Catholic School's For Catholics

Earlier today I saw this article : http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=270336
I appears that the Archbishop of Hobart has filed to be exempt from discrimination laws and turn away some non Catholics from his schools.
"He said the policy would ensure "very strong Catholic ethos and vision" in Tasmanian Catholic schools, and would be slowly rolled out across the state."

Ah yes, a very strong Catholic Ethos, sounds good, but I just hope and pray that it will come true.
The article gives figures that he hope that Catholic schools will contain 75& Catholics as apposed to the current figure of 40%. I am not opposed to non Catholics going to Catholics schools, just as long as they sign a document saying that they consent to be brought up in Catholic Values. Also it provides a good opportunity for conversions, give a good Catholic catechist.

I go to a Catholic High school up here in Brisbane, It will remain nameless, but needless to say, I weep for the souls of the students. So much heresy, so many distractions and so many lost souls.
Sure we generously give to the community, but we can not give something that we do not have.

I ask for the prayers of every Catholic, Pray for our Schools. Satan really is Winning this battle, especially up here.

Pentecost

For the great feast of Pentecost, Fr Jordan unfortunately had to be absent. So Father Columba the prior of the local Pauline Fathers monastery stepped up to the plate.

I had the great Honor of Mcing for Fr Columba at his first missa cantata. This was his first time, so he was understandably nervous, but he passed with flying colors.
Fr Columba brought his white biretta along. Here I'm trying to keep up with the chants so that Father and the servers may move at the best possible time, needless to say we had about a minute of awkward silence as the incense was prepared.Father delivered another great sermon. Father can get very enthusiastic when preaching.

Father and I wore nice lace vestments. I like lace, but it has to be christiological, not curtain, floral or Victoria's secret lace.
Our little sanctuary can get quite crowed with as little as a missa cantata.

The Mass went smoothly, Father said now that he has one under his belt, he would gladly fancy it up with asperges next time. It really is nice seeing more priests celebrate the tridentine mass.

Procession of the Blessed Sacrament to the Altar of Repose

Here is the video of PANGE, lingua, being chanted during a procession to the altar of repose for Holy Thursday.

Pange lingua

Pange lingua happens to be one of my favorite chants. It was written by the angelic doctor himself, Thomas Aquinas for the feast of Corpus Christi. Many people are familiar with it's tone due to it's last two verses the Tantum Ergo being sung before benediction. I wish the whole chant was sung more often, while omitting even the Tantum Ergo really saddens me.

PANGE, lingua, gloriosi Corporis mysterium, Sanguinisque pretiosi, quem in mundi pretium fructus ventris generosi Rex effudit Gentium.	SING, my tongue, the Savior's glory, of His flesh the mystery sing; of the Blood, all price exceeding, shed by our immortal King, destined, for the world's redemption, from a noble womb to spring.
Nobis datus, nobis natus ex intacta Virgine, et in mundo conversatus, sparso verbi semine, sui moras incolatus miro clausit ordine.	Of a pure and spotless Virgin born for us on earth below, He, as Man, with man conversing, stayed, the seeds of truth to sow; then He closed in solemn order wondrously His life of woe.
In supremae nocte cenae recumbens cum fratribus observata lege plene cibis in legalibus, cibum turbae duodenae se dat suis manibus.	On the night of that Last Supper, seated with His chosen band, He the Pascal victim eating, first fulfills the Law's command; then as Food to His Apostles gives Himself with His own hand.
Verbum caro, panem verum verbo carnem efficit: fitque sanguis Christi merum, et si sensus deficit, ad firmandum cor sincerum sola fides sufficit.	Word-made-Flesh, the bread of nature by His word to Flesh He turns; wine into His Blood He changes;- what though sense no change discerns? Only be the heart in earnest, faith her lesson quickly learns.
Tantum ergo Sacramentum veneremur cernui: et antiquum documentum novo cedat ritui: praestet fides supplementum sensuum defectui.	Down in adoration falling, Lo! the sacred Host we hail; Lo! o'er ancient forms departing, newer rites of grace prevail; faith for all defects supplying, where the feeble sense fail.
Genitori, Genitoque laus et iubilatio, salus, honor, virtus quoque sit et benedictio: procedenti ab utroque compar sit laudatio. Amen. Alleluia.	To the everlasting Father, and the Son who reigns on high, with the Holy Ghost proceeding forth from Each eternally, be salvation, honor, blessing, might and endless majesty. Amen. Alleluia.

I hope to post a youtube video of the chant being chanted, so stay tunned!

Mary Help of Christians At Marian Valley

Recently I've been dealing with a few issues about my life, my vocation and this blog, so I've had little spare time to post, this combined with my serving commitments and school have put a serious drain on my time, so please excuse any extended absences from Blogging.
Now on to the post. Yesterday the 19th of May was the day the shrine moved it's celebration of it's feast day due to the shrine being under the patronage of Our Lady Help of Christians. Why? well so as to allow people to come due to it being a Saturday and to avoid stealing faithfully from their weekly celebration of mass at their local parish. Above we can see the pilgrimages starting to flow in to the shrine.
Here we have the entrance procession. Once again I brought my set of acolyte candles for use at the shrine, I really do prefer them to small little candles some parishes use, but at least they are using acolyte candles. We had a fine young server from the diocese of Lismore come and act as thurifer, he is trying to serve for world youth day 2008 in sydney so please do keep him in your prayers. I was MC for the mass so I had on one of my favorite lace surplices.


The Mass was celebrated with great reverence by Rev Fr Peter Joseph the chancellor of the Marionite dioceses of Sydney (actually I believe all of Australia). Fr Peter Joseph was one of Fr Columba's seminary professors, I could see it. Fr Columba is in my opinion a reflection of Fr Peter Joseph , both holy, both Funny, both intelligent and both JP2 Priests!

Fr Gabriel proclaimed the Gospel.We even had a Marionite Priest Monk con celebrate the mass, unfortunately he did not have a Sticharion and Phellion, I really do love those eastern vestments, so I was a ashame we couldn't provide him with them.
Since it was the feast of Our Lady Help of Christians, we had a statue of Our Lady and Fr solemnly incensed it. You can see the nice Marian chasuble Father was wearing and my Lace surplice.
Con celebrating along with Fr Peter Joseph were Fathers Gregory Jordan, Fr Columba the prior, Fr Gabriel and two other priest that I personally don't know, but I am sure they are good holy priests! It was a truly moving experience to assist that close (being the MC), To 6 holy Priests. They magnificently said the Roman cannon together and chanted the per ipso, truly a moving experience.

Finally for the first time at a mass I MCed the procession moved off at my mark, not at the celebrants, I can be very timid at times.

Although I do love a cassocked and surpliced male choir chanting Gregorian chant(The dream), These pious women, singing the mass is an uplifting and pleasing experience. I also love the light blue robe they have, it's better then having women look like cross dressers by having them in cassocks and surplices. I do wish these women, many happy years singing at the holy mass and assure them of my prayers.
After the mass we had an Eucharistic procession.

For the procession I switched roles with Sean, the previous head server at Marian Valley, he does a great Job and is more experienced with processions then I. The switch gave me the wonderful opportunity of trying out my new appareled alb.
Fr Columba changed into the much loved mantle of his order.Although I quite disapprove of using torches as processional candles, it is a rational option if they are going to constantly blow out! Now I wish someone, may be even one of my faithful readers would point out were i am to obtain a accessory that will protect the flame of my prieviously mentioned acolyte candles.To wrap up the day, Fr prior masterfully lead chanted the divine mercy chaplet.

It was a great day!
Mary help of Christians! Pray for US!

Dutch Pilgramage to Marian Valley

Today, I had the great honor of serving for his excellency Rev Joseph Oudeman OFMCap, D.D.
I received the awesome privilege of handling the pontificals of the bishop, due to being the MC. It was just me and bro Luke, so no big show , much to my disappointment. Look the way I reason is since the bishop has the fullness of priesthood and is a direct successor of the apostles, it is almost mandated that it be a mass with a decent level of solemnity (expect in some cases, such as war and extreme persecution).The procession to the altar was quite bare, no acolytes, no thurifer, not even a miter or crosier bearer. I really wish I had a good team or several teams of servers at my disposal for such occasions.

I must admit that I wasn't expecting a bishop to be there. I was caught off guard, if i was thinking logically, i would have known that a bishop was going to be there and I would have brought my good cassock and my lacy surplice, but oh well I'm offering it up.

Today was also the first time I got to place a miter on a bishops head. I've handled one before, I've played with one (i was a little kid!) and I've even dropped one, but i've never had the privilege of placing one a bishops head.
The mass was in English, but the ordinary was chanted in Latin. Bishop Oudeman suprised me with his ability to chant and to intone.
I'm currently i need of generous people to donate via pay pal, so i can have a cassock made, the one i use in this photo is getting to short and my fancy one is a bit to big for me, so please if you do have any funds you can part with, please donate. Also due to my increase in serving for bishops, I'm thinking of having a purple cassock made.

I really wish that priest, could still vest as deacons. It's a nice roman tradition, that when required the priest humbled him self so far that he would act as a deacon. Also it would also be great to see the dalmatic again.
Here is myself, brother Luke , fr Gabriel and Bishop Oudeman enjoying lunch. I joked with Fr Gabriel how most teens spend their Saturday's shopping or relaxing at home or in the company of their friends, while i spend it in the company of religious zealots. For processions, if you do not have sufficient servers, it really starts to show, By it being extremely short, so umbrella canopy, no candles or torches and you see the thurifer trying to reload the thurible one handed as i am currently doing in the photo.

A nice photo of the procession in action.
Benediction is the perfect way to round the day off. Wait , actually being offered $50 to have a religious brother as a pet by Fr Prior is the best way, unfortunately my father declined, he said it was just more work for him.

Clerical Beer ad

I'm posting this video again due to the previous location of the video being unavailable. I is a great ad, displaying great clerical dress in action.

Pillgramage of the Indian Community

Saturday May 5th, the Indian community had a there annual pilgrimage to Marian valley in honor of Our Lady of Good health. The Mass was celebrated by Fr Pancras Jordan O.P. ( A Dominican? I didn't even notice he was a Dominican, I just found out by reading the booklet, hmm hard to tell who's who with out their uniform)
It was nice to see the Catholic indians, the media pushes the Hindu side of the country too much. India the church in India is very ancient, apparently St Thomas came there to peach the Gospels.
As soon as mass ended the Indian priest had to rush off to a wedding, so Fr Prior had to lead the procession to the shrine of Our Lady of good health. Br Luke and I assisted Father with his Cope, holy water stoop and Biretta.
At the shrine we prayed a few litany's and Father gave a special blessing for all the pilgrims.
Father Prior, Is a priest with great love for our lady.Once everyone had a nice lunch to replenish lost energy from the procession, we had benediction of the blessed sacrament to end the day as is the norm for first Saturday devotions.

As favorite quote of mine from one of the usual pilgrims is that "I come to here to recharge my batteries every month" Quite true, I recommend a pilgrimage to Marian Valley to anyone who needs to recharge his spiritual "Batteries"

CIEL Oxford: Magnificat at Solemn Tridentine Vespers

Wow I am amazed. Even thought I know a lot about the tridentine vespers, I have never been to them. All major church should have solemn vespers every Sunday, were all the clergy can pray together, hec it's even recommended by the holy see. I especially love the music.

Mój BLOG — teraz także trochę w języku polskim

Just to do something special for my 100th post, I thought of writing in Polish

Witam wszystkich Rodaków z Polski i mówiących po polsku.

To jest moja strona internetowa. Zapraszam do odwiedzania mojej strony.

Nie martwcie się, że strona jest w języku angielskim, jest dużo zdjęć

ale nie trzeba znać języka angielskiego aby oglądać zdjęcia..

Spróbuję n

apisać od czasu do czasu po polsku..

MARYJO, KRÓLOWO POLSKI

MÓDL SIĘ, ZA NAMI.