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

I got this urgent question by e-mail:

Fr. Z –
 
I am a transitional Deacon preparing for Ordination and First Mass on June 28 and 29 respectively.  I would like my friend, who is an installed acolyte and fellow seminarian to serve as subdeacon at a NO Mass.  I was wondering if he would be allowed to vest in the tunicle, and if so, is there any documentation on this?
 
Thank you for your time.

Yes, I am sure that this is possible, for the acolyte… not for the non-acolyte.

But if you are looking for documents, I just don’t have time to look them up at this moment.

We know from Ministeria quaedam of Paul VI, that the acolyte substitutes for the subdeacon and can even be called the subdeacon.  Also, I have seen this in practice at St. Agnes Church in St. Paul, properly, for years… omnibus contrariis errantibus.

 

Readers… help this guy!!

I received this by e-mail from a priest:

Fr. Z,

Long time reader, first time questioner.

I’ve been celebrating the TLM since Winter ‘06.

In my parish, I celebrate the TLM on Tuesdays and Sundays for the faithful. My question is, can I celebrate more than one TLM on one day if needs be. The question has been raised about Sundays.

Summorum p5, art 2

Celebration in accordance with the Missal of Bl. John XXIII may take place on working days;  while on Sundays and feast days one such celebration may also be held.

Celebratio secundum Missale B. Ioannis XXIII locum habere potest diebus ferialibus; dominicis autem et festis una etiam celebratio huiusmodi fieri potest.

‘una’ is confusing me slightly. It seems that it can be the definite ‘one’ or the indefinite in this context. Further, no article is given for ferials.

So far I have erred on the conservative side and stuck with one.

Sticking closely to the text, here is how I render it:

§ 2.  Celebration according to the Missal of Bl. John XXIII can take place on weekdays; on Sundays and feasts, however, there can be also one celebration of this kind.

I think the Latin tells us that we can have one such Mass.

However, we must take into account that this document may show the influence of Italian: "una celebrazione" need not limit the number of Masses to only one.   But, we do have to stick to the Latin.

At the same time, I am mindful of the comments of His Eminence the Cardinal President of the Pont. Comm. Ecclesia Dei.  It seems to me that, remembering also the generosity the late Pontiff desired, we may think that some latitude is allowed here so long as those who desire to participate at celebrations of the Novus Ordo are accomodated.  It strikes me that adding a Mass, even a second TLM, could be allowed so long as a Novus Ordo Mass is not cut from the scedule, being mindful of course of the reasonable restriction on how many Masses a priest can celebrate on a day, even for good pastoral reasons.

In the meantime, I think you are not making a mistake be keeping to one only.  Give this a little time.

I received word from a close friend, the great Roman, Fabrizio Azzola, who also helps staff the COL Forum, that his latest child, wisely named "John", has been baptized, the first child to be so brought into the firm embrace of Holy ROMAN Church at the new traditional parish Ss. Tirnità dei Pelegrini.

I am therefore, on this beautiful feast, at the end of a glorious day, out on the deck with Penjing who is enjoying with me a fine glass of Johnny Walker Black Label, in honor of the new Christian of course, and a good cigar, sent me by the same praiseworthy Fabrizio.  Pengjing and I are having a fine Macanudo Diplomat, slightely torpedo shaped, a good double maduro.

Pengjing tends to smoke very deliberately.

The birds are chirruiping enthusiastically.  The Chickadee Contingent is vociferous.  As am able to quite accurately whistle chicakdeese, they are continuously thrppp thrpping up to the deck to find out what is going on.

However, there is a massive storm coming, I am telephonically informed by a dear friend.  Wind and lots of hated hail.  I am sure we will all be dead by morning.   It has been a  good ride.  

Bye all!

In any event, here is Fabrizio’s great news.  This is his own English:

JMJ

Please join me in thanking Our Lord Jesus Christ and His Blessed Mother for the wonderful Baptism of our fourth child. Our Lady is celebrated both in the old and new liturgical calendar with many important feasts and commemorations and devotions on this day. We know she was there.

With the names of John Paul, Expeditus, Pius, Mary our son was baptized today in the wonderful Church of the Santissima Trinità dei Pellegrini in Rome, a typical church of the Counterreformation (Most Holy Trinity of Pilgrims, go figure, I actually looked for my ban-button in the sacristy! :P ). Why was that so special? I mean, beside the immense grace of Baptism which Our Lord came to institute to reopen the gates of Heaven at the cost of his sorrowful Passion and Death? Because as usual, God loves to exceed our expectations with superabundant graces and consolations:

Our son was the very first child to be baptized in the "personal parish" entrusted to FSSP in Rome by the will of the Holy Father following Summorum Pontificum. His name will be forever the first in the parish records, and if by the mercy of God I am saved, I will enjoy watching historians form Heaven as they discuss the history of the "reform of the reform" when it will have displayed all its effects. We are now the first family to belong to the parish that will have the important task of renewing the continuity of traditional parish life and liturgy in the very heart of Christianity! The celebrant was the Reverend Father Joseph Kramer FSSP, the pastor, who seemed just as happy as we were. God bless the FSSP.

But our greatest consolation came for the relatives and friends we had invited. While only some of them were familiar with the traditional liturgy, all wanted to thank us personally for the wonderful discovery they had made, even those who’d come afraid of having to attend something weird and boring. One friend, not a traditionalist liturgy-wise, had the best comment of all: "I had no idea an old ritual could speak to the mind and the heart so powerfully, that’s something the people can feel as their own! So simple and yet so solemn!". I was (almost) in tears. Of course I had given some brief explanations before and prepared a booklet with the Ordo Baptismi Parvulorum, but all were struck by the visible meaning of the actions perfomed and many (other consolation) told me that it was evident that those were not just "symbols", but effective actions actually doing what was being said, especially the struggle with the devil and the repetition of acts performed by Jesus Christ in the Gospel to heal the suffering and free the possessed.

The fact that all felt edified, even those who don’t normally practice our faith was of enormous importance to us, second only to the fact that our baby is now incorporated to Christ and in a way that places him in the history of the post-conciliar madness and recovery.

Then there was the light and frugal Italian reception. All noticed that the children outnumbered the adults (our friends tend to ignore Malthusian prejudices). We drank, we sang, we laughed, smoked cigars, talked babies, sports, politics and history, all prayed for the Holy Father. Since the good fight never stops, we invited also a couple of friends who are responsible for a charity that helps families with terminally ill newborns and did some fundraising. It was a wonderfulday of May, in the old calendar, the feast of Mary’s Queenship. It was all so sweet, so Catholic. We are so blessed.

Someone took pictures, I hope they are good enough to post.

Praise God and pray for Pope Benedict!

I want the photos and soon!

I think this is simply wonderful.

I got this by e-mail.  If you have some German, check out this blog!

Dear Fr. Zuhlsdorf,

just wanted to tell you, I liked your "Pope Benedict is changing the conversation" so much, I translated and republished [here].

Keep on your good work!

Mit freundlichen Grüßen
Michael Charlier

Everything is up to date in Kansas City.

They’ve gone just about as far as they can…. with building their beautiful new altars for Old St. Patrick’s Church in downtown KC.

This is the church which H.E. Most Reverend Robert Finn has designated for the use of the 1962 Missale Romanum.

Let’s have a look:

Posted May 24, 2008 THE MAIN AND SIDE ALTARS ARE COMPLETE! THEY ARE STUNNING! We have much to thank Msgr. Bradley Offutt for, during his three years of directing the OSP building committee and all his wonderful advice. And for giving us the advantage of his vast experience in renovation and building. But, more than anything, we have to thank Monsignor for his choice of altars for the Oratory. At great expense of his time, he traveled to Boston on our behalf and toured many of the closed and closing churches of that archdiocese. Of all the available Catholic church furnishings available to us there, he chose the one shown below ­ now fully installed at Old St. Patrick. It is magnificent. The photos don’t do it justice. For the first time, it is now completely apparent that our small parish will have one of the most beautiful churches in the diocese. Since the scaffolding is still standing at the sides of the church, it is not possible to get decent pictures of the side altars. But, they are beautiful with majestic marble statues of the Blessed Mother on the left and the Sacred Heart on the right. The niches to either side of the altar will contain statues of St. Patrick and St. Bridget. They are being refinished at this time. Below is a side view of the main altar which clearly shows some of the splendid detail. This picture is from the back side of the main altar and show some of the beautiful detail including the little cherubs on the four corners of the central feature of the altar. It also shows some the beautiful metallic mosaic work on the altar in greater detail. This is a view of the main altar slab. As you can see, the tabernacle door is missing. It is being refinished. Also missing is the altar stone. This stone will be placed and sealed in the altar during the consecration ceremonies scheduled for October 25, 2008. Everyone is looking forward to that great date. To view previous photos, click here…

 

The conclusion of the month dedicated to Mary was broadcast, live, this evening from the Piazza of San Pietro.

The Holy Father came at the end and gave a splendid brief reflection.

I got this by e-mail:

Two Masses this Weekend I’m happy to announce that the Extraordinary Form will be available both in Birmingham and in Huntsville this Sunday, June 1.

Bishop David Foley will offer Low Mass in Birmingham at Blessed Sacrament at 2:00pm and Fr. Alan Mackey will offer Low Mass in Huntsville at St. Mary of the Visitation at 3:00pm.

First things first.



I am very grateful to a couple readers who have enriched my life with new books and … a good thermos!

PP of CA was very kind and found a thermos on my amazon wish list.  This is extremely useful for me here at the Sabine Farm, and will be so during driving trips.  I am rather like the Chinese, who like to keep hot water on demand around the place.  Thanks!

I received from someone, I don’t know who, The Devastated Vineyard by Dietrich von Hildebrand.  Most of the time, there is an invoice which says who sent the item.  Sometimes there is not.  So, this is my way of thanking you.

Also, a couple of you have used the donation button recently.  Thanks so much!

Some work goes into keeping the place look good and be fruitful.  The apple trees are being sprayed to reduce both apple scab and also to reduce parasites.  This is being a responsible neighbor, as well! 

Now… there is a new discovery at the Sabine Farm. 

Behold!



"Wow, Father… that’s really interesting.   I see a blob on that branch in the upper right.  Big deal!"

Yes… big deal.  But blob on the branch on the upper right, which is a Robin, is not the point. 

Look more closely.

In the middle.

See him?  See him?

I was coming back to the house from my work out and saw an enormous bird winging it toward the creek.

I got my camera and went out and followed in the direction of the flight.  Finally, after some serious stalking, I got at least this photo.

"But Father!  But Father!  What are we looking at?"  I don’t see anything.



This is the best I was able to get, but I will be watching closely in the days to come.

This is Dryocopus pileatus, Mr. Pileated Woodpecker, the most spectacular of Family Picidae.

He stands almost 20 inches high.

I am pretty sure this is the Pileated, rather than the very rare Ivory-Billed.

I have only seen this bird once in my life, many years ago. 

The camera will be at hand when I go out.

 

The Liturgical Bee has received a challenge from a waspish, a-liturgical wasp.

This is from KK of KC.

 

I am reminded of an entry a while back where someone said of another person that she was being "waspish".  There was a misunderstanding, I think, about what that meant.  Some people immediately think that "wasp" refers only to a "white Anglo-Saxon Protestant".  However, "waspish" also means "quick to resent a trifling affront or injury; snappish; irrascible".

Thus, I think the "wasp" image is very good. 

I was reminded of a comment that an aging hippie chain-smoking priest I had to deal with made whenever the topic of liturgy came up: "I don’t care about that s***".

 

From a reader:

Today, during Holy Mass, I went to confession. The priest told me to say my Act of contrition, then he would absolve me. So, as I started to say it, he began to whisper something in Latin. Hopefully it was the absolution, but I do not recall if he said Ego te absolve a peccatis tuis in nomine Patris et Filli, et Spiritus Sancti. I couldnt really tell because I was sating the act of contrition at the same time. When I finished, he was already done. Father, do you think he did say it. I pretty sure, because its at St. Margaret Mary in Oakland, and it is ran by ICKSP. Thank you for your time and consideration.  

First, any one reading this should not be surprise that a person could go to confession during Mass.  This is an old custom, and recently the Holy See said that it is not only permitted to hear confessions during Mass, it is at times a good idea.  We need to foster this sacrament.

Second, to the question:

For a priest to be able to give you absolution, he must be sure that you are properly disposed to be absolved.  You must display either attrition (sorrow for sin because you fear punishment) or contrition (sorrow because you offended God).  Once the priest is certain that you are adequately disposed, then the priest should not delay giving absolution.  Some priests take this very literally.

Thus, some older priests (and this priest too) begin to recite in a low voice or whisper the formula of absolution as soon as he has heard part of the act of contrition which expresses attrition ("I dread the loss of heaven and the pains of hell").

I am guessing that this is what the priest is doing.   However, I think he should probably say the sacramental form at the end more clearly when the pentitent has finished the act of contrition.

If in the confessional you are in doubt about whether the priest has absolved you, by all means respectfully ask the priest before you get out of the confessional.  Remember point #15 of Fr. Z’s 20 Tips For Making A Good Confession.

I received a question from a reader…. a very long, convoluted question (please keep them short or I just can’t wade through them), and so I edited it:

Dear Fr. Z,
                In my home parish we are trying to get some adult men to serve Mass; some of us behind the push want more reverence from the servers and believe that having adults will get that.  The idea is that not only will the adults be more reverent but it will give the children someone to imitate and hopefully keep them in line more.  My questions arise due to this situation.
... 2)    It is the opinion of a rather vocal woman in our parish that adult women can serve as well as adult men.  ... If there anything we can do about this with the exception of actually having the adult men installed as acolytes?

First, I think a great solution would be if bishops would simply install more acolytes and lectors.   This would help to resolve many problems.

I remember visiting a parish, I believe in Texas, where the very smart priest had organized a fabulous cadre of altar boys.  Each "level" of service was clearly identified and the older boys helped to teach the younger boys.  If a boy went all the way through the cycle, quite a few years, the bishop installed him as an acolyte… I don’t remember if lector was included.  Great system.

That is probably not going to happen in many places.

Remember that canon 230 of the 1983 CIC has been so interpreted that females may substitute for installed acolytes.  It does not give females a right.  As a matter of fact, the Holy See said that priests cannot be forced to have female servers.  It clearly states there ought to be a preference for male servers, especially the service of boys.

Service of females of any age at the altar remains an exception to the rule of male only service.

It is important that when there is resistance to male only service never to accept the premise often underlying the arguments in favor of girls, namely, that this in an “equality” issue.  It is not.  Service at the altar must not be politicized.  The service of males at the altar is also not merely a practical issue, that is, that it helps vocations.   The deeper theological point is that service at the altar is, in a sense, an extension of male ordained priesthood and those orders and ministries that lead to it.

No layperson as any right to serve.  This is something granted.

What I would like to happen with this thread is for people to speak of their own experiences of shifting the practice at their parish.

I would like to hear from priests who fought the battles and lay people who promoted male altar service.

Let’s keep this entry focused.

 

 

Prayer for Priests

Lord Jesus, present in the Most Blessed Sacrament,
and living perpetually among us through Your Priests,
grant that the words of Your Priests may be only Your words,
that their gestures be only Your gestures,
and that their lives be a true reflection of Your life.

Grant that they may be men who speak to God on behalf of His people,
and speak to His people of God.
Grant that they be courageous in service,
serving the Church as she asks to be served.

Grant that they may be men who witness to eternity in our time,
travelling on the paths of history in Your steps,
and doing good for all.

Grant that they may be faithful to their commitments,
zealous in their vocation and mission,
clear mirrors of their own identity,
and living the joy of the gift they have received.

We pray that Your Holy Mother, Mary,
present throughout Your life,
may be ever present in the life of Your Priests. Amen.

Vatican Congregation for the Clergy
 
 Theme for World Day of Prayer for the Sanctification of Priests
  May 30, 2008
 
 by Cardinal Claudio Hummes

 
 Reverend and dear Brothers in the Priesthood,
 
 On the Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus let us fix the eyes of our minds and hearts with a constant loving gaze on Christ, the one Savior of our lives and of the world. Focusing on Christ means focusing on that Face which every human being, consciously or not, seeks as a satisfying response to his own insuppressible thirst for happiness.
 
 We have encountered this Face and on that day, at that moment, his Love so deeply wounded our hearts that we could no longer refrain from asking ceaselessly to be in his Presence. “In the morning you hear my voice; in the morning I prepare a sacrifice for you and watch” (Psalm 5).
 
 The Sacred Liturgy leads us once again to contemplate the Mystery of the Incarnation of the Word, the origin and intimate reality of this company which is the Church: the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob revealed himself in Jesus Christ. “No one could see his Glory unless first healed by the humility of his flesh…. By dust you were blinded, and by dust you are healed: flesh, then, had wounded you, flesh heals you” (St. Augustine, Commentary on the Gospel according to John, Homily, 2, 16).
 
 Only by looking again at the perfect and fascinating humanity of Jesus Christ—alive and active now—who revealed himself to us and still today bends down to each one of us with his special love of total predilection, can we can let him illumine and fill the abyss of need which is our humanity, certain of Hope encountered and sure of Mercy that embraces our limitations and teaches us to forgive what we ourselves do not even manage to discern. “Deep calls to deep at the thunder of your cataracts” (Psalm 42[41]).
 
 On the occasion of the traditional World Day of Prayer for the Sanctification of Priests that is celebrated on the Feast of the Sacred Heart, I would like to recall the priority of prayer over action since it is on prayer that the effectiveness of action depends. The Church’s mission largely depends on each person’s personal relationship with the Lord Jesus and must therefore be nourished by prayer: “It is time to reaffirm the importance of prayer in the face of the activism and the growing secularism” (Benedict XVI, "Deus Caritas Est," No. 37). Let us not tire of drawing on his Mercy, of letting him look at and medicate the painful wounds of our sin, in order to marvel at the ever new miracle of our redeemed humanity.
 
 Dear confreres, we are experts of God’s Mercy within us and only by so being, his instruments in embracing wounded humanity in a way that is ever new. “Christ does not save us from our humanity, but through it; he does not save us from the world but came into the world so that through him the world might be saved (cf. John 3:17)” (Benedict XVI, Urbi et Orbi Message, Dec. 25, 2006). Finally, we are priests through the Sacrament of Orders, the highest Act of God’s Mercy and, at the same time, of his special preference.
 
 In the second place, with an unquenchable thirst and longing for Christ, the most authentic dimension of our Priesthood is mendicancy, simple and continuous prayer that is learned in silent orison. It has always characterized the life of Saints and should be asked for insistently. This awareness of our relationship with him is subjected to the purification of daily testing. Every day we realize again and again that not even we Ministers who act "in Persona Christi Capitis" are spared this drama. We cannot live a single moment in his Presence without a gentle longing to know him and to continue to adhere to him. Let us not give in to the temptation to see being priests as a burden, inevitable and impossible to delegate, henceforth assumed, which can perhaps be carried out “mechanically” with a structured and coherent pastoral program. Priesthood is the vocation, the path and the manner through which Christ saves us, has called us and is calling us now to!  abide with him.
 
 The one adequate measure, with regard to our Holy Vocation, is radicalism. This total dedication with awareness of our infidelity can only be brought into being as a renewed and prayerful decision which Christ subsequently implements, day after day. The actual gift of priestly celibacy must be accepted and lived in this dimension of radicalism and full configuration to Christ. Any other approach to the reality of the relationship with him risks becoming ideological.
 
 Even the great mass of work that the contemporary conditions of the ministry sometimes impose on us, far from discouraging us must spur us to care with even greater attention for our priestly identity which has an incontrovertibly divine root. In this regard the particular conditions of the ministry themselves must impel us, with a logic opposed to that of the world, to “raise the tone” of our spiritual life, witnessing with greater conviction and effectiveness to our exclusive belonging to the Lord.
 
 We are taught total dedication by the One who loved us first. “I was ready to be found by those who did not seek me. I said, ‘Here am I, here am I’ to a nation that did not call on my name”. The place of totality par excellence is the Eucharist since, “in the Eucharist Jesus does not give us a ‘thing’ but himself; he offers his own body and pours out his own blood” ("Sacramentum Caritatis," No. 7).
 
 Let us be faithful, dear confreres, to the daily Celebration of the Most Holy Eucharist, not solely in order to fulfill a pastoral commitment or a requirement of the community entrusted to us but because of the absolute personal need we have of it, as of breathing, as of light for our life, as the one satisfactory reason for a complete priestly existence.
 
 In his Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation "Sacramentum Caritatis," the Holy Father reproposes to us forcefully St Augustine’s affirmation: “no one eats that flesh without first adoring it; we should sin were we not to adore it” (St. Augustine, "Enarrationes in Psalmos," 98,9). We cannot live, we cannot look at the truth about ourselves without letting ourselves be looked at and generated by Christ in daily Eucharistic Adoration, and the “Stabat” of Mary, “Woman of the Eucharist”, beneath her Son’s Cross, is the most significant example of contemplation and adoration of the divine Sacrifice that has been given to us.
 
 Since the missionary spirit is intrinsic in the very nature of the Church, our mission is likewise innate in the priestly identity, which is why missionary urgency is a matter of self-awareness. Our priestly identity is edified and renewed day after day in “conversation” with Our Lord. An immediate consequence of our relationship with him, ever nourished in constant prayer, is the need to share it with all those around us. The holiness we ask for daily, in fact, cannot be conceived according to a sterile and abstract individual acceptance but is necessarily Christ’s holiness, which is contagious for everyone: “Being in communion with Jesus Christ draws us into his ‘being for all’; it makes it our own way of being” (Benedict XVI, "Spe Salvi," No. 28).
 
 Christ’s “being for all” is realized for us in the Tria Munera by which we are clothed in the very nature of the Priesthood. These Munera which constitute the entirety of our Ministry, are not the place for alienation or, even worse, a mere functionalist reductionism of ourselves but rather are the truest expression of our belonging to Christ; they are the place of our relationship with him. The People which has been entrusted to us to be educated, sanctified and governed is not a reality that distracts us from “our life” but the Face of Christ that we contemplate daily, as the face of his beloved for the bridegroom and the Church his Bride for Christ. The People entrusted to us is the indispensable path for our holiness, in other words the path on which Christ manifests through us the Glory of the Father.
 
 “Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened round his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea… those on the other hand who send to perdition an entire people… what should they suffer and what punishment should they receive?” (St. John Chrysostom, "De Sacerdotio," VI, 1.498). In the face of the awareness of such a serious task and such a great responsibility for our life and our salvation, in which faithfulness to Christ coincides with “obedience” to the needs dictated by the redemption of those souls, there is not even room to doubt the grace received. We can only ask to surrender as much as possible to his Love so that he will act through us, for either we let Christ save the world, acting in us, or we risk betraying the very nature of our vocation. The measure of dedication, dear confreres, is totality, again and anew. Yes, “five loaves an! d two fishes” are not many but they are all! God’s Grace makes of all our littleness the Communion that satisfies the People. Elderly and sick priests who exercise the divine ministry daily, uniting themselves with Christ’s Passion and offering their own priestly existence for the true good of the Church and the salvation of souls, share especially in this “total dedication”.
 
 Lastly, the Holy Mother of God remains an indispensable foundation of the whole of priestly life. The relationship with her cannot be resolved in pious devotional practice but is nourished by ceaseless entrustment to the arms of the ever Virgin of the whole of our life, of our ministry in its entirety. Mary Most Holy also leads us, like John, to beneath the Cross of her Son and Our Lord in order to contemplate, with her, God’s infinite Love: “He who for us is Life itself descended here and endured our death and slew it by the abundance of his Life” (St. Augustine, "Confessiones," IV, 12).
 
 As a condition for our redemption, for the fulfillment of our humanity, for the Advent of the Incarnation of the Son, God the Father chose to await a Virgin’s “Fiat” to an angel’s announcement. Christ decided to entrust, so to speak, his own Life to the loving freedom of the Mother: “She conceived, brought forth, and nourished Christ, she presented him to the Father in the temple, shared her Son’s sufferings as he died on the Cross. Thus, in a wholly singular way she cooperated by her obedience, faith, hope and burning charity in the work of the Savior in restoring supernatural life to souls. For this reason she is a mother to us in the order of grace” ("Lumen Gentium," No. 61).
 
 Pope St Pius X said: “Every priestly vocation comes from the heart of God but passes through the heart of a mother”. This is true with regard to obvious biological motherhood but it is also true of the “birth” of every form of fidelity to the Vocation of Christ. We cannot do without a spiritual motherhood for our priestly life: let us entrust ourselves confidently to the prayer of the whole of Holy Mother Church, to the motherhood of the People, whose pastors we are but to whom are entrusted our custody and holiness; let us ask for this fundamental support.
 
 Dear confreres, the urgent need for “a movement of prayer, placing 24-hour continuous Eucharistic adoration at the centre so that a prayer of adoration, thanksgiving, praise, petition and reparation will be raised to God, incessantly and from every corner of the earth, with the primary intention of awakening a sufficient number of holy vocations to the priestly state and, at the same time, spiritually uniting with a certain spiritual maternity—at the level of the Mystical Body—all those who have already been called to the ministerial priesthood and are ontologically conformed to the one High and Eternal Priest. This movement will offer better service to Christ and his brothers—those who are at once ‘inside’ the Church and also ‘at the forefront’ of the Church, standing in Christ’s stead (cf. "Pastores Dabo Vobis," No. 16), and representing him as head, shepherd and spouse of the Church” (Letter of the Congregation of the!  Clergy, 8 December 2007).
 
 A further form of spiritual motherhood has recently been outlined. It has always silently accompanied the chosen ranks of priests in the course of the Church’s history. It is the concrete entrustment of our ministry to a specific face, to a consecrated soul who has been called by Christ and therefore chooses to offer herself, with the necessary suffering and the inevitable struggles of life, to intercede for our priestly existence, thereby dwelling in Christ’s sweet presence. This motherhood, which embodies Mary’s loving face, should be prayed for because God alone can bring it into being and sustain it. In this regard there are plenty of wonderful examples; only think of St Monica’s beneficial tears for her son Augustine, for whom she wept “more than mothers weep when lamenting their dead children” (St. Augustine, "Confessions," III, 11).
 
 Another fascinating example is that of Eliza Vaughan, who gave birth to 13 children and entrusted them to the Lord; six of her eight sons became priests and four of her five daughters became women religious. Since it is impossible to be true mendicants before Christ, marvelously concealed in the Eucharistic Mystery, without being able in practice to ask for the effective help and prayers of those whom he sets beside us, let us not be afraid to entrust ourselves to the motherhoods that the Spirit will certainly bring into being for us.
 
 St Thérèse of the Child Jesus, aware of the extreme need of prayer for all priests, especially those who were lukewarm, wrote in a letter to her sister Céline, “Let us live for souls, let us be apostles, let us save above all the souls of priests…. Let us pray and suffer for them and on the last day Jesus will be grateful” (St. Thérèse of Lisieux, Letter 94).
 
 Let us entrust ourselves to the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Queen of Apostles, our sweetest Mother, let us look to Christ with her, ceaselessly striving to be totally, radically his; this is our identity!
 
 Let us remember the words of the Holy Curé d’Ars, Patron of Parish Priests: “If I already had one foot in Heaven and I was told to return to the earth to work to convert sinners, I would gladly return. And if, to do this, it were necessary that I remain on earth until the end of the world, always rising at midnight and suffering as I suffer, I would consent with all my heart” (Brother Athanase, "Procès de l’Ordinaire," p. 883).
 
 May the Lord guide and protect each and every one, especially the sick and those who are suffering the most, in the constant offering of our life for love.
 
 Cardinal Cláudio Hummes
 Prefect
 
 Mauro Piacenza
 Titular Archbishop of Victoriana
 Secretary

DECREE ON CELEBRATION OF THE CONVERSION OF ST. PAUL

VATICAN CITY, 30 MAY 2008 (VIS) – The Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments today published a decree authorising the celebration, on 25 January 2009, of Mass for the Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul, which falls on that Sunday, the third in Ordinary Time.

  The decree, signed by Cardinal Francis Arinze and Archbishop Albert Malcolm Ranjith, respectively prefect and secretary of the congregation, explains that the authorisation has been given because of the Pauline Year, due to be inaugurated by the Holy Father on 28 June 2008 to commemorate the 2000th anniversary of the birth of the Apostle of the Gentiles.

I’ll begin putting up some images.  Comments to follow.

Let it be said that I am grateful grateful grateful that they simply broadcast the live feed, without commentary over it!

Thank you EWTN.  Thank you!

First, I don’t think Father should have his biretta on, though they are outside.


 

 

 

 

Very properly carrying their birettas.  This is what I call "birettiquette".

They have their stoles, for the imposition of hands and also for reception of Communion.

 

It looks like one of the deacons of honor is a Monsignor, probably a Domestic Prelate. 

 

 

Confiteor Deo Omnipotenti…

For Cardinals, the MC wears the paonazza colored cassock, even if he is not a Monsignor.

 

 The Cardinal is incensed.

 

Not the prettiest cathedral I have ever seen, architecturally, but today, at this moment, it is the most beautiful place in the world. 

Keep in mind who is doing this! 

At the Holy Name…

Great tableaux!
 

 

In choro.

The Epistle.

 
 
 

You can bet these fellows are focused.

Notice they carry the vestments which will be put on them and also lighted candles, as they or their godparents did at baptism.

The Cardinal preaches. 

 
 
 
 
 
 

It is determined if the candidates are worthy.

Then they are called by name.

This is, technically, the moment of vocation.

Until this moment, vocation is theoretical, perhaps felt and reasoned through, but not actualized.



They respond Adsum, "I am present", and come forward.
 
 

The rite begins.

 

The litany of saints is sung with many intercessions.

During the litany the ordinandi prostrate themselves on the floor before the altar.
 

 

The Holy Spirit is called down on the men as they are consecrated. 

The Cardinal lays hands on them, according to Scripture and our apostolic tradition.
 

 Then the priests who are present also impose hands on them.

 

 

 
The ordination prayer continues.


 

They bishop puts the chasuble on them, but the back is folded up until the end of the Mass.

Their stoles are shifted from the manner of a deacon, diagonally, to the manner of a priest.
 

 

You can see how the chasuble is gathered up in back.

 

 

A gremial, apron like cloth is put on the cardinal’s lap for the annointing of the new priest’s hands.

The prayer speaks of their ability to bless and consecrate, to handle holy things.

Their hands are bound with a tergimanium, with which they will clean their hands of the chrism.

Many priests keep theirs and are buried with them.

Our were taken away from us, alas.
 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the traditio the priests receive a chalice with wine and the paten with a Host as the sign that they may consecrate the Eucharist.

 
 


Usually you get chrism off your hands with lemons and bread with water.



Time for the Gospel of the Mass.

My friend Fr. Bisig incenses the Evangelarium. 

 
His Eminence.


 

The schola cantorum.

 


 

A great shot.

 

The Offertory.  Note the bugia... the candle near the missal stand.

 


 
The Canon.






 


 


 


 

Pax tecum.  the newly ordained receive the pax from the Cardinal.

First, the kiss the altar.  They place their hands on it to kiss it, they can do that now.  Both the altar and their hands are annointed, consecrated, with chrism.

In a sense, kissing the altar shows the unity of the priest and the sacrifice.  He, too, is priest and victim as well.

 



The newly ordained receive Communion from the Cardinal. 



Sometime you must pray and wait for the end of something… like…



... the second Confiteor.



Ecce Agnus Dei.






Holy Communion.  Priests wear their stoles when receiving.






Waiting for Holy Communion to be completed.



At the end, the new priests approach the bishop, who lays hands on them again in a sign that they have received the power to forgive sins.



I think this is a good shot, with that window in the background, Christ working through the priest who sanctifies the flock.




Their chasubles are let down in back.



The priests put their hands between those of the bishop and promise obedience.

This is a promise, not a "vow", as many people often say.




They give each other the sign of peace, in the Roman fashion.









Hats on… hats off… it happens often in this rite.



Kissing the altar before the final blessing.






The priests are admonished gravely to make sure they know how to celebrate Mass before they actually do so.

They are admonished to say three Mass for certain intentions.

They are asked to pray for the bishop who just ordained them.

This is still all in Latin, of course.



Finally, they all solemnly sing the Te Deum.






During the Te Deum they kneel at a certain point near the end.



The recessional.









And a final blessing from the bishop/Cardinal outside… rather than in the sacristy.

Holy Church doesn’t promulgate laws about censures simply for the heck of it.  There is long experience behind censures.  Laws have theological grounding.

The tougher censures are applied when the matter concerns something closer to the heart of who and what the Church is. 

This is why the story I posted last night about the CDF confirming the excommunication of those involved in the attempted ordination of a woman.  Also, the CDF confirmed the excommunication of those involved in a rebel parish in St. Louis.

Now read this story from Victoria, Canada:

B.C. Catholic group ordains woman, married man
 
Katie DeRosa
Canwest News Service

Thursday, May 29, 2008

VICTORIA - The Roman Catholic Womenpriests Movement ordained two people, James Lauder of Victoria and Monica Kilburn-Smith of Calgary, as priests [Nooo… they didn’t….] Thursday at St. Aidan’s United Church in Victoria.

Lauder, who is married, is the first man ever ordained by Womenpriests.  [What a distinction!]

"The movement, on purpose, chooses to break an unjust law that discriminates against women," said the group’s spokesman Francois Brassard. While the group can ordain someone as a priest, the Roman Catholic Church does not legally recognize the appointment, he
said.

[Lot’s of confusion here.  First, what you find in Canon Law about ordination of men only, is not arbitrary.  This is divine law, which the Church knows to be infallibly taught.  It is impossible to ordain a woman because it is contrary to God’s will.  That is why there is a law.  The law is not just some arbitrary invention.  It reflects a deeper theological reality.  So, their bluster about "unjust" and "legally" and "appointment" (and that is not what an ordination is) seriously misses the mark.]

Once ordained, the individual can hold mass and practise the sacraments in small-faith communities outside the official walls of the church, he added. [No they can’t.  They can’t celebrate Mass because the are not priests.]  Brassard calls it a "new way of doing priestly ministry among the marginalized."  ["A new way of doing priestly minsitry".   Okay… look at that carefully.  Above, the spokesman called this an "appointment".  I am pretty sure that what we have here is a view of priesthood much like that the Eduard Schillebeeckx: the community calls forth people who best represent them, and effectively appoint them as their priest for however long necessary.  This undermines the sacramental understanding of priesthood, the ontological reality, what happens in the soul of the one ordained.  This reduces priesthood to a function.  Secondly, this statement smacks of a Marxist approach, which very often informs feminist views of the Church.]

Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, excommunicated a group of women, called the Danube Seven, after they were ordained [No.]  in Europe in 2002. The group has ordained [No.] more than 50 women and has more candidates in training, said Brassard. Married or gay men, who would not otherwise be accepted as priests in the church, can also be ordained [No.] under the movement.

"I think we offer a sense of hope for those who do feel disenfranchised," said Lauder.  [And, while lying to them, lead them toward the eternal torments of hell.]

The group’s aim is not political mudslinging against the church, [B as in B.  S as in S.  I would wager there are strong Marxist tendencies amongst these people.  But, their thought is so shallow as to focus on the word "political", which they think is a :abd word".  Therefore, they claim they are not "political".]  but sending a message of inclusively and equality, he said.

The group will participate in the Catholic Network for Women’s Equality’s national conference – held for the first time in British Columbia – today and Saturday at the University of Victoria.  [They can read together the CDF decree!] Conference co-ordinator Michele Birch-Conery, herself the first female Roman Catholic priest [No.] in Canada, said she hopes it will raise interest in creating a B.C. chapter for the network. 

Be sure to check Edward Peter’s blog for more on the juridical details of the CDF’s decree. 

Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith

General Decree
On the delict of attempted sacred ordination of a woman

The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, in virtue of the special faculty granted to it by the Supreme Authority of the Church (cf. Can. 30, Code of Canon Law), in order to safeguard the nature and validity of the sacrament of Holy Orders, decreed, on the Ordinary Session of December 19, 2007:

In accordance with what is disposed by Can. 1378 of the Code of Canon Law, he who shall have attempted to confer holy orders on a woman, as well as the woman who may have attempted to receive Holy Orders, incurs in a latae sententiae excommunication, reserved to the Apostolic See.

If he who shall have attempted to confer Holy Orders on a woman or if the woman who shall have attempted to received Holy Orders is a faithful bound to the Code of Canons of the Oriental Churches, he is to be punished with the major excommunication, whose remission remains reserved to the Apostolic See, in accordance with can. 1443 of the same Code (cf. can. 1423, Code of Canons of the Oriental Churches).

The present decree enters in force immediately after its publication in L’Osservatore Romano.


William Cardinal Levada
Prefect
Angelo Amato, s.d.b.
Titular Archbishop of Sila
Secretary


(Published in L’Osservatore Romano of 29 May 29 2008)

Congregatio Pro Doctrina Fidei
Decretum generale

de delicto attentatae sacrae ordinationis mulieris

Congregatio pro Doctrina Fidei, ad naturam et validitatem sacramenti sacri ordinis tuendam, vigore specialis facultatis sibi a suprema Ecclesiae auctoritate in casu tributae (cfr can. 30 Codicis Iuris Canonici), in Congregatione Ordinaria diei 19 Decembris 2007, decrevit:
Firmo praescripto can. 1378 Codicis Iuris Canonici, tum quicumque sacrum ordinem mulieri conferre, tum mulier quae sacrum ordinem recipere attentaverit, in excommunicationem latae sententiae Sedi Apostolicae reservatam incurrit.
Si vero qui mulieri sacrum ordinem conferre vel mulier quae sacrum ordinem recipere attentaverit, christifidelis fuerit Codici Canonum Ecclesiarum Orientalium subiectus, firmo praescripto can. 1443 eiusdem Codicis, excommunicatione maiore puniatur, cuius remissio etiam reservatur Sedi Apostolicae (cfr can. 1423 Codicis Canonum Ecclesiarum Orientalium).
Hoc decretum cum in L’Osservatore Romano evulgabitur, statim vigere incipiet.

Gulielmus Cardinalis Levada
Praefectus
Angelus Amato, s.d.b.
Archiep. titularis Silensis
a Secretis

Taking a hint from a recent entry, this is in from our WDTPRS photoshoper Vincenzo: