Issue 21 - November - December 2021
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Mary, The Cause of Our Joy! |
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Snapshots from the US Mass Circuit |
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An airplane seat's view of the Rocky Mountains! |
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St. Gabriel's Monastery in Boston, Massachusetts |
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St. Gabriel of Our Lady of Sorrow's Monastery was built in 1909 for the Passionist monks as a male cloister.
St. Gabriel's first chapel was a converted barn! A Retreat House was build in 1925. There was also a Passionist seminary here as well.
Pictured above is the cemetery of all the Passionist monks who lived and died here and a large statue of Our Lord's Sacred Heart.
In 1966, a Shrine to Our Lady of Fatima was built, sponsored by the Crusaders of Fatima, a Portuguese organization.
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As a side note, Mr. and Mrs. William and Mary Crepeau of Boston contributed heavily to the spread of Our Lady of Fatima in the Boston area. They often had to beg the priests in the 1970's to allow the Rosary before Masses and even getting some priests to allow the Fatima prayer after each decade proved a difficulty. Today, their children Tom and Elaine Crepeau, have built the Our Lady of Fatima Chapel in their home for Fr. Hewko! It is impressive to see such blessings being poured out on each generation dedicated to the love of the Immaculate Heart. |
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By the late 1970's, the Passionist Missionary Society announced they would sell St. Gabriel's due to "declining fellowship and dwindling congregations". In other words, it too was struck by the ravages of Vatican II. Modernism had won here!
St. Gabriel's Monastery is now a modern office building. And it's once Catholic interior has been transformed into a sterile office space, as seen below.
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Pictured here is Mr. Vincent Nussey after receiving Last Rites. Mr. Nussey passed away three days later. He was devotedly attended by his wife,
Gloria in his last hours.
Please keep him in your prayers.
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Several Baptisms - Infant and Adult! |
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An adult Baptism in Montana! Keri (holding the candle) converted to the Catholic Faith and was baptized. Her sponsor Stella stands happily next to her! |
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The young lady in white, Michaela Rose, was baptized in Philadelphia! May the blessings of this joyous occasion last throughout her lifetime!
The altar server is Mr. Carroll, who served the Traditional Latin Mass in his boyhood. He still loves to serve the True Mass.
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Also in Philadelphia, little Gemma was baptized, pictured here with her godparents and father holding her brother, Blaise!
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Congratulations and blessings to Johnny and Julian! Two boys, pictured here with their families and Fr. Hewko, who were baptized in Pocatello, Idaho! |
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Pictured here is little Yeshua, who was just baptized in Irvine, California.
His parents report that ever since his Baptism, Yeshua has been a very good boy!
After the Baptism everyone was treated to dinner at Basilico's Restaurant.
Basilico's earned much respect when it defied the California lock-downs on business and stayed open. Not to mention, their Italian food is excellent!
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Congratulations to Fransisco and Faith!
They were married on November 13th.
May their traditional marriage be rewarded with abundant blessings and many children!
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The humble, beautifully-built home chapel in Blountsville, Alabama.
Pictured here are some of the family after being enrolled in the Brown Scapular.
The woman in the green was able to assist Mother Angelica on her deathbed with prayers. Mother Angelica lived only two miles from here.
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The home altar in Indiana, with a lovely statue of Our Lady of Sorrows! |
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A visit of the two priests, Frs. Hewko and Rafael with Br. Domingo to the nearby Trappist Monastery in Spencer, Massachusetts.
At the Monastery, there stands a statue of St. Benedict holding his Rule and reminding the monks of the importance of Silence. Fr. John of the Cross used to say that three pillars of the Benedictine Rule were Obedience, Humility, and Silence!
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Passing through Geneva, NY |
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Fr. Hewko is pictured here visiting with Fr. Medel. Fr. Medel was visiting the US from Chile. During this trip, Fr. Medel was conditionally re-ordained
before returning to his native homeland.
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Father Hewko proudly poses with Paul, one of the oldest altar servers in the world. Paul is 94! Paul joined the Franciscans before Vatican II and wore their habit for many years. Once Modernism was 'legalized' by Vatican II, it ravaged the Franciscan order. Paul left the Order but has been faithful to his vows all these many years since. |
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Apple picking at a local orchard in Massachusetts with the altar boys and some parishioners of the Our Lady of Fatima chapel! |
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Holy Mass in a Barn in Reynolds Station, Kentucky - outside of Owensboro. |
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Hard to tell from this picture but this is the inside of the barn! A lovely home altar was constructed for the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. |
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The Original Father Wathen |
This is the gravestone of the first Father Wathen, a Father John Wathen, who died in 1841. He was the first Pastor of St. Lawrence Church also outside of Owensboro in Nelson County, KY. Fr. John Wathen was great, great uncle to the Fr. James Wathen who wrote The Great Sacrilege in 1971.
Fr. John Wathen was famous in central Kentucky for his Mass circuits on horseback often which lasted a whole year while he traveled throughout the Midwest!
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Family Gathering Near Sacramento |
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A Family Gathering outside Sacramento, California. The lovely day began with Holy Mass and a Conference and later included a short hike in the surrounding hills and games for the children. A wonderful luncheon was prepared by the women and mothers. |
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This young man won best costume for All Saint's Day. He chose St. Isaac Jogues as his saint. We notice much detail and thought about the saint's martyrdom went into this costume. For instance, notice the 'blood' on the forehead and hand, and the boy holding a severed finger - all aspects of the sufferings of St. Isaac Jogues for the Faith! |
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Postcards from the British Isle |
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The Famous White Cliffs of Dover |
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The Cliffs of Dover have been seen by many travelers to England over the centuries - not the least of which were the Viking sailors, Roman soldiers, and many holy priests and monks. Fr. John Gerard describes seeing the Cliffs on his return journey to England from Douai, France in his book, The Autobiography of a Hunted Priest, during the English Reformation.
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St. Gilbert's Monastery in Sempringham |
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The Gilbertines were founded by St. Gilbert, about the year 1130, at Sempringham, Gilbert's native place, where he was then parish priest. His wish originally had been to found a monastery, but finding this impossible, he gave a rule of life to the seven young women whom as children he had taught at Sempringham, and built for them a convent and cloister to the north of his parish church. He received the support of his bishop, Alexander of Lincoln, and in a year's time the seven virgins of Sempringham made their profession.
In 1148 Gilbert traveled to Cîteaux in Burgundy to ask the Cistercian abbots there assembled in chapter to take charge of his order. This they refused to do, declining to undertake the government of women, and so Gilbert returned to England, determined to add to each of his convents a community of canons regular, who were to act as chaplains and spiritual directors to the nuns. To these he gave the Rule of St. Augustine.
Each Gilbertine house now practically consisted of four communities, one of nuns, one of canons, one of lay sisters, and one of lay brothers. The popularity of the order was considerable, and for two years after Gilbert's return from France he was continually founding new houses on lands granted him by the nobles and prelates.
By the time of the Dissolution there were twenty-six houses. They fared no better than the other monasteries, and no resistance whatever was made by the last Master of Sempringham, Robert Holgate, Bishop of Llandaff, a great favourite at court, who was promoted in 1545 to the Archbishopric of York.
The original Church still stands but the stones of the convent and the monastery of the canons were taken apart to help build homes for the newly Protestantized English nobility.
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The two women pictured in the middle were so kind as to open up St. Gilbert's to Father Hewko and parishioners, two of which are pictured here: on the far left, Clare and on the far right, Libby. |
A little graffiti left behind in St. Gilbert's from 1691! |
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Here is a picture of the intricately carved pews in St. Gilbert's on the west end. These medieval pews-ends are called poppy-heads and are ornaments gracing the top of each pew end. Each bench end is different and the benches retain their holes for supporting candle brackets.
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The Awe-Inspiring Ely Cathedral |
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Ely Cathedral, formally the Cathedral Church of the Holy and Undivided Trinity, was once a Catholic cathedral in the city of Ely, Cambridgeshire, England. It was appropriated by the Anglicans during the Protestant Reformation.
The cathedral has its origins in AD 672 when St Etheldreda built an abbey church. The area was originally a morass but monks who lived nearby helped drain the swamps to create arable land. The present building dates back to 1083, and it was granted cathedral status in 1109. Until the Reformation it was the Church of St Etheldreda and St Peter, at which point it was refounded as the Cathedral Church of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Ely, continuing as the principal church of the Diocese of Ely, in Cambridgeshire. -Adapted from here.
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The magnificent Lantern has long stood out as an architectural wonder.
"The large stone octagonal tower, with its eight internal archways, leads up to timber vaulting that appears to allow the large glazed timber lantern to balance on their slender struts.
The roof and lantern are actually held up by a complex timber structure above the vaulting which could not be built in this way today because there are no trees big enough. The central lantern, also octagonal in form, but with angles offset from the great Octagon, has panels showing pictures of musical angels, which can be opened, with access from the Octagon roof-space, so that real choristers can sing from on high.
More wooden vaulting forms the lantern roof. At the centre is a wooden boss carved from a single piece of oak, showing Christ in Majesty" - from here.
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Our Lord Jesus Christ at the Last Judgement sculpted over the Priors Door in the south wall of the nave.
This arched sculpture over a door or window is called a tympanum.
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These intricate-but-empty niches once housed many statues of the saints but were destroyed during the iconoclasm of the Protestant Reformation.
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"On 18 November 1539 the royal commissioners took possession of the monastery and all its possessions, and for nearly two years its future hung in the balance as Henry VIII and his advisers considered what role, if any, Cathedrals might play in the emerging Protestant church.
On 10 September 1541 a new charter was granted to Ely, at which point Robert Steward, the last prior, was re-appointed as the first dean, who, with eight prebendaries formed the dean and chapter, the new governing body of the cathedral.
Under Bishop Thomas Goodrich's orders, first the shrines to the saints were destroyed, and as iconoclasm increased, nearly all the stained glass and much of the sculpture in the cathedral was destroyed or defaced during the 1540s. In the Lady Chapel the free-standing statues were destroyed and all 147 carved figures in the frieze of St Mary were decapitated, as were the numerous sculptures on West's chapel." - Adapted from here.
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The astounding Nave of the Cathedral! |
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Choir
Notice the Golden Eagle in front of the speaker stand.
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Woodwork above the Choir Stalls showing the life of Our Lord. |
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Plaque in Ely Cathedral denoting the former
Shrine of St. Etheldreda.
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Monument of John Tiptoft, First Earl of Worchester, d. 1470.
"He was devoted to learning and literature and was educated at Oxford University. He was a man known to be fair and kind as well as being able to impose punishments as needed. ...
He was also a deeply religious man, going on pilgrimage to Jerusalem as well as spending several years in Italy and Venice, furthering his own personal learning and expanding his ever-growing personal library. He was recalled because he was a man in much need and when he was in both Ireland and England, he served Edward IV faithfully." - Taken from here.
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Peter Gunning Monument, Anglican Bishop of Ely from 1674-1675.
Note the difference between the humble position of John Tiptoft and the haughty reclining position of the Anglican Mr. Gunning!
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St. Etheldreda
Queen of Northumbria; born (probably) about 630; died at Ely, 23 June, 679. While still very young she was given in marriage by her father, Anna, King of East Anglia, to a certain Tonbert, a subordinate prince, from whom she received as morning gift a tract of land locally known as the Isle of Ely. She never lived in wedlock with Tonbert, however, and for five years after his early death was left to foster her vocation to religion. Her father then arranged for her a marriage of political convenience with Egfrid, son and heir to Oswy, King of Northumbria. From this second bridegroom, who is said to have been only fourteen years of age, she received certain lands at Hexham; through St. Wilfrid of York she gave these lands to found the minster of St. Andrew.
St. Wilfrid was her friend and spiritual guide, but it was to him that Egfrid, on succeeding his father, appealed for the enforcement of his marital rights as against Etheldreda's religious vocation. The bishop succeeded at first in persuading Egfrid to consent that Etheldreda should live for some time in peace as a sister of the Coldingham nunnery, founded by her aunt, St. Ebba, in what is now Berwickshire. But at last the imminent danger of being forcibly carried off by the king drove her to wander southwards, with only two women in attendance. They made their way to Etheldreda's own estate of Ely, not, tradition said, without the interposition of miracles, and, on a spot hemmed in by morasses and the waters of the Ouse, the foundation of Ely Minster was begun.
This region was Etheldreda's native home, and her royal East Anglian relatives gave her the material means necessary for the execution of her holy design. St. Wilfrid had not yet returned from Rome, where he had obtained extraordinary privileges for her foundation from Benedict II, when she died of a plague which she herself, it is said, had circumstantially foretold. Her body was, throughout many succeeding centuries, an object of devout veneration in the famous church which grew up on her foundation.
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Outside St. Etheldreda's Church in London, one of the oldest Catholic Churches in England, where the relic of St. Ethelreda's is kept. |
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Reliquary of the left hand of
St. Ethelreda.
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This impressive statue of St. Raphael the Archangel and young Tobias was carved and painted by Jesse Lezama. The Recusant #55 has more examples of his artwork which can be custom ordered here: [email protected]
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Jeremy and Libby near Peterborough, England have dedicated their house to St. Joseph, with a plaque over the doorway calling their home "St. Joseph's House"! |
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November / December 2021 A.D.
Merry Christmas to all of you!
Seven-hundred and fifty years before the Birth of Our Lord Jesus Christ, Isaias the Prophet foretold the blindness of the Jews who would refuse to adore and acknowledge the true Messiah, “The ox hath known his owner and the ass his Master’s crib; but Israel hath not known Me, nor understood!” (Isaias 1:3).
The Jews, at Our Lord’s First Coming, preferred to believe the lies and turned their eyes away from the Light, shining brightly before them! St. John laments this terrible blindness “And the Light shineth in darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend It...He came unto His own, and His own received Him not.” (St. John 1:5,11).
As it was for the Jews at Our Lord’s First Coming, so it will be for the Gentiles, before His Second Coming! St. Paul mentions the “falling away” from the Faith that will take place, as well as the rise of the Anti-Christ, which must happen before His Second Coming (cf. 2 Thessalonians 2:3).
St. John foresees the many souls who will be damned because they believe the lies. These lies are continuously spewed forth, especially by the enemies of Christ who control the media at all levels, “Blessed are they that wash their robes in the Blood of the Lamb: that they may have a right to the tree of life, and may enter in by the gates of the City. Without are dogs, and sorcerers, and unchaste, and murderers, and servers of idols, and everyone that loveth and maketh a lie!” (Apocalypse 22:14,15).
Ernest Hello, a 19th century French Catholic writer, said “Anyone who loves the Truth hates Error. This hatred of Error is the touchstone by which one recognizes love for the Truth. If you do not love the Truth, you can say, up to a certain point, that you love It and even believe It: but be sure that, in this case, you will lack a horror of that which is false, and by this sign, you will recognize that you do not love the Truth. When a man who loves Truth ceases to love It, he does not begin by declaring his defection from It: he begins by detesting Error less (e.g. the leaders of the Conciliar-SSPX??). This is how he betrays himself.” Those who love Christ must necessarily hate what is opposed to Him! Those who love Truth must necessarily hate error and lies. Heaven will be filled with those who loved the Truth; Hell will be populated with those who loved, believed and told lies.
In Sacred Scripture, the Holy Ghost praises all those who love the Truth and hate lies, “Thou hast loved justice and hated iniquity: therefore God, thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows” (Psalm 44:8). Indeed, the mark of the damned is to believe lies; the mark of the saints is their love of Truth!
St. Augustine says one can tell the future citizens of Heaven or Hell by what they love most. Those who persevere in the love of Our Lord, believe His Holy Catholic Faith, live in His grace and keep His Commandments will be citizens of the Heavenly Jerusalem. Those who love the path of sin, believe lies and reject or distort the Truth are citizens of Babylon; of Hell. So what we love now determines our future eternity!
Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre loved the Truth and therefore opposed the lies of Vatican II! He never said “I accept 95% of the Council” (as did Bp. Fellay), but rather “I accuse the Council!” He publicly opposed the errors and heresies embedded craftily into the Council texts. Fr. Gregory Hesse uncovered over two hundred heresies in the Council documents! Archbishop Viganò draws the right conclusion, which is, rather than trying to rescue the “good elements” in the texts, the entire thing must be buried! That is correct - burned and buried!!
What has led to the apostasy of the Catholic nations in the last fifty years? Vatican Council II! What are all the “Reforms” (promoted by the last five Popes) all propagated in the name of? Vatican Council II! What event in the Church officially uncrowned Christ the King and equated Him with false religions, as Pilate equated Him with Barabbas? Vatican Council II! What sacrilegiously attempted the adulterous marriage between Truth and Error? Vatican Council II! What catastrophe has led to the damnation of millions of souls? Vatican Council II! We can make no mistake, the heresies of Modernism, condemned under St. Pius X, erupted and took over in the Second Vatican Council!
Let us hold fast to the stand of that champion of Catholic Tradition, Abp. Lefebvre, who made a categorical refusal of all the errors of the Council and all its Reforms! “This reform, since it has issued from Liberalism and from Modernism, is entirely corrupt. It comes from heresy and results in heresy, even if all its acts are not formally heretical. It is thus impossible for any faithful Catholic who is aware of these things, to adopt this reform or to submit to it in any way at all. To ensure our salvation, the only attitude of fidelity to the Church and to Church doctrine, is a categorical refusal to accept the reform!” (Abp. Lefebvre, The Declaration of 1974). Let us attach ourselves closely to Our Lady of the Rosary, who crushes all heresies, and pray for the grace to love the Catholic Truth by publicly professing it, in an age that suppresses It and embraces the lies!
Let us pray not to be like the “ox” or “ass” that doesn’t love and know his Master, but rather, like the shepherds, the donkey and ox at the crib of Bethlehem, who keep Him warm with the breath of adoration and reparation! Let us say with Our Lady and all the saints “I am become as a beast before Thee, and I am always with Thee!” (Psalm 72:23). I humbly adore Thy Majesty and desire to be always with Thee, seeking Thy Holy Will, living in union with Thee by sanctifying grace, patiently carrying the cross after Thee, until I see Thy Face in the Glory of Heaven!
May the graces from the Birth of the Infant Jesus fill your souls with the love of Truth, joy in the Holy Ghost, hatred for all error and heresy, and also, all half-errors and half-heresies!
In Christ the King,
Fr. David Hewko
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- Correspondence mailing address and Mass Requests and Stipends: Rev. Fr. David Hewko, 16 Dogwood Road South, Hubbardston, MA 01452
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Donations: Checks can be made out to Sorrowful Heart of Mary Inc., P.O. Box 366017, Atlanta, GA 30336 or electronic donations can be made via PayPal.
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To subscribe to Fr. Hewko's newsletters, the Sorrowful Heart of Mary Newsletter, and the Mary, the Cause of Our Joy! Newsletter, contact: [email protected].
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