Visiting Holy Places

Today, the Angel of Orkney favoured us again with generous cloud cover, sufficient breeze and rain. After morning Low Mass we set out to spend the day visiting holy places.

(Click the images to see them clearly)

Solemn High Mass in the church of the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter.

Then to the Basilica of St. John Lateran....
Dwarfed by the doors, columns....
... inscriptions ...

... and relics...

For example: Beneath this altar is kept the portable wooden altar used by St. Peter to celebrate Mass; it needed to be portable in case of persecution; it is there; we still have it! Above this altar are the holy relics of the skulls of St. Peter and St. Paul. A few yards to the right of this photo is the very table on which Our Divine Lord, on Holy Thursday, offered the first Mass; it is carefully treasured.

Beneath the statue of St. Paul with friends from Ireland.

The highlight of the day was our visit to the Scala Sancta.

Scala Sancta

These are Pilate's steps that Our Lord ascended and descended several times during His Passion. They are now covered with walnut. There were hundreds of people there today. We took our place in the perpetual line of pilgrims ascending the steps on our knees and meditating on the Passion of Our Saviour as we prayed the Sorrowful Mysteries of the Holy Rosary. It takes about half an hour to arrive at the top. It seemed that everybody was praying and one cannot but be touched by the devotion of the pilgrims. An old woman near us went up the steps with great difficulty on hands and knees; she was holding her beads and praying earnestly. God bless her and grant her humble petitions.

The Holy Face

At the top of the steps we arrived at this grill behind which is a chapel. An ancient sign reads: "No other place in the city is more holy than here." Through the grill can be seen the image of the Holy Face. St. Luke outlined the face, but angels finished it; therefore it is called "the image not painted by human hands."

St. Peter's Basilica
Tomorrow at 7.00 A.M. we are going to offer Holy Mass in St. Peter's Basilica.

Sung Mass at Holy Mary in Transpontina

(Click images to seem them clearly)

Thanks to the Angel of Orkney, the weather for our second day in the Eternal City was humid with some light breezes and cloud cover.

This morning at 10 A.M. Holy Mass was chanted beneath the miraculous image, and at the altar of, Holy Mary in Transpontina.

The sacred image of Our Lady in this church was brought to Rome from Mount Carmel by the Order of hermits when they had to escape from the Moslems in the 13th Century. It is enshrined above the altar, and beneath the roof of a massive marble crown supported by angels; marble rays, as it were, go forth from the image.

We assure all who have asked for our prayers that they form part of the intentions of the Masses offered during this pilgrimage and that they are entrusted to Our Lady as we visit Her shrines here. Today we especially remembered our Carmelite friends: the Monks in Wyoming and the Nuns in Christchurch.

The Passing Shadow Beneath the Roman Sun

Yesterday, 18th June, the first anniversary of our Reconciliation with the Holy See, Father Michael Mary and the five seminarian Sons of the Most Holy Redeemer took Ryanair to Rome, to be present at today's Papal Vespers of the Sacred Heart, and the opening of the Year for the Priest.

We stood about two hours beneath the Roman Sun before gaining access to St. Peter's Basilica at 4.30 P.M. It was well worth the wait since we were able to be seated well up the front and to be about 4 feet from the Holy Father when he processed past us. The following photographs are taken from this evening's ceremony.

(Left click the photographs to see them clearly.)

Peter passes in the person of Pope Benedict XVI

There is a passage in Acts 5 that speaks of the healing power of Peter's shadow; in some mysterious and spiritual way, it continues on in his successor. There are graces to be received in that shadow for traditional Catholics. We recommend its sweetness.

Benediction was followed by silent adoration.
St. Peter's Basilica silent in adoration with Pope Benedict XVI

Our Shepherd the Holy Father passes "Full in the panting heart of Rome beneath th'apostles' crowning dome..." -Cardinal Wiseman

Una cum Petro ...

On Monday 15 June

His Lordship

the Right Reverend Peter Antony Moran,

Bishop of Aberdeen,

visited Papa Stronsay

and celebrated Mass for the community

according the the Missal of 1962.

... et te Pater...

Domine, dilexi decorem domus tuae, ...
I have loved, O Lord, the beauty of Thy house,
and the place where Thy glory dwelleth... (Ps. xxv)
HOC EST ENIM CORPUS MEUM
FOR THIS IS MY BODY
... et quod tibi obtulit summus sacerdos tuus Melchisedech...
...and that which Thy High Priest Melchisedech offered to Thee...
Fr. Michael Mary receives Holy Communion
...una cum famulo tuo Papa nostro Benedicto et Antistite nostro Petro et omnibus orthodoxis atque catholicae, et apostolicae fidei cultoribus.
...together with Thy servant Benedict our Pope, Peter our Bishop, and all true believers and professors of the Catholic and Apostolic Faith.
18 June 2008- 363 days later -15 June 2009
All reconciliations take time and patience.
Many had predicted that the hierarchy of the Church would destroy us.
Far from it!
The Pope has provided for us in the Motu proprio.
The Bishop comes among us as our father.
Oremus et pro Antistite nostro Petro.
Stet et pascat in fortitudine tua, Domine,
in sublimitate nominis tui.
Thank you for offering the Holy Mass for us!
Haste ye back!

Possible Good News ?

Last year our reconciliation with the Holy See (June 18th 2008) was bitterly criticised by supporters of the SSPX. Now, within days of our first anniversary, Bishop Fellay reports that the Society too is not adverse to taking a similar position of reconciliation with the Holy See before the clarification of doctrine.

If this is true then all bitterness should cease since we did only what the Society is itself contemplating. We are happy to hear this and can assure all SSPX supporters that our experience is that the Church has given "us enough guarantee, so to say, of survival..."....... and more, much more.

The society is planning to proceed with the ordinations, despite Bishop Fellay’s concern that new excommunications could "jeopardize everything" and derail the society’s discussions with the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Central to those talks will be the society's unambiguous condemnations of the Second Vatican Council, particularly in reference to the council’s affirmations of religious liberty, ecumenism and the separation of Church and state.

While the Swiss-born superior general prefers to resolve these doctrinal issues before he accepts canonical status in the Church, he insists that he is open to reaching a provisional compromise position with the Vatican.

"If Rome gives us enough guarantee, so to say, of survival, I think probably we would certainly consider it," he said.

"We have no problem with the Church recognizing us, of course." Here

+ Corpus Christi procession +

There had been rain during a good part of the morning and there was quite strong wind however when the arranged time of 4.00 P.M. arrived the rain had stopped. At times the sun came out to give us a beautiful, prayerful procession in honour of the Sacred Body of Christ, Corpus Christi. We processed from Our Lady's chapel, Stronsay to the Station pier and across to Papa Stronsay on the St. Alphonsus. From thence to the shrine of St. Michael and from thence to the monastery chapel of the Holy Face.

(click on the photos to see them clearly)

Lauda Sion... Praise thou Sion,

praise thy Prince with all thy fervour

Anthems to thy Shepherd sing.

All thou canst, do thou endeavour,

Yet thy praise can equal never

Such as merits thy great King.

Same the bread that Christ in leaving

To the Twelve each one receiving,

Gave, no one doubt can raise.

+

Mem'ry of that feast we render

Keeping rites in solemn splendour,

When Christ did first Himself impart.

This new Feast, the old repealing,

Newer King and pasch revealing,

Usher in a newer rite.

+

What is new to age succeedeth:

Place to truth the Shadow cedeth:

Radiance puts the gloom to flight.

Dogma datur Christianis

quod in carnem transit panis

et vinum in sanguinem.

Christian truth uncontroverted

Is that bread and wine converted

Sacred Flesh and Blood become.

+

Mind and eye whilst unperceiving

What's beyond their own conceiving

Strenuous faith to them brings home.

Sumit unus, sumunt mille:

quantum isti tantum ille:

nec sumptus consumitur.

Come there one, come there many,

Each partakes as much as any,

Nor the less for other leaves.

+

Sumunt boni, sumunt mali:

sorte tamen inaequali,

vitae vel interitus.

Good and bad this banquet sharing

Are an unlike lot preparing,

Life or death to either falls.

+

Mors est malis, vita bonis:

vide paris sumptionis

quam sit dispar exitus.

Life to those, to these perdition,

Though to both the same fruition,

How unlike the fate that calls.

Fracto demum sacramento,

ne vacilles, sed memento,

tantum esse sub fragmento,

quantum toto tegitur.

When thou the host in pieces breakest

if thou waver, thou mistakest,

for each fragment thou partakest

Holds no less than does the whole.

+

Nulla rei fit scissura:

signi tantum fit fractura,

qua nec status, nec statura

signati minuitur.

Of the substance no division,

Sings alone admit partition,

Whence unlessened the condition

Of the symboled Body and Soul.

Ecce Panis Angelorum

factus cibus viatorum:

vere panis filiorum,

non mittendus canibus.

Lo! Angelic Bread reviving

Pilgrims worn to heaven striving,

Children from It strength deriving

Sacred Bread to dogs denied.
+

In figuris praesignatur,

cum Isaac immolatur:

Angnus Pascuae deputatur:

datur manna patribus.

This the ancient types saluted,

Isaac victim constituted,

And the lamb for pasch deputed,

Manna to our sins supplied.

Bone pastor, panis vere,

Jesu, nostri miserere:

tu nos pasce, nos tuere:

tu nos bona fac videre

in terra viventium.

Jesu, Bread of life, protect us!

Shepherd kind do not reject us!

In Thy happy fold collect us,

And partakers of the bliss elect us

Which shall never see an end.

+

Tu qui cuncta scis et vales:

qui nos pascis hic mortales:

tuos ibi commensales,

Coheredes et sodales,

fac sanctorum civium. Amen, Alleluia!

Thou the Wisest and the Mightiest,

Who us here with food delightest,

Seat us at Thy banquet brightest,

With the Blessed Thou invitest,

An eternal feast to spend. Amen, Alleluia!

Letter about the Beginning of the Year for Priests

Dear Priests!

In only about two weeks’ time, on the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, Friday 19th June, we will experience an intense moment of faith, closely united with the Holy Father and amongst ourselves, when we shall begin the Year for Priests by celebrating First Vespers of the Feast in the Basilica of St. Peter at the Vatican.
Each day we are called to conversion, but we are called to it in a very particular way during this year, in union with all those who have received the gift of priestly ordination. Conversion to what? It is conversion to be ever more authentically that which we already are, conversion to our ecclesial identity of which our ministry is a necessary consequence, so that a renewed and joyous awareness of our “being” will determine our “acting”, or rather will create the space allowing Christ the Good Shepherd to live in us and to act through us.
Our spirituality must be nothing other than the spirituality of Christ himself, the one and only Supreme High Priest of the New Testament.
In this year, which the Holy Father has providentially announced, we will seek together to concentrate on the identity of Christ the Son of God, in communion with the Father and the Holy Spirit, who became man in the virginal womb of Mary, and on his mission to reveal the Father and His wondrous plan of salvation. This mission of Christ carries with it the building up of the Church: behold the Good Shepherd (Cf. Jn. 19:1-21) who gives his life for the Church (Cf. Eph. 5: 25).
Yes, conversion every day of our lives so that Christ’s manner of life may be the manner of life made ever more manifest in each one of us.
We must exist for others, we must undertake to live with the People in a union of holy and divine love (which clearly presupposes the richness of holy celibacy), which obliges us to live in authentic solidarity with those who suffer and who live in a great many types of poverty.
We must be labourers for the building up of the one Church of Christ, for which we must live purposefully and faithfully the communion of love with the Pope, with the Bishops, with our brother priests and with the Faithful. We must live this communion with the unbroken pilgrimage of the Church within the very sinews of the Mystical Body.
We should be able to run spiritually in this Year with a “wide open heart” so as to inwardly conform to our vocation the better to say, in truth “it is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me” (Gal. 2:20).
The holiness of priests redounds to the benefit of the entire ecclesial Body. Thus it would be most fitting for all of us, be that the ordained Faithful, seminarians, the male and female religious, and the lay Faithful, to find ourselves all together at the Vatican Basilica for the Vespers presided over by the Holy Father, which will be celebrated after welcoming the Reliquary of the heart of that most outstanding priestly model who is St. John Mary Vianney.
Those who are unable to be in City of Rome are encouraged to join themselves spiritually to the occasion.

- Entrance to the Basilica from 16.00
The welcoming of the Reliquary at 17.30, followed by the celebration of Vespers
Entrance Tickets must be requested by Fax (06-69885863) from the Prefecture of the Papal Household and may be collected the preceding day from the Bronze Doors, under the Colonnade to the side of the Basilica.

- Priests will wear their proper clerical attire, and religious the habit of the Institute to which they belong.

- The Year for Priests will conclude with an International Convention in Rome on the 9th, 10th and 11th of June 2010.
More detailed information concerning that event will be made available by this end of the current month of June.

Al those who are interested in taking part may refer to Opera Romana Pellegrinaggi (Via della Pigna 13/a, I-00186 Roma – tel. (0039)06-698961) to answer all questions of a practical nature.


+ Mauro Piacenza
Titular Archbishop of Vittoriana
Secretary

The 10th Anniversary Procession and Consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, Queen

Leaving for Stronsay

(Rubric: left click pictures to see everything clearly)

By a heavenly arrangment the Tenth Anniversary of the return of Papa Stronsay to its monastic use was Pentecost Sunday. Usually the 31st May is the feast of the Queenship of Mary. In the late afternoon we went to Stronsay to process about 5 miles along the length of the island to the Station Pier, close by Papa Stronsay. The weather was glorious in the extreme.

The object of our procession was:

1) To give public thanks to Our Lady for all the graces She has obtained for us, especially that of our full and perfect union with the See of Peter;

2) To consecrate the Congregation of the Sons of the Most Holy Redeemer to Her Immaculate Heart, by an Act of Total Consecration;

3) To consecrate Stronsay to Her Immaculate Heart; and

4) To renew the consecration of Papa Stronsay to Her Immaculate Heart.

Point of Departure Scoulters, South Stronsay
The sacred Image of the Immaculate
exposed the length of Stronsay
As the procession passed

the cattle ran to the fences
+ She is the Immaculate Queen of these Isles +
Procession nears Whitehall Village
Papa Stronsay in the background across the water
+ The Queen awaits Her Royal Barge +
All on and about Papa Stronsay belongs to Her:
Her subjects, Her island, Her waters.
Evviva Maria!
+ Hail Queen of Heaven, the Ocean Star +
This is the Image of the Queen
Who reigns in bliss above
Of Her Who is the Hope of Men,
Whom men and angels love,
Most Holy Mary at Thy Feet,
I bend a suppliant knee,
In this Thy own sweet month of May,
Dear Mother of my God I pray,
Do Thou remember me.

+ The Queen and Her Ensigns +

How fair soever be the form

Which here your eyes behold,

Its beauty is by Mary's self

Excell'd a thousandfold.

The St. Alphonsus approaches Papa Stronsay

Sweet are the flow'rets we have culled
This image to adorn;
But sweeter far is Mary's self,
That rose without a thorn!

+ 1999 - Arrival on Papa Stronsay - 2009 +

Father Muñoz, Update

The Sisters of the Oasis thank you for your prayers for Father Muñoz.

Father has undergone surgery on his aorta artery.

The operation was successful and the haemorrhage has been stopped.

He is still alive and recovering.

We thank God and the Immaculata for this.

Please continue pray for him.

Father Muñoz, critical condition

Your prayers are requested for

Reverend Father Muñoz

the founder of the contemplative

Sisters of the Oasis in Spain.

Father Muñoz is in a critical condition following serious internal haemorrhaging.

+ The Ascension Night Blessing +

Ascension Night, Papa Stronsay pier

the blessing of Saint Alphonsus.

(Rubric: left click pictures to see everything clearly)

Without a breath of wind, there was a solemn silence over the still sea water that was only intermittently broken by the distant voices of our nearest neighbours; they were swimming. The clouds, in sky and sea, seemed to keep the memory of Our Lord's Ascension: "And when He had said these things, while they looked on, he was raised up, and a cloud received Him out of their sight." [Acts 1]

A little altar had been set up on board: Two candles and the crucifix, the images of Our Mother of Perpetual Succour, St. Alphonsus and St Nicholas the patron saint of seafarers.

Propitare, Domine, supplicationibus nostris

et bene+dic navem istam dextera tua sancta...

... and by Thy holy hand bless + this ship and its passengers, as Thou wert pleased to let your blessing hover over Noah's ark in the Deluge. Reach out ... to them, as Thou didst to blessed Peter as he walked upon the sea. Send Thy holy angel from on high to watch over it and all on board...., and to guide its course through calm waters to the desired port. ...

The seals, our nearest neighbours