Notre Dame de Rouen. The façade of the Gothic Church in France. Photographer: Hippo1947. Licence: SHUTTERSTOCK.

Wednesday 21 August 2019

Saint Jane Frances Frémiot De Chantal. Widow. Feast Day 21 August.


Text from The Saint Andrew Daily Missal,
unless otherwise stated.

Saint Jane Frances Fremiot De Chantal.
   Widow.
   Feast Day 21 August.

Double.

White Vestments.





English: Saint Jane Frances Frémiot de Chantal, Saint of The Catholic Church.
Deutsch: de:Johanna Franziska von Chantal, Heilige der Katholischen Kirche.
This File: 9 March 2015.
User: Kokodyl
(Wikimedia Commons)




Long-Suffering Leader.
The Life of Saint Jane Frémiot De Chantal.
Available on YouTube at

Like Mary, whose Assumption we have been Celebrating for the last seven days, Saint Jane Frances Fremiot de Chantal was a Spouse, a Mother, and a Widow. She was born at Dijon, France, the same Country as Saint Bernard of Clairvaux (Feast Day, yesterday), and received the Baptismal name of Jane, because that day, 23 January 1572, was The Feast Day of Saint John the Almoner.

The name of Frances, which she added at her Confirmation, reminds us of the gentle Saint of Geneva (Saint Francis de Sales, Bishop of Geneva). As in previous times, Benedict and Scholastica, Francis of Assisi and Clare, so Francis de Sales and Jane Frances, corresponding with the designs of Divine Providence, united their pious efforts and enriched The Church by "the Foundation of a new family" (Collect). [Editor: The new family was The Order of The Visitation of Holy Mary.]



English: Saint Francis de Sales giving The Rule
for The Order of The Visitation of Holy Mary to Saint Jane Frances Frémiot de Chantal
la règle de l'ordre de la Visitation
Artist: Noël Hallé (1711-1781).
Date: 18th-Century.
Current location: Église Saint-Louis-en-l'Île, Paris, France.
(Wikimedia Commons)



At the death of her husband, Baron de Chantal (1601), his young Widow Consecrated herself to God by a Vow of Perpetual Chastity.

This strong woman (Editor: Latin: Mulier Fortis), spoken of in the Epistle, left everything to acquire at this price the precious Pearl of a Religious Life (Gospel). Her father and four of her six children were still living.

She became the Mother of innumerable Nuns of The Order of The Visitation, now dispersed over the whole World. Filled with The Spirit of Divine Charity (Postcommunion), she constantly repeated to them, like Saint John The Apostle: "Let us love God with our whole heart, and our neighbour as ourselves, for the love of God."



Illustration: AZ QUOTES

She died at Moulins, France, in 1641.

Like Saint Jane Frances Frémiot de Chantal, and by her intercession, let us Pray God, that, knowing our weakness and relying on His strength, we may, by His Grace, overcome all obstacles (Collect).

Mass: Cognóvi.
Commemoration: Of The Octave of The Assumption.
Creed.
Preface: Of The Assumption (Et te in Assumptione).



English: Stained-Glass Window in the Church of Saint Philibert, Charlieu, France.
It depicts (from Left to Right): Saint Francis de Sales; Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque;
Saint Jane Frances Frémiot De Chantal.
Deutsch: Bleiglasfenster in der Kirche Saint-Philibert in Charlieu, Darstellung:
Photo: 3 July 2010.
Source: Own work.
Author: Reinhardhauke
(Wikimedia Commons)



The following Text is from Wikipedia - the free encyclopaedia.

Saint Jane Frances de Chantal (Jeanne-Françoise Frémiot, Baronne de Chantal, born on 28 January 1572 – † 13 December 1641) is a Roman Catholic Saint, who Founded a Religious Order after the death of her husband.

Jane Frances de Chantal was born in Dijon, France, on 28 January 1572, the daughter of the Royalist President of the Parliament of Burgundy. Her mother died when Jane was 18 months old. Her father became the main influence on her education. She developed into a woman of beauty and refinement, lively and cheerful in temperament.

She married the Baron de Chantal when she was twenty-one years old and then lived in the feudal Castle of Bourbilly. Baron de Chantal was accidentally killed by an Arquebus, while out shooting in 1601. Left a Widow at twenty-eight years old, with four children, the broken-hearted Baroness took a vow of Chastity. Her mother, step mother, sister, first two children, and now her husband, had died. Chantal gained a reputation as an excellent manager of the estates of her husband, as well as of her difficult father-in-law, while also providing alms and nursing care to needy neighbours.



English: Stained-Glass Window in The Parish Church of Saint John the Baptist,
Dammartin-en-Goële, France, It depicts Saint Francis de Sales introducing
Saint Jane Frances Frémiot De Chantal to Saint Vincent de Paul.
Deutsch: Katholische Pfarrkirche Saint-Jean-Baptiste (Johannes der Täufer)
in Dammartin-en-Goële, Frankreich, Bleiglasfenster, Darstellung: Franz von Sales stellt Johanna Franziska von Chantal dem hl. Vinzenz von Paul vor.
Photo: 4 April 2013.
Source: Own work.
Author: GFreihalter
(Wikimedia Commons)



During Lent in 1604, the pious Baroness met Saint Francis de Sales, the Bishop of Geneva, who was Preaching at the Sainte Chapelle in Dijon. They became close friends and de Sales became her Spiritual Director. She wanted to become a Nun, but he persuaded her to defer this decision.

Later, with his support, and that of her father and brother (the Archbishop of Bourges), and after providing for her children, Chantal left for Annecy, to start The Congregation of The Visitation, which was Canonically established at Annecy on Trinity Sunday, 6 June 1610.

The Order accepted women who were rejected by other Orders because of poor health or age. During its first eight years, the new Order also was unusual in its public outreach, in contrast to most female Religious who remained Cloistered and adopted strict ascetic practices. The usual opposition to women in active ministry arose and Francis de Sales was obliged to make it a Cloistered Community following The Rule of Saint Augustine. He wrote his Treatise on "The Love of God" for them. When people criticised her for accepting women of poor health and old age, Chantal said, "What do you want me to do ? I like sick people; I'm on their side."

Her reputation for Sanctity and sound management resulted in many visits by (and donations from) aristocratic women. The Order had thirteen Houses by the time Saint Francis de Sales died, and eighty-six Houses before Chantal died at The Visitation Convent in Moulins, France, aged sixty-nine. Saint Vincent de Paul served as her Spiritual Director after Saint Francis de Sales' death. Her favourite Devotions involved The Sacred Heart of Jesus and The Heart of Mary.



The Church of Saint Jane Frances de Chantal,
Bethesda, Maryland, United States of America.
Photo: 27 April 2013.
Source: Own work.
Author: Farragutful
(Wikimedia Commons)



She was buried in the Annecy Convent, next to Saint Francis de Sales. The Order had 164 Houses by 1767, when she was Canonised. Saint Jane Frances de Chantal outlived her son (who died fighting the Huguenots and the English on The Île de Ré during the Century's Religious Wars) and two of her three daughters, but left extensive correspondence. Her grand-daughter also became a famous writer, Marie de Rabutin-Chantal, Marquise de Sévigné.

She was Beatified on 21 November 1751 by Pope Benedict XIV, and Canonised on 16 July 1767 by Pope Clement XIII.

Saint Jane Frances's Feast Day was included in The General Roman Calendar in 1769, two years after she was Canonised. She wrote some exemplary Letters of Spiritual Direction.


Engraved 19th-Century print of the Coat-of-Arms of The Order of The Visitation,
Founded in 1610 by Saint Francis de Sales and Saint Joan Frances Frémiot De Chantal.
Author: Saint Francis de Sales.
(Wikimedia Commons)

The Order of The Visitation of Holy Mary (Latin: Ordo Visitationis Beatissimae Mariae Virginis, V.H.M.), or, The Visitation Order, is an Enclosed Roman Catholic Religious Order for Women. Members of The Order are also known as The Salesian Sisters (not to be confused with The Salesian Sisters of Don Bosco) or, more commonly, as The Visitandines, or, Visitation Sisters.

The Order of The Visitation was Founded in 1610 by Saint Francis de Sales and Saint Jane Frances de Chantal, in Annecy, Haute-Savoie, France. At first, the Founder had not a Religious Order in mind; he wished to form a Congregation without External Vows, where The Cloister should be observed only during The Year of Novitiate, after which The Sisters should be free to go out by turns to visit The Sick and The Poor. The Order was given the name of The Visitation of Holy Mary with the intention that The Sisters would follow the example of The Virgin Mary and her joyful visit to her kinswoman Elizabeth, (known as "The Visitation" in The Roman Catholic Church).



Sermon: Saint Jane Frances de Chantal.
Available on YouTube at

Saint Francis de Sales invited Saint Jane Frances de Chantal to join him in establishing a new type of Religious Life, one open to older women and those of delicate constitution, that would stress the hidden inner virtues of humility, obedience, poverty, even-tempered Charity, and patience, and founded on the example of Mary in her journey of mercy to her cousin Elizabeth.

The Order was established to welcome those not able to practice austerities required in other Orders. Instead of Chanting The Canonical Office in the middle of the night, The Sisters recited The Little Office of The Blessed Virgin at half-past eight in the evening. There was no Perpetual Abstinence nor prolonged Fast.

The Order of The Visitation of Mary was Canonically Erected in 1618 by Pope Paul V, who granted it all the privileges enjoyed by the other Orders. A Papal Bull of Pope Urban VIII Solemnly Approved it in 1626.

Voice For Justice.




Slaughter of the innocent – why abortion affects us all
 



 Abortion – Killing off the human race?
Join us calling for a reduction of the time limit for abortion
  
A message from our patrons
Revd Dr Clifford and Monica Hill
Pressure is mounting to make abortion in this country legal up to birth.  Similarly, in Northern Ireland we have now seen a move to bring in abortion up to birth by the back door, using amendments to the Northern Ireland (Executive Formation) Bill.  The current time limit for abortion in the UK is set at 24 weeks.  Last year in England and Wales we had 200,608 abortions. 

In 2017 there were 755,042live births – the lowest number since 2006 (
https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity /populationandmigration/populationestimates/datasets/ vitalstatisticspopulationandhealthreferencetables).  98% of abortions are performed for social reasons - all of which, taken together, means that last year around one quarter of conceptions would have been terminated, for the simple reason it was not the ‘right time’ for that child to be born. 

Increasingly, with the phenomenal advances in medicine, we are seeing babies born at 21 weeks not just surviving, but growing up to be healthy and strong.  Is it then right that we are depriving so many unborn of the right to life?  Who knows what their contribution to society might not have been had they been allowed to live?

Please make every effort to come to VfJUK’s important conference exploring this genocidal slaughter of the unborn.

 
Slaughter of the innocent – why abortion affects us all
 

 Abortion – Killing off the human race?
Join us calling for a reduction of the time limit for abortion
 
When:          Saturday, 21st September
Where:     Emmanuel Centre, 9-23 Marsham St,
                 Westminster, SW1P 3DW
Time:       10am- 5pm.

 
Speakers include, amongst others: 

The Rt Hon Sir Jeffrey Donaldson MP
Member of the All-Party Parliamentary Pro-Life Group; Member of Parliament since 1997.

Professor John Wyatt
Professor of Ethics and Perinatology, University College London; Consultant neonatologist for more than 20 years.

The Rt Revd Dr Michael Nazir-Ali
Former Bishop of Rochester and former Member of the House of Lords, who also served as a Member of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority. Author of more than a dozen books. Currently President of OXTRAD.

 
Tickets:                                                              £30
Concession, student and non-waged:           £15
 
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Tuesday 20 August 2019

First Christmas Advertising And Invitation Received, Today. Is This A Record ? Is Nothing Sacred ?



Illustration: FAN POP

Zephyrinus is appalled at receiving, today,
Christmas Advertising and an Invitation to attend a
“Promotional Event in December 2019”.

Is nothing Sacred ?

Please note: The above Illustration had nothing to do
with the Advertising or Invitation received, today.

Why Restoring The Roman Rite To Its Fullness Is Not “Traddy Antiquarianism”.



A Folded Chasuble: A sign of Penance.
Abolished by Pope Pius XII.
Illustration: NEW LITURGICAL MOVEMENT


This Article is taken from, and can be read in full at, NEW LITURGICAL MOVEMENT

By: Peter Kwasniewski.

In a recent address, Archbishop Thomas Gullickson, Papal Nuncio to Switzerland and Liechtenstein, made a rousing case for “pressing the reset button” on The Roman Liturgy by abandoning a failed experiment and taking up again The Traditional Rites of The Catholic Church. He is giving us a brisk version of what the newly-published book, The Case for Liturgical Restoration, provides in much detail.

Then, with admirable candour, Archbishop Gullickson broaches the million-dollar question:
“I am avoiding the burning issue of setting a date for the reset. I used to think that going back to The 1962 Missal and to Pope Saint Pius X and his Breviary reform was sufficient, but the marvels of the pre-Pius XII Triduum, as we have begun to experience them, leave me speechless on this point. Perhaps the teaching of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI on the mutual enrichment of the two Forms will provide the paradigm for resolving the question of which Missal and which Breviary. My call for a return to the presently-approved Texts for The Extraordinary Form, then, is inspired by a certain urgency to move forward, to further the process. I do not feel qualified to take a stance in this particular matter of where best to launch the restoration”.

The position that has dominated the Tradisphere, for a long time, is that we should be content with 1962 as our point of departure for a healthy Liturgical future. After all, 1962 is the last “Editio Typica” prior to the upheavals occasioned by The Council; it is still recognisably in continuity with The Tridentine Rite; and it is enjoined upon us by Church authority in The Motu Proprio “Summorum Pontificum”.

In a contrasting position, Dom Hugh Somerville-Knapman, of “Dominus Mihi Adjutor”, urges that we must still take seriously the Constitution “Sacrosanctum Concilium” and that, accordingly, the 1962 Missal will not pass muster:
“I still see a validity in a mild reform in The Liturgy along the modest lines actually mandated by The Council: Vernacular Readings, setting aside the duplication of The Celebrant having to recite Prayers, etc., that were being sung by other Ministers, a less obtrusive Priestly preparation at the beginning of Mass, etc. And The Conciliar mandate for reform cannot be just forgotten as though it never happened; it must be faced and dealt with, either by reforming the reform made in its name, or by a specific magisterial act abrogating it. 
That is why the interim rites interest me – OM65 [The Ordo Missae of 1965] is clearly the Mass of Vatican II, while also clearly being in organic continuity with Liturgical Tradition. It left The Canon alone, as well as the integral reverence of The Liturgical action. Even Lefebvre was approving of it. What distorts our perception of OM65 is that we have seen fifty years of development since, and cannot help but see OM65 as tainted by what came after it.
Moreover, MR62 is a rather arbitrary point at which to stop Liturgical Tradition. For some committed Trads, this is an imperfect Missal, even a tainted one. Is a pre-53 Missal better ? Or a pre-Pius XII one ? Or maybe pre-Pius X ? Why not go the whole hog and argue for pre-Trent — after all, Geoffrey Hull sees the seed of Liturgical decay there ? We end up in a situation in which each chooses for himself on varying sets of idiosyncratic principles. It is ecclesiologically impossible.
The Catholic Church has a magisterial authority which establishes unity in Liturgy. That this has been sadly lacking for some decades is not an argument for ignoring magisterial authority altogether. Then, we may as well be Protestants”.

Dom Hugh is willing to admit that Bugnini and Co. were busy behind the scenes throughout the 1960s and early 1970s, plotting and eventually carrying out the rape and pillage of all that remained of The Western Liturgical Tradition.

He nevertheless thinks that, in the World outside the Politburo, the 1965 Missal was generally seen — and can still be seen today — as the reform that lines up with The Council’s “desiderata”. This, then, should be where the reset button takes us. (To brush up on what the 1965 Missal was like, read this account by Msgr. Charles Pope.)


A Missal from the Mid-60s: Trying to keep up with the changes

As far as I can tell, however, the purist 1962 and reformist 1965 positions are rapidly losing ground throughout the World, particularly as the Internet continues to spread awareness of the ill-advised and sometimes catastrophic reforms that took place throughout the 20th-Century to various aspects of the Roman Liturgy, with Holy Week looming largest. Since I, too, disagree with the 1962 and 1965 positions, I would like to make the case for returning to the last “Editio Typica” prior to the revolutionary alterations of Pope Pius XII: The Missale Romanum of Benedict XV, issued in 1920.

The principal argument, used to defend adherence to 1962, is that we should all do “what The Church asks us to do.” But who, or what, is “The Church”, here ? In this period of chaos, it is no longer self-evident that “The Church” refers to an authority that is handing down laws for the common good of the people of God.

From at least 1948 onwards, “The Church”, in The Liturgical sphere, has meant radicals, struggling to loose the bonds of Tradition, who have pushed their own agenda of simplification, abbreviation, Modernisation, and pastoral utilitarianism on The Church, with Papal approval — that is, by the abuse of Papal power.


These things are not rightful commands to be obeyed, but aberrations that deserve to be resisted — of course, patiently, intelligently, and in a principled manner, but nevertheless with a firm intention to restore the integrity and fullness of The Roman rite as it existed before The Liturgical Movement in its cancer phase took over at the top level and drove The Roman Rite into the dead end of The Novus Ordo.

For a long time, I sincerely tried to understand, appreciate, and embrace “Sacrosanctum Concilium”. But it was not possible, after reading Michael Davies, and later Henry Sire’s Phoenix from the Ashes and Yves Chiron’s biography of Annibale Bugnini, to see in this document anything more than a carefully contrived blueprint for Liturgical revolution. It contradicts itself on several points and takes refuge more often than not in massive ambiguities that were deliberately put there — and we know this based on documentary research, no conspiracy theories are needed.

For me, the evaporation of the validity of “Sacrosanctum Concilium” came from a deeper reflection, thanks to a lecture by Wolfram Schrems, on the meaning of its abolition of The Office of Prime. A Council that would dare to abolish an ancient Liturgical Office of uninterrupted universal reception vitiates itself from the get-go. Since none of the documents of Vatican II contains “de fide” statements or anathemas, the charism of Infallibility is not expressly involved.

Given their very nature, a bunch of practical pastoral recommendations can be mistaken, and there is ever-mounting evidence that the aims and means of the radical arm of The Liturgical Movement were grievously off-target.


The assumptions of The Council, about what “had to be done” to The Liturgy, misread the sociology and psychology of Religion. Their proposals for reform bought into modern assumptions that have not stood the test of time and had, indeed, already been effectively criticised before and during The Council. So, it seems to me somewhat immaterial that ‘65 better reflects the conflicting and, at times, problematic ideas of The Council.

Moreover, the idea that The 1965 Ordo Missae represents the implementation of “Sacrosanctum Concilium” is hard to sustain in the light of repeated statements by Paul VI that what he promulgated in 1969 is the ultimate fulfilment of The Liturgy Constitution (see here and here for examples culled by the selectively papolatrous PrayTell; I discuss the infamous addresses of 1965 and 1969 here). 1965 was presented publicly (though not always consistently) as an interim step on the evolutionary process away from Mediaeval-Baroque Liturgy to relevant Modern Liturgy.

The “moment of truth,” I think, is when students of Liturgy realise that the 1962 is extremely similar to 1965 in this respect: it was an interim Missal, in the preparation of which Bugnini, and the other Liturgists working at The Vatican, had changed as much as they felt they could get away with. Even assuming all the good will in the World, these Liturgists had experienced a triumph of renovationism with The Holy Week “reform” of Pius XII — a reform that was notable as a dramatic deformation of some of the most ancient and poignant Rites of The Church — and they were rolling along with the momentum. The abolition under Pius XII of most Octaves and Vigils, multiple Collects, and Folded Chasubles, “inter alia”, is part of this same sad tale of cutting away some of what was most distinctive and most precious in the Roman heritage.

This is why it is not arbitrary for Traditionalists to say that The Missal, circa 1948 — which means, in practice, the “Editio Typica” of 1920 — is the place to go. The reason is simple: Except for some newly-added Feasts (the Calendar being the part of The Liturgy that changes the most), it is in all salient respects The Missal codified by Trent. It is The Tridentine Rite “tout court”. For those of us who believe that The Tridentine Rite represents, as a whole and in its parts, an organically developed apogee of The Roman Rite, that it behoves us to receive with gratitude as a timeless inheritance (in the manner Greek Catholics receive their Liturgical Rites, which also achieved mature form in The Middle Ages), a pre-Pacellian Missal gives us all that we are looking for, and nothing tainted.


People like to point to “improvements” that could be made to the old Missal, but those who have lived long and intimately with its contents are usually the last to be convinced that the suggested improvements would actually be such. I have addressed some examples herehere, and here.


A Maria Laach Altar Missal from 1931.

Wait a minute, an interlocutor might say. Isn’t all this “Traddy Antiquarianism” ? Aren’t we guilty of doing the same thing we blame our opponents for doing, namely, reaching back to earlier forms while holding later developments in contempt ?

No, none of what I am proposing amounts to “Traddy Antiquarianism.” What is clear is that The Liturgical Movement after World War II went off the rails. Changes to The Liturgical Books, from that point on, were motivated by global theories about what is “best for The Modern Church,” which led to the abundant contradictions and ambiguities of “Sacrosanctum Concilium”, the Montini-Bugnini reign of terror, and the crowning disgrace of The 1969 Ordo Missae and other Rites of that period.

The point is not to go back indefinitely, but to take a Missal that is essentially the one codified by Trent and Pius V, with the kind of small accretions or small emendations that characterise the slow progress of Liturgy through the ages. As Fr. Hunwicke likes to point out, for many Centuries since Pius V, it is possible to take up an old Missal and put it on the Altar and offer Mass. The changes are so minor that the Missal is virtually the same from “Quo Primum” to the 20th-Century.


Saints come on and Saints come off, but even the Calendar is remarkably stable. After Pius XII’s reign, however, it is much harder for an “old” Missal and a “new” (i.e., 1955 Pacellian, 1962 Roncallian, 1965 Montinian) Missal to share the same ecclesial space; they cannot be swapped one for the other, including at some very important moments in The Church Year. This already shows, in a rough and ready way, that a rupture has occurred — and this, prior to The Novus Ordo.

Pope Saint Pius V’s condition that only Rites older than 200 years could continue to be used, after his promulgation of The Tridentine Missal, is another way to see that our argument here is backed by common sense. A Rite, younger than 200 years, old might seem like a local made-up thing, but a Rite that’s clocked up two Centuries of age, or more, has an “immemorial” weight to it — something not to be disturbed or replaced.

This, indeed, is the basic reason for the illegitimacy of The Novus Ordo; that which it replaced was not merely something older than 200 years, but something with a 2,000-year history of continual use that shows no momentous ruptures, but only a gradual assimilation and expansion.

But the 200-year rule of Pius V also suggests that the revival of something less than 200 years old need not be an example of Antiquarianism, but could be simply an intelligent recovery of something lost by chance, error in transmission, or bad policy. Thus, if certain Octaves and Vigils were abolished only a few decades ago, and if the rationale for this change deserves to be rejected, their recovery cannot be considered, by any stretch of the imagination, an example of Antiquarianism.


After all, as The Case for Liturgical Restoration points out (pp. 14, 16), The Old Testament gives us examples of Liturgical Restoration far more dramatic than the recovery of pre-Pacellian Rites is for us.

Antiquarianism or Archaeologism — often qualified with the adjective “False” — is the attempt to leap over Mediæval and Counter-Reformation developments to reach a putatively “original, authentic” Early-Christian Liturgy. The term does not correctly apply to setting aside Modernist, progressive, or utilitarian deformations.

How ironic if a move against false Antiquarianism were now to be targeted as being, itself, an example of the same ! Let us put it this way: Catholics have always been intelligently Antiquarian in that they care greatly for, and wish to preserve, their heritage, and seek to restore it when it has been plundered or damaged. The Liturgical Movement, on the other hand, presented us with the spectacle of an arbitrary, violent, and agenda-driven Antiquarianism. The two phenomena are as different as Patriotism and Nationalism.


Our situation in The Latin Church has achieved the clarity of a Silver-Point drawing:

(1) The modern Papal Rite, risibly dubbed The Roman Rite, has established itself as a pseudo-tradition of vernacularity, versus populism, informality, banality, and horizontality, as NLM contributor William Riccio described with gut-wrenching accuracy;

(2) The “Reform of the Reform,” on which hopeful conservatives during the reign of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI had gambled away their last pennies, is not only dead but buried six feet under;

(3) The Traditional Latin Liturgy, though by no means readily available to all who wish for it, is firmly rooted in the younger generations on all Continents and in nearly every Country, and shows no sign of budging. There are few Traditionalist Clergy who would not be content to use a Missal from the early part of the 20th-Century, even as there are plenty who, in moments of honesty, and with trustworthy friends, will admit they have problems with the ersatz Holy Week and the Pope Saint John XXIII Missal. To paraphrase C.S. Lewis: If you have made a wrong turn, the only way to go forward is to go back. That is the fastest way to get on.


In this Article, I explained why it is legitimate, praiseworthy, and indeed necessary, to seek The Restoration Of The Fullness Of The Roman Liturgy that was lost in the Post-War period. I am not touching on the more delicate and controversial question of what kind of permission, and from whom, is, or may be, required for utilising an earlier edition of the Missal.

It does not follow, simply because an earlier edition of the Missal is better, that anyone is “ipso facto” entitled to give himself permission to use it. But, regardless of permissions already in effect or still remaining to be ascertained, we should not see 1962 as a neighbourhood where Liturgical Life may settle down.

In comparison to the strife-ridden ghetto of The Novus Ordo, where opposing gangs of progressives and conservatives engage in a never-ending turf war, the 1962 status quo comes across as far safer, lovelier, more commodious. It is, nevertheless, a trailer park, a way station along the road to a better place.

Saint Bernard Of Clairvaux. Abbot And Doctor Of The Church. Feast Day 20 August.


Text from The Saint Andrew Daily Missal,
unless otherwise stated.

Saint Bernard.
   Abbot and Doctor of The Church.
   Feast Day 20 August.

Double.

White Vestments.




Saint Bernard of Clairvaux
“The Honey-Mouthed Doctor”
(Doctor Mellifluous).
Artist: René de Cramer.
"Copyright Brunelmar/Ghent/Belgium".
Used with Permission.






English: Christ embracing Saint Bernard of Clairvaux.
Español: La obra representa a Jesucristo abrazando
al monje cisterciense San Bernardo de Claraval
Artist: Francisco Ribalta (1565–1628).
Date: 1625-1627.
Current location: Prado Museum, Madrid, Spain.
Source/Photographer: Web Gallery of Art.
(Wikimedia Commons)




“Jesu Dulcis Memoria”.
This great Hymn is by
Saint Bernard of Clairvaux.
Available on YouTube at



Jesu, dulcis memoria,
dans vera cordis gaudia:
sed super mel et omnia
ejus dulcis praesentia.

Nil canitur suavius,
nil auditur jucundius,
nil cogitatur dulcius,
quam Jesus Dei Filius.




Jesu, spes paenitentibus,
quam pius es petentibus !
quam bonus te quaerentibus !
sed quid invenientibus ?

Nec lingua valet dicere,
nec littera exprimere:
expertus potest credere,
quid sit Jesum diligere.

Sis, Jesu, nostrum gaudium,
qui es futurum praemium:
sit nostra in te gloria,
per cuncta semper saecula.

Amen.




Jesus, the very thought of Thee
With sweetness fills the breast !
Yet sweeter far Thy Face to see
And in Thy Presence rest.

No voice can sing, no heart can frame,
Nor can the memory find,
A sweeter sound than Jesus' Name,
The Saviour of mankind.

O, hope of every contrite heart !
O, joy of all the meek !
To those who fall, how kind Thou art !
How good to those who seek !



But what to those who find ? Ah !, this

Nor tongue nor pen can show
The love of Jesus, what it is,
None but His loved ones know.

Jesus ! Our only hope be Thou,
As Thou our prize shalt be;
In Thee be all our glory now,
And through eternity.



Amen.




Saint Bernard of Clairvaux.
Available on YouTube at




The Church is pleased to honour, during The Octave of The Assumption, Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, “The Honey-Mouthed Doctor” (Doctor Mellifluous), whose principal title of glory is to have Celebrated, with ineffable tenderness and ardent piety, in his Prayers, his Books and Sermons, the varied greatness of The Blessed Virgin Mary.

Born in 1091, of a noble Burgundian family, he succeeded, at the age of twenty-two, in winning over to Christ thirty noblemen, who, with him, embraced Monastic Life at Cîteaux, France.

There, The Cistercian Order, a Branch of the old Benedictine trunk, acquired a new vigour, which enabled it to cover the whole of Europe with its shoots. "The Just," says the Offertory, "shall flourish like the palm-tree, he shall grow up like the cedar of Libanus (Lebanon)."

And, in the famous Monastery which Saint Bernard Founded a short time afterwards in The Vale of Clairvaux, on The Left-Bank of The River Aube, and whose first Abbot he became (Communion), he each day lavished on a Community of 700 Monks the treasures of Doctrine and Wisdom, with which God endowed him and which makes his name immortal (Introit, Epistle, Gradual).

An austere Monk, a great Christian Orator, and a Learned Doctor, he was the luminary, mentioned in the Gospel, which enlightened the World in the 12th-Century.


Pope Eugenius III, who had been trained by him to The Monastic Life, solicited and received his counsels; at The Council of Etampes, he put an end to the Schism, which, opposing "Pope" Anacletus to Pope Innocent III, troubled the Clergy and people of Rome.

He was consulted by Duke William of Aquitaine, by the Duchess of Lorraine, by the Countess of Brittany, by Prince Henry, son of the King of France, by Prince Peter, son of the King of Portugal, by King Louis VI of France, by King Louis VII of France, by King Conrad of Germany, and by the Abbot of Saint Denis, Paris.

He silenced the famous Doctor Abelard at The Council of Laon, and his powerful logic unmasked the errors of Arnold of Brescia and of Peter de Bruys (Gospel). Lastly, he attacked Islam, and, by Preaching The Second Crusade, at Vézelay, France, he stirred up the whole of Europe by his overpowering eloquence.



Pope Pius VIII in Saint Peter's Basilica, Rome, on the Sedia Gestatoria. He reigned from 1829 to 1830, the shortest reign of any Pope in the 19th-Century, and caused Saint Bernard of Clairvaux to be placed among The Doctors of The Church.
Artist: Horace Vernet (1789–1863).
Date: 1829.
(Wikimedia Commons)




“Salve, Regina”.
“Hail, Holy Queen”.
The three last Invocations, “O, Clemens, O, Loving, O, Sweet Virgin Mary”,
are attributed to Saint Bernard of Clairvaux.
Available on YouTube at

Saint Bernard died at Clairvaux, France, on 20 August 1153, and his body was laid at the foot of the Altar of The Blessed Virgin. He left 160 Monasteries which he had Founded in Europe and Asia. His writings, replete with Doctrines inspired by Divine Wisdom, caused him to be placed among The Doctors of The Church by Pope Pius VIII.

Let us have recourse to the intercession in Heaven of the one who, on Earth, taught us the way of life (Collect). Let us ask him to give us his love for The Mother of God, and let us piously recite The Marian Anthem of The Season, currently Salve Regina (Hail, Holy Queen), of which the three last Invocations, “O, Clemens, O, Loving, O, Sweet Virgin Mary”, are attributed to Saint Bernard of Clairvaux.

Mass: In mëdio.
Commemoration: The Octave of The Assumption.
Creed.
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