23rd April: Feast of St George
Prayer to St. George
St. George,
Heroic Catholic soldier and defender of your Faith, you dared to criticize a tyrannical Emperor and were subjected to horrible torture. You could have occupied a high military position but you preferred to die for your Lord.
Obtain for us the great grace of heroic Christian courage that should mark soldiers of Christ. Amen
Comments invited – what, in your opinion, would St George think about what is happening in England today… And as with all Feast Day threads, feel free to share favourite prayers, hymns, stories and jokes.
Comments (43)
Editor,
I think this is a lovely thread. My grandmother was English and I have a very large soft spot for England and English people.
I think St George would be aghast at the politicians of England who have completely abandoned Christ’s law. However, surely the Catholic hierarchy would feel the wrath of St George? For Catholic shepherds to contribute to the abandonment of Christ’s law is despicable.
May Sts George, Thomas More and John Fisher intercede for England, Our Lady’s Dowry!
Petrus,
Don’t forget Saint Margaret Clitherow, a convert and also a martyr for the Catholic faith.
And all the Forty English Martyrs too!
Editor,
I too think this is a lovely thread. I always think all of the devotional threads are lovely, in fact. I’m always delighted when I see one, they’re always edifying.
I don’t have English relatives but I do have friends south of the border and all very good people indeed. They are as disgusted with the political parties and evil policies as any of us in Scotland. Not that our politicians are any better – they’re certainly not.
I found this hymn to St George – just the words, but I can’t find it on YouTube, which is a pity because I guess it would be a rousing hymn.
Leader now on earth no longer,
soldier of the eternal king,
victor in the fight for heaven,
we thy loving praises sing.
Refrain.
Great Saint George, our patron, help us,
In the conflict be thou nigh;
Help us in that daily battle,
Where each one must win or die.
Praise him who in deadly battle
Never shrank from foe or sword,
Proof against all earthly weapon,
Gave his life for Christ the Lord.
Who, when earthly war was over,
Fought, but not for earth’s renown;
Fought, and won a nobler glory,
Won the martyr’s purple crown.
Help us when temptation presses,
We have still our crown to win,
Help us when our soul is weary
Fighting with the powers of sin.
Clothe us in thy shining armour,
Place thy good sword in our hand;
Teach us how to wield it, fighting
Onward towards the heavenly land.
Onward, till, our striving over,
On life’s battlefield we fall,
Resting then, but ever ready,
Waiting for the angel’s call.
The enemies of Christ are in high places both north and south of the border, both inside and outside the Church.
Any concept of natural law has been abandoned and public morality is largely a matter of a majority show of hands. Thus the English are largely indifferent to the plight of the unborn, perhaps slightly more so than north of the border, but this may well be just a case of wishful thinking on my part.
In the Church, ecumenism above all dictates the agenda as Catholics have been programmed over at least five decades to forget truth as they follow their Anglican brethren into oblivion.
That said, I have known some very fine English Catholics, many of whom are stout traditionalists.
‘Stout’? I think I meant to say ‘staunch’, although one or two would have benefitted from Scottish Slimmers. I am off to bed.
Perhaps bloggers would pray for a lapsed relative of mine whose birthday is on the Feast of St George. Please and thank you all!
I am finding it remarkably difficult to find jokes about the English. The Irish and Scots jokes abound, but the best I can come up with right now is the Irishman, Scotsman and Englishman who walk into a pub only to be confronted by a puzzled looking barman who says “Is this a joke?”
Well… it’s better than nothing 😀
Editor,
A shady looking man in a kilt walks into a London pub and puts a large rucksack on the table. Then he goes to the bar to order a drink.
“Whats in that rucksack?”, asks the barman
“A submachine gun, 300 rounds of ammunition and 5 hand-grenades” says the kilt-wearer.
“Thank God” says the barman, “I was worried it was bagpipes!”.
Gabriel Syme,
Love it!
Editor,
An Essex girl was driving down the A13 when her car phone rang. It was her boyfriend, urgently warning her, “Treacle, I just heard on the news that there’s a car going the wrong way on the A13. Please be careful!” “It’s not just one car!” said the Essex girl, “There’s hundreds of them!”
RCA Victor,
That’s brilliant. But are you sure it was Essex and not Dublin (Kidding, Irish bloggers, ony kidding!)
Editor
I am finding it remarkably difficult to find jokes about the English.
Racist!
An Englishman, roused by a Scot’s scorn of his race, protested that he was born an Englishman and hoped to die an Englishman. “Man,” scoffed the Scot, “hiv ye nae ambeetion?
Editor,
Here is a prayer by that magnificent Englishman
Blessed John Henry Cardinal Newman.
Lead, kindly Light, amid the encircling gloom, lead Thou me on!
The night is dark, and I am far from home; lead Thou me on!
Keep Thou my feet; I do not ask to see
The distant scene; one step enough for me.
I was not ever thus, nor prayed that Thou shouldst lead me on;
I loved to choose and see my path; but now lead Thou me on!
I loved the garish day, and, spite of fears,
Pride ruled my will. Remember not past years!
So long Thy power hath blest me, sure it still will lead me on.
O’er moor and fen, o’er crag and torrent, till the night is gone,
And with the morn those angel faces smile, which I
Have loved long since, and lost awhile!
Meantime, along the narrow rugged path, Thyself hast trod,
Lead, Savior, lead me home in childlike faith, home to my God.
To rest forever after earthly strife
In the calm light of everlasting life.
I will ask him to help your relative, and also ease your suffering.
I love that hymn too, and hope you don’t mind my giving a musical link, just so I can enjoy it!
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8fNjEgbsNmI&w=1280&h=720%5D
Cardinal Newman’s hymns and prayers are so beautiful – my favourite one is this:
May He support us all the day long, till the shades lengthen and the evening comes, and the busy world is hushed, and the fever of life is over, and our work is done. Then in His mercy may He give us a safe lodging, and a holy rest and peace at the last.
Many thanks for link – Wonderful. Sublime.
Christina,
May He support us all the day long, till the shades lengthen and the evening comes, and the busy world is hushed, and the fever of life is over, and our work is done. Then in His mercy may He give us a safe lodging, and a holy rest and peace at the last.
This one in particular (my favourite also) had a profound effect on me when I was a young man. What a truly magnificent Englishman he is. Soon to be Canonised I hope, since the authorities are currently investigating a 2nd miracle attributed to him.
Thanks again Christina
I don’t think there can be any doubt what St George would be saying about this report in the Daily Mail:-
Parents have been left furious after receiving a letter instructing them to help their four-year-olds choose a gender before they start primary school.
Brighton and Hove City Council sent a letter to hundreds of families telling them which school their child would attend in September but asked them to respond with which gender their child preferred.
Along with the main text in the letter, there was also a note next to the tickbox for male/female explaining that the national recording system only gives two options for gender but to help their child choose a gender they most identified with.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3548962/Now-children-young-FOUR-asked-choose-gender-start-school.html
MM
You beat me to it – Wendy Walker, our wonderful resident pro-lifer, sent me this article and link and has just asked me to post it on the blog.
I told her it was already posted but promised to emphasise the evil in this – as she puts it – “tsunami” of filth into children’s minds, now descending without any pretence of “drip drip” feeding as per previous LGBT tactics. It is shocking in the extreme.
St George, Patron Saint of England, pray for us.
Editor,
Shocking it is on one level, but on another very unsurprising since it is the logical outcome of the denial of nature. Modern man will be beholden to nothing; not to nature … and certainly not to God.
This is what makes me despair about Pope Francis. He has not a clue about the challenges which the world poses to the Church and how the Church should respnd. He has just spnt two years and two Synods on the family with precious little to show for it beyond a Church more divided than ever and a piddling little document in which he cannot find the courage to say outright what we all knows he believes, i.e that the divorced and illicitly remarried should partake of Holy Communion. His is a Jesuitical fiddlibg while Rome burns.
What is really shocking to me is how free speech has all but been abolished in Britain. Anyone who objects to this madness is liable to have his collar felt by Plod, to say nothing of the wrath of the Twitterati. Thus those who do not subscribe to the prevailing orthodoxy are slowly but surely being pushed underground, just like in any totalitarian state. How I envy the Americans their first ammendment.
Prognosticum.
We Americans are not far behind you in the development of a police state – a process which has accelerated ten-fold, at least under Obama. In addition to being marginalized and punished legally, Christians are being punished economically. For example, the governor of North Carolina was threatened with economic boycotts from something like 150 major companies after he signed a law that bans people from using bathrooms that don’t match the sex indicated on their birth certificates. This, of course, was economic muscle to enforce the gender ideology insanity.
In fact, I wonder if there is any place left on earth that has escaped from the twisted, evil plans of the New World Order – perhaps the island of Malta?
Prognosticum,
Well, I’ve been to Malta so I take the credit for that – presuming the question is rhetorical!
Sorry, not my question.
Prognosticum,
I agree – the “trans” movement is the logical outcome of the normalising of homosexual activity; if that is acceptable, then what’s a bit of “gender reassignment” between men and women…
About the free speech issue – I admired the Protestant magistrate who quietly but firmly refused to be bullied by the awful Piers Morgan during a TV interview when Morgan repeatedly called him “homophobic”. Laughably, because the gentleman didn’t fight back, Ofcom found Morgan not guilty of any offence. Click here to read more. Truly, you couldn’t make it up.
You ain’t seen nothin’ yet, Editor! What do you suppose will happen when people start claiming they “feel” like animals instead of people, and start demanding species reassignment surgery?
Truly, it’s a dog’s life….
RCA Victor,
You took the words right out of my mouth.
If I were a betting man, I would say that in the coming years there will be a growing move to legalise polygamy. I also expect there to be continuing downward pressure in the move to lower the age of consent for sexual relations. The latter is the logical consequence of our treatment of children as adults.
As for bestiality, if marriage can be between two women or two men, there is no reason why it might not be between a man and a monkey.
Hold tight,meveryone. We are in for a very bumpy landing as we had back into the green slime from which we emerged.
RCA Victor and Prognosticum,
We ran a thread in January, entitled From Trans-gender to Trans-species
I agree – hold tight folks!
I am increasingly meditating a retreat from the mainstream mass media. I have never been one for a lot of television. I used to read a quality paper daily until recent times when I suddenly became bored with it all.
I am in my fifties and feel that I have seen enough to know that the West will not rest until it has destroyed itself. I think that my resistance in the coming years will be through prayer.
Prognosticum,
If prayer alone were the answer, Our Lord would not have had to come down from Heaven to teach, to suffer and to ultimately die on the Cross.
Prayer and action are inseparable. You are already active in the apostolate through this blog so if you do give up TV and papers, don’t abandon us! We need all the help we can muster to communicate to the wider Catholic community, that there ARE informed Catholics who reject the crisis in the Church, refuse to be part of it in any way and seek to help others to understand what is going on.
Not that it is an easy task. We are feeding dynamite information day and daily, through the informed comments here, the links to other commentators posted here and the words of Pope Francis himself, and still we cannot break through the “duh” mentality. I’ve been in situations where, at the end of a lengthy conversation with a diocesan Catholic, where I’ve set out the indisputable facts about everything from the new Mass to the new Rosary to the latest papal gaffe, only to hear my (new!) ‘friend’ say, yes, it’s all terrible but “I like my priest” so it’s OK in my parish, or some such evidence of the Dumb & Dumber mentality.
In fact, putting the above together with the fact that the majority of people today jump on the latest PC bandwagon, or at least jog alongside without any apparent problem, I had the idea yesterday of posting a new thread entitled along the lines of IS EVERYONE JUST PLAIN STUPID? but I’m too busy to deal with the flak that would undoubtedly result – maybe after I’ve finished the June newsletter!
In summary, of course, we must all pray. That’s breakfast, dinner and tea stuff. It’s basic nourishment. But true prayer always leads to action, as I’m sure you know perfectly well: think of the contemplative, Saint Therese of Lisieux, whose prayer led her to desire all sorts of activity in the pursuit of her own personal holiness, which is inextricably bound, she realised, to the work of saving souls.
CBucket strikes again (with words and music) and voices later.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_RULh07vqSg
Happy St. George’s day to our friends in the North.
*** Warning: inappropriate image post video. I am trying to remove it. Apologies editor *** Can anybody help with this. I hope it does not get blacklisted.
Bad image has gone now. Panic over. A pint of heavy on me to all who were upset.
Thank you for the music for the St George hymn. Have not heard that for years. Bit challenging for guitars I suppose…
CBucket,
That’s OK – whatever you saw as an inappropriate image, has disappeared.
I was hoping to hear lyrics but the video is only instrumental. A nice tune, but pity there were no words. Still thank you for posting it.
There will be words tonight sung by my 9 remaining daughters (no, I am not kidding).
[One son] is in new Zealand so the male voice will just be me I am afraid and [another daughter] is watching from heaven.
Sorry editor, can you obscure my children’s names please.
CBucket,
I have removed all names, since there is no way to “obscure” them, but may I take this opportunity to ask ALL bloggers to think twice before posting any personal information.
We had the experience recently of some very nasty comments directed towards a blogger who had given some personal information about her family and later regretted doing so, for obvious reasons, and now this request to remove names which I had missed until alerted by email from another blogger only a few minutes ago.
Please everyone, think hard before posting anything personal. It’s not that I mind the extra work, the sheer weight of it all (!) but, as in this instance, I can easily miss something and it could be hours or even days before I can carry out any requests. I see that your request, CBucket, was made yesterday morning, but I am only now seeing it, so think on, folks. In fact, think, think, think… and when you’ve done that, think again! 😀
CBUCKET
9 daughters is a great blessing in many ways, but not monetarily. I’ll hazard a guess that you are now financially beggared!
ATHANASIUS,
And some (seed) fell upon good ground; and brought forth fruit that grew up, and increased and yielded, one thirty, another sixty, and another a hundred.
CBUCKET
Absolutely. I couldn’t agree more. You are indeed blessed, but I still had to slip in my little joke!
Happy Feast Day, especially to all our English bloggers and readers!
St George, pray for England!
Bonne et joyeuse fête à tous les Georges!
Thank you Lionel. Always nice to hear from you!
And a sincere thanks to everyone who contributed to our Feast Day thread in honour of St George. We invoke his intercession on behalf of our English brothers and sisters south of the border, in these difficult times, with renewed thanks to everyone, whether English, Irish, American or Scots, who paid tribute to the Patron Saint of England on his Feast day, 2016.
I’ll now close the thread – with an exhortation to one and all to research some good clean fun jokes about the English in time for next year’s Feast!
God bless.
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