Server Haul October 2014!

Hello Everyone,

No sooner have I reported on my last Latin Mass I was serving in, with St. Patrick's Gregorian Choir, than I have another fine post to share with you: My latest EF altar server haul! And this one is making me sing with choruses of angels on high!

First, a present from my lovely wife-to-be. She knows of my admiration and love of the Latin Mass, and loves me so much, she purchased a special liturgical item for me for my birthday ... A LACY OR PATTERNED SURPLICE! This lovely lace surplice was ordered from DiCarlo religious accessories and goods, which operates out of the west end of Ontario, with its primary store in Mississauga. You could say that they get a lot of business from the Archdiocese of Toronto.

The Surplice was Beau Viste brand, like my regular surplice. Also pictured here is the contact information for DiCarlo, in case you want a purchase for yourself or maybe are thinking of a gift for clergy. 

Here is my surplice laid out flat. Notice that the hem, and the sleeves, are all laced up. 

Here's a close up of the surplice's lace portions. This is excellent, and contains little flowers and even crosses, with the JHS signs in the center of each oval. 

But wait ... there's more. Quite more. See, some of the difficulty of doing the Latin Mass is gaining access to the Missale Romanum 1962. If your local seminary or "catholic" college doesn't have a copy you can borrow IF they didn't burn it or throw it in the garbage way back when, (which of course, pends on you having access .... that's a no for ordinary laity), or the Latin Mass church nearby only has one copy in the sacristy, and cannot lend it out to you for Mass that day ... or your priest doesn't have his own copy, then what does one do? 

Well you buy one of course! They aren't cheap though, ranging likely anywhere from ~$150 to ~$475 post taxes an shipping. Still, beautiful, high quality reprints of the 1962 missal are being printed by a select number of companies. I could have bought one straight from the FSSP, or Canons of St. John Regular (because I do not want to support the non-Canonical SSPX,) but in an odd stroke of luck I was searching on Ebay ... and found a really interesting gem .... 

BOOYA! Really I couldn't believe it! For $200 CDN after all was said and done, This is an: "... exclusive stunning official Vatican edition of the Roman Missal, the liturgical book entirely in Latin, 1096 pages, with the words “Missale Romanum - Editio Typica 1962” embossed in gold lettering on the cover. Excellent condition, new, never used, as approved by Pope John XXIII in 1962 and allowed by Pope Benedict XVI for wider use. It contains all the texts, rubrics and chants for the celebration of the Holy Mass in the Roman Rite, for example the preparation of the celebrating priest, the procession of the priest to the altar, the mass, the blessing at the end of mass and gospel, the vesting prayers of the celebrant, the rite of blessing and sprinkling Holy Water on Sundays, the calendar. Hardcover, 6.7x9.5 inches size, 17x24 cm. A rare, elegant and unique book ... limited edition accurately reproduced, high quality black and red text, available only to Vatican, reprinted in 2007 by “Tipografia Vaticana” (the Vatican Press) from the original edition. Enclosed an elegant Vatican bookmark." Considering brand new that a Benzinger Brothers reprint was anywhere from $395 USD to over $400 USD on the EF printing house sites, this was an awesome steal! ....

with some minor exceptions .... the introduction, reference pages in the back, and a couple of other things are all in Italian. But I won't be reading those parts anytime soon. The rest of the Missal with the rubrics and the necessary Mass parts in Latin are what it's for! Best of all, this came straight from the motherland, the Vatican!!!!

Yep, those are beautiful Vatican stamps. There's even one of the Holy Father on there. The right picture shows the close up of a seal stamp that goes on the package to indicate it's from the Vatican Post Office. Now as for the Missal itself ....

Here is just an example of how the writings and interior look like. On major feast days/solemnities, this 1/2 page artwork is present. The beginning of the readings of the liturgy, as well as each reading/proper, has either a major or a minor drop cap letter to start it off. What else the missal contains is in the description above. 

Here, is "THE PAGE", the one that is the major prominent image page in every EF missal, that of the crucifixion of our Lord, Jesus Christ, at the beginning of the Mass of the Canons (Liturgy of the Eucharist). Gotta say I kind of love the tones and colours of the picture: Red, black, and grey. Appropriate colours for blood, death, and really brings forth the moment where Christ died for our salvation. If this is a replication of a major work of art, do let me know whom and when it was made.


Well there you have it. Two fine pieces to the serving haul. This will likely be it for a long while, as I think by now I've shelled out quite a bit for EF serving and liturgy needs. Regardless ... I am so elated and filled with glee at having these pieces. They will definitely be put to good, and even more specific uses in future. Hope you enjoyed this as much as I have!

Pax Tibi Christi, Julian Barkin.

Success! Report for Christ the King 2014 Mass with St. Patrick's Gregorian Choir

Hello Everyone,

Summorum Pontificum is continuing onward, regardless of those within and outside the Church, who dare to see that Her Tradition, and `t`raditions, are discarded. The Devil roams about like a bloodthirsty lion, wishing to sow dischord, deadly sins such as acecia, and many other sins in this unstable time, even among those in the Church who are practicing Catholics or even Latin Mass Traditionalists. Many of us who are wired to our computers and smart phones, got to see this infighting (particularly on ``C``atholic blogs) during the recent 2014 Extraordinary Synod of Marriage and the Family.

Did I forget to add that the Devil REALLY, HATES, the Latin Mass for its order and truth. and will use whatever or whomever he can to stop it, if the Latin Mass cannot be abused to his will in any manner? However, he, nor any machination of his, can stand up to the Mighty King that is our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, whose ultimate sacrifice redeemed us all and defeated him on the Cross.

Yesterday, October 26, 2014, was another example that our Lord and Sovereign King, Jesus Christ, prevailed once again, through the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass in the Extraordinary Form, with the assistance of the St. Patrick`s Gregorian Choir.

And must I say that the fruition of this Mass was indeed, extraordinary, occurring against all odds. Allow me to explain how our Holy Sovereign gave His mercy and his royal blessing today, by giving a little snippet as to what made this possible. The Latin Masses take much skill and effort to do, with undo pressure, and don't just appear out of thin air. While others might not like these sort of details to be revealed on the Internet, perhaps you readers, by seeing this, will see what it takes, and that it is many hands, much time, even money, and prayer, that allows these beautiful and Holy liturgies to exist in our current Church today.

Despite the loss of our initial site and celebrant due to circumstances beyond the control of SPGC, and of no fault to the choir, we were forced to scout both a neutral, "Glad Trad" priest, and an alternative parish to hold the Latin Mass. With a request from the choirmaster, I assisted alongside my fellow altar servers, with a number of phone calls, in not only finding a parish to hold the Mass, but the chaplain of my Knights of Columbus council (of which I was recently ``knighted`` in the first degree Oct 6th,) agreed to do our Latin Mass.

Numerous questions came up as the process went on ... is there a Missal available? (Thankfully, the priest has his own 1962,), will there be an Asperges? (Yes, and thus, did the parish have the aspergillum + aspensorum, which they did)? What is the parish stocked with? Are we doing the Leonine prayers at the end (YES!), can you assist the priest for transportation? ... and so forth. Thankfully the choir has amassed a number of items such as the altar candles, an altar stand, etc. However such items to buy outright, are not cheap, e.g. new altar candlesticks from say, DiCarlo, would be anywhere from lowest, close to $400-500 EACH, to much higher, the fancier the set you want. Antiquated ones can cost much more if you do not want to try your luck on internet bidding. So between candles, fasteners for them, altar settings, vestment sets ... you cost to hold these Extraordinary Form liturgies will be heavy, though the items would be permanent to keep in the long run.

After many calls and questions answered, a Friday night altar practice, quickly rearranged choir practice repertoires now that the Mass was happening, and even a transportation issue for our good Holy priest of Christ .... The 2014 Mass of Christ the King was back on at the Catholic Church of St. Pius X, in the Archdiocese of Toronto at 330pm this fine day that has past.

Yes, aside from our collective efforts, one could say that the Lord was willing to allow us in His Holy Graces and Mercy, to have this Mass. Even when it looked liked the Devil had thrown many roadblocks and stresses on top of our work and social lives (and in my case, marital preparations), we pulled off a beautiful, solemn, and reverent Sung Latin Low Mass, with three *servers, and the majestic and heavenly tones of the St. Patrick`s Gregorian Choir.

What points, could be gleamed from today's Mass, particularly, the homily? One of the attendees who frequents the St. Patrick's Latin Masses had this to say:
- Fr. Burns talked about being a Canadian citizen, but that we are citizens of the Kingdom of God by virtue of our Baptism. 
- Having celebrated the Novus Ordo the prior week (and likely, most people present there had gone to the Novus Ordo the prior weekend,) he also related today's Gospel readings with last week's Gospel readings..."render unto Caesar what is Caesars and render unto God what is Gods." [ed. note: I personally see here a little hidden nugget of the forms mutually enriching each other, as Pope Benedict wished when releasing Summorum Pontificum]
- Fr. Burns said that the Kingdom or Reign of God does not really work like a modern democracy where citizens vote to choose their elected officials. Since monarchs inherit their power and authority from their bloodline/parents and not by vote, Jesus Christ as King gets his power and authority from God, his Father. 
- He also discussed the topic of inheritance within the context of the Kingdom of God.

If there was any point to me where our Holy King had triumphed (and we were a part of this victory,) and the success and truth of this Holy Low Mass was evident, it was when our Holy priest dismissed us at the ite missa est. The power, strength, beauty, and tone of his voice was that of a perfect reflection of our King, regal and royal. For all priests of valid and licit ordination are alter Christi, ``other Christs.``How fitting then, nourished by the Eucharist consecrated in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, was our Priest, like Christ, our King, giving us soldiers of the Church Militant our orders to go out into the depths and peripheries of the world to proclaim the Gospel. No sooner had our Alter Christi given us this dismissal, than the sacred tones of the SPGC choir resonated in reply with Deo Gratias in a symphony of similar reverence, beauty, and thankfulness.

If there is anyone to thank in all this though, first and foremost is Our Lord Jesus Christ, High Priest and Sovereign King, whose eternal dominion we acknowledge and pray on in the EF, and will be done in the OF in a month`s time.

Secondly, we thank both the pastor of St. Pius X, Fr. Min-Kyu Park, who graciously and in a short time frame, allowed us to use the church for the Holy Mass, and our celebrant, Fr. Leo Burns, C.S.B. Fr. Burns is a Basilian priest who was ordained in the EF in 1964, just before the storm of the liturgical, philisophical, and theological changes that changed much of the Church`s operations in today`s world.

Without these two holy priests, we would have had no Mass today. Christ was here through his ``others.`` It is priests like these, older and younger, who will help carry out the New Evangelization and the ``reform of the reform`` that Benedict XVI hoped to achieve.

As per usual, I have a few photos to share with you of our event. The first are, as normal with my reports, pictures of our altar fully set up for the Mass (taken prior to, NOT DURING, the Mass). The last two are of our basic translational document we provided for the Mass, containing the liturgy`s propers and the major readings in Latin and English, and even some music in chant notation for the Allelulia.

The altar set up for Low Mass

Inside our Mini-booklet

Front and Back page of our mini-booklet

To end this report, it is only fitting that I post the post-communion translated in English from my 1962 Baronius Press missal, for after we were fed his Holy Eucharist:

``We have received the food of immortality and beg, Lord, that we who are proud to fight under the banner of Christ our King,may reign with Him for ever in His realm above.``

I, Julian of Servimus Unum Deum, alongside my serving allies, and with the St. Patrick`s Gregorian choir, will continue to fight under his banner. Christ wants the salvation of all souls under his kingship and to join him in Heaven. We will continue our King`s mission, to do our best to help in His cause, through the provision of the Holy Sacrifice in the Mass in the Extraordinary Form in the Archdiocese of Toronto.  

PAX TIBI CHRISTI, JULIAN BARKIN, ON THIS THE FEAST OF CHRIST THE KING 2014. 

*  I have done this before, at St. Lawrence the Martyr for either a Requiem Mass or Christmas 2012. While excessive amounts of servers are not appropriate, I do not know of any rubric or outdated liturgical law that says 3 servers at a Low Mass is unacceptable, or violates the licitness or validity of the Holy Mass. Do your research before you contest this fact and have a Fr. Z speckled-filled nutty and the combox filter is on with my blog rules intact.

[minor edits made 27/10/2014].

Final Reminder: Christ the King Mass with St. Patrick's Gregorian Choir, @ St. Pius X Catholic Church, Toronto ON

Sunday, October 26, 2014 - Feast of Christ the King

St. Patrick's Gregorian Choir (CONFIRMED as of the eve of Oct 22, 2014)

• When: This Sunday, October 26, 2014
• Location? St, Pius X Catholic Church 
• Address?  2305 Bloor Street West, Toronto, ON  
• TTC Accessible? YES! Near Runnymede Station, go west along Bloor.  
• Start time? 330pm EST
• Organizer: St. Patrick's Gregorian Choir under Surinder S. Mundra
• Primary Contact/Inquiries: 416 731 4485.  
• Parish Websites: http://stpiusxparish.ca/
• Facebook event page:  Not Applicable

Christ the King Annual Latin Mass with St. Patrick`s Gregorian Choir! This Sunday October 26th @ 330pm, St. Pius X Diocesan

Hello Everyone,

May it be my pleasure to announce to you, better late than never, that St. Patrick's Gregorian Choir will be doing its annual Christ the King Latin Mass! This will be the 8th anniversary of the formation of the Choir, who came together on this feast day in 2006.

Though it will be slightly different than other years, it will nonetheless be a blessed and lovely liturgy in the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite.

Sunday, October 26, 2014 - Feast of Christ the King

St. Patrick's Gregorian Choir (CONFIRMED as of the eve of Oct 22, 2014)

• When: This Sunday, October 26, 2014
• Location? St, Pius X Catholic Church 
• Address?  2305 Bloor Street West, Toronto, ON  
• TTC Accessible? YES! Near Runnymede Station, go west along Bloor.  
• Start time? 330pm EST
• Organizer: St. Patrick's Gregorian Choir under Surinder S. Mundra
• Primary Contact/Inquiries: 416 731 4485.  
• Parish Websites: http://stpiusxparish.ca/
• Facebook event page:  Not Applicable

Might I also add that I will be serving in this Mass, though I am not certain what role, as this is a Sung Low Mass. TBD, then. Please invite respectable family and friends if your please. 

Also, this Mass will fulfill your obligation for Sunday, as it is in the Roman Rite in the Catholic Church, offered by a priest with valid and licit faculties.

Pax, Julian. 

Trads Behaving Badly are a Thankless Lot on Thanksgiving Weekend and Update for Latin Masses

UPDATE Oct 14, 2014

Due to unforseen circumstances, the SPGC is unable to now use SLTM for its Christ the King Mass. It might be still held, should an alternate site be found. Prayers for the choir please? Thanks.

UPDATE!!!!!

No sooner do I write about how the coverage of the Synod is biased at the hands of these TBBs, that the Might Trad Hero, Fr. John Zuhlsdorf, weighs in and warns us to watch what is being reported by the media. See HERE!!!
____________________________________________________________________
Hello Everyone,

This weekend in Canada is Thanksgiving weekend, where we have a good old meal of turkey and all the fixings, and are supposed to be thankful for all we have in our lives.

I was reminded of that at Mass this Saturday evening, when with my fiancee we attended the vigil with the pastor presiding, whose community and church is to be built. Due to the current location being locked, we relocated to the temporary chapel set up in his house, complete with an altar, tabernacle, and the like for a basic location to hold Mass.

There, the deacon from the neighboring large-scale parish was present at Mass, and preached on the theme of Thanksgiving. Certainly, on this weekend, one should be thankful for what we have, especially for the Sacrifice that our Lord made on Calvary. However, we are often sour-sacks (not his words) and we are not grateful enough to God and Christ, and should do things such as small efforts of gratitude, but most importantly, open our prayers in gratitude for the coming day, and end at night for the day we had and where God acted in our lives. I think that`s great advice, considering most of us use prayer for supplication, vs. thanking Christ for things. We`re quite selfish and sour and un-thankful, aren`t we?

Unfortunately, some pickled-pepper faced people have no room for thankfulness in their hearts, spewing their hatred for the Church and the Holy Father and others over the Synod of 2014. This is retrospect as mid-way, a document has been released, a ``relatio`` of sorts that outlines what has been covered so far. Wow they are fuming over a lot. It makes you wonder why these angry denziens of darkness even care to be a part of the Church. They accuse Modernist Rome of conspiracy, and Pope Francis of teaming up with the homofacists in changing Church doctrine by stealth, and that the Church is essentially going to Hell in a hand basket with the world. With that kind of attitude, how many Latin Mass ``converts`` have joined you people in your quest for ``holiness?" Have new Latin Masses popped up in your archdiocese, or mine for that matter? With that attitude, likely, 0.

They might as well take their Modernist Rome hate and join their ``good friends`` who are outside of the Church canonically and are protestant, the Society of St. Pius X (Don't blame me for the protestant remark, even a Latin Mass saying priest in a diocese neighbouring mine thinks that. Not linking to him though due to whom he associates with.). Why with the SSPX, you can have your Francis/Church of Rome hate, believe you have the "true" Church, and get your Latin Mass done to every minor law about liturgy in one! If you are happy to believe the lies that their sacraments are VALID and licit (of which, "Trad Hero" Benedict XVI re-iterated they have NO SACRAMENTAL FACULTIES in 2009), then great! Go be a part of their number. Stop being part of the "modernist" church! The exit door with Dante's Inferno's line about abandoning all hope ye who enter here, is just waiting for you. As for your soul ... well it`s a dice roll, as other communications such as from the PCED warn going frequently can put you in a state of schism, which automatically excommunicates you. But really, if you don`t like what`s going on in Holy Mother Church, then get out. Go be with your like-minded friends.

Now listen, I don't like some of the politics that is going on here. I don't approve of Francis' power play with the "liberal" additions to whatever committee he put the supposedly "sinister 6" on, when democracy was upheld and this is not something needing "supreme legislator" interference. If he purposely told all in attendance, "kay I get some of you are pastoral, and others doctrinal. You can't have one without the other, so I'm balancing the groups as an exercise in collegiality and co-operation," then fine. I'd approve of that as a teachable moment. But no announcement to that effect was made. That was not a move where the Pope is exercising divine authority/Infallability.

Regardless of politics and human fault, I still stand with Holy Mother Church, and I still obey the Holy Father in terms of his valid election to the chair as Bishop of Rome, and that in Faith and Morals he cannot err, as well as being supreme legislator of the Church.

One bone of contention in my mind, is this principle of "graduality." Thankfully, the Anchoress, Elizabeth Scalia, a Benedictine tertiary/oblate, has covered this topic in an excellent post, of what proper gradation is AND addressed some of the more educated laity's fears, which I'm posting most of the content:

"... we’ve been writing about aspects of graduality here at Patheos, sometimes without even realizing it, and to my way of thinking there is no better explanation of “graduality”, or a better example of its power, than Calah Alexander’s personal story, which she first shared here in 2012, and in which she describes, yes, a yes, “long road” to mercy, undertaken by a sincere but challenged couple, and a priest who was willing to see them fully and deal with the reality of their lives:

He was trying to figure out how to bring both of us into a state of grace, how to help us learn to love God, each other, and our child, and how to begin building a foundation that might one day support a solid family.

Saint John Paul famously said told his priests that we have to “deal with the world as it is; the world before us.” That is precisely what Calah and Christopher’s priest did, and he ultimately welcomed them into full communion with the church. Now they’re a solidly-Catholic young family of six.

That’s the goal of gradualism. It is not about ignoring doctrine or condoning mortal sin. It is about a priest at work the field hospital God has provided, and applying powerful medicine within dosages that each patient can withstand, until they are spiritually stronger, and can withstand further treatment. Your dosages and mine will be different at different times in our illnesses.
Calah has written more about gradualism, here:

The law being for the people means that its purpose is to aid in the salvation of souls. It can’t be thrown out or changed without throwing away souls in the process; but neither can it be used as a spiritual threshing machine without throwing away souls in the process.

When I go to confession, I usually confess the same sins. The same sins, over and over, over and over, like a litany of awfulness...
The thing is, though, that the sins I confess over and over today are not the same sins I confessed over and over seven years ago. They are, in fact, radically different.

Do people have a point when they worry about “gradualism” assisting in the degradation of the sacraments and our understanding of them? Is there a possibility of it being misunderstood and misused? Oh, yes, and that’s worth being concerned about, particularly given the church’s poor catechetical transmission over the past five decades — when it has most desperately been needed — and the Curia’s self-destructive habit of not controlling its message but allowing important teachings, documents and exhortations to be filtered through the secular press, and thereby reduced to the least-helpful soundbites.

Father Dwight Longenecher is concerned about the seeming double-speak on co-habitation, and I get that, but then again. . .the thing about Calah’s story is that Calah and her husband were taking the church on its own terms, while still trying to extricate themselves from their sins, and were therefore willing to work within the discipline, willing to withhold themselves and (so to speak) “take their medicine” of refraining from Communion, until they were in a state of grace.

It seems to me this is where things fall apart and gradualism becomes scary for people; precisely at the line where people place their sense of entitlement before their willingness to try something as radical as obedience, which is strong, strong medicine, and must be taken with an IV of humility.

Yes, I get the scary part. But I also get the humane part that evangelizes people back into church by seeing them in their totality and walking with them. Gradualism is a time-consuming and one-on-one sort of pastoring, and we have so few priests well-trained to it, and so many Catholics or potential Catholics, in great need: how can shall we manage this?

The laity will have to step up. The priests will need the support of a nursing and nurturing laity — a laity willing to humbly assist the patients, and their priests, with hands-on support and their prayers, and with a minimum of hand-wringing about how it “looks” to have all these spiritually bedraggled people milling about the pews, giving scandal to the church, as though we do not do that, all of us, every day, anyway.

We really must pray, and ask the Holy Spirit to forcefully guide the synod and its wisdom, and then keep praying all the way through to the next synod, next year. It’s that grave an issue.

There are a lot of prodigals who are “still a long way off” and whom the church wants to “run out to meet.” Gradualism is effective ministry, but it’s a long healing. Done correctly, it can completely renew the church. Implemented poorly (as was VCII) and it can be a wrecking ball, and pfft goes Catholic credibility and too, too many souls.

I’ll let Calah close this:
The danger inherent in the idea of gradualness lies in losing the distinction that JPII made — the law of gradualness is not the same thing as gradualness of the law. We knew we were in sin. That was clear. No one told us that it would be okay if we went ahead and took communion, since we were working on that whole “not sinning” thing. We went to Mass with our friends and the Ogre’s family and stayed in the pew during communion, and everyone knew why. But we kept going, and when we finally got to receive with everyone else it was amazing. That approach would probably not be healthy or helpful with some people…the point is, only the pastor can know when, where, and how to apply it.

But for ordinary laypeople, our job is not to figure out when, where, and how someone is sinning or not sinning. Our job is not to cast out those among us who smell suspiciously like sulfur, or whose hair looks a bit tinged from brimstone, or whose companions in Mass cry “irregular!” from the bare ring fingers of their same-gendered hands.

And that is not our job for a very simple reason: if we’re always looking for scandal, we’ll find it everywhere.

What is also everywhere, whether we’re looking for them or not, are souls trapped in the mire of mortal sin and desperately in need of Christ. Please don’t cast them out. There were people in the Church who tried to cast me out, who went to extraordinary lengths to bar the door against me. I can’t begin to tell you how much it hurt to feel unworthy and unwanted by the people I recognized as keepers of Truth and bearers of Christ.

And there you have it. So people, just remember that the doom-prophets don't have the foresight on the Church, and that their message is thankless, and spiritually damaging and full of despair. THEY DO NOT REPRESENT THE AUTHORITY OF THE CHURCH, NOR THINK WITH ITS MIND. Does that mean we are to just be tolerant of everything? No. However, we should be thankful in our faith life and with others, and not everything that "Modernist" Rome does is poisonous. If anything, the gravity is lesser than the Chicken Littles are saying. 

Pax and Happy Thanksgiving, Julian. 

P.S. Oh yeah! New Latin Mass update Here! St. Patrick's Gregorian Choir is doing their annual Christ the King Mass Sunday October 26th @ 1pm, I'm serving in it.  

P.P.S. The Trads Behaving Badly, are not all badly, nor all the time. Here's an example of a guy who does attend their organized Masses and supports them, but is demonstrating that Pope-bashing and the Modernist Rome thing isn't their modus operandi 24-7. There are times some of them actually can have Joy and thank fullness in their lives and not act like their Trad-masters. 

More Wrong Naysaying from Internet Lay Prophets of Doom and Gloom. Why do they damage the Church?

Hello Everyone.

Sunday should be a day of jubilation and Holiness with our Lord, regardless of the form of the Roman Rite, or other valid and licit rites, attended in the Church. Sadly, some people lose that joy so quickly, and publicize it, discrediting our Church and its clerical and lay leadership, and making others commit the sin of despair in the process.

Waking up today, I received a barb of spiritual rat poison from a blog on my feed today. The blogger, a layperson involved with the Latin Mass, decided to cough up whatever darkness they had about the ongoing Extraordinary Synod of the Family in Rome.

While I will not name the blogger, as I detest giving that person more hits via linking, I will list their accusations with implied sentiments for you:

1. Talk of the Pope changing things, implying Church doctrine, and calling the Synod another Pentecost as in wiping out the Church
2. That we should let the "Holy Spirit" guide us in our dreams and not to frustrate it, that is the implied false "Spirit of Vatican II" council.
3. More Trad hate by implying in today's homily our Holy father attacked them, via mentioning man-made commandments and buying salvation via man-made rules and regulations.
4. Predicting and accusing Pope Francis of trying to change Catholic practice of the faithful and hence, disobedience of Catholic doctrine and dogma, which will be outed by African and other leaders in the Church, whereby an angry Pope Francis will retire back to Argentina. Another Trad Behaving Badly stab at His Holiness, which is usual fare for TBBs. 
5. Should it be that His Eminence, Thomas Cardinal Collins, voted for Bergoglio in the 2013 conclave, he has once again attacked his own archbishop, by lumping him in with the pack of clowns who voted Bergoglio in. 

Now I don't know about you, but as a young person who desires a joyful atmosphere to be able to participate fully in the Church, especially in the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite, this is giving me no hope, and I must spiritually defend myself and others viewing my blog and others, against this attack that commits the sin of despair in others. 

It's sad, really. Our lay leaders, who know the teachings of the Church and should be carrying out the New Evangelization, are contributing as accessories to sin and despair, and giving more credence to a New Exodus from the Catholic Church. Such joyless reporting and false leadership only begs those viewing such spiritual rat poison to ask these questions: Why should I, as a young person, join and/or stay in, the Catholic Church, when everyone is corrupt up to my Pope? I can get that in my regular life with politics and my teachers and parents. Why should I even introduce people to the Church, of whom "extra ecclesia nulla sulam?" They deserve the full salvation of their souls, but why bother if it's so dark? 

These are sadly the thoughts and questions that erupt from such non-Catholic examples of writing on the Internet and musings/conduct in person.

Rather folks, I must say, these are not truths, but lies at the worst, or gross, emotionally charged misinterpretations at best. If anything, Pope Francis is acceptable to Church tradition in his own ways, AND he is quite aware of the hostile takeover that some groups in the Church are trying to achieve with this synod. Might I remind you that when Pope Francis went to South Korea recently, he said many parts of the big Novus Ordo Mass in Latin, to mantilla-wearing South Korean women and other faithful? Did he bash those mantilla-wearers? NO! Allow me to prove His Holiness' Commitment to Church "t"radition and "T"radition to you with a post from a Latin-Mass saying Priest of Jesus Christ at his blog, Southern Orders, with my emphasis at certain parts in boldface. 

Might I also add that, selectively, the blogger above chose NOT to post the WHOLE part of the paragraphs from the aforementioned homily of Pope Francis, taking it out of context to suit their biased reporting, as you will see below in some of my boldfaced parts:

Sunday, October 5, 2014

OPENING MASS IN LATIN FOR THE SYNOD ON THE FAMILY

Rough English translation of Pope Francis' homily:

Today, the prophet Isaiah and the Gospel uses the image of the vineyard of the Lord. The vineyard of the Lord is his "dream", the project that He cultivates with all his love, like a farmer takes care of his vineyard. The vine is a plant that requires much attention!

The "dream" of God and his people: he has planted and cultivated with patient love and faithful, to become a holy people, a people that ports many good fruits of justice.

But both in ancient prophecy, both in the parable of Jesus, God's dream is frustrated. Isaiah tells us that the vineyard, so loved and cared for, "which has produced unripe berries" (5,2.4 ), while God "looked for justice, but here's bloodshed, for righteousness, but heard cries of oppressed" (v.  7).  In the Gospel, on the other hand, are the peasants to ruin the project of the Lord: they do not do their job, but they think their interests.

Jesus, with his parable, is addressed to the chief priests and elders of the people, i.e. , the "wise men", the ruling class. To them in a special way God has entrusted his "dream", i.e. his people, to be cultivated, they care, preserved from wild animals. This is the task of the heads of the people: to cultivate the vineyard with freedom, creativity and industriousness.

Jesus says that those farmers took control of the vineyard; for their greed and pride they want to do with it what they want, and thus deprive to God the opportunity to realize his dream on the people that you have chosen.

The temptation of greed is always present. We find also in the great prophecy of Ezekiel on the pastors (cf. chap. 34), with commentary by St. Augustine in his famous speech that we have just re-read in the Liturgy of the Hours. Greed for money and power. AND to satiate this greed evil shepherds load on the shoulders of people unbearable burdens that they will not move even with a finger (Mt 23,4 ).

We also, in the Synod of Bishops, we are called to work for the vineyard of the Lord. The synodal Assembly does not serve to discuss ideas beautiful, original, or to see who is more intelligent… serve to cultivate and protect better the vineyard of the Lord, to cooperate in his dream, his plan of love for his people. In this case, the Lord asks us to take care of the family, which from its origins and an integral part of his plan of love for humanity.

We are all sinners and even for us we can be the temptation to "snagged" of the vineyard, because of the greed which is never lacking in us human beings. The dream of God always comes up against the hypocrisy of some of his servants. We can be "frustrate" the dream of God if we do not allow ourselves to be guided by the Holy Spirit. The Spirit gives us the wisdom that goes beyond the science, for work generously with true freedom and humble creativity.

Brothers of the Synod, to cultivate and preserve good the vineyard, it is necessary that the our hearts and our minds are to be kept in Jesus Christ by the "peace of God which surpasses all understanding", (Phil 4,7 ).  So our thoughts and our projects will be compliant with the dream of God: form a holy people that belong to him and that it will produce the fruits of the Kingdom of God (Mt 21.43 ).

Posted by Fr. Allan J. McDonald at Sunday, October 05, 2014 

Now, let see, lay person vs. someone with Holy Orders, doom and gloom in many of their posts vs. balanced orthodox commentary with the Joy of the Gospel? I'd say that fellow youth like myself will want to embrace the Church under Fr. McDonald vs. the Trad Behaving Quite Badly today, and on the Lord's Day too! Just before a Latin Mass ..... 

That is why we must continue to prevail and have hope in  our Holy Mother Church. We cannot let it darken and sour to the point that the Church is false and a lie, offering no salvation. we must continue to have hope, and dispel the lies and falsehoods, and trap them away, exposing them to the TRUTH and the LIGHT! So let's continue to pray, to believe that Christ guaranteed the Church's fortitude in Matthew 16:18, and the Pope Francis will not let this Synod run away with itself. 

Pax Tibi Christi, Julian Barkin.