The Sister Servants of the Eternal Word in Birmingham, Alabama who run a retreat house have produced a CD of a collection of Christmas Carols. You can listen to a medley of the songs on their web page and it does sound excellent.
Via Seminarian Dennis Schenkel.
Today being the Feast of the Immaculate Conception I have to wonder what some think about the date of the feast. Many people including some reviewers of The Nativity Story mistake the Immaculate Conception as referring to Jesus’ conception and not Mary’s. So by their confusion they must think that either we believe that Mary experienced either the shortest pregnancy (17 days) or the longest (a year and 17 days.) The first is too reminiscent of some alien implanted baby movie and the second idea would probably bring chills to any women who had a child. Fortunately the gestation period for God-men is the same as for regular men.
SAGINAW, Mich. — Seminarian Rich Budd, 25, knows exactly how to reach Bishop Robert Carlson if he has any questions or concerns.
“On my cell phone — on speed dial — is the bishop’s cell phone number,” said Budd. “And there’s definitely been nights where I’ve had to call him.”
He noted that seminarians elsewhere are unsure if their bishop is as accessible.
“We have a real personal relationship,” Budd. “Not every seminarian has that gift.”
Budd is one of 19 men from the Diocese of Saginaw who are discerning a call to the priesthood. That’s a big increase from just three years ago, and given Bishop Carlson’s emphasis, that comes as no surprise to Budd.
“He’s said from Day 1 that he wants to create a ‘Culture of Vocations,’” the seminarian said. “It starts with the bishop, but it goes all the way down the line. We all have to be ‘vocation aware.’”
Bishop Carlson recently became chairman of the U.S. Bishops Committee on Priestly Life and Ministry. He had been chairman-elect for a year, familiarizing himself with the job.
But he already had a reputation as being a bishop with a successful approach to vocations. When he became bishop of Sioux Falls, S.D., in 1995, the average age of priests in the diocese was 60. When he was appointed to Saginaw in 2005, that age had dropped to 48.6. By then, Sioux Falls had 25 seminarians, while Saginaw, with about the same number of Catholics at 135,000, had four.
When he was installed in Saginaw, he announced that he would “personally work to build up the priesthood” in the diocese and named himself director of vocations. That action convinces young men that vocations are a top priority, said seminarian Ben Moll.
“Bishop Carlson is very outgoing in supporting vocations,” said Moll, 27. “He goes out to search for young people to consider a vocation.”
According to Bishop Carlson, a personal relationship with Jesus Christ is crucial to the vocation of the priesthood.
“We must abide in Christ if we are to bear fruit. This means that we must be holy,” said Bishop Carlson. “Without personal holiness it will be possible to hold the office, but the fruitfulness of the ministry will be compromised.”
Read the whole article which includes mention of Operation Andrew named after the first apostle that Jesus called that allows young men a chance to discuss vocations with the bishop over dinner. I am sure this will work much better than Operation Judas which seemed to have been in effect in many places in the seventies and beyond.
Pope Benedict belts out some carols with his backup singers. The group sometimes go by The Pope and the Pips or Benny and the Jets.
I have been meme'd by A Journey Home - An Unassuming Catholic Blog
1. Eggnog, Cider or Hot Chocolate?
I am with the Anchoress on this one – definitely Guinness.
2. Does Santa wrap presents or just set them under the tree?
Wrapped.
3. Colored lights on tree/house or white?
Multi-Colored lights inside than out. I don’t understand white light only people. They probably go into Baskin and Robbins and order Vanilla.
4. Which of Santa’s reindeer — Rudolph, Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Donder, Blitzen, Cupid and Comet. — are you? And why?
Rudolf – since drinking Guinness can possibly lead to a red nose.
5. When do you put your decorations up?
First Sunday of Advent. Now for you Christmas rigorists I actually put up Advent decorations that eventually morph into Christmas decorations. I got a live Advent tree this year.
6. What is your favorite Christmas dish?
Dish network since they carry EWTN.
7. Favorite Christmas memory as a child?
Pretty much all of the ones where my brother and I woke up at 3 am in anticipation raiding the stockings and waiting the infinite time till the adults finally woke up and got ready.
8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa?
In the process of becoming Catholic I found out that he was a Bishop that allegedly once hit a heretic in the nose. Now if you are talking about the guy that stole his identity it was when I became aware of a gif allegedly from him that I saw got bought before his arrival.
9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve?
Not since the kids have grown up.
10. What kind of cookies does Santa get set out for him?
One year he got a slice of cheese since their were no cookies in the house.
11. Snow! Love it or hate it?
Love it. That is why I life in Florida, though I am glad I had it as a kid
12. Can you ice skate?
Yes.
13. Do you remember your favorite gift?
My favorite gift is faith and the first year I celebrated Christmas believing in Jesus.
14. What’s the most important thing about Christmas to you?
It’s all about family and smelling the roses. Oops my mind went on automatic from countless Christmas season movies. Actually it is meditating on the Incarnation and God coming to us a a child wrapped in swaddling clothes.
15. What is your favorite Christmas dessert?
Pumpkin pie.
16. Favorite Christmas tradition?
Midnight Mass and Singing Carols.
17. What tops your tree?
An angel.
18. Which do you prefer–GIVING OR RECEIVING?
Still working on it being the giving part.
19. What is your favorite Christmas Carol?
This is like Sophie’s choice for me. How can you pick just one? But for starters Good King Wenceslas, O, Come All Ye Faithful, We Three Kings (though maybe that it an Epiphany carol), Hark the Herald Angels Sing
My father use to sing Hark the Hairlip Angels Sing "Gwory to the newbworn kwing" to me.
Well pretty much most of them written before the secularization of Christmas though I have a special fondness of "The Boar’s Head Carol." In many ways God used Christmas Carol’s to bring me into his Church as I had previously posted.
20. Candy Canes?
I like them. Though it gets annoying every year to hear or read someone once again repeating the urban myth of the Christian connection. Though there is also the urban myth of The Twelve Days of Christmas as Catechism.
Dec. 7, 2006 (CWNews.com) – The Vatican has confirmed an American bishop’s decision to excommunicate members of the dissident group Call to Action.
Call to Action is “causing damage to the Church of Christ,” wrote Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, the prefect of the Congregation for Bishops, in a letter to Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz of Lincoln, Nebraska.
In March 1996, Bishop Bruskewitz had announced the excommunication of all Catholics in his diocese who were members of Call to Action or several other dissident groups which he described as “totally incompatible with the Catholic faith.”
The Nebraska chapter of Call to Action appealed the bishop’s decision to the Vatican. In his November 24 letter to Bishop Bruskewitz, Cardinal Re reports that Vatican’s finding that the disciplinary action was “properly taken.”
[Via AMDG]
ROME — Vatican archaeologists have unearthed a sarcophagus thought to contain the remains of the Apostle Paul that had been buried beneath Rome’s second largest basilica.
The sarcophagus, which dates to at least A.D. 390, has been the subject of an extended excavation that began in 2002 and was completed last month, the project’s head said this week.
"Our objective was to bring the remains of the tomb back to light for devotional reasons, so that it could be venerated and be visible," said Giorgio Filippi, the Vatican archaeologist.
That would be pretty cool if true for the Vatican to have both Peter’s and Paul’s bones.
A reader sent me a related story from a parody blog.
Vatican archaeologists find Apostle Paul’s tomb in Rome
WITH REMAINS, ARCHEOLOGISTS FIND UNOPENED LETTERS FROM PAUL TO ROMANS, CORINTHIANS MARKED: "RETURN TO SENDER, POSTAGE DUE"
A Vatican-endorsed TV news service will attempt to bring to the video age the same style of church-friendly reporting associated with the Zenit News Agency, an on-line project launched in 1998 with ties to Regnum Christi, the lay branch of the Legionaries of Christ.
The new “H2O” broadcast service – named, organizers say, for water as the symbol of life – is intended as a video news source available through the Internet, on cell phones with video capability, as well as through conventional Catholic television networks. The project was formally presented at an Oct. 10-12 world conference of Catholic television providers in Madrid, Spain, convened by the Vatican.
Initially, plans call for “H2O,” with offices in Rome, to produce five daily news items of one and a half to two minutes each: two on the activity of the pope, two on the church in other parts of the world, and one of artistic and cultural interest. Interviews with Catholic newsmakers and, to the extent possible, overviews of new Vatican documents will also be part of the mix.
The news items will be free of charge to Catholic TV networks which choose to broadcast them, and to Internet users. Initially, “H2O” will emphasize delivery on the Internet, attempting to reach the estimated 20 million users of Catholic web sites worldwide.
Organizers say they will try to take a positive approach.
“We won’t go looking for polemics,” said Jesús Colina, a Spaniard who founded and currently serves as director of Zenit, and who has been asked by the Vatican to oversee the new video project.
“That’s my personal style, and it’s what we follow at Zenit,” said Colina, a member of Regnum Christi.
The idea for a video version of Zenit’s text-based news service, which is offered daily to some 240,000 subscribers on five continents, was the brainchild of Monsignor Enrique Planas y Como of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications. Planas asked Colina to oversee the project.
Though “H2O” carries the formal backing of the Vatican, and the Vatican Television Center will provide some content, Colina told NCR that “H2O” will be independent and financially self-sustaining. Assuming that funding can be found, organizers intend to provide a couple of “trial run” packages in January, with the full service to debut in March.
The news items are to be released in English, Spanish, Italian, French and German, though Colina told NCR these plans are subject to review based on market interest. Colina said he’d also like to broadcast in Arabic, but those plans are more tentative.
Colina told NCR Nov. 14 that while content can be produced by anyone, “H2O” intends to take advantage of Zenit’s existing network of contributors and correspondents around the world.
H20? Sounds like a odd choice for a name, but I guess something like popeTube wouldn’t be much better. Perhaps trueTube. Regardless it will be nice to finally get video from the Vatican.
Via Rich Leonardi
What we’re trying to do is bring out all that Vatican II was asking," he said, quipping that before the 1960s, "The church kind of discouraged rhythm because people were going to move their body and that was going to lead them into sin. Then the spirit revealed that maybe it really wouldn’t be that bad."
…
"
If this is the highest form of praise, then we should treat it that way, right?" Stephan remarked. "This is the moment we should really try to do our best." He added that on a personal level, singing is his way of expressing his love for God in a more impassioned manner than prayer recitation allows.
Yet many congregants don’t share his exuberance, leaving him to dub such folks "the chosen frozen." One way of breaking the ice, so to speak, is to engage them in "call and response," in which the congregation repeats the musicians’ lines. For example, Stephan cited the song "You Are Worthy of My Praise": "I will worship (I will worship)/with all of my heart (with all of my heart)/I will praise you (I will praise you)/with all of my strength (with all of my strength)."
Creating a spark among church-goers may or may not involve clapping.
"You have to use good judgment," he said, adding that in helping the congregation find its voice, "we can’t force anything." He suggested having musicians sit in the pews, imagining themselves as congregants and the personal situations they may be facing such as divorce, having a baby and drug addiction: "Who are we singing to?"
As Rich quipped Count me among the "frozen chozen"
Who are we singing to? I would suggest the object of the congregation in singing is to God. Normally the object of worship is, dare we say, God. The Angels constantly singing Holy, Holy, Holy understand this. Why though would they have to imagine themselves as congregants? Last I checked members of the choir are in fact part of the congregation.
One of the major mistakes liturgists make is confusing active participation with just external actions. I find myself, more often than not, in prayerful attention at the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass at my normal parish where liturgy is untouched by liturgists. When I go to Mass at other parishes where exuberance is the norm I rarely find myself at prayer. In fact sometimes I am even tempted to heckle the choir because of the choices they make. I experienced a real strange dichotomy recently where the priest said the Mass very reverently and he used incense only to be backed up by a choir that included a bass player who was bobbing about as he played with even almost head banging gestures. The dissonance was like what would happen if Pantera backed up Peter, Paul, and Mary for the soundtrack of the Passion of the Christ. At the end of Mass they handed various noisemakers to children so that they could shake along as the happy-clappy rhythmic song to the beat of clapping was inflicted. I am also tempted if I go back to this church to bring a supply of for example copies of Musicam Sacram, Sacrosanctum Concilum, and Gregorian Chant CDs to place on the windows of all the cars so that these might come to attention of those involved in music ministry. I am charitably inclined to believe it must just be ignorance on their part on what the liturgical documents say and the rich heritage of sacred music in the Church.
Note to liturgists: Just because we might not be moving around or saying something in response does not mean we are not doing anything. We might actually be praying. Plus good intentions do not automatically equate to good results.
CHICAGO (Reuters) – Children should be exposed to fewer television ads for anti-impotence drugs and more for birth control, and need to be shielded from an advertising onslaught in general, the leading U.S. pediatricians’ group said on Monday.
[Via Zorak]
I guess next they will demand a Fairness Doctrine for broadcasters that for every ED ad one two on birth control will be displayed. If reality intruded there should be more ads on STDs and treatment centers for the psychological effects due to permissive sex.
Even odder though this is from the The American Academy of Pediatrics. Talk about people who don’t understand their own bottom line. What other group works to eliminate potential customers.
