figures in English Reformation history in order to praise and defend the England that was, the England that is truly England, the Catholic England.

To read more, see Joseph Pearce’s recent article “The Genius of Robert Hugh Benson” at The Imaginative Conservative.

Links to purchase:
The King’s Achievement
By What Authority?

An Easter Card from Silverstream Priory

Last summer, Silverstream Priory in Ireland launched a new website for its online store, the Cenacle Press, and I am sure our readers will be interested in exploring what it has to offer, from Catholic books from dozens of publishers to items made by hand by the monks themselves. Here are a couple of interesting videos from their YouTube channel; the first shows the steps of the process of making a very nice block print of a Paschal Agnus Dei motif, which can be purchased as an Easter card, a once-common tradition that should definitely be revived.

And the second shows the making of a rosary, with an explanation of the symbolism behind the knots with which it is tied together.

Book Review: The Way of the Cross for Priests

The following review was written by a parish priest.

The days of a widespread iconoclastic approach toward popular piety seem to be behind us. (The very phrase popular piety is no longer the slur it once was.) Happily, and despite the controversies of the day, a re-seizing of traditional Catholic liturgical life is taking place. Nevertheless, the right tools are needed in order for this rebirth to continue apace. I have one such tool before me at the moment in The Way of the Cross for Priests, by the monks of Silverstream Priory.

The preface to the volume is powerful in its own right; two themes are notable. First, the author cites the experience of the great Benedictine abbot, Columba Marmion (1858-1923.) “After the Sacraments and liturgical worship,” writes Marmion, “I am convinced there is no practice more fruitful for our souls than the Way of the Cross made with devotion.” For those who know this master of the spiritual life, that is endorsement enough. Second, we are shown how The Way of the Cross resembles the practice of lectio divina. Like this discipline of monastic prayer, The Way of the Cross is a rhythmed, ordered approach to the graces of Christ's Person.

The Way of the Cross for Priests has a number of other virtues. It is faithful to St Benedict’s injunction that prayer should be “short and pure.” Admittedly, some versions of the Stations tend toward the verbose. Yet the Passion is a heavy enough mystery as it is: manageable, but profound texts are what we need most. Silverstream’s Way provides this. Mimicking the genius of the classical Roman Rite, the texts are drawn from beautifully disparate places in the Old and New Testaments: Job, Isaiah, the Psalms, the epistles of St Paul, and the Gospels.

The Cenacle Press at Silverstream produces volumes of physical beauty, which is by no means unimportant. So the little book is a delight to behold and use. Also, the English translation of the Stabat Materis dignified and sung easily.

It is by no means the case that The Way of the Cross for Priests is suitable for the priest’s private prayer only. On the contrary, it will do much to mature and strengthen the Catholic faithful, who in our time have recovered the instinct to pray assiduously for their priests. Thanks be to God for that. Writes Marmion, “The Passion is the ‘holy of holies’ among the mysteries of Jesus, the pre-eminent work of our Supreme High Priest.” Any means which can drive us into this holy of holies is worthy of our serious attention: thus The Way of the Cross for Priests.

(sample page)

Cenacle Press Website of Silverstream Priory

Last summer, Silverstream Priory in Ireland launched a new website for its online store. Readers of NLM will no doubt be interested in exploring the Cenacle Press, a well-stocked and thoughtfully put-together site. If not quite a “one-stop trad shop,” it’s getting close, with hundreds of products including both Catholic books from dozens of publishers and handmade items from the monks themselves.

Venerable Bede’s Rosaries

First off, the excellent rosaries must be mentioned. Prayerfully handcrafted by the monks of Silverstream with high-quality cords, beads, and crucifixes, their popularity and quality are attested by the customer reviews. The full selection can be found here.
 

Not only do they offer some elegant rosaries made with semi-precious stones, like African Turquoise, Pink Quartz, Blue Sodalite (pictured below) or Connemara Marble…
 

…but also sturdy rosaries like their military paracord rosary made with gunmetal beads. It is featured in the recently released video below, in which a monk explains the ‘catechetical knot’ in this rosary:
 

Books

Although many of the books stocked by Cenacle Press can be found elsewhere, the monks have selected favorite titles from a wide variety of publishers to create a rich catalogue of only the best books. For example, their Divine Office collection is one of the most complete for any single site, while the Saints category draws a multitude of sources into one place. They stock most of the books available in English about Abbot Gueranger and Solesmes, as well as Blessed Columba Marmion (note that Cenacle Press plans to republish Christ the Ideal of the Monk later this year in honor of the 100th centenary of Dom Marmion’s death).
 

For those interested in Mother Mectilde of the Blessed Sacrament, who initiated the Benedictines of Perpetual Adoration of the Most Blessed Sacrament in the 1600s, the monks have a little book of her quotations to accompany the Rosary: Vidi Speciosam. They also carry two other books about Mother Mectilde which have been released so far from Angelico Press, The Mystery of Incomprehensible Love, an introductory presentation of her life and writings, and The Breviary of Fire, a collection of some of her letters of spiritual direction.

For European customers, Silverstream is an ideal source of books published in America that are not always easy to come by, such as the St. Andrew’s Missal, and titles from Loreto Publications and from Baronius Press, which continues to have a limited international distribution post-Brexit.

Continue Reading this Article. . .

Where Do I Start? A Pastoral Plan for Changing a Parish Music Program - & More!

In light of the current situation, many parishes are looking at an opportunity to introduce the sung proper chants in their Masses, change out old hymnals for new resources, or implement the chants of the Roman Missal. Where does one start when thinking about the best way to improve a music program? How can you bring people along, deepening their faith as the music program becomes more robust? As we wrap up season 2 of Square Notes, episode 19 with Dr. Mary Jane Ballou addresses these questions.

Episode 18 takes you behind the scenes of the exciting new Neumz project, its app, its largest-in-history recording project, and the life of the sisters at Notre Dame de Fidelité in Jouques, France. 

Episode 20, our final episode for this season, presents a homily by Dom Mark Kirby, OSB, founding prior of Silverstream Priory in Ireland, about the chants for the 5th Sunday after Pentecost. In it, you'll find a robust model for Lectio Divina and biblical exegesis when meditating on a chant. 

Episode 18 – 7000+ Hours of Gregorian Chant: Behind the Scenes at the Neumz Project – with John Anderson & Alberto Díaz-Blanco

YouTube

Episode 19 – Where Do I Start? A Pastoral Plan for Changing a Parish Music Program – with Dr. Mary Jane Ballou

YouTube

Episode 20 – Lectio Divina and Biblical Exegesis of Gregorian Chants for the 5th Sunday after Pentecost – with Dom Mark Kirby, OSB

YouTube

Chanting Monastic Vespers Webinar

Following the March 15th webinar on monastic Compline, I’m offering a 4-part series on chanting monastic Vespers, for which I will be joined by Dom Benedict Andersen of Silverstream Priory in Ireland. We will spend 40 minutes learning, and then chant Vespers together. Each week will cover a new topic, and it’s not necessary to join each week, though the information shared will be cumulative throughout the series. A Vespers booklet with all the music (Gregorian chant, and an English adaptation of the chants for personal use) will be shared with all participants.

Part 1 - Psalms and Psalm Tones
Part 2 - Antiphons and Complex Psalm Tone Endings
Part 3 - Hymns, Responsories, and Magnificats
Part 4 - How to sing different feasts and seasons after the webinars end

5:00-6:10 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time (New York)
May 3, 10, 17, & 24, 2020
Price: Free

Click here to register. 

Sponsored by the Sacred Arts Guild of Alberta.

Understanding the Psalms Christologically - New Episode of Square Notes Podcast

Lovers of the Divine Office and the book of Psalms will find many pearls of wisdom in the words of Dom Benedict Andersen, a priest-monk of Silverstream priory. Take a listen to the latest episode of Square Notes: The Sacred Music Podcast to hear him discuss the concept of fulfillment, the Christologically-meaningful appointment of the Psalms in the liturgical cycle, and the value of the writings of the Church Fathers and the allegorical method in understanding the scriptures.

You can catch us on our website, YouTube, iTunes, Stitcher, or your favorite podcast app. Please note that we have discontinued publishing on SoundCloud.

Christmas Cards and Other Items from Silverstream Priory

Many readers will know of Silverstream Priory, the only traditional Benedictine monastery in Ireland. It is an oasis of liturgical prayer and a frequently-visited location for retreats. The monks are currently endeavoring to raise funds for the construction of a desperately-needed monastic chapel, which will be built on to the side of their existing guesthouse. (Their current chapel, a renovated living room in a large mansion, is bursting at the seams with monks, candidates, and visitors.) The monastery’s website has a helpful page that tells of the ways you can come to their aid, especially in this end-of-year giftgiving season.

Meanwhile, I notice that the good monks have updated their online shop and, in particular, have made available two new Christmas card designs, one of which includes an original watercolor image of the Child Jesus:

These cards are not, however, the only items of interest for those looking for unusual Christmas gifts or stocking stuffers. They have a series of transparent decals in different colors: the medal of St. Benedict, a Marian motif, a Lamb, St. Benedict with the raven, a Celtic cross design, a medieval chalice and host, and “Keep Calm and Ora et Labora.”

There is a page devoted to liturgical prayers: a beautiful set of altar cards (which was announced here some time ago), thick cards for the prayers at the foot of the altar, the priest’s vesting prayers, declaration of intention before celebrating Mass, and a Way of the Cross with meditations for priests:

Prayer cards specific to Silverstream are available: Novena to Mother Mectilde, Institutress of the Benedictine Nuns of Perpetual Adoration; Act of Adoration for Priests; Novena to Fr. Paul of Moll; Novena to St. Therese of Lisieux; A Prayer of Forgiveness and Reparation; Supplica to St. Dymphna:

And lastly, three prints of pencil drawings by one of the monks:

All of the above products are designed by the monks. Take a moment to check out the Silverstream shop.

Audio of Lecture by Dr Kwasniewski at Silverstream Priory: “Tradition Reviled and Recovered”

At the invitation of Dom Mark Kirby, O.S.B., I gave a lecture at Silverstream Priory in Ireland on Friday, July 13, to the gathered community and some friends of the monastery. The monks have made the audio available at their SoundCloud page, with the following description:

In this talk, Dr. Peter Kwasniewski explores the meaning of Tradition as understood by Catholics from the time of the Church Fathers onwards. Having explained how the notion of tradition is complex, Kwasniewski argues that all of tradition is important to Catholics, because by it the fullness of the Faith is transmitted to us. The liturgy is a primary example. Making too sharp a distinction between what is of the substance of liturgy and what is accidental to it, or what is essential and what is incidental, betrays a reductive, minimalist, and rationalistic viewpoint that is hostile to Catholic identity and worship. The traditional Roman liturgy is a composite reality that speaks to man at every level and draws him powerfully into the sacred mysteries. It is proving to be a major element of the New Evangelization for young adults who are exposed to it.

A couple of excerpts:

Although ecclesiastical traditions develop and change, the consistent practice of the Catholic Church over the centuries—it would, in fact, be no exaggeration to call it a rule or a principle—has been to carry along with her whatever is already part of her life, and the more so, the more universally it permeates the body of the faithful. Two corollaries follow. First, the longer the tradition, the more certain it is to be true, fitting, and beneficial. Second, new practices are to be admitted only when they refine, crystallize, amplify, or otherwise enhance traditions already in place.

Acknowledging with Hervé that there are different kinds of tradition in the Church and that not all enjoy the same immutability or authority, we should nevertheless value the whole of our tradition, because all of its elements constitute the beautiful and subtle tapestry of the Faith. It is therefore not only misleading but dangerous to make too sharp a distinction between what is “essential” or “primary,” and what is “accidental” or “secondary.”
         For example, one hears it said: “All that matters at Mass is that Jesus is present; everything else is secondary.” Undoubtedly it matters a great deal that Jesus is present, for otherwise we are eating no more than ordinary food. But the liturgy has a greater purpose than putting on a meal for us, and even Jesus’ presence has a greater scope and purpose than sacramental communion. The Mass is the solemn, public, formal act of adoration, thanksgiving, and supplication offered by Christ the High Priest to the Father, and by His entire Mystical Body in union with Him. It is the foremost act of the virtue of religion, by which we offer to God a sacrifice of praise worthy of His glory. It is the chief expression of the theological virtues of faith, hope, and charity. It is the inbreaking of the kingdom of heaven into our earthly time and space. It is the nuptial feast of the King of Kings. It is the recapitulation of the entire created universe in its Alpha and Omega.
         Because it is all this and still more, the Church down through the ages has spared no effort and no expense to augment the beauty and elevate the solemnity of her liturgical rites. As Pope John Paul II said in his final encyclical Ecclesia de Eucharistia: “Like the woman who anointed Jesus in Bethany, the Church has feared no ‘extravagance,’ devoting the best of her resources to expressing her wonder and adoration before the unsurpassable gift of the Eucharist.” So while it may be true that the only things necessary for a valid Mass in the Roman Rite are unleavened bread and wine of grapes, a priest, and the words of consecration, to see this as sufficient would betray a reductive, minimalist, and parsimonious view of things. Glorifying God and sanctifying our souls are deeply and intrinsically bound up with the fittingness of the worship we offer Him.

Listen to the audio here.

Monks praying the Office at Silverstream

Ireland’s National Apostasy - A Sermon at Silverstream Priory, Trinity Sunday, 2018

This sermon was preached today by Dom Mark Kirby, O.S.B., at Silverstream Priory.

Ireland's National Apostasy

The Preamble to the Constitution of Ireland. In the Name of the Most Holy Trinity, from Whom is all authority and to Whom, as our final end, all actions both of men and States must be referred, We, the people of Éire, humbly acknowledging all our obligations to our Divine Lord, Jesus Christ, Who sustained our fathers through centuries of trial, gratefully remembering their heroic and unremitting struggle to regain the full independence of our Nation, and seeking to promote the common good with due observance of Prudence, Justice, and Charity, so that the dignity and freedom of the individual may be assured, true social order attained, the unity of our country restored, and concord established with other nations, do hereby adopt, enact, and give ourselves this Constitution.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.

On this feast of the Most Holy Trinity, two days after Ireland’s national apostasy from the Holy Catholic Faith, how can we hear the Gospel that was sung just moments ago, and not recall the Constitution that the Irish people gave themselves 80 years ago in 1938? Friday’s vote was not about abortion only; it was about killing Ireland’s soul, about snuffing out all that made Ireland a beacon among the nations, about publicly renouncing all that, from the time that Saint Patrick kindled his blazing fire on the Hill of Slane, made this island home of ours a great welcoming Catholic hearth in a world grown cold and dark. Ireland was, among all the nations on earth, the one that unsparingly sent forth sons and daughters, intrepid in confessing the Holy Trinity, to bring the light of faith to the most far-flung corners of the globe.

And Jesus coming, spoke to them, saying: All power is given to me in heaven and in earth. Going therefore, teach ye all nations; baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. (Matthew 28, 18)

How did we come to this? Among those who voted “Yes” on Friday, the vast number were baptized, and sealed with the sign of the Gift of the Holy Ghost in Confirmation. Some of these would have been confirmed but a few years ago. Among them were people who once knelt at the altar to receive the adorable Body of Christ, formed by the Holy Ghost in the womb of the Virgin Mary, immolated on the Cross, risen from the tomb, ascended into heaven, and returning in glory. Among them are people who, (and I say this with fear and trembling), will dare even to present themselves for Holy Communion today. To these, I can only repeat what the Apostle says:

Whosoever shall eat this bread, or drink the chalice of the Lord unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and of the blood of the Lord. But let a man prove himself: and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of the chalice. For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh judgment to himself, not discerning the body of the Lord. (1 Corinthians 11, 27–29)

One cannot say that we were not warned. God did send his prophets to Ireland. I think of Frank Duff. I think of Saint John Paul II who, in October 1979, was given a rapturous welcome. Pope Benedict XVI’s Letter to the Catholics of Ireland, written only eight years ago, was prophetic. What became of it? Why was it filed away and not heeded?

There are reports of victory celebrations in Dublin and elsewhere: a satanic crowing, jeers hurled at Our Lord, against His Virgin Mother, and against the Church. The whole climate is eerily reminiscent of France in 1789, of Mexico in 1910, of Russia in 1917, of Germany in 1933, and of Spain in 1936. Even worse than the crowds hell–bent on celebrating the choice of death over life are the complacent lies of those government ministers who, with a smug satisfaction, speak of A New Modern Ireland At Last, an Ireland of compassion, justice, and respect for women. The accent in all such discourses is that of the ancient serpent:

Now the serpent was more subtle than any of the beasts of the earth which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman: Why hath God commanded you, that you should not eat of every tree of paradise? And the woman answered him, saying: Of the fruit of the trees that are in paradise we do eat: But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of paradise, God hath commanded us that we should not eat; and that we should not touch it, lest perhaps we die. And the serpent said to the woman: No, you shall not die the death. For God doth know that in what day soever you shall eat thereof, your eyes shall be opened: and you shall be as Gods, knowing good and evil. (Genesis 3, 1–5)

You will forgive me if I repeat today the words of the prophet Ezechiel:

Thou hast played the harlot with the nations among which thou wast defiled with their idols. Thou hast walked in the way of thy sister, and I will give her cup into thy hand. Thus saith the Lord God: Thou shalt drink thy sister’s cup, deep and wide: thou shalt be had in derision and scorn, which containeth very much. Thou shalt be filled with drunkenness, and sorrow: with the cup of grief, and sadness, with the cup of thy sister Samaria. And thou shalt drink it, and shalt drink it up even to the dregs, and thou shalt devour the fragments thereof, thou shalt rend thy breasts: because I have spoken it, saith the Lord God. (Ezechiel 23, 30–34)

What is remains for us? I will tell you what remains:

And now there remain faith, hope, and charity, these three: but the greatest of these is charity. (1 Corinthians 13, 13)

Draw near to the altar of the Holy Sacrifice, even as our forefathers drew in around the Mass Rocks. The altar is Ireland’s Divine Hearth. Not for nothing was the altar of the Lamb shown at Knock in 1879. Fall down in adoration and in reparation. Cry out to the Immaculate Mother of God, still Ireland’s Queen and Sorrowful Mother. My own dear father, with all the wisdom of his 91 years, said to me yesterday, “God has a plan. God will have the last word.” And what says Our Lord in today’s Gospel? He says this: “Behold I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the world.” (Matthew 28, 20). In this promise of His, let us rest all our hope.

A Hand-decorated Paschal Candle from Ireland

The decoration of the Paschal candle for 2018 at Silverstream Monastery was the work of the community’s subprior, Dom Benedict Maria Andersen, whose typographical work we have featured before.

Dom Benedict took his inspiration from an authentic Irish penal crucifix in the possession of a friend of the monastery. The penal crucifix, which was loaned to the monastery for all to admire and venerate, dates from the 1700s.

This is a splendid example of the kind of customized work that we need to see flourish once again in local communities, be they religious houses, parishes, or school chapels. It is refreshing and inspiring to see something that is made by hand, made for only one place, and offered up for only one year. Hand-decorated candles are returning slowly, following in the wake of better vestments and works of all sorts in recent years. May the renewal of fine arts in the service of the Church find more and more success.

Preaching from the Propers of the Mass — An Example from Ireland

(I post the following with the kind permission of Dom Mark Kirby, O.S.B., Prior of the Benedictine Monks of Perpetual Adoration at Silverstream Priory in Ireland. It first appeared at Vultus Christi. Dom Mark has long been a proponent of infusing homilies with the salt and pith of the Propers of the day's Mass, a practice that deserves far more use than it seems to get.—PAK)

LAST THURSDAY, our priest oblates (diocesan priests living in the spirit of the Rule of Saint Benedict, and spiritually anchored in the monastery, whilst labouring in the vineyard of the Lord) met at Silverstream for a day of recollection. I spoke to them of the Propers of the Mass: the Introit, Gradual, Alleluia, Tract, Sequence, Offertory, and Communion, as given in the Roman Missal and in the Roman Gradual. Together we reviewed article 65 of the General Instruction of the Roman Missal, which text authorises the priest to preach on the Proper of the Mass, something rarely done.

65. The homily is part of the Liturgy and is strongly recommended, for it is necessary for the nurturing of the Christian life. It should be an exposition of some aspect of the readings from Sacred Scripture or of another text from the Ordinary or from the Proper of the Mass of the day and should take into account both the mystery being celebrated and the particular needs of the listeners.

Our oblate, Father John Fisher, who serves in a parish that follows the usus recentior, took up the challenge and preached on the Introit of the Mass of the Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time. Here is his homily.

Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B

Save us, O Lord our God! And gather us from the nations, to give thanks to your holy name, and make it our glory to praise you. (Ps 105: 47)

Before the singing of hymns was permitted at Mass after the Second Vatican Council, the introit (or Entrance Antiphon as it is now called) was sung by the choir as the priest made his way to the altar in the entrance procession. Some of you may well remember Canon Pentony’s famous choir singing those beautiful Latin texts. In the modern liturgy, the introit chant has been shortened to a one-line antiphon that is supposed to be sung but is usually recited by the priest. However, this simplification is no excuse for ignoring the meaning and importance of an integral text of the Mass which the Church, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, gives to her children to help them enter more fully into the sacred liturgy they are about to celebrate. Each Mass has its own unique antiphon. It is usually a verse from the psalms, the prayer book which Our Lord himself prayed while he was on earth, or from some other book of the Bible. The antiphon is meant to be a spiritual voice that welcomes us, sets the tone of the Mass of the day and points us in the direction of the deep spiritual meanings that the texts of that particular Mass want to reveal to us. You might sometimes have heard a particular priest welcome people at the start of Mass and say, “The theme of today’s Mass is….”. He needn’t have bothered! The tone or theme has already been set by the Entrance Antiphon.

If the antiphon is a voice, then who is it that is speaking? On rare occasions, on the feasts of saints, it is the voice of the actual saint being commemorated that day. But normally it is one of two voices: either the voice of Christ speaking to the Father, or the voice of the Church (which is the body of Christ) calling to Jesus Christ, her God and spouse. If we look at today’s antiphon it is easy to see that this is the voice of the Church, crying out to her Lord in desperation to save her and to lead her back from her exile so that she can then do what is her very purpose and destiny: to praise and thank her God.

When this psalm was written, the Jewish people experienced the pain of exile and alienation. They were evicted from the Holy Land and had to live for years in exile in Babylon, prisoners of a pagan people who did not share their religion or way of life. This pain has always been felt by the Church throughout her history and is most keenly felt today. The Church, unlike Israel, does not have a country to call her own. Christians must always live and work in a world that does not always accept the teachings of Christ and at times does not even tolerate our beliefs or morals. One of our earliest Christian writings, the Epistle to Diognetus, vividly describes the predicament of Christians in the Roman Empire:

“Christians are not distinguished from the rest of humanity by country, language, or custom. They live in their own countries, but only as aliens; they participate in everything as citizens, and endure everything as foreigners. Every foreign country is their homeland, and every homeland is a foreign country. They marry like everyone else, and have children, but they do not leave their unwanted children to die. They share their food but not their wives. … They live on earth, but their citizenship is in heaven. … They love everyone, and by everyone they are persecuted. They are unknown, yet they are condemned; they are put to death, yet they are brought to life. … They are dishonoured, yet they are glorified in their dishonour; they are slandered, yet they are proven right. They are cursed, yet they bless; they are insulted, yet they offer respect. When they do good, they are punished as evildoers. Those who hate them are unable to give a reason for their hostility. In a word, what the soul is to the body, Christians are to the world.”

Today’s Entrance Antiphon reminds us that the Church has ever lived in this predicament. At certain times and in certain places she feels this alienation more sharply. Catholics here in the north often felt marginalised, aliens in their own country as they endured discrimination and hatred because of their religion. Today, that is the experience of good Catholics throughout the western world as countries that were traditionally Christian become secularised. We increasingly find people with power and the influence of the media not just scorning the gospel but trying to force us to conform to modern values which are profoundly anti-Christian. The ways of the nations, of the ‘modern world’, are not the ways of God. They are not our ways. They leave us hurt and alienated. In a world where liberal capitalism has run amok and over 80% of the world’s profit goes to 1% of its people, Christians can only cry out in the voice of our antiphon: “Save us O Lord! Gather us from the nations.” In our own area, where the fruits of the drug trade which begins with gangs in far off lands, bring only grief and anxiety to families, we can only cry out: “Save us O Lord! Gather us from the nations.” As the right to life of the unborn is threatened throughout Ireland so that the State would no longer “cherish all the children of the nation equally” as the Eighth Amendment currently does, we can only cry out: “Save us O Lord! Gather us from the nations.” And lest we ever become like England where one in five pregnancies now ends in abortion, or like Holland or Belgium where even the vulnerable sick and elderly are also killed, or like Canada where businesses must actually state that they uphold immoral practices including abortion in order to receive government grants, we pray to our Saviour with all our heart: “Save us O Lord! Gather us from the nations.”

In today’s readings God answers this cry. In the first reading he promises to send strong, prophetic leaders to his people who will teach them God’s ways and not the ways of false gods. Please pray at this time for our bishops and for all pro-life workers and politicians that the Lord will strengthen them and help them win the struggle to protect the most basic and precious right to life in Ireland. As Christians it is our duty to pray for this country and all its people and to try to influence it for the good: to be the soul for the body of the country, in the words of the Epistle to Diognetus. Let us not grow weary in this, our sacred duty. Let us pray with the responsorial psalm that our fellow citizens’ hearts will not be hardened but that they will hear the voice of Truth. In the gospel, Jesus defeated the evil spirits. He is the Holy One of God. Against him, the Prince of this world, the devil, cannot stand. As Ven. Fulton Sheen said: “God has his day. The devil has his hour.” Strong in this faith, may we endure our current dark hour in the history of civilisation knowing that soon the day will dawn when Christ the Sun of Justice will once again shine out in all his splendour. If we stay strong in faith and hope and active in charity we will merit some day to reach our true homeland with all the elect gathered from every nation. There will our happiness be complete as we give thanks to God for his mercy and goodness and find our eternal glory in praising Him.

Dom Mark Kirby on “Ten Fruits of Summorum Pontificum”

As part of the tenth anniversary celebrations of Summorum Pontificum (which ought to continue throughout the year!), I am happy to share with NLM readers a wonderful reflection on the motu proprio by Dom Mark Kirby, O.S.B., Prior of Silverstream Priory. Dom Mark posted this at Vultus Christi but gave NLM permission to publish it as well.

Ten Fruits of Summorum Pontificum

Dom Mark Kirby, O.S.B.

I consider Summorum Pontificum to be the single greatest gift of Pope Benedict XVI to the Church. It is a gift that some received with immense joy and immediately began to put it to profit. Others, entrenched in old ideological prejudices, looked upon the gift with suspicion and mistrust. Still others, even ten years later, remain unaware of the gift. For me, Summorum Pontificum threw open a door into the vastness and light of a liturgical tradition deeper, and higher, and wider than anything the reformed liturgical books, in use for nearly half a century, were able to offer. I say this as one who, for more than three decades, was committed to the reformed rites and wholeheartedly engaged in the reform of the reform at the academic and pastoral levels. Already, well before July 7th, 2007, I had come to see that even the noblest efforts deployed in the cause of the reform of the reform bore only scant fruit. Just when, battle–worn and weary, I thought that I would have to spend the rest of my life in a kind of post–conciliar liturgical lock–down, a door opened before me. The door was Summorum Pontificum. I crossed the threshold and went forward, never looking back. I discovered for myself the truth of Pope Benedict’s compelling words to the bishops of the Church:

What earlier generations held as sacred remains sacred and great for us too, and it cannot be all of a sudden entirely forbidden or even considered harmful. It behooves all of us to preserve the riches which have developed in the Church’s faith and prayer, and to give them their proper place. (Letter to the Bishops, 7 July 2007)

As I pass in review the ten past years, I can identify at least ten fruits of Summorum Pontificum. Others, in their assessment of the past ten years, may point to different fruits. From the perspective of my own garden, however — admittedly a hortus conclusus, given its monastic context — I see the following fruits:

1. A clearer manifestation of the sacred liturgy as the work of Christ the Eternal High Priest and Mediator. I have long argued that the Second Vatican Council’s Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, Sacrosanctum Concilium, has to be read in continuity with and, in some way, through the lens of the Venerable Pope Pius XII’s encyclical Mediator Dei (20 November 1947). The recovery of the Usus Antiquior has effectively recentred the liturgical experience of many clergy and layfolk on the priestly mediation of Jesus Christ between God and men.

2. The opening, for many souls, of a secure bridge between celebration and contemplation. I am not alone in recognising the penetrating quality of what Saint John Paul II called “adoring silence” before, during, and after celebrations in the Usus Antiquior, especially when the richness of its ritual resources — chant, hieratic order, and sacred gesture — are fully deployed.

We must confess that we all have need of this silence, filled with the presence of him who is adored: in theology, so as to exploit fully its own sapiential and spiritual soul; in prayer, so that we may never forget that seeing God means coming down the mountain with a face so radiant that we are obliged to cover it with a veil (cf. Ex 34:33), and that our gatherings may make room for God’s presence and avoid self–celebration; in preaching, so as not to delude ourselves that it is enough to heap word upon word to attract people to the experience of God. (Orientale Lumen, art. 16)

3. A serene and lucid transmission of the doctrine of the faith. The sturdy givenness of the traditional rites (lex orandi) is at once the platform and the articulation of the Church’s life–giving and unchanging doctrine (lex credendi). The Usus Antiquior, not having the panoply of options that characterises the reformed rites, allows the liturgy to be celebrated without having to be subjectively reconstructed, over and over again, by the assemblage of interlocking parts.

4. A renewed appreciation for the link between worship and culture. The past fifty years have often been marked by an alienation from the Church’s cultural heritage, notably in the areas of music and architecture. The Usus Antiquior is increasingly, and especially in communities informed by the classical liturgical movement, a place where, as Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger said in 1985, “beauty — and hence truth — is at home” (The Ratzinger Report, p. 129).

5. The affirmation of the primacy of latria in the life of the Church, following the principle of Saint Benedict that “nothing is to be preferred to the work of God” (Rule, Ch. XLIII). It is immediately evident that the Usus Antiquior, like all the ancient rites of the Church in East and West, is theotropically driven. This stands in marked contrast both to the prevalent ars celebrandi of the Usus Recentior and to most Protestant forms of worship. These, by placing the accent on didactic and moralising content, are anthropotropically driven, and this at a moment in history when men and women of the millennial generation restlessly seek to “get out of themselves.” For such souls, weary of a world that seeks to cater to their ever–changing needs and appetites, and this not without exacting an inflated price, the unchanging rites of the Usus Antiquior are a tranquil and restful harbour illumined already by the gleaming shores of eternity. Pope Benedict XVI addresses the question incisively:

In the years following the Second Vatican Council, I became aware again of the priority of God and the divine liturgy. The misunderstanding of the liturgical reform that has spread widely in the Catholic Church has led to more and more emphasis on the aspect of education and its activity and creativity. The doings of men almost completely obscured the presence of God. In such a situation it became increasingly clear that the Church’s existence lives in the proper celebration of the liturgy and that the Church is in danger when the primacy of God no longer appears in the liturgy and so in life. The deepest cause of the crisis that has upset the Church lies in the obscurity of God’s priority in the liturgy. (Pope Benedict XVI, Preface of the Russian edition of his Theology of the Liturgy, 2015)

6. Encouragement given to the recovery and renewal of Benedictine monastic life in the heart of the Church. My own monastery, Silverstream Priory, was founded in the grace of the pontificate of Pope Benedict XVI, only one year after the promulgation of Summorum Pontificum. When, early in 2017, Silverstream Priory was canonically erected, its distinctive reference to Summorum Pontificum was recognised and ratified. In the opening paragraphs of the Apostolic Letter itself, Pope Benedict pointed to the distinctively Benedictine import of what he was setting forth:

Eminent among the Popes who showed such proper concern was Saint Gregory the Great, who sought to hand on to the new peoples of Europe both the Catholic faith and the treasures of worship and culture amassed by the Romans in preceding centuries. He ordered that the form of the sacred liturgy, both of the Sacrifice of the Mass and the Divine Office, as celebrated in Rome, should be defined and preserved. He greatly encouraged those monks and nuns who, following the Rule of Saint Benedict, everywhere proclaimed the Gospel and illustrated by their lives the salutary provision of the Rule that “nothing is to be preferred to the work of God.” In this way the sacred liturgy, celebrated according to the Roman usage, enriched the faith and piety, as well as the culture, of numerous peoples. It is well known that in every century of the Christian era the Church’s Latin liturgy in its various forms has inspired countless saints in their spiritual life, confirmed many peoples in the virtue of religion and enriched their devotion. (Summorum Pontificum)

The past ten years have seen a flowering of Benedictine monasteries dedicated exclusively to the celebration of the sacred liturgy in the traditional form. Impressive numbers of God–seeking young men continue to make their way to these monasteries.

7. Joy and beauty brought to Catholic family life. My direct personal experience of this particular fruit of Summorum Pontificum is limited to those young families who frequent Silverstream Priory or who are associated with our community, either because one or both parents are Benedictine Oblates, or by participation in Catholic Scouting, or because the discovery of the Usus Antiquior has infused the piety of the parents and the education of their children with the spirit of the liturgy. It is not unusual to see even the youngest children of these families utterly engaged in the action of Holy Mass and happily familiar with the feasts and seasons of the liturgical year.

8. A renewal of true priestly piety. Silverstream Priory has a heart for priests labouring in the vineyard of the Lord and, consequently, offers hospitality to a steady stream of clergy. The majority of these would be priests under forty–five years of age. Those who do not already offer Holy Mass whenever possible in the Usus Antiquior are eager to be instructed in the traditional rite. The witness of these priests is impressive; access to the Usus Antiquior has awakened them to the mystery of Holy Mass as a true sacrifice and awakened them to their own participation in the mediatorship of Christ, “high priest, holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners, and made higher than the heavens” (Hebrews 7:26). A renewed attention to the complexus of sacred signs that constitutes the liturgy and, in particular, to the rubrics of the Roman Missal has, in more than one instance, transformed a priest’s understanding of who he is standing at the altar. To me, it is evident that Summorum Pontificum has fostered the implementation of what the Fathers of the Second Vatican Council sought to promote:

Priests, both secular and religious, who are already working in the Lord’s vineyard are to be helped by every suitable means to understand ever more fully what it is that they are doing when they perform sacred rites; they are to be aided to live the liturgical life and to share it with the faithful entrusted to their care. (Sacrosanctum Concilium, art. 18)

9. The birth of new expressions of consecrated life that find their source and summit in the traditional liturgy, Holy Mass and Divine Office. It is beyond the scope of these reflections to compile a catalogue of the Institutes and fledgling communities that attribute their existence in the Church, directly or indirectly, to the horizons opened by Summorum Pontificum. Some of these identify with the tradition of canons regular; others engage in missionary works of evangelisation and mercy after the manner of Societies of Apostolic Life. All of these have in common a life–giving reference to the traditional liturgy made available by the dispositions of Summorum Pontificum.

10. An infusion of hope and, for young people, an experience of a beauty that renders holiness of life enchanting and attractive. Pope Benedict XVI recognised, in his letter to the bishops accompanying Summorum Pontificum that not a few young people find in the traditional liturgy a holy enchantment that draws them deeply into the priestly action of Christ and the life of the Church. Pope Benedict wrote:

Immediately after the Second Vatican Council it was presumed that requests for the use of the 1962 Missal would be limited to the older generation which had grown up with it, but in the meantime it has clearly been demonstrated that young persons too have discovered this liturgical form, felt its attraction and found in it a form of encounter with the Mystery of the Most Holy Eucharist particularly suited to them.

The experience of the Usus Antiquior as an habitual form of worship and expression of sacramental life has surprised young Catholics with an encounter not unlike the one that long ago changed the life of Saint Augustine: the discovery of a “Beauty ever ancient, ever new.” I myself am surprised, even now, to hear again on the lips of the rising generation the very words that, with a holy fear and a secret joy, I memorised over sixty years ago: Introibo ad altare Dei, ad Deum qui lætificat juventutem meam, “I will go in to the altar of God: to God who giveth joy to my youth” (Ps 42:4).