Our Original, Glorious and Very Catholic Anthem
A happy and grateful Canada Day to all our readers which I prefer to call Dominion Day, as signifying more fully our allegiance to our king – or, as we now have, queen – for Canada is, after all, a constitutional monarchy, and our leader is the Sovereign of Great Britain, with the Prime Minister governing at his, or her, bequest, via the Governor General. But, more to the point, a Dominion signifying our deeper allegiance to the ‘King of Kings, and Lord of Lords’, Iesus Christus Dominus Noster.
Hence, the British anthem, I Vow to Thee, My Country, with music by Gustav Holst (1914-16), from his suite, The Planets, and the words a poem by Sir Cecil Spring Rice, from 1908 or 1912, to show his own loyalty both to earth and to heaven:
And why don’t we also add the original version of O, Canada, which was written in French, in Quebec – Canada was French before she was also English – for the 1880 Saint Jean-Baptiste Day ceremony, commissioned by the Lieutenant-Governor, Théodore Robitaille, with music by Sir Rudolphe-Basile Routhier, and original French lyrics by Calixa Lavallée. Note, in those original lyrics, the militant Christian theme – note the almost-never-sung latter verses, of knowing how to bear the sword and carry the cross, with valour soaked by faith.
And here a century and a half on, Trudeau has mangled the English even worse with his 2018 ‘inclusive language’ version. The less said of that, the better. One wonders, in our iconoclastic milieu, how long the anthem will still be sung. But as long as it is so, I would recommend la langue française, which still stand as it stood in those glorious days of 1880, when Canada was truly north, strong and free, and we all should fight to keep her so:
Carney’s Amoral Majority
After five defections – euphemistically described as ‘crossing the floor’ – and three by-elections, Mark Carney and his Liberals how have their coveted majority. One wonders what bowls of pottage were offered in back-room deals. In the archaic monarchical system that is the Dominion of Canada, this majority allows the newly-minted Prime Minister to rule[…]Continue reading→
Saint Kateri , Canada’s Protectress
This was the title given to Saint Kateri Tekakwitha, by Pope Benedict XVI, when he canonized her on October 28th, 2012, along with six others, in Saint Peter’ Square (she had been beatified by Pope John Paul II back in 1980). With Saint Joseph as our protector, along with the Canadian martyrs, we seem to[…]Continue reading→
A Tale of Two Benedicts
A grace-filled Holy Week to all our readers! As we await and prepare for the Resurrection about to dawn upon us, we might keep in mind two Benedicts: Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, requiescat in pace, elected on this day in 2005; and today’s commemoration of the mystic pilgrim, Benedict Joseph Labre, who died on this[…]Continue reading→
My Name is Bernadette
April 16th is a propitious day, for besides the anniversary of Father de Valk’s death, who founded Catholic Insight in its print form decades ago, and the commemoration of the ‘two Benedicts’, mentioned in accompanying posts, today we also recall Saint Bernadette Soubirous, the young visionary to whom the Virgin Mary appeared numerous times at[…]Continue reading→
Saint Lydwina of Schiedam and Suffering Joyfully
Saint Lydwina of Schiedam (1380 – 1433) was one of the countless and glorious ‘victim souls’ in the history of the Church, those whose lives are filled with suffering, often of an unimaginable intensity, but who suffer joyfully. She was a fifteen-year old Dutch girl, out skating one day, when she fell and broke one[…]Continue reading→
The Glorious Martyrdoms of Martin and Maximus
As we enter into Eastertide, we recall on this 13th of April Pope Saint Martin I (+655), one of the noblest, if most tragic, of the successors of Saint Peter. Born in Umbria, Italy, he was of noble lineage, with great intelligence combined with charity and love of the poor and the Church. While still[…]Continue reading→
Saint Stanislaus of Szczepanów
We celebrate Saint Stanislaus today (+ April 11, 1079), in light of this Easter Octave, a bishop and martyr who accepted the episcopacy only at the direct order of Pope Alexander II. He proved a wise and courageous leader of his flock, put to death by his own king, Boleslaus, for rebuking the monarch’s ‘immoral[…]Continue reading→
Saint Gemma Galgani
On this April 11th, in 1903 – the same year that the Italian Guiseppe Sarto was elected Pope later that summer as Pius X – a lovely, young Italian woman died, by the name of Gemma Galgani. She lived a brief life of 24 years, as did a number of other young saints, including Pier[…]Continue reading→
An Ideological and Improper Translation
I noticed something odd with the psalm reading at Mass the other day. Our bishops’ conference here in Canada has decreed that the Mass in English – Novus Ordo – use the ‘NRSV’, the ‘New Revised Standard Version’, an ‘updated’ translation of the original RSV, first published in 1952. This ‘new translation’ has the tendency[…]Continue reading→
Saint Jean-Baptiste de la Salle: A Teacher for Teachers
Jean-Baptiste de la Salle (1651 – 1719), a French nobleman, ordained a priest, founded the first order in the Church’s history entirely without priests, and this came about almost by accident. I say ‘almost’, for, of course, there are no accidents with God. Destined for ordination from an early age, Jean-Baptiste never looked back, even[…]Continue reading→