The countdown begins...
Only 29 days left before St. Philip's Day !

For Saturday
The Hail Mary...in Sindarin.

Ai Meri, meleth-phant, Hîr ah-le;
daethannen im bessath phain
a daethannen iaf e-huvech - Iesus.
Aer Meri, Eru-odhril,
hero ammen raegdain
sí a ned lú e-gurthem.
Tanc

Ryszard Derdzinski did this translation. Thanks to Gwaith-i-Phethdain for hosting it online.

The April First Things is online...
which means I can post a link to a great article in which Fr. Edward Oakes, S.J., gives Professor Frank Turner's thoroughly nasty book, John Henry Newman: The Challenge to Evangelical Religion, the treatment it deserves. ( I admit, I have not slogged through Professor Turner's tome. However, the little I did read was enough to make the author my current bete noir. )

Silly Internet quiz time...


You are Pope John Paul II. You are a force to be
reckoned with.


Which Twentieth Century Pope Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

Thanks to Disputations for the link.

Oratorian news
According to the official website, we've got yet another Venerable.

That's great, but I'd be even happier if a certain other Venerable were moving on to beatification....
And speaking of that other Venerable, Mr. Gallagher has a link and commentary on one of the sermons he wrote while he was still an Anglican. (Direct link not working. Scroll down to " Cardinal Newman on the witnesses to the resurrection ".

Two quotes..
from a letter of the Professor to Joanna di Bortudano, dated April 1956:

"I hope you have now 'come by' Vol. III. I am always rather pleased when I hear of somebody being obliged to buy the book ! An author cannot live on library subscriptions. "

"There is a laborious practical side even to high Romance- not that hobbits ever forget that."

Dave Armstrong
has a great new paper up:

Refutation of Protestant Polemicist William Webster's Critique of Catholic Tradition and Newmanian Development of Doctrine

Not as easy as it sounds.. especially for anyone with a temper !
"The true way to advance in holy virtues is to perservere in a holy cheerfulness. " - St. Philip Neri

The Kingdom of God

by Venerable John Henry Newman, C.O.

" 1. My Lord Jesus, how wonderful were those conversations which Thou didst hold from time to time with Thy disciples after Thy resurrection. When Thou wentest with two of them to Emmaus, Thou didst explain all the prophecies which related to Thyself. And Thou didst commit to the Apostles the Sacraments in fulness, and the truths which it was Thy will to reveal, and the principles and maxims by which Thy Church was to be maintained and governed. And thus Thou didst prepare them against the day of Pentecost (as the risen bodies were put into shape for the Spirit in the Prophet's Vision), when life and illumination was to be infused into them. I will think over all Thou didst say to them with a true and simple faith. The "kingdom of God" was Thy sacred subject. Let me never for an instant forget that Thou hast established on earth a kingdom of Thy own, that the Church is Thy work, Thy establishment, Thy instrument; that we are under Thy rule, Thy laws and Thy eye—that when the Church speaks Thou dost speak. Let not familiarity with this wonderful truth lead me to be insensible to it—let not the weakness of Thy human representatives lead me to forget that it is Thou who dost speak and act through them. It was just when Thou wast going away, that then Thou didst leave this kingdom of Thine to take Thy place on to the end of the world, to speak for Thee, as Thy visible form, when Thy Personal Presence, sensible to man, was departing. I will in true loving faith bring Thee before me, teaching all the truths and laws of this kingdom to Thy Apostles, and I will adore Thee, while in my thoughts I gaze upon Thee and listen to Thy words.

2. Come, O my dear Lord, and teach me in like manner. I need it not, and do not ask it, as far as this, that the word of truth which in the beginning was given to the Apostles by Thee, has been handed down from age to age, and has already been taught to me, and Thy Infallible Church is the warrant of it. But I need Thee to teach me day by day, according to each day's opportunities and needs. I need Thee to give me that true Divine instinct about revealed matters that, knowing one part, I may be able to anticipate or to approve of others. I need that understanding of the truths about Thyself which may prepare me for all Thy other truths—or at least may save me from conjecturing wrongly about them or commenting falsely upon them. I need the mind of the Spirit, which is the mind of the holy Fathers, and of the Church by which I may not only say what they say on definite points, but think what they think; in all I need to be saved from an originality of thought, which is not true if it leads away from Thee. Give me the gift of discriminating between true and false in all discourse of mind.

3. And, for that end, give me, O my Lord, that purity of conscience which alone can receive, which alone can improve Thy inspirations. My ears are dull, so that I cannot hear Thy voice. My eyes are dim, so that I cannot see Thy tokens. Thou alone canst quicken my hearing, and purge my sight, and cleanse and renew my heart. Teach me, like Mary, to sit at Thy feet, and to hear Thy word. Give me that true wisdom, which seeks Thy will by prayer and meditation, by direct intercourse with Thee, more than by reading and reasoning. Give me the discernment to know Thy voice from the voice of strangers, and to rest upon it and to seek it in the first place, as something external to myself; and answer me through my own mind, if I worship and rely on Thee as above and beyond it. "

Meditations and Devotions

I'm afflicted with "middle-brow PBS Anglophilia"
and happy to be so. As matter of fact, I seldom quote from the particular authors cited by Relapsed Catholic in her proposed moratorium, but continually quote from other authors of that mileu which she does not mention, such as Tolkien, Knox, and, somewhat further back in time, the Venerable.( Actually, quoting from the Venerable is one of the main ulterior motives of the blog.. if more people read him, more people may be motivated to find out more about him, and more people will pray for his canonization. How long, O Lord ? )
So, you can forget about any moratorium on quotes from English Catholics in this corner.....

Just now...
I'm happy to say that Senator Richard Santorum is one of my representatives. The gentleman over at Lex Communis gives a fine explanation as to why, under the heading "Free speech, anyone ?". (Direct link not working) .

Too cute !
The picture of Hershey, the Rat of the Week over at The Rat Fan Club website .

The Feast of St. George
is today. There is information on him here . He is, among other things, one of the patron saints of England. Perhaps that is why a church named for him, San Giorgio in Velabro, was chosen as the titular church for Venerable Newman when he was elevated to the cardinalate.
There is a picture of the plaque commemorating his cardinalate here.

Hmmmm...


Times New Roman - You can come off slightly stodgy.
You are often found in intellectual circles,
but the average person finds you boring.


What Font Are You? (Standard Fonts)
brought to you by Quizilla

I actually use Times New Roman for my word processing.

Thanks to Dylan for the link .

Excerpt by the Professor for Easter..
From his essay, "On Fairy-stories"....
"It is not difficult to imagine the peculiar excitement and joy that one would feel, if any specially beautiful fairy-story were found to be 'primarily' ture, its narrative to be history, without necessarily losing the mythical or allegorical significance that it had possessed. It is not difficult, for one is not called upon to try and conceive anything of a quality unknown. The joy would have exactly the same quality, if not the same degree, as the joy which the 'turn' in a fairy-story gives: such joy has the very taste of primary truth. (Otherwise its name would not be joy.) It looks forward (or backward: the direction in this regard is unimportant) to the Great Eucatastrophe. The Christian joy, the Gloria , is of the same kind; but it is preeminently (infinitely, if our capacity were not finite) high and joyous. But this story is supreme; and it is true. Art has been verified. God is the Lord, of angels, and of men-and of elves. Legend and History have met and fused.

But in God's kingdom the presence of the greatest does not depress the small. Redeemed Man is still man. Story, fantasy, still go on, and should go on. The Evangelium has not abrogated legends; it has hallowed them, especially the 'happy ending'. The Christian has still to work, with mind as well as body, to suffer, hope and die; but he may now perceive that all his bents and faculties have a purpose, which can be redeemed. So great is the bounty with which he has been treated that he may now, perhaps, fairly dare to guess that in Fantasy he may actually assist in the effoliation and multiple enrichment of creation. All tales may come true; and yet, at the last, redeemed, they may be as like and unlike the forms that we give them as Man, finally redeemed, will be like and unlike the fallen that we know. "

Lane Core
has good links to sermons by the Venerable here.

He was also kind enough to mention my links to him here.

Music at noon Mass, Easter Sunday
Processional Hymn: "Jesus Christ Is Risen Today"
Sequence: "Victimae Paschali Laudes" - Gregorian Chant
Renewal of Baptismal Promises: "Vidi Aquam" - Gregorian Chant
Offertory: "Christ Our Passover" - Healey Willan (1880-1968)
Communion: Organ improvisation (The piece that was supposed to be here had to be left out, for reasons given below.)
Recessional Hymn: "The Strife Is O'er, The Battle Done"

Music at Easter Vigil Mass
Renewal of Baptismal Promises: "Vidi Aquam" - Gregorian Chant
Offertory: "At the Lamb's High Feast We Sing"
Communion: "Christ Our Passover" - Healey Willan (1880-1968)
Recessional Hymn: "The Strife Is O'er, The Battle Done"