But Jesus Hid Himself

Originally published in 2016.

Today is the Fifth Sunday of Lent which begins Passiontide. If one attends Mass strictly in the Ordinary Form of the Roman Rite it is not generally apparent having been done away with as a time within Lent. In the traditional calendar, it is called the First Sunday of the Passion with the colloquial Palm Sunday being the Second Sunday of the Passion. There is a further stripping away of liturgical elements and embellishments which began at Septuagesima, 

From First Vespers last night until the Paschal Vigil, the Gloria Patri is not said after the Asperges on Passion Sunday or the Prayers at the Foot of the Altar, Introit, Lavabo, and Communion Antiphonal Psalms. In the Office, it is eliminated from some of the Verses and Short Responsories. Jesus is losing his earthly glory. The readings and psalm antiphons reflect this in the Mass and Office. Those who hate him are now plentiful, as plentiful now, as when he walked. Those who seek his death are now coming to the fore. Those who seek the death of His Church are coming to the fore and are also within Her. Lent now takes a change in focus; -- while our penance continues, we now shift towards the passion of Our Blessed Lord and his saving work of redemption.

Abbot Gueranger writes:

"During the preceding four weeks, we have noticed how the malice of Jesus' enemies has been gradually increasing. His very presence irritates them; and it is evident that any little circumstance will suffice to bring the deep and long-nurtured hatred to a head."

His passion then has begun. His glory, as at Mount Tabor, is no longer apparent.

There is one element that remains in the modernist liturgy depending on the parish's own tradition. While it was once obligatory it is now optional and that is the veiling of the Crucifix and statues, though not Stations of the Cross or the imagery in windows. 

But why? From whence does this tradition come? 

It is thought to have begun around the 9^th century in Germany. When Lent began (which in most languages is a derivative of Quadregesimae, the Latin for forty days), a cloth called a hungertuch, or hunger cloth, was used to cover the altar. It was removed on the Tuesday of Holy Week during the reading of the Passion according to St. Mark when “The curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom.” The Gospels in the three-year cycle in the New Lectionary do not reflect the symbolism and beauty of Passiontide and the veiling. They are all from St. John’s Gospel and are in sequence – “I am the Resurrection and the Life;” … “If a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it bears much fruit;” and, “He who is without sin among you, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.”

The change from the one-year Lectionary, in place from St. Gregory the Great, was a grievous error. The desires of the Fathers of the Second Vatican Council could have been achieved without the assault on the whole Church tradition of readings. A Lesson could have been added to the Sunday liturgy. Weekdays could have had their own Mass texts whilst still acknowledging the Sanctoral cycle. Interestingly, the Advent readings in the new Lectionary are beautiful and are the one thing that perhaps, one day, be inserted into the old Lectionary.  could have had its own lectionary as in Lent in the traditional rite. The three-year Lectionary remains a problem. Mass is not a bible study and what is lost in the reading below is quite profound, as you will soon comprehend.

For the Mass on the Fifth Sunday of Lent according to the ancient use Roman Missal, the Gospel for no less than 1600 years until 1969 has been the following and it explains the veiling and why they killed Him.

GOSPEL ¤ John 8. 46-59 † A continuation of the holy Gospel according to St. John.

At that time Jesus said to the multitudes of the Jews: Which of you shall convince Me of sin? If I say the truth to you, why do you not believe Me? He that is of God heareth the words of God. Therefore you hear them not, because you are not of God. The Jews therefore answered and said to Him: Do not we say well, that Thou art a Samaritan, and hast a devil? Jesus answered: I have not a devil: but I honor My Father, and you have dishonored Me. But I seek not My own glory: there is One that seeketh and judgeth. Amen, amen, I say to you: If any man keep My word, he shall not see death for ever. The Jews therefore said: Now we know that Thou hast a devil. Abraham is dead, and the Prophets: and Thou sayest: If any man keep My word, he shall not taste death for ever. Art Thou greater than our father Abraham, who is dead? and the prophets are dead. Whom dost Thou make Thyself? Jesus answered: If I glorify Myself, My glory is nothing: it is My Father that glorifieth Me, of whom you say that He is your God, and you have not known Him: but I know Him: and if I shall say that I know Him not, I shall be like to you, a liar. But I do know Him, and do keep His word. Abraham your father rejoiced that he might see My day: he saw it and was glad. The Jews therefore said to Him: Thou art not yet fifty years old: and hast Thou seen Abraham? Jesus said to them: Amen, amen, I say to you, before Abraham was made, I am. They took up stones therefore to cast at Him: but Jesus hid Himself, and went out of the temple.

“But Jesus hid Himself.”

St. Augustine said that at this moment by virtue of His divine nature, Jesus became literally invisible.

“He hides not himself in a corner of the temple as if afraid or running into a cottage or turning aside behind a wall or column; but by His Divine Power making Himself invisible he passed through their midst.”

In the Catechism of the Catholic Church, we read the following:

205 God calls Moses from the midst of a bush that burns without being consumed: "I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob."9 God is the God of the fathers, the One who had called and guided the patriarchs in their wanderings. He is the faithful and compassionate God who remembers them and his promises; he comes to free their descendants from slavery. He is the God who, from beyond space and time, can do this and wills to do it, the God who will put his almighty power to work for this plan.

"I Am who Am"

Moses said to God, "If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, 'The God of your fathers has sent me to you', and they ask me, 'What is his name?' what shall I say to them?" God said to Moses, "I AM WHO AM." And he said, "Say this to the people of Israel, 'I AM has sent me to you'. . . this is my name for ever, and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations."

CCC 206 In revealing his mysterious name, YHWH ("I AM HE WHO IS", "I AM WHO AM" or "I AM WHO I AM"), God says who he is and by what name he is to be called. This divine name is mysterious just as God is mystery. It is at once a name revealed and something like the refusal of a name, and hence it better expresses God as what he is - infinitely above everything that we can understand or say: he is the "hidden God", his name is ineffable, and he is the God who makes himself close to men.

CCC 207 By revealing his name God at the same time reveals his faithfulness which is from everlasting to everlasting, valid for the past ("I am the God of your father"), as for the future ("I will be with you").12 God, who reveals his name as "I AM", reveals himself as the God who is always there, present to his people in order to save them.

CCC 208 Faced with God's fascinating and mysterious presence, man discovers his own insignificance. Before the burning bush, Moses takes off his sandals and veils his face in the presence of God's holiness.13 Before the glory of the thrice-holy God, Isaiah cries out: "Woe is me! I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips."14 Before the divine signs wrought by Jesus, Peter exclaims: "Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord."15 But because God is holy, he can forgive the man who realizes that he is a sinner before him: "I will not execute my fierce anger. . . for I am God and not man, the Holy One in your midst."16 The apostle John says likewise: "We shall. . . reassure our hearts before him whenever our hearts condemn us; for God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything."

Jesus revealed to the Temple authorities, the leadership of Israel, who He was. He knew Abraham and did so in such a way that they would know with absolute clarity who He was. He had done it before, seven times.

1. I Am the Bread of Life: (John 6). 

2. I Am the Light of the World: (John 8). 

3. I Am the Gate of the Sheepfold: (John 10). 

4. I Am the Good Shepherd: (John 10). 

5. I Am the Resurrection and the Life: (John 11). 

6. I Am the Way, Truth, and Life: (John 14). 

7. I Am the True Vine: (John 15).

Note that Jesus, when the Jews questioned his age and Abraham, he did not say, "Before Abraham was made, I was made." Had he said this, they would have just thought him delusional. Rather, He said, "Before Abraham was made, I AM." They knew exactly what He meant. 

Now, he is hidden in our churches and chapels only to be unveiled when we recall His Crucifixion -- "Ecce lignum Crucis," -- "Behold the wood of the Cross on which hung the Saviour of the world, come let us adore him." If we hide Him we cannot abide the glory of His saints, therefore, they are also hidden. Christ is shamed. He is humiliated by those whom he came to save. The Jewish "deep state" betrayed Him, and we continue to betray Him today.

He declared Himself before all Israel to be the I AM of the Burning Bush; and for this, they would kill Him. They knew what He said, they knew what He meant. He confessed to them that he was the very Son of God, the very God Himself come to earth.

In the sermon below from 1846, we find an incredible dissertation on Jesus hiding Himself.  It is a sermon by an Anglican, but one would be hard-pressed to find a better sermon or homily said today on the subject from a typical Catholic pulpit. This was a period that led Saint John-Henry Newman home.

Would that we could hear preaching like this today.

Vox.

+ + +

SERMONS FOR SUNDAYS AND OTHER LITURGICAL OCCASIONS

CONTRIBUTED BY

BISHOPS AND OTHER CLERGY OF THE CHURCH.

EDITED BY THE REV. ALEXANDER WATSON, M.A., 

CURATE OF ST. JOHN'S, CHELTENHAM.

Second Series.  VOL. I.

OXFORD: J. H. PARKER. CAMBRIDGE: T. GREEN.

MDCCCXLVI. (1846)

Then took they up stones to cast at Him."

Thus are we brought down from the whole Gospel for the day to that portion of it which will engage our chief attention during the brief remainder of this morning's service. "But Jesus hid Himself, and went out of the Temple, going through the midst of them, and so passed by."

1. Jesus "hid Himself," as man, in prudence: according to the will of His Heavenly Father. As He had been born in "the fullness of time," so it was at an appointed hour that He was to die. But "His hour was not yet come ": and He therefore avoided whatever might unduly quicken the course of events, or put forward the grand horologe of time. And this He did in obedience to the Will of His Heavenly Father. This obedience was the mainspring of His conduct throughout His earthly sojourn. "Lo I come to do Thy will, O God," was His motto from first to last; and never was it more fully translated into action than in all He did with regard to His final suffering and departure.

When that hour of mingled humiliation and glory, which compressed eternal interests within the compass of a few passing minutes; when that everlasting hour arrived, the holy and obedient Jesus yielded Himself at once into the power of His enemies. Thus, when Satan had entered into Judas Iscariot, Jesus said to the traitor, "What thou doest, do quickly." When Judas came to Him in the garden with men and officers from the chief priests and Pharisees, "Jesus, knowing all things that should come upon Him, went forth and said unto them, Whom seek ye? They answered Him, Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus said unto them, I am He." And when the impetuous Peter—the first to defend, the first to deny his Master—drew his sword and cut oft" the right ear of Malchus, the High Priest's servant, "then said Jesus unto him, Put up again thy sword into his place: thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to My Father, and He shall presently give Me more than twelve legions of angels? But how then shall the Scriptures be fulfilled, that thus it must be?" When Pilate would fain have released Him, and sought for some pretext for so doing in the replies of Jesus to his interrogatories, "Jesus gave him no answer." And at the last, when He saw that all was "finished,"—prophecy fulfilled, types realised, the preparations for His sacrificial Death complete, His Father's will wrought out,—He bowed His head, and gave up the ghost."

But until the arrival of that hour, His conduct was marked throughout by unexampled prudence. While He wrought His miracles before the multitude, and taught openly in the Temple, and in secret did nothing; while He boldly confuted and reproved the Pharisee, the Sadducee, and the Herodian, regardless of the enmity He thereby incurred; He carefully shunned the precipitation of His end. He had a mission of vast pregnancy and moment to discharge; and until this was done, He would not lay down that life which the Father had put into His power. Whenever danger became imminent, He withdrew Himself from the presence of those who sought to lay hands on Him and destroy Him. Thus, on the occasion immediately before us, when the infuriated Jews took up stones to cast at Him, "Jesus hid Himself, and went out of the Temple, going through the midst of them, and so passed by." 

On a previous occasion, when the Pharisees held a council how they might destroy Him, Jesus “withdrew Himself from thence." On a subsequent occasion, similar to that of the text, when the Jews again sought to take Him, "he escaped out of their hand, and went away again beyond Jordan." When the Sanhedrim, after the official prophecy of the unconscious Caiaphas, took counsel together to put Him to death, "Jesus walked no more openly among the Jews; but went thence unto a country near to the wilderness, into a city called Ephraim, and there continued with His disciples." Thus, throughout His whole earthly career, our Blessed Lord exercised a prudence of the highest order; enforcing by His own example the precepts He gave to His first disciples: "Be ye wise as serpents, and harmless as doves ;"—" When they persecute you in this city, flee ye into another ." And these precepts, supported by this supreme example, and adapted to the exigencies of Christians at the present day, apply also to us. "As men may not be too tenacious, so neither may they be too profuse and lavish of life and the comforts of it," says Dean Stanhope; "lest, besides their present hardships, they find at last an indiscreet zeal returned, with a 'Who hath required these things at your hands?' Love indeed is apt and desirous to give over-measure, where it can: but still this must not be the effect of passion alone. Prudence should temper and direct it." 

"It is an office of prudence," says Bishop Taylor, "to serve God So that we may at the same time preserve our lives and our estates, our interest and reputation, for ourselves and our relations, so far as they can consist together. For Christian religion, carrying us to heaven, does it by the ways of a man; and by the body it serves the soul, as by the soul it serves God; and therefore it endeavours to secure the body and its interest, that it may continue the opportunities of a crown, and prolong the stage in which we are to run for the mighty prize of our salvation; and this is that part of prudence which is the defensative and guard of a Christian in the time of persecution: and it hath in it much of duty."

Thus far we have endeavoured to consider the conduct of our Blessed Lord, on the occasion under review, on its human side; as an exhibition of prudence and discretion. But it has a sublimer aspect than this; to which we now with reverence will turn.

Jesus “hid Himself," as God, in majesty; the majesty of displeasure. "He did not hide Himself," says St. Augustine, "in a corner of the Temple, as if He were afraid; or take refuge in a house, or run behind a wall, or a pillar; but, by His heavenly power making Himself invisible to His enemies, He went through the midst of them." Just before, He had said, "Before Abraham was I Am"; with evident reference to the Name revealed by the Lord to Moses, as recorded in the First Lesson for this morning's service; when He appeared to him in the burning but unconsumed bush, as he was keeping the flock of Jethro, the Priest of Midian, near the base of Mount Horeb. On that occasion, when Moses would have drawn nigh to see that great sight, the Lord forbad his nearer approach, and commanded him to unsandal his feet, because they were standing on holy ground. He, who required this reverence towards an inferior manifestation of Himself, would not permit the rude hand of violence to invade His incarnate glory. He "hid Himself" in the secret depths of His invisible Godhead.

There is, doubtless, a mystery in this; and we cannot fully understand why He, who submitted on so many occasions to endure the contradiction of sinners against Himself, refused on other occasions to undergo the indignities that wicked hands would have put upon Him. But a like mystery invested the whole of His earthly career. The darkest shades of humiliation were never permitted altogether to obscure His glory; while yet, that glory was so far hidden, that men despised Him and esteemed Him not. Great, however, as was the mystery of His commingling of glory and shame, the mystery of the manifestation of His glory alone was greater. He might have flashed forth devouring lightnings from the dark and surcharged cloud. He might have kindled into supernatural and overwhelming brightness the splendours of His Divine and resistless Presence. But He did none of these things. He manifested forth His glory by hiding Himself. When the Lord, in the days of old, would preserve righteous Lot and His prophet Elisha from the hand of violence, He smote their enemies with blindness; and so He might have done on this occasion: but, as the threatened indignity was greater, so was the punishment wherewith He visited it. "He hid Himself."

Awful are the exhibitions of Divine glory, when the Lord is raised up out of His holy habitation, and comes forth from His unseen depths to punish the ungodly. But these are as nothing when compared with the hidings of His face. When the Lord would denounce the severest judgments against Israel of old, He said to Moses, "Mine anger shall be kindled against them in that day, and I will forsake them, and I will hide My face from them, and they shall be devoured, and many evils and troubles shall befall them; so that they will say in that day, Are not these evils come upon us, because our God is not among us?" And when, on the other hand, He would confer upon His repentant people the greatest possible blessing, He said by the mouth of Ezekiel, "Neither will I hide My face from them any more: for I have poured out My Spirit upon the house of Israel."

The hidings of Jesus, in the days of His flesh, were yet more majestic and awful. He came into the world for the express purpose, among others, of manifesting the glory and the grace of God: so that to hide Himself was, as it were, to revoke His mission with regard to those from whom He thus withdrew. He abandoned them to the evil of their own hardened and unbelieving hearts, and left them to be filled with their own ways.

It is impossible to conceive anything more dreadful than the condition of the man from whom Jesus has hid Himself. Such a man sinks at once into a state of moral stupidity: he sins on without aim or purpose. Until Jesus hid Himself, the unbelieving Jews had an object against which to direct their malignant attacks; but when He could be no longer seen, their malice, though as virulent as ever, became wholly impotent and senseless. And so, when Jesus hides Himself from sinners of the present day,—who insult His majesty because it is concealed to the-eye of sense or mere reason (though not to the eye of faith), beneath mean and simple accidents,—He leaves them to perish as brute beasts. The force of argument and moral suasion having been tried upon them in vain, together with all other manifestations of the true and holy Jesus, He will no longer expose Himself to the rash temerity and blinded insolence of their invasions, but hides Himself, going through the midst of them, and so passes by.

The abstract contemplation of such a subject is too awful for man to dwell upon at any length; and we will therefore now consider it, (so hastening to a conclusion,) under its practical aspects and bearings.

But is it possible, men may ask, for persons at the present day to commit acts of insult and injury towards the Divine Jesus, akin to that of the blaspheming Jews when they took up stones to cast at Him? Alas, it is but too possible. "Certainly we cannot commit such open blasphemy; but it is another matter whether we cannot commit as great. For, often sins are greater, which are less startling; insults more bitter, which are not so loud; and evils deeper, which are more subtle." Although Christ is no longer on earth in bodily presence, He is here by His Spirit: and it is quite possible for men to repeat the offence of the blaspheming Jews by casting stones, so to speak, against either the Church, which is His Body; or the Sacraments, which are His Presence; or the Poor, who are His Brethren.

The Church is the Body of Christ, "the fullness of Him That filleth all in all:" and they who resist or blaspheme or persecute Her, do in effect resist and blaspheme and persecute Him. And such are not only, nor even chiefly, the openly wicked and profane; whose offences are of a different description: but those who deny the Divine authority of the Church, rejecting her principles for the opinions of men and the maxims of the world; those who deny her Apostolicity, treating her as a merely human and secular institution; those who invade her constitution, legislating for her on grounds of political expediency, and not according to the laws of Christ. "Verily, I say unto you, they have their reward." They refuse to acknowledge the Body of Christ in His corporate members; and He hides it from them. They are no longer permitted to behold the tokens of her presence. She becomes to them what they would have her be. In their eyes she has no form nor comeliness, although she is all-glorious within. But with these hidings of her beauty and this withdrawal of her presence, there comes not only an apparent abdication of her authority; leaving men to live as they list, according to the broad measures of the world, instead of the straight and narrow lines of eternity: but also the utter loss of her intercession and benediction. She no longer stands between the living and the dead. A silent curse spreads over the land she has abandoned to itself. The rulers have forsaken Christ, and Christ has forsaken them. The people would have it so, and their house is left unto them desolate.

"Be wise now, therefore, O ye kings:

Be learned, ye that judges of the earth.

Kiss the Son, lest He be angry,

And so ye perish from the right way,

If His wrath be kindled, yea but a little.

Blessed are all they that put their trust in Him."

Again, the Sacraments are the Presence of Christ. In the Sacrament of Holy Baptism, He is present by His Spirit, Who, in answer to the prayers of the congregation, is given by our Heavenly Father to infants, when baptized, that they may be born again and be made heirs of everlasting salvation. In the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist, He is really and spiritually present, being taken and received by the faithful as their heavenly food and divine life. 

Whoever, therefore, despises the Sacraments, despises Christ. Whoever denies their saving power, denies the Presence of the Saviour in them. Whoever in effect casts stones at these, as by cavils or contumely or neglect, does in reality thus cast stones at Christ. And then does the Son of God hide Himself from them in the majesty of displeasure; and Sacraments become to these persons what, in their rationalistic unbelief, they would have them be. 

Baptism, when administered by schismatics and pretenders to Holy Orders, fails to regenerate; and their own theory, that Baptism admits only to an outward union with a nominal church, is, in their own case, verified. The Communion is reduced to a formal commemoration of an absent Saviour. In both cases, as regards their own mere outward show of Sacraments, they are right. They have taken up stones to cast at the spiritually-present Jesus; and He has hidden Himself, going through the midst of them, and so passing by.

Lastly: the Poor are the Brethren of Jesus. They are so even in respect of their mere poverty; although it must not be concealed that the poor man who is a wilful sinner is severed from this communion and fellowship. But he, who is at once poor in this world and poor in spirit, is united by the closest bonds to the lowly Son of Mary. This is strikingly shown in the parable of the Sheep and the Goats, wherein the Judge declares that whatsoever is done unto the least of the Hungry, the Thirsty, the Stranger, the Naked, the Sick, the Imprisoned,—being "the poor of this world," but " rich in faith and heirs of the Kingdom," —is done unto Himself. Now, we all know how apt men are to "despise the poor." "There are kinds of distress founded on the passions, which, if not applauded, are at least admired in their excess, as implying a peculiar refinement of sensibility in the mind of the sufferer. 

Embellished by taste, and wrought by the magic of genius into innumerable forms, they turn grief into a luxury, and draw from the eyes of millions delicious tears. But no muse ever ventured to adorn the distresses of poverty or the sorrows of hunger. Disgusting taste and delicacy, and presenting nothing pleasing to the imagination, they are mere misery in all its nakedness and deformity." And therefore the many "despise the Poor." But in so doing, they despise Christ; and what is their punishment in consequence? Jesus might rend aside the veil of His humanity, and reveal Himself as God. He might put off the sordid dress of poverty, and clothe Himself with light as with a garment. But He inflicts a severer punishment than this—He hides Himself. The Poor no longer visibly bear upon them "the marks of the Lord Jesus "; and secular legislation, at once blind and self-confident, sets itself to relieve their distress by increasing their degradation. It brands the Poor Man as a Pauper, and consigns him to contempt and shame. Jesus has hidden Himself in majestic displeasure: and men of the world little dream that He will reveal Himself again at the Last Day, and avenge the cause of the poor and the oppressed!

"Oh, how much are they to be pitied, in whatever sphere they move, who live to themselves, unmindful of the coming of their Lord. When He shall come, and shall not keep silence; when a fire shall devour before Him, and it shall be very tempestuous round about Him; every thing, it is true, will combine to fill them with consternation: yet, methinks, neither the voice of the Archangel, nor the trump of God, nor the dissolution of the elements, nor the face of the Judge itself, from which the heavens will flee away, will be so dismaying and terrible to these men as the sight of the poor members of Christ; whom, having spurned and neglected in the days of their humiliation, they will then behold with amazement united to their Lord, covered with His glory, and seated on His throne! How will they be astonished to see them surrounded with so much majesty! How will they cast down their eyes in their presence! How will they curse that gold, which will then eat their flesh as with fire, and that avarice, that indolence, that voluptuousness, which will entitle them to so much misery! You will then learn that the imitation of Christ is the only wisdom: you will then be convinced it is better to be endeared to the cottage than admired in the palace; when to have wiped the tears of the afflicted, and inherited the prayers of the widow and the fatherless, shall be found a richer patrimony than the favour of princes."

H. H.

 https://books.google.ca/books?id=xogEAAAAQAAJ&printsec=frontcover&output=text

Ave Maria - Robert Parsons

A blessed Feast of the Annunciation to all.

Most Blessed Mary, ever-virgin, intercede for this writer and his readers. Amen.

 

"Tis Good, Lord, to Be Here!"

1 'Tis good, Lord, to be here!

Thy glory fills the night;

Thy face and garments, like the sun,

Shine with unborrowed light.

2 'Tis good, Lord, to be here,

Thy beauty to behold,

Where Moses and Elijah stand,

Thy messengers of old.

3 Fulfiller of the past!

Promise of things to be!

We hail your body glorified,

And our redemption see.

4 Before we taste of death,

We see Thy kingdom come;

We fain would hold this vision bright,

And make this hill our home.

5 'Tis good, Lord, to be here!

Yet we may not remain;

But since Thou bid'st us leave the mount,

Come with us to the plain.

Mass attendance is down 18% in 5 years!

 As we warned, the legacy of Thomas "No Mass For You" Collins has come to fruition, and it is rotten fruit. Mass attendance is down 18%! What did he and the rest of them expect when they shut down churches five years ago this month? What did they expect when they told Catholics that Mass wasn't important enough to come to in person and that watching on television or a computer sufficed? What did they expect when they threw their lot in with globalists, communists and atheists? 

A valley of tears of their own making. 

A rotten tree cannot produce good fruit. 

Cardinal Collins in an empty St. Michael's Cathedral, Christmas 2020

Mass numbers hover below pre-pandemic level | The Catholic Register

Where recent trends show Catholic Mass attendance levels in the United Kingdom and the United States have all but returned to post-pandemic levels, the Archdiocese of Toronto finds itself still with a ways to go.

The Archdiocese is witnessing approximately 18-per-cent fewer people in its parishes' pews for Mass compared to pre-pandemic years, though the faithful have slowly returned since church doors have reopened.

Statistics from the Office of Spiritual Affairs show that the recorded weekend Mass attendance in 2019 was 266,519 parishioners. As many parishes pivoted to virtual offerings following outright cancellations of Mass in 2020 when COVID shuttered the doors of churches everywhere, the number plummeted to 89,386, a decrease of more than 65 per cent.

As restrictions eased in 2021, attendance rose to 114,550 before increasing by 47.9 per cent to 169,482 in 2022. The 200,000 mark was surpassed a year later with an average of 204,713 in 2023 before climbing again to 217,780 last year.

Maribel Mayorga, director of communications for the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops, said information on attendance numbers would be collected diocese by diocese and that no formal reporting structure to the CCCB for national numbers exists at the moment. Still, the pattern in Toronto is shared by dioceses across Canada.

Miserere Mei, Deus

Looking back to a past Shrove Tuesday

It was Shrove Tuesday, which fell a few weeks earlier than this year in 2015, a decade ago. I was sitting with a colleague at lunch when an email came across the Blackberry: "Letter to Domet." What is this? I exclaimed. A letter from the prominent Toronto law firm of Fogler Rubinoff and a well-known solicitor within the Italian community named Nina Perfetto. I was being sued by Thomas J. Rosica, a Basilian priest and Executive Producer of Salt + Light Television, Vatican apparatchik, Francis minion and all-around annoying bully to anyone in his path. Within hours of the upload of the interview below, the internet went wild. Emails from all over the world, offers of financial support for the lawsuit, messages through third parties from Cardinals and Bishops in Rome and Europe, but not a thing from mine in Toronto. It was an explosion! Even the law firm was taken to task by readers around the world so much that the "pro-bono" lawsuit was quickly no longer. Fogler Rubinoff met its nightmare.

Tom Rosica, now suspended, shamed and taken down by his own actions as a serial plagiarist,  (first exposed by this writer) and found to have been coming out of a "gay" bathhouse in Toronto and eventually being sued by another priest for alleged "sexual assault" finally held to some form of account.

But I did it first.

Happy Anniversary, Tom!

Wednesday, 18 February 2015

YOUR BLOGGER VOX CANTORIS IS THREATENED WITH A LAWSUIT BY VATICAN OFFICIAL AND PAPAL ADVISER - FATHER THOMAS ROSICA, CSB

On Shrove Tuesday, February 17, 2015, I received a letter from Nina Perfetto, a Litigation Solicitor with one of Toronto's most expensive law firms, Fogler Rubinoff. The threat of a lawsuit was from Father Thomas J. Rosica, a Basilian priest, Executive Producer of Salt + Light Television, Consultor to the Pontifical Council on Social Communications, English-language Synod spokesman for the Holy See and member of various academic institutional Boards.

A few weeks later, after incredible international pressure and bad publicity, intervention by Cardinals of the Holy Catholic Church, letters, and other pressures, he dropped the lawsuit, saying, " It was never intended" and that the lawyer was working "pro-bono."

This post shall remain through this front page link permanently as a matter of public record.

The rest of this story can be read at the following links:

My thanks to Raymond Leo Cardinal Burke and Bishop Athanasius Schneider.
http://voxcantor.blogspot.ca/2015/03/thank-you-your-eminence-and-your.html

My thanks to Michael Voris
http://voxcantor.blogspot.ca/2015/03/success-has-many-fathers-and-michael.html

Father Rosica's statement
http://voxcantor.blogspot.ca/2015/03/father-thomas-j-rosica-csb-on-threat-of.html

Support and commentary from other blogs and media
http://voxcantor.blogspot.ca/2015/02/vox-populi.html

Entire file:

http://voxcantor.blogspot.ca/search/label/Rosicagate

Letter from Fogler Rubinoff, Barristers & Solicitors (online at ChurchMiliant.com)

On Pope Francis

Pope Francis may be in his last days. What can we believe from these Rome apparatchiks? Last night's public rosary in St. Peter's Square is certainly a sign. Yet, the ghouls are out with all the speculation and inside sources. It would be a wonderful sight to see the Dean call a press conference and state, "Holy Father Francis is not expected to recover; we pray for his sweet passing to the LORD." How about that?

Instead, we have people calling for prayers for recovery and longer life. Longer life, for what? More of the last twelve years? No, thanks. I want an end to it. He is 88, he's had a long life, and if this is his time, then pray he has a Catholic death, repented with the sacraments. 

After twelve years of assault on me by this Pontiff, and yes, that is how I feel and have felt nearly every day, that is the best I can do. He has disturbed my peace, slandered my work, mocked my beliefs and betrayed me in every way. When he came out that dark night in March 2013, I did not know him, but I felt sick and wanted to vomit. It lasted for hours. May he repent from his sins, may he repent from the damage done, receive the sacraments and pass in peace.

That is my hope for him. That is the best I can do.

The rest is up to God.

Oh, look. The Diocese of Charlotte in the United States of America has a new bishop.

 

Another horrific story of the coverup of satanic ritual and sexual abuse of a woman and covered up by the Church in America. But what of right here in Toronto?

As a result of the lawsuit by a priest against Thomas J. Rosica for an alleged "sexual assault" of asking him to "cuddle" whilst he was wearing boxers and a T-shirt lying on a bed, I decided to write something I have been sitting on for several years. I had had enough of the cover-up and what I know that has failed to ever be addressed or acknowledged. 

A story was told in The Desolate City; a book published in 1986 by Anne Roche Muggeridge of a memorandum issued by the long-ago rector of St. Augustine's Seminary in Toronto. There was no internet, no email to forward news. It was an occurrence buried in the book about a scandal at the seminary which occurred in 1980 or 1981. Further research on my part uncovered an old Globe and Mail article from the later Rector, the "James Martin" of his era (1976) calling for "understanding" of gay priests and seminarians and others referring to the "fems" and the "machos," -- the nicknames of the seminarians at St. Augustine's Seminary at the time. We know what the "fems" were and, are! The big find was the actual memorandum by the Rector. I discovered an old microfiche-type story of it from a long-defunct Toronto "gay" magazine called The Body Politic. I spent much spare time transcribing it and with the continued coverup of the Rosica matters, now public including the alleged spotting going in and coming out of a "gay" bathhouse in Toronto, I had enough and I published it. There has been blowback for the disclosure. I wrote it for a few reasons the primary being the belief that Catholics of the Archdiocese of Toronto had and have a right to know what I know and what coverups have continued to occur here. (By the way, I was told by a priest that you have no right to know what I know.) The second reason was as a service to our new Archbishop, Francis Cardinal Leo. When this saga first started (with an article in the Globe and Mail by a priest who would go on to become Rector and then after being removed by Emmet Cardinal Carter due to the scandal and later returned under Cardinal Ambrozic to serve as Judicial Vicor until his retirement under Thomas Cardinal "No Mass for You" Collins) Francis Cardinal Leo was a boy of six years old in Montreal. That is how long ago this was and many of those involved then are still active. Unless he asked or some chancery minion told him of the sordid perverted "gay" history of the Archdiocese of Toronto, he would know nothing of the history or the details of some of the men still in active ministry or around him in 2024 courting his favour and seeking their influence. That post, which can be read at the link below, caused a quiet outrage. As if it were possible, I have been ostracised even more. Priests, whom I thought were friends, whom I worked with for years, supported and advised -- who ate my food, drank my wine and Oban, and relaxed in the "safe space" of the home of my wife and me, have betrayed me and revealed themselves for the cowards they are. Those whom I considered friends have abandoned me as I recall the Office of Tenebrae--"Omnes amíci mei dereliquérunt me." As a good friend said just a few days ago when I was kvetching about the matter, "David, there is a price to pay for being a whistleblower." 

Those who cover up and those who say that you do not have a right to know not only betray you, they betray Our Lord Jesus Christ because they sit by and allow the corruption to perpetuate to another generation and another and another.  

Vox Cantoris: A look back at The Desolate City of the Archdiocese of Toronto and a lost "Dialogue of Trust"

When I continue to speak and hear the stories of victims right here in Toronto when I see for myself the results of abuse, the health problems--physical,  psychological and even spiritual and the difficulties of PTSD on daily functioning, when I still deal with the anger due to the actions of those Toronto Basilian priests to a 13-year-old boy in 1969; when I read public letters such as this one by Lisa Roers of Elgin Nebraska or the post below by Rachel Maria Mastrogiacomo below this post, I know that my decision was the correct one and that the ostracisation and betrayals against me are a small price to pay for the truth and the ongoing shaming of abuse victims by evil churchmen and their chanceryrats.  

These maggots have no place in the Church. These vile and despicable cretins deserve the Hell to which they are headed. If they repent, I trust the LORD to assign them the lowest rung of purgatory until the Second Coming and then the most distant circle of heaven. But they won't repent, they won't acknowledge what they did and continue to do. The very depths of Hell are where they are headed and what they deserve, whether they believe it exists or not.

(Caution: the letter below contains explicit language as to the abuse)

Clerical corruption abounds

A week ago I watched a series of posts by Joseph Sciambra regarding the mocking of him by just one other Catholic grifter, Matt Fradd. Joseph Sciambra was sexually assaulted by Catholic priests and told as far as being "gay"; "God made you that way." A demonic lie, of course. Fradd took the liberty to mock Sciambra and his suffering. A disgraceful and repugnant action made worse by Fradd's continuing social media commentary.

Rachel Maria Mastrogiacomo is a woman who was raped and assaulted by priests engaging in ritual sexual abuse. 

NEWS – RACHEL MARIA MASTROGIACOMO

Robert McElroy covered up the crimes against Rachel and Francis rewarded him as the new Archbishop of Washington. McCarrick. Wuerl. Gregory. Now McElroy. My sympathies to the actual Catholics of the Archdiocese of Washington that you are subjected to this insanity. You are being ruled by a miscreant who has covered up abuse and violence. You are being mocked by Rome. Wear it with a badge of honour.

To my readers here in Toronto: Do you think for one moment this filth, this demonic action, these lies and cover-ups of the sodomites in the Church here and abuse did not happen? They all covered up and they continue to do it. To those of us who dare to confront it, they sanction, threaten and undertake gossip, calumny, character assassination and threats. They think they have won. They have not. They will not. They have already lost. 

Do you not think that they knew all along about Tom Rosica?

How many others?

Victoria Scholars: The Three Kings, H. Willan

Mendelssohn, There shall a star come out of Jacob

Palestrina "Tribus Miraculis"

Tribus miraculis ornatum diem sanctum colimus: hodie stella magos duxit ad praesepium, hodie vinum ex aqua factum est ad nuptias, hodie in Jordane Christus baptizari voluit ut salvaret nos. Alleluia. 

We honor this holy day, adorned with three miracles: today the star led the Magi to the manger; today water was turned into wine for the wedding; today Christ desired to be baptized in the Jordan that he might save us. Alleluia.

INTROIT Mal. 3:1; 1 Par. 29:12 

Behold, the Lord, the Ruler, is come. He has dominion over all, and in His hand is power and might.Ps. 71:2. O God, with Your judgment endow the king, and with Your justice, the kings son. V. Glory be . . . 

COLLECT

O God, who by the star this day revealed Your only-begotten Son to all nations, grant that we, who know You now by faith, may be brought one day before the vision of Your majesty. Through the same Jesus Christ, our Lord . . . 

LESSON Isa. 60:1-6

Arise, be enlightened, O Jerusalem: for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee. For behold darkness shall cover the earth, and a mist the people: but the Lord shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee. And the Gentiles shall walk in thy light, and kings in the brightness of thy rising. Lift up thy eyes round about, and see: all these are gathered together, they are come to thee: thy sons shall come from afar, and thy daughters shall rise up at thy side. Then shalt thou see, and abound, and thy heart shall wonder and be enlarged, when the multitude of the sea shall be converted to thee, the strength of the Gentiles shall come to thee. The multitude of camels shall cover thee, the dromedaries of Madian and Epha: all they from Saba shall come, bringing gold and frankincense: and shewing forth praise to the Lord. 

GRADUAL Isa. 60:6, 1

All they from Saba shall come, bringing gold and frankincense, and showing forth praise to the Lord.V. Arise and be enlightened, O Jerusalem, for the glory of the Lord is risen upon you.

Alleluia, alleluia. V. Matt. 2:2

We have seen His star in the East and have come with gifts to worship the Lord. Alleluia. 

GOSPEL Matt. 2:1-12

Now 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, (here, genuflect) 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. 

OFFERTORY ANTIPHON Ps. 71:10-11

The kings of Tharsis and the isles shall offer gifts; the kings of Arabia and Saba shall pay Him homage, all nations shall serve Him. 

SECRET

O Lord, look with favour upon the gifts offered by Your Church. It is not gold, frankincense, and myrrh that is offered now, but the King, God and Saviour, who was signified by these gifts, is Himself our Sacrifice and our Food, Jesus Christ Your Son, our Lord; who lives and rules with You . . . 

COMMUNION ANTIPHON Matt. 2:2

We have seen His star in the East and have come with gifts to worship the Lord. 

POSTCOMMUNION

O Almighty God, grant that we may understand with pure minds the revelation of Christ which we here solemnly commemorate. Through Our Lord . . .

Gesu Bambino by Pietro Yon, Duet arrangement by Deux, Vocal Duo!

I wish you all a blessed Christmastide for 2024 and give you this from last year.

I'm very honoured to have Angela Malek as a reader of this blog. Angela is a wonderful singer who recorded a lovely Christmas album with Crystal Jarrell Johnson in 2019. I was to post about it then, but something happened just before Christmas that year—a foul wind from Wuhan. Well, better late than never.

The recording includes some real gems among them, There is No Rose, which my choir will be singing before the Vigil Mass of the Nativity on the Lord, this Sunday, before Mass.

1. There is No Rose of Such Virtu, Trad./ arr. Deux

2. Veni, veni Emmanuel, Trad./ arr. Jerome Malek

3. Maria durch ein Dornwald ging, Trad. Gerald Self, recorder; Alison Fletcher, violin

4. Hodie Christus natus est, SWV 315, Heinrich Schütz

5. Laudamus Te, Gloria, Antonio Vivaldi, Alison Fletcher, violin

6. He Shall Feed His Flock/Come Unto Him, Messiah, G. F. Händel

7. Maria Wiegenlied, Max Reger

8. Ave Maria, Camille Saint-Saëns

9. Il est né le divin enfant, Trad./ arr. Gabriel Fauré/ Deux

10. Quand Dieu naquit a Noël, Trad./ arr. Claude Balbastre/J. Malek

11. Gesù bambino, Pietro Yon

The exquisite rendition of Pietro Yon's Jesu Bambino is below.

More information can be found at:

Deux - Vocal Duo, Music, Classical Musicians (deuxofficialwebsite.com)

And:

(10656) Deux - Classical Vocal Duo - YouTube

Remember, O Thou Man

O Emmanuel

O Emmanuel, our King and Lawgiver,

 the Expected of the Nations and their Saviour,

come to save us, O Lord our God.

O Rex Gentium

O King of the nations, and their desire,

the cornerstone making both one:

Come and save the human race,

which you fashioned from clay.

 

O Oriens

O Dawn of the East, Brightness of the Light Eternal and Sun of Justice,

come and enlighten them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death.

O Clavis

O KEY of David and sceptre of the House of Israel;

you open and no one can shut;

you shut and no one can open:

Come and lead the prisoners from the prison house,

those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death.

"I will place on his shoulder the key of the house of David; he shall open, and no one shall shut; he shall shut, and no one shall open." Isaiah 22:22

"His authority shall grow continually, and there shall be endless peace for the throne of David and his kingdom. He will establish and uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time onwards and for evermore." Isaiah 9:7

 "To open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the prison, and them that sit in darkness out of the prison house." Isaiah 42:7.

O Radix

O ROOT of Jesse, standing as a sign among the peoples;

before you kings will shut their mouths,

to you the nations will make their prayer:

Come and deliver us, and delay no longer.

"On that day the root of Jesse shall stand as a signal to the peoples; the nations shall inquire of him, and his dwelling shall be glorious." Isaiah 11:10 

"A shoot shall come out from the stock of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots." Isaiah 11:1