Reviving Religious Life in Britain – and Across the West (Guest Article by Fr Armand de Malleray, FSSP)

Whitby Abbey

Article by Fr Armand de Malleray, FSSP, first published in  Dowry Magazine No43: For the benefit of our readers outside Great-Britain, the assessment and remedies offered in this article apply outside of Britain; indeed throughout our formerly Christian Western countries.

Introduction

Better is one day in Thy courts above thousands. How lovely are thy tabernacles, O Lord of hosts! my soul longeth and fainteth for the courts of the Lord.’ This Introit (at the beginning of the Mass on the 14^th Sunday after Pentecost) expresses the desire of our souls to spend our lives closer to God, actually to dwell in God’s house, as an anticipation of the blessed dwelling promised to us in God’s celestial courts if we die in His grace.

This is why some Catholics will come to church every day. They do well. Even outside of Holy Mass, they will enter a Catholic church daily and pray to God truly present there. Other Catholics want more. They want more than simply observing God’s commandments. They choose to embrace God’s counsels as well. They want to spend their entire lives in close proximity to where God dwells. They withdraw from the secular world and organise their lives together as religious communities. Their lives focus on prayer, religious study, penance and works of charity.

They want to give God every possible space in their hearts, in their days and nights. To that end, they renounce earthly possessions through the vow of poverty. They give up the goods of marriage and family bonds through the vow of chastity. Lastly, through the vow of obedience, they offer up to God their own will as a beautiful sacrifice to follow the will of God in all things through the legitimate will of their superiors.

Such is the religious state. It is a blessing for those called to it. But it is also a blessing for those who witness it. Why is it so?

The religious state is a blessing for all, because it sets a higher standard of perfection. It encourages all in the world to aspire to a closer union with God while on earth, so as to enjoy it forever in heaven. Since our human nature is fallen we constantly lean towards the easier options, to the peril of our souls. This soon leads us to venial sins and ultimately to mortal sins. On the contrary, the presence of religious men and women near us demonstrates to us that one can be blessedly fulfilled in poverty, chastity and obedience. Religious life manifests spiritual freedom on our doorstep. And we all crave spiritual freedom. Contemplative religious also pray for their fellow-Catholics in the world and welcome visitors in their retreat centres, providing much-needed havens of silence and prayer. Apostolic religious contribute actively to evangelisation as mobile and flexible missionaries who can be deployed at short notice to serve the needs of a given parish or diocese.

Vatican II Springtime Update! First Ursuline House in North America abandoned by last sisters

In 1608, after decades of tentative exploration, in the name of the not very Catholic Henry IV, King of France, Pierre Dugas, Sieur de Mons, and Samuel de Champlain founded the City of Québec on a hillside overlooking the Saint Lawrence River.

The first years were extremely harsh, but in order for the colonization to advance, Catholic missions were always indispensable: and more than Catholic missions, Catholic sisters who could be a beacon for new families and, hopefully, help educate the girls born in this still almost wild environment.

The very Catholic Louis XIII signed the orders for the foundation of the Ursuline Convent in Quebec City in 1639, and the sisters who arrived not long afterwards, led by Saint Mary of the Incarnation, can be rightfully placed among the foundresses of Canada.

Before Vatican II

They faced wars and hunger, sometimes at the very midst of battle, as in the decisive Battle of the Plains of Abraham, but they endured it all. All, except the secularization that followed Vatican II. Because, if Quebec was indeed entering its own process of secularization when the horrible Council started, there can be no doubt that the secularization of religious orders forced from on top by the Vatican during and after the Council contributed more than anything else to the collapse of religious orders of men and women around the world. They resisted it all, and now, in 2018, they are shutting down for good.

And now all that is left is to report this tragedy (as we did about the Dominicans of Florence last week):