What Does The Prayer Really Say?
W D T P R S

I am very grateful for the amazing response to this blog.  We have grown a great deal in the past few months.

Thanks to all of you with blogs who are linking to WDTPRS.  You are very kind.  Solidarity!

Traffic has created some consequences for the server hosting the blog.  Don’t worry! We won’t have another server nightmare, as we did some months ago.  There has been a little "stuttering", however, resulting in some comments posting more than once.  This is more an annoyance than anything.  I have been trying to delete repeat messages.  There is no need to apologize for double posts (unless, of course, you are doing it on purpose!). 

From time to time I simply delete comments that are either, to my mind at the moment of reading them, too sharp or, perhaps, way off topic, or else clearly creating a risk of "going down a rabbit hole" as I call it, that is leading the discussion in a direction I don’t want it to go.  Also, I am not at all a fan of totally anonymous comments.  I think people should be courteous enough to readers to present at least some way to address them in return, some sort of handle. You can’t discuss anything with several "anonymous" posters. 
If you are ever worried about losing something you have spent time writing and don’t want to have to write again, you might write it first in Notepad and then cut/paste it into the com box.

Some of you have very kindly sent donations via the donation button on the left side bar.  Thank you!  It all helps, friends, and it shows that I must be doing something right (at least for those using the donation button!  o{];¬)

Many of you have written e-mail to me.  I am sorry that I cannot answer each and every note I receive.  I simply get too many.  I am also sorry if when I repond I write very brief notes in return.  Again, it is a matter of time.

Thanks for your use of PODCAzTs.  These little projects are not always easy to put together and it is nice to know they are used.  The stats for numbers of times they are accessed are more and more helping me determine when to make another one.  I am still considering ways to make them better, including some hardward (microphone) upgrades to get rid of background buzz, etc.  It is a learning process.

I plan to upgrade Wordpress soon and experiment with different themes.  Be patient when that process begins.  It would be nice to do some graphics work, but so far that is beyong me.

Kindly accept my gratitude for your own contributions here!  You help make this blog what it is and I am grateful to you.

I received a very informative e-mail from GK, to whom I tip my biretta o{]:¬)

As a follow-up on the email I sent you about the guidelines on the usus extraordinarius issued by H.E. Msgr. Walter Mixa, Bishop of Augsburg, I am happy to correct my former impression and to report that H.E., in the homily he gave in his Cathedral on yesterday’s solemnity of the Assumption of Our Lady, has made very encouraging statements about his stance on the usus antiquior and clarified some points of his guidelines. This teaches us how appearances may be fallacious and to be very cautious in "labelling" Bishops in particular, and fellow men in general.

H. E. said he supports Pope Benedict’s wish to cultivate anew the Mass according to missal of Bl. Pope John XXIII and to extend its celebration in dioceses and parishes. The general admission of the "old Mass" expressed  – he said – the unbroken tradition of the Sacrifice of the Mass as celebrated by the Catholic Church throughout the centuries and always, in its concrete form, object of special care of the Popes. He thanked the Holy Father for his initiative granting wider admission to the traditional Mass, which could again provide access to the entire treasure of the Church’s liturgy especially for younger faithful.

He stressed that it were his intention to grant in his diocese liberally (literally: wide-heartedly) and generously, according to the wish of the Holy Father, the possibility of celebrating the usus extraordinarius, which in a globalised world were also an expression of the world wide communion/connectedness of the Catholic Church. His guidelines were destined to serve this end. In a first step, a larger number of churches is to be selected for celebrating in the forma extraordinaria regularly, in order for the faithful not to have to travel great distances.  H.E. called the number of 25 faithful, contained in the guidelines, a point of reference, which, as the case may be, need not be reached. The Bishop expressly countered concerns of division in the Church brought about by to leges orandi.

The article from the official site of the diocese: http://www.bistum-augsburg.de/ba/dcms/sites/bistum/index.html?f_action=show&f_newsitem_id=7822&tm=1

Vatican Radio German service also reports: http://www.radiovaticana.org/ted/Articolo.asp?c=149827

Here is a happy story from Burlington, VT about the celebration of the older form of Mass by His Excellency Most Reverend Salvatore Matano.

There are video clips attached to news articles.  Very good!  Click here and here.

Burlington, Vermont – August 15, 2007

Wednesday was a holy day of obligation in the Catholic church—the Assumption of Mary.

But hundreds of Catholics attended mass in Burlington Wednesday night for another reason, too. It was the first Latin mass in Vermont in more than 30 years.

"This will be, for many, the first time they’ve experienced the mass entirely in Latin," explained the Rev. John McDermott of the Vermont Diocese.

But it was the mass Rosemarie Cartularo of Ferrisburgh grew up with.

"I went to Catholic school," she said. "We had to go to mass every morning and we said it in Latin. it was just beautiful."

This "extraordinary" form of the Mass was common from the end of the 1500s to the mid-1960s, but ended when Vatican II called for reform. The Missal of Pope Paul VI in 1971 created the "ordinary" mass Catholics know today.

"It’s going to look very different, it’s going to sound very different for most people," Rev. McDermott said. "But I think they’ll have a sense it is still the same sacrifice of Christ we’re celebrating."

Of course, most Catholics don’t speak or understand Latin, and the priest or bishop faces the altar—not the congregation. But Father John McDermott said it is still a time of community.

"It will be very different from what most people think about in mass in their parish on Sunday," he said. "It will be different, but different doesn’t mean it’s going to be excluding people from participating in prayer. We’re still there to praise and worship God. That has to be the primary focus."

And many Catholics are happy to see it back.

"The Latin mass just hits you in your soul," said Patricia Coleman of Charlotte. "It’s the universal Catholic mass."

"I think it’s a wonderful opportunity if we can bring more people back to church," Rev. McDermott said. "If this is an opportunity for building people up in faith, then that’s a very beautiful thing."

Kate Duffy – WCAX News