Fr. Larry Richards - Reason for Our Hope Foundation

The SECRET TRUTH of the Catholic Church

The Church Militant - Bringing Catholic Back

With great regret

I have to announce that the Oasis will be closed for the next week. A really bad problem with my sight has been made worse by the fact that I lost my glasses when I was in Chalais early this week. I hope to be back in time to catch up wirh the 'O Antiphons'. God bless all here

Song of the Soul - the feast of St John of the Cross

                                                                                       O, Blessed Jesus, give me stillness of soul in You.
                                                                                                 Let Your mighty calmness reign in me.
                                                                                            Rule me, O King of Gentleness, King of Peace

There have been several translations of the works of St John of the Cross but, arguably the best and most poetically sensitive were those undertaken by the great Catholic poet, Roy Campbell.

Campbell's work is well worth reading in its own right but here is his rendering of St John's "Song of the Soul that is glad to know God by faith":

'Song of the soul that is glad to know God by faith'

How well I know that fountain’s rushing flow

Although by night

Its deathless spring is hidden. Even so

Full well I guess from whence its source flow

Though it be night.

Its origin (since it has none) none knows:

But that all origin from it arose

Although by night.

I know there is no other thing so fair

And earth and heaven drink refreshment there

Although by night.

Full well I know the depth no man can sound

And that no ford to cross it can be found

Though it be night

Its clarity unclouded still shall be:

Out of it comes the light by which we see

Though it be night.

Flush with its banks the stream so proudly swells;

I know it waters nations, heavens, and hells

Though it be night.

The current that is nourished by this source

I know to be omnipotent in force

Although by night.

Richard Collins - Linen on the Hedgerow

E F pastoremeritus: Statement by Bishops of England & Wales on Apostolic Letter Intima Ecclesiae natura, ‘On the Service of Charity’

E F pastoremeritus: Statement by Bishops of England & Wales on Apostolic Letter Intima Ecclesiae natura, ‘On the Service of Charity’

The Cardinal and the love letter

Christine at A Catholic View has a post on St Edmund Campion and that prompted me to remember this episode in his brief ministry:

The beautiful Church of our Lady Queen of English Martyrs
Chideock, Dorset

In the year 1579, the exiled Cardinal Allen wrote to Father Edmund Campion, also in exile in Prague, ordering him, in accord with the wishes of the Jesuit Superior General, to return to the English Mission and to certain death.

The Cardinal’s letter is a heartfelt one, a letter of love made more acute by the fact that he was himself in agony having to send young priests back to England in the knowledge that torture and death most horrible, almost certainly awaited them.

The Cardinal wrote:-

“My father, brother, son, Edmund Campion, for to you I must use every expression of the tenderest ties of love – since the General of your order, who, to you is Christ Himself, calls you from Prague to Rome, and thence to our own England; since your brethren after the flesh call you – I, who am so closely connected with them, with you and with our common country, both in the world and in the Lord, must not keep silence when I should be first to desire you, to call you, to cry to you.

Make all haste and come, my dearest Campion………”

Fr Campion, on hearing the Cardinal’s call, heard it in silence and then blushed deeply and said:

“Indeed, the Fathers seem to suspect something about me. 

I hope their suspicions may be true.

God’s will be done, not mine”

There was already an aura surrounding Campion and talk within the group in Prague had speculated on the young priest’s future and as to when he would be despatched back to his country of birth.

Just the night before Cardinal Allen’s letter arrived, a rather fey young Silesian priest, Father James Gall, had written over Father Campion’s cell the words:

“P. Edmundus Campianus Martyr”

And, prior to that episode, that, another priest had painted an illustration of a garland of roses and lilies, symbols of martyrdom, on the wall above Edmund’s bed.

Less than seven months later, Father Campion landed in England to begin his ministry, it was to last until 1^st December 1581 when he was hanged, drawn and quarterd at Tyburn, having sung the Te Deum, after his sentencing in the company of two of his fellow priests who were martyred with him, Fathers Ralph Sherwin and Alexander Bryant.

Richard Collins - Linen on the Hedgerow

Pro-Life vs Pro-Choice How to end abortion around the world.: But will 'Establishment" Pro-Life Activists listen?

Prodigal Catholic Writer: ACCUSED PRIESTS BEGINNING TO SPEAK OUT

Prodigal Catholic Writer: ACCUSED PRIESTS BEGINNING TO SPEAK OUT

Blessed Miguel Pro - the priest who thanked his captor

Today is the anniversary of the martyrdom of one of our greatest Priest martyrs of the 20th century, Blessed Miguel Pro SJ.
Fr Pro was born in Mexico in 1891 and ordained to the ministry in 1925 and, as with so many of our martyrs, he suffered with ill health, a cross that he bore without complaint.

He had a keen sense of humour and was well known in the Pro family circle for his practical jokes.

After his ordination her returned to Mexico in much the same way as his fellow Jesuits had returned to England and Wales in the Reformation years, certain in the knowledge that ahead lay a road of capture, torture and death.

At the time, the Mexican Government was carrying out one of the most violent and genocidal purges of the followers of the Catholic Faith and Pro entered an arena where every other household harboured an informer, keen to claim the Judas reward for handing in a priest.

Fr Pro had many escapes from the authorities and he employed a rather Scarlet Pimpernel sort of role inasmuch that he would materialise in one village to hear confessions and celebrate Mass but would immediately after Mass, disappear without trace leaving the forces of General Cruz angry and frustrated.

On one occasion, when given chase, Fr Pro ran up to a young woman, grabbed her arm and told her that he was a priest; without hesitation the girl and priest linked arms and sauntered down the road like two lovers, passing through the cordons set up by the police.

Following an assassination attempt on the President, General Calles on November 13th 1927, when the authorities were determined to capture Fr Pro, he was duly apprehended and thrown into jail.

Within days he had been found guilty and sentenced to death by firing squad.

General Calles, thinking to make an example of this young man, ordered that the execution be witnessed by the press; little did he realise that the images that resulted were to resonate around the world resulting in the condemnation of his despotic regime.

As Fr Pro was led out to the yard where the firing squad awaited him, one of his captors, a police officer, begged his forgiveness. Fr Pro responded:
"You not only have my forgiveness, you also have my thanks"

"Viva Cristo Rey"

As he was placed in front of the squad, he was allowed a few minutes of prayer during which he knelt and recited his Rosary.
Refusing a blindfold he stood, arms outstretched forming a cross and shouted the words:

"Viva Cristo Rey" (Long live Christ the King)

As he lay, riddled with bullets, the officer in charge held a rifle to his head to deliver the coup de grace - it could have been a lance.

Fr Miguel Pro bore witness to Jesus Christ and to Holy Mother Church. He also left one particular prayer that he had composed.

It is, at first appearance, a rather harsh prayer, pleading with God to increase one's pain.

But to those who are sick or bear a cross of some kind, it is a great prayer and one that inspires fortitude and encourages resignation.

                                                Prayer of Blessed Miguel Pro

Does our life become from day to day more painful, more oppressive, more replete with afflictions? Blessed be he a thousand times who desires it so. If life be harder, love makes it also stronger and, only this love, grounded on suffering, can carry the cross of my Lord  Jesus Christ.

Love without egotism, without relying on self but enkindling in the depth of the heart an ardent thirst to love and suffer for all those around us: a thirst that neither misfortune nor contempt can extinguish…..I believe, O Lord; but strengthen my faith….Heart of Jesus, I trust in Thee; but give greater vigour to my confidence.

Heart of Jesus, I give my heart to Thee; but, so enclose it in Thee that it may never be separated from Thee.

Heart of Jesus, I am all Thine; but take care of my promise so that I may be able to put it in practice even unto the complete sacrifice of my life.

                                                Blessed Miguel Pro - Ora pro nobis

Richard Collins - Linen on the Hedgerow

Life on the Rock - Be a Man - Fr. Mark and Doug with Fr. Larry Richards ...

Claiming Sinners

Tennessee Williams

I've recently been preparing to teach Tennessee Williams' The Glass Menagerie to my lower sixth (16-17 year olds), and this has caused me to meditate on Williams' life. Williams, a very public sinner, was baptised into the Catholic Church in 1969, having been raised as an Episcopalian (his grandfather was an Episcopalian minister). This was some years after his long-term lover Frank Merlo had died of cancer, and he had entered a period of depression that would haunt him until he choked on the cap of a pill bottle at the age of 71.

Williams' conversion doesn't get a mention in his Wikipedia article. Nor is it mentioned in the potted biography at the front of my student edition of The Glass Menagerie. But of course there is plenty about his homosexuality and his struggles with alcohol and drug dependence. So often, in the life of a publicly known person, we hear about their falls from grace, but how often do we hear about their search for grace?

From an eternal perspective, Williams' baptism was the most important event in his life, and yet it is often overlooked. Another example of this tendency is Oscar Wilde, whose wild living and wit are frequently mentioned, but whose conversion is often conveniently forgotten.

We can never presume to know the state of another's soul, and yet writers often seem deliberately to expose it, using their own inner life as artistic raw material. This makes it difficult not to speculate about what was happening in the silence of their communion with their Maker, away from the noise and glare of publicity.

We cannot know the immortal destiny of Williams' tortured soul, which endured so much suffering in this life. But as I ponder on his struggles, I am filled with an overwhelming feeling of compassion, rather like the sense I have when I pray for the repose of my grandparents' souls, none of whom were Catholics. As Fr Hugh Thwaites once observed, it's no joke going through life without the Sacraments.

May they rest in peace.

[Posted by A Tiny Son of Mary]