Pentecost XXIII
Our 2012 Little Saints
This school year, as time permits, we will be publishing daily sermons from the previous week. Check back daily for additional sermons:
Oct. 25, 2012: Ss Chrysanthus & Daria by Bp. Dolan
Oct. 26, 2012: St. Evaristus by Bp. Dolan
Oct. 29, 2012: Ss Simon & Jude by Fr. Lehtoranta
Oct. 31, 2012: Vigil of All Saints by Bp. Dolan
Nov. 1, 2012: The Origin of All Saints Day by Bp. Dolan
✠ The Bishop’s Corner ✠
Our splendid celebration of Christ the King, perfect in every respect, was percolating along already last Saturday. Katie and Darlene and the helpers were cleaning and decorating the church. The well-chosen flowers were of a greenish hue which matched the frontal and the magnificent old glittery gold of the French chasuble. “Mustard Gold,” we call it, with a “worthy Lamb” sparkling on its back. The Introit which thus salutes Him was already carefully rehearsed.
Meanwhile, I was immersed in Christ the King thoughts and papal encyclicals in preparation for my Restoration Radio show. Mothers at home were putting the finishing touches on the children’s costumes, or even rehearsing their charming little presentations. Fr. Lehtoranta was spreading the kingdom up north Chillicothe way with Holy Mass at St. Clare. On his return, he conducted his Saturday convert class, and then went over to the convento to complete his excellent Christ the King sermon. Fr. Cekada was himself completing an arrangement of the charming “Pueri Concinite” for our choir to sing for Christmas, birthday of the King.
No one seemed in the least affected last Sunday by the fact that Summer had fled, leaving behind only a few hopeful flowers from its last fling. The dark and cold exterior was conquered by the golden warmth within, at the court of Christ the King. The children marched movingly, the choir chanted and sang perfectly, and the servers were proud, brave soldiers of the King, immovable at their posts. Finally, the faithful flooded into the church in unwonted (but not unwanted) numbers all day long. It was our best attendance in a long time.
How enjoyable was the All Saints party, how charming the children’s costumes and little performances. Congratulations to the family of obscure but charming Irish saints (with baby as St. Brendan’s sea monster) and its rhyming tale told by mother. Kudos to Our Lady of La Salette, with her fine headpiece, and the children chiming in chorus a plaintive “no” to Our Lady’s question: “Do you say your prayers?” Honorable mention for St. John the Baptist’s frightwig and shell, as well as for St. Francis’ attached cuddly animals (which he eventually managed to detach). And what about St. Genevieve’s French introduction? Those who miss the All Saints party don’t know what they’re missing! The best things in life…
Ditto (as Rush, the entertaining radio windbag likes to say) for Vespers, which always close the great feasts of the church. We started as usual, or even better, with two servers in place of one, and the clergy, and our two stalwart souls in the pews, Darlene and Gloria. Fr. Cekada was at the keyboard. No sooner had the sacred psalmody commenced, then the door opened for the Simpsons, who augmented the holy chant, and then for Bud and Karen Patton and family, who augmented in their turn the devout attendance. Now we were really cooking! The warm golden church at sunset, the glowing altar censed at Mary’s Magnificat…and then came Exposition and a plethora of the day’s due devotions.
More came in for October Rosary, after which (time was now pressing) we switched, as prescribed by Pope Pius XI, to the Litany of the Sacred Heart and the solemn Act of Consecration, with Benediction concluding. “Foreign” faithful (but always welcome to our family) continued to fill the pews for the final Mass of Christ the King as Fr. Lehtoranta quickly but carefully vested and prepared for the Holy Sacrifice. Behold our Sunday. Thanks for being part of it.
Well, Bishop Williamson is no longer part of the Pius X Society. Under circumstances quite the same as our own experience some 29 years ago (save that the expeller became the expelled), His Excellency was shown the street without a penny of pension or insurance. This offense against the natural law alone cries to Heaven for vengeance, and characterizes the vengeance of this supposedly “priestly” society.
The newchurch Vatican, however, was well pleased and in a day or two issued a peacemaking press release, assuring the world that the absorption of Pius X into the Novus Ordo was still proceeding apace. So it seems that after all, those who declare themselves at the altar to be “una cum” (one with) the antichrist actually will be so in practice, foot soldiers no more for Christ the King, but rather for the one-world church. How did that happen?
It is the result of the lack of clear logical Catholic principles. The Pius X Society, like the Church of England or the Episcopalians, has always housed adherents of two different faiths: would-be Catholics, and (in this case) wouldbe modernists. Somebody has to win, and somebody has to lose. Good job (as the English say) that they no longer hang, draw and quarter the Catholics!
In all charity, let us pray for confused and troubled souls today, and do our best to help them home, in out of the cold. This requires patience and tact as well as prayer. Pray, too, won’t you, for all the victims of Sandy these days in our land, as well as for those suffering the far greater devastation of the fifty-year Frankenstorm of Frankenchurch, the revolution of Vatican II.
Come to Oak Hill with us this afternoon to pray for our dead who lie there, as well as for all of our own who sleep in Christ. There’s another procession Tuesday afternoon to St. Stephen’s cemetery in Hamilton which is beautiful, because Catholic.
May those who sleep in Christ help soldiers of Christ who are sleeping at their posts to awaken, and cry with us: ¡Viva Christo Rey!
–Bishop Dolan
We’d like to call your attention to recordings of two recent, excellent radio shows produced by Restoration Radio.
The first is with Bp. Dolan, on the topic of the feast of Christ the King:
The second is with Bp. Sanborn, on the documents produced by the Second Vatican Council: