Sometimes

you're just in the right spot at the right time. Deo gratias!
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Catching up

Sorry, folks - I've been sort of blog-lazy lately. Too much to do & not enough time to do it, even if some of that "much" involves napping in the hammock on sunny Sunday afternoons. So, here's a shotgun blast of blog-stuffs:

*** Gorgeous sunrise photo to start things off.

*** Saturday morning found me at Our Lady of Fatima in Alcoa for the feast of St. Mark the Evangelist. Father celebrated an "ordinary" Mass is a very "extraordinary" style, with beautiful, blood-red Roman vestments (i.e., a "fiddleback"), antiphons instead of songs, Sanctus in Greek, Agnus Dei in Latin, & the Eucharistic prayer celebrated "ad orientem," that is, towards the East, from which comes the Lord, the Bridegroom, whom we joyfully go to meet.

Father's homily picked up on the themes of "Earth Day" & utter reliance on God for everything. It seems to me that when things are going great the temptation is to congratulate ourselves for our good work, & when times get hard to deny that God is really present & working in the world. Either is a denial of God. I remember him saying something to the effect of, "Let other have their Earth Day; I for one will give thanks to the God of all creation."

Afterwards, we had a procession around the Church whilst chanting the litany of the saints, & finishing in the chapel with Benediction & Eucharistic Adoration. Lovely! More processions, please!

*** Having put aside a lot of personal reading to finish up my classwork, I finally finished my Lenten reading: The Seven Last Words of Jesus by Romanus Cessario, O.P. from Magnificat Publishers. This was a collection of talks given between the hours of Noon & 3:00pm on Good Friday 2008 in St. Patrick's cathedral in New York (that seems like a really great idea - maybe more pastors will pick up on this idea).

Detailed images from a 12th-century icon cross from the Abbey of Santa Maria Assunta di Rosano, Italy forms the backdrop of the book, but you are left to your own devices to ponder the happenings in those details, or to tie the images to the text.

Each word is it's own lesson; each a whole sermon on the Gospel by the Lord Jesus on the cross. If there is a theme tying the words together, it is how desperately God desires to love us & be loved by us in return. The softbound book itself is beautifully made, as I would expect from Magnificat, & Fr. Romano's writing gives a fresh & insightful look into scriptures that may have grown a bit stale with repetition. This was a great book that I plan to return to again & again, & not just during Lent.

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H.E. Rating: 4 aspergillum shakes

*** I absolutely cannot wait for the Crowning of Mary this coming weekend at St. Thomas! But, it's also the last day of Religious Ed for this school year & that's kind of sad. I think I'm already experiencing empty-nest syndrome. Still, it will be nice to have a little more freetime to recharge my own batteries this summer.

The kids will have mangaged to not only make their own rosaries of lovely Czech glass beads, but also will have read the Scriptures & recited 18 of the 20 Mysteries of the Rosary - every decade recited entirely in Latin! Pater Noster, Ave Maria, & Gloria Patri. Several kids learned them by heart.

There's so much more I wanted to share with them, but I can honestly say that I did my best to hand on the Faith to them. May God bring to perfection the good work begun in class.

"'Fetus' comes from the Latin word meaning...

...'young one' or 'young child'".

Absolutely amazing. I mean, I am truly & honestly in awe of this young lady.

"We must remember that with our rights & our choices come responsibilities. And we can't take someone else's rights away to avoid our responsibilities."

I'm beggin' you - please pass this along. This must be seen.

When the Women finally lose their minds...

...we're all doomed. Two thoughts:

1) I've come to understand that consecrated men & women - monastics, monks & nuns, whatever you call them - are the spirtual engine of the Church. No one since Jesus walked the earth was invited by God directly to faith, excepting St. Paul, I suppose. Our Catholic Faith has come to us & to all through intermediaries; that is, those who came to know God through Christ Jesus first. The ones who "know" the best are those who have forsaken this world for the love of God & neighbor, whose whole lives are spent seeking God's face in prayer, liturgy, & service: knowing, loving, & serving God, both in the heart of the Church & out in the world, though not all do it in the same way.

2) The following statement is perhaps colored by my own limited upbringing & experience, but I say it resolutely: women are by far the stronger sex. Their ability to love freely & openly, as well as commitment to service of others & patient suffering is unbelievable. Women are pragmatic in ways that men only think they are. Men who exhibit these qualities are generally made a big deal of as visionaries, leaders, & heros. Women who exhibit these are simply called wives, mothers, daughters, friends. It is the perpetual & tireless efforts of women that holds society together, albeit mostly quietly & out of the spotlight. So, what a horror it is for all mankind when women are led astray.

Putting these two thoughts together, it was with special sadness that I follow this story: the Vatican's inquiry into the state of women's religious orders in the U.S., prompted by an apparently pervasive "new teaching" with attendant mindset & attitude that is beyond heirarchy, beyond obedience, beyond men, beyond Church, & beyond Jesus. This story at the ever-dissident NCR magazine prompted some of the most venomous & spiteful comments I've ever read from the mouth or keyboard of Christians (but are they?), mostly directed at the heirarchy & bishops, but especially, the Holy Father.

Amy Welborn also has a good commentary about this story on her new blog, along with excerpts from the keynote address at the 2007 Leadership Conference of Women Religious. It's really sad stuff.

It seems that many women religious have fallen off the boat, embracing radical feminism & ever-trendy Eastern mysticism instead of "centering" one's self on Christ Jesus, crucified & risen. There is no sprituality being peddled out there that can even begin to approach the profundity of this reality. There is no "beyond Jesus", everything finds its perfect fulfillment in him. It's ironic that the Church teaches that although people can come to know the existance of a good God from creation, it is only through the preaching & teaching of the Church that the revelation of Christ Jesus occurs, while these women view the Church as a restricting spiritual fence, a stumbling block to discovering the real truth of God, found & fulfilled only in creation. Talk about putting the celestial cart before the horse! Does St. Paul not warn that in the last days minds would be darkened & people would set aside sound teaching & worship the creature rather than the Creator (Rom 1:25)? But then again, St. Paul was a misogynist, right?

It seems that in some minds, the virtue of religion has become a hinderance to the "true gospel" of social justice work & oneness with the All. Unfortunately, some of these social justice "causes" are just expressions of personal ideologies. I've often observed that radical feminism, the homosexual agenda, the permissive sexual subculture including pornography, & the abortion industry are all diabolically tied together.

However, I am so thankful for the wonderful & faithful religious that continue to work & pray for the salvation of souls (incl. mine!), especially the Dominican Sisters of Nashville who teach & preach the Gospel so beautifully by word & example in our Diocese. May God increase their tribe. We need the gifts of their "feminine genius" & that of all other faithful Catholic women now more than ever!

Sts. Lucy, Felicity, Perpetua, Brigid, Clare, Scholastica, Therese, Katharine Drexel, & all you holy women - & of course, our Blessed Mother - pray for the repentance of sinners & the conversion of unbelievers, false believers, the lukewarm, & the fallen away.

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Postscript: while all that may seem like a downer, this article from EWTN News has gotten me fired back up! I teach my kids from Day 1 that by virtue of their baptism in Christ Jesus they are all soldiers in the royal army of God engaged in a spiritual battle with the devil & his army of demons. Also, that the battle is ultimately won, but we must nonetheless remain faithful & fight to the end.

Our Lady of Victory

If you haven't already, please go to http://notredamescandal.com/ & join the 300,000+ faithful Catholics who insist that Catholic Institutions hold & defend Catholic principles, which are, ultimately, the practical implementations of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
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Photo: Notre Dame de Fourvier, Lyon, France

The Music of Sacrifice

I found this little jewel at Fr. Longenecker's blog about sacrifice, using as an example something near & dear to me: bad liturgical music.

Music in liturgy is prayer. Thus, it should always be beautiful music executed well. It should worthy of offering to God. It should be clear. It should avoid performance & should never be entertainment. No one should ever clap for a piece of music offered to God. It should have an element of the timeless & the mysterious. It should never be banal or common or secular. It should be in accord to the Church's mind & voice on the matter. It should reflect the Catholic faith according to Lex Orandi Lex Credendi. It should reflect the glory of the heavenly kingdom, of which it should give us a foretaste & for which it should enkindle a desire. It should not only show us a bit of heaven, but should help us to get there, too.

This prinicple applies equally to sacred art, church architecture, church furnishings, vestments, liturgical language, sacred vessels, etc.

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One comment in the comments: "Beauty is the ignored evangelist." Let's free the evangelist & let him sing. Amen.

Easter Monday

Today, I’ve been asked by several coworkers something to the effect of, “Did you have a nice Easter?” Now, I naturally say Yes, but I also found myself clarifying that the Church regards Easter Day to last a whole week, inclusive of next Sunday. And further, that the season of Easter is 50 days. By their somewhat surprised & skeptical reactions of “Oh, really?”, it seems most of my small-town Tennessee friends & their Baptist churches keep the Walmart liturgical calendar. It’s a sad that this amazing aspect of the Church’s liturgical life has been long discarded by so many. I was about to say Protestants, but I know that many Catholics also get back to business as usual once the festivities end.

Further, I could not really answer their question, “Did you do anything special?” I mean, the whole week leading up to Easter is special! Each liturgy is brain-bafflingly special in its own way, for its own purpose. How to explain Maundy Thursday’s celebration of the institution of the new ministerial priesthood in Christ, Friday’s veneration of the cross, the multitude of Easter Vigil rituals, or any of it without unpacking the whole Catholic Faith centered on Christ Jesus’ abiding presence in the Church in the Eucharist? Not really possible in an exchange only a few seconds long. But perhaps that time will come. Perhaps I will be prepared & able to share with someone ignorant of the Faith exactly what makes these days so special.

Easter!

I hope you all had as lovely an Easter celebration as I did.

During the Friday liturgy, I realized something for the first time that colored my participation in the weekend liturgies – something I read from Fr. Z – that the Church dies with Christ on Friday, & rises with him Saturday night. As the Lord in the Eucharist disappears from the Church’s altars, the Bride weeps without her Groom & cannot live without him. Mary, not as Bride, but as the Mother present at Golgotha, descends to the grave with her Son & mourns throughout the night, awaiting the first rays of morning light & life to touch her tear-sodden face. How dreadful a thing is a Bride without her Groom, a Mother without her Son. Then how she rejoices at his return!

It’s a bit more than a metaphor, though – the Church throughout the world foregoes her true source of strength, sanctity, & life. She is a Church unable to move, unable to speak, unable to breathe. A Bride with her heart broken. A Bride in waiting. An empty tabernacle is a tomb all its own.

The Vigil never fails to move the soul – the Church never being more who she is than when celebrating her risen Lord & bearing him new children of God through holy Baptism, Confirmation, & finally consummating her love for him by celebrating the Eucharist again.

Sunrise Mass this morning at St. Thomas lived up to its promise. The pink & peach light shining through the clouds & beaming through the windows fulfilled the Psalm that heavens tell the glory of God.

If the day started beautiful, it only grew more so. The Afternoon E.F. Mass at St. Therese in Clinton was for me like new life breathed into dead lungs. The chants & hymns & motets filled the ears as sweetly as the incense filled the nostrils. “Gloria in excelsis Deo!” & “Victimae Paschali laudes!” simply filled the soul with gladness.

And yet, Easter is not a moment to celebrate & leave behind, but an entire new creation to be lived out in joy & thanksgiving for 7 more days, & a season to be celebrated for 50 days, & a new life to live forever.

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"He is risen! Indeed, he is risen! Alleluia!”

The Day of the Lord

Today begins a truly sacred time in the Church. My day started off gloriously with a stop by the chapel to pray the Rosary & was accosted by this glorious sight! It looked & smelled wonderful!

Also, since I will refrain from any blogging from Good Friday until probably Easter Monday, I offer now these images ("icons"?) of a pair of icons of the Crucifixion & Burial of Jesus. There are all kinds of fascinating details in them.

On of my favorites is the depiction of Jerusalem in the background, not as the ancient Roman-occupied city, but more like the glory days of Constantinople; ditto the soldier to whom pious tradition has assigned the name Longinus (I believe he has a feast day in the Roman Martyrology?). I ponder the exact point that iconographer wished to make.

Also striking is the sun & moon in the Crucifixion, a passage predicted by Joel (3:3) & preached by Peter as fulfilled by the Passion & Resurrection of Christ Jesus (Acts 2:20-21) - "The sun shall be turned into darkness & the moon into blood before the Day of the Lord comes, that great & manifest day, & it shall be that whoever calls on the Name of the Lord shall be saved." RSV
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Fr. Romano Guardini said that the heart of the Pater Noster is "Fiat voluntas tua" - "Thy will be done". I propose it is "Sanctificetur nomen tuum" - "Hallowed be thy Name". We are baptized in his Name; we are blessed in his Name; we call on his Name; we are saved in his Name; we are sent in his Name - all to do his will, of course. But it seems that God's ineffable Name is immediate to - almost the same as - who he is, which becomes the starting point of all the other petitions & aspirations of the Lord's Prayer. Also, the Name & the Word seem to be related to each other in a special way, as are the Name & the Image. The Israelites who would not speak the holy Name also longed to see God's holy face. In Christ Jesus, both have been revealed. I suppose I'm lost now, but a good icon will do that to you.
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May your Holy Days be blessed &
Have a very blessed Easter!

The Higher Path

As mentioned in a previous post, Bible Study classes uncover all kinds of loose ends in people's understanding of Scripture [In case that sounds snobby, it includes me, first of all]. Take for example 1 Samuel 15:2-3...

'I will punish what Amalek did to Israel when he barred his way as he was coming up from Egypt. Go, now, attack Amalek, and deal with him and all that he has under the ban. Do not spare him, but kill men and women, children and infants, oxen and sheep, camels and asses.'"

God's command to Saul to put the Amalekites under "the ban," that is, to commit genocide by putting every man, woman, child, & domestic animal to the sword, with the entire town & all spoils of war to be burnt. A total annihilation of the tribe, as if they never were.

Naturally, Christians instinctively recoil at that kind of passage, which at a glance, seems at odds with the teachings of Jesus: "Love your neighbor." That's probably a good initial response; I'd be worried about someone if that wasn't their first response. But, in the face of such a contradiction, one must seek out the truth, right? Well, my experience is that, instead of doing the cerebral leg work required to get to the root of such puzzling passages (read, read, read! - both the Scriptures & credible commentaries, new & ancient) & due to the sheer size of the corpus of Scripture in all of its baffling forms, most people just select a lesser path, both in effort & reward.

Rather than trying to understand something that is not immediately apparent & immediately to our liking, we simply dismiss it or assign it an interpretation that it is no longer offensive to our comfortable understanding of The Way Things Are. "Jesus was right; that other passage is wrong." In the process, the power of God's word to reach us, challenge us, & (cue dramatic 40's scary movie music) change us is all but eliminated. The encounter with Mystery is neatly avoided.

So, the engaging & erudite website (& magazine, I understand) First Things - headed until recently by the late Fr. Richard John Neuhaus (+ 2009) - has an intriguing article called "Either Way, Amalek Must Die, A Passover Meditation" by David P. Goldman.

I'd be curious on your thoughts. Have a blessed Holy Week.

Palm Sunday

Yesterday was a beautiful day. You simply couldn’t ask for a lovelier Palm Sunday. Since the procession begins outside in the courtyard, I sat down by the columbarium to read a bit before the liturgy began. It’s interesting to ponder those lives: where & how they grew up, what their school rooms looked like, who their teachers were, what they dreamed about, what they struggled with, all their discoveries, all the travels they made, attempts, failures, joys, fears, sorrows, reflections, loves. All that was present to them once is now hidden in the past, now undiscoverable, at least from an earthly viewpoint. So will my life be. So will yours. In faith, we can say that they, along with everything they were & did, all belong to God, now. Ultimately, everything belongs to God.

As Father alluded to in his homily, there are 2 formal liturgical processions in the Church calendar – Palm Sunday & Easter Vigil. I think there may be a bit of confusion about this rite. It seems that Palm Sunday is treated as a sort of Easter warm-up, with the gathering outside, the singing, the palms – all festive. But the hint of Easter joy was on Laetare Sunday, not today. Also, the contrasting clash between the joyful procession & the tearful Passion read aloud later is striking. This procession is more like a New Orleans funeral march. We welcome the Lord, but to his death; a death ultimately caused by our sins, but a death that liberates us from them. What sort of ritual action can make this mystery clear? Perhaps this is simply an irreconcilable mystery.

The Palm Procession from the Old Rite is very similar, but with some notable differences – there is far more singing, all ancient hymns like Hosanna filio David. The priest reads the Gospel, sprinkles the palms, & distributes them individually – each person kneeling, receiving the palm with a kiss, & then kissing the hand of the priest, a hand consecrated to touch the Holy Things, the hand of Christ who gives us all things. While this seems odd to people raised in the New Rite, in the Old Rite the servers kiss any object received from the hand of the priest & then the hand itself. St. Thomas Aquinas said that Baptism “deputes us to cult”, that is, we are enabled & permitted to worship properly only through baptism. Even our ability to worship is a gift from God. So, it them makes sense that the blessed & sprinkled palms are given to us by Christ so that we can then use them to praise him.

This day also tells us something about our nature – how difficult it is for us to recognize & desire true & good things. We do not want to change; we want everything to change for us. We don’t want to take the time to come into understanding of a mystery; we want everything to be immediately apparent. I think this is a problem in the New Rite, at least the way it is commonly celebrated, the problematic ideology that people bring with them to it. It is impossible that man can ever understand God. God has revealed enough of himself for us to desire him, to approach him; but to say “understand” is simply self-delusion. The temptation is to turn away from the Mystery & reduce God to a formula, a ritual, or an intellectual proposition. It can lead to indifference. Instead we must continuously re-engage the Mystery, straining forward. The heart of God is impossible to reach, but as we strain forward we become more like that heart, more desirous to be in that love. Even as it shows itself in shadowy wisps & disguised messengers to us now, it is no less real or desirous.

This whole week is about Mystery. I hope I am able to participate in the Church’s liturgies of this week, & I pray for the time for prayerful reflection on their meanings. I pray that at least a part of me will be able to detach from the daily routine to joyfully & thankfully rest in the Mystery of Salvation.

The Sex Talk

Last Fall, one of the other Religious Ed teachers came to me, saying she was teaching the Ten Commandments, but just could not bring herself to discuss the 6th & 9th Commandments - as Catholics number them, the proscriptions against adultery & coveting another's spouse.

Well, after stewing on it for a while, we gathered up both the 6th & 7th grades, & I gave "The Sex Talk", the premise being that kids are continuously being bombarded by explicit & destructive images of sexuality by our permissive & immoral culture. The Church, then, must speak the truth about human sexuality boldly & without fear of ridicule or reprecussions, because if we can't, no one will. We will have failed our Lord. I concentrated mainly on God's plan for marriage as an exclusive & indissoluable union of two lives, & sex as properly reserved for married couples. I also discussed some of the abuses of this plan, both the more (sadly) common ones such as premarital sex, living together before marriage, & homosexuality, & the more extreme examples of pornography or sexual abuse.

I presented the picture of the above billboard , located just past Lenoir City exit 81 on I-75N, & pointed out that every girl wants to be a cherished & admired princess on her wedding day, & that the white was a symbol of her purity & the veil a symbol of her modesty. I entreated them that their purity was a gift to be preserved for their husband, & so not to let it all be a lie on the wedding day. May God bless the folks at Waiting 4 Dreams.com for putting this up. It makes me smile every time I drive past it.

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It is probably not by accident that this billboard is just a couple of miles up from the other one. They don't call these "porn shops" anymore, they are "relationship enhancement stores." I warned the boys that viewing girls as objects was extremely dangerous & damning. As Christians, they should look on other women as sisters in Christ, as belonging to Christ. The pornography industry is sponsored by Hell & has these young lads squarely in their sites.

Something I did not discuss with them, but was heavily on my mind was the way the early Church understood all this. In many places in the Empire, going to the theatre was a prime social activity, a community builder. The stories of their culture were enacted on stage, thus helping to make Romans more Roman. The problem is that many of the stories of the gods & godesses of antiquity were highly immoral, & these sexual liasons between dieties were performed on stage as erotic entertainment. Christians, however, had embarked on a new mode of life that clearly could not be reconciled with such licentiousness. For this, they were reviled. If everyone participated, it was cool; but when Christians refused & instead showed this depravity in the light of Christ, the culture sought to extinguish the light & return to the shadows. For the early Church, viginity before marriage was simply a given. In some areas, pre-marital sex might get one exiled from the Church & simply commended to the mercy of God. In other places, a years-long penance might be imposed before one could be reconciled to the Church. The Fathers preached virginity for the sake of the kingdon as the highest virtue, & still today, the Church considers it a "higher state." It is said that some parents would not let their daughters hear some of the Fathers preach because so many were becoming professed virgins through their exhortations!

I lament that Christians today, including Catholics, are largely indistinguishable from the secular population when it comes to these matters. That points to a misguided or false notion about what the Christian vocation is in the world, what marriage & sexuality are, who man is called to be, & perhaps even, who God is. With the Church in general & priests in particular in the world's cross-hairs over the sexual abuse scandals, there has been precious little talk of either the wonderful goods of marriage & conjugal love or the darkness & death that result from the abuse of sexuality coming from either pulpits or catechists (or parents?) these days. Yet, in the face of such evil, what incalculable damage must this silence be wrecking on boys & girls, men & women!

Some might think the kids are too young for this kind of material. I agree that it would be inappropriate for 4th or 5th graders. But my kids know all about this stuff anyway. They are bombarded with it by the media & popular culture. They have older sisters who are pregnant. They have divorced parents. They know all about broken relationships. They are experiencing the trials that come from the maturation of their own bodies. Believe me, they know. They can either learn its proper place & use from the teachings of Holy Mother Church, or we can just wash our hands of it & let the world teach them.

Leading Us Home

I'm lazy today. So besides the obligatory gorgeous sunrise photos, just read the post over at the Scripture Study blog, Grace & Truth.

Parting thought: God is at work in your life in some way today & every day. Be alert for his movements. Seek out him out. Be ready to go where he leads you. Scared? Don't be. His sole motivation is your eternal happiness.