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

I think you readers can help with this one.

Dear Father Zuhlsdorf,

I am a cradle Catholic with three children, we have a family rule that on the way home from Mass the children can ask me questions about the mass itself, the readings, homily etc rather than asking during the mass when we should be paying attention and worshipping.  However as they get older the questions they ask me are more involved and regard the symbolism used and other more theological questions. Some of these I can answer easily, and others stump me. This makes me want to learn more both for myself and for them. I strongly believe my vocation as their mother is to teach them in their faith.

I went to my local Catholic book store but they did not have the type of book I was looking for so I am wondering if you can recommend to me a good book that teaches about the Mass and why we use the symbols and so on that we do. Our Parish Priest and Deacon are very happy to answer questions, but I would like to be able to learn more about this and answer my children’s questions when they arise on the way home from Mass rather than making them wait to as Father the next week.

That’s a nice practice, getting the kids to ask about Mass and the preaching.  That would help them pay attention.  Well done!

And now you are up against a wall.

I think there could be different sets of reading material divided in a couple ways.

First, things for you or for your children… we don’t know their ages.

Second, things about the older form of Mass or about the Novus Ordo… we don’t know which you attend.

So, folks, how about chiming in with suggestions for these possible permutations!

You know the jokes…

What’s the difference between a liturgist and a terrorist?  ...

or

You find yourself with two terrorists and liturgist and only have two bullets in your gun….

So, today I received this question:

Fr. Z,
                I deeply love the liturgy and am greatly saddened at the improper celebration of it that is so common in America.  I have been considering this step for some time now and have decided, through prayer, to begin looking more seriously at the possibility of actualizing it.  Curious yet?  I wanted to inquire about becoming a liturgist.  I know, properly speaking, the job should fall to priests.  However, I don’t believe that seminaries are doing the job they ought to be (I have some good evidence of this from my seminarian friends).  From what I have seen there is no degree offered for liturgists, but there ought to be a field of study and a validation format so that some crazy person cannot read some books and insert their own slanted opinion of the liturgy.

I ask for two reasons, one is concern for some people who call themselves liturgists and the other is to ensure that if I pursue this desire, that I do so within orthodoxy and in line with the magisterium.  Thank you for your time in reading and answering my question.

Yes, degrees are given in liturgical studies.  For example, at Sant’Anselmo in Rome you can get just about any sort of training you want, good, bad or indifferent, depending on your desire to work hard and keep your head clear of some of the strangeness you are still bound to encounter.
 
Perhaps others would like to chime in about programs for degrees in liturgy.

In the meantime, I have often mused about the need for a new order of priests called the Rubricians.  Their apostolate would be to save the world through saving the liturgy.  Thus, they go forth to teach clerics and seminarians to say the black and, well.. just do the red, if you get my drift.   Their habit would be a black Roman cassock, trimed in, of course, red, and with a fascia of, of course, red and a black biretta…. which could be trimmed as well.

But, in in the meantime, I suppose you can start be studying liturgy. 

Learn Latin and Greek, friend, along with Itailan, French and German.  Start now.

I will probably be in England for the launch of Usus Antiquior on 14 September and then drop down to Rome for a few days for the conference on Summorum Pontificum.

Remember the sad news that an infamous Maryknoll priest, Fr. Roy Bourgeois, attended a fake ordination of a wymynpryst?

There have been some consequences, apparently.

Priest to meet Maryknoll leaders over role in Womenpriests’ ceremony

By Dennis Sadowski
Catholic News Service

WASHINGTON (CNS)—Maryknoll Father Roy Bourgeois will meet Aug. 18 with the three members of his order’s General Council to discuss his participation in a recent ceremony sponsored by Roman Catholic Womenpriests.

The Aug. 9 ceremony involved what Roman Catholic Womenpriests considers the ordination of Janice Sevre-Duszynska to the priesthood.

The organization, which is not recognized by the church, has sponsored numerous ceremonies since 2002 involving reported [fake] ordinations of women deacons, priests and bishops. These ceremonies have led to the excommunications of all involved because women cannot be ordained Catholic priests.

Father Bourgeois, an internationally known peace and justice advocate, confirmed he will meet with Maryknoll’s general superior, Father John Sivalon, and the two other members of the order’s council.

The priest told Catholic News Service from his Columbus, Ga., home Aug. 14 that his participation in the ceremony at a Unitarian Universalist church in Lexington, Ky., followed a period of reflection [apparently not long enough] after he received an invitation from Sevre-Duszynska, a longtime friend.

"In conscience I felt I had to be there," he said.

"I see (my participation) connected in a real way in my work for justice in Latin America, speaking out against the war in Iraq and connected to the injustice in my church here at home," [HUH?] added Father Bourgeois, who is best known for his 19-year effort to close a U.S. Army school at Fort Benning, Ga., that trains soldiers from throughout Latin America.

"Who are we as men to say to Janice and these other women that we are called but not you?" [That’s why we, as men, don’t make these decisions as individuals apart from Holy Church!] asked the priest. "This is a big issue for me. I feel we are tampering with the sacred, that we are in a way overwriting God’s call. Who are we to say that our call as men is valid, your call as women is not valid?

"I’ve come to the realization that women could be ordained in our Catholic Church," he said. [... apply medicinal censures at this point…]

He acknowledged that he has placed his 36-year ministry as a priest in jeopardy by participating in the ceremony. At the same time, he expressed hope that the council will continue to support him once his views are discussed.  [Yah… right.  Because the General Council is going to say, "You know, Father, you’re right!  Women should be ordained, darn it!  We’re gonna support you now that we’ve talked about it."]

"I don’t want to leave (the order)," he said. "But I do believe in this issue enough that I cannot be silent."  [Don’t let the door… etc. etc.]

Father Bourgeois, 69, said that during the event he concelebrated the liturgy and delivered the homily. He also said he laid hands on Sevre-Duszynska, 58, during what traditionally would be the rite of ordination.

Betsey Guest, community outreach coordinator for the Maryknoll order, which has its headquarters in Maryknoll, N.Y., said the members of the order’s General Council learned of Father Bourgeois’ participation in the ceremony through media reports.

"They were not consulted prior to his participation, nor would they have condoned it," she said.

Reports that Cardinal Edward M. Egan of New York intervened in asking the order to meet with Father Bourgeois were erroneous, she said.

"It was the General Council that has asked him to come back as one of their brother priests to understand from him the facts behind his thinking," Guest said.

Meanwhile, Sevre-Duszynska said she and other members of Roman Catholic Womenpriests have been seeking statements of support for her Maryknoll friend from across the country.

"This is a crucial issue for the church," she said. "This is an issue that could lead the church forward." [Delusional.]

You might recall that some time ago I posted a preview of a booklet projected by Angelus Press.

It is now out:

Handbook for Laundering Liturgical Linens.

This is a very useful booklet!

Anyone with a parish or chapel who would like to get people involved in the care of altar linens would be wise to purchase copies of this nicely printed pamphlet for distribution.

As I wrote in my preview: I am highly in favor of anything that will help other people learn how properly to iron purificators, corporals, amices… all that stuff.

That said, I was a little puzzled why on the cover of the pamphlet they seem to have chosen to place the corporal upside down on the altar beneath the chalice.

Here is shot that gives you a sense also of the paper used for the cover, which I think is the clay-treated paper often found in magazines.  It picks up your finger prints, but.. so what.



Notice the way the corporal is laid out, with the folds up.  The point of a corporal is, in part, to retain particles of the Host within it, when folded up like an envelop.  So.. I would have put it the other way.

But this can be easily corrected in a future printing, I imagine.

Here is the page with the instructions for the corporal.



I see in the back, in a "Guidelines and Tips" section, they may have taken a tip from me both from the blog entry and a phone conversation.  They included a line or two about priests first washing the linens and putting the water down the sacrarium before sending them off to be worked on.  Also, they picked up on the washing bags for amices.  There was some good discussing on laundering tips at that preview entry I posted.

Now if I could get someone to do the linens for the Sabine Farm!

So, the pamphlet is short, but packed: 12pp. Softcover, illustrated. $2.95

I have been remiss in send out thanks to readers who have use my amazon wish list to send me items as wondrous as they are going to be time consuming.

In my defense, however, I was away from the Sabine Farm for a while.  On my return I found a prodigious great stake of packages. 

First, I must say that some books have come, but without any indication of who sent them. 

For example, without attribution I received

The Catholic Thing by Rosemary Haughton

The Thought of Pope Benedict by Aidan Nichols

and something I am sure I need…

Expert Podcasting Practices for Dummies.

also… a newer book

Worship as a Revelation by Laurence Paul Hemming

This last one is an interesting book, though I have some problems with it as I read.  Very engaging, however.

Thanks to … whoever you are.

On the other hand, MA of CA sent Temple Themes in Christian Worship by Margaret Baker.

G&AB of NY sent three wonderful books, even gift wrapped!

Lobscouse and Spotted Dog: Which It’s a Gastronomic Companion to the Aubrey/Maturin Novels (of Patrick O’Brian) by anne Chotzinoff-Grossman

This is packed with thoroughly researched and tested recipes from historic cookbooks for food mentioned in O’Brian’s books.  Utterly fascinating, and at times enticing or revolting!

Also… A Sea of Words, Third Edition: A Lexicon and Companion to the Complete Seafaring Tales of Patrick O’Brian by Dean King. 

If you are going to dig into this series, this would be a handy book to have around.  

And finally,

The Organic Development of the Liturgy: The Principles of Liturgical Reform and Their Relation to the Twentieth Century Liturgical Movement Prior to… etc.  by Alcuin Reid.

I am much obliged!

Many thanks to you who have used the donation button on the left-side bar and also on some posts (such as the present).  I am trying to get myself to London for the launch of the new journal Usus Antiquior, which I think will be an important tool of liturgical reform.

As always, I remember those who give donations during Holy Mass, as is fitting for priests to do regarding benefactors.

I have a guest at the Sabine Farm at the moment, an erudite priest friend with whom I can actually work directly in Latin as we discuss interesting topics.

This morning our conversation drifted over our morning post-Mass coffee to various versions of the Psalter found in sundry editions of the book priests have to read ever day, that is either the older Breviarium Romanum or the present Liturgia Horarum.

I began dragging volumes from the Sabine bookshelves and, as we read, we found some interesting variations through history.

Priests who pay attention to what version of the prayers they must say to fulfill their obligation will sometimes debate among themselves the merits and drawbacks of different breviaries and their psalters.  Some abhor the Pius XII version of the psalms approved for liturgical use in 1945 and which were published in the Breviarium Romanum.  Some swear by it, because the Latin is better in many ways.

The history of psalters is horrendously complex, but a few comments can help you sort through what follows.

Around 383 St. Jerome was in Rome working for Pope Damasus.  He did a revision of an old Latin psalter, (perhaps "Jerome I") from a text pre-dating the LXX (Septuagint – a later Greek version of the Old Testament).  We don’t know much about this version.  But when Damasus died in 384, Jerome went to the Holy Land.  In 390 he revised an old Latin psalter in light of a Hebrew text that had diacritical marks.  This version of the psalter is now called the "Gallican", (Gallicanum or perhaps "Jerome II") because it seems that Alcuin got hold of it and put it in his Bible in the 9th c.  A bit later, Jerome would make another version based on Hebrew, working with the help of Aquila and Symmachus (Iuxta Hebraeos – perhaps "Jerome III").

Then there is the Roman Psalter, used, obviously, in Rome.  It is older than the Gallican Psalter.  Some think that this was the psaltar revised in Rome by Jerome, but that probably isn’t the case.  This Roman Psalter is related to a psalter from Milan and to a Mozarabic Psalter.  The Milanese psalter is what St. Augustine used in N. Africa, though he touched up his version a bit. The most complete manuscripts of the old Roman is probably in a line of English manuscripts, which suggests that this is the version brought to England when St. Gregory the Great sent missionaries.

The Council of Trent had commanded a unified version of the Bible, the Vulgata which after various redactions, resulted in in 1592, in an edition we call the Sisto-Clementine, after the Popes who promulgated it.  Sixtus V put out an edition in 1590 and Clement VIII redid it in 1592, ‘93, and ‘98). This was used in the Church as its official text until 1969 when the New Vulgate was released by Paul VI. Pius X had established a commission to revise the Sisto-Clementine Vulgate.  An exception, however, came in 1945 when Pius XII replaced the psalms in the Sisto-Clementine with a new version, translated directly from Hebrew in a more "classical style" of Latin.

The New-Vulgate has gained status among scholars (the comments of H.E. Bishop Trautman) especially when it substituted the old Sisto-Clementine in the bilingual Greek-Latin edition of "Nestle-Aland".  Also, the University of Navarre uses it in their editions of books of the Bible.  The Congregation for Divine Worship issued the Liturgia Horarum in 1971, reissued in the second edition in 1986 (the current edition).  The Benedictine monk at Solesmes use the Neo-Vulgate Psalter.

Effectively, the version used by the Fathers of the Church was generally some form of the Vetus Latina, the "Roman" Psalter which comes to us in the branch from Milan.

In any event, this morning over coffee Father made his argument in favor of the Pius XII psalms with a comparison of Psalm 1 (a good place to start).

One has to balance elements like rhythm and euphony (essential when you pronounce or sing the prayer) and style with meaning/content.  The concreteness, or lack, of images, is something to consider. 


I grant this will be more interesting to those of you who know Latin.   But at the Sabine Farm, we know Latin… at least this morning.

Have a look:

Here is an interesting article from Catholic Exchange.  A kind reader alerted me.  Let’s see what it says, with my emphases and comments.

August 19th, 2008 by Mary Anne Moresco

Recent decades have spawned an “anything goes” mentality in our culture.  Like cancer spreading through the body, this mentality has spread into every corner of our culture doing damage.  This “anything goes” mentality is dangerous because it can lead us to ignore moral laws and consequences for our actions. 

It is disconcerting but true that this “anything goes” mentality has crept into some corners of the Church.  This mentality has given birth, here and there, to “anything goes” Masses.  These Masses ignore liturgical laws and are designed to attract us to the Church by “spicing up” the Mass or entertaining us.  But the path to spice and entertainment at Mass is also the path to liturgical abuse.  The playing of non-sacred music at Mass on Sunday, the emergence of “liturgical” dance, and the phenomena where lay people supplement homilies with their testimonies have all led to habitual abuses. 

The intent may be good.  Redemptionis Sacramentum (RS) 9 tells us “abuses are often based on ignorance, in that they involve a rejection of those elements whose deeper meaning are not understood…”  As one who has occasionally queried the good-natured initiators of these non-liturgical efforts at Mass, I know that for the most part the stated intent of these efforts is to “enhance” the liturgy or to “evangelize.”  But here comes some magnificent news — an umbrella under which we can unite.  A reverent Mass, prayed in perfect accord with liturgical norms does evangelize!  [This is a concept very familiar to regular readers of WDTPRS.]

Cardinal Francis Arinze, Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, has addressed the “Role of Liturgical Norms in the Eucharistic Celebration.”  According to Cardinal Arinze:  “Liturgical celebrations well carried out not only nourish the faith of practicing Catholics, but can also awaken the slumbering faith of the negligent, and attract people to the Church“ (Adoremus Bulletin Vol. XIV No.3 May 2008, p.3-4 (AB)).

When we follow the norms of the Mass, the Mass draws us away from earthly things and up towards the things of heaven. [Say the Black – Do the Red.]  A Catholic Mass prayed in accord with liturgical norms is a majestic sight to behold and thus by its nature is a light for others.  And we don’t have to add anything of our own making!  Cardinal Arinze has assured us that the “celebrating community does not have to re-invent the sacred rites in every age” (AB).

RS 7 states “not infrequently, abuses are rooted in a false sense of liberty.  Yet God has not granted us… a liberty, by which we may do what we wish, but a liberty by which we may do what is fitting and right.“  To ignore the norms of the Mass is to sow seeds of discord and division.  To invent our own liturgies is to separate ourselves from Holy Mother Church and walk the path of disobedience.  This path of disobedience may attract others for its novelty.  But it cannot and will not attract others for its holiness.  And we are called to be holy.  We are called to be saints. 

That is not to say we are to approach Mass with some stuffy air.  The saints were not stuffy.  They were loving, interesting, and independent people.  But a deep humility and a profound obedience to the will of God and thus to Holy Mother Church and her authority permeated everything they were and did.  If we truly want to pray the Mass with devotion, we can follow Saint Padre Pio who stated: “If you want to assist at Holy Mass… keep company with the Sorrowful Virgin at the foot of the Cross on Calvary.”

To properly pray the Mass, we must see ourselves as servants of the liturgy, not masters over it.  We can effectively elevate our souls in prayer by approaching Mass with a loving heart toward God and Holy Mother Church and a humble obedience to her liturgical norms.  From that love toward God and Holy Mother Church can flow a true and deep love for our friends in Christ.  From the depth of that love can flow an authentic evangelization and enduring unity which will stand the test of time because it has been built on a firm foundation. [Save the Liturgy – Save the World.]

To deliberately attract our brothers and sisters in Christ to actions and gestures outside liturgical norms, and to present such actions and gestures as desirable, is to dress disobedience up in tempting garb.  Drawing others toward our own disobedience is not love but deception.  To practice such deception is to build on sand.  When the novelties crumble, as novelties inevitably do, so too will the fruit of our efforts. 

Liturgical norms are a gift.  They are our carefully woven safety net.  They protect us from falling into irreverence.  Ignoring liturgical norms is like taking a knife to that net, and once the net is sliced there can be no end to just how far we can slide down the slippery slope of liturgical abuse. 

The Mass is not about “tweaking,” “enhancing” or “inventing” something on our own.  The Mass is about receiving a loving gift from God.  As Cardinal Arinze stated ”It is to be remembered that the Eucharistic Sacrifice and indeed the sacred liturgy as a whole are not something that we make or invent or put together on our own.  They are gifts that we receive, keep, treasure, celebrate and for which we are grateful.” (AB)

The good news is that there is a cure for the “anything goes” mentality that has crept into some corners of our culture and our Church.  This cure is Jesus Christ.  The path that will take us to Him is the path of loving obedience to the teachings of Holy Mother Church.  May we humble our one billion different opinions and embrace those teachings.  Through that embrace, may we at last unite in peace on this precious path to Christ as “one, holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church.”

In another entry, there is considerable people are table-tennising their views around about whether our Blessed Mother experienced physical death at the end of her earthly life.

Here is another interesting question: Do you believe the Shroud of Turin is the Shroud of Christ?

The Shroud will be shown again next year, I believe.  I saw it during the Jubilee.

Researcher to re-examine radiocarbon dating of the Shroud of Turin

Colorado Springs, Aug 19, 2008 / 03:00 am (CNA).- The Shroud of Turin Center in Colorado Springs is preparing linen samples similar to the materials used in the Shroud of Turin in an attempt to determine whether or not the carbon dating tests of the shroud could have been skewed by contamination from atmospheric carbon monoxide.

The Shroud of Turin is considered by some to bear an image of the face of Jesus Christ. Made of herring bone linen, the shroud has dimensions of about 4 feet by 14 feet. It bears faint brown discolorations forming the negative image of a man. Its positive image, revealed by modern photography, shows the outline of a bearded man.

Skeptics contend that the shroud is a medieval forgery.

At a conference sponsored by the Shroud Science Group at Ohio State University this weekend, [Wow.  Who knew?] the Los Alamos National Laboratory presented findings that the 1988 test results were flawed because the tested linen samples may have been from material added to the shroud during medieval repairs, the Los Angeles Times says.

A researcher at Oxford University has said he will re-examine the radiocarbon dating of the Shroud of Turin to determine whether a previous test which dated the Shroud to the 13th and 14th centuries is accurate.

Christopher Ramsey, head of the Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit, in a statement on his website said “There is a lot of other evidence that suggests to many that the shroud is older than the radiocarbon dates allow, and so further research is certainly needed.”

“Only by doing this will people be able to arrive at a coherent history of the shroud which takes into account and explains all of the available scientific and historical information,” he continued.

Though Ramsey has agreed to collaborate with shroud researchers, he said he does not believe contamination would have had much effect.

The reexamination of the radiocarbon dating of the shroud has been advocated by John Jackson, a physics lecturer at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs. Jackson, who with his wife Rebecca runs the Colorado Springs-based Shroud of Turin Center, hypothesizes that the previous carbon dating test results were skewed by elevated levels of carbon monoxide.

While he does not accept the Los Alamos researchers’ contention that some materials in the shroud were added later, John Jackson suggests that atmospheric carbon monoxide could have contaminated the shroud during its long history.

John and Rebecca Jackson say that some evidence, such as the characteristics of the cloth and the details of the image, suggest a much older origin of the shroud. At present John is preparing linen samples to be tested for carbon monoxide contamination, which could be compared to the shroud to prove or disprove his hypothesis.

“If we get to the point where we believe we have a viable hypothesis that works in the lab, then we have scientific grounds to go to Turin and say, ‘Here’s what we think has happened to the shroud. These are the effects we need to look for. Can we please have access?’” said Jackson, the Los Angeles Times reports.

John Jackson, 62, is a devout Catholic and a former professor at the Air Force Weapons Laboratory. He has been interested in the shroud since he first saw its famous image at the age of 13.

“If you love Christ, why wouldn’t you want to explore the possibility that you have an artifact of his material existence on Earth?” he said, according to the Los Angeles Times.

He added that his faith isn’t incompatible with his scientific training: “How I think about the shroud comes from the shroud. It’s not, ‘Gee, I’m a Christian, so I’ll force it to be what I want it to be.’ That’s not scientific logic.”

John’s wife Rebecca, 60, is a convert to Christianity from an Orthodox Jewish background. She moved to Colorado Springs from Brooklyn, New York after enlisting in the army. In 1990, while watching a documentary on the shroud, she began to think the face in the shroud’s image looked like that of her grandfather.

She met John while pursuing her interest in the shroud.

Speaking to CNA in a Monday phone interview, John Jackson explained that the hypothesis of carbon monoxide contamination in the shroud has “serious potential” for upsetting the previous radiocarbon dating of the shroud, but first it must be determined if the hypothesis has scientific merit.

He emphasized that the samples he is preparing are not from shroud but rather are “control linen samples” exposed to conditions similar to those the shroud is believed to have experienced. This preparation process, he said, is going to take a “considerable amount of time” because there are many parameters to the hypothesis.

“We have to be able to address these various parameters and we have, at the moment, only one reaction chamber to be able to do all these different experiments. Any one experiment takes a considerable amount of time to perform.”

Jackson said the research preparations could move more quickly, but he noted their progress is relative to the donations the Shroud Center receives.  [You know that had to be part of it.]

“It’s going to take months to several years, I would say,” he told CNA.
If it is shown that gaseous contamination can affect the carbon dating of the shroud, Jackson said, the research would have implications for the radiocarbon community in general.  [There’s a “radiocarbon community“?  I bet those parties are interesting!]

“It’s important that we bring the radiocarbon community into this project through Oxford so we are not leaving it just to us to say that the radiocarbon dating of shroud was in error, if indeed it is, so that they can be partners in that.”

“I believe they’re genuinely interested in getting an accurate date of the shroud,” he said.

Jackson claimed other linen samples subjected to radiocarbon dating have given misdates as well.

Further, he repeated that historical and archaeological studies of the shroud suggest an earlier date, mentioning its Jewish style of weaving and burial procedure

“The radiocarbon date looks to us like an outlier.”

“I’m very pleased to see the very wide interest in the shroud,” he told CNA, noting the recent Los Angeles Times article on the shroud was listed as the most viewed and most e-mailed article on the paper’s website.

“It would be meaningful to the world if it is authentic, it would be the premier archaeological artifact that could take us into the tomb of Christ, scientifically,” he concluded. “Not to replace faith, but to help us go into the tomb even before Peter and John. That is a really exciting possibility nearly 2,000 years later.”

Once again I fulfill my short-term destiny as a telephone pole near a campus coffee house, full of staples and current events notices.

A reader sent this worthy notification:

Father Z:

I wonder if you might be able to plug the recently added TLM at our beloved Shrine of Saint Joseph in Saint Louis?

I’m sure you’re familiar with the incredible story of how this magnificent former Jesuit church was saved from the wrecking ball, literally at the last minute…sadly it did take the murder of its saintly pastor to make it happen.

The TLM is now offered EVERY Sunday at 9:00 a.m.