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

Let’s have a glance at the 2005 Martyrologium Romanum for this day, 4 January. 

Well… not all the entries… just #11.

11. Emmetsburgi in Terra Mariae e Civitatibus Foederatis Americae Septentrionalis, santae Elisabeth Annae Seton, quae, vidua effecta, fidem catholicam professa est et puellis instituendis necnon pauperibus pueris alendis cum Sororibus a Caritate Sancti Ioseph, quarum Congregationem fundavit, sollertem dedit operam.

Who wants to take a stab at the Latin and give us your own flawless version!

 

From a reader:

I was hoping you might be able to shed some light on a question which has been bothering me since my reception into the Church a little while ago.  Everytime I receive Commnunion from one of the EMHCs, she tries to raise her hand over my infant son to bless him.  What’s going on here?  Is this licit?  I’ve seen this practice many places within this diocese (Baltimore) but have a hard time believing this is authorized.

 

The first question to be asked is whether the EMHC is really needed.  (I think not.)

The second question is whether Communion time is really the time for blessings.  (I think not.)

That said, no lay person should attempt to imitate what a priest does.

Anyone can ask God to bless anyone else.  Everyone should ask God to bless others.

But lay people should not make gestures, in imitation of priests, and give the impression that he or she is trying to bless in the manner of the priest.

The way lay people ask blessings and the way priests invoke God’s blessing are very different.

Lay people: don’t imitate priests in this regard.

From a priest reader:

I have a liturgical question for you. According to the Ordinary Form, do you know how a funeral Mass is celebrated on Sunday? Are the Proper Sunday readings and prayers used, or those for a Mass for the dead? Neither the Instiutio nor the Order of Christian Funerals give an answer. Thanks for your help!

First, people should know that funerals can be celebrated even on Sundays, except if those Sundays are solemnities.  For example, you cannot have a funeral on a Sunday to which Epiphany has been moved.

In this case, I am supposing that you would use the Sunday readings and prayers, for the most part.

However, given that in the Novus Ordo just about anything can be substituted for anything else "for pastoral reasons", perhaps you can use the requiem readings and prayers.  After all, you can celebrate All Souls on a Sunday.

Perhaps some priest readers out there have faced this and know what to do.

I am looking for some alternatives to using Ustream for the live video/audio stream.

I noticed that Ustream pushes ads from Google directly to the viewing window of each user.

After attempting to guide the ads in one direction or another by adding my own tags, I noticed that when I embedded a "cohost" frame within the feed (for example, showing the chapel in a small box while keeping the main video on something else), there was no way to get rid of the Google ad for "Adult" web cams.  That was pretty irritating.

I know that most of you are mature enough not to fret over these stupid, albeit slimey, ads.  You are not likely to click on the ads ever if they were less provocative.  But I just don’t like the idea of ads at all, much less my not being able to control the content.

So… I am looking for some alternatives.

I don’t mind using the enemy’s tools to undermine their nefarious work, but I want find the best alternatives.

I am interested in expanding my activity in this direction.

Discussion?

Live Broadcasting by Ustream

From e-mail, I learn that the young people’s group Iuventutem will have some meetings in the near future.

Meeting in Bern, Switzerland: 20-22 February 2009. Every group is cordially invited to contact the Bureau and send at least one delegate. Like last year, the purpose is the diversity of representatives rather than the actual number of members attending. Please do your best to support this event which is an important opportunity for the Juventutem International Federation to update and grow stronger. Of course we do not expect many members outside Europe to be able to travel to Bern, but please pray for us and with us during this important meeting. Contact: Juventutem, Kirchbergerstrasse 42, CH-3008, Bern, Switzerland; Tel./fax: +41 31 371 29 20. Email Cosimo Marti at : codama[at]bluewin.ch.

Juventutem in Chartres: 30 May-1st June 2009. A Juventutem Chapter is to attend again the great Traditional pilgrimage from Notre-Dame cathedral in Paris to Notre-Dame cathedral in Chartres: on Whit week-end 2009. Come and join the Juventutem young adults, one group among 8.000 young Catholic walking the 70-mile pilgrimage across the beautiful French countryside! Contact: email Gregory Flash, at: flash[at]gregory-f.com. For your information: www.nd-chretiente.com http://www.nd-chretiente.com.

I can’t resist giving an excellent one-liner a little more visibility.

Over in the entry about the dissident Maryknoller and excommunicandus Fr. Roy Bourgeois, a deluded optimist and one of our snarkier regulars had this exchange:

Chris: Mark my words, the Holy Spirit will win and the Catholic Church will ordain women before I die (I’m 20)

RBRown: Your comment is the religious version of: I’ve invested all my money with Bernie Madoff.

 

Well done.

Let us all keep firmly in mind that the Church cannot and will not ever ordain women.  Those who cling to this idea are deluding themselves.  Those who push the agenda are harming the Church and endangering their souls and those of others.