Impossible!

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I'm watching papal Vespers (Evening Prayer I) for the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God on EWTN, & I just saw something that I have been told over & over again was impossible:

YOUNG, LAY PEOPLE IN THE CONGREGATION WERE SINGING THE GREGORIAN CHANT ANTIPHONS ALONG WITH THE SCHOLA.

But, but, but... That's impossible!!!  No one knows Latin anymore.  Gregorian chant will never reach the young people.  Vatican II got rid of all that.  Everything is supposed to be in English now, even in Rome, I'm pretty sure.

Sorry my guitar-strummin', tambourine-shakin' brothas & sistas: everything old may be new again, but somethings are timeless.  Such is the beauty of Gregorian chant, which belongs to no time, but is perfect for every time.

Aside form a few modern touches (including my ability to watch it live form a quarter-world away), this celebration of Vespers could have been from a hundred years ago or a thousand years ago.  It might have even resembled worship in the great Hagia Sophia in the heyday of the Byzantine Roman Empire.

Thanks be to God, indeed.
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Merry Christmastide!

Some sights & sounds from yesterday's Traditional Christmas Day Mass at Holy Ghost Catholic Church in Knoxville, Tennessee.

The Faithful gathered for a program of carols & hymns before Mass began:

Good Christian Men Rejoice!

Angels We Have Heard On High

Silent Night & Away In A Manger

Then came the entrance procession, to Adeste Fideles:

Then the Introit to begin Mass:

 After the Kyrie, then the Gloria, from William Byrd's Mass for Three Voices (our voices started out a little rougher than we might have liked, but it came together well enough):

The sacred ministers take a rest while the Gloria is sung.

The Alleluia before the proclamation of the Gospel:

Father David Carter exhorts the Faithful to ponder the Mystery of the Incarnation in an unbelieving world & to make Christmas more than just a single day:

The Communion verse:

After the Benediction, the schola sang Patestrina's Alma Redemptoris Mater, then followed with Joy To The World.  However, I didn't record those, so I thought Hark! The Herald Angels Sing make a better "closer."

Hope you had a lovely Christmas Day, & will continue to have a Merry Christmastide!
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Why?

This question must play over & over again in the minds of those in Connecticut who lost children or family in the shooting tragedy & all in the community who were affected.  Why now?  Why here?  Why these children & teachers?  Why would God allow this?  I only want to say three brief things about this situation.

Everything that happens happens according to God's will - he either permits some things or he directly wills things.  Evil is not the equal & opposite of God & his love.  Evil did not somehow "beat" God.  He permitted it.  We cannot know why, other than to know that God always brings the greatest good from the most terrible evil.  Even believing this to core of our being will not take away the grief & sense of loss, and we may not like it or understand it, but we must trust this is so.  This is the supernatural virtue of hope - that God will do what he has said.

As Fr. Christian said in a couple of lovely posts [HERE & HERE], the response to evil is to keep doing good.  Keep going with acts of charity, which Catholics call the corporal & spiritual works of mercy.  But perhaps the greatest thing we can do is become a people of prayer, by which we cull the evil from our own hearts & intercede for others.  Pray the Rosary.  Read the Gospels.  Pray at Holy Mass.  Pray the Liturgy of the Hours.  Fast in some way, especially from the things that draw us more toward the world than toward God.  Rejoice in the Lord always & give thanks to God in all things.  Make prayer & immersion in the Scriptures the foundation of all you do.  Here we encounter the saving power of the God of Jesus Christ who said, "without me you can do nothing."

Many people have called this a senseless act of put evil by a deranged person.  It is possible that people have mental disorders that make them incapable of discerning fantasy from reality or right from wrong.  However, the young person that did this did something deliberate that required planning & forethought.  He knew exactly what he was doing.  And he's not the first one.  This sort of thing was utterly unknown when I was young.  This person & his actions are the product of our society & its values.  We glorify in the media every perversion & impiety that man can dream up, & even enshrine these very things in our laws.  Violence, gossip, consumerism, gluttony, vulgarity & profanity, homosexuality & mockeries of marriage, lust & pornography, abortion & contraception, witchcraft & the occult, pride & vanity, death.  In our self-satisfaction, we have drifted so far from God & left a tremendous black & poisonous void in our society, our hearts, & in the lives of our young people.  If we insist upon a society totally devoid of God, or morality, or truth, or love, we will never see the end of this sort of thing & it will grow ever worse.  We must as a society & as individuals return to God with our whole hearts, & teach God's law to our children.  "Repent, & believe in the Gospel."

Advent: Get Ready! He's Coming!

Sale! 50% Off! Clearly the world and the Church have different ideas about what the season of Advent is about.  Both proclaim: Get Ready!  So a good question would be, “Get ready for what?”  The world’s preparation for Christmas is, of course, the buying frenzy that precedes it.  Its savior is “the perfect gift” and its sacrament is the swiping of plastic at the checkout register.  The pull of the secular holiday even draws the faithful into its vortex.  So, again, for what are we preparing and how should we do it?

As Catholics, we know for what and for whom we prepare: the arrival of Jesus - God himself who enters silently and secretly into human history to redeem both humanity and history, giving them their fullest meaning.  The secular deity offers an immediate but superficial salvation in the form of the latest fashion, entertainment, or technology; this god would define us according to our desires and possessions.  The true God invites us to become most fully who we were created to be through union with him.  This gift is never on sale; it is totally free, but demands our entire being.

God teaches us how to prepare through the Advent liturgies.  The loss of the Gloria and liturgical violet remind us of the darkness under which humanity labors.  We have been part of that darkness, so we do penance.  We participate in the secular insanity, so we must reorient ourselves to God through quiet, reflective prayer and listening to his prophetic words.  Jeremiah declares God “will fulfill the promise I made to the house of Israel… I will raise up for David a just shoot.”  God has not forgotten his people lost in darkness.  Baruch encourages, “Up, Jerusalem!... look to the east…God is leading Israel in joy… with his mercy and justice.”  Dawn begins to break along with hope of restoration.  In the third week, the color rose anticipates the sweetness of the coming of our deliverer, as Zephaniah says, “Sing joyfully, O Israel... The Lord, your God, is in your midst, a mighty savior.”  Finally, Micah announces the coming ruler of Israel whose “greatness shall reach to the ends of the earth; he shall be peace.” Here we find more than we could ever hope for: the God of Israel offers his salvation to the whole world - in him all humanity can find brotherhood and peace.  Spend time with these prophets whose words teach us Advent’s true meaning.

This arrival has already happened in history, but it is not yet complete: Jesus comes to his people over and over again, and he continues to bring us his peace: in prayer, in the Scriptures, in those in need, in the sacrament of Reconciliation and in the Blessed Sacrament of the altar. Every year he calls us to ponder and enter evermore deeply into this mystery.  He will come again at the end of history to judge all men and to present all things as an offering to the Father.  Now, that’s an arrival for which we should get ready!

Ed: This article was originally written for our diocesan RCIA newsletter.

Laudate Dominum - On Liturgical Music

Since I was up really early with a cold, I switched on EWTN & found an interesting program on sacred music hosted by Fr. George W. Rutler.  His specific topic was on origins & uses of the ancient hymn we know as Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence, but perhaps his larger point was to make us consider what qualities a piece of music must have for inclusion into the liturgy.

He rightly denigrates pop-based music, noting that Arius spread his heresy that Jesus was not of the same substance as the Father, but a lesser, created substance by way of hymns set to the pop tunes of the day - catchy & easy to remember.  Spread as it was throughout the world via the trade routes, it took centuries for the Arian controversy to resolve itself.  As to pop music, it is always dangerous to import the world into the sacred liturgy on theological grounds, but frequently the music just stinks.  I fully agree with him when he says there hasn't been a hymn worthy of singing at Mass in recent memory, & I'm sure he's holding back a little.

"I am prejudiced.  I am prejudiced toward the true, the good, & the beautiful." - Fr. Rutler

Consider the context: pop music comes from the world of entertainment.  Does anyone really listen ever so carefully to pop music so as to glean the deepest truths of the human soul?  Do we not rather just enjoy a passing feel-good moment?  So, to hear worldly music in the liturgy is to set the expectation that if we are not swelled up into a superficial, emotional high by the end of Mass, the liturgy isn't very good.  Mass is boring.  I don't get anything out of it.  Etc.  So frequently more & more experimentation & banality are applied to elicit the desired response.

"The less we understand what worship is, the more we will turn it into entertainment." - Fr. Rutler

He also points out that a choir should be in the loft behind the faithful, to push them forward in a musical swell toward God.  I always knew this, but could never quite express it.  It would help if the priest was also there to pull them ad orientem.  The term "Mass celebrated versus populum" makes me crack a smile.  Against the people?  Sure feels that way some times.  Fr. McJokey, you're not that funny; in fact, it really annoys & saddens me how lightly you take these sacred things.  Do you have no fear of what God will say to you in the end about having made Mass all about you instead of Christ Jesus?  Why don't you just stick to the printed text, say Mass well, & try not draw attention to yourself?  Same for you Mr. Plucky Strumalong songleader - you're not Eric Clapton & this isn't Madison Square Garden.  There really is no reason I should ever have to hear or see you, yet you pop up to the microphone every other minute with some unneeded direction or clever comment.  Let the choir sing the chants & we'll listen when we're supposed to & sing when we're supposed to as best we can.  And can you just save your personal musical interpretative project for MSG - I'm sure your invitation is in the mail.

"Music is the very atmosphere of worship." - Me

Naturally, this is a question answered long ago by the Church, but an answer to which no one seems to want to listen - bishop, priest, conductor, & people alike.  Gregorian chant is to be given primary place in the Roman liturgy.  Can anyone please let me know the last time they heard the honest-to-goodness Gregorian chant propers sung straight out of the Graduale Romanum instead of folksy hymns out of a hymnal at an Ordinary Form Mass?  Seriously, I'd like to know if the Church's directive (option #1 in the GIRM) is being obeyed anywhere.  These chants grew up with & within the Roman liturgy; they are inherently part of it.  Not singing them - or at least the propers in some form or another - is simply leaving part of the Mass out in favor of something that is not part of the Mass, but simply brought in from the outside: hymns.  Chant fosters an atmosphere of prayer & contemplation of the divine like no other music, though the best of polyphonic music comes close.

In a strange hiccup in the history of liturgical musical, the music from the period of the operatic aria now sounds quite formal & high-church, but was called out especially by St. Pope Pius X for being the bombastic & attention-seeking pop music of his times.  We have to give Mozart's music some leeway, though.  I once heard a priest say about sacred music that Bach was the greatest church musician, but only because Mozart's music was not of men but of the angels.  Is Mozart for every musical movement of every Mass?  Absolutely not.  But for a special occasion, such as the wedding video above, I can not think of anything more appropriate.  I hope you enjoy Ericka's first public offering of Mozart's Laudate Dominum.
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Jospeh Cardinal Ratzinger - In the Beginning

A big question for me as a young person was how to understand & reconcile the Bible's account of the creation of man with the scientific account.  Over the years, I have come to peace with this issue & now cherish the profound truths found in the words of Scripture & the teaching of the Church on this matter.  But clear, concise, & orthodox writing on this subject can be scarce.  It was a great joy, then, to discover a small book by then-Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger called In The Beginning, a collection of homilies he gave in Munich some years ago, in addition to a forward & an epilogue.

I posted a series of summaries of this important work & have collected them together in this post, but you really should just read the book.

Homily 1 - Part 1 & Part 2

Homily 2 - Part 1 & Part 2

Homily 3 - Part 1 & Part 2

Homily 4 - Part 1 & Part 2

Epilogue - Part 1 & Part 2

On this question of origins, one should note the different starting points of the Church & the modern scientific culture.  The latter starts from a presupposition of skepticism, that God does not exist & that man is nothing more than a particularly bright animal with no particular meaning to his existence.  Here man demands that God be proven, that he be picked apart like a frog on a high school biology lab table.  For the Church, however, God is already known, because he has revealed to himself to man & has shown man the tremendous dignity of his being & the glory for which he is destined.  It is a presupposition of faith based on a knowledge much deeper than facts.

While the skeptical methods of science have great merit when studying the natural world, they have little application in the supernatural realm (Obviously Sts. Thomas, Bonaventure, Duns Scotus, etc. applied profound principles of reasoning to theological matters; so here I mean specifically the presupposition of skepticism, not scientific reasoning in general).  To do so is to apply the wrong tool the problem - a bad, even dangerous, result is virtually guaranteed.

So if two men approach you and one says, "Your existence is meaningless; freedom is an illusion, as everything you are or do is predetermined by molecular interaction; there is no such thing as love; there is nothing beyond this life; your destiny is darkness & silence," and the other says, "you are a beloved child of the most high Father; you are made for an eternity of unimaginable glory, if only you would choose it," to whom are you going to lend your ear?