The best statement I have read on Universae Ecclesiae yet

While doing some research for a future post, I dropped by the website of St Mary's parish in Norwalk Connecticut.  The pastor there, Father Greg J Markey, has written for his "from the pastor" column of the website the best  statement I have yet seen on Universae Ecclsiae.  I reproduce it here without comment, as I believe it speaks for itself.

This past Friday, May 13, 2011 (Our Lady of Fatima), the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei released the Instruction Universae Ecclesiae (To the Universal Church), "on the application of the Apostolic Letter Summorum Pontificum." Summorum Pontificum was Pope Benedict XVI’s 2007 motu proprio which, as the Instruction states, “made the richness of the Roman Liturgy more accessible to the Universal Church” (1).

The implementation of Summorum Pontificum in continuity with the Second Vatican Council has been a defining part of my time here as pastor at St. Mary Church and it is worth reflecting on this new Instruction in light of our experience.

In reading Universae Ecclesiae, I cannot help but think that we here at St. Mary Church are implementing the Holy Father’s liturgical vision. The heart of the Instruction states: “The Roman Missal promulgated by Pope Paul VI and the last edition prepared under Pope John XXIII, are two forms of the Roman Liturgy, defined respectively as ordinaria and extraordinaria: they are two usages of the one Roman Rite, one alongside the other. Both are the expression of the same lex orandi of the Church. On account of its venerable and ancient use, the forma extraordinaria is to be maintained with appropriate honor” (6).

Where is this liturgical vision being carried out in the Catholic Church today? There are many parishes that will avoid any positive reference to the extraordinary form. There are also a small number of parishes, most of which are run by religious orders, that will do the extraordinary form exclusively, without the ordinary form. There are parishes that do both the ordinary and extraordinary forms, but where the extraordinary form is a fringe element, handled by an external group of priests at odd Mass times. Who, then, is going to bring the extraordinary form and ordinary form together in one parish, “alongside one another”? By the grace of God, St. Mary Church in Norwalk is doing just this.

The Instruction goes on to say that the extraordinary form is to be “considered a treasure to be preserved” (8, a) and that the bishop is “to ensure respect for the forma extraordinaria of the Roman Rite” (13). Therefore, those who feel a certain hostility toward the Traditional Latin Mass need to examine their consciences as to whether they are thinking with the mind and heart of the Church, or whether more secular models of Catholicism have seeped into their thinking.

On the other hand Universae Ecclesiae wants to avoid the other extreme as well: “The faithful who ask for the celebration of the forma extraordinaria must not in any way support or belong to groups which show themselves to be against the validity or legitimacy of the Holy Mass or the Sacraments celebrated in the forma ordinaria” (19). While some of the faithful may have a preference for the extraordinary form, groups which attack on the legitimacy of the ordinary form are not part of the Holy Father’s vision of the liturgy.

Nonetheless, the implementation of the liturgical reforms of the Second Vatican Council, which ultimately became the ordinary form of the Mass, is not above criticism. Speaking at an international conference on the liturgy earlier this month, Pope Benedict XVI stated that the purpose of the reform, “was not mainly to change the rites and texts” but to “renew the mentality” of worshipers. But he acknowledged that the implementation fell short of this goal. “Unfortunately,” the Holy Father stated, “the liturgy has perhaps been seen – even by us, pastors and experts – more as an object to reform, than a subject capable of renewing Christian life.”

While there have always been numerous liturgical rites within the history of the Catholic Church, it is a unique and even confusing historical development to have two official forms of the one Roman Rite. How are the two forms and their respective calendars to be reconciled? As a pastor who has been actively promoting a reverent celebration of both forms for almost four years now, there have been no shortage of strong opinions directed at me from across the liturgical spectrum trying to answer this question.

I think it must be said that the people have a right to come to church and to have the same holy Mass, performed with the same rituals every week so that through the repeated gestures and symbols, the Sacred mysteries are properly communicated. However, with so many changes, and so many liturgical abuses since Vatican II, the faithful have become the arbiters of good liturgy; a position that they have historically never possessed. Perhaps, as Martin Mosebach has written, this is one of the greatest tragedies of the post-Vatican II era of liturgy: rather than coming to worship the Triune God and humbling accepting the liturgy as a gift from heaven, the people in the pews have become self-proclaimed liturgical experts. As Mosebach writes, “I go to church to see God and come away like a theatre critic.”

Liturgical abuses became so bad after the Council that even the Congregation for Divine Worship’s instruction, Redemptionis Sacramentum, advises the faithful to do, “(A)ll that is in their power to ensure that the Most Holy Sacrament of the Eucharist will be protected from any and every irreverence or distortion and that all abuses be thoroughly corrected. This is a most serious duty incumbent upon each and every one, and all are bound to carry it out without any favoritism” (183). Therefore, it is not surprising that so many of the laity have strong opinions, even if some of these opinions are uninformed.

As a priest, I have to be honest in saying that it is a challenge to offer the Roman Rite well here at the parish, with so many legitimate options: one Holy Mass I am offering the Sacrifice ad orientem, the next Mass I am offering It versus populum; one Mass is in Spanish, the next is in Latin; One Mass we are chanting the Latin Mass parts, the next we are reciting them in English; one Mass I am reciting the Canon out loud, the next the Canon is silent. This is the historical period that we are living in, and this is part of being a faithful Catholic in the year 2011.

For the future, Pope Benedict XVI has written that “the two forms of the usage of the Roman Rite can be mutually enriching.” There is much speculation as to what this mutual enrichment will look like. Currently, I think the common element in both forms is what the Pope calls the ars celebrandi, or the art of proper liturgical celebration. More specifically, the ars celebrandi is the “faithful adherence to the liturgical norms” (Sacramentum Caritatis, 37), and a manner of offering which fosters “a sense of the sacred” (40) and “awe for the mystery of God” (41).

I think all of the clergy here at St. Mary Church practice this ars celebrandi well, and while we have many liturgical options here at St. Mary Church, I think this common ars celebrandi is evident. I am often told when parishioners have visited other parishes on vacation, or for various Sacramental celebrations, how they miss the reverence and devotion that goes on here during our Masses. Even our children have told me that they have been surprised by the lack of reverence when they have visited certain other parishes. I have also been told when parishioners notice this ars celebrandi in other parishes, with hope in their voice. Therefore for now, the ars celebrandi is the common bond of the two forms.

Where will this “mutual enrichment” of the two forms of the Roman Rite lead? Perhaps only the Holy Spirit knows but after the release of Universae Ecclesiae this past week, Cardinal Kurt Koch stated that the pope’s ultimate goal is not simply to allow the old and new forms to coexist, but to move toward a “common rite.”

For this to be done the Church’s liturgy must be offered in continuity with the Church’s tradition, as the Pope has made clear, and not seen as a break, where people make a distinction between a pre-Vatican II and post-Vatican II liturgy. This will be difficult because there are not a small number of Catholics who seem to be embedded in the liturgical manner and music of the 1970’s and 1980’s, and unable to view the liturgy outside of this period. There are even those who have a curious self-hatred for things Catholic, like any use of Latin in the Mass. Obstacles like this must be overcome.

We here at St. Mary Church are seeking to implement the liturgical vision of Pope Benedict XVI, with the two forms “alongside one another.” No doubt there will be criticism of this liturgical vision as being “too conservative” or even “self-righteous,” yet our response must be in imitation of the Pascal Lamb, who “when reviled did not revile in return” (1 Peter 2:23). If we are attempting to root ourselves in the truth, we must be equally rooted in charity.

For anyone who has eyes to see, there is something quite amazing going on here at St. Mary Church. There are many gifted people who are being attracted to St. Mary Church from far and wide, and what is happening is larger than any one of us: the growing number of young families, the devoted altar boys, the student schola, the ethnic diversity – yes, there is something amazing going on here at St. Mary Church and I am very proud to be part of it.

Sincerely in Christ,

Fr. Greg J. Markey
frmarkey@hisnet.org

Query: Homeschooling

Younger wants to be homeschooled. And as I have 2 BA's and Bear is ABD to his PhD, we are, according to the requisites, educated enough to homeschool. My question: Since I know my limits, I would only want to homeschool until Grade 8 or so, so how do the kids apply to high school and how do they get to take the standardized tests necessary throughout elementary school?

The curriculum, I can get from the Ministry Website, and there are different support groups, but this is the make it or break it question.

Any ontario homeschoolers who can answer, please do.

Attitude Adjusters for Guardian Angels to Use on Their Charges

A copy of what I think Bear's Angel uses on him.

From Archangel's Pulpit:

“'a 24 carat Gold Plated cast iron skillet 1st used on a certain apostle on his way to Damascus', namely [his] guardian angel's favo[u]rite method of gaining [his] attention."

Then there's mine Angel who needs something stronger, as suggested by a commentor on Archangel's Pulpit: a 2X4

- Puff

The Middle Ages, and a bit from Youtube

Something I read over at The Roving Medievalist brought to mind something I saw on television years ago. What the Roving Medievalist said was something about "those who have a fantasy view of the Middle Ages," and also how Victorian and later illustrators of medieval combat make the whole affair seem clean and elegant, which is just plain wrong. That called to mind a scene from James Burke's Connections series. I couldn't isolate the exact scene, unfortunately, but it starts about two or three minutes into the scene below. He really gets to the guts of the matter between 3:35-3:50.




The Middle Ages, it seems to me, was a time of wonders and a time of horrors. To pretend life then was just one or the other does those people a disservice, and robs us of the lessons we may learn from them. The people who lived during that period survived on faith and hope, and they knew that life was something to be both endured and enjoyed.

Auguri di Santa Lucia

Best Wishes on this Feast of Saint Lucy.



Buon Onomastico a tutte le donne e ragazze chiamate Lucia.

Happy Name's Day to all women and girls named Lucy.

Here is and English version of a song to Saint Lucy

click to enlarge


Tips on how to celebrate Saint Lucy's Day.

and more from Wikipedia on her Day

Interesting note: in some cultures daughters cook breakfast and serve mom in bed wearing a Saint Lucy crown.

POPE UNDERLINES IMPORTANCE OF NATURAL MORAL LAW

Emphasis mine
My Comments

VATICAN CITY, OCT 5, 2007 (VIS)
- This morning the Pope received members of the International Theological Commission, who have just completed their annual plenary meeting, held in the Vatican from October 1 to 5 under the presidency of Cardinal William Joseph
Levada.

In his remarks to them, the Holy Father recalled the recent publication of a commission document on the subject of "the hope of salvation for children who die without receiving Baptism," and expressed the wish that it may "continue to be a useful point of reference for pastors of the Church and for theologians," as well as providing "assistance and consolation for the faithful who have suffered the sudden death of a child before receiving" the Sacrament. Having suffered 4 miscarriages, it gives me some solace to know that I can still hope, as Catholics all have the HOPE that we may one day live enternally with God in heaven, that God might still have saved them even though Bear and I were UNABLE to have them baptised, as they died before they were born and henceforth COULD NOT be baptised, and NOT because we did not want them baptised.

Turning to focus on "natural moral law," a question being examined by the commission, Benedict XVI indicated that the doctrine on natural law "achieves two essential aims: on the one hand, it makes it clear that the ethical content of Christian faith is not an imposition dictated from outside man's conscience, but a norm that has its basis in human nature itself; [In short, Catholic morality stems from Natural law] and on the other hand, by starting from the basis of natural law - which of itself is accessible to all rational creatures - it lays the foundations for dialogue with all men and women of good will, and with civil society more generally." [It is a way to start talking with all people indivdiually and society as a whole.]

The Pope then highlighted the fact that nowadays "the original evidence for the foundations of human beings and of their ethical behavior has been lost, and the doctrine of natural moral law clashes with other concepts which run directly contrary to it. All this has enormous consequences on civil and social order." [For proof of this read this article from Lifesite on the GBLTTQ Anti-harrassment policy]

What dominates today, he continued, "is a positivist conception of law" according to which "humanity, or society, or in effect the majority of citizens, become the ultimate source for civil legislation. The problem that arises is not, then, the search for good but the search for power, or rather the balance of power. At the root of this tendency is ethical relativism, in which some people even see one of the principal conditions for democracy because, they feel, relativism guarantees tolerance and mutual respect. ... But if this were true, the majority at any given moment would become the ultimate source for law, and history shows with great clarity that majorities can make mistakes." [It is one thing to state that GLBTTQ are not to be bashed or attacked or harrassed, but to have anti-harrassment policies which are veiled approvals of the lifestyle in an organisation which calls itself "Catholic" is problematic, to say the least. It sends a mixed message to the children who are to be educated, not only in the 3 R's but also, in the tenets and obligations of the Faith and Church. Christ himself says "love the sinner, but hate the sin" Sex outside of marriage is a sin- pure and simple. And it may be alright to say that, but apparently it will be harrasment to include sex involving people with attractions that are extremely different than 90% of the human population.]

"When," the Holy Father proceeded, "the fundamental essentials are at stake: human dignity, human life, the institution of the family and the equity of the social order (in other words the fundamental rights of man), no law made by men and women can subvert the norm written by the Creator in man's heart without society itself being dramatically struck ... at its very core. Thus natural law is a true guarantee for everyone to live freely and with respect for their dignity, protected from all ideological manipulation and from all arbitrary abuses of the powerful. No one can disregard this appeal. [Don't brutalise, abuse, harm, or discriminate the GLBTTQ person - yes with out a doubt this is absolutely correct. It is one thing to decide that attacks, harrassment or discrimination will not be tolerated, but don't in your PC mode, to go so far over that you are actually endorsing and approving there Lifestyle- is betraying Catholic teaching. It is a sin to have sexual relations out side of marriage and a teacher, who is not married and is involved in a sexual relation, even heterosexual one, might not need to be fired or harrassed for the relationship itself, but does that mean that in trying NOT to offend this teacher, the school cannot teach that fornication is a sin. Or a teacher having an adulterous affair might be offended to hear that children are being taught that adultery is a sin. Fornication is a sin, adultery is a sin. The act of sex between persons of the same sex and gender is a sin. All three sinners, need not be harrassed or vilified for their sins, but at the same time, neither should they feel that their sins are not sins, and should not be taught as such to the children being educated by a supposed "Roman Catholic School System."]

"If," he added, "by reason of a tragic clouding of the collective conscience, skepticism and ethical relativism managed to annul the
fundamental principles of natural moral law, the very democratic order itself would be profoundly undermined at its foundations. Against such clouding - which is a crisis for human, even more than for Christian, civilization - the consciences of all men and women of good will must be mobilized, both lay people and followers of religions other than Christianity, so that together they may make an effective commitment to creating ... the conditions necessary for a full awareness of the inalienable value of natural moral law." [This is what I tried to say with the examples above. PBXVI says it better.]

Benedict XVI concluded by stressing that "the advance of individuals and of society along the path of true progress" depends upon respect for natural moral law, "in conformity with right reason, which is participation in the eternal Reason of God." [The trustees of the TDCSB should be e-mailed this from the
Vatican.]

AC/NATURAL MORAL LAW/COM-TIVIS 071005 (650)

Now this is blunt

This is the ASL for abortion

The dominant hand (right hand for a right-handed person) grabs an imaginary object from the horizontal, downturned, non-dominant '5' hand and then is thrown down and open.

To see the video

The imagery is blunt to say the least, but very accurate.

Lynne Harper's Father Not Happy about Steven Truscott's Acquittal.

The Harper family have always believed that Steven Truscott was guilty of Lynne's Murder. They still believe he is guilty and don't think he should receive a penny in compensation for the wrongful conviction that almost sent him to the gallows. As Steven said, this verdict has helped the Truscott family, but has done nothing for the Harper family.

Please pray for the Harpers. Truscott's acquittal means that there is no one to hold accountable for the rape and murder of a 12 year old girl 48 years ago. The Harper family no longer have closure. Pray for them, and Lynne.

I understand the Harper's family's emotions, and I am sorry for them. To be told that no one is to be held responsible for your daughter's death, or that you have despised the wrong man for almost half a century is inhuman. But that pain would not have occurred if the police, the crown and the judge had done their jobs right the first time - in 1959.

Lynne Harper's family speaks out on Truscott , from the Globe and Mail.
Five decades after his 12-year-old daughter was brutally raped and murdered, and a day after Steven Truscott was acquitted of the heinous crime, Leslie Harper finally breaks his silence

from Louise at Purcell's Chicken Voluntary Under the date July 5,

"PRAYING FOR A MIRACLE"
"It’s not just Muslims and Jews who have faced persecution in recent years. An estimated 200m Christians in 60 countries are now suffering increasing victimisation. So why isn’t the West doing anything to protect them? "

The need for prayers goes without saying.

Ruminations inspired by the Solemnity of St John Baptist

Let me tell you two stories. Both were inspired by yesterday's solemnity, one more directly than the other, and both have to do with how the Church has sought at times to solve its problems, and in so doing changed everything.

Yesterday I had the pleasure of singing the Vespers hymn for st John Baptist, a piece called Ut Queant Laxis. It is quite possibly the most important piece in the history of music in terms of its effect on what was to come. It goes like this:

About a thousand years ago the Church was facing a crisis. This is of course nothing new: the Church is always facing some sort of crisis. This one had to do with music.

For the first millenium of the Church's history composers had been creating music to go with every part of the Mass, along with the divine office, and general hymns of praise, and so on. The total of music was immense, and every last bit of it was in danger of being lost forever because no one could write it down. As St Isadore of Seville put it: "Unless sounds are remembered, they perish, for they cannot be written down." Early attempts at write music at that time consisted of arrow-like markings over the words, indicating if the pitch went up or down. However, such markings were mnemonic devices, aimed at helping someone who already knew the piece remember how it went. It would not have been possible for someone to pick up a piece so marked and sing it from the page.

Enter the hero of our story, benedictine monk Guido d'Arezzo. Our hero was in charge of teaching music to the young monks in his monastery. While teaching them our hymn to St. John Baptist, he noticed that each line began on a successive note:


Ut queant laxis
re-sonare fibris:
mi-ra gestorum
fa-muli tuorum:
sol-ve polluti
la-bii reatus:
Sancte Ioannes

If you take the first syllables on which those ascending notes appeared you have Ut, re, mi, fa, sol, la, and si... If you were to change the "ut" to "do" (pronounced as in "a deer"- a female deer) and "si" to "ti" (as in the drink, goes well with jam and bread, so I'm told, I don't like jam) you have something familiar to us all. What Guido had done was give the notes names, and names can be written down. The issue was how.

Eventually the solution he arrived at was to draw four lines over the words, and mark one line either as "ut" or as "fa" and indicate the notes with square dots placed on the line or space over the word, thus indicating that word's pitch. And thus the first modern music notation was born.

He also created a method of teaching singers still used today, wherein singers are trained to sing the intervals by having the singers sing the notes out of order, rather like Julie Andrews in Sound of Music, where she teaches them, as Guido did, first the names of the notes, and them how to move between them "so, do, la, fa, mi, re, do- when you know the notes to sing." And his students could now sing most anything.

The immediate reaction was that Guido got fired by his bishop, who was upset that Guido turned novices into professional singers. But another bishop of another diocese was quite happy to have professional singers, and brought Guido to his place, where he encouraged Guido to write a book on his method. His book, the Micrologus, came to the attention of the pope, who summoned Guido to Rome to explain and demonstrate his new method. Guido did as told, and the pope, after seeing the method demonstrated, almost immediately ordered all monasteries to adopt Guido's methods and set down their music. And thus the crisis was ended.

But Guido's invention stretched far beyond the preservation of Chant. All the music that exists in the West today, whether Polyphony, or Baroque, or Classical, Romantic, Jazz and so on, exists because it could be written down by one writer, and handed over to musicians who could then faithfully reproduce what they saw on the page. And for that, we owe a tremendous debt of gratitude to a simple Benedictine monk, who was simply trying to teach his novices to sing.

The other story has to do with why we celebrated St John Baptist day yesterday. June 24 only falls on a Sunday every six to thirteen years. The reason why it does is because of the nature of our calendar, the Gregorian calendar. That calendar was created by the Church, and doing that kicked off an even bigger revolution than Guido...

About five hundred years ago, the Church faced a crisis. This time, scholars had noticed that the old Julian Calendar was slipping out of sync with the seasons, and were concerned that the high holy days would be celebrated at the wrong time of year.

The calendar was also to be kept in sync by a celestial observation that could only be made once every three hundred or so years. Unfortunately, on the night that one observation could be made the sky was cloudy. Now they were really in a pickle.

The Church turned to a monk whose first name was Nicholas, who was a polymath and had done some work on astronomy, to look into the matter, and see if some other way of observing could be made. Nicholas looked into the matter, and examined the old ptolemaic geo-centric model of the universe. That model, which worked well at first for the Greeks and Romans, worked less well as time passed. Every time some new observation was made, some alteration had to be made to the system, and new cycles and epicycles were added. As more observations of the stars and planets were made, the complications increased. Nicholas examined the system, and decided to change everything, and in so doing, changed everything. Nicholas Copernicus' book, De revolutionibus orbium coelestium (On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres) placed the sun a the center of everything, and kicked off a revolution the likes of which the world had never seen.

It made calendar reform a snap, just to begin with. Contrary to much popular thought, the Church was not against the book at first, and made good use of it for much of the next century. One the of the first to cry out against him was actually Martin Luther, who is said to have exclaimed: "The fool wants to turn the science of astronomy upside down!" Copernicus did exactly that, and in so doing, he set it free.

One More thing...

One last (I think) note to my posts on Britain's Got Talent. After Paul Potts, the most popular of the performers on the show was six year old Connie Talbot, who was charming in her audition. As with Paul Potts' audition, watch Simon's face:




I read in an interview yesterday that she may be signing a seven figure deal with Simon Cowell. Also in the interview, someone said: "She may be the next Charlotte Church!" Upon reading that, my immediate instinct was to pull out my trusty rosary and pray this sweet little girl does not become the next Charlotte Church. I think maybe a few more prayers may be helpful in this situation. While it may seem odd to pray for someone who is successful, I often feel that they are truly in need of it. Success often seems to carry with it a whole new level of temptation. And so few child stars turn out well.

You will not often hear Bill Maher quoted favourably on this blog, but I will do so now. He once said, in effect: "People who bring their kids to Hollywood producers are handing their children over to the very people they should protect them from."

Canadian Catholic News: ‘Abolish abortion’ top Canadian wish on CBC- sponsored Facebook group

OTTAWA, Canada (CCN) – When the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) set up a Facebook group on the Internet called “The Great Canadian Wish List,” perhaps no one could have predicted that “Abolish Abortion in Canada” would rise to first place almost from the very start.

.....

Pro-life Catholic blogger Suzanne Fortin of Ottawa has been mobilizing people to keep “Abolish Abortion” in top spot. She has been sending out emails and blogging up a storm to tell people how to join Facebook and how to register for the pro-life wish.
........

Fortin reported that pro-choice blogs are recruiting people, including Americans, to join Facebook and vote for the pro-choice wish.
“If their cause is so popular why to they need Americans to support their wish?” she said. “I’ve made it very clear in every communication I only want Canadian’s joining.”
.....

For instructions on how to join Facebook and register on the CBC wish contest, see the Web site www.bigbluewave.ca.


see the rest of the story here:


*******************************************

So any and all Canadian Catholics who come across this, please register at Facebook and vote for this very worthy wish. As of this posting, this wish has dropped to second, with "Keeping Abortion Legal, reaching number One. We, Canadians have to change this. Let's get "Abolish Abortion in Canada back to Number one. Results will be published on Canada Day (July 1)

More Cool DIY

I was planning on going to the university observatory tonight- the sky was clear on a wednesday for the first time in weeks, and Saturn would be out- but I was unable to make it. However, some time ago on the net I found these plans:

http://www.telescopesineducation.com/dobson/index.html

It looks simple enough. If you google "home made telescopes" you will find many links to people who did just that. It is just so cool.

I enjoy looking at the heavens, though I have a terrible fear that may be as close as I get to heaven. Even so, a telescope would be interesting to have. I'll put that on my list of projects, right after two refinishing jobs, and a desk for elder, and younger's doll house, and the pipe organ thing....

Dimbulb's insomnia must be contagious

But I did manage to do some interesting reading

Found this from " A Man for all Seasons"

"Dear Lord, give us rest tonight, or if we must be wakeful, cheerful.
Careful only for our soul's salvation. For Christ's sake. Amen."

Wonder if it really was St. Thomas More's bedtime prayer. Anyone out there know?

Roman Protestant: New Religion or What? From "The Lair of the Catholic Cavemen"

From The Lair of the Catholic Cavemen

So, are you a Roman Protestant?

M/N to BMP at Christus Vincit for linking to it

I'm St. Melito of Sardis

You’re St. Melito of Sardis! You have a great love of history and liturgy. You’re attached to the traditions of the ancients, yet you recognize that the old world — great as it was — is passing away. You are loyal to the customs of your family, though you do not hesitate to call family members to account for their sins. Find out which Church Father you are at The Way of the Fathers!

M/N to Dimbulb

EXPLANATION OF THE COAT OF ARMS FOR ARCHBISHOP THOMAS COLLINS

The motto "Deum Adora" (Worship God) is taken from the Book of Revelation 22:9. When St. John seeks to worship the angel who has shown him the great visions of the book, the angel rebukes him: "Worship God." It is God who claims our adoration and loyalty, in worship and in action. St. Thomas More expressed this when in his last words before martyrdom he said: "I die the king’s good servant, but God’s first." Our priorities in life must be clear and determined by our adoration of the Lord. The shield with a gold cross on a red background is based on that of St. Peter's Seminary. The Alpha and Omega recall the Book of Revelation 22:13, where Jesus says: "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end." The open Bible and the chalice represent the two great ways in which we experience Jesus in the Church, in Word and Sacrament.

***

The above taken from the Archdiocese's webpage. Click title to link.