Liturgy

…reading Sacramentum Caritatis which will be released one week from today. Sacramentum Caritatis is the Post-synodal Apostolic Exhortation that seems to have taken forever to come out. The Synod of Bishops was titled "The Eucharist, source and summit of the life and mission of the Church" and was held back in October of 2005. Considering the time past for this document to come out many have wondered what perhaps substantial changes might be in store for the liturgy and perhaps the connection between this document and the Motu Proprio for the Tridentine indult also (once again) rumored to be released before Easter.

Gerald’s post on the tragically unhip music this year and in former years at the RE Congress in L.A and I do love his term Catholish.

A reader sent me some links to some of Father Altier’s excellent homilies for Lent.

Homily 1
Homily 2
Homily 3
Homily 4
Homily 5
Homily 6

Here is a Lenten prayer from Archbishop Chaput. What I love about the Archbishop is that he is not just a one hit wonder in that he talks on the whole of the faith from a love for the poor, to the death penalty and abortion, to many other issues that concern the faith.

As always Fr. Powell’s homilies are excellent.

This is my annual start of Lent post with Lenten trivia.

As I have said before I greatly admire those bloggers who give up blogging for Lent, but as for me I will continue blogging as a penance for others. I will try to provide you with plenty of punance during this punitential season.

This year I have decided that I will be giving up "giving up things" for Lent.

The capybara kap-i-‘bar-uh, hydrochoerus hydrochaeris, is a semi-aquatic rodent of South and Central America. It is the only species in its genus, which belongs to the family Hydrochoeridae, order Rodentia.

When the Spanish missionaries found the capybara in Brazil during the 16th century, they wrote to the Pope to ask – there’s an animal here that’s scaly but also hairy, spends most of its time in the water but occasionally comes on land; can we classify it as a fish (and thus, the indigenous people could continue to eat it during Lent)?. Not having a clear description of the animal (and not wanting the petitioners to starve), the Pope agreed and declared it to be a fish.

The pretzel has a deep spiritual meaning for Lent. In fact, it was the ancient Christian Lenten bread as far back as the fourth century. In the old Roman Empire, the faithful kept a very strict fast all through Lent: no milk, no butter, no cheese, no eggs, no cream and no meat. They made small breads of water, flour and salt, to remind themselves that Lent was a time of prayer. They shaped these breads in the form of crossed arms for in those days they crossed their arms over the breast while praying. Therefore they called the breads “little arms” (bracellae). From this Latin word, the Germanic people later coined the term “pretzel.”
[Full Article]

The Teutonic word Lent, which we employ to denote the forty days’ fast preceding Easter, originally meant no more than the spring season. Still it has been used from the Anglo-Saxon period to translate the more significant Latin term quadragesima (Fr. car�me, It. quaresima, Span. cuaresma), meaning the “forty days”, or more literally the “fortieth day”. This in turn imitated the Greek name for Lent, tessarakoste (fortieth), a word formed on the analogy of Pentecost (pentekoste), which last was in use for the Jewish festival before New Testament times.

Carnival means "farewell to meat.”

It was thought that misfortune would come to those who married during lent – “Marry in Lent, live to repent” – because lent was a time for abstinence.

Jimmy Akin has a good roundup of Lenten information.

Jimmy also has the guidelines for fasting from the Code of Canon Law.

I have also changed one of my top graphics to this.

The Ox Files has a funny post on a new product for Ash Wednesday.

So I wish you all success in your Lenten cleaning and that this year you will grow closer to Christ.

Kansas City Catholic points to a wondeful column in the Kansas City Star from one of one of 17 revolving contributors to the "faith column"

My oldest daughter is preparing for her first reconciliation, commonly called confession, and my own struggles with the sacrament have converged with my responsibility for her catechesis, as well as the beginning of Lent.

In theory I absolutely embrace this sacrament as one of the most beautiful aspects of the Catholic Church. To be absolved of my sins by a priest who acts in persona Christi is truly awesome.

I can’t for one moment understand critics who claim this sacrament is a manmade construction. It’s simply too tortuous for man to devise on his own. As Pius XI stated, “the sin of the century is the loss of the sense of sin.”

Over time moral absolutes have been whittled away, and it’s just not popular to reflect on sinful actions. It’s far easier to place blame elsewhere, develop a mental health category, argue for the gray areas or dissent in the name of conscience.

Been there, done that. Thanks be to God that he welcomes back the prodigals!

That said, this sacrament is humbling — and often humiliating. After avoiding confession for months, I was fearful to return. After all, I’ve been Catholic only a few years and have gone to confession maybe a dozen times, each time thinking that I wasn’t “doing it right,” paralyzed by the mechanics of when to do the sign of the cross, or the exact wording I needed to say, or when to say my act of contrition.

This time around, I resolved that “doing it right” meant searching my soul, recalling those ugly venial sins and feeling contrite. I needed a new perspective, and I needed to swallow my pride and that need to be right.

As extra incentive, my daughter asked rhetorically if the pope goes to confession weekly, shouldn’t the rest of us? She has already worked out a plan for my husband and me to have a “pattern” (one of her favorite kindergarten concepts lately) of switching off going weekly so we’d each go twice a month while she herself will go weekly because otherwise “it’s just too hard to keep track of all of those little sins.”

How right she is — having smaller gaps between confessions will certainly help me focus on those “patterns” of weakness I see in myself.

Others can keep their extreme makeovers, day spa retreats, therapy sessions and talk-show confessions. This Lent, I’m committed to a true transfiguration through my reconciliation with God and the mystical Body of Christ through this sacrament — no matter how hard, no matter how humbling.

I have sometimes thought that I wouldn’t mind so much some of the standard fare of modern hymns in the Mass if a selection of older hymns were also used. I never understood while there has to be some dividing line where anything before the sixties has to be censored. A sort of hymn age discrimination. Not that everything older is worthwhile, but surely you would think they could find something older than themselves to select. Last Sunday this thesis met its test. My wife and I were in Norfolk, Va and attended Mass there. This Church had six Masses on Sunday and the one we attended was packed. There was a strange juxtaposition of the old and the new. A modern style cruciform church with a a Byzantine style cross with a raised corpus in the sanctuary. Before the Mass started they requested that everyone turn of their cell phones before "the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass" started and then announced who the presider was. While using the term presider I guess is technically correct, I prefer celebrant if your going to announce it all. Better yet would be "The part of Jesus Christ today we be sacramentally played by Father such-and-such." – to fully give that In Persona Chirsti flavor. Then the "theme for today’s Mass" was given – which use to be called the entrance antiphon.

The choir though was wonderful and the best I have heard live in a Catholic Church. Because it was a more modern church so there was no choir loft and as I have said before unlike children, choirs should be heard and not seen. But at least they were wearing choir robes and during the consecration the whole choir kneeled which is something I rarely see happen. The entrance hymn was something circa 1800 that I hadn’t heard before, but that I would love to hear again.
A Latin hymn was used later and there sung version of the Our Father was quite beautiful. My main parish church usually chants the Our Father, but this version sung in different parts was a joy to listen too. The last two hymns used were standard fare in many Catholic churches and they were kind of a let down after the previous ones, but the organ along with their singing made them much more than passable.

The celebrant was a Fr. Moss who is a Navy Chaplain. I am still trying to figure out if I liked his homily or not. Hands down Fr. Moss is the funniest homilist I have ever heard. Mostly the homily felt more like a stand-up routine than a homily and he regularly had people in the pews laughing throughout. There were some obvious themes he had used before such as talking about his "twisted evil demon-spawn sister" since just the mention of her had people laughing. As an amateur comedian I quite admired his ability and timing. While the homily was played for laughs he also did teach a good deal about blessings and the blessing at the end of Mass and I must admit that much of what he said stuck with me afterwards. I truly doubt if I would like hearing every homily in this mode, but maybe in the case of Fr. Moss he could pull it off. Humor can be a good tool when used correctly in a homily, but too much of it can certainly distract from the dignity of the Mass.

Father Z reports on another Motu Proprio rumor on the date of its release.

Robert Moynihan of Inside the Vatican, currently in Naples, Florida, confirmed last night at a Legatus meeting that his sources say that the Motu Proprio will be issued on the Feast of the Chair of St. Peter, Feb. 22.

Of course we have had ever changing dates with new ones appearing when the previous one is passed. Though this seems to me to be quite biblical.

“But of that day and hour of the Tridentine indult no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Curia, but the Holy Father only."

As in the days of Clown and Polka Masses, so will be the coming of the Motu Proprio. For as in those days before the indult they were eating and drinking using invalid matter for the Eucharist, Irreverent and saying the Mass Irreverently, until the day when Indult entered the bark of Peter, and they did not know until the Indult came and swept away all the silliness, this will be the coming of the Motu Proprio.

Being a Catholic and a geek I created the following Javascript snippet which generates a random date within the next two years.

Possibly one of my readers can help me answer this liturgical question. There is a priest in my diocese that helps out at different churches and every time he says Mass on a day where the profession of faith is required he says the Apostles Creed and not the Nicene Creed. Now my understanding is that under the new missal that the Apostles’ Creed may be used during Lent, Easter and at Masses for Children.

Looking at a Zenit’s answer about this is the relevant section.

"19. Loco symboli nicaeno-constantinopolitani, praesertim tempore Quadragesimae et tempore paschali, adhiberi potest symbolum baptismale Ecclesiae Romanae sic dictum Apostolorum" (Missale Romanum, Page 513).

Knowing very little Latin this doesn’t help me much, but they say it could possible be interpreted

The Roman Church’s baptismal creed, the so-called Apostles’ Creed, may be used in place of the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed, especially in Lent and Eastertide."

Which widely interpreted could mean every Sunday, solemnity, etc.

My main question would be what would be a good reason for this substitution? Every time I have seen this done it greatly confuses those in the pews and people start mumbling their way through the creed since they expect one and try to recite the other and end up saying neither. Now I can see possibly doing this during Lent since this might be similar to suppressing the Gloria as something somewhat penitential. The first Mass I heard this done was on Trinity Sunday and I thought how totally inappropriate it was to not have the Nicene Creed with its great expression of the three persons of the trinity.

I guess I don’t like traditional music after all.

Franciscan University of Steubenville is pleased to announce the creation of a Bachelor of Arts in Sacred Music to begin in the fall of 2007. The degree may be pursued in either the program in voice or the program in organ. Pianists may audition for the program in organ on the piano. Courses will include private instruction on the major instrument, music theory, music history, conducting and a year-long course in Gregorian Chant. In addition, students will participate in the Schola Cantorum Franciscana, which concentrates on polyphony and chant and sings for occasional services on and off campus.

Interested students may apply for admission to the university at:

Franciscan University of Steubenville
Admissions
1235 University Blvd.
Steubenville, OH 43953

Students interested in auditioning may contact Prof. Paul Weber at the above address or by telephone at 740.284.5884.
[Via Vivat Jesus]