- Father Malachi Martin
Thursday, March 22, 2012
- Father Malachi Martin
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
The Monastery of Saint Benedict in Nursia, dedicated mostly to the Traditional Latin Mass and exclusively to the Traditional Benedictine Divine Office, has produced a special 40-minute documentary about their inspiring life seeking Almighty God in the birthplace of Saint Benedict and Saint Scholastica. The above is the trailer version.
In the Jubilee year 2000 the monks of Norcia breathed new life into the birthplace of St Benedict. Armed with only their faith and zeal they founded a monastic community which has been attracting men from all over the world to follow St. Benedict's ancient Rule. Many of their friends have long wanted an insight into the inner workings of their life and so they have produced this high quality up to date film which shows the monks as they go through the daily ora et labora. The title of the film, "Quaerere Deum", means to Seek God. This is the true calling of all monks, the first and most essential quality of an authentic monastic vocation, as laid out in the Rule of our Holy Father St. Benedict.
For information, please contact:
Monastary of San Benedetto
monastero@osbnorcia.org
Like a star in the darkness of night, Benedict of Nursia brilliantly shines, a glory not only to Italy but of the whole Church. Whoever considers his celebrated life and studies in the light of the truth of history, the gloomy and stormy times in which he lived, will without doubt realize the truth of the divine promise which Christ made to the Apostles and to the society He founded "I am with you all days even to the consummation of the world."[1] At no time in history does this promise lose its force; it is verified in the course of all ages flowing, as they do, under the guidance of divine Providence. But when enemies assail the Christian name more fiercely, when the fateful barque of Peter is tossed about more violently and when everything seems to be tottering with no hope of human support, it is then that Christ is present, bondsman, comforter, source of supernatural power, and raises up fresh champions to protect Catholicism, to restore it to its former vigor, and give it even greater increase under the inspiration and help of heavenly grace.
Encyclical of His Holiness Pope Pius XII On St. Benedict March 21, 1947
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
This is just one example to show you that the Institute and by far the vast majority of other non-SSPX orders are attached to the Tridentine Mass for a feeling of nostalgia or "preference." This is not what makes someone a Traditional Catholic.
A traditional Catholic knows that a Catholic can not attend a Novus Ordo, or go to a Novus Ordo ordained priest, or support religious liberty, ecumenism, or collegiality. Why is this? Because in so doing, they are denying the Traditional dogmas and authority of the Universal Church on ecumenism, religious liberty, and even on the propitiatory nature of the Sacrifice of the Mass. In the Novus Ordo, unlike the traditional Roman Rite (and other Traditional Rites), the word propitiatory does not appear in the beginning of the Novus Ordo Roman Missal's doctrinal exposition.
The very nature of the Novus Ordo Sacraments, while not necessarily invalid (but questionable in many instances), bear in them the theology of the New Rite and the Post Vatican II Church. To frequent these Sacraments is to mix the good, true, and beautiful with that which is present in the New Sacraments: novelty. By receiving the Novus Ordo Sacraments, you profess your Communion in and with the beliefs of the Novus Ordo Church, even those beliefs that are flawed.
His Grace Bishop Williamson comments in his "Eleison Comments" #241 in February 2012 the following:
For instance a Protestant may believe in God, he may even believe in the divinity of the man Jesus of Nazareth, but if he does not believe in the Real Presence of God, body, blood, soul and divinity, beneath the appearances of bread and wine after their consecration at Mass, then he has a profoundly different and deficient concept of the love of Jesus Christ and of the God in whom he believes. Can one then say that the true Protestant and the true Catholic believe in the same God ? Vatican II says one can, and on the basis of supposedly more or less shared beliefs between Catholics and all non-Catholics, it builds its ecumenism. On the contrary Dr Schüler illustrates by a series of comparisons that what may look like the same belief, when it forms part of two different creeds, is not really the same at all. Here is one illustration: oxygen molecules mixed with nitrogen are the selfsame molecules as when compounded with hydrogen, but they are as different in the two cases as the air we breathe (O + 4N) from the water we drink (H20)!Even a number of priests offering the Traditional Sacraments (e.g. the FSSP) were ordained in the Novus Ordo ordination rite. And many priests (non SSPX that is) that happen to have received traditional ordinations, received them from bishops who were themselves ordained to the episcopacy in the Novus Ordo.
Oil and water do not mix just as theological novelties and the unerring, immutable, eternal Truths of the Catholic Faith.
Just to summarize, this particular issue is one of great complexity and no one post can do justice to the situation to explain it fully in terms of its philosophical, theological, and societal implications. I merely wish to raise the question that very few Traditionalist raise, namely, whether or not Traditional Catholics should (or can) attend the Novus Ordo.
The following segment of What We Have Lost...And the Road to Restoration helps to give a concise overview of the depths of the problem.
I would invite all of you to also read Why You Should Not Attend the Novus Ordo. This particular document helps go in more detail with the problems inherent in the Novus Ordo. An additional resource is the Society's page: Is the New Mass Legit? As said by His Excellency Marcel Lefebvre, "The Novus Ordo Missae, even when said with piety and respect for the liturgical rules, is impregnated with the spirit of Protestantism...it bears within it a poison harmful to the Faith"
Monday, March 19, 2012
The Mass will mark the opening of the shrine church following the closure of the parish church in 2008 amid rising maintenance and repair costs.
The shrine church will be a special place of prayer and devotion open every day for adoration of the Most Holy Eucharist.
The church will also serve as a centre in the Diocese of Shrewsbury for the celebration of the Holy Mass and other sacraments in the Latin Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite.
The Parish of Holy Apostles and Martyrs is served from the Parish Church of English Martyrs and Father Philip Moor, the parish priest, will assist at the opening Mass.
Source: Diocese of Shrewsburg
(Pictures of Canon Olivier Meney of the Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest, celebrating Mass in the Weekday Chapel of Ss Peter and Paul and St Philomena, New Brighton, and of the dome of the shrine church by Simon Caldwell, St Gabriel News and Media)
Saturday, March 17, 2012
If any of you are homeschoolers, you may be familiar with Khan Academy, a website in which high quality and free video content from a wide variety of subjects (earth sciences, mathematics, physics, business taxation, art, etc) is distributed. In the above video from the Khan Academy, you can listen to a basic overview of Euclid, the Father of Geometry.
Yet, I suggest that Euclid, who lived nearly 300 years before the advent of Christ, is to be considered the Father of Catholic Mathematics.
Some anti-Catholics may think that I am choosing a pagan mathematician to be the "Father of Catholic Mathematics" because there simply are no successful Catholic mathematicians. After all, don't all Catholics reject science and empirical study in order to blindly follow the teachings of the Pope and factual inaccuracies (e.g. orbit of the Earth)? To this group of depressed and ill-informed individuals, I'd like to direct you to "How the Catholic Church Built Western Civilization," in which Dr. Woods expounds upon the varied, significant, and priceless contributions of Catholics to mathematics, science, industrial production, art, charity, and a whole host of other worthy endeavors.
My choosing of Euclid to be the Father of Catholic Mathematics, albeit an informal title, is not in the least because there are few Catholic mathematicians. I believe that Euclid is the true precursor to the Catholic mathematician.
Euclid's systemic demonstrations of geometry - including planar geometry, three-dimensional geometry, and number theory - expressed in his Elements is one of the greatest collection of mathematics (if not the greatest) ever produced. By some estimates, Euclid's Elements is second only to the Sacred Scriptures as the most printed book in human history.
Lincoln himself toward the end of the video at the beginning of this post expressed his admiration for Euclid. In fact, it was held, up until the modern era, that a man was not educated if he had not read, studied, and memorized some of the proofs of Euclid!
But what is it that makes Euclid the "Father of Catholic Mathematics"? It is a two-fold comparison that I would like to illustrate. First, I wish to illustrate that the very foundations of Euclidean geometry parallel the foundations for Catholic theology.
Now you might be surprised by this assertion. After all, how does geometry compare to Theology? Well, let's take a step back. What is the underpinning of Theology? Well for anyone that has studied it, we would recognize Philosophy as the underpinning of Theology. One does not study Theology without first studying Philosophy.
Axioms & First Principles
But how is geometry and philosophy both connected? Euclidean geometry consists in assuming a small set of intuitively appealing axioms, and deducing many other propositions (theorems) from these. In Euclid's method, the most basic of axioms include:
- Things that are equal to the same thing are also equal to one another.
- If equals are added to equals, then the wholes are equal.
- If equals are subtracted from equals, then the remainders are equal.
- Things that coincide with one another equal one another.
- The whole is greater than the part.
Both in Euclidean geometry and philosophy are based on the notion of using a small set of axioms to come to knowledge of a larger body of knowledge! In philosophy, we have the following axioms as first principles:
- The principle of noncontradiction: the same thing cannot both be and not be at the same time and in the same respect. The same proposition cannot be both true and false.
- The principle of excluded middle: Either a thing is or it is not, there is no third possibility. (Tertium non datur: a third is not provided.)
- The principle of the reason of being (the principle of intelligibility): being is intelligible to the human intellect and as an object of intellection it can be explained ontically only through being, and so it cannot be identified with non-being. Every being has a reason of its existence either in itself or in something else.
- The principle of finality: Every agent acts for an end.
- The principle of causality: Every effect has a cause.
- The principle of identity: Every being is that which it is. Each being is separated in its existence from other beings.
Euclidean Geometry in Cathedrals
Hugh McCague of York University in "A Mathematical Look at a Medieval Cathedral" explains the importance of geometry in the building of Cathedrals. Rather than simply re-writing what has already been written, I'd like to direct you to that link. In the article, you will note that Euclid's Elements is cited as the important precursor to the practical geometry that was of central importance in the building of some of the greatest Cathedrals ever made for the honor of God.
Simply put, every Catholic, whether he is a mathematician, artist, architect, student, or average layperson should be familiar with the works of Euclid. Euclid's theories truly impacted the construction of Catholic architecture for centuries.
Conclusion
The website Much More About Math (Editor Note: website no longer exists) does a good job at summarizing the importance of Euclidean geometry:
Geometry holds great importance in the forever-expanding world of mathematics. It enables us to picture what is happening in problems we may encounter in the study of mathematics. The study of geometry helps us develop the ability to visualize shapes, volume, area, and so on. Geometric proofs play an important role in the expansion and understanding of many branches of mathematics, from Venn diagrams in set theory to area under the graph in calculus.Below you can find through Amazon.com all of the contents of the Elements in English. This set of three books is also added to my Wishlist so if any reader would be so kind as to purchase these three for me, know that I would be extremely grateful.
One must realize that probably the most important reason a mathematician and/or non-mathematician should understand geometry is the use of deductive thinking and logic. For the mathematician, the use of logic and deductive thinking is important especially in such courses as finite mathematics. For the non-mathematician, logic and deductive reasoning could play a role in doing such courses as Philosophy.
Geometry holds great importance in the forever-expanding world of mathematics. It enables us to picture what is happening in problems we may encounter in the study of mathematics. The study of geometry helps us develop the ability to visualize shapes, volume, area, and so on. Geometric proofs play an important role in the expansion and understanding of many branches of mathematics, from Venn diagrams in set theory to area under the graph in calculus.
One must realize that probably the most important reason a mathematician and/or non-mathematician should understand geometry is the use of deductive thinking and logic. For the mathematician, the use of logic and deductive thinking is important especially in such courses as finite mathematics. For the non-mathematician, logic and deductive reasoning could play a role in doing such courses as Philosophy.
Friday, March 16, 2012
If you have not yet signed up for the 2012 Conference October 19 - 21st now is a good time! See my post on the topic for more information.
Photos from the 2010 Conference on the 40th Anniversary of the Society of St. Pius X are below. These images were from the Pontifical High Mass said by Bishop Fellay during that weekend. The photos are part of an album taken by True Restoration.
Read more >>
Photos from the 2010 Conference on the 40th Anniversary of the Society of St. Pius X are below. These images were from the Pontifical High Mass said by Bishop Fellay during that weekend. The photos are part of an album taken by True Restoration.
Thursday, March 15, 2012
Novena for the Feast of the Annunciation
I greet thee, ever-blessed Virgin, Mother of God, Throne of Grace, miracle of Almighty Power! I greet thee, sanctuary of the Most Holy Trinity and Queen of the Universe, Mother of Mercy and Refuge of sinners.
Most loving Mother, attracted by thy beauty and sweetness, and by thy tender compassion, I confidently turn to thee, miserable as I am, and beg of thee to obtain from thy Dear Son the favor I request in this novena:
Mention you request here
Obtain for me also, O Queen of Heaven, the most lively contrition for my many sins and the grace to imitate closely those virtues which thou practiced so faithfully, especially humility, purity and obedience. Above all, I beg thee to be my Mother and Protectress, to receive me into the number of thy devoted children, and to guide my from thy high throne of glory.
Do not reject my petitions, O Mother of Mercy! Have pity on me, and do not abandon me during life and especially at the moment of my death.
+Amen
Wednesday, March 14, 2012
See his collection of written books for more.
Monday, March 12, 2012
For Catholics living in the middle part of Illinois, toward the very end of the Diocese of Joliet or to the northern part of the Diocese of Peoria, please consider going to this special Mass.
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