Liturgy

Sunday, October 11, 2009: Liturgy Reflection from JP Catholic University on Vimeo.

The Sacred Page

Leave it to Fr. McBrien to actually write:

Eucharistic adoration, perpetual or not, is a doctrinal, theological, and spiritual step backward, not forward.

Fr. Z fisks Fr. McBrien’s latest article.

Yes Fr. McBrien looks around at the Church and of course what is worthy of attack is people praying to Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. I mean adoring and talking to Jesus, what could people be thinking? Fostering devotions with prayers before our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament will only produce vocations for priestly and religious life of people actually in love with our Lord – can’t have that happen. I mean what did Blessed Mother Teresa, Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen, and a large number of saints think they were doing spending time in worship before our lord in his Eucharistic presence. Surely they would have better spent their time inciting disobedience in a national dissenting paper.

Though of course we probably realize what Fr. McBrien actually wants. Yes a “Dick McBrien Adoration Chapel” filled by adoring dissenters.

Blessed be Dick McBrien
Blessed be his collarless Shirt.
Blessed be his NCR and Tidings dissenting articles
Blessed be Notre Dame for hiring and retaining him

Though next time I take a step backward and spend some time in front of the Blessed Sacrament I will be sure to say a prayer for Mr. McBrien in my backward spiritual way.

Ed Peters weighs in on whether Ted Kennedy should have a Catholic funeral from a canonist’s point of view. I was curious about this and he certainly shows that canonically the Senator is eligible for a Catholic funeral. He ends with this:

Now, about President Obama giving a eulogy thereat, don’t even get me started.

Surely the President will give a moving eulogy on why we need to pray for the late Mr. Kennedy’s eternal soul. Either that or call him forth “Rise Ted Kennedy.”

Fr. Trigilio posts:

Sadly, as a priest, I have seen too many funerals become canonization events where the person is literally declared present in heaven because he or she was a ‘good’ person or because ‘we all end up in the same place, don’t we?’ Nothing could be farther from the truth. Being ‘good’ or just being a ‘nice’ guy will NOT get you into heaven. One must be HOLY to enter the Holy of Holies. Holiness comes from grace which comes from God. Look at the obituaries in your local paper today. Most if not all tell you esoteric things about the deceased like: they belonged to the Rotary Club, or the Elks, the Moose, Loyal Order of Waterbuffalos, etc. He or she liked fishing, shopping, travel, sewing, playing cards, ice cream cones, etc. They tell os of mundate and trite things the person did. The most important aspect, however, is not their extracurricular activities, their employment or their social life. Bottom line is their FAITH. Did they BELIEVE in God? Did they faithfully WORSHIP him every day and every Sunday? Did they OBEY his moral laws and Ten Commandments? Yes, I agree that those who served our nation and defended her in times of war and peace via our military ought to be recognized. That is a commendable act of patriotism. But we also need to hear about those brave souls who bore the cross of Christ in their own bodies and did so with dignity and deep faith. We need to hear about the sacrifices made for marriage and the family. We need to hear about those who struggled and persevered to live a devout life close to their God. I would rather read that than see a bunch of hooey telling me the hobbies of a dead person.

The doctrine of Purgatory is GREAT. It allows us to be purified when we are not fully detached from all stain of sin. The temporal punishment due to sin for an entire lifetime may be great or it may be small. While most of us are not Mother Teresas ready for the Pearly Gates the day we die, hopefully we are not Lucifers either, ready for the pain and torments of hell either. Purgatory is where most of hope to end up with the sure and certain hope we will eventually get to Paradise. Whatever sins we may have committed in life can still be remitted while there is still air in our lungs and blood being pumped from our heart. Pray for the dead and pray for the conversion of sinners. The battle to end abortion and euthanasia is far from over.

A reader sent me a link to well-done video of a Corpus Christi Eucharistic procession in Bremerton, Wa.

One of the trends in the last four decades is confusing the priesthood of the faithful and the ordained priesthood.

Concerns about swine flu have prompted many parishes to discontinue the routine administration of the Precious Blood. Okay, fine.* But there’s another Communion rite practice that should also cease if only out of concerns for public health. This time, however, it’s a practice that (unlike distribution from the Cup) is an abuse per se, namely, that of lay ministers of holy Communion purporting to confer “blessings-in-lieu-of-Communion” on every Tom, Pat, and Harriet who comes up in line.

Lay ministers of holy Communion (by definition, extraordinary ministers thereof), in response to people approaching them without the intention to receive Communion (maybe such folks are non-Catholics** or are Catholic kids prior to First Communion), currently do one of three things: they (1) speak and gesture a sign of the cross over such folks, or (2) lay hands on such persons’ heads or shoulders while voicing a blessing, or (3) waive the Eucharist over them while purporting to confer a blessing. I think all three actions are liturgical abuses.

Let’s consider them in order of gravity:

Ed Peters’ goes further in explaining why this is a liturgical abuse and why they have no authority to give blessings.

This has been a growing trend in parishes and in my own experience is quite common now. The first time I saw this practice I knew immediately that it was wrong because it confuses the blessing of the ordained priesthood and the type of blessing we can give.

At one parish they had a monthly blessing of blankets that were given to people who were sick. The priest would do a blessing of these blankets at the end of Mass and then had the laity hold out their hands also at the same time. The Nazi looking salute was bad enough in a Catholic parish, but the theology of this is quite confuses. The practice teaches something that is not true.

First off I don’t think there should be any blessings of persons who can’t receive Communion at this point even by the priest. There is a final blessing at Mass which does indeed give a blessing to everyone. There is no theological reason to do a blessing in the Communion line for those who can’t receive. There is of course the pastoral aspect and a desire to include everybody. I can certainly understand why this practice developed and the good intention behind it. What we should be doing instead is teaching what the final blessing really is and teaching the difference between the priestly blessing and the blessing for example parents can give their children.

What really annoys me about this practice is that surely the priest in most cases knows that the the EMHC’s are not allowed to do this. The theology behind priestly blessings and what the liturgical books say is not exactly a closely guarded secret. Like most bad practices they occur with the priest turning a blind eye to go along.

The problem is also fairly widespread based on anecdotal evidence of my hearing this topic on Catholic radio when people call up asking about it. This would be a good thing for the USCCB’s Committee on Divine Worship to address while it is still in the relatively early stages. Oh well how else can we hear the crickets?

The Benedictine Monastery of San Benedetto in Norcia thanks to some generous donations from their patrons, we’ve wired up our Tenebrae services and made podcasts and mp3s of everything. You can see pictures and all the music at www.osbnorcia.org, and click “Tenebrae ’09”

Via Fr. Longenecker.

This article from the Daily Telegraph says priests in the Diocese of Leeds in England have been advised to stop saying ‘Good Morning’ to their congregations at the beginning of Mass.

We have to get rid of the Tonight Show approach to liturgy. Guy comes on stage, “Howya’all doing? Anybody heard any good jokes this week? The Lord be with you…” I knew one priest who would discuss the baseball games of the weekend, give out the birthdays in the parish that week, sprinkle in a few jokes, then introduce the penitential rite with something like, “I know we’ve all done things this week that we thought better of afterwards, let’s tell God about it.” He would also make personal comments while distributing communion, “The Body of Christ, hey Mike, I like your new mustache. The Body of Christ, great new Lexus you’ve got in the parking lot Sally”

Totally agree. It cheapens the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass by making it like a skit or other piece of entertainment that needs an intro. “Live from Sunday morning it’s Jesus Live!” A false act of community when the Mass is already a corporate act of worship of God.

The celebration of Mass is a corporate act, an act of the whole assembly gathered for worship. All the particular ministries serve this corporate function (GIRM, no. 27). In the Mass, the Church is joined to the action of Christ, the high point both of the action by which God sanctifies the world in Christ and of the worship that the human race offers to the Father, adoring him through Christ, the Son of God, in the Holy Spirit (no. 16). We are joined to this divine action through baptism, which incorporates us into the risen Christ. This action, which lies at the center of the whole Christian life (no. 16) is not initiated by us but by God acting in and through the Church as the body of the risen Christ. It becomes our action only to the extent that we give ourselves to this mystery of redemptive worship. The liturgy is designed to bring about in all those who make up the worshiping assembly a participation of the faithful both in body and mind, a participation burning with faithful, hope, and charity (no. 18). To the extent that we are able to participate in this way, the work of redemption becomes personally effective for each of us. By such participation, the General Instruction says, we make the actions and prayers of the liturgy our own; we enter more fully into our personal communion with Christ’s redeeming act and perfect worship (see no. 54, 55, etc.).

What we need to be is catechized about the reality of the Mass.

Fr. Longenecker has an alternative liturgy for the Presidents visit to Notre Dame.

Since I usually view sites via their RSS feed I had not noticed his blog redesign before. Wow, now that is quite a beautiful design.

Yes I said Dancing the Rite of Election.