* NEW * POLITICAL OBSESSION CREATION OF MADNESS

 POLITICAL OBSESSION      CREATION OF MADNESS

 

Why does VENICE remind me of so much of present day  political culture?  All around the world Politics seems to be infected with a peculiar madness. In Australia, formerly conservative politicians - be it our Prime Minister or State Premiers - once models of economic and civil rights conservatism have become profligate spenders of money we do not have, and radical repressors of  civil rights. In the USA madness has been taken to new depths as the aged, demented and bumbling.President Biden, "elected" by dubious means proves himself incapable of answering a question, let alone saying anything coherent in response to spontaneous questioning, and Vice President Kamala Harris avoids answering questions hoping to glide by using her characteristic smirk and girlie giggle. The Prime Minister of the U.K. seems to have no idea of how to use a comb. The President of France seems to think it is enough to be outrageous in actions and words. The Chancellor of Germany seems happy no matter how fully she puts her country at the mercy of Mr.Putin's Russia, The leader "for life" of China, one Xi Jin ping, has become unhinged and threatens not only Hong Kong, but also Taiwan and, if that is not enough, he has put completely offside, the Phillipines, Japan, Australia, Malaysia, India, and even Kenya. We could go on.

Yes, but what about VENICE?

In the course of my current reading of "VENICE" by Peter Ackroyd 

I came upon this gem of institutionalised madness. Mind you, like much of today's political madness, it started out with good intentions. The Venetians had no hereditary rulers and did not want any.They wanted their Serenissima Republica to be firmly governed but, with no risk of any ruling family evolving. But they seem to have become victims of their own good intentions : Read on:

 

" But an insight can be gained into the labyrinthine Venetian mind by describing the process by which a doge was elected. On the morning of the election, the youngest member of the Signoria , one branch of the administration, fell on his knees to pray in the basilica (St. Mark's) ; then he went out into Saint Mark's Square and stopped the first boy he met. This child became the ballotino   who drew the nomination slips from the urn in the ducal palace. In the first ballot the great council chose thirty of its members. In a second vote, nine were chosen out of this original thirty. In turn, the nine chose forty, each of whom had to receive seven nominations . A new ballot would then reduce this forty to twelve, who voted for twenty who voted for nine, who voted for forty-five, who voted for eleven. These eleven then voted for forty one voters who would then elect the doge . No more cumbersome and intricate procedure could have been devised.Its only purpose was to eliminate individual chicanery and special interests, but it suggest an almost obsessive preoccupation with communal solidarity."  

I would have said madness.

* NEW POST * SLAVERY THIS FACT SURPRISED ME

17th Century French Catholic Priests rescue Christian slaves from their Mohammedan captors.

 

 

 There are some very strange ideas about slavery abroad in the world today. Dominant amomg these is the narrative developed by American social activists that slavery is about race. That it is all about European peoples oppressing African (and essentially African - American) people. This is not borne out by the facts.

I have many African friends and many of them take this American narrative to heart and feel some share in the victimhood of their ancestors. This conviction becomes crystallised in an absolute attribution of blame for slavery to European slave traders. This is of course psychologically satisfying given the sorry state of almost every country in Africa today. This is particularly so when we consider the absolute horrors many European colonisers inflicted on Africa.Among these perhaps for absolute horror the Belgians were the worst, the French continue to be appalling and the British were and long continued to be systematically horrendous.

 

Nevertheless, it is obligatory , if inconvenient, to consider all those who properly bore the blame. 

 

Slavery was a feature of human life since the beginning of time. It was NOT about race, but rather about defeat in battle. The defeated were, at the whim or need of the victor, liable to death or slavery.Defeat made one contemptible, inferior, death was seen as fitting, but slavery offered the victor value, service or, if traded , valuable earnings. These earnings were achieved by the sale of the slaves to slave traders who ran slave markets. The race of the slave being offered for sale was of no doctrinaire concern.All that mattered was value realised.

 

But , in the favourite game of today we have to ask :who was to blame? One thing is certain in Africa, one cannot avoid laying initial blame on the victor in battle.These were the Chiefs of the many warring tribes or the Kings of the aggregating Kingdoms. Thus it was the African leaders who sold their captive brothers and sisters.Having first enslaved them, they sold them to traders.

 

 

 

The Order of the Most Holy Trinity and of the Captives, also known as the Trinitarian Order or the Trinitarians, is a Catholic religious order founded in Cerfroid, outside Paris, in late 12th century.  It was founded  by Saint John of Matha  on 17^th December 1198. It thrives even today, adapting its raison d’etre to modern circumstances. Among the signs of its vigour is the book “Image of God: Give Man His Dignity “by the young Brother Augustine Ikegwu O.S.S.T. The work is being widely hailed for championing the dignity of man with particular reference to Africa.

 

 

                                     Brother Augustine IKEGWU OSST  Author

                                        before statue of Saint John of Matha.

 

 For a long time these traders were themselves African people We do not know the "hows" of this business, but we do know that there were some African slaves in ancient Rome.   But the slave trade becomes regular and systematic after the invention of Mohammedanism in the 7th Century, North African Mohammedan Arab Slave Traders  came to West Africa across the Sahara and to East Africa by sea.This trade prospered for 900 years , supplying the North African slave markets. These slave traders wanted a steady supply of  slaves : approx 75% female and 25% young male, to supply -  in the case of the women the harems of the Mohammedans -  and in the  case of the young males, to provide eunuchs to oversee the harems. It is estimated that 90% of those suffering the horrendous castration operation died in the process.The remaining 10% of survivors were sufficient for the purpose.

 

                                  

 

 

In the 16th Century beginning with the Portugese, the potential of the slave market expanded greatly as the possibility of oceanic navigation made possible the plantations of the Americas. The Portugese were in due course followed by the French and the British. The plantation needs were quite the reverse of the North African market - they wanted 75% Males for their muscular strength and only 25% of females for domestic duties.The North African trade withered as the trans Atlantic trade expanded. But again, the European slave traders relied on African suppliers - the same Chiefs and Kings. There was no way that the Europeans, like the Arabs before them, could afford to become engaged in battle to obtain slaves  - they did not have the time or the crews to engage in such efforts.

We can clearly see that there has been a political advantage in promoting the idea of the European villains and obscuring the role of the African suppliers. Even where the latter became outrageously obvious - as in the case of the ASHANTI Kings- - their role  has been more or less ignored. It did not fit the "narrative" being developed.

 

The American media narrative has been so powerful that African -Americans have "owned the narrative" and the fact that far more African slaves went to the Caribbean has been obscured.

 

SURPRISED

 

But I was truly surprised lately when I started reading a history of Venice.  We have had the book , written by Peter Ackroyd, for decades but I had not "gotten around to reading it".  But I was always interested in learning about the history of Venice. My wife and I had paid three brief visits to the remarkable city in 1956, 1993 and in 2009. Each visit had been too brief to do more than the typical tourist highlights. But in my reading, especially in naval history, I kept "running  into" mention of "La Serenissima Republica" as she called herself, and her much vaunted Navy of galleys.

 The book is very unusual. It reminded me of the biography of Saint Thomas Aquinas by Chesterton - reputedly the best on the Angelic Doctor but written without mention of any dates. Ackroyd's "VENICE" is also very short on dates but also on personalities. In fact it reads more like the type of commentary which follows upon a Historical Review of a country. 

But I was greatly surprised to come across this:

 

 "There was a thriving trade in human flesh.By the twelfth century the slave trade in Venice far surpassed that of other cities and other countries.The Venetians were incorrigible slave traders  and the markets of the Rialto and S.Georgio were centres of slavery.They were eager for this particular source of income since the profit on each item was said to be 1,000 per cent they sold Russians and even Greek Christians to the Saracens. Men and women and children were bought or captured in the region of the Black Sea - Armenians and Georgians among them- before being despatched to Venice where they were in turn sold on to Egypt and Morocco and Crete and Cyprus. They sold boys and young women as concubines.One Doge Pietro Mocenigo had in his seventies two young Turkish men in his entourage.

Many of them were consigned to Venetian households.No patrician family was complete without a retinue of three or four slaves; even Venetian artisans owned slaves and used them in their shops or workshops. Venetian convents possessed slaves for domestic service. The galleys were stocked with slaves. But the city always needed a fresh supply; servile status was not inheritable Many slaves were freed  in the wills of their masters or mistresses.Marco Polo manumitted one of his slaves, Peter the Tartar , before his own death in 1324. In 1580 there were three thousand slaves in the capital. The black gondoliers in Carpaccio's paintings of Venice are all slaves." p 113 para 1 and 2.

 

 

 

 

So we can see that slavery , even when it flourished was not about race.(The final reference to gondoliers in Carpaccio's paintings fits perfectly wth the theatricality of Venetian life - these gondoliers would have been seen as part of that spectacle loving approach - and they were obviously few in number.

 

SUMMARY

 

Yes the Slave trading across the Atlantic was horrendous. But there is hypocrisy in ignoring the blame which should be shared by the African enslavers and marketers to the slave traders. 

 

Also, we need to see that the attitudes of societies of every colour of skin has evolved and still needs to evolve. Britain abolished slavery in 1807, the Royal Navy and the United States Navy and the French, worked throughout the Nineteenth Century to destroy the slave trade. BUT even today in Africa, in several Mohammedan countries , there are believed to be 600,000 LEGAL slaves. Where is the outrage?

 

We "enlightened" people deplore slavery as an offence against the rights of man as a child of God. But many of us are adept at maintaining the rage of condemnation, whilst turning a "blind eye" to inconvenient realities.

* NEW * THE ASSAULT ON BEAUTY AND THE SACRED

                                                          Photo Robyn Dixon in S.Pietro
 

Here is a brilliant insight from Anglo-American philosopher Sir Roger Scruton ( 1944-2020) :

".....yet the worship of ugliness and desecration is asserting itself today in an age of unprecedented prosperity. [...] Desecration is a sort of defense against the sacred, an attempt to destroy its claims. Our lives will be judged before sacred things; and in order to escape that judgment, we destroy the thing that seems to accuse us. And since beauty reminds us of the sacred – and is even a special form of it – beauty must also be desecrated."

 The "positive way" of beauty is, nonetheless, embedded in the heart of man. "Why then do so many artists today refuse to walk this path? Perhaps because they know that it leads to God."


Extract from the ever reliable Sandro Magister's CHIESA Blog
covering a major conference in Rome in December, 2009.

* PAST * *JANUARY 1947 - A "CULTURAL ICON" (peeping out!) MANLY BEACH

                *JANUARY 1947 - A "CULTURAL  ICON" (peeping out!) MANLY BEACH 

 

  It may seem bizarre, but here I am with my Dad, going to the beach! Yes that was the way we and most others dressed for a casual day out! Did you spot the "Cultural Icon "peeping out? Take a close look at my beach bucket - made in good sturdy tinware - no plastics then. (There was Bakelite - widely used in the ever more popular mantel radios, but it was brittle and far from suitable for any knockabout purposes.) On the bucket you will see the reproduction of the bow of R.M.S. Queen Mary whose image wrapped around the bucket - what more could a boy want! 

"The beach", for us almost invariably meant Manly -"7 Miles from Sydney and 1,000 miles from care!"as the signs inside the stately, steam powered ferries used to say. I loved the trip! The ferries themselves were impressive to me with beach names like "Barrenjoey", "Dee Why", "North Head"and the latest and greatest was "South Steyne"- stories of her sailing out from England ( where else!) were listened to in awe, including the tales of the seating having been burnt when fuel ran low!!These steam ferries had engine rooms that were visible from the passenger decks - looking down onto the tops of the cylinders with glimpses of the great piston rods and the cranks of the driveshaft. Scent of steam, oil, grease, sounds of the engineroom telegraph bell, the hiss of steam and the mechanical throb of the thrusting pistons and turning cranks were all come together most powerfully and enchantingly for this little boy.

As is still the case, nature being what it is, the matter of boarding the ferry was always a changing task as the tides at Circular Quay or at Manly ebbed and flowed. There were pairs of short , simple wooden planks with guard rails on one side only - for the lower or main deck, and very large and heavy steel framed ramps on wheels which the wharfhands moved into place for the Upper Deck.

The scent of the sea water at the Quay was complemented by the salt on the "Smiths Crisps" which were an inevitable complement to the journey.I can taste them now. Calls of "Stand Clear!"and the boarding ramps were withdrawn, the faces of disappointed late arrivers littered the wharf.The engineroom telegraph gave its double ring and gracefully we began to move away as the last of the mooring ropes were being coiled down. Generally we stayed on the Starboard or right side, the better to see the naval vessels at Garden Island Dockyard which is still the largest Naval Dockyard in the Southern Hemisphere, and had and still has*, the largest heavy lift crane in the Southern Hemisphere.
As we turned out of Circular Quay and headed East down the Harbour we passed on our right the red brick pile of Fort Macquarie which, its name not withstanding, was a large tram depot.( Someone later had the idea that this would make a fine site for an Opera House....and you know the rest!)

For all my later and continuing interest in the Navy and Naval Vessels, it is a cruel truth that I have no memory at all of the many USN, RAN and even RN ships of all sizes that I must have seen there. However I have a very clear memory of the Hospital Ship "MANUNDA" beautifully white with a green band around her hull and emblazoned with the Red Cross on her sides, passing our ferry on her way back to the war. I can still recall the appalled reaction of my parents when, having heard that "MANUNDA"was her name I, very pleased with my rhyme announced "The "MANUNDA"went under"!.Perhaps it was this audience reaction that led to my disinterest in poetry for very many years.

We swept past the homes of the rich and famous and the next point of interest was the Rose Bay Flying Boat Base - the Flying Boats themselves were sometimes to be seen at their moorings, and joy of joys, very occasionally taking off or landing - quite a show!


A gentle turn to Port (left) around Bradley's Head where I was taught to observe the masthead of HMAS SYDNEY ( I ) and reminded that "the SYDNEY sank the EMDEN"in WW I. No-one mentioned the too-painful mystery of the loss of HMAS SYDNEY ( II ) in WW II, still unexplained at that time.

Then , by degrees we began to feel the influence of the sea as we ran by the Heads. At times this was almost a non event - a mere tummy tickle, but, at other times the effect could be challenging - everyone looking for a handhold and the occasional person being ill. As the ferry headed some of the heavier waves, water would spray on board , what fun!Sometimes it was necessary to cancel the services due to rough seas.

But "all good things must come to an end"and all too soon we were past the Heads and gliding into Manly wharf.Then we walked off down the Corso past the intriguing string of Milk Bars, Fish and Chip shops etc. etc. to the Promenade which gave onto the beach backed by the tall and pleasant Norfolk Island Pines. Looking up to the right we saw the imposing sandstone bulk of St.Patrick's Seminary. There are several points of departure from this point - but I shall take them up on later occasions.

* PAST * 1943-1945 CULTURAL ICONS

  

                                                           R.M.S. QUEEN MARY
 

 

As I grew up, my mental wallpaper in matters civic was without question British. The great icons , cause of our pride, were British -  R.M.S.QUEEN MARY. the steam locomotive "FLYING SCOTSMAN", the world's "best"car the ROLLS ROYCE, British crockery, British manufactured goods. Why not! We were British weren't we ?

Of course as Catholics we were just a tad sceptical of the underpinnings of all this. We knew about the English repression of the Irish before Home Rule. And we knew that the establishment in Australia was largely anti- Catholic. We could handle all that. We just knew that everything that was best and good in civic life was British.Of course it was! All the books we had available were published and printed in England ( save for a very few - not popularly distributed- which were published and printed in Australia).Things and people British were "proper"and to be emulated. On the Wireless, the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Commission) announcers were selected for their rather prim, well modulated British accents.

All of this worked subtly to establish a cultural "client "mentality in most of the population.Many of us felt our cultural isolation and longed to travel "overseas"- but most of the time, this simply meant London or England more broadly.Travel overseas was 98% by ship , and the ships were British ( of course) and such shipping lines as P&O(Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company), Orient Line, Shaw Savill and Huddart Parker were household names.

Oddly, before the War there had been a great number of American cars on our roads . Names such as Chevrolet, Buick, Oldsmobile, Ford, Mercury, Willys,Dodge and De Soto were still quite familiar even though restrictions on U.S. currency transactions had long since stopped U.S. car imports. So our cars were Vauxhalls ( who could forget the glittering chromed flutes down the edges of the bonnets), Austins, Morrises,Rovers(Doctors'cars), Wolseleys,Triumphs,Hillmans, and the rarer Lancasters, Alvises, Armstrong-Siddeleys, Humbers , Lagondas, Daimlers( very big with the Royals) and Bentleys etc.

Still other considerations of English origin, re-inforced our above view of the world. Architecture was a leading factor in this way. Most public architecture had its origins at least in the Victorian era. So it was that Government Buildings were designed and constructed to suggest permanence, authority and strength. Other buildings like Banks had developed out of the experience of hard times past. There were usually friendly glass inner doors , but strong, forbidding outer doors - everyone had in mind the runs on the Banks in the Great Depression - only  11-15 years earlier. Windows were high by to-day's standards, further enhancing protection against external assault.

But beneath the surface, there were several subversive streams at work.There had always been American films, movies they called them.As the war effort grew these American films came to be more and more the true mainstream. Their ideas were quite different and...somehow, more ...exciting.The presence of American Soldiers, Sailors, Marines and Airmen in Australia greatly expanded the Americanised way of thinking.The failure of the British to come to our aid ( largely due to inability and the failure of what they did try) was commonly known and resented in reality, no matter what the reason. There was a fairly natural affinity between Americans and Australians based upon openness and a lack of British type Class pretensions. 

We were more like the Americans then, than we are now I think. That may seem paradoxical given to-day's very free communications. But whilst these modern communications have made our cultural links much stronger, they have, it seems to me, facilitated in each society a more rapid development of particular tendencies which are drawing us further apart in essence, if not in superficialities. Hmmm Getting a bit deep. Might try to come back to this later.

 

 

 

* NEW * THE FATE OF SAINT MARGARET'S CHAPEL REVISITED

 THE FATE OF ST MARGARET'S CHAPEL       -      REVISITED

                           The British Flag Flies Above SCOTLAND'S  EDINBURGH CASTLE

 

 

 

We finished our story on the Chapel stolen for generations, by reflecting on the subsequent stealing of Scotland, the country its Crown and its self respect, by the English

Hear now the great Scots poet Robert Burns, writing in 1791 and reflecting on the Acts of Union of 1707:

 

 

Such a Parcel Of Rogues in the Nation

by Robert Burns



Fareweel to a’ our Scottish fame,

Fareweel our ancient glory!

Fareweel ev’n to the Scottish name.

Sae famed in martial story!

Now Sark rins over Salway sands,

An’ Tweed rins to the ocean,

To mark where England’s province stands —

Such a parcel of rogues in a nation!



What force or guile could not subdue

Thro’ many warlike ages

Is wrought now by a coward few

For hireling traitor’s wages.

The English steel we could disdain,

Secure in valour’s station;

But English gold has been our bane —

Such a parcel of rogues in a nation!



O, would, or I had seen the day

That Treason thus could sell us,

My auld grey head had lien in clay

Wi’ Bruce and loyal Wallace!

But pith and power, till my last hour

I’ll mak this declaration :-

‘We’re bought and sold for English gold’—

Such a parcel of rogues in a nation!



But first they had sold out their Faith. 

* PAST * SERVING WITH THE ANGELS II SATAN

 Serving with the Angels II

                                                                                      THE FATHER OF LIES


“I saw Satan fall like lightning from Heaven” (Luke 10: 18). Every word that came from the lips of Our Lord is priceless to us mere men. Yet we don’t often hear this text read or referred to in homilies, and if it occurs in the readings at Mass it is most often ignored in the homily. Why? Of course, we don’t like to think of Satan, but our clergy have a duty to remind us of him and his works.




In the tumult, stress and distress of the post – Conciliar years, when Pope Paul VI could with pain observe that it was “as if, through some crack, the smoke of Satan had entered the Sanctuary of God” (Homily 29th June 1972), many clergy adopted the habit of not preaching what they surmised was unpopular. It began with “Humanae Vitae “and the Church’s teaching against contraception. The media say it’s not popular, so we don’t preach it. There are Dioceses in Australia where a priest can face administrative problems if he does. The “smoke of Satan “lingers even to the extent of not talking about Satan himself. It’s not nice. So Satan is relegated to the ad agencies and the horror movies. It suits his purposes admirably.




But Our Lord, Truth Himself, what was His practice? He was continually very open about him – the Deceiver, the Father of Lies. Consider St. John’s Gospel 8: 43-44 “Why do you not understand My speech? Because you cannot hear My word. The father from whom you are is the devil, the desires of your father it is your will to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and has not stood in the truth because there is no truth in him. When he tells a lie he speaks from his very nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies.”Thus Our Lord spoke to a group of the Jews He knew were plotting to kill Him, but who piously insisted that they had Abraham for their Father. When did you last hear that preached?

                                                              "I saw Satan fall like lightning out of Heaven"





We ignore Satan at our peril. We should not fear him inordinately – remember – God Himself is our ready defence against his wiles. With St. Patrick we can pray to the Blessed Trinity for delivery “from every cruel merciless power that may oppose my body and soul” and KNOW that “God’s shield “will protect us. But, ignore Satan, and we won’t pray that prayer or anything like it and, when someone comes along promoting abortion whilst talking about “the need to reduce the number of abortions” we won’t want to know who is prompting him, and when some “prophet” comes along teaching millions to kill those who won’t follow his teachings, and that it’s alright to lie to advance his teachings, they won’t want to think who is prompting him and his servants. And when English heretics came along telling English Catholics that their Faith was unpatriotic, they didn’t want to think who was prompting them, and when the good intelligent German people dragged down by defeat, depression, and inflation were told the Jews were responsible and were “sub-human”(üntermenschen”) they didn’t want to know who was prompting their Fuhrer. The Father of Lies, he comes in many guises, always attractive - slick, confident and smiling with spin-doctored glibness, or deceitfully promising the poor and ignorant “72 virgins” in a lustful “paradise”, or wrapped in the flag of patriotism – “the last refuge of scoundrels”, or with stage-managed spectacles promising a down-trodden people a thousand year Reich, or perhaps more commonly he will just use the seductiveness of physical attraction

Adolph Hitler - Bewitched the German Nation

                                                                    

We do need to heed Our Lord’s warnings and be on our guard. We need to keep our eyes our minds and our hearts on Him, the Man-God Himself- suffering for us on the Cross and then Radiant in His Resurrection. In that Countenance is our sure Hope of Eternal Life.




ACOLYTE


This item first appeared in FOUNDATION in the July 2009 issue.

* PAST * SERVING WITH THE ANGELS

  SERVING WITH THE ANGELS

 

SERVING WITH THE ANGELS




“Familiarity breeds contempt”. The maxim brings out a truth at the extreme end of an arc of human experience, relating most often to inordinate familiarity with figures of authority. Moving back along that arc into more moderate territory, we come upon the phrase “taken for granted”. In this case the contributions, co-operation and even the very presence of a person are so much assumed that their merit and value seem forgotten.



Somewhere between the two is a position in which our experience of the Faith can sometimes be found. It can come to be one part of our very busy life - sure, a very important part - but kept in the allotted place and not allowed to disturb the other parts as we hurry along from one preoccupation to another. Set in its place, its “fire” can be dimmed, even reduced to mere” embers”.



In this situation, there is little chance that we will deepen our realisation of the wonderful fact that God loves us so much that He burst into Time from Eternity to bring us His Only Begotten Son at the Annunciation. That Divine Son - the Word made Flesh - came to Earth to save us from our sins by His death on the Cross. Then, by His Resurrection, He led the way for us to follow Him. He left us the means to do so by founding His Church and endowing her with the seven Sacraments sharing with us His Life of Grace.



It seems incredible that we could sometimes become so familiar with these extraordinary realities, that in our human weakness, and distracted by our worldly concerns, we could even come to “take them for granted”. This could create a dangerous state of affairs when, ever so subtly as is his wont, the Devil comes a’ knocking.



We are better prepared to counter any such tendency when we follow a regular and systematic course of reading and reflection. The daily readings from the Liturgy of the Hours, the systematic reading of Sacred Scripture especially the New Testament or some major spiritual work are useful examples. The reader finds inevitably that they are major channels of God’s Grace and of special insight. Acolyte well remembers re-reading some years ago “The Public Life of Our Lord Jesus Christ” by Archbishop Alban Goodier S.J. The words “Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me for I Am meek and humble of heart” which were all too familiar to me, struck me heavily, and it was as if I had been looking Him straight in the eyes - yes he meant this message for me and for each one of us. God directly communicating to you and me a fundamental truth about Himself and bidding us to learn from Him.” Awesome! “as the youth of to-day too frequently say. All of His original listeners were familiar with the procedure of yoking the more experienced and reliable ox to the younger less experienced to train it. From that experience, I have acquired a heightened attention to any similar direct addresses from Our Lord in Sacred Scripture.



We need to open ourselves such possibilities, regularly refreshing our appreciation of our part in “God’s project for the salvation of mankind”. God made Man - Jesus Christ - is talking to us in Sacred Scripture, and His attention is never distracted from any one of us. He cares enough to have suffered and died for our salvation. Do we really give Him our best in attention, reflection, prayer and practice?


" Learn from Me, for I am meek and humble of heart."




ACOLYTE

This item first appeared in FOUNDATION in the MAY 2009 issue.

* PAST " A GOOD LAUGH MATTERS LITURGICAL

 

Father Adrian Fortescue's "CEREMONIES OF THE ROMAN RITE DESCRIBED" dates back to the happy days before coffee table Masses, clown costume Celebrants and guitars over chasubles. The rubrical rigour of the work has become the stuff of legend in these demented, de-constructed times. 

Enjoying the possibilities that can be conjured up, the good young folk over at THE SHRINE OF THE HOLY WHAPPING Blog put up a brilliant post on 25th January 2010 - more than worth a read!

It is essential to have a sense of humour before reading:

"Monday, January 25

Everything I Needed to Know I Learned from Adrian Fortescue

An old hand at serving once told me that in the bad old days before the Council, they were always told, when they didn’t know what to do next, go to the center of the altar, genuflect, and go back to your place, and by the time you got back, the problem would in all likelihood have fixed itself already. This seems a good bit of advice for life, at least of the Blackadderish, “When the going gets tough, the tough hide under the table” variety. In that spirit, I have combed Adrian Fortescue’s* monumentally nerdy (this is a good thing) but extremely useful compendium Ceremonies of the Roman Rite Described for similarly useful bits of life lessons—especially if you find some way to willfully misinterpret them.

*(Adrian Fortescue, the most reluctant of liturgical wonks--he wrote the original because he needed the cash-- should not be confused with the martyr of the same name--a beatified knight of Malta martyr, which is about as awesome as a pirate robot ninja--nor “Dangerscue” as Bubbs would put it.)

Fortescue on Modesty and Dating:
“Two points occur on which one might hope the authorities would simplify. One is the constant kissing.” --Introduction, xix (1920 edition, very much out of context)

Fortescue on Dieting:
“No blessing is given, no indulgence announced.” -- Solemn Mass in the Presence of a Greater Prelate, p. 196 (this and all below from the 2009 edition)

Fortescue on Talk Radio:
“Ditto.” --Pontifical Solemn Mass at the Throne, p. 213, fn 57.

Fortescue on Avoiding Sitcom Plots Involving the Loss of Wedding Rings Down the Kitchen Sink:
“No rubric prescribes the removal of the ring for this washing.” --Pontifical Solemn Mass at the Throne, p. 219, fn. 81

Fortescue on Using Adult Beverages on the Job:
“The deacon pours a little of the wine and water into the vessel prepared and gives it to the sacristan to drink.” --p. 218

Fortescue on Mom Checking Up on the Mess in Your Bedroom:
“The Ordinary may, however, visit more often and at any time that he sees fit.” --Canonical Visitation and Confirmation, p. 403

Fortescue on Hawaiian Luaus:
“Torches, at least four, and not more than eight, are ready.” --Pontifical Solemn Mass at the Throne, p. 200

Fortescue on Anger Management:
“At solemn Mass (of the living) and Vespers distinguished laymen are incensed.” --The Faithful at Mass, p. 247

Fortescue on Forcing Timmy to Sit in Time Out:
“…and then conducts him to his special place.” --ibid., p. 246

Fortescue on the Spanish Inquisition and its Comfy Chair:
“…the prie-dieu is to be undraped, but may have cushions (not silk.)” --p. 247

Fortescue on sports color commentators:
“The commentary should be prepared in writing, be brief, and temperate, and spoken in a moderate voice at appropriate moments.” --p. 245

Fortescue on Swine Flu:
“For a good reason—for cleanliness’s sake, or if there is a danger of contracting or spreading disease—this use of saliva is omitted.” --Baptism, p. 425 fn. 11

Fortescue on Not giving Aunt Marge a Heart Attack:
“It is advisable to warn the godmother or nurse about this before the ceremony begins.” --Baptism, p. 424 fn. 12

Fortescue on In-Flight Meal Service, or possibly MacGyver’s Methodology:
“…with the addition of the bread, lemon, and a fresh hand-towel…” --Confirmation, p. 427, fn. 21

Fortescue on the board game Clue:
“Or preferably, in the mortuary chapel.” --Funerals, p. 478, fn. 79

Fortescue on the Coriolis Effect*:
“With the exceptions noted, the celebrant at Mass always turns clockwise from the altar and anticlockwise back to it.” --Low Mass Said by a Priest, p. 66, fn. 23

*Do Australian priests turn round the other way?

Fortescue on Things Thomas Aquinas Thought About When Really, Really Bored:
“The position of the stole at the back is a disputed question.” --Low Mass Said by a Priest, p. 65

Fortescue on the Amazing X-Men:
“…applying mutatis mutandis to non-pontifical Mass…” --The Choir and Assistants at Ceremonies, p. 59

Fortescue on Barbecues:
“…should be put on well lit charcoal to make smoke that will last for some time. It is absurd to see a person swinging a thurible from which no fumes are issuing.” -- Common Ceremonial Actions, p. 49

Fortescue on Getting Rid of Bad Variety Show Performers, the beginning of J. Arthur Rank films, or Possibly Inculturation:
“The use of an Indian (hanging) gong is not permitted.” --Liturgical Vessels, Instruments and Books, p. 40

Fortescue on Semiotics:
“In English, the meaning of violet as a color is not clear.” --The Vestments of the Roman Rite, p. 37

Fortescue on High Explosive Bomb Disposal:
“It is better not to rush.” --Common Ceremonial Actions, p. 46

Posted by: Matthew / 10:42 PM"
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* PAST * THE TIMES THEY ARE A'CHANGEIN' "

                                         AMAZON'S KINDLE AND APPLE'S I PHONE
 

 (N.B. This Post has become almost quaint in the short span of ten years!)

 A recent visit to our original hometown Sydney, to celebrate my dear wife's 70th Birthday, gave rise to this post.


We had the privilege of staying in my Brother-in-Law's Unit overlooking Centennial Park and of enjoying his very generous hospitality over a number of days. He is not daunted by technology ( I am, late in life, trying to hone my powers of understatement).
As a consequence we had the chance to check out and use the latest "stuff". He is an Apple Afficionado so the I Phone was there - but he has demonstrated its wonders on previous occasions. He also has the I Pad ( a gift from a class of grateful students!) and the Amazon 3G Kindle.As it happens, I have had some previous introduction to E Readers at Maz and Nathan's place at Christmas , when Nathan's Mum showed us her Sony Reader. Now I had an opportunity to try I Pad and Kindle at my leisure. The I Pad shines for its design, capacities and functionality - it is remarkably intuitive to use . But, the fact that it is also very pricey ( as is the I Phone) means that for me it is beyond even hope - so away with Apple dreams. But the Kindle , at $189 , is well within planning possibility.It is a remarkable unit-well-designed, handy in size, huge in capacity(thousands of books), search capability and note taking capability plus a memory for which page you have reached in each book. With downloads quite cheap and a huge range of new and classic titles available - many at token prices, it is an ideal tool , especially for research. It will be invaluable when I am researching FOUNDATION and doing webposts on the Blogs. I have made a start by downloading Kindle for PC on my trusty Notebook - so I can begin building my E Library here - it can then be easily and freely transferred to up to 5 devices including the Kindle proper or a suitable phone (hmmmmm........ Rob's "Wildfire" ? .....No, she wouldn't let me near it!!) In time, I can build up a solid  Religious and History Classics Library at very little cost and have it at hand when I am preparing posts. Fabulous for travel reading and research if I ever get the chance again - surely the weekly "investment Certificates" will ultimately come good!


Just as I Pods and their imitators have destroyed the CD industry and Music Shops are collapsing into memory -  incredible as it might seem -  that institution of the last four centuries at least, the Bookshop, let alone the books they sell, seems to be becoming an "endangered species"( Ugh! I hate that phrase and all the phoney "last remaining whatevers" that usually attend it). I know, I know, like me, many will say : "Nothing will replace the feel of a book" or "no-one wants to curl up with an E Reader"etc. Don't bet on it ! Remember that these changes are being driven by the responses of a generation or three far more adept than people of my own vintage and already making their weight felt in the collapse of newspaper readership. Hang on tight - we are on a very bumpy ride on runaway technology. The best we can do, is to make use of it for our own purposes and pray that neither we nor ours, or our interests get in its way! It does not take prisoners!


Anyway, my interest has really been Kindled !!

* PAST * STOLEN FOR GENERATIONS

 

 

Stolen for Generations

The Story of St Margaret’s Chapel, Edinburgh Castle

Edinburgh is a tough, beautiful and ancient city dominated by its Castle. And the Castle, the City and their Country are dominated by the English Crown (Devolution notwithstanding). But it wasn’t always so.



Yes Edinburgh Castle is ancient, and in the heart of the Castle is a stolen Catholic Church – St. Margaret’s Chapel – the oldest building in Edinburgh.

In the early days of its independent life, King David I (A.D. 1084 – 1153) ruled Scotland. He is regarded by scholars both ancient and modern, as a truly pious King, so devoted to the Faith and to good works, that in his time he brought into being more than a dozen new monasteries. One of the greatest of these is the Cistercian Abbey of Melrose founded in A.D. 1137. Its noble ruins still inspire to Faith almost 900 years later.

The great St. Aelred of Rievaulx, in his eulogy for King David praised his justice and piety, and stated “the whole barbarity of that nation was softened…………as if, forgetting their natural fierceness, they submitted their necks to the laws which the royal gentleness dictated.”

King David’s piety no doubt flowed from the influence of his mother, the holy Queen Margaret (1045 – 16/11/1093). She was born in Hungary and was the niece of St. Edward the Confessor. She married King Malcolm III of Scotland, a widower, when in her early twenties and they had six sons and two daughters. She was canonized by Pope Innocent IV having regard for her personal sanctity, her fidelity to the Church, her religious reform efforts and her remarkable works of charity. A small example of the latter was her custom of serving the poor and orphans before she would take her own meals. Her Feast is celebrated on 16th November.

In honour of his saintly mother, in A.D. 1130, King David built on a small eminence in the heart of Edinburgh Castle, high above the capital, a beautifully simple Chapel. It is now, as we have said, the oldest building in Edinburgh. It is most moving to reflect that Holy Mass was offered in this Royal Chapel for approx 400 years until the Protestant Deformation of the Church led to the Chapel’s desecration and use as a gunpowder store (!) for about 200 years. It is now available as a wedding chapel on a commercial basis!

Our December Issue spoke of the divine power of each Mass for good and the sad evil influence of each abuse to do evil. We know that the evil done by those who stole St. Margaret’s Chapel and desecrated it still goes on, but it is incomparably overmatched by the glorious good done by any ONE of the thousands of Holy Masses celebrated at that altar.

Nevertheless it is painful to see such a beautiful, hallowed and noble place and such a gesture of fidelity, desecrated, and its altar covered by an alien cloth at the hands of the Deformers of the Church. St Margaret’s Chapel has been stolen for generations.

Ironically, those who stole our churches in Scotland had their entire Country, and Throne stolen from them by the English. But their loss of the Faith was far greater and more significant than the loss of their Country and self respect

TONY DIXON