Retreat!

 

There we were, advancing in a different direction at our annual diocesan clergy retreat, which has resumed in full after two years of the Covid Craze. And good thing too, what a faithful group of priests, just a pleasure to be with.

Our retreat conductor was excellent, Abbott Luis Gonzales, OSB, who gave a series of conferences on the spiritual life, drawing heavily on Dom Columba Marmion. And what's wrong with that? Nothing whatsoever and we were challenged to advance in perfection.

That in mind, you'll be shocked and surprised to know there weren't any priestesses, guitar playing nuns, liturgical dancers or rainbow blessings at the retreat. No, only the Faith once delivered by Christ to the Apostles and thence to us.

Well, it was over all too soon but I left refreshed in spirit. Go to Montserrat's incarnation on Lake Dallas if you can, it's a good place and its silence is important.

God bless you all,

LSP

The Feast of the Assumption

It's the great Feast of the Assumption today, which some people object to because "it's not in Scripture." Neither is Sola Scriptura of course, but apologetics aside, I found this reflection helpful. Via Domini res gestas:

Today the Virgin Mary, the Mother of God, Theotocos and Christotocos, is taken into heaven to that court where the King of kings sits upon his starry throne. While angels and saints rejoice together with Christ, it is fitting that we too celebrate and rejoice with them today. Our true Solomon, the King of Peace, seats his Mother, the true Bathsheba, at his right hand today in the heavenly Jerusalem above all the choirs of angels. Today the ark of the covenant of the Lord is brought into the temple and placed in the Holy of Holies. This is the same ark that John saw in the Book of Revelation. Then God's temple in heaven was opened, and the ark of the covenant could be seen in the temple.  After writing this at the close of Chapter 11, as if to clarify the vision, he follows it immediately with the opening verse of Chapter 12:

A great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon was under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. Without doubt this woman is the Virgin Mary, for John adds that she gave birth to a son, a male child, destined to rule all nations... Her child was caught up to God and his throne. (St. Laurence Brindisi)

Note Serpent and Crescent crushed underheel

A woman clothed with the sun, and the moon was under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. I should be very wary of going up against that, to say nothing of her child. But here's a closing hymn from the Benedictines of Notre Dame de Fontgombault, Ave Maris Stella, Hail Star of the Sea:

Some say the Faith's dead. That's not true, though perhaps it's hiding, for a time.

Ave,

LSP