NATIVITAS DOMINI NOSTRI
IESU CHRISTI
Dear Friends and
Benefactors of the Society in Ireland,
The
commemoration of Our Lord's birth presents the Christian people with
a yearly opportunity to exchange greetings and good wishes for
Christmas and for the New Year. It is with added sentiments of
gratitude and devotion that your priests at St. Pius X House, Corpus
Christi Priory, and St. John's Presbytery extend those greetings to
you and to your dear ones. Have a Holy Christmas in the company of
the Holy Family, and a prosperous New Year to serve God better than
ever before.
Many among
you still remember the great solemnities which marked this holy
season in the Catholic parishes of old; I doubt that even a fraction
of them continue in the modern churches, devastated by the
liturgical reformations issued from the Second Vatican Council.
One of
those most moving customs, which we maintain in St. John's Church
here in Dun Laoghaire, is the arrival of the Divine Infant, just
before Midnight Mass, carried reverently by the celebrant who,
vested with a golden cope and covered with a precious humeral veil,
places Him in the humble crib, incenses Him thrice, and welcomes Him
among the expecting faithful with the venerable words of the Roman
Breviary in the office of Christmas Eve, the Calenda:
The
Eighth of the Calends of January. The year from the creation of the
world, when in the beginning God created heaven and earth, five
thousand one hundred and ninety-nine. From the deluge, the year two
thousand nine hundred and fifty-seven. From the birth of Abraham,
the year two thousand and fifteen. From Moses and the going out of
the people of Israel from Egypt, the year one thousand five hundred
and ten. From David's being anointed king, the year one thousand and
thirty-two. In the sixty-fifth week according to the prophecy of
Daniel. In the one hundred and ninety-fourth Olympiad. From the
building of the city of Rome, the year seven hundred and fifty-two.
In the forty-second year of the reign of Octavian Augustus. The
whole world being in peace; in the sixth age of the world; Jesus
Christ, the eternal God, and Son of the eternal Father, wishing to
consecrate this world by his most merciful coming, being conceived
of the Holy Ghost, and nine months since his conception having
passed; in Bethlehem of Judah is born of the Virgin Mary, being made
Man: the Nativity of Our Lord Jesus Christ according to the flesh!
From the
basilica of the Nativity in Bethlehem to the smallest convent
chapel, the priests and the faithful around the world expressed,
every 25th of December, the true spirit of Christmas, and proclaimed
some of the most dear truths of our Faith: Jesus Christ is the Son
of God made flesh; true God and true Man, He suffered for mankind to
achieve our redemption; Mary is the Immaculate Virgin, Mother of
God, who, with great Saint Joseph, intercedes for us before the
Almighty; the Holy Family teaching us by the way of example that
humility, detachment, and trust in God's Providence are the source
of heavenly joy.
My dear
friends, teach these truths to your children, keep those precious
traditions of our Catholic Faith within your homes, and pass them on
to the next generation. Our Christmas will then be far from the
materialistic and sentimental approach of today; a real Christmas
centred in Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, a celebration of intimate joy
adorned and inspired by the adoring angels and shepherds, instead of
a worldly season presided by the ghastly Coca-Cola "Santa Claus" who
is quickly replacing Jesus Christ incarnate, as the ecumenical
impostor that justifies and gives sense to a fraudulent Christmas
without Christ, without Mary and Joseph.
Among what
I call my "Irish readings" I treasure the small book of Fr.
Augustine, Ireland's Loyalty to the Mass, where I have learned so
much about the heroic Catholic resistance in our island; never a
nation has suffered so much specifically for the defence of the Holy
Sacrifice of the Mass. The paragraphs that touched the most my heart
of priest describe a clandestine Midnight Mass celebrated in a home
by a Franciscan bishop, in the heat of the persecution:
Night
was now advancing, and proximate preparations had to be made for the
great Event to which so many hearts had been looking forward through
all the previous hours, and which could be celebrated only by
stealth. Just as the middle of the night approached, the mitred son
of the Poor Man of Assisi, was at the altar, and the Holy Sacrifice
of the Mass began. Heads were bowed in reverent prayers, and all
were strangely stirred at hearing once more the loved words that
ushered in the proscribed Rite: Introibo ad altare Dei.
Soon a band of
players struck the chords of their instruments, and a flood of
melody filled the room. The Divine Mysteries proceeded, accompanied
by the harps, and the emotions of those around can be better
imagined than described. Every soul was thrilled, every eye was
moist, every heart was raised in thanksgiving, as memories of near
two thousand years came back illumined with "the brightness of God,"
and vibrating with the command of the angel: "Fear not; for, behold,
I bring you good tidings of great joy."
Thus in County Roscommon, in the kindly house of the O'Conors of
Balanagare, with persecution active around them, a small company of
faithful souls welcomed the Divine Babe of Bethlehem at midnight
Mass, on the Christmas Eve of 1726.
It sounds
familiar. Still today the tridentine Mass is a rarity, often to be
celebrated regularly in cold rented halls, or in the simplicity of
private homes, by travelling priests ministering to travelling
faithful who, in so many ways, are the object of unjust exclusion
and condemnation, only because of their fidelity to this very Mass.
We accept
this persecution without waiving, sure of our rights to worship just
as our ancestors did, and we face impassively every unjust
condemnation. On our staunch fidelity depends the return of the Mass
to all the altars of Christendom. This is why the priests and
faithful of the Society of St. Pius X ask respectfully from the Holy
Father, as the prelude to a normalization of the present state of
affairs, an official declaration that will allow every priest to
offer freely and without fear of retribution the Holy Sacrifice
according to the tridentine Missale Romanum, "restored to the
original form and rite of the Holy Fathers," and forever canonized
by St. Pius V in the Apostolic Constitution Quo Primum on
July 14, 1570.
Let us
continue to pray and make sacrifices so that the New Year may see
this request fulfilled. With it will come a flood of graces to
reinvigorate the Church and the world.
Accept
our gratitude for all you do, spiritually and financially, to help
our apostolate in Ireland, and pray for vocations to the priestly
and religious life from the Island of the Saints.
With my
best priestly blessing, in the joy of the Holy Family at
Christmastide,
Father Ramón
Anglés
