Proclaim an Holy Year for Nuns!

As the Holy Year for Priests comes to a close, it is surely time to turn our minds to another section of the members of the Church that has been an essential part of our Catholic heritage since the first days of the Church and a source of countless blessings, namely consecrated virgins and widows. Therefore, dear reader, we urge you to ask Ecclesiastical Authorities to dedicate a special year to give thanks to God for Nuns and to pray for Nuns and for more Nuns.

Please proclaim an Holy Year for Nuns!

St. Conleth's Catholic Heritage Association proposes to keep such a year from 1st February next, the feast of St. Brigid of Ireland.

Ora pro populo, interveni pro clero, intercede pro devoto femineo sexu!

Procession for the Immaculate Conception

A Torchlight Procession in honour of Mary Immaculate to take place in Rome on 8th December, 2009, at 7 p.m., for the feast of the Immaculate Conception. The pilgrim statue of Our Lady of Fatima will be carried n the Torchlight Procession 'aux flambeaux,' through the Via del Corse, presided over by a Cardinal.

The procession will leave the Church of Gesù e Maria at 45, Via del Corso, (in front of San Giacomo) and will arrive at 8 p.m. at the Basilica of Santa Maria sopra Minerva for Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament.

Information can be obtained from Canonico Don Giuseppe Luzuy of the Institute of Christ the King, Sovereign Priest:

Tel./fax: 06 66 24 922
Cell: 335 345 163
e-mail: roma@icrsp.org

Rev. William Doyle, S.J., M.C.

The Year of Vocations has ended and the Holy Year for Priests is about to begin. In the brief interim, let us pause to remember Fr. William Doyle, of the Society of Jesus, awarded the Military Cross for his work as a Chaplain in the trenches of World War I.

Fr. Doyle is worth remembering not only for his own saintly, 'though some would say imprudent, example, nor for his heroic zeal for souls most especially during the greatest soul harvest that the world had, until then, seen, but also for the depth and richness of his spiritual writings.

In particular, we wish to remember his work entitled: Vocations. This work, while not about traditional vocations in the modern sense, in that it relates not to the traditionalist ghetto but to the soul in relation to Eternity, and, to be fair, it is equally applicable to vocations within the Church but outside of the ghetto. However, for the soul in discernment, it is a spiritual treasure to be consumed and made one's own.

At the same time, Fr. Doyle's Prayer for Priests is surely not only a powerful call upon the Treasury of Heaven for God's Ministers but equally an edifying and enlightening text worthy of much and deep meditation upon the nature of the Catholic Priesthood.

The vita by Professor Alfred O'Rahilly is a spiritual classic. In summary, Professor O'Rahilly writes: "William Joseph Gabriel Doyle was born in Dalkey, a suburb of Dublin, in Ireland on March 3, 1873. He was the youngest of seven children, four boys and three girls, out of which two boys became Jesuits, another died a few days before his priestly ordination and one of the three girls became a Sister of Mercy: four vocations out of seven children."

"He entered the Jesuit Novitiate at the age of 18 after reading St. Alphonsus’ book “Instructions and Consideration on the Religious State”. Soon after his ordination in 1907, his superiors appointed him on the mission staff for five years. From 1908 to 1925, he gave no less than 152 missions and retreats. His fame as preacher, confessor and spiritual director spread wide and far, and he had a special gift to hunt out the most hardened and neglected sinners and to bring them back with him to the church for confession."

"In the midst of such an active apostolate, he maintained a fervent spiritual life of union with his Eucharistic Lord, offering himself as a victim for the salvation of souls with the Divine Victim.
He was finally appointed during World War I chaplain of the 16th Irish Division at the front in November 1915 and having fulfilled his priestly duties in an outstanding fashion for almost two years, he was killed in the Battle of Ypres on August 16, 1917, having run “all day hither and thither over the battlefield like an angel of mercy.” This good shepherd truly gave his life for his sheep."

Ordo for the Extraordinary Form

by Gregor Kollmorgen

NLM friend Daniele Di Sorco of the Rinascimento Sacro blog has written in to let us know that he has composed a 2009 Liturgical Directory for the usus antiquior. The Liturgical Directory or Ordo recitandi is a calendar for the year, in which there are printed against each day concise directions concerning the Office and Mass to be said on that day. This directory follows the traditional model in every respect, including being written entirely in Latin. It is composed according to the calendar of the Universal Church, and seems to be, from what I have seen, quite excellent. In its 60 page introduction it contains a wealth of information regarding, among other things, tables for the moveable feasts and days and their proclamation in the Mass of the Epiphany, concise schemes of the different kinds of offices and where their parts are taken from, the different kinds of votive Masses and Masses for the dead, useful decisions by the SCR (e.g. about when the Leonine prayers can be omitted).

Here are some sample pages to give you an idea (click to enlarge):





The Directory can be bought at Lulu.com, either for download (€ 4.99, i.e. about $ 7.20) or as a book (€ 14.99, i.e. about $ 21.60).

(reproduced from The New Liturgical Movement)

New Edition of the Roman Breviary Ready to Order

by Gregor Kollmorgen

The website about the new edition of the Breviarium Romanum is now online at http://www.breviariumromanum.com complete with an order form.

This is the new edition I first mentioned in this post. While the website offers all the information you want, I'll just highlight a few things.

The Breviary fully complies with the rubrics of the usus antiquior, i.e. the codex rubricarum of 1960, and is canonically approved by the Bishop of Eichstätt, Germany.

The text of the psalms is that of the Vulgate (Gallican psalter).

It comes in two volumes in flexible leather covers, which I find a particularly practical feature which is sadly only rarely found in books these days:


It is a newly typeset edition (not a reprint), arranged in the traditional, two-column Breviary layout, and will have several other traditional features of the art of liturgical book-binding, arrangement and typesetting in the tradition of the great German liturgical publisher, Friedrich Pustet.



You can download more sample pages here.

It will also include four insert cards for each volume with the most frequent texts.

The price for the complete set will be EUR 198, i.e. as per today USD 252.28, plus shipping.

Now this Breviary edition is expected to be ready for shipping by the end of November/early December. Orders will be carried out in the order of their placement. Early orders should therefore arrive in time for Christmas even in the US by airmail.

In the interest of full disclosure I will again say that I have been involved in this project, although in a very minor role, by proofreading; my interest, however, is entirely liturgical, I will not receive any remuneration form the proceeds whatsoever.

You can read the preface to the Breviary by His Excellency the Most Reverend Gregor Maria Hanke OSB, Bishop of Eichstätt, here.

(reproduced from The New Liturgical Movement)

New Edition of the Breviarium Romanum, with Imprimatur

by Gregor Kollmorgen


I am very happy to announce that an excellent new edition of the Breviarium Romanum, the Divine Office of the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite as permitted to all clerics bound to the Office per Art. 9 para. 3 of the motu proprio Summorum Pontificum, is going to be published by the German Catholic publisher, Nova et Vetera, in cooperation with the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter. Significantly, this new edition has received the Imprimatur (ecclesiastical approval) of a German bishop.

A special website with all information and an order form will soon go online. In the mean time, here is some "preview" information:

The Breviary will fully comply with the rubrics of the usus antiquior, i.e. the codex rubricarum of 1960.

The text of the psalms will be that of the Vulgate (Gallican psalter).

It will come in two volumes in flexible leather covers. It will be a newly typeset edition (not a reprint), arranged in the traditional, two-column Breviary layout, and will have several other traditional features of the art of liturgical book-binding.

It will also include four insert cards for each volume with the most frequent texts.

The price for the complete set will be EUR 198, i.e. as per today USD 272.69, plus shipping.

Now this Breviary edition is expected to be ready for shipping by the end of November/early December. Once the order form is online, orders will be carried out in the order of their placement. Early orders should therefore arrive in time for Christmas even in the US by airmail. As soon as the website is up, I will let you know.


(reposted from The New Liturgical Movement)

World Day of Prayer for Vocations

Sunday, April 13th is World Day of Prayer for Vocations:

"The Church prays everyday to the Holy Spirit for the gift of vocations. Gathered around the Virgin Mary, Queen of the Apostles, as in the beginning, the ecclesial community learns from her how to implore the Lord for a flowering of new apostles, alive with the faith and love that are necessary for the mission."

-- Pope Benedict XVI

Chris at the Catholic Converts blog is organising a 24 Hour Rosary for Vocations. He is therefore looking for a minumum of 24 people to each take a different hour of the day to pray the Holy Rosary for Vocations.

You can find out more about this effort at the blog. Please pray for holy Priests, monks and nuns!