Within the Octave of the Ascension
In your charity, please pray for the repose of the souls of:
+ Maria Duff +
(Click card to enlarge)
+ Patrick Henry Omlor +
Mr. Omlor was one of the first Catholics to sound the alarm about the consequences of Vatican II, so it was fitting that he died on the Feast of St. Athanasius.
His March 1968 work Questioning the Validity of Masses Using the New, All-English Canon alerted countless Catholics throughout the English-speaking world to the dangers of the liturgical changes, even before the appearance of the Novus Ordo Missae in 1969. The book rightly became a “traditionalist classic.”
Mr. Omlor campaigned tirelessly against the counterfeit translation of “pro multis” as “for all” in the consecration formula, prompting a controversy that Bugnini himself finally had to deal with.
Forty years later, however, the modernist fraud was implicitly acknowledged when the Vatican itself decreed that “pro multis” must henceforth be translated as “for many.” And thus, even by what he rightly called “The Robber Church,” was Patrick Henry Omlor vindicated at last.
May this great defender of the Catholic faith rest in peace!
— Father Anthony Cekada
_________________________
Listen to our choir sing Anima Christi during the offertory of last week’s Mass.
_________________________
Restoration Radio: The Scapular
Bishop Dolan talks about a widely-used sacramental: the Scapular(s). His Excellency talks about the different scapulars, their histories, and how we can make this a part of our Catholic lives. Listen here.
_________________________
This school year we will be publishing daily sermons from the previous week:
May 6, 2013: St. John Before the Latin Gate by Fr. Lehtoranta
May 7, 2013: St. Stanislaus by Bp. Dolan
May 8, 2013: Apparition of St. Michael by Bp. Dolan
May 9, 2013: Stay Low – Jump High (Ascension Thursday by Bp. Dolan
May 10, 2013: St. Antoninus by Bp. Dolan
_________________________
✠ The Bishop’s Corner ✠
Today, regardless of weather (our Spring continues cool and wet, with the odd hot humidity thrown in) is one of the most beautiful days of the year. We honor our mothers, both earthly and divine, remember how much they do, and have done for us, and at such a price. What beauty is theirs. Happy Mothers Day!
How happy are we to process today led by our young children, singing the dear old hymns, and to crown our Blessed Mother with the unfading flowers of true devotion. The innocence of the First Communion children touches us and inspires us. It is such an innocence we would regain this year in our practice of the Little Way. Lay this petition with all of your other prayers sincerely at Mother Mary’s feet, and surely she will answer you.
Our church life these days is one petition after another, a veritable litany of them, resounding at Heaven’s door with last week’s Litany of the Saints, and May’s daily Litany of Our Lady. The Holy Ghost both inspires and answers these humble, confident, repeated prayers, especially as we invoke Him with the Veni Creator during His Novena.
Thank you for adopting a priest or two, remembering them in your daily prayers. Please keep all of our priests, in their missionary and teaching travels, in your good prayers. Today Fr. Cekada leaves early for his penultimate seminary week, retuning a little early too for rehearsal for the Pentecost music. Our devoted choir is working very hard for Pentecost and Corpus Christi.
Fr. McGuire is all the way over in Chadwick, Illinois for a wedding and Sunday Mass at our Sts. Joseph and Chad Mission, also known as the “National Shrine.” Fr. McKenna is seeing to Milwaukee, and then the growing young St. Theresa Mission in North Dakota, which now counts 16 souls, counting children (because of course they count!). We’re praying again for a successful trip and no flooding to impede Father’s progress.
I’m looking forward to meeting with our Confirmation/First Communion children on Thursday, for their little retreat day in preparation for Pentecost, and their spiritual “Vitamin Cs,” Confirmation and Holy Communion.
All of our First Communion children, of course, know their Ten Commandments by heart. There is a hilarious, but very sad, video on the Internet (it.gloria.tv/?media=210142) which shows that our children know more than Novus Ordo “priests.” A reporter, standing on the street outside the Vatican, asks eight or more passing priests to recite the Commandments, or one specific one by number. No one can! Not even somebody in a cassock. This comes of not insisting that children learn by heart their catechism, and no longer teaching the basics. Not even “priests” know their Commandments. Very sad. Our teachers and parents do a good job, which makes us very glad indeed.
A beautiful Pontifical Pentecost Vigil is shaping up, with Baptisms before Mass, and Confirmations after. Remember your fast and partial abstinence (dispensed, though, for those who make the sacrifice to assist at the Vigil ceremonies and Sacrifice of the Mass).
A rangy raccoon, rather too familiar with humans, has joined our animal menagerie. He shows up on the porch sometimes at mealtimes, bold as brass. At least he’s not a bobcat, growling in the dusk. Much to the school children’s delight, a ground hog has delivered her litter outside their classroom, over by the factory. They are charmed with these cute little future dahlia eaters, and are interceding for them with “Fr. Exterminator,” aka Fr. McKenna. The baby bunnies in the cloister lawn are still safe, unless Puccini takes to reading the Bishop’s Corner. It may, however, be too long for him as well, as he’s a cat on the go, with a full program this Spring. (Unfortunately, Puccini did indeed intercept this column as it was sent to the printer.—Editor)
We blessed St. Michael’s statue, standing on the cloister parapet, on his feast day. Now the great Archangel looks down upon us, and blesses us with the protection of his mighty sword. May our Lady, Queen of Angels, send him swiftly to our aid. May Our Lady of Fatima accept the two-fold homage of today’s crowning and tomorrow’s Rosary Procession, and grant us peace, as we give Her the unfading flowers of sincere prayer.
A blessed, happy and peaceful Mothers Day to you all today,
–Bishop Dolan