Bogus. A hoax. That's what the establishment Church in New Zealand has become.
The shepherds have deserted their flock, almost one and all. Remember how the Pope said they were to know the smell of their sheep? How can they smell their sheep from two metres away?
I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd giveth his life for his sheep. But the hireling, and he that is not the shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, seeth the wolf coming, and leaveth the sheep, and flieth: and the wolf catcheth, and scattereth the sheep:
And the hireling flieth, because he is a hireling: and he hath no care for the sheep. I am the good shepherd; and I know mine, and mine know me.
Hey people, stay away, pray nicely at home and don't bother me.
What do the liberals like to say? "What would Jesus do?" Jesus knows the Father. That's the crux of the matter. 50 years of the 'New Mass' have blinded us to the Father.
As the Father knoweth me, and I know the Father: and I lay down my life for my sheep (Jn10:11-15).
And the hireling flieth, because he is a hireling: and he hath no care for the sheep. I am the good shepherd; and I know mine, and mine know me.
Hey people, stay away, pray nicely at home and don't bother me.
What do the liberals like to say? "What would Jesus do?" Jesus knows the Father. That's the crux of the matter. 50 years of the 'New Mass' have blinded us to the Father.
As the Father knoweth me, and I know the Father: and I lay down my life for my sheep (Jn10:11-15).
Yesterday evening at St Joseph's, Waipukurau, eight people (four couples) gathered for Exposition of the Eucharist. We prayed the Rosary and the Litanies of Our Lady of Loreto and St Joseph, and the Divine Mercy Chaplet.
But, for crying out loud! Somehow, our bishops in their wisdom have discerned that it would be dangerous for eight persons praying in the pews - all obediently separated by many metres - to put the monstrance on the altar and expose the Blessed Sacrament.
"Just personal prayer," Father had said - and in saying so, he looked sheepish more than shepherd-like. So now, St Joseph's Church is deserted. Except for Sunday Mass, and one or two at weekday Mass, it's been that way for years.
Weeds sprout and flower in the concrete paving once trodden by priests and people in procession. The brass candlesticks are dull with dirt; the benediction candlesticks stay shoved in a cupboard. The cushioning on benches for late-comers up the back of the church is frayed and falling apart. St Mary's Anglican up the hill wouldn't stand for it.
I can't believe that Catholics believe, any more.
The bishops' letter of instruction is, I'm sorry to say, Mickey Mouse.
"Due to the strong government restrictions on public gatherings ..." Why should the Church kowtow to this evil government's regime of coronaphobia, crafty and crafted as it is partly to smuggle through the satanic Abortion Legislation Bill while we all run around like headless chickens buying loo paper and sanitisers?
"Parish priests should ensure that numbers remain small and follow Ministry of Health social distancing guidelines..." Are priests expected to go round, like the late lamented Peter Sellers, "with a crowbar and prise them apart"?
"Masses are to cease"... "funeral services are allowed" Pardon me? You're allowed to bury your loved one with asinine prayers and unofficial canonisation, but not with a Requiem Mass? What's that got to do with the price of fish - in other words, with health concerns? Nothing. But it is fishy. It stinks, actually and literally, to high heaven.
"Weddings and other public liturgical gatherings already planned may proceed ..." This one had escaped me. Our Holy Hour was already planned. Why could it not proceed? Oh hear, O Lord, and answer me.
"The bishops know there will be many people disappointed ..." the bishops should know there are many people chagrined, devastated and disgusted.
"Pope Francis himself set the international example by not celebrating Masses in public ..."
According to tradition, Pope Gregory the Great set an international, enduring example by leading a penitential proession to Santa Maria Maggiore during the plague; a vision of the archangel Michael atop Hadrian's Tomb (now the Castel Sant'Angelo) convinced him that Rome would be spared.
"Online resources for those who wish to pray at home ... and daily Mass online ..." Well, that's cool for the millenials - who won't be praying at home at all; they've been schooled by the NO and their 'Catholic' education.
But what about those who will most desperately miss the Mass, the elderly, who grew up with the Traditional Latin Mass and don't know a blog from a cookie - and who lost their hand missals when they moved house in the '60s? Where's the prompt for parish priests to supply them with the texts for the Divine Office and for the beautiful litanies binned by Vat II?
And then for a coda, the bishops remind us to wash our hands.
Sheep do not look to their shepherds for soap and loo paper. We look to our priests and bishops for food - for the spiritual manna which has been slowly subtracted from our Sunday diet in the sad wake of the Traditional Latin Mass.
Oh, but wait, there's more: "The primary concern of your Bishops is the safety of all parishioners, clergy," dah de dah de dah.
The primary concern of our Bishops should be the safety of our souls! The Church in New Zealand has lost sight of God in Heaven.
Its craven dancing to the tune of this government's pipes of pandemic serves to centre the gaze of the faithful on them, rather than on the God we should seek, just as the Novus Ordo has us looking at Father rather than towards the heavenly mysteries he celebrates in the Eternal, Omnipresent Sacrifice of the Mass.
Just as in celebrating the Novus Ordo the 'presider' has his back turned to God (in the tabernacle if it's still where it should be) and his face turned towards the people, so are the bishops in this announcement concerned only with this world, on the here and now. As the Novus Ordo is horizontal in its orientation, so are the bishops. The vertical element is simply not there.
Nowhere is there mention of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Or of His Mother, the Mediatrix of all Graces, whose intercession the bishops should be imploring on their bended knees.
50 years of the 'New Mass' mean the saints to whom also we prayed for their constant intercession were abandoned long ago. The Freemason Annibale Bugnini, chief architect of the Novus Ordo, and his cohort decided we didn't need Ss Peter and Paul, St Michael the Archangel and the rest of the canon. We abandoned the saints; they now seem to have abandoned us.'
A correspondent asks, "Why has Cardinal Dew decided to take a lead with the most extreme option (of banning all public Masses?)
As another comments, "We are very disappointed with the Church leadership going along so easily with the Government authorities, when a bishop in Texas and all of Poland is increasing the number of Masses, meaning there are fewer people at each Mass.
"It is a denial of Christ's Omnipotence; putting the natural above the supernatural!
Our leaders are guilty of this which is nothing else but a denial of Christ. They have been doing this for years, so that when the Enemy comes knocking at the door, they do not recognise him!"
As the antiphon for one of the psalms in this evening's Divine Office reads:
Thanks, Julia. You are on target. Restaurant and pub owners have shown more wisdom than our spiritual leaders.
ReplyDeleteIt seems there are so many options our bishops have chosen to overlook. SSPX in Wanganui are doing six Masses this Sunday, limit of 100 parishioners each (I won’t be going). Nightclubs in Palmerston North in full swing, limiting to 100, even putting up temporary walls to separate the groups of 100 (young attendees though). Destiny Church are doing their services with parishioners in their cars in a car park. And that amazing priest in the USA doing confession for parishioners in their cars.
ReplyDeleteWe have been given no clues as to what drove our bishop’s decision to cancel all Masses. Was health and safety more important than spiritual leadership? Was it that a Church with such a high proportion of elderly is too much of a risk to continue? Is it that our bishops accept that our Church must die before it can be reborn? Am I wrong to feel I must fight against moves by our hierarchy that seem destined to weaken or destroy our Church?
I cannot help wondering if our Church has had an age selective pandemic for the past 50 years, that is the opposite to COVID-19? This 50-year pandemic shrinks our Church massively, tending to eliminate the young and spare the elderly. Some might call this pandemic ‘Vatican II’ or ‘progressivism’. Are the non-Catholic churches that continue to hold services doing so because their younger congregations are more secure in the face of COVID-19?
Bruce Tichbon says:
ReplyDeleteIt seems there are so many options our bishops have chosen to overlook. SSPX in Wanganui are doing six Masses this Sunday, limit of 100 parishioners each (I won’t be going).
Nightclubs in Palmerston North in full swing, limiting to 100, even putting up temporary walls to separate the groups of 100 (young attendees though).
Destiny Church are doing their services with parishioners in their cars in a car park. And that amazing priest in the USA doing confession for parishioners in their cars.
We have been given no clues as to what drove our bishop’s decision to cancel all Masses. Was health and safety more important than spiritual leadership? Was it that a Church with such a high proportion of elderly is too much of a risk to continue? Is it that our bishops accept that our Church must die before it can be reborn?
Am I wrong to feel I must fight against moves by our hierarchy that seem destined to weaken or destroy our Church?
I cannot help wondering if our Church has had an age selective pandemic for the past 50 years, that is the opposite to COVID-19? This 50-year pandemic shrinks our Church massively, tending to eliminate the young and spare the elderly. Some might call this pandemic ‘Vatican II’ or ‘progressivism’.
Are the non-Catholic churches that continue to hold services doing so because their younger congregations are more secure in the face of COVID-19?
This comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteBob Gill says:
ReplyDeleteWith my daughter and wife insisting that I didn’t travel to SSPX Wanganui this morning because of my age (over 70), although I do feel in reasonable health, I decided to follow the live streamed Mass at the Palmerston North Cathedral.
A normal Mass I found, until the Lavabo. The celebrant, Monsignor Bell, went immediately for the tissue to dry his hands – without washing his hands! Just to be sure, I rewound the video later and got my wife to check with me in case I had been mistaken. We both agreed that he didn’t put his hands anywhere near the water, but he made a big point of drying his hands! (See the time around 41:44 on the video).
Interesting too that I had made a point of watching our celebrant on St Patrick's Day during the Lavabo. He merely flicked his fingers into the water. So much for hygiene at this time!
I have told my wife that I don’t care what my family says; I am going to the actual SSPX Mass next Sunday!
Philippa O’Neill says:
ReplyDeleteThey are now in the job of fear mongering too. They were as silent on the abortion law change as the main stream media was.. that shows complicity. They could have worked around this and have chosen not to..what did Pope Francis say recently... we must have the smell of the sheep on us... or something similar..... are any of us surprised at this really?
Helen Carver says:
ReplyDeleteIt's inconvenient but right now Planet Earth is breathing a huge sigh of relief 🌏 she doesn't even have to kill us- just make us disappear- dolphins have taken over the canals in Venice. After this we will have no excuses for not knowing how to look after our beautiful planet as God told us to in the Garden of Eden.
We can't win in this diocese - one 'shepherd' at least, got a little too close to his 'sheep', whilst others run for the hills. And for the record, our Apostolic Nuncio has been equally sheepish on the matter of Canon Law.
ReplyDeleteI know after this, if/when Mass resumes, I cannot imagine I will have any inclination to race back to a NO Mass. We are in desperate need of a TLM - daily, complete with a Rosary and Adoration. I'm all for curtailing spread of Covid and being responsible about distance etc, but not at the expense of expelling Our Lord Jesus from our lives and from attending the Sacrifice of Calvary. When Covid is more focal than Calvary (in the name of a 'common good') then what sort of 'good' are we aiming for? I'm sorry but I'd prefer mortals die, than the Mass die out and the light of our souls grow dimmer without our Lord. At the end of all this, if millions of lives are 'saved' from our lock down, what good will it be if those millions, plus all the other millions deprived of Mass, are further from the Lord? Even a single Holy Communion missed, is one too many in my opinion.