...when a photo of Holy Mass on St. Patrick's Day is posted on the seminary's Facebook page showing the main celebrant wearing a green chasuble. It was taken down quickly enough after a number of negative comments. But that it was shown off at all! Is this the environment in which our future priests are being formed?
Only a week ago, a local Catholic high school for boys, Calvert Hall, published its periodical, The Cardinal, with a first: a "wedding announcement" of two of its alumni who had "married" after homosexual "marriage" was permitted by Maryland state law. It was reported at Rorate.
These little "slips" on the part of Catholic institutions seem to be happening around here more and more often.
I’ve been reflecting on this lately: It seems to me that the most-evangelizing thing a Catholic parish can do is to show respect for our Lord in the Eucharist. The first way to do this is by drastically cutting down on and, a short while later, cutting out the use of extraordinary ministers to distribute Communion at Holy Mass. Granted, this wouldn’t work at a heterodox parish, where this false sort of active participation is treated as though it’s anyone’s “right”. But at a parish with holy priests and a substantial portion of parishioners who already understand and believe that the Eucharist is really and truly the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of our Lord, it would surely have many beneficial effects.
A parish where it’s known that what the priests confects on the altar and what is present in the Tabernacle is our Lord Himself is sure to attract others to His Magnificent Presence. This is much more readily apparent when no lay men or women enter the sanctuary to receive a ciborium.
Practically speaking, it costs nothing and can be implemented virtually overnight. (Okay, with 2-4 weeks of announcements, explanations and catechesis in the bulletin so there are no surprises.) Sure, it would take longer to distribute Holy Communion, but that time is time that is needed anyway either to prepare oneself before receiving or for prayerful thanksgiving afterwards. Silence is too often missing from the Mass and these extra minutes would be most welcome.
If there happens to be another priest in the rectory, there’s every reason that he should interrupt what he’s doing to step in and assist. Wouldn’t that show what reverence this parish has for the Eucharist.
For nearly two thousand years, only hands that were consecrated could touch the Body of Christ. Allowing lay men and women to touch the Holy of Holies with their unconsecrated hands started in an act of defiance against the Church as did allowing reception on the hand. The result has been abominable with a great majority since having lost their belief in the Real Presence, even among those who still attend Mass weekly!
Although “extraordinary” in “Extraordinary Minister of Holy Communion” means “outside of (i.e., not) ordained”, it’s also true that they are only allowed to be used in extraordinary circumstances. Yet at any parish, they are scheduled every single weekend. This is an abuse.
Some who became extraordinary ministers years ago have lately learned how these abuses came about and would love to be relieved of this grave responsibility which they now know they are altogether unsuited for, on account of their not being ordained. They may even want to agree among themselves and then approach the pastor to suggest that their services really are no longer needed.
Whether he knows it or not, Father himself only stands to gain a good measure of respectability. I won’t go into all the details explained so well in Fr. James McLucas's 1998 article, but just note that he will again be the feeder of his flock and reclaim the unique privilege of his office.
Forty-five years ago today, the first Sunday of Advent, 1969 also fell on November 30th. That makes today an anniversary, of sorts*, of the Mass of Paul VI. Good riddance! I surely hope it doesn’t take another forty-five years before this gaping, still-hemorrhaging wound on the Body of Christ is closed and healed (i.e., until the Novus Ordo is reformed until it should become the Usus Antiquior again.)
In 1990, then Cardinal Ratzinger commented:
The liturgical reform, in its concrete realization, has distanced itself even more from its origin. The result has not been a reanimation, but devastation. In the place of liturgy as the fruit of development came fabricated liturgy. We abandoned the organic, living process of growth and development over the centuries and replaced it – as in a manufacturing process – with a fabrication, a banal on-the-spot product.
And he’s quoted seven years later:
I am convinced that the crisis in the church that we are experiencing today is to a large extent due to the disintegration of the liturgy.
Even in a goodNovus Ordo parish, such as where I worship most weekdays and my husband and sons often go early Sundays, pablum is routinely served up. For example, my son told me today’s opening joke: the elderly woman who had been married to a banker, circus ringmaster, preacher and undertaker explained “One for the money, two for the show, three to get ready and four to go.” Ha ha! Very funny. But how does that help anyone even recognize the sacrifice taking place on the altar, much less join oneself to it?
I’m so thankful that with only two Tridentine Masses offered in the archdiocese, I’m close enough to get to one every Sunday. I just wish it were earlier in the morning so my early-bird family could come with me much more often.
Some who hear me continue to complain about a Mass I no longer attend would admonish me with, “patience, patience”. And yes, patience and prayer would be enough if I were the only one concerned. Unfortunately, there are so many more souls at stake.
Yesterday, I went to a funeral that my sons were asked to serve. I did not know the deceased or any family, but figured the prayers of one more mourner are always a good thing. Having done this before, I shouldn’t have been surprised at all the talking & even a coffee-drinker before Mass; foul language of the deceased quoted in the eulogy given before Mass; and that hardly anyone spoke the responses. But it really struck me how long it had likely been since most family members had been to Holy Mass when NO ONE was holding hands or using the orans posture during the Lord's Prayer! (And I'm quite sure it wasn't because they're all traditional-minded).
Sitting towards the back, I found myself observing that three or maybe even four generations in this typical Catholic family are probably lost: souls at risk of eternal damnation. All on borrowed time.
Patience is NOT what is called for!
--------
* “Of sorts” since the turn-key switch from the Mass of All Ages was meant to happen this weekend, although the Missal wasn’t ready yet and many of the abuses had already crept in.
**We always have to pray in these situations in reparation for the sacrilege that is probably being committed (everyone's receiving Holy Communion despite the priest's instruction, which perhaps should be more explicit, e.g., don’t receive if you didn’t go to Mass last Sunday or any Sunday and haven’t since confessed it to a priest), and for the conversion of the family members as well as for the deceased.
So the September 14th bulletin and recent e-News from my Novus Ordo parish report that a new contemporary music group is forming to sing at the 9am Mass on Sundays when the children's choir is not singing. Really? Are we trying to copy Rebuilt here? If I may borrow words from 1P5, why do so many Catholics view the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass as a laboratory for themselves to innovate and force their creativity into it?
This September 14th here in Baltimore, we are celebrating the Bicentennial of Francis Scott Key's authorship of the Star Spangled Banner.
Liturgically it is the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross.
We also mark September 14th as the anniversary of the date Summorum Pontificum went into force. Thank you, Pope Emeritus Benedict. That was SEVEN years ago today, but when will it have the desired effect (re-sacralization of Holy Mass) around here in Baltimore?
If it doesn't happen soon (and there are no signs that it will), this won't be the land of the free much longer (but we'll certainly have to be brave to practice our faith).
A week ago, I posted to my homeschool group a reminder to skip the second collection for the Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD) on account of CCHD’s continued difficulties determining that its grantees don’t violate Catholic teaching.
A question came back: Does anyone know why our ordinary, or priests, either don’t know this information, or don’t do anything about it?
My answer follows:
Priests have vowed their obedience to their bishop. If the bishop tells them to take up this collection, his priests can hardly say “no” to him, but presumably could offer their bishops reasons not to take up the collection.
Now as far as bishops go…
I’ve heard that there are U.S. bishops who do not take up CCHD collections in their dioceses. Praise God!
And I think it’s fair to say there are others who are corrupt in masking CCHD’s continued problems.
You remember the ACORN-CCHD scandal (September, 2009), when it was revealed that the bishops had long been giving away collection plate money to anti-Catholic Alinskyite organizations. I think that now most bishops and priests are under the impression that reforms of the CCHD made in the ACORN aftermath were successful and that it is a program in good standing again.
Several organizations, including American Life League (ALL), had done and continue to do a great deal of work in exposing CCHD problems, both before and after ACORN. However, the USCCB now considers these groups to be a nuisance and terminated communications with them. Read it for yourself at Truth About CCHD. Consequently letters to bishops citing problems discovered by ALL may well go unheeded.
A huge problem has been the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), which administers the CCHD.
(a) Aside from its member bishops, the USCCB bureaucracy that runs its day-to-day operations seems to have its own left-wing errant “social justice” agenda.
(b) Bishops are wont to hide behind the USCCB, although it has no real authority (and may that remain so, Pope Francis’s Apostolic Exhortation, Evangelii Gaudium, §32 notwithstanding). I think many a bishop forgets that at his particular judgment, he will be called to account for the measures he (not the USCCB) took or neglected to take to lead the souls in his flock to Heaven. As it is human nature to fall in line with group decisions, it would have been better that these episcopal (i.e., bishops) conferences were never created.
USCCB aside, the bishops, as individuals, tend to be pretty leftward-leaning themselves on the political spectrum. (Remember how relentlessly they pushed for socialized medicine last year? And how they supported immigration issues every bit as much as traditional marriage when both issues were on the ballot? Should they not have instead been instructing the faithful that voting against traditional marriage would be a grave sin?) We can probably attribute much of today's bishops' misordered priorities to the fact that they came of age during the tremendous social upheaval of the late sixties / seventies. Many seem to have swapped care for the souls entrusted to them for peace at the expense of truth or for political involvement in the name of “social justice” – secular-style. Under their watch, the spiritual works of mercy have been completely trumped by the corporal works of mercy (and better yet if those can be enacted through a government program).
Certainly not all of our bishops are guilty of shirking their responsibility to teach the truth, but a vast majority are. Certainly it was heartening to see all the bishops stand together to oppose the health care mandate. The federal government's persecution of the Church is at least forcing them to be stronger. But they have to be much, much stronger still.
Is there any saving CCHD? Certainly we need to help the poor – spiritually and corporally. But does CCHD help the poor, as it claims? With its founding principle of giving money to non-Catholic organizations to empower the poor through community organizing, the money all too often still seems to find its way to progressivist anti-Catholic causes.
Sunday, just before the Traditional Latin Mass downtown, thirteen youths, including one of our sons, were confirmed in the traditional rite. It was just glorious and following it, the Mass sung by priest, cantor, and choir and accompanied by organist was absolutely heavenly.
One thing that struck me, though, that I had never seen at a confirmation before was that just after each young man or young lady was anointed and stood up to return to where s/he had been standing, the excess chrism was wiped off the brow. I read in the program that the cotton (if it is not the practice to strap a linen band around the forehead) used for this purpose is later burned and the ashes, along with the water and bread the bishop or priest uses to wash his hands, are poured down the sacrarium (the special basin in the sacristry that drains directly into the ground, used only for sacred species.)
A little detail, but typical of the myriad details that were lost in the post-conciliar liturgical reforms.
I am struck at every traditional Latin Mass by some little detail, of which some are theologically significant, others historically significant. So many of these little details that make the old rite so rich and magnificent have been, for the most part, stripped from the new Mass.
Thanks be to God for Summorum Pontificum. We have already seen some little details return to the Novus Ordo: servers bearing torches for the reading of the gospel; use of the chalice veil, bells at the epiclesis; all of which add to the sacrality of the Mass. (There are many things that can be done without obtaining the bishop's permission as they are still be in keeping with the rubrics of Novus Ordo. Some will say this is "mixing up the rites," but that is simply not the case.)
The intent was for the extraordinary form to be widely available – even in every parish, in order for it to exert its sacred influence. A priest who learns and celebrates in the extraordinary form will never say an ordinary form in the same way again. But obviously Summorum Pontificum has not been implemented anywhere nearly as extensively as intended.
To the extent that all of the Masses we attend do not incorporate those little details and bigger ones (e.g., the ordinary parts of the Mass aren’t prayed in Latin, Gregorian chant isn’t sung, the Mass is prayed by the priest ad populum, is served by girls; reception of Communion kneeling is not facilitated, etc.), we need Summorum Pontificum. The Tridentine Mass instructs us (abetted by with some mystagogical catechesis) about the way Holy Mass was always meant to be celebrated. The Novus Ordo Mass was meant to look and feel and sound like the Mass of all Ages looked and felt and sounded like for approximately fifteen centuries prior to 1970.
So do take advantage of Tridentine Mass opportunities. Then ask your pastor questions – why doesn’t our parish use a chalice veil, any Latin, boys in cassock and surplice, etc.? Make a mess. The Traditional Latin Mass looks and sounds and feels much, much more like what the council fathers actually intended compared to what we’re used to in almost all parishes. Get to know it – it is your birthright.
My ten year-old has been studying tesselations in geometry lately. A tesselation is a pattern of identical shapes that fit together without any gaps or overlap, such as hexagons in a beehive.
With the excitement of seeing the recently released trailer for the new movie, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, the words "Tesselation of Smaug" came out of his mouth while doing his math worksheet. This immediately reminded me of M.C. Escher, so I googled "escher tesselation dragon" and came up with the Dragon Metamorphosis picture by Robert Fathauer at this link: mathartfun. It’s not Escher's, but done very much in his style.
