Archbishop Lefebvre - Movie Review

The Archbishop Lefevbre - A Bishop for the Church  movie which has been seen in venues throughout the country and around the world was shown yesterday in Portland, Oregon. Some members of my family were able to see it, and my brother Rory was kind enough to offer the following review:

I think we had a little over a hundred folks at our venue, almost half the parish.

It was good. The enthusiasm with which the DVDs were purchased shows that it was a success. Those with some background in the biographies and Mgr. Lefebvre's books need to remember that the purpose wasn't to replace the books, but to make Abp. Lefebvre come alive a little bit to a new generation of Traditionalists either entering adulthood, or having recently come to Tradition without a living memory of the situation twenty years ago and more.

I am always critical of dubbing. Thankfully they never dubbed Abp. Lefebvre. It just seems like you miss a lot when somebody is talking over the person. Yes, you get the correct translation, but you miss other ways we communicate audibly that seem important as well. There was one short spot where Cardinal Ottaviani seemed animated and I really wanted the "overvoice" to quiet down. 

Anyway, that is really my only complaint. The theater was accommodating and really terrific. They greeted us immediately as we by-passed the ticket booth and showed us to the event, making a nice sign with the name of our church on it so that parishioners would see where to go. It was pretty neat to see above the door for our screen, "Archbishop Lefebvre" in lights.

If there were any guests in the audience I missed them. It all happened so quickly that we really didn't have opportunity to promote the event. Everyone seemed very satisfied and I have to include myself. The time went by quickly.

Its hard to say what our Novus Ordo friends and relatives will think. The subject matter is very close to our hearts and so to see a movie in a theater about it is pretty energizing. It seems like at bare minimum, a fair viewing would dispel some misconceptions about stubbornness. There are pictures and video of his time in Africa which demonstrate how the Archbishop allowed African culture to inform the native worship within a Traditional framework. It seemed quite progressive to me, in a way of which it seems no one could disapprove. I think the film shows that Mgr. Lefebvre was clearly unwilling to bend an article of faith. But his firm courage was gentle and thoughtful without the angry zeal that is the occasional scourge of Tradionalists.

There are more scheduled screenings of this film. Check the list of planned screenings here for upcoming dates and locations. The movie will also be available for all on DVD on December 1--just in time for Christmas!--and may be pre-ordered now at Angelus Press.

God bless you!

The Question of High School

Pete over at the Et Cum Spiritu Tuo blog yesterday linked to an article by Dennis Prager of the National Review Online, who writes about young people who stray away from their father's values when they enter the liberal environment of so many colleges and universities. It is an interesting article, and I wholeheartedly agree with Pete when he says in his post that "we must prepare our children for this hostile world."

I believe the problem begins long before the child gets to the hostile-to-conservative-Catholic-values environment of college/university. IMHO, a properly formed Catholic young adult would not be so easily swayed away from his father's values. But there is the rub: in our day there is next to no proper traditional Catholic formation in the early years for our children.

We are considering high school options for our boys, but the options are so few! Where is the high school that will help to form strong, Catholic young men?!

The principal of the grade school they now attend recently sent home a quarter-end letter to parents reiterating the values upheld and instilled in the students at our little Catholic academy, at the root of which is saving each child's soul. Yes, this. Where is the high school whose goals are so clearly focused?

In looking at high school programs I was perusing a well-known Catholic home school high school curriculum. In their magazine they had an article about "Why...?" (...choose their HS program). Except for a brief statement about their curriculum being Catholic, the answers were mostly academic: Our graduates score high on the SAT! Our graduates are accepted at all the major universities! Our graduates achieve "success" out in the real world! Really? Is that all? Yes I want academic excellence, and of course I want to see achievement and success in our sons' pursuits beyond high school. But where is it said that the graduates will have been nurtured and formed solidly in their Catholic faith? Obviously such homeschool curriculum programs by their very nature cannot provide the hands-on opportunity to ensure such formation. And I realize, too, that no program or school can guarantee an individual will not go astray from his formation, but my goodness, let it be a stated goal, a purpose for their existence alongside the academics! How many vocations are coming out of the school/program? Shouldn't this be a measurable statistic for most Catholic institutions?! I think it would have been in some decades past.

Well, our boys weren't born in decades past, but I still want that solid Catholic formation for them! I don't want to bring my sons back to the basement homeschool classroom for their high school years where I would have the nearly-entire responsibility to form them in this way. If I must (if there is no alternative) then I will do it, and to the best of my ability. But it is not, in my opinion, the ideal. No, ideally our sons would be taught, trained and formed by priests in cassocks who have never ceased in their mission to pass on the Catholic Faith as it has always been to the next generation of young Catholics. Priests just like those who are caring for, teaching and forming the children at our grade school academy, Queen of the Holy Rosary, where academics are given their place within the Catholic faith but do not supersede it.

Certainly the institutions I describe and desire seem few, but they do exist. One such school is Notre Dame de LaSalette Boys Academy. Yes, it is a distance from home. Yes, it would mean boarding at the school. Yes, that would be most difficult in many ways. But as a dear lady I know who, with her husband, has sent several of her boys to LaSalette Academy says, "Sometimes you have to send them away in order to keep them." Indeed. She has it on experience that when her boys enter higher education they have not "left (their) father's values" because of the solid Catholic formation that preceded it. Deo Gratias!

As any Catholic parent, I do not want my boys to be among the statistics from which Mr. Prager draws his article. Even in this hostile-to-Catholic-faith world we live in, there are a few oases of solid formation out there for our children. Of course this would involve great sacrifice, but with an eternal perspective, the value is clear.

O God,come to my assistance; O Lord, make haste to help me! .... as we discern Our Lord's direction.

God bless you!

In Your Charity....

I would like to ask prayers for the repose of the soul of Mrs. Catherine Nienaber who just this morning was tragically killed in an automobile accident. She and her 7-year old son were on their way home from morning Mass at the SSPX USA-District Headquarters in Platte City, MO, when her minivan was struck head-on by a semi-truck that had crossed over into her lane. Her son was hospitalized with serious injuries, but has been stabilized.

Mrs. Nienaber was a traditional Catholic wife and mother of nine children. Among her children (ages 25 years down to 3 years) are SSPX seminarians and students in Society schools around the world. She was a daily Mass communicant; her son who was with her had just served Holy Mass.

Please, dear readers, in your charity, offer prayers for this dear woman's soul and for her grieving husband, children and loved ones left behind.

Eternal rest grant unto her, O Lord,
And let perpetual light shine upon her.
May her soul and all the souls
Of the faithful departed,
Through the mercy of God,
Rest in peace.
Amen.

May God bless you abundantly.

Archbishop Lefebvre: A Documentary

Movie: Archbishop Lefevbre - A Bishop for the Church.  

The life story of this son of the Church who was an African Missionary in Gabon, Archbishop of Dakar, Apostolic Delegate for all French speaking Africa, Superior General of the Holy Ghost Fathers,  Member of the Preparatory Council for Vatican II, Founder of the Society of Saint Pius X. How did he come to find himself in the center of a storm which is still buffeting the Church to this day?  

This documentary retraces the life of Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre.  The film will be screened at RONNIES 20 in St. Louis on Sunday, October 27 at 1pm. For tickets, call 314-436-4544.

Screening dates and venues in other cities are listed here.

View the trailer here.

God bless you!

Ember Days

With September come the Michaelmas Ember Days, the seasonal days of penance which were once obligatory, but are no longer so, in the Roman Catholic Church.

As Father so clearly stated in his homily last Sunday, keeping the fast and abstinence is not obligatory. Failing to keep the fast and abstinence is no sin. But! Should we keep the fast and abstinence? Absolutely! (unless there is a very good--i.e., health, etc.--reason not to.) 

Sacred Scripture gives us some pretty good incentives to deny ourselves once in a while:

In Luke chapter 13 Our Lord says twice, "No, I say to you: but unless you shall do penance, you shall all likewise perish."

Matthew 17:17-20: And Jesus rebuked him, and the devil went out of him, and the child was cured from that hour. Then came the disciples to Jesus secretly, and said: Why could not we cast him out? Jesus said to them: Because of your unbelief. For, amen I say to you, if you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, you shall say to this mountain: Remove from hence hither, and it shall remove: and nothing shall be impossible to you. But this kind is not cast out but by prayer and fasting.

Specifically, the Ember Days this week are today, Friday and Saturday. Wednesday and Saturday are days of fast and partial abstinence, Friday is fast and (complete) abstinence.

For further reading, Fish Eaters website gives some good information on the Ember Days, as well as guidelines for fasting and abstinence.

God bless you!

Apple Pickin' and Cannin'

The calendar says summer is quickly coming to an end! I welcome it as Fall is probably my favorite time of the year, with its sunny but crisp days, harvest time, and the smells that emanate from the kitchen this time of year.

Last Saturday we (my husband, myself, the boys and my mom) did a very fall-ish thing: we decided to pick some apples! So, we made a little trek over to Eckert's Farm in Illinois to do just that. We had never been there before, but now I'm quite sure this will turn out to be the first of many such trips.

It was a lovely Saturday in September, with temps in the 70s and perfect for doing just about anything outside. Eckert's is a beautiful, big farm with acres upon acres of fruit trees, pumpkin patches and I'm sure much more. There were a lot of people there, but everything runs so smoothly that we never felt like we were in a crowd.

When we got there we walked right by the Kettle Popcorn poppers (with promises to stop there on our way out) and other exhibits and proceeded to the wagons where they constantly loaded and unloaded apple-pickers. I in my scooter and the rest on foot, we boarded a John Deere farm tractor-pulled wagon. The folks at Eckert's are well-prepared for those with disabilities, and I simply drove my scooter up the removable ramps into the wagon. Piece o' cake. I love it when I almost blend into the crowd because of well-planned accessibility!

The tractor took us through the apple orchards to where the latest picking was being done. That day we could pick Golden Delicious, Honey Crisp and Jonathan apples, all at the fantastic price of $0.89/lb. Pick as much as you like, eat as many as you can, and catch a wagon back when you're ready to go back. Bags in hand, we set out.

The trees were smaller than I expected, but laden heavily with gorgeous apples.  I remember as a girl apple-picking on our farm meant climbing the trees or using a ladder to reach the fruit. Not so at Eckert's. The apples are easily picked in abundance without any climbing. It only took a half-hour or so for us to fill 7 bags. When we got in from the orchards our apples weighed in at 80 pounds!

After looking around a bit at their large store and picking up some canning supplies (and a big bag of freshly popped Kettle Korn!) we headed back home.

And so, with 80 pounds of apples, my mom and I had our work cut out for us. As I type this we are finishing up the last canner load of beautiful beige/pink applesauce. Two days of washing, quartering, boiling, straining, and hot water-bath processing yielded 23 quarts of applesauce and a large basket of shiny red apples to munch on.On tasting the applesauce we decided the Honey Crisp (red) apples resulted in a more flavorful--and pretty--applesauce than the Golden Delicious apples did, though it is good too. But next year we'll stick with the one variety.

I love doing things like this with my mom. We are a perfect team in the kitchen and we both enjoy immensely the satisfaction that comes with hearing the lids ping as they seal, and gazing at the canned jars on the counter of the clean kitchen. And, the house smells of apples, and fall.

Did we save money on our applesauce? Probably not this year. The apples were a great price, but I had to buy some canning supplies and jars. The fun we have doing it, though, the applesauce that is far tastier than the store-shelf variety, and the satisfaction gained from making your own, is worth the expense. And next year we'll have most of the supplies on hand already.

I can see us going back to Eckert's every year at apple-picking time. It's a great family outing that yields some tasty results. Just the right way to welcome Fall!

God bless you!

Zinnias

I have a beautiful flower garden this summer, thanks to my mom who spent several days in May weeding, planting and watering. She planted petunia plants in front with a row of my all-time favorite summer flower, the zinnia, by seed behind them.

Now in mid-July they are at the peak of their beauty, the zinnias standing tall, some at nearly four feet, in bright pinks, reds, yellows, oranges and purples. I'm still waiting for the candy-cane stripe to 

bloom as was pictured on one of my seed packets.

I post a lot of pictures of them on Facebook because Mom is now back home in Washington state and I want her to enjoy them as much as she can from so great a distance. While many friends "like" them, I'm sure by now some just pass over the photos, but one dear friend did not. She looked, and she responded with the following tribute to the flower I love so much. Thank you, Long Skirts, for lending your poetry to my posy!

The Zinnias

By Long Skirts

Zinnias grow
In dirty earth.
Crumbly, wormy
Soil of worth.

Not only zinnias,
Apple trees
And dirt dams up
Our open seas.

Earth's dirt keeps
Us firmly anchored
When even wars
Her surface cankered

But joyful souls
Who trust stay meek
From earth's dirt see...
The zinnias peak!

A couple of times a day I go out to look at my garden, sometimes just sitting out there and taking in the beauty of God's ornamentation. As the flowers reach for the warm, golden sun, there is constant activity all around them, mud-dobbers making practical use of of the irrigated dirt below, butterflies and bumblebees savoring the nectar above. The huge bumblebees are my favorite to watch as they travel lightly from bloom to bloom, their 'landing gear' fairly dangling from their graceful but busy bodies.

It seems like every season is my favorite as it arrives in its unique habit. But for today I'll take summer and its warm breeze and oft-too-hot temperatures, its flickering lightening bug and noisy cicada, and not least of all, its lovely, stately zinnia adorning my flower garden.

God bless you!