And so it begins, the annual period of penance and preparation for the great festival of the Lord's Paschal Mystery. I hope everyone made it to Mass today, and that you were able to fight your way through the crowds of occasional Catholics who tend to help fill the churches on Ash Wednesday--and I would guess probably a fair number of non-Catholics, as well. Indeed, the observance of Lent for many people has descended to the secular level, having been robbed of all or nearly all religious significance.
I have a personal theory about this, and it has to do with the message of today's Gospel reading, which is essentially the same in both the Novus Ordo and Traditional Latin Mass. You all know the drift: Our Lord instructs the faithful during the Sermon on the Mount on the things to avoid in the "Lenten triad" of prayer, fasting and almsgiving, in addition to giving us the Our Father. Essentially, Jesus admonishes us against showing off: don't stand around praying on street corners, don't heap up empty words in prayer like the pagans, and when giving alms don't let the left hand know what the right is doing.
Yet hundreds of people descend on every parish on Ash Wednesday who rarely if ever darken the door any other day, perhaps with the exception of Christmas and Easter. Why? Forgive me if I suggest that for most of these, their purpose probably is not to reconcile with our Lord and his Church through a faithful pursuit of the Lenten discipline of prayer, fasting and almsgiving, going to confession and attending Mass every week and possibly even some weekdays.
A goodly number of them are there for one thing, and one thing only: to get those ashes applied to their foreheads. In my experience, after the imposition of ashes a significant number of people head for the exits, not even sticking around for the real purpose of the Mass. Even those who stay, if they are occasional Mass-goers, probably are only there for the ashes.
Do any of these people comprehend and internalize the meaning of the ashes, as a symbol of dying to self and seeking to rise in new life with Christ through repentance and conversion of heart, or understand what Lent is supposed to be all about? I think not; if they did, they wouldn't be occasional Catholics in the first place. It's all about the badge, a show-off sign for their friends and family and the public. "Look at me, I'm holy." They will flaunt their badges, brag to their friends about how they are giving up chocolate or coffee or something equally trite, and disappear from church for the next six and a half weeks. In other words, exactly what Christ warned against in the Gospel today. I pray that at least some of these people might respond to the grace they received by attending Holy Mass and truly enter into the season of Lent with the purpose for which the Church gives it to us.
And speaking of that purpose...I just criticized as "trite" the giving up of chocolate or coffee, which seem to be widespread choices for Lenten "discipline", if my anecdotal experience over many years in the workplace, combined with references seen in the popular media, is any indication. This sort of choice reflects two things, in my view: First, the aforementioned general secularization of the season, and second, the loss of the meaning of the Lenten discipline even among many nominally practicing Catholics. In a secularized environment, where for most people Lent has become nothing more than a short-term variant of a New Year's resolution, giving up something relatively insignificant is an easy way to be cool and do a little showing off, just like getting the ashes on the forehead. For those 25% or so of self-identified Catholics who actually go to Mass at least weekly, however, a more elevated understanding of the nature and purpose of Lenten sacrifice should be the rule, rather than the exception. Sadly this seems not to be the case.
As an RCIA catechist I have had a number of chances to discuss this issue with inquirers, candidates and Catechumens over the past nine years, and I have been unpleasantly surprised at the usual reaction to my standard opening statement: "Lent is not about giving up chocolate!" Wide-eyed shock is the prevailing response. Even after an explanation of the need for genuine personal sacrifice, made with a disposition of sincere contrition and desire to grow closer to God, too many still appear not to comprehend. The cause might be aided by a little more attention to the subject of sacrifice from the pulpit, not only during Lent, but all during the year, although you can probably guess how often that happens. It seems that the Modernist reduction of the essence of the Mass itself into nothing more than a communal meal of self-celebration has had a similarly negative impact on the observance of Lent. Fasting and abstinence were already reduced to a minimum by Paul VI in 1966, with only two required fasting days and abstinence from meat only on Lenten Fridays, rather than both Fridays and Saturdays, so the subsequent deterioration of Lenten piety in general is perhaps no surprise. It behooves each of us to do our part to reverse this scandal, for the good of the Church and the salvation of souls, starting with ourselves and our families.
Laudator Jesus Christus!
Wednesday, February 10, 2016
Wednesday, January 6, 2016
The Epiphany of the Lord (Traditional Calendar)
Today once again the glories of the traditional (i.e., pre-Vatican II) Divine Office offer excellent catechesis from a great Saint of the Church, in this case Pope St. Leo the Great (d. 461). If you are familiar with the structure of the traditional Office (1960 rubrics) then skip this explanation: The prayers known as the "Office of Readings" in today's simplified (and, some would argue, dumbed-down) "Liturgy of the Hours" are traditionally known as "Matutinum" or "Matins", and are always the most extensive of the day. That is also true in the LOTH, but there really is no comparison beyond that. Recitation of the post-V2 Office of Readings takes about 20-25 minutes, whereas on "Class I" feast days such as today, January 6, even private recitation without chanting of Matins will take around an hour to do with proper reverence. Instead of three Psalms (or three segments of Psalms) as in the OOR, there are nine Psalms in three "Nocturnes" of three Psalms each. Instead of one set of three Readings, the traditional Matins contains three sets of three, one for each Nocturne. There are additional differences, which I won't try to explain here, but you get the point: for whatever reason(s), the post-Conciliar Church decided to restructure the Divine Office to make it far less demanding in terms of time and effort, which unfortunately also renders it, in my opinion at least, far less valuable as a vehicle for devotional prayer. Sounds a bit like what happened to the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, doesn't it? Oh well...
As today is the traditional date of the Solemnity of the Epiphany, it's one of those Class I days on the Divine Office calendar, and the second of the three sets of readings is the main focus of this post. Here they are, as copied and pasted from the marvelous website I use as my source for the Office and much other information about traditional Catholic worship.
One additional point deserves to be made here about the nature of the pre-V2 celebration of Epiphany. The whole point of the feast, as Pope St. Leo made clear in his opening words, is the manifestation of the Lord to the world. That is most clearly symbolized by the coming of the Magi, who are representative of the world as then known, having come from the mysterious East to worship the newborn King. However, there are two other examples of manifestation which were a significant part of the traditional feast, and which have been separated from it in today's Church, the Baptism of the Lord in the Jordan, by which Christ was first revealed as a Person of the Holy Trinity, and the Wedding at Cana, at which he opened his public ministry by performing the first of his "signs", as St. John's Gospel calls his miraculous works. This is shown by the text of the final Antiphon of Laudes (Morning Prayer) in the traditional Office:
A happy and blessed Epiphany to all!
Laudator Jesus Christus!
As today is the traditional date of the Solemnity of the Epiphany, it's one of those Class I days on the Divine Office calendar, and the second of the three sets of readings is the main focus of this post. Here they are, as copied and pasted from the marvelous website I use as my source for the Office and much other information about traditional Catholic worship.
From the Sermons of Pope St. Leo (the Great)
2nd for Twelfth-Day.
Dearly beloved brethren, rejoice in the Lord; again I say, rejoice. But a few days are past since the solemnity of Christ's Birth, and now the glorious light of His Manifestation is breaking upon us. On that day the Virgin brought Him forth, and on this the world knew Him. The Word made Flesh was pleased to reveal Himself by degrees to those for whom He had come. When Jesus was born He was manifested indeed to the believing, but hidden from His enemies. Already indeed the heavens declared the glory of God, and their sound went out into all lands, when the Herald Angels appeared to tell to the shepherds the glad tidings of a Saviour's Birth; and now the guiding star leadeth the wise men to worship Him, that from the rising of the sun to the going down thereof, the Birth of the true King may be known abroad; that through those wise men the kingdoms of the east might learn the great truth, and the Roman empire remain no more in darkness.
The very cruelty of Herod, when he strove to crush at His birth this King Whom he alone feared, was made a blind means to carry out this dispensation of mercy. While the tyrant with horrid guilt sought to slay the little Child he did not know, amid an indiscriminate slaughter of innocents, his infamous act served to spread wider abroad the heaven-told news of the Birth of the Lord. Thus were these glad tidings loudly proclaimed, both by the novelty of their story, and the iniquity of their enemies. Then was the Saviour borne into Egypt, that nation, of a long time hardened in idolatry, might by the mysterious virtue which went out of Him, even when His presence was unknown, be prepared for the saving light so soon to dawn on them, and might receive the Truth as a wanderer even before they had banished falsehood.
Dearly beloved brethren, we recognize in the wise men who came to worship Christ, the first-fruits of that dispensation to the Gentiles wherein we also are called and enlightened. Let us then keep this Feast with grateful hearts, in thanksgiving for our blessed hope, whereof it doth commemorate the dawn. From that worship paid to the new-born Christ is to be dated the entry of us Gentiles upon our heirship of God and co-heirship with Christ. Since that joyful day the Scriptures which testify of Christ have lain open for us as well as for the Jews. Yea, their blindness rejected that Truth, Which, since that day, hath shed Its bright beams upon all nations. Let all observance, then, be paid to this most sacred day, whereon the Author of our salvation was made manifest, and as the wise men fell down and worshipped Him in the manger, so let us fall down and worship Him enthroned Almighty in heaven. As they also opened their treasures and presented unto Him mystic and symbolic gifts, so let us strive to open our hearts to Him, and offer Him from thence some worthy offering.Anyone hear a homily like this at their parish this past Sunday, when the Church in the US celebrated Epiphany? Neither did I. And how may of last Sunday's homilies will still be read by anyone 1,500 years or so from now? Just a rhetorical question, of course.
One additional point deserves to be made here about the nature of the pre-V2 celebration of Epiphany. The whole point of the feast, as Pope St. Leo made clear in his opening words, is the manifestation of the Lord to the world. That is most clearly symbolized by the coming of the Magi, who are representative of the world as then known, having come from the mysterious East to worship the newborn King. However, there are two other examples of manifestation which were a significant part of the traditional feast, and which have been separated from it in today's Church, the Baptism of the Lord in the Jordan, by which Christ was first revealed as a Person of the Holy Trinity, and the Wedding at Cana, at which he opened his public ministry by performing the first of his "signs", as St. John's Gospel calls his miraculous works. This is shown by the text of the final Antiphon of Laudes (Morning Prayer) in the traditional Office:
This day is the Church joined unto the Heavenly Bridegroom, * since Christ hath washed away her sins in Jordan; the wise men hasten with gifts to the marriage supper of the King; and they that sit at meat together make merry with water turned into wine. Alleluia.This threefold manifestation is also clearly celebrated in other Hours of the Office, as well as in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass in the Extraordinary Form.
A happy and blessed Epiphany to all!
Laudator Jesus Christus!
Sunday, January 3, 2016
The Most Holy Name of Jesus
In the pre-Vatican II calendar, today the Catholic Church celebrates
the Holy Name of Jesus. Here is a reading from a sermon by St. Bernard
of Clairvaux (Abbott and Doctor of the Church, d. 1143). (Copied from today's readings for Matins in the pre-V-II Divine Office, at www.divinumofficium.com).
From the Sermons of St. Bernard, Abbot of Clairvaux.
1st on the Song of Songs.
It is not idly that the Holy Ghost likeneth the Name of the Bridegroom to oil, when He maketh the Bride say to the Bridegroom: thy Name is as oil poured forth. Oil indeed giveth light, meat, and unction. It feedeth fire, it nourisheth the flesh, it sootheth pain; it is light, food, and healing. Behold, Thus also is the Name of the Bridegroom. To preach it, is to give light; to think of it, is to feed the soul; to call on it, is to win grace and unction. Let us take it point by point. What, thinkest thou, hath made the light of faith so suddenly and so brightly to shine in the whole world but the preaching of the Name of Jesus? Is it not in the light of this Name that God hath called us into His marvellous light, even that light wherewith we being enlightened, and in His light seeing light, Paul saith truly of us Ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord.
This is the Name which the Apostle was commanded to bear before Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel, the Name which he bore as a light to enlighten his people, crying everywhere The night is far spent, the day is at hand; let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light, let us walk honestly as in the dayligth, He pointed out to all that candle set upon a candlestick, preaching in every place Jesus and Him crucified. How did that Name shine forth and dazzle every eye that beheld it, when it came like lightning out of the mouth of Peter to give bodily strength to the feet of the lame man, and to clear the sight of many a blind soul? Cast he not fire when he said: In the Name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk?
The Name of Jesus is not a Name of light only, but it is meat also. Dost thou ever call it to mind, and remain unstrengthened? Is there anything like it to enrich the soul of him that thinketh of it? What is there like it to restore the fagged senses, to fortify strength, to give birth to good lives and pure affections? The soul is fed on husks if that whereon it feedeth lack seasoning with this salt. If thou writest, thou hast no meaning for me if I read not of Jesus there. If thou preach, or dispute, thou hast no meaning for me if I hear not of Jesus there. The mention of Jesus is honey in the mouth, music in the ear, and gladness in the heart. It is our healing too. Is any sorrowful among us? Let the thought of Jesus come into his heart, and spring to his mouth. Behold, when the day of that Name beginneth to break, every cloud will flee away, and there will be a great calm. Doth any fall into sin? Doth any draw nigh to an hopeless death? And if he but call on the life-giving Name of Jesus, will he not draw the breath of a new life again?
_____________________________
I can't possibly improve on the words of St. Bernard, so I won't try.
Laudator Jesus Christus!
From the Sermons of St. Bernard, Abbot of Clairvaux.
1st on the Song of Songs.
It is not idly that the Holy Ghost likeneth the Name of the Bridegroom to oil, when He maketh the Bride say to the Bridegroom: thy Name is as oil poured forth. Oil indeed giveth light, meat, and unction. It feedeth fire, it nourisheth the flesh, it sootheth pain; it is light, food, and healing. Behold, Thus also is the Name of the Bridegroom. To preach it, is to give light; to think of it, is to feed the soul; to call on it, is to win grace and unction. Let us take it point by point. What, thinkest thou, hath made the light of faith so suddenly and so brightly to shine in the whole world but the preaching of the Name of Jesus? Is it not in the light of this Name that God hath called us into His marvellous light, even that light wherewith we being enlightened, and in His light seeing light, Paul saith truly of us Ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord.
This is the Name which the Apostle was commanded to bear before Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel, the Name which he bore as a light to enlighten his people, crying everywhere The night is far spent, the day is at hand; let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light, let us walk honestly as in the dayligth, He pointed out to all that candle set upon a candlestick, preaching in every place Jesus and Him crucified. How did that Name shine forth and dazzle every eye that beheld it, when it came like lightning out of the mouth of Peter to give bodily strength to the feet of the lame man, and to clear the sight of many a blind soul? Cast he not fire when he said: In the Name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk?
The Name of Jesus is not a Name of light only, but it is meat also. Dost thou ever call it to mind, and remain unstrengthened? Is there anything like it to enrich the soul of him that thinketh of it? What is there like it to restore the fagged senses, to fortify strength, to give birth to good lives and pure affections? The soul is fed on husks if that whereon it feedeth lack seasoning with this salt. If thou writest, thou hast no meaning for me if I read not of Jesus there. If thou preach, or dispute, thou hast no meaning for me if I hear not of Jesus there. The mention of Jesus is honey in the mouth, music in the ear, and gladness in the heart. It is our healing too. Is any sorrowful among us? Let the thought of Jesus come into his heart, and spring to his mouth. Behold, when the day of that Name beginneth to break, every cloud will flee away, and there will be a great calm. Doth any fall into sin? Doth any draw nigh to an hopeless death? And if he but call on the life-giving Name of Jesus, will he not draw the breath of a new life again?
_____________________________
I can't possibly improve on the words of St. Bernard, so I won't try.
Laudator Jesus Christus!
Tuesday, December 1, 2015
Pope Francis and the Martyrs of Uganda: Missing the Point
It seems that every time our Holy Father goes on a trip anywhere, he sows confusion and concern as much as any good he does with his Apostolic visits. In another post soon, I will discuss the truly scandalous interview he
gave in his latest airborne press conference. I use the term "scandalous" in the sense of
the sin of scandal. If you don't know what that is, please look it up
in the Catechism of the Catholic Church.
And just for the record, yes, I do believe the Holy Father does much good in his travels. In spite of the serious issues Pope Francis creates with his unscripted comments, and even at times with scripted ones, as the Vicar of Christ on Earth he has a powerful charism, endowed by the Holy Spirit (or Holy Ghost, if you prefer). I have no doubt that the Spirit works through Pope Francis in numerous ways, and not just when he administers the Sacraments. This is not something to be demeaned or belittled in any way, and it is not my purpose to do so. The unfortunate fact is that he also does much damage to the Faith and to souls, who need to be confirmed and supported in their faith, not led astray by a pope who seems at times to be incapable of coherent communication.
This post is concerned, as the title indicates, with the pope's homily during the Mass he celebrated this past Saturday for the Martyrs of Uganda, St. Charles Lwanga and companions. These men, all of them quite young, were canonized in 1964. As is usually the case with martyrs for the Faith, they died under horrid circumstances but remained faithful to the end, praying and singing hymns even as they suffered unto death. Joanna Bogle wrote an article for Catholic Answers Magazine, published in May, 2008, describing the case of the martyrdom, which is very informative, although it contains a couple of typos in the online version, here.
The papal homily was, in and of itself, not problematic. You can read the full text on the Holy See's website. It was a moving tribute to anyone who makes the ultimate sacrifice for Christ and His Church. The problem was not what the pope said, but rather what he did NOT say. As Ms. Bogle's article explains, these men were not martyred simply for their adherence to the Christian faith. The primary motivation of the king who murdered them was their refusal to submit to his demands that they engage in sodomitical acts with him. Yet for reasons known only to him, the Bishop of Rome (as he insists on being called, in his often strained effort to demonstrate his own humility) chose to say not one single word about this critical fact. Hence, the subtitle of this post, "Missing the Point." In a world where whole nations are enshrining in secular law the oxymoronic notion of marriage between persons of the same sex, and engaging in legal and social persecution of anyone who dares to resist, the putative spiritual leader of the Church founded by Jesus Christ, the successor to St. Peter, threw away a perfect opportunity to teach the whole world the truth as revealed by God, that sodomy is always and everywhere an offense against nature, and therefore against God and our very essence as human beings made in God's image and likeness. The heroism of St. Charles Lwanga and the other Ugandan martyrs stands for this truth, because it was their Christian faith, their Catholic faith, that gave them the strength to refuse the king's deplorable demands. (Yes, I know, there were also Anglicans martyred at or about the same time and for essentially the same reason. They deserve to be honored as well. More than that, I will say only that in today's Anglican church, it is open to question whether they would even be considered martyrs. It will soon be a moot point in any event, as Ross Douthat noted some time back, since the Episcopal church is in its death throes in the US, as is the Anglican Communion worldwide.)
The redoubtable Father Z also has commented on the pope's omission from his homily of the facts of the Lwanga story. I reproduce here his closing paragraph, which as always hits the bullseye:
Laudator Jesus Christus!
And just for the record, yes, I do believe the Holy Father does much good in his travels. In spite of the serious issues Pope Francis creates with his unscripted comments, and even at times with scripted ones, as the Vicar of Christ on Earth he has a powerful charism, endowed by the Holy Spirit (or Holy Ghost, if you prefer). I have no doubt that the Spirit works through Pope Francis in numerous ways, and not just when he administers the Sacraments. This is not something to be demeaned or belittled in any way, and it is not my purpose to do so. The unfortunate fact is that he also does much damage to the Faith and to souls, who need to be confirmed and supported in their faith, not led astray by a pope who seems at times to be incapable of coherent communication.
This post is concerned, as the title indicates, with the pope's homily during the Mass he celebrated this past Saturday for the Martyrs of Uganda, St. Charles Lwanga and companions. These men, all of them quite young, were canonized in 1964. As is usually the case with martyrs for the Faith, they died under horrid circumstances but remained faithful to the end, praying and singing hymns even as they suffered unto death. Joanna Bogle wrote an article for Catholic Answers Magazine, published in May, 2008, describing the case of the martyrdom, which is very informative, although it contains a couple of typos in the online version, here.
The papal homily was, in and of itself, not problematic. You can read the full text on the Holy See's website. It was a moving tribute to anyone who makes the ultimate sacrifice for Christ and His Church. The problem was not what the pope said, but rather what he did NOT say. As Ms. Bogle's article explains, these men were not martyred simply for their adherence to the Christian faith. The primary motivation of the king who murdered them was their refusal to submit to his demands that they engage in sodomitical acts with him. Yet for reasons known only to him, the Bishop of Rome (as he insists on being called, in his often strained effort to demonstrate his own humility) chose to say not one single word about this critical fact. Hence, the subtitle of this post, "Missing the Point." In a world where whole nations are enshrining in secular law the oxymoronic notion of marriage between persons of the same sex, and engaging in legal and social persecution of anyone who dares to resist, the putative spiritual leader of the Church founded by Jesus Christ, the successor to St. Peter, threw away a perfect opportunity to teach the whole world the truth as revealed by God, that sodomy is always and everywhere an offense against nature, and therefore against God and our very essence as human beings made in God's image and likeness. The heroism of St. Charles Lwanga and the other Ugandan martyrs stands for this truth, because it was their Christian faith, their Catholic faith, that gave them the strength to refuse the king's deplorable demands. (Yes, I know, there were also Anglicans martyred at or about the same time and for essentially the same reason. They deserve to be honored as well. More than that, I will say only that in today's Anglican church, it is open to question whether they would even be considered martyrs. It will soon be a moot point in any event, as Ross Douthat noted some time back, since the Episcopal church is in its death throes in the US, as is the Anglican Communion worldwide.)
The redoubtable Father Z also has commented on the pope's omission from his homily of the facts of the Lwanga story. I reproduce here his closing paragraph, which as always hits the bullseye:
"I saw some of the coverage of Pope Francis’ visit to Africa. I am not a fan of the dancing and so forth and some liturgical choices (HERE etc.), but I will say this: African bishops still know the difference between a boy and a girl, they still know what male/female sexual organs are for and what they are not for, they still know that marriage is between one man and one woman, and now they really know how to scare German bishops."Please do read Father Z's entire post and follow his links. It will be worth your time.
Laudator Jesus Christus!
Friday, November 27, 2015
On Personal Liturgies
I have recently attended several Novus Ordo Masses during which the celebrant took it upon himself to alter as well as add to the Liturgy of the Eucharist. There is much to be said about such a practice, none of it good. Even the oft-criticized Vatican II document Sacrosanctum Concilium prohibits it unambiguously. Paragraph 22 provides as follows:
It mystifies me why any Mass celebrant would presume to ignore this simple advice and amend the Sacred Liturgy sua sponte. It is "the prayer of the Church", not the prayer of any individual, whether clergy or laity. Thus, it is supposed to be the same everywhere. Sure, there are different languages in use under the Novus Ordo, but where celebrated in the vernacular, the Missal translations are approved by the Holy See, or "within certain defined limits" by a legitimately established "territorial bod[y] of bishops." The faithful are entitled to hear the Mass as it is set down in the Missal. [N.B., I would bet my next retirement check that no celebrant of the Mass in the Extraordinary Form deviates from the Missal text and rubrics.]
St. John Vianney, patron saint of all priests, please pray for conversion of heart of all clergy who, for whatever reason, take it upon themselves to "improve" upon the Sacred Liturgy.
That's all for now. God bless you and thanks for reading. Please pray for me.
Laudator Jesus Christus!
This principle is not new with Vatican II, of course. It is a long-standing tradition, maybe even "big-T" Tradition, as in Sacred...one of the three legs of the doctrinal stool of the Catholic faith, along with Sacred Scripture and the Magisterium. One often hears the liturgical duties of the Mass celebrant summarized thus: "Say the black, do the red", referring to the two colors of text appearing in the Roman Missal, the book from which the celebrant reads during the Mass.
22. 1. Regulation of the sacred liturgy depends solely on the authority of the Church, that is, on the Apostolic See and, as laws may determine, on the bishop.
2. In virtue of power conceded by the law, the regulation of the liturgy within certain defined limits belongs also to various kinds of competent territorial bodies of bishops legitimately established.
3. Therefore no other person, even if he be a priest, may add, remove, or change anything in the liturgy on his own authority. (Emphasis supplied.)
It mystifies me why any Mass celebrant would presume to ignore this simple advice and amend the Sacred Liturgy sua sponte. It is "the prayer of the Church", not the prayer of any individual, whether clergy or laity. Thus, it is supposed to be the same everywhere. Sure, there are different languages in use under the Novus Ordo, but where celebrated in the vernacular, the Missal translations are approved by the Holy See, or "within certain defined limits" by a legitimately established "territorial bod[y] of bishops." The faithful are entitled to hear the Mass as it is set down in the Missal. [N.B., I would bet my next retirement check that no celebrant of the Mass in the Extraordinary Form deviates from the Missal text and rubrics.]
St. John Vianney, patron saint of all priests, please pray for conversion of heart of all clergy who, for whatever reason, take it upon themselves to "improve" upon the Sacred Liturgy.
That's all for now. God bless you and thanks for reading. Please pray for me.
Laudator Jesus Christus!
Wednesday, November 25, 2015
Crazy College Kids, the Pope in Africa, the African Church and...Catholic Revival in France?!
Insanity In The University
"...a bawling nursery of expensively diapered howling half-wits."
I love a finely-turned phrase, especially when it expresses the equivalent of hundreds of words in one short, rapier-like thrust to the heart of a matter. So I invite you to read the piece in which it appeared, a marvelous essay by Kevin Williamson on National Review Online that deals with yet another of the suddenly fashionable instances of adolescent preening (a/k/a "student protest") that pepper the news these days, this one at Princeton University. It seems that a group of Princeton students have determined that it is no longer politically correct for the University's School of Public and International Affairs to be named after Woodrow Wilson, and have been making their displeasure known in various noisy ways. Williamson's work is a political essay, and doesn't even mention the Church, so it may be a bit out of place here, but I couldn't resist giving it a plug. That said, there are certain parallels between Wilson's brand of "progressivism" and the Modernist faction within the Church, which has become quite bold under the current pontificate. The basic approach of both secular and Catholic "progressives" is the presumption that anything old is bad and needs to be changed, especially if it involves the application of standards and principles to human thought and activity of any kind. To see the Williamson piece go here.
The Pope Visits Africa
Please pray for the safety of Pope Francis and his entourage during the visit to Africa this week. Unfortunately there are some dangers involved in the areas to which he is traveling, from domestic political unrest in some areas to the risks of attack from various Islamic jihadist terror groups such as Boko Haram. Short of destroying the Vatican itself, which is a publicly professed goal of ISIS, the jihadis would like nothing better than to bump off the Vicar of Christ. Regardless of what one may think about how Francis is performing his vocation, (and I have some issues with it myself, as you may know), his personal safety should be of great concern to all of us. To physically attack the pope is to physically attack the Church, which means us! God's will be done, but I don't think we need any more martyrs right now, least of all the Holy Father himself. ISIS and the rest of the Islamic jihadist whackos out there are making plenty of them already.
And speaking of Africa...
The State of the Church in Africa
If you've been paying attention, you probably know that the Church in Africa is strongly orthodox and growing at an amazing pace. Some of the strongest defenders of true Catholic teachings at the recent Synod on the Family were Africans, most especially Cardinal Robert Sarah, the Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments. There are so many priestly vocations there that men are being sent out from African dioceses to help alleviate the needs of other areas where vocations have been suffering in the post-Vatican II Church, especially Europe and North America. My own parish has been blessed with two excellent and holy priests from Nigeria serving as Parochial Vicars in the six years we have lived in our current home, for which we are most thankful. I believe it would be a marvelous thing for the Church as a whole if the next pope were to be from Africa. The African Church is a tremendous source of hope for the future of the faith.
And, Would You Believe...France?
I happened to hear part of an interview today by EWTN's Teresa Tomeo with Dr. Samuel Gregg of the Acton Institute, in which Dr. Gregg discussed a growing movement of orthodox Catholicism in France, one of the most secularized nations in Europe, once known as the "Eldest Daughter of the Church." To hear Dr. Gregg tell it, there is much good going on there, led by lay Catholics and a generation of young priests, plus a few solid bishops. The discussion led me to peruse Dr. Gregg's recent online essay on the subject at the Catholic World Report web site. You should not miss it.
That's all for now. Have a happy and blessed Thanksgiving feast! Also, please don't forget to go to Mass and to do something for the homeless and the needy, who don't have much to look forward to on a day like Thanksgiving.
Laudator Jesus Christus!
Insanity In The University
"...a bawling nursery of expensively diapered howling half-wits."
I love a finely-turned phrase, especially when it expresses the equivalent of hundreds of words in one short, rapier-like thrust to the heart of a matter. So I invite you to read the piece in which it appeared, a marvelous essay by Kevin Williamson on National Review Online that deals with yet another of the suddenly fashionable instances of adolescent preening (a/k/a "student protest") that pepper the news these days, this one at Princeton University. It seems that a group of Princeton students have determined that it is no longer politically correct for the University's School of Public and International Affairs to be named after Woodrow Wilson, and have been making their displeasure known in various noisy ways. Williamson's work is a political essay, and doesn't even mention the Church, so it may be a bit out of place here, but I couldn't resist giving it a plug. That said, there are certain parallels between Wilson's brand of "progressivism" and the Modernist faction within the Church, which has become quite bold under the current pontificate. The basic approach of both secular and Catholic "progressives" is the presumption that anything old is bad and needs to be changed, especially if it involves the application of standards and principles to human thought and activity of any kind. To see the Williamson piece go here.
The Pope Visits Africa
Please pray for the safety of Pope Francis and his entourage during the visit to Africa this week. Unfortunately there are some dangers involved in the areas to which he is traveling, from domestic political unrest in some areas to the risks of attack from various Islamic jihadist terror groups such as Boko Haram. Short of destroying the Vatican itself, which is a publicly professed goal of ISIS, the jihadis would like nothing better than to bump off the Vicar of Christ. Regardless of what one may think about how Francis is performing his vocation, (and I have some issues with it myself, as you may know), his personal safety should be of great concern to all of us. To physically attack the pope is to physically attack the Church, which means us! God's will be done, but I don't think we need any more martyrs right now, least of all the Holy Father himself. ISIS and the rest of the Islamic jihadist whackos out there are making plenty of them already.
And speaking of Africa...
The State of the Church in Africa
If you've been paying attention, you probably know that the Church in Africa is strongly orthodox and growing at an amazing pace. Some of the strongest defenders of true Catholic teachings at the recent Synod on the Family were Africans, most especially Cardinal Robert Sarah, the Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments. There are so many priestly vocations there that men are being sent out from African dioceses to help alleviate the needs of other areas where vocations have been suffering in the post-Vatican II Church, especially Europe and North America. My own parish has been blessed with two excellent and holy priests from Nigeria serving as Parochial Vicars in the six years we have lived in our current home, for which we are most thankful. I believe it would be a marvelous thing for the Church as a whole if the next pope were to be from Africa. The African Church is a tremendous source of hope for the future of the faith.
And, Would You Believe...France?
I happened to hear part of an interview today by EWTN's Teresa Tomeo with Dr. Samuel Gregg of the Acton Institute, in which Dr. Gregg discussed a growing movement of orthodox Catholicism in France, one of the most secularized nations in Europe, once known as the "Eldest Daughter of the Church." To hear Dr. Gregg tell it, there is much good going on there, led by lay Catholics and a generation of young priests, plus a few solid bishops. The discussion led me to peruse Dr. Gregg's recent online essay on the subject at the Catholic World Report web site. You should not miss it.
That's all for now. Have a happy and blessed Thanksgiving feast! Also, please don't forget to go to Mass and to do something for the homeless and the needy, who don't have much to look forward to on a day like Thanksgiving.
Laudator Jesus Christus!
Sunday, November 22, 2015
The Coming Tribulation? Or Just Another Day in the Life of the Church?
“I expect to die in bed, my successor will die in prison and his
successor will die a martyr in the public square. His successor will
pick up the shards of a ruined society and slowly help rebuild
civilization, as the church has done so often in human history.”
Francis Cardinal George, former Archbishop of Chicago (d. 2015)
I have been silent in this space for a little over three months now. So much has been going on in the Church, with first the Pope's trip to Cuba and the USA, the World Meeting of Families, and then the Synod on the Family, that I've spent all my "blog time" reading my favorite commentators (and commenting quite a bit myself on other blogs) leaving little or no time and inclination to write for my own. Despite the wide and deep well of subject matter, it always seemed that I didn't have much to say that wasn't already being said by others.
So after three months, if I am going to be serious about this endeavor, it's time to get back to work. Here we go.
With all the noise generated by the Pope's trip (which I found rather disappointing, but maybe that will be grist for another post at some point) and the Synod on the Family (which was confusing, at best, but isn't really over until we get some kind of papal document, so we wait for that), I continue to be intrigued by one thread that seems to be running through many of the blog posts and comments I've been seeing: the idea that the Church is facing a crisis unlike any other in its history, and that the resemblance of the present situation to apocalyptic prophecies in 20th Century private revelations, especially Our Lady's appearances at Fatima and Akita, is strong enough to warrant the most serious concern. The End is near! Fear, fire, foes! Awake! (Apologies to J.R.R. Tolkien.)
Well, OK then. It does seem clear to many (most?) of an orthodox mindset that the Church is indeed in a state of crisis, and I have a hard time disagreeing with such an assessment. See my August 10 post, for example. To run through another brief summary of the "bad stuff": In recent times we have witnessed the violent slaughter of many thousands of Christians (mostly Catholics and Orthodox) in the very birthplace of the Faith, together with wanton destruction of their churches and holy treasures, by barbaric Jihadists bent on eradication of everything and everyone that is not Muslim; the near total collapse of European Christendom; a seeming rush of North and South America to follow suit via declining Mass attendance, millions of annual defections to "evangelical" or "none" status, the enshrinement in secular law of false marriages and the concomitant state and media persecution of Catholics and Catholic institutions who refuse to affirm them; and a papacy that praises material heretics (e.g. certain German Cardinals) while excoriating as "pharisees" those who stand for traditional doctrine and practice, and which sometimes seems more concerned with pleasing the international secular media than with the salvation of souls and the preservation of the deposit of faith. To be fair, at other times we hear strikingly orthodox statements and exhortations of the type to which we have grown accustomed over the past several pontificates. (Confused? So am I.)
Even so, however, is it really as bad as some maintain? Stated another way, whatever the magnitude of the crisis, is it in fact unprecedented? Or is it just another day in the life of the Church that Our Lord promised would prevail to "the close of the age" (Cf. Mt 16:18, 28:20), despite being constantly under attack? (Cf. Mt 5:10-11; 10:16-23).
After all, the Arian heresy had most of the bishops in the world in its grasp at one point, and it took not one, but two ecumenical Councils (Nicea and Constantinople) to put it to rest. (See here.) In fact, legend has it that the Council of Nicea included the spectacle of Saint Nicholas (yes, that Saint Nicholas) punching out the heresiarch himself, in full view of the entire assembly. Indeed, one could argue that at least a stepchild of Arianism survives to this day in certain quarters, where Modernists (see extensive discussion of Modernism here) insist upon a distinction between "the historical Jesus" and "the Christ of faith." The former, these enlightened scholars solemnly inform us, was merely a man, albeit a wise man and great teacher, while the latter, the Son of God co-equal and consubstantial with the Father, is a mythical construct of a self-interested Church fearful of "reason and truth", which virtues the Modernist claims as exclusively his own. We beg to differ.
In any case, there were other serious heresies throughout the early Church, not to mention two major schisms, first the departure of the Eastern churches in the Eleventh Century A.D., followed by the Protestant revolt in the Sixteenth. Finally, let's not forget how close Christendom came to being swallowed up by the Muslim hordes, not long after Luther and Calvin took their toys and went home. The Battle of Lepanto, at which a massive Ottoman fleet bent on the sack of Vienna was defeated by a coalition put together by Pope St. Pius V, was a close-run thing, and many (including St. Pius V) believed the victory to have been secured only through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin. (See here.) Now, those were crises! Can today's situation match up, and more importantly, are we really on the verge of the Last Days?
In my view, the most likely answer to both queries is "no." Nevertheless, it is not hard to understand why people are fretting. I find myself doing it too, more often than I care to admit. See that August 10 post again, for example.
Of course, I wasn't there for any of the events just listed, so I don't know what it was like for the lay faithful in those times. But it seems pretty certain that most of them, given the absence of any sort of rapid communication over long distances and the general illiteracy of the vast majority of the population, didn't even know anything was wrong. Taking the Arian case for example, if your average layman was told by his bishop that Jesus was not really a God-man, but a mere creature given great power by God the Father, he probably just shrugged or nodded and kept praying, and going to Mass on Sundays and Holy Days. Ignorance was bliss, one might say with some degree of assurance.
For better or worse, we no longer have this luxury. In our day and age, when even the most trivial matters can gain world-wide attention via social media in a matter of minutes or hours, we have immediate access at any given moment to more information than, until very recently, even the most industrious seeker of knowledge could have acquired in a lifetime. We know of many things occurring in the Church at large and in the Holy See in particular that were never before open to all the world as they are now. Frequently, the result is information overload, and unless we are very careful we can find ourselves, in the classic idiom, unable to see the forest for the trees. In a more recent idiom, we suffer from "TMI", or "too much information." In this light, it seems prudent to keep in mind the following:
First, we have the aforementioned guarantee of Jesus himself that his Church will survive until his return, and we should take some comfort in the fact that the Church has survived for nearly two millennia despite all the challenges She has faced. This is not something to be taken lightly. No human institution has ever lasted more than a few hundred years, and most didn't make it that long. Only a Divine institution could still be around after this much time. God is in charge; let him take care of it!
Second, recall the vast time scale of the Church and of Salvation History. Even if we go back to the very dawn of humanity, we are only talking about a few thousand years. This is nothing in the sight of God. Man has a natural tendency to view all things through his own extremely limited lens, where around eighty years is an average lifetime and even a single hour, if spent with, say, an extremely boring speaker, can seem interminable. When we add up all the bad news available to us now, we conclude rather easily that things could not possibly ever have been worse, so the end must be near. But in the "big picture", we exist in a blink of God's eye. Father John Zuhlsdorf, a/k/a Father Z, a prolific and excellent blogger of traditional bent, recently exhorted his readers:
Third, recall and heed the advice Jesus gave the Apostles just before his Ascension:
Fourth, there are only a few things we lay members of the Church Militant can do, and we ought to be doing all of them anyway. We can share the Gospel of Christ with the world. We can obey the Commandments. We can pray, a lot. We can fast. We can perform the corporal and spiritual works of mercy. We can (must!) continue going to Mass on Sundays and Holy Days. We can attend weekday Mass. We can go to Confession regularly. Cardinal Burke has encouraged us to stay faithful! The great Twentieth Century Saint Pio (Padre Pio) frequently advised everyone to "Pray, hope and don't worry."
If we do all these things, we can rest assured of Christ's promise: the Church will prevail over the gates of Hell, and those who persevere will be saved. In the end, it doesn't really matter when the Great Tribulation and the Second Coming will occur. What I do know is that my Day of Judgment is coming, and even assuming I survive to a ripe old age, it's coming a lot faster than I like to think about. The same applies to every one of us, regardless of age.
I conclude with another Scriptural quote, one of my favorites:
Francis Cardinal George, former Archbishop of Chicago (d. 2015)
I have been silent in this space for a little over three months now. So much has been going on in the Church, with first the Pope's trip to Cuba and the USA, the World Meeting of Families, and then the Synod on the Family, that I've spent all my "blog time" reading my favorite commentators (and commenting quite a bit myself on other blogs) leaving little or no time and inclination to write for my own. Despite the wide and deep well of subject matter, it always seemed that I didn't have much to say that wasn't already being said by others.
So after three months, if I am going to be serious about this endeavor, it's time to get back to work. Here we go.
With all the noise generated by the Pope's trip (which I found rather disappointing, but maybe that will be grist for another post at some point) and the Synod on the Family (which was confusing, at best, but isn't really over until we get some kind of papal document, so we wait for that), I continue to be intrigued by one thread that seems to be running through many of the blog posts and comments I've been seeing: the idea that the Church is facing a crisis unlike any other in its history, and that the resemblance of the present situation to apocalyptic prophecies in 20th Century private revelations, especially Our Lady's appearances at Fatima and Akita, is strong enough to warrant the most serious concern. The End is near! Fear, fire, foes! Awake! (Apologies to J.R.R. Tolkien.)
Well, OK then. It does seem clear to many (most?) of an orthodox mindset that the Church is indeed in a state of crisis, and I have a hard time disagreeing with such an assessment. See my August 10 post, for example. To run through another brief summary of the "bad stuff": In recent times we have witnessed the violent slaughter of many thousands of Christians (mostly Catholics and Orthodox) in the very birthplace of the Faith, together with wanton destruction of their churches and holy treasures, by barbaric Jihadists bent on eradication of everything and everyone that is not Muslim; the near total collapse of European Christendom; a seeming rush of North and South America to follow suit via declining Mass attendance, millions of annual defections to "evangelical" or "none" status, the enshrinement in secular law of false marriages and the concomitant state and media persecution of Catholics and Catholic institutions who refuse to affirm them; and a papacy that praises material heretics (e.g. certain German Cardinals) while excoriating as "pharisees" those who stand for traditional doctrine and practice, and which sometimes seems more concerned with pleasing the international secular media than with the salvation of souls and the preservation of the deposit of faith. To be fair, at other times we hear strikingly orthodox statements and exhortations of the type to which we have grown accustomed over the past several pontificates. (Confused? So am I.)
Even so, however, is it really as bad as some maintain? Stated another way, whatever the magnitude of the crisis, is it in fact unprecedented? Or is it just another day in the life of the Church that Our Lord promised would prevail to "the close of the age" (Cf. Mt 16:18, 28:20), despite being constantly under attack? (Cf. Mt 5:10-11; 10:16-23).
After all, the Arian heresy had most of the bishops in the world in its grasp at one point, and it took not one, but two ecumenical Councils (Nicea and Constantinople) to put it to rest. (See here.) In fact, legend has it that the Council of Nicea included the spectacle of Saint Nicholas (yes, that Saint Nicholas) punching out the heresiarch himself, in full view of the entire assembly. Indeed, one could argue that at least a stepchild of Arianism survives to this day in certain quarters, where Modernists (see extensive discussion of Modernism here) insist upon a distinction between "the historical Jesus" and "the Christ of faith." The former, these enlightened scholars solemnly inform us, was merely a man, albeit a wise man and great teacher, while the latter, the Son of God co-equal and consubstantial with the Father, is a mythical construct of a self-interested Church fearful of "reason and truth", which virtues the Modernist claims as exclusively his own. We beg to differ.
In any case, there were other serious heresies throughout the early Church, not to mention two major schisms, first the departure of the Eastern churches in the Eleventh Century A.D., followed by the Protestant revolt in the Sixteenth. Finally, let's not forget how close Christendom came to being swallowed up by the Muslim hordes, not long after Luther and Calvin took their toys and went home. The Battle of Lepanto, at which a massive Ottoman fleet bent on the sack of Vienna was defeated by a coalition put together by Pope St. Pius V, was a close-run thing, and many (including St. Pius V) believed the victory to have been secured only through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin. (See here.) Now, those were crises! Can today's situation match up, and more importantly, are we really on the verge of the Last Days?
In my view, the most likely answer to both queries is "no." Nevertheless, it is not hard to understand why people are fretting. I find myself doing it too, more often than I care to admit. See that August 10 post again, for example.
Of course, I wasn't there for any of the events just listed, so I don't know what it was like for the lay faithful in those times. But it seems pretty certain that most of them, given the absence of any sort of rapid communication over long distances and the general illiteracy of the vast majority of the population, didn't even know anything was wrong. Taking the Arian case for example, if your average layman was told by his bishop that Jesus was not really a God-man, but a mere creature given great power by God the Father, he probably just shrugged or nodded and kept praying, and going to Mass on Sundays and Holy Days. Ignorance was bliss, one might say with some degree of assurance.
For better or worse, we no longer have this luxury. In our day and age, when even the most trivial matters can gain world-wide attention via social media in a matter of minutes or hours, we have immediate access at any given moment to more information than, until very recently, even the most industrious seeker of knowledge could have acquired in a lifetime. We know of many things occurring in the Church at large and in the Holy See in particular that were never before open to all the world as they are now. Frequently, the result is information overload, and unless we are very careful we can find ourselves, in the classic idiom, unable to see the forest for the trees. In a more recent idiom, we suffer from "TMI", or "too much information." In this light, it seems prudent to keep in mind the following:
First, we have the aforementioned guarantee of Jesus himself that his Church will survive until his return, and we should take some comfort in the fact that the Church has survived for nearly two millennia despite all the challenges She has faced. This is not something to be taken lightly. No human institution has ever lasted more than a few hundred years, and most didn't make it that long. Only a Divine institution could still be around after this much time. God is in charge; let him take care of it!
Second, recall the vast time scale of the Church and of Salvation History. Even if we go back to the very dawn of humanity, we are only talking about a few thousand years. This is nothing in the sight of God. Man has a natural tendency to view all things through his own extremely limited lens, where around eighty years is an average lifetime and even a single hour, if spent with, say, an extremely boring speaker, can seem interminable. When we add up all the bad news available to us now, we conclude rather easily that things could not possibly ever have been worse, so the end must be near. But in the "big picture", we exist in a blink of God's eye. Father John Zuhlsdorf, a/k/a Father Z, a prolific and excellent blogger of traditional bent, recently exhorted his readers:
I am trying to take the longer view. I remind myself that each pontificate is a parenthesis in the long history of the Church and of our Salvation. This parenthesis will close one day and another will open.Wise advice from a wise and holy priest.
Third, recall and heed the advice Jesus gave the Apostles just before his Ascension:
So when they had come together, they asked him, "Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?" He said to them, "It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has fixed by his own authority. But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth." Acts 1:6-8 (Emphasis supplied.)It is not for us to know when the Last Days will come. In the meantime, we share in the Great Commission given by the Lord here and in Mt 28:18-20. See next point.
Fourth, there are only a few things we lay members of the Church Militant can do, and we ought to be doing all of them anyway. We can share the Gospel of Christ with the world. We can obey the Commandments. We can pray, a lot. We can fast. We can perform the corporal and spiritual works of mercy. We can (must!) continue going to Mass on Sundays and Holy Days. We can attend weekday Mass. We can go to Confession regularly. Cardinal Burke has encouraged us to stay faithful! The great Twentieth Century Saint Pio (Padre Pio) frequently advised everyone to "Pray, hope and don't worry."
If we do all these things, we can rest assured of Christ's promise: the Church will prevail over the gates of Hell, and those who persevere will be saved. In the end, it doesn't really matter when the Great Tribulation and the Second Coming will occur. What I do know is that my Day of Judgment is coming, and even assuming I survive to a ripe old age, it's coming a lot faster than I like to think about. The same applies to every one of us, regardless of age.
I conclude with another Scriptural quote, one of my favorites:
"Let not your hearts be troubled; believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And when I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. And you know the way where I am going." Thomas said to him, "Lord, we do not know where you are going; how can we know the way?" Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but by me. If you had known me, you would have known my Father also; henceforth you know him and have seen him." Jn 14:1-7.Laudator Jesus Christus!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)