Wednesday, December 21, 2005

Return of the Camauro


This is really most encouraging! It's not that I like the Pope to dress up, although I have nothing against that. This is wonderful because it shows how fearless Benedict XVI is, how heedless of 'what people may think'. It shows how attached he is to tradition, and how willing he is to revive it. It shows he is not just a thinker, a theorist, but also a doer, a man of action. People said: The ermine mozzetta will never be seen again; and it was. Then they said: Alright, but never the camauro, surely? Now what are people saying? The Old Mass in St Peter's? At this point it would be very foolish to count anything out. This Pope is simply wonderful. Alleluia!

Saturday, December 10, 2005

The New Secretary

Does anyone out there know anything about Archbishop Malcolm Ranjith Patabendige Don? On the face of it, it seems that B XVI has made another Levadesque appointment: an unexpected, not particularly competent, but obdedient servant of his own purposes. To that one need not object.

Friday, December 09, 2005

Gaudete!

"Rejoice in the Lord always; again I say: Rejoice!" There was need for St Paul to repeat the message. We too are slow to hear it: the Gospel is a joyful thing! But note the source of our joy: rejoice in the Lord. When we seek joy outside of him, or in things which contradict his will for us, then we may know some fleeting happiness, but no true joy. We must give ourselves fully to him. With regard to the things of the world, however, we must exercise restraint: "let your mderation be known to all men." That is the big mistake we so often make. Something in this life -- food, drink, a hobby, a friendship -- brings us joy, so we go after it without restraint. And in over-indulging in our joy, we in fact ruin it. To the Lord we give ourselves fully, but we must deal moderately with the things of the earth. Then we shall know true and lasting joy, a joy that the world does not know; a joy that is the Lord's own joy and which no one shall ever take from us.

Tuesday, December 06, 2005

Immaculata

Blessed Pius IX defined the dogma of the Immaculate Conception in 1854, but in fact the Angel Gabriel had beaten him to it by so many years. When the said angel addressed the Virgin, he did not call her Mary, but used a term which defined her total being: kecharitomene in Greek, gratia plena in Latin, in English: full of grace. By declaring Mary full of grace, Gabriel also declared her totally free from sin. That freedom, being total, was not only total at that moment, but in every moment, from the first instant of her existence, that is, from her Conception. Modern minds find the Immaculate Conception irrelevant, since they fail to grasp the beauty and power of God's grace. Mary did not merit her sinlessness, so what value has it? But that is precisely its value! Mary's Immaculate Conception proclaims the power of God to do for us what we can never do for ourselves. Her he preserved from sin from the beginning; us he can preserve too, now, if only we allow him to, if only we are open to his grace. We celebrate the Immaculate Conception at the heart of Advent. Mary reminds us that sinlessness was necessary for the sinless Son of God to enter the world. And so she reminds us that we too must free ourselves from sin if we wish, in our own poor way, to offer the Son of God a place to be born.