The Sheepcat

Tag-Team Spiritual Battle Enters Round Two

Bad news. I went by the site of one of the psychic shops whose closure we celebrated several months ago, and there was a new set of signs up in the window for another psychic. Time to redouble those prayers to St Michael.

St. Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle; be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil. May God rebuke him, we humbly pray, and do thou, O prince of the heavenly host, by the power of God, thrust down into hell Satan and all the other evil spirits who wander through the world seeking the ruin of souls. Amen.

Salt+Light Focus on Courage

Salt+Light Television presents a thoughtful and compassionate half-hour Focus program on Courage's ministry to people struggling with same-sex attraction. Theresa and I appear briefly, since the orientation change I've experienced isn't the apostolate's primary focus.

Some people wonder what kind of woman would marry a man with my history. In truth, at this stage of our relationship, the challenges we face as a couple have very little to do with my past. We're just called, like anyone else, to surrender all our sorrows and joys to God and to trust that he will satisfy our needs.

We are grateful to Toronto's Archbishop Thomas Collins for his leadership on this issue.

Update: Earlier I asked for help with the video, which originally I couldn't get to embed at all. Thanks, Friar Rick and Courage Philippines!

Psychic Sonya Bites the Dust!

Praise God! Another storefront psychic in my neighbourhood has closed, as of February 12.

There used to be a psychic shop on the north side of Dundas just opposite the laundromat I go to. Whenever I went past it, I would make the Sign of the Cross--this was, note, while I was Baptist and not otherwise in the habit of crossing myself. But some places make one conscious of the need for spiritual protection.

I routinely use time at the laundromat for prayer (the hum of the dryers makes for a nice drone, by the way)--now the Rosary; previously, whatever prayers came to mind.

Well, anyway, one day the shop wasn't open any longer. The next time I saw the door open, I went in and asked the new people, who were renovating the space to put in a hair salon, what had happened to the previous tenant. They said they didn't know.

That was a few years ago, as far as I recall. When I became Catholic soon afterwards, I learned the St Michael Prayer.

St. Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle; be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil. May God rebuke him, we humbly pray, and do thou, O prince of the heavenly host, by the power of God, thrust down into hell Satan and all the other evil spirits who wander through the world seeking the ruin of souls. Amen.

I adopted the practice of praying for the intercession of St Michael whenever I pass a psychic shop. If I'm on foot or on my bike, I'll say the St Michael prayer at full volume, but even on transit where there's less privacy I'll say it aloud, under my breath. (Update: As promised, here's another story about the St Michael prayer.)

Several times a week for more than three years, I went by a psychic shop on Queen Street just east of the Parkdale library. Each time I would ask the holy angels to help shut it down. Some time this past summer, the shop posted a flyer advertising discount readings, I hoped because business was slow. And then the door was always closed and the familiar sandwich board stopped appearing out on the sidewalk.

And now Psychic Sonya is gone. The last few times I've gone past the corner of Dufferin and Dundas, the neon light has been off, so I wondered if something might be afoot. And this evening on the way to choir I saw this notice from the landlord, advising her that the tenancy was terminated.

Incidentally, a few months ago I noticed a crudely hand-lettered sign in the window advertising

Free CAtS
To good
HoMe

Thanks, but no thanks. (I wish I could find again an account I once read about the spiritual purification of a house whose previous occupants, active in the occult, had left behind a kitty that showed signs of being possessed.)

Some people will wonder why anyone should care what psychics do. The explanation is that divination does work, but it works by opening the person who uses it up to demonic powers. Any attempt to harness occult powers is gravely evil.

Consulting horoscopes, astrology, palm reading, interpretation of omens and lots, the phenomena of clairvoyance, and recourse to mediums all conceal a desire for power over time, history, and, in the last analysis, other human beings, as well as a wish to conciliate hidden powers. They contradict the honor, respect, and loving fear that we owe to God alone. (CCC 2117)

Let us pray for the proprietor of Psychic Sonya, that she may be delivered from the occult and find a good line of work.

Of course, I will not know in my lifetime how much my prayers (or the holy water I sprinkled on the sidewalk) had to do with the closure of these portals for demonic forces, but I'm going to keep praying to St Michael, and encouraging others to do the same. Prayer works!

St Michael (3 times).

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit.
As it was in the beginning,
Is now, and ever shall be,
World without end. Amen.

O my Jesus, forgive us our sins,
Save us from the fires of hell, and
Lead all souls to Heaven, especially those in most need of Thy mercy. Amen.

How Cold Was It?

Daily dose of imagery has some great winter shots of Toronto.

New Toronto Catholic Blog

Toronto has a new Catholic blog that promises to be faithful to the Magisterium as it surveys liturgy, education, and parish life in the Diocese of Toronto. It's off to a good start with an interesting sketch of the arrival of Irish Catholics en masse in the 1840s.

Link thanks to Vox Cantor and The Spirit's Sword, a couple of my other local regular reads.

Toronto's Church of the Holy Family Will Celebrate "Tridentine" Mass

Hot off the press! My home parish, Holy Family in Parkdale, has just announced it will soon begin celebrating the extraordinary form of the Mass.

TRIDENTINE MASS - OLD MASS
Following the recent Motu Proprio of Pope Benedict XVI, “Summorum Pontificum”, the 11:30 weekday Mass will be celebrated according to the extraordinary form of the liturgy of the church. (This Mass sometimes goes by the name “Tridentine Mass” or “Old Mass”). The Motu Proprio comes into effect on September 14, and the first weekday Mass in this form will be on Monday, September 17. There will be an additional Mass, in this form, on Saturdays at 11:30 a.m. This will give the faithful in other parts of the city a chance to take part in the Mass according to the 1962 Missal. We will print out the propers and readings of the Mass for your use, and as soon as a new edition of the Missal is available (probably October) we will make them available.

Your faithful servant is looking forward to being trained as an altar server for this form of the Mass.

Meanwhile, our sister parish, St Vincent de Paul, on Roncesvalles, continues to celebrate the extraordinary form (i.e., the Tridentine Mass) on Sunday mornings at 9:30.

If you're interested but feel as if attending the extraordinary form would be throwing yourself into the deep end (and, with the greatest respect, I think it's fair to say the "Tridentine" Mass takes a bit of getting used to if you didn't grow up with it, as I indeed did not), I suggest first trying a Latin Mass celebrated according to the Novus Ordo (N.O.) missal. This is, after all, the authoritative version from which all of the vernacular Mass translations are derived. For years the Fathers of the Oratory have celebrated a beautiful and reverent sung Latin N.O. Mass at Holy Family. This is at 11:00 every Sunday morning and will be maintained.

Note: People sometimes wonder whether everything in the "Latin Mass" is in Latin. For the N.O. Mass we use the Adoremus Hymnal. The English translations are right there on the right hand side of the page, and, yes, the scripture readings and homily are in English.

Come, see what a wonderful gift the Holy Father has given the Church in encouraging us all to rediscover the riches of Catholic liturgical tradition!

World Youth Day 2002

Five years ago yesterday, I watched in joy as the clouds parted and the sun beamed down upon the sodden ground at Downsview where 850,000 pilgrims had gathered to participate in the Papal Mass at the climax of World Youth Day. Some of the overnight campers had left already, driven away by heavy rains, but for those who persevered to the end, the reward was glorious.

At the time I was an ecumenically minded adherent of a Baptist church, one I'd been attending for nearly a year. I believed in gleaning whatever was of value in any Christian denomination, so I wasn't about to miss a chance to see and hear one of the great spiritual leaders of our age. Even if I didn't accept everything the Catholic Church taught, on many issues Pope John Paul II was clearly on the side of the angels. What a turnabout from his visit to Toronto in 1984, when I'd denounced the "sexist, homophobic" tyrant with such vehemence that after one outburst I felt compelled to gingerly ask one potentially offended co-worker whether he was Catholic. Uh, no, actually he was Jewish and didn't really see what the fuss was about--whew. But I digress.

World Youth Day brought a spiritual glow to our beleaguered city. On the subway, in the streets, especially on a pedestrianized artery running through my neighbourhood, I saw pilgrims with their distinctive burgundy and tan backpacks--even now, seeing someone with one of the backpacks gives me a little thrill of recollection. I struck up conversations with a few visitors, wishing them well even as I stumbled over quite what to say. For the most part I offered just a knowing nod of recognition: we are brothers and sisters in Christ.

On the Friday I had joined a few friends outside the Royal Ontario Museum to watch the great and terrible pageantry of the Stations of the Cross.

And now here I was, standing on my own in the midst of a great crowd of young people, who were cheering this frail old man as if he were a pop star. "John Paul Two, we love you!" This celebrity business I could do without, but when the Mass began, I was deeply stirred. What serenity and dignity! And what a powerful message of hope and lasting truth in his homily.

About the sexual abuse scandals then wracking the Church in the United States, the Pope maintained a careful reserve, reminding us of the good work being done by so many good and faithful priests. Had I been closer to the scandals I might have reacted differently, but it seemed to me that this was not the time or place for the airing of the Church's dirty laundry. In keeping with that same attitude, I recently heard Archbishop Collins say that a bad priest reveals nothing of what Christ and the Church are like--he tells you only about his own sordidness--while a good priest is a clear window pane, allowing the light of Christ to shine through.

I didn't receive the Eucharist, of course--I knew better than that. I didn't really understand the Church's logic, but I was perfectly prepared to play by the rules. I don't remember feeling particularly left out. As I recall, I just prayed while everyone else lined up at the multitude of stations.

* * *

In the evening, I made my way to my local laundromat, where I encountered a group of pilgrims, from Peru, I think. They needed help with the instructions on the machines. In fractured Spanish, I chatted with them about the work of the Holy Spirit, and what a blessing the whole event had been. I might well have told them I was satisfied with the Baptist church as at least a temporary resting place; I was still largely partial to the Protestant approach to Scripture and no doubt gave them an indulgent smile when they talked about some of the Catholic "distinctives" for which I couldn't see any solid warrant. We agreed to pray for each other, and we prayed for Christian unity.

I would go on to submit to baptism by immersion the next spring (despite having been baptized as an infant) and to become a full member of the Baptist church, but less than three years after World Youth Day came to Toronto, I resolved to enter the Catholic Church, and another two months later I was finally received into it. Deo gratias.

Portuguese-Canadian Marchers Make Pentecost a Movable Feast

Every year the Portuguese procession with its marching band comes through my neighbourhood. Last year I still wasn't sure what the occasion was. Today someone told me it's for Pentecost--the sashes say "The Fellowship of the Holy Spirit." But wait a minute--wasn't Pentecost Sunday three whole weeks ago? Well, yes, but apparently other parishes have their processions earlier so Santa Cruz postpones its own.

Anyway, I've been experimenting with Flickr and have posted a set of photos there. I'm still new at this, so let me know there are any glitches.

Canada's Next Generation of Bishops

In Canadian Catholic News Deborah Gyapong reveals some of the process by which priests are chosen to become bishops. With more than 20 Canadian bishops reaching the retirement age of 75 in the next five years, we can expect the choices to have a major effect, one way or another, on the face of the Church in this country. (Canada has 155 living bishops, of whom 58 are retired.)

Meanwhile, the Archdiocese of Toronto hosts a bevy of events to welcome Archbishop Collins, who is to be installed this Tuesday. Now here's a sign of his humility: he's living in the rectory of St Michael's Cathedral, the first archbishop to do so in a long time, and takes the subway to diocesan offices. Here Fr Rosica of Salt and Light TV interviews Archbishop Collins about his new role.

Gyapong quotes the secretary to the Papal Nuncio to Canada, whose office had quite a hand in the nomination of episcopal candidates, on Pope Benedict's approach.

The pope is inviting people to be positive, to say “yes,” accepting a new life in Christ, he said. Christ doesn’t ask us to say “no,” Msgr. Crotty said, “he asks us to say “yes” because he wants what is good for us.

Orthodox and positive. To me that's one inspiring combination.

More coverage from Rocco at Whispers in the Loggia, with links to this lively portrait in the Toronto Sun.

Bernini Crucifix Corpus

Corpus, a rare bronze crucifix by Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1598–1680), has been donated to the Art Gallery of Ontario. It will be unveiled in June. The gallery also holds a marble bust by Bernini of Pope Gregory XV.