Tonus Peregrinus

07 November 2016

Mother Angelica on Voting

Our Lady of America, pray for us.

By thy Holy and Immaculate Conception,

Oh Mary, deliver us from evil.

There are two items on the internet highlighting the teaching on voting of Mother Angelica:

Lifesite News

EWTN on Facebook

Mother Angelica, pray for us.

An Hymn of Saint Michael the Archangel

1. Holy Michael, great Archangel,

Nerve thine arm and bare thy sword,

Lead us with thy dazzling legions,

In the battle for the Lord:

Sure defence and trusty safeguard,

Let thy mighty strength afford.

2. Not with flesh and blood we wrestle,

Not as man with man contend,

But against the powers of darkness,

Who on craft and lies depend:

Treachery and shame and violence,

All the cause of Hell befriend.

3. Through God’s threefold fair creation,

Through the earth, the sea, the sky,

Wander Satan’s loathly spirits,

Luring souls of men to die:

Cast them down, O Prince of Angels,

By the power of God Most High.

4. All who pouring out their life blood,

More than conquer in the fight,

All who in th’ unequal combat,

Fall beneath the oppressor’s might:

Christ the King’s great Standard-Bearer,

Lead into the Holy Light!

The English Catholic Hymn Book
W. Knott & Sons, 1955
Revised and Augmented ed.
Tune: Regent Square

Saint Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle.

06 November 2016

An Excerpt from the Chapter "The Prayer of the Body"

Before Christ died he literally gave us his sacramental body in his own hands. Day after day he is born in the consecrated hands of the priest ; in a man's hands he is lifted up and offers himself to the Father. It is fitting, then, that so often our offering of self through the body must be made literally with our hands.

Caryll Houselander

What an expression of himself a man's hands are. When he comes to die, what a story his hands tell. They have taken on the shape and colour and texture of his work. They are the story of his life. When Madame Curie lay dead, the most beautiful testimonial to her life's work was in her hands lying simply on the coverlet, scarred with burns of radium.

Long before Christ gave us his body in his own hands they were hardened by toil, beautiful with the line and muscle and sinew of the hands of an artisan, and hollowed out by the wooden mallet to cup the chalice and hold the nail. But in the consummation of his self-giving, these hands which had given in so many ways were helpless, fastened back, immovable, to a plank.

At that moment his body was broken, the heart was broken, the flesh and blood separated. Every day the suffering of the Lord's body is shown in the breaking of the bread.

Sooner or later, our prayer of the body too becomes the helpless hands, the falling away of self, the breaking of the bread. Sickness, old age, death ; these must come, and when they come it seems that our service is ended. There is exhaustion which makes it first an effort, then an impossibility, to lift the hand up to make the sign of the cross; no more liturgical acts in daily life, gestures and symbols that worship God and give Christ's love to men.

Everything falls away from us, even memories— even the weariness of self. This is the breaking of the bread, the supreme moment in the prayer of the body, the end of the liturgy of our mortal lives, when we are broken for and in the communion of Christ's love to the whole world.

But it is not the end of the prayer of the body. To that there is no end. Our dust pays homage to God, until the endless morning of resurrection wakens our body, glorified.

Caryll Houselander

The Risen Christ

Sheed and Ward, New York

1958

Sheen: A Lesson in Political Power

As I have considered the many signs of brutal bigotry in the emails of Hillary Clinton campgain officials especially the bigotry revealed against serious Catholics together with John Podesta's plan to create fake "Catholic" organisations as part of a plan to foment revolution within the Catholic Church, I have longed for the clear voice of the Venerable Fulton J. Sheen. We no longer have his faithful voice, nor do we have the voice of Mother Angelica who would have told us exactly what a Catholic's duty was in such an election. But we do have the record of Bishop Sheen's teachings, videos, audio recordings, and his remarkable books.

In the Venerable Fulton J. Sheen's 1947 work "Characters of the Passion", the Servant of God wrote about politics with a striking insight that is still true today. This is as close as we can come to having Bishop Sheen speak to our day and situation. The following quotes are taken from the third chapter entitled "Pilate: A Lesson in Political Power":

“Those who have their finger on the pulse of contemporary civilization have probably noted that there are two contradictory charges against religions today. The first is that religion is not political enough; the other is that religion is too political. On the one hand, the Church is blamed for being too divine, and on the other, for not being divine enough. It is hated because it is too heavenly and hated because it is too earthly.”

“Because [Christ] was too religious, He was not political enough. The religious judges said that He had no concern for the fact that the Romans were their masters, and that they might take away their country (John 11:47-48). By talking about a spiritual kingdom, a higher moral law, and His divinity, and by becoming the leader of a spiritual crusade, He was accused of being indifferent to the needs of the people and nation’s well being”

“And so throughout history, these two contradictory charges have been leveled against the Person of Christ in His Body the Church. His Church was accused of not being political enough when it condemned Nazism and Fascism; it is accused of being too political when it condemns Communism. It is the second charge that needs specific consideration, namely, that the Church is interfering in politics. Is this true? It all depends upon what you mean by politics. If by interference in politics is meant using influence to favor a particular regime, party, or system that respects the basic God–given rights and freedom of persons, the answer is emphatically No!

“The Church does not interfere in politics. If by interference in politics is meant judging or condemning a philosophy of life that makes the party or state, or the class, or the race, the source of all rights, and that usurps the soul and enthrones party over conscience and denies those basic rights for which the war was fought, then answer is emphatically Yes!

“The Church does judge such a philosophy. But when it does this, it is not interfering with politics, for such politics is no longer politics but theology. When a state sets itself up as absolute as God, when it claims sovereignty over the soul, when it destroys freedom of conscience and freedom of religion, then the state has ceased to be political and has begun to be a counter-Church.”

“It was Jesus Christ who suffered under Pontius Pilate; it was not Pontius Pilate who suffered under Jesus Christ. The grave danger today is not religion in politics but politics in religion.”

“But whatever be the reason for these trying days, of this we may be certain: The Christ Who suffered under Pontius Pilate signed Pilate’s death warrant; it was not Pilate who signed Christ’s. Christ’s Church will be attacked, scorned, and ridiculed, but it will never be destroyed….

“The bold fact the enemies of God must face is that modern civilization has conquered the world, but in doing so has lost its soul. And in losing its soul it will lose the very world it gained.

“Even our own so-called liberal culture in the United States, which has tried to avoid complete secularization by leaving little zones of individual freedom, is in danger of forgetting that these zones were preserved only because religion was in their soul. And as religion fades so will freedom, for only where the spirit of God is, is there liberty.”

05 November 2016

Abby Martin on John Podesta

There have been many bizarre revelations about John Podesta through the Clinton/Podesta Wikileaks release of emails. It would be easy to be carried away with the strange, but there is enough serious information to consider about this man who has been so influential and powerful in the administrations of Bill Clinton and Barack Obama and in the campaign of Hillary Clinton.

The following video comes from Abby Martin, and I post it here because I know of no journalist in the mainstream news media who is covering these issues with John Podesta:

Eva Ugalde Miserere

Eva Ugalde: Miserere

Cor de Noies de l'Orfeó Català

Directora Buia Reixach i pianista Josep Surinyac

Concert a Hondarribia el 2009 amb Javier Busto de director

Our Lady of America, pray for us.

04 November 2016

Friday Prayers of Christians

O Holy Spirit, giver of light and life, impart to us thoughts better than our own thoughts, and prayers better than our own prayers, and powers better than our own powers, that we may spend and be spent in the ways of love and goodness, after the perfect image of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.

Eric Milner-White and G W Briggs, Daily Prayer (1941)

O Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the living God, we pray thee to set thy passion, cross, and death, between thy judgement and our souls, now and in the hour of our death. Give mercy and grace to the living, pardon and rest to the dead, to thy holy Church peace and concord, and to us sinners everlasting life and glory; who with the Father and the Holy Ghost livest and reignest, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

O God, the King of Saints, we praise and magnify thy Holy Name for all thy servants who have finished their course in thy faith and fear; for the Blessèd Virgin Mary; for the holy Patriarchs, Prophets, Apostles, and Martyrs; and for all other thy righteous servants, known to us and unknown; and we beseech thee that, encouraged by their examples, aided by their prayers, and strengthened by their fellowship, we also may be partakers of the inheritance of the Saints in light; through the Merits of thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.