D.O.M.

Of your charity,
please pray for the soul of

Michael Davies

author, teacher, lay theologian
President of Una Voce International
loyal son of Wales
husband and father
faithful son of Holy Church
and a great defender and champion of the Faith
who has just died.

Diego Velázquez. Christ Crucified. c. 1632.

Bonum certamen certavi cursum consummavi fidem servavi; in reliquo reposita est mihi iustitiae corona quam reddet mihi Dominus in illa die iustus iudex non solum autem mihi sed et his qui diligunt adventum eius.
[2 Tim 4:7-8]

I have fought the good fight: I have finished my course: I have kept the faith. As to the rest, there is laid up for me a crown of justice which the Lord the just judge will render to me in that day: and not only to me, but to them also that look with love to His coming.

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"Farewell...and pray for me, and I shall for you and all your friends, that we may merrily meet in heaven."
[Last letter of St Thomas More to his daughter, 5 July 1535]

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"...ye see in what perril the Christen State nowe standeth: We are beseeged on all sides, and can hardly escape the daunger of our enemie: And seeing that iudgment is begone at the howse of God, what hope is there lefte (if we fall) that the rest shall stande! The fort is betrayed even of them that should have defended it. And therfore seeing the matter is thus begunne, and so faintly resisted on our parts, I feare we be not the men that shall see the ende of the miserie. Wherfore seeing I am an ould man and looke not longe to live, I minde not by the help of God to trooble my conscience in pleasing... but rather here to spend out the remnant of my old daies in prayinge to God."
[Reply of St John Fisher to Bishops Stokesley, Gardiner and Tunstal, sent to the Tower by Thomas Cromwell to persuade Fisher to submit]

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"I was born in such a time when Holy Mass was in great reverence... In King Edward's time this reverence was neglected and reproved by such as governed. In Queen Mary's time it was restored with much applause, and now in this time it pleaseth the State to question them... who continue in this Catholic profession... I hold me still that wherein I was... and find nothing taught in it but great virtue and sanctity, and so, by the grace of God, I will live and die in it."
[Lady Cecily Stonor to the Justices at Oxford when arraigned for adhering to the Catholic Faith]

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"Liberalism in religion is the doctrine that there is no positive truth in religion, but that one creed is as good as another, and this is the teaching which is gaining substance and force daily. It is inconsistent with any recognition of any religion as true... For 30, 40, 50 years, I have resisted to the best of my powers the spirit of liberalism in religion."
[John Henry, Cardinal Newman in his biglietto speech when he was made a Cardinal by Leo XIII in 1879]

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"Be blithe at they meat, devout at thy Mass"
[Blessed Adrian Fortescue, Knight of Malta persecuted for the Faith]

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Domine dilexi decorem domus tuae, et locum habitationis gloriae tuae
[From the Lavabo Psalm, Ps. 25 favourite prayer of Rev Dr Adrian Fortescue, great scholar of the Roman rite and inspiration of Michael Davies.]

"O Lord, I have loved the beauty of Thy house and the place wherein Thy glory dwelleth"

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Introibo ad altare Dei, ad Deum qui laetificat juventutem meam
[Psalm at the foot of the altar, Ps. 42, in the traditional Roman rite, said by Bl Noel Pinot as he mounted the steps to the Guillotine condemned for his Faith by the French revolutionaries, quoted in "For Altar and Throne: Rising in the Vendee" by Michael Davies]

"I shall go in unto the altar of God, to the God who giveth joy to my youth"

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Requiem aeternam dona ei, Domine.
Requiescat in pace.

Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord.
May he rest in peace.

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