In the 15th century, Corpus Christi processions were participated in by the whole town and the crafts guilds in particular had well-defined roles in them. The focus of the procession was obviously the Blessed Sacrament but following on behind came the guilds with various representations of saints linked to them. The feast of Corpus Christi did not survive 1560, but the procession had been such a part of town life that the cordiners determined to keep it going in some form. The days of Corpus Christi processions in Scotland in their mediaeval form with all their exuberance, or even, in the more sobre modern manner, on the scale of former years are, to a large extent, over — for the moment. The few that still take place are comprised of scores rather than thousands, which is surely not the purpose of a public procession. Tradi tional Catholics can almost never have them. Nonetheless, if we do not share the erstwhile success of these public professions of faith, we can still participate in the living faith of former ages in our hearts, families and in our churches.
June is when ordinations to the priesthood are taking place in our Seminaries in the United States of America, Switzerland and Germany. Deacons are going to become priests. Some might be ordained on the feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. What a beautiful feast day for becoming a priest! The Sacred Heart is the model of priests who ought to have the same love for souls. This is why seminarians ought to contemplate the Sacred Heart during their time in Seminary to prepare themselves to be another Christ. We can say that the more a priest imitates the Sacred Heart and His virtues, the more fruitful his ministry will be. It is a life's work to achieve that perfection and it starts at Seminary.
In his sermon for Corpus Christi, St. Thomas Aquinas writes: “There is no other nation so great as to have its gods so near as our God is present to us.” When two lovers are about to part for a time, they exchange gifts which embody their mutual love, and whereby each may remember and cherish the other. At the Last Supper, as He made ready to part with His beloved disciples, our Lord gave them a gift, a perfect gift, the only one that was able to express His infinite affection, kindness, tenderness and love for them. Our Lord gave them Himself.
As we prepare for the May Procession at the start of the month, the month of Mary, we consider the different hymns we may sing in her honour. One we love singing is O Purest of Creatures because it acknowledges that Our Lady is the masterpiece of God’s Creation, the person He bestowed with beautiful privileges. One of these is Our Lady’s Immaculate Conception which means that her soul never was stained by Original Sin. Hence the Blessed Virgin Mary is the purest of creatures.
As the Church crisis continues, we must renew our faith in the historical truth of our Lord’s resurrection and the mystery of the cross, the condition of victory.
Unless the grain of wheat falling into the ground die, it remaineth alone. But if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. (Jn 12:24)
Let us not be scandalised and become agitated at the sight of the Church humiliated and defaced by her leaders. By God’s will, she will rise again at the appointed hour. Meanwhile, we should follow our Lady’s example andaccompany her Son in His Mystical Body, calmly believing, hoping and praying that Peter will soon remember the word of the Lord, Before the cock crow, thou shalt deny me thrice (Lk 22:61), and go forth to shed tears of remorse and conversion.
In March, 1882, a 22-year old Allan MacDonald returned to Scotland after fiveyears in Spain. He was ordained in Glasgow and immediately offered a teaching position at Blairs which he declined. Instead he went to Oban where, at the time, the locals, fishermen and shopkeepers were predominantly Gaelic speaking though the number of Catholics very small. Among them, however, was one Donald McLeod, a native of Eigg and it is from him that the young priest started his collection of Gaelic hymns and prayers that, as yet, had never been written down.
Too often, Catholics reduce their lives of piety to that of a relationship between fearful Master and humble ser-vant. God is indeed the divine Master, but He chooses to deal with us on an infinitely higher level: “I will not now call you servants: for the servant knoweth not what his lord doth. But I have called you friends: because all things whatsoever I have heard of my Father, I have made known to you.” (John 15:15) Holy Week and Easter are times when we meditate on what God was prepared to do and to sacrifice to effect our return to His friendship. He deems us worth noth-ing less than Himself. Let us adore Him in return and give to Him what He gave to us: everything.
The first four weeks of Lent have past. These weeks are a preparation for Passiontide — Septuagesima is the remote preparation, Lent the proximate preparation and Passiontide the immediate preparation for Easter. The novus ordo has abolished Passiontide, making the claim that Lent is a whole but this is not historically true. Passiontide was instituted in the 3rd century and so is older than Lent (though younger, obviously, than Easter).
Pray that priests and religious keep the fervour of their vocation, sanctifying themselves by being holy in their prayers and other duties, whether in their dwelling place or serving the faithful in the many activities of the apostolate. In both cases, the more they sanctify themselves, the more they will deserve merits for the faithful. They will do a lot of good, too, if they can set a living example of what they preach, encouraging the faithful in their lifelong quest for holiness and the Eternal reward to follow.
Catholics in Scotland make up barely 16% of the population though in the cities this is slightly higher (apart from Aberdeen where it is 9% and Edinburgh 12%). Dundee has 18% and Glasgow the highest with 27%. Of these already small numbers, the number of prac-tising Catholics who follow Tradition is tiny. This makes the practice of public penance such as was practised by the inhabitants of Nineveh, or in Scotland pre-1560, impossible. But our personal penances, though they do not have this public character (and, if we take the words of our Lord in the Gospel on Ash Wednesday, to our benefit), still have great value in the eyes of God. I would, therefore, urge all our parishioners, particularly those within the age range of penitential practices, 14–60, to do as much as they can this year.
