Thrown Back

2010-12-10T16:34:00.003-06:00

Update: Funeral Arrangements for Robert Johansen, Sr.

The visitation and funeral arrangements for my dad are as follows:

Visitation: Tuesday, December 15, 2010

7:00 pm Rosary – followed by visitation

Hartson Funeral Home
11111 West Janesville Road
Hales Corners, WI 53130

(Hales Corners is a southern suburb of Milwaukee)

Funeral Mass: Wednesday, December 15th at 1:30 pm

Saint Mary’s Catholic Church
9520 West Forest Home Avenue
Hales Corners, WI

I will be grateful for all your prayers.

2010-12-10T10:06:00.007-06:00

Requiescat in Pace: Robert J. Johansen, Sr.

I've been away from the blog for a while, being busy with school and all. I would have wanted to come back for a happier reason. But I am grieved to announce that my father, Robert Johansen, Sr. passed into eternity on Wednesday of this week. He was 70 years old. His death came suddenly - though he had been suffering from heart trouble in recent years, and had been "slowing down", he was nonetheless quite active. In fact, he was in Texas at the time of his death, making arrangements to put his home there up for sale. He was having lunch with his brothers when he suddenly collapsed, and he never regained consciousness, in spite of the heroic efforts of the EMT squad.

My Dad and stepmom moved back to Milwaukee 18 months ago, and I count that as the greatest of blessings, because that made it possible for me to spend a lot more time with him than I would have if he had still been in Texas. This summer we were able to go fishing quite a bit - that was one of his favorite things. Sometimes we didn't catch much: my dad always said there was a difference between fishing and catching. But some of my best days with my dad were spent out on the boat fishing with him, whether we caught anything or not.

I just had dinner last Thursday with my Dad and stepmom. I am so glad I saw him then. We had a good evening. As I mentioned, I have been noticing him "slowing down" over the last couple of years. But I didn't expect this, now. I guess he was still my Dad, the man who could do everything, and do it well.

My Father and I at Sacred Heart Seminary, on the Occasion of my Graduation
(all photos may be viewed full-size by clicking on them)

My Dad was my biggest supporter, my biggest fan. He was at least as happy as I was when I learned that I was going for graduate studies at the Liturgical Institute. Over the past year or so, he has said a number of times that he wanted to be around long enough to see me get my doctorate. It pains me to think that he won't even be there for my STL graduation in the Spring.

My Dad was a real Dad. He was there for me. Even when my parents split up, he was always there. He taught me to fish and to shoot and hunt. He was involved with me in my Boy Scout troop. He came with us on camping trips, and all of that. He helped me with my math homework - being an engineer, he had a grasp of math that evaded me. But most of all, he was just there. I could call him and ask him about anything technical or mechanical or countless other things, and he could give me an answer. Over the years he came up with so many absolutely dazzling brilliant projects and gadgets.

He was my genius.

My Dad at Work on His Texas "Ranch"

He loved being outdoors, working on his projects. He couldn't just sit and do nothing for very long. He loved his "ranch" (a bit of hyperbole) in Texas, and whenever I went down there to visit, he always had some project or other that he wanted my help with. I'd grumble sometimes that I was on vacation, but I'd always pitch in. Sometimes I'm not sure how much actual "help" I was, as I didn't always pick up on what he seemed to grasp intuitively about what we were working on. But I was always glad to be with him.

A Closer Shot of my Dad on his Tractor

Last week, when I was leaving after dinner, our last words to each other were "Love you, Dad", and "Love you, buster" (he has called me that since I was a small boy). I am glad those were our last words, but how I would like to be able to talk with him again! I will remember countless things about him, but, of course, that's not the same. I will remember his intelligence, energy, his laugh, even his gruffness. But I will remember his love: that he expressed with words, but even more so with his efforts, actions, and sacrifices.

Love you, Dad.

Requiem aeternam dona ei, Domine,
et lux perpetua luceat ei.

P.S. Funeral arrangements for my father are still pending. As soon as they are finalized, I will post the information.

2010-05-14T06:42:00.003-05:00

The New Missal - Disaster or Opportunity?

I have a new piece up at Inside Catholic on the English translation of the new Missal that was approved last week.

The title is "The New Missal: Disaster or Opportunity?"

I take the position that it's not a disaster, but is a generational opportunity for liturgical catechesis:

The impending implementation of the new Missal reveals interesting and problematic issues regarding our expectations of liturgy and what I have elsewhere described as the "ideologization" of liturgy. Many of the objections and protests regarding the new Missal frequently arise from ideas and agendas that are neither liturgical nor theological, and hence serve neither to clarify the faith nor edify the faithful.

In the article I refer to other things I have written on ideology and liturgy. My original piece on this is here:

A Necessary Conversation About Ideologized Liturgy

Read and Enjoy!

2010-05-12T07:37:00.000-05:00

My Mom's Move: Success and Thanks!

Sorry to be away so long -- been busy with school, etc.

Well, we did successfully get my Mom moved last month. Some very good people from a neighboring parish came through.

Special thanks go to Louis and Mary Baez (hope I'm spelling the last name right...). Louis and Mary really spearheaded the effort and arranged everything.

Many thanks to all who helped. You're storing up treasure in heaven!

2010-04-06T14:05:00.003-05:00

Help Needed! My Mom's Moving Disaster

Last week I posted a request regarding my Mom's need for help with moving. A number of you responded with offers of help and some other suggestions. And, not long after my request was posted, my Mom was contacted by someone from her parish, and it looked like everything was in good shape.

Unfortunately, it didn't turn out that way. The offer of help from her parish ended up not materializing in actuality: there didn't seem to be much follow-through. There were also some bureaucratic difficulties (my Mom has wanted badly to get out of her present residence for a while as it has been very unpleasant), delaying the move.

So now, things are in even worse shape than before. If we can't get her moved by the end of this week, she risks losing the new apartment. She has to move out of her present apartment before the end of April.

My Mom is disabled. At this point she has no one but my niece (who has an infant child) to help her. The new moving day is this Friday, April 9.

So I'm once again sounding the cry for help!

If you live in the Orlando, Florida, area, and can give some time and effort, or make some concrete suggestions for alternatives, that will be greatly appreciated.

My Mom lives in Deland, Florida, and is moving to Orange City, which is nearby.

My e-mail address is:

frrob AT earthlink DOT net

My e-mail address, with link, is also in the sidebar on the right side of the page.

Thank you!

2010-03-24T11:11:00.002-05:00

Update On My Mom's Situation

Thanks to those who have sent e-mails offering suggestions! I received some good news: I spoke to a gentleman at my Mom's parish who is coordinating some help for my Mom, through the K of C and other parishioners.

Sometimes, in these matters, it is just a question of getting in touch with the right person, who can bring the right people together.

So it looks like my Mom is going to get the help she needs. Deo Gratias!

2010-03-23T11:49:00.004-05:00

Bleg! Help Needed For My Mother

I am asking any readers in the Orlando, Florida area if they might be able to do me and my mother a big favor.

My mother, Carole, lives in Deland, Florida. She is 66 years old and disabled, due to a back injury sustained at work about 6 years ago.

She needs to move by April 1, and she needs help in packing up her belongings in her apartment. She doesn't so much need help in actually moving (transporting furniture, etc). We have people who can help with that. But she needs help with physically packing up (boxing, etc.) her belongings in her apartment. She is simply physically unable to do a lot of that. My niece has been helping her out, but my niece has a 3 month old baby, so there's only so much she can do. And my niece's husband works, and as it is will be taking a day off of work to help with the move itself. It is next to impossible that I will be able to get down there before April 1.

We have tried local social service agencies, ~~my mom's parish and the local K of C~~, and have thus far come up with nothing. And time is running out.

If you would be able and willing to give an afternoon or evening or two in the next week to help my mom out, you would be a Godsend.

Please e-mail me if you can help, or if you have another idea or source of assistance. My e-mail address is:

frrob AT earthlink DOT net

My e-mail address, with link, is also in the sidebar on the right side of the page.

Thank you!

2010-03-23T10:37:00.003-05:00

I Consider Everything as Loss...

Sunday afternoon, as I was contemplating the likelihood of the Obamacare Health Care bill's passage, my mind was drawn repeatedly to Sunday's readings, particularly the second, from St. Paul's letter to the Phillipians:

Brothers and sisters:
I consider everything as a loss
because of the supreme good of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.
For his sake I have accepted the loss of all things
and I consider them so much rubbish,
that I may gain Christ and be found in him...
(Phil. 3:8-9)

Since the passage of that disastrous legislation, my thoughts have returned to that reading.

I think, as I have written below, that this "Health Care" legislation will lead to the public funding and provision of abortion in a way we have never seen before. If it stands the coming legal challenges, and is not repealed or severely modified, I think it will open up a Pandora's box. It shreds any conscience protection for health care professionals, and thus will serve to further push Catholics to the margins in health care. Furthermore, I think Sr. Keehan and the CHA will find, in the long run, that they have made a devil's bargain. He who pays the piper calls the tune: and with the power of the state behind advancing the abortion license in health care, there will be inevitable pressure put upon Catholic hospitals to line up with the new regime. I think, in the long run, that this could spell the end for any distinctively Catholic (in terms of values and moral principles) identity in health care.

But again, to return to St. Paul: St. Paul lived in an age and society that was far more hostile to the faith than our own. We have to remember that there have been times and places where things were far worse for the Church and her members. And yet the Faith endured, the Church survived, and even sometimes, prevailed. Why, because we have Christ, who has already won the victory.

"I consider everything as a loss..." Everything. That means fortune, property, Catholic schools and hospitals, and yes, even our nation. We will not be saved by America. We will not even be saved through America. I love my country, but I must face the reality that at some point, like every other human institution, it will come to an end. If we realize that our nation itself is destined to be a loss, that puts into perspective a defeat such as Obamacare.

Yesterday, John Derbyshire at National Review Online wrote about the decline of our Republic that Obamacare typifies. If I recall correctly, Mr. Derbyshire is not a believer, and he takes a somewhat Stoic view of things, which comes out in this passage:

I see plainly that Western civilization, over my lifetime, has been a slow-sinking ship. The few who have known what is happening have worked desperately to seal the watertight doors, repair the fissures, pump out the flooded zones. It's been a losing fight, though. The tilt of the decks is harder and harder to ignore. Last night, a major bulkhead gave way. Soon a funnel will topple over with a great crash and a shower of sparks. Yet still the band is playing, the people are dancing, the food coming up from the galley.

I am not sure things are yet as dire as Derbyshire describes. If he is right, we must face that reality unflinchingly, and be ready for what may come. To that extent, the stoic approach is useful.

But even if he is right, we are not mere Stoics. Why? Because we have Christ. That means we have something that the Stoics do not: We have hope. Hope not for America, hope not for some ideal State or Nation or Republic, but hope for Eternity, where moth and rust do not consume, nor do the politicians royally foul things up.

Even if the ship of state is sinking, we have a lifeboat - the barque of Peter. And that lifeboat will carry us safely to the shore. Therein lies our hope.

2010-03-22T07:41:00.002-05:00

Now, For Some Predictions

Predictions are always a dangerous business. But, based on what I've written already, I'll make a few predictions about what will happen next in the working-out of the Obamacare scheme.

Firstly, the "pro-life" Democrats who voted in favor of Obamacare will take cover in the Executive Order that Obama will issue, and hope you won't have heard about the Constitutional issues that obviate that order from the beginning. They will claim to have won a victory for life, even as the pro-choicers in Congress gear up for the abortion funding that the bill makes inevitable.

Secondly, the pro-choice activists will hold off until sometime after the election to file the legal challenges that will bring about the collapse of the house of cards that is Obama and Pelosi's promise of non-funding of abortion through Obamacare. This is the one issue in which I differ from Professor Destro, whom I mentioned in my post of Sunday evening. Professor Destro said that "we can be virtually certain that the first lawsuit arguing that the Senate Bill requires funding for abortions under the CHC appropriation will be filed before the ink is dry on President Obama’s signature." I disagree with his opinion here: The Democrats are facing some tough electoral fights in the fall, and they won't want to provide pro-lifers and Republicans with such ready ammunition. If they can maintain some discipline in the ranks, they'll get the pro-choicers to hold off till after the election. If the Democrats manage to hold on to their majorities, they'll feel emboldened to go ahead with the demolition of the house of cards. If they lose either of their majorities, they'll want to move forward before they lose the White House, and will feel that they must set the Obamacare abortion mechanism in motion. I'd look for movement on this front by early next year.

Speaking of elections, I predict that several of the "Stu-Packers" will lose their re-election bids and have to find some other employment. In particular, I think Bart Stupak's tenure in the House will come to an end this fall. He will find himself on the receiving end of concentrated pro-life anger, and the political activism that generates. And if Rep. Stupak thought his about-face would bring him back into good graces with the Left, he will be proven mistaken. If you take a look at sites like the Huffington Post and Daily Kos, the netroots are still screaming bloody murder at Stupak. They're vowing to unseat him and are pouring money into the coffers of a Democratic primary challenger. His flip-flop gained him nothing there. I will not be surprised to find that Stupak himself ends up gaining nothing from his flip-flop.

Next, when those legal challenges are mounted and lead to courts decreeing that the Federal Health system must fund abortions, Bart Stupak and his "pro-life" bloc will take cover under their innocent trust in the assurances they had that abortion wouldn't be covered and that the Executive Order would offer additional protection. They will act as though no one could have foreseen what was happening. They will conveniently forget that they were warned, and they will hope that you weren't aware of the warnings, either.

[I will allow for the theoretical possibility that one or more of the "Stu-packers" might show signs of contrition when these events happen. However, I think it unlikely. When was the last time a politician showed public contrition, except in the face of an indictment?]

Finally, at some point when the Obamacare program really kicks in, we will see thousands more abortions, paid for by federal tax dollars. The pro-choicers will have won their golden ring.

[I also allow for the possibility of two other things: It is theoretically possible that the legal cases brought about by Obamacare will lead to a Supreme Court verdict striking down Roe v. Wade. However, I would place the real-world likelihood of that at the vanishing point. Secondly, I allow for the possibility that the Republicans may regain control of Congress and repeal Obamacare. But in order to really accomplish that, they'd need a Republican president. And a lot can happen between now and 2012. In short, I think that, with all of their efforts, the Republicans will not be able to knock Humpty-Dumpty completely off the wall.]

In particular, I'll be glad to be proven wrong about the sixth prediction. But I don't see things working out that way.

2010-03-22T00:22:00.007-05:00

It Turns Out That Bart Stupak...

...Is just another Democratic politician, after all.

Congressman Stupak has been speaking for weeks now about "standing up for principles" and taking a "principled stand" for life. So where did his principles go?

It is sad, really. Congressman Stupak could have been regarded as a Pro-life hero. On Saturday evening, the night before Stupak flipped, National Review Online's Corner ran an e-mail from a doctor in Stupak's district, saying:

I am proud to have him as my Congressman despite my differences with him. His strength of character in the face of tremendous pressure has been exactly what is needed. I have called and e-mailed him to thank him, and I will continue to pray for him.

I was coming to think of him as such a hero. Had he held firm, I was prepared to make a substantial (for me, anyway) contribution to his re-election campaign, as I knew he was facing a primary challenge from a rabid pro-choicer. I was also contemplating organizing a pro-life petition drive to urge the Michigan Republican party not to run an opponent against him in the fall election. That is how highly I was coming to think of him. Needless to say, I will not do any of those things now.

So why did he do it? Of course, we cannot crawl inside his head or heart and see his inner motives. But we can and indeed must examine his statements and actions. And I at least find his statements and actions in this matter to be either incomprehensible or, in the words of another blogger, "unconscionable".

Congressman Stupak, in his statement explaining his decision, said that he was accepting a promised Executive Order from President Obama as a measure that would "protect the sanctity of life." He further added that "the President's executive order makes it very clear that [abortion] will not happen," under the auspices of the Obama Health Care bill.

The problem: this executive order will do nothing at all to prevent abortions. It can't. Legally and constitutionally, it can't. You see, an executive order cannot undo the provisions of a law passed by Congress and signed by the President. Only another law can do that. Furthermore, an executive order cannot undo settled precedent of constitutional law.

Some writers and commentors over at Vox Nova have asserted that the opponents of Obamacare and the executive order fear that Mr. Obama will rescind the executive order, as though such a fear was ridiculous ("It's pointless to argue with them", one said.) Well, given the chicanery, baiting-and-switching, and misrepresentations that the President has perpetrated in getting this bill passed (mentioned in my previous post), I think it's entirely reasonable to mistrust his bona fides in this matter. However, if you're of a more trusting nature, and choose to think that the President will not rescind the order when it becomes politically expedient, well, good luck to you with that.

But, as was the case below, the President won't even have to rescind the order for it to be rendered null. It is a nullity as it is written. And that nullity will be made manifest in the first legal challenge mounted. Why, because, as I said above, an executive order can't undo the provisions of a law. And remember, as I wrote below, that the provisions of the Obamacare bill, since they do not incorporate Hyde-like language, will mandate that abortions be funded. So all someone has to do is challenge the executive order and the whole house of cards comes down. And the President will then be able to make a long face, go on television, and say how sorry he is, but that the courts have tied his hands in the matter. He and the congressmen who bought into this scheme will have their cover. Are we to imagine that smart lawyers like the President and congressional leadership aren't aware of these things?

But Congressman Stupak, and his allies, were warned about this as well. On Sunday morning Richard Doerflinger, the US Bishops' legal analyst, sent a memo to the aides of Congressman Stupak and others warning that this executive order didn't pass muster. Doerflinger wrote:

One proposal to address the serious problem in the Senate health care bill on abortion funding, specifically the direct appropriating of new funds that bypass the Hyde amendment, is to have the President issue an executive order against using these funds for abortion. Unfortunately, this proposal does not begin to address the problem, which arises from decades of federal appellate rulings that apply the principles of Roe v. Wade to federal health legislation. According to these rulings, such health legislation creates a statutory requirement for abortion funding, unless Congress clearly forbids such funding. That is why the Hyde amendment was needed in 1976, to stop Medicaid from funding 300,000 abortions a year. The statutory mandate construed by the courts would override any executive order or regulation. This is the unamimous view of our legal advisors and of the experts we have consulted on abortion jurisprudence. [emphasis mine] Only a change in the law enacted by Congress, not an executive order, can begin to address this very serious problem in the legislation."

This analysis has since been echoed and expanded by numerous legal and constitutional experts.

In other words, as I wrote above, since the constitutional law and the provisions of the bill itself trump any executive order, the President's executive order will be a nullity the moment it is signed.

And, once again, if you don't believe me, believe the actions and words of pro-choice representatives. Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman-Schultz is a committed pro-choicer, and she said, "Well, it can't be a change by executive order, because an executive order can't change the law":

Note that after that clear legal statement, she dissolved into double-speak. She said that "unequivocally... we would not change the Hyde amendment." Well, the Hyde amendment doesn't apply to the Obamacare bill, as she undoubtedly knows. Everything she says after "an executive order can't change the law" is all stated in the context of the Hyde amendment, which doesn't apply. She concludes by lamely saying the order would provide "further comfort" for the members concerned about this issue.

And don't forget the co-chair of the House Pro-Choice Caucus, Rep. Diana DeGette, agreed to the Executive Order. The leader of the pro-choicers in Congress is unfazed by the executive order, as I wrote below, because she knows it to be a house of cards.

So, why did Rep, Stupak go along with this? Well, as I said, I can't know his heart or inner mind, but a couple of possibilities strike me: The first is that Stupak's flip-flop was a cynical ploy, and that he was not really committed to making a serious pro-life witness. I'd like not to believe that, but the possibility can't be dismissed. This video of Stupak from last summer saying he could vote for health care bill in spite of abortion funding, at least calls his sincerity into question. And his flippant remark to NRO that "the sky could fall" does not exactly foster an image that he is looking at his flip-flopping in a serious way. However, I don't really buy this view. I just don't see that kind of duplicity and deceit in his character.

Another possibility is that Rep. Stupak was fooled: that he was sold a bill of goods by Obama and Pelosi. I'd like not to believe this either, as the Executive Order scheme is really the thinnest of dodges - tissue thin. But others have been fooled, as I wrote below. One thing that leads me to believe that this may be possible is the fact that, all along, Mr. Stupak has been saying that he really, really wanted to support this, that he really wanted to "be a yes" for Obamacare. We are all more easily misled regarding things we really want or really want to believe in. If Bart Stupak really wanted to believe in this Health Care bill, he might have been more ready to accept a superficially satisfactory "fix" than someone a little more skeptical.

Whatever the case may be, Mr. Stupak will have his conscience to wrestle with, and, like all of us, he will have to account for his actions one day to the One who will know what was in his mind and heart. Whether he was playing us, or whether he was fooled, he has shown that he should no longer hold office. But regardless of which of these possibilities is the reality, he most certainly needs our prayers.

2010-03-21T21:11:00.010-05:00

The Bishops, The Health Care Bill, and Misdirection

I may only be writing a slightly-advanced post-mortem regarding the so-called Health Care Reform bill that the House of Representatives is currently debating: Congressman Bart Stupak and his bloc of allied Democratic congressmen announced earlier today that they will now support the bill, based on a promise of an executive order from President Obama that will supposedly prevent federal funds from being used for abortion (more on that later). The turning of the "Stu-Packers" virtually guarantees passage of the bill.

But make no mistake, the Health Care Reform bill will inevitably lead to federal funding and provision of abortions under the new health care system. That is why Cardinal George and the US bishops have been so outspoken in opposing it. Cardinal George and the bishops have pointed out that the only thing that has thus far prevented federal funding of abortions is the Hyde amendment, a piece of legislation restricting the provision of abortion in federal social service spending since the 1970s. Absent the restriction of the Hyde amendment, the way is open to federal funding of abortion. That is why the CHA pronouncement in favor of Obamacare was mistaken: they said that the language of the bill was an "acceptable way" to limit abortion. But the bill has no Hyde-style language, and thus does not actually prevent federal funding of abortion.

Furthermore, it seems that the bishops have been given the "bait-and-switch". Cardinal George, in his statement of March 15, wrote:

The American people and the Catholic bishops have been promised that, in any final bill, no federal funds would be used for abortion and that the legal status quo would be respected.

However, the bishops were left disappointed and puzzled to learn that the basis for any vote on health care will be the Senate bill passed on Christmas Eve. Notwithstanding the denials and explanations of its supporters, and unlike the bill approved by the House of Representatives in November, the Senate bill deliberately excludes the language of the Hyde amendment. It expands federal funding and the role of the federal government in the provision of abortion procedures.

The President promised one thing, and in this health care bill, he is delivering something else. Did he change his mind, or was he never serious about the promise to begin with? Here's a hint: The President is a lawyer, and understands the careful parsing of words. Did he ever promise to include specifically Hyde-like language in the Health Care bill, or did he only make general "promises" like the ones the Cardinal described?

At the root of the matter is the question, "Does the Obama Health Care bill provide federal funding of abortions?"

President Obama, Nancy Pelosi, et al. have been saying "No." And, according to the barest, most legalistic interpretation possible, they're not lying. The bill does not have, anywhere in it, language saying "this legislation provides X billions of dollars to pay for abortions." Nor does it say, "doctors or hospitals under the federal plan must provide abortions according to scheme or formula Z."

OK, great! Right?

No, not so great. This bill doesn't say things like I wrote above because it doesn't need to, in order to open the way for federal funding of abortion. Remember the Hyde amendment, that prevents federal funds from going to abortion? Well, it only applies to annual appropriations in the Health and Human Services budget. And the Obamacare bill is not part of the HHS appropriation: It is separate legislation. So the Hyde amendment doesn't apply. That means that the door is wide open for funding abortion through the Obamacare system. Hence, the bishops' and Cardinal George's insistence that the bill have Hyde-equivalent language in it. Language that it doesn't have. Language that President Obama and Nancy Pelosi refused to include and that the Senate Democrats refused to adopt.

Not only does the Obamacare bill "open the way" to federal abortion funding, but, because of the way the bill is written, it mandates such funding. Why? Because it is a matter of settled constitutional law, since Roe v. Wade, that federal funds cannot be withheld for the provision of abortions unless there is specific legislation requiring such prohibition. In other words, unless Congress specifically forbids funding of abortion, the funding of abortion is required. That's why the Hyde amendment was necessary in the first place. And that's why such a provision was necessary in the Obamacare bill. The President and Mrs. Pelosi didn't need to include abortion funding language in the bill because they knew perfectly well that the settled legal precedents would do it for them in the absence of any Hyde-like language to the contrary.

Now, this isn't just my opinion. This has been the consistent warning of the USCCB. This was the warning of the US Bishops' legal analyst, Richard Doerflinger, who said, in response to HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius' assertion that the Obama administration didn't want to fund abortions: "Abortion has a court mandate unless Congress stops it specifically... The Hyde Amendment doesn’t cover this bill, so it is irrelevant." As I said, this is settled constitutional law: Even lawyers for the Bush administration, in examining the issue several years ago, agreed that the precedents were clear.

And if that wasn't enough, Congressman Stupak and the other "pro-life" Democrats had another warning delivered yesterday. Professor Robert Destro, a constitutional law scholar at the Catholic University of America, and expert in the law surrounding abortion, wrote a letter to Stupak on Saturday saying plainly regarding the question of abortion coverage in Obamacare:

It’s not even a close question. Abortions will be covered.

Professor Destro is the former dean of the Columbus School of Law at Catholic University, and has been involved in abortion related litigation for over 30 years. He wrote:

For nearly forty years, the courts have held that there are no medical or economic reasons to distinguish elective abortions from any other medical service. The basic argument is that health care coverage for women cannot be truly “comprehensive” unless – and until – elective abortions are covered just like any other medical procedure. Federal appeals courts have been unanimous in their holdings that when Congress provides funding for “comprehensive” services, it must explicitly prohibit the use of federal dollars to pay for abortions. If there is no explicit prohibition, the courts will order the federal government to pay.

In other words, as I wrote above, the funding of abortion will be required. There will be no choice in the matter, even if the Obama Administration wanted one. The courts must and will follow the legal precedents.

Professor Destro goes on to write:

This has been the law for over thirty years. In Beal v. Doe, 432 U.S. 438, 443 (1977), Pennsylvania women denied coverage for elective abortions under state law sued in federal court, arguing that “Title XIX [Medicaid] requires Pennsylvania to fund under its Medicaid program the cost of all abortions that are permissible under state law.” In Beal, the argument was that Congress’ failure to exclude abortion from the definition of “family planning services” in the 1972 amendments to Title XIX required the states to cover abortion. The courts have always assumed that, without the Hyde Amendment, federal law requires that the federal government must pay for abortions. Neither the argument and nor the precedents have changed. Read together with the case law and Section 1303 of the Senate Bill (which assumes that abortions are a part of a “comprehensive” health care insurance program), we can be virtually certain that the first lawsuit arguing that the Senate Bill requires funding for abortions under the CHC appropriation will be filed before the ink is dry on President
Obama’s signature.

And why is Destro so certain about this?

You may wonder why I am so certain about these conclusions. The answer is simple: I have been involved in the funding fights over abortion since 1977, and helped to write the amicus brief filed by 218 Members of the House of Representatives in Harris v. McRae.

Now it seems to me that there are two possibilities: Either the President, Nancy Pelosi, et al. have been proceeding in wide-eyed innocence and sincerity protesting that the Health Care bill will not fund abortions, in perfect ignorance of the legal ramifications involved, or, they have been engaging in a classic campaign of misdirection, pointing to the bill and its lack of overt funding provisions, all the while hoping you won't notice what constitutional law will mandate. Given the President's deliberate decision not to use Hyde language, his bait-and-switch tactics, and Nancy Pelosi's avid support for abortion-on-demand, I think the latter is far more plausible.

And there is one more piece of evidence: the behavior of the pro-choicers themselves. They have been rabidly hostile (from their point of view, understandably so) to any modification of the Obamacare bill which even approaches Hyde-like language. Just yesterday, Rep. Jan Schakowsky of Illinois reacted vehemently against even the hint that abortion restrictive language would be re-inserted to the Obamacare bill, vowing that 50 democrats would "walk away" if that happened. They wanted the existing language (that which is in the bill being debated now) to remain - a tacit admission that the existing language does open the way for federal funding of abortion. Federal funding of abortion has been the "golden ring" for pro-choicers for over 30 years. If this legislation didn't provide it, you can be assured they wouldn't be satisfied. Even the much-ballyhooed executive order supposedly preventing federal funding is another piece of kabuki-like misdirection: Rep. Diana DeGette, co-chair of the House Pro-Choice Caucus, agreed to the Executive Order "compromise". Why would the leader of the pro-choice caucus agree to something that appears to restrict abortion? Easy, because she and her allies know that, as Professor Destro said, the Health Care bill will end up funding abortions, executive order or no.

A lot of people have been misled by the President and Mrs. Pelosi's campaign of misdirection. It appears that, at best, the leadership of the CHA was bamboozled. Many on the Catholic left, such as many of the writers and readers over at Vox Nova, seem to have been fooled as well. It's understandable: the truth of the issue is buried beneath a deliberately-erected superstructure of obfuscation and outright deception. As his fans never tire of telling us, the President is very smart. It beggars belief to imagine that Mr. Obama didn't know exactly what he was planning to do to Cardinal George, the bishops and Catholics with his bait-and-switch, and what he has been doing of late.

But don't be fooled any longer. The Obamacare legislation will end up funding abortions. The settled law on the matter is clear: not that it could, or may, or might, but that it must.

2010-02-10T10:58:00.010-06:00

Biretta Sighting!

Last week we celebrated the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord, and on that same day, the Liturgical Institute offered Dr. Denis McNamara's Hillenbrand Lecture (see previous post below).

In honor of the auspicious day and occasion, a couple of my confreres and I decided to "fly the flag" by making a fuller use of presbyteral sartory.

Hence, you see us in soutane and, of course, it's accompanying proper headcover:

(all photos may be viewed full-size by clicking on them)

Pictured, from left to right, are Fr. Dana Christensen of the White Around the Collar blog, Fr. Donald Richardson, a priest of the Archdiocese of Sydney, Australia, and, of course, myself. We were photographed in the Music Room of Mundelein Seminary, under the full-length portrait of Cardinal Mundelein.

Here we are, with heads uncovered:

This is what you may receive from us at the mention of liturgical dance:

We Are Not Amused

The sunny skies return:

Back to Our Usual Cheerfulness

And, finally, with Dr. McNamara, following his lecture:

2010-02-05T15:09:00.014-06:00

A Jeweled Garden Where the Angels Live

The Hillenbrand Lecture at the Liturgical Institute

On Tuesday evening, February 2, Dr. Denis McNamara, assistant director of the Liturgical Institute at the University of St, Mary of the Lake, presented one of the annual Hillenbrand lectures, which is a series of lectures sponsored by the Institute to address topics of serious study related to the Sacred Liturgy. The Hillenbrand Lectures are named after Msgr. Reynold Hillenbrand, a Chicago priest who was one of the leaders of the Liturgical Movement. Among other things, he was an organizer of the “Liturgical Weeks” of the 1940s.

The Liturgical Institute's Director, Fr. Douglas Martis, STD,
making some introductory remarks.
(all photos may be viewed full-size by clicking on them)

Dr. McNamara is a well-known architectural historian, specializing in sacred architecture. His most recent book, Catholic Church Architecture and The Spirit of the Liturgy, was recommended “wholeheartedly” by Archbishop Raymond Burke and characterized as “ingenious” by Professor David Fagerberg of the Notre Dame Center for Liturgy.

McNamara’s lecture was titled “A Jeweled Garden Where the Angels Live: Gothic Architecture and the Inheritance of the Temple”. In it, Dr. McNamara showed how the legacy of architectural symbolism of the Jewish Temple was taken up by the early Christian church and continued to inform the language of Gothic architecture. I was fortunate to have attended his lecture, and present a few excerpts from his presentation here.

Dr. Denis McNamara

McNamara began his remarks by pointing out that the title and inspiration for his presentation comes from Margaret Barker, who used the phrase “a jeweled garden where the angels live” to refer to the Temple of Jerusalem. McNamara’s study of Gothic architecture led him to believe that the architects and builders of the Middle Ages were deliberately using Temple themes to show the fulfillment of the Old Testament and its people in the New Covenant of Christ and his Church.

McNamara asked the question:

Why make a medieval church look like this? Is it just that Constantine dumped all of the imperial court ritual on to the simple fellowship meals that the early Christians are supposed to have had, and ruined the purity of the early Church? That’s the dominant, mainstream thought in architecture for the past 30 to 40 years. Or is there something more? I would argue that there is something more.

Dr. Denis McNamara Discussing Old Testament Typologies

Dr. McNamara showed several slides of reconstructions of the Temple, and observed that:

The inside of the temple was in cedar covered with gold, but it was carved: Carved with leaves, vines, palm trees, gourds, vegetables, and flowers. What comes to mind? The Garden of Eden. How can you experience the restoration of the Garden, before the restoration actually happens? Well, here it is, architecturally, in these panels carved with flowers, leaves, and trees. And this is not just some sort of “Walden Pond”, Thoreau-ian kind of garden: this is a glorified, perfected, ordered, radiant garden, overlaid with gold. A garden where gems are in the very walls and floors: It’s an eschatological garden: the image of the world restored at the end of time.

Artist's Rendering of the Temple Interior

McNamara then proceeded to explain the development of churches in the Patristic age, in which the fathers explicitly adopted Temple imagery and themes:

If you look at someone like the patristic-era church historian Eusebius, you see that he calls the altar the “holy of holies”… he calls the bishop of Tyre, who built a new church, the “new Zerubbabel”, after the governor of Israel who rebuilt the Temple after the Babylonian exile. So the bishop is a new temple-builder and a new tabernacle-builder, and the altar is the new Ark, the place of God’s presence. So the “shadow” [of the Old Testament temple], comes roaring right into the early Church. Note that Eusebius doesn’t say “Wow! That royal imperial court liturgy is so cool and makes Jesus look really important, so let’s do that.” No. He is saying “let’s imitate the temple”.

Dr. McNamara Explaining the Symbolism of the Temple

How we understand these issues is of great import, for how we think about liturgy, and our place in it, depends largely on how we conceive of our relationship with the worship of the Old Covenant:

…Cardinal Ratzinger insists that both the synagogue and the temple entered into Christian life. But what happens to Catholic worship without Temple imagery? The Ark of the Covenant, which is fulfilled in the tabernacle, the abiding presence of God, gets moved to a less prominent place, the church becomes a meeting hall, and the priest becomes a “presider”. And so, you see, a lot of thinking about liturgy “breaks” on what you think of the Temple. It’s not an accident that a lot of reformation denominations said that “the Temple is obsolete.” Read Calvin: for him, [regarding the Temple] “it’s all done, it’s over. It was interesting, It helped the Israelites, but we don’t need it anymore.” And so the church becomes a meeting house and the priest a leader or presider, rather than a sacral image of Christ. So again, our ideas about the church and liturgy “break” on how we think about the Temple.

Dr. McNamara used numerous examples of medieval gothic churches and cathedrals to show how temple themes were used again and again, such as jewels and gold to convey radiance and light:

… So in Gothic architecture builders were able to open up the walls to let in gem-like colorful and radiant light. And they used the colors of the gems, and the very gems themselves, that were used in the temple… They couldn’t cover the windows externally with rubies and other gems, but they used the next best thing – stained glass.

McNamara used the church of St. Denis in Paris as an example of these temple motifs. He quoted from Abbot Suger, who rebuilt the church as the first true exemplar of the gothic style in the 12th century:

Abbot Suger, writing of this church, says that the image (building) is the symbol of the Church glorified…but it’s also the holy of holies where God dwells – this is temple language.

Interior of St. Denis

Another example of the gothic use of Temple motifs can be seen in the church of Sainte-Chapelle, also in Paris. Though it was severely damaged in the French revolution and reconstructed in the 19th century, that reconstruction was done after extensive archaeological research and with a serious effort to make the reconstruction as faithful as possible. McNamara said of this church:

The flame-like spires are covered with little leaves and garden-like vines, reaching up into the sky. You walk up into the church, and you see gold, patterns of flowers, leaves, and trees. You see the whole world is a glorious, radiant, colorful interior, with a starry sky above. The apostles are on each of the 12 pillars of the church, and then when you look up close, you see leaves, flowers, angels, rubies, emeralds; then, the view up to the sky above heavenly Jerusalem.

Dr. McNamara persuasively argued that the Gothic church was replete with Temple imagery, particularly that of the restoration of the Garden of Eden. So Margaret Barker’s phrase, which she applied to the Temple, might readily be applied to Gothic churches as well: They are “Jeweled Gardens Where the Angels Live.”

A Gothic Angel

2010-02-05T14:47:00.005-06:00

Cultivating Beauty in the Liturgy - Candlemas

This past Tuesday, of course, was the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord, also known historically as Candlemas. Here at the Liturgical Institute we began Mass with the traditional Blessing of Candles and Procession. We then celebrated a beautifully reverent Mass, with incense, and Gregorian Chant. I'm afraid I don't have any photos, but we did record the Gregorian Alleluia for the Mass. Fr. John-Mark Missio, a fellow student of mine at the Institute, and I sung the Alleluia.

Images may be viewed full-size by clicking on them.

Listen by clicking on the player here:

Alleluia for Candlemas

The text might be translated as:

"The old man carried the boy; however, the Boy guided the old man."

At the Liturgical Institute we strive to celebrate the Liturgy with reverence, fidelity and beauty, and I hope this recording illustrates that effort.

2009-11-19T12:21:00.010-06:00

Chant Workshop This Saturday!

This Saturday, November 21, Fr. David Grondz of St. Philip Neri House and I will be conducting an Introductory Gregorian Chant Workshop. We have had great success with these in the past, and contiune to attract interest. So far we have about 30 people signed up!

With this workshop coming just before Advent, we will give special attention to chants of the Advent season.

So, Catholics in Michigan and beyond - come and learn the music which is most truly that of the Liturgy!

Chant for Beginners

An Introductory Chant Workshop

Presented by Fr. Rob Johansen and Fr. David Grondz.

Fr. Grondz Teaching at a Previous Workshop

The Workshop will include presentations on:

Reading Chant Notation
History and Spirituality of Chant
Some Fundamental Chants of the Roman Rite
Chants of the Advent Season

No previous knowledge of Chant required - This is truly for beginners!

Saturday, November 21, 2009
9:00 AM - 4:00 PM

Hackett Central Catholic High School
1000 E. Kilgore Rd.
Kalamazoo, Michigan.

For more information or to RSVP call St. Philip Neri House at (269) 385-9933, or e-mail to frdavid AT stphilipnerihouse DOT org.

(Hackett Central Catholic High School is in Kalamazoo, just a few minutes from I-94.)

Cost: $30.00 per person (includes lunch and a copy of the Parish Book of Chant).

Sponsored by St. Philip Neri House.

Fr. Rob Johansen has an extensive background in music, having studied voice, ‘cello, and conducting at the University of Illinois. He studied Chant at the Catholic University of America, and continued his Chant studies at Sacred Heart Major Seminary under Calvert Shenk. He has degrees in Religious Studies, Classics, and Patristic Greek and Latin. He is currently pursuing a Licentiate of Sacred Theology in Liturgy at the Liturgical Institute in Chicago.

Fr. David Grondz received his S.T.B. from the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome and was ordained to the Priesthood in 2006. Fr. Grondz has studied Chant for 13 years, and served as assistant organist at the Pontifical North American College. He is currently the Parochial Vicar of St. Mary Church, Kalamazoo, where he regularly celebrates the Sung Mass in the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite.

2009-11-19T11:56:00.005-06:00

The Use of the Liturgical Tractor

I'd imagine that most of you liturgy-minded folks out there have never considered how the use of certain farm implements might complement the liturgy.

Well, back before I began my studies in liturgy here at The Liturgical Institute, I celebrated a wedding Mass for a couple of my parishioners at my little country parish. The groom, a farmer, had come up with a clever and entertaining way to make use of his tractor for the special day.

The Liturgical Tractor and its Accessory, the Liturgical Cattle Trailer
(all photos may be viewed full-size by clicking on them)

After the Nuptial Mass, the bride and groom made their way to their conveyance:

Madame, Your Chariot Awaits...

OK, so the tractor wasn't actually used in the liturgy, but the phrase "Liturgical Tractor" does have a compelling kind of ring, doesn't it?

The Bridal Party on Its Way

If you can think of, or know of, any other liturgical uses for agricultural implementa, I'd love to hear about it!

2009-10-16T07:34:00.008-05:00

So, Where Am I Now... Or, Fr. Rob's Big Move

As I mentioned in my previous post, this summer I stepped down as pastor of St. Stanislaus Parish in Dorr, Michigan, where I had served for almost 5 years. I spent much of the summer in residence at SS. John and Bernard parish in Benton Harbor, and much of my time preparing for the next phase of my priestly ministry.

I am happy to say, that after prayer, discernment, and much consultation with my bishop(s), I am now at The Liturgical Institute at the University of St. Mary of the Lake in Mundelein, Illinois. The University of St. Mary of the Lake is most widely known for Mundelein Seminary, the seminary of the Archdiocese of Chicago. I am pursuing the Licentiate in Sacred Theology (STL), with a concentration in Sacramental Theology and Liturgy. The program will take me two years to complete, and consists in foundational coursework in theology, as well as specialized courses in Sacramental and Liturgical Theology. The Licentiate is an advanced ecclesiastical degree, granted by a pontifical ecclesiastical faculty chartered by the Holy See. In effect, the Licentiate is more than a Master's degree, but less than the Doctorate, to which the Licentiate leads. Among other things, the Licentiate is the minimum degree required to teach theology at a Catholic seminary.

I am very grateful to be here. The process that led to me coming here began last fall in conversations with now-retired Bishop James Murray of Kalamazoo. He and I, over the years, had discussed me going back to school on several occasions, but it seemed to me that things were coming together for this now. Over the course of the winter and spring, Bishop Murray and I arrived at the conclusion that I would come to the Liturgical Institute. I am grateful for his openness to see the value my studies in this area could have for the diocese. I am also very grateful to our newly-installed bishop, Paul J. Bradley, for "seeing through" Bishop Murray's decision, and himself being very supportive of my interests and efforts in this vein. I have been impressed by Bishop Bradley's vision for the diocese and church, and for his insight into the possibilities and opportunities that my advanced training in Liturgy could open up for the benefit of our diocesan church.

I am very impressed with the program here at the Institute. The faculty are excellent, and the academic content is solid. I am also very impressed with my fellow students. They are all very accomplished people in their own right, and bring a great deal of ability, insight, and experience to our studies. As many of you may know, the Institute was founded in 2000 by Cardinal Francis George, the Archbishop of Chicago, to provide sound training and formation in liturgy for academics as well as parish professionals. I can say from my own experience that the Institute strives to be faithful to the mind and heart of the Church, and to inculcate a true "Spirit of the Liturgy" in continuity with the whole of the Church's liturgical patrimony. The Institute has been growing in size, visibility, and prominence in recent years, and that growth is, in my opinion, entirely deserved.

As I said before, I'm truly grateful to be here. I'm already learning buckets - I cannot tell you how many times either in class or in my reading I have thought "that's something I could take back to a parish or to the diocese." I have no doubt that I will continue to learn a great deal.

I'll keep you posted on the doings here, and what I'm learning in my studies. In the meantime, pray for me, that I can truly deepen my understanding of the sacred liturgy!

2009-10-16T06:43:00.007-05:00

So, Where Have I Been?

Sorry to have been away for so long. I've been meaning to get back to posting for a while, but have only been able to do now. I've received a number of e-mails over the last few weeks from people asking, "Where are you? And where have you been?" Well, I will answer the first question in my next post, but I'll answer the second question first.

The answer is that I've been busy! I had a busy summer: In late June I stepped down as pastor of St. Stanislaus in Dorr (why will be apparent in that next post), and spent the rest of the summer in residence at SS. John & Bernard parish in Benton Harbor. I also travelled quite a bit. I spent some time with my father in Texas. He was preparing to move from the "Hill Country" area of Texas (northwest of San Antonio), back to Wisconsin, where he lived before his retirement 7 years ago.

My Dad's House in Texas
(all photos may be viewed full-size by clicking on them)

My dad lived on a river, near a large lake, and it was really quite idyllic: lots of waterfowl, good fishing, and other wildlife. It was not at all uncommon to have deer grazing on the property, or have troops of wild turkeys around, etc. But it had become too much for him to keep up with, and the luster of the area had decreased in the last couple of years with the severe drought Texas has been experiencing. The river is reduced to a trickle, and is now unnavigable.

In the photo above, that large outcropping of rock in the foreground was completely submerged two years ago. You can see the river in the background, a tiny trickle of its former self. The effect of the drought is even more noticeable here:

The Effects of the Drought

The portion of my dad's boat launch ramp in the foreground would have been completely submerged as well. You see the dock on the right, now a high-and-dry dock. Across the "river" you can see the neighbor's dried-out boat ramp as well.

So I was down there to help my dad prepare for his move. I also visited some friends out East for a week or so.

But much of my time and energy was taken up by preparing for my big move. About that, in my next post...

2009-06-12T11:11:00.011-05:00

Cultivating Love for Beauty in the Liturgy

It's not exactly "news" anymore, but last month I took a group of students (7th & 8th graders, as well as some altar servers) to St. John Cantius Catholic Church in Chicago for their celebration of High Mass in the Extraordinary Form for the Ascension of the Lord. We arrived at the church in the afternoon of Ascension Thursday, where we were given a tour by one of the canons of St. John Cantius, followed by dinner at a local restaurant, and then back to the church for Mass.

I believe it is very important that the priest work to instill and cultivate in our young people an understanding and appreciation for the beauty of the Sacred, whether it be in art, music, or architecture. To that end, I have periodically tried to introduce the children at our parish school to different aspects of sacred art and sacred music: for example, I have brought an iconographer to the school to give presentations on sacred art and iconography, and guest musicians to introduce the students to different instruments and kinds of sacred music. This is "on top of" the program in liturgical music that I introduced to the school two years ago, which has produced results like this:

School Children Singing the "Regina Coeli"

But this trip to St. John Cantius is a step to giving the kids exposure to the Sacred beyond their own parish and school. Also, this was, for most of the school children, their first experience of Mass in the Extraordinary Form. I have been gradually introducing the use of Latin and Gregorian Chant over the last 3 years, so these things would not be alien to the children, but to experience these things in the usus antiquior was new for most of them.

And what an experience it was! We arrived and entered the church just as the brothers were beginning Vespers. The children were quite impressed by the church itself, as well anyone should be:

(all photos may be viewed full-size by clicking on them)

I enjoyed watching the kids crane their necks around trying to take it all in. Most of the kids have never been to a church as large, impressive, and chock-full of art as St. John Cantius.

After Vespers, Br. Joshua, one of the Canons of St. John Cantius, gave us a tour of the church.

Br. Joshua Explaining Various Aspects of the Sanctuary

Among the artistic beauties of the church is the Wit Stwosz Altarpiece replica. Done in carved wood, gold, and other precious materials, it is a one-quarter size replica of a famous altarpiece in Poland.

The tour was quite complete, even including a trip up to both lofts. Like many great Polish churches built in this period, St. John Cantius has a double loft - one for choir, one for the great organ. the kids were impressed both by the organ and by the view from the loft:

As I mentioned above, after the tour we went out for dinner at a nice Italian restaurant nearby, and then returned to the church for Mass. I gave the kids a brief introduction to the Extraordinary Form of the Mass before we left the school in the morning, and Br. Joshua gave some "preview" information as well. The kids were already familiar with the Ordinary of the Mass in Latin, from our usage at St. Stanislaus, and I prepared for them a little handout with the propers so that they could follow those as well.

The Mass was glorious! The choir sang Tomas Luis de Victoria's Missa Ascendens Christum in Altum, as well as an impressive modern work, Colin Mawby's O Rex Gloriae, during the Offertory. The kids were entranced by the singing - that was one of the things that came up repeatedly in the days after the trip.

I had told the children beforehand that it wasn't so important to try to follow along in the Mass exactly, so much as to "take in" the whole experience and unite themselves in prayer to the priest offering the Sacrifice during the Canon. On the bus ride home, they readily confessed that they lost track of things during the Canon. A number of them wanted to know why the Canon was silent in the Extraordinary Form, which I explained. But none of them seemed unduly bothered by the fact that they lost their place here and there. I think the experience put them on such "sensory overload" that they were borne along by the whole sacred movement.

The Whole Crew after Mass

So, the kids had an experience they will remember, and some were intrigued enough to say that they wanted to go to an Extraordinary Form Mass again. (Yea!) A taste of sacred beauty does indeed inspire the thirst for more!

2009-03-20T10:19:00.002-05:00

Introductory Chant Workshop!

Last fall, Fr. David Grondz of St. Philip Neri House in Kalamazoo and myself offered an Introductory Chant Workshop. It was a great success - so much so that we're doing it again!

So, Catholics in Michigan - come and learn the music which is most truly that of the Liturgy!

Chant for Beginners

An Introductory Chant Workshop

Presented by Fr. Rob Johansen and Fr. David Grondz.

The Workshop will include presentations on:

Reading Chant Notation
History and Spirituality of Chant
Some Fundamental Chants of the Roman Rite

No previous knowledge of Chant required - This is truly for beginners!

Saturday, March 28, 2008
9:00 AM - 6:00 PM
Participants will have the opportunity to put to use what they have learned, as we will be singing for the parish 5:00 PM Vigil Mass.

St. Bernard Catholic Church
555 E. Delaware
Benton Harbor, Michigan.

For more information call SS. John and Bernard parish at (269) 925-2425, or e-mail me at frrob AT earthlink DOT net.

(Benton Harbor is located approximately 40 minutes West of Kalamazoo, off of I -94.)

Cost: $30.00 per person (includes lunch and a copy of the Parish Book of Chant).

Co-sponsored by the Diocese of Kalamazoo: Office of Christian Worship, St. Philip Neri House, and SS. John and Bernard Catholic Church.

Fr. Rob Johansen has an extensive background in music, having studied voice, ‘cello, and conducting at the University of Illinois. He studied Chant at the Catholic University of America, and continued his Chant studies at Sacred Heart Major Seminary under Calvert Shenk. He has degrees in Religious Studies, Classics, and Patristic Greek and Latin. He currently serves as Pastor of St. Stanislaus parish, Dorr.

Fr. David Grondz received his S.T.B. from the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome and was ordained to the Priesthood in 2006. Fr. Grondz has studied Chant for 13 years, and served as assistant organist at the Pontifical North American College. He is currently the Parochial Vicar of St. Mary Church, Kalamazoo, where he regularly celebrates the Sung Mass in the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite.

2009-03-20T09:37:00.003-05:00

Thomas More College: Giving New Life to Catholic Culture

Tonight, Thomas More College in New Hampshire will host a lecture on the "Restoration of Gregorian Chant in the 20th Century", by Samuel Schmitt. This is just one of a series of speakers and events that Thomas More has sponsored, all directed at inculcating a broad and Catholic understanding and appreciation of Culture.

Some of you will recall, a few months ago, that Thomas More instituted a program in Sacred Art, headed by English artist and iconographer David Clayton. I had David visit my parish last year, where he gave several presentations to my parish and school. I can say firsthand that David is both an outstanding artist and teacher. I have no doubt that this program, called the "Way of Beauty Art Program" will accomplish great things.

But as I said, these efforts serve a larger and broader vision: the restoration of a living and creative Catholic culture. To be truly Catholic and creative, it must be rooted in the Tradition of the Church, which is the wellspring of all Western culture. To this end, students at Thomas More not only read the "Great Books", but experience the fruits of that Catholic tradition through the "Way of Beauty" program and it's programs at Rome and Oxford.

The President of Thomas More College, Jeffrey Nelson, is the source of the vision which has brought about these initiatives at the College. I've known Dr. Nelson since my graduate school days at Catholic University, when he was working for the Intercollegiate Studies Institute. He had then, and has brought to his post at Thomas More, a vision of the Liberal Arts as part of the great Catholic tradition of learning, cultivation of beauty, and pursuit of virtue which constitute Catholic culture. These elements all complement one another, and Dr. Nelson and the faculty at Thomas More are working to bring them together in a program which, when it reaches fruition, will be perhaps the finest Catholic Liberal Arts curriculum in the country.

It's places like Thomas More College where the "Catholic revival" are happening. It's places like this where we will see the vision of Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI for a "new springtime" in the Church come to its fulfillment.

2009-03-20T09:00:00.005-05:00

Sung Mass in the Extraordinary Form!

I will offer a

Ecce Agnus Dei...

Sung Mass in the Extraordinary Form of the
Roman Rite
(Missa Cantata)

Sunday, March 22, 2009
Laetare Sunday
(Fourth Sunday of Lent)
1:00 PM

St. Stanislaus Catholic Church
1871 136th Avenue
Dorr, Michigan

I will be the celebrant.

Music will again be provided by the Schola of the Chair of St. Peter

Let us come and worship!

2009-01-09T12:17:00.005-06:00

(Arch)Bishop Vigneron on Liturgy

I'm coming to the party a bit late, but I am very excited and happy that Bishop Allen Vigneron, late of Oakland, California, has been named as the next Archbishop of Detroit.

I know Bishop Vigneron from his days as rector of Sacred Heart Major Seminary in Detroit, where I had the good fortune to complete my studies for the priesthood from 1998-2001. He is an outstanding teacher and pastor. He is loyal to the Church and her Magisterium, and patient and generous as well.

Bishop Vigneron is deeply concerned with the state of the liturgical life in the church in the country, and as rector of the seminary tried to inculcate in us seminarians a sense of reverence and a respect for the liturgy as something given. Toward that end he implemented significant reforms of the seminary's liturgical practice, most notably introducing and establishing as normative the use of the Proper antiphons at seminary Masses, and moving away from the use of hymnody. He brought the late Calvert Shenk to Sacred Heart, and one of his specific charges to Cal was to restore the Propers to their rightful place in the liturgy. This move was not at all popular in some quarters of the seminary faculty (though it was quite well received by the overwhelming majority of seminarians), and provoked a storm of criticism and outright attack from certain elements of the Archdiocesan establishment. But Bishop Vigneron persevered and continued these reforms in spite of the opposition.

I am confident that we will see good things happen in the Archdiocese of Detroit, and eventually beyond, as a result of Bishop Vigneron's accession to the see. This is good news for all who want to see the liturgy celebrated according to the authentic vision and mind of the Church, and good news for all who value fidelity to the Church's teaching and discipline.

Back in 2000, while I was still a seminarian, I wrote an article for Adoremus based on an interview I had with Bishop Vigneron. The article, titled "Liturgy as Ecology" discusses the liturgical formation and training offered by the seminary. However, it provides insight not only into Bishop Vigneron's approach to the liturgical life of the seminary, but into his broader liturgical vision as well:

The single greatest problem is the tendency to turn the Liturgy into a focus on the self, rather than on God. Bishop Vigneron believes these tendencies are misguided, because they "obscure the Christological and Trinitarian focus inherent in liturgy."

"Liturgy", he says, "is not entertainment, it is not self-validated. Liturgy is the experience of heaven, not something that happens to me in some sort of emotional-personal state."

Bishop Vigneron has a great deal more of importance to say in this article, please read the whole thing here.

Pray for him, and for the Archdiocese of Detroit! Ad multos gloriosque annos!

2008-12-24T10:59:00.002-06:00

People Look East!

As I have mentioned before, I write a monthly column on liturgical matters for the newspaper of the Diocese of Kalamazoo, The Good News.

For this month's column, which appeared this past Sunday, the Fourth Sunday of Advent, I wrote about the use of Ad Orientem:

(I am indebted to Fr. Cavanna Wallace of Oceanside, CA for some of the material in this column.)

Living the Liturgy

“People, Look East”

One of my favorite Advent hymns is the old French carol “People, Look East”. It has always seemed to me to exemplify the joyful expectation of the Advent season. While I’m not sure what, if any, expert consensus there may be on the matter, I’ve always thought of it as a late Advent hymn – one to sing in the week or two before Christmas, and maybe even on Christmas eve. The hymn urges us to get ready: Love, in the Christ child, is on the way! He’s almost here, as the last verse tells us:

Angels, announce with shouts of mirth
Christ, who brings new life to earth.
Set ev’ry peak and valley humming
With the word, “The Lord is coming.”
People look East, and sing today:
Love, the Lord is on the way!

Christ is the light of the world, as Simeon prophesied in the temple (Luke 2:32), and as John wrote in his Gospel (John 1:4-5). He illuminates the souls of those who belong to him. So the Church, from the earliest times, has seen the light of the sun, particularly at dawn, as a symbol and image of Christ. Zechariah refers to the coming Messiah as the “daybreak from on high” (Luke 2:78). At the end of the book of Revelation, Jesus describes Himself as the “bright morning star” (Rev. 22:16). The early Church, reflecting on this symbolism, attached great importance to worshipping Christ at dawn, especially on the first day of the week, which was also the day of resurrection.

The early Church attached great importance to facing towards the dawning light in its prayer as well. Early churches were built so that, when the assembly gathered for prayer, they faced the East. When Mass was celebrated, priest and people faced not each other, but together faced the altar, toward the East. St. Clement of Alexandria (150 – 216 AD) explained:

... And since the dawn is an image of the day of birth, and from that point the light which has shone forth at first from the darkness increases... In correspondence with the manner of the sun’s rising, prayers are made looking towards the sunrise in the east. (Stromata Book IV, ch. 7)

Even when, as the Church grew, it was no longer possible to build every church so as to have the altar facing eastward, the custom remained of having priest and people together face the altar during the Eucharistic liturgy, facing the Daystar who came to be with His people on that altar.

This posture of priest and people facing the altar is known as ad orientem, which is the Latin for “toward the East”. Most Catholics who are aware of this posture would probably associate it with the Extraordinary Form of the Mass, that is, the Mass as it was celebrated before the liturgical reforms of the 1970’s. Indeed, one of the liturgical changes most associated with Vatican II is that of turning the priest around so that he faced the people. Many Catholics would probably imagine that this change was mandated by Vatican II, and that the former posture of ad orientem had been abolished. But this impression, widespread though it is, is incorrect. In point of fact, no document of Vatican II and nothing in the rubrics of the modern Roman Rite either requires the priest to celebrate Mass facing the people or abolishes celebrating Mass ad orientem.

Our Holy Father Pope Benedict, while he was still Cardinal Ratzinger, wrote of the desirability of returning to the ancient practice of ad orientem celebration, expressing himself very strongly:

...A common turning to the East during the Eucharistic Prayer remains essential. This is not a case of something accidental, but of what is essential...What matters is looking together at the Lord.
(Spirit of the Liturgy, p. 81)

As Pope, Benedict has gone so far as to publicly celebrate Mass using the ancient ad orientem posture. And many priests and parishes, all over the United States and indeed, the world, are beginning to take up the Pope’s lead in restoring this tradition. At my own parish we have begun using it from time to time, and several other parishes in the Kalamazoo diocese have adopted ad orientem, some even doing so entirely.

What this ancient posture underscores is the essential message of the liturgies of Advent: We are all to be turned toward the Lord, waiting for His coming. For some two millennia the people of Israel waited for the coming of the Messiah. He has come, but we still have the experience of waiting expectantly for Him, every time we celebrate the Eucharist. And if we are turned towards Him, if we are oriented in the direction of His coming, then we can have blessing which was given to the shepherds on the night of His birth – the glimmer of a faint purple light in the East, growing to the ray of light from the Daystar. A light shining not from the sky, but from an infant, who is Himself the Light of the World. People, look East! Love, the Lord is on the way!

2008-12-24T10:40:00.002-06:00

Sung Mass in the Extraordinary Form In January!

I will again offer a

Sung Mass in the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite
(Missa Cantata)

Sunday, January 11, 2009
(Feast of the Holy Family)
1:00 PM

St. Stanislaus Catholic Church
1871 136th Avenue
Dorr, Michigan

I will be the celebrant.

Music will again be provided by the Schola of the Chair of St. Peter

I hope that Catholics from Michigan and beyond will come and participate in this beautiful offering of the most perfect Sacrifice of worship and praise.

2008-11-04T14:41:00.004-06:00

Catholics and Politics: A Faustian Bargain

My article "Our Faustian Bargain: Catholics Caught Between Parties" appears today over at Inside Catholic. The article is the fruit of my observation of, and growing impatience with, Catholics seeming to accommodate the principles of our Faith to the two dominant political parties. We, and the faith, are the losers in this process:

Many of us are volunteering to cooperate with evil, because we see no way out of the dilemma of aligning ourselves with one party or the other. In essence, faithful Catholics are forced to accept whatever bones the major parties and candidates throw us: If we think the Democrats offer more compassionate social policies and the prospect of ending the war in Iraq, we must tolerate their embrace of abortion and same-sex unions. If we think the Republicans offer the best hope of eliminating abortion-on-demand and defending marriage, we have to be willing to tolerate their embrace of "preventive" war and so-called enhanced interrogation techniques. Catholics, it would seem, are being forced to make Faustian bargains every time they enter the voting booth.

It seems to me that we are giving up too much in our willingness to play the political game by the rules the two parties give up. Rather than transforming our parties and politics, as our faith teaches we should, we are compromised and co-opted, and end up transformed (and not in good way) by our politics.

It seems to me that if we were serious about transforming our parties and policies by making the gospel the starting point of our politics, things would look a lot different:

If Catholics were really serious about "transforming" our parties and politics, things would look much different than they do today. For example, where is the Congressional Catholic Caucus? There is a Congressional Black Caucus, a Congressional Hispanic Caucus, a Serbian Caucus, and even a Congressional Boating Caucus. So where is the caucus devoted to bringing Catholic representatives and senators together across party lines to promote, defend, and advance Catholic teaching on matters of justice and the common good?

Where are the Catholics in politics? We have Republican Catholics, and Democrat Catholics. How many of us are willing to be Catholic, first, foremost, and without compromise?

Read the whole piece.

2008-10-31T13:22:00.005-05:00

Extraordinary Form Mass a Success!

Last Sunday, as previously mentioned, we offered a Sung Mass in the Extraordinary Form here at St. Stanislaus. I am happy to say that it was a wonderful occasion: We had a good turnout - approximately 80 people assisted. The Schola of the Chair of St. Peter sang very well, and my servers, who have been working to learn the Mass since the beginning of August, acquitted themselves wonderfully. I'm also happy to be able to report that, while I made a few mistakes, they were relatively minor ones (for example, once I raised my arms in the orans posture when I shouldn't have). I found celebrating the Mass an exhilarating experience.

Unfortunately, in my busyness in preparing for the Mass, I forgot to bring my camera over and have someone take photos! So I have no pictures of the Mass. I'm hoping that some of those in attendance took pictures.

Starting next Sunday, November 9, I will begin offering the Extraordinary Form regularly, on the second and fourth Sundays of each month. So in November, we will have Masses on the 9th and the 23rd. Masses on both dates will be at 9:30 AM.

As I mentioned, my servers worked for a couple of months to learn to serve the Traditional Latin Mass. And they did a superlative job on Sunday, due in large part to their preparation and work. Last Friday, October 24, we had our final practice and run-through for the Mass. Fr. Scott Haynes and Br. Robert of the Society of St. John Cantius in Chicago came up for the evening and helped me with rounding out their training. Fr. Haynes has also been good enough over the last month or so to work with me and give me some advice and criticism in developing my own ars celebrandi. I'm very grateful for all their help.

So, while I don't have any photos of the Mass, I do have some photos of our server training marathon from last Friday, which I hope will be of some interest:

Fr. Haynes and I work with the boys on the Gospel Procession
click on the photos to enlarge

One of the things that really pleased me about my servers was their ability to deduce for themselves some of the principles of serving the Mass without having to be told every detail repeatedly. For example, once they were shown how to move around the sanctuary for the incensation of the altar at the beginning of Mass, they simply went right into applying the same patterns for the incensation at the offertory. To see them thus anticipating and truly learning how the Mass works was a real pleasure.

Fr. Haynes demonstrates the use of the communion paten

Here's the whole crew of us:

I am very proud of my guys!

2008-10-17T12:07:00.002-05:00

Update on Extraordinary Form at St. Stanislaus

As previously announced, next Sunday, October 26, I will celebrate a Missa Cantata at my parish of St. Stanislaus. This is my first public celebration of the Traditional Latin Mass, and the first such celebration at my parish in nearly 40 years.

I am very happy to announce that, starting on Sunday, November 9, I will begin offering the Traditional Latin Mass on a regular basis. I will offer the Mass twice a month, on the Second and Fourth Sundays of each month.

On Sundays when Low Mass is celebrated, Mass will be at 9:30 AM. On Sundays when Mass is sung, Mass will be at 1:00 PM.

The Masses on November 9 and November 23 will be Low Masses, and therefore will be offered at 9:30 AM. Complete schedules of Extraordinary Form Masses will be published periodically in the parish bulletin, on the parish website, and here at Thrown Back.

I hope, eventually, to be able to offer Mass in the Extraordinary Form every Sunday. If we develop good turnout and support for this effort, that will certainly move things along! I hope that many people, both from St. Stanislaus parish and beyond, will avail themselves of this opportunity to participate in the worship of the Church as it has been experienced by countless generations of our ancestors.

2008-10-10T10:22:00.003-05:00

Extraordinary Form Coming to St. Stanislaus!

After much prayer, study, and preparation, I am pleased to announce that:

In Joyful Accord With the Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificum
of our Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI,

St. Stanislaus Catholic Church will offer a

Sung Mass in the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite
(Missa Cantata)

Sunday, October 26, 2008
(Feast of Christ the King)
1:00 PM

St. Stanislaus Catholic Church
1871 136th Avenue
Dorr, Michigan

I will be the celebrant.

Music will be provided by the Schola of the Chair of St. Peter

I hope that Catholics from Michigan and beyond will come and participate in this historic event! This will be the first time in almost 40 years that the Traditional Latin Mass will be offered publicly at St. Stanislaus.

2008-09-26T11:33:00.003-05:00

Coming Soon: Introductory Chant Workshop!

Attention Catholics in Michigan and Beyond!

Chant for Beginners

An Introductory Chant Workshop

Presented by Fr. Rob Johansen and Fr. David Grondz.

The Workshop will include presentations on:

Reading Chant Notation
History and Spirituality of Chant
Some Fundamental Chants of the Roman Rite

No previous knowledge of Chant required - This is truly for beginners!

Saturday, October 18, 2008
9:00 AM - 3:00 PM

St. Therese Catholic Church
128 Cedar Street
Wayland, Michigan
(Wayland is located approximately 30 minutes North of Kalamazoo, right off of US -131.)

Cost: $20.00 per person (includes lunch)

Co-sponsored by the Diocese of Kalamazoo: Office of Christian Worship, St. Philip Neri House, and St. Therese Catholic Church.

For more information e-mail Fr. Rob.

Fr. Rob Johansen has an extensive background in music, having studied voice, ‘cello, and conducting at the University of Illinois. He studied Chant at the Catholic University of America, and continued his Chant studies at Sacred Heart Major Seminary under Calvert Shenk. He has degrees in Religious Studies, Classics, and Patristic Greek and Latin. He currently serves as Pastor of St. Stanislaus parish, Dorr.

Fr. David Grondz received his S.T.B. from the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome and was ordained to the Priesthood in 2006. Fr. Grondz has studied Chant for 13 years, and served as assistant organist at the Pontifical North American College. He is currently the Parochial Vicar of St. Mary Church, Kalamazoo, where he regularly celebrates the Sung Mass in the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite.

2008-09-19T10:23:00.018-05:00

The Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross

Last Sunday, I celebrated the Masses of the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross ad orientem, as I did the previous weekend. These celebrations are to commemorate the restoration of the high altar and Mary altar here at St. Stanislaus.

This weekend, we did it up a little bit "higher", liturgically speaking, than last. The 11:00 Mass on Sunday was sung, with incense.

Incensing the Altar at the Procession
(all photos may be viewed full-size by clicking on them)

Chanting the Collect

Speaking of incense, I usually use either the "Regal Jasmine" or "Bulgarian Rose" from Holy Transfiguration Monastery. Holy Transfiguration Monastery is an Orthodox monastic community descended from Mount Athos. Their incenses are hand-made of frankincense and natural fragrant (mostly floral) oils, period. I've never encountered sweeter and more fragrant incenses anywhere. Many people who ordinarily say they don't like incense or can't tolerate it have been pleasantly surprised by these incenses.

Here I'm incensing the altar at the Offertory:

The vestments I'm wearing are my own. I really love the darker burgundy color. They're from The House of Hansen in Chicago. I have many vestments, and a cassock, from House of Hansen, and I'm extremely happy with them all. The staff there are excellent and their workmanship is of the highest quality. Not only that, but, compared to other high-quality makers, their prices are quite reasonable.

Chanting the Canon

I had many positive remarks about the liturgies of this weekend. Many parishioners complimented the beauty of the high altar, and there were a number of positive remarks about the ad orientem celebration. One visitor to the parish exclaimed to me after Mass, "I love coming to this parish!". I replied, "Well, come back, then!"

I have made a few observations about these celebrations of Mass ad orientem, the first such public celebrations at my parish in 35+ years. I'll share those in a post next week.

2008-09-19T10:23:00.010-05:00

The Purveyors of the Dominant Culture - Gang Rape is "Humor"

In case you were wondering how low the "freakish enemies of the normal" could go, Sandra Bernhard finds an even deeper cesspool to wallow in, warning Sarah Palin "not to come into Manhattan lest she get gang-raped by some of Sandra’s big black brothers..."

Yes, that's what counts as "cutting edge" political humor today amongst the trendy bien pensant left.

The critics loved Bernhard's act, saying that she showed "beauty, variety, vitality, and intelligence."

I hope every normal American sees and hears this, because this kind of demonic pervsersity is precisely what is fueling the engine of the leftist dominant culture.

Make no mistake, the left hates Sarah Palin because they hate us.

2008-09-19T10:23:00.006-05:00

A Few Days Away...

I was away for a few days visiting my aunt and cousins in Wisconsin. They live on and around Castle Rock Lake, which is on the Wisconsin River.

My aunt's house is right on the lake. I believe you could file this under the heading "idyllic":

The view from the front porch
(all photos may be viewed full-size by clicking on them)

We enjoyed some fun on the water:

My cousin, my nephew, and myself

My nephew loves being on the boat, and he loves "driving". There was a bit of a chop on the water that day, and consequently some spray, but that didn't faze him at all. Here he is "driving" with my cousin:

"Faster, go faster!"

I had a wonderful visit, closed by a beautiful evening watching the sun set over the lake.

2008-09-12T00:09:00.001-05:00

Parish Bulletin Article on Ad Orientem

I published this brief article about ad orientem in my parish bulletin this past weekend:

Ad Orientem – Turning Towards the Lord

In order that the parish can see our newly restored altar in its full beauty, and used as it was intended when it was built by our forefathers, during this weekend and next I am celebrating the Masses at the high altar ad orientem, that is, facing the high altar rather than “facing the people” at the small altar as most of us are accustomed. The phrase “ad orientem” means “toward the East”, and this phrase is used to describe this posture because, in the early Church, most churches were built so that the altar faced the East. The East, being the direction of the rising sun, was seen as symbolic of Christ, as He is our Sun of Righteousness, the Light of the World, and the Daystar of the new dawn. Sometimes people refer to the posture of ad orientem as the priest celebrating Mass “with his back to the people”, but this is a mistaken way of looking at it. The idea isn’t that the priest “has his back to the people”, but that he and the people are facing the same direction, that is, united in facing the Lord at the altar. Our holy father Pope Benedict has encouraged the re-appropriation of this ancient custom, urging us to “turn toward the Lord”, and has used it himself in public celebrations of the Eucharist. As I have mentioned before, contrary to what many people have been led to believe, the Second Vatican Council did not mandate that Mass must be celebrated “facing the people”, and indeed, the rubrics and instructions of the Roman Missal, in several places, clearly presume that Mass will be celebrated according to the immemorial custom of ad orientem. Thus, to use this posture is perfectly legitimate, even in the “new Mass”. There is a great richness and depth in celebrating the Mass so that people and priest are facing the same direction, united in prayer. I hope that we all may have our faith enriched and gain a new perspective on the liturgy by making use of this ancient tradition over the next two weeks.

2008-09-11T23:39:00.000-05:00

The High Altar Restored at St. Stanislaus

This past weekend, our newly restored high altar and Mary altar were "unveiled".

The Sanctuary
(all photos may be viewed full-size by clicking on them)

A Closer View of The High Altar

The Mary Altar

The high altar has a frieze of the Last Supper on its front, which the portable novus ordo altar obscures. It was repainted by our 8th grade teacher and some of her students.

I did the best I could with my camera and the lighting in the church, but photos don't do them full justice. One thing I am going to look into is redirecting some of the sanctuary lighting to bring out the gold detail a bit more. The detail is gold-flake paint, as well as 23 K gold leaf on the cross, scrollwork, and finials of the high altar. The crucifix niche of the altar also has gold leaf in the half-dome and half-pillars. I hope you can get some idea of how beautiful they are from the photos. The monogram on the Mary altar has also been done in gold leaf.

Not only have we restored the appearance of the high altar, but we have also "restored" the high altar to use as it was intended! This past weekend, I celebrated all the Masses Ad Orientem, something that hasn't been done publicly at St. Stanislaus for 35 years or more.

Singing the Gloria

During the restoration, the Blessed Sacrament was reserved in the Sacred Heart altar (on the right side of the church), so as to facilitate the work without the danger of irreverence to Our Lord. The Sacred Heart altar has not been restored yet (it will be done later this fall), so it provides a a point for comparison to the newly restored altars:

During the Saturday vigil Mass, after my homily, I transferred the Blessed Sacrament back to the tabernacle in the high altar. Here I am reverencing the Sacrament before the transfer:

And the reposition:

Mass continued with the Eucharistic Prayer:

...Do this in memory of me...

Behold the Lamb of God...

And, of course, Mass concluded with the final blessing:

I have celebrated Mass ad orientem privately on many occasions, but this is the first time I have done so publicly. I have already noticed a couple of things, and I'm sure more observations will occur to me as I go forward.

I'll save those for the moment, though - I will share what insights and observations I have after I have done this some more. Which leads me to mention that I will be celebrating the Masses ad orientem again this weekend, for the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross.

I'll have more photos up next week from those celebrations.

2008-09-11T13:11:00.005-05:00

Our 9-11, and Another 9-11

Of course, today is the infamous day when Muslim terrorists, in a cowardly act of mass murder, killed over 3,000 innocent civilians in the World Trade Center. May God have mercy on the twisted and perverted souls of those who committed these acts, and on all who would seek to imitate them.

But the half-life of such evil is relatively short, as it always is. There was another time when it seemed that the Islamic imperialists had a knife to the West's throat.

In 1683, the Muslim armies had been advancing across Europe, and had besieged Vienna for months. It seemed that Vienna was bound to fall. But then King Jan III Sobieski of Poland led his army of over 80,000 men to the relief of Vienna, and drove off the besieging army, effectively ending the Muslim advance.

The Battle of Vienna

September 11, 1683 happened because Christian Europe was willing to rise up and defend itself. September 11, 2001 happened because America let down its guard and preferred to deny reality. Let us never forget that terrible lesson.

2008-09-11T12:46:00.004-05:00

Word to Conservatives: Don't Get too Cocky

While I too have gotten many chuckles out of the ongoing spasms of outrage, impotent fury, and downright disgusting displays of what Mark Shea so aptly calls the "Freakish Enemies of the Normal" (prime example here), I would caution conservatives not to count Barack Obama and his devoted worshippers out yet.

Politics is notoriously volatile. So far, Palin and McCain have been able to take the initiative from Obama, and Obama's surrogates haven't been able to find an attack on Palin that sticks.

But rest assured, they're going to keep trying.

The campaign that has sent a "mini-army of 30 lawyers, investigators and opposition researchers into Anchorage, the state capital Juneau and Mrs. Palin's hometown of Wasilla to dig into her record and background" won't rest until they find something.

And it's almost inevitable that they will, eventually, find something that gains traction. Why? Because Sarah Palin is a limited, fallen creature like everyone else. That means she has made mistakes, and yes, has done things she would not be proud to have made public.

It may not have any objective political significance. It may indeed be something that really doesn't bear upon her fitness to govern. But politicians have been undone by trivial misdeeds in the past, and as I said, politics is notoriously volatile.

Conservatives need to beware of imitating Obama's hubris and arrogance. It's undoing Obama now, but it can just as easily undo McCain/Palin.

2008-09-05T14:48:00.000-05:00

Restoring the Sacred At St. Stanislaus

Here at St. Stanislaus, we began a project last month of restoring the high altar and Mary altar in our church. They are wooden, and date to the original construction of the church in 1892.

It's been close to twenty years since any substantive maintenance was done on them, and they've been showing it. Paint was peeling, there were numerous chips and dings, and other wear and tear.

The High Altar before restoration, with statues removed
(all photos may be viewed full-size by clicking on them)

The Mary Altar, with statue removed

So my pastoral council and I decided to begin the restoration work. There is another side altar, dedicated to the Sacred Heart, which we will restore later this fall. Then we will proceed to the angel statues that flank the high altar, the communion rail, and so on.

We recruited a number of volunteers from the parish to do much of the work. We also retained Tim Schoonard of Marywood Studio to provide overall supervision and to do the finer work. Tim has done work here for us before: he made the impressive presider's chair and server's chairs that are in our sanctuary. Tim has also done excellent work in parishes all over Michigan, including the Cathedral of St. Augustine in Kalamazoo. Tim is a solid Catholic, and has a large family, most of whom help him in his business.

The work began a few weeks ago: scraping, sanding, filling dings and dents. Here are Tim and his crew at work:

Tim and his son at work on the high altar

Once the sanding and scraping were done, then the white areas were re-painted. Gold flake paint was used for trim and detail, and gold leaf applied to some select places. One of the advantages of having a large family, as the Schoonard's do, is they can get a lot done at once. Here are some of Tim's kids at work on the Mary altar:

And when some of the family are working, others are praying:

Some of the Schoonards praying the Rosary

The altars have been completed, and they will be officially "unveiled" this weekend.

As part of putting our newly restored altars in their rightfully prominent place, I will celebrate the Masses this weekend and the following weekend (The Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross) Ad Orientem. I have spent some time explaining and catechizing my parish about the use of ad orientem in the past few weeks. The re-introduction of this posture is something of a landmark here, as I'm pretty sure the high altar hasn't been used for a public celebration of Mass in 30 years or more.

I'll have photos up of the finished altars, as well as of our historic Ad Orientem liturgies, posted next week!

2008-09-05T08:28:00.003-05:00

Sorry to Have Been Away So Long...

But I've had a busy month of August!

August was indeed busy. I took a couple of short trips to visit friends. I also participated in the conference of the International Society for McIntyrean Philosophy, held at St. Meinrad Seminary in Indiana.

At the conference I presented a paper, "The Subjectivized Liturgy and the Good Life". My paper used certain concepts Alasdair McIntyre elucidated in After Virtue to analyze the ideological nature of post-Vatican II "deformations" of the liturgy, and how those deformations interfere with the end of liturgy as the contemplation of God. I'm going to clean it up a bit and see about publishing it. I hope to have it available here soon.

I also went down to Florida for a week to visit my mother, and then drove back with her to Michigan, where she's now visiting me for a couple of weeks. We got to drive through tropical storm Fay, which was just loads of fun...

Anyway, I'm getting back into the swing of things now.

By the way, I realize I never got around to putting up the third in my series of homilies about the "static" that interferes with our proper participation in the liturgy. I promise I'll get that up in the next couple of days.

2008-07-25T15:51:00.002-05:00

We Do Not Know How To Pray As We Ought

Homily for the Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time (A)

Wisdom 12:13, 16-19
Romans 8: 26-27
Matthew 13:24-43

In our second reading from St. Paul, he tells us that “we do not know how to pray as we ought.” And don’t we know that from our own experience? I’m sure many, if not most of us, have had the experience of thinking that we needed something, and even praying for it, only to get it, and realize that we didn’t really need it, or even that we don’t really even want it. You’ve all heard the saying, “be careful what you pray for, you just might get it!”

“We do not know how to pray as we ought.” This problem is compounded by millions if we take the whole Church. How are we supposed to know how to pray for the whole Church, if we don’t know even how to pray for ourselves? Well, St. Paul gives us the answer. He says “the Spirit himself intercedes for us...” How does this work? Well, no doubt, in the moments when we are least able to articulate the needs of our souls, the Holy Spirit prays for us, individually. But even more so, the Holy Spirit offers intercession for the whole Church, and the Spirit does this through the liturgy. Why, because the Church is the Body of Christ, and the Mass is the perfect prayer of Christ, offering Himself to the Father, and us with Him.

Remember, when we say that the Church is the Body of Christ, that isn’t just a figure of speech – we really mean what we say. We are, the whole Church as it is today, down through the ages since the apostles, and on into forever, actually incorporated, made into, Christ Himself. The Church and Christ are one.

The Church is also the Bride of Christ. And as such she knows the mind of Christ. Here’s an example: How many of you who are married know what your wife or husband will say about something before he or she says it? (hands go up across the congregation) Exactly, most of you. That’s because husbands and wives are in communion with one another, and you come to know the mind of your spouse. Well, how much more so will this be the case between the Church and His spouse, the Church? Christ and His Church are in even more profound and intimate communion than any husband or wife. Indeed, the Church and Christ are in perfect communion. So when the Church teaches, she teaches with the mind of Christ. And when she speaks, she speaks with the voice of Christ.

And she does this first and foremost in the Mass. Who gave us the Mass? (someone in the congregation says “Jesus”) Exactly, Christ himself gave us the Mass. Now, it seems to me that it’s safe to say that Jesus is the most perfect pray-er ever. Does anyone want to contest that statement? No? Good. So if Jesus is the most perfect pray-er ever, and we want to pray perfectly, then the best way to do that would be to unite ourselves to His prayer. And that prayer is the Mass. But we have to do this through the Church, since Christ gives us the Mass through the Church. So if we want to pray this perfect prayer in unity with Christ, then we have to do it in and through His bride, the Church. And that means we have to do so according to the mind and heart of the Church.

Which brings me back to the issue of “static” that I have been talking about for the past couple of weeks. Many of us frequently bring with us sources of spiritual static that interfere with our receiving all the graces that our Lord offers in the liturgy, much like the static on a radio interferes with our receiving everything the station is broadcasting.

And one of these sources of static is what I would call a false separation or distinction between our faith, our relationship with Christ, and the Church. We tend to think of these things as separate entities. We think well, there’s Jesus here, and there’s the Church over here. We tend to approach our spiritual lives as a “me and Jesus” kind of thing.

Now, on one level, this is an understandable error. That’s due, in large part, to our cultural and religious surroundings as early 21^stcentury Americans. America, you see, is a predominantly Protestant nation. And the culture in which we are immersed is predominantly Protestant. This phenomenon led one priest I know to say, “the problem is that, in America, everyone is Protestant, even the Catholics.” And the thing is, to look at our spiritual lives as a “me and Jesus” thing, to see our relationship with Christ and the life of grace as separate from the Church is in fact a very Protestant approach.

Let me give an example: How many of you have ever had a missionary or evangelist from a protestant church come to your door? (many hands go up in the congregation) Now, I would be willing to bet, that in the course of your conversation, you were asked something like this: “Have you accepted Christ as your personal Lord and Savior?” Now let’s reflect on that for a moment. “Have you accepted Christ as your personal Lord and Savior?” Now what is missing in that question? What is missing in that concept? Let me ask you: where does the Church appear in that question, or the concept behind it?

The answer, of course, is that it doesn’t. The Church doesn’t figure in that equation, so to speak. To think of our faith and our relationship with Christ in this way is in fact not a very Catholic approach at all. Now, this doesn’t mean that those protestants are bad people, or that they’re bad Christians. But it does mean that they don’t share in the fullness of the Faith that comes from the apostles. And isn’t that what we want? The fullness of the Faith of the apostles? The fullness of the grace and power of Christ that comes to us through the Church, which Christ founded on the apostles?

You see, the problem is that, if we see Christ and the Church as these separate things, then we tend to approach what the Church offers us not as people needing to receive and be fed, not as disciples needing to learn. Rather, we tend to set ourselves up as those who evaluate or judge for ourselves what the Church offers us. We become like diners at a buffet table: well, I’ll take a little of this, and a little of that, but none of that, thank you very much.

And that mindset profoundly limits our receptivity to the grace of Christ. Because, during Mass, there’s something under the surface, always judging “do I like that”, “how do I feel about that?” That’s not the spirit of a disciple.

When the Church holds something out to us as good and holy, we’ll find that thing either appealing or unappealing. Now, if we find that thing unappealing, if we’re approaching the Church as our mother and teacher, we’ll try to accept and learn to love what she gives us. If we’re approaching our Faith as a “me and Jesus” thing, we might very well reject what the Church offers us, because it’s unappealing at the moment, and we’re not seeing that what the Church offers us, Christ Himself offers us – because Christ and His Church are one.

And notice on what basis we end up rejecting what the Church offers us. We reject it because it’s unappealing to us. And that brings me back to a point I made last week: the temptation we’re always up against is the temptation to make the Mass about ourselves. To approach our faith and worship in a “me and Jesus” way, without approaching Christ in and through the Church, is in the end to succumb to the temptation to make the liturgy about ourselves.

The remedy for that temptation is to approach Christ in the heart of and according to the mind of His bride, the Church. And we do that by receiving and participating in the liturgy as the Church gives it to us – and remember, not just as we see it here and now, but as it has been given to us down through the ages. Pope Benedict reminded us last year: what was good and holy for previous generations is good and holy for us as well.

So let’s not limit ourselves to being receptive only to what we, here and now, think is appealing or congenial to us. Let us open ourselves up to the whole treasury of grace, beauty and power that Christ gives in the Church’s liturgy. Christ gives us the fullness of His grace and power in the Mass. And if we’re trying to receive that fullness while focused on judging or evaluating the liturgy according to what appeals to me, then we will necessarily miss out, because you and I, each one of us, is too narrow and small. The Church, however, is vast and wide, and in her we will find all that we seek, and much more besides. In her, and her alone, can we be that wheat that our Lord speaks of, that yields abundantly, and that He will gather together to Himself.

2008-07-18T08:38:00.003-05:00

What Is Mass Really About?

This is the first in a series of three homilies over the next three weeks about the different attitudes, expectations, and ideas that can be an obstacle to our truly participating in and receiving the fullness of graces Christ intends to give us in the Mass. Check back next week for the next installment!

Homily for the Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time (A)

Isaiah 55:10-11
Romans 8:18-23
Matthew 13:1-23

In St. Paul’s letter to the Romans today, we hear that “all creation was made subject to futility.” All created things are futile, that is, in the end they will come to nothing – except, that is, in and through the saving and redeeming power of Christ. In and through Christ, St., Paul tells us, all creation will be set free and share in the glorious freedom of the children of God. This is similar to what we heard last week, also from St. Paul – that we are not debtors to the flesh, but rather, we have power over the flesh – we have power over the world and sin.

But, as I explained last week, we don’t seem to really live in, really make use of this power that we have been given in Christ. In Christ we are called to “live differently”, and through Christ we have been given the power to live differently, but that power and grace of Christ often goes untapped in our lives.

Last week I explained that there is spiritual “static” that, like the static we hear on the radio, interferes with our receiving the full outpouring of the grace and power which Christ gives us in every Mass. Like the static which can drown out a program on the radio, this spiritual static can interfere with our receiving the “signal” that Christ is sending us in the liturgy. But unlike the static on the radio, which comes from an outside source, most of the time the static that gets in the way of receiving everything we’re meant to in the Mass comes not from an outside source, but from ourselves.

When we come to Mass, we bring our own preconceptions, attitudes, and ideas with us. But often these attitudes and ideas come from the world, come from our surrounding culture rather than our faith – and these attitudes and ideas are actually obstacles to truly receiving the graces of the Mass.

In our gospel, the Lord tells us the parable of the sower: Now Jesus is speaking literally here of the Word of God, but there is a deeper meaning and signifance here. For Jesus himself is the Word of God become man. And where do we receive Jesus? (a parishioner says "at Mass".) . Of course, in the Mass. So this parable also tells us something about what can interfere with our receiving the fulness of graces in the Mass.

Jesus first refers to the seed that falls on the path, which is immediately eaten up, and tells us that this refers to those who hear the Word without understanding it. Well, if we don’t understand what the Mass really is, if we don’t understand what the Mass is really for and what it’s supposed to do, then it’s power never really has a chance to bear fruit in our lives.

The first problem with understanding what the Mass is for comes from confusing purpose and result. We can see how this can cause trouble if we look at the problem in another area of our lives. (points at a parishioner) Now, Ann, you work at the school, right? Ok, now, would it be correct to suppose that you’ve become friends with some of your coworkers? Yes, good. Now, would you say that the purpose of your job is to provide you with friends? No, of course not. Purpose and result: they’re not the same. And I would imagine that, if you began to treat your job as though it’s purpose was to provide you with friends, that would get you into trouble, sooner or later.

Well, the same sort of thing happens with regard to the Mass. We tend to have certain associations and experiences at Mass, and so we come to think, almost unconsciously, that that is what Mass is for. It’s a natural enough thing to happen. After all, when we have similar experiences repeatedly, our minds naturally connect them. For example, I would imagine that for most of us, most of the time, when we go to Mass it’s an uplifting experience – we feel good after Mass, or at least better than we did beforehand. But we only have to think about it for a moment to realize that’s not what Mass is for. God didn’t give us the Mass in order to give us certain kinds of emotions or a certain kind of experience. Again, purpose and result. The fact that a certain result tends to happen when we attend Mass doesn’t mean that that’s the purpose of Mass.

This brings me to something that happened in my previous parish. I’ve related this story before, but it applies here so I’ll use it again: I once got a phone call from a parishioner, who was very angry with me about what happened at Mass the previous Sunday. He said, “I’ll never come to one of your Masses again, Fr. Rob! I felt terrible when I left Mass.” I didn’t know what else to say, so I said, “I’m sorry that happened”. He then said, “I don’t go to Mass to feel bad. I go to Mass to feel good. I don’t need you to make me feel bad at Mass.” I said, “you go to Mass to ‘feel good'? Every time?” “Well,” he said, “most of the time, anyway.” I replied, “well, I can’t say specifically, but perhaps God is trying to show or tell you something that’s challenging or difficult, and that’s why you felt bad. Maybe you needed to feel bad about something.” “I don’t need this”, he retorted. And he hung up.

So here’s the problem: this man had gotten it into his head that the purpose of Mass was to make him “feel good”. Now, he is an extreme example, but I’d be willing to guess that most of give in to that kind of thinking, at least occasionally. But here’s the thing: even if we never felt we got anything out of Mass, it would still be the most noble, holy, amazing, and important thing we could ever do – because the Mass isn’t about us. The Mass is about giving the perfect honor, glory and worship to God, through making present to us here, on this altar, the eternal self-offering and sacrifice of Christ. The Mass is about Jesus, not about us.

The temptation is always to try to make the Mass about something else, rather than God. It’s a temptation that has been there from the beginning of the Church. If you read the letters of St. Paul you’ll see the problem is there already. And the temptation to make the Mass about something else is really just a cover for the real underlying temptation, which is to make the Mass about us. That’ the old man, that’s the damage of original sin, working in us. So, for example, another thing that has gotten tossed around a lot over the last 20-30 years is the idea that the Mass is a “celebration of community”. Now that’s one of those things that sounds good when you first hear it: a “celebration of community”. But once you start to look a little more closely, you realize, well, no... it isn’t. The Mass isn’t the community celebrating itself. Making the Mass about “community” is just making the Mass about us. And the Mass isn’t about the community of us. It’s about offering the perfect honor, glory and worship to God, through making present to us here, on this altar, the eternal self-offering and sacrifice of Christ. The Mass, once again, is about Jesus, not about us.

Here’s an illustration: (I call up a parishioner.) Now, imagine we have never met before. Suppose I came up to you and introduced myself, and, after you introduced yourself, I were to do this: ( I put my arm around parishioner.) Would you be my friend? Please would you be my friend? Won’t you please, please be my friend? (etc.) If I did that, would you be likely to become my friend? No, of course not. Indeed, you would probably try to avoid me. Why? Because that’s not how friendship works.

Friendship doesn’t happen as a result of trying to get it directly. It comes about “along the way” as the result of doing some other good thing together. It’s the same way with the good things that we receive as a result of participating at Mass. We receive them because we’re doing a far more important good thing – giving God honor, glory, and worship through Christ His Son. We don't receive them because we seek them in and for themselves.

We have to stay focused on what the Mass is really about – Christ. If we’re concentrating on, worrying about what “I” am getting out of the Mass, then we’re misplacing our energy. If I’m thinking about what “I” am getting out of Mass, then I’m thinking about me, not God. And if my mind isn’t on God, then I’m not really, fully participating in Mass. And if I’m not fully participating, then I’m not open to receiving the fullness of grace and power that Christ offers us. So, if we want to “live differently”, if we want to gain the full power of Christ’s offering of Himself in the Mass, then we need to put worshipping Him first, and all else will be given us besides.

2008-07-17T16:34:00.002-05:00

More Musical Heaven: Solemn Vespers at the CMAA Colloquium

As promised in my post of the Requiem Mass, I have photos and audio files from the Solemn Pontifical Vespers from the "Seven Days of Musical Heaven" at the CMAA Colloquium in Chicago last month. I won't post recordings of everything sung, as the whole service was almost an hour long. I'll provide some highlights, though.

We sang "Votive Vespers of the Holy Cross", meaning that the texts and antiphons all centered around giving honor and glory to Christ in His sacrifice on the cross. I was privileged to sing in the choir that provided the polyphonic psalmody for the celebration. We were led by Dr. William Mahrt, the president of the CMAA, and a renowned scholar and intepreter of chant and early music. Here is Dr. Mahrt with us in one of our rehearsals:

We had quite a bit of material to master in only 3 or 4 rehearsals. Some of the polyphony was fairly simple, but some was quite challenging. Everybody dug in and worked very hard, and I think it came together pretty well.

Rehearsing in the Chapel Before Vespers
(photo courtesy of Roseanne Sullivan)

We were honored to have Bishop Salvatore Cordileone (auxiliary of San Diego) as celebrant for Vespers, assisted by Fr. Haynes of the Society of St. John Cantius and several other priests in choro. The organist played an improvisation on the opening versicle for Vespers, Deus, in adjutorium meum intende for the procession, then, having reverenced the altar and proceeding to the chair, Bishop Cordileone intoned the versicle.

The Procession

The Bishop at the chair, Intoning the Versicle

This first recording includes the conclusion of the organ processional, the versicle, and the first antiphon and psalm.

Versicle & Psalm 109
(Recording by Aristotle Esguerra, edited and optimized by me)

Bishop: Deus, in adjutorium meum intende.

Choir: Domine, ad adjuvandum me festina.
            Gloria Patri et Filio, et Spiritui Sancto,
            Sicut erat in principio, et nunc, et semper,
            et in saecula saeculorum, Amen.

Bishop: O God, incline to my assistance.

Choir: Lord, hasten to help me.
            Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit,
            as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be,
            world without end, Amen.

Antiphon: O magnum pietatis opus! Mors mortua tunc est, in ligno quando mortua vita fuit.

"O great work of compassion: death was destroyed on the tree, when life died on it, Alleluia."

The first psalm is psalm 109 (110), set in a falsobordone by Lorente de Anchuelo:

Psalm 109 (110):

The Lord said to my Lord: sit at my right hand,
until I make thy enemies thy footstool...

The Psalms were sung alternately in chant or polyphonically. The second psalm was psalm 110. The third psalm was 111 (112) in a setting by Ceballos. The antiphon for the third psalm was:

Ecce Crucem Domini, fugite partes adversae:
vicit leo de tribu Juda, radix David, alleluia.

"Behold the Cross of the Lord, flee, O ye His enemies:
he has vanquished, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David, Alleluia."

Psalm 111 (112)

Blessed is the man who fears the Lord:
he shall delight exceedingly in His commandments...

Antiphon & Psalm 111
(Recording by Aristotle Esguerra, edited and optimized by me)

The Sanctuary and Choir During Vespers

The fourth and fifth psalms were 112 (113) and 116 (117). Psalm 112 was chanted, and Psalm 116 was another falsobordone setting, this time by Cabezon. The antiphon for Psalm 112 is:

Nos autem gloriari oportet in cruce Domini nostri Jesu Christi.

"We ought, moreover, to glory in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ."

Psalm 112 (113)

Praise the Lord, O ye children: praise the name of the Lord.
Blessed be the name of the Lord, from henceforth now and forever...

The antiphon for Psalm 116 is:

Per signum Crucis de inimicis nostris libera nos Deus noster.

"By the sign of the Cross, save us from our enemies, O our God."

Psalm 116 (117)

O praise the Lord, all ye nations:
praise Him, all ye people...

Psalms 112 & 116
(Recording by Aristotle Esguerra, edited and optimized by me)

Another photo of Dr. Mahrt and the choir (I'm the one in black in the center)

Following the psalmody was the capitulum, the "little chapter" or short scripture reading. This was from Phillipians 2:5-7:

Have among yourselves the same attitude
that is also yours in Christ Jesus,
Who, though he was in the form of God,
did not regard equality with God something to be grasped.
Rather, he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, coming in human likeness; and found human in appearance.

Bishop Cordileone and the ministers

The Responsory after the readings was sung by the advanced men's chant schola, also directed by Dr. Mahrt:

O Crux gloriosa! O Crux adoranda!
O lignum pretiosum et admirabile signum!

O glorious Cross! O adorable Cross!
O most precious wood and admirable sign!
*Through which the devil is conquered and the world redeemed
by the blood of Christ, alleluia.
V.Let us adore the Sign of the Cross, through which we
have received the sacrament of salvation.
*Through which the devil is conquered and the world redeemed...
V.Glory to the Father and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit.
*Through which the devil is conquered and the world redeemed...

Chapter and Responsory: O Crux Gloriosa
(Recording by Aristotle Esguerra, edited and optimized by me)

Dr. Mahrt and the advanced men's schola

The service continued with the singing of the ancient hymn Vexilla Regis:

"The banners of the King come forth;
brightly gleams the mystery of the Cross,
on which Life suffered death, and by his death,
obtained for us life..."

Finally, Vespers concluded with the singing of the Magnificat the final prayer and blessing, and the singing of the Salve Regina in the solemn tone.

Bishop Cordileone incensing the altar during the Magnificat

The Colloquium was a fantastic experience, and being able to sing such wonderful music in the context of real liturgy, rather than in merely a concert setting, brought home to me how this music was written and intended first and foremost as prayer.

Indeed, a spirit of prayerfulness permeated the whole of the Colloquium. While the atmosphere wasn't retreat-like or POD, nonetheless everyone there knew what we were there for, and what the Colloquium (and sacred music) is all about: the praise and glorification of God in music.

One of the things that impressed me the most was the instructors for the Colloquium. Quite apart from the fact that they were all superlative musicians and teachers, they all took very seriously the sacredness of what we were doing. It was quite clearly more than a job or profession or even something they loved very much. I observed in them a genuine and deep devotion and love for our faith. I was genuinely touched on a couple of occasions by things that either Dr. Mahrt or Wilko Brouwers said regarding music, faith, and prayer. It was this gently pervading sense of pietas, in the truest sense of the word, that raised the whole experience to something more than just enjoying good music.

I hope that pietas comes through in the recordings of the music presented to you here.

2008-07-17T12:03:00.002-05:00

Something More From the CMAA Requiem Mass

I would have posted this earlier, but the circumstances explained in the previous post prevented it.

At the Requiem Mass I celebrated at the CMAA Colloquium, the chant scholae also sang the traditional sequence for the Requiem Mass, the Dies Irae:

Dies Irae
(Recording by Carl Dierschow, edited and optimized by me)

Dies iræ! dies illa
Solvet sæclum in favilla
Teste David cum Sibylla!

"Day of wrath, O that day,
which will dissolve the world in ashes,
as David and the Sibyll gave witness!"

(Go here for a complete text and translation)

Interestingly, though this sequence is not included in the Mass for the Dead in the modern Roman rite (Mass of Paul VI), it has never been suppressed, and exists as a "supplemental" text in the modern Breviary. Where it may be sung in the modern rite is a subject of some debate. At the Colloquium, it was sung, in keeping with Tradition, as a Sequence.

I am always moved on singing or hearing this, as it is a chant of great power and profundity, evoking the Last Things and our hope in Christ's mercy.

2008-07-17T11:26:00.001-05:00

Sorry I've Been Away...

But here at St. Stan's the thunderstorms which have been ripping through the Midwest have hit us as well. Not as badly as in parts of Illinois, Iowa and Nebraska, thank God, but they've done their mischief here.

Last week we were hit by an almost-direct lightning strike, which wreaked havoc on our communications. The lightning strike traveled along some of our phone and data lines, and blew out:

(1) the parish/school digital phone system
(2) our gateway router
(3) 2 network multi-port switches
(4) the wireless router in the school
(5) the firewire card on my computer (that one's rather puzzling)
(6) 2 (count them) UPS Back-ups.

The gentleman who helps out as our volunteer IT pro said he's never seen so much damage from a single near-miss lightning strike. Oh, well, I guess it was our turn.

So, we were rather disabled here for a while, and I've been busy replacing equipment and getting things back up and running.

However, posting will be resuming now. Hopefully we will avoid the lightning (or it will avoid us).

2008-07-02T14:23:00.003-05:00

Of Course, This Happens Now...

After I go to the trouble to install Haloscan comments, and pay for their "premium" service, what happens?

Haloscan goes all wacky, and stops working.

Sheesh, great job, people.

Sorry for any inconvenience. Hopefully they'll get it sorted out soon.

[Update (5:15 PM): Oh joy, unconfined! It appears that Haloscan is working again. Here's hoping it stays that way.]

2008-07-02T11:19:00.003-05:00

A Week of Musical Heaven In Chicago!

I participated in the annual Church Music Association of America (CMAA) Sacred Music Colloquium in Chicago during the week before last. It was billed as "7 Days of Musical Heaven", and that description wasn't far off at all. I had the opportunity to work with some world-class experts in sacred music, priests who were veritable fonts of liturgical knowledge, and make some great new friends. This year's Colloquium was held at Loyola University in Chicago, which was an excellent venue. But in addition, being there was a nifty experience for me, as I had lived just four blocks North of Loyola for three years after college. So it was kind of a homecoming for me as well. Loyola is set right on Lake Michigan, and is quite picturesque:

(Note: photos have been kept small to make loading of the blog less taxing - all photos can be viewed full-size by clicking on them.)

I had looked forward to going to the Colloquium. But after the first couple of days, I realized that I had really needed something like it. This thought struck me after my second rehearsal with Dr. Mahrt's polyphonic choir. I thought, "Wow! I really needed this." Being surrounded by, and being in the midst of making, so much beautiful music was a spiritual tonic.

The liturgies at the Colloquium were beautiful and inspiring. There was an even mix of Masses celebrated according to the Missal of Paul VI and that of Pius V (Extraordinary Form). What they all shared, regardless of form, was reverence, devotion, and superlatively beautiful music. All the liturgies were celebrated in Loyola's Madonna Della Strada Chapel, which is quite lovely, as well as having great acoustics:

A View of the Chapel

The Interior of the Chapel

On Thursday, June 19, Fr. Robert Pasley celebrated a sung Mass in the Extraordinary Form (Missa Cantata). Fr. Pasley is the Rector of a Extraordinary Form parish in the Diocese of Camden, New Jersey.

Fr. Pasley Incensing the Altar

On Friday, June 20, we had the privilege of having Bishop Salvatore Cordileone (auxiliary of San Diego) celebrate Mass in the Ordinary form. It was a votive Mass for the Holy Father, and so, fittingly, one of the polyphonic choirs sang Palestrina's Tu Es Petrus ("You are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church..." Matthew 16:18-19):

Tu Es Petrus
(Recording by Aristotle Esguerra, edited and optimized by me)

But one of the biggest moments for me, personally, came on Wednesday, June 18, for on this day I was the principal celebrant for a sung Requiem Mass in the Ordinary Form, celebrated ad orientem, with complete Gregorian propers. It was truly a privilege for me to celebrate this liturgy, and one of the highlights of my priesthood thus far. I was ably assisted by Fr. Scott Haynes and several servers from the Canons Regular of St. John Cantius. Here am I, Fr. Haynes, and some of the servers getting ready for Mass:

(photo courtesy of Jeffrey Ostrowski)

Here am I with the concelebrants, processing into the church (Photos courtesy of Roseanne Sullivan):

Note the black vestments!

Preparing to incense the altar.

And of course, while we were processing in and incensing, the women's schola sang the Introit, Requiem Aeternam (Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord...):

Requiem Aeternam
(Recording by Carl Dierschow, edited and optimized by me)

Chanting the Collect

Here is the men's schola chanting the Gradual, Requiem Aeternam:

Requiem Aeternam - Gradual
(Recording by Aristotle Esguerra, edited and optimized by me)

Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord,
and may perpetual light shine upon them.
V.The righteous shall be remembered forever;
he shall never fear evil tidings.

A good view of the sanctuary while I am chanting the Gospel.
(photo courtesy of Jeffrey Ostrowski)

In addition to the chant, there was excellent polyphony as well. One of the polyphonic choirs, directed by Horst Bucholz, sang Hernando Franco's Circumdederunt Me at the Offertory:

Circumdederunt Me
(Recording by Carl Dierschow, edited and optimized by me)

The groanings of the dead have surrounded me,
the sorrows of the netherworld have compassed me about.

Here I am chanting the Canon:

(photos courtesy of Roseanne Sullivan)

During Communion another polyphonic choir, under the direction of Scott Turkington, sang one of my favorite pieces of all time, William Byrd's Ave Verum Corpus (Hail true body...):

Ave Verum Corpus
(Recording by Carl Dierschow, edited and optimized by me)

Hail true body, born of the Virgin Mary,
truly suffering, sacrificed on the cross for mankind:
From whose pierced side flowed blood and water;
Be for us a foretaste in the final trial.
O sweet, O merciful, O Jesus, Son of Mary,
Have mercy on me. Amen.

We concluded Mass, and the ministers and I processed out, with the singing of the In Paradisum, sung by the whole congregation. Hearing this sung by some 250 people sent shivers down my spine!

In Paradisum
(Recording by Carl Dierschow, edited and optimized by me)

May the angels lead you into paradise:
may the martyrs receive you at your coming,
and lead you into the holy city, Jerusalem.

May the choir of angels receive you,
and with Lazarus, who once was poor,
may you have everlasting rest.

The congregation, ministers, and myself as we began the Recession.
(photo courtesy of Jeffery Ostrowski)

This was just one of the liturgies that week! And, musically speaking, it was perhaps the most "low-key" of all the liturgies. For real magnificence, I'll have another post up soon with photos and recordings of the Solemn Pontifical Vespers from the Friday evening of Colloquium week.

2008-07-01T23:53:00.002-05:00

Haloscan Commenting Added!

I've made a change to the commenting feature of the blog: Namely, I've dropped the limited Blogger comment function and instead gone with the Haloscan commenting service.

This means that you no longer need to be a registered user or sign in in order to comment.

But the Haloscan service allows me to see the commentor's IP address, which is useful for tracking down spammers, as well as allowing me to ban the obscene, obnoxious, or socially oblivious.

So, comment away! Just don't forget that you're in my (virtual) living room.

2008-06-02T13:31:00.009-05:00

How Big a Problem is Clericalism in the Church Today?

Over at Inside Catholic, I participated in a symposium titled "Ending Clericalism". Prominent Catholics such as Bishop Michael Sheridan of Colorado Springs, Bill Donohue, Mark Shea, and others contributed their thoughts, so I am honored to be among such company.

Some, such as Leon Suprenant, commented on the problem of clericalization of the laity, the idea that the laity being "involved" in the Church means they must be engaged in some public ministry:

Today, clericalism often manifests itself in a radically different way, through what is sometimes called the clericalization of the laity, which involves lay people's aspiring to roles normally reserved to priests in order to feel as though they're an important part of the Church. This mindset is seen in the proliferation of liturgical ministers, but perhaps most clearly in the demand for the ordination of women, married men, and openly homosexual men.

I focused on the confusion of vocations that has occured in the post-Vatican II period. Among other things, I wrote:

While I have no doubt that in some places the old-fashioned "my-way-or-the-highway" autocratic clericalism still exists, I have found that what is far more prevalent is the confusion of vocations and roles described by Mark Shea and others here at Inside Catholic.

I also wrote:

Both of these abuses [of authority] involve those with legitimate authority in one sphere attempting to usurp authority in another sphere, not properly theirs. And whether it's priests or laypeople doing it, it's destructive.

My piece is here. But do read the whole thing - there's a lot of food for thought here!

2008-06-02T13:31:00.005-05:00

Sorry For Any Inconvenience...

But I've had to restrict commenting to registered users only. If you have a Google account, an account with any of the major blogging services such as WordPress or LiveJournal, or are registered with Open ID, you can comment.

I've had a spate of childish comment spam of late, mostly dealing with bodily functions, which has made this step necessary. Hopefully it will only be a temporary measure.

2008-05-23T09:55:00.004-05:00

Re-building a Catholic Culture...

By restoring continuity with Tradition.

That, it seems to me, is what Pope Benedict's pontificate is all about.

Here at St. Stanislaus, one of the ways I'm trying to follow the pope's lead is in a program we started in our parish school last year, Liturgical Music.

In this program (which I am currently teaching) our children learn about the liturgy and learn the basic Catholic prayers, as well as the Ordinary of the Mass, in Latin. I also teach them Gregorian Chant as well as other Catholic sacred music, and we try to give them an exposure to some of the treasures of our rich tradition.

And the program is bearing fruit. You can hear that in the recording I posted last week of our children chanting the Gloria at a school Mass.

Here is another recording, this time of our fifth and sixth graders. I taught them the Regina Coeli, and this is them singing it at one of our Masses during the Easter season.

Regina Coeli

I am tremendously proud of our kids!

2008-05-23T09:40:00.005-05:00

Music from St. Stanislaus

Here is a recording of our current Music Director, Gavin Craig, playing Dietrich Buxtehude's (1637-1707) Prelude in G.

Prelude in G

2008-05-23T09:19:00.006-05:00

Music Director Position Announcement

Our Music Director here at St. Stanislaus is leaving us in a few weeks, in order to return to school full-time.

So, we are now searching for a new Music Director/Organist. I hope to fill the position by early July.

St. Stanislaus is a parish in the Diocese of Kalamazoo of about 250 families. We have a school whose enrollment is approximately 90 students, which I believe is one of the best little schools in our diocese.

The position is 1/2 to 3/4 time, depending on how we integrate certain aspects of the school music program. We may be able to combine this position with other responsibilities to create a full-time position.

The candidate should possess competency in organ: ability to accompany congregational singing and familiarity with simpler organ repertoire. Competency in other instruments would be a plus. He/she should also have basic knowledge of choral conducting. Knowledge of Gregorian Chant would be a plus.

The Music Director/Organist plays at the two Sunday Masses (Ordinary Form), and directs the adult choir, which rehearses once per week. The Music Director, in consultation with the pastor, also plans and provides music for the weekly school Mass.

Salary will be commensurate with education and experience.

Download the full job description.

If you are interested, or know someone who might be, please contact me! And please get the word out!

2008-05-16T00:35:00.001-05:00

Speaking of Renewing the Culture...

Here at St. Stanislaus, I've been teaching the children in our school a regular weekly "Liturgical Music" class, designed to introduce our kids to the treasury of Catholic sacred music.

This has borne excellent fruit: our kids know the Ordinary of the Mass in Latin, and have been taught some wonderful music in both Latin and English. An example of what we've accomplished can be heard here - the kids singing Gloria VIII, recorded at a school Mass earlier in the Easter season:

Gloria VIII

Gloria in excelsis, indeed!

2008-05-16T00:23:00.005-05:00

Beauty, Subjectivism, and Liturgical Music

As the conversation has gone across the Catholic web about liturgy and music, a frequent thread or tendency of thought has surfaced repeatedly: that is, the idea that "beauty is in the eye of the beholder". An example of this kind of thinking was seen in the comments of a Catholic blog a while back:

And so I think that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, so therefore if you consider something beautiful, that is your perorgative [sic]...

This attitude seems to me to sum up the thinking of many, if not most, Catholics, whether musicians or those in the pews. On numerous occasions, in my efforts to explain and promote the authentic vision of Vatican II regarding liturgy and music, I have heard from parishioners and others a response something like this:

Well, Father, you like all that classical music and chant, and the traditional hymns, and that's fine for you. But I [we] like [insert musical genre here], and, after all, it's all for God's praise. One kind of music is just as good as another.

Alasdair McIntyre, in his seminal book After Virtue, described this mode of thinking as emotivism, that is, the collapsing of all moral or qualitative judgments into mere expressions of personal preference. And this kind of thinking is the besetting sin of the post-modern West.

What is missing in the thinking illustrated above is any sense that the liturgy, and the music of the liturgy, has any objective quality whatsoever.

The fact is, the Church has never treated the liturgy and its music in the relativized and subjective fashion typified above. Indeed, to adopt that kind of relativism is to reject the mind of the Church. The Church has always insisted that there are norms for liturgical art and music which stem from the objective nature of the liturgy itself. The liturgy, being the re-presentation of the saving action of Christ, is the most objective thing in human experience. It is God Himself, making Himself present to us. As Pope Benedict taught earlier this week:

...[T]he liturgy is not something constructed by us, something invented to produce a religious experience during a certain period of time; it is singing with the choir of creatures and entering into the cosmic reality itself [emphasis mine].

Thus, the liturgy has an objective nature to which we more or less perfectly conform ourselves. The Church expresses her appreciation of this objectivity by holding up certain forms or expressions as models which we are urged to adopt and which have been treated as sources or starting points for development which is "organic", that is, which always respects and makes reference to the model. In the area of music, the Church has held up chant and polyphony as those models.

The post-conciliar period has seen, in many if not most sectors of the Church, a loss of a sense of the objective nature of the liturgy. With the liturgy coming to be seen, as Pope Benedict has written, as the outlet for personal "creativity", the liturgy became something expressing not that which is universal and objective, but private and subjective. As I have argued previously, the liturgy was made a vehicle for all sorts of agendas and ideologies which, in many cases, were at odds with the Faith. As a result, our understanding of, appreciation for, and ability to apprehend the liturgy have all been compromised.

There is certainly an element of truth in the sentiment "beauty is in the eye of the beholder". If someone does not "see" beauty, they don't see it. But the problem is that the person uttering the sentiment treats it as though that is all there is to be said about the matter. If the "eye of the beholder" doesn't see it, well, that's it. The sentiment treats the "eye of the beholder" as though it were an infallible and final arbiter of the matter, and it isn't.

What if the "eye of the beholder" is blind? What if the ear of the beholder is deaf? What if the eye of the beholder has been perverted and deformed by a constant exposure to disorder and ugliness? What if the ear of the beholder has been corrupted by a steady diet of noise and chaos? In such cases, the beholder's ability to apprehend beauty is severely compromised, and his judgment is not to be relied upon. What we must be willing to say, and what the Church has not shied away from saying dowm through the ages, is that sometimes the eye of the beholder is wrong.

Aristotle taught that the ability to make correct judgments was about more than simply amassing the necessary data. It involves the training and formation of the person in virtue, so that he has the kind of mind and soul that can apprehend the True, the Good, and the Beautiful. These three Transcendentals have a moral quality, and the inculcation of moral excellence and the ability to make right moral judgments requires, as the ancients taught, and as the Church continues to teach, the proper formation of the mind and soul.

The culture in which we live is formative. It both shapes and expresses our attitudes, values, and tastes. The culture can be said to be an "incarnation" of our values and priorities. The Church has always understood the power of cultural expressions - music, art, etc., and because of this has always jealously guarded the way that the Faith is "incarnated" in cultural forms, particularly in the liturgy. The Church, understanding and living the principle of lex orandi, lex credendi, wants to make sure that there are no "mixed messages" to obscure the Faith that we pray. Frequently (and no more so than today), the dominant culture which surrounds us proposes to us attitudes, values, and tastes which are inimical to the Faith. And so she has insisted that the liturgy itself, it's texts and actions, be taken as the source of our cultural expression.

So the question is, have we, as Church, been forming our Catholic people according to the mind of the Church to understand and apprehend the objective nature of the liturgy? Have we been giving them a liturgical formation which takes the texts and actions of the liturgy, as lived in continuity thorough the ages, as the primary source of our music and art in the post-conciliar period? I would have to say, "No."

No, what has happened in large part is that extra-liturgical forms and even sometimes texts, many of which come from the dominant mass culture, have been imposed on the liturgy from without. And this has obscured the meaning and nature of the liturgy. It has led to confusion and a weakening of faith. A people that has been led to believe that the liturgy is whatever Father Feelgood or Sister Liturgist make it this week is not a people who will necessarily be able to properly apprehend truth or beauty when they encounter it. The moral equipment that they need to do this has been damaged, and it needs to be repaired.

And how is this repair to be effected? Slowly, firmly, and with great patience and charity. Pope Benedict has led the way to re-building the culture. Priests, musicians, and those of us who love and treasure the Church's great liturgical patrimony must engage in the work of leading people, often one by one, to a re-appropriation of what the Church offers us. And, first and foremost, we must give an example of joy and love, so that all will see that Beauty does indeed lead to God.

2008-04-18T00:09:00.001-05:00

The Papal Mass in Washington - It's About the Culture

So, the Pope celebrated Mass yesterday in Nationals Stadium in Washington, D.C., and he preached an inspiring homily, and moved the hearts of thousands (if not millions) of people closer to Christ in prayer. He celebrated the Mass, as we've come to expect, with dignity, reverence, and obvious devotion.

However, all was not as it could and should have been, especially with the music. Many others have commented on the poor musical choices, and how they seemed to reflect little awareness of Pope Benedict's teaching on the liturgy, or even much awareness of the Church's teaching and directives regarding liturgy and music. Fr. Richard Neuhaus, commenting during live coverage on EWTN, may have expressed the problem best when he pithily remarked "Perhaps those responsible for this are unfamiliar with Pope Benedict’s many writings on the liturgy..."

I won't rehash what others have already said at The New Liturgical Movement or Fr. Zuhlsdorf's trenchant commentary. But I will make a few observations about the reactions to the Mass, and what this Papal Mass reveals about the state of Catholic culture.

Firstly, I was taken aback by the sheer violence and passion of the reaction from the supporters of the Reform of the Reform and Traditional liturgy. I'm not here speaking so much of Shawn Tribe and the people at NLM, nor of Fr. Zuhlsdorf at "What Does the Prayer Really Say?". Their commentary has been measured and quite insightful. No, I am speaking of the many commentors at both sites (Some 300 at NLM alone!). I gathered from many of the comments on the above mentioned sites that people were shocked and surprised by what they saw and heard. I can't see why anyone should have been surprised - the music selected for the Mass was announced almost three weeks ago. I don't get the shock: the organizers of the DC Mass reveled three weeks ago that they intended to present a mish-mash, or, again in Fr. Neuhaus' inimitable words, a "liturgical stew". And that's precisely what they did. Don't get me wrong: I'm not minimizing the problems with the music for the DC Mass. But I wasn't shocked by it. Indeed, I was actually pleasantly surprised by the occasional "good" musical moments of the Mass.

I was also, alternately, both dismayed and amused by some of the commentors who spun wild conspiracy theories suggesting collusion of Msgr. Marini (the pope's Master of Ceremonies) or even of the Pope himself, in the nefarious agenda represented by the music of the DC Mass. Some tried to lay the blame on Marini, saying "he was the one sent over to approve the arrangements, he' s the one to blame." As though Msgr. Marini is supposed to have a a current and particular knowledge of the repertoire of American Catholic sacred music. Really - is Msgr. Marini supposed to know Manolo's "Come, O Spirit of God", Chepponis' "Go Up To The Altar Of God" and Hurd's setting of "Ubi Caritas", and the rest? I laughed out loud when I read one commentor's suggestion that henceforth, whenever the holy father celebrates Mass away from Rome, he should bring with him his own MC's, servers, and choir. Not exactly a practical solution. Sooner or later the holy father and his staff have to rely on the locals organizers to, well, organize. That reliance may be well or ill-placed, but there's really no alternative. If, as I believe happened in this instance, that reliance was ill-placed, chances are that reveals deeper problems that papal micro-managing won't really solve.

I also was struck by the apocalyptic tone of many comments as well. Quite a few suggested that the DC Mass indicated that the Reform movement had failed, and that we were henceforth doomed to Haugen, Haas, and the St. Louis Jesuits per omnia saecula saeculorum. Please, people, get a grip. I do believe Jesus had something to say about "the gates of Hell" prevailing, and all that. Have some faith. Since the liturgy belongs to the Church, and is the "source and summit" of our faith, it seems to me that Our Lord's promise to the Church extends to the liturgy as well. The Kingdom of God always advances in fits and starts, never in a straight line. One setback is hardly cause to abandon the field. Yes, I'm sure some will be tempted to use the DC Mass as "evidence" to perpetuate the Americanized "Spirit of Vatican II" liturgy. But really, that whole way of thinking is becoming more and more patently dated by the day. It just isn't flying anymore, because more and more people are becoming aware of what Vatican II really taught about the liturgy, and Pope Benedict's teaching in this area is having an inexorable effect. The priests ordained in the last 10 years are almost universally tradition-friendly, and that trend is only expanding. The current liturgical disorder wasn't created overnight, and it won't be undone overnight.

Furthermore, we have to recognize that, in the greater scheme of things, the music offered at the DC Mass was in many respects far better than what you'd find in a lot of American parishes. There are still many parishes (indeed, I would say a large majority) where you would never hear as much Latin, chant and polyphony as we did at that Mass. I have been acquainted with pastors who forbid the singing of a single syllable of Latin at their parishes. We have to recognize that, in spite of the widespread resurgence of tradition, in spite of the rapidly growing number of Extraordinary Form Masses being offered throughout that country, the work of authentic liturgical renewal has just barely begun. There are many, many Catholics who aren't even aware of what is happening, much less have been won over.

Which brings me to the larger point. Archbishop Wuerl, in his greeting of the Holy Father at the beginning of the Mass, stressed the different cultures and ethnicities represented at the Mass. Fr. Neuhaus observed that the spirit of "multiculturalism" pervaded the Mass. A different EWTN commentator, after the Mass, gushed about how the Mass represented the "diversity" of the Church in America. Others waxed about how the Mass was an opportunity for the Church in America to show the Holy Father who we are. The problem: That's. Not. What. Mass. Is. About.

The Mass is not an "opportunity" for me, or we, to "show" anyone anything, let alone "who we are." The Mass is not about "representing" the diversity (or anything else), of those who participate in it. The Mass is about re-presenting the eternal Sacrifice of Christ at the Last Supper and Calvary. It's about Him, not me, and not even about we.

We live in the age, as Mark Shea has coined the term, of "Generation Narcissus". Our collective motto as a society is "It's all about me." In liturgical terms, this translates to the "Self-Actualized Community Celebrating Itself in Its Okayness". In our pride and self-centeredness, we want to turn the liturgy around to focus on ourselves. As a priest I have encountered this in many ways. This attitude commonly rears its head in weddings. When, from time to time, I have had to say "no" to the unreasonable liturgical demands of some bride, I have heard the reply "but this is my wedding". To which my response is, "yes, it is, but it's not about you. At confirmation, graduation, and other special Masses, frequently the organizers try, in ways verging upon the silly, to concoct ways to "involve" all the confirmands or graduates, to give them all something to "do" in the liturgy, because it's "about" them.

This kind of thinking was evident in the DC Mass. There was a seemingly never-ending parade of cantors, musicians, and pieces of a dizzying variety of styles and ethnic origins, all aimed at trying to "include" every possible different ethnic and racial group. This process had what Amy Welborn aptly called a "frenzied" quality. It seemed frenzied because it was so obviously labored, and so obviously detracted from experiencing the liturgy as any kind of unified whole. This "multicultural" approach failed liturgically, and it also failed in it's own putative aim: rather than celebrating unity in diversity, or some such thing, it ended up exaggerating the ethnic differences and working against the communio that the liturgy is intended to bring about.

No, the problem, as I heard another priest once say, is that most Catholics "don't know anymore what the Mass is for. " And not knowing what something is for, we will tend to make it for ourselves. Part of the cause for this state of affairs is the collapse of catechesis in the 70's and 80's. I belong to the generation for whom CCD stood for "Cut, Color, and Draw." There is a whole cohort of Catholics who were never taught the rudiments of sacraments and liturgy, nor much of anything else. However, this "knowing" what the Mass is for is something that goes deeper and reaches farther than intellectual understanding. I would imagine that, if you asked the musicians and participants at that liturgy, most of them in one way or another would say that the Mass is about worshipping God. But in spite of "knowing" this in some way, most Catholics experience of liturgy in their parishes, and the experience of the DC Mass, in fact works against what we supposedly "know". In order for what we "know" to really form our lives, it must be "incarnated" in the culture in which we live. And I believe we have come perilously near a point where we cannot, in any meaningful sense, identify a coherent and unifying Catholic culture in the U.S.

No doubt there are many reasons for this, but it seems to me that at bottom the foremost cause goes back to this tendency to try to re-focus the liturgy back on ourselves. For thirty years, have been trying to impose one agenda after another on the liturgy, and all of those agendas boil down to "It's all about me." We have tried to re-make the liturgy in our own image, and in doing so have enervated the culture which makes the liturgy intelligible. The Mass, of it's nature, is, as Amy Welborn said, about Something. And that Something is objective. It is what it is, and calls us to conform ourselves to it. But once we start imposing our own agendas and on it, we create confusion, and lead people to think that it's about Whatever I Want It To Be About. That leads to fragmentation, chaos, and the breakdown of culture. As soon as the liturgy is seen as about Anything, it will be perceived by some to be about Nothing.

The liturgy, as Pope Benedict has written, should form our culture. But for the last thirty years the prevailing culture, and it's winds of trend and fashion, has been allowed to to de-form the liturgy. This is the lesson that our bishops and priests must learn. Once again, the evidence of this tendency was glaring in the music at yesterday's Mass. This process has both damaged the liturgical life of the Church, and weakened Catholic culture. The reversal of the process cannot begin with the prevailing culture that surrounds us - it contains much that is simply antithetical to the Faith. We must begin with the liturgy - as it is understood and lived in the continuity of the Church's Tradition. We must allow ourselves to be formed by the liturgy, so that we can be conformed to the Something that the liturgy is about. Then we will, almost without consciously trying, begin to rebuild and reform the culture of the Faith and of the world.

2008-03-24T12:10:00.005-05:00

Clueless...

CHICAGO - Six Iraq war protesters disrupted an Easter Mass on Sunday, shouting and squirting fake blood on themselves and parishioners in a packed auditorium.

Kevin Clark of International Solidarity Movement told the Chicago Tribune that he attended the Mass to serve as a witness for the protesters.

"If Cardinal George is a man of peace and is walking the walk and talking the talk, he should have confronted George Bush and demanded an immediate end to the war," Clark said.

Sure. The Cardinal should have done so right in the middle of Easter Mass.

[This post was edited later to remove a couple of remarks which were less than charitable. Sorry.]

2008-03-24T10:34:00.000-05:00

Resurrexit, Sicut Dixit, Alleluia!

Jaroslav Pelikan once wrote:

If Christ is risen from the dead, nothing else matters.
If Christ is not risen from the dead, nothing else matters.

Yesterday we sang the Easter Sequence, and may do so at all the liturgies of this week:

Christians to the Paschal Victim
Offer your thankful praises!
A Lamb the sheep redeemeth;
Christ who only is sinless,
Reconcileth sinners to the Father.

Death and life have contended in that combat stupendous:
The Prince of Life, who died, reigns immortal.

Speak, Mary, declaring what thou sawest, wayfaring
The tomb of Christ, who is living,
The glory of Jesus' resurrection:
Bright angels attesting,
The shroud and grave clothes resting.
Yea, Christ my hope is arisen:
To Galilee He goes before you.

Christ indeed from death is risen, our new life obtaining.
Have mercy, victor King, ever reigning!

Have mercy, victor King, ever reigning!

2008-02-29T09:07:00.003-06:00

Holy See Makes It Clear: Baptism in "Non-Standard Formulae" Invalid

From the Vatican Information Service:

The first question is: "Is a Baptism valid if conferred with the words 'I baptise you in the name of the Creator, and of the Redeemer, and of the Sanctifier', or 'I baptise you in the name of the Creator, and of the Liberator, and of the Sustainer'"?

The second question is: "Must people baptised with those formulae be baptised 'in forma absoluta'?"

The responses are: "To the first question, negative; to the second question, affirmative".

Fortunately, the stupidity of using "creative" baptismal forms isn't as prevalent today as it was in the 80's and early '90s. Back then, it seemed like every wifty, self-styled "hip" priest was coming up with his own baptismal formula, marked by his own oh-so-personal style. Never mind the Lord's specific command and the universal practice of the Church for 20 centuries...

Back when I was in graduate school at Catholic University (early-mid '90's), such a baptism took place on campus. It was not conducted by a university chaplain, but by an outside priest for an alumnus in one of the University chapels. The story got out and created a bit of a stir: the Archdiocese of Washington apparently got involved and insisted the child be re-baptized using the proper formula. Why? The response of the CDF explains:

"Variations to the baptismal formula - using non-biblical designations of the Divine Persons - as considered in this reply, arise from so-called feminist theology", being an attempt "to avoid using the words Father and Son which are held to be chauvinistic, substituting them with other names. Such variants, however, undermine faith in the Trinity".

"The response of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith constitutes an authentic doctrinal declaration, which has wide-ranging canonical and pastoral effects. Indeed, the reply implicitly affirms that people who have been baptised, or who will in the future be baptised, with the formulae in question have, in reality, not been baptised. Hence, they must them be treated for all canonical and pastoral purposes with the same juridical criteria as people whom the Code of Canon Law places in the general category of 'non-baptised'". (my emphasis)

Let's hope this declaration puts an end to such nonsense once and for all.

2008-02-27T14:23:00.002-06:00

A New Bishop For Diocese of Lansing

The Press office of the Holy See announced this morning that Bishop Earl Boyea, auxiliary of the Archdiocese of Detroit, will be the next bishop of Lansing, succeeding the retiring Bishop Mengeling.

This is a great development for the Diocese of Lansing and for the Church in Michigan.

Bishop Boyea was my spiritual director while I was at Sacred Heart Major Seminary in Detroit, and he was my professor for Church History. We have remained friends since then, and I am proud to be able to call myself such.

Bishop Boyea is a man of great learning, and is wholeheartedly loyal to the Church and to the Magisterium. He is deeply rooted in the Church's Tradition, and is committed to preserving and advancing that Tradition. While he was at Sacred Heart Seminary, he frequently celebrated Mass in Latin for the theologate on Saturday mornings. He is well known in the Detroit area for regularly celebrating Mass according to the Extraordinary Form (Traditional Latin Mass).

He was quite public in his support of the 2005 Vatican "Instruction" concerning homosexuality in the seminaries (sometimes called the "Doomsday Document"), as can be seen in my 2006 Crisis article on the subject.

On a personal note, those who know the bishop will attest to his great good humor and joyfulness. At Sacred Heart Seminary, he had the reputation of being somewhat of a prankster.

The Diocese of Lansing is getting a devoted and loyal son of the Church, and a smart and joyful man in their new bishop. Ad multos gloriosque annos!

2008-02-12T14:05:00.000-06:00

My Blog Is Rated...

This rating was determined based on the presence of the following words:

abortion (7x) death (5x) dead (3x)

It could be worse. Mark Shea's blog comes out rated NC-17.

2008-02-12T12:50:00.000-06:00

Are You A "Not Really" Disciple?

Homily for the First Sunday of Lent

Genesis 2:7-9, 3:1-7
Romans 5:12-19
Matthew 4:1-11

In our Gospel we heard about Satan's temptation of Jesus. Notice that Satan didn't beat around the bush with Jesus. He didn't try to get into subtle arguments; he came at Jesus "head on" and offered him power, dominion, and the rest. Now usually Satan is more subtle with us - he tries to seduce us, to trick us. That's what we heard in our first reading, from Genesis. Satan says to Eve "Did God really tell you not to eat from the Tree?" And the implication is clear: "Oh, no, God didn't really mean for you not to eat of the fruit..." And it all went downhill from there.

This is what I call "not really" kind of thinking. We've all heard that sort of thing: "Surely God didn't really mean that." "Of course, nobody really believes that sort of thing anymore." Notice that when people say that sort of thing, they don't actually make an argument or give reasons why one shouldn't believe this or that. No, the trick here is to imply that such beliefs are stupid or silly, and that if you believe them, it's because you're silly or just not very bright.

A few years ago I was on airplane flying out East on vacation. I usually wear my clerics when I fly. Not that it gets me any special treatment - in fact I'm more likely to get put in the "special" security line at the airport when I am wearing my clerics than if I'm dressed in lay clothing. Go figure...

But after we took off and had been flying for a little while, the gentleman across the aisle from me leaned over and said "Excuse me, but are you a Catholic priest?" "Yes, I am", I answered. He then said "Wow, I haven't actually met a Catholic priest in years. And to meet one so young! I figured all you guys were getting old and dying out." I answered saying, "well, no, there are quite a few of us still around." We talked for a few more minutes, (it was clear he was not Catholic) and then went back to our own pursuits. After a few more minutes, he leaned over again and said "Excuse me again, I'm sorry to bother you, but I just have to ask, do you really believe all that stuff?" I was somewhat put-off by this, but I figured he wasn't trying to be offensive, so I answered him, saying "I'm not sure what you mean by "all that stuff", but yes, I believe in the Catholic faith. I wouldn't be dressed like this if I didn't." He then said "well, you know, heaven, angels, the devil, sin, all that stuff." I responded "Yes, I believe that the Catholic faith is true." We chatted for a few more minutes, and then he went back to his magazine.

As soon as I read our first reading from Genesis, I thought of that gentleman and our conversation. But the fact is, that kind of "not really" thinking has permeated, has filtered into, even our thinking as Catholics. You don't have to look very hard or very far to find it. Unfortunately, you can even find priests here and there that will talk that kind of "not really" talk. I'm sure we've all heard it, and maybe we've even said things like this ourselves: "Oh, the Church doesn't really teach that anymore". "You don't really have to do that." "You don't really have to go to confession". "We don't really have to do what the Church asks of us in the liturgy." And so on. A few weeks ago, I read that in a survey of Catholics, again, let me stress these are people who identify themselves as Catholic, that over 70% of them said that you could be a good Catholic without attending Mass regularly. There it is: "You don't really have to go to Mass on Sunday. You can stay home, or go play golf, and still be a good Catholic."

Now, that's not the thinking of a disciple. A disciple doesn't ask "how little can I get away with doing?" A disciple asks "how can I be more faithful?" And this season of Lent is the antidote to "not really" thinking. "Not really" thinking is just one more way we try to put Self in front of God. It's just one more way we try to shape the Gospel according to my priorities and desires. And Lent, and the disciplines of Lent, are given to us to get our attention off of our Selves and on to Christ.

By our Prayer, we draw closer to Christ. We learn not only to talk to Him and give ourselves to Him, but we learn to listen to Him, so that His mind and will become my mind and will. By our almsgiving we do without things for ourselves in order to serve the needs of others, in whom we serve Christ. And by our fasting we join ourselves to Christ's Passion, and train ourselves to put aside the clamor of our appetites and desires, in order to allow Him to become more truly our Lord.

The challenge before us this Lent is this: Will I put my self aside for Him? Will I refocus my heart, mind, and will, on Him? Will I be a more faithful follower of Christ?

What are we going to be? Wholehearted disciples of Christ, or "not really" disciples?

2008-02-12T12:19:00.000-06:00

Obama Is the Light of the World

Behold, the People who walked in darkness have seen a Great Light.

Source

2008-02-11T15:04:00.000-06:00

Susan Estrich: If Obama Loses, It's Because of Racism

No one doubts, or at least no one who is honest does, that both racism and sexism come into play as people decide between Clinton and Obama, but could it be that people are more willing to admit that they won’t vote for the woman than that they won’t vote for the black?

Of course, the failure of many to completely embrace Obama's wonderfulness must be the result of racism. It can't possibly be because of his regrettable lack of substance, and the fact that what little substance he does have consists of derivative warmed-over repackagings of the same left-wing nostrums the Dems have been serving up for 40 years? It can't be because his campaign, which is more about him than any set of ideas or positions, is taking on the disturbingly creepy appearance of a personality cult?

Nahh... we're just all nasty racists.

(H/T: Mark Shea)

2008-02-08T07:44:00.000-06:00

We Want To Be Dhimmis Now, Says Archbishop of Canterbury

The Archbishop of Canterbury made a heartfelt plea for the adoption of Sharia (Muslim law) in Great Britain yesterday.

Since the Church of England now has only a vestigial grasp on Christian doctrine, I thought we may as well get it over with and become dhimmis, he might as well have said.

The only good thing about this story is that apparently many Britons still have more sense than the good archbishop.

2008-02-07T22:04:00.000-06:00

Oh, The Weather Outside Is Frightful...

It's been a tough winter here in Western Michigan. The school has had 7 snow days so far, and we're nowhere near a hint of Spring yet.

We had quite a display of winter's worst yesterday afternoon, with over a foot of snow falling in about 12 hours.

Here's a photo of the church and rectory at the storm's worst:

And my humble abode:

A winter wonderland!

The View of My Backyard

2008-01-22T11:45:00.000-06:00

A Day of Penance

Today, 35 years ago, the United States Supreme Court, in an exercise of "raw judicial power" struck down all legal protection on infants in the womb. In one blow, the Court made a whole class of human beings "unpersons" and ushered in the regime of abortion-on-demand that now results in the deaths of some 3,500 unborn children every day, with a ghastly toll of over 40 million dead since 1973.

The U.S. Bishops have designated this day as a "Day of Penance" for abortion, and ask us to engage in prayer and works of penance in reparation for abortion and to bring about an end to abortion. Here at St. Stanislaus, our Mass will be at 5:30 PM. Today , I am praying the Office of the Dead for all the victims of abortion:

Psalm 129

From the depths I have cried to thee O Lord: Lord hear my voice.
Let thine ears be attentive: unto the voice of my petition.
If thou wilt observe iniquities O Lord: Lord who shall endure it?
Because with thee there is pitifulness:
and for thy law I have expected thee O Lord.
My soul hath stayed in his word: my soul hath hoped in our Lord.
From the morning watch even until night: let Israel hope in our Lord.
Because with our Lord there is mercy:
and with him plentiful redemption.
And he shall redeem Israel: from all his iniquities.

Requiem aeternam dona eis Domine: et lux perpetua luceat eis.

Please pray for the victims of abortion, and for those who have had abortions or cooperated in abortion, for their repentance and conversion of heart. Pray also for our land, that we would once again protect the lives of the most innocent and vulnerable.

2008-01-18T11:38:00.000-06:00

Liturgy Column for Diocesan Newspaper, The Good News

Last fall, I began contributing a regular column to the newspaper of the Diocese of Kalamazoo, The Good News. In it I'm trying, as the title of the column suggests, to help people not only to understand the Liturgy in and of itself, but understand how it is meant to form how we live our faith. So, here is the first column I published, last September. I'll post my columns here periodically for my web readers as well.

“Living the Liturgy”

Every Sunday, Catholics in the Diocese of Kalamazoo and throughout the world gather in their parish churches. In our churches we continue to do the things we have been doing for 2000 years: We hear the Word of God, we pray, and we sing. But even more than that, we fulfill the Lord’s command to “do this in remembrance of me”. In fulfilling the Lord’s command we offer God the worship that He asks of us, and we are given the most amazing gift of all, the gift of the Lord Jesus Himself.

This way we have of offering worship “in spirit and in truth” is called the Liturgy. The Liturgy most familiar to us is the Liturgy of the Mass. But there are others – there is the Liturgy of Baptism, a liturgy of Confirmation, and the other liturgies by which the Sacraments are celebrated and ministered to us. In fact, though you may not be accustomed to think of it as such, even the celebration of the Sacrament of Reconciliation is a liturgical one, for in it the forgiveness of Christ is given to us through His Church. There is even a Liturgy of the Hours, by which Christians for centuries have sanctified each and every day and offered it to God.

We offer our worship to God through the liturgy. We are given sanctifying grace in the Sacraments through the liturgy. We are given Christ Himself, in His Body and Blood, in the liturgy. In the liturgy Christ makes Himself known to us, and He invites us to enter ever more deeply into the mystery of His life, death, and resurrection. So, quite literally, our life in Christ is bound up inextricably with the liturgical life of the Church. The fathers of Vatican II summed it up best in their Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy when they wrote “…the liturgy is the summit toward which the activity of the Church is directed; it is also the fount from which all Her power flows.”

If the liturgy is so vital to our life in Christ, then the better we understand it, the more fully we are able to enter in to it, then the more fully we will be able to live our lives as Catholics. The liturgy, as the council fathers also wrote, “ pertains to the whole Body of the Church.” In other words, we are all participants, sharers, in the liturgical “work” of the Church. And our spiritual well being, our capacity to sanctify the world according to our Baptismal vocation, depends on how fully we are integrated into that work.

An ancient principle of the liturgy is “Lex orandi, lex credendi.” That means, “the rule of prayer is the rule of faith.” In other words, how we pray forms what we believe – what we do in church shapes our life outside of church. Since the Holy Spirit is at work through the Church in Her liturgy, the more closely we live that “lex orandi”, the rule of prayer, according to the mind of the Church, the more rich and fruitful will be the faith that we live.

Hence, this column. In the coming months we’ll be exploring the meaning of the liturgy. The Church has set before us riches of great depth and scope: everything from the 22 different Eastern rites of the Church to the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite (sometimes known as the “old” Latin Mass), which our holy father recently made more widely available to enrich the life of the Church. My purpose is not only to help the reader to understand the liturgy, but to enter in to the liturgy. The liturgy isn’t just “what we do on Sundays” – it’s given to us in order to communicate Christ’s life to us, and empower us to then go out into the world as disciples. And that power is there – Christ is waiting to give it to us, if we will just “Live the Liturgy”.

2008-01-18T11:03:00.000-06:00

Ich bin in Deutschen übersetzt worden!

Or, "I have been translated into German!" A German reader, Michael Charlier, was so taken by my thoughts on "The Ideologized Liturgy" that he translated my whole essay into German for the website he maintains, Motu Proprio: Summorum Pontificum. I am very flattered and grateful. The translation of my essay can be found here at the page "Liturgie und Ideologie".

I also got a kick of some of the photos he put up to illustrate some of my points about the "ideologized" liturgy, such as this, which could be used to illustrate several different flavors of liturgical abuse:

For those of you who read any German, his site is worth a visit, quite apart from his appreciation of my efforts!

Thank you, Michael!

2008-01-15T12:22:00.000-06:00

"A Necessary Conversation" About Ideologized Liturgy

The other day Amy Welborn posted a thought-provoking question involving this picture, depicting either a Mass of the Extraordinary Form or a Novus Ordo Mass celebrated Ad Orientem:

Amy asked people for their reactions to the photo, and the reactions were themselves thought-provoking and revealing. What they seem to reveal is something I have noticed before in many of the negative reactions to Pope Benedict's Motu Proprio and to the Extraordinary Form of the Mass, otherwise known as the "Tridentine" rite. What is apparent to me is that many of the objections are ideological rather than theological or spiritual. Here are a list of some of the words and phrases used in the negative reactions to the photo, or other objections and complaints about Summorum Pontificum and/or the Extraordinary Form that have appeared in the media since last July:

"too complicated"
"put off by all males in the sanctuary"
"a period piece…"
“stuffy,”
“elitist”
“inaccessible”
“extreme"
“antiquated”
"medieval trappings"
"nostalgia"
"hierarchical"
"staged"
"Latin is a dead language"
"the priest has his back to us"
"a step backward"
"exclusionary"
"sexist"
"liturgy should be simple"
"clericalist"
"passive"

These words and phrases, and others similar to these, characterize much of the opposition to and complaints about Summorum Pontificum and the resurgence of the Extraordinary Form. And what is remarkable is that none of these words and phrases are, properly speaking, either theological or liturgical. Rather, they are ideological. And they illustrate that the post-conciliar liturgy, at least in the United States, has been invested with a rather heavy ideological burden.

I think that the ideologies represented by these terms can be roughly divided into three categories. They are:

(a) Egalitarianism or Democratism
(b) The Ideology of "Progress"
(c) The Ideology of "Authenticity"

The first ideology, egalitarianism, can be seen in such terms as "stuffy", “elitist”, "hierarchical", "the priest has his back to us", and "clericalist". Egalitarianism, of course, is the ideology that seeks to level all differences and distinctions, and asserts radical equality. The problem is that Catholic liturgy is intrinsically "unequal". Liturgy is about we humans, who are not God, worshipping God, who is God. Sorry to belabor something that should seem obvious, but, unfortunately, many have worked for the last 30 years to obscure that obvious fact. Catholic Liturgy is intrinsically hierarchical: In it God comes to us in an act of condescension, witnessed by the angels and saints who are quite literally above and beyond us, through the ministry of a priest who is at the time of the Eucharistic Sacrifice alter Christus. One commenter at Amy's asserted that at Mass we "no longer have an alter Christus". If that's the case, then we no longer have a Mass or Eucharistic Sacrifice; we have something else. Fortunately, the commenter's assertion is wrong: Both Vatican II's Constitution on the Church (Lumen Gentium) and on the Liturgy (Sacrosanctum Concilium) make clear that the priest offers the Eucharistic Sacrifice "in the person of Christ" (in persona Christi) and that his priesthood differs from the common priesthood of the faithful "in essence and not merely in degree". In other words, the priestly essence and action in the liturgy is hierarchical. To complain that the Mass is "hierarchical" is to complain of a tautology.

But there has been a great effort to downplay and even eliminate the hierarchical nature of the liturgy in recent decades. There has been an attempt to "horizontalize" the liturgy: hence all the 70's and 80's talk of the liturgy being a "celebration of community". The mindset created by such rhetoric can be seen in the complaints that in the EF, or the Novus Ordo celebrated ad orientem, the priest has his "back to the people". Of course, the assumption inherent in that complaint is that priest "should" be facing us, that is paying attention to us. Nowadays, when some people see a celebration ad orientem, they are "put off". I submit that this is because they have been subtly led to think that the liturgy is "about" us. A posture in in no way mandated by either the liturgical teaching of Vatican II or any post-conciliar document has been invested with an ideological meaning (itself nowhere taught by the Council), and has deformed the liturgical sensibilities of many of the faithful. Our expectations of the liturgy have been formed not by authentic Catholic theology and piety, but by the ideologically constructed categories of the prevailing culture.

The second category of terms can be classified as belonging to the ideology of "Progress". This ideology can be seen in such words and phrases as "a period piece…", “antiquated”, "medieval trappings", "nostalgia", and "a step backward". The ideology of Progress asserts or implies that we now necessarily know more and understand things better than our forebears, and that what is past is necessarily inferior to what is present. The phrase "the past has nothing to teach us" could well summarize this ideology. In the Church, this ideology has driven the "hermeneutic of discontinuity", which operates from the assumption that the Pre-Conciliar Church and Faith are different from the Post-Conciliar Church and Faith. But, of course, as C.S. Lewis pointed out in his essay on "The Myth of Progress", this point of view is absurd on its face. What is true yesterday will be true tomorrow. The time of day has nothing to do with it. Or, as Pope Benedict put it, "what earlier generations held as sacred, remains sacred and great for us too...". The fact that something is old does not mean that it is therefore meaningless or irrelevant. It merely means that it is old.

Finally, the third category of negative terms falls under the heading of offenses against the ideology of "Authenticity" or simplicity. This ideology consists in the atittude that what is most "authentic" or meaningful is that which is simple. This ideology can be seen in words or phrases such as "too complicated", “inaccessible”, "staged", and ""liturgy should be simple". I have heard this attitude expressed in the assertion "surely God meant religion to be simple". Well, just why should we think that? The universe that God made is certainly not simple. I don't hear people complaining "astrophysics should be simple." Well, astrophysics is one way of approaching an understanding of a complex reality, and religion is a different way. Why one should be any simpler than another is in no way obvious. And why the worship (liturgy) of our religion, which puts us into contact with the ultimate Reality, should be "simple", is also in no way obvious.

It seems to me that, at worst, this desire for "simplicity" is but one step removed from indifferentism. For the indifferentist usually wants, in the name of "simplicity", to put aside all those complex doctrines and teachings, and get down to a common "core" which we all can agree on. "We really all believe the same thing", is the claim. Well, we don't. And that which is fully and distinctively Catholic is expressed in a celebration of the liturgy of the Extraordinary Form, or in the Novus Ordo when it is celebrated in manner which is in continuity with the full liturgical Tradition of the Church. It seems to me that, at bottom, at least some of the complaints about "simplicity" are in fact veiled complaints or difficulties about what is in fact authentically Catholic.

And the complaint that the liturgy is "inaccessible" seems to me especially to miss the point. We are talking about approaching the infinite and ineffable Mystery of God. That is inherently "inaccessible". Not "incomprehensible", to reiterate a point made by Frank Sheed. But does anyone really expect that God coming among us and uniting us to Himself, and giving us His very self as food and drink, should somehow be "accessible"? The liturgy is mystagogical: that is, it leads us into a Mystery. We can penetrate that mystery more fully, and come to know it more deeply, but it will never be "accessible" this side of Heaven. To want a liturgy that is "accessible" seems to me to want to put God into a box of our own making; to create a comfortable, tame, suburbanized God that doesn't challenge, doesn't make us uncomfortable. And come to think of it, doesn't that explain much of our parish liturgies over the past 30 years: tame, comfortable, suburbanized?

At best, the complaint that the EF is "too complicated" reveals a taste. And, as the saying goes, "de gustibus non disputandis". If your taste is for simple liturgies, that's fine. At many parishes the early Sunday Mass is the "simple" one: minimal music, quiet, etc. I like such liturgies myself on occasion. But recognize that it's a taste, and don't try to absolutize it into a liturgical principle. Let's be honest, though, is there really anything "simple" about many parish Masses, which involve a "cast of thousands" of Extraordinary Ministers, Lectors, Commentators, a "music ministry" group with all manner of keyboards, guitars, mixers, electronic equipment, etc.? If you prefer a Mass like that, your complaint isn't really about simplicity, it's about something else.

Though unintended by the Council fathers, and, I will presume, the Consilium that assembled the Novus Ordo liturgy, the post-conciliar liturgy has been invested with a great deal meaning and import that has little to do with the Catholic Faith and very much to do with certain ideological trends in American culture. And those ideologies are in large part antithetical to the Catholic faith. That has led to the phenomenon we witness today in many parts of the Church: the liturgy has been put to work against itself. And we will only have true progress (progress that is, toward holiness and deeper union with Christ) and reform when we recognize the ideological burden placed on the Novus Ordo liturgy and remove it.

2008-01-04T00:26:00.000-06:00

Fr. Rob Sings!

Sings the Roman Canon, to be exact. At the Midnight Mass for Christmas, I chanted Eucharistic Prayer I, otherwise known as the Roman Canon, in Latin. This is a step forward for me and my parish: I have used the Roman Canon in Latin several times before, but this is the first time I have chanted it. The source I used was the "Ordo Missae in Cantu" published by Solesmes.

I find the Latin text more "singable" than the English. The Latin "flows" very naturally when chanted. Though I have a M.A. in Classics, I still find my tongue tripping over the occasional Latin word. This is much less of a problem when the prayer is sung.

[Update: I have received some e-mails saying that the audio link here, or in other posts, "aren't working." The link does work, but it appears that my file hosting service is a little slow. What you may need to do is, once you've clicked the "play" button and the stream starts, click it again to pause the playback, then wait about 30 seconds, then click play again, at which point the stream should have caught up and you can listen to the file. Either that, or drag the slider back to the beginning. Sorry about that - it looks like I need to find a different hosting service.]

[Update 2: I've switched to the "Blogcastone" streaming mp3 player, and I'm getting better results with that. Apparently the "Odeo" player I was using is a big kludge. Happy listening!]

Roman Canon

Warning to those of you you who know the Latin of the Mass fairly well: I slipped into using the Classical pronunication a couple of times. I first learned Latin with the Classical pronunication, and old habits die very hard indeed...

A very "high" liturgical celebration we had here. Here's to a joyful New Year for us all!

2008-01-03T21:35:00.000-06:00

Somehow I Don't Think The Council Fathers Had This in Mind

This story is a couple of weeks old, but no one else seems to have picked up on it, so it's still new for my purposes:

Mob hurts parishioner, destroys property over language clash in India

BANGALORE, India (CNS) -- A controversy over languages used during Catholic liturgies heated up as a mob hurt a parishioner and destroyed church property in the Archdiocese of Bangalore... Kannada- and Tamil-speaking Catholics in the archdiocese have clashed for more than three decades. Confrontations have often turned violent, especially during the Christmas and Easter seasons. Kannada is the state's official language and local Catholics demand that the archdiocese use it in church services. However, more than 70 percent of the archdiocese's Catholics are ethnic Tamils from the adjacent Tamil Nadu state. They also want the liturgy in their own language.

Hmmm... I can't think of any possible solution to this problem. It's a real stumper, for sure!

2008-01-03T21:07:00.000-06:00

More Good Music From St. Stanislaus

In addition to the singing at Midnight Mass, our Organist and Music Director, Gavin Craig, played wonderfully for all the Christmas Masses. The prelude before Midnight Mass was Johannes Brahms' lovely Chorale Prelude on "Es is ein Ros' entsprungen" (Lo, How a Rose e'er blooming):

Prelude: Es ist ein Ros'

Gavin's postlude was Louis Vierne's well-known "Carillon". There's a bit of ambient noise, as people are talking, etc., as they make their way out of church. But Gavin plays it quite well:

Postlude: Carillon

Enjoy the music!

2008-01-02T16:39:00.001-06:00

Christmas Music at St. Stanislaus

Me in my White and Gold Festal Vestments
I mentioned in my previous post that we had some beautiful music here at St. Stanislaus for Christmas. And so indeed we had.

For Midnight Mass, we put together an ensemble of 12 men from the parish, and they did a wonderful job of singing! I'm afraid I don't have a photo of them. It's probably just as well, as some of them, I'm sure, would be annoyed at having their pictures posted here...

They sang the Introit for Christmas, Puer Natus Est Nobis. Now, some purists out there might say "wait a minute, that's the introit for Christmas day." And that would be true. But since the guys sang at Midnight, and Puer Natus Est is perhaps the best known of the Christmas chants, it seemed to to me the way to go for a parish that's largely unaccustomed to chant. So you'll have to cut me a little slack, OK...

At any rate, they did a fine job on it, especially since, for most of the guys, it was their first time singing chant:

Introit: Puer Natus Est Nobis

Puer natus est nobis, et filius datus est nobis. Cuius imperium super humerum eius: et vocabitur nomen eius, magni consilii Angelus.

Ps. Cantate Domino canticum novum: quia mirabilia fecit.

A child is born for us, a son is given to us. Dominion shall be upon his shoulder: and His name shall be called the Angel of Great Counsel.

Ps. Sing to the Lord a new song: for He has done wonderful deeds.

We also sang Kyrie V, which is one of my favorites. It seems especially festive and joyful to me. It's becoming the Kyrie that we use here for special Feasts and Solemnities. We've used it enough now that my parishioners are coming to know it fairly well. That fact, however, wasn't enough to keep me from making a mistake in intoning the second part. However, I think it still came off creditably:

Kyrie: Mass V

For the offertory, the men's ensemble sang the classic Catholic Christmas hymn "Sleep, Holy Babe" (also sung by the school children at the Vigil Mass):

Offertory: Sleep, Holy Babe

The Creche at St. Stanislaus

For Communion, the men sang again, an English version of the 15th century Latin hymn Puer Natus in Bethlehem. It was well-suited for use during communion, with the people invited to join in the repeated refrain "A new song let us sing..." Speaking of the refrain, the men are singing the refrain with an organum-style harmony.

Communion: A Child Is Born in Bethlehem

To Father, Son, and Spirit raise, alleluia:
A never-ending song of praise, alleluia, alleluia!
A new song let us sing, Christ is born,
O come and adore, and let our gladness ring!

2007-12-31T00:26:00.000-06:00

Christmas at St. Stanislaus

I had a wonderful Christmas at my parish of St. Stanislaus. A number of volunteers turned out to decorate the church, and as always, they did an outstanding job (click on the photos for enlarged versions):

The Sanctuary Decorated for Christmas

We had some wonderful music for the Christmas Masses as well. At the Vigil Mass, which is traditionally the "Children's Mass", we had an ensemble of the 3rd through 8th grade students sing the old Catholic Christmas hymn "Sleep, Holy Babe", in 3 parts (It had to be three parts, since none of our boys are basses yet!). But the organ filled in for the bass part, and they sounded very nice, as you can hear:

Post-Communion: Sleep, Holy Babe

At Midnight Mass, we pulled out all the stops, and had beautiful music for that Mass as well, provided by a 12 voice men's ensemble we put together for the occasion. But more about that later...

In the meantime, here is a photo of me vested for Mass, in the parish's festive gold and white vestments:

I hope your Christmas was a blessed and joyful one!

2007-10-19T13:13:00.000-05:00

Livin' la Dolce Vita

I don't have time for a lengthy post, because the internet cafe I'm at closes in a short time.

But I had a grea day following my Mass at St. Peter's. Frs. Shenosky, Carr, and I enjoyed a couple of leisurely cups of excellent cappucino and delicious sweet rolls. Then, as they went back to their studies, I went off and explored. First stop was the Gesù, home church of the Jesuits:

Unfortunately, the Gesù was a bit of a disappointment. It's an impressive church, of course:

The Sanctuary of the Gesù

But the reason I went there was to see the Altar of St. Ignatius. This altar has more lapis lazuli in it than exists in any other single place on earth. When I was here studying 10 years ago it was closed for restoration and could not be seen. And guess what happened this time? Yeah, closed again. Will I ever see it in this life?

After the Gesu, I went to the Basilica of San Marco, which has a wonderful 6th century mosaic in the apse. I had the lights turned on in the sanctuary, but I still couldn't get enough light for a good photo. I'll try again.

From there I went to the Roman Forum:

I studied Classics in college and graduate school, so I can never get tired of seeing the forum and imagining it in its glory.

After a full day of sightseeing, I returned to the Casa and joined Fr. Shenosky for dinner. We went to a great place near the Pantheon, which had outstanding carbonara. Talk about inspiration:

A perfect end to a perfect day.

More later!

2007-10-18T00:03:00.000-05:00

I'm In Rome...I'm Really Here!

That's the thought I've had several times since my arrival Tuesday afternoon. After the long flight everything seemed sort of surreal, until dinner, when I looked around and it hit me - I'm really here. I'm staying at the Casa Santa Maria, which is the residence for American priests pursuing graduate studies in Rome. This is where I lived when I was here in 1997 to study Latin with Fr. Reginald Foster, the (in)famous "Pope's Latinist".

The Casa is in an incredible location: It's right around the corner from the Trevi Fountain, and next door to the famous Gregorian University:

The "Greg"

The Casa's also about a block and a half from the Piazza Venezia, which is the heart of the histori downtown center of Rome. As you walk down into the Piazza from the Casa on the via del Corso, you see this:

The Vittorio Emmanuele Monument

The Vittoria Emmanuele monument is dedicated to King Vittorio Emmanuele II, the first king of a unified Italy. It's certainly imposing, but many Italians think it's a bit over the top.

In the same piazza is the Palazzo Venezia, which is (in)famous because Mussolini used to harangue the crowds in the Piazza from it's window:

So, yesterday morning my adventure began in earnest. I arose early in the morning and left with two friends, Fr. Joe Shenosky (who was a classmate of mine at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary in Philadelphia) and Fr. Elias Carr (who is a friend of mine from back in grad school at Catholic University), who are both pursuing graduate studies in Rome and live at the Casa. Our destination: St. Peter's:

St. Peter's in the Early Morning Glow

Fr. Shenosky, Myself, and Fr. Carr in Front of St. Peter's

We went to St. Peter's to offer Mass. Specifically, we had made arrangements to offer Mass at the Clementine Altar, which is the altar in the crypt of the Basilica immediately behind the tomb of St. Peter. There's no altar at St. Peter's closer to the tomb itself than this.

The Clementine Chapel and Altar

Behind the grille above the altar is the stone of the back wall of St. Peter's tomb.

So, Frs. Shenosky, Carr, and myself offered the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass for the Feast of St. Ignatius of Antioch, and I fulfilled a dream I've had for 10 years:

Fr. Rob and Fr. Shenosky after Mass

So that was the beginning of my first full day in the Eternal City. I'll have more later, about my visits to the Roman Forum and the Basilica of San Marco. But I'm off to Ravenna later today!

2007-10-12T10:29:00.000-05:00

Fr. Rob Is Off To Italy!

That's right, I leave for Italy next Monday!

I will be in Italy for 10 days, with 6 days in the Eternal City, and trips to Ravenna, Anagni, and more!

This is my first trip to Italy since 1997, when I studied Latin in Rome with the legendary Fr. Reginald Foster, in a special program for advanced Latin students. While there I made a promise to God that if I was ordained, I would go back to Rome and offer Mass at the tombs of St. Peter and St. Paul, and at St. Mary Major. So I am finally fulfilling that promise.

I received confirmation earlier this week that I will indeed be offering Masses at the Clementine altar of St. Peter's, and at the Praesepio (the crib) altar at St. Mary Major.

In addition to visiting all these great churches and praying a lot, I will be enjoying la dolce vita as well. I'll be visiting wineries near Ravenna (home of the famous "Barbarossa") and in Frascati, and hopefully in Montefiascone, home of the famous Est! Est! Est!.

After my Italian sojourn, I'll stop over for 6 days in England where I will tour Old Catholic Lancashire and see friends in Oxford.

I hope to do some tour-blogging while I'm over there. I'll be bringing the laptop and digital camera, so come back and check what I'm doing over there!

2007-10-12T10:25:00.000-05:00

I Will Survive Bad Music

Way Funny!

2007-10-12T10:15:00.000-05:00

How Can I Witness My Faith in the Workplace?

That's the question raised by one reader:

Father Rob,
I am an employer and suspect that some of my employees are "living together" and am concerned about their eternal future. Do you have any brochures on cohabitation that you could recommend? I was thinking of leaving them in our lobby and lunch room. Most of these folks are not Catholic and am thinking of a CD or small brochure. Thank you.
Sincerely,

A Concerned Boss

I answer:

I would recommend, firstly, that you be very low-key about this. As an employer, you are in a position of authority, but that authority is circumscribed by the workplace. An employee could very easily react by saying "You're my boss at work, but my private life is none of your business" - and he would have a valid point.

That being said, I'd recommend two articles:

"Cohabitation Fails as a Test for Marriage", Homiletic & Pastoral Review, May 2000

"How Splitting Up Brought Them Together", National Catholic Register, March 17, 2001

I'd also recommend the pamphlet "Living Together and Christian Comittment", by James Healy, published by Rooted in Love (http://www.rootedinlove.org). However, this pamphlet is more specifically intended for couples who are engaged and seeking to marry in the Church.

I hope this helps.

Fr. Rob

2007-10-01T00:29:00.000-05:00

If Jesus Was Just a Moral Teacher, He Was Wasting His Time

Homily for the Twenty-Sixth Sunday of Ordinary Time

Amos 6:1a, 4-7
1 Timothy 6:11-16
Luke 16:19-31

I would imagine that many of you have heard, at one time or another, someone (usually someone who says this sort of thing is trying to sound very worldly and sophisticated) say or write something like “Jesus came to show us how to love…”. Or, perhaps, something like “Jesus was a great moral teacher.” Now, this sort of thing may, at first, sound very well and good. But, in fact, they are very silly things to say. Very silly things indeed. Because we didn’t need Jesus to “show us” how to love. We know very well what it means to act in a loving way. We know the difference between being loving and being selfish. And we didn’t need Jesus to tell us right from wrong. Indeed, prophets and philosophers and wise men have been telling us for millennia what right and wrong are. Some 700 years before Christ, the prophet Amos lamented the wickedness of the people of Israel, and how the rich and powerful were more interested in enjoying their wealth and power than in living Godly lives. In our first reading, we hear the prophet say “Woe to the complacent in Zion! Lying upon beds of ivory…they eat lambs taken from the flock, and calves from the stall! …They drink wine from bowls, and anoint themselves with the best oils; yet they are not made ill by the collapse of Joseph!"

And if we look at our gospel today, it would appear from the Lord’s parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus that little had changed: the rich still enjoy their riches, and the poor suffer, waiting ‘til the next life to receive their consolation. We might even take Our Lord’s conclusion to be kind of depressing: Those who are unconvinced of the need for righteousness by the prophets and the moral law won’t even be convinced by someone rising from the dead, referring to Himself.

If Jesus came as merely someone to give us an example of love, or as another moral teacher, then I’m afraid He was wasting His time.

No, the problem isn’t in knowing what it means to love, or knowing right from wrong. The problem isn’t in the knowing, it’s in the doing. We can’t seem to get out act together to actually do what we know we should. We can’t seem to live as we know we ought.

And that, my brothers and sisters, brings us to the real point of Jesus’ coming. Jesus came in order to transform us. He came to take our hearts of stone and give us hearts after His own Heart. He came to empower us to live lives no longer for ourselves, but for Him. All the moral teaching in the world is no good if it falls on the same rocky, weed-grown lives we have apart from Him. He came so that, by taking on our human nature, our nature could be restored and redeemed in Him. As we heard in the Alleluia verse before the Gospel, “Though Christ Jesus was rich, He became poor, so that by his poverty you might become rich.” The riches that God wants us to have are the riches of Christ’s grace and power, giving us the ability to live a new kind of life – His own life.

And we access that power, we avail ourselves of that grace, by the means He gave us through the Church. We do so here, in the Sacred Liturgy, where we are lifted up into the life of heaven itself, where Christ comes to meet us and we receive Him in the most real way. Here we meet Christ in a “heavenly exchange” by which the new life He won for us is renewed and extended. We go forth from this liturgy empowered by Christ to live as apostles in the world.

We access, we avail ourselves of the grace and power of Christ through frequenting the sacramental life of the Church, especially in the sacrament of Penance. We do so also through a life of charity. Performing works of charity is both a fruit of lived faith, and a means by which that faith is strengthened and by which we receive additional grace. We also receive the grace and power of Christ through devoting ourselves to prayer. It is by prayer that we grow in intimacy with the Lord, and learn more clearly how He is calling us to serve Him in the here and now.

The liturgy, the sacraments, a life of charity, and prayer. These are the means by which Christ has made it possible for us to “tap into” His power, His grace, His life. If we “lay hold” of His life in these ways, we will “lay hold”, as St. Paul says, of the eternal life to which we are called. In this way we can fulfill St. Paul’s charge to “pursue righteousness, devotion, faith, love, patience and gentleness.” And we will come one day into the unapproachable light, wherein dwells the King of Kings and Lord of lords.

2007-10-01T00:07:00.000-05:00

I'm Not Only a Nerd, I'm "King Nerd"

2007-08-10T14:49:00.000-05:00

A Bit of Episcopal Over-Reaching...?

The inimitable Fr. Zuhlsdorf at What Does The Prayer Really Say? has been keeping track of episcopal reactions and statements concerning Pope Benedict's Motu Proprio "Summorum Pontificum".

The reactions of the bishops here in Michigan have been relatively guarded and cautious, though, as Fr. Z points out, my own bishop, James A. Murray of Kalamazoo, stood out from the pack with an excellent statement on the Motu Proprio.

But over in the Diocese of Gaylord, Michigan, I'm afraid lovers of Tradition are given little prospect for joy by their diocesan establishment.

At a gathering of priests of the Gaylord Diocese in late June (on the eve of the MP's release), the bishop of Gaylord, Patrick Cooney, issued a directive stating:

Until other law is promulgated, all liturgies in the Diocese of Gaylord are to be celebrated entirely in English by the presiding celebrant.

It then goes on to say:

The use of other languages in songs and hymns...can be used occasionally, but must never overshadow the use of English.

Any variance from this policy must be requested on an individual basis from the Bishop of the Diocese of Gaylord using the form that can be obtained from the Secretariat for Worship & Liturgical Formation or the Office of the Bishop.

This Policy takes effect immediately. [Bold text in original.]

The form mentioned above asks the person making such a request to explain the "reason for requesting this variance from Diocesan Policy on the Use of the Vernacular when Celebrating Liturgy."

(Scans of these documents can be downloaded here,here, and here.)

My first reaction on reading this was incredulity. Does anyone imagine, given the timing of this policy, that it is directed at restricting, say, Masses in Spanish? I don't think so. Should this be seen as a pre-emptive move against Latin liturgies? It sure looks like it. But surely the bishop must know that the Mass of the Roman Rite (Novus Ordo) is the Latin typical edition? As such, the bishop cannot forbid its use. It is simply beyond his competence. And it seems to me that, after September 14, when "Summorum Pontificum" takes effect, this instruction cannot apply to the Extraordinary Form.

But this directive certainly sends a signal, doesn't it? It telegraphs to every priest "Latin Is NOT Welcome in the Diocese of Gaylord". Given this directive, how many priests would be likely to request "permission" to celebrate Mass in the language of the Church? If any priest is inclined to do so, he is now placed on notice that he risks offending the Powers That Be.

Bishop Cooney also mandated that communion under both kinds must be offered at every liturgy celebrated in his diocese. Which could also be seen as a dig against the Extraordinary Form, seeing as communion under both kinds is never offered to the faithful in liturgies of the EF.

Are some in authority so hostile to our Tradition and patrimony that they are willing to go to almost any length to make sure no one is exposed to them?

Oremus pro eis.

2007-08-10T14:04:00.000-05:00

Anna Quindlen Is Clever

At least, that's what she seems to think.

In last week's Newsweek she wrote a column asking "How Much Jail Time" pro-lifers want to give women who have abortions. In it Quindlen refers to a video in which pro-lifers are allegedly "gobsmacked" by someone confronting them with this question.

Now, I can't speak for the pro-lifers in this video, but I too might appear "gobsmacked" if Ms. Quindlen put such a question to me. Not because I would be at a loss to respond to the question, but due to the moral shallowness and vapidity of the question. Quindlen demonstrates, as she is wont, that she is incapable of making distinctions, or indeed, engaging in serious thought.

Over at National Review Online, a number of actual serious thinkers offer an excellent series of responses to her question. I can imagine Quindlen, after writing her column, having thought "HA! I've got those pro-lifers now!" Except she hasn't. Her question is neither very original nor very clever. I can recall dismantling this silly question in dorm-room bull sessions in college 20 years ago.

What Quindlen is unable to recognize, as others in the NRO Symposium point out, is that the law didn't target women seeking abortions because the law recognized that women who felt so desperate that they sought an abortion were in need of compassion and help, not punishment.

But in the feminist pro-abortion ideology embraced by Quindlen and the establishment Left, the woman seeking an abortion is always exercising her "power", and making a self-asserting "choice". No room for woman as desperate, frequently abandoned, victim. Like every ideology, pro-abortion feminism ignores reality - in this case the desperate reality of the vast majority of women who get abortions - and shoe-horns these women into their ideologically prescribed template.

But the fact is that a pregnant woman is vulnerable. Feminists cannot stand to acknowledge such a reality. But a decent, moral society recognizes reality and sees to it that a pregnant woman is supported and protected, ideally, by encouraging and building up marriage and stable family life, and by providing life-affirming options when that ideal breaks down. A decent, moral society does not leave pregnant women so bereft that they see killing their unborn children as their only option.

Pro-lifers are "gobsmacked" by Quindlen's silly question because they understand the pregnant woman's vulnerability, and want to protect the woman and the child in a society like that described above. Too bad that she's too clever to see that.

2007-07-20T05:55:00.000-05:00

Motu Proprio Pamphlet Available For Download

I have prepared a pamphlet explaining some of the main points of the holy father's Motu Proprio liberalizing the use of the Classical Roman Rite, now known as the "Extraordinary Form".

It's titled "The Holy Father’s Motu Proprio On the “Old” Mass: What Does It Mean for Us?"

In it I attempt to summarize what the Motu Proprio does, and some of the reasons why Pope Benedict promulgated it. For example, I wrote:

In this document, Pope Benedict grants any priest who can properly celebrate Mass according to the “old” usage the right to do so, without the need to seek permission from his bishop. Furthermore, it allows the faithful who desire the Mass according to the Classical Rite to request it from their pastors, who are now expected to “willingly grant” such requests.

I also include some concrete advice for people as to "what you can do about this":

Well, firstly, if you’re not familiar with the Extraordinary form of the Mass, or with our Latin tradition, take a little time to start getting familiar with them.

This pamphlet is written for the parish, like mine (and most out there), that does not have any Masses offered, as yet, in the Extraordinary Form or even much use of Latin in the Novus Ordo, where people may be a bit leery about the Motu Proprio because of things they have read and heard implying that this is all about Pope Benedict "turning back the clock" or "going back on Vatican II." I discovered that many people were under the impression that the Church was going completely back to the "Old Mass", so I clear up that misunderstanding.

The Pamphlet can be downloaded free of charge here. It's a PDF document designed to be printed on both sides of a single 8 1/2 by 11 page. The pamphlet is designed to be inserted into a parish bulletin of put in a literature rack. I've written it so that it should be readily usable by most parishes.

You may copy and distribute the pamphlet freely. I only ask that you do not obscure the attribution of it, and that you do not excerpt it, abridge it or edit it without my consent.

So, go ahead and download it! This is the first of what I intend to be several pamphlets on the Motu Proprio and other liturgical matters.

I hope you find it helpful!

2007-07-20T05:45:00.000-05:00

An Answer To My Question

...posed below about Zimbabwe and Archbishop Ncube's call to have the British invade.

My old friend from grad school Scott Richert has posted his answer to my question over at the "Taki's Top Drawer" blog.

In his judgment, the question hangs upon the first point of Catholic Just War teaching:

The damage inflicted by the aggressor on the nation or community of nations must be lasting, grave, and certain.

He makes a good argument - definitely worth a read.

2007-07-19T00:29:00.000-05:00

Even Priests Have Fantasies

So, the Archdiocese of Los Angeles agreed to pay $660 million to settle priest sex-abuse claims.

Oddly enough, this agreement was concluded just before the trial was set to begin. This trial would, almost certainly, have resulted in Cardinal Mahony being forced to testify. Just a coincidence, I'm sure.

This denouement to the Los Angeles situation led me to entertain the following fantasy:

Scene: Cardinal Mahony's office
Time: 9:30 AM

Cardinal's Secretary: "Your Eminence, the Holy Father is on line 1."

Cdl. Mahony: "He is? Well, I'll take it right away." (Picks up phone.) Your Holiness, to what do I owe this pleasure?"

Holy Father: "Pleasure? The pleasure's all yours, I'm sure. Surely you must have some idea why I'm calling?"

Mahony: "Well (sounding sheepish), I suppose I do. About the legal business, right?"

Holy Father: "You're very perspicacious, Roger. 600 million, is that right?"

Mahony: "Yes, Holiness. That's a lot of money, I know, but with this, the whole business is over. The archdiocese is spared a painful, ugly trial, the people are spared the lurid details of these allegations coming out in the press every day, and the Church is preserved from the spectacle of priests and bishops being hauled into court to testify."

Holy Father: "Of course, of course. With you being one of those unfortunate clergy spared from the indignity of testifying..."

Mahony: "Holiness, I assure you..."

Holy Father: "Yes, yes. I'm sure that thought didn't enter your mind. But on to the reason for my call. Now that you've assured your legacy, and, after all, $600 million is a small price to pay for the legacy of such an important man as yourself, I'd like you to do something for me."

Mahony: "Whatever you'd like, Your Holiness."

Holy Father: "I'm glad you're in such a pliable frame of mind, Roger. That's what I've come to expect from you. I want you to know that I am ready to receive, under Canon 401, section 2, your letter of resignation. Please be assured that, upon receiving it, it will be readily granted."

Mahony: "But, Holiness, I've still got three years until I retire. There's still so much I could do."

Holy Father: "You've done quite enough, Roger. Far more than many others could have done. It's time for someone else to lead the archdiocese into a new phase, to 'sing a new church into being', as it were. And I'm going to issue a special instruction to your successor in recognition of your legacy."

Mahony: "What's that, Holiness?"

Holy Father: "Since you have chosen your legacy in this way, I'm instructing, when you pass on to your eternal reward, that your tombstone, under your name and the dates of your episcopate, be inscribed with 660,000,000.00. In this way your legacy will be remembered for all the ages.

Mahony: "But you can't do that!"

Holy Father: "Ah, but I can, and I will. I have it mind to send young Dolan from Milwaukee to take over. He'll do a fine job, I'm sure. I'll make sure he gets all the zeros in.

Mahony: "I'll need time..."

Holy Father: "Of course, Roger. I'll be expecting your letter tomorrow morning. You have my fax number, I take it?"

Mahony: "Yes, Holiness."

Holy Father: "Excellent! 'Til tomorrow, then. Good-bye, Roger."

As I said, that's a fantasy. To understand why that's only a fantasy, and why it won't happen, read my article from This Rock magazine, "Why Doesn't the Pope Do Something About Bad Bishops?".

2007-07-19T00:04:00.000-05:00

A Hypothetical Question

A lot of you are aware of the Horrific Mess that Zimbabwe has become. Zimbabwe, a country that used to be one of Africa's few economic success stories, is approaching collapse thanks to the policies and overall megalomania of President Robert Mugabe. Zimbabwe was, just a few years ago, a net exporter of food - now the populace faces widespread famine. Again, thanks to the insane marxist ideology of Mugabe.

Archbishop Pius Ncube of Buluwayo has taken a major role in condemning and opposing Mugabe, vowing to force him from power, in spite of the danger to his own life.

A couple of weeks ago, Archbishop Ncube went so far as to call for Great Britain to invade and depose Mugabe. He said:

"I think it is justified for Britain to raid Zimbabwe and remove Mugabe," he said.

"We should do it ourselves but there's too much fear. I'm ready to lead the people, guns blazing, but the people are not ready."

So, here's the question:

If Britain were to invade Zimbabwe with the intent of ousting Mugabe and "rescuing" the country fromm his disastrous misrule, would that be justified under Just War teaching?

Also, if Britain were to do so, would Archbishop Ncube's "invitation" be sufficient justification?

Finally, would such a scenario differ from what the U.S. and Britain did in Iraq? If so, how?

I have some of my own thoughts about those questions, but I'd like to see what other people think before I chime in. I'd be particularly interested in what those of you who have been vehemently arguing about the Iraq war (on either side) think. Discuss...

2007-07-13T11:37:00.000-05:00

University of Florida: Yes! to Death

The University of Florida my be the first institution, following his release from prison, to provide Jack ("Dr. Death") Kevorkian with a forum to disseminate his belief that more of the sick and elderly just need to die.

Kevorkian accepted an offer to speak at the university on October 1. He will be paid $50,000.

When Larry King interviewed him, he said that he felt "it was important to speak to young people in high school and college about these issues."

And given a forum by the State of Florida, too...

If you are old, sick, disabled, or imagine you ever could be any of those things, I think you should seriously start considering leaving Florida, soon.

The Terri Schindler Schiavo Foundation is sponsoring an online petition asking the University to rescind the invitation.

From the Petition:

This invitation is an affront to everyone who stands for the value and the dignity of every human life. Dr. Kevorkian is determined to instill the future leaders of our nation with his twisted ethics of euthanasia. We need everyone to join us in telling the President of the University of Florida that it is unacceptable to invite Jack Kevorkian to spread his message of death and violence on the campus.

In another, saner age, a man like Kevorkian would have been treated as the monster and pariah he is.

In our age, he's given television interviews and University speaking appointments.

2007-07-13T08:36:00.000-05:00

The Future for Orthodox Catholics in the Republican Party

The other day I was listening to the Neal Boortz show (I don't listen regularly - Boortz exemplifies I've-got-mine-the-rest-of-you-can-go-to-Hell libertarianism, and he's pretty hostile to any form of serious Christian belief). But Boortz was talking about the Republicans chances in '08, which he thought weren't good.

He referenced a column by Robert Novak, in which he wrote:

It is difficult to exaggerate the pessimism about the immediate political future voiced by Republicans in Congress when not on the record. With an unpopular president waging an unpopular war, they see electoral catastrophe in 2008, with Democratic gains in both House and Senate and Hillary Clinton in the White House.

This led me to wonder about whether orthodox Catholics and other traditon-minded conservative Christians would have a place in the Republican Party for much longer.

I don't think so.

The widespread attractiveness of the Giuliani candidacy, the willingness of even so-called "social conservatives" to look the other way regarding Rudy's embrace of the Culture of Death, and the Republicans' enthusiasm for The Leviathan State all bode ill for the future.

Say what you will about the Republicans "lip-service" to social conservatives, their keeping pro-lifers at arm's length and their paltry delivery in about 25 years in power in the White House and Capital Hill. The fact is, conservative Catholics had a voice in the party's agenda.

But the Mammon-first conservatives have always wrinkled their noses in disgust at us, and that disdain is starting to break out into open hostility.

If, as seems to be the common opinion, the Republicans lose again in '08, I think that will be the beginning of the end for any substantive socially conservative Christian voice in the Republican Party. Social conservatives will receive the brunt of the blame. It's happening already.

The trend in our culture is more and more towards "leave me alone, don't try to tell me I can't [insert vice or sin crying out to heaven here]." The Republicans will eventually cave in to the pressure to submit to that trend. The Republican Party is not the Church; it does not have the graces and charisms that allow the the Church to resist the prevailing winds of the Zeitgeist.

So what will we do then?

This is not a brief for the Republican Party, urging you to stick with them because "its our only hope". The Republicans don't deserve our vote. They have all but flipped us the bird over the last couple of years. I'm not sure there's much hope left - there.

So what will we do? And where will that leave our country, pulled on one side by the Jacobins (Hillary) and Panderers (Obama) of the Left, and on the other by Friede durch Kraft cynics (Giuliani) and hollow men (McCain) of the Right?

2007-07-13T08:13:00.000-05:00

Common Ground Catholic - Evangelical Dialogue To Air

Trinity Broadcast Network (TBN), home to Televangelists Benny Hinn and Joyce Meyer, will be broadcasting a 90 minute "dialogue" between Fr. John Riccardo, a priest of the Archdiocese of Detroit, and Pastor Steve Andrews of Kensington Community Church, a suburban Detroit "MegaChurch".

The show will air tomorrow, Saturday July 14, at 5:00 PM Eastern.

I'm not familiar with Pastor Andrews or his church, but I do know Fr. Riccardo: He is an outstanding priest, well known in the Detroit area for his orthodoxy and zeal for the faith. I'm confident that Fr. Riccardo will hold up the Catholic "end" very well.

This promises to be something rather different from the usual fare on TBN.

It also seems to me to be a tremendous opening, that an Evangelical broadcaster would air such a bold and zealous proponent of the Catholic faith.

For more information on the show (which is also available on DVD) go to the producer's website, Nineveh's Crossing.

2007-07-10T10:59:00.000-05:00

The "Live Earth" Idiocy

This past weekend, while Catholics were considering, celebrating, and (in some quarters) lamenting the Motu Proprio "Summorum Pontificum", ignorant rock stars and celebrities were engaging in the act of mutual mental masturbation known as "Live Earth".

I was going to write a sendup of the foolishness, but someone beat me to it. From Dan Proft's column at Human Events:

It was not the noise pollution from climatologists like Kanye West and the Pussycat Dolls. No, that didn’t bother me...

The delicious irony of watching the Dave Matthews Band, the same eco-friendly Dave Matthews Band that dumped 800 pounds of human waste from their tour bus into the Chicago River during their stop through three years ago (well, maybe the irony wasn’t exactly delicious), that also didn’t bother me...

Watching Gore keep it real with his Hollywood friends is kind of like watching your dad shake his groove thing at a wedding...

Read the rest.

2007-07-09T13:15:00.000-05:00

My Motu Proprio Celebration

Because of parish committments, I had to delay my celebration of the Motu Proprio to yesterday afternoon.

But celebrate I did! It seems that most of the Traddy celebrations of Summorum Pontificum involved Veuve Cliquot. I'm more a Moet man myself, and I have a bottle of Moet Nectar Imperial on hand, but I decided to celebrate with different libations:

I broke out my bottle of Lagavulin 16 year-old Scotch and I opened a bottle of my prized 1989 Barros Colheita Port. It is, absolutely, the best port I have ever had. Don't bother trying to find any more in the U.S. I've tried extensively, and it's all gone.

I also thought that such a momentous occasion deserved a burnt offering, so I lit up one of my Cuban cigars, a Montecristo No. 4.

So, glass in hand, I savored God's goodness in granting us our holy father Pope Benedict, as I savored his goodness in giving us things like single-malt scotch, vintage port, and the beautiful varieties of nicoteana.

Here's to You, Papa Benedicte!

I hope and pray that all of you will receive our holy father's generous act as the great gift it is!

Fr. Rob, enveloped in the Odor Sanctitatis

2007-07-08T12:02:00.000-05:00

Announcement On The Motu Proprio

Here is the announcement I made about the Motu Proprio at all the Masses at my parish this weekend:

Many of you, no doubt, may have seen or heard already about the document just released by our holy father Pope Benedict XVI. I'd like to say a few words about it. This document is a Motu Proprio, which is a Latin phrase meaning "on his own initiative", meaning that the holy father released this document on his own initiative for the good of the whole Church. This Motu Proprio provides for a much wider and more extensive use of the "old" Mass, that is the Mass as it was celebrated before Vatican II.

Many people over the years have been led to believe that Vatican II "got rid of all that." In previous homilies I have already explained that this was not the case, and our holy father makes this clear as well in this new document. Pope Benedict is convinced, as are many other theologians and scholars, and as I am myself, that the intentions of the Council fathers of Vatican II were not fully realized in the "new" Mass that we celebrate today, and that it is necessary to recover the fullness of our Catholic Tradition in order to live the fullness of our Catholic Faith.

I'm not going to go into the document in any detail here and now, as I've only read through the English translation a couple of times, and I'm still digesting the Latin original. I want to be sure I understand the document before I try to explain what it means. But it is already clear to me that the holy father's intent is to enrich and deepen the faith and life of the Church. In our first reading today we heard the prophet Isaiah tell the Israelites about the "prosperity" he would lavish upon Jerusalem. Well, the Church is the New Jerusalem and she lavishes her riches upon us in the liturgical and sacramental life of the Church. Pope Benedict is giving us an opportunity to draw even more deeply and widely from these riches, so that our souls may be more truly fed.

I will have more to say about this document and what it means in the coming weeks. I'll give you some points from it in next week's bulletin. As to what it will mean for us here at St. Stanislaus, I'm not sure as of yet. Fortunately, as you know we have been working for the last year or so to implement a wider use of Latin in our liturgies here, so in a sense you could say we're already ahead of the the curve.

I would caution you to take with a grain or two of salt (or even a whole shaker) what you may read or hear about this in the media. A friend of mine once said that when the mainstream media talks about religion you have to deduct 50 points from their IQ. I've seen a lot of misinformation out there already. I'll have more information for you in the coming weeks, and I'll give you some points from the Motu Proprio in next week's bulletin.

As I said, it's clear to me that the holy father is offering us an opportunity to enrich and deepen how we live our faith in the the liturgy. This is a great gift to the Church, and I think we'll have a great deal to be thankful for.

2007-07-07T23:39:00.000-05:00

Te Deum Laudamus...

Te Dominum confitemur. So begins the great hymn "Te Deum", "We praise You O God, we confess that You are the Lord."

We have a great deal to give thanks for today, as our holy father Pope Benedict has released the long awaited Motu Proprio "Summorum Pontificum", which "frees" the pre-Vatican II Mass for wider and more regular use.

I won't try to exhaustively analyze the text here or comment on liturgical fine points: That has been and is being done very well over at The New Liturgical Movement and by Fr. Zuhlsdorf. But I will comment on a few things I notice right away in the document, and my thoughts on the "bigger picture" of what our holy father's act may accomplish:

The holy father clarifies two very important points. First, that the 1962 Missal of Blessed John XXIII was in fact never (contrary to what many Catholics were led to believe) abrogated or "gotten rid of". This, in a sense, vindicates the position held by many conservatives and traditionalists for the last three decades. Secondly, the Missal of Blessed John XXIII and that of Paul VI are in fact two legitimate expressions of the same Roman Rite. It is no longer possible to treat the Traditional Mass and its adherents as red-headed stepchildren and claim to be following the mind of the Church.

The Motu Proprio also inverts the position of the priest and people vis-a-vis their bishop regarding the celebration of the old rite, as compared to how it stood before. Until now, a priest or group of the faithful who wanted to celebrate the Traditional Mass had to go to their bishop hat-in-hand and convince him that there was sufficient reason for him to do so. All too often those requests were denied by bishops who, in so doing, abused their authority, in spite of the clearly-expressed mind of the Church as expressed in Ecclesia Dei, which urged bishops to grant permission "generously". Now, the presumption is that the "Extraordinary" form of the Roman Rite will be offered when circumstances warrant it, and a pastor or bishop who refuse to do so will have to explain himself.

The document also illustrates the holy father's awareness of the "lay of the land". Articles 7 and 8 make it clear that, in virtually any circumstance in which the faithful or a priest desire the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite and it is not provided, the situation is to be referred to the commission Ecclesia Dei. I call these articles the "No Excuse" clauses, paraphrasing St. Paul in Romans 1:20 where he explains that those who violate the law of God written in the human heart have "no excuse".

In doing these things, the holy father, as he declares in his accompanying letter, doesn't threaten the authority of the bishop as moderator of the liturgy in his diocese. But he does make clear that the bishop, in exercising his authority, is bound to do so in accord with the mind of the Church. And the Motu Proprio makes clear, in this area, where the mind of the Church lies. The bishop is not a law unto himself.

Finally, regarding the "bigger picture" to which I referred earlier, it seems to me that the Motu Proprio and the ensuing liberalization of the Classical Roman Rite can have a profoundly effect on the reinvigoration or reconstruction of an authentic Catholic culture. Catholic culture has become vitiated and impoverished in recent decades, and I am convinced that this is in large part a result of the impoverishment of the liturgy during that same time. Indeed, in some places one would be hard pressed to see many signs of an authentic Catholic culture surviving at all. Lex orandi, lex credendi, "the rule of prayer is the rule of faith", as the saying goes. If the "rule of prayer" is impoverished and cut off from its roots, then the faith it informs will be similarly impoverished and deracinated. And an impoverished and deracinated faith cannot be expected to build up and maintain a vigorous culture. As I wrote a while back, a people who loses touch with its roots is a people in danger of extinction. The culture, that is, our art, music, literature, and countless small rituals and habits of thought as well, is how our faith is "incarnated" in our lives. That culture has its roots in the cultus, that is, our liturgical and sacramental life.

If, as I (and it would appear, our holy father) hope, the wider use of the extraordinary form of the Roman Rite leads to a "cross-pollinization" of the rite of Paul VI, then the liturgical and sacramental life of the Church will be enriched. Such an enrichment and deepening of the expression of our faith in its "source and summit" cannot but have an enriching and deepening effect in our Catholic culture. And that, it seems to me, will lead to an overall reinvigoration of the Church, advancing her mission of leading the world to Christ.

2007-07-07T22:31:00.000-05:00

A New Look!

I'm returning to blogging after a 6 month hiatus. Since I'm returning anew to the blog, I'm updating it with a new look!

I hope the new template makes the blog look snappier as well as easier to read.

Hope you all like it!

2007-04-30T09:52:00.000-05:00

Rumors of My Impending Death...
...have been greatly exaggerated.

I'm not sure where this came from, but the story over on Mark Shea's blog is untrue. Not that I'm in any way upset with Mark. I just spoke with him on the phone a few minutes ago, and I know he was acting in good faith.

I'm not near death, I didn't have a heart attack. In fact, I'm fine. Rumors of my death might reflect wishful thinking on the part of some, but, oh well, it seems I'm going to be around for a while yet.

One good thing, I suppose about this is that I'm finding out who my friends are. I've had many phone calls of concern in the last half-hour or so, and it's nice to see all the promises of prayer. Thanks to all of you!

I suppose my failure to post for so long has probably contributed to this. In the post on Mark's blog the source of this rumor refers to my blog as "long abandoned." Perhaps that's an indication of the ephemerality of the internet, but I don't think of this January as that "long" ago.

I stopped blogging because I got too busy, then we were into Lent and it seemed not be a good time to start blogging again, and then came the busyness of Easter, etc. I have been planning on blogging again for the last couple of weeks, but I was waiting until I finished a computer upgrade (now complete) and could update the template of my blog.

I will start blogging again soon. Thanks for your readership and concern!

2007-01-15T18:30:00.000-06:00

Latin and the Wedding Feast of Christ the Bridegroom

Homily for the Second Sunday in Ordinary Time

Second in a series of three homilies on the Liturgy

Isaiah 62: 1-5
Psalm 96: 1-2, 2-3, 7-8, 9-10
1 Cor. 12: 4-11
John 2: 1-11

In our Psalm response a few minutes ago, we sang "Proclaim his marvelous deeds to all the nations", and we heard the cantor sing in the first verse:

Sing to the Lord a new song;
Sing to the Lord, all you lands.
Sing to the Lord, bless His name.

That, my brothers and sisters, is precisely what happens in the liturgy: Every time we gather here to celebrate Mass, the marvelous deeds of the Lord are proclaimed to all the world, to every creature. Every time I offer the sacrifice of the Mass, we sing the new song of the Lord, for we are singing, we are praying, the prayer of Christ himself, offered by and through His church.

And the marvelous deeds of God, the saving work of Christ, is not only proclaimed in word, but it is actually made present to us here and now. We are made present at the eternal sacrifice of Christ which was offered at Calvary and the Last Supper. Heaven comes to us on earth, so that we may be lifted up into the very life of heaven.

And all of us are invited, are called, to share in this proclamation, this making present, of the saving work of God. For we all, as members of the Body of Christ, participate in Christ's offering of Himself to the Father. That is what St. Paul is getting at in our second reading from his letter to the Corinthians. He tells us that there are different kinds of gifts, given to each of us, but they are all given by the same Spirit. We serve in different ways, but we all serve the same Lord. Indeed, we all have our part to play in the offering of the Holy Liturgy, whether we have any formal role or not. Indeed, there is no such thing as "just" attending Mass. There is no such thing as "just" attending Mass because each of us is united, in and through the church, to this offering. We are all presented to the Father by Christ in the Mass.

So the church, wanting to draw us more deeply into this offering of the sacrifice of Christ, has always had two major concerns. One of these concerns is that the liturgy be in some sense accessible, understandable, to us, so that we can consciously participate in this offering. Another concern is that we are always faithful to the Tradition that has been handed down to us by Christ through the apostles. The church has been entrusted with the sacraments, with the liturgy, by Christ: she must be a faithful guardian and steward of the great treasure she have been given. The church wants to be sure that the faith we hold is the same faith we have received from the apostles. She wants to be sure that the Eucharist we celebrate is the same Eucharist that Christ gave the apostles at the Last Supper.

These two concerns are not opposed to each other, but they must be balanced. And that is where the history lesson comes in:

Now, we all know that at Vatican II, the council fathers decreed that the Mass be made available in the languages of the people, the vernacular. The council fathers decided that the liturgy would be more accessible if it was available to us in our own languages. So the Holy See entrusted the bishops of each land the task of translating the prayers of the Mass into their own language: French, Spanish, German, English, and the rest.

So far so good. The American bishops set up a commission of experts to translate the Mass into English. And when it was ready, we started having Mass in English. But something else happened as well: In most places in our country, not only was English introduced, but, almost overnight, the Latin was thrown out entirely. Those of you who are old enough to remember may recall this. I was only a child at the time, but I have heard from some of those who were old enough to remember that in some places people literally went to Mass one Sunday and it was in Latin, and the next Sunday they went and it was in English. And the Latin, all of the prayers and the Tradition that went along with it, disappeared almost overnight.

But the problem is that that was never the intent of the council fathers; that was never the intent of the church. Indeed, the documents of Vatican II say as much. The ushers have handed out a pamphlet to you that I made up, on Latin and the Liturgy. On the first page, right in front, you'll see I have quoted from Sacrosanctum Concilium, the Constitution on the Liturgy of Vatican II. It says:

The use of the Latin language... is to be preserved in the Latin rites.

(By the way, we belong to the Latin or Roman rite of the Church, as opposed to the Eastern or Greek rites.) The council fathers go on to say:

Nevertheless care must be taken to ensure that the faithful may also be able to say or sing together in Latin those parts of the Ordinary of the Mass which pertain to them.

So you see, the church never intended for us to get rid of Latin. The church meant for us for us to have both English and Latin, not either one or the other. And since then, our popes have urged us to hold on to our Latin tradition. Each pope since the council has encouraged the use of Latin in the liturgy. In the pamphlet you have been given I have included some statements of the popes and recent bishops about the use of Latin in the liturgy. They have reminded our bishops and ourselves that Latin is part of our heritage as Catholics, that it is a sign of unity for the church, not just for the church of today, but the church as she has been down through the ages.

And so it is. When we pray the Mass in Latin, we are praying in the very same words used by countless saints and martyrs down through the ages. We are singing the very same chants and hymns that were sung by millions upon millions who have gone before us, and are now praising God in heaven. The use of Latin unites us to them in a particularly literal way. Let's remember as well that thousands upon thousands of martyrs through the centuries died for those words, and for the faith that those words represent and communicate.

We must cling to, hold fast to, our Latin tradition because it is our heritage; it is where we have come from as a people. As my friend Mark Shea described it, if we forget who we are, if we forget where we have come from, it is a kind of suicide. A people who forgets is a people in danger of extinction.

Over the last decade or so, the urgings and warnings of our popes have started to take hold among our bishops, priests and many laypeople, and a movement has emerged to recover and restore our tradition of Latin in the liturgy. It has been growing for some time, and more and more parishes have been taking part in this movement. You have all seen in recent months that we have been using Latin more in the liturgy here. Some people have asked me, "Why are we doing this? They aren't doing this in other parishes." Well, it all depends on what other parishes you're going to. I know that they've been using Latin in some liturgies at the cathedral for a long time now. At St. Charles in Coldwater, Fr. Brian Stanley has been leading his parish in this direction. Last month I had lunch with another pastor, and we talked about his plans for re-introducing Latin at his parish. Parishes are going in this direction because this is what the church is asking of us. And it's not new, because in fact this is what the church has always asked of us.

It's important to stay in contact with our Latin heritage for another reason. You'll recall, as I said a few minutes ago, that the bishops of this country were entrusted with the task of translating the Mass into English. And they felt they needed to do it very quickly, because they wanted to make the Mass available to people in our own language. Now, who can tell me what can happen when you do something in a hurry? [a pause, then someone says] "You make mistakes". That's right, you make mistakes. And that's what happened when they translated the Mass into English.

[Going over to a lectern and picking up a large book...] You've probably noticed this large book up here at the front of the Church. This is the Missale Romanum editio typica. Now, I know that's a mouthful, but this book is the official Latin missal for the whole church. This is the church's official Latin edition of all the prayers of the Mass. And every version in the languages of the people is supposed to be a faithful, accurate translation of this book. The problem is that the book we've been using isn't always accurate. The pamphlet you've been given provides some examples of the inaccuracies in our current translation of the Mass.

Now the translation we've been using was intended to be temporary, and the church moves slowly. It should give you an idea of how slowly when you realize that "temporary", in this case, means thirty years! But the bishops began to realize a while back that there was a problem, and the Holy See started insisting that they do something about it. So, after many years of debate, last summer the bishops approved the first in a round of corrections and changes to the prayers of the Mass. For example, when we say the Confiteor, instead of saying "I confess to almighty God, and to you, my brothers and sisters, that I have sinned through my own fault...", we'll say "...I have sinned greatly...through my fault, through my fault, through my most grievous fault". I notice some of you older folks nodding your heads. You're remembering what we used to say in the old Mass before Vatican II. Well, the fact is that the church never changed those words in the new Mass, but somehow they got left out of the English. So now the bishops are fixing that, and some other things. We'll probably start seeing these changes take effect in the next year or two. After Mass, the ushers will give you a handout with excerpts from a Catholic News Service article which talks about some of these changes in more detail.

Ultimately ,what these changes, and the movement to recover the Latin tradition of the Church, is all about is faithfulness: Faithfulness to the great treasure we have received. Faithfulness to the liturgy by which we are made present at and participate in the great eternal sacrifice of Christ.

Our gospel today tells of the wedding feast at Cana. The Church Fathers saw the wedding feast at Cana as a prefiguring, an anticipation, of the wedding feast of Christ the bridegroom and his bride, the Church. And we celebrate this eternal banquet of the Lamb every time we gather with the priest to celebrate the Mass. Christ eternally offers the sacrifice of Himself for his bride the church, and in the Eucharist this sacrifice is made present to us here and now. We have been invited to enter into, to take part in, this sacrifice. By being faithful to what we have received from the apostles, by being faithful to what the church offers us, we will indeed be drawn into this sacrifice, we will indeed find our place at this, the eternal banquet of Christ the Lamb, the Bridegroom, the High Priest.

2007-01-09T23:22:00.000-06:00

I Couldn't Resist...

After seeing this on some other blogs, I couldn't help wondering what my "Peculiar Aristocratic Title" would be.

My Peculiar Aristocratic Title is:
The Very Reverend Lord Robert the Antediluvian of Chignall Smeally
Get your Peculiar Aristocratic Title

You may make your obeisance now.