“If the officials do not give sound advice, and if priests live without fear of the Lord, it is no wonder that the entire community can become immoderate and coarse”: Counter-Reformation preaching

In keeping with recent developments in the ongoing attack on the Traditional Latin Mass and its adherents, it seems fitting to mention a new book just released by the admirable Arouca Press: The Christian Year, volume 1: Sermons for Advent, Christmas, & Epiphany, by Joseph Rivius, O.Praem., in a translation by Fr. Martin Roestenburg, O.Praem.

Who is Fr. Joseph Rivius? Well might you ask! Not a household name, Fr. Rivius was an admirable priest and a compelling preacher whose work deserves renewed attention in our day, for reasons that will become apparent. Born in 1607 during the final years of the Reformation, he entered the Norbertine abbey of Tongerlo abbey in Flanders. After his death in 1660, his bundle of sermons came to be published posthumously in 1668.

Father Ernest (Emmanuel) André and a Lesson for the Contemporary Church

For many years I have been receiving the excellent newsletter of the monks of Saint Joseph de Clairval Abbey. It always focuses on the life of a particular saint, often very obscure ones, and what we can learn from their life and teaching and the times in which they lived. 

The March 2015 letter features a priest of whom I had never heard: Père Ernest André (1826–1903), who later took the name Emmanuel as a Benedictine monk, the originator of the devotion to Our Lady of Holy Hope. 

What I found most striking is how tirelessly Father André worked to catechize his rural flock, which he found in a state of unbelievable ignorance, error, and apathy. Here are his own words, explaining his policy, which was to preach and teach the unadulterated Catholic faith, week in, week out: