mancipia july/august 2013

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T he R epoRT of The C Rusade of s ainT BenediCT C enTeR

M anCipia July/August 2013

Marian ProcessionMay 19, 2013


2/162 M ancipia The Report of the Crusade of Saint Benedict Center July/August 2013

A bortion. Divorce.Sodomite marriage.Government- undedonanism. Te Churchssacred rights being usurpedby the Nanny State. Until thetraditional Catholic ideal o patriarchy is restored in theChurch and in amilies, we willkeep losing the culture wars.

Why? Because there wil l remain an absence o realChristian men to ght them. In the vacuum, matriarchs willrise up in an attempt to remedy the situation. Tis, o course,is no remedy, but only a pain ul prolongation o the statusquo.

Original Sin was Adams sin which was passed on to hisprogeny. It was not Eves. Adam was the head o the human

race. He ailed. Eve, his helpmate, helped him to sin, butthe blame was al l Adams. (Tere is an inverted parallelbetween the last Adam, Christ, and the rst Adam. Christ

repaired what Adam had wounded. He, too, had a helpmate:Mary, the New Eve.)

Catholic men must man up and take responsibility as heads o society and, most especially, o that littlesociety which is the building block o all societies: the amChristian men must strive with the help o God to succeed where Adam a iled. Tere is no use wringing our hands abouhow bad the world has become unless we can do something about it in our own homes.

Let us, or a moment, elevate our minds to the vision o supernatural amily li e that we are given in the Scriptures.Tese words o Saint Paul on the Divine Fatherhood,coming rom the Epistle to the Ephesians, will rame ourconsiderations:

For this cause I bow my knees to the Father o our Lord Jesus Christ, o whom all paternity in heaven and ear th isnamed, that he would grant you, according to the riches o

his glory, to be strengthened by his Spirit with might untothe inward man (Eph. 3:14-16).

Instead o all paternity in heaven and earth, sometranslations render the passage, the whole amily inheaven and earth. Te Greek word ( patria )means amily. It is derived rom the word or ather ( pater ). Saint Jerome renders itpaternitas ( atherhood, paternity) in Latin, whence comes therendering o the Rheims New estament. FatherChalloners ootnote in his edition o the Rheims Biblenotes that all atherhood could also be rendered the

whole amily.

Here we see that, linguistically anyway, the amily is derived rom atherhood. Tis is but one o the manyindications o the truth that the ather is the head o the amily.

A certa in type o libera l Biblical exegesis would maus conclude that atherhood in God is a mere metaphor.Mans limited knowledge o spiritual concepts orces hto look or things in nature to which we must liken GodSince God is a creator, and creation is something like

atherhood, then the idea o ather serves as a use umetaphor or God.

But this is all wrong. Divine atherhood is not a

metaphor derived rom human atherhood. We are not ithe realm o metaphor here, but in the realm o analogy .Te di erence is enormous, or metaphor and analogy arontologically di erent concepts. Metaphor establishes asymbolic point o comparison, e.g., the Lord thy God a consuming re (Deut. 4:24): God is not literally re,but re destroys and puri es, and so does God. Analogyon the other hand, predicates the same word, truly andliterally, o two very di erent things: God is good (cLuke 18:19) and salt is good (Mark 9:49) are both truebut the word good is applied to God in a way partly the

Br. Andre Mari, M.I.C.M.,Prior

To f Riends of The CRusade :BenevolenT p aTRiaRChy

Saint George victorious over the dragon



same but partly diferent rom the way it is applied to salt.Teologically speaking, all our knowledge o God is

analogical, but it is not all metaphorical. (Mortimer Adler,the Jewish philosopher who converted to Catholicism,once commented that Protestantism could not meet thechallenge o Enlightenment Rationalism because, having rejected Catholic scholastic thought, the Protestant sectariesabandoned the notion o analogy. Tere ore, they couldnot speak o God in any intelligent way. Without analogy,

we are intellectually doomed either to deism or to a crudeanthropomorphism i.e., God as a big man.)

Divine Fatherhood is the primary analogue o humanatherhood. Te primary analogue is the original analogue,

that to which the secondary analogue is being compared.Because o this, there is a primacy to divine Fatherhood. It is more real than human atherhood, which is derived rom it.

I sum this all up by citing Saint Jerome commenting onthe passage in Saint Paul. What I said in less plain language,he makes simple:

Tink by this analogy: As God exists, God allows theterm existence to be applied to creatures as well. So we say that creatures exist and subsist, not so as to imply that they exist in and o themselves [as God exists] but as a derivedexistence enabled by God . According to this sameargument, God allows the term atherhood to be given to

creatures. So by analogy to His athering we can understandcreaturely athering . Similarly, as the only good One, Hemakes others good. As the only immortal One, God hasbestowed immortality on others. As the only true One, Heimparts the name o truth. So also the Father alone, being Creator o all and the cause o the subsistence o all things,makes it possible or other creatures to be called athers.

Tese are lo ty ideas concerning atherhood. But theScriptures are also practical, meaning that they give usinstructions or our daily living. Here are a ew treasures

which, being meditated on, will provide excellent stimulantsto atherly benevolence:

Ye husbands, likewise dwelling with them [women]according to knowledge, giving honour to the emaleas to the weaker vessel, and as to the co-heirs o thegrace o li e: that your prayers be not hindered (1Peter 3:7).

Husbands, love your wives, and be not bitter towardsthem (Colossians 3:19).

Husbands, love your wives, as Christ also lovedthe church, and delivered himsel up or it: Tat he

might sancti y it, cleansing it by the laver o waterthe word o li e: Tat he might present it to himsela glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle, or anysuch thing; but that it should be holy, and withoutblemish. So also ought men to love their wives astheir own bodies. He that loveth his wi e, lovethhimsel (Ephesians 5:25-28).

And you, athers, provoke not your children to angebut bring them up in the discipline and correction othe Lord (Ephesians 6:4).

Fathers, provoke not your children to indignation,lest they be discouraged (Colossians 3:21).

Each one o these gems rom the holy Apostles Peter anPaul can provoke ruit ul meditations, acts o contrition

or the past, prayers o petition or the present, and rmresolutions or the uture.

While it is not inspired, the oldest surviving major work oFrench literature, La Chanson de Roland , provides a beauti upicture o Catholic manhood in the Knights Code o Chivalry it contains. Note that, o the seventeen entries in thCode, at least twelve relate to acts o gentlemanly virtue annot to combat.

1. o ear God and maintain His Church2. o serve the liege lord in valour and aith3. o protect the weak and de enceless4. o give succour to widows and orphans5. o re rain rom the wanton giving o o ence6. o live by honour and or glory 7. o despise pecuniary reward8. o ght or the wel are o all9. o obey those placed in authority 10. o guard the honour o ellow knights11. o eschew un airness, meanness, and deceit12. o keep aith13. At all times to speak the truth14. o persevere to the end in any enterprise begun15. o respect the honour o women16. Never to re use a challenge rom an equal17. Never to turn the back upon a oe

Where are the modern paladins o manhood, who willrestore these noble ideals o Christendom? Where are theCatholic men?

For this cause I bow my knees to the Father o our Lord Jesus Christ, o whom all paternity in heaven and earth isnamed, that he would grant you, according to the riches o his glory, to be strengthened by his Spirit with might unto thinward man (Eph. 3:14-16).

Email Brother Andr Marie at bam@catholicism

Catholic men must man up andtake responsibility as heads of

society ... [especially] the family.

he Loyolas and the Cabots , and Gate o Heaven5 % off until next year.



Dear Reader, I amgoing to share a secretnewsletter with you.

Yes, only the members o theSursum Corda Society weresupposed to receive this specialcommuniqu. I was going to

write another article just or you, but I thought you might likea sneak peek at this May newsletter: Enjoy!

Dear Society Member,Te weather is beauti ul outside. Te other day we observed

a chipmunk stretching and yawning and, with di culty,coming out rom hibernation in our rock wall. He seemedunaware o our presence as we were walking past praying ourRosary, and he made a beeline in his jerky motions or thenearby fowers, which he began to devour as quickly as hishal -asleep body would allow. What i I told you that thosefowers were actually arti cial fowers that we had put therein the garden to make it look nice? Would you believe me

or a minute i I told you that the chipmunk was hungrily devouring plastic fowers? Probably not. You know thatchipmunk, as sleepy as it may have been, would not havebeen attracted by that virtual reality called an arti cialfower. God put in chipmunks the desire or particular real

ood so that they would be encouraged and directed to takenourishment and sustain li e.

However, you may have heard how birds can be trickedby a virtual reality. I they hear you making bird calls

with a whistle, they wil l come to join your bird conversation. Although this is very delight ul, no one would imagine itshows very much intelligence on the part o the bird. In act,usually the virtual reality o a ake bird call is used to lurebirds to their death by a hunter. Te same is true or gamemammals. Tey can be ooled by the virtual reality o a game caller or a virtual scent, such as buck scent or doe scent.By these virtual realities they are lured, because o theirlack o intelligence, into a dangerous situation. Unlike humanbeings, they do not have a choice about ollowing their desires.

Te sound o a bird call, the beauty o a fower, and themusk o an animal are gi ts rom God to draw His creaturesto ul ll their purpose in li e. Tey can be used or otherpurposes by intelligent beings, as you can see, disconnected

rom that innate purpose.

Animals are simple creatures, innocent, a s Sa inthomas More says, that ollow the senses and passions

that God gave them, and thereby wonder ully ul ill thepurpose or which God created them. We human beingsalso have senses and passions given to us by God to helpus to know and ul ill His purpose or us. So, or examplhunger or the desire or tasty ood was given to us by Godto encourage us and direct us in sustaining li e by eating.

What would you think o the chipmunk that crawled out ohis hole and deliberately chose to eat arti icial lowers ratthan real lowers? I you interviewed the chipmunk, youmight ind out that he was on a diet, instead o simply noteating lowers or the day, or eating ewer o them, he chto eat arti icial lowers specially designed or chipmuo course because that way he could still enjoy the eelo a ull stomach and the pleasure o lower taste in hismouth. It looks like a lower, it smells like a lower, it taslike a lower (well, almost), but without the calories. hesurgeon general or chipmunks might express a concern

or the side e ects this type o sel -abuse might cause! chipmunk might even get cancer!

We used to have a pet parakeet, but be ore we got a companion parakeet or him, he was very lonely anddespondent in the cage. We gave him a mirror. He perkedup immediately and began having birdy conversations withthe bird in the mirror, and was so enthusiast ic that he wasdancing in ront o the mirror and ended up pecking with

birdy kisses at the bird in the mirror and sharing seeds. hi was wholesome at least we were told it was since, beunintelligent, a bird can pro it by having an imaginary

riend in a rame.Dear Society Member, what would you think o a

human being who had a riend in a rame? here usedto be things called imaginary riends. here is no need oimaginary riends anymore because o the computer. heryou can get your very own riend in a rame. In act,unlike the re lection o the bird, your riend in a ramecan captivate your attention or hours on end, leaving yousimply to react to its stimuli. At least in the case o the bir

it had to provide what was interesting in its virtual riend.But being captivated by a mirror or a screen, a human beinghas things to consider that a bird does not. First o all, a human being has intelligence. here ore, the consciousdecision to choose a virtual riend and virtual reality overreality is a blow against his intelligence and against hishumanity.

All arti icia l or vir tua l real ity seeks to ind ul illmein pleasurable side e ects while avoiding the responsibilio the purpose. his will always have disastrous results. I

C onvenT C oRneR T o a Chieve o uR s uBliMe p uRpose W e M usT W oRk W iTh R ealiTy

Sr. Marie Thrse, M.I.C.M.,Prioress

God is everywhere, and especially in oursouls when we are in the state of grace.

Continued on page 15



Father, in order to be a priest you have to know a lot about bread, dontyou, I mean i bread becomesthe Blessed Sacrament?

Come to think o it,Barbara, you really do. Youhave to know a lot about breadi youre a priest. Not aboutpreparing it, or mixing the

lour, or baking it. hat can be le t to the nice sisters whohave charge o the hosts which are to be used in the Holy Sacri ice. But about bread as a thing , about what it is and what it can become when Our Lord asks it to, you really haveto know a lot. And by the way, I like you, Barbara, becauseyou ask such sensible questions.

I ought to be sensible. Im nine years old, going on ten.Yes, and I ind more joy in discussing the Blessed

Sacrament with you then with almost any person I know. hank you.Youre welcome.But, Father?Yes?In the Mass, where does the bread go when you say his

is My Body?Where does it go? It doesnt go any place. It just ceases

to be. It just vanishes. It just drops out o existence, not by becoming nothing, which we would call annihilation, but by becoming the Body o Our Lord.

Doesnt it mind it? I mean, having to drop out o existence?

No, it doesnt really mind. Because, you see, it cantreally mind anything, because it hasnt got a mind. It neverknows what happens to it, because it doesnt know anything.But i it did know what was happening to it, it would bedelighted.

Would it?O course.Why?Because there isnt anything it could do, is there, that

would please i t more than to give God its color, its shape, itstaste, all its delicate little structure, to be used or the vestureo His most beauti ul Body?

No. But do you think it would want to do that oranybody else?

O course not. he only one it would ever want to obey in such a way is God. I anybody else stood over it and said his is a lower, his is a stone, or his is a bird, thelittle bread would simply laugh. It wouldnt budge an inch.It wouldnt pay the slightest attention. But when Our Lord,through the mouth o the priest, says, his is My Body, thelittle bread just has to give up. It hasnt got the strength to

resist Our Lords orders. So it just vanishes out o existenceand leaves its little shadow there, in the orm o shape, tasand size, or Our Lord to clothe His Sacred Body within thBlessed Sacrament.

Dont you think its aw ully nice o the little bread to d

this or Our Lord?Wonder ully nice. hats why the priest always treatsit with such reverence, even be ore it has succumbed tothe words o Consecration. o begin with, the sisters take wonder ul care o it when they are making i t. hey bake ituntil it is so white and ine and precious that you couldntimagine anything more lovely in the way o bread thana little host is. hen when it is sent to the sacristy and is waiting to be taken to the altar, it always gets the most wonder ul respect. It is kept in a little silver case, sometimelined with gold. And at the O ertory o the Mass, when itis still only bread, the priest says the most beauti ul prayersover it and tells the Eternal Father what an immaculate littlehost it is. And you know, i something happened to it a terthe O ertory, and it couldnt be used or the Consecration,the priest would have to take very good care o it and nevecould let it be used or anything else.

Couldnt it?No, siree! he priest would have to put it away in a

sacred place where nobody could touch it.But it wouldnt have become Our Lords Body i it didn

stay on the altar until the Consecration, would it?No, it wouldnt. But it would always be the little bread

that was ready to become Our Lords Body, and wasready togive Him all its whiteness and littleness and roundness, andso you see, you would always have to respect it or that, anyou could never treat it like any other little bread again.

Did you ever see a host that was o ered in the O ertand then wasnt consecrated into the Body o Our Lord?

Yes, I did, once. It was an aw ul pity. I had put it onthe paten, and had o ered it to the Eternal Father, and hadtold Him what a spotless little host it was, and then, when Ilooked at it closely, I ound it was broken.

Couldnt you use it when it was broken?No, you couldnt, that is i you had another little host

there that wasnt broken.But wasnt it bread all right?Yes, it surely was bread, but there was something which

Our Lords Body wanted to borrow rom it which it didnthave to give.

And what was that?Roundness and wholeness. You see this little host was

jagged and broken. It could have given God brokenness, butHe didnt want that at the moment.

Didnt you eel sorry or it?O course. But there was no use asking it to give Our

Lords Body something it didnt have.

T he Blessed s aCRaMenT e xplained To B aRBaRa f oundeRs ColuMn

Fr. Leonard Feeney



What did you do with it then?I dissolved it and dropped it down a little secret hiding

place we have under the sacristy, called a sacrarium.Is that where all the little hosts go that dont become

Our Lords Body?Exactly.Do you think they eel sorry?I they could eel anything theyd be so sorry you could

never console them.

I hate to think o them buried under the church.I do too. But its best to orget them. heyre really happy in their own way. hey did the best they could. hey were ready to give God all theirlittle qualities to use in His BlessedEucharist, i He had wanted them. And thats something to have beenbread or, isnt it, Barbara?

Yes, it is.Well, what next?Does the little bread make any

struggle about leaving its appearances

when you say his is My Body?No, it obeys promptly. It justgives up all it has in the way o whiteness, texture and shape, andvanishes immediately. hen OurLords Body comes in and takes itsplace, looking just like it, but being something entirely di erent, as youknow. But the wine that becomesOur Lords Blood makes a little bit o a struggle.

Does it?Well, you really wouldnt call it a struggle, because it is

all unconscious o what is happening. But you have to talk toit more strictly that you do to the bread.

Do you?Yes. You have to give it a little sermon and let it know

that something great is being done to it, that the Oldestament is being completed in the New, and that this

new Substance to which it is lending all its ragrance andsweetness and taste and color, is the Blood o Jesus, whichshall be shed or many unto the remission o sins.

Why do you suppose it takes longer to consecrate the wine into Our Lords Blood than it does to consecrate thebread into Our Lords Body?

Well, it wouldnt take a second longer i God wanted toinsist. But wine, you know, is a very astidious substance.It is the nearest to a living thing o any non-living thing weknow. It has an individuality (no two wines are the same),and when you bottle wine you always write the date on thebottle. It even seems to be sensitive about its age. And soGod, in His nice way, sort o respects it at the Consecration,and in asking it to give up its taste and odor and pungency so that they can be used by His Precious Blood in theEucharist, gives it, so to speak, a little sermon, so that it

will have been respected in a reverential and holy way. Godyou know, has a marvelous respect or every creature He hmade, even or those things which havent any minds or canthink. Be ore He uses them, He blesses them and makesthem holy, as He did, through the priest, the water with which you were baptized.

he host looks the same a ter the Consecration as it dobe ore, doesnt it, Father?

Exactly the same.

But the bread is no longer there?No. God takes the lookness right o the bread and useit or His own lookness.

Why doesnt He look likeHimsel in the Blessed Sacrament?

Dont you know?Almost. But maybe youll help

me to know it better.Why, the reason God takes the

lookness and the whiteness and thetastiness o the bread, is so that youcan eat Him.

Couldnt I eat Him otherwise?O course not. You could holdHis hand or touch the hem o His garment. But you couldnt eatHim unless He became eatable.So in order to become eatable andcome to us in the orm o Holy Communion, He takes away thequalities o something that is eatabland palatable, and gives us His ownBody hidden under this edible shape

hats why we can consume Him anlet Him nestle close to our hearts, because He has becomebreadlike or love o us.

Father?Yes?Wouldnt you rather see Him than eat Him?Id really like to do both. But i I had my choice,

honestly, and had to take one or the other, Id rather receiveHim in Holy Communion than listen to His voice in a thousand sermons, or see Him in a thousand postures,however beauti ul they may be. Because sermons are, a teall, only His words, and sights o Him only His images inour eyes, but the Blessed Sacrament is Himsel united to uas ood. You cant get any closer to Him than that.

But, Father?Yes?Isnt it lovely o the little bread to give Our Lords Bod

all its whiteness, its taste, its smallness, so we can receiveHim in the Blessed Sacrament?

Barbara, it is not only lovely o it, it is per ectly darlio it.

Good-bye.Good-bye.

First Communion at Saint Benedict Center



p RefeCT s C oluMnC aTholiC M eMoRy i TeMs

Bother John Mar ie Vianney,M.I.C.M., Tert., Prefect

Sometimes it is important or us to simply review those simple things each Catholicshould know. Here are three lists, straight rom our Saint Augustine Institute o Catholic StudiesSyllabus .Have you ever thought, what are the months o the year devoted to? Well, here is the list:

Devotions for thewelve Months of the Year

January Te Holy Name o JesusFebruary Te Passion o Our LordMarch Saint Joseph

April Te Blessed EucharistMay Our Lady

June Te Sacred Heart July Te Precious Blood August Te Immaculate HeartSeptember Te Sorrows o Mary October Te Holy Rosary November Te Holy SoulsDecember Te Divine In ancy

o whom is each day o the week devoted? Tis list is one everyone shouldhave memorized too:

Devotions for theSeven Days of the Week

Sunday Te Holy rinity Monday Te Holy Angels

uesday Te Apostles Wednesday Saint JosephTursday Te Holy EucharistFriday Te Sacred Heart, andthe PassionSaturday Our Lady

Finally, what are the choirs o angelsand how many are there?

Te Nine Choirs of Angels(1) Angels(2) Archangels(3) Principalities(4) Powers

(5) Virtues(6) Dominions(7) Trones(8) Cherubim(9) Seraphim

Now you can test yourselves on these three lists. Leme know how you did. God bless you all.

Email Brother John Marie Viannat topre ect@catholicism

Br. Francis Malu

Br. Andr MarieDr. Robert Hickson

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d eTailsChapel u pdaTe

Sr. Maria Philomena, M.I.C.M.

P ardon my pun, butexcitment is building aswe get closer and closerto nishing the chapel. The bestnews is that on June 10, 2013,we received our occupancypermit from the Town of Richmond. All the inspectionshave been completed, and we

passed with ying colors. Now, we just need to keep takingone step at a time, exercising patience and con dence in SaintJoseph. We've been working on this project for over twelveyears; a couple more months won't hurt.

So many little details there are to attend to! Many arenot yet visible; for example, the confessional curtains arebeing sewn and materials for the altar rail kneeler have beenordered. We have received a couple of donations towardslandscaping; plans are underway to make the exterior groundsa lovely setting for our little jewel of a chapel. An overall planwill allow us to do things in phases with the help of volunteersfor minimum expense.

There are still key items to get into place before the rstMass, especially nishing the ceiling, transporting and re-

nishing the pews, painting the murals, and sewing the altarlinens. Your prayers and sacri ces are very valuable. Pleasedon't forget to offer up those daily crosses.

Our general contractor, Sy Wrenn, checks out the new back-up generator.

A unique view of the chapel under thewatchful gaze of Our Lady of Fatima

The beginning of May: final site work. Theloam saved back in September is spread.

The south side of the chapel, ready for grassseed. The retention pond is on the left.

The altar rail is here installed, sanded, andready for staining and oiling (with Tung oil).

Cleaning the sanctuary gates, we discoveredthat very old lacquer needed stripping first.

The priory getssome touch-up site

work and a new section of sidewalk wherethe water line enters the building.

The sanctuary lamp arrives and is partially unpacked.The detail of the brass work is beautiful. It is now

hanging from the center of the sanctuary arch.The new bridge over Tully BrookRoad (a state/town/SBC project)


9/16



W ith his ApostolicLetter o October11, 2011, Porta Fidei ,Pope Benedict XVI declaredthat a Year o Faith wouldbegin on October 11, 2012,and conclude on November 24,2013. October 11, is the east

o the Divine Maternity.

What is Faith?he Holy Ghost shows us what to see. Imagine being

in a dark room, no light whatsoever. Youve been there,right? otally disoriented. his is li e without aith. urnon a light, and you can see. hat is reason without aith.Let the sun shine be ore you through the stained-glass windows o a church, that is the matter o supernatural

aith or revelation, short o actua l vision. It is as i Godsaid, his is My truth: now yousee spiritually, now believe in

what you see. he act o aith i sthe believing.

In the added prayer section,the Roman hand-missal gives the

Act o Faith as ol lows: O my God, I irmly believe that thou artone God in hree divine Persons,the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.I believe that thy divine Son

became man and d ied or our sins,and that He wil l come to judgethe living and the dead. I believethese and all the truths which theCatholic Church teaches because

hou hast revealed them, who canneither deceive nor be deceived.

Pope Benedict XVI, in hisMessage or Lent 2013, taughtthat the greatest work o charity is evangelization, which is theministry o the word. here is

no action more bene icial andthere ore more charitable towardsones neighbour than to break thebread o the word o God, to share with him the GoodNews o the Gospel, to introduce him to a relationship withGod: evangelization is the highest and the most integralpromotion o the human person. (Part 3)

Divine and Catholic Faith is a supernatural virtue givenby God, illuminating and elevating the soul, giving it thecapacity to embrace divine truths that a re above reason.

How did the Church grow throughout history?In the early Church the Apostles and their successors

and all the aith ul had tremendous enthusiasm. here waa zeal, among laity as well as clergy, to spread the Kingdoo God on earth, which is the Catholic Church. here

was great holiness, o course, especia lly in the Churchsmissionaries. here were millions o martyrs, as well, ovethe centuries o persecution. he Church ather, ertullian(160-22), is most amous or saying, the blood o themartyrs is the seed o Christians.

Miracles and the Mission to the NationsOther motives o credibility, principally miracles,

have been with the Church since the Incarnation. heOld estament, also, abounds in miracles, especially those per ormed by Moses and many o the prophets. Noprophet, however, per ormed miracles comparable to Our

Lords. Being God, He commanded the elements by Hisown authority and, being Li e,brought the dead back to li e.Nevertheless, Our Lord went so

ar as to promise His disciplesthat they would per orm greatermiracles than He, but in Hisname. Amen, amen I say to you,he that believeth in me, the worksthat I do, he also shall do, Andgreater than these shall he do(John 14:12).

Saint Patrick was sent by PopeCelestine as bishop to Irelandin 433 and the whole islandconverted rom his preaching.

his would not have happenedhad not this holy man per ormedastounding miracles. His battles

with the d ruid priests werelike Moses contesting with themagicians o Pharao. I know o saint who raised so many people

rom the dead to give them the

aith and baptism.Other nations converted by holy miracle workers were in the East

Indies (India, Indonesia, Sumatra, Borneo, Japan) where thten-year-mission by Saint Francis Xavier (1506-1552) was

illed with miracles, producing millions o converts.hen, glory to God, there is Mexico. While much

o Europe was leaving the Church or the errors o Protestantism, the missionaries were replacing them withthe American Indians. But it took Our Lady hersel , in

k elly f oRuMf aiTh and M iRaCles

The Grotto of Our Lady of Lourdes: crutches left behind

by pilgrims, amassed on the walls of the cave.(Photo credit to Wellcome Library, London)

Mr. Brian Kelly



1531, to give us the great miracle that abides s till in themiraculous image she painted o hersel on the tilma o Saint Juan Diego. By 1541, just ten years thence, thanks toOur Lady o Guadalupes maternal mercy, there were tenmillion Aztecs who had entered the Church.

Some cynics are so steeped in their unbelie that they are not even moved by miracles. Look at the sti -neckedpriests who could not deny that Christ had raised Lazarus

rom the dead, saying in secret session: What do we, orthis man doth many miracles? (John 11:47), and hearing the testimony o His resurrection rom the temple guardsstationed at the tomb, they invented a lie to blacken theirconscience. Jesus oretold it, neither will they believe, i one rise again rom the dead (Luke 16:31).

Normal people, however, i they cooperate with grace, would be moved to embrace the religion attended by undeniable miracles.

Miracle at LourdesIn connection with this, I li ted the ollowing account o

a miracle at the shrine o Our Lady o Lourdes rom Franz Wer els book, he Song o Bernadette . Wer el, a Jew, cameinto the Church late, at the eleventh hour. he apparitionoccurred in 1858, and the miraculous cures rom the spring o water, opened by the Mother o God, are ongoing.

Jules Lacassagne had become a mere shadow and seemeddoomed to die o starvation. His mother took him to a seaside resort: perhaps the oceans energy would help. It

did not. On the beach whither they carried the boy heound a torn piece o newspaper. Holding it in h is eeble

hands he read an account o the healing o young MarieMoreau. He pocketed the piece o paper but dared not at

irst utter his wish. He knew his athers character andconvictions well and was a raid o being laughed at. Notuntil many days later, when, obviously doomed, he wastaken back to Bordeaux, did he hesitantly tell his mother thestory o Lourdes and Marie Moreau. Madame Lacassagnebesought her husband to set out or Lourdes on that very day. he husband consented without debate. In the aceo death un aith is ar unsurer o itsel than aith. In his

own arms Roger Lacassagne carried his son [Jules] to thegrotto. A ormer army man, he was disinclined to stand

or any nonsense. I miracles can happen, let them! Hencehe had brought with him a bag o so t biscuits. A ter

Jules, endlessly agonizing, had succeeded in gett ing downa glass ul o the water drop by drop, the absurd atherhanded him one o the biscuits and gave an order in hismilitary ashion: Now, then, eat! And now an absurderthing happened: the boy ate. He bit o a piece, chewedit, and swallowed it like any ordinary mortal. he tallLacassagne with his grey pompadour turned aside, reeling

like a drunken man, and beat his breast and panted: Julesis eating ... Jules is eating ... And the people aroundthe grotto burst into tears. (pg. 437) ( he boy, JulesLacassagne, had been su ering a long time rom St. VituDance which ended up attacking his esophagus. He wasdying o sta rvation when, at his sons own request, the

ather condescended to take him to Lourdes. His cure wasinstantaneous and his health improved daily to the point

where no one would have ever known he had had such a disease.)Finally, we have the Miracle o the Sun at Fatima on

October 13, 1917. In con irmation to her message to thethree shepherding children, she promised to give a greatsign to all the people gathered at the Cova that day. All thepeople, even the reemasons and atheists. It had been rainiall morning that day when Our Lady gave her inal messato the children. At high noon, she pointed to the sun whichhad unexpectedly burst through the clouds. he sun wasturning wildly, dancing as it began spinning o beauti ulcolors, when, all o a sudden, it appeared to be alling rothe sky, zigzagging to earth. People screamed in terror. hethe solar star stopped plummeting, retreated, and resumedits normal position. Everyones clothes and the very mud onthe ground were instantly dry.

here is another miracle that we know will happen, orOur Lady sa id it at Fatima, but it has not happened yet.

What i s that? he conversion o Russia.hen, too, the grace o God can work with a noble

culture which appreciates natural virtue. he Koreans,or example, came into the Church in the late eighteenth

century without receiving a missionary. One o theirambassadors to China, Yi Byeok, was converted by Catholhe met there in 1784. When he returned to Seoul he broughCatholic books with him and the next thing you know thesages o the peninsula sent emissaries to Rome and a ew missionaries arrived in Korea soon a terward.

Nevertheless, miracles provide the most convincing andimmediate motive o credibility. Jesus said as much when answered Phil ips request at the Last Supper to show us thFather. Addressing Philip, Jesus said: Believe you not thaI am in the Father, and the Father in me? Otherwise believe

or the very works sake (John 14:11-12).Saint Augustine gives us a lesson in this matter. I canno

ind the exact quote, but in one o his sermons he pointedout that every day is a miracle. he only thing di erent ina dancing sun and the grandeur o a sunrise is amiliari

We see the sun rise in the east every morning without a sound in all its royal magni icence. Its nature; we are useto it, so its no big deal. But it is a big deal; its a miraclethat just so happens to have a daily course. Gravity, thank God, obeys a law, but what is it? Really, who can de ine it

We can only measure it. o paraphrase Roger Lacassagne: miracles want to happen, let them happen. And they do, allthe time.

Email Brian Kelly at bdk@catholicism

What is Faith?



O n rinity Sunday, 2013,one o the ounding generation o theCrusade o the Saint Benedict

Center entered into eternal li e,a ew weeks short o his ninety-second birthday. His name was

John Joseph MacIsaac. He was anexemplary Catholic and a truly extraordinary man.

One o ten children, Joe was born in Nova Scotia, the sono a Scots Gaelic-speaker. Te amily traced its ancestry to theIsle o Eigg, in the Inner Hebrides, the part o Scotland whichremained Catholic a ter the Protestant Revolution.

When Joe was an in ant, his amily emigrated toMassachusetts, and settled in the Jamaica Plain district o Boston, where Joe grew up, attending public and parochial

schools. At the time o the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, JoeMacIsaac had a secure and dra t-exempt position as a skilledde ense worker at the United States Arsenal at Watertown. Hegave it up to enlist in the armed orces. urned down by the AirCorps because o his eyesight, Joe enlisted in the U.S. Army.Recognizing his lucid intelligence, the Army sent him to collegeto train as an engineer. As the war dragged on however, they needed more and more men to carry rifes, and Joe became a combat in antryman.

In October, 1944, Joe landed in Marseilles ollowing Operation Anvil the invasion o southern France and took part in the ghting as Allied orces worked their way up the

Rhone valley and across the Vosges mountains into Germany and, later, Austria. His out t, the 103rd In antry Division,liberated the Kau ering concentration camp, a satellite acility o the in amous Dachau death camp.

Conversant in French and fuent in German, Joe was o tengiven the duty o communicating with French civilians andguarding Nazi prisoners. So pro cient were his languageskills that Germans o ten reacted with suspicion towards him,believing Joe to be a German collaborator, rather than an

American soldier.Te plight o an in antryman in wartime was not glamorous.

It usually meant being cold, wet, sick, and hungry, and going,or weeks at a time, without hot ood, a bath or a change o

clothes. Joe MacIsaacs pro ound Catholic sensibilities however,endowed him with a clear moral compass and, despite his ownhardships, with an empathy or innocent civilians.

Joe would recount how, as the A llies advanced aga inst theretreating Germans, they would pulverize French towns andvillages. Te Army Air Force would bomb them. Te eldartillery would shell them. Ground orces would attack withtanks and hal -tracks, supported by in antry with mortarsand heavy machine guns. When it was over, a Frenchman

would crawl out o a cella r waving a white handkerchie .

When asked where the Germans were, he would respond:Tey le t three days ago.

Joe would explain that wars were ought by young men,eighteen to twenty-two years-old, who sometimes treated the

weapons o war as toys. When con ronted with the choice odriving through an open gate leading to a French armhouse, odemolishing a stone wall, a young American tank driver would

requently, choose the stone wall. Given the deprivations o t war, and the exactions by the Germans, o ten the only assetle t to a poor French armer, besides his land, was the amilycow, which gave milk to the children. o the mis ortune o thFrench, the gunners on Sherman tanks discovered that one o the ways to correct the sights on their 75mm cannon was to usethe pathetic creatures or target practice.

Joes Christian charity even extended to the enemy. He wasappalled by the recurring habit o American soldiers to execu

German prisoners o war. Tis was almost never done in hotblood. With stunning callousness, convenience, not vengeance was the usual motivation. Te question: Do we really haveto march them all the way back to battalion? was the amiliarprelude to the order to shoot the prisoners.

GuesT C oluMn Joe M aC i saaC , R.i.p.

C. J. Doyle

Joe MacIsaac, R.I.P.



A ter his honorable discharge rom the army in 1946, Joeentered Harvard on the GI Bill and quickly attained the DeansList. Sometime in 1947, his younger brother, Hugh MacIsaac

a ormer Army Ranger then enrolled in Boston University telephoned Joe and asked him to attend an evening lectureat a place called the Saint Benedict Center, then located on thecorner o Bow and Arrow Streets in Cambridge.

Hugh had heard that a gi ted and charismatic priest wasspeaking there, and valued Joes perspective. Joe went andlistened, was impressed by what he heard, and brought Hugh

with him the next week. It was the beginning o an event ulsaga. A ew weeks be ore graduation, Joe became one o twostudents to resign rom the Harvard Class o 1948 (RobertF. Kennedys class), to become a spiritual ollower o FatherLeonard Feeney. Both brothers, with their imposing size,athletic build, and ormidable physical strength, would becomedrivers and bodyguards or Father Leonard.

Hugh was a born leader, equipped with a orce ul characterand an engaging personality. Joe was the more studious o thetwo, a bibliophile with remarkable powers o recall. He oncegave, without notes, a memorable lecture at the Center on the

history o Carthage, which earned the admiration o CatherineGoddard Clarke.

While Joe had a vocation or married li e as a Catholiclayman, Hugh had a religious vocation. He took permanentvows as a Slave o the Immaculate Heart o Mary, and wenton to spend thirty years in that community, the last six as itsSuperior, be ore his untimely death in 1979. Joe, who outlivedby thirty- our years the brother to whom he was so closely attached, would remain a supporter o Saint Benedict Center

or the rest o his li e, and would become a riend and a discipleo Brother Francis. (Another brother, Charles Stanley MacIsaac,

would be ordained to the priesthood by Pope John Paul II and

become pro essed in the Oblates o Wisdom.) Joe embarked on a orty- our year career in the U.S. PostO ce, and its successor, the Postal Service. He married his wi e o ty- ve years, Elena, in 1957. ogether, they raisedseven children (one o whom, Carol, tragically pre-deceasedher ather) and helped raise thirteen grandchildren. A a ith ulhusband and a loving ather and grand ather and great-grand ather Joe was intensely and selfessly devoted to his

amily. It is a testament to the reciprocity o that devotionthat, under the care o his amily, he was able to die in his ownhome.

An admirer o James Michael Curley, Joe MacIsaac spent

decades in the political organization o Massachusetts StateRepresentative James J. Craven, Jr. For eighteen years a ter that,he served on the Board o Directors o the Catholic ActionLeague o Massachusetts.

A ervent, pious, and apostolic Catholic, Joe MacIsaacnever missed an opportunity to evangelize. He was a determined member o the Church Militant, who mani estedan edi ying capacity to be at once both resolute yet serene inthe ace o adversity, including the disease which ultimately ended his earthly li e. Dedicated to Our Lord in the BlessedSacrament, he practiced, or many years, nocturnal adoration.

He recited the Holy Rosary every day, and said prayers to hispatrons, Saints Joseph and John.

I shall always remember Joe MacIsaac as a brave man, a loriend, and a Christian gentleman. I shall continue to think o

him however, as a model o traditional Catholicity, which weshould all aspire to emulate.

Email Joe Doyle at catholicactionleague@gmail

New Graduates from IHM School: Sam Bednar and James Doucette.

IHM graduate gives his speech



O ur readers may recall a series o articles presented in the Mancipia o the ounding o New France. It was basedon a book titled Te White and the Gold by TomasCostain, which, incidentally, is available in our bookstore. Tishistorical masterpiece chronicled the French e ort to evangelize,explore, and colonize that untamed wilderness o Canada detailing some amazing characters, lay and religious, whobrought the Faith to the savage Indians, eventually establishing a New France where the Catholic spirit was the guiding orcein all the struggles germane to any colonizing e ort. Tat sameCatholic spirit was employed in Florida and Mexico by theSpanish, and the list o characters in this southern adventurerivals their compatriots to the North. Both e orts had as theirprimary goal the bringing o the Catholic Faith to the natives;secondary was the colonization o the new- ound territories; andthe third goal was the development o these natives to a higherstandard o living.

We need not descend into the well-known greed o someo these explorers or, be it gold, urs, or

orest, man and his desire or personalgain is today much the same as hispioneering orbearers. By way o analogy,I will create a sandwich. Te top crust will be the French Catholic e ort, thebottom crust will be the Spanish Catholice ort; all we need to do is ll the middle,and or that we have the AmericanProtestant e ort, with a sprinkling o Catholic salt. We will call this sandwichthe Americanist ham and rye, or indeed,the Catholic e ort in America wasterribly persecuted in the beginning,but, owing to the War o Rebellion,came to be accepted under the precepto equality or all men; then, in orderto be good Americans, they slipped intothat insidious heresy o Indi erentism.Usually, you have the advantage whenyou hold the top and bottom position, asin a pincer movement, and pressure canbe applied to gain the victory, but as we shall see, the oppositeoccurred. Tis series o articles will chronicle this saga using Teodore Maynards book, Te Story o American Catholicism,

rst published in 1941.Teodore was born in India, in 1890, to parents who were

missionaries or the Plymouth Brethren. Tey sent him to schoolin England, and though they expected him to ollow in their

ootsteps, he broke away rom their sect and became a Baptist. A ter leaving school he took a job in London and, providentially,read G.K. ChestertonsOrthodoxy.I was sliding at the age o

nineteen rom the Calvinist theology into a vague humanitariaskepticism, when I readOrthodoxy . And that work began inme a reaction which, by the grace o God, three years later

carried me into the Catholic Church. Maynard le t Englandor America in 1909 where he took various odd jobs, but hereturned in 1911 and took up Unitarianism, making plans toenter the Unitarian seminary at Ox ord. Grace, however, was working, or he started reading theNew Witness , the weekly edited by Cecil Chesterton (younger brother o G. K.), whosemajor contributor was Hilaire Belloc. Using the analogy o the sandwich again, with sublime arguments as pressure, the

orce o these literary geniuses nally brought Teodore intothe Catholic old in 1913. It was G.K. Chesterton who showedMaynard that aith, which is conceived through grace andrevelation, could be enhanced by reason and that a Churchcould guide reason through a hierarchal body o doctrine.Teodore also espoused Distributism, the program or awardingtracts o armland to deserving individuals. And, through the

Chestertons and Belloc, he learned thatCatholicism was the uni ying orce inEuropean culture, and also a orce ordemocracy and equality, especially in itsdisapproval o the concentration o weaSo much infuence did these men haveupon him that he acquired a reputationas a robust imitator o G.K. Chestertonand Belloc. Alas, i more men could beaccused o this charge!!

Teodore married Sara Casey, a novelist and playwright, in 1918, and in1920, le t to lecture in America. He waso ered and accepted a teaching positionat the Dominican College o San Ra ael(Cali ornia) and eventually settled there with his amily in 1921. Teodores earlie works were books o poetry which met with success, and also an anthology o drinking songs, which I am sure met with success or the Chesterons andBelloc. But it was his meeting with the

historian Van Wyck Brooks that set him on the path to writeCatholic history, eventually authoring over twenty books, manhagiographies, some studies in poetry, and one in particular,Te Story o American Catholicism, which earned him, on the whole, disdain rom American critics and Church o cials.Tis book, which was meant to be a handy pocket guide orthe reader, exposes the constant undertone o Americanism,o indi erentism, in the policies employed by our ounding Catholic athers. Maynard begins his book with a quote rom John Carroll, In the United States our religious system has

Theodore Maynard

TheodoRe M aynaRd T he f oRGoTTen h isToRian o f a MeRiCan C aTholiCisMBy R ussell l a p luMe



undergone a revolution, i possible, more extraordinary than ourpolitical one. Just what do you mean by that, Your Eminence?Maynard answers later in the oreword o the book: So ar,then, rom the Church being an alien institution in America,it might also be said that American Catholics are o ten, romone point o view, rather too American. And later he states,Te Catholic body acted upon America and was in turn actedupon by America. He laments that ew Catholics are so badly instructed as those in this country or more easily all away romthe Church when it suits their convenience. He consideredPope Leos encyclical condemning Americanism,estemBenevolentiae , as a salutary warning to the American hierarchy against resorting to streamlined apologetics. Small wonder he was not highly regarded by American Catholic critics.

Tese articles will study the book in time periods; namely,pre-War o Rebellion, post-War o Rebellion, pre-Civil War,post-Civil War, and the age o Cardinal Gibbons. I think weshall come to a better understanding o just how the middle o the sandwich overwhelmed the outlying crusts.

Email Russell LaPlume at [email protected].

you eel lonely, do yoursel a avor and ind a real rienaway rom the screen. I you want to be entertained,reach beyond your keyboard or joystick. I you desireexercise, step out into the real world o resh air instead oimprisoning yoursel in a Wii. I you want health, eat rea

ood in moderation. And i you want happiness, seek theUltimate Reality in all things and at all times.

Sursum corda! Habemus ad Dominum!

Kindling for the month of May God is everywhere and especially in our souls when

we a re in the state o grace. He constantly desires ourattention and our a ection. In competition are your iPhoncomputer, cell phone, iPod, or other electronic devices .Instead o allowing these devices to zap your attention,time, and a ections, you could make a choice. Who or

what should have most o your attention and a ect ion,dear Society Member? hou shalt love the Lord, thy God

with thy whole... . And don't orget hou shalt love thy neighbormore than your elect ronic devices.

Email Sister Marie hrse at convent@catholicism

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Sister Marie Stella entering the Postulancy in June, 2013

Outside altar at Corpus Christi processionFirst Communicants

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mancipia july/august 2013

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