Liturgy

Christ is Risen!

He is Risen Indeed!

I have just finished reading the Pope’s Encyclical ECCLESIA
DE EUCHARISTIA and I wish I could describe the depths and breadth of this wonderful letter.
All I can say is please read it for yourself.

In the last chapter of it "AT THE SCHOOL OF MARY, “
WOMAN OF THE EUCHARIST”" he writes:

As a result, there is a profound analogy between the Fiat which Mary said
in reply to the angel, and the Amen which every believer says when receiving
the body of the Lord. Mary was asked to believe that the One whom she conceived “through
the Holy Spirit” was “the Son of God” (Lk 1:30-35). In continuity
with the Virgin’s faith, in the Eucharistic mystery we are asked to believe
that the same Jesus Christ, Son of God and Son of Mary, becomes present in
his full humanity and divinity under the signs of bread and wine.

He also writes much about the relationships between the proper celebration of the Mass and of showing our love of God through the Eucharist. He also touches
on Church architecture in relationship to the mystery of the Eucharist.

With this heightened sense of mystery, we understand how
the faith of the Church in the mystery of the Eucharist has found historical
expression not only in the demand for an interior disposition of devotion,
but also in outward forms meant to evoke and emphasize the grandeur of the
event being celebrated. This led progressively to the development of a particular
form of regulating the Eucharistic liturgy, with due respect for the various
legitimately constituted ecclesial traditions. On this foundation a rich artistic
heritage also developed. Architecture, sculpture, painting and music, moved
by the Christian mystery, have found in the Eucharist, both directly and indirectly,
a source of great inspiration.

This explains to me exactly what is wrong with much modern
church architecture, that it is unmoved by the Christian mystery found in the
Eucharist. It is nice to read a document that is so eminently not fiskable.
I found that the document fisked myself in that it showed me my great poverty
for not fully appreciating the Eucharist and how many opportunities I have
squandered in not spending more time before our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament. Hopefully
I will have learned something from our wonderful Pope as I leave now to go
attend Mass tonight on this Holy Thursdays.

I just got back from Mass at my Plan B church. Plan B for when
I am unable to attend Mass in the morning. The priest there has been a priest
now for fifty
years and has a tendency to rush the Mass and to border on irreverence. His
homilies even though very colloquial in delivery sometimes have some very good
meat for further thought. Today he was rushing so fast that he almost verged
from being In Persona Christi to In Personal Alvin or maybe one of the other
chipmunks. He also leaves the sanctuary and walks out into the pews during
his homily. I have been tempted in the past to donate to this parish one of
those
Electric Dog Fences and to wire it to his collar, a few mild shocks when
he strays might keep him within the sanctuary. He segued from the homily to
the the Creed by saying "Now we have to do the Creed." When he said the Nicene
Creed it morphed into the Agnus Dei. Luckily
he noticed his mistake halfway through and started over. Usually you hear the
Nicene Creed morph into the Apostles Creed or you get strains of both. I might be a little nit-picky about this, but I am easily distracted and need all the help I can get to stay focused during Mass.

The melodious steady hum of Gregorian chant and prayers in Latin can be heard several hours a day in Christ the King Chapel in the Holy Cross Diocesan Center.

…The canons take music lessons to help with their singing and also spend several hours a day studying theology and grammar to improve their Latin, Oppenheimer said.
[Full Story]

English-speaking bishops appointed to advise the Vatican on liturgical translations have continued their examination of a document that will provide detailed translation principles and specific translation suggestions, the Vatican has said.

The Vox Clara Committee issued a media release following its meeting at the Vatican last week. It indicated that the Committee considered a draft of a document, termed a ratio translationis, describing the specific application to the English language of the principles contained in Liturgiam authenticam.

The committee members, under the leadership of Archbishop George Pell of Sydney, also said they were “pleased to hear of recent initiatives by the International Commission on English in the Liturgy to assure the effective application of the principles of Liturgiam authenticam”.
[Full Story]

VATICAN CITY, MARCH 17, 2003 (Zenit.org).- Cardinal Joseph
Ratzinger, who worked closely with John Paul II in the forthcoming encyclical
on the Eucharist, has just published a book on this sacrament.

"In the crisis of faith we are experiencing, the critical issue seems
to be increasingly the correct celebration and correct understanding of the
Eucharist," the cardinal says in "An Intimate God" ("Il
Dio Vicino," St. Paul Editions), which has just gone on sale in Italian.

Vatican sources say the encyclical on the Eucharist will be published in April.

"All of us know the difference between a Church that prays and a Church
that has been reduced to a museum," explains Cardinal Ratzinger, prefect
of the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

"Today we run the risk of having our churches turned into museums and
ending like museums: If they are not closed, they are pillaged," he says. "They
have no life. The measure of the Church’s vitality, the measure of its interior
openness, will be reflected in the fact that its doors remain open, precisely
because it is a church where there is constant prayer.
[Full
Story]

With the talk about the upcoming Mel Gibson file on the passion
not being in the vernacular, in my own opinion this should make the film better.
A couple of years ago I attended a Mass with His Most Eminent Beatitude Cardinal
Mar Nasrallah Boutros Pierre Sfeir who is the Maronite Patriarch of Antioch.
The Mass was I believe in all or mostly in Aramaic. This was one of the most
beautiful Masses I have ever attended and not being able to understand the language
was not a distraction at all. There is an added quality about hearing the Mass
in one of the languages that Jesus spoke in. The Maronite Rite has always been
in union with Rome, which is why there are no Eastern Orthodox Maronite Rites.

• The Roman Tradition
  1. the Latin Rite (most Catholics belong to this rite)
  2. the Ambrosian Rite
  3. the Mozarabic Rite
  4. the Slavonic Rite
  5. the Gallican Rite
• The Antiochene Tradition
  1. The Maronite Rite
  2. The West Syrian Rite
  3. The Malankara Rite
• The Chaldean Tradition
  1. The Chaldean Rite
  2. The Malabar Rite
• The Armenian Tradition
  1. The Armenian Rite
• The Alexandrian Tradition
  1. The Coptic Rite
  2. The Ethiopic Rite
• The Byzantine Tradition
  1. The Melkite Rite
  2. The Ukrainian Rite
  3. The Russian Rite
  4. The Bulgarian Rite
  5. The Greek Rite
  6. The Georgian Rite
  7. The Italo-Albanian Rite
  8. The Romanian Rite
  9. The Serbian Rite

Here is a song parody/reflection on this subject based on the song "Let’s
Call the Whole Thing Off" by by Ira Gershwin

You say "Dormition" and I say "Assumption"
YouI say "Eiliton" and i say "Corporal"
"Dormition" "Assumption", "Eiliton" "Corporal"

Let’s call the whole thing Catholic
You say "Deep Bow," I say "Genuflect"
You say "Eparchy", I say "Diocese"
Oh, let’s call the whole thing Catholic
Oh, if we call the whole thing Catholic
Then we are part of a whole
The East and the West joined at the heart
So I say "Mass" you say "Divine Liturgy"
I’m not gonna stop praying Mass just cause you say Divine LIturgy
Oh, let’s call the whole thing Catholic
Oh, I say "Alb", you say "Sticharion"
Brother, what’s the problem?
Oh, for we know we need each other so
We’d better answer the calling of sanctity
So let’s call it Catholic, oh let’s call it Catholic
Oh, let’s call it Catholic, brother let’s call it Catholic

From today’s Liturgy of the Hours Office of Reading – St. Irenaeus’
Against Heresies

…In Proportion to God’s need of nothing is man’s need for
communion with God.

This is the glory of man: to persevere and remain in the service
of God. For this reason the Lord told his disciples: You did not choose me
but I chose you. He meant that his disciples did not glorify him by following
him, but in following the Son of God they were glorified by him. As he said:
I wish that where I am they also may be, that they may see my glory.

In the current edition my Diocesan magazine the St.
Augustine Catholic I found this.

Reading through these qualities something odd struck me. Where is the Catholicity
of these qualities. I thought that this list could be boilerplated and used
for any church whether Protestant, Catholic, or new age. I was not surprised
to find out that he had written another book called "Excellent Protestant
Congregations" After reading this I noticed the book was printed by Paulist
press, again no surprise. I try to keep from simple labels like Ignatius Press
– Good, Paulist Press – Bad but that guide isn’t too far off. If Paulist Press
keeps going the way they are then they should change their name to Saulist Press
since they seem to have reversed St. Paul’s conversion and have unfallen back onto the horse.

I loved this line "They do not openly flaunt church or diocesan rules",
hopefully that line was just badly put together and does not mean that is is
OK to privately flaunt church or diocesan rules. Also this statement "Underlying
all is an accent on spirituality – not religion or religious belief –
but spirituality". Spirituality divorced from religious belief leads to
every heresy ever invented. Meditating on the incarnation is one of the most
fruitful forms of prayer there is, but thinking just about spirituality will
lead you nowhere.

From his list of 200 successful parishes in the country he mentions two of
the parishes in Jacksonville, Fl where I live. One of them is actually the closest
parish to my house. I have gone there a couple of times and more recently after
they had built a new church. This is one of those touchy-feely parishes with
people mentioning their petitions during Mass and it also has a band including a full drum kit. The liturgy was so horrendous to me that I wanted to go into a cry
room and cry myself. I lost count of liturgical abuses after about five minutes.

The church itself is one of those modern iconoclastic clam shape structures.
Now I don’t hate every modern style church, the one I go to normally for daily
Mass is a modern style structure, but it is not stark and has a magnificent
mosaic of the crucifixion behind the altar. I don’t think every church has to
look like Mother Angelica’s Temple, yet there would be no complaints from me
if there were a lot more of them. My preference for church architecture is that
it is conductive to worship. If it helps me to worship God then it is to me
good church architecture. Some churches now seem to be either neutral to worship
or in some cases detrimental to it. I am a beginner at prayer so I need all
the help that I can get for me to focus on Heaven and the most Blessed Trinity.
If I was more advanced at prayer then I would be ready for the virtual desert
that most church architecture offers today. Hopefully church architecture is
only going through a dark night of the soul where every consolation is removed
and beauty seems to be absent. Maybe on the other side of this architectural
dark night we will return to architecture more conductive to prayer.

Getting back to these qualities of a successful parish they seem to say that
the highest quality for a parish to have is involvement and action. Confusing
action with individual holiness is totally mistaken or else the Protestant mega-churches
would be the centers of holiness in the world. I am not saying that there are
not plenty of holy people in these churches, just that action and parish involvement
in and of itself will not necessarily lead to holiness.

Now if I were to write the qualities of a successful parish they would be that
the parishioners are growing in holiness and are prepared to live with God forever
in the Beautific vision. Anything short of that is not successful. To that end
grace would be the overwhelming requirement for that to happen. So a successful
parish would do everything they could to makes channels of grace available through
the sacraments. Since we need to cooperate with grace then this parish would
need to catechize people fully in the truth with no watered down teachings.
Only through the truth can we more fully respond to God’s grace.

Since the Mass is the highest prayer there is, a good understanding of this
will help us to grow in holiness. Also this successful parish would have confession
available on a regular (read daily) basis. Again true catechesis will help people
to understand and appreciate the grace available through the sacrament of marriage.
Basically it comes down to availability and understanding of the sacraments
to help people reach their goal – Heaven. Sacramentals such a holy water, statues,
votive candles, etc. are also helpful. Sacramentals do not produce sanctifying
grace of themselves but do help us to be disposed to receiving sanctifying grace.

Good homilies are important, but if these are all the instructions in the faith
that the faithful receive then no matter how good they are it is not sufficient.
Homilies should help us to understand more deeply what we already know, not
to instruct us in basic church teaching.

With the solid foundation of knowing our faith and growing in holiness through
the response to grace then the apostolates such as feeding the poor and missionary action will be rightly ordered.

Well that is enough preaching to the choir today, but I would like to mention
an experience I had while visiting my mother in Portland, Or. Through Catholic
Answers host Jerry Usher I had heard about the Holy
Rosary Parish and Priory there. This is a parish run by the Dominicans and
I happened to visit on St. Thomas Aquinas’s feast day and the feast for the
establishment of that church. The church itself is very beautiful and traditional
and I fell in love with it as soon as I saw that they used the Adoramus Hymnal.
I have seen these in Catholic bookstores before but never in a parish. The Mass
started with Gregorian Chant and what followed was a very reverential liturgy
using the newer order of Mass. Everyone there participated in the singing and
the responses. During the Confiteor I could see that they all struck their chest
and during the Apostles Creed everyone bowed at the correct time. I rarely see
people performing these parts of the rubrics. The Kiss of Peace which is optional
was omitted, the Mass seemed to flow so much better. Now I don’t mind shaking
the hand of the person next to me, yet most people have transformed the Kiss
of Peace into shaking hands with everybody within a hundred feet of them. Also
there was no hand holding during the Our Father and Communion was received at
the communion rail. The most important thing though was that I was able to pray
the Mass. They also have confession everyday before Mass and Eucharistic Adoration
after the noon Mass till late in the evening. I can’t speak for the holiness
of the people in this parish since I was there such a short time, but if I was
to come up with a list of excellent parishes I think this one would be at the
top. I can almost guarantee that this parish was not listed in Paul Wilkes list
of 200 excellent parishes.

Great post by the Old Oligarch on a conversation between himself and
a Wiccan. He also introduces the wonderful term kakkangelize (to announce the
Bad News).