One of my coworkers had to repack for his extended trip to UK. It will be interesting to hear his impressions.
The fixation American media has with the Royals always makes me uneasy and I feel that I get a distorted view of how the citizens of the Commonwealth actually feel. But I have been impressed by the respectful comments from the few Brits I personally know from a country I deeply respect.
I will never forget the first time I heard this at a funeral. It was the funeral of my cousin, who died trying to withdraw from heroin addiction. He had stolen his dad's car to pay for drugs. He had stopped attending Mass years ago. He knew he was very sick and never bothered to even ask for a priest. Yet right there at the funeral, the priest who had never even MET the young man canonized him in his homily:
"Now he is with Jesus!"
Mourning? Black? Prayers for the dead?
Oh, no! We musn't upset the family!
Maybe our disciples of the Church of the New Springtime of the New Advent who LOVE to slobber about how "holy, holy, holy" Vatican II, Pope Paul VI and Pope Francis are can explain to us just HOW we erased Purgatory? Maybe these blubbering sycophants can cite for us just WHERE we can find the documents that allow priests to canonize unrepentant sinners? Maybe they can explain how we should rejoice at the millions of lost souls who have no one praying for them.
I would HATE to be in the shoes of the priests who, when facing their particular judgment, have to explain to our Judge why they decided that "extreme unction" isn't the way we do things any more. Or worse yet, how they made sure NO ONE prayed for the souls of the dead whose funerals they "celebrated".
Hopefully, Protestant Britain isn't as ready to just cave in as we Catholics were.
Jerome - We "celebrate" funeral liturgies, yes, and there is nothing wrong with the term or the PROPER understanding thereof.
I, too, am bothered by the folks, including too many priests, who say, "Your loved one isn't suffering any more." Oh? And, yes, I suspect a significant part of the motivation comes from a well-intended but misguided attempt to be compassionate.
As for determining who is and who is not an "unrepentant sinner," proceed with caution.
Many years ago, I attended the Requiem Mass for my son-in-law's father at Douai Abbey in Woolhampton. Although not everyone was attired in Black, everyone was dressed quite properly, men in suits and ties and women in dresses with hats. The Benedictine Abbot celebrated the Mass which was quite dignified and featured some Latin chants from the Missa pro Defunctis. I cannot say that is the kind of decorem I experience at the typical "Celebrations of Life" in the US.
From my experience as a Sacristan and an Altar Server, altho the Ordo allows that white violet and black are permitted, it would be a very brave priest who used anything other than white vestments.Some orthodox priests will wear violet during/Lent/Advent, but never black(Few parishes now have black vestments).One young priest (who also celebrated the TLM) wore a black chasuble on All Souls for a Novus Ordo Mass.He chuckled that there were audible gasps as he processed to the Altar!
I always thought it idiotic to dispense with black as a liturgical color. Sorrow is a natural response to death. Our young pastor does use black vestments on proper occasions. He also celebrates the TLM. He is open to the entire Catholic Liturgical Tradition, not the ersatz one created in the 1960s
At 12.30 pm on 8 September it was announced that the Queen's health was giving 'cause for concern' but that she was 'comfortable'. The two main TV channels switched to live coverage of her immediate family arriving at Balmoral and the studio presenters were all in black, prompting the question 'do they know something we don't?' When HM's death was officially announced it was still a shock, but not a surprise.
Her grandfather George V's death in 1936 was hastened by his physician Lord Dawson of Penn with a lethal dose of morphine. This was to ensure that the news of his decease would be reported in the next morning's Times, rather than in the downmarket evening papers. Dawson seems to have had form, as shown in the popular rhyme:
'Lord Dawson of Penn Has killed lots of men. That's why we sing God Save the King.'
Most Novus Ordo funerals in the British Isles and Europe use violet vestments, but black is also used and white is popular, though not as all-pervasive as it appears to be in the US. The Oxford Oratory doesn't give a choice - you can have any colour, as long as it's black.
The clergy officiating at Her late Majesty's funeral in Westminster Abbey will, as per tradition, be vested in black copes.
I just read an article contrasting the transition of Queen Elizabeth under the mentorship of Winston Churchill versus the reversed experience owned by King Charles and Liz Truss. They were hypothesizing about how Churchill had mentored Queen Elizabeth and how the relationship would be reversed with King Charles and PM Truss. While I can understand that relationship in theory, I don’t think that there is an official influence that Charles would exercise. Additionally, I am under the impression that Ms. Truss might not be receptive to influence by the Royal Family.
Half a dozen of us fom the Schola Gregoriana of Cambridge provide the chant for the Young Catholic Adults' annual retreat (Mass and Vespers in the Vetus Ordo) which is held at Douai. We use the little parish church adjacent to the abbey and join the monks for Compline in the abbey church.
COVID caused the event to be cancelled in 2020 and 2021 but it will take place as usual next month.
Good to know you have been there and are providing the music for the Mass and Vespers in the Vetus Ordo. My son-in-law's late father developed a lifelong love of Gregorian Chant (and Rugby) because of his years at Douai College (closed in 1999, I believe). The first time we met in our home in the United States (his son went to college in the US) when our daughther and his son became close, we chanted the Dies Irae together after a couple of Martinis! I commented at the time, "alas, when we were a great, Universal Church. Although I was raised in the US and he and Britain we shared this religious heritage. I have been to Cambridge and it is a delightful place!
The monarchy's role is 'to be consulted, to advise and to warn'. Given some of the policies and legislative actions of British governments in the past twenty-five years one wonders if she advised against any course of action which in her better judgement was unwise. One springs to mind, namely Tony Blair's ill-judged participation in the invasion of Iraq. We shall of course never know, but there is some suspicion that her determination to be above politics might have hampered her in the exercise of one her proper constitutional functions.
When Queen Victoria succeeded in 1837 she was only eighteen and had had a sheltered upbringing, so she was over-reliant on her Prime Minister Lord Melbourne until she married Albert in 1840. Elizabeth II was 25 and very much her own woman; moreover she had been heir presumptive for fifteen years. Churchill was an incurable romantic who doted on the young queen, but was used to getting his own way, and although Elizabeth deeply respected him their relationship was not always smooth.
Liz Truss is an experienced politician and does not (unlike her new sovereign) buy into the green agenda, so there may be room for disagreement behind the scenes.
I hope you are right about Liz Truss. I think many of us would at least listen to what the “Greens” had to say if their advocates were not such blatant hypocrites - circling the globe in private jets and owning seaside mansions. Do as I say, not as I do!
15 comments:
One of my coworkers had to repack for his extended trip to UK. It will be interesting to hear his impressions.
The fixation American media has with the Royals always makes me uneasy and I feel that I get a distorted view of how the citizens of the Commonwealth actually feel. But I have been impressed by the respectful comments from the few Brits I personally know from a country I deeply respect.
I will never forget the first time I heard this at a funeral. It was the funeral of my cousin, who died trying to withdraw from heroin addiction. He had stolen his dad's car to pay for drugs. He had stopped attending Mass years ago. He knew he was very sick and never bothered to even ask for a priest. Yet right there at the funeral, the priest who had never even MET the young man canonized him in his homily:
"Now he is with Jesus!"
Mourning? Black? Prayers for the dead?
Oh, no! We musn't upset the family!
Maybe our disciples of the Church of the New Springtime of the New Advent who LOVE to slobber about how "holy, holy, holy" Vatican II, Pope Paul VI and Pope Francis are can explain to us just HOW we erased Purgatory? Maybe these blubbering sycophants can cite for us just WHERE we can find the documents that allow priests to canonize unrepentant sinners? Maybe they can explain how we should rejoice at the millions of lost souls who have no one praying for them.
I would HATE to be in the shoes of the priests who, when facing their particular judgment, have to explain to our Judge why they decided that "extreme unction" isn't the way we do things any more. Or worse yet, how they made sure NO ONE prayed for the souls of the dead whose funerals they "celebrated".
Hopefully, Protestant Britain isn't as ready to just cave in as we Catholics were.
Jerome - We "celebrate" funeral liturgies, yes, and there is nothing wrong with the term or the PROPER understanding thereof.
I, too, am bothered by the folks, including too many priests, who say, "Your loved one isn't suffering any more." Oh? And, yes, I suspect a significant part of the motivation comes from a well-intended but misguided attempt to be compassionate.
As for determining who is and who is not an "unrepentant sinner," proceed with caution.
Many years ago, I attended the Requiem Mass for my son-in-law's father at Douai Abbey in Woolhampton. Although not everyone was attired in Black, everyone was dressed quite properly, men in suits and ties and women in dresses with hats. The Benedictine Abbot celebrated the Mass which was quite dignified and featured some Latin chants from the Missa pro Defunctis. I cannot say that is the kind of decorem I experience at the typical "Celebrations of Life" in the US.
From my experience as a Sacristan and an Altar Server, altho the Ordo allows that white violet and black are permitted, it would be a very brave priest who used anything other than white vestments.Some orthodox priests will wear violet during/Lent/Advent, but never black(Few parishes now have black vestments).One young priest (who also celebrated the TLM) wore a black chasuble on All Souls for a Novus Ordo Mass.He chuckled that there were audible gasps as he processed to the Altar!
Amont,
I always thought it idiotic to dispense with black as a liturgical color. Sorrow is a natural response to death. Our young pastor does use black vestments on proper occasions. He also celebrates the TLM. He is open to the entire Catholic Liturgical Tradition, not the ersatz one created in the 1960s
At 12.30 pm on 8 September it was announced that the Queen's health was giving 'cause for concern' but that she was 'comfortable'. The two main TV channels switched to live coverage of her immediate family arriving at Balmoral and the studio presenters were all in black, prompting the question 'do they know something we don't?' When HM's death was officially announced it was still a shock, but not a surprise.
Her grandfather George V's death in 1936 was hastened by his physician Lord Dawson of Penn with a lethal dose of morphine. This was to ensure that the news of his decease would be reported in the next morning's Times, rather than in the downmarket evening papers. Dawson seems to have had form, as shown in the popular rhyme:
'Lord Dawson of Penn
Has killed lots of men.
That's why we sing
God Save the King.'
Most Novus Ordo funerals in the British Isles and Europe use violet vestments, but black is also used and white is popular, though not as all-pervasive as it appears to be in the US. The Oxford Oratory doesn't give a choice - you can have any colour, as long as it's black.
The clergy officiating at Her late Majesty's funeral in Westminster Abbey will, as per tradition, be vested in black copes.
John Nolan,
Reminds me of Henry Ford: you can have a car in any color you want as long as it is black!
I just read an article contrasting the transition of Queen Elizabeth under the mentorship of Winston Churchill versus the reversed experience owned by King Charles and Liz Truss. They were hypothesizing about how Churchill had mentored Queen Elizabeth and how the relationship would be reversed with King Charles and PM Truss. While I can understand that relationship in theory, I don’t think that there is an official influence that Charles would exercise. Additionally, I am under the impression that Ms. Truss might not be receptive to influence by the Royal Family.
John Nolan,
Have you been to Douai Abbey?
John Nolan,
Have you been to Douai Abbey?
TJM
Half a dozen of us fom the Schola Gregoriana of Cambridge provide the chant for the Young Catholic Adults' annual retreat (Mass and Vespers in the Vetus Ordo) which is held at Douai. We use the little parish church adjacent to the abbey and join the monks for Compline in the abbey church.
COVID caused the event to be cancelled in 2020 and 2021 but it will take place as usual next month.
John Nolan,
Good to know you have been there and are providing the music for the Mass and Vespers in the Vetus Ordo. My son-in-law's late father developed a lifelong love of Gregorian Chant (and Rugby) because of his years at Douai College (closed in 1999, I believe). The first time we met in our home in the United States (his son went to college in the US) when our daughther and his son became close, we chanted the Dies Irae together after a couple of Martinis! I commented at the time, "alas, when we were a great, Universal Church. Although I was raised in the US and he and Britain we shared this religious heritage. I have been to Cambridge and it is a delightful place!
rcg
The monarchy's role is 'to be consulted, to advise and to warn'. Given some of the policies and legislative actions of British governments in the past twenty-five years one wonders if she advised against any course of action which in her better judgement was unwise. One springs to mind, namely Tony Blair's ill-judged participation in the invasion of Iraq. We shall of course never know, but there is some suspicion that her determination to be above politics might have hampered her in the exercise of one her proper constitutional functions.
When Queen Victoria succeeded in 1837 she was only eighteen and had had a sheltered upbringing, so she was over-reliant on her Prime Minister Lord Melbourne until she married Albert in 1840. Elizabeth II was 25 and very much her own woman; moreover she had been heir presumptive for fifteen years. Churchill was an incurable romantic who doted on the young queen, but was used to getting his own way, and although Elizabeth deeply respected him their relationship was not always smooth.
Liz Truss is an experienced politician and does not (unlike her new sovereign) buy into the green agenda, so there may be room for disagreement behind the scenes.
John Nolan,
I hope you are right about Liz Truss. I think many of us would at least listen to what the “Greens” had to say if their advocates were not such blatant hypocrites - circling the globe in private jets and owning seaside mansions. Do as I say, not as I do!
Post a Comment