A corporal work of mercy.

A corporal work of mercy.
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Sunday 17 January 2021

On this Second Sunday after the Epiphany and in the time of the Gospels of manifestations of Our Lord, there is still

I sang a Requiem yesterday. It was very sad as the deceased was known to me. Cardinal Collins partly relented in his inane decision, allowing the Mass for weddings and funerals. The Mass was held within the provincial restrictions proving that it can be done. Cardinal Collins is in grievous error as the Metropolitan Archbishop for his lack of leadership and the shuttering of churches and elimination of daily and Sunday public Mass. 
Your Eminence, I know that you are reading this. Restore the Mass now. Order the priests to comply or face suspension. Each priest is to say three Masses per day. if not a First Class Feast or Solemnity, then  convert the weekday Masses to Sunday. If a parish has two priests, that is six Masses. All can work out a system to stay within the provincial guidelines. Suspend Holy Communion at Mass except by appointment for individual or family and provide on tongue as it is private and the priest and people can properly wash. Respect those of us who will not receive by the hand. Host too small? Use larger hosts or rectangular shaped. There are lots of options. Late or not, partner with our Evangelical Christian brothers who are going to court. Advise the Premier he can arrest all priests and bishops, our churches are opening. Your actions have caused much of what you called in the leaked webinar, "collateral damage." You know well what that collateral damage is. Depression, suicide, increase in drug use and alcoholism, abuse, financial disaster for individual and small business. You closed the churches. You have contributed to this "collateral damage." The toll which the closed churches have taken on the faithful is known to God and will be revealed to all of us at the end of time. 

Are you prepared to answer for that? 

Charity compels me to call you out and correct you in your error!

There is an antiphon set to polyphony by Palestrina called Tribus Miraculis. It is an Epiphanytide text that recalls the ancient traditional belief that the Epiphany, the Baptism of the Lord and the Wedding Feast at Cana all happened in their specific years on the same date. Epiphany once had an Octave, done away with by an ill-advised Piux XII as recommended by Annibale Bugnini. The liturgical rot began that long ago. The Octave Day was the Baptism of the Lord, January 13 with the Gospel being the Lord's Baptism at the Jordan by John the Baptist and the next Sunday, today, followed with the Gospel of the Wedding Feast at Cana. As for the calendar in the modernist rite, the moving of Epiphany to Sunday along with Baptism the next Sunday acknowledges this "octave" at least nominally and without calling it such. On one Sunday in the three year cycle, the Gospel of the Second Sunday in Ordinary Time has the Marriage Feast of Cana gospel. As someone who never attends it, I have no idea what year this is. The Sundays between now and the Gesimas all are oriented towards similar manifestations of Jesus as the Christ, the Messiah. One other matter about today, the actual Collect is the same in both, the only Sunday of the year that this occurs as Father Zuhlsdorf explains.

If we were at Mass today in either the traditional or modernist, assuming the modernists would use the actual offertory chant proper to the day, you would hear what is arguably the most wonderful Offertory antiphon of the church year, it is certainly my favourite. It appears again in Eastertide, though on different Sundays.

Since you cannot attend Mass today, may I suggest Matins and Lauds from the Divine Office, specifically the Divino Afflatu that has none of the tainting of Bugnini or Pius XII or John XXIII. It will take about 45 minutes, but what else are you doing today? I will guarantee you that it will be a greater offering to God and more efficacious than watching a Mass on your computer screen. You are, after all, not at Mass. 


Not the familiar Salzburg but at least I won't disgrace this post with Subdeaconess carrying the cross. Pure and beautiful voices, real faith.

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