By Cindy WoodenCatholic News ServiceROME (CNS) --
Before leading a Corpus Christi procession with the Eucharist through the streets of Rome, Pope Benedict XVI said the sacrament is essential nourishment for Christians walking through an often-hostile world. "For every Christian generation, the Eucharist is the indispensable nourishment that sustains them as they cross the desert of this world," he said in his June 7 homily for the feast of the Body and Blood of the Lord. The world is "made arid by ideological and economic systems that do not promote life, but rather mortify it," he said during the Mass celebrated outside Rome's Basilica of St. John Lateran. Ours is "a world where the logic of power and possessing dominates more than that of service and love; a world where often the culture of violence and death triumphs," the pope said. "But Jesus comes to meet us and reassure us: He himself is the bread of life," Pope Benedict said. The pope's security team and Italian police, who are responsible for papal safety outside the Vatican, were extra attentive during the Mass and the procession to the Basilica of St. Mary Major. A day earlier, a mentally disturbed man jumped a barricade in St. Peter's Square in an attempt to reach the pope as he rode through the crowd at his weekly general audience. Security concerns did not prevent the pope from riding in the procession in the back of an open flatbed truck. The pope knelt before the Blessed Sacrament as security officers and candle-bearing altar servers, bishops and cardinals walked beside the truck. Because the Mass was considered a Rome diocesan event, despite the thousands of foreigners present, Pope Benedict celebrated the liturgy, including the eucharistic prayer, in Italian rather than Latin. The pope told people gathered for the Mass that they should not be surprised that many people have difficulty accepting church teaching that Jesus is truly present in Eucharist. The real presence is a mystery, and "a God who becomes flesh and sacrifices himself for the life of the world puts human wisdom in crisis," he said. But Catholics continue to proclaim the true presence of Jesus in the Eucharist and, in traditional Corpus Christi processions, they bear witness to their faith by carrying the Eucharist through their cities, the pope said. Pope Benedict said Luke's Gospel account of the miracle of the loaves and fishes emphasizes the fact that everyone present ate and was filled. In the same way, he said, the public procession "calls attention to the fact that Christ sacrificed himself for all humanity," the pope said. "His passage between the houses and along the streets of our city will be an offering of joy, of eternal life, peace and love to those who live there." Pope Benedict said Luke's Gospel story also emphasizes the fact that the bread and fish multiplied by Jesus were offered by people in the crowd. "The five loaves and two fish indicate our contribution, poor but necessary, which he transforms into a gift of love for all," the pope said. The Eucharist, he said, calls Christians to give themselves to others "because the vocation of each of us is to be, like Christ, bread broken for the life of the world." END
Friday, June 22, 2007
A Cloistered Heart...
Having thought at length about what it means to truly be a cloistered nun, I've decided to share some thoughts. In my own life the more I pray and think about my vocation, the more I become certain that the essence of a contemplative vocation is the primacy and exclusivity of the relationship that we have with Jesus. In a way, its like Jesus is so desirous of our love and our hearts that He doesn't want to share them with anything or anyone else. Of course, I'm speaking only as someone who is discerning, and not as an actual nun. However the feeling remains. When I pray before Jesus truly present in the Blessed Sacrament sometimes I have an almost tangible feeling of His presence, the result of which is a deep peace and joy. I've experienced this a few times, and it has really changed my life. Its like I feel God calling me to set up a cloister in my heart, where only He and I will live together. Its really challenging! As time goes by I feel this more and more, that Jesus wants my heart for Himself alone. I think that it is possible to have that exclusive relationship outside of the cloister, but it must be much more difficult. And there is a lot to give up family, friends and most of all ease of life. But our Lord promised that we would be repaid a hundredfold , and this gives one hope. I hope and pray that I will be able respond whole-heartedly to the Lord's will and that my vocation will be a fruitful one!
Saint Catherine of Siena, Pray for us!
Thursday, June 21, 2007
Corpus Christi QuizLast November, the U.S. bishops prepared a document to increase knowledge and reverence for the Eucharist. These questions are taken from it. Source: Nov. 14’s ‘Happy Are Those Who Are Called to His Supper: On Preparing to Receive Christ Worthily in the Eucharist’ available at USCCB.org.
June 10-16, 2007 Issue Posted 6/5/07 at 8:00 AM
1. What do we believe about holy Communion?
2. In what three ways are we united to Christ in Communion?
3. Who may receive holy Communion?
4. Should we ever refrain from receiving holy Communion?
5. How can we prepare to receive holy Communion more worthily?
6. May those who are not Catholic receive holy Communion in the Catholic Church?
7. May Catholics receive holy Communion in other Christian Churches?
Corpus Christi Quiz Answers
At their last November meeting, the U.S. bishops prepared a document to increase knowledge and reverence for the Eucharist. These answers are excerpted from Nov. 14’s “Happy Are Those Who Are Called to His Supper: On Preparing to Receive Christ Worthily in the Eucharist.” Read it in full at USCCB.org.
1. “Holy Communion is a sharing in the Eucharist in which Christ is truly present,” begins the document’s answer.
2. Quoting the Catechism and Pope Benedict, the bishops explain these three ways: participating in the one sacrifice of Christ, communion with each other in the body of Christ, and sharing in Jesus’ resurrection and divinity.
3. “With few exceptions (see answer No. 6), only those who are members of the Catholic Church may receive holy Communion at a Catholic Eucharistic liturgy.”
4. The bishops’ document encourages frequent Communion, but cites three impediments: first, lack of sanctifying grace due to mortal sin (the bishops list 10 common areas of mortal sin); second, lack of adherence to Church teaching; third, giving public scandal.
5. The bishops suggest practices for our day-to-day life, before Mass and at Mass. Day to day: regular prayer and Scripture reading, fulfillment of the duties of your state in life, daily repentance of sin and regular confession. Before Mass: prayerful recollection, one-hour Eucharistic fast, appropriate dress. At Mass: active participation.
6. Citing canon law, the bishops write: “Because of the close communion that still exists between the Catholic Church and certain Churches that are not in full communion with her — such as the Eastern and Oriental Orthodox Churches, the Assyrian Church of the East, and the Polish National Catholic Church — properly disposed members of those Churches, who request it on their own, may be permitted to receive holy Communion. Other Christians may receive holy Communion if they are in danger of death or if they are in a situation of other grave necessity as determined by the diocesan bishop or the bishops’ conference. In such instances, Church authority must see that the following four conditions are present: 1. The person is not able to approach a minister of his or her own community. 2. The individual has asked for the sacrament on his or her own. 3. The individual manifests Catholic faith in the Eucharist. 4. The person is properly disposed.” Members of non-Christian religions are not permitted to receive holy Communion.
7. “It may happen that a Catholic, for a legitimate and serious reason, finds himself or herself unable to attend a Catholic Mass. In such instances, provided that the danger of error or indifferentism is avoided, and that a true necessity or spiritual advantage exists, he or she may receive the Eucharist from a non-Catholic minister in whose Church the sacrament is valid or from one who is validly ordained according to Catholic teaching. In practice, this means the Eastern and Orthodox Churches, the Assyrian Church of the East, and the Polish National Catholic Church.” Catholics should be mindful of those Churches’ restrictions, however
We are not morons
By George Weigel
Writing in the May 21 issue of America, Bishop Donald W। Trautman of Erie, chairman of the U.S. bishops’ Committee on the Liturgy, called the lay people of the Church to the barricades, urging us to “speak up!” in response to the new translations of Mass texts being developed by the International Commission on English in the Liturgy. I’d like to take the bishop on his generous invitation, even if my remarks may not be precisely the kind he intended to provoke.
Bishop Trautman worries that the new translations are just, well, too darn much for “John and Mary Catholic,” whose participation in Sunday Mass will, he suggests, be impaired by a translation of the Creed that describes the Son as “consubstantial with the Father” and “incarnate of the Virgin Mary.” But that’s hardly the end of it. Will “John and Mary Catholic,” Bishop Trautman asks, “understand these words from the various new Collects: ‘sullied,’ ‘unfeigned,’ ‘ineffable,’ ‘gibbet,’ ‘wrought,’ ‘thwart’?” What will “John and Mary Catholic” make of the Collect for June 27, which hails St. Cyril of Alexandria as “an unvanquished champion of the divine motherhood”? Can they grasp the depiction of St. John of God on March 8 as “suffused...with the spirit of mercy”?
My hunch is that they’ll do just fine. “John and Mary Catholic,” in these United States, are among the best-educated Catholics in history. In my rather typical parish, “John and Mary” can understand legal contracts, Russian novels, architectural plans, IRS forms, the Atlantic Monthly, columns by George F. Will, the calculations necessary to compute an Earned Run Average, their children’s math homework, the Federal Register, New England Journal of Medicine articles on osteoporosis therapies, the fine print of their pension plans, and Sports Illustrated stories on the Cover-2 Defense; they’re not going to come unglued over “unfeigned” or “consubstantial” or “thwart.” In a word, they’re not morons.
John and Mary are also smart enough to have figured out that the present translation of the first Collect for Trinity Sunday is heresy (it’s addressed to the Father, who’s informed later in the prayer that he is “one God in three Persons”). Having read Paul’s letter to Titus, John and Mary may wonder why, at each Mass, the translators Bishop Trautman evidently prefers have transformed a theological fact (“our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ” [Titus 2.13]) into an emotional condition (“...as we wait in joyful hope for the coming of our savior...”). And no matter what Latin John and Mary may have forgotten — or never learned — they’ve been scratching their heads for forty years over how “Et cum spiritu tuo” became the supremely clunky “And also with you.” The list could be multiplied ad infinitum and ad nauseam — phrases John and Mary Catholic readily understand.A witty, post-Vatican II Anglican convert to Catholicism was once asked what he missed most about his former ecclesiastical home. “The Mass in English,” he immediately replied. Bishop Trautman is clearly a man of intelligence and learning, so it’s all the more puzzling why he seems to defend the indefensible. For how can anyone with a sense of the majesty of the English language defend the See-Spot/See-Spot-Run vocabulary and syntax the new ICEL translations are intended to replace?
Are there clunkers in the new translations? Undoubtedly. But will ICEL’s attempt to restore the sacral vocabulary and linguistic rhythms of the Roman Rite to Catholic worship within the Anglosphere destroy our ability to pray as a community? Please; we’re not morons. I’d even venture the guess that prayers translated with far more fidelity to the Latin originals will be a step toward a deeper, more prayerful encounter with what Bishop Trautman rightly calls “the greatest gift of God, the Eucharist.”
Bishop Trautman would likely agree that, as a general principle, “pastoral” doesn’t mean “dumbed-down.” Yet that’s precisely the strategy many professional liturgists have advocated in the post-Vatican II translation wars. I, for one, am grateful that they’ve lost the argument.Because we’re not morons, and we shouldn’t be treated as such.
George Weigel is a senior fellow of the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, D.C. Weigel’s column is distributed by the Denver Catholic Register, the official newspaper of the Archdiocese of Denver. Phone: 303-715-3215.
By George Weigel
Writing in the May 21 issue of America, Bishop Donald W। Trautman of Erie, chairman of the U.S. bishops’ Committee on the Liturgy, called the lay people of the Church to the barricades, urging us to “speak up!” in response to the new translations of Mass texts being developed by the International Commission on English in the Liturgy. I’d like to take the bishop on his generous invitation, even if my remarks may not be precisely the kind he intended to provoke.
Bishop Trautman worries that the new translations are just, well, too darn much for “John and Mary Catholic,” whose participation in Sunday Mass will, he suggests, be impaired by a translation of the Creed that describes the Son as “consubstantial with the Father” and “incarnate of the Virgin Mary.” But that’s hardly the end of it. Will “John and Mary Catholic,” Bishop Trautman asks, “understand these words from the various new Collects: ‘sullied,’ ‘unfeigned,’ ‘ineffable,’ ‘gibbet,’ ‘wrought,’ ‘thwart’?” What will “John and Mary Catholic” make of the Collect for June 27, which hails St. Cyril of Alexandria as “an unvanquished champion of the divine motherhood”? Can they grasp the depiction of St. John of God on March 8 as “suffused...with the spirit of mercy”?
My hunch is that they’ll do just fine. “John and Mary Catholic,” in these United States, are among the best-educated Catholics in history. In my rather typical parish, “John and Mary” can understand legal contracts, Russian novels, architectural plans, IRS forms, the Atlantic Monthly, columns by George F. Will, the calculations necessary to compute an Earned Run Average, their children’s math homework, the Federal Register, New England Journal of Medicine articles on osteoporosis therapies, the fine print of their pension plans, and Sports Illustrated stories on the Cover-2 Defense; they’re not going to come unglued over “unfeigned” or “consubstantial” or “thwart.” In a word, they’re not morons.
John and Mary are also smart enough to have figured out that the present translation of the first Collect for Trinity Sunday is heresy (it’s addressed to the Father, who’s informed later in the prayer that he is “one God in three Persons”). Having read Paul’s letter to Titus, John and Mary may wonder why, at each Mass, the translators Bishop Trautman evidently prefers have transformed a theological fact (“our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ” [Titus 2.13]) into an emotional condition (“...as we wait in joyful hope for the coming of our savior...”). And no matter what Latin John and Mary may have forgotten — or never learned — they’ve been scratching their heads for forty years over how “Et cum spiritu tuo” became the supremely clunky “And also with you.” The list could be multiplied ad infinitum and ad nauseam — phrases John and Mary Catholic readily understand.A witty, post-Vatican II Anglican convert to Catholicism was once asked what he missed most about his former ecclesiastical home. “The Mass in English,” he immediately replied. Bishop Trautman is clearly a man of intelligence and learning, so it’s all the more puzzling why he seems to defend the indefensible. For how can anyone with a sense of the majesty of the English language defend the See-Spot/See-Spot-Run vocabulary and syntax the new ICEL translations are intended to replace?
Are there clunkers in the new translations? Undoubtedly. But will ICEL’s attempt to restore the sacral vocabulary and linguistic rhythms of the Roman Rite to Catholic worship within the Anglosphere destroy our ability to pray as a community? Please; we’re not morons. I’d even venture the guess that prayers translated with far more fidelity to the Latin originals will be a step toward a deeper, more prayerful encounter with what Bishop Trautman rightly calls “the greatest gift of God, the Eucharist.”
Bishop Trautman would likely agree that, as a general principle, “pastoral” doesn’t mean “dumbed-down.” Yet that’s precisely the strategy many professional liturgists have advocated in the post-Vatican II translation wars. I, for one, am grateful that they’ve lost the argument.Because we’re not morons, and we shouldn’t be treated as such.
George Weigel is a senior fellow of the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, D.C. Weigel’s column is distributed by the Denver Catholic Register, the official newspaper of the Archdiocese of Denver. Phone: 303-715-3215.
Go-Go Dancers at Holy Mass
Recently I read this article posted on RochesterCatholic.com. Its a news story about "liturgical go-go dancers". It seems that in Fresno California, three scantily clad women danced around the altar during Holy mass.
I think the photos pretty much speak for themselves.
Have mercy on us, Lord!
http://www.renewamerica.us/columns/abbott/070619
I think the photos pretty much speak for themselves.
Have mercy on us, Lord!
http://www.renewamerica.us/columns/abbott/070619
Prayer of Saint Catherine of Siena
Precious Blood,
Ocean of Divine Mercy:
Flow upon us!
Precious Blood,
Most pure Offering:
Procure us every Grace!
Precious Blood,
Hope and Refuge of sinners:
Atone for us!
Precious Blood,
Delight of holy souls:Draw us!
Amen.
Saint Catherine of Siena
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