Monthly Archives: February 2009

Mary at Mass

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Fr. Charles De Keyser, S.S.S., wrote years ago that “Our Lady understood the primacy of the Mass more perfectly and participated more fully in the Mass than any other creature.” This makes sense. She would have had a great understanding of what was happening at those early Eucharistic celebrations–the greatest of anyone, in fact. “Being the perfect model of Christians, her love for the Mass caused her to prize it above all other forms of devotion, while it satisfied the fervor of her declining years.” The Mass is above all devotions, for it is the offering of the one sacrifice of Christ–the sacrifice that is satisfactory.

Quotes from “Mary’s Primacy at Mass” found in the June/July 1950 issue of Our Lady’s Digest.

Francis Thompson on St. Thomas More

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From his poem “To the English Martyrs”

Ah, happy Fool of Christ, unawed

By familiar sanctities,

You served your Lord at holy ease !

Dear Jester in the Courts of God

In whose spirit, enchanting yet,

Wisdom and love, together met,

Laughed on each other for content !

That an inward merriment,

An inviolate soul of pleasure,

To your motions taught a measure

All your days ; which tyrant king,

Nor bonds, nor any bitter thing

Could embitter or perturb ;

No daughter’s tears, nor, more acerb,

A daughter’s frail declension from

Thy serene example, come

Between thee and thy much content.

Nor could the last sharp argument

Turn thee from thy sweetest folly ;

T.S. Eliot

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Fr. Z’s listening to T.S. Eliot on LP, so I thought I would mention that we have at the house here a 2 record set of Murder in the Cathedral performed in the 1970s. I followed along by borrowing the play in book form from the library and listened to it last year. That is really quite an amazing play — radically different from the movie Becket, and quite a work of psychological, philosophical, and theological drama. This is one play I would recommend reading, or, if you happen to have the interest and the money, buying used LPs of.

A few other gems in our “spoken word” LP collection:

Short Stories of O’Henry (This is a 16 2/3 LP set, but I don’t have that speed. I was able to transfer the LPs to audio files at 33 1/3 with Audacity and then just cut the speed in half. It worked perfectly.)

The Family Reunion — T.S. Eliot play

Coriolanus — Shakespeare play

Pope John Paul II at Knock – 1979

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A favorite talk of mine of the late Holy Father is this talk at Knock – here is an excerpt.

Here I am at the goal of my journey to Ireland: the Shrine of Our Lady at Knock. Since I first learnt of the centenary of this Shrine, which is being celebrated this year, I have felt a strong desire to come here, the desire to make yet another pilgrimage to the Shrine of the Mother of Christ, the Mother of the Church, the Queen of Peace. Do not be surprised at this desire of mine. It has been my custom to make pilgrimages to the shrines of Our Lady, starting with my earliest youth and in my own country. I made such pilgrimages also as a bishop and as a cardinal. I know very well that every people, every country, indeed every diocese, has its holy places in which the heart of the whole people of God beats, one could say, in more lively fashion: places of special encounter between God and human beings; places in which Christ dwells in a special way in our midst. If these places are so often dedicated to his Mother, it reveals all the more fully to us the nature of his Church. Since the Second Vatican Council, which concluded its Constitution on the Church with the chapter on ‘The Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God, in the Mystery of Christ and of the Church’, this fact is more evident for us today than ever – yes, for all of us, for all Christians.

You can even listen to Blessed John Paul II speak this entire address at the Irish Catholic Bishops Conference website. (I updated this page to reflect a new link on August 20 2012.)