Early Saints on Communion and the Real Presence

I wonder if some kind souls (I know you exist!) out there in cyberspace could help me in some research I am doing.

I am after quotes from early Saints, say up to the Sixth Century, but the earlier the better, on Communion, the Real Presence, Transubstantiation, basically the need for Christians to receive the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Our lord Jesus Christ at the Altar of God.

I know Christ Himself says that we must eat His Flesh, but is there an ongoing reference of this from other sources in the early church?

Thanks for your help.

Old Computer Needed

Our local Parish Priest is after an old pc/laptop to use for parish records. If anyone out there can help please drop me a line.

If you can't, we can take it back to factory settings.

Diolch yn fawr. Many Thanks.

Above Right: Something a little more up to date might be apt! ;-)

Please Pray to GKC

This was a comment left to my last piece, by Ecumenical Diablogger (a fellow Welsh Catholic):

I just saw this comment on the American Chesterton Society website, from Daniel Collins, "Please, everyone who reads this, please pray to Chesterton for a miraculous healing of my Grandmother. She is very ill, and there is a problem in doing surgery.

Chesterton once said that he believed in miracles even though he could not perform any. But I think that he can and he will, if we ask him. Please pray for my Grandmother, and also try to make this date a real Feast day for Chesterton."

God Our Father, Thou didst fill the life of Thy servant Gilbert Keith Chesterton with a sense of wonder and joy, and gave him a faith which was the foundation of his ceaseless work, a charity towards all men, particularly his opponents, and a hope which sprang from his lifelong gratitude for the gift of human life. May his innocence and his laughter, his constancy in fighting for the Christian faith in a world losing belief, his lifelong devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary and his love for all men, especially for the poor, bring cheerfulness to those in despair, conviction and warmth to lukewarm believers and the knowledge of God to those without faith. We beg Thee to grant the favours we ask through his intercession, [and especially for……] so that his holiness may be recognized by all and the Church may proclaim him Blessed. We ask this through Christ Our Lord. Amen.

www.catholicgkchestertonsociety.co.uk

Goodbye and Good Riddance to the News of the World

The News of the World is going. I wish it was that easy - the decision came like a North Korean diktat, and is a power-play to secure Sky for news International. Furthermore NoTW will be replaced by another Murdoch Sunday paper.

Left: Do our children know more about Saints or drug-taking celebrities? Which will help them attain their place in Heaven?

It is more akin to shuffling samples from an STD clinic than getting to grips with the immorality and amorality which causes the spread of STDs in the first place.

I use that example pointedly for in many (most?) respects the NoTW is like a STD. It is (was!) a newspaper of the lowest common denominator, full of sleaze and gossip. The few people (two off the top of my head) who I know who have bought it always looked embarrassed when I asked them "why?" and replied: "it's for the sport/football."

Not good enough. The success of the NoTW and The Sun during the week, shows that we are indeed "Broken Britain."

If we are really preoccupied with salacious gossip, pictures of semi-naked women, soap plot lines and similar, then, it would seem, there is little hope for us. We deserve what we get. I can only think that many Rosaries, Novenas and Masses offered against the waterfall of sin is keeping God's wrath from us.

Those who said, this week, that they would now be boycotting the gutter rag (purchasing or advertising) should be asked what they were doing supporting such a disgusting title. And I do not think the Sunday People (the Mirror's Sunday title) is much better.

We really must re-evaluate our actions as a society.

An edited example of the NoTW sleaze

Should we really be surprised that tabloid hacks behaved in such an underhand and disgusting manner? When their output has been, for many years, highly questionable and an affront to the Faith and morals of "the remnant."

Catholics should be made aware that the tabloid media goes against everything that Catholicism stands for. Like the good people of Liverpool in dealing with Murdoch's Sun paper, we should let every single Catholic in the land know that the tabloids must be boycotted.

How else can we expect our children to be good Catholics and role models for the next generation if their parents, aunties/uncles, grandparents etc. have copies of papers lying around that push a totally anti-Catholic worldview and (im)morality?

I recall reading a few years back (and I would dearly love to be corrected - please!) that Rupert Murdoch was given a medal by the Vatican. If this is true, it shows how the "bosses" of our Church have twisted their role and (as a friend used to enjoy saying at every opportunity) "lost the plot."

Rupert Murdoch must hold the ultimate responsibility for a media empire that has spread a weltanschauung of disruptive anti-family soft porn; of money buys loyalty and gossip; of spreading tittle tattle, semi-truths and lies; of promoting an anti-Catholic agenda on so many levels.

We Catholics are the sheep guided by the Princes of the Church, who should set the example so that we can all (in our faltering Via Dolorosa, in this Vale of Tears) attain Sainthood.

"Newspapers" such as (but not solely) the News of the World have been a roadblock for many souls on that road. Now is the time for Catholic Bishops to speak out and help us pew Catholics by providing us the ammunition to fight back against a gutter mentality, promoted by Rupert Murdoch and other media barons.

Time for Catholic Action! Hurrah! Meet you at the barricades ;-)  [For humbugs looking in - that is a joke].

Portillo, Elizabeth I, Scottish Independence & Catholicism

Come on laddie: paint your face!!!

I have never really liked Michael Portillo. Not because his father was a supporter of the anti-Catholic forces in Spain. Nor because he is a homosexual. Nor even because he flipped from being a "right-winger" to being a liberal (around the time he was forced out of the closet).

I believe he is the breed of politician who is always the "system's man." Not strictly a careerist, though he clearly wanted to be the Tory leader before being 'outed,' moreover he is well-connected amidst the politicos, bankers and media-luvvies.

It is that breed of people who will never rock the boat, will always come out on the side of the ruling class, whilst pushing from the inside for the very worst kind of laws viz morality, public decency, the family and so on.

They will never be openly hostile to the Catholic Church, but they will always say that Catholics should keep their opinions inside the Church. Like Alistair Campbell, the one-time (some might say all-time) porno-fiction writer, this breed of politico "don't do God."

The very idea of God is anathema to this breed. To them, religion should not encroach on politics (whilst their politics forever encroaches on our religion). They, like Nietzsche before them, believe that "God is dead" or at least is in His retirement home (reserved for visiting hours on Sundays) with the other 'deities of your choice' so we are free to pick n choose from Buddhism to witchcraft, Baptist to Islam.

The Catholic Faith is an anachronism to these breed, one of many beliefs to pick n choose as long as you keep it to yourself. They are free to ram their constructs and beliefs down our throats via the school system, the mass media and the political system, so that we believe in "Liberté, égalité, fraternité." 


Over the years, they have used this Masonic hydra to make the majority believe that contraception was acceptable, then that abortion on demand was acceptable, then that homosexuality was acceptable. Now they are all pushing for the acceptance of euthanasia.

Of course we will be told this will be "for love." Or "to stop suffering." The modern god "choice" won't be far behind. And so eventually, through BBC docudramas, through Eastenders plot-lines and via the Chinese water torture of political and media pressure, the majority will go with the flow. Oh they will lie, tweak, fabricate and concoct "surveys" and even use very sad individual examples (in that Roe Vs Wade style). But the end result will be euthanasia on demand. Mass murder.

They'll get us coming and going! Both ends of the hospital will be death mills; with one end seeing sad women pressurised into killing babies by uncaring boyfriends, husbands, married lovers etc., whilst the other end sees sad old people who think they are a "burden" signing their lives away whilst relatives rub their hands with glee and flick through holiday brochures and paperwork from car showrooms.

The only people with "yooman rights" will be hardened criminals. The rapists, paedophiles  -- all will have their rights enshrined; whilst the innocent unborn and the pressurised elderly will be killed by the thousands.

We can see it happening a mile off. Abortion was meant to be for a small number of women. Their lives would be in danger. Two doctors would have to sign off the "procedure." All manner of checks and balances would be in place.

Now we have abortion on demand with abortion profiteers (sorry, 'providers') advertising their referral or confidential helpline services as if they do not have a vested interest (or profit motive) in promoting abortion as the pain-free option with no physical, mental or moral ramifications.


Do the people now pushing euthanasia not realise that the same thing will happen again? The Death Clinics will advertise "helplines" and suchlike, where they will present suicide as a "valid lifestyle choice" and those who bother to protest outside the clinics will see doddery old men and ladies taken in by relatives with pound-signs in their eyes.

So why pick on Michael Portillo?

Well he thinks that none of this is "extreme." He thinks we live in a wonderful land where everything that is liberal and free is accepted by the majority. I have no doubt his own twisted proclivities colour his judgement, as is the case with so many people embroiled in the political sphere.

The other evening he was involved in a discussion on the BBC's Newsnight about "Britishness" and "Englishness," which were being discussed in the shadow of the SNP's victory in Holyrood and the prospect of Scotland going independent.

Mr. Portillo painted a bizarre picture of English/British history, wherein Britishness was essentially an all-embracing liberalness that avoids extremes. This was, for him, rooted in Elizabeth I's stance against Catholics and Protestants, choosing instead the "centre ground."

Excuse me? Methinks Mr. Portillo needs a history lesson. Bloody Bess was a tyrant. She murdered many  Catholics in the most gruesome manner. This is an ample example of the re-writing of history in which Mary I is painted as "Bloody Mary" for killing circa 500 Protestants in the legal manner of the day, whereas the Protestants: Henry VIII, Edward VI, and Elizabeth I killed many, many times more - in the multiple of thousands. Men, women and children often killed in reprisal attacks for mass movements in defence of Catholicism such as the Pilgtrimage of Grace and the Northern Rising.

You see what Portillo and his ilk do not tell you is that England was a thoroughly Catholic country. The Protestants were small in number, but agitated to control the State. And so Elizabeth, who swore an Oath to be a Catholic queen, turned against her people. She put a rift between England and Europe for centuries. She put the country at risk from Spanish/Imperial armies. And she ruined the beliefs of the whole country, forcing people to go underground to celebrate Mass as their parents and grandparents had done, openly.

Splitting the country between the "pro-Catholic" and "pro-Protestant" factions in turn led to the disastrous Civil War, with the forces of Cromwell all but raping Ireland. Cromwell the mad Protestant who banned Christmas is, of course, a darling of the politicos because he was an extreme anti-Catholic nutter. Despite banning parliament and replacing a King with himself as Lord Protector, he remains the darling of "democrats."

It had (and has!) nothing to do with democracy. If a popular vote was taken the population of England would have remained Catholic through all the turmoil. The people loved their Church, and their devotions.

What Portillo and his ilk believe Britishness to be (and here I concur) is a worship of the State and the State's religion (Anglican hotch-potch at first, and now "tolerance" of goodness knows what).

The SNP spokesman on the programme did interject in Portillo's ramblings of Britain being against "Catholic extremism" at one stage by stating that the British Union was a construct to keep the State Protestant and for the benefit of the Hanoverians.

Of course to Portillo regicide and overthrowing the lawful King to replace him with a Dutch or German puppet is a great example of Britishness and not "extreme" in any way! Just as it is not extreme to have an Anglican Queen sign off laws that go against her Oath of Office to uphold the law of the land and the Bible, in particular laws which legalised homosexuality, abortion and which will legalise euthanasia.

Britishness and Anglicanism are State worship. That is why the head of the Anglican church is the queen (also head of the Protestant, Presbytarian Church of Scotland), and so Britishness has always been about being anti-Papist; as such one could argue that Britain was the first Masonic State (whose regicide led the way for the French revolutionaries).

Certainly John Dee, the man who is said to be the founding  father of the British Empire and Elizabeth I's right-hand man was a known occultist. Then we have Cromwell the murderer who was the nuttiest Brit to rule the country. Then there is William of Orange (the "King Billy" so beloved of Protestants), a usurper who sold England to unending debt by establishing the Bank of England.

Portillo thinks all of this and more proves that Britain is all about tolerance and fairness. Tell that to the Irish circa 1845. Tell that to the Scottish circa 1746. Tell that to the Welsh children banned from speaking their mother-tongue. Tell that to the Boers who were put in the first ever concentration camps. Tell that to the English forced from the land and into slums.

Britain is a construct designed to promote worship of the state and money (coming together in the Empire), which is why the City of London has been the centre of finance for many centuries. Anglicanism is state worship with a healthy dose of anti-Catholicism at its head. They have bent over backwards (Houses of Orange, Hanover and Saxe-Coburg/Gotha - aka Windsor) to stop Catholic rule, hence we still have anti-Catholic legislation on the statute books.

I know it's hard - and many Catholics have fought and died under the Union Jack, not least in my own family - but I believe Scottish independence will be a good thing, because it will make us all re-evaluate patriotism, who rules us, and the means of ruling us.

There is no hard and fast rule for Catholics, but when the law was recently changed to give the Welsh Assembly more law-making powers, the Catholic Bishops put out a statement broadly welcoming it, as the nearer to people power is held, the more accountable it is (very Chetsertonian of them).

I do not think "splitting up" (as the likes of Portillo so manically portray it) the UK will end the hegemony of Mammon, Freemasonry and other anti-Catholic forces, any more than it will change the day-to-day lives of all of us, whether we are Welsh, English, Scottish or Irish. There will be no barbed-wire borders. I do not even think the moral-framework of the laws (let along the Social Reign of Our Lord Jesus Christ) will come into force.

But might the Scottish, Welsh and English nations look to their Catholic roots as well as their futures in all this political change?

I doubt it somehow, but the end of the British Union may yet give Catholics hope for the future and be part of God's plan. With the Euro stumbling and even America unable to "pay its bills" the era of small nations may take us back to a more Catholic way of doing things...

Regeneration and Renewal: Lessons from Stoke-on-Trent

There was a great piece on tonight's Newsnight about a programme of regeneration and renewal, which actually delivered ruined communities, wrecked lives, increased crime and just a total mess out of areas that were once vibrant, full of life and jam packed full of homes and families.

Did the authorities base their Regeneration and Renewal project on Vatican 2?

Why is mankind never happy with what works? Why the constant need to innovate for innovation's sake?

Animals Before the Elderly

Sorry to have to report that the Hafan Dementia Care in Ammanford did not win the vote and therefore the Lottery grant is going to the farm project in Swansea so it can have a cafe.

Whilst I think teaching farming to city children is a great idea, we see yet again that caring for the elderly - and especially those with dementia - takes a back seat to animals. No wonder the elderly are being maltreated in some retirement homes and hospitals.

But well done to Bernard for promoting this great cause and for all his hard work, in memory of his wife. He is an inspiration to us all.

Vote for Hafan Dementia Care's Memory Cafe Project

Vote now for Hafan Demetia Care's Memory Cafe Project:


Jubilee People's Millions.

Or phone: 0871 62 68 112

It only costs 11p to vote and you have till midnight.

You can watch the programme, and Bernard's appeal again: here.

Hafan's film starts around 21 minutes into the programme.

Vote for Ammanford Dementia Centre on ITV Wales News - Tonight.

If you have the time please vote for Ammanford Dementia Centre as it hopes to get a National Lottery grant.

As I understand it the vote will be tonight on ITV Wales news at 6pm.

A local parishioner - Bernard - does a lot of fundraising for them and accosted me (as usual!) in Barrie's chip shop as we queued to get our fish suppers. So please, if you get the chance, vote for the Dementia Centre. It isn't a "trendy" charity and needs all the help it can get.

Cuomo - Please Bishops Make a Stand

With thanks to the Catholic Cartoon Blog

Time for Catholic New Yorkers to make themselves heard.



Oh - btw, only 2,500 turned out for a "gay pride" event in Swansea last weekend. It rained on their parade.

That a freebie with pop stars (designed to get as many non-homosexuals along as possible) attracted such a derisory crowd shows that we Welsh aren't as fooled on this matter as other populations (sadly) are.

Another loss-making event propped up no doubt by Council Tax payers and Big Business sponsers. Shame on them.

Liberté, égalité, fraternité: Homosexual "Marriage" in New York

Why oh why oh why?

"Equality for all" is trending on Twitter and it turns out it is a celebration of some "law" allowing homosexuals to get "married."

I am reminded of the Chingford skinhead, Lord (Norman) Tebbitt who said that homosexuals have equality -- they can find someone of the opposite sex and get married, just like the rest of us. Delightfully un-pc and probably a "hate crime" today.

The sad thing is that all these laws promoting the sodomite agenda are, at base, deeply hateful. They are hateful of Mother Church, they are hateful of Our Lord Jesus Christ and his Kingship over society, and they are hateful of Christianity, pure and simple.

A handful of "activists" - and a big banner: says it all.

These laws, that promote homosexuality (a creed steeped in drugs, disease, hatred and death) do so whilst the minority-mob screech about "love." The silent majority just sit back and do nothing, because the politicos and media-moguls all seem to have signed up to this deeply, deeply anti-Catholic agenda.

Sadly the role of a diseased, sick, degenerate minority of primarily homosexuals who were allowed into the seminaries, in the church paedophile scandal has now, in turn, undermined the ability of our Holy Church to denounce such blatant amorality and immorality.

Catholicism must be the bastion of decency, the family and (stating the obvious) Catholic Truth, against the tidal wave of filth dressed up as "love" and using the Masonic battle cry of "liberté, égalité, fraternité" which starts by promising justice, but ends with those seeking to defend the Faith being guillotined.

News:
NY Law on "gay marriage"

P.S. Governor Cuomo who rubber stamped this law sounds like an Italian name. I hope his Catholic family ostracise this terrible man for his heinous act which will lead many souls to damnation.

Michelle Obama - Catholic Church? Please God No

I just caught a 30 second glimpse of Michelle Obama giving a talk in Soweto on AIDS. Nothing wrong with that in and of itself (unless she is promoting condoms which seems to be the world's only answer in this hedonistic age, even though it promotes promiscuity and so the spread of disease and infidelity).

The church she was speaking at is called Regina Mundi (Queen of the World). I purposefully haven't looked on the net to see if it's a Catholic Church. I assume it is.

If you get the chance watch the footage online, on tonight's news.

You will see what I call a roller-disco church. It has the spirituality of a KFC Bargain Bucket. Everything about it screams modernism: the art, the seating, the building. It is just awful. And no I do not mean it inspires awe. It wouldn't inspire the lukewarm, it might just inspire and insipid worldliness, it may inspire people to stay at home and watch TV. It certainly would not inspire belief in the Real Presence of Our Lord and God Jesus Christ in the Blessed Sacrament.

I just hope beyond hope that it isn't a Catholic Church. If it is, and it probably is as there's not many others that use Latin titles, then it - in and of itself - explains what is wrong with the Church.

God help us all.

The Treasures of Heaven: Great BBC4 Programme on Relics

There's a wonderful programme on relics and reliquaries on BBC i-player at the moment.

Well worth watching. Not Catholic in origin of course, but for a "mainstream" programme it gives a good insight into our Catholic heritage.

And here's a Catholic site on relics.

Sad News for Catholics Who Love Their Faith

Image from Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice website

In the words of the organisers:

The Pro Ecclesia Et Pontifice 2011 Conference has been torpedoed.

For more details see their website.

It seems that a regular Mass for practicing homosexuals, which helps promote sinful, active and promiscuous homosexual activity is acceptable to the Westminster Archdiocese. Yet a conference to defend our Faith and its Traditions is "torpedoed" first by seeking the withdrawal of Cardinal Burke, then by applying pressure on the protestant landlords of the venue.

Quo Vadis Archbishop?

Long Live Christ the King

Los Cristeros

Many thanks to Richard of Linen on the Hedgerow for being so kind as to send me a book on the Cristeros - after my recent post on them.

He really is a good egg. And he's not even Welsh! Just imagine! ;-)

His latest article on kneeling to receive Communion is up to his usual high standard of defending Tradition with that GKCesque sparkle in his eye.

I haven't started the book yet because of the avalanche of work I've been engulfed in over the last few weeks (as the dearth of postings on this blog show - sorry).

But I intend to (actually reading a chapter on the Virgin Mary lent to me by our Parish Priest re. Co-Redemptrix etc. -- and I haven't even finished the last Christian Order yet and it is a humdinger of an issue on Pope Paul VI) as soon as I can and will report back on my findings.