On the part of rich countries there is excessive zeal for protecting knowledge through an unduly rigid assertion of the right to intellectual property, especially in the field of health care.And not just in health care -- sacred texts.
There are many unrecognized men and women of holiness around us each day.....
[whose] surrender to God's love was so generous...In recent days, we laid one such man to rest. A man who exemplified holiness, demonstrated an intimate love of God, and was a model for each of us to follow to salvation.
Born May 9, 1929 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Father Thomas Mulvihill King, SJ, returned home after a sudden heart attack in his campus residence at Georgetown University on June 23. He was 80....
King understood that to be a true Christian, he could not just live the life of Christ, but he must bring others to Christ as well. For 40 years, Father King offered Mass in Dahlgren Chapel at 11:15 pm six nights a week for Georgetown’s students, faculty and staff.
King once said that said the 11:15 p.m. Mass was a good match for his night owl tendencies: “I’ve always been a late-night person, so I just decided I’d say Mass then because it fit into my day, and it also turned out to be a good student hour as well.” A comment rife with humility, as was Tom.
For 21 years he lived among the students in the dorms, continually serving as a mentor, a friend, and a confessor. ...
The thousands of students whose lives he touched over the years are better men and women as a result. His inspiration and model led countless men to enter the priesthood and women to enter the convent; his love of scholarship and his approach to Truth provided a guide for countless students to become professors; his love for life and all God’s creations molded the worldviews of so many who became physicians; and his undaunted courage and strength for all that is just and right guided so many – me included – who fight for justice thanks to Tom.
For those of us born and reared after the Second Vatican Council, Tom’s 11:15 pm Mass introduced us to a beauty and majesty of the liturgy with which we were not previously familiar. Dahlgren Chapel shrouded in darkness, the multitude of candles around and on the chapel provided the only light for the Mass. Reminiscent of the Breaking of the Bread in the catacombs of the early Church, the darkness provided a sanctuary of hope centered on the Sacrifice of the Mass. His sanctified fingers barely touching the holy altar and only handling the Body of Christ when required, Father King’s gentle and respectful treatment of the Eucharist taught us all how to respect the True Presence of Christ. We were taught to be mindful that in our presence was The Presence, the King of Kings, and we should act appropriately and with the respect He deserves and requires.
While never breaching from the Magisterium on the celebration of the Mass, Father King incorporated elements of the Tridentine Mass (the one performed for over a millennium before the “reforms” of the Second Vatican Council) into his service. Most importantly, Father King included the Last Gospel, so named because it is part of the concluding rite of the Tridentine mass.
The Last Gospel is the passage from the Gospel according to St. John in chapter i, verses 1 to 14 inclusive, where Jesus is described as The Logos, The Word.
In the Tridentine Mass – and the 11:15 pm in Dahlgren – immediately, after the blessing, the priest goes to the Gospel side of the altar. He begins with the Dominus vobiscum (“The Lord be with you”) as at the proclamation of the Gospel of the Mass.
At the words Et Verbum caro factum est (And the Word became flesh), Father King, like the priests of history, genuflects.
The text of the Gospel is perhaps best known for its opening lines: “In principio erat Verbum, et Verbum erat apud Deum, et Deus erat Verbum...” (“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God...”)
Thanks to Father Thomas M. King, SJ, we not only learned the history of the Mass, the meaning of the Scriptures and the strength required to be of God, but we also learned that sacrifice is not sacrificial, [not quite sure what is meant by the author there...] that there is courage in quiet, and that a smile and a gentle word could be the Word.
Dear Brothers and Sisters,Redeemed by the precious blood of Christ, we are called to glorify him in our bodies...... isn't that beautiful?
In our continuing catechesis on Saint Paul, we now consider his teaching on faith and works in the process of our justification.
Paul insists that we are justified by faith in Christ, and not by any merit of our own.
Yet he also emphasizes the relationship between faith and those works which are the fruit of the Holy Spirit’s presence and action within us.
The first gift of the Spirit is love, the love of the Father and the Son poured into our hearts (cf. Rom 5:5).
Our sharing in the love of Christ leads us to live no longer for ourselves, but for him (cf. 2 Cor 5:14-15); it makes us a new creation (cf. 2 Cor 5:17) and members of his Body, the Church. Faith thus works through love (cf. Gal 5:6).
Consequently, there is no contradiction between what Saint Paul teaches and what Saint James teaches regarding the relationship between justifying faith and the fruit which it bears in good works.
Rather, there is a different emphasis.
Redeemed by the precious blood of Christ, we are called to glorify him in our bodies (cf. 1 Cor 6:20), offering ourselves as a spiritual sacrifice pleasing to God. Justified by the gift of faith in Christ, we are called, as individuals and as a community, to treasure that gift and to let it bear rich fruit in the Spirit.
Despite Bernardin's public defense of the Catholic Church's refusal to ordain women,we learn from Unsworth that late in his life the cardinal had a change of heart. He told Sister Donna Quinn, a strong advocate of women's fights [emphasis supplied] ,"I personally favor the ordination of women," adding that "this is not the time."At least, I think it's a typo.
[T]he Passion play experiment was considered a success despite the interloping characters. “If someone chooses to interact with us mischievously, that’s fine,” said the Rev. Canon Anne Mallonee, the church vicar. “The opposite of engagement is not mischief, but apathy.”And what is the opposite of "sporadic"?
...“I’m a sporadic worshiper,” said Anne Libby, a management consultant in Manhattan who often follows the services on Twitter between occasional visits to Trinity.Other non-liturgical religious settings may profit more from Twittering:
The connection, however slender, has drawn her closer to the church community, she said. She has never tweeted back during a service. She does not always follow every word.
Experts say there are many degrees of openness for religious groups tuning into social media. Some carefully restrict access and even require proof of membership. Others, like Westwinds Community Church in Jackson, Mich., do not. There, Twitter comments appear on monitors behind the pulpit during services. (Some recent tweets: “Nice shirt, pastor!” and “Jesus is a joke.”)Yes, I can see how that sort of, er... acclamation, could lead to deeper relationship, and a more vibrant faith coommunity.
Who do you think of when you hear the words “sweeping investigation?” And how about the word “inquisition?” Right. Let’s move on — the “oft-unsung” nuns who have adapted to the “modern” world seem to be the heroes of this story.Part of the problem here is that you have a natural tension between the investigators, notably “apple-cheeked” and habited Mother Mary Clare Millea, and the nuns under investigation. Unless you already think “about time these nuns got their comeuppance,” or have been keeping up with the story of U.S. nuns, as a reader your sympathies are probably more likely to lie with those being “investigated.” The fact that Goodstein quotes liberal nuns in academia and a journalist with strong opinions (formerly a religion writer for the New York Times!) really doesn’t help.
What are the doctrinal issues? How come they don’t get discussed?
Where are the moderates — the nuns who feel called to life in the world, may or may not wear a habit, but aren’t universalists or even into Reiki?
Recently, Cardinal Franc Rode ordered a large-scale investigation of some hundreds of American religious orders in an effort to determine whether modern-day brides of Christ are, in fact, living up to their wifely duties.
Some hours after the Vatican's announcement, Dan Brown issued a press release indicating that he plans to address the topic in a new novel.
"The depth of Catholic cruelty and conspiracy has not yet been plumbed" Brown said, in a 'written' statement delivered to USA Today's "USA Weekend" magazine, an outlet Brown considers a perfect venue to reach his readership . "If you think that The DaVinci Code was revealing, wait until you see what I have no doubt I will manage to uncover for my new book, tentatively titled Get Thee Away From a Nunnery."
The fact that the investigation around which his new novel will be based has not yet taken place did not seem to faze Brown. "This is just a modern instance of a church cover-up that I can guarantee my research will imply goes back centuries, ever since the early nuns all lezzed out together in Renaissance Europe. I intend to trace that cover-up back to its scintillating roots, where I expect to find loads of lies, murders, and whips. Loads of whips."
The Vatican issued a statement that "this is in fact a doctrinal investigation attempting to uncover whether nuns' lifestyles are still in line with church teachings," adding that "it will mostly consist of voluntary mail-in questionnaires."
"Brides of Christ," Brown added, eyebrow raised, "or brides of small animals, routinely subjecting said vermin, themselves, and anyone else foolish enough to come into their 'folds,' to sexually ritualized sadomasochistic torture techniques, capable even of killing to protect their deep, deep blood secrets?" Nodding slowly, he added "I just lay out the 'facts' as I see fit to interpret them. You can judge for yourself."
Though the novel is not yet finished, Ron Howard has agreed to direct the movie adaptation of it. Sources say that his contract was signed in some strange, coagulated red ink, and was spotted with what appeared to be tears.
What happened in Chicago?
Many people have asked me how the trip to Chicago went, so here is a report.
I spent 5 days in Chicago at the Church Music Association of America “CMAA” - Summer Chant Intensive at Loyola University – on the Lakeshore Campus.
So what is a chant intensive?
It is a week long event where approximately 50 like minded musician, professional and amateurs, get together and learn about and sing Gregorian chant. The instructor Scott Turkington is one of the premier educators of chant in the Catholic Liturgy in the United States today.
“Scott Turkington director (Stamford Schola Gregoriana) is the living heir to the classical chant method, the author of The Gregorian Chant Masterclass, and a marvelous teacher. Turkington is a student of Theodore Marier, who was, in turn, a protege of Dom Gajard, the successor to Dom Mocquereau, the great chant scholar who, with Dom Pothier, fathered the Liber Usualis and the early scholarly publishing efforts of Monks of Solesmes for the restoration of Gregorian chant at the request of the Vatican. Thus Turkington is a direct intellectual descendant of this tradition, along with his vast experience in chant studies and pedagogy he is a famed leader of the chant revival in the United States.”
We spent time learning the chant basics – chant notation (i.e. podatus, virga, bistropha), Modes, chant rhythm, Solfege, Chironomy (chant conducting), and psalm tone pointing. We used two primary books, “The Parish Book of Chant” which the “Maria Regina Caeli Schola” uses, and the Gregorian Missal which has all the ordinary and proper chants for the Sundays and Solemnities of the Church year for the Mass of 1970 or the Novus Ordo. The Liturgy we prepared for was the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus “Sacratissimi Cordis Jesu”, June 19th. Using the basis knowledge we worked through the following music:
Ordinary – Mass IV (Cunctipotens genitor Deus)
• Kyrie
• Gloria
• Credo I
• Sanctus
• Agnus Dei
• Ita Missa est
Propers for Soleminity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus:
Introit: Cogitationes Cordis eius
Gradual: Dulcis et rectus Dominus
Alleluia: Tollite iugum meum
Offertory: Improperium exspectavit
Communion: Unus militum
Postlude:
Christus vincit! Christus regnat! Christus imperat!
While our rendition of the chant, I am sure was less than technical perfection, as we learned this week, no chant is ever sang in the same way, each offering adds to the quality and understanding of the underlying text and rhythm. I have recordings of some of the chants I made with my MP3 player, I will post later. The experience was well worth the trip, I learned a lot about the history, interpretation, and pedagogy of chant for a group of singers, which should help us to become better offers of the chant in the future. These learning’s I will be trying to gradually incorporate as we begin the new season but more about that in a later post.
The intensive as the name implies was intense, we had class/rehearsals from 8:00 AM to 9:00 PM, most days, with an hour for lunch, and 2 hours at dinner, which left little time to do anything else, but to collapse in bed at night. Meal time allowed for discussion about chant, and what works and doesn’t work for singers and leaders of chant groups and little else. I saw no TV or read no newspaper the entire time it was all music all the time. It is wonderful to spend time with people who are as crazy about chant as I am, I met some interesting people from all walks of life, there were religious from monasteries and abbeys, graduate students from Notre Dame's recently established Sacred Music program, and regular folks like me who want to learn more about chant. Most interesting and hopeful to me, was that this was a young crowd, while I was not the oldest in attendance, more than half of this crowd was in there late 20’s and 30’s which is a good sign for the ongoing health of any group.
My Reflections:
These are my thoughts about the experience and reflect my opinion only. From my discussion with the fellow participants the primary reason driving people here is the love of the chant, with the young age of the participants these people are new to singing and studying chant, there is no sense of trying to recover something from their past. A secondary theme that comes to the surface is the recovery or reestablishment of sacredness in the Mass. Today these young people are looking for the legitimate expression of what it means to be a “Catholic” in the Liturgy, and for them chant is part of the answer. “Save the Liturgy, Save the World” and the expression “Lex orandi, lex credendi” are their motto's, the latter which is Latin, loosely translatable as - (the law of prayer is the law of belief) refers to the relationship between worship and belief, and is an ancient Christian principle which provided a measure for developing the ancient Christian creeds, the canon of scripture and other doctrinal matters based on the prayer texts of the Church, that is, the Church's liturgy.
Chant has always been a subject of academic study, and use in some religious houses over the last 1,200 years, but to the ordinary Roman Catholic over these centuries the use of chant has ebbed and flowed like the waves of the ocean. Chant has almost been lost to the non-consecrated Catholic several times over the centuries, but it seems like now we might be at the beginning of the next wave of interest in the chant. A chant renaissance is brewing among U.S. Catholics. Nearly 200 Schola’s -- choirs that sing chant -- have popped up across the country, many in the past five years, according to the Church Music Association of America.
Sacred music seminars like the CMAA's - Sacred Music Colloquium that once drew 40 to 50 people now lure hundreds of Catholic musical directors, organists and singers, priests-in-training in seminaries across the country are increasingly asking to be educated in the intricacies of Gregorian chant, said CMAA president and sacred-song expert William Mahrt. Meanwhile, religious publishers are stocking -- and selling -- large collections of chant or plainsong books and music. One such publisher, Paraclete Press of Brewster, Mass., has sold more copies of its "Gregorian Melodies" CD in the first five months of 2008 -- 5,000 -- than it did all of last year. "There is such an exciting resurgence around Gregorian chant," said Jim Jordan, a musicologist and Paraclete consultant. "We have the great privilege of watching it be reborn."
But wait, I thought Vatican II did away with Gregorian chant, and that pesky Latin language?
Well maybe not, Pope Benedict's recent apostolic letter Summorum pontificum (July 7, 2007), which allows for a wider celebration of the traditional Latin Mass, now sets the stage for a wider use of Gregorian chant, given its important role in that form of the rite. His apostolic exhortation of March 2007, Sacramentum caritatis, encourages teaching Latin chant in seminaries and singing it in liturgies, with particular emphasis on international gatherings.
This renewal is a Vatican-wide initiative, with an emphasis on the English-speaking world, where the neglect of the treasury of sacred music is widespread and well-known. Cardinal Frances Arinze, head of the Vatican congregation that oversees the sacred liturgy, spoke in Saint Louis in 2007 and urged a remedy. He said that in the average parish, Gregorian chant should be constantly present.
These statements echo authoritative documents of the Church: Gregorian chant, says the General Instruction on the Roman Missal [GIRM], holds "pride of place because it is proper to the Roman liturgy."
This in turn restates the message of the Second Vatican Council, whose Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, Sacrosanctum concilium (1963), teaches that chant represents the ideal liturgical music, the standard against which all else should be measured (see Nos. 116-117).
Clearly, then, the council fathers never intended for chant to vanish after Vatican II. Quite the opposite. Pope Paul VI, in 1974, issued a book of chants entitled Jubilate Deo along with the pastoral letter Voluntati obsequens. Which states: "Those who are trying to improve the quality of congregational singing cannot refuse to give Gregorian chant the place which is due to it."
Will I see the ordinaries and full Mass propers chanted in all parishes in the near future or in my lifetime, I seriously doubt it. But I believe chant will be moving into the forefront of the Catholic Liturgy. Why do I think this will happen? It goes back to “Lex orandi, lex credendi”theme - if the Eucharist is the “source and summit” of the Catholic faith, then should not the music used in our worship be just as timeless as the Mass itself? If Catholic's believe the Mass is a representation of the Sacrifice of Christ on Calvary” or in other words the intersection of Heaven and Earth, on the Altar, every time the Mass is offered? What sounds more heavenly on this earth than Gregorian chant, I think that is something to think about?
The first thing that needs to be accepted is that the Voluntary is part of the service. However tempted people might be, they don't talk during the sermon! They listen to what the minister has to say. The Voluntary is just as much part of the service as the sermon.This simply is not so!
The organist is a vital part of the service and the Voluntary is an individual expression of worship. It needs to be treated like this and listened to with respect,and this is inarguable -- up until the last five words.
From his academic beginning as a cultural historian, he has evolved to become a historian of Earth. He saw himself not as a theologian but as a "geolgian."
May the God that he so loved embrace him today and forever.
