St. Louis IX, King of France

  Saint Louis, King of France with a Page by El Greco

Son of King Louis VIII and Blanche of Castile, King St. Louis IX (commonly called St. Louis) is the only French monarch to have ever been canonized.  He was crowned the King of France and Count of Artois at age eleven, though his mother ruled as regent until he reached 22.  Thereafter, St. Louis reigned for 44 years.  St. Louis made numerous judicial and legislative reforms, promoted Christianity in France, established religious foundations, aided mendicant orders, propagated synodal decrees of the Church, built leper hospitals, and collected relics.

In 1230 the King forbade all forms of usury. Where the profits of the Jewish and Lombard money-lenders had been exorbitant, and the original borrowers could not be found, Louis exacted from the usurers a contribution towards the crusade which Pope Gregory was then trying to launch. St. Louis also ordered, at the urging of Pope Gregory IX, the burning in Paris in 1243 of some 12,000 manuscript copies of the blasphemous Talmud and other Jewish books.

He married Marguerite of Provence at age 19, and fathered eleven children.   Furthermore, St. Louis supported Pope Innocent IV in war against Emperor Frederick II of Germany.  He was a Trinitarian tertiary and also led two Crusades.  It was during the second of these Crusades that he died. 

The Holy Crown of Jesus Christ (the relic of the crown which rested on the Head of our Lord) was bought by King St. Louis IX from Baldwin II. It is preserved today in a 19th century reliquary, in Notre-Dame Cathedral, Paris.

Traditional Reading at Matins:

Louis IX, king of France, having lost his father when he was only twelve years old, was educated in a most holy manner by his mother Blanche. When he had reigned for twenty years he fell ill and it was then he conceived the idea of regaining possession of Jerusalem. On his recovery therefore he received the great standard from the bishop of Paris and crossed the sea with a large army. In a first engagement he repulsed the Saracens; but a great number of his men being struck down by pestilence, he was conquered and made prisoner.

A treaty was then made with the Saracens, and the king and his army were set at liberty. Louis spent five years in the east. He delivered many Christian captives, converted many of the infidels to the faith of Christ, and also rebuilt several Christian towns out of his own lesources. Meanwhile his mother died, and on this account he was obliged to return home, where he devoted himself entirely to good works.

He built many monasteries and hospitals for the poor; heassisted those in need and frequently visited the sick, supplying all their necessities at his own expense and even serving them with his own hands. He dressed in a simple manner and subdued his body by continual fasting and wearing a hair-cloth. He crossed over to Africa a second time to fight with the Saracens, and had pitched his camp in sight of them when he was struck down by a pestilence and died while saying this prayer: ‘I will come into thy house; I will worship towards thy holy temple and I will confess to thy name.’ His body was afterwards translated to Paris and is honourably preserved in the celebrated church of St. Denis; but the head is in the Sainte-Chapelle. He was celebrated for miracles, and Pope Boniface VIII enrolled his name among the saints.

Death of Saint Louis 1270 by Gustave Dore

Meditation:

"I think more of the place where I was baptized than of Rheims Cathedral where I was crowned.  It is a greater thing to be a child of God than to be the ruler of a Kingdom.  This last I shall lose at death but the other will be my passport to an everlasting glory." (St. Louis IX, King of France)

Prayer:

O God, Who didst translate blessed Louis, Thy Confessor, from an earthly throne to the glory of Thy heavenly kingdom: grant, we beseech Thee, through his merits and intercession, that we may have fellowship with the King of kings, Jesus Christ Thy Son: Who liveth and reigneth.

Prayer Source: 1962 Roman Catholic Daily Missal

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Excerpt: "Brief Apology for the Church of all Time" by Fr Roger-Thomas Calmel

 Image Source: Bishop Perry of Chicago on the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary

“However crazily the Catholic hierarchy may behave, priests cannot take the place of bishops, nor can laity take the place of priests. Do we then think of setting up a huge worldwide league or association of priests and Christian layfolk to enter into dialogue with the hierarchy and force them to restore Catholic order ? It is a grand and touching idea, but it is unreal. That is because any such group, wanting to be a Church group but being neither a diocese nor an archdiocese nor a parish nor a religious order, will come under none of the categories over which and for which authority is exercised in the Church. It will be an artificial grouping, an artefact unknown to any of the Church’s real groups which are established and recognized as such.

“So, as with every grouping together of men, the problem of leadership and authority will arise, and the huger the group, the sharper the problem. Unfailingly it will come down to this: being an association, the group must solve the problem of authority; being artificial (no kind of natural or supernatural group), it cannot solve the problem of authority. Rival sub-groups will rapidly arise, war will become inevitable, and there will be no canonical way to end or wage such a war.

“Are we then condemned to being able to do nothing amidst the chaos, often a sacrilegious chaos? I do not think so. Firstly, the indefectibility of the Church guarantees that down to the end of the world there will be enough of a genuine personal hierarchy to maintain the sacraments, in particular the Eucharist and Holy Orders, and to preach the one and only unchanging doctrine of Salvation. And secondly, whatever be the failings of the real hierarchy, we all of us, priests and laity, have our little part of authority.

“Therefore let the priest capable of preaching go to the limits of his power to preach, to absolve sins and to celebrate the true Mass. Let the teaching Sister go to the limits of her grace and her power to form girls in the Faith, good morals, purity and literature. Let every priest and layman, every little group of laity and priests having authority and power over a little fort of the Church and Christendom, go to the limits of their possibilities and powers. Let leaders and inmates of such forts know and be in contact with one another. Let each of the forts protected, defended, trained and directed in its praying and singing by a real authority, become as far as possible a fortress of holiness. That is what will guarantee the continuation of the true Church and will prepare efficaciously for its renewal in God’s good time.

“So we need not to be afraid, but to pray with all confidence and to exercise without fear, according to Tradition and in the sphere that is ours, the power we have, preparing thus for the happy time when Rome will come back to being Rome and bishops to being bishops.”

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St. Philip Benizi

Double (1955 Calendar): August 23

St. Philip Benizi (1233 - 1285 ) was a Servite cardinal and preacher. In 1233, St. Philip was born in Florence, Italy, to a noble family. As a young man, he was educated in Paris and Padua where he earned a doctorate in medicine and philosophy. He practiced medicine for some time, but in 1253 he joined the Servite Order in Florence. He served as a lay brother until 1259, when his superiors directed him to be ordained.

St. Philip soon became known as one of the foremost preachers of his era, becoming master of novices at Siena in 1262 and then superior of several friaries and prior general of the Servites in 1267 against his own wishes.

Reforming the order with zeal and patience, he was named as a possible candidate to become pope by the influential Cardinal Ottobuoni just before the election to choose a successor to Pope Clement IV. This possibility was so distressing to the humble saint that he fled and hid in a cave until the election was finally over.

He attended the Council of Lyons which brought about a brief reunion with the Orthodox, worked to bring peace between the Guelphs and the Ghibellines in 1279, assisted St. Juliana in founding the third order of the Servites, and in 1284, dispatched the first Servite missionaries to the Far East. He retired to a small Servite house in Todi, where he died on August 22, 1285. He was canonized in 1671.

Prayer

O God, You have set before us an outstanding example of humility in the person of Your blessed confessor Philip. Grant us, Your servants, the grace to follow his example and spurn earthly riches in order to strive after the treasures of heaven. Through our Lord…

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Mass Propers: Octave Day of the Assumption (Feast of the Immaculate Heart)

Today according to the 1962 Calendar is the Feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary.  Below are the Mass Propers for this Feast along with commemorations of the Octave Day of the Assumption which was in place up until the 1955 Calendar of Saints.

INTROIT

Hebrews 4: 16

Let us go with confidence to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace in seasonable aid. (Ps. 44: 2) My heart hath uttered a good word: I speak my works to the King. v. Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost, as it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

COLLECT - Let us pray. Almighty, everlasting God, who didst prepare in the Heart of the Virgin Mary a worthy dwelling-place for the Holy Ghost; mercifully grant that we, devoutly contemplating the festivity of the same Immaculate Heart, may be enabled to live according to Thy heart. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Thy Son, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God, Forever and ever. R.Amen.

COMMEMORATION OF THE OCTAVE DAY OF THE ASSUMPTION - Let us pray. Forgive, we beseech Thhe, O Lord, the sins of Thy servants, that we, who by our own deeds are unable to please Thee, may be saved by the intercession of the Mother of Thy Son, our Lord, Who with Thee liveth and reigneth in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God, one God Forever and ever. R.Amen.

EPISTLE

Eccles. 24: 23-31

As the vine I have brought forth a pleasant odor, and my flowers are the fruit of honor and riches. I am the mother of fair love, and of fear, and of knowledge, and of holy hope. In me is all grace of the way and of the truth in me is all hope of life and of virtue. Come over to me, all ye that desire me, and be filled with my fruits; for my spirit is sweet above honey, and my inheritance above honey and the honey-comb. My memory is unto everlasting generations. They that eat me, shall yet hunger; and they that drink me, shall yet thirst. He that hearkeneth to me, shall not be confounded, and they that work by me, shall not sin. They that explain me shall have life everlasting. Thanks be to God.

GRADUAL

My heart shall rejoice in thy salvation: I will sing to the Lord, who giveth me good things: yea I will sing to the name of the Lord the most high. V. (Ps. 44: 18) They shall remember thy name throughout all generations. Therefore shall people praise thee for ever: yea, for ever and ever.

Alleluia, alleluia. V. (Luke 1: 46, 47) My soul doth magnify the Lord. And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour. Alleluia.

GOSPEL

John 19: 26-27

At that time, there stood by the cross of Jesus, His mother, and His mother's sister Mary of Cleophas, and Mary Magdalen. When Jesus therefore had seen His mother and the disciple standing, whom He loved, He saith to His mother,"Woman, behold thy son." After that He saith to the disciple, "Behold, thy mother." And from that hour the disciple took her to his own.

OFFERTORY

Luke 1: 46

Let us pray. My spirit hath rejoiced in God my Savior; because He that is mighty hath done great things to me: and holy is His name.

SECRET Offering the Immaculate Lamb to Thy Majesty, O Lord, we beg that the divine fire which ineffably inflamed the Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary may be lighted in our hearts. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Thy Son, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee in the unity of the Holy Ghost, one God Forever and ever. R.Amen.

SECRET FOR THE OCTAVE DAY May the prayer of the Mother of God aid Thy people, O Lord: and although we know her to have passed out of this life, fulfilling the lot of the flesh, may we experience her intercession for us with Thee in Heavenly glory. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Thy Son, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee in the unity of the Holy Ghost, one God Forever and ever. R.Amen. 

COMMUNION

John 19: 27

Jesus said to His mother: Woman, behold thy son: Then He said to the disciple: Behold thy mother. And from that hour, the disciple took her to his own. 

POST COMMUNION - Let us pray. Refreshed by divine gifts, we humbly beseech Thee, O Lord, that, by the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the solemnity of whose Immaculate Heart we have just venerated, we may be freed from present dangers and may attain to the joys of eternal life Through the same Lord Jesus Christ, Thy Son, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee in the unity of the Holy Ghost, one God For ever and ever. R. Amen. .

POST COMMUNION FOR THE OCTAVE DAY - Let us pray. Now that we have received, O Lord, the Sacrament of salvation, grant, we beseech Thee, that through the merits and the intercession of the blessed Virgin Mary, who was taken up into heaven, we may be brought to the glory of the resurrection. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Thy Son, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee in the unity of the Holy Ghost, one God Forever and ever. R.Amen.

Sources: Saint Andrew Daily Missal and the Marian Missal , 1945

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Catholic Picture of the Day

Mass in a cathedral while a convalescing, badly burned American officer lies in bandages. Leyte, Philippines, by W. Eugene Smith, 1944, LIFE

H/T Adoremus in Aeternam

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Is the Traditional Latin Mass Right for All Parishes?

We all too often hear the argument that the Novus Ordo Mass is needed in our world to make the Mass accessible to the common man.  The Novus Ordo is seen as a bridge by some in the Traditional Community.  Their argument is namely that a person should experience the Novus Ordo in totality before ever experiencing the Traditional Mass.

Have you heard of these arguments? Have you believed them?  Do you still believe them?

I say that the Traditional Latin Mass is needed everywhere - in all parishes at all times. 

That's bold.  That implies that the Novus Ordo isn't needed as a bridge and that a Jew or Muslim or pagan could outright convert to the Catholic Faith by means of a Mass said in an unfamiliar language with "strange" rituals and ancient practices.  How can this be?  The liberals gasp.

We first need to consider the effect of the Vatican II changes on the Liturgy and on the life of the Church.  When we live in the midst of a problem, the problem does not usually seems as horrid as it is for someone who considers it over a larger content.  By this same principle, it is said that a frog will immediately jump out of a pot that is boiling.  But if you put the frog into a pot of cold water and slowly increase the temperature to boiling then the frog will allow itself to boil alive.  In much the same way, those of us born into the disorder of the past 50 years can no longer understand the full and egregious impact of many of the changes.

 The First Mass said in the New World (St. Augustine, FL)

In the Winter 2011 edition of The Latin Mass Magazine, Mr. Nicholas Postage in "A Moribund Mass and the Catholic Counterculture" does a excellent job of illustrating the problems inherent in the main stream Church - errors that directly affect the assertion that the Novus Ordo is needed as a bridge.

I quote from Mr. Postgate:

The place: your typical American parish, not yet blessed by the application of Summorum Pontificum. The time: Any Sunday of the year (chances are it’s a “Sunday of Ordinary Time,” which befits a form of liturgy so ordinary. The music: smiling ditties of indescribable triteness. The congregation consists of children who have not been catechized, are bored to death, and would rather be texting or playing video games; young adults who are fornicating or masturbating in their spare time, as this is the gospel they receive in their schools, and no one even thinks of impeding their vices or correcting their errors; married couples who, with a few happy exceptions, contracept their marital vocation out of existence; older folks who, under the lifelong influence of the capitalist secularism that animates contemporary America, attend church because it’s a good habit, like brushing one’s teeth or wearing clean clothes. Hardly anyone is morally prepared for prayer, and hardly anyone actually prays. The sign of this is, of course, the unstoppable chitchat that pervades the church before the “gathering hymn” fills the electrified air and resumes right after the “scattering hymn” is over and the altar girls are on their way out. In between was the obligatory reception of a wafer in the hands, for some strange reason that no one can quite explain, except that it’s got something to do with belonging.

The Priest who heads, or shall we say, presides over the congregation is not better than his flock; in fact, he is worse. He does no mental prayer or lection divina; perhaps he does not pray or study in any serious way at all—which is obvious from the shallow and vaguely relevant homilies he gives. His life is busy but superficial. He runs a strong risk of being immoral in some egregious manner, whether through rampant gossip, entertainment-saturated indolence, self-indulgence at the table, or worse forms of intemperance. In short, the people are lost, confused, surrendered to the all-pervasive secularism, and so is their Priest, except that he can hide it better. Nay, he has often gone one step further: invoking Vatican II, he magically makes lack of faith, lack of doctrine, lack of morals sound like a pious accommodation to the contemporary world.

Does this sound like your parish?  Perhaps it does in some respects and it is for that reason that you feel the Traditional Mass might be too "much" for your fellow parishners.  Let's continue reading from Mr. Postgate's article:

The Novus Ordo liturgy is practically empty of spiritual content. No wonder the Church has not been able to stand against the onslaught of a militantly secularist anti-culture. Her highest and most precious resource in the spiritual combat was stripped away. The shift from the Missal of 1962 to the Missal of 1970 was like going from a cannon to a butter knife, from marching trumpets to party favors.   

Bringing the liturgy closer in its externals to modern life meant bringing it closer to the meaninglessness and profanity of modern life. Thinking they were doing people a favor, the woolly shepherds of the Church ironically gave her sheep and goats an excuse to give up going to Mass altogether, because the new Mass, having become an echo of the vulgar world, was truly no longer relevant: it could offer nothing, give nothing to us that we did not already have to satiety. The only thing that can possibly be relevant is that which is totally and intrinsically irrelevant to the grinding routine of modern life. The old liturgy carried on in baffling and mysterious isolation, as though it did not pay attention at all to the world’s going to hell in a customized handbasket. And this was wise, profoundly wise. Many Catholics of the last forty years who stopped attending Mass, or never started going in the first place, would have attended the old liturgy, if only because it breathes a spirit of peace and timelessness so utterly and refreshingly contrary to the spirit of modernity.

That is the sort of thing that attracted many Catholic converts, for instance, Thomas Merton, when you look at their conversion stories. To abandon this “irrelevance” was, in fact, to make the Mass finally truly irrelevant, in the sense that it no longer answered a deep, wordless need to meet the divine, the sacred, the presence of God’s kingdom in mystery. The reformed liturgy in sterilized English with third-rate folk music managed to announce, in spite of itself, that the Catholic Church has nothing to offer that cannot very easily be found elsewhere, in more potent form.

Interested in the latest popular music? Look elsewhere. Interested in feeling the feeling of togetherness? Look elsewhere. This kind of self-indulgent collectivism flourishes more outside church doors than within them—which would make the official clerical attempt to imitate it laughable, if it were not sacrilegious.

Catholic identity is still dying.  We are not proud of our heritage.  Do we forget that it was the Latin Mass that converted millions of the pagans of Germany in the time of St. Boniface or the pagans of North America in the 1500s?  It was the Latin Mass with all of its ritual, beauty, and mystery that spread the reign of Christ and won untold numbers of converts and saints.  It was that Mass that we need - a Rite of Mass capable of saving our modern world from its abass of moral decay.  It is the Traditional Mass that is the antidote to the problem! 

As Mr. Postgate concludes:

Some “conservative” Bishops might think that, confronted with such a dire situation, the last thing they should care about is restoring sacred music, chant, Latin, and such things to the Church’s worship. “Don’t we have more important, more urgent things to worry about?” they mutter with a worried frown. But this is to miss the whole point. The main reason Catholic identity is now so weak is that, forty years ago, we began experimenting and tinkering with God’s sacred mysteries, and now nothing seems holy, nothing permanent, nothing worth reverencing, nothing worth genuflecting before. If each and every local church does not make the solemn, sacred, self-effacing worship of God its absolute pastoral priority, one by one they will go extinct, drowning in an ocean of mediocrity, relativism, irrelevance—in a word, a total lack of Catholic identity, which comes to us from above, through the Sacred Liturgy. The Church will survive and thrive only where her Shepherds have the wisdom to seek first the Kingdom of God, letting all other things be given afterwards.

As well put by Mr. Mark Riddle in his just published article Does the Latin Mass 'Work' Everywhere?:

What does that tell us, then, about the argument for using an inculturated new liturgy to achieve the conversion of modern men who are not in any meaningful way part of the classical Western tradition?

Ultimately, it tells us that the argument is false. But beyond that, it tells us that if we truly wish to convert the world (and we do), and to truly civilize and Christianize modern pagans (whether those who have never received the Gospel or those who comprise a post-Christian pagan West) there is only one solution: to do the same things as were done by our forefathers when they set out to convert the world. A liturgy which is conformed to man, which seeks to adapt itself to the spirit of the age, will simply not work.

To answer my acquaintance, novelty will never convert the world. Only when men once again are presented with the integrity of the Catholic Faith, expressed fully in the Church’s immemorial liturgy, will we be able to civilize modern paganism. Only when modern man once again says, Introibo ad altare Dei, ad Deum qui laetificat juventutem meum, will we be on the road to restoring all things in Christ. There simply is no other way.

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Egyptian Military Chief: Vows to Rebuild Torched Coptic Churches

 The damaged interior of the Saint Moussa Church after it was torched

The Egyptian defense minister has ordered the repair and reconstruction of all churches that suffered damage in the country’s violent demonstrations since the Egyptian military removed President Mohamed Morsi from power last month.

Defense minister Col. Gen. Abdel Fattah El-Sisi intends to fix the damage to Coptic churches at Rabaa Adaweya and Nahda squares, according to a report by the Mid-East Christian News.

Dozens of churches were attacked and burned in riots after thousands of demonstrators took to the streets of Cairo and other Egyptian cities to demand the end of what they call military rule, following the removal of Morsi on July 3. Many of Morsi's supporters have voiced criticism at Egypt's Christian minority for largely supporting the military's decision to oust him from office.

“The Egyptian defense minister ordered the engineering department of the armed forces to swiftly repair all the affected churches, in recognition of the historical and national role played by our Coptic brothers,” read a statement that aired on Egyptian television.

Bishop Mousa thanked Sisi for his efforts to repair the damaged churches.

“We thank Col. Gen. Sisi for commissioning the brave Egyptian armed forces to rebuild the places of worship damaged during the recent events,” Bishop Mousa said on Twitter.

17 deaths were reported Friday after several days of violence that caused more than 638 deaths and 4,000 injuries in clashes between Morsi supporters and Egyptian military forces. 

The Maspero Youth Union, a Coptic Christian youth movement, says there’s a "retaliation war" against the religious minority, which makes up around 10 percent of Egypt's population, according to a report by AFP.

The Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR), an Egyptian NGO, says at least 25 churches were torched this week, and attackers also targeted Christian schools, shops and homes across all 27 provinces.

The Associated Press and AFP contributed to this report. 

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2013/08/16/egyptian-military-chief-vows-to-rebuild-coptic-churches/#ixzz2cKMyqNAH

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Servants of The Holy Family celebrate the Feast of The Immaculate Conception

The community of Servants of The Holy Family celebrate the Feast of The Immaculate Conception of The Blessed Virgin Mary with a solemn high Mass. 

The Immaculate Conception of The Blessed Virgin Mary was defined solemnly by the Church.  Here are the words of the Dogma:

For the Honour of the Holy and undivided Trinity. For the glory and adornment of the virgin Mother of God. For the exultation of the Catholic Faith. And for the furtherance of the Catholic Religion. By the authority of Jesus Christ our Lord, of the blessed Apostles Peter and Paul and by our own, we declare, pronounce and define that the doctrine which holds that the most blessed Virgin Mary in the first instant of her conception, by a singular grace and privilege granted by almighty God in view of the merits of Jesus Christ, saviour of the human race, was preserved free from all stain of original sin, is a doctrine revealed by God. And therefore to be believed firmly and constantly by all the faithful.

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Institute of Christ the King 2013 Ordination Week Photos

The obligatory formation for all our candidates to the holy priesthood is comprised of a one-year course of Spirituality, a two-year course of Philosophy, and a four-year course of Theology. Upon completing the first year, the seminarians receive the black cassock, a symbol of mourning for Christ and dying to sin and the world. This year, sixteen seminarians received their cassocks in a solemn ceremony at the church of Sts. Michele e Gaetano in Florence, from the Prior General of the Institute, Monsignor Gilles Wach.

Please pray for the seminarians and their perseverance toward the priesthood!

Photo - the five deacons on their way to be ordained to the priesthood, on July 4, 2013. Please ask the intercession of St. John Vianney and pray for these new priests of the Church.

His Excellency, the Most Reverend Matthew Madega, Bishop of Mouila, Gabon, conferred Minor Orders on July 2, 2013. In the first minor order of Tonsure, five locks of hair are removed by the Bishop in the shape of the cross, and a white surplice is given to symbolize a new man in Christ. After the second year, the seminarian is called by the Bishop to the next step: the Minor Order of Porter. The duties of the porter are to ring the bells and to open the church and sacristy. A man learns responsibility for the care of the house of God.

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Why Should Catholics Build Beautiful Churches

Why should Catholics build beautiful churches? First, because beauty is eternal and the Catholic faith is ever ancient and ever new. God’s love is eternal and the Catholic faith will last until the end of time. Something that is beautiful improves with age, and so with the Catholic faith, and therefore a beautiful Catholic church speaks of the antiquity and permanence of the faith it proclaims.

 

Secondly Beauty is attractive. It draws you in. It is an experience. I know a young priest who was raised a Baptist and went into a beautiful Catholic Church when he was fifteen years old. He immediately knelt and knew he was not only going to be a Catholic, but that he was supposed to be a Catholic priest. Beauty in a Catholic Church is something ‘crazy’ for God in a brutal utilitarian age. But that beauty speaks of the attraction of God himself and it helps to draw us into his presence.

 

Thirdly, Beauty is Truth and Truth Beauty. That’s all you need to know. We comprehend verbal expressions of Truth with our mind, but we apprehend beauty with our heart. The heart has reasons that the mind knows nothing of, and it is beauty which unlocks the secret chambers of the heart. Beauty is the language of worship. Beauty is the language of the soul, and how can our religion penetrate to the heart of our soul unless it is beautiful? How can the liturgy be celebrated beautifully in a church that is harsh, utilitarian, nasty and cheap?

 

Source: Why Should Catholics Build Beautiful Churches

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