Knottiness

Our gloriously-reigning pontiff, Benedict XVI, has published a lovely message for Lent, forwarding the ideas of man returning to right relationship with his Creator & centered on Jesus' great commandment - love of God & love of neighbor. Here is an excerpt:

The faithful practice of fasting contributes, moreover, to conferring unity to the whole person, body & soul, helping to avoid sin & grow in intimacy with the Lord. Saint Augustine, who knew all too well his own negative impulses, defining them as “twisted & tangled knottiness” (Confessions, II, 10.18), writes: “I will certainly impose privation, but it is so that he will forgive me, to be pleasing in his eyes, that I may enjoy his delightfulness”. Denying material food, which nourishes our body, nurtures an interior disposition to listen to Christ & be fed by His saving word. Through fasting & praying, we allow Him to come & satisfy the deepest hunger that we experience in the depths of our being: the hunger & thirst for God.

At the same time, fasting is an aid to open our eyes to the situation in which so many of our brothers & sisters live... By freely embracing an act of self-denial for the sake of another, we make a statement that our brother or sister in need is not a stranger.

This corresponds to the two sections of his landmark encyclical, Deus Caritas Est: the love God has for us, when received & returned, overflows to love & concern for our fellow man. Great Lenten reading, by the way. I never cease giving thanks that God has raised up such an amazing teacher & pastor to the See of Peter.

May all your knottiness (& naughtiness) be untangled this Lent!

A funny thing happened at Mass last night…

After chanting the Sanctus, the entire assembly remained standing, clearly disoriented.

Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus, Dominus Deus Sabaoth,
Pleni sunt caeli et terra gloria tua, Hosanna in excelsis,
Benedictus qui venit in nomine Domini, Hosanna in excelsis.

I almost slammed the kneeler into the shin of the lady next to me. I’ve noticed this before: that whenever the Latin Ordinaries are used, everyone is confused about what to do next. If anything illustrates a lack of continuity in liturgical practice, this is it. Perhaps endless experimentation that leads to separation of the faithful from the native worship of the Latin Rite of the Church is not really a desirable thing.

The singing of the Sanctus is an earthly parallel – and a pretty a good one when done well – to the never-ending heavenly liturgy. From Revelation 4:

And the four living creatures, each of them with six wings, are full of eyes all round & within, & day & night never cease to sing, “Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was & is & is to come!”

And whenever the living creatures give glory & honor & thanks to him who is seated on the throne, who lives for ever & ever, the twenty-four elders fall down before him who is seated on the throne & worship him who lives for ever & ever...

Astounding, really, that any Catholic would be confused about this. How long have we been doing this now? I know that new & more faithful (to the Latin) English language translations are on the way, but I wonder why we even need to bother.

Also, it is quite common in parishes to simply recite, “Holy, holy, holy…” whereas we are clearly called - & has been so throughout the nearly 2,000 year tradition of the Church – to sing to Sanctus, & the other Ordinaries. There are dozens of chant arrangements that congregations can sing – I know because we do it every weekend at the Extraordinary Form of Mass (click on the image above for a version we are practicing for Easter).

So, here’s one vote for always singing the Sanctus as Sanctus. And for true & honest participatio actuosa in the liturgy, on earth as it is in heaven.

Winter of the Spirit

In a lovely calendar of Ireland laden with gorgeous photographs & pithy quotes from Irish writers, I came across the following, which I thought was apropos to the onset of Lent:

"In a way winter is the real spring, the time when inner things happen, the resurge of nature." - Edna O'Brien

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St. Stephen's Green, Dublin

St. Polycarp

This piece should have run in the current bulletin, but doesn't seem to have made it in:

St. Polycarp (†156) - Feb 23

Polycarp was the bishop of Smyrna, now Izmir, Turkey, & a disciple of St. John the Apostle. Throughout his long life of preaching the Gospel & defending the Faith, he guided the expansion of the Church in its early days throughout the Asia Minor & the Near East.

His surviving correspondence, including a letter to the Philippians, is full of exhortations to keep the highest standards of moral living & to maintain the unity of the Faith in the face of threats within & without the Church. He interceded on behalf of the Eastern Churches before the Pope over the date of Easter. He resoundingly condemned heretics & schismatics, including Marcion, to whose face he famously called, “the first-born of Satan”.

The last disciple of the Apostles was martyred in a stadium in Smyrna at the age of 86.

Perhaps Christians today have grown a little too complacent of both divisions within in the Body of Christ & society’s pervasive immorality. St. Polycarp abhorred both & spent his life exhorting the faithful to both unity & holiness.

St. Polycarp, pray for us.

A Prayer for Priests

I just want you to know that I pray for you every day. My petition goes something like this:


Heavenly Father,

We pray for all your priests, especially our beloved Holy Father, Pope Benedict. Grant him safety, health, strength as he shepherds the Church. Grant him clarity to see & the conviction to do your will. Protect him from his enemies. Grant him a long & fruitful reign. We pray for all the past Holy Fathers who have loved you so well & taught the faithful so wonderfully. We pray for the man who will be raised up as the next pope, that even now you begin to prepare him for the task to come.

We pray, Father, for all your bishops, especially for Bishop N., that they be worthy Successors of the Apostles; that they teach, govern, & sanctify their churches faithfully according to your holy will. Grant them courage to fiercely protect their flocks from the attacks of the wolves of the world that would seek to destroy them. We pray for their own perseverance in prayer & growth in holiness. Grant them the strength to refute all error of Faith within the Church & provide a holy witness to the fullness of the Faith without. May their love for the Lord Jesus & example in works of mercy, prayer, & celebration of the liturgy bring about conversion of hearts & bear great fruit in their churches. May they never give into the temptation to compromise the Faith for the sake of the world’s false peace; but rather, proclaim the Gospel with burning conviction. Grant them an unfailing love & unity with the Holy Father & their brother bishops.

We pray, Father, for all your priests throughout the world, especially for Father(s) N., etc., & for all priests who have celebrated the sacraments for us during our lives, especially the priests who baptized us & for mercy on their souls if they are deceased. We pray that you grant special graces of strength, courage, & love to priests who minister in difficult or dangerous circumstances. May all your priests grow in personal holiness; & may they conform ever more closely to Christ Jesus, crucified & risen. May they always be strong spiritual fathers to their children, guiding them by wisdom, patience, & love. We pray for priests who battle with temptations & loneliness; may they find strength in the Lord to persevere. We pray for priests who are retired, those who are ill, & those who have died that God forgives them their sins & welcomes them home as good & faithful servants. Have mercy even on the souls of priests who were not faithful, for none of us are worthy of salvation. Grant all priests strength & purity of mind & body as they live out their calling from you to make Christ Jesus’ saving Mysteries present to a needy, dying world. May they preach the Gospel boldly & fearlessly; may they celebrate the sacraments & the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass faithfully, beautifully, & reverently. May their word & example bring about an ever-greater love of God, the repentance of many sinners, & the conversion of many unbelievers, false believers, the lukewarm, & the fallen away.

We pray, Father, for seminarians studying for the priesthood, that their hard work in school prepare them fully for the hard work of ministry. Instill in them a holy detachment from worldliness & growth in love for all. May they be imbued with a desire to please their Lord Jesus above all things & remain ever faithful to the teaching of Holy Mother Church. We pray for all men who have been called by God to a priestly vocation, that they be able to discern God’s tiny whisper amidst the noise of the world & discover in prayer the invitation of the Lord to leave all behind & follow him.

We pray, Father, that all people of Catholic Faith offer prayer & sacrifice diligently for their priests. We pray that all Catholic men & women faithfully exercise their duties as Christ Jesus' priests, prophets, & kings in their own realms of family, work, government, & society. May the homes of the faithful be blessed with love & peace. May they become holy & fertile gardens for vocations to marriage, to the priesthood, & to the consecrated life.

May the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of Priests teach, guide, & protect all priests as she did for our Lord Jesus. Amen.

I mean, seriously...

Where's it going to end?

The Literal Meaning

On the St. Thomas AFF blogsite there's a posting about a good article from Mark Shea on this fundamental aspect of Catholic scripture study.

Language is not only an integral aspect of what it means to be human, it is also a vehicle that God uses to reach us. Really, it is his invention. However, language as a medium of communication is also rife with problems of misunderstanding. That's what makes the guidance of Holy Mother Church so important in approaching such a complex & deeply profound work as the Bible. Since it came from the Church to begin with, we cannot come to correctly understand its meanings without her.

BTW, Shea's book By What Authority is pretty good. I'll have to post a review of it sometime.

Do you also wish to leave?

Nancy Pelosi really pisses me off. I would tell her so to her face. As an ardent, practicing Catholic she has committed the most serious public scandal (in the theological sense of leading others to sin) by direct disobedience to & false representation of Church Teaching about the most serious of offenses on the largest of public stages. But always with a smile & a witty retort. I cringed at the pictures of her kissing Benedict's ring during his visit to the U.S. last year. But, alas, even Jesus was kissed by Judas.

Now, you may be thinking, "But, Mark... Pot. Kettle. Black." Guilty. My own sins terrify me & causes me to fear for my soul. However, I must have some concern for the souls of others, too; especially when they weild such temporal influence & power & consistently use it to choose evil. She is in great spiritual danger. I feel sad for her. I am mad at her. I pray for her.

Regarding her intention to snag a photo-op with the Pope that the media could use to get her off the hook on abortion & other life issues, well... that just didn't happen. Benedict's too shrewd for that. CNA has the whole story here, but this is the main bit:

"His Holiness took the opportunity to speak of the requirements of the natural moral law & the Church's consistent teaching on the dignity of human life from conception to natural death which enjoin all Catholics, & especially legislators, jurists and those responsible for the common good of society, to work in co-operation with all men & women of good will in creating a just system of laws capable of protecting human life at all stages of its development."

I sincerely hope that this rebuke sinks in & moves her hardened heart to conversion. It should also be a reminder to each of us not to trust either our own insticts & abilities to find the way or to trust in the Oh-so-smooth ideologies emanating from the City of Man. Being Catholic isn't fundamentally about what pious practices you keep or what ritual you celebrate. It's about how you live your new life in Christ Jesus & the choices you make as a result. It's about clinging-for-life to the Church he gave us amidst the terrible storms that would drag us under.

Peter responded the Lord, "To whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life."

Repent - the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand

The lines for Communion are long, but the lines for Confession are mighty short.

Sin & Heaven are incompatible. While worthy reception of the Eucharist & other works or prayer or charity may remit venial sins, I'm still amazed at how many Catholics never go to Confession, or only go once a year at a penance service. Perhaps it's a little willful ignorace on our part, a failure to make an honest self-examination. Perhaps it's a sign of stagnation or misdirection in the spirtual life, in our growing in holiness. Jesus called us to repentance, not complacency.

With Lent nigh upon us, here a couple of relevant postings from my classroom blog:

The Terrible & Ugly Business of Sin
The Wonderful Gift of Reconciliation
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P.S.: The Pope seems to have had this on his mind, too. From yesterday's Angelus address:

"In the Sacrament of Penance, Christ crucified and risen, through his ministers, purifies us with his infinite mercy, restores us to communion with the heavenly Father and with our brothers, and gives us his love, his joy, and his peace."

I couldn't have said it better myself.

Life at the Feeder

Well, I caved into temptation in the Cracker Barrell lobby store & bought this spiffy amber-colored, blown glass-capped, abeit over-priced feeder. So now, Feeder III is on-line in the front yard, not so far from the front steps.

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I was also pleased to entertain a visiting dignitary: the Cardinal! I don't think they migrated this year, possibly due to having a reliable food source; but on the other hand, until yesterday, I never saw him or his Frau at the feeder. They just hung back watching the others.

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I took the advice of an Anonymous poster named Jill on a previous post & bought the black oil sunflower seeds, so the Cardinal couple should be quite well-stuffed.

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Interestingly, he just hovered near the feeder like a hummingbird to take a bite. You can see that he has one foot on the feeder to steady himself.

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There was lots of traffic at all the feeders this weekend - lots of little finchy birds & the like. Now that lots of the locals are back in town, I just feel bad that the bird bath keeps freezing over at night.

From the rising of the sun to its setting...

We at H.E. not only relish the sun's rise, but also it's setting. The coming of night brings its own spirituality. Whereas day brings us out into the world to activities of a communal nature, at night we return to our homes, to a more intimate setting, where we re-discover, re-become who we are, usually in the company of family - perhaps tending toward a more quiet & reflective time of contemplation & prayer. So, here's to beautiful sunsets, too!

Life at the Feeder IV

Feeder II is up & running. Wasn't sure if a feeder in the front yard would fly (pun intended), but the little flying dinosaurs are eating it up (& again). I had a bag of the pebbly gold feed & a bag of black sunflower seeds, so I alternated pouring it in - thus the stripes. I think the little darlings really appreciate the extra care that goes into each feederful. Right...

Letting go

Rather dramatic photos of the arrival of the wind/rain storm yesterday evening & of the glorious sunrise this morning. I was amazed to see how many branches were down in the yard.

The wind has a pruning effect of removing branches that are too weak & giving room to the healthier branches that allow the trees to flourish. I think storms are permitted to blow through our lives to help prune us of things that hinder us. Or at least to provide us an opportunity to let go of them.

The subtitle of the blog is taken from Psalm 123 in the Vulgate, "Our help is in the name of the Lord, who made heaven & earth." There is nothing else we need.

Et vidit Deus quod esset bonum...

Beautiful sunrise over the moutains this morning. Often the most striking part of the sunrise with all the colors & brilliance only lasts a few seconds, literally. One has to keep watch & wait patiently for it, recognize it when it arrives, & finally simply to be present to the glory of it.

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It is appropriate that the daily Mass reading this week recount the creation story, but we must remember that - despite a recent trend to make a god out of the earth - it is man himself that is the pinnacle of creation, because he is God's own likeness in a way that natural things cannot be.

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Perhaps the sunrise each morning is God's reminder to us to rediscover this, both in ourselves and in our fellow man, & to be present to the glory of it.

Te Deum Laudamus

Over at his blog, Fr. Christian got me kinda riled up. Not by anything he said, but just by the subject matter. Few topics will get me up on & hard to pull down from the soapbox like liturgical music. Though only a tiny fraction of my thoughts & feelings on the matter, this is my response to his inquiry:

“...please add your comments about your experience with music in the liturgy, both positive and negative,,,”

OK, but remember – you asked.

Modern Catholic liturgical music is – with a few exceptions – terrible. And that is being charitable.

My worst experience of music in liturgy sadly occurred at St. Thomas when the cathedral praise team arrived to accompany Mass with their electric guitars, drums, keyboards, & amps. They "performed" the popular but inane Protestant rock tunes so common in Evangelical circles these days (What are protesting, again? Oh yeah, I remember: the Catholic Church!). It was horrendous. It was distracting. It had little to do with prayer. It detracted (super-)substantially from the solemnity of the liturgy & the Eucharist. And it was SO LOUD. Several people were covering their ears, and by the end of Mass I had a head-splitting migraine. The icing on the cake is that we were invited to show our appreciation by a round of applause. I was really saddened & sickened by the whole affair. Trying to subtly observe how the people around me were reacting to this, I could clearly see that the band had become the center of focus rather than what was going on at the altar. And this coming from our cathedral, with whom Sacrosanctum Concilium specifically charges with preserving & cultivating the treasury of sacred music (SC114).

There will be no true springtime for the Church until a serious examination is made by all, from parish to curia, into what the Council was, what it actually said, & what we should do in response. A great number of intentions of the Council Fathers as expressed in the published documents have either been ignored, implemented poorly, or twisted to implement some other agenda in its name. The current state of liturgical music falls under the latter category. In his autobiography, Abp. Sheen lamented the way the mandates of the Council were implemented (my book review here). This is what our gloriously-reigning Pope Benedict – himself a musician - calls the Hermeneutic of Discontinuity, & what he has written about at length both now & past, & what he is trying to correct in the time that God gives him. The idea is simple: there can be no rupture in Tradition - the handing on & practice of the Faith, especially in the sacred liturgy & its celebration. If there seems to be, there is a problem in need of correction. Since the newer form of Mass is virtually unrocognizable as compared to the ancient form, (at least in the way the new form is typically celbrated), a rupture appears to have happened in the theological understanding of what the Church is, what the Mass is, & how it should be celebrated as a result. Having been present at the Council, Benedict understands better than any what it intended & is trying to repair some of the damage done since by reviving the sense of Catholic identity by proposing more appropriate symbols & practices.

About 2 seconds after the Council closed, Progressivists both lay & clerical descended upon parishes across Catholicism & implemented sweeping changes to All That Came Before with a fury rarely seen since, well, the Protestant Reformation. Even the bishops were (are?) powerless to stop them. In the context of music, Gregorian chant, sacred polyphony, & the pipe organ – all specifically called out in SC 116 & 120 as particularly appropriate to the Roman liturgy – were happily jettisoned in favor of Reformed Folk music strummed on guitars. As a teenager, I remember cringing at the truly lame efforts of the guitar squad trying to be “with it” & turning the liturgy into what sounded to me like a nursery rhyme sing-along. I knew the Church had an ancient & glorious past, but you'd never tell it at my old parish - that stuff all sounded like somebody had just made it up (turns out, that was exactly right!). This same attitude persists today in the "silence police" organists who feel compelled to fill every second with twinkly background noise or the overly loud, over-bearing cantors who throw up their hands like they’re signaling “Touchdown!” every time the congregation is required to make a response (yes, even during the great Amen at the end of the Eucharistic prayer, when instead of falling to their knees in adoration, they jump up & run to the mike).

It is noteworthy that we have been singing the same folksy songs from the same folksy composers since the 70’s. With all the talk about moving into the future, it seems that this stale music is stuck in the past. And not part of the great Catholic liturgical tradition of the past, either. It’s an artifact of the generation that composed it, & few before or since seem to find much in it that bolsters their faith. My grandparents despised it. Youth today find it hokey. It cannot be imagined that one would find any of this stuff resting on a (pipe-)organists' console alongside Mozart & Palestrina a couple of hundred or a couple of thousand years from now. As someone famously quipped, "Why is it better to be nostalgic for 1979 than for 1579?"

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As Father alluded to in his posting, these songs are full of bad theology - full of I, we, us, & gathering, but seemingly loathe to mention God, Jesus, the Trinity, Mary, the saints, sin, mercy, grace, salvation, etc. Just as bad are the tunes that make the congregation the “voice of God”, something that could not possibly be imagined in ages past. I now refuse to sing, “I am the bread of life… & I will raise you up…” Is this really worship? What kind of theology is this? Why not, “You are the bread of life… You will raise me up”? Yes, I know that wouldn’t be the words of Jesus anymore, but really! You might as well sing, "I am God... You are God... We are God... Everyone is God..."

What is truly amusing is that these folksy songs designed to encourage congregational singing are often difficult to sing! They have huge note ranges beyond many a layman’s ability & are often giant word jumbles, with a slightly different note pattern for each verse. 30+ years now & the choir still can’t sing a clean version of “I am the bread of life.” But when, inexplicably, some old Catholic classic makes it onto the song board, like Holy God We Praise thy Name, all the voices are sharp & strong. Most importantly, everyone is worshiping! This is the mighty Te Deum of the Church. No confusion or diffusion of the Faith here. No question over who is worshipping who. Still, with the actual published intentions of the Church regarding sacred music going unheeded – including the recent USCCB document Sing to the Lord – these composers are raking in millions at the expense of the faithful. And the bishops have done little to stop it - the initiative to reform the reform of litugical music was reduced to the status of a pastoral guide & has been universally ignored. The pastors & music directors I know that have tried to be faithful to the Church's liturgical music tradition have encountered the most bitter & spiteful resistance imaginable.

To answer the other question – the singular most profound liturgical music event for me was participating in the offering of Mozart’s Coronation Mass at the Solemn High Mass on April 20, 2008 at Holy Ghost church. It was glorious (even if I slaughtered the Gregorian Offertory). Still, the week-in, week-out offering of the chants for the Ordinaries & Propers & the traditional hymns of the Church at the Traditional Latin Mass move me to worship & prayer unlike anything contemporary I’ve heard (&, like the Council, I’m not against new compositions; listen to John Rutter’s Requiem or Magnificat).

I strongly believe that until Salve Regina, Ave Verum Corpus, Panis Angelicus, & Adoro Te Devote resound again throughout the sanctuaries of Catholicism – along with an increase in participation in the sacrament of Reconciliation – the Reform & the Spirit of Vatican II will remain just catch phrases that are twisted to fit the ideology of forces that are either damaging the Church by misguided, but basically good, intentions or those openly hostile to her, or both. The Church must take a good, hard look at what the Council Fathers actually intended & what was actually done, & reconcile the two, no matter what “progress” must be undone or how painful it may be for some. This is not a matter of personal preference - mine or yours. It is, however, about doing what the Church proposes for the salvation of souls, & they have spoken their piece, for the most part. The liturgy is the privileged meeting place of the faithful with their God; it is an assembly of the royal court of heaven. It should look & sound like it! Nothing about it should ever be the same as & not different than the ordinary, outside world. Our Lord Christ Jesus established the Church to proclaim his Gospel & to call the world to repentance. It seems that instead, many in the Church have allowed themselves to be sold a bill of goods by the world. Miserere nobis, Domine!

I broke my Rosary...

See here for details.

The looming storm clouds...

Careful: this isn’t easy to read (click photo for link). It is, however, the present & future we have been dealt.
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A follow-up to the initial article says that doctor was suspended from “medical” practice following an investigation. Will the doctor & staff be prosecuted under criminal law? Will the facility be closed? Will this even garner a mention in the main-stream media? Unlikely.

This is exactly the kind of case that our President as state legislator voted to defend - that babies could be killed even after being born, assuming that the original intention of the mother was that the baby should die. It's interesting that the article states that the mother had a change of heart after seeing her child. And still...

Occurences of this type are certainly not rare - they are, in fact, part & parcel of the abortion industry & their demonic influences - but they are rarely made this generally known. I believe this case will be a kind of bellweather to see exactly how tight the stranglehold of the abortion lobby is on our elected officials, or at least how difficult it will be going forward in fighting this evil & speaking the truth of the sanctity of every human life.

Another view...

Since geniuses (genii?) like this expertly inform us of the ecological catastrophy that we cause to Good Mother Earth, this may be the last snowfall on the mountains we'll ever see. You never know...

Prayers for Michael & Amy

Michael Dubriel, the husband of one of my favorite authors & bloggist, Amy Welborn, died suddenly & unexpected yesterday. Her site Charlotte was Both has the following statement:

"Michael collapsed this morning at the gym and was not able to be revived despite the efforts of EMTs and hospital personnel.
We are devastated and beg your prayers."

Please pray for God's mercy upon Michael, the consolation of Amy & her children & family, & that all of us faithfully await our meeting with the Lord Jesus, the time of which we know not.

Requiem aeternum dona eis, Domine; et lux perpetua luceat eis.

Snowy Mountains

Let it snow!

See the posting at my Religious Ed blog: Children of Light

Miscellany

Life at the feeder was busy this weekend: it stayed full of seed for almost a week, then some clients began arriving. I suspect these are not permanent residents, but flocks passing through as they migrate (I saw no sparrows of any stripe carrying coconuts, however). There are a few birds that are permanent residents of the neighborhood - like the doves & the cardinals - but I havn't seen them on the feeder. The doves just cluck around on the ground, feeding off the spillage. Squirrels have been disturbingly quiet...
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This sign in the Narthex last week made me wonder...

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Isn't every day "Sanctity of Human Life" day? The terribly disturbing thing is that for many, the anwer is, "No."

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A wonderful new beginning for the Orthodox Church, & ensuing new possibilities for the reunion of the whole Church: East & West (click on photo for link).

But, really now, shouldn't we insist that our Eastern Catholic & Orthodox brother get rid of all that pomp, all those glorious vestments, all that manly bassos chant, all those golden icons, & just get back to basics. You know simple songs for simple folks strummed on simple guitars? I mean, where's the "relevance", people!?!