'Our Lady of Czestochowa' - The Black Madonna

 'Ballade to Our Lady of Czestochowa’        by  Hilaire Belloc

                              1.

Lady and Queen and Mystery manifold

And very Regent of the untroubled sky.
Whom in a dream St.Hilda did behold
And heard a Woodland music passing by:
You shall receive me when the clouds are high
With evening and the sheep attain the fold.
This is the faith that I have held and hold,
And this is that in which I mean to die.

                                2.

Steep are the seas and savaging and cold

In broken waters terrible to try;
And vast against the winter night the wold,
And harbourless for any sail to lie.
But you shall lead me to the lights, and I
Shall hymn  you in a harbour story told.
This is the faith that I have held and hold,
And this is that in which I mean to die.

                                3.

Help of the half-defeated, House of gold,

Shrine of the Sword, and Tower of Ivory;
Splendour apart, supreme and aureoled.
The Battler’s vision and the World’s reply,
You shall restore me, O my last Ally,
To vengeance and the glories of the  bold.
This is the faith that I have held and hold,
And this is that in which I mean to die.

                                             Envoi

Prince of the degradations, bought and sold,

These verses written in your crumbling sty,
Proclaim the faith that I have held and hold,
And publish that in which I mean to live and die.

                                          

                                                                         *****************

The Black Madonna of Czestochowa also known as Our Lady of Czestochowa, is a revered icon of the Virgin Mary, housed at the Jasna Gora Monastery, In  Czestochowa, Poland

The Icon

The four-foot-high painting displays a traditional composition well known in the icons of Eastern Christians. The Virgin Mary is shown as the Hodegetria ("One Who Shows the Way").  The Virgin directs attention away from herself, gesturing with her right hand toward Jesus as the source of salvation. In turn, the child extends his right hand toward the viewer in blessing while holding a book of gospels in his left hand. The icon shows the Madonna in fleur-de-lis robes.

The legend concerning the two scars on the Black Madonna’s right cheek, is that the Hussites stormed the Pauline monastery in 1430, plundering the sanctuary. Among the items stolen was the icon. After putting it in their wagon, the Hussites tried to get away but their horses refused to move. They threw the portrait down to the ground and one of the plunderers drew his sword upon the image and inflicted two deep strikes. When the robber tried to inflict a third strike, he fell to the ground and writhed in agony until his death. Despite past attempts to repair these scars, they had difficulty in covering up those slashes as the painting was done with tempera infused with diluted wax.

History         

The origins of the icon and the date of its composition are still contested among scholars. One difficulty in dating the icon is due in part to its original image being painted over after being badly damaged by Hussite raiders in 1430. The wooden boards that backed the painting were broken and the canvas slashed.  Medieval restorers unfamiliar with the encaustic method found that the paints they applied to the damaged areas "simply sloughed off the image" according to the medieval chronicler Risinius, and their solution was to erase the original image and to repaint it on the original panel. The original features of an Orthodox icon were softened; the nose was made more aquiline.

Coronation as Queen and Protectress of Poland[

In August 1382 the hilltop parish church was transferred to the Paulites, a hermitic order from Hungary.  The golden fleur-de-lis painted on the Virgin's blue veil parallel the heraldic azure, semée de lis, or of the French royal coat of arms, and the most likely explanation for their presence is that the icon had been present in Hungary during the reign of either Charles 1 of Hungary and/or Louis the Great, the Hungarian kings of the Anjou dynasty, who probably had the fleur-de-lis of their family's coat of arms painted on the icon. This would suggest that the icon was probably originally brought to Jasna Gora by the Pauline monks from their founding monastery in Hungary.

The Black Madonna is said to have miraculously saved the monastery of Jasna Góra (English: Bright Mount) from a Swedish invasion.  The Siege of Jasna Góra took place in the winter of 1655 during the Second Northern War, as the Swedish invasion of the Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth is known. The Swedes were attempting to capture the Jasna Góra monastery in Częstochowa. Seventy monks and 180 local volunteers, mostly from the szlachta (Polish nobility), held off 4,000 Swedes for 40 days, saved their sacred icon and, according to some accounts, turned the course of the war.  This event led King John ll Casimir Vasa to "crown" Our Lady of Częstochowa ("the Black Madonna) as Queen and Protector of Poland, in the cathedral of Lwow on 1 April 1656. Prior to this event, several royal nobilities had offered crowns to the image throughout the years, replacing its iron sheet crown by gold and several jewels. In later years, various jewels were interchanged and repositioned around the image to preserve the aesthetic of the icon with the replacement of stolen crowns.

Tradition

The icon of Our Lady of  Częstochowa has been intimately associated with Poland for the past 600 years. Its history prior to its arrival in Poland is shrouded in numerous legends which trace the icon's origin to Saint Luke who painted it on a cedar table top from the house of the Holy Family. The same legend holds that the painting was discovered in Jerusalem in 326 by St. Helena, who brought it back to Constantinople and presented it to her son, Constantine the Great.

Arrival in Częstochowa

The oldest documents from Jasna Gora state that the picture travelled from 
Constantinople via Belz.  Eventually it came into the possession of Wladyslaw Opollzyk, Duke of Opole, and adviser to Louis of Anjou, King of Poland and Hungary. Ukrainian sources state that earlier in its history it was brought to Belz with much ceremony and honors by King Levi 1 of Anjou, and later taken by Władysław from the Castle of Belz, when the town was incorporated into the Polish kingdom. A popular story tells that in late August 1384, Wladyslaw was passing Częstochowa with the picture when his horses refused to go on. He was advised in a dream to leave the icon at Jasna Gora.

Art historians say that the original painting was a Byzantine icon created around the sixth or ninth century. They agree that Prince Władysław brought it to the monastery in the 14th century.  

Veneration

Częstochowa is regarded as the most popular shrine in Poland, with many Polish Catholics making a pilgrimage there every year. A pilgrimage has left Warsaw every August 6 since 1711 for the nine-day, 140-mile trek. Elderly pilgrims recall stealing through the dark countryside at great personal risk during the German Nazi occupation. Pope John Paul II secretly visited as a student pilgrim during World War II.  
The feast day of Our Lady of Częstochowa is celebrated on August 26.
Several Pontiffs have recognized the image, namely:-

 Pope Clement XI issued a Canonical Coronation for the image through the Vatican Chapter on 8 September 1717

Pope Pius X, after the crowns were stolen on 23 October 1909, the Pontiff replaced the crowns on 22 May 1910.

 Pope John Paul II gifted another set of crowns as a native of Poland, which was placed on 26 August 2005.

                                  (Ack. Wikipedia)

                                       *********************************

Hilaire Belloc, born France 1870,  died Guildford, England, 1953, was an Anglo-French writer and historian, and one of the most prolific writers in England during the early twentieth century. Belloc was also an orator, poet, sailor, satirist, writer of letters, soldier, and political activist.

Hilaire Belloc portrait by Emil Otto Hoppé, 1915  (Wikipedia)

His Catholic faith had a strong impact on his works. He was President of the Oxford Union and later MP for Salford from 1906 to 1910. He was a noted disputant, with a number of long-running feuds, but also widely regarded as a humane and sympathetic man. Belloc became a naturalised British subject in 1902 while retaining his French citizenship.

His poetry encompassed comic verses for children and religious poetry. His widely sold Cautionary Tales for Children included "Jim, who ran away from his nurse, and was eaten by a lion" and "Matilda, who told lies and was burnt to death". He also collaborated with G.K.Chesterton on a number of works.

                                                                                                                  (Ack. Wikipedia)

(I Recommend Wikipedia’s entry on Belloc, which contains much additional information of great interest.)

'The Glories of Mary' by St. Alphonsus de Liguori C.Ss.R. (1696-1787)

                             'Virgin and Child in landscape' (c1500)  
                                  by Master of the Embroidered Foliage.

                                          **********

For my Lenten reading, I have turned  to  ‘The Glories of Mary’, written  by  St Alphonsus de Liguori, and  first published in 1750 at Naples.  St Alphonsus was then fifty-four years old.

In the introduction to his book St. Alphonsus writes, ‘ I have seen innumerable works of all sizes, which treat of the glories of Mary, but finding that they were either rare, voluminous, or did not answer the object I had in mind, I endeavoured to collect from as many authors as I could lay my hands on, the choicest passages, extracted from Fathers and theologians, and those which seem to me to be the most to the point, and have put them together in this book, in order that the devout may with little trouble and expense be able to inflame themselves with the love of Mary, and more particularly to furnish priests with matter for their sermons, wherewith to excite others to devotion towards this divine Mother.’

That everyone may be persuaded how important it is, both for his own good and that of others, to promote devotion towards  Mary, it is useful to know what theologians say on the subject.

St Bonaventure says that those who make a point of announcing to others the glories of Mary are certain of heaven;  and this opinion is confirmed by Richard of St.Laurence,  who declares, “that to honour this Queen of Angels is to gain eternal life”; and he adds, “that this most gracious Lady will honour in the next world those who honour her in this”.  And who is ignorant of the promise made by Mary herself, in the words of Ecclesiastes, to those who endeavour to make her known and loved here below, “they that explain me shall have life everlasting”, for this passage is applied to her by the Church, in the office of the Immaculate Conception.  “Rejoice then,” exclaims St Bonaventure   (who did so much to make the glories of Mary known), “rejoice my soul, and be glad in her; for many good things are prepared for those who praise her”; and he says that the whole of the sacred Scriptures speak in praise of Mary:  let us therefore always with our heart and tongue, honour this divine Mother, in order that we may be conducted by her into the kingdom of the blessed.”

‘The devout Blosius declares that “she is the only refuge of those who have offended God, the asylum of all who are oppressed by temptation, calamity, or persecution.  This Mother is all mercy, benignity, and sweetness, not only to the just but also to despairing sinners;  so that no sooner does she perceive them coming to her, and seeking her health from their hearts, than she aids them, welcomes them, and obtains their pardon from her Son.  She knows not how to despise anyone,  however unworthy he may be of mercy, and therefore denies her protection to none;   she consoles all, and is no sooner called upon than she helps whoever it may be that invokes her.  She by her sweetness often awakens and draws sinners to her devotion who are the most at enmity with God and the most deeply plunged in the lethargy of sin;  and then, by the same means, she excites them effectually, and prepares them for grace, and thus renders them fit for the kingdom of heaven.  God has created this his beloved daughter of so compassionate and sweet a disposition, that no one can fear to have recourse to her.”  The pious author concludes in these words: “ It is impossible for any one to perish who attentively and with humility, cultivates devotion towards this  divine Mother.”

Basil of Seleucia encourages sinners, saying, “O sinner, be not discouraged, but have recourse to Mary in all thy necessities; call her to thine assistance, for thou wilt always find her ready to help thee;  for such is the divine will that she should help all in every kind of necessity.”

The Blessed Virgin herself revealed to St Bridget, 'that there is no sinner in the world, however much he may be at enmity with God, who does not return to Him and recover his grace, if he has recourse to her and asks her assistance.'  The same St Bridget one day heard Jesus Christ address His mother, and say that 'she would be ready to obtain the grace of God for Lucifer himself, if only he humbled himself so far as to seek her aid.'  That proud spirit will never humble himself so far as to implore the protection of Mary; but if such a thing were possible, Mary would be sufficiently compassionate, and her prayers would have sufficient power to obtain both forgiveness and salvation for him from God.  But that which cannot be verified with regard to the devil, is verified in the case of sinners who have recourse to this compassionate mother.

It was then, not without reason that St Bernard addressed the Blessed Virgin, saying, “Thou, O Lady, does not reject any sinner who approaches thee, however loathsome and repugnant he may be.  If he asks thy assistance, thou dost not disdain to extend thy compassionate hand to him, to extricate him from the gulf of despair.”   May our God be eternally blessed and thanked, O most amiable Mary, for having created thee so sweet and benign, even towards the most miserable sinners!  Truly unfortunate is he who loves thee not, and who, having it in his power to obtain thy assistance, has no confidence in thee.  He who has not recourse to Mary is lost; but who was ever lost that had recourse to the most Blessed Virgin?
                                                               ****************

The above extracts are but a taste of the spiritual riches to be found in the 'Glories of Mary'. 

The whole book is divided into five sections:-
Part the First, an explanation of the  'Salve Regina' (Hail Holy Queen), divided into ten chapters, each concentrated on separate aspects of Our Lady as recited in the prayer.

Part the Second, with Discourses on the Principal Feasts of Mary  1. Mary's Immaculate Conception.
2. The Birth of Mary.  3.The Presentation of Mary.  4.  The Annunciation of Mary.  5. The Visitation of Mary.  6.  The Purification of Mary.  7. The Assumption of Mary.  8. Second discourse on the Assumption of Mary. 

Part the Third, the Dolours of Mary - Reflections on each of the seven dolours of Mary.  1. St Simeons prophecy.  2.  The flight of Jesus into Egypt.  3.  The loss of Jesus in the Temple.  4. The meeting of Mary and Jesus when He was carrying His Cross to Calvary.  5.  The death of Jesus.     6.  The piercing of the side of Jesus and His taking down from the cross. 7.  The burial of Jesus.

Part the Fourth, the Virtues of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary - 1. Mary's humility.  2. Mary's love of God.  3.  Mary's love of her neighbour. 4. Mary's faith.  5.  Mary's hope.  6.  Mary's chastity.
7.  Mary's poverty.  8.  Mary's obedience. 9. Mary's patience. 10. The spirit of prayer and meditation in Mary. 

 Part the Fifth, practices of devotion in honour of the Divine Mother - 1. The Hail Mary.
2. Novenas.  3. The Rosary and the Office of our Blessed Lady. 4.  Fasting.  5.  The visiting of the images of Mary.  6.  The scapular.  7.  The confraternities of our Blessed Lady. 8. The alms given in Mary's honour.  9. Frequent recourse to Mary. 10. Several other practices in honour of Mary.

                                               St Alphonsus de Liguori (1696-1787)

  

'Orate Fratres'- Rev Bernard Basset S.J.

Nearly seventy years ago, I was a young teenager attending Wimbledon College in south-west London, a State aided Grammar School for boys run by the Jesuits. Whilst there I had the good fortune to attend a Retreat for our age group, given by Father Bernard Basset S.J., a much sought after Retreat Master. I found his talks on the Faith stimulating, clear and balanced, and sprinkled always with a generous dressing of humour.

                Recently I came across a second-hand, small paper-back book, entitled ‘The Seven Deadly Virtues and Other Stories’ by Bernard Basset S.J., published by Sands & Co., which I am reading and thoroughly enjoying.

                I reproduce one of the stories, ‘Orate Fratres’, which I hope that you enjoy as much as I do.

               

‘Orate Fratres’

‘The early morning Mass was over.  The minute server had extinguished the last of the very tall candles, and had retired to the sacristy carrying the missal, the cruets, the altar cards and the extinguisher.  He had not dropped anything but he had gone off rattling like a four wheeler, and the sound of voices in the sacristy led one to believe that the sacristan had told him not once but a hundred times not to do that again.

                Mrs Reid liked to hear the voices in the distance.  It made the church seem less empty and it filled up part of the thanksgiving time.  Mind you, she did not tell herself this in so many words, but it was a fact all the same.

                The church was now very dim and peaceful, and Mrs Reid felt that the moment had come to get down to her prayers, but much as she loved the Lord she could not get started.  What with the - ‘Jimmy Mason’ film she had seen yesterday, and the candles all askew on the high altar, she could neither open nor shut her eyes without distraction. She took up her missal and glanced hurriedly through it, but it was too much like a Bradshaw to give her any consolation except on the very biggest and most straight- forward feasts.  Besides it had a map of the Roman Basilicas at the beginning, and only yesterday she had found herself on the Appian Way when the Sanctus bell sounded.  Mrs Reid shut her missal with a bang.

                Her knees were hurting and so she decided to sit down, but this manoeuvre hurled her umbrella to the ground.  Heavens, how the rubber band at the top was worn!  She would buy another on the way to the oculist and would also have the button sewn on properly.  Mrs Reid picked it up and began to roll it up when she suddenly recalled that she was in church.

                “Gracious me, what am I up to?” she whispered, horrified, as she clapped down the umbrella and picked up her other prayer book.  “Dear Lord, forgive me, what can I say to You?”

                She always brought the other prayer book to church every day though she never knew why.  It was stuffed with holy pictures and mortuary cards, and one or two less pious objects.  There was a bus ticket and a list of successful candidates  for the London Matriculation.  Her boy had passed well and his name was underlined in red. Last Sunday by mistake she had taken out the cutting during Benediction, and without thinking had started to read through all the names.

                She had got down to the Ks when she saw that odious Miss Perkins looking at her across the aisle.  On that occasion she had audibly whispered  a ‘Glory be to the Father’ and made a Sign of the Cross before putting the cutting away, just to teach the other not to judge her neighbours, but now she felt it was playing with fire to get near the Matriculation results again.

                So Mrs Reid fell back on her rosary.  She fished it out from her coat pocket – no, it was in her bag after all, funny – and settled down to say her beads.  She started correctly but after a few minutes the beads were shooting by too quickly.  Hail Marys cannot be said at that speed.  Mrs Reid pulled herself up.  Where was she, not at the third mystery already?  Why she didn’t remember whether it was the Joyful or the Glorious.

                “Dear Lord, I’m hopeless,” she said for the hundredth time before going off on to another distraction.

                There was the Canon kneeling on the other side of the church making his thanksgiving after Mass.  He knelt so still, with bowed head and joined hands. Never a movement.  Mrs Reid stared at him quite openly.

                “Dear Lord,”” she said, “I’m hopeless at prayer; if only I could pray like the Canon.  He is a priest so I suppose it is easier for him, because they are taught how to pray in the seminaries.  I expect he is having a vision at this very moment.  Dear Lord, I am so useless, can’t I pray like that?”

                Mrs Reid put down her rosary, joined her hands, shut her eyes and tried to pray like the Canon.

                Yes, the Canon knelt very still, and he kept his eyes shut, but that was because he had been taught at the seminary that it was not hypocrisy but good example to look devout even when he did not feel it.  But as he knelt there his mind wandered from the leak in the roof of St Joseph’s chapel to the Archbishop’s cold, and from the archiepiscopal cold to the way his server sniffed during Mass.  Really he must summon up courage to tell the boy even if it led to an attack of sulks and no server for a week.  Perhaps he could ask Mrs Reid to say the responses , she was always regular in the mornings.  The Canon knew she was here now for he could hear her rosary rattling against the bench.

                “Dear Lord,” said the Canon, “I’m hopeless.  Here I am wandering about thinking of roofs and sniffs when I should be thanking You for the honour given me each morning of holding in my hands the living God.  Here am I, a useless shepherd, wasting my time thinking of money and temporal trivialities, while one of my own parishioners is praying as I ought to be.  O Lord, if only I could pray like Mrs Reid.  I’m hopeless.”

                The old Canon fumbled in his pocket and drew out his rosary beads.

                And from on high the Son of God looked down on them with love, for although He now enjoys eternity, He has not forgotten just how long a quarter of an hour can be.  And just as it is the time and trouble taken that makes a letter from a friend so welcome, so it is the time and trouble taken that makes prayer acceptable to God.  For prayer is not unlike a letter to a loved one, beginning with a big Beloved and then skipping from triviality to triviality till it reaches the triumphant conclusion “Yours very devotedly”.  This is what pleases God.’

Ack. ‘The Seven Deadly Virtues, and Other Stories’ by Rev Bernard Bassett S.J. (published by Sands & Co. – with permission to publish in book form  from  Stella Maris and Southwark Record in which they first appeared.)

'As the Little Child' - Rev D. Considine S.J.(1925)

The following extract is taken from ‘Delight in the Lord’, notes of Spiritual Direction and Exhortation by Rev Daniel Considine S.J. , published in 1925 by Burns, Oates, & Washbourne Ltd.

The article is taken from a Retreat given by Father Considine to I think cloistered nuns, but his deeply spiritual exhortations  surely apply to us all.

‘The world is utterly mistaken when it thinks of the service of God as dull and gloomy.  It is a service most full of joy. God tells us we are to “delight in the Lord,” and he never tells us to do what is impossible. When Our Lord was on Earth , he was not morose or hard to please; he was the most delightful of companions. We can see this from the Gospels. He could not get the crowds to leave him alone. They thronged him on every side so that he had not so much as time to eat. His disciples were perfectly happy in his society and wanted nothing else. …………’

                 

                  'Christ with children'  by Carl H Bloch 

‘When the Apostles wanted to know who were the great ones in God’s Kingdom, Our Lord set before them as the model of the highest sanctity, a little child.

                If you want to please Our Lord and to be very near to him, take him completely at his word, as he meant to be taken, and be really as a little child with him and with others.

               1. Little children are simple and direct. They say exactly what they think without pose or affectation. Do you say things exactly as they are to God? He loves straightforwardness and simplicity. So if you have done wrong tell him so – own up simply and courageously, like a trusting child, and he will love you all the more for it. Don’t be making excuses or finding reasons to palliate your fault.

                2. Little children are perfectly confiding and trustful. They believe whatever you tell them and expect you to keep your promises. So believe in Our Lord as a little child believes in its father and mother. Look upon him as absolutely and infinitely wise, powerful and loving, as indeed he is, and expect from him all sorts of wonderful surprises and you will get them. Believe firmly that he will keep his promises, and you will see their fulfilment.

                3. A little child does not attempt to provide for itself – has no anxious foresight. So lean on God and look to him for everything. Don’t trust in your own strength or wisdom or judgement any more than a tiny child does, but say, “The Lord rules me, and I shall want for nothing.”

                4. Little children obey unquestioningly and don’t expect to understand everything. So be pliable in the hands of God, following his appointments without attempting to understand them. Go trustfully wherever he leads you. Don’t arrange things for yourself, but let him fashion your life and make you holy in his own way.

                5. Little children recover quickly from their faults and their other troubles. When they do wrong and are reprimanded, they kiss their father and mother, and a minute later they have forgotten all about it and are quite at their ease with them. So never have any misgivings about God’s forgiveness, his tenderness, his love. Recover quickly from your faults. Tell Our Lord you are sorry, and then forget all about it and go on as if nothing had happened. Little children never worry themselves wondering if their parents will ever be the same towards them again, whether they will love and take care of them as much as before. Such doubts never enter their heads. They take their forgiveness as a matter of course, and it only serves to make their loving relations with their parents stronger and more intimate than ever.

                6. Little children run to their parents in all their troubles and fears – and confide in them and look to them to put everything right. Never be so foolish as to imagine that any difficulty of character or circumstances, or any mistake you have made, is beyond the goodness and wisdom and power of your heavenly Father. God is ten thousand times more willing to help you than you are to be helped. But you must make it possible by trusting him.

                7. Little children are open-hearted and affectionate, and if their baby caresses and words of love are a joy to their parents, so are our affectionate words and thoughts pleasing to our most loving and tender-hearted Lord.

                8. Little children are affectionate and friendly to all. They are without suspicion or guile. Everyone is a friend to them. They have no ulterior motives- but are frank and open-hearted – so ought we to be with others.

                9. Little children are joyous and easily pleased – full of wonderment, fresh and happy. So let us be happy and delighted with God’s wonderful love and the magnificent gifts he gives us, and rejoice in his service like loving children.

                                        If our love were but more simple

                                        We should take him at his word

                                        And our lives would be all sunshine

                                        In the sweetness of Our Lord.

               

             10. Little children are not critical. They accept circumstances and people unquestioningly, because they know no better. Everything seems all right to them. If only we could be content to look with their trustful, uncritical gaze on everything which it is not our direct duty to attend to, knowing that God is overall, that he is wiser and more powerful than we can understand, and that he can be trusted with the management of his own creation.’

                                            ***************

 ‘Come, ye monarchs and emperors, come, all ye princes of the world, come and adore your highest King, who for love of you is now born, and born in such poverty in a cave. But who appears?  No one.  The Son of God has indeed come into the world; but the world will not acknowledge him.’

     ‘Thoughts from St Alphonsus’  by  Rev C McNeiry C.SS.R.’

                          

                

       "Wishing one and all a very blessed and happy New Year"

Father William Doyle S.J. (1873-1917) - good priest, courageous man, true shepherd of souls.

The article below was first posted ten years ago, on 19th October, 2008, on my blog 'whitesmokeahoy'. I feel it appropriate to remind ourselves of this holy and courageous priest, a true shepherd of his flock. 

   Father William Doyle S.J. (1873-1917)

Good day friends of the Pro Papa League.

We have recently received the latest edition of ‘Catholic’ published by the F.SS.R Transalpine Redemptorists, Golgotha Monastery, Papa Stronsay. This is the first edition published since the reconciliation with Rome, and it maintains the high standards that we have come to expect over the years. There is an excellent editorial by Fr Michael Mary FSSR, Superior General, together with the usual wide range of learned and interesting articles, Church news past and present, announcements, photographs, quiz, etc. I fully recommend this publication, which maintains its traditional Catholic ethos, to those who have not yet subscribed. Each edition of ‘Catholic’ includes a book of specifically Catholic interest, abridged and reprinted in soft-back format, produced by ‘The Desert Will Flower’ Press. The latest book is ‘Trench Priest, The Life of Fr William Doyle, S.J.’ This is the abridged biography of an Irish Jesuit priest who died in 1917, aged 44 years, nr Ypres, on the battlefields of Belgium, whilst serving as Chaplain to several Irish regiments. This book vividly brings to life the selfless devotion and courage shown by Fr Doyle in the terrible blood-bath and horror of the Western Front, an account of heroic faith and true charity which genuinely brought tears to my eyes. The deep faith, trust in God, selfless love for others of whatever creed, courage, and devotion to duty, exhibited by Fr Doyle in all circumstances, shines like a beacon in the darkness of hell. It is only possible to include here a few extracts from this absorbing book, but it is appropriate to do so, particularly as we will soon be in November, the month of ‘All Saints’ and the ‘Holy Souls’, and I have absolutely no doubt that ‘Fr William Doyle S.J.’ is inscribed on the Roll of Honour for both.

‘All through the worst hours an Irish Padre went about among the dead and dying, giving Absolution to his boys. Once he came back to headquarters, but he would not take a bite of food or stay, though his friends urged him. He went back to the field to minister to those who were glad to see him, bending over them in their last agony. Four men were killed by shell-fire as he knelt beside them, and he was not touched – not touched until his own turn came. A shell burst close by, and the Padre fell dead’ ( Philip Gibbs, in the Daily Chronicle and Daily Telegraph)

‘The Orangemen will not forget a certain Roman Catholic chaplain who lies in a soldier’s grave in that sinister plain beyond Ypres. He went forward and back over the battlefield with bullets whining about him, seeking out the dying and kneeling in the mud beside them to give them Absolution, walking with death with a smile on his face , watched by his men with reverence and a kind of awe until a shell burst near him and he was killed. His familiar figure was seen and welcomed by hundreds of Irishmen who lay in that bloody place. Each time he came back across the field he was begged to remain in comparative safety. Smilingly he shook his head and went again into the storm. He had been with his boys at Ginchy and through other times of stress, and he would not desert them in their agony. They remember him as a saint – they speak his name with tears’ (Percival Phillips, in the Daily Express and Morning Post)

‘Fr Doyle felt fear deeply. He had a highly- strung nervous system and a vivid imagination that visualised danger fully, and realised the risk before him – all the physical elements of cowardice were his. He went out to perils, not at the word of command that meant death to disobey, not with the lust of battle surging in his veins and sweeping him along with a primitive savage longing to kill, not in the company of cheering, sustaining comrades. Fr Doyle had no word of command but his conscience and his sense of duty. He had no violent emotions to blind him to danger. Usually he had no comrade to bear him company save grim Death, who walked very close to him at times. It may sound a paradox, but it is perfect truth: Fr Doyle was the biggest coward in the 16th Division, and the bravest man in the British Army! An even more striking description was given by one of his men,, who declared emphatically that Fr Doyle was ‘the bravest man in the war’. (A Colonel who knew him intimately)

Fr Doyle was awarded the Military Cross at the battle of the Somme,, recommended for the D.S.O. at Wytschaete, and the Victoria Cross at Frezenberg. Though recommended for the VC by his Commanding Officer, by his Brigadier, and by General Hickie, commander of 16th Division, ‘superior authority’ did not agree. Possibly the fact that he was an Irish Roman Catholic priest influenced the decision of those ‘superior authorities’? Beyond the tributes of this world, numerous favours and cures have been attributed to his intercession, and to the use of his relics. I cannot recommend this book highly enough. To order please use the ‘Transalpine Redemptorist’ link on my sidebar which will take you straight to their blogsite.

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More from ‘Thoughts from St Alphonsus’ by Rev C McNeiry CSSR

‘Humiliation is the touchstone of sanctity. You will acquire
more merit by meekly receiving an affront, than by fasting ten
days on bread and water.’ (October 24th)         And

‘Ecclesiasticus says that her bonds are a healthful binding,
and that in the latter end thou shalt find rest in her. You will
be indeed fortunate if at death you are bound with the sweet
chains of the love of the Mother of God. These chains are chains
of salvation.’ (November 17th)
All ye holy angels and saints, guide and protect our Holy Father Pope Benedict XVIth
O Holy Mother of Christ, pray for our Holy Father and for us thy children.

 Much has happened in the Church over the past ten years. We enjoyed many blessings during the papacy of Pope Benedict XVI, most importantly the 'Motu Proprio' (2007) which confirmed that the traditional Latin Mass prior to Vatican II had never been abolished, and that priests were free to celebrate this Mass whenever they wished without the need to first obtain the permission of their bishop. The Ordinariate was officially set up which has brought many good clerics and laity into the Church, with many ordained as Catholic priests, and the Ordinariate playing an increasingly active and important role in the life of the Catholic Church in England and Wales. This spiritually invigorating state of affairs came to an abrupt halt with the unexpected resignation/retirement of Pope Benedict XVI in 2013, and the advent of a new papacy under Pope Francis. We know what has happened over the past five years; the papal attack on Church tradition in all its forms; the disgraceful political machinations in the Synod on the Family; the selection of certain bishops and cardinals known to share the Pope's views on various matters, not least the  LGBT influence within  the Church; the ambiguous wording of papal encyclicals opening the door to sacrilegious practice regarding receipt of Holy Communion by those in invalid 'marriages'; aggressive persecution of any opposition to papal authority eg. the Knights of Malta fiasco; the sexual abuse scandal in the Church, particularly in Vatican circles and in the upper hierarchy of the Church world-wide, which while clearly developing over several decades, has not been helped by the Pope's response, or to be precise his lack of response; also his choice of inner circle of advisers several of whom have themselves been subject to investigations for various matters;  the financial scandals which have been under scrutiny for many years, the latest involving a thirteen million dollar donation to a Vatican hospital already suspected of serious financial mismanagement. The list goes on, and as we approach the final days of the Youth Synod, one wonders what surprises lie in store. Rumour has it, and it may be no more than rumour, that Pope Francis plans to introduce a new form of the Mass sympathetic to Protestant thinking, originally devised by Pope Paul VI during Vatican II, but not actually celebrated.  Throughout this pontificate it would seem that Pope Francis has little time for tradition within the Church, instead steering the barque of Peter into the dark and dangerous waters of contemporary thinking, sowing cockle in the wheat-fields of the Faith. We will not lose heart, for we know from Our Lord’s words the outcome of the parable of the cockle and the wheat, and we also know from Our Lord that a good tree will bring forth good fruit, and a bad tree bad fruit. Future generations will be aware of the history of this pontificate with all its ramifications, and will make their own judgment. I fully accept, respect and honour the See of Peter, and pray for the incumbent whoever that may be. However, humanly speaking, I do not hold all incumbents in the same esteem, if at all.