The Celtic Cross in the Forest
A one man project. One can only imagine the work and planning involved in this cross in the forest which can only be seen from an airplane.
"[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
A one man project. One can only imagine the work and planning involved in this cross in the forest which can only be seen from an airplane.
posted by John at 8:29 PM
October 11 is also the feast of St Ethelburga in our Ordinariate calendar. The Matins reading is taken from the Venerable Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People. The Clerk of Oxford gives an extended version of the same reading here.
When Ethelburga, the devout Mother of this God-fearing community, was herself about to be taken out of this world, one of the sisters whose name was Tortgyth saw a wonderful vision. This nun had lived for many years in the convent, humbly and sincerely striving to serve God, and had helped the Mother to maintain the regular observances by instructing and correcting the younger sisters. In order that her strength might be 'made perfect in weakness' as the Apostle says, she was suddenly attacked by a serious disease. Under the good providence of our Redeemer, this caused her great distress for nine years, in order that any traces of sin that remained among her virtues through ignorance or neglect might be burned away in the fires of prolonged suffering. Leaving her cell one night at first light of dawn, this sister saw distinctly what appeared to be a human body wrapped in a shroud and shining more brightly than the sun. This was raised up and carried out of the house where the sisters used to sleep. She observed closely to see how this appearance of a shining body was being raised, and saw what appeared to be cords brighter than gold which drew it upwards until it entered the open heavens and she could see it no longer. When she thought about this vision, there remained no doubt in her mind that some member of the Community was shortly to die, and that her soul would be drawn up to heaven by her good deeds as though by golden cords. And so it proved not many days later, when God's beloved Ethelburga, the Mother of the Community, was set free from her bodily prison. And none who knew her holy life can doubt that when she departed this life the gates of our heavenly home opened at her coming.
posted by John at 11:00 PM
From the encyclical Lux Veritatis of Pope Pius XI:
From this it comes that we are all drawn to her in a powerful attraction, that we may confidently entrust to her all things that are ours -- namely our joys, if we are gladdened; our troubles, if we are in anguish; our hopes, if we are striving to reach at length to better things. From this it comes that if more difficult times fall upon the Church; if faith fail because charity has grown cold; if private and public morals take a turn for the worse; if any danger be hanging over the Catholic body and civil society, we all take refuge with her imploring heavenly aid. From this it comes lastly that in the supreme crisis of death, when no other hope is given, no other help, we lift up to her our tearful eyes and our trembling hands praying through her for pardon from her Son, and for eternal happiness in heaven.Taken from the reading for Matins on this day in the En Calcat Abbey edition of the Office of Our Lady.
posted by John at 10:11 PM
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