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

Do you remember that there was going to be a workshop in England for priests who want to learn the older form of Mass?

Here is a report from The Telegraph about the participation of the Archbishop of Birmingham (not Alabama), Most Reverend Vicent Nichols who preached to the assembled men.  My emphases and comments:

Apparently, His Excellency told the congregation:

    So the first invitation of the Holy Father is for us to avoid speaking or writing or thinking in terms of two rites: the ‘Tridentine Rite’ and the ‘modern’ or ‘post Vatican II Rite’. We should respond attentively and consistently to this invitation.

    Why does the Pope insist that there is one rite of the Mass? Because, whichever form is being used, the same mystery is being celebrated, the same rite is followed. There is one mystery and there is one movement, or structure, through which that mystery is enacted …

    I hope that your study of the Missal of Pope John XXIII will help you to appreciate the history and richness of that form of the Mass. And I trust that you will bring all that you learn to every celebration of the Mass you lead in the future.

    I have no doubt that each of us must strive for improvements in the way the ordinary form of the Mass is celebrated so that its inner mystery and spiritual movement is more clearly set forth. As Pope Benedict says, we must do all we can to bring out the spiritual richness and theological depth of the Missal of Paul VI, ‘for that will guarantee that the Missal of Paul VI will unite parish communities and be loved by them’.  [Certainly one of the objectives of Pope Benedict in issuing these provisions was to create a gravitational pull by the older Mass on how the newer Mass is celebrated.]

    Please remember that what you study here is not a relic, not a reverting to the past, but part of the living tradition of the Church. It is, therefore, to be understood and entered into in the light of that living tradition today.

    The Missal of Pope John XXIII will remain the extraordinary form of the celebration of the Mass, for, as Pope Benedict says, its use ‘presupposes a certain degree of liturgical formation and some knowledge of the Latin language; neither of these is found very often’. And the decision of the Church was that, for general use, it needed to be revised. But there are truths of which it can still remind us and it has treasures and consolation to offer.

    May the Lord bless your efforts in these next few days and draw you closer to the heart of the one saving mystery, that mystery which we now celebrate together.

I like this sermon.  

Whether His Excellency is for the older Mass or against it, this sermon has precisely the correct tone.  He is showing up where the priests are gathering. 

He is taking a leadership role. 

Here is a suggestion to those bishops who are hostile to the provisions of Summorum Pontificum. 

If you don’t want that celebrations of the older Mass spread in different parishes of your dioceses, then take control of the situation by being friendly toward the older Mass, not hostile.  Take control by making sure that there are stunning Masses at the cathedral or a couple well suited places.  Go yourselves, Your Excellencies, often to be the celebrant or be in choro wearing every scrape of fancy duds you can put on.  Since the moon doesn’t look very interesting when the sun is shining, take control of the situation by leading, not by promises of tests for clergy and undue, and probably illicit, restrictions or impositions. 

People won’t be as interested in what they can have in the parishes when they can have it all in splendor with the bishops himself.

Lead from the front.

Today is the feast of the Beheading of John the Baptist. I consider this (also) my name day, and in a way it is even more appropriate than the Nativity of John in June!

Here is the Roman Martyrology entry for " the greatest man born of woman", as the Lord called him:

Memoria passionis sancti Ioannis Baptistae, quem Herodes Antipas rex in arce Macherontis in carcere tenuit et in anniversario suo, filia Herodiadis rogante, decollari praecepit; ideo, Praecursor Domini, sicut lucerna ardens et lucens, tam in morte quam in vita testimonium perhibuit veritati. ... The memorial of the suffering and death of St. John the Baptist, whom King Herod Antipas held in the prison in the citadel of Macheron and, on his birthday, since the daughter of Herodias was making the request, ordered to be beheaded; thus, the Precursor of the Lord, like a bright shining lantern, gave witness to the truth in death as much as he did in life.

St. Augustine spoke often of St. John the Baptist, "the voice" of Christ’s "Word".

Here is a piece of s. 380, preached in a year we can’t quite figure out. As a matter of fact, it might not be an actual sermon, but something assembled from other pieces. Still, it is Augustinian:

8. So let us recognize these two things in the very differences of [Christ’s and John’s] deaths. We read that John suffered martyrdom for the truth; was it for Christ? It wasn’t for Christ if Christ isn’t Truth. It certainly wasn’t for His Name, and yet it was for Truth itself. I mean the reason John was beheaded, after all, was not that he had confessed Christ. But he was urging self-control, he was urging justice; he was saying, "It is not lawful for you to have your brother’s wife" (Mk 6:18). The law, you see, which had commanded this, had also commanded about those who died without children, that brothers should take the wives of their brothers, and raise up seed for their brothers. Where this reason was lacking, the only motive was lust. It was this lust that John was rebuking, a chaste man rebuking an incestuous one; because this too is what he represented: "It is necessary for him to grow, but for me to diminish" (Jn 3:30).

The commandment had alredy been given that if anyone died without seed, his closet relation should take his wife and raise up seed for his brother. After all, why had God commanded this if not to signify in this way that the brother’s seed was to be raised up to the brother’s name? The commandment, you see, was that the child to be born would have the name of the deceased. Christ was deceased, the apostles took His spouse, the Church. Those whom they begot of her they did not name Paulians or Petrians, but Christians.

So let both their deaths also speak of these two things: "It is necessary for him to grow, but for me to diminish." The one grew on the Cross, the other was diminished by the sword. Their deaths have spoken of this mystery, let the days do so too. Christ is born, and the days start increasing; John is born, and the days start diminishing. So let man’s honor diminish, God’s honor increase, so that the honor of man may be found in the honor of God.

Augustine makes the connection between the change of seasons and the births of John the Precursor and Christ the Messiah. Very nice.

It is something to reflect on when on the deck of The Sabine Farm. 

The days are getting shorter.

At various times in my articles in The Wanderer, during talks and on this blog I have opined that if we are serious about an authentic ecumenical dialogue, we have to get our liturgical act together: "What must the Orthodox think when they see how we Latins conduct ourselves liturgically?"   At the same time, the solemn Mass in the older use of the Roman Rite is as grand as anything the Easterners do.

I see now that the estimable Andrea Tornielli of Il Giornale has posted that the Orthodox Patriarch of Moscow and all the Russias, Alexis II, looks with favor on Pope Benedict’s Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificum and the derestriction of the older form of Mass.

He also speaks clearly about his view of relations with the Holy See.

The patriarch had finished celebrating the Divine Liturgy for the Dormition of Mass (15 August, The Assumption), in the similarly named Cathedral at the Kremlin.  He was briefly interviewed. 

Here are some of the significant points from Mr. Tornielli’s article (my translation):

n. 203 del 2007-08-29 pagina 25

"The recovery and valuing of the ancient liturgical tradition is a fact that we greet positively.  We hold very strongly to tradition.  Without faithfully guarding the liturgical tradition, the Russian Orthodox Church would not have been in a position to resist during the period of persecution, in the 20’s and 30’s in the 1900’s.  In that time we had many new martyrs, whose number can be compared to the epoch of the first Christian martyrs."

Holiness, how do you see the relationship between Rome and Moscow right now?

"It seems that Pope Benedict XVI has repeated may times that he desires to work in favor of dialogue and collaboration with the Orthodox Churches.  This is positive."

For years already there has been talk of the possibility of a meeting between you and the Pope.  Do you think this is possible?  When?

"A meeting between the Pope and Patriarch of Moscow must be well prepared and absolutely ought not risk a reduction to a photo opportunity or to walk around together in front of television cameras.  It must be a meeting which truly helps firm up the relations between the two Churches…".

You speak of it as if it were rather remote hypothesis.  Why?

"Unfortunately today there are still some Catholic missionary bishops who consider Russia as missionary territory.  But Russia, Holy Russia has already been enlightened with a centuries old faith which, thanks be to God, was preserved and passed on in the Orthodox Church, and is not missionary territory for the Catholic Church.  This is the first point about which it is necessary that problems be clarified and smoothed in view of a meeting with the Pope.  The other problem concerns ‘uniatism’."

Why do the uniate communities, those which maintaining the Eastern Rite and Eastern tradition reentered in full communion with Rome, are regarded as a problem?

"The phenomenon of uniatism is troublesome because we see this tendency also in regions where it never was before, for example in the Eastern Ukraine, Belorussia, Kazakhstan and in Russia herself.  When these problems are dealt with and resolved then a meeting between the Pope and Patriarch of Moscow can be considered.  Then it will truly have its proper meaning."

Users of Firefox know about extensions.  I saw one today that got me thinking.

There is an extension for Muslims called Pray Times.  It shows the time remaining to the different points of the day when Muslims are to pray.

Would it not be great to have one of those for the liturgical hours and the Angelus/Regina Caeli?

I bet a code savvy reader could develop one.

Get to work!

o{]:¬)