Orate Fratres

As part of the Christian vocation we are called to pray for each other according to our abilities and means. Please pray for a reader of this blog who is suffering considerable physical illness and mental anguish at the moment. Perhaps you could offer a Rosary or the intention of a Mass. Perhaps part of the Divine Office for their intentions. Thank you.

The good people at 40 Days for Life have asked me to mention their website and blog and I'm happy to do so. At the moment there's a lot of talking going on about various issues where the faith seems to be being attacked even from within our ranks. This can be very depressing and a meeting of like minds and the opportunity for some really Catholic action is a timely remedy lest we become just a little bit too self concerned.

Keep calm!

As Michael Winner might have said; 'Keep calm- it's only a commercial!' For readers outside the UK take my word for it. You're blessed not to have to have put up with that advertising campaign. Nevertheless there's a bit of a scuffle going on in that gold fish bowl called Traddieland. Apparently it's been brewing for a while but, having a bit of an ostrich approach to most things, I seem to have missed it until it began to blow, perhaps out of all proportion, in the last week. Even the usual suspects in the blogosphere seem to be polarised by it. A petition is doing the rounds. Actually it's a pretty interesting indicator on the blogs represented on the British Blogs List as to which ones are quite firmly pro Summorum Pontificum and which are not.

Anyhow back to the point. Three things; (1) The Roman Curia operates within itself in a manner that is rather 'secular' to minds outside its own circle.  There are factions who play each other off  using strategies drawn more from Machievelli's The Prince than the Fathers of the Church. I suspect at the moment we are the onlookers to a stage in a process that in former times we would have had no knowledge. Somebody must have given a minor official a laptop with a broadband connection for Christmas. (2) There is an 'industry' which maintains itself with this type of reporting and prognosticating. It is in its interests to maintain the interest in such events and its 'tat for tat' approach can be wearisome. Unfortunately for most of us this has the same effect as a lot of the secular media. It causes undue angst. (3) Whilst we need now to be vigilant we really need to wait for the document, should it ever appear, and then make a judgment as to the next course of action. I can't actually see it making any difference immediately to me.

Of course the whole business, I suspect, is just symptomatic of something else as is so often the case with the fripperies of  'curias' whether they be diocesan, national or international. I can't imagine any official effectively hanging himself out to dry over Summorum Pontificum. I can imagine, however, many who would risk doing  so to ensure that any further reconciliation with SSPX would not happen during this papacy.

Now where was my bucket of sand?

Three Secrets

Reading through some of the letters of S. Bernadette Soubirous this morning I was reminded of just how little I know of the faith. It wasn't some great theological truth that I'd missed but rather one of those small details of our common story as Catholics that I'd either never known about or perhaps forgotten over the years. S. Bernadette mentions to one correspondent about three secrets that Our Lady gave here during the initial fortnight of visions at the grotto. Now I knew about the three secrets of Fatima (let's not go there) but I seem to have missed this part of the Lourdes story despite multiple viewings over the years of Song of Bernadette. Anyhow a quick Google search and, yes, it was confirmed. This was part of the story that I should have known about. Apparently the three secrets were personal, pertaining to the Saint herself. According to one source she was even bound not to reveal them to her confessor.

But I still wonder what they were?