Papa Stronsay Calendar 2012

Our calendar for 2012 is now available from the Papa Stronsay Shop.
Please click here to order.

God defined it. It can't be redefined by any power on earth.

There is a government proposal to "redefine" marriage.

All Catholics and all who love God
living in Scotland
have to oppose this.

If you have not done so yet
please click on the image
and fill in the form.

This is the only valid definition of Marriage:
The conjugal union of man and woman,
contracted between two qualified persons,
which obliges them to live together throughout life.

Marriage was instituted by God.

We read in Genesis that
God created them male and female,
and blessed them, saying:
"Increase and multiply";
and also:
"It is not good for man to be alone:
let us make him a help like unto himself.'

Adam said:
"This is now bone of my bones,
and flesh of my flesh:
she shall be called woman,
because she was taken out of man:
wherefore a man shall leave father and mother,
and shall cleave to his wife;
and they shall be two in one flesh."

These words, according to the authority of our Lord Himself,
as we read in St. Matthew,
prove the divine institution of Matrimony.

Not only did God institute marriage;
He also rendered it perpetual and indissoluble.'
What God hath joined together, says our Lord,
let not man separate.

(From the Catechism of the Council of Trent)

Happy Anniversary - Feliz Aniversário

Today
Sunday, 20th November, 2011, we wish our
Sister Maria Auxiliadora da Divina Providência, O.SS.R.
Sister Maria Help of Christians of Divine Providence,
a very happy and blessed
Silver Jubilee of Religious Profession.

Hoje
Domingo, 20 de Novembro, 2011, desejamos a nossa
Irmã Maria Auxiliadora da Divina Providência, O.SS.R.
um feliz e abençoado
Jubileu de Prata da Profissão Religiosa.

Please join us in remembering our faithful
Redemptoristine Jubilarian
of the traditional Monastery of the Holy Face
and the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary
in São Fidelis, Brazil,
in your prayers,
Holy Masses and Communions.

Vivat in Aeternum, in Aeternum Vivat!

Resignation in expiation for our sins and for the Holy Souls

Who are the dead that suffer in the expiatory flames?
Are they great criminals, public and scandalous sinners,
who have died under the anathema of the Church
and of their fellow citizens?

No;
they are souls sanctified by grace,
who have to expiate only light faults,
slight acts of unfaithfulness,
or even only the temporal punishment
of faults already forgiven.


Among them are some
who acquired on earth eminent virtue,
who consequently, are more humble,
more chaste, more obedient,
more charitable,
and especially more patient than we.

They suffer, without complaint
and even with much love,
intolerable pains which surpass all we can imagine
or endure in this life.

A fire, like that of hell,
burns them without ceasing, without mercy,
and a pain far greater still,
that of loss,
completes their torments.

And we who have so much and,
perhaps, so greviously sinned,
we complain of the slightest suffering!

Are we ignorant of the law
that obliges us to expiate our sins,
in this life or in the next?

And is it not better to pay our debts now to our Lord's mercy,
which forgives so easily,
than to fall later under the blows of His justice,
which requires full payment to the last farthing? (Mat. 5:26)

Moreover, by bearing on earth afflictions and trials,
we embellish more and more our eternal crown,
whilst in purgatory we shall have to pay,
without increase of merit, the whole of our debt to God.

Can we hesitate between those two alternatives,
either to have our purgatory in this life
by suffering patiently and meritoriously,
or
to await the torments of next life,
when we shall have to satisfy rigorously
and unprofitably for heaven,
the divine justice in full?

Prayer and Resolutions

O Lord, it is evidently more advantageous for me
to deny myself and suffer now for Thee,
than to defer it till later.

Wherefore I embrace from this day forward
all the trials it will please Thee to send me;
bitterness, disgust, annoyances, infirmities,
pains, humiliations and contradiction.

I am therefore resolved,

first,
when tempted to impatience,
to think of purgatory and the souls
so lovingly suffering therein;

and

secondly,
often to offer Thee my sufferings in union with Thine,
as an expiation for my sins,
and for the relief of the faithful departed,
who are still indebted to Thy justice.

[From this morning's Meditation book.]

The new UK SSPX: Bequest SiSi! Request NoNo!

In August 2007 we were informed by letter
that we had been nominated to receive
half of the residue of the estate of
the late Mrs. Margaret Patricia Kingon-Rouse, R.I.P.


(Click on documents to read them)

There were legal complications involved with the property which formed the estate.
The last time we had information about the Will was last August.

In the latest issue of the SSPX Newsletter
(November, 2011),
the District Superior,
Rev. Paul Morgan wrote:

"Similarly, we are indebted to the late Mrs Patricia Kingon-Rouse of Herne Bay whose bequeathed property now allows the Fathers to have a base for their apostolate there. May she rest in peace."

I understood from this announcement that the legal complications had been overcome.
Therefore I telephoned the new London Executor and asked about the present status of the Will.

I was told that the Will
did not legally bind the SSPX
to honour Mrs. Kingon-Rouse's request
and that it was decided that
although I was named in the Will
the SSPX had decided that Papa Stronsay
would not receive the half share of the remainder of the estate
as had been requested by the deceased.

Here is the entire clause of the Will:

7. SUBJECT TO the payment of my debts funeral and testamentary expenses and the aforementioned legacies I give all the remainder of my estate not otherwise effectively disposed of by this Will or any codicil hereto to the Society of St. Pius X in Great Britain and request that one half of such residue of my estate be used for the benefit of the London Branch of the Society operating from St. George's House 125 Arthur Road London SW19 7DR who service Saints John Fisher & Thomas More Church Herne and for the remaining half share to be utilised for the benefit of Father Michael Mary and the community of Redemptorists at Golgotha Monastery Island Papa Stronsay Orkney Isles KW17 2AR. And I further request that Father Michael Mary put aside the sum of TWO THOUSAND POUNDS (£2, 000.00) for mass offerings to be used for the repose of the soul of myself and my family by birth or marriage and for the benefit of every holy soul in purgatory AND I declare that the receipt of the Treasurer or other competent officer for the time being of the Society of St. Pius X in Great Britain appearing to my Executor shall be a sufficient receipt to my Executor in respect of this residuary bequest

In March 2010 we received the £2, 000 for Masses.


I thought that we, Catholics and clergy,
held last requests as sacred prescriptions.

All that is legal is not moral.

If last requests are not honoured by
traditional priests
by whom will they be honoured?

As for the bequest's request
graciously made for us by our friend
Mrs. Kingon-Rouse, R.I.P. -
we are in no position to renounce it
but we accept that it has been taken from us:
we resign ourselves to this injustice.

In all things may God's Will be done
and may it teach us the lessons necessary for salvation:

For the desire of money is the root of all evils;
which some coveting have erred from the faith,
and have entangled themselves in many sorrows.
[1 Timothy 6:10]

Through His Prince, Christ the King reigns over Liechtenstein

Feast of Christ the King, 2011

On this Feast
we congratulate and celebrate
a Christian Prince
standing firmly beneath the banner
of Christ the King:

His Serene Highness,
Hereditary Prince Aloïs Philipp Maria
who defended and maintains the
Kingship of Christ over his
Principality of Liechtenstein.

On 18 September by a referendum,
Liechtenstien refused the legalisation of abortion.

The Hereditary Prince,
HSH Prince Aloïs had announced that
whatever the result of the referendum
he would never give his royal assent to such a law
and would use his right of veto.

The courageous Prince Aloïs

Prince Alois said,
“Until now we have been proud to support
people with disabilities in our country.
The proposal would discriminate against such people
and allow them to be eliminated in the womb.”

By Liechtenstein law, abortions are generally not allowed,
even when the abortion is performed outside the country.
Furthermore, government departments and offices
are obliged to report any abortions
of which they have knowledge.
Only when the life of the mother is endangered
and no other option remains,
is a termination of a pregnancy allowed.

(Clarification:
Abortion to protect the mother's life is wrong.
Thus the Liechtenstein law
does not reflect a perfect morality
but maintains an international standard
better by far than most,
if not all, the other countries of the world.
The prince inherited a state with its already codified laws.
His courage is shown in not permitting the laws of his state
to follow those of other countries.)

The vote was 52.3% against the proposed law
of allowing abortions within the first 12 weeks
and when any child had a disability such as Down Syndrome.

Liechtenstein is facing immense pressure
from the rest of Europe to allow abortions.

The Principality lies between Switzerland and Austria,
and has a population of 36,000.


A Christian Prince
receiving Holy Communion

Prince Aloïs, married to Princess Sophie, is 43 years of age.

The Hereditary Prince and Princess

They have four children:
Prince Joseph Wenzel Maximilian Maria,
born in London; (16 years)
Princess Marie-Caroline Elisabeth Immaculata; (15 years)
Prince Georg Antonius Constantin Maria (12 years)
and their youngest son,
Prince Nikolaus Sebastian Alexander Maria (11 years).

- Three Generations of Princes and Princesses -
Grandparents, Parents and two royal children together

Sharing 26,000 words of gratitude to God and spiritual joy.

Photos on the occasion
of
the clerical tonsure of Br. Martin Mary, F.SS.R.
with the seminarians
of Our Lady of Guadalupe Seminary
Nebraska, USA.

A picture paints a thousand words.

Thus do we then present 26,000 words of
gratitude to God
and spiritual joy
upon the clerical tonsure of our confrère.

In this ceremony
Br. Martin Mary, F.SS.R. took a first step
for our whole community.

Papa Stronsay rejoices.

Special thanks to:

His Lordship Bishop Hugh Gilbert, O.S.B.
Bishop of Aberdeen.

His Lordship Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz,
Bishop of Lincoln, Nebraska.

Very Reverend Father John Berg,
Superior General of the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter.

Very Reverend Father Josef Bisig,
Rector of the Seminary of Our Lady of Guadalupe,
Lincoln, Nebraska.

Procession to the Seminary Chapel.

Candidates for the Tonsure.

Celebrant His Lordship Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz,
Bishop of Lincoln,
Nebraska.

To the right of the Bishop in cope is the
Very Reverend Fr. Josef Bisig,
Rector of the Seminary.

Br. Martin Mary stands in his religious habit
the other candidates hold the cassocks they will receive.

Having put on their the cassocks the seminarians return to the chapel.

The moment of Tonsure has arrived.

The hair is cut in on the four side of the head:
the points of the Cross.

The reception of the Surplice.

The incensing of the Gospel.

The newly tonsured offers the Pontiff a lighted candle.

The Offertory of the Mass.

Prayers please for a man of prayer.

The old Exarch.
Ecce sacerdos magnus...
Behold a great priest...

Bishop Michael Hrynchyshyn, CSSR
is seriously ill tonight
and in intensive care in Paris.
Please offer a Hail Mary for him.

Here is a man of the Church and of his Ukrainain Rite.
Still at his post at 83 years of age.
Humble, prayerful, learned.

Bishop Hrynchyshyn
has been the promoter of the Cause for
Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytski
for several decades.

Always a father.
This is a true bishop.
Please pray for him tonight.

He is the Apostolic Exarch of France, Benelux and Switzerland
for the Ukrainians
since his appointment on 21 October 1982.
He was consecrated bishop on 30 January 1983.

Response to an aggressive strategy

On 17 October an anonymous commentor asked why

we had published on our blog an article
about the mother of Father Cohen:
"Can you explain
WHAT is your point of favouring Jews at the moment?
At least have the decency
to be true to yourselves and spit it out:
You are NOT followers of Christ,
but Anti-Christ Jews."

Now I understand that perhaps the comentator thought
that I was making a veiled reference
to Bishop Williamson's recent blog post.

No. I didn't know of the post at that time.

This is not the Gospel
but a strategy under cover of Gospel.

But now, having come to know about the article
and knowing that other traditional Catholics
expect to hear from us about it,
I make the following personal response;
my own take on the matter:

I was very sorry to read the article.
We are all further hurt or tarnished or tarred by it:
The Jewish people are hurt,
the Church in general is tarnished,
and traditional Catholics
and most of the SSPX faithful
are tarred.

The Williamson article is political.
It is an aggressive strategy.
Its objective is to sow trouble
between the SSPX and the Church, and
between the Church and the Jewish people.
It works well.

Williamson can cause great trouble
only because he is a bishop;
even though
he is an illegitimate bishop
who will not submit himself to legitimate authority.

The SSPX leadership would probably like to expel him
but fear that he would begin his own group here in the UK
and beyond.

SSPX clergy do not speak out publicly against Bishop Williamson
nor against the Menzingen Authorities
for doing nothing that will effectively stop him.

The situation is extraordinary.
The SSPX cannot control their man
who is harming the Church and their own group.

Now is the time
when the helpless SSPX Superior General
who lacks jurisdiction,
and knows he lacks the necessary jurisdiction over his equal,
should ask the Holy Father to defrock the illegitimate bishop;
in the kindest possible way.

Fr. Michael Mary, F.SS.R.

Text of the letter prophesied to Father Hermann Cohen by the Curé of Ars.

Father Hermann Cohen's mother died
without receiving Holy Baptism.
In the eyes of the unwise
'she died as an unconverted Jewess'
in spite of the many prayers offered for her by her priestly son.

I have translated the following from his life
which will be of interest for all of us
who pray for souls that seem to live and die
without the grace of conversion.

Note that Fr. Hermann
had consecrated his mother to Our Lady
hundreds of times and offered many prayers for her salvation;
he never lost hope in his mother's cause.


Rev. Fr. Hermann Cohen, O.C.D.

The last moments for Mrs. Cohen arrived on 13 December 1855. Father Hermann was preaching Advent in Lyons at the time and he announced this sad news to his friend in these terms:

"God has struck a terrible blow to my heart. My poor mother is dead ... and I remain in incertitude! However we have so much prayed that we must hope that something has passed between her soul and God during these last moments that we cannot know about. ..."

We can easily imagine the pain of Father Hermann in learning of the death of his mother. He had so much prayed and so much had prayers said for her conversion, and she came to appear before the tribunal of God without having received holy Baptism! ...

" I also have a mother," would he write one day, "I have left her to follow Jesus Christ, she no longer calls me her 'good son'. Already her hair is silvered, already her brow is furrowed, and I am afraid to see her die. Oh! no I would not like to see her die before loving Jesus Christ, and already for many years I await for my mother that which Monica awaited for Augustine..."

God seemed to have despised all his prayers and rejected his loving and legitimate desires. His faith and his love were put through a harsh trial. Nevertheless, if his sorrow was deep, his hope in the infinite goodness of God would not allow itself to be struck down. ...

Saint Jean Marie Vianney
Curé of Ars

A short time later, he confided to the Curé of Ars his disquiet about the death of his poor mother who died without the grace of Baptism. "Hope!" replied the man of God, "hope; you will receive one day, on the feast of the Immaculate Conception a letter that will bring you great consolation."

Six years waiting.

These words were almost forgotten, when, on the 8th December 1861, six years after the death of his mother, a Father of the Company of Jesus handed to Father Hermann the following letter.

(The person who wrote this letter died in the odour of sanctity; she was well known in the religious and ascetical world by her written works on the Eucharist.)

The letter read:

On the 18th October, after Holy Communion, I found myself in one of those moments of intimate union with Our Lord, where he made me so feel his presence in the sacrament of His love that Faith seemed no longer necessary to believe him there.

After a short time, He had me hear His voice and He wanted to give me some explanations relative to a conversation that I had had the night before.

I remember that, in that conversation, one of my friends had manifested her surprise that Our Lord, who has promised to accord everything to prayer, had however remained deaf to those of Reverend Father Hermann who had so many times addressed Him to obtain the conversion of his mother; her surprise went almost as far as discontentment, and I had had difficulty in having her understand that we must adore the justice of God and not to seek to penetrate its secrets.

I dared to ask of my Jesus how it was that He, who was goodness itself, had been able to resist the prayers of Father Hermann, and not grant the conversion of his mother.

This was His (Our Lord's) response:

Why does Anna always want to sound the secrets of my justice and why does she seek to penetrate mysteries that she cannot comprehend?

Tell her that I do not owe my grace to anyone, that I give it to whom I please and that in acting in this way I do not cease to be just, and justice itself.

But that she may know that, rather than not keep the promises that I have made to prayer, I will upset heaven and earth, and that every prayer that has my glory and the salvation of souls for object is always heard when it is clothed in the necessary qualities.

He added: "And to prove to you this truth, I willingly make known that which passed at the moment of the death of the mother of Father Hermann".

My Jesus then enlightened me with a ray of His divine light and had me understand or rather to see in Him that which I want to try to relate.

At the moment where the mother of Father Hermann was on the point of rendering her last breath; at the moment that she seemed deprived of awareness, almost without life; Mary, our good Mother, presented Herself before Her Divine Son, and prostrate at His feet, She said to Him: "Pardon and mercy, o my Son! for this soul who is going to perish. Yet another instant and she will be lost, lost for eternity. I beseech you, do for the mother of my servant Hermann, that which you would like to be done for your own, if She was in her place and if you were in his. The soul of his mother is his most precious good; he has consecrated her to me a thousand times; he has consecrated her to the tenderness and solicitude of my heart. Could I suffer her to perish? No, no, this soul is mine; I will it, I claim it as an inheritance, as the price of your blood and of my sufferings at the foot of your Cross."

Hardly had the sacred suppliant ceased speaking, when a strong, powerful grace, came forth from the source of all graces, from the adorable Heart of our Jesus, and came to enlighten the soul of the poor dying Jewess; instantly triumphing over her stubbornness and resistances.

This soul immediately turned herself with loving confidence towards Him whose mercy had persued her as far as the arms of death and said to Him: "O Jesus, God of the Christians, God whom my son adores, I believe, I hope in Thee, have pity on me."

In this cry, heard by God alone and which came from the intimate depths of the heart of the dying woman, were enclosed the sincere sorrow for her obstination and for her sins, the desire of baptism, the express will to receive it and to live according to the rules and precepts of our holy religion, if she had been able to return to life.

This leap of faith and hope in Jesus was the last sentiment of that soul; it was made at the moment when she brought towards the throne of the divine mercy. Breaking away the weak bonds which held her to her mortal casing, she fell at the feet of Him who had been her Saviour (a moment) before being her Judge."

After having showed me all these things, Our Lord added:

"Make this known to Father Hermann; it is a consolation that I wish to accord to his long sorrows, so that he will bless, and have blessed everywhere, the goodness of the heart of my Mother and Her power over mine."

Totally unknown to Reverend Father Hermann, the poor invalid who has just now penned these lines is happy to think that she has perhaps spread a little consolation and balm on the still bleeding wound of the heart of this son and priest. She dares to ask the alms of his fervent prayers, and she likes to believe that he will not refuse to one, who, even though unknown to him, is united to him by the sacred bonds of the same faith and of the same hopes. ..."

What appears to add great authority to this letter, is that it had been announced six years in advance by the venerable Cure of Ars.

End of translation.

(pp. 126 - 129, Vie du R.P. Hermann, en religion Augustine-Marie du T.S. Sacrament, Carme Dechausse, par M. l'Abbe Charles Sylvain, Paris, 1883.
From the French life of Rev. Father Hermann, in religion Augustin-Marie of the Most Holy Sacrament, Discalced Carmelite, by Fr. Canon Charles Sylvain, Paris 1883.)

Publised with the approbation of and recommendation of His Grandeur Mgr. Gay, Bishop of D'Anthedon, Auxiliary of His Eminence Cardinal Pie, Bishop of Poitier, 4 Dec. 1880
and of His Grace Mgr. de la Bouillerie, the Archbishop of Perga, Coadjutor of Bordeaux, 23 July 1881
of His Lordship Mgr. Adolphe-Louis Perraud, Bishop of Autun and Member of the French Academy, 8 March, 1882
and of the Most Reverend Father Luc of St. John of the Cross, Father General of the Discalced Carmelites, 4 May, 1880)

Requiescat in Pace

Yesterday, Monday 10th October my grandfather,
Desmond Wimsett, passed away.

Please pray a "Hail Mary" for his soul.


Requiescat in Pace!

— Br. Martin Mary, F.SS.R.