SSC

There's this thing, a priestly fraternity bound by a common Rule of Life and by commitment to claiming catholicism for the Church of England and its heirs. It's called the SSC, the Society of the Holy Cross, Societas Sanctae Crucis. It's a good thing, which won its spurs in the slums of East London, still existing today to uplift Anglicanism to Catholicism.

That in mind, we met for a Provincial Synod in Dallas for the last couple of days and guess what, no wymxn priestesses, no guitar playing nuns and, mirabile dictu, no liturgical dance. Far out. No, just a series of Solemn High Masses, Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament and, what can I say, true religion.

To that end, Fr. JJ was elected Master and Jefe of our province. What a good man, I support him 100%, as I supported the last Master, who was a shooting pal. So what can we say? Dig the pit for the Cross and remember, resurrection ain't far behind.

Your Old Pal,

LSP

A Call

 

Some of you may remember we fought a revolution against tyranny. Here's a song:

If you don't get the Cause, at this point, then maybe you need to do some soul searching. 

Speaking of which, I went for a shoot with a Quantrell (spelled with a C) a few months ago. Dam good man, big believer in the Electric Universe, and not a bad shot either. He loved the Camino. Rest in peace, SSC brother.

States Rights,

LSP

A Good Man

 

He was a good man and I felt privileged to deacon his requiem. He believed in the electric universe, to say nothing of Christ Himself, and here's a song:

Requiescat,

LSP

Rest In Peace My Friend

 

A couple of weeks ago we were shooting together in a shotgun skeet throw down, what a lot of fun, all was well under the clear blue sky of Texas. But then today, just before Noonday Mass, I was forwarded an email, "Fr. Cantrell was found dead at his desk early this morning." Natural causes.

Fr. C was only 64, didn't smoke, unlike me, drank very little and kept fit, he loved the Camino and trained for it. More than that, he was a good man and a stalwart defender of the Catholic Cause in our part of God's Holy Church.

He was Master of SSC in its non-rainbow aspect in the US, no small feat, and a dam fine man and a good shot. I counted him as a friend. May he rest in peace and rise in glory.

Never Desert Never Surrender.

In Hoc Signo,

LSP

++++

This seems well appropriate, played by Mark Dwyer who coined the phrase Vatican II Empty The Pew:

Well played, Mark. Fr. C, may the angels guide you to paradise.

Retreat!

 

I know, "retreat" sounds bad, like some kind of defeat, but this was good, a retreat  with the local chapter of the SSC (Society of the Holy Cross) at Camp Crucis, just outside Granbury. It's a fun drive if you take the country roads, 22 and 144 through Whitney, Meridian, Walnut Springs and Glen Rose, with long stretches of empty two lane highway running through the hills.

Not so long ago this was bandit country, the notorious haunt of outlaws and bootleggers and it still has, I always think, a frontier feel. You can imagine Indians on the hills and sure enough they were there, but now Granbury's home to marauding hordes of tourists instead of Commanche war bands and the camp's pleasantly distant from that.

Our schedule was simple, Morning Prayer, Low Mass, Evensong, Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament and a series of meditations on the priesthood. Plenty of time to have fun with fellow clergy too, all united in a common love of the Faith. And no, there weren't any priestesses performing transing liturgical dance to the beat of a unicorn's hooves. That's not allowed. 

Then, all too soon, it was time to head back to the Compound, uplifted in spirit. It was good to get away.

God bless,

LSP

SSC

 

The local chapter of the SSC (Society of the Holy Cross) met today in Fort Worth and there we were, in the Church of the Holy Apostles on the western border of Cow Town, worshiping God. Great result and you'll be amazed to know there was no interpretive liturgical dance set to the dismal beat of guitars, pan pipes and foot stomping priestesses.

No, none of that, just the Mass and that sung with quiet dignity and reverence, beautiful, well done. After the sacred mysteries we moved next door to the church hall for a Chick-fil-A box lunch and I took the opportunity to admire the church's attractive "Garth," which means "enclosed quadrangle" and glowing stained glass in the church itself.

Uplifting, on both counts, and the Chick boxes weren't bad either, nice. Then, lunch over, we heard a presentation on the recent goings on at GAFCON and I, for one, was left wondering if the Global South Primates have the mettle to squeeze the trigger and declare themselves formally out of communion with Justsin Welby.

Justsin, you may recall, has joyfully embraced the rainbow while pretending not to, and this has enraged our dusky heteronormative brethren. Quite right too, let's see if African sound and fury equates to actual thunder. If it does, I'm prepared to be amazed. Watch this space.

Then, business over, I wandered down to the stream at the bottom of the churchyard, overgrown with riotous spring growth. And there was the water, untouched, it felt, by the march of time. I wanted to fish it but didn't have a rod, maybe next time.

God bless,

LSP

SSC

 

What a busy couple of days, driving from the safe haven of the North Central Exclusion Zone into the brawling streetfight that is the DFW Metrosprawl connurb, a Mega City larger than Connecticut itself, wherever that is. Why?

To go to the SSC provincial Synod, which is an assembly of priests dedicated to asserting Catholic Faith for our part of God's holy Church. We met in Southlake for worship, teaching and fellowship and it's been a great thing to meet up with brothers in the Faith.

Originally, the SSC began in England as a priestly society bound together by a common rule of life, to promote the Faith in its fullness, what did this look like? Glorious liturgy, yes, but with that the founders of the society were renowned, seriously, for their work amongst the poor of East London. Not least in the cholera epidemic of 1865.

That spirit's alive today. What does it mean to be an Anglican? we ask, and the answer's, "A Catholic Christian." With that goes the admonition, "I was hungry and you fed me," and, "Ye cannot serve God and Mammon."

So there you have it. Ma LSP returned from Wales today and was pleased to find her house burnished, clean and water on. We must take our victories, gentlemen and women, as we find them.

Your Old Pal,

LSP

Sunday Mass

 

For the first time in over a year I took a Sunday off and went to Mass in Dallas, at St. Matthias. "Smokey Matt's" is a traditional Anglo-Catholic church with an oriented liturgy, faithful priests and a down to earth, goodhearted congregation. Great people.

The previous Rector was sent there, he tells me, "to shut the place down," but he didn't, he grew the parish instead and quite literally built it. More than this, under his guidance, the church bought its way out from under pharaonic captivity to the Rainbow Church of Woken Dreams and the Diocese of Dallas. It now lives within the green pastures and still waters of the Diocese of Fort Worth. Result.

Fr. Dwight, Deacon of the Mass, gave an entertaining and true homily on today's Gospel, Martha and Mary. Without Mary's listening to Christ in love, in prayer, our active service becomes brittle at best and we run the risk of becoming "dried out activists." Yes indeed. Here's Benedict XVI on the same passage in Luke:

Martha and Mary are two sisters; they also have a brother, Lazarus, but he does not appear on this occasion. Jesus is passing through their village and, the text says, Martha received him at her home (cf. 10: 38). This detail enables us to understand that Martha is the elder of the two, the one in charge of the house. Indeed, when Jesus has been made comfortable, Mary sits at his feet and listens to him while Martha is totally absorbed by her many tasks, certainly due to the special Guest.

We seem to see the scene: one sister bustling about busily and the other, as it were, enraptured by the presence of the Teacher and by his words. A little later Martha, who is evidently resentful, can no longer resist and complains, even feeling that she has a right to criticize Jesus: "Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me". Martha would even like to teach the Teacher! Jesus on the other hand answers her very calmly: "Martha, Martha", and the repetition of her name expresses his affection, "you are anxious and troubled about many things; only one thing is needful. Mary has chosen the good portion, which shall not be taken away from her" (10: 41-42). Christ's words are quite clear: there is no contempt for active life, nor even less for generous hospitality; rather, a distinct reminder of the fact that the only really necessary thing is something else: listening to the word of the Lord; and the Lord is there at that moment, present in the Person of Jesus! All the rest will pass away and will be taken from us but the word of God is eternal and gives meaning to our daily actions.

Dear friends, as I said, this Gospel passage...  recalls the fact that the human person must indeed work and be involved in domestic and professional occupations, but first and foremost needs God, who is the inner light of Love and Truth. Without love, even the most important activities lose their value and give no joy. Without a profound meaning, all our activities are reduced to sterile and unorganised activism. And who, if not Jesus Christ, gives us Love and Truth? Therefore, brothers and sisters, let us learn to help each other, to collaborate, but first of all to choose together the better part which is and always will be our greatest good.

Here endeth the Lesson and as we reflect upon it, check out this helpful infographic.

Arduus Ad Solem,

LSP 

Go To Town

 

The Anglo-Catholic Society of the Holy Cross (SSC) was founded on February 28, 1855, and to celebrate the anniversary I drove to St. Andrew's, Grand Prairie for Mass, lunch and an excellent talk by a faithful priest.

"Cult, sacred order," he advised, "transliterates into culture." Well said, and the "culture war," in his opinion, is a misnomer. More a matter of those without the sacral and therefore without culture fighting against those who do. 

Better then, thought our speaker, to say we're in a war of anti or no culture versus its opposite. Good call, and it speaks to the nihilist, destructive aspect of our secular orthodoxy.

But I won't preach. It was good to meet with faithful priests and bishops today. A breath of fresh air and Blue enjoyed it too, though he became confused and worried by the unfamiliar expanse of St. Andrew's church garden. So he went back to the truck, where he slept soundly.

In the meanwhile, war drums beat louder.

God Bless You All,

LSP

Saturday Sermon

 

Jesus says to his disciples, who were annoyingly busy fighting among themselves over their respective positions of power in the  coming Kingdom, "For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (Mk. 10:45)

Christ does so on the Cross, the throne of his sovereignty, by which he exercises dominion over sin and death, opening the gates of heaven to the faithful and inaugurating the Kingdom. I found this, by the Anglican bishop NT Wright helpful:

We have, alas, belittled the cross, imagining it merely as a mechanism for getting us off the hook of our own petty naughtiness or as an example of some general benevolent truth. It is much, much more. It is the moment when the story of Israel reaches its climax; the moment when, at last, the watchmen on Jerusalem’s walls see their God coming in his kingdom; the moment when the people of God are renewed so as to be, at last, the royal priesthood who will take over the world not with the love of power but with the power of love; the moment when the kingdom of God overcomes the kingdoms of the world. It is the moment when a great old door, locked and barred since our first disobedience, swings open suddenly to reveal not just the garden, opened once more to our delight, but the coming city, the garden city that God had always planned and is now inviting us to go through the door and build with him. The dark power that stood in the way of this kingdom vision has been defeated, overthrown, rendered null and void. 

 

The dark power that stood in the way of this kingdom vision has been defeated, overthrown, rendered null and void. Yes, powerful, though I'd change "garden city" to "heavenly Jerusalem."

That aside, how easy it is to be a porch warrior or for that matter an armchair Christian. Our Savior demands more, we're to take up our cross and follow him, entirely. 

In the end, all will be asked of us. Pray that with James and John we will, by the grace of God, say yes and that by loving as Christ loved us find greatness in the Kingdom of God. And know that the demons, to say nothing of their temporal allies flee before the sign and the life of those who live in Christ crucified.

In Hoc Signo,

LSP

Exaltation of The Holy Cross

 

Today's the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross and our province of the SSC (Society of the Holy Cross) met for the start of its annual Synod. Things started off with Evening Prayer followed by a Solemn High Mass and I tell you, there wasn't a single guitar playing nun or liturgical dancer in sight. Or a priestess, for that matter. They're not allowed.

Then it was time for dinner and a chance to get together with fellow clergy, what a good group of men. And let's be clear, they're priests and bishops who've stood and continue to stand firm for the Faith in the face of the rainbow apostates who appear to have taken over the Church. But appearances can be deceiving. Christ is King over the Church, his Body, and the Cross is his throne.

We should glory

in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ,

for he is our salvation,

our life and our resurrection,

through him we are saved and made free.

God bless,

LSP

Go To Church

 

Preferably with lots of incense, which indicates the prayers of the saints and elevates the spirit to God. Regardless, it was good to drive over to Arlington, which is a suburb of the DFW Metrosprawl, and assist Mass at St. Albans, Arlington.

Which was good. Fr. CC was installed as Master of our province of the Society of the Holy Cross (SSC) and and all was well. And here's the thing, the SCC was set up as a missional society of priests, to claim and defend catholicism for our part of the Church, Anglicanism.

CC will do well at that and I'll support him, 100%, wholeheartedly. Part of this might include skeet shoots, it's happened before. In the meanwhile, consider the power, for good, of a united Christian witness against the evil of age.

Your Pal,

LSP

Exaltation of the Holy Cross

Today's the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross. Here's the Gospel for the day, via the Anglican Missal:

St. John 12. 31. 
At that time: Jesus said unto the multitudes of the Jews: Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out. And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me. (This he said, signifying what death he should die.) The people answered him: We have heard out of the law that Christ abideth for ever: and how sayest thou: The Son of man must be lifted up? Who is this Son of man? Then Jesus said unto them: Yet a little while is the light with you. Walk while ye have the light, lest darkness come upon you: for he that walketh in darkness knoweth not whither he goeth. While ye have light, believe in the light, that ye may be the children of light.

Believe in the light, that ye may be children of light. Amen to that, in these dark and murderous times. Here's the Collect:

GOD, who as on this day dost gladden us with the yearly festival of the Exaltation of thy Holy Cross: grant, we beseech thee, that we which on earth have known the mystery of the redemption which thou hast wrought for us, may be found worthy to receive the rewards thereof in heaven. Who livest...

You may recall that the True Cross was carried into action at the disastrous battle of the Horns of Hattin, which saw the Outremer army utterly defeated by Saladin. The Cross was captured by the Moslem general, who took Jerusalem shortly after. A Golgotha? Perhaps, and I'd argue the Middle East, to say nothing of the West, is still paying the price.

Regardless, St. Francis attempted to convert Saladin. He failed, but so impressed the Mohammedan that he returned the Cross to the saint.

Pax Tibi, Per Crucem,

LSP

Fr. Dolling on Chicago

Anglicanism's a confusing beast, and it gets all the more confusing when you consider its claim to be catholic. This isn't taken very seriously these days, if it's considered at all, but it was in the 19th century, when the 1st and 2nd Oxford Movements worked to catholicise the Church. For the clergy and people of this movement, to be an Anglican was to be a catholic Christian. 

One of the more colorful figures of the 2nd Oxford Movement was a slum priest, Fr. Dolling, and I was reminded of him at a clergy conference (SSC) today, in Arlington.

Dolling visited America in the late 1890s and stayed for a year, before returning to work in England's slums. He was struck by the country, especially Chicago; here's his description of the city on a Sunday evening:

"Comparatively few of the churches are open on Sunday night. All the theatres, and music-halls, and saloons, and low resorts certainly are. To wander along State Street on a Sunday evening is to witness sights the equal of which is to be seen in no other city in the world, and as to what may be seen in other cities of the world I have not a small experience. There is no suggestion of Sunday evening. The shop-doors are closed, but all the windows are a blaze of light, and before them are crowds of women looking at the bonnets, on slowly revolving discs, or watching the electric appliances that dazzle the eye with sudden gleams of tinted globes. Crowds surge about the lower-class theatres. There is the beating of a drum and the shriek of a hurdy-gurdy to attract to a dime museum. At one street-corner is a man yelling anarchy. He has a big crowd. At another street-corner is a sallow, curly-haired individual demonstrating that the earth is flat. He has 200 listeners. At another corner is a semicircle of Salvationists, and a tall woman in a poke bonnet is nasally yelling in prayer that God would strike Chicago to Hell. There are not more than a dozen onlookers."

I love that.

God bless,

LSP

No Desertion, No Surrender

Solemn High Mass

The Society of the Holy Cross, (SSC) is a priestly society founded in 19th Century England to defend and strengthen the spiritual life of its members and promote the catholic faith and mission of the Church. The Society's spread beyond England and includes an American Province, which met this week in Dallas. 

Some of the Crew, Requiem

I was Head of Transport and chartered a school bus to ferry the priests about from hotel to church. "Are you on the bus, or off the bus?!?" was my Keseyite cry. They mostly were, though some rented cars and many of the Texans had their own trucks. 

View over Oak Lawn

The SSC motto is No Desertion, No Surrender! Part of that means no goof-off rainbow clowns.

Goof-Off Rainbow Clown

God bless,

LSP

Aging Plinker

Walked about Camp Crucis yesterday and heard the distant sound of gunfire, so I went to the source and found the SSC Provincial Secretary firing away at an impromtu range with a scoped semi-auto Remington .22. He kindly lent me an old Winchester pump action and we blazed away in the hot sun for an hour or so. Great fun and a first for me, having never shot a pump .22 before; it had a good feel to it and seemed accurate enough.

Interestingly, the SSC PS is off to Colorado with some bowmen to hunt Elk. He promises pictures; I'll live vicariously. Good man, the Secretary. He has a blog, 'Apostolicity'.

Cheers,

LSP

SSC Retreat

SSC Cross

At 'Camp Crucis' outside Granbury, for the annual SSC (Society of the Holy Cross) Chapter retreat. Its a good society, whose founder members were distinguished for their pastoral work in the slums of nineteenth century London. A far cry from country Texas, or is it?

Hard Luck Farm

Don't get me wrong, I love the country and the values of thrift, independance and freedom from the atheistical State. But that's not to say that life isn't hard for lots of people; sometimes its their fault, sometimes its not. Whatever the case, the Church should step up to the plate and exercise the virtue of Charity - like the founders of the SSC.

God bless,

LSP