Portsmouth Roman Catholic

.......et ingressus angelus ad eam dixit have gratia plena Dominus tecum benedicta tu in mulieribus..... If indeed we are to have a Year of the Bible and indeed praise St Jerome, as indeed he deserves to be praised, for translating the texts approved by the Church into Latin, the language of the Mass, then surely we should check what the Latin says according to St Jerome before we rush into translating into other languages.    In this case translating  from the Gospel of Luke, St Jerome wrote the above, which translates  "..and entering the angel said to her 'Hail full of grace the Lord is with you and blessed are you among women".   Now you do not have to be a scholar to realise that this means much more than 'highly favoured'.   So why I ask myself does the translation we read in our Catholic Church at the gospel read 'highly favoured' rather than 'full of grace'  Why is this important?   Because if she was born 'full of grace' t...

They are among the clergy, they are in catholic Schools, they in many cases run Catholic Parishes.   Melanie Philips has much to say about such people.

I have often then inquired earnestly and attentively of the very many men eminent for sanctity and learning, how and by what safe and universal rule I may be able to distinguish the Truth of Catholic faith from the falsehood of heretical pravity; and I have always and in almost every instance, received an answer to the this effect .   That whether I or any one else should wish to detect the frauds and avoid the snares of heretics as they rise, and to continue sound and complete in the Catholic faith, we must, the Lord helping, fortify our own belief in two ways, first , by the authority of the divine law,  and then by the tradition of the Catholic Church.   But here someone will ask perhaps  'Since the Canon of Scripture is complete and sufficient of itself for everything, and more than sufficient , what need is there to join with it the authority of the Church's interpretation?   For this reason - because owing to the depth of Holy Scripture all do not accept i...

What a wonderful Mass we had this morning at St Joseph's. Both priests were on the altar and after delivering the news that this was the last Public Mass for some time, they read a letter from the Bishop. I had the gift of tears during the Consecration and on receiving Holy Communion. After Mass Fr Gaston placed the sacred species into the monstrance and we had a procession outside. He went to the entrance to the Church and with the Sacrament he blessed the houses opposite. Th en to the other side and blessed the houses on the other side of the school field, then the school itself. What a pity that no pupils were present to witness this great act of Love from the greatest treasure in the Catholic Church, the very flesh of Jesus as the apostles themselves called the bread they consecrated. I witnessed two people kneeling on the hard wet ground showing something the Church has lacked for too long - humility. Now we are in exile, with no Mass calling us to unity in the Body of Christ....

Heavenly Father, we turn for your help at this time when a modern plague is threatening civilisation itself, and your Church is closing its doors.   Help us first to turn to your Son in the Blessed Sacrament, as in so many times in the History of our Church when dangers threatened, for this Sacrament was known as the Flesh of Jesus, and offered to you as a Sacrifice in Apostolic times, as it is offered today.       We also need help to turn to She whom you created to be the Mother of your Son and the Mother of all Christians, Mary Immaculate.    How eagerly the Dragon sought to devour her son at his birth, but having failed in his anger and hatred he sought out her other offspring, those who follow her Son Jesus.   But we are poor sinners, Father, who need your forgiveness rather than saints who can crush the serpent's head.   Keep us close to you in this time of peril, through the merits gained on the Cross by your Son Jesus Christ, and the inter...

ROME, Italy, March 12, 2020 ( LifeSiteNews ) ― All the Catholic churches in Rome have been closed to the faithful because of the coronavirus outbreak.   In a move that is without historical precedent, Cardinal Angelo de Donatis, the Pope’s vicar for the diocese of Rome, announced today that all the Catholic churches in Rome will be closed until April 3, 2020.  Earlier this week , the Italian Bishops’ Conference suspended all public celebrations of Mass, but they allowed the churches to be open at certain times for personal prayer and Eucharistic adoration. However, that comfort has been lost to the faithful in Rome.  According to ACI Stampa, the decision came from Cardinal Angelo de Donatis, who updated the March 8 decree that originally suspended Masses to include the closing the churches. SCROLL DOWN FOR MORE. The decree now states that “until April 3, 2020, access to parish churches and other churches in the diocese of Rome open to the pub...

We know, too, that united to the Divinity in the Eucharist there is Jesus' Body and Blood taken from the body and blood of the Blessed Virgin. Therefore at every Holy Communion we receive, it would be quite correct, and a very beautiful thing, to take notice of our Holy Mother's sweet and mysterious presence, inseparably united with Jesus in the Host. Jesus is always the Son She adores. He is Flesh of Her flesh and Blood of Her blood. If Adam could call Eve when she had been taken from his rib, "bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh" (Gen. 2:23), cannot the holy Virgin Mary even more rightly call Jesus 'Flesh of my flesh and Blood of my blood"? Taken from the "intact Virgin" as says St. Thomas Aquinas, the flesh of Jesus is the maternal flesh of Mary, the blood of Jesus is the maternal blood of Mary. Therefore it will never be possible to separate Jesus from Mary.  For this reason at every Holy Mass which is celebrated, the Blessed Virgin can repe...

In Genesis we read that after the fall and after the rebuke of the serpent that God said to that serpent “I will put enmities between thee and the woman and between thy seed and her seed, he/she will crush they head and you will lie in wait for her heel.  I have put he or she because in some translations it is he and others it is she.   There is a promise here that because of a woman the serpent will be crushed, not just by her but by the seed she gives birth to.   Of course this woman is Mary and her seed is Our Lord Jesus, as the Church has taught from the beginning. But there is another text in the Bible which this promise is related to, and it is one from the New Testament -  Revelations 12. " And a great portent appeared in heaven, a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars, she was with child and she cried out in her pangs of birth, in anguish for delivery.    And another portent appear...