"Jeanne d’Arc voue ses armes à la Vierge" by Laure de Châtillon (1826-1908)
Stained glass roofing of the Church Vitral in St Potin, Lyon, France
Stained glass roofing of the Church Vitral in St Potin, Lyon, France
"The Angel Appearing to the Shepherds"
The Angel Appearing to the Shepherds by Thomas Cole (1833-1834)
"Blessed Virgin" by Rennett Stowe (Netherlands)
Dedicated to all those who have lost their lives at sea.
"And I shall sleep in peace until you come to me."
The Banner of the Five Holy Wounds
The Banner of the Five Holy Wounds, carried by participants in the Pilgrimage of Grace: a 1536 uprising of Northern English Catholics against schism from the Catholic Church and against the destruction of the monasteries.
Madonna illuminates the altar of Santa Maria Sopra Minerva, Assisi by Dino Carbetta
The Holy House of Mary
The interior of the Holy House of Mary, Mother of God, as it is today in Loreto, Italy. The stones and bricks are kept together with a mortar whose physical and chemical composition is found only in Palestine and precisely in the region of Nazareth.
Irish Flag creation
My proposal for a new Irish Flag: A white cross with a Sacred Heart in the center. The green pale of the flag symbolizes Roman Catholics.
Know your Mass
Originally published by the Catechetical Guild in 1954 (Imprimatur Francis Cardinal Spellman), this is a “comic” book unlike any other. Know Your Mass is a detailed, fully illustrated, step-by-step explanation of the Traditional Latin Mass now reprinted for the first time in full color!
The book presents the theology of the Mass in a manner understood by children and yet is incredibly interesting and informative for adults as well. Know Your Mass is an excellent catechetical tool for all ages. All parts of the Holy Sacrifice are covered, from the preparation for Mass, the altar, sacred vessels and vestments, liturgical actions, the sanctuary, and some liturgical history as well, including helpful suggestions for children to get the most or should we say GIVE the most at Mass. Perfect as a First Holy Communion gift! Great for converts as well.
Anyone who delves into this book cannot come away ignorant of the true significance of the liturgical representation of Our Lord’s Sacrifice on Calvary that is the Holy Mass. Highly recommended.
Archbishop Lefebvre: A Documentary
Loyal son of a devout French Catholic family. Roman seminarian. Parish priest. African missionary. Missionary bishop. Apostolic delegate. Superior General. Member of the Preparatory Commission for the Second Vatican Council. Council Father. Rebel?
Few churchmen led as influential lives in the 20th century as Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre. This intelligent, faithful, devout bishop with the heart of a missionary is the subject of this feature film length documentary. Shot on location throughout the world, the documentary contains exclusive interviews with those who knew him: friends, family, missionary faithful, seminarians, priests, bishops, as well as authors and historians.
Any Catholic interested in the story of the Church in the 20th Century, or in the life of the Church today will want to watch and own this full length documentary on one of the Church's most fascinating lives.
What We Have Lost ...and the Road to Restoration: A critical look at the changes in the Catholic Church
Dr. David Allen White commentary ends at about 7:14.
This video gives you an intimate, up-close look at the destructive and wide-spread changes that have taken place in the two-thousand-year-old Catholic Church since the close of the Second Vatican Council in 1965.
Much of what you see will surprise you, maybe even shock you, and -- unfortunately -- will sadden you. "What We Have Lost" not only exposes the external damage that has been done to the Universal Church, but goes deep behind the scenes to reveal the hidden changes; how and when they were made; and who made them.
This video asks the hard questions: Is the Church still Catholic? Has She lost the true faith? Does the clergy still truly "believe?" Can we count on today's Church to lead us to salvation? The answers found in "What We Have Lost" may bring you to anger -- or to tears. But after you see it, you will never look at the "modern" Church in the same way again. And "What We Have Lost" is about hope. Hope in Jesus Christ and His one true Church on earth. Plus it's about the restoration of the traditional Latin Mass and the "Faith of our Fathers;" and it documents the groundswell of traditionalism within the Church, and how you can be a part of it...on the "Road to Restoration."7
Signed, The Disinherited
A touching letter was sent to twenty three bishops of French-speaking dioceses across Canada from twenty-nine men between the ages of 18 to 44. Here is a 22 minute video covering the subject.
Letter in French: Nous demandons la foi : Lettre ouverte aux évêques de l’Église catholique au Canada français
LifeSite article in English: Catholic young men ask bishops to teach traditional faith and save them from nihilism, despair
Covert Catholicism? Our Lord in the Attic
With the COVID-19 epidemic and recent upheaval in society we saw a glimpse of what it is like to attend the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass in secret. It's quite evident that in the future the practise of Catholicism will have to go underground. It's happened in the past and will happen again if history teaches us anything.
Here is just one small example: "After the Reformation in the 17th century, the newly converted Protestant Dutch government officially outlawed Catholicism, forcing believers to practise their faith in secret. This led to the construction of secret Catholic churches around Amsterdam, including one chapel in de Wallen, known as Ons’ Lieve Heer op Solder, which was hidden inside the upper floor of a canal house."
What a beautiful flag!
I think this flag is amazing and it's too bad we don't see it flying today...
"The Fleurdelisé that flew over the Saint-Jude presbytery on September 26, 1902, was made by Father Elphège Filiatrault, who proclaimed, “We are a new people on American soil. A new people need a new flag.” (NOTE 3) Borrowing from the Carillon banner the blue field that it was thought at the time to have had, and replacing the royal arms and the Madonna by a white cross that evoked France, Filiatrault’s flag was meant to represent French-Canadian values.
At the same time, two Flag Committees were formed, one in Quebec City, the other in Montreal. These committees also proposed adoption of the blue flag with fleurs-de-lis inspired by the Carillon banner, but they urged that a Sacred Heart be added at the centre, surrounded by maple leaves and bearing the motto “Je me souviens” (I remember). The committees, under the name L’oeuvre du drapeau national, launched an intense promotion of this flag, called the Carillon-Sacré-Coeur. In two years 8,500 brochures, 15,000 post cards, 60,000 badges, 20,000 engravings, 150,000 buttons and signs and 76,500 flags of various sizes were sold. " Source
"In 1903, the image of the Sacred Heart of Jesus above two wreaths of maple leaves in saltire, was placed in the centre of the white cross.
The Sacred Heart image derives from the devotions fo the heart of Jesus, initiated by the French visionary nun, St. Margaret Mary Alacoque. This Catholic practice had increased considerably by the 200th anniversary of her death in 1890." Source
Historical Recreation of a 15th Century Catholic Latin Mass
This video is an historical reconstruction of a Roman Rite mass as it would have been done October 4, 1450, 18th Sunday after Pentecost.
"Five hundred years ago, the universe seemed much more understandable than it does for us. All of existence was framed by a number of ceremonies and behavioral patterns which were a matter of course for people at the time. And the most important of them was the Holy Mass - that ring of charged words and actions which surround the central mystery in the Christian faith: That Jesus becomes man anew in the creatures of bread and wine.
We have reconstructed a High Mass from 500 years ago in an ordinary Swedish parish church, namely in Endre Church, one mile east of Visby in Gotland. We imagined ourselves to be participating in this high mass on an autumn Sunday in the middle of the 15th century. It is local people who are participating in clothes typical for the time, and we have tried as much as possible to reconstruct [something to do with (worship) services] in the Diocese of Linköping at that time - since Gotland belonged to that diocese.
The service is conducted in an incomprehensible language, a language incomprehensible to the people: Latin. Because church services at the time were not considered a medium for communicating information, except for silent prayers. Just as one cannot describe what is fascinating about a melody or a sight, one shouldn't be able to understand or describe the central mystery of the universe. The congregation waits for the central moment, when the bread and wine shall be transformed into the body and blood of Christ.
The priest was helped by a chorister, perhaps the [experienced?] youth whom [his soul has discovered?] and who with time would be sent to Linköping in order to attend the cathedral school. Songs, mostly from the Bible, were sung by the local cantor. We don't know exactly how the music went in the medieval churches. Maybe Endre Church had a specific order which required a qualified cantor like the one we shall see here.
The Sunday service began when the priest sprinkled Holy Water on the congregation. This was to remind them that they had become members of the Christian church through baptism. The Holy Water would drive away all the powers of evil.
Let us now place ourselves in the Middle Ages. Let us try to grasp the atmosphere in a normal Swedish parish church, in a time where man still believed himself cast out into an empty, cold existence, when Europe was still unified, and when the central mystery around which everything revolved was that Jesus Christ, had become man, had died, and risen again for all."
Is there no passion left in the people?
This video shows how the faithful French responded 33 years ago when they tried to take away the Traditional Latin Mass on Palm Sunday in 1987 (church of Port-Marly).
In these days people are happy to stay home and watch on TV. When do go to Church they assist at a Mass that has liturgical abuses. There is no belief in the Real Presence as found in recent polls and is evident when you attend. If people really understood they would flock to Mass like they do for sports or concerts....
"Cérémonie des Rameaux 1987 devant l'église de Port-Marly, évacuée par la force de l'ordre quelques semaines avant et murée pour empêcher les paroissiens de vivre leur foi au rythme de la liturgie traditionnelle..."
I love the battering ram at about minute 24...
People of faith indeed.