Support Women in China

I received this from the Population Research Institute. I thought readers might be interested.  The evils of China's population policies are doubles well-known to all of us: here are some ideas about what you can actually do (and a starting point is learning more, distressing though that will be).

Here's what PRI have to say:

Population Research Institute has launched a new “activism page” in conjunction with the publication of the second edition of Steven Mosher’s book, A Mother’s Ordeal. A modern classic, the book is a biography of a young one-child-policy enforcer in China. It provides a raw and unflinching glimpse into life—and death—at the hands of a Chinese government bent on curbing births in the most populous country on earth. “Brutally truthful," said Elise Hilton in a new review.

Anne Morse, PRI’s media coordinator, created the new page. She explains: “When I first read A Mother’s Ordeal, I frequently had to pause and take a deep breath. The atrocities told within its pages made my stomach churn. It made me want to do something, and I knew that other readers would be motivated to take action too. That’s why we created the activism page.” 

The activism page includes three sections—each carefully chosen to help people become effective activists for human rights in China. The page includes petitions, volunteer pages, speakers, and social media pages from all across the web. It also lists several organizations that fight coercive population control, and tells how to help these organizations. Finally, the page offers a series of quick facts about the one-child policy and its effects, and includes educational resources to help people become articulate defenders of human life in China. 

As Elise Hilton of the Acton Institute wrote in her review, A Mother’s Ordeal tells a reality that is “callous and brutal,” but goes on to say that, “as difficult as this book is to read, it is important to do so.” 

PRI hopes people will not only read A Mother’s Ordeal, but also visit the corresponding activism page and help put an end to the horrors recounted in the book. 

You can visit the activism page at pop.org/amo/act. 

For more information about A Mother's Ordeal, you can visit the book's homepage at pop.org/amo.

PRI was co-founded by Steven Mosher (after he had spent time in China witnessing the atrocities recorded in A Mother's ordeal) and the late Fr Paul Marx OSB, of Human Life International fame.

First dip of the year...

After Mass today, the sun was shining, the birds were singing, and the dog was desperate for a walk.

So we went down the bridle path to the river.

That took us past the field where the first lambs in the village are. There mother is still very cautious with them, and walked them away as she saw us coming down the path.  So they are very tiny in the photo (but then they are very tiny in real life).

Which reminds me of a story about Picasso.  Apparently someone criticised one of his paintings: 'Why do you not paint things they way they really look?' 'I honestly don't understand what you mean,' he replied.  The critic pulled out his wallet and produced a photo of his wife: 'Look, like this: that's what my wife really looks like!' Picasso looked at the small square of photographic paper with an image on it. 'She is very small, isn't she. And very flat!'

But I digress.

So we wandered on, down to the river and Goldie retrieved a few sticks and fished a few stones from the bottom, as is her wont.

Then Ant and Bernie went for the first dip of the season. They assure me it was very cold, and I have no reason to doubt them.  But as a spectator sport, I highly recommend it.

Not This Man!

The Tablet, that august organ, reports Bishop Burns talking about the recent questionnaire on marriage and family life thus:

the Questionnaire on Marriage and Family Life was constructed in such an obfuscating manner that it could have been a deliberate ruse to deter responses and halt the roaring train. [Respondents] have a right to know the strength of uniformity in what they said. The views belong to the people who made them. It’s called transparency. Let’s be among the first to re-build the Church – with good marriages, good families – and good re-marriages too!

There is much here that I find worrisome: in particular the comment about re-marriages. From the context, it seems abundantly clear that the bishop is not talking about widows and widowers re-marrying. 

Therefore he can only mean that people who are already validly married, and entering a second (or subsequent) union are capable of contracting, not only valid, but 'good' marriages.  Maybe it was poorly worded (or misquoted); I certainly hope so, for otherwise, the Bishop, in this statement, has stepped outside orthodoxy, which is a very serious problem indeed.

However, I want to pick up on something else. He seems to be calling for the views of respondents to be made public, and seems to be doing so because he feels that their 'strength and uniformity' lend them some validity.

I would agree that the views could usefully be made public, but not in the name of 'transparency' (a rather vogue and often weasel word) but because of the Church's commitment to truth.  Truth does not necessarily require such transparency: but what it does require is for widespread error to be corrected.  Acknowledging the scale of the problem might be a good first step in that process.

But, as I say, Bishop Burns, it would seem, does not approach it from that point of view at all. Instead, he seems to subscribe, as far as one can tell, to a rather naive version of Vox populi vox Dei.

Interlude: meditate on the third of the Luminous Mysteries.

To resume. There were once two men, One proclaimed a Gospel of Love; but not the simplistic love that says 'don't upset people' - rather the love that says Sin no more!  Whoever marries a woman who is divorced commits adultery, and other rather unpopular things.

The other was a murderer.

But when asked whether the first should be spared execution, the people, (with strength and uniformity, no doubt), cried out: Not this Man, but Barrabas!

Vox populi is really not a sure guide to truth or virtue.  Of course, if people practice contraception, and have divorced their spouses, they will ask for these to be declared good (particularly if they have some residual sense of guilt).  'Whom will you follow: Jesus of Nazareth, who teaches that you must repent your sins?'

'Not this Man!'

But it is really not the job of a Catholic Bishop to oblige.

Resonance

I have been looking at the Propers for Passion Sunday in the Extraordinary Form: the fifth Sunday of Lent and the start of what we used to call Passiontide (remember that?)

Here is the Introit:


Judica me, Deus, et discerne causam meam de gente non sancta: ab homine iniquo et doloso eripe me : quia tu es Deus meus, et fortitudo mea. Emitte lucem tuam, et verita- tem tuam : ipsa me deduxerunt, et adduxerunt in montem sanctum tuum, et in tabernacula tua.

If you are at all familiar with the Traditional Mass, you will instantly recognise these verses from Psalm 42, because they are recited by the priest and server at the start of every Mass (except from Passion Sunday to Maundy Thursday).

So when one comes across them on Passion Sunday, one instantly notices that. Which means that subsequently (at least for the first few Sundays after Easter, until one forgets) at the start of each Mass we are reminded of the start of Passiontide.

That is an example of what I call resonance, and relates to what I blogged about here, regarding a symphonic analogy for liturgy. There is a richness and a depth to traditional liturgy, in the same way there is a richness and a depth to family customs and rituals around birthdays and Christmas.  The way the Mass had developed, organically, over the years led to many such felicities.

The writing of a new Mass by committee, and particularly a committee that took such a reductionist and mono linear approach, stripped all these away. They seem to have been actively hostile to popular piety, and to anything that did not conform to a rigid, and simplistic, analysis of the structure of the ideal Mass. The analogy with architecture is also relevant (cf my extended metaphor here).

Part of the problem is the three year cycle of the Lectionary. With a yearly cycle, one can get used to the Mass for Passion Sunday.  But if they change every year, and recur only every three, we don't develop that instinctive familiarity.

Another impoverishment: and we are the poorer for it.



UPDATE

In the interests of accuracy, I should note that the Judica me is used as the Introit for the 5th Sunday of Lent (no longer Passion Sunday, it would seem) in all three years. However, the resonance of which I speak is lost entirely, as it is no longer said at the foot of the altar at the start of Lent, and (at least according to my missal) Passiontide (along with the season of Septuagesima, qv) has been abolished.

The larger point about the three-year cycle still stands.

Learning Liturgical Latin: Resources

As my loyal reader will remember, I posted a series of posts on learning Liturgical Latin a while back. They start here, and the rest (19 in all) can be found by following the tag 'Latin Class.'

However, since then, I have come across a number of other resources online that may be of interest. So in this post, I give a selection of links which will help anyone striving to learn Latin for the Liturgy.

For a dictionary, there is  Lewis and Short, which is excellent.

Then there is the Vulgate (St Jerome's masterly Latin translation of the Bible, used by the Church in the West for centuries as the authoritative and liturgical text for Holy Scripture).  This is online, with parallel English translation here. 

For the Mass in the Traditional Form, there is this which is very beautifully laid out, for the Ordinary of the Mass.  For the Propers (and a less decorated, but in some easy more helpful version of the Ordinary) this is excellent.

For Mass in the New Rite, I have yet to see a parallel Latin and (corrected) English translation of the Ordinary online: I am sure that there is one out there, so if a kind reader could point it out, I would be grateful.

For the Lectionary of the New Rite, there is this (US version, but for the purposes of learning Latin, should be OK: I haven't read it.) 

For the Divine Office, this seems a very comprehensive site.

If anyone knows of any other useful online resources for the learning of Liturgical Latin, I'd be very grateful.

Ash Wednesday then and now...

Every year I am struck by the contrast between the prayers over the Ashes in the Traditional and the New Roman Rite.

In the Traditional Rite, the Blessing and Imposition of Ashes takes place before the Mass begins, with the following solemn prayers of intercession and blessing:

Let us pray.   O almighty and everlasting God, spare those who are penitent, be merciful to those who implore Thee; and vouchsafe to send Thy holy Angel from heaven, to bless † and hal†low these ashes, that they may be a wholesome remedy to all who humbly implore Thy holy Name, and who accuse themselves, conscious of their sins, deploring their crimes before Thy divine mercy, or humbly and earnestly beseeching Thy sovereign goodness: and grant through the invocation of Thy most holy Name that whosoever shall be sprinkled with them for the remission of their sins may receive both health of body and safety of soul. Through Christ our Lord.
 R.: Amen.

Let us pray. O God, who desirest not the death, but the repentance of sinners, look down most graciously upon the frailty of human nature; and in Thy goodness vouchsafe to bless † these ashes which we purpose to put opon our heads in token of our lowliness and to obtain forgiveness: so that we who know that we are but ashes, and for the demerits of our wickedness are to return to dust, may deserve to obtain of Thy mercy, the pardon of all our sins, and the rewards promised to the penitent. Through Christ our Lord.  

R.: Amen.

Let us pray. O God, who art moved by humiliation, and appeased by penance: incline the ear of Thy goodness to our prayers and mercifully pour forth upon the heads of Thy servants sprinkled with these ashes the grace of Thy blessing: that Thou mayest both fill them with the spirit of compunction, and effectually grant what they have justly prayed for: and ordain that what Thou hast granted may be permanently established and remain unchanged. Through Christ our Lord.

R.: Amen.

Let us pray. O almighty and everlasting God, who didst vouchsafe Thy healing pardon to the Ninivites doing penance in sackcloth and ashes, mercifully grant that we may so imitate them in our outward attitude as to follow them in obtaining forgiveness. Through Christ our Lord.

R.: Amen.

 When all have received the ashes, the priest says:

V.: The Lord be with you.
R.: And with thy spirit.

Let us pray.  Grant us, O Lord, to begin with holy fasts the campaign of our Christian warfare: that, as we do battle with the spirits of evil, we may be protected by the help of self-denial. Through Christ our Lord.

R.: Amen.

--

In the New Rite, the blessing and imposition of ashes takes place after the Homily.  There is an invitation to prayer, followed by only one prayer over the ashes (though, as so often, a choice is offered):

Dear brethren (brothers and sisters), let us humbly ask God our Father
that he be pleased to bless with the abundance of his grace
these ashes, which we will put on our heads in penitence.

After a brief prayer in silence, and, with hands extended, he continues:

O God, who are moved by acts of humility
and respond with forgiveness to works of penance,
lend your merciful ear to our prayers
and in your kindness pour out the grace of your blessing
on your servants who are marked with these ashes,
that, as they follow the Lenten observances,
they may be worthy to come with minds made pure
to celebrate the Paschal Mystery of your Son.
Through Christ our Lord
R. Amen.

Or:
O God, who desire not the death of sinners,
but their conversion,
mercifully hear our prayers
and in your kindness be pleased to bless + these ashes,
which we intend to receive upon our heads,
that we, who acknowledge we are but ashes
and shall return to dust,
may, through a steadfast observance of Lent,
gain pardon for sins and newness of life
after the likeness of your Risen Son.
Who lives and reigns for ever and ever.

R. Amen.

--

Is it me, or is that an impoverishment?

Update:

Lazarus has pointed out that I missed another telling difference. In the traditional Mass, the ashes are imposed with the words:

Memento homo, quia pulvis es, et in pulverem reverteris.

Remember man, that thou art dust, and unto dust thou shalt return.

In the New Rite, there are (of course!) options:

Repent, and believe in the Gospel.
Or:
Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.

Many parishes, it seems, use the first option: another break with tradition. Our PP, for some reason, alternated.

Remember, Man, that thou art dust...

Memento homo, quia pulvis es, et in pulverem reverteris.

Remember man, that thou art dust, and unto dust thou shalt return.


Today is Ash Wednesday, the start of Lent in the Western Church.  We are called to repent of our sins and believe the Gospel, to dedicate ourselves anew to prayer and works of charity, and to restrain our misguided subjection to our passions (the result of Original Sin) by mortification and good deeds.

Humility and obedience are little valued by the World, which teaches self-esteem and autonomy as the highest human values.  We are called to be a sign of contradiction.

The ashes which we receive are a sign of this (note that we receive them humbly, not take them...)  Here is one of the prayers over the ashes from the Extraordinary Form of the Mass:

Almighty and everlasting God, spare the penitent sinner, have pity on thy suppliant people, and in loving kindness, send down from heaven thy holy Angel to bless and sanctify these ashes.  Thus hallowed, may they be a saving remedy to all who, humbly calling upon thy holy name, reproach themselves with the sins of which their conscience accuses them, and who, grieving over their evil deeds, make pitiful recourse to thee for mercy and pardon.  Grant, in fine, that they over whom, in token of sorrow for their sin, these ashes are sprinkled, may be blessed by thee with lasting well-being of soul and body.  Through Christ our Lord.

And here is the Lenten Hymn: Attende Domine (English translation below the Latin text)

(NB: The Marian Antiphon for the season, of course, is the Ave Regina Caelorum.)

Attende Domine, et miserere, quia peccavimus tibi.

Attende Domine, et miserere, quia peccavimus tibi.

Ad te Rex summe,

omnium Redemptor,

oculos nostros

sublevamus flentes:

exaudi, Christe,

supplicantum preces.

Attende Domine, et miserere, quia peccavimus tibi.

Dextera Patris,

lapis angularis,

via salutis,

ianua caelestis,

ablue nostri

maculas delicti.

Attende Domine, et miserere, quia peccavimus tibi.

Rogamus, Deus,

tuam maiestatem:

auribus sacris

gemitus exaudi:

crimina nostra

placidus indulge.

Attende Domine, et miserere, quia peccavimus tibi.

Tibi fatemur

crimina admissa:

contrito corde

pandimus occulta:

tua, Redemptor,

pietas ignoscat.

Attende Domine, et miserere, quia peccavimus tibi.

Innocens captus,

nec repugnans ductus;

testibus falsis

pro impiis damnatus

quos redemisti,

tu conserva, Christe.

Attende Domine, et miserere, quia peccavimus tibi.

Hear us, O Lord, and have mercy, because we have sinned against Thee.
Hear us, O Lord, and have mercy, because we have sinned against Thee.

To Thee, highest King,
Redeemer of all,
do we lift up our eyes
in weeping:
Hear, O Christ, the prayers
of your servants.

Hear us, O Lord, and have mercy, because we have sinned against Thee.

Right hand of the Father,
corner-stone, 
way of salvation,
gate of heaven,
wash away our 
stains of sin.

Hear us, O Lord, and have mercy, because we have sinned against Thee.

We beseech Thee, God,
in Thy great majesty:
Hear our groans
with Thy holy ears:
calmly forgive
our crimes.

Hear us, O Lord, and have mercy, because we have sinned against Thee.

To Thee we confess
our sins admitted
with a contrite heart
We reveal the things hidden:
By Thy kindness, O Redeemer,
overlook them.

Hear us, O Lord, and have mercy, because we have sinned against Thee.

The Innocent, seized,
not refusing to be led;
condemned by false witnesses
because of impious men
O Christ, keep safe those
whom Thou hast redeemed.

Hear us, O Lord, and have mercy, because we have sinned against Thee.

On a lighter note, though still on track with the season, there's always the Dogma Dogs: Lent, Lent, time to repent!