This morning, not too many minutes ago, as I drove to the Post Office
through the warm March sunshine and past the lovely Aussie gum trees,
there suddenly came back to my memory, the Hymns of Benediction in what
has now ,oddly, become the "Extraordinary "Use of the Roman Rite.
What joy they brought me, 65 years ago,and still do now, within days of
the big 70! How I loved the opportunity to adore Our Lord as I was
immersed in the stately music of those hymns,whose noble yet simple
Latin I came to understand over the years of my schooling,especially at
Marist Brothers'Lidcombe in Sydney's West.. The great treasures St.
Thomas Aquinas left to the Church in those hymns, "O Salutaris ",
"Tantum Ergo"and "Adoremus" (was the last his also? ) were taken from
us, and the Rite of Benediction debased as the false "spirit of the
Council"overwhelmed the Documents of the Council.
But those hymns and the prayers of the Rite of Benediction are written
on my heart and enshrined in my mind. And, God willing, they will
remain there , with the memory of good Father Con Donovan, big and
broadly Irish and as faithful to Christ and His Church as could be,
until I am switched from this light to Eternal light and Life for which I
Hope.
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