FR HOANG'S ORDINATION AND +CULLINANE'S PECULIAR OMISSION

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"The Ordination was a bit like a ‘game of two halves’ – well actually two halves and some ‘edge of your seat’ kind of overtime!"

The following is Sharon Crooks' commentary on the ordination, on the Feast of Ss Peter and Paul at the Cathedral of the Holy Spirit, Palmerston North, of Fr Vui Hoang by Bishop Emeritus Peter Cullinane:

"Firstly, Bishop Peter, delivered a beautiful and faultless ‘speech’. I won’t call it a ‘homily’ because there was something fundamental missing. On the surface it was great – the priesthood is a call to service. He ‘hit’ all the right notes on this! Missing of course was any mention of the ‘elephant in the room’! That being the actual work of the Holy Spirit in the Sacrament of Ordination.  

We had gathered, supposedly, in prayerful witness to this most holy moment - the most perfect work of the Holy Spirit, coming down to make an indelible mark on the soul of this young man, Vui!  And not just any ‘mark’, but one that would forever leave his soul as though a newly minted coin, to become a ‘priest forever’; to be changed in persona Christi . If it really were a ‘game’, no mention was made of the ‘action’, but rather all we got was a description of the ground keeping duties.  

Yesterday, thank goodness, we got the second half. The action was in this half for sure. Fr Bryan Buenger was invited by Fr Vui to preach the homily for his ‘Thanksgiving Mass’ in the Cathedral. He recalled a boyhood tale, which told of the rookie mistake his adventurous mate made in untying one of the camp boats before climbing in for a sneaky row. With one foot on shore and the other in the boat, pushing off led to legs splitting and Jimmy making a ‘splash’. It was a metaphor for our life of faith – either we are all in the boat or we are not!  

As he unravelled the metaphor we quickly realised that the life of faith requires two feet in the Barque of St Peter!  We cannot have one foot in the world and the other in the boat if we are disciples of Christ! Let the dead ‘bury the dead’. His homily was, unlike yesterday’s ‘call to service’, more about diving into the boat with passion; with a LOVE for the priesthood.  

This must have been encouraging for Fr Vui to hear – to take up his call to the priesthood and embrace it wholeheartedly, for there has not been a better time in 2000 years to be setting off in this boat!  Of course it goes without saying, that it was Fr Bryan’s heart for the priesthood and desire to follow Christ without keeping a foot in this corrupt, pagan world, that has seen him rowing off to distant shores, where the sailing is a little smoother!!  Let’s hope Fr Vui is better supported and stays a little longer in the waters of this fine country!

The ‘game’ then went into ‘extra-time’ for those of us who were blessed enough to head out to Ashurst for the TRADITONAL LATIN MASS at 12pm.  Fr Peter Brockhill capped off the weekend with a ‘touch down’!  He said that in Ordination, the Holy Spirit brings about an ontological change, enabling the priest not only to be in persona Christi, but in this being, he actually fulfils the role of priest in his manhood, becoming as it were, the groom to the Bride of Christ.  If that’s not an invitation to board the LOVE BOAT then I don’t know what is!

In a nutshell, Bishop Peter left us with little more than a notion of the priesthood as a call to religious service (of course any man, or woman too, could be one, right?); Fr Bryan illumined on the priesthood as being much more than this – as an office of committed love; and, then finally, Fr Peter elaborated on the priesthood as a spiritual authority.  

The priesthood is all of these – religious service, priestly office, and spiritual authority so if Bishop Peter was all we heard this weekend, then it’s a pretty boring ‘game’.  But if Fr’s Bryan and Peter are anything to go by (and they should be), then the priesthood is STILL the GREATEST endeavour and adventure for mankind!  Like Fr Bryan said, we are not called to make this world a better place, we are called to sanctify it and make it holy AND THEN IT WILL BE A BETTER PLACE.   Amen!

Of course it was  shame that +Charles couldn’t be there – not only for the ordination, but for these other Masses too!   Nonetheless, I hope he hears about Fr Bryan’s homily and is inspired to finally jump into the boat with both feet, pushing us all out into the deep of our Catholic faith toward our destination, which is Christ Jesus.  

At the moment, Bishop Charles has definitely got a foot on shore, trying to please the world and have the world be pleased with him.  I hope Dave Mullins was there too - we don’t want Bishops in ‘leaky boats’ either!!  We want to be in the Barque of St Peter with faithful priests like Fr’s Bryan and Peter at the helm, who are not afraid to embrace their priestly office as spiritual authority, knowing that they have been ontologically changed in their ordination to now be as it were, grooms to the Bride of Christ.   

I hope Fr Vui jumps into this kind of LOVE BOAT two feet and all.

I say:

Thank you, Sharon. Could I have chosen my Mass yesterday, it would certainly have been those at the cathedral and at St Columba's, Ashhurst. What a feast of fine food was prepared for you by Fr Bryan and Fr Peter.

By comparison - odious though it may be - Bishop Peter is Protestant through and through.

Matt Walton says:

 May I recall some phrases used by Fr. Bryan in his homily at Fr. Vui's Thanksgiving Mass. 

He spoke on the Mass as a re-presentation of the sacrifice of Our Lord; on the priest as a figure of Christ our Lord ' who singlehandedly harrowed the halls of Hell' for our redemption.

He spoke of the heinous crimes committed against the human person by people at all levels of the Church and said, as Bishop Peter had said the day before, that this is a great time to be a priest.

The way ahead, Fr. Bryan said, is for the priest to be reconfigured in Christ. There was no vagueness in what he was saying. He meant Christ in his totality - Doctrine, Tradition, Gospel; Way, Truth and Life. No room for partial measure.

         The template for priesthood has been set by Jesus, in Jesus. He does the will of the Father. His will is eternal and it will be held to forever.

            As to the Bishop being on stress leave: out of compassion, we the people are certainly praying for him. However, know too that catholic spiritual leaders have a high degree of responsibility for both the personal faith and the objective Faith-knowledge of the people they serve. No spiritual leader in this realm can stand for long the metaphysical stress of being pulled in multiple directions, many of which are patently false and flawed.

         Now, Fr. Bryan Buenger was using a maritime analogy - of where we stand in the boat. Christ spoke too of those who say they know the weather. 

There are rough seas ahead, storm clouds rising. So soul, set thine eyes on the Lord as he fixes course into the storm.

Adelie Reid says:



Julie I was at the ordination ... 





The power of the Holy Spirit and the sanctity of priesthood and the sacrifice of Calvary was all there. The priest lays down his life as a sacrifice of both love and suffering, just as Christ did at the last supper and at Calvary..... 

To me the homily was perfect especially as it was given through the humanness of those involved, the laying on of hands and blessings, the words, the gifts and most amazingly though the interaction between Father Vui and his mother. 

What the congregation experienced that day was exhilarating and life giving, but perhaps those with preconceived ideas missed the beautiful way the Spirit moved.

 I say:

But Sharon Crooks explicitly stated that: "Missing of course was any mention of the ‘elephant in the room’! That being the actual work of the Holy Spirit in the Sacrament of Ordination." 

The Holy Spirit was moving of course, as He always does, and would have been experienced differently by everyone present who was in a state of grace. 

Sharon's comment was that to the effect that although the Holy Spirit was present, His presence was not remarked on by Bishop Peter Cullinane. A most peculiar omission.

WOMEN IN THE PULPIT: COMING TO A CHURCH NEAR YOU

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The strategy around the scandal of Liturgies of the Word substituting for Holy Mass at the Cathedral of the Holy Spirit, Palmerston North, was revealed this morning at Mass (aren't we  just the lucky ones!) by Father in his homily. 

It’s intended as an example for people in the likes of Eketahuna, Dannevirke and Waipukurau to emulate.

Our congregation was softened up for the imminent likelihood of a similar fate. Father warned a hushed congregation of the need not just for Liturgies of the Word, but the need for Someone to give 'Reflections'. Certain people sat up ram-rod straight, eyes front, hoping no one was looking in their direction. 

I'm inclined to think that Father postponed the news about forthcoming Liturgies of the Word with 'Reflections' until he'd received my letter telling him I'd come to the conclusion that as a female I have no place in the sanctuary. He must have heaved a sigh of relief. Imagine how my 'Reflections' might have sounded … how they would have gone down ...

For the umpteenth time we heard about the lack of priests and were warned that Father can't go on for ever. Father shared the received wisdom of  Bishop Owen Dolan, gleaned at yesterday’s ordination of Fr Vui Hoang, that our new priests are coming from places (like Vietnam, like Fr Hoang) where the people have suffered. 

Hardly a revelation. New Zealanders have been spoiled rotten. God gave us Godzone and all the good things of this life, but for a long time now we've been taught next to nothing about the good things of the life to come. Why would a normal Kiwi boy want to be a priest? We don't cherish the priesthood. With hardly anyone attending weekday Masses and Sunday Masses not much better, this parish does not deserve a priest.

I console myself with the reflection that as our suffering increases – with the passing for example of the iniquitous Seymour Bill and new revelations of predatory, homosexual satanic sex rituals involving the deceased Cardinal Joseph Bernardin of Chicago – the attraction of our refuge in the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus becomes so much more appealing, and even necessary. 

And priestly vocations will rise.


Linda Clarke says: Oh, Oh, Oh, X 3 million times!

It reads like a horror-story.    I LOVE your last comment, and I say

"Amen"!   

People aren't going to be hoodwinked forever.   Some of us

have brains / hearts / minds that we lift to God in grief.     Satan
will not triumph over His Glorious Body!    What a rise up it will be
Julia....hang in there!




Leo Leitch says (in regard to MORE ON THAT WOMAN IN THE PULPIT AT ST BRIGID'S):

'Retired priest?' Fr James Lyons?!!! For goodness' sake, he'd be only a year or two older than me. The priesthood is not a career, it's a vocation. It lasts for life.

I say:

I don't know how old you are, Leo, but I agree completely. The priesthood is for life.  In fact, "for ever, according to the order of Melchizedek". I think retirement for priests and bishops is an invention of  'the Spirit of Vatican II' (puts me in mind of Scrooge's Ghost of Christmas Past).

Sharon Crooks says:

Perhaps your parish priest could print copies of your blog posts and distribute after Mass. Better than most reflections and more educational than some homilies.

I say:

Are you damning me 'with faint praise'??? 

HOW TO GET WARM IN A BLACK FROST

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Kiwi Catholics will not go where their priests and bishops won't lead them. 

That unpalatable fact has dawned on me like last Thursday's black frost which, after Wednesday night's passing of the Assisted Suicide Bill's Second Reading, seemed a fitting metaphor for the black frost which has settled across the entire nation.

Because for us foot soldiers the battle to preserve the right to life in New Zealand has, as Bob McCoskrie of Family First cogently puts it, only just begun. 

"The Bill has more than 100 amendments proposed to make it 'workable'," says Bob. 

'Workable' is just what it ain't and never can be. Even NZ's finest minds, assembled in the Beehive as they pretend to be, cannot make a silk purse out of this sow's ear.

We must challenge the Association of Assisted Assassinations to prove that its vision of painless death is not a mirage, that no one will die by mistake or malice aforethought, because nowhere in the world will they find the evidence to prove it.

The crying shame is that we infantrymen - who were praying for the defeat of this odious Bill and some well-deserved R&R - lack the officers we need to lead the next charge out of the trenches. Reference Cardinal John Dew, who supported the schoolkids' climate strike and speaks out for refugees, who says, "the effects of an abortion on mental health are a concern for the Catholic Church".

WOT??? Shouldn't the first concern be the murder of  500,000 defenceless babies in only 50 years? Hands up the people who've heard homilies preached against this euthanasia Bill, a Bill which only fifty years ago was unthinkable? 

In the '70s, when my mother got up on a chair at the United Women's Convention and told those newly-minted feminists that if they succeeded in legalising abortion the next thing would be euthanasia, they just laughed at her.But in those good old days (by comparison) sermons were preached up and down the country, by priests who knew evil when they saw it and exposed it to their people for what it was - and Catholics joined the Society for the Protection of the Unborn Child in droves. 

SPUC was the NZ Catholic Church on a podium. (The acronym did not have the unfortunate rhyming opportunity that it has now. By comparison, Kiwis were innocent then, and clean-spoken.) 

Catholics may still be the mainstay of pro-life organisations but they're an aging, dwindling silent majority, a legacy of the faithful priests and bishops of the '70s and '80s. I'm the only RC on my local Voice for Life committee. 

It's Protestants like McCoskrie, Voice for Life's Jacqui de Ruiter and fierce little Hilary Kieft who are the 'out-there' voices for the vulnerable now.

And the reason is that Kiwi Catholics won't go where their clergy won't lead them. 

It goes back further than 50 years, to the invention of The Pill and then Pope Paul VI's encyclical Humanae Vitae, and what Church Militant calls the Contraception Deception. For every homily worldwide in favour of the encyclical there was another opposing it. In New Zealand, as far as I remember - and as a young mother just starting a family I have every reason to remember - the silence of the shepherds was deafening. And so their lambs strayed. Strayed so far, they fell into the Luciferian trap of believing that if the Church is wrong/silent on contraception and if The Pill fails, the Church should then keep her mouth shut on abortion. And NZ's Church of Nice does exactly that.

After years and years of hearing Proddy homilies (my daughter's friend Domhnall from the Irish Republic can't believe that her mother bandies that word about, where he comes from you'd get shot for it) most Catholics now are sadly uncatechised. They don't fear Hell, so they don't try to avoid it and they don't try to stop anyone else going there either; but Jesus himself has said "Narrow is the gate … that leads to life and few there are who find it."

Even in Jesus' day, Hell was evidently the default position. The tragic correlation is, if most of the sheep fall into the pit, what will be the fate of their shepherds? It's probably news to most Catholics that there are degrees of Hell, and Jesus Himself has said "Better for him that a millstone be tied around his neck, and that he be drowned in the depth of the sea" (Mt 18,6). The depth of Hell reserved for shepherds who put a stumbling block before one of these little ones is deep indeed. 

The Catholic Church is in dire straits, but they're straits which have been predicted over and over again, by Our Lady of Fatima and even more hearteningly, Our Lady of Good Success. We have Jesus Christ with us in the boat and can find refuge from the storms of crisis in the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, celebrated yesterday as a Solemnity and preached by Bishop Charles - who commented, "We don't hear much about the Sacred Heart these days".

It was at once a masterpiece of understatement and also the most loaded remark I've ever heard, from the good bishop. Its freight includes the idea that devotion to an exposed heart of flesh is somehow distasteful now, when - ironically - good taste is dead and buried. 

Did +Charles intend to go right to the heart (pun intended) of the matter? Because the Sacred Heart is the raison d'etre of all the mysteries of our faith, the symbol for a God who knows nothing but Love, the Love which immolated Him on the Cross for us, which opened His Heart by a lance to bring forth the Sacraments from which we receive the life of grace. 

Only love will open His Heart again for us personally, but it's a love no longer taught, the love which is charity and gives God the first place, gives Him a tabernacle in the centre of the church, a Mass celebrated ad orientem (facing God, not us), and celebrates the priesthood as representing Christ.

To relieve my feelings I intend, tomorrow morning after the Recessional, to belt out on the organ To Jesus Heart all Burning. No one will listen; few will recognize it. 

But at least it will drown out the laughter and chatter which, as the Fatima seer Lucia has told us, deeply offends His Blessed Mother; laughter and chatter which breaks out straight after the last hymn at a time when we still have the Sacred Heart of Jesus present in our own hearts, trying to tell us a few home truths.

Like, don't wait for a priest to tell you what to do. If only you'll listen, I will tell you Myself.

Linda Clarke says:

I really mourn what has happened with the Church. But He will act in His time, and it shall never be prevailed against - permanently... they are certainly trying to prevail against it. But what a wonderful array of strong Catholic men are doing their best ... Michael Voris of Church Militant using all his journalistic skills … and many others using their particular gifts … it is so good!

Yes, I see the climate is changing....v. slow, but it IS.   All over the world there are reports of people wanting the Latin Mass, people who see 'The Spirit of Vat. II' for what it is.   Do you find you have a sense of almost 'smelling', 'tasting' who is who in this situation?   The language, they use, for one, gives people away every time now, to me.    I was around it for years but didn't realise then... I became a bit liberal too because that's how I was being led and I trusted. 

   

WELLINGTON'S TALE OF TWO CROSSINGS

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I remember a happy Mayor Justin Lester photographed with happy children on the freshly-painted rainbow pedestrian crossing in Cuba Street.

It was estimated to cost $42,200 but after (I imagine) howls of protest from more sober-minded citizens, was revised down to a mere bagatelle - $32,000.

Now I see Island Bay residents Beth and Angus Houston taking their lives in their hands to cross from Shorland Park to Island Bay beach, where after 6 years of pleading there is still not even a bog-standard zebra crossing with lollipops which would cost half the price.

Just how happy would Lester be, and what pride would Wellingtonians feel if a child were run over and possibly killed?  

Wellington wants to be known as 'pride-friendly', but it's actually 'child-friendly' that produces future citizens.  

Wellington needs to take pride in children more than pride in 'pride'.

MORE ON THAT WOMAN IN THE PULPIT AT ST BRIGID'S

I have been trying to find out why, once again, a priest is available to celebrate a Sunday Mass in Dannevirke, but there is no priest available for the same day Sunday Mass in Pahiatua. 

This plaintive cry came last week from Bob Gill of St Joseph's Dannevirke, who adds:

A Liturgy of the Word, though, is scheduled for Pahiatua. After reading the comments generated from your headline A WOMAN IN THE PULPIT AT ST BRIGID'S, you can imagine what thoughts are now running through my head!

I say:

A Dannevirke parishioner called on the services of Fr James Lyons, a Dannevirke 'old boy', who is obliging. 

We must assume that no one in Pahiatua has a priest up their sleeve - or perhaps because Ashhurst is relatively close, St Brigid's parishioners hope those who can drive and can afford it, will go to the Traditional Latin Mass at Ashhurst? 

As we all know, God draws good out of evil.

Bob (who is persistent sort of chap) then adds:

It’s a poor do when a Dannevirke parishioner has to arrange their Sunday Mass! A retired priest has opted to respond to a parishioner request for Dannevirke; good on him, but where is Bishop Drennan involved in this scheduling of priests in his diocese? 

Surely the Bishop should be looking at all ways of ensuring the celebration of Sunday Mass in his churches – which he obviously isn’t.

Donna Te Amo says: 

He (+Drennan) is on stress leave … so cut the bishop a break.

Caroline Waite says:

He isn't well. Perhaps time to ease off.

Philippa O'Neill says:

Time to get these priests back from Aussie then … we need them … even if they are the more traditional type. I do pray he is better soon.

Bob Gill the terrier says:

Traditional type? Surely that is preferable in the long term scheme of things in New Zealand, seeing the indication in other places tells us that's what we should be doing.

I say:

Thank you, Donna (who understandably as a parish  secretary, in spite of the oft-quoted, much-to-be-desired principle of transparency is privy to information which would often assist the prayer ministry) for telling us that +Charles is on stress leave. 

It might be unpardonable in the Church of Nice, but at the risk of sounding like a hard-hearted Hannah I have to say that in the army, +Charles' state of stress might be classified as self-inflicted injury. Something like shooting yourself in the foot, which desperate soldiers did in WW I to avoid service in the trenches.

Some of us saw this situation heading for the PN Diocese like an express train when that fine, beautiful priest Fr Bryan Buenger shook the dust of the diocese off his shoes because he "did not have the support of his bishop".

God will not be mocked. He sent Fr Bryan as a faithful shepherd to this diocese and some people, like "the vociferous baby-boomers of St Brigid's" referred to by Sharon Crooks, repudiated him. It was only a matter of time (a very short time, as it happened) before some essential lynchpin, like the Vicar-General Monsignor Brian Walsh, would be struck down by grave illness, another priest fall victim again to depression (how predictable!) and the Bishop himself take time off for 'stress'. 

"Oh, how Old Testament!" I hear you cry; "How pre-Vatican II! God doesn't smite people now!" 

That, tragically, is the kind of modernist mayhem inflicted on Catholic school girls who've been given no reason to believe sex outside marriage isn't fine and tell their mothers so, and go on the pill. I'd like to see our priests coping with the fallout from their modernist 'preaching' that mothers have to deal with. Mothers who can't take leave from motherhood for stress.

God does not change. But that's not a tenet of the 'theology' we're taught in 'homilies' now - and apparently in some parishes not for the past thirty years. Otherwise how could a convert go right through RCIA and endure another twenty-five years of pew-sitting before realizing her inherited Protestant belief, that by baptism we are all saved and can't merit heaven, is heresy?

What the good bishop desperately needs isn't "a break", or "easing off", it's prayer. Same for all our priests, no exception, before those who aren't on stress leave yet, will be. 

Was any really meaningful, efficacious prayer asked for in relation to Fr Brian? Were parish groups organized for praying the Rosary and Adoration, for his healing? 

Tomorrow David Seymour's pernicious, horrible Bill for assisted suicide goes to the vote in Parliament. In what parishes in the diocese, on the Feast of Corpus Christi last Sunday*, were we asked or encouraged to pray to our Eucharistic Lord and our Blessed Mother for our beautiful nation, once truly 'Godzone', to avert the twin evils of euthanasia and abortion up to birth (the inevitable outcome of Jacinda We are One Ardern's policy baby) of further liberalization?

Could we all please WAKE UP? Unless we realise what's going on and start praying seriously, the diocese and the NZ Church in general may share the fate of the Gadarene swine who possessed by demons "whose name is legion" headed for the cliff and jumped into the sea.

Demons still exist, and their angelic intelligence utterly outwits us. Bishop Charles has stated that he finds the concept of spiritual warfare distasteful, but it's always been part of human history, and it is to our detriment if we minimize or ignore such a reality. 

St. Paul warns of this in Ephesians 6:11-12: 

Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we are not contending against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world rulers of this present darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.

The Mass last Sunday - Corpus Christi, the Body and Blood of Christ - was, according to Bob Gill, "the most enjoyable Mass I've been to at St Joseph's (Dannevirke) since Father Bryan left us. 

I have never met the celebrant, Father Mike Wooller SM, before. Apparently the church had him once before when I was recently overseas. He gave an inspiring homily on the precious gift of the Eucharist which had everyone I could see listening so attentively. 

It was a Maori Mass, but with a mainly Pakeha congregation he took time out occasionally to digress into English explanations. He speaks and preaches so convincingly. 

But no, I found out later, Fr Wooller is not from the Palmerston North Diocese! He is a Marist and I am hoping we can get him here as celebrant on other occasions.

A WOMAN IN THE PULPIT AT ST BRIGID'S UPDATED

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Before Fr Bryan left, he headed a campaign to recruit volunteers for ministries, including Liturgy of the Word.

This, from Sharon Crooks, is one of a string of so many comments on my post A WOMAN IN THE PULPIT AT ST BRIGID'S that I thought they deserved a proper airing.

Sharon continues: 
Fr Bryan was careful to do this training himself and if previous training sessions are anything to go by, we know that reverence was a priority.  He knew all too well the dilemma his absence would reveal: that without Liturgy of the Word his spiritually hungry flock would starve.  

Just as he anticipated, priestly supply would prove problematic.  

Fr Bryan's pastoral heart was evident. His love of the Liturgy is not, now!  

Had the latter been fostered and some of the vociferous baby boomers been hushed, then I'm sure he'd have gone on to offer the TLM in Pahiatua.  

Maybe he’d still be here and maybe the flock would have grown in number and be well-fed on the Word, his Homily, and Our Eucharist Lord.

That woman who mounted the pulpit knows the dilemma of what she is doing; Fr Bryan would have taught her as much.  Many of those St Brigid’s parishioners cannot travel; a handful will not travel. We need to fathom how to do more than simply ushering women to their nearest sanctuary 'exit'! 
  

Mind you, there are those who need more than a gentle nudge to get out, but that’s a different issue.  Instead, these are the women Fr Bryan knew he would have to entrust his flock to, in the interim.  

Whilst I can’t speak for all, many of the elderly in that parish have been told to sit, kneel, stand, and don’t kneel.  Those women have had their heads covered and uncovered.  

They tell of a time when the pews of St Brigid’s held 400+ parishioners; today they hold about 40.  They have the photos to show that it was a Church of extraordinary beauty once; now it’s like a meeting hall. 

Perhaps amid all these changes, many elderly simply learnt to weather the storms that went on around them in parishes, doing as told. With equal docility, they now accept Liturgy of the Word and think nothing of those a generation or two below them ‘mounting the pulpit’ today.   They have their Lord and all the blessings He imparts to them from the previous Mass and that is their main concern, obligation met or not is another story. 

+Charles created this dilemma and I think Fr Bryan did his best to anticipate this and manage it, with the time, energy and resources available to him.  He’d been gone roughly two or three weeks when Joe (Fr Joseph Grayland) convened a gathering for all those who had ‘trained’ in Liturgy of the Word, including those from St Brigid’s and St Joseph’s Dannevirke.  Coincidence?  Hmmm. 

As someone who has both offered Liturgy of the Word out of compassion for the elderly and immobile AND also ran a mile from doing so, I do not envy the predicament those poor parishioners now find themselves in!  

Like you, I pray that in time, more and more will discover the ‘bright lights’ of Ashurst, and the peace and beauty of the Traditional Liturgy. 

I say: 

Grateful thanks Sharon, for sharing your insights. I wonder what the men at St Brigid's are doing? Evidently not leading Liturgies of the Word. Why not? 
I'd also add that when I knew no better, and led Liturgies of the Word (and felt so out of place doing it) I kept out of the sanctuary, unless I had to proclaim the Gospel (fish-out-of-water territory, absolutely).

'Anonymous' said:  

You will be on the black list now.It must take you hours to set up your uploads, but the truth is there. 

Adelie Reid said:

I happen to live in a town where I have the choice of novus ordo or traditional mass. I've been to both, but definitely choose to stay Novus ordo. The lovely ambiguous line you write 'There is no temptation of women's wiles there.' could be interpreted several ways... but ultimately as much as I love the traditional mass, the rites and rituals, and the sacramentals I have no desire to attend a church which will consider my uncovered head a source of distraction.... 

Bollocks if men want to not be distracted they need to get on with being clothed in modesty themselves. In previous articles you have written of people kneeling and seeing women's hips and loins and worse still short skimpy skirts.... 

Do not testicles also hang low, perhaps men should wear skirts and cover their buttocks which can also be alluring and shapely? 

I too like to try and live in a state of grace and no doubt fail abysmally however I should not consider anyone else to be the course of my lack of grace.... so lets stop blaming women for men being distracted.... 

Womens wiles?? Julie honestly The way to end rape is for rapists not to rape.... its nothing to do with victims clothes The way to stop paedophilia is to stop using children to satisfy lust and the way to stop men being distracted in church is to enter their own state of grace.

I say:

I should have explained the primary reason for covering women’s heads in church is to emphasise the beauty and mystery of womanhood. It’s the equivalent of men uncovering their heads in church: a gesture of humility and reverence. It’s a way to emulate the BVM who wore a veil and gave it to her Son to cover Himself on the cross.

The veil is also very flattering … I myself was prompted to wear it by a homily which ridiculed such pre-Vat practices as hats, and as a gesture of reverence to our Eucharistic Lord, so often ignored and generally treated as if He were not there and as if the church were a public hall.

Women wearing clothes that advertise their sex appeal to all and sundry is a bit like leaving your handbag unattended in a bar. You take care of your handbag because it's valuable. So is your body.

Adelie added:

And I actually attend Benediction and Confession, Have a devotion to the Sacred Heart, to the First Fridays, to the Immaculate Heart and First Saturdays, and attend weekday Mass, I recite the Rosary , attend Adoration, and occasionally get on Retreats, or Missions, ..... As for nuns arranging flowers on the altar, no I don't see that, but I see others sharing their talents in that role and I see both altar boys and girls popping out of their robing room but not by magic.

I say (with apologies for the tiny font, of my computer's choosing, not mine):

You and I both owe our mothers hugely, don't we, for the priceless gift of faith they handed on.
The point re nuns is not so much that they arranged the flowers but simply that they were there.
And when girls are wearing servers’ robes, boys are inclined to see them as dresses. Boys of that age prefer to be with boys. Girls do the altar serving thing better than boys. All of which puts boys off, and altar serving at the side of the priest is where future priests are most likely to have their first deep experience of liturgy. As a result, the post-V2 innovation of ‘altar girls’, as Cardinal Burke has observed, has harmed the development of priestly vocations.

Adelie adds more:

I also know you'll be able to outwit me with words ... and perhaps make me appear foolish and even sinful, but honestly God doesn't mind that I'm a woman cause that's how I'm created, I imagine He minds more that his beloved church supposedly minds....

I say: 

Yes, you're a woman because God created you as such. Thanks be to God.

Bob Gill says:

When I first heard about the lack of a priest to say Sunday Mass in Pahiatua, I thought that parishioners would then automatically go to the Latin Mass in nearby Ashhurst. Why, then, would they instead opt to listen to a Liturgy of the Word at home? I know the Liturgy preference fulfils our Sunday obligation, but surely most Catholics would prefer a Mass any day.




I say:

"The Sunday obligation is to assist at Mass. A Communion service can never fulfill that obligation. In other words, if Mass is possible at another time, one is obliged to go to Mass. If Mass is unavailable, one does well to assist at a Communion service but has no obligation to do so". (Legionary of Christ Father Edward McNamara, professor of liturgy at the Regina Apostolorum university, Rome.)

Bob Gill responds:

Interesting, Julia. I am sure I have read somewhere, and just recently, that in an emergency situation like when a priest is unavailable to say Mass, the Liturgy of the Word will fulfill the Sunday obligation. You've got me wondering now if this is yet another liberal approach from the Church of Nice.

I say: 

Here we enter a grey area. When there's no Mass in our own parish we have to decide for ourselves, according to our conscience, whether we should attend a Liturgy of the Word (which does not fulfill our obligation) in our parish, or get ourselves to another parish where Mass is celebrated. 

Think of the distances we travel on Sundays maybe just for lunch at some winery, or to a sports fixture or a movie or concert. If we're up to travelling for that, I reckon we're obliged to travel the same distance for Holy Mass.

It depends on your age, your health, and the distance and expense involved, but above all on your love for the Mass and our Eucharistic Jesus.
Bob Gill again: This past week I have been trying to find out why, once again, a priest is available to celebrate a Sunday Mass in Dannevirke, but there is no priest available for the same day Sunday Mass in Pahiatua. A Liturgy of the Word, though, is scheduled for Pahiatua. After reading the comments generated from your headline above, you can imagine what thoughts are now running through my head! I reply:

A Dannevirke parishioner called on the services of Fr James Lyons, a St Joseph's Dannevirke 'old boy', who is obliging.
We must assume that no one in Pahiatua has a priest up their sleeve - or perhaps because Ashhurst is relatively close, St Brigid's parishioners hope those who can drive and can afford it, will go to the Traditional Latin Mass at Ashhurst? As we all know, God draws good out of evil.