"[A] man . . .the other day pointed out that I was never bored. I hadn’t thought of that before, but it’s true: I’m never bored. I’m appalled, horrified, angered, but never bored. The world appears to me so infinite in its variety that many lifetimes could not exhaust its interest. So long as you can still be surprised, you have something to be thankful for." -Theodore Dalrymple
VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Benedict celebrated parts of Sunday's Mass with his back turned on the congregation, re-introducing an old ritual that had not been used in decades.More from Reuters.
The Pope used the Sistine Chapel's ancient altar set right against the wall under Michelangelo's dramatic depiction of the Last Judgment, instead of the altar placed on a mobile platform that allowed his predecessor John Paul II to face the faithful.
Salva nos, Domine! Perimus!
O Mary, God's own Mother,
Pray for our native land;
And ye, O Saints and Angels,
Around the throne who stand;
Pray for our darkened country,
That faith may live again,
That Jesus in His Sacrament
At last supreme may reign!
DECEMBER
Month of the Advent of Our Lord Jesus Christ
"Watch ye, for ye know not when the master of the house cometh, at even, or at midnight, or at the cock-crowing, or in the morning: lest coming suddenly he find you sleeping."
St. Mark xiii, 35, 36
SAINTS OF DECEMBER
September 24
FEAST OF OUR LADY OF WALSINGHAM
Patroness of the Ordinariate of the
Chair of St Peter
O God, Who, through the mystery of the Word made flesh, didst in Thy mercy sanctify the house of the Blessed Virgin Mary: do Thou grant that we may keep aloof from the tabernacle of sinners, and become worthy indwellers of Thy house; through Jesus Christ Thy Son our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. Amen.
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Health Advisory
In the event of an inadvertent overdose of Vatican news, click here and follow directions.
[“On the barque of Peter, those with queasy stomachs should keep clear of the engine room.”
-Msgr Ronald Knox]
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St Thomas Becket, Archbishop & Martyr
Ant. This Saint hath striven for the law of God even unto death,
and hath not feared for the swords of the ungodly; for he hath been
founded upon a firm Rock.
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The men of the East may spell the stars,
And times and triumphs mark,
But the men signed of the cross of Christ
Go gaily in the dark.
The men of the East may search the scrolls,
For sure fates and fame,
But the men that drink the blood of God
Go singing to their shame.
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But you and all the kind of Christ
Are ignorant and brave,
And you shall have wars you hardly win
And souls you hardly save.
I tell you naught for your comfort
Yea, naught for your desire,
Save that the sky grows darker yet
And the sea rises higher.
Night shall be thrice night over you,
And heaven an iron cope.
Do you have joy without a cause,
Yea, faith without a hope?
from The Ballad of the White Horse
-G. K. Chesterton
The Anglican Ordinariates in the Catholic Church
CARMEL
Sailing to Byzantium
"Two of the pubs near Oxford which C.S. Lewis frequented were The Trout and The Six Bells.
Some of Lewis's American readers had written him to inquire about his views on drinking
alcoholic beverages. His response to them was in no uncertain terms: 'I have always
in my books been concerned simply to put forward mere Christianity, and am no
guide on these (most regrettable) interdenominational questions. I do however
most strongly object to the tyrannic and unscriptural insolence of anything that calls
itself a Church and makes teetotalism a condition of membership. Apart from the more
serious objection (that Our Lord Himself turned water into wine and made wine the medium
of the only rite He imposed on all His followers), it is so provincial (what I believe
you people call small town). Don't they realize that Christianity arose in the
Mediterranean world where, then as now, wine was as much a part of the normal diet as bread?"
C. S. Lewis: Images of His World by Douglas Gilbert & Clyde S. Kilby
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