Liturgy

You don’t often see a headline like ‘Body Of Christ’ Snatched From Church, Held Hostage By UCF Student

ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — A University of Central Florida student, upset religious groups hold church services on public campuses, is holding hostage the Eucharist, an object so sacred to Catholics they call it the Body of Christ.
Church officials say UCF Student Senator Webster Cook was disruptive and disrespectful when he attended Mass held on campus Sunday June 29. It was during that Mass where Cook admits he obtained the Eucharist.

The Eucharist is a small bread wafer blessed by a priest. According to Catholics, the wafer becomes the Body of Christ once blessed and is to be consumed immediately after a minister passes it out to churchgoers.
Cook claims he planned to consume it, but first wanted to show it to a fellow student senator he brought to Mass who was curious about the Catholic faith.

“When I received the Eucharist, my intention was to bring it back to my seat to show him,” Cook said. “I took about three steps from the woman distributing the Eucharist and someone grabbed the inside of my elbow and blocked the path in front of me. At that point I put it in my mouth so they’d leave me alone and I went back to my seat and I removed it from my mouth.”

A church leader was watching, confronted Cook and tried to recover the sacred bread. Cook said she crossed the line and that’s why he brought it home with him.

“She came up behind me, grabbed my wrist with her right hand, with her left hand grabbed my fingers and was trying to pry them open to get the Eucharist out of my hand,” Cook said, adding she wouldn’t immediately take her hands off him despite several requests.
Diocese of Orlando spokeswoman Carol Brinati said she was not aware of anyone touching Cook. She released a statement Thursday: “… a Catholic Campus Ministry student representative filed a complaint with the Student Union regarding the behavior of the two young men. A Student Government Representative called Catholic Campus Ministry to apologize for this disruption.”

Cook filed an official abuse complaint with UCF’s student conduct court regarding the alleged physical force. Following that complaint, Brinati said church members filed their own official complaints of disruptive conduct. Punishment for either offense could result in suspension or expulsion.

“The church feels that I’m the problem here,” Cook said. “The problem is actually that this is a publicly-funded religious institution. Through student government here, we fund them through an activity and service, so they’re receiving student money.”

Cook is upset more than $40,000 in student fees have been allocated to support religious organizations on campus for the 2008-2009 school year, according to student government records. He denied he is holding the Eucharist hostage to protest that support.
Regardless of the reason, the Diocese says its main concern is to get the Eucharist back so it can be taken care of properly and with respect. Cook has been keeping the Eucharist stored in a plastic bag since last Sunday.

It is of course difficult to know what actually happened here, but if somewhat accurate kudos to the EMHC there for being so attentive. The hostage taken part is hyperbole, but let us pray for a reverse case of Stockholm syndrome.

Many people have seen the strange giant puppets at the Call to Action conference at the end of April.

I has nothing though on the Palm Sunday Mass that occurred at St. Joan of Arc Catholic Church in Minneapolis, Mn.

For the faint of heart who can’t handle the 15 minutes of creepiness, the Fratres blog has a bunch of still pictures which are "highlights."

Here is just an example:

Hey haven’t I seen those characters somewhere else?

Oh yeah, that’s it.

Archbishop Mark Coleridge of Canberra issued a letter on the liturgy for Pentecost Sunday as the Australian bishops began full implementation of the new General Instruction for the Roman Missal This is quite a wonderful letter and he touches on so many aspects on the Mass and how it is celebrated that I am totally in agreement with. I also really like the tone of the letter in while he is correcting some abuses and areas that need improvement in the celebration of the sacred liturgy he is mainly reflecting and teaching on the reform of the Mass and how it should be celebrated. [Via Overhead in the Sacristy]

The new version of General Instruction is one of a number of indications that the
Church is moving into a new phase of the ongoing journey of liturgical renewal, the roots of
which reach back to the Second Vatican Council and beyond. In earlier times, it seemed that
the process of liturgical renewal begun by the Council was complete. But that is not the case.
The journey of liturgical renewal, we can now see, is only in its early phases, and the
appearance of the General Instruction is one indication of this. Other still more important
indications will be the appearance in the not too distant future of the new translation of the
Roman Missal and the new translation of the Lectionary. Now is the time, the Spirit is saying
to the Church, to take stock of the liturgical renewal of the last forty years, to discern as
clearly as possible what has succeeded and what has failed, and to make adjustments in the
light of that discernment.

This means that all of us will have to be open to learn, and that is not always easy. Over
recent decades, liturgical habits have taken hold, some of which have been beneficial, others
detrimental to the celebration of the liturgy. It is never easy to break the hold of bad habits,
especially when we do not see them as bad. Openness to learn always involves humility, a
preparedness to recognise that I do not know all the answers. In the case of the liturgy, that
humility involves a preparedness to learn from the Church, to whom alone the liturgy
belongs; and in the new General Instruction and the new translations of the Missal and
Lectionary, it is the voice of the whole Church, the Bride of Christ, that we hear.

He then goes on and makes some general observations on several subjects.

Silence Our worship generally has become very chatty, to the point where one of the challenges
now is to allow silence to play its part in the liturgy. This might begin with our places of
worship. Where once our churches were places of silence for the sake of prayer in the
presence of the Blessed Sacrament, the custom has arisen in more recent years for people to
talk freely in the churches, certainly before and after Mass. The same is true of the sacristy:
where once silence was the rule (again for the sake of prayer and recollection) often now the
sacristy has become a noisy and distracting place. Once was too that the priest was expected
to pray the prescribed prayers as he vested for Mass, and this was one factor which
contributed to an air of silence in the sacristy. I wonder would it be possible to encourage an
air of silence or at least quiet in sacristies before Mass, and to make our churches places
where there is a silence which supports prayer. Of course there are times when one has to talk in a sacristy or a church, but it is a question of the prevailing atmosphere. In that sense, I am
speaking more about prayer than about silence for its own sake. …

On language:

The style of language used at Mass will change when the new translation of the Roman
Missal appears, perhaps late in 2009. It will be a more elevated and sacral idiom, which may
feel strange at first. But it is important to realise that the language of the liturgy was never
everyday language; it was always more elevated and even slightly old-fashioned. That is
because it is ritual language. For the celebrant to say at the start of Mass, Good morning,
everyone and for the people to reply Good morning, Father is everyday language which in
other contexts would be perfectly appropriate. But in the liturgical context it is out of place
because it misunderstands ritual and the language that it requires. It can suggest a casual or
informal approach to the liturgy which focuses more on the priest and the people than on their
common worship of God. Therefore, in this new phase of renewal, another thing we need to
understand better is the kind of idiom appropriate for worship.

He says perfectly why this type of language seems so out of place for me. The "good mornings" and "have a nice day" are so casual that they disrupt and set the wrong tone for the sacred mysteries as we once again return to Calvary in that one sacrifice that brought us our redemption. Even worse is the practice of some priests to poll the congregation at the end of Mass as to who is visiting, has birthdays, or anniversaries. This is liturgically jarring for me to go from Golgotha to a warm up act at a comedy club.Good intentions of why this is being done aside, it transforms the role of the priest being In Persona Christ to his being a Master of Ceremonies and to create an artificial sense of community that ends up downplaying our real community with all of our prayers being directed in worship to God. When we are in union with Christ and his Church as we receive Communion that is when we are in the fullest sense community.

The Bishop has so much to say that I just direct you to his full letter where he also writes about sacred music, the body as in regard to gestures, beauty, and creativity. Towards the end he also gives specific directions in the Order of Mass and then a some reflections on Communion services. His letter really covers a lot of area and even addresses the excessive use of Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion, lay preaching, etc.

As a side note considering that the Bishop is Australian I found his "The Sign of
Peace is not just a hearty G’day to the world; …" pretty funny to my American ears.

Jeffrey (and all the people on your blog; you may publish this if you wish),

I am writing for two reasons:

1) to assure individuals (who spend too much time on the internet) that my previous and only contribution to a blog (supporting Tom Stehle for using the eucharistic acclamations from Mass of Creation) on April 1st was genuine, and to say that

2) I pray for us all, (especially) for those who think my prayers might not be heard as well as theirs. Don’t we all want God’s Reign to come? My music is not at the heart of what we seek and do as Christians. What we sing is not as important as how we live.

If you need a reason to verify this, or if you (or anyone who reads your blog) would like to communicate with me for any reason, my e-mail is

Quietbreezemusic@aol.com

Blessings to you in this wonderful season of Pentecost (when all voices and cultures were understood and heard by the grace of the Holy Spirit).

I have no illusions about the qualiity or the longevity of my music but, as i said, earlier, I trust God’s Spirit to “hold our faith together” into the future.

As you will probably appreciate, I won’t respond to any blogs again. It is hard to engage with people who dislike you so much.

What I would ask is that, if you want to put this on your blog, please give me the gift of publishing it in its entirety, without any additional italics or boldface.

God’s peace (that passes all understanding),

Marty Haugen

This email is a reference to a previous post of mine when Marty Haugen posted at Catholic Sensibility.

Well that was interesting, if rather strange such as the assertion that those who don’t think his music is appropriate for Mass think that his prayers prayers might not be heard as well as ours. While he has certainly been a lightning rod I certainly can’t remember anybody making such an assertion. I really can’t blame him for starting out a little snarky with “who spend too much time on the internet” considering how much snark has been aimed in his direction. But he seems a bit thin skinned since in his original email he had said that God’s people had suffered because the Catholic Church won’t ordain women. I guess it is okay to attack our faith, but wrong if we question the appropriateness of his music during the Mass. I really don’t hate his music and think it is fine as far as Praise and Worship music goes outside of Mass, though I might quibble about the lyrics at time.

As a side note I was going to post on Jimmy Akin’s Why is Christian Art so bad, but I don’t want to get any emails from Thomas “Painter of Blight” Kinkade.

I’m wondering how many of you reading this found that, in your parishes this weekend, the liturgical feast of Pentecost was eclipsed by references to Mother’s Day?

Fr. Jay Tomorrow at Young Fogeys asks a good question. In my own limited experience it seems to me that Mother’s Day trumps whatever Sunday is on the calendar. With a very early start of Lent this year I suspect that we have a rare collision of Mother’s Day and Pentecost.

Though prior to Fr. Toborowsky brining this up my mind was on a different track considering this intersection. Considering that Pentecost is the birthday of the Church a.k.a. Holy Mother Church I say why not say Happy Mothers Day also to the Church. To thank Jesus for giving us the Church in the first place. We are quite thankful to our mothers appropriately for the gift of life, what better than to thank Holy Mother Church for the gift of divine life within! Our mother’s experienced pain to bring us into the world, Jesus suffered immeasurable pain on the cross to bring us into a world without end. The sacramental life of the Church first gives us everlasting life in Baptism and nourishes us on our pilgrimage towards death and then to life in Christ. The Church throughout the centuries has been a mother to us. Correcting us when we fall into error and raising us in praise when we follow the road to sanctity. The road where we get rid of the narrowness in us to approach the narrow gate which is really wider than the arms of a mother’s embrace.

St. Augustine certainly realized this dimension when he said "You cannot have God as your Father unless you have the Church as your mother." Unfortunately there are a great deal of motherless children out there. Orphans that don’t realize they are orphans. Pentecost is a feast of unity as everyone who heard the Apostles speak on this day heard it despite language differences.

Benedict XVI affirmed that this Sunday, the feast of Pentecost, "We will pray in a particular way for the unity of the Church. […] If our hearts and minds are open to the Spirit of communion, God can work miracles again in the Church, restoring the bonds of unity. Striving for Christian unity is an act of obedient trust in the work of the Holy Spirit, who leads the Church to the full realization of the Father’s plan, in conformity with the will of Christ."

Let us pray that just as Eve is a mother to all of us, that Holy Mother Church will also be a mother to everyone. Plus let us both praise our mother and Mother Church.

As a side note my own mother died of cancer over five years ago. Thank God that my own Catholic faith allows me to still say Happy Mother’s day to her and to say prayers for her.

It is that time of year again depending on what diocese you live in. Tonight if the Vigil of the Ascension Rant for Catholic bloggers living in diocese that have moved Ascension Thursday to Sunday.

Fr. Erik Richtseig has a good natured rant on the subject which I totally agree with. The Apostles didn’t meet in the upper room for six days and so this Holy Day of Obligation math doesn’t quite work out. I think that bishops who have decided this for their diocese should have to annually explain why this is too much of an imposition on Ash Wednesday. I would love to hear the argument why this is a good idea when on a non-Holy Day of Obligation like Ash Wednesday people seem to come out of the woodwork to get to Mass. Besides I totally hate the idea of a Holy Day of Obligation being seen as a imposition in the first place.

It is also annoying that in a universal Church I will watch the Pope on TV tomorrow celebrating the Ascension while I will have to wait for Sunday and of course in the Liturgy of the Hours you have to branch off from the normal course of readings for a little detour.