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

With a tip of the biretta to te Cafeteria:

From the IHT

A Roman Catholic bishop said Sunday that the church has officially recognized that the Virgin Mary appeared to a teenage shepherd girl in the French Alps starting in the mid-1600s.

The announcement marks the first time the church has recognized apparitions of the Virgin Mary in France since those in southwestern Lourdes 150 years ago, the diocese of Gap and Embrun said.

Speaking at Mass in Laus in remarks broadcast nationally on France-2 television, Monsignor Jean-Michel di Falco Leandri said he recognized the "supernatural origin" of the apparitions to 17-year-old shepherd girl Benoite Rencurel starting in 1664 and running through 1718.

The bishop, in an interview on France-Info radio, said the decision meant the church "has committed itself in an official way to say to pilgrims ‘you can come here in total confidence.’" The recognition process involved a panel of experts including two theologians and an investigating judge, he said.

Radio Vatican’s Web site said some 30 cardinals and bishops from around the world were expected for the Mass in Laus, to attend the "celebration" of the recognition.

Officials at Notre-Dame-du-Laus church say that after four months of daily apparitions starting in May 1664, the Virgin Mary asked Rencurel to build a church and a house to receive priests.

The sanctuary, which was founded by Rencurel, today welcomes some 120,000 pilgrims a year, at times providing healing oils based on a method that the Virgin Mary was said to pass on to the shepherd girl, the officials said.

This is in from Space Weather:

ETA AQUARID METEOR SHOWER:  If you see a meteor flit across the sky tonight, it could be a piece of Halley’s Comet. Earth is crossing a stream of dusty debris from Halley and this is causing the annual eta Aquarid meteor shower. Sky watchers in the tropics and southern hemisphere (where the shower is most intense) could see as many as 70 meteors per hour during the dark hours before dawn on Monday, May 5th, and Tuesday, May 6th.  The show is diminished at northern latitudes where rates may be 15 meteors per hour or less. 

MERCURY AND THE MOON:  Innermost planet Mercury is emerging from the glare of the sun and putting on its best show of the year.  A good time to look is Tuesday evening, May 6th, just after sunset when the crescent Moon glides by Mercury in the darkening western sky. A sky map and photos are available at http://spaceweather.com.

 

Pretty often the "pastor’s page" of parish a parish bulletin offers pretty thin gruel indeed.

At times, however, they can be a truly useful tool.  Take for example what went on via the bulletin in Greenville!

Then there is the weekly offering from Fr. George Welzbacher. 

Here we have this week’s comments with my emphases:

Pastor’s Page
By Fr. George Welzbacher
  
May 4, 2008

  Thoughts on Pope Benedict’s "Journey of  Hope"

   Many years ago, if memory holds true, there was a television game show in which contestants were asked to identify which of  the two or more candidates claiming, each of them, to be a certain particular person was "the real McCoy". At the end of the contest, after each candidate had made his pitch, the program’s impresario announced in stentorian terms: "Now will the real ["Mr. Smith", or whoever] stand up?" I was reminded of this during Pope Benedict’s recent visit to the United States. While watching his appearances and listening to his words, and comparing what he was saying with what the exponents of a revisionist, "progressive" Catholicism have been saying for lo! these many years, I kept hearing a voice in the background saying "Now will the real Catholic Church stand up!", as Pope Benedict’s face, humbly and serenely smiling, filled the screen.

   Pope Benedict’s basic message, a message of "the real Catholic Church," is a message of hope, a hope based on Christ’s promise that ‘The truth will make you free" (John 8:32), the truth, that is to say, taught by Christ and transmitted by His Church under the everlasting guidance of the Holy Spirit, an eternal and unchanging truth that reflects the unchanging nature of God and the unchanging nature of man. [authentic "liberation theology"]  This is the truth that "progressive" Catholics have sought to "revise," particularly as it governs sexual behavior. When Humanae Vitae (the encyclical letter Pope Paul the Sixth signed on July 25, 1968 ) reasserted the age-old teaching of the Catholic Church that the use of the sexual power is restricted to the union of husband and wife in the life-long commitment of marriage and that the procreative potential of the sexual power can never be actively obstructed, a gang of rebel priests publicly rejected this papal teaching, led by such intellectual mediocrities (though widely applauded demagogues) as Father Charles Curran, a professor of moral theology at Catholic University whose shabby thinking , a perfect match for his sloppy prose, is on display forever in his book entitled Absolutes in Moral Theology? Joining Father Curran Father Richard McBrien, whose two-volume work entitled Catholicism was quite properly censured by America’s Catholic bishops for its multitude of errors. The errors referenced by America’s bishops for correction have survived, uncorrected, in the work’s subsequent editions.

   Such priests as could claim for their false teaching the prestige of an academic chair were soon seconded by a bold chorus of parish and religious order priests, who moved perhaps by a desire to be compassionate, though in this case such compassion would be a compassion falsely defined, swiftly set up a counter-magisterium to their own liking – one is reminded of Aaron’s revolt against Moses – according to which the practice of contraception was enthusiastically praised as the "responsible" choice. Once this initial repudiation of a single teaching of Christ’s Church had gained widespread acceptance, abetted by legions of priests who with a spectacular lack of courage in defending the truth began to counsel their parishioners privately to judge the matter for themselves, rather than to rely on the voice of the Holy Spirit speaking within Christ’s Church, very predictably the rest of the precepts governing sexual morality were successively allowed to fall one-by-one into oblivion. Soon what used to be called (and is still rightly considered to be) "living in sin", that is to say cohabitation without life-long commitment, came to be regarded by many as an acceptable practice. And once the separation of the sexual power from its procreative purpose was taken for granted, approval of sterilization and homosexual lifestyles soon inevitably followed. Finally – again in the name of compassion – approval of abortion began, timidly at first and then with gathering speed, to find support among Catholics, Catholics, that is to say, who are disposed still to identify themselves as Catholic but for whom the voice of St. Peter’s successors, charged with obeying Christ’s mandate to "establish the brethren", has come to count for very little. The coup de grace for a united Catholic front against abortion came with the assurances given to Catholic politicians by Jesuit Father Robert Drinan, for ten years, though without the required ecclesiastical permission, a representative in Congress from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, who taught that one may cast a vote to promote abortion with a clear conscience, as long as one is "personally opposed" to abortion; one cannot you see, impose his own religious scruples on the public domain. In the interests of accepting so sophistical an excuse for mass murder a blind eye has to be turned to the basic truth that a directly intended attack on innocent human life violates the natural law, the law that governs all of mankind, whatever one’s religious convictions, the law that is "written on the hearts of men" (Romans 2:15), the law that expresses itself in the spontaneous judgment that certain acts are so disordered as to be always and everywhere evil. Therefore to act in response to that spontaneous, moral judgment is not to impose the peculiar precepts of a particular religion or a culture; particular  culture; it is to bow to the dictates of a universal law rooted in the very nature of man. Whether one is Roman Catholic or Buddhist or a card-carrying atheist, the directly willed murder of the innocent is something human beings instinctively recoil from, since it fundamentally violates the dignity of man and, by depriving him of life, deprives him of all other rights.

   In his First Letter to Timothy St. Paul refers to a certain Hymenacus and Alexander, two Christians about whom we otherwise know nothing, who "by rejecting conscience … have made shipwreck of their faith." (1 Timothy 1:19). In that same first chapter of 1 Timothy St. Paul gives examples of the kinds of sinners whose sins will cause them to suffer shipwreck in the faith: "manslayers, immoral persons, sodomites, kidnappers, liars, perjurers, and whatsoever else is contrary to sound doctrine." (1 Timothy 1:10). In effect St. Paul is telling us that if we fail to shape our behavior in accord with our faith, we will very soon shape our faith to accord with our behavior. That formula fits the so-called "progressive" Catholic quite well. As St. John tells us in his Second Letter: "Anyone who goes ahead and does not abide in the doctrine of Christ does not have God; he who abides in the doctrine has both the Father and the Son" (2 John :9). There is a kind of "progress" that means turning our backs on God.

   Pope Benedict has come to our shores to rescue those who have suffered shipwreck in the faith, or at least to rescue those who are willing to accept the terms that will permit such rescue. Such terms of rescue call fundamentally for a return to the "sound doctrines of which St. Paul speaks, the doctrine protected and proclaimed in Christ’s Church ("the pillar and bulwark of the truth"-1 Timothy 3:15) by the Holy Spirit against the devil’s ceaseless attempts to subvert that doctrine. As Pope Benedict announced, "A people of hope is a people willing to make a change," a people willing to make whatever changes in their lives may be needed to bring them into harmony with Christ’s truth. Whatever may have been the previous course of their lives, if they are willing now, under the grace of God, to change course and and to take Christ’s teachings as the only true compass, they can find their way home to safe haven through "all of life’s tempestuous seas." That is his message to us.

   Pope Benedict invites each one of us to examine his conscience and to make whatever changes in our lives need to be made. Let us pray that we will do so, and let us pray for those in whose confused and sin-darkened minds the voice of Peter, speaking through Benedict, has perhaps stirred some awareness that through an obedient return to sound doctrine a new way of life can open up, a new way of life that offers hope.

 

That, my friends, is how it is done.

WDTPRS solemn high kudos to the great Fr. W!

You all might want to go check out the new blog about the TLM at Lourdes called… wait for it…

TLM Lourdes.

Oddly, I have never been to Lourdes, and this gives me greater incentive to visit.

This blog seems to be mostly about when the TLM will be celebrated at that great Marian shrine.

It seems to have been created by one of the English speaking chaplains at the Shrine.

FYI

Now this is a seriously festive chair!

The Holy Father went to the Basilica Liberiana for a recitation of the Holy Rosary (it’s May, after all).

He also had on a great stole over his white "paschaltide" mozzetta.

Here is Papa near a Pope-Magnet:



The tassle is actually from his pectoral Cross.

Here is the other view:

Great news from California came by e-mail:

The pastor of St. Margaret’s, Fr. Cavanna Wallace, announced at today’s morning Mass that, beginning tonight, the 6:00 PM Sunday Mass will be offered in the Extraordinary Form (1962 Missal).

The last few months, he had been offering a Novus Ordo Mass in what he called "a more solemn manner"- ad orientem, [YAY!] gradually adding in more and more Latin.  This past week, he went on a week-long retreat, devoting it to studying and prayer in preparation for the EF Mass.  [This priest gets it!]

At the end of Mass this morning, Father Wallace gave a beautiful explanation of the change.  He admitted that the "older form" takes more concentration and work, for the priest as well as the congregation.  He stressed its emphasis on mystery and reverence, and mentioned that a sort of "cross-fertilization" of these could occur with our ordinary Sunday Mass. [YES YES YES!  This is the "gravitational pull" !]  He told us it helps take the focus away from the personality of the priest, and puts the focus on the Personality of God.  He announced that Communion will be distributed at an altar rail, to be received on the tongue.

If anyone would like to participate in this "historic" occasion, you are welcome to attend tonight’s 6:00 PM Mass.

St. Margaret’s Catholic Church
4300 Oceanside Blvd.
Oceanside CA 92056

Parish website:   http://oceanside4christ.com/

I wish I could be there.  How wonderful for this parish!

WDTPRS gives solemn high "You Get It!" kudos to Fr. Cavanna Wallace! 

How many times have I written that as priests learn the older form, everything will start to change?  Knowledge and use of the older form of Mass will affect how priests celebrate the Novus Ordo. 

This is inevitable.

Will there be vast changes over night?  Of course not.

But Pope Benedict’s Marshall Plan is working. 

Brick by brick, my friends, brick by brick!

This in from Time.  Let’s see what is going on, with my emphases and comments.

Saturday, May. 03, 2008
Is Liberal Catholicism Dead?
By David Van Biema

He may not have been thinking about it at the time, but Pope Benedict, in the course of his recent U.S. visit may have dealt a knockout blow to the liberal American Catholicism that has challenged Rome since the early 1960s. He did so by speaking frankly and forcefully of his "deep shame" during his meeting with victims of the Church’s sex-abuse scandal. By demonstrating that he "gets" this most visceral of issues, the pontiff may have successfully mollified a good many alienated believers — and in the process, neutralized the last great rallying point for what was once a feisty and optimistic style of progressivism. [Let’s see how he backs up this bold claim.]

The liberal rebellion [the correct word] in American Catholicism has dogged Benedict and his predecessors since the Second Vatican Council of 1962-65. "Vatican II," which overhauled much of Catholic teaching and ritual, had a revolutionary impact on the Church as a whole. It enabled people to hear the Mass in their own languages; embraced the principle of religious freedom; rejected anti-semitism; and permitted Catholic scholars to grapple with modernity.

But Vatican II meant even more to a generation of devout but restless young people in the U.S. rather than a course correction, Terrence Tilley, now head of the Fordham University’s theology department, wrote recently, his generation perceived "an interruption of history, [cf. hermeneutic of rupture] a divine typhoon that left only the keel and structure of the church unchanged." They discerned in the Council a call to greater church democracy, and an assertion of individual conscience that could stand up to the authority of even the Pope. So, they battled the Vatican’s birth-control ban, its rejection of female priests and insistence on celibacy, and its [imagined] authoritarianism.

Rome pushed back, and the ensuing struggle defined a movement, whose icons included peace activist Fr. Daniel Berrigan, feminist Sister Joan Chittister, and sociologist/author Fr. Andrew Greeley. Its perspectives were covered in The National Catholic Reporter, Commonweal and America. Martin Sheen held down Hollywood, and the movement even boasted its own cheesy singing act: the St. Louis Jesuits. [ROFL!] The reformers’ premier membership organization was Call to Action, but their influence was felt at the highest reaches of the American Church, as sympathetic American bishops passed left-leaning statements on nuclear weapons and economic justice. Remarks Tilley, "For a couple of generations, progressivism was an [important] way to be Catholic." [Great paragraph!]

Then he adds, "But I think the end of an era is here."

To some extent, liberal Catholicism has been a victim of its own success. Its positions on sex and gender issues have become commonplace in the American Church, diminishing the distinctiveness of the progressives. [Aside from the fact that those positions are … well… wrong.] More importantly, they failed [operative word: failed] to transform the main body of the Church: John Paul II, a charismatic conservative, enjoyed the third-longest papacy in church history, and refused to budge on the left’s demands; instead, he eventually swept away liberal bishops. [More on this, below.] The heads at Call to Action grayed, [cf. "aging hippies"]  and by the late 1990s, Vatican II progressivism began to look like a self-limited Boomer moment. [YES!]

Then, the movement received a monstrous reprieve. The priest sex abuse scandal implicated not only the predators, but the superiors who shielded them. John Paul remained mostly silent. A new reform group, Voice of the Faithful, arose; the old anger returned, crystallizing around the battle-cry "They just don’t get it."

Benedict’s visit, however, changed the dynamic. And that’s a problem for progressives. Says [liberal] Fr. Thomas Reese, a senior fellow at Georgetown University’s Woodstock Theological Center whom Benedict famously removed from his previous job as editor of America, "Reform movements need an enemy to organize against. As most bishops have gotten their acts together on sex abuse, they have looked less like the enemy and more like part of the solution. Enthusiasm for reform declined. With the Pope’s forthright response, it will decline even more."

Not everyone agrees. Says Voice of the Faithful spokesman John Moynihan, "That’s funny; I just came from a meeting of COR (Catholic Organizations for Reform), and there were a lot of people very buoyed up. We can now say to people, ‘We have made a difference, and if you stick with us we are going to make a further difference’." Adds [liberal] Peter Steinfels, a former editor of Commonweal, now a director of Fordham’s Religion and Culture Center, "I think there is continuity in terms of the issues and the questions about whether Church structures can be altered." He notes that a social justice group, Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good, formed just three years ago.

But the familiar progressives-versus-Vatican paradigm seems almost certain to be undone by a looming demographic tsunami. Almost everyone agrees that the "millennial generation," born in 1980 or later, while sharing liberal views on many issues, has no desire to mount the barricades. [I wonder if their enthusiasm for "liberal views"is all that great?] Notes Reese, "Younger Catholics don’t argue with the bishops; they simply do what they want or shop for another church." And Hispanic Catholics, who may be the U.S. majority by 2020, don’t see this as their battle. "I’m sure they’re happy that the celebration of the Eucharist is in the vernacular," [really?  I wonder what they will do as Benedict’s Marshall Plan continues to develop?] says Tilley, "but they don’t have significant issues connected to Vatican II."  [Right.  I agree with what Fr. George Rutler wrote in his review of Archbp. Marini’s book (listen to my PODCAzT on it): Vatican II means as much to young people as Nicea II and Lateran II.]

And so, unless Benedict contradicts in Rome what he said in New York, [Why on earth would he do that?] the Church may have reached a tipping point. This is not to say that the (over-hyped) [?] young Catholic Right will swing into lay dominance. Nor will liberal single-issue groups simply evaporate. But if they cohere again, it will be around different defining issues. "It’s a new ball game," admits Steinfels. As Tilley wrote recently in Commonweal regarding his fellow theologians, "A new generation has neither the baggage nor the ballast of mine. Theirs is the future. Let’s hope they remember the Council as the most important event in twentieth-century Catholicism."  [They are more likely to say, "Council?  What Council?"]

Let’s see.

On his comment that John Paul II "swept away liberal bishops"....

People have very often asked me how John Paul II could have appointed all those strange bishops or allowed strange bishops to remain in their places?  How could he have knowingly appointed his enemies?  And surely some of them were appointed knowingly or left in place.  He couldn’t micro-manage all selection of bishops.  So, he must have had some purpose for this.

I think one of the great things John Paul did for the Church was do drag it back from the edge of schism, not on the right, but on the left.  He did it by slowly shifting the world’s episcopate around.  He did it patiently, not trying to change things too quickly, lest moving too fast sparked off true revolt.  If he swept away liberal bishops, he had to start with a little hand-held brush rather than get out the big push broom.  So, he had to allow the appointment even of enemies in some places, but as the years went on, he could pick up the pace.  

A perfect explanation?  No.  But it explains a lot.

The Time article bears some consideration. 

The great Camillo Card. Ruini, one of the pivotal figures in the Italian Church’s recovery of her voice in the public square and close collaborator of the late John Paul II and now Benedict XVI, is retiring soon from his post as Vicar of Rome. 

Apparently Agostino Card. Vallini, presently at the Segnatura will replace him.

Changes are coming.

People are buzzing that Bp. Rino Fisichella, Auxilliary of Rome and Rector of the Lateran University will go to the CDF to replace Archbp. Angelo Amato as Secretary.  Amato is rumored for a Prefect spot, at Saints or maybe Divine Worship.

WDTPRS is hoping for a future Cardinal Ranjith!

An alert WDTPRSer, our friend Henry, caught an interesting comment in an article from CNA on the new DVD being made by the FSSP - which I haven’t seen yet and therefore reserve comment about.

Let’s take a look the comments of Card. Castrillon Hoyos.  The issue of the DVD, while interesting, is just a side item compared to the meat of the Cardinal’s comments:

FSSP to distribute free copies of new Latin Mass DVD

Denton, NE, May 2, 2008 / 05:31 am (CNA).- The Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter (FSSP), in cooperation with EWTN, will soon release an instructional video on the 1962 Latin Mass.   A free copy will be available to any priest or seminarian who reserves the video on its web site.

The video includes over three hours of footage on two DVD discs, giving a step-by-step explanation and demonstration of the Low Mass in the Extraordinary Form.  The production includes multiple appendices with instructions on the general principles of gesture and movement, as well as commonly encountered variations in the elements of the Mass.

Also featured is a real-time demonstration of the Mass, which is viewable from multiple camera angles on demand.  A spiritual commentary on the Mass, as well as an explanation from an FSSP priest on the liturgical principles of the Extraordinary Form are also included.

Dario Cardinal Castrillon Hoyos, President of the Pontifical Ecclesia Dei Commission, provides an introduction for the DVD. The Ecclesia Dei Commission is tasked with the implementation of Pope Benedict’s Motu Proprio on the 1962 Latin Mass.

In the cardinal’s introduction, he explains that Pope Benedict XVI hoped to foster a “spiritual and theological richness” by promoting wider use [NB: This says "promoting", not just permitting.] of the Mass of St. Pius V through the Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificum. 

The cardinal also emphasized that this Mass was a universal gift.

“All this liturgical richness, all this spiritual richness, and all the prayers so well-preserved during the centuries, all of this is offered by the Rome of today for all.   As a gift for all, it is not a gift merely for the so-called traditionalists.  No, it is a gift for the whole Catholic Church,” Cardinal Castrillon Hoyos said. 

The “sacred silence” and contemplation of the ancient rite, the cardinal said, “makes present the Lord Jesus in an expression of rich liturgical beauty, as the conqueror of death and sin… this rite brought unity to the faith and became the single expression through which the Church adores God.”

The cardinal said that parishes and priests should make available the Extraordinary Form so that “everyone may have access to this treasure of the ancient liturgy of the Church.” He also stressed that, “even if it is not specifically asked for, or requested” it should be provided. [!  Did you get that?  Even if it is not requested?] Interestingly, he added that the Pope wants this Mass to become normal in parishes, so that “young communities can also become familiar with this rite.”  [So… CNA says that Card. Castrillion, Pres. of the PCED says that the POPE wants the TLM as a normal part of parish life.]

The DVD has also been reviewed by Bishop Arthur J. Serratelli, Chairman of the Committee for Divine Worship of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

So, according to Card. Castrillion Hoyos, the Holy Father desires that the TLM be a normal part of parish life.  He also says that priests should offer it in their parishes even if there is no specific request for it. 

This is really huge.

Some people have contended that priests may not celebrate a public TLM in their parish unless they have first received a petition from a "stable group" (though that not a good translation of what Summorum Pontificum has in the Latin).   Then some bishops, contra legem, have treid to limit the public celebrations of TLM’s even more by trying to impose a minimum number of people in such a "stable group".

Now we are getting the sense that priests should simply start using the 1962 Missale Romanum in their parishes so that people can get to know it and benefit from this gift.

This is in from the Daily Mail:

Gregorian chanting ‘can reduce blood pressure and stress’

Last updated at 16:03pm on 2nd May 2008

Stress levels could be reduced simply by participating in some Gregorian chanting, researchers claimed today.

Dr Alan Watkins, a senior lecturer in neuroscience at Imperial College London, revealed that teaching people to control their breathing and applying the musical structure of chanting can help their emotional state.

He said: "We have recently carried out research that demonstrates that the regular breathing and musical structure of chanting can have a significant and positive physiological impact."

The research involved five monks having their heart rate and blood pressure measured throughout a 24-hour period.

Results showed their heart rate and blood pressure dipped to its lowest point in the day when they were chanting.

Dr Watkins pointed to previous studies that also demonstrated such practices have been shown to lower blood pressure, increase performance hormone levels as well as reduce anxiety and depression.

The lecturer also runs Cardiac Coherence Ltd, a company that helps executives perform under stressful conditions.

The Halo computer series has supposedly made an impact on the demand for Gregorian music after it appeared on the game’s soundtrack.  [Wanna raise your heart rate?  Play Halo on the "legendary" setting.]

He said: "The control of the breathing, the feelings of wellbeing that communal singing bring, and the simplicity of the melodies, seem to have a powerful effect on reducing blood pressure and therefore stress."

"We have found that teaching individuals to control their breathing, generate more positive emotional states and connect better with those around them – all key aspects of Gregorian chanting – can significantly improve their mental state, reduce tension, and increase their efficiency in the workplace."  [So, employers, start a schola today!]

Record company Universal recently chose the monks of Stift Heiligenkreuz, Vienna to make an album after responding to a public interest in the genre.

The company also believes the Halo computer game series, available on PCs and Xbox consoles, sparked a resurgence in the music traditionally sung in male church choirs, as Gregorian chant-like melodies form the main soundtrack of the games.

This is in from the Chicago Tribune:

LETTER FROM ROME

Sword and sandal class? Only in gladiator school

Tunic fashion meets Punic action when the Tribune’s Christine Spolar visits a history buff’s dream academy. But fear not, citizen: No one gets fed to the lions.

May 4, 2008

ROME — Sometimes a guy just has to ungird his inner gladiator.

Sergio Iacomoni used to look up from his desk at Banca d’Italia and wonder about the likes of Spartacus. The father of two consumed books on ancient Rome. He tracked news of archeological digs, daily fare in Italy, for nuggets on how gladiators might have trained or lived. He socialized with buddies—accountants and bureaucrats cooped up in their own office or government jobs—who shared the same kind of Walter Mitty daydreams.

"One day, we were talking. We had played enough tennis, worked out with enough sports. So we decided: OK, now we’ll be gladiators," Iacomoni said.

The men, whose graying temples hadn’t dimmed memories of boyhood soldiering, began spending hours thinking up games and exercises that they imagined ancient warriors would use.

Iacomoni went further: He began calling himself Nerone and wondering whether this lifestyle could fit into a modern Rome budget.

The middle-age dad began pounding out metal helmets, twisting leather straps into sandals and designing the kind of garb that Charlton Heston, in his "Ben-Hur" days, might have appreciated. He then floated a petition to scout for other people who might want to join a club, a foundation of sorts, to preserve some Roman heritage.

Gruppo Storico Romano, as he called it, quickly pulled in dozens of members. More than a decade later, about a hundred Romans are loyal to the cause. Iacomoni qua Nerone said the initial response led him to explore a business opportunity.

In 2004 he opened a school for modern-day gladiators, a small, shady rural outpost off the Via Appia Antica, the ancient Roman road. It is part learning center, part tourist attraction and even provides a lovely spectator sport for those not inclined to swing a sword on a warm spring day.

Trident in hand
These days, the 56-year-old said with a laugh, are spent doing what every Roman boy dreams. He dons leather sandals and a deep-red tunic and spends hours heaving wooden swords and metal tridents up and down the dusty little arena he has created for the gladiator-wannabes. He works every day in the sunshine. His friends come by after work, all still eager to play gladiator.

"This is our passion," said 60-year-old Michele Forglione, a logistician at Italy’s Defense Ministry.

Any day of the week, Nerone has schoolchildren from around Rome learning the fine art of slaying their imaginary dragons or foes. "Head and back, neck and back," he calls out, teaching the youngsters to swing and step back, deftly challenging their opponents’ body parts and protecting their own. If it seems like shtick in the first minutes, children quickly learn that there is a purpose to the play.

Nerone keeps youngsters—and adult tourists or families who enlist in far more challenging exercises—on their toes. The 1st Century warriors were men to be remembered, he believes, and his courses take Roman history seriously. He also runs a small museum in the back of his lot. He admits that not a lot is known about the actual life of a gladiator, so Nerone spends his time—and his buddies’—contemplating how to hone Roman physical glory.

"The history of Rome is all along the ruins," he said. "But for gladiators, a lot has to be interpreted. The fact is that there is not a lot of documentation. ... So we’ve tried to understand what was real and what was known. If an archeologist finds something or tells us something was not really used, we no longer do it.

"You have to build something authentic. If you build something strong from the beginning, there will always be a strong base to build on."

Net flicks (and DVDs too)
Instructors teach with fishnets at first, swinging them, side to side and overhead, to encourage coordination. Students joust with 5-pound helmets on their heads to understand the weight, emotional and otherwise, of battle. Nerone, during breaks in the three-hour classes, also taps into a computer and flips through DVDs to bring Rome’s ancient treasures into this century.

He markets his specialty well: The group has been featured on the Discovery Channel. His school, one of several in Rome, is booked with private groups and educational sessions throughout the year.

And every April his merry band of self-made historians takes over the streets of Rome—tromping from the Forum to Colosseum to the Circus Maximus—for an eye-popping celebration. They parade in costume to mark "Natale di Roma," the anniversary of Rome’s founding, according to legend. This year, Rome was teeming one Sunday with short-skirted men roaming the cobblestones with authority.

"I think lots of people come here and want to feel Roman," Nerone said as he prepared for another class. "Some people have it in their blood. Foreigners come and envy the history."

Tribune correspondent Christine Spolar is based in Rome.

cspolar@tribune.com

Here is the last article I dashed off for The Wanderer about the Sunday after Ascension Thursday in the 1972 Missale Romanum:

What Does the Prayer Really Say?   Sunday after Ascension Thursday (1962 Missale Romanum)

During Pope Benedict’s apostolic visit to the USA I followed very carefully the Holy Masses he celebrated and pondered the question: What does this prayer really say?  I am not so concerned with the texts or their translations.  What most interested me was the liturgical style, the manner of celebration which the 2005 Synod of Bishops on the Eucharist and Pope Benedict in Sacramentum caritatis called ars celebrandi.  Necessarily such a consideration had to focus intensely on the choice of music, which the Second Vatican Council calls pars integrans, an “integral” or better “integrating part” in the liturgy. 

 The Mass at Nationals Stadium near Washington, D.C., betrayed the worst tendencies of liturgy and liturgical music that have devastated our Church since the liturgical reforms of Vatican II began to go off the rails.  The Mass and music, seemingly inspired by the laudable theme Benedict himself proposed repeatedly during his visit – that of a new anointing by the Holy Spirit for the renewal of the American Church and our whole nation – were blatantly so focused on how wonderful and diverse we all are that there was little room left for the true purpose of liturgical worship: an experience of mystery… awe at transcendence.  The in-your-face multiculturalism left little room for anything else.  Of course there were ways in which people who attended were moved by the moment! They were inspired by being with Peter and praying with him together with many others. But from what I can tell the wider reaction, especially in the Catholic blogosphere, was shock.  It struck me that for his first visit to the United States as Pope, perhaps someone could have read at least something of what Papa Ratzinger has written consistently about liturgy and music over the last few decades.

After that profound disappointment, I was genuinely pleased by what the Archdiocese of New York organized for the Holy Father’s Masses in St. Patrick’s Cathedral and then in the Stadium in the Bronx (I avoid naming the associated team in conjunction with the Pope).  The music chosen was elegant, the liturgical movement dignified.  The fact that a Mass was celebrated inside St. Patrick’s Cathedral underscored how cathedrals are for Mass while stadiums are for baseball.  For the Mass in the Bronx, there was none of the silly pandering to the false assumption that young people need edgy “tunes” at Mass or they won’t be engaged, or that every possible ethnic group ever to tread the Land of the Free had to receive a musical head nod. Limit youth to the ephemeral, and they will walk away thinking that anything having to do with the Faith can change with the times.  Pigeon-hole peoples by musical styles during Mass and you risk being condescending or insulting.

In the balance, after experiencing those three papal Masses, what did the prayer really say?  I was left with the impression, shared by others in the Catholic blogosphere such as WDTPRS’s friends over at The New Liturgical Movement, that perhaps the liturgical tide has begun to shift.   The sharp contrast between the first Mass at Nationals Stadium and then, well, everything after that, brought me hope. 

Since Pope Benedict ascended to the See of Peter, he has been making changes to the papal ceremonies.  Nationals Stadium reminded me of the old days of former master of ceremonies H.E. Archbishop Piero Marini, and Masses riddled with what are now seen as clichés left over from the goofy years of liturgies so oozing with stuck-in-the-moment “relevance” or apse-backward inculturation that they entirely rupture the aim of Catholic worship.  The New York Masses were fresher, informed with Benedict’s ideal of liturgical continuity with our tradition.  They revealed also his new spirit of the liturgy, which he has been gently proffering for decades, which the new master of ceremonies Msgr. Guido Marini has been patiently implementing item by item.  Benedict’s new and fresh liturgical continuity, now profoundly accelerated by the fruits of Summorum Pontificum, are springing forth in cathedrals and parishes throughout USA and in the world.  Ad orientem worship is slowly turning congregations away from themselves and toward the Lord.  Latin is no longer so stigmatized. People are exploring again the advantages of silence, of Gregorian chant, of polyphony.  Communion received on the tongue and kneeling is more and more seen as the appropriate physical response to the reality of the Most Holy Eucharist. 

Sure there is a lot yet to be done, and some traditional Catholics might have wanted even more.  But once upon a time I would have been thrilled to hear a Palestrina Sicut cervus or some Gregorian chant.  After the Holy Father left Washington, we had a steady stream from our Church’s magnificent treasury of integrating sacred music.  In the contrast, I think, is the lesson about what the Holy Father’s Masses really say for the future of Catholic worship.

This time following Easter can be confusing.  In the post-Conciliar, Novus Ordo calendar by all rights we ought to be observing the 7th Sunday of Easter.  However, some years ago the Holy See allowed that conferences of bishops could (they don’t have to… nor I believe do individual bishops) transfer the celebration of Ascension Thursday to the following Sunday.  I call this chimera “Ascension Thursday Sunday”.  I know, I know, … the bishops hope to expose more people to the mystery of the Ascension of the Lord.  Since Ascension Thursday has always been and still is (as per the 1983 Code of Canon Law c. 1246) a Holy Day of Obligation, they also may have wanted to lift the burden of going to Mass twice in a week.  This same calendrical tinkering occurs in the Novus Ordo with Epiphany which properly ought to be twelve days after Christmas (“Twelfth Night”).

WDPTRS remains suspicious that when expectations are lowered, people get the idea that Holy Days of Obligation just aren’t very important.  Maybe none of it is important.

The other problem is, frankly, the arrogant novelty of displacing so ancient a Christian feast. We read in Holy Scripture that nine days, not six, intervened between the Lord’s physical ascent to the Father’s right hand and the descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.  Ascension Thursday was fixed at the 40th day after Easter from about the end of the 4th century. In the Latin West, St. Augustine of Hippo (+430) called it Quadragesima  (“fortieth”) Ascensionis. In the Greek East, St. Gregory of Nyssa spoke of it in 388.  That’s only a 16 century tradition.  Eastern Christians haven’t transferred Ascension.  What must they think of us?

But let’s be more positive.  With the third, 2002 edition of the Missale Romanum we have once again a Mass for the Vigil of Ascension.  This wasn’t in the 1970 or 1975 editions. Moreover, there are now proper Masses for days after Ascension until Pentecost, most having alternative collects depending on whether or not in that region Ascension is transferred to Sunday.  Nine days?  Six? 

Today’s prayer survived the Consilium’s scissor and gluepot ministrations to live in the 2002 Missale Romanum as the alternative Collect for Mass on the day of Ascension.  Rather, the Collect rose to new life in the 2002 edition.  It wasn’t in the 1970MR or 1975MR.  We can spin this positively: someone considered Ascension Thursday Sunday important enough to merit special attention.  In a sense it was brought into greater continuity with the pre-Conciliar Missale Romanum!

Today’s Collect is ancient, and is found in the Liber sacramentorum Gellonensis.

COLLECT - (1962MR):
Concede, quaesumus, omnipotens Deus:
ut, qui hodierna die Unigenitum tuum Redemptorem nostrum
ad caelos ascendisse credimus;
ipsi quoque mente in caelestibus habitemus.

Our hard working Lewis & Short Dictionary can have a little rest today, I think.  There is nothing especially noteworthy in the vocabulary.  Let us therefore move on to a straight-forward…

LITERAL TRANSLATION:
Grant, we beseech You, Almighty God,
that we, who believe Your Only Begotten Son our Redeemer,
to have ascended on this day to heaven,
may ourselves also dwell in mind amongst heavenly things.

Bl. Abbot Columba Marmion, OSB (+1923), wrote in Christ in His Mysteries that “of all the feasts of Our Lord … the Ascension is the greatest, because it is the supreme glorification of Christ Jesus.” Then, speaking about the very Collect we are looking at today, Bl. Columba says, “This prayer first of all testifies to our faith in the mystery in recalling the title ‘Only-begotten Son’ and ‘Redeemer’, given to Jesus, the Church shows forth the reasons for the celestial exaltation of her Bridegroom;—she finally denotes the grace therein contained for our souls. … The mystery of Jesus Christ’s Ascension is represented to us in a manner suitable to our nature: we contemplate the Sacred Humanity rising from the earth and ascending visibly towards the heavens.”

Of course it is not only Christ’s humanity but our humanity that ascended into heaven.  Preaching on 1 June 444 St. Pope Leo I “the Great” said, “Truly it was a great and indescribable source of rejoicing when, in the sight of the heavenly multitudes, the nature of our human race ascended over the dignity of all heavenly creatures, to pass the angelic orders and to be raised beyond the heights of archangels. In its ascension it did not stop at any other height until this same nature was received at the seat of the eternal Father, to be associated on the throne of the glory of that One to whose nature it was joined in the Son.” 

Leo says in another sermon of 17 May 445, “This Faith, reinforced by the Ascension of the Lord and strengthened by the gift of the Holy Spirit, has not been terrified by chains, by prison, by exile, by hunger, by fire, by the mangling of wild beasts, nor by sharp suffering from the cruelty of persecutors.  Throughout the world, not only men but also women, not just immature boys but also tender virgins, have struggled on behalf of this Faith even to the shedding of their blood.  This Faith has cast out demons, driven away sicknesses, and raised the dead.”  The knowledge that our humanity is now enjoying heaven can work wonders for us in the hour of need. Keep this in mind in time of trial. 

We Catholics know that what was not assumed, was not redeemed (St. Gregory of Nazianzus).  Our humanity, body and soul, was taken by the Son into an unbreakable bond with His divinity. When Christ rose from the tomb, our humanity rose in Him.  When He ascended to heaven, so also did we.  In Christ our humanity now sits at the Father’s right hand.  His presence there is our great promise and hope.  It is already fulfilled, but not yet in its fullness.  That hope informs our trials in this life.

When the Lord ascended to heaven He did not lose touch with us His people in this vale of tears.  St. Augustine in s. 341 talks about Christ’s presence in every word of Scripture as Word equal to the Father; or as the mediator in the flesh dwelling in our midst; or Christ as the Head and Body together as in a spousal relationship, Christ and His Church intimately bound. 

This means that Christ is not insensible to our sufferings.  Our faith in this unbreakable bond of Head and Body calls us to be clean and worthy of this saving intimacy.