December 2007 Archives

How about a new Missal from Baronius Press like this one in Burgundy leather?

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Traditional Catholic Calendar by the Slaves of the Immaculate Heart of Mary?

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On Sunday, December 9, 2007 the pastor of Our Lady of Perpetual Help, Fr. Meares, will say a Traditional Latin Mass at 4 PM at

Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church
328 Hammond Street
Rocky Mount, NC 27804
www.olphrm.com
252-972-0452

Call for more information.

Fr. Manning would like to announce the addition of a Traditional Latin Mass at:

Holy Cross Church
30 Ward Ave
Rumson, NJ 07760
732-842-0348

Wednesdays 12 noon

In the future Fr. Manning hopes to add a weekly Sunday Traditional Latin Mass. Please call the parish for more information.

An essay by G.K. Chesterton

"The place that the shepherds found was not an academy or an abstract republic; it was not a place of myths . . . explained or explained away. It was a place of dreams come true." Chesterton dwells upon the theme of Bethlehem in this excerpt from the book which many consider to be his masterpiece.

Traditions in art and literature and popular fable have quite sufficiently attested, as has been said, this particular paradox of the divine being in the cradle. Perhaps they have not so clearly emphasized the significance of the divine being in the cave. Curiously enough, indeed, tradition has not very clearly emphasised the cave. It is a familiar fact that the Bethlehem scene has been represented in every possible setting of time and country of landscape and architecture; and it is a wholly happy and admirable fact that men have conceived it as quite different according to their different individual traditions and tastes. But while all have realised that it was a stable, not so many have realised that it was a cave. Some critics have even been so silly as to suppose that there was some contradiction between the stable and the cave; in which case they cannot know much about caves or stables in Palestine. As they see differences that are not there it is needless to add that they do not see differences that are there. When a well-known critic says, for instance, that Christ being born in a rocky cavern is like Mithras having sprung alive out of a rock, it sounds like a parody upon comparative religion. There is such a thing as the point of a story, even if it is a story in the sense of a lie. And the notion of a hero appearing, like Pallas from the brain of Zeus, mature and without a mother, is obviously the very opposite of the idea of a god being born like an ordinary baby and entirely dependent on a mother. Whichever ideal we might prefer, we should surely see that they are contrary ideals. It is as stupid to connect them because they both contain a substance called stone as to identify the punishment of the Deluge with the baptism in the Jordan because they both contain a substance called water. Whether as a myth or a mystery, Christ was obviously conceived as born in a hole in the rocks primarily because it marked the position of one outcast and homeless....

 

True it's a day late so I have included two selections by the Holy Father, Pope Benedict XIV, both on the subject of liturgy.

"After the Second Vatican Council, the impression arose that the pope really could do anything in liturgical matters, especially if he were acting on the mandate of an ecumenical council. Eventually, the idea of the givenness of the liturgy, the fact that one cannot do with it what one will, faded from the public consciousness of the West. In fact, the First Vatican Council had in no way defined the pope as an absolute monarch. On the contrary, it presented him as the guarantor of obedience to the revealed Word. The pope's authority is bound to the Tradition of faith, and that also applies to the liturgy. It is not "manufactured" by the authorities. Even the pope can only be a humble servant of its lawful development and abiding integrity and identity. . . . The authority of the pope is not unlimited; it is at the service of Sacred Tradition. . . . The greatness of the liturgy depends - we shall have to repeat this frequently - on its unspontaneity.”

“Wherever applause breaks out in the liturgy because of some human achievement, it is a sure sign that the essence of liturgy has totally disappeared and been replaced by a kind of religious entertainment. Such attraction fades quickly - it cannot compete in the market of leisure pursuits, incorporating as it increasingly does various forms of religious titillation.”

His aspirations were sin ; and his meditations, the ruin of others. Covetous, selfish, uncharitable, he listened not to the wail of hunger nor the cry of distress. Now death approaches. Now there is not time enough. On his death-bed he entreats God's compassion. Yea, he who knew not pity, now turns to God. Will God receive this immoral, selfish wretch ? this person who boasted, " There was time enough " ? May not God's words written in the Book of Proverbs be verified : " I will laugh in your destruction, and will mock when that shall come to you which you feared." ( 1-26. )

Christmas Day 11:30 AM
New Year's Day, Feast of the Circumcision 11:30 AM
Epiphany, January 6, 2008 11:30 AM

Sacred Heart Church
291 Union Avenue
Laconia, New Hampshire 03246
603-524-5609

Pastor, Fr. Adrien Longchamps

Our Lady Queen of Peace Church
851 Old Esquimalt Rd
Victoria, British Columbia
CANADA  V9A 4W9

Call to confirm: 250-384-8036
office@qpop.ca
Fr. Alexander MacLellan

St Therese Church
209 South Lumina Ave
Wrightsville Beach, NC 28480

Beginning December 30, 2007, Traditional Latin Mass on the last Sunday of every month at 3:30PM.

Call 910-256-2471 or check the parish website for details at www.stthereseparish.net

Sacred Heart Cathedral
200 Hillsborough St  
Raleigh, NC 27603

Beginning on the Feast of the Epiphany, January 6, 2008 the Traditional Latin Mass will be said on the First Sunday of the Month at 4:30 PM.

Call 919-832-6030 or check the parish website at www.sacredheartcathedral.org for more information.

Excerpt from Wood of the Cradle, Wood of the Cross by Caryll Houselander. This book was first published in 1949 and is a beautiful book to read this time of year. To read some interesting biographical information about Miss Houselander, author, poet, mystic- go here.


The supreme expression on earth of the rhythmic Law of God is the Liturgy.

The poet is loved by his fellow men, because he gives them a voice; he gives words to the dumb love of the world and sings its song. The priest at the altar lifts the world's voice above the world to the feet of God. There is no universal emotion that is not given a voice in the Liturgy, no individual experience that is not in it like the words in a poem. Love, joy, mourning, contrition: all have their expression, and so to the stronger passion of the soul, the longing for the descent of the Spirit and the adoration of God....

The Liturgy expresses every passion, every experience, every emotion, of the human heart. It is the song of the whole world, but it is also much more: it is the song of Christ in man, the voice of the Mystical Body of Christ lifted up to God-- all our inarticulate longing and adoration, all our stammered, incoherent love, set in the tremendous meter of the Liturgy and lifted on the voice of Christ to our Heavenly Father.

All those things which manifest the beauty of the Law are integrated in the Liturgy: music, poetry, rhythm. The slow, majestic movements of the celebrant at the altar, the great Sign of the Cross, the deep obeisance, the lifting up and wise spreading of the arms-- all are ordered, measured, disciplined, to be the medium of Christ's adoration.

The words, new on the priest's tongue at every Mass, are the words that have worn deep grooves in the human mind through the ages, like the riverbeds worn in the rocks.

Prophecies of the budding forth of a Savior, uttered thousands and thousands of years ago, are still, today, promises of the flowering of the wilderness of the human heart.

Fr. John Berg, FSSP will be the guest on "The World Over Live" this Friday, December 14th at 8:00pm EST (reruns Saturday 1am, Sunday 4pm, Monday at 10am and 11pm).
Discussions will be about the TLM, the Motu Proprio and the FSSP training workshops.

Fr. Nicholas Milich is the pastor of St. Rose of Lima in Ephrata, Washington and was gracious enough, and at a very busy time of year, to give us an interview about what the Traditional Latin Mass means to him as a priest and what it means for the Church. I think you will agree that his answers are eloquently expressed and show a beautiful insight and understanding.

The word "Ephrata" may sound familiar to you. It is another name by which the town of Bethlehem is known.  And I understand that the hymn "Veni Emmanuel" was traditionally known as "Ephratah".

Fr. Milich offers that Traditional Latin Mass 4 times a week. For information about the schedule at St. Rose of Lima Church, please call the parish phone number at 509-754-3640.      

Part I of the Interview:

1. Fr. Milich, what does the Traditional Latin Mass mean to you as a priest and how does it reaffirm your priesthood?

Fr. Milich responds:

"I have come to depend upon the traditional Mass.  It is my anchor, and it is my constant challenge--can I live up to what this Mass requires of a priest? Saying this Mass is like a daily examination of conscience.  Somewhat like the traditional breviary, I believe, the traditional Mass is a rampart against challenges to our vocation.  Beyond that, way beyond that, really, way beyond my own feelings, there is an objective quality to the older Mass. This is our RITE.  And the rite itself is holy.  When you enter into it, you leave yourself behind, you enlist in the work of the communion of saints. It may be that others have that experience with the Novus Ordo. For me, the Older Mass has been necessary."

 

2. What would you say is the most striking difference between the Novus Ordo and the Traditional Latin Mass?

 

Fr. Milich responds:

"It may be that the most striking difference is that the Traditional Latin Mass is "prayable." Unless the Novus Ordo is offered privately, it is almost impossible to pray the Mass as I should. But even offered privately, the Novus Ordo simply does not seem to offer such a powerful contemplative plane, on which you can rest and commune with the Lord for a few moments. I am sure there are persons far holier than I am who can pray the Novus Ordo easily, but I need the older Mass. If that's a weakness, I accept it and give thanks to God for His gift of this Mass."

Photo by Mr. Ron Placzek

The following is a conclusion of my interview with Fr. Milich. If you missed Part I-  you can go here to read the beginning of the interview. Fr. Milich says the Traditional Mass four times a week at St. Rose of Lima Parish. For more information about the schedule you may call the Parish at 509-754-3640.

6. Fr. Milich, what is the most important thing a parishoner can do to show their respect and appreciation for the priesthood? 

Fr. Milich responds:

I think that it is important for parishioners--including those who have no interest in the Traditional Latin Mass themselves--to recognize how important, even vital, it is for their priests to offer the older Mass. The older Mass is an instrument of sanctification for the priesthood. So, I would hope parishioners could be patiently supportive of their priests and try to learn what it is in the older Mass that so strongly draws their priests--and which so wondrously built up the Church over the centuries.

7. What advice do you have for parents who want to encourage vocations in their family? 

Fr. Milich responds:

Take your children to the Traditional Latin Mass. Have them learn it, along with several of the traditional devotions.  Enroll them in a schola, have the boys serve Mass, pray daily for the Church and priests and bishops, put Mary in a place of honor. God will take care of the rest.

8. What do you think is the goal of the Holy Father in making the Traditional Latin Mass available widely and without impediment?

Fr. Milich responds:

I thank God for Pope Benedict. The Church IS Roman and he has made Rome an ally and defender of Tradition as it has historically been. We live in this fascinating transitional time when the Pope is trying to guide us back to our own Tradition. We don't want to miss being part of this tremendous adventure. That being said, I feel very strongly the need for further clarifications from Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei on Summorum Pontificum.  In spite of the very Roman clarity of the document, there are people who still wish to impose impediments.  All of us in parishes have a certain trepidation that this treasure could be taken from us.

9. Who is your patron saint and how does he or she inspire you to holiness? 

Fr. Milich responds:

I have several patron saints--Nicholas of Myra/Bari is my baptismal patron, I took Paul as my confirmation name, and said my first Mass on the Feast of Peter and Paul. I have a special love for Therese of Lisieux.  And there are several others...I think of them as my family.

Sometime after the first of the year, Father Bill Hodgson will start
offering the Traditional Latin Mass at his parish, St. Ann's Church, in Carthage , Missouri .
Anyone interested may get in touch with Rita and Charles Crowell (417-438-1508) who are collecting
names of people interested in regular attendance at St. Ann

(Excerpts from the encyclical of Pope St. Pius X on the doctrines of the Modernists)

42. ... [The Modernists] recognise that the three chief difficulties for them are scholastic philosophy, the authority of the fathers and tradition, and the magisterium of the Church, and on these they wage unrelenting war. For scholastic philosophy and theology they have only ridicule and contempt. Whether it is ignorance or fear, or both, that inspires this conduct in them, certain it is that the passion for novelty is always united in them with hatred of scholasticism, and there is no surer sign that a man is on the way to Modernism than when he begins to show his dislike for this system. Modernists and their admirers should remember the proposition condemned by Pius IX: The method and principles which have served the doctors of scholasticism when treating of theology no longer correspond with the exigencies of our time or the progress of science (Syll. Prop. 13).

Proclaimed on December 8, 2007 from Vatican City:

Pope Benedict XVI

"Does she, our heavenly mother, not invite us to avoid evil and to accomplish good, meekly following the divine love written in every Christian heart? Does she (who kept her own hope alive at the moment of harshest trial) not ask us not to lost hope when suffering and death knock at the door of our homes? Does she not ask us to look trustingly to our future? Does the Immaculate Virgin not exhort us to be brothers to one another, joined by the commitment to build together a more just, united and peaceful world?"

With thanks to The Catholic Fire Blog

Royal Manuscript., British Musuem c. 1375

Of Holy Mass

The worthiest thing, of most goodness
In all this world, it is the Mass.
For if all clerks did nothing else,
But told the virtues of Mass-singing
And the profit of Mass-hearing,
They ne'er should compass the fifth part,
For all their wit and all their art,
Of all its virtues, meeds and pardon,
To them that with devotion,
In cleanness and in good intent,
Do worship in this Sacrament.

At the Beginning of Mass

God, for Thy goodness,
At the beginning of this Mass,

• 4th Sunday of Advent Dec. 23 at 4:15 PM in St. Patrick's - Nashua, NH - High Mass
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• Christmas 25 at 11:30 AM in Sacred Heart Church - Laconia, NH
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• New Year's Day 1 January at 11:30 AM in Sacred Heart Church - Laconia,  NH
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• Epiphany Sunday, 6 January at 11:30 AM in Sacred Heart Church - Laconia, NH

To sign a petition requesting the Traditional Latin Mass at the Cathedral in Manchester, NH go here.

From Peter Cooper, Business Manager of Holy Trinity Church, Boston, MA:

This morning Fr. Connolly announced (to the throngs in attendance at
the 10 o'clock Mass) that after his consultations with His Eminence, Cardinal O'Malley, he (Fr.
Connolly) has decided that the Tridentine Latin Mass will again be celebrated
weekly at Holy Trinity. He mentioned that it remains for us to work out a
schedule of clergy to enable us to have the priests necessary to ensure proper
coverage. There also will be careful consideration as to the time the Mass will
be celebrated. The possibility of having the Latin Mass take place
before the Novus Ordo one is under active consideration.

BOSTON – December 18 - Known as the Christmas Parish because its
German immigrant founders introduced many Christmas customs to New
England and the country during the mid-1800s, Holy Trinity Church in
Boston's South End announces its schedule of Christmas services for
2007.

The 2007 Christmas Mass schedule at Holy Trinity, located at 140
Shawmut Avenue, Boston, MA is:

Christmas Eve

11:30 PM: Concert of traditional German and English Christmas carols.

Midnight: Traditional Latin High Mass; begins with candlelight
procession in which the celebrant lays the Infant Jesus in the crèche.


Christmas Day

10:00 AM: Mass in English and German. (Carol concert precedes Mass
at 9:45 AM.)


The following concert is also scheduled.

Sunday, 6 January 2008, 3:00 PM: Three Kings Concert.

The concert will feature Preces Cantate, a mixed chorus which
specializes in Renaissance polyphonic music and which was based at
Holy Trinity for more than a decade. The program will tell the
Christmas story in song, from the Old Testament prophecies concerning
Jesus to the adoration of the three kings at the manger. A reception
will follow this free concert.

More information about the Masses and concert may be found at Holy
Trinity's web site, www.holytrinitygerman.org


Parishioners of the "Christmas parish" are facing, for the fourth
time, their potential "last" Christmas. Since Holy Trinity was
originally scheduled for closure in May 2004 as part of the
Reconfiguration Plan of the Archdiocese of Boston, two announced
closure dates, 30 June 2005 and 15 December 2005, have come and
gone. Although, in anticipation of the closure, the Traditional
Latin Mass was moved on 22 April 2007 from Holy Trinity to Mary
Immaculate of Lourdes Parish in Newton Upper Falls, no date for the
closure of Holy Trinity has been set. According to the most recent
plan, announced in November 2006, Holy Trinity is to merge with the
nearby Cathedral of the Holy Cross.

Although the weekly Traditional Latin Mass continues to be held in
Newton, Holy Trinity has offered two such Masses on feast days since
new papal legislation took effect in September. According to the
document Summorum Pontificum, the Traditional Latin Mass may now be
offered in any parish in which parishioners request it, not just in
one parish where the bishop has given special permission for it.
Parishioners are grateful that the new norms have given them the
opportunity to attend Midnight Mass just as their forbears did in
1877, when the current church building opened.

Founded in 1844 to meet the pastoral needs of German worshippers,
Holy Trinity Church is the Archdiocese's oldest ethnic parish. For
163 years it has cherished and preserved German Catholic traditions
both for new immigrants and for their descendants. It is the only
German Catholic parish in New England's eleven Catholic dioceses.
From 1990 to 2007 it offered a parish home to what was then the
Archdiocese's only authorized traditional Latin Mass. The parish has
also demonstrated its commitment to ongoing Christian charity by
willingly sharing its facilities with two social service agencies:
the Cardinal Medeiros Center day shelter for the homeless and the
Bridge Over Troubled Waters residence for at-risk youth.

At 6pm on December 26th, the feast of St. Stephen, a High Mass in the
Traditional (Extraordinary) Form of the Roman Rite will be celebrated at St.
Mary's Church in Hampton, IL. The celebrant will be Msgr. Richard Soseman.

St. Mary's Church, founded in 1865, is located on 708 State Avenue in Hampton,
IL. The church is 12 miles from Rock Island and 19 miles from Davenport.

From Rock Island or Moline, follow 92E to East Moline and turn left on 84 (19th
street), then go 3 miles.

From Davenport or Bettendorf, take 80E accross the river; take Exit 1 and turn
left onto 84S.

Please pass this along to anyone you know who might be interested.

May the peace of Christ be with you this Advent and Christmas,

Joe Hebert
Presient, Una Voce Quad Cities

Pope Welcomes Christmas at Midnight Mass

The following is an excerpt from an interview with author Amy Wellborn. Wellborn has been a dominant presence on the Catholic blogosphere for some time. While not a Traditionalist per see, she is a good writer and has a good "take" on Catholic cultural trends. Formerly the author of the blog- Open Book, she has now scaled back her blogging and writes at "And Charlotte was Both".

You can read the whole interview here.

Reporter Jeremy Lott asks:

What are your thoughts on Pope Benedict expanding the use of the traditional Latin Mass?

Welborn: I think it's fascinating. It's very good. It fits right into what I understand about Benedict's thinking about liturgy and historical continuity and truth. What the motu proprio is essentially about is priests' rights. The essence of it is that any priest can celebrate this privately and so on. To me, it is about bringing things back to the way that they should be in terms of practice and what the clergy have the right to do in terms of the rite, and that's great.

It's interesting to watch the reactions to it. I think in the end it is going to be very beneficial. What it has already done since it was promulgated, and even in the year running up to it (during which it was rumored to be in preparation), has prompted all kinds of conversations about issues like reverence, what are we doing when we go to Mass, and sacrifice. It's prompting us to think about liturgical music in a different way than we have in the United States for the past 30 years, to reconsider Gregorian chant, and so on.

If part of the Pope's purpose was this cross-pollination, in which an openness about celebrating the Mass of Blessed John XXIII leads to reconsidering and reevaluating how we are doing the Novus Ordo, the Mass of Paul VI, then that is something that is very long overdue.

Last year I did a media day in the Diocese of Camden. I was talking to the communications director and the diocese had just completed a year-long self-evaluation process of looking at how things are going and what the people want and need. And the communications director, who had accompanied the bishop to all of the listening sessions, and gone over all of the evaluation forms, said that when it came to liturgy, the number one thing people said they wanted was "more Latin."

He wasn't sure that they exactly wanted more Latin. His opinion was that for them, what Latin symbolized was more reverence. They wanted their liturgies to be more solemn, more reverent. For them, Latin was a catch-all way of expressing that. I think that's true and this opening up of the celebration of the Tridentine liturgy is already prompting a lot of conversations that people wouldn't have been having 15 or 20 years ago in liturgical circles. You just weren't allowed to talk about things like chant and silence, so I think it's great.

Jeremy Lott is a contributing editor to Books & Culture and author of In Defense of Hypocrisy.

With thanks to Catholic World Report.

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Latin for Mass-goers

A course entitled "Latin for Mass-goers" will be offered again at historic Ivy Hall in Overbrook, Pennsylvania, by The International Institute for Culture on five successive Monday evenings, beginning January 28, 2008.

This course provides Mass-goers with an introduction to the grammar and vocabulary of Church Latin and an in-depth explanation of the principal prayers of the Mass, examining their origins in Tradition and their significance in conjunction with the liturgical action.  (Tuition $175)

The course will be taught by Mr. Michael J. Miller, M.A. Theol., a Catholic translator, writer, and language instructor.

Monday Evenings (Jan 28, Feb. 4, 11, 18, 25);  7:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m., with break.

Ivy Hall
6331 Lancaster Avenue
Philadelphia, PA 19151-2620
Phone: 215-877-9910
www.iiculture.org

Two Masses in Latin are offered every Sunday morning at Our Lady of Lourdes Church, Overbrook Farms, at the corner of Lancaster and 63rd Street! Low Mass in the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite is celebrated at 7:30, and a Solemn High Novus Ordo Mass is celebrated at 10:30.

Latin Immersion Program to be Held at Christendom College this Summer

Have you ever wished that you could speak Latin? understand spoken Latin? read Latin at the same speed you read English?

It used to be (before the advent of the twentieth century) that all students going to college had to be able to understand spoken Latin, speak it well, and write it well, for all teaching and learning was conducted in Latin. For this reason, Latin was taught for more than a thousand years so that non-native speakers of Latin could attain native or near-native fluency. Obviously, anyone attaining such “active” mastery of Latin would be able to read and understand Latin authors much better than those who today have only a passive understanding of Latin.

Beginning in the summer of 2008, Christendom College will offer a one-week, intensive, active-Latin immersion course for high school aged students designed to introduce aspiring Latinists to the beauty and power of the ancient language of the Church.

All classes will be conducted wholly in Latin, and students should expect to make substantial progress in active Latin, even in one week. Cost of the program, including room and board, is $600.00. Dr. Mark Clark, Christendom’s Associate Professor of Classical and Early Christian Studies, and Dr. David Morgan of Furman University, whose Morgan Lexicon is well known to all those wishing to achieve fluency in Latin, will be the magistri.

Because no more than fifteen students can be accepted, those wishing to attend should register early by contacting Christendom’s Admissions Office at 800.877.5456 or admissions@christendom.edu or by completing the Application Form found HERE.

Dates of the program will be Sunday to Saturday, June 8-14, 2008

Prior knowledge of Latin is preferred, although not required.

Beginning January 9, 2008 the Carmelite Sisters of the Divine Heart of Jesus will have the Traditional Latin Mass on the 2nd Wednesday of the Month at 7 AM at:

Chapel of St. Agnes
10341 Manchester Rd
Kirkwood, MO 63122
314-965-7616

If you would like to see the interior liturgy space of Our Lady of Lourdes truely restored to its 1930 layout and would be able to attend a Tridentine Mass if it were held daily at Our Lady of Lourdes, please contact Cyril Koob to be put on the petition either by phone or email.

From the Holy Father's Christmas Sermon:

“The time came for Mary to be delivered.  And she gave birth to her first-born son and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn” (Lk 2:6f.).  These words touch our hearts every time we hear them.  This was the moment that the angel had foretold at Nazareth:  “you will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus.  He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High” (Lk 1:31).  This was the moment that Israel had been awaiting for centuries, through many dark hours – the moment that all mankind was somehow awaiting, in terms as yet ill-defined:  when God would take care of us, when he would step outside his concealment, when the world would be saved and God would renew all things.  We can imagine the kind of interior preparation, the kind of love with which Mary approached that hour.  The brief phrase: “She wrapped him in swaddling clothes” allows us to glimpse something of the holy joy and the silent zeal of that preparation.  The swaddling clothes were ready, so that the child could be given a fitting welcome.  Yet there is no room at the inn.  In some way, mankind is awaiting God, waiting for him to draw near.  But when the moment comes, there is no room for him.  Man is so preoccupied with himself, he has such urgent need of all the space and all the time for his own things, that nothing remains for others – for his neighbour, for the poor, for God.  And the richer men become, the more they fill up all the space by themselves.  And the less room there is for others."

to read the rest of the sermon go here.

1 Matthew 2:13

"And after they were departed, behold an angel of the Lord appeared in sleep to Joseph, saying: Arise, and take the child and his mother, and fly into Egypt: and be there until I shall tell thee. For it will come to pass that Herod will seek the child to destroy him"

This timely quote reminded me of the incredible responsibility that the Catholic father has in shielding his family from danger. Not only physical danger as that which threatened the Christ Child but of moral danger. By assuming the rightful authority that fatherhood confers, the human father must act in the person of God the Father in avoiding the immorality of the age and modern society lest it harm his children and distract them from their vocations. There are three imperative qualities that the father must have in order to fulfill this role.

1. Fidelity. It is an often-heard phrase that the best thing a father can do for his children is to love their mother. Nothing is more critical to the well being of a child than the faithfulness of the father to his family. Stability, economic and moral, affection, direction of the children's education and most of all example mold the child in the tender nature of his childhood. It is wellknown that the children most likely to be abused and exploited are those in step parent families and single parent families.

2. Sanctity. Just as the priest influences his parishoners, the father is the first and best model. Words are rarely necessary because it is the example of the father that the child will remember all his life. Was his father righteous? Honest? Hardworking? Compassionate? Sober? Pious? Just? Perserverant? Unselfish?

3. Openness to Life. Little impacts a child more in his sense of personal worth than having a family, particularly a father who is ready to welcome each child sent by God. And not only welcome, but work for, love, enjoy, and cherish.

Fatherhood isn't easy. But the rewards are generational and even eternal. Unfortunately so too, are the failures.