What Does The Prayer Really Say?
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Were it not for the observance of the Octave of Easter, today would have the Feast of the Annunciation. 

However, did you know that today is the feast day of St. Dismas the "Good Thief"?

Here is his entry from the Martyrologium Romanum:

2. Commemoratio sancti latronis, qui, in cruce Christum confessus, ab eo meruit audire: "Hodie mecum eris in paradiso".

This just in.  My emphases and comments.

Cistercian monks of Holy Cross sign Major Record Contract to Sing Gregorian Chant
3/26/2008

Catholic News Agency

After a contact in London informed the Cistercian monks of Holy Cross monastery about Universal’s search for Gregorian singers, the 80 monks compiled a clip of their singing and put it on YouTube as an audition. [Take note!]

BERLIN (CNA) – After “blowing away” music executives with their performance of Gregorian plainchant, a group of Austrian monks has been given a record deal with Universal Music, the Independent reports.

Universal had been persuaded that there was a market for albums of Gregorian chant by the success of the video game Halo. [Sigh…] The game, which has sold over 16 million copies, uses in its soundtrack a plainchant sung by male choirs without musical accompaniment.

Dickon Stainer, head of Universal Classics and Jazz, said, "Young people have an awareness of Gregorian chant, even though it’s not something you come across in everyday life. It made us think that there was something in it."

The music company placed an advertisement in The Tablet and The Church Times seeking “men of the cloth” to sing on an album of Gregorian chants.

After a contact in London informed the Cistercian monks of Holy Cross monastery about Universal’s search for Gregorian singers, the 80 monks compiled a clip of their singing and put it on YouTube as an audition.

The professionally edited video begins with a shot of altar candles and then switches to images of monks clad in white habits walking in double file through the ancient cloisters. The video closes in a picturesque aerial shot of the Holy Cross abbey, set deep in the Austrian woods.

"I was blown away by the quality of their singing," said Tom Lewis, an executive at Universal. "They are quite simply the best Gregorian singers we have heard. [What a great sing-off that would be!] They make a magical sound which is calming and deeply moving. They are using the very latest communication devices to get their music heard. They’re very passionate and excited about this opportunity."

Lewis said the company had received hundreds of videos in response to its advertisements, but the Cistercians were the clear winners. [Will it be Cistercian chant or Gregorian?]

The monks have described their success as “divine intervention.” They were scheduled to record an album last year, but the recording session was cancelled after it conflicted with a visit to the monastery by Pope Benedict XVI.

The monastery, which dates back to 1133, has been famous for its relic of the True Cross.

Father Karl, a spokesman for the abbey, welcomed the news. "Gregorian chant is part of spirituality and our life," he said, according to the Independent. "Any profits will be spent on training future brothers."

Gregorian Chant, which is named for Pope Gregory I, had some popularity in the 1990s and was featured in several successful CDs by the group Enigma.

Here is some new via e-mail.

Here it is with my emphases and comments.

The TLM resumed to-day at noon in St. Colman’s Cathedral, Cobh, Co. Cork after more than forty years.  The Mass was celebrated by Bishop John Magee of Cloyne.  He clearly knows how to celebrate the TLM and how to celebrate it well.  Indeed, he celebrated pie, attente ac devote. [What an excellent compliment!]

The Mass was low Mass – a small disappointmnet given that a day of the Easter Octave would have called for something more solemn and in accord with the liturgical importance of the day.  Curiously, the bishop celebrated ad orientem but at the temporary altar in front of E.W. Pugin’s magnificent High Altar.  Perhaps as a motive for this oddity one might cite the bishop’s recent knee operation which seems to preclude him from climbing up and down the steps of the High Altar.  [Brick by brick!  If this has started in Cobh at the ironing board altar, can the high altar be far behind?]

It probably came as a HUGE surprise to the Cathedral administration to find that over 90% of the central nave was full with a scattering of people in the side aisles.  This would represent a figure of between 400-500 people -or the average attendance at one of the Sunday morning Masses.  Clearly, several people had taken time off to attend Mass as they drifted away after Holy Communion so as to be back to work by the end of the lunch break.

The music was the weak point of the celebration.  Clearly, the Maestro is not used [Given time…] to executing the classical repetoire and seems wholly unaware of the changes that take place in it during the various liturgical seasons.  Refrains of "quia peccavimus tibi" were hardly the thing just after Lent; someone forgot to mention that it is the Regina Coeli that is sung in Eastertide and not the Salve Regina; and the Missa Orbis Factor is also sung for Easter and prescribed for today.  The Victimae Paschali was sung well enough.  All in all, the choir here has a whole lot of ground to recuperate.  [And is to be praise for coming, like the people, on a work day and doing their best!]

All that said, the TLM in Cobh Cathedral was a positive development and a step in the right direction towards normalizing its regular celebration there -which will certainly come as a very welcome development from the hum drum drib drab stuff usually available there.  Also, the size and reverence of the congregation should finally put to rest the idea among some that there is no demand for the TLM in Cork. We await news of the next Mass to be celebrated in Cobh which should not be too long in the offing.

hmmm…. 

Here is an article in the Boston Herald which I think some of you will enjoy very much.

Boys step up to altar, en Mass
By Laura Crimaldi   |   Sunday, March 23, 2008 

A new generation of young altar servers captivated by the solemn rituals of Latin Mass is mastering the traditional rite in growing numbers in the Boston archdiocese as the liturgy makes a comeback after a four-decade hiatus.

“It’s really reverent. That’s why I like it,” said altar server Brendan MacKenzie, 12, of Marshfield, as he readied for the Tenebrae, or “Spy Wednesday,” service at Mary Immaculate of Lourdes in Newton during Holy Week. “It brings you closer to God.”

Since April, the number of young boys trained to perform Latin Mass in the Boston area has more than doubled, from eight to 18 servers, said the Rev. Charles J. Higgins, pastor at Mary Immaculate, where the old-style Mass is celebrated every Sunday at noon.

There are an estimated 4,000 to 5,000 altar servers throughout the Boston Archdiocese, a spokesman said. Keeping with the tradition, only boys serve at Latin Mass.

Higgins, 46, who is self-taught in the Latin liturgy, said the increase in boys studying the traditional Mass has more to do with his repeated appeals for volunteers than last year’s “motu propio” from Pope Benedict XVI. The Vatican order reversed 43 years of near banishment of the worship service by allowing priests to perform the liturgy without the authorization of a local bishop.

The devoted altar boys agree with this interpretation of how the pool of servers took on a more youthful look after years of just adult men on the altar.

“As Father Higgins says, he wants an army of servers,” said Stephen Farynaz, 12, of Lunenberg, who has been serving at Latin Mass since he was 7 years old.

A minimum of nine servers is needed to perform the highly choreographed rite, which can be traced to the sixth century and is referred to as the Tridentine Mass. The training takes weeks and entails memorizing Latin responses and learning the ceremony’s many rubrics, such as how to walk, genuflect, hold your hands, stand and carry objects. [And the great thing is… they can do it!  If you raise the bar, boys will rise to the occasion.  And there is something about the precision and also knowing that what you are doing is important that will attract boys, who resonate with that sort of challenge.]

Frank Doyle Jr., 43, of West Roxbury, a veteran master of ceremonies who has been serving Latin Mass for 17 years, trains new servers in the nuances of the Mass while conveying that they need not be Thomas Aquinas to get the hang of it.

“When in doubt, genuflect. That’s an old MC’s joke,” said Doyle, who studied the work of English priest Adrian Fortescue to learn the Mass.

To teach some details, Doyle conjures up some fire-and-brimstone mnemonic devices. Take how to kiss the thurible, which contains incense.

“You kiss the top of the chain where there is a disc or you will be like the Prophet Isaiah and know what it’s like to have coal purify your lips,” Doyle said.

Angelus Davulis, 13, of Dorchester was first exposed to Latin Mass at age 7 when his uncle, the Rev. Dominic Gentile, performed a High Solemn Mass. Since the 1990s, the Boston archdiocese has offered Latin Mass at Holy Trinity Church in the South End. The Mass relocated to Mary Immaculate last year.

Davulis studies from a booklet titled “How To Serve Low Mass and Benediction” to learn the difficult Latin. He said he prefers serving at Latin Mass to serving at the Novus Ordo, or modern Mass, because he feels more involved.

“I just want to learn it now before it’s too late,” said Davulis.

MacKenzie’s older brother, Cameron, 14, said he resisted when his parents urged him to serve.

“I guess the first time when I served I realized I was serving God. I guess it just took me away,” he said.

Higgins said he is heartened by his new flock of servers and is training five priests to say Latin Mass.  [If boys can learn it, maybe priests can too?]

“They have an openness to the religious practice, which is very refreshing,” said Higgins. “I see it as a hopeful sign that when they come of age, that whatever stage of life they choose, that they will be strong Christian men whether as priests or family men.”

First and foremost, Happy Easter!

I wanted to keep the internet thing a bit calm for the Triduum and Easter.

However, I am now facing literally hundreds of e-mails from good people, many of them asking questions about sundry topics.  I simply, humanly, cannot answer them all.

If I don’t respond to your e-mail, or if I send back a rather telegraphic response, I mean no personal slight to anyone.  I can’t handle the volume of e-mail I have had in the last few days.

I am grateful when people send news stories, which are useful for the blog.  Sometimes I can answer questions and sometimes I can’t. 

Please know I appreciate your confidence, that you would ask me anything!

Here is a piece about what is going on in the Diocese of Lafayette, Indiana.  My emphases and comments.

Indiana’s Bishop Higi is Faithful to Summorum Pontificum with FSSP Support

Bishop Higi tells Una Voce Carmel to Think Big

Carmel, Indiana  (March 20, 2008) – The Most Reverend William L. Higi, Bishop (above) of the Diocese of Lafayette in Indiana is supporting a proposal initiated by Una Voce Carmel, a chapter of Una Voce America for a Traditional Latin Mass to be scheduled regularly on Sundays in the Carmel Deanery, Diocese of Lafayette in Indiana.

The Carmel Deanery is over 40% of the diocese and includes northern suburbs of Indianapolis in Hamilton and Boone Counties.  In 2006, Hamilton County was the 18th fastest-growing county in the nation based on national census data.  Also, Hamilton is the most affluent county in Indiana and ranks in the top five in the United States.   

The first Traditional Latin Mass (TLM) will be offered by Father Gerard Saguto, FSSP, on Sunday, April 6th and subsequently, every other Sunday thereafter.  Father Saguto is pastor of S.S. Philomena & Cecilia’s [GREAT NAME!] Roman Catholic Church located in Southeastern Indiana.

Current plans include expansion to include all Sundays and Holy Days starting June 1st.  At that time, Lafayette diocese’s Father Christopher Roberts, associate at Our Lady of Mt. Carmel parish in Carmel, Indiana will alternate with Father Saguto on Sundays.  Father Roberts will complete his TLM training in the middle of May.

The location of the Traditional Latin Mass will be the day chapel at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, 10655 Haverstick Road, Carmel, Indiana.

The Una Voce Carmel Officers and board of governors attending a February 19th meeting with Father Rothrock were later quoted as saying that ” Father rolled out the red carpet for the TLM”.

However, this isn’t surprising considering that in May 2005, His Excellency, Bishop Higi and Father Rothrock helped St. Athanasius, an Indianapolis based Ruthenian Byzantine Catholic Parish to established a Divine Liturgy at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton parish which was celebrated every Saturday for over two years.

In September 2001, His Excellency Bishop Higi established a Traditional Latin Mass indult at St. Mary’s Roman Catholic Church in the Muncie Deanery.  It continues to be celebrated on Tuesday evenings.

I got a very interesting e-mail from a reader.

A reader sent an article from the San Francisco Chronicle with this explanation:

Hello Fr. Z!

Strange:  in the print newspaper the article is "Latin Mass Makes a Comeback"; but on-line, it is "  "The Latin Mass Under Fire in Oakland".  Same article!

    Latin Mass is under fire in Oakland

    Matthai Kuruvila, Chronicle Religion Writer

    Friday, March 21, 2008

    Under the vaulted ceilings of St. Margaret Mary’s Church in Oakland, a revered tradition once forsaken has gained new life.

    About 300 Roman Catholics go there every Sunday to celebrate the traditional Latin Mass, a rite rich in symbolism that has been on the margins of Catholic life for more than four decades.  [A positive description.]

    But over the past year, decrees by Pope Benedict XVI have given the traditional Latin Mass greater official standing in the Catholic Church, opening the door for some churches to go back to it.  [In the previous sentence, the point was made that it was "on the margin".  Now it has "greater" standing.  This is good.  Often newstories say it was "suppressed" or "abolished".  It wasn’t.]

    Now, at St. Margaret Mary’s, grandparents [Which makes people think of "old people".  Not so!  I know grandparents in their 40’s.]  practice the rituals of their childhood. Young couples are being married under a tradition they encountered only recently. People drive from all over the Bay Area – and beyond – to worship there. The priest says an elderly Modesto woman comes from Stanislaus County once a month by taxi.

    But the revitalized tradition is drawing controversy. [Matthew 10:34] Some question whether the traditional rite is too outdated for a church grappling with the needs of a diverse membership and facing unprecedented challenges, such as an increasingly interreligious world.  [Uh huh.  The way to deal with challenges is to abandon our identity?]

    Those challenges are underscored this week, which is Holy Week. Today’s Good Friday service has been criticized by many Jewish groups, for example, because the Latin liturgy includes a prayer for God to "enlighten" Jews so they will "acknowledge Jesus Christ, the savior of all men."  [NEWSFLASH!  "DOG BITES MAN!"]

    The Rabbinical Assembly of Conservative Judaism released a resolution saying it was "disturbed and dismayed" by the prayer and that it undermined decades of productive Jewish-Catholic relations.

    The Rev. Michael Wiener, who presides over the St. Margaret Mary’s service, said it would deny the core of his faith if he didn’t say the prayer. [Yep.  And it would also violate the rubrics.]

    "Is it appropriate today to pray for the Jews? Of course," he said. "It can’t harm anybody to pray for them. Either God exists, and he helps us and he loves us, or this is just imagination, and only ideas."

    The Good Friday prayer is but one element of one particular day’s service. Those who attend the traditional Latin Mass say it offers a vast universe of imagery, gestures and song.  [As I can affirm is the case, after being celebrant for the Vigil at St. Augustine’s in South Saint Paul, MN.]

    Believers at St. Margaret Mary’s say the Mass has emboldened their faith. These worshipers speak of mystery and beauty and truth.  [Rem acu!]

    "It has been said that the traditional Latin Mass is the most beautiful thing this side of heaven," said Brandon Angelo, 34, who was not raised on the Mass but now attends seven days a week. "I truly believe it is."

    Those unfamiliar with the Mass, even lifelong Catholics, might find it impossible to follow its many details.  [Practice makes perfect.]

    Gestures, garments and even the position of the priest have meanings. The altar is to the east, facing sunrise.  [I like this writer!  He did homework!]  The gospel is said to the north, "the realm of darkness, paganism," explained Wiener, who also leads traditional Latin Mass services at the Oratory of Our Mother of Perpetual Help Chapel in Santa Clara.
   
Elements in concert

    Angelo sees all the elements working in concert.

    He feels closer to God when he smells the burning incense, hears the bells intone, and sees the symphony of symbolic gestures and movements among the congregants at St. Margaret Mary’s.  [To use a term from music, it is like a Gesamtkunstwerk.]

    The service "draws you in bodily by appealing to the physical senses, but it also provokes and draws in the soul."

    Angelo believes some churches have made faith too easy.  [And therefore uninteresting.  But remember: progressivists tend to think that people are a lot stupider than they are.  So, in a kind of benevolent condescension, they dumb down language and gesture of the Church’s liturgy and soften doctrine so people won’t be overly taxed, or they seek to amuse.]

    "In some churches," he said, "there might be an effort to get more creative, the priest and the congregation try to keep people entertained, as opposed to holding to the tradition that God has passed down to us, which is infinitely rich."

    The Latin Mass played a pivotal role in shaping Christianity, said Frederick Parrella, professor of theology at Santa Clara University, a Jesuit institution.  [I would go farther: The older form of Mass helped shape Western Civilization.]

    In the 16th century, the Catholic Church was rife with corruption. Bishops, cardinals and even the papacy lived regally, funneling church money to fund their lifestyles. Priests didn’t know Latin, and instead mumbled gibberish during Mass. Others sold indulgences, the remission of sins.  [GRRRR…. Now this is a gross simplification.  That was also a period of great holiness, too!]

    At the Council of Trent in the 16th century, Catholic bishops led by Pope Pius V codified certain rituals and liturgy. The council also demanded a higher level of knowledge among priests and created seminaries, Parrella said.

    The traditional Latin Rite became the dominant form of Christian worship around the world. That would change after the Second Vatican Council, from 1962-1965, which sought full and active participation of congregants.  [However, the "active participation" of the members of the Church was always desired.  You have to understand what "active participation" means in this context.]

    Local language

    The many changes included allowing the language of worship to be in the local language. No longer would the priest have his back to worshipers. The traditional Latin Mass was replaced.  [Do you get the sense that this is now a different writer?  I wonder if an editor didn’t get hold of this and start reworking it.  That would account, perhaps with the conflict in the title of the article?]

    Many traditionalist [Now they are "traditionalists"] Catholics were deeply upset, and left the church to form their own flocks. They have long gathered in homes or other meeting places. A group calling itself the Society of St. John the Apostle meets at the Fisherman’s and Seaman’s Memorial Chapel at Pier 45-B in San Francisco to celebrate the traditional Latin Mass.

    An opening in 1988

    Pope John Paul II opened the door a little in 1988, allowing parishes to worship using the traditional Latin Mass with the permission of a local bishop. Many local bishops did not, but the Diocese of Oakland allowed a traditional Latin Mass to be held at St. Margaret Mary’s. The ultimate breakthrough came last July, when Pope Benedict XVI declared that it was up to local parishes to determine whether they want to use the Mass.

    Demographers say Christians increasingly are moving toward more personal, "charismatic" relationships with God – as opposed to relationships mediated by the church. A revival of the traditional Latin Mass would seem to defy that trend.  [Again, I get the sense that more than one person wrote this.]

    But on Sundays at St. Margaret Mary’s, the pews are packed.

    Couples walk in with children, their daughters’ heads covered in lace mantillas. Elderly retirees and yuppies sit next to each other. Generations of a family worship together, in Latin, following rituals scripted centuries ago.

    "I go because I’m a counterculture kind of guy, and to me the most counterculture thing is being a Catholic," said Rob Martinez.

    Dressed in all black, with seven tattoos (in mostly religious themes) and 11 body piercings, Martinez said that the traditional Latin Rite "is a very artistic, deep … great expression of Christianity. It’s been the Catholic Church’s way of expressing worship for hundreds and hundreds of years."

    But Parrella, the Santa Clara [Jesuit] University professor, said believers’ needs in the 16th century are different than the needs of those in modern society. And the church, as well as its worship, ought to reflect that.

    Many Latino Catholics are switching to Pentecostal churches, which emphasize a more personal relationship with God. In the Diocese of Santa Clara, lay people are increasingly taking leadership roles once reserved for priests.

    Needs of the people

    "If the church meets the needs of the people, then the church is really a church," Parrella said.  [Which sounds rather like the Church needs to cave into the world, even the ephemeral.]

    But Parrella said many of those at St. Margaret Mary’s also participate in subjective spirituality.  Catholics are obliged to support their local parish, a designation of geography. But these Catholics are choosing a parish based on worship style, he said.  [Let’s see if I get this straight.  Parella says the Church has to meet people ‘where they are at’, so to speak.  But people who desire the TLM are engaged in ‘subjective’ spirituality.  So, they are not supposed to go to a place that meets their needs, but rather they should stick to the geograhical parish?  I see. Sense a problem?]

    "These people who go to the Latin Mass show how modern they are," said Parrella, a practicing Catholic. "Just like the liberals who ‘parish shop,’ they’re shopping."

    E-mail Matthai Kuruvila at mkuruvila@sfchronicle.com.

    This article appeared on page B – 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle

I remember duing Papal April of 2005, a reporter at the Holy See Press Office who had come to Rome for the event wanted my comments about Card. Law celebrating one of the Masses of suffrage before the conclave.  I gave her some points.  I wound up being horribly misrepresented.  She later explained that my comments were cut and pasted not by her, but her editor in SF to make it seems as if I didn’t think the scandal in the USA in those days was a big deal.  I was pretty steamed.   Thus, it occurs to me that a reporter wrote a decent article, but perhaps too favorable and the editor tinkered with it a bit.

Just a theory.

You veteran readers of WDTPRS recall that I was supposed to get a Bugatti Veyron for one of those award things last year.  Remember?  Vincenzo caught a photo from last year.



This year, since there don’t seem to be any award badges for the 2008 Catholic Blog Awards … well… I want a new Veryon.  And I want this one:

DRIVE THE BLACK - DRIVE THE RED.