Puer Natus est Nobis!

Dear Friends and Family,

Merry Christmas! You all were very much in my heart in each of the three Masses I offered last night and this morning. I don't think any words could do justice to the wonderful mystery of this day, or to the special place you all hold in my heart. So rather than words, I will try to send your way graces and prayers through the hands of Our Lady.

Though tired now--I had meant to write you earlier in the afternoon but put my head on the pillow for my siesta and when I awoke... discovered it was rather dark outside!--but so very happy. What an amazing, amazing gift to have the Baby Jesus come to us. And what a wonderful blessing to offer the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass three times on this day--something I could never thank God enough for.

Last night after the Midnight Mass and then some celebration with chocolate and other treats with our  little congregation, I returned to the Church  around 3AM for a few moments to just sit there and hold the statute of the child Jesus, sitting before the tabernacle, giving thanks for the amazing gift I have been given as a priest and that all of us have been given as Catholics.

And then when I returned to my room a surprise awaited me: one of the families had snuck in and fixed up the creche seen (which was a gift o theirs to begin with), with a beautiful log, some electric candles and some Christmas lights around the window. You'll see my attempt at a photo below though it doesn't do it much justice (and the child Jesus was placed in the crib just after I took the photo).

As I said words don't seem adequate for all I'd like to say to you all so I'll turn instead to prayer.

With much love and prayers from England,

In Cordibus Iesu et Mariae,

Fr. Tony Pillari

Creche scene I discovered in my room at 3:30AM.

Creche using the flash.

Lights around the window, with some gifts to open.

Creche in the back of Church.

Same Creche.

Child Jesus on Gospel side of altar, used for veneration at altar rail.

Side Altar for low Mass (2nd Mass of day).

Main altar prepared for 3rd Mass (Midnight Mass was candle-lit but I didn't take any photos).

Preparing to Receive the King of Kings

The altar prepared for Thursday evening Adoration (spotlight is shining on the throne where the monstrance will be placed)

Dear Friends and Family,

I'm writing you this note while I wait for Bishop O'Toole to emerge from the Sisters' cloister, where he is spending the afternoon with them. I'll then get to sit down with him over a cup of tea. So when I hear the bell ring (which is how the sisters call for me here), I'll have to pause this post. But in the meantime... the Newborn King is almost here!

I can't wait for Christmas to arrive! Several nice creches are set up around the monastery and all are present except for the newborn baby. We await His coming... And while awaiting it I was given a wonderful gift over the past ten days: in the Carmelite Rite there is an Octave of the Immaculate Conception, meaning that the solemnity of Our Lady's Immaculate Conception is celebrated for eight days! This feast has had a special role in my life for many years, having been the day of my priestly ordination, and many years before that the day of a Marian Consecration made at the University of Notre Dame, a day on which Our Lady very kindly invited me to belong to Her more fully. I have always loved celebrating Her feast day, but never thought I would be able to celebrate an entire octave of Masses in Her honor. It was really wonderful.

The above photo gives you a glimpse of what the midnight Mass will look like, except of course that the main six candles will be lit, along with some minor candles on the altar to see by. I still have a very full week ahead of me before arriving at that blessed night, but once it arrives I should then be able to set aside most work in order to celebrate well the eight days of Christmas. It has been quite a past six months: First semester of law school, hardest semester of canon law school (all downhill from here), preparing and giving 10 day retreat for sisters in Italian, visa challenges which delayed getting started this summer, six weeks in Italy for studies, learning to give spiritual direction to cloistered nuns for the first time, and in two languages, learning a new rite of the Mass (the Holy Sepulchre Rite or Carmelite Rite), getting to know villagers, learning to drive on the other side of the road and navigate roundabouts, new climate and food, caring for new group of families, working with  Bishop's committee on renovation project for monastery, making contacts with local priests and Bishop... and amazingly it looks like God's grace is going to wrap up all these things (in terms of the necessary deadlines) just in time to set them aside for eight days and celebrate Christmas... God is so very good.

I am still trying to finish a large paper. But whether I finish it or not by Christmas I received permission to not work on it again until January. As for the octave I will have the blessing of spending Christmas day itself, after the three Masses of course, in quiet with Jesus the newborn King. I have always thought it would be nice to have a Christmas of quiet adoration (and a long siesta!) and I will have that blessing this year (I was invited to the home of a very nice family for Christmas afternoon meal, but asked if we could do that instead on one of the other eight days of Christmas in order to live Christmas itself as a time focused more on adoration). Then I hope to take a day hike with the young men who have been serving the Mass, a day trip to visit a shrine of local martyrs, perhaps a trip to Plymouth to see where the pilgrims set off from, etc. And I can finally do some light reading such as some books of English history.

The bishop may be emerging any moment now so I had best go downstairs to be ready for him. And depending on what time he has to go I may stop into the local village Christmas carol concert which is taking place outdoors in the center of town tonight.

I will be holding you all in my heart when I go to the altar for the Midnight Mass and all throughout the octave. May Jesus and Mary grant each of you peace and joy in ways that only they can in the midst of this crazy world. May the Child Jesus grant each of you to hope in the infinite wonders of God's grace.

In Cordibus Iesu et Mariae,
Fr. Tony Pillari

To those in Texas

Chasuble for this morning's Mass

Nativity set that some one kindly gave me to set up in my room. Everyone is there except for the Lord! You all are there too through that little box, which I'll explain below...

Dear Friends and Family,

This post is especially for all those in Texas, with whom I was blessed to spend the past 15 Christmas's. Before I enter into the home stretch of this semester and final preparations for Christmas I wanted to write you. Hopefully after Christmas I will be able to sit down and reply individually to your letters, but in the meantime I wanted to at least write you this post.

As Christmas approaches you all are in my heart and mind in so many ways. Every Sunday when I chant Terce I think of the Sunday mornings when I had the privilege of chanting it along side the altar boys, then of vesting for Mass and hearing the different choirs chant, offering the Holy Sacrifice, coming down under the tent with you all, or speaking to a group of the children, then heading to San Antonio and being received so kindly by the good sacristan who had everything so well prepared for the Mass, and then Confessions and Mass, time with families, etc.; I think also now of candle-lit midnight Masses, of Christmas meals with the community at MDM, of our attempted staff party post-Christmas, of sharing with your families painful and joyful times, of Baptisms, of First Communions, and of so many other things. So much to be thankful for!

I will miss you all in a particular way at Christmas, but offer that sacrifice to the Lord asking Him to bless you all and Our Lady to greet you on Christmas morning for me. I know there is "no distance between souls" and so in what truly matters we can exchange gifts without any need of the post office. That little box with the purple ribbon is a reminder to me of that. One of you very kindly gave me that gift a year ago on behalf of the young children--saying that though the box was physically empty it contained the prayers that the children would be saying for me. Those prayers are extremely precious to me and the box has safely traveled everywhere I have gone in the past year. At the moment it sits next to the Virgin Mary awaiting the birth of Her Son.

Those prayers are particularly dear to me here in this mission territory, because England is truly mission territory. Without any exaggeration I can say that I'm now in a pagan country desperately in need of evangelization. This particular section of England has less than 1% of the population that goes to Mass on a Sunday, and there are more Catholics going to Mass than there are Christians going to any other service on a given Sunday... it is a tiny tiny group and most people are in need of evangelization and conversion. Congregations are tiny. For example it is not unusual for me to hear that a pastor will have two Masses on a Sunday, perhaps one with 20 people and another with 50. Here, in addition to the 12 sisters, there is a steady congregation of around 30, about half of whom are children. So midnight Mass will be closer to the numbers present at that first Christmas adoration with the shepherds and Mary and Joseph: we'll likely have about 12 parishioners, along with the 12 sisters of course. The Mass will be by candlelight, and I am very much looking forward to it--only two weeks to go now! And you all will be there because...

I was able to schedule a novena of Masses running from Christmas through New Years. Those Masses will be offered for all those whom God has confided to my care as a priest--and I certainly still consider you all in that category, even if my care is now primarily carrying you in may heart at the altar--as well as for all the benefactors who are supporting me or the sisters here, whether through prayers, sacrifices or other gifts.

On my end your prayers have certainly been fruitful (if mine have not been fruitful on your end then please pray harder for my conversion.... so that I can pray better). I miss you all very much and no doubt will miss you in a particular way on Christmas day, and yet God is taking good care of me here. He has provided a very good situation for prayer, a good community of nuns to support and be supported by spiritually, some good local families and a good bishop, as well as a situation that is allowing me to be in particular contact with people involved in the struggle at the heart of the Church today. All particular blessings. Above all I can see the hand of God challenging me, nourishing me, pushing me, etc. working on my soul, which still needs so much work.

As we enter now the final preparation for Christmas please know that you all in Texas will be in my heart and prayers in a very particular way. Please give your children a hug for me (or for the teenage guys put them in a headlock or something), and thank them for their prayers for me. That is the best Christmas gift I could receive.

In Cordibus Iesu et Mariae,

Fr. Tony Pillari

Treasure from the Past

Dear Friends and Family,

We had a few days this week where it got down to around freezing and there was frost in the morning! This is probably the closest thing I'll get to snow so I enjoyed it.

Clear, cool sky.

This week had a number of special blessings--including a visit to a family home where the 5, 3, and 2 year olds introduced me to their toys... lots of fun and then I had the blessing of praying with them and going over a bit of Catechism with the 5 year-old whom I'll be helping prepare for First Holy Communion this spring, God-willing. But I wanted to share with you a special blessing I'm preparing for this Christmas.

God-willing the midnight Mass will be the first Mass of what will become a daily experience for me here at the Carmel: the celebration of the Carmelite Rite (more properly Holy Sepulchre Rite). I'll share with you here below the introduction that will be going in the booklets people will have, and will add more of a personal commentary later (since I have to get into the Confessional now or I'll be late!). Many blessings to you all on this Second Sunday of Advent.

In Cordibus Iesu et Mariae,
Fr. Anthony Pillari

LANHERNE HISTORY

Through all the chances and changes of history, the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass has been offered at Lanherne and God has been worshipped according to the traditional Roman Rite since the dawn of Christianity in Britain. During the time of the Reformation, when the manor of Lanherne became a refuge for persecuted Catholics, the first of the seminary priests of Douai who suffered martyrdom during the Reformation, St. Cuthbert Mayne, used to celebrate Holy Mass here at Lanherne for persecuted Catholics.

In 1794 the Carmelite nuns, fleeing from the terrors of the French Revolution to Cornwall, opened a new chapter of the history of Lanherne: Holy Mass continued to be celebrated and tradition claims that the light before the Blessed Sacrament at Lanherne has never been extinguished since pre-reformation days.

The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass according to the traditional Roman Rite continues to be celebrated at Lanherne up to our day. Whoever participates at this Mass witnesses the Rite which the Church has been celebrating for centuries and which links them to the Mass celebrated here by St. Cuthbert Mayne and, going back, to the Apostles themselves.   

The persistence of the Carmelite life at Lanherne naturally requires the use of the proper Carmelite Rite, which is nothing else than the traditional Roman Rite with some enrichments and variations. So the gestures and words of the Mass that one is about to experience are almost exactly identical to what persecuted Catholics experienced, right here at Lanherne, when St. Cuthbert Mayne offered the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.

THE CARMELITE RITE

The rite which Carmelites follow in the carrying out of liturgical functions is known as the “Rite of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem.” This rite was adopted at the same time as the Carmelites received their Rule from St. Albert, Patriarch of Jerusalem, about 1209, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre being his metropolitan church.

The Carmelite Rite, together with the Dominican and others, belongs to the Roman Rite, having the same Roman Canon for the celebration of the Mass. In fact, when the Carmelites adopted the Holy Sepulchre Rite, the liturgy then in force in this church was classified as Roman-Gallic. It was fundamentally Roman with a few variations drawn from the Gallic usages of that age. This liturgy had been established in the church of the Holy Sepulchre by the French Canons who had been brought there by the Crusaders. In the course of time, the liturgy was embellished by additional ceremonies, for it was fitting to observe with special solemnity the mysteries of the Redemption in the places where they were originally enacted. And today, two of the processions proper to the Carmelite Rite and still prescribed in the Missal, namely those before the Conventual Mass of the feasts of the Ascension and of the Assumption, are precious relics of the ceremonies performed by the Canons of the Holy Sepulchre in the very places in which these mysteries occurred.

When the hermits of Mount Carmel adopted this liturgy, they naturally modified it to conform to their simple, eremitical way of life. And at the time that the Order was transplanted from Palestine to Europe in the thirteenth century because of the increasing dangers of Saracen persecution, they brought this liturgy with them.

 The rubrics for the celebration of Mass indicate the early origin of the Carmelite Rite. Among the more prominent are the preparation of the chalice at the beginning of a low Mass or just before the singing of the Gospel at High Mass; the shorter Confiteor and other prayers at the foot of the altar; the symbolizing of the unity of the Sacrifice by the offering of the bread and wine together at the Offertory; and the recalling of the Sacrifice of the Cross by the repeated signs of the Cross made by the celebrant and in particular, by the extending of the arms in the form of a Cross immediately after the Consecration.

Moreover, the prominent role which the Mother of Carmel was to play in the liturgical life of her brethren is particularly evident in the Carmelite Rite. Thus in the Carmelite Calendar we find seven feasts of our Lady which are not found in the Universal Calendar of the Church: Her Betrothal; Her Patronage; Mary, Help of Christians; Mediatrix of All Graces; Her Purity; The Holy House of Loreto; and Her Expectation. Other feasts of our Lady already had a place in the Carmelite Calendar long before they were extended to the rest of the Church. Among these were The Immaculate Heart of Mary, Her Maternity, and The Immaculate Conception. The votive Mass of our Lady of Mount Carmel which is said each Saturday has a centuries-long tradition and has special liturgical privileges, for it has the Gloria, Credo, one Collect, and a proper Preface. It recalls for us the origin of the Carmelite veneration of Mary on Mount Carmel and her gift of the Scapular to the Order. And finally, in every Mass, a Carmelite priest recites immediately after the Last Blessing the Salve Regina or, during Eastertide, the Regina Cœli.

This devotion to Our Lady was naturally extended to those who were associated with her in a particular way. Thus, we find the Carmelites especially devoted to St. Anne and St. Joachim; to St. Joseph, devotion to whom they did so much to spread; and to St. Gabriel the Archangel.

When the saintly Pope Pius V in 1568 imposed the restored and unified Latin liturgy upon the universal Church, he excepted those rites whose beginnings antedated two hundred years. Since the Carmelite Rite was much older than two hundred years, it successfully escaped extinction. It has been handed down to us as a treasure, an heirloom that has ever been dear to the hearts of Carmelites in centuries past. It is for us to cherish and preserve, especially here at Lanherne, which is the oldest Carmel in England.

Holy and happy Lanherne, hallowed by the footstep of the martyrs, poor and abandoned in the eyes of the world, yet rich, immeasurably rich in the things that perish not.

Mass Requests and Donations for Sisters

Dear Friends and Family,

I am currently in the process of setting up a new bank account for the nuns here. It may be a while, due to the complications involved in setting up a charity account here in England, before they can cash checks. So in the meantime if you wish to make a donation to them or to make a donation for a Mass that I am offering for your intentions please make any checks payable instead to me (Anthony Pillari), as this is the only way I can currently cash checks for the sisters, but indicate somewhere that the donation should go to the nuns and I will ensure that it does.

The most efficient way to get the funds to the sisters via check is to send the check to my mother at:

Mrs. Melissa Pillari
30028 Applewood Drive
Bay Village, OH, 44140
U.S.A.

Praying for you all as we begin December.

In Cordibus Iesu et Mariae,
Fr. Tony Pillari