News

Growing Traditional Abbey of Wisques Elects Abbot

(Paris) In October 2013, the re-colonization of the Benedictine Abbey of Wisques by the old Rite Benedictine monks of Fontgombault has taken place. After a transitional period, Wisques became an independent abbey again. Last Sunday a new abbot was elected.

After the clear-cutting of the French Revolution  Benedictine monastic life slowly returned to France. The Abbey of St. Paul of Wisques was founded in 1889. The monks were expelled in 1901 by anti-Catholic laws yet again and found refuge in the Netherlands. In 1920 they managed to return.
Wisques followed the liturgical reform in 1970 and introduced the new rite. The youth did not materialize. Although in 2009 there were still 14 monks in the monastery,  the “youngest” was already 72 years old. For 25 years no novice had come. The community could therefore choose no more abbots. The Abbot of Solesmes appointed an administrator. Thus began the search for a solution that was found in Fontgombault.
The new rite led to the end of the Abbey – The old Rite makes  it new
With the approval of Bishop Jean-Paul Jaeger of Arras, the abandoned convent was transferred to the old Rite Benedictine monastery of Our Lady of Fontgombault. This had not implemented the liturgical reform of the late 60s and enjoys numerous vocations.
Early in 2013 the first monks came from Fontgombault to Wisques. They held to the traditional rite and the old Divine Office. The experience has been very positive. Since October 2013, the old Rite convent has 18 monks. Since that moment,  Wisques is suffragan of the the Abbey of Fontgombault. Their abbot, Dom Jean Pateau, was also administrator of Wisques.
After a transition period an abbatial election had taken place on Sunday, April 3. Dom Philippe de Montauzan, the sixth abbot of Wisques and first since the old ritual repopulation. He has held the position of Prior since 2013. De Montauzan was previously novice master of the Abbey Fontgombault. The repopulation of Wisques took place under his leadership.
The blessing of the new abbot will be held this coming June 4th.
Wisques is located in the extreme north-east of France near the Belgian border. The Dutch town name is Wizeke (place of Wico). The area belonged in the 18th century to the German or Dutch-speaking area. The French-Dutch language border is still barely ten kilometers east of Wisques.
Text: Giuseppe Nardi
Image: Grafica.Kulo / Abbaye Saint-Paul Wisque
Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com
AMDG
Blessed Virgin Mary

Regina Caeli

marco_p5We change the praying of the daily praying of the Angelus to the Regina Caeli for the 50 days of Easter. (That is, from Easter Day through Pentecost Sunday). Please add this prayer, in Latin and English, to your iPhone.

Queen of Heaven 

V. Queen of Heaven, rejoice, alleluia. 
R. For He whom you did merit to bear, alleluia. 
V. Has risen, as he said, alleluia. 
R. Pray for us to God, alleluia.
V. Rejoice and be glad, O Virgin Mary, alleluia. 
R. For the Lord has truly risen, alleluia.

Let us pray. O God, who gave joy to the world through the resurrection of Thy Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, grant we beseech Thee, that through the intercession of the Virgin Mary, His Mother, we may obtain the joys of everlasting life. Through the same Christ our Lord. Amen.

Regina caeli

V. Regina caeli, laetare, alleluia. 
R. Quia quem meruisti portare, alleluia. 
V. Resurrexit, sicut dixit, alleluia. 
R. Ora pro nobis Deum, alleluia.

V. Gaude et laetare, Virgo Maria, alleluia. 
R. Quia surrexit Dominus vere, alleluia.

Oremus. Deus, qui per resurrectionem Filii tui, Domini nostri Iesu Christi, mundum laetificare dignatus es: praesta, quaesumus; ut per eius Genetricem Virginem Mariam, perpetuae capiamus gaudia vitae. Per eundem Christum Dominum nostrum. Amen.

Sermons

 Noli me tangere

Don't touch me“Why are you troubled, and there are doubts in your heart? Look at my hands and my feet, feel me and see”, says the Lord (Lk 24, 38f)

St. Augustine preached, “Was He perhaps already ascended to the Father when He said: ‘Touch me and see’? He let His disciples touch Him, indeed, not only touch but feel, to provide a foundation for faith in the reality of His flesh, in the reality of His body. The well-foundedness of the reality had to be made obvious also through human touch. Thus He let Himself be touched by the disciples”.

Will you touch the Lord, and more, will you allow the Lord to touch you?

Sacred Liturgy

Maundy Thursday

Last Supper“The lamb that was slain has delivered us from death and given us life”

There was much proclaimed by the prophets about the mystery of the Passover: that mystery is Christ, and to him be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

For the sake of suffering humanity he came down from heaven to earth, clothed himself in that humanity in the Virgin’s womb, and was born a man. Having then a body capable of suffering, he took the pain of fallen man upon himself; he triumphed over the diseases of soul and body that were its cause, and by his Spirit, which was incapable of dying, he dealt man’s destroyer, death, a fatal blow.

He was led forth like a lamb; he was slaughtered like a sheep. He ransomed us from our servitude to the world, as he had ransomed Israel from the land of Egypt; he freed us from our slavery to the devil, as he had freed Israel from the hand of Pharaoh. He sealed our souls with his own Spirit, and the members of our body with his own blood.

He is the One who covered death with shame and cast the devil into mourning, as Moses cast Pharaoh into mourning. He is the One who smote sin and robbed iniquity of offspring. He is the One who brought us out of slavery into freedom, out of darkness into light, out of death into life, out of tyranny into an eternal kingdom; who made us a new priesthood, a people chosen to be his own for ever. He is the Passover that is our salvation.

It is he who endured every kind of suffering in all those who foreshadowed him. In Abel he was slain, in Isaac bound, in Jacob exiled, in Joseph sold, in Moses exposed to die. He was sacrificed in the Passover lamb, persecuted in David, dishonored in the prophets.

It is he who was made man of the Virgin, he who was hung on the tree; it is he who was buried in the earth, raised from the dead, and taken up to the heights of heaven. He is the mute lamb, the slain lamb, the lamb born of Mary, the fair ewe. He was seized from the flock, dragged off to be slaughtered, sacrificed in the evening, and buried at night. On the tree no bone of his was broken; in the earth his body knew no decay. He is the One who rose from the dead, and who raised man from the depths of the tomb.

From an Easter homily by Saint Melito of Sardis (2nd century), bishop (Nn. 65071: SC 123, 95-101)