The Holy See and the Society of St Pius X

ROME FINALLY RECOGNISES THAT THE SOCIETY OF ST PIUS X WAS NOT IN DOCTRINAL ERROR – WILL THE DETRACTORS OF SSPX NOW APOLOGISE FOR SAYING THAT THEY WERE?

According to a report from CAN/EWTN news on 3 February 2017, the Society of St Pius X (SSPX) has been offered a personal prelature with no conditions beyond a doctrinal statement which merely accepts what SSPX has always believed.

Bishop Bernard Fellay, superior general of the Society, said as much in an interview with Spanish magazine Vida Nueva published 3 February 2017.

His Lordship Bernard, Bishop Fellay, superior general of SSPX, outside St Peter's Basilica

Pope Benedict XVI, when, in 2009, he recognised the unfairness of the excommunications of SSPX bishops, nevertheless continued to note that “doctrinal questions obviously remain and until they are clarified the Society has no canonical status in the Church and its ministers cannot legitimately exercise any ministry”.

Pope Francis, on the other hand, is imposing no conditions at all beyond an agreed doctrinal statement which merely reflects what SSPX has always taught and its members always endorsed.

This is an extraordinary development. It means that Pope Francis effectively considers that SSPX are not now, and never have been, in error in any way. For, if they had been, then they would first need to be regularised before being granted a personal prelature. That is the law of the Church.

Logically, then, unless Pope Francis is committing an illegal act, his decision means that previous popes, even including Pope Benedict XVI, were unjust to SSPX in claiming that they could not exercise legitimate ministry because no-one should be deprived of legitimate ministry without a good reason.

In which case, it is time for the critics of SSPX to issue a very sincere and heart-felt apology to them, before God.

In a sign of goodwill, Pope Francis during the Jubilee of Mercy recognised the right of the priests of SSPX validly to hear confessions and absolve penitents.

It was, frankly, inexplicable for the Holy See ever to have insisted that confession and absolution by SSPX priests was invalid. What sort of pastoral solicitude is that?

But now Pope Francis is finally recognising this.

His Holiness, Pope Francis

Meantime, the German bishops traduce not only the Faith but even the 10 Commandments and the Natural Law and go wholly unpunished for demanding that unrepentant adulterers be allowed to receive Holy Communion:

https://blogs.spectator.co.uk/2014/12/communion-for-divorced-catholics-the-german-bishops-twisting-pope-franciss-arm/#

But these same German episcopal Pharisees will not recognise the confessions and marriages administered by priests of SSPX. What hypocrisy! They strain out a gnat to swallow a camel.

These German epsicopal hypocrites have no excuse. 

The Holy See, to be fair, was in a more difficult position. It must have a care for the law of the Church and the rule against consecrating bishops without the authority of the Holy See (although it has now recognised the illegally consecrated bishops in China).

Having backed itself into a corner over the consecration of bishops in 1988, and ignoring the appeal against the ipso facto excommunication of the SSPX bishops, the Holy See, perhaps unwisely, bound its own hands in its dealings with SSPX and so felt it could not back down....until now.

But, now, in a truly remarkable development, an “important step” has been taken when Archbishop Pozzo declared that;

“certain texts of the Council did not constitute criteria for Catholicity” 

Among these, he said, are texts related to religious freedom, relations with non-Christian religions, ecumenism, and liturgical reform.

What?

So, the previous demands that SSPX must subscribe to these documents, to which they so much objected, was unnecessary and should never have been made?

What?

So the condemnation of SSPX for refusing to accept those documents was thus unjust, unfair, oppressive and deeply uncharitable?

What?

And where, then, are the tears of contrition, sorrow and apology for treating SSPX and its members so harshly, cruelly and unjustly, these 50 years past?

Absent!

If Pope Francis is making an illegal offer then the critics can continue to criticise. But who is arguing that Pope Francis is committing an illegal act? No-one.

Well, then?

Where are the apologies?

Absent. Silence reigns. Not a word.

They, like so many of the German bishops, who prate about religious liberty and Ecumenism, will not extend the hand of liberty and Ecumenism to their very own brothers in the Faith who want no more than to believe and worship as Catholics have always done. Instead, they curse, insult, abuse and oppress them!

Blind guides and hypocrites!

These same critics will fall over themselves to welcome every form of deviant “Christianity” or "religion" in the name of religious liberty and Ecumenism but render stones for bread and serpents and scorpions to the SSPX when they ask for no more than the right to believe and worship as Catholics always have done.

As our Lord Himself said:

“And which of you, if he ask his father for bread, will he give him a stone? Or a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent? Or if he shall ask an egg, will he reach him a scorpion?” [Luke 11:11-12]

Our Lord condemned the Pharisee leaders, the "bishops" of their day - but they did not have the fullness of the Faith. How much more, then, will he condemn the Pharisaical bishops of our day who talk of liberty and tolerance but deny liberty and tolerance to their own brethren in the Faith, the SSPX?

And further [Matt 23: 13-38]:

“[13] But woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites; because you shut the kingdom of heaven against men, for you yourselves do not enter in; and those that are going in, you suffer not to enter...

…[23] Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites; because you tithe mint, and anise, and cumin, and have left the weightier things of the law; judgment, and mercy, and faith. These things you ought to have done, and not to leave those undone. [24] Blind guides, who strain out a gnat, and swallow a camel. [25] Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites; because you make clean the outside of the cup and of the dish, but within you are full of rapine and uncleanness.

...[27] Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites; because you are like to whited sepulchres, which outwardly appear to men beautiful, but within are full of dead men' s bones, and of all filthiness. [28] So you also outwardly indeed appear to men just; but inwardly you are full of hypocrisy and iniquity....

...[33] You serpents, generation of vipers, how will you flee from the judgment of hell?

...[36] Amen I say to you, all these things shall come upon this generation. [37] Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them that are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered together thy children, as the hen doth gather her chicks under her wings, and thou wouldst not? [38] Behold, your house shall be left to you, desolate..."

Desolate, indeed, are the communities of those bishops who have turned a blind eye to child-abusing priests!

Desolate, indeed, are the houses of the numerous unfaithful bishops of today’s Church – their churches near-empty, their seminaries near-empty, the numbers attending their administration of the Sacraments declining, whilst the traditionalist churches and seminaries are bursting at the seams and attendance at the Sacraments at an all-time high.

Indeed, the biggest obstacles for the recognition of SSPX by Rome have been those very statements: on religious liberty in Vatican II's declaration Dignitatis Humanae and on Ecumenism with non-Christian religions in the declaration Nostra Aetate.

And yet the critics of SSPX have failed dismally and hypocritically to extend that very same religious liberty and Ecumenism to them! 

Pope Francis, out of pastoral solicitude, appears to be changing that. Pope Francis has issued a decree to ensure that marriages witnessed by SSPX priests will be clearly seen to be valid.

His Eminence Gerhard, Cardinal Mueller, Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith

In a letter approved by Pope Francis, Cardinal Müller, the Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, says: “The Holy Father . . . has decided to authorize local Ordinaries the possibility to grant faculties for the celebration of marriages of faithful who follow the pastoral activity of the Society”.

The Pope's decision adopts a proposal by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei, both of which are headed by Cardinal Müller.

The letter still refers to "full communion" and "persistence of canonical irregularity" but without specifying what that "irregularity" is.

We still ask, again, in all honesty and humility, how can it be "irregular" to wish to believe and worship as Catholics always have done?

Here is the full text of the letter:

Your Eminence,

Your Excellency,

As you are aware, for some time various meetings and other initiatives have been ongoing in order to bring the Society of St. Pius X into full communion. Recently, the Holy Father decided, for example, to grant all priests of said Society the faculty to validly administer the Sacrament of Penance to the faithful (Letter Misericordia et misera, n.12), such as to ensure the validity and liceity of the Sacrament and allay any concerns on the part of the faithful.

Following the same pastoral outlook which seeks to reassure the conscience of the faithful, despite the objective persistence of the canonical irregularity in which for the time being the Society of St. Pius X finds itself, the Holy Father, following a proposal by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei, has decided to authorize local Ordinaries the possibility to grant faculties for the celebration of marriages of faithful who follow the pastoral activity of the Society, according to the following provisions.

Insofar as possible, the local Ordinary is to grant the delegation to assist at the marriage to a priest of the Diocese (or in any event, to a fully regular priest), such that the priest may receive the consent of the parties during the marriage rite, followed, in keeping with the liturgy of the Vetus Ordo, by the celebration of Mass, which may be celebrated by a priest of the Society.

Where the above is not possible, or if there are no priests in the Diocese able to receive the consent of the parties, the Ordinary may grant the necessary faculties to the priest of the Society who is also to celebrate the Holy Mass, reminding him of the duty to forward the relevant documents to the Diocesan Curia as soon as possible.

Certain that in this way any uneasiness of conscience on the part of the faithful who adhere to the Society of St. Pius X, as well as any uncertainty regarding the validity of the sacrament of marriage may be alleviated, and at the same time that the process towards full institutional regularization may be facilitated, this Dicastery relies on your cooperation.

The Sovereign Pontiff Francis, at the Audience granted to the undersigned Cardinal President of the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei on 24 March 2017, confirmed his approval of the present letter and ordered its publication.

Rome, from the Offices of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, 27 March 2017. 

+ Gerhard Card. L. Müller

President

+ Guido Pozzo

Secretary

Titular Archbishop of Bagnoregio

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ARTICLE 50 DAY - 29 March 2017 - Britain triggers the process to leave the EU....

Her Majesty the Queen's first Minister, 

the Right Honourable Theresa May MP, 
the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom 
of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
and the First Lord of the Treasury,

by letter to the President of the European Union
activated Article 50 of the Treaty of the European Union,

today,

Wednesday 29 March 2017,

and started the process by which the UK will leave the European Union...

Her Majesty's first Minister, the Rt Hon Theresa May MP,
Prime Minister of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
signing the letter triggering Article 50 of the TEU

 

The letter of the Prime Minister activating Article 50 of the Treaty of the European Union...

Freedom for Britain to make its own decisions....

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BREXIT Act receives Royal Assent and Britain discards the shackles of the secularist, anti-Christian EU....

 European Union (Notification of Withdrawal) Act 2017

2017 CHAPTER 9

An Act to confer power on the Prime Minister to notify, under Article 50(2) of the Treaty on European Union, the United Kingdom’s intention to withdraw from the EU.

[16th March 2017]

Be it enacted by the Queen’s most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:—

1. Power to notify withdrawal from the EU

(1)The Prime Minister may notify, under Article 50(2) of the Treaty on European Union, the United Kingdom’s intention to withdraw from the EU.

(2)This section has effect despite any provision made by or under the European Communities Act 1972 or any other enactment.

2. Short title

This Act may be cited as the European Union (Notification of Withdrawal) Act 2017.

Emperor Constantine XI Palaiologos, the heroic and saintly last Eastern emperor of Byzantium

Constantine XI Dragases Palaiologos (Κωνσταντῖνος ΙΑ' Δραγάσης Παλαιολόγος) lived from 8 February 1405–29 May 1453, dying on the very day that his imperial city, Constantinople, and his Empire, fell to the heathen Islamic marauders.
 

He was the last reigning Byzantine Emperor, a member of the Palaiologos imperial family. He and his elder brother, Emperor John VIII Palaiologos, were both supporters of reunion with Rome and both became Catholics, as did the sons of Emperor Constantine XI.
 

His death marked the end of the Eastern Roman Empire, which had continued for 977 years after the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 (later revived in 800 with Charlemagne).
 

He was the eighth of ten children born to Emperor Manuel II Palaiologos and Empress Helena Dragaš, the daughter of the Serbian magnate Constantine Dragaš. 
 

Devoted to his mother, he added her surname (Dragases) to his own upon becoming Emperor.

Contemporaries spoke well of the Emperor Constantine and he was highly regarded by all.
 

While his brother John VIII Palaiologos was Emperor, Constantine had became the Despotes ("Despot" meaning "lord" or "master" and not having the same meaning as its English derivative) of the Morea (the medieval name for the Peloponnesus) in October 1443. He ruled from the fortress and palace in Mistra, a fortified town also called Sparta or Lacedaemon due to its proximity to that ancient Greek city.

Constantine XI married twice, on 1 July 1428 to Theodora Tocco, niece of Carlo I Tocco of Epirus and, after her death, on 27 July 1441 to Caterina Gattilusio, daughter of Dorino of Lesbos but she died in August 1442 after suffering a miscarriage. He had no children by either marriage.

After his imperial coronation in 1449, Constantine XI sent a commission under George Sphrantzes asking Mara Branković, daughter of the Serbian Despot Đurađ Branković and Byzantine princess Irene Kantakouzene, to marry him. 

The proposal was welcomed by her father, Despot Đurađ Branković, but it foundered on the objection of Mara herself who had vowed that "if God ever released her from the hands of the infidel she would lead a life of celibacy and chastity for the rest of her days".
 

Accordingly, the courtship failed and Sphrantzes took steps to arrange for a marriage with a princess either from the Empire of Trebizond or the Kingdom of Georgia. 
 

The choice eventually fell to an unnamed Georgian princess, daughter of King George VIII of Georgia.

Sphrantzes started official negotiations with the Georgian king, who had sent an ambassador to Constantinople for that reason.
 

It was agreed that the next spring, Sphrantzes would sail for Georgia to bring the bride to Constantinople, but, alas for the course of true love, Constantine's plans were overtaken by the events of 1453 and total disaster.

During the absence of his older brother, Emperor John VIII, at the Council of Florence in Italy, negotiating a reunion of the Eastern Orthodox back to the Catholic stem, Constantine served as his regent in Constantinople (1437–1440).
 

Constantine XI was an equally avid defender of the reunion with Rome.

Emperor John VIII Palaiologos
from Benozzo Gozzoli's 1459 representation of the Three Kings

At the Council of Florence Emperor John VII was called by the Council "Emperor of the Romans", including in the preface to the decree of re-union, Laetentur Caeli of 1439, and his throne was placed, together with that of Pope Eugene IV, by the empty throne of the Western Roman Emperor, that office being temporarily sede vacante as the Prince-Electors of the Empire had yet to decide upon a new Holy Roman Emperor.


The Council of Ferrara had been moved to Florence in January 1439 and made steady progress on a formula for reunion.

On 6 July 1439 Laetentur Caeli was signed by Patriarch Joseph II of Constantinople and all the Eastern bishops but one, Mark of Ephesus, who, contrary to the views of all others, held that Rome continued in both heresy and schism.

Upon their return, the Eastern bishops found their agreement with the West broadly rejected by the monks, the populace and by civil authorities, with the notable exception of the Emperors John VIII and Constantine XI who remained committed to union until the fall of the Byzantine Empire to the Turkish Ottoman Empire two decades later.

In 1446 the Sultan Murad II of Turkey, albeit not so belligerent as some Turkish sultans, came out of retirement, once again to attack the Christian Eastern territories, alleging unjustified action by the Byzantine emperors, and led an army of 50,000–60,000 soldiers into Greece to seize power from Constantine in the Morea.
 

Constantine and his brother Thomas prepared for the inevitable battle. 

Eastern Byzantine Christian Roman Emperor Constantine XI

Sultan Murad used bombards, siege engines and scaling ladders, breaching the walls on 10 December 1446. Murad's janissaries (captive Christian children indoctrinated and turned into Muslim slave-warriors) poured through the opening and the defenders panicked and fled.

Constantine and Thomas barely escaped to Mistra while Murad devastated the coast line, taking 60,000 prisoners for the Turkish slave markets.

When his brother, Emperor John VIII Palaiologos, died childless, a dispute erupted between Constantine and his brother Demetrios Palaiologos over the throne. Demetrios drew support by opposing the union of the Orthodox and Catholic churches. The Empress Helena, acting as regent, supported Constantine.
 

They appealed to the Ottoman Sultan Murad II of Turkey to arbitrate the disagreement because, by then, the Eastern Empire was having to pay tribute to the Sultan.
 

Ironically, Murad decided in favour of Constantine, and on 6 January 1449 Constantine was crowned in the cathedral at Mistra by the local bishop. It was rare, but not unprecedented, for an emperor to be crowned in a provincial city.

The Patriarch of Constantinople at the time, Patriarch Gregory III, being in favour of reunion with Rome, was shunned by most of his clergy. Constantine knew that to receive his crown from Gregory would add fuel to the existing fires of religious discord in the capital.

Sultan Murad died in 1451 and was succeeded by his 19-year-old son, Mehmed II, who was obsessed with the conquest of Constantinople and soon found an excuse to besiege the great city. Belligerent Turkish sultans were obsessively bent upon conquering Constantimople (just as they were obsessed to take what they called "the Golden Apple", Vienna, or, even better, Rome).

 

Facing the imminent threat, and at the eleventh hour, the reunion was officially proclaimed by Bishop Isidore of Kiev in Hagia Sophia, the great Cathedral of Constantinople (now a mosque), on 12 December 1452 (and it is said that Isidore gave communion to Emperor Constantine XI the same day).  

The bishops and people of Constantinople accepted this act as temporary provision, at least until the removal of the Ottoman threat, but it was too late.

On 29 May 1453 Constantinople fell and the reunion with it.   




Sultan Mehmed II prepares to invade the great Eastern Christian Roman capital of Constantinople



Constantine led the defence of the city and took an active part in the fighting alongside his troops.

At the same time, he used his diplomatic skills to maintain the necessary unity between the Genoese, Venetian, and Greek troops.
 

The poor state of the Byzantine economy meant he struggled to defend the city from the huge, invading Ottoman army. 
 

Desperate, he appealed to the West, reaffirming the union of Florence. 
 

Infamously, Constantine's chief minister and military commander, Loukas Notaras, said “Better to see the turban of the Turks reigning in the City than the Latin mitre”. 
 

He got his wish with lasting consequences.
 

In the end, the saintly and heroic Constantine XI doffed his imperial finery and fought with his men as a common soldier, leading a final charge against the invading Islamic marauders.




The Muslim invasion of Constantinople: Emperor Constantine XI leads his troops into battle for the final showdown against the heathen invaders...

These were his last words to his soldiers:

"I would not go if there was any benefit to leave the city, but I cannot go away...I will not leave ever. I have decided to die with you."

He died heroically at the head of his men, sword in hand, faithful and loyal to the last.

He knew he was defending the ancient Christian capital of Constantine, the Eastern Roman Empire and ‘όι ρωμαίοι ("hoi Romaioi",“the Romans”, as the Easterners always called themselves) from the infidel horde, a true soldier for Christ defending the bounds of Christendom, faithful unto death.

He remains the hero of heroes to the Greeks (and, indeed, to all Christians) ever since.

Majorem hac dilectionem nemo habet, ut animam suam ponat qui pro amicis suis....

μείζονα ταύτης ἀγάπην οὐδεὶς ἔχει, ἵνα τις τὴν ψυχὴν αὐτοῦ θῇ ὑπὲρ τῶν φίλων αὐτοῦ...

"Greater love than this no man hath, that he lay down his life for his friends...."

John 15:13

An ikon of the saintly Emperor Constantine XI

He is a saint for our time so threatened by those same heathen infidel terrorists.
 

His sons later, living in the West, became Catholics, bequeathed the title King of Jerusalem to the Holy Roman emperors (who already claimed it) and the Sacred Military Constantinian Order of St George to the Farnese Dukes of Parma whose family head, today HRH the Duke of Calabria, remains the Grand Master of the Order.
 

Emperor Constantine XI, is venerated privately by both Catholic and Orthodox as a saint and, in the West, as a champion of the reunion of the Churches.

Άγιος Κωνσταντίνος ΙΑ, προσευχηθείτε για μας!

Beatus Constantinus XI, ora pro nobis!

Blessed Constantine XI, pray for us!

The imperial double eagle of the Palaiologoi emperors of Byzantium

 +++

Lent is upon us - the season for repentance and spiritual renewal

  

On Ash Wednesday...

 Feria quarta cinerum in tempi quadragesimæ...

(The Wednesday of ashes in the time of the 40 days i.e. Lent...)

 

On this day Catholics the world over receive on their foreheads the sign of the cross in ash, administered by the priest, to symbolise the transience of life, the need for repentance (ash being a sign of repentence) and the hope of immortality in the life to come.

 

As he administers the ashes the priest says (in Latin in the traditional rites):
 

Meménto, homo, quia pulvis es, et in púlverem revertéris...

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

 "What profit hath a man of all his labour which he taketh under the sun?
One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh..." [Ecclesiasticus 1]
 
 

So may we well begin this Holy Season of Lent which so much reminds us of the transience of this life and, in contrast, the joys of heaven to come.

In a sense, there is both joy and sadness in Lent - sadness at death but joy at life, the life to come. Lent signifies the 40 days that our Lord spent in the desert fasting and doing penance for us and giving us an example of the way in which we can discipline ourselves to withstand the temptations of the world, grow in grace and virtue and become more truly ourselves, rather than our appetites.

This is our recollection behind the imposition of ashes on the forehead on Ash Wednesday. We are reminded of our mortality and that we shall return unto the dust from which man was originally made.

The words said by the priest come from Genesis 3:19 when Adam and Eve were made subject to the corruption of death and dying with the words of God ringing in their ears:

"for dust thou art, and unto dust thou shalt return"

 "Remember friends as you pass by,
as you are now so once was I.
As I am now so you must be.
Prepare for death and follow me." 

From the Roman Office of the Dead, the Anglican divines took the words of Job and used them for the Anglican burial service. They have since thereby become famous, used in many a film setting. They are powerful words:

"MAN THAT IS BORN OF WOMAN hath but a short time to live, and is full of misery. He cometh up and is cut down like a flower; he flieth as it were a shadow, and never continueth in one stay. In the midst of life we be in death: of whom may we seek for succour but of thee, O Lord, which for our sins justly art displeased. Yet, O Lord God most holy, O Lord most mighty, O holy and most merciful saviour, deliver us not into the bitter pains of eternal death. Thou knowest, Lord, the secrets of our hearts, shut not up thy merciful eyes to our prayers: but spare us Lord most holy, O God most mighty, O holy and merciful saviour, thou most worthy judge eternal, suffer us not at our last hour for any pains of death to fall from thee." [Job 11]

On Ash Wednesday, the ashes are made by the burning of the palms from the previous year's Easter.

The imposition of ashes signifies sorrow for sin, contrition, spiritual aid and the receiving of grace thereby.

The head, being the seat of pride, is then imposed with ashes in the form of a cross as the priest utters the words reminding us of our mortality.

We should wear this sign of penance as a memento mori (remembrance of death) and as a sign of witness against the concupiscence of the world.




This painting shows the return of the Blessed Virgin after the Crucifixion on Calvary.

In the distance can be seen the 3 crosses upon Calvary mount. It is a fitting theme for the penitential season of Lent - or Great Lent as the Greeks call it. Lent is a time of very moving and indeed hauntingly beautiful liturgy and chant.

Ash Wednesday begins with the reading from Joel the Prophet, Chapter 2:

“Now therefore saith the Lord: Be converted to me with all your heart, in fasting, and in weeping, and in mourning. 13 And rend your hearts, and not your garments, and turn to the Lord your God: for he is gracious and merciful, patient and rich in mercy, and ready to repent of the evil. 14 Who knoweth but he will return, and forgive, and leave a blessing behind him, sacrifice and libation to the Lord your God? 15 Blow the trumpet in Sion, sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly, 16 Gather together the people, sanctify the church, assemble the ancients, gather together the little ones, and them that suck at the breasts: let the bridegroom go forth from his bed, and the bride out of her bride chamber. 17 Between the porch and the altar the priests the Lord's ministers shall weep, and shall say: Spare, O Lord, spare thy people: and give not thy inheritance to reproach, that the heathen should rule over them. Why should they say among the nations: Where is their God? 18 The Lord hath been zealous for his land, and hath spared his people. 19 And the Lord answered and said to his people: Behold I will send you corn, and wine, and oil, and you shall be filled with them: and I will no more make you a reproach among the nations.”

On the First Sunday of Lent the Gospel reminds us of the precedent for Lent: our Lord's 40 days in the desert fasting.

On the Saturday in Ember week of Lent, when it was customary to have Ordinations to the clerical state, there are 6 readings including the Gospel and many beautiful chants.

Ivan Kramskoy. Christ in the Desert. 1872.

It is customary to sing the Lenten chant Attende, Domine, et miserere - "Listen, O Lord, and have mercy".

Here it is in chant:

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!

...

Innocent, He was 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!

In many communities, both religious and secular, it was also customary to have numerous additional pious devotions including chants, hymns and canticles dedicated to the instruments of the Passion, for instance the Holy Lance and the Holy Nails.

Love never dies...

 

+++

 

The Feast of the Epiphany, the manifesting of the Lord to the Gentiles.....also the Feast day of the Baptism of the Lord and of the Wedding Feast of Cana and the first miracle...

The Feast of the Three Kings or Magi

or

Dreikoenigsfest

as it was called in the Holy Roman Empire and in German-speaking lands

and

the Theophany

or Manifestation of the Lord to the Gentiles

on the same day as later occurred

the Baptism of the Lord

and

the miracle of wine at the wedding feast in Cana of Galilee

Whom Kings adore...
 

"When Jesus therefore was born in Bethlehem of Juda, in the days of king Herod, behold, there came wise men from the East to Jerusalem, saying: where is he that is born king of the Jews? For we have seen his star in the East, and are come to adore him. And king Herod hearing this, was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. And assembling together all the chief priests and the scribes of the people, he inquired of them where Christ should be born. But they said to him: In Bethlehem of Juda. For so it is written by the prophet: and thou Bethlehem the land of Juda art not the least among the princes of Juda: for out of thee shall come forth the captain that shall rule my people Israel.

Then Herod, privately calling the wise men learned diligently of them the time of the star which appeared to them; and sending them into Bethlehem, said: go and diligently inquire after the child, and when you have found him, bring me word again, that I also may come and adore him. Who having heard the king, went their way; and behold the star which they had seen in the East, went before them, until it came and stood over where the child was. And seeing the star they rejoiced with exceeding great joy. And entering into the house, they found the child with Mary his mother, and falling down they adored him: and opening their treasures, they offered him gifts; gold, frankincense, and myrrh. And having received an answer in sleep that they should not return to Herod, they went back another way into their country."

[Matt 2:12 - Gospel for the Mass of the Epiphany]

The shrine of the Three Kings at Cologne Cathedral

The Shrine of the Three Kings in Cologne Cathedral contains their relics brought from Milan by ship to the City of Cologne on the order of the Holy Roman Emperor, Frederick Barbarossa, in 1164 as a gift to the Prince-Elector Archbishop, Rainald of Dassel.
 

This gave rise to the English Carol "I Saw Three Ships Come Sailing in".
 

The relics had first been taken from Constantinople to Milan in 344 by Bishop Eustorgius of Milan.

Around 1199, the Roman Emperor Otto IV gave three golden crowns made for the three wise men as a present to the church of Cologne, the city where, the previous year, he had been elected King of the Romans and Emperor-elect by the Prince-Electors of the Empire (he later gained the support of all the imperial princes at Frankfurt in 1208).

An inscription reads:

Otto rex coloniensis curiam celebrans tres coronas de auro capitibus trium magorum imposuit.
 

"Otto the King, the court of Cologne celebrating, gave three golden crowns for the heads of the three Magi."
 

Emperor Otto IV was the only member of the Welf dynasty to be elected Holy Roman Emperor and, being the son of Matilda Plantagenet of England (married to Henry the Lion, Duke of Bavaria and Holy Roman Emperor), he was allied to England in the Franco-English wars. He was also the personal preference of Pope Innocent III, who crowned him Roman Emperor at Rome in 1209, although they later fell out over the issue of the imperial rights in Italy.

Because of the importance of the shrine and the cathedral for the later development of the city, the Coat of Arms of Cologne still shows these three crowns symbolizing the Three Kings.

Construction of the present Cologne Cathedral was begun in 1248 to house these important relics. The cathedral took 632 years to complete and is now the largest Gothic church in northern Europe.

On 20 July 20 1864, the shrine was opened, and the remains of the three Kings and the coins of Philipp von Heinsberg, Archbishop of Cologne, were discovered.

An eyewitness report reads:

“In a special compartment of the shrine now there showed - along with remains of ancient old rotten or moulded bandages, most likely byssus, besides pieces of aromatic resins and similar substances - numerous bones of three persons, which under the guidance of several present experts could be assembled into nearly complete bodies: the one in his early youth, the second in his early manhood, the third was rather aged. Two coins, bracteates made of silver and only one side striken, were adjoined; one, provably from the days of Philipp von Heinsberg, displayed a church, the other showed a cross, accompanied by the sword of jurisdiction, and the crozier on either side.”

The bones were wrapped in white silk and returned to the shrine where they remain to this day to be venerated by all the Faithful.

By long tradition, on the Feast of the Epiphany – called Dreikoenigsfest (the Feast of the Three Kings) in the lands of the old Holy Roman Empire – the Rector of the Parish (or in his absence, the father of each family) visits each house with a cross-bearer, 2 acolytes and 3 children dressed as the kings, one bearing a censer with lighted incense. At each house a little ceremony takes place, the house is blessed with Epiphany water, and over the door lintel of the house the following is inscribed with blessed chalk:
 

20 + C + M + B + 17

In my house we always perform this traditional ceremony.

This symbolises the present year and the blessing of the three Magi, Caspar, Melchior and Balthazar, upon each home.

The symbols remain all year or until the weather has washed them away.
 

Blessed Caspar, Melchior and Balthazar, wise men and kings from the East, pray for us!

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The Journey of the Magi

by T S Eliot


A cold coming we had of it,
Just the worst time of the year
For a journey, and such a long journey:
The ways deep and the weather sharp,
The very dead of winter.
And the camels galled, sore-footed, refractory,
Lying down in the melting snow.
There were times when we regretted
The summer palaces on slopes, the terraces,
And the silken girls bringing sherbet.
Then the camel men cursing and grumbling
And running away, and wanting their liquor and women,
And the night-fires going out, and the lack of shelters,
And the cities dirty and the towns unfriendly
And the villages dirty and charging high prices:
A hard time we had of it.
At the end we preferred to travel all night,
Sleeping in snatches,
With the voices singing in our ears, saying
That this was all folly.

Then at dawn we came down to a temperate valley,
Wet, below the snow line, smelling of vegetation;
With a running stream and a water mill beating the darkness,
And three trees on the low sky,
And an old white horse galloped away in the meadow.
Then we came to a tavern with vine-leaves over the lintel,
Six hands at an open door dicing for pieces of silver,
And feet kicking the empty wineskins.
But there was no information, and so we continued
And arrived at evening, not a moment too soon
Finding the place; it was (you may say) satisfactory.

All this was a long time ago, I remember,
And I would do it again, but set down
This set down
This: were we led all that way for
Birth or Death? There was a Birth, certainly,
We had evidence and no doubt. I had seen birth and death,
But had thought they were different; this Birth was
Hard and bitter agony for us, like Death, our death.
We returned to our places, these Kingdoms,
But no longer at ease here, in the old dispensation,
With an alien people clutching their gods.
I should be glad of another death.

+ + +

"three trees on the low sky... I should be glad of another death."

...