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Masonic Vestments & Irish Advent Traditions
Masonic Vestments
The same artist who dressed all the cardinals and bishops in gay-rainbow vestments for WYD was chosen again to makes the vestments for the reopening of Notre Dame Cathedral.
The progressivist artist this time chose to use the colors of a Masonic lodge, as you pointed out. To confirm what you stated, please note that in the photo below right he is placing the Masonic eye of Horus on his forehead.
It is sad and disgusting to see the Cathedral with the modern altar, etc. and using the colors of the enemies of the Church
G.G.
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Immaculate Conception & the Reign of Mary
Below is an excerpt from Dom Gueranger in Volume 1 of The Liturgical Year, under the Octave Day of the Immaculate Conception. It is interesting because it seems to allude to the Reign of Mary. i am sharing it with you in case you wanted to post it for your readers.
“O Blessed Mother of Jesus! O Queen of the universe! Can it be that the Star of thy Immaculate Conception has shone in the heavens only to light up the ruin and wreck of this earth? The sign foretold by the Beloved Disciple St. John (Apocalypse 12:1) of the woman that appeared in the heavens clad with the Sun, bearing on her head a crown of twelve stars, and crushing the Crescent beneath her feet – has it not more brightness and power than that other, which appeared in the heavens telling men that God’s anger was appeased, and that the deluge was over? The light which shines upon us is from a Mother. It is our Mother that comes to console and heal us. It is heaven that smiles upon poor guilty earth. We have deserved the chastisement we have received, and more than we have received: but the anger of God will give way, and He will spare us.
“The graces which God poured out upon the world on that great Day of the Church’s Definition of Mary’s Immaculate Conception were not to be without their effect; a new period then commenced. Mary, on whom heresy had heaped its blasphemies for three hundred years, will again reign in the love of those whom her Son redeemed; countries will abandon those errors which have made them slaves and dupes of men’s doctrines; the old serpent will again writhe under that crushing pressure which God set up from the beginning; and the divine Sun of Justice will pour out on the regenerated world the floods of a light, more than ever dazzling and resplendent. We may not live to see that time; but we have signs of its near approach.
“It was two centuries ago that thy devout servant whom the Church has placed upon her altars, Leonard of Porto-Maurizio, predicted that when this dogma of thy Immaculate Conception should be defined, the world would enjoy a long period of peace. The troubles of the present time in which we are living are, we doubt not, a prelude to that happy peace, during which the Divine Word will traverse the whole world unimpeded, and the Church Militant will reap her harvest for the Church in Heaven.
“Sweet Mother of our Jesus! The world was also in agitation in those times that preceded the Birth of thy Divine Son; but peace reigned throughout the whole earth when thou didst give it its Savior in Bethlehem. Until that grand time come when thou wilt show to the world the magnificence of the power which God has given to thee, assist us, each year, to prepare for the glorious solemnity of Christ: Oh! pray for us, that we may be cleansed from all our sins when that Splendid Night comes, during which will be born of thee Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Light Eternal." (The Liturgical Year, Vol. 1, pp. 471-473)
In Jesu et Maria,
R.L.
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Irish Advent Traditions
Ave Maria Purissima !
Two writers of your staff asked about Advent traditions in Ireland. I have copied the extract below from a book, and it pretty much describes what also happened in our house. The crib however was the centre piece, and my father had made a wooden crib which lasted for years. We would put moss and holly on the roof to keep Mary and Baby Jesus warm and of course we prayed the Rosary around the crib each night. On Christmas Eve we did place a lighted candle in the window and the youngest among us placed the Baby Jesus in the crib with great care.
For those who were school going, another preoccupation was our Christmas Exams and our school report. When the reports arrived, we waited with some anxiety while our mother opened them. If they were bad, we would be caned and on one occasion I was, because my marks in religious knowledge had declined. The happy side was the return of the boarding girls with their stories, which would keep us up half the night. Mother was lenient about this, because she could sense the excitement in us all and our need to tell of all that had happened while the girls were away and to hear their stories, of a world we had never encountered up to then.
God bless you dear young ladies.
Yours sincerely,
C.P., Ireland
Advent was a time of great preparation for Christmas in Ireland. First of all, people would go and do a massive spring cleaning of their house, and any outhouses, barns and so on. Inside and out would be pulled apart, tidied and given a fresh coat of whitewash. We see this big spring clean is a feature of many Irish festivals, people cleaned their homes in advance of St Brigid’s day, and Halloween, too. Fuel was stockpiled. Decorations of holly and ivy were foraged and brought back home and used to decorate the house (and even the animals' barns).
This was the children’s’ job, and supplemented with their own handmade decorations. The Christmas tree usually comprised of a branch from a Christmas tree potted up, so that it was considerably smaller than what we are used to today. This approach to decorating is much more sustainable, too. So was the approach to food – most things on the Christmas dinner menu in rural Ireland was grown or raised by the person eating it, and if not it came from the local community, goose, bacon, potatoes, winter vegetables.
Like all Irish festivals the big celebration started on sunset on the eve of the festival day, so on Christmas Eve in Ireland past candles were lit in windows (in a ritual manner, either by the youngest child or the mother of the house). This was to be a sign to show the Holy Family they were welcome to the house, as they sought an inn. Also, on Christmas Eve night, the door was left unlocked so the dead could return to the household, this custom was practised by many on Halloween also, for example. Greenery was placed on graves, too, over the Christmas season to remember the dead.
Posted December 19, 2024
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The opinions expressed in this section - What People Are Commenting - do not necessarily express those of TIA
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Re: Hunchback of Notre Dame
Thanks very much for posting this. We needed a good critique of this film, so popular when I was young, and still today.
Good job!
M.B.