The Benedictine Nuns of Notre Dame de L'Annonciation

Video of The Benedictine Nuns of Notre Dame de L'Annonciation on their new album Voices Of Avignon, available from Amazon.

Abuse: the problem is Ecclesiological

The Pope attributes the present state of Catholic Liturgy to a disregard for the Liturgy as "a given" and the same could be said for the state of confusion in catechesis.
The Pope has been urging bishops and priests to return to "doing the red and saying the black" - basically following the rules. It is interesting that in Peter Seewald's book the Pope when speaking of the sexual abuse in Ireland he cites the change in ecclesiology being at the root of the problem.

Pope Benedict says: “The Archbishop of Dublin told me something very interesting about that. He said that ecclesiastical penal law functioned until the late 1950s; admittedly, it was not perfect – there is much to criticise about it – but nevertheless it was applied. After the mid-sixties, however, it was simply not applied any more.

“The prevailing mentality was that the Church must not be a Church of laws but, rather a Church of love: she must not punish . . . This led to an odd darkening of the mind, even in very good people.”
Asked by Seewald about the overall impact of the Irish sex abuse crisis, Pope Benedict says: “In Ireland the problem is altogether specific – there is a self-enclosed Catholic society, so to speak, which remained true to its faith despite centuries of oppression, but in which, then, evidently certain attitudes were also able to develop. I cannot analyze that in detail now.

“To see a country that gave the world so many missionaries, so many saints, which in the history of the missions also stands at the origin of our faith in Germany, now in a situation like this is tremendously upsetting and depressing. Above all, of course, for the Catholics in Ireland itself, where now as always there are many good priests.”

Monastic News

St Cecilia's on the Isle of Wight have just had another Solemn Profession, Sister Margaret Ross.

Congratulations! According to the Catholic Herald there are a few more on their way.

Sister Elizabeth Burgess, who looks forward to her Solemn Profession next year, Sister Mary Thomas Brown who made her First Profession on October 18 this year, Clara Beards, who entered the Abbey as a postulant in September, and Sister Marie-Therese Dempsey, who received the habit earlier in the year on July 9.

I understand the monks of Ramsgate are still negotiating to take over the Franciscan Friary at Chilworth.

Pope v Dalai Lama

Sorry to go on about sex but I thought you might be amused(?) by this vox pop video on the views of the Pope versus the Dalai Lama. h/t ACBP
I am not sure that the Dalai Lama's teaching is his own or the teaching of Tibetan Buddhisms. I am rather sick of people describing the teaching of the Catholic Church as being the Pope's personal teaching.

The Blessed Silence: Christ the Angel

The Temple Gallery, that delightful little icon gallery in Holland Park sent me their catalogue for their Christmas exhibition. I am fascinated by these two icons of "The Blessed Silence". Although this seems to be a particularly Russian devotion, there is in the ancient Roman Canon the reference to the Angel who takes "this offering to Your Altar in Heaven". Presumably the same scripture references support both the icon and the reference in the Canon.
The second icon interestingly shows Christ's heart pierced with instruments of the Passion.

Christ depicted as an angel is based on Isaiah 9:5 who refers to “The Messenger (‘Angelos’) of Great Counsel”. He is the ‘Word in Eternity’ and, according to Coomber in The Icon Handbook, (Springfield Illinois, 1995), the iconography is ‘associated with the Creation and the Plan of Salvation, ordained from Eternity’. Other references from Isaiah are relevant: 42:2 “He shall not...cause his voice to be heard in the streets”; 53:7 “He was afflicted yet opened not his mouth...as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he opens not his mouth”. Two four pointed stars, one superimposed on the other, are seen within Christ’s halo; their eight points are said to symbolise Eternity and the whole of Creation. (The Octave is the symbol of completion). Christ is clothed as a bishop (cf Hebrews 4:14 “...we have a great high priest that is passed into the heavens, Jesus Christ, Son of God...”. Seraphim, six-winged, bodiless and traditionally red, adorn the upper part of his chest and arms. The Seraphim, according to Dionysios the Areopagite, are the highest order of Angels and stand at the entrance into Paradise. At Christ’s chest is a Cherub, also bodiless and regarded as second in the angelic order. Christ holds the symbols of the Passion and an inscribed scroll: “Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28). On the borders are the Guardian Angel and a female saint.

The subject was introduced into the iconographical canon in Russia in the 16th century. At that time Moscow, which had recently declared itself the Third Rome, was a milieu of intense theological and iconographical activity. (See N.P. Kondakov,The Russian Icon, OUP 1928, Chapter Mystical and Didactic Subjects).

Cardinal Burke on the Pope's remarks

Raymond Cardinal  Burke on the Popes remarks on condoms:

I don’t see any change in the Church’s teaching. What [Pope Benedict] is commenting on — in fact, he makes the statement very clearly that the Church does not regard the use of condoms as a real or a moral solution — but what he’s talking about in the point he makes about the male prostitute is about a certain conversion process taking place in an individual’s life. He’s simply making the comment that if a person who is given to prostitution at least considers using a condom to prevent giving the disease to another person — even though the effectiveness of this is very questionable — this could be a sign of someone who is having a certain moral awakening. But in no way does it mean that prostitution is morally acceptable, nor does it mean that the use of condoms is morally acceptable.

The point the Pope is making is about a certain growth in freedom, an overcoming of an enslavement to a sexual activity that is morally repugnant [unacceptable] so that this concern to use a condom in order not to infect a sexual partner could at least be a sign of some moral awakening in the individual, which one hopes would lead the individual to understand that his activity is a trivialization of human sexuality and needs to be changed …

The text itself makes it very clear that he says the Church does not regard it as a real or moral solution. And when he says that it could be a first step in a movement toward a different, more human way of living sexuality, that doesn’t mean in any sense that he’s saying the use of condoms is a good thing.

Mopping and whinging

Say a prayer!
I know this is a bit self indulgent.

Everything that could go wrong with the project to restore the church seems to have gone wrong in the past week or so and we are quickly running out of money.

We moved some radiators to restore the original width of the central aisle, ever since we have had leaks, last Wednesday I had to cancel Exposition and Benediction and spent a couple of hours mopping up water, then before our Saturday evening Mass another of them started spouting hot water. Bill, the plumber came out and almost fixed it fixed but I still had to get up a couple of times in the night to empty buckets.

The new lighting scheme depends on taking a great wadge of cables from the sacristy at the front of the church wher the electricity comes into the church to the back, we had intended to take it under the floor, tests showed that we have asbestos in the crypt of the church. In 2001 I spent pratically every penny we had and more encapsulating it but it is still a problem.

Most evenings I spend an hour or so in the church mopping tyhe benches to get rid of the dust from the slow, slow process of cleaning off the horrible grey paint for the stone. We clean it off withe a chemical preparation which is then neutralised, afterwards it has to be rubbed down with fine sandpaper. All rather messey!
I really have been self indulgent and feeling sorry for myself, the last week of the liturgical year  is always a bit of sad time, there is my birthday, the day after is the anniversary of my mother's death, the day after that is the anniversary of a very good friend of mine, it is always bit a numbing.

I am not being tortured or imprisoned for the faith, my parishioners can come to Mass freely, I am not in physical pain, I haven't sick or dying children or a spouse to worry about, no one is bombing or threatning us, we are not cleaning up after flood or a disaster.

But if you can spare an Ave or two I would be grateful.