They Have Received Their Reward

When I was a kid, and we I and other kids customarily gave up TV/chocolate/desert for Lent, many, if not most of us, made sure everyone around us knew from what we were fasting, and how painful it was and how, therefore, we suffered, (pretty much ensuring that any "pain" was distributed pretty well to those who had to deal with us, rather than ourselves.

" take care not to perform righteous deeds in order that people may see them; otherwise, you will have no recompense from your heavenly Father. When you give alms, do not blow a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets to win the praise of others. Amen, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right is doing, so that your almsgiving may be secret. And your Father who sees in secret will repay you. When you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, who love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on street corners so that others may see them. Amen, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you pray, go to your inner room, close the door, and pray to your Father in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will repay you....When you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites. They neglect their appearance, so that they may appear to others to be fasting. Amen, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, so that you may not appear to be fasting, except to your Father who is hidden. And your Father who sees what is hidden will repay you.

Golf? Really, GOLF? how brave...
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0508/10314.html

The St Noel Chabanel Psalter

I have been meaning to post a link to this worthy project, more or less since I began blogging, but I'm still not certain I can do it properly.
Let's see if the button works, despite my interneptitude...

http://chabanelpsalms.org/

"Turning toward the mystery that the Church represents with its liturgical tradition"

This journalist nails the man -- what he says is so compelling because he exudes "love, friendship with God, the joy of being Christian."

http://www.zenit.org/article-22697?l=english

ROME, MAY 26, 2008 (Zenit.org).- Benedict XVI is an effective communicator, not just because every talk he gives is like an "encyclical in miniature," but because there is a secret to his efficacy, affirmed the author of a biography of the Pope.
That secret, says Giuseppe De Carli, is the beauty "that convinces almost more than rational arguments: love, friendship with God, the joy of being Christian. ... Tell me that this is not a Pope who is happy to be Christian."
De Carli, head of the Vatican bureau of the Italian public broadcaster Radiotelevisione Italiana, and a 20-year veteran in covering the See of Peter, has just released "Benedictus: Servus Servorum Dei" (Benedict: Servant of the Servants of God).
The book was presented last week by a group of Church and civil leaders along with the author.
The volume opens with De Carli's description of the Pope as "a man of timid character on the stage of the world." De Carli said he hopes the book "will be at least be placed among those contributions that help in some way to understanding Benedict XVI's personality."
"I made an entirely journalistic attempt to talk about Joseph Ratzinger," De Carli said. "It is the only edition of a newspaper; indeed, it is a newspaper-book. Today there are newspapers that seem like books; I wrote a book that seems like a newspaper."
Communicative minimalist
De Carli described the present Pontiff as the "father of the Church of our time, a great catechist, a theologian-pastor or a pastor-theologian."
"We have gone from the communicative and charismatic eruption of John Paul II to a kind of effective communicative minimalism with Pope Ratzinger," the author proposed. "It is effective because it is not supported by the physicality of gestures."
Every talk given by Benedict XVI is an "encyclical in miniature," De Carli said. The Pope's intellectual profile "is that of one who knows how to teach," and "his public, in its many-sidedness, would be surprised by an advertiser."
De Carli suggested: "Pope Wojtyla's style was centrifugal -- he obliged the media to abandon all logic and follow him toward everything and everyone. Benedict XVI's style is centripetal -- he obliges the media to turn toward the mystery that the Church represents with its liturgical tradition.
"From that which has been seen so far, it is a pontificate of concentration and deepening. [...] The fulcrum of the Christian faith is charity, love, it is the only thing that can give a prospect of hope and then rationality and the beauty of the faith.
"I believe that he is a pastor who says much to the people of our time, those who believe and also those who don't believe."

Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa...

Snarkily, I used to give people who annoyed me the gift of a holy medal, St Dymphna.
Yes, I've always been one of the devil's Useful Idiots.
I try to draw crooked, with straight lines.

It's times like this...

I feel like ranting, but it's really all so minor and it's no ones fault, but I'm just so TIRED.
(So, how is it that you had time to muse on the careers of middle-aged movie actresses? Shut up!)
Directing thirteen-year-olds really burns up fuel, whatever stores of emotional or physical energy you have...
The Schola is the same way in some respects, with some even younger children, of course, but because it is elective, there are no soul-suckingly sullen participants; and while I really fray my cords by the end of a season, my physical exertion other than singing is running up and down the 2 1/2 stories to the loft, demonstrating and leading them in some full body stretches and warm-ups, and from time to time popping out from behind the console and up onto the risers to exhort or intimidate at closer range.
This was brutal, physically.
But I think I learned a great deal from it, I think my own acting will improve, or at least my ability to articulate my thoughts on acting and performing, and even, because of the nature of the piece, on Christianity.
My expectations have been both raised and lowered, strangely enough. I'll try to put down some thoughts on that some time.
But the whole experience has left me in lousy shape going into this ordination (and the al fresco Memorial day Mass at the cemetery, then several weddings and other "big" [i.e. with "clients" rather than worshippers,] Masses, and the chant intensive, and the colloquium after that!) and everything is going wrong.
And yes, everything going wrong, (or in some cases, merely not as expected,) is minor, really, really, really MINOR, but.... I'm on the verge of tears, I'm so tired I'm being unreasonable, (with myself, most of all.)
St Dymphna, come to my aid...

“The funny thing is that you punch him and then you kiss him,” he said...well, that’s love .

I don't know why it mattered to me so much that Marian was back for (surely!) the last Indiana Jones movie.
But it did.
And she is.
I don't know when, but i will make time to see it on the big screen.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/25/fashion/25nite.html?ref=fashion

Crossing the Tiber

News of a most blessed event, via the Catholic Herald, A British medium:
http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/articles/a0000286.shtml

Thousands of Iraqi Christians cross Tiber
By Ed West
23 May 2008
Three thousand Iraqi Christians have been received into the Chaldean Catholic Church in California, with up to 300 in Britain also joining an "exodus" into the Church.The congregation of the Assyrian Church of the East were reconciled with Rome after Bishop Mar Bawai Soro was suspended by its Synod. The bishop served as the Church of the East's Bishop for California and was also the Secretary-General of his Church's Inter-Church Relations and Education Development. However the hierarchy were unhappy with his ecumenical position and attempts to bring the church closer to the Vatican.In November 2005 the Holy Apostolic Catholic Assyrian Church of the East_(ACE) issued an official letter to Bishop Soro informing him of his expulsion.
The man described by Fr Robert Taft as a "zealous and brilliant religious leader of his people" has felt that, in this time of intense religious persecution in Iraq, the church's traditional isolation from the rest of Christendom was counter-productive.
The Chaldean Catholic Church, which descends from the Church of the East, has been in full communion with Rome since 1551 when Mar Yohanan Sulaqa met with Pope Julius III. Its patriarch, Emmanuel III Delly, was elevated to the role of cardinal last October.
Bishop Soro said: "Myself and the followers of our movement understand our present efforts of unity to be in the same spirit and motivation that continue the work started by Archbishop Timothy and Patriarch Sulaqa.
"People really desire some sort of hope in the wake of the tragic situation in Iraq. I directed a number of ecumenical dialogues over 20 years, especially with the Holy See, but the Assyrian church withdrew, because they did not want to become accountable. According to our theological tradition Rome has a great place in the heart of the Assyrian church. We are the only apostolic church not in communion with any other church. But thank God our people did not stay still, but gradually clustered around me. After two years and a campaign of defamation and a legal battle, we were able to organise a union with the Chaldean Church.
"Thanks to the Chaldean Bishop Mar Sarhad Jammo the community were able to purchase a church in Ceres, California, which was consecrated on Pentecost Sunday.
And already between 200 and 300 members of the Assyrian Church within Britain's 5,000-strong Chaldo-Assyrian community have crossed the Tiber. As well as the ecumenical issue, many accuse the Assyrian church of being linked to the Kurdish Democratic Party, which aspires to an independent Kurdistan that includes the Assyrian Ninevah Plains.
Albert Michael, a British-Assyrian, said Bishop Soro "stood up for the truth".
He said:_"For centuries all they [the Assyrian Church] have done is control the Assyrian people. They were shocked that one of their own has stood up to them. He is truly a man of God, and for this reason thousands of Assyrians worldwide have left ACE and joined the Chaldean Catholic Church of the East or the Ancient Church of the East (Old Calendar).
"It already is an exodus. In the UK, I for one was a member of the ACE but now I want nothing to do with these people. I'm not against the church, I'm against these corrupt clergy. This movement will keep growing because we know the truth is on our side. We're in the Catholic Church now - you'll need to make room for us."
Bishop Soro said: "This unity movement is crucial for the future of Iraqi Christians because it can serve as a catalyst for a wider and more comprehensive unity... a successful unity movement will inspire hope in the hearts of people and as such the results of real hope can effect the survival and livelihood of Christianity in Iraq."

How glorious it would be!

There is always a reason why a Corpus Christi procession is out of the question at our parish, out of the question.
But how good it would be...
I can see an altar set up on the steps of the parish school, one in the K of C parking lot, perhaps?
I can see all the First Communicants being given an excuse to put back on their white gowns, their little suits.
I can see them strewing petals.
I can see every alb that hangs in the closet in the servers' sacristy being filled with a body.
I can see the "Lifeteens" wearing their matching t-shirts, and the knights in their capes and feathered hats, and the Rosary Society ladies all wearing blue.
I can see the theater guild taking leadership in making beautiful stations.
I can see a quartet from the choir waiting at each altar to sing a motet.
I can see the few, but lovely banners we have, being processed.
I can see the school band, sounding like something out of "The Godfather," in happy anticipation.
I can see an affirmation of our belief in the Real Presence, I can see a proud proclamation of it in the face of a disbelieving secular society.
I can see a valuable, prophetic and possibly evangelical witness to the Faith.

I can see all this, alas, because I have a damn good imagination.

A world full of chatter...

That is a given, we accept it (although I, personally, fight against it at Mass, in church generally.)
But since when does the English-language commentator on the Vatican feed talk during the Eucharistic Prayer, DURING the consecration?

Striking, though -- everyone receiving from the Holy Father KNEELS to receive!

They KNEEL.
Wow...

"Beauty is intrinsic to the triad which, with truth and goodness, civilizes man"

In its entirety, an interview with the eloquent and elegant Fr George Rutler, (who single-handedly redeems the state that is home to the most ignorant drivers in the country,) on the New Liturgical Movement.
http://thenewliturgicalmovement.blogspot.com/2008/05/nlm-interview-with-father-george.html
NLM: Fr. Rutler, I asked this question in an interview with Fr. Joseph Fessio, and I would like to ask it of you as well: sometimes the "reform of the reform" is understood as simply meaning improving the music and general ethos of the celebration of the modern Roman liturgy -- something that is very important of course. Others propose that this is only one aspect of the reform of the reform, and that there is also a need to propose deeper reforms of the modern liturgical books themselves. What is your thought on the matter?

Fr. Rutler: The "reform of the reform" certainly encompassed more than improving aesthetic elements of worship. This is not to say that beauty in all its forms is peripheral, for beauty is intrinsic to the triad which, with truth and goodness, civilizes man. As any reading of the Pope's liturgical logic will show, the "reform of the reform" is all about the beauty of holiness, without which ritual externals are not much more than cosmetic. The holiness of worship is at the heart of the true renewal that the Second Vatican Council intended when it spoke of the liturgy as the "source and summit" of redeemed life. Without a full dedication of mind and heart, the reform of the liturgy would quickly degenerate into a vain aestheticism little different from the aesthetic movement which marked the decay of the Victorian age. There are Christian denominations that have gradually cloaked their abandonment of Gospel truths in outward ceremonials which become a kind of fancy dress paganism. A defect in some of the recent liturgical innovations has been an exaggerated emphasis on affective piety as a substitute for objective sacrifice. The sturdy language of the traditional texts assumed that the "ex opere operato" fact of the Sacrifice of the Mass will issue from and lead to an evangelical expression of this Sacrifice in the dedication of the worshipers to Christ's commission: to proclaim the Gospel and manifest the Faith in works of mercy. I think one way to get this across is for the liturgical calendar to embrace the many new saints who have lived the Eucharistic life in the challenges of modern conceits. Otherwise the sacred tradition will only be an indulgence of nostalgia.

NLM: In terms of the post-conciliar Roman Missal, sometimes called the Pauline Missal or "Ordinary form of the Roman liturgy", are there any specific reforms to its texts and rubrics that you believe are important as part of the programme of the reform of the reform?

Fr. Rutler: Most importantly, the texts need to be faithful to the editio typica, and the vernacular should be in a more elevated diction. Not only is the present translation banal, sometimes it is even ungrammatical. This also applies to the approved texts of Scripture for the lectionary; I have grave theological reservations about the neuterized translations, both with regard to the substance itself and to right to alter, and not just translate, the Scripture. The alternative opening collects should be eliminated, as they are painfully bad. The Psalm responses between the readings are too prolix and, as they now stand, the response oddly is taken from a translation different from the verses. I'd eliminate the many rubrical options, and also the fey kind of oblique rubrical suggestions: e.g. "may," "might," "could." The Roman Canon should be the norm. The preparatory prayers at the foot of the altar from the usus antiquior could be included (with congregational participation in the responses.) There should not be rubrical options in the wedding and funeral rites - this engenders pastoral difficulties.

NLM: You've also written and spoken before on the issue of hymnody. In your opinion, how important is it, not only musically but also liturgically, to recover the propers of the Mass (Introit, Gradual, etc.) which have been predominantly replaced by hymns in most of our parishes?

Fr. Rutler: Approved hymnody is appropriate for processions and closing devotions and during Communion. Hymns, with precedent in the early Church also took the form of the mediaeval tropes. The substantial music of the Liturgical should be Plainchant propers. The "hymn sandwich liturgy" consisting of a said Mass interspersed with hymns is liturgical bipolarism and should be cured. On the other hand, an overlap of singing and the celebrant's prayers as is common in Eastern rites, and in the extended Sanctus in the usus antiquior, is an effective interplay of liturgical roles.

NLM: On the topic of the usus antiquior, many believe that the spread of it into parish liturgical life, or even just the fact of priests learning about this form of the Roman liturgy can be a leaven for the reform of the reform. Do you have any thoughts on this?

Fr. Rutler: The saying "a rising tides lifts all ships" applies here. Learning about the usus antiquior can raise the general conscience of parishioners to a clearer understanding of what worship is. Each age is tempted to ape the current cultural milieu in its approach to God. The tendency to make the Mass an ecclesiastical form of television entertainment is a mistake of our day, but it is not more seductive than the inclination of an earlier generation to make the Mass operatic. Pope St. Pius X tried to reform that by his attention to Gregorian chant. Bad money drives out the good in every epoch, and some of the worst elements in current liturgical life have just updated the pietism of earlier times. From my experience, young people respond to classical worship well, albeit at first with astonishment and bewilderment, but their response is healthier than that of some older people who lack the humility to admit that their abandonment of authentic worship was a mistake. For those in their twenties and thirties, the guitars and faux folksiness of the 1960's is as archaic as the culture of the 1920's is to those in their sixties and seventies. To recover the virile authenticity of true worship, I certainly prefer the sacral language of the Latin texts but, more importantly, I think the "leaven for the reform of the reform" would best begin with worship "ad orientem." The psychological shock some may have when they realize the priest is not looking at them when he prays can be a very good tonic.

NLM: On the subject of sacral language, Fr. Uwe Michael Lang of the Oratory has presented papers at various liturgical conferences on this subject in relation to the adoption of Latin into the liturgy and how it differed in idiom from the Latin of the typical Roman in the street. Taking the retention of Latin in the liturgy as a granted, where the vernacular is used within parts of the liturgy, how do you think should be manifest?

Fr. Rutler: Without the question, the low quality of the English in the present use has been a principal causes for criticism and even, sadly, ridicule. I hope the Vox Clara project will signal an improvement. That said, ours is not a golden age for the English language. For all his heresies, it must be admitted that Thomas Cranmer was a fine Latinist and also lived in a sublime age of English letters, with the result that the Cranmerian translations, when they wanted to be accurate and not polemical, remain superb models and replicate Latin preciseness and even intonation. A generation ago, attempts to "modernize" those collects in the Anglican prayer book produced prayers which were wordier than those of the sixteenth century - rather like the very lame poesie of the alternate collects in the Novus Ordo. ---All would benefit from more frequent use of the Latin editio typica of the Pauline missal. It is easier to encourage sacral language when it is chanted. It is more difficult, and can seem stilted, when it is recited. Any language is sacred when it is prayed, and we should not confuse mystery with mystification, but the wider use of Latin transcends both time (connecting with other ages) and space (uniting different cultural groups.) In a society more mobile and mixed than ever, a common sacral language unites phonic groups, so that there is less emphasis on an "English Mass" versus an "Hispanic Mass" etc. The failure of a vernacular liturgy here is evident in the irony of having polyglot prayers in the vernacular liturgy, for instance using different languages in the petitions of the Prayers of the Faithful. Thus what was organically universal has merely become politically international.

NLM: Many would hold that aside from its value for a "reform of the reform", the wider availability of the usus antiquior is in and of itself of value in the life of the Church. Would you concur?

Fr. Rutler: Unless the usus antiquior is more widely available, it could end up being the exotic indulgence of few for whom it can function as a symbol of other problems they have with the Church and with life in general. Quite simply if it is not centric it will be eccentric and will give the impression that it is for people who do not want to face the challenges of our age. When the usus antiquior is rare, it attracts the rara avis type of person who discourages others. I am impressed by the large number of people, including an increasing number of young ones, who do not use the liturgy as an expression of the psychological baggage that weighs them down. One proof of this is how the usus antiquior celebrated without self-consciousness or some subconscious social agenda, inspires priestly vocations among solid young men.

NLM: You have recently started to celebrate the ancient Roman liturgy on occasion at your own parish, the Church of Our Saviour in New York City. Have you found anything in the texts and/or ceremonies of that Missal that has particularly struck you on a liturgical or spiritual level?

Fr. Rutler: Actually, I was spiritually formed as a "High Anglican" more familiar with the rituals of the usus antiquior than many of my Catholic contemporaries and, upon becoming a Catholic, the adjustment to popularized forms of the Novus Ordo, albeit not envisioned by the Fathers of Vatican II, was painful. Most of the Masses in my parish are Novus Ordo but they are celebrated in such a way that visitors often think they are "the old Mass." But what impresses me deeply about the usus antiquior is that it really is hard work, and properly so. It is a cult of God and not of personality. I find this even more so in the liturgies of the Eastern rites which combine the sublime and earthly in a blatantly Catholic sacramental economy. While we rightly venerate the Latin ethos, the "hermeneutic of continuity" must be a continuation of a spirit that goes back beyond the Baroque or even mediaeval to the organic life of the Church before the trauma of 1054. While not compromising the integrity of respective rites, we have much to learn from the Eastern sensibility. As the Western and Eastern churches have been called "two lungs" of Christendom, so also are they "two lobes" of the Church's brain, and they are incomplete in isolation. The positive response of many Eastern church leaders to the "reform of the reform" bodes well.

Zenit

I reprint, in its entirety, an email I received, (I think yesterday, but I might as well have been aboard a submarine the past three days, between directing the children and fighting through a cold, but more about the former later.)
Anyway, I agree utterly with the author, with the organization, it IS a worthy cause, and if you have a few bucks to spare, I respectfully suggest....
p.s. I did not find their Beg and Grovel campaign even slightly excessive, and I say this as a long time kvetcher about PBS, NPR, every classical music station to which I listen, etc., etc., etc.)
Dear friends,
A few readers have written us to complain about our donations campaign. "Isn't
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more than we do! Appealing to the generosity of our readers is a sort of
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In fact, as of now only about 3.5% of ZENIT's half-million readers donates
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But the campaign also allows you, our readers, to perform a good work, a
"corporal work of mercy." Giving alms to those who beg carries with it an
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If the campaign feels like pressure to you, maybe it's your conscience inviting
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To send a donation, click here:
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ZENIT

Witty headline....

... if a trifle raunchy.
Himself pointed out the headline of a story in one of the myriad newspapers he reads, (online and in paper... I have never known such a current events junkie.)
I concerned an airline pilot and stewardess discovered en flagrante aboard a plane.
It described them as "in the upright and locked position."

I dunno....

I admit, I spent half of my "music ministry" time this a.m., (as opposed to the stop-take-a-deep-breath-kneel-down-and-remember-why-you're-here time...) ever so slightly steamed.
When I checked in, in the sacristy, to ascertain if anything odd, or previously undisclosed was going to happen, I learned from priest A that priest B, who had the anticipated Mass complained that "everything was too slow."
Now, priest A habitually, as in two out of three weekends, complains that something was too slow; priest B? never before to my knowledge.
And without thinking I blurted out that that was surprising since he was three beats behind the organ and the cantor for most of the Mass.
So by the time choir Mass was over, the choir, all except the members who are also cantors, (and thus, privy to the on-going criticism of tempi,) were looking at me as if I had taken leave of my senses.
The thing is, my internal metronome is, objectively, slightly fast.
From the first Mass I played here cantors, choir and congregation members have regularly asked me why everything is so fast. (Actually, that is inaccurate. No member of the congregation has ever asked me anything. They tell me things. No ambivalence, no passive-aggressive manipulation going on -- I don't like the way you..., what the hell was that? I hate that....., You're a terrible cantor, I can't sing in your keys!
No shrinking violets, they.
And I'm not exaggerating, or paraphrasing.)
And I have pretty much ignored them. Well, mostly ignored them.
And yet also from the beginning, priest A has been on me, and he's been on the former early morning organist, and on the cantors, that everything is too slow.
Some of the tempi this morning were absurd.
And he said, "that's better."
Better than what??!?@?#??! He wasn't even at the Mass yesterday to whihc he was "comparing" it.
Oh, well.
Maybe I'll program Pescador....
I wonder how my predecessors fared -- I can't get any of them to tell me anything about tempi, and I know two of them take everything much slower than I.

Scandal

Forgiveness, a scandal?
The scandal against which we must guard is a word or action evil in itself, which occasions another's spiritual ruin. http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/13506d.htm
But there is another "scandal" we must embrace, that which the world may see as contrary to good judgement or self-interest, but we know is the path to salvation.

Mark Shea has a good commentary in NCR on one aspect of the Pope's visit to these United States, and on a great man.
http://ncregister.com/site/article/14924/
For me, the single most arresting display of Christlike humility in the meeting of the Pope and the sex abuse victims belonged to Olan Horne. After Benedict apologized to them and asked forgiveness, there occurred this amazing exchange:
“I asked him to forgive me for hating his Church and hating him,” said Olan Horne, 48, of Lowell, [Mass.,] who gave the Pope a picture of himself as a 9-year-old boy, just before the Rev. Joseph Birmingham started molesting him. “He said, ‘My English isn’t good, but I want you to know that I can understand you, and I think I can understand your sorrow.’”
Horne’s act is, quite simply, a miracle only possible by the supernatural power of the Holy Spirit. It will be seen by no small number of people as scandalous (like the cross itself). The notion that a victim should apologize for his unforgiveness will (according to the “It’s All About Power” interpretive grid of the world) be taken as an act of self-hatred, of the hideous Mind Control of the Church, etc.
In fact, what Horne did was liberate himself from the last and most insidious shackle of the monstrous sin committed against him: the temptation to believe that bitterness is healing.
More than that, by his unfathomably noble act, Horne made it possible for many others to likewise forgive and let go of the imprisoning rage that always tempts us to remain in the power of those who have harmed us.
This act of forgiveness and humility is the power and the scandal of the Gospel on display in full strength. I am humbled and shamed by it as I look at my own slowness to relinquish anger and bitterness when I am hurt.
God bless this man and Good Pope Benedict for this beautiful scandal of reconciliation and healing!

Pio

Two new books about Padre Pio, of whom I had never heard until, while at Mass on our honeymoon in Wales, I learned how deeply devoted to him many Catholics in the Celtish Isles ("Great Celtain"?) are. (Coincidentally we are in the middle of the annual nostalgia-fest of reading Himself's journal of the trip, where I first learned that Himself will "follow me up the hill." What hill, you ask? It matters not, he loves me.)
http://www.zenit.org/article-22605?l=english
Coincidentally, last night on Letterman there was a member of the studio audience named Pio, and Dave says he showed off his erudition and worldliness by asking, oh, that's an Italian name isn't it?
Yes, replied the audience member.
What part of Italy are you from?, asks Dave.
Ireland.

If you see a person drowning, you must jump into the water to save them, whether you can swim or not

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-obit_sendlermay13,0,210624.story

Irena Sendler, a Polish Catholic social worker whose ingenuity and daring saved 2,500 Jewish children from extermination in the Holocaust, a feat that went largely unrecognized for 60 years, died Monday in Warsaw. She was 98.She had been hospitalized since last month with pneumonia, said Pawel Maciag, a spokesman for the Polish Embassy in Washington.

In paradisum deducant te angeli

No kneeling!

A parody I don't think I ever posted -- just to be clear, this is NOT the attitude of our liturgist.
(The tune is from Guys and Dolls)

1. I dreamt last night, I was kneelin' in St Peter's,
And had, by chance, brought a liturgist along,
And as I knelt, thinking God was due some reverence,
She insisted that to kneel was all wrong,

The liturgist shrieked, stand up!
Stand up, you're rocking the boat!
The liturgist shrieked, stand up!
Stand up, you're rocking the boat!

2. I guessed perhaps, it was all to be "inclusive,"
The order was, genuflection was to cease!
We wouldn't want anyone to feel unwelcome,
(As you know, the devil's got no knees....)

And the liturgist shrieked, stand up!
Stand up, you're rocking the boat!
The liturgist shrieked, stand up!
Stand up, you're rocking the boat!

3.My previous practices would not be allowed at,
This nightmare liturgy in "bizarro Rome"
But as I lost any hope of adoration
I awoke, safe at my parish back at home

But our liturgist shrieked, stand up!
Stand up, you're rocking the boat!
The liturgist shrieked, stand up!
Stand up, you're rocking the boat!

I have a new model....

Until her death, and the flurry of all but panegyric obituaries, I had never heard of this woman, Mary Berry, convert, academic, musician -- what a role model! what a heroic, yes, heroic role she played!
Her life (putting aside the nun part ;oP) is what I should aspire to.
I've got to find more ways to inspire and motivate my singers. (Last night, perhaps because I was dropping, and my cords feeling as if they were in shreds, choir rehearsal was sensational. We made real progress, we made real music, and I think, I THINK they were happy... no complaints about the Gregorian verses of Ecce Panis which we will alternate with verses from that motet, no whining about too much new music, none of the near-refusal to exert themselves a little that I sometimes get from a few, a very few of them.)

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23661315-16947,00.html

Mary Berry
Musicologist and nun. Born June 29, 1917. Died May 1, aged 90.
MUSICOLOGIST, nun and don of the University of Cambridge, Mary Berry was highly influential in reviving Gregorian chant in Britain and abroad. Through the Schola Gregoriana of Cambridge she promoted the teaching, study and performance of Gregorian liturgical music within a 2000-year-old tradition of Christian song and, after the sweeping changes generated by the Second Vatican Council in the mid-1960s, she preserved the chant and kept it alive when the old certainties were falling all around her. ...
Devout and erudite, Berry radiated a joyful and sunny blessing, occasionally interspersed with crisp commands if singers hit a wrong note. There were no concessions to ignorance - either of the chant or the liturgy - but her bubbling humour leavened long hours of choir practice.
With a fund of interesting and mildly scurrilous anecdotes delivered with a twinkle in her eye, she was fortunate to attract many fine cantors to sing at festivals and record CDs on the Herald label.

Ember Days

Ember Days

Posted using ShareThis

I admit I had no idea what they are (H/T to Mary Jane at Sacred Miscellany, both for the explanation and ShareThis.))

Now will someone do the same for Rogation Days?

TOPIC: NO MORE LAY PREACHING

I subscribe to an "e-letter," an edition of which arrived sometime this week (I'm tearing-out-my-hair-busy, no idea when...)
IIRC, (although nothing is more probable than that all of my recollections are INcorrect,) it happened because i wanted to register on some site so that I could also mouth off and share my opinions...
Anyway, the appropriateness or otherwise of lay preaching interests me.
As does the way a bishop can affect his diocese for good or ill.

The Archdiocese of St. Paul-Minneapolis now has a new spiritual leader. John Nienstedt took over as archbishop on May 2. He previously had been bishop of New Ulm, Minnesota, and in 2007 he was appointed coadjutor of St. Paul-Minneapolis.
In not a few cases the appointment of a coadjutor--a bishop with a right of succession--is a sign of the Vatican’s disapproval of how the current bishop has been doing. I have not followed the situation in St. Paul-Minneapolis closely enough to know whether that was the case there (the fact that Flynn requested a coadjutor is not dispositive of the question), but, given an article published May 7 in the online version of “The Catholic Spirit,” I would not be surprised if it were.
My only personal acquaintance with Flynn was when he was the bishop of Lafayette, Louisiana; I met him when I gave a parish seminar there more than fifteen years ago. In 1995 he was appointed to St. Paul-Minneapolis, and in the years following not a few conservative commentators began to complain about him. Some liberal commentators complained too, after he refused Communion to people wearing “rainbow sashes.”
The article in “The Catholic Spirit” is titled “Directive from Archbishop Flynn Ends Lay Preaching at Mass.” It explains that lay preachers have been used at 29 parishes in the archdiocese for about 25 years. Many of these preachers were trained by an organization, set up by lay people, called Partners in Preaching. While the article does not explicit says so, it appears that most of these lay preachers have been women.
In general, the preaching seems to have been in place of the priest’s homily. For example, the article starts off with an account of how the pastor at St. Joseph’s parish in New Hope finished reading the Gospel, stepped away from the ambo, and blessed a woman who then preached to the congregation. The priest did not give his own homily.
Patricia Hughes Baumer, who co-founded Partners in Preaching, claims that lay preaching differs from a homily and is called instead “lectionary-based liturgical preaching.” Inasmuch as a homily is “lectionary-based liturgical preaching,” you legitimately might wonder what the difference is. She says that homilies are reserved to priests and deacons. When homilies are given by lay people, then, they are not called homilies, even though in form, functioning, and timing they are the same as the remarks given by priests and deacons.
Why the dissimulation? Because homilies really are reserved to priests and deacons (and to bishops, of course). Lay people are not permitted to give homilies--no matter what misleading term may be used instead of “homily.”
In his directive--which was sent to pastors in January and which asked that parishes have in place, by the date of Flynn’s retirement a “pastoral plan” to end lay preaching--Flynn acknowledged that lay preaching is a liturgical abuse, as is suggested by the weasel words that Baumer used to describe it.
“Why now?” asks the article. Why, as his parting shot, did Flynn call for an end to lay preaching, something that had been going on widely and persistently during his 13-year tenure? That I have no answer to. The article brings up the speculation that Flynn wanted to “clean house” before John Nienstedt took over, “but Archbishop Flynn said this is not the case.”
Those who back lay preaching make a specious appeal to canon law. This is how the article introduces the issue:
“Lay preaching was prohibited by canon law until 1983, when a revised Code of Canon law was promulgated. Canon 766 addresses lay preaching, saying ‘lay persons can be permitted to preach in a church or oratory, if necessity requires it in certain circumstances or it seems advantageous in particular cases,’ Baumer said.”
(Baumer seems to be motivated by a grievance. She says that “The suppression of lay preaching is simultaneously the suppression of female voices, because no matter how God has gifted a lay woman to break open the Word, the community will not have access to that word as it gathers on Sunday.”)
Let’s look at the canon law provisions that apply here, to see if they permit lay preaching. We begin with the complete text of canon 766:
“Lay persons can be permitted to preach in a church or oratory, if necessity requires it in certain circumstances or it seems advantageous in particular cases, according to the prescripts of the conferences of bishops and without prejudice to canon 767 section 1.”
The first thing one ought to ask is “What is preaching?” It includes giving a homily based on the readings for a Mass, but it goes beyond that. Canon 762 refers more widely to “the proclamation of the gospel of God to all,” and in the Code of Canon Law the canons dealing with preaching fall under the subtitle “The Preaching of the Word of God.” This is pretty broad and, I think, can be construed as referring to any sort of public speaking that teaches or explains the faith.
If I am right in that, then I have been a lay preacher. On numerous occasions I have given talks at parishes. Sometimes they have been in the parish hall, but more commonly they have been in the church proper--but not during Mass. Usually the talks have been in the evening, outside of the context of Mass.
I have stood at the ambo (because it has a microphone), and my audience has been in the pews, and I have given a “proclamation of the gospel of God to all,” even if my proclamation concerned only a small slice of that gospel. So I guess I have served as a lay preacher, but I never have been a lay homilist, and that is really the question in St. Paul-Minneapolis.
Let’s return to the provisions of canon law. The first section of canon 767 is key. It says, “Among the forms of preaching, the homily, which is part of the liturgy itself and is reserved to a priest or deacon, is preeminent; in the homily the mysteries of faith and the norms of Christian life are to be explained from the sacred text during the course of the liturgical year.”
So the homily takes its cue from the readings of the day, and the homily is to be given only by the priest or deacon. It seems clear to me that any talk during Mass that construes the readings is a homily, even if it is given some other title. Thus any such talk may be given only by a priest or deacon.
This means that when priests, such as the pastor at St. Joseph’s parish, turn over the ambo to a lay person, whether man or woman, and when that person gives a reflection on the readings, a liturgical abuse occurs. What is more, the priest shirks his own duties.
Section 2 of canon 767 says that “a homily must be given at all Masses on Sundays and holy days of obligation which are celebrated with a congregation, and it cannot be omitted except for a grave cause.”
In other words, priests have to prepare a homily each week . . . unless, of course, they find a way to pass that duty along to a team of lay preachers.
Preparing a good homily isn’t easy. Although I never have had to prepare a homily, I have had to prepare plenty of lectures, and the process is not fun.
You might think lectures are harder to prepare. Not necessarily. In a 45-minute lecture you have the liberty to speak discursively, to stretch out your thoughts, to take a winding path to your conclusion. In a 5-minute homily you have to get right to the point.
It’s much like writing an E-Letter. These 1,700 words take me less time to write than would a 200-word commentary. The latter requires a lot more editing.
A conscientious priest, such as my own pastor, may spend 20 hours preparing his homily: studying next Sunday’s readings, doing ancillary research, praying deeply about what he should say, writing out his remarks in full, editing them severely, reducing them to one or two note cards, and then putting those note cards to memory.
I know that most priests don’t devote that much time to their homilies (you can tell, listening to them), but that is what it takes to end up with a truly substantive homily. How convenient, then, lay preachers would be for a priest who thinks he has better ways to spend those 20 hours!
Yes, I have heard the blather about “empowering lay people”--the article in “The Catholic Spirit” provides several such quotations--but I know enough about human nature to know that motives usually are mixed.
I defy anyone to locate a priest who, having turned over his preaching duties to lay people, is frustrated because he no longer has the chance to spend many hours weekly working up his own homilies. (“Dang! Why do I have to be so thoughtful? I really would prefer to restrict all the preaching to myself, but I feel compelled to empower my parishioners.”)
The real mystery here is why Harry Flynn never got around to doing his duty, until the very end of his tenure. This liturgical abuse was widespread in the archdiocese. He could have ended it at any time during the past 13 years by issuing a three-word command to his priests: “Stop it now!”
Well, maybe there was a reason, beyond the archbishop’s request, that the Vatican assigned him a coadjutor.